MEMOIRS OF
BRIGADIER GENERAL JACK O’NEILL
(Retired)
Part IV
Chapter Two
By Arrietty
2005
The first thing I noticed as I stepped onto the new planet was the biting cold. It pulled the warmth out of your bones and crept right down into your lungs so it burned the soft tissue. I pulled the scarf up firmly over my mouth to protect my lungs so that they didn’t freeze. I quickly glanced over at Carter, remembering our time in the Antarctic. She nodded and I was sure she was smiling as her eyes crinkled around the edges. I quickly pulled out my dark snow goggles and I noticed the others followed suit. We didn’t want to suffer from snow blindness. The sky was a clear blue for as far as we could see. The weak yellow sunlight glinted off the pristine white snow and ice that completely covered the land.
Jacob quickly waved an arm in the direction behind the Stargate. “This way,” came a muffled order. How he knew the way, I couldn’t understand as there didn’t seem to be any landmarks anywhere. But apparently Selmac had been here many years ago and knew the lay of the land.
As soon as we left the steps my legs sank up to the knees in soft snow. This was going to be very hard going for everyone. Jacob took point, followed by Carter, me and Daniel, with Telcan bringing up the rear. Every so often, Daniel would fall against me as he lost his footing, so I would then promptly fall against Carter. After the third time we fell face down in the snow, I decided that enough was enough.
“Daniel, for crying out loud, watch where you put your feet!”
“It isn’t me; Telcan keeps pushing me along.”
I turned and glared at Telcan, which is rather hard to do while wearing goggles, but I think he got the point.
“I’ll watch your six,” I announced, and then physically pushed Telcan up to just behind Jacob.
I then realized why Telcan had pushed Daniel so much. The Tok’ra could move a lot faster than we could, and slowly the gap between the two Tok’ra and us Tau’ri increased in size. This was not good. We couldn’t be separated out here, and I had no idea where we were or where the Stargate was now. Somewhere behind me I suppose. Pulling the scarf away from my mouth, the sharp cold air tore down my throat into my lungs, making me gasp for air. Struggling against the cold, I quickly cupped my gloved hands around my mouth and called Jacob.
“Jacob!” He didn’t hear at first. “Telcan!” I yelled. He heard me; he twisted around taking a quick look before bounding forward towards Jacob. ‘Where did he get the energy from? Oh yeah, a snake in the head.’ Touching Jacob on the shoulder they stopped and waited for us to catch up. By the time we reached them I was really struggling to stop my lungs from hurting. Even though the scarf was back up covering my mouth, each indrawn breath seared my lungs.
“Sir, are you all right?”
I blearily looked up at Carter as she peered at me through her goggles.
I couldn’t speak very well, so I nodded and made the thumbs up sign.
While we trudged along, I noticed that the snow wasn’t as thick here, most probably because it was getting colder and was turning to ice.
~*~
The ground was solid ice now and very slippery underneath our boots. We didn’t have spikes so we slipped and slid over the smooth surface.
All energy seemed to have been leeched out of me by the cold and every breath that I drew in was like fire searing my lungs. I found I wanted to cough periodically and all that served to do was to make it worse. I found out that Jacob had called a halt to our procession when I slammed into Daniel’s back. I found it hard to open my eyes against the glare of the bright light. I had fallen to the hard ground and could feel the cold permeate through my clothes from the ice. I struggled to roll over and started to stand up, when I felt a strong hand on my arm guiding and pulling me up to stand. I blearily looked at my helper and all I could see was a fuzzy form. Then the words from Daniel penetrated through the thick fug of my brain.
“Jack, you okay?”
Nodding, I pulled out of his grasp and continued to walk, but was stopped by the same hand on my arm.
“Jack.”
Drawing in a deep breath, to give me added strength to pull from his grasp, made me fall onto my knees into a coughing fit. A familiar metallic taste filled my mouth. I felt Daniel quickly pull my scarf away from my mouth and bright red drops of blood spattered onto the pristine white snow.
“Sam!”
The pain in my lungs and my belly was increasing with every cough. The ground beneath me began to swim and sway and the top of my head seemed to separate from the rest. Though I couldn’t see, I felt and heard the thud as I fell, face down onto the hard icy ground.
