Gasp! Pant! Gasp! And another chapter has arrived. In under twelve hours… dies

And here we are, the Seventh Part! Please enjoy!

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"Sir, We need to get him back to the base, to Janet." Sam Carter was just preparing to launch herself into a detailed reasoning as to why they needed to take this possible threat back with them through the Stargate when, much to her surprise, the Colonel nodded his head and said, "Alright, lets go." She did her best to hide her surprise until a later time. Everyone, besides herself and Teal's - who was almost always a constant - was acting oddly today, ad apparently Jack O'Neil was no exception.

She heard Daniel call out her name and immediately she knew something was wrong. She quickly looked to Daniel and then back to the Colonel. "Sir?" her voice was tight and anxious and every inch of her was relieved when he said to Teal'c, "Dial up the 'Gate," and jumped off of the rock towards Daniel.

They young Major absent mindedly listened to the whoosh of the Stargate as the event horizon of the wormhole blasted into place, energy mingling with sea water. It smelled odd, the salt water burning as it came into contact with the unstable wormhole and immediately vaporizing in its unthinkable power. She thought in a detached way as she, followed by Teal'c, made her way through the sea water to Daniel and the man, at the strange power the Stargate had. It first destroyed everything in its path, then allowed life to pass through it to new worlds.

Sam shook her head. What was she thinking, there was no time for this! A man lay up there in need of serious medical attention, now was not the time to be contemplating such strange things as that.

They reached the top of the protruding stone quickly and at once saw the scene in front of them. The man, who was still nameless as far as she knew, was laying in the same position she had left him in. Only now he was unconscious.

And her day had started out so well too.

It had been just a nice fall day in Colorado.

Cool, but not quite cold.

The leaves were just changing from that rustic red color to the more beautiful yellows and oranges.

She swallowed her sigh, closed her eyes and then opened them again.

"Daniel?" Now it was full military mode. "Sam the Scientist" was, in a flash, transformed into "Sam the Woman With a Large Gun and Hand Grenades" and she strode up to the soaked man with a confidence. "We need to get him to the Stargate."

The man she had known since his arrival to Earth from Abydos nodded his head in a distant sort of way and carefully stood up. Jamming his hands into his pockets he frowned for a brief moment before pushing up his gasses and nodding again.

"Teal'c buddy, you want to carry him down for us?" The Colonel spoke out from behind her and she twisted her head to glance at him. He had creases running over his forehead that had not been there when they departed Earth.

But if there was one thing that was different, it was that he was genuinely confused. Not the average "I'm confused" the Colonel put on his face every day, but an honest confused. Then again, she mussed, they were all quite confused right now. Except maybe Daniel who seemed to be the only one who knew what was going on, she had no explanation as to why or how this man - a man Daniel knew no less - had managed to just appear on a different planet, millions of light years away from Earth.

Sam had to forcibly stop herself from thinking again. A feat that for the Scientist was quite difficult.

She watched Teal'c heft the dead weight man onto his shoulders with a strength no human could bear and climb with impeccable balance and skill down the cliff side. Sure, the cliff was only six feet or so high, but managing to get down that with an unconscious man on your back was not easy.

"So, Carter?" She turned towards her commanding officer. The worry lines had vanished off of his face and he spoke with his usual jibe, "how has your day been?"

She blessed him with a true grin. It was a wonderful thing to have him as SG-1's leader. Yes, he was annoying as hell at times, but he sure knew how to brighten your day.

"It's been very interesting, sir, but I would really like to know what's going on." There. She had said it, and it was… almost… respectful.

The old Colonel shifted from her to Daniel, who was still staring absent-mindedly at a small pebble. He turned back to her after a second and said, "Let's go home first."


The trek to the Stargate was a very long one. The 'Gate was only fifty or so feet from them but in the silent sloshing it felt something akin to an eternity. Teal'c was in front of them a yard or so, his large army style boots creating craters in the green sea water that were soon filled again with a splash. He was the only one tall enough to completely lift his feet out of the ocean layer and take true steps. The rest of them were subjected to dragging their bodies and resisting the current as much as possible.

