A/N: Again, huge apologies for the delay. On the bright side, my latest, hellish 5-week graduate class has ended, leaving me feeling semi-human (at least until the next one starts!) And, thankfully, June 10 – my last teaching day this year – is rapidly approaching. At that point, I'll finally have time to BREATHE again. So, I promise that the updates will start coming more quickly now.

By the way, I'm continually amazed by the attention to detail that all my faithful readers exhibit! Sarah Loughlin picked up on the "P3X-595" reference from Emancipation. (CARTER: "What a relief. I have never been so happy to see you guys." O'NEILL:"Oh, sure you have! Remember that time on P3X-595? You drank that stuff that made you take off…" CARTER: "Ahem. We won't get into that now.") I've often wondered what happened on that trip. Might just make a good stand-alone fanfic someday… +Evil Author Grin+

Anyway, back to the show.

Chapter 16

Since Sam and Jack had packed up camp several hours ago, they'd noticed a gradual increase in the amount of pale, gritty ash that seemed to cover every horizontal surface in the forest. Initially, there had been little more than a light dusting on the trees and grass, barely noticeable unless touched with bare skin. However, by the time midmorning had arrived, the landscape had become blanketed by a layer of grey ash almost half-an-inch thick.

As they trudged up the gentle incline, a companionable silence fell between the pair. Bright morning sunlight reflected eerily off the gray-white trees and shrubs, a decidedly unnatural sight for this time of year. "Almost looks like snow," Jack mumbled absently.

Sam nodded. "Except that it's twelve times heavier," she commented, looking around at the grim scenery. "And when its wet, an inch of volcanic ash outweighs an inch of snow by a ratio of more than twenty-to-one."

Jack smiled darkly. "Good thing we don't have to shovel it, then."

Sam was about to reply to his comment when, suddenly, she was presented with a sight that stopped her short. About twenty feet ahead of them, visible through the dusty, gray trees, the forest simply ceased to exist.

Wordlessly, they walked to the edge of the treeline and were met with a sight that was frighteningly surreal. The moderately dense woodlands that covered the mountainside abruptly disappeared in an unfathomable scene of absolute devastation. Huge, formerly majestic pine trees lay sprawled on the earth, stripped of needles and bark, lined up in almost perfectly parallel formation. It was as if a giant game of pick-up-sticks was being played on the side of the volcano.

"Holy Hannah," Sam exclaimed softly, blue eyes wide with shock. "I've seen pictures of this, but… wow."

For his part, Jack surveyed the desolate landscape with the grim, hard eyes of an experienced black-ops agent. While the scene undoubtedly was one of the most impressive displays of raw power he'd ever witnessed, he didn't appear as openly awestruck as his young, somewhat naïve second-in-command. "That," he commented quietly, "is going to be hell to walk over."

Suddenly, Sam seemed to remember why they were there. Jerking her gaze away from the fallen trees, she turned to Jack and tried to clear away the eerie fog that had settled in her brain. "I hadn't thought of that," she replied faintly.

Looking over the seemingly limitless expanse of demolished forest, Jack sighed. "There's no way we're walking though that, Sam. One of us would break an ankle within an hour." He looked meaningfully at her. Though his knees had held up fairly well under their slow, measured pace back up the mountain, he didn't have to remind her that crossing rough terrain was not one of his favorite activities.

Sam released her own sigh of frustration. "Jack, it's highly probable that the gate is inside the blast zone. We're going to have to find a way in there eventually if we want to get home."

He suppressed a wince. If we want to get home. Funny how that wasn't necessarily a given anymore. Still, while he had few ties to Earth – Cassie and his colleagues at the SGC were about the extent of his personal life – the same could not be said of Carter. She was a sister, an aunt, and a friend to dozens of people back home. Even if Jack was sorely tempted to forget his earthly ties and set up permanent camp here on this ruggedly beautiful volcanic planet, he knew that Sam would eventually want to get back. He wouldn't ever want to be the cause of any lingering sadness or resentment in her life.

Focusing on the matter at hand, he gazed resignedly at the devastation. "I suppose, then, we'd better figure out which edge of this disaster area is closest to the gate and approach from that direction. Until then, we'll have to stick to the perimeter." He absorbed the uninviting thought of tramping through all that uneven, wooded terrain. "Just how big is this mess, anyhow?"

Sam seemed to sag at his question. "Honestly, I have no idea. Mount Saint Helens had a blast zone that covered more than 230 square miles. I'm guessing the perimeter was somewhere around sixty miles all the way around. Unfortunately, we have no way of knowing how Mount Doom stacks up to that. It could be much more or much less."

Jack rubbed the back of his neck in a familiar expression of displeasure. "All right, let's just assume they're pretty similar. How far are we going to have to hoof it?"

