Sunday, April 5, 2020

"Are we going to talk about the fact that you're actually feeling worse today than you were yesterday?"

Sam reached for her duffel, and Jack put a hand on it to weigh it down. "Carter, sit. You're flushed. I'm betting you have a fever. You're not going anywhere."

The fact that he didn't get any more protest from her before she sank next to him was enough to tell him just how sick she felt. He pulled her close, letting her rest her cheek on his shoulder as she coughed into her sleeve, a barking cough which indicated she probably had some difficulty breathing.

Coronavirus.

She struggled to get her breathing under control again as she let her eyes drift closed. "How am I supposed to send my people up there to fight the Lucian Alliance without me?"

"You did it all the time on Atlantis."

She shook her head. "Probably not as much as I should have."

He kissed the top of her head as he wrapped his other arm around her. "Your people have trained for this, Sam. You've prepared them for this. Just as much as Hammond or Landry would have."

"Or you?"

A small half-smile tugged at his lips. "I'm a little more like you in that regard. Although, having a bureaucratic job helps with that. You'll learn that when they call you to take Landry's place."

She laughed, but it quickly turned into another cough.

The fact that his wife, whose fingers and toes often sought his to warm them, radiated heat in his direction confirmed the idea that she had a fever. Even if her eyes weren't glassy, her hands clammy, and her face flushed.

He helped Sam into bed, and she curled up against her pillow as if she'd tried to stay awake for a hundred hours. "I'm calling Lam and Landry. If they're smart, they won't let you walk on the base like this."

She licked her lips, and Jack made a mental note to get her some water. "I have it, don't I?"

He pressed the hair back from her face. She was already starting to sweat. "We don't know that. Could be the flu I had a couple months back."

"In case I do, you shouldn't be in here."

"Well, I thought about that, and I remembered that pesky little in sickness and in health clause in our marriage vows. So, I think I have a legal responsibility not to leave you alone. Besides, I'm growing kind of used to having you around."

She didn't laugh. "I'm serious, Jack."

He leaned over her. "I have news for you, Sam. I've probably already been exposed."

"What about the Hammond?"

"I'm gonna suggest they take Mitchell."

She sniffled as she closed her eyes. "Don't let Cam scratch my ship."

Jack raised an eyebrow. "Your ship, huh?"

Sam's lips lifted in a sardonic half-smile. "Tell him I'll hold him responsible for every scruff and every dent."

She was asleep almost before she finished her sentence, and Jack pulled the duffel off the bed and tucked it in the closet.

Now to tell everyone else.


"Over the last two weeks, forty percent of the Hammond's crew have exhibited symptoms consistent with COVID-19. Unfortunately, due to the top-secret nature of their assignments and inconsistency of test availability, we don't know for sure if it is COVID-19 or something else. All we know is that if they were somehow all exposed on the ship, it still fits in the window of exposure."

Forty percent? Damn.

Jack rubbed his eyes with his fingers. "Something else?"

Carolyn Lam swallowed. "We're fairly sure it's not the Prior plague, but that's only because there aren't any priors who would infect us now. We had some of the hospitalized cases transferred to the base infirmary, and we're going to run some tests. Hopefully, that will give us more information."

Sam coughed in the other room, and Jack's attention turned out the door. He still wasn't sure he shouldn't pack her into the truck and take her straight to the nearest hospital, but when he'd called Carolyn earlier, she'd suggested they wait a little longer. Unless she can't breathe, there's not much they can do to help her. You'll just risk exposing yourself and her to secondary infections.

He just hated doing nothing.

He sighed. "If it's not the Prior Plague, and it's not COVID-19, what could we be dealing with?"

Carolyn tensed. "There's always the chance someone released the Hoffan drug concurrent with our COVID crisis."

Jack's blood ran cold. "If that's true, anyone showing symptoms—"

Carolyn's face was grim as she finished his sentence. "You're right, General. In all our research on the Hoffan drug, we've never had someone show symptoms of rapid respiratory failure who recovered."

