Lots of whump in this chapter... I know, I know. It's about time! :0) Thanks for being patient as I start my Master's classes. I'm trying not to let it hold chapters up too much. As always, I really appreciate hearing from you. Even if it's just to say hi, it makes me glad to know you're there. I hope you enjoy the chapter!

Warning! Taking a two hour nap, while tempting, does more harm than good- just ask the little swirlies that are jumping in front of my eyes right now.

Once the Twilight

Chapter Nine

Sam closed her mouth against the choking water and stirred up mud that washed instantly over her head. Her stomach rose to her throat. She was falling! Desperate to do something to save herself, she reached out and grabbed at the cliff wall beside her. Its surface was jagged and tore at her fingers. Her hand briefly caught something. It slowed her fall for a moment and her heart caught in her throat, but then she slipped away and landed hard on the ledge below. She cried out at the impact. She bit her tongue and tasted blood. The water wasn't finished with her, though. It continued to shove at her even as she tried to gain some footing against it. She clawed at the softening ground and tried to dig in her feet. But the flood mercilessly tossed her off the small ledge like a rag doll in a washing machine. Her mind screamed at her. Big fall! Much bigger than the last.

In a panic, Sam flailed her arms; sought anything she could use to stop her fall. Her heart pounded in her chest and she held her breath against the flood. Then it happened. Her palm found purchase on something thick and she grabbed. The sudden jerk on her shoulder as her body instantly stopped its plummet made her cry out. Something heavy landed on her and the pain in her arm and shoulder wrenched a cry from her throat. She forced her fingers to stiffen and held firm. She closed her eyes, her thoughts a mixture of relief and anguish.

Arms wrapped around her waist. Galek.

She looked down into his upturned eyes, then past him to the ledge below. Around them the rock wall dipped inward a bit, so the water rushed past them rather than on top of them. She could see clearly the long drop to the solid surface of the ledge. If the fall didn't kill them, it would hurt a heck of a lot… and that was if they weren't pushed past it by the water. The next drop would definitely be fatal.

Her shoulder screamed at her. She tried to reach up with her free hand. Galek's weight tore at her arm. The muscles shook. Then Galek started slipping. She felt his arms around her waist, and then her hips. She reached down with her free hand and bent her legs up so she could grab on to his collar. He lost grip then. She felt his arms slide from her and grabbed in desperation. She caught his wrist. "Hang on!" Her own fingers slipped on the branch she held.

"Let me fall!" Galek looked down to the ledge and then back to her.

"No." She cursed inside. Part of her wished she could let him go. "Help me!"

Sam fought to keep her hold on the branch above. Her shoulder wasn't going to last much longer. Galek's added weight was torture. "Galek, if you don't help, we're both going to fall!" She glared down at him, her teeth clenched. "Now!"

Galek reached up with his free arm and wrapped it around her legs. When she was sure he had a good grip, she let go of his hand. Immediately, she reached up to grab at the branch with both hands before her shoulder could give out. She had no doubt there was damage. She wanted to kick her legs out to try and find some foothold on the wall beside her, but she couldn't with Galek's heavy body weighing her down.

Galek pulled his way up her torso until they were face to face.

It was a little too close for comfort. She pulled her legs up to try to give him some leverage to make it the rest of the way. Around them, the wind howled. It blew icy flecks of floodwater into her eyes and made her shiver. She clenched her teeth to keep them from chattering from the cold and the agony in her arm.

Galek planted a foot against her upturned thigh and pushed up. She felt his fingers brush hers as they grabbed the branch. Instantly, she felt relief. Her arm still screamed, but at least it was just her weight it had to carry now.

"There's another branch above," she said. She kicked out now to try and find a foothold. She had to get off this branch. Her arm wasn't going to hold her much longer.

"I see it."

Galek grunted as he reached for it.

His fingertips grazed the underside of the new branch.

Then their lifeline broke. Sam sucked in breath as the wind once again rushed past her. She was falling. She scrabbled against the cliff face to find some purchase against the slick wall. Her fingernails tore and rocks broke off the cliff face, pelting her skin like shrapnel. But nothing was there to stop her fall… until she hit the solid ledge below.

OoOoOoOoO

"Daniel."

"Yes, Jack."

"Do you think you might have some kind of an answer before I turn 65?"

Daniel threw him an annoyed look and went back to the computer panel he'd been staring at for the past twenty minutes. Outside the building, their warm day had turned quickly into a torrent of wind and rain. Jack couldn't help but wonder if this metal box they sat in would protect them or just act like a big toaster oven if it were struck by lightening.

