Even under the glass dome, the piece of stalagmite was terrifying. Not the object itself, but more of the possibilities it revealed—the possible futures for their missing friends.
At one time that stalagmite had been a protein bar.
Daniel had seen the telltale sign of the protein bar in the cave under the beam of a flashlight, but until it was brought to the lab, he hadn't been positive.
There was no mistaking it, especially now.
They'd managed to slice it down the center, the two halves rolling back to reveal the encased bar, a favorite of Colonel Carpenter.
Layers of dust and dirt had formed on its surface.
How much time had passed since it had been dropped by a careless hand? Three days? Four?
In that time, a thick crust had formed, now more than two inches thick on each side.
How much time did that leave for the scientists or the Colonel?
"What do you think, Sam?" Daniel asked sliding up next to her, his voice just loud enough for it to carry to her ears. Everyone else was hovering, some going though papers, others just milling about, not sure what do to.
"I think I need a sample to put under the microscope," she said, setting her mind to her task. She glanced up, searching the room for the Jaffa, but not finding him among the crowd. "Where's Teal'c?"
"Rummaging through the supply tent I think, looking for hazmat suits," Daniel replied.
"I already alerted the SGC that we need hazmat suits. They should be here within the next hour and a half," Sam reported, surprised that the Jaffa hadn't stopped to check in with her.
"That's too long. We have to get back to the caves. I don't think Jack has much time. I mean, look at the protein bar," Daniel said, his hand gesturing to the crust coated bar. "That happened in a few days, but even the barest of coatings with this dust will suffocate Jack and the scientists. We can't let that happen."
"I agree," he said, her eyes resting on the coated bar.
"Teal'c thinks that the suits might protect us enough to search the passages."
"But?" she could hear the word in the tone of his voice.
"But," he continued, drawing the vowel out, "they could be anywhere."
"But, what about that first energy reading I mentioned," Sam asked, stepping to the computer that had tied in with the UAV, her fingers racing across the keys, looking for the information that she was referring to. "Here," she said, tapping an area of the screen that was highlighted in blue. "I think you should go in here somewhere. If we had geological maps we might have a better idea of how many passages run through this section, but we don't, unfortunately."
"I know, " he said, his fingers pulling at his bottom lip while thoughts ran through his mind. "Do you think you can give me a rough estimate of how far that is from here and in what direction?"
"I might be able to."
"Great. I'm going to find, Teal'c and come right back. Will you have something for me?"
"Not that quickly, Daniel," Sam said, chuckling. "I can point you in the right direction, but it'll take longer to make the correct calculations."
"That's fine. Point me in the right direction. I'm not looking for you to give me a number down to the hundredth decimal place. A rough guess."
Sam nodded, a little taken aback by Daniel's words, but attributed them to the stress they were under. "I can do that."
He smiled, but the warmth never reached his eyes. "Thanks. I'll be right back," he said and was gone, moving quickly though the maze of tables, expertly avoiding the people milling about.
She turned back to the monitor, her mind already working out the calculations she needed to give Daniel.
He was back before she knew it, standing at her side, the red hazmat suit hanging from his hands, as she wrote down the directions and her estimated distances.
"Teal'c found the suits?"
Daniel nodded. "Two of them, yes, and two extra canisters of oxygen each. It should be enough. It has to be enough."
"More suits are coming."
"I know, but we need them now not later," Daniel said, his voice taking on a nearly frantic quality. He was close to the edge and she knew that feeling well—the feeling that everything was going to go bad quickly. His next words only confirmed her thoughts. "I have a bad feeling about this."
"Then what are you waiting for?"
Sam shooed him out the door, half wishing that she was going with him. But, there was dirt to study and she was the only scientist here.
Joy.
She sat down and eyed the stalagmite, trying to figure out where to start.
XXX
How long had be been in here? How long had he been trapped?
Right now he wasn't sure which way things were going to work out. Either he was going to run out of air or go insane. It was a close tie as to which way things were going to go.
He wished he'd spoken to Daniel.
One thing this did give him was time to think—not that it was a good thing. Thinking usually meant he ended up dwelling on bad things, on things that should have been, could have been, or would have been. Shoulda, coulda, woulda. That whole 'hindsight is 20/20' and all that jazz.
