Here we go. Enjoy. I know I am. Thanks for the great reviews. Glad I'm not alone in this little obsession of ours.

Stargate, the universe, and it's characters belong to MGM and not me. I'm just playing in the sandbox a bit.

Mitchell shivered as he stepped from the gate on…? He just realized that he hadn't even gotten the name of the planet he and Teal'c had just arrived on. All he knew was, it was damn cold and they didn't have any heavier clothes. The sun was a distant, dim presence in the sky, and did nothing to warm him up. The gate was situated in a depression, with hills and ridges all around covered in dying vegetation. Not your usual vacation spot.

"Well, this must be the place. No wonder these people want to leave. I'd want off of this rock too. Come on, buddy, let's go find the village before we freeze our asses off."

"I heartily agree."

Mitchell and Teal'c moved out in a ground eating lope toward the nearest high ground. As the activity warmed him up, Cam began to plan ahead in his mind. Or, at least he tried to. Evidently his brain wanted to dwell on other things. Like the fact that, here he was, on his third year of leading this team, and now he'd gone and misplaced some of them again. He still had no idea how General O'Neill did this for eight years without ripping all his hair out. O'Neill did blame Jackson for turning it gray, but at least it was still attached. There were times when Cam ran his hands through his hair so much in worry that he had to check to see if any was missing.

"Are you concerned, Colonel Mitchell?"

Cam grinned. He wondered, not for the first time, if all Jaffa could read minds or if this was just a Teal'c thing. "Nah. Well, kinda. But I also know that they're fine. If you put Sam and Jackson together, you get like the biggest brain in the galaxy. Anything those two can't think their way out of, they can fight their way out. And Vala's almost as hard to kill as Jackson is. Right now they're probably sitting around somewhere waiting to give us a hard time for taking so long."

"I agree. It is unlikely that there would be a situation that they could not find their way out of. And Vala Mal Doran is quite resourceful. We will find them waiting for us on P3X-211. Probably impatiently."

Unless they think we're cosmic goo on the inside of an iris.

That oh so pleasant thought was driven from his mind as they toped the rise and were confronted with the ever astonishing sight of a Daedalus-class ship sitting on the ground. The Odyssey rested in a field near a small village, her main loading ramp open, and a steady stream of people going in and out. "Oh taxi." Cam said, raising a finger, and the two started to trot down a well worn trail toward the town.

Like any good Marine and veteran SG team leader, Reynolds had put two of his men to watch the approach from the gate, and Cam and Teal'c were challenged about a half mile from the village. Two figures appeared on the path ahead of them, weapons trained. Cam didn't immediately recognize the two young Marines, but SG-3 had just gone through a personnel rotation. One had gone on to lead a team of his own, and another had shown a Carter-eske flair for alien tech, and had transferred to Area-51. He'd been hearing Reynolds bitch about it in the locker room for the last couple of weeks.

Cam made a big show of taking his hands off his weapons, and gestured for Teal'c to do the same. The last thing he needed right now was to get shot by a nervous rookie. Luckily, the kid seemed to have it together, and straightened up to salute him a second later. "Colonel Mitchell, sir."

"At ease. Is Reynolds in town?"

"Yes sir. The Colonel's supervising the food distribution. It was too cold for these people to get a good harvest this year. He should be in the town square. I'll inform him your heading his way."

"Thank you, Sergeant. You can go back to your duty now." The younger man saluted again and disappeared back into the underbrush. "Come on Teal'c, lets get this over with. Reynolds is never going to let me hear the end of this."

They found the Colonel in the command tent that had been set up in the center of the village. He broke off his discussion with one of the relief personnel and strode over to them as they entered. His sharp eyes bored into each of them in turn, than glanced outside the tent. Cam could see him counting in his head. He smirked. "Lose something, Mitchell?

Cam wasn't amused. "Very funny, Reynolds. It may be funny later, but right now, I'm not laughing. Right now I need your help to find the rest of my team." He then proceeded to give Reynolds a short run down of what had happened that afternoon in the SGC. When he got to the part about him almost stepping through the gate, the Colonel whistled. "Damn man, that was a close one. Remind me to buy Harriman lunch when I get back."

Cam smiled. "Don't worry. Trust me when I say the man's got quite a few free lunches coming to him. But let's get back to me and Teal'c's little problem here. We need to hitch a ride."

