Chapter One

Major John Sheppard stepped out of the Puddlejumper with the rest of his team arrayed behind him. They had come across the Gate address for this planet in one of the Ancient's databases and were hoping it would yield something useful. At this point in the expedition, anything would have been classified as useful. Food, weapons, some new DVDs of current releases from Earth, a Zed P..." he paused and mentally shook himself. He had obviously been spending way too much time with McKay if he was starting to call ZPMs Zed Pee... he stopped himself before he said it again.

He looked around at the tranquil forest arrayed on all sides of the Gate. It was a beautiful day, the sun was warming his face gently, but there was something off about the whole place. It took him a moment to realize what was so disturbing about what should have been a peaceful place – there were no signs of life. No birds chirping, no bees buzzing... "I've been in this Galaxy too long if all I can think about are birds and bees," he muttered.

"What was that, John?" Teyla asked as she stepped up beside him, brushing her flyaway hair out of her eyes as she spoke. Sheppard resisted the urge to find her one of those scrunchy thingies, or even a freakin' rubber band, for what had to be the thousandth time that week. He turned to reply when she continued, "There are no animals or insects on this planet, John, or if there are they are very quiet."

"I was just about to say that," McKay interjected, intent as always on taking the credit for everything, even the most inane or innocuous.

"Sir," Ford called his attention to a well-worn path leading away from the Gate. There was no DHD on this planet, which was one of the reasons they had brought the Puddlejumper. Getting stuck on Atlantis was fine for now, but being stuck on some crazy planet with McKay would have been too much for anyone to handle, so they were always careful to ensure they could return through a Gate before they stepped onto any world.

Sheppard's brow furrowed as he thought about the implications of a path leading from a Gate with no DHD. "Let's check it out, but go slowly. There's something hinky about this whole planet. It's giving me the heebie-jeebies."

Teyla turned to him, trying to decide which question to ask first. Just as she opened her mouth, a scarecrow of a person in tattered rags stumbled out of the path and saluted Sheppard before collapsing on the ground at his feet.

"What the..." Sheppard scanned the area for any other signs of life, motioning for Ford & Teyla to search the perimeter. McKay knelt down by the figure and checked for signs of life. As he rolled the person onto their back, he saw something that made him lose his balance and sit down hard. "John... John!"

"What is it, Rodney?" Sheppard asked absently, still scanning the tree line and keeping an eye on Ford and Teyla.

"John!"

Sheppard, intrigued by McKay's unusual lack of at least seven words of six syllables or more, looked at what was being waved in front of his face. He snatched them out of McKay's hand, a look of shock on his face. He examined them, ignoring McKay's protest, and looked more closely at the figure on the ground. Under the dirt was a faded and tattered strip of fabric on each side of the chest. One said "SUTHERLAND" and the other said "US ARMY." In his hand were five strips of metal on a metal chain: dog tags. Two belonged to Sofia Colburn Atwood Sutherland and the other three were the names of three other US Army officers.

The figure on the ground groaned and struggled to get up. Sheppard knelt on the ground and put his hand gently on her shoulder, "Stay right where you are, Captain."

The woman squinted up at him, a look of shock and disbelief on her face, "You are really here, aren't you sir?"

"I am, I promise," he flashed his trademark boyish grin at her, and then sobered, "Captain..."

"I knew you would find us eventually," she interrupted. "I told the others it was only a matter of time before someone at the SGC figured out what had happened. I have to admit that I started to lose hope after the first month or so, but I always knew someone would find us eventually."

McKay started to speak, "No one..."

"Rodney." Sheppard said warningly.

"But..."

"Dr. McKay," there was ice in the Major's usually good-natured tone.

Rodney shut his gaping mouth with an audible snap and looked nervously over at Sheppard.

Sheppard continued, "What Dr. McKay here was saying, Captain, is that no one ever gives up on any SG teams that go missing. Isn't that right, Rodney."

"Oh, yes, of course, I..."

Sheppard interrupted him again, "I'm Major John Sheppard, and this is Dr. Rodney McKay. Lieutenant Ford and Teyla are the two other members of my team and they're just over there," he gestured towards the trees. "You said 'us' Captain. Where are the others?"

She looked blankly at him for a moment and then gestured vaguely down the path away from the Stargate. "We set up camp about a half a mile down the path, there's a stream and good shelter there. The Colonel sent me out to check the Stargate for any signs of activity, as we've done every day since we got stranded here. Lieutenant Ayers usually checks it, he feels responsible for our being stranded here. Which he is, but we got over that a while ago, it's water under the bridge at this point. But, he's not... well, I wasn't feeling too bad today, so... When I saw that ship come out of the Gate, I was so stunned I almost forgot all my survival training.