Agreeing to this mission without taking the time to speak to Daniel was not smart, not professional—downright stupid when you got down to it. Especially since it was evidently apparent that Daniel had issues with him—trusting him, relying on him, following orders.
Well, Daniel always had issues with following orders; that wasn't new. The rest of the stuff, however, was.
Why hadn't he talked to him? Why hadn't he taken the time to find him, to look for him?
Honestly, he had been too angry, too hurt. Those words had been even more damaging than Daniel could have known.
But now, anything he could have said—should have said—was long since lost.
Maybe now Daniel would come back to SG-1, support the program, and stand by Carter and Teal'c. At least now Daniel didn't have to worry about what some sadistic son of a bitch would do.
Those days were gone.
And soon, he would be too.
XXX
Daniel had forgotten how much he hated wearing the hazmat suits. They were hot, uncomfortable, and he felt like he was wearing a tent, or worse, someone's bad excuse for population control. His image as a geek would be complete if anyone saw him wearing this thing.
But, this was not the time, or the place to be thinking about his lack-luster social life.
This was the third passage they'd entered and it seemed even more confusing than the rest. At least the others dead-ended without any extra passages veering off in different directions.
This one, however, featured a crossroads.
"Which way?"
"I am uncertain. O'Neill could have traveled down any of these passages, but I cannot ascertain which. You may have to…pick one."
Daniel smiled at the Jaffa's attempt to lighten the mood. "Let's start with the right one and work our way through. How much oxygen do we have left?"
Teal'c kept pace with Daniel, the beams of their flashlights crawling the cave walls and floor, looking for any sign of their friend. "I do not believe we will have enough to complete this entire section of passages. We shall return once the supplies are delivered from the SGC."
"They should have been at the camp already, don't you think?"
"I do not know how many suits Major Carter requested, or if additional supplies were required. I am sure she will contact us as soon as they arrive."
"I guess," Daniel said as he tried to keep a steady pace. There was no point in running because he would just end up using more of their precious oxygen reserves. He wanted to milk every last ounce out of the tanks.
They'd passed many stalagmites and stalactites—most of them too small to contain a person—but Daniel could only begin to imagine what might be caught within that thick crust. Indigenous animals he assumed. This would be a treasure-trove of information for the scientists. They'd be able to gather hordes of data and DNA from the items preserved in the caves. Of course, the danger of the caves themselves gave cause for extra caution.
Why was it that everything good always had such a high price?
Teal'c's voice brought him out of his reverie. "Daniel Jackson, what do you believe that is?"
The Jaffa's flashlight had paused on a lump in the middle of the floor. It was different than the other stalagmites in the cave—wide but not tall and it was too skinny to be an animal.
Kneeling down, Daniel prodded it with his glove-clad finger. The shape seemed familiar, but he didn't know why. "Teal'c, did you bring a knife or anything?"
"I did," he said, handing the archeologist his knife, while his flashlight began to scan further down the cave. Daniel glanced up momentarily from his work as he dug around the edges. The Jaffa had reached the end of the tunnel, an assortment of stalagmites and stalactites joined together to form a wall across it.
"Anything?"
"I believe O'Neill came to the end of this passage and turned around."
It was hard work, this chipping away at the crust. It was thicker than it looked and far stronger. He should have asked Teal'c to do this. "Why?"
"The dirt around this opening is disturbed. It appears as if someone attempted to clear a section in order to peer around the wall."
When his knife hit something more solid than the crust of dirt he paused his digging and began to widen the hole he'd made, chipping away at the edges.
He didn't like what he saw.
"Teal'c," Daniel said, the word coming slow, his mind not wanting to believe what his eyes saw. "Is this what I think it is?"
Without glancing up, Daniel could feel Teal'c kneeling down next to him, shifting his large frame so he could see. His inhalations and exhalations were loud in the suit, too loud for the small space.
"If you believe that you are looking at a section of SGC-issued weaponry, then we are observing the same item."
"But why the gun?"
"I am uncertain, perhaps this section of the cave is different than the others. Perhaps the oils used in the weapon's maintenance attracted the dirt. We have no evidence to support these suppositions, however."
Daniel turned to the Jaffa, and he could feel his eyes widening as his thoughts formed. "Teal'c, how long has Jack been missing?"
