Teal'c awoke to darkness and it took him several seconds to realise that he was in the back of the ship and the forward bulkhead was shut. He lay there for a second trying to recall exactly how he had ended up there. There had been some kind of malfunction and Colonel Carter had left her seat to try and effect repairs. Moving his head, Teal'c could see her limp form sprawled at the back of the cabin, blood staining her bright hair. Daniel Jackson was lying next to her, struggling to rise. 

Shaking off the disorientation, Teal'c felt his mind start to clear. Something had hit them causing the cabin to lose pressure and O'Neill had ordered them all aft whist he tried to control the ship's descent. He had been the one to shut the bulkhead and Teal'c could only conclude  that his friend was trapped in the front portion of the craft.

But Teal'c did not have the time to worry about his friend's whereabouts as his body suddenly seemed to register the fact that it was wet. The hull had been breached by the impact and water was swirling about his feet . Three of them were definitely alive.

Teal'c hauled Daniel Jackson up by pure brute force. The other man was looking about himself wildly, no doubt wondering if there were any place in the small compartment that O'Neill could have hidden.

"We must leave," Teal'c urged.

Together, the two of them staggered towards the rear doors, knowing once they were open the ship would sink like the proverbial stone. Teal'c slammed his hand down on the emergency release...

Nothing happened.

It had taken him many years but he was finally starting to understand the human term called irony.  The doors would not open and the one person who could effect a repair was currently unconcious. Ironic indeed.

"Sam, Sam... come on. You've got to help us out here."

Crouched down by his friend's side, Daniel Jackson was attempting to gain a response. Teal'c turned his attention back to the door controls. The facia was cracked and he wondered if it wasn't simply contact with water that had shorted out the controls. Pulling the rest of the cover off was a simple matter, but Teal'c found himself hesitating when faced with the maze of fibre optics within.  Ancient technology was sufficiently different from Goa'uld to cause him some confusion.  Although he could see the damaged area he was at a loss for a moment as to how to effect a repair.

"Anything I can do?" Daniel asked, temporarily abandoning his efforts to rouse Colonel Carter.

"You can not," Teal'c replied.

Reaching up, Teal'c ripped off the panel above his head, revealing several cables similar to those responsible for operating the door.  At that moment he didn't particularly care what damage he might be doing to the other systems. Stripping out some of the fibre optics, he set about replacing the damaged ones.

The water had now reached his ankles. Glancing over, Teal'c could see Daniel Jackson was holding Colonel Carter's head out of the water.

"Come on Sam," Daniel was whispering, "Give us some help here."

It was a sentiment that Teal'c agreed with. His fingers were more used to wielding a staff weapon than a screwdriver and this work required a certain amount of delicacy.  It wasn't long before he was sweating profusely, the moisture making his fingers slip on the delicate fibres.

"Is it my imagination or is it getting hot in here?" Daniel said.

Teal'c raised an eyebrow in reply. Humans often felt the need to state the obvious. The ship had no power, therefore the air recycling system had ceased to function. Water was flooding in the cracks in the hull. No air was getting in... no air was getting out.

Yes, the temperature was definitely rising, but Teal'c didn't find it necessary to comment on the matter.

And he suspected that he might have just irreparably damaged the system by ripping out the control fibres. If he didn't get the door open then they would probably suffocate before they drowned... which wasn't particularly reassuring. Given the choice, Teal'c would rather take a bullet to the head, however, he doubted that Daniel Jackson would appreciate the honour.

Teal'c's world had narrowed to the fibres in his hands. He tuned everything else out as, once again, he tried to make the connection.  Once more his fingers slipped.

"Do you want me to try?" Daniel asked

"No!" Teal'c replied.

Bracing his hands against the bulkhead, Teal'c took a deep breath as he tried to centre himself. Anger would not help. Carefully, he wiped his fingers on his T-shirt. He closed his eyes, trying to calm his mind and his body. He hoped that Daniel Jackson wouldn't chose this moment to make another pointless enquiry into his health.

But Daniel had chosen this moment to stop talking and start staring... which Teal'c found was just as annoying.  Yet the moment of distraction proved to be fortuitous. Whilst his attention was elsewhere, his fingers unwittingly made the connection and the rear doors opened. 

Blue skies, yellow sands, a gentle breeze...  Teal'c could see the beach and at any other time he would have thought himself in paradise.  Any time when he wasn't in a spacecraft that was rapidly sinking beneath the ocean. 

"What about Jack?" Daniel demanded, but both men knew, in their hearts that it was already too late for their friend.

