Thanks to Naliza for being a wonderful Beta. !! I'd be lost without you!!
I also want to thank everyone who reviewed 'Shadows and Whispers', I would have given up if it wasn't for all the support I received!! :-) More feedback for this please!! ;-)
I don't own Stargate, the characters blah, blah, blah! You know the drill!!
The title comes from the Turin Breaks song, taken from their excellent album 'Ether Song' I don't have permission to use it but please don't sue me, I have nothing to take anyway. Wasn't totally convinced about the title but didn't know what else to call it.
Please, please review this, I need to know what you think!
*~*
The Stargate on P5J 347 shut down, leaving the four members of SG-1 standing in a small clearing of a sub-tropical forest.
The commander of the unit, Colonel Jack O'Neill looked around and sighed.
Turning to his second in command, Major Samantha Carter he asked, "Carter, you sure we haven't been here before? It looks very familiar."
"Yes sir, I'm sure." O'Neill did not look convinced by her answer.
"Another fun filled two days with more trees and moss," Jack said dryly. "And of course, the ever popular mineral and biological survey."
Looking at the team he noted the different expressions. Carter appeared almost excited, at the very least interested. Dr Daniel Jackson, the SG-1 archaeologist and linguist looked bored at the prospect of two days with no apparent civilization to study. Teal'c, the resident Jaffa looked as stoic as ever.
"Come on kids; let's make camp before we get started", Jack added, grabbed his pack and headed out towards the forest. The rest of the team followed suite and trekked into the dense woodland.
*~*
Jack and Daniel were relieved when the sun began to set. Neither of them enjoyed mineral survey missions. Jack in particular had frequently voiced his disdain for such missions. After a number of years Major-General George Hammond, the long suffering commander of the SGC, started giving SG-1 less of these missions if only to stop O'Neill from complaining too much. Carter had spent much of the day collecting soil and local flora samples.
They headed to their designated campsite. As the sun began to set it seemed as if the bugs of the planet decided to come out in force.
The team sat around the fireplace in silence eating the always exciting MRE's. Daniel heard that there were some varieties which tasted good but even after four years; he had not found one which tasted even remotely like it should be. But he had learned not to complain, especially as Jack would remind him of all the unusual things he had eaten when on archaeological digs around the world.
By the time they finished eating they were being plagued by whatever passed for mosquitoes in that corner of the galaxy. Despite the liberal amounts of insect repellent they applied, much of the evening was spent swatting bugs away from themselves. They slept under heavily treated mosquito nets, which allowed some protection, but no one enjoyed their watch. The night air was punctuated with the occasional slap as a mosquito attempted to get its evening meal.
Sam was given the last watch of the night, as the sun came up the mosquitoes renewed their attack but thankfully stopped by the time the sun had fully risen. Sam put some coffee on. Daniel needed at least one cup of coffee in the morning before he could speak coherently and while O'Neill was nowhere near as bad he was still easier to get along with after a decent cup of coffee.
*~*
By that afternoon and the end of the mission everyone was relieved. The preliminary analysis Sam had done with her 'doohickies', as O'Neill called them, had shown nothing of interest, there was nothing to keep them here.
When they arrived back at the SGC they were all clambering for a shower. The insect repellent they used was not exactly pleasantly scented at the best of times but with the amount of the stuff they had used over the past two days they all smelt pretty ripe. The humid climate of the planet had not helped the smell.
Carter was glad that it was her turn to hit the showers first. She tried to shower as quickly as she could while still removing all traces of the insect repellent. She tossed her dirty uniform in the container, which was treated as a biohazard and not just because of the colonel's socks. She pulled on a clean pair of BDU's and after briefly towel drying her hair and running a comb through it she left the locker room. Unusually O'Neill, Daniel and Teal'c were waiting outside.
"Doc Fraiser didn't want us in the infirmary at the moment, I think we're a bit ripe. I mean what do they expect after two days in a rainforest and that damned bug spray."
"Yes sir." Carter said smiling and walked to the infirmary, leaving Jack, Daniel and Teal'c to shower.
Dr. Janet Fraiser, the chief medical officer of the SGC, was waiting in the infirmary for SG-1 to arrive so she could carry out their post mission physicals. She looked up from her paperwork as Sam entered.
