Finally on the frozen continent.
This one has some information that to me needed to be said. The trip from Denver to the Antarctica is not a fast one. You must go to Christchurch, New Zealand and board a C-130 specially equipped with "Skids" designed to land in the snowy environment. A C-130 is a turbo prop, and not really known for their speed. The trip from New Zealand to McMurdo is 8 hours. Even on a military jet with scheduled aero-refueling, it would take 12-15 hours to reach New Zealand from the states, and that varies based on winds and routing, and type of aircraft (It could take longer with some of the military's slower Cargo craft).
For the purpose of television, the General is able to meet his team as they are extracted from the cavern they had been trapped in, but in reality they would have frozen to death before he could have arrived. Since McMurdo is only 50 ARTIC miles away (which in unfavorable conditions would be as good as still in the Denver), I choose to push the "I believe button" and let the story work.
Reality sometimes has no place in entertainment...
As always, comments are welcome
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Col O'Neill and Capt Carter are MIA. Just two hours ago the gate activated and Teal's and Dr. Jackson returned through the gate only a few moments after the team had departed. Their bodies were literally thrown across the gate room only moments before the gate seemed to surge, and like a breaker that was overloaded, shorted all the super conductive interface elements causing them to explode and melt. Even now Siler and his team are working to get the gate back.
Walter was in the gate room, the sounds of grinders digging into the melted metal on the gate's surface making it impossible to hear Teal'c as he entered. The large Jaffa was walking around, his arm in a sling his only injury from the violent return through the gate. Walter watched as he walked around the room, inspecting each of the repair areas, causing many of the Airmen to react nervously to his overwhelming presence.
Walter, clipboard in hand was running his own inspections. The gate functionality was his responsibility. Knowing the repairs needed, and knowing there were still team members missing, he was split between the need for accurate and complete repairs, and a patch job that would give them at least basic gate control. Watching the men and women in the room, he knew that they too were doing their best to get the repairs done as quickly as possible.
"Walter," a voice yelled across the room, "get your helmet back on!"
Not even aware he had removed it to wipe at his brow, Walter looked over to see Siler walking towards him.
"I see you aren't yelling at Teal'c," Walter mused to Siler, the look on his face clearly showing he was not about to cross that Jaffa no matter what the safety rules might be. "How is it looking?"
"One more element to clear and two to replace," Siler said. "Next we need to load test or we will be right back where we started."
Nodding, Walter moved over to watch the two man team moving the next to last element. They were preparing it, planning to move and connect to the Ten O'clock position on the gate.
General Hammond entered the room, Walter immediately proceeded over to give him a report with Teal'c one step behind.
"We've almost replaced all the super conducive interface elements sir. The old ones all melted. It's gonna take some time to load-test them though."
"Just tell me the minute we can send a probe through."
Siler joined the conversation with, "That will be 24 hours, General, miminum."
"Capt Carter and Col O'Neill do not have that long," Teal'c angrily stated.
"I'll give you half that," The General added.
"No sir, it doesn't work that way," Siler said standing his ground, "24 hours is the best I can do." As he though, I am not Scotty and this sure aint the Enterprise.
"Then you better get back to it," the General stated as Siler gave a "Yes, sir" and returned to the task at hand.
Twenty two hours later Siler and his team were still working on the load tests, Walter and his team were running computer simulations to ensure connectivity, and Dr. Jackson was finally awake. Dr. Jackson and Teal'c were not both pushing everyone to get the gate running as soon as possible, Teal'c with his stares and Dr. Jackson with pacing.
"Walter," Siler called over the radio, "We should be ready for the last load test in twenty minutes. Please inform the General."
Turning, Walter saw that the General was on the stairs and heard every word. With a nod, Walter knew he was now tasked with getting Dr. Jackson and Teal'c to the Control room for the final check and test, and out of the hair of the technicians working in the gate room.
"Dr. Jackson, Mr. Teal'c," Walter called over the loud speaker, "Please report to the Control room."
