Frustrated, impatient, Sam rapped her fingers against the side of her laptop as she waited for the diagnostics program to reinitialize. She hadn't been lucky enough, of course, to find a missing crystal or loose wire or... anything – any reason – why the gate shouldn't be working.
And yet it wasn't. At all. All attempts to dial out had been miserable failures. And there had been no attempts to dial in.
It was that second part that had her concerned. What if the problem was at home while she was off world? She trusted the techs, of course: Siler and Harriman and the team of scientists – well, Siler and Harriman, at least. But the idea of being stuck thousands of light years away from the problem, unable to help, was incredibly frustrating.
Making a mental note to work on her control issues, Sam nibbled at the energy bar the Colonel had given her and resumed tapping her fingers.
"Anything?"
Colonel O'Neill had been far more patient than usual... and it made her wonder if his rapid exit from the gate had left him with a traumatic brain injury. "Sorry, sir, no."
He dropped a second energy bar in her lap. She held up the half-eaten one defensively and got a glare in response.
Taking a bigger nibble to assuage him, she went back to the program, caught herself muttering curses at it, and forced a deep breath. At least she had her laptop. At least she'd put the most vital of her things – energy bars, tool kit, and laptop included – in her pack rather than in the flight cases on FRED. Assuming the Colonel had done the same, they had at least a few days' worth of food.
A few days. The thought made her heart sink. A few days would put them off world through Christmas. No party, no presents with Cassie, no snow... no venturing into the attic to open that old box of her mother's and remember. It was a sad tradition, but it was hers.
Finally, the software managed its eighth or ninth restart, and the energy bar tumbled into her lap, forgotten, as she disappeared once again into the data.
"Carter... How long are the days on this planet supposed to be?"
She glanced up and blinked, surprised more than annoyed at the interruption. She had no idea how much time had passed since he'd last spoken to her, except that the energy bar had dried to a nasty crisp in her lap and her stomach rumbled and her back was pretty unhappy about the sudden movement. "I have no idea. Why?"
"Because it's been twelve hours since you started tinkering with that thing." He pointed to his watch. "And in that time the sun has gone from there," he went on, indicating a spot just above the mountains, "to there."
Sure enough, it was nearly straight overhead. She pursed her lips. "I thought it was getting warmer."
"Yeah. And we've been up for over sixteen hours now. I'm thinkin' it's time to sack out for a bit."
"At noon? I mean, planet time."
"I know you'd work through a fifty-hour day, Carter, but I'm not even gonna try. If we might be stuck here for awhile, we're gonna need to create a schedule our bodies can work with." Deftly removing his sunglasses, he tossed them at her. "Pretend."