.
"Jack, where is she? Why haven't we heard anything from her?" Daniel asked quietly.
He did not reply right away and the silence lengthened. And then, when Daniel thought that Jack was not going to reply, "I wish I knew, Daniel, I wish I knew." That was all he could manage.
====o0o==== End Part 2 ====o0o====
.
PART 3: SORTIE
.
Throughout the night, he stopped by the briefing room to check on the progress of the timeline boards. The task forces worked in shifts through the night. The main timeline became more and more detailed and busy with annotations. Someone had brought the starmap over and the planets visited and connected to were being marked and circled and referenced to the main timeline.
The timeline along the bottom remained where it had the night before, with no new information added explaining what had happened next to one Major Sam Carter.
Walking into the room around 8am, Jack saw a young, wounded Captain leaning on crutches in front of the boards. The airman's right leg trouser was cut off just about mid-thigh and the lower part of his thigh was swathed in bandages.
"Captain," O'Neill alerted the young officer to his presence.
The Captain started a little at suddenly realizing that he was no longer alone. "Sir," he properly replied.
"Son, you don't look like you are supposed to be out of the infirmary yet," Jack observed.
The Captain looked a little sheepish, "Well, actually sir, I….well, I was…," and his voice trailed off in uncertainty.
"Don't worry, Captain, I am not going to report you AWOL from the infirmary, nor am I going to sick the docs after you – unless you face-plant on the floor here….," he reassured the young soldier. He hated being confined to the infirmary and he was not going to rat out someone who'd managed a small escape.
"Thank you, sir," the Captain replied with obvious relief. "Um, sir, is this accurate? Do you really… not have any more information regarding Major Carter?" and he gestured at the lower timeline.
"I'm afraid not, Captain," Jack could see the concern on the Captain's face. "Did you know the Major well?"
"Um, well, sir, not well actually…but, sir, I can tell you where Major Carter was for these 3 or 4 days here…," and he gestured at the next portion of the lower timeline.
Jack didn't reply immediately. He just looked at the young Captain's face and tried to read the answers there without words. Not getting enough information, he decided to go straight for the bonus question. "Was she alive when you last saw her?"
"Yes, sir. Injured, but alive, sir," the Captain replied.
"Where was she when you last saw her?" he asked next.
"P4X-157, sir." The number and letter designation didn't ring any bells for Jack, but SGC personnel had gated to, from, and between so many planets over the last week, that it had become an alphabet soup to Jack. "Those of us who were injured were sent back to Earth and I don't know where Major Carter went from P4X-157. She should have come with us…"
O'Neill nodded and then called Sergeant Greval into the briefing room. "Sergeant, Captain….?"
"Wilson, sir," the Captain supplied.
"Captain Wilson here," O'Neill continued, "has information regarding the mission on P4X-157 and information regarding Major Carter. Go and find out who is working on any missions regarding this planet – and get that information back to me ASAP."
"Yes, sir," Sgt. Greval replied and then saluted and exited smartly.
"Allright," Jack gestured to the empty chairs, "Captain, why don't you take a seat. I have to call a couple of folks and then I'd like you to tell us what you know about those 3 or 4 days."
"Yes, sir," Thomas replied, negotiating his stiff leg while lowering himself into one of the offered chairs.
Jack stepped over to the phone and dialed Daniel's quarters, and then his lab, and then Teal'c's quarters. Receiving no reply from any of his attempts, he turned back to the now-seated Captain. "Son, I'll be back in a few minutes, I have to see if I can track down the other members of SG-1."
"Yes, sir," the Captain replied again.
Stepping quickly out of the room, Jack checked the commissary and the infirmary, and then Sam's lab and Daniel's lab again – and he could not find any sign of either Daniel or Teal'c. Next he started touring the various rooms where the task forces were working and interviews were being held. He finally found them watching one of the interviews of the rescued SG-14 personnel.
"Hey, Daniel, Teal'c," he got their attention.
"Hi, Jack," "O'Neill," they each replied.
"Come with me to the briefing room. I have a Captain Wilson there who says he knows something about Carter's whereabouts over the next 3 or 4 days of the timeline. And, before you ask - he said that she was alive, although injured, when he last saw her. He also said that he didn't know where she went after he last saw her." Jack tried to bring them up to speed quickly with the information that he knew that they would want first.
Daniel nodded, "Lead the way, Jack."
==========================
Back in the briefing room, the men of SG-1 took seats around the table with Captain Wilson. After the instructions had been made, Jack asked the Captain to relate the events of those few days for them all.
"Yes, sir. My squadron and two others were tasked to fly some Tokra-acquired death gliders in an assault against some of the system lords," the Captain began and Jack took a sharp breath. THAT mission??? The Captain saw the look on the Colonel's face and nodded affirmatively and continued, "Yes, sir, we were your support and 'space' cover."
Memories flooded through Jack's mind. Events had been so tense and supercharged. They had had one slim chance of making it work – and they had. At a pretty high cost – they had lost many good pilots that day….many good soldiers. O'Neill had been whisked by the Tokra to a secret base where the rebel Go'a'uld had acquired and amassed 30 stolen and/or refurbished death gliders. A couple of squadron of SGC pilots were scrambled to the rebel base, the Tokra had scraped together as many of their own pilots as they could… and then pilots were scrounged from wherever they could be found – pulled from other teams and assignments…. The Tokra had specifically requested that Colonel O'Neill fly one of the lead attack gliders – with one of their new, naquada-enhanced, mother-ship-killer-bombs.
Three Go'a'uld system lords were meeting nearby for a conference regarding a possible new alliance. For the Tokra and the Tauri, this was an opportunity not to be missed. They had 5 of the killer bombs and were planning to split them amongst the 3 mother ship targets. One of the mother ships would only get one bomb, but hopefully, one was more than enough.
Jack remembered how quickly the Tokra had explained the plan to the General and the other officers at the SGC. The squadrons of pilots were commandeered and sent through to the rebel base immediately. Over the next few days, Jack dealt with several other logistical planning sessions, as well as the hourly 'crisis de jour', before gating over with Teal'c to join the final preparations at the Tokra base. O'Neill didn't remember seeing Captain Wilson, but when Jack and Teal'c had arrived, they had been immediately suited up and taken to their gliders. The other pilots were already in their cockpits and final preflight checks were being run through.
"Jack?" Daniel interrupted Jack's reverie.
"Hmmm…oh, sorry, Captain Wilson…," he apologized, "I was just running through that mission in my head. I'm afraid I don't remember you."
"No, sir, there wasn't time for anything like introductions, sir," the Captain responded.
"So, Captain Wilson, where was Sam?" Daniel brought them back to the main objective.