~*~
It was dark and warm. I could feel a mask surrounding my mouth and nose, while I heard a faint hissing sound just beside my head. I could see a dim light in the distance and could hear whispering voices.
“Jacob?” My voice sounded so croaky and quiet. Trying again, I called out a little louder. “Daniel?”
I tried to sit up and remove the mask which was interfering with me calling out. Then it hit me – how someone can cough up blood and puke at the same time I have no idea, but I did. I drew in a breath, but no life giving oxygen came. I never thought I would go choking on my own blood and vomit, but it certainly looked like I was going to this time. As I struggled for breath, I heard pounding feet before strong hands grabbed my legs and body. Next the world swirled around as I found myself upside down over something firm and someone hitting me forcefully between my shoulder blades. Giving an almighty cough I then drew in a breath, hungrily extracting the much needed oxygen as it flowed through my sore lungs.
I felt my body floating through the air and resting down onto something soft. I could hear voices surrounding me, worried and reassuring voices; slowly I began to make out who was who.
“Daniel,” I croaked.
“Jack.”
“Colonel, you gave us quite a scare there.”
“Well it was no picnic for me either, Carter.”
Feeling a warm washcloth wiped over my face and neck, I quickly opened my eyes and stared straight into Teal’c’s.
“Hey, Teal’c. It is good to…cough…cough…see…cough-“
“O’Neill, you must not talk. Your body needs time to heal.”
I had stopped coughing and just rolled my eyes. No talking? When I had so much to ask my friend?
“Colonel Carter will explain our situation. I will return soon, O’Neill.”
He gave his usual polite nod and left the room.
Now that the coughing had stopped I took the time to look around my environment. The walls of the small infirmary were rough-hewn rock. There were five other beds apart from my own. Four of them were occupied with children; they too had masks and an adult sat beside each one. I noticed someone removing the soiled bed linen from the bed next to me. That must be where I was when I had the choking fit.
“Sir?”
I nodded to Carter to continue.
“I will return after Daniel has helped you get changed.” She gave a small worried smile and left the room.
Looking down at my hospital gown for want of a better word, I could see why I needed to change. ‘O’Neill you have certainly made a spectacle of yourself this time.’
~*~
I don’t know how long I had been sleeping, I still had no idea what was wrong with me, but I certainly felt less pain and could breathe more easily than before. I could hear someone snoring beside me; curious to see who it was I carefully opened one eye. I was still nervous that what had happened before would happen again. But no, no spinning room, no nausea, so I opened the other eye. It was Daniel sitting on a box leaning back against the rock wall, mouth wide open while snoring his head off. This time I didn’t remove my mask or talk, but reached out with my hand and pushed his knee that was balanced precariously on his other leg. It toppled with a thump.
“Wha…aaaat?”
Crooked glasses were hastily pushed back on his face and he suddenly stood up.
Oh this was going to be fun; Daniel hadn’t changed one little bit.
“Jack. You’re awake.”
‘No kidding, Daniel.’ I raised one eyebrow doing a perfect imitation of Teal’c.
“I’ll be right back, Jack.”
And he was gone.
I swiveled my head around to look at the other patients, only two of the beds were occupied now, one of them had the sheet pulled right up over his or her face. A woman was quietly sobbing beside the bed. All the previous levity that I had felt disappeared in a flash; this child had died. Why? I asked myself. It did not make any sense. Did I bring a contagion to this outpost?
“Colonel?”
Ah Carter. She would tell me what was happening.
“Hello. How are you? No don’t answer, you are not allowed to speak for a while.” She smiled and laid her hand on my arm. I nodded in return, assuring her that I would not speak.
I pointed to the woman grieving for her lost child.
“It is not your fault, Colonel, or should I call you General?” She smiled sadly.
I shook my head and frowned and pointed to the woman again.
“Yes, sir.”
She sat on the edge of the bed, still leaving her hand on my arm. This made me feel secure. Even though she was not my Sam, she still was my second in command, someone that I could rely on in any situation, even when this old combatant was feeling vulnerable.
“Apparently, on this planet the snow isn’t snow.” I couldn’t help raising my eyebrows at this.
