SG-1 Gen Fic: For Every Action 4/10
Dec. 3rd, 2008 11:39 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
superbadgirlTitle: For Every Action
Author:![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
superbadgirl
Category: H/C with a Daniel slant, Team
Season/Spoiler: Very early S2
Rating: R
Word Count: 4,949 this chapter, 44,850 total
Summary: Communicating with alien life forms can be such a challenge.
A/N: Here's where I get nervous.
It Is Not Far couldn’t have the same definition for Teal’c as it had for her. Sam should have figured that when she couldn’t hear the water he claimed was close, but she hadn’t and so there she was, three miles and sixty minutes later, still tromping through dense shrubbery. She was afraid she still didn’t hear any water. She was hot, thirsty and getting weaker by the minute.
Sam brushed a clump of bangs off her forehead and stared up at the moon. The transition between dusk and night had happened very quickly. Unlike the first sun setting without them even noticing, the second fairly dropped below the horizon. They were really lucky the moon was large and luminous. It was a small comfort, for as difficult as it had been to traverse through thick foliage in daylight, it was tenfold that doing it under the faint orange tint of the moon’s glow.
“Are we there yet?” she said, not meaning to sound petulant and whiny but managing just the same.
“We are not.”
Damn. She knew what the answer was going to be before Teal’c responded, but it still sucked to hear. Sam needed water so much her mouth felt thick, her tongue about twice its natural size. She considered the leaves of the trees – not for the first time – and wondered if they held any moisture. She wasn’t above stuffing a couple in her mouth and munching away like a koala with eucalyptus.
“Yeah, I figured,” Sam said.
To tell the truth, she probably wouldn’t have noticed how long their journey was taking if Teal’c were more verbose. She knew refraining from speech helped maintain some small amount of moisture, and she didn’t like constant chatter any more than the colonel did, but she really thought Teal’c should know sometimes a response could be more than three words long. The colonel would know how to deal with Teal’c’s reticence. The colonel…
“Do you think the colonel and Daniel are okay?” Sam said.
“There is no way to be certain, but I have confidence.”
There was a way to be certain, though. Her hand had gone to her radio no less than five times in the past hour, always prevented from calling out by the colonel’s “Do it, Carter” and “O’Neill out” playing in her head. She had to believe her commanding officer would raise them if and when he was ready, and any distraction from their end wouldn’t be well received. The temptation was still ever present, though, and was another unsubtle form of torture. It was almost as bad as battling clinging vines. In the dark.
“I’ll just borrow some of that confidence from you, if you don’t mind.”
Sam shook her head. The real reason she’d love more conversation with Teal’c is so that her thoughts wouldn’t wander onto things she had no control over. Ironically, she seemed to have no control over that, either, so she concentrated on the task at hand. Thank goodness Teal’c was doing most of the work clearing a path. The guy was a machine, but even he was slowing down. She chewed her lip for a second, which proved a very bad idea. Her vest contained lip balm, of course. It just didn’t do a whole lot to help.
“Are we there yet?”
“No.”
She actually had no idea why she was pulling the adolescent whining routine. Spending nearly every minute of her life with SG-1 was in some way taking a toll on her if the colonel was rubbing off so much. Maybe if … when they got back home, she’d have to work on getting a social life. Maybe.
“Are you sure we’re not there yet?”
“No.”
“Shoot. Wait, does no mean you’re not sure, so we’re close?”
“We are here.”
Huh. Sam thought she should be able to hear the water by now. There was still absolute stillness beyond their own rustling through the greenery. She gave Teal’c a quizzical frown and noticed she could see his face more clearly than she had since moonrise. She glanced up. The canopy above was thinner. She could see a spot not more than fifty feet away where there was a significant break.
“Thank goodness.”
The foliage wasn’t nearly as substantial here either, of course. Teal’c moved easily, and Sam swore he looked relieved. She could smell the water in the air now, along with something she couldn’t quite pinpoint. If she had any saliva left, she would have drooled from the mere proximity of liquid. Gross. She closed her eyes, a stupid move.
“Oof,” she said as ran smack into Teal’c’s back. Whoa, his glutes felt as impressive as they looked. There was something wrong with her. Why she chose now, in this place, to start obsessing about her teammates’ good looks was beyond her. She blushed, the tips of her ears getting really warm. It was the heat and the worry. “Oops, sorry.”
Teal’c held up a hand, not speaking.
Sam frowned and started to brush by him, stopped when the raised hand reached down and latched onto her forearm. Her frown deepened, but he continued his silence, tipping his head toward the water. She looked, already knowing what to expect. Water. That’s exactly what she got – a small pool of water, surface still and reflecting the orange of the moon. It was quite beautiful, and no reason to freeze in her tracks. She started looking back to Teal’c when she saw it and holy crap.
“Whoa, how many of them do you think there are?”
Their camouflage was amazing. Sam had never not-seen anything like it. Surrounding the entire boundary of the lake were vast numbers of the birds they had seen earlier. It seemed like the watering hole was the nocturnal resting place for every single creature on the planet, or at least the immediate area surrounding the Stargate. All of them stood with their backs to the water, looking almost like sentries. The only thing they could be guarding against was SG-1.
“I have counted eighty-three. I do not believe it necessary to continue,” Teal’c said quietly.
There were more in the trees, Sam realized, lining branch after branch. She had to admit it was a little creepy, like they had suddenly joined a Hitchcock movie in progress. She kept a wary eye on the birds, and she swore at least fifty of them looked directly at her.
“I think our job just got a bit more complicated.”
“You do not exaggerate.”
She and Teal’c couldn’t just go in with guns blazing. For one thing, the birds hadn’t done anything to provoke such violence and, for another, they looked very powerful creatures. Well, those things, plus there was a distinct disadvantage in number. They’d be overpowered in less than a minute, weapons or no weapons; it would probably happen in less than ten seconds.
“Any ideas?”
“Not at the moment.”
“Maybe we could just ask them nicely.”
