DISCLAIMER:
Stargate SG-1 and its characters are the property of Stargate (II) Productions, Showtime/Viacom, MGM/UA, Double Secret productions, and Gekko productions. This story is for entertainment purposes only and no money exchanged hands. No copyright infringement is intended. The original characters, situations, and story are the property of the author. This story may not be posted elsewhere without the consent of the author.
Ice Planet
Prelude
The white ski suits worn by SG-7 blended well with their surroundings. The group was virtually invisible against the vast expanse of glistening white. From a short distance away the five figures made no impact at all on the breath taking landscape. It spread out in a carpet of fine white crystals from the foot of the mountains, into the frozen distance. The horizon looked so big that it showed the curve of the planet's surface, much the same way as unbroken oceans do on earth. Their entrance to this quiet and magical world stood at the end of a tunnel in glacial ice, stretching out from the base of a huge range of mountains.
The first attempt to activate the Stargate had failed, but the energy generated produced enough heat to thaw the mechanism. The second attempt had been successful. Snow and ice evaporated to form the tunnel for travellers from another world. The sides of the tunnel now glinted with blue fire, glassy now where melted crystals had rapidly refrozen. Along the inner surface of the tunnel ran horizontal lines of compressed ice, marking the years the gate had been encased.
They moved all the equipment out of the tunnel on a caterpillar with wide treads. The place chosen for the first core sample to be taken wasn't far from the gate. The initial MALP search gave no indication of where to do the job, but filling a Shelby tube for the SGC laboratories initial investigations was their first assignment. Caution suggested that they not move too far from the Stargate even though the area appeared to be uninhabited.
'If the whole planet is this cold,' mused Colonel Masters, 'it's unlikely to harbour much life at all.' He was hoping a mining colony could be set-up with no complicated agreements or politics to interfere. One thing nagged at him though, 'if this place is uninhabited, why the Stargate? And if it had been inhabited, what had happened to its population?' The Colonel rubbed his nose under the bridge of his tinted goggles and looked out on an apparently untouched world. It crossed his mind that perhaps they should leave it that way. He shrugged off the thought. They were looking for rare minerals, iridium or maybe even naquada. He dreamed of finding a rich source of naquada.
'At least staying overnight on this bitter cold world wasn't going to be necessary,' he thought to himself as he set his men to work. Two of the team moved out east and west along the mountain bottom. They settled down with their backs to the rest of the team, concentrating on watching for signs of life, movement, anything at all out of the ordinary. The other three began the small drilling operation, using a hand auger to remove the first 12" of compacted ice. The split spoon sampler was lowered into the hole and the process of cutting a core sample down into the ice began. The Shelby tube finally slid into place and they carefully removed the core. A specially designed thermos wrapping was laid out to receive the sample.
Lieutenant Harding shifted his weight on the rock outcrop on which he had settled. The thermal suit was slowly losing the battle to keep him warm and he was freezing his butt off. He glanced back to see how the work was progressing. He comforted himself with the confirmation that their return to the warmth of the SGC would be soon. A sudden movement on the edge of his vision brought his head shooting round. "What the…!"
He stood up abruptly, unnerved by finding nothing. Scanning the sky and the tops of the mountains didn't help. There was nothing there. In the corner of his eye he felt, rather than saw movement. He turned his head trying to pick up the object responsible. 'There's…there is something out there,' he thought, but still could see nothing. Whatever it was seemed to be staying just beyond his visual range. He wasn't even sure if the movement was in the air or on the ground. He began to move away from the mountain and attempted to trace the source of his disquiet, unaware he had called out.
The final stage of lifting the covered core sample onto the caterpillar had just been completed when the Colonel heard a startled yell. He glanced up to see Harding backing out over the snow looking down the mountain range. He reached him quickly and scanned the area Harding was peering at. "What is it Jake?"
"I don't know Sir. I saw something move…" He shook his head, confused, "I think I saw something moving."
"Well either you did or you didn't."
"I saw movement but I couldn't see what it was."
"You mean it was too far away?"
"I don't know Sir. I'm not sure."
Masters looked at him and realized he was seriously rattled. He shook his head as he scanned the area again. There was nothing out there. 'But Harding is spooked, and he doesn't spook easily.'
"Well we're finished here. Someone else can come back and investigate. Maybe it's some life form or other moving about further down the mountain range. They can send some wings out to have an extensive look before risking anyone on a more extended trek."
With that they turned to follow the team back to the gate. At the tunnel entrance Colonel Masters stopped one last time to look back.
