Chapter 21, part 1.

The planet seemed empty except for trees and grass. It had seven moons which made the night seem almost as bright as day, with the amount of light they reflected. Alice was fairly certain it was just an intermediary stop on their way, but it could've been watched, so instead of sending their B Team—Watson and Morgan—on ahead, they had the Odyssey come around and keep a vigil, just in case something went wrong. For now, though, they were merely sitting around and waiting.

"I hate this whole hurry up and wait crap," Rodriguez mumbled rebelliously after half an hour of idling. "That's not why I joined the Air Force."

"Patience, grasshopper," Alice cautioned humorously. "She'll be here soon, I'm sure. She's just testing us."

He sighed restlessly, but at that moment, the Gate activated and three people came through: one fifty-something woman in red leather and two younger guys carrying something between them, covered with canvas. Alice stood up and stretched, her movements deliberately slow and lazy. Rodriguez got up next to her with a playful smile.

"Hello, Rianna," Alice greeted the Lucian Alliance merc. "Who are the boys?"

"Nova, Levi, how good to see you again!" The woman stepped up to Alice to shake her hand and sent a wink to Rodriguez. "These are Fola and Tray. I hope you don't mind, I needed some young studs to carry around some weight." She made a gesture at them and they deposited the canvas cautiously on the ground. "That's the reason I've asked you to come."

Alice approached and grabbed the edge of the fabric. Then she looked at Rianna significantly. "May I?"

"Go ahead."

She threw off the cloth, revealing the object beneath: it was white except for some charring, with long and narrow body, one broken wing and the other intact—Alice recognized it instantly, but she pretended to frown and bent over it as if to take a closer look.

"It looks Tau'ri," she noted, hoping her voice betrayed nothing but professional interest. "What is it?"

"They call it a UAV," Rianna explained. "They launch it from the Chappa'ai and it flies through the air, providing them with information on what's there on the ground. We also think it somehow makes it possible for the Tau'ri to send projectile weapons that explode on contact. They've used it successfully many times to get rid of sentries around the Chappa'ai."

"Really? Fascinating. How do they do that?" Alice asked, squatting down next to the drone and touching the scorched side of it lightly.

"If I knew that, I wouldn't need you," Rianna replied with a bit of sarcasm. "It used to be pretty easy to shoot them down, but it appears that they keep improving their maneuverability. So here's your job: learn how it works and find a way to destroy it in-flight. If you can do that—well, there's a hefty bag of Naquadah in it for you."

Alice didn't respond at once. Her mind was churning, and Rianna didn't disturb her.

"No." Alice stood up and turned around to face the mercenary. "I don't want Naquadah for this job."

Rianna's perfectly trimmed eyebrows went up. "No? And what would you like instead?"

"I want Ra'ul's business," Alice replied stoically. "I know you're using him a lot. I want his more, ah, interesting jobs. Let him deal with broken Al'kesh and Gliders."

Rianna smirked. "I'm not using him. As much as I would like, with that young firm body of his!"

"It was a collective you," Alice challenged with just a hint of a lopsided smile, ignoring the second part of the statement.

"Was it, now." It didn't sound like a question. "Does that mean that you're already rich?" Rianna paused, looking at Alice carefully, and then shook her head. "No, you must have an ulterior motive."

"Of course I do." Alice shrugged nonchalantly. "I'm bored. We've got enough to live comfortably for a little while—and the more complex jobs usually rake in more profits, anyway."

"They tend to be more dangerous, too," Rianna noted. "You think you're ready for that, girlie?"

"Well, I'll never know if I don't try, won't I?" She held her gaze. "So, what will it be?"

"I like you, Nova. You've got gall. Do this job for me and we shall see." She saw Alice's doubtful look and laughed. "Don't worry, you won't be shortchanged. If I can't get you what you want, you'll be adequately compensated in the usual currency."

Alice pretended to think it over carefully and then nodded. "Deal. I'm gonna have to take this home with me, though—it will take a bit of time."

"Take it, it's just useless junk to us." Rianna waved her hand dismissively.

"How do I contact you when the job is done?"

"When, not if—I like your confidence." The older woman chuckled. Then she sent Alice and Rodriguez a measuring glance. "If you want to find me, leave a message with Que'n, the leather merchant on Sapralis."

Alice bowed her head, a little deeper than for a typical nod. "Thank you for your trust."

