Hi! I'm back. Sorry about the wait guys, but life kept getting in the way. So, those few of you who haven't given up on me, here you go.

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

…...

"I think I might actually shock everyone and take some downtime after this one," Daniel thought to himself. "Maybe go spend some time with Jack like he's been bugging me to. I should take Vala, Jack thinks she's hilarious. They do have nearly the same sense of the absurd, though I'll have to deal with "Jack the Matchmaker". Huh, could be fun."

All this was going through his head as he crept around a huge boulder, Sagira pressed against his side. He was grateful for the Bast's presence, because with no moon to light the night, it was nearly pitch black. Maybe that was why his mind was wandering. There wasn't much to look at as they made their way up the steep slope to the compound, relying on the Bast to alert them of danger. The only thing to distract him from his musings was the lingering ache in his joints from the infection.

Mitchell was on her other side, the Bast pacing patiently between them. Ishaq was doing the same with Sam and Teal'c several paces behind them. He found himself keenly aware of Vala's absence, and kind of missed her warm weight on his back. He hated leaving her behind, but while she was no longer in danger from infection, there was no amount of nleaves that could heal the physical damage to her leg in a mere few hours.

They had been discussing how to take her with them, but Eshe had come up with a moderately acceptable solution. She would take Vala around to different hiding places and wait for a all's clear signal from them when their mission was accomplished, then rejoin them, bringing Vala with her. The thought of Vala riding the huge creature around was enough to make him smile, but he couldn't help thinking about the things that could go wrong.

The matriarch must have seen some doubt on his face, because she puffed her whiskers at him in amusement. "Am old. Cubs say too old to fight. But lot of fight left. Do not worry. I will guard mate."

He had coughed slightly at that, but couldn't even begin to explain he and Vala's complicated relationship in the Bast's language, so he had merely said, "Thank you".

Now the stone building was looming over them as Sagira made an abrupt direction change and led them in a wide circle around the base, toward a corner of the building out of sight behind a outcrop of massive boulders. By the time they reached the wall, his shins would never be the same after countless collisions with rocks. Judging by some of the other muffled curses he had heard, Sam and Mitchell were in the same boat. If Teal'c was having problems, as usual, he was keeping it to himself.

It got even better when he realized that their entrance was a roughly dug hole that disappeared into the ground. Mitchell must have seen the expression that had flitted across his face, because he was quick to reassure him. "It's alright, it's bigger than it looks. They must have found a crack in the cliff itself to go through, 'cause the dirt ends after a few feet. Teal'c had no trouble fitting through."

Daniel gave him another slightly dubious look, sighed, and followed Sagira's disappearing hindquarters into the hole. Mitchell had been right. After only a few feet of crumbly earthen walls that felt like they would collapse on him at any moment, his hand met smooth rock, and the tunnel widened drastically, to the point where he could crawl on his hands and knees rather than inching his way on his stomach. He traversed several yards in this manner before the tunnel abruptly turned to dirt again and ended in a vertical shaft. He stood up and his head met something soft and loose. Feeling with his hand, he found the end of the tunnel covered with straw. A faint chirp came through as Sagira called to him, whether reassuringly of impatiently he couldn't tell. He pulled himself out over the lip of the hole and literally swam through loose straw until he stumbled out into a weakly lit room. It was a fair sized storage room, two of it's stone walls hidden behind stacks of crates, and of course, the veritable mountain of straw.

Part of the pile started heaving as first Mitchell, then Ishaq followed closely by Sam and Teal'c emerged. Sagira watched the door as the rest of them huddled in the lee of a stack of crates, catching their breath. "So. What's the plan?"

"Stay out of the way of anything with a harness and try to turn the damn things off sounds good," Mitchell said.

"Free Clan. Females, young. Will help."

"Ishaq says there are more Bast here who aren't controlled, more females and young. If we free them, they can help us."

"Okay, sounds good. Jackson, that's your job. You can actually tell them things in their own language, calm them down if you have to." He gestured to Sagira, who angled an ear back toward them." Take the lady there with you."