Looking through the glass, Walter saw as both men turned to look up at him. and with some words passed between them which Walter could not hear, they both moved to exit the gate room.
Twenty minutes passed far too slowly for Walter as the three men behind him were hovering. Finally They all heard as Siler ran the last test at 20 percent for circuit MX43, and when there were no issues jumped to 100 percent, passing the usual step up to save time and get the gate back to the SGC.
When that check also passed, Siler looked up at the General through the glass in the gate room and said, "She's all yours General!"
The General congratulated Siler and then turned to Walter, "You heard the man."
Knowing everyone had been waiting a day for this, Walter replied, "Yes sir" and began the dialing sequence, the probe already standing by.
SG-3 and Teal'c were ready to go, the General informing them they would not go through if there was an ambush waiting, then, with the intercom, informed the guards and SG-3 to be ready as the enemy could be waiting and already have their codes and address.
"You don't actually think they would give up our transmitter codes to the enemy do you," Dr Jackson asked the General.
"Not willingly, no" the reply.
"I do not believe they would do so, even under the duress of torture," Teal'c added.
Nodding to Teal'c, the General informed him the he was to coordinate with Maj Castleman on the rescue attempt, to which he agreed.
"The probe should reach the Stargate of P4A-771 in five seconds," Walter interrupted, followed by a countdown.
As the probe breached the gate, the picture coming through to the SGC monitors, they were able to conduct a preliminary scan, finding the last probe sent through.
"No sign of Jack or Sam," Dr. Jackson stated, "but no evidence of a firefight either."
As he finished his statement, the probe still panning around the parameter of the gate, shots began to flash on the screen.
"They were waiting for us," the General yelled, "Close the iris. Disengage the gate." he ordered.
As the iris closed and gate was disengaging, General Hammond directed SG-3 to stand down over the intercom and flatly told Teal'c and Dr. Jackson, "The rescue mission is scrubbed." to mounting protest which instantly died as the departed the Control room
Teal'c turned to Dr. Jackson, "I do not believe they are prisoners"
Dr. Jackson waited for him to continue, "There was no evidence of their capture at the gate. They are both formidable warriors, and I do not believe it possible they would have been so easily captured."
"I agree," Dr. Jackson replied, "Jack would have found a way to cause more destruction. Even the other MALP was undamaged in the videos."
"Indeed"
They both walked off, Dr. Jackson now talking enough for the two of them.
An hour later, Dr. Jackson had a theory. He requested the General, and several of the techs to include Siler joined him. Using the glass star-chart wall in the Control room, Dr. Jackson began to make speculations about the energy discharges encountered during his and Teal'c's return.
Directly questioning Siler, Dr. Jackson asked about the energy dissipation with the wormholes, asking if they could just disappear.
"No, I don't think so sir," Siler replied to his question, "It would have to discharge somewhere."
"Like another stargate," Dr. Jackson asked hopeful.
Sparking Siler, the reply of, "Yea, maybe," caused his mind to race. Turning to the General, Siler then gave a theory of how the stargate works. Dr. Jackson added to it with the thought the energy might have been able to jump from one stargate to another while in transit due to the surge of energy absorbed from the energy blast as the point of origin.
Now they had potentially narrowed down the search from millions of possible locations to a handful.
Walter immediately thought about the issue of the potential gates in that area which the super computer had not yet been able to account for the drift, address they knew but were still not able to dial to. He could only pray they had not been diverted to one of those planets.
The General gave the plan a go, and had Walter and Siler coordinate to have probes and teams ready to go to each of the address listed between Earth and P3A-771.
Daniel began to glow with excitement and Teal'c gave their leader a simple nod. There was now a plan to find and rescue their wayward members, and Walter would do his part to ensure their safe return.
