He had found his gift to her. He would let her share her thoughts with him... her technobabble. And then he realized something exceedingly important. She lit up as she progressed through her explanation. She needed this release desperately. Intellectually, that mind that was Sam Carter needed this stimulation and outlet.

"Jack?" Uh oh.

"Yeah?"

"You don't want to hear any more do you?" she asked knowingly and with a hint of amusement.

"Actually, I do," and she looked astonished. "Just not tonight," he qualified. "I think my brain is full," he went for the humor and was rewarded with a smile.

"Ri-i-ight," she responded with obvious doubt and he smiled in the dark.

It was going to take awhile to convince her that he was serious.

- - -

- - -

Ch 21: WARMTH

- - -

The second ridgeline, the one on the other side of the valley, was lower in elevation, but a much longer distance from their camp. Their camp and the 'Gate, were nestled on the north side of the valley floor. Consequently, they took full advantage of this planet's longer days for their third excursion.

Departing just after daybreak, they didn't reach the foot of the far-ridgeline until after 8 hours of almost non-stop hiking. They stopped for a 30-minute break for lunch, some photo documentation and some work on their developing map. After another 9 hours of steady uphill trekking, they finally broached the ridgeline.

The highest point was still another hour's walk along the ridgeline. With the diminishing light of dusk, they decided to pitch camp on an almost flat area just below the top. They would walk to the highpoint tomorrow morning.

Camp was another spartan bivouac, but a fire was deemed worthwhile for the warmth of hot drinks and hot food. Both officers were tired and camp tasks were mostly carried out in silence. Jack cooked dinner as Sam set out the bedrolls.

"Come and get it," he wearily chimed as he dished up the food.

No answer.

He glanced over at the bedrolls. Their packs obscured his view of her head and torso, but he could see her legs. She was lying on her sleeping bag.

"Sa-am," he sung out.

No answer again.

Standing up, he walked over to get a better view. She was asleep. Face down and completely dead to the world. He watched her for a moment. She looked so peaceful. He was tempted to let her sleep. They were both exhausted from the 16-hour walk.

But she needed to eat. In spite of their best efforts neither of them had gained any weight back, and in fact, both of them had lost a few more pounds. She was so thin to start with that he knew that they could be in serious trouble if they weren't careful. So, she had to eat. They both did.

He knelt down beside her and gently shook her shoulder, "Sam, wake up."

She jolted awake, "Wha-?"

"Time for dinner," and he gave her an understanding smile.

"Not hungry," she sent back and then closed her eyes and put her head back down.

He sighed. "Sam, you have to eat," and he gently shook her shoulder again.

A muffled groan and then, "I'm really not hungry, Jack."

"Doesn't matter, you still need to eat. Sam, your body needs the fuel. If you don't eat something, your body is just going to eat itself... more...," he ended softly and his words finally reached her tired mind.

She opened an eye and looked at him balefully, "What a pleasant image," she sent back with a grimace.

He shrugged, "I use what works," and then he allowed a small, tired smirk.

"Allright," she sighed and pushed herself up to a sitting position. Shaking the cobwebs of her nap from her mind, she followed him over to the campfire.

----------

When the meal was over and the dishes had been KP'd, Jack spoke up, "I think we should forego watches tonight." She looked at him in surprise, so he continued, "We're both exhausted and we need all of our energy for the long miles tomorrow. We haven't seen anything hostile or dangerous the entire time we've been here."

She met his gaze for a moment as she thought it over. They didn't have the alarm system that they had back at their valley floor campsite. And they didn't know the terrain around their bivouac site like they knew the area around their more-permanent home on the valley floor. On the other hand, they were both too tired to be worth much on sentry duty tonight. There were risks if they both slept at the same time, but the risks did appear minimal. And they both desperately needed the sleep. Nodding she sent her agreement, "Yeah, that sounds like the best choice. We need the sleep."

They each silently made ready for bed.
There would be no stargazing tonight.
Just solid sleep.

- - - - - -

They both slept soundly for five or six hours.
Nothing disturbed their camp or their slumber.