"Then, unless we find out otherwise, we assume it's not that."

"Isn't it possible that Colonel Carter was already been exposed to the Hoffan drug in her time on Atlantis?"

Carolyn shrugged. "Theoretically, it's possible. I just don't think it's likely since Atlantis was never hit with the same pandemic effect as the other planets in the Pegasus Galaxy. Of course, since we never really checked for that after she came back from Atlantis, I don't know for sure."

Jack groaned. "Look, not to be a wet blanket here, but what does this mean for the Hammond? Do we send it up with a lighter than normal crew? Do we put out calls for replacements? Do we go back to the drawing board?"

Landry leaned back in his chair. "The truth is, Jack, until we can figure out when or where the crew of the Hammond was exposed, I'm not sure we can send her up."

"What about the crews working on upgrades? Anyone gotten sick there?"

Carolyn shook her head. "Not according to my reports. They did thorough disinfection with UV lights before they even started on the upgrades. It's routine in protecting the Earth-based engineers from any alien contaminants on this kind of maintenance."

Jack eyed the doctor on the secure video chat platform. "So, except for possible person-to-person exposure, you're confident that the Hammond is safe to fly."

She was careful in choosing her words. "I can't speak to the ship's readiness or how safe it is to fly without some of the upgrades it was scheduled to get, but if the anti-microbial protocols were followed as documented, there should be minimal risk in bringing healthy crew members on board who have tested negative for COVID-19 and other illnesses."

"Hank, you think you can spare Mitchell to command the Hammond?"

Landry nodded. "I was going to send him to help with the fight anyway. He can pick anyone he wants from the off-duty SG science and exploration teams to help him out."

Jack imagined Sam would agree with him, though she'd have a list of the best scientists and airmen qualified for each position on the ship, better than he or Landry or even Mitchell could probably decide. "That's a good idea. Frankly, we should probably call Area 51 and get Hailey up there with him. McKay and Sheppard, too, if Atlantis is willing to spare them."

There was complete agreement on Landry's face. "I'll call Woolsey and explain the situation."

Jack offered him a grim smile, as close to a thank you as the man was going to get on this official line.

Carolyn waited for Landry to exit the call before she spoke again. "General O'Neill, I do need to get as much information as I can about how or when the crew of the Hammond was exposed if we're going to determine if this is COVID-19 or something else."

Jack nodded. "I assume you have Carter's log?"

She nodded. "As well as all the reports from the crew. It's helpful, but do you know if there's any way she could have been exposed since she got back? I didn't say it earlier, but given the purified, recycled air the crew was exposed to, it could be what we're witnessing is more indicative of her immune health than when she was exposed."

Jack cocked his head to the side. "What are you talking about?"

Carolyn grimaced. "The truth is, Colonel Carter has been on the Hammond for the better part of ten years. It's possible that what we're seeing is that her immune system isn't used to dealing with the antigens on Earth."

He studied the doctor, certain there was something she wasn't telling him. "Either that or the cumulative effect of that much space travel with purified air from the Asgard core may have done to her immune system what using Tretonin did to the people who invented it, am I right?"

The doctor attempted to school her features, but Jack could see the tiniest tell in how her lips tightened. "It's not what I'd consider the most likely scenario, but it is one of the things I'd like to rule out."

He sighed. "Great."

She hesitated. "General, if I were to give Colonel Carter any advice, it would be to stay in strict quarantine until I can get a doctor we can trust to run some tests."

"I'm sure she's already considered that, but if I understand correctly, there's a high likelihood that anyone she's come in contact with over the last two weeks would have already been exposed."

The doctor was quiet as she considered the idea. "If her tests come back positive, then the CDC will require a list of everyone she's come in contact with, and if that comes up against security clearance issues, forward the list to me, and I'll get everyone tested."

Jack nodded.

