Chapter 2

John Sheppard was bored. He knew he shouldn't be, but he was: a free day on your own wasn't all it was cracked up to be. Ronon and Teyla were off-world, Weir was busy and Rodney and Zelenka were in their lab.

So for the past hour or so he had been idly strolling through Atlantis. He had tried his luck in the infirmary, but Carson Beckett had promptly sent him on his way. He had tried sparring with Lorne, but it was not as much fun as sparring with Ronon. He had even attempted staying in his room and catching up on some reading, but he wasn't in the mood. The simple truth was just that he craved a new adventure.

His ambling finally brought him to the lab where Rodney was working. It was Rodney's day off as well, but the scientist had insisted on putting in some lab-work while he had the time. Personally John wondered if the man didn't just get a kick out of terrorising the other scientists. Either way, by the time John entered the lab the rest of the scientists were either looking terribly harassed or had fled. Only two of the younger scientists were still left, working as far away from Rodney as they could. Only Zelenka seemed to ignore McKay.

In fact, the Czech was muttering while working at one of the panels; his fingers flying over the key-pad of his laptop.

"No," he said, once more tapping at something and squinting at the screen suspended from the roof. "This cannot be."

Rodney irritably stood back in that stance John knew too well: the one where the other man was ready to tell you just how incredibly unintelligent you were. "What is it now?" he demanded.

Zelenka gestured at the screen. "This is just not supposed to be," he told Rodney, just as irritably.

Rodney walked over to where Radek was working. He tapped at something. Then he scowled. "You broke it," he simply informed the other man.

Radek Zelenka bristled. "I did no such thing!"

"Well," Rodney said as he stood back, "the data you're receiving is wrong. Either you broke it, or it is picking up some lesser life-form."

By this time John was as confused as one could only be in the presence of the two scientists. But at the mention of possible life-form readings, he suddenly perked up.

"Life-form?" he asked. The two scientists spun around; obviously they had been so engrossed in their work they had not been aware John had been standing there.

"No, not a life-form," Rodney told him, "just a glitch in the system." He looked at Radek. "A system that had been working fine until you started to mess with it."

"It is stil working fine," the other scientist said, undaunted. He shrugged. "I might just have over-calibrated it too much."

"In other words," Rodney said, "you broke it."

"I did not break it!" Zelenka insisted.

But before the two scientists could get into a bigger argument, John decided to intervene. He held up both hands, trying to placate McKay and Zelenka.

"Why don't you just tell me what's going on, okay?"

Before McKay could say anything, Zelenka started on the explanation: something for which John was thankful. The last thing he needed was a lecture from McKay on how he would not understand the finer workings of the city.

"I had been working on recalibrating the internal sensors," Radek explained. "I have been looking into differentiating between human life-signs and that of Wraith." He tapped at a few controls and a grid-map of the city appeared on the Atlantean-screen.

"But now something went wrong?" John prompted.

"No, not wrong," Radek explained. "It's just that we're getting a life-sign reading from a part of the city where nobody is supposed to be." A few taps on the key-board later the section mentioned appeared on the screen. And there, in one room, was the life-sign reading the two men had been arguing about.

John frowned. "Are you sure that's not one of our people?" Both scientists gave him a look informing him he must be an idiot. "Okay, so it's not one of us. Could it be a Wraith?"

"No," Zelenka promptly said. "The thing is: the one moment that area was clear of any life-signs, and the next that dot appeared. It is not like we did a scan and found the dot. The dot appeared as I watched the screen."

"Which means you probably broke it," Rodney piped up, unwilling to be ignored a moment longer.

"Well, have any of you two geniuses thought of going there to see what it is you're looking at?" John asked. The two scientists opened their mouths, but no sound came out. "Ah, thought as much," he grinned. "So, are you coming?"

Less than twenty minutes later they were outside the door leading to the life-sign reading. On their way they had picked up a couple of P-90's (Radek was not given one: Zelenka with a weapon was more dangerous than a hungry Wraith), as well as a couple of marines.