Another twelve hours later, and probes had been sent to ten planets, some of which were not hospitable for humans. P5C-011 and P5C-012 both had atmospheres heavy in methane, and Walter handed the reports to Dr. Jackson. The only good news with both of those planets, it the probes did not see any signs of Col O'Neill or Capt Carter near the gate.
Back at his station, Water heard the General inform Dr. Carter that Col O'Neill and Capt Carter were now officially listed as Missing in Action, or MIA. As Dr. Jackson protested, the General further informed him that this did not mean they stopped searching.
Dr. Jackson come down to the Control room a few minutes later, looking to refresh his coffee from the always full pot of the technicians.
"Why would he declare them MIA," Dr. Jackson suddenly blurted to no one.
Walter moved over to the doctor, and grabbing the carafe poured him another cup and explained, "MIA is a military thing. It is used to identify people in our systems. This identification helps to ensure they are not forgotten." Walter looked at the grieving man and added, "MIA and POW status ensures that the member is still receiving pay and promotions on schedule upon their return. It also ensures that any family members who would receive benefits like health, dental, and base privileges continue to get them."
Dr. Jackson just walked off, back to the briefing room to continue to continue pouring over the data at hand.
Walter wasn't even sure if he heard, but hoped that the doctor would be able to rest better knowing his teammates were not forgotten.
Walter was sent home to get eight hours of rest by the General not soon after, another team of personnel now on shift to monitor the probes and teams dispatched.
At home, Walter simply gave Ericka a kiss with no explanation as to where he had been for the last day and a half. Young Seth sleeping as Walter gave him a quick check. To tired to even remove his clothes, Walter fell upon his bed and slept in his uniform, the "frogs" which held on his nametag and ribbons pressing into his skin through his V-neck tee.
Ericka stood in the doorway for a while, watching as he husband slept. She knew his job was classified, had known from early in their relationship that there would be many things which he would not be able to talk to her about, but did not stop her from worrying.
There was a zero percent chance her husband was one to stray. She knew the only possible competition that existed for Walter's attention was his job. When they first moved here, Walter was so unconnected, a little lost when he didn't seem to find a purpose for his work, but then it all changed. The day he had been promoted, the spark had returned.
There were still many days when he would work late, sometimes he would be out of touch for over a day, but he always came home. While he was not able to talk about work, she could just read how his job was going from his overall mood. Most days he would be tired but happy. He would be able to engage her with conversation or play on the floor with Seth.
Seldom would he be like this.
Ericka didn't know what happened, but she knew it was bad.
Quietly slipping into their room, she removed his shoes and socks. Gently rolling him over, she unbuttoned and discarded his blue shirt as gently as she could, and then tucked him into the sheets. An hour later Walter had somehow woken and found her in the living room, now dressed in his usual sleeping attire.
"Sorry," was all he said as he gave her a soft kiss on her head and then returned to hallway and their bedroom.
Six hours later, a slightly refreshed Walter awoke, dressed, ate a quick meal of toast, and returned to the SGC.
In his absence, three more teams had been sent out two had returned with no news or sightings. One more was scheduled to return any time, and when they did, they too were without the missing SG-1 members.
The entire base was feeling the loss and frustration.
Teal'c and SG-3 were scheduled to depart to one of the last gate address in five minutes, their brief skipped as lately they had all been the same.
Dialing up the address, Walter watched the team step through. He then prepare a MALP for the last gate address on their list.
Two minutes after SG-3 and Teal'c were gone, the MALP was in transit from Earth to P3H-914. As it crossed the gates threshold, the planetary readings showed on the screens. The atmosphere was fifty percent Nitrogen and the remainder was helium and a mixture of argon and sulfur.
Not hospitable.
Taking the time to scan the gate area, Walter was able to determine from the dusting on the ground that no one had used this gate in a long time. There was no evidence of foot traffic anywhere, the ground completely undisturbed.
Making a note, Walter could only hope the final piece of the puzzle was with SG-3 and Teal'c as they explored their planet.