Assuming they understood English. Non-English communication was Daniel’s forte, not hers. Daniel. They didn’t have time to mess around with a bunch of birds. Sam didn’t even want to think about how the sheer number of them could contaminate the water beyond human use and what they might have already done in the water. It was a small comfort to note none of them were actually in the lake now. With a dearth of other options, Sam decided it couldn’t hurt to try the hands in the air, peaceful travelers bit. She started easing past Teal’c.
She stopped when several more of the birds swooped down, seemingly from nowhere, bearing large bundles in their massive talons. She watched them drop their loads, then land in the only open space along the shoreline. It didn’t take long to discern the shapes.
“Oh, no.”
She thought she understood part of the reason for the colonel’s earlier aggravation. At least she hoped the fact that the birds had managed to snag two SGC regulation daypacks and two vests, complete with radios, was the reason. Anything more extreme than thievery was not something she wanted to think about, and now had no means to learn. Oh, she thought dully, there was the colonel’s MP-5 as well. The colonel was not careless with his weapon.
“It would seem we have underestimated the life on this planet.”
As in, they’d not even considered it a threat, which was the only way Sam knew how to interpret the overture that had just been displayed – a threat. The birds had just let them know that they had the colonel and Daniel targeted as tools to use to their advantage – whatever that might mean – in what was looking to be a standoff. One misstep on her and Teal’c’s part could have the birds sending a flock of them back to their defenseless teammates.
It bothered her a great deal that they hadn’t heard gunfire or anything. They weren’t so far away that they wouldn’t have, and the colonel wouldn’t have just let their scant remaining equipment be taken without some type of fight. Sam’s mind raced with the implications, and worry for both his and Daniel’s condition.
“Oh, I’d say so,” Sam said. She retreated a step. “Got any ideas yet?”
“No.”
Crap, they were at such a disadvantage. The birds had apparently been gathering enough intel on SG-1 to determine they needed to protect the fresh water source, and what Sam really wanted to do was hike it back to the colonel and Daniel. She just didn’t know if they had the time to do it or, worse, if the situation was so bad it wasn’t as vital anymore. That meant only one thing to her, and it wasn’t something she should be thinking about. She needed to stay focused on the situation at hand.
“We’re clearly outnumbered. Even with firepower, we’d be overrun in short order,” Sam said. “Looking for a gap in their lines is out, because we can see there is no gap.”
“Indeed.”
Big help from the warrior. Sam clenched her jaw. She was starting to think the only real option they had was the one she had almost tried. As long as they weren’t aggressive, things couldn’t get worse. She hoped this was all a big misunderstanding, though she admitted she couldn’t fathom how it had happened. Nothing SG-1 had done since arriving here could be construed as hostile. All they had done was dig a hole in the sand, which wasn’t a capital offense. Unless it was for some crazy reason.
“Hold my weapon while I go try to talk to them.”
“Do you believe that wise, Captain Carter?” Teal’c said. Nonetheless, he took her MP-5 once Sam lifted it from around her shoulder.
No, no she didn’t.
“I don’t like it, but I know you’ve got my back.”
“I do indeed.”
She patted Teal’c on the arm and stepped out of the brush, onto the edge of the clearing. The whole situation was starting to make her uneasy. The birds were more like dinosaurs than birds, she thought as she crept closer with raised hands. She would never tell anyone this, but Jurassic Park had really freaked her out, and now she felt more like she was in that movie than in a Hitchcock one. It did nothing for her confidence. If she had had any sweat left, she would probably be doing so profusely.
Now that she had a more unobstructed view, Sam saw the creatures were much more massive than she’d thought. They towered over her. They’d tower over Teal’c, she thought. They didn’t move, but she felt countless sets of eyes watching her every move. The tension in the air was tangible. She felt like she needed to walk on eggshells. The dirt crunched beneath her feet. She glanced down. The ground was littered with thin, jagged pieces that were stark white against the dark earth. She was walking on eggshells.
A lot of eggshells. She narrowed her eyes and looked back up. The creatures looked more intense and menacing than ever, pulling themselves up even taller. She was close enough to see intelligence in their eyes, but doubted they were going to speak in any language she’d understand. An ornithologist might, maybe. Or Daniel, somehow, for all she knew. She was not confident about this on any front and, coupled with the very intimidating looming, she nearly decided to retreat.
“Hello,” she said instead.
One of the creatures squawked, but that was it. No aggressive moves followed, though it did look slowly down to the scavenged packs and then back up to her. It was a dare, Sam thought, amazed at how much communication was nonverbal. The thing she didn’t know was if she was interpreting things correctly. There might not be any intent behind the gesture at all. She doubted that.
“So, ah, it looks like you have something we want.” Sam’s mouth was dry and she was so close to the water. “Need. You have something we need. I also need to know what it’s going to take to get it.”
She felt foolish. She made herself take another small step forward, wincing at the loud crackle of eggshells beneath her feet. Sam looked down at the ground again, noticing the number of remnants increased closer to the water’s edge. She frowned and glanced toward Teal’c.
“Something’s not right.”
Yeah, so that was beyond obvious. Teal’c nodded at her. Sam moved another shuffling step. It proved to be the proverbial line in the sand, and the creatures were raucous with disapproval. Harsh cries filled the night air, with an undertone of wings being flapped and jaws snapping. There was no almost about it this time – she turned and hurried back to the bare amount of cover the bushes provided.
“What the hell,” Sam muttered, snatching her weapon back from Teal’c. “If they’re angry, why aren’t they attacking?”
“Perhaps they strive for peaceful means of resolution.”
“But we’re not fighting them.”
“It is something else,” Teal’c said.
Teal’c knew what that something was, Sam could hear it in his voice. She tipped her head toward him and widened her eyes. In answer, he pointed. She followed his mark, and understood what he meant immediately.
~~*~~
“So, Carter and Teal’c should be back by morning with water,” Jack said. Wheezed, really. “It won’t be long.”