"If Murphy's Law is operating as usual, we'll find something worth mining and the world will be occupied," he grumbled to himself as he waved his men through the Stargate.
The Unexpected
Samples of the ice core recently brought back from PX4 656 lay in the isolation cabinets on the laboratory benches. Sam was peering at a slide seated under the electron microscope embedded in the end chamber. She had been studying the samples all morning and had found nothing to excite her. Jack O'Neill stuck his head round the door.
"Carter! The game... come on… come on!"
"Sorry Sir, I was just…"
"You're always just. It will wait, the start time won't, come on."
Sam grinned and glanced up at her impatient team-leader. She looked back at the slide. "But Sir," she drawled, knowing full well it would irritate him.
Her smile grew wider as he bit. She peeked up in time to see the eyebrows rise in exasperation. The expression clearly conveyed 'hurry up will you', without a word being spoken. She picked up the sample and placed it back on the rack. They had all been looking forward to this ice hockey game. Even Teal'c seemed to have picked up their Colonel's addiction.
Nothing of interest had come up in any of the samples so far. 'It looks like this is going to be another uninhabitable planet, with no useful resources' she sighed, shrugging her shoulders. She had become accustomed to disappointment. Finding anything useful or interesting under the microscope was not a common occurrence. Sam turned off the light as she left the laboratory and followed Jack's retreating figure down the corridor.
A small blue glow appeared in one of the samples, brightening briefly, and then dying away. The light flickered on Sam's peripheral vision. A frown crossed her features as she slowed her pace. Instinct made her turn around to look back at the open laboratory door. There was nothing there to disturb her. She rubbed the back of her head and her frown vanished. Colonel O'Neill was disappearing down the corridor, impatient to be off to the game. Her impish grin returned as she continued to follow him towards the locker room.
After Sam had left, flashes of blue light began appearing at approximately twenty minutes intervals. The light appeared to have two levels of brightness. One of the slides began to show a blue crystalline lattice structure of small snowflakes. Growth within the crystals seemed to depend on the brilliance of the flash. With each bright blue flash it doubled in size. The following lesser flash produced a four-fold increase. The lump of crystalline material continued to grow unnoticed for the first couple of hours.
The soldier walking past the laboratory was deep in his own thoughts when a blue flash of light startled him. Backtracking a little he cautiously put his head around the door. When he realized that no one was working in the room he entered to investigate. He wandered around checking the equipment for signs of electrical shorts or anything that could have produced the flash. The samples were of no interest to him. They lay secure in isolation chambers and looked innocuous. Satisfied that nothing was wrong he started to leave the laboratory when something stopped him at the door. He turned and looked back at the room. He felt uneasy, as if he was being watched and rubbed the back of his neck in response to the primitive instinct. On impulse he pressed the intercom and reported the blue flash.
"I couldn't find anything out of the ordinary but something doesn't feel right," he told the security room.
"Stay there, I'll send someone down," the intercom voice instructed.
A technician in his white coat and a security guard entered the room a few minutes later. "Is their something wrong airman?" the technician inquired.
" I saw a blue light inside here and can't find a reason for it," was the response. "I've seen enough happen on this base to not like something with no explanation."
The technician grinned and walked into the room. He knew that only samples taken from the recent ice core where on the benches. It was doubtful that anything was wrong. The two soldiers followed him in and all three saw the next blue flash. They could not avoid seeing the sudden increase in size of the blue crystalline structure in the chamber.
"Oh shit!" responded the technician, pushing the soldiers out of the room and sealing the door.
General Hammond was heading for home. He had reached the mountains main tunnel exit when he was stopped. "Sir, there's a situation developing. You're being asked to return to your office," the guard told him.
The General was not pleased. It looked like he would be letting his granddaughter down again. Sometimes he wondered if what he did was worth having to disappoint her so often. Then he smiled a little grimly to himself as he returned to the lift. He knew he was front-line and helping keep his family safe from some pretty unsavoury aliens.
As he left the lift the technician was waiting for him. "Well, what is it?"
"There is something growing in the samples brought back from PX4 656."
"Something? Can you be more specific?"
"No sir, I can't. I've sealed off the room. If you'll come with me we'll play back the security camera view and show you what we mean."
"Where is Major Carter? Isn't she working on these samples?" Hammond asked as he went with the technician.
"Yes she is, but SG-1 isn't on base at the moment."
