SG-1 stepped out of the wormhole and immediately went on guard. After a few moments of scanning the area around the Stargate, they dropped their defensive pose and gathered together. "Jack, how long do we have here again?"
"We have two days if we need it but the sooner we get back the sooner our vacation starts. Why?"
"I don't know. It just looks like a really nice place for a change. It's peaceful. Nobody shooting at us or thinking we are Gods coming to fulfil a prophecy or anything like that. Just a nice, quiet forest."
"Just don't let your guard down Danny. Big animals like to live in nice quiet forests." He turned to Sam. "Carter where did the UAV go down."
"It should be pretty close to the Stargate sir. According to my calculation it should be about twenty meters South-west of here." She pointed in the general direction. "Unfortunately it looks like it went down in the forest."
"Alright campers. Me and Teal'c will get the UAV and do some scouting, find a nice campsite. Carter, you and Daniel head on up to those caves, pick up some samples on the way.
We'll meet back here at 13:00. Any questions? Good. Don't forget to keep in touch!" he yelled at their backs. "Man they don't waste any time. Okay Teal'c. Looks like it's just you and me. Heard any good jokes lately?"
"So Sam what do you think of this place?"
"I'm not quite sure yet. It almost seems too nice. Half the time I'm waiting for something big, ugly, and hungry to come charging out of the woods to 'meet and eat' us. The other half I think that we should be doing some soul searching, meditating, inner tranquility, new age stuff 'cause it's so peaceful." The two scientists had been walking towards the cave for about fifteen minutes when Sam wanted to stop and get a soil sample.
"You ready to go?" Daniel asked seeing that Sam was putting her sample case away.
"Ready when you are." She smiled as she stood up. "Daniel, do you think we'll find anything in the caves?"
"I'm not sure. Caves are usually one of the first places people use as homes. If there was a civilization here, I bet we find some remnants in the caves. If not, maybe this place is the untouched paradise that we've been looking for. Go back and tell Hammond what a horrible place this is, shanghai the gate again, and come back here and we'll be set for life."
Sam laughed and her smile grew bigger. "You have a very evil mind Dr. Jackson. But think of all the ice planets we'd be missing out on."
"No, no, no, can't have that. I don't know what I'd do without my monthly dose of hypothermia." Daniel smiled back as they both laughed. "Look. I think those are the caves."
"Yep. Let's go check them out."
General Hammond wasn't in his office for five minutes before the klaxons started blaring. "Unscheduled Offworld Activation. Defense teams to the Gate Room. Unscheduled Offworld Activation." He ran back down the stairs into the control room. He knew that no teams were scheduled to return yet. That meant that a team was early and early meant sick or injured.
"Is any team scheduled to return?" He asked the technician when he arrived. Below the Gate room was swarming with defense teams, all focused on the giant spinning ring of the Stargate.
"No sir."
"Which teams are currently offworld?" He asked, again knowing the answer.
"SG-1 and SG-8. SG-1 isn't due back for two days and SG-8 isn't due back for six hours. Sir, we are receiving an IDC code. It's SG-8 sir."
"Open the iris and get a medical team in there." As he raced for the Gate room the iris retracted. Once he stepped into the room, five figures stepped out of the wormhole. He was relieved until he realized that one of them was unconscious and two more team members not far behind. "What happened?" he asked while he waved the defense teams down. Just then the medical team rushed into the room.
"We were on the planet for a few hours when Lieutenant Rodgers began to feel ill sir. He said it felt like the start of a cold and said he was fine so we decided to camp on the planet and head back at first light." Colonel Webber the team leader gasped. "When we were hiking back to the Stargate Vasquez and Adams started feeling sick. Rodgers collapsed about an hour ago and me and Williams had to practically drag all three of them for the last hour or so."
"General, it sounds like they might have brought back a bug." Dr. Janet Fraiser was overseeing the transfer of the sick men to the stretchers and heard Webber's story. "I recommend level three quarantine until I know what we're dealing with." And with that, Janet raced down to the infirmary.
"Very well then." Hammond looked up at the control room. "You heard the Doctor. Initiate level three quarantine. Lock up the mountain. Nothing in or out." With a nod the technicians began typing in commands. Hammond headed up to his office. He had a phone call to make.
It had been a frantic couple of hours for Janet. Not only did she have three men in the infirmary to tend to; she had to find an alien organism in their blood. She stabilized the three men quickly and turned her attention onto finding the organism. Once she identified it, her staff quickly began tests to determine what it exactly was. Two hours later, Janet was on her way to see the General.
"Come In." General Hammond replied when he heard the soft knocking at the door. "Doctor Fraiser. Please take a seat."
"Thank you, sir."
"How is SG-8 doing?"
"They are all going to be fine. They are all showing symptoms of the flu; fever, chills, general icky feeling. Lieutenant Rodgers is showing the worst symptoms. He had a fever and was slightly dehydrated. We started an I.V. to replenish his fluids and started him on some antibiotics. It seems to be working, his fever is starting to go down and he says he is feeling better. Major Vasquez and Captain Adams were showing the same symptoms, although not nearly as severe as Rodgers. I've given each of them some penicillin and told them to take it easy. Colonel Webber and Captain Williams are not showing any symptoms aside from fatigue. I told them to report back immediately if they start showing any other symptoms."
"Any idea what's causing this?"
"I was hopeful that it was just the flu but unfortunately it is more complicated than that. It appears that they did bring back a bug. An alien organism was found in each of their blood samples. It looks like nothing I have ever seen before. It is bacterial, although it seems to have some properties of a virus. Like bacteria it can reproduce through mitosis. It is incredibly adaptive. It also has the ability to change itself easily and it appears that every generation is slightly different from the rest. Luckily it does not reproduce very quickly. The initial testing shows that it takes approximately forty minutes for a new generation to appear. However, like a virus, if it infects a cell it can use the cell to reproduce at a much quicker pace. These new generations have little if any genetic variation though. Also, like a virus it is able to live in almost any medium."
"Are we in any danger Doctor?"
"At the moment I don't think so sir. The organism itself reproduces at such a slow speed that the chances of it changing to a deadly form are very small right now. And the organisms that are coming from the infected cells are basically a replica of the organism that infected the cell, in this case something similar to the flu. I am more concerned for the long term effects this could cause. The more times the organism can reproduce itself, the more chance of becoming deadly. If the organism is able to leave the mountain, I believe there is a great chance of it leading to a Pan-Global epidemic that would rival the black death."
"Surely modern medicine would be able to stop it before it went that far."
"I don't think so sir. As I said the organism is extremely adaptive. Some strains have already adapted to penicillin. So far anything and everything my staff has tried to kill the organism has failed."
"Very well Doctor. Get back to the lab and see if you can make any headway into destroying the organism. I had better update the President. I'll call a meeting at 14:00 to discuss our options. Dismissed