A/N: Italics indicate non-English speech

Carter smiled at the stillness of the camp in the fading late evening light. The mission was going well: Daniel had woken up and was rapidly absorbing the language from Kasuf and Catherine. Kasuf had an idea of where to find Earth's address back in the city. The workers had returned to said city, but Skaara was too weak for the move, so Kasuf and her people were in the tent keeping the boy company. Thus, there was no one else outside the tent except her. She climbed a dune so that she could see the flare still burning on top of the pyramid. "Carter to Kawalsky. Over"

"Kawalsky here. Over"

"I'm going to fire a flare, which should give you a straight bearing to take in the morning. I don't think the mastadge trail will still be there. Over"

"Understood, watching for the flare. Over"

Carter fired the flare and watched as the light streaked up into the sky. From her vantage point, it looked like a star falling up into the sky.

"We have a bearing," Kawalsky said, "Over."

"Roger, over and out." Samantha sat down on the dune, admiring the night sky. None of the constellations were recognizable, but she knew that Abydos was close enough to Earth that most of the stars were the same. A moon, browner than that of Earth but equally bright, rose slowly. After many minutes, Samantha saw a meteor shower and smiled at the lights.

Then the meteors turned and moved levelly across the sky. Puzzled, she pulled out her binoculars and focused on one of the lights. She couldn't make out the details at that distance, but she saw it disappear into a dark object. Moments later that object came out of Abydos' shadow and was lit by the local sun's light. It was a brown-orange pyramid surrounded by a jagged black metal structure. Unable to take her eyes off of the vessel, she triggered her radio by feel. "Doctors, when Ra visits, does he come through the stargate or by ship? Over"

"Just a minute," Daniel's voice answered. There was a pause, and then he continued, "By ship. Over"

There was a screeching roar and Samantha dove to the ground, dropping her binoculars and scanning the sky with her naked eyes. Two crescent silhouettes flew overhead. "We have bogies: get ready. Over"

Carter crawled along the ridge of the dune, allowing her a wide view without giving away a significant silhouette. The crescents formed up into formation with four others and landed. Twelve figures entered the camp. They were humanoid, but, except for one figure, their heads were those of animals.

"You have twelve entering camp. Over," the major said. She kept a ridge hiding her from the creatures while she passed by them, going to investigate their ships.

"Kasuf says that Ra is a friendly god," Catherine answered, "Since they still worship him, he has no reason to attack. Over"

"Be that as it may, Doctor," Maybourne said in the tent when it was clear that the major had nothing further to radio, "I think you two should still be armed. He pulled his M9 from its hip holster, flipped the safety off, cocked it, and handed it to the woman. Pasteur similarly prepared his Beretta and handed it to Dr. Jackson. "It's ready to fire, Ma'am," Maybourne continued, "Just point and shoot."

Two animal-headed beings carrying staves entered the tent and held the flaps open. An adolescent boy entered, followed by three more guards. Kasuf knelt before his god, and Catherine imitated him, saying to Maybourne and Pasteur, "When in Egypt, do as the Egyptians do."

Ra looked at Catherine curiously and stepped forward, lifting up her amulet and asking something. "He wants to know why I wear his symbol," Catherine told her escort before answering in Egyptian, "I wear it for luck; it was given to me by my father." [A/N: italics indicate non-English speech]

Ra paused looking at the group. "From where do you come?"

Kasuf answered, "They are visitors from a far off world, which they call 'Earth'."

Ra repeated the unfamiliar English word, "'Earth?' Where is this world?"

"We do not know the address," Catherine answered, "But the point of origin is this." She drew the Giza glyph in the sand.

Ra's eyes flashed. "I know your people. Your gate was buried generations ago. I was inclined to forget your offenses against me, but now you have desecrated my temple with your presence, and come out as if for war."

"We bear you no hostility," Catherine said, "We wish to learn."

This seemed to anger Ra even more. "I taught you once, and you repaid me with evil. Now, I find you on my world. How many of you have come through the Stargate?"

"Doctor, he doesn't look happy," Maybourne cautioned, "Be careful what you tell him."

"I know that," Catherine answered, "We are all that came through."

