It took the Wraith three hours to find the ruins; by the time things got even remotely interesting it was already dark.

Fortunately, Wraith have as much trouble seeing in the dark as humans. Also fortunately, the only Wraith to find them were four scout groups who apparently had some communication problems.

Long story short: all the humans who weren't already dead survived the night.

John Sheppard is beginning to wish he had never set foot through the Stargate. Okay, so maybe that's a slight exaggeration and he doesn't really mean it. It sure feels like a good idea at the moment.

He's wondering if anyone will notice if he falls asleep while overseeing the morning watch.

A husky, distinctly amused voice at behind his shoulder jerks him back to attention.

"Good morning, Major. Long night?'

He had to deal with the scientists last night. They've developed a nasty habit of all talking at once. Not that they didn't always do that, but now there are more of them.

"Very."

Captain Ezrikos moves up to stand next to him at the crumbling wall, looking unfairly alert for someone who's had just as little sleep as he has. She looks up at him, taking in his half-open eyes and very unruly hair, and then she offers him the mug in her hand.

"Here."

"What is it?" He sniffs at it, dubiously. It smells very familiar…could this be coffee?

"Just drink it."

By God. It is coffee. Very, very strong coffee. He chokes on it a little.

"Wow."

"I know," says one of the Alketch scientists, moving up to stand with them, "the captain insists on brewing it that way. Imperial kaf is much lighter. The captain drinks this stuff like water because her people brew it about five times stronger, but several others and I make an Imperial style pot for the more civilized among us and you're welcome to…"

The scientist cuts off as Sheppard up-ends the mug and swallows every last drop of the stuff.

He hands the mug back to Ezrikos. "Don't let McKay know you make it like that or he'd be all over you. That was just what I needed, thank you."

She grins at him for the first time since they met. "Not too strong?"

"I've had three hours of sleep in the last two days. There is no such thing as 'too strong'."

She laughs. "You should try it in my home camp. I'll show you strong."

Flipping him a casual salute, she moves off into the maze of ruined buildings.

The doctor stays.

"What did she mean by 'my home camp'?"

The scientist sighs. "The captain is a Bahzir, Major. It's fairly obvious from her last name, but you wouldn't know that, of course."

"She's a what?"

"A Bahzir." From his recent exposure to scientists, Sheppard can see the man settling into "lecture mode": the place where all scientists are most comfortable.

"Bahzir is a general name for any of about a thousand tribes of desert nomads on Casca, one of the Imperial colonies. Among other various traditions, they brew kaf very strong and drink it from childhood. Part of the reason they generally don't sleep much."

So that's her secret. "Are the Bahzir common in the Alketch military?"

The scientist laughs, a little shocked. "Oh, God, no! No, the captain is quite the exception."

"To the detriment of the Force," says a female voice behind them, and they both turn to see Sergeant Desperaux, who seems to be Ezrikos' confidant. She comes up to lean carefully against the crumbling wall.

"The Bahzir are not looked upon favorably by Imperials." Sheppard catches the very faint bitterness beneath her otherwise emotionless tone.

"You're an exception, I take it."

The sergeant sighs. "I've known Ezrikos for ten years, I was with her at Alden Ford, and I'd die for her without a second thought, sir."

He's noticed that the Alketch tend to call him "sir," even though he's from an entirely different military.

"Alden Ford?"

She tosses her head dismissively. "A battle. I've got an interesting treatise on it I'll loan you if we survive, my point is, you get used to things."

"Well, I for one," chimes in the scientist, "have as yet been unable to get used to Captain Ezrikos."

Both Sheppard and Desperaux grin. "She has that effect on people," Desperaux admits, "It's the eyes."

"Hah! It's more than that!" The scientist laughs and moves off as one of his colleagues beckons to him, nodding pleasantly to the two soldiers.

"What is it with her eyes?" Sheppard asks when the scientist has left. "She never takes off those sunglasses."

"She takes them off when it's dark," Desperaux replies mildly, not looking at him.

"No, she doesn't. She wears them at night, I've seen her."

"There are ten floodlights on these grounds, Major. I said she takes them off when it's dark."

"The light hurts her eyes?"

The sergeant sighs. "Yeah. It's kind of complicated and would take a biologist with an evolution focus to explain completely, but I can try if you're really that interested."

He glances out over the milling watch squads. "For once, I've got nothing else to do."

"Alright then." She takes a deep breath, organizing her thoughts. "The Bahzir are mostly the same as Alketch Imperials, genetically speaking, but the Bahzir planet, Casca, is so much different from the other Imperial colonies, that the Bahzir have evolved farther than we have."

Sheppard cracks his neck, considering. "That's deep."

