Chapter Three
By noon the next day, the foursome made it to the site of the crash. The U.A.V. was spread over hundreds of meters and recovering the device was taking a long time. They were at the foot of a steep mountain, and some of the pieces were uphill, wedged among rocks and trees. They climbed slowly and carefully, retrieving every single piece until Sam was satisfied.
“Sir,” she called down to Jack, “I’m picking up an increase in energy readings. They come from uphill,” she pointed toward the middle of the rocky face, where they could see some caves almost completely covered by vegetation. “We should investigate. We’ve made it this far,” she suggested.
They were taking a breather, eating their lunch and drinking from their water bottles. The climb had been difficult and they were tired, but Jack agreed with Sam. They were too close to just ignore the phenomenon that they had initially sent the U.A.V. to investigate.
As soon as they were finished with lunch, they resumed their climb, leaving the large bag containing the U.A.V. to be picked up on their way back. Three hours later, they were facing a large, dark cave. “It almost looks artificial,” Jonas commented. “It’s… too round,” he added, gesturing with his hands in bafflement.
“I believe you are correct, Jonas Quinn. This cave is not natural,” Teal’c agreed.
“The energy readings are definitely coming from inside,” Sam informed Jack, looking at him for direction.
“Okay, campers. It looks like we’re spending the night, anyway, so let’s make camp here and we’ll investigate tomorrow morning. We won’t be able to spend too much time here, though. We’re due back the day after tomorrow and we have a long walk ahead of us.”
Jack noticed that Sam wanted to say something, probably try to convince him to start investigating right away, but she held her tongue and got busy setting camp. He dropped his backpack against the rock face at the entrance of the cave, wishing she had gone ahead and argued with him. Anything! Just to have her talk to him would have been nice.
Minutes later, the team had settled for the night unaware that She continued to watch them, patiently waiting for the right time to act.
*****
Something woke Sam in the middle of the night. It was Jonas’ watch, and he immediately looked at her, silently asking her if everything was all right.
She shook her head, trying to become fully awake and figure out what was bothering her. Then she realized that her whole body seemed charged with electricity. “Do you feel that?” she asked Jonas.
“What?” he asked quietly.
“Feels like electrostatic,” she answered just as quietly, trying not to wake the others.
“Now that you mention it, it does feel kind of weird!” Jonas replied softly.
Sam dug into her pack and retrieved the sensor, turning it on to catch some readings. Jonas came to sit next to her and look at the machine in her hands. As he sat down, he brushed her arm and they were both shocked painfully by a burst of electricity.
“OW!” they cried at the same time, making Jack and Teal’c opened their eyes. Both men were on their feet within fractions of a second.
*****
“What is it?” Jack demanded, his weapon already in his hands as he shook the remnants of sleep away.
“Nothing! Sorry, Sir! We just shocked each other, that’s all,” Sam apologized.
“What are you guys doing?” he asked, approaching them curiously. Jonas was just as bad as Daniel, always encouraging Sam.
“We’re taking some readings. They’re quite elevated, and the cave feels charged. Can’t you tell?” she asked as she pressed controls on the sensor. “They’re really high!”
“Okay, campers, time to get out of here.” Jack ordered as he started to pick up his roll immediately. He was getting that gut wrenching feeling that always warned him of impending danger.
“It would be dangerous to attempt to descend while it is still dark, O’Neill,” Teal’c observed. “This planet has no moons.”
“We’ll just put some distance between us and the cave. We can still come back up in the morning to investigate if Carter insists,” he explained.
Although she already looked almost ready to go, she argued, “I would really like to investigate now, Sir. Just a few minutes of readings should do it. It’s not like we’ll have any more light deeper into the cave in the morning. Maybe we can finish and get out of here by dawn and get completely away from the cave sooner.” She quickly finished packing as she continued to glance at him as if hoping for him to change his mind.
Jack hesitated, but finally agreed. “All right, just for a few minutes. I’d rather have the Science Team follow up on this. We don’t need to figure out all the answers. Our job is to do preliminary exploration on this one. Are your doohickeys working okay?” he asked.
“Strangely, they are. If they start to fail, we’ll just have to call it a mission and go back,” she answered.
“All right, since you have the sensor, you lead. Teal’c, watch our six,” Jack ordered as he turned on his flashlight and followed Sam into the cave, followed by Jonas and then the Jaffa.
They had walked for only twenty meters into the darkness when Sam suddenly disappeared, just as if she had stepped into nothingness.
“Carter!” Jack shouted, running to the spot a few feet ahead where she had disappeared and running smack into a wall.
“Sam!” Jonas called, leaning on the invisible wall, touching it tentatively as if trying to find an opening.
Jack started to pound on it, calling her name. Nothing happened. Sam was just gone.
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