Heh heh heh...this would've been up sooner (like a month and a half ago) if not for a STUPID MIX-UP WITH YAHOO E-MAIL. Not that I am bitter. Thanks always to my beta Oparu, who is extremely fast. Anyways, don't own 'em, never will. Just like to take them out to play and return them as...erm...used goods. That sounds very odd. Onwards and upwards to the story!

Lorne and Zelenka watched helplessly as Carson and the EMTs ran through the 'gate room with Sheppard's team on stretchers. Questions ran through their mind like wildfire, all of them unanswered. How long had they been lying on the ground before Lorne had decided to send a team? Where was Elizabeth? Who the hell had done this?

From what Major Lorne knew, the Aldorans were not a violent species—especially to the extent of shooting the team—though their injuries looked awfully familiar. The majority of the injuries were bullet wounds, but Carson had yet to confirm it. He had also not expected good prognoses from the team, but Lorne had expected that. Just seeing the amount of blood on the ground, he could honestly say he didn't expect them all to make it. But he had faith in the doctor, as they all did.

Zelenka stared at the procession with shocked eyes, trying to trick himself into thinking it was simply a dream. They'd seen more amounts of people come through the 'gate with injuries, but their lead team always managed to pull through with minor wounds. This time, though…and where was Elizabeth? Why had they taken her instead of the others? No doubt any one of them (well, maybe except Rodney—but Zelenka believed Rodney had it in him) would've offered themselves. They would've insisted on replacing her, so why was she gone? He refused to believe she was dead, and he pushed his glasses up on his nose and turned to Lorne.

"I'd like to come with you on the search team," he said, standing up straighter.

"Uh, Doctor, that's really not necessary," Lorne answered, avoiding his eyes. "I know you—"

"No, no, I can get the addresses from the DHD," he explained, putting up a hand to effectively stop Lorne, who looked relieved at not having to shoot down a helpful scientist. "Hopefully it will help us find Elizabeth."

Lorne nodded solemnly as the last stretcher, bearing Ronon, was wheeled towards the infirmary. "Good." He clapped his hands. "Okay, let's get on that."

She awoke to darkness. Her eyes slowly adjusted to the lack of light, but for a second she thought she was going blind. She mentally chided herself as objects came into focus, but they were sideways. She suddenly realized her head was lying on the ground, as was the rest of her, and she needed to get up.

Her head hurt; that impeded her efforts, but she eventually hoisted herself into a sitting position. She couldn't remember much about what had happened, but as she felt a tender lump on top of her head, a flash of a memory came back to her. She saw five Gate symbols in her mind's eye, then blackness. She'd been hit with a knife, and it'd caused quite a headache. The symbols were jumbled, and she couldn't remember which order she'd viewed them. Not that it really mattered, because it wouldn't help her situation at all to know what planet she was on. For all she knew, they'd gated to another world while she'd been unconscious.

As she lurched upright, she realized she was still wearing her uniform, but her jacket and vest had been stripped away. Her hair was matted down with blood. Slowly her back begin to tingle painfully, and she realized the morphine had worn off. She felt around to her back, and to her surprise, felt something akin to a bandage. She turned around, still sitting down, and saw she wasn't alone. Five sets of eyes stared back at her, all from women's faces. They all looked scared and broken, and most would only look at her in intermittent glances.

She tried tentatively to communicate, using English. Two of the five responded. Using Ancient, another member of her cell replied. The other two attempted their language, but Elizabeth didn't recognize it. The woman closest to her—no, the more apt term was girl, she was barely a teenager—held her gaze.

"Who are you?" the girl asked her, her arms wrapped around her knees.

"Doctor Elizabeth Weir," she answered, turning to fully face her. "What's your name? Do you know where we are?"

She shook her head. "I'm Ketna. I don't know where we are; I don't think anyone does. It's no use asking those three, they don't speak Elukre."

"Elukre?" Elizabeth asked, a second before she realized Ketna didn't call it English.

Ketna looked positively confused. "Elukre. This. The—"

"No, I know. I call it English."

She tried it out. "English." The word was odd on her tongue, and she slurred the g and the l. "English. No, Asluna, over there, speaks Eluk—English too. The other three speak something else." The woman she'd been referring to nodded and smiled uncertainly at Elizabeth. "No one seems to talk in here. They keep to themselves a lot."

"Do you know her?" Elizabeth questioned, seeing the knowing look that passed between the girl and the woman.

Ketna shrugged. "She's from my village, but I didn't know her very personally. She ran the store across from—it doesn't really matter. All that matters is soon the sacrifice will begin."

A feeling of dread spread over Elizabeth, making her head and back throb even more. "The…sacrifice?"

Asluna answered. "Every so often, the guards come and take someone from each block. The ones taken are sacrificed to the gods, to keep them happy. Apparently sacrificing males is forbidden, so they kidnap females. They tell their subjects in the city the gods are pleased with their 'harvest', and by taking females from other planets, they don't have to murder their own followers."

Ketna nodded, watching Elizabeth's reaction carefully.

Elizabeth thought this over, and suddenly remembered something. "We were visiting a planet, and its occupants had been completely executed. Why didn't they take the females from there?"

"There is a very good chance they planned on it, but were not able to carry it out. Perhaps others got in their way, and they thought it would simply be a better idea to kill them all," Asluna said.

Elizabeth bit her lip. "But when they took me, they killed the rest of my team." She swallowed a lump that was beginning to form in her throat. "That included another female. Why bother taking me if they were just going to kill the rest of us?"

"They don't need a reason to kill anyone," Ketna said, sounding like a little girl.

Elizabeth's brows knit together. "And also, they took me because I could speak Ancient. What good would that do?"

The two women who understood her didn't answer, looking puzzled.

Elizabeth switched topics. "Who bandaged my back?" It didn't hurt as much anymore, and she was able to put the pain out of her mind.

Ketna pointed at a woman in the corner. "Layna. No one understands her, but I think she's a medic."

Elizabeth crawled over to her. "Thank you," she whispered, hoping the message would be conveyed no matter what language she said it in.

Layna nodded, smiling at her. Something was said, but Elizabeth didn't know what it meant. She figured it meant "you're welcome", but she couldn't be sure.

"How often do these 'sacrifices' happen?" she asked, turning around to face Ketna and Asluna again.

"About every ak or so," Ketna said nonchalantly.

First Elizabeth had thought she'd coughed up something, but when she looked blankly back, she realized it was a measurement of time. "Ak? Um…how long—"

The thudding of footsteps drowned out her question. As she looked to Ketna's face, she saw worry and fear that hadn't been there before.

Elizabeth's first sacrifice was about to commence.

Yeah, it's not really very long, but hey. Next part shouldn't take too long--I just kind of have to write it. And I have some school stuff I should probably get done first...-whistle- Tell me whatcha think!