Chapter 1
It's the rain that wakes him. Pelting rain. Hitting his face. Soaking his clothes. He's lying in water. He opens his eyes. Gray everywhere. Fog. Thick, heavy fog, along with the rain.
He tries to move and his back and hip hurt enough to stop him. Oh, crap... what's happened this time... For several moments he lies still, waiting for the aches to subside.
More carefully, he tries again, turning in the opposite direction this time, away from the painful hip. Slower. Not so much hurt, but just as much wet. The side of his face is in water now. He reaches out for leverage to raise himself out of it...
There's a yelp and then a groan... Not him! Somebody lying nearby. He put his hand down on the person when he was trying to get up. Damn. He turns his head to see...
Dark hair, long and curly. Mal-Doran?
He frowns, trying to remember. He and Mal-Doran... and... Daniel and Sam. Right! They were headed home from... oh who remembers all those planet designations, anyway! Headed home from the planet with the really hairy people. Literally, hairy—as in covered with the stuff. But they're really nice people, too, he has to admit. Not at all disagreeable once you get past the hair...
Anyway, headed home—back to the SGC. Which this place most certainly is not. Unless the gateroom's become foggy and flooded. And rocky—those are definitely rocks underneath his butt. He shifts, adjusts, and finally manages to rise somewhat out of the water, supporting himself on one arm.
Beside him Mal-Doran groans again. He hears the water slosh as she moves, and then a small tidal wave hits him when she rolls onto her back. The movement brings another yip of pain from her throat.
"Easy does it," he says, finding his voice is hoarse. "Take it slow."
Her deep violet eyes open and stare blankly upward for a few moments, until she finally registers his presence and turns toward him. "General...?" It's barely a murmur. "What... happened?"
"I don't know," he admits. "How bad are you hurt?"
She thinks about it a few seconds. "Headache... Where are we?"
"In the mud..." he mutters.
He's moving his body slowly, testing, trying to determine where the pain is coming from. Definitely his left hip and lower back, but he can move through the pain. So, nothing broken, he thinks. He straightens to a sitting position. His butt's still in the water—but that's better than his face!
His head aches, too, but his memory's coming back. They'd been preparing to depart through the Stargate. The hairy folks—Pegelans? Peglegs?—had sent along a delegation to see them off. Carter was dialing home when a monster storm came out of nowhere!
There was lightning like he'd never seen before—incredibly violent, unrelenting. The delegation members ran in terror, shouting for their guests to take cover. One of them grabbed Vala's arm and urged her along with them.
The gate connected. Sam and Daniel were beside the gate and Jack shouted for them to go ahead. He went after Vala, heading into the trees. Just as he reached her, she broke away from her well-meaning captor and ran in his direction. He saw Daniel and Sam disappear into the wormhole as he and Vala turned toward the gate. Fifteen seconds later they broke through the event horizon together, and at that instant he heard the huge crack of a lightning strike...
"The gate was hit by lightning," he says, more to himself than to her. He looks around. Through the fog to his right he can see the outline of the silent gate; on his left, further away, there's a shadow that's probably the DHD. Nothing else is visible in the grayness.
Vala is struggling to a sitting position. "Are you all right, General?"
"I'm fine. We were entering the event horizon when the lightning struck."
"So... where are we?" she asks. "This isn't Earth."
"No," he agrees. "The gate's over there." He hauls himself to his feet, wincing at the pain in his hip, but finding with considerable relief that he can stand. He limps toward the gate. After a moment, Vala rises and follows him.
They recognize the pedestal around the gate. It's the one on the 'hairy folks' planet. (Jack has determinedly resisted the temptation to call it the Planet of the Apes – knowing that once he gets that image in his head, he'll never get rid of it.)
"We're still on Peglea Two," Vala say.
Right. That's what it's called. And the people are Pegleans. Jack nods with some relief. "Then let's dial ourselves home." They make their way carefully through the fog in the direction of the DHD. It isn't raining as hard, but visibility has not improved.
"This way," Jack says, catching Vala's arm and pulling her off to the left where he sees the low shadow. "Go ahead, dial it," he says, as they reach the structure. "I'll get ready to send the IDC."
She nods and begins pressing the symbols of Earth's address. But when she's finished and places her hand on the central crystal, it only lights briefly and then fades out.
"It didn't connect," she says, pushing down the edge of panic in her chest.
"Yeah. I got that," he growls. "Try again."
Three more tries only yield the same result.
