Mal leaned forward and folded his arms on the table. "Nothing within sight of the Gate?"

Sam shook her head. "No, not according to the M.A.L.P. The air is breathable and it's a balmy seventy-seven degrees."

"At least it's not freezing like that lovely ice planet we visited," Lee muttered. "I'm not certain I've defrosted yet."

"That was weeks ago," Van told her.

"It was and I swear I'm still frozen."

"The planet appears uninhabited but we know how that goes, there could be a settlement or village somewhere beyond what the M.A.L.P. can see," Sam told them. "Do a routine check to make certain and take note of anything you find."

"General Carter, may we have a moment?"

Sam turned to Rowen when she came up the stairs. "Yes?" She noted that Elias trailed behind her.

"Agent Albrecht has something he'd like to say." Rowen turned and gestured to the team gathered around the briefing table.

"I apologize for the ... misunderstanding with the file folder and the off-world mission," he said grudgingly.

Lee arched a brow. "Misunderstanding? You put a tracking device on me, you jerk."

"And I apologized," he replied stiffly.

"Uh-huh, sure you do."

Sam sent her a look full of warning. "Apology accepted, I suggest you watch how you do things from here on out, Mr. Albrecht. Now, if you'll excuse us, we have a briefing to finish."

When Elias opened his mouth to say something, Rowen grabbed his arm and hauled him back to the staircase and gave him a shove toward it.

Mal grinned as he watched his brother skulk out of the room. Served him right after what he did. That apology meant absolutely zero. Elias didn't mean it because he'd been forced to give it. He looked at General Carter. "You know he isn't going to back down. That apology was for show."

She nodded. "Yes, I understand the type of man your brother is. He wants his pound of flesh and he won't stop until he gets it. Don't worry, I can handle him."

"Not you I'm worried about. It's us. I know Elias and I didn't see this last scheme of his coming. I should have, but I didn't. He's a conniving, low down, snake who will stop at nothing to get his way. We may not know what he has planned next and we may not be able to avoid getting caught in his web. We got lucky this time."

"I don't think luck had a single thing to do with it," Sam replied with a chuckle.

Oliver raised a hand. "Can't we request that he be removed due to bias?"

"I've tried, someone is pulling the strings that I'm not aware of. Whoever it is, they want Elias overseeing the SGC. Just watch your backs and be as careful as you can." She looked at Lee. "And no more snooping through his things."

"I have no idea what you're talking about, General," she replied with a grin.

"I'm sure you don't. You have a mission to prepare for, you leave in two hours. Dismissed." She rose and left the briefing room.

Mal sent Lee a grin. "No snooping, unless it gets us off the hook."

She chuckled. "Understood, sir."

"All right, let's get ready for the mission." Mal led the way out of the briefing room.

Oliver shifted and tugged at his vest. "I hate all this gear."

Mal punched him lightly in the chest. "This gear keeps you safe."

"Yeah, but it's uncomfortable as hell. I don't know how you military people wear it all the time."

"We suffer through it because we know when it comes down to it, it will help keep us alive," Mal told him. "Didn't you wear the same equipment while on the Atlantis team?"

"Yes, doesn't mean I liked it then and will ever stop complaining about it."

"You'll be happy you have that vest, trust me. It hurts like hell and leaves a bruise like you would not believe when you get hit but it's better than dead," Lee added.

Oliver turned white. "I didn't need to know that, Lee."

She looked at him. "What? That it leaves a bruise or that I've been shot before?"

"The second one. Oh God, do Mom and Dad know?"

"Are you kidding? They wanted me to pick a normal career, if I told them they'd freak out." She narrowed her eyes on him. "You better not tell them either."

"Not planning on it."

Van grinned. "You two on the same team is very interesting. Can you ever get through anything without a fight?"

"No," they replied in unison.

Mal laughed. "Are we ready?"

"I hope so because the Gate just connected," Van answered with a wave toward the Gate.

Mal sighed. "See what happens when we spend the time listening to you two argue, we miss everything." He waved toward the Gate. "Let's go, kids."

Lee effected a little curtsey and led the way up the ramp.

"Good luck, SG-1," Sam called over the PA.