"We should try to find his communications array and maybe slip a message out to the Odyssey. There's a good chance I could find and disrupt the frequency that controls the harnesses from there too, maybe," Sam said.

"Well, that sounds just like a Carter job to me," Cam said, looking pleased that a plan was coming together. " Why don't you take…"

Ishaq chirped at him. Mitchell gave him an amused glance.

"I was going to say that, you know. Take your new best friend with you, though I think he was going to tag along anyway. Me and Teal'c will go after our lovely host. I want to get off of this rock and go home. Air Force is playing Navy at the Academy this weekend and I have tickets I paid an arm and a leg for."

Moving to the door, Cam leaned out and checked the hallway. Daniel smiled as Sagira gave him an irritated look and led the way out, pacing silently down the left hand corridor. Ishaq glanced at Sam and started right. "Good luck, guys " she said, and followed him. Daniel nodded and gripped his P-90 tighter as she disappeared from sight. He and Cam exchanged a glance, then followed Sagira, Teal'c at their backs.

After a few minutes, the hall branched again. Sagira stopped and, using her head, pushed Cam in one direction, then shoved Daniel in another. Cam met his eyes and grinned. " Here we go. Jackson, try not to die."

Daniel smirked as he dutifully recited his part of this little ritual that had started between the two of them. "Mitchell, try to keep your pants on."

Teal'c clapped him on the shoulder. "Take care, DanielJackson. We have a game of Hounds and Jackals to finish, if you recall."

"Of course I remember. I'm winning."

Teal'c gave him one of his slight smiles. "We shall see."

Sagira made an impatient sound and brushed past him, walking fast enough so that he would have to trot to catch up to her. "Alright, I'm coming, I'm coming. Jeez, you're worse than Jack." With one last nod to his teammates, he caught up to his grumbling guide.

He followed her down a very straight hall for awhile before he realized that the floor was beginning to descend slightly. He started to work on a mental map of the place and began to suspect that the building carved out of the cliff was just the tip of the iceberg compared to what was dug out below it. The air began to grow heavy and damp, with a smell reminiscent of childhood trips to various zoos. This was definitely the right direction.

"Giant."

He looked at Sagira. "What?"

"Giant. Big man. Keeper. Must look out for."

He vaguely remembered a part of Mitchell's story where they had been divested of their belongings by a large, silent human. An assistant of some sort, maybe, and the one who handled the Bast. "We might find him down here?"

"Yes."

"Wonderful."

All thought of that left his head as they turned another corner. Several potent curses came bubbling up to the front of his mind as he stared down a corridor lined with bars. Sagira was keeping up a steady chirping and muttering as she passed each one, and he could only follow dumbstruck behind her. Green-brown eyes of various heights shone from each dark cell, from massive adults with eyes almost level with his own down to very young cubs who stumbled forward to stare at him curiously. In all, there had to be a couple dozen of them, their faces pressed to the bars as he began to speak to them in the language of their ancestral Partners. Sagira stopped at one cell to converse with the occupant as he kept walking, trying to reassure the captives despite his shock and steadily growing anger.

This proved to be a mistake. So engrossed was he that he didn't notice the huge hands reaching for him from a open cell until a meaty forearm locked around his neck.

He instinctually dropped his gun to reach up and pry the arm from his airway, but the person holding him was considerably larger and practically had him off the ground. He couldn't get any leverage at all with his boots just brushing the stone. Another hand reached up and nimbly pressed the clip on his gun harness, sending the P90 skittering across the floor.

This sound and his strangled yelp had alerted Sagira, who came barreling down the hall with an earth shattering roar. Any normal person, when faced with 400 pounds of charging predator, would have dropped the half throttled archaeologist to deal with this new threat, but the big man merely shifted his grasp to free up an arm. In a movement surprisingly graceful and fast for such a large person, he expertly reached out and, at the apex of Sagira's leap, struck her in a certain spot behind the hinge of her jaw, and the Bast collapsed like a puppet with it's strings cut. She hit the floor with a sickening thud and skid across the stone, fetching up against a set of bars at the end of the hall.

