A/N: Two updates in two days!
And its probably not my best work, but its one of those difficult
'transition chapters.' Thanks to all you who reviewed the last
chapter and gave me some food for thought.
And this is unbetaed, so as always feel free to tell me what I messed
up so i can fix it!
Of all the possibilities that flashed through Jack's mind as he waited for whoever had come through the door to find them, SG-10 was not one of them. He had been expecting something along the lines of enemy Jaffa or mechanical bugs. So the familiar sound of combat boots on the metal floor was a surprise, and Colonel Matthew Hunter's appearance around the table even more so.
But it was a good surprise, so he didn't dwell on it long when there was something more pressing demanding his attention. Carter had become suspiciously quiet in his arms. O'Neill laid her unconscious form on the floor to quickly check her breathing and pulse. Her breathing was labored and shallow and her pulse faint and fast, but it was something.
"The others?" Jack asked Hunter as he checked her vitals.
"I sent Richardson with Teal'c to get them," Hunter replied as he stripped off his jacket and gave to O'Neill to cover Sam. "We'll meet them on the ship."
Time was short so Jack wrapped the jacket around her without putting her arms in the sleeves, and then picked her up cradled in his arms. He would normally have put her over his shoulder so he had at least one hand free, but he knew the nanites were doing bad things internally. He feared the pressure on her abdomen would cause or worsen internal bleeding.
Lieutenants Andrews and Sofranko guarded the entrance and signaled when it was safe to move down the hall. Hunter took point, with Andrews on his six and O'Neill following with Carter in his arms. Sofranko brought up the rear as they made their way quickly through the halls. O'Neill could see they had fought hard to make it this far if the bodies in the halls were any sign. Staff blasts and bullet holes marred the walls and power sporadically been cut.
They were outside the nearest ring room when trouble caught up with them in the form of a team of Jaffa. The doors were jammed, which left them backed into a corner. Jack quickly deposited Sam out of the line of fire and caught a zat from Sofranko to join in their defense while Sofranko worked on the controls. He managed to get the doors open but couldn't guarantee his hotwired job would last.
"Go, now!" the lieutenant instructed and then followed, nearly getting his burly form caught in the doors. They quickly assembled themselves on the rings and Hunter signaled the waiting Tel'tak.
The male members of SG-10 had provided a distraction in the form of strategically planted C4—the explosion that Jack and Sam had felt rock the ship—while Teal'c and Captain Emma Richardson rescued the others. So when the rest ringed aboard the ship Teal'c was already at the helm.
"We've got them!" Daniel called from the cargo bay and Teal'c did whatever the Tel'tak version of "flooring it" is.
Unfortunately, the Ha'tak deployed a pair of death gliders when Teal'c had momentarily de-cloaked the Tel'tak so he and the first group of escapees could ring aboard it. He had re-cloaked and moved to avoid them, but they had been lying in wait for the second de-cloaking. One of the gliders got a lucky shot as they sped away.
"What the hell was that?" O'Neill yelled to Teal'c as he settled Sam on the floor next to where Janet sat against the wall, beckoning Richardson over to clean Sam up a bit under Janet's instruction. He made it Teal'c side at the helm just in time to feel the ship take another hit.
"It appears the gliders damaged our cloaking device," Teal'c explained as he maneuvered the damaged vessel. Despite his proficiency as a pilot the cargo ship was just not built for this kind of flying, and the gliders hit them again, and then again.
"Teal'c? What are you doing?" Jack asked as the view shifted and they began to descend towards the planet below.
"I will attempt to lose the gliders in the atmosphere of the planet below," he explained.
The atmosphere he spoke of swirled with dense clouds. They were dark, angry and inhospitable clouds that crackled with lightning as they descended towards them.
"The electrical activity should hide our presence." And it would have, if they had made it into the cloud cover before one of the gliders got in a final, decisive shot.
"I have no choice but to land," Teal'c warned. "Prepare yourselves for impact!"
"Impact?!" Jack questioned as he headed to the back to make sure everyone, especially those who weren't conscious at this point, was 'prepared.' "I thought we were 'landing'?"
"The landing will be rough, at best." Well, that didn't make Jack feel any better but there was nothing he could do about it now.
The two lieutenants positioned themselves around Jacob's unconscious form on the floor, keeping low to the ground so they didn't go flying or fall. Daniel sat with Janet in a similar crouched position, taking special care to protect her wounded leg. And as Colonel Hunter and Captain Richardson could see Jack had Sam taken care of they braced themselves as best they could. Jack pulled Sam into his arms and shielded her with is body from debris or supplies that weren't secured well enough to stay put through their crash landing.
The first touch of ground jarred the ship and shifted even the heaviest of crates. Suddenly under the influence of the planet's gravity the passengers were tossed to the side as the Tel'tak rolled slightly. What happened after that was a mystery to O'Neill as his head struck the bulkhead, and all went dark.
A/N: Anyone see that coming? I'd love to hear what everyone thinks should happen next. Suggestions? Comments? I'll take any feedback i can get!