Sam took a deep breath and started doing some quick mental calculations. "Well, let's see. This is the far edge of the zone, which is probably fan shaped. We're maybe ten miles from the crater." Blinking, she shrugged out of her backpack and began rummaging in it for her notebook. In a moment, she had it open and was drawing a diagram to help her visualize the area. "If we could keep going in a straight line, we'd only be about five or six miles from the gate." Chewing idly on the end of her pencil, she exhaled sharply. "If we edge our way around the blast zone, I'd guess we'll about triple our walk."

Shaking his head in irritation, Jack repressed the urge to throw something. Twelve miles over the rough, wooded mountainside would easily translate into two more days of walking, especially if they encountered more debris. "Damn," he muttered.

Sam closed her notebook and glanced at his irritated expression. "There's one more problem," she said gingerly.

"Of course there is," he grumbled. "And that would be…?"

"The cliff." Sam watched his expression carefully, but could see that her words hadn't quite registered yet. Deciding to refresh his memory, she continued quietly. "The gate was perched near the edge of a cliff. It's pretty likely that by approaching from the far edge of the blast zone, we'll have to climb the cliff to reach the gate."

Groaning, Jack closed his eyes and cursed violently. After a moment, he returned his dark, exasperated eyes to his second-in-command. "So, what you're telling me is that we're going to be hiking over uneven terrain for two days and then scaling the side of a cliff that's God-only-knows how tall, and we're going to do all this with nothing but what's in our packs?"

She nodded.

Sighing loudly, Jack shrugged and pointed to her backpack. "Then I suppose we'd better get going."

Sam smiled sympathetically. She knew his knees were going to protest the rough treatment, but it really couldn't be helped. "Look on the bright side, sir," she said cheerfully as she started repacking her gear.

He regarded her with disbelief. "There's a bright side to all this?"

She nodded. "Sure there is. You already pointed it out." His unmoved expression prompted her to continue. "You said that we've got to get through the next few days with nothing but what's in our packs."

Jack's face remained incredulous. "How is that the bright side, Carter?"

Watching him closely, Sam reached into the zippered compartment where she'd just stowed her notebook. Grinning, she pulled out a small, familiar, foil packet. "Well, sir," she said suggestively, "we've got some pretty neat stuff in our packs."

Daniel stood wordlessly in front of the assembled members of the Tok'ra High Council. As Telston continued to prattle on in a rather self-important manner, Daniel found himself struggling to pay attention to the monotonous drone of his voice. The alien seemed to be set on boring everyone in the chamber to tears – Daniel had even seen one of the other High Councilors suppress a yawn. Hopefully, nothing of great importance was being said, because he was finding concentration all but impossible at that moment. In fact, Daniel was pretty sure he'd missed everything past the first few sentences.

"Daniel Jackson. The Tok'ra High Council has reconsidered your request for technological assistance. We are now prepared to offer you one small but well-armed ship, several small communications devices, our latest map of Anubis's fleet, a Tok'ra Pilot, and one of our Advisors for tactical support. Krilnash and Anise have volunteered for these positions, so all that remains is to outfit your vessel. We should have everything ready for your departure by dawn tomorrow…"

Daniel suppressed a groan of anxiety.

"Krilnash and Anise have volunteered…"

Anise.

Well, wasn't that just peachy?

Not only had she been successful in her bid to win them support in the High Council; she'd even managed to worm herself into the assistance package. Looking at her cool, even features across the conference table, Daniel felt his stomach clench rather queasily.

Somewhere in the back of his mind, he wondered if this was the first time a member of SG-1 had prostituted themselves for their mission. After all, they really had done almost everything imaginable to save the world at one point or another.

Let's see… There was Jack's indiscretion on Argos, but that really didn't count since he'd been drugged. Not to mention the fact that he hadn't really gotten anything out of the deal… except for wrinkles and an enlarged prostate.

And then there'd been the time when Sam had almost been sold into slavery on Simarka by the Shavadai, but that didn't really count either. She'd had nothing to do with her fate and would never have traded her body for anything on that backwards planet.

What else? Well, there was Hathor, of course, but that really had been a combination of drugs and an uncaring slave master. So, no. Not really the same circumstances.

He was just about to admit that he'd finally crossed the line of really bad judgment when someone stormed into the room, pulling him instantly from his grim musings.

As soon as Daniel realized who the newcomer was, he was filled with a mixture of elation, dread, and relief. The elation was to finally have a real ally. The dread was for his inevitable reaction to the current situation. And the relief… Well, Daniel was relieved because he'd finally found what he'd been looking for just moments ago. This man had most certainly traded his body for favors from a Tok'ra. And, as far as Daniel knew, he'd never regretted his decision for a moment.

It was Jacob Carter, host to the Tok'ra symbiote Selmak.

And, boy, did he look pissed.