A misunderstanding

The settlement had terracotta walls, the stone seeming to emanate heat, having stored warmth from the daylight. It was comforting, at least, allowing Samantha to feel herself drying off after her swim. She tried to focus on that.

There was a constant buzz of atmosphere, a background noise in a language she didn't know, a constant procession of people in those veils and layers. Unsurprisingly, they turned to stare at the newcomer. She wasn't sure what drew the most attention: her unusually pale skin by the standards of this place, or her state of undress.

Or, she suspected, both. She wasn't sure what to do, growing more uncertain with each step. Covering with her arms didn't feel like nearly enough, and hadn't even outside the settlement, only now she was going through the streets and passing people. Countless more strangers, and the further she went in, the more people were behind her.

Nervously, she looked over her shoulder, biting her lip. People were staring from that direction too, and there was no way to hide her ass without also revealing someone else.

"Can we go a bit faster?" Carter said. Unsurprisingly, they didn't understand her. Nasir and Leta kept on leading her on, Nasir looking back when she spoke to say something unclear and run his eyes up and down her body.

Carter blushed, but made herself keep going. The Stargate, she told herself, they were taking her there. She just had to bear this for a little longer.

Well, bearing it was the problem. Neither was baring it, for that matter, she'd been on enough missions and been in enough awful situations she knew she could stand just about anything. That just didn't mean it was different. It just required a different kind of resilience to normal.

And besides, she knew there was ****. If she just cowered by the water, she'd be stuck here forever, and there was no guarantee a ship from Earth would ever find her. She just had to embrace the embarrassment, power through it, even when it went against every fibre of her being.

As they moved onto what Carter assumed was a main street, she had to huddle closer to Leta and Nasir, the crowd swelling around them.

Was it better to be naked at home, or naked on an alien world? Neither seemed particularly comforting. No one here would ever see her again, for what comfort that offered, which was a far cry from all her colleagues seeing every inch of her. Then again, at least at home she'd have people hurrying to clothe her. That didn't seem to be happening here.

She tried not to think about that either. She'd deal with walking nude into the gate-room when she got to that point. First she had to reach the stargate.

Leta politely offered to take her hand, to help guide her. Carter refused, reluctantly moving closer, brushing shoulder against shoulder.

They reached a building. It didn't stand out like any of the temples where Carter had seen stargates before, she reflected, though maybe it was just a stopping point on the way. She swallowed. She really hoped it wasn't too much further.

Leta went inside first, and Nasir held the door open. Quickly, Carter went inside, glad to get out of the open. She kept her back to the wall, though she couldn't help but grimace when she saw half a dozen people inside.

It still didn't look like a temple, or a secret base for that matter. There were a few shelves on the wall, a block in the middle, and what looked more like jewelry than anything on each one. Carter frowned. Was this some kind of border checkpoint?

Leta grabbed Carter's hand, tugging it to draw her further in, and eliciting a yelp as her boobs were freed from her grip. Carter stumbled to catch up, reluctantly going along down the wall. Leta came to a stop about halfway down.

Carter snatched her arm back to hide again, reddening. At least it had to be nearly over, she told herself. Find the stargate, go home, forget all these people at seen her nude...

Leta looked at her excitedly. Nasir just stared at her butt. Carter frowned, not sure why they weren't moving, until she looked at the wall in front of her.

There were rings. Silver, gold, jeweled, plain... Just a variety of rings, fitting in naturally alongside the jewelry in the rest of the store. She frowned.

Then realized. Shit.

She'd had to draw a stargate, to get past a language barrier: she'd had to draw a ring. Apparently they'd misinterpreted that to think she wanted a ring.

That meant she didn't even know for sure that there was a stargate on this world.

There was a jingle from a bell as the door to the shop opened as someone else walked in, a cooler breeze wafting across to her. She reddened. And she'd just walked naked through the city for nothing.