The guard walked past Cameron and Daniel, paying little attention to them besides a momentary glance. Daniel sighed with relief. However, when the guard almost disappeared behind a corner, Mitchell suddenly took out a zat concealed in his Aschen shirt. Seeing this, Daniel, with a horrified look on his face, pushed him, and he missed.
The guard, however, reacted strangely to the shot. He covered his ears for a second, even though the sound of the zat wasn't particularly loud, then turned around and fired at Mitchell from his handgun. Daniel jumped in the way, took the shot and collapsed on the ground; meanwhile, Mitchell tried to zat the guard again, this time successfully.
"Daniel!" he exclaimed.
"I feel... sleepy..." murmured Jackson, moving his fingers a bit before he went completely numb. Cameron touched his chest; he was clearly still breathing.
"Teal'c, you still here?" Mitchell said in the communicator. "Take this one!"
Teal'c's black arms appeared out of the air, grabbed the guard's legs and pulled him into the invisible jumper. Mitchell himself dragged in Daniel. Inside the ship, Vala looked back from her pilot seat and, upon seeing the device, grinned and asked:
"What's this, some kind of Aschen thing-we-don't-know-what-it-does? Press some button, I want to see what happens."
"I am more concerned about Daniel Jackson's health," said Teal'c.
"Oh, come on, Muscles, he's been worse!" said Vala. When Mitchell leant over Daniel, putting the device aside, she stood up and pressed the only button on it...
Suddenly, Daniel's eyes opened, and he rapidly lifted his upper body, assuming a sitting position. "Wooh..." he said drowsily. "That gun must be a tran... quilizer. I... thought of it... in my... sleep..." He looked around, noticed the guard lying beside him, and began to speak quickly. "Waitaminutewhyhasn'thestillgotuphowlongwasIlying here anyway?"
"Two minutes, tops," said Mitchell. "Still want to explore the library?"
"I was just getting to that..."
"I'll take this gun. It's smaller than a zat, and... less noisy. Plus the remote-thing seems to reverse its effects. Teal'c, I'm leaving the guy to you. If he's uncooperative, just do something really loud, he doesn't like it."
Teal'c nodded.
As soon as Cameron and Daniel left the ship again, Vala — noticing that the guard began to get up — wrapped her arms around his waist and passionately kissed him. Teal'c immediately drew out his zat and pointed it at the guard, who stared at Vala with his eyes opened slightly wider than before.
"Where am I?" he asked monotonously.
"Ehh..." sighed Vala. "I expected more reaction." She touched his crotch and added, "Much more reaction..."
Three days later...
"Unscheduled off-world activation!" announced Walter as the iris closed and the siren turned on. Landry rushed downstairs, putting on his USAF jacket on the fly.
"We're receiving a signal, Sir. It's SG-1's code."
"Open the iris," ordered the General.
The Stargate's exit cleared, and Joe Faxon — now dressed in a spare SG-1 uniform — stepped out of it onto the ramp. The guards in the gate room synchronously took aim ait him.
"No! Don't shoot!" Walter shouted over the loudspeaker. "Sir, I recognize this man," he explained, but stopped when he saw Landry heading straight for the gate room. Once there, the General dismissed the guards with a gesture and approached Faxon, just as the Stargate closed behind him.
"Ambassador Faxon, I'm glad to see you alive. You were presumed dead for all these years..."
"The Aschen aren't an overly violent race," Joe said. "I don't think they'd kill anybody out of spi— General Landry, I presume? Colonel Mitchell told me you were on good terms, although to be frank, I'll miss General Hamm—"
"Where's SG-1?" interrupted Landry.
"Went to the Aschen capital world. Didn't return. We tried gating to the planet, but it just won't connect..."
"'We'? Who are the 'we'?"
"Anti-Aschen rebellion. SG-1 stirred things up, we've even captured a few Aschen ships — unfortunately, nobody can fly them."
"We'll send specialists on alien spacecraft along with more SG teams, then organize a rescue mission," assured the General. "Anything else?"
"A spare DHD to Volia—"
"Consider it done."