A furious roaring began all around them.

"This guy must know the Bast's every weakness, damn it. He knew exactly where that nerve cluster was," he thought as he continued to claw ineffectually at the arm around his neck. The arm was covered in a thick leather vambrace, so clawing ineffectually was really all he could do at the moment. His hold on the arm was the only reason he was still conscious, so trying for his sidearm or knife was out of the question. He tried to think back over his years of hand to hand on how to get out of a situation like this, but this was like sparing with Teal'c, normal rules didn't apply and you just tried to stay alive.

The edges of his vision were starting to gray as his brain raced. Out of desperation and out of options, he began to swing his legs back and forth, trying to throw the man off balance. This actually saved him. The man was just turning around to see where Sagira had ended up, and had to take a big step to the side due to the pendulum effect. This brought the back of his legs in range of a sneaky claw swipe from the cell behind him.

The big man grimaced and swung around, close enough to the bars for Daniel to brig his legs up and plant his boots firmly on them. He shoved with all his might, propelling them across the narrow hall to slam into the bars behind them. The air left the man's lungs with an "ooof", then snarled silently again when a Bast grabbed his pant leg through the bars. Beset on all sides and hopelessly distracted, his arm loosened to the point that Daniel could get an elbow jab into the man's side, and with a grunt of effort, he was free.

His legs gave way slightly as he was released, but he turned the fall into a controlled roll that got some distance between himself and his attacker, shaking his head to get the blood flowing properly to his brain again. This also let him get his first good look at his opponent.

He realized that his comparison to fighting Teal'c wasn't that far off. This "keeper" was at least as tall as his Jaffa friend, and nearly as large. Long reddish hair and a thick, braided beard made him look somewhat Norse-like. He was wearing thick leather armor that went from his wrists all the way up to enclose his neck in a protective shield. He supposed it was a necessary accessory when dealing with large carnivores who really didn't like you. With a sigh, he pulled his Berretta.

"Ok. We can do this the easy way, or the hard way. I personally like the easy way, the one where I don't shoot you, you lock yourself in that empty cage over there, and I just forget about you for awhile. How does that sound?"

Evidently that wasn't sounding too good judging by the smirk on his new friend's face as he charged down the hall at him. "Ah crap." Daniel sighted and fire two shots, aiming to disable rather than kill. Later, when he had time to think about it, he supposed he really shouldn't have been surprised when the bullets pinged harmlessly off of a personal shield. But right that moment, it was pretty damn surprising.

"You have got to be kidding me!"

The keeper came at him with the same grace he used to take down Sagira. Daniel dropped his now useless gun and kicked it down the hall, Jack's voice in his head telling him to never leave a weapon where your enemy could get it and use it against you. He managed to get his guard up just in time to block a punch that felt like a battering ram on his arm. He danced out of range desperately, shaking the limb to get the pins and needles out. He wasn't going to be able to take many more hits like that.

The man closed the distance again, going high, so Daniel went low, getting under his guard and driving his fist into his opponent's solar plexus with all his strength. The keeper grunted deep in his abdomen and started to double over slightly. Unfortunately, he recovered far faster than Daniel expected and he just couldn't avoid the fist that crashed into the side of his face, sending his glasses flying to who knows where.

Daniel staggered back a few feet, trying to clear the blood from a split eyebrow from his eye, the whole right side of his face numb. It wasn't going to be numb for long, and he wasn't looking forward to when the pain hit. That, and the fact that most of his immediate surroundings were now out of focus, meant he was rather handicapped at the moment.

Movement behind the keeper caught his attention as Sagira levered herself up on her forelegs, hindquarters still laying limply on the floor. Her ribcage was heaving with the effort, but her gaze was steady as it met his. He had a pretty good idea what she wanted of him.

Distract him.

"Easier said than done," he thought as he ducked out of the way of those powerful arms again.

