Jennifer half walked, half stumbled towards her goal. She was no longer sure exactly what that goal was, but she new she had to keep on walking. For now all that mattered was to keep going. The tripping and stumbling no longer mattered just as long as she kept going.
She was vaguely aware that part of her mind was screaming at her about her hand, but she no longer cared. All she could think about was keeping going. She had to keep going. Had she not been so tired, hungry and feverish she might have noticed the veins in her arm turning red with infection, but she didn't. Instead she was driven on by a kind of numbness.
So she stumbled on, distantly aware of pain and feeling cold and wet, but she knew her own discomfort wasn't important. Right now she had more important things to worry about. She just wished she could remember what they were. She just knew she had to keep walking to reach her goal.
She was so caught up in her goal she didn't even know how or when the Stargate came into view. She didn't even register it as the Stargate. But some how some part of her mind took over dialled Atlantis, causing a blue shimmering wall to appear tantalisingly close to her. She didn't remember dialling Atlantis and another part of her brain sounded alarms warning her she could be about to walk through to the wrong address. But she knew she had no choice. She had to make it through, she just wished she could remember why.
-00-
"Where are we?" Woolsey asked as he entered the briefing room.
"We have searched every inch of the planet there is no sign of the team or the Jumper." Lorne replied. The Major's normally bright eyes looking jaded from days of fruitless searching for the missing team. "Colonel Caldwell has scanned the local vicinity and they are not in orbit round the planet. He didn't find any debris or detect their trackers either."
"Dr McKay?" Woolsey asked.
"I pulled thirty gate addresses from the DHD. None of them are planets you'd want to go to, but none of them are home to people who are really ticked at us. But the gate gets a lot of traffic and none of them might be the correct one."
"That's even assuming they went through the gate." Lorne interrupted. "For all we know Todd or Larrin gave them a lift somewhere."
"Recommendations?" Woolsey asked.
"Send a team and or the Daedalus to each of those addresses." Lorne answered immediately before adding. "And Dr McKay to look for anything that looks odd on our long range scanner. If Colonel Sheppard is on a ship somewhere chances are he'll be causing trouble."
"How many resources are you suggesting we commit? You are already using five teams and the Daedalus." Woolsey responded.
Rodney was about to object when the stargate activated. Woolsey and Lorne exchanged concerned glances, knowing no one was due to dial in, before jumping up and heading to the control room.
Just as they reached Chuck the technician announced.
"I'm receiving an IDC, it' Dr Keller."
"Lower the shield." Lorne immediately ordered before adding. "And try to establish radio contact."
Moments later Lorne and Woolsey stared at the event horizon waiting for an acknowledgement of the radio call. When none was forthcoming Woolsey looked at Lorne and said.
"Major I assume I don't need to remind you th-"
"I know the protocol, but they could be in trouble or have lost their radios. The marines are at their posts, the shield stays down regardless of whether they confirm their identity by radio." Lorne said calmly, although he too was worried that whoever was on the other side of the gate wasn't responding. The concern grew when, for what seemed like an eternity, no one came through the gate. Then suddenly just as hope was fading Jennifer fell through the event horizon and landed in a heap on the ground.
Lorne sprinted down the steps keeping an eye on the gate, expecting and hoping Ronon and Sheppard to follow the fallen doctor through, but just as he reached Jennifer the gate deactivated. Cursing under his breath he rolled Jennifer over calling to her. Getting no response he checked she was still alive, relaxing when he felt a pulse, but concerned with how hot she was despite her damp, cold clothes.
Not waiting for the medical team he had heard Woolsey order, he lifted Jennifer up and started carrying her to the infirmary. As he did so he noticed a plastic bag tied round her neck. Guessing it was important he removed it and threw it at McKay before hurrying to the infirmary.
-00-
When Lorne returned to the briefing room a short while later he was happy to see it was buzzing with activity. McKay was frantically typing away, whilst Woolsey and Teyla were reading a database entry. Although part of him didn't wanted to disturb the progress he had a duty to know what was in the bag so asked.
"You know where they are?"
