Suddenly the chevrons light up and the familiar chunk of them locking sounds. Jack reaches for his weapon as the wormhole billows out. Sam pulls her zat out of the leg sheath. The clicking of the MALP draws their attention.
"Colonel O'Neill, this is the SGC, please respond." The deep tones of General Hammond sound through the radio on the MALP.
Jack relaxes a little. He plays with the camera on the robot. "We're here, General." He waves to everyone back home.
"You're overdue for check-in, Colonel."
"Yeah, about that. The DHD is still down. We can't dial anywhere." Jack reports what Hammond already knows. "Carter's made progress though. She thinks it's almost fixed."
"Is everyone ok?" The general asks. He's worried about his people, even though he trusts them.
"We're fine. We could use some supplies though." Jack turns to his second in command. "Carter!" He shouts to be heard over the wind. "What do you need?"
She joins him at the MALP camera. "Hi, sir. Can you have Siler grab the DHD plans Colonel O'Neill wrote up when he had the ancients knowledge downloaded into his brain? And there's a box of tools in my lab that I need now."
While Carter is talking Jack contacts Daniel and Teal'c on their radios. "Guys the SGC dialed in. What do you need?"
"Can you have the General send a few books from my office?" Daniel radios in.
"You need to write them down, Daniel."
Jack takes over the camera again. "General can you send us some warmer clothes?"
"Pardon, Jack?" The deep Texan drawl is accented by worry.
"The seasons here are different than ours. It's now snowing and about 30 degrees. Send us some winter gear. Hats, gloves, winter uniforms, warm jackets." He clarifies. "Basically anything you think we'd need for wintertime." Jack knows he can depend on Hammond and the quartermaster to cover the bases.
Teal'c radios in. "O'Neill we can use more food. If the SGC has fire fuel we need that."
"Good thinking, T." Trust Teal'c for the practical survival suggestions. He relays their needs to the General. In the meantime Daniel has jogged over to the gate.
"Hi General. Can you have someone grab a few books from my office?" Daniel reads off the titles he needs.
"Yes, Dr. Jackson." The general sounds as if he's holding in a laugh. "Dr. Fraiser just asked if you're all keeping warm and have any hypothermia symptoms?"
Jack shoots a look at Carter. "No hypothermia. We've got a fire pit and everyone takes breaks to stay warm. Teal'c is hunting for more wood. It got cold last night though." Sam ducks her head at the reminder. Her cheeks pinken.
"Okay, Colonel." General Hammond responds. "I'll have the gear gathered and sent through in two hours. Unless Major Carter thinks you'll be home by then." The deep voice has a hint of worry.
"No, sir." Sam chimes in.
Suddenly the tools and a scroll of paper appear on the platform of the Stargate. Daniel's books follow.
"We just sent the DHD plans and Dr. Jackson's books."
Jack chuckles. "Yeah we just got them. Thanks, sir." He can imagine Siler hurrying through the halls with the tools and plans while the librarian hunted in Daniel's office. She's the only one other than Daniel who can find anything on his shelves.
"We'll gather the other things and send them through in a few hours. Good luck SG-1." The wormhole collapses.
Jack stands up and stretches his back out. Hunching over to talk into the camera bugs him. "Carter! Daniel! Break time!" He herds them to the fire. Carter protests until he points out the time.
Jack reaches up and clicks on his radio. "Teal'c, how are you?"
"O'Neill, I am returning to the campsite. I will be there in five minutes." Teal'c comes through over the static and noise.
"Good. We're taking a break. See you there."
Daniel stashes two of his books in the tent and sits at the fire pit with the third. Sam shivers and pulls her space blanket around her. Jack shoves a cup of coffee into her hands. "Drink this, Major." Jack is concerned at her unusual sensitivity to the cold on this world. She's normally not as bothered by the cold as this.
She warms her hands on the cup and sips it gratefully. She enjoys the warmth flooding her stomach. Sam shudders and pulls the mug closer.
Jack holds his hands over the firepit for a few minutes. He pours some coffee and sits down next to Carter. He can share body heat a little. She scoots over to make room. Jack shifts to a more comfortable position on the seat. "Hey share some of that blanket." He tugs on the edge of the space blanket. Sam smiles a little and adjusts it so he's covered. They sit quietly sipping coffee and sharing body heat.