Then Hammond remembered the ice hockey game. 'I'm going to be real unpopular when I recall them'. He looked at his watch and realized that the game still had a while to play out. When he had finished viewing the recordings and saw the speed with which 'it' was growing he immediately had the team beeped. All other considerations were forgotten.
Recall to Duty
Jack was passing Teal'c yet another hot dog when his beeper went off. He groaned and an expression of annoyance passed over his face. The coded message on his beeper wiped the emotion away. "Come on guys, we have to go."
Sam waved her half-eaten hot dog at him, "you're kidding, there's another 15 minutes. Surely…" The look on the Colonel's face penetrated and she immediately stood up. "What's going on Jack?" Daniel asked as they headed for the car park.
"Dunno, but the code means there is some kind of containment problem." At that moment Sam's beeper also went off.
"They took their time getting to me," she commented as she looked at the short message. "Something to do with the samples I've been looking at. This possible breach is in that laboratory."
By the time the team had checked in the whole level had been sealed off and staff evacuated.
"What's going on General?" Jack asked as they ran up the spiral case to the control room.
The General nodded a greeting to the team and swung his head round to a technician. "Are those recordings ready?"
"Yes sir," the women responded.
"Major Carter, you reported that you had found no signs of life in the samples from PX4 656."
"I didn't sir."
"Well there are signs of life now," Hammond responded.
A picture of the laboratory in which she had been working flicked onto the screen. They had taken the recording back to the point where Sam and Jack had left the room.
"This appears to have been the first sign of something happening." They all saw the small flash of blue light from the slide but no visible change appeared. "Speed this sequence up," Hammond said.
As they watched the appearance of the flashes at regular intervals, Jack noticed that Sam was counting. Suddenly she attracted the technician's attention and indicated she wanted the computer. She sat down to access the computer video. They watched her as she sped the video up and then reversed it. Finally, she tapped into the heating controls for the laboratory and did some rapid calculations. Looking back at the current picture of the room showed a large blue crystalline form almost filling the isolation chamber. All this time no one had spoken, not wanting to distract her from her train of thought. As they all looked at the screen, another flash of blue light brought about an ominous crash as the glass container shattered. The structure now sat unobstructed on the bench.
"General, please order the heat turned off in the room. Tell them to get the temperature as cold as possible," Sam told him.
"Do it," Hammond commented to the technician and looked down at Sam. "Why do you want the heat turned off?"
"It comes from a cold environment, I think the heat is accelerating its growth."
"What is it?" Jack asked
"I don't know, I just want to slow it down or stop it, to give us a chance to find out," Sam replied.
Two hours later everyone was still wandering around the control room, while Sam studied the screen. Various cups of coffee had arrived and been drunk, but otherwise nothing had changed.
"Well Sam, what do you think?" Jack asked her quietly.
"Shutting down its heat source appears to have halted its growth," Sam responded. "We may have made it dormant or killed it, if it was alive in the first place."
Jack leaned in to take a close look at the object on the screen.
"It looks like a pile of blue snow to me… Owww!"
A very bright blue flash emitted from it. Jack backed rapidly away rubbing his eyes to clear the black spots now hovering in front of his vision.
"I guess its still growing, but at a much slower rate," Sam commented. "Are your eyes OK?"
"Give me a minute," Jack responded, as everyone drifted back to see what had happened to him. As his eyes cleared he caught sight of the screen. "Now that's different," he drawled.
The pile of snow had quadrupled in size and slid to the floor. At first it appeared to slide due to its increased size. Then everyone realized what Jack had seen. The object was drifting across the floor of the laboratory, towards the surveillance equipment, the remaining source of energy within the laboratory.
"OK," Sam breathed, " it's alive and it knows what it needs. If we turn off the equipment we won't know what its doing."
"The question is, how much bigger is it going to get?" Daniel muttered staring at the screen, "and is it dangerous?"
"We could try shovelling it into a large bucket and shoving it back through the Stargate," Jack suggested to Hammond.
"I've a vague recollection that the last time we tried that on something, you got pinned to the Gate Room wall," Hammond replied.
Jack grimaced, "thanks for the memory. So what do we do?"
"Well," Sam commented turning from the screen to speak to them. "Heat makes it grow, we can't get it cold enough to stop the growth… We don't even know if its mineral, vegetable, or if it has some kind of alien intelligence or not. Really sirs, I have no idea what we should do with it."
