CHAPTER 3

Colonel O'Neill dropped his binoculars and had his weapon up along with everyone else seconds after Ford. At first he didn't see anything and was going to chew Ford out when something he didn't expect stepped out from behind a tree. A wolfman. Carter looked surprised but had her mind on the job. Teal'c, well Teal'c was Teal'c. Daniel seemed as surprised as Ford.

"Weapon up Ford." he commanded.

"Sorry Colonel. That explains the boot print." Ford said pointing back at the wolfman.

Ford was so shocked he had lowered it without thinking. The wolfman was wearing what looked like clothes you've find on Earth in its cowboy age. He was wearing a gray suit that matched his fur and had a staff weapon just like Teal'c.

"You've got to be kidding." Ford said looking him over. "I must be dreaming."

"Interesting. Only one of you is Goa'uld." the wolfman said with his staff was pointed at the sky.

"You know the Goa'uld?" Daniel asked. What really surprised them was the fact that the canine spoke their language.

Ford turned quickly to find three more visitors a couple dozen feet away from them as Daniel asked the question. Ford aimed for the nearest one and nearly dropped his gun seeing it was a female but instead pointed it at another. Three were male and another was female. Carter spun around as one of them spoke.

"Unfortunately and fortunately quite well." one of the males that was a darker shade of gray spoke.

While the rest of SG-1 kept there weapons on them, Daniel tried mediating.

"What do you mean by fortunately?" Daniel asked.

"Because of the Goa'uld Path'ar, we are as you see us."

"Path'ar? That sounds familiar." Daniel said thinking.

Ford asked a question he believed would answer everything. "You all on this planet, didn't start here did you?"

"If you mean, were we brought here from another planet, yes." a black wolf said.

"Oh my God." Ford said in shock. "My dream makes sense."

O'Neill was about to yell at Ford for completely dropping his weapon down when Daniel spoke.

"PATH'AR! Wait! Does the name Nirriti sound familiar to you?" Daniel said looking at them all.

"That bitch is the reason many of our kind were killed brutally. Many animals were killed while she tried her genetic experiments on us."

"Wait, wait, wait. Nirriti tried to make animals into host, failed, and this Path'ar must have succeeded slightly, but you and others either killed him or her, or they fled away." Ford said quickly in a posture of trying to make sense of things.

The female, a white fox, ironically in a white suit and white hat that had her ears coming through a couple of holes drew closer to him as he talk like she was studying him. She had a long coat that matched and it was drawn back slightly behind the holster showing the zat gun. She seemed less hostile and not scared of them.

"You have it almost right except Nirriti tried to combined several animals at once, which failed. She was angry and left her underling who was Path'ar. He instead made us like you. Not driven by instinct anymore we eventually raised up against him and his army and defeated them." the female fox said now standing three feet from Ford.

"That was over a two hundred years ago." the light gray wolf said as he moved from the tree line to his companions. "What is your reason for being here?"

"We're explorers from Earth." Daniel said. When he said Earth they all went wide eyed.

"We have no wish to fight you but will if you lie to us. You do not seem to be working for the Goa'uld, but I must ask why you have a Jaffa warrior with you?"

"I was first prime of Apophis. When I realized he was a false god, I fought against him to free other's like me." Teal'c said.

"Is this true?" the black wolf asked.

"Yeah. We've been fighting them for years now since they've been trying to invade Earth again." O'Neill said not lowering his weapon.

"Impressive. I believe you. Any enemy of the Goa'uld is a friend of ours. Welcome to Gia'as." he said holding a hand out.

Once O'Neill dropped his weapon down the others followed. As Ford put his away the canine people relaxed. Jack shook his hand as Daniel introduced them.

"I'm Daniel Jackson, this is Major Carter, Colonel O'Neill, Teal'c and Ford Primus." Daniel said pointing them out.

The four canine's whispered the name Primus almost in unison. Ford just shrugged not understanding as the rest of them looked at him.

"No offense, but ummm, I'm guessing this Path'ar was wearing clothes a lot like the one's your wearing now." Ford asked.

They nodded causing Ford to chuckle slightly. "That explains a lot."

No of them seemed to understand what Ford meant and didn't ask as the canine's introduced themselves.

The black wolf introduced himself as Shock. The light gray wolf said his name was Malek. The dark gray wolf said he was Bob. And the female fox said she was called Melissa.

Ford coughed and cleared his throat to keep from laughing when the one said his name was Bob.

