AUTHOR'S NOTE: Rated M for some language and mature themes and some off-screen violence. My apologies to any German speakers if I got the language bits a teensy bit wrong. Google Translate is not always the best. On that note, some of the things expressed here are NOT my opinions, feelings or anything of the sort. My apologies if anyone is offended, but sometimes one needs to tell the rough stories, no?

DISCLAIMER: Stargate, Stargate SG-1, and its related characters and setting are not my property and I'm only borrowing them for a little while for some free entertainment. No infringement is intended.

Chapter Six

P3X-296. Night had crept slowly across the site of the crash, and SG-1 was only now beginning to pull themselves from it. Tenbaum was the first to extract himself from the wreckage of their stolen cargo ship and looked about. Three moons shone pale overhead as well as a brilliant swath blazing across the night sky from the planet's rings. They had crashed in a fairly open field, and Wally could see for miles in every direction. Quickly noting a distinguishing landmark or five, he then set about helping his teammates.

Monroe moaned groggily but insisted that she was fine, despite the gash at her temple and a painful looking swelling of her left ankle. As she tried to stand, Monroe yelped and went down in a heap. "I told you not to put any weight on that ankle, Doc," he admonished her. "It's probably broken." Lynn just nodded mutely and sat where she had fallen.

By now Godfrey was pulling himself out from under a lean-to made of twisted metal, cursing vehemently. A small but powerful hand gripped his arm and dragged him free. Looking up, he was staring into Kel's warmth behind Ashley's young eyes. It was still going to take a while to get used to that. "I'm all right. I'm all right," he placated his nervous medic. "Check the rest of the team first, Ashe." Doing as she was told, she found Monroe and set to work on the latter's damaged ankle.

Myrrwnn was the next to extricate herself, thus completing the count; all accounted for. She was alternately whining and yowling and cradling her right arm tight to her body. Tenbaum tried to smile reassuringly to her and triage her wound. When his hand touched her shoulder, she hissed fiercely and instinctively lashed out to knock him away – but the blow never landed. The Jaffa had understood and checked her swing. "It's dislocated," Wally tried to explain to her in quiet tones only to be stared at blankly. A sharp cry from behind him could only have been Monroe having her ankle set. Wally turned back to Myrrwnn and grimaced, "I'm going to have to pop it back into place, okay?"

Staring at the small Tau'ri, Myrrwnn simply took his hand with her right one and flattened her ears. She understood. Through her grip she could feel her body tense and brace as rolled her shoulder to loosen it. Without warning he shoved in a very brutal but precise way, which rewarded him with a wet socking sound coupled with Myrrwnn's beleaguered howl of pain. He apologized to her, who only smiled and rolled her shoulder with greater range than she could before.

"Wally!"

"Sir!" Tenbaum jumped at the sound of Godfrey's voice from around an outcropping of something that might at one time have been their drive unit. He scrambled over to his superior and gave him a brief appraising glance. "We've got a pretty fair field of view in all directions, and it's a fair bet that if anyone lives here, they saw us come down. I'm pretty sure that I spotted what could be the gate off to the..." Tenbaum turned his face to the sky, judging the passage of celestial bodies as they had been crawling from the wreckage. That one moon seemed to be very obstinately traveling in the opposite direction to the other two did not help his direction-finding skills. Finally, he settled for pointing, "It should be that way, sir."

Noting Tenbaum's puzzlement about directions, Godfrey decided to let it pass and stood shakily to his feet. "All right, people, here's the deal: we've a bit of a hike ahead of us. I know we're tired and beat up, but it's time to go home now."

They marched in haggard silence, only the dull thud of boots upon the ground to mark time. It was five kilometers to the Stargate, give or take, and it could not come fast enough for any of them. If the ship's starboard aerilon hadn't been damaged in their escape, they might have been able to land closer. As it was, each of them was very thankful to be alive. The familiar verdant greenery of the planet was not even enough to cheer them and even Monroe's usually unflappable spirit was locked away somewhere in a very dark basement.

Arriving at the 'Gate an hour and a half later, Godfrey called for a brief rest. There had been no sign of German pursuit past the initial escape and no indication that their crash had been discovered, or even seen. While they rested, Ashley examined Monroe's ankle again, and Tenbaum offered to massage Myrrwnn's shoulder. The Jaffa waved off his offer, her ears turned back in annoyance. "Not weak," she protested. "Am fine." Her attention was more focused upon the Tok'ra, who seemed to have fared better than the rest of them in the crash. "Keltit is well?"

A soft flashing of the eyes and Keltit smiled weakly to her teammates. There was yet a great sadness within her eyes, and a red rim of puffy skin was evidence of her silent weeping over the loss of Durann. "We are well," her dual tones reassured. "Heartbroken still, but well enough. Thank you."

