• Spoilers: In the Line of Duty, Jolinar's Memories.
• Summary: A mysterious world once thought lost and a desperate rescue mission throws SG-1 into a battle for their lives as they fight to survive against an old enemy and a deadly new one.
• PG  [D]  

CHAPTER ONE

SHOCKWAVE

Into the cold evening air came the brutal sound of an energy weapon discharging, swiftly followed by a loud raucous cheer. The unmistakable voices of men engaged in untold savagery. The sound of monsters on the loose. Of a race lacking the chains of morality or the burden of compassion.

As the slim pale figure hit the floor, eyes cast skywards, the light within them banished forever, a silence filled the chamber. There was no groan of pain, no regrets, just the simple, soundless extinction of life.

"Want more my little friends, or are you going to tell me what I need to know?" the harsh voice taunted as another of their kind was dragged soundlessly into the light and pushed to its knees.

"It is time." The whisper was soft, urgent. Its owner standing within the shadows, hidden from view.

With eyes lowered, its companion nodded, its face a picture of calm resignation. "Yes, I will go," came the sad reply as it turned to leave, turned to seek out those who could help. Before it was all too late.

oOo

A thick silence smothered the atmosphere of the briefing room, the sound of the gently whirring tape player breaking the monotony. Only the light from the flickering screen gave away that there were people present. Its strange glow illuminating their expressions for a single moment and then fading, the light dancing across the room. As the footage unfolded in front of their eyes, a long, exasperated sigh pulled their attention away. As four sets of eyes glanced in his direction, the owner of the sigh shifted deliberately in his seat.

Colonel Jack O'Neill was a man who head butted authority with alarming regularity. A regularity which was the cause of much heated debate in higher military circles. Tonight, however, had started out to be the exception to the rule. Called to an emergency briefing at midnight, he'd taken it on the nose and dragged his tired backside up the stairs and into the room. Now, with a growing irritation gnawing at his gut, his patience with his Commanding Officer was starting to wear thin.

He sat at the farthest end of the briefing table and rubbed energetically at his tired, grit filled eyes. He squinted, peering closer as the MALP camera scanned the immediate vicinity to the alien Gate. He shrugged and turned to look at General George Hammond with a frown. His usual mask of cheerful tolerance a distant crease on his forehead.

"And this is a view of?" he muttered irritably, finally breaking the silence, curious as to why he should have been called to an urgent meeting in the early hours of the morning. Curious as to why it was so damned important to view this tape, here, right now, before his team could recover from their last mission.

In fact, Jack O'Neill was feeling pretty pissed about the whole damn affair and if something real interesting didn't emerge on this tape soon he wasn't sure he'd be able to remain civilised for long. Commanding Officer or not, he was getting close to protesting. He only had to glance at his team to know they were more than dead on their feet.

"Bear with me, Colonel," General George Hammond said, realising that his best officer was close to losing it with him, but trying to keep as calm a voice as he could muster. A voice which drawled slowly and patiently. A voice which exuded calm at the worst of times, and yet tonight the voice was agitated and even he couldn't mask it. At the same time a vaguely anxious look passed across his features, his finger holding the remote control play button down.

Dr Daniel Jackson exchanged a puzzled look with Samantha Carter. His boyishly handsome features reflecting the worry they were both beginning to feel. Jack was reacting just as Daniel would expect him to. Tired, irritable and impatient. The General however was unusually on edge, despite his pretense at otherwise, and that was a cause for concern.

The Major raised her eyebrows and yawned, then put her hand to her mouth to stifle another. Her other hand ran firmly through her short blond hair and pulled it back from her face. They'd been given forty-eight hours stand down only six short hours ago. Forty-eight hours of promised rest after a particularly arduous mission to rescue SG-5 from some back of beyond planet. A planet which had turned out to be inhabited by pretty near cannibalistic natives. A planet on which they'd lost two good men and been on their feet, awake and fighting for some thirty-six hours. She felt tired and she felt irritable. She empathised with her senior officer and his attitude and wished that in some way, whatever was on the tape would turn out to be a mistake. She wanted sleep. Sleep and a warm bed. Not much to ask.

"There!" Hammond almost shouted, shattering the silence and making more than one nerve twang. He hit the pause button and moved towards the screen, tapping it hard, then rewinding and pressing play again so that the scene could unfold. So that they could make no mistake about what they were witnessing.

Carter found herself jumping down from the table on which she had perched, and moving towards the screen herself, her eyes mesmerised by what had appeared in front of the MALP, her tiredness temporarily forgotten in the surge of adrenalin.

"Oh, my God," mumbled Daniel, pushing his glasses firmly onto the bridge of his nose. He rose to his feet and joined her.

O'Neill stared at the screen and his brow furrowed even deeper. He ran his hand briefly through his greying hair.

"Oh for crying out loud," he muttered under his breath and felt his hands clenching together, his nails biting into the skin beneath, an anger rising, fresh from within. Now he understood the General's urgency. Now he wanted to be a part of whatever needed to be done. His tiredness temporarily banished, O'Neill stared, his mind racing.

"How?" Carter asked hesitantly, as she gazed at the view which the MALP was obligingly showing her, "It doesn't make any sense," she added tentatively.

O'Neill moved his hand to his mouth and stared silently. His thoughts turning over. He didn't answer her. There was no point. He agreed that it didn't make sense. And yet the evidence was in front of his eyes. He felt the stable presence of Teal'c move near to his shoulder. The Jaffa's quiet voice saying what they all felt, all knew inside.

"We must help him, O'Neill."

oOo

Carter cupped her hands together around a hot, welcoming mug of coffee and sat back on the chair at the briefing table. She waited impatiently for the caffeine to kick in. How many times had they watched the recording? She'd lost count. Her mouth felt like the bottom of a bird's cage and her clothes seemed to be stuck to her. She knew she needed sleep, lots of it. She also knew that she wasn't going to get it. Not now. Not having seen the tape. Not having realised that they would have to go in as soon as possible. They had to help.

"I'm not happy about sanctioning SG-1 going in without some back up," Hammond argued hopelessly and patiently, as he sat back in his chair and put his hands on the desk in a futile gesture of finality. "I'm sorry. Either you accept a back-up team or you don't go." He knew he was arguing up against a wall. It was an empty threat and he knew it. So did they. He knew he had to try. He knew he'd fail. He was right.

"And what? We leave him to the slaughter which could happen if we don't try to rescue him? Come on, General. You and I both know I'm right," O'Neill argued back. He felt tired, drained. The adrenalin rush had subsided. He was resigned to facing another battle and soon. He couldn't sit back and watch while some alien species held prisoners and taunted them with it. One particular prisoner in fact, of a race he respected, and who respected him. At least he believed that. A race who were important somehow to their own future, to Earth's future. A race who figured high in the rescue stakes, whatever the cost.

"Look. If you send a back-up squad with us, they could be killed the minute we step through that Gate. I don't think some gung ho squad careering in, watching our butts is an option. They don't have the same knowledge about the prisoner or frankly, sir, the same history with that particular prisoner." He continued. "My team is prepared to take a chance. The others don't have that option. You know it would be a blood bath if they tried, General. You know it."

"I believe that Colonel O'Neill is correct. They may be expecting you to send a large rescue force, General Hammond. In fact, they may want you to. A small group will have the tactical advantage. A larger group will not." Teal'c fixed his dark eyes on the General as he spoke.

Hammond sighed with frustration. "And what sort of tactical advantage do you think anyone has?" he said looking from Teal'c to O'Neill.

"Well..oh, hell, General I don't know, damn it. Just give us a chance and we'll work one out. We haven't failed yet and you know it!" O'Neill said, his voice rising with passion, his eyes burning fiercely.

Hammond ignored his officer's tone of voice, his impatience. He knew he was right. This team. This best of all his teams had had their backs against the wall more times than he cared to remember. This team had always come through. They were the most passionate, caring bunch of soldiers he'd ever had the pleasure of commanding, even if Daniel Jackson didn't really count as a soldier, Hammond sure felt like he was. SG-1 always had a way of bringing home the goods, against all the odds. The trouble was the odds were real stacked up against his people this time and he wasn't sure how they were going to get over them.

"General, are you sure the first signal definitely originated from there?" Daniel asked quietly, ignoring O'Neill's impatience and frustration. He had questions of his own.

"Quite sure," Hammond replied, grateful for the interruption and relieved to be engaged in conversation with a less volatile member of SG-1.

"Um..just so I can get this straight in my mind..so you sent the MALP in response to what?" Daniel continued, wanting to get all the facts straight in his head before he jumped to the same conclusions as Jack, that there was no alternative other than to go in totally unprepared for what might greet them.

"A standard Earth distress signal," the General replied, quietly confident that he had all the answers Jackson would need.

"So, the aliens were able to communicate our standard SOS to elicit the response they'd hoped for," Daniel surmised, thoughtfully turning it over in his mind. "Interesting," he added.

"It's possible, Daniel. We've been sending messages out into space for decades now. They could have picked one of ours up and be using it to their own advantage," Carter commented.

"Or they could have tortured it out of their prisoner," O'Neill muttered under his breath.

Carter shot him a look, trying to communicate that they knew what he needed to do but wanted to get there at their own pace, but he didn't seem to notice. She could almost taste the impatience about to boil over.

"It has to be a trap," Daniel concluded, shaking his head. "Why send a distress signal when you're the ones holding the prisoner? It makes no sense unless they want us to think it was sent by their captive. Surely they don't think we're that gullible?"

Carter nodded. "I agree with Daniel, sir. They want us there and they don't care how they get us there."

"Oh, come on you guys. We know they want to get us there. We know it. Let's just go in and get the little guy out. What do you say?" O'Neill said, and looked from one to the other.

Carter knew that look. She also knew what she had to do. She nodded her agreement, followed swiftly by Daniel. "Count me in," he said and caught the look of appreciation from O'Neill.

"I concur," said Teal'c quietly.

Hammond rose to his feet. No more debating. He'd known all along, in his heart, what their reaction would be. He'd called O'Neill and his team back from stand down because he already knew what was necessary. He'd already been given his orders, from higher up the chain. From the highest in fact. The President had been explicit. To let O'Neill take a team through and attempt a rescue of those who had been taken prisoner. Hammond was merely playing Devil's advocate and he knew it. He'd wanted O'Neill to take more people, not just his own four team members. What he wanted he didn't always get. Not with Jack O'Neill.

"Very well, Colonel. You have authority to take your team through the Stargate and attempt a rescue." Hammond said and rose from the table. He felt a sense of relief in one way, but in a thousand others he felt apprehensive. What were his people going to face when they already knew it was a hostile environment? They were starting out with the odds stacked against them.

"Ship out in twelve hours," he said and then looked at Carter and Daniel, his voice softening. "Major Carter, Dr Jackson, get some sleep before you do anything else," he advised gently, seeing their dark eyes as they both looked up at him. They looked like hell. The others didn't look much better.

Carter nodded and smiled weakly. "Yes, sir," she replied. Hadn't she wished that some four hours ago? Now she had eight hours maximum to look forward to, and certainly not at her own place. She'd have to make do with a quick shower, a bed at the SGC, and a change of gear from her locker rather than a hot warm bath and a long sleep in her own bed. Carter sighed inwardly and steeled herself for the inevitable.

Jack O'Neill looked across at the members of his team as Hammond left the room. This could prove to be their most dangerous mission yet. They were tired, unprepared and with no information on exactly what they were letting themselves in for. The enemy could be, in fact probably were, laying down a trap and here they were walking right into it. They had little in the way of choices, and little time to formulate a plan.

Daniel was rubbing his eyes ruefully, his short brown hair looking uncombed and unruly, a stubble shadowing his chin. Always the idealistic member of the team, the archaeologist would be desperate to attempt the rescue. O'Neill knew that. He also knew that he'd be right there looking at his surroundings, the architecture if there was any, and trying to analyse the people they met. O'Neill allowed himself an ironic smile.

Carter rose from the table. "I need to get some rest," she said and lifted the briefing pad on which she'd scribbled a few notes.

O'Neill waved a solitary hand, excusing her, and watched her leave the room, the dark circles around her eyes telling him the whole story about how she felt. The tall, attractive, blond scientist would be moving hypotheses over in her mind as she walked, he knew that. He also knew that she'd got them out of trouble more times than he cared to admit. If things got tough out there, Sam Carter would be right there in the thick of it, and right there with an answer if they needed one.

Daniel rose and muttered similar words about needing some sleep or dying. O'Neill smiled at the exaggeration and rose too. As Daniel left the room, O'Neill stopped to look at Teal'c. The Jaffa's face was a picture of composure. He looked fresh and untroubled by the lack of sleep.

"This will not be easy, O'Neill," Teal'c said quietly. As usual his understatement was of no surprise to the Colonel.

"You don't say," O'Neill quipped back and then added quietly "I know, Teal'c, I know." O'Neill sat down again, but heavily, and placed his hands on the large table in front of him.

It seemed like the rest of the SGC were asleep. Hell, maybe the world was asleep. The place was hauntingly quiet. O'Neill had a vague memory of walking the floor with his own son when he was a small baby. Of staring out into the night sky and feeling like he was the only one awake, pacing with a screaming, teething infant. The memory pulled at some well-used heart strings and he swallowed them back quickly. He had no time for them right now. They'd have to wait. Regret was a useless emotion, rating right down there with guilt. O'Neill knew both intimately.

A dull glow from two lamps in either corner, was casting shadows across the floor, lending the whole atmosphere a sombre effect. Pretty much how O'Neill felt at that moment, as it happened.

"Okay, so what's your take on all this, Teal'c?" he asked, reaching across and pouring himself a fresh mug of coffee from the already cooling pot in the middle of the table. For a change O'Neill had dropped the sarcasm. He was serious. He needed Teal'c's thoughts on what they were about to face. He needed his experience and his calmness right now.

"As you do, O'Neill, I believe it to be a trap," Teal'c replied quietly, his face registering no emotion.

"Yeah, well.." O'Neill said, squinting his eyes as he did when he didn't know where to look. He nodded slightly. He knew it was probably a trap. In his heart he knew. That didn't stop him from wanting to go in there and beat the crap out of the aliens he'd seen on the MALP camera. The aliens he'd seen holding a member of the most peaceful bunch of people they'd met so far in their travels.

The fear on the face of Nafrayu, was all he, Jack O'Neill, needed to see. He'd seen enough. The Nox were peace loving, damn it. O'Neill had difficulty in getting his mind around what he'd seen. About why a small boy was being held by a race of aliens he'd never encountered before, on a planet which they'd never visited.

"It doesn't make sense, Teal'c" he said and met his eyes. Eyes which registered an empathy with what O'Neill was feeling. An empathy which O'Neill hadn't seen there before, at least not so obviously.

He continued. "I mean, why haven't the Nox summoned help from the Asgard and they could have just gone in there and removed the aliens for them? And what the hell are any of the Nox doing there in the first place? Why didn't Lya or one of the others just make the aliens disappear? They seemed able to do it on their own world, and damn it, their gate was supposed to be inaccessible." O'Neill shook his head with frustration, a hundred questions tumbling chaotically through his mind, trying to find answers and failing.

"I have a theory," Teal'c said and put his head on one side. O'Neill took this to mean did he want to hear Teal'c's theory.

"Shoot," he said.

"I have no weapon," Teal'c replied, looking puzzled.

"Damn it, Teal'c, it's an expression, that's all," O'Neill said with a small degree of exasperation. "I just meant, give me your theory." A part of him usually found Teal'c's innocent reaction to strange sayings funny, but somehow any humour was gone from the room this night.

Teal'c nodded his understanding. "I believe that these aliens are working for the Goa'uld to lure you, O'Neill, to their world."

"What, me in particular or any old human?" O'Neill asked, somewhat taken aback by this bold statement.

"I believe that they want SG-1 and that you as the leader is important to them," Teal'c replied.

"And you believe this because..?" O'Neill said quizzically.

"These aliens hold captive, a members of a race which could pose a potential threat to the Goa'uld. The Nox are a race which so far, the Goa'uld have been unable to overcome. They are allied with the Asgard. These aliens may possess other members of the Nox. It is also strange that they have chosen Nafrayu, a child who is known to us and to you, O'Neill. Does this not seem odd to you?"

O'Neill nodded. He had to agree that the coincidence was alarmingly convenient. His heart sank at what he heard next.

Teal'c continued, his voice calm but certain. "The System Lords would risk certain war with the Asgard if they were seen to have captured one of their allies, a member of the Nox, who are peaceful. I do not believe that they would risk carrying this out themselves. However, their hatred for you, the humans, the Tau'ri, has become an overriding obsession. You have hurt them, O'Neill. They harbour a burning desire for revenge. However, at present their treaty with you, overseen by the Asgard, must stand. By involving another alien race they deflect the blame onto them and away from themselves. They will not be seen to break the treaty. I believe that they will do anything to trap your team and take them prisoner. SG-1 symbolises the defeat which your race has inflicted on several of their own. Our deaths would be seen as a victory. Their possession of the boy is the lure, O'Neill."

"Oh that's wonderful. So we're about to hand them their revenge on a damn plate," said O'Neill, his mind racing, turning over what Teal'c had told him. "Sweet," he muttered to himself.

Teal'c raised his eyebrow.

"Still doesn't explain how in Hell they came to get hold of the Nox in the first place, and why they or the Asgard haven't retaliated," O'Neill said, his thoughts a jumbled incoherent mess of hypotheses, plans and down and out fears.

"We do not know of these aliens. We do not know the power which they possess," Teal'c advised quietly. "Perhaps the Nox and even the Asgard are in fear of them," he added.

"Not on your life," said O'Neill with feeling. "The Nox don't need to fear anyone, and hell, the Asgard seem pretty able to take care of themselves. Well okay, they had a little run in with a bunch of spiders, but hey who's counting."

"I agree that it is unlikely," said Teal'c unconvincingly. "But the evidence of Nafrayu's capture is there nonetheless, O'Neill."

O'Neill rose from the table and started for the door. "I gotta think this one through, Teal'c," he said as he walked. "Somehow we've got to get through the Gate in one piece. Maybe take some extra firepower, that sort of thing. That's got to be our first priority."

"O'Neill," Teal'c said before the Colonel could open the door.

O'Neill turned, his eyes quizzical.

"I have been reading about your Earth legends. Its mythology. Daniel Jackson has been instructing me so that I may better understand the System Lords and how they assumed the role of your Gods."

"Well, that's great Teal'c," said O'Neill, confused at what this could possibly have to do with the current predicament. "I hope you've learned something."

"I have," the Jaffa replied quietly and then continued. "Was it not during a great battle that an enemy invaded another's dwelling by sending a false gift?" he asked.

O'Neill's mind raced, recalling his ancient history. He nodded. "The Trojans did," he said moving back towards the table, and then hit his hand down hard in front of him. Teal'c didn't flinch.

"Of course," he said enthusiastically, "Teal'c, I could kiss you," he added and a broad grin spread across his face.

Teal'c put his head on one side and raised both eyebrows.

"Okay, okay, I won't, but a Trojan Horse, of course. It might just work here," he said and sat back down in his chair, pulling a large pad of paper from across the table and starting to sketch.

He looked up momentarily. "I hope you didn't want to get any sleep," he said and then looked down at his drawing.

"I did not," Teal'c replied, a glint of a smile crossing his face and burning in his eyes.

CHAPTER TWO

PREPARATION

"Can we get some fresh coffee here?" O'Neill called out, not raising his eyes from the sheet of paper in front of him. Hammond closed the door and walked into the room, his eyes narrowing at the sight of a dishevelled O'Neill and a somewhat more composed Teal'c pouring over a large drawing.

"Would that be morning coffee, Colonel, or just some more of the evening variety?" Hammond quipped lightly, his interest piqued at seeing the scene in front of him.

"What? Oh, sorry, sir. I thought you were one of the Airmen doing rounds," O'Neill replied rising to his feet briefly and then sitting back on his chair. He ran his hands roughly through his hair. "God, I need a shower," he muttered and yawned.

"Your team briefing is in three hours. I assume you haven't been to bed yet?" Hammond enquired as he picked up a telephone and asked for fresh brewed coffee and breakfast to be delivered to the briefing room.

"Yeah. That assumption would be right," O'Neill replied and grimaced, flinging his pencil down. "We kinda got carried away," he added ruefully and then picked up his drawing to admire it.

"Mind if I take a look," Hammond said as he peered over O'Neill's shoulder.

O'Neill shrugged and passed it to him. "Not the best artist, sir," he said under his breath.

"Oh you'll do, Colonel, you'll do," Hammond muttered as he eyed the plan with interest.

"This would be a..?"

"A Trojan Horse," O'Neill replied and looked slightly embarrassed at his Commanding Officer's raised eyebrows.

"Would you like to give me some idea..?"

"Well, actually I was kinda hoping to put this past Carter when she appears. If anyone can make this thing come together, she can," O'Neill said giving the General an apologetic look. "No, don't.." he added, wincing and putting his hand up in protest as he watched the General pick up the receiver and request Samantha Carter's presence in the briefing room immediately.

"Oh, well just this once then.." he said and sighed. Carter would be tired enough as it was. Waking up to this would be a challenge.

oOo

Samantha Carter let the soapy water cascade down her arms as she luxuriated in what could turn out to be her last proper shower for some time. The warmth of the water was both relaxing and stimulating and she stepped from it reluctantly, throwing a large towel around her. She sat down on the bed and towelled her hair briskly. A comb through was all she really needed to lick it into some sort of presentable shape.

She eyed her reflection in the mirror and grimaced. The dark circles were less, for sure, but she still looked exhausted. She pulled on her combat gear and boots and stood up. Fingering the dog-tags around her neck she sat back on the bed for a minute.

Whenever they went on a new mission she always faced the same sense of excitement laced with apprehension. It wasn't an apprehension about what was facing them, or how she'd cope. She was a confident enough soldier to know that she could cope with most things, and better in some. She was also confident in her own abilities to handle the stresses and strains of serving as a Stargate Officer. No, it wasn't the mission which was causing the unease. It was an apprehension about who would hold the dog-tags in their hand if she died. Who would question why she'd given her life to the service of something they'd never know about or would never understand? She knew the answer and it hurt her.

Her father might finally understand how much the life she now led meant to her. After all, he was a part of it now. A member of the Tok'ra, host to Selmek. He, above all, would understand. But what if the tags came home to her brother, Mark? He just wouldn't understand. She longed to tell him just how much her life had come together. Just how much she belonged here and how this team, this group of people, were now her family too. How do you tell someone that your way of life meant more to you than anything else? That travelling to other stars, other worlds meant more to you than staying on Earth? How could you tell someone when you weren't allowed to? Despite that frustration, Carter doubted that Mark would understand anyway.

She fingered the chain and tags and swallowed back the feelings as she always did, pushing them to a place where they could be accessed later, if necessary. For now they were an unnecessary burden.

The telephone rang as she rose to leave her room.

oOo

"I think we could use one of the supply vehicles as our 'horse', you're right," Carter said as she poured over the drawing which O'Neill had sketched roughly. "You want to take all this as well?" she added, pointing at a scribbled list of items, and looked up at him.

"That would be the idea," he said and poured more coffee down his throat. Tiredness had been replaced by caffeine. "Can you do it, Major?" he asked, knowing the answer.

"I'll need to have them rig up a small motor which could get us at least through the Gate to the other side. The bulk of the engine compartment has to be cleared to make room for the extra supplies if we want to keep them concealed but operable," she said, studying the list of requirements.

"Major?" O'Neill said impatiently, his head on one side, not wanting to hear the details. Why did scientists always insist on sharing every precise fact, every problem? He wanted the bottom line.

"I'll need two hours to have a vehicle equipped and converted," she said nodding, and lifted the sketches from the table.

O'Neill quietly thumped the table in a gesture of satisfaction.

"Enlist anyone you need to help you, Major," Hammond said from his seat at the table.

"I will assist," Teal'c offered and rose to follow her.

Carter nodded appreciatively and the two left the room headed for the storage and supplies area. As they left, Daniel came in, yawning and pulling his hand through his hair.

"Ah, Daniel, nice of you to join us," O'Neill said and gestured to the breakfast which was laid at the table.

"Am I late?" Daniel asked puzzled and then caught O'Neill's concealed grin.

"Oh, I see, you all made a start without me," he said and grabbed some food.

"Not really. Teal'c and I never actually finished last night," O'Neill explained. "Wanna hear the plan?"

"Oh, you got one? ..Sure," Daniel said as he sat down. "General," he acknowledged with a nod.

Hammond smiled at the young archaeologist who always managed to look dishevelled.

"I gather you've been teaching Teal'c some ancient history," O'Neill said and raised an eyebrow.

"Um, yes. He expressed an interest and I'm just taking it further. He particularly likes the stories from the Trojan wars," Daniel said and bit into a piece of toast.

"So I gather," O'Neill said, nodding and feigning innocence.

"He told you about them?"

"Oh he did more than that, Danny my boy. He came up with a plan to smuggle us in a little arsenal, because of them," O'Neill answered and grinned, folding his two hands triumphantly on the table in front of him.

"Really? Which story did he..?" Daniel's eyes narrowed and he stopped chewing his toast. "It wouldn't be the one about the Trojan Horse, would it?"

O'Neill smiled and nodded. "Quite a doosey don't you think?"

Daniel stopped eating for a moment and contemplated the possibilities. He began to nod slowly. "It could work," he said and then smiled. "Good for Teal'c" he added quietly. "And that would be where I saw Sam and Teal'c hurrying off to?" he asked.

O'Neill nodded.

"Jack, I'd like to see the footage from the MALP again. I've been thinking it over. Something doesn't make sense," Daniel said.

"Nothing made sense," O'Neill muttered and a sense of unease flushed through his system as he remembered the look of fear on the faces of those who were standing next to the Gate.

General Hammond nodded and flicked on a microphone. "Get me the footage from PX3."

"PX3? General, I kinda got used to all the planets having long, hard to remember numbers," O'Neill muttered, surprised. "Just call me old fashioned but.."

"This planet isn't on the cartouche, Colonel. We had to run a program to sort out the symbols, and it didn't even come close to a match. For the moment we've christened it PX3. I'm sure Major Carter will allocate the correct coordinates to it when you all return, " the General replied.

"You mean it has an extra symbol?" Daniel said, raising his eyebrows.

"Not exactly, Dr Jackson." The General sighed, continuing. "I was hoping to get Major Carter to run an extra program before you went but there won't be time. The planet isn't quite as far as the Asgard home world, but it's far enough. Certainly far away from any known coordinates from the Abydos cartouche."

O'Neill and Daniel exchanged interested looks.

Daniel sat back and folded his arms. Things were looking even more intriguing. They had a long journey in front of them.

The Airman delivered the tape in under a minute and pushed it into the player, handing the remote control to Hammond.

"All yours, Dr Jackson," he said as he handed the remote to Daniel.

Daniel rose to his feet to be nearer the screen. For some reason, being closer helped him to concentrate on what was unfolding in front of him. He squinted through his glasses.

For the first few minutes the camera panned slowly from left to right while the MALP moved forward down the ramp.

"Okay, we've got what looks like sand. Thick groves of trees on all sides about a hundred feet from the Gate and little else," Daniel muttered as he paused every so often and stared closer. Then he re- wound for a second and played it again. Then again. Then he played the tape forward and started the rewind and paused again.

"Daniel, you got something you want to share here?" O'Neill asked as he watched the footage rewind and play over and again. He pinched his nose, trying to banish the tiredness.

Daniel nodded but didn't answer. Then he froze the film once more and pointed to the far left.

"There! It's a small gap in the trees. You can see water," he said and moved the film so that the view to the other side of the MALP was showing. He froze the film again and pointed. "There! A body of water again, just showing through the trees."

He turned to face them and took O'Neill's querying look and held it. "Did we get any footage from the other side of the gate, around towards the back?" he asked tentatively.

Hammond looked at him, wondering where this was leading. "The footage towards the rear of the gate is where we first see the aliens and their prisoners," he explained.

"We've all been so interested in seeing what was happening we didn't take any notice of what was surrounding the gate," Daniel explained as he flicked the play switch and watched the proceedings unfold.

O'Neill swallowed down a feeling of discomfort as he watched the alien captors come into view and stare at the MALP camera, making no attempt at disabling it. The prisoner was brought into view and held in front of the camera, the dejected and yet defiant face of the Nox boy, Nafrayu, tugging at his conscience. The boy was dragged and pushed down to kneel in the sand. O'Neill felt his anger rise as it had the first time he'd seen the footage, but Daniel was moving closer to the screen and staring hard. Pausing and playing. Pausing and playing until O'Neill had to look away.

Daniel turned triumphantly and banged the remote control down on the table.

"It's a small island," he said, his eyes burning fiercely. "The gate's on an island," he repeated and watched as the General and O'Neill exchanged puzzled looks.

oOo

The embarkation room was pretty insignificant looking, in the general scheme of things. The SGC teams had encountered many different embarkation rooms, or Gaterooms, as Daniel liked to call them, on many different worlds. All different, all significant in their own appearance. Each Gate meaning something different to the inhabitants of each world and in their turn saying a lot about the inhabitants and their culture. Daniel believed that how a Gate was placed or how it was looked after could often tell him about the people before he met them.

They'd found Gates which had long been abandoned. Gates which were guarded. Gates which were revered and had become part of some religious ritual. And here was their own Gate. Set in a dull grey room, surrounded by dull grey technical equipment and guarded, not as a treasure, but as a potential entrance for alien invasion and as an exit for their own exploration.

