Chapter 12: The Ship

System PK-327, July 14th, 1998 (Earth Time)

Jack O'Neill looked at the screen showing their destination. A round globe floating in space. Not as blue as Earth, but not a desert or jungle world. Just another nameless planet to explore. But this time, they weren't going through a Stargate - they were approaching it from space. In a stealth shuttle - at least if the stealth system, whatever it was, worked as planned. Carter at least seemed to think it would work, which was why Jack wasn't making much of a fuss about this. Entrapta was a bit too enthusiastic about taking untested equipment on dangerous missions, and Hordak… Jack refrained from scoffing. As if he'd trust a 'former' warlord. He had met enough warlords on Earth to know better.

Some of them he had met after flying into Indian country in a small craft and hoping that the enemy wouldn't spot you, far from any backup. Just like now. He snorted.

"Sir?"

"Just some memories, Carter," he said. "This is a much nicer ride than a Blackhawk."

"Ah." She nodded - she knew what he was talking about, of course. Not from personal experience. Well, not inside the Blackhawk. But she might have been ready to provide air support when called in.

"Blackhawk?" Daniel looked confused. "Ah!"

"Blackhawk?" Catra looked intrigued.

"A helicopter - an aircraft held aloft by a large propeller instead of wings or anti-gravity generators," Carter explained. "Or magic."

"Ah." The catwoman nodded. "Military transport?"

"Yes," Jack said.

"And this reminds you of it? How big are they?" She gestured around the bridge.

"Not nearly as big," Jack replied. "It's just the feeling of trying to sneak into a place where you aren't supposed to be and hoping no one spots you and starts shooting."

"Ah!" She grinned. "Yes, that's exciting."

"And terrifying," Daniel added.

"We've got She-Ra with us," Catra said.

"That won't help if the Goa'uld send a couple Death Gliders or Al'Kesh after us," Jack retorted.

"A couple? She can handle those by herself - she once killed three frigates." Catra glanced at Adora, who frowned at her.

"That probably was an attempt to gauge my power, not a serious attack," Adora told her.

Catra rolled her eyes. "They tried to shoot us down."

"But he only sent three frigates after us. He had many more of them, and the Horde never husbanded their forces like that. At least Hordak didn't do that," Adora retorted.

Right. Hordak was the kind of warlord who probably sent tank regiments to scout for the enemy. Then again, the US Army had done the same - or would have, if the Cold War had gone hot. But they were the Army. "That's very interesting, but I'm more concerned about our situation, not what happened in the past," Jack said. "So, is the stealth system working?" They were now inside the system.

"We haven't been scanned - not with any scanner I would detect, at least," Entrapta said. "Of course, passive detection remains a possibility, but we've got camouflage against optical sensors, and our power systems and engines are shielded. And we haven't been shot at - not yet - so I think it's safe to say our systems are working." She blinked. "Or they aren't working, but no one's looking for us. Which is also good. I think. Though we wouldn't know if the system's working, in that case."

"Or we're flying into a trap," Jack pointed out.

"Then we turn the trap on the enemy," Catra said. "They won't expect us. If they are waiting for us, they'll expect First Ones."

"Who had better technology than we have," Jack said.

"Not quite!" Entrapta shook her head, her animated hair not moving from the console. It looked very weird, as if someone had glued the tips of her hair to the keys and switches. "We've upgraded the systems to be on par or better than Horde technology - Horde Prime's tech, I mean. And his technology is at least as good as the First Ones was."

Right. "I'd still prefer not to enter a trap," Jack said. Overconfidence killed.

"If things go wrong, we just have to hold out long enough for Third Fleet to arrive," Catra said. "We should be able to manage that."

Adora nodded.

"Magic should give us an advantage," Carter added.

Magic. "I know," Jack said. He wasn't happy about it, though. He didn't know what exactly magic could do. That made planning, and, more importantly, adapting plans under fire, difficult. "Let's hope the people on the planet are friendly."

"The presence of Naquadah usually indicates Goa'uld," Teal'c said. "They do not leave their slaves with such technology."

"I know," Jack said. "Unless it's a Stargate." He hoped it was a Stargate.

"We'll know soon enough!" Entrapta's hair moved over the consoles as she typed. "A little bit longer, and we're in range for a deep scan." She tilted her head. "We'll be using magic, so they shouldn't detect that."

Magic again. But there was no helping it. "Good," Jack said.

