Chapter 2: Diversion

Stuart was wrong, the meeting with the Headman was terrible. The man, who seemed to have no name as far he could tell simply referring to himself as the Headman, had launched into a rambling almost incoherent series of speeches when SG-14 had been escorted into his presence. He had been coldly rude to Lopez when she had attempted to talk and he had refused to discuss matters of importance with mere followers as he had said when Kirkwall had spoken up and Stuart had tried diplomatically to get the conversation back on track. Styles had managed to provide a seemingly sympathetic ear to the man's prattling with only a small occasional wince betraying his true feelings when the Headman moved off on yet another verbal tangent or gave another vague response to one of his queries. Honestly if it had been any other reason why they were here Stuart suspected that they would probably have made polite excuses and left over an hour ago and tried to investigate on their own.

This was not to say that they had not learned anything at all (though it certainly felt like that assessment was fairly close). As they had passed through the town their official guide had regained some of his loquaciousness and had regaled them with information about their settlement. He was especially proud of their temple which was made of stone brought in from almost 100 miles away and which was graced by Enki's presence during his annual visits. Even the Headman himself had actually managed to inform them a little about the mysterious visitors the team was trying to find out about though any information divulged had seemed to be entirely unintentional. The "armored soldiers" which was how the Headman referred to the robots had indeed been accompanied by some clearly non-mechanical people. One was a man in silver armor who wore a finely sculpted mask and did most of the talking, and the other was a figure with sickly grey skin, partial armor that also covered his face, and brightly colored clothing. Apparently the headman considered the second figure to be a noble of some sort since he seemed to give the orders and he was accompanied everywhere by his pet, an apparently rather ugly, wrinkled, brown insect creature of large size. Overall not very informative beyond the fact that they were clearly not human and seemed to have a thing for armor-like clothing.

Beyond these tidbits the Headman had yet to say anything of importance preferring instead to repeatedly talk about how important he was, and how much he and his people could bring to an alliance with the Tau'ri without actually mentioning anything specific. Even his own subordinates seemed to have had enough of him. The official who had escorted them into town had rapidly made his exit shortly after their arrival speaking of urgent matters to attend to regarding irrigation issues. Even Dagir who had managed to be just as impassive as Styles for most of the exchange was beginning to look a bit antsy with repeated glances towards the door to the ornately carved room or out the window which provided a panoramic view of the temple district of the town. Stuart suspected he was trying to come up with a reason to be allowed to leave and he really wished he was at liberty to come up with an excuse for himself as well. He knew negotiations here were important but if this went on much longer he was going to be tempted to see if the other two excluded soldiers had packed some cards or something, diplomatic regulations and basic politeness be damned.

As the Headman entered into yet another long winded tangent that they could only understand about half of due to their limited expertise in the Goa'uld language in response to yet another question from Captain Styles asking just what exactly the visitors even called themselves, Stuart was surprised by a rather loud and obnoxious throat clearing coming from the rear of the room. He was even more surprised when he identified its source; Dagir their military escort.

The Headman's speech quickly wound down as he gave a venomous look to the military man. Stuart assumed he was about to make his excuse to get out of this room now and he was really wishing he could join him.

"Look sir," Dagir began in response to the pointed look, "I know that delicate negotiations like this can take a while and can't be rushed," Stuart could hear the insincerity dripping from the words. "Still it seems as though you won't be needing all of our new guests at this stage of the talks. I was thinking of allowing their experts to do their jobs in the name of efficiency sir."

"That is most irregular," the Headman replied while nervously fiddling with his brooch of office that held his robes in place which was even larger and more ornate than the one worn by the official who had escorted the team in. "Splitting up a delegation might under less calm circumstances be regarded as an act showing we have no trust in them. I know our recent guests refused even to have separate quarters offered to them…in addition to other eccentricities."

