The Mine:

  3 days ago-

  Caruso signalled his Marines to fan out, taking up guard positions. Two squads of young fighters, their breath visible in the cold air, advanced with their explosives. Cate and James followed, watching as the recruits moved quickly but carefully, placing charges every ten metres along the bridge’s span. Some worked their way across the top, others climbed beneath the structure, securing the detonators to the supports. The tension was suffocating.

  They were nearly at the far end when Caruso’s urgent voice crackled through Cate’s radio. “Taipan, train’s ahead of schedule! You’ve got maybe three minutes!”

  Cate’s pulse spiked. “Move! Now! Get those last charges set!”

  Panic flickered across some faces. A few recruits hesitated.

  “Go! Now!” Morena’s voice cut through the fear, she urged her friends on. “You’ve got this!”

  That was all it took. The last few charges were secured in a frantic rush. The train was now just 200 metres away, its headlamp a growing beacon in the night. Steam hissed; iron wheels thundered against the tracks.

  “Fall back!” Cate shouted to those behind her.

  Subtlety was abandoned. They sprinted, hearts pounding, scrambling over rocks and dirt as the train roared closer. James grabbed a recruit who had frozen in terror, dragging him forward. The bridge trembled as the first cars rolled onto it.

  But Cate, Morena, and Tyra had no time to make it back. They were trapped on the northern side. Still under the iron and steel of the bridge.

  James turned, scanning desperately for Cate as the train roared passed his position. “Cate!” he shouted, his voice lost in the chaos.

  The first explosion detonated.

  The world went white-hot.

  The shockwave tore through the valley. A split-second later, the bridge erupted in a chain reaction of fiery blasts, the supports crumbling as steel and concrete buckled. The locomotive surged forward for an instant, then pitched violently as the structure gave way beneath it. One by one, the cars behind it followed, tumbling into the cold river below, their cargo of Alliance troops lost to the depths. The last carriage hovered on the southern end, balancing for a moment. Shouts of Alliance soldiers, trying to scramble free could be heard, even over the cacophony of destruction. Those shouts turned into screams as that ill-fated carriage followed the rest of the train.

  Morena had set her last charge, beneath a cross beam of the bridge, she called loudly, “Done!” and began to scramble down to join Cate on top of the concrete support column. They were at the furthest northern end of the structure, the last one still above the water.

  “Come on Tyra, hurry it up!” The Australian’s voice reaching the fourteen-year old’s ears quite sharply.

  In the distance the ominous sound of a heavy steam locomotive quickly approaching, startled Cate enough to ask herself. “Should it be that loud, so far away?”

  “On my way.” The small voice from above replied. The kid was hanging upside down, like a bat, her legs hooked over a service pipe, yellow wires in her mouth. She secured the remote, a motion sensor in essence, plugged the leads in, then she swung herself loose, making a backflip to land on her feet, beside the other two. Despite the darkness, you knew she was grinning from ear to ear.

  “Show off!” Morena told her as she laughed. Two days out from her seventeenth birthday, nothing was going to worry her.

  A tremble beneath her feet and Caruso’s message brought the fear of death to her mind, if she reached out, she could feel his cold black hand. “Fall back!” She yelled over her radio. Immediately the awareness struck her, the three of them were trapped. It took only a second for Cate to take stock of their plight. They had tether lines secured to one another on the way across, for precaution. Apparently in the centre of the river the current was too swift for even the hardiest of swimmers and it varied in depth up to thirty-five metres deep in parts. Another wasted second, Morena was already clipped to Cate’s line, it took a blink of an eye to secure Tyra to the older girl. “We’re going to jump.” She said calmly.

  Morena’s hand trembled in Cate’s grasp. The smaller, younger hand of Tyra’s was warm and strong, she nodded, as did the older girl. They were afraid, all three of them. Only seconds remained as they three as one leaped from the pylon, going feet first into the icy waters, ten metres below them. Another wasted second.