"Hey Sam, how was it."
"Hot, with lots of mosquitoes and not a lot else."
Janet smiled at the reply. Sometimes she wished she could go off-world regularly and other times, like this, she was happy to stay in her air-conditioned infirmary.
"Come on, lets get this over and done with", Sam said sitting on one of the beds.
"Are you still coming over tonight? Cassie's looking forward to seeing you. You can still come right?"
"Of course. It's not every day Cassie wins the science fair", Sam said, the pride evident in her face. "Colonel O'Neill's looking forward to it; he was saying he hasn't seen Cass for ages."
After being cleared by Dr Fraiser, SG-1 headed to their respective offices. After a couple of hours, most of which O'Neill spent trying to distract Carter and Daniel from their work in a bid not to do his own which had begun to pile up, they decided to call it a day and head over to Janet's to celebrate Cassie's achievement.
*~*
"Hey congratulations Cass", Sam said as Cassandra opened the door and she pulled the teenager in to a hug.
"Yeah, good work Cassie", Daniel added giving her a quick hug as he entered.
"An outstanding achievement Cassandra Fraiser", Teal'c stated before following Daniel into the house.
"Hey Cass, when did you go geek on me? I had such high hopes for you!" Jack commented.
"What do you expect, with mom and Sam, you think they'd forgive me if I got a bad grade in science?" Cassie laughed in reply.
"It's a hard life Cass." Jack said sarcastically.
"Tell me about it", she replied with an equal amount of sarcasm in her voice, Jack's sense of humour had rubbed off on her, much to her adopted mothers dismay.
"So you been anywhere nice recently Jack?"
"I wish."
Cassie immediately regretted asking as he started complaining about the weather, the bugs, the bug spray and everything else associated with the last mission. Cassie raised her eyebrows and smiled, asking Jack about recent missions or hockey was almost as dangerous as asking Sam how something worked. On seeing her look Jack stopped his tirade.
"Colonel, can I get you a drink?" Janet asked as Jack and Cassie entered the kitchen.
As the evening progressed Sam started to feel tired, which didn't escape the ever watchful eye of Dr Fraiser.
"Sam, you alright?"
"Yeah, just tired."
"You sure?"
"Yes Janet, I'm fine." Janet didn't look totally convinced but let it slide.
"Look Janet, I'm going to head home, get some sleep.
"Do my ears deceive me or did you say you were going to go and sleep. Seriously though I think it's a good idea."
"Very funny Janet. Hey Cass I'm gonna head home, congratulations again."
"Thanks Sam, chess on Saturday?"
"Of course, see you Saturday. See you tomorrow Colonel, Daniel, Teal'c."
"See ya Carter."
"Bye Sam."
Sam let herself out of Janet's house. She made it to her car before erupting in a coughing fit. She waited for the racking coughs to abate before starting the car and driving home. Half way home she had to pull over as she was overcome by another wave of coughs. Sam hated being ill, especially when she was so busy on the base and mentioning it to Janet would be an invitation to be poked, prodded and used as a pin cushion before being told it was the flu and lectured about working too much and not sleeping enough.
When Sam got home she took a couple of Tylenol to stave off the headache she could feel brewing. Filling a glass with water and shedding her clothes and pulling on a warm pair of pyjamas she fell into bed and within minutes was in a restless sleep.
Sam always woke early; years of military service had conditioned her to wake before 6am without an alarm clock. This morning she woke earlier than usual, he head was pounding and her joints were aching. She swallowed another two Tylenol, she kept clear of coffee, she could not face it and that alone told her there was something was wrong. She dressed slowly, which seemed to sap much of her energy.
Driving up to the base Sam had to pull over, painful coughs racked her body. Pulling a Kleenex from her purse and coughing heavily into it she was horrified to find bright red smudge as she pulled it away from her mouth. There was no denying she was ill, seriously ill to be coughing up blood; she knew she needed to get to the infirmary.
She carried on driving, relieved when the familiar sight of Cheyenne Mountain came into view. She parked the car and summoning all the energy she could muster she got out of the car and walked slowly to the security station, she smiled weakly at the airman on the gate and went through the usual signing in process. She made it through the security station and had almost reached the elevator before she was overcome by dizziness and fell to the floor.