My thanks to those of you have have favored either this story, or me. Thanks very much!

Stargate: SVU 4

Chapter Four

Her Lord Empress Neith stood on the balcony of her private residence and surveyed the raptor-mounted guards outside of the imperial palace on Mount Tanis with a thoughtful gaze. The snake-helmeted guards sat proudly on their armor-covered raptors, which let out the occasional hiss now and then.

For it wasn't too long ago when Neith had led those very same guards into battle right here, in the heart and soul of the Netian Empire, in order to sweep away the last of Lord Belial's Anubis troops. It had been fierce combat, and the damage from their staff weapon blasts were still visible on many of the buildings. Work crews now busied themselves to repair the royal plaza. Neith knew she owed the Royal Guards a debt of gratitude, for they all fought like ferocious lions. She commanded that the soldiers who fought bravely by her side be given extra rations, plus their choice of any woman to spend the night with from the slave market harem, gratis.

Neith also owed thanks to her Lord Battlemaster, Ba'al, whose idea it was to dump all of the still-writhing dismembered body parts of the Anubis warriors aboard an empty Ha'tak and then send it onto a one way journey into the sun. Ba'al had truly showed his worth lately, for the assassination of the Goa'uld lords was also entirely his idea; using hologram technology that he had personally reworked, which led the Goa'uld idiots to believe that she, Ba'al and To'mar were all present at the meeting until it was too late.

But Neith also realized that she had an unlikely ally to thank for helping her to pry the hated Lord Belial off of her back. For it was the Tauri who had killed Belial and the majority of his followers during their invasion of their home planet.

'The Tauri deserve a grace period, a momentary peace, just for ridding me of Belial,' Neith thought. Yet she would not delude herself so grandly. It was clear that the Tauri had destroyed a major space fleet with the use of some sort of super weapon. That made them a very dangerous adversary; one to be watched and studied very carefully. 'After all, they did kill me once before.'

It was still odd for her to hear of the previous Neith's exploits. As far as she was concerned, she was Neith, and barely a few seconds had elapsed when Belial had imprinted her thought patterns onto that resurrection device of his. However, in reality, a number of years had passed, and her moron sister Mutt had nearly run the empire into the ground after Neith had been killed by a team of Tauri commandos known as SG-1.

The real reason the Tauri enjoyed a grace period of peace right now was because of the threat from their super weapon; otherwise, Neith would have crushed their planet to dust, just for the offense of 'killing' her. Thankfully, the Tauri super weapon appeared to be primarily defensive, located on the surface of their planet. Neith was willing to ignore the Tauri for now, while she dealt with ridding herself of the greater threat from the Goa'uld system lords.

'Ra was a fool to keep them around,' Neith thought. The collection of system lords were once nothing more than a nest of sycophants within Ra's own royal court, who proceeded to tear the galaxy apart into civil war, with each trying to seize his power, once Ra was killed.

'And Ra was himself killed by the Tauri, specifically by two members of SG-1: Jack O'Neill and Daniel Jackson,' Neith reminded herself. 'Never mind the system lords, these Tauri are the true nest of vipers, here. They appeared humble and weak at first glance, which was perhaps what lulled the previous Neith into a false sense of security in the first place, enabling the Tauri to strike with the killing blow.'

"Well, I will not give them that chance again," Neith quietly swore, as she gazed over the cityscape of Mount Tanis. "When the time is right, I shall be the one who strikes the killing blow against the Tauri."

Neith was ripped from her thoughts by the sounds of a squabble that emitted from the doorway. When she glanced over in that direction, she saw Ba'al arguing with To'mar and Sharma, the leader of the Home Guard Fleet.

"Gentlemen," she called, "pray tell, what is the problem?"

All three men immediately looked apologetic. "Forgive us, My Lord Empress," Ba'al said with a bow. "It is nothing, just a very small matter."

Neith, who had been planning to take a swim, was clad in only a flimsy robe over the skimpiest of garments. Yet despite the meager outfit she wore, Neith still regally strode over to the men, her bare feet silent against the tiles, and growled, "What is the problem?"

Ba'al bowed again. "Forgive me, My Lord Empress…but it appears that Lord Sharma has lost one of his ships."

Neith glared at the Home Guard commander, who visibly wilted before her. "Is this true, Sharma?"

"My Lord Empress, we lost contact with Ha'tak HG37 shortly after it left the planet Montross on a supply run," Sharma said. "It did not report to its routine patrol station, and so far has not responded to all long-range hails."

