“Damn it.”
“I guess we’re staying here for a while?” Daniel said, voice thin and his weight shifting slightly against Jack as he eased himself into a more comfortable position.
“Not for long,” Jack promised. Daniel aside, he had a date with the Tollan Curia that he couldn’t afford to miss. But first things first: they were cold, tired, and wet. They needed warmth and shelter and then he’d figure out the rest.
Dragging his pack closer, he helped Daniel settle against it and left Teal’c’s canteen in his hands. “Drink,” he said. “That’s an order.”
Daniel offered a wan smile. “You can’t give me orders, Jack.”
“Says who?” He squeezed his friend’s shoulder and then stood up, looking out at the blasted landscape that stretched in all directions beneath low, heavy skies. “Teal’c,” he said, “I figure we’ll make camp here for now. I’m not sensing any immediate threats. You?”
“I am not,” Teal’c agreed, but he didn’t look happy either. “In fact, the lack of any apparent life is the most unsettling aspect of this world.”
He hadn’t noticed it before, too focused on stopping Daniel from bleeding out into the ashy ground, but now he paid attention he felt it too. There was nothing here: no birds, no insects, no vegetation underfoot. Nothing. He licked his lips; they were starting to chap in the cold air. “The sooner we get outa here the better,” he said.
“I concur.”
“Okay.” He glanced back toward Carter, who was kneeling in the dirt near the Stargate and still futzing around with her scanner. “Carter! Unless you’re about to dial us home, get the hell over here and help make camp. We’re all freezing our asses off, let’s not go hypothermic.”
“Yes sir.”
They didn’t often use it, but Jack always packed a tent. It could fit four at a pinch, but it was more comfortable with three inside and one out on watch. Teal’c accused him of being soft, but it was at times like this when he felt its value — not even Teal’c could have rigged a shelter from a bunch of rocks.
Pulling the tent from his pack he dropped it onto the ground, raising a little puff of snow and dust. His hands were cold — he only had his fingerless gloves with him — and he flexed them a couple times to keep the blood flowing. He hadn’t been joking about the hypothermia, they were all soaked through and the temperature here had to be close to freezing. It would be worse at night, no doubt. Shelter, food and dry clothes were urgent, especially for Daniel.
So, when he glanced up and saw Carter still crouched near the gate, messing with her scanner, he felt a flash of genuine impatience. “Major,” he snapped, “I told you to leave that.”
She shook her head, not looking up. “Sorry, sir, but —”
“No buts,” he said, shaking out the tent. Teal’c grabbed the other end and they started stamping the stakes into the ground. “Get over here.”
“No sir.”
“Excuse me?”
“Colonel, you have to stop,” she said, abruptly standing up. “Stop disturbing the soil.”
Jack glanced at Teal’c who only lifted an eyebrow in query.
“This better be good, Carter…”
She was walking toward them slowly, staring at the scanner which she held low down, close to the ground, and then high up over her head. “Sir,” she said, at last stopping in front of him, “we can’t stay here.”
“On the planet?”
“In this location, sir.”
“Because… ?”
She grimaced, like she was afraid to give the bad news. “I’m reading dangerous levels of radiation in the soil, sir.”
He closed his eyes for a moment, absorbing the latest piece of crappy luck to come their way. “You have got to be kidding me, Carter…”
“I’m sorry, sir, I know it’s not what you want to hear. But we can’t stay here, it’s not safe. And the more we disturb the soil, the greater the risk we run.” She glanced down at her clothes, dusty with dirt where she’d tumbled out of the Stargate. “I think we’re standing in a fallout zone, sir. Not a recent one, but at some point in this planet’s past it looks like the Stargate was nuked.”
“That would explain the absence of the DHD,” Teal’c said.
“And the birds.” Jack scratched a hand through his hair, shutting down his frustration and fears and focusing on the problem in hand; when circumstances changed, you changed your plans. He peered through the fine snow toward the hills. They were maybe two klicks away. “We’ll head for higher ground,” he decided. “There’ll probably be less fallout accumulation up there.”