Samantha Carter stood from her crouched position, her eyes darting
around the small clearing, and finally settling upon the large stone next
to her. She swallowed dryly, her hand shaking slightly.
If I hadn't told him to stay behind, she thought, her troubled mind aching more than she had felt in a while. She placed her cap firmly on her head, and faced her commanding officer.
"What happened, Carter?"
She saw his mouth move, but did not register the words, her mind having problems picking up the syllables, and processing them.
"Carter," he said louder, "what happened?" His eyes were locked with hers, and his face was grave. He understood what was going on, he just wanted a reason for all of it. He always did.
She fumbled over her words for a bit, looking down shamefully at her P-90, and then replied, "I heard a noise in the trees, and after hearing about what Teal'c saw..." she hesitated, casting her mind back to those few moments, and continued, "I told Jonas to stay here. He had a gun... I thought he'd be okay. But then I heard him crying out for help, and a gunshot. When I got back, he was gone, sir."
"Dammit!" O'Neill hissed, and kicked up some of the dirt from below his foot. His brown eyes darted to Teal'c, who was annoyingly stoic as usual. The dark face was as if set in stone.
"Sir, what should we do?" Carter asked, awaiting her orders. In situations like this, she usually awaited the Colonel's instructions. Her mind often went blank... especially when it was her friend involved. When her father was in danger, it was always the same heart-aching terror. This was no different.
Jonas was a good friend, and if nothing else, she was determined to find him again. She was sure the others felt the same way.
"Alright," O'Neill began, "alright, we'll head back to the Stargate, and contact Hammond. We'll explain our situation, and then start a search."
Teal'c gave a solitary nod, and Carter swallowed again, giving her reply with her gaze.
Looking around for signs of the Kelownan, the three set off for the Stargate.
* * *
"Needless to say, General, we won't be getting back to Earth for bedtime."
Though they could not see General Hammond, they could imagine the puzzled look on his face. They had only just managed to contact the General, and this was the second sentence O'Neill had decided to come up with, after saying 'We got a problem, sir'.
"What do you mean, Colonel?" General Hammond asked through the little speaker on the MALP.
O'Neill crossed his arms tightly over his chest, and felt his eyes looking around, searching for the signs of a creature he himself had not seen, but had heard enough of to believe in.
"General, we've lost Jonas." The easiest way to explain something was to just come out and say it... that was O'Neill's policy. He didn't know why everyone bothered with the technical mumbo-jumbo.
There was a moment of silence.
"How exactly did you manage to lose Mister Quinn?" The tone in General Hammond's voice was enough to clearly illustrate his bafflement.
"Sir, from what we can figure out, he's been taken by some sort of creature here in the forest," Carter explained, jumping in before O'Neill could continue his report.
"What kind of creature?" Hammond inquired. "Was it an Unas?"
"No, sir, it was not an Unas," O'Neill replied bluntly, staring at the floor, his words clear and crisp. He wanted to avoid confusion as much as possible.
"Then what are we dealing with here, people?"
Teal'c took it upon himself to step forward then, and speak, "General Hammond, when in the forest some hours ago, I caught sight of what seemed to be a large carnivorous animal. We suspect it is the same creature that has abducted Jonas Quinn."
"Have you found any signs that he's still alive, Colonel?" Hammond asked then.
Carter hung her head.
"No, sir, we haven't," O'Neill responded, and then added, "but we're gonna search for him anyway. We're not leaving him behind."
"Understood, Colonel, report back as soon as you find anything," Hammond said, and cut the connection.
The Stargate closed, and O'Neill and his two team members turned from the device, walking back into the trees.
"Alright, here's the plan of action," O'Neill began, voice loud enough to be heard for a short distance, "we stick together. No one goes off on their own, is that understood?"
"Yes, sir."
"I understand, O'Neill."
"Good. We look for any sign... and I mean any sign of Jonas, and evidence to support he's still alive. I'm not giving up on him yet, and I hope neither of you are either." He did not look back on either of them, just because he knew they were agreeing with him with silent nods. "He's got to be around here somewhere... it's just a matter of. finding him."