"Bob? That's a strange name to hear." Daniel said.

"Is no one on Earth called Bob?" Bob asked.

"Huh. No there's actually quite a few Bob's." Daniel said all the while keeping a straight face, barely. Ford had to bite his tongue to keep from laughing. Even O'Neill seemed to think the name was amusing and was also trying to keep from laughing.

"Please follow us. We can show you around and you can meet our city leader, Draco." Shock said. O'Neill didn't object so SG-1 followed.

"Ford." O'Neill said coming up to him as they walked.

"Yes Colonel." He knew what was coming.

"Being your first mission, I'm going to let you off with a warning, but if you ever lower your weapon without my authorization again, so help me I'll kick you back home. Understand?"

"Completely sir. I know there's no excuse for what I did and I'll try make a better effort in the future."

"Good. And next time use your PC-90. Hand guns are secondary. Yours is more of a cannon anyway." O'Neill said with a nod and then continued walking.

They had been walking with only Daniel asking questions to which Carter occasional jumped in. O'Neill shook his head occasionally causing Ford to almost laugh again. Ford was glancing around when Melissa came up to him, almost startling him. He was far enough from everyone else to have been humming and not get noticed but close enough that they'd all notice if he stopped.

"Did I…no do I have something or remind you of someone?"

"No."

"You seem to be watching me a lot."

"Can I ask you something?"

"I don't see why not. What can I help you with?"

"You act like your new to a team."

"Your eye sight is better than I thought. Was it the way O'Neill kept watching me with an angry look?"

"That mostly and I heard him talk to you about your weapon."

"I'm guessing from the what I saw, you and probably everyone else only have Goa'uld weapons."

"Well, yeah...ah pretty much. It's only been the last hundred years that we've been really understanding the technology better. We have one Goa'uld mothership that is hidden from sensors behind a special metal screen and another that we basically scrapped as we call it."

"Scrapped?"

"Really the ship was dismantled over a long period of time so we could study it better. Unfortunately we can barely read the language and that's why progress is slow."

"Daniel Jackson can help with that. Well, him and Teal'c can. I can partially read it but not well. They can help you better with that."

"You know you just repeated yourself."

"Yeah. I just realized that. Probably just excited about being here." he said quite nervously.

"Well if they can help our scientists, what might ah, let's see, there name's are?"

"O'N..."

"Wait...I'll remember...Carter and O'Neill, right."

"Got it first time. Impressive."

"Thank you. Now O'Neill seems more like a pack leader, tough, smart, but more warrior like."

Ford gave a small laugh that was heard but his team mates just looked back at him for a moment and continued on.

"That's about right Mel. He also has a great sense of humor. His wise cracks always make me laugh." Seeing her slow down he stopped. "I'm sorry. It was the name wasn't it?"

"My father used to call me that." she said looking at the ground.

"Sorry. I didn't mean to say anything wrong."

"It's not your fault. You didn't know." she said looking back up and distant.

"I shouldn't ask, but do you want to talk about it?"

"He went missing several months ago in an abandoned temple. He was helping a Roo that was like Daniel. One day reports quit coming in and a team was sent to investigate. After two months, they quit looking. I tried looking around myself but I never found anything either."

"Hey, if O'Neill lets me, and the place is not far off, we could go look together if you want."

"I'd like that. Maybe a different perspective will come up with something."

As they crested a hill, SG-1 saw what looked to be modified death gliders.

"They are death gliders O'Neill. But not like any configuration I'm familiar with." Teal'c said.

"They look like they've been modified for ground travel." Ford said.

"I can see that Ford." O'Neill said sarcastically. Ford would have been offended, but he knew that Jack was normally this way. He would have said the same thing if anyone else on the team had said it, mostly Carter.

"We only have a few that actually travel to the stars. All the rest have been modified as you see these three here." Bob said.

"How many gliders do you have?" Teal'c asked.

"Somewhere over a hundred last I heard. Once we figured out how they ran and were built, we started reconfiguring them to our own use and made a few more." Malek said.

"I see it has been widen quite a bit in the cockpit." O'Neill said looking inside.

SG-1 gave them a quick glance over, except for O'Neill who kept commenting on them. It looked like your average death glider on a Goa'uld mother ship with the exception of having the capacity of holding five people. Two in front, three in back. The cover was replaced with a large windshield. The wings were angled more upward to allow travel above ground without hitting anything.

