"Well," quipped the petite, attractive blond woman, as she emerged with her three companions from the lush, green valley path that lay at their backs, and regarding the stretch of barrenly arid landscape that spanned for miles before them, "Think of it this way, Sir--at least there aren't any trees in our foreseeable future." She smiled impishly up at him.
"Very funny, Carter," the man beside her, her C.O, Colonel Jack O'Neill, drawled sarcastically, pulling is large sunglasses out of his breast pocket, unfolding them, and putting them on before he moved again, taking the lead of the small group, and still griping.
"Couldn't we, just once, end up on a that has a nice beach resort, maybe a little waterfront view, instead of this hot, God-forsaken, much less uninhabited, hunk of space rock--What's it called again?"
"P4X-993," the resident archeologist, Doctor Daniel Jackson piped up from the back of the group, adjusting his wire-frame up the bridge of his nose as he went, "And as for it being uninhabited, Jack, we've only been here for about five minutes."
"Yeah, whatever," Jack grunted. He turned to Carter, a more businesslike expression on his face. "Report, Carter?" The woman glanced at him quickly as she calibrated the small black scanner she was holding in the palm of her hand. "Well, Sir, the atmosphere here is pretty stable, considering that this whole planet is basically a huge bio-dome. I am getting some slightly abnormal infrared radiation readings, but the M.A.L.P. sensors indicated that it was because the sun is exhibiting signs of going supernova in approximately two to two-and-a-half years, so it's not much higher than we expected. We shouldn't be in any immediate danger."
"Good," was all Jack said, as he pulled the bill of his cap down over his eyes. He paused a moment, and looked around. "Well, Kids, let's get this show on the road. I wanna make camp before nightfall."
The group started out, with Jack and Major Samantha Carter taking the lead, and Daniel and Teal'c, the large, muscular, black Jaffa, bringing up the rear.
That had been this morning. It was now mid-afternoon, judging from the high position of the sun as it beat down on them. SG-1 had been walking for just over two hours, and all four of them were starting to feel the effects of the heat. Jack wiped his sweating forehead with the back of his hand as he gazed ahead. "Hey, what say we take a break for a minute by those rocks up there?" he pointed, "I could sure use some shade." The other three nodded in weary agreement, and Teal'c went so far as to add, "I concur," in his deep, rational voice, as they made their way to the cluster of boulders that Jack had spotted, and settled their things.
"You know, Sir, this may be the perfect vacation spot for you. Whatever mood you're in, just go to the part of the planet that matches." Carter commented in a teasingly casual tone as she shrugged off her heavy backpack and sat cross-legged in the shade beside him. "Except for the tiny, insignificant fact that the sun's going to go supernova. You might not want to be around here for that," she added as an afterthought. Jack, hearing this, grinned sardonically. "Yeah, sure Carter. Whatever you say. Though I'm so hot already I could probably take it." Carter, never ceasing to be amazed by his half-joking, sarcastically arrogant bravado, rolled her eyes and shook her head with a chuckle.
She was just about to retort when someone--or something--came into view in front of them. Jack apparently saw it, too, because he suddenly straightened. Signaling for Carter to follow, Jack hunched over and went quickly around the first boulder, where Daniel and Teal'c were trying to translate an inscription of alien text on a stone tablet they had found earlier. "O. K, Kids, we've got company." Jack said, his voice taut and alert, as Daniel and Teal'c came to join Sam and Jack where they were crouching behind the rock-face, weapons in hand.
The four watched silently as the lone figure seemed to lurch across the ground, swerving every so often, in their direction. "O'Neill," Teal'c warned, his voice low, "The individual is rapidly approaching our position."
"I see 'em, Teal'c, I see 'em." Jack murmured, peering over the top of the rock as the figure abruptly halted and let out a hoarse exclamation, before turning and throwing its arms out. SG-1 watched in disbelief, as huge streams of fireballs seemed to fly out of the person's hands, exploding several hundred meters away from their originator as they hit the ground.
"Holy Hannah," Carter gasped. Jack privately agreed. This was definitely something worth checking out. Man, if only he could do that!
The figure stopped the fireworks and was facing the concealed team again. O'Neill cocked his weapon against his shoulder, ready in case it was needed.
