The Walkthrough – Chapter 2
"Are you going for the damsel in distress look?" Cassie joked as she sat with Sam in the infirmary of the SGC.
"It wasn't like that!" Sam protested and she cradled her broken right arm.
"I was in a strategic disadvantage," Sam told her.
"Yeah, I would say lying flat on your back is a 'strategic disadvantage'!" Cassie laughed.
"Hey!" Sam said gently hitting Cassie with her good arm.
"So what were you looking at?" Cassie enquired.
"You should have seen this thing Cas, it was amazing! I have never seen anything like it. It was this barrier that used Heterogenous radiation to create an energy barrier. And this barrier was stronger than any Goa'uld force field we have ever come across, and I've never seen technology like it. I can't wait to go back and see if I can interface it with our computers. Imagine what I could learn!" Sam said excitedly.
Cassie smiled at Sam's excitement over some alien technology. She would sit there and politely listen to Sam hurriedly talking about this devise, although she only understood a small percentage of what she was saying. She suddenly felt like Jack when Sam was trying to explain some scientific thing or when mom tried to explain things like 'girls stuff'. The sudden mention of her mom in her mind, made Cassie remember. The expression changed on her face from a happy, contented smile to a sorrowful remembrance.
"Cassie?" Sam said shaking Cassie from her thoughts. "Are you alright?"
"I'm fine, I'm just worried about you going back there with a broken arm," Cassie lied. Cassie didn't want her, or anyone at that matter, to see how upset she was. They all thought she was strong, but inside she was continually sobbing and so much that her heart ached. But she had to stay strong, for Sam especially, who had found it hard when Janet died, that it would destroy Sam to see Cassie break down.
"I'll be fine," Sam said. "Anyways, I can't have Doctor Grant having all the fun now can I?"
"Especially since he's one up on you at the moment," Cassie said referring to the ongoing competition between the scientists, which was to see who would find and able to interface the most alien technology with SGC computers. The pool was up to $4000, with Jack really showing his loyalty and placing $500 on Sam winning. But for the first time in seven years, she wasn't a head.
"The only reason he's winning was because I was stuck on a ship for four days!" Sam complained.
"You mustn't have been that far ahead then!" Cassie commented. Sam grabbed the pillow from behind her and lobbed it at Cassie. Cassie ducked and it missed, hitting the new young doctor standing behind her. He stood there, using his clipboard as a shield.
"Nice shot, Sam," he said, scaring the life out of Cassie who didn't realise he was there.
He was about six foot tall, with dark brown hair, and the greenest eyes Cassie had even seen. And he was cute too, Daniel cute not Jack cute. His name was Karl Laidlaw and he transferred from the pentagon where he had been working on various things about the Gate. He was relatively young, and had a great sense of humour. However, Cassie couldn't see him as anything but Janet's replacement, and she couldn't help but hold that against him. Sam, on the other hand, had been trying really hard to accept him, and found that he was actually a great guy, who just walked into the hardest position in his life. Everyone on the base compared him to Janet, and Sam couldn't help but feel sorry for him, as it wasn't his fault that Janet had died, and therefore, he shouldn't really be blamed.
"Sorry about that Doctor Laidlaw," Sam apologised.
"It's alright Major, though I can't say I'm surprised to see you in here. That's, what, four out of eleven missions now?" he said.
"Five," she corrected him. Should have stuck with four.
"Five!" he exclaimed. "If I didn't know any better I would say you had a thing about me, Carter," he joked. Sam nervously laughed. Cassie watched this exchange carefully. Cassie saw how Sam did not like him using Jack's pet name for her. OK, it wasn't a pet name exactly, but only he called her that. It felt like he was violating some unbroken rule on the base that only Jack called her Carter. Cassie couldn't help it but she turned away and started to fiddle with a plastic cup on the other side of the room. 'oh this is interesting' she thought to herself. She just wanted anything to take her mind off her mom. Deciding that wasn't quite working, she listened in to the conversation between Sam and Karl.
"So what's the prognosis, doc?" Sam asked.
"Well, there's good news and bed news," he said flicking through her chart in his hand. "The good news is that the arrow although piercing your shoulder muscle, it missed the collar bone and according to the lab analysis of the arrow, it had no toxins on it," he informed her.
"So what's the bad news?" Sam said confused and concerned.
"That means I lose the pleasure of your company," he said smiling.
"Dr Laidlaw, Major Johnson's EKG," a young nurse said handing him a strip of paper, he looked at it for a moment.
"Would you excuse me Major Carter?" and he ran off without waiting for a response. This gave Cassie a chance to talk to Sam.
"So, what happened?" she asked pointing towards Sam's wound.
"Well…" Sam reluctantly started, "I now know why they were kept in and others kept out. The colonel warned me not to open the barrier but I just had to see how the technology worked."
"Should have listened to Jack," Cassie told her.
"I wish I had, then I wouldn't have to listen to the continuous 'I told you so's' afterwards." Cassie giggled setting Sam off giggling too.
"Still hasn't matured I see," Cassie joked.
"You know the colonel," Sam smiled. Just then, as if on cue, Jack and Daniel wandered into the infirmary. They both stopped as they saw Sam and Cassie laughing.
"What did we miss?" Jack said innocently. Cassie whispered something to Sam who then laughed even louder. Jack and Daniel looked at each other completely confused and then back at the girls. Jack didn't mind was the joke was (even if it was at his expense which he suspected it was), it was good to see Cassie and Sam smiling again after Janet's death.
