Hello! I'm getting out of my anime safety zone and addressing one of my other addictions, and that is all things Stargate. This is just a fun little episodic story that's been rattling around in my poor brain for awhile, so I decided to throw it out there and test the waters a bit. Read, enjoy, and let me know how I'm doing.

Stargate, the universe, and it's characters belong to MGM and not me. I'm just playing in the sandbox a bit.

Daniel Jackson stepped from the gate apature and paused for a moment, scanning his surroundings quickly and thoroughly. DHD. Check. Can I breath? Yes. Is anything trying to kill me at this moment? No. Okay then. Onward.

The gate was smack in the middle of a bare, rocky clearing surrounded by thick shrub. There was no movement nearby. Actually, there wasn't much of anything nearby. He sighed. He didn't know how he got to be point on this mission, but luckily for him, it was not one of those missions where they got shot at as soon as they arrived.

He noticed three very important things in the first few seconds after his arrival on this unknown planet, P3X-211. First was the heat, which suddenly bore down on him without mercy. Having lived in deserts before however, this didn't faze him for long. He liked heat. The second thing did though, and that was the humidity. It was like someone had suddenly wrapped him in a blanket that had been in a dryer just long enough to get hot, but nowhere near dry. His BDU's and vest were definitely overkill in this kind of weather. The staff blast armor might be a lifesaver, but damn it was hot. The P90 clipped to his vest also seemed to absorb the heat and just make him hotter. Oh man, this was going to be a long mission if it was always like this here.

The third thing he noticed, almost too late, was the deep pit only an inch from the tip of his boots.

He was standing on a pretty standard stone ring platform. It was only a few feet high and looked like anyone of the hundreds just like it that he had landed on over the past ten years. Only, most of those'd had a series of steps going down to the ground, and not a deep,(check that, very deep), dark hole where they should be. It was deep enough to make his toes curl involuntarily and tingle as he tried to maintain his balance after the momentum of exiting the gate. " That was a close one, " he muttered.

Unfortunately his relief was short lived as he suddenly remembered the reason you usually moved aside or kept walking after you come through a gate. Something impacted with his back with a soft "oof" as Vala exited the gate and collided with him. Luckily she hadn't been going that fast and was smaller than him, so he was able to dig his heels in and keep them from going over. Vala clung to his pack and peered around him, her eyes wide. "What the hell is this?"

His sentiments exactly. This hole sure hadn't been on the video from the M.A.L.P.

He had to do something quickly before the other three members of his team came through. If that happened, they were going down and there was nothing he would be able to do about it. "Vala, try to back up a bit. I'm going to radio through and try to tell the others not to come."

Luckily this was one of the few times they hadn't all come through at the same time. It went against regulations, but, just as they had been about to enter the gate, General Landry had called down to Mitchell about something from the control room, and at Daniel's inquiring look, Mitchell had waved him on. Vala had been right behind him, but Sam and Teal'c had paused to see what the General had wanted. He reached up for his radio, but just as he did, his luck ran out. Sam appeared net to Vala, and, out of deeply ingrained habit, kept walking to get out of the way of those behind her.

"Sam! Stop!"

Sam's eyes widened as he reached out and wrapped his arms around her to try to halt her momentum, but she had been going a lot faster than he and Vala had. He lost what little footing he'd had and, in one of those slow motion moments, he and Sam toppled into the hole with twin yelps of suprise. Vala, who'd still had a grip on his pack, was pulled in with them. Just as they entered the darkness, Daniel heard a loud metallic "thunk" from the direction of the gate that sounded vaguely familiar, but his brain immediately recognized that he had more pressing things to worry about, and he quickly filed it away for later.