The five of them spread out and John Sheppard was given the privilege of opening the doors. For a moment they all stood aside, ready for any weapons-fire from inside. When nothing happened the marines ventured inside; ready to defend themselves.

But as it turned out, there was nothing inside to be afraid of. There was something, though, that made all five of the men just the tiniest bit uncomfortable.

Calmly seated on a table was a woman. She had long white hair that nearly fell to her waist, a serene face and a figure most women would envy. And all of this was plainly visible, as she was completely naked.

Zelenka blushed, John and the other two marines looked away. It was strangely only Rodney McKay who acted in any helpful way: he quickly took off his jacket and handed it to the woman. She took it and draped it over her upper-body. John grinned as now suddenly it was Rodney's turn to blush and look away.

With the woman covered – mostly – John relaxed a little. He took a careful step closer. "Who are you?"

The woman tilted her head slightly to one side – almost as if she was hearing something they could not. Then she said:

"Sitnalta-mae-eye."

"Sitnalta-what?" Rodney asked. He was still looking away.

"Sitnalta-mae-eye," the woman repeated. She frowned. Obviously there was something wrong here.

John now took a moment to look around the room. It resembled many other rooms in as much as he could see that the Ancients must have done some strange experiments here, but he could not even hazard a guess as to what.

"Rodney, what do you suppose this room is?" he asked.

Both scientists seemed relieved as they suddenly had something else to concentrate on besides the naked woman. They both pulled out their tablets and strolled around the room.

"Well, I'm not sure what this is," Zelenka finally said. Sheppard scowled. Sometimes – despite their IQ – the scientists could be extremely dense.

"What I need to know from the two of you," he patiently tried to explain, "is she a threat? Could she be a Replicator?"

"No," Rodney answered.

"But I thought you didn't know what this place does?"

"Well, of course we don't know what this place does," Rodney snapped. "You can't just expect us to know things the moment you want to. But even so," he said as he looked down on his tablet and waved a negligent hand, "this has nothing to do with nano-technology. This is some kind of biological lab." He suddenly looked up. "You see that pod? It resembles a stasis-pod."

"So she just woke up from a deep sleep? Would that explain why she just suddenly showed up on the sensors?" John asked.

"Yes, it would," Rodney impatiently tried to explain. "But I said it resembled a stasis-pod, not that it is a stasis-pod."

"Okay, Rodney," John began. But then the woman suddenly piped up.

"Eendor!" They looked at her. "You know, it almost feels as if I should understand her," Rodney grumbled.

"So she's not speaking Ancient?" Sheppard asked.

"No. And besides, the Ancients had translator-technology." Rodney frowned. He looked at the beautiful woman. "Do you understand me?" he asked her. She nodded. "So you understand English?"

"Shilgnee mae eye," she told them. She frowned again. "Sitnalta mae eye," she repeated. "Eendor rof daem saw eye." Obviously frustrated, she leapt off the table and marched over to Rodney McKay. She took his hand – fortunately hanging on to the jacket with her other hand – and pressed it against her chest. "Sitnalta!"

"Okay," Rodney carefully said. "Your name is Sitnalta?"

She dropped his hand and walked around the room, looking at everything and touching a few crystals. Then she turned to Rodney – who was once more occupied with his tablet. "Sitnalta." She repeated. "I am Sitnalta. You are Rodney," she carefully pronounced each word.

"Yes," Rodney said, not even looking up. John sighed. By the time he counted to four Rodney finally looked up in wonder. "You can speak!" he stated the obvious. "I mean, you can speak English!"

"Yes."

"Well, then I suppose we need to tell Weir about this," the scientist said.

John shook his head. Then he walked over to the young woman. "But first, let us find you some clothes," he told her as he held out his hand for her. "I am John."

"John," she said. She took his hand, but her eyes strayed towards McKay.