"General, if we're right, and her immune system's been compromised, quarantine would be as much for her safety as it would be for anyone else's."

Jack sighed. He didn't want to hear that. "Right. Well, keep me updated."


Sam coughed again, and Jack's mind zeroed in on the sound as he walked the half-dozen feet to the bedroom next door.

"Sam, I've got some good news and some bad—"

The handle wiggled only slightly, keeping the door firmly shut. She'd locked the door.

He groaned. "Oh, for cryin' out loud, Carter, open this door. That's an order."

He'd apologize later for pulling rank on her. In person.

No response. No footsteps. No muffled reply.

He banged on the door, feeling the same panic rise in his chest that had come when she'd been on the other side of a goa'uld force field. "Dammit, Sam. Unlock this door. I swear, Carter, I'm gonna break the door down if I have to."

His phone vibrated in his pocket, distracting him for only a split second. Landry or Daniel or whoever it was would just have to wait.

Sam coughed. "Phone."

His ears perked up. Phone?

He pulled the phone from his pocket, catching sight of the caller ID. Sam.

He pressed the phone to his ear, angrier at her than he'd ever been at her. "Are you seriously calling me from ten feet away? Open the door. I need to tell you what I heard at my meeting."

"No." Her voice was tired and hoarse like it had been after Jolinar had given her life to save Sam's.

"Samantha—"

"You can bring me up on charges later."

He didn't know what hurt worse. That she'd called him on his bluff or that there was no rancor in her voice, like she'd expected him to try.

"I'll remove the hinges."

"Please." She sighed, and he could hear the exhaustion in her voice. "Jack."

It had likely taken all her energy just to lock the door in the first place. Now, it was taking what little she had left to argue with him. Energy she needed to fight whatever was infecting her.

He let the hand holding the phone to his ear fall to his side in defeat.

There it was again, the way she would plead with him that would always get him to do whatever she wanted him to do.

Tok'ra symbiote to save his life? Check. Save himself after he destroyed Anubis's fleet? Check. Let her stay quarantined even if it meant risking her own life to keep him safe from a virus he'd likely already been exposed to?

He made a fist and pressed it to the door, leaning his forehead against it. Every instinct told him to break the door down and drag her to the nearest emergency room, but then, they'd be even more separated than they already were.

Besides, she was only trying to protect him as fiercely as he was trying to protect her. He couldn't fault her for that, could he?

Aqua, who'd apparently joined him at the door, whined as she scratched at the door. He sighed as he looked down at the dog. "I hear you."

He swallowed and put the phone back to his ear. "It might not be COVID. Lam thinks your crew was exposed to something similar before you disembarked. Forty percent of your crew is experiencing similar symptoms to you."

She coughed. "I emailed Carolyn a list of the people I saw and places I went in the last couple of weeks. It's naïve to think I wasn't exposed while I was here. My immune system is trying to get used to earth germs again. It happens every time I come back. We're just not usually dealing with a global pandemic, so it's usually only a mild case of the flu. That combined with—"

She wheezed, then coughed again.

Jack's heart squeezed, banging against the door once more in an attempt to protest his helplessness. There were a thousand reasons why his brain was conjuring up the worst-case scenario. "The last time we did this, the last time we had something standing between us like this, we were accused of being brainwashed assassins. I'd really rather not relive that right now."

She was quiet.

"Sam, please."

He could hear tears in her voice as it wobbled. "I'm sorry, Jack, but if anything happened to you—"

He closed his eyes, knowing the feeling all too well. He sank onto the ground, Aqua resting her head in his lap as he sat beside the door. "Get some rest, Sam. I'll call back in about an hour."

It was so military, so precise, that it felt a little strange when he cleared his throat in an attempt to camouflage the emotion welling up there. "I love you."

He could almost see her lying in bed, brushing silver tears from her eyes. What he wouldn't give to be able to hold her right now. She somehow managed to put a smile into her words. "I love you, too."