A/N: Thanks so much for all the reviews and feedback, I was quite surprised to receive that many in only a day.

Stargate Atlantis:
Nemesis

Chapter 2
Of Boring Days

War and Peace, such a long, long, heavy book… and here John was reading it. He hadn't gotten much farther then when Elizabeth had first made the observation about his reading the book. He sure hoped he'd finish it before they got home, if he even finished it at all.

Of course, today there wasn't much else for him to do; in fact he felt today was oddly quiet, like there should be something to do when there wasn't. He was also alone without his team; McKay had gone off to check on some newly discovered (and possibly Ancient) technology from Azora, a planet Sheppard and his team had visited a few days before when they'd made friends with the inhabitants, a very simple people.

Ford and Teyla had gone off to the mainland with Dr. Beckett to check up on the Athosians. In fact, thinking back on it now, John decided he probably should've gone with Ford and co as it certainly would've been more interesting then being in his quarters reading a very long and somewhat boring book. But it was too late now and, that aside, Beckett did need to improve his piloting skills and the Jumper had been pretty full with all those supplies they were taking to the mainland.

So, here he was, alone in his quarters with his book. He sighed as he leaned back, setting the book in his lap and closing his eyes a moment. Yes, he was quite bored indeed.

'Major Sheppard to the control room!' The call over the Atlantis communication system brought John out of his bored thoughts and into action. Setting his book aside, he got up off the bed and walked, rather quickly, down to the nearest transporter and went straight to the control room.

As he entered, he saw Elizabeth Weir and Zelenka standing over a council with an open laptop upon it.

'Major!' Weir beckoned him over; he could tell something was up by the look in her eyes.

'What's goin' on?' he asked, coming up to the council.

'I thought you should see this,' Weir said, looking to Zelenka.

'A few moments ago, our gate was dialled from off world and received this transmission,' the Czech scientist stated as he hit a button on his keyboard. Immediately a recording began to play.

'Greetings, Atlantians!' a young, male voice echoed with confidence. 'I am Nathan Goldos, where I am from is unimportant, but what I have to trade is. I have in my possession the exact location of one of your power sources; I believe you call them ZPM's. From you I desire some of your Atlantian medicines and perhaps firearms with which to defend myself from the Wraith. I am transmitting the gate address of where we shall meet; you must bring one of your Atlantis ships, for the ZPM is located on a world without a Stargate. You must come within four hours of receiving this or the deal is off. I have many others who have offered to trade.' At that, the voice faded out and Zelenka held up a small piece of paper with a Gate address scrawled onto it. 'He sent this through the gate with his radio transmission.'

Sheppard took the paper and looked it over, finding nothing overly special about it. He pondered a moment, wondering at this very tempting yet mysterious offer.

'What are you thinking?' Weir asked, looking at him.

'I'm thinking it sounds a bit too good to be true,' the major answered softly, still contemplating. There were so many unanswered questions, especially how this person had gotten information about them.

'Isn't it worth looking into?' Zelenka put in. 'What if he's telling the truth? We could have another ZPM.'

'We could use that,' Elizabeth nodded, 'but we only have four hours and that's not enough time for Rodney to come back.' She looked at Sheppard for a moment. 'We have no way of knowing if it's true or not but Zelenka is right, it is worth checking out,' she added.

'Alright,' Sheppard said, 'I'll go and see what our mysterious friend has to offer.' He still had a gut feeling there was something wrong, but he knew Zelenka was right; they really needed those ZPMs and if there was even the slightest chance they could obtain one then it was worth trying.

'Assemble a team, be ready to go within the hour,' Weir said. Zelenka immediately stood up. 'I'll go,' he offered, being the expert scientist when Rodney wasn't around.

'No,' Sheppard said, 'I only want combat-trained personal this time. If it's safe then we'll let you know.' He wouldn't put anyone into a situation that might endanger them besides those who were trained for it. Zelenka sat back down, not bothering to argue any further.

The major turned on his heel and began to head off when Elizabeth followed him and stopped him as he was halfway to the door.

'John, don't get yourself into too much trouble,' she said, 'just be careful.'

Sheppard offered her a small smile and a nod before headed off.

For his team members, the major picked two men, Private Davey and Lieutenant Jones; two men who he remembered Colonel Sumner had liked. Jones was your average kid from a military family in Washington, while Davey had apparently ended up on the Atlantis mission by sheer chance. John was sure they were both good soldiers and, he hoped, he wouldn't have to find out how good or why Sumner had valued them so highly.

So within the hour they were ready to go and the Puddle Jumper slowly lowered itself down into the gate room to be enveloped by the awaiting wormhole. Well, Sheppard reflected as the ship and its passengers were taken into the gate, it wasn't such a boring day after all.