A/N: Sorry it took so long. Thanks to JperW and Hal Cooper for their Beta work.

I rewrote some of Chapter 5, so it will make sense with Chapter 8. Please re-read.


Earlier in the day:

Lieutenant Laura Cadman wanted to run back into town screaming. She clutched her binoculars with a white-knuckled hold as she saw the villagers dragging two people into the square. She was too far outside of town and up the mountain-side behind the buildings to hear what was being said. Once they got out of the shadows with their victims, Laura recognized Jennifer's blond hair and Meeks, the young technician who had been flirting with her in the make-shift infirmary.

A gunshot from a P90 echoed through the valley. Laura gasped. Those bastards! I'll kill them all! Just give me a little C4 and I'll level this place. Meeks had been shot! Faced with the possibility of a dead Jennifer Keller, Major Lorne and Colonel Sheppard came out of hiding and surrendered. An infuriated growl escaped from Laura when the villagers dropped the technician's body like a sack of garbage in a puddle of mud.

Laura had always wanted to be a Marine. The Lieutenant had never wanted anything else. However her mother wanted her daughter to be a girl and Laura had been forced to take dancing lessons. The rebellious child took up tap dancing and drove her parents to the brink of madness with the tap, tap-tap, tap and more tapping over their bedroom every night. It had been a way to exert her independence. This particular memory only popped into her head when she was about to disobey an order. I need to go back and save them.

When she wanted to get up from her hide-out, she heard another shot. Laura put the binoculars back to her eyes and scanned the square. Jennifer was still between two villagers, the Major and the Colonel got hit by a green blast from behind, Ronon was dragged away and the body of a marine lay on the ground. She realized that Sergeant Sanchez had been shot. They shot a man who was already down. They are no better than the Wraith or the Genii. The men nearby turned and walked away.

The tap-dancing explosives' expert did not care about politics or treaties, but she did care about loyalty and friendship. These people had violated their trust, harmed her friends and killed Meeks and Sanchez. None were acceptable and would lead to retaliation.

Get a grip! You can't go running back there. Think, think, think. Your best friend is a genius. What would Jennifer do? Or, for that matter, what would Rodney do? Laura's throat tightened in desperation as she realized the two geniuses had been captured. Probably when they had snuck off for a romantic interlude in the woods. Laura could not help but chuckle. She knew Jennifer well and the time inside Rodney's head had given her a brief glimpse at the passionate man hidden behind the snarky attitude. They are in for a wild ride.

Something poked the back of Cadman's neck. The lieutenant was still hidden in the bushes, so she tried moving her head to get away from the offending branch. When the branch poked her again and withdrew, she realized someone was poking her with a sharp object. Oh crap, she mentally cursed as she rose and slightly adjusted her P90 while removing the safety to use it against her assailant. The sounds of snapping branches and rustling leaves were clearly audible now that she was paying attention. I am such an idiot! I will never live this one down.

The agile young marine pivoted on her left leg, dropped into a crouch and pointed her P90 into the stomach of her assailant.

"Back off or I'll kill… you." A young woman, a teenager, holding a crossbow-type weapon gazed back at her, eyes wide open. Several other people with similar primitive weaponry surrounded them and Laura rose to her feet. Arrows and spears could kill, but her P90 would inflict much more damage before they even had time to respond.

The strange group looked like they had just escaped from a refugee camp. Their clothing was ragged and they were covered in dirt. The thin and worn down appearances reminded Laura of the pictures and stories her brothers had brought back from the Middle East. How did these people get the drop on seasoned soldiers like Colonel Sheppard and me? Easy, none of us expected it.

"Put your weapons down!" Laura shouted hoping that they recognized her superior firepower. The petite lieutenant drew herself up to her full height and barked. "I said put them down!"

"We heard you the first time," a calm deep voice spoke from behind several of the fighters.

An older man stepped forward. He had shaggy black hair that was as unkempt as the others and carried a rifle with a rope instead of a strap. This appeared to be the only gun they had.

