I'd like to thank M.C. Herrera, RosalieTheBeautyQueen, Barbarossa Rotbart and ray1 for their comments on chapter one. Thanks!

Stargate: SVU 3

Chapter Two

"Damn it," O'Neill grimly muttered, as he ran to the edge of the beach and peered past the opening in the foliage where he just saw Olivia go through. Neither she or Satterfield were anywhere to be seen. He saw their footprints in the sand. They had run further into the dense foliage, towards a clearing. Here, the footprints were a jumble.

'They were taken,' O'Neill realized, as he cursed under his breath. He turned back to SG-1 and shouted, "Carter, Daniel, Hailey: collect all our gear and get over here. Teal'c!"

The Jaffa ran over, clad in his combat vest, with his gear hanging over one shoulder and already holding his staff weapon. He looked ready for anything.

"Looks like they were both abducted by somebody," O'Neill told him, as he pointed out the tracks.

Teal'c took one look at the tracks and said, "A group abducted them. There are signs of a struggle, here. They may have been either bound or rendered unconscious right here, then carried off."

Carter, Daniel and Hailey had arrived just then, and when Daniel heard Teal'c, he anxiously said, "How can you be sure they weren't killed outright?"

"Then why bother to take the bodies?" Hailey asked him.

"Let's not get ahead of ourselves," O'Neill told them. Turning to Teal'c, he asked, "So they were taken here. Any idea who took them? Gou'ald?"

Teal'c shook his head as he began following the tracks deeper into the jungle along a sandy pathway. "Their abductors were also barefoot," he called back. "They are most likely not Goa'uld."

"The Mumani?" Sam said with a shocked look, as she handed O'Neill his vest and gear. "Sir, that's impossible; they're so peaceful!"

"Why would they want to kidnap Olivia and Grace?" Hailey asked, equally stunned. She carried Grace's gear as well as her own on her back.

"That's what we're going to find out," O'Neill told them, as they started after Teal'c. "C'mon!"

Yet before he followed the others, O'Neill took the time for a glance back at the beach. He saw that the children whom they had been playing baseball with were now all gone. O'Neill shook his head as he followed his team into the dense jungle foliage. The kids could have simply taken off because they were frightened by SG-1's frenzied reaction to the abduction of their comrades.

'Or the little buggers could have been sent to us to act as a diversion, so that the Mumani could abduct Olivia and Grace,' he thought. Either way, O'Neill blamed himself for this; if he hadn't been so lax, if he hadn't have lowered his guard, none of this would have happened. 'And now, thanks to my stupidity, Olivia and Grace might wind up getting hurt…or worse!'

SG1: SVU

'Ow!' Olivia thought, as she was roughly placed face down on a cool, hard surface. Her head was jerked back as somebody undid the knot on her blindfold. Olivia was grateful to be able to see once her blindfold was removed.

She glanced over to her left and was relieved to see Grace was right next to her, also laying face down on the floor. She may have been just as helpless as Olivia, trussed up as they both were, but at least Grace appeared to be all right, for the time being.

Olivia risked a glance over her shoulder. Their abductors turned out to be a group of young Mumani men in full tribal warrior garb. Their bold body tattoos and flashy headgear were meant to be intimidating--and for the most part, it worked. Olivia, for one, was suitably afraid of them. One of them stepped forward, and by the regal way that he held himself, as well as the subordinate manner in which the others reacted towards him, Olivia figured he was the leader.

He stepped in-between the two bound women and pulled both Olivia's and Grace's gags down.

"Oh, God, that tasted horrible," Grace sputtered with disgust. "I really don't wanna know where my gag's been before!"

Olivia warily glanced up at their captor, who glared down intently at her--then she gave a concerned look at Grace. "You all right?"

"Yeah," Grace replied. "You?"

"Um, yeah," Olivia muttered, as she tried to free herself. But her wrists and ankles were bound with dried vines that kept her tied securely. She peered back over her shoulder up at the leader. "What do you suppose he wants us for?"

Grace twisted her tied body so that she lay on her side, all the better to see the man who stood over them. Then, speaking in a slow, halting version of the Mumani language--which Daniel had earlier told Olivia was based on ancient Gaelic--Grace posed Olivia's very question to the man.

As if in answer, the man gestured at something all around them and replied in the Mumani language. While Olivia didn't understand a word of what he said, based on the harsh tone of his voice, it sounded like he was demanding something of them.

'Oh please, don't tell me this is some kind of a ritual, like a human sacrificial ceremony,' Olivia thought with dread. 'To have traveled this far, and seen this much wonder, only to just be brutally killed…please, not like this…please!'

"Wait, you're speaking too fast…." Grace said to the Mumani warrior leader, as she shook her head in puzzlement. She spoke slowly and carefully in his language.

