Chapter Text
“Why won’t you work?!” Sam screamed in frustration and slammed her hands against the icy surface of the DHD. The Stargate rumbled one last time and fell silent, though a deep growling like distant thunder followed, the sound stretching across frozen seconds into shuddering minutes.
Sam returned to Jack’s side, rubbing her smarting hands.
“We’re stuck, huh?” mumbled the Colonel. Sam could barely make out the words with some effort, his speech deteriorating further with every moment they spent on this god-forsaken planet. Bad enough that Jack had a broken leg and what were likely several broken ribs, but there was little doubt in her mind he was also bleeding internally. They had been in this ice cave for too many hours now and Jack was fading fast.
It hardly mattered at this point. If Sam couldn’t get the damned Stargate to release them from this icy hell, she was as much a goner as he was. Never mind that she hadn’t gotten hit when they fled the Jaffa on PB4-972. She wondered briefly what had happened to Daniel and Teal’c. They’d been right in front of her. With some luck, they’d actually made it home and not… gotten stuck in transit or something equally horrifying.
“Yes, I think s –” Sam broke off. “Do you hear that?”
Jack squinted at her. “Mh?”
“That noise...” It was getting louder. The distant rumbling was suddenly not all that distant. Sam looked up. The ceiling of the cave shook. Chunks of ice rattled loose and crashed to the floor. A crackling sound started much too close for comfort and rapidly gained volume.
Sam started at Jack. Jack’s eyes were as wide as her own, focused on the dark rift in the ice above them that was widening at an alarming rate.
“It was an honor to serve with you, sir.”
“Like...wise.” Jack coughed. “At least… the snake-h-headed bassards didn’… get us, right?”
The dome above them split open. The rending of the ice thundered in their ears, crackling like lightning and roaring like a mass of angry beasts. An oddly metallic screeching joined the symphony of Armageddon that rolled over and around them, pounding in Sam’s ears, rattling her teeth and pulsing through her core.
The gap in the cave ceiling expelled something large and metallic. It hit the icy wall twice before dropping to the floor with a loud clang. Sam crouched over Jack’s injured body in a futile bid to protect him. But the thing was done bouncing off the floor after a single ricochet, catching on some imperfection in the rough surface. It slowed down considerably, rolling toward them with its feeble remaining momentum. The fat, metallic cylinder came to a stop right at Sam’s feet.
Sam stared down at the words New York in bold script on an a rusty bomb.
Before she could recover from the shock, another metal object came clanging down to the floor, followed by a stiff, red-white-and-blue-clad body. The human body heavily impacted the floor on top of its… shield.
‟Earth,” breathed Sam. ‟Colonel, we’re on Earth!”
Elation rushed through her at the realization that they could get out of this, after all, they were so close to home!
Then part of a gunmetal gray wing impaled the floor mere inches from her toes.
‟Right.”
Brain now in overdrive, Sam mumbled along to the conclusions barreling in at record speed. ‟We’re on Earth. That’s why we couldn’t dial Earth, because we’re already there. The Stargate isn’t broken. I just kept trying the one address it wouldn’t accept.” She wanted to tear her hair out at that realization, but there was no time. ‟We need to dial elsewhere. Colonel,” she whirled around to face Jack, ‟have you memorized any of the addresses we visited before? Where should we go?”
Jack looked at her out of glassy eyes. ‟Not... Chulak,” he managed.
Sam shuddered. ‟I agree.” They did not need to visit a Goa’uld-controlled planet while injured and suffering hypothermia. But which planet could they go and be sure not to run into any…?
‟Thor,” they both said at almost the same time.
Sam whirled around and stared hard at the DHD. It had been a while since they’d gone to Cimmeria, the world with Thor’s hammer; and Daniel was usually the one dialing. But she thought she remembered the right symbols. Hopefully. Focusing intently on the DHD, she began pressing one after the other with great focus. The unfamiliar glyph had to be their current point of origin, then came Scutum, Lynx, Andromeda…
Despite her best intentions, her mind kept whirring away. That bomb – the bomb lying mere feet from her location, the bomb that could go off any minute now – had dropped from the wreck of the Valkyrie. They were somewhere in the Arctic. They had found Captain America. A dead national icon was lying next to her right now in his bright, patriotic costume.
They had finally found Captain America and they couldn’t bring his body home. Because they had to get out of this iceberg before it collapsed under the weight of… the Valkyrie, actually. It had to be. Shaken loose by the vibrations of the stalling Stargate and likely coming down to crash into this cave any second. Which may set off the bomb… bombs, plural, Sam reminded herself. According to the history books, the Valkyrie had carried two bombs, one meant for New York and one for Washington. Two bombs which were likely about to go off and pulverize both the Stargate and Captain America.
Sam’s fingers trembled with more than just the cold as she pushed the last symbol, Cetus. It locked. The Stargate rumbled ominously like it had done the last seven times she had tried this – and kept moving. ‟It works!”