Daniel often wondered what other races made of their own Gateroom when they'd arrived on this world. No glorious inscriptions to greet them. No gold pillars or carpets made from soft red cloth entwined with gold. In fact quite dull.

Finding a Gate which was placed in the middle of a small, seemingly deserted island was one of the strangest settings he'd ever encountered. Probably rated up there with the one on the prison world in terms of strangeness really. Meeting the owners of this new gate was going to be quite an experience. He felt that thrill which he always experienced when he knew he was going to have the chance to meet with a race never encountered before. This time though it was tinged with apprehension and a gut feeling that this was going to be no picnic. To experience a living record of a planet and a people, was a dream come true for an archaeologist and a linguist. To encounter a dangerous group of aliens wasn't always a part of the dream process.

Teal'c pulled on his helmet and gripped his staff weapon meaningfully. His own personal reminder of what he once was, of what he'd escaped to become. His staff and the Goa'uld larva which lay resting in his pouch. A larva which would grow to be an adult Goa'uld one day. Something they'd have to deal with when that time occurred. Something he had to push from his mind. And yet it was also a reminder of a past life and of a family who no longer saw him, but who knew that wherever he was, he was fighting, fighting for their freedom, for their very destiny. Teal'c raised his chin and held his head proudly as he fingered the buckles on his belt and pulled them tighter. He was ready.

"Well, Carter?" O'Neill said enquiringly as he sauntered into the embarkation room fully kitted up, and looked at the impressively loaded supply vehicle which was being pushed into position on the ramp.

"All ready, sir," she replied and pulled on her helmet. She tucked her dog-tags beneath her tee shirt and pulled her jacket across, zipping it firmly. Fastening the last few buckles deftly and tucking her knife into its holster behind her, she glanced up to see Daniel Jackson walking into the room.

"Well troops. Let's go to it." O'Neill said, looking at each of them. He pulled his MP-5 to his waist and gripped it tightly.

"Just a minute, Colonel."

All eyes turned to see the diminutive figure of Dr Janet Frasier emerging through the side doors. She was obviously in a hurry.

"Come to wave goodbye, Doc?" O'Neill commented, smiling at the petit brunette.

Hammond allowed a smile to play on his lips at the flippancy of his officer even under extreme pressure.

"No, Colonel. Come to make sure you take this with you," Frasier said firmly, her dark eyes flashing, and held out her hand. The small container was thin, metallic and nondescript. O'Neill raised his eyebrow.

"Nice of you to give us a going away present, Doc, but what the hell is this?" he said fingering it.

"You're equipped with everything I could think of for field surgery or emergency treatment. I've also included anything I could think of which might be of use for treating a seriously injured Nox, although their anatomy is beyond anything I've come across. Since I've never had the chance to actually treat one..."

"We get your drift, doc," O'Neill interrupted gently. Jeez, Frasier and Carter were so alike sometimes, or was it just that they were both scientists. He mentally threw his eyes to the ceiling.

Frasier threw him a glowering look, her dark eyes flashing once more. "Colonel, the box contains our most up-to-date antibiotic. It's more powerful than anything we've tried before. If you get a serious infection or if someone is seriously injured and you can't get them back, use it, but only on yourselves. I wouldn't like to try it out on an alien life form." Frasier turned to go.

"Thanks," Carter said quietly from behind the supply vehicle.

"Oh yeah, thanks doc," O'Neill added and caught the look of recrimination from Carter as he looked up. He shrugged.

Frasier found herself smiling secretly as she went back out of the Embarkation room. Sometimes O'Neill had the charm of a rattlesnake. Other times however... She'd done her bit. Now it was time for them to do theirs.

"Good luck, SG-1," Hammond said as he watched them move the supply truck up towards the gate, as near as they could, but not too near. Then they stepped back.

Hammond turned and nodded at his Lieutenant in the control room.

One by one the chevrons engaged, the glow above them always exciting Carter. She still felt the same awe that she'd felt that very first day O'Neill had walked her up the ramp and herded her through the gate. She still felt the excitement and the adrenalin rush.

"Chevron six encoded," the monotonous tone of the young man rang out.

"Chevron seven, locked."

The gate spun into action. An enormous finger of what looked like silver churning water, shot out from the gate. This event horizon, as Carter liked to explain it, would, given half a chance, take anything in its path and incinerate it. Within a second it had retreated back to the gate and there it now lay, a calm pool of liquid, its volatility gone. A calm wall into which the SGC sent its teams. To pass through the Stargate and find what lay beyond was all that any of the teams had ever in their minds. Hostile planets and hostile environments were often filtered out by the MALPs before anyone went through. Of course, there had been times when the surprises on the other side were unexpected. When events could turn a peaceful environment into a war zone.

This time however, this time was different. SG1 knew they were going to meet hostility the minute they arrived. They had no choice. They had no other options. The Nox had saved their lives before. Each member of the team knew that. Each member of the team also knew that they'd lay down their lives to help them if they needed to.

As the Gate closed behind the team, General Hammond looked down and said a silent prayer.

CHAPTER THREE

COMMUNICATION

Golden yellow sands tapered down to the water. A vast silver vat of gently lapping water edging the island and blending with the night sky as it cast a warm red hue onto the ground and ocean beyond. The sun was a mere streak at the horizon, its dying embers warming the last vestige of another day. The ensuing colors were breathtaking in their complexity and diversity. An alien sky. An alien horizon. Noiseless, peaceful, forgotten. This abandoned world, this oasis of calm had only one purpose now. It was home to a vast ring, an enormous edifice of what passed as solid stone, but which was an alien material unlike anything encountered on Earth. A silent sentinel edged with lights that glowed in the darkness. A darkness which threatened to swallow every last piece of the day and turn it into the black inkiness of night.

As the silence fell, the ring came unexpectedly to life. A grinding sound and energy infusing into the ring, thrusting a charge into its heart. A single finger of molten liquid threw itself out and then withdrew just as swiftly. It was as though the ring itself were tasting the air and recoiling in disgust. Yet it left a perfect circle of liquid at its heart, and through this it deposited its cargo.

O'Neill stepped through the Gate and along a ramp. There were three shallow steps at the base. He paused before descending, his weapon poised, his eyes darting everywhere, focusing and refocusing within the darkness. He pulled the night vision scope down over his eyes and peered through its red glow, grateful for Carter's suggestion that it might be dark when they arrived. They hadn't risked sending another MALP through ahead of them, warning the aliens of their imminent arrival.

He was tensed and ready for attack. Teal'c was at his side, staff weapon pointed in front of him, eyes scanning in every direction, alert and prepared. The staff hummed, ready to fire if necessary.

The steady drone of a small motor broke the calm. The supply vehicle manoeuvred onto the ramp and started its slow descent. Carter had one hand on it, steadying its progress, close to the trigger which would turn the innocent looking supply vehicle into a military hardware store. The other hand rested on her MP-5, her finger caressing the trigger, her ears and eyes alert for any movement, any noise. She too had pulled down a night vision scope and was trying to get used to its bulk and the strange glow which it afforded everything. Daniel walked steadily at her side, his weapon held tightly but without the intent which the other three had. Daniel could kill if he had to, but his discomfort with being forced into a soldier's role had never quite left him.

O'Neill raised a solitary hand and indicated with his fingers that they should cover all angles of attack. He was surprised not to have been fired on immediately. His body had been tense enough for it. Every sinew, every muscle poised for defence. Every nerve twanging, every part of him prepared. This silent calm was unnerving, to say the least.

The trees loomed around them as tall silent sentinels, their dark unswerving forms towering over the team.

"Teal'c, with me," O'Neill whispered. "Carter, you take Daniel and check the south side of the Gate."

Carter nodded, shutting down the supply vehicle's motor. She moved towards the rear of the Gate in silence, her weapon poised in readiness. She briefly fingered the remote control on her belt, the one for the vehicle's extra little surprises. Just in case.

Daniel's eyes scanned the darkness through his glasses. He'd opted not to wear the night vision aids, knowing that the last time he'd tried them he'd managed to break his glasses and spent the whole of that next day unable to see perfectly and wishing that he'd never bothered in the first place.

"Carter?" the Colonel's voice hissed through the blackness once they'd come full circle around the Gate.

"Nothing, sir," she replied softly, wondering why they were bothering to whisper when the place was obviously deserted.

Daniel moved across to the DHD, an abbreviation they'd enforced when Dial Home Device became too much of a mouthful in times of urgency. He also remembered, with a silent smile, that Carter had been the first one to point out that the whole thing was very much like a telephone system, and that if you dialled a planet and got a wrong number it was because you'd failed to pinpoint the correct symbols and engage the chevrons on the Gate correctly. Simple really, quite simple.

The DHD looked changed to Daniel. Even from ten feet away he could tell that the interface on the top was wildly different. There were no symbols at all, just a circle of colored panels, the center being black. A wave of panic washed through him as he moved towards it and touched one tentatively. Nothing. He felt a presence move close to his shoulder. Carter reached past his arm and touched another color. Still nothing. She frowned, confused.

"Even if these are different settings they should still light up when touched," she said quietly, looking at him. Daniel shook his head, worried.

"Problem, campers?" came O'Neill's half cheerful question, his voice slightly raised now, obviously acutely aware that the whole island was deserted and that they were the only inhabitants and were likely to stay that way unless they could get the Gate to play nicely.

"This configuration of the DHD is different to anything we've ever encountered, sir," Carter offered warily.

"I have faith in you, Major. Complete faith," O'Neill said encouragingly as he came to stand at her shoulder and look at the configuration. A sinking feeling set in as he watched the Major push each colored panel hard, with no result.

"Incoming only?" he said.

"Could be, sir," said Carter unconvincingly. "Although we do know that the aliens transmitted a signal back through the Gate to Earth and the MALP returned safely. That indicates two way traffic is possible."

"How did the MALP get back?" asked Daniel quizzically. "We can't have operated it using our codes."

Carter shrugged. "My guess is that the aliens sent it back. Essentially they've doctored the DHD so that only they can operate it."

"These aliens were indeed determined to get us here," commented Teal'c. "And perhaps have ensured that we do not return," he added thoughtfully.

"Sweet," replied O'Neill as he looked at the nearest group of trees. "Let's set up camp for the night and get our minds around the problem later."

"Colonel?" Carter said, a question playing on her lips. He knew what she wanted to know. He would too, given her role as his second in command.

"I'm kind of hoping our friends might pay us a visit over night," he explained. "They wanted us here, now they got us. Least they could do is come play with us." He hoisted his weapon close to his body. "Make sure the surprise package stays close," he added, indicating the supply vehicle with his head.

Carter nodded and moved across to start the motor.

Tiredness was a frame of mind. O'Neill kept telling himself that but it had long ago ceased working. He was shattered and he knew it. In fact his eyes were beginning to drop while they were pitching the small tents.

"I will take first watch, O'Neill," Teal'c offered, seeing his commanding officer's exhaustion and knowing he'd be no good on sentry duty whatsoever.

O'Neill nodded his appreciation wordlessly. Teal'c had a unique ability of knowing when he was needed and when to be there, and when to keep in the background when he wasn't.

oOo

The night had borne a silence, unbroken by animal noise or birdsong. The only sound had been a gentle breaking of water against the near shore. As far as each member of each watch was concerned, the whole planet might well have been deserted for all the sounds of life they heard.

The darkness of the night sky eventually gave way to a streak of gold as the sun started to rise. The chill of the night air beginning to warm slowly as the sea shimmered gently in a light breeze, its reflection visible through the trees.

Teal'c stretched his legs and rose. He glanced at the sleeping form of Jack O'Neill and moved with stealth through the opening in the front of the tent.

The solitary figure was a little distance from the camp, leaning against a tree and looking out at the distant horizon, her weapon resting gently in her arms, armed and ready to fire when necessary. It was third watch and Sam Carter was grateful to be able to stare at something other than an inky blackness.

"There is at least an hour left before the sun has risen completely, Major Carter. You may rest if you like. I will take the rest of this watch."

Carter smiled gratefully at the sound of Teal'c's voice, and shivered involuntarily, pulling her jacket around her shoulders to stave off the chill of the morning air.

"Thanks, Teal'c but I'm all slept out." She paused. "Beautiful, isn't it?" she murmured.

Teal'c followed her gaze through the edge of the trees and across the sea, the gentle colors of the water beginning to merge into each other. Blues and greens combining with the silver left over from the night sky. A solitary moon sat foreboding and staring at her. Its surface a silvery hue. In the distance she could make out another shape. She couldn't be sure what, a nearby planet perhaps or even a satellite moon far in the distance.

"It is," he replied softly.

Carter turned to look at him, the light of the rising sun reflected in her eyes. His own dark eyes were distant, lost in thought.

Sensing her gaze he spoke quietly. "There were places such as this on Chulak. Places where we went, to be together. A long time ago. Places which seemed so distant from the war which raged within my people." Teal'c drew in a deep breath and let his eyes wander across the seascape. The water was undisturbed, gentle.

Carter lowered her eyes. She felt as though she were intruding on his very personal thoughts just by being with him. That she was tasting a little of the pain he must live with daily at leaving his family behind.

"You miss them, don't you?" she whispered.

"I do what I must do," he replied quietly.

"I know." Carter felt the lump in her throat increase. She swallowed hard. "You know, Teal'c, everything about this place says peace," she said quietly. She sighed and shook her head. "I just feel it."

"I have travelled to many worlds, Major Carter. Many have seemed as this one, quiet and peaceful. These worlds often hide their secrets well. They harbor evil rulers who would do harm to their people. Do not be deceived by the look of a world. Look only into the eyes of its people. It is there that the truth lies."

Carter turned around to look at Teal'c and smiled, her eyes softening. "You know sometimes, Teal'c, you do amaze me," she said and squeezed his arm. She gazed over to the three tents. "I guess I might as well get breakfast," she murmured.

Teal'c raised a solitary eyebrow as he watched her return to her tent, his eyes reflecting a pleasure at her words and a pride.

He returned his gaze to the horizon just at the second that the Stargate started to come to life.

oOo

The aliens were impervious to the cold sickening sensation which the Gate inflicted on its travelers. Stepping through the event horizon to another world held no terror, or excitement.

Ventra put a hand tentatively in front of him and stepped through. His companion shadowed his footsteps, blinking at the dawning sun which was just beginning to throw its golden shafts of warmth onto the ramp.

Four sets of eyes held his own intently. Four weapons pointing directly at him and his companion.

Ventra hesitated and looked from one face to another, digesting their features, the way they stood and the way they looked at him. Apprehension, aggression, curiosity and hope. All four emotions were registered in some form or another. Their dress was as he'd expected, as he knew they would look. Dressed for battle. Ready to engage whatever awaited them. Four of them, as predicted. Pilar had said they would come. Pilar was right. As always.

"You are angry, apprehensive. We understand this," he announced suddenly. He had no time for welcoming the strangers. He had no time for the pleasantries which some species expected. The ritual of introduction was lost centuries earlier. Some things were best relegated to the past.

O'Neill shrugged. "Daniel?" he said. He didn't take one eye off the aliens for a single moment, even though he was disturbed by their appearance. Sure he'd seen them on the tape from the MALP but face to face they seemed to be even more bizarre. Tall, pale skinned, blue eyed and blond. They were at once pleasant looking, smiling and non- threatening. The clothes they wore were identical and not obviously military. Black body suits, belted at the waist. Simple and tasteless. O'Neill turned to Daniel who was silent.

"I'm not sure. It's not a dialect I understand. Sounds Goa'uldish if anything, but the words aren't.."Daniel said and put his hands out in a gesture of futility.

"Teal'c?" O'Neill swung around to see the Jaffa staring at the aliens.

"I am not familiar with this," he said simply.

O'Neill put a hand up impatiently. "For crying out loud, so you don't know. That's just fine. Now how are we going to have a discussion about releasing their prisoner if we don't understand them and they don't understand us?"

Daniel shrugged and then turned to the three aliens. "Can you understand us?" He spoke clearly and slowly.

Ventra turned to his companion in dismay. "I had forgotten that this might happen. Their speech is alien to us and ours to them, and yet we understood the others. I thought that they would use the same language."

The second alien turned to look at SG1 and then back to Ventra. "Communication was not perceived to be a problem. We were obviously mistaken. We must use these," he said and placing a tiny metallic box on his palm, he opened it and pulled several small discs from inside. He reached out his hand to Ventra.

The small discs were flat and completely unmarked. Placing one on his forehead, Ventra closed his eyes momentarily. Mafus placed a second disc on his own forehead and leant across to speak quietly to his companion.

"Which one?"

"I am reluctant to choose. There may be damage without the controlled environment of our own facilities," Ventra said as he opened his eyes and looked across to SG1 who were eyeing them cautiously. "We do not yet understand their physiology. It may not match that which we thought we knew."

Ventra's hand was clenched firmly around a third disc. Mafus nodded towards SG1. "It is necessary. We cannot communicate with them without the knowledge," he said.

Ventra turned back towards SG1 and nodded reluctantly at his companion. He gazed at each of them in turn. The two men were discussing why they did not understand the language. Their minds were engaged, unreceptive. The larger human was not suitable for many reasons. Ventra stared at the slighter human. A female. Her mind was open, receptive, and yet somehow he could sense that it had not always been totally her own. She would have to do.

He moved down the ramp towards her, ignoring the sound of the weapons being raised in unison, the clicking of the firing mechanisms as they were readied.

When he was within six feet of the team he held both his hands out to the side in submission, trying to communicate his non-aggression, and stared at her intently.

Carter raised her weapon and fingered the trigger. The alien was coming directly for her and she knew it. Then, as she stared at him, a feeling of complete relaxation flooded her system and she found that she couldn't resist staring at his eyes. They were blue, cold eyes. They contained no emotion whatsoever and yet she felt hypnotised by them, drawn to them somehow. She fought against lowering her weapon but finally she felt her arms drop to the sides. She had no feeling of malice from the alien.

"Major, bring your weapon to bear," O'Neill barked loudly, furious at his officer for letting her guard down. At the same time a finger of fear crept up his back towards his neck. He watched the alien still on the ramp. Neither alien held a weapon and yet he feared reprisal for the Nox prisoner, wherever he was, if he fired on the first alien.

Carter didn't answer O'Neill. She heard his words but knew she was unable to respond, rooted to the spot.

Daniel raised his handgun to aim at the alien, looking at Carter and her glazed eyes. Then Ventra turned swiftly and caught his eye. Daniel felt the same sense of ease flood through him, like being drugged somehow. The weapon slipped from his hands and dropped to the ground.

The alien put a hand up. Before any of them could react, a small fluorescent disc rose from his hand. It circled gently before settling some two inches above his palm. Without warning, a blue beam of light shot out from the device, crossing the gap between them and reaching Carter's forehead within seconds. Nothing. She felt no pain, no sensation. She heard Teal'c's staff weapon buzzing close to her. She knew he was close to firing. She couldn't stop him and yet she didn't want him to fire on them. She couldn't explain why even if he'd asked.

The beam which linked Carter with the device, thrust out two swirling limbs of energy and connected with the aliens' own devices. A triumvirate of blue intense light throbbed quietly in mid-air.

O'Neill raised his weapon. He could take the alien out right now. And then what? They would be no nearer to freeing Nafrayu. His officer didn't appear to be in pain, and yet he felt the fear aching in his gut as he watched the beam of light play softly on her skin. If he severed the beam there was no telling what damage it might do to Carter. Reluctantly, he held his fire.

"Daniel?" O'Neill whispered urgently to the young archaeologist standing between himself and Carter in a state of complete reverie, his eyes glazed. He wanted his cultural input. Damn it, he wanted his advice. "What the hell is the matter with you? I need to know what they're doing?"

"I don't think they mean Sam any harm. I think they're trying to communicate," Daniel offered almost reluctantly, his tone measured, shaking his head to clear the numbness. He knew he was right, somehow he knew, and yet he feared the alternatives if he was wrong. If he told Jack that they could be doing anything right now, anything and they might not even know it was happening to Sam until it was too late, Jack would start shooting and then the whole thing would be over. Possible outcome? No way of ever freeing the Nox, dead Aliens and possibly a dead Sam. Daniel swallowed and he shook off the hypnotic feeling almost with reluctance.

From relaxation to agony. Without warning, Carter felt a sudden prick of intense heat and then pain, searing, red hot pain. She let out a loud moan and fell to her knees instantly, her eyes looking skywards, unable to blink, unable to shut out the pain.

That was enough for O'Neill, who flicked his trigger instantly and sent a warning volley across the feet of the alien who stood in front of Carter. The alien didn't flinch but held fast with what it was doing.

"Do it, Teal'c," he shouted, surprised at the alien's reaction. To hell with holding back, it was time to interfere.

Teal'c lurched forwards instantly and knocked the alien off its feet, sending it sprawling sideways across the sand and severing the connection between all three.

Daniel lurched forwards, catching Carter as she fell sideways and put her hand up to the side of her head, rocking back in a comforting motion. His eyes narrowed as he looked at her face. A dark red stain burned beneath the skin of her forehead.

The alien scrambled across the sand towards the Gate as O'Neill sent another warning round towards them, trying desperately to avoid actually hitting any of them. Not yet anyway, he couldn't afford to hurt them, not yet.

The aliens regrouped and stood watching, silently, waiting.

Carter opened her eyes and breathed deeply as the pain subsided.

"What the hell just happened?" O'Neill asked angrily, as he reached down and lifted Carter by the arm to a standing position, his relief palpable that she wasn't lying dead on the sand beneath their feet.

She shook her head, swallowing hard and then fingered her forehead apprehensively. "I'm not sure," she said quietly. She felt sick and dizzy.

"For crying out loud, Carter. Why the hell didn't you stop them at the outset?" O'Neill's anger was directed at himself as well as Carter, but he was furious that she'd almost welcomed the alien intrusion with open arms.

"I don't know, sir. I couldn't move," she replied and looked quizzically at Ventra who was watching the ensuing arguments with interest and some obvious concern. Her mind felt cloudy still and yet she could feel something else. Something which hadn't been there before.

"Jack, I don't think they meant to hurt Sam," Daniel said, trying to calm his friend down.

"Ya think?" O'Neill responded, raising his eyes to the sky in frustration.

"Look, Daniel, as far as I'm concerned, attaching any sort of foreign body to one of my officers counts as assault. That's also called hurting them. It hurt, didn't it Carter?" he asked rounding on her. She lowered her eyes. "There," he said triumphantly. "Do you think I'm way off course now?"

"Well..actually, yes I do," Daniel said and took his glasses off to clean the lenses vigorously, averting his eyes from the angry look O'Neill was giving him.

"If you're about to tell me..." O'Neill started and then stopped as the aliens started to speak again.

"Look we can't.." O'Neill mouthed loudly, throwing his hands out in frustration.

"Actually sir, we can." said Carter quietly, and with some surprise in her voice.

O'Neill looked at the aliens who were speaking clear English, his eyes narrowing.

"I knew it," Daniel muttered to no one in particular.

"Would someone like to explain this to me," O'Neill said, looking from each member of his team to the other.

"I believe that Major Carter has given the aliens the ability to communicate with us," Teal'c said quietly.

"Oh for crying out loud," O'Neill said and looked at Carter who was looking sheepish. "That light on your head? You connected with them? They're using your language to speak to us?"

Carter nodded. "Yes, I think so, Colonel." she said softly.

"Well, what else can they use from your mind?" O'Neill retorted angrily, swallowing back his fear at what might have happened to his officer. What information they'd taken from her. Angry at himself for not stopping it.

"We used the device only to communicate with you," Ventra offered as he moved a few feet nearer to them once more. "We meant Samantha Carter no harm. The pain is an unusual side effect of the communication process. Perhaps the symbiot you once held within you caused the malfunction," he added looking at Carter.

"I don't think they meant to hurt me, sir," Carter said, putting her fingers gingerly to her head and registering the fact that the aliens now knew she'd been a host. "Jolinar's thoughts and memories might have confused things."

"Damn sure it confused things, Major." O'Neill said and glared at his officer. "Now let's hope your little buddies know we're real angry," O'Neill barked and advanced a step nearer to the alien.

Ventra put his head on one side and eyed him curiously. "Please accept our apologies." He bowed. "There is no time for anger. We must proceed. You are the leader? You are O'Neill?"

"Yup," O'Neill said, eyeing the two aliens with interest. The aliens had obviously got at least his name out of Carter's thoughts or maybe even Nafrayu. An uncomfortable feeling nagged at him.

"You must bring your soldiers and come with us."

"Well forgive me for not fitting right in with your orders here, but we've got a little matter of a friend of ours you got your hands on, remember?" O'Neill replied, nodding at the Gate. He didn't know what to make of these strange aliens. Their behaviour didn't match with what they'd seen on the video. They'd seemed hostile and yet now he wasn't sure. Even when they'd flashed that beam thing at Carter, it wasn't done with malice, he guessed the motive was necessity. He felt strangely unnerved. Hostile aliens he could cope with. Friendly ones were even better. Those which fell somewhere in between always gave him the goose bumps.

"Ah yes. You will be reunited with your friend when we have travelled further," Ventra replied and turned to his companion. "Mafus, please engage the device."

"Hey, what about our provisions, our tents? We're going to need our supplies," Carter protested, stepping towards the campsite which they'd pitched the night before, and remembering the supply vehicle and what it contained.

"You will have no need for those. You may bring whatever you need for a journey, that is all. Speed is essential. Retrieve the rest on your return," Ventra said calmly and gestured towards the Gate. "You may keep your weapons," he added, looking meaningfully at Carter's MP-5, as he spoke the words.

"Looks like they trust us, sir." Carter commented softly to the Colonel, and then walked towards the tents and picked up two of their backpacks. She looked wistfully at the supply vehicle. O'Neill shrugged, resigned to leaving it there. Still maybe it would come in handy on their return.

"Looks like they expect us to come back. That's sure comforting," O'Neill barbed loudly as he shouldered one of the packs. He didn't like it, not one bit. Hostile aliens allowing them to keep their weapons didn't fit. It didn't fit at all.

"We will not harm you provided that you do not harm us," Ventra said in a low voice, almost anticipating their fears. Carter felt uncomfortable. It was almost as if they were hearing her thoughts. She tried to shrug the feeling off.

"You know, Major, if it's one thing I hate, it's eavesdropping," O'Neill muttered to Carter as they joined the aliens at the bottom of the ramp.

The second alien turned to the DHD and placed a single hand over the center. A small beam of blue light swept down from his palm and spread out across the colored panels. As the colors danced swiftly in a random pattern, Carter gave up trying to memorise what was being done.

She sighed in frustration and shook her head at an even more frustrated O'Neill as they moved through the Gate in front of the aliens. Their one chance to see how the Gate would get them back home was wasted.

oOo

Stepping from a Gate onto a new planet was always a new and exciting experience for SG1. Stepping from a Gate onto a new planet, only to be confronted by an identical Gate directly opposite you, was something they'd never experienced before.

The darkness of the sky was illuminated only by occasional flashes of lightning in the distant sky. Streaks of red intermingled with a dull purple hue stretched across the horizon. The lightning allowed brief glimpses of a hostile, barren looking landscape. Flat, emotionless and soulless. The twin Gates and their corresponding DHDs perched on the top of a small grassless mound. A high metallic fence surrounded them, its surface glinting in the light of each lightning strike.

Carter felt a shiver pass across her and she zipped up her jacket. No time to admire the scenery or take in their new surroundings this time. Perhaps in some ways it was just as well. The hostility of their surroundings was intense.

She moved closer to Daniel.

"Theoretically, this isn't possible," she said in a low voice.

"Two gates. Same point of origin," agreed Daniel looking concerned.

Ventra moved to stand next to them. "All things are possible," he said and then moved away.

Carter and Daniel exchanged a look of confusion.

Mafus had moved swiftly to the DHD and this time the aliens were in a hurry, of that O'Neill was certain. He didn't feel the same misgivings about the place as Carter did, just curiosity at why their hosts wanted the hell out of there.

"Hey, just hold on a minute, will ya? Maybe we'd like to get a look around here," O'Neill said nonchalantly. It was a reflex action, something inbuilt into the officer in him. He hated not being in control. Being herded like animals to God only knew where. If he could stall them, only momentarily, he'd won. A shallow victory maybe, but a small victory for his independence nevertheless. Stalling them meant that somehow he'd gained control of the situation.

The aliens stopped. Mafus had his hand hovering over the new DHD, his face turned expectantly towards Ventra.

"Sir I think they know something about this place. Something bad," Carter whispered, noting their guides' reactions. "They don't want to hang around here. I think they're frightened of something. Can't say I blame them," she added, shuddering involuntarily as she glanced at the sky. The feeling of fear from the aliens was palpable. Somehow she could touch it, feel it. She put a finger to her forehead and lightly touched the still sore patch.

Daniel and O'Neill exchanged meaningful glances. O'Neill's thoughts raced. A planet hostile to the aliens might not necessarily be hostile to themselves. Maybe there were humans here. Humans who could help them. Humans or some race which had a beef with these aliens. Maybe that's why they were scared. If they could link up with the inhabitants, they could overcome the aliens and at least free the Nox and then dial.. O'Neill's heart sank. The DHDs here looked as alien as the one at the last Gate. They were trapped without knowledge of how to get back. Trapped like wasps in a jar of treacle. Trying to move forwards but getting bogged down in the technicalities of actually leaving.