"True, but if they are willing I was going to suggest we let some of them examine those quarters, they seem to be interested in places the Confederates passed." Stuart perked up at this, finally they had a name to give the mystery visitors, though Confederates was just the best approximation of the Goa'uld term Dagir had used. The actual term had directly translated as something akin to members of a loose alliance of many kings and he could have chosen coalition or alliance group as the word to represent it, translation was never an exact process.

"How far is this place?" Styles asked. The Headman's face fell almost comically as the captain seemed to give serious weight to considering Dagir's suggestion.

"It's just a few streets over near the edge of the temple district. If the negotiations require it would only take a few minutes to get word there."

"But surely our visitors would not want to be out of contact with each other in a strange city? I want them to feel completely comfortable while they remain guests of our hospitality." the Headman said.

Styles smiled at this. "Don't worry, we have was of staying in touch if an emergency pops up. Besides I hate to have my guys sitting around while we do the heavy lifting here."

"Well if you insist on this," the Headman said seemingly deflating as he looked between Dagir and Styles. "But I must insist you keep an eye on them. If they get lost or something happens I'm holding you directly responsible Dagir."

"I know what is expected of me," he replied through clenched teeth.

"Good," Styles added, "with that out of the way Miller and Lopez check out our mystery people's lodgings and report on what you find. The Headman and I will continue our scintillating conversation." This last bit was in English since even the densest person could have detected the sarcasm in the captain's voice.

As Stuart and Lopez stood to follow Dagir out the crestfallen look on Kirkwall's face was almost funny. He mouthed "take me with you" as they passed by, but Stuart could only shrug in response while quietly being glad that he would not have to spend any more time in the Headman's long-winded presence.

Dagir set a quick a pace as they strode out of the Headman's surprisingly small home and workplace, though considering the typical attitude of the Goa'uld a modest dwelling would not be so out of the ordinary no matter how important he considered himself. After all one wouldn't want the local humans to start thinking they were anything more than servants at best.

The streets were extremely crowded which was compounded by the fact that all of them aside from the ceremonial procession way that ran from the gates to the base of the ziggurat were also extremely narrow; the smallest of them were barely large enough to allow three people to walk abreast. However the crowds readily made way upon seeing Dagir and the two outsiders with him though Stuart could not help but notice the occasional glances of fear directed them as they passed. However the majority of the people seemed to give way without even really seeming to notice; it spoke of a populace that had thoroughly internalized the hierarchy of power to the extent that they deferred to symbols of power like soldiers unconsciously. Really it was a bit depressing if the control exerted by the Goa'ulds' system of power was so deeply entrenched.

It took him longer than it should have, but he began to get suspicious when their winding course did not take them to the supposedly nearby structure they were ostensibly traveling to. It was hard to tell between the towering closely packed buildings and the seemingly random path they were taking but upon crossing a wider main street and getting a glimpse of the temple that marked the center of the town Stuart was certain; they were heading away from where they were supposed to go, moving outwards towards the edge of the settlement. He was about to speak up and ask what was going on when Lopez stepped close and hoarsely whispered to him.

"Something's up," she said.

"I know," he replied, "We're going the wrong way."

She nodded at this. "The path he's taking is clearly to throw off pursuit. He's also been signaling small groups of people at the last two intersections as well."

Stuart had not noticed that at all, but it seemed clear that Dagir was up to something and that he did not want the Headman to know about it. There were any number of possibilities and none of them were good.

"Think he's with the Goa'uld?" he asked with a touch of worry entering his voice.

"Let's find out," she replied. "Around this next corner I'm going to try and get some answers. Back me up when the time comes."

Although it was only about 100 feet until that point the tension in Stuart made it seem like hours before Dagir passed around the corner of the narrow alley-like street. Fortunately as they had moved away from the center of town the crowds had thinned out significantly so no one was there to spot as Lopez readied her weapon while the local military man was out of sight and stepped around the corner. Stuart fumbled for his and followed her to find her staring down Dagir along the barrel of her gun as the man awkwardly held his sword halfway drawn from its sheath. Stuart was somewhat bemused to note as he finally got his own weapon free that the local's sword was not even iron, it appeared to be made of bronze which made the mismatch in armament in this standoff reach a level of absurdity that was ridiculous.

