The Walkthrough – Chapter 4
Sam was still slumped on the floor at the base of the ramp when Jack finally managed to open the doors to the gate room. He saw her sitting on the ramp and ran to her.
"Carter, are you OK?" he said placing his hand on her shoulder. But she did not move. He moved and sat down so he was facing her. He looked at her beautiful eyes, and he instantly knew something was wrong. The usual sparkle was not there, and they seemed to be glazed over.
"Sam?" Jack said extremely concerned. She wasn't moving, not even blinking and was staring into space, not recognising anything going on around her.
He shook her gently at first, getting increasingly more violent as she did not respond. He stopped shaking her as Daniel, Teal'c and Hammond rushed into the gate room.
"Major, what Hammond?" Hammond asked.
"She's not responding, sir," Jack informed him.
Daniel came over to Sam and saw the same thing missing from her eyes. "It's like she's in a trance," Daniel deduced.
"Get a medical team in here," Hammond ordered.
"Colonel, I need to know what happened," Hammond asked, seeing how distressed Jack was and hoping it may calm him down.
"I don't know sir," Jack admitted.
The medical team arrived, and lifted Sam onto the gurney, but still she didn't move. She just looked blank. Jack and Daniel followed the gurney to the infirmary. Jack never took his eyes off her, she just looked so different. Not the bright and fun Sam he knew and loved.
"What happened?" Dr Laidlaw said as they entered the infirmary."
"We don't know. We were hoping you could tell us," Daniel said.
"Thanks," he said following Sam. "I'm sorry guys, I'm gonna have to ask you to leave."
"We want to stay," Daniel pleaded.
"I'm sorry Dr Jackson, but…"
"We're staying," Jack simply said. Dr Laidlaw looked at the determination on Jack's face.
"OK," Dr Laidlaw said finally giving in. He wasn't going to argue with Jack. He walked over to Sam where two nurses were sorting her out. "I need to see her EKG, bloods, glucose and a tox-screen and I need to see them now!" he ordered the nurse who quickly took a set of blood samples and rushed them off to the lab.
Another nurse hooked Sam up for an EKG. Dr Laidlaw looked at her EKG carefully.
"That's strange," he said.
"What's wrong," Jack said jumping up.
"Her EKG is normal," Dr Laidlaw said surprised.
"Surely that's a good thing?" Jack said confused.
"Normally yes," Dr Laidlaw explained. "It means her mind is still active, and as active as it normally is."
"But?" Daniel said butting in.
"But look at her. The only bodily function she is controlling is her breathing. The number of active brainwaves is far too many for what she is doing," Dr Laidlaw explained. "I'm hoping her blood work will show something up."
Sergeant Davies was still unconscious and lying on the other bed. His condition was obvious, but his broken arm was being set by two other nurses.
There were two main questions on everyone's mind: what had happened to Sam and where was Cassie? They had done a sweep of the base, but she could not be found.
The nurse came rushing back through the infirmary doors with Sam's blood test results in her hand. Dr Laidlaw snatched the paper from her hand and quickly read through the result.
"What the…" he said re-reading the results.
"What's wrong?" Daniel asked this time.
"Nothing."
"What do you mean nothing? Look at her!" Jack said raising his voice.
"I mean exactly that. I can find nothing medically wrong with her, apart from the obvious comatosed state," Dr Laidlaw said completely baffled.
"There must be someone who knows what's wrong with Sam!" Jack demanded. He and Dr Laidlaw started to argue at how best to treat Sam. Daniel looked at Sam for a moment, and suddenly an idea came to him.
"What about the Tok'ra?" Jack and Karl turned round and looked at Daniel. "This may be due to Jolinar."
They could see how that made sense. They still did not fully understand what had happened to Sam when Jolinar took her over. There could be numerous things that could change as Sam gets older, they may never know.
"I'll go contact them," Daniel said starting to leave.
"Contact Jacob. He'll want to be here," Jack suggested.
The Gate whooshed open as an incoming traveller headed towards Earth. They recognised Jacob's IDC and opened the Iris. The strangely clad Tok'ra wandered through the gate. Jack walked round to greet him.
