Daniel was dragged back to consciousness by the excruciating pain of something crushing his collarbone. He yelped, wrenched free and rolled off of a table just moments too late for his collarbone. He wanted to scream in agony – he really did, but the sight before him had him swallowing sound after sound convulsively.

He definitely wasn't on Earth any more.

Daniel blinked away swirling spots of dizziness and swayed a little, his broken collarbone and a massive headache telling him that it would be nice to pass out about now, except ... . Except he was in some sort of oversized blue metal laboratory filled with half a dozen two meter tall Fren.

Daniel swayed again and braced his back against a solid object of some kind by the table and looked around him in trepidation.
Three Fren were dressed in the yellow robes of scientists and medical staff and two others in the black of the military and law enforcers. To the back of the room he could also glimpse the reposed form of another Fren robed in academic white, but Daniel concentrated on the ones in black that had broken his collarbone.

If it came down to a contest in strength he was going to lose hands down. Fren were exceedingly strong, easily four or five times as strong as the average human – as his collarbone had just found out having been snapped like a toothpick. Daniel shook away the fuzziness creeping over his mind. Words. Talking. Maybe he could talk his way out of this – whatever the hell this was.

"Ah... hello there," Daniel smiled a little, though it probably came across as more of a grimace considering the pain he was going through. Daniel leaned a little more heavily against the object behind him, only to find that it shifted with his weight. He forced himself to stand a little straighter. "I don't know what I'm doing here – so I'm kinda hoping it's not for anything ... bad ... although you did just kidnap me and break one of my bones, which isn't doing anything to reassure me by the way," he babbled, giving the room a quick scan. There was an open exit to the left behind him and some nasty looking machines positioned over the table he had just come down from. They might explain why his head was feeling kind of ... odd.

Daniel found himself swallowing nervously. Right now, he wanted desperately to curl up around his broken collarbone and howl in agony; passing out still wasn't completely unrealistic, but he had a really bad feeling that things were about to get a whole lot worse.

Daniel offered his best diplomatic smile, and spoke in his most soothing, nonthreatening voice. "One of you might find this an opportune moment to offer some apologies and explain to me how this was all one huge misunderstanding, while I try my best not to completely freak out."

The Fren were not moving – not even communicating to each other yet, and generally looking a little ... gob smacked. Daniel got the distinct impression that he wasn't supposed to be conscious, let alone up of the table. "Umm, did you want to ask me some questions or something about the treaty we were talking about the other day?" Daniel tried again for that smile, despite the pain he was in. "Because as I explained to Official Kee we were going to return to your world tomorrow."

Daniel backed up a quarter step toward the exit with his hand still braced against the object he had been leaning on, hoping none of the Fren would notice the move. "Oh I forgot, um, most of you Fren don't speak anything that I recognize, but I'm ahh... hey, look at that! My table's got nice new restraints attached to it."

Daniel stared at the Fren around him. Not one of them had anything close to a benevolent expression on their faces. "You guys didn't go to all that trouble just for me now did you?" He tried for another shuffle towards the exit, taking advantage of the Fren's lack of activity. "If you don't mind me mentioning this, those restraints do look a little uncomfortable and tight even for a human, and I don't particularly like the color either. You know orange isn't really my favorite color for anything except oranges. Look, you know, I'm - definitely not feeling at all safe here and I want to go home."

They were all watching him. Obviously the Fren did not handle surprises all that well. They were still looking completely stunned. Finally one of the scientists blinked and spoke to the black ones in their incomprehensible language. The nearest black one gave Daniel a grin that Daniel supposed was meant to reassure him. Black number one took a slow step forward and Daniel spotted the retractable claws coming out.

"Oh, crap!" Daniel ducked and spun, deliberately knocking down the object he had been bracing himself against and bolted for the exit clenching his arm against his chest.

