Events on the Horizon: A Stargate Sequel

Chapter 6

Teal'c

Canyons and plateaus stretched around me filling the planet in a complex kaleidoscope of rich reds and browns. The sky stretched onward as a canvas for the sunset, filling in the pinks and indigos of the evening hours. I reached my hand into the pocket of my suede vest and pulled out a handful of dried corn laying my palm flat for my equine to graze against.

"Good girl, Snowball." I whispered to her as she took the offering and laid a gentle hand along the fine muscle of her neck. Once she had fished I swung myself back into the saddle and continued the patrol of the borderlands around my designated perimeter.

"Sherif Teal'c!" A male called out to me from his equine that was galloping around the corner. "Bandits, they're a' headin' towards the old Gem Saloon! They're a' threaten' Miss Lyla May!"

I cracked a smile and moved the reins in his direction. "This will not happen in my territory. Partner." I chided and took off following him down the path. "I find great amusement in this program." Speaking mostly to myself than to the characters around me I blazed the trail.

Daniel

The flames licked my skin, encompassing the tents around me. I was still trying to get the fire out, kicking sand onto it was doing nothing and Aya had said she went into town to get help, but I had a feeling that it was a lost cause. Billowing columns of thick dark smoke rose up as a signal in the air, anyone from the town at this point would see it, but no one had come. I didn't know how much longer my lungs could take in the ash on a fruitless endeavor so I slumped down in the sand and fell onto my back draping my burned gritty arm over my face to block out the blazing sun. My bare back sizzled against the raw sand, my pants were still damp and clinging to my legs like paper mache. I heard multiple footsteps come up to me and stop.

"It's no use," I groaned. "It's all gone now."

"Hey Daniel," Jack's voice shot down to me and I flung my arm off to look up at him. "What's going on here?"

"I was looking for someone, something, I'm not sure. I had been waiting my whole life for this, it was everything, and just as I was on the break of finding out, it went up in flames.  All of it. I tried to out it out, but clearly I failed at that too." I gestured to the fire and he reached a hand out to me, pulling me up to my feet.

"No, we're in some kind of simulation. Colonel O'Neill and I have been going through similar, um, trials." Sam was wearing our off world gear smattered in blood.

"Are you okay?" I asked her, looking for any sign of injury. She seemed unharmed, but her eyes told a different story.

"We're fine Daniel, but your fun is over. You're only half naked lying out in the desert sun for a tan here. Can't imagine soot is much of a sun repellent." Jack was in a pair of pale blue tailored shorts and a striped polo with what I believed to be boating shoes.

The first smile to tickle my lips in a long time emerged in how ridiculous he looked. "And what about you Jack? What's with your get up?"

"I'll share mine if you share yours," he smirked back and they guided me back towards the town.

"We need to find a doorway of sorts that doesn't belong," Sam began after we stepped onto the cobbled streets marking the entrance of the village. Mud brick and palm logged structures with multicolored fabric awnings started speckling the sides of the street. Carts of fruit and grains clacked along further down the pathway. "Like a small alley that seems to have no light, or..."

"A sewer in a village with no running water?" I interrupted pointing to a circular manhole cover in the center of the road. They agreed, and we ran toward the grate, lifting it and seeing the darkness and eerily quiet of nothing in return. Until I thought I made out horses whinnying and gunshots from under us.