7 – Reaching Out
Saturday Morning
A planet in the Pegasus Galaxy
Jennifer followed the path away from camp, the sound of water guiding her. With a bucket in each hand she moved slowly her thoughts on her predicament, not on her task. She needed to come up with a plan to hide… to leave… something. She couldn't be here when Jannick returned later today. Her life probably depended on it.
Jennifer almost stumbled when the next thought hit her – Neeva was in her body, in her bed, being held close by her husband. The doctor stopped dead on the path feeling sick to her stomach, thoughts racing through her mind. Would Cam know it wasn't her? Was he safe? Was he worried sick and had he called his team yet? How were they going to figure out what was going on with her and how to get her back?
At least she hoped they could get her back. First thing though, Jennifer had to figure out how to get to Atlantis or get Atlantis to come to her. She began moving down the path again deep in thought, the sound of the stream growing louder. The path came to a junction and it was obvious by the pounding sounds that the river was to the right. Looking down the path to the left she couldn't see far, but decided to walk to at least the bend in the path to see if there were any hints about its destination.
She was quickly rewarded with a sight of the gate in the distance. Jennifer set the buckets down and ran for the DHD, the adrenaline pushing her and it took a moment when she reached the gate to think of the address. But just like forgetting your own phone number when put on the spot, it quickly came back and she punched it in with shaky hands.
When she got to the seventh symbol she stopped. "Crap," she winced aloud. Jennifer had no idea where she was. The first six symbols represented Atlantis, but the last symbol needed to be her point of origin and she didn't have a clue what that was.
Jenn closed her eyes and took a deep breath to calm her thoughts. She needed to channel Rodney and since that wasn't possible she'd have to concentrate on his explanations of how the Stargate worked. She just wished she'd paid more attention.
She stared at the DHD, studying it… hoping for inspiration. She did remember that the sequence of the symbols was important and she knew Atlantis' by heart. She felt the adrenaline kick back up again almost before she remembered something else… the address was always unique, no repeating symbols.
Jennifer counted the symbols on the DHD - thirty-six. So if you eliminated the six symbols for Atlantis that left her with thirty possibilities. She swiftly dialed in the first six symbols again plus one of the remaining thirty. She pressed the button she thought of as the 'enter' key, but nothing happened. "One down, twenty-nine to go," she told herself. Clock-wise, Jennifer tried four more points of origin, all of them blacking out when she pressed the center button.
"It's going to be the last one I try," she complained as she dialed Atlantis and added the sixth symbol in line. Groaning when the DHD blacked out she quickly entered Atlantis in again but this time picked the last symbol in the order only to have it black out also.
As she continued to dial the next three in the sequence she felt the frustration and tears she was just holding at bay begin to creep up on her. She couldn't stay away from the camp too long or the other woman would become suspicious of her. She also had to worry about the little girl coming to find her after she finished gathering wood.
Jennifer impatiently waited as her tenth try started, as each chevron locked into place, her anxiety grew. She wished it'd dial faster so she could try the next. When the wormhole burst to life all Jennifer could do was stare at it, literally. It wasn't like she could walk through it and she had no radio to communicate with. Jennifer's hope dimmed as she watched the puddle glimmer before her, feeling as if it was mocking her. She looked around where she was standing her mind racing through thoughts and yet having trouble thinking of any specific thought. She tried to find something to throw at the shimmering puddle, but her eyes only saw the endless grass of the meadow and the trees and leafy bushes surrounding the clearing. With nothing to hold the wormhole open it was only a matter of minutes before it closed down.
The doctor quickly dialed it again and stared at the gate as the chevrons again locked on each symbol. Even though it had just worked a minute before, she found herself holding her breath as it neared the seventh symbol, hoping it worked. Once it burst to life again she felt the magnitude of her situation hit her. She was running out of time and she knew with the steps Atlantis had in place for these "ring, no answer" activations the gate received, that help might not come in time, if at all.
Jennifer turned from the gate once it disengaged and ran back toward her discarded buckets. She needed another plan, she didn't think she had any choice but to consider running and hiding before Jannick returned.
Atlantis
Chuck noted the time and the address of the unscheduled off-world activation as the event horizon closed for the second time with no transmissions. He turned to the screen holding the gate address recognition program of Dr. McKay's and made note that it'd successfully captured an address.
"Should I see if I can do this on my own?" Sergeant Debra Whittier, a training gate technician, asked.
"Let's see what you've learned," the head gate technician agreed with a nod of his head.
Debra pulled up a screen on a nearby data pad and started filling in the information starting with the gate address dialed in, the time and duration. "Now I look the address up in the database," she mumbled to herself as she did just that.
The address was for an uninhabited planet and after noting this on the data pad she looked up at Chuck, "Is that normal?"
"It happens," Chuck assured her. "It could be anything. I usually check to see when the last time we had a team travel to that address, if we ever did. Woolsey will go over this report during the morning admin meeting."
"Will they send a team through?" the Sergeant asked with concern, as she tapped the address into her computer again. She added to the report in the data pad that the address had not been visited by an Atlantis team in over two years.
"If the address had been one of our friends or allies, then after the meeting they'd send a team through and check up on the people there, sooner if something had hit the shield," Chuck agreed, "just to make sure they don't need anything."
"And if it's uninhabited?"
"Not sure. We've had several unscheduled activations each week since we came back to the Pegasus. Most have just been people checking to see if the rumors that Atlantis is back are true. As soon as they've established a wormhole then their curiosity is sated." Chuck shrugged his shoulders, "That's probably all this is."