"We made the engine into a hover unit when we decided space travel was a bad idea. It will stay five feet above the ground as we fly where ever we plan to go."

"Why doesn't anyone on this planet try to explore space?" Daniel asked.

The canines all looked at each other before speaking. Shock ended up being the one to talk.

"We have two reasons, one of which is an embarrassment we'd prefer not to tell."

"Okay, then what can you say?" O'Neill asked skeptically.

"It was decided that space travel would be only if we needed to, because we didn't want to attract the attention of the Goa'uld again." Shock said.

What would keep them on the ground that would be embarrassing? Ford thought. As if reading his mind, Melissa whispered something into Ford's ear that made him do a Spock look at her with strange written on his face as well.

"Seriously?" Ford asked her in a whisper. She whispered, in different words though, but simply put, they had space dementia.

Slowly nodding her head, Ford told he wouldn't say anything.

"Something to share Mr. Primus?" O'Neill asked using Ford's last name on purpose. This caused the canine's to slightly flinch. Even Ford flinched. O'Neill gave them a strange look like what-was-that, but they didn't say anything.

"No."

"You sure?"

"Yes Colonel."

"Okay." Turning back to Malek and the others. "So, when do we go?"

"If you are ready, we can go now." Bob said.

O'Neill and Carter got into the one with Bob. Teal'c and Daniel got in the other one with Shock and Malek. Ford instantly noticed that he was left with Melissa. Part of him was happy and another part made him extremely nervous. O'Neill noticed this right away and was about to get out when Bob said something to him that made sit down and wave at Ford instead as they left. Ford realized that it must have been intentional but not why.

O'Neill and Carter were surprised when the former glider jumped forward quickly pulling them back into the seat.

"Whoa! Been awhile since I felt that." Jack said.

"Same here." Carter said sitting back up.

"Sorry about that. I got so used to it that I didn't think first." Bob said.

"No problem. Hey, is there any great fishing spots on this planet?" O'Neill asked.

Bob mentioned a few, and then asked Carter what it was she specialized in.

When she mention her credentials, Bob started telling her about things O'Neill couldn't even grasp, so he settled back and watched the scenery. Carter and Bob continued talking all the way to the city.

Teal'c barely moved as the former glider shot forward. From Daniel's point of view, it looked like Teal'c was expecting the sudden burst of speed and was ready for it. Daniel wasn't ready, Teal'c noticed and was forcefully thrown against the back of his seat. Luckily there was a lot of padding and his head hit that instead of the metal above.

"That was fast. Felt like I got hit with a truck." Daniel said pulling himself out of the seat.

"What was that?" Shock asked.

"Daniel Jackson said the ride is fast." Teal'c said.

"Oh. I can go faster if you like." Shock said as Malek gave a short chuckle.

"No, no, no. This is fine." Daniel said quickly. "Since the Goa'uld were once here, did they leave any temple's or other structures that they had built for themselves around."

"Unfortunately yes. Why?" Malek asked.

"Well, if your government or leader doesn't mind, we'd like to look at them. They might have left something that we could use against them if the need arises here."

"You can read their language?" Malek said turning to him.

"Yes. It's what I do." Daniel said looking slightly pleased with himself.

"You may get to see these temple's then. We've been trying for years and we still can't understand the language much less some of the technology, other than these. The weapons we have were the most easiest to learn." Malek said.

"Indeed. To use a zat gun or staff weapon doesn't take as much skill as flying a Goa'uld mother ship or death glider." Teal'c said.

"Exactly. The staff weapons took us less time than the zat guns since we saw how the staff weapons were used. Not us now, but our ancestors that told us how."

"Interesting. How far back does the story of your culture go?" Daniel asked.

"Before Nirriti, we knew only instinct. When she gave us true life we first didn't know what to do except obey. After some time, we started to learn that we could do more, but were never allowed. That was when the revolt's started. It took some years before we finally were able to claim freedom. That was recorded two hundred and fifty eight years ago."

"Hmmm."

The rest of the way to the city Daniel talked up a storm.

"Okay, I missed something there. O'Neill isn't the type to leave a man, or woman, behind even if the natives are friendly." When Ford said man, Melissa actually rolled her eyes, which Ford saw and quickly said woman before continuing on.

"What did your friend say anyway?" he asked as they got in. Ford dropped his pack into the back with his PC-90.

"First thing I'll say is he's not a friend, more of someone I work with."

"Okay, never mind I asked." he said as they took off.