"Who are you?" The Lieutenant did not lower her P90, but her instincts told her these people were not an immediate threat.

"We need to get away from here before the guards find us." The elder spoke with the authority of a man who expected others to follow.

"What?" Laura blurted out, surprised by his comment. "Aren't you the guards? Who are you?" The deep laughter that followed was the final straw for Laura's already battered nerves. Her best friend and team were in terrible danger and this rag-tag group was pretending to hold her hostage. "What's going on here?"

"All will be explained once we get further away from here." The man said with a reassuring smile on his face.

"I'm not going anywhere with you!" Laura spat and aimed her gun at his head.

"Please," he spoke as if to a child. "We do not have time for this now."

Laura Cadman hated being talked down to and hot anger rose towards her head pulsing through her veins in turn. She snapped, "I'm not going anywhere until you tell me who the hell you are and what happened to my friends!"

Her angry outburst would have given Rodney a run for his money. Shifting on her feet, she felt the need to fire her gun into the ground or air. Never before had she suffered from an itchy trigger finger, but there was always a first time for everything.

"We do not have the time. You and your friends down there in the village are in serious danger. If you want to get away you need to come with us." He stepped towards her and beckoned her with his hand. "Keep your weapons if it makes you more comfortable," he shrugged. "Come on!"

To say she was shocked would be an understatement. Who are these people? Laura had not paid much attention to the briefing as she was not even supposed to be on this mission. She had switched with Dusty because her friend had beaten the Major in a sparring match and he owed the Sergeant one 'opt-out' for a mission. Dusty had chosen this one because of the potential for boredom, but Laura would gladly trade places again.

Quickly though quietly they moved through the forest that covered the mountain behind the village. They had been walking for hours and the sun was almost setting when they stopped in a small clearing.

"Rest a few minutes before we continue," said the man, who Laura took to be their leader.

"Then will you tell me what's going on?" Laura had only managed to keep her tongue in check during the walk because she had been concerned about another ambush. Now they had stopped in a clearing that provided an excellent view of the path up the mountain behind them, she relaxed into her usual nature.

"I am Brenner, the leader of the Keyorins and this is all that is left of my people. For decades this valley was our home until the people you met in our village came here two years ago. Their damaged space ship crashed here and they do not appear to know how to repair it. For some time now they've been searching the City of the Ancestors."

"City of the Ancestors?" Laura remembered Jennifer's story about the Ancient ruins from the other night when the doctor asked her for ideas on a way to lure Rodney there. "I thought they were only ruins?"

"There is a large city underneath where we would hide from the Wraith as they do not seem to be able to find us in there." Brenner sat down on some rocks and motioned for one of the young women to bring him a bag. He extracted what looked like an apple and held it out to Laura. "You must be hungry and we still have a couple hours ahead of us before we reach our camp. It is over the cliffs you see behind me."

Laura looked up. The mountain side became rocky a short distance above their current location. I'm sure glad McKay and Jennifer aren't here. Their combined fear of heights would have been unbearable.

"What about my friends that were captured? Two of them were murdered in cold blood." Laura took the apple and bit into it. She knew she needed her strength and did not reckon they would poison her. "What do they want with them?"

"I don't know. They capture some of my people from time to time and take them into the city, but we never saw or heard from any of them again." Brenner shook his head sadly as darkness crept over his face and his eyes glowed with hatred. "My wife and son were taken last spring. I tried to follow them into the City, but got lost in the maze of the tunnels. It was by pure luck that I found my way out."

"So there are a lot of ways in and out?" Laura's mind began to race. Maybe she could return to the jumper and get more weapons and explosives to mount a rescue. Since she could not fly the jumper to the Stargate, she would have to wait for Woolsey to send reinforcements, which would not happen until tomorrow. They were not scheduled to dial-in until tomorrow evening. Laura Cadman hated waiting. It would be even better if these folks would help. "You could help me get in. We have powerful weapons..."

