Chapter 1

She left the base crying…and upset. For crying out loud soldiers don't cry, Carters don't' cry.

But she couldn't help it. It had been a hell of a day. Probably the worst of her life.

It had all started like a normal day at work. At least by her standards. She had arrived at Cheyenne Mountain at 0500, wrote a few reports about her last projects and then headed for the briefing at 0600.

The colonel was already there. Man that was a first! As always, her heart did a flip flop when she sensed his presence. What was it with this man?

The briefing was quite boring. Daniel was exited about the ruins there were going to visit on P4X900. The colonel was fiddling with his pen and Tealc was respectfully listening.

By 0730 they were all ready in the gate room. If only she could have had any idea of what would happen at that moment…

The planet seemed nice enough, trees, lots of trees, not too hot, not too cold. Well, nice enough.

The hike to the ruins took just 2 hours. They decided to install their camp before exploring and that is when her world started to fall apart.

They felt the earth shaking, nothing big, just a small tremor. They glanced at each other, nobody knowing what to think of it. Sam started to open her mouth to voice her fear of an earthquake when the shaking suddenly became violent. It felt like they were drunk and couldn't stand straight any more.

The colonel, shouted the order "run to the gate NOW"

Nobody felt like disobeying and they all started to fly away towards the gate.

They were near the chapai when the worse happened. Tealc was on the front of the group, and then went Sam, Daniel and finally the colonel. They were about to exit the forest when the first three heard a big noise and the gasp of the colonel, full of pain.

They did a U turn to see that a tree had fallen on him, breaking his two legs and keeping him pinned down.

In on move Tealc, Daniel and Sam started to work to free their leader. But the tree was big, too big, and neither the strength of Tealc nor the intelligence of Carter was enough to do the work.

The noises grew louder and louder. They could sense the earthquake getting bigger, hear more trees falling, and see the animal trying to find a way out of their sure deaths.

The colonel was still beneath that tree, suffering from the injuries his legs sustained. But he was thinking clearly and he knew that was it.

"Get back to the SGC now" he said in a harsh tone.

"What" Sam snapped, shocked to hear him give such an order.

Jack looked at Carter and he understood that for once she wouldn't follow one of his orders willingly. After a few seconds he said more gently "I'm sorry Carter but there's no way I will allow you the die that way. You represent far too much, all of you". He clearly included Tealc and Daniel in his words but his look was for Sam only.