Suddenly everyone noticed Jack staring at the screen. They looked to see what he found so fascinating and saw that the snow had formed a shape that lifted from the floor, to curl around the surveillance camera. It pulled the camera from the wall. As the camera died they had a brief view of the wiring being stripped. There was silence in the control room for a moment.
"Well it's life Jim, but not as we know it," Jack murmured.
Teal'c looked at SG-1, eyebrow rising in response to the comment. "Who is Jim?"
"Lock everything down, not a microbe is to leave that level," Hammond commanded.
The Chase
Jack and Daniel were already down the stairs followed swiftly by Sam. Teal'c was left to follow, the puzzle still apparent on his face.
The corridor as well as the laboratory was empty when they arrived. The door was standing open and there was no sign of the growing alien presence.
"There's only so many places it can hide," Jack commented as he turned to shout down the corridor. "Search detail" he yelled at the approaching soldiers, "find it, but don't approach. Don't shoot at it unless you have no choice," he glanced back at the team stood in the doorway. "We don't even know if shooting it would do anything."
"Right sir, we might even spread it," Sam commented.
"What do you mean?" Jack asked, a worried look appearing on his face.
"Well, it's multiplying."
"Yes, I can see that."
"It could be one thing, or…" Sam began
"Yes… get to the point," Jack responded in an exasperated tone.
"It could be millions of things…" Sam finished
"Millions of things, what sort of things?"
"Single cell organisms, a colony of them," Sam explained.
"But it would appear to be acting as one… thing…" Teal'c observed.
"Do you mean like ant colonies?" Daniel asked.
"Kind of… maybe…" Sam responded, grimacing at how imprecise she was being.
"Kind of…? Maybe…?" Jack responded.
"Colonel O'Neill!" the call came from the corridor com-link.
"Here," O'Neill responded as he flipped the switch.
"We've found it. Sir, it seems to be making for the Stargate… err, all of it sir."
"That sounds good! As long as it's going that way don't interfere."
The team ran back to the control room. They were in time to see the blue crystalline shape stop and appear to wait on the bottom of the Stargate ramp. A blue flash of light permeated the room. When they could see clearly again the blue shape had become slimmer and taller. It twisted slowly, as if looking around the room.
Jack took a deep breath as Sam commented. "Well sir, I think someone needs to try and talk to it."
"Oh great!" Jack looked at Hammond, who nodded agreement and walked down into the Gate Room.
Sam followed him down the stairs. Daniel glanced at Teal'c and shrugged, then turned to follow. Teal'c looked down through the window, a frown forming on his face. "It is doing what it chooses to do. We do not know how to restrain, or destroy it. This makes me uneasy," he told Hammond.
"I'm with you on that Teal'c," responded Hammond. Teal'c turned to follow the others into the Gate Room.
The team stood in one Gate Room doorway, a group of armed soldiers behind them. Another group of armed soldiers covered the alien from the other doorway. Everyone eyed it nervously, wondering what it was likely to do next.
"OooK," Jack drawled as he moved into the Gate Room, slowly strolling towards the creature. "Carter, those blue flashes? They likely to be defensive?"
"I don't think so sir, they only occur when it converts energy to growth."
"Right… Daniel have you any idea how we communicate with the iceman?"
"Wouldn't exactly call it a man, no arms or legs, no eyes I can see, just a tall mass of crystals, more like a blue snowman," Daniel replied. "Besides, we know what it wants."
"We do?" Jack asked not taking his eyes off the now motionless mass.
"Sir, I think its stopped growing," Sam said suddenly.
"What makes you think that?"
"All the energy around it, and its not growing."
"General Hammond!" Jack called up to the control room, "start dialling its home world."
"Why Colonel?"
"A hunch sir," he responded promptly.
As the Gate began to spin the creature twisted toward it, then back toward Jack. 'It might not have eyes, but it knows where I am,' Jack told himself. Slowly Jack raised his hands and motioned the creature to come away from the Gate. No one was more surprised than Jack was when it responded, gliding toward him from the bottom of the ramp. Jack backed away, trying to appear not to be in a hurry. By the time the Gate activated, the alien had moved away from the danger of the vortex.
The creature slid back up the ramp towards the Stargate. It stopped in front of the event horizon and twisted slowly, by now they had recognized that it was looking around. Suddenly blue static appeared all around the creature, dancing and making patterns of light. Then it turned and disappeared through the Stargate. "I would like to think that was a thank you," Jack murmured as he walked back towards his friends.
"For what O'Neill?" Teal'c asked.
"For allowing it to go home. Let's hope we only managed to accidentally capture one of them." Jack stuffed his hands into his pockets and headed back to the control room.