This sucked. For all his linguistic skill and knowledge, Daniel couldn’t think of a phrase more appropriate to the situation than that. From his vantage point, the world consisted of drab BDU olive and black, with tiny glimpses of strange colored sand. He was less concerned with Teal’c and Sam’s arrival than with when he could be put down. Being carried around like a sack of potatoes was humiliating, and he was no lightweight. He had so hoped the lack of feeling in his legs was a temporary thing, a result of cold as Jack had suggested. The upper half of his body was cold. The lower half, it was just dead and heavy. He tried to keep his arms and torso tensed, for what little aid that would give Jack.
“Good,” Daniel said.
Jack stopped staggering at last, but for some reason Daniel thought they were still moving. There was slight warmth coming from his left. Fire? He moved his head to try to look but that only caused Jack to stagger some more.
“I should have dragged you like I did before,” Jack said.
“You dragged me?” Daniel said, then considered for a moment. “That might have been easier.”
“Yeah.”
Jack seemed to be barely hanging onto his balance. The swaying increased and Jack took a sliding step away from the smoldering fire. Daniel noticed right away how much warmth the embers were putting out when he was no longer so near to it.
“Okay,” Jack said, starting to ease him down.
Ease turned into awkward grope and drop. Daniel tried to withhold a groan of his own, but Jack probably wouldn’t have heard it anyway. They both sounded like a couple of dying bagpipes for a second, and then Daniel was sprawled on his back with a fabulous view of the night sky. He started to shiver immediately, the dampness bleeding away any of the body heat he and Jack had shared, turning into chill. He wondered if his leg were as cold as the rest of him. Probably didn’t matter so much. It only made him refocus on that alarming new disability.
“Hey, sorry for the rough landing. You okay?”
Not so much. Daniel squinted at Jack, and knew right away Jack already knew the truth. He decided it was better not to openly acknowledge what was a useless-legged elephant on the beach anyway.
“Yeah, you?”
“Tired.”
“I’ll bet,” Daniel said. He shivered some more, struck by memories of being too hot. Of the extremes, it was difficult to tell which was worse. “You don’t happen to have a jacket or vest handy, do you?”
“Damn, it is cold.”
“Yes, it is.” His teeth might have actually chattered, one more thing to be embarrassed about. Only there was no shame in being cold, so that didn’t make much sense. “Very.”
“I left my vest by the water. Be right back.”
Jack got up and walked away from him. Daniel managed to turn his head to the side, twisting twisted his neck a little to see the pitiful excuse of a fire. He also saw a sturdy stick lying next to it, a tool to stir it up. He was so cold it seemed a good idea to try to wiggle over to see if he could get the embers to spark a bit more. He did get a hold on the stick, but maneuvering it around the fire, which was further away than he’d thought, proved to be beyond his capability.
Daniel gave up, tossing the stick down. The shivers continued to increase. He stared up at the mandarin-orange moon, trying to sort out the information Jack had shared and trying not to think about how thirsty and cold he was. He closed his eyes, exhausted despite having been (apparently) unconscious for a good long while. The moon’s rays were bright enough to color his vision even with eyes shut, as if painting the backs of his eyelids. So he noticed when a dark shadow passed over him. The thing was, he should have noticed more than that. Way more. Like the gigantic thing on top of him.
“Oh, Jack?” he said.
No sound was actually produced in the effort to speak, which he figured was more a good thing than not. There was no telling what effect that would have had on the creature sitting on his legs. Daniel had thought Jack was exaggerating about the size and description, but he was a believer now. It had the wings of a bird and the jaws … beak? … of a dinosaur. Maybe it was his hazy vision, but he didn’t think it was really a bird at all. He crazily hoped that the creature was light like most birds were, though, because even if he couldn’t feel his legs, they could still get damaged.
“Shit,” he heard Jack say, still far away, close to the water.
No kidding, Daniel agreed in his head. He was right there with that sentiment. Any movement he made could cause the creature to attack, though it hadn’t exhibited anything more aggressive than landing on him in the first place. He lifted his head and glanced down, checking on the size of the talons and whether they were digging into his legs. He couldn’t really tell.
“Jack,” he repeated, and this time his voice worked. “Would you mind coming here, please?”
The creature bird thing leaned closer. Daniel put his head back down. It wasn’t likely he could look any more defenseless than he actually was. For several seconds, he felt as if he was having an involuntary staring contest. A bird its size would have a brain about the size of a softball with the functional level of a golf ball-sized, yet Daniel read acute intelligence in the yellow eyes gazing at him. It was checking him out for something. He hoped it wasn’t thinking about making him dinner, or a midnight snack. He swallowed, his mouth even more dry than it had been a second ago.
“They got most of our other st – whoa,” Jack said.
Grains of sand hit his face and arms as Jack skidded to a stop, back from the beach at last. Daniel broke from the staring contest to look at Jack, who raised his arms up like he was going to engage in a boxing match with a creature way, way, way bigger than him. He didn’t move, but then he didn’t have to. The bird took off, jostling Daniel slightly. He was hit with a surge of adrenaline prickliness and heat, but then he immediately got the goosebumps.
“Damnit.”
Jack knelt over him, first doing a visual check before patting down his legs. Apparently the search didn’t yield bad news, as Jack leaned back with a long breath after only a minute. Not much they could have done if the bird had somehow inflicted damage, anyway, not without their gear. Daniel started breathing quickly, and shivering again.
“You know what you said about things not going well?” Jack said. “Understatement.”
“I’m getting that.” His teeth chattered. He took several deep breaths, trying very hard to calm himself down and be rational. “And those things are big.”
“You think?”
“Very, very big,” Daniel said. “I assume I’m okay?”
“That thing might have left bruises, but its claws didn’t break through the cloth.” Jack gave him a half-hearted smile, turning is attention to the fire then. “They got everything else. Most of everything else, I mean. They let us keep this.”
‘This’ was a sandy, wet lump of cloth. Daniel squinted at it just to make sure he was seeing it right, as Jack was holding it like it was important.
“Okay,” he said, “Well, that was nice of them.”