The person was closer now. Jack could see that the individual had close-cropped, auburn hair, and was short in stature, wearing what seemed to be a bulky, very awkward blouse over a maroon skirt-like garment. The person was limping heavily, clutching a long shaft of wood in its right hand and using it for support. Its left hand caressed the area below its chest. The child, for it was much too small to be an adult, seemed unsteady and ready to collapse as it neared the first boulder, put its left hand against it, and turned, maneuvering itself into a sitting position with a small cry of pain through gritted teeth. Once seated, the figure laid its head against the rock, closing its eyes for a moment with a ragged sigh of relief.
Carter and O'Neill exchanged bewildered glances. Should they reveal themselves? As though it knew it was being observed, the child opened its eyes again and looked about warily. At that moment, Daniel sneezed.
The child had struggled to its feet in an instant as the four members of SG-1 stood as well. It leapt up, let out a shrill cry of terror, and tried to scramble sideways, but its leg would not support it, and it fell hard onto its face. The adolescent heaved itself, but could not run again, as its staff lay just out of reach.
O'Neill and the other three ran around to the front of the rock, where the girl, for her features were indeed feminine, squirmed desperately backwards, as though trying to shove herself into the boulder itself, her blue eyes wide in panic, and her voice whimpering in fear.
"Hey-hey…Easy, easy! We're not gonna hurt you," Jack said soothingly, lifting his hands out in front of him in an unassuming manner, and crouching down to her level, so that they were nearly face to face. Sam came forward, and murmured above him, "Sir, she's hurt. Take a good look at her right leg."
Jack glanced at the area Carter had indicated, and saw that, indeed, the bandage surrounding the girl's thigh was stained darkly with blood.
It was in the silence of that moment--as even the girl was too petrified to make a noise--that the four intergalactic explorers became away of an odd mewling sound that seemed to be emanating from the inside of the bulky shirt. O'Neill glanced at the girl again, a questioning expression on his face, but her eyes had gone, almost impossibly, wider.
No longer paying heed to the four strangers, the girl reached up, found the knot at the back of her neck, and began, frantically, to fumble with it, silently cursing her disobedient fingers. At last, she had it loosened enough, and brought both her trembling hands up to cradle whatever was making the racket, before tugging the tie undone and lowering her arms--as well as their precious burden--down, to rest in the curves of her lap. Then the child gently unwrapped the small bundle to reveal--
"A baby!" Daniel gasped under his breath, not wanting to startle the girl any more than he already had. Despite his efforts, the child heard his exclamation, quiet as it was, and cast a wary look at all of them for a moment, before returning her attention to the infant wailing pitifully in her arms.
Deftly, the girl placed the little one horizontally across her knees--with its head supported on the left, and its torso draped against her pelvis--and tenderly lifted back the swaddling, so that it--she, Jack amended, seeing that the baby was a tiny, newly born girl--was completely bare in the older child's embrace.
The infant was not at all pleased with this arrangement. She let out an explosive howl that seemed to reverberate off the boulder, the noise impossibly harsh for such a fragile, red-faced being. The whole scene would have been amusing to the four adults had the visage of the young woman not appeared so grim and serious.
The girl, responding instantly to her charge's unhappiness at being taken from the warm cocoon where she had lain since soon after birth, and then thrust into the cold air, completely exposed, started murmuring soothingly, sympathy present in her tone, as she examined the shrieking little one and prepared for the routine which had needed to be done during the journey whenever Amauri's brain had managed to work through the haze of confusion clouding it.
As SG-1 gazed on in interest, the girl lifted the wriggling infant carefully into her hands, freeing the small body completely from its blanket, and did something that none of the four strangers would ever have expected her to do---she started to sing.
The song had no words, but a beautiful array of tones that made it rich in its complexity. The tune was floating softly from her lips, soothing, quiet, and melodically hypnotizing. After a moment, though they were still present, the infant's wails were less forceful, and, taking the cue, the girl set the baby down again.
