Master Sergeant Davis looked up as soon as he heard the familiar rumbling and slammed his hand on the button to seal the iris as his other hand activated the intercom, "Unscheduled off-world activation!"
As he continued to monitor the Gate he waited for General Hammond to appear.
General Hammond looked up as soon as he saw the flashing lights and heard the announcement. Part of him wanted to continue on to the infirmary, but he knew he had to head back to the Stargate, he was currently in charge of the base. He then turned around and headed back to the core of the base.
Instead of entering the control room, he ran into the embarkation room and began issuing orders. "Get these people out into the hallway!"
Before him, the embarkation room was filled with Marines aiming at the activated Stargate and medics tending to the wounded who had recently come through…
Less than two hours ago he was sitting in his old office going over some recent team reports when he heard a familiar klaxon sound, "Unscheduled off world activation!"
He arose from the desk and rushed to the control room, "Who do we have off-world Sergeant?" he asked as he watched the Sergeant seal the iris.
"SG-1 and SG-3 are scheduled to be on the Tok'ra home planet currently…" he replied as he scanned the logs, "And SG-9 is in trade negotiations with the Pangareans."
"Very well," Hammond acknowledged as they all waited for the Stargate to connect. When he saw the shimmering light behind the Stargate he asked the inevitable question, "Are we receiving a signal?"
Davis looked at his screens as it compared the incoming signal with all current registered signals, "Yes sir… It's the alpha site… Incoming radio transmission."
"Open up a channel."
"Yes, sir."
"This is General Hammond."
Those in the control room heard a frantic voice, "Sir, we've had an explosion here at the Alpha site! We've got a lot of wounded, several of them severe… We're requesting immediate assistance from the doctors there!"
Hammond blinked, he wondered if it was an accident or an attack. He issued his orders to those on the base, "SG teams 4, 8, and 10 report to the Stargate for an immediate departure to the Alpha Site!" He then turned to another airman, "Notify Dr. Brightman about the situation. I want him and the other doctor on call and three nurses to accompany the teams to the Alpha Site and I want the rest of the medical team up here ASAP! And recall all off duty medical personnel!"
"Yes, sir!" she replied before picking up the phone and calling the infirmary.
Hammond then motioned for Davis to reconnect him with the Alpha Site, "We're mobilizing our teams to send through right away… What happened? Was the Alpha Site attacked?"
"Negative sir… It came from the research section… We're not sure what happened yet."
He suddenly recalled who was still at the Alpha Site, "Is the Vice President okay?"
There was a pause from the other side.
General Hammond nervously waited for word from the base. He was starting to think how they would explain anything happening to the VP when the radio came to life, "He's alright sir, he's right here!"
He breathed a sigh of relief, "Okay send him and any other wounded that can be transported through." He then motioned to Sergeant Davis to open the iris. "Send through as many as you can in ten minutes before we have to disengage and send our teams through."
"Very well sir," he heard before the connection was terminated.
"I want all available personnel ready to receive the injured! Get a triage unit set up in the gate room and make sure the infirmary is cleared of any non-life-threatening cases! Come on people let's get a move on this!"
And the base he had run for seven years responded as they were trained to, like a well-oiled machine. Everyone involved in the Stargate program was part of a family and whenever anyone was injured the whole base felt mobilized out of concern.
A steady stream of wounded started coming through the Stargate as General Hammond headed down to the embarkation room. He arrived at the same time as the medical response teams who began triaging the wounded as they stepped onto the ramp. Hammond looked up and saw the Vice President assisting his bodyguard through the Stargate.
"Mr. Vice President… what happened?"
"General," the aviator replied as he handed off his bodyguard to a corpsman. "I'm not sure… We were eating in the mess hall when alarms went off to clear the base…"
"What?" was his shocked reply.
"It must have been something in the research section… Colonel Carter ran in there…" he added almost as an afterthought. He then turned his attention to his bodyguard, "How you doing Kevin?"
"I'll be fine sir," he replied trying to refuse assistance and perform his duty of protecting the Vice President.
"Like hell you are!" the VP replied, "Your shoulder is dislocated, you've probably broken a few ribs and you probably have a concussion! You are not fine!"
"Sir-"
This time General Hammond interrupted him, "I'm sure you are son, but right now we need to get you checked out." He then looked around the room and called out, "Sergeant Matthews!"
The man ran up, "Yes sir?"
"I want you to escort the Vice President and this young man to the infirmary. Make sure he gets patched up as soon as possible and then take them to the conference room. Don't let anything happen to this man son."