Not really, of course. Daniel was very aware that their only means to contact Sam and Teal’c was now gone. He didn’t doubt they’d deliver the water as they said they would, but he couldn’t help but be worried. There was no telling what was going on with them; if the birds had left both he and Jack as crippled as Daniel actually was, they could be doing the same thing to the others right now. If it hadn’t already happened. He envisioned Jack severing radio contact to take care of him, kind of a ‘don’t call me, I’ll call you’ kind of thing.
“Very sweet, yes,” Jack said.
The fire popped once. Finally, Daniel started to feel its warmth increase. He watched Jack make several furtive glances out into the dark foliage. He was probably considering going for more wood, and then reconsidering because of him.
“We’re sitting ducks out here. More than we were already.”
“It didn’t hurt me, Jack, and it could have.” Easily. He shuddered again. He hoped Jack hadn’t seen him. It didn’t look like Jack needed the extra guilt. “There has to be a reason it didn’t. There has to be a reason there was only one of them.”
Jack looked like he wanted to argue but couldn’t come up with anything to say. Daniel didn’t blame him. He felt a little lucky to have been out of it for so long – he didn’t like feeling like he wasn’t in control any more than Jack didn’t. The muscles he could feel shook with exhaustion, and he immediately reneged on that thought. He wasn’t so lucky at all.
“Maybe. I don’t know.”
“You should get more stuff to burn. I’ll be fine here. That’s what I meant to say.”
“Oh.”
The truth was, and he’d never admit it, Daniel didn’t exactly relish the idea of being left alone and defenseless, even for a few minutes. He was well aware that just because it had worked out one time that another time would mirror that experience. He could still feel those cold, intelligent eyes boring into him.
“I’ll be quick.”
“Do,” Daniel said, a little too hurriedly.
Jack nodded once before he took off again. Daniel soon heard the rustle and snap of branches. He took comfort in the sounds and focused his ears on them while he focused his eyes on the huge moon. The shelter he was partially under was starting to obscure the view, so he nudged himself out from under it and closer to the fire. He was still cool. His legs dragged woodenly. He pounded a fist against his left thigh, hoping to feel it, or just lashing out in frustration. He wished he knew why he was stuck like this.
His thought process skittered and derailed when, out of the sky, something heavy and wet landed on his chest. The fire sizzled. Daniel cried out in surprise. He drew in panicky breaths again, something happening way too regularly. He hated panic. He heard the flap of wings and saw a large shadow overhead, but was too busy trying to assess his own chest to pay attention to that particular danger.
“Daniel?” Jack called, and Daniel became aware of more sounds – Jack crashing through the underbrush the most welcome of those. “You okay?”
There was nothing on him. The heaviness was gone, leaving only a wet stain that replaced the one that had barely begun to dry. Daniel was confused. He jumped as a strange-looking bundle landed next to him, with a loud plopping sound. He blinked a couple of times, not sure he could believe what he was seeing. He squinted and frowned, and then remembered Jack had asked him a question.
“I’m okay.”
“Holy cow.”
They were being dive-bombed, that was all Daniel could think. It was better than being shat upon, which is what the wetness on his chest reminded him of. Daniel squirmed a little. Maybe he had been shat upon. No, there it was. Thank goodness. He didn’t need another bad thing to happen to him. But then just as quickly as the attack had begun, it was over. Not really dive-bombing, he corrected. Only one thing had landed, the rest was just fallout.
“What was that all about?” Jack said.
Daniel looked up at him.
“I just can’t leave you alone for a second, can I?”
“Apparently not,” Daniel said with a nervous chuckle. “What lan … something landed on me.”
“Lucky for you this didn’t.” Jack picked up Teal’c’s canteen. There was no stopper on it, so when Jack jiggled it a little, something sloshed out. “I think they gave us…”
“Water.” Daniel felt his T-shirt. It wasn’t sticky. It wasn’t smelly. It wasn’t shit. “They gave us water?”
“That makes no sense.”
“Who cares?” Daniel thought he would cry if only he had the tears. He didn’t want to think about whys and hows just this once. “Do you think it’s safe?”
“We don’t have much other choice right now,” Jack said, shrugging. “Dehydration now versus massive amounts of antibiotics later; seems like a pretty even trade.”
In reality, they could probably get by for another day or so without water if they had to. But they didn’t have to. Thank goodness.
“Give,” Daniel said. He could taste it already. “I don’t care how many needles Doctor Fraiser sticks in me when we get back.”
“Don’t worry, I won’t tell her you said that.”
Jack held up a hand when Daniel beckoned for the water. Of course. Team leader first, to test for ill effects. Daniel watched Jack tip the water to his lips and take a swallow. Now that it was so close, he didn’t know if he could stand it for another minute. They both sat silently, though, waiting for something to happen. Nothing did.
“It tastes all right, at least,” Jack said. “Here, lean up.”
He propped himself on one elbow and took the canteen. Jack made to give him help, but he waved his hand. Even weak and shaky, Daniel thought himself quite capable of drinking on his own. Mostly. Water dribbled down his chin and neck. He didn’t really care. He did care when Jack pulled the canteen away from him very easily.
“I know you’re thirsty, but this is all we have and you need to take it slow.”
Jack was right, of course. Daniel pouted anyway. Just the little bit he’d managed before being cut off helped with the desert feel in his mouth. It might be better to limit the intake of untreated water from a strange planet anyway.
“Okay,” he said, then yawned.
“You should get some rest.” Jack put a hand to his forehead, then his left cheek. “You’re getting warm again, I think.”
“What about you?”
“I’ll rest when we get home, Daniel,” Jack said, poking the fire with a large stick. “But for now, I need to keep an eye out for Carter and Teal’c.”
And guard against those big things. Daniel felt like an idiot, but he didn’t know what to call them even in his head. He wondered if Jack had a plan in case the creatures came back, with less than generous intent.
“Do you think they’re okay?”
He didn’t know what he had expected as an answer to that. Some kind of affirmation, he supposed. All Daniel got out of Jack was a shrug and a glance, both imparted as his eyelids were closing and he was falling into sleep.
to chapter five
Author:
superbadgirlCategory: H/C with a Daniel slant, Team
Season/Spoiler: Very early S2
Rating: R
Word Count: 4,949 this chapter, 44,850 total
Summary: Communicating with alien life forms can be such a challenge.