"A trifle matter, My Lord Empress," Ba'al assured her. "We are on top of it as we speak."

"A ship of the Home Guard Fleet went missing? And you consider it to be a trifle matter?" Neith asked him incredulously. Neith had divided the Netian Empire fleet into two branches: the Main Line Battle Fleet, which traversed the galaxy and fought all of the wars, and the Home Guard Fleet, which remained at home and protected the Mount Tanis system. She had felt that the capital of the Netian Empire would be better served by having a permanent fleet of ships present that were always on sentry duty.

"Their communications may just be down, My Lord Empress," Ba'al suggested.

"Or they could have been attacked by an enemy force working behind our lines," Neith said. "And by ignoring the loss of a Ha'tak, just because it happens to be part of the Home Guard Fleet, we allow our enemy to gain a foothold in our territory. Inattention to small details is exactly how wars are lost, gentlemen! Prepare my personal Ha'tak for flight, and inform our Ha'tak escorts that we're leaving Mount Tanis this instant. We will search for HG37 ourselves."

SG1: SVU

"Where are they?" Casey asked.

"I do not know," Char'el said. "They should have been here, waiting for us."

They both stood in the empty sauna room that they had chosen to be their meeting area. It was located in the health spa, located next to the baths. They had spent the better part of the day arranging this meeting by sending coded messages to their close friends and allies among the small community on board the Hak'tyl.

Although her lover had not said so in so many words, it had been obvious to Casey that Char'el was uneasy about arranging what was basically the first meeting of an anti-Io'tan brigade. Casey had assured him that they would just use the meeting to sound out the idea of peacefully removing Io'tan from her seat of power. And if there was no support from their friends, then Casey would gladly drop the whole idea.

But Casey secretly hoped to gain both moral and physical support from their friends for the ouster of Io'tan as their leader. The fact that Io'tan made the Hak'tyl sit on the sidelines during the Sons Of Darkness' invasion of Earth was maddening enough for Casey, but every meek and cringing decision Io'tan had made since then, culminating recently in the deaths of those poor refugees, had only served to enrage Casey to the point of taking action.

But the last thing Casey had wanted was a bloody coup d'état that removed Io'tan from power. No, she was more than willing to build support for a change of leadership through a peaceful grass roots movement within the community aboard the Hak'tyl. She had hoped to gently persuade Io'tan to step down once the woman realized that a majority of the population aboard the Hak'tyl wanted new leadership. It would be a change of leadership through pure democracy, an ideal that even Io'tan herself had once sworn to uphold.

After receiving text messages from several of their friends, saying that they would meet with them in this back room, Casey and Char'el then went through the trouble of attending the spa. They each received a soothing massage, which went a long way to relax an anxious Casey enormously, and then they both swam in the pool in the hopes of maintaining the pretense of merely being casual visitors to the spa to any prying eyes.

When the time for the meeting arrived, Char'el went first to the arranged meeting place in the sauna. Then Casey, after waiting several minutes, left the pool area. Because of the humid atmosphere of the spa, Casey decided to wear just her bikini to the meeting. They chose the sauna because its hot, humid air made it a less likely spot for surveillance equipment. Casey wasn't sure if she and Char'el were being spied upon, but she realized that they couldn't be too careful, especially with the paranoid behavior they'd seen developing within Io'tan lately.

Yet Casey's own paranoia had been pushed up a few notches once she saw a confused Char'el standing in the empty sauna. "Did we give the wrong location?" he asked.

"I was very clear where we were to meet, and received acknowledgments to that effect," Casey told him with a shake of her head. "I don't like this, Char'el. Let's get-"

Casey was startled when the only door leading out of the room abruptly slid shut behind them. "Damn it!" she cried, as she tried to open the door by accessing the control panel. "Nothing's working! We're locked in!"

Char'el came over to her. "Here, let me-"

They were then both startled by the sound of something metallic hitting and then rolling across the floor behind them.

Casey spun around and was stunned to see a Jaffa shock grenade right beside her bare feet.

Char'el instinctively grabbed her. "Casey, get down!"

But it was too late. The shock grenade went off, and the next thing Casey knew, her entire world was nothing but sheer blackness.

