Sheppard trudged through the mud on M3B-116, making his way back to the planet's Stargate, where the rest of his team was waiting. McKay and Ronon had come through the gate with him. Teyla was there, too - she must have had arrived within the last few minutes or so. After the disappearance of the Athosians, they had put together a shortlist of places to check out, and an unusual energy signature that the Daedalus had detected coming from M3B-116 had pushed it to near the top of the list.
"Well, not much that way," Sheppard said as he took one last look back. "Ronon, find anything to the east?"
"Nope."
"Can you really be sure?" asked McKay, who had stayed behind at the gate to run some measurements and await Teyla's arrival. "I mean, someone could have climbed up the cliff to the north, if they had the right equipment."
"Someone could have, yes," replied Sheppard. "But not the entire Athosian people."
"I take it there's not much chance my people are on this planet, then?" Teyla asked.
"I'm afraid not. Unless they were brought here by ship, but in that case, well, there's no reason to suspect this world over any other."
Teyla sighed. "Well, I appreciate your willingness to check. After having you spend two hours looking around this world, I just wish that you would have found something useful for your own work."
"Still more questions than answers, I'm afraid," said McKay. "We still don't know why this gate gave off such an unusual energy signature last week, especially one strong enough to be detected from outside the solar system. Just radio emissions - totally harmless - but we've never seen a gate do that before. We haven't been able to reproduce it, either."
"So whoever was here has left?"
"Must have. We certainly haven't seen anything that could be used as a shelter. I doubt they stayed long, anyway." McKay started to pack his bag. "There are a few tests we could run, but we'll need to bring some more specialized equipment."
Teyla looked up at the sunset. "Perhaps we should return another time."
"Fine with me." Sheppard approached the DHD and entered the address to Atlantis. The vortex formed inside the gate, and he pulled out his IDC. "Remind me to bring better shoes next time."
"Or maybe one of the Ancients' personal shields," joked Teyla. "I doubt anything else will keep this mud out of our boots."
With no warning, two swift, skinny green figures appeared behind them as if from nowhere. They raced past a startled McKay. Ronon didn't have a clear shot; Sheppard spun around, but the creatures were too fast even for him. Before he could even decide whether to reach for his gun, they had already made it to the gate.
Swearing to himself, Sheppard reached for his radio, ready in case Atlantis had any questions about the intruders he had just let in. "Those guys are quick," he said. "You ever seen them before, Teyla?"
"No, never," Teyla said with a hint of awe. "They didn't seem human. But they are certainly skilled at camouflage."
"I bet they're the ones who've been using the gate."
"What do we do?" asked McKay. "Do we chase after them?"
"Well, let's make sure Carter hasn't put the shield back up first," Sheppard said. "Not much we can do now, though. Hopefully the guys back at Atlantis caught them before they got very far."
The guys back at Atlantis caught them.
Sheppard, McKay, and Teyla stepped through the gate to find Lorne and his team with their weapons trained on the two intruders, who, from the looks of it, had quickly surrendered. The creatures were humanoid, green with light brown clothing. Their skin had a plantlike texture, and they had leaves on their heads, wrists, and ankles. The shorter one was apparently unarmed; even their taller companion had brought only a spear to defend themself.
"Anything you can tell us about these people?" Samantha Carter, the commander of the Atlantis expedition, made her way down the staircase.
"We did not see them until you had lowered the gate's shield," replied Teyla. "They must have hid under the mud somewhere and made a run for it."
"They didn't show up when we scanned for life signs, either," added McKay.
"Well," said Sheppard, looking at the plantlike aliens, "maybe they're not human."
"Perhaps one of us should talk to them." Teyla looked to Carter, who gave her a quick nod, and then approached the aliens; Lorne and the other soldiers lowered their weapons as she passed through. One of the aliens looked away, while the other, the shorter of the two, made eye contact with Teyla, as if to size her up with their dark pupil-less eyes.
"My name is Teyla," she said. "I am one of the residents of this base."
"You are... human," said the shorter alien, pronouncing their worlds slowly.
"Yes."
"Floran have walked through large circles too. Many of these humans, like in our world, but no Floran." They looked around. "Have you seen Floran?"
"I have not encountered your kind before," Teyla replied. "Nor have the others on this base, to the best of my knowledge. But there are many worlds, and many species, in this galaxy who we know little about."
McKay made his way to the aliens, who at this point were surrounded by a rather substantial crowd of onlookers, and held out a life-signs detector.