"Hey Jack, how is she?" Jacob asked concerned.
"No different from when we contacted you," Jack said leading Jacob out of the gate-room and towards the infirmary. "Do you know what's wrong with her?"
"I think so, but I need to see her first," Jacob said as they entered the elevator. "So what happened?"
"The technician woke up ten minutes ago and told us what happened. Apparently, some hostile aliens came through the gate with SG-15. They came form the planet we had just been on where Carter opened up with barrier, releasing them. The came through, and while the technician and Carter held off the aliens, Cassie tried to shut the computer systems down. They were outnumbered, and the aliens got past them. They grabbed Cassie and took her back through the gate," Jack explained what Walter had told him but paraphrasing it. "So do you know what's wrong, Jakey-boy?"
"Maybe," Jacob said cryptically. They were silent.
"What's with the outfit?" Jack said breaking the silence.
"I'm supposed to be undercover in Olukun's forces," Jacob explained.
Finally the elevator reached level 21, and the both quickly left the elevator and headed towards the infirmary. When Jacob say Sam he rushed over to her bed and sat down taking her hand in his.
"Sam?" he said quietly. He looked at the blank expression on her face. Selmak had prepared him for what to expect but it was still a shock.
"We've tried everything, but she won't move," Jack informed him.
"How long has she been like this?" Jacob said, never taking his eyes off his daughter.
"Nearly two hours," Jack said quietly.
"Sam, I'll get you out. I promise." Jacob said kissing the top of Sam's head.
"Get her out? Jacob?" Jack said confused.
"Let me explain," Jacob said turning to Jack.
SG-1 sat round the huge briefing room table with George Hammond at the head and Major Davis standing behind him. He had refused to take a seat and was pacing up and down.
"Sam is locked in her own mind," Jacob said once they were all seated.
"What, you mean trapped?" Daniel asked him to clarify.
"Yes. Cassie being taken was probably the trigger. Now, she is stuck in her own mind, either reliving the moment over and over again, or going over her own memories. It's like a virtual reality of her memories. She will think it is real, but she cannot escape. She is stuck in a never-ending loop unable to find reality."
"So how do we get her out?" George asked. Jacob placed a Tok'ra memory recall device on the table.
"Well, that's the hard part. Someone will have to do a Walkthrough with her."
"A what?" Jack said.
"A Walkthrough. It uses a modified version of the memory recall device to allow someone to access her mind. Once inside her mind, they will be able to see what she sees, and talk to her subconscious and by talking to her, try to convince her to leave her mind," Jacob explained.
"Convince her?" Daniel said.
"Surely Major Carter wishes to release herself from her mind?" Teal'c added.
"Not necessarily. In there, it's safe. No-one can hurt her. She won't want to leave."
"So someone's got to go inside her mind and, what, tell her it's ok?" Daniel said completely perplexed.
"It may be that simple yes."
"But won't they get stuck in her mind as well?" Paul asked.
"No. They will be given a button which, once pressed, instantly removes them from her mind."
"Like a Get Out of Jail Free card?" Jack said.
"Something like that."
"So who is going to go inside her mind?" George asked.
"Well, it has to be someone close to Sam so they can understand what they see in there. Unfortunately, I cannot do this. Since there are two minds to my body, the device will become confused, and we don't want that."
"That implies that I also cannot perform this task," Teal'c said.
"I'm afraid so Teal'c."
"That leaves Jack and I," Daniel deduced.
"Actually Daniel, Selmak and I agree that because of your experiences last year, there is a risk that you could become trapped in your own memories. This device opens up your own mind as well, and since your memories of last year are deeply buried in your mind, it's probably not wise to allow you to do this. So that leaves…" Jacob said as everyone turned and looked at Jack who had been doodling on the pad of paper in front of him.
"What?"
"You're the only one safe enough to do this," Jacob said bluntly.
"No I'm not." He looked at all of them. "OK maybe I am, but I'm probably not the best person to do this." It wasn't that Jack didn't want to help Sam, it was just he really didn't want to know what she was thinking. He could find things out about her, he really didn't want to. The last thing he wanted to hear was that she didn't care for him, something he was somewhat sure she felt. Also, the technobabble would drive him insane.