  To say it was difficult with boots, fully clothed in kit suited for winter, and a backpack that still weighed a hefty ten kilos even after losing the C4 packs and detonators. (Two rifles were left behind, neither Cate nor Tyra thought to grab those, Morena had her free hand firmly grasped around hers.) Not to mention accessories like Cate’s side arm, a Zat, water canteens, and vest pouches full of whatever won’t fit in the backpack.

  The three of them must have gone down at least 3 metres, and there was a sense of calm panic once in the water, they surfaced again quickly, Cate turning to get her bearings. They landed about 5 metres out from the bridge if measured in a straight line, and as the first charges went off, she yelled out again, ‘Down!” and then physically pushing the girls heads under the water. There was enough light in the clear water, they were now facing upstream and close to the shoreline where the current was weakest.

  Even beneath the cold water, they could feel the first blasts and then a shock wave as the last three carriages hit the water. Without barely kicking, they were propelled ahead further to a point where Cate thought she could see light… the rising sun? Whatever… she tugged on the line, dragging the girls with her. They could see the light coming from under a rocky shelf, a cavern perhaps? If they didn’t surface soon, they’d drown or die of hypothermia.

  With a burst of air from their lungs, Cate and her two young companions came up in a small round pool. The light they saw was coming through a fissure in the ceiling of a cave, or was it a mine? She couldn’t tell from where they were.

  It was difficult at first to climb up, they did however have some help as another shockwave from the bridge’s destruction and that of the train, lifted the water level up for a moment, about a metre. Form there they basically slid across to a flattened floor. With the light they had, Cate see now what it was, the very end of a mine shaft, probably where they dumped tailings into the river. And it was warm. She told them both to strip off. Tyra went to remove her backpack and let out a cry. Cate looked and found she had dislocated her left shoulder. “I can fix it if you can stand the pain.” She told her.

  To which Tyra replied. “I’m a woman now, of course I can stand the pain.” Meaning she had passed puberty now. Cate laid her against her own pack, placed Morena’s pack under the arm and told the kid to close her eyes.

  Morena asks what can she do? Cate tells her to hold Tyra’s other arm (she didn’t want the girl lashing out at her.) She takes hold of the forearm and bicep, then with a gentle downward force, she pulls and locks the shoulder back into place. All Tyra did was grit her teeth. But the tears streaming down her cheeks told the story.

  After letting the younger girl rest for a while, Cate gently undressed her after she found a thermal blanket from one of the packs. These packs were quite special. After years of fighting either the Goa’uld, Lucian Alliance and others, just in this galaxy, the SGC had found that missions though planned for at least 24 hours, often went over. They had a spare set of clothes, including underwear and socks. Toiletries, a thermal blanket, enough energy bars and MREs to see them through. First aid kit, compass, Swiss Army knife and even fishing line. The only thing they didn’t and couldn’t have was a spare pair of boots. Everything in the pack was sealed in vacuform plastic. “We’ll wait until sunset, at least we’ll know when that is, and look for a way out.” They all had flashlights, and one set of spare batteries. “We’ll use only one flashlight at a time, but hopefully the battery life won’t be a problem.”

  “This used to be an old plwm mine.” Morena spoke up as they finished dressing Tyra and dry clothes. Then she realised what she said. “Lead, lead mine. According to my father, Cronus shut it down before I was born, so I guess about twenty years ago.” The funny thing Cate fund with the Vegemahan women, there was zero modesty between themselves. By the time the last words were out of Morena’s mouth, she was stark naked. Not for long though. She continued. “It wasn’t out of concern for our people of course, no t was for his own Jaffa. The way we were mining and processing it, it was toxic to them and probably him to.” She even half smiled. “Do you know, when I think about him, compared to the Alliance, he didn’t treat our people too badly. He built a whole new way of mining, not only lead but other minerals; built several dams and improved our electric.”

  Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

  Cate wasn’t used to this level of exposure, even among her own gender. She turned her back as she dressed, which brought a giggle from the two girls. “Would you have him back?” She asked.

