Undesignated Planet

Well, that's a relief

Mitchell nodded her agreement. Both of them were glad to see that the other two darts were still where she'd left them over two hours before. If there were other Wraith on the planet, chances were they would have already noticed their buddies were missing and come looking for them – no doubt taking the darts with them when they left. If the ships were already missing, then chances were there were no automatic recall button or anything that might send them home on their own – although that would have been an interesting thought, since Mitchell could have stowed away on one. It would have been something of a coup to find the home planet to one of the Wraith bases.

And then promptly get overwhelmed and killed… Talon reminded her.

Yeah, that would have been a drawback, she had to admit.

Still checking the area carefully, even though there was no sign of any Wraith, Mitchell headed to the closest dart; coming up from behind it and palming the dissolving hatch open.

Like before, it opened with no indication it had any problem with her being the pilot, and as she moved forward to take the pilot's seat, she breathed a sigh of relief, the harness coming out of the seat to lock her firmly into place against the cushioned chair.

This time she didn't need to ask. She hit the button that started the power, and immediately everything came to life around her. Familiar enough now with the controls, her takeoff was a lot smoother than her last landing, and she immediately headed for the Stargate, not taking the time to do any learning maneuvers. She'd have plenty of time later.

She palmed open the panel with the DHD thing – or whatever the Wraith called their version of it – and started dialing with one hand while she aimed the sharp nose of the dart at the gate.

A moment later she was through, flying directly into the sun, which was just approaching its zenith.

Two down…

OOOOOOOOOOO

Atlantis

"What?"

Weir flinched. She couldn't help it. Nor was she the only one at the table to do it. Jack's anger at the news of the torture and death of his friend had easily been transferred to the newest revelation, and he'd had no reason to modulate himself.

"She went looking for the Wraith," Weir repeated, gathering herself. She knew O'Neill wasn't angry with her, after all. Right?

"Why on Earth would-"

"And you let her?" Jack yelled, interrupting Daniel before he could even finish his question. He rose to his feet, unable to sit still, and Kale started to stand as well, uncertain as to why the human was yelling, but unwilling to allow Elizabeth to go unprotected in the event of an attack or something.

Jack noticed immediately, and pointed his hand at the Light One. He was in no mood for anything from the tall guy he didn't even know.

"You sit down."

Kale started to say something, but Elizabeth quickly spoke up, on her own behalf.

"There wasn't much I could do to stop her, General," she said. "I don't have any jurisdiction over her. She's not a member of my expedition and she's military."

Good point. Jack turned to Sheppard, his scowl still thunderous, but John was ready, too.

"She outranks me," he said. "The only person who could have ordered her to stay was Sumner, and when I told her about-"

"She went ballistic…" Jack said, finishing. He knew her well enough to know just how she would have reacted – and add to it the state of mind she was in when she'd left, and Jack knew it was a recipe for disaster. But Talon should have done something to stop her.

Sheppard nodded.

"She was furious…"

"Marshal was a friend of hers. Of ours." Jack said, softly, his anger draining – at least for the moment. "But you still should have stopped her."

"She didn't go off half-cocked," McKay said, interrupting. He had a part to play in this and wanted to make sure Carter knew all about it. "We set her up a secret base – on another planet – where she could study the Wraith technology and get a better idea of how best to fight them – and we-"

"Secret base?" Daniel interrupted. "Where?"

"Talonopolis."

As a group, SG-1 and O'Neill stared at him.

"Talonopolis?"

McKay shrugged.

"It's officially designated in our records as A-008, but Talonopolis seemed to stick – although most of us call the base itself the lava base."

"What?"

"It's under a lava flow," Weir explained. "A huge-"

"How long has she been gone?"

"Five days." Sheppard told him.

Jack sat down again, thinking. Five days. How much trouble could she be in after only five days? A ton of it, of course, came the quick answer, and he scowled.

"Have you heard from her?"

"She said she'd get in contact with us if she found anything – or if she needed anything – and told us to call on her if we needed her help." Elizabeth told him; glad he seemed to be a little calmer.

"But you haven't heard anything?"

"She's probably fine," Rodney said. "The Goa'uld technology she brought with her works wonders against the Wraith. I wish we had about a hundred more of those zats and a lot of-"

"You know where this base of hers is?" Jack asked Sheppard, ignoring McKay.

John nodded.

O'Neill stood up again.

"Fine. Let's go. I want to talk to her."

And he wanted to see her and make sure she was still alive – and then he was going to kill her.

OOOOOOOOO

Talonopolis

"Uh oh."

O'Neill looked over at Sheppard, and followed the Major's gaze down the ravine John had just landed the Jumper in. Several hundred feet away, he saw two small craft – even smaller than the Jumper they'd just stepped out of – glittering dully in the waning late afternoon sun.

"What the hell are those?" He asked.

Sam and Daniel were looking as well, but Teal'c immediately turned his attention upwards, knowing that where there were two, there could be several more… whatever they were.

"Wraith…" Sheppard said, also looking up. McKay, however, had turned his attention to the entrance to the lava base, wondering if they'd somehow already found the base and had attacked it. He wondered if Mitchell had managed to escape through one of the bolt holes before the Wraith had come.

"Do you think they're in the tunnels?" He asked aloud, and Jack's gaze followed his to the entrance. The fear that Melony might be lying dead in there – only days late from seeing her again – spurred him to the entrance, his P90 coming up and his heart going to his throat.

"Colonel!"

Something glinting against the brighter sun outside of and above the ravine had caught Sam's attention, and she pointed upwards, everyone else following her gaze. It was another one of the small ships, and it was coming right at them, heading right over the center of the ravine in what looked like a perfect strafing position.

Teal'c raised his staff weapon, pointing it at the ship as it approached, and Jack – already half-stunned by his loss of Melony when he'd been so close to seeing her again – also raised his weapon to face the ship, and started firing. Behind him, he heard Teal'c's answering volley as well as the others, all firing at the sleek craft that was coming in as if it owned the place.