"It gets better. Casca has very short days, so since it's night most of the time and the Bahzir basically never sleep, their eyes evolved. The way I understand it, their pupils dilated all the way out through the iris, so every Bahzir looks like they have black eyes. Something else happened to the eyes that makes them kind of iridescent, but I'm not sure what it is. Still with me?"

"Still with you."

"Okay." She visibly regroups, watching McKay "talk" to two very confused looking soldiers, one Alketch, one Atlantian. "Uh, okay. In light they just have no iris, and that's as far as their pupils can retract, hence the sunglasses."

"Got it."

"But in darkness – and this is the cool part – their pupils expand even farther, so that in complete darkness their eyes have no whites and they can see almost perfectly."

Sheppard is silent, processing that. "That could be both an asset, and a hindrance."

Desperaux leans on the railing. "Yeah, tell me about it. The captain almost never takes off those sunglasses."

Something from his half remembered biology classes is nagging at him. "There's no crossbreeding between Bahzir and Alketch?"

"No. Casca was one of the last colonies; it's on the outer rim of the Empire. Actually, this planet we're on now is closer to Casca than Alketch, or so the scientists tell me when they need someone to at least pretend they're listening."

He grins. "Yeah, I think we've all had that experience. Gotta love 'em."

The sergeant snorts and shakes her head. "Anyway. The Bahzir are also incredible runners, and I think there's some other evolutionary thing. Flexibility or something, I forget."

Sheppard nods. "Thanks for explaining it to me; I appreciate it."

Sergeant Desperaux gives him a very direct look.

"Word of advice? Ezrikos isn't the kind of woman I'm sure you're used to. She's not just gonna roll over once you turn on the charm." She walks away before he can retort.

"Hey," he calls after her, "does she have a first name?"

Desperaux grins. "Yes," she calls back, and then she disappears into the complex.


McKay, typically, has a plan.

On the surface it's a very simple plan – get to the Stargate, fix it, go through to Atlantis because it's closer than Alketch before the Wraith kill us all – but you have to add the McKay factor, which makes all plans workable but difficult.

Not that they won't get through, McKay will figure out something, and if for some reason he doesn't, well, there's about ten other scientists and a whole bunch of soldiers to figure out something, it just won't be easy.

And it isn't.

Oh, they get to the Stargate largely unmolested, but from there it all goes to hell.

It's much too quiet. While the scientists scurry around and harangue each other, only deigning to address a soldier when heavy lifting is needed, Major Sheppard is standing next to the captain, staring at the forest, where it is much too quiet.

Ezrikos turns to signal the men behind them to attention – she knows something is wrong too – but Sheppard's eyes stay fixed on the forest. Which is why, when the first stun bolts come flying through the trees, he's able to take Ezrikos down and out of the line of fire.

It probably saves her life.

Granted, they're only stun-bolts, but when the Wraith start pouring through in force, which, predictably, they do, she would probably have been killed.

Pinned to the ground beneath him, she gives him a very surprised look, (or at least he thinks it's a very surprised look – the sunglasses make it hard to tell) and says, "I hate to say I told you so…but I told you so."

Which is true.

They both roll to their knees to return fire along with the others, and he says, "The next time you tell me a plan is stupid, I'll listen."

A Wraith grenade (apparently eating them is no longer a priority) lands less than ten feet from him and the blast knocks him sideways to the ground. When he can hear again Ezrikos is saying, "If there is a next time. Are you alright?"

He nods. "Just knocked me down, that's all."

She gives him a doubtful look, but there are slightly more important things to be worrying about right now.

Like the army of Wraith.

From behind them, thankfully, comes McKay's strident voice. "We're up! Wormhole imminent!"

Sheppard doesn't hear the IDC go in, or the predictable brief conversation with Atlantis (Weir is gonna crucify him for this one, stay out of trouble his ass), because the next few minutes are made very interesting by the three million Wraith pouring out of the tree line for them.

"Get in the gate!" he shouts to everyone in general, and the soldiers start retreating backwards, covering the scientists as theygo through.

He feels, as if from a great distance, his heel hit the edge of the gate steps and stumbles up them, his head suddenly fuzzy.

Ezrikos is giving him a very odd, almost worried look (she really needs to talk more, communicating solely in different expressions is getting a little weird) as he falls backward through the gate.

His last clear thought before the disorienting fuzziness of de-molecularization, is "Oh, shit."


A/N: Thank you to everyone who reviews even sporadically, especially Amaruk for the interesting mental images of Steve the plush doll. (Where can I get one!) Stolen things: the "Bahzir" from Tamora Pierce, "Casca" from C.S. Friedman, kaf from the Liavek series, Sergeant Nimashet Desperaux from John Ringo's March Upcountry, the whole eye thing from Pitch Black/Chronicles of Riddick, and "Alketch" and "Ezrikos" from Barbara Hambly. I own nothing except the dialogue, and even some of that is stolen from other things.