He rubbed his hands over his eyes, he forgot how stressful and quickly things could happen here at the SGC. A little over six hours had elapsed since the initial transmission from the Alpha Site had been sent through, and just a few since the President had returned. He'd recently been informed that Colonel Carter had been taken into the O.R.
The only somewhat good news he had received was that all personnel from the Alpha Site were accounted for. The bad news was that this was the single most bloodiest day for the SGC, nine lives had been lost. That meant he had nine letters to write. Nine families that would never know that their loved ones died in the service of their planet.
"I'll be down in the infirmary," Hammond informed Sergeant Davis. As an afterthought he turned, "And keep trying to dial up the Tok'ra home world."
"Yes sir."
Hammond quickly made his way to the infirmary. He checked in the main room and was pleased to see that there were less bodies in there than before. He walked up to one of the nurses, "How are they doing?"
She looked up from the chart she was writing in, "We transferred a few more to the Academy Hospital, sir. Those that are still here are still under observation, but they should all pull through fine."
He looked around the room, "Where are all the doctors?"
"They're all in the O.R.'s working on Colonel Carter, Captain Warner, and Corporal Winters."
"Corporal Winters?" Hammond wasn't aware of the severity of his injuries.
"Yes sir, we were about to transfer him when he crashed. He had some internal bleeding that the ultrasounds didn't pick up."
"Is he going to be okay?"
"I'm not sure, sir," she told him honestly.
Hammond nodded his head as he headed towards one of the beds, "Are you in charge down here than?"
She looked up once again, "I guess so… The First Lady has helped out tremendously sir. She just stepped out for a drink of water."
"Thank you, Lieutenant."
Hammond walked to one of the beds and picked up one of the charts at the end of the bed and read the name. Sergeant Steven Collins. He scanned his memory trying to determine what his duty at the Alpha Site was. 'Chief of Ground Crew Operations – Second Air Wing of the F-302.'
He looked at the man lying in the bed, his head was wrapped, his right arm was in a cast and there were burns on his left leg.
The man's eyes opened. "General."
"How you feeling Sergeant? Is there anything I can get you?" he asked ready to call a nurse over.
The man blinked and licked his lips as he realized how parched he was, "Some water, sir."
Hammond looked around and found what he was looking for as he poured the man a glass of water and handed it to him.
Once he had quenched his thirst he asked the question that was foremost on his mind, "How bad was it sir?"
He was amazed, the man lying on the hospital bed wasn't asking about his own condition, he was asking about others and the base. "Pretty bad… We lost nine people… A lot of wounded…"
The man closed his eyes and sent a silent prayer for the nine lost souls.
"And the base?"
"Extensive damage to the research section as well as some damage to the hangar," he informed him.
The man's eyes shot open, "Did all the 302's make it out?"
Hammond nodded his head, "Yes," confused by the question.
The man breathed a sigh of relief, "Thank God!"
Intrigued by his question and response, Hammond questioned him further, "Son, do you know what happened?"
Sergeant Collins looked at the man standing next to his bed, "I don't know what caused the explosion, sir… But I do know that it probably could have been a lot worse."
"Why's that?"
"Colonel Carter ordered me to get the whole fleet mobilized."
Hammond stared at the man, not quite sure why she would order such a thing.
"The F-302's are a bomb waiting for the right trigger," the man on the bed explained. In the past few years he'd had several discussions with Carter concerning the volatility of the F-302s naquada generators. "I worked at Nellis for five years before joining the SGC. The first thing they tell you is: If there's a fire, make sure the planes get out first because of their ordinance and the fuel. The naquada's not just fuel, sir."
Hammond wasn't sure what exactly happened in the research section, but he was amazed at Carter's foresight to have the base cleared as a precaution. "When did she tell you to mobilize the fleet?"
He closed his eyes trying to recall, "I'm not sure sir… We were sending the last two out when the explosion happened… My guess is it took us three minutes to get the planes out of there, and two minutes for pilots to get in the aircraft… Five to six minutes, sir."
He assimilated that with the information he had received from the Alpha Site's commander, the base had been ordered cleared five minutes before the explosion. And even though most of the personnel had cleared the affected areas, it was the shockwave and residual instability of certain sections that had caused most of the injuries.
"Thank you for the information, Sergeant," he told him as one of the nurses came through on one of her rounds of the patients. "Take care of yourself son."
He nodded from his bed, "Yes sir."
Hammond walked around the rest of the room and chatted briefly with those who were awake.
