Colonel Sandford stopped and shaded his eyes. "It appears that these people are farmers."

"That's a whole lot of corn," Lee said.

"All right let's go make contact with the locals." Sandford started off toward the farm houses in the distance.

Lee and Van trailed slightly behind him. "Nothing like a stroll through the countryside to make your day." She sighed. "Rows of corn as far as the eye can see." The fields rose on either side of the path that led to the village. "You think we'll find Dorothy and the Scarecrow?"

"I doubt it." Van was studying the corn as they walked, he frowned and stopped to take a closer look. He hurried to catch up to Lee and shot her a look. "We may have a problem here."

She gestured toward Sandford with her P90. "I'm well aware of it already."

"Not the one I meant." He jerked a thumb toward the corn in the fields on either side of the path. "I'm pretty sure that isn't your garden variety corn."

"Well, we are on an alien planet." She shrugged.

"No, that isn't it. I mean it is but it's not."

"You aren't making any sense, Van." She rolled her eyes.

"I'm pretty certain what we're looking at are fields of Kassa."

She stopped. "Whoa, you mean that whacked out drug corn the Alliance was pedaling?"

He nodded. "Yes, this could be a problem."

"Oh, yeah ya think?" She hurried to catch up with Sandford. "Sir, we have a problem."

"I don't see a problem. This place looks pretty tame."

"Van thinks these fields are Kassa. This could be an Alliance controlled planet. That is a problem, sir!"

Sandford turned to her. "Listen to me, Captain, as I've explained to you many times already, I am in charge, not you. I make the decisions. We are going to make contact with these people. If those fields do contain Kassa, then I want to know why they're growing it."

"It's a goddamn drug, why do you think they're growing it? I'm gonna guess it's for the money," she replied snidely.

"Unless you'd like me to report you for insubordination I suggest you shut up and follow orders."

Lee ground her teeth. "Yes, sir."

Sandford began walking again. They found a central square in the small village and made their way to what appeared to be a pub or restaurant. The Colonel stepped through the door and the room went quiet.

"Hello there, we're travelers passing through. I'm Colonel Sandford, this is Captain Kain and Dr. Walsh."

A woman stepped forward. "We don't get many travelers here. Were you sent by Nolan to check the crops?"

"No, ma'am, just to stop in and see how everyone is fairing."

Lee snorted and Sandford shot her a glare.

"If Nolan has sent you then you are most welcome. Come, you must rest and have a meal."

"Why thank you, ma'am."

They took seats at the table she indicated and waited while she bustled off to get them a meal.

"Sir, this is a bad idea," Lee told him quietly.

"It's only bad if you want to believe that it's bad."

"This planet is controlled by the Alliance and you just told them we were sent by the Alliance to check on things! This is bad!" she hissed.

The woman returned and placed platters of food and mugs on the table. "Enjoy."

Colonel Sandford grinned at Lee once the woman left them. "See, nothing to it, Captain."

"Uh huh, sure. You'll pardon me if I reserve judgment so I can tell you that I told you so later, sir."

"Eat, Captain."

She sat back and folded her arms over her chest. Beside her, Van dug in, she sent him a glare.

"What, I'm hungry. I didn't eat before we left."

Several men stepped through the door and took seats at a nearby table. They ordered drinks and began a discussion. Lee listened as the men conversed.

"We must be very careful," one of them said quietly.

"Relax, my friend, it will be fine."

"It will not! Didn't you hear about the farms on Spriet? The farmers there were caught keeping a portion of the Kassa crops for themselves. The Alliance wiped them out. All of them! We cannot begin to think about profiting from the crops ourselves. We must accept what they pay us to grow for them and be content with it."

"Come now, they pay us a pittance in comparison to what they make off of it."

"My answer is no and it will remain so." The others around the table nodded in agreement and the man who had insisted they should make a profit off the Kassa fell silent, though he didn't look pleased by their reluctance to agree.

Lee found the information enlightening. She glared in Sandford's direction, she knew remaining here was a mistake. If the Alliance caught them here she doubted they'd be able to escape again.

Both the Colonel and Van finished their food. Van looked at her. "Are you going to eat that?"

"Have at it." She shoved her plate toward him.

"Thanks!" He began shoveling food into his mouth.

Several more minutes passed before Sandford stood with a smile for the woman who had served them. "Thank you for your hospitality, ma'am. We must be on our way."

"Of course, you will tell Nolan that all is well here?"

He nodded. "I see nothing wrong here. Good day to you, ma'am." He turned and headed for the door.

Van grabbed several rolls, saluted the woman with one and scurried after Sandford.

Lee followed with a grumble. Nothing about this was good. Sandford complained about not following orders because it put people in danger and here he was marching into a village that was controlled by the Alliance.

"Dial us home, Doctor," Sandford said when they reached the Stargate.