A few minutes later, Entrapta announced: "OK, stop! We're close enough! Scanning now!"

That meant they were sitting still in space. Jack clenched his teeth. He hated being unable to affect the situation. At least on the ground, he could do something if they were attacked.

"Oh! I found the concentration of Naquadah. It's all in one place!" Entrapta announced. "It's… on the screen!"

Jack stared. He knew that thing.

"An Al'Kesh," Teal'c said.

"It looks like it crashed," Carter added.

"Right." Jack nodded. Not a Stargate, then. But not a Goa'uld base, either. "Any signs of life around it?"

"Yes, but… it's kinda hard to sort out animals and people," Entrapta said.

"Structures?" Daniel asked.

"Some, but they seem kinda damaged."

The screen changed, showing ruins.

"Goa'uld style," Daniel stated the obvious.

"Goa'uld style?" Adora asked.

"Well Egyptian style, to be precise," Daniel went on. "But outside Earth, only the Goa'uld beholden to Ra used this style.

So, that was how the enemy houses looked. It wasn't very impressive. Drab stone houses, flat roofs, single floor…

"Looks pathetic," Catra said out loud what Adora wasn't quite thinking.

"Well, those are obviously quarters for their slaves," Daniel explained. "No Goa'uld would be living in such, ah, squalor."

"They would be so shamed, they could never show their face at the courts of their betters again, should anyone know of this," Teal'c added.

"Yeah. But if given a choice between death and this?" O'Neill shook his head. "They'll live like this. And they'll jump you when you least expect it."

"Well, we've got Melog. They'll sniff them out," Catra said, patting their friend on the flank. "No surprises there."

"And I think if there were Goa'uld on the planet, they would have had their slaves construct a palace," Daniel added.

"They might not have had the means," Entrapta said.

"If there's enough stone and clay to construct slave quarters, there's enough stone and clay to construct a palace," O'Neill said. "That's how they think. They would sacrifice hundreds of slaves to get a palace."

"But… That makes no sense!" Entrapta protested, shaking her head. "That's… they would hurt themselves like that! Everyone suffers if you do that! Palaces don't get you anything you can use to improve your position!"

"That's the Goa'uld for you," O'Neill told her. "Long-term planning isn't their strength."

"That's not true," Daniel protested. "They do make long-term plans - and the loss of slaves is often a welcome side-effect for them. If their slaves would grow too experienced, too skilled or too numerous, they might become a threat."

"Even in the case of being shipwrecked?" Catra pointed at the screen.

"Yes," Teal'c said. "Without a way off the planet, they would be unable to retreat or call reinforcements. Keeping their slaves cowed and from becoming a threat would be their priority."

They sounded horrible but also short-sighted to Adora. "And why did the ship crash?"

Entrapta pushed a few buttons, and the screen's image zoomed in on the shipwreck. "The scan's results are not completely clear, but this here…" One of the strands of her hair pointed at a scorch mark on the hull. "...looks like weapon damage."

"Unrepaired weapon damage," Sam added.

"Well, the whole ship's kind of unrepaired," O'Neill commented.

"It means that the damage was likely taken shortly before the ship crashed or was the cause of the crash," she explained. "Otherwise, they might have repaired part of the damage at least."

"I knew that," O'Neill claimed. "So, any active power plants or anything down there?"

"Just the Naquadah in the ship," Entrapta replied. "Nothing active. They could have shielded their installations, of course - the planet's crust contains several heavy elements that are hard to scan through."

"If they are lying in ambush, they probably are waiting until we get to the ship," O'Neill pointed out.

"That's obvious," Catra replied. "But how long would they have waited to ambush a ship?"

That was a good point. Too much caution was as bad as too little, as Shadow Weaver used to… Adora clenched her teeth. She wasn't going there. "Let's go down," she said.

"Alright! Shields are up, and scanners are running!" Entrapta announced. "Stealth system is still running. We're on final approach to the planet now!"

Adora took a deep breath. For better or worse, they were now committed. If there was an ambush ahead, it would be her fault. No one else's. And she would…

An elbow in her rib interrupted her thoughts. "Don't brood," Catra hissed.

"I'm not brooding!" Adora whispered back.

"You were," her lover insisted. "I know you."

Being aware of your responsibilities wasn't brooding!

"We're approaching the orbit of the planet's moon," Entrapta said. "Still no sign of any active scan."

