Author's Note: OK, here comes the explanation. I'd actually hoped to post it last night, with Chapter 4, but I was working on a later chapter and was too tired to give Chapter 5 the final read-through before posting. The explanation...is an old fanfic plot device... I wish I could lay claim to something stunningly original... but I can say this... It's not going to lead to immediate S/J ship... Their path will be long and arduous due to the way that the series writers have chosen to develop their complicated relationship.

So... this fic is now going to live up to the Fic Categories 'Drama' and 'Angst'... I think that only die-hard shippers will make it past the tough times ahead for our two heroes. In the end, I am a S/J shipper, so that's where I intend it to end up... even if this fic is going places that I never envisioned... and the path is longer and much more complicated than I'd originally planned.

She slowly walked over to stand at the base of the steps – on the opposite end to where he was sitting. Cautiously climbing up a few steps, she slowly sat down on the same step that he was on. Just on the other end. So that there was still 15 or so feet between them.

"I'm sorry," he whispered again.

Ch 5: TUNNEL VISION

"Sir, do you know where we are?" she broke the silence.

He looked at her again and then quickly back out across the clearing in front of the 'Gate. "I think... I think it's P8X-539," he finally responded with a bit of a grimace.

"The runner-up for the new Alpha Site?" she asked in surprise and he just nodded. She hadn't actually visited this site, but O'Neill had accompanied SG-4 for a reconnaissance when P8X-539 had made the "Finalists List' of candidates for the new Alpha Site.

Ohhhkayyy... so she now had a name for the planet they were on... but where was it? P8X-539... she tried to place it on her mental star map. She had paid attention to its location when they were deciding which planets to send SG teams to... but that had been a year or so ago... if not more.

She highlighted her mental map: Earth was... there... the new Alpha Site, where she'd been...640 light-years away from Earth... and was there... Sandara was.... 480 light years from Earth... in this direction... Sandara was... there.... roughly 870 light years from the new Alpha Site....

And P8X-539... was... P8X-539... was...there! A small smile of triumph played across her face as she remembered its location and visualized it on her mental star map. Turning it around in her mind, Earth, Sandara, the new Alpha Site and P8X-539 formed a rough asymmetrical tetrahedron, with Earth at the apex.

Unfortunately, she estimated the distance between P8X-539 and Earth was a good 1800 light-years! The distances from here to the new Alpha Site and Sandara were even further.

Normally, the Stargate made distances irrelevant. She and the General, however, no longer had access to a Stargate... the only way that they were going to leave this planet was by ship. And it was going to take a long, long time for anyone to reach them by ship from Earth.

P8X-539 was 'off-the-beaten-path' as well. Not only a long way from Earth, but also a long way from areas known to have significant starship travel and/or trade routes. P8X-539 was in a backwater area of their galaxy. Another facet that had been originally in its favor when they were searching for the location of their new Alpha Site.

With a mental sigh, she realized that their only real chance for hope was if the Asgard could spare a ship to come and get them. Assuming that anyone else knew where they were. Their only real hope was probably a very slim one.

------------

She shifted slightly on the cold, gritty stone steps. Shaking herself from her musings she glanced back over at him to find him watching her... but then he immediately looked back out across the clearing.

"Sir, why are we here?" she kept her voice soft and with just a bit of curiosity.

Silence answered her.

He didn't react at all to her question.
It was as if he hadn't heard her.

But she knew that he had.

Physically, at least... she wasn't sure about mentally.

So she waited. And tried to be patient.

Silent minutes passed. She let her eyes maintain a visual patrol of the area while he just sat there motionlessly.

"We were on Sandara," and she brought her eyes back to him on the other end of the steps. He wasn't looking at her, but was still looking into the distance.

"We were on Sandara," he repeated, and took a deep breath. "It was that Grand Party Celebration Thingy," and she nodded silently in agreement even though he wasn't looking at her. "Apparently they wanted to give us something special to commemorate our 'Historic Alliance'," and he used both hands to pantomime quotation marks while his tone of voice conveyed his true appreciation of such pomp and circumstance.