"General," said Faxon more quietly, heading for the exit from the gate room. "I wish you best luck in finding SG-1 and fighting the Aschen... and I have one more request of a personal kind."
"You're welcome," said Landry, catching up with him down the corridor.
"I'd like to join the Atlantis expedition."
"Why?" the Genral asked amusedly, stopping.
"To repay my debt to Colonel Carter. For what she did in the last mission to Volia..."
"Ambassador," Landry said sharply, reaching and pressing the elevator button. "I understand your feelings on this matter... I've read and re-read her reports and I know what was bleeding through their dry formal language. But Atlantis is not under my jurisdiction, and I doubt the IOA would be as convinced by your arguments as I am."
"IOA?"
"You don't want to know. If you have a private message to Colonel Carter, just write it encrypted, and we'll deliver it the next time we use the gate bridge. You will be needed on the Odyssey for the rescue mission."
"Odyssey?" asked the Ambassador, entering the elevator.
"You'll know soon."
Dusk had come.
In this particular timezone on the planet, that is.
The puddle jumper was parked near a beautiful, tranquil forest lake. Mitchell, Vala, Teal'c and the captive Aschen guard were sitting on the grass around a bonfire, eating griled meat. Daniel was sitting apart from the others, periodically touching the screen of a tablet device, obviously of Aschen design — like a PDA, but larger and sleeker.
"Enjoying the meal, Deschar?" Vala asked playfully.
"Enjoying?" repeated the guard. "Do I look enjoyed to you?!" he suddenly exploded. "You keep me in this wilderness, with unsterilized food! I haven't undergone disinfection for three days! How do you cope?!"
"Ooh, he's showing teeth," smiled Vala.
"Come on," said Mitchell, "this is the natural habitat of SG teams. Rocks and trees, and trees and rocks..."
"And wofew!" added Vala, chopping off another bite.
"And water," agreed the Colonel.
"In addition, the amount of fish in the pond would have satisfied O'Neill," said Teal'c.
Suddenly, Daniel put the tablet aside and said, "I got it!"
"Please tell me you found records of a spare Stargate," said Mitchell.
"No... The library didn't have much about this world, makes sense given that the Aschen only, uh, settled here recently. I wasn't trying to get us off the planet. However, I think found something about the origin of the Aschen..."
"Oh, how typical," groaned Cam.
"Share your discovery, Daniel Jackson," requested Teal'c.
"The historical records only go as far as about nine thousand BC, I couldn't get any farther. But I also looked through the, uh, legends of old. Most of them are clearly ridiculous, but one captured my attention..."
He got closer to the others and showed them the tablet. "It states that the first Aschen rose from the sea in a shining bubble. On this, uh, ancient picture of the bubble, this is clearly a ZPM. I think they lived in a submersible city, much like Atlantis, except I don't know if it was a city-ship..."
Daniel left the tablet on the ground and went into the puddle jumper for a moment, then returned with an inactive life signs detector. "Touch this, please," he said to Deschar. The guard touched it, and its screen immediately turned on.
"See?" Daniel said triumphantly. "He has the ATA gene. The Aschen are Ancients — all of them. A whole planet of living Ancients... if you call it life."
"But didn't the Ancients leave the galaxy in Atlantis?" asked Mitchell.
"Most of those who survived by then, yes. They became the Lanteans, people like Merlin, and Morgan... and Melia. But some remained here and reseeded life in the galaxy with the Dakara weapon. That would explain why the Aschen architecture is so reminesc—"
"The Aschen don't exactly strike me as a million-year-old race," protested Mitchell. "I mean, they're pretty advanced... but not nearly to the level of Atlantis. Or even the Asgard..."
"That's a mystery to me," admitted Daniel, walking around in a circle. "But I think I now know why Melia wanted to stop us. She should know the answer, and how they lost their emotions."
He stopped just short of accidentally stepping into the lake.
"Maybe if I—"
Daniel didn't finish. He was instantly beamed away. The rest of SG-1 stared for a few more seconds at the point where he had just stood, then exchanged confused looks.
To be concluded...