Lee poked Mal in the back. "Sir, who is this guy, and why are we after him exactly?"

"He's an Alliance target. He's one of Shaw's men."

"Isn't Shaw one of Nesrin's Seconds?" Van asked.

"Yes, Shaw is one of her Seconds. Lyndon is one of Shaw's high-ranking officers. We received intelligence that Shaw was going to be here hitting up the local farmers in an attempt to get them to grow Kassa. The Alliance has contacted the farmers once before and promised to return to continue the discussion. The farmers have heard the rumors of what has happened to some of the other planets that grow for the Alliance. They aren't keen on winding up dead. Anyway, if Shaw's here then Lyndon will most likely be with him. If we can get our hands on him the General is hoping we can get some good intel on Nesrin's plans."

"Come on, sir, we know her guys don't tattle," Lee told him.

"Yes, that's true but he isn't one of Nesrin's men, he's Shaw's man."

"Same difference," Oliver answered. "He's an Alliance soldier."

"Can you all shut up? We have a job to do so let's do it." He started down the path that led to the small village.

"Am I the only one who thinks this entire mission stinks?" Lee muttered as she followed Mal.

"It does seem a little unusual," Oliver replied. "But Mal has a point, if we can capture the guy he might have some useful information. It's worth a try."

"Fine, whatever."

They slipped through the darkened village and took several minutes to search the surrounding area for any ship that could point to the Alliance being present.

"Sir, I've found it," Lee said over the radio.

"Where?" Mal asked.

"In a field two clicks south of the village. The Alliance men are still here. It appears as if they've made camp for the night."

"Van, Oliver, you get that?"

"Yes, we did, we're on our way there now," Oliver answered.

"I'm heading your way, Captain. Keep hidden and for the love of God, don't do anything stupid," Mal told Lee.

"Sir, perish the thought. I am not capable of any such an act," Lee answered.

He snorted. "It's your entire M.O., Captain."

"I am so insulted."

He chuckled and hurried back through the village to emerge on the south side. He struck out in search of Lee and the Alliance ship. By the time he arrived, Oliver and Van were already there, settled in with Lee. He stopped beside Lee and stared at the ship.

"All right, so now we need to find our boy," he said.

"Come on, sir, there are at least a dozen men down there. This is a suicide mission!" Lee insisted. "The General never should have sent us here."

"We follow orders, Captain, that's the job. We need to put a big ass dent in Nesrin's armor, this is how we do it. We gather information. So, let's find our target, grab him, and get our butts home."

"Fine, sir," she muttered. "How are you planning on grabbing this guy?"

"I'm open to ideas," he replied.

Lee looked at Van and her brother. They both shrugged. "This is going to go very badly, I can feel it," she muttered. "All right, ideas ..."

Lee grumbled as she watched Mal disappear into the trees. "This is a really stupid idea and an even stupider mission."

"Stupider isn't a word," Oliver told her. "You should say more stupid."

"Fine, this is an even more stupid plan. Happy now?"

Oliver grinned. "Yes, very."

Lee took a seat against a tree. "One of us should have gone with him."

"He had a point, Lee, one person is less likely to be noticed," Van told her.

"No one else thinks this is a bad idea?"

Van and Oliver both shrugged.

They'd done a lot of that while they were trying to come up with a plan and she was sick of it.

"Look, Mal knows what he's doing. I'm sure it will be fine. You worry too much," Oliver said.

"Let's go, we need to move. Now." Mal said as he strode out of the cover of the trees.

Lee scrambled to her feet and hurried after him. "Sir, what's going on?"

"Shaw received some sort of message. I have no clue what it was because I wasn't close enough to overhear. What I did hear was him ordering Lyndon to go handle it. He's heading for the Gate. We need to get our hands on him. So move it." He increased his pace.

Lee cursed and hurried after him.

"We should probably catch up to them, huh?" Van asked.

Oliver sighed. "Probably." They both ran after Mal and Lee. By the time they caught up to the two, they were darting toward the Gate. "Perfect, now we get to follow an Alliance guy to an unknown planet. I think I should transfer back to Atlantis."

Van grabbed his arm. "Come on!" They dove through the Gate after Lee and Mal. Van stumbled, righted himself, and then was yanked from his feet. "Ow, hey!"

Lee slapped a hand over his mouth. "Shut up!" she hissed.

He nodded and she removed her hand. They were crouched behind a pile of rocks. When he looked around he spotted Oliver and Mal behind a similar pile nearby. Somewhere close he could hear voices.

"Shaw sent me to collect your message. He is occupied with other matters," Lyndon said.

"The message is for Shaw. I need to speak to him," a man replied.

"I'm one of his commanding officers. Give me the message or sit here and wait until he has the time to come personally, it matters little to me. I can tell you he is currently on a mission for Nesrin, there's no telling when he might be able to break away."

"Fine I'll wait, but tell him I need to see him as soon as possible."

"Of course. Now, I suggest you scurry along before you're missed."

There were several minutes of silence before they heard the DHD being dialed. Mal jumped up from his hiding spot and Zatted Lyndon before he could finish dialing. "Secure him!" Mal shouted.