"O'Neill!" Teal'c yelled, hoping for some response from the front of the ship, some sign that Jack O'Neill was alive.

There was nothing and they had no choice but to save themselves. As he plunged into the the water, Teal'c realised that the ship was more badly damaged than he'd realised, the entire front section was missing.

Between them, he and Daniel manoeuvred Colonel Carter's limp form out of the space craft.  The cold water shocked her back to some vague form of consciousness and she made some attempt to strike out away from the sinking craft but Teal'c could tell that she was not capable of making the long swim to the shore.  Ignoring her feeble protests he started to tow her in the direction of the beach.

He did not look back to see the ship sink beneath the waves.

***

A mouthful of sand and a blinding headache... it wasn't the most pleasant  awakening. The pain was enough to make Sam want to lie very very still, preferably whilst some cute doctor attended to her every whim. However, she had the feeling that the nearest doctor, cute or otherwise, was a very long way away.

The sun on her back was blazing hot and she could feel the prickle of sunburn on her exposed skin... both facts seemed to suggest that she had been lying there for quite some time, but she had no recollection of leaving the shuttle. Stifling a groan, Sam rolled onto her back and tried to gain some sense of the world she now found herself in.  As soon as she did so she became aware of someone crouching beside her, a gentle arm beneath her shoulders as a hand held a flask of water to her lips.

Sam recognised the touch... but it wasn't the one she hoped for.

She managed to choke some of the water down before she asked the question that was burning through her mind,

"Where's General O'Neill?"

Teal'c, like Daniel was hovering close by, blocking her view and Sam  had to stop herself pushing them out of the way. Surely O'Neill was close by? Maybe he'd just gone to check the perimeter?

"Sir?" she heard herself call.

What was the matter with her? She was shrieking like some untrained rookie. They could be anywhere... any when... who knew what was lurking in the bushes. She had to get a grip.

"Sam...," Daniel began, but she already realised that it was bad news. "We couldn't get him out."

Struggling to her feet, she staggered to the water's edge. Looking out across the ocean, Sam tried to judge where the shuttle had gone down, how deep the water was, how much air could have been trapped in the cabin ...  her mind trying to calculate a hundred different variables.

... trying to find a way that General O'Neill was still alive.

He must have remained conscious long enough to stop the ship burning up on re-entry and to set her down even if it had been on the water. There had to be a reason why he had shut them away in the back of the ship and knowing O'Neill it would have been for their own protection.

Sometimes... sometimes the man was a damn fool.

For a brief moment her eyes scanned the shoreline, but the only thing washed up on the beach was seaweed.

"We didn't have time," she heard Daniel say. "The ship was going down and we couldn't get the doors open. If there had been any sign..."

"I know Daniel... I know," Sam replied before she resolutely turned her back on the waves. 

"We should get off the beach," she said.

It wasn't much of a plan, but Daniel and Teal'c both followed as she started to walk. If nothing else they needed to find somewhere less exposed, food, a source of fresh water... and not necessarily in that order.

Sam had no idea what part of the Earth they had managed to crash on.  Everything had happened so fast that she doubted there had been much choice involved.  There wasn't much to see. The trees stopped where the sand started blocking much of the view inland.  Shading her eyes against the glare of the sun, Sam could see the outline of mountains rising above the forest. 

They could be anywhere. Hell they could walk around the corner and find themselves in a holiday resort... but somehow Sam didn't think so. This didn't feel like the Earth she knew. It wasn't a sensation that she could define, something about the quality of the silence that surrounded them was unnerving.

As she started to push her way through the trees she noticed that the vegetation too was... different. General O'Neill would have accused her of thinking too much.

She was already thinking of him in the past tense. Dead. Gone. Moved on.  There was something very wrong about that.  Her chest tightened and the breath caught her throat before she remembered exactly why she couldn't let herself feel anything at all. It was easier that way.

Walking helped, being able to concentrate on the physical need to put one foot in front of the other and keep pushing on until her body couldn't take any more. If she'd have been alone, she would have kept going until she fell into an exhausted sleep, but she'd figured without Daniel and Teal'c.  They both seemed to have been infected with some strange brand of chivalry and insisted on calling a halt when it got dark.

For half an hour she busied herself giving orders, Daniel was sent to get water, Teal'c to find wood for a fire. They were on Earth and Sam had to assume that at least some of the surrounding vegetation was edible.  There didn't seem to be any animal life... any animal worth catching and eating that was.  As a Sam watched a spider crawl across the ground she wondered if they wouldn't be reduced to eating bugs.