"Your weapons won't stop them," Brenner cut her off and shook his head. "They have powerful weapons like yours." Laura gave him a questioning look. "I don't know why they did not use them against you." A tense silence followed and neither of them spoke. "Your people came here on two other occasions and were not taken at that time. Why are these people so much more important?"

Atlantis' heads of Science and Research, Medicine and Military were all three down there, Laura realized, but she thought it best not to tell Brenner this. "I don't know. There are more soldiers this time; perhaps they want fighters?"

"No, they have plenty of those and they went straight for the two non-soldiers first." His green eyes penetrated Laura's pretense and told her he knew she was holding something back. "What's so special about those two?" Brenner inquired watching Laura closely.

Laura only shrugged her shoulders and kept eating. The geniuses were Atlantis' two highest ranking civilians next to Woolsey.

"I guess Karric could be jealous because he wants the woman for himself."

Laura choked, "What!"

"We do have a couple of spies in the village. I was told the last time your people visited Karric could not keep his eyes off the woman, the healer and he was practically clinging to her. Your leader was drugged, but she was not… He must want her for himself."

A wave of nausea passed over her at the thought of something like that happening to Jennifer and her hand instantly reached for the P90 dangling from her vest. Sheppard, Lorne, Ronon and McKay; they would all rather die than allow anyone to hurt Jennifer. What if they were dead already? I have to do something!

"I gotta get back." The Lieutenant jumped to her feet and turned to go down the mountainside. Darkness had claimed the village hidden behind the thick forest below.

"There is nothing you can do for them now. You and the others can get out of here if you listen to me." Brenner walked over to her side. He was extremely thin, but still a head taller than Laura.

As she looked at him Cadman could see the sharp bony etches of his sunken face. Obviously they did not have enough to eat and guilt at eating their food settled over her. What did he just say? "What others?"

"Before we met you, my people prevented two of your soldiers patrolling the outskirts of the village from being captured. We took out their attackers, but they wanted to shoot us and we had no choice but to knock them unconscious. My men carried them off and they should be back at the camp already." He turned away. "We must move, now."

Shawn Huston and Tommy Watts were alive. This was the best news Laura got all day. They were big, dumb jarheads, but they would follow orders.


Present:

"Lieutenant," Huston and Watts said in unison as they jumped up to salute Cadman when the Lieutenant entered their tent. Seeing the two young marines alive and well gave Laura a much needed adrenaline rush.

"At ease."

"Did they capture you too, ma'am?" Watts asked. The smaller of the two by about fifty pounds had a deep Texas drawl.

"It sure is good to see ya, ma'am," Huston added. Shawn Huston, an African-American from South Carolina, smiled at her.

"The situation, as I can determine, is that Doctors McKay and Keller, Colonel Sheppard, Major Lorne and Ronon have been captured by the villagers." Laura paused as to let her words sink in.

"What about Sanchez and the med techs, ma'am?" Watts asked.

"Sergeant Sanchez and Meeks are dead." Laura swallowed the crop in her throat. "I don't know about the other one."

Laura felt terrible because she could not remember his name. He was from Australia. Both marines looked upset at the death of their friend, Ramon Sanchez.

"Brenner, the leader of these people," Laura continued her explanation, "told me that his people are the original inhabitants. The others arrived two years ago and are exterminating Brenner's people ever since. Our friends were taken to an underground Ancient city near the village, with several tunnels leading in and out."

Identical grins instantly formed on the marines' faces and they shared an excited understanding look. Laura realized they were following her train of thoughts. Perhaps they're not as dumb as I thought after all. She might even go easy on them for talking about Jennifer like she was a piece of meat. I won't mention it to Lorne.

"In the morning, we'll go to the Jumper, get all the weapons and explosives we can carry and get them the hell out of there."

"Oorah!" The two young marines cheered.

"Let's get some rest to be ready to kick ass in the morning."


TBC

A/N: Reviews are much appreciated.