Chapter 4 Right Place, Wrong Time.

SG-1 gated through to Kelowna on the following day and met Jonas Quinn at the rendezvous point with no problems. Teal'c greeted his ex-team member with real pleasure, introducing the others to him at once. Everyone liked the friendly, fresh-faced, upbeat Kelownan immediately.

"It's great to see you all here!" he smiled, with genuine warmth. "I mean, I love being back on my home planet, but sometimes, well, I miss those adventures I had with the SGC. All that running around the galaxy, flying spaceships and fighting the Gou'ald." He sighed, reminiscently. "Remember that time I fell into that huge tank that was full of symbiotes?"

Teal'c smiled. "Indeed I do, JonasQuinn. You proved yourself on many occasions to be a true friend to the Tau'ri."

The group moved away from the Stargate and headed through the complex towards a briefing room.

"How are my fish doing?" asked Jonas, smiling. Vala couldn't help but smile back. There was something very endearing about the cheerful scientist.

"Daniel's taken them for a holiday to Atlantis," she told him. "He looks after them very well. I don't think he trusted me to take care of them while he was gone."

She gave a tiny sigh and looked away. Jonas looked at her quizzically. A faint pink blush spread across her cheeks. Cameron came up behind them.

"Vala is Jackson's best girl," he teased, pinching her cheek. She stuck out her tongue at the colonel. Realisation dawned on the other man's face.

"Oh – right," he smiled warmly. "I didn't know that Dr Jackson…"

"Why should you?" Vala linked arms with Jonas and flounced away from Mitchell, sticking her nose up in the air. "It's nobody's business except Daniel's and mine. Even if half of the SGC had bets on whether we would or wouldn't. Get it together I mean. You know. Boyfriend and girlfriend. Which is what we are. Because we're not military. So we can you-know-what in any you-know-where and Landry can't tell us off. Well not really. Well not officially. And Mitchell's just jealous because he likes Dr Lam and he's too scared to do anything about it."

"I am not!" griped Cameron, scowling. "I mean, I'm not scared! That is, if I did like Carolyn in that way I wouldn't be scared! You'll be putting a bet on me next!"

"I already have a bet on you," Vala winked at Jonas. "So does General Landry."

"What?!" Mitchell exploded. His team mate giggled loudly. Jonas shook his head, bemused.

"Don't worry," said the ex-space pirate. "I'll fill you in about it all later."

"Er – great!" said the scientist. "Who's Dr Lam?"

The following day SG-1 set out via an odd little Kelownan airship to an area about two hundred miles north east of the capital city. They all wore civilian clothing – "No chance giving away anything more than we have to," Mitchell had said. "If we're spotted by anyone from the Alliance they won't guess necessarily who we are."

The weather was damp and foggy – as they flew across the country it was impossible to see the ground below them.

"How high are we flying?" shouted Cameron to Jonas, who was in the co-pilot's seat.

"About five hundred feet," answered the scientist, only flicking his eyes away from the controls for a moment. "Sorry, our Kelownan aircraft industry has nothing to offer that's as high-tech as an X-302!"

Lt Redwell pointed ahead. Above the fog some way in front of them rose the top of a mountain range.

"What's that, sir?" he asked Jonas.

"That's where we're headed," he answered. "Or rather, the foothills at the bottom. There's an old naquadria mine there – it was shut up during the hostilities on Kelowna and as yet hasn't been reopened. Rumour has it that there are still some good veins of the mineral down there though."

Mitchell nodded.

"Pretty cut off too, I'll bet," he said. "Easy for the Alliance to hide out without anyone even knowing they're here."

"Exactly!" Jonas nodded.

They all fell silent again, watching as the mountains gradually came nearer. Eventually the little airship began to descend through the clouds and they could see nothing but whiteness. Vala sighed and leaned back in her seat, bored. Cameron pulled his "Behave yourself!" face at her. He was still on his feet – his rear end was taking a surprisingly long time to recover from the giant guinea pig bite, so at the moment he preferred to leave the sitting down until the last minute.

It wasn't long before he had to join the others in their seats – the ground appeared in front of them, blurred and misty, and the airship bumped and bounced along until it came to a neat stop. Mitchell was wincing as he stood up. Vala smirked, but took care he didn't see her.

"Okay, everybody out!" he ordered, and they all trooped off the plane.