"I should have expected you would figure out something was up; I didn't have time to come up with a better plan," he said seemingly unconcerned that he had been caught taking them to who knew where or that a deadly weapon was pointed at his face.

"How about you tell us just what you think you're doing before I have Miller here call up the captain and your boss and tell them all about your little unplanned tour." Her eyes were hard and focused on Dagir. Lopez may not have been a frontline soldier but clearly she was not one to be trifled with.

"You really don't want to do that," he answered. Dagir slowly sheathed his sword and started to reach for something tucked into his belt.

Lopez gestured with her gun and said, "You may not have seen this in action but you're not stupid. I think you can recognize a weapon when you see one and know when someone is not bluffing. Give us some answers and don't try anything or you'll get to see if your snaky masters really are gods or not."

Dagir rolled his eyes at this, "You're right to be suspicious but you're looking in the wrong place for betrayal. I'm simply trying to show you something I recovered from the Headman's office, I think that will give you some enlightenment."

"Fine," Lopez said allowing the local to slowly pull an object from where it was tucked into his belt and hand it over to Stuart.

Upon superficial examination it seemed to be a duplicate of the brooch of office that all the important officials in this town wore except this one appeared to have been stepped on repeatedly for some reason; it was partially crushed with its central jewel clearly broken. However the interior of the object was not what he expected at all. Aside from the fact that the heavy brass and gold object was mostly hollow it was the wires and broken control crystal inside it and the cracked jewel that was revealed to be some sort of lens that really showed that it was not what it seemed. The crystal showed the hallmarks of System Lord technology and there were only so many things a lens could be used for.

"Is this some sort of Goa'uld camera?" Stuart asked throwing out a guess as to what the object might be.

"I'm not sure what a camera is, but what the Headman and his followers see Enki knows due to these," Dagir answered before Lopez could get a look at the device. "Don't worry," he continued when Stuart made like he was going to hurl it away, "The Confederates confirmed that I disabled this one."

"This means nothing," Lopez said. "You can say any number of things but for all we know you're just making stuff up to cover for being discovered."

Dagir's hand almost started to move towards his face before he stopped himself, most likely remembering that he had a weapon trained on him. "If I was planning on betraying or killing you I could have done it any number of times during this journey. I may not have access to the divine fire, or whatever those things are," at this he made a small gesture that encompassed the guns, "but we do have bows. Had I wanted to we could have filled you with arrows in plenty of places along the route."

"That's not really helping your case any," Stuart said.

"Fine, it's obvious you don't trust me, but you shouldn't trust the Headman either, he's the one who pulls the strings here. Perhaps a third party might convince you of my sincerity?"

"Who could you possibly have here that would count as a neutral party?" Lopez asked incredulously. "Anyone from around here could just be working with you."

"How about a Confederate survivor?" Dagir asked. "I was taking you to him without the Headman's knowledge when you spotted my deception."

Stuart and Lopez exchanged a quick glance at this news. While a survivor from the previous group of strangers would not only be able to tell the truth of Dagir's assertions and help greatly in the team completing their mission, there was a rather large problem with the concept that was glaringly obvious to them both.

"Yeah, that might help you case some," Stuart said, "However there's just a tiny little hole in the logic of that."

"The Jaffa had complete control of the battle site for as long as they wanted," Lopez cut in. "You want to tell me that they not only somehow missed a survivor while they were combing the battlefield and probably carting away prisoners but also that you got yours back into town with no one noticing. That's probably the most ridiculous thing I've heard."

"Perhaps survivor is a bit of a strong word. The person," Stuart could hear confusion with regards to the use of this word, "is not exactly normal." Clearly Dagir was getting frustrated.

