Disclaimer: Please see chapter one for full disclaimer.
Another Trip into Wonderland
Chapter Two
Teal'c was the first to regain consciousness. Sitting up slowly, he took in his surroundings noting the lack of light in the lab. 'Perhaps the energy emitted from the device has something to do with the lack of illumination' he thought to himself. The second thing he noticed, thanks to the small band of light coming from the corridor, were the unconscious bodies of his friends scattered on the floor. At least he hoped they were merely unconscious. Moving to where the Colonel lay, he placed his fingers against the man's throat and sat quietly for a moment. Feeling a steady pulse at the base of his friend's neck, the Jaffa breathed a small sigh of relief. Evidently the device had merely rendered them unconscious after all. "O'Neill," the Jaffa called, gently shaking the Colonel. Receiving no response from his friend, he shook him a little harder and repeated in a louder voice "O'Neill, you must awaken."
That was enough to bring the commanding officer of SG-1 back to consciousness. Grabbing his head, he sat up and groggily looked around. "What the …" he muttered in confusion as he surveyed the scene before him. The last thing he remembered was heading towards Carter's lab for lunch and then… 'Oh yeah, another ARTIFACT' he thought to himself as he recalled the strange pink light and the ear breaking noise the device had emitted. "Teal'c?"
"It is I, O'Neill," the warrior acknowledged.
"What happened? The last thing I remember is the noise from that doohickey Carter was fiddling with. And what happened to the lights in this place?" he asked as he stood up.
"It seems we were rendered unconscious by the device that Major Carter and Daniel Jackson were examining. They both remain unconscious at this time" Teal'c replied looking to the bodies of his remaining friends.
"Let's wake them up. Maybe Carter can figure out what went wrong. Somehow, I doubt that thing was created just to knock people out" the Colonel grumbled as he made his way over to his second in command.
"It would make for an effective weapon if that should prove to be its purpose" the Jaffa pointed out.
"True" Jack agreed. "Set the doohickey up in a room full of enemies, push the button and whamo! It's instant naptime for those who ail you. The only problem is that you have to knock yourself out in the process."
"Indeed" the man agreed.
Turning his attention back to Sam he gently nudged her in an effort to wake her. "Carter" he called softly waiting for her to regain consciousness. Not receiving a response, he pulled her unconscious form into a sitting position and called more insistently "Major Carter wake up and that's an order!" As he had figured, Sam began to emerge from her sleeping state and gazed around the room, her face twisting questioningly in a display of momentary confusion. 'Always the good little soldier' he thought to himself wryly.
"Sir?" she asked as she recognized the form of her commanding officer hovering over her.
"Welcome back to the land of the living Carter" the Colonel replied as he helped her stand up. "It seems your doohickey over there put the whammy on us and we all took a little nap. Any ideas on what went wrong?"
"No sir, at least not yet. Where's Daniel?" she asked as she attempted to look around the lab.
"Right here" the archeologist replied after thanking Teal'c for his assistance. "How long have we been out and what happened to the lights?"
Pulling his sleeve up, Jack pushed the small button on his watch that would illuminate the faceplate and gasped. "Four hours?" he all but shouted in disbelief, poking at the timepiece to see if it had malfunctioned.
Hearing his exclamation, each member looked at their own watches in turn and confirmed the Colonel's findings. It had indeed been four hours since the device had been activated.
Not understanding what was going on but knowing that he had to do something, Jack turned his attention to Daniel. "Daniel, turn the lights back on. I'm tired of running around in the dark. Carter, I want you and Daniel to figure out what that thing is supposed to do. Teal'c and I will go talk to Hammond. And does anyone else have a hard time believing that NOBODY came by in the last four hours or noticed our absence… or is it just me?" he called over his shoulder as he and Teal'c exited the room in search of General Hammond.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
"Something's not right" Jack murmured as he and Teal'c walked through the deserted corridors.
"Indeed" the Jaffa agreed. "Should there not be SGC personnel on duty this afternoon?"
"Ah, yeah" Jack confirmed. "We've yet to see one person and why is the entire base on back-up generators and emergency lighting? What the heck happened in the last four hours?"
"I do not know O'Neill but I do not think we will find General Hammond on this base" Teal'c replied.
"I'm beginning to agree with you," the Colonel grumbled as they stepped into the General's office. "Great, it's deserted, just like everything else around here. Let's head to the gate room and see if we can find anything there that will help us figure this mess out."
A couple of minutes later after checking the control room and finding it empty they walked into the gate room and looked around. "I don't see anything out of the ordinary, do you?" the Colonel asked his teammate.
"I do not" Teal'c replied with a very grim expression on his face. "There are no signs to indicate hostile forces came through the gate," he concluded as he checked the walls for scorch marks that might have come from staff weapons or any other type of artillery. "Perhaps there was a malfunction that made it necessary for the base to be temporarily evacuated," he suggested.
"Maybe. It would explain the backup generators but it doesn't explain why we were left in Carter's lab. If a base wide evacuation was ordered then a quick sweep would have been done to check for stragglers. Or in this case…us" the Colonel said. "Why don't you search the control room while I make some phone calls in the briefing room."
"Very well O'Neill" the Jaffa said. With a small nod of his head, he exited the gate room and headed toward the control room hoping to turn up something that would help explain what had taken place while they were asleep.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Jack O'Neill sat at the long briefing table and slammed the phone down for the fourth time. Annoyed and confused, he sighed and placed his head in his hands. "It just doesn't make sense," he muttered in frustration for the umpteenth time as he looked around the briefing room.
"I concur" called the Jaffa's voice from the doorway. Striding further into the room, he paused at the briefing table and claimed his customary seat.
"So…did you find anything?" the Colonel asked with a facial expression that clearly said he already knew the Jaffa had not.
"There was nothing to assist us in our search O'Neill" the man responded. "However, the computer data regarding the last gate coordinates has been erased."
"The phones aren't working either. I can get a dial tone but no answer. Not even from an outside operator. And from the state of things around here it almost looks as if the base had been quarantined, which means that the only way out would have been through the stargate" the Colonel mused.
"It is indeed puzzling. Perhaps Major Carter and Daniel Jackson have had more success in their endeavors" Teal'c suggested.
"Yeah maybe. Let's head back to the lab and check in," the Colonel said as he stood and made his way to the door. Taking a final look around the briefing room, he paused momentarily and shook his head. "I don't know Teal'c. Do things seem a little 'off' to you?"
"Off?" the Jaffa questioned.
"Yeah, you know…off. Not quite right. Sort of different and…out of place" he elaborated, trying to explain something to his friend that he couldn't quite yet clarify in his own mind.
"We are the only members of the SGC remaining on the base O'Neill," Teal'c reasoned. "However, things do seem to be 'off'" he agreed.
They made the journey to Sam's lab in complete silence, each man's mind running through countless of possible scenarios in an attempt to explain the oddities they were now faced with. However, it was clear that one thing could no longer be denied: SG-1 was alone in the underground base and they were no closer to an explanation…
TBC
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