The verbatim quotes from SGA I got from the link of TwizTV.

Million thanx for for her wonderful betawork and for Kercsi for her good advice and kind help!

Prologue

The joyful, tempting sunbeams were glimmering on the bluish silver metal pillars of the walls of the gym hall. The sultry, lazy silence was broken only by the rustling of two slim figures moving softly in slow circles. Teyla was coaching Michael in Athosian hand to hand combat techniques. As she did each move, she told him what to do. "Defend. Defend. Parry, strike..."

So far he fended off each punch but now she whirled, her arms moving almost too fast to see, and, fending off his blows, dropped to one knee and punched him in one knee. As he cried out in pain, she rose up quickly and, standing on one leg while holding him by the arms, brought her other thigh up and rammed it into his stomach. While he was still off balance, she spun him around and slammed her leg into his chest, knocking him to the floor.

"It is all about catching your opponent off balance," she explained.

Michael got up onto his knees, and looked up at her. "You succeeded!" He got to his feet out of breath.

"Now you try."

Michael laughed ruefully. "I can't do that move."

"Oh, yes, you can."

"You keep saying I'm a good fighter." He panted.

"You are. Very good."

Michael shrugged. "Alright."

He started to attack her, doing the same moves that she had just taught him. Although she fended off each blow, he was obviously starting to get the hang of it. Teyla came at him. They parried for a few moments, then she did a move which she expected would get through his defense, but he blocked her. He laughed delightedly. Teyla came at him again. This time as she tried to bring her knee up, he grabbed it, stopping the blow. She spun and tried to slam her leg across his stomach again, but this time Michael was ready, grabbed it, and used her momentum to slam her down to the floor on her back. He followed her down, shoving his hand onto her neck to hold her down. They stared into each others' eyes. Teyla felt a strange, happy shiver running up on her spine.

Michael laughed gleefully. "Woo! Wow, are you alright? I can't believe I..."

A pair of hands grabbed him from behind. It was Ronon, who hauled him off Teyla, dragged him across the gym floor, and slammed him hard against the wall by the throat, roaring in rage. "Keep your hands off her!"

Teyla scrambled to her feet. She was incredibly displeased because of Ronon's appearance. She wished he had been anywhere else just not there. In spite of her disappointment, she told him calmly, "Ronon! We were sparring as part of his physical therapy. Let him go."

Ronon continued to hold Michael against the wall, half strangling him.

"NOW!" she shouted at him.

Ronon, his face contorted in a snarl, released Michael, and left the room.

Michael touched his aching throat. "I'm sorry," he muttered.

Teyla looked at him, and deep sadness appeared in her eyes.

They were standing around a table, some of the crew of the Daedalus, Doctor Weir, Teyla and a few of the scientists. They were discussing the new problems. The dubious alliance with the Wraith queen and Michael broke into pieces with the betrayal of the Wraiths. Now there was the situation that two Wraith hives were hyper-flying straight to the Earth. Doctor Weir asked Caldwell to hunt them down with the Daedalus, but he knew that the ship was not in the best condition.

„Look, Doctor Weir, I wanna go after these bastards as much as you do, but the Daedalus is in no position to fight right now. Our shields are severely depleted and several decks are inaccessible. Even if we could catch up with them, I don't know how long we'd last."

"That is why I'm committing the Orion as well," she replied firmly.

"It was recalled the moment the Wraith computer virus was revealed," Teyla added.

"And it's in no better shape than the Daedalus," Caldwell retorted.

"It will fly, and by the time you reach the hive ships, it should also be able to fight." That was Elizabeth Weir's only response.

Caldwell felt coldness crawling in his veins. "And if it isn't?"

Elizabeth stepped towards him, her face determined.

"Currently, Stargate Command has no vessels capable of engaging the hive ships before they reach Earth. They cannot be allowed to get that far, Steven." It hit him with painful heaviness that she used his first name instead of his official one. He swallowed.

"You know what you're asking me to do."