Sam wasn't inclined to sleep. Every time she closed her eyes all she could see was General O'Neill dying.

***

Daniel could have sworn that he hadn't shut his eyes and was surprised when he was woken from a deep sleep by the sound of something pushing it's way through the undergrowth.  A few years ago he might have been tempted to shout out, but time had taught him prudence. Like his companions, he found himself melting back into the undergrowth, waiting to see who was about to enter the clearing. 

He knew who he wanted it to be.

Even though the logical part of his brain realised that regrets were futile, Daniel couldn't help going through events in his mind. He wondered if there would ever be a way that he could totally convince himself that there had been not recourse but to leave Jack behind. Glancing across the clearing, he could just about make out Sam's blonde hair through the undergrowth. She, of all of them, could relax in the knowledge that she was innocent. But knowing Sam she wouldn't think that being unconscious was a good enough excuse.

Another rustle and Daniel found himself hard pressed to work out which direction the noise was coming from. This place was so quiet that sound could travel a fair distance. There was no reason to assume that whoever... or whatever it was was close by... that was until he saw the movement in the bushes. In that moment, Daniel realised that whatever was out there wasn't human.

Sam's gasp mirrored his own as they saw the creature for the first time.  He'd looked at blurry satellite photos from Area 51, but nothing had prepared him for seeing one in the flesh. Daniel couldn't help the uncharacteristic rush of hatred as he stared at the thing that had been responsible for destroying his world. Small consolation, but at least he knew that he'd been right to direct them here and maybe... just maybe, Jack's sacrifice hadn't been in vain.

It paused in the clearing, raising its head as it seemed to taste the air. Daniel knew without a doubt that it had caught their scent.   He tensed, expecting it to attack , to kill without mercy but to his surprise it started to back away.

It knew they were there, he was sure of that much even if he couldn't interpret its behaviour.  Daniel was well aware of the danger of anthropomorphising these creatures but he almost thought that it was scared of them.

Awkwardly it turned and started to move back into the undergrowth. Daniel almost wished that it had attacked. At least then they might have been able to kill the thing. If it was dead then he d know where it was. He didn't relish the though of going back to sleep knowing the creature was out there ...  maybe with its friends.

"I think we should get out of here," Sam said as they crept out of their hiding places.

Daniel couldn’t have agreed more. Without speaking, they gathered their paltry collection of belongings together and headed out of the clearing. Walking through the unfamiliar terrain had been hard enough whilst the Sun was up, now they couldn’t help but move slowly, alert for any sound.  This was the stuff of childhood nightmares; a boogeyman was hiding behind every tree.

They kept heading towards the mountains. Daniel knew that Sam wanted to get out of the forest and gain the advantage of higher ground. It was easier to fight if you could see the enemy coming. Even if they found a reasonably defensible position he couldn’t help worrying about what would happen next. Short term survival wasn’t a problem but in the long term... Dismissing the dark thoughts, Daniel tried to concentrate on following the others. They were alive, that was the important thing. While there’s life there’s hope, he told himself, smiling when he realized what Jack would have said of the cliché.

More of the creatures appeared with sunrise and it became difficult to make any kind of headway. The mountains seemed tantalizingly close but Daniel had done enough walking to realize that the distance was deceiving. By his estimation they had at least another day’s travelling. More, if they were forced to go into hiding every few minutes. He still found it difficult to believe that the creatures didn’t realize that they were there. Hungry, tired, their pace dropped even further but no one even considered stopping.

***

The flash was blinding. Jack threw his hands up to cover his eyes but to no avail. When he opened them all he could see was the afterglow and they were hurtling through the atmosphere at a speed he didn’t even want to consider.

"Colonel Carter is injured!" he heard Teal’c call out.

"Look after her!" Jack ordered.

"Daniel?"

"I’m okay," his friend replied.

Good, that was good. Fumbling slightly, Jack put his hands back on the controls. He didn’t need his eyes to land this thing ...  all he had to do was think about it. It was going to be fine, absolutely fine.  Their downward plunge even seemed to slow slightly.

"Jack look out!" Daniel’s shout was enough to make Jack wrench the controls to one side but he wasn’t fast enough to prevent the collision. There was the terrible crunch of twisted metal and the ship spun itself around. Jack could feel a rush of air on his face.

"We’re losing pressure! Get aft!" he ordered.

The scramble of feet told him that Daniel was following his orders and Jack closed the bulkhead sealing his friends in the rear of the craft.

