Atlantis

"No…" Rodney said, taking the device from Char. "I don't think it's a ZedPM."

"What?"

Weir couldn't help but feel a huge stab of disappointment. She'd been so hopeful when she'd seen it.

"It looks like one," Sheppard said.

"It has similar characteristics, I'll admit," Rodney said, examining it. "But it doesn't look exactly like one."

"Maybe it's similar?" Elizabeth hazarded.

"That's possible," he admitted. "I'll check it out." He was going to anyways.

"Where in the city did you find it?" Sheppard asked Kale, smiling at the female who was with the two males. He didn't recognize her, either. She smiled back, but before they could introduce themselves, Kale was speaking again.

"In an obscure little room," The Light One told him. "If it is useful to you, we will look for more, and bring them to you. If not, we will simply leave them on the shelves."

Elizabeth looked at McKay.

"Rodney?"

"Yes, Elizabeth, I'll take a look at it right now."

He pretended to be annoyed, but really, he was excited. It might not be a ZPM, but even if it wasn't and it was simply another kind of power source, there was no telling if it was something that might even be better than a ZPM. Who knew? Well, he would. In as soon as possible. Still examining it, he left the room, forgetting to even say good-bye, although no one called him on it.

Weir looked at the Light Ones, her smile returning.

"While we're waiting, would you guys like something to eat?"

"And some clothes." Sheppard said, still smiling at the female. God, he missed the Light Ones when they weren't around.

Kale smiled as well, and nodded, but his eyes were only for Weir – so much so that he forgot to introduce his sister to the others.

"That sounds wonderful, Elizabeth. Thank you."

Melonyville

Tao's expression grew more and more skeptical as he listened to Jack – and then Daniel – explain to him as well as they could where they thought Melony and Talon were (leaving out a few details, of course) but to his credit, he didn't interrupt them once, and was silent until they were finished.

"You believe my Lord Talon and his host are stuck in an abandoned city?" He asked, then.

"In a galaxy far, far, away," Jack confirmed.

"I find it hard to believe."

For all that Talon had tried to assure Tao – and others – that he wasn't their god (goddess, since the host was female), most of the Jaffa found it hard to accept. What other word could there be for the person who had freed them of their slavery to the lesser gods? For the one being who had managed to do what the Jaffa had been unable to do, and had then shown such grace to his people by setting them loose to do good, instead of evil and allowing them to more or less run things their own way, with only simple rules to follow – and those rules were simply matters of honor anyways.

"We don't like it, either," Daniel assured Tao. "But she hasn't contacted us in a while. Have you heard from her?"

"Talon does as he pleases…"

"We know that," Jack said, doing his best to stay calm and not be annoyed. "But we want to make sure that Talon – and his host – are safe."

"Nothing can harm them."

Sam sighed.

"The Tau'ri seek Lord Talon for other reasons as well," Teal'c said, breaking into the conversation. "Reasons of honor that cannot be dissimilated at the moment."

Tao looked at Teal'c, who stared impassively back at him. At one time the two of them would have been enemies, but Lord Talon had made it quite clear to Tao – and everyone else – that Teal'c was his trusted ally – friend, even, and had long since proven himself worthy of his name. The First Prime spoke, shrugging.

"I posses no technology that will enable you to travel such a distance," Tao told them.

"Your people are a lot more spread out than ours," Daniel said – a diplomatic way of avoiding mentioning that they'd suppressed and destroyed countless alien races that the SGC had never even heard of. "You haven't come across anything that might help us get to her? Him. Them?"

Tao was quiet for a moment, and then he shook his head.

"No engines or craft of any sort," he said. "Not with that kind of range. However…"

He stopped.

"Yes…?"

Jack was too curious to wait for him to decide to continue on his own, and Tao scowled again – although if Teal'c was a trusted ally and friend, Colonel Jack O'Neill was doubly so. Lord Talon had made it perfectly clear to Tao that the Tau'ri – and O'Neill especially – were to be left alone, or helped if they were in need. Of course, that hadn't exactly meant giving them technology, Tao decided, but some Jaffa had rendered assistance to one of their lost teams, once, a short while back, and when Talon had heard of it (from Tao) he'd been exceptionally pleased.

"Before Lord Talon left, we were instructed that if in any of our wanderings and explorations," Which was not a euphemistic way of saying when we were out taking over people and destroying civilizations, as it once might have been. "…and we came upon anything that might be interesting, we were to obtain a sample of it, to be held against the day he returned."

"And you found something?" Daniel asked.

"Perhaps."

Jack looked like he was going to say something, but Daniel put his hand on his arm to stop him. Undoubtedly it would have been something annoying, and he didn't want to antagonize Melony's First Prime if they could avoid it. Especially if he had something that might help.

Tao stood up, and walked over to his ship, disappearing into it.

"Well…?" Jack asked, scowling.

"Maybe he had it with him…" Daniel said, shrugging.

"Oh, yeah, like he's just going to be toting the one thing around with him that we need the most."

"We don't know that it's anything that might help us," Sam said, shrugging. "It might be a new kind of corn for all we know."

"Or perhaps something so valuable that he dared not leave it lying around," Teal'c said.

"Or maybe it-"

The Jaffa reappeared at the hatch of the craft, and walked back to them, holding something in his large hand. Sam's eyes widened.

"That's one of the crystals."

"What?"

"From the pyramid," she said. "It's one of the-"

"The amplifying crystals?" Jack asked, forgetting for the moment that he was supposed to be playing stupid. He looked at the crystal Tao was holding out to him, and took it. "How do you know, Carter?"

"I studied them extensively, Sir. I'm sure that's what it is."

"We did not find it in a pyramid," Tao said. "They were on the floor of a large, empty building – a shrine to some long dead god, presumably."

"They?" Daniel asked. "There are more?"

Tao shrugged.

"Many."