He never thought that would be the kind of thing to welcome the team, at least, according to the briefing they had. Cameron was standing the other side of the gate, raising an arm, squinting and turning his face on the side to protect it from the cold wind and the icy and sharp flakes that kept whipping and lashing the exposed skin. Snow… Cam glanced around to see the others reacting about the same, but most of all, all he could see was snow; falling, blinding, covering utterly the landscape. The sky was fading with grey and the view wasn't great at all, way worst than a deeply foggy day in London… Where was the warm pleasant planet?! And the colonel was already shivering from the striking cold, crossing his arms on his chest, shrugging to keep the wind from cooling his neck and chest. Beside him, he heard the rest of the team coming out, as well as a light whir he couldn't identify but that wasn't his priority at the moment.
"What the Hell is that all about?!" Cam tried louder to cover the piercing noise of the snowstorm.
"I don't understand: there must be a mistake!" Let out Carter; she was also trying to hide from the wind in vain, forced to close her eyes to a small tensed line.
"A mistake you say? Kansas just became Alaska on that planet!" Observed a peeved Mitchell.
"Could the seasons change that quickly?!" Daniel asked loud with disbelieve.
"They must have messed up the dialling then, we're on the wrong planet!" Vala tried apprehensively, as shaken by the unforeseen weather as they were all.
"That's impossible, we double-check everything!" Carter rectified.
"So why had we been told it was a warm world we were going to visit?" Asked Daniel with a slight bit of hysteria in his voice.
"All right boys and girls, it's no time to ponder on whatever brought White Christmas on town; we're far from being well equipped for any mission out in that damn flurry! Pull back to the gate and let's get the Hell out of here before freezing up!" Cam decided firmly.
Of course they all agreed and were now facing the gate as Jackson was dialling their possible way back to Cheyenne Mountain, the man's hand trembling and numbed already. Then they stepped back to watch; however, the Stargate only lighted up a few seconds with light blue sparkles with a humming sound, then nothing more. Taken aback, they stared silently for a short time before Daniel tried once more to dial up. But this time the circle didn't even react, just like it has been emptied of all power.
"Damn, that just won't work!" Cursed-he as crossing back his arms, trying to stop shivering.
"Well give it another try! We can't be stuck here forever!" Vala exclaimed in a panic.
"We are more to die as ice cubes pretty soon if we don't get away, Val, trust me on that one." Cameron said ironically, his jaw clenched to hide the chatter of his teeth.
With a line of concern on her face, Samantha moved to the dialler, looking for a way to check out what was malfunctioning, but a thick layer of snow all around it was not helping too much… After a few minutes of attempt to dig with her bare hands, she had to let go. She sighed with frustration; it was way too cold to allow a normal work, she could already feel the painful numbing in her fingers and she stood up while rubbing her hands together.
"I fear that Daniel's right! And I don't think we can wait for the check in; it is a matter of hours…" She said in a worried tone.
"…Which I doubt we have …" Cam added, lost in his thoughts as he really tried to find a way to save them all from that ironical death.
"But you already went in Antarctica; you should all know what to do!" Freaked out Mal Doran, gesturing toward the rest of SG1. She sure forgot how much she wanted to be unnoticed, scared of what could happen very fast to them.
"It's not that easy, Vala" Snapped Jackson.
"Then we have to build a shelter!" She tried frantically.
"Good idea, yet we don't have any material for that… we can still dig into the snow but I fear it won't be enough…" Carter said, coming back beside the others.
"Or we obviously need another gate." Added Jackson.
"…and that is something else I doubt we have…" Commented gloomily Mitchell
There was an uncomfortable silence where they seemed to be all worrying and fighting against that killing cold, thinking of a way out of this situation. Their battle uniform could not keep them warm and protect them from the wind at all, before them an endless white desert stretched and they could not tell if the night was coming with an even lower temperature or not… It was crystal clear that they were doomed. But, the whistle of the wind became once more the sound to fight as Teal'c spoke with determination:
"I will seek for a settlement, or at least for a shelter. We will have more chance if I go unaided."
"Woah no no no no no! Teal'c, we can't just let you alone in the storm, that's suicide!!" Protested Mitchell, shaking his head in disapproval and his hands gesturing the "time out" signal.