"I do." Her tone was resolute.

Caldwell looked away, because he felt unable to stand the sight of her emotionless, rigid face. "There're still repairs that need to be made," he said quietly.

Teyla turned her eyes to the floor, as she realized that it may well have been a suicide mission. Elizabeth kept her gaze on Caldwell. "Do what you have to do."

Caldwell nodded and walked away. Till this moment, he believed that Elizabeth Weir had a secret understanding for him, and in spite of their usual rivalry about giving orders, he hoped that she held the same regard and esteem for him that he felt for her.

"You are an idiot," he thought to himself bitterly. "You have never been good at finding out people's feelings, but how the hell could you expect that woman to be well disposed towards you with a hidden corner of her heart? She is sending you to die at the battlefield without even the tiniest sign of a wince on her face. Well, that's the worst ending of a human relationship." As he reached an empty passage, he cursed out loud, and hit the shiny metal with his fist so hard that he felt the skin split on his fingers.

3 months later.

John Sheppard had his golf-set bag on his shoulder, intending to go for a few hits at the great balcony in the upper part of the city-complex, but he stopped to have a quick look at what Rodney McKay was doing in the lab. So now he was standing in the doorway, casually leaning against one of the huge computers from Earth that buzzed on the wall with its plenty of shimmering buttons and lights.

"Ain't it our free afternoon?" Sheppard asked, smiling as McKay typed some memos at his palmtop.

"Ssshhh!" Rodney hissed angrily. "I'm concentrating." He waved indignantly in the direction of John to make him stay silent, and tried to catch the train of his previous thoughts again, but he had to see that he had completely fallen out of his calculations.

"Okay, you can disturb me now," he sighed, and turned his chair towards him. "What was your question?"

"I wanted to know if you felt like joining me for a game of golf."

"No. That was definitely not your question." Rodney shook his head. "You asked something else. I was listening more or less."

Sheppard smirked.

"Now you must tell me what your first question was!" McKay demanded.

"Oh, so you are curious, aren't you? Why didn't you listen fully?"

"You asked something tricky and wicked! I know." Rodney murmured.

John's smile deepened. "It was an innocent question."

"I don't believe you. What was it?"

Sheppard decided to go on with his game, and he was ready with a canny reply, but at the same time as he opened his mouth, Rodney's radio switched on.

"Rodney McKay to the Control Room," the order echoed in the lab.

"Okay, I need to go now," Rodney got up, "but you must not forget your question. We will speak about it later."

"I'm coming with you," John joined him. "I'm interested to know what this urgent call from the Control Room was."

They hurried to the elevator at the end of the outer-corridor, and Rodney pointed at the nearest spot to the Control Room on the shining map of Atlantis. The appliance teleported them to the location he gave. As they reached the Control Room they could see Elizabeth Weir standing at a panel, staring anxiously in front of her. The way she frowned and crossed her arms tightly made them certain that their afternoon just got spoiled.

"So, what's up?" Sheppard went to her.

"John, what are you doing here?" she asked surprised. "It's your free afternoon."

"We were planning to go for a game of golf with Rodney when he got your order to come here, so I joined him..."

"No, we weren't!" Rodney snapped. "I don't play golf. He was just disturbing my work."

"Okay, okay," Doctor Weir sighed. "Let's talk about why I needed you to come here. We got a message from Colonel Caldwell. The Daedalus encountered a huge spaceship floating in the space not too far from Atlantis..."

"Wait. That's impossible. Our detectors would have signaled us," McKay interjected.

"No, they don't show any sign of that ship. I'd like you to join Zelenka and try to find out why. We are waiting for a more detailed report from the Daedalus about that ship. Hermiod made a guess it was a kind of Wraith construction, but it's extraordinarily complex."

"This always has to happen when we get a free afternoon," Sheppard noted with a moan.

"What do you mean?" Doctor Weir asked raising her eyebrows.

"Something strange and definitely not nice occurs every time I get a day off."