The modified glider was cruising at about fifty miles an hour in less than three seconds. Ford had watched the other two take off and figured that there would be a big amount of force working against him, so he braced himself.

"Talk about acceleration. What's the top speed?"

"A couple hundred. We try not to go very fast except in races. And you didn't hit a touchy spot with that question. He's just what I call the typical male."

"Enlighten me."

"Say what?" she said looking at him not understanding.

"What do you mean by typical male?"

"Oh. Let's see." she said as she looked to be counting in her head. "He only cares about my looks, flirts constantly, with every female, thinks he superior, smarter, braver,..."

"I think I got it. I've heard it before from many women."

She gave him that look all women give men when they prove their point. Ford went on the defensive quickly.

"I'm nothing like that. I was a slightly high ranking officer that heard it go on between the officer's under my command. Some day's it was quite funny. I stayed well out of it though."

She brighten up quickly after that. "I'm glad to hear that. There are very few males who agree with me."

"Personally, I think that female's are superior in almost everyway."

"Almost you say." she said smiling with surprise.

"With the exception of strength, yeah. Genetically, in all species we've came across, on Earth and other planets, males are stronger naturally. That doesn't mean women can't become strong like men or even stronger, it's just men by nature are stronger."

"I can agree with that. You must have had many girlfriends back home."

"Not a one. I came from a slightly, rich family. My father was not completely liked because he was a good cop per say that would never take a bribe or do anything illegal. I later won the lottery and when I got lots of money, women flocked to me, but only for my money so I just quit looking and quit dating. Not that I did that much either."

"Lottery? Money?"

"It's a system we use back home to get things we want. Everything from food to clothing, to just about anything anymore. We give each other monetary notes made from wood and coins made from metal that have different values on them." he said pulling out his wallet and showing her what money looked like.

"So what happens when someone doesn't have this...money?"

"Unfortunately, due to this money system, those who have much don't like to share and so many people lose everything or never have anything because others who wanted it or more of it, take it by legal or illegal means. When that happens, the unfortunate victims either try to get on with life the best they can or die. Earth has became a sick place to live. Now me, I use a lot of my money to help those in need. I'd explain the details but I still don't think you'd get the idea. No offense."

"I already don't get the idea. Here on this planet, we share everything. If someone needs something, we help any way we can. No one goes hungry, no one is without a home."

"Now that's how Earth should be. I should move here."

"Seriously?"

"Well almost. I probably could, but I'd be called onto a mission a lot so much it wouldn't float to long."

"Float?"

"Work out."

"Got it." she said as they started there final approach to the city.

Melissa followed her co-workers into a underground building were many other modified death gliders were parked. Pulling up next to theirs she stopped turning off the machine.

"Here we are. Guard central station." Bob said.

"Guard central?" O'Neill asked.

"I think it's a version of what we would call a police station." Daniel said.

O'Neill apparently must have thought he only said it in his mind, when he turned to Daniel with surprise. "I knew that." he said as he usually did Ford noticed.

Memories of earlier episodes came to mind when the Colonel said the same thing, but usually to Carter. O'Neill noticed Ford chuckling, unfortunately.

"You want to fill me in on what's been so funny lately?" O'Neill asked.

"Just memories of the past that keep coming up."

O'Neill gave him his cockeyed look as Ford bit his tongue to keep from laughing again. Melissa noticed Ford's shoulder's moving slightly as though he was laughing, but trying to contain it. Before she could ask him why he was laughing, he spoke.

"Colonel. Someone needs to contact General Hammond and report our situation." Ford said trying to keep his composure.

O'Neill snapped his fingers. "I knew I forgot something."

"I'll go back sir." Carter said.

"I'll go if you want. Melissa wanted to show me something so I was going to ask to leave anyway." Ford said.

"Where did you plan on going?"

"I wanted to show him one of the temple's. He said he knew how to read the Goa'uld language, but he also said Daniel was a better choice. I wanted to bring them both." Melissa said. Daniel brightened up at the mention of his name. O'Neill noticed right away.

"Let's first see if were allowed to go sight seeing, okay people." O'Neill said in more of command tone than question. When SG-1 all nodded, he told one of the boys to lead the way.

"I will take them to see Draco. You may take your leave." Melissa said.

Shock and the other two nodded to her and after saying goodbye to SG-1, they left.

"There's something your hiding." O'Neill said to Melissa. "They almost seemed reluctant to leave, but were afraid to challenge your decision."