"I don't bestow it easily," Rianna commented, turning around and walking up to the DHD. "And I warn you against breaking it. I wouldn't want to see you and this beautiful hunk of meat that follows you around, hurt."

"We wouldn't either," Alice acknowledged.

The Gate opened and Rianna waved at her two companions to go through. She looked back before stepping through herself. "Good luck, Nova Ray. If you do manage to do this… that will be quite a feat. Everyone will hear about it." And then she was gone and the event horizon disappeared.

"You can't do this, obviously." Carter's brow was furrowed. "This is an important part of our rescue strategy whenever an SG team gets stranded offworld."

Alice nodded. "Yes, ma'am. I've been thinking about it, and I'm pretty sure I can pull it off without endangering any of our teams."

The crease between Carter's eyebrows became even more pronounced. "Explain."

Alice took a deep breath. "I'm gonna tell them that I didn't find a way to completely destroy the UAV mid-flight; instead, I'll tell them I built a frequency jammer, but it's only seventy-percent effective. Whenever they use the jammer, the SGC will know and we'll be able to pretend as if we've lost contact with the UAV. It'll just fly away to a safe distance—we can retrieve it later, when possible."

"But that leaves our people without backup." The general grabbed her mug, looked inside and started swirling the remainder of the liquid around. "I know you're not suggesting abandoning them, so what's your solution?"

"We use a Jumper," Alice replied simply.

Carter gaped at her for a moment. "Alice, that's ingenious!"

Alice smiled a little tentatively. "When someone with the gene is around—and I guess for most cases that might be me—we can let the jammer work. Then we send in the Jumper, it cloaks as soon as it's through and picks up our stranded team wherever they are. If by any chance there's a problem and we can't find anyone with the ATA gene, we use the UAV to paint targets for the missiles as normal and we send in backup on foot until a 304 can arrive. And the beauty of this solution is that if at any point the Alliance finds out I'm not who I say I am, the SGC simply stops responding to the jammer signal and that's it. No harm no foul."

"Simple and elegant, I'm impressed, Major," Carter said with a big grin.

"Thank you, ma'am. There remains the problem of convincing the Lucian Alliance that it works the first time around—but I think we can try to arrange something to show them the effectiveness of the device. Essentially, we can provoke a confrontation, make them believe they'd pinned our people down. Then we open the Gate, send the UAV, they use the jammer and it flies away. In the meantime, we reveal a battlecruiser on the orbit, send down some 302s to make sure the Alliance thinks the only reason they couldn't get to the SG team is because of this eleventh-hour arrival. The 304 beams our people up from the planet and they get away, leaving the mercs convinced that the jammer worked, but the Tau'ri were lucky enough to have the cruiser close by."

"That is a little more convoluted, needs more thinking over, but as a concept, I like it." Carter smiled. "Very good job, Major. Hopefully this will be a good step towards your goal."

"Thank you, ma'am."

The village was a short walk away from the Stargate through a dense forest. It looked pretty miserable—nothing fancy like on the merchant worlds, just a couple dozens of wooden huts surrounded by a few measly fields. Alice knew that there used to be a Naquadah mine nearby, but it had been depleted centuries ago. Since then, the Goa'ulds had no interest in the local population and left them to fend for themselves. From a world of thousands of slaves, it had turned into this abject little settlement.

They were met at the Gate by Tray who led them to the other side of the village. There, on a tiny square lined by a number of shacks, a little crowd of mercs gathered, forming a circle. As Alice and Rodriguez approached, they noticed Rianna, in her trademark red leather, standing over someone curling up on the floor. Coming closer to join the ranks, Alice gave them a careful look.

It was a teenage girl. She was slender, olive-skinned like so many former Goa'uld slaves, with a beautiful mane of dark brown curls. She was wearing a tattered dress, her hair was dirty and greasy, and her nails were broken and grimy. Alice couldn't tell the color of her eyes, because she had them shut, her hands over her head in a protective gesture. There were tearstains on her filthy face.

Fola, the other of Rianna's lackeys Alice had previously met, was holding a long metal rod, hovering over the girl menacingly. Alice knew that thing very well and her face set in an unpleasant expression before she remembered to keep up the pretense and made an effort to relax.

"This is your last chance," Rianna told the girl, her voice dispassionate and aloof. "Tell me where did you hide it!"

Fola lowered the rod and as it touched the girl's neck, she suddenly straightened out on the ground and shrieked in agony, her eyes and mouth wide open, a fiery light streaking out of them. It lasted maybe five seconds, and then Fola lifted his hands and the girl's body slackened, new tears making ridges in the dirt on her face, but she was clearly too exhausted to sob anymore.