The crash seemed inevitable. Try as he might Jack couldn’t keep the ship on an even keel. He quickly realized that he needed to get them back to their own time. At least then they would have a chance of rescue. There was no guarantee that this future Earth was even inhabitable. Jack screwed his eyes shut out of habit, trying to maintain some semblance of concentration. But it was hard to remain focused. It was either that or the time device had stopped working completely. Struggling with the controls, Jack pulled the nose of the ship up. He was hoping for a soft landing, trees or water maybe. With most of the Eath’s surface covered in liquid he reckoned they had a pretty good chance, even so the ship hit the surface before he was ready.

The cabin was immediately flooded with cold water. Even as he went under, Jack shouted to his team, but all he achieved was a mouthful of salt water. It took him several anxious moments to realize that he was sinking along with the fore section of the ship. Lungs straining, his fingers already numb with cold, he struggled to free himself from the seat restraints before striking for the surface. The sensation of hot Sun on his face was almost beautiful.

"Carter! Daniel! Teal’c!" he yelled as soon as he had enough breath to do so.

There was no reply. He flailed about himself, trying to find bodies in the water. The rear section of the ship had retained its integrity so it should have been floating on the surface nearby. Jack started to swim in the direction he thought it might before quickly realizing the futility of his actions. This was useless. 

The sensation of the wind on his face and the way the waves were buffeting his body, suggested that he wasn’t far from the shoreline. He just had no idea in which direction it lay. Turning around he tried to make some sense of his blurred vision. He couldn’t just float there forever. In the end he had little choice but to pick a direction and hope that he was swimming in a relatively straight line.

Jack had always considered himself a strong swimmer but there was something soul destroying about this. He had no way to know how long he had been swimming or how much further he had to go … assuming he was anywhere near the shoreline.

Every so often he would attempt to put his feet down and find the bottom but all he managed was to sink beneath the waves. His body ached. Even though he had been questioning his physical fitness, Jack realized that he shouldn't have gotten this tire this quickly. The crash must have shaken him up more than he realized. Forced to stop and rest, he floated on the surface of the water for a while. The Sun was now directly overhead, burning his skin with its ferocity. And he was thirsty. Trying not to give into the urge to sleep, Jack let the waves gently rock his body. His strokes were definitely weaker when his seeking feet finally found the ocean floor. Thanking whatever gods might be out there Jack stumbled ashore and let himself collapse on the shingles.

It felt like the softest of beds and again he had to stop himself sleeping. He realised that he wasn’t that much safer here than he had been in the water. Okay so he wasn’t in danger of drowning anymore but he was still defenseless. The flash blindness would clear, he knew that, but the thought wasn’t much comfort in his present situation. Jack had no desire to wind up as someone’s lunch. As pointless deaths went it was in his top ten. His one happy thought was that, if he had made it to shore then his friends could have done as well. He refused to let himself think otherwise.

It was only as his breathing and heart beat returned to normal that Jack realized he wasn’t alone. His ears were working just fine and there was definitely something close by. He could hear the scrabble of feet on the stones. Jack knew it wasn’t his friends.

"Hello?" he ventured.

There was no point in even trying to run away. His visitor stopped. Jack sat there for a moment, waiting for it to move again so he could judge the direction. There was a hesitant step towards him.

"No offence but I could use a little help here."

He opened his hands, trying to show whoever it was that he wasn’t dangerous.

"If you could just take me to your leader?"

His visitor certainly wasn’t big on conversation. And, although it didn’t seem to want to come closer, neither was it moving away. Slowly, carefully, Jack got to his feet. He took a step, tripped and crashed head long onto the stones.

"Ah ...  crap," were his last words as he lost consciousness.

***

There were hundreds of them. Looking down into the valley below, Teal’c wondered how they had managed to multiply so fast in the few hours that darkness had afforded them.

Turning to look at his companions Teal'c wondered if he should awaken them. Since the creatures below showed no inclination to climb the slopes of the mountain, he decided to leave his friends to rest. They were high enough that they would have plenty of warning of any attack. Both Daniel Jackson and Colonel Carter had slept soundly since their arrival at the mountain cave whilst Teal’c had taken it upon himself to watch over them. He was also tired, but he was better able to ignore fatigue than his companions. When they were sufficiently rested, he would take his turn.

They had walked for almost two days before reaching this safe haven and Teal’c knew that they were all reaching the end of their strength. Here, at least, they had shelter and water. He suspected they would have to venture down to the valley in order to procure food, and he had no idea how that would be achieved. As he continued to watch the creatures, Teal’c realized that they never appeared to rest.

