DISCLAIMER: All publicly recognisable characters and property of Stargate SG-1 belong to MGM/UA, World Gekko Corp. and Double Secret Productions. This fan fiction was created solely for entertainment purposes and no money was made from it. Also, no copyright or trademark infringement was intended. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author. Any other characters, the storyline and the actual story are the property of the author. Not to be archived without permission of the author(s).
Chapter 35: Major Louis Ferretti
C'mon, guys...this is taking too long.
Skaara stands beside me; he feels it too.
The wormhole is destabilizing...a few more minutes and it'll be gone. They were nearly on the dais when I last saw them...Teal'c had them covered. What could've happened?
Well, duh, Ferretti...Heru'ur is what happened...
Somehow, someway, old baldy has done something to slow them down, but he was a good twenty yards off when I last saw him. How fast can snakes run anyway?
I look up toward the observation window. They're all up there, locked in some sort of frozen concentration on the Stargate like it holds the answers to all the mysteries of the universe. In a way I guess it does...our little piece of it anyway. Carter manages to break out of the spell, meeting my eyes with questions I don't need words to understand. I can only give her a helpless shrug. They should've been here by now. I would never have left them if I hadn't believed that. Carter nods, she understands that.
Not that it helps...
The tech starts counting down the seconds until the gate shuts down.
Ten damn seconds.
C'mon...
The event horizon flickers once. Twice.
I look at Skaara again, his eyes are bright as hope starts to die.
Dammit, we were so close.
I put a hand on his shoulder, thinking to get him away from here when a thud hits the ramp behind me. We turn around together to see the colonel and Daniel stumble to their knees a few feet out of the gate. Another flicker of the wormhole and Teal'c is there, staff in hand and a look of almost smugness on his face.
We all just stand there.
The colonel is sitting there on his knees, blood seeping down one shoulder from a staff wound while Daniel leans heavily on the other. The colonel just hangs onto him, finally looking up to see all of us staring at them.
The colonel grins and nudges Daniel who raises his head slowly, smiling.
"Think we could get a hand here guys?" The colonel's voice is soft, almost conversational. "We're just a little..."
As the colonel's voice trails off, Daniel fills in, "...tired. Actually we're very, very..."
Daniel slumps a little further against the colonel, who finishes the thought with, "...very tired."
*These guys ought to take this show on the road.*
The familiar interchange seems to pull us all out of the spell that's held us motionless for so long. Hammond starts yelling for medics and the well-oiled machine that is the SGC swings into action.
Fraiser is there beside Daniel...I never even saw her come in. The corpsmen are loading Daniel onto a gurney over his protests, Fraiser stops him cold with a bantam-weight finality I've never been able to argue with. Daniel tries but he's out before they even hit the corridor.
Teal'c has got the colonel to his feet so I go help just to have something useful to do.
As we head toward the infirmary I just have to ask, "So, guys, anything interesting happen on the way to the gate?"