It wasn't home, but it would do for the moment -- a rocky outcropping complete with a cave set into the side of a hill. There was forest around the backside of the hill, but the rocky, sparse slope spread out in front of them afforded an excellent vantage point to see anyone coming. The cave itself was dank and dreary, the inside of it choked with the vines and jungle vegetation that also grew under the forest's thick canopy. But it was easily defended and not far from the stream. It was farther from the gate than Jack would have liked, but he wasn't in any position to be picky.
"Alright, let's set up camp. Again." They had spent the previous evening huddled near the stream, nervously watching the water and the footpath on the other side but thankfully they hadn't run into anyone else.
Jack un-shouldered his pack and stared down at the slope first and then up at the sky. It wasn't the right color. There was just a little too much green -- enough to make it look sickly.
"Sir, this disease must be carried by something out there. I think maybe Daniel and I should go back to the ruins and see if we can find out more about how this culture lives. If we know what they're exposed to, maybe we can avoid some of the potential sources of infection."
"Carter, what exactly is the point in locking the barn door now?"
She jerked her head back sharply, and stared at him.
Daniel stopped poking in his bag and looked up. "We washed everything off last night. You never know, Jack, we might be alright. There's no point in unnecessarily exposing ourselves again. And we might learn something in the ruins that could help us either way."
Jack let out his frustration with a sigh. "Fine. Carter, you and Daniel go to the ruins. Teal'c and I will set up camp."
She nodded but still looked at him warily. After taking a few minutes to help organize, she and Daniel started the trek down the slope, picking their way through the short fern-like plants that covered the rocky hillside.
"What do you say we start collecting wood for a fire?"
Teal'c tipped his head slowly to the side. "O'Neill, you are aware that with this new camp site, we are further from the gate. It will be a significant walk to reach it."
"Yeah, I know, Teal'c. But I don't see what choice we have." He already felt cut off and stranded. What difference would another couple klicks make?
---
Camp was comfortable if not the height of off-world luxury. They'd dug a fire pit outside the cave and Teal'c had dragged some fallen trees up the slope to serve as benches. So far it had been warm and dry enough to sleep outside the cave – Jack had always felt better sleeping under the stars anyway – but they were making preparations in case they needed to move indoors. Daniel and Carter had cleared away some of the vegetation so that they'd have a dry place to sleep. Carter had been fascinated by the variety of plant species that had adapted to living in such low light conditions. She had studied each plant before ripping it out of the ground.
They'd done a lot of work over the last two days to make their camp habitable but now that work was winding down and they were starting to dig in for the long haul. They reported in daily with the Alpha Site. Earth's gate was still down and a couple of off-world teams had rendezvoused on the base to wait. Others, like them, were still in contact and getting supplies but not returning. Already the trudge to and from the gate was getting old. At least Daniel had new and presumably exciting -- at least for Daniel -- translations to do. Apparently there were walls and walls of a very old Goa'uld dialect in the ruins and it was taking Daniel some time to figure it out exactly.
Not that they'd managed to find any smoking guns. Carter was still convinced it was something animal borne and they were looking for any rituals or ceremonies that involved unusual foods. But nothing had jumped out at her so far.
Which left them with their daily grind.
Jack sipped his coffee and stared into the roaring fire that Teal'c had built up before going to patrol. At least it was sunny today. They had that going for them. Even the weather the last few days had been dreary and threatening with low ominous clouds on the horizon.
He stared into the flames, enjoying the warmth on his face from both the fire and the sun.
"Colonel?"
He jumped, suddenly realizing that Carter was right next to him.
"Geez, Carter, don't sneak up on a person like that," he groused, shaking the coffee he'd spilled off his hand, thankful that it wasn't very hot.
"Sorry, sir." Her brow was furrowed, a look of deep concern on her face. "Are you okay?"
"Just thinking, Major."
She stared at him a moment, pursing her lips and obviously studying him. "Are you sure? You were really out of it."
"Of course I'm sure. Was there something you wanted?" he snapped, irritated.
She shook her head and let it go. "Yes, sir. The med kit and it has a thermometer and alcohol to sterilize it between uses. I was thinking that maybe we should start taking our temperatures daily. We don't know much about this disease, but its possible fever might be a good early warning symptom. It's more objective than looking for psychological symptoms."
Jack nodded. He didn't like the idea of having someone sick out on watch at night. And just watching for paranoia was paranoia inducing. So far they'd all been pretty good about keeping things in perspective, but taking their temperatures couldn't hurt. "Good idea, Carter."