Matthews snapped off a salute, "Yes sir… If you'll follow me," he told the pair as he began to lead them to the infirmary.
An hour later the three men entered the control room in search of Hammond.
"Have you learned anything else from the Alpha Site?" the former aviator asked.
Hammond looked up from the report he had been handed by an airman. "Mr. Vice President," he acknowledged before finishing his discussion with the airman, "Notify the Academy Hospital and tell them we'll be transporting some of the less injured to their facilities."
The General then returned his attention to the Vice President, "Not much… So far we've had thirty wounded come through the Stargate, six of them are critical, there are still four wounded there who are too critical to move. We have seven confirmed casualties and another twenty-two still unaccounted for."
"Do you know what caused the explosion?"
Hammond shook his head, "We're getting scattered reports about what exactly happened… Apparently most of the serious damage was limited to the research section, but the hangar also suffered some damage.
"And Colonel Carter?" he asked with concern. During his time at the Alpha Site he had come to enjoy her company and her abilities.
"She's one of the missing…" he stated. He hoped that they found her alive, he didn't know what he'd tell her father, or the rest of SG-1, including the former team leader, otherwise.
Everyone at the SGC waited for more news from the Alpha Site, everyone ready to assist as soon as the klaxons blared announcing an off-world activation of the Stargate. Over the next half hour wormholes with the Alpha Site were established twice to transport more of the wounded and provide more information for the SGC.
On the last communication with the Alpha Site they were warned to have several surgeons from the Academy Hospital on hand. They had made contact with a group of survivors in a pocket of rubble, but they were still working on safely digging them out. Included in that group was Sam Carter, who was reportedly badly injured.
Hammond had made several trips down to the infirmary already to check on the status of some of the injured personnel. So far, they hadn't lost any more and had moved four of the critical patients to the Academy Hospital. He was walking amongst the beds thinking it was moments like this when he was most proud of the staff here at the SGC. They all pulled together and got the job done, they always performed at their best when tragedy struck. Unfortunately, in ten years of existence, the SGC had proven what it was made of more than its fair share. He was speaking with one of the nurses when the klaxons once again went off and he rushed off to the control room.
"What have we got?"
The Sergeant waited to answer until he received a signal, "It's the Alpha Site, sir."
"Open up a communications line."
He waited for Sergeant Davis to carry out his orders, and once he received the okay from the man at his workstation, he leaned down and spoke into the microphone. "What's the status over there?"
"Sir, we've pulled out the personnel who were trapped in that pocket. We've got five more out, Colonel Carter and Captain Warner are in critical condition."
Hammond paused before speaking to the man next to him, "Open the iris." He took another deep breath and spoke into the radio, "Okay, we're ready to receive more from there. Send them over as soon as possible."
"Yes sir."
Hammond stood up and looked around the room. They all saw the concern in his eyes, they all knew how close he was with all the members of SG-1, and throw in the fact that Sam was the daughter of one of his oldest friends…
But he wasn't the only one deeply concerned about the Colonel's condition. In ten years of service at the SGC she had saved their lives countless times, in addition to becoming friends with a majority of the base...
"Are we receiving a signal?" he asked Davis who was sitting in the control room above him.
He wondered who it could be, they had just closed a connection with the Alpha Site.
Davis looked at his screen and then toggled the intercom for the room below him, "It's SG-3 sir!"
Hammond turned and hurried up to the control room. As he entered he noticed that the Vice President had rejoined them in the control room upon hearing that one of the teams escorting the President had dialed in.
As he walked in he noted that communications had already begun, "… Repeat, we had 21 Jaffa show up here at the Tok'ra home world! We've taken care of 15 so far… The President and SG-1 are on their way back to the Stargate now…"
Hammond's eyes went wide, what more could go wrong today? "Are there any injuries Captain?" he asked recognizing the voice. He looked down at the embarkation room as they continued to clear the room, he didn't know if the base could handle any more injured.
"None reported so far, sir… The President and his guests were well away from any action that took place," he assured his former commander. "They're on their way back now… they should be here in under ten minutes!"
"Very well Captain, we'll keep the gate open… Be careful son."
"Yes sir."
As he waited, he wondered what he was going to tell SG-1. Nothing would be able to prepare them for the news he had to deliver to them.
TBC (I promise!)
So let's be honest with ourselves... how many of you saw that one coming?
If you did that means you may have picked up on the little foreshadowing I gave a few chapters ago and so kudos to you!