After visiting with the last patient, he looked up and saw a Secret Service agent. He looked into the office and saw that Cathy Ryan was at the desk making a few notes. He nodded at the agent as he entered the office, "Doctor."
She looked up, "General, I was just going to look for you."
"I'll save you the trip," he offered lightly. He looked back out at the full infirmary and then back to the First Lady, "These men and women are grateful to you for helping out. It means a lot to them and me."
She shook off the praises, "I'm just glad I could help."
"How are they doing?"
Joining him in the office doorway she stated her professional opinion, "Most of them will recover without any serious problems… A few of them may suffer from PTSD." She paused and chose her next words carefully, not wanting to offend the General, "Please, don't take this the wrong way, but I don't know how there aren't more."
Hammond looked down at the woman not sure what she was implying.
"I never understood the military code of honor… Duty, Honor, Country… I… The constant stress these men and women live with in defending our planet so that the rest of us can live in blissful ignorance that there are a race of beings out there that would love nothing more than to enslave us all or destroy Earth… Not being able to share what you do with anyone outside of this world… I don't know how you deal with it," she admitted.
"It is hard… They love what they do and they're proud of it… And they do get to share it with the rest of us on the base."
She nodded her head, "That's good." But she wondered if that was enough. The stress of secrecy was too much… It had been hard on her own marriage…
She remembered the nightmares.
The constant wondering if he was safe when traveling.
But, as much as she hated the rules of secrecy, she understood them on a certain level… She had her own oath of patient confidentiality that she strictly upheld.
Deciding to change topics, he began to lead her out of the infirmary, "Do you know anything about the condition of the three in surgery?"
"Well, they just wheeled Corporal Winters into recovery, but I haven't heard anything about the captain or Sam."
He reached out his hand and stopped her, "Doctor…"
She looked at the General next to her. She didn't see a hard ass General. She saw a grandfather, a man who treated everyone under his command as if they were his own children.
"Would you like for me to check with the doctors?"
He smiled at her, "I, and I'm sure SG-1, would greatly appreciate it." He didn't even realize that he had called them SG-1, even though they weren't all officially SG-1.
The trio walked down the hall towards the operating rooms. The first one they came to happened to be the one with Captain Warner in it.
Five minutes later she stepped out and informed him that Captain Warner was stable, but that his leg had been badly crushed in the explosion and they were being forced to amputate his right leg above the knee.
Hammond absorbed the knowledge quietly wondering how this would affect the man's life. As they walked, Hammond spoke quietly, more to himself than to the First Lady. "He's an engineer at the Alpha Site… I wonder if I can keep him on active duty?"
When they came around the corner they saw Sam's teammates waiting anxiously outside of the O.R.
Hearing the footsteps they all looked in their direction as they finally saw someone who would be able to get them some answers. "Cathy…"
She reached out for his arm and squeezed it, "Just give me a minute," she told them as she stepped into the O.R.
During the several long minutes that the five men waited, the rest of the President's entourage showed up.
When Dr. Ryan, M.D., finally did step out slowly, Sam's teammates began to assume the worst.
"How is she?" Jack O'Neill blurted out.
She stared at the three men who obviously cared very deeply for the woman who was laying on a gurney behind her. "She's suffered several serious injuries, most of them internal. She broke a few ribs, unfortunately they are what caused most of the damage. They ended up puncturing her left lung, spleen, and kidney. The most pressing issue is her heart, the pericardium around her heart is filling up with blood… that's why she arrested in X-ray… They're still trying to find the source of the blood… They're probably going to have to remove her spleen, they're not sure about the kidney yet… Both bones in her left forearm are broken, the orthopedic surgeon is going to take care of that later… She also has a few superficial bruises, her right eye is swollen shut right now…"
As they listened to her explain Sam's injuries they all faltered at hearing the amount of injuries she'd suffered. "Is she going to…?" Jack couldn't bring himself to state the worst.
She looked back into the room she had just exited, "The doctors are doing everything th-"
"Cathy!" he pleaded with her.
She looked at her old friend. "If they can find where the blood around her heart is coming from her chances are better… All the injuries she suffered, one can recover from. But I'll be honest," she quickly added before getting their hopes up to high. "She's suffered a lot of trauma, sometimes it can be too much Jack… It really is too early to tell , we need to wait until they find the leak."
Jack looked at Cathy and thanked her for her honest assessment before turning to the O.R. doors and looking through the small window. "Come on Carter… You can't give up!" he quietly ordered.
TBC