There was a roar behind him and the sound of something being shoved aside with a loud crash. Daniel didn't look back. He tore down the hall hearing thunderously large feet in hot pursuit.

Daniel wove his way through blue metal corridors and through rooms passing several startled Fren at work with bits of equipment and data pads. He relied on his agility and speed at negotiating tight corners compared to the larger more cumbersome Fren bodies. Luckily for him there were lots of large storage containers and huge pieces of equipment to dodge around. He tugged a piece of the packing material down from one storage container and hid beneath it until the sounds of pursuit faded to almost nothing. Then when the coast seemed clear he took some of the packing material and found a series of smaller rooms with no Fren in them. He traveled more cautiously until he found a small semi concealed dark corner underneath a data terminal to hide in.

Not long after Fren searchers thundered passed his hiding place, and Daniel cautiously backtracked down a different hallway avoiding all of the Fren, and ducked into an open office like room that he seen was unoccupied. He scooted underneath a shelf behind a machine and tucked the packaging material around to conceal himself.

An announcement sounded over an intercom system – probably warning everyone to look out for one slightly damaged human. Blue and grey warning lights flashed along the ceiling. Daniel huddled down in his hiding spot, trying to control the shaking of his limbs and the thundering of his heartbeat and worked on getting his breath back, while he tried to figure out what in the hell was going on.

A glance down at his rental suit piqued his memory. Dinner with the President; Jack going gaga over Sam in a dress; the noise and the weird blue light, then nothing until he woke up in a lab with a crowd of huge Fren standing around.

Daniel let out a soft pain filled sigh and wondered if any of the others had been kidnapped as well. He had no idea how long he'd been unconscious, or how far away from home he was. Funny, but he hadn't thought the Fren were capable of this sort of thing. Master Gien had seemed very polite and friendly. Had he maybe offended them somehow? Had he done something wrong? None of them had indicated anything major was bothering them and they'd been more than open to another visit.

No, this had to be about something else. Sam had come back gushing about the kinds of technology the Fren had and Teal'c – well Teal'c hadn't said much about the Fren one way or the other. Jack had been the only one who seemed at all disturbed by the Fren. Jack had instincts that he relied on a lot, and once again, Daniel had to admit that Jack's instincts were pretty damn good. Next time Jack got nervous about an alien species, Daniel promised himself he'd pay more attention. That is, if there ever was a next time.

Okay, he had to calm down! There were procedures for this sort of thing. Strategies that the military used to get out of bad situations like this. He had to calm down and think! Daniel closed his eyes for a few moments and then watched nervously as some large shadows rushed passed the room. First things first; Jack would want him to assess the situation. So: one damaged archaeologist in a rental tux with a broken collarbone. He had no glasses, which made for poor long distance vision. He had a headache due to a cut on the forehead and … what was that? Daniel frowned a little and used his good hand to feel around at his temples. There was a tender spot on each temple. Daniel fingered one of the marks gingerly, and winced at the intense pain he caused when he pressed on the spot. Huh. Well, maybe he'd gotten off that table just in time then. A nasty image of a lobotomy popped into his head and Daniel shuddered. Okay, enough with the nasty suppositions.

Next on Jack's list would be to go through his inventory of useful assets. What did he have? And where the hell was he?

As far as he could figure, he'd been taken to some Fren occupied world – maybe. He didn't have a GDO, or food, or water, let alone a handy vest and backpack full of useful tools and survival gear. Daniel bit at his lip. So, what did he have? He patted down the pockets he could reach on his tux. Nothing, except for his ever present handkerchief. It would do, tied together with his tie to make a temporary sling. He didn't have shoe laces on his slip-on dress shoes and he'd avoided carrying anything that might have been forgotten when he returned his rental suit. Daniel pulled his tie open and awkwardly began fashioning a sling. Yup, the situation was bad.