A/N: Here's where I get nervous.
It Is Not Far couldn’t have the same definition for Teal’c as it had for her. Sam should have figured that when she couldn’t hear the water he claimed was close, but she hadn’t and so there she was, three miles and sixty minutes later, still tromping through dense shrubbery. She was afraid she still didn’t hear any water. She was hot, thirsty and getting weaker by the minute.
Sam brushed a clump of bangs off her forehead and stared up at the moon. The transition between dusk and night had happened very quickly. Unlike the first sun setting without them even noticing, the second fairly dropped below the horizon. They were really lucky the moon was large and luminous. It was a small comfort, for as difficult as it had been to traverse through thick foliage in daylight, it was tenfold that doing it under the faint orange tint of the moon’s glow.
“Are we there yet?” she said, not meaning to sound petulant and whiny but managing just the same.
“We are not.”
Damn. She knew what the answer was going to be before Teal’c responded, but it still sucked to hear. Sam needed water so much her mouth felt thick, her tongue about twice its natural size. She considered the leaves of the trees – not for the first time – and wondered if they held any moisture. She wasn’t above stuffing a couple in her mouth and munching away like a koala with eucalyptus.
“Yeah, I figured,” Sam said.
To tell the truth, she probably wouldn’t have noticed how long their journey was taking if Teal’c were more verbose. She knew refraining from speech helped maintain some small amount of moisture, and she didn’t like constant chatter any more than the colonel did, but she really thought Teal’c should know sometimes a response could be more than three words long. The colonel would know how to deal with Teal’c’s reticence. The colonel…
“Do you think the colonel and Daniel are okay?” Sam said.
“There is no way to be certain, but I have confidence.”
There was a way to be certain, though. Her hand had gone to her radio no less than five times in the past hour, always prevented from calling out by the colonel’s “Do it, Carter” and “O’Neill out” playing in her head. She had to believe her commanding officer would raise them if and when he was ready, and any distraction from their end wouldn’t be well received. The temptation was still ever present, though, and was another unsubtle form of torture. It was almost as bad as battling clinging vines. In the dark.
“I’ll just borrow some of that confidence from you, if you don’t mind.”
Sam shook her head. The real reason she’d love more conversation with Teal’c is so that her thoughts wouldn’t wander onto things she had no control over. Ironically, she seemed to have no control over that, either, so she concentrated on the task at hand. Thank goodness Teal’c was doing most of the work clearing a path. The guy was a machine, but even he was slowing down. She chewed her lip for a second, which proved a very bad idea. Her vest contained lip balm, of course. It just didn’t do a whole lot to help.
“Are we there yet?”
“No.”
She actually had no idea why she was pulling the adolescent whining routine. Spending nearly every minute of her life with SG-1 was in some way taking a toll on her if the colonel was rubbing off so much. Maybe if … when they got back home, she’d have to work on getting a social life. Maybe.
“Are you sure we’re not there yet?”
“No.”
“Shoot. Wait, does no mean you’re not sure, so we’re close?”
“We are here.”
Huh. Sam thought she should be able to hear the water by now. There was still absolute stillness beyond their own rustling through the greenery. She gave Teal’c a quizzical frown and noticed she could see his face more clearly than she had since moonrise. She glanced up. The canopy above was thinner. She could see a spot not more than fifty feet away where there was a significant break.
“Thank goodness.”
The foliage wasn’t nearly as substantial here either, of course. Teal’c moved easily, and Sam swore he looked relieved. She could smell the water in the air now, along with something she couldn’t quite pinpoint. If she had any saliva left, she would have drooled from the mere proximity of liquid. Gross. She closed her eyes, a stupid move.
“Oof,” she said as ran smack into Teal’c’s back. Whoa, his glutes felt as impressive as they looked. There was something wrong with her. Why she chose now, in this place, to start obsessing about her teammates’ good looks was beyond her. She blushed, the tips of her ears getting really warm. It was the heat and the worry. “Oops, sorry.”
Teal’c held up a hand, not speaking.
Sam frowned and started to brush by him, stopped when the raised hand reached down and latched onto her forearm. Her frown deepened, but he continued his silence, tipping his head toward the water. She looked, already knowing what to expect. Water. That’s exactly what she got – a small pool of water, surface still and reflecting the orange of the moon. It was quite beautiful, and no reason to freeze in her tracks. She started looking back to Teal’c when she saw it and holy crap.
“Whoa, how many of them do you think there are?”
Their camouflage was amazing. Sam had never not-seen anything like it. Surrounding the entire boundary of the lake were vast numbers of the birds they had seen earlier. It seemed like the watering hole was the nocturnal resting place for every single creature on the planet, or at least the immediate area surrounding the Stargate. All of them stood with their backs to the water, looking almost like sentries. The only thing they could be guarding against was SG-1.
“I have counted eighty-three. I do not believe it necessary to continue,” Teal’c said quietly.
There were more in the trees, Sam realized, lining branch after branch. She had to admit it was a little creepy, like they had suddenly joined a Hitchcock movie in progress. She kept a wary eye on the birds, and she swore at least fifty of them looked directly at her.
“I think our job just got a bit more complicated.”
“You do not exaggerate.”
She and Teal’c couldn’t just go in with guns blazing. For one thing, the birds hadn’t done anything to provoke such violence and, for another, they looked very powerful creatures. Well, those things, plus there was a distinct disadvantage in number. They’d be overpowered in less than a minute, weapons or no weapons; it would probably happen in less than ten seconds.
“Any ideas?”
“Not at the moment.”
“Maybe we could just ask them nicely.”
Assuming they understood English. Non-English communication was Daniel’s forte, not hers. Daniel. They didn’t have time to mess around with a bunch of birds. Sam didn’t even want to think about how the sheer number of them could contaminate the water beyond human use and what they might have already done in the water. It was a small comfort to note none of them were actually in the lake now. With a dearth of other options, Sam decided it couldn’t hurt to try the hands in the air, peaceful travelers bit. She started easing past Teal’c.