That was good. "Plot a course so we are descending on the opposite side of the planet," Adora told her friend. "We can fly to the shipwreck through the atmosphere." That should keep them at least a little safer.

"Good idea," Catra agreed.

O'Neill nodded as well.

Adora took a deep breath as the planet grew larger on their screens - now she could see it through the bridge's windows. It didn't seem really different from Etheria. A little less water on the surface, according to Entrapta's data. "Any sign of villages?" she asked. "Fields?"

"Nothing," Entrapta replied. "If they have gone into hiding, they have done a very thorough job."

Which would mean that any ambush would be very dangerous. Adora bit her lower lip and ignored Catra's sigh. She couldn't help worrying. Not when her friends were in danger. Possible danger.

But they reached the planet's orbit without getting attacked and quickly entered the planet's atmosphere. Adora stared at the sight of air glowing brightly outside, on the shuttle's shield.

"That's not going to be hidden easily," O'Neill commented.

"We're still working on that," Entrapta said.

"A shielding system that compensates for this is complicated," Sam said.

"I'm not criticising you, Carter," O'Neill told her.

"We've put the planet between us and the ship, but if they have sensors spread over the surface, they might notice us," Entrapta explained. "Though they might mistake us for a meteor."

"If we're lucky," O'Neill said.

"Yes."

But they were now flying over forests and meadows or what you called the places with grass and bushes without trees.

Towards the wrecked Goa'uld ship.

"If there's an ambush, they need to spring it now," Catra said. "Or they want to catch us on the ground." Adora glared at her, and she grinned in return. "Just saying."

PK-327, July 14th, 1998 (Earth Time)

An ambush on the ground was a possibility - the shuttle and the group would be most vulnerable while disembarking. Samantha Carter knew that. On the other hand, Catra was correct: The odds of that happening were low. People didn't go into hiding and waited for years, possibly decades or centuries - the ruins looked old - for someone to arrive.

Unless there was another reason why they wanted to hide. If they were hiding from an enemy… "They might have gone into hiding to avoid catching Horde Prime's attention," Sam said.

Catra and Adora turned to stare at her. "Right," Adora said. "That would be a reason to hide every sign of inhabitation."

"But if they are hiding from the Horde," Catra objected, "then they won't attack us and risk discovery."

"We don't look like the Horde," the Colonel said.

"We've got a Horde fleet waiting outside the system," Catra retorted.

"Which is hidden from their scanners." The Colonel shook his head. "But we're here already. Leaving would be suspicious. Might as well find out what happened here," he added with a grin.

Catra frowned at him but nodded. "Let's go."

"Put us down… behind that hill there. It should shield us in case they got the weapons of the ship working," Adora said.

"Even if the staff cannons were working," Sam pointed out, "they are mounted in ventral turrets - they couldn't fire at us from that angle."

"They can't fire up?" Catra asked, blinking.

"They are bombers," Teal'c said. "Death Gliders are supposed to cover them during attack runs."

"'Supposed to'." Catra shook her head. "Didn't seem to have worked for this one."

"It doesn't seem to be a very effective design," Entrapta commented.

"Oh, they're effective enough at bombing planets," the Colonel told them.

"But still!" Entrapta protested. "A more versatile design shouldn't be too hard."

"It's also a matter of cost," Sam told her. "An Al'Kesh has one purpose: delivering bombs and fire support for attacks against ground targets - or against capital ships. They aren't built to dogfight."

"But…"

"We can discuss spaceship designs and tactics later. Let's go and take a look at the wreck. And find out if anyone is waiting to ambush us," Catra said.

"Don't forget the ruins," Daniel said. "We can learn a lot from the remains of such settlements!"

"Ship first, then ruins," the Colonel told him. "Stone huts generally aren't as dangerous as spaceships."

"But Jack…"

"Ship first. It's the obvious trap. The metal and Naquadah would help hide an ambusher."

"Right." Daniel looked mulish but nodded.

Good.

"Let's land then," Adora said.

"Alright!" Entrapta smiled, and the ship started descending, quickly setting down behind the hill.

Adora was already moving to the rear, followed by Catra - who stopped to grab a short club-like device from the shuttle's weapons locker. A shock-rod - Sam had examined them before. "In case we want to take prisoners," Catra said.

"Catra!" Adora snapped.

"What? If we get attacked, we need prisoners to find out who they are. If you knock everyone out, we have to wait until they wake up." Catra grinned.

Adora frowned at her. "Fine!"