"It's our equipment," he said to Teyla. "The problem, I mean, it wasn't anything we did. Their life signs just don't register on here. Then again, if they really are related to plants, maybe that makes sense."
The taller of the two Floran looked over at him. "Your person finder only see flesh people," they said causally.
"Yes, I... suppose that's one way of putting it."
"It is like hunting device. Children use it to find meat." They shrugged. "Adults find meat on their own, unless they are bad at hunt like me."
Teyla asked. "The planet we were on - was that your home?"
"No." The tall Floran laughed. "That world has only rocks. Our home is forest. Many forest planets, but Floran is hiding from other Floran. No hiding in forest for us."
"We waited under the ground," added the other. "We got your address once, heard you are friendly and strong. We wait until friendly people came. People who would not take us back to other Floran."
"Wait, you knew our gate address?" asked McKay. "Why didn't you come through earlier?"
"You have magic in front of circle," the alien said, pointing back towards the gate. "And rifles. But rifles are not a problem when our plan is surrender."
"Spear is not for fighting you," the taller one assured him. They handed their weapon to McKay. "I give spear to flesh person. It is yours now."
"We'd be willing to set up temporary quarters for you in the city," Carter said, "if that's all right with you."
The shorter one smiled, with a grin that in any other context might have been menacing, but came across here as genuine. They followed Carter down the hall.
"So what do you like to eat?" she asked.
"Meat."
The other Floran stayed behind, looking at McKay's detector. McKay nervously looked into the alien's eyes. "You don't eat... humans, do you?" he asked.
"No," the Floran said. "Flesh people smart. Too hard to catch."
They turned and followed their companion down the corridor as McKay looked around for someone to take the spear off his hands.
The two Floran had wasted no time decorating their quarters, which mostly meant covering the floor in dirt and planting weeds in it. They certainly seemed content, though. The taller Floran lay lazily on a bed of crabgrass nestled against the wall.
"So how are you two settling in?" Teyla asked them as she pulled a chair over to the side of the bed.
"It is pleasant enough," the Floran replied. "It is not forest. But we cannot kill our own meats like other Floran, not just us two. You give us food, so we stay." Sitting on the side of the bed, they crossed their arms in their lap, nestling them underneath the leafy growths on their wrists. "You want to find your family?"
"My entire village, actually. They were... lost, a few weeks ago."
The Floran turned to face his companion.
"Human have different groups they are part of," the other said, stretching their legs. "'Family' is smallest and closest. Also 'village', and also whole people group."
The first Floran nodded, and turned back towards Teyla. "You are wanting to find yours. We are wanting to lose ours."
"Why is that?"
"Big war, that is one thing." They let out a small sigh. "Also the big circle. The... star-gate. We were star-gate people for Floran. But Floran do not want star-gate. They think it can hurt us. Danger. Like trying to kick a dog, and the dog bites you."
"They are wiser than us," added the other Floran.
"Maybe wiser. But we like walking through big circle, finding new things. Other Floran like to hunt or fight. We are bad at that."
"So if the Stargate is taken away... you don't know what you'll do." Teyla paused. "You said you've encountered humans before, right?"
The Floran on the bed nodded. "At first we think they are beasts to hunt. Maybe we eat them like how Wraith do. But humans start to give us things so they will not be eaten. Good to stop from war with humans - sometimes they have weapons better than us."
"You've met the Wraith?"
"Floran has seen Wraith. Not on our planet - they are scared of something. So not many times. Humans, we see many. On our planet, many groups of humans too." They paused, as if counting in their head. "Red clothes human, yellow clothes human. Also gray clothes who do not have leader. Maybe others. Teyla? Is star-gate secret for your people? Like big secret?"
"My people, the Athosians... we've always known about the Stargates," Teyla said. "But most of the humans living here now are from another planet, where the Stargate network, and even the existence of non-human people, is kept secret."
"Because of danger. Floran do the same thing." The alien looked down into his lap. "Our Greenfinger let us use it before. No other Floran let us use star-gate. But now Greenfinger is busy with war."
Teyla wondered what would happen if Earth shut down their own Stargate program. Would someone like Dr. McKay remain here, in the Pegasus galaxy, with no way to go back? Or would he give up his work and go back home? At least he had somewhere else he could go, somewhere with a human population. The Atlantis expedition had encountered plenty of humans in the past four years, but they had never found another world with Floran. The species was almost certainly unique to their home planet.
"So Greenfinger won't let you use the Stargate any longer," said Teyla. "Because they need the resources elsewhere."
The Floran shook their head. "It is not gold they need. Our star-gate does not have button thing to turn it on. Only a Greenfinger can make it be on. And... only one Greenfinger around right now."