Next on Jack's list. Work on a plan to extract yourself from said bad situation: So, plan A: Find a good place to hide; don't get recaptured; find the local Stargate and gate the hell out of here. Easy. The rest of the team would be able to do it – and Daniel had learned a lot from his team mates over the years. He'd even picked up Jack's ability to give himself a good pep talk when neck deep in a bad situation.

Daniel barely managed to suppress the snigger he made. He rubbed gingerly at the burn marks on his temple wondering what they were all about and stuck his wrist awkwardly into the handkerchief and tie sling. Right now, his shoulder was the more serious injury. He would need to make a better sling of some sort to keep his shoulder from shifting too much when he moved, but first he'd need a better place to hide – preferably away from any buildings and well away from any Fren. Cautiously he crept out of his hiding space and peered carefully out into the corridor.

"Hiue!" A startled male Fren in a technicians orange robes stood frozen, three feet away staring right at him.

"Damn it," Daniel bolted again clutching his arm against his chest. He ran back through more corridors and between more stacks of storage containers passing more startled Fren, some of whom belatedly tried to block his path, or made snatching moves at him with their huge hands. His shoulder jolted bolts of agony through him with each step but Daniel had images of that lab table complete with nasty equipment and specially made restraints in his head and definitely didn't want to get caught.

He ducked into another room and came up short. There was a huge transparent force field about fifty feet before him and a beautiful blue world spinning slowly below. The familiar reddish shape of Australia was as clear as day and he absently wandered closer to the forcefield as the realization hit him hard. He wasn't anywhere near any Stargate, he was in a spaceship. Daniel cursed softly. He should have known he was on a spaceship. The air had that heavily recycled quality to it that you only got on spaceships. He wasn't thinking clearly and making stupid mistakes like this one ... . Damn, Jack wouldn't be happy. Plan A was a bust.

A clatter sounded to his left. Daniel spun, ready to bolt again. A female Fren in tech orange clothing slowly rose from the machinery she had been working on. She deactivated a protective personal face shield and stared at him in open mouthed amazement. Daniel took a few running steps back towards the doors he had come through when a pair of black clad Fren stepped through them. Daniel skidded to a stop and backpedaled. He pulled up about half way between the technician and the security guys.

Well, Plan A really hadn't worked out well. He'd only been at it all of thirty minutes too. Note to self: Ask Jack about courses or maybe a seminar on the art of making better escape plans in enemy territory. Daniel scanned the room carefully. There to the right of the technician was a promising looking exit.

Daniel checked the blacks again nervously. And hey, it was black number one in the lead again with a double set of four inch long claws bared and not looking at all happy. It said something to him, and he didn't need to know the language to read the fury behind the words. Daniel remembered that the Fren were perfectionists. Any failures were punished quite severely.

Daniel sidled closer to the technician. Black number one yelled something to her commandingly and her eyes met Daniel's with more than a little fear. He'd have only one chance at getting passed her, and he was getting so tired and dizzy now that he'd have to make this move count. How'd they do this stuff in Jack's sports shows? You faked to the left and dodged for the right. Daniel made his move to the left of the terrified technician. Dodging to the right was where things came unstuck. She wasn't half as terrified as she had looked. Mid step as he was running passed her, she snatched his wrist out of mid air bringing Daniel to a teeth rattling dead stop with a grinding crunch of his wrist bones.

Daniel couldn't help himself. He howled with the pain.

The technician dropped him then, like a hot potato and stepped away from him, staring at him with huge eyes that Daniel thought looked partly terrified, partly apologetic and partly disgusted. She absently wiped her hand on her uniform as if she'd just handled a slug. Daniel struggled up from the floor fighting back the tide of unconsciousness that threatened, but it was a losing battle, especially when Black number one swiped at him with his claws and then gave him a vicious kick in the ribs that picked him up and sent him crashing against a bulkhead ...

SGSGSGSGSGSGSGSGSGSG

So - hope you guys enjoyed that, and hehe, I left you all on a cliffie. Let me know if you liked the view!