Chapter 10-Satedan War Games and MALP Energy Readings

Maddie stepped out of the transporter and headed to the gym where the sounds of poor defenseless Marines getting pummeled bounced off the walls and into the hallway. She stopped at the door and watched as the man who had trained every single Earthling in Satedan war games circled the last Marine standing. The Marine of unknown rank lunged at the larger man before being slammed to the ground in two quick moves. Maddie cautiously entered the training area where the men were picking themselves off the ground; both men and women trained with Teyla, but only the men and the women who were foolhardy enough went up against the specialist and former runner.

"You left yourself open on the left," she said to him as he took and sip of water.

"Really? You got that from watching me take down one man?"

"No; I got that from watching you take down a dozen men six years ago when I first came to Atlantis," she told him as she approached, keeping her voice low so that only he could hear.

"Huh. I guess that means that I'm going to have to work on that then."

"Care to spar?" she asked him, pointing to the stave leaning next to the bench.

"You against me?"

"Me with my staff against you with the stave," she replied, taking out the staff that she normally kept concealed in her right boot. "You missed a few weapons before you locked me in the cage," she told him as she extended the metal rod from its measly four inches to its maximum six feet.

The two circled each other, ignoring the audience that surrounded them. Maddie, always a bold woman, made the first move with a feint to the left and a quick thrust to Ronon's right. He barely managed to block it before she swept her weapon of choice beneath his feet, causing him to trip before he caught himself and swept a leg under her feet. She, too, barely missed a meeting with the floor before lightly jumping back six inches and twirling the extended piece of metal in front of her. Ronon's stave caught her staff and sent it flying a few metres away. In order to avoid another collision with the offending piece of wood, she back-flipped until she was a few inches away from her staff, picking it up, she managed to block the stave and stop it from colliding with her. The battle went on between the two seemingly equally-matched opponents before the victor was decided.

Unfortunately for Maddie, it wasn't her. Her strength and endurance began to wane and she soon found herself flat on her back on the mat, her beloved staff several feet away near the door. Ronon was stopped from delivering what could be considered a killing blow by someone holding the staff in a way that blocked Maddie from being bruised any more. Both contenders looked up to see Sheppard holding the staff that protected the young scientist while Teyla watched with curiosity at the scene in front of her.

"I take it Ronon won?" she asked the scientist as she helped her stand.

"Yeah, it usually happens. I've never been able to beat any of you Pegasus natives in training. You've had too much practice. Although, Colonel, you're getting better. You've managed to beat Teyla and me in sparring a few times over the years."

"Well, that's good to hear, I guess. Now, come on you crazy kids, Elizabeth just had a MALP sent to that address you gave us. We're going to see what awaits us in a few minutes."

Ronon nodded to her in acknowledgement for her fighting skills and followed his teammates out of the gym, grabbing his gear on the way out. Happy that she'd managed to give the Satedan a run for his money, Maddie followed the trio out to the nearest transporter. Ronon and Sheppard figured that she didn't need to know about the little conversation that they'd had before Sheppard had come to Zelenka's lab. They had known about the knives and staff hidden in her boots, but it had been the zat she'd had strapped to her hip when she had gotten there that had worried them. Oh yeah; she'd completely forgotten about it until Sheppard had handed it to her. The little group was soon in the control room, watching the live video feed from the MALP.

"There's the temple," Maddie pointed to a grouping of rocks that seemed to be surrounding something.

"You're sure?" Sheppard asked her, skeptical.

"Yes. On the original scan in my time, we received energy readings that at the time we thought indicated a ZedPM since we're always in need of one."

"Well, we are definitely getting energy readings similar to those that usually indicate a ZPM," Zelenka, who had stayed with Weir in the control area, said as he looked at the aforementioned energy readings.

"I guess that means you have a go," Weir told the four.

"All right, folks, let's gear up. We'll meet back in thirty minutes. Sound good?" Ronon and Maddie, who were both still a bit warm from their sparring session, nodded. Maddie needed to also get the equipment that Zelenka had promised her and she figured that washing her hair wasn't a big priority at the moment, just a quick shower should be enough.

Ronon, on the other hand, wanted to get a few more knives in case the fighting skills he'd just seen displayed weren't enough. This woman was a McKay after all.

So, was that up to whatever par this story is on? Please review!