Sam exchanged a glance with the Colonel. He shared her expression - their allies did seem to be more than a little overconfident.

Then again, they had seen how strong Adora was. Perhaps the Etherians had every reason to be so confident.

The air outside was fresh and mild. Temperate climate - warm but not hot.

"No signs of agriculture," Entrapta commented. "No fields."

"They could be hunter-gatherers," Daniel said. "Although this would've been a regression even for slaves of a Goa'uld lord. They couldn't maintain a higher population density with such methods. You need organised agriculture for that."

"Come on," Catra said, already halfway up the hill.

"Catra!"

"I'm just going to take a look!"

Sam followed them up the slope. At the crest, she found Catra and Adora both prone in the grass, looking at the ship and the ruins below them through binoculars.

"Is that a Horde design?" she asked.

"The binocs? Yes. I like them better than the telescopes that Bright Moon and Salineas use," Catra said. "More compact."

"I'm used to them," Adora added.

"Ah." Sam pulled out her own binoculars and took a look at the ship. Definitely an Al'Kesh. And it didn't look modified. Standard engine housing. The cockpit looked destroyed - that would have caused the crash.

"No markings," the Colonel commented.

"Whoever piloted it did not want to be recognised," Teal'c said.

"That would fit a recon mission in potentially hostile territory," the Colonel agreed. "If they were afraid of pissing off Horde Prime…"

"Or the First Ones," Catra added. "The ship looks old - it's half-buried in the ground. Could be old enough so the First Ones were still around when it crashed. Can you detect anyone, Entrapta?"

"No life signs inside the ship. Or in the ruins. Well, no human-sized ones. Plenty of smaller ones."

"Goa'uld larvae?" Adora asked.

"Not in the ruins - no Naquadah there. I can't exclude the possibility of them being in the ship, though."

"If you see a weird pot, don't smash it," the Colonel said. "It could contain a Goa'uld."

"Melog?" Adora looked down at the alien.

Melog growled something.

Catra nodded. "Melog doesn't sense any Goa'uld, either. But there could be some in the ship."

"Let's find out," the Colonel said. "But carefully."

Crashed Al-Kesh, PK-327, July 14th, 1998 (Earth Time)

As she approached the crashed ship, Catra couldn't see any trap or people waiting in ambush - and she had experience with both; the Alliance usually had had to resort to ambushes and traps to face the Horde troops. She didn't have experience with Goa'uld, though. None of them except for SG-1 had any experience. And Melog. Even Horde Prime's data - what they had managed to recover - barely covered the essentials about the parasites. Some data about their ships. Some basic tactics. Nothing more.

But they knew Goa'uld didn't have magic, and that severely limited their options.

"I'll go in first," Adora said as they reached the hole in the back of the ship.

"I've got the better eyes and ears," Catra retorted. Melog growled in agreement.

"But I'm tougher." Adora took a step forward.

"Did anyone forget to tell me that this is a competition?" O'Neill commented from behind them.

Catra frowned at the man. This wasn't about him. This was about Adora trying to protect everyone at the cost of her own life.

Melog growled again. Enter.

"Melog says to enter," Catra told the others.

"And who put the cat in command?" O'Neill asked.

Catra bared her fangs at him in a wide grin.

"The other cat."

But Adora used the distraction to step forward and climb into the ship. Catra cursed and rushed after her, jumping through the hole in the hull.

She landed on all fours behind Adora in a dark corridor. Keeping her balance on the tilted floor was easy for her - her claws could dig into the metal floor. She tested her claws on the walls as well - it was always good to know if you could cut your way through the wall or ceiling. Which she could. "I expected more gold," she whispered.

"That would have given an enemy clues about the ship's origin." Teal'c was climbing in behind them. And Melog pushed past him, landing on the floor and sniffing.

"Which way to the bridge?" Adora asked.

"This way." Teal'c pointed with his staff.

The interior didn't look like someone had been using it for a long time - there was a lot of dirt and debris on the floor near the hole, and Catra could see - and smell - signs of animals having used the ship as a lair. Ew. "Looks abandoned," she whispered as they walked past a room full of broken crystals.

"Oh! That must have been a power station!" Entrapta exclaimed. "Look at the fittings here!"

"Later!" Catra told her as she grabbed Entrapta's collar before the princess could climb into the room. "We need to check the bridge. No wandering off."

"But!"

"Don't make me have Adora carry you."

