3. Storm Warning
Jonas can't keep his papers from blowing off in the wind. And going inside isn't an option either, because Colonel O'Neill is still banging away at the roof.
"What about this one? PX5-883?" asks Jonas, pointing to the middle of the second page of listed worlds.
"SG-10 had an observation post there," Jennifer answers, absently.
"That means we can't go?" he asks. "Are we completely avoiding any planet that the SGC has already been to?"
"If the SGC had found a planet with any trace of the Furlings, we would know about," Jennifer says.
"Actually, we did. About seven months after I joined SG-1."
"I know about the planet with Colonel Maybourne. That's my entire point. We can rule out every planet that the SGC has been to."
"That's half our list!"
"Which leaves us the other half. Which is twenty five hundred planets, if I'm counting correctly – which I am," Jennifer says, her voice ramping in irritation.
"I don't think completely dismissing another twenty five hundred planets is going to help us either."
"Fine. Once we get done with the twenty five hundred the SGC hasn't explored, we'll double back, but for now we need to make up for lost time."
"Lost time?" Jonas asks. "It's not a race, Captain Hailey. This is not the SGC. There's no dead line."
"That's exactly the problem. We need rules, standards."
Suddenly, Jonas stands up and starts looking past Jennifer entirely. "I don't think standards are what we need..."
Jennifer turns around to see the sky, suddenly turning black in a way that's far too fast for comfort.
"It's just a storm," she says.
"No, it's just started a few minutes ago. That's way too fast for a storm," Jonas disgrees.
"It's a storm on an alien planet!" Jennifer argues as the wind picks up. She starts jogging after Jonas as he goes towards the shed, but then sees the papers start to swirl around, going everywhere. She turns quickly on her heel and goes back for them.
Jonas and Jack are beginning to shout just to be heard over the wind and everywhere, yellow pieces of paper elude Jennifer's grasp. She holds them in a crumpled pile against her chest and reaches out with one hand.
"Jennifer, leave it!" Jonas screams, coming back towards her.
She looks up in time to see Jack straight off of the roof of the shed. It's only about a seven foot drop and he lands agile as a cat. They're both practically running. Jennifer sees the sky now almost completely dominated by black.
And the temperature is starting to drop so that Jennifer notices it. Like somebody opened a giant freezer door and the cold has finally reached them.
In the distance, something dark and angry rumbles to make itself known.
Jennifer drops all the papers and lets them fly off into the wind.
"They're not answering the radio, Colonel," Jonas tells him, handing him one of their four stolen radioes.
"Paul and Amy are still out there!" Jack screams. "Jonas, get whatever you can into the shed and nail i something /i to the rest of the roof. Hailey, you're with me. Jonas, keep trying them on the radio. Channel 2. If there's no contact in an hour, keep dialing Earth until they send a probe. Tell them what happened."
"If I do that, they'll never let us come back, Colonel. If I dial Earth, it's over."
"That's why I'm telling you to wait an hour," Jack shouts. "Contact every five minutes. Hailey, grab a zat. We're going."
Hailey goes into the shed and grabs not only two zats, but two ponchos.
She hands one to Jack. He throws it over him and starts walking at a fast pace in the direction they saw Paul and Amy leave in.
They walk for maybe a click and see the weapons trunk open and knocked over by the strong wind. Weapons are strewn all over the ground like fallen mechanical soldiers. It haunts her that there is nothing around to explain why this is. No tracks. No signs of battle.
Just abandoned weapons and the looming promise of a storm.
Jennifer watches as the first drops of rain fall on a P-90.
"There's no tracks!" Jennifer shouts. "They could be anywhere. It doesn't make sense. If something happened, Davis would head back to base camp."
"Unless he didn't get the chance. He might have headed for the trees," Jack theorizes. He stares at the line of trees half a click away.
"We only have a half hour of light left! There's no time!" Jennifer scream over the howling wind that's whipped her hair completely out of it's ponytail. The rain that was a drizzle a few moments ago has now turned into stinging needles.
