It all happened so suddenly. One moment all was calm and the next the earth was bucking and heaving like an angry bull trying to unseat its rider, and the temple the Stargate was housed in was violently threatening to come toppling down on top of them.

"Get to the gate!" Jack ordered as SG-1 cowered and covered their heads, feebly trying to protect their skulls from the large pieces of rubble that were falling from the high ceiling.

Taking charge with his heightened instincts, Teal'c signaled them to follow him and took off; stopping when he sensed something was going to fall and judging the stone's path as best he could.

Soon the huge ring came into sight across the large, open, and incredibly high ceilinged room it resided in. Teal'c signaled to them to stay back as he ventured out into the amphitheater towards the DHD. He stumbled one or twice as the falling rocks shook the already convulsing ground, but managed the trek without receiving too many injuries. Once a wormhole had been established, Teal'c called to them over the sound of the falling debris, which was amplified to even greater magnitude by the vastness of the empty, cavernous space.

Jack went first, dodging the falling rocks as he ran towards the Stargate, Sam following at matching speed and Daniel taking up the rear. The sound was deafening and the ground dipped and swayed drunkenly as the earthquake continued its destructive function. The great ceiling – one of the most beautiful and intricate Daniel had said he'd ever seen – was decorated with a vast mosaic of ceramic tiles all coalescing into a colossal tale of the destruction of the Babylonian god Enki and the birth of their new way of life, free from the omnipotent rule of their former 'dingir' as Daniel called him.

Apparently the mosaic was built and the ziggurat kept as a reminder of their former slavery. The room was roughly two hundred and thirty stories high and could easily have fit a regular suburban block inside of it. The Stargate – which the natives had never used – was situated at the far end of the room, behind a throne that sat separate from the rest of the room in the place of honor and Daniel surmised that it was used as a sort of speaking chair and that the amphitheater was used as a congress room where the population would come to discuss government issues. The DHD served as a podium as it sat directly in front of the chair. Though from the derelict look of the place and the fact that here ad been no signs of life surrounding the place, Daniel surmised that it had been quite a while since the great temple had been put to any use.

But the colossal room was quaking and the majestic ceiling was coming down and the only thoughts that were running through SG-1's mind were those of instinct and survival. Get to the gate before you got squished.

Jumping over fallen debris, Jack was solely focused on getting to the gate and every so often he would glance back to make sure Sam and Daniel were still behind him.

As the distance between Jack and the glimmering Stargate disappeared, he signaled to Teal'c to go through. A foot from the event horizon he turned. Sam was two feet from the DHD and Daniel was two feet from her. She signaled for him to go as a steady stream of dust began falling where he stood, a sure sign that part of the roof was going to fall on this very step. She gestured fervently for him to go. The dust was getting thicker and he could barley see them. She yelled for him to go on. But he would have none of it.

"Carter! Jackson!"

"Colonel, GO!"

Jack shook his head and began to move to where Sam was, reaching out his hand in her direction. When suddenly lost his balance as the ground beneath him heaved. He fell backwards…

…and landed on the metal ramp in the SGC.

The fall had winded him but he nevertheless, stood up quickly, turned to the control room, and shouted "DO NOT DISENGAGE THE GATE!"

Turning back, he waited for the rest of his team to come through. And waited. And waited.

Without warning, the wormhole vanished. The Stargate disengaged and the door that connected the SGC to the distant planet where half his team was, winked out of existence.

"No."

The Stargate couldn't have been active for more than fifteen minutes.

"No."

An image of the far off ceiling, the blue and red and white tiles of the magnificent mosaic crashing down on the equally magnificent ring of stone and smashing it to bits exploded in perfect detail within his swimming mind.

"NO!!" he ran up and hit the gate. Hard.

Strong arms restrained him from continuing to beat up the giant metal ring. Teal'c dragged him down the ramp and Jack watched with ever fading hope as they dialed P4Y-26S9 once, twice, trying to get a connection. Finally, Hammond's stern voice came over the P.A. now laced with sympathy and remorse.

"I'm sorry Colonel, but we simply can't make a connection."

Why hadn't he waited? Why? You never left a man or a woman behind, and yet he'd turned tail and ran at the first sign of danger to his own life and disregarded the safety of his team members.

As he stood in shock and horror at his own shortcomings, a deep, calming voice managed to break through his thoughts.

"There was nothing you could have done Colonel O'Neill," Teal'c said in a reverberating whisper, "If you had stayed, you would have been trapped to. Now come, we must report to the infirmary."

Jack barley caught the deep seeded loss that spoke volumes in the undertones of the jaffa's words.

He was just as afraid for them as Jack was.

The Colonel followed his teammate out of the embarkation room, making a silent promise to Sam and Daniel that he would not give up hope until he saw their bodies, alive or not, with his very own eyes.