The man then gestured to one of his warriors, who dropped a rucksack on the ground that looked as if it belonged to SG-1. It was military issue, and bore the same light, desert/tropical camouflage pattern that they all presently wore.

The leader bent down, grabbed both of the tied women by their arms, and then hauled them up so that they were now sitting up on the floor with the rucksack between them.

Olivia glanced down and saw various supplies--flashlights, a flare gun, and bottled water, among other stuff--in the rucksack and wondered where the Mumani had even gotten this. 'They've must have stolen it,' she realized. 'But for what reason?'

"He says that I can use these tools," Grace said, "to help him."

When Grace asked the leader of the warriors another question in the Mumani language in a humble fashion, he spread his arms out and swept his hands around him in response.

For the first time, Olivia got a good look at where she and Grace had been taken, and the mere sight of the place had taken her breath away.

It was the interior of another temple, but one that was far different than the hot, dingy place they had been working in for the past few days. This temple gleamed with walls that were seemingly made of gold. In the center of the vast chamber--which had large vertical openings in the upper walls--was a water fountain that sprayed a large volume of pure water upwards towards the ceiling. There was an enormous stone head that somehow appeared to float in midair in-between the columns of water over the fountain. The features of the stone head were smooth; worn away from having been washed over by the water for many centuries now.

"Oh, my God! Grace, are you seeing this?"

"Yeah," she said, sounding awed.

"Where the hell are we?"

"I have no idea, Liv," Grace replied. She glanced at the leader of the warriors and respectfully asked another question.

The man replied quickly, and with a broad smile.

"What'd he say, Grace?"

"I asked him where we were," she answered, looking scared. "And he just said: 'your new home.'"

SG1-SVU

"This is exciting," Casey said with a broad smile. She looked herself over in the full length mirror once more. She was clad in a tunic with pants and boots; this outfit was topped off by a green cloak and a hood. This would be her official undercover outfit while she and Char'el scouted around on Delis. She even had a belt with a knife in a sheath. "I feel like I'm in the Lord Of The Rings!"

"The Lord of the what?"

She stepped out of the cargo compartment of the teltac ship and strode over to the pilot's station, where Char'el sat. He was clad in a male version of Casey's outfit. "Didn't I tell you about those films?" Casey asked. "They're based on a series of books. I have them loaded on my iPod."

"The books?"

"No, the films." Casey frowned. "You know, I should have brought the books with me, as well. Darn it, that's something else I forgot to pack…."

"Your world is odd," Char'el said, as he piloted the ship into the planet's atmosphere. "One would think a story about schoolboys trapped on an island would not be enough to inspire so many books and movies."

Casey stared at him, puzzled. Then, when the realization struck her, she shook her head. "No, you're confusing The Lord Of The Rings with The Lord Of The Flies."

"What is the difference?"

"Plenty. Lord Of The Flies is the one about schoolchildren trapped on an island. Lord Of The Rings is an epic fantasy adventure about elves, monsters, and fantastical places--which, come to think of it, is exactly what my life has become, lately…."

"Elves?" Char'el smiled at her. "When have you ever encountered elves?"

"Never." Yet Casey somberly thought back to the moment when she was still a slave on Mount Tanis, and running for her very life from a Jaffa mounted on a raptor. The very memory made her shudder. "But I've seen my fair share of monsters."

Char'el, sensing Casey's discomfort, took her hand in his own. "I wish I did not bring you along for this voyage," Char'el said darkly. "It is too dangerous."

Casey gently caressed the side of his face. "We all agreed that having a man and a woman go on this trip would be better--it would bring less suspicion if people saw us as merely a husband and wife shopping in the marketplace, right? And I've now got some experience with this kind of stuff, anyway."

"Yes," Char'el replied. "But I still feel…uneasy."

"I can take care of myself. Besides, it serves you right for not having female Jaffa," Casey chided him, as she took a seat across from him at the controls. "But then, I'm not sure I would have preferred having a female Jaffa pretend to be your wife, anyway…oh God, I can't just shut up, can I? Guess I'm a little edgy."

Char'el reached out and squeezed her hand. "It is good to be edgy just before a mission," he told her. "Use the edgy feeling, Casey--let it fuel you, make you more alert and on guard. Besides, my love, this is just a simple reconnaissance mission. We will not engage the enemy in battle. If something goes wrong, we will flee. We are only here to take a discreet look around."

"Right, that's all it is," Casey agreed. The teltac broke clear of the upper atmosphere and she could see the town of Martel directly below. The snow-covered fields that surrounded the town reminded her of why they were so heavily dressed.

"After all," Char'el said, as he began to bring the teltac in for its final descent and landing, "what could go wrong?"