Entrapta pouted but didn't try to check out the next broken console they passed.

"There are no bodies," Adora commented.

"They would have been taken out and buried by the survivors," Teal'c said.

"We didn't see any graves in the ruins," O'Neill retorted.

"They might have buried the dead at a different place," Daniel explained. "Many cultures separate the dead from the living."

"Like a city of the dead?" O'Neill asked.

"Yes."

"Well, that - or the animals in here ate them," Catra said.

"We'd still find bones and inedible remains," Carter replied. "And the ruins outside indicate that people explored the ship after crashing."

"Unless the ruins predate the ship's crash," Daniel said. "I mean, if the village was in ruins before the ship arrived here."

"The doors to the bridge are closed," Teal'c reported. "Sealed."

"Let me at it!" Adora summoned her sword and pushed it through the door with a soft grunt under her breath. Then she twisted the sword and leveraged the door open.

Catra half-expected to find bodies behind the door, but the bridge was empty as well. And damaged. She pushed past Adora and moved to the chair closest to the door. It had a big hole inside the backrest. And the chair was discoloured slightly.

She bent over and sniffed.

"Can you smell blood after all this time?" Adora asked.

"No," Catra told her with a grin. Her friend really should know her better than that. "But if it's not so old, I would have."

"Ah."

"They suffered damage before crashing," Teal'c said. "And someone removed the corpses and then sealed the door."

"Communications are shot," Carter added.

"What about the computers?" O'Neill asked.

"I'm trying to access them," she replied. "If we can restore power and get the log or at least the navigational data…"

"It's an intriguing system!" Entrapta added, beaming at them.

"Keep at it," O'Neill said before looking around. "So, I'd say never split the party, but we should search the whole ship as well."

"Oh, if you do, check out the Naquadah concentration on the other side," Entrapta said.

"The Naquadah concentration?" O'Neill asked.

"The one we detected with my scanner," Enptrata told him. "It should be…" She scrunched her nose. "About... this way!" her hair pointed at the back of the ship.

"The cargo hold," Teal'c said after cocking his head to the side.

That sounded interesting. Catra grinned. "Let's go, then!"

"Carefully," O'Neill said.

Catra rolled her eyes. She hadn't heard anything in the ship except for their own footsteps. And Melog hadn't sensed anything either.

Teal'c took the lead again, and they made their way to the cargo hold - through a section that had been torn up by weapon fire: the hull breach was small, but both the corridor and the crew quarters behind it had been torn up, so they had to climb through the wreckage.

But they reached the cargo hold, Adora got to show off She-Ra's strength again, forcing the doors open, and they found…

"A Stargate?"

"A Stargate!" Jack O'Neill grinned. That was the best find they could've hoped for - they could go back to Earth now.

"The ship must have been moving a Stargate," Teal'c stated the obvious.

"And where's the dialer?" Catra asked.

"Good question." Jack looked around. They wouldn't ship just the ring. Not the Goa'uld. So… He stared at the broken crates in the corner. Next to another hull breach. "No."

"D.H.D.s are quite tough," Daniel said. "It shouldn't easily break…"

That was true. Those things were built to last millennia. In order to break one, you practically had to shoot… He blinked as he approached the crates. The crates looked as if they had absorbed whatever blast had broken through the hull. "Damn!"

Jack quickly climbed the last few yards over broken ground and torn plates to the crates.

Not as quickly as Catra, though, who easily passed him with a few leaps, leaving gouges in the metal where she held on with her claws. Jack really didn't want to know what those claws would do to a human body - they would go straight through the heaviest body armour Stargate Command had. Hell, they would probably go through an APC's armour!

Catra reached the top of the crates and leaned over like a gymnast, peering inside upside-down, her tail twitching above her. "Oh."

"What?" Jack snapped as he pulled up next to her, carefully looking for footholds.

"You're not gonna like it."

"What?" he repeated himself as he peered over the edge and into the crate himself. Oh. "For crying out loud!"

The D.H.D. had absorbed the brunt of the blast - all that was left was the pedestal. The rest was a twisted mess of molten and blasted metal and crystal.

"They broke it!"

"...and so, according to the partial data we recovered from the computer systems - quite interesting encryption, actually, very interesting ideas but they were implemented a little haphazardly, I think, since we were able to bypass half the protections by directly accessing the memory crystals - the ship was part of an effort to remove Stargates from planets in the sector. No data about who gave the orders, though."