A crash of thunder overhead made the aliens visibly start. Streaks of lightning drove across the sky and forked the ground nearer their position. Mafus leapt into action, his hands racing across the panels of the DHD. Ventra took Carter by the arm and propelled her towards the ramp of the Gate. The agitation was written all across their features. Eyes casting across the near terrain and then towards the skies, waiting, watching for something.

O'Neill's finger tightened on the trigger of his MP-5, his hand automatically caressing the black casing. He glanced towards the Gate and felt a strange sense of relief as he watched the Chevrons engage, slowly but surely. His desire to explore the planet further was slowly ebbing.

The roar in the sky above them came from nowhere. It surged from a creature O'Neill had only witnessed in his worst nightmares, and in documentaries about lands before time itself began.

As the Gate threw out the welcoming finger of 'liquid', the huge, dark and leathery winged creature crashed down against the fence and let out an ear piercing scream as it was thrown backwards by a single jolt of power. It's huge jaws opened in protest as it gnawed at the fence. The power wasn't affecting it any more. It screamed in triumph as it saw its prey within reach.

Ventra pushed Mafus through the Gate and shouted at Carter.

"The fence only contains a specific amount of power. We have to get through now," she screamed running across to O'Neill. She grabbed Daniel by the arm and pushed him towards the alien who waited at the entrance to the Gate.

"Just one shot, Major, that's all I need," O'Neill shouted back as he crouched and aimed at the creature which rose to start the attack afresh.

"It is mine, Colonel O'Neill," Teal'c shouted calmly as he triggered the staff weapon's firing mechanism and let the blast tear into the nearest wing, casting flesh and bone asunder as easily as slicing through butter.

The resulting scream of pain and frustration was met by a sound even more terrifying. As O'Neill and Teal'c followed the fleeing form of Carter and the alien through the entrance to the Gate, O'Neill allowed himself a look across his shoulder. The darkness which spread down from the sky and cleared the fence with ease, coalesced into four more of the flying nightmares.

CHAPTER FOUR

THE JOURNEY

O'Neill could hear the panting breath of Teal'c ringing in his ear, as he took what he felt would be the longest journey he'd had the misfortune to take, through any damn wormhole of any damn Gate they'd encountered. He could almost swear he could taste the fetid breath of the dark monsters which were presently following through the wormhole closely on his heels. Or was it his imagination?

He reached the light and felt the immediate pull of strong arms propel him to the ground and over the side of the down ramp. Teal'c's grunt swiftly followed and he crashed close to O'Neill's head.

A sudden loud hum and the sound of crackling energy raced across the mouth of the Gate. An iris of sorts. It was impossible to make out just how many creatures perished the other side of the wormhole, but the air swiftly filled with the sound and smell of discharging power, and the screams of dying nightmares. O'Neill raised his head gingerly and looked up over the rim of the ramp.

The Gate was situated at the top of a long stone ramp. Its markings were identical in all ways to the two - no make that three - Gates they'd seen so far on the journey. O'Neill wondered how many more they'd need to pass through before they reached their final destination. What was more fascinating about this particular Gate was that the aliens had obviously seen fit to put up an iris, just as they had back on Earth. This time though, an energy field closed to prevent unauthorised Gate activation, or as in this case, to prevent unwanted intruders from passing through. Maybe they weren't so different from them after all. Though O'Neill swallowed back any feelings of camaraderie with them. After all, they held a hostage. That was one thing he didn't have in common with them.

Carter sauntered across to her Commanding Officer, dragging her collar up around her neck to stop a biting wind from penetrating. "We've reached journey's end," she said, clipping her MP-5 into a more comfortable position now that she didn't feel a need to have it ready for immediate action.

"Sweet," O'Neill replied and readjusted his cap. He fingered his weapon deliberately. He wasn't about to trust them yet, even if Carter did. "What were those things?"

"I haven't found out yet," she replied and turned to go towards Ventra to ask.

"Carter?"

"Sir?" She swung around and looked quizzically at him, swaying slightly as a gust of strong wind and sand grabbed at her.

"You having any problems with them having been in your head?" he asked awkwardly, nodding at her forehead, and the still bright red patch.

"I'm not sure," she said honestly. She hesitated. "I don't think they got exactly what they wanted, sir."

O'Neill raised an eyebrow.

"I mean, it was like Jolinar's memories kind of confused things," she continued. "Like the Tok'ra side of things confused the device which was looking for human parts of my mind. I don't know why I feel it, I just do. I don't think I was meant to feel pain. I think a part of Jolinar protected me from more probing somehow by causing the pain." She shrugged and bit her lip. "It's just my analysis of it."

"Sounds pretty accurate to me," O'Neill replied as she turned to move away. She nodded wordlessly, appreciative of his trust in her instincts.

"Colonel, I'm going to try and find out more about the twin gates. It could explain things we haven't even touched on," she said as she turned away.

"Be my guest. And, Carter, while you're at it, try to find us a way out of here," he replied as she nodded and moved away.

Daniel moved alongside O'Neill and thumbed across towards the Gate and iris. "Did Sam have any idea what those things were?"

"Nope. She's going to go and have a "chat" with her friends," O'Neill replied and gazed at the figures of his second in command and the alien involved in conversation.

"You don't like them having communicated with her, do you?" Daniel said, knowing a denial was coming.

"I don't like anyone messing with my officers' minds. Could be just a communicating device, might be something else. I'm not coming down either way," he replied. "Call me a cynic, Daniel, but we've had too many encounters with mind altering machines and creatures for my liking. Don't like it."

"Sam can handle it, Jack," Daniel said quietly.

"Sure. I trust her. I just don't trust them. Not yet. It could still be a trap. We could be stuck here forever, for all we know. Done nothing to earn my trust and until they do, the jury's out," he replied firmly.

"My vote goes for something we're not expecting," Daniel said as they walked over to where Teal'c and Carter were standing patiently while Ventra talked slowly, "like those twin gates," he added.

The sky was a dull grey intermingled with red flashes. A rumbling sound far in the distance disturbed the peace of the setting, although the wind was approaching storm force and blew sand and grit up into their hair and faces.

Carter swung around as O'Neill and Daniel approached. She was shielding her eyes from the grit. "Sir, we've got to walk to their city. Once we're there we can have Nafrayu back," she said calmly, but loudly to overcome the sound of the weather.

"That's it? We just walk to their city? Where's the catch? Why couldn't we have them back on that island?" O'Neill asked, his suspicions rising again.

Carter shook her head and shrugged, looking to the alien expectantly.

Ventra studied her face and then looked to the calmly composed sight of O'Neill, his sunglasses masking his eyes and their emotions. Just as Pilar had predicted. O'Neill would be the difficult one, and yet be the one they needed the most.

"You would not have come with us," he replied. The wind didn't seem to bother him or his companion. Occasionally a gust would cause one of them to step backwards and rebalance, but they were obviously used to the storms.

"Sure we would," O'Neill lied.

"We know of you, Jack O'Neill. We know that had we returned the boy to you back then, you would not have come to our home world," Mafus said and ignored the look from Ventra, who obviously felt that he should do the talking.

"So it's a trap?" O'Neill said and looked intently at Ventra.

"That is not a term we would use in this situation, we prefer the term enticement, but if you wish to call it that then please do," Ventra replied calmly.

"See, you don't really understand us very well, do you? We don't like traps. Traps are nasty little things invented to catch rats and other vermin you don't want around you. Does that sound like the right description?" O'Neill's anger was on the rise. The aliens' audacity, or complete honesty if he wanted to be generous, was beginning to annoy him.

"We meant only to entice you to our home world. If you wish to call the enticement a trap then that is your choice," Ventra repeated.

"Look there has to be a catch. Why do you want us in the city?" O'Neill persisted.

"We have need of your services," Ventra replied.

"Now see, that's more like it. You want to trade," O'Neill said his eyes glinting angrily behind his glasses. "Problem is we don't trade in lives."

"Life is of great importance to you," Ventra persisted.

"Yeah sure, but not when you threaten to remove it in exchange for us doing something for you."

"Will you come to the City?" Ventra said, ignoring O'Neill's anger.

"What about the prisoner if we choose not to help you?"

"You will retrieve him when we reach the City, whatever your decision. We will not force you, only persuade you that your help is the right thing to give."

"Why do you want us specifically here on your home world anyway? A simple invitation would have been enough. You didn't have to take a prisoner to get us here," Daniel persisted. He couldn't understand these aliens. They resembled no race he'd encountered before.

"Daniel Jackson, you may well have come to see us. O'Neill would not," said Ventra, not removing his eyes from O'Neill's face.

"Hey, my reputation isn't that bad," O'Neill protested. "But you gotta know that taking prisoners isn't the way to make friends with us," he added.

"We have need of a trade. If you do not accept the trade, then you are free to go," Ventra said slowly.

"Here's the deal, you give us the prisoner and we leave. Nobody gets hurt. It's simple. How's that for a trade?" O'Neill replied and smiled as benignly as he could.

"The prisoner is ours to trade. You must listen to our terms before deciding. I guarantee you, Jack O'Neill, that you will choose to help us," Ventra said, shrugging. His blue eyes were piercing.

Mafus looked with interest at Ventra. This was not the way they'd planned things out. Ventra was using all his acquired skills but Mafus was worried. Things could go against them. They weren't used to being manipulative to such a degree. It was true that the humans weren't able to access their home coordinates without help, but they could inflict damage, and damage was what they were trying to avoid.

"You cannot get home without our help, this we know," Mafus said. "We will help you to get home and return the prisoner to you. You must come to the city in order for us to do this."

"And the trade?" Daniel persisted.

"Listen to what we tell you. If you decide that you wish to help us then stay. If you choose not to help then you may leave, as I have already said" Ventra replied, his voice louder over the top of the wind, his eyes cold and penetrating, the irritation beginning to show.

"You are delaying matters by arguing. We must reach the city."

Carter turned away, unable to hold Ventra's eyes for long. She shivered as the wind grew stronger.

"They're being too obliging for my liking," O'Neill muttered.

"I concur. They will not keep their promise," Teal'c advised quietly.

"Look, Jack, we've got no choice. We know what's on the other side of that Gate. We can't dial home without their help, or get that iris thing open, and this weather would kill us within hours if we stay in the open," Daniel said, shuddering at the penetrating wind. Drops of rain started to descend slowly and then gathered speed as O'Neill looked up and nodded reluctantly.

"Sure. Okay, we'll go. But remember, no prisoner and we're out of here," he shouted at Ventra.

The alien bowed his head in agreement and glanced at Mafus. The look which passed between them, made Carter's mind race. She didn't like it and in her gut she felt that some sort of silent plot had just been hatched. She shuddered, as though someone had walked across her distant grave. For the first time since they'd arrived on the planet, Carter felt something wrong about the aliens.

As she moved across towards her commanding officer she felt a stab of pain inside her head and then a whispering voice. The voice told her that she shouldn't warn them, that it wasn't in their interests to be suspicious, but Carter was military. Her survival instincts kicked in immediately and she closed the gap between herself and O'Neill within seconds. As her mouth opened to speak the warning and her eyes locked with O'Neill's, a thrust of what felt like hot molten lava radiated from the centre of her forehead and merged into an ever tightening, ever constricting band, until she felt that her entire skull would burst from the pressure.

She opened her eyes wider in surprise at the sensation and then closed them quickly, squeezing them tight to obliterate it. As she sank to her knees and grabbed at the sides of her head, she started to feel her throat tighten. She forced her eyes up to meet the concerned gaze of both O'Neill and Daniel and then grabbed at her neck, unable to complete her duty. Her duty to warn them, tell them that she felt something was wrong after all, that danger awaited them somehow, somewhere on this planet and that they shouldn't go with the aliens. That the aliens knew about the danger, and were willingly leading them into it.

oOo

"Okay, now you tell me that this isn't assault on one of my officers, damn it?" O'Neill shouted loudly as he reached down to Carter, her face pale, her eyes apologising to him for what was happening.

Ventra appeared within seconds at their side. He crouched down beside Carter and reached a hand across towards her.

"Don't." O'Neill barked angrily, pushing him away. Why she'd collapsed he didn't know. What he did know was that it had something to do with that damn light on her head earlier, of that he was sure. The choking sounds coming from his officer were enough to tell him that somehow the aliens were interfering again. He had no doubt that they were controlling the whole thing.

Ventra rose to his feet. If the humans didn't want their help then he would offer it no more. He looked at Mafus angrily.

"You activated the failsafe?" His words were directed in their alien dialect, hidden from the humans.

"It was necessary," Mafus replied simply. "She was about to speak of our plans to O'Neill."

"You cannot be sure of that. We do not know if harm has been done to her."

"She is strong. The effect will be temporary. I did not wish to harm her, only prevent her from telling the humans the truth yet," Mafus said unrepentant. "Her mind is very strong, and her thoughts and memories interesting. She knows too much already. I sensed another presence within her as you did earlier. That may be of use to us, even if the humans refuse to help," he added.

"Pilar will not tolerate harm being caused to them. They are either to be persuaded to help or allowed to leave," Ventra reminded and turned to move onwards.

"And if we had not stopped the woman from speaking? The humans would have fled from us, believing us to harbour plans against them. The surface is not safe for them to survive at the moment. I believe that Pilar would applaud the steps we have taken. We are not harming them, merely keeping them safe."

Ventra paused, then bowed his head in respect at the logic.

O'Neill rose to his feet leaving Daniel to delve into the medical kit for anything which could help Carter to catch her breath.

"Slick way of getting us to your city," shouted O'Neill. "Or should I say "sick"," he added, grimacing as his anger glinted in his eyes.

"She okay?" he asked Daniel as he turned to look at the gasping form of his officer, her head bowed, her shoulders heaving with exertion.

"I think so. She's having trouble getting her breath but otherwise she seems fine." Daniel said. "Take steady breaths, Sam, steady. Try not to fight it," he said as he reached up and pulled her hands from around her throat.

Carter looked up and nodded, her eyes watering from the exertion. She glanced across at Ventra. His head nodded imperceptibly at her, his eyes registering an apology of sorts and a plea. The movement wasn't caught by the rest of the team, but it was enough for Carter. She sat back on her heels and started to take deep breaths. She knew that her voice would be gone. She didn't know how she knew, she just did. For how long, she couldn't hazard a guess but she knew that Ventra would probably be the one to decide when it could be returned to her.

The science of what the beam of light seemed to have done, amazed her and horrified her all at once. To be able to connect thought to thought and manifest physical changes in a person was a technology they could use for medical good on Earth. Carter knew she had leapt to a conclusion about the aliens. Perhaps she was wrong. She couldn't remember what it was she wanted to tell the others anyway. She tried to trace her thoughts but they were gone, elusive, forgotten. They didn't appear to bear the team any malice. She nodded her head in response to Ventra's silent plea for forgiveness.

O'Neill moved forwards and pressed his face close to Ventra's, taking the alien by surprise. He reached down and grabbed him, hauling him closer. With a single movement he twisted the black outer jacket until it was constricting the alien's neck. Ventra didn't move, nor did he react. He stayed blinking steadily at O'Neill.

"Look, we got ourselves a situation here. You want us to trade for our friend who you've got prisoner. We agree to come with you, and then suddenly one of my officers can't breathe. And strange as it may seem, she happens to be the one who was connected to you guys. Call that coincidence if you like, but for me, hey it smacks of you causing it. How am I doing so far? She know something you don't want us to know? Huh? Now you cause any more harm to come to her or anyone in my team and that includes the prisoner and I'll make it my personal business to cause you pain. Is that understood?" O'Neill stepped back and dropped the alien back to the ground.

Ventra nodded his head and met the gaze full on. O'Neill was more interesting than he'd imagined. The human capability for violence was seemingly as strong as other races. And yet, Pilar had told him that O'Neill was the key. He was turning out to be a lot more than that. Still they'd persuaded the group to come with them. The next phase was to persuade them to help.

As he turned to start the journey to the city, Ventra caught Teal'c looking at him. The Jaffa's face was registering the slightest hint of emotion. Suspicion. Ventra turned away. This Jaffa was an enigma. He resembled nothing they'd encountered before. His temperament was the complete opposite of what they'd expected from a Jaffa. Perhaps the human influence was something that carried across the species. Ventra hoped they'd have the opportunity to find out.

oOo

The echo of a lone bell tolled across the plain stretching in front of them. At each gust of wind the sound passed over them and disappeared into the distance behind them. Rain soaked them until their clothes clung to their backs and their boots were filled with whatever moisture had trickled down their legs.

A darkly threatening landscape was overhung by a depressing, hostile and sickly coloured sky. The whole horizon looked unwelcoming and dangerous.

O'Neill had abandoned his glasses, which had misted up so much that he'd thrown them into his pocket in disgust. He glanced across at Teal'c. His face was dripping with a torrent of water, the droplets ending finally at his chin and then falling silently to the ground below. They'd walked for an hour and were reaching what looked like the edge of a canyon. He marvelled inwardly at how such obviously technically advanced aliens hadn't seen fit to provide transport. Discussion with either Daniel or Teal'c had long ago ceased. Carter couldn't talk anyway, her voice locked within. The wind and rain made talking impossible. It was hard enough to keep your breath without attempting a discussion.

Carter looked tired to him. Gasping occasionally for breath she persistently pushed any help away and forged forwards with the rest of them. O'Neill knew how hard it was to keep up pace when the wind and rain were fighting with you. Having a problem breathing was going to do her no extra favours. He didn't argue with her. He'd be doing the same. Take care of yourself and let everyone have the burden of themselves alone. Carter knew her training well. It would take a lot for her to ask for help. He doubted he'd see it while he was her Commanding officer.

Ventra was some 100 yards in front of them. His hand raised suddenly and he beckoned to them soundlessly.

The city lay in front of them, down in the canyon, glistening in the storm. It was as alien as O'Neill could imagine a city could be. Tall, bizarre monoliths of shining glass or some other material, reflecting the light of the moon which managed to pass its rays through the fast flowing cloud cover occasionally. Lights twinkled in windows dotted around the groundwork of the entire cityscape. It must have been two miles in diameter, nestling in a canyon which arose on either side of it. Lights shot from the left to the right, seeming to dart suddenly and then disappearing. O'Neill looked at the aliens.

"Salus," Ventra said loudly and then waved to Mafus to come closer. The aliens talked quietly as they looked out across the city.

Daniel stared at the city. "Safety, place of safety" he repeated quietly as O'Neill moved next to him, straining to hear what he was saying above the noise of the wind.

"Yeah, I kind of managed that one myself," replied O'Neill unconvincingly and then turned to Teal'c. "You got any thoughts on all this, Teal'c?"

"I have not," he replied honestly. "However, I do not believe at the moment that there is any intention to cause us harm," he added.

"Yeah, well. Maybe. Maybe not," O'Neill replied, still not convinced. "Carter? You need to tell us anything?"

Carter turned her face to him and shook her head. She lowered her eyes fighting to retrieve any part of anything. She had felt that she needed to say something but the memory was still elusive, retreating every time she tried to access it. She honestly believed that the aliens wanted them there for a reason that wasn't aggressive. She knew that they feared causing harm to any of them, somehow she'd caught snatches of their intermittent thoughts. Mere impressions though, nothing concrete. What she did know in her heart was that nothing would be gained by distrusting them. Not yet.

"Okay then," he said, his eyes narrowing. He knew Carter had her reasons for trusting the aliens but he also knew that she'd been trying to tell him something earlier. Something she'd been prevented from doing. He had to trust her, just like he had before. She'd always come through. She'd come through now. Right now he needed to get his team down to shelter and as soon as possible get them out of there again, together with a little friend that he was still worried about.

Carter brushed away the water which ran from her hair and onto her cheek. She coughed and tried to clear her throat. Her voice remained silent. She gazed over at Ventra and he locked eyes with her. There was no threat in his look, just an understanding that they'd reached an agreement and she shouldn't spoil things, not now, not when they were so close. Was his plea a threat by another name or a promise that she knew he'd keep? She couldn't tell. Ventra's eyes were not the most expressive she'd seen, but she knew she should go by her instincts this time and her instincts told her that unleashing O'Neill and giving him any reason to suspect that the team would come to harm would probably end in tears. Theirs.

The sides of the canyon were steep and definitely impassable by any human. O'Neill wasn't sure that the aliens could manage it either. So it was a relief to see Mafus touch a device on his wrist and watch a section of the ground in front of them open, sliding sideways to reveal steps downwards.

Ventra bowed to O'Neill and indicated that this was their passage down.

"Come on kids, I think we're about to go on a little trip," he commented as he watched first Teal'c and then Carter pass through the opening and down the short flight of steps. As the ground closed over his and Daniel's head and they stood staring at a glass transport pod sitting invitingly in front of them, he couldn't help wondering if the whole trip so far had been a dream and he was still lying in his tent on the island, three Gates ago.

CHAPTER FIVE

SALUS

You had to wonder at aliens who had a technology on this scale and yet seemed so primitive in other ways.

Daniel couldn't help but let the thought linger as he gazed out of the glass window of the pod as it raced down through the tunnels and emerged at speed through the side of the canyon and into what looked like the suburbs of the City.

Then he let his thoughts meander across what he'd always pondered. If, and when, aliens came to visit Earth, what did they, or would they, make of its disparate cultures? From the still remaining mud huts of some African tribes, through the poverty stricken villages of India to the skyscrapers and futuristic cities of Northern America, Northern Europe and Asia. He guessed it pretty much depended on where you landed and who you met first. Aliens landing in an area of extreme poverty and famine might imagine that Earth was like that all across its surface and why shouldn't they? Didn't the SGC tend to judge each planet initially on the civilisation first encountered? Did the possession of a Gate, or in this case the use of three Gates, equal civilisation and technological know how or did it just indicate that somewhere along the line, they'd been visited by a culture who felt that this world was one on which they wanted to put a Gate or two? Two gates. He was still mystified by it. Theoretically it shouldn't be possible. Not that close together. The co-ordinates would have been too well matched. Unless..unless the power output to the one gate was greater than the other, causing a surge and throwing the one gate to a different destination. Theoretics. Theoretical physics. Not his game. This was Sam's territory. He would welcome the return of her voice and a discussion along just those lines.

He sighed. If they only knew more about the Ancients and who had put the gates there in the first place. He remembered back to their various trips and remembered that they'd met an equal number of less well advanced cultures as those which had developed along similar lines to Earth and more. He realised more than most, that where the Gate was situated and the people encountered in its vicinity, didn't necessarily indicate the technological advance of the entire planet. It was a problem he'd wrestled with for several years now. How could they possibly be expected to make a judgement on an initial glance and foray into the culture of each planet without going further? Sometimes the time and resources didn't allow for it, but it was something he felt was lacking in the SGC strategy.

There was a silence in the small pod as each traveller took in the surroundings and the architecture of Salus. A silence only broken by the sound of the pod racing on its track.

Huge glass shapes rising from the ground and reaching into the sky. The shapes were fluid, and softly curved. Several seemed to have no end to them while others ended abruptly, almost cut in half by some mysterious force. These tall edifices displayed an elegant slenderness, aesthetically beautiful. Others were rounder and more globular shaped. No structure was identical to its neighbour. Colours danced and played on their surfaces creating an almost rainbow effect. The range of colours increased the higher each structure reached. The effect was hypnotising.

In stark contrast, simple white buildings which could almost have had a Moorish ancestry to them, dotted the underneath of the glass city. The pod moved swiftly through the outer ring of the City and headed into its heart. What Daniel did note was that the City seemed to be built in semi-circles, the rail carrying the pod intersecting the circles at intervals, giving the city, he suspected, an appearance of small wedges of what would look like a giant pizza from the air. The reason for creating this could be anything ranging from a love of the ordered, a protective mechanism of some sort to just the whim of an architect. A creator who had decided that the curves of the circular would compliment the shapes rising from the ground, and contrast with the lines radiating out from the rail system. Daniel felt a surge of enthusiasm as he realised that he might have a chance to be able to look at the culture in more detail.

He broke his gaze away and looked across to O'Neill. The man was on the edge of the boil. He knew Jack felt a sense of protectiveness towards his "family" and that he probably felt guilty about Sam's little episode with the aliens, but he also knew that Jack admired and respected the Nox with a passion and that the thought of not being able to get the boy back through the Gates unharmed would be eating at him.

Daniel felt a tinge of guilt as he realised that his mind was full of what was around him, and the excitement which came with the new, and not with their predicament or that of the hostage. The archaeologist in him. It always made him seem like a small child holding a wondrous new gift in his hand. He didn't have the discipline of the military to hold him in check, not like the others. He didn't feel a sense of malice from the aliens, and looking at Sam he knew in his heart that she didn't either. Her head was leant back against the curve of the seat and she was letting her eyes lazily follow whatever they passed. She still looked drowsy, exhausted from continually catching her breath, but Daniel was relieved to see the pink slowly coloring her cheeks again.

Teal'c stared directly ahead, his dark eyes boring into the back of the two aliens' heads as they too stared in front of them. Daniel let a smile play on his lips for a single moment and then put his hand up skilfully to mask it. With the Jaffa around, if the aliens did have any surprises planned, they probably hadn't reckoned on Teal'c, he thought secretly.

oOo

They'd reached some sort of terminus in the heart of the city and were following the aliens on foot to the final destination. The terminal was another of the curved glass edifices, rather small and squat but perfectly shaped. Nothing strange about it except for the distinct lack of any other passengers. As they proceeded through the streets Daniel caught occasional glimpses of black clad citizens going about their business. They, however, were few and far between. The City was almost deserted. On the whole, the people they did meet, acted as if the strangers weren't even there. Sometimes however, one would stop and stare and then move away swiftly, like a frightened deer.

"Do you notice anything odd?" Daniel said quietly to O'Neill as they walked behind the aliens, looking carefully at their new surroundings.

"Like we're on some sort of science fiction film set, populated by extras dressed in black body suits? Nah," O'Neill murmured in response as he fingered his MP-5 and watched for every shadow or movement as they walked slowly.

"Not exactly, " Daniel replied, patiently. "This is either an adult only city or the children are kept hidden."

O'Neill shrugged. "If you go into the business center of any major city in the world you don't see many kids."

"Yes, but that's my point, we're not seeing any. There weren't any on the streets of the outer rings of the City either," Daniel persisted, keeping his voice as low as he could.

"Well maybe these guys have some sort of rule to keep them off the streets, who knows? Not our problem, Daniel. We got plenty of problems of our own. Try not to invent more." O'Neill wasn't in conversational mode right now. He was planning to get the boy and then get back to the first Gate, as fast as he could. If only he could trust the aliens to provide the color codes which they needed to get themselves back and disengage the iris. Then there was the giant monster to get past on the other side. He sighed.

Daniel dropped back from walking beside O'Neill and slipped beside Carter who was ambling slowly behind them, Teal'c at her side, his eyes scanning their immediate vicinity. Carter's fingers were playing on her weapon, waiting for any trouble.

"My voice is coming back," she whispered hoarsely, pointing at her throat and then coughing. She shrugged and grimaced. The four words were a struggle in themselves.

Daniel smiled in return. He knew Sam would be angry. More angry than anyone would know or see. She would feel that she'd let them down, shown a weakness in some way by letting the aliens use her. He also knew that she'd try to prove it otherwise, whatever it took.

"Listen, Sam. Don't try and reply just listen," he said as they walked.

"First off unless you can tell me you've seen any, there aren't any kids here." He paused to see if she was going to contradict him in some way. She shook her head. She'd seen none either and it had worried her too.

"Okay, then there's something else which is odd," he continued. She looked quizzically.

"No rain. No storm. Where's it gone? We were in the middle of a storm only thirty minutes ago, now nothing. Yet I can feel a warm breeze on my face." He hesitated, frustrated that she couldn't reply.

She nodded violently and grabbed his arm, pointing upwards.

"Something up in the sky causing all this?" Daniel asked as he followed her gaze.

She nodded again. Then she cleared her throat. It sounded like a chain smoker. "Environmental control.." she stammered and then felt her throat close again. It ached. She knew she had to let it rest but she also knew that Daniel was beginning to understand what she'd worked out.

"Control? Sam, if they've managed to control the environment just for the city and even its surroundings but not for the rest of the planet then we might be able to take some of the technology home and use it," he said excitedly, raising his voice.

Sam shook her head, frustrated. She wanted to tell him everything she thought she knew about the place, or had fathomed out by looking around her, but her voice wasn't up to it. She'd have to wait. Daniel had looked away from her anyway and was excitedly staring upwards as he walked.

The aliens swung around at their few words and exchanged worried looks. These humans were starting to worry Ventra. He'd wanted their help and now he feared their interference in other matters. Matters which were not up for discussion, knowledge which was not for sharing.

Daniel immediately lowered his voice at a glare from O'Neill who had heard the sentence. Whatever Daniel said or Carter agreed with, O'Neill didn't - couldn't trust aliens who had abducted members of a peaceful people. Why the hell did Daniel have to forget where he was and spill the plot to everyone? Weather control was the least of his worries at the moment. With part of his team excited about the science of the place, O'Neill's thoughts were on only one thing. Freeing the Nox and getting the hell out of there.

oOo

Ventra paused at the single entrance to the centremost structure, it's alarmingly curved and slender arm looming overhead, too far up to see the top. He bowed at the group and then indicated that they should move inside.

"Guess we're about to go topside," O'Neill commented, gazing skywards, as they passed into a small cubicle which resembled a sleek version of an elevator on Earth.