They fell for a few seconds before they hit the top of what felt like a shallow ramp. Daniel landed hard on his back, Sam still clutched in his arms, but his pack cushioned him from most of the shock. He could hear Vala's indignant cry as she landed somewhere behind him. Then the real ride started. The ramp was covered in loose sand that acted almost like grease, and they began to slide. Fast. Fast enough to create enough wind to ruffle even his short hair. The tunnel was pitch black and he only had the barest sensation of walls sliding past. The only things he could feel was the floor itself sliding past under his legs, and Sam's firm grip on his arms. It was strangely not dissimilar to going through the wormhole. This went on for what seened like forever, certainly long enough for the logical part of his brain to surmise that the stargate must have been positioned at the top of a cliff, and that they were currently on their way to the bottom of said cliff. And with that thought, they landed.

Fortunately, someone had considerately left a deep pile of sand at the bottom of the slide, so when Daniel came to a very abrupt stop, Sam still on top of him, he merely had the breath knocked out of him rather than something more permanent and painful. That is until Vala arrived and landed on both of them. "Sorry!" she groaned.

They slowly untangled themselves and took stock, coughing at the dust that had been stirred up by their landing. By some small miracle, Daniel's glasses had stayed with him through it all, and he quickly pulled them off, blew the dust off of them, and put them back on. Then he discovered that there really wasn't much to see anyway.

They were in a small cave. Enough sunlight was coming in the small aperture at the front to illuminate the room a bit. At first appearance it seemed totally natural, even down to the stalactites. That is until you noticed the bars across the entrance. But there was enough time later to deal with that. First things first.

"Vala, Sam. You guys okay?"

Vala was on her feet, fastidiously brushing dust and sand off her BDU's. "Oh I'm just lovely. This is absolutely the last time we trust a gate address we just happen to find in a Lucian Alliance database."

Daniel sighed. If she was complaining, she was fine. And he couldn't quite disagree with her on that one.

"Sam?" He became alarmed when he noticed she hadn't moved. She was sitting at the base of the chute, staring up the way they had come. He went over to her and knelt in front of her, hands gripping her shoulders. "Sam? Are you alright?"

She looked at him, her face a mask of worry. "Daniel. Did you hear a noise just as we fell?"

He ran through his short term memory. "Yeah, actually. It sounded metallic." He didn't immediately recognize the significance of that and why it would upset her so much. Then, with a thought that made his blood run cold, it came to him. "Iris?"

Sam shuddered. "Cam and Teal'c should have been right behind me."

As it happened, Mitchell and Teal'c weren't right behind her.

Mitchell waved Jackson on through the gate as General Landry came on the PA. As he turned around, he caught sight of the linguist's shadow following him. Carter had paused just before the event horizon, a curious and amused expression on her face. Curious to hear what the General had to say, and probably amused at the impatience he was feeling. And probably showing.

"Colonel Mitchell. I don't suppose I have to remind you to be cautious. Even without Netan in charge, the Lucian Alliance is still out there and still not very fond of you."

Mitchell was heartbroken. Really.

"Sir, with all due respect, the Lucian Alliance is just a shadow of what it once was. Our intelligence puts them at controlling only a few systems. That, and they're down to only a handful of Ha'taks between the lot of them. After dealing with the Ori, these guys are barely an annoyance."

Landry leveled him with a look. "Even mosquito bites hurt, Colonel."

Mitchell grinned as he turned toward the gate and waved Carter through. "Mosquitoes are for smacking, sir. We'll talk to you in a few hours."

He and Teal'c started up the ramp as Carter disappeared. The familiar thrill began course through him, as it did every time he went through the gate. Especially when they were going to a planet they had never been. He already knew what would be going on when he got there. Jackson would be looking over the DHD. Vala would be near him with her gun out, covering him. Sam, having just got there, would be covering the other two, as well as the gate, waiting for he and Teal'c to arrive. That was the pleasure of having such a well oiled machine as a team. There were no surprises.

He was just about to take that last electrifying step through the event horizon when, suddenly, it wasn't there anymore. Overbalanced, he went sailing through the inert ring and would have gone over the end of the ramp if not for Teal'c's iron grip on the handle of his vest. He whirled around and glared into the control room, where a ashen faced Harriman was standing with his hand on the emergency deactivation button. "Walter! What the hell, man! That's a long drop off of there!"