"More than twelve hours."
"So, how long do you think this has been sitting here? Look at it. It's nearly an inch thick already. What about Jack?"
Teal'c, though, did not answer, his gaze focused instead on Daniel's arm—Daniel's dust covered arm.
"I believe we must depart and return again with new attire and a new supply of oxygen. I do not believe it will be safe for us to remain longer."
"We still have oxygen left, we can't leave now," Daniel nearly sprung to his feet, moving several paces away from his friend and the encased P90. "Would Jack stop just because it got dangerous?"
"Daniel Jackson—"
He shook his head, waving his hands emphatically. "No, Teal'c. I'm not leaving. You can go if you want, but I'm staying to search."
Several moments passed, the hissing of the air in their suits the only sound, before he finally nodded, indicating his agreement. Daniel sighed in relief and moved back down the passage. There were still more places to look.
XXX
He was cold.
The chill in the air had finally settled in his bones.
And he was getting sleepy.
He found himself drifting off for longer periods of time than the last—at least that's what he thought. For all he knew, it could have been seconds instead of the minutes and hours it felt like.
He hoped SG-1 was okay, that they hadn't gotten caught unawares like he had been.
He'd been stupid and short-sighted.
How that was different than usual, he didn't know.
Why did he insist on fighting?
He was cold and he was tired.
Maybe it was time to sleep.
XXX
It had taken her longer than she thought to make the slide, the material difficult to work with. She uttered a sigh of relief when she finally placed it on the microscope's table, clicking the arms down to hold it in place.
The fact that this was a scientific outpost of sorts helped matters since much of the equipment she needed was on hand. But even if she had needed something else, supplies were already on their way. Lieutenant Colonel Harper had radioed ten minutes ago that the items she needed would be arriving within the hour.
At least some things were going as planned.
Rolling her shoulders a little to ease the tension that had settled there, Sam leaned down, adjusting the focus on the microscope to begin her study of the object.
What she saw surprised her.
Turning up the magnification, she narrowed her focus, letting the image before her swim into view.
What was this?
It had all the marking of a living creature, but it was dirt, wasn't it?
Looking closer and longer, the details were falling into place, making for a picture she did not want to see.
The dirt itself was alive, a living being.
But its internal structure was nothing like she'd ever seen before—its structure crystalline and beautiful in its complexity.
But it was something not normally found in nature.
XXX
He struggled against the pain in his body, his mind sending out a scream of silent desperation.
He didn't want to die. He didn't.
But everywhere he turned, everything he considered, ended in his failure, in his final demise.
No last minute rescues.
No last minute trips into the sarcophagus.
No time to spend healing under the rays of the hand device.
He could hear it.
He could smell it.
He could feel it.
He could see it.
It was dark, its dull eyes staring him down, taunting him.
Each time he looked, closer than the last.
Hauntingly beautiful, yet grotesquely detestable.
If he could cry, he would, but even that final release was gone, snatched away from him.
Lost and alone and light-years from home.
Death had come a-calling, and like a fool, he'd answered.
XXX
Daniel stumbled for the third time, the visor making it difficult for him to see. If it weren't for Teal'c's outstretched hand he was sure that he would have found himself in a heap in the dirt.
They were running out of time, his precious last few minutes nearly spent.
The passage they were traveling had begun to slope downward, the ground beneath his feet not as secure as it had been previously.
Would Jack have tried this on his own?
Pausing for a moment, he aimed his flashlight further down the tunnel, trying to make sense of the things he saw before him. It seemed as if the path eventually leveled out some yards below, various stalagmites and stalactites scattered throughout the area, some big, some small. They didn't have the time to go through every single one that was just about the right size.
Jack could be anywhere.
Daniel sighed feeling the weight of the entire situation settle down a little more firmly on his shoulders.
It was his fault that Jack had to go searching for the scientists alone. It was his fault that Jack was missing.
He had to find him.
"Daniel Jackson?" Teal'c's voice broke through his reverie and he turned to look at the man beside him. Gesturing with his hand, the beam from the Jaffa's flashlight bounced a little before settling down. "I believe this may require our attention."
It was a radio.
XXX
His mind jerked awake.
