A/N: I do not own Stargate Atlantis and all mistakes are mine. Hope you enjoy, and please review (I really need to come up with more interesting authors notes).

-----------

Gemma's POV

BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP

I groaned and rolled out of bed, hitting the alarm clock as I did.

I can't wait. My first trip through the gate ever! I'm sooo excited. Although I'm scared too. Anything that can go wrong will go wrong. I've been told that Major Lorne's team doesn't have the best luck off-world, but it's a simple trading mission, all I'm doing is offering my medical expertise in exchange for food. Easy right?

I quickly got dressed and grabbed some breakfast from the mess hall. Well, they call it breakfast, I think it's more of a scrambled egg mush.

I decided to stop by the infirmary to see Cassie quickly. It's quite early and she was on the night shift last night, so she's probably still in bed.

"Hey lass," said Dr Beckett. He had Tommy on his shoulders and was spinning him around. "Looking forward to going off-world?"

I smiled and nodded. "Yeah, thanks for asking me if I wanted to go. Is Cassie in yet?"

"Not yet. And that's OK," he said as he put his now dizzy son on the floor. "Could you tell Major Lorne that I'll have a medical team waiting?"

"Sure," I said as I waved good bye and headed out the door.

"Good luck!" he called.

I took a transporter to the gate room where Major Lorne was waiting, dressed in full off-world gear. He smiled and handed me a tac vest and a 9mm. I took it and looked at it. "You ever fired a gun before?" he asked.

"Once," I said, not taking my eyes off the small weapon in my hand.

When I was about twelve, my parents and I lived in this huge house that had been left to them in their friend's will. It had seven bedrooms, four bathrooms, three floors and a swimming pool in the garden. My dad collected guns – muskets, rifles, revolvers, pistols; any he could get his hands on. One night someone broke into our house, tried to steel some of the things my parent's friend had left them. My dad heard a noise and went to investigate. He tried to stop the guy but he had a knife. My dad was stabbed in the gut. My mom and I heard him screaming in pain and ran downstairs and found him bleeding on the floor. The thief came back grabbed my mom and held the knife to her throat, saying that if I didn't let him get away he'd kill her. My dad tried to say something, but ended up pointing to a container. The glass that protected it had been smashed leaving my dad's collection of fully loaded guns. Before I had a chance to rethink, I grabbed the closest one to me, aimed and fired. It hit the guy in the chest and he let go of my mom and fell backwards. While I stared there in shook and my dad bled on the floor my mom got straight up and rang the cops and the paramedics. My dad pulled through, but the thief died on the way to the hospital. I killed him.

That was the day I decided I wanted to become a doctor.

I felt someone shake me in the arm. "You OK?" asked Major Lorne.

I nodded slowly. "What are the chances that I'll have to use this?" I asked.

He smiled. "Probably not very high."

I let out a breath I didn't know I was holding. The other members of Lorne's team soon arrived and Chuck (the technician) received the order to dial the gate. He punched in the address and the gate spun to life. The shimmering blue wormhole established and my mouth fell open. I'd never been this close to it before.

"This you first time through the gate?" asked one of Lorne's men.

I nodded and he gave me an encouraging slap on the back. "You'll love it."

Elizabeth McKay's voice came through on the radio. "AT-2, you have a go!"

I took a deep breath and stepped through I gate. Next thing I know, I'm in the middle of a forest on another planet. Why didn't they have these in med school? I would never have been late for class.

Resisting the urge to scream "Let's do it again!" at the top of my lungs I followed Lorne towards a small village.

On the way we passed a dead Wraith. One of the guys on Lorne's team picked it up and put it's right hand over it's heart (do the Wraith have hearts?) and said, "I am a nice Wraith, not a mindless eating machine. If I am to change this, I must first change myself. Humans are friend, not food."

The rest of the team cracked up laughing and we carried on.

Lorne and his men made small talk while I took in the sights. The trees were pink for crying out loud, however the others seemed oblivious to this fact.

It was about a mile from the gate to the settlement. It looked like something from the middle ages and smelt like it too. Not like I've actually been to the middle ages or anything.

"Major Lorne! Good to see you again," beamed an old man in a long brown robe.

Lorne smiled. "Chancellor, good to see you again too. Let me introduce you to Dr Gemma Williams."

The Chancellor bowed his head at me and I bowed mine back. "It is an honour to meet you Dr Williams," he said.

"The pleasure is all mine," I said as I looked around the village.

"Well, let's get straight to business then, shall we?" asked the Chancellor, leading us towards what looked like a hospital, or maybe the village hall.

The doors opened and I saw about seven people lying on the floor. Three children, three women and a man, each one was sick or injured.

"Any assistance you could offer us would be greatly appreciated," the Chancellor bowed his head again the left the room.

Lorne and I exchanged glances as the other members of the team (I really need to learn their names) went to see if there was anything they could do to help.

I got to work straight away. I knelt down next to a small boy of about five and saw that he had a fever and said that he had a sore throat. I gave him a quick shot of antibiotics, ruffled his hair and moved onto the next person.

Most of the people had the same illness, except for one that had fallen from a tree and had broken her arm.

"Any idea what it is?" asked Lorne.

