Stargate SG-1: Flashpoint

CHAPTER ONE

Planet PJ3-176,
Milky Way Galaxy.

Oh boy, just another regular, run-of-the-mill day at the office… Lieutenant Colonel Cam 'Shaft' Mitchell thought to himself with wry amusement, as he kicked his feet out again against the metal grille in front of him.

He, along with the other three members of Earth's flagship team SG-1, were on a planet halfway across the galaxy from their homeworld… and, after talking less than a dozen steps down off the podium on which the Stargate was located on that world, they had all been struck within moments by zat-gun fire, and were taken into captivity.

"Damn this… so, anyone have any idea just who we're dealing with?" Mitchell asked, looking around at the other members of his team. He was sitting in one large, dank, somewhat smelly cell along with the brilliant archaeologist, Dr Daniel Jackson; he was lying sprawled out across a lightly padded metal bedspread mounted up against the rear wall. Carter and Teal'c, the former First Prime of the Goa'uld System Lord, Apophis, were in the cell immediately beside their companions.

"I do not know, Colonel Mitchell," Teal'c replied in his customary deep, resounding timbre. "I was not able to glimpse our assailants."

"Yeah, they were fast alright." Jackson rolled his legs around so that they were sticking off the side of the spartan sleeping platform, then propped himself up with his arms so he was sitting upright. "One moment, we were stepping through the Stargate and walking out across this new world, the next… Sam, you didn't see anyone out there before we were attacked, did you?"

"No, no-one at all," the Colonel replied, frowning slightly. "They must have been waiting in the high grass surrounding the Gate…"

"They also used zat'ni'katels, but since the demise of the Goa'uld, the spread of these weapons has indeed been considerate." There was nothing to do but wait, and see just what the people who had captured them wanted. If there was a way to escape, any one of the four members of SG-1 would try and take it, try and get the rest of their unit out… but there was nothing that any of them could do until that chance came.

"Oh, I'm getting so tired of this!" Cameron Mitchell whined, slapping his fist against the stone-slab wall beside him. The sound of the impact of flesh on stone was quite audible throughout the large dungeon room. Cam had to bite down on his lower lip to keep the whimpers of pain from bubbling out… it was a bad idea to hit out at that wall, and it had now been made painfully obvious.

# SG1 #

At the top of a staircase high up to the left, on the other side of the dungeon chamber, a door opened up with a low squeaking sound, and all four members of SG-1 turned to look at the three men who stepped through the new opening. They were all large men, that was clear to see, and were armed with an assortment of Goa'uld weaponry.

One of the men, the slightly shorter, blonde-haired one in the middle of the small pack, was armed with a zat-gun jammed into the waist-belt in front of him, while the other two men (both with very short-cropped dark-brown hair) were clutching staff weapons. They all had the steely-faced determination of men who knew, and were quite comfortable with, the way of violence.

"I do not think these are Jaffa, Colonel Mitchell," Teal'c whispered softly, as the armed men moved leisurely down the staircase towards their cell.

"Goa'uld? Human?" Daniel hissed back, before Cam could reply.

"Either case is possible," the Jaffa stated cryptically, clearly not prepared to take a stance on the issue one way or the other. The four of them watched silently as their captors approached, waiting for them to make the next move.

They did not have to wait long. The man in the middle, with the somewhat long blonde hair, smirked slightly baring gleaming white teeth.

"Hah, if it isn't the legendary members of SG-1, the renowned warriors of the Tau'ri! My master commanded me to capture you, so that he may propose a… collaboration, if you will. But I didn't quite expect the job to be so easy!"

"Well, you obviously know a lot about us, but we know nothing about you, or this 'master' that you work for. Why don't you tell us a little about who you are, and what this 'collaboration' that you have in mind is all about?" Cam asked, rising up to his feet to approach the metal bars of their holding cell… to get closer to the three men with the weapons.

The two massive men with the staff weapons immediately stepped forward, and took up firing stances in front of the man who was clearly their superior. They both activated the Goa'uld staff weapons, beckoning Mitchell back sternly with a couple of waves of the staffs.

