Disclaimer: The characters mentioned in this story are the property of Showtime and Gekko Film Corp. The Stargate, SG-I, the Goa'uld and all other characters who have appeared in the series STARGATE SG-1 together with the names, titles and backstory are the sole copyright property of MGM-UA Worldwide Television, Gekko Film Corp, Glassner/Wright Double Secret Productions and Stargate SG-I Prod. Ltd. Partnership. This little tale is not intended as an infringement upon those rights and solely meant for entertainment. All other characters, the story idea and the story itself are the sole property of the author.

Ta-Tooey was on the loose.

The human called Daniel had gone away on one of his regular absences. Ta-Tooey longed to know where he went. She liked Daniel. Daniel had rescued her from a lab. somewhere, and though she was still stuck in a cage for much of the time, Daniel looked after her well and was kind to her. Sometimes he played with her and stroked her, so she never bit him.

While Daniel was away, the human called Walter came to feed her and keep her cage clean and tidy. Today, Walter hadn't fastened the door properly. It didn't take a super-powered brain like Ta-Tooey's to figure out how to open it. Now she was free. All she had to do was follow Daniel's scent. And avoid Schrödinger...

She felt quite at home in the maze of corridors. It was much bigger in scale that she was used to, of course, but a maze is still a maze. She panicked for a moment when she found herself in a small room with several pairs of feet and only one exit. Before she could escape, the door slid shut and the room began to vibrate. After a while, the room gave a jolt and stopped shaking. The door slid open and Ta-Tooey shot out like a rat out of hell.

She pressed herself into a corner to recover her composure, thankful that her fur was a black and brown pattern and not the standard white. Sniffing around, she picked up Daniel's trail once more and followed it further through the maze. Finally, she went through a huge opening into a gigantic room.

The roof looked higher than the sky itself. Near the back of the big room was huge grey ring. Avoiding a number of booted feet, she followed Daniel's trail up a ramp that led through the ring, but there, the trail went cold. Daniel's scent was clearly there on one side of the ring. On the other side of the ring, there was nothing. Bizarre.

While she was puzzling over the strange phenomenon, a large contraption on wheels rolled slowly into the room and stopped at the bottom of the ramp. Well, she'd had things like that to play with at the lab. She assumed it must be a human toy, built to the same scale as the rest of the humans' home.

Suddenly the inner part of the ring began to spin inside the outer part. It stopped just as abruptly. One of the grey wedges, equally spaced around the rim, clanged into place and a red light within it came on.

"Chevron one encoded," came a voice over the tannoy.

It sounded like the voice of Walter, but it was so loud. More humans came into the room. Ta-Tooey felt a little exposed on the ramp, so she scuttled down towards the big toy and found a small nook in which to hide. Meanwhile the ring continued its spinning, clanging and lighting up, each accompanied by a tannoy announcement.

The next thing to happen took her so much by surprise that she almost fell off the big toy. An immense tidal wave of water shot out of the ring towards her. She hid her eyes expecting to be swept away immediately.

But nothing happened. She opened her eyes. Amazingly, all the water had gone except for a flat surface of water inside the ring system. More amazingly, that watery surface was vertical.

While she was marvelling at this impossibility, the big toy began to move slowly up the ramp. Ta-Tooey was in two minds about whether to jump off, or to stay put. The toy might just take her to Daniel.

That possibility swung the balance. She stayed put. It was a bit unnerving as the toy drove into the water. She took a deep breath as the surface approached. After all, it couldn't be that deep...

The sensations she felt as she entered the 'water' were the weirdest she'd even felt. Happily they were short-lived. Suddenly, the toy was coming out on the other side of the ring. But hey! That was funny! Where had the room gone?

She supposed the ring must be like a giant mouse-hole to the outdoors. It looked pretty much like the scenery she'd seen when Daniel brought her here, before he took her into the mountain. Her transport stopped moving forward and the sticking-out bits started moving around.

Ta-Tooey slithered on to the dusty ground. Aha! Daniel's scent. She was still on the right track. She looked back. The water had disappeared from the ring. She could see pine trees through it now, but no sign of the building - or the mountain. Most curious...

She travelled for many hours, nose to the scent. On a number of occasions, she took cover when humans or animals appeared along the path. Not all humans were kind like Daniel.

Once, she had to take refuge in a hole in the bank that ran alongside the road when she was chased by large dog-like animal, barking furiously. She turned round to face it as it stuck its muzzle down after her, teeth bared, mouth salivating. In a flash, she leapt forward and sank her sharp teeth deeply into its nose, drawing blood. A loud yelp and it was gone, whimpering back to its master.

Ta-Tooey went on her way, consoling herself for her sore feet that each step was nearer to Daniel. Eventually, she came to a gathering of houses. They were rather shoddily made of wood and lath and plaster, with ragged gaps at the bottoms of the doors. That was good. She'd be able to get inside easily when she came to the house where Daniel was.

