A/N: This story is set between late season 7 and season 8. Therefore there are spoilers for the entire series up until season 8.
Disclaimer: I don't own Stargate, its characters or terminology. However, if Brad Wright is willing to negotiate, I am.
CHAPTER ONE
The Stargate was located on a small patch of island, roughly four kilometres from the main entrance to the underwater complex. To enter, one had to first cross the body of water, the air above which prevented any kind of radio signal or machinery to be used (Carter had said something about magnets… ionising… really, he'd found more interest in watching her say the words, than listening to them.), so a speedboat was out of the question. Thus, SG-1 was now slowly rowing their way towards a hidden entrance; into a situation they were not prepared for – SG-1 minus Samantha Carter, to be clear.
She had been one of the first on the small water-planet, and had reported back with such keen excitement that Jack hadn't the heart to say no to her when she asked to return with SG-11. It wasn't that "the atmosphere itself is their power source!" or that "there's something in the water that definitely requires further study," that convinced him to let her return – it was her eyes, and that smile, and that familiar knot in his stomach that formed whenever he really looked at her. Her big blue eyes, shining with hope and anticipation and excitement, accompanied by the sort of smile he only got to see once every few months, when they found something really worthwhile. Who was he to deny the world that smile? So he said yes, with a smile of his own and raised eyebrows when he cooed, "But remember what happened last time we played with magnets," she looked puzzled for a moment, so he clarified, "Actually you don't… Teal'c remembers though, don't you T?" he clapped the Jaffa on the shoulder as he bowed his head in affirmation.
Radio signals being what they were – useless – one member of SG-11 was to remain behind on the island to check in every three hours with the SGC. When nine hours went by, with no communication from the water-planet, Jack was already planning the rescue mission without approval from General Hammond (that was Daniel's job). He reluctantly acquiesced, "If you're not back within twenty-four hours, your identification codes will be locked out of the dialling computer," he said as they walked up the ramp, Teal'c dragging a modestly-sized row boat in his stead, "God speed, SG-1," and they disappeared through the event horizon.
Jack clutched to his P-90 like a lifeline. The uneven rise and fall of the boat was making his stomach churn, and he tried to focus on something in the distance – but all that could be seen was an ominous fog, obstructing their view of anything beyond ten feet.
But it wasn't the seasickness that was making him cling to his weapon so tightly, and it wasn't the seasickness that was chipping away at the adrenaline of the rescue mission and replacing it with a sickening fear. It was the thought of Carter. Missing. SG-11, missing. Sent out into this fog – into God knows what – with his permission. What condition would they find them in? Find her in… Would she even still be alive? What if someone, or something, had been hurting her this entire time? He tightened his hold on the projectile in his hand, as if threatening anyone who would even think of touching his Carter. His mind wandered back through all of the similar situations they'd found themselves in, but none compared to the unknown of this mission. He always had a plan, known more than he was letting on; he always had a Plan B, even if it was generally the same as Plan A – get in, and get everyone out alive. He always knew something about the situation he was leading his team in to – the layout of the grounds, the enemy, and he was always, even when fraught with fear, confident that he wouldn't leave anyone behind – or maybe it was just adrenaline shrouded in denial. This time, he didn't know one single thing. Except that Carter was missing with SG-11, and that this planet was supposed to be one of those damn science research outpost sites. Not a hostile environment where he would find himself searching for his 2IC, not knowing if she was even alive. He had only ever planned on visiting this world as military escort for the eggheads when they got that urge to expand their field of study. This was certainly not how he wanted his maiden trip to their first water-planet to pan out.
"O'Neill," Teal'c said, snapping him out of his thoughts, "Ahead!" his hand was raised towards a patch of water about fifty metres in their path. If Teal'c hadn't said anything, Jack might not have noticed it at all. Not dissimilar to a rip that you expect to find at the beach, a small section of the water – no larger than the size of their small boat – was turning, choppy, and curving in all directions, as if the current had suddenly forgotten which way it was supposed to be flowing.
"What do you think?" Jack asked, moving forward past Daniel to get a closer look.
"I don't think we have many other choices," Daniel offered, gathering his gear.
Jack agreed, as did Teal'c because he too began collecting his various weapons and backpack. Jack, who had not removed his P-90 from his side, remained still, eyes focused on the area of unsettled water, half expecting Carter to spring forth from the depths, declare that she was perfect as ever, and that they were to make their return to Earth. Save for the continuous churning, the area did not stir.
"How're we gonna do this?" Jack called over a sudden roaring, as if they were nearing a waterfall, but the only movement for miles, it seemed, was the small area of upset water.
"Uhh… I don't think we have to do anything," Daniel said as the front of the boat began dipping down into the water, filling it as they sank lower and lower into the depths. When the water reached Jack, he was surprised to find himself completely dry – as if the dark blue liquid was not really there at all, but an illusion.
"So I guess we're going in, then," Jack said.
Quickly, the entire boat was under water. From afar it might have looked as though it was defying gravity – moving downwards, yet always forwards, in a small pocket of discoloured water. Inside, Jack was again surprised, this time that he could breathe. It was as though the patch of disturbed water was the entrance to an under water path of breathable, dry space, untouched by the gallons of ocean surrounding them.
"This is new," Jack said above the roaring that seemed to be coming from nowhere.
"Indeed," Teal'c called from the rear of the boat.
"Where do you suppose it's taking us?" Daniel asked, an air of hope and worry in his voice.
"Hopefully to Carter," Jack replied quietly.