"Sorry Jack."
"So, what do I do?" Jack said reluctantly.
"Firstly, take her home," Jacob started to explain.
"Home? Why?" Hammond asked.
"She has to be somewhere familiar."
"Jacob, she spends more time here than she does at home," Jack pointed out.
"But she has to be away from the triggering event which happened here."
"Jacob, just explain it to me when we get there," Jack said massaging his temples.
"Jack, we can't be there."
"What?" Jack said looking up at Jacob.
"I'll help you set things up, but it can only be you there. If there are other people there, Sam could sense them and become aggravated. She may never want to leave."
"Great," Jack mumbled.
"So, what's happening about Cassie," Paul asked.
"SG-4, 5 and 6 have been sent back to the planet to retrieve her. They've been gone an hour," Hammond explained.
"It takes about an hour to reach the barrier," Jack added.
"So we should be hearing from them soon," Paul said.
"General, permission for Teal'c and I to join SG teams 4,5 and 6 to rescue Cassie?" Daniel said formally.
"Permission granted." Daniel and Teal'c rose from their seats.
"I guess we better get set up," Jack said disappointed. He wanted to go and help find Cassie, not try and convince Sam to come out of her mind. He wasn't that sort of person. Fire a gun: yes. Talk about feelings: no.
Jack and Jacob wandered off to Sam's locker, to collect some of her personal belongings. As they were rummaging in her stuff they discussed what Jack had to do.
"So what happens if she doesn't want me in there?" Jack asked. It was a question that was preying on his mind.
"Try harder. You've got to get through to her Jack. I'm sure you'll find the words to say," Jacob reassured him.
"I hope so," Jack said. Jacob was about to reply when the claxon went for an incoming wormhole.
"It must be SG-4 with an update," and Jack ran out of the locker room.
He arrived in the gate-room to see Major Howe on the screens giving an update.
"We were able to locate the barrier, SG-1 found earlier. However, the barrier was now closed and Dr Bseiso was unable to reopen it. We have tried everything, but nothing seems to open it. We need Major Carter," he reported.
"I'm afraid she is unavailable at the moment. I'll send Dr Lee with Dr Jackson and Teal'c. They may be able to help open it."
"Thank you, sir. Howe out," and the connection cut.
"Typical, Carter's not around to save her own ass," Jack commented. Jacob gave Jack a look, who did his best not to return the look.
"We need Major Carter," General Hammond hinted to Jack.
"I'll be… yeah," he said heading back to collect Sam's stuff and out to her house.
When they arrived, Jacob sets things up.
"Candles?" Jack questioned as they place candles around Sam's living room.
"To open her mind up for you to access. Why do you think Teal'c uses them?"
"Because their pretty," Jack replied.
Jacob rolled his eyes and tried to ignore Jack, but sometimes Jack could act like a four year old demanding attention. What was he talking about? It was more than sometimes!
"Right Jack, here is the deactivation device," Jacob said.
"The what?"
"To get out of her mind," and he handed Jack a small black device with a green button on it. "Click it once to go inside her mind, and again to get out. It's that simple."
"Press in, press out. Got it," Jack said.
"Jack, you're the only one who can do this, so you have to succeed," Jacob said worried.
"I know," Jack said quietly.
Sam was seated on the sofa blankly staring off into her living room. She still had not moved, or even blinked. Jacob kissed the top of her head, and he left them alone. Jack took a deep breath and sat on the chair opposite her. He looked at her once glowing face, wondering what she was thinking. Was it about him? Did he really want to know? These questions buzzed around his mind, and Jack could feel himself preparing for the task. A task only he could do. But out of all the questions flying round his head, there was one he needed to know, and feared. Did she love him?
A/N – Hello people! I hope you like this so far. I'm sorry this Chapter is late it's just I've had exams which have kept me very busy. I should be able to update again soon. Just to warn you, the next chapter will be Sam again, not Cassie. You will have to wait till chapter 6 to discover Cassie fate. Please Read and Review! Love Snowflake Shona xXx