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Chapter 5: Looking into the Flames

Jack kicked the doorframe. Janet sighed as she walked in, "If you break your toes, Colonel, I won't be able to clear you for any more search teams."

Jack grumbled a bit and sat down at the briefing table. It had been five hours since this hell had started, and right now, he just wanted to know his three kids were safe; so far, the access shafts had turned up empty.

General Hammond indicated for Doctor Fraiser to begin, "We've got back the results from the blood tests. The reason it's taken so long is that I've been re-running them on Colonel O'Neill's request. I'm sorry, sir, but their blood came back normal; there is nothing abnormal about these children. This," she sighed, "means that I am at a complete loss as to how to turn them back."

Jack groaned and banged his head on the table.

A little distance from three sleeping children, in a storage room of a secret military base, a small click sounded, but to no one's ears. Then another and, following in quick succession, many began to sound. If anyone had been watching a crate marked A45KG, they would have noticed small amounts of barely visible blood sink into the wood. If they had continued watch after this point, they would have noticed that a low buzz had started up from the depths of the crate. They would also have noticed that the small piece of paper attached to the crate was blackening and curling with heat, and that the crate was beginning to smoke.

Jonas stirred. It took only a second before he realised what had woken him. Sitting bolt upright, a faint smell of smoke filled his nostrils. Turning to his sleeping friends, he shook them violently, screaming, "Daniel! Sam! Wake up! I can smell smoke!"

Sam and Daniel stared at him; neither had heard him make so much noise before. Sam tried to calm him down, "Jonas? If there was smoke, the fire system would've kicked in."

Jonas was beyond reason. He yanked them to their feet and began to drag them back the way they had come, Daniel barely had time to grab two zats and a torch. "Jonas! Stop it!" Then they smelt it. Almost as soon as they did, water began raining down on them from the ceiling's fire sprinklers.

"Shit!" The three of them were soaked through in a second. Daniel pulled them both down another 'passageway', "The fire should be out by now, but people are gonna come down here!"

Daniel was wrong. Even with the now sodden wood, the immense heat had sparked a roaring fire. Luckily for them, however, they had made it back to their open grill. All thoughts of cameras forgotten, Daniel helped Sam onto the crate so that she could get back into the shaft. He was about to help Jonas up, when he found he wasn't behind him; he was backing away, eyes wide with terror. Daniel turned to where Jonas was looking, and uttered a curse in Coptic. A roaring fire had taken hold, despite the water. It raged through the maze of crates.

Daniel was only broken from his trace when Sam screamed, "Jonas! Come back!"

Turning just in time to see Jonas bolting, Daniel leapt up onto the crate with Sam, handing her a zat and torch, "Listen, I'm gonna get Jonas. You need to get up the shaft before the smoke gets you. Climb as fast as you can. Wait for us in the ventilation duct off the armoury, unless the smoke gets there too. Keep your zat close."

"No! I wanna help!"

"Sam! Go already! And whatever you do, stay safe and don't get caught!" He gave her a leg up, and jumped off the crate. He ran full speed after Jonas, even though his mind was screaming not to; Jonas' terror and smoke-induced confusion had driven him into the flames.

An alarm sounded in the base, shortly followed by a fire warning over the comms. "Dammit! This is just what we need." Colonel O'Neill sighed as a fire team ran by to prepare.

An Airman ran up to him, "Colonel, you're wanted in the control room by General Hammond! He said it was urgent."

"Oh, fine then."

Before he could ask what was wrong when he entered the control room, Hammond practically dragged him over to the security screens. "What am I supposed to be looking at?"

"Rewind the tape," Hammond instructed.

"What the…" Colonel O'Neill was looking at a storage room in black and white. Three figures were running in the tape, "Why are they running?"

"Because, Jack, that is the storage room that is on fire."

Jack continued to watch with a sick feeling in his stomach, as Sam disappeared into a duct, and Daniel shot after a disappearing Jonas, then the camera shorted out. General Hammond sighed, "The footage ends there, we believe the fire affected it."

"General-"

"Collect Teal'c and join the fire team. We'll have a medical team standing by."

Jack didn't need telling twice. He shot out of the room, and he and Teal'c had joined the team in under a minute. Kitting up quickly, it wasn't long before the team was down in the storage room.