"That must be it!" McKay exclaimed. "If they dialed out using..."
"Plants," said Teyla. The department leaders had gathered around the conference room table to discuss what she had learned from the two Floran expatriates. They had been surprisingly forthcoming, even if some of their stories had seemed hard to believe.
"Yeah, definitely not something we understand, maybe a crude method, but it could definitely cause the wormhole to be just a little bit off. Like how the one on Earth was before they were able to adjust for stellar drift in the targeting computer."
"So this 'greenfinger' is some sort of leader for their people?" asked Ronan.
"I believe so," Teyla said. "At first I thought it was a name, but now I think it may be a title, a position. They mentioned someone called 'Sedge' too, and that's definitely a name."
"So they do have 'em."
"At least some of them do," said McKay. "We know the Wraith have names they use among themselves. Why not Floran?"
"It'd be nice if we had something to call them, though," said Sheppard.
McKay briefly looked over at him. "Hey, you got to name the last aliens. It's my turn."
"The Floran do not appear to have any gender," Teyla said. "You might want to pick a gender-neutral name. I can ask if they're all right with it."
"And don't say 'Sam'," Sheppard added.
"I'm not going to... I mean, that would just be confusing. Anyway. Any idea what this war is about?"
"They didn't go into much detail," replied Teyla. "They didn't seem that concerned about it, if I'm being honest. But it sounds like Greenfinger is preoccupied with the war effort, and they can't operate their planet's gate without them."
"And these two, they were like the Floran version of SG-1."
"Or at least part of it, yes. I wouldn't underestimate them, Rodney. They may not have a large active vocabulary, but they understood everything I told them."
"Oh, I'm not underestimating them. I'm just a little worried about sharing the city with yet another intelligent species who might try to eat me."
"They might not give the same intrinsic respect to us that they do to their own kind," said Teyla. "But they recognize us as people, and they acknowledge our value. That tall one seems to like you in particular."
"Well." McKay seemed to almost smile to himself. "I suppose he recognizes a fellow brilliant scientist when he sees one."
TWO WEEKS LATER
"So why are we going there?" asked Ronon as he stood in front of the Atlantis gate with Sheppard and McKay. "Isn't this the place the Floran were running away from?"
"Well, yeah, but that's just because they were worried about losing access to the Pegasus gate network," McKay said confidently. "For us, it's just like visiting any other planet."
"Except for the war," added Sheppard.
"Yes. Like any... Wraith-infested planet." McKay's voice was a little less confident. "I mean, we've done that before, right? Anyway, if Jamie is right about the nature of the conflict-"
"Jamie?"
"The tall one. You told me I could give them names. And yes, I ran the names past them, and they're fine with them."
"Sounds to me like you made a friend."
"Hey, it was bound to happen eventually. Anyway, what I was saying is that the skirmishes between the human and Floran factions are really quite isolated, and neither Cherrystone nor Heavensong - the two main human monarchies - will have troops anywhere near the gate's location in the Gloomwoods. So the only thing we might have to worry about is the undead from Felheim."
"I'm sorry," said Sheppard. "Did you say undead?"
"Skeletons and stuff. It could be some sort of Ancient or Ori technology for all we know. The specifics aren't important. If there's fighting going on, we just head right back. If not, we try to find someone who can get a message to Greenfinger on our behalf."
"Remember: we can't interfere in their current conflict," Sheppard said to Ronon. "We just want to see if the Floran would make good allies against the Wraith."
Ronon nodded.
"Gloomwoods," Sheppard said to himself. "Sounds nice."
The team stepped through the gate and found themselves on the planet M3B-129. The morning sun shone down through the bare branches of the trees above them and reflected off the thin layer of snow below.
McKay took a look around. The gate was out in the open, mounted on a pedestal like so many gates back in the Milky Way, but a canopy had been constructed over it - or perhaps grown over it; it seemed to be made of vines and bark. A number of very large rocks were scattered in front of them, seemingly deliberately, although he wasn't sure what for.
He heard the whoosh of an arrow.
"Cover," said Sheppard under his breath, motioning for McKay and Ronon to get behind the boulders.
As McKay crouched down, he pulled out his binoculars and spotted a creature in the distance. "My god, Jamie was right," he said. "They're reanimated human skeletons. With arrows."
"Guess we stumbled on a fight after all," said Ronon. "Should we go back?"
Sheppard paused to think. "Let's see if they notice us first," he said.
