Chapter 13 - Shoreline

"Hey, Jack? Are you awake?" Daniel rolled to his side and called out gently to his friend, but the man did not respond. He was slouched partly upright against a tall tree just a few feet past the campfire which had been reduced to ashy embers. He seemed comfortable enough, with his arms crossed and his chin resting lightly on his chest, so he let him be. Jack had to be exhausted from his hours in the water the day before, and with the sun already above the horizon, standing watch was sort of a moot point. It appeared nothing had bothered them overnight, and daytime security should be easier with full visibility of their surroundings. Besides, in his experience the trouble they found on planets more often came from sentient beings, and there did not seem to be any so far.

Daniel put his good hand on the ground and pressed himself upward until he could sit on a fallen log that had been rolled into the small camp. He found he was grinding his teeth against the anticipated pain of jostling his broken bones so he stretched his jaw wide to loosen the tension. He did not need to deal with a headache on top of everything else. He examined his splint where the pressure from swelling met resistance from the thin reeds. He tried to spread out the reeds more evenly under the vest strap, but the slightest movement of his fingers caused an unpleasant grating sensation in his wrist. He puffed a few breaths to regain control of the pain as he squeezed his eyes shut.

He needed a distraction so he took a moment to look around their camp in the daylight, situated on top of a compacted mound of mud and sand further from the creek than yesterday. From the roar of the rushing water nearby that was obviously a smart decision. Runoff from yesterday's storm had turned the creek bed into a swift moving river overnight. His eyes followed the river's long path to the ocean in the distance and he wondered if the shoreline had actually receded as Teal'c suggested it would.

Curious to see better for himself, he stood up, but paused a moment to consider whether the sun would warm up enough to make a campfire unnecessary. As if in answer a chilled breeze blew off the water and swept across his bare arms. He shivered involuntarily, then reached for some dry reeds and added another log when the embers ignited the new fuel.

Finished with that, Daniel glanced at the sleeping colonel and turned toward the shore again. He would just take a quick look. He set off through the loose sand, slipping a bit until he reached the edge of the smooth sand that had been compacted by water. The waves washing up on shore were still a ways out. That had to be a good sign that the water had pulled back. He looked up and down the shore, shielding his eyes from the morning sun. There really was no sign of civilization that he could see.

"Daniel! What the hell do you think you're doing!" Jack came after him, nearly running, his handgun in hand, held low along his leg. He slowed as he saw the scientist turn toward him, unharmed. "You can't just leave camp, Daniel!"

"Good morning, Jack," Daniel said, waiting in place as he walked right up to him, deflecting his accusation with a cordial greeting, "how did you sleep? Well-rested, I hope."

"You know that's not the point," Jack retorted as he holstered his sidearm, "you can't just wander off! What are you doing out here anyway?" he looked curiously at Daniel's splinted wrist, seeing it in the light for the first time, and grimaced at the obvious swelling and purple bruising.

"The water, Jack, I think it has receded. I was just checking it out." He noticed Jack's inquisitive gaze and turned the arm over carefully. Deep red bruises stretched to his elbow, which meant blood was pooling under the skin. Jagged fragments of bone cutting across blood vessels could cause that. His stomach lurched at the thought so he quickly looked away toward the ocean again.

Jack did not miss Daniel turning a shade of green, so he made no comment on the injury. Instead he looked at the lapping waves and pointed out his stone markers. "Yeah, I've been measuring it through the night. It has gone out at least a hundred yards."

"So, you think Teal'c is right? The Stargate is down there, flooded by the storm, and it is just a matter of time until we can access it?" Daniel turned hopefully, scanning across the shimmering blue water. "How tall is it, twenty feet? I don't see it above the water yet."

"Yeah, about that high, assuming it is still standing upright," Jack agreed half-heartedly, then backtracked when Daniel looked at him questioningly. "Not saying it isn't, mind you. It's just that I've had a lot of time to think about it overnight. Luck hasn't exactly been in our corner so far."

Daniel looked down at his deformed arm and sighed, "I suppose not."

"But, hey," Jack started again with more energy, "you and Teal'c managed to find us and rescue us from the water, so maybe our luck is turning."

"That's right!" Daniel agreed, attempting to match his deliberate optimism, "Sam is probably back at Stargate Command already, and we just need to hang out here, enjoy the weather and wait for Teal'c to return. Right?" He paused, a little panic creeping back in at the understanding that the Jaffa's return would mean that Jack would be left completely alone on the planet for another day. Not the best turn of luck after all. He cast about for a different topic, "You know what? Let's head up the beach, see if we can spot the gate. We found you in the water east of here," he gestured towards the rising sun, finally starting to feel its warmth as it cleared a distant treeline.

Jack squinted into the sunlight, and out toward the calm unbroken sea. He angled his head back to his friend and stared for a moment, thinking. It would feel more productive than sitting back at camp counting the hours. "Do you feel up to it, Daniel?"