* * *
"Colonel! Colonel, over here!"
Jack heard the shout from a few feet away, and turned his head to see Carter kneeling over something, waving a hand at him. She resorted to removing her cap, and swinging it from side to side in the air to get their attention.
Teal'c and O'Neill were standing some twenty feet away, investigating some sort of remains. It had turned out to be nothing useful in the end... simply a bird that had died of natural causes, whatever those natural causes were.
O'Neill jogged over to where Carter was knelt, and waited for her news.
"Sir, look at this," she said, pointing at a black object lying on the ground.
O'Neill narrowed his eyes, and sighed as he realised what it was.
A gun.
"Sir, it has to be Jonas'."
He looked down at Carter, and said, "I know that, Major."
"Well at least we're going in the right direction, sir," Carter pointed out, picking up the gun, and standing.
"So, we just keep searching," O'Neill sighed, feeling a sinking feeling creep up on him. He would not allow himself to succumb to it though, and pushed it right back down where it had been hiding since all this had began.
"I will lead the way, O'Neill," Teal'c volunteered.
O'Neill nodded, and blinked away the feeling of exhaustion that took the place of the sinking fear. He rubbed his eyes, and glanced skyward. It was close to night now, and the sun had taken refuge in the heavy clouds that had rolled in.
It looked like it was going to rain.
* * *
Feeling dizzy and light-headed, he forced his eyes to open, wincing at the burning in his leg. He remembered feeling the sharp claws... or teeth tear into his leg, and then getting knocked to the ground with enough force to knock the wind out of him. The shot he had fired had been wide, missing the huge animal by about two feet.
Groaning, he realised he was unable to move, and even in the almost complete darkness, he glanced down at himself. Some sort of thick, sticky substance covered most of his legs and lower body, restricting pretty much all of his movement. One of his arms was mostly free, but it pained him to move... though he was unsure why. His chest was partially coated, long strips of whatever it was stretching over him, keeping him firmly secured to the wall.
He knew his feet weren't even touching the floor, that was for certain. He was a lot taller than he remembered being about... how long had he been out?
As he moved his head, he felt the cold of the substance touching his neck, and even the side of his head, mingling with something warm, and equally damp. He suddenly remembered why he was feeling so light-headed.
The creature had given him quite a nasty blow to the head, knocking him out, before obviously dragging him here... wherever here was.
Jonas pulled against the substance, using all of his strength in his failing attempts, only succeeding in exhausting himself.
Looking down at his jacket, he caught sight of his only remaining piece of equipment. His radio, still in its little pouch.
Without moving his arms though, it was practically useless. He was unable to reach it.
As he continued to struggle futilely against whatever it was locking him to the wall, he recalled the Colonel's mocking words about the predator living in a cave. Well, it turned out, just as Carter had said, the Colonel was right this time. Sam had said the Colonel could once in a while get something right. Did it have to be this time though?
Taking a deep breath against the hurt it caused him to move, Jonas took a chance in calling out, "Hello?"
When he received no response, he settled for just yelling for help over and over, before he basically collapsed back against the wall, his body feeling drained.
He felt weak, his energy gone entirely. He had no strength left, and decided that remaining still for a while would be a good idea. That would give him time to think about his problem.
That was when he caught sight of movement. Over in the far corner of the cave, something was shifting, seemingly writhing.
Then he realised just what was going on. It was a sack of some kind, and it was opening, a sharp claw penetrating the same substance that covered him now.
Jonas felt a wash of panic then, and held his breath without thinking about it.
He saw a limb stretch out from behind the sack wall, and then another, before a shadowy head emerged. A low grumble of a growl was heard, just as the rest of the body became visible.
Standing on four legs, it reached at least four feet. Its long legs bent in much the same way as a carnivorous predator on Earth, and its head seemed too long and thin for its body. It was thin, much longer than it was wide, and seemed to be covered in small hairs, its coat nowhere near thick enough to keep its mass warm.