She nodded and pulled out the med kit, popping the thermometer into her mouth first.
---
Jack and Daniel were the first ones up the next morning, quietly puttering around camp. Daniel was a lot happier these days because they'd gotten real coffee and filters from the Alpha Site. It was a little tricky to make it with two pots and the little sterno stove, but Daniel was motivated and patient. He had enlisted Carter's help in rigging up a way to suspend the filters from a y-shaped branch over a pot on the stove. Daniel slowly and carefully poured water from a second pot through the filter and let it drip into the pot below it.
Daniel let the coffee heat up in the lower pot a minute and then poured cups for the two of them.
"Getting better," Jack said, taking a welcomed sip. The first few go-arounds had resulted in horribly weak brews. It had taken Daniel a while to figure out the right mix of grounds and pouring speed.
Daniel nodded and then wrapped his fingers around his cup greedily.
When he was done with his coffee, Jack took a quick jog down to the stream to replenish their water supplies. When he got back, he found that Teal'c had returned from patrol and Carter was up, her hair tousled from sleep, her hands wrapped around their own cup of coffee.
Jack set the bucket of water down, added the purification tablets, and let them dissolve before filling everyone's canteens for them.
"Don't forget your morning temp-in," he said, tossing the med kit in Daniel's direction. Then he rummaged through the sack of food they had. Each of them dumped things they didn't like from their MREs into a communal sack and they all got to take other things out, first come, first served. He found a dinner roll to go with his coffee and berries. Not a bad breakfast as far as it went. He looked up from his scrounging in time to see Daniel take a large swig of water before popping the thermometer into his mouth.
"Daniel, what are you doing?" Jack asked slowly
Daniel looked up, perfectly puzzled, and looking childish with the thermometer sticking out of his mouth. "Taking mah temperature, ath requethted."
"After taking a drink of water?"
"Uh, yeth."
"Daniel, you aren't going to get a valid reading if you're drinking cold water first."
"Ith not that cold."
"I just got it out of the stream. It's probably 40 degrees."
"What are you tahking about, Jack?"
"I saw you. You took a drink of cold water before taking your temperature."
Daniel pulled the thermometer out of his mouth and squinted at him. "So what?"
"So you were cooling your mouth. Are you trying to hide a fever?"
"What? No."
"Then why is your canteen sitting next to you?"
Daniel looked at Carter who was watching both of them intently. Then he looked at his pile of personal gear. "Uh. Because all my stuff is here?"
Jack glared at him and took the thermometer from his hand. It read 98.2 degrees. "You need to take another reading. This one's corrupted."
"Are you kidding?"
Jack held the thermometer out. "Does it really look like I'm kidding? We've all been exposed to a plague. We need to figure out if any of us is coming down with it."
Daniel's face hardened as he glared back. "And then what?"
"What do you mean 'and then what?'"
"I mean what it sounds like. So we find out one of us is sick, then what? We can't get back to Earth and there's no cure here. In all likelihood, if one of us is exposed, the rest of us will already be exposed. Are we really going to banish anyone who turns up with a fever?"
"No."
"So how does it help us to know who's sick?"
Jack glared at him, hating the way he could just rattle off doom and gloom when Jack didn't want to hear those things spoken out loud. He knew what they were dealing with. He didn't need to be hit in the face with it. He thrust the thermometer in Daniel's direction again. "If one of us ends up sick, the others know to be more careful," he said as simply as he could. It was all he knew how to do right now. And doing something was better than doing nothing.
Daniel reluctantly accepted the thermometer this time and dutifully shook it down before placing it back in his mouth, his eyes never leaving Jack's.
---
Jack was still angry when he and Teal'c headed out to make their daily gate call. He was pounding through the jungle, batting away vines and kicking ferns and things out of his way.
"Are you alright, O'Neill?" Teal'c asked.
Jack ran his hands through his hair. "Yeah. I'm fine. But I think we need to keep an eye on Daniel," he said without looking up.
"Is there a problem?"
"I caught him drinking cold water before taking his temperature this morning. He took it again and it turned out fine, but it seemed like kind of a paranoid thing to do. Like he's trying to hide being sick."
Teal'c turned his head to the side, and didn't say anything.
"I just think we should be careful. We don't know how subtly these symptoms come on and he's behaving a little strangely."