Her next movements were precise, steady, and done with an air that suggested that she had done this type of thing many times before, as she reached down, and with light fingers, laid them against the side of the infant's neck, pausing a moment, and using the slightest pressure to check her pulse. As the baby started to protest, the girl swiftly removed her fingers again, before bending her entire torso forward and laying her ear on her patient's chest, internalizing the song and humming it instead, to lessen the noise.
She listened for a second, eyes going vague, but then raised herself straight again, so she could examine the infant's abdomen with gentle, probing fingers, feeling beneath them the fragile ribs and soft intestines. She carefully traced the outline of the stomach, touching the area directly below the sternum and resting her entire hand on top, going up and down slowly with every breath the baby took. The infant struggled weakly, tired, and becoming hungry again.
Abruptly, the girl removed her and, and when she raised her face to the sky, there were crystalline tears trailing down her cheeks.
It was clear, even to the most obtuse of observers, that whatever the girl had found out about the little one's medical condition, it wasn't good news, and pained her greatly. By the this time, the child was forced to stop humming in order to fight down a sob by taking a deep, gasping breath, willing herself to quell the wave of hopelessness that welled within.
Unbeknownst to the girl, Jack, Sam, Daniel and Teal'c were sharing solemn glances with one another, expressing their sympathy and concern for the two forlorn children. Still oblivious to the torrent of silent communication going on around her, the girl reached into a pouch at her belt and brought a large gourd into her hand, pulling the thick stopper that blocked its hole out as she did so. Setting it aside for the time being, she shifted the baby closer to her chest and adjusted the blanket until she was partially covered again, before switching the infant to the crook of her arm, with a tender, maternal sort of expression caressing her face. Reaching behind her, she reclaimed the discarded gourd, and tilted it with the burdened hand, using the first two slender fingers of her free hand to dip into the opening and scoop up a bit of the porridge-like contents.
Lifting her hand cautiously so as not to drip any, she held the digits directly against the baby's tiny rosebud mouth, pushing a little to pry the lips open, and allowed the infant to suckle them for several seconds as she continued humming, tears glimmering in her pleading eyes.
Unfortunately, the baby seemed too small and weak even to handle half-liquefied food as of yet. She choked, turning her tiny face away in an effort to avoid being fed again, a squeal of protest piercing the air.
The girl blinked rapidly, murmuring gentle but begging words that SG-1 did not have to understand to interpret, before attempting the same process once more. This time though, the baby saw what was coming, turning her head more forcefully, and it took more effort for the girl to bypass the miniscule lips again. She repeated this practice twice over, and would have done it a third time, but when she went to do it, she found the baby had slipped into a fitful slumber, apparently overtaxed by the mere action of swallowing the few bites that had been fed to her. Tenderly, the girl slipped her pinky finger into the infant's relaxed mouth in an attempt to pacify her and make her sleep more restfully.
Gazing silently down at the dozing babe, the older child returned the gourd to her hip with her free hand, never taking her staring eyes away form the painfully thin burden she held. Without her bulky tunic, O'Neill could see that this girl was as malnourished herself, ribs evident and face sallow-skinned.
All was quiet for a moment, then the girl came back to her senses and gasped in horror, whipping her head up to regard the team again with those wide, terrorized and haunting eyes, seeming to have forgotten their presence until that very instant.
At first, she tried to run again, but could not persuade her body to tense enough for her to rise. What little she did do caused the baby to coo and shift in her blankets. Hearing this, the girl abruptly halted, frozen, uncertain.
Then something in her broke, and what remaining strength she had, fled. She slumped listlessly against the rock, and for the first time, met Jack's gaze fully, letting him see the defiance, weariness and hopelessness within her. Fear played plainly across her features as she regarded them all. Slowly, she crumpled, the façade slipped, and she cried, clinging the infant to her, burying her face into its soft fuzz of hair and rocking convulsively back and forth.
"Hey," Jack said gently, steadily, "It's okay. Nobody's gonna hurt you. We just want to help."
She tilted her yes up and looked at him cautiously, not sure what to believe, her hysteria only subdued by exhaustion.
"So." Jack quipped dryly, in an effort to start a conversation that might lead to more important questions, "What's a pretty girl like you doin' in a desert like this?" O'Neill joked, hoping for some kind of response. Nothing. She continued to stare at him warily, eyes narrowed. "My name's Jack," he tried again, pointing to himself, "What's yours?"