I hid in the woods until I saw your uniforms and realized that we had finally been rescued. I can't wait to tell the others!"

Sheppard looked at the dog tags in his hand and kept his mouth shut for the time being, certain that the mystery of how an SG team came to be stranded in the Pegasus Galaxy would be solved in its own time. "Rodney, go dial up the Stargate and let Dr. Beckett know that we have one patient incoming, possibly more."

"But..." Sheppard's look went from icy to arctic freeze and McKay shut his mouth and scrambled quickly for the Puddlejumper. Sheppard made a note to himself to remember that look for the next time McKay's rambling, egocentric mutterings got on his nerves. 'No, that won't work,' he told himself. 'At the rate Rodney goes on, my face would freeze like that from overuse and he'd get used to it and stop responding the way I wanted him too. I better save it for really special occasions.'

Sheppard returned his attention to the woman on the ground at his feet, who was attempting to rise again. He placed a calming hand on her shoulder, "Captain, you need to stay still. You're obviously malnourished at the very least. We're going to get you to our doctor and have you checked out before I can allow you to do anything other than sit there."

"Yes sir, but there's no DHD. How..."

"A lot has changed since you've been gone. That ship we came in is called a Puddlejumper. It has its own DHD. We'll call our base and have them send a stretcher through, then we'll send you through the Gate while my team and I go find your camp."

Sofia's eyes flickered to the dog tags in his hand and then towards the path she had indicated earlier. She swallowed nervously and then spoke, "Was it Captain Carter who found us, sir? I have steak at the best restaurant in town riding on that answer."

"No, it was definitely not Captain Carter, sorry."

"Well, I don't think I could handle the cholesterol, anyway, I've been on a bit of a crash diet lately," she joked weakly, gesturing at her emaciated frame.

The Gate activated and Sheppard surreptitiously turned his radio down, so that Rodney's most likely garbled and revealing, conversation with Atlantis wouldn't be overheard. "Captain, before we transport you to our base, there's something I have to tell you," he said gravely.

She looked at him questioningly and he continued, "Our base. It's not on Earth. We set up an... outpost of sorts on another planet in an Ancient city called Atlantis."

"How old is it?"

"What?"

"The city, you said it was ancient."

"No, no, it was built by the Ancients and..." he stopped when he saw the look of incomprehension on her face. "Ummmm... must have been after your time, huh? Well, the Ancients were the race that built the Stargates. We are living in a city they abandoned a long time ago. Which is, of course, a long story... one that I promise to tell you another time," he said as he heard the Gate shut down and open back up again a short time later. A stretcher came rolling out of the event horizon and rolled down the ramp. Ford and Teyla, who had returned to the clearing and were watching the perimeter, moved forward and brought the stretcher towards Sheppard and Sofia.

"OK, Captain. Just relax while we load you onto the stretcher."

Sofia rolled her eyes towards the path again and then said, "The other members of my team..."

"We'll take care of them, I promise." Sheppard and Ford lifted her onto the stretcher and walked it towards the Gate. McKay dialed up Atlantis again and they pushed the stretcher through. McKay exited the Puddlejumper and started talking, "Do you know how long that team has been missing?!" he asked excitedly.

"I didn't even know that there was ever an Army team at the SGC, but I am sure you are about to enlighten us."

"What? Oh, yes, well I had Grodin run a search through the mission logs we brought with us from Earth. There was one Army team, but they went missing on their first solo mission and the Army apparently decided that they didn't want to be involved in a project that stole their best soldiers, so they withdrew from the program. And do you know when that happened?"

Not expecting an answer, McKay was about to continue, just as Sheppard said, "I'd say it was in the first year that the SGC was up and running after they went to Abydos for the second time."

"It was... yes, it was. How did...?"

"She was talking about Captain Carter and she didn't know who the Ancients were, it was pretty easy to figure out."

Rodney, the wind taken out of his sails, replied petulantly, "I'm sure you know how they disappeared, too, don't you?"

"No... but I do know that it was something that Lieutenant Ayers did."

Rodney wrinkled his brow and then shook it off, "There was some sort of Ancient device on the planet they were investigating. The gate address was taken out of the computer after no one was able to determine what the device did or what happened to the team. No one has heard from them since. Seven years, can you imagine?"

"No, I can't. But, I would like to know what happened to the rest of her team," Sheppard held up the dog tags. He had returned Sofia's to her, but kept the other three. "People don't normally give up their dog tags unless something has happened to them."

"Perhaps she took them with her in case someone from Earth came through the Gate and wanted additional proof," Teyla offered.

"There's only one way to find out, so let's go. Keep your eyes open. The camp is supposed to be a half a mile away."

The four set off down the path, intent on solving another of the mysteries they had encountered on that strange day.