Reynolds didn't even bat an eye. "Figured as much. Let's head over to the Odyssey and see what we can do."

That's what Cam wanted to hear. No matter how much of a hard time they gave each other, there wasn't anything the different teams wouldn't do for each other. All for one and one for all, and all that. And everyone bent over backwards for SG-1. Sam and Jackson were two of the most respected people in the SGC, and were owed a whole lot of lunches for the times they had pulled peoples fat out of the fire. Sometimes he still felt like he was coasting on the wave of their achievements. Compared to two of them, not to mention the Jaffa walking next to him, he was as much of a noob as the young Marine back on the trail.

"Then why an I always saving their asses?" he thought to himself.

Mitchell pulled his thoughts to the here and now as they reached the edge of town and started across the sallow fields to the crouching ship, passing SGC personnel and villagers as they ferried belongings and supplies back and forth. The sound of their boots on the metal of the ramp was a comforting sound to Cam. He didn't know why, but he just felt good when he was on this ship. Sure, there was the little Replicator problem, and that one incident that Teal'c refused to talk about, but still, the old boat had done them good over the years.

Odyssey's current captain was a man Mitchell had only met in passing. Smits? Smalls? Damn, what was it? He was horrible with names. Why wasn't Jackson here to tell him these things? Teal'c kept giving him amused glances as he continued to mutter names under his breath, hoping to come across one that sounded right.

Just as they walked onto the bridge, it came to him. "Smithton!"

Reynolds laughed out loud as everyone there turned to look at Cam quizzically. Even Teal'c was smirking.

Brig. General Smithton rose from "the chair" and walked over to them. He was an older man, probably about General Landry's age, with a head of steel gray hair and generous laugh lines around his mouth and eyes. "Now that my crew knows my name, what can I do for you Colonel Mitchell. I take it Hank didn't send you two to check up on me?"

Mitchell straightened to attention, his face flush with embarrassment. "Sorry about that, sir. A little lost without my rolodex."

Smithton grinned. "Is he about six feet, wears glasses?"

"That would be him."

"And, judging by his and two certain ladies absences, you need my help with something."

"Yes, sir." Damn, this guy is worse than my father.

"So, where do you need to go?"

General or no, Cam could of kissed him.

True to the old man's word, just as the sun peaked over the ridge across the valley, the bars over the cave mouth slid smoothly aside. The slight grinding noise woke Daniel from the light doze he had been in, leaning up against the far wall. He blinked in the soft light, shook his head to loosen the last cobwebs of sleep from his mind, and fervently wished for a cup of coffee. He had the feeling it was going to be a very, very long day.

He reached out to wake his two companions. It had gotten surprisingly cool overnight, and they had huddled together for a little warmth. Vala, blanket pulled as tight around her as it could go, was laying on one side of him, back pressed up against his leg and head pillowed on her pack. Sam was sitting propped up against the wall like him, her shoulder pressed up against his, another blanked draped over both of them. When he looked at her, her arms were crossed, her chin resting on her chest, but her eyes were open. The grinding of the bars had probably woken her too. They gave each other twin, muzzy smiles, then he reached out a hand to wake Vala. Carefully. This was usually a chancy thing at the best of times, due to the fact that when startled out of sleep, she tended to come up swinging. And, due to her past, she tended to aim southward a bit.

"Vala. Vala, wake up," he said softly, shaking her shoulder a bit. She rolled over suddenly, and he cringed involuntarily. She looked up at him, her gray eyes open, alert, and full of mirth.

"Don't worry, I was already awake. Your manhood is safe."

Daniel heard Sam snort softly next to him. He decided that simply getting up and ignoring them would save him a little of his dignity.

Vala sat up and gazed out of the cave. "I see the crazy old man wasn't lying to us about letting us out of here at least. So, now what?"

Sam levered herself up onto her feet and stretched, then started folding both blankets and stowing them in their packs. "I don't think we have much of a choice. We don't know what that guy is going to throw at us, and I for one don't want to be cornered in this cage. If we start traveling in the right direction, we can get the lay of the land and figure things out from there. When we miss our check in, SGC will start wondering what happened to us." She was careful not to mention their missing teammates. "We might even be able to find a way back up to the gate and not have to go through with this stupid hunt at all. "

Daniel noticed that she didn't sound very confident about that last statement. He had to agree. If this man had been doing this for as long as he claimed, he had probably already made sure that the gate was out of reach. When they stepped blinking into the morning sun, he saw that he was right. He had to crane his neck to see the top of the cliff far above them. The sides were sheer, and at least 300 feet tall. A glance around told him that the cliffs were the same almost all the way around the valley. In fact, they were a little too uniform. He and Sam exchanged looks.

