In the routine they had established on the days that Jack went to the dump Sam left a change of clothes and a bar of soap just inside the doorway. This day he returned and took the bundle without a word. He returned this time clean but in a somber mood. He leaned against the back wall and slid down to the floor. Sam, gauging his mood, knew enough not to ask him what was wrong but instead brought him a mug of soup and hunk of bread and sat beside him. He toyed with the food but found it to difficult to eat. Physically he looked fine. He had come back on occasion with cuts and bruises, even limping but this was something eating at his soul.
He didn't want to tell her. She was finding it difficult enough to come to terms with this place. But the words came out as if he needed to purge his mind of the memory.
"I've seen bodies out at the dump before – old men, abused women, and even infants. I brushed it aside, owed it up to desperation. But today… another infant…but she wasn't quite dead…just left there…left with to die with the trash… too weak to cry."
Her hand found his, he held tight to her as he stared straight ahead.
"Not a rag to cover her, the umbilical cord still attached – new born, painfully thin, skeletal and blue. No matter what we could do here, home maybe, but here she would only die. I picked her up and held her. Stupid I suppose but I couldn't… I held her till she die and I buried her to keep the rats and dogs away. Not that it will do much good."
He still stared ahead voice barely above a whisper.
"I can't do that again."
He sat there till full dark and then watched the sky looking for release. The anger seeped away only to leave utter contempt for these people and this planet. Jack thought of the alien ship that had been transforming the Enkaran's new haven. He wished it were here to burn away everything and everyone. Only one thing bothered him, well, beside Carter, of course, he didn't want his ashes to mingle with those of these savages.
Sam warmed up his meager dinner and gave it to him. He ate. He would need his strength to get them out of here.