Growing Pains - A Stargate Story

Chapter 1

Location: Unknown Goa'uld Planet

POV: Unknown

She ran.

She ran till her legs ached, her side stitched, and her lungs heaved.

Then she kept running.

The forest lay ahead of her, which meant the Stargate would soon be in view. She knew it wouldn't do her any good so she aimed to bypass it, silently cursing the fact that she'd never bothered to learn any coordinates.

I should've known this would happen. I should've—

Her foot caught on her dress and she went down hard, landing face first in the grass. She half-screamed in frustration, violently ripping off the lower half of her skirt.

Then she heard voices.

Her head whipped around, eyes locking onto the armored pair of men bearing down on her.

She knew they couldn't have been far behind. The blast she'd hit them with had only been strong enough to stun them.

Her heart hammered against her ribs. She fought the urge to freeze up, forcing herself back to her feet—feet that she now wished she wasn't in the habit of keeping bare—and barrelling ahead.

I just need to hold them off until he comes back.

Craning her neck back, she desperately searched the sky for signs of a ship.

But there was none.

She fought back the tears, fought back the thoughts threatening to drown her in despair.

Just keep going.

So she did.

Location: SGC Operations Room

POV: Daniel Jackson

"Well?" A sharp clap punctuated Jack's unmistakable voice as he called into the control room. "What have we got?"

Daniel didn't answer. Neither did anyone else. A somber anticipation hung over the room.

"Why so dour?" Jack asked slowly.

"Well," Daniel answered, dragging his focus at last to Jack, "According to Teal'c's intel, there's a chance that P3X-134 might be under Goa'uld control."

"P3 what?" Jack queried.

"Our next planet," Daniel answered with a twinge of impatience.

"Ah."

"We're sending the M.A.L.P. through now," Carter said just as the Stargate's dialling sequence completed, bathing all of them in oscillating light.

Teal'c stood quietly in the corner of the room, watching the M.A.L.P. roll up the ramp below. Though as soon as it was through, everyone's gaze shifted to the computer display, raptly watching the live image being projected from the probe.

Daniel leaned in closer, spying movement shown in the distance.

"What's that?"

Carter reached for the controls, signalling the M.A.L.P.'s camera to zoom in. Everyone stared in silence.

In the distance, an impressive fortress could be seen, simultaneously lit by an onslaught of surrounding fire and shadowed by the unmistakable shapes of Death Gliders swooping low around it.

But there was something else happening much closer to the Stargate. It was a collection of three figures, two of whom were clearly in the employ of Apophis given the design of their armor. The third was a woman, struggling against the hold of one Jaffa. All three had their gazes pinned on the Stargate and the strange thing which had just come through it.