Chapter 11
Daniel reached the top safely, nodded his thanks to Teal'c, and took off his harness.
"Sam has to activate the device from below," he said. "She'll signal us to pull her up when she's ready."
Teal'c nodded, and Daniel lay down at the edge of the cliff to watch for Sam. Nothing happened for several minutes, and he was about to use the radio to check on her when he felt a slight tremor in the rock beneath him.
"Did you feel that?" He asked, turning to Teal'c.
"I did not."
The first gentle tremor was followed almost immediately by a much bigger quake. Nearby, several boulders shook themselves free and rolled off the edge of the cliff, making a sound like thunder as they fell.
Daniel leaped back from the edge of the cliff. "Sam?" He called into the radio, his voice urgent. "All hell's breaking loose up here!"
Teal'c already had Sam's belay rope in his hands, his legs spread wide for balance against the heaving ground.
"I know, Daniel." She sounded tense, but controlled, and he relaxed slightly in the knowledge that she seemed to know what she was doing. "I think I got it," she continued. "Tell Teal'c I'm on my way up."
Teal'c nodded that he had heard, and Daniel grabbed a handful of rope to help pull her to safety. Both were too concerned with Sam's well-being to think much about what was happening in the gorge below until she stood safely beside them. It was only then that they noticed the new sound in the air. They turned just in time to see a wall of water burst through what had once been solid rock at the end of the canyon. With a roar of noise and frothing whitecaps, it churned through the ravine, seeking out every nook and cranny as it fought its way to freedom. In a matter of minutes, they were looking at a wide river, its waters nearly reaching the edge of the cliff where SG1 stood watching.
When the worst of the flood had passed, Sam turned to Daniel with a satisfied smile. "I guess it worked."
He grinned back, and they exchanged a high five that made Teal'c shake his head indulgently at them. But even he looked pleased as he watched the precious liquid boil down the length of the canyon toward the lowlands beyond.
"My people will benefit greatly from this discovery," he said. "Thank you for your assistance."
"Anytime, Teal'c," Sam said happily.
They watched the water for a few more seconds. "Right, then," Sam said, when it looked like the show was over. "Shall we head back?"
Daniel and Teal'c nodded and moved to the boulder where the belay ropes still lay. They coiled the ropes quickly, stowing them and the rest of the gear safely in their packs to be carried back to the Stargate. All in all, Daniel was well pleased with the day's adventure.
It wasn't until he turned to pick up his pack that he realized something was amiss. "Teal'c?" He should have expected something like this. After all, when had an SG-1 mission ever gone off without a hitch? "Where's Sam?"
Sam had been standing by the side of the river, checking to see if they still had access to the alcove where the device was located. One of the science teams should return to study it further, but that wouldn't make any sense if said machinery was now floating somewhere beneath several million gallons of churning water. Luckily, she could see the ledge, which meant the device was probably still accessible.
She'd turned to reach for her pack when she felt the bank crumble beneath her feet, rocks and dirt sliding away too fast for her to attempt a leap to safety. Later, she wouldn't even be sure if she had shouted. She would only remember the desperate fight for survival as the current forced her downstream in a maelstrom of froth and tumbling rocks that turned her world into a kaleidoscope of muddy water, white foam, and the occasional all too brief flash of bright blue sky.
She became the river's plaything, tossed about, dunked, and then bounced against rock after rock until she barely retained the will to fight. But fight she did. She'd survived the Goa'uld. She'd survived more than one alien invasion of body and soul. And she would survive this.
The water tumbled her over and around and then over again a dozen times or more before finally spitting her over the edge of a waterfall and down into a deep pool of water that sucked her in while her lungs screamed for air, arms and legs fighting desperately against the current. Exhaustion was the enemy now, weakness its ally.
She fought against her body's urgent demand that she inhale, She so did not intend to die this way, ignominiously defeated by a heartbeat's inattention to her surroundings. Then finally, blessedly, her feet touched solid ground, and with her last remaining ounce of strength she bent her knees and sprang upward, clawing her way to the surface.
Beyond the pool, the water slowed, as though having finally tired of play, it was ready to settle down and take a look around. She dragged herself to the muddy bank, pulling herself as far up the muddy slope as she could before giving in to the exhaustion that forced her eyes closed while the toes of her waterlogged boots still lay in the gently lapping waters of the river.
Daniel and Teal'c called her name repeatedly as they hiked downstream, searching the frothing waters for any sign of their friend. Neither dared voice the thoughts that whispered their ugly threats at the back of their minds, that Sam couldn't possibly survive these rapids, or that if she did, she'd likely arrive at the other end mangled beyond recognition. Instead they walked until it got too dark to see the other bank. Then they pulled flashlights out of their packs and walked back the way they had come, circling the end of the canyon and hiking down the other side.
Finally, Daniel turned to Teal'c. "I'm heading back to the SGC for a Search and Rescue team," he said. "We're never going to find her this way."
Teal'c nodded, his expression grave. "I too will arrange a search party." He said. He didn't utter any reassurances. Both men knew that they might not find her, no matter how hard they looked.
Sam didn't know how long she'd slept, but when she awoke, it was dark. She shivered, the slight movement stirring aches in places she hadn't known she had. She took a mental inventory, thankful to discover that all of her appendages were still attached and functioning mostly as designed. She was bruised and battered, her clothes badly torn, but nothing felt broken.
She eased herself further up the bank, and then took off her socks and shoes, watching the water sluice through the mud to the deceptively calm river beyond. She shivered again and looked around, straining to see her surroundings in the darkness. Now what? No trees meant no fire. Wet clothes meant a possibility of exposure or worse. No pack meant no food. She needed to find shelter. If she could conserve her body heat, she could probably make it through the night.
Cautiously, she climbed to her feet, relieved when her original hypothesis about functioning appendages proved accurate. Leaving her boots where they lay, she picked her way along the bank, her eyes turned away from the water as she scanned the landscape for shelter. It took several minutes, but at last she found a place where a group of rocks had been pushed several feet up the bank by the first rush of water, ending up in a semi-circular arrangement that, if not exactly cozy, would at least prevent a modicum of body heat from escaping into the chilly night air. She'd rest here until daylight and then work her way back upstream and toward the Stargate. With luck, she'd meet a rescue party somewhere along the way.