Smoke filled Jack's senses as the doors of the elevator opened. Checking his breathing mask was in place, he scanned the room. The smoke made things almost impossible.

The team made their way in. Teal'c and Jack tried to look for the two children, while the others got to work on the fire. When things were starting to look dreadful, Teal'c called, "There O'Neill!"

A small dark shape darted through the smoke, but Jack could tell who it was. He ran as fast as he could in his heavy boots, and easily caught up with weakened child. He caught him around the middle; it was Daniel.

Daniel was crawling and scrambling through the flames and smoke, weakly calling to Jonas as he went. He hated fire, it always killed so many in the desert, but why had Jonas reacted the way he did? Coughing, he suddenly felt something grab him and lift him off his feet; it must be the NID, of course they would want to put out the fire. His zat skidded away unnoticed in the struggle. Regardless of who had him, he had to make them understand, "No! Let me go! I have to find Jonas!" Tears streaked his smoke smudged face as they didn't listen to him and dragged him away. A gas mask was pressed harshly over his face and he knew no more.

Jack carried Daniel over to the elevator where Teal'c waited with an oxygen mask. Gently placing it over Daniel's nose and mouth, Jack watched as Daniel relaxed; he had fainted. "I'm going back after Jonas - you go back up and take him to Fraiser!"

Running back towards the flames, Jack began scanning the room. Panic rose in his throat as he could find neither hide nor hair of the smaller child – what if he was dead? Someone would have some sick sense of irony if Jonas died, not from an action of the Goa'uld, but as a scared child with no knowledge of their twisted lifestyle. Then his comm. clicked in, "Colonel, this is Major Griff. We've found one of them. He's unconscious. Meet us over by the elevator; Coburn's team is getting this under control."

It didn't take long for him to reach Major Griff's team. One of them was holding a small blackened body, barely moving. They quickly fitted Jonas with a mask, and returned to the upper levels. They were shortly joined by Major Coburn's team – the fire had been stopped.

Sam was huddled in the shaft, next to the grill that overlooked the armoury. It must have been an hour since she saw Daniel running after Jonas, and still there was no sign. She had climbed so fast, her feet were raw, but luckily, a small draft blew downwards, keeping the rising smoke at bay. She sniffed, having been crying for a while now. A little while ago, she had convinced herself Jonas was dead – he was so small, how could he have survived? She had a small hope that Daniel had climbed to a lower shaft, but only a small one. Guilt rose in her chest and she curled up further. Then she hit the side if the duct hard, leaving a tiny dent in the metal, and a ringing in her ears.

She sighed and wiped her eyes – what was the use moping? Then she had a thought. If there was a fire, the NID would want it under control. They could have found her friends! Filled with a new hope, Sam awkwardly turned around in her confined space. If she could just find the right duct, she'd be able to see into the sick room. She groaned. That would prove near impossible – this one had been hard enough to find.

Jack wrung his hands, pacing frantically outside the infirmary. He hadn't changed or showered since he had brought them here, and looked a mess. Teal'c sat patiently nearby. Janet came out smiling, "They're going to be fine Colonel."

Jack collapsed into a chair next to Teal'c, "Are they awake?"

"Not yet, they had severe smoke inhalation, but were both very lucky not to receive any burns. We've cleaned them up, and they're resting now. I've talked to General Hammond, and he agrees with me, that we should keep them unconscious until they are well enough to return to the isolation room; it will prove less stressful for them."

"When will that be?"

"In an hour or so, we've cleared the smoke from their lungs and have them on oxygen. I would advise you two get cleaned up, they'll be here when you get back." Janet smiled and went back inside.

It had taken Sam an hour, but she had found it. She had almost cried out with relief when she saw the two peaceful forms of her friends, pale, but otherwise fine. She lay on one side, just watching them. Then her ears perked up at a noise – someone was coming up the duct! No, she corrected herself, she was being paranoid; after all, she could barely fit herself.

She heard it again, the small thudding of the metal bending and bouncing back. Someone was definitely coming from the direction of the access shaft. Turning quickly onto her stomach, she took one last look at her friends and slid as fast as she could, away from the oncomer – Daniel had told her to stay safe, so that's what she'd do. She grasped the zat tightly, and slithered away.

To Be Continued…

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