Minnesota
Cameron groaned aloud as his hand reached for his throbbing head, an insistent ring filtering through his ears but not quite registering in his mind. He slowly began to raise his head, looking about his surroundings to gain his bearings when his memory came flooding back to him and he sat bolt upright, reaching for his phone. He immediately regretted the sudden move, groaning into the phone as he answered. "This is Mitchell."
"Are you okay, Sir?"
"Yes Walter, I'm good," Cameron responded recognizing Harriman's voice. Cameron slowly pushed himself to his feet and began a quick search of the house.
"Sir, the General has called a briefing and wanted you conferenced in," Walter explained in his efficient tone.
"Put me through then," Mitchell replied as he checked the bedroom and bathroom pausing to study his bloody lip in the mirror. At least it wasn't still bleeding and didn't look deep.
"Colonel Mitchell, I'm here with your team," General Landry began. "We have a transport scheduled to leave here in about fifteen minutes to come pick the two of you up. I just wanted to have a brief run-down of the events that have transpired so far. I'll be sending Dr. Jackson and Lt. Hailey with the transport, but I also want the rest of SG-1 fully briefed."
"Yes sir, but…" Mitchell tried to respond, only to have General Landry continue to talk over him.
"Colonel, Dr. Lam is also present. She'll start this off and then you can fill her and your team in on what has transpired since she last attended to Dr. Keller."
"Yes sir, but wait," Cameron said more forcefully. He was met with silence on the phone. "Sir, Jennifer is no longer here."
"Well, where is she son?" Landry asked with only a hint of annoyance in his voice.
"I'm not sure sir. She hasn't snapped out of this dream or whatever it is that has taken over her body." Cameron cringed as he continued, "After I relocated and secured all of Colonel O'Neill's guns and sharp, pointy objects to outside the cabin I called you. She was supposed to be taking a shower. When I came back in the cabin she surprised me and knocked me out."
Cameron heard Dr. Jackson's voice next over the phone. "Your wife beat you up and left you after only the first day of your honeymoon?"
"Jackson," Cam growled in warning.
"I'm just making sure that is what we're hearing." Jackson quickly claimed.
"Son," Landry cut in, "I'm going to be sending all of SG-1 out to help you track down Dr. Keller. SG-13 will accompany them as well."
Mitchell heard the shuffling of chairs and knew that his team had left to gear up.
"I want you to stay on the line," the General continued, with a slightly raised voice to overcome the noises in the room, "and discuss with Dr. Lam and Dr. Jackson the newest developments in Dr. Keller's condition. Dr. Jackson can brief your team enroute."
"Thank you sir," Cameron replied wearily.
The General began again, "I contacted Colonel Carter aboard the General Hammond, but they're still about 10 hours out and can't be of assistance for beaming the two of you out of there. I'll contact her again and challenge her to find a way to get here sooner. The transport with your team will arrive at the St. Cloud Regional Airport. The airport will be on lock-down for their arrival and a member of the local National Guard will escort them to your location. Flight time is just over ninety minutes and the driving time to your location is about 20 minutes. I'll notify them of the need for a second vehicle and escort."
"Yes sir," Cameron continued, alternating between pacing the floor of the cabin and looking out the windows for any sign of Jenn. He was starting to worry that when his Jenn came back mentally to her body, she'd be hopelessly lost, scared or worse.
"Dr. Lam," the General spoke by way of invitation for her to quickly relate her earlier findings. Carolyn quickly filled the General and Daniel in on Jennifer's complaint when she came to see her and that she found no physical reason for the dreams.
"Colonel," Landry spoke after Lam finished her quick run-down. "Jackson has about four minutes."
"Her dreams seemed to have increased over the week in length and caused Jennifer to be increasingly disoriented. She had several dreams last night, one incident included sleep walking." Cameron took a breath, relating this information in light of what had happened not only worried him more, but was also making him angry with himself. He should've known something wasn't right before Jennifer was put at risk.
"She had two more instances of the dream after we went to bed," Cam picked up where he left off. "They seemed more like nightmares, she struggled against me and there was no recognition in her eyes when she looked at me. When the dream ended she said she only remembered the forest at night like her previous dreams. After another bout of the nightmare we both agreed that they weren't nightmare because she wasn't sleeping when it occurred. We checked her neck for any scars or wounds, but found none."
"No flashing eyes, I assume?" Jackson asked.
"No," Mitchell confirmed. "We decided to contact the SGC in the morning, which was just a couple hours away. Another episode hit early this morning, only this time Jenn, well… whatever is using her body… tried to play along like she was Jennifer. I took the first opportunity to call the SGC."
"I have to go," Jackson announced. "Hold tight Cam, we'll be there soon. We're bringing Zats with us. We'll find her." Cameron heard Jackson's voice growing louder as he talked, indicative of him moving away while trying to reassure him they were coming.
"Colonel Mitchell," Dr. Lam spoke up, "I've gone over Jennifer's last several mission files and post-mission physicals and have found nothing out of the ordinary. I'll look back a few more weeks and see if anything stands out. My team will be awaiting her arrival."
"Thank you Dr. Lam," Cameron responded, hearing the General dismiss her with the same words.
"Okay son," Landry started in his authoritative, 'I mean business' tone Cameron was quite familiar with. "Stay close to the cabin. I don't need your team having to track both of you down. She may come back to the cabin on her own either as Dr. Keller or just this being trying to find an escape route. I expect a check-in once you're joined by the teams."
"Yes sir," Mitchell responded reluctantly. Cameron would try, but he didn't know if that was an order he'd be able to follow.
A/N: Thanks to the websites: en dot wikipedia dot org/wiki, stargate dot wikia dot com/wiki, gateworld dot net, and stargate-sg1-solutions dot com. The information on how the DHD and stargates work was enormously helpful, especially in respect to the addresses.
Thanks to everyone for reading and reviewing.