They remained silent for the remainder of the trip – the path of protected water that they were flowing through seemed to be taking them nowhere at first, but after a while blurry outlines of what could only be buildings began to come into view. Daniel noticed them first, pointing them out to the others and offering a host of possible architectural connections to Earth. The blurry outlines soon came into focus, and large, square buildings became distinguishable. There were hundreds of them, and the way they were all cluttered together reminded Daniel of the islands of Greece, he mentioned. Jack thought they looked more like tiny hospitals. As they neared the boundary, the roaring suddenly ceased and they noticed that their sliver of protection had widened, and was now crawling up into a dome shape around the underwater city. Jack looked up to follow it as it curved, but was distracted by the darkness of the blue above him – they must have been miles beneath the surface. This realization brought him starkly back to the reality of their situation, away from the mesmerizing site of their discovery.
As the boat neared the ocean floor, it began to turn, flowing along the outside of the city, until they noticed an archway in the limestone wall protecting the city from unwelcome visitors.
"Get ready to jump," Jack said, rising to a crouch, his weapon firmly in his fingers, "On three."
"Can't we just – " Daniel started.
"Three," Jack ignored him, suddenly jumping out of the boat and landing on dry sand beneath them. Daniel and Teal'c immediately followed, their packs crunching beneath them. As they put them on, Jack darted to the archway, positioning himself right before its entrance, peered into the darkness beyond, and back out again. "I can't see a thing," he whispered, "It's just black," he walked over to Daniel and pulled out three pairs of night vision head sets from his pack, tossing one to each of them.
One by one they entered the archway: Jack had to stifle a cry of pain as he was immediately blinded by white light. Ripping off the head set, it took his eyes several moments to adjust to the well lit room.
"It must have sensed we were here," Daniel mentioned, stowing the night vision sets back in his pack. Jack grunted, and motioned with his hands to direct his two teammates into flanking positions, as they began to search the room.
It was enormous; there were hundreds and hundreds of small canoe-like boats, lined above each other in rows of seven, creating deep channels that disappeared beyond their line of site. They seemed to be suspended in mid-air by the same mysterious force that brought their own boat into this place.
They walked along the rows, which would break every twenty or so into more channels, branching out in different directions, weapons raised and senses alert.
After several minutes of walking, it was clear that a central channel had formed among the masses of boats, and a second archway sat welcomingly at its end.
The doorway was again blocked by darkness; they had no choice but to step through and accept what was waiting for them on the other side. They were once again accosted by light; this time was considerably less painful as they weren't wearing their head sets.
They were standing in the entranceway of a large, majestic hall – golden light seemed to be emitting from large columns that were spread thinly throughout the hall. There were enormous portraits of elaborately dressed men, each a little more decadent than the last, plastered on the walls, and as they neared the centre, there was a large marble fountain, with a sliver of shimmering light rising right up, through the ceiling and beyond, water danced happily as it fell from various levels – originating from what, Jack now realized, was actually a sliver of water from outside its dome of protection.
As they pressed on, Jack suddenly stopped in his tracks, raised a fist and the other two followed his lead. In the far corner of the hall, a man dressed in heavy maroon robes suddenly emerged from an oak door. Jack motioned for them to move behind the fountain, and he peered over the edge, receiving sprays of water in his eyes as it splashed onto the surface. The man was clearly in a hurry, talking quickly and unintelligibly to himself, as he scurried toward them – not noticing his company. As he neared, Jack could make out small sections of his monologue, "…horrible… first encounter... another world… execution… if I've said it once…" and just as suddenly as he had appeared, he disappeared beyond a door on the side of the hall.
They emerged from the fountain, looking aghast at one another.
"You don't think…" Daniel began.
"I don't know but I'm not waiting around to find out," Jack lead them onwards, towards the door that the man had appeared from.
Just what had the man been talking about? Jack's stomach had jumped up to his throat when he'd heard 'execution' sprout from his mouth. Somehow, he knew Carter and SG-11 were in far more trouble than they'd anticipated. Jack silently regretted dismissing General Hammond's push for them to bring along SG-3 as back up.
He'd seen Carter face death before, faced it with her countless times, but there were few times he actually believed they were going to die. He remembered Carter's hopelessness over the radio as she told him, "It's an ice planet," and even after all the memory loss that the pain and cold had caused, he remembered with a twinge in his stomach her vulnerability as she allowed herself to break down the walls that the regulations had put up, and curl into his side. And he'd seen the helplessness in her eyes as her attempt to blow up one of Anubis's drones had failed, and it marched on to her position. She'd given up then, too. That was barely six months ago. He couldn't protect her then, and he had failed again. He knew she was more than capable of taking care of herself, but it was that innate protectiveness of her that fooled him into thinking that she was his. He felt that surge of primal fear and something else, when she was cowering over Martouf's lifeless body, cheeks stained wet, again when Nirrti had experimented on her beautiful DNA, and again when he heard her humming in the elevator over her knight in shining armour. No, she wasn't his. She wasn't anybody's, even with an impending wedding, he knew she didn't belong to anybody, and that gave him more hope than anything else. She was a free spirit, bound only by her unwavering love for science and, he hoped, the Stargate. As long as she was a member of SG-1, she was his – even if only by rank and regulation. He needed to have some part of her that belonged to him, that despite her personal life outside the SGC, could always remind her of him, and vice versa. He needed a constant connection to her. Often, he didn't know why, but it was more than apparent, to Teal'c at least, throughout the days she was missing on board the Prometheus. She was his constant thread to reality and sanity, and the thought of her living a life (or ending one), where he did not exist, crushed him. His chest ached with fear and anticipation of the unknown that lay beyond the door in front of him. If she was truly to be executed, if she already had been, he felt sure that he would know... instinctively, subconsciously... he was sure that he would feel part of his soul die with her. Surely, the Galaxy owed him that much.
He reached the hand not holding his P-90 to the door handle, and slowly opened the door.
TBC...
A/N: Reviews are greatly appreciated! =)