"If go at a dead run -"
"We'll still never make it. Sir! If we don't make it back to base camp we're as good as dead and in about twenty minutes, it's going to get very, very dark."
Jack looks desperately towards the treeline.
"If we run -"
"We'll never make it. We're pressing our luck as it is! If they are in the trees, they're safer than we are right now!"
Jennifer grabs Jack's arm and pulls him.
They take off at a dead run, with the storm darkening and intensifying at their backs.
They reach camp to find planks of wood meant for construction of bunk beds nailed sloppily to the roof and the MALP anchored to the DHD. There are papers plastered against the Stargate itself.
However, it does look like Jonas managed to get all the other equipment and supplies inside the shed.
Jonas sees them coming back.
"You didn't find them?" he asks, and Jennifer wonders why he felt the need to.
"We ran out of time," Jack tells him, in place of an actual explanation. They race into the shed and shut the door. Jonas grabs a board and a nail and Jack grabs him by the wrist. "What if they come back?"
"Then we'll unboard it," Jennifer says. "Whatever is coming is nasty, sir. We can't leave the door unboarded."
Jennifer picks up a rock and a few nails and joins Jonas at the door. They hammer four boards in. Jack stands there and watches them do it.
They sit huddled together in the only free space left in the shed, now cramped with supplies. Jack looks behind him and opens the trunk he's leaning against. He gets some blankets and passes them to Jennifer and Jonas.
Jennifer says, "At the rate the temperature is dropping, we'll need more than blankets."
"We've got parkas somewhere around here. Didn't think we need them here," Jonas tells her.
"We'll look for them when the time comes," Jack orders, grimly. "Just keep listening. They could still make it back. And keep trying the radio."
Jennifer nods. She fishes out the radio from beside her and presses it. "Paul?" There is static and the sound of the wind outside. "Paul? Do you read. Please repond."
And still, nothing. Jennifer hands the radio to Jack. She's not prepared to pretend she believes that they're ever going hear from Paul or Amy again. She scrunches in on herself and pulls the blanket tight around her.
Jack tries the radio a few more times before giving up. He puts the radio on top of the trunk.
"Colonel," Jonas says, softly, but no so soft they can't hear him over the noise outside. "I've been thinking."
"This oughta be good," Jack sighs. "Sorry."
"This storm came up very, very quickly."
"Your point?"
"I don't think is just a fluke of nature." Jonas's voice is grim and thick with scientifically calculated warning. "I think there might be something or someone deliberately causing this."
"Is that even possible?" Jennifer asks.
"Touchstone could do it," Jack tells her. "Well, taking away a touchstone could do it."
"You think there's a touchstone on this planet?" asks Jonas.
"What's a touchstone?" Jennifer interrupts them, before they go too far without her.
"This device on Madrona. It made the weather stable. Some NID guys got a wild hair and stole it and their weather started doing something like this."
"But we're the only people on this planet," Jennifer says, in a way that's more of a question than a statement.
"Could this be something we did?" Jonas ponders.
"I'd know a touchstone if I saw it. Believe me," Jack assures them. "It's a wide wonderful galaxy, who knows how many people have little weather machine thingies."
For a long time, there's only the moaning of the wind and the steady growl of thunder that encroaches ever faster. Jennifer watches Jack's eyes as he studies the sounds outside, hoping to hear a whistle or a call over all the chaos. There is only the storm, and still Jack listens.
"You think they'll get through this," Jennifer says. "You really think that either one of them is strong enough?"
"I'm thinking that we might not be strong enough to get through this."
"Whatever thisis," Jonas adds. Jennifer thinks about asking him why he felt the need to remind them that they have no idea what's going on.
"Just keep trying the radio," Jack orders him, with a dismissive wave of his hand. "They're out there."
Jennifer keeps herself from saying 'and that's our problem in a nutshell', because she realizes that she's got nothing more than that to add. There's no math for her to do, and she feels lost - for the first time since she left Earth.
