Thanks for the compliments.

Allen Pitt: I'm pretty sure no Wraith, but that's because we don't know too much about them yet. About the Death Star, the Imperials know how useful they are, but they should also be able to see what happened to the last one.

Everyone, please read and review!

Coming in behind their MALP, SG-20 was greeted by a sight that was beginning to bore them. "They never get tired of putting out the welcome mat do they sir?"

"You're right, but they keep wanting to talk about it." Rolling her eyes behind his officer's back, Sergeant Angua waited for Lieutenant commander Vimes to make the first move.

"We come in peace. We come from earth. And it looks like your leaders came to us." He calmly lit his cigar and waited for the assembled 'community leaders' to return to some sort of calm. "We are here to round up some weapon smugglers. Not just any sort of weapon dealers, though. I mean we kinda like some of you, but the kind that steals our weapons, and then sold them to the Goa'uld. SGC would like the greatest of cooperation and so would the Free Jaffa Nation." He had to wait for the accusations and recriminations to subside.

"Why do you come here? We have done nothing wrong! We just sell what we are sold." These comments were echoed by some hecklers far to the back of the crowd.

"If you'll let us search, we'll let you know. The just have nothing to fear!" The four of them slowly but surely pushed their way through the crowd. After the town authorities cleared the crowd, 'commander' Vimes addressed his team.

"Cheery and 'Carrot top' will go search the east side. Angua, you're with me."

'Carrot top', or Thomas when people ignored his flaming red hair, was the team's linguist, but he hated combat. At 6'3" he was imposing alone, next to Cheery, he looked like some kind of giant. Cheery was the team's civilian Tech, but at 4' even, she looked like a dwarf. Currently not finding anything, they were taking a break in one of the ubiquitous small cafés around here.

"I doubt we're going to find anything. I mean we did make a showy entrance and let everyone know what we were after." Carrot sighed and tilted his chair back. "Man I wish we had some excitement here."

"I know what you mean. Of all the teams, we have seen the least action. SG-1 keeps doing all the cool stuff, and SG-2 and three are up there too. We just get grunt work like this. For all we've done, we could be policemen!"

KERBAM

Spinning out of their seats, Cheery and Carrot spun to face the source of the disturbance. It was centered on a woman and one of the merchants. Edging closer Carrot caught a little of what they were saying.

"—like that! Try that price again and you're not going to have a store left to cower in!" The woman was effortlessly holding up one of the merchants by his throat and yelling into his face. Tossing him aside like so much meat, she turned to her companion and glared at the growing crowd.

Stepping forward quickly, Carrot confronted the incoming guards and left Cheery to talk to the parties involved. "What happened here? Can anyone tell me what caused this?"

"The off-worlder didn't like the bargain, so she attacked!"

"The shopkeeper tried to get her to sell herself to him."

"She—"

"I think that's enough. Ok, We've got everything under control. This is an Earth matter now."

The woman shifted her glare to Cheery, "We have no need of your assistance."

"Really? Then could you handle the full troop of Jaffa guards coming this way?"

"Of course. They're just natives. They wouldn't last long against us," she sneered.

"What! Lady you must be from farther away than I thought. Now then, enough about that; what happened here?"

"Psh. We were bargaining and then he made an offer that I would never meet. He got angry, thought and then said that I could sell myself to him for the item."

"That's not what happened at all!" the merchant spoke up, gathering himself up out from the remains of his table. "I was dealing honorably with her like all my customers and —"

"Yeah right. You tried to cheat that To'kra trader and then tried to double cross the Lucien Alliance. You're just that good at pissing off your customers!"

Carrot turned to the crowd and waited for the patrol to arrive. It seemed obvious to him what had gone on. The stupid merchant could be fed to the Replicators for all he cared.

Sara was kinda ticked off at these two newcomers. While they seemed to be from some sort of military, they couldn't be from this planet. They were carrying some very odd-looking weapons and while she could see the practicalities of the green uniform, it wasn't very useful in a city. Plus it didn't really inspire fear. Walking slowly up to the short one, "We don't need your help. I had this situation under control," Sara said darkly.

"Hey, not that I'm arguing with you, but the locals don't like it when you bash up their citizens."

"Locals? I take it you're not from around here either?" Kyp spoke up, coming closer to enter the conversation.

"Yeah, we're not. We come from Earth. We're part of the SGC program. You know, hopping the galaxy, exploring strange new worlds through the Stargates. Stuff like that."

"Stargates? I haven't heard of a ship like that? What's so special?" Sara knew she looked confused. Sure those 'cargo ships' were quite small, but what was this 'Stargate'?

The short one was astonished. "You didn't get here through the Stargate? But you're trying to buy a ship?"

Kyp winced.

"How did you get here then?"

"It's a long story, that I don't have time for right now," Sara lied, taking the hint from Kyp. "Sorry about this, really." She shrugged, waved, and Kyp opened fire with his blaster pistol.

The blast hit the dwarf dead on, but only knocked her down. She had some kind of armor. "Let's move!" Sara ordered, and the pair dashed off, covering their retreat with potshots.

Carrot was stunned by the audacity of the attack, and was only able to respond by firing at their retreating backs. After losing sight of them, he turned to Cheery and gave her a hand up. "What was that all about?"

Also puzzled, Cheery replied, "I really don't know, but we need to let Vimes know." Turning on her radio, "Sir, we've got a problem."