"Tell me!" Rianna ordered.

The girl looked at her, fear and pain clear in her eyes—the color of pretty amber, Alice noted—and her mouth trembled. When she spoke, her voice was small and hoarse from screaming. "In the—in the engine room—behind the crystals that control the weapons systems—"

Rianna smiled triumphantly and then turned to Fola and waved at him with an imperious gesture. "Kill her," she said simply.

"No!" The girl curled up upon herself again. "I told you! I did what you asked!"

"Yes, and now that I have no further use for you, I only need to make sure that everyone else learns their lesson. You do not steal from Lucian Alliance. Ever." The woman turned to walk away, but halted when Alice called her name from the other side of the circle.

"Ah, Nova! Levi!" Rianna's face beamed in genuine pleasure, as if she had not just tortured and sentenced a teenager to die. "You're here! Sorry for this spectacle."

Alice grimaced, hoping the disdain in her eyes would be mistaken for reluctance to get involved. "Can you not postpone this till after we're gone? I get queasy with blood."

Rianna shrugged. "Whatever. Lock her up," she told Fola, and then addressed Alice again: "You know you're gonna have to grow a thicker skin, girlie. Come with me."

"I don't stick my nose into other people's business, that'll have to do," Alice countered, following Rianna out of the square and into one of the huts. "My mama was a Tok'ra. I don't abide by much of their code no more, but some things are tougher to let go than others."

"I heard." Rianna nodded, sitting down at a shabby table and waving at them to join her. "That must be where you've picked up your skills."

"That it is," Alice confirmed. Someone put beer glasses in front of them and she reached out to take a sip.

"So, if you're here, I gather you managed to do the job?" Rianna smirked and gulped down half her glass in one big swallow.

Alice grimaced again. "Yes, but not exactly. I couldn't figure out how to make the damn thing explode mid-flight without shooting it down," she said, but she held her head high, which made Rianna raise her eyebrows. "The Tau'ri technology is just so damn different from ours! There is not a single crystal in that thing. I remember them from when I lived with my mom and Sathel, though—they were weird but entertaining, so I took the opportunity to talk to them whenever they came by. They were much more interested in learning our technology than they were in sharing theirs, but I remembered these things they were using to communicate over distance—radios, they called them. And that gave me an idea." She nodded at Rodriguez and from one of his vast pockets he produced a small, rectangular device with a long antenna sticking out of it. He put it on the table. "Instead of blowing that thing out of the sky, we can simply render it harmless. They're using those radios to communicate with the thing. My invention will jam that communication, meaning that the UAV will simply continue flying straight until it drops, and it will not be able to point their projectile weapons at anything."

"That is ingenious," Rianna said, unknowingly echoing Carter. Alice had to make an effort not to snicker. "Are you sure it will work?"

"Not entirely," Alice admitted grudgingly. "I estimate that it should do the job four out of five cases, give or take. But we should definitely test it—if it doesn't work, I may be able to do a little tweak here and there so we can try again."

Rianna looked at her silently for a moment, her face pensive. Then she nodded. "I believe we can arrange something. The Tau'ri think themselves the cleverest creatures in the galaxy, but we have our tricks, too," she explained, seeing Alice's questioning glance. "We will lure them to a world far away from theirs, so they can't send one of their ships."

"Their ships travel the galaxy a lot," Alice noted. "Can you be sure one won't be nearby?"

"No," Rianna admitted sourly. "We will have to take a chance. We will need to keep one of their teams away from the Chappa'ai until their people contact them. That's when they'll send this UAV thing."

"Are you sure?" Alice frowned, pretending to think deeply. "What if they simply contact their team and tell them to hang on until a ship arrives?"

Rianna's brow creased as she reexamined the issue. "You're right. We'll have to engage to make them feel like they are in trouble in addition to keeping them away from the Ring of Ancestors, so they think there is no time to wait for a ship." Her face cleared. "And if this goes as planned, we will have proved your invention works and we'll have gotten rid of one of those pesky Tau'ri teams."

Alice kept her face impassive. "And what about my payment?"

Rianna chuckled. "Impatient, are we? Well, girlie, if it works, you'll have Ra'ul's contracts. You have my word."

Alice smiled triumphantly and bowed a little. "I trust your word."

"You should, my word is solid." Rianna stood up. "Can you make more of those?" She picked up the cube and touched the antenna delicately.