Ra barked an order to his Jaffa, and two of them departed. "Fool! We already dealt with the soldiers at the pyramid! We detected transmissions from this area. Show me how your technology works, and tell me how to find all of your people."

Catherine remained silent, and Ra grabbed her injured wrist, twisting it backwards. "Show me!" Catherine winced at his rough treatment but still refused to answer. Ra gave an order, and one of the Jaffa dragged Skaara from his mat. The still-weak boy was forced to his knees, and then the Jaffa stepped back, lowering his weapon to point at the boy.

"We can't give him information that he might use against Earth," Catherine answered, hardening herself against the guilt which she expected. "I'm sorry, boys."

The two Jaffa returned, carrying rifles, vests, and several bags from the F.R.E.D. "You will demonstrate the use of the communications equipment."

Kasuf looked at his son and then at Catherine, who was still wincing from the grip Ra had on her wrist. "I saw the operation of their devices" the old man said, "The communications require two people to operate. May I show you?"

Catherine looked at Kasuf but said nothing. He returned her glance and said "I'm sorry, Catherine."

Ra smiled: "Your obedience will be rewarded."

Kasuf stood and rummaged through the equipment that the Jaffa had brought, eventually finding the device he wanted. "You must speak into this. I will hold the activator. They prepare it by doing this," he pressed a switch, and then pulled back the upper section of the device. He then held it up so that the opening he'd showed Ra earlier pointed at the deity.

Ra spoke into the opening, "I am the god Ra. I demand—"

Ra's words were cut short by three bangs as Kasuf pulled the trigger of the Beretta. The Jaffa, ignorant of the nature of the device that Kasuf was using, were caught off guard by this turn of events. Maybourne and Pasteur had figured out what the old man had in mind and reacted first, each opening fire on the Jaffa nearest them; Pasteur took out the one who was threatening Skaara. Daniel and Catherine imitated the two soldiers, shooting the next two Jaffa. The one Jaffa that remained was the one that had been standing closest to Ra and the captured supplies and farthest from the Tau'ri. He was too close to Kasuf to bring his staff to bear, so he instead struck with the shaft of the weapon, knocking Kasuf's arms up so that the old man couldn't aim his firearm. Pasteur quickly aimed at the Jaffa's chest and fired several shots.

The final Jaffa fell, and Pasteur clapped Kasuf on the back. "I like your style, old man," he said, "If you're ever down in Dixie, I'll introduce you to my grandma." The old man had no idea what Pasteur had said, but he grinned back at the soldier and nodded.

"Major said that there were twelve bogies," Maybourne said seriously, "That leaves six more, and I'd rather not wait for them. Get vests on if you're not already wearing them, and let's get out of here."

Catherine explained this order to the two Abydonians, and they scavenged through the equipment that the Jaffa had brought to get vests for Daniel, Kasuf, and Skaara. Maybourne lifted the boy in a fireman's carry, and Kasuf cut an exit through the back of the tent. The group hurried through it, listening for shouting in the alien tongue.

Kasuf lead the team beyond the perimeter of the camp and turned left. Maybourne moved next to Catherine and whispered, "The pyramid is in the other direction."

"Ra said he'd been there," the archeologist answered, "That's where he got that equipment."

Maybourne nodded and reached for his radio. "Wait," Catherine whispered hoarsely, pulling down on that arm, "Ra knew about the radios."

The moonlight was too dim for anyone to see Maybourne's grimace at this news, but Catherine saw him nod. When she released his arm, he triggered his radio and spoke quickly, "Bogies are hostile; we took six out. The base camp is compromised, transmissions may be monitored. Recommend radio silence, over and out." There was no answer, but shouting arose from inside the mining camp. "Stay here," Maybourne whispered to the archeologists, setting Skaara down in the sand.

"Think we've outdone Indiana yet?" Daniel asked Catherine, rubbing his neck.

Catherine snorted at the younger doctor's comment and asked, "What did you do to your neck?"

"I think it's a cut from being drug by the animal earlier," he answered, "It must have re-opened in the fighting."