" Mitchell, calm down. I'm sure Chief Master Harriman has a good reason for this." Landry gave the tech a look that suggested that he'd better have a good reason. "Walter?"

"I'm sorry sirs, but just as the computer recorded that Colonel Carter arrived, I got a strange signal from the destination gate. It appeared to me as if an iris had closed over it."

Mitchell couldn't help but wince. One day, in a fit of curiosity as he watched the iris slide shut, he had asked Carter what would happen to a person if they arrived at a gate that was closed. Carter had given him a serious look. "Like a bug on a windshield, Cam." Ouch.

"I take back anything I've ever said about you, Walter. Damn fast thinking, man."

"Indeed. We are grateful Chief Mastersergeant Harriman." Teal'c inclined his head toward the control room window. Harriman slumped back in his chair.

By this time Landry had descended from the control room and was walking through the door of the gate room as Mitchell and Teal'c stepped off the ramp. "I wanted you to be careful, but usually the trouble doesn't start until after you go through the gate. Although, I should'nt be suprised anymore with you lot. "

"Can we try redialing the planet? Maybe the iris on that side is down now." Mitchell said. He was wondering just what was happening to the rest of his team right now. There were two possibilities. One, they were standing around, looking at the gate, scratching their heads and wondering what the hell had happened. They could also be pretty worried about he and Teal'c right now. Bug on a windshield. He shuddered again. Or, and this was likely considering who it was over there, namely Jackson the trouble magnet, they were having issues of some sort.

Landry looked into the control room and nodded to Harriman. The gate began to spin as the address was dialed. Mitchell didn't know he had been holding his breath until the seventh chevron failed to connect, when he let it out with a whoosh. He looked at Landry. "I guess that's a no."

Harriman's voice came over the com. "Now the gate is simply not connecting. It's almost like it's been taken off the grid. Like it doesn't exist."

"Crap." Mitchell straightened up and addressed the General. "Permission to borrow the car, sir."

"Normally I'd say yes, but unfortunately the Odyssey isn't in this system at the moment. She's backing up SG-3 at the moment on a humanitarian mission. A system's sun is failing, and it has a planet with a small human population that we're relocating."

"Well, surly we know someone else with a ship we can use. An Al'kesh, a cargo ship, anything. Don't the Tok'ra owe us any favors? Anyone?"

Landry gave a patient sigh. "Colonel Mitchell -."

"Wait, you said they're relocating people?" Landry looked a bit put out by the interruption, and Mitchell was quick to apologize. Landry took a lot from him and his team, but he did have his limits. "Sorry sir. But I was thinking that they might have room for two more. We could gate out to this planet and thumb a ride to P3X-211." He looked at Teal'c. "Right?"

"That does seem to be a viable plan."

Mitchell gave the General a triumphant look. "See."

Landry closed his eyes for a moment. He knew he wasn't going to get any peace around here until these two were off to find the rest of their team. "Fine. But if the Odyssey can't accommodate you, I don't want you bullying them into it. If that idea doesn't pan out, I want you two back here. We'll figure something else out. You read?"

"Yes sir. Walter! Dial her up!"

Landry sighed again as Mitchell and Teal'c went through the gate. He knew very well that he wouldn't be seeing them until they had their missing teammates back.

Sam couldn't help but wonder just what they had gotten themselves into this time. The three of them had gone over this cave from top to bottom and had found nothing. No indication of who had made this place, or why. There were no control panels or any ways out besides a chute too slippery and steep to climb, and a door with very thick bars. The cave looked out onto a deep valley, maybe twenty miles across, and surrounded by steep cliffs. The valley floor was covered in what looked to be a dense tangle of jungle with few to no distinguishing landmarks. Not somewhere she wanted to go wading through if she could help it. Though that was kind of a moot point, as they didn't even know if they were going to get out of this cave.