Maybe that was what the sack was for. Maybe it was some sort of hibernation chamber.
Or not, he thought, even as the creature began to pad on huge feet over to him, its yellow eyes not leaving his. It growled, revealing teeth, sharp and numerous.
To his surprise, as it came to a stop before him, it reared up slightly on its hind legs, and hovered, glaring him right in the eye. Its forelegs hung before it, bent at the elbow, but not in any position to be conceived as dangerous.
With a twitch of its short ears, it blinked, and cocked its head at him.
A sort of guttural noise emanated from it then, and Jonas, even through the exhaustion, was intrigued.
Had that been a word?
* * *
Sam knocked a branch aside as they walked, growing impatient with the amount of foliage that seemed to want to deny them entry into the thicker, deeper, and frankly, darker parts of the seemingly never-endless forest.
She was soaked from head to toe, the thick trees and bushes provided a surprisingly little amount of shelter from the rain that decided to fall heavily from the heavens shortly after they had located Jonas' dropped handgun.
I hope he's dry, wherever he is, she found herself thinking hopefully, clinging desperately to the belief that the Kelownan was still alive. She wasn't the biggest optimist in the galaxy, but she had her moments.
"Alright, kids," Colonel O'Neill began tiredly, "we're not going to do anyone any good if we drop down from exhaustion. Time to find some shelter for the night."
"It would appear that the only shelter is provided in the forms of trees and bushes, O'Neill," Teal'c provided helpfully, stopping in a small clearing roughly ten feet in diameter.
"Thank you for that," O'Neill grumbled, rather irritably. The late hours were catching up on him, and when Sam glanced at her watch, she recognised the hour as close on ten. Had they really been walking that long? Where had all the hours gone? She hadn't even noticed the darkness that had enveloped them sneakily over the short period of time.
"Alright, we make camp right here," O'Neill told them, gripping his P- 90, "and I take first watch."
"No, O'Neill, I should be the one to watch over the campsite first," Teal'c protested calmly, regarding his commanding officer insistently.
"Why's that?"
"Because, as you said, O'Neill, we will not do anyone any good if we are unconscious. I am able to remain awake for a great number of hours without rest. This makes me a good choice to take watch."
"Fine," O'Neill mumbled, too exhausted to argue.
Sam would have smiled if they hadn't been searching for a lost teammate.
A wounded lost teammate.
* * *
Life.
That was what it had said to him. Life. But why? And how? Surely it hadn't evolved enough to form words coherently. True, Jonas had struggled to make out the single word in all the guttural growling and grumbling, but that was what the creature had said to him.
He had tried another three times to break free of the bonds that held him firmly, and extremely effectively to the wall, without much success at all. Apart from, once again, succumbing to complete and utter exhaustion.
Jonas let his head thud against the back wall, grumbling in annoyance to himself afterwards at the throbbing that started as a result, and sighed loudly.
Why am I always the one who gets in trouble?
Maybe it had always been this way... perhaps Dr. Jackson had always been the one to fall victim to the annoyingly dangerous threat or trap.
He groaned, and shook his head, feeling the dizziness and nausea return rather suddenly.
Succeeding in holding it back, he let out a slow breath, and clenched his uncovered fist. It was his right hand, the left having been completely covered over by the restricting substance that covered most of the wall around him.
Jonas had managed to pick out other shapes in the dark corners of the cave, and frankly, the result of identification had frightened him understandably. Skeletons littered the walls, covered in thinning and stringy versions of the substance that was all over him now.
As his mind wandered, he could feel the cold of it touching his skin beneath his clothing, and he found himself puzzling over how it could have penetrated the thick vest, jacket and T-shirt. The only thing that felt reasonably normal were his feet, the skin of the boots to thick for the substance to penetrate.
As his eyes became heavier, he tried one last desperate, and rather weak call for help.