"Yes, sir. They were assembling the pilots that they had scrounged and they were breaking us into typical squads of 4. My squad was missing a man who was out due to a family emergency and Major Carter joined our group to flush us out to 4," the Captain replied.
"MajorCarter flew one of the gliders in the attack?" Teal'c asked for clarification.
"Yes, sir," the Captain responded.
Teal'c looked slightly unsettled and Jack's stomach turned over. Major Sam Carter was a qualified, competent pilot and she had handled the death glider before. Her competency was not the problem. The problem was that both Jack and Teal'c had flown in that attack and neither of them had known that their teammate was with them.
And once more, O'Neill reflected on how many gliders and pilots had been lost on that mission. They didn't have a final list of KIA, yet, as most of the uninjured surviving pilots were currently helping the Tokra relocate the surviving gliders to another base for safe-keeping.
"Allright, Captain, continue," he prompted.
"Sir, I was the squad leader and my wingman, Captain Bontor, was the one of our squad who was on temporary personal leave. I deferred to Major Carter and offered her command of our squad. She declined and stated that she had been injured on a previous mission and directed me to retain command. We were already into our final preflights when you and Mr. Teal'c arrived, sir."
"That sounds about right, Captain," Jack agreed.
-------------------
Maintaining radio silence, they had had a 3 hour flight around some moons and through an asteroid belt before they approached their objectives. They had split their attack force into three subgroups and attacked from separate directions. One group had attacked from below that system's ecliptic. The second group had attacked from above the ecliptic. And the third had flown around a couple of moons and attacked from a tangent to the 3rd mother-ship's orbit.
O'Neill had been in the third group.
They were the group with only one bomb and they couldn't afford to miss.
"Sir, we were part of the group tasked to maintain cover for you and your ship," the Captain continued. Jack was stunned. Carter had been part of -his- group?
"As you know sir, when we finally broke clear of the cover of the moons and asteroids, we were met by a group of Jaffa gliders… and that was a real fur-ball, sir. Our objective was to keep your plane clear so that you could deliver the package," the Captain paused for any comments from the Colonel. Jack was quiet and just nodded for the Captain to continue.
"Sir, I swear that the next 10 minutes seemed like 2 years. Planes were everywhere. And, Colonel, Major Carter is one hell of a pilot. She took out at least 3 Jaffa gliders – one of which had a dead lock on me. She saved my ass at least twice by calling out incoming that I hadn't seen yet."
Jack was mentally back in his glider as the Captain was retelling the attack. O'Neill's glider had been almost in the center of the Captain's 'fur-ball' – the other pilots had done their jobs superbly well as they protected the naquadah bomb that they were attempting to deliver. He had only been able to take out one of the Jaffa gliders himself – most of the time he did not have a clear shot with all of the other ships covering his.
"…..and then one of the Jaffa got a clear shot at the Colonel's plane, and I thought we'd 'screwed the pooch'," the Captain continued…
And Jack remembered that vividly. Someone had yelled over the radio to him, 'Colonel, from your 5-o'clock! Break hard right, -NOW-!'
And he had reacted instantly and he'd seen a fireball almost directly in front and slightly below him as another of their squadron's planes had taken the blast aimed at him.
"Aaaaggghhh…," a strangled noise came out of Jack. "-THAT- was Carter!"
"Yes, sir. Major Carter took the blast that was intended for your ship," the Captain confirmed.
Jack wanted to scream at the world.
Just scream.
All soldiers knew that they could die doing their duty.
None of them wanted to die, however.
And none of them wanted their friends or comrades to die.
And this process of finding out what had happened to Carter was just plain torture!
He remembered that fireball as the other plane took the blast meant for him.
He remembered anger and regret that a fellow pilot had died for him.
He remembered being furious with the Jaffa and the Go'a'uld.
The battle had been over within seconds after that and they'd headed directly for the mother ship and O'Neill had delivered the payload dead on target. The mother ship had exploded in a spectacular display of pyrotechnics as they beat a hasty retreat ahead of the shock waves of flying debris and shrapnel.
"But, Captain, Jack told us that you said that Sam was alive when you saw her at the end of the mission?" Daniel interrupted Jack's reverie.
"Yes, sir. You see, Major Carter's ship was not destroyed by the blast that she took. She and I switched over to our secondary channel to get the sit-rep. The blast damaged her port struts and took out her main engines and most of the controls. She ordered me to stay with the main group and to continue maintaining our guard on your ship. She said that she had enough control to take her ship down to the nearest planet. Since we knew from our pre-mission brief that this planet had a Stargate, she said that she would attempt to get to the gate and return that way."
"I wanted to stay with her sir and follow her down, however, she wouldn't allow me to and she ordered me to continue the mission. She told me that I could see about sending someone through the gate for help after we'd all finished the mission and returned to the Tokra base. I had no choice but to agree and the last I saw of her ship, it was flying sluggishly down towards the planet."
"As you know, sir, we completed the mission and your shot took out the mother-ship. We had a few more Jaffa gliders to deal with as we joined up with the other squadrons after they completed their objectives. Sir, I wanted to inform you personally of Major Carter's situation as soon as we landed back on base. Unfortunately, sir, after we landed, we couldn't find you. Eventually, we were told that you had already gated back to Earth to deal with some other urgent matter."
"We assembled a group of pilots and Tokra to form a search and rescue party for Major Carter. The Tokra dialed the address of the planet that her ship had been heading for. When we arrived, we immediately tried to call her on the radio while we checked for any distress signal from her ship. We knew that she probably wouldn't activate the distress beacon as there could be Jaffa in the area, but we checked for it anyway."
"We didn't need the beacon, however, because she replied almost immediately."
==========================
"Wilson, this is Carter," her voice came over the radio. "What is your status?"
"Major, good to hear your voice, ma'am. We are right in front of the Stargate. We have a 12-man party of pilots and Tokra ready to help get you out of here. Where are you ma'am? And do you have any additional injuries?" Captain Wilson replied.
"Captain, I want you to follow these orders carefully. Leave any extra armament and supplies that you brought cached behind the Stargate. Leave something so that I will recognize where the cache is. Then take your men and get back through the gate. There is a group of several dozen, well-armed and pissed Jaffa hot on my trail. I am going to head away from the gate and will try to lose them and then I'll try to make my way back to the gate after a few days or so," she sent back.
Captain Wilson looked at the rest of his group. "Well, you guys heard the Major, she wants us to leave her here. I'm not leaving here without her. She already saved my butt several times and I already had to leave her behind once. I'm not doing it again," Wilson stated firmly. "However, each of you must make your own decision to stay or go. It's probably a heroic suicide mission if you stay. No one will fault you if you go back now."
Wilson knew that he wasn't commanding a Special Ops Rescue team. These men were pilots. Soldiers, yes. But pilots first and soldiers second. These men were not battle-hardened foot-soldiers who were going to simply take on a group of well-armed Jaffa and win.