Sam watched his retreating back for a moment, then headed towards the laboratory freezers. The entire sample would have to be checked. She had to be certain they had not managed to trap any other intelligent life forms.
Avalanche
The decision to return to PX4 656 was taken two weeks later. There had been definite signs of iridium in the samples. Other evidence also pointed to massive comet or asteroid disturbance of the planet. Sam wanted to investigate how extensive the damage may have been and also look for signs of the aliens. She was intrigued to know how the planet had produced such a strange variant of life, as it appeared to be under fairly regular bombardment of a mass extinction scale. The time scale between massive strikes seemed to be in thousands of years, not millions. She wondered how a planet could recover so quickly? So Sam was fascinated by the prospect, Daniel curious about what else might be there and Teal'c, well Teal'c mentioned that he did not like the cold. In fact he mentioned it several times, much to his friends amusement.
Jack had reservations about anyone going back to the planet. They had not hurt the alien and had let it return to it's home. Even so, he wasn't sure, they, whoever they were, would want to see humans again. His gut feelings told him they were asking for grief. Jack wondered what trouble was waiting for them this time. He certainly had no intention of admitting to Sam that the alien life form had intrigued him. Then there was the Stargate. Why had it been put there? In the end his mixed feelings didn't matter, the decision-makers said go.
SG-1 picked up their packs, snow gear and other equipment. They walked through the Stargate, and took yet another wild free fall ride, through yet another wormhole. As their spiked boots bit into the ice floor of the tunnel, they took their first real look at the hollow the vortex had created in the layers of snow. Even the Jaffa was impressed.
The ice walls were lit up, blue and glassy by the rising sun. The horizontal lines in the walls marked how many seasons it had taken the drift to cover the Stargate. Sam began counting from the Stargate up a foot and then calculated approximately how many layers the tunnel had burrowed through. They followed the faintly blue light flooding the tunnel and stepped out onto the open snowfield. Looking up at the side of the mountain, and the snow piled on top of the tunnel Sam made a rough guess.
"About three hundred years since the Stargate became covered. At least this time."
"I wonder how many alien life forms we destroyed when we activated the Stargate?" Daniel asked no one in particular, eyes on the glassy surface just inside the tunnel.
He had noticed a patch of dark blue crystals within the wall. Jack glanced at the wall, then at Daniel. He nursed his MP5 uncomfortably, that thought had not occurred to him. "Daniel, why did you have to say that?" he grumbled. "You OK Teal'c?"
"It is very cold, Chulak is never this cold."
"Junior unhappy?" Jack asked him.
"Extremely," was Teal'c's rather short reply.
After a brief discussion the skis were unloaded from the ATV. Sam wanted to ski towards the area Harding thought he had seen movement. Daniel elected to use snowshoes and stay with Teal'c. They began to search along the lower edge of the mountain range using the gate as the central point of the search. Daniel and Teal'c in one direction, Jack and Sam in the direction Harding had indicated.
Now that they knew what they were looking for signs of life were apparent around them. Here and there both parties found clusters of the tiny blue snowflakes. They did their best to avoid disturbing them. The thought of the possible consequences of harming them was a very minor part of the reason for their care. In a way, they considered them children of this newly discovered life form.
The snowfield lay deep and steep up the mountainside. It was virgin snow, apparently untouched by any form of life. Skiers had certainly never created furrows in it before. The slope was even and crisp, Jack and Sam were making good time. The sky was a clear deep violet blue, and not a sign of life or movement could be seen.
There was no warning.
The white rolling wall rose up and advanced on them swiftly. It seemed to jump into existence, virtually running ahead of the gathering roar. The towering storm of snow practically caught them before they saw it. "Avalanche!" Sam heard Jack yell.
She looked round and saw the avalanche descending on them with deadly speed. There was no way to outrun it. It caught Sam first, lifting her, tossing her like a rag doll. Jack saw her disappear into the white wall, then it caught him and he was sucked into the grinding snow and ice.
Where the hell is Carter?
Jack was definitely feeling cold. In fact as he regained consciousness, he realized he was positively freezing. 'Where the hell is Carter?' He found the last thing he could remember was deciding to use the skis. 'Why did we have to go chasing after the iceman anyway? Now I've lost her and I'm freezing to death!' He couldn't move his arms and realized he was buried in snow, he knew the more he struggled the more compact it would become, he wondered how much air he had. Jack lay still hoping that the electronic tracking devices were still attached. He had no idea how long he had lain unconscious. Jack tried not to think about Sam, 'if she' hurt, if she's… No she's not, don't even go there Jack,' he told himself.