"Look," he continued, "We're almost there, it's that building just ahead." He pointed to a slightly larger than average structure that was less than a block away and hard up against the outer wall of the town. "Just hear me out there; you can see if I'm lying or not and if it's a trap I'm sure you can kill me before anything happens."

Lopez sent a questioning glance at Stuart who responded with a fractional shrug; he was not the military guy here. He could think of good reasons to immediately call this in and report back to the captain, but he could also see that Dagir's story could also be true as well. It was clear that she was having similar thoughts as well since it was a rather long pause before she responded to the local's offer.

"We'll come along," was her response. She tapped her radio with her elbow, "However if you try something we can warn our commander that something's up quicker than you can stop us; so don't think you can get away with anything." Stuart was not sure if she was bluffing or not, but he knew Dagir certainly couldn't know either.

The local nodded at this. "A sensible precaution. Follow me, we've already spent too long with the Headman; we should try to finish this quickly."

The rest of the journey passed quickly if extremely tensely due to the readied weapons pointed at Dagir's back. From the outside the building they approached looked similar to any number of other structures in the town if slightly larger than average. It stood four stories tall, the extra floor enabling it to overlook the squat wall that surrounded the settlement. It had few windows, and those that it did have were narrow and on the upper two floors. The wide double doors of the building were tightly shut and Stuart could see that a pair of men in scruffy looking clothing were seemingly guarding the entrance while doing a poor job of attempting to look like they had simply chosen this location to loiter at.

Their attempt at nonchalance took another major hit as the three approached the entrance to the building with Dagir clearly being under duress. They straightened up and began reaching for weapons concealed beneath their ratty cloaks causing Stuart to turn his gun towards them in warning.

"No need for that boys," Dagir said quickly. "Our new friends were just a bit more observant than out last guests is all."

The two men backed down hesitantly. "You sure about this boss?" one of them asked.

"As sure as I can be about anything these days. We all knew there'd be no instructions for what we're doing when we started it."

"That there isn't," the other one said shaking his head slowly. "Should we come in with you, I assume they're here for it?"

"No, it was hard enough convincing them to come when they had complete control of the situation. They really need to talk to our guest in there so you two keep watch out here."

At this the guards slid open the door leading into the building and Dagir gestured for Stuart and Lopez to enter. When he saw that they were following he walked deeper into the darkened interior of the structure.

The interior of building seemed to be devoted primarily to storage; the lower two stories were a large room with narrow shelves filling most of the space. On the shelves, along the walls, and in most of the available floor space were a large number of almost man sized ceramic vases or pots, all of them sealed with wax stoppers that had the contents of the containers marked in them with finely incised local script. The room itself, when the front door was slid shut was lit by only a few widely scattered oil lamps. Dagir led them through the large storage room towards a narrow staircase that allowed access to the upper levels.

"A word of warning," their guide said as they began to take the stairs, "the survivor we picked up is a little bit odd."

"Odd how?" Stuart asked.

"He's not entirely human for one; you'll see what I mean in a moment. But he's also a bit strange in the head too. Again, it's not easy to explain."

With these fairly cryptic words they reached a landing on the stairs where there was a door that entered the third floor of the structure. Dagir knocked twice on it and then entered into a much more brightly lit room as Stuart was left blinking while his eyes adjusted to the increased light level.

"Ah Master Dagir you have returned," a rather soft and cheery voice said from within the room. It was speaking the Goa'uld language like most people on this world did but its accent was rather unique. Unlike the rather coarse and clipped version Dagir spoke or the flowery and overcomplicated version favored by the Headman and his representative, this speaker immediately brought the image to Stuart's mind of an academic of all things. This was quite a trick he mused, considering it was only one sentence and he did not even know if the speakers of Goa'uld even had academics. Perhaps the speaker had a special gift.