I packed up the last of my medical equipment and zipped up the bag. "I think it's just the flu, or something similar to it. I've given them shots, so hopefully they should all be fine."

I looked at my watch and was shock to find that I'd been here for over four hours. I didn't think I'd spent that long chatting to the patients.

We left the hospital and saw the Chancellor walk up to us with a small group of villagers, all wearing long robes.

"Will they be alright?" he asked.

I smiled and nodded. "Yeah, they should all be fine in a few days."

"Thank you for your help," he said. "Men!"

The villagers all pulled out Wraith stunners from under their robes and aimed at us. Lorne and the others all raised their P-90's, ready to use them if necessary. "What the meaning of this?" demanded Lorne.

The Chancellor gave a small chuckle. "I can assure you it's nothing personal Major. It's just that our village really needs all the help we can get against the Wraith, so we need the weapons and the medical kit."

I felt my hand hover over the 9mm Lorne had given me, praying that I wouldn't have to put it to use. "And what if we say no?" he continued.

"I'm afraid you don't have much of a choice. Fire!"

They fired the Wraith stunners, but they were all a terrible shot and missed. Major Lorne and his men fired back, hitting the villagers in the arms or legs. "Run!" he yelled.

I didn't have to be told twice and began to leg it. More villagers appeared from nowhere, each carrying stunners. I heard a cry behind me and turned my head to see the Major fall unconscious.

"Keep going!" called one of his men. "We'll come back for him."

So I did. But I wasn't fast enough. I heard one of the stunners fire and felt something hit me in the back. I screamed and then everything went black.

I slowly opened my eyes and found myself looking at a concrete ceiling. Upon remembering what had happened I quickly sat up. A choice that I regretted a few seconds later when my head started to pound.

"Head hurt?" I jumped when I heard a voice. "Don't worry. Wraith stunner, takes a bit of getting used to."

I turned around and saw Major Lorne smiling at me. He was propped up against the wall. "Where are we?" I asked.

He shrugged. "I don't know. Looks like a cell."

It was dark, so I couldn't see much, but he was right. We were in a cell, with metal bars preventing our escape.

Just my luck isn't it? The first time I go through the gate may also be my last. Typical.

I wonder if the others made it back to the gate? If they did, Elizabeth would send a rescue team to come and bust out Lonre and I.

And why did they have to shoot and capture us? Why couldn't they have just asked us for supplies? I'm sure Elizabeth would have agreed.

"I see the prisoners have woken up," said the Chancellor, appearing from nowhere.

Lorne stood up. "What do you want?"

"I'm sorry I had to do this Major," he said. "We are at war with the Wraith. My people have been for generations. You people are move advanced than we will ever be and I'm afraid we need all the supplies we can get. During the last culling they took my son, I will do whatever it takes to insure that the rest of my people do not have to go through what I did."

"So why are we being held captive?" I asked, finally joining the conversation.

He shrugged. "Because I feel like it."

I could tell the Major was getting angry. Well, angrier than he was. "I'll people will come for us you know."

"I very much doubt that as the rest of your team is dead."

I looked at him in shock. Dead? All of them? How could he kill three innocent people for no good reason? And what does he have planned for us?

"Well," said the Chancellor. "I'd love to stay and chat but I have things to do."

And then he left, just like that.

I sat back down and looked up at Major Lorne. "What do we do know?"

He came and sat opposite me. "Even if he did kill my men – and I doubt he did – Elizabeth will send a team when we fail to check in."

I nodded. It was too dark for me to see my watch, but it was dark outside, so we must have missed the scheduled check in. Help should be on the way.

A few hours passed by and we were brought some food. It smelt like dead rat, so neither of us ate it.

However, we did form a plan. The next time they opened the cell, we'd simply kick them and run. Easy right?

Another hour or so went by before they opened the cell to collect the food. Two men came in, carrying out P-90's. Lorne and I hid in the shadows until they were in the middle of the cell. He tapped on of them on the back, elbowed him in the stomach and then flipped him over.

I attacked the other a little less gracefully and just kneed him in the groin.

"Effective," said Lonre. "Remind me never to piss you off."

He took the weapons off them and handed one to me. "Come on. This way."

I followed him out of the cell and down a narrow corridor. It was dark and damp and smelt of rotting corpse. "Do you know where we're going?" I asked him.

He smiled. "Not a clue."

"There they are!" called someone behind us.

"Run!" said Lorne, as he shot the soldiers chasing us.

I ran down the rest of the corridor, P-90 raised and was relieved to see daylight. The Major appeared a few seconds later. "Come on," he said as he ran into the forest.

The walk from the gate to the village had been easy. Most of it had been downhill, but now we were running up.

More soldiers appeared and began to fire at us. Lorne tried to fight back, but we were seriously outnumbered.

I felt something slash against my arm, the momentum causing me to fall over. Using my hand to try and stop the bleeding on my other arm I pushed myself to my feet and tossed my P-90 to Lorne.

"Are you OK?" he asked.

I nodded and kept running. "Yeah, just a flesh wound, I'll be fine."

We carried on running until we got to the DHD. I dialled Atlantis and sent a message through. "Atlantis, this is Dr Williams, we're coming in hot!"

"Come on!" I called to Lorne.

He fired a final round of bullets and followed me through the gate.