SG1: SVU

'This isn't good,' Jacob thought, as he piloted his ship into the atmosphere of Tyro. Normally, he would have seen about a dozen ships coming to and from the main city, Troche, on the Northern continent. But there was no space traffic whatsoever. What made it worse was that once he flew the Teltac below the clouds, Jacob could not see any aerial traffic as well.

He was glad he'd decided to keep his ship under cloak, because this was a mystery that just kept getting stranger the more he probed it.

"I'm taking it down," Jacob muttered, "for a closer look."

'That would be wise,' Selmak agreed.

Once he buzzed the main marketplace, the mystery of where all the people were was instantly answered. But it turned out to be a ghastly revelation. Jacob's eyes grew wide when he saw the multitudes of dead bodies laying stacked in piles all over the square. There were so many of the dead, they covered the entire ground.

As stunned and upset as he was to see this sight, Jacob's mind still raced as to what could be the cause. "A plague?"

'If it is a plague,' Selmak said, 'then that raises another question: was it natural, or inflicted upon them by an enemy?'

"I'm actually hoping the plague is natural," Jacob said, as he piloted the Teltac back out to space. "Because, is this was an attack by an enemy, I'd sure hate to meet the cold-hearted bastards who did this."

He emerged back into space above the Tyro's north pole, and the moment he rose above the planet, Jacob saw something, off in the distance, hanging amidst the blackness of the cosmos.

It was a large white half circle.

"What the hell is that?" Jacob asked incredulously. "That thing looks man-made."

'Let us investigate,' Selmak said, 'shall we?'

"Yeah, let us," Jacob jokingly muttered, as he diverted the Teltac over to the strange structure. It almost looked like a piece of abstract sculpture that hung in the empty void of space. But if it was a sculpture, then it was the biggest one in the universe; because, according to Jacob's readings, that half circle was massive, measuring in at half the circumference of a small moon.

As he approached the structure with his Teltac still under cloak, Jacob could make out a support structure located within the center of the half-ring. There were also a fleet of small ships that floated here and there, moving large sections into place at the opposite ends of the half-circle.

When Jacob saw this, his blood ran cold. "They're still building it. And from the looks of things, this'll be a full circle very soon. But why would the Netian Empire be building something like this?"

'Whoever they are, they are not the Netian Empire,' Selmak remarked. 'And they are constructing a massive stargate, Jacob.'

Jacob's eyes flared with shock and fear. The very thought of a stargate this big, floating in the depths of space, was a very frightening thought. "That can't be…it's too massive…."

'In my time, I have seen my fair share of stargates,' Selmak said. 'Trust me, Jacob…this is a stargate. And yes, old friend, it is quite massive.'

Jacob consulted one of his long range cameras and got a good look at one of the ships that worked on the ring...on the stargate. He was further chilled to see that it was a ship whose configuration did not match any known race in his files. The machinations behind the plague on Tyro suddenly came into focus for Jacob. "We're dealing with a new player in this game. And Tyro was wiped out by these guys, whoever they are, because they're using this system as a staging area to build this super gate. But what are they bringing through? And from where?"

'We have learned all that we can for now,' Selmak said. 'We need to leave and share this information, Jacob, and quickly. For it would appear that a new power is taking advantage of the chaos of the Goa'uld War to launch a second front of war. If they succeed, it may well be devastating, for we may find ourselves fighting them, as well as the Netian Empire. We need to warn as many others as we can right now of this dire situation.'

"You got it, buddy," Jacob replied, as he pulled the Teltac into a 180 dive away from the half-constructed super gate. He shook his head at the scary thought of a new superpower invading their region of space. "We'll pull a Paul Revere and warn everybody we know, starting with the SGC."

SG1: SVU

O'Neill stood in the main control room of Stargate Command and watched the video that showed the Prometheus as it approached the moon known as the Devil's Lair. Camille stood beside him, her arms nervously folded, while General Hammond stood next to her. On O'Neill's opposite side, Richard Woolsey stood with a faint air of distain on his face.

On the video, which had been sent from the Prometheus, they saw the landing site where SG-1 had encountered the Replicators. They then heard the voice of Colonel Lawrence Newell, the commander of the Prometheus: "Confirm weapons hot?"

"Weapons hot, sir," the weapons officer's voice confirmed. "Target acquired and ready to fire."

"Fire," Newell commanded.

They saw a single white line streak through the atmosphere of the Devil's Moon. Then, on the surface of the planet, O'Neill saw the telltale sign of a nuclear strike: a glowing mushroom cloud rose up from the ground.