Around 02:30, local time, Jack awoke to a glittering sky of stars and to the realization that he was freezing. The continued lack of cloud cover still meant for clear skies, but it also provided no insulation or trapping of the day's warmth. The temperature had dropped a little each night since their arrival and it was now dropping below 35 degrees just before each dawn. In addition, their bivouac site near the top of the ridgeline was exposed to stronger winds than down below.

The end result of all of this was that it was too damn cold, he muttered internally. Poking his head further out of his bag, he looked over towards Sam's, to find her sitting up with her knees pulled towards her chest.

"Hey," he kept his voice low as always seemed appropriate in the dark of night.

"Hey back," she gave him a small grin and then turned her eyes back to the panorama of stars overhead.

"How long have you been awake?" he asked.

"A while," she answered uninformatively. But it still told him quite a bit. It told him that she was having trouble sleeping.

"Cold?" he ventured and she looked over at him and just shrugged a little and nodded. "Yeah, I'm freezing," he admitted and then thought about their options. They were each wearing all of the clothes that they'd brought for their 2-day overnight excursion. T-shirts, BDU blouses and pants, socks, jackets, wool caps, etc.

"Sam?"

"Yeah?"

"I'm going to suggest something, and I want you to know that it's not an order...," he started with a preamble and she looked at him questioningly. He had her attention now. "Look, we're both freezing... and we don't have any more clothes or sleeping bags with us... and we have a couple more hours before the sun will be up enough for us to get moving.. and we need more sleep... but we can't sleep because it's too cold...," and he verbally rambled all around his goal without actually getting there.

He looked up to meet her eyes again and she was looking at him curiously. "What do you think of us... sharing a sleeping bag... sharing some body heat... and pulling the second bag over us for a second layer... and I promise that I won't try anything...?" and he waited apprehensively. This was a difficult situation for the two of them, but not one that they hadn't each anticipated.

"It's basically a sound idea," she agreed and then continued, "but it won't work."

"Why not?"

For an answer, she moved over to him and laid her hand on his cheek. He recoiled like he'd been burned, "Jeez, Sam, your hands are like ice!" Echoing the words he'd said on the floor of the clearing the morning of their first day here.

She simply nodded knowingly, "And so are my feet. It wouldn't be fair to share a sleeping bag, Jack. You'd get the losing end of that stick," and seeing the protesting look on his face, she added, "I'd be like sleeping with a giant popsicle!"

That image stopped him for a moment. But only for a moment. Decision made, he pulled himself out of his bag and extended a hand to her, "Come on, let's build the fire back up, move around a bit and get some hot drinks made."

She looked undecided for a second, but then placed her icy hand in his and let him help her up and out of the bag.

Ten minutes later and the fire was burning cheerily and they both were huddled as close to it as they could get without burning themselves. They each had their sleeping bags pulled tightly over their backs which were facing away from the fire's heat. When the hot water was done, they let the tea steep for a minimum amount of time before sipping its heavenly warmth.

They were each on their second cup of tea and he was significantly warmer than he had been a half-hour ago. He watched her circumspectly but carefully as they both warmed up. She had her hands wrapped around her warm mug and her stocking feet were so close to the fire that he swore he saw wisps of smoke off of her socks a few times. "You look a bit warmer now," he offered with a small smile and she gave him one back in return.

"Quite a bit, thanks," she admitted.

"You remind me of a cat we had when I was about 8," he stated casually and was rewarded with a look of bemused suspicion settling over her face. "That cat would almost climb into the fireplace on cold, winter mornings. I'm certain that that cat got so close to the fire that the ends of its hair were singed. I touched the cat's fur a few times and it was so hot, I couldn't believe that the cat wasn't burned."

"Yeah, Schrodinger used to do that whenever I lit a fire, or turned on a portable heater. He'd press himself right up against the grate and fall asleep that way," she was smiling softy as she looked into the flames of the campfire.

"Well, I think that you're giving ole' Schrodinger a run for his feline money... Your socks aren't going to catch on fire are they?" he speculated with a quirk of his brows.

She watched her toes for a moment, "Naw... although, I think it's been close a few times," and she grinned happily.

"Sam, ... there's still a few hours before it will be light enough for us to get moving, so we should catch a few more hours of sleep if we can," he suggested.