Wilson looked around the group and met their gaze one by one. Each of them simply nodded and let him know that they were each staying to help out. No one indicated that they wanted to go back through the gate. Jaffa or no Jaffa.
"OK, Major. Here's the situation," Wilson spoke into the radio, "None of my men are willing to just leave you here," he paused and waited for a response and when none came after a few seconds, he continued, "So, here's what we need, Major, we need you to tell us where you are and you need to tell us how to blow the hell out of those Jaffa so we can all go home. I know it's not fair, ma'am, but we're not getting out of here if you don't give us a hand. Otherwise, we're going to just follow our noses and we'll probably get everyone killed."
Wilson was leaving her no options to sacrifice herself for them. There was silence on the radio and they all knew that she was either really pissed or she was preoccupied with staying ahead of the Jaffa on her tail. Actually, it was probably a little bit of both.
The Captain looked at the others in his group as they waited for the downed pilot to reply.
A few long minutes later, and the radio crackled. "Wilson," and she was obviously running and having trouble talking into the radio at the same time, "…..I am …..going to …..kick …..your butt ……all the way…….to the Asgard galaxy …..and back!"
"Yes, ma'am," he replied respectfully and then just waited.
"Allright, Captain," she continued, "I am approximately 5 clicks north-northeast of the gate. There are approximately 20-30 Jaffa spread out a few clicks behind me to the northeast. I am going to swing slightly north and then head slightly southwest up this north-trending ridge line. If you take your men up the spur and then along the ridgeline… and set half of them on one side and half of them on the other, we might be able to catch the Jaffa by surprise as they come over the ridge after me." She had obviously scrutinized the topographic maps that they'd been given of the area around the Stargate in their survival packets.
"Yes, ma'am. We've got the ridgeline sighted and we're headed up," he informed her as they started up the spur that climbed to the northerly-trending ridgeline.
"Allright, Captain, you have about a half-hour and then you need to find defensible positions with cover on both sides of the ridgeline. Make sure that you have overlapping fields of coverage so that no Jaffa can slip through."
"Do you have any claymores?" she continued.
"Yes, ma'am. Lots actually," the Captain replied.
"Good. Set a line of them just below the ridgeline and on either side and be ready to blow them when needed. Set some others in a roughly east-west direction just to your south so that you can blow them as you fall back," she directed.
"Understood, Ma'am," he replied.
"Allright, I'm going to sign off for a bit while I beat feet up this ridge. Let me know when you've established your position. You'll need to send a man or two out towards me to read the terrain so that you can give me markers so that I can lead them into your set-up."
"Will do, ma'am. We'll be ready for you," and with that, the rescue party settled into the climb up the ridge to get into position and set up their trap. So far, what they had on their side was that the Jaffa didn't apparently know that the Tauri had any sort of rescue mission going. There had been no one waiting at the gate. The Jaffa had apparently figured that they would catch the downed pilot before she made it to the gate. And, the Jaffa were probably a bit confused by the fact that their prey, while seeming to head towards the gate was also inexplicable headed uphill when she could have run along the bottom of the mountain and saved much effort and energy. Hopefully, they just figured that she was one more 'stupid Tauri.'
And just about 40 minutes later, they found what they thought would work. They got their men set up on both sides of the ridge. Some of them were behind solid boulders, others were dug in and behind trees. They set the claymores as she had directed.
When they were in position, Wilson clicked his radio, "Major, we're in position. I am sending two men out to scout the terrain so that we can guide you in."
There was no immediate response and the silence lengthened to several minutes. The Captain waited to give her time to deal with whatever was happening on her end.
And then the radio crackled and her voice came through again, "Roger that, Captain, as you start feeding me landmarks, let me know how close they are to your set-up. I am going to let the Jaffa get real close to me when we come up on you – we need them moving fast and not looking at the terrain. We want them fixed on me – we don't want any of them to see anything amiss before you let all hell break loose on them."
"Yes, ma'am," Wilson replied and then he relayed the instructions to his men.
Then he had to wait.
He checked over everyone's positions again and then double-checked their ammo and grenades. Then he double-checked their planned lines of egress and made sure that everyone knew exactly what they needed to do.
Every man was serious and deadly focused.
They weren't special ops trained, but they looked damn good to him.
And then he heard Thomas and Shiver calling out markers to Carter over the radio. She was changing her course and speed to line herself up with their directions and to get the Jaffa into the position that she wanted. Wilson admired the Major's tactics. She had put together a well-thought out trap – while running from the Jaffa over terrain that she'd never traveled before towards a group of rescuers that she'd only talked to for a few minutes over the radio. They just might make this work – he'd heard that she was smart, but he was still very, very impressed. And, he'd already been impressed by how she'd flown her plane in that nasty dogfight-in-space.
The Captain also sighed as he realized that the one who had the lowest chance of survival here was still Carter. She'd set it up that way. She was taking the highest risks. She'd set up a trap that allowed the rest of them the maximum coverage and support and she was going to 'hang it all out there' to pull this off.
Not that Wilson had a better idea. He was a pilot, not a ground soldier or tactician. So, why was she any good at it, he wondered? He knew that she was an astrophysicist who had flown jets for the US Air Force so that she could work through the track to becoming one of the lucky ones to fly on the Space Shuttle. How in the world, did she end up on SG-1 - which was basically a ground team?
The radio traffic between Thomas, Shiver and Carter was getting faster and then Thomas and Shiver were scooting back to drop into their positions with the rest of them. Thomas signaled Wilson that the Major was about 5 minutes away from reaching them. They wouldn't be able to speak with her now as she was going to let the Jaffa get so close that they might hear the radio - and they couldn't let the Jaffa suspect that there were any other Tauri on this planet.
The next few minutes were silent torture.
Wilson could see his men tense and shift in anticipation.
Then they could hear the sounds of someone running and crashing though the brush. Staff blasts were hitting the trees in the region just ahead of them.
And then the downed pilot burst through the trees and over the ridgeline almost directly down the middle of their trap. Everyone took aim, and one of the Tokra snagged the Major and pulled her down as she came even with his position. Slamming to the ground she turned over and faced back as the Jaffa came charging behind her.
Wilson had his men hold their fire until the Jaffa were almost on top of their positions. Then he signaled for them to fire at the same time that the claymores on either side of the ridgeline went off.
Everyone was showered with flying dirt, tree limbs, rocks and other debris.
And then they were firing as they rolled back in the classic leapfrog covering positions. The Tokra had handed Carter a P90 and she slipped right into their formation. When they had passed the cross-ridge line of claymores, Wilson waited until the Jaffa were right on top of it and then set it off, taking down most of the Jaffa left following them.