Van began dialing with a roll dangling from his mouth. The Gate connected with a fawhoosh and the roll fell from Van's mouth. "That wasn't me! Incoming wormhole!"

Sandford waved them away from the Gate. "Take cover!"

They ran and took cover in a nearby field of Kassa.

A woman stepped through the Gate followed by a large group of armed guards. All of them wore the uniform of the Lucian Alliance. The woman looked at the men ranged out around her. "Spread out and make certain everything is as it should be. If anything is off, let me know at once."

"Yes, Keziah." The men moved away.

The woman remained near the Gate, a single guard by her side. She looked at the man. "Nolan was a fool for trusting in the farmers' honesty. No one is honest where money is concerned. He deserves the death Nesrin visited upon him. I will not make the mistakes he did."

Sandford looked at Lee. "Alliance?"

"I told you so," she snapped. "Sir."

"So you did, Captain. Now what do we do?"

"We hope they leave quickly and we remain hidden. You don't want to attack them, it will only get us killed. I'm certain there's a ship in orbit."

"They came by Gate," he said.

Lee snorted. "The Alliance knows how to make an entrance, but they always cover their asses, sir. Our best bet is to stay hidden."

Sandford stared at the woman standing at the Gate. "We could take them."

"What did I just say, sir? Do you honestly believe they aren't keeping an eye on things down here? I do not want to get blown away from space, but you go right ahead."

"I don't want to get blown away either," Van added.

Sandford scowled at them both. "We can't sit here in a corn field and do nothing. We have no idea how long they're going to be here!"

Lee sat on the ground. "You can have me court-martialed if you'd like, but I'm staying here."

Van sat beside her. "Me too."

Sandford grumbled and turned away from them to stare out at the Gate.

Another twenty minutes passed before several of the men returned to the Gate. One dragged a man with him that Lee recognized as the man from the pub who was trying to get the others to skim profits.

"This man's name was given to us by several of the other farmers. He has been attempting to talk them into skimming some of the Kassa and selling it on their own for profit."

"I have done nothing of the sort!" the man protested.

"The Alliance doesn't take chances with thieves," Keziah told him. "The farmers on Spriet found that out and paid with their lives for their failure to hold up their agreement." She pulled a weapon and shot the man.

Lee sucked in a breath. "Not taking any chances, are they?"

"We already know the Alliance is ruthless," Van muttered.

Sandford raised his P90 and Lee grabbed his arm. He sent her a glare. "Release me, Captain. We can take her out."

"Do you want to get into a fire fight with them? Where's the guy who thought taking out the Goa'uld was a decision to leave to command? Suddenly you want to go around shooting people?"

"Captain, this is the Alliance, not some random low level Goa'uld who wields a little bit of power, so yes, I will make the decision to take her out!"

"Well, have fun. The moment you pull that trigger I'm making a run for it in the opposite direction."

Van raised a hand. "Ditto."

Sandford shook his head and turned back to the Gate. Behind him both Lee and Van stood and began moving slowly away from the Gate. He lined up a shot and fired. Unfortunately for him, one of the guardsmen stepped in the path of the bullet just before he pulled the trigger.

Lee and Van turned tail and ran the second they heard the report of the gun. Lee could hear Sandford crashing through the field behind them as the Alliance guards opened fire.

"I told you so," she muttered. Van stumbled and fell. Lee cursed, ran back and grabbed him by his vest and hauled him to his feet. "Go!" she shouted and gave him a shove forward. He began running again as she turned back and opened fire on the field behind her. Sandford darted past her and kept running. "Asshole." She continued to fire for another minute before she ran after them. They broke free of the Kassa field and she made a quick assessment of the area. "Over there!" She pointed to a rise that led into some low hills. She was relieved when Sandford didn't argue with her choice of escape routes.

They ran and wove their way through the low hills until they found a crevice that led to a small cave and hid. Van collapsed onto the floor and laid there sucking in deep breaths.

Lee leaned back against the wall and stared out of the entrance.

Sandford sat on a rock. "I missed the damn shot, one of her men happened to take a step to one side as I fired."

"And now we're nowhere near the Gate and they're going to be looking for us!" She jabbed a finger toward the cave's entrance. "They will know that shot came from a weapon used by us. They aren't stupid! Now they aren't going to leave until they find us! You made the situation a hundred times worse." He glared at her. "Sir," she added.

"It was a risk worth taking," he replied.

"Oh really, was it? Tell me, how has it turned out, Colonel?"

"I've had it with your snappy comebacks and insubordination, Captain!" Sandford yelled and jumped to his feet.

"Can the two of you stop shouting at one another before the Alliance finds us?" Van asked.

"I'm going to scout around and see if they followed us this far." Lee ducked out of the small cave after throwing a glare at Sandford.