"Yes, Dr Keller had written down the gate address." Teyla said. Before Lorne could ask why they weren't heading out straight away Woolsey jumped in and said.
"We are checking the entry in the database, just to make sure we are not walking into a trap. Your team is bringing a MALP up and I have got a message through to the Daedalus and Caldwell is redirecting to the planet. I know you want to gate out immediately but the note Dr Keller brought back said that they were attacked. We have to be careful." His tone then softened as he asked. "How is Dr keller?"
"She's being looked at now but Cole's worried. She wouldn't wake up." Lorne explained, clearly concerned by Keller's condition. Taking a breath he chose to once again focus on those still missing. "The note say where Colonel Sheppard and Ronon are?"
"Kind of." McKay said whilst typing. "I think it says they are both injured and then goes on to give what I think are directions, but the writing is so bad it could quite easily say they are treasure seeking and Jennifer left us a Goonies inspired map."
"I'll ge-" Lorne started before cutting himself off and looking to Woolsey and asking. "Permission t-"
"As soon as the MALP images come back clear do what you need to get our people home." Woolsey interrupted.
"Yes Sir." Lorne grinned, feeling his energy levels rise. "McKay, Teyla I'll see you in the Jumper Bay, I'll just grab a couple of doctors first."
-00-
Two hours later Lorne was flying the Jumper through the air on the alien planet as McKay furiously typed away looking for signs of John and Ronon.
"You sure we headed through the gate and went in the right direction?" Lorne asked as his hope started to fade.
"Assuming these instructions are correct, yes. There is only one river and we are keeping it on our left."
"Is there something out there that could be stopping you detect their lifesigns?"
"It's possible." Rodney shrugged as Teyla asked.
"How far are we from the gate?"
"Um…thirty-two miles." Lorne replied.
"Did the note give any indication of how long Jennifer had been walking?" Teyla asked Rodney.
"I think so, but I can't read it. Woolsey couldn't either."
"For now we'll have to assume they've been walking since our last contact with them." Lorne said. "Which means there are least eighty miles to go."
"Maybe not." Rodney said distractedly. "I think….I have them, well I have two lifesigns."
"Where?"
"Half a mile further on, about thirty metres from the river."
For a moment the Major paused as he mentally converted the units in his head before tapping a button on the console and saying. "Colonel Sheppard do you read? Sheppard this is Lorne, come in." The trio in the Jumper then flew in hopeful silence towards the dots on the screen hoping for a reply. Eventually a familiar although weary and hoarse voice replied.
"Lorne, 'bout time you showed up. What took so long?"
"You gating to a random planet didn't help." Rodney pointed out.
"We're about two minutes away from your position." Lorne interrupted. "Is there somewhere to land?"
"Yes, just to the edge of our camp. Did you bring any medi-"
"We have two doctors with us." Lorne replied. "See you in a minute." He added, breaking off the conversation so he could focus on landing.
As soon as the Jumper was down the doctors grabbed their bags and hurried towards Sheppard who had limped towards the Jumper. Having pointed them towards the tent that housed Ronon he gingerly moved to Lorne, Teyla and Rodney. As he locked eyes with the Major, Lorne said.
"She's back in the city." Not wanting to worry Sheppard about Jennifer's condition the Major did not expand his statement.
John nodded before stopping in front of McKay and reaching into the physicist's pocket and removing a power bar.
"Hey." Rodney exclaimed.
"Starving." John shrugged as he demolished the bar in a couple of bites.
"And lacking basic hygiene and the ability to shave." Rodney returned as he looked at Sheppard's unkempt form.
"Sorry Rodney, next time I'll make sure I polish the silver first." John threw back as Teyla asked, whilst offering John another power bar.
"How bad is Ronon?"
"He's better than he was." John said between mouthfuls. "But still not great."
"Why don't you wait in the Jumper?" Lorne suggested. "We'll pack up whilst the docs finish with Ronon."
Too tired to argue John nodded and limped into the Jumper, looking forward to seeing the last of the planet.
A/N: Thanks for reading and reviewing. Next chapter up tomorrow.