Hearing nothing but the soft falling of rain in response, he allowed himself to pass into comforting darkness.
If I hadn't told him to stay behind, she thought, her troubled mind aching more than she had felt in a while. She placed her cap firmly on her head, and faced her commanding officer.
"What happened, Carter?"
She saw his mouth move, but did not register the words, her mind having problems picking up the syllables, and processing them.
"Carter," he said louder, "what happened?" His eyes were locked with hers, and his face was grave. He understood what was going on, he just wanted a reason for all of it. He always did.
She fumbled over her words for a bit, looking down shamefully at her P-90, and then replied, "I heard a noise in the trees, and after hearing about what Teal'c saw..." she hesitated, casting her mind back to those few moments, and continued, "I told Jonas to stay here. He had a gun... I thought he'd be okay. But then I heard him crying out for help, and a gunshot. When I got back, he was gone, sir."
"Dammit!" O'Neill hissed, and kicked up some of the dirt from below his foot. His brown eyes darted to Teal'c, who was annoyingly stoic as usual. The dark face was as if set in stone.
"Sir, what should we do?" Carter asked, awaiting her orders. In situations like this, she usually awaited the Colonel's instructions. Her mind often went blank... especially when it was her friend involved. When her father was in danger, it was always the same heart-aching terror. This was no different.
Jonas was a good friend, and if nothing else, she was determined to find him again. She was sure the others felt the same way.
"Alright," O'Neill began, "alright, we'll head back to the Stargate, and contact Hammond. We'll explain our situation, and then start a search."
Teal'c gave a solitary nod, and Carter swallowed again, giving her reply with her gaze.
Looking around for signs of the Kelownan, the three set off for the Stargate.
* * *
"Needless to say, General, we won't be getting back to Earth for bedtime."
Though they could not see General Hammond, they could imagine the puzzled look on his face. They had only just managed to contact the General, and this was the second sentence O'Neill had decided to come up with, after saying 'We got a problem, sir'.
"What do you mean, Colonel?" General Hammond asked through the little speaker on the MALP.
O'Neill crossed his arms tightly over his chest, and felt his eyes looking around, searching for the signs of a creature he himself had not seen, but had heard enough of to believe in.
"General, we've lost Jonas." The easiest way to explain something was to just come out and say it... that was O'Neill's policy. He didn't know why everyone bothered with the technical mumbo-jumbo.
There was a moment of silence.
"How exactly did you manage to lose Mister Quinn?" The tone in General Hammond's voice was enough to clearly illustrate his bafflement.
"Sir, from what we can figure out, he's been taken by some sort of creature here in the forest," Carter explained, jumping in before O'Neill could continue his report.
"What kind of creature?" Hammond inquired. "Was it an Unas?"
"No, sir, it was not an Unas," O'Neill replied bluntly, staring at the floor, his words clear and crisp. He wanted to avoid confusion as much as possible.
"Then what are we dealing with here, people?"
Teal'c took it upon himself to step forward then, and speak, "General Hammond, when in the forest some hours ago, I caught sight of what seemed to be a large carnivorous animal. We suspect it is the same creature that has abducted Jonas Quinn."
"Have you found any signs that he's still alive, Colonel?" Hammond asked then.
Carter hung her head.
"No, sir, we haven't," O'Neill responded, and then added, "but we're gonna search for him anyway. We're not leaving him behind."
"Understood, Colonel, report back as soon as you find anything," Hammond said, and cut the connection.
The Stargate closed, and O'Neill and his two team members turned from the device, walking back into the trees.
"Alright, here's the plan of action," O'Neill began, voice loud enough to be heard for a short distance, "we stick together. No one goes off on their own, is that understood?"
"Yes, sir."
"I understand, O'Neill."
"Good. We look for any sign... and I mean any sign of Jonas, and evidence to support he's still alive. I'm not giving up on him yet, and I hope neither of you are either." He did not look back on either of them, just because he knew they were agreeing with him with silent nods. "He's got to be around here somewhere... it's just a matter of. finding him."