Vimes had just handed over the smuggler to the authorities and began to relax when Cheery's voice dutifully informed him that an unknown person(s) had shot her, and that she and Carrot were heading down to the spaceport to try and stop them from escaping. "This Sergeant Angua is why you should never get promoted."

"Really, Sir?" Angua raised an eyebrow. "I thought that things like this are why I should never get put on off-world duty?" She rose and paid the waiter.

Finishing his coffee, Vimes stood up and began to move towards the spaceport. "I'll head for the spaceport, you tell the city guards to close off the 'gate. Hopefully they won't be too much of a hindrance."

"And after that sir?"

"Meet us at the spaceport. We might need your help." He waved her off, and took off at a respectable speed towards the spaceport.

As Vimes jogged up to the main entrance to the port, he noticed that none of the guards on duty had god marks on them. Shrugging mentally, he slowed to a walk and panted out, "Hey, have you let anyone in just now?"

"Just a merchant selling one of his ships. Why do you inquire?" Stone-faced the lead guard responded.

"Some off-worlder attacked one of my men, and I'd like to know why! I'd think you guys would too."

"Indeed. Someone who did not recognize one of the Tau'ri is far from a normal being." He called out orders to check on the merchant and then turned back to Vimes. "Why do you think these people would head here? Would not the Chappa'i be a better means of escape?"

Just then Cheery and Thomas dashed around the corner. "If you're wondering why we think they'll head here," Cheery guessed, "it's because they seemed to have no knowledge of the Stargates."

This comment dropped the group into stunned silence. Vimes was the first to break it. "But you said they looked Human?"

"Yes. They looked as human as anyone the Goa'uld took from Earth." Cheery said, about to drop into one of her 'lectures'.

"Right." Vimes interrupted her, forestalling any more babblings. "They looked like they were human, didn't know about the Stargates, and used some kind of new-fangled weapon? Right?"

Crestfallen, Cheery nodded, then perked up, "But think of what this means! A world that was able to develop the technology to cross the stars without help. I mean for all we know this could have been a scouting party for a slowboat ship!" Cheery reveled in the possibilities.

"Or," Angua said, having snuck up on them, "they could be scouting for a hostile fleet of aliens, intent on taking over the galaxy." She raised an eyebrow, staring everyone down.

These Tau'ri were very strange, thought the guard captain.

"Crap!"

"What is it, Sara?"

"There's a whole bunch of guards between us and the port. Two of them look like those two we ditched earlier. Two more are wearing the same kind of uniform." Sara passed over the electro binoculars to Kyp.

"You're right." He said after taking only a cursory look at the assembled group. "There are too many for us to take on. Plus they're right between Paelleon and us. He lowered the 'binocs grumbling to himself.

"Hey, watch what you're saying! I could take them all on, but then it wouldn't be a surprise later." Seeing the incredulous look on her companion's face, she grinned and told him she'd tell him later. "What we need is a distraction. I wonder what would work on them…"

"Why don't you call Paelleon and see what's going on on his end?"

Sara almost smacked herself. She was supposed to be the comm. tech here. Pulling out her modified comlink, she whispered, "LT. Paelleon, what's your status? We're currently outside the port, facing four to one odds. What do you want us to do sir?"

There was a moment of static, and then an unfamiliar voice startled her, "Be advised the lieutenant is on his way now to pick you up. Please be ready to be ringed aboard."

Hesitating, Sara muttered to Kyp, "'Ringed aboard'? Who does he think he is?" Lifting the comlink to her lips, "Whoever this is, get off and put the LT back on. If I find out that he's been harmed in any way I'll make sure—"

"I'm glad to know you cared." The LT's voice broke in. "This area of space has some intere4sting forms of unconventional technology. You two are about to get a first hand taste of it. The only thing you need to do is to get out into the open in about two minutes, OK?"

"Got it sir. As long as you're sure this is going to work." She clicked off the comlink and turned to Kyp.

"Age before beauty!" she offered.

"Ladies first." Kyp said simultaneously. Glaring at each other, their glares gave way to wry smiles, as they pulled out their blasters, and took aim.

Carrot recovered first from the unexpected humor their friend had evoked. Therefore, he has also the first to notice the swiftly moving shapes bursting out of the alley. "Incoming!" He tossed himself to the side, and the first shots missed. Behind him he heard the Jaffa guards yelling something about an unofficial take off, but he dismissed that from his mind and concentrated on shooting back. Joining the rest of the team, he ducked behind a recently upturned vendor's table, to return fire. It was only after he fired his first burst that he recognized the whine of an incoming cargo ship. He saw Cheery open fire on the two people that had shot them earlier, only to have the cargo ship hover briefly over them, ring them up, and fly away. Cursing to himself, he took a couple pot shots at the rapidly fleeing enemy and got up from the ground.

"Well, that was fun." Vimes commented, dusting himself off.

Turning to the guard captain, Angua argued, "Call the defense force! We need death gliders in the air to follow them!"

Unperturbed, the guard argued forcefully, "If the Tau'ri want them so bad, you pay the bills then! I'm not so sure why you wanted these people arrested in the first place."

"Fine!" Angua yelled back. "Then let your government pay for the future damage that they might cause!"

Aboard the rapidly ascending cargo ship, Sara was still shaken from her experience with the 'rings', as their pilot had called them. Getting herself back under control, she went up to Kelric to get the low down on their end of things. Inwardly she was wondering what the so-called 'Stargates' where that caused that soldier to freak out. She resolved to put that bit of info at the top of her list. Right up there next to what was this SGC was and how powerful it could be.