Ouch! Damn it! – Sam had those and few other far worse words on her mind when she regained consciousness.
She slowly opened her eyes, but all she saw were blurry shapes, unfocused colors and objects. Sam winked few times and as her vision was coming back to normal, she let her mind check the rest of her body for possible damages.
The wormhole must have been disrupted by the energy blast, and the ride through it was a rough one. Last think she could recall was the view of an old forest and a small lake, as she fall out of the Stargate with big velocity, painfully hitting the ground and rolling very fast. All the gear she had on her didn't make the landing any softer. Shortly after she stopped on some bigger rock, Sam passed out.
One she knew one thing for sure – she wasn't anywhere near SGC.
It seems all the bones were in one piece, but Sam couldn't be sure without standing up. She was sure she'll be awfully bruised though.
Slowly, Carter pulled herself up, and sat, leaning on the rock, that kindly stopped her before.
Janet! Jack!
She haven't seen them anywhere while flying out of the wormhole, and she couldn't spot them now. A pinch of panic in her stomach made her stand up quite fast, all things considered.
Janet? Colonel? – Sam called them through the radio – Daniel? Teal'c? Anybody! Over!
Only silence answered from the radio.
Pinch became a nudge.
Maybe they're somewhere, unconscious or hurt. Or both.
Janet was only few seconds ahead – she should be right here!
Sam looked around and saw the tree line not so far away.
Maybe they went there for some reason?
She headed there, not really sure what she expects to find.
Colonel? Janet? SG2? It's Carter, please, respond! Daniel? – She was still trying through the radio.
She reached the woods and grabbed her P90. There was no foot prince leading from the gate… No sigh of any human activity whatsoever.
Nudge changed into a crump, annoyingly squeezing her stomach and throat.
Calm down Carter! – she said to herself out loud.
Maybe their radio is broken… I should call them… but I'll be giving up my position… I'm on another planet – what if it's Goa'uld occupied, and my scream will alarm a Jaffa patrol? But if there would be Jaffa patrolling near the gate, there would be foot prince and walked paths…
Janet! Colonel? Jack! Teal'c? Is anybody there? – Sam screamed as loud as she
could. Got no response.
Her brain started to process all the information she had gathered, trying to come up with a logical explanation and an idea, how to get out of this situation. It was her way of dealing with panic that start to overtake her.
'Cloud. DHD. Stargate. Opened wormhole. Blast.'
'Cloud. Blast. Stargate.'
'Blast. Opened wormhole.'
'Fluctuations. Breaking.'
SG2,medics, Jack, Daniel and Teal'c probably made it to the SGC, but Janet and herself entered the horizon AFTER the blast. It probably caused a spike of energy, and wormhole jumped to some other gate, like when colonel and she landed in Antarctic.
'Why didn't I think ?'
'Because I was trying to save my friends and I was fighting to keep a clear mind.'
'But I should of know better!'
Sam looked around again. If it wouldn't be for the situation, she would probably like the view, cause it was so beautiful and calm.
The forest cast a shadow on a Stargate, making a lake on it's right side look like it was painted by a skillful artist. Deep blue with green reflexes and without even one ripple.
She heard some bird singing and buzzing insects around, so the planet, or a moon, was pretty far in evolution.
'Of course it is! There is a Stargate on it!'
Carter wanted to kick herself in the ass for being so stupid!
'I will simply dial home.'
'Maybe Janet made it to the SGC with others after all, cause there was no way she could be here with me.'
Sam run as quickly as her beat-up body let her, to dial Earth. But as she reached the pedestal on which the gate was standing, she noticed another thing missing.
The DHD.
No DHD, no crystal.
No crystal, no energy.
No energy, no wormhole.
She checked every bush, every hollow in 100 m radius around the gate, but she found nothing.
It took her hours, and when Sam finally came before the Stargate, she was exhausted, sore, and panicked. She went down on her knees, right next to "her" stone and felt tears rolling down her chicks.
She had to face the facts.
Carter was completely alone on some unknown planet, with food rations for 3 days, without possibility to power and dial the Stargate. Oh, and her iris codes will be deactivated in 24 hours, so she had not even a day to find a power source powerful enough to juice the damn device. In a middle of truly idyll meadow.
5 days later
Sam was standing on the shore, watching the second sun and setting down. She rumpled her last protein bar's wrapper, and put it back in her vest's "trash" pocket.
It was the last bite of food she had, and now Carter had to face the fact, that she'll have to hunt soon. That shouldn't be a problem – last night she saw a boar- like animal by the lake's shore across form her position right now.
Also, Sam was trapped inside a fight either she should bathe in the lake or not.
Of course the urgent need of bath wasn't the case, cause that was just too obvious.
The problem was the water itself. Without any instruments to perform some analysis, there was no way of knowing what effect swimming would have.
There were fish and birds living in or around the lake, water seemed normal after she boiled it…
'Screw it. I can't stand my own smell any longer.'
Sam quickly jumped out of her clothes, so that she wouldn't change her mind. She separated gear, emptied all the pockets and took her uniform and underwear with her.
