Hotel Hole in the Ground
by
Alobear
Category: Gen
Notes: Written for Space_Swap 2016
XXXXX
Sam returned to consciousness slowly, her mind taking its time to believe it was really awake again. Pain pounded through her temples, making her gasp, but she peeled open her eyes and tried to take stock of the situation. Two shafts of sunlight speared down through cracks in the rock above, illuminating the scene enough for Sam to make out a few details. She was lying on a hard surface, twisted painfully to one side, but she could see there was a small open space around her. Scattered rocks and debris told the tale of her descent. When she tried to move, Sam discovered her left ankle was pinned beneath a large rock, and the pain she experienced when she tried to tug it free told her it was at least badly twisted, and possibly broken.
She shifted as much as she could to straighten out her body, and that was when she saw another form, lying a few feet away. It was Cam, and he was motionless, face down on the cavern floor, blood gleaming wetly on his forehead. That was right; he had been with her when the floor had given way beneath them, plunging them into the hidden shaft below.
"Cam!" Sam called out, breathing in dust that made her cough. "Cam! Are you okay?"
There was no response, though she could see the reassuring motion of his breath making his torso move slightly up and down. Sam contorted herself to reach for where her radio was stowed. She pulled it out, and brought it up to her mouth, depressing the button.
"Daniel?" she said, hopefully. "Daniel, do you copy?"
She was rewarded with only silence, and then the clicking of broken pieces of plastic and circuitry as she turned the radio in her hand.
The sound of trickling water brought Sam's attention to the wall on the opposite side of the space in which she lay trapped. An outcropping of rock housed a small pool, but the falling rocks had crumpled in the lip on one side, and the liquid inside was now dribbling out. Sam watched as the liquid dripped slowly down a track it had marked on the wall of the cave. The puddle at the bottom was growing steadily larger, creeping its way towards her.
Something about it made the hairs on the back of her neck stand up, as if she was trying desperately to remember something really important. It was something about the water on this planet, but she couldn't make her mind work well enough to put the fragments of memory together. A drop of the liquid fell to join its brethren with a hissing splash and the knowledge suddenly clicked into place. The briefing from the initial MALP readings on this planet had told them that the water was acidic and highly corrosive.
The path the water would follow across the cavern floor led straight to where Cam's hand lay, limp and unprotected. Sam struggled again to free herself from the rock, but to no avail. She was well and truly wedged and the rock pinning her ankle was too heavy for her to lift on her own. She stretched with all her might to try and reach Cam, either to rouse him or to obtain his radio, in case it had survived the fall intact, but he was lying too far away. The acid crept ever closer, almost to his fingertips.
"Cam!" Sam called out again. "Wake the hell up, dammit!"
Cam didn't react at all, but Sam knew she had to rouse him if they had any hope of getting out, and she really didn't want acid burns to be added to whatever injuries they had already accrued. A thought struck her and she reached for her water canteen. She heaved a sigh of relief when she found it secured exactly where it should be, but her relief was short-lived. On shaking the container, she discovered there was only a dribble of water left in it. She had no idea how long they had been lying at the bottom of the shaft, or how long it would be until they had access to fresh water again, but she decided the immediate problem before her was more pressing. She took a tiny sip of water to wet her lips and wash the sour taste of frustration out of her mouth, then took careful aim and flung the rest of the water in the direction of Cam's head.
It showered over his hair and face, and he jerked and spluttered.
"Wha-?" came a less than coherent query.
"Cam!" Sam said urgently. "Pull your right hand in!"
He moved by instinct, shifting his hand closer to his body and out of the immediate path of the acidic water. Then, he opened his eyes and gradually focused on Sam. She smiled encouragingly at him. Agonisingly slowly, he pulled his arms underneath his body and raised himself up onto his elbows.
"Okay, first of all - ow," he said, blinking and shaking his head slightly, as if to dislodge the pain of his head injury. "And second of all - what the hell?"
Sam was glad to hear his usual attitude was present and correct. That suggested he wasn't hurt too badly.
"Welcome to the Hotel Hole in the Ground," she said, wryly. "We're so glad you could join us this fine evening."
"We fell in a hole?" Cam said incredulously, then nodded slowly. "Yeah, that's right. We fell in a hole."
Sam eyed the still spreading pool of liquid warily. "If you can," she said, "I'd shift a bit more away from that water. Highly acidic, remember?"
Cam whipped his head around to locate the water, then winced, clearly regretting the sharp movement. But he managed to get into a sitting position, and shuffled closer to Sam.
"You okay?" he asked.
She grimaced. "I'm stuck, and my radio's broken. So, once you feel up to it, see if you can contact Daniel or Teal'c, and then come over here and try and shift these rocks so I can get free."
"Yes, ma'am," Cam acknowledged crisply, with a hint of a grin. He pulled his radio free and inspected it. "It looks intact," he said, then depressed the button. "Jackson, Teal'c, do you copy?" A brief silence, then he tried again. "Jackson, Teal'c, please respond." Still nothing.
"We must be too far underground for the signal to get through," Sam said. "Okay, so no cavalry, at least for the time being. They'll come looking for us eventually, but we'd be better trying to find a way out ourselves than just sitting around hoping they can find us."
"Agreed," Cam said. "So, let's see if we can get you out, and then we'll formulate a plan."
He scooted towards her feet, still moving carefully, Sam noticed.