"Ah," the unseen speaker continued, "I see you have brought company this fine day. I do hope they will be better conversationalists than the last group, though I suppose I cannot be choosey with my situation being as it is. I would stand to greet you but as you may see I am a bit indisposed at the moment."

Stuart's eyes finally adjusted to the bright light coming in the windows and allowed him to see the room and the speaker within it. The room itself was fairly unremarkable, it seemed to have been an office of some sort that had been hurriedly altered into a makeshift living quarters by the addition of a few additional pieces of furniture and the hasty shoving aside of the room's previous contents.

The speaker on the other hand was another matter entirely. At first Stuart thought that the gleaming silvery metallic figure was merely seated in the large chair he was located in, but a better look revealed that most of the human shaped being was simply not there to begin with. Aside from the right arm, head, and top two-thirds of a torso the rest of the speaker was absent. Clearly this was the man in silver armor the Headman had mentioned before; his face was even hidden by a well-made silver mask that displayed a carefully neutral expression. Or, on closer examination, the mask was revealed to be the speaker's face, since the wires, rods, and other mechanical components trailing from the lower torso and missing arm betrayed the speaker's true nature.

"Are any of these guys not robots?" Stuart asked rhetorically in English upon making this discovery. Lopez said nothing, choosing instead to approach the stricken machine to get a better look at it as it regarded the two newcomers.

"I'm sorry I do not believe I know that language sir," the machine said. "This is most embarrassing." It seemed genuinely upset when it said this.

"Wait a second," Lopez said at this, briefly pausing her examination of the robot and focusing on one specific part of its statement, "You have emotions? You can actually feel embarrassed?"

"Certainly, I would be unable to carry out my duties if I were unable to empathize with others. A rich emotional experience is required to form the basis of mutual understanding and communication." This last part sounded well-rehearsed, almost as if it were reading off of a script.

Stuart felt that things were beginning to get out of control rather rapidly. He put aside more metaphysical concerns about what the experience of being a robot would be like, and even less abstract ones about the level of technology needed to make such a device in order to focus on the basics.

"Never mind that right now," he said trying to focus, "Who are you?" Lopez seemed willing to let him take the lead on this; she kneeled down to get a closer look at the robot's exposed mechanisms. Dagir was leaning against the rear wall of the room with a bemused smirk on his face.

For its part the machine seemed unconcerned with Lopez's scrutiny. "I apologize sir, most profusely. I am G3-N0," at least this was how Stuart translated the sounds and numbers the machine used to designate itself, "Primary diplomatic unit attached to the second extra-galactic Confederate survey team. May I ask who I have the pleasure of speaking with?"

"I'm Stuart Miller and that's Lieutenant Serena Lopez," he decided there was no real downside to identifying themselves to the machine, it was unlikely to do something terrible to either them or Earth considering the position it was in. "We're half of SG-14 from Earth. If you've been talking to any of the people around here you might also know of us as the Tau'ri."

"Splendid," it said with remarkable enthusiasm, "We have heard much of the Tau'ri and were hoping some day to make contact. I am not sure if you are aware of this," at this the machine leaned slightly towards Stuart and lowered its voice, "But the current leaders of this galaxy are a most unreasonable bunch. Rumor has it you are considerably more likely to behave in a civilized fashion."

"That's true," Lopez said from where she as next to the machine, "Though to be fair some rampaging barbarians are more civilized than the snakes."

"You will get no argument from me," the machine said. "Honestly who opens fire at a diplomatic team during first contact? Not to mention what happened to me personally. I do not think even during the war was a negotiator treated so poorly. Why in reasonable company…"

Stuart suspected that if allowed the machine (he was going to have to come up with a better way of thinking of it than "machine" or its designation which he couldn't be sure was an accurate translation anyway) were allowed to it would continue in this vein for a while. It was clear that it had been designed to appear non-threatening in both appearance and demeanor but a little bit of its personality went a long way.