Casey's eyes were now fixated on the massive Ha'tak vessel that had landed on the outskirts of Martel, and whose sheer size easily overwhelmed the entire town itself. To an anxious Casey, the pyramid-shaped ship looked like a large, slumbering monster--one that could be awakened with a vengeful fury at any moment.

"What could go wrong?" Casey nervously repeated. "Oh, yeah…sure…."

SG-1: SVU

"No!" Grace said angrily. "Oh, give me a break! I can't work like this!"

She stood defiantly before the leader of their abductors, shaking her head. They had untied her feet, yet her hands remained bound behind her back. Apparently, from what Olivia could gather from the one sided conversation, these warriors had inferred that Grace was an expert in deciphering the countless words that were written on the walls of the temple--and they had abducted her, and brought her here, so that she could "work her magic" once again, so to speak. Olivia figured that she had been grabbed only because she was unlucky enough to come looking for Grace.

It was obvious that the lead warrior, who called himself Thoran, was hoping Grace could unlock the secrets of this place for him. Just what secrets they were supposed to be was still a mystery. But Olivia suspected that this temple may well be the hidden chamber containing the 'sacred knowledge' that the inscriptions told of in the other temple.

'Nice to have finally found it,' she wryly thought. 'Despite the fact that Grace and I had to get kidnapped in the process….'

Olivia watched as Grace continued to speak intently to Thoran, who merely smiled in a smug manner as he towered over her. And here was Grace, who was still half dressed from her outing at the beach, with her hands tied behind her back and surrounded by a group of dangerous-looking warriors--and yet she still managed to hold her own. This slender young woman of Korean descent, who was normally a very kind, gentle and unassuming person, could be a real tigress when she had to be. Olivia admired her spunk; while at the same time hoping that Grace knew enough not to push it too far.

While all of the warriors' attention were focused on Grace, Olivia discreetly reached into the rucksack and pulled out the flare gun with her tied hands. Thoran and his boys had probably discounted the flare gun as being a potential weapon thanks to its harmless looking bright red plastic design, which probably made it look like a frivolous toy.

But rather than use it as a weapon, Olivia intended to use the flare gun for what it was designed: to shoot up a flare over the jungle skies. She knew that SG-1 had to be hot on their trail by now--they might even be somewhere in the immediate area. Seeing a flare shot from this temple would only help to get them here faster. The only problem was that she would have to shoot the gun from behind her back.

'Wonder if the SGC gives marksmanship medals for shooting with your hands tied behind your back?' Olivia wondered, as she carefully lined up the shot as best she could. Thankfully, the nearest window that she was aiming for was so massive that it was actually hard to miss.

"Oh, yeah?!" Grace said angrily, as Thoran poked his finger in her chest while he spoke something in a menacing tone. "Well, your mother dresses you funny, ok?"

When Olivia felt good about the shot, she squeezed the trigger on the flare gun. The flare shot out with a sizzling sound and careened straight out the massive open window, where it exploded in the daytime sky into a mini-fireball.

Thoran roared a command in his native tongue as he glared out the window with a mixture of shock and fear. He gestured at Grace, who was grabbed by one of the other warriors and brought back over to where Olivia sat. Once she was placed on the ground, Grace's ankles were quickly bound together once more by the man.

While Grace was being securely trussed up, Olivia watched with a smile as Thoran and the other warriors all went running out the main entrance. They mistook the flare for the opening salvo of an attack--probably from the remainder of SG-1. This was actually a much better result than Olivia could have dared hoped for.

The warrior who retied Grace's ankles remained behind to watch over them warily. Olivia very discreetly placed the flare gun on the ground, just out of sight of their guard. Yet from where she sat, Grace easily saw it and stared at her with amazement. "You just shot that?" she whispered in disbelief. "You're a madwoman, Liv!"

"I was NYPD; being crazy is part of the job requirement," Olivia replied. She glanced with an irksome look at their guard. "I really wish this guy wasn't here. Can he understand us?"

"No, but he might not like us--" Grace started to say.

The warrior abruptly began shouting angrily at them in his language as he reached down towards Grace.

"--talking to each other," Grace managed to say, just before she was re-gagged by the warrior.

"Ok, now, this is just rude…." was all Olivia got out, just before her gag was pulled back into her mouth.

The warrior gave them a cruel smile as he stood over them with his hands arrogantly on his hips, as if to say, 'how do you like that?'

He was still smiling even after his body was hit with a dazzling blue bolt of energy that briefly cascaded all over him. When he fell to the floor, he landed face-down, and Olivia really hoped that he would wake up with a nasty headache.

Olivia glanced back and was very pleased to see Daniel standing there, holding a Zat gun. Sam also appeared, kneeling down next to Grace with a knife in her hand. "You guys all right?"