She stopped when several more of the birds swooped down, seemingly from nowhere, bearing large bundles in their massive talons. She watched them drop their loads, then land in the only open space along the shoreline. It didn’t take long to discern the shapes.
“Oh, no.”
She thought she understood part of the reason for the colonel’s earlier aggravation. At least she hoped the fact that the birds had managed to snag two SGC regulation daypacks and two vests, complete with radios, was the reason. Anything more extreme than thievery was not something she wanted to think about, and now had no means to learn. Oh, she thought dully, there was the colonel’s MP-5 as well. The colonel was not careless with his weapon.
“It would seem we have underestimated the life on this planet.”
As in, they’d not even considered it a threat, which was the only way Sam knew how to interpret the overture that had just been displayed – a threat. The birds had just let them know that they had the colonel and Daniel targeted as tools to use to their advantage – whatever that might mean – in what was looking to be a standoff. One misstep on her and Teal’c’s part could have the birds sending a flock of them back to their defenseless teammates.
It bothered her a great deal that they hadn’t heard gunfire or anything. They weren’t so far away that they wouldn’t have, and the colonel wouldn’t have just let their scant remaining equipment be taken without some type of fight. Sam’s mind raced with the implications, and worry for both his and Daniel’s condition.
“Oh, I’d say so,” Sam said. She retreated a step. “Got any ideas yet?”
“No.”
Crap, they were at such a disadvantage. The birds had apparently been gathering enough intel on SG-1 to determine they needed to protect the fresh water source, and what Sam really wanted to do was hike it back to the colonel and Daniel. She just didn’t know if they had the time to do it or, worse, if the situation was so bad it wasn’t as vital anymore. That meant only one thing to her, and it wasn’t something she should be thinking about. She needed to stay focused on the situation at hand.
“We’re clearly outnumbered. Even with firepower, we’d be overrun in short order,” Sam said. “Looking for a gap in their lines is out, because we can see there is no gap.”
“Indeed.”
Big help from the warrior. Sam clenched her jaw. She was starting to think the only real option they had was the one she had almost tried. As long as they weren’t aggressive, things couldn’t get worse. She hoped this was all a big misunderstanding, though she admitted she couldn’t fathom how it had happened. Nothing SG-1 had done since arriving here could be construed as hostile. All they had done was dig a hole in the sand, which wasn’t a capital offense. Unless it was for some crazy reason.
“Hold my weapon while I go try to talk to them.”
“Do you believe that wise, Captain Carter?” Teal’c said. Nonetheless, he took her MP-5 once Sam lifted it from around her shoulder.
No, no she didn’t.
“I don’t like it, but I know you’ve got my back.”
“I do indeed.”
She patted Teal’c on the arm and stepped out of the brush, onto the edge of the clearing. The whole situation was starting to make her uneasy. The birds were more like dinosaurs than birds, she thought as she crept closer with raised hands. She would never tell anyone this, but Jurassic Park had really freaked her out, and now she felt more like she was in that movie than in a Hitchcock one. It did nothing for her confidence. If she had had any sweat left, she would probably be doing so profusely.
Now that she had a more unobstructed view, Sam saw the creatures were much more massive than she’d thought. They towered over her. They’d tower over Teal’c, she thought. They didn’t move, but she felt countless sets of eyes watching her every move. The tension in the air was tangible. She felt like she needed to walk on eggshells. The dirt crunched beneath her feet. She glanced down. The ground was littered with thin, jagged pieces that were stark white against the dark earth. She was walking on eggshells.
A lot of eggshells. She narrowed her eyes and looked back up. The creatures looked more intense and menacing than ever, pulling themselves up even taller. She was close enough to see intelligence in their eyes, but doubted they were going to speak in any language she’d understand. An ornithologist might, maybe. Or Daniel, somehow, for all she knew. She was not confident about this on any front and, coupled with the very intimidating looming, she nearly decided to retreat.
“Hello,” she said instead.
One of the creatures squawked, but that was it. No aggressive moves followed, though it did look slowly down to the scavenged packs and then back up to her. It was a dare, Sam thought, amazed at how much communication was nonverbal. The thing she didn’t know was if she was interpreting things correctly. There might not be any intent behind the gesture at all. She doubted that.
“So, ah, it looks like you have something we want.” Sam’s mouth was dry and she was so close to the water. “Need. You have something we need. I also need to know what it’s going to take to get it.”
She felt foolish. She made herself take another small step forward, wincing at the loud crackle of eggshells beneath her feet. Sam looked down at the ground again, noticing the number of remnants increased closer to the water’s edge. She frowned and glanced toward Teal’c.
“Something’s not right.”
Yeah, so that was beyond obvious. Teal’c nodded at her. Sam moved another shuffling step. It proved to be the proverbial line in the sand, and the creatures were raucous with disapproval. Harsh cries filled the night air, with an undertone of wings being flapped and jaws snapping. There was no almost about it this time – she turned and hurried back to the bare amount of cover the bushes provided.
“What the hell,” Sam muttered, snatching her weapon back from Teal’c. “If they’re angry, why aren’t they attacking?”
“Perhaps they strive for peaceful means of resolution.”
“But we’re not fighting them.”
“It is something else,” Teal’c said.
Teal’c knew what that something was, Sam could hear it in his voice. She tipped her head toward him and widened her eyes. In answer, he pointed. She followed his mark, and understood what he meant immediately.
~~*~~
“So, Carter and Teal’c should be back by morning with water,” Jack said. Wheezed, really. “It won’t be long.”
This sucked. For all his linguistic skill and knowledge, Daniel couldn’t think of a phrase more appropriate to the situation than that. From his vantage point, the world consisted of drab BDU olive and black, with tiny glimpses of strange colored sand. He was less concerned with Teal’c and Sam’s arrival than with when he could be put down. Being carried around like a sack of potatoes was humiliating, and he was no lightweight. He had so hoped the lack of feeling in his legs was a temporary thing, a result of cold as Jack had suggested. The upper half of his body was cold. The lower half, it was just dead and heavy. He tried to keep his arms and torso tensed, for what little aid that would give Jack.
