I'll Be Alright
"SG-1 and 3 ready to continue the search, sir," Colonel Jack O'Neill told General Hammond as he entered the control room.
"Negative, Colonel," Hammond responded sadly.
"But, sir, Carter's still out there!" Jack protested.
"Major Carter has been MIA for nearly three months, Colonel, and as much as I hate to say it, we can no longer expend the resources of this facility to find her. I'm sorry, Jack." The general briefly put a hand on his subordinate's shoulder before leaving the room. Jack hung his head, doing his best to mask his utter disappointment.
"Jack?" Daniel hurried into the room with Teal'c close on his heels. "Are we ready to go?"
"We don't get to go, Daniel," Jack told them, exiting the room. Teal'c and Daniel followed.
"But Major Carter has not yet been found," the Jaffa pointed out.
"Yeah, well, apparently after three months of MIA, we can't continue the search anymore," the air force officer retorted sarcastically, bitterness edging his tone.
"I don't understand—why not?" Daniel demanded. "Sam has done just as much for this place as anyone . . . more, even!"
"Look, Daniel," Jack snapped, "it wasn't my decision, alright? I shouldn't have let her wander off by herself . . ."
Flash Back
"Sir," blond-haired Major Samantha Carter called, "I'm going to collect some samples from the creek down here."
"Alright, Carter," Jack returned. "Don't fall in."
"I won't, sir," she smiled. Jack leaned against one of the walls of the small gazebo-like structure and started to polish his gun. Daniel was translating a couple of tablets while Teal'c was patrolling the surrounding area. Gunshots from the direction in which Sam had disappeared rang through the air.
"Carter, what's going on?" Jack demanded over his radio as he and the others ran towards the creek. The radio clicked, but there was no verbal response. "CARTER?" he shouted. Teal'c was the first to reach the scene, followed by Jack and Daniel. Sam's pack was strewn on the ground, one of her samples still uncapped. Her radio and vest lay half in the water and her P-90 and zat gun lay carelessly discarded next to a tree.
"Sam?" Daniel called, a horrified look spreading across his face. Teal'c crouched to examine the footprints on the ground.
"Major Carter has been taken," he declared.
---
"Wait a minute," Daniel grabbed Jack's arm to make him look at him. "You think this is your fault? Jack—that's not true at all. If anyone is to blame, i-it's me."
"What are you talking about?" Jack demanded.
"Well, um . . . a portion of the text I translated warned that we could be in danger . . . ."
---
Flash Back
"This is amazing," Daniel blurted aloud from where he studied three massive tablets. "This language is obviously a derivative of ancient Egyptian and Arabic, with some definite variations in sentence structure." Sam was collecting a soil sample just outside the gazebo as Jack and Teal'c secured the immediate vicinity.
"Anything useful?" O'Neill asked as he returned to the small structure.
"It's hard to say," the archaeologist replied, "it's difficult to make out."
"Well, keep trying," the colonel commanded. "I'll sit over here and be bored out of my skull."
"Sir," Sam called out. "I'm going to collect some samples from the creek down here."
"Alright, Carter—don't fall in."
"I won't, sir," the woman smiled as she followed the path down to the creek. Jack sat against a wall, polishing his gun to ward of the ensuing boredom. Daniel reread the line he had just completed.
"All who come here will be doomed . . ." he murmured to himself, confusion clouding his face. "I wonder what that's supposed to mean." Gunshots echoed from down by the creek. Jack jumped to his feet.
"Carter, what's going on?" he demanded over his radio as they ran to her aid.
---
"Don't be ridiculous," Jack ordered. "You'd just barely translated it—besides, for all you knew it was just some . . . superstition."
"Jack," Daniel started, but Teal'c interrupted him.
"O'Neill is right, Daniel Jackson," he intoned, "it is, in fact, I who am to blame." Jack and Daniel turned to look at him in surprise.
---
Flash Back
"Teal'c, patrol the area," O'Neill commanded, not that the large Jaffa needed to be told. He headed back to the gazebo-like structure.