Teal'c appears from the brush cover with two packs filled to bursting and wood tucked under his arm. Jack jumps up and takes some of the wood.
They pile it in the space between the sleeping tents to keep it dry. The kindling and smaller wood pieces are left in the packs. Teal'c adds some of the kindling into the pit. The flames jump to consume the new fuel.
Sam digs into the food supplies and passes out powerbars. Daniel pours coffee all around.
"Teal'c, can you help us align the DHD?" Sam asks.
One eyebrows cocks. "Is it not set in place already?"
Sam takes a bite of her powerbar. She shakes her head. As she hastily swallows Jack starts to explain.
"It seems off. When on watch something about it bugged me." He explains. "We've all seen how the DHD's are set to the 'gate."
Daniel and Teal'c nod. Sam takes over. "I have to check the DHD plans General Hammond sent through, but I'm pretty sure the crystals are in the right spots. But not all of them are charged. I think the alignment might have something to do with that."
Teal'c nods. "I am at your service, MajorCarter."
They sit around the fire for another half an hour. Daniel pages through his book and scribbles in his notebook. Teal'c has dropped into kel'nor'eem and his chest rises and falls with the measured breathing. Jack slowly feeds the fire green branches and small pieces of dry wood to keep it going. Sam absorbs the warmth of the fire and sips her coffee.
The whoosh of the Stargate brings the team out of their own thoughts. Several boxes appear on the platform.
O'Neill is on his feet first. He gets to the MALP camera. "That you General?"
The light tenor voice of Walter comes through the speaker. "General Hammond is on the phone, Colonel."
"Hey Walter!" Jack waves. "How's everything?"
"We sent winter uniforms, more food, some fuel for your fire. Dr. Frasier insisted on sending some medical supplies and more water."
"Great! Tell the Doc we're all okay so far." More water. He knew there was something. He'll have to thank the doc.
"Yes, sir." Walter sounds resigned.
Daniel and Sam drag the boxes away from the wormhole.
"We'll be home soon." Jack grins into the camera and waves again.
The wormhole shuts down and the four friends lug the supplies back to their campsite.
"Okay, everyone change into the winter clothes. Gloves, long underwear, warm socks." O'Neill orders. "Carter, you go first," He gestures to the tent they share.
"Oh, look." Daniel has poked into the boxes. "They sent the Artic sleeping bags."
"That's next." Jack's relieved the warmer sleeping supplies were sent as well. Even if it's only for one night. He knew he could trust the General.
Sam crawls into the tent and changes out of her lighter clothes. The warm military grade long underwear comes as a relief. She feels warmer already. The long sleeved fleece shirt is next and she wriggles into the lined winter pants. She pulls on the heavier jacket and buttons it up. The longer wool socks go on her feet and up to her calves.
Even the boots are winterized. She sighs happily. The General thought of everything. Her warmer toes wriggle in the boots.
"All yours, sir." Sam's blonde head pokes out of the tent flap. She moves to the side and lets in her CO so he can change.
"Look Sam!" Daniel has changed as well. He's now digging through the supplies. Pulling out the extra space blankets and the heavy sleeping bags from the box. "We can line the tents with the blankets and use our other sleeping bags to insulate the floor of the tent!"
She smiles. "That'll help."
Jack comes out fully dressed in his winter gear. He has snugged a watch cap over his ears and it's just touching his eyebrows. It's the only hint he was suffering from the cold as well. "I want everyone to drink some water. Frasier was right to send more." He fills the canteens and passes them around. Sam drains hers and refills it. She's so thirsty. In the back of her mind she knows it's not good, but until the DHD is fixed, there's nothing she can do. Daniel adds more water to the coffee pot.
When everyone is changed into the winter uniforms. Daniel hands out the extra space blankets. "We can line the tent floors with these and then add our sleeping bags over them to insulate the tents."
"Good idea, Daniel Jackson." Teal'c inclines his head to his tentmate. He has pulled his favored watch camp over his tattoo and down around his ears.
"Were you okay last night, Daniel?" Jack asks.
He shrugs. "A little cold, but not too bad." He disappears into the tent.
Teal'c's eyebrows disappear into the hem of the hat. That said all Jack needs to know. The three hear rustling and a few curses as he winterizes the tent. He comes out and grabs a sleeping bag and goes back in again.