"Draco's my uncle on my mom's side." she said acting like she cared less. "Come along."

SG-1 picked up their things and followed her to a flight of stairs leading to the top level. As they came out they could see the opening on their left were all the former gliders went to park.

"We never did find out what you call those things?" O'Neill said to Melissa.

"We never came up with anything really either except gliders."
"Just 'glider's'." O'Neill said.

"That's it."

O'Neill looked ready to say something else but closed his mouth. Daniel was muttering something about the 1800's as Ford nearly bumped into him.

"Something wrong Daniel?" Ford asked walking around him. Ford could almost swear he heard Jack say, that's my line.

"This town looks like it's right out of those old cowboy movies, except more modernized. That looks like a saloon, a hotel, sheriff's office, a bank maybe,..." Daniel was saying as they all looked around. He was right. It did look sort of like one of the old towns of the west, but with a modernized look.

"What is that building used for Melissa?" Ford asked, pointing at the bank.

"That was used to store and refine naquada. It's now just a storage building. We have quite a few of them now with the parts and other objects we've been finding in the temple's."

Carter's head jumped slightly as she heard the name naquada. She looked ready to comment, but O'Neill shook his head signaling it wasn't the right time. As they went around a hotel looking building, they saw their destination. It was a three story house. Their were two large door's about ten feet across and ten feet high. The whole house was white. Their was three window's on the top floor, six on the second, and four on the first. As they approached the doors, a hound dog came out in a butler suit.

"Miss Melissa. I see you have brought the newcomers. Draco is waiting for you in his office room." he said standing aside. He held the door open as they walked in.

To the left, a door led into another room which was closed along with the door leading to the right. In the middle of the room was a large stair case leading up to the second floor which had more stairs beyond that that led to the third. Their were two more doors on the first floor. One on the left side and the other on the right side of the stairs. They were also closed. Melissa headed up the stairs and made a right. The second floor had only one door on the right which is were Melissa was heading. On the left there were three doors. Each also closed. Ford noticed that a door was headed out the back from behind the stairs leading to the third floor. It seemed to head to another room or hallway, he wasn't sure. Melissa knocked on the door and waited a moment before entering. As they entered Melissa walked over and stood off to the left side of a very large desk. It must have been ten feet by three feet. There was several controls and button on the right side while the left held trinkets and other things. Book shelves and some paintings lined the walls. Surprisingly, some of the books were from Earth. What really caught there attention was the very large silver-gray wolf sitting behind the desk. He was wearing a large blue suit with those things on the shoulders and gold frills hanging from them. On his left in another chair was a female fox dressed in a red dress that matched her fur. She looked like a normal fox that you'd see on Earth, just humanoid. She seemed to be in a happy mood along with the large wolf.

"Uncle Draco. These are the owners of the unknown machine that was sent through the Stargate as they call it. They are enemies of the Goa'uld just as we are."

"Hello there strangers. I am Draco. Leader of Ma'shling town. This is my mate, Zhanell. I can see that you must be enemies of the Goa'uld or else you would have already tried to attack me. What can we help you with?" he said standing up.

SG-1 seemed stunned at the sudden hospitality and trust Draco seemed to be displaying so they didn't speak for a moment. Draco's eyebrow went up after a few seconds when they didn't speak. Even Melissa raised her eyebrow. Ford glanced at his teammates and decided to speak.

"I'm sorry sir. It isn't often that we get treated with respect when encountering other races. Often we get shot at or other unpleasant things happen." Ford said shaking the guys extended hand.

"Yes. That does happen a lot. I'm Daniel Jackson, this is Colonel O'Neill, Major Carter, Teal'c and Ford Primus."

Draco's eyes widened at the sound of Ford's name. His wife did the same thing except she breathed in catching everyone's attention.

"I'm beginning to think I've done something wrong and you're not telling me. Was I here before or something?" Ford asked quite frustrated.

"It's nothing." Draco said with a wave. Ford thought about asking more, but the look in Draco's eye's made him shut up.

"They wanted to know if they could look at some of the temple's. They have experience with reading and understand the things the Goa'uld have left behind." Melissa said.

"Really now. This is great news, that is if your willing to help us." Draco said looking at them.

"Sure." O'Neill said. "We need to report back to our commanding officer back on Earth first."

"Good. Melissa can help you with anything you might need. She can take you back to the water ring if you like."

"Thank you sir." Daniel said as they left. Melissa told them to wait down stairs when Draco asked her to stay a moment.