“Good,” Daniel said.
Jack stopped staggering at last, but for some reason Daniel thought they were still moving. There was slight warmth coming from his left. Fire? He moved his head to try to look but that only caused Jack to stagger some more.
“I should have dragged you like I did before,” Jack said.
“You dragged me?” Daniel said, then considered for a moment. “That might have been easier.”
“Yeah.”
Jack seemed to be barely hanging onto his balance. The swaying increased and Jack took a sliding step away from the smoldering fire. Daniel noticed right away how much warmth the embers were putting out when he was no longer so near to it.
“Okay,” Jack said, starting to ease him down.
Ease turned into awkward grope and drop. Daniel tried to withhold a groan of his own, but Jack probably wouldn’t have heard it anyway. They both sounded like a couple of dying bagpipes for a second, and then Daniel was sprawled on his back with a fabulous view of the night sky. He started to shiver immediately, the dampness bleeding away any of the body heat he and Jack had shared, turning into chill. He wondered if his leg were as cold as the rest of him. Probably didn’t matter so much. It only made him refocus on that alarming new disability.
“Hey, sorry for the rough landing. You okay?”
Not so much. Daniel squinted at Jack, and knew right away Jack already knew the truth. He decided it was better not to openly acknowledge what was a useless-legged elephant on the beach anyway.
“Yeah, you?”
“Tired.”
“I’ll bet,” Daniel said. He shivered some more, struck by memories of being too hot. Of the extremes, it was difficult to tell which was worse. “You don’t happen to have a jacket or vest handy, do you?”
“Damn, it is cold.”
“Yes, it is.” His teeth might have actually chattered, one more thing to be embarrassed about. Only there was no shame in being cold, so that didn’t make much sense. “Very.”
“I left my vest by the water. Be right back.”
Jack got up and walked away from him. Daniel managed to turn his head to the side, twisting twisted his neck a little to see the pitiful excuse of a fire. He also saw a sturdy stick lying next to it, a tool to stir it up. He was so cold it seemed a good idea to try to wiggle over to see if he could get the embers to spark a bit more. He did get a hold on the stick, but maneuvering it around the fire, which was further away than he’d thought, proved to be beyond his capability.
Daniel gave up, tossing the stick down. The shivers continued to increase. He stared up at the mandarin-orange moon, trying to sort out the information Jack had shared and trying not to think about how thirsty and cold he was. He closed his eyes, exhausted despite having been (apparently) unconscious for a good long while. The moon’s rays were bright enough to color his vision even with eyes shut, as if painting the backs of his eyelids. So he noticed when a dark shadow passed over him. The thing was, he should have noticed more than that. Way more. Like the gigantic thing on top of him.
“Oh, Jack?” he said.
No sound was actually produced in the effort to speak, which he figured was more a good thing than not. There was no telling what effect that would have had on the creature sitting on his legs. Daniel had thought Jack was exaggerating about the size and description, but he was a believer now. It had the wings of a bird and the jaws … beak? … of a dinosaur. Maybe it was his hazy vision, but he didn’t think it was really a bird at all. He crazily hoped that the creature was light like most birds were, though, because even if he couldn’t feel his legs, they could still get damaged.
“Shit,” he heard Jack say, still far away, close to the water.
No kidding, Daniel agreed in his head. He was right there with that sentiment. Any movement he made could cause the creature to attack, though it hadn’t exhibited anything more aggressive than landing on him in the first place. He lifted his head and glanced down, checking on the size of the talons and whether they were digging into his legs. He couldn’t really tell.
“Jack,” he repeated, and this time his voice worked. “Would you mind coming here, please?”
The creature bird thing leaned closer. Daniel put his head back down. It wasn’t likely he could look any more defenseless than he actually was. For several seconds, he felt as if he was having an involuntary staring contest. A bird its size would have a brain about the size of a softball with the functional level of a golf ball-sized, yet Daniel read acute intelligence in the yellow eyes gazing at him. It was checking him out for something. He hoped it wasn’t thinking about making him dinner, or a midnight snack. He swallowed, his mouth even more dry than it had been a second ago.
“They got most of our other st – whoa,” Jack said.
Grains of sand hit his face and arms as Jack skidded to a stop, back from the beach at last. Daniel broke from the staring contest to look at Jack, who raised his arms up like he was going to engage in a boxing match with a creature way, way, way bigger than him. He didn’t move, but then he didn’t have to. The bird took off, jostling Daniel slightly. He was hit with a surge of adrenaline prickliness and heat, but then he immediately got the goosebumps.
“Damnit.”
Jack knelt over him, first doing a visual check before patting down his legs. Apparently the search didn’t yield bad news, as Jack leaned back with a long breath after only a minute. Not much they could have done if the bird had somehow inflicted damage, anyway, not without their gear. Daniel started breathing quickly, and shivering again.
“You know what you said about things not going well?” Jack said. “Understatement.”
“I’m getting that.” His teeth chattered. He took several deep breaths, trying very hard to calm himself down and be rational. “And those things are big.”
“You think?”
“Very, very big,” Daniel said. “I assume I’m okay?”
“That thing might have left bruises, but its claws didn’t break through the cloth.” Jack gave him a half-hearted smile, turning is attention to the fire then. “They got everything else. Most of everything else, I mean. They let us keep this.”
‘This’ was a sandy, wet lump of cloth. Daniel squinted at it just to make sure he was seeing it right, as Jack was holding it like it was important.
“Okay,” he said, “Well, that was nice of them.”
Not really, of course. Daniel was very aware that their only means to contact Sam and Teal’c was now gone. He didn’t doubt they’d deliver the water as they said they would, but he couldn’t help but be worried. There was no telling what was going on with them; if the birds had left both he and Jack as crippled as Daniel actually was, they could be doing the same thing to the others right now. If it hadn’t already happened. He envisioned Jack severing radio contact to take care of him, kind of a ‘don’t call me, I’ll call you’ kind of thing.