"I can," Alice confirmed and grinned. "But that'll be extra."

"Of course it will!" Rianna laughed jovially. "I would not expect anything else from you!"

Alice got up to her feet, Rodriguez following her a moment later. "I should be there when you do the test so I can monitor how it's going and perhaps tweak it on the spot if needed."

"Yes, you should. I will let you know via Qu'en when and where to come."

Alice nodded and then addressed Rodriguez. "Levi, hang around here for a moment—I need to give some of that beer back to the nature…"

He rolled his eyes. "Why do you have such a tiny bladder?" He complained. "Can't you keep it in until we're home?"

"Oh, let her be. It'll give us a moment alone," Rianna interrupted with a wink and a lewd smile.

Alice gave Rodriguez a quick look and then walked out of the hut and into some bushes out back. Instead of squatting down to pee, though, she crouched, pulled a silver locket from under her shirt, opened it, twisted and pushed the photo inside.

"Team B, I have a job for you," she whispered into it.

"Roger, we're receiving," Watson's voice responded a couple seconds later.

"When you see us walking away towards the Gate, you need to create a distraction. Something big that will interest Rianna herself. Commence the moment we enter the forest and buy us as much time as you can."

"Yes, ma'am. Copy that."

"Don't get caught," she added, and then snapped the locket together, put it under her shirt and walked back to the hut. When she opened the door, Rianna was sitting down in a chair, leaning away, legs spread apart. Rodriguez was standing by the door and laughing.

"Ah, here she is," the older woman said, regret clearly ringing in her voice. She sat up and winked at Rodriguez again. "One day, my dear. One day."

"Don't demoralize my bodyguard, Rianna," Alice said with pretend censure and they both chuckled, as if it was a fine joke. "We should be going. I'm looking forward to our next meeting."

"Likewise, Nova, Levi." Rianna nodded goodbye. "Tray will escort you back to the Chappa'ai."

"Great," Alice agreed easily.

They walked through the village in silence—Tray was not talkative and Alice was too preoccupied with analyzing her hastily formed plan for weaknesses to strike up a conversation. Rodriguez must have noticed, though, because as soon as they left the last of the shacks, he gently ribbed Alice and kept it up until they reached the Gate.

"Thanks for the escort," Alice told Tray and dialed the address of one of their rendezvous planets. The man was watching her do it, so she kept up the pretense, and then she and Rodriguez both stepped through.

"What's up?" Rodriguez asked as soon as they were on the other side.

"We're gonna save that girl if we can," Alice replied simply, stumbling towards the DHD. She halted there and waited for a minute. "You think Tray has left by now?"

"Let's give him another minute," he suggested anxiously. "It's a very short walk through the woods, but the sound of the Gate activating can be pretty loud."

Alice nodded acquiescence. After another moment, she re-dialed the planet's address and soon they were going through.

Tray was nowhere to be seen, so Alice waved at Rodriguez and they slinked off the path into the forest. "It encircles the entire village," she told him quietly. They were walking fast, but not running. "There's fields of corn—I think it's normal corn, not Kassa—just outside the hut where they locked the girl up. It should give us some cover, but I would prefer if it were dark."

They both automatically looked up, through the branches. The sky was overcast, so it was hard to see the sun, but Alice estimated at least two more hours till dusk.

She opened her locket again. "Team B, status!"

There was a moment of silence that made her heart skip a beat from anxiety, but then Watson came on. "Mission accomplished, ma'am. We've set one of the huts on fire—they're all wood, so all of the village is there now trying to put it out. It's close enough to where Rianna and her people are staying right now to make them nervous, too. Half of them are helping the villagers and the rest are watching, including Rianna."

"Good job!" Alice praised, thinking at the same time that it was very much unfair to the local population. We'll have to come back later and try to compensate them somehow, she decided. "Make sure they can't see you but stay put and let us know if at any point it looks like Rianna is going back."

"Roger that, ma'am."

Alice left the locket open, bouncing off her breasts as she marched through the forest. It took them a while to finally reach the field on the back of the hut where Fola locked the girl. Thankfully, the corn was quite tall, so Alice could walk through with only her head kept down—it was a bit harder for Rodriguez, his five feet ten inches frame bent down uncomfortably. Even from among the long rows of corn, they could now see the column of smoke from their right. The wind was blowing it towards them.