“Well it is snow, but it has something else combined with it. Something you can’t inhale. Well you can, but if you do, you get very sick.”
Okay, so now I knew why I was sick, but why not Sam and Daniel. As though she could read my mind, she continued to explain.
“You must have breathed in the snowflakes when you were outside. Daniel and I never removed our scarves until we reached here. All Tok’ra and Jaffa are protected by their symbiotes which is why Dad and Telcan are okay.”
My eyes slid over to the still form in the bed.
Sam looked sad as her eyes followed the direction of mine.
“The children are not protected by symbiotes as they don’t have them yet. They are young and they don’t have the resilience that an adult has to fight this.”
A feeling of dread built up inside of me as I quickly looked at the other occupied bed.
“No, sir. She will be all right, not all the children die, only the very young and weak ones.”
I couldn’t work out why Teal’c and the other Jaffa could let their children go outside to suffer so. Once again as though she read my mind, Sam explained some more of what had happened.
“These children were found with their parents, lost on the planet. Baal banished them for not following his orders; also, I believe it is because they are running out of food. Baal must stay hidden, because if Anubis finds him, he will kill him.”
“Good.” I spoke, promptly regretting it as I went into another fit of coughing.
I felt a pin prick in my arm, then it went dark.
2025
“What?”
“Okay, I’m coming.”
“What’s for dinner? Pizza? I feel like pizza.”
“Oh dang, I forgot to switch off the computer, be right back.”
~*~
It is strange now; the Stargate is used as a form of travel to visit our allies and friends. No fighting, no intergalactic wars. There has been the odd skirmish, but nothing that we can’t handle. I still wonder if all those years and deaths were worth it though. I wonder what my life would have been like if not for the Stargate. Most probably pushing up daisies by now after what had happened to Charlie. No I don’t think I would like to have missed anything that happened. Oh, except maybe Baal, Kanan, Sam dying, Doc dying, green fuzzy fur balls… oh I could go on. In fact I will.
~*~
2006
It was amazing; once Jacob had used the healing device on me and they had pumped that magic oxygen into my damaged lungs I healed really quickly. Out of the four children that had been with me in the infirmary only one had died and I found out that he had been very sick before the snow had attacked his lungs. Jacob with his healing device had managed to heal the other children and myself.
There were forty-one adults and forty-five children hiding out in these caves, who were a mixture of Jaffa and Tok’ra. They had all tried to leave before, but the children being unable to go outside in the atmosphere had hindered their plans. But now they realized that if the children were properly protected against the snow, they could escape. The fact that both Carter and Daniel had arrived safely was testament to that fact. Now there were enough adults to help with the children, forty-six adults and only forty-four children.
I was still croaky and every so often I would have a fit of coughing, but nothing like before. I was regaining strength, but not fast enough. The frustration of having Baal only a six hours walk away and not being able to do anything about it was slowly driving me nuts. No one else seemed to feel the same way, even Teal’c had said that now was not the time. But then he hadn’t seen Sam’s dead staring eyes or been tortured and killed over and over again at Baal’s hand. The longer I stayed the more I wanted to get back to my own universe. At least there, Anubis was dead and Earth was safe.
I watched Carter as she worked with Jacob, they were an excellent team. The yearning in my heart for my Sam was not getting any weaker; in fact it had grown since I had come to this universe. Seeing Carter every day, but not being my Sam was painful and made my loss even more intense. I had seen and heard nothing of Pete, so I had no idea what had happened in this universe regarding Carter and Shanahan and in reality I didn’t want to know.
“O’Neill.”
Teal’c broke through my musing with his urgent voice.
“Yes, Teal’c”
“We have to leave, now. We have just received word that Baal has discovered our hiding place.”
Though I knew it was too soon for myself and the recovering children, I didn’t hesitate. Carter had made better masks for us to wear, ones that would really protect us from the elements. The fact that both Carter and Daniel had been kept safe from the cutting snow was just pure luck. If they had only removed their protection from their mouths even once, they would have suffered as I had.
Quickly I fitted the mask around my face and donned my warm clothing. Each adult, though not me, was responsible for a child. Much to my annoyance, Carter was in charge of me. Though if I collapsed I had no idea how she would be able to carry me.