The picture then cut to an image of Newell, who sat in his private office aboard the Prometheus. "It's been two hours now since the nuclear strike," he reported. "We have remained on station over the area, and have seen no further signs of life from the Replicators. We plan to stay another two hours, just to make sure. Will advise you immediately of any changes in the situation. Otherwise, will contact you after two hours for further instructions. This is Colonel Lawrence Newell, commanding the Prometheus, over and out."

"What about the wildlife on the planet?" Camille asked, once the video had ended. "Didn't we just wipe them out, too?"

"SG-1 reported that all life in the immediate area was already dead," O'Neill told her. "Most likely having already been wiped out by the Replicators."

"But the rest of the planet will now have to contend with the radiation from that nuke," Camille pointed out.

"All life on that planet would have been consumed by the Replicators in any event," Hammond said softly. "It's not much consolation, I know, but a large nest of Replicators like that could not be left alone, Ms. Wray." He glanced over at O'Neill. "Where's SG-1 right now, Jack?"

"In bed, asleep," O'Neill said. "Tucked them all in myself, once they were all properly debriefed. I even read them all a bedtime story, General, sir."

Hammond just grinned at him while Camille just gave O'Neill a wan smile.

"Well," Woolsey said with a heavy sigh. "I think it's safe to say that we can all have a sound sleep tonight, now that the Replicators have been dealt a mortal blow. And, if you'll excuse me, I think I shall turn in, as well."

Once Woolsey left them, O'Neill saw from the wary looks that both Camille and Hammond gave him that they had the same doubts about whether or not the Replicators were truly defeated.

"What do you think, Jack?" Hammond asked bluntly. "Think the Replicators are finally down for the count?"

"I sincerely hope Mr. Woolsey is right," O'Neill replied. "But I'm not counting on it."

"In other words," Camille said dismally, "hope for the best, but prepare for the worst."

"That's the spirit!" O'Neill smiled at her. "Now you're really getting how things roll here at the SGC!"

Camille just wearily rolled her eyes at that.

SG1: SVU

HG37 had been found adrift just outside of the orbit of the planet Montross. It was apparent that they had never even made it into hyperspace. Which was just as well, Neith realized. For if the ship had suffered a calamity in the hyperspace corridor, it might have been lost forever, with no way of knowing what had happened to it. HG37 was dark, with no lights, nor any power to her engines. After repeated calls that went unanswered, Neith positioned her Ha'tak over the stricken vessel and ordered To'mar to lead a squad of Jaffa onboard via the ring transporter.

Once they had ringed down, Neith and Ba'al waited by the ring platform for their audio transmission. But instead of receiving a message from To'mar, Neith was surprised to see the ring transporter start up once more, as the squad of Jaffa whom she'd just sent down to investigate had abruptly come back. When they materialized on the platform, To'mar and his Jaffa were all crouched down in a fighting stance, their staff weapons aimed outwards in all directions.

"What happened?" Neith demanded.

"It was an infestation of some kind," To'mar reported, as he and his men stood at ease. "They were upon us as soon as we arrived!"

"What was upon you?"

Ba'al suddenly pointed at the floor. "I believe that is what the First Prime is referring to, my Lord Empress."

Neith was repulsed to see what looked like a foot-long insect crawl off of the ring transporter and onto the floor in front of her.

"One of them ringed back with us!" To'mar said in a panic. "Kill it!"

A Jaffa trooper who stood by Neith slammed the butt end of his staff weapon straight down on the strange insect, crushing its back and killing it instantly.

"I don't know what kind of creature it is," To'mar said, as he stared fearfully at the dead insect. "But thousands just like it covered every surface over on HG37. The walls, floors…even the ceilings!"

"You ringed down to the peltac section?" Neith asked him.

He nodded. "We did, my Lord Empress. I could not see any of the crew. Just those…things! Millions of them, swarming all over."

"Ba'al, study this…critter," Neith told him. "Find out what you can."

"My Lord Empress, I can tell you right now that, rather than being a 'critter,' it's actually a complicated mechanism," Ba'al said, as he bent down to examine the creature with complete fascination. Then he reared back in shock. "And it appears to be healing itself!"

Neith was stunned to see the wires and gears of the 'critter' abruptly begin to move and shift once more. "Secure it properly," Neith ordered him, as she strode from the ring transporter room. "I don't want it getting loose on the ship."

"It will be safely contained in my lab, my Lord Empress!" Ba'al called after her.