Sam hurried to gather up Captain America’s shield, then stumbled back to Jack’s position across the uneven surface of the cave. She got him upright as quickly as she dared. He made a pained noise at having to stand on his broken leg. Sam was sure his ribs also didn’t like the way Jack was leaning on her for support. But she got him standing and his innate stubbornness made him move with her toward the liquid surface of the event horizon.
They should just go through. Jack needed urgent medical attention, they had to get him back home ASAP.
But…
Sam looked over her shoulder. Captain America’s body still lay in a straight line on the floor where it had fallen, immobile, likely frozen solid. Dead. If they left him here rather than buried him in Arlington, the Captain wouldn’t know the difference.
The idea of Captain America ending up torn apart by Hydra’s bombs after all this time sat very, very wrong with Sam.
‟Dammit.” Stiff hands guided Jack toward the side of the Stargate and leaned the shield beside him. ‟Do you think you can manage to stand here for a minute, sir?”
Jack grimaced, but gave her a nod. ‟No man… left behind.”
‟He’s already dead,” Sam protested by rote even as she moved toward the prone figure. A sharp noise rang out behind her; looking back, she saw that Jack had stooped low enough to use the shield as a crutch.
‟Even so,” she though she heard the Colonel’s weak voice.
And that was right. They did not leave their dead to be mauled by wild animals, or buried under tons of ice because of a damn Nazi weapon. Not if they could help it. And it would only take a minute.
Captain America was heavy, though. Sam cursed up a blue streak while lugging the massive body toward the gate. At least the cold meant the supersoldier’s limbs were stiff and easy to drag. Sam did not want to think of that as a positive, but right now she would take any help she could get.
‟Got Captain America,” Sam wheezed once she was back at Jack’s side. ‟Let’s leave this freezing hell before the Red Skull’s bombs get us.”
‟Now there’s a... sentence… I never expected... to hear... coming out of your mouth,” Jack joked weakly.
Sam once more offered her shoulder to Jack and took a firm hold of the back of Captain America’s jacket. Together, they limped into the Stargate.
‟Colonel? Colonel!!!” Sam barely took note of the airmen rushing toward them, abandoning their guard posts beside the Cimmerian gate in favor of trying to help their unexpected SG-1 visitors.
Jack was seizing.
‟His ribs are injured; he may have internal bleeding. And he’s almost frozen to d–‟ Sam informed the airmen, then broke off as she thought about the physical strain and the freezing cold of Stargate travel. Her eyes widened. ‟He’s going into shock!”
One of the airmen took the Colonel’s pulse while Sam eased him into recovery position. A moment later, Sam found herself furiously compressing Jack’s chest to keep his heart beating when it seemed like it wanted to stop.
Luck was on their side. One of the locals had recognized them and, unbeknownst to Sam, run off to fetch Kendra. At the same time, the airmen had dialed Earth to call for Doctor Fraiser. While Sam was sweating tears of despair at having to compress Jack’s already broken ribs, help was under way.
Sam had been all set to turn right back around and dial home upon arrival. But there was no way Jack would survive another trip through the gate. If he lived at all. But it was no use thinking about what-ifs, Sam told herself, and kept pumping.
‟Samantha!” Kendra came walking toward them, her fast steps turning into a run the closer she got. The Goa’uld healing device was on her hand before she had fully reached them. ‟What happened to Jack? And what about the other man?”
‟Focus on Jack, please. Broken ribs with suspected internal bleeding,” Sam listed the most serious injury first, relieved to see Kendra’s hand immediately move to Jack’s chest. She wasn’t sure but the device seemed to glow brighter. ‟Broken leg. Hypothermia.”
They both ignored Captain America lying lifelessly on the grass next to Sam, with three very surprised airmen staring at him in bafflement.
At the back of Sam’s mind was the knowledge that there should have been four, but before she could summon up enough curiosity about where the fourth airman had gone, the Stargate closed down behind her, only to be reactivated immediately. It spat out the missing airman and Janet Fraiser, followed by a couple of men bearing a stretcher. Maybe more followed, but Sam didn’t pay attention.
‟Sam! Are you and the Colonel alright?” Janet came rushing toward them and almost tripped over Captain America. She blinked, eyes going round. “That… is a very distinctive suit.”
‟Found him in the Arctic,” Sam informed her blandly, then turned back to Kendra’s healing of Jack. ‟As for your other question: Getting there.”
The healing device did not make any sound indicating how hard it was working, nor was there any way for Sam to track internal healing from outside. She had to just sit there and trust that Kendra knew what she was doing. It was hard.
Maybe Kendra felt Sam’s need for distraction. ‟What happened to you?”
Janet crouched down next to Sam by Jack’s side, watching the healing with avid eyes.
