Sticks and Stones - Chapter 44 - by Emma Nisbet (grnfield)
To say that Jack O'Neill was annoyed would have been an understatement - of epic proportions. That morning he had been dragged from his bed to receive a transmission from the SGC requesting that he prepare the Alpha site for incoming refugees. He was then ordered that under no circumstances was he to dial the gate to Earth during the course of the day. He was told it was highly likely that the people from the planet designated P4M-776 were going to be evacuated at some point in the very near future and that the SGC could not cope with the sheer number of refugees. Those deemed to be in least need of medical attention would be sent to the Alpha site until the situation on their planet was resolved and they could return home.
Only once Walter had closed the wormhole down, did Jack recognise the planet designation. P4M-776, he realised, was Chamaka, and that was the last place he'd heard that Sam was headed.
Suspecting that the order to not dial the gate was a deliberate attempt to keep him in the dark Jack was tempted to go against orders and haul himself back to the SGC to demand some answers. He paced the dusty ground between the gate and the DHD for some time but eventually stormed back into the drab, grey, concrete bunker that held the entrance to the underground facility. He went into his office, closed the heavy wooden door and forced himself to remain there, unwilling to risk the wrath of General Hammond - who had always been very good to him.
#
After fuming in his office for the best part of half an hour Jack spent the rest of the morning storming around the alpha site yelling at people and making preparations for the incoming Chamakan refugees. With no way of contacting Earth to find out what was happening, and without knowing if Sam was safe, he threw his energy into doing what he did best - preparing for the worst.
Although he had been assured that he would only be receiving the least injured people from Chamaka, Jack knew this meant he would still have walking wounded under the care of his people before the day was out. A large canvas triage tent was set up near to the gate, stocked with all the usual emergency medical equipment and all available medically trained staff at the Alpha site were readied for action.
#
Once the Alpha site was prepared nothing happened for several hours. Jack looked at his watch and when he calculated that it would still be dark on the Chamakan homeworld he growled with frustration. He had always been a man of action and sitting around waiting for the gate to gush into life had never been his idea of fun. The fact that he had so little information to work with didn't improve his mood so by the time the inner ring on the gate finally began to rotate a very audible sigh of relief was heard from the other SGC members under his command.
#
Jack sprang to his feet and strode over to the DHD as the gate's ring rumbled around.
The final chevron locked and the gate whooshed into life. A grubby and harassed looking Colonel Reynolds stepped though first, followed by Sergeants Nicholson and Bell along with several Marines.
"Colonel O'Neill," Reynolds addressed Jack as he approached the older man. "Permission to bring one hundred and sixteen people through the gate, Sir."
"Permission granted, Colonel." Jack replied.
Reynolds turned back towards the gate and spoke quickly into his radio informing the SGC that the Alpha site was ready for visitors. He then turned back to face Jack.
"Been kinda kept in the dark here, Reynolds," Jack told him. "We've not heard anything for hours. Would ya like to fill me in? What's been going on?"
"Sorry, Colonel. I'm not sure what you've been told," Reynolds admitted.
"Not a great deal," Jack griped. "All I know is that at some ungodly hour this morning we were woken up to be told that you were probably going to be evacuating an entire planet and were ordered to prepare for refugees. Since then we've been sat on our collective asses waiting for something…anything to happen. P4M-776, I'm right in thinking that's where Carter is, aren't I? Is she OK? What about T? And Ferretti? Come to think of it, where the hell is the other half of your team and what're you doing with Bell?" Jack was clearly getting riled now, each question being barked at Reynolds at a higher volume and a faster tempo.
Reynolds winced, admitting to not knowing the whereabouts of SG-2 wasn't going to go down well anywhere within the SGC but with Jack in full-on wrath mode it could get positively explosive. Reynolds was all too aware of the relationship between Jack and Sam and the protectiveness that the elder man held for both his fiancé and his Jaffa ex-team-mate.
"Peterson got hit with a staff blast not long after we got there. He's in the infirmary, it's messy but he'll survive." Reynolds winced. "Bell's with me, Davies is with Ferretti. Bell's bigger and we needed the bulkier of us to impersonate the Jaffa that were holding the Chamakans prisoner. It was Teal'c's idea and it worked as well…we got most of 'em out alive. Unfortunately there were several who didn't survive the journey, even though they were transported in carts but the majority of them made it in one piece. I'm not sure on numbers but I'd've said you'd got about half of 'em"
"Buuut?" Jack said quietly, painfully dragging out the word.
"Err…yeah…" stuttered Reynolds. "The but…we don't exactly know where Ferretti and co are at the moment. They went up onto the Ha'tak to scope out the level of hostiles aboard and to place C4 for remote detonation at the same time. They were due back before dark but we never heard from them. The Jaffa went aboard and the Ha'tak went into orbit, anything past that I don't know. We decided to move the Chamakans out under the cover of darkness and it took most of the night to get them back to the SGC and sorted out ready to come here. It's chaos in the infirmary, hence why you're gonna have people with only temporary casts on broken bones and a hell of a lot of people suffering from malnutrition and exhaustion."
Reynolds was all too aware that Jack had moved forwards until the two men were standing face to face. Luckily for him the first batch of Chamakan people started stumbling through the gate at that point and Jack was forced to leave Reynolds so he could organise the newcomers.
#
The arrangements for the Chamakan refugees went off without a hitch. Jack had the Alpha site organised to such a high degree that even an increase in numbers of over 130 people (the Chamkans plus a variety of SGC personnel) didn't cause any problems.
Those injured among them were taken straight to the triage tent while the more able-bodied people were ferried a short distance through the woods to a man made clearing where five huge tents had been erected as temporary accommodation.
Once in the tents the people were fed and watered and given access to washing facilities. Fresh, clean clothing was supplied but proper bathing would have to wait until later when everyone was settled in.
#
Reynolds hoped that Teal'c would have followed the Chamakan people through the gate so that he could field the numerous questions that Jack was bound to have once he'd finished with the refugees. The Colonel was disappointed when the big Jaffa didn't appear but his worry for his personal safety lessened slightly when he saw Jack dial the gate and get involved in a very heated discussion with the MALP that was permanently parked beside the gate.
He guessed that Jack had General Hammond on the other end of the wormhole and he could see the Colonel gesticulating wildly but was far enough away to not be able to hear anything except for occasional snatches of Jack's raised voice.
Eventually Jack threw up both hands in disgust and stomped away from the MALP, creating small plumes of dust with every angrily placed step. A couple of seconds later the wormhole blinked out of existence as Jack slammed the door of the bunker behind him.
For a couple of seconds a stunned silence reverberated throughout the site before Reynolds was forced to take charge and ordered 'you nosy lot' back to work.