Daniel didn't reply. He wasn't sure it was possible to second- guess their hosts so he wasn't even going to try. Leave Jack to do that. Quite how an elevator would make the journey up such a leaning structure with its passengers intact, and the right way up, was something he didn't want to consider. Somehow he trusted that they'd get there.

The team stood and braced itself for the elevator to rise swiftly. After all, the leaning glass tower must have been at least 500 storeys high. The unexpected, fast descent threw them all off balance temporarily. O'Neill snorted.

"Now, you people should know that I don't like surprises," he said with annoyance, and straightened his cap which had been knocked to the side of his head in the jolt.

Ventra gave him a conciliatory look of apology and then turned back to the console in front of him. The elevator juddered to a halt and then paused.

Carter was just in front of the doors and readied herself for them to open. Instead the elevator lurched sideways and continued on its journey. She wished she could utter a mild expletive as she grabbed the side of the cubicle and glanced at the others whose disorientation was also obvious. Teal'c raised a single eyebrow and stared directly ahead. Daniel merely shrugged. One thing Daniel had decided about the aliens was that technology was obviously a strong point but that passenger comfort was not.

The back of the small cubicle swung open as it slid to a silent stop at its destination, the aliens disembarking without a word to their fellow passengers.

"Looks like it's the end of the line, kids," O'Neill said and moved through the door behind the aliens. "Take the rear," he whispered to Teal'c as he did so.

The tunnel which led away from the elevator was constructed of one smooth concave glass wall and ceiling, through which the solid rock was visible. The tunnel resembled a tube which had been constructed to pass through the rocky layers of the subsurface of the planet. Gentle lights played on its surface, though Carter couldn't see where they were coming from.

"Kind of feels like we're in Marineland," whispered O'Neill to a fascinated Daniel. He nodded. If it wasn't for the fact that the tubes looked onto the rock surface of the tunnel, and there was no water, the tube resembled the undersea walks at Marine theme parks.

"It is possible that the tubes are some form of structural aid," Teal'c observed as he placed a hand onto the warm surface of the glass.

"Our rock tunnels are very old. The glass tubes were inserted as an extra security precaution," Ventra commented as he led them onwards.

"Don't like to mention this, but you guys seem to be worried a lot about security," O'Neill said, the monotony of the glass beginning to irritate him.

"It was deemed necessary," Ventra replied and moved ahead of them further.

"Guess that means end of conversation," noted O'Neill with a grimace. "Sure are secretive," he added grimly. "Don't like secrecy," he muttered shaking his head sadly. "Don't like it at all."

Carter stifled a smile, aware of the irony of a comment from someone who worked for the SGC.

Because the tubes were so well illuminated, the descent into a large cathedral sized chamber took them by surprise. It's interior was as well lit as the passageways which led into it, no more or less and the temperature of the surroundings seemed to be exactly the same.

The chamber seemed to be the center of a giant hub. Glass corridors led off at equal distances from the main area. The chamber itself was nothing spectacular. Simple glass, or whatever material they were looking at, in a concave dome shape. Light filtered through from the rock above it somehow and several consoles rose from the ground near to each hub exit.

"Here we wait," Ventra said and drew them over to one of the consoles where his fingers ran across the surface, illuminating it with a blaze of colour, lights dancing across its surface eagerly. The sound of his voice echoed around the chamber and ended as suddenly. The effect was eerie.

"Daniel, are you getting as tired as I am of all this stalling?" O'Neill said, his impatience growing.

"Colonel, I don't think they're stalling," Carter whispered, acknowledging his look of surprise at her returned voice, and indicating the sight of two further aliens emerging from one of the other hubs. She fingered her throat apprehensively. Hopefully her voice was here to stay. She realised that her hair and clothes had dried swiftly on entering the passageways.

"Colonel Jack O'Neill," one of the aliens said loudly as he walked towards the group.

"That'd be me," O'Neill acknowledged with a raised, partially gloved hand.

"Welcome to Salus, Colonel." the alien said, smiling. A young, attractive woman stood at his side and bowed her head towards the group. Her eyes danced as she let them rest lightly on each member of the team.

"Could we cut to the chase, here?" O'Neill said, ignoring the smiles. "You give us the little guy and we listen to whatever it is you want from us, then we go. Agreed?"

"Not exactly, O'Neill."

"Now just a doggone minute. I think we've been pretty patient up to now. And I can tell you my patience is running out."

The alien raised a single hand, his eyes glinting, cutting O'Neill's outburst short.

"You will listen to what we will tell you and you will decide whether you wish to help us. However, regrettably we cannot return your prisoner to you."

O'Neill felt the anger rise before the alien finished the sentence and flicked his MP-5 to his hip, his finger releasing the catch. He heard the click of Carter's weapon do the same and the low hum from Teal'c's staff.

"Your anger fails you, O'Neill. As it has failed the human race in the past. Anger, intolerance, misunderstanding, passion and an inability to really listen. All failings which would eventually see your race extinguish itself."

"I haven't come here to hear this crap from you. I've come here because you sent for us. You took a young boy as your prisoner and you tell us we're the intolerant ones. You get us here and now you tell us we can't have him, well my patience has just about had it." O'Neill exploded into action and fired across the feet of the aliens. They stared at him, unflinching.

"They do not understand. We need to show them," the woman whispered to her companion and nodded at Ventra who bowed. He moved to a console and moved his fingers across it swiftly. From a side tunnel a single small figure approached, its head bowed.

"Nafrayu!" The words left Carter's lips and reached O'Neill's ears as he lowered his weapon and held out a hand to the small Nox boy, whose eyes were raised in a plea of desperation, exactly as he'd witnessed on the MALP footage. "Now that's more like it," he whispered as he moved forwards towards the boy.

The boy hesitated some fifteen feet from O'Neill's outstretched hand. Ventra nodded almost imperceptibly at the woman.

The woman moved forwards, walking towards the boy. When she reached him she turned to make sure that O'Neill was watching and then put out her hand as though she were going to grab him by the arm.

As the boy's image shuddered at the intrusion, flickering and disintegrating as the connection was broken, a collective stab of both realisation and resentment went through the four members of SG1. A trick.

O'Neill took a step backwards, the scene unfolding before him unreal, surrealistic. His hands tightened around his weapon, his thoughts confused. If Nafrayu was an illusion then what were they doing here? What the hell did the aliens want?

"A hoax! This was all one unholy fantasy to get us here? You did this for what?" O'Neill let the words tumble out angrily.

Daniel lowered his eyes, confused, angered and yet relieved all at once. He placed his hand on O'Neill's shoulder, in a gesture of solidarity with his friend. O'Neill shrugged him off in frustration.

"No, Daniel. They can't just get away with it. Not after putting us through all this. And for what? Tell me what, God dammit. Just tell me what!"

"To free our planet from someone we think you know," the female alien said calmly.

Ventra's fingers once more raced across the console in front of him and a life sized 3-D holographic image appeared in the centre of the chamber, some twenty or so feet from where SG1 stood.

The image was something dragged up from the pits of Hell itself. The figure was unmistakable to Carter as unwanted memories of a time long gone flooded her system. She put her hand to her mouth and swallowed hard trying to concentrate on breathing, trying to concentrate on not remembering.

"Is that who I think it is?" O'Neill breathed as he noted her reaction from the corner of his eye.

She nodded, her eyes fixed reluctantly on the image in front of them.

"Sokar" she whispered as she realised for the first time since they'd arrived just what the aliens had been trying to keep them from realising.

CHAPTER SIX

REVELATIONS

The team's speechless protestations at what they'd seen on the large 3D viewer had been taken by their hosts as a good sign. The alien obviously caused the humans as much distress as he was causing their own people. Ventra moved in for the kill immediately and ushered the numbed group into a side room for their own safe keeping. Time enough for explanations later. And many of those there would be, he was certain.

"Please know that your young friend is safe so far as we know," Ventra reassured gently.

"You mean he is on this planet?" Daniel asked, surprise etched on his features. "That wasn't just an illusion?"

"Sokar holds him," Ventra stated solemnly.

"Why didn't you just tell us that straight away? Why the pretense?" Carter said.

"If you had been made aware from the outset that it was Sokar who held your friend, you may have come through the Gate with more soldiers. We needed you to come alone. We created a holographic image to give the illusion that we held him and not Sokar. We do not usually allow people to visit our planet. Your presence here and Sokar's is a rarity which we do not wish to have happen again. Defeating Sokar must be your only aim. Defeat him, free your friend and then return to your home and never return."

"Well that's straight to the point," O'Neill muttered, his anger seething but under check.

"Please," Ventra said, indicating the room and its furniture, "Make yourselves comfortable. Alura will bring you sustenance and then you must rest. We do not wish any harm to come to you. That is not our intention. You need time to think about what we will propose. That you cannot do without rest and nourishment." Ventra bowed as he removed himself from the small chamber into which he'd shown SG1. "I will return," he added.

"Well that's good," mumbled O'Neill to no one in particular, as he put down his MP-5 and sat down heavily on an immaculate looking but unpadded curved grey seat. It wasn't comfortable but it would do. There were several such seating platforms, a small darker colored block which passed as a table top and a light curtain draped from one side of the room to the other, effectively cutting the room in half.

Teal'c pulled aside the curtain and gazed in. "It is empty," he reported and let it drop back.

Carter sat down next to O'Neill on another exotically shaped seat. She buried her head in her hands and fiercely drew her hair back from her face in frustration. "He can't be alive. We saw him die," she said angrily. Fear and realisation as to what they faced her immediate mental companions.

"Did we, Sam? We saw his hellish world destroyed. We saw his ship destroyed but did we ever really know he was in it? He could have fled," Daniel advised cautiously.

"Damn these System Lords. They never seem to die," O'Neill muttered and rubbed his hand across tired eyes. His mind was racing, churning thoughts and possibilities through and through.

"Even if mortally injured, O'Neill, Sokar could indeed have had a sarcophagus available," Teal'c reminded them as he placed himself near the doors, alert for any intrusion.

"Yeah, that's possible," agreed O'Neill and turned to look at his first officer. Carter's eyes bore a haunted look of resignation. As if a nightmare she'd managed to banish was about to rush back in and take residence once more. The darkness had deadened the normally bright blue colour and the life giving sparkle had disappeared, replaced by a calm and fear ridden gaze, her thoughts buried in the past

"We got any options here, folks?" O'Neill said, averting his gaze, as he stretched out his legs and tried to think clearly.

"Rescue Nafrayu ourselves and try to avoid doing battle with Sokar," Daniel offered and then lowered his eyes.

"I do not feel that that would be an option, Daniel Jackson," Teal'c replied.

"Teal'c's right. No way Sokar's gonna let us get near a Nox prisoner without some sort of resistance. Still begs the question why the hell is he here?" O'Neill looked around the room "And there ain't no way out without our little buddies seeing us try to escape. I'm not sure I believe a whole pack of what they're saying anyway. They tricked us once, they could trick us again."

"Actually, Jack I think the aliens are telling us the truth. I believe that if we hear just what they want, in more specific terms, and we decide we can't help, that they will let us go." Daniel looked to Carter for support. She nodded silently. She had to agree, even though she resented every bone of their bodies for not revealing who it was they wanted help with.

"And another thing Jack. Who's to say we won't want to help them? Aside from getting Nafrayu back, getting rid of Sokar would be in Earth's interests, not to mention the Tok'ra's and a few of our other allies. Maybe the aliens have a way of helping us do it? It certainly doesn't hurt to find out," Daniel persisted. Seemingly he was the only voice of reason. Sam looked distinctly uncomfortable at the thought of a re-match with Sokar, and Jack? Well, Jack was just being contrary as usual.

O'Neill nodded at his friend's comments. "Sure. We're here. We'll listen. But if I don't like what I hear then we're out of here on our own. We'll get Nafrayu with their help or without. And we'll damn well take Sokar out if we need to and if we want to, not just because they want us to or because we're some damn puppets."

Daniel opened his mouth to continue and O'Neill put a finger up. "Ah ah, no arguments. I mean it. My team, my decision. We're not walking into possible annihilation without thinking things through properly. And let's not forget one thing here. These God damned aliens are more advanced technologically than us and they can't get rid of the guy, what makes you think we can help them?"

Daniel lowered his head, unable to argue the logic of Jack's reasoning. Still, the aliens seemed to think they needed their help. There had to be a reason.

The door slid open and a tray filled with small blocks of insipid looking white material was brought in by the elegant woman they'd met earlier. She smiled as she put it down. In her other hand she held a large container which held an amber colored liquid. Four small drinking containers were perched perilously over the top of the container.

"I am afraid it is all we could fabricate for you. Forgive this. We are not used to human guests," she said as she placed the tray and container down and bowed.

O'Neill gazed at what was offered and wrinkled his nose. "You'd never guess" he said quietly as the woman left the room.

"Daniel can you explain any of this..this culture?" he blurted as he fingered one of the blocks and watched in contempt as it disintegrated easily between his fingers.

"Frankly, no. Their names, the name of their city are all of a Latin origin. Their city is built in no style I can recollect apart from the smaller buildings but the Latin names and the Moorish style don't go together at all. They seem to be an amalgamation of different styles, different cultures stolen from others." Daniel rose to his feet and started to pace, as he often did when contemplating a problem or hypothesising.

"Any Goa'uld connection here?" O'Neill asked.

"The towers and the contrasting underground complexes beneath are definitely an alien culture, not earth-like at all. I wouldn't think the people here are descendants of Earth," he added thoughtfully. "Not Goa'uld in nature either," he added and looked to Teal'c.

The Jaffa bowed his head in acknowledgement of Daniel's thoughts. "I concur," he agreed.

"And this?" O'Neill said indicating the food and containers.

"Well they almost resemble the food we give to our astronauts. Fabricated and vacuum packed for speed and longevity. It's as though they've never had to serve up proper food before," Daniel remarked.

Carter put her hands on her knees and pulled herself decisively to her feet. She reached down and poured herself a drink from the container. Putting the cup down she grimaced. "Water," she said, "Just plain old colored water."

"Oh for crying out loud," O'Neill muttered irritably, secretly hoping the drink had been something more exotic to make up for the food. Its color obviously belied its taste. "There has to be real food around somewhere. How on earth is Sokar managing to keep himself alive if there isn't?"

"You are correct, O'Neill. If Sokar is present on this planet he will need sustenance. We saw no signs of animal life or abundant plant life as we neared the city. If the food is fabricated only here, then Sokar will surely die once his rations run out." Teal'c's eyes flared at the thought of their enemy starving to death but then added thoughtfully, "As would we and his prisoner. Perhaps it will not be necessary to do battle with him after all. He may already be weakened."

"Now there's a thought" answered O'Neill as he allowed a smile to play on his lips. It faded as he remembered Nafrayu's plight in all this.

He sighed. "Well we gotta eat, so dive in kids, you don't know when we might get to eat again. You too, Teal'c." He lifted the platter and passed it around. Each member took a small piece of food and tentatively put it to their lips. To their surprise the food tasted remarkably sweet and within minutes the tray had been emptied.

"Colonel, take a look in here," Carter said as she moved across the room and reached a hand around the white curtain which hung motionless behind them, its elegant and transparent folds draping softly to the floor.

Four long glass platforms had appeared, seemingly from nowhere since it had been empty earlier. There were no luxuries such as soft mattresses or blankets but to the tired inhabitants of the room, they looked inviting enough. Besides they had their packs and bedding rolls in those and they would have to do.

"Think they have guests here often?" O'Neill remarked dragging his sleeping bag from his roll.

"Now you come to mention it," Carter said, "I was wondering the same."

She looked at the hard surface of the so-called bed and rose to her feet.

"Going somewhere, Major?" O'Neill asked lazily as he stretched out.

"Just want to satisfy my curiosity about something," she replied and headed for the door. To her surprise there was no guard outside. Instead an eerie silence greeted her, but she noticed a small red light flashing steadily on the glass wall outside, as she poked her head out and glanced across the chamber to the other side. An obvious warning system that the guests were on the move.

"Carter."

"Sir?"

"Curiosity killed the cat," O'Neill said softly from his sleeping platform.

She smiled and nodded. "I'll be careful, sir."

Alura appeared within seconds, gliding effortlessly across the chamber and smiling.

"You require something for your rest?" she asked, her deep blue eyes attentive.

"Well, actually.." Carter wasn't sure how to persuade their hosts that she needed to take a walk. Brightening, she decided to try something. "I always take a walk before I rest", she said, hoping the aliens weren't too hot on human ritual.

Alura hesitated, puzzled for a single second and then allowed another smile to cross her features.

"I am sorry, we are not used to guests. I will return," she said and bowed. Watching the woman skim across the chamber floor, Carter had a sinking feeling that she hadn't achieved anything.

"Success, Major?" O'Neill asked sleepily as he lounged on one of the beds and watched his officer come back into the room.

"Not sure," she replied quietly, her eyebrows knit together in a puzzled look.

O'Neill shrugged and allowed only one eye to remain observing her as the door reopened some minutes later. Alura bowed at Carter who was sitting waiting for her.

"Please follow me," she said. "There is an area you may walk in."

Carter threw a resigned look at her Commanding officer and left the room behind the young woman, who sped off down a side tunnel at speed.

The area they reached was obviously once a garden area. Now it was overgrown and deserted but Carter could see that once it had flourished as a botanical centre of sorts. She smiled gratefully at Alura who stood close by, hoping that she would take the hint and leave.

"Um..it's customary to walk alone," she explained, waiting for a reaction. At first Alura simply smiled at her. Then she stared, eyeing her curiously. For a moment her eyes seemed to glaze over slightly as though she were in some deep meditation. With no warning, Alura turned on her heels and moved back the way they had come, leaving Carter alone and mystified at the reaction.

The greenery was growing wild. A once cultured environment had been allowed to spiral out of control and the hardiest of the plants were now in total possession of the rest of the more weaker varieties. Colour was rare. The odd splash of red however was evident, where a flower had managed to push its way through the dark green under leaves and reach for higher climes. Carter moved her way forwards slowly, her legs brushing the overhanging tendrils of the plants where they scraped the ground and had started to wend their way across the pathways which intersected the botanical chamber. There seemed no sign of animal, bird or insect life. Not a rustle of a leaf or merest hint of movement. A faint sound of running water was coming from the far side of the chamber and Carter moved in that direction instinctively. Where there was water there was often life. Anything which would tell her more about the alien culture and what made them tick.

The chamber opened out at one end into a small square with seating arranged in a circle around a large pond. At the one side of the pond a small waterfall trickled in, its source appearing to come from the chamber wall at the side. The water looked clear but was feeble in strength.

Carter looked at the seats with interest. Each bench was equipped with its own headrest, which bent around to cocoon the person's head who was seated there. Carter ran her finger along the seat and then gently touched the headrest.

She turned her head sharply as she heard a sudden increase in the sound of water flowing into the pond. She withdrew her hand. The water dwindled to a trickle once more. Carter's eyes narrowed. She bent down and looked up at the headrest. It seemed innocuous enough. There were no obvious signs of restraint. But the connection between the headrest itself and the water flow fascinated her. The area was peaceful somehow, an air of relaxation surrounded her and a deep perfume emanated from one of the plants nearby - a smell she remembered from Earth, almost the heady scent of freesia. She sighed and sat down gingerly on one of the seats, gazing at the water and letting the ripples on the pond gently relax her mind. The sound and sights began to give her an almost hypnotic feeling and she felt her eyelids start to flutter, gently dropping. She sat forwards with a start, the adrenalin rushing through her bloodstream. But the water and its song were unrelenting. She breathed in deeply letting the perfume linger on her nostrils. Within a few minutes her eyes were closing again and she felt herself lean backwards instinctively. The headrest felt surprisingly good. It felt warm. The noise of the water was increasing, blocking out any other sound, any other feeling. Then she saw her. It was as though her eyes were open, the image was so crystal clear.

The woman was floating on a cloud of scarlet silken cloth. It was wrapped around her body, entwining her gently as she turned slowly, over and over. Her skin was the colour of chocolate, smooth and unblemished. Surrounding her were gentle rolling hills and clouds which slowly meandered across the blue sky, seeming to carry her with it. Carter saw the woman's face as she turned towards her and smiled gently, her dark eyes speaking of peace and harmony. The whispering seemed to meld with the sound of the waterfall. The words were insistent, enticing, hypnotic. They spoke of a peace once realised and of a people now all but extinct. Of a land which was unblemished by war or famine. Of a world which seemed to be utopia.

Carter tried to open her eyes but they felt heavy, leaden, and then she realised she didn't want to open them. She felt at peace. She couldn't remember why she was there. She didn't care. She just knew that she wanted to stay. Forever if necessary.

The shaking was insistent, rough. It disturbed what she wanted to do, where she wanted to be and she resented it. The picture in her mind fragmented, dissolving away from her. The woman reached out a hand and a reluctant smile faded slowly as she pulled further and further away from Carter. She tried to ignore the shaking but the owner of the voice was strong.

"Leave me alone!" Carter heard the words leave her lips and yet she didn't feel as though those lips were her own. They seemed to come from some distant place.

"Snap out of it, Major."

Carter knew the voice. A tinge of guilt raced through her system and the jolt of realisation broke through the reverie. She snapped her eyes open and felt the good feelings seep away immediately.

"Taking good care of yourself, Carter?" the voice said as she gazed up into the concerned but angry eyes of Colonel Jack O'Neill.

oOo

"You were supposed to explore, Major, not get involved in using alien technology," O'Neill barked as he dragged her away from the seat and gripped her elbow tightly, making sure she wasn't in danger of returning. He eyed her strangely and with some degree of worry. Her eyes were glazed almost and he'd seen the reluctance to leave the seat and whatever it was she was experiencing while she was in it. He'd seen that look on Daniel when he'd been addicted to that sarcophagus all those planets ago. He didn't want - couldn't allow Carter to become dependent on some piece of alien junk. He made a mental note to forbid any further contact with it, and this time, unlike with Daniel, he was damn sure he was going to make it happen.

"I wasn't in any danger, Colonel," she protested as they made their way back to their room.

Carter was frustrated. She knew the colonel was right and yet she knew she'd made a discovery which was exciting and could tell them more about the aliens. She also knew that she wasn't about to be allowed to try it again and worse still, he probably wouldn't let her talk about it that very evening.

She was right.

"Learned anything?" Daniel said sleepily as he watched his friends return.

"Sure and you're not going to like this but I'm beginning to get a strange feeling about the inhabitants of Salus," Carter replied guardedly, as she threw herself finally on the glass platform and pulled her bedding roll around her.

"Like I'm not spooked by the whole thing already?" O'Neill said, his eyes rolling, and shooting her a look which spoke volumes about how he'd react if she got them all up for a debate, and worse he knew what Daniel would do if he thought there was some alien technology to go play with.

"I think it goes deeper than we think," she replied simply, her words weighted. She noted O'Neill's look of warning, and threw her arms out of the bag. The temperature seemed to be constant, night or day.

"As fascinated as I am, and unless you're about to tell me we're in danger tonight, how about telling me in the morning, Sam," Daniel replied sleepily.

O'Neill gave himself a mental high five at Daniel's reaction and closed his eyes. Opening one eye suddenly he let it wander over to Carter's bed. She looked peaceful enough. Even so, he knew he'd be keeping a weather eye on her end of the room all night, even in his sleep. If she so much as stepped off the glass bench he'd know about it.

Carter smiled to herself. What she was beginning to work out about their hosts would make for a fascinating breakfast discussion. She remembered the meal they'd had and grimaced. If breakfast were as unappetising, Carter suspected the conversation would be needed to take their minds off their hunger. She sighed. A steaming mug of strong coffee floated unbidden into her mind and she scowled to herself. She'd be suffering from caffeine withdrawal before the day was up and she knew it.

oOo

Eyes which were well hidden in the darkness of the disused tunnels, watched the arrival of the four newcomers with interest and greed. "The catacombs", he'd heard the aliens call them. Catacombs which, until this very day, had led him and his two companions around in circles, unable to escape the fortress city, unable to reach the surface where he knew his Master was. Today their luck had changed. Today they'd discovered the exit. And yet he feared arriving there empty handed. The punishment for such perceived failure was death. A slow and tortuous death at the hands of a Master so cruel that he had the well earned reputation of the vilest of the System Lords and hence the most dangerous.

The Jaffa, Crint'ac, knelt silently and plotted. He knew who these people were and he knew how important they were to his Master. All four held a high price on their heads. All four would gain him power at the hands of his Master. The reward for one in particular would be beyond anything he could have imagined gaining among the paltry beings who infested the city. One in particular had proved themselves to be a target for Sokar's interest. He'd heard the name spoken as the four Tau'ri had walked the complex. He knew which one it was and he was ready. The weak race who were indigenous to the planet were strange and totally unable to defend themselves or their guests. They had proved to be easy prey. The satisfaction of killing them had been lost in the ease with which they had carried it out. Now few remained.

He was hungry. Tired and hungry. His two men waited in the farthest reaches of the catacombs for his word. As Sokar's first prime he knew what he now had to do. Three against the four, and a renowned, although traitorous, Jaffa among them. Three against a team who had defeated several System Lords by their own hands but had failed to extinguish the light in Sokar's eyes.

Crint'ac's chest puffed out with pride. A pride he thought he had lost. A pride which had been swallowed up with the darkness and hunger and the self admonishment that he'd allowed himself to remain trapped under the city - the city of the deserted - the city of death.

As he watched his prey seek their refuge, unaware that their worst enemy was but a breath away on the surface, Crint'ac said a silent prayer to his God that he would be victorious.

oOo

"Okay boys and girls, let's make some plans," O'Neill said cheerfully as he sat down in front of the tray which Alura had set down before them.

The morning had shown itself by the lights in their small chamber gradually returning to full illumination. Carter yawned. She craved a mug of coffee but sat down and poured herself a cup of the colored water instead. Next time they were leaving their supply truck she promised herself she'd grab a handful of instant coffee sachets.

"Here, have a..well have a breakfast thing, Major," O'Neill said as he thrust the tray under her nose. She gingerly took a small block of the food and nibbled at it. The same sweet taste flooded through. She shrugged. It could be worse.

"Carter, you want to tell me more about what you saw last night," O'Neill said, looking at her expectantly.

"Well, Colonel, I know some of you might not agree with what I'm about to say but I've reached some sort of conclusion about these people and this city," she said sipping her water.

"Go on," he encouraged.

"The way they act, the fact that everything is manufactured for human consumption, organic that is, makes me think that they're not organic themselves," she said and turned to see Daniel's reaction.

He stared at her for a minute and then stood up. "Of course, artificial intelligence," he stammered. "That would explain everything we've seen so far, at least as far as it goes," he said. He slammed his fist down on the small table. "I should have realised. Well done, Sam," he said and smiled at her.

"Thanks," she muttered, embarrassed. "There is one thing which makes me think that it hasn't always been that way," she added.

O'Neill turned a querying eye to her. "And that would be?"

"Last night, in that garden, when I used the seats and their headrests, I seemed to be in contact with some sort of mental image from the past. An image which shows a world so different from the one we're now seeing it was like I was seeing another place."

"You used some sort of alien technology? Jack?" Daniel turned to his friend, his eyes wide. "You allowed her to?"

"Not exactly," O'Neill replied and exchanged a look with Carter.

"I did it myself, Daniel. The Colonel wasn't present. He pulled me out of it though," she admitted and saw the Colonel cast his eyes down.

"I knew it was acting like some sort of drug on my system and I thought I could front it out, that I could cope and just come off it when I wanted, but I couldn't. The hypnotic effect when you're hooked up to the thing is completely addictive," Carter explained sheepishly. "It's almost like the remaining citizens must have hooked themselves up to it so that they could relive what used to be and escape from what was their current life."

"How does that equate with the artificial intelligence? I mean, we can't imagine they'd gain anything from being hooked up, can we?" Daniel looked from Carter to O'Neill and back again.

"My best guess is that it's a world which has somehow died in the past and the AIs are the only remaining life forms. The devices in the garden aren't used any more. The gardens are overgrown and yet obviously in the past were a great source of pride to the people here. It's just a glorified weed patch now," Carter said.

O'Neill nodded slowly. "A civilisation which has died out then?"

"Perhaps it is so, O'Neill. We have indeed encountered such worlds before. However I do have another theory into which Major Carter's would also fit," Teal'c said.

All eyes turned to him, interested.

"The Jaffa tell of a place which is impossible to reach. A place which is over-run with non sentient beings, therefore of no use to the Goa'uld as hosts. However, the legend tells of great riches for any who reach it even though none ever has."

"How do they know it has great riches if they've never reached it?" Daniel asked sceptically.

Teal'c shrugged. "Such legends are passed down from generation to generation. No one ever doubts them, Daniel Jackson. Is it not also true on your world?"

Daniel nodded. He had to admit the lure of legends back on earth and the role mythology had played in people's perception of the world around them.

"Do you know the name of the people who inhabit this world, Teal'c?" Carter asked.

"I do, Major Carter. They are known as the Eternal Gatekeepers, for it is said that to reach the world one must pass through many gates and many challenges before one can reach the City of lights and its riches."

"Teal'c do you think you could let us have your urban legends a little earlier in future. Wasn't it obvious from the amount of gates we passed through that this was the same people?" O'Neill said, gently chastising, frustrated that they should have known earlier.

"I was not certain, O'Neill. Only when Major Carter mentioned the possibility of the aliens being non-sentient did I decide to speak." Teal'c turned to face O'Neill.

"Colonel O'Neill, would you prefer that I offer my thoughts even if I believe them to be incorrect," he added.

