Episode Setting: Enemy Mine

With Sam organising a complete overhaul of the Stargate diagnostic program, it had been left to Jack to lead a back-up mission to P3X-403 due to one of Colonel Edwards' lieutenants having gone missing. As Jack surveyed the planet he now stood on, seeing little difference to any of the others, he did not like the idea that after months on the planet, there was something hiding behind the tree lines. Knowing that SG-1 had, on occasion, been snuck up on by the inhabitants of a planet, Jack still found it hard to believe that the mining operation had not noticed anything in the months they had been here. It troubled him further that upon arrival, Daniel had spotted piles of artefacts. The archaeologist had been upset with a side of anger, not just at not being called to look at the artefacts, but also at them having been moved. It was difficult having Daniel look to him for help against Colonel Edwards and Jack constantly deferring to Edwards' authority, but it was his command and SG-1 had been called in simply to help. Daniel was convinced that there was something larger at play on 403 though.

"Jack, this yokel is too big for a human."

"And?"

"These other items are clearly Goa'uld in origin." Daniel picked up the pain stick, demonstrating that it still had power.

"Nice," Jack commented at the device created purely for evil. "So?"

Daniel rolled his eyes in annoyance. "Who did the Goa'uld use as hosts before humans?"

Jack's eyes glanced at Daniel and then Teal'c and Lieutenant Carpenter who approached and stood next to them. "Don't, Daniel."

"Don't what?"

"Don't say what you're about to say."

"But, Jack, I think there's-"

"Ack!" Jack said loudly. "I said I don't want to hear it."

"Unas," Daniel blurted out quickly. "This yokel was made for a Unas and they may still be here."

"That would explain what we found," Carpenter agreed before becoming momentarily distracted by the yokel. "This is so cool," she breathed, causing Jack to roll his eyes.

"Indeed," Teal'c responded to her first statement.

"Lieutenant?" Jack pressed, impatience in his tone.

"Yeah, sorry, sir." She looked up at him. "We found a burial ground of sorts."

"No one there was *buried*," Major Lorne said in disgust. Jack turned to him, questioning him with his eyes. "They were strung up like scarecrows."

"Funeral pyres kind of thing," Carpenter explained, Jack's eyes back on her. "Probably more like a warning. We found Lieutenant Ritter on one of them." Jack winced out loud, sympathising with the disgust clear on Lorne's face.

"One of the dead was a Jaffa."

"A warning to whom? Us?"

"And maybe themselves, too. It was by an entrance to a mine."

Trying to piece everything together in his mind, Jack had to figure out what was the best course of action with regards to Colonel Edwards when gun fire and guttural animal noises could be heard from past the tree line. "For crying out loud," Jack muttered as he ran straight into danger.

SG – SG – SG

"Listen, Nic," Daniel said, sidling up to the lieutenant and smiling largely at her. She glanced over at him, inviting him to speak with a look on her face. "Without Jack on this mission, I'm going to be butting heads with Colonel Edwards." She looked at him as if to say 'and?', forcing him to continue. "Have you got my back?"

"Listen, Daniel," she sighed heavily. "If I'm asked for my opinion, I'll give it and if I really think the wrong decision's about to be made, I'll speak up. But," she said forcefully, "Colonel Edwards is the ranking officer here. Even Colonel O'Neill was deferring to him before the original standing orders became obsolete and his injury."

"He's not going to…" Daniel searched for the right word.

"Daniel, he has his orders. And I have mine. Please," she forced a smile at him and then watched as he walked off a short distance towards Teal'c who would, no doubt, 'have his back'. Returning her attention to the carts full of artefacts, Nicola tried to concentrate on them. These were the times that Nicola felt most torn between her scientific roots and military background, and she could only assume that it was often the same for Major Carter. She, too, had been astounded that the artefacts had been moved without an archaeological based team being called to the planet, but she had kept her mouth shut; Daniel was not boxed in by such constraints.

"You okay there, Lieutenant?" Nicola looked up and across the cart.

"Shouldn't I be asking you that, Major?" A look of embarrassment crossed Major Lorne's face and then he cringed. It was a cheeky comment that Nicola would normally never make to any other senior military officer, but something made the question just slip from her mouth. "I'm sorry, sir. I didn't-"

He cut her off: "I guess I deserve that."

She leaned over the cart and in a hushed voice whispered, "If it helps, not just a few months ago, I… was sick at the sight of a, uh, body." She could completely empathise with him for having been sick after discovering the body of his team-mate hung up on a pyre.

Lorne nodded in understanding. "Glad I'm not the only one. How's Doctor Jackson?" Following his eyes, she saw Daniel still deep in conversation with Teal'c. Presumably a one-sided conversation.

"Concerned. He's had prolonged contact with a member of the Unas."

"You saw what they did to Ritter. No man deserves that."

"They are still sentient beings who were defending their territory. It doesn't change the fact, but it perhaps means that we shouldn't go in guns blazing."

"You think that's what Colonel Edwards is doing?"

"Wouldn't you in grief for a member of your own team?"

SG - SG - SG

This scene is immediately followed by Chapter 3 of the Atlantis/SG1 kinda crossover "More Than Friends: Part One" which is a fic all about Major Lorne and is archived here and on my own site.