"This place isn't natural. I think these walls were artificially cut. I'm beginning to wonder if this entire place wasn't made by our host," Sam said, sounding grim. "So much for getting to the gate. Even if we had enough rope between us, we'd never get it up there."

Vala looked at her, dismayed. "You mean we have to go tramping through there?" She pointed at the thick mat of vegetation below them. " 'Cause it looks really, really unpleasant. Not to mention dirty. There are probably bugs, too. Big bugs."

Daniel sighed. "Can you fly?" he said, sarcastically, pointing up the cliff. "Because that's the only way you'd make it up there."

Vala narrowed her eyes at him, a look of supreme displeasure on her aristocratic face. "That's it. I'm packing a thermos or two of coffee in my pack next mission, 'cause you are just too cranky in the morning without it."

Sam actually laughed out loud at that one. He turned to glare at her. She had one hand over her mouth, her blue eyes dancing as she tried (unsuccessfully) to smother the rest of her chuckles. "You have to admit, she's got you there, Daniel. You've had a caffeine problem for as long as I've known you." She grinned at him cheekily.

He shook his head in mock annoyance and smirked at his friend. "Sam. Pot, kettle, black. And Vala, I'm sorry I snapped at you. Now, my coffee addiction aside, we need to get moving and make some plans."

After an extremely unsatisfactory breakfast of power bars and water from their canteens, they began the arduous process of picking their way down the steep slope that ran from the base of the wall to the jungle below. As they traveled, Daniel was running through their supplies in his head. They had enough food for a few days, so that wasn't a problem. Given all the lush growth on the floor of the valley, it was safe to assume there would be water. They had a P90 apiece, he and Sam's 9-mils, Vala's zat, plus some assorted explosives. He really hoped that these would be equal to anything they ran into here.

Something about this situation was tickling at his memory, though. He had the feeling this was all familiar, he just had no idea how. He was on point, so he couldn't dedicate as much thought as he would have liked to this little conundrum, he also had to stay alert and watch their surroundings. So far nothing had menaced them other than the loose boulders on this slope. How would this hunt take place? People with guns? Robots? Trained animals? Then it came to him. He stopped and turned to his teammates.

"What?" Vala, who was directly behind him, said. "You have that look."

That distracted him momentarily. "What look? I have a look?"

"The look you get when you're thinking. The little scrunchy lines on your forehead bunch together."

He looked at her like he didn't know her for a moment. "Oh. Ok. Wait, never mind. It just came to me that this whole scenario was just a little familiar, that's all. It's a lot like this story I read in school, where a man is trapped on an island, where he's hunted by this crazy Russian. Except the hunter tracks the man himself, using trained dogs and an assistant."

Sam cocked her head thoughtfully. "Now that you mention it, that does sound kind of familiar."

"What happens at the end?" Vala asked.

"It's been a long time, but I think the man being hunted outsmarts the hunter somehow."

"Well, good. That means we have a chance."

Daniel rolled his eyes and started walking again. "Vala, we don't even know how this crackpot plans to hunt us yet. Lets not get overconfident here."

Vala pouted. "Oh pooh. Just because I was gifted with an overabundance of confidence and you weren't doesn't mean you have to rain gloom and doom all over. I prefer to think positively."

Daniel preferred to do what he usually did when Vala started in on him, and that was pretend she didn't exist. He had learned the hard way that keeping his mouth shut in situations like this was the better part of valor.

They made their way to the edge of the jungle with out mishap and paused. The sun was climbing and the humidity was rising with it. In an hour it would be almost intolerable. Daniel reached into his pocket, pulled out a bandana and tied it over his head to keep the worst of the moisture out of his eyes. He could tell that his glasses were going to be an issue, they were beginning to fog up already. Well, as long as he didn't have to read anything in a hurry, he would be fine.

Up close, the jungle looked even more tangled and uninviting. He was starting to get some very unpleasant flashbacks of Honduras. It was a shame really. He had some fond memories of trips to the Yucatan with his parents. Fishing, exploring the ruins, learning the local customs and languages, they had been good times. But kidnapping and torture can really sour your outlook on a place, and that jungle had been the last one he'd ever wanted to see.

