Stargate SG-1: Trial by Fire: SG1-1 by Sabine C. Bauer

dancing. Most of them had minor injuries, all of them were dirty,
and six of them wore armor and swords. Guards of some sort, and
burly ones at that. Sam had leaped to her feet.
    "Hamilgart?"
    Their host squirmed, and Kandaulo pushed him aside.
"Apprehend them!"
    The guards took two or three steps and froze in their tracks
as Teal'c made a meal of rising to his full height. Psychological
warfare personified. How did you arrest a spirit if you actually
believed in such things?
    "Them!" Kandaulo pointed at Sam and Daniel.
    The guards dithered, glanced at Teal'c.
    "What is the meaning of this?" the spirit enquired politely.
    Evidently this was the night for abortive explanations. Before
anyone had a chance to reply, Hamilqart's wife came rushing along
the arcade, trailed by a bevy of servants, some carrying torches.
    "Husband!"
    "I am well," the master of the house reassured her, a little wistful,
as though he had preferred to return covered in heroic wounds.
    "I am glad to see you unharmed." Almost the same words she
had used the previous day, but now they seemed formulaic, and she
looked relieved for all the wrong reasons.
    Teal'c fixed the largest of the beefcakes with a glare he could
only have picked up from Apophis. "You! Speak!"
    The man shuddered and a glow of eager dread spread over
grime-smudged features. Then he sank to his knees. "The temple
was attacked, Lord Spirit. Your friend and the old woman were
among the Phrygians."
    "I do not believe you."
    His face mere inches from the floor, the hapless guard shivered again. "It is the truth, Lord, I swear."

    "I saw them." Gingerly, Hamilgart stepped forward. "They did
come running toward the gate ahead of the other attackers. But I
admit it is possible that they -"
    "You locked them out!" Ashen-faced, Sam voiced what none
of them wanted to admit. "Was there any particular reason or were
you just scared to kill them yourselves?"
    It sparked a murmur of outrage among the men, and Hamilgart
winced. Daniel supposed he should step in and smooth over the
friction. He couldn't bring himself to do it. Passivity by choice this
time, not by higher obligation, and for once it felt right. If he closed
his eyes he saw the same images Sam must be seeing - charred,
blackened bodies. The memory of that stench seemed terribly real,
and Jack had not responded to Sam's radio call.
    "Woman! Do not speak out of turn! And do not accuse us of
cowardice when it is your friends who acted cowardly," spat
Kandaulo. "They fled with the Phrygians. Once they had captured
our children."
    "O'Neill would do no such thing." The Lord Spirit stared down
the priest. "We wish to view the temple precinct."
    "Meleq protect us!"
    The guard carrying the torch flinched at the sudden glare of the
flashlight.
    Teal'c had not required it earlier. His eyesight was sharp enough
to discern where a multitude of footprints veered off the stone path.
As the Tauri were fond of saying, a blind man could have seen
it. Now the broad white beam of Major Carter's flashlight picked
out the smooth imprints of numerous sandals that had flattened
plants and soil and overlaid any earlier trace. He could not say with
certainty whether O'Neill had come this way.
    He followed the trail regardless, motioning Major Carter to
accompany him. His perseverance was rewarded. Some twenty
paces further into the trees, he discovered a puddle surrounded by
muddy ground. Most of the sandal-wearers seemed to have evaded
it, and at the far end he found the profile of a combat boot.
    "Looks like the Colonel's," Major Carter stated.

    "Indeed. And it appears that a great many others were in pursuit
of him."
    "Thanks, Teal'c. Keep those positive thoughts coming, why
don't you?"
    "As yet we know nothing of the pursuers' intentions."
    "Sure. They were trying to sell Girl Scout cookies." The beam
of light scanned the ground as she moved further along the tracks.
"It's probably why the Colonel shot this guy. He