SG-1 was settling in for a very long night in the cave. Teal'c and Daniel had managed to find a large cavern. Teal'c thought that the cavern would be the best place to spend the night, and so the three men carefully moved Sam there. The cavern was pretty big, and it kinda reminded Jack of the cavern on P7X something something or, as Jack called it, the skull planet. They quickly got Sam settled, using the blankets to make a sort of mattress. Man it was hot in here. So much for freezing to death. Jack and Teal'c then started scouting the area, looking for any possible dangers. Satisfied that they were safe for the moment, they returned to the campsite.

Jack was surprised to see that Daniel had also been looking around, and even more surprised, and excited, by what he saw. Daniel had found a spring. Teal'c quickly grabbed the empty canteens while Daniel dug around the pack for the purification tablets. Once that was all taken care of, they sat back and began eating a meal of chicken flavored field rations.

"So. Anyone have any idea what we're dealing with?"

"It appears that the ground is unstable O'Neill."

"Thank you, Teal'c, but I think that I had already figured that one out."

"This cave system must be extremely fragile Jack. Every time there is a quake a part of the cave falls in. That's probably why there's no one here right now. Everyone died from these cave-ins."

"If that's the case Danny, wouldn't there be big piles of rocks everywhere."

"Who knows Jack. Maybe we haven't explored enough to see the big piles of rocks, or maybe something else happens in the caves and the rocks are moved. Maybe there are people here who move the rocks."

"If people did indeed live inside the caves, they would not live long. In such an unstable environment they would easily become the victims of the cave-ins, especially with no warning system."

"Teal'c is right. That must be why there are so many pictures of rocks on the walls. They were warning signs."

"Wouldn't a 'Caution Falling Rock' sign outside the entrance be better?"

"Maybe they never made it to the surface. Who knows what the environmental conditions were back then. Maybe the surface was inhospitable and the only refuge they could find was the caves. Then suddenly the earthquakes started and the caves started collapsing and they died out."

"Speaking of earthquakes, do you think we'll be having another one anytime soon?"

"No."



Sam felt like she was drowning in blackness. She could vaguely tell what was going on around her. Every time she tried to surface the pain kept pushing her back. She could hear voices around her, but couldn't understand what the voices were saying. Then she could feel herself gently being picked up before she slipped away again. The next time she surfaced, she felt something soft underneath her. Feeling stronger, she decided to try to open her eyes, but she was unable to move whatever was keeping them shut.

She decided to focus her attention on sounds again. It had worked before, maybe it will work now. She heard the sound of water nearby, the echo told her she was in a very large area. And then she heard the sound of voices. Voices she knew. Her teammates. Making that mental connection gave her an energy boost. She tried to open her eyes again, this time getting them to crack slightly before they fell shut again.

Frustrated, she turned her attention to the voices again. They were coming closer. She could hear what her teammates were saying. They didn't appear to be in any distress. Why did she think they were. She began to listen to their conversation. Caves, they were talking about caves. And rocks. What about rocks was so frightening? Memories of the cave-in came rushing back to her. She had to know if they were all right. Instead of trying to open her eyes again, she decided to focus all her energy on speaking. Listening to her friends conversation, she gathered up her strength and somehow managed to mutter one word, "No." Instantly they were by her side.

"Sam, can you hear me?"

"Major Carter, are you well?"

"Carter, open your eyes."

Sam was overcome by the emotions that flowed from the three men. Deciding she needed to see them as much as they needed to see her, she tried to do the impossible again. She tried to open her eyes. Surprisingly, it wasn't as hard of a task as she thought it would be, although she couldn't quite figure out why. Maybe her strength was returning, or maybe whatever had been keeping her eyes closed was gone.

"Carter, how are you feeling?" Sam gazed over to her CO. Jack had the unmistakable sound of relief in his voice, but concern was etched into his face.

Sam managed a single word in a raspy voice. "Thirsty." Daniel quickly fetched the canteen and gave her a couple sips. She wanted more, but knew that she shouldn't. Feeling somewhat stronger, she looked around at her friends. They were all covered with dirt, herself included, and Daniel and Jack had some blood stains on their clothes. "You okay?" Well, at least her voice was getting stronger.

"Yeah Carter. We're okay, and you'll be okay too."

"Do you remember what happened Sam?" When she shook her head he continued. "We were in the caves when an earthquake hit. There was a cave-in and you were buried. Jack and Teal'c came and got you out but before we could get to the Stargate there was another cave-in."

"How long?"

"You have been unconscious for about two hours Carter." She nodded while she shifted around, trying to get more comfortable. "Hey, you in much pain?" Jack asked when he noticed her biting her lip to stop from crying out. Unable to form words, she simply nodded and then felt a prick at her arm. Slowly everything began to go numb as the morphine took effect. She began her descent into the darkness once again.

"Just sleep Major. Tomorrow we will get out of this place. You'll need all the strength you can get. You will be fine Sam, do you hear me. You will be okay." And with those words ringing in her head, she knew no more.



