They land on their asses. Literally. There was nothing graceful about the way they landed. Jumping through the Stargate at that angle, that velocity, they couldn't avoid a hard landing, on stone no less. Jack curses loudly, grunts as he rotates his neck, doing a quick mental inventory of the rest of his body. Nothing feels broken as he rises carefully to his feet.
"Everyone alright?"
"I am fine, O'Neill."
Jack glances at Teal'c standing, stoic as always as he rises to his full height. The Jaffa turns to survey the area. Jack's attention is drawn to his other side by a quiet groan. He sees Carter do the same quick check of herself before getting to her feet. She takes a few testing steps, walking it off the strain. She meets his eyes, nodding once. She'll live.
Carter notices Thor's pod lying about six feet away, perilously balanced on the cracked steps leading down from the Stargate. Jack lengthens his stride to catch up when she races to check on their ally. She drops next to the pod, checking the monitor. Out of all of them, she's the best to interpret the readings. Jack checks on Thor, his eyes are shut despite a steady beep emanating from the monitor. Jack assumes that's a good thing because Carter seems unconcerned by it. They both give it a once over, noticing a small crack on the underside of the unit. Teal'c moves down the steps to stand guard as they check on Thor, his vigilant observation alternates between them and the tree line.
"Thor said the pod can sustain him, Sir, but I can't see whether it's compromised by the crack at this angle," Carter informs him.
"Are we able to wake him up, Carter? Will that do anything to life support?" A little assurance in Thor's condition would make him a hell of a lot happier right now.
"I don't know, Sir," she admits with a shrug.
He considers the risk, eventually the fact that they need a sitrep weighs out against the cons. "Can you turn it back on?"
Carter nods, pressing the controls. Jack leans up to look at the Supreme High Commander. He taps on the frosted glass. "Thor?" His only answer is a tiny roll of the disproportionally large grey head. Jack taps again. "Buddy?"
Huge black eyes blink open to peers back at the three members of SG-1 watching him. The Asgardian's head cants to the side. Jack releases the breath he's been holding, at least the Asgardian is alive. They're all worried when he allowed Carter to put him into stasis on board of his ship. "We have left the Beliskner," he states weakly as he notices the blue sky above them. "Were all of the Replicators destroyed?"
"We got 'em, Buddy," Jack tells him, tapping the surface of the glass again. "We got 'em."
Thor doesn't say anything else, his head rolls from side to side before his eyes slip shut. Without Jack's direction, Carter re-engages the stasis pod.
Jack rocks back on his heels to stand. Carter stays with they pod while he joins Teal'c to scan the area. "What've we got, T?"
"P4X 234 is uninhabited according to preliminary MALP reconnaissance," the Jaffa informs him, continuing his staring contest with the immediate vicinity.
Jack nods, squinting at the dense tree line. Behind them, the Stargate looms in the open space with the DHD. A mountain sits in the distance. Otherwise, grass and trees. And trees. Oh, how he loves trees.
"Sir!" Carter calls.
Jack spins to see her jump away from the bright beam enveloping the stasis pod. Jack winces as the glare becomes too bright to look at. Jack stops squinting as the light dissipates. The spot where Thor's pod lay is now empty. Opposite him, Carter lowers her hand from her eyes, automatically gripping her P-90. Teal'c looks non-plussed at the disappearing Asgard.
"Any chance you can spare anyone to give us a lift home?" Jack hollers at the sky. Teal'c and Carter tip their heads back to look up at the sky with him. No reply. Stranger things have happened. "Guess not," Jack shrugs, turning to his team. Thor's alive, they're alive, that's what's the important thing. More importantly, no bugs have managed to sneak through the Gate after them. They haven't heard any tell-tale scuttling or whirring yet, anyway.
Together, they move down the steps to the DHD to assess it. Nothing happens when Carter presses in Earth's address. Jack sighs. He wasn't expecting it to do anything, they had to try though. They'll try again in a day.
"Carter," Jack says.
Carter looks over her shoulder at him, "Yes, Sir?"
"Is there any way we can check in with the SGC?"
She shakes her head with a wince. "Sorry, Sir, unless the Asgard make contact on our behalf, we just have to keep trying to dial home."
He wonders if there are other teams off-world they could team up with or at least let them know the situation. Anyone trying to dial home will have the same problem. Hammond would've notified them of a situation, recalled as many as he could in case they were needed. "Roughly how long till the folks back home get the other Gate online?"
Carter considers it for a moment. "Four days, if they don't encounter any problems."
"What kind of problems?" He's trying, really trying, not to get confused. All Gates are the same, aren't they? All of the equipment has been up and running for the last six years. Surely, all they have to do is plug the other Gate into the same system.
"Well," Carter starts with a grimace. Jack holds up a hand to stop her from describing what he suspects will be numerous scenarios the SGC could encounter, which will just give him a headache.
"Are we stuck here, Carter?" Bottom line, that's all he needs to know. Other than that, they're alive, Thor's alive. That's got to count for something.
"For the time being, Sir," she replies with a bob of her head. "We could gate somewhere else, but if the Asgard contacts Earth, this is the last Gate address they have for us."
Jack nods to himself. He doesn't feel like leading a recovery team on a goose chase across the galaxy, he doubts it'd be appreciated either. "Teal'c." The Jaffa, who's been keeping an eye on their surroundings, faces him. "Take point, we need to find somewhere to set up base."
"Of course, O'Neill."
888
They walk for about two klicks before they hit the base of the mountain. They follow it around, judging whether the mountain will provide enough shelter and a source of water. At the moment, all they have is their weapons and the clothes on their backs. He doesn't feel as prepared as he would if he were in combat gear. He had been ready to clear out and head straight for Minnesota when Thor beamed him out of the concrete bowels of the mountain complex.
Jack glances at the sky. Not a cloud in sight, but they don't have Carter's fancy gizmos to figure out the climate. The planet is uninhabited as far as they know, one of the reasons Teal'c chose this planet to escape to. The presence of a Stargate means the planet was of use to someone at some time or another. Jack wonders who and why it was abandoned considering the seemingly picture-perfect view.
"We have a few hours of daylight to make camp, Sir," Carter calls from behind him.
Jack agrees with her assessment. "We'll find a spot before sundown, then move to a better location tomorrow if need be."
They continue for another ten minutes before they hear a faint trickle of water. They haven't seen or heard indigenous life on their trek nor anything that might think they're dinner. They follow the bend around the mountain to find a rocking jutting out from the mountain with a steady stream of water flowing into a small pool below it. A narrow river leads off in the other direction, through the trees. Together, they edge toward the river bank to peer over to check the water. It looks clean.
"The stream is clear," Jack announces, following the flow of water to note the gentle widening of the stream. A few small fish darts along the bed of pebbles and silt. Promising. "You guys carrying purification tablets?"
"Yes, Sir," Carter confirms, hefting her pack. She adjusts her hold on her P-90, looking at the pool longingly. Jack can't blame her; he wouldn't mind taking a dip. He tries not to think of Carter stripping down and diving right in.
"Alright." Jack looks around for anywhere they can take shelter if need be. He spots an opening between the rocks which looks like it could provide some shelter if the weather changes, far enough from the stream so not to be flooded if there's rain. "Looks like this is home for tonight, Campers."