Revealing Beheshu
 
 
By Travelling One
Summary: Confusion reigns as SG1 unwittingly steps into the midst of a battlefield.
email: travelling_one@yahoo.ca
Web: http://www.travellingone.com
Season: Any
Disclaimer: The theme and main characters have been borrowed from the Stargate SG-1 tv series, and are copyright property of MGM-UA Worldwide Television, Gekko Film Corp, Glassner/Wright Double Secret Productions and Stargate SG-I Prod. Ltd. This story has been written for entertainment purposes only. No copyright infringement is intended.
June/03
 
 
 
 
"Interesting." Jack O'Neill's gift for understatement continued to radiantly shine.
 
The MALP had indicated some unusual décor in this large hall, but infrared wasn't known for having the best record for detail. It hadn't clearly shown the fern-like trees, the flying vehicles, the fanged animals hiding in the shrubbery ready to pounce, the human-like beings creeping up behind them brandishing shiny clubs, or the oddly-shaped buildings balancing precariously on pressure points. It hadn't shown most of that because this room was so damn large. It certainly hadn't indicated that any of this was not just gloriously constructed in living three-dimensional perfect detail, but also painted on the walls. No, it was the team's flashlights that highlighted the garishly adorned chamber.
 
Mostly all the MALP had clearly indicated were the six other stargates in this room, all a variety of geometrical shapes. Majestically perched in the center of them all stood the DHD, the effect eerily reminiscent of a futuristic Stonehenge.
 
Carter stood before the one hexagonal portal, appearing to be deep in thought. She knew Teal'c as well had noticed that these were not made of naquadah.
 
"Interesting," Jack murmured again, knowing no one was paying attention to him anyway, as he fingered the sharp talons of a colourful but dead stuffed bird. Careful, could be poisonous, he belatedly thought, abruptly pulling his fingers back.
 
Scouting the room, beams of light flickering on both obvious and camouflaged objects, the four teammates inspected the construction, the workmanship, and the materials used by whatever people had created these unusual out-of-place artifacts.
 
"Oh, Daniel? Can you come here a moment?" The tone of voice indicated a curious find, understandable in this bewildering room of oddities.
 
Daniel turned to see Jack waving a finger towards the top of a tall, elaborately painted frame of a doorway elegantly cut into the rough stone wall. Sauntering over, the archaeologist turned his gaze upward to a series of symbols carved into the arch below the ceiling. "Be… behe… heshu. Beheshu."
 
Jack eyed him warily. "Catching a cold?"
 
Ignoring him, Daniel continued studying the lettering. "Most of this script is unfamiliar to me, except for this word that looks like a cross between cuneiform and the Phoenician alphabet post-Proto-Canaanite period. But I don't recognize the meaning unless it's from the ancient Egyptian word 'behes', to hunt. Or maybe 'behsau', hunter, but that's not such a realistic assumption seeing as the script isn't Egyptian. This writing or language may have developed from those early influences, though. Wait…" Daniel frowned, squinting, trying to see more closely although the writing was a couple of feet above his head. "Nimrod. There's a reference here to Nimrod, I think. I don't understand the rest."
 
Jack's eyebrows shifted upwards. "The Maritime reconnaissance and attack aircraft?"
 
"Jack, Nimrod's a descendent of Noah, and considered to be the founder of Babylon and Ninevah. He was said to possess super-human power, and he wanted people to worship him. He himself worshipped Satan."
 
Jack cringed. "And I bet his eyes glowed."
 
"Maybe. His personal emblems were many, including the fish, the centaur, and the, um, snake."
 
Jack squinted a grimace. "Of course it was. Personally, I prefer to think this Nimrod refers to that peaceful little... town in central Minnesota."
 
Daniel paused, giving Jack a critical eye. "You're kidding, right?"
 
"Nope. Been there twice." He tilted his head upwards. "Well, once to camp, once while changing a flat."
 
Daniel sighed and shrugged, turning back to the all too brief inscription, the rest of which was undecipherable. "The ancient Hebrew word "nimrudh" means 'tyrant' or 'we shall revolt'," he continued, as Sam and Teal'c approached from behind. "It's been written that Nimrod liked to hunt humans."
 