The engaged heads of the two men's weaponry, coupled with the crackling flashes of plasma energy surging around the tips of the powerful devices, illustrated the point perfectly, and the Colonel immediately backed well away from the metal grille.

"It is not my place, but soon enough, all will be revealed to you… of that, I promise!" the blonde-haired warden said, and again, that thin, teeth-flashing smirk came back. Then, with a crisp beckoning wave, he and his companions swept back around and walked back the way they had come.

"Wait a minute, at least let us out of these cells!" Mitchell shouted at the retreating men, but they just kept on walking up the staircase and through the still-open doorway, ignoring his pleas.

The squeaky hinges made their low, piercing racket again as one of the guards shut the heavy-wood door back shut behind them.

Once they were alone again, Cameron turned to give the rest of his team a sharp appraisal. "Hey, any one of you could have jumped in there at any time," he scoffed angrily, disappointed mostly at himself for not being more suave and sophisticated when dealing with their captors.

"Well, you had things well in hand…" Daniel Jackson remarked, the sarcasm there just beneath the surface of his voice.

Samantha Carter jumped in before Colonel Mitchell could reply to the archaeologist's biting comment. "Teal'c, we're dealing with humans here, aren't we?"

"I believe we are, but as you all are no doubt aware, the Goa'uld have the ability to portray themselves as being human when they occupy a host, if they so desire," the towering Jaffa warrior replied.

Cam looked down at his wristwatch, only to notice for the first time that it was missing – it must have been taken off him as a possible weapon of some kind when they had been apprehended. "Okay, well I haven't really got the slightest idea how long we've been prisoners here, but after twelve hours when we don't check in with the SGC, General Landry's going to try and reach us for a radio-check… when he can't do that, he's going to send cavalry, right?"

"Well, an Unmanned Air Vehicle will probably be launched to do an aerial reconnaissance of the region, and then if he approves the operation…" Carter replied. There was some hope there, but not a whole lot, and that had Mitchell really disconcerted. "We just don't know who we're dealing with, and they might well have taken into account the likelihood of a rescue attempt from Earth, and acted accordingly."

"Great – General Landry won't be willing to act if he's going to send more airmen into a bloodbath… and let's keep this cheery fact in mind; these guys, whoever they are, took us ALL out without being spotted or fired upon in turn," Dr Jackson stated. Those were not pleasant points to reflect on, but they were valid, important things to remember nonetheless.

They would just have to wait and see how things progressed.

# SG1 #

Hours passed – just how many, Cam Mitchell was not sure, but he knew he had drifted off to sleep at some point, so it was hard to gauge exactly how long they had been in their cells. He felt stiff in his bones, and his joints ached from being in one uncomfortable position for such a long time… but at least he felt fresher, ready for some action.

The Colonel looked around at the other members of the team, and saw that Dr Jackson and Teal'c were both resting. Sam was lying propped up against the metal bars of her holding cell, looking through the openings back at Cam.

"It's okay, you know that don't you? We'll get out of this," Colonel Carter said with smooth self-assuredness.

Cam gave a short laugh, and smiled with mirth that didn't quite reach his eyes. "Oh yeah, I haven't got a doubt we'll get out of this – we always do. I just think there's something a little, I don't know… strange, about all of this. It's the best word I can think of to describe the feeling I have."

"Yes, I think I know what you mean." Samantha Carter paused for a moment, frowning, clearly trying to find another way to describe what she was thinking at that moment. "It's impossible to really explain why I feel this way, honestly, but I think we should hear out whatever this man's boss has to say."

Lt Colonel Mitchell understood what Carter was getting at, and gave a short nod in agreement. "That's what we'll do, then – but whoever these people are, they stunned us with zats, took our weapons, and held us prisoner against our will, so they should be considered very hostile against us until proven otherwise."

"You've got it," the female Air Force officer replied, and the steely determination that had for a very brief moment fled her came right on back.

Suddenly, riveting both of their attention back toward the tall staircase and the door set into the wall high above, came the sound of the doorframe's hinges squeaking. And the three men they had met earlier came striding back down the stone stairway.

They might just get that explanation about all of this after all…