Carter finishes her coffee. "I'm going to check out these plans, sir." Sam heads into the tent, since it's the only place the wind and still falling snow can't get to. The camping light glows through the tent material. Sam comes out 20 minutes later. "I know what's wrong!" She beams. Sam waves the rolled up plans in the air. "I can fix it, and we can let the crystals charge overnight and be home tomorrow afternoon!"
Jack looks up from the soup mug he's scowling into. "Okay." Setting his soup aside, he stands and claps his hands. "What do we need to do?"
"I need you and Teal'c to align the DHD. It's not that far off, actually." Sam grins. "Since we don't have a DHD, and even if we did we'd have to jerry rig it anyway," she starts, "there's no way we would have known this is a big problem for the power to the gate."
"Huh," Jack seems to have listened with half an ear. He checks the fire and then sticks his head into Teal'c and Daniel's tent. "Hey we're going to fix the DHD. Man the fire." The archeologist is scribbling madly in his field journal. He pages through the books surrounding him on the sleeping bag . "Okay."
Sam, Teal'c and Jack hike the short distance to the DHD. Sam studies the DHD and the numbers in her notebook. "Okay, we need to shift the DHD 5 cm forward. And 2 cm right." Sam crawls around and marks the area where the DHD has to go.
"Ok, sir. Teal'c. If you can move the DHD forward slowly." Teal'c and O'Neill start to shove the machine slowly forward. The grinding of the bottom against the stone gives O'Neill shivers. He then hears the chinking of the crystals.
"STOP!" As they stop the DHD drops down a little. They move to the left and press the DHD forward. This time they don't need Sam to tell them to stop. The device clicks into place. They all hear the hum of the crystals powering up.
Sam pops the top off the control area and moves two orange crystals around. The chevrons on the Gate light up briefly.
Sam sighs and smiles in relief. "They're linked up and charging." She's checking the power levels with some scanner gadget.
Jack stands behind the DHD. It feels right. Sam replaces the top. "All set, sir."
"Let's get back to camp." Even Jack is starting to feel the cold. "Getting colder." He glances at Teal'c. "You okay, buddy?"
He nods. "The extra food, the warmer uniforms, and the longer burning fuel have dropped my body tempature to normal." The hat probably helped too.
"Good." He's relieved.
Back at camp Daniel is wrapped up in his survival blanket and his books. He looks up at his friends. "Well?"
"It's powering up and all linked again." Sam reports. "Sir, if you don't mind, I'm going to get some sleep."
Sam yawns.
"Yeah, go on." Her teammates share a brief concerned look. Jack reminds himself to check Frasier's medical supplies. He finds a note insisting they all take the medications she packed. Vitamins, Tylenol, some ibuprofen.
Sam crawls into the tent. Daniel must have fixed up her tent when they were fixing the DHD. It has the extra space blankets and the sleeping bags spread on the floor. Sam kicks off her boots and zips into the winter bag. She is asleep in moments.
After explaining the Doc's note and taking the pills, Jack, Teal'c, and Daniel work on the temple. Daniel has his teammates pack up some of the artifacts and stones he wants to study. Jack peels off halfway through to feed the fire. He tosses another artificial log on the fire. He chuckles at the thought of Hammond sending someone to the store for camping logs and shipping them through the stargate. He wouldn't put it past Hammond to have them stored somewhere on base.
The sun is moving lower on the horizon. He wakes up Carter. She's probably starving. "Up an at 'em, Carter. You need to eat. Have some water." He hands her a cup. In his other hand are the pills.
She rubs her eyes. "Yessir." Sam blinks a few times to clear the sleep away. The first sip of cold water is a relief for her dry throat. She guzzles the rest. "Umm."
"Take these." He hands her the four pills.
"Sir?"
"Tylenol, ibuprofen, Vitamin C, and some vitamin D." he explains. "Frasier insisted. We all took some. Even Teal'c."
Sam swallows the pills and gets more water. "Does Janet think we're in danger?"
He shrugs. "Mentioned something about the flu on base and concerns about the weather change shocking our systems. She wants to boost our immunity and all that." He downplays the concern he feels for her. Even in the tent light, she's looking pale.
Jack harries Daniel to finish whatever he's working on. "You're gonna ruin your eyes." He tells his friend.
Daniel grins. "Too late," Daniel is face down on the stone pathway. His nose is touching one of the carvings he's translating. "I'm gonna take a rubbing of this lower area then pack it up."