Jack eyed his linguist. "Sweet. And I always though a nimrod's a…"
 
"Jack! It could say or mean anything in their language. All I have to go on are these two words written in a strange mixture of ancient scripts, which may not even have the same phonetic base as what I'm familiar with. I mean, I could assume more if we were on Earth. For all I know, they might pronounce this as 'O'Neill'." His voice trailed off apologetically.
 
"So we're basically just guessing here."
 
"Basically," Daniel exasperatedly conceded the round. "There's not much more I can tell you. I have no idea what this building is," he commented, "or where the people are."
 
"Let's go find out," Jack remarked almost too cheerily. Yup, off to meet the maniacal man-hunter, something he'd more than likely regret by the end of the day, no doubt. Casting a quick glance at his other teammates, he gestured towards the doorway and the apparent hallway beyond. As the small group gathered closer, SG1's CO led the way, illuminating the passage with his flashlight.
 
A heavy steel door greeted them around a bend in the corridor. "Think we should knock?" Jack suggested.
 
Without answering, Teal'c grabbed the lever acting as a door handle, and yanked.
 
_____
 
And now they knew why no one had been interested in the activation of a simple wormhole.
 
For that massive gatechamber had not only been tranquil and serene, it had been soundproof. Out here now, in this deepest of warm summer nights, these people, these inhabitants of whatever planet SG1 had gated to, were in the midst of a chaotic, frenzied, noisy, terrifying battle.
 
Sounds of shouting and weapon blasts erupted around them, piercing the air from directions indistinguishable. The night was black, lit by what seemed to be lampposts, the transparent plastic or fiberglass-type poles giving off light from within. Warm humid air hit the gate travellers, the atmosphere feeling and smelling as though this village was possibly by the sea. All they could make out, besides the glowing poles lining the narrow pebbled roadway, were tall shrubs and colorful bodies dashing around in the night. Most of the beings, whether in small groups or alone, darted frantically in a single direction down the street, while others hid behind the bushes, every one of them carrying a short pointed weapon. As a quartet of apparent humans dashed out of sight, fleeing from the unseen enemy, for a few moments the lane directly within SG1's vision was empty, the turmoil obvious only by the odd blast of orange current cutting the air in half.
 
"Um, I take it, not your Minnesota town, Jack?"
 
"Maybe on a Saturday night."
 
Jack jumped back into the doorway as an electrical streak blazed by his face, shoving his teammates instinctively back with an arm as he did so.
 
"Kids, we're heading back," Jack ordered, having no intention of getting involved in this firefight. "Go!"
 
"Jack!" Daniel shouted, and pushed past his CO. Even before they'd had a chance to realize what was happening, the linguist had dashed down the few steps and was running across the alley towards a fallen youngster.
 
"Daniel!" Jack called in alarm, glancing around for possible snipers. A few stragglers rushed by, looking behind them, shooting into the distance at seemingly invisible targets. Hopefully they could see who they were aiming at, Jack prayed, his heart throwing in a few extra beats. And hopefully the "enemy" wouldn't arrive any time soon. "Damn it!"
 
"I saw him get hit, Jack!" Daniel exclaimed as his teammates scooted to his side. The young boy opened his eyes, trying to sit up.
 
"Are you alright?" Daniel inquired worriedly.
 
The boy frowned at the odd strangers bending over him, then groggily jumped to his feet. In a moment he was gone, merging into a rapidly passing trio, none of whom seemed to pay much attention to the boy.
 
"Interesting," Jack whistled under his breath.
 
"Their weapons may not be highly forceful," Teal'c remarked.
 
"I think it just grazed him, Teal'c." Daniel had been the only one to see the boy fall.
 
"That's it; I want us out of here, while we're all in one piece," Jack stated firmly. "We have no idea who's fighting whom, or why."
 
"Um, Jack?" Daniel pointed back across the lane in the direction from which they'd just emerged, towards the doorway of the only building visible behind the tall shrubbery. "Looks like we can't go back the way we came." A group of armed and uniformed guards had already planted themselves on the steps in front of their goal.
 
"They must have seen us come out, Colonel."
 
"Crap." For the moment, the group of four had slight cover beneath some tree branches, but they could be seen by anyone running past who actually might give a damn. Thankfully, no one had yet seemed to care about them one way or another, each of these hurrying passersby fully self-absorbed.
 
