A/N – Sorry for the wait. My only excuse is that I'm a senior in high school…that should be enough :P
Chapter 6: Waiting Room
"Patience," Jack grumbled as they stepped out of the gate and onto the other planet. "I want to know how he expects me to learn patience when time is the one thing we don't seem to have!"
"Jack I think he meant it like things will happen when they happen and there's no use getting upset about it," Daniel said. They turned to watch as Janet and Sam stepped through the gate and the wormhole closed behind them.
"Yeah, well what I'm worried about is that they're going to happen too late," Jack said.
Daniel shot him an annoyed look then turned to survey the landscape around them. It was barren prairie, with the dark shapes of trees visible far away on the horizon. Other than the Stargate, there appeared to be no distinguishing landmarks in sight.
"Personally, when it comes to my friends' lives I don't give a damn about patience. Are we ready to go? Good." Jack grumpily stalked over to the DHD and began to dial the next address, punching each key with an annoyed sort of fierceness. As he hit the last one, however, nothing happened. "DAMNIT!"
"What's wrong?" Sam asked, moving to his side and flinching slightly as Jack kicked the DHD.
"This goddamn thing isn't dialing." Jack growled. He tried the address again, this time with a little more precision. Still, however, nothing happened. "Something's wrong with it."
Daniel frowned. "Maybe we need to get another blessing of passage or something. I wouldn't be surprised if this isn't another test of some sort."
"What do you meananother test?" Jack asked, rounding on Daniel. "What other tests have we had so far?"
"Think about it," Daniel said. "Self-sacrifice. Compassion. Maybe this one tests…I don't know, something else."
Jack waved his hand dismissively and kicked the DHD again. "Those were coincidences, not tests, Danny!"
"Sir, if you stop kicking it," Sam suggested timidly. "I could open up the DHD and have a look. Maybe the crystals are just out of place or something."
"Right. Take a look at it."
Sam knelt next to the DHD, pulling her backpack to her to remove laptop and tools. As she set about opening the panel on the DHD and hooking her computer up to it Jack hovered nearby, breathing down her neck and occasionally scuffing at the dirt with his boot.
"Sir…" she looked up at him. "Do you mind?"
Jack huffed and went to sit on the stairs in front of the Stargate.
Daniel and Janet meanwhile were walking around, more for exercise's sake than to see if there was anything of interest. After a few minutes Daniel looked back over his shoulder.
"Do you think she'll figure it out?"
"She's Sam," Janet said, smiling. "Cancer or no I'm sure she'll work it out."
Daniel nodded. A little ahead and to the left stood a large flat-topped boulder and they walked over to it, climbing up on top to sit.
"So…" Daniel said, picking up a small pebble and fiddling with it.
Janet leaned back on her hands. "So what?"
"Nothing." Daniel shrugged. "I just hope that we can help Sam."
"Mmmm."
"I kinda hate having to go on missions where we can't just relax enough to enjoy the planets we're on…" Daniel said, a little sadly. "When we just have to worry about other things. Like that our friend might drop dead any second."
Janet scowled slightly. "Don't talk like that. Sam's got plenty of time."
"I know, I know…"
"Look…" Janet pointed up towards the blazing blue sky. "A bird…" she followed the small speck across the sky with one hand.
"Yeah." Daniel squinted, turning his head around to watch as the bird sped off towards the horizon. "I wonder if there's any people living here…"
"Who knows?" Janet looked around again. "I sure don't see anything."
Daniel nodded glumly, then they stood up and headed back to the 'gate to see if Sam had made any progress with the DHD.
"What? I don't get it…" Jack was saying as they walked over.
Sam rolled her eyes and sighed. "There's some sort of program written into the DHD that I haven't seen before. It's almost like…I don't know, a timer of some sort. I'm not quite sure. It's like someone managed to alter the dialing protocol of this one DHD, which is strange because with the automatic update the protocol should have been moved to the other gates…"
"Unless it was an Ancient who did it," Daniel pointed out.