Jack holds down one side of the tracing paper.
"Good. Thanks Jack." Daniel rolls up the paper and grabs his tools and the survivial blanket. He pops open the storage box and packs the paper and tools away. The two of them haul the box onto the FRED.
"Hey, where's Sam?" Daniel looks around.
"Oh for crying out loud." O'Neill jogs to the gate. "Carter!" he bellows.
"Ow." Sam has hit her head against the edge of the DHD when he yelled. She slides out of the inner workings and smiles. She rubs her head.
"Just checking the power levels, sir."
"We can do that later. Get back to camp." He takes a closer look at her. She's shivering. "I told you no hypothermia, Carter!"
"I needed to check the levels, sir." Sam defends herself. "We'll be home soon."
He escorts her back to the campfire. He pulls out the medicine and hands her another ibuprofen and Tylenol.
Sam shakes her head. "I'm fine, sir."
"It wasn't a request, Major." He has his Colonel face on. "You never have problems with the cold. And you can't tell me you haven't had trouble sleeping." He holds out the pills again. Everyone took Janet's minimum dosage level. Carter can handle some more.
She swallows the pills. Truth be told, she's feeling a little achy. She was going to request some leave time after this mission anyway. She drinks some more water and starts another pot of coffee.
Jack glares at her and finally stomps off to help Daniel pack up more stuff.
The snapping of Velcro is heard as the sun slides lower on the horizon. "Sun is setting earlier every day. That's a full 5 minutes earlier than yesterday," Jack turns on the camping lights.
"I'd like to check the DHD again, before the sun goes down totally, sir." Sam ventures.
He nods. "Teal'c go with her."
Sam pulls out her monitoring device and the plans. Teal'c brings the powerful flash light and his staff weapon.
They're back in ten minutes. "It's almost fully charged already." Sam reports.
"Wish my camera batteries charged that fast." Daniel says. He's turned off the video camera as the battery is in the red.
"Now that would be a technology breakthrough." Sam laughs. "Crystal batteries instead of lithium." Her laugh suddenly turns into a cough.
"You okay?" Daniel asks.
She nods. "Maybe some of the vitamin C, again?"
Teal'c passes out the pills to his friends. Jack and Daniel take another hit of Vitamin C and Tylenol. Sam takes the same.
Daniel pulls out the MRE's. "There's turkey, turkey, chicken enchiladas, and mac and cheese." He wrinkles his nose at the mac and cheese.
"I'll take that, Daniel." Sam offers. "It's less horrid than the enchiladas."
Teal'c has snagged the turkey meal and Jack hands over the other turkey meal to Daniel.
"I like the enchiladas, Carter." Jack says mildly. "I mean it's no Senor Manuel," he says naming the local Mexican place he favors. "But it's better than some." He wrinkles his nose at the mac and cheese.
They quibble good naturedly about the best MRE meals. Teal'c holds fast to his fondness for turkey. The big guy was in heaven at his first Thanksgiving. He explained turkey was unknown to the Jaffa and Go'auld. So it represents a taste of freedom to him. Daniel was fascinated, but it made sense since turkey is a New World bird.
Sam does admit that the mac and cheese has a vaguely meaty taste. But it's easy to eat and filling. Jack assigns watch shifts as they finish up their meals.
"Daniel, you're second watch. Teal'c you take third watch." The men nod. "Carter I want you to get some rest. You're on last." Sam gets a mulish look on her face, and starts to protest, but is interrupted by a sneeze. "Yes, sir," she relents.
His teammates clean up the trash and pack it away in the bags on the FRED. Teal'c stirs the embers of the fire and adds leaves, small branches and three more long burning logs into the firepit. The fire shoots up brightening the campsite.
"Thanks, T." Jack pulls on his winter gloves and switches his baseball cap with a watch cap. "I'm going to check the perimeter."
Teal'c nods. He sits with his back to the stone pillars and drops into his meditation. Daniel is in the tent reading and making furious notes. The mutter of different languages drifts out on the wind.
Sam has settled into her own tent and is ready for bed. The tent is warmer than the previous night, but she's still a little cold. The aches she felt earlier are still with her. She sneezes a few times and rummages in her pack for tissue. She's afraid Janet is right about the flu. Shivering a little she snuggles deeper into the sleeping bag. Soon she falls asleep.