"That's a good idea," said McKay. "If they are machine-controlled, and they're fighting the Floran, maybe they're not programmed to respond to our presence."
As he started to stand up, two more of the skeletons emerged from hiding behind a large boulder about fifteen yards away, armed with javelins.
He quickly ducked back down as a javelin flew over his head. "They responded!"
The team's cover protected them from the skeletons' weapons. The boulder across from them, however, wasn't quite big enough for two enemy soldiers. Sheppard had a clear shot; he grabbed his sidearm and fired.
"No good," he said.
"Seriously?" asked an incredulous McKay.
"Turns out it's hard to kill someone when they're already dead."
"I got it." Ronon pulled out his Traveler energy weapon and took one shot at the javelineer; its lifeless bones crumbled onto the ground.
"Nice shot!"
A young Floran with colorful purplish-blue hair - or were those leaves? - ran up to him, seemingly unfazed by the firefight around them. They carried a giant spear, longer than they were tall, with a hook on the back end. "Name's Nuru," they said. "Need any help?"
"Let me try something first." Sheppard grabbed his other weapon, a zat'ki'nel, and took a shot at yet another skeleton who was approaching from the rear with a sword. That one fell apart, too.
"Whoa," Nuru said. "That's neat."
"Thanks. Got it from a brain snake."
Nuru positioned themself behind one of the smaller rocks, one that was too small even for McKay. "Looks like you found this planet just fine, but this might be a good time for us all to get outta here."
"Now wait a minute," Sheppard said, putting his hand up to stop them. "I appreciate the help, but we can't just let anyone walk in the door behind us. How about you tell us what's going on here?"
"Yeah, for sure." Nuru winced as a large round stone fell a few yards away. "Ooh, looks like they got the trebuchets out."
"They have trebuchets?"
"Doesn't everybody? This part of the forest is right on the border - I used to have a little scouting group stationed around here, but we kinda had to pull out to clean up after Sedge and their revenge tour. You know how it is."
"So this is Felheim territory," said McKay.
"Yep." Nuru pointed towards the approaching skeleton army. "Felheim soldiers. Resurrected from the grave." They groaned. "Why does he have to make every fight so boring? I guess I can't blame the guy for sending his grunts after us, though. Betcha I could take them myself, if I had the time. But I don't wanna make him too mad. So we better get going."
"We?" asked Sheppard. "I thought I told you-"
"I'm coming back to Atlantis with you!" Nuru said. "It's gonna be so much fun. I'll tell you all kinds of stories."
"Hey. You can't just show up, help us once, and expect us to become best friends."
Nuru shrugged. "Worked for me before."
Ronon gave the barest sideways glance in their direction. "Me too," he said. "And I wasn't even trying."
"Well, how do you plan on getting back?" asked McKay as another arrow flew past him to the right. "They're gonna send a lot more than these if we come through here again."
Nuru waved him off. "Ah, don't worry about that," they said. "I'll figure something out."
"Wow!" A wide-eyed Nuru looked around the Atlantis gate room in awe. "This place is enormous! And you said this stuff was actually super old?"
"Most of it hasn't changed since we found the city submerged four or five years ago," Carter told them. "And we've only been able to scratch the surface of the Ancient database."
"You're kidding. You reverse-engineered all this?" Nuru grinned. "You're more like us then I thought."
"You should see our command center back home," said Carter. "The gates back in our galaxy can be spun manually, so we set up a computer and some heavy machinery to automate the process of searching for valid addresses."
"Haha! I love computer machines. You can make them do so much cool stuff.
Teyla walked up to the two of them. "You might be interested in this, then," she said. "We were able to modify our life signs detector to register Floran life signs."
Nuru leaned in and took a close, curious look at the handheld device.
"So your planet has computers?" asked Carter. "We typically only see those in more urban civilizations than the one you described."
"Oh, nah.' Nuru shook their head. "They don't have computers. Well, they do, but it's just like, someone's job, to do a bunch of math. I've seen a lot of fancy computers on spaceships, though."
"So you're not from that planet originally," surmised Teyla. "Are there Floran on other worlds?"
"For sure. Not anywhere 'round here, but of course that doesn't matter much if you're on a planet with a Stargate." Nuru put their hands on their hips and looked up at the Atlantis gate. "Too bad putting one in the Gloomwoods didn't work out. The other Floran all think it's too much trouble. I guess maybe they're right."
Teyla took a seat in the mess hall next to the two Floran, who - by all accounts - had embraced the names Dr. McKay had given them.
"Meat here is not bad," said Jamie, the taller of the two Floran.