Maybourne and Pasteur, meanwhile, had crawled up a dune to look into the camp. Animal-headed silhouettes could be seen in the lighted tent. "Those heads have to be part of their armor," Pasteur commented, "They looked like the same metal as the rest of the outfit." The figures exited the tent carrying a litter. "Sir?" Pasteur asked as he took aim at one of the Jaffa not carrying the litter.

"Go ahead," Maybourne answered, preparing to provide cover fire if needed. Pasteur fired a single shot, and the Jaffa he'd targeted went down. Another one shouted, and the two carrying the litter started sprinting, accompanied by a third Jaffa. The other two readied their staves and crouched, looking for the direction of the attack. Pasteur took aim again and fired, but this time the bullet ricocheted off of its target's armor.

The Jaffa spotted the flash of the riffle and began returning fire. The sand shook as the blasts hit the opposite side of the dune, and Maybourne crawled sideways before popping up to fire a burst of bullets at the Jaffa and dropping down again. He and Pasteur alternated in this tactic several times before taking down both Jaffa. As the two soldiers crawled back to their civilians, Maybourne risked using his radio again, "Major, you've got three headed your way. Over and out"

Major Carter had put little hope in Catherine's statement about the friendliness of the aliens. If Ra was still posing as a god and forcing labor from Kasuf's people, she doubted he'd changed since being kicked off Earth. She did, however, want to examine his technology, and so she went to the crescent-ships which the aliens had landed in two columns of three ships each. She circled the landing area with her MP5 ready, but found no guards and approached the nearest vessel. It was clearly not designed to fly using lift, but Samantha guessed that the wings provided stability in atmospheric flight. There were two engines near the center of the ship, which reduced stress on the wings but meant that an engine fire or explosion would most likely kill the pilots. Two cannons were placed on the wings, far enough away from the cockpit that the muzzle-flash would not blind the pilots.

The major climbed up the wing of the craft and saw two seats in the cockpit. This confirmed that the twelve figures she'd seen were all of the occupants of the gliders. The two seats each had a console of some kind, and Samantha lowered herself into the back seat to examine its console. A graphic display illuminated when she sat; it showed the area in front of and below the glider. A single button lit up, and Samantha touched it. The cannons on either wing made a sizzling sound, and the major could see that they had opened. At the same time, red buttons on each side of the screen lit up. Samantha pressed the one on the right, and the right cannon fired a burst of light. "Gunner's seat," the major said to herself, "computer shows the area out of view." She nodded, glancing at the display for other buttons to try, but found none.

The front seat took a bit more figuring out. In addition to the forward-and-downward view identical to that of the back seat, this display had several components with labels in the alien language. Samantha guessed that they included fuel, temperature, heat, and altitude gauges, but she wasn't sure how to tell which one indicated what, and she had no idea what two of the panels were saying. There were no foot controls, but a small glowing sphere presented itself where she might expect a centre stick in many Earth aircraft. She placed her hands on either side of the ball. The engines hummed to life, and a metal-and-glass canopy closed over the cockpit. The major jerked her hands away from the ball, but the engines did not shut down and the canopy remained shut. After experimenting with a few buttons, she found one that shut down the engines and another that opened the canopy.

Satisfied that she would be able to get out, she placed her hands on the sphere again and waited for the engines to power up again. Once their hum was steady, she pushed forward on the ball, and the craft taxied forward. She tried turning the ball to no result, but when she first pushed forward and then turned, the ship turned as it taxied.

Samantha's experimentations were interrupted when Maybourne's voice came over her radio: "Bogies are hostile; we took six out. The base camp is compromised, transmissions may be monitored. Recommend radio silence, over and out."

The major heeded the recommendation and did not answer. Her subordinate had included the information he thought was necessary, and she would have to wait for the details. She found little else to do, however, as he did not call for backup. She considered the situation: the base camp eliminated without getting even a single call for help. That meant that Green, O'Brian, Kawalsky, and Harris had all been killed or captured. If Freeman had gotten his group back to the pyramid before the attack, then he, Jones, and Johnson were in the same boat.