The Major was now running next to Captain Wilson as they egressed down the ridge. "Tell your men to run as fast as they can now, Captain, you and I will cover their backs as we come up to the gate."
Nodding, he spoke quickly into his radio and ordered them to fall back to the gate with all possible speed.
Thomas got there first and dialed up the gate and they started diving through. Only a few Jaffa were struggling behind them and sending sporadic staff blasts that were just enough to make them duck and wince as tree and rock shrapnel flew at them from various directions. Carter, Wilson and Thomas were the last three holding the gate and exchanging fire with the few remaining Jaffa.
Carter signaled to the two Captains to make a run for it and she followed right behind them, backing up quickly with her P90 on full automatic. One of the remaining Jaffas scored a final hit when a staff blast hit the side of Captain Wilson's leg just before he stepped through the gate.
Stepping out of the wormhole, they found a scene of semi-organized chaos as the rebel base was being prepped for evacuation. They watched the open gate for pursuit, but none came and the wormhole shut down.
Carter turned to the men who had risked their lives to save her and she shook her head, "I owe you all my life. You pulled that off like trained special ops soldiers. You all impressed the hell out of me."
The various Captains and Lieutenants all smiled at the praise.
"And, Captain Wilson, as soon as your leg has healed, I am still going to personally kick your butt across the galaxy for disobeying my orders and attempting such a stupid mission!" She stated this with mock gravity and a semi-serious glare.
"Just glad that you'll have the chance, ma'am. You know that Colonel O'Neill would have done the honours if we didn't bring you back, so I was going to get that trip across the galaxy one way or the other!" and he grinned at her.
==========================
-Back in the SGC Briefing Room-
"Sir," Captain Wilson continued, "Major Carter didn't appear to have any obvious broken bones, but she had some cuts and bruises on her face and hands that were visible, and she had what looked like electrical burns down her right arm and right leg. I figured that it probably happened when she 'landed'. And, of course, there were the injuries on her back from her previous mission. I couldn't see any other additional apparent injuries."
"A corpsman field-dressed my staff wound and she said that she was going to scare up some grub for us while we waited to gate home. That was the last I saw of her. She didn't return before I was herded through the gate with the other injured," the Captain concluded.
"Its allright, son," O'Neill sent his way. "You did an admirable job. You'll probably get a medal – you and your men deserve one."
"No, sir, Major Carter does. More than one actually. You know, sir, I think that she actually let that Jaffa glider blast hit her plane exactly where she wanted it to. I think lots of pilots might have been able to throw themselves in harm's way in the heat of battle…but, sir, I watched her do it, and I'd swear that she actually thought out how she might be able to take the hit and actually survive." Wilson paused and took a breath before continuing.
"I didn't follow her orders on the planet and I dumped a bad situation into her hands and I made her save us…and I knew what I was doing sir. I'd already seen what she'd do to save fellow teammates and soldiers. She gave us directions and a tactical plan and trap – that worked, sir. Neither I nor my men are special ops trained, sir, and yet we were all impressed by what we were able to set up so fast."
"Sir, she saved my life – again. The truth is that we thought we were on a suicide mission. Heroic and all, we thought we could live - and die with that," the Captain paused again. "Sir, I would take a posting to a non-flying position if it meant that I could serve on a team under Major Carter's command."
"Indeed, you are a wise soldier to realize the wisdom of working with Major Carter," Teal'c intoned approvingly and the Captain looked a little nonplussed and then pleased by the large Jaffa's approval.
"Sir, if there is anything else that I can do…," the Captain finished.
==========================
Captain Wilson had headed back to the infirmary and Jack, Teal'c and Daniel talked about their new information.
"O'Neill, with the times and information given by Captain Wilson, I estimate that Major Carter traveled between 35-45 clicks from her plane to the Stargate," Teal'c informed them. "It is difficult to be more accurate without knowing the terrain, but the rough estimate can be made from my knowledge of the Major's typical ground speed and considering how fast things transpired once the Captain and his men joined her on the planet."
"That sounds about right, Teal'c," Jack agreed. "So, what do we know now? We have her here on the timeline," and Jack marked off the approximate end of the rescue mission on the timeline, "and she has a back full of bruises, welts and cuts and some of them are infected. Even if she is taking the antibiotics, the bandages and dressings haven't been changed in days. She got some injuries from crash landing on the planet. Electrical burns on her right arm and shoulder. And then, once again, she gets to hike with these untreated injuries…in this case hiking over who knows what type of terrain and weather, with pissy Jaffa behind her. At the end of the rescue mission she's probably got a nice fever from the infection and who knows what else that the Captain couldn't see."
"So, where does she go next? Why wasn't she with the Captain and the others who were evacuated to Earth and the infirmary?" Jack asked his teammates for answers that he knew that they didn't have.
"Jack, maybe she went with the Tokra. They know her, and her Dad is one of them. She could be at one of their bases – recovering after they used one of their healing devices. Maybe she's just has to wait until they can get her back home by ship or by Stargate," Daniel voiced hopefully.
Jack didn't think it was likely. Not after finding out what Carter had already been through. Such an easy, happy ending just didn't seem like what the universe was leading up to. But Jack didn't want to slam Daniel's hopes, so he just quietly said, "Maybe, Daniel, and I just hope you are right."
==========================
Sitting in the briefing room a few hours later, he stared at the timelines. The general SGC timeline was becoming crowded and people were writing smaller and smaller as events and general details were added to the growing picture. His eyes then traveled down his Major's timeline and he pondered the possibilities of where she could be.
One, she could be with the Tokra, and they might just be waiting until they could get a ship back to Earth, or perhaps they were preoccupied and it just wasn't safe for her to gate home.
Two, perhaps she was with the last mission that was still in-progress? Another day or two and those soldiers should be returning….but that mission was to a planet on the other side of the galaxy from where Carter had last been seen by Captain Wilson. Of course, the Stargate made galactic distances almost irrelevant. Almost. How could she have been pulled into that mission from the evacuation site of the Tokra base? It seemed pretty unlikely….
Three, she was on one of their backup transfer sites/caches and the Stargate wouldn't work, or she couldn't get to it. They were setting up clean-up teams who were going to visit each of these sites and check on the status of the planets and clean up or replace any used or broken materials. Perhaps they would find her there…or some indication of what had happened to her.
Four, she was captured or dead. He hated even considering these options, but it was hard not to think about them almost constantly. The longer they went without information and the longer they went without hearing from her, the more unlikely that she would be found alive and well.
Staring blackly at the now-crowded whiteboard, he decided to take a walk, stretch his legs and see what Daniel and Teal'c were up to. Maybe they were following a lead that he hadn't thought of.
.
====o0o==== End Part 3 ====o0o====
.