The silence of his opponent was a bit unnerving, and getting more so the longer this went on. Daniel didn't know if the man was physically mute or just very taciturn. Teal'c used silence to great effect in keeping those he fought off balance. Worked great for interrogations too. The first couple of years Teal'c had been on the team, he had been so quiet that many people had assumed he couldn't talk. Teal'c still did much of his communicating with his eyes and facial expressions, even though compared with those early years, nowadays he was a veritable chatterbox .

He worked on doing nothing but staying out of reach, ducking and weaving and making himself as big a nuisance as possible. He made sure the big man had to come to him, leading him steadily away from Sagira and whatever she was doing. Unfortunately, that only lasted so long.

The steady scraping sound of Sagira dragging herself across the floor finally registered to the keeper's senses, and he began to turn in her direction. Taking a chance, Daniel darted in and landed a blow to his ribs. He almost got out of range again before a backhanded swing clipped his arm, once again opening the gash on Daniel's bicep. "Ow! Damn that hurt! At this rate, Carolyn is going to have to staple the damn thing shut. Won't that be fun." The good thing was, at least the ploy had gotten the big man's attention back on to him. The bad thing was, he was more determined to get his hands on him than ever.

Sagira, if you're going to do something, sooner would be better.

His answer was the click of a switch and the sound of many barred doors sliding aside.

…...

Sam's hand tightened on the stock of her gun as she followed Ishaq deeper onto the compound. She knew it would be next to useless if they encountered any shielded Bast, but the familiar weight was comforting in its own way. This place was huge, going deeper into the cliff that what was on the surface suggested. She just hoped her guide knew where he was going. As if reading her thoughts, the young Bast glanced over his shoulder at her in what was probably supposed to be reassurance.

She got a sense that they were climbing, the air was becoming lighter and dryer, though there were no windows to the outside. The hallways were very wide, wider than they really needed to be and Sam couldn't help but wonder why. It sure wasn't due to volume of traffic, since she sure hadn't seen anyone else here. She saw that as a good thing considering what could be prowling the corridors.

She wondered about the absence of cameras here, when she was sure they were being filmed every second out in the jungle. Could it be that the Hunter never expected his prey to make it this far?

They were just passing a closed door when she smelled something very foreign to the jungle smells she had been surrounded by the past few days, but something so familiar to her that she often woke up with it still in her nose. The ozone and hot plastic smell of electronics.

She stopped and backtracked, tugging on Ishaq's tail to get his attention. He paused and turned, his head cocked questionably. Studying the door, she pressed the plate switch on the wall and brought her gun up to her shoulder as it slid open. The light came on automatically when she stepped cautiously in, and she jumped in alarm at the sight of a dark form with the telltale blinking lights of a control harness. She got the distinct feeling that Ishaq was laughing at her when he stepped past her into the room and walked up to a rack holding half a dozen empty harnesses.

Seeing the room was empty except for her amused guide, she eagerly went to examine the harnesses, curious to see how they worked, and, more importantly, how they could be turned off. There were electrodes going to pads on the underside of the harness that corresponded with all the main pressure points on a Bast's neck and chest. She had no idea exactly how the Bast were being controlled, unless it had something to do with a physical trait unique to them. One thing she did notice gave her hope. As she studied the circuitry, she found what looked like a small transmitter of some sort, which suggested that there might be something that communicated with all of them at once. Hopefully in the room that Ishaq was taking her to.

These were actually pretty simple devices, way less complicated than the things she usually worked on. She could dismantle them with a few snips. Now if only the hunters would hold still long enough….

Getting an idea, she quickly singled out the circuit that powered the small LED like lights, took out a small pair of wire cutters from her vest ,and cut everything around it.

She held the modified harness out to Ishaq. "Hey, come here for a moment and try this on."

Ishaq backed away from her with a nervous whine.

"It's okay, I promise. I turned everything off except the lights. Now it's just a really, really fancy accessory."

He gave her a sour look, ears laid flat against his head.

"Well, I'd offer to try it on first, but it's really not my style, you know. Come on, trust me. If you have this on, we won't attract as much attention. If anyone comes across us, you can pretend like you caught me and are taking me somewhere."

He snorted and looked pointedly at her guns.