The cave was halfway up a mountain. If the Sun hadn’t been setting when they arrived, he doubted that they would ever have found it. High enough that Teal’c had felt a definite drop in temperature. Whilst the nights they had spent down below had been warm and muggy, up here it was almost chilly.   If they had to stay here for an extended period of time then they would need more than shared body heat to ward off the cold. Looking down he could see the steep slope they had climbed the night before. Scree gave way to rough grass and finally to trees. Even now he found himself wondering exactly how they had managed it. Above them the incline was even steeper, leading to the top of the mountain. Later that day Teal’c would climb the rest of the way, just to see what lay over the top.

"Teal’c?" Colonel Carter’s whispered tones broke into his thoughts.

Turning he saw her one her feet, rubbing sleep out of her eyes and trying to smooth out her short blonde hair. He found himself smiling slightly at the picture she presented.

"Why didn’t you wake me?" she asked.

"There was no need," he replied.

"Even you need to sleep."

"I will do so when it is appropriate."

"Teal’c ...  "

"Look." He turned her attention to the activity in the valley below.

"My God," she breathed as she surveyed the valley. "They’re everywhere. If the rest of the planet is like this ...  "

Teal’c nodded. If this was the fate that awaited the Earth then he could not conceive of anything they could do here to change its fate. Daniel Jackson had seemed convinced that the answer to fighting the infestation lay in the future, but it did not appear to be the case. The creatures were as prevalent here as they would become during their own time if left unchecked. Of the human race there was no sign. It was as if the Tau'ri had never existed. Survival of the fittest, Teal’c thought to himself grimly. Humans had been supplanted by the superior species.

"Keep an eye on them," Colonel Carter ordered as she went to wake Daniel Jackson.

"It almost looks like they’re waiting for something," Daniel Jackson’s voice said when he was roused.

"Indeed."

"I wonder if they know we’re up here?"

"Then why don’t they attack?" Carter said.

It was a question that no one could answer. They didn’t know enough about the behaviour of these things. As the Sun rose higher in the sky Teal’c became aware of something else, a low thrumming in the air. Turning his head, he couldn’t seem to pinpoint the direction. It was almost as if the sound was coming from the Earth itself.

"Look!" Colonel Carter said pointing towards the horizon. 

Narrowing his eyes, Teal’c could just about make out the craft flying out of the Sun. It was some kind of shuttle, he guessed, barely larger than the ship that had brought them here. Together the three remaining members of SG-1 left the relative safety of the cave and attempted to attract its attention. They had no idea whether the occupants were friend or foe but the ship represented civilization ...  warmth, food, companionship; all things that this cave could not offer.

Whoever was piloting the small craft, they must have had good eyesight. The ship was still some distance away when it changed direction and headed towards them. It circled once before flying towards the relatively flat area at the top of the mountain.

"Come on," Carter ordered, leading the way up the treacherous slope.

It was only as they started to climb that Teal’c realized how much the previous days force march had taken out of him. He could feel the fatigue in his legs and arms as he scrambled up the slope. The loose rocks beneath his feet did not help. For every step he took forward he seemed to slide back three. And yet the summit was tantalizingly close. Looking up he could see a figure standing silhouetted against the sky.

"Move it people!" a woman’s voice cried out. "You have about three minutes before this place is dust!"

The tone in her voice was enough to spur them all to greater efforts. With a final great effort, Teal’c charged to the summit. But they had no time to recover as the woman urged them all into the ship.

"Strap yourselves in!" she ordered.

Yet she barely gave them time to follow her command before the ship took off and headed for the open sky.

"You’re lucky I always do a final sweep," she shouted over her shoulder as she expertly guided the small craft.

"Why? What’s going to happen?" Daniel Jackson asked.

The words were hardly out of his mouth before the ship shook under the force of something. To Teal’c it felt like his teeth were being shaken out of his head.

"What the hell was that?" Colonel Carter demanded.

Looking over her shoulder the woman gave them a puzzled glance.

"How can you not know?" she asked.

"We’re strangers in these parts," Daniel Jackson admitted.

"I’ll show you." She turned the ship back the way they had come.

Portholes in the side afforded a view of the land below and Teal’c turned his head to look in the direction the woman had indicated. The valley he had been looking down on that morning was devastated. The trees and vegetation had been flattened. Nothing moved in the place the creatures had been gathered.

Teal’c could see their corpses, littered on the ground like lumps of black coal. It was a sobering sight. The human race had obviously learnt how to vanquish its enemies but one look at his companions faces and Teal’c knew that they felt as he did. They were also wondering if such destruction was necessary. Were there such scars all over the planet? How long had this war been going on? Given the scale of the death below, why had it not yet been won?