Chapter 11 – Urgency
"Sir, he's unconscious," Doctor Fields said to the General, an answer to his unspoken question. "He must have been in a lot of pain…"
"What can you do for his wound?" Hoffman once again felt the feared feeling of dread—the same feeling he had in the pit of his stomach the time when he thought he was losing Rick.
"I'm not sure, sir," she said, a very grim and worried expression on her face. She began wringing her hands together. "I need to see the nature of his wounds in order to determine if I can help him."
The General nodded. "Go for it. Alex, Daniel, Dagón, and Dude are trying to get the Colonel as comfortable as they can. We need to see if there's any way that we can get John off of that wall."
"Yes, sir," Kate said and quickly left the room, heading back towards the 'Gate Room.
"We have the Colonel sitting on a tall ladder. That way, the stress of hanging by his chest isn't there anymore," Daniel explained to Kate as she started to climb her own ladder up to John to see what she could about his wound. Alex and Daniel had agreed to help the doctor while Dagón and Dude went to see if they could find anything about the origin of the artifact or what it actually did in the computer system.
"Good thinking," Kate said about Dude and Dagón. "Could you hand me that stethoscope?"
Nodding, Daniel lifted it up to her, both he and Alex waiting impatiently to see what could be done for their leader.
"Well," Kate said, studying the Colonel's wound after checking his pulse, "I don't know. It's something I've never seen before. The arrow and metal shaft is clearly penetrating John's body, but there's no blood. With this size of a wound, you'd think there would be."
Turning back to the Colonel, Katherine saw that he had his eyes open partially. "Hey, John," she said softly. "Colonel, how are you?"
"It hurts," John said hesitantly, his voice croaky and dry. There was a tinge of pain and fear in his voice, making the doctor feel sorry for him, and to also worry. "I've never experienced pain like this in a really long time. What happened?"
"Well," Kate said, putting her stethoscope in her pocket so it wouldn't fall, "I think Major Croft could answer that better than I could." The doctor started to walk down the second ladder. Alex stood there, taking in the view of her cousin locking eyes with the Colonel for a moment before she walked out of the room, no doubt to go research John's condition and see what she could do to help him.
"Major?" The Colonel's voice was really weak as he looked down at her.
Trying not to cringe or cry out with frustration at seeing John like that, Alex said, "Well, sir, we were trying to get the artifact back to the Spacegate when it started to do something really weird. Do you remember that?" After a slight nod, the Major continued. "It was getting heavier as we got there and we dropped it, though it didn't hit the ground. Then, it somehow opened up and speared you. It all happened so fast, that I'm not that sure of if you could've dodged it.
"Dude and Dagón are researching the artifact on the databases. What do you want us to do, sir?"
"Get a Sartgun," John said through gritted teeth, while shifting position on the ladder to get more comfortable. The shift made him move the metal bar within him and made it even more painful than it had been.
"But—"
"Major that is a direct order!" Colonel O'Brien snapped, trying hard to restrain his rising anger and frustration. "Do it!"
"Yes, sir," Alex said and ran to get a Sartgun.
The room went into a strained silence. The occasional gasp or soft moan from John was the only thing that made a sound during that brief moment in time. Finally, John broke it.
"Daniel?"
"Yes?" Daniel asked, wondering what the Colonel wanted.
"What have you and Major Croft discovered about the artifact while you two were working on it?" John sounded desperate as he begged for information about his condition.
"Well, John, we're not sure about what it's supposed to do, but I took some pictures of the artifact before it went all haywire because it had an alien language on it. I was going to start translating it when you told us to go get some sleep. I was just going to go do that now, as I think our next off-world mission will be canceled."
Smiling weakly, John said, "Go for it. See what you can see. Tell me what you find."
"Of course," Daniel said and walked out, just as Alex was walking in with the gun her Colonel had requested.
"What do you want me to do with this, sir?"
"Shoot it!"
"But sir…!"
"Goddamn it, Major! Shoot it!"
"Yes, sir," Alex replied gently, and took aim.
The artifact, now so close, seemed smaller than it had in the case. It was still somewhat triangular, and small openings on the sides of the artifact seemed to glow. Shooting it, the Major thought, might not do that much damage…but not questioning what the Colonel had ordered, Alex closed her eyes and held her breath.
Pulling the trigger after a moment's hesitation, she opened her eyes just as it fired and watched as the plasma energy blast hit the artifact, where it seemed to be absorbed. Then, after a moment, the energy appeared again, traveling up the many metal spikes protruding from the object—especially the one holding the trapped Colonel.
John screamed in pain.
"Sir…?" Alex cried.
"Shoot it again!" The Colonel's outrageous plea was more than enough to make the Major shoot the artifact on impulse, her brain not processing the information. But this time, instead of watching the plasma energy climb the metal spikes, she had her eyes on John, seeing what happened.
As the energy raced through him, he seemed to glow, a patch of an almost phosphorus substance on his neck and face. Just then, the energy raced up the pole, and the substance was gone, replaced by a scream of agony.
"Sir, you cannot order me to shoot it again because I will not. If I do it again, you could die…"
"No…" John wheezed, his voice expressing his severe pain. "No…you're right. The Sartgun doesn't do anything to it. Can we see if…we—" The Colonel fell unconscious.
"Colonel? Colonel! Sir!" Alexandra pushed her comm. "Kate, General Hoffman, to the 'Gate Room quick! Colonel O'Brien is unconscious…again!"
The two came quickly, the General holding the door open for Fields who was toting a bag of medical supplies. As soon as she got into the room, Dr. Fields ran up the ladder and started checking John's vitals. The General turned to Alex.
"Major Croft, do you know how this artifact works?"
"No, sir," she replied back, her voice full of regret. "I don't know what this is made of, either. I think, however, because the poles of the artifact can conduct energy, they must be close to metal. I was just heading to go try to work on it when the Colonel had me shoot it with a Sartgun—twice. It didn't work, as you can see. But, I think if you could get someone with a blowtorch, they might be able to get through it."
Hoffman nodded. "I'll get Rogers on it immediately. Dagón'll be here to help, too. I want both you and Dr. Matthewson working on this right away. You two are our scientists…go see what you can do."
"Yes, sir," Alex said with a grim nod and left the room to head for the science bay.