Mal turned and waved to her where she stood in the control room. He spotted Elias lurking in the room behind the General. He shook his head, turned away and stepped through the Gate. He emerged on the other side to find Oliver and Van huddled together peering at a flat stone set to one side of the Gate and propped against a second stone so it stood partially upright.

He looked at Lee. "What are they doing?"

"Trying to read whatever that is," she told him.

"Well, boys, what have you found?" he called out.

"Not sure, Colonel," Oliver replied. "Van is trying to decipher it."

Mal wandered closer, when he was a foot or two away he heard Van muttering. "Van?"

"It's ... strange."

"What is?" Mal asked.

Van sighed and stood straight. "It's runic but not. That's the best explanation I have."

"And that tells us what?"

Van shrugged. "Runes were used by a lot of European cultures. These are some variations of that alphabet, but it's going to take me a little bit to figure it out."

"Any clues?" Lee asked him as she came to stand beside Mal.

"Not really."

"I think it's a warning of some sort," Oliver told them.

Mal scowled at the stone. "What makes you say that?"

Oliver pointed to the tablet. "The lettering is carved into the stone and then it was painted some shade of red around the lettering. See here, most of the paint has flecked away but at one time the entire sign, save for the letters, was painted red."

"Just because red means danger to us it doesn't mean it means the same to these people," Lee said. "Isn't red like good luck to the Chinese?"

"It means several things, but yes luck is one of them. In this case however, I think it's a safe bet that Oliver is right," Van told her. "This here, is similar to the word for danger in some of the Scandinavian runic languages. It's a slight deviation, but it could be the same word."

Mal turned a slow circle. "I think it's also a safe bet to say whatever they were warning travelers about is probably long gone."

Oliver snorted. "Or it's still here and that danger is the reason this planet is now uninhabited."

"As much as I don't want to agree with him, he is right, sir," Lee answered.

"Right, stick together, we'll try and stay in the open and do a little recon. We'll go a few hundred meters, if we don't find anything we head back. If the General wants to do a more thorough recon she can send a larger more prepared team. Van, take some pictures of that stone. No one is coming back here until we figure out what it says."

"I already took a few pictures, Oliver did too."

"Good, let's move out." Mal gripped his P90 as they moved away from the Gate to the north. If there was something deadly out here he wanted to be prepared.

"Do we really think it's a good idea to ignore a warning on a danger sign, guys?" Van called out.

"Do you want to attract danger by continuing to shout?" Mal called back to him.

Van spun a circle and then hurried to catch up to them. "Excellent point. I hope we don't run into any giant killer squirrels again."

"Killer squirrels?" Oliver asked.

"Yeah, like seven foot tall man-eating squirrels," Van muttered.

"Okay, someone needs to tell me about the squirrels."

Lee grinned. "Let's survive this mission first then we can tell stories."

Oliver threw an arm out. "Hey, look I think there's some buildings on the rise across that field over there."

Mal pulled out binoculars and looked in the direction he indicated. "He's right, there's several buildings over there." He put away the binoculars. "Let's check them out."

"Sure, creepy buildings in the distance on a planet with a danger sign, why not," Van grumbled. "Why can't we ever visit any planets with candy cane bushes and happy little munchkins prancing around?"

Lee laughed. "Wow, Van, you're a Wizard of Oz fan, that was something I didn't expect."

"Hey, it was a good movie. A thoroughly horrible example of prejudice, but a good movie nonetheless."

Lee walked backward so she could see him. "What does that mean?"

"The dog that played Toto was paid more than the actors who played the munchkins," he answered.

"Really?"

"Yup."

"Wow, did not know that." She turned around to walk normally.

"See, I'm fun and educational for all ages."

Oliver burst out laughing. And nearly collided with Lee when she came to an abrupt halt. "Whoa, what's up?"

She gestured to the field in front of them with knee-high bright purple flowers flowing across it like a blanket. "I don't think we're in Kansas anymore, Toto," she told Van.

Mal swept his P90 over one of the flowers. "Well, they aren't carnivorous, so I doubt that warning sign concerned flowers."

"Uh, I hate to bring this up, but what if the sign was warning us about something that maybe lives out there somewhere in that pretty field of flowers?" Van asked.

"And how do you know they aren't carnivorous flowers? We are on an alien planet," Oliver pointed out.