"So," Stuart began and was happy to hear the machine (maybe give it a nickname of some sort) stop it's tirade against the Goa'uld, "Who exactly are you guys? We've heard about you too; that's kind of the reason why we're here."

"We are serving as representatives of the Confederacy of Independent Systems, a coalition of worlds and organizations that have banded together in mutual benefit and defense against external threats. Recently our long range wormhole experiments bore success and allowed us access to the Chappa'ai network within this galaxy. Over the half year since then we have been seeking out diplomatic and trade opportunities here; though we have not had much luck."

"You're from another galaxy?" Stuart asked incredulously. This was really big, if Earth could get help from another group of similar power to the Goa'uld that could solve the security issues that had caused the formation of the SGC in the first place. "How big are you, do you control many worlds?"

"Well," the robot (that's it he was getting a nickname) said, "Our civilization covers the entire galactic disk, though the Confederacy is only about a third of that." It seemed hesitant in saying this, though Stuart was focused on the size the machine had mentioned. A truly galactic scaled civilization would certainly be a match for the Goa'uld, though that could also cause a few inadvertent problems just from the mismatch in civilization size even if they were completely benign.

"How many ships do you have Geno?" Lopez asked. Apparently she also felt the need to come up with an actual name for the robot as well. And Geno was as good of a nickname as any. "Are they likely to respond to the attack on your team?"

If Geno was upset at having been given a new name it was not showing it. "While we do have an extensive fleet, at the present moment our sole access to your galaxy is by Chappa'ai. From what I understand our engineers are working on a better connection but that will take some time."

So no avenging spaceships would be flying in to sweep the Goa'uld aside anytime soon. Stuart had suspected that something like that was going to be the case. Still, they had rather more immediate concerns as the presence of the deceptively calm Dagir proved. They still did not know the specifics behind how Geno had ended up in this position and if the Headman was truly working with Enki they needed to know quickly.

"Speaking of you team," Stuart said, "What exactly happened to it? We saw the ambush site on the way in, but we've been getting some conflicting stories about what actually happened."

"Well, there is not too much for me to say. It started well enough, just like the other diplomatic missions I have had the privilege to go on. Though the Headman of this settlement was being remarkably obtuse; I do believe I had to explain even the most basic information to him multiple times before it finally sank in."

"After almost seven days of this even Master Taguk was losing his patience and I have never seen that happen before even though he was willing to continue the mission. Finally Lord Zalys came to the conclusion that we were being stalled for some reason and ordered us out. Unfortunately he was right; we had only just left sight of the town when we came under attack."

This statement contained an interesting nugget of information for Stuart. Apparently the Headman had inadvertently been right about there being two leaders of the Confederate team; while one of the ones he had identified had been Geno, presumably the one he had seen as a pet had actually been another alien.

Geno continued his story. "I am not programmed for military matters so I cannot tell you with any accuracy what actually happened during the fighting. Needless to say it was most unpleasant, our escort was wiped out quite quickly and I was hit as you can see. The enemy, who I presume were Enki's Jaffa as he rules this world, took Taguk and Zalys captive by using a device to incapacitate them."

"I was ignored along with our destroyed escort, few people care what happens to us machines no matter what galaxy we are in. I was there for two days before Master Dagir there came onto the battlefield and found me. After a brief conversation he returned me to the settlement and we decided to attempt to find some friendly forces to contact, though your timely arrival seems to have preempted that plan."

"How so?" Stuart asked.

"Well now that we have an unaligned third party you can take me back to one of our outposts. There I can convey my information on what happened so a retaliatory strike can be planned and you can make contact with us formally."

"And that way we don't need to waste any more time with the Headman here or risk letting Enki find us." Stuart said.

"Good," Dagir said, finally speaking after his long silence, "I don't know how far away Enki's forces may have gone after attacking the Confederates but the sooner we get a plan to get him," he gestured at Geno, "out of here and find an excuse for you to leave the better. Just remember when you go that not everyone here is happy with Enki's rule."