We would need to move swiftly over the ice and snow to the Stargate if we were to beat Baal. We had since learned that he not only had dispatched Jaffa to our hiding place, but he was making his way to the Stargate.
As all well-trained Jaffa children are, they quickly fitted their masks on and dressed themselves in their warm clothing. Not a whimper or a complaint came from them. Even the two-year old little boy stood quietly as Daniel fastened the thick parka up his front. As I started to move around the busy people, I felt a hand push me in the chest.
“Carter?” My voice sounded muffled behind the mask, “What are you doing?”
“Sir, you need to sit and rest, conserve your strength. We will not be stopping along the way at all.”
I sat, feeling properly chastised and wondered what it would have been like if I hadn’t been Carter’s superior. Would she have ordered me around like that if we’d had a relationship? Closing my eyes to the distressing thought of Carter and me, I tried to think of happier times.
“Kree!”
Teal’c’s booming voice carried over the quiet chatter of people getting ready. Opening my eyes, I watched Teal’c; there was certainly no doubt about who was the leader of this group.
Everyone stopped what they were doing and listened. Carter wandered over to me, her charge. I couldn’t help glaring a little.
“Everyone here knows their duties. We are going to be moving fast, so please do not delay anyone. The Tau’ri will be up the front, as they will be going the slowest.” I bridled at the thought and could feel Carter stiffen beside me. ‘At least you aren’t treated like the children are, Carter.’
“Has everyone got their child?”
I watched in amazement as the adults bent down and each lifted a child into their arms. Daniel had the lightest child and everyone had a child to carry except Carter and myself. I could feel the humiliation emanating from Carter as we started to leave the security of the caves. All semblance of humiliation left both of us the minute we got outside as the cold air hit my lungs and I fell to my knees, gasping for breath.
Immediately, I felt Carter pull me up by my arm and she shouted to me through her mask, “You have to keep going, sir.”
I nodded, barely able to breathe let alone speak. With a brusque shove from Teal’c I found myself skidding along the ice on my feet, hanging onto Carter for balance. Oh this was going to be so much fun…NOT! I decided that I preferred the Teal’c in my own universe; he was a lot more forgiving than this one.
The next four hours was excruciating, it only took me half an hour to lose any strength that I had gained while recuperating in the caves. Through bleary vision I watched Daniel struggling through the snow, holding his precious bundle close to his body. They had strapped the smallest children into a harness that fitted around the adult. This was great, but I could see that Daniel was trying to keep the small body warm by holding him close. I wasn’t sure if Carter was holding me up or I was holding her up. Every so often I could hear a small cough come from her and her steps had started to falter.
I knew that we were holding the group up with our failing strength, but it was not from want of trying. To hamper us more, a blizzard had decided to pay us a visit. The razor sharp foreign substance that had cut my lungs was now cutting into our skin. I could see the exposed flesh on Carter was red from blood before turning pink as it froze on her skin. I quickly removed my gloves and felt over my face, just above my mask and under my goggles. I rubbed my warm finger over the skin, it felt like I was rubbing sandpaper over it. Then I pulled out the Earth scarf and wrapped it around that part of my face, hopefully stopping any further damage.
Carter watched what I was doing and pulled out her scarf. I rubbed over her face like I had done with mine; she pulled back with shock as my finger made the blood flow. When I had finished she quickly wrapped the scarf around the top of her face. It looked rather comical, not that I had time to enjoy the spectacle as Teal’c came up behind us both and shoved us along the ice again. This time, Carter went down with a thwack. And I lost it. Spinning around on one spot I faced Teal’c, “What is your problem, Teal’c? We are trying to go as fast as we can.”
He nodded, and then pulled back the blanket that covered the young child strapped to his chest. The white face almost blue under his mask was pinched with pain. The child’s eyes were screwed up tight against the cold. Teal’c quickly wrapped the blanket back over the child and walked off. I could see Rya’c trudging ahead with a child strapped to his chest, with Ishta bundled up walking beside him. Feeling humbled, I jerked my head in Teal’c’s direction to Carter. She nodded and we slogged on after him. These children did not have long; the cold was just too much for them to cope with. When the life of a child was in the balance I always seemed to find strength that I never thought I had.
~*~
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