"You won't be gone long, will you?" Woolsey asked.

Woolsey must have kept his thumb down on the radio after Jack handed it to him.

"Uh, kinda depends on the temperature of the water," came Jack's response loud and clear. "Let's see."

She could hear the swift intake of his breath as Jack stepped down into the water.

"Not long," he told Woolsey.

Then the radio cut out and cut back in again. She assumed that Jack grabbed it back.

"Carter, when we were in this type of situation before, I was sure we settled on shallow water in the tropics next time. This is freezing."

She laughed, glad to hear that he still had a sense of humor about it all. If the temperature of the water was anything like when they'd been trapped in the hallway of that sunken Goa-uld ship in the Pacific Ocean, she didn't envy what he had to do.

"My mistake, sir. You can head to the tropics once we all get out of here."

"Sounds like a good plan. Beaches, bikinis, those little umbrellas in the drinks. Hey, Carter, how would you feel about -"

"General!"

McKay's voice cut off Jack's question, but it was probably for the best. Flirting in the midst of a tense mission might make them both feel better, but she preferred not to do it with company around.

Jack's voice had lost all levity by the time he responded.

"McKay? What do I do once I get down there?"

McKay explained about the manual override with more confidence than Sam felt. She didn't know how far Jack would have to swim and whether he'd be able to identify and use the manual override. He could hold his breath a long time, but it had also been a while since he was regularly in the field.

The wait was long. Without meaning to, she held her breath in time with him, trying not to let terror overtake her when she had to take a breath and Jack still hadn't radioed back yet.

Then she heard the slight crackle of the radio and his voice, angry but steady as he called McKay's name.

"Did you do it?" McKay asked, even though it was a stupid question. If Jack had been able to do what they asked him to do, the jumper bay would be draining right now.

"You and I have very different ideas of what 'obvious' is."

Jack's anger was palpable and she wished she could be by his side. McKay tried to explain how to differentiate between the possible levers without any real information to impart and she could tell that Jack was getting frustrated.

Sam interrupted McKay.

"Jack, try for any switches that are larger or more distinctive first, but take multiple trips if you need to."

Out of the corner of her eye, she could see Beckett mouth Jack's name to Teyla. Before she could see the other woman's reaction, McKay jumped back in.

"We don't exactly have a lot of time here," he blurted, as if Jack was going to take a leisurely swim just for the hell of it.

"And all of this will be pointless if he drowns," she replied back, an edge in her voice that she knew none of these people were used to.

She could feel Sheppard, Teyla, Beckett, Ronon, and Weir looking between them, but she refused to back down. Even a man like Jack O'Neill had his limits, and she wouldn't let Rodney McKay try to push him into an untenable situation.

"Hopefully this won't take too many laps." Jack's voice cut through the tension. "O'Neill out."

They waited, silently, until something started to happen. The water began to drain out of the jumper bay. She watched a look of relief cross Beckett's face and McKay's, but Sam knew that you couldn't celebrate until you knew your team was safe.

Then the water stopped draining and her heart stopped with it.

"What happened?" Weir asked.

"He had the right control," McKay said. "I don't know why he stopped."

Sam traded a glace with Sheppard, the only other military member of this rescue team. They both knew it was a bad sign that Jack stopped draining the jumper bay. She assumed he'd also been counting the seconds and knew that Jack should have made it back and radioed in by now.

Just when she was about to give up hope, she heard Jack coughing over the radio as Woolsey made an impressed comment about how long the man could hold his breath.

McKay, because he had no tact, just asked why Jack didn't finish the job.

"It's a dead man's switch," he replied. "I have to hold it in place."

Immediately, Sam wished they had time for simulations to figure out how long it would take for the bay to drain vs. how long he would have to hold the switch.

McKay's face fell as he also realized the difficult position Jack was in. "I had no idea."

"Really?" Jack asked sarcastically, and she knew he was going to dive back in even before she heard his muttered "Oh, God."

Sam waited, and hoped, and the water level started to go down.

"He's doing it!" McKay yelled. "He's almost got it!"

Ronon and Sheppard started to pass out the ARGs to the group.

"Tell him, like, thirty more seconds and we're good to go," McKay shouted.

Sam wondered how McKay thought Woolsey would convey that information when Jack was still underwater. Then she noticed that the slight static had stopped and Woolsey wasn't responding.

The water was still draining. Jack was pushing himself to the limits underwater and now they couldn't get in touch with Woolsey. What would Jack be swimming back to?

"Woolsey?" McKay tried. "Woolsey, come in."

Sam looked at Sheppard.

"Something's wrong."

His voice was low and serious. He knew exactly what it meant for Jack and Woolsey that they weren't getting any response on the radio. Woolsey was likely captured or dead. Jack would be heading back towards a trap.

"I know," Sam replied.

The water finished draining and Sheppard lowered the cargo hold door.

"McKay and Carter, you stay here and reprogram Niam. We're gonna go meet General O'Neill and Woolsey, all right? We'll wait for your okay."

He looked at her and Sam nodded. She was the best backup for McKay to have and they both knew it, as much as she wanted to go with him to save Jack.

Sam adjusted the ARG in her hands and watched as Sheppard led the rest of the Atlantis group away.

"We're going to need to send a message to the Daedalus too," Sam mentioned as soon as she and McKay were alone.

He looked up at her.

"We'll send it from the control room. We'll have plenty of time once the Replicators are frozen."

Sam wondered what it felt like to be that confident that nothing would go wrong with your plans in the face of constant evidence to the contrary.

"If the control room has been repaired," Sam pointed out. "And if the Replicators stay frozen as long as we need them to be."

She hoped that Sheppard was right and McKay always worked better under pressure. It seemed like they were going to need it this time.

McKay glared at her.

"One problem at a time."