O'Neill threw off his frustration and clapped Teal'c on the shoulder. "Never mind, Teal'c."

"Jack, if these are the "Eternal Gatekeepers" of the Jaffa legend then how did Sokar and his men pass through all those Gates and decipher the codes?" Daniel asked puzzled.

"Good question. Perhaps our friend Sokar tricked his way in," O'Neill suggested. "Something we need to ask our new little friends," he added and rose to his feet.

Ventra's head appeared through the opening door almost on cue.

"Greetings to you. It is time," he said and indicated the chamber.

"Time?" O'Neill queried, forcing a smile.

Ventra smiled in return, although his lips did the talking. His eyes remained unwavering as he replied.

"Time to learn why you will decide to help us. Time to know the truth about Salus."

CHAPTER SEVEN

GATEKEEPERS

The passageways were darker here, lit only by side panels which glowed gently, silently.

Carter exchanged a meaningful look with O'Neill. The difference in the place was startling. It was obviously a means of hiding the route to wherever they were going. The glass tunnels had long since disappeared and been replaced by those of a metallic construction. Somehow it made the route less interesting, less encouraging to someone who might stray this way either on purpose or lost. The lighting was barely enough, making tripping a real hazard. Carter flicked on her flashlight, an act which was greeted with frantic pleas to turn it off from their guides.

Ventra had been joined by Mafus once more and they moved forwards steadily, seeming to know the way without the need for light. The solid wall in front of them loomed sudden and unexpected.

O'Neill let out a frustrated sigh. "Kinda lost my confidence in you guys. You lost or something?" he commented, annoyed at the thought of an about turn.

"We are not," Ventra replied simply and reached forwards. He pulled on a small lever which was masked within the structure of the wall. The expected movement in front of them didn't happen. Instead, a panel in the floor slid sideways, revealing a set of wrought iron steps leading down into the darkness.

"We go down," Ventra said and started the descent.

"You don't say," O'Neill replied and indicated for Carter to follow the lead. "Teal'c follow Carter. Daniel, I'll take rear," he said in a low voice and threw a smile at Mafus who was waiting for them all to proceed downwards. "Not coming?" he asked as he watched Mafus reach for the wall once O'Neill's head had cleared the opening.

"I will return later," Mafus replied and turned away as the floor above them slid to.

O'Neill's eyes narrowed with suspicion.

The darkness was stifling in its intensity. From the bright sterility of the glass dwellings to the almost dank and rough features of the tunnels downwards. The contrast was profound.

"Everyone okay?" O'Neill called as he continued to descend for what seemed to be a half an hour.

"We are quite well, O'Neill," Teal'c's voice rang back up the descent shaft.

Several minutes later O'Neill's foot hit the ground suddenly and without warning, the wrought iron stairs ending abruptly in the darkness. He stared ahead catching glimpses of his team in the muted beams of their flashlights.

"We near to the Emerald City yet?" he shouted. Carter smiled in the darkness. Trust her commanding officer to think fantasy, even in these strange circumstances.

"We are close to the end of our journey, Colonel O'Neill," Ventra said loudly, catching the laughter in Carter's eyes as he turned around. It was obvious that there was some form of common bond between the humans. A strong bond which tied the team together and strengthened in them the compassion and loyalty which they were renowned for as a race. He turned to the large metal structure which lay at the end of the tunnel, contemplating what it must be like to be human, to be sentient and to feel real emotions.

The huge round 'door' appeared at first to be a solid, gray and uninteresting entrance to some vault. Ventra moved to the side of the tunnel and placed his hand across the small light which was set into the rock.

Within seconds the "uninteresting" metal had changed its appearance and was now engraved elaborately with symbols that Daniel had never seen before. The symbols were simplistic in themselves but when grouped together the effect was stunningly complex. He moved forwards before Ventra could stop him, and fingered the symbols gently. To his surprise, although they were raised from the surface, they shrank back in when touched and melted into the background.

Each panel, and the door was divided into five sections, contained a single representation of a Gate. The symbols were grouped around each Gate and within it. In the center of the door lay a single circle embedded with a huge dark stone, dull in appearance.

"It's exactly the same arrangement as the City above us," he remarked quietly to O'Neill, who had come to gaze over his shoulder. "See, the central stone is the central structure which we entered, and the hubs are the streets above us which I would guess, mirror the glass corridors."

"Fascinating," O'Neill said unconvincingly, looking bored, and suddenly leaned past him to push on the central stone itself. The dull black piece erupted into a red flash of light. A loud and piercing sound, the like of which they'd never heard before, shrieked across the tunnel and beyond.

"Wow." O'Neill leapt back and covered his ears. The intensity of the sound was threatening his equilibrium and he staggered towards the side of the tunnel, stumbling into Carter as he did so, her fingers firmly pressed into her ears.

Ventra moved swiftly to the door and ran his fingers deftly over several symbols in each Gate representation. Within seconds the noise had abated "Do not touch the door. It is for us alone," he said firmly but calmly. Anger was obviously not part of the alien's psyche, and no retribution followed.

"Some warning system you got there," O'Neill commented wryly as he banged the side of his head, attempting to still the vibration which lingered in his eardrums.

"It is necessary," Ventra said simply and placed his one hand on one of the gates and his other on another, the opposite side of the hub.

Daniel turned to Carter and whispered. "The symbols aren't reacting to him, they're staying on the surface of the door."

Carter raised an eyebrow and leant across to him. "Probably heat sensitive. If our suspicions are founded, that would follow," she whispered. She hoped that Ventra's connection to her was now lost, that he couldn't tap into what she was thinking. She certainly didn't feel a connection anymore and had assumed that their entrance into the City meant that it had been severed but she could never be quite sure.

Ventra stood back from the door and waited.

O'Neill's frustration at not just being allowed to get on with finding out exactly why they were there, and having to wait, simmered slowly under the surface. He narrowed his eyes and then threw Daniel an exasperated look.

Daniel shrugged. Patience was never, and never would be, Jack's strong point.

"Wow, that was worth the wait," Carter breathed as they watched the door spring to life, its symbols dancing in a multicoloured symphony, a grinding noise coming from the central stone.

The stone itself started to glow. At first the glow was muted and then it brightened into a blinding light which turned from red to orange and then to a bright white which caused the team to turn from the door and shield their eyes. As she turned, Carter noted with interest that Ventra seemed able to stare at the stone without discomfort.

As the tunnel darkened once more, they all turned back towards their host.

"This way," he said and indicated the now huge gaping hole where the door had once stood.

"Sweet," O'Neill muttered as they moved through, the door having vanished completely.

oOo

"You know Daniel, that would have required an enormous energy source," Carter commented as they moved through another band of glass corridors towards a huge chamber in the middle.

"My guess is that the stone in the middle was the source," Daniel replied, feeling her excitement as a tangible part of the air around them.

"Yep, I'm guessing that too, but it's how it disappeared which is puzzling me. It wasn't energy based and yet acted like it," she continued eagerly.

O'Neill watched them from behind and shook his head. He could sense Carter's excitement at the new scientific discovery and the wonder in the archaeologist who walked beside her.

"It is interesting is it not O'Neill?" Teal'c offered as he hung back and sauntered alongside the Colonel.

"Not you too?" O'Neill replied and grimaced. At least he could always count on the Jaffa not to get too excited about anything, keep a lid on things so to speak.

"I am merely referring to the sense of wonder Major Carter is feeling, as is Daniel Jackson. You do not feel this too?"

"Me? Nah, I just wanna get to business. We've seen this sort of stuff before. Never comes to any good. None of it," O'Neill replied.

"I was not indicating that you should feel the same excitement, merely that I wondered if you could sense what they are feeling?" Teal'c asked and looked quizzically as O'Neill stopped and turned to face him, waiting for the others to get further away from them.

"You telling me you're actually feeling what they feel? I mean, exactly?" O'Neill asked, surprised.

"I am sensing very strongly their feelings of excitement. Yes, O'Neill."

"Damn, I thought it was just me, being my usual empathically sensitive self," O'Neill said and then looked worried. "You got an explanation?"

"I do not," Teal'c replied simply. "Does it bother you, O'Neill?" he added.

"Damn sure it does," O'Neill choked. "Someone or something's playing around in my head and I don't like it," he said with feeling. "Besides, I don't like being linked to you guys. I got my secrets you know." He feigned a vulnerable face and then started to walk again.

"We must ascertain whether Major Carter or Daniel Jackson are feeling as we are," Teal'c said and moved towards them.

O'Neill grabbed at his sleeve and pulled him back. The Jaffa turned in surprise.

"You do not wish me to do this, O'Neill?" he asked, his eyebrows raised.

"Not just yet. We might be the only two affected for all we know. I'll ask them when it's time," he replied. "Act normal," he ordered as they set off to catch the others.

Teal'c's eyes reflected the merest hint of amusement at his commanding officer's instructions. At times, O'Neill confused him.

oOo

The central chamber was an identical mirror image of the one to which they'd first been lead, when they arrived.

"No sense of diversity, these guys," O'Neill said shaking his head.

"They probably don't have any need to change things, Jack. Aesthetics probably don't come into the general scheme of things," Daniel said looking upwards towards the chamber roof.

"Oh, I don't know, those glass structures outside were pretty neat," O'Neill said, his eyes narrowing. He had a distinctly uncomfortable feeling suddenly. He swung around to look at Carter. She was moving across towards the side of the chamber, her eyes having caught sight of something which interested her.

"I too feel it, O'Neill," Teal'c whispered close to his ear, as he followed the Major's progress with his own eyes.

"Sam, be careful," Daniel called out as he started to move after her. He felt a sense of danger and he wasn't sure why.

Carter's eyes had been caught by a dark shape to the side of the chamber, the far side and she had an overriding feeling that she needed to see what it was. As she neared it and realised what it was she stepped back instinctively.

"Whoa," she stuttered and almost gagged, putting her hand to her mouth, stifling the feeling that her stomach was about to lose its contents all over the beautifully clean chamber floor.

The feeling of nausea and revulsion which emanated from Carter, swept through the rest of the team within a second.

"Now this is going just too far," O'Neill declared uncomfortably as he moved quickly across towards where she was standing. "I prefer to see things which make me sick myself," he added as he reached her side and glanced over her shoulder.

The eyes stared upwards unblinking. There was a feeling of despair about the corpse. A feeling that the dying had been slow, painful and agonisingly terror ridden. The body was emaciated, its uniform hanging in shreds from its limbs. An insignia on the forehead was faded, bloodied.

All this, Carter could have faced. She'd faced worse on the battlefield, so had the rest of the team, but there was a difference about the corpse. A difference which left even Teal'c eyes staring in protest, his hand clamped firmly across his abdomen, in a futile gesture of support and protection for his symbiot which writhed around uncomfortably inside him.

O'Neill leant down to study the accurately dismembered body more carefully. Now that he wasn't seeing things through the others' thought processes he felt more in control. Nevertheless the sight wasn't pretty and finding it in the sterile interior of the chamber had made it worse somehow. Strangely, and from the smell, the body had lain there for some time, untouched.

"He was Marta'c," Teal'c said quietly. "I have served alongside him on Chulak," he added and bent down onto one knee next to O'Neill and stared at the dead Jaffa. "What manner of being executes another in this way?" he said sadly as he wrenched his gaze away from the remains of the symbiot which was clutched in Marta'c's hand.

"I'm thinking Sokar here," O'Neill replied and turned to Ventra, who stood silently some way behind them, seemingly unaffected by the grisly scenario.

Ventra kept his counsel, his eyes staring at the small group.

"To have the symbiot torn from the body is not the work of a System Lord," Teal'c said firmly. "Not even one such as Sokar. The Goa'uld go to great lengths to preserve all of their children. This Goa'uld larva is a great loss to Sokar and his future defences."

"I dunno, Teal'c. Sokar's a pretty mean sort of guy. Chopping out junior here wouldn't mean squat to him if it meant he could inflict some sort of revenge on one of his men for disobeying him or something." O'Neill shook his head sadly. So it was a damn Goa'uld, he still wouldn't wish that sort of death on someone.

"Hey now, you don't like to clean up dead bodies or something?" O'Neill called across to Ventra.

In response and silently, the alien reached across to the console beside him and flicked a single switch.

"Don't mind us," O'Neill barbed and looked upwards. The chamber was darkening imperceptibly and slowly.

The voice which rang out was clear and had more passion in it, more feeling than any of their hosts had displayed so far. There was a uniqueness to it, a warmth which settled O'Neill's feeling of discomfort and lulled him into a feeling that whatever happened, everything was going to be all right. He shook his head, trying to clear the feeling away but it was overwhelming. He managed to force his gaze to the others. They were looking relaxed. He guessed that the group feeling was accentuating the individual one. Being relaxed about things he could cope with, but he felt on his guard nevertheless. No damn alien was going to get into his head and tell him things he didn't want to hear or do. If he could just emphasise that thought and communicate it to the others. If.

oOo

"Colonel Jack O'Neill, you are most welcome to Salus," the voice lilted softly. It was a female voice, gentle, persuasive and safe.

"Well thank you, ma'am," O'Neill replied.

"We have need of your skills, Colonel. Need of your team's strength and courage. Do you pledge yourselves to our service?" the voice continued.

"Whoa, nobody gets me to pledge myself to anyone's service. Several have tried mind you. But I'm pledged already to the US government. I think you'd find that one hard to top," O'Neill said.

The laugh was soft, almost a girlish giggle. "I think the US government, whoever she is, would find our service afforded more, shall we say, status."

"Sorry," O'Neill said firmly and shook his head, his eyes scanning the great cavern for sight of the owner of the voice. All he could see was Ventra standing quietly and unobtrusively to the side of the chamber.

"Very well. Perhaps a pledge is too, shall we say, formal an agreement. Do you agree to help us?"

"You haven't filled us in on your little problem," O'Neill said.

"I understand that you are acquainted with the creature named as Sokar?"

"Oh, yeah, we've had a run in or two with him," O'Neill admitted readily.

"Then he is your enemy as well as ours."

"Sure."

"Then you would wish to ally yourself with us in defeating him?"

"Let's say that it would be something we would consider."

"Then we would wish you to defeat him and remove him from our planet."

"And you will be doing what while we're 'defeating' him?"

"We will be observing you."

"Oh hey, well that's real nice of you, but I think a little bit more practical help is needed here," O'Neill snorted and looked around at the rest of the team, putting his hands out in a gesture of frustration.

Carter raised her eyebrows while Daniel shrugged. Teal'c was standing still, unflinching, registering no emotion whatsoever.

"You like to tell us why you can't get rid of him yourselves? I mean, you're the great Gatekeepers aren't you? Hey, you're legendary. You've probably got more weapons than we have," O'Neill continued.

There was a moment's pause before another voice joined the first.

"We have no weapons."

O'Neill raised his eyebrows, registering the fact that they hadn't denied the label of Gatekeepers. "None?"

"No."

Daniel moved to O'Neill's side and spoke softly. "Ask them to reveal themselves," he suggested.

O'Neill looked at him quizzically. "I got a sort of dialogue going here, you sure it's important?"

Daniel nodded. "It's a theory Sam and I have got," he said.

O'Neill glanced at Carter who nodded.

He swung around and sighed heavily. "Okay here goes," he mumbled.

"You want our help, you gotta show yourselves," he called out. He caught Ventra stiffen visibly at his request.

The gap of silence was longer this time.

"We do not have anything to show," the voice said simply.

"You gotta have some sort of body to show us," O'Neill remarked. "Don't be shy now, we've seen everything there is to see this side of the Galaxy. Little aliens, big aliens, ugly aliens and downright monstrous ones. You won't shock us," he quipped.

Carter lowered her eyes to avoid anyone catching her smile briefly. Daniel looked uncomfortable at O'Neill's total lack of diplomatic skills.

"Perhaps if we show you our form now and explain to you about how Salus is, you would decide to help us," the female voice chimed in.

"We might. Worth a try," O'Neill replied. "One thing I gotta ask. That body. The Goa'uld over there. Why haven't you moved him?"

"It was left for you to see the violence which Sokar brings to even his own people."

"Yeah, well we've seen it before. You wanna stop doing that in future. It's kind of uncivilised."

"Very well. We did not mean to cause discomfort. Now O'Neill, you and your team are to join us."

"At last," O'Neill exclaimed and then lost his footing as he felt the floor beneath him start to turn. Slowly at first and then slightly faster. The group moved together into the center and watched the tunnel exits close one by one and then the floor stopped moving.

Alura stepped into the chamber from a new side passage which was now revealed. She smiled the same benign smile and bowed.

"Please, step forward and meet the Gatekeepers," she chimed softly and turned towards the far wall which was starting to disintegrate before their eyes.

"Oh my God," said Daniel as he moved towards the chamber which lay on the other side of the wall which had now vanished completely.

"Phew, that sure beats some of the aliens we've seen," admitted O'Neill as he followed.

Carter's eyes were impassive, her mouth dropped slightly as she moved forwards almost on autopilot. The feelings which were coming strong and fast now were all jumbled together in all of them. The power of the shared experience as heady and somehow enhanced by the link. Daniel's awe, O'Neill's admiration, Teal'c's wonder and Carter's racing thoughts. The science, the power of it all was beyond anything she'd seen before.

Four very alien beings who had essentially deserted their own organic forms appeared as four beams of translucent energy, emanating from a container containing organic material of unknown origin. Four pulsating threads of power. Four beings who were linked together into a central giant organic mass of electronic fields, a single network of billions of neurones moving from one side of the giant central core to the other. Four beings who were obviously separated once but who were joined into what Carter could only describe as the biggest organic computer she'd ever seen.

CHAPTER EIGHT

ENCOUNTERS

"You are curious as to what we are, O'Neill. Samantha Carter knows what we are." The male alien voice droned.

O'Neill swung around and looked at his second in command questioningly, who pulled a wry face and nodded.

"Well I kind of do. I mean it's obviously the combined resources of all four brains, or whatever you want to call them, coming together to become some massive sort of supercomputer. Only this time the energy sources are organic and not electronic," she explained as simply as she could. Blinding her commander with the science of it, even if she could explain it all in detail, never worked.

"Your brain cannot explain our actual existence, Samantha Carter," the woman's voice lilted gently. "Please accept that we are. That is all that you need to understand."

"But I'd like to know how…" Carter interrupted and was cut short by the male voice.

"It would take too long to explain to you fully, Major Carter. Know that we have chosen to combine together to form one distinct life-form, one so powerful it controls Salus and the environment you find yourself in. We are, because we had to be. We control the Gates which protect our very existence and yet we cannot, and will not, kill in our own defence. This we pledged when we agreed to meld. Also know that the alien which roams our planet, the alien Sokar, would delight in finding that we exist and use us to create a monstrous version of himself. His power would be absolute. A final host for him, a host which would make him the ultimate power, the ultimate evil in the Universe. This we know. This is what we seek to hide from him."

The woman's voice interrupted. "Our children, some of whom we created before we joined, they who walk the City, are being taken, slowly, one by one. The alien cannot use them for his own ends, as hosts to his own children, and so he destroys them. Once he has destroyed them he will learn of our existence. It will not be long. We sense that there are those of his own kind within the City confines. Time is running short, O'Neill. We sought your help because you are known to us as a slayer of his kind."

"And you can't do the dirty work yourselves?" O'Neill queried, disparagingly.

"As we said, we cannot cause harm to come to another sentient being. This we cannot do. This we pledged and cannot change. It was a safeguard to prevent a malfunction within any one of us creating a weapon so powerful it could not be stopped."

"Even if it means your own destruction, or worse that Sokar uses you to become some sort of monster?" Daniel joined in.

"We cannot."

"And your children? Why can't they stop them?" O'Neill persisted.

"They are not permitted to cause harm. It is programmed into their systems. To break this rule would result in their immediate death."

"Now wait just a minute. You caused my officer to suffer pain back on the surface when your people tried to access her mind or whatever you did."

"We are aware that this occurred but it was not intentional. She has hosted another within her. Even the remnants of that melding caused our device to overcompensate."

"So you're telling me that even if ten Goa'uld came storming through those doors and cut us all to ribbons you couldn't help?" O'Neill stood, incredulous that this highly advanced society would not protect themselves or their guests.

"We cannot harm them. We have tried manipulating their minds to create illusion, to cause them to retreat from the planet surface, to return their prisoner to his home, but they resume their cruel activities once the effects have worn off. We are unable to stop them. O'Neill, the slaughter is increasing. There were five hundred of our children who serviced and roamed the city and its environs. Now there are one hundred."

"Can't you make more?" Daniel asked, horrified at the sheer numbers Sokar must have slaughtered.

"It would take many months to recreate more. Our children must do this under our guidance. We have started the process but the Goa'uld have been on our planet for a single month. Soon we will have no children left to fabricate others."

"And what's in this for us?" O'Neill interjected. "We get to fight Sokar and free our friend without your help and at what risk to us?"

Daniel shot him a withering look and Carter averted her eyes. Listening to the tale of murder she couldn't think of gain to themselves, only of stopping Sokar and freeing Nafrayu.

"Your freedom is guaranteed. Your passage through the triumvirate will be aided by us."

"Triumvirate?" O'Neill raised a single eyebrow and glanced at Teal'c who returned the look, silently.

"The triumvirate are the three gates which you passed through. They are situated on two different worlds and it is that which has so far protected this planet from outside interference."

"Didn't work with Sokar," Daniel said, almost apologetically.

"Sokar and his forces tricked our children," the male voice said. There was sadness in his voice.

"Tricked?" Carter repeated, her eyes questioning how these obviously highly intelligent beings could allow themselves to be tricked.

"Our children were at the first point of contact.."

"The island gate," whispered Daniel to O'Neill.

"...servicing the components of the pedestal."

"Pedestal?" chimed three voices. O'Neill, Carter and Daniel looked uncomfortably at one another. The question had appeared simultaneously in all three of their minds. Teal'c raised his eyebrow.

"They mean the DHD," whispered Carter in explanation, looking surprised nonetheless.

"Your terminology is foreign to us but your minds explain. Yes, the DHD as you call it," the female answered.

"The alien known to you as Sokar watched our people carefully as they instigated the code which causes the pedestal to reach the first gate. They followed our children and once through to the second gate, killed two of them at the moment of departure to our planet."

Carter lowered her eyes and swallowed. Butchery as soon as a species was encountered. Sokar's work never failed to disgust her.

"How in heaven's name did Sokar manage to remember the sequence of codes?" O'Neill said to Carter. "It was too damn fast for us."

"The codes were not as you saw them. We have changed the pedestal and its format since Sokar arrived. We sent our children through," the female voice explained.

"And those things - those creatures on the second planet? They didn't maybe kill a Goa'uld or two?" O'Neill asked, looking curious.

"The inhabitants of the second planet did not."

O'Neill caught Carter's eye at this. She pursed her lips and shrugged silently. Why they'd been attacked she didn't know, but it left them with an element of surprise if Sokar managed to track them back through the gate.

"If your children are artificially made, how can they be killed?" Daniel asked.

"Yeah, I'd like to know that myself," O'Neill added.

"Their bodies can withstand forces which yours cannot, but our children have one thing which can be affected just as you humans can."

"And that would be?"

"Organic brain cells."

Carter exchanged a meaningful look with Daniel.

"You mean their minds are part of organic, fully functioning brains?" Daniel said, acknowledging Carter's expression.

"That is correct. We have allowed our children to harvest certain cells from our brains and to clone the tissues and network of the neuronal pathways. Our children may well appear to be artificial in all respects, but the intelligence is ours."

"What about the emotions? Do you allow the harvesting of those areas of your brain?" Carter asked, fascinated by the idea of AI's possessing sentient intelligence of their own. Not like their synthetics copied from themselves years ago, but unique sentience within an artificial body.

"We do not. Emotions would cloud our children's ability to make logical decisions. Possessing intelligence and the motor abilities of ourselves is all that they require," the female stated.

"And you know exactly which part of the brain houses which?" O'Neill said.

"It is a basic anatomical and physiological part of our knowledge," the alien replied.

"Of course it is," O'Neill replied and squinted. Way more advanced, he thought silently.

"If they're sentient then they have every right to the emotions you possess. You're treating them like slaves," Carter persisted heatedly.

"Our world is not open for your debate or sentiments, Major Carter. Our city is our own and it has survived like this for thousands of years. Our children do not desire emotions. Emotions are what caused the death of our planet once. A death which we will not allow to repeat itself. We are the guardians of its present and its future."

"But how do you prevent the emotional side of your brains from being harvested. How can you be sure a small part hasn't got in there?" Daniel asked, anxious to learn more about the "death of the planet" and what it had once been.

"This discussion has been allowed to continue too far. We do not intend for you humans to judge us. What is right for our people, for us, is not something we wish to debate with you. As humans you have brought ruin to your own world through the emotional outbursts of a few. Are you prepared to help us, and thus yourselves, O'Neill?"

"Without repeating ourselves, what's in it for us once we've got our friend?" O'Neill replied as Carter and Daniel fell silent, lost in their own thoughts about the scientific and moralistic side of the whole thing.

"We will offer your planet, your Earth, and you, the Tau'ri, our friendship. We would offer you an 'alliance', I believe you call it."

"Now maybe we could just do business," O'Neill replied and his eyes spoke volumes as he turned to Carter. An alliance might lead to offers of technology. It was a gamble worth taking. Besides the fact that the aliens were pretty useless in terms of weaponry, forging another alliance with a highly technologically advanced culture wasn't a bad outcome. Besides, kicking Sokar's butt at the same time sounded pretty appealing to O'Neill.

"Then you will help us?"

"Sure. We'll go get our friend and kick the Goa'uld's butt for you at the same time, but you gotta do something before we start this whole thing going."

"If we are able to grant it, then we will," the female replied, her voice guarded.

"Get the hell out of our minds and leave us to sort it out ourselves," he said firmly.

"We will withdraw from probing your consciousness as you ask. Please know that we meant no disrespect. Our children are all linked to us and it seemed only natural to include you within the circle."

"Just get out of here," O'Neill said flippantly, banging the side of his head with his hand, and felt a sudden lightness in his head, as though something or someone was fading away from his thoughts. He turned to the others and they all nodded, one by one.

"Um, can I ask a question before we leave?" Daniel said, ignoring O'Neill's sigh at the delay.

"You may, Daniel Jackson."

"How did you know that the Nox boy Nafrayu would lure us here? You couldn't tap our minds and yet you knew he was linked to us."

"One of Sokar's men obligingly revealed your past history with the Goa'uld when we scanned his mind. We believe that he was one of those present when you met with the Nox. He had very strong feelings about them. Nafrayu was seen in his thoughts as being close to you in particular, Colonel O'Neill. Were we correct in this assumption?"

O'Neill shrugged uncomfortably, acutely aware that Carter's eyes were boring into the back of his head.

"I kinda liked the little guy, yeah," he said. "Hell the Nox saved our lives. Who wouldn't like them," he added and threw an apologetic look at the rest of his team.

Carter smiled gently and exchanged a glance with Daniel.

"Oh one last thing," O'Neill said.

"Please ask it." The female voice was more guarded.

"Any idea what Sokar is planning?"

There was a muted silence and then the male voice answered.

"He is planning to trade the boy for a treasure which he seeks. A treasure he believes the Nox would give up for the safe return of their child."

"Sweet," O'Neill muttered, wondering what it could possibly be.

"Okay, people, let's do it," O'Neill said abruptly as he turned from looking at the aliens.

oOo

"In order to prevent Sokar from learning of us, you must first destroy those of his forces which roam our city's subterranean passages," Ventra said to them as they walked away from the area which housed the giant containers.

"How far out do the passages extend?" Carter asked as she walked behind O'Neill.

"These passages reach out to the furthest limits of the city. They mirror the pattern of the city above us," Ventra explained.

"Cool," replied O'Neill as he looked around him. "That's quite an area to search," he added.

"We have endeavoured to help you in this," Ventra replied as the solitary figure of Mafus appeared in the tunnel to their left. The slender figure approached and bowed.

"I have located the intruders," he said simply.

"How do we know they're the only ones?" O'Neill said swiftly.

"I think what Colonel O'Neill is trying to say is "thank you for finding them and are there any others?" Daniel said hastily trying to throw as scornful a look as possible at O'Neill.

If he saw it, he ignored it, insisting instead on continuing the conversation in his own way.

"Could we just be left to get on with this alone?" he said sharply and looked meaningfully at Daniel to shut up. He didn't want interference and he certainly didn't want to be babysat while they moved around the tunnels which spread outwards from the centre.

"As you wish," Ventra said and bowed in deference to his wishes.

"Um..Colonel I think it would be beneficial to find out exactly where Mafus has found Sokar's men. Biting the hand that feeds comes to mind," Carter said and locked eyes with her commanding officer.

O'Neill turned to Daniel. The young archaeologist kept his bewildered gaze and then decided it was getting them nowhere. The stand off was pointless.

"Jack, are you nuts or something? We're looking a perfectly good gift horse in the mouth here," Daniel chided softly as he watched Mafus and Ventra in discussion.

"Ever heard the word "mole" in your travels," O'Neill hissed back as quietly as he could.

Daniel stared for a single moment and then nodded briefly.

"Colonel, permission to find out what the aliens know," Carter said as she moved to stand next to them.

"Sure, go ahead."

Carter approached Mafus and Ventra cautiously. Mafus bowed in deference as she drew nearer.

"Major Carter?" Ventra allowed a smile to play across his lips.