"They do not seem to be taking notice of us, O'Neill."
 
"They're too concerned about whatever it is they're escaping from, Teal'c. They glance at us and look away, so they must not find our uniforms too unusual," Daniel commented nervously.
 
"Come on, Daniel, look at them. Wouldn't you say their clothes are all a bit… bizarre? Do you really think they'd notice what we're wearing?"
 
All the passersby had looked a bit odd, with no conformity whatsoever, Daniel had to admit. What he had noticed was that he couldn't place any of these outfits into a known cultural perspective; this society definitely seemed to advocate the "anything goes" outlook on life. "Maybe that's part of what's gone wrong here," Daniel suggested. "Too many diverse points of view." A leap of deduction, he knew, with no facts to go on.
 
"Or perhaps, Daniel Jackson, you were correct, and they are indeed in battle against the great hunter of men." Such an uprising was close to Teal'c's heart, he himself wishing for such action from fellow Jaffa on his own world. "Perhaps they are fleeing from the army of Nimrod."
 
"Well maybe after the riot you can both ask them," Jack retorted sarcastically. "Right now we have to lay low until we can get back to the stargate."
 
"I'm sorry."
 
Questioning eyes turned towards Daniel.
 
"I'm sorry we can't go back yet, guys; I'm not sorry I tried to help the boy," he amended.
 
"Yeah, well, the kid didn't seem like he needed much saving." Jack responded.
 
"I didn't know that, Jack."
 
"Never mind, Daniel. It's done." Jack knew he couldn't have expected any less from Daniel, although he'd never admit those thoughts out loud. Don't encourage the guy, he always reminded himself.
 
"O'Neill, I would suggest that the best plan of action might be to follow these people," Teal'c advised. Blending in with the crowd, so to speak. It did seem as though they were all headed one way, hopefully away from the source of the conflict.
 
"Right. Running ducks instead of sitting ducks always works for me." Jack glanced hurriedly around. "There's barely any cover here. There's got to be another building down the street we can duck into."
 
Taking off behind the next group of people dashing past, a family of six it seemed, Jack noticed the strange looks being aimed at them. Four of the armed adults and one child all took their turns swiveling around and firing their weapons of electrical current in the direction from which they'd come; exactly what was back there? What were these people running from? Jack knew he was quite content, for now at least, not to have to find out. Screams and shouts were heard in the distance as well as from behind, and he knew there could be worse activity and commotion in other laneways. Where were they, anyway? Was this a side street? Jack had no desire to have his team accidentally stumble into the main boulevard.
 
"Damn, they all have those mini zats," he remarked. "Even the kids. I don't want to use the rifles and risk killing someone; we don't even know who the bad guys are here but I doubt it's these families. Teal'c, we'll use your zat if we have to, nothing else unless they give us no choice. If we're forced to fight, we aim at anyone firing at the kids."
 
"Jack, why would the ch…" Daniel's question was cut off by a gasp in front of them, as a woman fell to the ground. The rest of her family kept on running.
 
"Jesus!" Jack exclaimed, as both he and Daniel raced over to help her.
 
Up ahead, her family had finally stopped, and were throwing puzzled glances their way as two of the men swiftly returned. Jack felt an elbow shoving into his side as he was pushed away from the woman. Daniel was grasped by the shoulder and hauled to his feet, facing an angry glare from the large man before him. The woman was groggily standing now, speaking softly to both men in a language unknown to SG1's linguist. Then abruptly they were on their way once again.
 
"You're welcome!" Jack called out, as up ahead the men paused to turn around and stare at the seemingly unarmed team. Turning to Daniel who was gaping wide-eyed beside him, Jack looked his teammate over with a frown. "What does your cultural perspective tell you about this, Da… DAMN!" Jack hit the ground, face down.
 
"Jack!" Daniel again dropped to his knees, this time beside his CO.
 
"Damn! Shit, OW!"
 
"Colonel!" Carter knelt down. Glancing ahead, she saw the family now taking off into a run. Why did … why the hell had they shot the colonel? He'd only been trying to help. Had they thought he'd been the one to fire at the woman? Maybe Daniel was right; maybe this whole war was a confusion of paranoid misunderstandings.
 