He realized he could hear voices, and light streamed in from a hole that appeared beside his head. "It's Jack Teal'c. Jack, Jack, can you hear me!"
Daniel's voice sounded like music to his ears. He stopped worrying about breathing, but that made thoughts of Sam impossible to avoid. "Have you found Sam?" he called through the increasingly large hole.
"Not yet. The tracking devise puts her a long way from here and still moving," Daniel replied.
They pulled Jack free of the avalanche debris and wrapped him in a blanket. Jack shuddered as he began to warm up and his teeth began to shatter. "Feels like I've been through cryogenic freeze again," he quipped. "Have you tried radioing her?"
"She does not reply O'Neill," Teal'c responded.
"You don't look so hot Teal'c."
"I am not hot O'Neill, indeed I am very cold. My Goa'uld lava is no longer agitated. I believe that if I remain here for much longer, it will be unable to sustain its existence, or mine."
"Then you had better return to the Stargate. Daniel and I will go look for Sam."
"I will look for Major Carter with you," Teal'c replied.
"You are not going to be on your feet much longer Teal'c. We would have two of you to carry back to the Stargate. Go and let Hammond know what's happened. That's an order."
Teal'c nodded his head in reluctant agreement. Jack got to his feet, stamping them to get his circulation going. Taking the tracking device from Daniel and studying it brought a puzzled frown to his face. 'Where is she going?'
Teal'c stood and watched as Daniel and Jack started off in search of Sam. He then turned and headed back to the Stargate. Hammond would be able to send help to look for his friends. He realized the Tauri had much more resistance to the cold than he had.
Well Look At That, Will Ya
Daniel slipped his skis from his back and replaced his snowshoes. He then followed Jack who had skied a little away from the mountainside. They began to chase the electronic echo issuing from Sam's locator. As they didn't know what had triggered the avalanche and had no wish to trigger another, they stayed some way from the steeper slopes.
After a while they realized that the signal appeared to be coming from within the mountain. Jack stopped skiing and Daniel pulled up beside him. "A cave entrance or some kind of pass maybe," Jack guessed. "We need to find it."
Daniel nodded and they both carefully made their way towards the steeper slopes of the mountain. It took them an hour to find it, even then they realized luck had been on their side. The cave entrance was not very large, but it had an unnatural uniformity, not just a creation of nature. Jack and Daniel put their skis on their backs. Jack checked that the moving parts of his MP5 had not frozen solid. Daniel similarly checked his pistol. "Well at least they still seem to be working," Daniel commented, reassured by the action.
"Firing them may not be a great idea," Jack responded bringing a worried look to Daniel's face. "The noise alone could bring a mountain down around us. We should have kept the Staff weapon, it doesn't make as much noise."
Daniel began to mark out a large arrow in the snow, pointing towards the cave. Jack watched for a moment wondering when it was that Daniel had changed. 'The geek has flourished. He seems to know what needs to be done, without it being explained to him. Doesn't get us into half the trouble he used to.' Jack smiled briefly, then worry return, 'Damn it! Where is Sam'. He moved out to the snow to help Daniel finish the sign for the rescue party to follow.
The cave entrance was in shadow and inside the cold quickly penetrated their protective suits. The wind raised the chill factor in the cave dramatically. They turned on the torches and made their way forward, wondering how much further they would be able to go. Neither mentioned the cold. It was unnecessary. Jack could hear Daniel's teeth chattering behind him and clamped his own together in an attempt to stop echoing him. After a while a faint light began to show ahead of them. As they moved onward the icy wind added to their discomfort.
The view from the opening took their breath away. They stood side by side on a shelf part way up a deep and wide glacial crevasse. Across the open space, ridges of tall glacial ice folded over one another. The ice formed the opposite crevasse wall, like a tall Gothic cathedral, rising to multiple spires of varying sizes.
"Well look at that, will ya, it's beautiful" Jack gasped. His normally laid back attitude deserting him for the moment.
Surprise made Daniel glance at his friend in time to see the look of wonder on his face. It was gone so quickly he wondered if he had imagined it.
Snowman City
They crouched at the edge staring down into the crevasse. Below them the floor of the crevasse was dotted with moving blue objects. They slid by each other, over each other, coalescing and then parting again and moving on. "It's your blue snowmen," Jack murmured.