“Very sweet, yes,” Jack said.
The fire popped once. Finally, Daniel started to feel its warmth increase. He watched Jack make several furtive glances out into the dark foliage. He was probably considering going for more wood, and then reconsidering because of him.
“We’re sitting ducks out here. More than we were already.”
“It didn’t hurt me, Jack, and it could have.” Easily. He shuddered again. He hoped Jack hadn’t seen him. It didn’t look like Jack needed the extra guilt. “There has to be a reason it didn’t. There has to be a reason there was only one of them.”
Jack looked like he wanted to argue but couldn’t come up with anything to say. Daniel didn’t blame him. He felt a little lucky to have been out of it for so long – he didn’t like feeling like he wasn’t in control any more than Jack didn’t. The muscles he could feel shook with exhaustion, and he immediately reneged on that thought. He wasn’t so lucky at all.
“Maybe. I don’t know.”
“You should get more stuff to burn. I’ll be fine here. That’s what I meant to say.”
“Oh.”
The truth was, and he’d never admit it, Daniel didn’t exactly relish the idea of being left alone and defenseless, even for a few minutes. He was well aware that just because it had worked out one time that another time would mirror that experience. He could still feel those cold, intelligent eyes boring into him.
“I’ll be quick.”
“Do,” Daniel said, a little too hurriedly.
Jack nodded once before he took off again. Daniel soon heard the rustle and snap of branches. He took comfort in the sounds and focused his ears on them while he focused his eyes on the huge moon. The shelter he was partially under was starting to obscure the view, so he nudged himself out from under it and closer to the fire. He was still cool. His legs dragged woodenly. He pounded a fist against his left thigh, hoping to feel it, or just lashing out in frustration. He wished he knew why he was stuck like this.
His thought process skittered and derailed when, out of the sky, something heavy and wet landed on his chest. The fire sizzled. Daniel cried out in surprise. He drew in panicky breaths again, something happening way too regularly. He hated panic. He heard the flap of wings and saw a large shadow overhead, but was too busy trying to assess his own chest to pay attention to that particular danger.
“Daniel?” Jack called, and Daniel became aware of more sounds – Jack crashing through the underbrush the most welcome of those. “You okay?”
There was nothing on him. The heaviness was gone, leaving only a wet stain that replaced the one that had barely begun to dry. Daniel was confused. He jumped as a strange-looking bundle landed next to him, with a loud plopping sound. He blinked a couple of times, not sure he could believe what he was seeing. He squinted and frowned, and then remembered Jack had asked him a question.
“I’m okay.”
“Holy cow.”
They were being dive-bombed, that was all Daniel could think. It was better than being shat upon, which is what the wetness on his chest reminded him of. Daniel squirmed a little. Maybe he had been shat upon. No, there it was. Thank goodness. He didn’t need another bad thing to happen to him. But then just as quickly as the attack had begun, it was over. Not really dive-bombing, he corrected. Only one thing had landed, the rest was just fallout.
“What was that all about?” Jack said.
Daniel looked up at him.
“I just can’t leave you alone for a second, can I?”
“Apparently not,” Daniel said with a nervous chuckle. “What lan … something landed on me.”
“Lucky for you this didn’t.” Jack picked up Teal’c’s canteen. There was no stopper on it, so when Jack jiggled it a little, something sloshed out. “I think they gave us…”
“Water.” Daniel felt his T-shirt. It wasn’t sticky. It wasn’t smelly. It wasn’t shit. “They gave us water?”
“That makes no sense.”
“Who cares?” Daniel thought he would cry if only he had the tears. He didn’t want to think about whys and hows just this once. “Do you think it’s safe?”
“We don’t have much other choice right now,” Jack said, shrugging. “Dehydration now versus massive amounts of antibiotics later; seems like a pretty even trade.”
In reality, they could probably get by for another day or so without water if they had to. But they didn’t have to. Thank goodness.
“Give,” Daniel said. He could taste it already. “I don’t care how many needles Doctor Fraiser sticks in me when we get back.”
“Don’t worry, I won’t tell her you said that.”
Jack held up a hand when Daniel beckoned for the water. Of course. Team leader first, to test for ill effects. Daniel watched Jack tip the water to his lips and take a swallow. Now that it was so close, he didn’t know if he could stand it for another minute. They both sat silently, though, waiting for something to happen. Nothing did.
“It tastes all right, at least,” Jack said. “Here, lean up.”
He propped himself on one elbow and took the canteen. Jack made to give him help, but he waved his hand. Even weak and shaky, Daniel thought himself quite capable of drinking on his own. Mostly. Water dribbled down his chin and neck. He didn’t really care. He did care when Jack pulled the canteen away from him very easily.
“I know you’re thirsty, but this is all we have and you need to take it slow.”
Jack was right, of course. Daniel pouted anyway. Just the little bit he’d managed before being cut off helped with the desert feel in his mouth. It might be better to limit the intake of untreated water from a strange planet anyway.
“Okay,” he said, then yawned.
“You should get some rest.” Jack put a hand to his forehead, then his left cheek. “You’re getting warm again, I think.”
“What about you?”
“I’ll rest when we get home, Daniel,” Jack said, poking the fire with a large stick. “But for now, I need to keep an eye out for Carter and Teal’c.”
And guard against those big things. Daniel felt like an idiot, but he didn’t know what to call them even in his head. He wondered if Jack had a plan in case the creatures came back, with less than generous intent.
“Do you think they’re okay?”
He didn’t know what he had expected as an answer to that. Some kind of affirmation, he supposed. All Daniel got out of Jack was a shrug and a glance, both imparted as his eyelids were closing and he was falling into sleep.
to chapter five
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
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Date: 2008-12-03 09:50 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-12-03 10:35 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-12-04 03:59 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-12-04 04:34 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-12-05 07:14 pm (UTC)I think I know where/when/how Daniel got sick, but I'm having a hard time figuring out why he can't feel his legs. I'm anxiously awaiting the answer to that. :D
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Date: 2008-12-05 11:42 pm (UTC)I hope my plotting doesn't disappoint!