Teal'c seemed to ponder that and more unsettlingly, he seemed to ponder Jack for a moment before answering. "That would seem to be a wise course of action."
Jack nodded and then stood, suddenly feeling restless. He didn't want to have to be wary about every action of his teammates. But he also didn't want someone who was delusional or sick out on watch protecting them. And he didn't want them exposed any further than they already had been, so he was going to have to keep a close eye on everyone. He just hoped he could walk the tight rope of protecting them without getting paranoid himself.
They hiked the rest of the way to the gate in silence and Jack had the uncomfortable feeling that Teal'c was suspicious of him. When they finally broke into the sculpture garden, it wasn't a moment too soon, as far as Jack was concerned. He wanted to get this daily ritual over with and get back. He touched the brim of his ball cap in the direction of the sculpture of the man tipping his hat and then went directly for the DHD. He punched in Earth's address and watched as the gate spun but ultimately came up empty. Then he punched in the Alpha Site's address to check in with them and get the daily news.
The gate spun, the chevrons aligned, but there was no event horizon.
The wind went out of Jack's sails as he stared up at the scenery behind the gate – the scenery that wouldn't be visible if the gate had activated.
"Are you sure you dialed the Alpha Site and not Earth?" Teal'c asked.
Jack shrugged and tried again. Still nothing.
"Teal'c?"
"Yes, O'Neill."
"Does it look to you like the Alpha Site's gate isn't working?"
"It does indeed appear that way."
Teal'c approached the DHD and tried punching in the coordinates himself but got the same results.
Jack took off his cap and ran a hand through his hair. Yep, things just kept getting better and better. Now they were cut off from the Alpha Site too.
---
"What's the first thing you're going to do when we get home and escape from the infirmary?" Jack asked Teal'c by way of making conversation. They were still going to the gate once a day to check to see if there was any change, but they hadn't been able to contact either Earth or the Alpha Site for three days. Today was no different and they were on their way back to camp.
"Take a shower."
"Practical. Me, I think I'm going to throw on some deodorant and some civvies and go down to The Pass for cheap pizza and beer."
He didn't have to turn to see the raised eyebrow. Teal'c didn't appreciate the fine cuisine at The Pass. For some odd reason he didn't care for the grease that pooled up on top of the cheese or the atmosphere which was always just one beer short of a brawl -- when there wasn't already an active brawl in progress. But Jack loved the seedy lack of pretension. It wasn't just a neighborhood dive, it was his neighborhood dive. Besides, what did Teal'c know? The man didn't even drink beer.
"That is an interesting choice, O'Neill. However, I do not believe..."
He trailed off and Jack turned to see what had caught his attention. Teal'c was standing with his head cocked to the side, a frown creasing his forehead.
"What-"
Teal'c held up a hand to silence him and then Jack heard it. Beyond the forest sounds there was a steady drone of something manmade. A ship.
The sound got louder and louder until they both looked up to see a Tel'tak through the trees.
They jogged back the rest of the way to the edge of the slope, taking up positions just inside the tree line as the Tel'tak circled and landed on the slope. Jack spotted Carter and Daniel take cover inside the cave. Jack tightened his grip on his gun, not sure who they were going to find at the helm of the ship.
The door to the Tel'tak slid open and Jacob Carter stepped out onto the hill.
Jack relaxed his hold on the P-90 and stepped away from the edge of the forest. "Jacob! Nice of you to drop by," he yelled, waving as they hurried over to the ship.
Jacob tipped his head to Teal'c, shook hands with Jack and said, "It's good to see you too," with more feeling than Jack was expecting. He looked again at Jacob's face and noticed the lines that were etched just a bit deeper around his eyes and the forward roll of his shoulders. Jacob was carrying a weight that hadn't been lifted by finding them. It immediately set Jack on edge.
The rest of the team reached them and Jacob shook Daniel's hand and hugged Sam tightly. Again, Jack noticed that he was hugging her tighter than normal and could swear he saw a slight shake in Jacob's hands. "What's wrong?" he asked.
"I'm afraid I come bearing bad news."
Jack swallowed a lump in his throat. It wasn't just some malfunction or enemy interfering with things. Something had happened to the SGC and the Alpha Site. That's why they couldn't dial the gates. He was suddenly sure of it.
"Is there somewhere we can sit and talk?"
Jack nodded, trying not to notice the slightly beaten way Jacob carried himself. This was bad. Very bad. "You can join us at luxurious Camp SG-1. But I have to warn you, the decorators haven't finished yet."
