Cello Suite No. 1

Cello Suite No. 1

Three Months and One Week Previously

“Are you ready to go, Kahlen?” Colonel Carter asked the temporary replacement for Daniel as they finished strapping on their vests and thigh holsters. Kahlen nodded.

“Yeah, I'm good, Sam.” she replied as the two made their way out of the changing room and into the gate room; Teal'c and Colonel Mitchell were already there, waiting; the gate shimmered into existence as Sam and Kahlen walked through the door. Cameron gave the two of them a slow smile.

“Glad to see that you finally decided to join us.” Kahlen resisted the urge to stick out her tongue childishly.

“Yes, well, having never actually been off-world before, it took me a while to figure out where all of this goes,” she waved a hand down the length of her body, indicating the tac vest, jacket and other accessories. Teal'c's lip gave a small twitch in amusement and started walked up the ramp, Sam going up next to him, smiling. Kahlen walked up the ramp next to Cameron behind the other two as he commented,

“Yeah, well, I figured that since you're a girl and all, having so many accessories wouldn't have been too difficult for you to figure out.” Kahlen smiled at Cameron before vanishing through the gate and appearing on the other side.

~

“Sheppard, how long do you think you'll be?” Cameron's voice cackled over the radio. Kahlen sighed, wiping her forehead before responding,

“I don't know. There is a helluva lot more text here than SG-12 was able to see on their original mission. It could take me hours, possibly days just to get one of these walls done.” Even though he didn't sigh on the radio, she could still hear him just the same.

“There's that much, huh?”

“Yeah, there is.” She looked back up the wall she was currently looking at, taking pictures of and scribbling notes about in her notebook. The planet that they were visiting was an abandoned planet, had been abandoned for a few thousand years. SG-12 had found some interesting ruins so the re-con mission back to the planet had been given to SG-1 since Daniel was off at some conference with some people who apparently spoke about at many languages as he did. Though maybe not the same kind of languages.

Cameron, Sam and Teal'c were all outside of the large temple that Kahlen was now in, looking around and trying to find something to do. Sam was completely bored – there were no energy signs for her to look for or any sign of technology for her to poke at. Cameron was nearly bored to tears. The only thing that seemed to still inhabit the planet was a mammal that looked suspiciously like a squirrel.

Teal'c was bored, too, but he had more restraint than to let it show. Kahlen touched her radio again,

“Is there any possibility we can stay the night, or do we have to go back?” she was tempted to suggest that she could stay on the planet over night, by herself – it would be ok; she wasn't afraid of squirrels.

“I'll go check back in with the SCG and see what they say. I'm heading to the gate now, I'll be back in a few minutes. Mitchell out.”

“Oh, Cam, one more thing,” she paused for a moment, “If we are able to spend the night here, Sam and Teal'c can go back if they want to – I know they're bored.”

“We'll see. Mitchell out.” Kahlen nodded to herself and went back to working on the ruins, trying to decipher a word or two here and there to see if there was anything of real interest to gain from the old writings. A few times she kept finding one work that loosely translated “power” but there was nothing substantial to what it was referring to.

Kahlen was in the middle of dusting off a part of chipped text, wondering if Cameron would be back soon with an answer, when the first tremor hit. It was violet and strong enough to cause one of the pillars inside of the temple to come crashing down onto the floor within seconds.

“Sheppard!” her radio cackled as she could vaguely hear the sound of footsteps running up the temple steps. She coughed, covering her mouth as her eyes watered from the cloud of dust that arose when the pillar fell. She gasped, and started coughing harder when she saw the pillar had collapsed in front of the entry way leading from the outside.

“Sheppard, are you ok?” that was definitely Cameron.

“Y-yeah,” she coughed, “one of the pillars collapsed in front of the entry way and I can't-” another violent tremor shook the planet, causing another pillar to fall – this one the one next to Kahlen. She gave a yell and dodged out of the way, having to press up against the wall to avoid the shattering debris from hitting her.

“Sheppard!”

“I'm here! Another pillar just fell – the one that was next to me. I can't get out, my path is blocked.”

“I'm going to go to the gate and tell Landry that we need back up, Sam and Teal'c are going to stay here and try to start moving the rocks out of the way. You keep from getting smushed by more falling things, alright, Sheppard?” Kahlen had to smile.

“Yes, sir.” she coughed again, pulling her shirt up cover her mouth – really, it was like a wall of dust surrounding her. She moved quickly, shoving her camera and her notebook in her small back pack, hugging it close to her; at least the mission wouldn't have been a complete waste. They might be able to get something form the pictures she took and the notes she made.

She closed her eyes, pressed against the wall as much as she could as another tremor shook the temple.

“Kahlen?”

“Still here.” She could hear the sounds of stones shifting and being tossed away.

Kahlen opened her eyes as she heard a piece of the ceiling start to break on it's own. Her eyes widened as she saw a long, hairy leg emerge from the hole and support itself on the ceiling, several more legs following it. Her hands grasped at her radio.

“Uh, guys? We have a problem,” she could hear the panic in her own voice, “a very... hairy, and creepy, problem.” her statement was at first greeted by silence – they didn't respond and the sound of shifting stones had stopped.

“What're you talking about?” Sam's voice was clipped, sharp.

“Well-”

“Guys, I'm back and I have reinforcements.” Cameron broke over their radio's.

“Mitchell, Sheppard says that we have a problem.” Teal'c's voice over the radio nearly startled Kahlen – she had almost forgotten that he was there, too.

“What problem, Sheppard?”

“Uhm, I don't know what they – oh, my god – are, but, - oh, god, this isn't happening – please tell me you're really close to getting me out of here.” Her voice had raised in her panic as she watched a hairy body emerge after the sicking sight of not eight, but ten, hair legs from the hole in the ceiling. It looked to be like a gigantic spider – she could see it's fangs from here – and it didn't seem to be friendly, either. Another set of legs was following the first one.

“What is it, Sheppard?” Cameron's voice was clipped, too, now and slightly panting. She realized he was running and could hear some other foot falls running next to him, too. She dazedly noticed the sounds of the rocks moving again, this time faster.

“It's looks like it's a spider, a really, really big spider. Bigger than your average house cat and,” she so didn't just stop to give a small whine and try to slide away, towards the blocked entry way, “there's two of them, no, wait, now there's three and they have fangs – really pointy, fangs.”

And indeed, there was another set of legs sliding through the hole, faster than the first two sets had.

“Are they moving threateningly?” Kahlen started to shake her head but then stopped herself.

“Yes, they are. The first one that came out just attacked the third one – oh, god, that one just fell to the floor and I think he's still alive.” She dropped the backpack, and reached for the beretta in her thigh holster and gripped the butt of the gun tightly, turning the safety off.