Sam took this opportunity to switch, for the moment at least, back from "Military Sam With Three Guns" to "Scientific Sam" and truly think about what had happened today. And more importantly, what the hell she was going to tell General Hammond. Colonel O'Neil was not likely to say much more when they stepped out of the gate then, "We had fun, there was water and falling men," and stomp his way to the infirmary, dragging Daniel, Teal'c and the said "falling man" with him. Leaving her and the General to have a nice little chat.

She could hardly say to the General, "Yes sir, you see, we had just arrived there and all of a sudden this man wearing some form of dress fell from the sky," could she? No… that was a good way for herself and all of SG-1 to get themselves emitted into Dr. McKinsley's care. A thing none of them wanted to happen after their past events dealing with that slimy man.

No, she would need a better answer then that. The only problem with that plan was that she didn't know what had happened. And from the silent, pensive look on Daniel's face, none of those answers would be coming from him. The only option, besides driving herself crazy thinking about all of it, a thing she was most likely to do anyway, was wait.

Samantha Carter hated waiting, almost as much as she hated not knowing the answers to questions. And in this unfortunate case she was stuck with both.

The 'Gate, its blue iridescent surface still shining, ripples refracting off of the doubled sunlight pouring in from the two suns, stood in front of them and Sam hastily punched in the code for SG-1, the last thing she wanted today was to have her molecular structure reconstructed on the surface of the Titanium "Iris". Idly she thought of her father as Teal'c, with stranger still on back, went through the 'Gate first, followed by Daniel. The stranger wasn't Tokra, neither she nor Teal'c had felt anything from him, but she sensed a different thing from him, a think not quite Tokra or Goa'uld, but not quite normal either.

It was another thing to add to her "Unanswered Questions" list. That list, she thought bitterly, was growing quite long.

"Your next Carter," was the gentle prod from the Colonel as she realized that both the other members plus one extra had already disappeared through the wormhole. She gave him a smile and then with a confidence that she had only gained after years of 'Gate travel, walked up the submerged steps and plunged herself through the wondrous artifact that had been re-found so many years ago.

The sensation was the same as it had always been. Unlike most things and thrills in life, the experience of the Stargate did not wane with use. It was not like a roller coaster, which after you ride a few times is no longer of interest to you, but an indescribably feeling that is repeated every 'trip' with a precision that nothing on Earth, nothing built on Earth could replicate. It was not fun in its usual sense, in fact it was frightening. You were thrust forward, your mind only half with you as your atoms fell apart from each other. A truly indescribably feeling.

And then it was over.

She stumbled out onto the steel platform and ramp that connected a hard cement room to the edges of the Universe and looked around at the building she considered to be almost as much "home" as her own house. Maybe even more so.

The SGC. Swarming with airmen, young and old, scientists and doctors and nurses and people who just had nothing better to do with their time. It was one of the most heavily guarded places in the United States, one of their defenses being that no one knew about it. Not even Area 51 could say they had that.

The SGC also had one very confused looking General Hammond who was currently staring at them from several meters away. Sam could only imagine what was going through his head but she was sure it was something along the lines of, "What have they done this time…" and she couldn't blame him.

"Colonel O'Neil, would you like to tell me what is going on?" There was something very dangerous about an uninformed general that made even the toughest scientist quiver in his, hers or its boots. Then the General shook his head and told them sharply, "Never mind," and immediately called for a medical team.

Yes, Sam thought, an uninformed General was the worst General, even a mad General was manageable, but one who had no idea what was going on was a force to be reckoned with.


Janet heard the loud speaker announcement, checked her calendar and groaned. Today was the day SG-1 left on their mineral reconnaissance mission and the jinxed team couldn't even collect rocks without getting themselves into trouble. The woman hardly had time to wonder what had happened to them this time before she and her team of nurses plowed themselves through first the infirmary and then the wide hallways of the SGC, a gurney in toe.