"I must, Colonel Mitchell, we do not have more choice." The Jaffa answered with his tone of permanency.
"Not a chance; we'll get through this and we'll get through together. There is no way I'm simply letting you go like this!" Cam answered, glancing directly in Teal'c eyes with all the serious he had.
"This is my decision to volunteer to secure us all, Colonel Mitchell, not yours."
"Hey, Big Fella, we need you even more here with us… searching that damn desert is useless." Cam tried, clearly worrying about Teal'c's plan and life.
"I am sorry Colonel Mitchell."
On that last sentence, the tall man turned his back on the others and began walking straight ahead in the snowstorm, ignoring Vala when she cried out his name. Stunned for half a second, glaring at him with wide eyes as the other member of SG1, Cam let out with disbelieves in an undertone:
"He's gone crazy… I can't just stand here and watch!"
Without waiting for an answer from the rest of the team, the colonel rushed toward the other, jogging in the thick snow to catch back on Teal'c, nearly tripping at every step as he had to raise his legs high. But he couldn't help but being slowed down by the ground's white and thick coat. When he finally reached the Jaffa, Mitch came between the other man and the path he choose, turned back to face him and stretched his arms to stop him.
"Listen to me Teal'c… I won't let you go… not alone!" His eyebrows reaching with worries, hoping he would keep his friend from dying all by himself in the snow.
"I will ask you to move aside, Colonel Mitchell…"
"Hell no I won't do so… and you can't frown upon this." Cam interrupted.
The Jaffa tried to brush pass, but the colonel stepped to the side to once more interfere, a cute imploring look on his face; he knew that if the warrior decided to not listen to him and keep going, there would be nothing to do about it. However, in doing so, Cam triggered unwillingly a hidden device made with two distanced detectors not even sticking out, well dissimulate in the bunch of snow and still very sensitive. Some mechanical compounds and gears settle under the floor they couldn't see slowly broke free from the thin layer of ice that garnished it, rolling silently to ready a complicated mechanism.
"Hey, come on… we need at least to decide first which option's the better one…" The human added with a pacifying tone and a slight apologetic smile.
"Once again I am sorry."
Teal'c simply replied, before trying to bypass once again the colonel. And again, Cameron stepped to the side to get in the Jaffa's way, except something different happened…In fact, the ground collapsed under the yet not that heavy weight of the colonel, so fast he didn't even let out a scream; he thought his heart was going to explode from that shock as the snowy ground begin to get lose and as he quickly disappear below the level of the floor. So many things happened at the same time: Teal'c cried out Mitchell's name, Cameron realized he felt in some hole and he landed on the bottom of a 4 meters (13, 12 feet) deep pit, his left leg taking much of the impact because of the irregular ground and a signal of pain went to his brain so fast and so overwhelming he didn't know where he was actually injured. In addition, a mass of snow felt as well and he received a part of it like somebody could receive 20 pounds on his head…
When he opened his eyes, his mind was puzzled between such feelings: the cold was alarmingly numbing him and the snow on and under him made the exposed skin sting however. He blinked and squinted because of the flakes that kept falling in his eyes, but also because of that soaring pain in his left leg, giving to him the feeling that his calf and his thigh muscles, even those in his foot, were painfully contracting as something pulled on it. He clenched his jaw to hold a groan and slowly moved his head half sunk in the snow to try to drive away the fog and the black dots that were troubling his sightedness; Cam was still groggy and disoriented from the crash and the natural drop of blood pressure when the body is injured. Over him, the colonel could faintly see some shadows moving and bended over the edge of the hole, quite moved by something he couldn't understand despite that some muffled sputters began to catch his attention. He shivered and that made him inadvertently move his leg; the pain got shot from his left knee –the thought it was a bad sprain came to his mind, then he hesitated to call it he pulled a ligament- and that was enough to wake him up from this semi-conscientiousness. Cameron tried to sit up, but it was a little bit too fast; he awakened once more the pain in his leg as well with some part of his muscular being that bruised up in that fall, tearing a suffering growl out of him.
"He's waking up!" A voice said, probably coming from Jackson.
"Colonel Mitchell, we are coming for you… are you well?" Teal'c's voice asked.