* * *
"Colonel! Colonel, over here!"
Jack heard the shout from a few feet away, and turned his head to see Carter kneeling over something, waving a hand at him. She resorted to removing her cap, and swinging it from side to side in the air to get their attention.
Teal'c and O'Neill were standing some twenty feet away, investigating some sort of remains. It had turned out to be nothing useful in the end... simply a bird that had died of natural causes, whatever those natural causes were.
O'Neill jogged over to where Carter was knelt, and waited for her news.
"Sir, look at this," she said, pointing at a black object lying on the ground.
O'Neill narrowed his eyes, and sighed as he realised what it was.
A gun.
"Sir, it has to be Jonas'."
He looked down at Carter, and said, "I know that, Major."
"Well at least we're going in the right direction, sir," Carter pointed out, picking up the gun, and standing.
"So, we just keep searching," O'Neill sighed, feeling a sinking feeling creep up on him. He would not allow himself to succumb to it though, and pushed it right back down where it had been hiding since all this had began.
"I will lead the way, O'Neill," Teal'c volunteered.
O'Neill nodded, and blinked away the feeling of exhaustion that took the place of the sinking fear. He rubbed his eyes, and glanced skyward. It was close to night now, and the sun had taken refuge in the heavy clouds that had rolled in.
It looked like it was going to rain.
* * *
Feeling dizzy and light-headed, he forced his eyes to open, wincing at the burning in his leg. He remembered feeling the sharp claws... or teeth tear into his leg, and then getting knocked to the ground with enough force to knock the wind out of him. The shot he had fired had been wide, missing the huge animal by about two feet.
Groaning, he realised he was unable to move, and even in the almost complete darkness, he glanced down at himself. Some sort of thick, sticky substance covered most of his legs and lower body, restricting pretty much all of his movement. One of his arms was mostly free, but it pained him to move... though he was unsure why. His chest was partially coated, long strips of whatever it was stretching over him, keeping him firmly secured to the wall.
He knew his feet weren't even touching the floor, that was for certain. He was a lot taller than he remembered being about... how long had he been out?
As he moved his head, he felt the cold of the substance touching his neck, and even the side of his head, mingling with something warm, and equally damp. He suddenly remembered why he was feeling so light-headed.
The creature had given him quite a nasty blow to the head, knocking him out, before obviously dragging him here... wherever here was.
Jonas pulled against the substance, using all of his strength in his failing attempts, only succeeding in exhausting himself.
Looking down at his jacket, he caught sight of his only remaining piece of equipment. His radio, still in its little pouch.
Without moving his arms though, it was practically useless. He was unable to reach it.
As he continued to struggle futilely against whatever it was locking him to the wall, he recalled the Colonel's mocking words about the predator living in a cave. Well, it turned out, just as Carter had said, the Colonel was right this time. Sam had said the Colonel could once in a while get something right. Did it have to be this time though?
Taking a deep breath against the hurt it caused him to move, Jonas took a chance in calling out, "Hello?"
When he received no response, he settled for just yelling for help over and over, before he basically collapsed back against the wall, his body feeling drained.
He felt weak, his energy gone entirely. He had no strength left, and decided that remaining still for a while would be a good idea. That would give him time to think about his problem.
That was when he caught sight of movement. Over in the far corner of the cave, something was shifting, seemingly writhing.
Then he realised just what was going on. It was a sack of some kind, and it was opening, a sharp claw penetrating the same substance that covered him now.
Jonas felt a wash of panic then, and held his breath without thinking about it.
He saw a limb stretch out from behind the sack wall, and then another, before a shadowy head emerged. A low grumble of a growl was heard, just as the rest of the body became visible.
Standing on four legs, it reached at least four feet. Its long legs bent in much the same way as a carnivorous predator on Earth, and its head seemed too long and thin for its body. It was thin, much longer than it was wide, and seemed to be covered in small hairs, its coat nowhere near thick enough to keep its mass warm.