Jack O'Neill forced himself not to scowl. It wasn't Entrapta's fault that the Goa'uld and whoever had been fighting them had managed to wreck SG-1's ticket home. They had a Stargate, after all, which was a prize itself. Once they could get a computer hooked up to it and a powerplant. A Stargate that wasn't central to a planet's survival and could be taken home without dooming people.

Provided Earth could get it - Etheria might want it as well. But they could sort this out later.

"They were removing Stargates from the sector?" Adora asked.

"Presumably to deny them to others," Carter replied. "The dates line up with what we know as the height of the war between the First Ones and Horde Prime."

"Ah."

"They didn't want Horde Prime to get access to the Stargate," Catra said. "I bet the First Ones evacuated or destroyed Stargates as well."

"Probably, but we lack any data to tell for sure," Entrapta said.

"Scorched earth," Jack said. That would fit a force willing to sacrifice an entire planet to win a war.

"They attacked Earth?" Entrapta asked with wide eyes.

"No, scorched earth is a tactic used in wars on Earth. It consisted of removing or destroying everything the enemy could use while withdrawing in front of their advance. The goal was to deprive the enemy of resources and strain or collapse their supply system. It was quite effective against enemies who had been planning to live off the land," Daniel explained.

"Ah." Catra nodded. "That wouldn't have worked well on Etheria. We - the Horde - never used much of the resources of the Alliance lands for the troops themselves, not officially at least. And the Horde lands were pretty safe for most of the war."

"Whatever," Jack said. "So, the snakes were taking Stargates and moving them… where, exactly?" If they could find the planet they had been moving the Stargates to, they could find a D.H.D.

Carter winced, and Jack knew he wouldn't like her answer before she opened her mouth. "We only have coordinates in space - they were apparently meant to deliver the Stargates to a mothership."

Probably a Ha'tak. Of course the snakes wouldn't make it easy for them.

"They must have done this to avoid being identified, should they be caught," Teal'c said. "No markings, no navigational data betraying their origins - that is not standard procedure for Goa'uld forces."

"And probably carried suicide pills," Jack muttered. "So, it could have been on the orders of anyone, even Ra since he was still alive back then."

"It was probably not Ra," Teal'c said. "As the ruler of the System Lords, he would likely have been held accountable for their actions anyway."

"Unless he wanted to be able to blame someone else as a sacrifice," Catra pointed out.

"He could have done so anyway," Teal'c retorted.

"But Horde Prime - or the First Ones - might not have cared anyway," Adora pointed out.

"Or it might have been the Tok'ra," Daniel added. "We don't know how they operate."

"Right. I still think it's more likely that this was done by a System Lord trying something underhanded," Jack said. And the snake who had done this was probably still alive. And had a few spare Stargates. You could do a lot with that. And they didn't know how many the Goa'uld behind this had collected. "Let's hope we find more information in the ruins."

"And the graveyard that should be around," Daniel added.

"Yes, Daniel. We will be looking for tombs as well. I'll even get you a whip," Jack told him.

"A whip?" Catra asked, raising her eyebrows.

"He's referring to a movie trilogy from Earth, Indiana Jones," Daniel explained with a pout. "The main character is an archaeologist who occasionally uses a whip to fight his enemies."

Jack grinned. "And he crawls around in tombs." And dealt with magic shit. Perhaps the comparison is a little too on the nose, he thought.

Ruins near crashed Al-Kesh, PK-327, July 14th, 1998 (Earth Time)

The buildings really weren't much to look at, Adora had to agree with Catra. They were basically stone huts - or had been stone huts before turning into, well, ruins. Small ones, with flat roofs, many of them collapsed, and few windows next to gaping doors. About half a dozen, in total.

"Even for a village, that's not much," she said.

"Mhh." Catra made an agreeing noise as she looked around. "Kinda creepy, though."

"Yes." Like that ghost village of the First Ones Adora had found on Etheria. Well, they hadn't been real ghosts, but it still had been creepy.

"Daniel?" O'Neill asked.

Adora turned to look at Daniel, who was kneeling in the doorway of one hut.

"No remains of the curtain that served as a door, except for the holes holding it in place," Daniel replied. "This village has been deserted for a long time."

"What's a long time in years?"

"Without a carbon analysis, I can't be more precise," Daniel replied with a slight pout. "I don't know the local climate to even try to date anything according to the erosion and build-up of sand. Or what kind of animals or microorganisms might attack the fabric."