"Guys? ..." Cam asked, blinking in order to clear up his sight
Still puzzled up, he had to shake his head and blink a few more time before he could think normally. The other members of SG1 looked quite worried and seemed to be trying to find a way to get Mitchell out of the pit; but that was logical coming from them.
"Cam, are you all right?" Carter asked with worries.
"I… I think so…" He managed to answer, frowning to himself as he wondered himself and shivering; syncopes in fact are related to a lesser blood irrigation as well as difficulties to keep normal body warmth. Not to mention the cold, once more…
"Ok well…uh… you can move?" Daniel tried with apprehension.
"I think so…"
On his last words, Cameron tried to roll to his feet, but when he putted a little pressure on his left leg, he stumbled to his side and cried out; unable to support his weight on his knee. Panting and wincing, the man would not abandon after only one shot and tried once more to get up in vain and as painfully. It was like thorns were settled between the two sections of his leg, tearing the inside when he tried to push or even more it… and the worst was the frustration that such an inability brings; being held down, trapped in his own now malfunctioning body. As he was working on getting up once more, Daniel sighed with annoyance in front of Cameron's denial of his own injury.
"And I don't think so… ok, try to not move then, we'll find a way out of this situation; we always do."
"I'm sure th'pain will get away soon…" Let out Cam, jaw clenched because of the frustration and the aching.
"No matter how much pain you can handle, if the ligaments, the tendons, the muscles or even the bones -depending on what is your injury- cannot work well, force them would be useless and could make it worst…" Carter began to explain, but when she saw that the colonel wasn't listening and kept on trying once again, she let out with a more upset tone: "Mitchell, would you stop now?! There is no point for hurting yourself that much when there is nothing you can do! You are only wasting your strength left..."
"Damn it! …" He sighed, rolling back on his backside, arms stretched on each side in the snow, a droplet of sweat or two forming on his forehead; those exercises actually drained all of his strengths he thought.
The freezing cold was also numbing his mind; Mitchell nearly didn't panic that much when he realized he could not feel the tip of his fingers and that he had stopped shivering… That wasn't good signs at all, but the worst was that he knew he was at least shielded from the cruel wind, but not the other standing upon the trap in the ground…. He could not just lie on the irregular floor while his friends were slowly freezing, yet at the same time, drowsiness was threatening to take over him and to drag him to a certain death. Cam reached dumbly for his gun he dropped in his fall, his heavy breathing calming down slowly. The others were once again thinking and discussing about a plan to save the complete team, although the injured man could not overhear. However, something grabbed his attention finally; on the dug frozen soil wall, there was a small piece of metal that had lighted up shyly. The SG1 colonel frowned to try to guess and understand what the thing was, not suspecting that it could be something even more dangerous or whatever a common sensed person would be afraid of. He hardly raised his head to get a better point of view, but the thing wasn't making any sense!
"There's that li'll light up there…" Noticed the now back to dizziness Mitch.
The team must have heard him well; they all silenced up for a second, exchanging worried glances. Vala was the first to bend over the pit this time:
"I've seen this in many movies; he's seeing the light at the end of a tunnel, he's gonna die! We cannot let him go to that light or else it will be over!" Panicked her, talking way too quickly to the others to follow. She was also deeply quivering as well from the lashing of the hard winter wind.
"Mitchell, what are you… talking about?" Asked Daniel with a doubtful tone, ignoring what Vala was telling them; the injured man was maybe hallucinating since there were also chances he knocked his skull on something in his fall.
Nevertheless, as the man down in the pit was going to answer, they could all hear an increasing and bass humming sound, echoing even under the stormy sky. Startled, Daniel, Vala, Carter and Teal'c turned around to look for the source of that strange noise, seriously hoping it was not a new bunch of trouble coming their way. Cam could only stay half sat up, glancing around and upset as well even more now that the sound looked like many threatening roaring thingies.
"What's up out there?" Asked out loud Cam with a concerned tone.
None answered, shocked by the many dark and noisy silhouettes that were coming their way through the storm, so fast it let behind a track of flying snow as they zigzag between the bumps of the landscape. They were all stunned, fascinated by what could be their last chance or their certain death at the same time…
to be continued!