Sam nodded. "Good point."
"I mean…maybe I was right, maybe this is another test."
"How the hell is putting a timer on a DHD a test?" Jack grumbled, scowling at the other three like they were personally responsible.
"Patience, sir." Janet said.
That only seemed to annoy Jack more. "Patience? No offence, doc, but I've been as patient as I can and now it's starting to annoy the crap out of me."
"No, sir, that's not what I meant," Janet said. "I meant maybe it's a test of patience. The timer won't let us go through to the next planet for a certain amount of time. If we're patient we will wait here for it, if we're not patient we'll give up and go home."
"But how can we go home if the thing won't let us dial?" Jack asked, narrowing his eyes.
Sam stood up then, closing the panel on the DHD and reaching over to dial.
"Carter, what'cha doin' ?"
"Dialing the planet we just came from." Sam replied, hitting the jewel in the center. "I've just got an idea…"
The wormhole stabilized in a wave of blue and Jack raised his eyebrows. "Ookay then…looks like Danny-boy was right. A test it is."
"The stars look so different here," Sam murmured. The night was pleasantly warm so they'd decided to forgo the tents and sleep under the sky. It was proving difficult to actually fall asleep, however, because the strange constellations in the sky were fascinating enough to stare at for hours.
Jack nodded in agreement to Sam, folding one arm behind his head. He tried closing his eyes but Daniel spoke then.
"I think it's interesting to hear what other cultures on other planets have as constellations." Daniel said. "I mean, they have different histories than ours, and so the things they'd see in the sky would be different…some might not even have constellations…"
"That one kinda looks like Homer Simpson," Jack said drowsily, reaching up to gesture at a clump of stars.
Sam snorted. "I'm not seeing it, sir."
"No, seriously, look…" He scooted closer and moved his hand over Sam's field of vision. "There. Eyes, head, belly…"
"Whatever," Sam chuckled and rolled over onto her side with her back to her CO. "I'm going to try and get some sleep."
"Finally!" Came the huffy sigh from Janet's sleeping bag. "You guys are worse than Cassie and her friends at a sleepover."
"Yeah, like oh my gawsh guys I got this totally awesome new purse…" Daniel said in a high-pitched voice that caused the other three to turn and stare at him.
"Whoa, Danny-boy, you got something you wanna tell us?" Jack asked, turning his head to look at Daniel. All he got in response, however, was a loud, very forced sounding snore.
Jack was awoken sometime far later into the night by someone shaking his arm. Opening his eyes he saw it was Sam, laying next to him, propped up on one elbow, her eyes wide.
"Sir, look…" she whispered, pointing off behind Jack.
He rolled over, propping himself up as well. For a few moments all he could see were the tall grasses that surrounded him. Then he heard a faint scuffling noise, and something popped up above the grasses, moving closer before vanishing again. "What the…"
"Hey what's going on?" Janet had woken up as well, crawling over to them.
Jack shushed her and grabbed his zat, slipping out of his sleeping bag and standing up, gripping the weapon tightly. "Hello?" he called.
More shuffling. Jack could see the grasses in front of them moving around. The thing he'd seen moments before had appeared to be a head of some sort, but in the dark he couldn't really tell. His three team members were all up and standing next to him by now, weapons at the ready.
"Sir, wha…" Sam's words were cut off as something fired at them and a bolt of energy flew past her head.
"Watch it!" Jack shouted, grabbing Sam and pulling her down. The others ducked as well as a barrage of energy bolts flew over their heads. "Ok, so I'm guessing whoever this is doesn't want us here…lets head back to the gate and hope that goddamn DHD is working!"
"Jack, what about all our equip –"
"Damn the equipment, Daniel, let's move!"
While Jack pulled out his P90 to lay down cover fire, the others started back in a crouching run towards the gate. Janet reached the DHD first and stood to begin dialing the next address.