"Well, wood survived," O'Neill commented. "And there are two beds in here - or their remains. Wouldn't want to try and sleep on this."

Catra snorted and peered inside. "I've slept on worse during training."

"Well, me too, but that doesn't mean I want to sleep on that."

"Better than no sleep at all or on the bare ground," Catra replied.

"True." O'Neill nodded. "And it even got a roof. Half of one."

"Better than nothing." Catra snorted. "Could house a platoon in this village easily. No place to hide transports, though. Much less tanks."

Adora frowned. As much as she liked Catra warming up to their guests and allies, she didn't like it when Catra talked about her time in the Horde like that. She wasn't in the Horde any more. The Horde wasn't any more. They were no longer enemies.

She saw Daniel use a knife to scratch the wall next to the door and walked over to him. "What did you find?"

The man cocked his head, taking a closer look. "It's a really primitive construction. Basically, mud bricks. Not fired, just dried." He rose. "I think this was built by survivors of the crash. If a System Lord had ordered a village built here, it would have used better materials."

"They could've been runaways," O'Neill pointed out.

"Runaways from what? There's no other settlement on the planet," Daniel retorted. "No, I think this was built by survivors from the crash."

Teal'c stepped inside the hut and picked up what looked like the remains of a chair. He blew at it, revealing a pattern on the wood. "A traditional Jaffa carving," he explained.

"Jaffa? That would fit the crew of the Al'Kesh," O'Neill said, nodding. "And the whole spartan interior. Humans would probably have looted the ship for better furniture."

"Why wouldn't Jaffa have done that?" Adora asked.

"If they had removed parts of the ship's furniture, it would have meant that repairs would have taken longer, should relief forces have arrived," Teal'c said. "That would have gone against the standing orders of most System Lords. Few Jaffa would have disobeyed such an order. Certainly not those trusted with what seems to have been a secret mission. "

Adora blinked. "You mean they lived…" She looked around. "They could've lived more comfortably if they had disobeyed orders? Taking chairs back would have cost, what, half an hour?"

Teal'c nodded.

"Now that reminds me of the Horde," Catra said. "Just that we did disobey such stupid orders whenever we could get away with it." She looked at the shipwreck. "We probably would've stripped the thing bare and blamed the Alliance if anyone asked."

"Personal comfort is not a priority for a Jaffa," Teal'c said.

"And, apparently, neither is thinking for yourself," Catra mumbled.

Adora winced as she nodded in agreement.

"Well, let's check the other buildings," Catra said. "Let's see what we find."

The next houses contained mostly the same - broken wood, sand and dust. "Where are the tools?" Adora asked. "How did they eat?"

"Their personal mess kits, probably," Teal'c replied.

"And where are those?" Adora asked.

"And the weapons," O'Neill added. "There are bound to be some staff weapons and zat'nik'tels around. There were none inside the ship."

So, the Jaffa took their weapons outside. Well, that made sense.

"They might've built an armoury," Catra speculated.

"Unlikely," Teal'c said. "A Jaffa is expected to carry and care for their weapons on such missions."

"Well, they certainly aren't expected to get drunk, then," Catra mumbled.

Adora was about to laugh as she ducked inside the next hut. But the sight of a corpse - well, a skeleton - stopped her short. "I found one of the crew," she said.

Catra was at the window in a second. "Oh… died in bed?" She cocked her head.

"It looks like they died…" Adora trailed off as she took a few steps closer and examined the ribcage. Which had several ribs missing. "Violently."

Catra slid through the window and joined her. She placed her hand at the ribcage's remains, then unsheathed her claws and moved the hand alongside the broken, missing ribs, matching the likely path that had cut deep into the man's side. "Whatever it was, it was bigger than my hand."

"And he was armed," Adora added, pointing at a small 'zat gun' which had fallen through the bed frame. There was what looked like a plate and a fork in a coner, too.

"Right."

"So, what happened?" the Colonel asked. "Chestbuster accident?"

Samantha Carter rolled her eyes before standing up and turning to face him. She knew he wasn't serious, but sometimes, his jokes were… not really appropriate. Or funny. "No, Sir," she replied, standing straighter - that was a good way to rebuke him without words, she had found - "the wounds were, as far as I can tell, and Catra agrees, caused by either a multi-bladed weapon or a set of claws."

"He was attacked in bed?" The Colonel raised his eyebrows.