"Much better now," Olivia said, grateful, as Daniel gave her a quick kiss after removing her gag. Then he went to work cutting the vines that tied her wrists together behind her back. Once her hands were free, Olivia let out a sigh of relief as she rubbed her wrists.

As Daniel and Sam were busy freeing them, Hailey stood careful watch over everybody with her Zat--and Olivia could not help but notice that she, along with Daniel and Sam, were still barefoot. Apparently they had all simply thrown their combat vests over their tank tops and gave chase through the jungle, straight from the ball game on the beach.

"Jeez, you guys were so eager to find us that you didn't even stop to get fully dressed, huh?" Olivia said, amused. "Grace and I are flattered."

Sam just flashed one of her brilliant smiles at Olivia as she finished untying Grace. "And to think, just a few hours ago, I was oh-so-worried about wearing the proper duty attire…now look at me!"

"I should start calling you Sheena," Olivia said with a smile. After Daniel helped her up top her feet, he gave her a Zat, as well as a little hug. He was all sweaty from the jungle, but Olivia didn't care; she was just grateful to be in his arms again.

When they parted their embrace, Olivia saw that O'Neill and Teal'c were standing guard by the main entranceway. O'Neill turned to them and casually said, "Brace yourselves! Slappy and his boys are coming back!"

The Mumani warriors, led by Thoran, all charged into the temple with fierce battle cries and their Stone Age weapons held up high. Olivia was tempted to join the fray, but thanks to the expert Zat shooting between O'Neill and Teal'c, the Mumani were all shot down into unconsciousness on the floor--all save for Thoran, who stood there wielding his club defiantly. Although he had ordered his men to attack, he himself did not.

He shouted something in his language at them--which made Daniel chuckle slightly. "He's issuing a challenge to us," Daniel told the group, shaking his head in disbelief. "He wants to take on one of us in hand to hand combat! 'Warrior to warrior,' he says!"

"Some guys just don't know when to quit," O'Neill muttered, as he raised his Zat to shoot Thoran.

"O'Neill," Teal'c said, as he suddenly stepped forward. "I should like to accept his challenge. Warrior to warrior."

O'Neill shrugged. "Very well. Have at it."

Teal'c handed his Zat to O'Neill, then he strode towards Thoran with his staff weapon. Teal'c stopped just a few feet away from Thoran and held up his staff weapon with both hands. Olivia realized that this was some sort of unspoken message.

Thoran appeared to understand, for he charged at Teal'c with a ferocious roar. Teal'c blocked the Mumani's attack with the staff weapon. Then--just as Thoran backed off--Teal'c swiftly swung the staff weapon down and knocked Thoran's legs out from under him.

The Mumani landed on his back with a grunt, and before he could even recover from this blow, Teal'c stood over him and--sweeping the staff weapon just like a golf club--bashed him in the face with the business end of the staff weapon.

"Oooo!" Hailey said, as she and the others cringed in response to that savage blow--one that instantly ended the fight, for Thoran now lay sprawled out on the floor, unconscious.

"Way to handle business, T," O'Neill said with a nod of approval.

Teal'c merely bowed slightly as he accepted his Zat back from O'Neill. Olivia wasn't surprised to see that he didn't even break a sweat.

"You two all right?" a concerned O'Neill asked Olivia and Grace, as he and Teal'c came over to them.

"Fine, sir," Grace replied with a nod.

"Yep, I'm fine as well," Olivia told O'Neill. "Great timing, guys!"

"If anybody's got great timing here, it's you," O'Neill told her. "When we first arrived, we were trying to come up with a diversion, to get this crowd away from you and Lt. Satterfield, until you shot that flare gun. How did you know to fire that when you did?"

"I didn't," Olivia admitted with a shrug. "I was hoping you guys were in the area, and that the flare would give you an idea of where we were. I never thought it would send the warriors running out of here--nor did I expect one of them to remain behind to watch over us!"

O'Neill gave her with a look of admiration. "Ballsy move, Liv. But a good one. I like it."

"You really have to teach me how to shoot behind my back," Sam said jokingly. She glanced around at the knocked out Mumani and added, "Looks like we got them all. Do you suppose they were working for King Murtas, sir?"

"Satterfield doesn't seem to think so," O'Neill said, as he gestured at the young lieutenant, who firmly shook her head.

"Thoran, the one who fought Teal'c, was their leader, sir," she reported. "And he made it clear to me that he wanted me to unlock the 'magic' of this place for him so that he could use it to kill Murtas and take over as king of the Mumani himself."

"He was planning a coup," Teal'c said with distain.

"Thoran's no better than Ba'al," Olivia muttered. "Only without the tacky wardrobe."

"He said he found this place by himself and kept its location a secret from the king and the other Mumani," Grace continued. "He obviously knew it was a very special place, but didn't know what to do with it--until we showed up and started translating the writings in the other temple."

