CHAPTER ONE

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"Carter, you ready?" Colonel Jack O'Neill shouted to his second-in-command.

"Almost sir, I just have to set up this last instrument," she replied.

Jack sighed and sat back down on his rock. Her and Daniel had been setting up their equipment for the past two hours while Jack and Teal'c stood around, keeping watch. Although there didn't seem to be much to watch out for on this planet, only trees. Jack found it amazing that even though there was a reasonable answer to the question that all the planets they went to seemed to have humans living there, the Goa'uld had transported them, but trees were a different matter altogether. Who would use all their advanced technology to transplant trees all over the galaxy?

"O'Neill," Teal'c said.

"Yes Teal'c?" Jack replied, turning to face his friend who was sitting on the rock next to him.

"I find this almost as boring as that time we went fishing," Teal'c said. "There is nothing to see, as there was nothing to fish in your lake."

"There is something to fish in my lake," Jack defending himself. "I've caught fish that are this big," he held his hands at shoulder width."

"I am sure you have O'Neill," Teal'c said, the sides of his mouth lifting up in a slight smile, the closest to actual smiling he ever came.

"I have," Jack insisted. "I have."

They fell back into silence and Jack returned to staring at Sam and Daniel setting up their equipment. He figured that they couldn't be much longer because there wasn't much left to set up. But then they'd have to figure out how the darn stuff worked.

"O'Neill," Teal'c said again.

"Yes Teal'c," Jack said, looking back his way.

"I believe we are being watched," Teal'c said, his gaze not faltering.

Jack followed Teal'c's gaze into the tree line and noticed two kids hiding behind the trees there, watching them. The younger one, the boy, looked around seven or eight years old and the older one, the girl, looked around twelve. They both had tanned skin and black hair, Jack couldn't see their eyes very well, but at first glance he could've sworn they were orange.

The girl suddenly realised that they'd been spotted and pulled the boy down behind a rock. Jack smiled, locals were always funny people to watch when they noticed the advanced technology.

"Hey Carter, Daniel, you might wanna come over here," Jack shouted.

Sam looked up from what she was doing and shaded her face from the sun. "What is it, sir?"

"I think we have company," Jack said.

Immediately she dropped her tools and headed over towards Teal'c and Jack, followed closely by Daniel. Jack nodded his head in the direction of the kids, who were now hiding behind a tall rock.

"Behind those rocks there, two kids," Jack said. "About eight and twelve."

"Well we should try and make contact," Daniel said. "They might have a village near here that the MALP didn't pick up."

"Daniel, what have I told you about…" Jack started.

"Actually, sir, I think we should make contact," Sam said.

"OK," he said, giving in. "You go ahead, I'll stay here."

Sam nodded to Daniel and the two of them headed towards the rocks. The girl obviously saw them coming and stood up, making the boy stay down.

"Go away," the girl protested. "You not from here."

"No we're not," Sam said, carefully. "We're from another planet."

"Evil, you come through ring of evil," the girl said. "We don't want you, go away you ashlt!"

"Ashlt?" Daniel repeated.

"You know what it means?" Sam asked.

"I have no idea," Daniel replied. "What is ashlt."

"Evil, ashlt is evil! You are ashlt!" the girl said.

"Uh, I think it might mean devil or demon," Daniel tried to translate.

"We're not ashlt," Sam tried. "We're not evil. My name's Sam, what's yours."

"Sam?" the girl repeated. "Mari, I am Mari, this is Thali, my brother. But don't come any closer, you are ashlt, we will be infected!"

"What's all this about?" Jack asked, appearing with Teal'c behind them. "Oh they do have orange eyes."

"Aaah!" the girl screamed, hiding. "More ashlt!"

Jack looked at Sam questioningly. "Ashlt?"

"Demon," she translated.

"No, not demon," Mari said. "Demon's are good. Ashlt come through the ring of evil. They take away people, destroy our village. Call themselves something else. You are not ashlt?"

"No, no we're not," Daniel said. "We're humans."

"Mari, do you know what the ashlt call themselves?" Sam asked, suddenly realising they probably meant the Goa'uld.

"I will not say the word," Mari said.

"I will not say the word," Thali repeated, hugging his sister's waist.

"Be quiet Thali," Mari said.

"Just tell them, Mari," Thali said.

"No," Mari said.

"Then I will," Thali said. "They're called Goa'uld's. They come through the cha'per'ai."

Mari hit him. "Do not say those words. We will take you to our village and there you will only tell the truth."

"O…K…" Daniel said.

"Sir, we haven't finished setting up…" Sam started.

"I know," he said. "But it'll be nice to have a break right?"

Sam nodded, reluctantly, and they started to follow the kids. They said nothing for the entire walk, but about twenty minutes later they found themselves facing a rather large village of bark houses.

"Cute," Jack whispered to Sam.

"Yes, sir," she replied, smiling.

"This civilisation is like none I've ever seen before," Daniel said amazed. "It's almost as if they were taken from South America, yet they seem to…"

"Daniel," Jack said in a warning voice.

"Yes, Jack?" Daniel replied.

"Shut up," Jack said.

"Oh," Daniel said, deciding to think in his head, instead of out loud.

"I wonder what could've caused them to have orange eyes," Sam said, looking at the people gaping at them as they walked past. "Maybe the UV rays here are higher than we thought."

"It's an interesting colour isn't it?" Jack said. "Looks nice too."

"It's sort of a yellowing brown. Maybe it's something in their diet that makes their eyes turn that colour," Sam said.

"Here," Mari said, stopping in front of a rather large hut which had a rock sculpture outside it.

"This is the main hall," Mari announced. "You go in, I cannot."

"OK," Sam said. "Thankyou Mari."

"Welcome," she said cheerfully, skipping off to a group of kids her age who were standing, whispering at the strange newcomers with different coloured eyes and hair.

They entered the bark hut and inside it was pretty nice, for a bark hut. There were chairs around and in front of them was a rather large chair, with what looked like a woven pillow on it. It reminded Jack of a council chamber, somewhere were a bunch of important people would sit around and talk.

A short man, with grey hair and a walking stick entered the room. He looked up and Sam noticed he had brown eyes.

"You are not Goa'uld," he looked around at them all and stopped, his gaze on Teal'c. "You are Jaffa…yet you do not serve the Goa'uld?"

"No," Teal'c replied. "I serve the people of the Tauri."

"What brings you here?" the old man asked.

"We're explorers and we came here to examine your strange suns," Sam said. "You have two, we only have one."

"I see," the old man said. "I am Alannah, I am the leader of the Shali people."

"I am Jack O'Neill, I'm the leader of SG-1," Jack said.

"To be sure that you are not ashlt, I shall have to make it so that you can only tell the truth," Alannah said, then he muttered a few words under his breath that sounded to Daniel like some form of old-fashioned witch-craft. "Now you are ready. Are you ashlt?"

"No," Jack replied. "None of us are."

"Good," Alannah said. "You are ready."

"Ready for what?" Jack replied.

"To leave," Alannah said. "Goodbye."

"Ok then," Jack said. "Off we go, thank you."

"Feel free to hang around," Alannah said, as they left. "And have enjoyment."

"Oh we will," Daniel said.

They left the room and went outside, everybody ran away. Sam turned to Jack.

"I think I wanna get back to setting up my equipment, and then we can go home, sir," Sam said to Jack.

"I agree," Jack said. "Let's get going."