Soon, Godfrey called them to their feet and dialed Earth. "Well, maybe not how one would want a first mission to go, but we came through it okay. Wally, send the code," Godfrey stated flatly after the Gate had finished. At the latter's nod, the group staggered through the shimmering event horizon...

It hadn't ceased to amaze her yet, looking around the command deck of the newest Tau'ri battleship Athena. She couldn't help but to grin to herself as she sat in the central seat and realized that all of this was hers. Colonel Samantha Carter, United Earth Space Force. She giggled, remembering that General O'Neill had tried very hard to get the Space Force dubbed "Starfleet", but the other brass just wouldn't go for it. She still couldn't believe it all. In a matter of weeks the SGC had gone from a clandestine operation deep under Cheyenne Mountain to worldwide acclaim. The possibilities were staggering. She could only hope that her people did not go the way of the Langarans.

Turning to her helm officer, a mousy young man in his early twenties and still very wet behind the ears, Carter gave the order to revert from hyperspace. The ship did not lurch beneath her; it did not even tremble. Instead, several alarms blared to life and her sensor chief called out to her, "Captain, we have a ship in orbit of the planet matching no known configurations."

"Let's see it, Jones." Carter leaned forward in her seat and stared at a panoramic window that wasn't really a window. It was, rather, a highly sophisticated viewing screen that had been developed from technology left to them by the Asgard. The image magnified by her order and she could see the blue-green gem of P2X-79TK hanging in space, embraced by the orbits of her three moons. And something else. Carter ordered the image magnified again and everyone on the bridge gasped.

There, hanging majestically above the planet's main landmass was a vessel, its elongated hull bristling with cannon. The superstructure, where it was presumed the command decks were located, was set far back along the hull – not so unlike the Athena. The difference, however, was in the hull markings. Carter, along with every member of her crew, could make no mistake about the meaning of the symbol emblazoned upon the superstructure. In a nanosecond a potential new friend was transformed into a dangerous old enemy and Carter wasted no time. "Shields up and scramble the three-oh-twos. Launch only on my order." Swiveling in her seat, Carter caught the communications officer in her sights, "Have they tried to hail us?"

"No, Ma'am," answered the woman in cool, even tones. "They may not even know we're here."

"Good." Carter's face was set into a hard mask of determination. "Let's see to it that they don't. Get us under cloak and get Daniel up here."

"Captain, we have a very faint and fading ion trail leading away from the planet and a bit of what might be wreckage on the far side of the planet from the other ship," Jones reported. "It looks like the wreckage might be a small fighter craft."

"And since they seem to be in a geosynchronous orbit, they may not be too inclined to pick it up." Carter's grin turned hungry. "Bring us around, helm. Nice and easy. Let's not startle them, but I want that craft in my hangar bay ASAP."

In a few moments, as the not-so-mysterious vessel passed behind the planet's horizon, a familiar voice bubbled across the deck, "Hey Sam; what's going on?"

Carter turned in her chair and smiled dryly to her friend, "Daniel, you aren't going to believe this."

...and into a bank of cameras and jostling bodies, brilliant flashes and soft whump of flash bulbs assaulting their night-adjusted eyes. The throng of people where hurling questions at them in a rapid and unintelligible roar. Myrrwnn tensed, her fur bristling and she was very near to answering in kind. A familiar voice from overhead declared, "Welcome home, SG-1. Everyone else, clear the damned gate room."

The group of five, shrank back from the unexpected chaos in the spacious chamber, suddenly not feeling so enormous. Slowly and with great reluctance, the assault of light and voices abated, and SG-1 was allowed some space to breathe. As they descended the grated ramp, armed security was herding the mass of photographers out one door while General Landry was striding hurriedly through the other. "It's about time, Major." His tone was far more relieved than annoyed, though there was a hint of annoyance at its edges. Gesturing to the retreating mob Landry grumbled, "Well, the cat is out..." He paused and finally took a good look at the team's new friend, a six-foot-tall feline, and flushed a deep crimson. "Ah, yes; we'll pretend I wasn't about to say that."

Ushering the team out of the Gate room and toward the infirmary, Landry was explaining the new situation on Earth, "The whole thing's been disclosed. Everything from the first Abydos mission in '94 to our latest exploration of P3X-7305K." The man did not sound entirely happy about any of this. "Naturally, the public is immensely curious about it all. You're heroes, and people are going to want to get to know you."

Keltit scoffed loudly which raised Landry's eyebrows. "General, the impact on your fragmented society will be dangerous in the extreme. How could your leaders have considered such an act?"

Landry took a moment to wrap his mind around the Tok'ra speaking through Finn's mouth. "It was decided that word would irreparably leak eventually. It was deemed better to do it on our own terms, rather than the public's. Besides, this new administration seems to have faith in the 'adaptability of humankind', or so she's said."

The rest of the team seemed far too exhausted to much care at this point. With a beleaguered sigh Godfrey added, "And things just got more interesting out there, too."