Now the girl's eyes brightened a little as she seemed to sense what he meant. Slowly, movements hesitant, she pointed at herself and said softly, "Amauri." Her eyes traveled slowly around the small crowd, still apparently skittish, but obviously attempting to communicate past the language barrier.
Jack took the initiative. "Ah-mah-ri," Jack repeated sluggishly, stumbling over the foreign sounds of the word. Amauri nodded with a small grin. This exchange was too much for Daniel, who moved forward, excitement evident on his face. "Hi," he said cautiously, "I'm Daniel Jackson, and this--"he pointed at the appropriate person as he said their names, "--is Sam--" (who nodded encouragingly) "--and Teal'c," (who nodded solemnly in greeting.)
Amauri gave a slight nod in response, but the movement triggered a hard spasm, and made her let out an involuntary cry of pain, gasping through clenched teeth several times before she was able to breathe freely again.
O'Neill came forward, hand outstretched, and brow furrowed in concern, "Hey, are you-" he began, but Amauri glanced up and flinched as Jack neared her. "Whoa, take it easy. I just wanna help you, if you'll let me." He locked eyes with her, attempting to convey his concern without words, as she seemed unable to comprehend their language, and vice versa.
Amauri stopped, considered him for a moment, and then tentatively reached out her hand to take his softly. Jack, momentarily caught off-guard threw a glimpse at the rest of the group behind him, watching from a short distance away, before refocusing his attention back on the girl. Then he put his free hand behind him to signal discreetly to Carter, standing at the head of the separated group, who came and crouched beside him. Amauri regarded her with a vacant, stunned, and overwhelmed expression, arms hanging limply around the baby, apparently still there only by instinct.
"Hi there," Carter said, smiling at her, and trying to make a good impression. She got no response. Amauri closed her eyes again, briefly, trying to regain some semblance of control of herself, as the pain seared her body, which trembled almost spastically with fever. Realizing that they had to make her mind stay with them, Jack laid a gentle hand on her shoulder, drawing her attention, with a startled gasp, back to him.
"Look, Kid. I know you're probably scared and hurting like hell right now, so I'm gonna have Carter here take a look at you, O.K? She won't hurt ya, I promise." He paused then added, "Trust me?" His kind, dark brown eyes looked at her intently, a slight frown of worry tugging at the corners of his lips.
From the sincerity in his manner, the girl knew his intentions and knew that he meant it. She glanced at Carted, who also seemed genuinely worried, and gave a small, rasping sigh, before nodding her head slightly in affirmation and bracing herself.
With that, Sam kneeled, extracted the rudimentary med-kit she always carried with her from her pack, and laid it open on the dusty ground. She brought out a canteen of fresh, clean water, a roll of pristine, white bandages, a pair of gleaming scissors, a small tube of antiseptic cream, and a bottle of pills, and spread them all out before her. Amauri watched these preparations, the light of strength in her eyes dimming with each passing instant, face growing pale as her energy ebbed cruelly away. Her arm became unsteady and started to quiver uncontrollably as her jaw clenched, face glistening, evidently fighting to remain conscious.
Sam noticed Amauri's waning strength, and cleared her throat significantly, "Uh, Sir…?" She gave O'Neill a meaningful glance, shifting her eyes in the direction of the ailing girl and back again.For a moment, the Colonel still appeared confused. "Wha---oh. Oh, yeah. Of course."
Finally getting the message, Jack leaned over the girl, and made as if to take the infant from her arms. Seeing his movement, and sensing its purpose, Amauri shook her head wildly, whimpering in protest, and clutching the baby more tightly to her, turning her upper body slightly in what was unmistakably a defensive position.
"Hey, hold on Kiddo, it's O.K, I'm not gonna hurt her, but Carter needs you to stay awake while she works on ya. I'll be right here with her. You'll be able to se us the whole time, all right? I won't move an inch." As he said this, using a quiet, easy tone--so that Amauri would understand that he meant no harm, even if she did not comprehend the actual words-- the Colonel reached over and gently pried the bundle loose from her arms. The baby shifted restlessly, cooing half-heartedly a few times as Jack got it into a more secure position against him. Jake murmured a quiet, "Hey there," as the infant was enveloped in a warm, expertly gentle embrace.