"Jack! Jack, where were you hit?" worry emblazened Daniel's features. His hands were on Jack's arms and shoulders, helping the team leader try to turn over.
 
"Got me in my vest. I think I'm okay. Shit. I'm okay, Daniel," Jack gasped out, frowning at his friend's fear.
 
"Oh geez!" Daniel's heart was still performing a Riverdance. "That scared the hell out of me." Still kneeling over Jack, he sank backwards onto his heels.
 
Rising slowly onto his elbows, Jack grasped Daniel's arm and pulled himself up with a groan into a sitting position. "Crap." He grimaced, focussing on getting his own heartbeat under control.
 
Jack eyed Daniel, the look on his friend's face a mixture of tenuous relief and expressive fear. "I'm okay. But we should get out of here. Let's not go too far from the gate house, kids. Just concentrate on finding cover."
 
"O'Neill, I believe..." Suddenly, along the roadway three feet behind Teal'c, two people jumped out of the bushes and then sprinted off down the street. Four startled teammates reacted to the unexpected diversion with further pounding hearts, knowing that unexpected attacks were a high probability in this confusing battle zone. Without knowing that SG1 had not come to fight them, these citizens might very well see the four strangers as potential rivals and easy targets.
 
"There are bushes here, sir, and a lot of shadows. There might even be a building behind that hedgerow," Carter nodded towards a point across the street. "Are you alright to move, Colonel?"
 
"Yeah," Jack nodded. "Bushes might be enough anyway. We never even noticed those guys that jumped out at Teal'c." Best not to get separated, though, and Jack preferred them all to be able to hide together and communicate covertly.
 
Heading into the shrubbery just across the lane, the four nervous Earth travellers watched warily as a group of teenagers snuck along the perimeter of the building a few yards beyond. All were enclosed by a hedge fence, allowing some modicum of safety. "We'll rest up here as long as it's feasible," Jack commanded. This situation seemed to keep escalating in … bizarreness; having no foundation for understanding these people or what this battle was about, Jack's only concern was to keep his team safe until they could all get home. In a while he'd leave his team here and duck back to see if the stargate building was yet free.
 
Teal'c had been keeping an eye on the five young people now disappearing through the shrubbery into the lane beyond. As the last one snuck through the bristling foliage, he saw the boy turn abruptly, a flash of brilliant light heading towards his teammates. "O'Neill! Daniel Jackson!" Teal'c shouted, as he pushed Sam to the ground, shielding her with his large body.
 
They hadn't seen it coming. Teal'c's shout caused both men to turn swiftly as the power bolt spun rapidly past, missing Jack by an inch.
 
"Aagh!" In the flash of a second Daniel was down, hands cradling his abdomen, gasping to catch his breath.
 
"Daniel!" Carter's cry was breathy, stifled. Letting the enemy know that a teammate was down wouldn't be the wisest move.
 
"Daniel! Let me see." Jack's voice was sharp with concern, but low, as he tugged Daniel's hands away.
 
"Ah, god. Damn damn damn it hurts," Daniel's eyes were tightly shut and watering, his face contorted into a grimace as he refused to release his grasp around his body.
 
"Let's get him into that building. It's dark and hopefully empty," Jack ordered the remaining members of SG1. Teal'c strode quickly up to the door as Jack and Carter tried almost successfully to sit Daniel up. "Let's get you somewhere safe, Daniel."
 
"The door is locked, O'Neill," came Teal'c's deep voice.
 
"Crap," Jack growled. "Okay, under these bushes. Now." Trying not to allow panic to seep into his state of mind and affect his rational thinking, Jack focused on calming his nerves and helping Daniel. His teammates had suddenly, for some reason unknown to them, become targets, but they could try to keep under cover for as long as was necessary. His team would get out of this. The sooner the better, before another of them got seriously hurt or possibly captured.
 
"Ow, damn." With eyes squeezed shut, Daniel was still clutching his stomach, having been partly dragged to the furthest shelter of some greenery. Sweating and trying to catch his breath, he hunched over on his knees, allowing a few moments for the dizziness and pain to pass. Out in the street, they could hear the nearby pandemonium, the sounds of screams and shouts coming from all directions, along with the ever-present weapons fire. Their cover wasn't much, should anyone intentionally or accidentally stumble into this yard.
 