Daniel pointed down at a group that appeared to merge and then separate. "I think that may be how they communicate," he whispered, the towering ice walls causing him to unconsciously lower his voice.
"Why are you whispering," Jack whispered back. "They won't be able to hear us up hear."
"They may not be able to 'hear' us at all," Daniel responded at normal volume.
A particularly large mass of alien crystalline structure caught Jack's eye. It began to separate as he watched until only one smaller 'snowman' was still in place. Jack watched the mass as it sank and thinned over something beneath it. Gradually it took on the shape of the object it covered. "Sam!" Jack breathed.
"Where?" Daniel responded. It took him a moment to find what Jack was looking at, longer for the significance of the shape to penetrate.
"It has to be one of them… mimicking her shape," Daniel stammered in disbelief, but like Jack, he knew it was Sam.
They looked over the lip down the side of the crevasse. Concave steps had been scooped out of the wall down to the bottom. Jack slid over the edge, and lowered himself into the first step. Daniel followed. They carefully made their way down to the floor of the crevasse, watching for signs that the snowmen had noticed them.
As they descended the life forms began to pile back over Sam, hiding her from view. Despite the urgency they felt neither rushed the climb down, if one of them fell it would not help her. "Look…" Jack called up to Daniel.
As Daniel looked towards Sam he noticed the crystalline structure expanding then thinning into a dome. They had almost completed their descent when the dome began to light up. Small continuous flashes of blue light emanated from the dome. They made their way warily towards Sam, but found that the life forms slid away from their feet and made room for them to progress.
They stared into the Dome and discovered they could make out Sam's shape inside. In the light of the flashes they could see her, as she began to move and show signs of life. Jack plunged a hand through the dome in an attempt to reach her. The structure slid around his arms and reformed the dome where his arms had passed, frustrating his attempts to pull her out.
"Its warm inside the dome," he told Daniel.
"Then maybe we should let them do whatever it is they're doing," Daniel responded. "They may be trying to warm her. How did they get her here?"
"Now that's an interesting question," Jack responded. "There doesn't seem to be any strength in these structures, but they must have carried her."
The dome began to break up and the life forms moved a little way off allowing them to reach their friend. Sam opened her eyes and began to raise herself onto her elbows. A bewildered expression appeared on her face as she looked up at them. "I know its not very original, but where am I?"
Jack grinned in relief as he knelt beside her. Daniel proceeded to check her arms and legs for broken bones. Nothing appeared broken, but there were signs of bruising on her face.
"In a crevasse in the mountains. They brought you here," Daniel told her, pointing with his thumb over his shoulder at the now motionless structures. "They seemed to be trying to help you."
"I think your right. I remember being trapped in the avalanche, and then everything around began to turn blue. I guess they dug me out, or whatever it is they do to move snow about."
"Do you remember anything of how you got here?" Daniel asked her as he and Jack pulled her to her feet.
"No, I guess I lost consciousness. Damn that winds cold," she commented.
Until that moment neither of the men had noticed the wind increasing in the crevasse.
"There seems to be nowhere to escape that wind, even down here," Jack muttered.
"But it wasn't here when we first descended," Daniel responded looking around. "Where is it coming from? Hey Jack, I hate to mention this but they're moving and it's towards us." Daniel added uneasily.
The colonies had begun to move, piling into one another and forming a wall. The three backed away from them. They quickly realized the moving barrier was forcing them back to the steps out of the crevasse. The wall's speed increased, urging them to move faster.
"They seem to want us gone in a hurry," Jack called through the rising howl of the wind. "Let's oblige them and get the Hell out of here."
They climbed the steps as quickly as possible. Jack came up last watching Sam, unsure of how capable she was. Although Sam felt cold and tired she pushed herself to get up the wall. When they reached the ledge they lay down to get their breath and peered down into the crevasse.
"What are they doing?" Jack asked.
"They appear to be making themselves tall and reaching into the wind sir," Sam responded.
"That was a rhetorical quest…" he looked round at her and saw her grin. "I see your feeling better," he finished but couldn't refrain from grinning back.
They watched the crystalline forms begin to disintegrate completely. The single cells from within the colonies were caught up by the winds and swept away. Within a short space of time there were no more life forms left in the crevasse.
"That must be how they reproduce," Sam guessed as she pushed herself to her feet. "They spread themselves into the winds and begin new colonies where they settle, but I wonder what triggered it?" she finished.