"Let's hope this works…" Daniel said, shooting nervous glances at Janet.
Sam nodded. She had her eyes fixed on Jack, who was running towards them and firing back over his shoulder at their unseen pursuers.
They all heard the whoosh of a stabilizing wormhole behind them, and seconds later Janet's yelp of pain as one of the energy blasts hit her in the back.
"JANET!" Daniel leapt to his feet, rushing over to her.
"Danny, let's move it, now!" Jack and Sam followed him, both firing behind them in an attempt to hold off their attackers a little longer.
"Jack, she's hurt, I don't think she can walk!" Daniel looked down at Janet worriedly, gently slipping an arm beneath her head to support her. "Janet, come on…"
"Then carry her!" Jack roared, grabbing Sam by the arm and dragging her towards the gate. "We're all going to be hurt if we don't get our asses through that god-damn gate!"
Daniel sighed heavily, but after another energy bolt hit the DHD he didn't need anymore convincing, and scooped Janet into his arms before running after Jack and Sam through the gate.
"Please tell me we remembered to bring something!" Daniel cried, frustrated as he examined Janet's injury. "A bandage, anything!"
Sam sighed, dully offering him the bandage from a pocket of her tac vest. Daniel just gave her a dark look. Sam glanced up at Jack. "Sir, we have to get Janet back to the SGC. She's badly injured."
Jack ran his fingers through his hair. "Is it life threatening?"
"Yeah," Sam said, using her canteen to moisten a piece of cloth and gently clean some of the dried blood from Janet's wound. "She needs medical attention now."
"And what about you, Carter?" Jack raised his eyebrows. "You're not looking too hot either."
"I'm fine, sir, we need to worry about Janet."
Jack crouched down near them, looking down at Janet's unconscious form. He glanced up at Sam. "If we start back home now, there might not be time for you to start over again," he said quietly.
"I know, but I wouldn't sacrifice myself for Janet." Sam bit her lip.
Daniel huffed. "Look, no one has to sacrifice themselves for anyone. I'll take Janet back home, if I hurry I'll be able to make it before her condition gets much worse."
"Daniel, if you try going back those aliens will attack you again. It'll be too difficult for you to carry Janet, dial the gate and fight them off all at the same time," Sam pointed out. "We don't need both of you getting killed."
"I know, but we don't need you dying either," Daniel said. "Sam, that's the whole point that we came on this mission in the first place. You and Jack need to keep going. Let me worry about getting Janet home." Sam nodded and they both looked up at Jack, who groaned.
"God, I hate making decisions like this." Jack grumbled.
"Oh, I've got an idea…" Sam pulled a piece of paper and pen out of her pocket, quickly scribbling down a gate address and handing it to Daniel. "This is P9X-594. I was there with SG-11 a year ago to investigate some ruins. But if my calculations are correct you'll be able to go here rather than the last planet we were on and still take the same rout home."
Daniel smiled tightly, looking up at Jack. "See?"
"Ok," Jack nodded. "Danny, take Fraiser back to Earth. But for God's sake watch yourself, we'll have no idea if you guys made it back OK."
"I know." Daniel picked Janet up again carefully, shifting her in his arms so he would have one hand free.
"Be sure to tell Fraiser when you get back that there are some advantages to her being so tiny," Jack said, smirking as he watched Daniel dial the gate.
Daniel looked back at him and rolled his eyes. "I'll see you guys soon, hopefully."
"Good luck, Daniel," Sam called.
Daniel paused on his way up to the gate, turning to smile at her. "Yeah, you too." He turned back and vanished through the rippling event horizon.
Jack sighed and clapped Sam on the shoulder with one hand. "You ready to go?"
"Ready as I ever am, sir."
"Okaaayy…" Jack rubbed his hands together as he stepped up to the DHD. "Looks like it's just you and me, doll. Let's get this show on the road…again…"