Chapter Three:

The Heck outta' Dodge!

"Who turned out the lights?" Jack complained, all the while clicking on his flashlight. "That was a bit anti-climatic, wasn't it Daniel?"

Daniel looked toward Jack, flashlight in hand, and replied, "I think we should get out of here…" The room ground beneath their feet began to rumble, quietly at first, then louder. The ground began shaking.

"For once Danny, I agree with you!" Jack turned toward the exit, "Let's get the heck outta' Dodge!"

"Colonel O'Neill," Major Lawrence's voice broke over the radio, "We are under attack. I repeat, we are under attack!"

O'Neill snapped into his radio, "Report, Major." All signs of the sarcastic Colonel were erased, replaced by a hard mask, a sign that he was ready for battle.

"We have one Alkesh advancing on our position!" Major Lawrence spoke through the loud repetitive pop, pop, pop of gunfire, "The shaking you felt was the Alkesh bombing our position. We'll hold the fort until you get here, Sir, but you had better make it fast!"

"Understood, Major." Jack looked to his team. "You heard him! Let's move out." The group moved quickly down the tunnel, fighting to maintain their footing as the attack continued from above. "Watch the hole," Jack reminded as they made their way back to the entry point, "I'll go first. T, you next. We'll lay down cover fire for the rest of you."

Sam and Daniel climbed the ropes out of the cavern, followed by a reticent Rodney. "Keep your head down, McKay, and you might survive this," Sam reprimanded Rodney.

"You don't have to tell me twice… hey, don't I get a gun?" Rodney asked with indignation.

Sam didn't bother to dignify his question with a response. She caught a movement behind Rodney's head, turned, and fired, effectively removing one enemy Jaffa from participation in battle. SG-3 had turned the dig lights out, which aided the SG personnel in avoiding their enemy.

"We have got to take out that ship!" Jack shouted to Teal'c, who nodded, understanding instantly what the Colonel was asking. Teal'c stood and took aim at the Alkesh with his staff weapon. Steadily, he waited until the opportune moment and then wham, he fired twice in succession and damaged the ship enough to remove it from the fight.

"Let's head for the gate, people, before we have more uninvited guests!" Jack shouted. The group left all the equipment behind and made for the gate. They had almost reached the platform when they heard the familiar whine of Glider engines, "Hurry it up, folks! Daniel, dial the gate."

Daniel ran for the DHD and entered the co-ordinates just as the Gliders came in to firing range. Sam waited for the gate to engage, entered the GDO hot code, and turned to cover her team with Colonel O'Neill, as they went through the gate. They narrowly escaped a fiery death in the blast of a Gliders weapons fire.

***

Jack turned to survey the damage his team had taken. SG-3 had a few minor flesh wounds, Rodney had passed out, and SG-1 looked relatively unscathed. Too bad the gate room hadn't fared as well. A blast from the Gliders had made it through the gate and hit the operations room, cracking the glass into a spidery web. Jack turned to Sam, "Carter, you all right?" His eyes looked her over carefully. She swayed, and Jack caught her arm, holding her up right. "Medic!" he yelled. The medical team had been called, but they had been seeing to the injured. No one had noticed Major Carter suddenly turn white—except Jack.

Janet Frasier, the SGC's Chief Medical Officer, shouted for a gurney as she ran to Sam's aid. "Where is she injured?" She looked Jack for answers.

"She looks like she caught a staff blast in the back," Jack said as Janet began to asses Major Carter's injuries. "She seemed fine a second ago. Then she seemed unsteady and I caught her before she fell." The gurney had arrived and Jack laid Sam down as gently as he would a small child. He looked at Janet with agony in his eyes, "Take care of her, Janet!"

Janet gave him a reassuring smile, "You know I will, Sir."

Janet looked Sam over and found a serious injury to her lower back. The medical team attempted to stop her bleeding as they wheeled her quickly to the infirmary. Sam's team was in close pursuit. Jack looked to General Hammond and said, "Sir, I…"

Hammond shook his head, "It's all right, Son. I know where I would be if in your situation. The debrief can wait. In fact, I'll join you in the infirmary." With that declaration, they both followed the path that Teal'c and Daniel had taken only seconds before.

***

In the infirmary, Janet was working overtime to save Samantha Carter's life. The odds didn't look good, but Sam had a few things working in her favor: stubbornness, alien physiology, and the fact that if Sam died, Colonel O'Neill would probably kill her. "The bleeding stopped." Janet spoke to her medical assistant, "Let's get her prepped for surgery."

"Doctor, I think she's starting to come around!" The RN stepped backwards to give Janet a clear view of Sam's face. Sure enough, her eyelids were beginning to flutter. "Sam, Sam can you hear me?" Janet asked, displaying the first vestiges of hope in her face.

"J-Janet?" Sam's face showing her confusion asked, "Why… what happened?"

The doctor smiled reassuringly, "You were hit by a staff blast just before you came through the gate." Janet stopped for a moment to gauge Sam's reaction, "We have to take you into surgery. You have some damage that I have to repair, but you'll be just fine!"

A sound at the door caught Sam's attention, "Sir."