They climbed the slope and Jacob took a seat on one of the logs in front of the fire.
"Would you like anything?" Jack asked. "I make a mean boiled water."
"No, thank you." Jacob turned away from the view to look at them all. "A few of days ago, one of our ships received a faint distress call from the Alpha Site. They were under attack by Anubis's fleet. The first thing Anubis did was destroy their gate. He sent some sort of pulse through it that literally vaporized it. Then his fleet sat in orbit, pulverizing them. There was nothing we could do. It was too late by the time we arrived."
Jack could feel the tension rising in the little group. Jacob stared down at his hands, avoiding eye contact with anyone.
"Before they were completely destroyed, they told us that they had been out of contact with Earth and gave us the locations of all the off world teams who had checked in.
Afraid that Anubis had attacked, we went to Earth." He stopped speaking and ran his hand over his head, staring out over the alien terrain.
Jack watched him as the tension in the group ramped up. Jacob was looking at the ground, avoiding all eye contact. Then he closed his eyes and Selmak took over. "Jacob is too overcome to continue," he said in his deeper voice. "I cannot adequately express how sorry I am. How sorry all of the Tok'ra are. But I am afraid that Earth is gone."
"What do you mean 'gone?'" Carter asked, horror and disbelief contorting her face. She looked up at Jack and then back down. "Dad?"
The body language changed again and Jacob dropped his head into his hands. "I'm sorry, Sam. Earth was destroyed. Everything is gone."
His words sank into a void of silence. Jack just stared at him, unable to take in what he'd just heard. He was unable to believe that Earth could really be gone -- unable to believe that this could be anything other than a bad dream or a sick joke or a Goa'uld trick. "Are you sure? Are you sure that the Goa'uld didn't somehow cloak it or beam it away or something?" he asked, grasping at straws.
"I'm sorry," Jacob said softly. "There was…debris. And radiation."
"My God," Carter whispered. "What happened?"
"We don't know. Possibly some sort of plasma explosive. Maybe Anubis sent it into the earth's core somehow."
"But you're sure? You're sure that Earth is completely gone?" The disbelief and horror in her voice pierced Jack through and through. Surely Carter could think of some way to fix this, to figure out what trick the Goa'uld were using. She was Carter after all.
"I'm sorry. We spent hours there. Making sure." He spoke in broken little sentences like his voice was mirroring his emotions.
No one said anything. Everyone stared. Jack felt like he couldn't breath, like the actual air had been taken away from him. How could they be without a home planet? How was that even possible? It didn't make sense. It didn't compute. He never had been any good at doing math. His brain felt like it was overloading. He had to get away from Jacob, away from the news, away from the looks on his team's faces.
"I guess I don't have to worry about all those unpaid parking tickets anymore, huh?" he said bitterly, the gallows humor his best shield against pain. Then he got up and quickly stalked to the cave where he restlessly paced, trying to outrun his thoughts. But there was nowhere to run. Nowhere to hide from the fact that everything he'd ever known was gone. Everyone and everything he loved and cared about was nothing but debris and radiation.
The weight of it hit him hard. He couldn't pace anymore, couldn't make his legs move. He stumbled and then sank to the floor of the cave, emotion cleaving him in two. He sat there on the floor until he heard someone at the entrance.
"Sir?"
He didn't answer. Couldn't find his voice.
"Are you alright?"
"No, Carter, I'm not alright! In case you missed the memo, Earth and most of its people are gone. I'm having a hard time being 'alright!'" he yelled at her, suddenly so consumed with fury and rage that it completely overwhelmed everything else. He flew to his feet and then punched the cave wall.
"Sir!" she said, grabbing his arm. He jerked away from her but then pulled up cold. She stared at him with eyes that were teary and fearful.
They were all in the same position, feeling the same things. He dropped his hand and the rage boiled out of him. For the moment, anyway.
She took a step closer and he balled his hands into fists and turned his head away.
Carter cautiously took another step and wrapped her arms around his waist. When he didn't move, she buried her head against his chest.
Jack was completely overcome. He embraced her so tightly he was probably hurting her -- defiantly holding onto one of the only things he had left.
---
No one felt like eating. They sat around the fire in a brutal silence each lost in their own thoughts until finally, Daniel cleared his throat. "You said that you got the positions of the other off-world teams," he asked hoarsely.
Jacob looked up at him. "Yes. We've been picking them up, bringing them to safety."
