Chapter Two
"Okay, what just happened?" The team, weapons at ready, glanced around. No obvious threat-other than the militia at the barracks-but somehow the village had changed. O'Neill lowered his weapon slightly, and moved toward the windmill. Windmill? "Carter," he said, "Wasn't this thing, not, ah . . . " He pantomimed the turning of the windmill, then glanced inside where the donkey had walked. "Where's Eeyore?" "I thought so, sir." "You thought so?" It was rare that he saw Carter at a loss for words. "I can't explain it, sir," she said, "Unless we were mistaken about what we saw earlier."
"We were not," Teal'c said, "The village was much more primitive when we first arrived." A quick assessment proved them right. The buildings now sported thatched roofs, and their walls had been plastered over with mud. The fabric doors had been replaced by solid-looking wooden ones, the windows with some kind of greased paper. O'Neill could have sworn that the number of houses had doubled. "O'Neill," Teal'c voice held warning in it. One of the militia-types had moved away from the barracks, heading toward them with his club upraised. As they watched, the man seemed to shimmer, then solidify again. Only now he held a sword and shield. "What the hell . . . ?" Jack didn't bother finishing the sentence, electing to ready his weapon instead. Carter and Teal'c did the same. The man stopped, just beyond sword range. Not that the distance would matter to a P-90. The two sides hesitated, as if gauging the threat to one another, and for a moment it seemed they were at an impasse. Then Daniel stepped forward, hands raised to a non-threatening position. "Daniel," Jack warned, accenting the name in a way that meant What the hell are you doing now? As usual, Daniel ignored him. Hoof beats interrupted them, and a horse and rider passed behind the soldier. The man said something unintelligible, turned, and followed the horse. Jack whistled silently, and lowered his weapon. He looked at Daniel, and asked, "Any ideas?" "Kee-ah," said feminine voice behind them. A woman stood there, where moments ago there had been no one. She wore a white robe-like garment with a blue tunic over it, and could best be described as . . . nondescript. She stood as if she were a statue, looking past them. "Ah, hello?" said Daniel, stepping toward her. She said something that just missed registering, and moved off, completely ignoring them. They watched her as she walked behind the barracks. Minutes after they lost sight of her, the sounds of hammering began. "Okay," Jack mused, "This is getting weird." The horse and rider galloped by again, followed by a pair of militiamen with swords and shields. They were barely out of sight before a masculine voice said, "Tah." Once again the weapons came up. Again they noted the blue tunic over a white shirt and pants, the absence of any distinct features on the man, and the utter lack of interest in the team. He said something that sounded like "Rob wit yeh," and moved off. "Did he just call me 'Rob'?" Jack asked. "It's as if we aren't here," Carter observed. "On the contrary," Teal'c said, "The soldier appeared to notice us, until the horseman arrived." "Right," said Jack. He glanced back at the barracks, noting the requite blue-and-white theme to the uniforms-and something else. "Whoa!"
Another building stood behind the barracks. He gestured for the others to follow him, and moved toward the area. The militia-types hanging around the barracks ignored them as they walked past. Their lack of interest was disquieting.
Actually, three buildings had-for lack of a better word-appeared behind the barracks. The nearest one was similar to the barracks, but had what looked like archery targets set up in a courtyard. Whinnies and neighs indicated that the next one was a stable of some sort. The building beyond it was anyone's guess, although the amount of smoke coming from the chimney indicated there was one heavy-duty fire in there. The woman they had seen earlier moved away from the third, heading back to the center of town. She stopped, knelt, and began hammering. The area around her had been empty, but piles of wood and other construction-types things now surrounded her. Two others joined her in the hammering. "This isn't right," Carter said. "You think?" Jack asked. "I concur," Teal'c said, "This place is not . . . O'Neill!" Several militia-types were again headed toward the team, swords raised. Jack trained his P-90 on the group, waiting for them to make the first move. "Sir!" Carter's weapon covered another group of soldiers, similar in dress to the first, but holding noticeably longer swords. The two militias advanced, seemingly oblivious to anything but each other, and it was painfully clear that SG-1 would be in the middle of it. "Fall back!" Jack snapped. They retreated toward the village center, and took up cover positions. The militias attacked. Swords flashed, metallic crashes indicating a hit to a shield or helmet. Oddly, the meaty thunk of weapon on flesh was absent, even though neither side seemed to have much by the way of body armor. Occasionally a participant yelled and keeled over. The newcomers appeared to have the advantage. Four archers stood apart from the main battle, firing their arrows in seemingly random patterns. The village-in spite of the archery range-had no archers involved in the battle. It was more difficult to keep track of the swordsmen. Both groups were dressed identically, except for the newcomers' green tunics, and their close proximity to each other made it difficult to count noses. But it looked like the blue guys were losing. A horseman rode up behind the archers, whacking at one of them with his sword. The others turned, backed away slightly, and began firing on him. The attacked archer collapsed, and the horseman moved onto the next. He finished off three archers before the horse stumbled and fell, the rider's red tunic fluttering in the breeze. The archer turned again to the main battle.
The swordsmen were down to three, two blues and one green. The green swordsmen yelled, stumbled, and fell to the ground. One of the swordsmen headed toward the archer, who lowered his bow and retreated, the swordsman in pursuit. The remaining swordsmen headed for SG-1's hiding place. "Damn," muttered Jack. He and Carter fired, but the rounds seemed to have no effect on the man, and he continued his advance. Teal'c leveled his staff weapon and fired, with no effect. He fired a second, and then a third time before the soldier finally yelled and collapsed. Weapon still at ready, Jack stood and moved toward the body. He nudged it with his foot. It seemed solid enough, and he couldn't see any reason why it would take a half-clip each from two P-90's and three staff weapon blasts to take the guy down. Granted, he and Carter could have missed a few shots, but Teal'c had hit the guy squarely each time. He lowered his weapon, looking over the soldier carefully. There was no visible damage to the guy at all, yet he looked dead enough. "Carter, Teal'c," he said, gesturing toward the main battle area, "Check those other guys." He and Daniel walked over to the archers. Again, there seemed to be no obvious damage to them, yet they were dead. In fact, the first one to fall was already in a rather advanced state of decomposition, with nothing left but his bones. "What the hell is going on here?" he demanded. "Sir," Carter called, and he looked in her direction. She was kneeling by one of the bodies. Teal'c prodded another with his staff. Again, several of the bodies seemed to be decomposing rapidly, and some had disappeared all together. In fact, even the damn horse was gone. Jack walked over to the battle site. There had probably been twenty-odd total participants in the battle, and-except for the two who had wandered off-only a quarter of that remained as bodies. Even the weapons were gone. "Any ideas?" "This isn't making any sense," Daniel complained. "Unless this is another Goa'uld experiment," Carter suggested. "Another Argos?" Jack asked. Carter shrugged. "I do not believe it is," Teal'c said, "The Goa'uld would not allow a planet which they controlled to acquire any weapons that could be used against them." He pointed the staff weapon at one of the remaining bodies. "And these are not Jaffa."
Jack looked around at the village. Besides the additions to "military row", the village had acquired a market during the battle, and several of the farms had shifted to new locations. The edge of the forest had receded somewhat, and there was a new group of militia hanging around the barracks again. The trio of builders appeared to be constructing some kind of stone tower that didn't look friendly. He had an uneasy feeling about this place. "Okay," he said, "Let's head back to the gate." They retraced their steps through the village. As they reached the outskirts-the Stargate in sight--the air began to thicken. "Damn," Jack said. He looked back at the town center, as the air shifted. The buildings shimmered, settled, and changed again. "Let's get outta here." He turned back toward the Stargate. It was gone.