"At ease, Carter," quietly Jack walked across the room to take Sam's hand. It was moments like this that they were close, not too close, but close. No one seemed to mind.
"I'm sorry, Sir, I…"

"Cut it out, Carter. That's an order." Jack responded with a firmness in his tone that ended Sam's worries for the moment. He gently squeezed her hand and said softly, "Go to sleep, Sam. I'll be here when you wake up." He heard a soft sigh escape her lips, "Yes, Sir." Then her eyes drifted closed and she was alone in world known only to her.

Jack looked at Janet, "What's goin' on, Doc?" The tone of his voice belayed the worry that anyone who knew him well could see etched in his face.

"Well, Sir, she took an indirect hit from an energy weapon, probably a staff." Janet looked at General Hammond. "I didn't think her chances were too good to begin with, Sir, but she seemed pretty lucid a moment ago. That bodes well for her recovery." She looked to Sam and then back to the Colonel. "If you'll excuse me, Sirs, I need to get Sam into surgery.

The wait was eternal. It felt to all concerned that Sam would never return from the OR. Three hours later, the doors opened and an exhausted Dr. Frazier stepped out. SG-1 jumped up from their seats, followed more slowly by the General. "Janet," Daniel rushed forward to meet her, "How is she?"

"It looks like Sam will pull through just fine, Daniel." Janet looked up to include all of SG-1 and General Hammond. "Her injury was fairly severe, but she didn't lose as much blood as we had feared. The blast cauterized most of the wound, stemming much of the bleeding." Janet could feel the sudden release that comes with relief. "A few weeks rest and she'll be herself again!"

Suddenly the klaxons sounded and the warning, "Unscheduled off-world activation, inbound traveler, General Hammond to the gate room." General Hammond and the rest of SG-1 started off at a run to the gate room. By the time they had reached the control room, the TokRa had sent through their IDC. Walter Harriman looked up at Colonel O'Neill, "Its Jacob Carter, Sir."

Jack looked startled, "Never a dull moment at the SGC." Everyone in his presence could see what he really meant. Jacob Carter was going to kill Jack for getting his little girl hurt. Teal'c looked at Jack. "I believe, O'Neill, that now would be the time to 'get the heck out of Dodge.'" The colonel attempted a brief smile at the Jaffa's attempt at levity.

Slowly, Jack walked out of the control room and made his way down the stairs to meet Jacob. These were the moments that he hated as a commanding officer, but it was worse this time. This time it was Sam's family that he had to give bad news to. Jack walked into the gate room, "Jacob."

Jacob looked at Jack and suddenly he knew no words were necessary, "Where is she?" Jacob's face tensed as he asked the question.

Jack sighed, "In the infirmary. She just came out of surgery." Jacob left without a word, and Jack silently followed. They made their way to the infirmary and Janet met them at the door, "You can go in for a minute or two, but you have to keep it quiet, understood?" At their nods of agreement she stood to the side and let them pass.

They stood one on each side of the bed, "What happened, Jack?"

Jack looked warily at Jacob, "Dad, maybe that should wait till we are out of Sam's earshot…?" He wasn't really hopeful that he would never have to explain that Sam got hurt on his watch; he just wanted to delay the inevitable.

Jacob looked at Jack as though he could see right through him. "Let's step outside." They made their way out into the hallway and stopped, "Tell me what happened." Jacob looked at Jack with an unreadable expression. Jack explained how Sam had been shot on her way back through the gate. As he ended his story, he tensed, waiting for the punch that never came. Instead, Jacob looked a Jack with sadness, "It's not your fault, Jack. You couldn't have prevented this."

Jack angrily slammed his fist against the wall, "It is my fault, Jacob. Sam got hurt on my watch. "

Jacob grabbed his shoulder, "Would it help if I blamed you? Would it help if I knocked you senseless for getting my girl hurt?"

"Yes."

"Well, tough. Sam would have my ass if I hit you, much less blamed you for this… She's going to be okay, Jack."

"God, I hope so. I don't think I could live with myself if…" Jack stopped, not daring to say the words out loud.

"It's not going to happen." Jacob interjected. "Now, let's go back in and see Sammy."

***

In the conference room, General Hammond, Daniel Jackson, and Teal'c discussed the excursion into the cavern and the subsequent events. "I wonder what Janice meant when he said that we had been given all the knowledge we needed and that our questions would be answered at the right time?" Daniel said.

Teal'c nodded, cocked his head, and replied, "Of this I am uncertain. In our prior dealings with the ancients we have found them to be cryptic."

Daniel agreed, thinking of his time with Oma Disala and Shifu, "Many of their answers come in the form of riddles, but there seems to be no hidden message in the words Janice spoke to us."

General Hammond interrupted their discussion to ask, "What do we know, Dr. Jackson?"

"Well Sir, we know that there is a device out there somewhere that holds all the knowledge of both the Ancients and the Gou'uld. We don't know where it is, but we know the Gou'uld are after it." Daniel shook his head, "That is about all we know."

They sat in a momentary silence, Then the phone rang breaking them out of their thoughts, "Hammond, here."

It was Janet, "Sir, you had better come down to the infirmary. It's Sam."