Homeward Bound
The return through the cave appeared to be bitterer than the inward journey. The wind was stronger but blowing outward from the crevasse. This would have been a relief if it weren't making their backs so cold. As they neared the exit they heard voices and shouted in response to the calls. Two teams with stretchers and medical supplies met them just inside the entrance.
"We're glad to see you," Jack drawled, "anything hot to drink?"
One of the marines handed Jack a flask, which he received with thanks. Sam and Daniel were similarly supplied and temporary heaters were set up as they heard a familiar voice. "Well what kind of injuries do I have to repair this time?"
Dr Fraiser checked the temperature by the heaters and removed her gloves. She beckoned Sam to her and proceeded to check for signs of injuries that would need immediate treatment. After Sam she checked Jack and then Daniel.
"Well, some bruises, no broken bones or frostbite, which by the way I think is surprising considering how long you've been in these temperatures. Everything else will wait until I get you to the infirmary."
Sam had wandered to the cave entrance. The wind was biting away from the protection of the screens and she was about to return inside when something caught her eye. In the distance she could see a bright light in the sky. Looking around she realized it was still full daylight. She looked back at the light, 'I don't remember seeing that before'. Suddenly she understood what she was looking at and hurried back into the cave, throwing her mug to one side. "Colonel! Colonel! We have to get out of here. Now!" Sam shouted.
"What is it!" Jack shouted as everyone turned to look at her.
"Comet sir… a big one and its close," she called back as she grabbed skis and began to strap them on. "We haven't got time for the equipment," she stopped, " we might not have time to get to the gate even without it." She stared at Jack and he saw fear in her face.
"Leave everything! Everyone move!" Jack shouted as he grabbed his own skis.
Within minutes the cave was empty as everyone skied for their lives towards the Stargate. Daniel glanced up at the mountain, 'no more avalanches today' he pleaded with whichever power was listening.
The sky began to shimmer with rainbow colours from the distorted light seen through the billions of single blue cells being blown in the wind. By the time they reached the Stargate the size of the comet was frightening. As one of the men rapidly dialled home and another sent the identification signal through.
Sam looked at what was approaching. It was at that moment she noticed the change in the colour of the sky. "That's how they survive!"
"Sam?" Jack asked looking at her suddenly animated expression.
"The wind takes the cells high into the stratosphere, to the only place that may offer safety when the comet hits."
"Sam," Jack repeated looking anxiously at the comet.
"They broke up into tiny single cells light enough to rise, each one carrying all the knowledge gathered by its colony."
"It's a planet killer. Nothing will survive something that size." Jack finally responded. "Sam…" Jack glancing one last time at the comet, "get your skis off!"
She glanced down in response and immediately kicked off her skis. The sound of the wormhole stabilizing recalled her mind to the coming consequences of the spectacle. Thoughts of escape replaced wonder at the species probable mode of survival. Jack and Sam left the skis and ran through the ice tunnel. A loud roar built up behind them, chasing them down to the Stargate. Neither looked at what was behind. The tunnel's disintegrating walls tried to follow them through the wormhole.
Survival
"Incoming travellers sir."
"Who is it?" Hammond asked as Teal'c appeared at his side.
"Signal belongs to SG-6."
"Open the iris."
Teal'c anxiously watched the MALP telemetry as it began sending pictures. He leaned on the equipment studying the live video link.
"General Hammond, there is something wrong. They are all running."
Hammond moved away from the Gate Room window to join Teal'c. He was in time to see the last few seconds of the pictures. They watched as the MALP was lifted into a mass of ice and then the snow on the screen became electronic static.
"Did everyone reach the Gate," he asked Teal'c.
"I am unsure," Teal'c responded as they heard the returning members of the teams tumbling out of the Stargate. Both anxiously rushed down the stairs to the Gate Room.
Sam flew out of the Stargate, quickly followed by Jack. The Link to the ice world spluttered and died as Jack rolled over. He looked at Sam's face drained of colour, the white skin highlighting the bruises from the avalanche. "That is as close as I want to get to a planet killer," Sam gasped, as she tried to catch her breath.
Jack helped her up. He winced as he noticed all the damage he had been trying to ignore. Now he was really starting to feel the bumps and bruises from the same incident. "We really must stop leaving it to the last minute to come home," he murmured in her ear and was rewarded by her giggled response.
Jack sighed in relief, Carter rarely disappointed him. He turned and smiled towards General Hammond and Teal'c as they entered the Gate Room. A sloppy half salute, half wave told them he was fine.
"All present and correct sir."