"If you have any idea where to start looking for Sokar's men we'd be grateful." she said.

"Mafus has tracked them to the eastern fringe of the City but he says that there are signs that they have been closer to the center in recent days. I should also warn you that there are signs of a recent slaughter."

Carter grimaced and nodded her understanding as she turned to leave.

"We will show you," Mafus added.

She hesitated. She knew her Colonel was right. Perhaps the aliens meant well. Perhaps. But trusting aliens they didn't know, who had proved nothing to them, who might well be leading them into a trap, was an automatic negative in military terms. Nevertheless she had to say something.

She turned and saw the look of muted surprise cross the alien features.

"I'm sorry. We have to do this on our own," she said simply and then turned towards her friends.

oOo

Crinta'c threw his final punch and almost dislocated the alien's head from its body as it thudded to the stone ground.

He rubbed the fluid which had flowed from the open wounds from his hands with disgust. Sokar's instructions were clear. Take out as many of the aliens that he could and find the Eternal Gatekeepers if they were hidden in the City. Find their position and report back.

So far he'd followed his master's orders and the slaughter had continued unabated. They were easy to lure, easy to kill. However, the satisfaction at killing even one hundred of them was not as great as the pleasure he would get from taking the life of one of the Tau'ri who had arrived the day before, and one Tau'ri in particular would bring him back into favour with his master. Not a dead Tau'ri this one, but one which Sokar would very much like to meet alive.

Crinta'c smiled and wiped a grimy hand across his mouth. A mouth which was dry and blistered from lack of fluid. Even running his tongue across the lips did nothing to alleviate the feeling, the pain.

Yet, his pain was nothing. Nothing but a temporary discomfort. Soon he would take Sokar a prize that he could only have dreamed of getting, and certainly not on this planet. Crinta'c smiled and silently thanked his God and for presenting him with the opportunity that would soon be his.

CHAPTER NINE

CATACOMBS

Darkness was soon the team's constant companion. The tunnels were narrow and unlit, damp and rough. Whatever or whoever had hewn the stone in the upper levels weren't too fussy about the catacombs beneath them.

"You gotta wonder at these people," O'Neill commented as he elbowed his way past another jutting out surface and winced loudly. "Jeez, you need more pads down here than a goal-keeper," he moaned.

"It would appear that the beings who made this city were not those who made the tunnels," Teal'c observed as he moved behind his leader.

"You know, Colonel, I think Teal'c may be right," Carter said. "I mean, it does make sense. The Gatekeepers said that their world was almost destroyed thousands of years ago. They rebuilt it using the AIs. Maybe these catacombs are the remnants of their own civilisation, carved out of the rock by their forefathers and now they're mostly forgotten and certainly not used."

"In that case why are Sokar's people down here?" Daniel commented as he ran his finger down the damp cold surface next to him.

"There has to be a way to connect with the outside," Carter decided and aimed her flashlight towards the ceiling of the tunnel.

"You know folks, as much as I'd like for us all to stay together down here there's too much ground to cover. We'll split up," O'Neill declared as he paused at a fork in the tunnels. Both passages were dark and uninviting and yet both could yield the prey they sought.

"Carter, you and Teal'c take the right fork. Keep to the right at every fork. You'll either end up back here or hopefully outside the City limits. We'll keep to the left. Keep radio silence unless you find anything. Check in every two hours," he ordered. "Danny, my boy, we're together," he added, smiling briefly at the young archaeologist.

"And Carter."

She turned queryingly.

"Nothing goes down unless I say so, understood?"

She nodded and gripped her MP5 tightly. "Understood, Sir."

"Okay kids, let's do this."

oOo

Crinta'c smiled at his two men as they waited silently in the shadows, listening. The Tau'ri were splitting up giving him the opportunity he needed. Two weeks of hiding and luring aliens had given his men the edge over the Tau'ri. Small hidden chambers linking the tunnels gave the Jaffa the cloak of stealth and the element of surprise. Crinta'c knew the aliens didn't realise he had found their secret, their source of power. Sokar would afford him respect when he returned with not only the location of the Gatekeepers, and the knowledge of what they really were, but also with an extra gift.

"We go," he said simply and his men raised their staff weapons and moved forward behind him. "Shaka'c, follow the two men and observe them and where they go. Meet us on the surface. Maraa'c with me. We have an important task to take care of."

Shaka'c nodded and took off down a side passage at speed. Crinta'c moved forwards and started tracking his prey. He could kill the one and take the other back to Sokar. The head of the one would add weight to his standing as a true warrior. He puffed up in pride and his eyes glinted with the knowledge of the certain kill which lay ahead.

oOo

Carter reached her hand forward and tentatively brushed across the surface of the stone passage. The dampness was less and a feeling knawed at her, deep inside. She couldn't place it. She turned to Teal'c and caught his eye. He put a single finger to his lip and nodded, acknowledging the feeling which her previous encounter with Jolinar of Malkshur had left as a trace. The ability to feel the presence of another Goa'uld, even an infant within a host. Teal'c felt it too, but he knew that Major Carter's instincts were stronger than his in this regard and he trusted them implicitly.

With no warning, a single hand reached through the wall as though it were invisible and gripped Carter's wrist hard, pulling her forwards suddenly and off her feet before Teal'c or she could react and fire at the perpetrator.

A flash of blue lit the end of a staff weapon as it emptied its payload and reached across the darkness to Teal'c. He swung sideways, diving to the floor and attempted to reach Carter before she was hauled forwards and into the darkness of the chamber, which was hidden from their sight.

Teal'c brought his feet up and landed a hard kick on the young pale faced Jaffa who was firing up his weapon again. Maraa'c let out a grunt and the weapon clattered harmlessly to the side of the passage as Teal'c rose to his feet and brought his own weapon to bear upon his assailant.

He wanted to follow Major Carter and see where she'd been taken but his attention was taken by the gaunt face and twisted features of the young soldier in front of him, and the knife which had appeared in his blood stained hand.

"So. The traitor Teal'c," he said with scorn as he stood empty handed and faced his intended victim.

"If we were on Chulak I would show you the error of following Sokar and we would not be doing battle," Teal'c said, his face hard, his chin set in determination.

"Sokar is the strongest of the Gods. Sokar has promised us that we will serve in the mightiest army in all the planets. What of Sokar would you warn me about? What could a traitor possibly have to say about the master?" Maraa'c said almost spitting the words out.

"Sokar would kill you if you transgress any of his rules, Sokar has no loyalty to you, his men. Sokar is a false God as was Apophis, ruling by fear and by lies. You have a chance to leave his service, to join with me, with the Tau'ri who will someday rival the System Lords in power and will overthrow them." Teal'c's voice was calm and collected. He eyed the blade which rested in Maraa'c's hand with some disquiet but knew that he could take him if necessary. The Jaffa was too young to kill. Death would come hard to him and his killing would come hard to Teal'c. Teal'c wanted with all his heart to use powers of persuasion over him and persuade him to change his allegiance. In some ways he reminded him of his young son, eager and ready to join in the fighting but too young to know what it meant.

"Your words are what I expected to hear. Your mind has been poisoned by the Tau'ri. You are their slave, the servant of their futile attempts to overthrow the Gods. You shall die." Maraa'c lunged forward at that and aimed his blade for Teal'c's throat.

Teal'c let his staff weapon deliver its message as it hit the young man squarely in the chest, burning clothes and flesh together and slamming his body back against the wall of the passage with a thud.

"The Tau'ri do not hold slaves, Jaffa. I regret that you could not come to know that," Teal'c said quietly as he reached down and gently closed the young man's eyes, averting his eyes from the searing wound which laid his chest open wide.

He rose to his feet and stared at the opening in the passage wall. The opening where he'd seen Samantha Carter taken silently and swiftly. Teal'c's mind raced as he entered, flicking his flashlight forwards and studying the surroundings for signs of the struggle. Surprisingly little remained in evidence. He fingered the com set tentatively. Time to inform the Colonel that they had a problem.

oOo

"She's what?" O'Neill hissed down the com and exchanged an apprehensive and angry look with Daniel as they paused in their exploration of the left hand fork in the tunnel.

"I regret that Major Carter has been captured," Teal'c's voice rang back steadily and with that 'matter of fact' ring to it. O'Neill did note however that the tone was apologetic with a sense of hidden urgency in what he was telling them.

"Great news, Teal'c," he said sarcastically and saw Daniel take his helmet off and drag his hands roughly through his hair in exasperation.

"And the shots we heard?"

"I was forced to stop the Jaffa who attempted to kill me, O'Neill. Sokar is indeed behind the assault on the aliens and it would appear that Major Carter is now a prisoner," Teal'c replied slowly.

"One more item on Sokar's shopping list ticked off," O'Neill said. "Damn."

"Teal'c, it sounds like the direction you're travelling in is the best one for getting out into the open, and it sure sounds as though Sokar's outside. We'll take the next fork right and try to double back towards you. Keep following Carter's trail and we'll try to catch up. Talk again at fifteen hundred hours."

"I will endeavour to track Major Carter's assailant," Teal'c acknowledged.

"Whoa, just a minute Teal'c, was she hurt?" Daniel said, concern threaded through his voice.

"She did not appear to be attacked, Daniel Jackson, merely abducted, but her silence was disturbing. It is possible that she was drugged as she was taken. I have seen no sign of a struggle," Teal'c admitted.

"Not like Carter," O'Neill said shaking his head with worry. "She kicks ass as good as the rest of us, if not better. I just can't see her going quietly like that," he added.

"Perhaps she was drugged like Teal'c said," Daniel offered as some compensation.

"Maybe," O'Neill replied, not convinced. He didn't like the sound of it one bit, and why Carter of the two? He would have thought Teal'c would have been a perfect prize for Sokar in preference to Carter. Unless.. O'Neill's heart sank, remembering their encounter with Sokar and the link with Jolinar.

"Come on, Daniel. The stakes have just increased. Let's try and double around to Teal'c and then hit Sokar out in the open," O'Neill said and they started forward again.

Shaka'c shrank back into the shadows and allowed the merest smile to play on his lips. Satisfaction was a lovely feeling. The satisfaction of knowing that soon his master would be able to take this Tau'ri group out once and for all and the satisfaction of knowing that Crinta'c had been successful and that Sokar's new treasure was on its way to the surface. For a single moment he allowed the memory of Maraa'c to flit through his thoughts, but he knew the young soldier would have died with extreme pride at the hands of the traitor Teal'c, enabling Crinta'c to carry out his task of taking the former Tok'ra host to the master. A fitting ending for a Jaffa warrior.

oOo

Carter kicked out at her captor with both legs, hitting him squarely in the abdomen and causing him to fall backwards with a grunt. Her bound hands ached with the effort of trying to escape from knots so tight that they ground into her skin.

"Tau'ri female, you will regret that," Crinta'c breathed as he struggled to his feet and fired up his staff, aiming loosely at her shoulder.

As the shaft of current moved across the chamber, Carter rolled deftly sideways away.

Crinta'c's laugh echoed around the hollow interior and he reached down and grabbed her arm roughly, hauling her to her feet.

"You are fast, female. Sokar will love your spirit."

Carter turned her head away and sneered at him, her eyes burning angrily at the fact that she'd been caught off guard back in the passageway. Her weapons had been removed within seconds and the blow to the back of her head had been swift and almost painless. When she awoke however, pain was something she'd found quickly enough.

"I would make you pay for the trouble you are causing me, woman, but Sokar would wish his new treasure to be intact. Perhaps your pain is not worth the punishment he would inflict on me. I will gain my pleasure from watching his own methods of extracting information." The Jaffa grinned at her less than obvious discomfort at his words and gripping her arm tightly, he dragged her along the tunnel into the darkness.

Carter shivered involuntarily at a memory which seemed to surface from the depths of her very being. Vivid flashes of a life long gone now. Flashes of a pain which she knew was indescribable but which only a part of her had felt and had somehow buried.

Sokar's features danced in front of her eyes and sent shudders down her spine at their very intrusion. The Tok'ra symbiot, Jolinar of Malkshur, surfaced briefly within her and screamed a warning. Screamed that she should try to escape from the fate which awaited her at Sokar's hands, screamed that she already knew the pain which awaited her and that he wouldn't let her go a second time. Not if he realised who she was. Carter's eyes glazed at the thought. Her only hope now lay in finding a way of escaping from her captor before she was taken above the surface, or of her friends tracking her before it was too late. Mentally she prayed that it wasn't.

oOo

Shaka'c shadowed the two men silently, watching their every move, their every gesture to one another. He listened to their quiet whisperings and facial expressions. Even in the darkness their faces were lit by their flashlights as they moved forwards. He was impressed with them. A grudging respect for their skills at exploring the tunnels and persistence in finding their lost comrades. It wasn't within the Goa'uld doctrine to care for one another. Soldiers were taught that a lost comrade was lost forever, not worth seeking out or risking life for and yet he saw the two Tau'ri and he saw the desperate look as they learned of the plight of their team member. For a single instance, Shaka'c felt a sense of brief jealousy at their compassion but it was gone as swiftly as it had appeared, swallowed back into the abyss which he'd created within him for all unwanted feelings and unnecessary burdens.

Soon he must separate them. Soon he would strike to divide. Which should he take out? He watched the men and estimated that the easier target would be the younger man. His stance was not that of a soldier. He could distract the older man somehow and strike at the younger. He fingered the blade at his hip gently. A swiftly placed blade would cause enough damage to slow the two men down. Perhaps even the older man would go on alone. As it would be if they were Jaffa. Then Shaka'c remembered that they were not, that both would be likely to look out for the other. He smiled. Their caring could be their downfall. It would slow them down enough to enable Crinta'c to clear the catacombs and conceal his route.

The serrated blade slid out from its sheath with ease and he felt it nestle comfortably in his hand, its purpose bringing a strength to the heart of the possessor. Shaka'c moved slowly forwards, listening to the words which were being spoken ahead of him, waiting for the moment to strike. Waiting for the sign.

The fork which appeared in front of them differed to the others they'd encountered so far. The tunnels were similarly shaped but this time the size difference was disconcerting. The left hand tunnel was larger, lighter somehow, as though there were some sort of opening ahead which was allowing light to shine through. The right hand tunnel was smaller and looked even darker than the one they were in.

"Jeez, Daniel, why did I say keep right?" O'Neill muttered as he moved towards the right hand tunnel and peered into the dark empty void.

Daniel kept his countenance and waited for O'Neill to make his mind up.

The decision however was taken out of their hands by the sound of movement coming from within the smaller of the tunnels. A scuffling sound. Muted but present.

"After me," O'Neill whispered as he fingered his weapon meaningfully and flicked his flashlight into a steadier position on his jacket. The beam was weak and penetrated the darkness with difficulty.

The two men moved forwards inch by inch, staring ahead as they made their way into the tunnel, watching for any sign of life, any sign of trouble.

The first thing Daniel knew of the attack was the stabbing pain which spiked his shoulder and radiated out across his arm and down to his hand.

His cry of pain caused O'Neill to swing around and aim his MP5 at the assailant, only to see the shadowy figure dart back down the tunnel ahead of them, his damage having been afflicted.

O'Neill caught the pale figure of his young friend as he slumped backwards against the hard, unrelenting wall of the tunnel, agony creased across his face and a smear of red increasing in diameter across his jacket and down his arm.

"Damn it Daniel," was all that O'Neill could mutter as he pulled the jacket aside to inspect the damage and winced as he saw that the serrated blade had done more damage to the surrounding tissue than was usual in a stab wound. He hauled the backpack off Daniel's shoulder and rummaged around for some sort of dressing, anything which would buy them time before they could get back to the central chamber and get help.

"We've got to go on," Daniel spluttered as he sat back and breathed heavily, trying to draw oxygen into his lungs and ease the pain at the same time.

"Not up for debate," O'Neill replied firmly and placed a large pad of gauze over the wound and then taped it in place as gently as he could. The blood loss wasn't extreme and there certainly didn't seem to be damage to any major blood vessels. Nevertheless it was a nasty wound. He pressed as hard as he could and looked into the eyes of his friend.

Daniel sucked in a deep breath and forced himself to speak. "Listen Jack, Sam and Teal'c need us. This whole attack is a ploy to get us to turn back so that they can reach Sokar. We can't let them win. We certainly can't let Sokar get his hands on Sam. If he remembers that she was the host to Jolinar.."

The pause was filled with unspoken fears of what might happen and O'Neill lowered his eyes. He was in a no win situation. Daniel's injury would slow them down and it could be dangerous for them to continue. On the other hand, Carter faced certain death if Sokar had her for long enough and managed to find out exactly who she was. If he didn't already know.

He sighed and reached into the bag once more. "Take these," he offered as he dropped a couple of painkillers into Daniel's hand and passed him a sip of water from their water bottle. Daniel nodded gratefully and swallowed them quickly.

"We walk slow, understood?"

Daniel nodded. "No arguments here," he said and smiled. He bit back the sharp stabbing pain he felt as he pulled himself to his feet and steadied himself for the walk.

The fast drain of colour from his face didn't go unnoticed and O'Neill grimaced as he watched, shouldering the extra backpack along with his own. As they began to move forwards through the tunnel, the assailant was doubling his efforts at putting distance between himself and the two men. At the same time he was unwittingly gaining on Teal'c who was ready for anything - well almost.

oOo

Crinta'c pulled Carter along roughly. With her hands bound she found balancing difficult and stumbled frequently much to her captor's disgust and frustration. He was acutely aware that he had to clear the tunnels and get out through the exit chamber he found at the far edge of the city before the woman's companions caught up with them. After that, and once he'd passed the prize over to Sokar he'd take on the rest of the Taur'i. For now though, he had to make sure Sokar saw that it was he who was bringing him the treasure. His place at Sokar's side depended on it.

Carter pursed her lips and ignored the ache in her head and the dizziness she was feeling as she moved forwards, the remnants of the blow to her head. She could feel the congealed sticky mass which had matted the base of her hairline but had thankfully stopped trickling blood down her neck and back. For that, she was grateful, since she had no hands free to either rub it or touch it and stop the irritation. She glowered at Crinta'c whenever she could. She hated the man. He was one of Sokar's flunkies and worse, he was about to deliver her into the hands of someone who would kill her for certain if he found out who she really was. And she just knew that Crinta'c would take great pleasure in telling him.

"We go up there," Crinta'c said, pausing at the end of the tunnel. He pushed her towards a steep flight of steps hewn out of the rock and which reached up towards a patch of light in the distance.

"You've got to be joking," Carter said, indicating over her shoulder that her hands were tied.

"You are a Tau'ri warrior. You have hosted a Tok'ra warrior. You will climb," Crinta'c said and pushed her hard. She fell forwards against the steps and then straightened up, her eyes burning with anger. She was going to make him pay if it was the last thing she did before Sokar took her life. She'd take Crinta'c with her whatever happened.

The thought made her feel better somehow and she started to climb, leaning into the steps as she did so, so that the off balance feel of having your hands permanently behind you didn't affect her too much.

The climb was hard. Crinta'c seemed to take pleasure in pushing her from behind when he felt she was slowing down. It made Carter all the more determined to get ahead of him. She started to speed up, seeing the light ahead of her, the thought of being able to break loose started to fashion a plan in her mind.

"Move faster, Tau'ri," Crinta'c's gutteral voice urged as he gripped the step ahead of him and pulled himself up after her, the entrance to the whole tunnel system in sight.

As they neared the top, Sam felt the warmth of sunshine on her face and she blinked upwards into the light. As she reached the top step she paused for a second, waiting for Crinta'c's protest.

She wasn't disappointed.

"Reluctant to see what's on the other side, woman?" he taunted as he moved up close behind her, his head level with her knee.

"Not really," she muttered and balancing herself firmly onto one leg, she kicked backwards hard with the other, catching the Jaffa under the chin and off balance.

Carter didn't have time to look back. She'd have loved to have seen the expression on his face as he fell down towards the tunnels once more. She'd have loved to have waited to hear the thud as his body hit the ground, breaking bones he probably didn't even know existed. But Carter had one other thing on her mind. To force her body through the opening which lay above and in front of her, when her balance was telling her that backwards was the best place to go.

CHAPTER TEN

ALLIANCES

The surface of the tunnel was drier somehow at this point, and Teal'c knew that it indicated some sort of airflow, which could also mean an exit to the surface. He had hoped to be able to shadow Carter and her abductor through the darkness of the tunnels and surprise them so that he could take back the Major and return to Colonel O'Neill with no further harm done.

It was looking more and more as though that hope was fading, and that some sort of confrontation in daylight was more likely.

Teal'c shrank back into the shadows as soon as he heard the rough footsteps behind him. He could sense the urgency in the pace and caught the fast breathing as Shaka'c moved swiftly forwards, not realising that the silent and determined Jaffa lay in wait.

Shaka'c's hope of catching up with Crinta'c were dashed in a single moment as a hand reached out from the shadows and hauled him sideways, slamming him hard into the side of the tunnel. He felt his staff weapon being removed just as swiftly. The breath knocked from his body he sank backwards against the wall, gasping for breath, only to be dragged up to his feet and thrust by the neck to the wall. The grip around his throat tightened and he found himself gazing into the dark, piercing eyes of the one man he despised, the one Jaffa in all the world whom he could never think of as one of his race. The traitor, Teal'c.

"Where are my friends?" Teal'c breathed steadily, his breath glancing across Shaka'c's cheeks, cooling the heat which was rising there.

Shaka'c tightened his lips and met the gaze silently, trying to relax into the firm grip which was threatening his very life support.

"I will give you no longer to consider the question, Jaffa," Teal'c threatened and he reached down and relieved the man of his blade which was sheathed at his side. He glanced at it as he threw it across the tunnel, glimpsing with a sinking feeling, the red stain which streaked from the tip to the shank of the knife.

His mouth broke into a sneer and he pulled the man's face so close to his own that Shaka'c could trace every imperfection, every line in the ebony skin.

"Who received the blade of your weapon?" Teal'c whispered and moved his other hand to the man's abdomen, where he let it rest, threateningly. The Jaffa's symbiot moved restlessly within him, sensing that the danger was imminent.

Shaka'c felt the movement and a panic started to swell within him. Self preservation, meaning, above all, the survival of the symbiot, was paramount. He struggled, causing Teal'c's hands to tighten further. The blue colour on the man's face deepened as he gasped, his breath being sucked in fast, tiny gulps of air, small particles of oxygen reaching his lungs as they felt the bursting and then pleaded for more.

"Your.. friend..lives," he gasped, his eyes bulging at the effort of breathing.

"Which friend?" Teal'c persisted.

"It..was..the younger male..not serious. Not serious," Shaka'c felt the last vestiges of consciousness leave him as the oxygen fought with the constriction around his neck and lost. He slumped forwards, eternal darkness his companion.

Teal'c threw him to one side in disgust. He had thought to release him, frighten him and then let him go, but the look on Shaka'c's face and the knowledge that he had injured one of his friends so easily had made Teal'c's mind up for him. He knew that in a heartbeat, Shaka'c would have slit his own throat and any of his friends without thinking. There could be no prisoners on this excursion into Sokar's territory. There could be only death.

oOo

"Damn it, Daniel, you're in no fit state to keep going," O'Neill said as they moved slowly forwards, following in Shaka'c's footsteps. They'd been going for about an hour. O'Neill had one arm under his friend, supporting him and the other trying to concentrate the beam of his MP5 in front of them. The beam on his jacket flashlight had long since given up the ghost.

"Jack, will you just stop saying that," Daniel pleaded as he concentrated on getting through the pain and moving one foot in front of the other. He knew something other than the actual knife wound was causing him problems but he couldn't put his finger on what. The beads of sweat on his forehead could have been exertion for sure, but together with the heat which seemed to be radiating from his cheeks, he was sure he was suffering from some sort of infection. Whether Jack realised it or not, Daniel wasn't going to enlighten him. Not now anyway. Perhaps when they'd found Sam.

"How about if you go ahead, and I stay here," Daniel offered weakly, noticing a sudden numbness in his injured arm. The stabs of fear which he felt were unrelated to the wound itself, more from a surge of adrenalin at what was happening to him, but he felt for sure that things weren't good, and they certainly weren't looking to improve.

"Not gonna happen, Daniel. Remember on Apophis' ship? You offered the same thing back then. I agreed. Only you got lucky. I don't see a sarcophagus. Do you?" O'Neill replied looking around him. He shrugged. "Me either. So it's settled. You go with me, we get Teal'c and Carter and then we go back to get some help. Sounds fair to me."

Daniel smiled ruefully. If only Jack knew what he was feeling he'd know that the bravado was an illusion. Having to keep their heads bent because of the height of the tunnel wasn't helping the overall well being of the two of them.

Daniel allowed a thought to intrude on his pain. He welcomed the distraction actually. The height of the tunnels and the fact that they were heading, at least they hoped they were, towards the surface, led him to wonder whether the original inhabitants of Salus were much smaller and more used to tunnelling than the Gatekeepers would seem to be. The meanderings in his mind were interrupted rudely by a sharp stab of pain, and he let them ebb away.

O'Neill grimaced and tightened his grip around Daniel's waist. The boy looked grim.

A small noise in front of them caused their pace to slow even further and then they stopped. O'Neill moved Daniel to the wall and sat him down. He put his finger to his lips, flicked off his light on the rifle and then moved forwards, slowly, carefully.

"You would have missed me, O'Neill," Teal'c's voice chided as he stepped out from the shadows and smiled broadly.

"Damn it Teal'c. Don't do that!" O'Neill said, frustrated at missing him but delighted to see him. He clapped the Jaffa on the back and looked at him enquiringly.

"Carter?" he asked.

Teal'c shook his head. "I have not ascertained her whereabouts."

O'Neill gripped his weapon tightly and sighed heavily.

"Is Daniel Jackson injured?" Teal'c asked, his heart sinking at the memory of the blood on the knife.

"How d'ya know that?" O'Neill said, raising his eyebrow.

"The Jaffa who I have just killed told me that he had injured a younger man. I took this to be Daniel Jackson," Teal'c replied solemnly.

"Killed?" O'Neill put his head on one side and feigned a mock surprise.

"It was necessary, Colonel O'Neill. The more of Sokar's forces that we allow to survive, the less chance we have of taking Sokar and ridding this planet of him."

"Okay," said O'Neill meekly. He nodded in agreement. He wasn't about to argue when he knew Teal'c was right.

"You came along just in time," he said as he backtracked down the tunnel, his MP5 light showing the way.

"Are you badly hurt, Daniel Jackson?" Teal'c asked as he bent down to one knee and looked at the white face of his friend.

Daniel looked up and forced a weak smile. "Not that you'd notice," he joked and then winced as the pain flooded through him once more.

"I have the medical kit in Major Carter's pack," Teal'c offered as he took her pack off his shoulder and handed it to O'Neill.

"How..?"

"I believe she was forced to drop it when she was abducted."

"Good on you, Teal'c," O'Neill said and hurriedly rummaged through the pack until he found what he was looking for. The small box which Janet Frasier had handed him at the last minute.

"Daniel, my boy. You're about to be a guinea pig," he said smiling sympathetically, as he flicked open the box lid and drew the syringe from the container. "Thought I hadn't noticed you're running one mother of an infection?" he added as Daniel looked with surprise.

Daniel put his head back against the wall and winced as the needle hit its mark. "Not on your life, Jack. Not on your life."

oOo

It was sheer will power which propelled Samantha Carter from the precarious position of toppling backwards, to one where she was able to fling herself through the opening above her. Willpower and well practised abdominal muscles.

Left hanging half in and half out and with one knee caught on the top step, she rolled sideways and managed to inch her way backwards until she'd cleared the darkness and found herself bathed in a warm shaft of sunlight. Her hands ached from the effort of using them while bound together.

She looked around for something, anything, which would help her to get the rope out of its tight embrace and chafing rough surface. Besides, she knew that she had to be able to fight and take on anyone who got in her way. At that moment she was vulnerable and weapon-less and she knew it.

A sharp looking, protruding rock caught her eye as she inched her way further from the tunnel exit. She heaved herself upwards into a sitting position and moved her hands backwards against the protrusion. The process of slicing the rope would take time, she knew that. But patience was a soldier's best friend. Patience and the ability to keep one's wits sharp. Fortunately Carter possessed both, and as she settled in for the duration she kept her eyes scanning the small scrubland around her.

oOo

Crinta'c's body took the rest of SG1 by surprise. Not so much that he was a dead crumpled heap, his neck broken and at a strange angle, but the fact that there was a dead body at all.

"Whoa. What the.." O'Neill breathed as he rounded the corner to be greeted by two staring eyes and a blood stain which was still creeping sideways.

Teal'c knelt down and felt the lukewarm chest of the Jaffa. "He is recently dead, O'Neill."

"Carter's captor?" O'Neill said as he lifted her MP5 from beside the dead Jaffa..

"It is possible. I did not see Major Carter's captor but there would appear to be no reason for one Jaffa to kill another. Perhaps we have an ally within these chambers, O'Neill," Teal'c said, raising his eyes to the Colonel.

O'Neill shook his head. Carter was quite able to rid herself of an abductor provided the drug had worn off, if indeed that was what had stopped her in the first place. The strange thing was why she wasn't there waiting for them or hadn't doubled back along the tunnels and met them.

"Mind if I rest a while, Jack," Daniel said as he sank down on a rock and took a deep breath.

"You feeling any better?" O'Neill asked as he turned to see the pale face of his friend.