Melissa closed the door as Draco stood up. Walking over he placed his hands on her shoulders. "I want you to personally watch this Ford. Have Melbrook at the historian library come see me please. Try to make it discreet and don't mention's Ford's name too much."

"No problem Uncle."

As SG-1 walked down the stairs, O'Neill started up as Ford thought he would.

"Something is not right. I can feel it. This all too easy."

Right on cue. Ford thought snapping his fingers. They didn't notice.

"It does seem a little too easy to believe sir, but maybe their telling the truth. Maybe they want help and won't be hostile.' Carter said.

"I still don't like. This is going to come back and knock us on our ass."

"Nirriti and Path'ar made them civilized like us Jack. They have a culture and everything. Since they look like they had to live in what we call the western era, maybe they have access to information from that era as well. They apparently know something if they seem to trust us with helping them."

"Daniel, they still live in the old west era. Look at those buildings. I almost feel like the Lone Ranger is going to ride out from around the corner. Or Zorro. And this trust thing is way too easy like I said."

Ford leaned against the banister rail and watched Jack and Daniel go at it. If it weren't for the fact that he was right there he would have been laughing his butt off. It was just like TV. He paying so much attention to them talking that he didn't see Melissa come up behind him. Melissa thought of tapping Ford out of his thoughts but pulled her hand back and walked past him, which brought him out of it.

"Where did you want to start Colonel O'Neill?" she asked.

"Well first we need to report back and see what the boss says."

"Sure. We can take a couple of gliders to the Stargate."

"Do you think I can drive one?" O'Neill asked thinking she would say no.

"You're not serious are you sir?" Carter asked.

"Indeed he is Major Carter." Teal'c said.

Melissa looked at him a moment, glanced at Ford and said, "Sure, why not."

As they headed out Carter moved over to Ford.

"Do you have any idea why they look at you like they know you?" Carter asked.

"Not a clue Major. I've been giving it a lot of thought, but I'm completely lost. Could be something to do with a dream I had once, but. I felt like pushing the subject with Draco but something told me to shut up. I almost think she is hitting on me but I'm not interested." he said quietly.

"Hmm. I heard about that speech you gave General Hammond about your father. I know I'm reaching here, but did he do, or anything happen to him that might have happened here?"

Ford thought for a moment as they walked toward the glider parking place.

"No...well, maybe but I seriously doubt it. He was CIA, but he was able to always stay stateside. We saw him every weekend. I know that my family has had a lot of misfortune in it. Most from deaths not natural, or so they told me which is why I have no relatives. The others, friends of the family, are going to think I fell to the curse now that I'm gone."

"Do you miss home?"

"Some, but I'd rather be here. More fun and most of them were gone anyway."

As Melissa opened the door to go underground Carter asked another question.

"I know your holding back something. O'Neill has asked several times now but you keep saying it's nothing. What do you keep laughing at?"

Ford whispered as they approached the gliders. "Remember when I said I came from a universe where I watched this all happen on TV."

"Yeah."

"Watching Jack and Daniel go at it with words was constantly funny and the same thing when you go scientific and Jack looks lost." Ford said chuckling occasionally. "I'm trying not to insult any of you but for me it's quite funny."

"Sometimes I do it to just to drive him crazy. I think Daniel does too." Carter whispered back before walking away.

Ford watched her walk away with his mouth open in surprise. He closed it before anyone noticed. Ford climbed into the one that Melissa used before as Melissa finished telling O'Neill how to drive. Teal'c was the only one brave enough to go with him. Carter and Daniel got into the back seat while Ford sat up front with Melissa. Ford offered Carter the front seat but she declined. As Melissa drove her glider out of Guard Central, O'Neill followed close behind. Melissa slowly pushed the vehicles speed up until they were out of the city. Once out she brought it up to hundred miles an hour by Earth standards. O'Neill went ahead of them but not to far. Carter shook her head while Daniel mumbled something about Jack and his hotdog antic's.

"Do you think your leader would allow me to come visit your planet for a moment?" Melissa asked Major Carter.

"We can ask him when we get back to the Stargate. The M.A.L.P. allows us to communicate with him on Earth without having to go through the gate."

"M.A.L.P.?"

"That large wheeled machine outside the gate." Ford explained.

"Actually I have no idea what you talking about. I heard about some machine coming through the gate from a scouting party that was out this way. I'll see it when we get there. It shouldn't take too long."