She nodded, "Sounds good to me," and she was moving to toss dirt on the fire and it was only a few minutes work before the two of them were back at their bedrolls.

"I think we should consider my previous suggestion again," he broached as she started to climb into her bag, "otherwise, we're both just going to be freezing in a half hour or so," he elaborated.

She paused, looked up at him and then silently nodded. He unzipped his bag, crawled in and motioned her over. She shimmied in with her back to his front and then carefully zipped up the now-very-tight bag. "Not much room to move," she commented.

"It's ok, it's only for a couple of hours," his voice hummed against the back of her neck.

Reaching out of the bag, she pulled her sleeping bag over the top of the two of them as an added blanket. They each moved around a bit until they were settled fairly comfortably, spooned up against each other with his arm wrapped over her waist.

Five minutes passed and neither of them fell asleep. "Jack, are you going to able to sleep like this?" She was fully aware that he was probably thinking of how they'd woken up here on this planet.

He didn't reply and that answered her question for her more than adequately. "Let's switch to our other sides," she decided. "I'll sleep behind you." When he didn't move or respond, she added, "Jack we both need some more sleep, and I'm not going to be able to sleep if you aren't."

That did it, and he started moving, pulling his arm from around her waist and then trying to turn over. Unzipping the bag, she slid out a bit which allowed him the room to turn around. Once he was settled, she slid back in and then rezipped the bag before turning over to face his back.

She wrapped her arm over his waist as she spooned up behind him. "Night Jack," she mumbled into his back. "Night Sam," came gently back as they two of them relaxed enough to drop back into sleep.

Warmer with their new sleeping arrangements, the two officers slept well past dawn. Making up for their bodies' exhaustion from the day before.

This time, Jack woke up first. The angle of the sun surprised him, as they were both usually up just around dawn on days when they were hiking and bivouacking. He felt the warmth of her body pressed up against his back. Holding himself still, he listened to her soft, slow breathing and knew that she was still deep asleep.

Thinking about the day ahead, he decided that there was no rush to getting up. Their morning's objective was the ridgeline summit and the view to be seen from that new vantage point. Getting there too early would only mean that the low-angle early morning light would make things difficult to see, map and photograph.

As another half-hour passed, he relaxed and watched the early morning light and shadows play though the trees. A few wispy clouds graced the horizon and held his interest for quite some time. The early morning light with its extra refraction made the clouds burn a beautiful orange and pink against the grey-blue of the dawn sky. The usual lack of clouds had meant that the sunrises and sunsets were not generally of the 'awe-inspiring' variety. So this morning's few wispy clouds were creating a treat.

He was tempted to wake Sam up to see the 'Morning Show' but he knew that her sleep was more important. His attention wandered lazily and he let his eyes drift without purpose.

A small movement caught his eye.

He turned his head and scanned the tree trunks a few feet away.
And then one of those sort-of-cute alien bunny rabbits waddled into view.
Only sort-of-cute because, while the critters sort-of reminded them of rabbits back on earth... they obviously weren't...no cute puff-ball tail... no long floppy ears... They sort-of hopped and sort-of waddled. Amusing at the same time it was oddly disturbing.

The 'rabbits' were apparently herbivores and had presented no obvious dangers to the two officers. So for now, he just watched the little critter as it sniffed and picked at a low bush. Pulling off a few small, thin branches, the critter began methodically stripping the leaves from its harvest.

Blurry movement caused him to shift his focus much closer to their sleeping bags. To see that a few feet away, one of those nasty grey-green spiders was walking carefully over the forest litter. Apparently no more interested in the two alien humanoids than its furry fellow native, the spider was rapidly crossing Jack's field of view from left to right, but was not approaching the sleeping bags.

The arm around his waist moved just a fraction and she shifted a little. He waited and listened to her breathing. She was awake.

"Good morning," she spoke softly into his back as she snuggled against his warmth.

Knowing she couldn't see his face, he smiled to himself. "Good morning. Sleep better – or at least warmer?"

"Much, why don't all military issue bags come with a great big hot water bottle like this?" and he could hear the sleepy tone of amusement in her voice. She was still relaxed and not at 100 percent alertness yet.