Had there been a noise? Had he heard something or was his mind playing tricks on him yet again?
Again he heard it, the muffled tones of voices, of rocks tumbling, but then it was gone just as quickly as it came.
Was there someone out there?
He listened intently, forcing himself to pay attention, to truly listen to the things around him—but it was hard.
He was tired.
And it was getting harder and harder to breathe.
XXX
Easing down the slippery slope, both hands clasped around the thick rope that Teal'c has secured at the top, Daniel was trying to hurry, but the Jaffa's constant reminders for caution slowed him down.
If he got hurt now, Jack wouldn't have a chance in hell.
He flew down the last final part of the slope, his feet kicking rocks and pebbles. Scurrying to the small black radio, he bent down, picked it up, and tried to dust off its surface. A crust had formed over the majority of it, but thankfully some of it was uncovered.
Angling his flashlight toward the nearest stalagmite, Daniel noticed something different, something strange.
This stalagmite had a crack in its side and green showed through. Jack had been wearing green BDUs just like that.
"Teal'c!" he cried, jumping to his feet as he started digging at the crack, trying to make it wider. "This has to be him, it has to be."
But even as he said those words he noticed something else.
His air was running out.
"Daniel Jackson, we must leave now."
"I'm not leaving without Jack," he said, kneeling back down. With Teal'c's knife in his hand he began digging around the base of the stalagmite. "If I'm going, he's going with me."
"Daniel Jackson—"
"Don't argue with me," Daniel said and he could hear the last wheezing breaths of his oxygen tank. It was now or never.
"I was not," came the reply, this time from much closer. Glancing up, Daniel saw Teal'c standing a foot away, the rope in his hands. "I was merely joining you to assist in O'Neill's extraction."
Daniel nodded once and went back to his task. Teal'c's voice sounded over the radio as he signaled back to the base.
"Teal'c to Major Carter. Medical teams are required immediately at the main mountain chamber."
"I read you, Teal'c. You found the Colonel?"
"Daniel Jackson believes it to be the case, but more time is required to make a positive identification."
"Major Clarke and Major Warren are on their way with SG-8 and Lieutenant Peterson. Expect them shortly," Sam said, her voice tiny through the radio. But before Teal'c could acknowledge her reply, another voice cut in.
"Teal'c we're already on the move. We should be there in twenty. Clarke out."
"We shall be awaiting your arrival. Teal'c out."
Daniel glanced up as Teal'c signed off, gesturing for the warrior to step closer. "I think this should be loose enough to move him up the slope. I need your help."
"Would it not be wise to wrap the rope around it in order to get it to the top? I do not believe we will be able to carry it up the slope of the passage since the ground is unstable."
Daniel nodded, saving his breath, and with Teal'c's help wrapped the rope around the stalagmite as the Jaffa moved back up to the top, anchoring himself to pull up the body.
It only took a few minutes for it to reach the top, but to Daniel it was forever. Especially as he stood at the bottom waiting impatiently for Teal'c to toss the rope back down to him.
With the often-shifting dirt there was no way for him to get to the top without help. And it wasn't even a steep slope, but it was just enough to make it treacherous. It took several minutes for Daniel to reach the top, several more minutes than he wanted it to take, more time than they had.
Under protest from Teal'c, Daniel ripped off his hood as the last of his air was spent, but he didn't care. They had a job to do. A few minutes wouldn't kill him.
Struggling every step of the way, Daniel and Teal'c headed for the entrance sharing the weight of their heavy burden between them. The dust swirled around them, as it were attempting to obscure their vision, trying to keep them and their precious cargo inside the cave.
The last few yards to the entrance of the cave seemed to take forever and even as they dropped to the ground, hand were there to support them. Major Clarke and Major Warren quickly moved in, easing the dirt-encrusted body to the ground, the other members of SG-8 working with small tools to try and chip the layers of dust and dirt from the body.
God, don't let them be too late.
Shrugging off the remnants of his hazmat suit, Daniel didn't argue when someone pushed a canteen in his hands and ordered him to drink.
They started at the head—or where they thought the head should be. It was hard to tell, the layers thick.
They were trying to work quickly but safely, knowing that there was a person beneath all of that dirt, behind that crusty film.
But something was wrong.
Jack didn't have blonde hair.