Chapter 2

Cam and Vala emerged from the Stargate at a run and tumbled down the pair of stone steps into a yet another dusty clearing. A single Death Glider weapons blast followed them through the gate, impacting harmlessly over 30 yards away, and then the event horizon blinked out of existence.

"Hmm. Looks like Canada again," Vala observed dryly, picking herself up, dusting herself down and straightening her clothes and hair.

"Where the hell are we? Why isn't this the SGC?" Cam ranted, gun at the ready as he checked their new location for hostiles. There was no one else to be seen, although it looked like the sun was going down soon: there wouldn't be much to see at all here in a couple of hours.

"Hello?" Vala waved her hand around, as though in front of Cam's eyes. "I was being shot at! Did you see me flying over the DHD?"

He ignored her, tapping out something on his handheld computer. "I think we'll have to stay put, give some time for those Death Gliders to leave. Besides, it'll take me a couple of hours to calculate the address to get us home. Have to work out where we are first."

"Cam! Is this still part of the assessment?"She poked his arm with a single finger. He ignored her. "Because if it is, I have to tell you, it really sucks! I had plans for tonight."

"Will you just hush for a moment!?" Cam snapped back, frowning as he checked the DHD against his handheld computer. Vala bit back her retort and fidgeted impatiently while Cam checked what he had to check. "Anyway, what plans? I thought you were still confined to the base?" He asked, keeping his eyes down in a bad attempt to hide a grin.

"If we end up getting stuck here tonight then you'll never find out," she leaned against the other side of the DHD, framing her face in her hands, and coquettishly batted her eyelashes at him. He looked up briefly, catching her display, and then harrumphed, ostentatiously returning his full attention to the DHD and handheld computer.

"So?" Vala asked after about 20 seconds. He rolled his eyes and lowered the computer. "Are we there yet?"

"Well, I think this is a new planet."

"Genius."

"One we haven't visited before."

"Well, good for it. Let's go home…" Vala replied. Cam furrowed his brows at her. How could she be so blasé, so unadventurous? They'd found themselves a whole new planet to explore, full of... coniferous trees.

"Hell no! It's something new, we ought to check it out. Aren't you the least bit curious?"

"Is there any reason I should be?" She made a show of looking around the clearing. "Do you see any signs of pretty baubles? Boots? Handsome young men falling at my feet?"

"Yeah, I reckon there'll be all of that. Later."

"There'd better be," she sulked.

He picked up her backpack from where she'd dropped it and tossed it to her across the DHD. "C'mon, soldier. We're movin' out."

'~'

Half an hour later they rounded a bend in the hillside and saw something interesting a quarter of a mile away, down the valley.

"Hey, looks like a settlement. We should check it out." Cam stated.

"It doesn't look like a wealthy settlement. I bet they don't have a decent restaurant. Or a decent hotel." Vala moaned.

'~

"Well, that was worth the walk," Vala commented sarcastically fifteen minutes later. "Primitive. Deserted."

"Looks maybe Roman. Daniel would love it." Cam said, ignoring her remarks as best he could.

"And it's really getting dark. Let's get going..."

"Hang on a minute..." Cam stopped dead in his tracks, squinting into the gathering gloom, towards a nearby brick-built but run-down and possibly abandoned two-storey building. Vala fell silent, hefting her P90 as her gaze followed his.

It wasn't clear who grabbed who, pulling them along as they dived for cover, but a moment later they were both rolling in the dirt, coming up in a cramped, dried out brick culvert whilst maybe half a dozen small missiles kicked up the dust where they had just been standing.

Cam took three deep breaths, readying himself to stick his head above the wall and fire. He started moving, ready to follow through, but a further flurry of spears, arrows and stones drove him back down.

"Damn!" He said, hunkering down just as Vala tossed something over the wall towards those shooting at them.

"Five. Four. Three. Two. One." He watched her mouth almost silently.

An explosion rocked the culvert.

"You had a grenade!?" Cam exploded. "How'd you get a grenade? You're not supposed to have a grenade!"

"It fell in my bag."

"When?"

"Earlier!"

"How?!"

"Gravity. C'mon, stop yapping, start running!" She scrambled from the culvert and began to run away from where the missiles had come from. As she was not cut down in a hail of arrows, Cam needed no encouragement to follow her. A couple of seconds later they reached the cover of a nearby street corner and paused to look back.

It was hard to be precise in the gathering gloom, but what looked very much like a pack of large, toothsome hounds was chasing towards them from the other side of the culvert.

Cam raised his P90 and squeezed off a burst of fire towards the dogs, dropping about half of them, but now their attackers seemed to be showing themselves in person. Dozens of dirty, raggedly dressed humanoids, brandishing a staggering variety of crude weapons, bubbled forth from at least a dozen doorways and alleyways in the street they had just run from.

"Time to go!" Cam observed.

"Umm. Bit of a problem, there," Vala replied, pulling on his sleeve. Unusually for her, she sounded genuinely nervous. Cam turned his head, looking over his shoulder and down the street behind them, towards where she was indicating.

About forty humans, wearing burnished, metal armour of a vaguely Roman design and divided into two phalanxes, one on either side of the road, were trotting towards them. They looked disciplined and well drilled. Each soldier carried something which resembled a staff weapon and they were all pointed their way.

'~'