"And he figured all he had to do was capture you," Hailey said, "and you'd unlock the secrets of the universe, or something."

"Well, we've obviously found the chamber of the sacred knowledge, which was mentioned in the other temple," Daniel said, as he gazed around, awe-struck. "Grace, did Thoran mention anything specifically about what was here? Was he looking for any kind of a weapon in particular?"

Grace shook her head. "Nothing like that. He just figured there would be some kind of magic here that I'd unlock for him."

"And he would have gotten away with it, too," O'Neill said, with mock-grimness, "had it not been for us darn, interfering kids!"

Both Olivia and Sam exchanged a frown. "Did he just quote a line from Scooby Doo?" Olivia asked.

"And you're surprised by this?" Sam wearily replied.

"What's more surprising?" Daniel asked with smile. "That Jack's quoting Scooby Doo, or that you guys recognize it?"

"Hey," O'Neill loudly called with surprise. "There's a big, honking floating head in the middle of the room!"

When Sam saw the floating stone head for the first time, she was suitably impressed. "Oh, wow, it really is…floating!"

"See?" O'Neill said triumphantly. "Is that cool, or what?"

"What's holding it up in the air?" Hailey asked, as she stared at it in both amazement and puzzlement.

"That's for you and Carter to figure out," O'Neill told them. "It now looks like you two are gonna be very busy here after all, huh?"

"Oh, yes sir," Sam replied with a broad, excited grin. "Finally, a real challenge!"

Olivia smiled as she watched how quickly Daniel got caught up in the inscriptions on the walls. He pointed out one set of inscriptions, which were larger and more prominent than the rest, to Grace as being a good place for them to start. Meanwhile, Sam and Hailey began their examination of the fountain with its strange, floating head.

"Isn't this great?" O'Neill said, as he stood beaming next to Olivia and Teal'c. "Everybody's safe and sound once more. And thanks to this place, this trip here won't be a total waste after all."

"Indeed," Teal'c agreed.

"Don't count your chickens until they hatch, Jack," Olivia warned. "I mean, for all we know, the big secret this place will reveal might be nothing more than a recipe for onion dip."

O'Neill shot her an irritated look. "You know, Liv, I think I liked you better when you were gagged…."

SG-1: SVU

General George Hammond sat at his desk, going over paperwork. It was a mundane task, but one that needed to be done. And he really didn't mind the quiet time.

'So much for the quiet time,' Hammond thought with a scowl, as the alarm went off all over the base. It was accompanied by Walter's voice, which urgently asked for him to report to the gate room.

Hammond left his office and went down the stairs to the main control room of the SGC. Doctor Janet Fraiser stood anxiously by, while Sgt. Walter Harriman swiveled around in his chair at the console. Behind him, the gate was fully operational. "SG-9 is coming back hot, sir," he reported.

"What?!" Hammond said with disbelief. Among the SG teams that worked at the SGC, SG-9 had been designated as strictly being a diplomatic group, who were sent only to open negotiations with alien governments who were initially deemed to be potential allies by whatever SG team that did the original recon. For SG-9 to be coming back hot--which usually meant that they were under fire--was highly unusual.

What made the situation worse for Hammond was the fact that Dr. Elizabeth Weir, his new civilian partner in running the SGC, had went along with SG-9 on this mission, due to her expertise in diplomacy.

"Did they say what the problem was?" he asked Walter.

Harriman shook his head. "Major Sheppard only said that they were under fire and would be coming in hot, sir."

"I thought SG-5 reported that the Kelownans were more than happy to neogitate with us, sir," Fraiser asked under her breath.

"As did we all, Doctor," Hammond replied with a shake of his head. "I don't know what changed that situation."

"Here they come, now!" Harriman announced.

Hammond nodded when he saw the entire team had just emerged from the stargate, including Weir. They all had the exhausted, drained appearance of having just run for their lives.

"Close the gate!" Sheppard frantically called to the control room. He held his zat gun at the ready. "They're right behind us!"

"Close the iris and shut it down, Walter," Hammond commanded, as he and Fraiser left the control room.

Yet when he emerged in the gate room, Hammond quickly realized that he had miscounted earlier. 'Damn it, there's somebody missing….'

"Where's Lt. Kelso?" a wide-eyed Fraiser asked the group on the stargate ramp.

"Dead," Sheppard said solemnly. "I regret to inform you, sirs, that Lt. Kelso is dead."

Behind Sheppard, Sgt. Donald Brock comforted a distraught Lt. Colleen Elman, who burst into tears at this news.

"No," Weir said, firmly shaking her head. She walked over to Sheppard and Hammond. "He's not dead, because we're all going back for him. All right?"

"Doctor Weir…." Sheppard began to say.

