Telya Emmagan sighed and closed her eyes a moment to keep her composure. "Yes, Calib, I understand that your people do not wish to incur the wrath of the demon in the pit, but we need to get Lieutenant Ford and Doctor McKay out of there." She paused a moment and switched tactics. "Do you not believe that their continued presence will not serve to incite the demon?"

The Relarn Councilman started to answer her and then stopped. "True."

"Would it not be wise to rescue them then?" she asked in her most reasonable voice.

"I will have to ask the other council members," he told her, turning on his heel to head back into the meeting hall.

Telya let out a groan of frustration and squinted out across the horizon toward the Stargate. She caught a glimpse of the Puddle Jumper clearing the trees and then it abruptly plummeted. She grabbed her radio. "Major Sheppard! Major Sheppard answer me! What has happened?"

Static was the only response she received.

A moment later the radio chirped. "Teyla? What's wrong?"

It was Lieutenant Ford.

She took a deep breath, looking around for the villagers, but they had locked themselves up in the meeting hall again to discuss what to do. They would be of no help to them.

"The Puddle Jumper has gone down. I do not know why. I am heading in that direction. How are you and Doctor McKay?"

She heard Lieutenant Ford swear. "Not great. Doctor McKay got sick again and he's out cold. His color is really bad and he's not breathing so good."

"Just hold on," she told him. "I will find out what happened and contact you."

"Hurry, Teyla. There's something down here and I don't think it's friendly."

"I will hurry," she told him. "Teyla out."

She glanced back once more to the meeting hall and then broke into a run. This was very bad.

Consciousness slowly crept back and with it a sharp stabbing pain in his chest every time he inhaled or exhaled and an all-consuming, thundering headache. Why did it take so long to die?

He heard something shift beside him and a sharp intake of breath.

Rodney lowly levered his eyes open and thought for a moment he had gone blind, but then thing slowly adjusted and he could make out a hunched figure beside him. He stared at it a long time before a name finally associated itself to it.

He struggled over trying to say lieutenant and gave up. "For...d?"

The young man's head snapped around. "Doctor McKay, you're awake! How do you feel?"

He just groaned and closed his eyes a moment, licking his lips. His mouth felt like it was trying to glue itself shut. He smirked. Sheppard would like that.

A warm hand rested against his cheek tapping it lightly. "Doc, come on. You need to stay awake. You're scaring me again."

Rodney frowned and struggled to get his eyes opened. It was getting harder and harder to keep them open. He just wanted to go to sleep. Everything hurt and his head felt all funky and fuzzy.

"Doc," the tap became more insistent.

"'m 'wake," he grumbled, opening his eyes again. How did they get shut?

"There we go," Ford said smiling.

The young man looked awful. Blood streaked his face and his BDUs were torn. Rodney winced when he saw the awkward angle his leg was lying at.

"You're hurt," he stated. His words came out rather garbled, like he had been on three day bender. What was wrong with him?

Ford gave a snort. "Yeah, had worse though."

"From what? A bulldozer?"

The young man laughed. "Not quite. Football in high school."

"Masochistic Americans."

"Yeah and hockey is any safer?"

Rodney snorted.

Something shuffled through the dirt to their left sending a cascade of gravel down on them. Ford moved away from him and he heard him chamber a round into his P40.

Rodney strained to see into the darkness as Ford show the flashlight in the direction of the noise. He caught a glimpse of something silver rushing at them. Ford fired and fire strobed from the barrel of his weapon. The silver thing slammed into Ford, sending him flying. Rodney groped for the gun strapped to his leg. He got it free, but his hand wouldn't close over it. He switched it to his left hand as the silver thing turned, reaching a hand out to him. He closed his eyes and emptied his gun into it. Something slammed hard into his chest and then everything just faded back into blackness.