They finally reached the edge of the field. There was only a short stretch of open land in front of the back wall of the hut. They didn't see anyone else around, but that didn't mean there wasn't a sentry at the door, and once more Alice regretted not having a life signs detector. It would've told her exactly how many bogies there were within the range of one hundred meters.

She looked to the right. She could see the glow of fire above the closest shack that obstructed most of the view, and, even from here, she felt a bit of heat coming off from that direction. Sparks flew with the wind, so far landing harmlessly on the straw roofs… but it gave her an idea. I'm sorry, villagers, she thought and pushed the photo in the locket again.

"Watson, would you be able to ensure the fire starts at another hut, too? Not the next one, but the one after that."

"Yes, ma'am," he replied calmly.

"Safely?" She pressed.

"Yes, ma'am. They are too preoccupied with the fire to look around," he assured her.

"Alright. Get in position, leave Morgan to watch over Rianna. Start the fire when I tell you. Aim for the roof."

"Yes, ma'am."

She then turned to Rodriguez. "Can you make a fire?" She knew he wouldn't have matches or anything like that on him—they weren't supposed to carry anything that could point to Earth.

"Yes, ma'am!" He replied and, with a proud smile, pulled a piece of rock from one of his pockets. "It's quartzite, it'll work as well as flint," he explained. And then added, seeing her raised eyebrows: "My father is a park ranger. He taught me to carry it with me at all times. I thought I might need to make fire if we're stuck somewhere on a lonely planet or something."

"Good thinking," she praised, genuinely impressed, thinking she should do the same—except she had no idea how to get fire out of steel and flint, at least not in practice. "Open your radio. When I say so, start a fire to that hut over there." She waved to it—it was just next to the one where the teenagers was locked in. "Aim for the roof," she repeated.

"Yes, ma'am." He nodded, looked around, and then skulked away to get to a better position.

Alone now, Alice took a deep breath, got her Zat out of its holster, and quickly ran through the open yard. Hugging the wall of the shack, she rounded the corner on the left, checking first if the coast was clear; but there was no one in sight. She stopped by the next corner and looked around. She suspected there would be a sentry by the door, but, to her delighted surprise, nobody was there. She walked up quickly and tried to open the door—but it was, of course, locked. And it was a normal lock—needing a key. She sighed, put the Zat back into the holster and pulled out her knife instead. It was small and she's only ever seen this method of opening a door in the movies, but she figured it wouldn't hurt to try. She stuck the blade between the door and the jamb where the lock should be, leaned on the door with all of her weight, and quickly slid the knife inside. It wouldn't budge, so she tried again—and then one more time—and, finally, the lock gave way and the door swung open.

Alice stumbled along, recovered quickly and looked around. The hut was even smaller than the one where she talked with Rianna—there was a cot on the ground, a table with two three-legged chairs, a hearth with a few smoldering embers, a couple heavy wooden chests and little else. The girl was sitting on the pallet, hugging her legs, her pretty amber eyes huge as she peered through the dimness of the room.

Alice closed the door behind her—as well as she could without locking it—and turned to the girl.

"Hi," she breathed. "I'm here to help." She approached the teenager and squatted down. "What's your name?"

She regarded Alice warily. "You're one of her people," she said mistrustfully and Alice couldn't blame her.

"No, I'm not. I'm gonna get you out of here and into safety," Alice promised. "You just need to trust me."

"I don't know you."

"Right now, all you know is that I forced my way in here and I'm offering you a rescue," Alice agreed. "But what's the alternative? Wait here until Rianna comes back and kills you?"

The girl swallowed hard and then nodded. "Okay."

"Good." Alice stood up and gestured at the girl to do the same. Then she picked up the radio-locket that hung on her chest. "Watson, do it. Rodriguez, you wait for now." She grabbed the wool blanket, put it in front of the hearth and used a poker that leaned against its side to scoop the embers onto the fabric. She then gathered it into a ball and waved at the girl to follow her. "Close the door as best you can," Alice murmured to her and then led her around the hut, to the back. "Rodriguez, now!"

She watched as a flaming branch cut through the air in a wide arch and landed on the roof of the neighboring shack. The straw roof didn't catch fire at once—it kindled lowly for a moment, before the flame shot up to the sky, and clear cries of woe came from nearby. Alice ignored them, ran to the cornfield, opened the ball of blanket and poured the hot coals onto the ground. The wool was barely even scorched, but she quickly grabbed a stalk of corn, pulled it out of the earth, and stuck it to the embers, blowing at them to add some more oxygen. It took a moment before the yellowing leaf caught fire. She then looked at the girl to tell her to find a branch and saw that she already had one in her hand. Alice smiled lightly and nodded encouragingly. The girl put the branch next to the flaming leaf and, once it was blazing well, handed it to Alice.

