"What do we do?"

River Hayden shushed the child beside him with a simple hand motion, and tried to dig himself and the boy even deeper into the pile of brush and branches that they were hiding under. The patrol had passed them several minutes before, and hadn't returned as near as he could tell, but it wasn't a sure thing that they weren't going to, and with them in hiding like they were, there wasn't much chance that he'd be able to do much to fight back if they were discovered. And right now, his biggest concern was making sure they were caught. Otherwise Ian would be on his own, and as much as River admired his friend, he was pretty sure that even Brooks couldn't take on all the invaders they'd seen.

And who knew how many they hadn't seen?

The boy shivered beside him, and River put an arm around him, wishing he had a warmer jacket to give him. The day had been fairly nice, but the night was definitely turning cold.

"We're going to wait," he whispered. "Try to stay still…"

The boy clearly wanted to say more, but he didn't – and River appreciated that. Hopefully the patrol would think they were heading for the Stargate and would head that direction as well. And hopefully they'd all trip and fall into one of the snake holes.

OOOOOOOO

"Okay, that's not good…"

Ian had managed to make his way through the very tight crack in the rear of the cave all the way into the cave, but it wasn't anything like he remembered it – and there was nothing wrong with his memory.

Instead of a dark cave with Ancient writing on one side and ancient (but not Ancient) writing and pictures on the others, he was looking at a cave that was a little bigger, now, and well lit for the most part. Slipping through what was an even tighter fit than the entrance, Ian found himself out of the tunnel and inside the cave proper – although as luck would have it he was behind a fairly large column of black rock that afforded him a little cover.

What he saw was definitely not good. There were several men – indigenous men – working at chipping away the black rock from the edges of the cave while under the watchful eye of three armed guards. Aside from those three – who were scattered around but mainly guarding the exit and definitely not expecting trouble to come from the rear of the cave – there were two other men who weren't guards but clearly weren't from one of the villages, either. These two were standing beside the front entrance in a discussion with someone else using a device that looked to be a cross between a holograph machine of some sort and a radio.

"The patrol has discovered something," one of the men was saying to the holograph image the machine was projecting. "It could simply be one of the peasant children trying to-"

"But you aren't certain?"

"No, Sub Commander. We will-"

A disturbance outside the cave interrupted him, and both men turned – as well as the guards and several of the men who were chipping away at rock on the very edge of the cave. Ian took advantage of the distraction to peek out a little more, and had to bite back the groan of dismay when he saw a group of men bringing in two people. One unconscious and one who was clearly injured and in a lot of pain – to judge by the way he was being carried and was complaining.

"Seriously, guys…" Rodney McKay was saying, his face pale and pinched from pain. "This is all a misunderstanding. We're just-"

"Who are you?" one of the men interrupted.

"Rodney McKay," he answered. "Doctor Rodney McKay."

He probably couldn't help himself when he'd added that last part.

"Doctor?" the other repeated, looking confused. "As in a healer?"

"No. A different kind completely." McKay shifted his position, trying to get comfortable where they'd set him down on the hard floor of the cave, but only gasped. "I wish I was, though…"

"What are you doing here?"

"Just… um… checking out the place," McKay said, wincing. "We didn't exactly plan to-"

"What's going on?" the holographic image asked, pulling McKay's attention to it instead of the men who were questioning him. It also drew their attention – as well as Ian's.

"Sub Commander," one of the men replied. "Our patrol has captured two of the intruders."

The man in the hologram clearly couldn't see what was going on – except for right in front of him – but Ian could easily see the change in his features – even from the distance he was away.

"Alive?"

"Yes, Sub Commander."

"Keep them there. I want to question them personally."

The man saluted.

"Yes, Sub Commander."

Before he could say anything else, the hologram vanished.

The men in charge looked down at McKay – and then at Andrew, who had been deposited unceremoniously beside him in a lifeless heap.

"Search them and tie them up," one told the leader of the patrol.

The man saluted, and the others hurried to obey.

"And get them back to work!"

The men who had been chipping away at the walls had stopped to watch, but at the command started to work again, even as those who had been guarding them pulled out odd-looking contraptions that Ian had a feeling were something nasty. Which was given even more credit when the men all flinched at the sight of them.

Sure enough, they proved to be some sort of energy whip – something Ian had only seen in B movies – and with a practice flip of the wrist it was lashed out at one of the closest men. The whip hit him and he cried out in pain as his skin was laid open across his shoulder and back.

"Hey!"

McKay wasn't in any position to stop them, but he couldn't see something like that happen and not object to it. The man who'd hit the worker sneered, but at a gesture from his superior, he simply walked back to his guard post.

Ian bit his lower lip in thought as he watched one of the patrol start tying McKay and Andrew. He didn't know where the guy in the hologram was, but the fact that he wanted to be in on the questioning gave him a little time to try and figure out what to do – and how to spring the others. Hopefully, Hayden was hidden someplace deep with the kid, because he didn't have time just then to try and go find him. First he had to free McKay and Andrew – preferably without anyone noticing right away.

Yeah. No sweat.