Maybe that was what the sack was for. Maybe it was some sort of hibernation chamber.
Or not, he thought, even as the creature began to pad on huge feet over to him, its yellow eyes not leaving his. It growled, revealing teeth, sharp and numerous.
To his surprise, as it came to a stop before him, it reared up slightly on its hind legs, and hovered, glaring him right in the eye. Its forelegs hung before it, bent at the elbow, but not in any position to be conceived as dangerous.
With a twitch of its short ears, it blinked, and cocked its head at him.
A sort of guttural noise emanated from it then, and Jonas, even through the exhaustion, was intrigued.
Had that been a word?
* * *
Sam knocked a branch aside as they walked, growing impatient with the amount of foliage that seemed to want to deny them entry into the thicker, deeper, and frankly, darker parts of the seemingly never-endless forest.
She was soaked from head to toe, the thick trees and bushes provided a surprisingly little amount of shelter from the rain that decided to fall heavily from the heavens shortly after they had located Jonas' dropped handgun.
I hope he's dry, wherever he is, she found herself thinking hopefully, clinging desperately to the belief that the Kelownan was still alive. She wasn't the biggest optimist in the galaxy, but she had her moments.
"Alright, kids," Colonel O'Neill began tiredly, "we're not going to do anyone any good if we drop down from exhaustion. Time to find some shelter for the night."
"It would appear that the only shelter is provided in the forms of trees and bushes, O'Neill," Teal'c provided helpfully, stopping in a small clearing roughly ten feet in diameter.
"Thank you for that," O'Neill grumbled, rather irritably. The late hours were catching up on him, and when Sam glanced at her watch, she recognised the hour as close on ten. Had they really been walking that long? Where had all the hours gone? She hadn't even noticed the darkness that had enveloped them sneakily over the short period of time.
"Alright, we make camp right here," O'Neill told them, gripping his P- 90, "and I take first watch."
"No, O'Neill, I should be the one to watch over the campsite first," Teal'c protested calmly, regarding his commanding officer insistently.
"Why's that?"
"Because, as you said, O'Neill, we will not do anyone any good if we are unconscious. I am able to remain awake for a great number of hours without rest. This makes me a good choice to take watch."
"Fine," O'Neill mumbled, too exhausted to argue.
Sam would have smiled if they hadn't been searching for a lost teammate.
A wounded lost teammate.
* * *
Life.
That was what it had said to him. Life. But why? And how? Surely it hadn't evolved enough to form words coherently. True, Jonas had struggled to make out the single word in all the guttural growling and grumbling, but that was what the creature had said to him.
He had tried another three times to break free of the bonds that held him firmly, and extremely effectively to the wall, without much success at all. Apart from, once again, succumbing to complete and utter exhaustion.
Jonas let his head thud against the back wall, grumbling in annoyance to himself afterwards at the throbbing that started as a result, and sighed loudly.
Why am I always the one who gets in trouble?
Maybe it had always been this way... perhaps Dr. Jackson had always been the one to fall victim to the annoyingly dangerous threat or trap.
He groaned, and shook his head, feeling the dizziness and nausea return rather suddenly.
Succeeding in holding it back, he let out a slow breath, and clenched his uncovered fist. It was his right hand, the left having been completely covered over by the restricting substance that covered most of the wall around him.
Jonas had managed to pick out other shapes in the dark corners of the cave, and frankly, the result of identification had frightened him understandably. Skeletons littered the walls, covered in thinning and stringy versions of the substance that was all over him now.
As his mind wandered, he could feel the cold of it touching his skin beneath his clothing, and he found himself puzzling over how it could have penetrated the thick vest, jacket and T-shirt. The only thing that felt reasonably normal were his feet, the skin of the boots to thick for the substance to penetrate.
As his eyes became heavier, he tried one last desperate, and rather weak call for help.
Hearing nothing but the soft falling of rain in response, he allowed himself to pass into comforting darkness.
