Masquerade

"I can't believe this is happening." Jennifer thought to herself again. There was something about the whole thing that just felt wrong in most parts of Earth. Things like this were unheard of, it just didn't happen anymore. Well, she knew that there was really were some places where the basic thought was the same but not to this extent, and yet here she stood with Teyla getting the finishing touches of their disguises, their 'outfits' finished. Outfits, yeah, that's a laugh. She looked again over to the mirror, stared at her reflection, and sighed. Yup, just as she feared she still reminded herself of a bad Princess Lea look a like. At least her hair wasn't done up in those weird buns over her ears; instead her hair was done simply in braids that started at her temples and met in the middle of the back of her head and then joined to make a thinner braid. She just had to keep reminding herself that she would be wearing a bikini, yes that made it easier, a med blue bikini with just the faintest hint of what she supposed was vines in a lighter blue. The wrap around, which she was happy to have, for what little it did for modesty, was a very delicate, gossamer like fabric, which was completely see through, in a pale blue that shimmered like oil on water. This was wrapped around her waist like a sarong and the excess draped over her right shoulder.

Teyla wore a similar outfit in a deep crimson red with a flower design in a brighter ruby red. Her cover was a shimmering silver that only brought out the darker woman's beauty. It had only been a few months since she gave birth to her precious little baby boy, the first child born on Atlantis since the expedition had first arrived. In these last few months, Teyla had quickly lost the baby weight and if you hadn't known about her son you would never have been able to guess that she had ever been pregnant. Jennifer envied the woman next to her. Teyla was such a natural beauty; while she felt not unattractive, but in

comparison to Teyla Jen felt plain.

There was a knock on the door and when given permission to enter, John and Ronon walked in. They too had on disguises but theirs were much less drastic than what Teyla and she had to go through. Both were dressed in a woven cloth in earthy browns. Ronon's was a darker brown than John's was; however, both shirts had plunging v-necks and tan vest. The pants they wore were loose fitting. They reminded Jennifer of a pair she had once seen Ronon come in wearing after one of his sparing accidents.

"Great," Jennifer thought warily, "just what I always wanted while feeling immeasurably uncomfortable, an audience."

John looked over both women appraisingly with a mischievous spark in his eye before giving a low whistle. Teyla responded by giving him one of her looks while Jennifer just turned her head away and toward Ronon.Ronon remained silent. He looked at Teyla, assessing her appearance, then turned his head to Jennifer and gave her a similar once over. The difference is he didn't look away form her; instead he kept his eyes trained on her as if she might vanish at any moment. His face, as usual was unreadable, the only difference in his face was in his eyes, which were narrowed.

Jennifer looked down at her feet believing that the look in Ronon's face was a distaste; that he was wanting right now to be teamed up with Teyla or anyone other than her for this particular mission. That thought made her gut wrench and she was not in the mood to try to reason out the reason why.

"Well ladies," John began, "I hope you two are about ready to go. Now let's go over the basics again, Teyla and I will go into the town from the west, while Ronon and Jennifer, you two will go around and come in from the north. Remember, we are going in pretending to be travelers, while in town we must try and gather information on the Intel we received telling us that some of Michael's mercenary friends that have supposedly been seen around. We will probably have to stay at least one night; if however, it looks as if we may need to spend more time than that we will have our radios with us. The people on this planet shouldn't be able to detect radio signals. If anyone asks, we are just traveling; if we should run into each other out in public, we will not give any indication of knowing each other. These people are untrustworthy and we don't want them to think that a number of strangers have invaded there town."

"Wouldn't this be easier if we didn't pretend anything? Why can't we just go into the town and talk to these people?" Jennifer wondered aloud, hoping that she would not be part of this elaborate plain. "I mean why sneak around? Things will be worse for us if they find out that we have lied to them." She asked not only for the reasons she told them but also because she was scared that she would do or say something that would give them away and she didn't want to be the reason there was trouble if they were to be found out.

"This planet is unlike any other planet in the galaxy we have encountered; the rules here are very different. If they knew that where we are really from the men see women as equal to them and even in positions of power they would give us nothing, they would throw us out of the town very quickly and we would be in the same position we find ourselves in right now."

"Okay then why not just have men go and ask around? I don't like the idea of having to be little more than a pet, a slave, and if anyone picks up on that…"

Ronon interrupted her and spoke for the first time since entering. "Every man on the planet has at least one woman that belongs to him. John and I would stick out and raise too much suspension. We have to have the two of you with us or this will never work."

TBC