Ceremony

Sam was floating. Sleeping peacefully in the land of airplanes and models and happiness, she could take anything apart that she wanted, and only had to put it back together if she felt like it. No one was waiting for her to save the world, why would *she* be saving the world? She smiled, and put the finishing touches on the paint of her model airplane. She always painted the pieces before putting them together.

“Carter!” There was nothing wrong with putting them together that way, she liked to do things meticulously. Meticulous, she liked the way that...

“Sam...” And her stripes were perfect, correct, meticulous, precise, exactly on the lines as the diagram showed. One day she would fly an airplane...

“Major Carter, are you well?” Sam blinked. Her dream drug at her, tried to pull her back into that peaceful place.. planes...flying, a hug from her dad.

Sam blinked again and light assaulted her eyes. The sun was bright and hot. She blinked more and finally started to focus. Daniel. He was sitting across from her. She noted his hair, his face, no glasses and struggled to sit up.

“Whoa, easy, Sam. You've been out for a while. Longer than I was.”Daniel's soft voice traveled between them, reassuring, comforting. Her skin felt raw, wind-burnt, no, sun-burnt. She glanced down and noted that her normally pale skin was quite pink, and then she noticed that she wasn't wearing any clothes. She closed her eyes and breathed. Of course, they'd been captured, again. And this time, apparently, stripped. She struggled to focus again and noted that Dr. Jackson was also naked. Great. Carter closed her eyes, blinked the sleep out them and tried to sit up again.

“Where?” she managed to ask, knowing Dr. Jackson would fill in the blanks.

“In a cage of some sort. We were attacked at the gate, and Jack says that you and I were rendered unconscious with some flower. Apparently they had to use a higher dose on you, because you kept waking up and struggling.”

“Colonel? Teal'c?”She placed a hand over her eyes to shade the bright sun and tried to get some bearings. She squinted, but she could barely make out a desert landscape through the glare.

“Uhm...” Sam switched her gaze to Daniel. He seemed pretty uncomfortable. His skin was flushed pink as well, and she thought it was more likely from embarrassment than any type of sun damage. His skin was more used to a desert climate than hers, and darker to boot. She raised an eyebrow at him, encouraging him to continue.

He rubbed the back of his neck with hand. “They're carrying the cage,” he said, finally.

“Carrying? But it doesn't feel like we're moving. Or look much like it either.”

“Yeah, it's noon. Or, this planet's equivalent. Rest time. Jack and Teal'c went to get our food, water, uhm.”Daniel dropped his arm, and leaned back.

“Daniel!”Sam shouted, and it looked like he was about to fall. And then a force field seemed to envelop him, it kept him in, but it let him lean against it. Sam couldn't help it, she got to her knees and crawled across him, trying to touch the edge. “This is so cool...I wonder how it does that...”

“Ah... Sam... you could do that on your side... cage is box like... four sides,”Daniel squeaked underneath her.

Sam rolled her eyes and scooted away from him. “Jackson, I've seen lots of naked human males. And I know you've seen naked human females. We're scientists, this shouldn't be problematic for you. It's just a body.” She made a point of looking at him, every part she could see. He was sitting all crunched together and his hands were cupped over his genitals. “Honestly, Daniel. It's fine.”

“Ah, here come Jack and Teal'c,” Daniel said softly.

Sam pressed her lips together and looked in the direction Daniel's gaze had turned. Just a body, she told herself, and refused to examine too closely why she had suddenly felt compelled to cross her arms over her chest.

Colonel O'Neill and Teal'c were walking very slowly, trudging almost, across the sand. Looking in this direction she could see a caravan of sorts stretching out in front of them. There seemed to be other force field cages carrying other naked people for miles ahead. Both Teal'c and the Colonel were carrying buckets in each arm. Sweat glistened off their chests and she noted that they were shirtless, but had apparently been provided with loose trousers in a light-colored material. Both of them were barefoot, and as they grew nearer she could see that O'Neill's feet were bleeding.

“Carter! Back in the land of the living,” O'Neill spoke. His voice was harsh, as though his throat were dry. “How's it going?”

“Uhm, had better days, sir.” She noticed that he managed to keep from looking at either her or Daniel the entire time he was speaking.

“I am glad you are awake, Major Carter.” Teal'c's deep voice rumbled, and he seemed less strained. It was obvious the buckets he carried were full of water. O'Neill carried one bucket full of some type of porridge and another one that was empty.

“Thanks, Teal'c.”

“Well, kids,” O'Neill piped in. “Chow time. Water for you first Carter. You've been out for some time.”

Carter stared at him. How did he plan on getting them the water? And then, Teal'c simply handed Daniel one of his buckets. Daniel didn't gape as the bucket passed through the force field into his waiting hands, but Carter did. She gaped a lot.

“How does that work? I mean... we can't simply step through,” she placed her hands against walls near the edge of the floor. There was a floor, it was made of a very comfortable, springy material that she was not familiar with at all. The field had some give, she could push into slightly and then it simply stopped. “That's...”

“Major. Water. Drink.” O'Neill was staring at her now, a bemused look on his face.

Carter reluctantly took the bucket from Daniel's outstretched hands. She didn't *feel* thirsty, but that didn't mean her body didn't need hydrated. And she certainly didn't know when they would get water again. She tipped it against her mouth and drank, careful not to spill. The bucket was full, but not overlarge and apparently these two buckets were all the four of them had.

“For the whole day,” Daniel said very quietly, apparently reading her mind. “We get two buckets at noon each day, and no more until noon tomorrow. Drink as little as you reasonably can. I've been saving the rest for Jack and Teal'c. And they still aren't getting enough.”

Carter finished her drink. “All hydrated, sir. Can I see about how this force field works now? Maybe I can get us out of this cage somehow.” She handed the bucket back to Daniel. O'Neill and Teal'c were busy eating, dipping their hands into the bucket of porridge-like-substance. They were careful to leave the bucket half-full before sending it in.

Daniel ate a handful and passed it to her, she ate a handful as well. “Only if you two eat more than that, Carter,” O'Neill finally answered after a long drink from the other water bucket.

“For instance, sir,” Carter continued as though he hadn't made that last statement, “can you pass anything through the force fields?”

“We cannot, Major Carter. Only the buckets will go through.”

“Huh, there must be some type of...” A loud series of whistles began to sound, traveling down the caravan.

“Break time's over, Teal'c.” O'Neill stood and took another small drink of the water, and then pushed it and the empty bucket through to Daniel. O'Neill and Teal'c took places on either side of them and lifted as one long shrill whistle sounded. The platform shuddered a bit and soon stabilized. Carter fell against the edge a bit and was grateful for the force field's effects.

Daniel was clutching desperately at the water buckets, trying to keep as little of the precious liquid as possible from splashing out. Wordlessly, Sam took one of them, holding it securely in her lap and wedged the empty one between her and the force field when it rolled over to her.

“Hey, Daniel... the empty bucket?”

Daniel turned away for a minute. “For waste.”

“Oh.” Sam chucked that thought aside and began to work on figuring out how their prison functioned. The sooner she could get them out, the better.