Lee leaped to her feet and hurried to where Lyndon lay on the ground and quickly cuffed his hands. "Done!"

"Great. Van, dial us home."

"Yes, sir!" Van hurried over to the DHD and dialed Earth.

Mal hauled Lyndon up and tossed the man over his shoulder. "This guy needs to lose a little weight." He stepped through the Gate and the others followed. Mal grinned at Sam when he emerged in the Gate room at the SGC. "Mission accomplished, General," he told her.

"Excellent work, Colonel." She nodded to several of the soldiers in the room. "Take our prisoner down and lock him up."

"Yes, ma'am," one of the men told her as they stepped forward to take Lyndon from Mal.

"We'll debrief in an hour, SG-1. You're dismissed."

"Thank you, General," Mal replied.

Lee sighed. "I'm glad that's over. I still think that was a crappy mission. If Shaw hadn't received that message then we never would have had a chance at Lyndon."

"I'm going to go and change. I'll meet you in the briefing room," Mal told them.

"Sir, are you all right?"

"Perfectly fine, Captain, why?"

Lee shrugged. "You don't usually change until we're done with the briefing, not unless the General postpones it."

He smiled. "I'm fine, I have no clue what the Alliance men were cooking but I feel like the stink of it is all over me."

She laughed. "Then don't let me stop you, sir."

He left with a chuckle.

She watched him go with a frown.

Lee stopped several steps into the briefing room. "Where's the Colonel?" she asked Van and Oliver.

Vna shrugged. "Don't know. I stopped by his quarters but he didn't answer the door."

"The man needs to get his butt in gear and move off the base already." She rolled her eyes and took her seat at the table. "He's probably trapped behind a wall of boxes."

Oliver chuckled. "He was waiting for the realtor to let him know the paperwork was all finalized so he could pick up the key. I would think everything would be done any day now."

Sam breezed into the room. "I'm afraid Colonel Hughes won't be joining us."

"Ma'am?" Lee frowned.

"He wasn't feeling well so he stopped by the infirmary. Dr. Grayson has determined he has contracted an, as yet, unknown virus of some sort. He will be quarantined until further notice. Now, fill me in on how the operation went?"

"We arrived, found the guy, grabbed him, and came home. Whoo. Now, can we see the Colonel?" Lee asked.

"No, Captain, you can't. He is in quarantine. The Doctor doesn't want him to have any visitors until he can get a handle on what the problem is."

"We can wear hazmat suits! I'm sure that's what the medical staff is doing!"

"Captain, I'm following Dr. Grayson's recommendations. No visitors. I'm sorry. Once the Colonel is cleared then you can see him. Get me your reports on this mission as soon as you can. We need to begin questioning the prisoner."

"I hope Mal is all right," Van said.

"I'm sure the colonel will be fine," Sam told him.

"This stinks," Lee muttered.

"I hope we don't have whatever he has." Oliver pressed a hand to his forehead. "Does my forehead feel warm to you?" He leaned closer to Lee.

She slapped him. "Stop it, Ollie, you're fine!"

"How do you know? You didn't even feel my forehead!"

"We can troop down to the infirmary and have the Doctor check us out if it will make you feel better, Oliver," Van told him.

"We should! What if it's contagious?"

"The three of you should go down and have the doctor check you out just to be certain none of you have contracted whatever it is the Colonel has. Once you've seen Grayson, if you have the all-clear then you're off duty until further notice. Dismissed." Sam rose and left the briefing room table.

Lee shoved back from the table and left the briefing room. She glanced at Van and Oliver. "Neither of you think this entire situation is odd? We are sent on a mission where we're only given the basics of things and the Colonel is the only one who knows the deep details. We nab some Alliance dude and haul him home and suddenly the Colonel is ill, under quarantine and we can't visit him. I don't know what's going on but I don't like it. Something is fishy."

"Lee, you worry too much. Not everything is some top-secret government conspiracy," Oliver replied.

"This entire mountain is a top-secret government conspiracy! We live in an episode of the X-Files every damn day!" she shouted.

"I wouldn't say X-Files, maybe more like ..." Van paused. "Actually, I don't have a comparison. Our lives are weird."

"See! This is extra weird! There's something we're not being told!" she insisted.

"Come on, Mal wouldn't keep anything from us," Van replied.

"Unless he was ordered to," she pointed out.

"Okay, well there is that, you have me there."

"Shouldn't we get down to the infirmary, the General did kind of order us to?" Oliver looked between them.

Lee stood. "Fine, let's get checked out but I'll bet you a hundred bucks the Colonel is the only one who is ill."

Oliver hurried past her down the corridor.

Lee rolled her eyes. "I honestly don't know how he's managed to live this long without encasing himself in a plastic bubble."

Van chuckled. "Come on, he's not that bad."

"He used a paintbrush to slather antibacterial hand sanitizer over his bedroom door when we were twelve after I got the flu. He said the germs would never invade his room because he'd created a barrier of death."

Van burst out laughing. "Oh, I am never going to let that one go."

"Why not, I haven't." She grinned and they followed Oliver to the infirmary.