That it was a trap to catch those exiting the gate was obvious. What they didn't know was how old it was. Who built it, and why? Would anyone come to check it sometime in the next century? It was mildly irritating to say the least. Scientists didn't like blanks.

Just to keep busy, she and Vala were going through all of their packs and taking inventory of their supplies. Daniel was standing near the door, keeping watch. Sam glanced up at him every so often. He was standing completely still, weight balanced perfectly on the balls of his feet, hands cradling his P90 comfortably. His clear blue eyes had a hardness about them as he scanned the area immediately out side the cave, alert for any danger.

Dear god, what had she and Jack done to him over the years?

They had turned him into a soldier. That's what they had done.

He was her best friend, she saw him every day, but it wasn't until times like this that she actually stopped and looked at him. Then she would wonder when the scrawny idealist had been replaced with this version of Daniel. The former die-hard pacifist was a better shot than she was with his pistol. That rankled a bit on the firing range. Though still a civilian, he had seen enough combat to earn the respect of all of the other SG teams. That combat, as well as the punishment his body had taken over the years, had made him as hard and tough as any of the old time soldiers. That, along with his prodigious intellect, made him a formidable opponent when he wanted to be.

But it was the hardening of his soul that had really marked the transformation. It had started with Sha're's death, and had just progressed with every hard knock the universe sent his way. She still saw the old Daniel when he got really excited about some new discovery or language, and in his compassion and quiet determination. In that, he hadn't changed. But for the most part, she would never have recognized the man she had met ten years ago in the man she knew now. He was a soldier in all but rank.

Jack would be so proud. Or appalled. Probably both. She sighed and went back to her sorting.

They were all being pretty quiet, even Vala. By some unspoken agreement, they weren't talking about their worry over their missing teammates. They all seemed lost in thought. Which was why they all jumped a mile when a display screen dropped out of somewhere in the ceiling. Sam and Vala scrambled to their feet and stared at it warily. It crackled for a moment, then came to life. The wrinkled face of an older human regarded them intently.

"Ah. Humans. Tau'ri by your uniforms. Interesting. I have never used any of your kind before."

It took Sam a moment to realize that he wasn't really talking to them, but examining them as if they were specimens in a zoo. She motioned for Daniel to stay where he was on the far side of the screen, out of sight. "Use our kind? For what exactly? Why have you captured us?" she asked the screen challengingly.

The old man laughed. "I thought two females was a bit of a disappointing catch, but you might prove interesting. And you can tell your friend to come around where I can see them, my sensors tell me there are three of you."

Daniel slowly walked around until he was standing next to Sam. "What do you want with us?"

The old man's face lit up. "Ah! Excellent! A fine specimen."

Daniel's eyebrows shot toward his hairline, probably at being called a "specimen". "How long do you plan to keep us here? And why? We've never had dealings with you before. Are you with the Lucian Alliance?"

" Hardly. And I don't plan to keep you in there at all. In fact, you will be free to leave that cave in a few hours. "

Daniel frowned. "And then?"

"And then I give you the same chance I give all my guests. If you can cross the valley and make it to my home in 48 hours, you will be rewarded and returned to the gate."

Daniel furrowed his brow. "What? What's this all about?"

"I am a hunter, dear boy. Using my stargate I have traveled from planet to planet, hunting creatures of all kinds. The more dangerous the better. But animals lost their challenge for me long ago. Now I hunt the most dangerous prey there is, the two legged kind."

Vala snorted at that. "You? Forgive me, but it doesn't look like you could hunt much."

The man shook his head ruefully. "Too true, my dear. The spirit is willing, but the body? No matter. I have had many years to find a way to make this entertaining for me. Now, rest up, my prey. The hunt starts at dawn. Good luck to you all."

The screen slid back up into it's niche.

The three of them stood and blinked at one another for a long moment before Daniel started muttering under his breath. Sam didn't understand what he was saying, but she didn't have to. Most of the SGC was under the impression that Daniel never cursed. His team knew that wasn't exactly true. He just never cursed in English.

TBC