Slowly stepped into the water, feeling like in an unlocked bathroom, only the door that could suddenly open announcing someone storming in were replaced with the Stargate.
'Don't be stupid – nobody will open the gate, like nobody did for the last five days' – she said to herself, smiling sadly.
Water was nicely chilly, the sand on the bottom was silky but not muddy. Nothing bad happened, nothing attacked her, so after few steps, Sam plunged in the water, leaving her laundry floating on a surface. She took some of the sand from the bottom and using is as sponge begun to scrub her body from mud, dust and sweat, that covered her during those five days of non-stop watch, filled with hope, that somebody will come through the gate and take her home, and fear, when she realized nobody is coming any time soon.
When her skin was finally clean, she did the same thing with her clothes, which she hanged on a tree to dry.
She put on a back-up t-shirt she had in her backpack, and sat there by the fire, she made couple days ago. Nights on this planet were quite warm, Carter believed the fire will discourage potential "guests", such as the boar-like animal.
' I will have to shoot one of those tomorrow. And eat it.'
The thought of grilled piece of meat caused a rumble in her stomach.
Sam lied down and watched the sky, trying to cope with the fact she's trapped alone God only knows where.
'At least I have water, potential food and beautiful weather. I will survive for a long time, if not to the rest of my life…alone. Maybe there are intelligent life forms here, but they're probably across the globe, and I'll never get there on foot.
Maybe I should try? Maybe they're not so far away? But what if I'll leave to look for them, and a rescue team will come? I could leave a message…My radio is working, they could contact me…Probably I will be out of range…Damn it!'
Sam was more and more concerned about those disputes she had with herself more and more often. 'What if I'll go crazy like Ernest? To many "ifs" and "maybes". I have to decide something…'
She must of fall asleep for a while, cause when she opened her eyes, the sun was almost completely down, and the fire was slowly burning out.
Carter stood up, stretched her body a little, and put on already dry clothes. She took her water bottle and squat down by the water to fill it up, and while looking around, she noted a smudge on the sky over the woods…
Like a smoke from the fire…
She run to her gear vest and grabbed field- glasses.
It was definitely smoke.
'Someone is there. In the woods. Wonder, if they noticed my fire…'
Sam sat down on a ground, watching the smoke like hypnotized. And at that moment, she decided to go there and contact with these…,hopefully, people. Maybe they will help her go back home. Or they will kill her. Either way, it was some kind of a solution.
First, Sam watched the smoke for the next 3 days, as it moved south few miles, and established a pattern. She managed to kill a boar-ish animal, so she had lots of food. It tasted pretty much like a pork, without any seasoning, but better this then nothing.
On the 4th day, Sam took all her stuff and moved out to the woods at dawn.
She was heading towards the path "smoke-people" were taking, and she calculated, she should reach them in less then two days.
At first the forest looked like every other she saw on Earth. But after six hours of hacking through dense thicket, she noticed few major differences.
Trees were much bigger then even the oldest and biggest on Earth. Their tops barely let the sunlight through, so even though she knew it's day time, she was forced to use a flashlight. The wildlife was also quite amazing.
She saw enormous birds in their nests very high up on the branches, watching her carefully as she walked with her P90 ready to fire. They looked like a crossing between an eagle and peacock with their sharp beaks and huge colorful tails.
Sam noticed, that despite the fact it was dark, she was surrounded with fabulous colors.
The wood of the trees was also releasing an incredibly soft and sweet smell, which she couldn't compare to anything she ever smelled. And the further she went, the more intense the colors and smell were.
She made a stop on a small meadow with a stream around 9th hour of her way.
Strangely, Carter wasn't feeling tired or sleepy at all. She wasn't really hungry either, but she was thirsty and a crystal clean stream was so tempting…
Sam lit the fire, and sat on a thick dark-green grass which felt like a Persian carpet. Forced few pieces of meet and begun to clean her gun. She had 3 magazines, 50 rounds in each. She used almost 20 to take down the boar, so she had 130 left. She must of loose her side-arm while falling down the pedestal on P5T 367, so the P90 was her only way of defense.
'I wonder if I'll see the other people's fire…or if they will notice mine…Maybe they will come to me?'
Sam polished her weapon for good half hour, all of a sudden so calm and enchanted by the sounds of the forest. Gentle buzzing of insects, beautiful song of the bird somewhere close, wind moving those enormous trees…Everything seemed to create such an incredible harmony, like a well written symphony full of solos, yet perfectly united in chords. Her weapon suddenly became so inappropriate and violent in her hands, that Carter had this idea of throwing it away, but again her sharp and analytic mind didn't let her follow the impulse.
Sam snapped out of this passive mood and decided to continue her walk. There was almost no difference in brightness during the day and the night – she was using the flashlight anyway, and the bright, flashing colors of fauna in the woods helped as well.
She put the fire down, refilled her water supplies and again immersed into the dark forest.
As she walked she begun to understand the differences between day and night inside the woods. She was now observed by more and more creatures, which came down from the tree tops and hang out on the lower branches during the night. Some of them breathtakingly beautiful, some scary-looking and ugly, but none of them threatened her in any way.