"Why did those boys fire on us?" Carter's features were strained, her eyes burdened, as she held onto Daniel and felt the tightness of his self-comforting posture. Though she had been the first to speak the words, the question had been on all their minds.
 
"Perhaps they were afraid. We may have appeared as an enemy, being a group of such strangely attired adults. It may indeed be clear to all that these are uniforms." Maybe people paid more attention to clothing than the team had at first assumed.
 
Daniel felt hands on his back, and leaned against a teammate. With eyes still closed, he tried to concentrate on the stillness around him, on the soothing touches and humid, salty air.
 
"Do you think there's any tissue damage, Daniel?" Carter's tense voice broke the fragile silence. If Daniel had internal injuries, they'd just increased the need to get home ASAP.
 
"Don't know. Ow. Damn, it hurts." Daniel slowly lifted his head, opening his eyes to see worried faces staring at him in concern from inches away. He turned his head towards Jack at his right shoulder. "God. Did it hurt you this much?" Jack had barely complained.
 
"It hit my vest, Daniel. Yours is open." As usual. Jack cringed with the spoken words, gazing sympathetically down at his friend. He could feel the impact of that strike as though it was his own.
 
Daniel finally lifted his hands away, as multiple eyes scanned his jacket and T-shirt. There was no blood, nor was the fabric of Daniel's clothing torn. A small, nearly round burn marked the area.
 
"It'll probably just be bruised. I'm okay." As long as whatever that was doesn't penetrate skin and muscle. Daniel bit his lip, the pain having eased fractionally. His head was clearer now, and his breathing under control.
 
"Now what, sir?" Carter looked to her CO for guidance.
 
"Now we wait." Sitting ducks, Jack decided, was definitely better than running ducks. Especially when they weren't sure who they were running from, or what they were running into.
 
"I wish I could communicate with these people," Daniel quietly confided.
 
"Daniel, they wouldn't stop long enough to talk. Doesn't look to me like they're ready to discuss their political tactics." Jack frowned.
 
Bright currents flashed through the shrubbery and hit the trees to their left.
 
"Geez!" Jack pulled Daniel towards him as Sam and Teal'c dropped to the ground. "Are they firing at us or were those strays?"
 
When no more fire power appeared and no humans invaded their territory, the teammates let out a seemingly collective breath.
 
"That's it. I'm going to see if our doorway's free." Jack rose quickly to his feet. No more waiting around; his team should not even be here. Whatever sort of coup or civil war these people were engaged in, it had nothing to do with them.
 
"Sir?" Carter's utterance left her lips without thinking, spurred by fear for her CO.
 
"Jack!" Daniel gripped his friend's jacket sleeve. Perhaps these people had relatively humanitarian weapons, but somewhere along the line there had to be winners and losers. Or even POWs.
 
"Daniel, we have to get home. Let go of me."
 
Reluctantly, the archaeologist removed his grip from his friend's arm. His words came out laced with the panic he felt. "Be careful, Jack."
 
Jack caught the tip of Daniel's retreating sleeve, stopping its motion. With a gentle reassuring squeeze to Daniel's wrist, he nodded. They were all scared.
 
"I shall go with you." It was not an offer, but a statement, and O'Neill didn't argue.
 
"Stay down," Jack ordered Carter and Daniel, before taking off with Teal'c, crouching through the hedgerow.
 
"And now we wait," Daniel whispered, shutting his eyes.
 
"Daniel?" Carter threw a worried glance towards the friend beside her. "Are you okay?"
 
"Yeah. Just worried, Sam. Why do I think they're not going to make it?"
 
"Shhh. They'll be okay."
 
Minutes passed, the time endlessly dragging. The incomprehensible shouts and blasting weapons continued in the streets, as two teammates huddled together in the shadows behind a tall stand of bushes. They could not easily be seen in this blackness of night, the sky pierced only by vague starlight, the glow of the streetlamps shedding little more than a haze their way.
 
"How long has it been?"
 
"About half an hour, Daniel."
 
"Sam…"
 
"Don't worry. They're just being careful."
 
Okay.
 