"Ok, so we'll figure that part out later. It'll work, really." She used the wheedling tone she used to use with her cat. "Please?"

Ishaq sighed gustily and walked over to her. Though every inch of his body showed his opinion of this plan, he let her buckle the harness on him. Then they both sat and stared at each other for a moment, as if expecting something to happen. "So? Feel anything? Getting a sudden urge to eat me or anything now?

Ishaq shook his head.

"Oh. Good, I got it right."

…...

It turned out that they never got to test out the ruse, for the hall remained deserted all the way to what seemed to be the compound's main control room. She wished she could ask him how he knew his way around so well, but while they were doing pretty good communicating with each other, she needed Daniel for the complicated stuff.

The control room turned out to be a surprisingly small chamber with three consoles, about the size of her lab back home. She let the door slide shut behind her and sat down on a very low stool, her eyes scanning the computer systems. Bugger. Everything was in a language she didn't recognize, and she'd seen a few over the years. This was going to be interesting.

"I don't suppose you can read, can you?" she asked the creature looming over her shoulder watching her every move with interest.

Ishaq snorted and shook his head.

"Well, it was worth a shot." She should be able to figure this out, after all, she had figured out alien computers without really knowing the language before. She couldn't read or speak much Goa'uld or Asgard, but she used their technology all the time. She could do this. She got to work connecting system functions with symbols to get a rough idea of what did what.

Unfortunately, she was just getting the hang of it when she was interrupted by the sound of the door sliding open.

She had barely enough time to register the fact that two huge Bast had just entered the room when a heavy weight hit her from the side, knocking her off her stool and pressing her onto the floor. Her heart began to hammer in her chest as she looked up at Ishaq standing above her. His teeth were bared and an ugly snarl was bubbling up from his throat. The hard, detached look in his eyes was the same as the first time she had seen him, right before he had chased them up that tree.

A million thoughts were going through her head, chief of which was that she had gotten something wrong with the harness, and that being in close proximity to another had activated it. Even worse was that he had been playing them from the start, that all the Bast had, thus putting Vala and Daniel in danger as well.

The two hunters stalked into the room, rumbling deep in their chests. Ishaq snarled back, muttering something in the Bast's language. An argument started between Ishaq and one of the older hunters. All the while Sam was trapped between Ishaq's battered front paws, which, the part of her brain that wasn't gibbering in panic noticed, still smelled faintly of the disinfectant she had used on them.

Finally the older male jerked his head in a "well get on with it" motion and sat down, his partner following his lead. Ishaq lowered his head and nosed her throat, growling. She met his eyes, shivering as she imagined what was about to happen. For a moment his eyes softened.

And he gave her a slow, deliberate wink.

She stared back at him for a second, not quite believing what she had just seen, when he seized her throat in his teeth. She squeaked in terror before she realized that, while his enormous mouth had completely engulfed her neck, he was not exerting one iota of pressure. In fact, as soon as his fangs touched her skin, he backed off slightly.

Oh, he really was clever. Reassured that her new friend had a plan, her mind began to work again. She began to struggle weakly, putting her hands on either side of his head as if trying to pry him off. Ishaq growled savagely and bunched the muscles in his jaw, while in reality his tongue snaked down to caress her skin gently. She gasped loudly, making it sound like she was being strangled. Her gasps got weaker and weaker until they died off all together and she laid still, holding her breath, limp in Ishaq's grip.

The two hunters nodded in satisfaction, spoke briefly, and exited the room. The door slid shut.

Ishaq instantly let go and nuzzled Sam's face, making urgent little noises. When she opened her eyes, he lost all pretense at dignity and ran his tongue up the side of her face in excitement. "Thanks a lot," she said, wiping herself off. But she sat up and wrapped her arms around his neck. "That was an incredible acting job. You had me convinced for a second there."

He puffed out his chest proudly.

She climbed slowly back onto her stool and tried to settle her still racing heart. That had been way too close. She wondered how everyone else was doing. With a worried sigh, she went back to studying the technology.

…...

TBC