"Not sure. That shot you gave me sure was strong. My heart's pounding like it's about to leave my chest. And does anyone else think this place is like a furnace?"

"Daniel Jackson should rest for a while O'Neill. The drug which Doctor Frasier gave you will need time to absorb into his system," Teal'c suggested as he started to look at the rough dirt beneath their feet. He moved suddenly forwards about twenty feet and looked up.

"Two sets of footprints lead to these steps. None descends. The Jaffa fell from above us."

O'Neill moved forwards and followed his gaze.

"Quite a way from the steps, if he just fell. Look like he was pushed to you?" O'Neill commented.

"It is likely," Teal'c muttered quietly.

"Good for you Sam," O'Neill breathed and allowed optimism to play across his thoughts. "Strange that she's not here though."

"Major Carter is a skilled warrior. She may have thought it prudent to seek out a hiding place rather than return to the tunnel. She is most likely hidden above us somewhere," Teal'c replied and then added, "We should get Daniel Jackson to the surface also. We may find some help away from this complex."

O'Neill sighed and looked at his friend. He didn't look as well as O'Neill had hoped following the antibiotic shot, but even the small amount of blood loss was probably taking its toll on his system.

"O'Neill, I will carry Daniel Jackson," Teal'c said and strode forwards without waiting for an agreement from his commanding officer. He put his pack and staff down and gently hauled the young archaeologist to his feet.

"I am sorry Daniel Jackson," he said as he pulled him up and across his shoulders, and heard the grunt of pain come from the man's lips.

O'Neill grabbed the extra pack and staff and moved ahead of them, towards the steps. As he put his foot on the first one he looked up and knew they had a hard climb ahead of them.

oOo

Carter heard the voices approaching up the steps but couldn't make out the owners. Her rope was almost cut through. Her neck ached from continually craning to see her progress and the cuts she'd inflicted on her wrists would cause her trouble for days after, she knew that. Single mindedness was her trade mark however and she was using it to great benefit. Stubbornness, her Dad used to call it. She smiled secretly. If he could see her now he'd say he was glad she possessed that strong streak. If he could see her now he'd help her. She let thoughts move away from sentimentality and focussed. The strong sunshine made it easy to feel that all you wanted to do was lie down and let the whole place pass you by. It was strong, hot, and probably dangerous to be exposed to. She tried to keep her eyes averted from its glare, but there were the inevitable crazy dancing spots which persisted across her vision. She blinked, as though the action would disperse them. It didn't.

The rope broke as she caught the sound of scraping from the tunnel exit. The voice which broke free and assaulted her ears was O'Neill's encouragement to Teal'c. She leaned forwards, ecstatic that her waiting was over. She'd come so far and now they'd all be together again to take on Sokar. Her heart leaped at her luck.

"Say a single word and your throat will be the last place the life inside you will see, before it spills onto the ground," the guttural voice breathed into her ear as she felt a strong arm around her chest and a single blade caress the skin across her throat. Carter's heart sank as low as it could.

oOo

O'Neill greeted the warm sunshine with a feeling of relief. He hated crawling around in tunnels with a vengeance. Besides, getting into the open meant they could probably find somewhere for Daniel to rest without feeling so exposed to attack. A nice rock fall or somewhere sheltered would do.

"You okay, Teal'c?" he called as he hauled himself out of the tunnel exit and onto the ground above, face down in the dirt.

"I am quite all right, O'Neill," the Jaffa replied, if a little breathless.

O'Neill swung around immediately and reached in to help pull Daniel clear and enable Teal'c to haul himself out.

As he turned to manoeuvre Daniel into a comfortable position, he met Carter's eyes and felt a sense of relief, delight and horror flood his system all at once.

Carter was being held in a steady armlock by a strange looking man, who resembled something the underworld had thrown out in disgust. A bald and peeling scalp, the man had dirt and sweat clinging to his face and body. Muscles which rippled obscenely as he tightened his grip around the Major's upper torso, causing her to wince, and a toothless grin spread inanely from ear to ear. Her eyes were focussed on O'Neill and pleaded silently not to come any nearer or do anything which would endanger them all.

O'Neill swallowed and noticed with some discomfort, the small trickle of blood which was oozing from the skin beneath the man's blade as it carelessly caressed her throat and threatened worse.

"We got a problem here, fella?" O'Neill said slowly and without malice, not wanting to antagonise the situation any more than it already was. He knew that with a single flick of the blade the man could end Carter's life right here and now and there'd be no way of saving her.

The man grinned more broadly.

"I'd say you got one," he answered slowly.

"You want something we've got?" O'Neill persisted and forced a smile.

"I already got it," the man replied and his eyes burned.

"She's not worth anything," O'Neill offered. "We've got more interesting things you could use," he added and moved his hand towards the pack.

The almost inaudible wince which came from Carter's lips froze O'Neill's hand in mid air and he looked apprehensively at her. The damage was minimal but the red stain under the knife was growing.

O'Neill put his hands in the air. "Guess we're at standoff then," he said quietly, his mind racing.

"You sit around much longer and you're gonna die," the man said and shifted backwards taking Carter with him.

O'Neill's heart sank. He knew if he made a move towards the man then there'd be nothing he could do for Carter. But letting her be taken right from under their noses wasn't an option. Thankfully, the decision was taken from him.

The single blade which whistled through the air and hit the man squarely in the forehead came from nowhere. The grunt of pain and immediate death were all the sounds that filled the air afterwards as the man dropped like a stone, his blade falling from his hand and his other hand having only enough time to reach his forehead before his stunned eyes looked across at O'Neill and then closed.

Carter leapt sideways and threw herself to the ground, rolling out of the way of the dying hulk.

Having seen his officer safely remove herself from danger, O'Neill swung around and raised his weapon, scouring the vicinity for signs of the assailant. Whether he'd be able to thank him or not depended very much on whether the hit was just the start of an attack on the group or a decisive move to get rid of Carter's captor.

"Do not use your weapon, Colonel O'Neill." The voice rang across the rocks and as it did so a sense of familiarity ran through his system.

"Mafus? That you?" O'Neill shouted as he rose to his feet. The android was still nowhere in sight.

"I am here O'Neill," Mafus said as he moved sideways and stepped from behind a small cluster of rocks twenty or so yards away from them.

"What the hell are you doing here?" O'Neill thundered as the alien moved towards them, a smile playing across his lips.

"You are not pleased to see me?"

"Well of course we're pleased to see you but we told you we could handle things on our own," O'Neill replied and then put his hand out and gripped the android's shoulder warmly.

"It would appear that you could not," Mafus said and then turned to Carter.

"You are all right?" he said with concern.

Carter wiped a hand across her throat and viewed the red stain with disgust. "Yeah, I'm fine," she said and exchanged a knowing look with O'Neill, his relief at seeing her in one piece palpable.

Teal'c stepped forwards and stared at Mafus for a moment.

O'Neill saw the look.

"Something wrong, Teal'c?" he asked quizzically.

"It was my understanding that your species was unable to defend itself against attack," Teal'c said slowly. "Your attack on the man who held Major Carter would suggest otherwise."

Mafus looked from one SG1 member to the other, as their eyes all turned to him, waiting for a reply.

"There are things which have not been told you about our world," he replied simply. "Things which would have caused you to return home and not helped us if you had known."

"And these would be?" O'Neill asked, a frown creasing his forehead.

Mafus looked down. "I must apologise to you. I thought to warn you earlier but it was not possible. We are monitored wherever we go within the complex. Now that I am outside I can help you. Please believe me when I tell you that you have more to fear from the Gatekeepers than from the alien which you seek."

CHAPTER ELEVEN

COMPLEXITY

"You're gonna have to come up with more detail than that, Maffy my boy," O'Neill said as he turned his attention to Daniel and getting him into a comfortable position while they talked. Daniel closed his eyes, grateful for the rest.

Mafus regarded the group for a moment and then walked across to the tunnel exit, gazing into it for a moment as though making sure they hadn't been followed.

"What the Gatekeepers told you about our world, and about the existence of us, their children, is quite accurate. In its way. They are masters at revealing only that which they want you to know, at ensuring that you feel relaxed and safe within their presence," Mafus said.

"Oh, I wouldn't exactly say we were relaxed," O'Neill interjected as he sat down next to Daniel and observed their new found "friend".

Mafus shrugged. "There are degrees, of course. You did not feel threatened by them?"

O'Neill shook his head reluctantly. "Sokar poses a worse threat than a jar full of brains," he said.

"You are mistaken. Sokar is but a pawn in a game which the Gatekeepers are playing. A game which has caused more death to our world than they could possibly have imagined. A game which involves you as players."

"You didn't fill us in on your new found aggression," Carter observed.

Mafus turned to face her. "I am sorry Samantha Carter. Sorry that you and Daniel Jackson have been more involved in the pain of this place than the others have." He looked across at the silent form of Daniel and then turned to face O'Neill.

"You deserve an explanation. More than the Gatekeepers would tell you. There are two of us who possess the ability to protect ourselves and the ability to protect others, using force or any means which are necessary. We are the survivors of an experiment which was carried out by others of my brethren. Experiments we thought hidden from the Gatekeepers. If they knew that two of us survive with the ability, they would surely destroy us, for they believe that they are alone in being able to influence what we are, how we are." Mafus swallowed and looked for some reaction from the team. He got none.

"The Gatekeepers were the human survivors of a war which raged on this world for two centuries. A war which started because humans had decided to be Gods. They constructed androids, like me, to work for them and eventually to go to war for them. They didn't stop to think that the aggression which they allowed to be inbuilt into the soldiers would be their downfall. The war escalated into something more than a war between androids. It became a battle for all species to survive and eventually nearly the entire sentient population of this planet perished. All except a mere handful, a few hundred or so. They were scientists for the most part. Scientists who took the ancient city of Salus and surrounded it with an impenetrable forcefield and an environmental control.

Essentially, the city became their tomb. Once the survivors had dug themselves into the city, they took their revenge on the outside world, on the androids. They used their skill, their knowledge and bombarded the planet with specific nanocites. These creatures destroyed every piece of machinery, every functioning mechanical object that was on the surface of the planet, and then when nothing remained they died out themselves. They destroyed everything except the machinery which was kept within the safety of Salus. To ensure that no wild animals invaded their safety, desperate for food, they flooded the atmosphere with a chemical agent, rendering the life outside dead within months. The chemicals remained in the atmosphere for several years."

"Nice people," O'Neill commented wryly.

"I presume not all the androids died. You're here," Carter said.

Mafus shook his head sadly. "It was a good plan. It was successful. But they had not taken into account that environmental factors might be triggered within the complex. That the safe haven in which they lived might become their prison. That their body chemistry might eventually be affected by being shut in from the elements and from any natural sources of nutrition, and from air which was anything but pure, merely filtered and cleaned. In essence, without realising it, they were condemning their race to death. The survivors became barren."

"Whoa. Home goal," muttered O'Neill.

"From the records which I have managed to access, at least half the population in Salus took their own lives in the next twenty years, the rest died from diseases which were caused by nutritional problems. In a final desperate act of self preservation, the last few survivors decided to build a new group of androids and endow on them the ability to possess sentient feelings, so that they might pass on their knowledge and history to something, if not someone. However, aggression had become the most dreaded of emotions. A catalyst for war and destruction, and they were able to isolate that area of the brain which possesses it. Those relaxation devices which you saw, Major Carter. They provided the declining population with feelings of safety and peace, and essentially brainwashed the population out of any feelings of aggression. But any who transgressed or became violent - they removed that part of their brain. Essentially, they experimented on their own people.

Daniel sighed and put his head in his hands. The sheer manipulation of the people by the leaders of the city was unbelievable.

Mafus paused to look as he heard the sigh and then continued. "It is that factor which is missing from the "children" you see roaming the city today. Endowed with sentient feelings of fear and compassion, they are too terrified to save themselves from harm. They are also unable to help each other."

"And how did the Gatekeepers get themselves into a jar?" O'Neill persisted.

"There were several members, scientists, of the then High Council who wanted more than anything to survive. Their knowledge and ability enabled them to build the machine you saw. A machine which essentially converts their brain waves into a powerful energy. A sentient living machine possessing not one consciousness but several. Able to control the environment and the Gates. Once they had achieved this, they were satisfied for their organic shells to be discarded. To an outsider they would have been declared dead, but they had achieved immortality."

Carter turned worried eyes to her Commanding Officer and caught his look of disquiet.

"And their "children"?" she asked the android.

"They still needed an android population to service the city under their control, and to service the machine which housed their essence."

"And this is where you come into all this?"

"You must realise that the Gatekeepers are many thousands of years old. That we too are of a similar age."

O'Neill let a slow whistle out through his teeth. The technology of the place was beginning to make sense. The use of the gates also made sense.

Mafus continued. "One android, Staven, was the archivist for the Gatekeepers. He secretly accessed the records which gave the location of the aggression hormone samples within the labs. The Gatekeepers undergo periods of inactivity. They rely on one or two trusted androids to monitor the city for them during this time, and their connection with the androids is severed. They would not have suspected that one of their most trusted was operating covertly. He was able to infuse the hormone into two of us and himself before he was discovered. I was one. I can now react within my own limitations. But I can at least defend myself and others."

"Didn't the Gatekeeper's take exception to that. I mean he just took the hormone and they couldn't do anything about it?" Daniel's voice floated across, causing the team to turn around.

"You okay, big boy?" O'Neill raised his eyebrows.

"Feeling a little stronger, thanks," Daniel replied and turned to Mafus for a response.

"Yes, the Gatekeepers became enraged. They are able to do worse things than physical violence. Staven discovered this when they found out what he had done. They are able to affect the mind of an android by flooding it with feelings and emotions it has never experienced before. In Staven's case they allowed him to feel the sensation of loss, of death. So strong were the feelings that he became changed and withdrawn and could no longer cope. It essentially destroyed him. They thought him punished and never found out about us, but decided that firmer action should be taken as a warning. Oh, yes the Gatekeepers are as dangerous as they want to be."

"This may be obvious to everyone but frankly my brain is aching from all this, where exactly do we fit in to all this?" O'Neill frowned and looked at Carter who raised her eyebrow at him.

"Pilar, another of my companions, was sent from our world to entice a violent group to this planet. Pilar learned that the Goa'uld were a violent race and turned to them, offering them treasures beyond their wildest dreams if they came to our world. It was the Goa'uld Sokar and his followers who were the most interested and who followed him. Then they sent Pilar to retrieve information on possible adversaries against Sokar. It was while he was seeking this that he learned of your existence and knew it was you that had to be summoned. It was this information which he gave to the Gatekeepers. It was this information which he regretted having even though he realised that you were the only hope for the remainder of our people. It was because of this information that the boy was brought from the Nox world. The Gatekeepers decreed it."

"You mean the Gatekeepers had Nafrayu abducted and then gave him to Sokar?" O'Neill thundered incredulously.

"I am afraid so," Mafus said and hung his head. " I am ashamed of our people for playing a part in this charade."

"But what did the Gatekeepers want from Nafrayu?"

"It is a lure. They were happy to have the Goa'uld stay on their planet for a time. They were using them. They encouraged Sokar to come, enticed him. When they learned of their own people's betrayal they wanted them to serve as an example of violence and where it leads. They felt invincible. They had forgotten that they could not control everything. That alien beings on our planet would be unpredictable and unmanageable. They could not hold Sokar or his men within the city and they retreated to the planet surface sending killing parties to within the city boundaries. The Gatekeepers' arrogance finally became their people's downfall. Of all that they thought Sokar would do they did not expect the Goa'uld to systematically destroy all their children. They also did not know that two of us were now able to defend ourselves, and not just Staven. They panicked, realising that they needed an adversary to the Goa'uld brought to the planet. They knew that you would not come merely to do battle with Sokar. But the human capacity for compassion, especially where allies are concerned dictated that you would come if Sokar held someone you cared for."

"Sheesh!" O'Neill pulled his cap from his head and ran his hands through his hair. "This place.."

"..just gets worse and worse. I am sorry that you have had to see our planet in this light. It was once a place of beauty and enlightenment. It is now a place where poison runs deep within its soil and its blood." The voice echoed from the rocks behind them.

As the team swung around they saw the figure of an older looking man descend from a rocky plateau and move into their midst.

Mafus put his hand up. "This is Pilar. He is also your friend."

"I don't think we're in a position to judge who's a friend and who isn't in this place," O'Neill said guardedly.

"I understand how you are feeling, Colonel O'Neill, and I sympathise, but we - at least the two of us - will do all in our power to ensure that your young friend is unharmed and returned to you and that you may return home. It was never our intention for things to have come this far but as Mafus has told you Sokar's capacity for violence is far greater than even the Gatekeeper's had perceived. An oversight they are now regretting."

"And yet they still couldn't tell us the truth, even when they'd met us and seen that we could help without the deception," Daniel said and propped himself forward. His shoulder was aching less and the fever subsiding. He made a mental note to thank Doc Frasier when he got back, for her foresight.

Carter got to her feet and stared at Mafus, realisation dawning. "You killed the Jaffa and its symbiot in the complex, didn't you?"

Mafus hung his head. "I did. The feeling for revenge became too strong within me. I was unable to stop myself. The capacity for violence is increasing within both myself and Pilar Aggression is an emotion we regret having. The Gatekeepers were wise to eliminate it."

Carter turned away.

"You're out of control, aren't you?" Daniel said, glancing at Carter's back as he spoke to the android.

"Yes, we are finding it difficult to control the strength of the feelings. We believe that while the hormone controlling aggression was introduced to our systems, there was something missing, something which balances the aggression. Something we do not have," Pilar stated solemnly.

"I can assure you that we are no threat to yourselves," Mafus said earnestly.

"Oh really? Why should we believe a word any of you say?" O'Neill said angrily, rising to his feet.

"We have no feelings of aggression towards any of you, only towards the Goa'uld because of what they are doing to our people."

"And to the Gatekeepers?" Daniel added, his heart sinking at the possible scenario which lay ahead of them.

Pilar looked at Mafus who returned the gaze. "And to the Gatekeepers," Pilar echoed.

O'Neill thought he almost heard regret in the android's voice.

oOo

The boy sat with his head proudly defiant. The brute of a man who sat at the far end of the clearing had alarmed him at first but he had refused to show any fear to what he knew to be a formidable enemy. He'd been their prisoner for over a week now. Fear was beginning to give way to anticipation. Since he had no idea as to why he'd been taken from his planet and why the strange aliens who had taken him had chosen to hand him over to a virtual savage, Nafrayu had descended into a state of almost hypnotic calm. Now the harsh voice broke into his thoughts and caused his nerves to twang, one by one.

"Bring the child to me," the slow gutteral voice demanded as a Jaffa bowed swiftly and moved towards Nafrayu.

Nafrayu's eyes once again instinctively roamed the small clearing for signs of a possible escape. He knew in his heart that none existed. On his first day there he'd mentally scanned the entire area.

Jaffa sentries either stood or sat around the entire perimeter. Most looked tired and several were leaning surreptitiously on their staffs, trying to avoid attention. The change in the System Lord's contingent of soldiers was quite marked after three weeks in the inhospitable climate of the planet. Food was lacking, indeed almost non-existent and the water supply, a small fresh water stream, was dwindling to a trickle in the heat of the unremitting sun. From violent storms which flooded the clearing to days of strong heat. The climate was their worst enemy. Water seemed plentiful one minute and poor the next. Nafrayu guessed that the stream depended on the storms replenishing some sort of small lake or reservoir and that theirs was just one of many hundred small tributaries which existed, probably mostly underground. They were lucky that this one was on the surface.

To witness the cruelty with which Sokar treated his own soldiers was enough, but Nafrayu had been the unwilling observer of the slaughter of several innocent inhabitants of the planet. He was aware that the inhabitants weren't human or even organic for the most part - he could feel it, sense it, but he knew that the slaughter and torture of any living creature was wrong and he felt that these beings were sentient in their own right. They also had the right to live. While his heart burned for the injustice he was witnessing, deep inside he longed to be back with his parents and for the safety and warmth that that would mean.

The rough hand gripped his wrist and dragged him unceremoniously towards the cloaked form of the System Lord, Sokar.

Nafrayu hated looking at Sokar's face. He felt deep inside that this hulk of a man, or beast, he wasn't sure what Sokar might be classified as, embodied the worst of all evils. His own instinct was to take all life forms as equal and to harm none. His parents had instilled this in him. Survival would be difficult if faced with the violence he'd already witnessed. He concentrated on gaining control of the mind phase his parents used so well, but his exhaustion and weakness from lack of food and days in the heat had taken the toll. The mind phase was out of his reach, just when he needed it.

"Afraid, child?" Sokar put a long finger out and stroked Nafrayu's cheek softly. The boy shuddered inwardly, avoiding eye contact.

"Your silence does you little credit. Your race is weakened by your disappearance. When we leave this planet we will take your family and show them the same regard as we have for the race which inhabits this forsaken world." Sokar smiled and the scars on his face moved in unison. His eyes burned dark as coal, their depths soulless, inhabiting a place few would dare to travel, or even want to.

Nafrayu had long since decided that he wouldn't talk. His silence irritated Sokar and at the same time kept him alive. While Sokar could get no answers from him he felt safe.

"You think I wouldn't torture you? You think I care about your age? I have torn apart those younger than you and used their bowels to feed my dogs. You are just a small pawn in a wider game. Your presence brings me a certain safety, a certain reassurance of things to come. While you remain in my protection, your allies will not attack me. As long as it suits me to keep you alive I will. Keeping you pain free however is not something I will consider much longer."

With his final word, Sokar drew his finger swiftly downwards and tore the boy's cheek with his talon shaped nail.

Nafrayu winced inside but his face remained impassive. He felt the slow trickle of warmth as a finger of blood slowly made its way to his chin and downwards. He couldn't heal himself, only others of his kind could help him. The pain spread across his face, stinging and causing his eyes to water. A side effect he couldn't stop or hide.

Sokar watched his face carefully and then smiled, taking pleasure in the pain he knew he was feeling. "Take him away," he barked to one of the Jaffa who stood at his side and laughed loudly as the man roughly gripped Nafrayu by the collar of his cloak and hauled him back to the rocks.

oOo

"Sokar's men are weakened with hunger but their instincts are not dulled," Teal'c said as he dropped silently next to Jack O'Neill."

"How many?"

"There are around twenty. It will not be easy, O'Neill. The boy is kept close to Sokar and heavily guarded. The Jaffa who watch would welcome a battle so that they may leave and their demeanour indicates that they will fight as starved animals."

"Perfect," O'Neill murmured and moved silently across to where Sam Carter and Daniel sat. He eyed the two aliens who sat impassively a few yards away watching their every move.

"We got twenty hungry "ready to go" Goa'uld," he reported to the rest of his team. "Any suggestions?"

"A diversion?" Carter suggested watching for her Commanding Officer's response.

"Might work," he agreed and looked at Daniel. "Daniel, you got any thoughts on all this? You're looking thoughtful and that worries me."

Daniel shook his head apologetically. "A diversion could get Nafrayu killed. We've got to use Sokar's weakness against him. Remember we know him better than the Gatekeepers or their people know him."

O'Neill dropped to his haunches beside them, his face puzzled.

"Daniel, from what I remember Sokar wasn't a weak kind of a guy. He gave Apophis a hard time. You care to give us some sort of insight into those thought processes of yours?"

Daniel glanced swiftly at Sam and then looked down at his hands uncomfortably. Her stomach lurched. She knew just what he was going to say.

"We know that Sokar would like nothing more than to get his hands on Teal'c, but we also know someone else he'd love to see again more, and we know he knows that that person is here on this planet." He raised his eyes reluctantly and fixed them on Sam Carter.

O'Neill put a hand up in protest, his mouth opening to object to any sort of plan involving one of his people ambling in to Sokar's camp but before the words could spill out, Samantha Carter rose to her feet.

"It makes sense, Sir Why did the Jaffa abduct me instead of Teal'c? We were together. Either of us was vulnerable. Sokar's men must have had knowledge that I would be the one Sokar would want more than anything else or they wouldn't have grabbed me. The only problem is how to get in there without making it obvious that it's a trick"

O'Neill screwed his face up into a grimace and glanced across at the two aliens sitting perfectly still yet listening to their every word.

"We will assist you, O'Neill," Pilar said softly as his companion nodded.

Carter swallowed. Outside she was feeling brave and ready for anything. Inside her stomach churned. She pushed Jolinar's memories right back down where they belonged, neatly tucked away. She couldn't afford for them to surface, not now. As she listened to the quiet discussions between the two androids and her Commanding Officer she sent a silent prayer skywards

CHAPTER TWELVE

LOSSES

Sokar rose to his feet, his hands gripping the sides of his seat. His face betrayed surprise and a twisted delight.

"You would dare to enter my presence?" he stormed as he took stock of the intruders.

"We seek only our survival," the pale faced android said softly and bowed deeply, his hand gripping the prisoner. "We met your people beneath the city. They told us of your desire for this prisoner. I have been sent to provide you with that which you desire and to ask a favor."

"Your survival is for me to take or give. Your desires are irrelevant." Sokar moved forward, his hand raised to stop his men from rushing towards those who stood in front of him, the sound of several humming staff weapons menacingly in evidence.

"We rely on your benevolence and your gratitude, oh greatest of the Gods," the android answered, his eyes pleading.

"You may be of use. I shall consider it," Sokar replied, his fingers coming up to stroke his chin thoughtfully.

"So, you bring me that which I have desired across the years. I am impressed with your determination. What is the favor that you are to seek from me?"

"The Gatekeepers wish to study the child you have in your care. Their fascination for this particular species would be satisfied if they could study him just a few days. He would be returned to you of course. A fair exchange for the female you sought." The android bowed once more.

Sokar moved so swiftly that no one had time to react. His fingers closed around the throat of the android and he squeezed hard.

"Fair, you say?" His fingers tightened. "Your leaders assume too much. Why would I give them the boy when I now have both the possessions I sought?" Sokar laughed. A sick laugh. He eyed Samantha Carter with loathing and turned to the android dangling from his arm. As he tightened his grip still further, the choking sounds easing from the android's throat, he watched the reaction on her face with pleasure.

Carter turned her eyes to the ground, her fists tightening into balls. Why weren't the rest of the team coming to the android's rescue?

Teal'c raised his staff weapon from the cover of the outcrop some two hundred yards away and aimed, the hum was almost inaudible. A hand reached across in warning.

Teal'c turned, his eyes registering surprise.

"Do not interfere. This is how it must be," Pilar whispered, his eyes betraying little or no emotion. "It will be more realistic this way. If Sokar will not give us the boy, Mafus would have wanted this. If you rush in, there will be no chance to save the boy or your officer."

O'Neill reached across and turned the android to face him, his face contorted in anger. "There's no point in saving the boy if your people get wiped out in the process. That's not what the Nox are about."

"Nevertheless this is how it must be." Pilar repeated, pursing his lips and turning his head towards the scene playing out in front of him.

Teal'c turned impassively towards the clearing, lowering his weapon. His dark eyes burned angrily.

As the choking sounds lessened, Mafus's body hung limp. Sokar discarded the android swiftly to the ground and reached across towards Carter.

She backed her head away instinctively, her eyes avoiding looking on the terrible face which lay pale, scarred and twisted behind the hood.

"Mine once again, Jolinar of Malkshur, or should I say Major Samantha Carter. This time there will be no escape. My people within the City will ensure your friends end their days there, outnumbered and terrified for their lives, and once I am done with you, I will take the City and take the treasures which lie there."

"There are no treasures in the City. It's dead," Carter said quietly, her eyes still avoiding his face, avoiding the memories which she knew Jolinar would release within her soon, if she lost control.

"Ah, but there are. Have you not made this discovery yourselves? The Gatekeepers are themselves the treasure. They hold a key to something more than physical treasure. Their immortality fascinates me. I would take it for myself. Take it to use against my enemies, and I shall."

"I thought Gods had no need for immortality. But of course you failed to tell your people that you really aren't a God, didn't you?" Carter felt a sense of determination. She shifted her feet, planting them firmly in the soil beneath and raised her head defiantly, steeling herself for the feelings which would flood through her at any second.

They did.

Jolinar's memories took hold of her system in a wave of revulsion, fear and pain, the three emotions sending shock waves through her system and blurring her vision temporarily. She strengthened her resolve and tried to push them away but they persisted.

Sokar's voice came at her as if through a fog, thickly and darkly taunting her. He moved swiftly forwards and she had no time to react as she felt his hand grip her throat and drag her off her feet and towards his scarred and contorted face.

oOo

O'Neill flicked the trigger on his weapon and aimed.

"Take out the two guards near the boy. Sokar's mine," he whispered hoarsely at Teal'c, watching Sokar closely.

Teal'c nodded wordlessly as his staff weapon hummed threateningly.

O'Neill had to wait until Sokar moved into his line of fire. The head and shoulders of his officer were in the way. He fingered the trigger restlessly.

Pilar's hand covered O'Neill's swiftly. "This will achieve nothing," he said softly.

"You might be able to stand back and watch one of your own killed by that sadist but it ain't going to happen when it's one of mine," O'Neill breathed sharply. "Now get your hands off my weapon."