Another fifteen minutes had passed before two dark figures crept up beside them, and Daniel jumped.
 
"You kids been okay?"
 
"Yes sir." Sam breathed in relief. Her words to Daniel had not been untruthful, but until this moment, she hadn't been sure.
 
"We are unable to leave yet." Teal'c settled himself on Daniel's other side. "Are you well, Daniel Jackson?"
 
"Yeah Teal'c. Just a burn."
 
"And you are able to walk?"
 
"And run. Don't worry, I won't hold you back."
 
"I do indeed know that, my friend."
 
Daniel had to smile. "Thanks."
 
"How long have we been on this poor excuse for a planet, anyway?" Jack asked no one in particular. He'd lost track of the time hours ago.
 
"It's been two and a half hours, sir."
 
"Is that all?" Jack tossed Carter a brusque look, then raised his eyebrows and sighed.
 
The team sat in silence. According to their watches another forty-five minutes had passed since the jaunt into the street by half of SG1.
 
"I'll check again in fifteen minutes." Jack's attempt at verbalizing his next strategy was cut short by a series of wailing blasts, sounding from everywhere, penetrating the very air around them, seeping into their bones. "What…?" Jack paused, listening. What sort of sirens were those? What was going on?
 
Rising silently, Jack cautiously made his way to the gap in the hedgerow and peered out into the street, Carter and Teal'c directly behind him. Daniel slowly lifted himself to his feet, trying not to hunch over too much with residual but diminishing soreness.
 
All around, people had suddenly stopped running, the commotion and turmoil abruptly suspended. Gazing about, they seemed almost to be in wait, before beginning to amble methodically ahead. Communication picked up while the sounds of war subsided, the fighting having seemingly come to a halt. Crowds emerged from every direction, chattering in a language Daniel didn't recognize.
 
"Jack, I think we should see where everyone's going." Confusion littered his brain, and Daniel needed to make sense of what he was witnessing.
 
"Doesn't look like we could get through in the opposite direction right now anyway," Jack responded, being shoved and knocked by passing bodies still intent on ignoring him and his team, as he stepped out further into the street. He had to admit that he, too, was curious about this sudden and mysterious cease-fire. Did this war have a curfew? A treaty putting an end to antagonistic activities at a certain time of day or night? Was this just Nimrod's weekend pleasure hunt? Or - one that Daniel would appreciate - did they have religious services to attend? He really hoped they weren't being led to bow to the great god Nimrod.
 
"I wonder if this is a religious thing." Daniel commented.
 
They followed the crowd to the end of the block, and this now seemed as far as they could go. Hordes of people paused in front of and beyond them, an equivalent number pushing up from behind.
 
"Sir?" Carter was frowning in bewilderment.
 
SG1 could barely distinguish what was happening, as the people appeared to be laying down their weapons, handing them to uniformed guards - the same guards SG1 had seen occupying the doorway to their destination over three hours ago. And once having done so, the crowd began to remove their clothing as well… the eclectic outer wear so varied and unusual, colours and patterns and styles each vying for a place in the historic annals of garment design. Underneath were the more somber colours of robes and leggings. The clothing was being traded for papers, each being stamped an indeterminate number of times before a barrier allowed the pedestrians through.
 
Glancing from the periphery of his vision, Jack noted the shock on his teammates' faces. SG1 could not cross this terminal, under any circumstances.
 
The team was pushed forward as the crowd jostled elbows around them. They watched in awe as a bright light began to filter in towards them from just up ahead and beyond the guards. The startled teammates were at first unable to discriminate what was happening or what they were observing; when situations become discrepant with expectations, the mind has a way of blocking out reality. For several lingering moments, nothing seemed to make sense.
 
Then as the light grew even brighter, realization suddenly dawned.
 
"Oh for crying out loud."
 
Daniel gaped, his mouth open, no comment forthcoming. His CO had said it all.
 
A large black wall was opening before them, revealing the bright sun of daylight. People began streaming out, laughing and waving their goodbyes.
 
In the increasing light, their black night sky was revealing itself to be a high ceiling far above their heads.
 
"I do not understand, O'Neill. It appears we have been in the interior of a building."
 
