Chapter Five

Kyna stands in front of Queen Tara, flanked on either side by a towering Valkyr guard, making her small frame seem even smaller. Tara leans forward in her chair and sizes up the young woman standing in front of her. The horse herder is small, even for a herder. But robust and clearly agile and strong, the only way she could have fallen from the rafter in the Great Hall is to have climbed up there, quite a feat in itself. Let alone falling and landing on all fours without injury, even if it was on the back of a chief. 'What is your name?'

'Kyna, my Queen.'

'Kyna.. a horse herder?'

'Yes, my Queen.'

'Just call me Tara. There is only us here so no need for such formality. You are very agile for a herder.'

'The horses, my Qu...Tara, when we round them up often I run across their backs to guide them to the waterhole or the counting pens.'

'A horse runner?' Tara smiles at the thought. 'You are fearless and agile, not many would run across the backs of horses any more. You are also inquisitive, want to know what is going on, is that why you were in the rafters?'

'Yes, I... the horses have been restless and the news takes such a long time to reach us out at the herds. Are you really going to go through the gate?'

Before Tara can answer there is a commotion outside the door and another Valkyr arrives with another young horse herder held firmly in her grasp. 'I found this one outside the door, my Queen. Trying to spy on you.'

'Lore!' Kyna blurts out his name in surprise before she can stop herself.

'You know him?' Tara asks Kyna.

'He's my twin brother, Lore.'

'And can he run across horses too?'

'No, not like Kyna can.' Lore answers the question himself. 'My Queen, I was just worried about my sister, she is just too inquisitive but she meant no harm tonight and we need to get back to our herd.'

Tara studies the two herders for a moment and then smiles as a thought occurs to her.

'Well, I think, as punishment for your sister's intrusion she will have to stay here and join my Valkyr guards-women.'

This bought a gasp not just from the herders but also the guards present. Tara continues. 'I know, Kyna is too short to be a Valkyr but she makes up for it with agility and inquisitiveness, I am sure none of my guards could climb up into the rafters after her. You, Lore, will return to look after your herd while Kyna trains in swordship with the Valkyr. And as to whether or not I am going through the gate, Kyna, now you have a chance to find out for yourself because where I go, my fearless Valkyr go too.'

In a barn near Dragon Hill, Wiltshire.

Sleep quickly catches up with Rob Bowden as he rolls a bale of hay in front of the barn door to keep out any unwanted visitor in the night. He sleeps the heavy, dream-free sleep of the very tired. In his pocket the lead box seems to settle down as well, the gold ring safe inside.

When Rob wakes, thin light is streaming through the slats in the wooden barn walls and he shivers with the morning damp. He stretches, yawns and rubs his eyes. Something feels wrong with his hand and he glances at it as he gets to his feet and for a moment, in a shaft of pale morning sunlight falling across the barn, he imagines the ring is on his finger and his skin is now covered in scales, like snakeskin, silvery green across his knuckles, moving with the pulse of his blood.

Rob rolls the bale of hay back and steps outside into the sunlight, feeling the thin heat beginning to warm his face. He checks his hand again but his skin is normal in the daylight. The gold ring glitters back at him from his finger. He must have put it back on during his sleep. For a second he admires it, the craftsmanship of it and then he thrusts his hands into his pocket and heads off across the field to the nearest road. He needed to find something to eat and drink, after his night in the barn he is really hungry.

Rob arrives at the motorway service station just as they are opening up. He heads for the coffee shop and, digging out a few pound coins from his pocket, buys the largest coffee he can and then slides into a booth near the back of the shop, enjoying the soft padded seating and the warming steam from the coffee. The shop is quiet and quite soon Rob can feel his eyes beginning to shut and so he settles back and lets sleep take hold of him, cap pulled down over his face to avoid any disturbances.

Agnes awakes expecting to find herself in her bed at her London flat, alarm ringing. Instead she finds herself in a small, featureless room with only a bed, chair and desk in it. She slides out from under the covers to find herself still fully dressed. To one side of the room is a door opening onto an en suite shower room. As she moves about the room, the day before comes flooding back, not a dream but reality and immediately sleep and her London flat is far from her mind. After a quick shower and smoothing down her clothes as best she can she opens the door in search of some breakfast. The room is one of many on a mezzanine floor and she pauses to look out across the busy SGCUK floor below. From her vantage point Agnes picks out Daniel, Jack, Teal'c and Peter grouped around a desk station below. They look as though they have been awake for ages and she checks her watch guiltily to find it's only six am. They must have been up with the lark.

A movement above catches Jack's eye and he glances up to see Agnes Dale watching them from the walkway leading to the sleeping quarters. He waves and beckons for her to join them. She would want to see what they are looking at.

On the screen in front of them is a circular signal, spreading out like ripples on a pond. There is a faint, low pulsing sound accompanying the pattern, almost hypnotic in it's regularity.

'What's that?' Agnes asks, too intrigued to remember about breakfast.

'That is the energy signature of one your coins, Agnes, they contain a small amount of an element almost identical to one we've encountered before called Naquadah. A superconducting element that stores massive amounts of power, like a battery only much, much more powerful.' Peter shakes his head. 'Quite extraordinary, we had the twelve novel coins from the hoard couriered here overnight, I've also taken the liberty of having you transferred as a research specialist from the Museum on an ongoing basis.'

Agnes replies, slightly annoyed at being placed on secondment without her prior permission, 'And the Museum agreed to handing over the coins and me, without a problem?'

'When the order comes from very high up in the government, then yes, they did.'

'The government?' Once again Agnes feels totally at a loss as to who and what Stargate Command really is. But Peter chuckles and simply replies. 'You and Daniel have a lot of work to do on those coins, we could really do with a translation in case they mark a location for a gate. Teal'c and Jack are heading out to track down this Robert Bowden character and as soon as we have him, we'll get the ring back here, in case it is a key of some sort. I've sent an archaeology team up to the earthquake site at Dragon Hill to search for any more hoard items or similar Naquadah like materials. Now, I have a meeting with the military liaison team so let's crack on!' With that Peter strides away and Teal'c and Jack follow.

'Translation! Where on earth do we start?' Agnes indignantly asks Daniel, standing with her hands on hips as they walk away. Daniel replies softly at her side, 'How about with some breakfast, apparently they serve a very good fry up in the motorway service station topside.'