Daniel dragged the heel of his boot through the dirt, gouging a little rut in front of him. "We can't go with you," he said quietly.
"I know."
Jack turned to stare at him. "You know?"
Jacob closed his eyes and Selmak spoke. "Several years back the Tok'ra scouted this planet as a potential base. It was during a time when we were using inhabited planets as a means of hiding from the Goa'uld. We quickly realized what was happening to the human population."
"So you have data on the disease?" Sam asked, and Jack could hear the spark of hope in her voice.
"Yes. Unfortunately, the news isn't good. We tried to use the healing devices to save them, but it only slowed down the disease's course and prolonged the madness. The villagers told us that the plague returned every couple of years. Our symbiotes provided immunity and we offered the humans the option to become hosts. Some chose to join us, others did not. We offered them transport to another planet, but they did not want to leave their home. Then we received intelligence that the Goa'uld may have compromised our location and we had no choice but to go."
"And you didn't think to mention to us that there was a plague planet out there!?" Jack let his anger boil over and mix with his frustration with the Tok'ra.
Jacob took over from Selmak again. "It's one of many dangerous planets, Jack. Had we known you were planning to come here, we would have warned you. But the SGC doesn't freely share its information with the Tok'ra either you know."
Didn't.
The correct word hung in the air like nerve gas and Jacob coughed and cleared his throat uncomfortably.
Daniel picked up a long blade of grass and slowly picked it apart. "I suppose maybe that explains why the villagers didn't warn us. Maybe they thought that all off-worlders were immune."
"That's a possibility, yes," Jacob said.
"Dad, do you have a way of quarantining us?"
Jacob looked truly stricken and Jack felt a sudden, deep sympathy for him. He knew how it felt to be hit with the knowledge that there was nothing more you could do to protect your child. He knew what it felt like to know it was too late.
"In the past we could have, yes. But we're decimated, Sam. We only have what little we can carry with us. Taking care of the other off-world teams has taxed our resources."
"And we can't endanger them," Daniel said, a little bit bitterly.
"Do you have any way of determining if any of us is infected?" Jack asked.
"Do you really want to know?"
"If none of us is infected, couldn't we go with you?" Jack asked. He was surprised by the glum reaction Carter gave him.
"We can't, sir. We don't know how it's transmitted. They can't stop it, or cure it. If we infect what remains of Earth's population..."
And it finally clicked in Jack's mind. The 'Tau'ri' were really dead. A few stragglers didn't mean much anymore. They'd probably end up Tok'ra hosts, although, there weren't exactly an abundance of Tok'ra symbiotes left these days. All those who'd lived on Earth would be gone in a hundred years or less. Despair settled over him and he couldn't fight it. He let his head sink into his hands. The SGC, everyone he cared about. Sara. His parents, Sara's dad, the kid next door who liked to hit golf balls into his yard. All gone. Everyone and everything. It was too much to take in. Too much emotion to even feel.
---
Jacob had brought them supplies. It bothered Jack how callus and premeditated it seemed. 'Sorry, we can't help you but here are some blankets and a few decent meals.' But then what was someone supposed to do for his friends who had just lost their home world. Jack was pretty sure they didn't make a Hallmark card for that. Roses are red, violets are blue, you lost your world but I still care about you.
They unloaded the last of the crates and then shared a meal together. Afterward they walked Jacob back to his ship.
"I'm sorry. But we still have a few more teams to find and we're spread very thin," Jacob said more to Sam than anyone else.
"I know, Dad. Make sure they're okay, please. And check in. We'd like to know who..."
She trailed off but Jack could guess what she was going to say.
"We're going to resurrect the research that was first carried out when the Tok'ra found this place and see if we can't do something about the plague or at least make it safe for you to join us," Jacob said.
"Keep in touch," Sam said, giving her father a hug.
"Of course, Sam. I'll be back soon." He put his hands on her shoulders. "In the meantime, be careful. If you stay outside of their society, maybe you'll be able to avoid contracting it."
Jack tried not to think about the villager they'd shot in their camp and the sprays of blood everywhere.
Jacob shook hands with Daniel and then Jack. In his eyes, Jack was sure he could see Jacob pleading for him to take care of his daughter. And Jack wished he could. He nodded and gave Jacob's hand a tighter squeeze. Then Jacob climbed into the Tel'tak and they all backed away. They watched as it hovered off the ground, turned and quickly made its way out of the atmosphere leaving them alone again.
-----------------
To Be Continued