When Neith arrived inside her own peltac, she commanded the ship's captain to move her vessel out of firing range of HG37. Once this was done, Neith then ordered the ship's batteries to lock on HG37.

"My Lord Empress," Sharma said meekly. "Are we not going to try and see if there are still survivors aboard the vessel?"

Neith just glared at him. "Are you volunteering to lead the rescue party, Lord Sharma?"

The look of horror that crossed his face just then was comical. "Uh, no, my Lord Empress…."

"Then shut up." She turned to her ship's captain. "Yes?"

"We have target acquisition, my Lord Empress," he reported.

"Open fire," Neith ordered.

They watched as HG37 was ripped asunder under the withering gunfire that poured from Neith's Ha'tak. "Move us away from the area," she ordered her captain. "I don't think they can survive in space, but let's try and spare ourselves any further nasty surprises today, shall we?"
"Yes, my Lord Empress. Moving away now."

Leaving the peltac, Neith then strode to Ba'al's lab, where she found her Battlemaster examining the surviving…critter from behind the safety of an energy shield on the enclosed the entire examination table. Neith was startled to see that the mechanical insect had completely healed and was now crawling around on the surface of the table.

"Extremely tenacious," Ba'al said with a broad smile. "Is he not?"

"What is it?" Neith asked with puzzlement and disgust.

"A very aggressive form of artificial life," Ba'al replied. "What is it, exactly, and who originally built it, is still unknown. But there is something interesting. The metals that this little beast is made up of consist of the same construction materials that we use to build our Ha'tak ships."

"The same exact metals direct from the HG37?"

Ba'al shrugged. "Hard to say, my Lord Empress. But that would be my best guess."

"I just blew the HG37 to pieces."

Ba'al nodded. "A very wise decision, if I may say so."

"You may. Whatever these things are, if good fortune continues to smile upon us, then we have just seen the last of them."

When a call from To'mar came down from the peltac, Neith took it right there in Ba'al's lab. When the worried face of To'mar appeared on the wall view screen, Neith said, "What is it, First Prime?"

"We are receiving a plea for help from the Montross government," To'mar said. "They say that they are presently being overrun by a large army of unstoppable mechanical insects."

As Ba'al just stood there in shocked silence at this grave news, Neith somberly murmured, "It would appear that we were unable to contain this little problem after all, Lord Battlemaster."

SG1: SVU

"What the hell?" Olivia cried, as she gazed at the vast destruction all around her. Buildings were aflame to the point where they looked like large smoldering smokestacks, and the streets were cratered with blast marks from explosions. As Olivia walked through what was left of the street in a horrified stupor, she saw crashed cars and trucks. In the distance, a highway turnoff ramp had collapsed. The taller structures in the city, like the Empire State Building and the Chrysler Building, were pocked and pitted with large, gaping holes that billowed smoke.

Olivia was horrified at this apocalyptic vision of her hometown, at the piles of bodies in the streets, stacked up like so much firewood. It was so overwhelming, so horrendous, that when she saw Merlin standing before her, his robes blowing in the wind, she desperately ran to the old man like a lost little girl running to her grandfather.

"Please, you've got to help me!" Olivia cried, now in tears. "Please, Merlin, please! They're all dead!"

The old wizard gently grasped her hand, and as a result of this simple gesture, Olivia immediately felt comforted. "This is but a vision of what may yet happen to your planet, Olivia Benson. If you do not seek out the Temple Of The Dove very soon."

"We think we found it," she excitedly told him. "We're going to check it out first thing tomorrow!"

"Tomorrow may already be too late," Merlin said. "Because the Ori are now here, in the Milky Way Galaxy. They have gained a foothold in the Tyro system. Their invasion has begun. You must warn all whom you know and love."

Before she realized it, everything vanished around Olivia. Merlin, and the shattered and destroyed vision of New York City, were replaced by her private quarters at the SGC. Olivia found herself standing barefoot and clad in just a tank top and her pajama bottoms. Although she was still disoriented and very dazed, what Merlin had just told her had stuck with Olivia to her very soul.

"They're here," she whispered anxiously. Olivia had never felt this afraid in her entire life.

Filled with an urgent need to tell Jack, Olivia staggered out into the hallway, where Colonel Bobby Lyman, who had been casually walking with Lt. Gail Emmaus, stopped short and stared at her strangely.

