Thanks again for all the lovely reviews. I hope things will improve from here on, Suse B… let me know if I succeed (or not)!
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Daniel moved towards the tree trunk, but Teal'c stepped in front of him.
"Allow me to assist you, Daniel Jackson," the big man said, kneeling on hands and knees in front of the fallen tree. "You may use my back as a step."
Daniel looked startled by the offer. "Um, Teal'c, that's not…" He trailed off, eyes straying briefly to Sam before returning to Teal'c's prone form. He blinked behind his glasses. "I mean…uh, thank you."
Sam tried to give Daniel a helping hand as he climbed up on Teal'c's back. "I'm good," he said, shrugging off her assistance. He stepped quickly on top of the trunk, poised himself, then jumped off the other side, landing gingerly on his good leg.
Sam stared at him, wondering if she should take it personally that he would accept Teal'c's help, but not hers. Daniel had always seemed to accept her as an equal in the past, and he'd never questioned her competence. She didn't get the impression that he had a sexist bone in his body, and she had sort of felt like they'd bonded in their geekdom…
"I can lift you, if you prefer, Captain Carter," Teal'c said, interrupting her thoughts.
"What? Oh, god, no, Teal'c, I can… I mean, I'm fine!" she said, quickly following Daniel's example by stepping up on Teal'c's back. Unfortunately, the effort caused another bout of dizziness, and she almost lost her balance as the contents of his pack shifted slightly under her weight. Somehow her boots found the top of the tree trunk, and then she was hopping down on the other side before she toppled over. The pain of landing sent stars flying in her line of vision and an agonized grunt from her mouth before she could clamp it down. She doubled over hugging her ribs as tears made an embarrassing escape, and Daniel held her steady with a hand on her shoulder.
"Dammit, Carter!" the Colonel said. "I told you not to jump!"
He had? She looked at him, confused. He looked angry again. She felt her stomach churn, and it was hard to get a breath when it hurt so bad. "Sorry, sir," she somehow managed to gasp, trying to straighten up.
The Colonel glanced away as Teal'c effortlessly vaulted the tree. When his eyes met hers again, his face softened slightly. "You have to focus, Captain. I can't have you drifting off in hostile territory."
"Yes, sir," Sam said. "I mean, no, sir," she corrected. "I mean… I have to focus, sir, but I can't drift off." That was right, wasn't it?
He frowned at her response, and his eyes drilled into hers. "Are you good to go?" he finally asked.
"Yes, sir," she nodded, vowing to keep focusing. She grabbed her weapon. "I'm good, sir."
She could see the doubt in his eyes, but he nodded. "Let's get moving, then," he said.
Focus became her mantra as they continued down the narrow path. Eventually she realized that she was focusing on telling herself to focus at the exclusion of all else. So she shifted her attention to Teal'c's broad back leading them through the thick forest. There were dirty boot prints on his pack. Daniel must have big feet. His prints were much bigger than hers. Funny that, seeing as the archeologist was only a few inches taller. Or maybe she just had small feet. And the tread patterns were slightly different. She wondered if that was a function of size, brand, age, style or sex of the boots, and if it might make a difference in the traction. There were equations to be made there, she thought, about friction and surface contact and angles of force, but she let them slide from her mind. She was supposed to be concentrating. Focusing. On something other than math.
Teal'c. Former First Prime of Apophis. Kneeling in the leaf litter of the forest floor to make it easier for her and Daniel to climb over a fallen tree. Wasn't that a bit akin to a four star general going down on all fours to help the troops? It was the type of team-first tactic taught and practiced by all US combat units, but it just didn't fit with the title of "First Prime." Yet Teal'c had done it without prompting from Colonel O'Neill, without request from her or Daniel. Which just proved that Teal'c truly was a team player despite his history as a commander of armies, and despite being an exceptional warrior in a warrior culture that probably emphasized individual prowess. How amazing was that? How lucky was the SGC that he had joined their cause? He had a nice butt, too.