He sighed. So much for that.

Sam noticed his fixed look and squeezed his arm. "Daniel?"

He shook his head abruptly. "Nothing. Bad thoughts. Let's go."

Sam watched him as he began to wade his way through the brush, Vala dutifully following. Bad thoughts, huh? She had a pretty good idea what the problem was. Daniel could be extremely hard to read when he wanted to be, but he couldn't hide much from her. They had been friends way too long. He and Bill Lee had been in bad shape after their captivity in Honduras. Daniel's gunshot wound had been only the most obvious of their issues. He never actually came out and told her they had been tortured, but he hadn't needed to. She couldn't think of any other reason he would blanch at the sight of a pair of jumper cables in her trunk. And the worst thing was, due to his extraordinary memory, the images wouldn't fade with time. Four years later, they still came back to haunt him with the same clarity as when it happened.

But, like he always did, he pushed the memory aside with all the others he didn't like to think about, and got on with his life. Sam sighed mentally and followed after her teammates.

Daniel shoved through one last thick patch of tangled vines and was surprised to find himself on the edge of a clearing of sorts. The music of running water came from a small stream that emerged from the forest to his right. He stepped aside and automatically held aside the vines for Vala and Sam. It was nearing mid-day, they had been fighting the jungle for the better part of four hours, and he and Sam decided this was a good a place as any for a rest. They needed it. They were all tired and soaked with sweat and moisture from the air, but they dared not lower their guard, or even their weapons for long. The going was certainly hard, mixed with periods of impossible, but not really all that dangerous, and that was starting to worry Daniel. Though he had no idea what their host had in mind for them, it was obvious that they hadn't seen it yet.

They took turns shrugging out of their heavy vests and long sleeved shirts and freshening up at the stream a bit. Daniel even went so far as to dunk his head in the cool water, then soak his bandana and re-tied it over his hair. It was damp, but it sure felt better. He decided to forgo putting his shirt back on and zipped his vest up over his tee. A few scratches on his arms was worth being a little cooler. He found himself longing for the dry heat of Egypt and Abydos. Finished and refreshed, he stood guard while Sam and Vala did the same.

Vala had stopped complaining about the heat and the insects after the first hour and now had settled into a sort of determined silence. He'd had to hide his smile every time he looked back to check on her and saw her focused expression. He knew what kind of grit she possessed, and he had to admit, it was something he liked to see. With her mane of black hair pulled back into a no-nonsense braid, her gun cradled in her arms, she looked like the warrior he knew she was. He was proud of her, proud that his trust had not been placed in error. She had become an indispensable member of the team, and a good friend. He would tell anyone who asked that he would trust her with his back in any situation.

The rest of their relationship, however, was just as confusing to him as it had always been. She had finally given up the heavy flirting, acknowledging that it made him uncomfortable. He also knew that the flirting and outrageousness was mostly a cover to hide her insecurities and painful memories. It was a lot like his own defense mechanisms. There were still times that she drove him crazy, but now his response was usually amusement rather than anger. They had settled into a easy friendship that, he could now admit, might very well turn into something else with time. At the moment, neither of them seemed interested in rushing things, and were content to take it day by day.

A crackling in the underbrush at the far side of the clearing broke him from his musings and made his companions stand up and spin in the same direction. They had both just finished getting their gear back on and had their weapons trained and ready. Sam and Vala had followed his lead and had ditched their heavy long sleeved shirts and had put their flak vests on over their black tank tops. They both came up to stand on either side of him, and they waited, eyes trained on the spot the noises were coming from.

Whatever was out there was big and coming their way. A slight movement was going on in a clump of bushes now. A few seconds later, an animal stepped from the forest. Vala sucked in a breath at the sight of it, and he looked down at her. Her eyes were wide and her mouth was hanging open a bit. Well, at least one of them seemed to know what it was. He had never seen anything like it.

If someone had somehow managed to cross a Great Dane with a Siberian Tiger, take away the fur and turn it black, you would get something that looked roughly like the creature in front of them. It was huge, its doglike head coming up to Daniel's chest, and easily ten feet long. Its body was definitely feline, but with a high, slightly arched back that made it look a bit like a sighthound from Earth and was covered with smooth, leathery skin. It moved sideways of their position in a smooth walk, and Daniel saw that he was wrong in his initial assumption that this was a wild animal.