"No, John, listen to me," she said, visibly upset. "We have Marines, ok? SG-3. They can storm the--"

"Elizabeth!" Sheppard held her by the shoulders and gently added, "He's dead. The Kelownans--those rat bastards--sealed Kelso in the lab, right along with their own scientists. The Marines would be risking their lives going after an irradiated corpse."

Weir's shoulders slumped as she leaned against the ramp railing in utter defeat.

Hammond wanted nothing more than to ask what had happened--he wanted to hear the whole story right now. But that would have to wait. These people were drained from their experience, and understandably so, for the SGC had just lost one of its own today.

But the mere mention of radiation had perked up Fraiser, who asked, "Have any of you been exposed to radiation?"

"I don't know," Sheppard said, with a shake of his head. "Dr. Weir and I were in an observation room near the lab when the accident happened. We were supposed to be protected in there, but the glass broke when Lt. Kelso shot it out. He went in and shut down the device before it could explode."

Fraiser turned to the control room and called, "Get Med Team One in here, on the double! Inform them we have possible radiation exposure."

Walter nodded. "Yes, doctor."

"A team from the infirmary will come and check you out for radiation," Fraiser told what was left of SG-9. "They'll bring a change of clothes for you and then escort you to the infirmary."

Turning to Hammond, Fraiser added, "Sir, we should leave until they've been cleared."

"Very well, Doctor."

Yet before they left, Weir said, "General Hammond? I'd just like for it to be noted that Lt. Kelso was a hero. His actions in that lab saved us, as well as the lives of millions of Kelownans."

"And, after saving all their butts, the Kelownans are now smearing him," Sheppard said angrily. "They're saying that he deliberately sabotaged the test! They were gonna arrest us--we had to shoot our way out of there."

"We'll have a proper briefing after you've all been cleared by Dr. Fraiser and her team," Hammond promised them.

Once they exited the gate room, they encountered Dr. Carson Beckett, who led a team of hazmat-suited doctors down the hall. Several of them carried special equipment.

"Carson, pay special attention to Dr. Weir and Major Sheppard," Fraiser told him. "They may have been exposed directly to radiation."

Carson nodded as he led his team into the gate room. "Aye, Doctor."

Fraiser left to get the infirmary ready while Hammond entered the control room and watched as Beckett and his team carefully waved Geiger counters over the members of SG-9.

When he saw Weir and several others began to carefully undress under the supervison of the doctors, Hammond turned to Walter and said, "How about we give them some privacy?"

"Yes sir," Walter nodded, as he pushed a button. "Blast shield closing, sir."

Hammond waited in the control room for several tense minutes, until he saw members of SG-9, now clad in hospital scrubs, being led past the side door. Dr. Beckett, seeing Hammond, paused by the doorway.

Hammond walked over to him. "How are they, Doctor?"

"Very lucky," Beckett replied, as he removed his full-head hazmat gear. "There was very minimal radiation on the clothing of both Major Sheppard and Dr. Weir, but nothing that's cause for alarm. Their clothing has been bagged and sealed and will be properly disposed of. Lt. Elman and Sgt. Brock are completely clean. Still, they'll all be washed down in the infirmary and checked again, just to make sure."

"Thank you, Doctor."

Hammond went back to his office and sat down at his desk, where he stared, depressed, at the unfinished paperwork that lay there. He would now have the grim task of informing Lt. Kelso's family of his demise. And, to make it even worse, it looked as if the family wouldn't even have a body to bury.

When he saw Sheppard, along with Brock and Elman, all walk into the conference room through the window of his office, Hammond got up and took his usual seat at the head of the table. "Doctor Fraiser give you all a clean bill of health?"

Sheppard nodded as he stood at attention along with Brock and Elman. "Yes sir. Um, Dr. Weir will be along soon…she said she needed to stop by her quarters for something."

"Then she can join us when she can," Hammond said, as he gestured for them to sit. When they did, Hammond listened as Sheppard relayed what had happened. The Kelownans were running some sort of test on a device that used a special compound called Naquadria. Apparently, Kelowna had a rich abundance of Naquadria, an unstable element that they were trying to use in a bomb.

"Kelowna is much like earth in the 1940s, technology-wise," Sheppard said. "But, geo-politically speaking, they're actually more like the Cold War, where three main powers are vying for dominance over the planet. As hard as Dr. Weir tried to dissuade them from building a doomsday bomb--which was basically what they were doing--they wouldn't listen to reason, and went right ahead with their damn test!"

"And the test went wrong?" Hammond prodded.