The ambush was immediate. Weapon fire hit the ground by the small airship at once. Mitchell, Redwell, Jonas and the pilot ran for cover among the boulders. Teal'c and Vala were caught behind the plane. They ducked down behind one of the large, chubby wheels.

The boys' were returning fire as the Jaffa used his time to quickly peruse the surrounding area.

"I believe there are not many of them," he told his team mate.

"Seriously!?" she hissed, ducking from a stray blast, and trying to pull her hidden Zat gun from inside her coat. "Perhaps you should tell them that, Muscles!"

"Hush!" he put up his hand. The enemy had stopped firing, and someone was shouting across to them.

"You are on private property!" said the voice. "This land belongs to Dalton Frayne. He does not tolerate trespassers!"

Vala prodded Teal'c.

"Dalton Frayne? I know him! He's a crook. He must be working with the Alliance. He smuggles anything he can get his hands on."

Teal'c frowned.

"Like naquadria?"

"Probably."

Jonas was shouting across the no-man's land now.

"Well, sorry about that, we're just prospectors for the – for the Kelownan Mining Institute. We had no idea that this mine was still owned by anyone. We'd like to apologise – is it okay if we leave now?"

His answer was a resounding blast from somewhere over to the right.

"That's a no, then!" said Cameron. Jonas was actually smiling.

"I did tell you that I'd missed all of this," he whispered.

"What – getting your backside shot off with no hope of rescue? When your backside is already very sore?" Mitchell aimed a nicely timed Zat blast which took down one of their assailants. At the same time Lt Redwell scurried across from one boulder to another, spreading pistol fire in his wake and taking out a couple more of them. A blast from Teal'c's staff weapon split another rock off to their left – two men hiding behind it made a run for it before Cam took one of them down too. The other made it behind a line of smaller boulders.

"So Mitchell," yelled Vala, "I'm thinking that we're probably in the right place then!"

"You got it, Princess!" replied her commanding officer. "Teal'c – whatcha got?"

"I believe that there are two men still hiding in front of us," replied the Jaffa, "and at least one over on my.."

He was cut off by a sudden and unexpected blast which hit him just below his right shoulder, causing him to topple forward onto the ground. Vala initially jumped, before throwing herself beside him.

Teal'c!" she cried out, trying to turn him over and drag him behind the wheel of the airship. He was conscious and able to push himself up.

"My injury is not severe, ValaMalDoran." He was having difficulty moving his right arm however, before he could bring up his staff weapon the attacker who had hidden among the rocks came running at them. Vala Zatted him, but it wasn't a clean shot – he staggered and gasped but didn't fall. He carried on running and hit Teal'c head on. At the same time another man appeared suddenly from where he had been hidden, in a crevasse in the rocks behind them. Before she could do anything he was on top of Vala, dragging her to her feet by her hair, his other hand around her throat.

"Look what I've found," said the short, dark, curly haired man. "You owe me money, Vala Mal Doran."

"Dalton darling," she choked out. "How lovely to see you."

He dragged her from behind the airship, so that Cameron and the others' could all see her.

"I'd be careful now," called out the smuggler. "You don't want to hurt her. She's too pretty."

He stroked her face – she tried to jerk away.

"Stand still!" Mitchell shouted at her.

"It's been a pleasure," continued Dalton Frayne. "But I have to be going. There are plenty of other places to get naquadria. And Vala needs to pay what she owes me – either with money, or goods or…other means."

Vala grimaced and put out her tongue. She was still trying to pull his fingers from around her throat. The man who had been fighting Teal'c, and one other mercenary, were coming over to join them. Jonas was looking around, concerned.

"How is he going to get away?" he whispered to Mitchell. "Do you see any other vehicles? Because I don't."

Cam scouted the area briefly, realising half a second too late what was going to happen. He turned to where his team mate stood in a strangle hold with the leader of a band of smugglers. One man had arrived next to them, the other was twenty or so feet away.

The colonel fired, bringing down the man who stood on the other side of Vala, just as a ring platform materialised around her and Dalton.

"I'll find you!" he shouted despairingly, just before they disappeared. Lt Redwell had brought down the other man with a nifty shot from his pistol. "I swear it – we'll find you!"

The rings shot upwards. Vala and the smuggler were gone. Jonas and the remainder of SG-1 were left in the middle of nowhere.

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