Unfortunately, they returned an hour later, Teal'c carrying an injured Maj Castleman on shoulder and calling for a medical team. Walter repeated the request over the base intercom getting a medical team and both General Hammond and Dr. Jackson into the gate room at the same time.
As the medical team took care of the injured Major, Teal'c reported he was fine and ready to embark again only for General Hammond to tell him the search was now called off as this was the last planet they had which fit the doctor's parameters.
"It's been few days. I mean what if we stop just short of finding them," Dr. Jackson retorted
"I'm sorry," the General replied as he departed with the medical team and his injured Major.
With that, the base had to again shift its focus. The rescue attempts had yielded nothing beyond the loss of several MALPs and the injuries of several individuals. Capt Carter and Col O'Neill were still missing and no one had a clue as to where they should, or even could, now look.
The day passed, one shift replacing another. Dr. Jackson continued to remain in or around the control room, sure he was missing something vital towards the rescue of his friends and teammates.
Walter had again gone home and returned to the SGC, his shift starting at O-Five-Hundred. As he entered, there was some sort of activity kicking off in the control room. Dr. Jackson was bouncing from one point to another, Teal'c following him with his eyes. Finally, the General entered into the room and they began to discuss the possibility of there being a second gate on Earth.
After that things seemed to move quickly.
Walter took over for SrA Taylor working on one of the interconnected systems they shared with NORAD upstairs. General Hammond tasking him to look for SG-1's emergency frequencies within their worldwide communications network.
Dr. Jackson then asked about the early shaking of the gate, to which the General mentioned the frequency dampeners Siler and his team had installed. Dr. Jackson added that the second gate might not have those, and since it did shake the entire mountain before, it might register as seismic activity somewhere. General Hammond added this to the list which Walter was already working.
The communication search came up empty, but the seismic search was spot on. Not only did they find one which matched to the original gate issue which had ejected Dr. Jackson and Teal'c, but it also had a match to the minute of when Dr. Jackson had caught the second inactive dialing of the gate.
Antarctica!
Walter called out to the group, "We got it! Antarctica. The timing of the event is to the second, including the event Dr. Jackson experience a few hours ago."
"Latitude and Longitude?," the General asked.
"Yes sir," Walter replied, happier than he had been in several days, "it's only fifty miles out of McMurdo."
Teal'c, Dr. Jackson and General Hammond began to depart after a loud, "Granted" from the General cut off Dr. Jackson's request to go.
"Order McMurdo to begin a search of those coordinates now," General Hammond shouted over his shoulder as he practically ran from the Control room.
It took Walter only a moment to have one of the other NCO's make the call to McMurdo as he jumped to arrange the immediate transport of General Hammond and his shadows from the Mountain to McMurdo.
There is often only a short period of time when one can travel to the Arctic, and this was it. They would travel on a C-17 direct to Christchurch in New Zealand. From there they would take the C-130 "skid" plane for an 8 hour flight to McMurdo. With air refueling it would take a total of twenty hours for them to arrive. Commercial transport would have taken them almost two days. Walter also coordinated for another team to meet the General in New Zealand who were cleared to secure and recover the gate in the frozen continent.
With all the tape he had to cut through, Walter was happy he would not have to deal with getting anyone to Antarctica again.
SSgt Roundtree yelled out, "I have McMurdo on the horn, they will not be able to send out a team for ten hours due to a weather event."
Walter grabbed the receiver from the Sergeant and calmly but forcefully said, "We have a team lost there and the very second you can release the search party, I need them out the door."
He handed back the receiver to SSgt Roundtree ignoring the questions the science team in the Arctic were asking about who was there and how did they get there?
Giving Ericka a call, Walter told her it would be another long day for him, but that things were finally getting better here and he would be home as soon as possible.
Sixteen hours later, the SCG got a radio call bounce to them through NORAD to inform them SG-1 had been found, injured but alive.
The cheers in the most sub level of the mountain could almost be heard in the city.