  “No.” They both replied.

  After that they took stock of their situation Going back in the water was out of the question. They were dry and warm in here and had only to wait for their boots to dry. Cate’s being made of Gortex wouldn’t take long and the girl’s boots were of a similar construction. “Wait a minute.” She face palmed herself. “Morena did you say lead? I wasn’t paying full attention.”

  “Yes, I did, why?”

  “Nothing.” The older women told her and to herself she knew the answer as to why she hadn’t been beamed away. Not that she would have wanted it.

  All three of them talked one at a time, sometimes all three at once, which would result in giggles. Cate was happy, very happy despite the gravity of the situation. She just hoped her crewmates on the Invincible weren’t worrying too much about her, or James, or Sam for that matter. Then they planned. As far as the girls knew, there was a small wooden bridge about 20 or 30 kilometres west of the Tey bridge, over what they called the narrows. A limestone gorge just 10 metres across, not the 400 of the Tey. At least they thought it was still there. With the ongoing guerilla war with the Alliance, anything could happen. The other choice was the Delta, where the river met the sea. It dropped to low tidal flats in some places, and you could walk across. That was 60 kilometres east. “So, it will be west then. Hopefully these tunnels will be straight forward.” Cate said, before they decided to rest until nightfall.

  Just a few metres above, a young fair-haired man, perhaps no more than twenty-two or three, cocked his ear to the ground. Three women, one older definitely and definitely Tauri by the sound of her accent. He had heard enough to realise they were in one of the many mine sites that dotted this land, and they were partially trapped, forced to go west. “Bitches!” He spat. “And when you exit that tunnel, you will wish you had gotten lost. You will pay for what you did.” The young man set off; he had some inkling where to go.

  Do or Die

  It was on everyone’s mind; three days had passed since the ‘big show’ as they were calling t now. The day they blew up a train and the day the lost one of their most valuable team members. Yet there was hope. Twenty-four hours ago, Sam had been in contact with McFearson on the Invincible; they had found some vision from one of the marines body cameras, he had been facing north when the urgent recall was enacted, despite the smoke and fire, the camera managed to capture a very brief shot of three figures jumping into the river. Further evidence was at hand. When Elle was notified of Cate’s possible disappearance, the ship was scanning the area of the Tey Bridge for locator chips, that little subcutaneous transmitter, that every member of the Stargate Program has under their skin.

  “Anything Elle, did your scans find anything at all?” A worried Carter asked of her colleague Commander McFearson. The radio crackled for a moment, Sam thought they were going to lose contact. Then the reply came back loud and clear.

  “At around zero five hundred this morning just before sunrise, we did another scan after the fires and explosions had settled, Sam.” The other Australian told her. Elle’s voice was more refined, a little more cultured than Cate’s.

  Sam was getting impatient, the time lag between the ship and the surface was starting to wear her down. “Yes?” She said eagerly.

  More crackling. “My technicians had a positive contact of Cate’s transmitter. It was so brief they almost missed it. We then tracked it on screen in real time. Sam, Cate is alive, the beacon was about one hundred and twenty metres west of the bridge. It was moving when we lost the signal. My science officer believes the beacon is being blocked, by what we don’t know.” There was more. “The Alliance troops have left; they appeared to have recovered as many dead as they could. We tracked them back to their base. I’ll have Major Ovcharenko and SG-4 down there shortly.” There was another disruption in the signal, Sam looked to the north from the plateau SG-1 stood on, there was lightning, and the sky was rapidly darkening with storm clouds. The transmission continued. “…can find them, they can. McFearson out.”

  When they returned to the bunker, Sam passed on all she had been told. That simple message had the effect of lifting everyone’s spirits. Especially James. He had returned to the Chekov and his squadron; he needed to get away from the underground atmosphere and the memory of the past six weeks. He flew two CAP missions and on the second he and his wingman took down an Al-Kesh that was attempting to leave the planet. What he didn’t realise was value that had to the allied cause. On board that ship was Horgfells’ adjutant, Senior Kolonel Chulai Uson, she was trying to either get back to Lucia and convince the Alliance leaders to send reinforcements or at least get a sub space message to them. She was also Horgfells lover. This was going to cut deep.