General Hammond sat in his office, looking over the stacks of files on his desk. Paperwork! How had the U.S. Government managed to get paperwork for him to do now? Unfortunately for him, his superiors wanted a complete record of what was happening. Hammond could understand the reasoning behind this. If they ever got around to setting up an offworld base the information from this exercise would be priceless. But they wanted to know everything. Every time a ration was opened, every time a band-aid was used, he wouldn't be surprised if they started asking about when the men had to go visit the facilities. To make matters worse, they wanted him to record it all. What he wouldn't give for his secretary right now. A soft knocking at the door interrupted his thoughts. "Come in."

"You wanted to see me sir?"

"Yes Doctor. Please have a seat. I wanted your thoughts on how the first night went."

"I think we did better than anyone expected. Although, to be honest, I'm not quite sure exactly what we should have expected. The arrival of the aliens was causing some panic, but since they have made no aggressive movements, I think most of the men have settled down somewhat."

"What about the organism Doctor?"

"Sir, it appears that the organism didn't follow us through the wormhole. No new cases have been reported. I released Major Vasquez and Captain Adams earlier. Lieutenant Rodgers will probably be released within the next few hours. It looks like everything is all clear on our end sir."

"Let's just hope they're doing as well back at the mountain. Thank you, Doctor." Hammond turned back to his paperwork, but Janet made no motion to leave the room. "Was there anything else you would like to add Doctor?"

"Sir, I was wondering something. With SG-8 about to be back to full capacity, I was wondering if we could send SG-15 on a little recon assignment." Seeing his uncertain look she quickly continued. "There have been no threats from this planet since we got here, and nothing dangerous had ever been reported from the times we did research here. The aliens have insisted time and again that they are peaceful and would never hurt us. And even if they did, they would stand no match against SG-8 and the defensive team we have. SG-15 could slip away for a few hours and retrieve SG-1, or at least maybe find some information on why they aren't here yet."

"You make a compelling argument Doctor, but as much as I would love to bring SG-1 here, I cannot risk the safety of these people. I will consider your argument, however no one will be going anywhere until you can safely release Lieutenant Rodgers from your care. Is that understood?"

"Yes sir."

Hammond continued in a softer tone. "I know you are concerned for them Janet. I would be lying if I said I wasn't. But we must think of the safety of these people. SG-1 has more offworld experience than all of us combined. Whatever they get into, they can get out again. These people do not have that resource to draw from. We need everyone with offworld experience we can get right now. I will think about what you said."

Smiling up at him she muttered a thank you before turning to leave. As she stood, she noticed the files sitting on his desk. "It never goes away, does it General."

"No, it doesn't Doctor. No, it doesn't."



Daniel glanced around the cavern one more time. He felt so useless. Jack and Teal'c had left to go scout around in some of the caves. Daniel had stayed behind to watch Sam. That tore him up inside, knowing that Sam was in pain and that he caused it. Why had he insisted on going further into the cave. Why didn't he leave sooner. It was all his fault. He was brought out of his dark musings when the figure beside him began to stir. "Sam?"

"Daniel."

"How are you feeling."

"Thirsty." Daniel quickly grabbed the canteen and held it up for Sam to drink. After she had a couple of sips, he quickly pulled it away.

"Not to much now. We don't want you to become sick."

"I know." Sam quietly looked around the cave. "Where's the Colonel and Teal'c?"

"They went for a look around. They should be back soon." He watched her struggle to sit up and quickly went over to help. Once she was reasonably comfortable he asked her again. "So, how do you feel?

"Not to bad considering. There's a little pain, but not as bad as before." As she finished talking, Jack and Teal'c came back from their scouting trip.

"Well, look who's up and ready to roll." Sam smiled at the comment and looked up to see Jack and Teal'c coming towards them. Her smile abruptly faded when she saw the look on his face. Expecting to see a look of amusement at that last comment, she was scared when he still had concern clearly written on his face. That was a bad sign. That meant something was not going well, either they were going to have a harder time getting out of here then they thought, or she was worse of then she thought.

"Find anything Colonel?"

"There was a breeze coming from somewhere. Teal'c thinks if we follow it we should find some sort of opening." Great. That meant he was concerned about her. Bracing herself for his next answer, she quietly asked.

"How about me sir."

Jack intently studied his 2IC. She was scared, he could tell when she didn't make eye contact with him. He wanted to tell her everything would be alright. But he knew she didn't want to hear false assurances. She wanted, and deserved, to know the truth.

"Carter, you're in pretty bad shape. Nothing that the Doc can't fix, but we need to get out of here first. Your shoulder is dislocated, and I think your right wrist is sprained. You twisted your left knee and have two very deep cuts on your left leg, along with a dozen smaller cuts all over your body. Thankfully, none of these other cuts seemed to be that bad. Add to that a couple of broken ribs and possibly a concussion." Sam was silent as she took in the information. Jack waited for a few minutes before continuing.

"There's nothing that we can make a stretcher out of and most of the caves me and Teal'c found were quite small. That means there will be some places where you will have to walk and crawl through. We won't be able to carry you until we get outside. It will get very painful."

Sam could see the sympathy cross everyone's face at the knowledge it would be a slow and painful trip for her. Determined to keep her spirits up, more for their sake than her own, she cheerfully asked "When do we leave?"