"It is better than your meat," Mel told them with a smile. "You never hold meat over fire long enough."
"I am always too hungry." Jamie looked over at Teyla's tray. "Would be easier if Floran ate plants. Plants don't run away when you try stabbing them."
"That is a benefit," Teyla said. "I suppose you must have encountered many farming societies through your work with the Stargate."
Mel nodded. "Yes, lots of farm. Our commander always talk to them. They know how to speak like human, with more words but also sounding like human sounds."
"Good fighter too," Jamie added. "But young."
"Were they native to your planet?"
Jamie's eyes narrowed. "Reason for ask?"
"Another Floran tagged along with Commander Sheppard's team when they returned from an expedition to your planet. One who knew their way around a blaster."
"Nuru is here?" Mel paused. "Does this mean war is over? Floran can use big circle again?"
"Or did Nuru lose war?" asked Jamie.
"I don't know," said Teyla, shaking her head. "I'm not sure what Nuru's been up to. They seem to be in good spirits, though."
Jamie looked over at Kelly. "Nuru does not say to people that they are from other world, most of time."
"I know. Maybe because our big circle is secret for Floran in Gloomwoods. But it is not secret for Atlantis city."
"Maybe Nuru comes to give us a job?" Jamie sighed. "I miss other worlds."
The door to the Florans' quarters opened, and in the entryway stood a young Floran with a smile on their face.
"It is you two!" Nuru ran up to them and hugged them in turn. "I was afraid I'd never see you again!"
"We ran away through circle," said Mel. "We never went back to Gloomwoods since exploration job with circle stopped because of war."
"You liked the Stargate that much? Or did you just not wanna die? 'Cause I get that."
"It was Stargate thing," said Jamie. "For most part."
Nuru sighed. "I have good news and bad news," they said. "Zawan's not going to let me start the Stargate program back up. For one thing, the gate's in Felheim territory now."
"Can you ask spaceship friend to move it?"
"Valder would notice if I did that," said Nuru. "I know I rag on the guy, but something tells me he's not gonna try and use it. I'd rather he have it than start another fight. Besides, I don't think the tribe wants to take a lot of risks right now. Especially after what happened with Sedge."
Mel sat up. "What did happen to them?"
"Short version? After Zawan finally gave up on them, they decided to go on a revenge tour against General Ryota. You can imagine how that went."
Jamie shook their head. "Not surprised. Too bad for very talented Floran, but if they cannot be in tribe..."
"Nobody else fought this war alone," Nuru said. "Mercia has her dog. Tenri has her son. Valder has... Ragna, I guess? That's something at least. Speaking of allies." They pulled out a couple of small rectangular devices and handed them to the other Floran. "I reached out to some old friends. I'm gonna be heading back to the Gloomwoods, but if you're looking for a new tribe, one that's always going around from one place to another..."
Mel and Jamie took the tablets and looked at the pictures and information loaded on them. An entire spaceship, filled with Floran? Dozens of forest planets to explore?
Jamie smiled. "I think we found new place," they said to their companion. "You and me, we will go to other worlds lots."
"Think we'll ever see each other again?" Sheppard asked Nuru as they and the other Floran stood in front of the Stargate's event horizon.
"I kinda doubt it," said Nuru as they knelt down, tying a small bag to their spear. "This is a neat place and all, but honestly, who knows if I'll ever be on a planet in the Stargate network again, now that we won't be using ours. Mel and Jamie, though? You might stumble on them again at some point."
"And I will be better at video game," Jamie said. "To beat Rodney."
"You might want to temper your expectations," warned Sheppard. "He'll have picked up some new games from Earth when your next visit rolls around."
Nuru looked up. "Earth?"
"Yeah. It's the name of our home planet."
"Huh." Their expression seemed just slightly more distant than usual. "Never heard of it before."
"Well, it's pretty far. That's why we stay here instead of just going home every day. Listen, you sure you wanna go back to that planet we found you on?"
Nuru waved him off. "Don't worry about it. Like I said, I'm going by ship. Just gonna beam down there." They laughed. "How do you think I get my reinforcements?"
Sheppard stood in front of the gate as the three Floran stepped through. As the wormhole finally collapsed, Teyla approached him, descending the stairs from the control room above.
"Nice call, making sure to name-drop Earth before they left," Sheppard said. "You saw that look in her eyes, right?"
Teyla nodded. "Do you think Nuru knows something they're not telling us?"
Sheppard looked down at the tablet he held in his hands, the one the Floran had left behind. "Maybe," he said. "Or maybe they don't know as much as they thought."