"Jack, where is she? Why haven't we heard anything from her?" Daniel asked quietly.
He did not reply right away and the silence lengthened. And then, when Daniel thought that Jack was not going to reply, "I wish I knew, Daniel, I wish I knew." That was all he could manage.
====o0o==== End Part 2 ====o0o====
.
PART 3: SORTIE
.
Throughout the night, he stopped by the briefing room to check on the progress of the timeline boards. The task forces worked in shifts through the night. The main timeline became more and more detailed and busy with annotations. Someone had brought the starmap over and the planets visited and connected to were being marked and circled and referenced to the main timeline.
The timeline along the bottom remained where it had the night before, with no new information added explaining what had happened next to one Major Sam Carter.
Walking into the room around 8am, Jack saw a young, wounded Captain leaning on crutches in front of the boards. The airman's right leg trouser was cut off just about mid-thigh and the lower part of his thigh was swathed in bandages.
"Captain," O'Neill alerted the young officer to his presence.
The Captain started a little at suddenly realizing that he was no longer alone. "Sir," he properly replied.
"Son, you don't look like you are supposed to be out of the infirmary yet," Jack observed.
The Captain looked a little sheepish, "Well, actually sir, I….well, I was…," and his voice trailed off in uncertainty.
"Don't worry, Captain, I am not going to report you AWOL from the infirmary, nor am I going to sick the docs after you – unless you face-plant on the floor here….," he reassured the young soldier. He hated being confined to the infirmary and he was not going to rat out someone who'd managed a small escape.
"Thank you, sir," the Captain replied with obvious relief. "Um, sir, is this accurate? Do you really… not have any more information regarding Major Carter?" and he gestured at the lower timeline.
"I'm afraid not, Captain," Jack could see the concern on the Captain's face. "Did you know the Major well?"
"Um, well, sir, not well actually…but, sir, I can tell you where Major Carter was for these 3 or 4 days here…," and he gestured at the next portion of the lower timeline.
Jack didn't reply immediately. He just looked at the young Captain's face and tried to read the answers there without words. Not getting enough information, he decided to go straight for the bonus question. "Was she alive when you last saw her?"
"Yes, sir. Injured, but alive, sir," the Captain replied.
"Where was she when you last saw her?" he asked next.
"P4X-157, sir." The number and letter designation didn't ring any bells for Jack, but SGC personnel had gated to, from, and between so many planets over the last week, that it had become an alphabet soup to Jack. "Those of us who were injured were sent back to Earth and I don't know where Major Carter went from P4X-157. She should have come with us…"
O'Neill nodded and then called Sergeant Greval into the briefing room. "Sergeant, Captain….?"
"Wilson, sir," the Captain supplied.
"Captain Wilson here," O'Neill continued, "has information regarding the mission on P4X-157 and information regarding Major Carter. Go and find out who is working on any missions regarding this planet – and get that information back to me ASAP."
"Yes, sir," Sgt. Greval replied and then saluted and exited smartly.
"Allright," Jack gestured to the empty chairs, "Captain, why don't you take a seat. I have to call a couple of folks and then I'd like you to tell us what you know about those 3 or 4 days."
"Yes, sir," Thomas replied, negotiating his stiff leg while lowering himself into one of the offered chairs.
Jack stepped over to the phone and dialed Daniel's quarters, and then his lab, and then Teal'c's quarters. Receiving no reply from any of his attempts, he turned back to the now-seated Captain. "Son, I'll be back in a few minutes, I have to see if I can track down the other members of SG-1."
"Yes, sir," the Captain replied again.
Stepping quickly out of the room, Jack checked the commissary and the infirmary, and then Sam's lab and Daniel's lab again – and he could not find any sign of either Daniel or Teal'c. Next he started touring the various rooms where the task forces were working and interviews were being held. He finally found them watching one of the interviews of the rescued SG-14 personnel.
"Hey, Daniel, Teal'c," he got their attention.
"Hi, Jack," "O'Neill," they each replied.
"Come with me to the briefing room. I have a Captain Wilson there who says he knows something about Carter's whereabouts over the next 3 or 4 days of the timeline. And, before you ask - he said that she was alive, although injured, when he last saw her. He also said that he didn't know where she went after he last saw her." Jack tried to bring them up to speed quickly with the information that he knew that they would want first.
Daniel nodded, "Lead the way, Jack."
==========================
Back in the briefing room, the men of SG-1 took seats around the table with Captain Wilson. After the instructions had been made, Jack asked the Captain to relate the events of those few days for them all.
"Yes, sir. My squadron and two others were tasked to fly some Tokra-acquired death gliders in an assault against some of the system lords," the Captain began and Jack took a sharp breath. THAT mission??? The Captain saw the look on the Colonel's face and nodded affirmatively and continued, "Yes, sir, we were your support and 'space' cover."
Memories flooded through Jack's mind. Events had been so tense and supercharged. They had had one slim chance of making it work – and they had. At a pretty high cost – they had lost many good pilots that day….many good soldiers. O'Neill had been whisked by the Tokra to a secret base where the rebel Go'a'uld had acquired and amassed 30 stolen and/or refurbished death gliders. A couple of squadron of SGC pilots were scrambled to the rebel base, the Tokra had scraped together as many of their own pilots as they could… and then pilots were scrounged from wherever they could be found – pulled from other teams and assignments…. The Tokra had specifically requested that Colonel O'Neill fly one of the lead attack gliders – with one of their new, naquada-enhanced, mother-ship-killer-bombs.
Three Go'a'uld system lords were meeting nearby for a conference regarding a possible new alliance. For the Tokra and the Tauri, this was an opportunity not to be missed. They had 5 of the killer bombs and were planning to split them amongst the 3 mother ship targets. One of the mother ships would only get one bomb, but hopefully, one was more than enough.
Jack remembered how quickly the Tokra had explained the plan to the General and the other officers at the SGC. The squadrons of pilots were commandeered and sent through to the rebel base immediately. Over the next few days, Jack dealt with several other logistical planning sessions, as well as the hourly 'crisis de jour', before gating over with Teal'c to join the final preparations at the Tokra base. O'Neill didn't remember seeing Captain Wilson, but when Jack and Teal'c had arrived, they had been immediately suited up and taken to their gliders. The other pilots were already in their cockpits and final preflight checks were being run through.
"Jack?" Daniel interrupted Jack's reverie.
"Hmmm…oh, sorry, Captain Wilson…," he apologized, "I was just running through that mission in my head. I'm afraid I don't remember you."
"No, sir, there wasn't time for anything like introductions, sir," the Captain responded.
"So, Captain Wilson, where was Sam?" Daniel brought them back to the main objective.