  “Ahem!” Cam cleared his throat, quite loudly. He was watching with great amusement, as was Teal’c and Daniel; young Lieutenant Doolittle hugging Sam Carter after she gave him the news. Vala simply smiled.

  James immediately stepped back, ramrod straight, looking like a cadet who had just hugged his drill instructor by mistake. “I am so sorry, Colonel,” he stammered, his face rapidly turning a shade of crimson usually reserved for malfunctioning naquadah reactors.

  Sam, still caught off guard, blinked at him. “Uh… it’s fine, Lieutenant.”

  “Won’t happen again, ma’am!” James added hurriedly, snapping off a salute so sharp it could’ve sliced through a bulkhead.

  Cam, still smirking, rocked back on his heels. “Wow. That was something. I mean, I knew you flyboys were affectionate, but…”

  “Sir, I was overcome with…uh…” James searched for the right words, his brain stalling like an engine flameout. “Professional enthusiasm?”

  Vala tilted her head. “That’s what we’re calling it now?”

  Teal’c raised an eyebrow in what could only be described as amused judgment. “It was… quite the embrace.”

  “Thank you, Teal’c,” James muttered, rubbing his temples.

  Daniel adjusted his glasses, biting back a grin. “Don’t worry, Lieutenant. I’m sure the regulations are very clear on—what was it again?—‘tactile displays of unrestrained elation’?”

  James groaned.

  Cam clapped him on the back. “Well, just be glad Jack wasn’t here. He’d have had a field day.”

  James nodded rapidly. “Understood, sir. Very much understood.”

  Sam, finally recovering, just shook her head with an exasperated but amused smile. “Alright, let’s move on before this gets written into an official report.”

  Vala perked up. “Oh, but imagine the mission log! ‘Lieutenant Doolittle, in a moment of professional enthusiasm, tackled Colonel Carter in front of approximately thirty witnesses…”

  “Vala,” Sam warned, but she was grinning now too.

  James, now officially mortified, sighed. “I’ll… just be over there.” And with that, he retreated at a speed usually reserved for emergency evac drills.

  That was the strange thing Allienna found with humans, their need to openly display such levels of affection. To her, that was always something private. “Are we done?”

  Three words, that’s all it took for reality to bring the Tau’ri visitors back to the here and now. “Yeah, we’re done.” Cameron told her, shaking his head.

  To reach the tunnel entrance, there were twelve vehicles, not unlike the armoured personnel carriers James had seen for years, living around and near military bases most of his life. In the vast sprawling complex that was simply known as the ‘Underground’, they utilised the many old railway subways. And that was something else that intrigued James, and Cameron as well. For while the Vegemahan had invented their own internal combustion engine over a hundred years ago, they never used any form of fossil fuel. From the start they had a ready source of hydrogen, tapped from the microbes in the rocks that over millions of years had formed massive pockets of the gas. There were accidents in the beginning, but over time they had perfected the usage of it so well, from what he had been told, it made Earth’s use of fossil fuels seem so primitive.

  The Marines were going to be transported first, they would exit the subway at an old station just two kilometres south of the Alliance camp. The silver mine entrance was within the camp grounds. Once in position, the APCs would return and take the rescue group, SG-1 and Allienna’s squad. It would be a much smaller group of course. The plan was to take the rescued men and women to another underground base, much further to the west, where they could recuperate and recover. James had been democratically voted as Allie’s number two. He thought that was sweet.

  The Silver Mine Assault:

  The plan was set, and every moving part was now in motion.

  Allienna and her team, armed with nothing more than light weapons and a determination forged through hardship, navigated the final stretch of their tunnel. The air grew thicker as they closed in on the mine, the scent of damp earth mixing with sweat and the faint metallic tang of silver dust. They had spent weeks digging this passage, clawing through stone with tools far from ideal, but now they had their opening.