"Well, as the night wore on, I started feeling... kind of... well... 'off'...hot and feverish... and I was having trouble focusing on what the High Councilor was saying to me. And this... um... woman...," a very, very pretty young woman he remembered vividly, but did not say that out loud, "was... well... very attentive," she was actually sort of aggressive... and O'Neill was not used to such displays in public.

"I... well, I didn't think it would be proper to reciprocate such behavior in front of our new allies, so I finally... extricated myself," these were not Jack O'Neill's typical type of words, but he was attempting to sanitize the events a bit. He couldn't bring himself to tell Sam Carter that he'd had a sexually-interested woman making advances to him at an official meeting between planetary governments. Nor did he want any hints that he was having trouble controlling himself. Extreme trouble. He'd found himself responding... to the point of wanting to invite the woman to some secluded quarters for interplanetary explorations!

Memories flashed before his eyes of Kynthia on Argos. Back then, they were so new to interplanetary exploration, he could claim ignorance. But now he was the head of the SGC... and after more than eight years of planet-hopping and countless cultures met and visited... What was his excuse now?

He looked over at her, steeling himself for the look of exasperation or disgust... but instead he met the eyes of a friend. One who understood the complexities and pitfalls of the universe that they were exploring.

"Daniel and Teal'c were... occupied...," dancing, actually, they'd been dancing... with a couple of Sandaran women who'd appeared totally infatuated with the archeologist and the Jaffa... "So I excused myself and went back to the rooms that the Sandarans had prepared for us. The woman... Penja... I believe her name was... started to come with me, but I... I wasn't very polite when I said 'No' and I'm afraid that I hurt her feelings..." He'd actually wondered what he'd done to their new inter-planetary friendship... with his luck they would discover that he'd just scorned the High Councilor's favorite daughter!

"When I got back to the rooms, I couldn't sit still. I felt like I was burning up and like I was going to crawl out of my skin at the same time. I was pacing, jittery and I couldn't focus my thoughts on any of the reasons that we'd come to that planet." He paused here for a moment and took a calming breath before steeling himself to continue.

"My thoughts started to tunnel in on only one thing...," and he grimaced and snuck a glance at her to find her eyebrows climbing her forehead before she glanced away. She was probably thinking of Argos and Kynthia.

"I didn't eat any cake!" he tried some feeble humor... and was rewarded with one of those half-smiles that she could never seem to repress at his bad jokes. He was also going for a little misdirection, because the 'one thing' in his tunnel vision... was not exactly what he'd led her to believe... not quite... He was going to have to tell her, but he wasn't quite ready.

"I don't know how long I was prowling around in my room, when the High Councilor came by. I really didn't want to talk to him. I couldn't control the focus of my thoughts and I tried to beg off until the next morning, but he insisted. He'd come to explain and apologize. The drinks had been laced with 'Vandi' - the Sandaran equivalent of some sort of aphrodisiac/peyote/nishta concotion. The Sandarans only celebrate with it a few times every century.... but when they do... What A Par-tay!" and he rolled his eyes.

"I'm sorry that I missed all the fun, sir," she was giving him a small grin. "What happened to Daniel and Teal'c?"

"I don't know," he admitted and then gave a suggestive roll of his eyes and shoulders. He figured that they'd... well... the two men were currently unattached... and neither of them had to worry about the same level of decorum that 'General' O'Neill did when he was representing the Tauri of Earth.

"Ri-i-ight...," she nodded her head a little and then shook it back and forth accompanied by that soft snort that women reserved for such displays of male behavior.

"Well, the High Councilor apparently took a bit of umbrage to my offended reaction, and he went on to explain that 'Vandi' was an extremely special substance to the Sandarans. In very limited quantities on their planet. Very expensive and time-consuming to make. And, he stressed that it did not simply make the user... wanton... or without sexual control. He adamantly stated that these types of celebrations were not giant orgies. Apparently, married partners 'almost' always sought out their mates... and when they did not, then this was seen as one of the very few grounds for the dissolution of said partnership. Unmated participants usually seek out like-minded souls, and, consequently the time after one of the celebrations is usually one of countless betrothal announcements." He paused again to see how she was taking all of this. As usual, she was listening patiently.