"Yes, sir. They were assembling the pilots that they had scrounged and they were breaking us into typical squads of 4. My squad was missing a man who was out due to a family emergency and Major Carter joined our group to flush us out to 4," the Captain replied.
"MajorCarter flew one of the gliders in the attack?" Teal'c asked for clarification.
"Yes, sir," the Captain responded.
Teal'c looked slightly unsettled and Jack's stomach turned over. Major Sam Carter was a qualified, competent pilot and she had handled the death glider before. Her competency was not the problem. The problem was that both Jack and Teal'c had flown in that attack and neither of them had known that their teammate was with them.
And once more, O'Neill reflected on how many gliders and pilots had been lost on that mission. They didn't have a final list of KIA, yet, as most of the uninjured surviving pilots were currently helping the Tokra relocate the surviving gliders to another base for safe-keeping.
"Allright, Captain, continue," he prompted.
"Sir, I was the squad leader and my wingman, Captain Bontor, was the one of our squad who was on temporary personal leave. I deferred to Major Carter and offered her command of our squad. She declined and stated that she had been injured on a previous mission and directed me to retain command. We were already into our final preflights when you and Mr. Teal'c arrived, sir."
"That sounds about right, Captain," Jack agreed.
-------------------
Maintaining radio silence, they had had a 3 hour flight around some moons and through an asteroid belt before they approached their objectives. They had split their attack force into three subgroups and attacked from separate directions. One group had attacked from below that system's ecliptic. The second group had attacked from above the ecliptic. And the third had flown around a couple of moons and attacked from a tangent to the 3rd mother-ship's orbit.
O'Neill had been in the third group.
They were the group with only one bomb and they couldn't afford to miss.
"Sir, we were part of the group tasked to maintain cover for you and your ship," the Captain continued. Jack was stunned. Carter had been part of -his- group?
"As you know sir, when we finally broke clear of the cover of the moons and asteroids, we were met by a group of Jaffa gliders… and that was a real fur-ball, sir. Our objective was to keep your plane clear so that you could deliver the package," the Captain paused for any comments from the Colonel. Jack was quiet and just nodded for the Captain to continue.
"Sir, I swear that the next 10 minutes seemed like 2 years. Planes were everywhere. And, Colonel, Major Carter is one hell of a pilot. She took out at least 3 Jaffa gliders – one of which had a dead lock on me. She saved my ass at least twice by calling out incoming that I hadn't seen yet."
Jack was mentally back in his glider as the Captain was retelling the attack. O'Neill's glider had been almost in the center of the Captain's 'fur-ball' – the other pilots had done their jobs superbly well as they protected the naquadah bomb that they were attempting to deliver. He had only been able to take out one of the Jaffa gliders himself – most of the time he did not have a clear shot with all of the other ships covering his.
"…..and then one of the Jaffa got a clear shot at the Colonel's plane, and I thought we'd 'screwed the pooch'," the Captain continued…
And Jack remembered that vividly. Someone had yelled over the radio to him, 'Colonel, from your 5-o'clock! Break hard right, -NOW-!'
And he had reacted instantly and he'd seen a fireball almost directly in front and slightly below him as another of their squadron's planes had taken the blast aimed at him.
"Aaaaggghhh…," a strangled noise came out of Jack. "-THAT- was Carter!"
"Yes, sir. Major Carter took the blast that was intended for your ship," the Captain confirmed.
Jack wanted to scream at the world.
Just scream.
All soldiers knew that they could die doing their duty.
None of them wanted to die, however.
And none of them wanted their friends or comrades to die.
And this process of finding out what had happened to Carter was just plain torture!
He remembered that fireball as the other plane took the blast meant for him.
He remembered anger and regret that a fellow pilot had died for him.
He remembered being furious with the Jaffa and the Go'a'uld.
The battle had been over within seconds after that and they'd headed directly for the mother ship and O'Neill had delivered the payload dead on target. The mother ship had exploded in a spectacular display of pyrotechnics as they beat a hasty retreat ahead of the shock waves of flying debris and shrapnel.
"But, Captain, Jack told us that you said that Sam was alive when you saw her at the end of the mission?" Daniel interrupted Jack's reverie.
"Yes, sir. You see, Major Carter's ship was not destroyed by the blast that she took. She and I switched over to our secondary channel to get the sit-rep. The blast damaged her port struts and took out her main engines and most of the controls. She ordered me to stay with the main group and to continue maintaining our guard on your ship. She said that she had enough control to take her ship down to the nearest planet. Since we knew from our pre-mission brief that this planet had a Stargate, she said that she would attempt to get to the gate and return that way."
"I wanted to stay with her sir and follow her down, however, she wouldn't allow me to and she ordered me to continue the mission. She told me that I could see about sending someone through the gate for help after we'd all finished the mission and returned to the Tokra base. I had no choice but to agree and the last I saw of her ship, it was flying sluggishly down towards the planet."
"As you know, sir, we completed the mission and your shot took out the mother-ship. We had a few more Jaffa gliders to deal with as we joined up with the other squadrons after they completed their objectives. Sir, I wanted to inform you personally of Major Carter's situation as soon as we landed back on base. Unfortunately, sir, after we landed, we couldn't find you. Eventually, we were told that you had already gated back to Earth to deal with some other urgent matter."
"We assembled a group of pilots and Tokra to form a search and rescue party for Major Carter. The Tokra dialed the address of the planet that her ship had been heading for. When we arrived, we immediately tried to call her on the radio while we checked for any distress signal from her ship. We knew that she probably wouldn't activate the distress beacon as there could be Jaffa in the area, but we checked for it anyway."
"We didn't need the beacon, however, because she replied almost immediately."
==========================
"Wilson, this is Carter," her voice came over the radio. "What is your status?"
"Major, good to hear your voice, ma'am. We are right in front of the Stargate. We have a 12-man party of pilots and Tokra ready to help get you out of here. Where are you ma'am? And do you have any additional injuries?" Captain Wilson replied.
"Captain, I want you to follow these orders carefully. Leave any extra armament and supplies that you brought cached behind the Stargate. Leave something so that I will recognize where the cache is. Then take your men and get back through the gate. There is a group of several dozen, well-armed and pissed Jaffa hot on my trail. I am going to head away from the gate and will try to lose them and then I'll try to make my way back to the gate after a few days or so," she sent back.
Captain Wilson looked at the rest of his group. "Well, you guys heard the Major, she wants us to leave her here. I'm not leaving here without her. She already saved my butt several times and I already had to leave her behind once. I'm not doing it again," Wilson stated firmly. "However, each of you must make your own decision to stay or go. It's probably a heroic suicide mission if you stay. No one will fault you if you go back now."
Wilson knew that he wasn't commanding a Special Ops Rescue team. These men were pilots. Soldiers, yes. But pilots first and soldiers second. These men were not battle-hardened foot-soldiers who were going to simply take on a group of well-armed Jaffa and win.