  "Charges are in place," one of her soldiers whispered, voice barely audible over the low hum of tension.

  Allienna nodded, her fingers tightening around her rifle. The explosives were set along the tunnel wall near the entrance to the mine, strategically placed to bring down enough rock and debris to create chaos but not collapse the entire structure. She gave the signal, and one of her fighters activated the detonator.

  A deep, thunderous boom ripped through the underground, shaking the earth beneath their feet. Dust and debris erupted through the narrow passage as the entrance to the mine collapsed in a cloud of choking dirt and falling stone.

  Inside the camp, panic ensued.

  The garrison of two hundred Alliance troops was thrown into confusion. Shouts filled the air as commanders barked orders, scrambling to assess the damage. Some ran toward the collapsed mine entrance, others rushed for weapons, unsure if this was sabotage or an accident.

  That was when the first mortar round hit.

  The Marines, positioned to the south, opened with a barrage that sent plumes of fire and dirt skyward. The dull thump-thump-thump of heavy machine gun fire followed, cutting through the scrambling Alliance soldiers. It was chaos…just as planned.

  SG-1, led by Colonel Cameron Mitchell, moved into position. Sam Carter and Teal’c flanked the right side of the camp, while Daniel Jackson and Vala Mal Doran took the left. Their objective was to create a diversion, drawing Alliance troops away from the mine entrance to give Allienna's team the cover they needed.

  "Let's light it up," Cam muttered, signalling to his team.

  Sam aimed her P90 at an approaching group of Alliance soldiers, unleashing a burst of fire. Teal'c followed with his staff weapon, discharging lethal energy blasts that sent the enemy scattering. On the opposite side, Daniel and Vala exchanged quick, precise shots, taking down several guards before they could react.

  The enemy had no time to regroup. As they scrambled for cover, the second phase of the assault began.

  "Go!" Allienna hissed.

  She led the charge through the now-exposed tunnel, emerging into the far end of the mine where the prisoners—men and women barely more than skin and bone—stood in stunned silence.

  "We're getting you out!" she shouted.

  Some moved sluggishly, eyes wide with disbelief. Others reacted instantly, grasping the hands of their comrades and pulling them toward the escape route.

  Then came the first real test of their mission.

  An Alliance patrol, cut off from the main force and likely unaware of the full battle unfolding outside, stumbled upon them. The young rebels barely had time to raise their weapons before the Alliance troops opened fire.

  Allienna dove for cover behind a stack of ore crates, returning fire as one of her men fell beside her, a clean shot through the chest.

  "Move! Get them out!"

  James Doolittle, acting as her second, surged forward, taking down an Alliance soldier with a well-placed burst from his rifle. Two more of the young Vegemahan fighters flanked the patrol, cutting them down before they could call for reinforcements.

  "Keep moving!" James urged.

  The evacuees pushed forward, some leaning on others for support, some barely able to stand.

  But not all of them made it. The weakest among them—the ones too malnourished to run, too exhausted to even stand—collapsed along the way. Some were carried, but eleven were lost. Allienna clenched her jaw, rage bubbling beneath her grief.

  SG-1 maintained their defensive positions, covering the escape. Sam relayed tactical updates to the team, while Teal’c and Cameron provided suppressing fire. Daniel and Vala guided stragglers towards the extraction point, ensuring no one was left behind.

  The Marines kept up the assault, holding the Alliance troops at bay long enough for the rescue team to slip away into the hills. Once the signal was given, the Marine commanders ordered a withdrawal, leaving the burning camp and its disoriented defenders in their wake.

  The mission was a success.

  But it didn’t feel like a victory.

  As the refugees were loaded into the waiting vehicles, James looked over at Allienna. Her face was set, unreadable.

  "We did all we could," he said.

  She exhaled sharply. "It wasn't enough."

  James didn't have an answer for that.

  As they drove into the night, the weight of their losses hung over them like the cold wind howling through the mountains.