She silently wondered if it was Daniel again. That boy had a tendency to find something painful and dangerous in any situation. They could be star gazing and Daniel would come back with a life threatening wound. Jack O'Neil wasn't much better. That man didn't have the constant bad luck the archeologist seemed to but he complained like there was no tomorrow. She hoped dearly it wasn't either of them. Teal'c wasn't a bad patient at all, he was always quiet and never disturbed anyone else in the infirmary. And Sam wasn't half bad either, although getting the woman to rest was a very tricky job.

Janet jabbed the elevator button and waited for the large doors to open.

Knowing them there would be something unexpected at least. That was one thing she could always count on in her job. The word boring had long since been cut out of her dictionary. Cassandra had also taken the liberty to cut out the word of the slang word "Grounded" and "annoying".

The elevator doors opened and she pushed the gurney into it with a practiced ease that was startling. How many times had she done this now, go to floor twenty-eight with an empty cot on wheels and then go back to her mini hospital with it full of some man or woman bleeding or suffering from some foreign sickness. Too many times. Yet, as a doctor, she enjoyed it. Not seeing her colleagues in pain, but working in an area that none of her medical friends out side of the SGC could ever even hope for.

The elevator slid open again and this time they rushed out of it in an organized dash towards the "Gate Room", known between doctors and nurses alike as the "Guinea Pig Room", healthy young people were sent through it and … poof! a week later the return through it sick and bleeding. Of course some teams managed not to do this to themselves every single mission, but SG-1 was simply to unlucky for that. She vaguely wondered as they rounded the corner, gurney wheels spinning slightly, what it was that actually kept them alive - it sure wasn't luck.

They opened the "Gate Room" large steel door with the push of a button and Janet was shocked to count all four SG-1 team members standing in one piece.

Then she noticed the man being supported between Daniel and Teal'c.

And she had been so hopeful…

A doctor's job was never done.

"Teal'c, set him on the gurney please," she instructed the large alien and he complied, gently placing the man on the white sheets of the rolling cot. Janet immediately noticed the make-shift bandages corded around the man's left forearm. Seeing that he was stable for at least the moment she instructed her nurses to cart him off to the infirmary and get an IV started. "I'll be right there," she told them firmly.

"Colonel, I need to know who this man is and as much information about him as possible." She stared the man in the eyes for what must have been a full thirty seconds before he jerked his thumb towards Daniel. She noticed with interest that everyone in the room seemed to be watching and waiting. Daniel, who was still silent even after having the attention diverted to him, was apparently deep in thought.

"Daniel?" The man's head shot up and he gave off the distinct impression of a deer in the headlights. He blinked once, twice and pushed up his glasses before crossing his arms over his chest and pulling himself into the purely "Daniel" response to an unwanted problem. He mumbled something unintelligible and Janet marveled. How could a man who spoke almost thirty languages manage to come up with an answer that sounded more like a garbage compacter then actual words.

But Janet saw something else in his posture and response. Knowledge.

"Why don't you come down to the infirmary with me? We can get your allergy medication while we are down there," Janet smiled. It was an obvious ploy and she could see the other members of SG-1 itching to follow them but General Hammond stopped them with a firm glare.

Daniel nodded his head and mumbled something again. The man looked so torn and Janet had absolutely no idea why. It was quite painful to her.

"Let's go."

They were not fifteen feet past the immense Gate Room doors when Daniel stopped her and with a pained look in his eyes told her, "There is something I need to tell you, to help Severus, but I can't unless you promise to do to things: Never repeat what I tell you and wait until I've finished before interrupting."

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Now, that should make up for the delay on the chapter before, here is the next one in less then twelve hours and can you believe it, its LONGER then the one before it! I hope no one minded the point of view switch in the middle. It should have been easy to tell where it was but I always worry that no on will realize its there and get completely confused. Hence the reason I haven't had more then one in a chapter before.

Thank you my reviews, those wonderful people who let me know that yes, people ARE reading this. With out reviews I am clueless as to whether or not this is being read. Once again thank you all!

The next chapter will be up soon (Within ten days) but probably not quite as quick as this one,

Thank you for reading everyone!