Stuart was about to make a suggestion as to how they would get this information to Captain Styles without tipping their hand to the Headman when his train of thought was abruptly derailed by an insistent electrical beeping. It was coming from some of the equipment Lopez had been checking when they first came through the stargate and the worried look she gave when she examined it filled Stuart with dread.

"What is it?" he asked.

"Something's tripped the motion sensors I placed around the gate."

"An animal?"

"All of them are being tripped, I think we have company." With this she readied her radio.

"Captain, this is Lopez, we have an urgent situation."

There was a short delay before the captain's voice responded over the radio with a burst of static. "What's the situation?"

"We have multiple unknowns around the gate. The numbers make it unlikely to be non-hostile. I recommend we bug out for now and seek shelter."

"Good thinking Lieutenant." Stuart could hear in the background Kirkwall making a remarkably insincere apology to the Headman that they would have to be leaving now. "We'll rendezvous near the mill and use the ridgeline to…what?"

This last word was suddenly shouted as they could hear a brief burst of automatic gunfire presumably from Kirkwall. Interspersed behind that was an electronic sizzling sound that for a moment completely threw Stuart for a loop until he suddenly remembered the training he had been given before they had even been allowed off world. It was the sound of several zats firing; someone was attacking the other two members of the team.

At the sound of this Dagir dashed to the window with a panicked look on his face to look outside. After a couple of shots the radio abruptly cut out leaving nothing but static.

"Shit," Lopez cursed. "It sounds like Enki left some guys behind. Let's get over there right now and try to salvage this. You, Dagir, how do we get back there as quickly as possible?"

"You don't," he said heavily. "Enki didn't leave anyone behind; he's back"

"What?" Lopez said as she and Stuart moved over to the windows.

The sight he saw would under other circumstances have been rather impressive, but with things the way they were right now it filled him with nothing but dread. Hovering over the city center was one of the plated, somewhat bulbous Al'kesh craft. The manner in which it hovered over the town while being far larger than any of the buildings within it radiated a fundamental feeling of wrongness.

A few moments after having spotted it Stuart could see motion along the underside of the craft; something was rotating there. Abruptly a pair of brilliant energy blasts lanced out from the gun emplaced there towards another structure in the center of the city. The building was consumed in a large fireball which seriously damaged several other structures nearby but did not seem to start any blazes.

"What the hell was that?" Stuart asked. "What are they shooting at?"

"I think that's where I said I was taking you," Dagir said quietly.

"So what, we're not worth the trouble of capture or something?"

"Probably," Lopez responded. "They already have two prisoners and they couldn't risk us getting away. They may have recognized the radio when the captain was using it and realized we knew something was up."

"But that isn't important. We need to get out of town and get word back to Earth. The two of us aren't going to be enough to get the captain and Kirkwall back, we're going to need reinforcements."

"I hope you have a lot of friends, since those aren't the only servants Enki brought with him," Dagir said as he gazed out the window.

Stuart quickly looked around to see what the local meant but it did not take long to see what he was referring to. Descending through the scattered clouds towards the larger bare mountain they had seen on the way into town was a Ha'tak mother ship. It seemed Enki felt this was a situation that required his person touch. It was looking like his first mission through the stargate was also going to be Stuart's last.

Author's Note: Languages in science fiction are a funny thing. I assumed that in Stargate everyone is speaking in Goa'uld and in the show they just use English for the viewer's convenience rather like how in the Hunt for Red October movie all the Russians started speaking English after a couple of scenes. Of course droid names are still a big problem; for example what is R2-D2's real name since the Star Wars universe doesn't even use an alphabet with R's or D's in it? For the droid here I just assumed he introduced himself as "whatever Goa'uld symbol sounds like a hard G sound, 3, Goa'uld symbol for N sound, 0". You can see why Stuart and Lopez feel he needs a nickname.