Several minutes later they stopped the gliders next to the forest and all got out. O'Neill was the first to speak, or thought he was.

"I bet he's going to say he wishes he had one of these." Ford said loud enough that only the one's in the glider with him could hear.

"I wish I had one of these! I could get places so much faster. I could even sleep in later at home."

"I was right." Ford said getting out shaking a finger in the air.

"Indeed." Teal'c said looking at Ford.

Ford looked up quickly when he noticed Teal'c had heard him.

"Do not worry Ford Primus. I will not tell him."

"Thanks Teal'c."

With a nod, Teal'c turned around and grabbed his stuff. As he walked toward the path, O'Neill walked over to Ford. Jack thought that something seemed strange about something Teal'c did with that smile and nod.

"What did he say to you?" Jack asked. Since it was relatively quiet, everyone heard him.

"That your driving sucks." he said just loud enough for everyone to hear.

"What?!" O'Neill said looking angry and surprised.

Carter's eyes went so wide Ford thought they might fall out as she broke up. Daniel dropped his pack and started laughing as he dropped to his knees. Melissa turned around wondering what the commotion was about along with Teal'c.

"I'm kidding Colonel. Sorry, I couldn't help it. He asked me how I was holding up." Ford lied hoping Teal'c could hear him as he leaned against the glider laughing.

"Teal'c?!"

"Yes O'Neill."

"What did you ask Ford?"

"How he was doing O'Neill. I was wondering how he has been doing since this is his first mission."

"Oh." O'Neill said looking satisfied with the answer. Ford was picking his bag out of the front seat as O'Neill walked off muttering to himself.

"I'm surprised that you did that Ford." Carter said.

"I was thinking out loud. For a moment I thought he was going to yell at me, but somehow I knew he wouldn't."

"I thought it was funny though. The look on his face was priceless." Carter said before heading off.

"Hey Carter, can you tell Teal'c what I told you about my laughing problem?"

"Sure. Who knows, he might actually laugh as well."

There was little to no conversation as they made there way back to the Stargate. As Daniel dialed home, Carter explained to Melissa what was happening. O'Neill shook his head as usual. As the gate opened with the signature whooshing sound, O'Neill activated his GDO. After a few moments, Hammonds voice came through the M.A.L.P.

"SG-1? Is everything all right? We wasn't expecting you to call back for another hour."

"Everything is just peachy sir. The natives are way to friendly for my taste. The air is great, no pollution. Daniel is looking forward to exploring old Goa'uld temples as is the Major. Teal'c's just fine. Oh, there were Goa'uld here once and a revolt lead to their demise. Other than that, the day has turned out well so far. How about your General?"

"Things are fine here Colonel. Glad to hear a happy report for once. What about Ford?"

"Him sir. He's got a laughing problem I haven't figured out but otherwise he's okay." Ford couldn't help it any more and laughed. He had to lean against a tree to keep standing.

"See sir. I have no idea what's wrong." O'Neill pointing at him. The camera on the M.A.L.P. turned to see Ford who was trying to catch his breath.

"Colonel you're going to kill me if keep this up." Ford muttered shaking his head.

"Is it only affecting him?"

"I'm okay General. If you don't mind I can explain it better in person. One of the natives as O'Neill put it wanted to come and see you." Ford said.

"Colonel. Do you think this person would be a threat?"

"It's a her sir and no she's not a threat that I can tell." he said. Everyone else heard him mutter 'yet'. The M.A.L.P. didn't pick it up. She didn't look to take it personally.

"Alright then. Bring her through. I assume Doctor Jackson and Major Carter will want to gather supplies for the temple exertion so I'll have another SG team on standby for assistance."

"See in a few then." O'Neill said as the camera turned off. Teal'c and Ford turned the M.A.L.P. around and pushed it through the event horizon first. Carter continued on in with the M.A.L.P. Daniel and Teal'c went next. Seeing a slight apprehension to entering the gate, Ford tried to comforter her.

"Ever jumped into really cold water?"

"Yeah. I feel into the lake when it was froze over once."

"The feeling of coldness is almost the same but passes quickly." he said gesturing for her to go first. She muttered something unintelligible and walked through. Ford went to go next when O'Neill stopped him.

"What is so funny lately?"

"Truthfully Colonel. It's you." Ford said walking through quickly.

O'Neill didn't know what to think as Ford walked through the gate. He followed shortly after still wondering how to take it.