Chapter 5

The gate almost opened but suddenly shut down.

"Damnit!" Walters snarled.

Mitchell laid his hand on Walters' shoulder. "Try again."

"Sir, I've tried a hundred times and they aren't letting us dial through. They're simply dialing faster than we are and cutting us off."

"One more time. Just one more time," Mitchell urged.

Walters tried again and the same thing happened.

"One more time," Mitchell urged.

Walters tried again and it happened again. He felt Mitchell's hand squeeze his shoulder.

"They're stuck there, Walters. We have to try again. We'll get it. You'll get it."

Walters looked up at the gate. He didn't believe that, but Mitchell's persistence wasn't about to let him stop trying. He drew a breath and dialed the gate as fast as he could. Suddenly it burst open.

Mitchell clapped him soundly on the back before running out of the control room. Teal'c was standing at the end of the ramp with a rifle for him. Mitchell grabbed it as he ran past and Teal'c was right on his heels. The two jumped into the gate. Two Marines were right behind them and the men leapt into the gate as it closed. They both flew right off the edge of the platform.

Walters' stood. The two stood, and over the speakers, he could hear them muttering curses. He sank back into his chair, hoping Teal'c and Mitchell were able to get out of the wormhole before it closed.

Teal'c and Mitchell ran out of the gate right into a ring of armed Jakisau. Mitchell slowly lowered his own weapon, smiling.

"Hi. We're here to pick up two people. If you would, you know, call them for us, we'll be on our way."

Kedrek ran into the room – and now that Mitchell had a chance to look around him, he realized it was actually a cave.

"I TOLD YOU TO WAIT!" Kedrek bellowed.

"We want our people back."

"They aren't here. They're somewhere out there," Kedrek swung his hand in a direction that was supposed to be outside. "They're in the middle of a WAR!"

"Then we'll go get them," Mitchell said.

"Do you think I'd really let two aliens that have never been here before go out there? You'd be killed before you reached the jungle."

"We'll take our chances."

"No. You won't. Lock them up." Kedrek walked back the way he came.

"We want our people!"

Kedrek spun. "And when they get here you and all of you will go back!" Kedrek pointed at the Stargate. "And I hope I never see you on this planet again, because this planet is only good for one thing: killing things! That's all my people know! How to kill one another and you shouldn't be here. They," he flung his hand back toward in the direction that was presumably 'outside', "should never have even been here! However, Ambassador Havet thought the war wouldn't start up again. He believed in peace and he was a fool!"

"To believe in peace?" Mitchell asked.

Kedrek sighed, looking away.

"It is not foolish to believe in peace," Teal'c said.

He sounded exhausted when he told Teal'c, "It is when it never comes." To his men he said, "Lock them up for now."

"Kedrek, we just want to go--" Mitchell began.

"The answer is no!" Kedrek stormed off.

Mitchell looked back at Teal'c. He let a Jakisau take his rifle and pistol, knowing he was in no position to argue.

The higher into the mountains the group traveled, the steeper the mountainsides became. The jungle was still dense, but as they picked their wait down a steep slope into a valley, they passed an occasional deciduous or evergreen tree. Isha told them several friends of her family lived in the village at the end of the valley and tonight they would be able to get showers, hot meals, and a good sleep on beds. They were all looking forward to the rest.

An explosion shot dirt above the trees and Isha signaled the group to stop. Through the trees, they could see rooftops of a village, some engulfed in flames. Daniel looked at his young guide's face. For the first time he saw emotion there: rage. He realized this was the village she was talking about and whoever attacking it was attacking Jakisau she was close to.

"Jajul, map!" Isha barked.

Jajul turned his back to Dasex, who pulled out a flat-screened device with a stylus secured to it on a cord. Jajul took it and tapped the screen with the stylus. He turned toward the battle and tapped the screen a couple more times. Isha leaned close to him, watching the screen. She looked at the village, her jaw tensing.

"Status, sir?" Gephka asked her.

"Doshal forces are cleaning. Jajul--"

"Cleaning what?" Carter asked.

Isha ignored her, continuing, "--stay with the packages. Gephka, Areki, and Dasex, we're ceasing. Jajul, when the village is clear, we'll contact you to bring the packages. If you loose contact or forces move in your direction, you are to proceed to rendezvous coordinates. Understood?"

"Yes, sir," Jajul answered.

"Isha, what is cleaning?" Carter asked.

Isha looked at her, holding his gaze. Carter had never felt so despaired looking into a teenager's eyes. Beyond those eyes wasn't even a teenager, but an old lady that had killed too many of her own kind, and seen too many die. Her soul wasn't dead, yet, but what she was about to do was a drilled instinct that told her she had to do it without hesitation and it would kill her soul just a little more.

"We can help," Carter added.

"No. You'll stay with the twins and protect them."

"But wouldn't--"

"I gave you an order, Carter. Do you question your superior this much too?"

Carter hesitated to answer.

"Stay and protect the boys," Isha ordered. She turned away, leading her men into the jungle.

Jajul pulled his pack off to put his device away.

"Jajul, what is cleaning?" Carter asked.

"It's a slaughter tactic."

"And what is a slaughter tactic?"

Daniel began walking in the direction Isha and her men disappeared. Carter and the twins followed him. Jajul tried to hastily put his device into the over packed backpack.

"Forces go through a village and kill everything alive. Civilians, we are under orders to remain here."

They didn't stop walking. Jajul finally got the device in and pulled his pack on as he ran around them and tried to stop them by holding out his arms. They walked around him, pushing his arms away.

"LC ordered us to wait here," Jajul told them.

"Is there a military establishment down there?" Carter asked.

"No. A civilian village." Jajul trailed behind them. "We have ord--"

"Are there any soldiers in this village?"

"No."

"If there's no soldiers, why would they kill everyone in a village?"

"Without the children there's not another generation of soldier. Without women, all trade slows or stops. They kill the old just... Just to kill them."

They came to a ridge overlooking the village. It was sheltered enough that they were hidden, but they could see Ambassador Doshal's soldiers killing Jakisau.

'This race needs an army of shrinks!' Frank told him.

"It is too bad your people can't understand how pointlessness all this fighting is," Daniel commented.

Jajul looked back at the twins. Daniel and Frank both noticed the interaction.

'Whaaat?"

Jajul nodded, quietly answering, "I agree."

'Those twins... I bet they're supposed to be ambassadors. If we could get to them, maybe they'd put civil war to an end.'

"Perhaps the next generation of ambassadors will realize that, Jajul," Daniel added.

Jajul looked back at the village, nodding. There was nothing moving in it anymore. He pushed in on his ear, revealing an earpiece they hadn't seen before.

"Understood," he said. Jajul looked at the four. "It's clear. Brace yourselves."

He led them along a ridge into the village.