Chapter 12
As the two teams split up after reaching the tree line, Jack looked at the life sign detector in his hand. Its screen was black and he couldn't find any switches or buttons on it no matter how desperately he searched. He shook it with a slight hope that the device would work that way but he wasn't too much surprised when the screen stayed black. Jack stopped and turned back to Sam who was walking behind him with Teal'c on her left hand side.
'How does this work, Carter?' He asked from his former 2IC.
'Concentrate on it.' Sam simply answered. If any average person had heard it they would have certainly think they were insane. This expression reflected on Jack's face too.
'Concentrate?' He repeated, unconvinced by the given instruction.
Jack waited for Sam to tell him she was just joking but she just nodded and her serious features told him she wasn't joking at all.
'Alright.' Jack said, still not fully believing. He looked at the device and tried to think of it working. First nothing happened. 'Doesn't work.' Jack simply stated.
'Yes, it does.' Sam assured, telling him to try again.
Jack muttered something and looked back at the life sign detector. He took a deeper breath and pictured the device working again. He concentrated harder on the image in his mind and after a couple of seconds the black screen lighted up and a couple dozen light blue spots appeared on it.
'Whoa.' Jack uttered when he saw the spots on the screen.
'What is it, O'Neill?' Teal'c asked and steeped closer to the general. So did Sam.
'If what I think is right then we're in big trouble.' Jack told the others without taking his eyes off the screen.
'If you think these are life signs of the creatures, then you're right.' Sam helped in.
'I did not expect them to be this big in number.' Teal'c said perturbed.
'This will be harder than I first thought.' Sam said with sensible fear in her voice.
'Piece of cake.' Jack enlightened the situation as he usually did.
Sam could help but smile at Jack. He kept amazing her time after time.
'General, come in.' Cameron's voice broke the silence.
'Go on.' Jack answered on his radio. He was curious what could have happened this quickly.
'Could you make that device work?'
'With a little help, yeah.' Jack answered deliberately.
'Could you tell me why mine wouldn't work?' Cameron asked somewhat angry.
'You should ask Carter. She's the smart.' Jack answered, shifting the task to Sam.
Sam said a silent but meaningful 'thank you' as she took the radio from Jack. He just sent her a wide smile and waited for her to explain Cameron what she had explained to him.
'It's Sam.'
'Carter, what do I do to make this work?' Cameron asked; his tone impatient.
'After a short pause Sam told him carefully. 'I'm afraid you can't.'
'What do you mean I can't?' Cameron was perplexed. He had never before seen such a device but it was hard to believe he couldn't make it work. If Jack could, he was able to do it too.
'Only a person with the ancient gene can get these devices to work.' Sam explained apologetically.
'And when were you planning on telling me this?' Cameron's confusedness subsided to anger.
'Sorry, Cam. I just have to deal with other, bigger problems now. I apologize for forgetting something this important.' Sam answered derisively.
That's my girl; Jack thought proudly when he heard Sam's response to Cameron. As if hearing his thoughts, Sam looked at Jack with a smile on her face. Jack smiled back at her and it seemed to be enough for Sam to understand what he was meaning by it. It was as if they were communicating mentally, without actual words.
'Never mind. We'll get by.' Cameron simply answered trying to exorcize the anger from his tone.
Jack reached out towards Sam, asking for the radio. She handed it over.
'Hey, Mitchell, if it makes you feel better, we can still see you.' Jack said reassuringly, and looked at the screen checking if he really could see them. First he couldn't quite make difference between the blue dots. Finally he discovered the two dots, away from the others.
'Start moving.' Jack gave the instructions through the radio.
'Why?' Cameron asked back.
Jack neither had the mood nor the patience for explanations. 'Just do it.'
Jack kept his eyes on the two separate dots on the screen. Seconds later they both started to move in the direction of the other dots, probably the wraith hybrids.
'Ok. We gotcha.' Jack told Cameron.
'Understood. Though I don't feel any better.'
'Yeah, well, check in every ten minutes. O'Neill out.' With that Jack ended the conversation.
He turned back to Teal'c and Sam who were waiting for him to tell them to go.
'Ok, guys. If you don't have any questions, I suggest we should go.'
'O'Neill, I do not think it is wise to attack the beasts.' Teal'c protested.
'Who said it was? Let's go.' Jack said offhandedly and gestured towards the inside of the forest.
Teal'c bowed slowly as to let Jack know he understood. Jack also nodded in response and headed towards the closest dot he could see on the screen of the life sign detector. Sam and Teal'c followed him silently.
oOo
Daniel silently walked behind Cameron, careful to not make any noise. Neither of them talked, they both knew there was nothing to say. They had been walking for about ten minutes as much as Daniel could tell and so far they hadn't found anything. As they walked deeper and deeper into the night the weather got colder and the light breeze they felt when they started searching had grown to a chilling wind.
'It would be a hell lot easier if had a working device.' Daniel complained.
Cameron responded without turning towards his teammate. 'Ancient gene. That is a thing big enough to be mentioned.'
'Yeah, but still you can't blame Sam for not telling you. She's worried about Vala and,' Daniel paused but after a few seconds he continued. 'She has other things on her mind too.'