Then he looked into its tiny face and felt his heart flutter. It had been a long time since he'd done this, since long before his son, Charlie, had…Jack gave himself a mental shake, abandoning that train of thought as he straightened and called, "Daniel! Hey! Danny-boy!" When he had the archeologist's attention, O'Neill beckoned him over with his chin. "C'mere an' give me a hand." Jackson came at a sprint, with Teal'c following at a walk. "Hey, Jack. What's up?" The brown-haired, bespectacled man pushed his glasses up again as he spoke. Jack waited a moment, regarding him with a wicked sort of mischievous glitter in his eyes that made Daniel nervous. Teal'c silently came up and halted beside him.
"You got any experience with kids, Danny-boy?" Daniel looked uneasy. "Uh, no, not really, Jack, why--" With that, O'Neill turned abruptly to Teal'c, "What 'bout you, T, ol' buddy?" Teal'c could do nothing but raise an eyebrow before stating simply, "I have, O'Neill, when my son, Rya'c was a child, but that has not been for several years--"
"Good," Jack interrupted, "Take this little one for me, then, willya?" Without waiting for a response, Jack carefully transferred the slumbering infant from his arms to those of his tall, distinguished friend--who looked slightly startled, but accepted the precious burden without any audible protest, and the graceful air of someone who had obviously experienced parenthood before.
That dealt with, Jack turned as he heard Carter say, "O.K., now, this might hurt a little, but I promise I'll be as fast as I can. Just try and bear with me, all right?" Amauri, biting her lip, nodded wearily, and leaned back, exhaustedly, against the boulder, clenching her fists as they dangled limply on either side of her thighs until the knuckles were white. Admiringly, Jack patted her shoulder, "Good girl."
Amauri slowly turned her suffering, glazed eyes upon him, her face adopting a resigned but pleading expression as she looked at him, seeming to collect herself for what was to come. Then, she launched her arm up to grip his hand painfully in her own. Jack went rigid for a moment at the suddenness of this gesture, but then recalled himself, and used his thumb to massage the back of it gently, in a soothing, circular motion. At the same time, he locked gazes with Carter, and nodded, almost imperceptibly, for her to begin.
The Major responded in kind, adding, "I have to clean the wound, wash away any dirt that may have gotten caught in it," before she raised the canteen, previously uncapped, tilting it slightly, so that its clear, pure contents cascaded down into the laceration. The water flooded the gash, lifting the trapped particles of dust, until it spilled over and dribbled own the girl's thigh, ridding the area of the dried blood and pus which had formerly crusted there, as it went.
To her credit, Amauri's only reactions to the sharp sting that bit her leg as the liquid invaded the infected slash, were a hard flinch and a low thin hiss of repressed agony through clenched teeth. She quickly turned her face away, hiding it from view as much as she could, and doing her best not to scream or cry out. The sheer effort involved was enough to make her eyes water.
Trying to ignore the girl's discomfort and concentrate on what needed to be done to alleviate it, Carter swabbed some antiseptic into the torn flesh, took up the scissors to cut a generous strip off of the roll of bandages, and swiftly began to secure the covering into place.
Amauri had been almost absolutely silent up to this point of the procedure. Now, though, as the Major tried to position the limb so that she could wrap it properly, Amauri's voice erupted from her throat and she let out a tormented yell, despite her efforts to suppress it. The cry was so strident that the girl instantly clamped a hand tightly over her mouth to stifle the noise. Tears of anguish now running freely down her cheeks, hand still gripping her lips, Amauri tried to force herself to breathe normally, to no avail.
Rather than minimize the sound, all the action had done was remind her body of the congestion of fluid that the fever and infection had caused. She began having difficulty drawing a full breath into her starved lungs before it was hacked out of her again, and, though she sensed both Jack and Sam trying to calm her racking body, she knew by her rapidly graying vision and increasing light-headedness, that she was losing the battle with the pain and exhaustion, and plummeting into the black void of unconsciousness….