"So... Daniel and Teal'c could be engaged by now?" she asked with a bit of humor.

"I... don't know," he admitted and her eyes widened a bit and then she looked down before looking back up at him... inviting him to continue.

"The High Councilor extended his 'deepest, sincerest apologies'," and here she could hear the quotation marks through his tone of voice, "and then he left... I couldn't decided if I should go and find Daniel and Teal'c and drag them back to the rooms, or if I should just try and sleep it off and look for them in the morning. I couldn't focus my thoughts on... that... my mind fell right back into the tunnel-vision that had started before the High Councilor came by. I was pacing and prowling... I don't know how much time passed...and... then suddenly I just knew what I had to do... It was all crystal clear. And I knew that I had to do it."

"I picked up my gear and headed back across town to the Sandaran Gate. I also kind of hoped that the 5-6 mile walk in the night air might help clear my head. But it didn't. The Sandarans were everywhere. Partying. Dancing. Just having a grand old time like it was Mardi Gras in New Orleans. And they all seemed to know who I was, or at least who the Tauri in these clothes were," he paused again for a breath and then continued, "All across town offers to stop and join various groups of partiers were extended. Some seemed disappointed when I declined, but others... just seemed pleasant..." Here he was doing a bit of editing again, as almost all of the offers to 'join the festivities' had come from beautiful women, of all ages. Several times, one of them was actually able to temporarily divert his attention from his goal. But not for more than a few minutes, and then he would make his apologies and return to his journey across town. As he'd said to Carter, some had looked disappointed, but most seemed to recognize the burning in his eyes that was driving him... those folks almost patted him on the back as he would turn back to his journey.

"I walked back to the Sandaran Stargate and gated to the SGC. Once there, I got some supplies and stuff together and then gated to P5X-846," that was one of their 'Safe Planets'... sort of like a 'safe house' for protected witnesses. A Safe Planet had a stockpile of materials for SGC teams that might get stranded off-Earth if for some reason Earth's gate was not available for awhile. The stores were protected by a failsafe that would incinerate and destroy the supplies if an improper code was used the open the storage lockers. That way any non-SGC personnel would not be able to access or use any of the supplies. Now that the new Alpha Site was established, the 'Safe Planets' would become backups to the backup.

"I didn't tell anyone at the SGC why I was going or when I was coming back. I just told them that I was under orders. Once on 846, I basically took all of the supplies and materials that I could move by myself and gated it to here." Glancing over and meeting her eyes, he didn't see any condemnation yet, just concern at this point. But he knew that what was coming next might easily change that.

"Next... I gated from here to the new Alpha Site...," and he paused. "After arriving, I zatted and then lightly tranqued the SFs and technicians on the graveyard shift. And then I went and... got you...," and he winced, "and then I gated us to 846, and then from there to here."

Sighing, he continued without looking at her, "Once I got us here, I...uh...," and he gestured towards the destroyed DHD.

Silence descended again.

He was waiting for her to say something now.
Probably anything.
But she really didn't know what to say yet.

Her eyes contemplated the DHD from where she sat.
It still looked as damaged as it had before.

Next, her eyes scanned the area around the gate again. The stack of supplies. The vegetation, the weather... and the sun that was dropping lower and lower in the sky.

P8X-539 had a climate slightly similar to Earth's. Typical chlorophyll-based plant life. No dangerous indigenous plant or animal life had been found on the reconnaissance surveys. The only reason that it hadn't been chosen for the new Alpha Site was its location. As they said in real estate... Location, Location, Location. P4X-650 had had a better location than 539...650 was a in a relatively 'quiet' region of the galaxy, but the region of space around 539 was considered just a bit too desolate.

It was sinking in.

They were stranded.
Well and truly stranded.

No one knew where they were.

They would be able to trace his path to P5X-846, the 'Safe Planet'...
...but there they would lose the trail.

- - -

TBC