Another six hour walk finally made her sleepy, but strangely, not physically tired. She picked a comfortable niche between two huge roots, where she was covered from the back, left and right. With the gun in her hands, Sam leaned back and half sitting, half lying, closed her eyes and let the music of the nature rock her to sleep.
The feeling was very strange. Like something would poke her in the leg, but in multiple places. She heard also a low, constant murmur, like a cat, just not so…pleasant for the ear. And something like smacking the tongue…
Sam opened her eyes, when she realized it's not a dream. She forced herself to remain still and slowly looked around. Her eyes needed few seconds to adjust to the darkness, and when she finally could clearly see, she used almost all her will to stop herself from screaming and running away.
Big dog-size spider-ish creature was sitting right by her leg, covering it with some kind of green-shining sticky residue, using it's multiple teeth to it. Eight long, black legs, covered with the same green substance were coming out of elliptic abdomen, which was shining like a freaking green disco-ball. Few pairs of eyes, and small, but sharp-looking claws were wandering on her second leg, moving it closer.
'It wants to eat me. Cocoon me, and eat later'
Carter had serious trouble breathing, paralyzed by fear and disgust, and not really sure if she will be able to keep the contain of her stomach inside for much longer.
She strengthened the grip on her P90, tried to take a calming breath, and when it didn't work, she counted to three in her mind… and emptied the magazine into creature's body.
It screamed loudly and backed off a little, but other then pissing it off, bullets seemed to have no effect on it.
Sam managed to get up and climb on a root on her right side. She quickly changed the mag, and pointed the gun where she last saw it.
But it wasn't there anymore.
She looked around with her back pressed to the tree, but she couldn't see it anywhere.
'Maybe I scared it off'- she heard something right over her head, and when she turned her head up, she faced those scary eyes and claws. Carter fell down from the root, rolling uncontrollably, but she managed to point her gun and fire again, when she finally landed on her ass.
Again, no effect.
Last magazine.
'I'm screwed. It will eat me! Maybe I should leave one bullet, and spare myself suffering…'
She saw the creature jump after her, and closing quickly, so she targeted it again, and put her finger on a trigger…
Stop! Don't shoot!
Sam was so surprised, that she actually stopped her finger. But apparently the creature didn't understand English, because it kept coming closer to Sam, and using the moment of her distraction, jumped, nailing her to the ground.
Bright blue light hit it's body, and the monster-spider rolled on it's back next to Sam, unconscious.
Carter quickly crawled away, panting wildly, and looked around trying to find her savior.
Are you all right? Sorry, we came so late. We've been looking for this creature for days… Do you understand me?
Sam couldn't say a word.
The woman who was kneeling next to her looked like an older, dark-haired version of herself.
The same big, deep-blue eyes, the same high chicks-line, the same shape of lips. Just with few more wrinkles, longer and deep-brown hair. And a cleaner face of course.
- I think she's in shock, doc. Man, that's ugly! – a man, standing behind her walked to the creature, and touched it with his feet.
- Thank you, Henry. Get it ready to transport. Can you hear me? – woman asked her, taking her face into her hands, and looking into her eyes.
- Ehm…- Sam cleared her throat – yes. I can hear and understand you… - She backed of, and tried to stand up.
- Easy, you could of hurt yourself. – woman stood up with her, holding her arm.
- Who are you? – Sam looked at her directly.
Woman must of done the same thing, because suddenly she stared at her with a flash of surprise in her eyes. The man, who was with her approached his friend and looked at them both.
- Holly crap!
Sam had something similar in her head right now, and she wasn't really astonished with his reaction.
What he saw, saw two, almost identical women – one blond, short-haired, dressed in olive-green uniform with a black gear-vest, holding a P90, covered with dirt, the second brown- and long-haired, wearing tight black costume, with boots up to her knees, and the top made of some black, little bit shiny material, with a stiff collar up to her ear and hard epaulets – very elegant, with a silver, tiny device in her hand and a slim sward on her side.
- Dear God! – the other woman finally spoken, closing to Sam and looking at her intensively.
- Doc, she…you…What's …?
- Who are you? – Sam repeated her question – What are you doing here?
- I could ask the same thing. – Sam noticed, the woman was speaking with a British accent. So fitting to the outfit…
I asked first.
Fair enough. – Woman smiled gently – My name is Helen Magnus.
- Major Samantha Carter, USAF, from Earth's Stargate Command. How did you get here?
- Helen Magnus was watching her with a glimpse Sam couldn't describe.
- Major Carter, it's a long story. We are in the middle of the creature's living territory, about 10 feet from it's nest… Would you mind taking it somewhere else, where we could talk without being endangered for another creature's attack? And where you could eat a proper meal, rest and… refresh yourself?
- No, not at all. But if I'm guessing right, you are travelling through this woods for few days now too. You have a camp somewhere?
Oh, no! We walked only because we wanted to find that creature. We can take you to the city very quickly.
- The city? What city?
- Let me show you – Helen Magnus reached to Sam. Carter grabbed her hand, not really sure what will happen.
A second later, they both disappeared in a flash of green light.
- Right…I will just wait here…in the dark…alone. With that…thing. Sure.