That meant she had two airmen, two civilians, and herself against God only knew what. She looked up through the canopy at the stars she'd considered comforting earlier, wondering if Sol was among the visible ones. Another message broke through her dark considerations:

"Major, you've got three headed your way. Over and out"

This required action: the major opened her canopy and unwrapped a block of C-4 as she ran to the first glider in the other column. She forced the plastic explosive through the grating which covered one of the engines. If the engine exhaust was hot enough, it would detonate the C-4, hopefully igniting the ship's fuel and creating one big fireball. She lit her final flare and tossed it into the ship behind the one with which she'd experimented, hoping that the thing might do some damage.

A man shouted and several streaks of light flashed over Samantha's head as she dashed back to 'her' glider, and she jumped into the front seat, grabbing the control sphere and pushing forward as hard as she could before the canopy had even finished closing. The engines roared and the craft sprung forward, clipping a sand dune with its wingtips before gaining altitude. She wheeled the ship around, wondering if there was a way to fire the cannons from the front seat, but she saw the bogies entering the gliders that had been behind hers.

"So much for sabotage," the major muttered, figuring out how to fire but missing with the few blasts that she managed shoot before she'd over flown the landed craft. By the time she'd banked, there were two bogies in the air. She fired again, but her shots again went wide. One of the bogies headed toward the pyramid, and she tailed him, holding down the firing button.

The bogie zigged and zagged to avoid her shots; its pilot experienced enough to know that flying in a straight line was virtually suicidal in combat. Major Carter's attention was pulled to the other bogie when several shots flashed past her own canopy. She broke off pursuit of the first bogie to engage the second, trying a loop and then an Immelmann turn to get behind the other craft, but the other pilot trailed too closely for these maneuvers to work. She began another Immelmann, and again the other pilot avoided, but she dove and looped again, turning the maneuver into a Cuban Eight and firing. "Yes!" she shouted as the glider became a fireball and crashed into the sand. She turned toward the pyramid and pushed the thrust to maximum, hoping to catch up with the remaining glider. It had a strong lead by this time, and was climbing slightly. The major gasped when she saw it approach the pyramid-ship she'd seen earlier, which was now in the atmosphere but climbing.

Beams of light shot out from the pyramid-ship, different from the glider-shot but, Samantha assumed, equally deadly.

Samantha dove, zigging and zagging much as the bogie had done earlier. The pyramid-ship continued to fire, and Samantha leveled her glider as it came within a few meters of the obelisks reversing thrust to slow down and dodging between the giant spires. One of the beams hit an obelisk, and the stone jerked and fell, clipping her wing as it did so. The fighter spun, and Samantha fought to regain control, leveling the craft before it skipped across the sand, losing the ends of its wings before finally coming to a halt.

"This thing must have awesome inertial dampeners," the major said as she pressed the canopy release, and she climbed out through the front of the cockpit before the thing had finished folding into its compartment. She sprinted from the wreckage, both because that was where any enemy searches would look for her and because she didn't know if the thing was likely to explode. The major slipped in the sand and fell, but kept crawling forward as she spit out the sand she'd gotten into her mouth.

Once the major reached the crest of a dune, she swung herself over and sat in the sand, catching her breath. If the glider did explode, she hoped that the sand would shelter her from the blast, and in any case she was on the shadowed side of the dune, gave her some cover from enemy eyes. Major Carter watched the pyramid-ship shrink as it ascended and considered her mission, wondering if she should turn to General West's other objective.

'If Ra knows that we've unburied the Stargate on Earth,' she thought, 'then he may send troops through for revenge and re-conquest. Detonating the bomb will destroy the pyramid and hopefully destroy the Stargate, cutting him off from Earth. But we won't have any means of escape.' Carter paused, biting her lower lip. Even though she wouldn't think about it, she knew the blast would certainly kill her at this range.

She thought about the glider she'd flown, about its advanced weapons and inertial dampeners, and about the skill of the pilot she'd engaged. Then she thought about how easily the mothership had destroyed the obelisk. Against that, the militaries of Earth would be out-gunned. The risk to Earth was too great, and her team was expendable. She was expendable.

Samantha took the detonator out of her pocket. She pulled her dog tags out of her uniform, undid the clasp and removed a small key before returning the tags to her neck. By feel, she inserted the key into the detonator and turned it. A single row of red numerals lit up, flashing at 0000. No time delay had been entered. She looked up at the stars and whispered, "O God, be merciful to me, a sinner."