"This is amazing," Daniel was saying, "This language is obviously a derivative of ancient Egyptian and Arabic, with some definite variations in sentence structure."
"Anything useful?" O'Neill's voice faded as Teal'c got farther away. He journeyed into the foliage, carefully scanning his surroundings for any sign of potential danger. He stopped to examine a pair of tracks on the ground, but it had been several days since their owner had passed. He continued his patrol until he discovered the evidence of a long-since expired camp fire. As he crouched down to observe it closer, gun-shots reverberated through the timber from the direction of the creek.
"Carter, what's going on?" Col. O'Neill's voice demanded over the radio. Teal'c already sprinted towards the gunshots. The radio clicked once, but there was no verbal response.
---
The remaining members of SG-1 lapsed into silence, each blaming themselves and none believing any of the others were to blame.
"When's the last time you ate?" the grey-haired colonel wanted to know.
"Well, um . . . I-I don't remember," Daniel answered.
"Go get something to eat," Jack ordered. "Both of you."
"I am not hungry, O'Neill," Teal'c informed him.
"Eat anyway." Jack continued down the corridor.
"Um, Jack?" Daniel asked. "You gonna eat?"
"I'm not hungry," he growled.
---
A week later
"Unscheduled off-world activation," Sergeant Harriman announced over the base intercom. Col. O'Neill rushed to the control room. Daniel and Teal'c were already there, along with General Hammond.
"It's SG-6, sir," the technician told him.
"Open the iris," he commanded, then turned to O'Neill, "SG-6 just left twenty minutes ago." SG-1 and Hammond rushed down to the gateroom as the four-man team stepped through the gate carrying something between them.
"Medical team to the gateroom," Harriman spoke into the intercom before he could be told to do so. The extra body they'd brought through with them was scarcely recognizable as a human being. The back of the tank top was ripped to shreds, exposing the lacerated skin beneath. Multiple bruises darkened the limbs, a pair of what had once been standard issue BDUs hung loosely about the skeleton-thin frame, and dirt mingled with blood matted the short hair. Dr. Janet Frasier hurried in with a gurney and her medical team.
"Carter?" Jack pushed his way to his 2IC's side as she was rushed through the corridors, scarcely recognizing the blackened face. "SAM?" He and the rest of SG-1 were left behind as Sam and the medical team entered the elevator.
---
"How is she?" O'Neill asked the moment Janet stepped from the isolation room in which her medical team had been with his second in command for several hours.
"She's in critical condition," the woman answered, tears glistening in her eyes. "In all honesty, sir, I'm not sure if she'll make it."
"What do you mean?" Jack demanded. "We've all been through worse—right?" The doctor shook her head.
"She was badly beaten, Colonel, and not just once. She has multiple concussions and skull fractures, broken ribs, a pierced lung, acute hypothermia as well as pneumonia in both lungs, and more than one kind of infection in her wounds," Janet told him.
"No . . ." he uttered, resisting what he knew could only be true. He closed his eyes as they flooded with tears.
"Colonel, that's not all," the doctor spoke up, refusing to meet his gaze. "Major Carter was also raped—probably multiple times . . . She can't have any visitors, yet. I'm sorry." Janet hurried to the solitude of her office as Jack made his way to the observation room. He felt like vomiting as he gazed down at his teammate through the window.
"I'm so sorry . . ." he whispered huskily as the tears streamed down his face. "It's all my fault . . . ."
---
"It's all my fault," Dr. Daniel Jackson thought as he sat in the briefing room with Jack, Teal'c, Gen. Hammond, and Janet.
"Major Carter's condition is worsening," the air force doctor was telling them. "Without the assistance of a healing device, she has little, if any, chance of survival. Has anyone been able to contact Jacob or the other Tok'ra?"
"We've made several attempts, but there has been no success," Hammond replied. "How long does she have?"
"Her system can shut down at any moment, she doesn't have more 24 hours, sir," Janet answered sadly. Jack put a hand to his head as Daniel bit his lip and General Hammond stared down at his laced fingers. Teal'c, a determined expression on his face, stood and left the room.
To be continued . . .