Dr Laidlaw returned to Sam, and Cassie saw the difference in his body language and in his face. He instantly stiffened and became colder upon seeing Jack there.
"Well, that's all Major Carter you're dismissed," and he quickly left briskly walking past Jack and leaving the three alone. He had clearly got the message about Jack and Sam, and no-one was going to mess with Jack. Jack watched him leave from the corner from his eyes and made sure he was completely gone.
"Anyways, I thought we were going out?"
"We are, I just want to reconfigure the modulated…."
"Carter!" Jack shouted.
"Sorry sir," Sam apologised.
"I would like to eat sometime tonight," he said sarcastically.
"Yes sir," Sam said giving in. The reconfiguring can wait. "We'll be waiting in the parking lot," and as they walked out Jack shook his head.
Sam carefully slid off the gurney and with the help of Cassie, secured the sling around her neck. She hated being injured like this, it meant that she couldn't type very well so work will be hard. Once secure, they headed out of the infirmary.
"You know what day it is tomorrow?" Sam said.
"No," Cassie said unsure where the conversation was going.
"Saturday. Chess day. You chance to fail miserably at tying to beat me," Sam said provocatively and it worked.
"NO WAY! Last time I beat you remember? Or did you bang your head as well?" Cassie said outraged.
"Last time I let you win," Sam retorted.
"Like hell!" Cassie protested. "I won fair and square and I'll beat you again."
Sam opened her mouth to argue but was interrupted by the klaxon going and the technician, over the tannoy, shouting "Unscheduled Offworld Activation!"
Sam rushed to the control room with Cassie close behind. Since Sam had a bad hand, Cassie took the empty seat beside the technician while Sam observed everything that was going on.
"It's SG-11 Major," the technician said after the IDC had come through.
"Open the Iris," she commanded. The technician placed his hand in the panel and the Iris opened to reveal the blue shimmering pool of water. SG-11 came running through the gate screaming for the Iris to be closed, but before they had a chance to close the Iris, an arrow shot through the gate, smashing the glass to the control room and narrowly missing Cassie's head.
Sam pushed her head down as all three hit the floor as more arrows made their way through the gate. The technician reached for the panel but was prevented in closing the Iris as an arrow had pierced his hand.
"Cassie under there!" Sam ordered Cassie and ushered her underneath the control panel. Sam could not close the Iris and by now, hostile aliens had come through the gate. They were the same hostile aliens that had injured Sam earlier. Sam closed off the surrounding corridors so they could not penetrate far into the base. But that also meant that they were trapped away from reinforcements. SG-11 were badly injured, but still desperately trying to hold off the hostiles. Finally the gate shut down as all the hostile aliens had come through. Sam was desperately trying to shut down the controls, but was finding it hard with one hand. The aliens managed to penetrate SG-11's defences and were heading towards the control room. Sam closed the doors hoping to hold them off for at least a little while, but now they had superior weapons from before. The arrows must have been warning shots. It wouldn't take them long to get through the doors.
"Sam! Give me a gun. I can help," Cassie pleaded.
Sam hesitated. She did not want Cassie to be involved with anything hostile especially after everything she had gone through. But she needed help. Sam handed Cassie her sidearm and was surprised to find out that she knew exactly what to do with it.
"What?" Cassie said as she noticed Sam staring. "Jack taught me."
There was no time to think about that as they heard the hostile aliens finally getting through the doors had heading towards to control room. Sam found it hard to fire her weapon and see to the computers at the same time.
She started typing, to shut down the system, when she was hit over the head with a weapon. Cassie was behind her emptying the side arm Sam had given her on everything she could. Cassie was intent on killing the one which had hit Sam that she failed to notice the large male behind her.
"CASSIE!" Sam screamed. Cassie quickly sucked out of the way of his arms as he made to grab her. She spun around, punched him in the stomach, and hit him hard on the back of the head with the hilt of the sidearm. He fell to the ground with a thud. Sam stumbled to her feet.
"Let me guess?" Sam said.
"Jack," Cassie answered.
"What has he been teaching you?"
"Cassie you're going to have to close down the system, I can't do it quick enough. I'll hold them off." They switched positions and Cassie stood in front of the computer desperately trying to shut the system down while Sam took up position in the corridor. The technician was not doing too good either, and soon found himself overwhelmed by the hostiles.
Sam was doing better, but she suddenly stopped when she heard Cassie screaming. She turned round to Cassie kicking and screaming while being lifted up by an alien. Sam instinctively started to move towards her, but she had kept her eyes off the aliens in the corridor for a little too long and she no longer had the advantage. As she turned, one of the aliens hit her over the head, knocking her out.
Cassie continued to kick and scream as the alien dialled up the gate. Cassie was a bit surprised that he knew what to do, but somehow he did. They were a lot more advanced then they looked. She couldn't look for long as one of them hit her over the head knocking her out. Once the planet was dialled, they moved to the gate room.
Sam came round and heard the great kawoosh of the gate. She dragged herself off the floor and, holding onto the wall for support she stumbled round to the gate room just in time to see Cassie's limp body slung over the shoulder of an alien stepping through the gate. She tried to get the to gate before it shut down but she only managed to reach the bottom of the ramp before it shut down. Sam slumped into a pile on the ramp and stared at the empty space between the gate.