Sam wiped the sweat out of her eyes with her sleeve. God, she was really out of it. Not that Teal'c didn't have a nice butt, but it really wasn't very professional of her to be paying attention to it. Dammit, she was supposed to be watching their sixes. She shook her head. Just not those sixes. Crap, crap, crap, the Colonel was so going to kick her off the team.
A loud rustling to her left snapped Sam's attention to the surrounding forest. "Movement at my nine o'clock," she warned the others quietly, even as Teal'c disengaged from the Colonel to bring his staff weapon into position. Sam felt the sweat running down her back between her shoulder blades as they waited, scanning the dense ferns and surrounding undergrowth for any signs of movement.
After a tense minute or two, Daniel shifted uncomfortably. "So, do we just, um, stand here forever?" he finally asked. "Seeing as I'm, uh, still bleeding and all…"
A loud squawk erupted to their left, and a rust-colored, birdlike creature with a bald head flew out of the undergrowth into the vines and branches above.
"Daniel!" the Colonel hissed.
"Did you see that?" the archeologist asked excitedly, pointing up at the trees where the creature disappeared.
"You just gave away our position, Daniel," the Colonel said crossly.
"I did?" Daniel said, looking surprised. "I thought Sam already did that with her warning."
The Colonel took off his helmet and wiped his forehead. "If that had been a Jaffa, he would have blasted you the second you spoke."
"Um, Jack, if that had been a Jaffa, I think he would have blasted us before we knew he was there."
The Colonel made a fist, his face screwed up in frustration.
"O'Neill is correct, Daniel Jackson," Teal'c said before the Colonel could explode. "You should not have spoken at a time when we were attempting to assess a possible threat to us."
Daniel blinked. "Oh, okay, um… I'm sorry," he said sincerely. He looked at Sam. "Did that look like an archaeopteryx to you, Sam?"
"This is not a bird watching expedition, Daniel," the Colonel said before she could answer.
"Finding a living archaeopteryx would be an exciting scientific discovery, Jack," Daniel said.
Jack groaned. "I don't give a rat's ass about scientific discoveries at the moment. Our goal is to get back to the gate; preferably before one or more of us gets eaten by mini T-Rexes."
Daniel nodded reluctantly, still searching the tree canopy for the creature.
Sam was glad that Daniel's scientific enthusiasm apparently enabled him to tune out his injuries and pain. She had no doubt that he would go tramping off the trail in search of the archaeopteryx (or whatever it was) if the Colonel had allowed it. She touched his uninjured shoulder with her left hand. "I saw it, too, Daniel. We'll put it in the mission report. Who knows, maybe they'll authorize another mission to check out the abandoned ship. I'd love the chance to look at the technology in more detail."
Daniel smiled at her gratefully. "Maybe so. I know a paleontologist who would sell her soul for a chance to examine a real archaeopteryx…" he said, starting to limp after Teal'c and the Colonel.
"Of course, it may not even be related to the archaeopteryx on earth," Sam said, following. "It might just be a case of convergent evolution."
"True, but even that would be fascinating, don't you think?"
"Of course…" she agreed. "It's interesting that…"
"Keep you heads up, kids," the Colonel interrupted tersely. "Something might be scavenging the bodies we killed on the way up."
Sam kicked herself. She'd gotten distracted again. This wasn't a stroll through some park back on earth. They were on a different planet. They had no idea what to expect. Anything could go wrong, and they were a million light-years from help. God, they were crazy to be doing this. They could be eaten by man-eating monsters at any second. Heck, for all they knew, the trees themselves might be carnivorous. She looked at the trees suspiciously.
They looked like… trees.
For some reason, this struck her as being somewhat amusing. She fought the urge to giggle hysterically, suddenly feeling lightheaded. Then her foot caught on a root, and she bit her tongue; and she was falling. She didn't remember hitting the ground.
TBC