Advanced SERE

Sam walked in a direction opposite to the path the drone had taken, searching for a suitable hiding spot.

"Gee, would a cave be too much to ask for? I'd settle for a crack in a rock wall, just big enough for an Air Force major."

"Wait, what's that ahead?"

She'd seen a slight depression filled with and surrounded by branches and loose leaves.

"Yes! I can use this."

She worked her way down into the depression, stretched out, and covered up with the available branches, cushioning her resting spot with some of the leaves. If she was going to be here for some time, she might as well be as comfortable as possible. It was impossible to be sure that she was covered enough so that the drone wouldn't spot her if he wandered by, but she felt fairly secure for the first time in hours.

"Thank God for all that survival training. With this much cover, I should be able to hide out for quite a while."

She reflected back on her second experience with SERE training. Shortly before she'd gone on that first mission to Abydos, she'd requested and been allowed to go through training again, but the more rigorous version normally only offered to Special Operations Forces. General Hammond was the one who forwarded her request, and told her later that the course administrators had questioned why a woman astrophysicist would need additional survival training intended for troops at high risk of capture.

"I told them you'd been riding a desk for too long, and needed to remember what it felt like to get your hands and everything else dirty. I hope that didn't create any problems for you during training."

She reassured him that hadn't been the case, although it did explain the attitudes that she'd sensed at first from some of the instructors. The retraining had been memorable for another reason which overshadowed everything else that week.

Now after being on SG-1 all these years, having been hunted, captured, injured, and nearly killed more than once, those training exercises seemed almost tame by comparison. Stargate Command had instituted its own survival training course after the first few years. They realized that traditional survival training couldn't cover some of the unusual situations which teams going off–world might encounter. All SGC personnel were required to go through the new training course, which was run by seasoned gate team members.

Except for Jack O'Neill of course. "Been there, done that, got the scars to prove it. Why should I go through training to show me how to deal with it again?"

He didn't mind dishing it out to others though, and whenever he could be persuaded to conduct a training session, it was extremely vigorous and effective. His years of experience in black ops as well as the years as leader of SG-1 made him uniquely qualified to teach others how to survive under the most hostile conditions. Sam was grateful that he never seemed to encourage his students to incorporate his own techniques of sarcasm and insults when taken captive. He was all business when he was entrusted with teaching others how best to protect themselves, and recognized that his personal methods of survival and resistance might not be the best strategy for others.

When Sam registered for SERE before the Abydos mission, she was informed that all the instructors had first-hand knowledge of the subject matter. She took that to mean that they'd all been either prisoners and escaped or had been part of rescue teams.

As Sam reported for her first training session, the instructors were all gathered in a group at the side of the training field. Sam was surprised to see that one had a ponytail sticking out through the back of the ball cap that they all wore.

"A woman instructor? Wow, I wonder what her story is. Rescue team or prisoner? The no women in combat rule makes either one unusual."

The instructors broke up and moved over to the trainees, who all came to attention. The woman was at the other end of the line, so Sam couldn't see her clearly. Told to stand down, the trainees stood at ease as the instructors began to tell them what to expect that week. Sam had previously researched the training regimen, so she wasn't surprised by anything they were told. She was already thinking ahead to what would surely be an interesting week as the female instructor made her way down to Sam's end of the line. When the two women saw each other clearly, two jaws dropped in unison.

"Sam!"

"Pam!"

Author's note: You don't think I'd really stop there, do you? Still more to come.