‟The Stargate malfunctioned on our last trip. It was hit by a Jaffa staff weapon. We didn’t arrive home with the rest of our team – did Teal’c and Daniel make it?”
Janet nodded. ‟They arrived uninjured and have been trying to figure out what happened to you.”
‟That’s good,” said Sam, relieved. ‟Well, instead of back home, we found ourselves in an icy cave with a broken Stargate.” She considered telling Kendra about there being a second active gate on Earth, but decided against it. Thor’s Hammer was destroyed. Coming to Cimmeria was no longer a certain death sentence for Goa’uld and Jaffa, and if they learned of a second Stargate on Earth…
Of course, if any Goa’uld or Jaffa were reckless enough to come to Cimmeria, they should theoretically be stopped by the airmen stationed here for that express purpose – after they made it out of Thor’s labyrinth. Even so, better to err on the side of caution. ‟We finally found a way to escape, but Jack has been injured in the fight, and spending a day in an ice cave has aggravated his injuries. Gating was the final blow.”
‟He shall be fine,” Kendra said. Her voice had the ring of conviction and Sam sagged with relief.
‟Thank you. Kendra, you’re a true hero.”
The former host withdrew her hand from Jack’s chest and stood. Sam expected her to move on to Jack’s leg. Instead, the healer turned toward Captain America and began scanning him.
‟Oh,” Sam said, feeling a little embarrassed, ‟you need not concern yourself with him. He has been dead a long time.”
‟No,” said Kendra.
‟No, what?”
‟No, this man is not dead.”
Sam blinked. ‟Excuse me. Did you just say he is…?” She exchanged a baffled glance with Janet, who hurried over to Kendra’s side and took the limp Captain’s pulse. His frozen body had thawed quickly in the Cimmerian sun. Janet frowned, then unlatched part of the Captain’s uniform to place her stethoscope on his chest.
Janet’s eyes once again grew round. ‟He’s…”
‟Alive,” Kendra replied. ‟And in outstanding good health, if I am not gravely mistaken. Your companion has some scratches and burn wounds, his temperature is much too low, and it looks like he hit his head recently. But other than that –‟
No. There was no way. ‟He has been frozen in ice for fifty years.”
‟It seems to have preserved him well.”
Sam choked on a laugh. She hadn’t known Kendra had such a dry sense of humor. ...Then she remembered the Nox, and the Goa’uld sarcophagi. Maybe Kendra wasn’t joking. ‟Do you often see people get back up and live after being frozen solid for decades?”
Kendra spared her a glance before focusing her healing powers on the Captain’s head. ‟I have never seen the like. But the gods may grant life where humans despair. It is their prerogative.”
The device glowed the same as it had done for Jack. Sam wondered whether it would glow as brightly when held over a rock, then pushed the thought aside. Kendra said Captain America was alive, and Janet had confirmed it.
‟There,” Kendra said after a much shorter time than she had spent on Jack’s chest. ‟That is as much as I can do. He needs rest, still. I do not know when he shall wake. From what you say, his soul ought to have left his body a long time ago. And yet his body lingers. Let us hope his soul shall reunite with his body soon and he shall find his path back to wakefulness.”
Sam mutely shook her head, wanting to refuse the reality she was confronted with. She was a scientist at heart, though. Unexpected new data that destroyed her previous concept of how the world worked was not to be rejected; it was to be examined, probed, and poured into a better theory. Without that mindset, she would never have been called up to work on the Stargate. These days, believing the unbelievable was in her job description.
Aliens existed. Healing devices that seemed like magic existed. Alien technology could be found on Earth. Why shouldn’t Captain America, the world’s only super-soldier, survive a long sleep in the ice? Nobody had ever been able to replicate Dr. Erskine’s serum. Who knew, maybe Project Rebirth had incorporated Alien tech and that was why it had worked in the first place.
By the time Sam had mostly reconciled her understanding of the world with the fact that Captain America was alive, Kendra had returned to Jack’s side and was proceeding to treat his non-lethal injuries. Sam watched with burning eyes as the Colonel’s breathing got easier, the pained grimace smoothing out as his unconscious body relaxed into a healing sleep. Relief so thick she could taste it clogged Sam’s throat and made the tears spill.
Janet checked Jack over and exclaimed several times how envious she was of the healing device.
‟It would not work for you,” Kendra told her calmly.
Janet gave that some thought. ‟I don’t envy you the experiences that brought you to this point,” she conceded. ‟But for all of our sakes, I’m glad you are able to heal in this way. Thank you.”
‟Thank you,” Sam joined in, embracing Kendra tightly. ‟Thank you so much.”
The Stargate rumbled to life at the direction of a helpful airman. With Kendra’s and Janet’s reassurance that both unconscious men were now safe to transport, they were loaded on the stretchers the airmen had brought through earlier and, one after the other, carried off to Earth. After a last glance and a deeply grateful smile at Kendra, Sam followed.