"My legs are working fine, Jack," he insisted, "besides the walk would do me good."

"Right. Let's go then!" Jack turned, but waited for Daniel to set the pace as they started out. He fished a power bar out of his side pocket and split it in two, handing him half. The cooked rabbit back at camp would keep until lunch.

The beach was much wider now than it had been when they arrived the night before. The sand stretched hundreds of yards back to the forest in some areas, but as they covered some distance, they found trees reaching right up to the shoreline, a distinct high water mark six feet up on their trunks. Not long after that they passed a grove of pine-like trees stranded twenty feet out in the water.

"Looks like the storm really surged a lot of water on shore," Jack noted when they paused to rest half an hour later. He took a drink from the canteen on his belt and passed it over to Daniel, but the man stared, transfixed on a point on the ground up ahead.

"Do you see that, Jack?" he pointed, then grabbed the colonel's arm, pulling him forward with him for a closer look.

"No, Daniel, what are you looking at?" Annoyed at the scientist's distraction, he twisted his arm out of his grip, but continued to follow him. He saw nothing of particular interest, just more sand and water.

"Jack, will you just look?" Daniel exclaimed, exasperated at his disinterest, so he jogged forward without him, nearly tripping in his haste.

"Careful, Daniel! What are you doing?" Jack warned, cringing in anticipation that he would fall and land on his already broken arm, but the man recovered his footing and kept going. Another thirty feet ahead he suddenly stopped and looked back to a low ridgeline that paralleled where they walked along a barren sandy dune that held back the ocean.

"A road! It's a road, Jack!" he said excitedly, looking back and forth to be certain of the evidence. Smooth sand covered the hard packed ruts in places, unmistakable to his trained eye. "Look! Back there is a sort of a valley with a gap in the opposite ridge. The route comes past here and continues out into the ocean."

"I guess," Jack said, squinting at the faint difference in terrain. "Not a lot of traffic for this time of day."

"Jack!" the scientist stared directly at him, his face red, touched with beads of sweat along his hairline. Sometimes the military man could be so thick-headed even when the significance was glaringly apparent. He clenched his fist, then took a breath, calming himself before explaining. "Look, we haven't seen any signs of civilization here before now. This road means there are, or have been, people or beings of some sort here in this area." He saw the man tip his head in subtle agreement, so he continued, "now, given that we still haven't seen a village or other buildings, this road may be for long distance travel between significant destinations," he paused, wondering how to lead him to see the same obvious possibility he had.

The colonel looked again at the route, but then just waited, eyebrows raised, without comment. Daniel threw his hand up in the air in frustration, "Jack, this may very well lead to the Stargate! I bet it is right out there along this same road!"

"What? Why didn't you just say so, Daniel?" Jack exclaimed, turning out to scan the ocean more deliberately. He shielded his eyes from the sun with his forearm and looked again, "Son of a…" he trailed off and the archaeologist followed where his arm pointed. Two hundred yards from shore a smooth round hump rose just above the surface of the sea, appearing to rise and fall as the ocean swelled gently around it.

"I don't believe it," Daniel whispered. "There it is. We found it!" He looked at Jack who had already shed his holster and the oversized boots he had borrowed from Teal'c to replace the ones he lost while swimming. "Jack?" It was Daniel's turn to stretch out the syllables of his name, clearly suspicious of his plans, but also sure he knew exactly what he was thinking. "What are you doing?"

"I'm going to swim out there and see if the gate is working, Daniel," he answered as he waded out into the water. The temperature struck him as cold as he remembered, but he steeled himself for it.

"Wait, Jack! You can't dial a gate that is underwater. What if you flood the entire mountain complex?" Daniel protested, eyes wide with concern.

"What?" he froze in place, "Is that what would happen?" He imagined the deluge until the gate technician could close the iris. "Are you sure, Daniel?"

"I don't know, I honestly have no idea! But…" he trailed off. Had they really never tested that before? "What would happen if we created an outgoing wormhole from a submerged gate? Is that even possible?"

Jack looked around as if the answers might be found in the sand or the horizon. "Well, what about an incoming wormhole? No matter would be transmitted from this side, so that would be okay, right?"

"To what end? You can't send a radio transmission underwater."

"Sure you can, at the right frequencies. Submarines do it all the time," Jack corrected him. "Although, we don't have a radio."

"Or oxygen for speaking!" Daniel sputtered, pointing out the more obvious flaw in his plan. But Jack held up a hand to stop him.

"Okay, yeah, I got it," Jack conceded, but he had made his decision. He waded out further, nearly aborting as the cold water rose to his hips. He managed to keep his voice steady, "I'm still going to see if it has been activated recently. The SGC should have tried to contact us by now. At least we will know if the gate will work once the water recedes. Just wait here, Daniel. I'll be back."