"The writing's in Asgard," Daniel said.

"Yeah. You said that."

"Well, to be perfectly honest with you, I'm a little slower to translate it."

Jack raised his eyebrows. "You mean the Great Daniel Jackson doesn't know a little old alien language?"

"I can read it just fine. It's just that on this computer it's blended with a lot of other symbols and abbreviations." His eyes met Jack's. "Not so much unlike our own computers."

Jack jumped down from the metal counter he'd been sitting on, picked up his gun, and clipped it to his vest. "It's about time to move along, then."

"I have been able to determine that this is, in fact, the reason our radios aren't working."

"Yeah?"

Daniel nodded. "From what I can see, all this turned on shortly after the Goa'uld appeared over the planet."

"To keep them from being able to communicate with their troops and give the Asgard time to get here." Smart.

"They must have left it here when the people asked them to go."

Jack shook his head. "So if we turn it all off, we can reach Teal'c and Carter?"

"That's my guess."

"Then shut it off."

"Now wait a minute, Jack. Let's think about that."

Jack felt his annoyance level shoot up again. "Think about what? They're out there and we need to talk to them." He didn't mention how much he'd been worrying about his teammates… one a little more than the others. He didn't even want to start to go there.

Carter could take care of herself. He shook his head. "Turn it off."

"If this is disrupting our radios, then it's disrupting the Goa'uld's communications, too. That's probably why they haven't been able to find us or this device they're looking for. If we turn it off now, that could all change."

Jack leaned back against the counter and put his hands on his hips. He couldn't turn it off then, could he? But Carter, Teal'c and Hailey were who-knows-where, and for all Jack knew, hurt and in need of help. There was no guarantee his teams' pods had landed as gently as theirs. He glanced at Daniel's leg and shook his head. "We need to talk to them," he said.

Daniel opened his mouth but Jack held up a quieting finger.

"Just for a few minutes. Just long enough to find out their condition and then we turn it all back on again."

Daniel drew his head back and blinked a couple of times. "That could work." He met Jack's eyes. "You realize that once it's off, there's no guarantee I can turn it on again?"

"Live dangerously, Daniel. Have a little faith." He nodded to the controls. "Turn it off."

"Off it is," Daniel said, still with a little doubt in his voice. He moved a white stone across the symbols and the whir of the machinery inside the computers died away. He turned back to Jack with a humorless smile. "Try it."

Jack reached up to his radio and pressed the button. "Carter. Teal'c. Hailey. Are you there?"

Silence.

Jack sighed with frustration and tried again. "Carter. Come in."

Static.

"Teal'c?"

Jack was about to give up when a voice answered through the speaker. He almost jumped at the sound.

"Colonel. It's Hailey."

Not exactly the female voice he was hoping to hear, but it would do. He met Daniel's questioning look and depressed the talk button.

"Good to hear from you, Hailey. Where's Teal'c?"

"Our pod was damaged in the landing. Teal'c was injured. I've been trying to reach you for hours, but the radios haven't been working." There was a mixture of frustration and relief in her voice.

"There's been something blocking transmissions, but Daniel and I found it. We turned it off. We can't leave it off long, though, so we need to make this quick. How bad is it?"

She must have known what he meant because she jumped right in. "He's pretty bad, but he insists his symbiote can handle it. I think he'll be out of the picture for a few days." She grew silent and then there was some mumbling in the background like she was talking to someone. "We were rescued by the Garund, sir."

Jack looked at Daniel in surprise. Daniel shrugged.

"I thought they were all slaves in the mine."

"There are a few pockets of free people here and there that the Jaffa haven't been able to round up yet. Kailan says it's because their technology doesn't work right on the planet."

"Kailan?" Daniel this time.

"He escaped and made it back here. He's the one who recognized Teal'c after they found us. He had us brought to their camp and has been taking care of Teal'c."

"It is good to hear that you are well, O'Neill," Kailan's voice interrupted.

Jack ignored the salutation, his mind on other things. Their happy reunion could happen later. "Have you guys seen or heard from Carter?"

"No. You haven't?"

"Not a peep." He sighed. If she'd heard the radio chatter, she should have answered by now.

The look on Daniel's face said he'd been thinking the same thing.

Jack pushed aside his worry. "Listen, there are a few things we need to talk about before we go black again."