"Maybe the lightning shorted out something," Jack suggests. He glances over at Vala. She has her arms wrapped around herself, and a look of distress on her face. "We need to find shelter, and wait until the storm is over," Jack decides. The rain is warm, but being wet to the skin is uncomfortably chilly nonetheless. She's wearing a tank top, having discarded her BDU shirt earlier, in the heat of the day. Jack looks around for their packs and weapons. His pack's lying near the puddle where he awakened. Hers is off to the side. Their P90s are on the ground nearby. "Come on. Let's find a drier spot."
He goes over and picks up his pack, and then reaches for hers. She takes it from him. He picks up his weapon and after a moment's thought, heads in the direction that he hopes will take them to the edge of the gate clearing. Within a few meters, they reach the trees. The canopy is thicker than he realized before, and much of the rainfall is being deflected.
Jack pulls a lightweight waterproof tarp from his pack and sets about creating a rain shield, then spreads a plastic ground sheet underneath. Next he takes the tent from Vala's pack and sets it up on the ground sheet. They always travel with full camping gear, but the second tent was in Daniel's pack, so they only have the one. He pushes Vala down into the tent, and climbs in behind her, taking her sleeping bag out of her pack, spreading it out. It's very dim inside the tent.
"Take your clothes off," he orders.
"What?"
"Take your clothes off, and get in the sleeping bag. You'll freeze otherwise." He rolls his eyes when she hesitates. "Don't worry, I'll turn my back. I plan to do the same thing. Get in the bag to put your dry clothes on."
He spreads his own sleeping bag out, then sits with his back to her and starts to disrobe. She doesn't move for a few moments. When he goes to strip his t-shirt over his head, she turns her back and begins to undress. It's awkward, but she manages to do as he instructed. Before she's done he's finished and redressed in dry things. His wet clothes are more or less spread out on his other side. She crawls into the bag and reaches out to spread her own wet things.
"These will never dry."
"We'll hang them on tree branches or bushes when the rain stops," he says. He looks over at her. "I have the first aid kit if you need it."
"I've just the headache, and that's better. Couple of scratches and scrapes. What about you?"
"Bruises," he says. "Banged my hip pretty good. I'll limp for a while."
He doles out pain killers for both of them, sharing his water. Then he digs energy bars from his pack and hands one to her.
"It's getting darker—must be evening," he said as he chews, frowning. "It was morning when we were leaving. We must have been out for a long time."
"Hmmm..." she replies absently.
They're quiet for a while. Jack takes a cloth out of his pack and starts to break down his P90, wiping it carefully to dry it as much as possible. When he's finished with his, he picks up hers and does the same.
"They haven't tried to dial back to find us," she says finally.
"Maybe whatever's stopping us from dialing out is also stopping them," he says. "Carter will figure it out."
"What will we do now?" she asks.
"Right now we sleep," Jack says. "When it gets light we'll try the gate again. If that doesn't work, we'll go back to the town. I'm sure they'll put us up until this gets ironed out." He sounds very positive. "Go to sleep."
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They crawl out of their shelter a few hours later to a clear and sunny morning. The air is warm. A good deal warmer, in fact, than it has been during the three days of their visit so far. Everything seems greener, too. More lush. The vegetation is heavier.
"Wow," Vala comments. "That storm made a big difference. It's almost like the season changed overnight."
Jack is frowning, studying the open space around the Stargate. It doesn't seem as large as it was the day before. And the area is overgrown, rather than beaten down into paths by the comings and goings through the gate. Can the grass have grown up that quickly? With all the wind and lightning he'd expected broken branches, maybe even trees down, leaves and small objects strewn about, but that's not the case this morning. The forest appears thicker, darker, the trees taller...
Two more attempts to dial Earth meet with the same failure as the evening before. They also try the Alpha site with equal lack of success.
"The problem must be with this gate. Let's head over to the town," Jack suggests after they have draped their clothes and tarps to dry over nearby bushes, and packed the rest of their things into their backpacks. He slings his pack onto his shoulders and picks up the P90, checking its load. Vala also dons her pack and heads out without waiting for further instructions.
The path to the town seems to have vanished in the vegetation. Yesterday it appeared well-trod, the opening obvious among the trees. The path winds along for about two kilometers down a narrow valley, and out onto the side of a hill overlooking the town. After some searching, they locate the valley, though following it is difficult because of the undergrowth which has taken over. Jack's frown deepens as they walk. Something is definitely off here.
The valley leads them out onto the side of the hill, just as it should have, but when they arrive there, in an opening in the trees, they stop and stare in shock.
The hollow in the hills where the town should be is a great shallow meadow, with a medium-sized river running through it. There is no town. There is absolutely no sign of civilization of any kind.