Mal picked up a rock and lobbed it as far out into the field as he could. They all stood there and watched the flowers as they shimmied where the rock had thumped to the ground, and then settled back to stillness. Mal looked back at Van and Oliver. "I think it's safe."

"Right, sure, let's tromp through the field of alien flowers. This is gonna end badly, I can see it," Van muttered as Mal started across the field.

"Let's leave six feet between us just in case," Mal called out.

Lee lifted her P90. "Go on, I'll cover you guys in case things go to hell."

"Sure, great, send us in as bait." Van watched Mal move further into the field, then started after him when he was roughly six feet away. He was very careful to step exactly where Mal had stepped.

Oliver followed him. He glanced back and watched as Lee followed them into the field.

They moved slowly and carefully, each of them prepared in case something jumped out at them.

Mal dropped low and raised his gun.

"Colonel?" Lee called out from the back of the group.

"I thought I saw someone at the edge of the field."

Lee turned to follow the direction of his gaze. "I don't see anything."

Mal shook his head. "I was certain there was someone there a second ago." He rose. "Let's keep moving, pick up the pace. I don't want to be caught in the open if there is someone out there."

Van stopped and his head tipped to one side as he stared at the edge of the field. "I think you're right, there is someone out there."

Lee cursed and spun to look but she saw nothing. "There's no one there!"

Van shook his head. "No, I was certain I saw someone and they were dressed like one of the Ancients!"

Mal looked back at Van. "Now who's seeing things? I didn't see any Ancients. I was certain I saw ..." He paused.

"Colonel?" Lee asked.

"I swore I saw Elias."

"That's impossible. The General wouldn't allow him to follow us through the Gate," she called to him.

"I know, but I was certain it was him."

Lee didn't like this, something was wrong. "I think we should go back to the Gate."

"No, take a closer look at those structures. Van is right, I think the Ancients are here or they were. Those structures look like the architecture in Atlantis! Can you imagine if there are living Ancients here, what we could learn from them?" Oliver asked excitedly.

"Oliver, we are not close enough to those buildings for you to be certain they're Ancient," she told him.

"Remind me, who lived in Atlantis?"

She sighed. "Yeah, great, and I visited. I know what the damn place looks like and I'm saying that you can't tell from here!"

Mal gave a shout and darted toward the trees on the east side of the field.

"Colonel, we need to stay together! Colonel!" He ignored her shouts and continued to chase whatever or whoever he was seeing.

"Wait, I need to ask you a few questions!" Van called and hurried off in the opposite direction from the Colonel. "Can you explain how ascension works?"

"Oliver, let's go, we need to get back to the Gate!" She turned to go, but realized he wasn't following her. "Ollie!" she shouted.

"Hold on, these readings are very interesting." He was staring down at some instrument. "I think there may be a ZPM here or at least something being powered by one. I need to check this out." He moved off through the field toward the buildings.

Lee spun in a circle and watched as her team moved away from her. This was wrong. So very wrong. She spun back to her brother. "Oliver, listen to me, something is wrong!"

He flapped a hand in the air and muttered about 'off the chart numbers.'

Lee sucked in a horrified gasp when a half dozen Alliance soldiers popped up out of the field, grabbed Oliver and vanished with him. "Oliver!" she screamed.

"You'll never get him back. He belongs to the Alliance now."

Lee spun to face Nesrin. "You! Give me my brother back!"

"Tell me, Leonore, does he also have the gene? Can we use him to get to Atlantis?"

"Give him back you bitch!" She swung but Nesrin vanished with a laugh.

"He's mine now!" she said in a sing-song voice.

Lee spun in a circle with her gun up as she searched for a target. "Oliver!" There was no answer. She needed to find her brother before that bitch Nesrin harmed him. She dropped her gun and searched through her pockets until she found the device Oliver had given her while they were on Atlantis. He'd built it himself, it was his version of the Lantean life signs detector. She poked at the touch screen until she found Oliver. His device didn't simply track lifesigns, it could track their GDO implants and give a more accurate location.

"I've got you, Ollie, don't worry I'm coming." She dashed off across the field. Once she found Oliver, they could find everyone else and get the hell off this crazy ass planet.