"The test went cockeyed, sir," Sheppard said with disgust. "Right away, the lab workers all collapsed, and this guy--the special advisor to the High Minister--tried to hustle us out of there, saying that it wasn't safe. Elizabeth--um…I mean…Dr. Weir and I started to leave, until Lt. Kelso starts shooting the glass out of the observation room window, then he jumps into the lab and switched off the device by hand. He collapses, and before I could go in after him, these lead doors slide down over all the windows, blocking all access to the lab."

"At what point did the Kelownans blame you for this?" Hammond asked.

"Later, when we were trying to get back in to save Lt. Kelso," Lt. Elman spoke up. "The High Minister suddenly began to accuse us of sabotaging the test--saying that we sent Lt. Kelso in there just to muck things up! They actually believed that Gary would commit suicide just to do something like that!"

She burst into tears again. "I-I'm sorry, sir…."

"Never apologize for your grief, Lieutenant," Hammond said softly. "It's perfectly understandable."

"That was when the High Minister ordered us all to be arrested," Sheppard said.

"And what did you do, Major?"

"We got the hell out of Dodge, sir," Sheppard grimly replied. "We had to shoot our way to the gate, but at least we were armed with the zats."

They grew silent for a moment as Hammond pondered the situation. Lt. Kelso was the science officer of SG-9, and he must have seen just how dangerous the situation in the lab was. But nobody could have foreseen just how bad this whole mission would turn out--except possibly for Sheppard. Hammond recalled how, just before SG-9 left for Kelowna, that Dr. Weir argued that they should leave their weapons behind as a show of good faith. Major Sheppard had sternly argued against that idea, saying that they should at least take their zat guns. Hammond had sided with him, and SG-9 went to Kelowna armed with zat guns, which may have very well saved their lives.

Yet before Hammond could even assure them that there was really nothing they could do in this untenable situation, he was interrupted by another blare of the alert klaxon.

"Off world activation," Walter's voice called over the intercom. "General Hammond, please report to the gate room."

"What now?" Hammond wondered, as he got up from the table. Sheppard and the rest of SG-9 also stood when he did. Hammond glanced at them and said, "We'll continue this briefing another time. Right now, all of you get some rest. You need it."

When Hammond reported to the control room, he was surprised to see the stargate was open and operational. "Who opened the iris?"

"Dr. Weir, sir," Walter said, gesturing at the gate room. She stood waiting before the gate. "She says she knows the gentleman who's coming through. He's from Kelowna."

Hammond saw a man emerge from the glowing wormhole within the gate, only to stagger a few steps in pain, until he collapsed onto the ramp. "Call Fraiser with a med team to the gate room," he ordered Walter. "Right away!"

When he entered the gate room, Hammond saw Weir was bent down on the ramp, holding the wounded man in her arms. The gate had been shut down, and the iris closed. The man held a black box in his arm.

"What happened?" he asked Weir.

"He's been shot," she said frantically. "They shot him while he escaped through the gate…."

"Dr. Fraiser is coming," Hammond assured her. The man had short brown hair and wore a burgundy vest over a gray outfit.

"I-I got it," the young man told Weir, as he held up the box. "I-I got the Naquadria…."

"It's ok," Weir gently told him. "It's all right. You're safe, now."

Fraiser entered with Beckett and a team bearing a stretcher. "What do we have?" she asked.

"He's been shot while going through the gate," Hammond told her.

"In the back," Weir added, as she held up a hand, which was covered with blood.

Fraiser quickly checked the man's vitals, then asked, "What's your name, sir? Can you tell me your name?"

"Jonas," the man replied in a whisper. "M-My name is Jonas Quinn."

"And how are you feeling, Jonas?"

"Oh, I've been better," he deadpanned.

SG-1: SVU

Qetesh awoke from a fitful sleep in her bedchambers. She glanced up and saw a figure stood over her bed. "Ba'al?" she asked, pleasantly surprised. He had sequestered himself in his lab for so many weeks now, that she had almost forgotten what he looked like. "It's about time you got out of that damn--"

Qetesh stopped speaking when the figure moved into the dim light, and she saw, with growing horror, that it wasn't her lover Ba'al.

It was Her Lord Empress Neith. Dressed in her finest, flowing robes and gleaming armor, Neith's eyes were aglow with a fury that was frightening to behold.

"Infidel!" Neith snarled, as she raised a staff up in the air with both hands. "You dare to call yourself Lord Empress; you dare to seize control of my empire!"

A sharp, thin blade sprang out from the end of the staff, and Neith thrust it straight down into Qetesh's chest. Qetesh let out a horrified scream of pain as she clutched her chest--

--which was unharmed.

She sat up in the bed, breathing heavily, still in the icy grip of fear. The lights came on, and Mar'ek--her First Prime--entered the room with two more Jaffa. "My Lord Empress?" he asked, concerned. "Are you well? We heard you shout out…."

'I'm alive, I'm all right,' Qetesh thought, as she examined her chest, which had not been stabbed. She glanced around her bedchamber. "Where is she?"