Wilson looked around the group and met their gaze one by one. Each of them simply nodded and let him know that they were each staying to help out. No one indicated that they wanted to go back through the gate. Jaffa or no Jaffa.
"OK, Major. Here's the situation," Wilson spoke into the radio, "None of my men are willing to just leave you here," he paused and waited for a response and when none came after a few seconds, he continued, "So, here's what we need, Major, we need you to tell us where you are and you need to tell us how to blow the hell out of those Jaffa so we can all go home. I know it's not fair, ma'am, but we're not getting out of here if you don't give us a hand. Otherwise, we're going to just follow our noses and we'll probably get everyone killed."
Wilson was leaving her no options to sacrifice herself for them. There was silence on the radio and they all knew that she was either really pissed or she was preoccupied with staying ahead of the Jaffa on her tail. Actually, it was probably a little bit of both.
The Captain looked at the others in his group as they waited for the downed pilot to reply.
A few long minutes later, and the radio crackled. "Wilson," and she was obviously running and having trouble talking into the radio at the same time, "…..I am …..going to …..kick …..your butt ……all the way…….to the Asgard galaxy …..and back!"
"Yes, ma'am," he replied respectfully and then just waited.
"Allright, Captain," she continued, "I am approximately 5 clicks north-northeast of the gate. There are approximately 20-30 Jaffa spread out a few clicks behind me to the northeast. I am going to swing slightly north and then head slightly southwest up this north-trending ridge line. If you take your men up the spur and then along the ridgeline… and set half of them on one side and half of them on the other, we might be able to catch the Jaffa by surprise as they come over the ridge after me." She had obviously scrutinized the topographic maps that they'd been given of the area around the Stargate in their survival packets.
"Yes, ma'am. We've got the ridgeline sighted and we're headed up," he informed her as they started up the spur that climbed to the northerly-trending ridgeline.
"Allright, Captain, you have about a half-hour and then you need to find defensible positions with cover on both sides of the ridgeline. Make sure that you have overlapping fields of coverage so that no Jaffa can slip through."
"Do you have any claymores?" she continued.
"Yes, ma'am. Lots actually," the Captain replied.
"Good. Set a line of them just below the ridgeline and on either side and be ready to blow them when needed. Set some others in a roughly east-west direction just to your south so that you can blow them as you fall back," she directed.
"Understood, Ma'am," he replied.
"Allright, I'm going to sign off for a bit while I beat feet up this ridge. Let me know when you've established your position. You'll need to send a man or two out towards me to read the terrain so that you can give me markers so that I can lead them into your set-up."
"Will do, ma'am. We'll be ready for you," and with that, the rescue party settled into the climb up the ridge to get into position and set up their trap. So far, what they had on their side was that the Jaffa didn't apparently know that the Tauri had any sort of rescue mission going. There had been no one waiting at the gate. The Jaffa had apparently figured that they would catch the downed pilot before she made it to the gate. And, the Jaffa were probably a bit confused by the fact that their prey, while seeming to head towards the gate was also inexplicable headed uphill when she could have run along the bottom of the mountain and saved much effort and energy. Hopefully, they just figured that she was one more 'stupid Tauri.'
And just about 40 minutes later, they found what they thought would work. They got their men set up on both sides of the ridge. Some of them were behind solid boulders, others were dug in and behind trees. They set the claymores as she had directed.
When they were in position, Wilson clicked his radio, "Major, we're in position. I am sending two men out to scout the terrain so that we can guide you in."
There was no immediate response and the silence lengthened to several minutes. The Captain waited to give her time to deal with whatever was happening on her end.
And then the radio crackled and her voice came through again, "Roger that, Captain, as you start feeding me landmarks, let me know how close they are to your set-up. I am going to let the Jaffa get real close to me when we come up on you – we need them moving fast and not looking at the terrain. We want them fixed on me – we don't want any of them to see anything amiss before you let all hell break loose on them."
"Yes, ma'am," Wilson replied and then he relayed the instructions to his men.
Then he had to wait.
He checked over everyone's positions again and then double-checked their ammo and grenades. Then he double-checked their planned lines of egress and made sure that everyone knew exactly what they needed to do.
Every man was serious and deadly focused.
They weren't special ops trained, but they looked damn good to him.
And then he heard Thomas and Shiver calling out markers to Carter over the radio. She was changing her course and speed to line herself up with their directions and to get the Jaffa into the position that she wanted. Wilson admired the Major's tactics. She had put together a well-thought out trap – while running from the Jaffa over terrain that she'd never traveled before towards a group of rescuers that she'd only talked to for a few minutes over the radio. They just might make this work – he'd heard that she was smart, but he was still very, very impressed. And, he'd already been impressed by how she'd flown her plane in that nasty dogfight-in-space.
The Captain also sighed as he realized that the one who had the lowest chance of survival here was still Carter. She'd set it up that way. She was taking the highest risks. She'd set up a trap that allowed the rest of them the maximum coverage and support and she was going to 'hang it all out there' to pull this off.
Not that Wilson had a better idea. He was a pilot, not a ground soldier or tactician. So, why was she any good at it, he wondered? He knew that she was an astrophysicist who had flown jets for the US Air Force so that she could work through the track to becoming one of the lucky ones to fly on the Space Shuttle. How in the world, did she end up on SG-1 - which was basically a ground team?
The radio traffic between Thomas, Shiver and Carter was getting faster and then Thomas and Shiver were scooting back to drop into their positions with the rest of them. Thomas signaled Wilson that the Major was about 5 minutes away from reaching them. They wouldn't be able to speak with her now as she was going to let the Jaffa get so close that they might hear the radio - and they couldn't let the Jaffa suspect that there were any other Tauri on this planet.
The next few minutes were silent torture.
Wilson could see his men tense and shift in anticipation.
Then they could hear the sounds of someone running and crashing though the brush. Staff blasts were hitting the trees in the region just ahead of them.
And then the downed pilot burst through the trees and over the ridgeline almost directly down the middle of their trap. Everyone took aim, and one of the Tokra snagged the Major and pulled her down as she came even with his position. Slamming to the ground she turned over and faced back as the Jaffa came charging behind her.
Wilson had his men hold their fire until the Jaffa were almost on top of their positions. Then he signaled for them to fire at the same time that the claymores on either side of the ridgeline went off.
Everyone was showered with flying dirt, tree limbs, rocks and other debris.
And then they were firing as they rolled back in the classic leapfrog covering positions. The Tokra had handed Carter a P90 and she slipped right into their formation. When they had passed the cross-ridge line of claymores, Wilson waited until the Jaffa were right on top of it and then set it off, taking down most of the Jaffa left following them.
