"Carter, I thought you said there was NO ONE HERE!"

"The UAV didn't pick up anything, Sir; I don't know where they came from!"

"Run now, argue LATER," Daniel shouted, grabbing Jack's arm and hauling him along. O'Neill lowered his P-90, unable to find a target and return fire. The Jaffa — given the staff weapon fire, he was assuming Jaffa — had to be invisible, and it was pissing him off.

"Niirti?" he shouted.

"Probably, Sir. We need to have them lock down the gateroom and sweep it with TER's as soon as we get through."

"Agreed." Running wasn't conducive to holding a conversation, so Jack let it drop as they dashed for the gate.

Usually the gate-run was fairly simple: get there, dial home, send the IDC, and go. Not so today; they were behind the gate. Usually, that wouldn't be much of a problem either, they'd just run around — or through — the stone ring so they could enter the wormhole from the correct side.

What made this mission so complicated was that the gate faced a drop-off — almost as though someone had sent a small bomb through that took out that entire side of the hill upon which the gate stood. To get back through they had to climb up onto the platform from behind the gate, run to the other side, climb down onto the slope, and then hug the cliff face to avoid the whoosh of the opening wormhole before climbing back up and going through. They'd lost the MALP down that cliff; Jack worried about losing one of his team with it.

Ahead of them the gate came to life, the effect strange without the usual whoosh. Jack kept running, refusing to be distracted by seeing the wormhole activate from the back side — he could think about it later. Teal'c must've reached the DHD; sure enough, a few moments later Jack heard his GDO beep and, from the corner of his eye, caught it flashing a green light.

All clear. Pushing himself to move faster, he caught up with Daniel as the archaeologist reached the gate platform, helping the younger man heave himself up onto the stone. Why did they make these things so high? he wondered as he ducked a staff blast. Daniel spun around as soon as he'd gotten up, reaching down to help Jack. As soon as the colonel had both feet on the platform, Daniel turned and grabbed the edge of the gate, holding onto it as he worked his way around the large ring to the other side.

Then Jack saw it.

From the corner of his eye a light flashed, and time slowed as he realized that the staff blast was headed right for Danny. He jumped forward, placing himself between the archaeologist and the weapon — and was caught in the shoulder. The sound alerted Daniel who turned his head, still clinging to the gate, in time to see his friend fall backward into the wormhole —

from the wrong side.