"Inside. Yep, Teal'c." Jack took a few steps forward, craning his neck above the lingering crowd in order to get a better view of the now enormous exit. In the immediate vicinity of the outside world, colourfully cheerful buildings of the oddest shapes loomed across from a parking lot of hovering vehicles.
 
"Would you say this might be their version of Disneyland, Jack?" Daniel was peering over the team leader's shoulder, astonished and intrigued.
 
"I'd say it's more their version of the intergalactic Laser Quest variety, wouldn't you, Carter?" Jack continued to stare at the departing crowd, the hordes finally having diminished around him.
 
"Oh, I'd say so, sir."
 
"So… no wonder everyone who got hit got up again." Daniel's incredulous glare turned itself on Jack. "I guess it's a good thing you vetoed the use of our guns, huh?"
 
Jack thought of what the consequences of that would've been. "Don't even think about it, Daniel."
 
"Jack, those blasts didn't seem to hurt the others as much as it did me. I don't get it."
 
"Daniel," Sam answered, "They wore thickly padded outerwear. It functions much like the colonel's vest did."
 
"Which still hurt a damn hell of a lot, if you ask me," O'Neill retorted.
 
"Theirs would be made specifically for this purpose, Colonel."
 
"O'Neill, Major Carter, Daniel Jackson. I do not understand to what you are referring. Are you familiar with indoor wars such as these?"
 
"Fake battles, Teal'c, with fake weapons to earn fake points." Only a whole hell of a lot more realistic than anything Earth has to offer. "But apparently most of them know better than to aim at the employees, which we maybe look like, kind of."
 
"So it is a training session for warriors?" Teal'c frowned slightly, doing his best to comprehend. Were these similar to the battles the SGC employed to train new recruits?
 
Jack snickered. "A game for young and old at heart."
 
"Then the youngsters of Earth as well as those of this world are trained in much the same manner as those of Chulak," Teal'c stated matter-of-factly, as he gazed around the enormous room, now revealed in all its constructed detail.
 
Carter interrupted. "Sir, there seems to be less of a crowd behind us now."
 
"In which case… behind us is where we should be heading," Jack cautioned. "Before they lock up for the day. We didn't exactly come in the front door."
 
Trying to about face without attracting too much attention, smiling at those who gave them curious glances, the four teammates ducked back into the now silent deserted streets of what they had thought to be a complete town. Now, feeling partly at ease and being at liberty to look more closely, they realized this huge building probably comprised no more than perhaps six city blocks.
 
Daniel tried to pluck a leaf from a bush, but the whole plant shook. "I commend them on their props," he commented with a false grin.
 
"O'Neill!" Teal'c was staring at the façade of the building that housed the stargate.
 
"Whoa! He's locking it up!" Carter exclaimed, as Teal'c aimed his zat and fired at the unsuspecting employee. The young man in uniform fell to the ground in a blur of blue electricity.
 
"No, he is not," Teal'c remarked nonchalantly, earning a grimace from O'Neill. The team sprinted up the steps towards the doorway.
 
As Jack leaned over the unconscious man, Teal'c tried the door. "It has not yet been secured," he announced, stepping into the dark cool interior.
 
Finding themselves back in the prop storage room housing the multiple stargates, Daniel paused to ponder as Carter dialled home. Thank goodness the DHD was real. "Guys, do you think the stargate is one of their, um, rides?"
 
Jack swiveled to gaze at his teammate. "You mean, do they send people through the gate for amusement?" He stared at his friend, both of them contemplating the consequences of arriving innocently and unsuspectingly on a Goa'uld homeworld.
 
"Nah," both Jack and Daniel chorused. Unless they have a few designated vacation spots…
 
"Sir…" There was a strange quality to Carter's tone, her back now turned to the open wormhole. "If they didn't before, they may now."
 
Following her gaze, the others spun around to see the building employee, no longer feeling the total effects of a zat gun, gaping in the entranceway.
 
"Oops," Daniel muttered.
 
"Hey… thanks for the hospitality. We had a great time. Nice diversion you've got here," Jack waved to the man as the four SG teammates backed into the wormhole. "And you have yourself a great weekend, huh?…."
 
Footsteps approached.
 
Three security guards were now staring in awe, as the Renndale sculpture's cavity returned, the strange blue pool vanishing into nothingness.
 
 
 
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