'What do you mean other things?' Cameron asked, curious about the topic. He also wanted to keep the conversation going so the forest wouldn't be eerily silent.
'Personal stuff.' Daniel replied.
'Right. I don't blame her by the way. I just thought she would warn me about something like that.' The colonel explained.
Daniel carefully stepped over a broken trunk and opened his mouth to answer Cameron when the colonel suddenly lifted his arm, signaling him to stop and stay quiet. The archeologist followed the orders and tried to find what Cameron was seeing. He looked in the direction Cameron was and didn't take too much time for him to discover a body lying on the ground a couple feet away.
Cameron made his grip on the P-90 tighter and slowly started to move towards the body. Daniel followed him, with his weapon ready to fire if anyone or anything attacked them. When he reached the body Cameron kneeled down beside it to take a closer look.
'Dead.' Cameron stated when he couldn't feel the pulse.
'He's wearing SGC uniform.' Daniel told when he discovered the familiar symbol of the point of origin on the shoulder of the BDU.
'Must have been on Lorne's team.' Cameron added and stood up. He couldn't take the smell of the dead body.
'Still I wonder what they were doing here in the forest. The house is not in this direction.' Daniel wondered.
'They must have been chased by the beasts. They probably thought their only chance was to try and find refuge in the forest.' It was the only acceptable explanation Cameron could think of.
As they stood there, they could heard leaves rustling to their right. They immediately lifted their weapons, aiming at the direction of the sound. Their hearts raced as they waited for the thing appear among the bushes.
'Here we go.' Cameron muttered when it was only a matter of seconds that they came face to face with the source of the sound.
Daniel laid his finger on the trigger ready to shoot when suddenly a man appeared among the trees in front of them. His face was covered in blood so it was hard to determine his identity. He carried a P-90 like Daniel and Cameron. For a minute they were standing with their weapons aiming at one another.
'Mitchell?' The stranger said and lowered his weapon.
The others did too when they saw the man in front of them no longer meant any harm.
'Yeah. Who are you?' Cameron voiced his query.
'Major Lorne.'
'Lorne?' Daniel repeated, stunned. 'We thought you were…'
'Dead.' Lorne finished the sentence for him. 'We are. I mean I'm the only one who stayed alive.'
'What happened?' Cameron asked for details.
'We were on our way to General O'Neill's house when a group of hybrids attacked us. We had to leave our vehicles as we had no chance against them. We split up into smaller groups and tried to hide in the forest but those things were everywhere.
With my team we seemed to have found shelter not far from here behind a broken trunk that was big enough to cover us. They found us anyway. I heard my people being killed through the radio. We were falling one by one. Until I was the only one left. God, I'm glad to see you guys.' Lorne's voice was permeated with fear as he spoke.
'It's alright now. As much as it can be.' Daniel laid a hand on Lorne's shoulder trying to reassure the major.
'So, what's the situation?' Lorne tried to clear his mind and concentrate on their mission.
'We've lost Vala. Those things have taken her.' Daniel informed Lorne negligently.
'And you're trying to find her?'
'We are.' Cameron replied confidently.
'You as in…' Lorne started, waiting for Cameron to give him the name list.
'General O'Neill, Dr. Jackson, Colonel Carter, Teal'c and myself.'
'And where are the others?' The major kept asking.
'We split up. That way we should be able to cover more ground.' Cameron explained. He was trying to sound patient but on the inside he was starting to get enough of talking and wanted to do some actions that could really help them find Vala.
'Do we know what we're looking for?' Lorne enquired.
'We're not sure. Anything that might be able to keep Vala imprisoned.' Daniel was quite angry they haven't a more certain clue.
'That's not much of a hint.' Lorne recognized the problem.
Cameron shrugged as a sign there was nothing to do about it. When he gladly saw Lorne had run out of questions he said. 'Our chances are better now that we're three. Let's go.'
Both Daniel and Major Lorne nodded in agreement and they followed Cameron who walked in front, leading the way.
After a short minute of walking Daniel broke the silence.
'Major Lorne, you wouldn't happen to have that ancient gene in you, would you?'
Lorne, who was walking in the middle of the row stopped and turned back to Daniel.
'Actually I would. Why?'
'Great.' Daniel asseverated and took the life sign detector out of his backpack.
'Ah, this.' Lorne identified the object and took it from Daniel.
'You should be able to make it work.' The screen of the device lighted up in Lorne's hand before Daniel could finish his sentence. 'You are.' He added.
'I've used this thing endless times while I was on Atlantis.' Lorne explained as if it were the most ordinary thing in the word.
'Can you see General O'Neill's team?' Cameron, who meanwhile had walked to them, joined the conversation.
'Unfortunately, the spots are the same color. This thing doesn't make difference between humans and other beings.' The major said begrudgingly. 'But, I can see a group of three far from the other life signs. Those might be them.'
'With a small dose of luck, they are.' Cameron voiced his hope and with that he turned back towards the direction they were going.
'Luck.' Lorne repeated. 'We're going to need a lot more of that than just a small dose.'
Daniel silently agreed and they followed Colonel Mitchell into the forest of uncertainty.
~TBC