OoOoOoOoO

Someone was talking. There was a loud whooshing sound that covered the voices up so they came in and out like a radio dial finding a station and passing it by again. Along with the sound came a tide of pain. It took Sam a moment to pinpoint it to her shoulder and her hip. There was a dull ache at the back of her head, too. She'd hit it when she fell. She forced her eyes open and closed them again when a bout of nausea hit her. This had been her second time unconscious in as many days. Not good.

With a groan, Sam rolled over to the hip that wasn't hurting. Her whole body felt like one big bruise, but that was nothing compared to the fire in her shoulder. She winced and tried to make out her surroundings. It took her a moment to make sense out of what she saw. A wall of water blocked sight of anything but rock. Something else was making that noise, though. Voices?

Sam gave a long blink and then another to try to clear her head of confusion. In the corner of her eyesight, she saw something. She turned her head and saw him. Galek. He lay a foot away from her, his legs dangling precariously over the edge. The water pushed at him, rocking him so that his torso shifted closer to the edge even as she watched.

Another long blink and she pushed herself up to a sitting position with her good arm. The world only spun a little, so she didn't bother to wait it out. She crawled over to him and grabbed his collar. Her fingers hurt when she clenched the material. She scooted back and pulled with all her strength. For a moment, she thought all her strength wasn't going to be enough, but then he started to move. She scooted again and gave another tug. This time, her energy waned more quickly, but she saw that his feet were the only part of him hanging out over the cliff. He wasn't in danger of falling anymore.

She leaned back against the rock wall and closed her eyes. The sound of the water phased in and out. And there were those voices again.

She sat there for a few moments before she realized where they were coming from. She reached up and pushed the button on her radio. "Sir?" Her voice came out like a croak.

Silence. Then, "Carter?"

"Could you keep it down, sir? I've got a splitting headache."

"What's your situation, Major?" Was it her imagination, or was his voice a bit thicker than it had been a minute ago?

"We fell, sir." She shifted to put less weight against her shoulder. "Pretty big fall."

"Status?"

She opened her eyes and moved her head side to side, taking in the twinges that shot through her neck and shoulders, down her back. Nothing terrible there. "Not wonderful, sir, but mobile." She didn't want to tell him she thought her shoulder may be broken and that she hadn't tried to put any weight on her hip yet.

"And Galek?"

"Unconscious." She put two fingers against his neck and felt a steady thrum. "But alive."

"Galek is with you?"

Sam blinked in confusion at the voice. She recognized it. "Kailan?"

"He's with Teal'c and Hailey," Jack said. "How much of our conversation did you hear, Carter?"

"Not really any of it, sir. I've only been conscious for a couple of minutes."

Another beat of silence. "We're going to lose radio communication in a minute, Carter. I need to know if you can make it to our rendezvous point."

She nodded. "We'll be there."

"Are you well enough to continue with the mission?"

Sam nodded. She wasn't about to leave without setting her eyes on whatever was inside that mine. "We are," She slipped her finger off the talk button. "You'd better be," she said to Galek. He didn't budge.

The Colonel seemed satisfied with Sam's answer. "Should you and Galek make it there before we do, go on ahead. Just make sure to mark the way. We still may be a few days away. There's no way to be sure."

"Teal'c and Hailey?"

"Teal'c was injured when his pod landed. He's with Kailan's people. Kailan knows where to take Hailey, so they'll be joining up with us without Teal'c."

Sam couldn't fight her surprise. Her eyes shot open and she sat up a bit. "Sir?"

"He's fine. Junior just needs time to heal him up."

Sam nodded. "I understand. Tell everyone to be careful. We ran into a few Jaffa and I know at least one of them got away. Chances are the Goa'uld knows roughly where we are and she knows it's us. I don't know if that makes her more or less inclined to take prisoners."

"Hailey," Jack said, "You got that?"

"I heard it, sir."

"Okay. Rendezvous is a go. Proceed with caution. Radio blackout in twenty seconds."

"Got it." Sam said.

"Carter?"

"Yes, sir."

"You sure you're good to go?"

"I'll be there."

"Okay." Sam heard the doubt in his voice. "Good luck."

"Thanks."

Sam let the radio go and looked across at the water that still fell in front of her. She glanced up where the wall jutted out just enough to have created a small indentation of a cave for them on the ledge. There was no way she could climb that now. They'd have to go down and take the long way to the mine entrance.

The question was… how in the world was she going to get them back down?

You guys are the best ever! Can't wait to post the next chapter! Thanks for reading. :0) Don't forget to let me know what you thought.