"The wound wouldn't have been immediately fatal," Teal'c said. "A Jaffa wouldn't have lain there and died without taking their attacker with them. So, I concur that he was attacked somewhere else, killed whoever attacked him, and then returned to base before dying from his wounds."

"Or her," Adora pointed out.

"Most Jaffa on such missions are male," Teal'c replied, "but there is a possibility that this warrior was female, yes." He inclined his head.

"So…" The Colonel shook his head. "What are the odds that whatever or whoever took out a heavily armed Jaffa is still around?" The way he said it made it clear that he thought the question was rhetorical.

"Uh…" Adora frowned. "I guess that depends on how long ago this happened. And how old whoever did this can grow."

Well, the Etherians hadn't known the Colonel as long as Sam had.

"Could it have been another survivor?" Catra asked.

"Jaffa generally live for up to a hundred and fifty years - until we cannot take another symbiote and die," Teal'c said. "Since the survivor of the Al'Kesh's crew had no means to receive another symbiote, they could not have lived for longer than a few years."

Adora gasped, and Catra winced. "They… they knew they would die like this?" Adora asked.

"Yes." Teal'c nodded again.

"So… no Jaffa would have lived so long," Catra said.

"And we don't know any other species who would have lived for close to a thousand years," Daniel added. "With the exception of the Goa'uld, and they are a special case."

"We don't know how long the Nox live," Sam reminded the others.

The Colonel scoffed. "I doubt they would have attacked a Jaffa." He pressed his lips together. "But we know that every Jaffa had a symbiote. So, there were at least a dozen baby Goa'uld on this planet at one time."

Sam drew a short breath as she clenched her teeth. "And Goa'uld can take animals as hosts."

"And we detected life signs in the area when we scanned it from orbit," Entrapta piped up with a smile.

"Right. We could be surrounded by tigers possessed by snakes," the Colonel commented. "Don't let Hollywood hear about this."

"Hollywood?" Adora asked.

"The people who make their movies," Catra told her.

"Ah."

Daniel opened his mouth, no doubt about to correct them, but the Colonel clapped his hands together. "Right, people! We might be facing possessed animals with claws that make a Kodiak jealous. Stay sharp! No one is going off alone anywhere."

Sam nodded. If those were just animals, she wouldn't be very worried. But Goa'uld-possessed animals? They wouldn't kill the group - they would want hosts. She closed her eyes for a moment, shuddering at the sudden memories of her brief period of being a host. She'd rather be eaten alive by a bear than suffer that again.

"Does that mean that we won't look for their graveyard?" Daniel asked.

"No. We need to know what happened here," the Colonel said. Adora nodded in agreement.

Both Adora and Catra didn't look too concerned, Sam noticed. Entrapta didn't look concerned at all, but, well… the princess had different views of what was concerning.

"So… where could the city of the dead be?" the Colonel asked, standing at the window of the hut and peering outside.

Teal'c was already covering the door.

"Well, traditionally, it would be at quite a distance. But since they were stranded here and had limited resources, I don't think it would be too far away. If they were concerned about grave robbers, perhaps the people who shot them down, they would have been looking for sites that hid the graves," Daniel explained. "Although Jaffa burial rites might be different from Egyptian ones."

"For Jaffa following the Goa'uld, they usually follow the dictates of their false gods," Teal'c said.

"Then they would likely follow Egyptian traditions. Which, of course, varied over time."

"We didn't detect other weapons," Entrapta said. "So, they were either completely depleted or placed in locations where they would be shielded from scans. Or both." She pushed a button on her tool. "So… the closest such location would be the hill to the north. Well, the direction set as north here - we picked the pole kind of arbitrarily. But as long as everyone agrees that it's north, it's OK, I think."

"Yeah. How far is that?"

"About five of your miles!"

Not a short trip, but not a long hike, either. But walking, with potentially a dozen intelligent predators in the area? Through unknown terrain? And carrying whatever they might find back? "Sir, I suggest that we take the shuttle there," Sam said.

"Right. We're Air Force, not Army," the Colonel said. "We can…" he trailed off, and Sam saw him tense. "Did you see it as well, Teal'c?"

"Yes."

"What did you see?" Adora asked.

"A large creature hiding behind a hut," the Colonel replied.

"More than one," Entrapta said. "My scanner detects about a dozen surrounding us." She looked up. "And they are all about as large as Adora."

Melog growled.