"How's your head?" she asked.
"Nothing a week in Tahiti wouldn't cure," he said lightly. He threw a smile over his shoulder and then ruined it by wincing again. "It's not going to get any better if we just sit around on our hands, though, so we might as well try to save ourselves, if we can. If nothing else, it'll pass the time." He turned his attention to the rocks that were trapping her legs. "Wow, you really know how to get seriously stuck, don't you?"
"What can I say? It's a talent," Sam said, continuing the trend they had both set of keeping the tone light.
Cam snorted. A moment later, Sam felt the weight on her injured ankle shift and then settle again in a slightly different place. She drew in a sharp breath as a stab of pain shot up her leg.
"Sorry," Cam murmured. "I'm trying not to hurt you, but it's difficult to get any purchase from this angle."
"It's okay," she told him. "I'd rather endure a bit of pain and actually get free than be stuck here indefinitely."
"Right," Cam said. "Well, I think if I apply some brute force just about here…"
He gave the largest of the rocks an almighty shove and it rolled away into the shadows. Sam heard it hit the shaft wall, and then a shower of small rocks and dust fell from above. They both threw their arms over their heads and made themselves as small as possible. A larger boulder toppled down, banging against the sides of the shaft and bringing yet more debris along with it, eventually landing a few inches away with a loud thump. There was silence for a little while, and they gingerly lowered their arms again.
"Um, that could have gone better," Cam admitted.
"Yeah," Sam agreed.
She shifted position experimentally, and found she could now move both legs freely. She sat up and pivoted to bring them round to where there was more light. She could see through the material of her pant leg that there was a long gash across her ankle, which was oozing blood.
"Ouch," Cam said in sympathy.
Sam tentatively explored the joint with slightly shaky fingers, and was pleased to find it intact, as far as she could tell. She ripped the already torn uniform material off in a strip, then ripped it again to provide two long pieces. She wrapped one of them around her ankle and tied it off, then beckoned to Cam.
"Let me take a look at your head," she said.
He positioned himself opposite her and she wound the other strip of cloth over the gash on his forehead. Cam suffered her careful ministrations without complaint, only grimacing slightly as she secured the ends of the bandage. She regarded him, thinking he looked a lot better with the injury covered up. He misinterpreted her gaze.
"Quite the pair, eh?" he said. "Now what?"
Sam was eyeing the approaching acid again. It was still dripping steadily from the hollow in the rock, each droplet making a little fizzing noise as it landed on the cavern floor. The growing pool was moving pretty slowly, but it was also gradually reducing the space they had to move around in. Sam took off her uniform jacket, rolled it up and laid it on the ground directly in the path of the acid. The liquid immediately started soaking into the cloth, but at least it wasn't moving any further across the floor.
"There," Sam said with satisfaction, "that should give us a bit of breathing room."
"Remind me why we came to this stupid planet in the first place?" Cam grumbled.
His words sparked off an idea in Sam's brain. She scanned the small space and spotted the pack they had been carrying, dangling half off a rock ledge a few feet up the wall.
"Can you grab that?" she asked Cam, gesturing at the pack.
He scrambled to his feet, took a few slightly wobbly steps and reached up for the bag. Detaching it from whatever it was caught on, he brought it over to her and sat down next to her again.
"What good is that going to do?" he asked.
Sam offered up a grin. "Why we came to this stupid planet, as you well know," she said, "was to test the minerals in the rocks to see if they have any useful properties. Since the water is acidic, our botanists wanted to check out the growing conditions of any plant life we could find, so I have some quite sensitive sensor equipment in my gear."
Cam rolled his eyes at her. "And?" he prompted.
"And I might be able to use it to boost the signal from your radio, so it can penetrate the rock and reach Daniel and Teal'c."
"Now we're talking!" Cam said, brightening considerably. "I knew there was a reason I wanted you on my team! What can I do to help?"
Sam spent the next several minutes going through the equipment in the pack, figuring out the best way to utilise what they had to their advantage, and giving Cam instructions as to what to do with it. They managed to splice together various bits and pieces, and eventually Sam declared herself satisfied.
They looked at each other apprehensively, both a little afraid to test the newly mutated radio, in case it still didn't work.
"Well, we're not getting any younger," Cam pointed out, philosophically.
Sam depressed the radio button and brought it up to her mouth.
"Daniel, Teal'c, do you copy?"
There was a long, agonising moment of silence, then a crackle of static, and the blessed sound of Daniel's voice.
"Sam? Where are you? Are you guys okay? We've been trying to get in touch with you for hours!"
"Daniel!" Sam exclaimed joyfully, beaming at Cam, who was grinning back. "Boy, is it good to hear your voice. We suffered a minor mishap, and are currently trapped down a rock shaft. We could use a bit of help getting out, if you guys don't have anything better to do."
"Give us your co-ordinates and we'll be right there," Daniel said.
Sam reported roughly where they'd been when the floor had given way, and then signed off.
"Gotta love the triumph of science!" Cam said, raising his hand and looking expectantly at Sam.
She obligingly slapped it with her own in an enthusiastic high five.
"Well," Cam said, glancing around their rocky prison, "it's been lovely, but I have to admit I'll be glad to leave Hotel Hole in the Ground behind. And I'm afraid I won't be posting a five-star review."
Sam laughed, and they both settled in to wait for their team-mates to find them.
THE END