As it turned out, that was no problem. The door was wide open. Ta-Tooey stopped on the threshold in shock. Daniel was there, yes, but... There was a sudden sense of déjà-vu. There were bars between them again. This time, it was Daniel that was on the wrong side of them.

The building he was in was large and draughty with straw on the floor and grain sacks stacked along one side. There was a row of bars across the far end of the building. Daniel was behind them. He wasn't alone. There were three others with him.

One sitting next to him was shouting at him. He seemed to be blaming Daniel for being behind bars. Ta-Tooey had never seen him before. Daniel kept her cage out of sight, and hid her too sometimes if other humans came into his room. She recognized the voice though, and the scent. It wasn't the first time he'd shouted at Daniel.

On the other side of Angry-Human was a female human. Again, it was the scent that Ta-Tooey recognized, and the other scent that clung to her. She belonged to Schrödinger.

Ta-Tooey also recognized the man sitting on the other side of Daniel, the one with the shiny gold squidget on his forehead. Daniel had let him see her. That one knew how to respect other creatures that weren't human. He had a strange scent, like two in one. She suspected he wasn't human either.

Inside the building to the right of the door, a scruffy human was sitting on a wooden chair with his feet on a table in front of him. There was a heap of things on the table. The scents on them were familiar.

There was a big metal ring hanging from Scruffy Human's belt. It had keys dangling from it. He was enjoying the argument on the other side of the bars. He reminded Ta-Tooey of one of the humans who worked in the lab. She was very glad that Daniel had rescued her from him. Now, perhaps she could return the favour.

It was beginning to grow dark outside. She waited a little while, hoping that Scruffy-Human-With-Keys would fall asleep, and filled in the time by gnawing through the sacking and helping herself to a snack or three. Finally she deemed that the light in the building was dim enough and set off behind the piles of grain sacks towards Daniel's cage.

Daniel and his companions had fallen silent. Perhaps they were asleep too. Ta-Tooey slipped between the bars and scuttled over to Daniel. He was laid down now - in an awkward position, she thought. So was Schrödinger's-Human. The other two were leaning against the back wall.

Ta-Tooey squeaked gently at Daniel, her whiskers brushing his cheek. He awoke with a start and recoiled slightly in surprise. She half expected him to stroke her, then realized that his hands seemed fastened behind him. He looked more closely at her, trying to focus in the gloom.

"Ta-Tooey?" he whispered, "it can't be... Well, how did you get here, little one?"

Like he expected her to answer? Satisfied that he knew she was there, she clambered over him and along his arm. Yes, he had leather thongs wrapped around his wrists and cutting into his flesh. She tried to ignore the tempting smell of his blood and set to, gnawing through the thongs.

It wasn't long before he was free and massaging the circulation back into his arms and hands. He shuffled over to Possibly-Not-Human, and whispered to him. Ta-Tooey saw him beckon and assisted in releasing his friend's bonds too.

"Thank you, Ta-Tooey," said Possibly-Not-Human when he was free, inclining his head in respect.

Ta-Tooey thought they could probably manage to release Angry-Human and Shrödinger's-Human by themselves, so she set off across the floor to the Scruffy-Human-With-Keys. He was snoring gently.

She built up a heap of straw below the keys, then climbed up the edge of Scruffy-Human-With-Keys's jacket which was trailing almost to the floor. Quietly and carefully, she nibbled through the single thong that fastened the key-ring to his belt. With scarcely a sound, it fell on to the heap of straw.

Ta-Tooey scrambled down, grasped the ring in her mouth and scurried back to Daniel with it. He and Possibly-Not-Human had succeeded in untying their companions who seemed very bemused.

Daniel reached out for the keys and tried one in the lock. It was the wrong one. Angry-Human tutted and looked as if he were about to take over, but the second key turned smoothly in the lock and the door swung open. They crept as silently out of their cage as the straw on the floor would allow. Daniel picked up Ta-Tooey, dropped a kiss on her furry head and slipped her inside his shirt, then followed the others.

They were retrieving their belongings from the table when outside, a vixen barked. Scruffy-Human-Now-Without-Keys awoke with a start and opened his mouth to raise the alarm, but Angry-Human did something.

Bright blue light like lightning crackled across the human's body and he slumped to the floor as if dead. Then Angry-Human led the group outside. Silently, like shadows, they stole around the back of the building and into the trees. Ta-Tooey, tired from all her exertions, curled up against Daniel's chest and went to sleep.

She awoke to hear a noise that was familiar, yet unfamiliar. She squirmed around, making Daniel giggle softly, and peered out of his shirt. It was the big ring spinning round again, then came the whoosh of water. This time Ta-Tooey watched as it settled back into its impossible position, then Daniel and his companions stepped through and back into the gigantic grey room once more.