There were people crowding near the next hut, but Watson was right: they were so focused on the fire, they didn't even glance her way. Alice risked stepping out of the field of corn, took a good swing and launched the branch onto the thatch of the shack in front of her. Then, immediately, she retreated, kicked some dirt onto the coals and the cornstalk that was smoldering on the ground, picked up the blanket and gestured at the teenager to follow her. They marched away at a brisk pace and were almost to the forest line when Alice finally recalled her team. "Rendezvous at the Gate," she told them.

Once in the woods, she slowed down and turned to look at the girl walking by her side. Her eyes were still open wide and there was fear and hurt in them, but at least she didn't look as miserable anymore.

"What's your name?" Alice asked gently.

"Dalia." Her voice was still a bit croaky, Alice noted.

"My name's Alice," she told her and then smirked, seeing her frown. "Yes, I know, Rianna called me Nova—that's just my character's name, though. Doesn't matter now," she added as the confusion on Dalia's face intensified. "How old are you, Dalia?"

The girl shrugged. "I don't rightly know," she admitted. "I lost my parents when I was a baby. Nobody knows when I was born."

She looked to be around sixteen—give or take a year. She was almost as tall as Alice, but that meant little in terms of age. She was also skinny like Alice, and had dark brown hair similar to Alice's dyed color, but that's where the similarities ended. Her pretty amber eyes were large and a bit slanted, her face round and her nose a little Grecian.

"And where are you from?" Alice prompted after a moment of silent contemplation.

"My home planet is called Rayah," Dalia said with a sigh. "But I've been wandering around for a while."

"How long's a while?"

She shrugged again. Then she glanced at Alice sideways with a twinkle in her eye. "And where are you from, Alice?"

"Earth." The major smirked at Dalia's raised eyebrows. "You may know it as Tau'ri homeworld."

"You're Tau'ri?!" Dalia's eyes grew large. "You don't look like no Tau'ri!"

"Good, then that means the disguise is working." Alice slowed her step even more and then put her finger on her lips in a be quiet gesture.

They covered the last few yards among the trees carefully, with Alice's hand on the Zat at all times. Thankfully, as they peered around the trees, they saw the area around the Gate empty—except for three familiar silhouettes (or, at least familiar to Alice).

"It's me," Alice called before she stepped out onto the clearing, shadowed by Dalia. "Coast is clear?"

"Yes, ma'am. It didn't seem like they were following us," Rodriguez reported.

Alice nodded. "Let's not give them a chance to discover that we've doubled back. Dial the Gate, Lieutenant."

"You're all Tau'ri?" Dalia asked doubtfully, examining their leather outfits and Gao'uld weapons.

"Yes. You'll see in a moment. But before we go through, I need to search you."

"Search me? Why?" The girl made a tiny step back, suddenly wary.

"Just to make sure you're not carrying any weapons," Alice assured her.

"Don't you think if I had a weapon, I'd've used it to get myself free of Rianna?" Dalia's voice was a bit mocking.

"Not all weapons are useful in all situations. I have to check. Hold still." Alice stepped closer and quickly patted her down. There was literally nothing in the teenager's dress' pockets, but she found an intricate and delicate golden bracelet stuck inside her shoe. Other than that, there was nothing—and no fake teeth or anything like that, either.

"It was my mom's, it's the only thing I have of hers," Dalia murmured as Alice handed the bracelet back to her, having determined that there was nothing dangerous about it—at least at first glance.

Alice smiled and turned to Watson. "Sergeant, send the iris code and let the SGC know we're coming in with a guest."

"Yes, ma'am." He took a G.D.O. from one of his pockets and entered the code. Then he picked up his radio. "Sierra Golf Charlie, this is Sierra Golf Seven Tree, we are coming through with a guest, request permission to proceed."

"Sierra Golf Seven Tree, who is your guest?" Came the reply in Sergeant Harriman's voice.

"It's a… teenage girl," Watson said, a little hesitatingly.

"Tell him she was about to be killed by the Lucian Alliance," Alice helped him.

Watson repeated the message. There was a moment of silence from the other side.

"Alright, permission granted. Come home, SG-7."

Alice put her hand on Dalia's back, pushing her along delicately, and they walked through together.