Disclaimer: I don't own Stargate, I have no connection to the show, and I'm doing this for fun. Please don't sue.
Author's Note: Please forgive part of this formating. Gah. THis is also my first Stargate fic, so please be kind. Suggestions, Ideas, What you'd like to see, etc are welcomed!
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She was suspended in ebony. The space wasn't empty as an abyss was. It seemed to be constructed out of some kind of silk-like material. One set was sticky, other smooth. It was like a spider's intricate web. If she stepped in the wrong place, she'd plummet through the cracks into warm liquid that churned below her.
She dragged in a deep breath. Carefully placing one foot in front of the other, she made her way to the far side of the web. Despite the steam from the liquid below, she was frozen to the bone. Major Samantha Carter had no idea where she was stepping, only praying that she wouldn't take a wrong step.
A small glow illuminated the center of the tunnel. The light was tinted blue, many shades, twisting turning, until they came together to form a new shape. A somewhat circular upright structure formed, resembling a vertical coffin assembled in front of her eyes.
She found the breath she had taken in leaving her lungs, leaving them barren. The spaces in the web-floor seemed to dissolve in her mind. She didn't care, she had to get to the structure. Closer. Closer. She was getting so close.
I'm coming. I'm coming! Her mind screamed as if there were someone to reply to her.
When she finally reached the figure, she didn't see what she had expected. Instead of a frozen face staring back at her, she saw ice. Just clear, plain, ice lay in the live sarcophagus. Or maybe it was just a bed? Panic swept through her.
"Colonel?" She whispered, glancing around her. "Sir?! Where are you!" She shouted out, spinning around, trying to run further.
She went in circles, becoming frantic. No reply came to her calls. For once straight fear washed over her. Frustration grabbed at her, confusion. A pair of hands landing on her shoulders.
"Carter?"
"Sir?" She spun around to see that familiar square-set face. She saw the same brown eyes that she had come to know over the past seven years. They looked down on her, now, confused, wondering.
"What's wrong, Major?" he asked, as if nothing had happened. He said it as if he hadn't been suspended in the same ice that she had looked at. Or at least, so she thought he had.
Tears welded up in her eyes, though they wouldn't fall. Maybe this was reality. Maybe this was what really happened. She lifted her hand to his cheek only to feel that it was as cold as the ice block.
"My god, Colonel! Your freezing!" She frowned ripping off her jacket and wrapping it around him as it obviously wouldn't fit him.
"Don't worry about it..." He pulled her into a tight hug. "I'm a lot better now....." He placed a kiss on her forehead before pulling back to see her grateful smile. "Come on, Carter. Lets get out of here.." He tugged on her hand.
Sam saw what was coming next, but she couldn't stop it. Before Colonel O'Neill could take a step, his face twisted into agony. Suddenly she couldn't see him, but she could see IN him.
His organs stretched and twisted. One by one the shut down on him. He struggled for breath, causing the weak folds of his lungs to burst from the rabid breaths. She could see him again. He was falling backwards to the mesh of floor. Blood, or a part of his destroyed body, trickled out of the corner of his mouth as he hit the material.
Suddenly, the web gave way, sinking under his weight. Sam fell to her knees, her hand jutting out to catch his just before he twirled down. She gritted her teeth, trying to maintain the grasp she had.
"No! I'm not letting you go this time! Damn it!" She screamed as his fingers started to slide from hers. She gave up her balance to reach down and grab him with the other hand at his wrist. It knocked her off kilter, sending them both twisting to the steam below. Falling. They were always falling....Falling into a circle with several symbols on it, not to unlike the Stargate itself.
"CARTER!" A voice made the female SG-1 member bolt awake from her sleep.
Apparently she had drifted off at her desk. The papers were sprawled out everywhere around her. Sweat covered her forehead. Red marks were set into her palms where she had been clenching her fingers into them. Gaining her breath she looked up to see Dr. Daniel Jackson.
"What happened?" He asked her with concern. "I heard you screaming all the way down the hall..."
She blinked at him, coming to for the first time, focusing on his words. These days she couldn't tell which was what and what was which. This all seemed like a synthetic reality, molded from her nightmares.
"Nothing, Daniel... nothing..." Clearing her throat, she finally found her voice. br
"It sure didn't sound like nothing.. " He commented, pulling a chair over close to her. His brows knotted as they often did when he was working on some puzzle of some sort.
"Come on, Sam, we're worried about you... You haven't been the same for two weeks now.... You haven't passed in our report yet, I haven't seen you even open your laptop, and you can't even go past the Stargate...This isn't like you."
"I guess I just can't keep focused... I can't sleep... These damn nightmares keep plaguing me.... When I'm awake, it's no better." She sighed, exhausted. " It's like all these thoughts are in one cohesive jumble inside of my brain, eating away at both my conscience and subconsciouses.... They're in one huge knot I can't untie."
"Nightmares?" he questioned, "About what? O'Neill?"
She only nodded in response. Her eyes focused back onto her desk. A pile of papers and a cold cup of coffee greeted her.
Sighing, her friend took her hand and turned her face to him. "Listen to me, Sam... There's nothing we could have done. You know, it might have actually been the best thing for him. The freezing process might have saved his body from deteriorating under the trauma his, er, changing, caused him! If we find Atlantis, we'll find a way to get him out of there. Who knows, maybe his body will heal itself on it's own by then!" He tried to cheer her up.
"I should have done it, Daniel. I should have pulled away and got that information into me. Than he'd be here safe. You'd have someone who could actually do something,throw their weight around, instead of being a drone!Someone who dosen't dare fight in the command." Her temples throbbed. "If they'd just send us to find it! We could get him out of there!"
"We will, Sam. We'll find a way. But you gotta be the same old tough-women we all know and love. You have big shoes to fill, Major. You gotta pull your weight around and manage that annoying sarcasm at the same time."
Sam chuckled a bit. That was true enough. She had been strong the first two days, but it slowly had beat down on her. Now she had to get back to where she was, and than some!
"Besides," Daniel said with a coy smile.
She raised a brow at him. "Besides, WHAT, doctor?"
"Can you imagine Jack's face if he knew that he was keeping you up at night?" His comment made Sam burst out laughing. "He'd never let you live it down...See, I knew you could smile!"
"You right.." She nodded, flinging the top to her laptop open. "I guess it's back to work, then. And, doctor, you should be getting back too. I need you to get on translating anything you remember in that chamber. Our first clues might be there." She stopped him. "Oh! Wait..." She scribbled down a few things on extra sheet of paper.
"What's this?" Dr. Jackson's eyes ran over the page. She was sketching out a circle with symbols, ancient words, along the lines.
"Just, something that keeps popping up into this crazy head of mine.. Maybe just take a look at it sometime? It probably means nothing...but..." She finished, handing the finished copy to him.
He nodded, smiling at his new CO. "Yes Si...er.. Ma'am!" He chuckled, walking out. He kept his focus on the paper before. He hadn't seen this before, minus a few symbols. The strange part was, Carter couldn't possibly have remembered them. Scratching his head, he headed back to his work lab.