412 Tangent
Jack was on the test flight of their newly refurbished Death Glider renamed the X-301. If he ever got back he was going to wring the necks of a few geeks at Groom Lake. First in line was that SOB Alec Colson, entrepreneur and a superior engineer so Carter says. Colson should have spent more time on the X-301 and not spent most of his time flirting with Sam.
Jack didn't want to accept the fact that he was going to die. Die in the cold dark of space. It seemed so pointless.
Working through the signal delay of the vast distance, he scrambled along with Teal'c and Carter for ideas, some great ideas, but none of them worked. It was so damned cold. And he had a killer headache.
He couldn't even enjoy the view. It's hard to appreciate the magnificent sight of Jupiter up close if you think that you about to crash into it.
Drifting for a while he tried to sleep to conserve their dwindling supply of oxygen. He dreamed of the Ice Planet, dreamed of Carter keeping him warm there. He woke up to the cold, no warmth, no Carter. He woke to no hope, to a slow freezing death.
He dozed off again.
And then he heard her voice, her voice telling him to wake up. He'd rather die in his sleep, dreaming of her, delicously warm with her tucked up to his side.
She demanded he wake up.
She was yelling at him, that was unusual.
Carter was telling him he needed to trust her.
He was so groggy, in a total fog, his head hurt and he couldn't think straight but he couldn't help but respond to her voice.
He needed to do the impossible, the ridiculous. Undo his harness, pop the canopy and float off into the vacuum of space. Maybe it was all a hallucination, his brain wanted to be done with the slow death. Or was it a demented thought due to hypoxia. But it was Carter's voice and he has always trusted her.
He flopped like a dead fish onto the Tel'tak's floor. Jacob was there with a healing device, aiming it at Jack's brain. Jack hoped Jacob won't be disappointed at what he does or doesn't find in there. Carter was next, wrapping him in a blanket, holding his freezing fingers in her warm hands. He's still not sure if he's dreaming.
