“Yup,” the colonel said, tight and clipped with concern. “I gave him an antibiotic shot, but God knows what kind of alien bugs were on that planet — or this one.”
“Yes sir.”
“He needs to be in hospital.”
“I know.”
He turned, kicking irritably at the rock he’d been sitting on. “God, we need to get out of here.”
Sam felt his accusation hanging there in the air between them. You misdialed, Major. This is your fault.
There was a time, before Edora, when he’d never have been so unjust, and she couldn’t help wondering if he blamed her for dragging him home when he didn’t want to leave. Was he punishing her? It wasn’t like him, but the colonel hadn’t been himself since he got back and that was the only explanation she could find. She just wished he’d talk about it, but of course he never would.
“This can’t be easy for you, sir,” she said, taking a sideways approach to the subject. “I mean, it’s your first off-world mission since Edora and we’re stuck. Again.”
“Some dumb luck, huh?”
Gritting her teeth, she decided to face it head on. If he was pissed she’d brought him home then she’d rather he told her so upfront. Anything was better than this bristling tension. “Sir, I’m sorry if —”
“No, I’m sorry, Carter,” he interrupted, still scuffing at the rock with the toe of his boot. “I’m sorry I jumped to conclusions about what went wrong today.”
“Oh.”
“I kinda bit your head off back there.”
“Um,” she said, taking a moment to switch tracks. “It’s okay, sir. You’re worried about Daniel. We all are.”
He nodded. “Yeah.”
She took a step closer, shoving her cold hands into her jacket pockets. “Sir, I’ve been thinking about it, actually, and I honestly don’t believe I misdialed.”
“Okay.” He threw her a sideways look. “You got a better theory?”
“Yes sir.” She’d been pondering it as they walked up out of the valley, running through the problem over and over. If she hadn’t misdialed, then what had happened? She thought she had the answer. “Sir, just at the moment we left P5X-104, the Death Gliders made another pass. They were firing at the gate as we went through.”
He looked at her and she could see comprehension dawning in his eyes. “You’re thinking just like Antarctica?”
“Yes sir. I think the energy transfer caused by the impact might have caused the wormhole to skip to another Stargate.”
“This doesn’t look much like Area 51.”
“No, but the wormhole could have skipped to another gate, one close to Earth within the Stargate network.”
He shook his head and pulled his cap back on. “Close to Earth, you say?”
She knew what he was thinking. “Sir, I realize that ‘close to Earth’ is a relative term —”
“Without a DHD, Carter, we might as well be on the other side of the galaxy.”
She frowned, studying him for a moment and trying to decide whether he really didn’t get it or was just pretending to be obtuse. But he only played dumb when there was someone to misdirect, and he wasn’t about to convince her he was stupid. Which meant he really didn’t get it. “Sir, you do realize that General Hammond will be looking for us?”
He fixed her with an unreadable look. “Of course I do.”
“So… ?” she said, testing to see if he was following her logic.
“So?”
“Sir, if I’m right, the gate will have connected with Earth before the energy from the weapons strike caused the matter stream to skip. So the SGC will know we tried to dial in. And if they reach the same conclusion about what’s happened, which is very likely given that we’ve encountered this exact scenario before, then they’ll narrow the search to the planets between P5X-104 and Earth. Which means it won’t take them long to find us. Maybe just a couple of days.”
“Lots of ‘ifs’ in there, Carter.”
She shook her head, but didn’t answer; she didn’t know what to say to him. What had happened to the indomitable Colonel O’Neill who never gave up and never questioned the capacity of his team — or the SGC — to bring their people home? She wondered if he was still on Edora, because this wasn’t him, this wasn’t him at all.
Maybe he could see what she was feeling, because an expression flickered across his face that she couldn’t reconcile with the officer she knew. It looked like self-doubt or indecision. “Carter,” he sighed, “this whole situation sucks.”