"You weren't so bad for keeping me warm either," he allowed. "At least not after a couple of hot cups of tea were inside you and after you'd crisped your toes in the fire."

He could feel her soft chuckles against his back more than hear them. "Mmmm... well, those two cups of tea are now demanding attention," and he could hear the regret in her voice as she squirmed around to find the bag's zipper.

- - - - - - -

Cognizant of their slimming bodies, they took the time for a hot breakfast before breaking camp. Well-rested and fairly well-fed, their energy reserves were recharged and they hiked the rest of the way to the ridgeline summit with a renewed spring in their steps.

They reached their aerial viewpoint just past 0900 local time. Setting easily into their roles, Sam set to systematically snapping overlapping photos of the 360 degree panorama and the valleys on each side of the ridge. Jack pulled their map out and began checking, verifying, correcting and adding to their developing map of the region.

Interestingly, Jack's Lake was easier to see from this ridgeline than it had been from the higher summit that they'd reached days ago on the other side of the valley. From this side, the lake was visible clearly though a gap in the taller trees on the southern side of the lake.

Turning to the side of the ridgeline that was not visible from their campsite, they carefully mapped the major features of the terrain. A few spurs and small creeks leading down to a valley that ran roughly parallel to their own. This valley was smaller than theirs however, and they could not spot any significant clearings or lakes.

Returning their attention to their own valley, they used the binoculars to scrutinize the upstream portion beyond the 'Gate. That was where they planned to make the last of their four initial exploratory hikes.

As before, and as with the view from the other ridgeline, they scoured the entire vista before them for any signs of buildings, ruins or any artificial structures.

As before, they did not find anything.
Just more trees.
Lots and lots of trees.
With no apparent sign of any homes or cities within the region around the 'Gate.

The initial SGC reconnaissance of this planet had not discovered anything either, although it was always possible that the planet was teeming with life. Just not right here. Perhaps the native intelligent life on this planet lived on another continent. And had never used the Stargate. Without any planes or UAVs (unmanned aerial reconnaissance vehicles), Jack and Sam would not be able to explore the rest of the planet in any way besides by foot.

Packing up around 1100, they began a careful, zigzagging descent back down to the valley floor. Going down was easier and faster than going up and what had taken 9 hours to climb, only took 7 hours to descend. With another 8 hours of trekking across the valley floor still ahead of them, they bowed to their Earth-based circadian clocks and bivouacked at the bottom of the ridge.

Again, taking the time for a fire and some hot food and drink, they each made sure that the other ate a sufficient amount of the one-pot dinner. Although it was still light, they decided to rack-out and store up some sleep and energy for the walk home tomorrow.

Approaching their bed rolls, they looked at each other. Each wondering what the other was thinking. She raised her eyebrows and shrugged a little, "It is a lot warmer," she offered a sideways invitation.

He nodded and smiled, "Lots warmer," and then started to climb into his sleeping bag.

"Wait a sec," she stopped him. "Let's try it this way," and she climbed in first and lay facing back out at him and then motioned for him to join her. He crawled in with his back to her front, as they'd slept the previous evening. Now he could easily pull up the zipper. Before doing so, he pulled her bag over the top of them as their over-blanket.

As it was much earlier in the evening and the temperature wasn't as cold as it had been up on the ridge at 0330, he left the zipper partially down and he loosely pulled the unzipped edges together with his arms. This allowed them a little slack and the bag wasn't as taught or constricting.

"Night Jack," she mumbled against his back as they settled down.

"Night," he sent back softly.

The two dropped off to sleep quickly in spite of the early hour and still-light sky.

Sleeping solidly for a good 7-8 hours each, their Earth-bound internal clocks woke them in those early hours before dawn again. The outside temperature had dropped, but it wasn't as cold as it had been up on the wind-exposed ridge. Warm, the two simply relaxed and dozed for the last couple of hours.

Refreshed and ready to go, they ate breakfast in the pre-dawn dark and were trekking back to their basecamp as the first rays of sunlight began streaming through the trees.

Another 7 hours put them back in camp around noon.

- - -

- - -

TBC

- - -