Pilar sighed and withdrew his fingers, but he could feel the control of the rage he was feeling inside start to boil over. He clenched his fists in the hope that he could prevent himself from losing control.

oOo

Carter could smell the stench of death on Sokar's hands and his foul breath. His eyes contained nothing, they were soulless, inhabited by death and by suffering, dark pits into which, if you fell, your soul would be lost. Forever. Her instinct was to avert her gaze. Jolinar's memories had re-established themselves in the front of her consciousness, in a desperate attempt to save her. They were trying to remind her of the pain. She fought back at the feelings. These were Jolinar's memories not her own. She had to let the soldier in her win, she had to let her own strength come through. Gradually, as she stared the Goa'uld down, her eyes refusing to waver, Jolinar's memories shrank back down inside, retreating to some distant place, some dark memory. Carter shuddered involuntarily, grateful that she wouldn't have to relive the pain, not yet at least.

A grin snaked across Sokar's face as he noticed the shudder.

"Jolinar of Malkshur reminds you of what I can do to you. She was a worthy adversary, a pleasure to hurt. I have come to realise that you are not she, but nevertheless it will give me equal pleasure to do harm to you, and then her memory will no longer exist in this dimension. No- one escapes me without regretting it. A pity she chose you as her host and condemned you to my wrath."

As Carter dropped back to her feet and took as casual a gulp of air as she could, she saw Nafrayu being moved towards her. Her spirits lifted. Once they were together, and he was near enough for her to protect, she could fulfil her side of the plan to rescue him.

As Nafrayu neared her, his eyes registering delight at her presence, the staff weapon rang out. The look of horror in his eyes was the last thing she saw as the pain took her and Sam Carter dropped soundlessly to the ground.

oOo

Barriers at the Gates held no significance for her. Traps, electric fields and irises across the entrance to these worlds were mere inconveniences. She removed the winged creatures wordlessly, as several sought to tear her limb from limb as she crossed from one world to the next. She stepped into this world with a heavy heart as the stench of death hit her.

The world was barren and cold. An evil pervaded its very heart. She moved swiftly across the terrain towards the city of Salus. She regretted that she had been away helping another people, another race with matters concerning their own fate when Nafrayu was taken. She regretted the time it had taken her to be summoned to retrieve him but the subterfuge enacted by the people whom she was trying to help would not be forgotten or forgiven. They had failed to give the message to her because of their fear that her help would be removed. They failed to tell her that her child was missing because they feared for the lives of their own children.

Lya would not forget.

The corpses which she encountered on the outskirts of the city had saddened her. Their faces filled with such fear and horror that her whole being wept for them. She knew of this world, of its history and of the rulers, the Gatekeepers. Mostly ignored by other species, the planet had retained an air of mystery but never of evil. She knew that something was now badly wrong. That this world was involved in its very own death throes and that somehow Nafrayu was being used as a pawn knawed at her insides. She saw the heavily laden vehicle at the first Gate and knew in her heart that as the Tau'ri were involved in some way, Nafrayu stood a fighting chance of survival, but she had ignored the messages from Stargate Command, deciding that her presence alone was all that was needed on an already confused world.

Lya knew that Nafrayu was alive. She could feel his vitality but she could sense his fear and it ate into her soul. A bolt of horror shot through her system as she neared the small mountains to the far side of the city. Something was going dreadfully wrong and Nafrayu cried out to her mind. She closed her eyes and concentrated. From the other side of the Gates she had been unable to communicate with him but now she wanted him to feel her warmth, to explain to him that she was near.

The sadness and futility that he felt flooded her system and tears filled her eyes as she felt her son's heartache and saw the crumpled figure of Major Carter at his feet and through the haze of his vision.

Lya knew that she was near enough to help.

"I am here my son," she whispered softly and moved forwards.

oOo

O'Neill took the scene in as though it were happening in slow motion. Nafrayu being brought to stand next to his second in command as they'd hoped. He caught the look of relief on her face as she realised they had a chance at saving him. He felt it too. Then he watched as Sokar took a step away from Carter and indicated with his hand to his men to stand back. As the sudden staff blast from the other side of the clearing snaked its way towards the boy and his officer, the warning cleared his lips and his weapon came to bear as the adrenalin rush twanged every nerve in his body.

The boy's voice rang out in terror as Carter was pushed backwards by the force of the blast, the look of shock on her face as she dropped to her knees.

O'Neill raced across the clearing, his weapon raised and aimed at Sokar. He dropped to a knee next to Carter and flicked the trigger sending a round of bullets in his direction. The Goa'uld raised his hands swiftly and a force field danced around him, his eyes glinting in pleasure at the scene in front of him.

Teal'c cleared the rocks in seconds, his staff weapon taking out two, then three and four of the guards in quick succession.

"Damn it" O'Neill breathed as he ducked down and avoided a staff blast from the other side of the clearing. He raised his head momentarily and sent another round towards that side. The grunt of two guards falling was music to his ears. He was exposed in the open of the clearing, his officer, a crumpled heap at his side needing medical attention which he had no time to give.

Nafrayu knelt some yards away, arms covering his head as another staff blast swiftly made its way across the clearing.

O'Neill watched as the boy ducked and the blast missed its target but he heard the menacing hum of another and knew he had to do something quickly.

He saw the Jaffa aim and the blue glow at the end of the staff weapon and he aimed his own weapon, firing several rounds in that direction, at the same time launching himself at Nafrayu. He felt a searing pain in his shoulder as he grabbed the boy and flung him to the ground.

As O'Neill rolled over, his face screwed up into an agonising mask of pain, he saw her walk across the clearing. "Damn it, the troops are a bit late," he muttered and closed his eyes to the agony.

Lya moved swiftly and purposefully, her eyes fixed on Sokar who stood defiantly above her son, O'Neill and Carter.

Staff weapons came to bear and she raised her hand in disgust. As each Jaffa's weapon vanished into thin air the men retreated to behind rocks, their eyes wide and disbelieving.

Lya's voice was strong and steady, her eyes flashing angrily.

"You are on the wrong world, System Lord. You have broken all the treaties which were put into place between the planets. You have kidnapped, murdered and tortured on a scale which has no equal. You have taken my child, a Nox and threatened him with violence and death. I have tried, judged and sentenced you. It took me but a second of my life. You are to be banished to a world where you will fear for your life forever. Death is a release you will not find. Your men will be sent back to the Tok'ra and their symbiots removed."

Sokar laughed and bent forward to the diminutive figure, his force field still dancing around him in protection.

"I fear no one, woman. Least of all a Nox. It is your people who will suffer."

"He's gonna regret that," O'Neill murmured in his haze, and turned to eye the silent and still form of Carter with disquiet. She wasn't even groaning in pain or showing any signs of life. He desperately wanted to help her, get her some sort of medical assistance, but he couldn't move.

Lya moved towards Sokar, un-intimidated by his size or threats. She waved a hand and his protective force field vanished.

Sokar's face contorted into an angry snarl and he raised his hand, sending a bolt of red light towards her.

Lya swiftly drew her hand across the air in front of her and the beam dispersed into fragments and bounced into the soil. She raised her other hand and pointed it towards him. An arc of blue raced across the air and encircled him, slowly at first and then swiftly, webbing together as if a spider had crawled at speed creating a net of energy which tightened until it held him a prisoner, his frustration obvious.

Nafrayu ran to his mother and threw his arms around her waist. "We have to help them," he pleaded and nodded towards Carter and O'Neill.

"I will try but it takes several of us to heal such wounds, my child. You are weakened. We may not be enough," Lya said as she stroked his head.

"No, mother. I can do this," he said adamantly and moved towards them.

Daniel and Teal'c moved swiftly towards the group. Pilar stood silently behind the scene which played in front of him.

Daniel knelt down and turned Carter over, his fingers finding a thready pulse, his other hand exploring the wound which was deep and extended across her abdomen, a stain of red expanding through her uniform. A feeling of anger cut across him like a knife. Teal'c was raising O'Neill into a sitting position, the color draining from their Commanding Officer's face with the exertion.

"You've done it before," Daniel said steadily as he stood to look into Lya's eyes, his request silent.

"Daniel Jackson, I and my people are indebted to you for your attempt at rescuing Nafrayu. I will try to heal your friends but there are no promises. There were more of us back on our home world and our healing powers are at their strongest there. Here this planet is lifeless and the life source is corrupted. I can draw on nothing except my own strength and that of Nafrayu's and he is weakened."

Daniel's eyes searched her face. "They were dead last time. They're still alive," he half whispered and then added quietly "There *is* a life source which could be tapped."

"Indeed, Daniel Jackson is correct. The Gatekeepers possess a life source unequalled on this planet. Lya, is it not such a life source which could be accessed by yourself and the boy?" Teal'c raised an eyebrow but nodded his head in reverence to her.

"We are unused to needing such a source." Lya paused thoughtfully and stroked her young son's head. His eyes pleaded.

"In fact I cannot remember such an occasion," she added.

She bent down and touched Carter's forehead, and then placed her hand across her chest. She bent her head momentarily as though gauging something. She rose to her feet and reached across to touch O'Neill's chest. He opened an eye and half grimaced at her.

"They have strength. We will try," she said abruptly and rose to her feet.

"Come," she said reaching for Nafrayu's hand. She turned to Daniel and Teal'c. "We must be quick. Although O'Neill's injury is serious it is possible that Major Carter may die before we get to the source of power. If that happens I can make no promises that we will able to revive her," she said solemnly.

"You will have no need of these," she said as she indicated their weapons with her hand and they vanished silently.

"Lya, you have left us without protection against our enemies," Teal'c said quietly.

"I will allow no harm to come to you," she replied and moved towards the opening to the catacombs.

Teal'c nodded and stooped to lift Carter from the ground. Daniel bent to O'Neill and pulled him to his feet. The groan which came from his friend's lips as he opened his eyes and stumbled forward made his heart sink. O'Neill was tough but this was going to be a hard journey. Suddenly, Daniel felt another pair of hands take O'Neill's weight and he threw an appreciative look at Pilar who came to stand on the other side.

As they walked away Daniel threw a look over his shoulder at the trapped Sokar. "What about him?" he said to Lya as she strode in front of them.

"He goes nowhere until I am ready to send him, " she replied without turning her head.

"Sounds fair to me," O'Neill muttered and forced his head around to look anxiously at the silent blond head which lay motionless across Teal'c's shoulder.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

FINALITY

The tunnels were silent, devoid of life as the small group moved forwards into the depths of the city of Salus. Occasionally they stopped to rest. The small medical kit which was in Daniel's backpack afforded some relief for the two injured members of the team. Painkilling injections were all that he could administer. Although Carter seemed out of it anyway, O'Neill needed the relief to move through the pain and keep up with the group.

"We are nearing the center of the City, are we not, Daniel Jackson?" Lya asked as they rounded a corner and came to a fork in the tunnels. They had been descending for some time.

"Yes, I think we are," he replied uncertainly.

"We have but a half an hour's walk ahead of us," Pilar said as he moved to speak to them, leaving O'Neill in a seated position at the side of the tunnel.

"Do you feel the power source as I do, mother?" Nafrayu asked, looking up at his mother.

"I do," she replied and smiled at him. Her face turned to look at Daniel and Teal'c, who was resting his arms from the weight of carrying Carter for so long. "The life source is not as I had hoped it would be. It is not pure, if it ever was pure. Its source is corrupt and tainted. I hope only that it is enough for us to draw on should we need it."

Daniel looked across at his friends and sighed. He couldn't let them die here, not on this God forsaken world of corruption, deception and with the stench of death pervading his very being.

Lya looked at him acutely, her eyes scanning his face. "I feel as you do, Daniel," she said gently. "They deserve more than the fates are offering them."

"You should know that the Gatekeepers orchestrated the whole thing. The kidnap of Nafrayu, and Sokar's and our presence here," Daniel warned, wishing he'd said it earlier but never having had the opportunity.

"Do not worry, Daniel Jackson. I am aware of all that has occurred here. The Gatekeepers will never be allowed to lure others here again. We shall seal the Gates forever," Lya said and her eyes met his in a single gesture of promise.

He nodded mutely. He should have realised that Lya would know and recognise the subterfuge which the Gatekeepers had used to obtain their victims for their own means. He moved his gaze to Pilar. The android stood silently, staring into the tunnels ahead. He couldn't make anything of the androids he'd met. He couldn't understand why Pilar had allowed Mafus to die so easily and yet he knew that their ability to feel anything such as compassion was lacking. He had to use that as an explanation for the behaviour he'd witnessed earlier or his thoughts would wander onto a more suspicious level and he wanted to believe that Pilar was a victim as much as anyone he'd met on this world so far. As though reading his mind, Pilar turned and smiled at him for a moment and then turned away again.

Amazed at the accuracy of Pilar's prediction, Daniel followed Lya into the main chamber close to the Gatekeeper's central core about a half an hour later.

Within seconds two androids joined them from the side tunnels closest to them.

Alura bowed her head in deference to Lya, and Ventra nodded lightly, his hand outstretched to greet Pilar.

"Mafus?" Ventra said quietly. Pilar shook his head but Daniel could register no sign of apology or sadness in either android.

O'Neill eased his stiff and pain ridden shoulder away from Daniel's side and hobbled forward weakly. "Where's those damn creatures in the jar or are they gonna play games again? Can't you see we need help here," he thundered and then dropped to one knee with the exertion, sweat beginning to bead his brow. "Jeez, that hurts," he muttered and screwed up his face.

Lya stepped forward, her arm moving Nafrayu swiftly behind her back.

"Guess Lya doesn't trust anyone either," Daniel whispered to Teal'c. "How's Sam?" he murmured.

"Major Carter has not moved for over an hour, Daniel Jackson," Teal'c said without emotion, although his eyes betrayed otherwise.

Daniel nodded. "She's lost a lot of blood." He reached across and felt for her pulse at the neck. It was thready and weak but at least she still had a pulse. Daniel's hopes rose as he turned to watch Lya in action.

"I would speak with those who call themselves the Gatekeepers, those who say that they rule this City and this planet and I would speak with them now," Lya said calmly.

Pilar turned to her and bowed. "If it is your wish then the Gatekeepers are at your disposal, my lady," he said.

Lya turned her head on one side and looked queryingly at him, his deference to her not gone unnoticed.

"Lya seems surprised that they hold her in regard," Daniel whispered.

"Indeed she does," Teal's replied, his eyes fixed on the scene in front of him.

The wall on the far side of the chamber began to open, as it had when SG-1 had stood there a day or so before. The blue light from the chambers holding the life sources gave the chamber an eerie glow, an iridescence which was almost ghostly.

"We welcome the most revered leader of the race known as the Nox," the female voice said, lilting and haunting as ever. Its soothing tones caressed their ears and their senses and an overwhelming sense of peace seemed to flood the chamber.

"Do not toy with my emotions. Your evil underlies all that is corrupt about your world. You do however have a chance to show me that there remains some good in you," Lya said sternly, her eyes casting across the chamber.

"Very well, Lya of the Nox. We know of what you wish from us. Let it be so." The male voice was calm but Daniel could swear that through the fog of peacefulness which he had been feeling, a menace lurked unseen in the tones of the voice.

"Bring them to our chamber," another male voice lilted.

Lya knelt and took Nafrayu's shoulders, her eyes scanning her child's face. She whispered words in his ear, unheard by any there present. He opened his mouth in a gesture of protest and felt her finger touch his lips gently. She shook her head and whispered "For me, and for them," she said quietly.

Nafrayu bowed his head and nodded sadly.

She rose to her feet and beckoned Teal'c to come forward carrying Carter.

She moved to Daniel and reached up to put a hand on his shoulder. "Take care of my son," she whispered and took O'Neill's arm to help him into the chamber. Her strength belied her size.

Daniel stood close to Nafrayu and rested his hand protectively on the child's shoulder. Weaponless, he wondered just what he could do should Nafrayu be in danger.

In the Gatekeeper's chamber, the blue light bathed the occupants as they moved towards the center.

"Place Major Carter on the floor," Lya ordered Teal'c and then moved to crouch next to her. Her arms outstretched in front of her, Lya closed her eyes.

"Begin," she said quietly and bowed her head onto her chest.

The chamber filled with a low hum, at first barely audible and then increasing in volume until it had reached a crescendo. The air seemed to whirl and dance in front of Daniel's eyes as he watched Lya remain motionless and steady. A blue light emerged from the containers which held the essence which was the Gatekeepers and streaked across the room, whirling madly in a dance of energy until it dived down to the floor and spread out around both Lya and the dying Carter.

"Come on, Sam," Daniel whispered, willing her to get up from the floor, recovered and no longer in danger. He could barely make out what was going on in the chamber.

"How's it going?" The croaky voice beside Teal'c was barely audible under the sound of the wind which was increasing by the second in the chamber. Teal'c turned to look at O'Neill. "There is no change," he replied. And then he saw the movement. At first it was slight. Carter's fingers twitching. Then she moved her head almost imperceptibly. Teal'c's spirits rose.

"I believe that it is working, O'Neill" he whispered. O'Neill closed his eyes, a feeling of relief flooding his system, acting as an anaesthetic and a narcotic in the same wave of elation.

As Carter began to lift her head, her eyes opening suddenly, Lya opened hers and stared ahead, not moving her arms from where they stayed outstretched.

"NO!" Lya shouted loudly as she turned her head towards the source of the blue energy force. "You have no right to do this," she said loudly and, breaking her statue-like stance, she waved both arms in an arc and the blue light seemed to retreat back to its container faster than it had emerged.

Carter raised her head for a second and then slumped backwards, her eyes closing once again.

Lya put a hand to the floor and rose to her feet slowly, the energy seeming to have been drained from her very being.

Teal'c rushed forward to help her, gazing with concern at his helpless friend.

"Their deceit knows no bounds. They tried to use me as a vessel for one of their own to inhabit. I broke the link before they could achieve it. They were not enabling my healing power, they were using it for their own ends, channelling their very essence through me." Lya sighed as she rose to her feet. "It seems I must do this on my own after all," she said.

"You do not appear to be strong enough," Teal'c observed.

"I am stronger than you think, Teal'c," Lya said, smiling lightly. "Lift the Major to me, Teal'c"

Teal'c bent and lifted Carter to Lya's level and she placed a hand on Carter's chest. She took a deep breath and closed her eyes. After what seemed to Teal'c to be an eternity, Carter's chest heaved suddenly and she took a gasp of breath. He looked down to watch in fascination as the wound which gaped beneath her torn uniform closed and healed over. Apart from the enormous tear in the fabric, there was no sign of injury.

Lya dropped to one knee and gasped for her breath. "Bring O'Neill to me at once," she ordered.

Teal'c placed a disorientated, semi conscious Carter back on the ground and moved O'Neill to within Lya's grasp.

She raised her head to meet O'Neill's eyes. In a low voice she whispered to him.

"I have taken some of their energy to boost my own. However, once you are healed I will not have enough strength to protect us. You must do it, O'Neill. You must return Nafrayu to my people," she said.

"We never leave one of our own," O'Neill said through a strangulated gasp of pain. "And you're one of our own," he added.

Lya reached out and touched his arm. "O'Neill, beware the androids," she said and then put her hand across his shoulder, closing her eyes.

O'Neill felt the glow flow across his system as the healing process started to take place, then he watched as Lya slumped backwards and was lifted to her feet by Teal'c.

"It is done," she said softly and stood impassively watching the chamber as it hummed, the energy beams beginning to dance and snake across the ceiling of the chamber, their knowledge that she who they sought so desperately to use for their own ends was temporarily out of their reach.

Eager, thirsty for the knowledge that the Nox possessed, the Gatekeepers were infuriated at their inability to invade the slight woman who had stood before them. Their rage was growing.

"Daniel, we're leaving," O'Neill shouted as he pulled a stunned Carter to her feet and raced for the entrance to the main chamber. Teal'c had a protective arm around the small figure of Lya as they moved swiftly away.

Then the androids made their move.

oOo

The dull interior of the ship was alleviated only by the golden panels on the wall. The sparseness lent it no feeling of comfort.

"We have removed the Goa'uld who roamed the exterior of the city and tried to escape through the Stargate. It is the Nox's wish that they be sent to the Tok'ra for removal of their symbiots is it not?"

Thor looked at the viewing screen. "The request is clear. Send the Goa'uld to the Tok'ra. Destroy the city of Salus once the signal is given. The System Lord, Sokar is our prisoner and is awaiting final sentencing from the Nox once they have finished here. We must await the signal."

The Asgard Mother Ship flew low across the planet terrain until it reached the limits of Salus.

"You have destroyed the three transportation devices?"

"It is done," Thor replied and sat back to wait further instructions from their allies in the city below.

oOo

Ventra and Pilar moved towards the group as it made its way towards the far side of the chamber.

"You cannot escape Salus," Ventra said solemnly.

"Wanna bet?" O'Neill replied. "You got an aggression chip too, like your little buddy here? Or something else you wanna tell us?"

Pilar put his head on one side and stared at Lya and Nafrayu.

"We would let your people go, O'Neill, if you will hand us those who call themselves Nox."

O'Neill laughed loudly. "What, you want to experiment on them too? You people are sick. I thought you guys had some sort of a rebellion going here. What happened, chickened out?"

"For all the intelligence that your species possesses Colonel O'Neill, we are saddened that you do not realise what Salus is about. What we are about," the android added.

"You're more than androids, aren't you?" Daniel said as he held Nafrayu firmly by the hand.

"You have guessed what we are?" Alura said as she moved to stand next to the two male androids.

"You're the Gatekeepers aren't you?" Carter stated flatly.

"Intelligence and beauty. We thought to use you as my host, Major Carter, but we knew that a species possessing both beauty, intelligence and certain other talents, far above what humans possess, would soon be ours. A pity for you were a close second to Lya." Alura smiled.

"Yes, essentially we are the Gatekeepers. The essences, or life forms which you see in the chamber, these are our parents. We are their children. In the very real sense of the word. Our parents knew that they were barren. That we were the only remaining survivors younger than they were . What you were told about Salus is true. For the most part. We left out only what we did not want revealed. What suited our purposes to tell you, we did." Ventra took a step forward and Teal'c instinctively moved Lya behind him.

Ventra smiled. "The Nox possess all the qualities we need to become sentient human beings once more. We no longer wish to remain in these bodies, these shells. Our parents downloaded our memories, our feelings and the will to survive into these bodies. We cannot have children of our own, and we can never die. We wish to discover what our parents once knew. What life is like outside of our own world. Once we have these bodies we will leave our world and our parents will leave too. Forever. We will destroy the chamber which holds their very beings. They want to die. They are tired of being what they are."

"So immortality not cracked up to be what they thought it would be? Tell Sokar that," O'Neill said mockingly.

"The System Lord provided us with a service. He destroyed those of our kind who wanted to remain here. Those who did not approve of our plans. Those who were not as we were. He systematically alleviated us of a problem."

"And that would include Mafus? That why you didn't want us to intervene?" O'Neill asked.

"Mafus was beginning to have doubts about our plans. As a Gatekeeper he was the weakest of us. I knew that eventually he would tell you our plans. We could not allow that. His sacrifice, which he was not expecting, served a greater purpose. As predicted, the Nox have come to us."

"Only one of them," Daniel pointed out. "You took the boy from their world."

"Yes, the boy was a wonderful lure. It brought us you, the human race, which we knew to be a great adversary for the Goa'uld and it lent credence to our need to ask you for help and so finally entice the Nox leader to our planet. Do you not think that all that has happened did not happen on purpose, O'Neill? Everything that has passed here has passed for a reason. This is now the end." Pilar reached his hand towards Teal'c. "Let us have the woman and we will let you leave. We will enable the Triumvirate so that you pass swiftly to your own home world unharmed."

Teal'c held Lya behind him.

"You lied to us. How many stories did you think we would believe before we finally found out the truth?" Carter said with feeling.

"We sought to invade your thoughts with many versions of the truth so that in turn the truth would become blurred. By feeding you many versions, you failed to work out that we were lying. We succeeded through subterfuge."

"You'll never succeed," O'Neill said and stepped forward.

"You are foolish and compassionate humans. We will destroy you." Alura stepped forward towards him, her hand raised. An arc of blue energy surged up her fingers and remained at the finger tips waiting for her to strike at one of them.

The voice echoed from around the chamber.

"Children who would be Gods, cease what you are doing."

Alura, Ventra and Pilar spun as one to look for the owner.

As they turned around and around their faces registered first disbelief, horror and then anger at the intrusion.

From the shadows walked SG-1's rescuers. First one, then two and then a dozen Nox walked from the shadows and stood in a circle around the chamber. They raised their arms in unison and in seconds the energy which remained within the androids' grasp had dissipated and vanished altogether.

Lya moved out from around Teal'c, throwing him a grateful glance for his protection, and held a hand out for her son to join her. Nafrayu disentangled his hand from Daniel's and joined his mother as she walked across to greet her people.

"My husband?" she asked, as she took the hands of a woman Nox who bowed before her.

"He awaits you on the Asgard ship, Lya. He coordinates the operation with Thor."

Lya turned to the three androids silently. "You were given a chance to redeem yourselves. Your wish to leave this place is granted. You will be taken by the Asgard and your memories and feelings will be removed. You will be placed in a facility where you will do good for eternity. Your wish to become sentient and finally die however, is not granted. Your parents' wish to die is however granted."

Lya turned to O'Neill. "Colonel O'Neill, my people hold you and your team in high regard. You will be transported to Thor's ship where your own medical staff are waiting to look after your needs. You will then be returned to your home world."

"And this place?" O'Neill asked curiously.

"It is to be destroyed. We, as you are aware, are not a people of violence. We merely act in the interests of peace. The remaining energy of those who built this place will be destroyed along with the entire city of Salus. Its memory will no longer burn as a place of evil. It will simply cease to exist."

"What about Sokar?" Daniel looked curious.

"I have plans for him. It is best that you do not know of them," Lya said, her words final.

oOo

Salus exploded beneath the Asgard Mother Ship in a display of fireworks and pyrotechnics which entranced those who watched.

"Your wound has healed completely, Sam," Janet said as she passed her friend a new t-shirt and jacket to wear. "Your only problem now is that you need some rest and I wouldn't mind giving you a plasma infusion when we get home. Lya might be able to repair broken tissue and organs, but she can't replace blood and you lost one heck of a lot."

Carter smiled ruefully. She felt none the worse the wear for her encounter with the staff blast wound, other than tiredness and for some reason which she didn't want to voice to Janet an emotional turmoil which she could only put down to the tussle she'd had with Jolinar's memories. "How's the Colonel?" she asked as she pulled the t-shirt over her head.

"He's cranky as usual but what's new. His shoulder's a bit stiff but like you he's got no tissue damage at all. I'd sure love to be able to do what they do," Janet muttered.

"Lya seemed exhausted by it all," Carter commented.

"She's resting with her husband right now. Teal'c said they need to meditate to renew themselves. Something he'd know about of course," Janet said smiling and patted her friend on the arm. "When you're ready, join us on the main bridge. When we're all there, Thor's going to send us home."

Carter eased the stiffness out of her shoulders and arms and stretched them above her head, trying to iron out the kinks in her stiff muscles. She smiled as her Commanding Officer and Daniel walked into the room.

"How's life, Carter?" O'Neill said casually as he sat on the end of her bed and assessed his officer's condition.

"Actually fine, Sir. How's yours?" she replied, smiling secretly.

"Oh, you know, not drawing the old disability pension yet, you know."

"Sam, what do you think Lya has in mind for Sokar?" Daniel said as he walked to the small porthole type window which looked out onto the planet below.

Carter shrugged. "Beats me. The Nox aren't a violent people, but I can imagine that Sokar's not high on the list of people they'd care about looking after. My hope is they send him somewhere to rot for the end of his days," she said with feeling.

"Oh I wouldn't worry too much about that," O'Neill said and smiled, his eyes glinting dangerously.

"You know!" Daniel declared and turned away from the window.

"Thor and I might have had a meaningful conversation or two, you know friend to friend," O'Neill said and feigned disinterest.

"You have to tell us," Carter said and jumped down off the bed, moving towards him threateningly.

"Whoa, you have to guess.." O'Neill said edging towards the door. "No, guys wait..I can't tell you..wait."

EPILOGUE

Sokar stood, a lonely figure in a bleak landscape. He wrapped his cloak around him and surveyed the scene which greeted his eyes as he was deposited on the planet surface and left. He knew he recognised the terrain but he couldn't quite grasp from where. The silence was eerie, threatening almost. Then he saw the fence. It was tall, electrified. The landscape stretched out beyond the fence into the distance. But there was no distance, no end to the flat, uninteresting plain. There had been structures on this planet, that he could tell. He looked at the flattened ground on either side of him and a smaller flattish oval surface. He tried to remember, but couldn't. The memories seemed to be far out of his grasp.

Then the creatures came. At first all he could hear was the leathery beating of wings. At first it might have seemed as though he were about to become an inhabitant of a world where at least there might be some creatures he could kill for food or creatures perhaps who would provide him with companionship.

But then they appeared, and he screamed inside.

Dark shapes, winged and hideous. They descended from the sky in the east. As each hit the fence in a howl of rage, Sokar shrank back towards the other side. And then he remembered when he had been here and what had been here. But they were no longer here.

The Gates had been removed.

© November, 2002 The characters mentioned in this story are the property of Showtime and Gekko Film Corp. The Stargate, SG-I, the Goa'uld and all other characters who have appeared in the series STARGATE SG-1 together with the names, titles and backstory are the sole copyright property of MGM-UA Worldwide Television, Gekko Film Corp, Glassner/Wright Double Secret Productions and Stargate SG-I Prod. Ltd. Partnership. This fanfic is not intended as an infringement upon those rights and solely meant for entertainment. All other characters, the story idea and the story itself are the sole property of the author.