She closed her eyes and pushed the detonate button.

After several seconds, she re-opened her eyes and looked toward the pyramid. Conventional wisdom said that after you trigger an explosive, if it doesn't go off right away, you don't move closer to see what the problem is. However, the major thought that her situation was about as unconventional as possible, and she knew that a few hundred meters wouldn't make any difference to a nuclear explosion. She crawled toward the entrance to the pyramid, keeping to the moon-shadows.

The steps were thrown into dark contrast as the moon continued to rise, so she crawled up the still-shadowed sand parallel to the stones. The obelisk that had been shot now lay across the steps, and going around it would require entering the light. Instead, she decided to go under it through a small gap where the sand dipped as it pulled away from the steps. Holding her rifle in front of her, she dropped to her belly, ducked her head, and pushed herself under the stone. Once her legs were under the stone, she didn't have room to bend her knees and had to propel herself by "walking" forward with her elbows, sending quite a bit on sand back into her face and down her neck. She finally got her head out from under the stone and started to lift her head, only to find a small cold something pressing into her neck.

"Don't move, and don't try to yell," a man's voice said softly.

Samantha didn't move, not even to nod in acknowledge the order, and searched her memory, trying to identify the voice. After twenty seconds, she said, "Green?"

"Major?" the man's voice answered, surprised.

"Yeah," Carter answered. After a pause, she asked, "Are you going to shoot me?"

"No Ma'am," the man answered, removing the muzzle from her neck. Hands grabbed her arms and pulled her the rest of the way out from under the obelisk, but they kept to the shadows, and Carter had trouble making out more than that there were three men wearing BDUs and combat vests. "Airman First Class Jones, Ma'am."

"Where are the others?" the major asked.

"Dead," Jones answered, "We'd returned to the pyramid like you ordered. The LT" he pronounced the letters of the abbreviation, "had Airman Johnson and me relieve Green and O'Brian at the door, and they went with him to get dinner ready in the room we were using as our camp. There was a flash of light in that room, and I thought that maybe somebody was trying to use C-4 to cook with. Then they started shooting. We tried to radio Kawalsky and Harris up on the pyramid, this was all just after you'd fired that flare, Ma'am, but got no response. We fired a couple shots outside so those two would know something was up and then ran to the camp room. A couple of these big-headed aliens pinned us with ray-guns in the hallway. There wasn't a lot of cover, and we couldn't advance without getting shot. Freeman shouted an order for us to retreat, and we did."

"When we heard them shooting," Harris said, "Lieutenant Kawalsky decided we should get down and provide support. We started rappelling down, but then the wind picked up and there were these lights above us. It was hard to see with all the sand blowing around, but we realized that that . . . thing was landing on the pyramid. I pulled the release and slid down the side: I think I sprained an ankle on the landing. I don't think Lieutenant Kawalsky got his carabiner open. I," Harris' voice trembled, "I haven't seen him since I hit the sand."

Jones picked up the narration again, "We found Harris when we retreated. Our radios were dead; we figured they were jamming us. We didn't realize that they were working again till Maybourne radioed recommending radio silence. When the pyramid lifted off again, we figured we should check it out. On our way up we saw the fighters come: I take it you were in the one that crashed," Jones finished.

"And you haven't seen any signs of life from the pyramid?" Carter confirmed.

"No Ma'am. Not since that thing took off."

"How're you for ammo?" she asked.

"I used up both clips for my primary," Jones answered, "but I'm still on the first beretta clip."

"My MP5 was in the camp room," Harris answered, "I haven't fired my sidearm yet."

"I still have some shots left in my second clip, Ma'am," Johnson said, "I'd guess about half."

The major took her own second clip of MP5 ammunition and handed it to Jones. "That's full," she said, "The only thing I've fired is the cannons on those fighters." She paused, shifted her MP5, and said, "Let's go."

A/N: Sorry about the cliffhanger. This was definitely the most action-packed chapter, and the one I found most difficult to write. I need you to tell me how I did: Did things make sense? Did I bore you with too much description? Did the characterizations seem logical/true to the cannon?

Don't worry too much about being nice in reviews, but please be constructive in criticisms.