"Where is who, My Lord Empress?"

"Neith!" Qetesh cried, as she flung the blankets away and got out of bed. When Mar'ek and the other Jaffa averted their collective gaze to the floor, Qetesh realized that she was still nude. She had made a habit of going to bed sans any clothing, should Ba'al finally grow weary of playing with his toys in his lab and join her in bed--he would find Qetesh ready and willing to receive him.

"I-I do not understand," Mar'ek said, still staring at the floor. "Neith is dead. You are the Lord Empress of the Netian Empire…My Lord Empress."

"Search these quarters!" Qetesh commanded, as she threw on a robe. "If there is someone here, someone who dares to impersonate Neith, then I'll make her regret the day she was born!"

Qetesh impatiently paced back and forth in the main room of the private quarters that she shared with Ba'al while the Jaffa searched all over. Yet it began to look as if what she had seen was truly a dream…a very bad dream.

She paused in her pacing to stare out the massibe windows, which had a commanding view of Mount Tanis. Most of the damage caused to the city from their recent skirmish with SG-1 had been repaired. All except for the giant crater in the ground, where the vault once stood--it was destroyed by a matter/antimatter explosion, which was something else for which they had SG-1 to thank.

Qetesh wanted nothing more than to go to earth and crush SG-1 underfoot with the full might of the Netian Empire. Yet, as long as that bastard Yu continued to be a thorn in their side, diverting much-needed troops to a never-ending hit and run campaign, then bringing the insolent Tauri under their heel would have to wait.

"My Lord Empress," Mar'ek reported with a bow. "Your quarters are secure. There is no sign of an intruder. If you wish, I can inform His Lord Emperor Ba'al about--"

"Never mind," Qetesh said curtly. "I'll tell him myself."

Still clad only in her flimsy robe, Qetesh strode out of her private quarters and into the main halls of the royal palace. Jaffa and breaucrats all snapped to attention when she stormed by. Once she reached the main doors of the lab, the pair of Jaffa who stood guard began to automatically stop her--until Qetesh put her arms on her hips and glared at them.

They smartly thought the better of it and allowed her access, bowing respectfully to her as she walked past them.

She found Anubis, still frozen in his suspended animation chamber, in the center of the lab. Qetesh glared at the monstrosity, which had a human body, but with the head of a jackal. And that wasn't the worst of it! This…thing…just couldn't be killed. No matter what they threw at it, Anubis would not die--instead it kept coming back, over and over, like a relentless angel of death.

'This damn thing should have been dropped into the sun,' Qetesh thought. 'Instead, my husband and co-ruler has spent all of his waking hours for the past few weeks examining this vile creature….'

She turned away from Anubis to look for Ba'al--only to find him standing right there before her, smiling that rakish smile of his.

"My love," he said, surprised. "Are you not well?"

Qetesh thought about telling him about the dream, but she felt stupid, like a little girl who got scared of the imaginary monsters in her bedroom. "I had a bad dream," she said. "But it was nothing; just a mere dream, nothing more. The fact is, Ba'al, is that I have missed you terribly, and wish you would cease this infernal research of yours and come back to me."

Ba'al grinned broadly as he collected her in his arms. To have him holding her felt so good to Qetesh. "As luck would have it, my love, you couldn't have arrived at a better time. For I was just about to call for you." He gestured at the dormant Anubis. "My research on our invincible friend here has proved to be quite profitable."

With his arm over her shoulders, Ba'al escorted a confused Qetesh out of the lab and through a doorway. They emerged on a balcony that overlooked an enclosed courtyard that was filled with Jaffa.

But then Qetesh's eyes grew wide with horror when she saw that these men, who were dressed in the battle garb of the Jaffa, were in fact not Jaffa at all. They were not even human.

Every face that gazed up at them from the courtyard below was that of a jackal, and there were at least a thousand of them, if not more.

"The cloning process worked superbly," a prideful Ba'al said, as he gestured at the multitude of Anubis clones below. "Not only have they been bred to be completely loyal to us--to obey our every order--but these new troops are all just as invincible, just as unstoppable, as the original Anubis."

Qetesh was horrified at the very thought that, instead just one monstrosity like Anubis, Ba'al was now about to unleash an entire army that was just like him.

"With this army of Immortals," Ba'al said, loud enough for the Anubis troops to hear, "we shall rule the universe!"

All of the troops then raised their jackal faces to the ceiling and let out a soul-chilling howl in unision.

And as she watched her new, unnatural army let out its version of a battle cry, in spite of the chills she felt, Qetesh smiled.

'Finally,' she thought with a satisfied nod. 'We shall be able to crush SG-1, and the rest of the Tauri, just like the vermin they truly are!'

To Be Continued....