Sorry guys, yeah I did kill off Jacob - or rather Jellybean did...colour me confused :) Thanx for reviewing. Oh, and my reasoning behind not healing Sam with the sarcophagus is that it's addictive and therefore dangerous. Glad you seem to like it.
Chapter 6
General Hammond stared out of the briefing room window. Underneath his calm, almost stony, exterior lay a man who wanted to pace or manifest his nervousness in some other way. His years of military training held him back from doing so.
It seemed an eternity before anyone stepped through from J29 BV6. The planet SG1 should have returned from five days ago, maybe more. Two MALPs slowly emerged slightly ahead of the four members of SG5. They were wet and bedraggled. As the gate disengaged Lieutenant Colonel Abigail Kennedy sank onto the ramp, head in hands.
Her Second in Command, Captain Joseph Lane, looked helplessly at General Hammond and shook his head. The commander of Cheyenne Mountain turned from the window like a lost soul.
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General Hammond watched Lieutenant Colonel Kennedy prepare to relate the mission. He noted that her once tanned skin was pale, as though she hadn't seen the sun in a long time. Her eyes were marred by dusky shadows. She looked tired, most people around here looked as haggard as she did. Not for the first time he marveled how much these unique people had given up.
"When we got to the other side it was as if no one had been there at all. The MALP was still on standby and there weren't any footprints or bruised foliage. If I didn't know any better I'd say SG1 had never gone through at all." He'd expected as much when the second MALP had shown everything as it had been the first time they'd seen J29 BV6.
"Captain Lane spotted smoke in the distance, we headed to the top of a nearby hill and there was a village in the valley. If, by any chance, SG1 had arrived, it was our belief that they would have headed there." She was visibly upset, but in a moment that military mask was replaced. She reached over and flicked on the projector.
"This is what we found." An enlarged picture of a burned village dominated the far wall. The destruction was recent, the ruins still glowed red - the flames beaten to embers by the pelting rain.
"There was a communal building - a place of worship, burned down. All of the villagers were in there. No survivors Sir. In one of the houses there was a little boy, before he died he told us a little of their killers. It seems they are native to the planet." She rubbed her hands over her face.
"We came straight back Sir. Even if they had arrived at the village," she swallowed and closed her eyes, "No survivors Sir." She repeated. He put SG5 on a weeks downtime and dismissed them.
These people did give up a lot. Sometimes they gave up their lives. General Hammond sighed, as much as he loathed to do so he would have to report them Missing In Action.
So, whaddya think? As always, review. Thank You.
Coffee Bean