It was wearing a heavy looking harness of leather and metal. Small lights blinked here and there on it. Something that looked suspiciously like the lens of a camera protruded slightly from a wide section across the animals chest.

"Vala?" he asked very quietly.

"I don't know what they're called," she whispered back. "But Quetesh had some very fond memories of what they can do. They're fast, strong, and smart. They were bred as guard animals on one of her planets."

"Looks like our friend found something to do his hunting for him," Sam muttered.

At the slight sound of her voice, the animal lifted its head and let loose with a long, low, wet growl that made the hair on the back of his neck stand up. This was accompanied by a show of some impressively large teeth. Vala gasped as Daniel and Sam raised their weapons. With timing born of ten years of teamwork, they opened fire together on the creature. Rounds from both P90s raked across its body, only to bounce harmlessly off the orange energy field that surrounded it.

Sam had just enough time to shout something about a personal shield before the massive animal charged.

Daniel turned and shoved a frozen Vala toward the tree line. "Go! We need to get up a tree!" His eyes scanned the forest's edge until he spotted a large tree with huge, sturdy, and relatively low branches. "Sam!" he yelled and gestured to it. She nodded and aimed toward it. Daniel followed behind until he was sure that Vala was running, then sprinted ahead. His longer legs got him to the tree first, and he crouched at the base and laced his fingers together. Sam arrived and stepped neatly into his cupped hands and he boosted her into the branches. Vala followed behind her a moment later. As they scrambled to find purchase on higher limbs, Daniel backed up a few steps, then took a running leap upward. To his relief, he hooked his arms around a branch on the first try. Those afternoons playing one-on-one with Mitchell had really paid off.

He was pulling himself up when a sudden painful pressure on his foot made him yell. Risking a quick look over his shoulder, he saw his boot clamped firmly in a pair of black jaws. His hands began to slip on the rough bark as the creature slowly and patiently began to tug him from the tree. The muscles in his arms quivered with the strain as he fought this with all his strength. Bark rained down on him, and he looked up to see Sam launch herself across the space between them and grab the shoulders of his vest. Small, strong hands locking around his wrist told him that Vala had arrived. Thus began sort of an absurd tug of war, with him as the prize. Daniel's and Sam's eyes met. It was hard not to, their foreheads were almost touching. She had on that stubborn face he knew so well. Either he was coming up into this tree, or they were both going down, 'cause she wasn't about to let him go.

The animal was ridiculously strong, and his weight combined with the pack he was still wearing wasn't making things easy for the two women. The pack had his usual stuff in it, a few books, most of the camping supplies, his cameras. It had to weigh at least thirty pounds. An idea popped into his head suddenly. "Vala," he grunted. "Reach up and unclip my pack." She nodded and slid her hands up his arm, trying to keep a grip on him and do what he asked at the same time. Sam worked her hands down the straps on his vest just enough so that Vala could get at the clips. His weight pitched to the side with a jerk as one side loosened. She leaned over Sam's arms and got the second snap, and things happened fast after that.

As he had hoped, the heavy pack fell down directly onto the surprised animal's head. It jerked back in alarm just as Sam gave a determined tug, and, with a muffled pop, Daniel's boot slipped off of his foot. The forward momentum brought him halfway onto the branch. Sam, in a feat of adrenalin fueled strength, grabbed his belt and hauled him the rest of the way up. He levered himself up so he could sit against the trunk of the tree, Sam leaning against him, both panting heavily. They all looked down at the ebon shape glaring up at them impotently. Daniel was glad to see that it had dropped his boot to the ground, and that it was in one piece. Even though he had no idea how he was going to get it back, he didn't relish the thought of wading around in this jungle with only one shoe. He thought about the power of those jaws as they closed around his foot. Leaning down and taking off his sock, he could see some bruiseing starting across the places that hadn't been protected by the boot's thick sole. In light of that, he wasn't sure he ever wanted to get down out of this tree. Luckily, unlike the cat it vaguely resembled, its legs were built more for running than for climbing.

He groaned and rested his head against the rough bark of the trunk behind him. He was officially beat, and they had only just started this lunacy. Sam grabbed his hand and squeezed it, which he returned. Vala wrapped her arms around his neck in relief, and for once, he let her. "Daniel, I think the wonko old man read the same story you did."

Sorry this is late. Work sucks. See ya next time.