The Major was now running next to Captain Wilson as they egressed down the ridge. "Tell your men to run as fast as they can now, Captain, you and I will cover their backs as we come up to the gate."
Nodding, he spoke quickly into his radio and ordered them to fall back to the gate with all possible speed.
Thomas got there first and dialed up the gate and they started diving through. Only a few Jaffa were struggling behind them and sending sporadic staff blasts that were just enough to make them duck and wince as tree and rock shrapnel flew at them from various directions. Carter, Wilson and Thomas were the last three holding the gate and exchanging fire with the few remaining Jaffa.
Carter signaled to the two Captains to make a run for it and she followed right behind them, backing up quickly with her P90 on full automatic. One of the remaining Jaffas scored a final hit when a staff blast hit the side of Captain Wilson's leg just before he stepped through the gate.
Stepping out of the wormhole, they found a scene of semi-organized chaos as the rebel base was being prepped for evacuation. They watched the open gate for pursuit, but none came and the wormhole shut down.
Carter turned to the men who had risked their lives to save her and she shook her head, "I owe you all my life. You pulled that off like trained special ops soldiers. You all impressed the hell out of me."
The various Captains and Lieutenants all smiled at the praise.
"And, Captain Wilson, as soon as your leg has healed, I am still going to personally kick your butt across the galaxy for disobeying my orders and attempting such a stupid mission!" She stated this with mock gravity and a semi-serious glare.
"Just glad that you'll have the chance, ma'am. You know that Colonel O'Neill would have done the honours if we didn't bring you back, so I was going to get that trip across the galaxy one way or the other!" and he grinned at her.
==========================
-Back in the SGC Briefing Room-
"Sir," Captain Wilson continued, "Major Carter didn't appear to have any obvious broken bones, but she had some cuts and bruises on her face and hands that were visible, and she had what looked like electrical burns down her right arm and right leg. I figured that it probably happened when she 'landed'. And, of course, there were the injuries on her back from her previous mission. I couldn't see any other additional apparent injuries."
"A corpsman field-dressed my staff wound and she said that she was going to scare up some grub for us while we waited to gate home. That was the last I saw of her. She didn't return before I was herded through the gate with the other injured," the Captain concluded.
"Its allright, son," O'Neill sent his way. "You did an admirable job. You'll probably get a medal – you and your men deserve one."
"No, sir, Major Carter does. More than one actually. You know, sir, I think that she actually let that Jaffa glider blast hit her plane exactly where she wanted it to. I think lots of pilots might have been able to throw themselves in harm's way in the heat of battle…but, sir, I watched her do it, and I'd swear that she actually thought out how she might be able to take the hit and actually survive." Wilson paused and took a breath before continuing.
"I didn't follow her orders on the planet and I dumped a bad situation into her hands and I made her save us…and I knew what I was doing sir. I'd already seen what she'd do to save fellow teammates and soldiers. She gave us directions and a tactical plan and trap – that worked, sir. Neither I nor my men are special ops trained, sir, and yet we were all impressed by what we were able to set up so fast."
"Sir, she saved my life – again. The truth is that we thought we were on a suicide mission. Heroic and all, we thought we could live - and die with that," the Captain paused again. "Sir, I would take a posting to a non-flying position if it meant that I could serve on a team under Major Carter's command."
"Indeed, you are a wise soldier to realize the wisdom of working with Major Carter," Teal'c intoned approvingly and the Captain looked a little nonplussed and then pleased by the large Jaffa's approval.
"Sir, if there is anything else that I can do…," the Captain finished.
==========================
Captain Wilson had headed back to the infirmary and Jack, Teal'c and Daniel talked about their new information.
"O'Neill, with the times and information given by Captain Wilson, I estimate that Major Carter traveled between 35-45 clicks from her plane to the Stargate," Teal'c informed them. "It is difficult to be more accurate without knowing the terrain, but the rough estimate can be made from my knowledge of the Major's typical ground speed and considering how fast things transpired once the Captain and his men joined her on the planet."
"That sounds about right, Teal'c," Jack agreed. "So, what do we know now? We have her here on the timeline," and Jack marked off the approximate end of the rescue mission on the timeline, "and she has a back full of bruises, welts and cuts and some of them are infected. Even if she is taking the antibiotics, the bandages and dressings haven't been changed in days. She got some injuries from crash landing on the planet. Electrical burns on her right arm and shoulder. And then, once again, she gets to hike with these untreated injuries…in this case hiking over who knows what type of terrain and weather, with pissy Jaffa behind her. At the end of the rescue mission she's probably got a nice fever from the infection and who knows what else that the Captain couldn't see."
"So, where does she go next? Why wasn't she with the Captain and the others who were evacuated to Earth and the infirmary?" Jack asked his teammates for answers that he knew that they didn't have.
"Jack, maybe she went with the Tokra. They know her, and her Dad is one of them. She could be at one of their bases – recovering after they used one of their healing devices. Maybe she's just has to wait until they can get her back home by ship or by Stargate," Daniel voiced hopefully.
Jack didn't think it was likely. Not after finding out what Carter had already been through. Such an easy, happy ending just didn't seem like what the universe was leading up to. But Jack didn't want to slam Daniel's hopes, so he just quietly said, "Maybe, Daniel, and I just hope you are right."
==========================
Sitting in the briefing room a few hours later, he stared at the timelines. The general SGC timeline was becoming crowded and people were writing smaller and smaller as events and general details were added to the growing picture. His eyes then traveled down his Major's timeline and he pondered the possibilities of where she could be.
One, she could be with the Tokra, and they might just be waiting until they could get a ship back to Earth, or perhaps they were preoccupied and it just wasn't safe for her to gate home.
Two, perhaps she was with the last mission that was still in-progress? Another day or two and those soldiers should be returning….but that mission was to a planet on the other side of the galaxy from where Carter had last been seen by Captain Wilson. Of course, the Stargate made galactic distances almost irrelevant. Almost. How could she have been pulled into that mission from the evacuation site of the Tokra base? It seemed pretty unlikely….
Three, she was on one of their backup transfer sites/caches and the Stargate wouldn't work, or she couldn't get to it. They were setting up clean-up teams who were going to visit each of these sites and check on the status of the planets and clean up or replace any used or broken materials. Perhaps they would find her there…or some indication of what had happened to her.
Four, she was captured or dead. He hated even considering these options, but it was hard not to think about them almost constantly. The longer they went without information and the longer they went without hearing from her, the more unlikely that she would be found alive and well.
Staring blackly at the now-crowded whiteboard, he decided to take a walk, stretch his legs and see what Daniel and Teal'c were up to. Maybe they were following a lead that he hadn't thought of.
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====o0o==== End Part 3 ====o0o====
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