Stargate SG-1 Ficlet: Nothing But Ice
Apr. 17th, 2025 06:27 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
badly_knittedTitle: Nothing But Ice
Fandom: Stargate SG-1
Author:
badly_knittedCharacters: Sam Carter, Jack O’Neill.
Rating: PG
Word Count: 746
Spoilers/Setting: Solitudes.
Summary: Stranded in an icy cave on an unknown planet, Sam and Jack try to find a way to get home.
Content Notes: None needed.
Written For: Challenge 435: Amnesty 72 at
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fan_flashworks, using Challenge 212: Ice.Disclaimer: I don’t own Stargate SG-1, or the characters.
Ice, that’s all there is around them: ice, and snow, and frozen rock, and the Stargate nearby. They have no idea where they are, and they’re alone, which shouldn’t be the case, but there’s no doubt about it. Sam’s searched everywhere, there really aren’t that many places someone could hide, but there’s no sign of either Daniel or Teal’c, and if they came through the Stargate as precipitously as Sam and Colonel O’Neill did, it’s unlikely they would, or even could, have gone far.
Sam’s counting herself lucky. She’s bruised and battered, her head aches, but she’s better off than the Colonel. At the very least, his leg is broken, and it’s beginning to look like he might have internal injuries as well. Sam’s done everything she can for him, she’s set his leg, given him painkillers, but she’s a scientist, not a medic. She can’t fix her commanding officer; all she can do is try to get the Stargate working, but to do that, she first has to get to the DHD, which is easier said than done.
She and Colonel O’Neill have been chipping away at the ice covering it for hours now. They’re making progress, but it’s slow going; their hands are so cold it’s difficult to grip the tools they’re using, and just now, the Colonel started coughing blood. Broken ribs, punctured lung… her mind shuffles through what little she knows about the possible complications from that kind of injury, tries not to think about what it might mean for their chances of survival; nothing good, that’s for sure.
The ice finally gives way, they break through to the DHD, and try dialling out, but it fails. All Sam can think to do is keep digging further down, reach the control interface, try to fix whatever the problem is. Colonel O’Neill makes her stop work and rest. She doesn’t want to, but he’s right. Maybe things will look better after a few hours’ sleep.
Or maybe they won’t.
She’s been working on the interface for twelve long hours and getting nowhere. The Colonel wants to help, but there’s nothing he can do, and anyway, injured as he is, she can’t afford to let him keep pushing himself when all he’s doing is making his condition worse. He could die, and then she’d be here alone, but that’s not going to happen because she won’t let it.
Jack can rest, conserve his strength, while Sam keeps working. All she needs is to get the DHD to work and then she can dial earth, they can go home, where it’s warm and there are surgeons who can take care of Jack. Sam can scarcely remember how it feels to be warm; the cold seems to have seeped right into her bones, icy tendrils freezing her to the marrow, and Jack, barely able to move, must be even colder. She’s done her best with the supplies they had with them, but they’re almost gone now. Soon they won’t be able to melt any more snow to drink, or to make broth, not that there’s much left in their emergency rations to make broth with anyway.
There’s still no luck with the DHD; even doing a system reset doesn’t help. The Colonel orders her to leave him, climb out, try to get herself to safety, perhaps bring back help, and she doesn’t want to leave him, it feels wrong, but she can’t refuse a direct order from her commanding officer, it goes against her military training, so she goes. It turns out to be a pointless waste of time and effort; when she reaches the surface, all she can see is ice and snow in every direction, not the smallest sign of habitation. There’s no help to be found out there. Chances are the entire planet is the same; nothing could survive long in such a hostile environment.
So Sam returns to Jack’s side, and in a way she’s glad it will end like this, the two of them together to the end. Neither of them will have to die alone. Any regrets she might have had no longer seem important. They did all they could, and it wasn’t enough. Now they can both sleep; there’s no point worrying about what she can’t change. It’s a relief. She tells herself she’s not giving up, just accepting the inevitable. If this is where it all ends for her, and for the Colonel, well, it’s been an honor.
The End
Sam’s counting herself lucky. She’s bruised and battered, her head aches, but she’s better off than the Colonel. At the very least, his leg is broken, and it’s beginning to look like he might have internal injuries as well. Sam’s done everything she can for him, she’s set his leg, given him painkillers, but she’s a scientist, not a medic. She can’t fix her commanding officer; all she can do is try to get the Stargate working, but to do that, she first has to get to the DHD, which is easier said than done.
She and Colonel O’Neill have been chipping away at the ice covering it for hours now. They’re making progress, but it’s slow going; their hands are so cold it’s difficult to grip the tools they’re using, and just now, the Colonel started coughing blood. Broken ribs, punctured lung… her mind shuffles through what little she knows about the possible complications from that kind of injury, tries not to think about what it might mean for their chances of survival; nothing good, that’s for sure.
The ice finally gives way, they break through to the DHD, and try dialling out, but it fails. All Sam can think to do is keep digging further down, reach the control interface, try to fix whatever the problem is. Colonel O’Neill makes her stop work and rest. She doesn’t want to, but he’s right. Maybe things will look better after a few hours’ sleep.
Or maybe they won’t.
She’s been working on the interface for twelve long hours and getting nowhere. The Colonel wants to help, but there’s nothing he can do, and anyway, injured as he is, she can’t afford to let him keep pushing himself when all he’s doing is making his condition worse. He could die, and then she’d be here alone, but that’s not going to happen because she won’t let it.
Jack can rest, conserve his strength, while Sam keeps working. All she needs is to get the DHD to work and then she can dial earth, they can go home, where it’s warm and there are surgeons who can take care of Jack. Sam can scarcely remember how it feels to be warm; the cold seems to have seeped right into her bones, icy tendrils freezing her to the marrow, and Jack, barely able to move, must be even colder. She’s done her best with the supplies they had with them, but they’re almost gone now. Soon they won’t be able to melt any more snow to drink, or to make broth, not that there’s much left in their emergency rations to make broth with anyway.
There’s still no luck with the DHD; even doing a system reset doesn’t help. The Colonel orders her to leave him, climb out, try to get herself to safety, perhaps bring back help, and she doesn’t want to leave him, it feels wrong, but she can’t refuse a direct order from her commanding officer, it goes against her military training, so she goes. It turns out to be a pointless waste of time and effort; when she reaches the surface, all she can see is ice and snow in every direction, not the smallest sign of habitation. There’s no help to be found out there. Chances are the entire planet is the same; nothing could survive long in such a hostile environment.
So Sam returns to Jack’s side, and in a way she’s glad it will end like this, the two of them together to the end. Neither of them will have to die alone. Any regrets she might have had no longer seem important. They did all they could, and it wasn’t enough. Now they can both sleep; there’s no point worrying about what she can’t change. It’s a relief. She tells herself she’s not giving up, just accepting the inevitable. If this is where it all ends for her, and for the Colonel, well, it’s been an honor.
The End
(no subject)
Date: 2025-04-17 11:57 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2025-04-18 09:36 am (UTC)You'll be happy to know, they were rescued soon after. Daniel figured out where they were, still on earth but in the Arctic, where the first stargate had become buried in ice, which was why the Ancients set up another on in Egypt, the one that's in the SGC.
Thank you!