"Olivia?" Bobby asked with concern. "Are you all right?"

"They're here," Olivia told him, just before she started frantically running down the hallway. The Marine officers immediately started running after her.

"Olivia!" Gail shouted. "Where're you going?"

"I've got to warn Jack!" Olivia cried, as she just kept on running. She was still very confused and dazed, but Olivia knew that, above all else, the most important thing she had to do right now was to warn Jack about the Ori. "They're here!"

She ran right past Janet and TJ. Although the doctor and medic were initially startled, both women abruptly reached out for her. Yet Olivia ducked free of their outreached hands and kept right on running.

"Olivia," TJ called, "wait! What's wrong?"

"They're here!" Olivia cried over her shoulder. "I've gotta warn Jack!"

"Who's here?" Janet asked, as she and TJ joined Bobby and Gail in chasing after Olivia down the hallway. "Who's she talking about?"

"I have no idea," Bobby answered. "But something tells me we should just let her see the General."

When an Airman made to grab Olivia, he instantly backed down when Bobby ordered him to stand aside. "Make a hole!" Bobby commanded everyone ahead of Olivia in the corridor. "Just let her through!"

Olivia ran into the gate room and found Jack. She wasn't exactly sure how she knew he would be here, but there he was, speaking with Jacob Carter, General Hammond and Camille Wray.

"They're here, Jack!" Olivia said to a stunned Jack O'Neill. "The Ori are here! Merlin told me they now have a foothold in our galaxy, in the Tyro system! It's started."
Jack exchanged a shocked look with Jacob and the others, then he walked over to her and gently grabbed Olivia's arms. "Merlin told you this just now? How?"

"In a dream," Olivia said. "I saw New York City destroyed, and he told me that this might happen if the Ori won. He told me we have to get to the Temple Of The Dove soon, Jack. Time is running out."

"Olivia, humor me," Jack said. "What's the name of the system the Ori have their foothold in again?"

"The Tyro system," she repeated. "Why?"

"Because Jacob has just come from there," Jack said gently, "and he's seen exactly what you've just told us: a massive, invading force."

"I just didn't know who they were," Jacob said, still looking shocked, "until now. Thanks to you."

"Oh, so you already knew the Ori are here?" Olivia said with a nod. "That's good, Jack…that's very good…."

And with that, Olivia then fainted away right in Jack's arms.

SG1: SVU

When Casey awoke, she wasn't really sure if she was awake. She had suddenly become aware, yet she was still immersed within a blinding blackness. She tried to move, but her body would not respond, and when she tried to say something, the words were stuck in her mouth.

Yet she could still feel, and her sense of touch informed Casey that she lay face down on a hard cold floor. She could also feel a hot wind blowing over her body. Her ears also worked, and she could hear the steady rumbling of a ship's engine, mixed with the sounds of conversation.

When Casey tried to move again, she realized with a start that her hands had been bound behind her back; her legs were also tied together at the ankles, and there was a gag jammed into her mouth that prevented her from making anything more than a few muffled grunts.

She raised her head in a panic, and realized that she could now make out very hazy images of what looked like the cargo hold of an Alkesh ship. The main doors were open, exposing her to the heat of the desert plains that lay beyond. Several blurry figures stood between Casey and the plains. One was clad in flowing white robes and had a voice that was all too familiar to Casey.

It was Io'tan.

"I thought you might like these two," Io'tan told the other figures. As Casey's eyes recovered from the effects of the Jaffa shock grenade, she saw they were a band of men, black market dealers with whom the Hak'tyl had dealt with before in an effort to get badly needed supplies.

One of the men strode over and chuckled as he loomed over the bound Casey. "What did these two do?"

"I do not tolerate traitors," Io'tan replied coldly. "Do with them as you wish."

"Remind me to never cross you in a deal," the man said with a laugh. Then he gestured at the helpless Casey. "All right, boys, load them up in the back. They should both fetch a nice price in the local slave market."

Casey could only let out a muffled whimper as she was lifted up off the floor by rough hands. She was still clad only in the bikini that she'd worn in the spa.

"This one's awake," the man who carried her feet said.

Casey glanced up as the blurry white figure leaned over her. "You should feel lucky, Casey," Io'tan said, her voice filled with hatred. "I could have just spaced the both of you. But at least this way, you'll still have your life."

Casey just let out a muffled screech of horror and fear as she was hauled off of the Alkesh and into an uncertain future.

To be continued...