"Not a bad haul…"

Mitchell nodded in response to Sheppard's comment. All of them were carrying armloads of Wraith technology; weapons, communicators of some sort, and who knew what else? Some of the things were undoubtedly dangerous, but they wouldn't know until they had a chance to check it out – and even if it was dangerous, it might still be something they could use against the creatures that made them in the first place.

"Let's load it up and get it to A-43."

The plan was to play it safe and not take the new stuff directly back to the lava base – or Atlantis. What they were going to do was basically put it in a quarantine, on a planet that had been deemed as completely unsuitable for much of anything and void of most any life – at least as far as the Atlanteans had found when they'd checked it out long before Mitchell and the others had come to Pegasus. There, it'd be checked out – all the while making sure that if one of these items – and there were strange looking items in the piles that none of them had seen before – were explosive or designed to help the Wraith track them, they'd be tracking them to a world that held noting of interest to them.

Fourteen darts were now lined up in a row, waiting to be taken through the gate. It was a lot, but it didn't explain how so many Wraith ended up on the planet when they all knew that the dart was more or less designed as a one-man craft.

"Maybe they rode like we did when you were teaching us to fly?" Sheppard opinioned.

"Or maybe there's a ship around here used as a transport that we just can't see." Jack said.

"If it is, I cannot see it." Teyla said.

Of course the others had to agree to that. Even when Kale had transformed back into wolf form, trying to follow the scent of the Wraith back to where they'd come, he hadn't had any luck. Of course, there had been a lot of them, too, and the scents mingled, confusing even his sensitive nose.

"Maybe Carter's figured something out," Jack said, shrugging. "Maybe we'll get lucky and that thing she and McKay are taking apart holds some kind of Wraith encyclopedia set on disk."

Mitchell and Sheppard smiled, and Jack caught Teyla and Kale's confused looks.

As they gathered up their piles of stolen – liberated? – technology, Jack explained to those two what an encyclopedia was.

OOOOOOO

It took several trips to get the Wraith darts all over to the new planet. Only three of them could be flown at a time, since Sheppard was ferrying them in the Jumper so they wouldn't have to run back to the ambush site every time they delivered a new set of ships. It was a lot faster than when Mitchell and Talon had secured their first three darts, but it still took a lot of time, and by the time the four of them (Teal'c, Sheppard, Jack and Melony) were done, Teyla and Kale had set up a campsite somewhat close to the gate – and far from the ambush site, just on the off chance that the Wraith would come looking for their missing patrol, or group, or whatever they had been.

The newly stolen darts were well hidden from any possible detection from overhead – such as if a ship flew over looking for them. They had Kale fly over and see if he could spot them to double-check this, and the Light One told them that the only way he knew that there was anything there was because he knew where to look. Unless the Wraith had locating devices on the ships – and they were really beginning to believe that they didn't – they wouldn't know which planet to look on, and if they were doing simple sweeps, they wouldn't find anything.

Jack had some question about the amount of Wraith they'd found, since it certainly had seemed that there were a lot more than one platoon – or whatever they called their squads – but it was Teal'c who came up with the most plausible answer to that question as they were eating the dinner that the Athosian and the Light One had prepared.

"The Wraith were undoubtedly searching for their missing patrol, O'Neill. The patrol that Colonel Mitchell and Talon destroyed."

"Probably hoping to find some black boxes in the event that all three of the ships happened to crash in some freak accident," Mitchell agreed.

Of course, there had been more than three Wraith in that patrol as well – and only three darts, Talon said, speculatively. Where do you suppose the others managed to find transportation?

Huh. Good point.

She hadn't thought of that, either. Of course, to give her a little credit, she hadn't really had a chance to – since she'd been shot down on her way back with her ill-gotten goods before she had had a chance to contemplate anything but how much fun the darts were to fly.

"Maybe they have bigger ships that drop the patrols off and leave," Sheppard said, shrugging as he drained a cup of coffee. The days were so hot on this planet, but the nights were cool enough to allow them to enjoy the hot drink. Not that Mitchell needed any reason to enjoy a good cup of coffee.

"With the darts as air cover," Jack speculated.

Melony and Sheppard both shrugged.

"It's as good an explanation as anything…" And better than anything else they'd come up with. At least until they found a craft that told them otherwise.

"Well, whatever it is…" Jack said, standing up and stretching. "I'll be glad to get back to the lava base and see what they're finding out."

He didn't have to mention that he was worried and wanted to check on things, too. The thought of leaving Carter alone with potentially dangerous technology worried him. Not because she couldn't take care of herself, because he knew that she could. He just preferred when he was around to take care of her – when she didn't know that was what he was doing, of course. The thought that something might have blown up in their faces – hers especially – was enough to make him want to rush back and check on her – them – a dozen times a day. Only the fact that he knew they'd have been contacted if something had happened, and the fact that Mitchell would have teased the hell out of him forever, kept him from doing just that. Or even mentioning that he wanted to.

"It has only been six days," Teyla said, standing as well. They weren't going to sleep outside – even though it would have been far more comfortable in the cool of the evening and after the heat of the day. There was always a chance that the Wraith would come looking for their lost people, and the Jumper afforded them protections from the life-suckers. "How much could they possibly have learned in such little time?"

Jack smiled and shook his head.

"I never underestimate Colonel Carter," he told Teyla. "She's done some amazing things in the time I've known her."

"And add to that the fact that McKay is just as brilliant – and as nosy – and we probably will have a lot of catching up to do by the time we get back." Mitchell added, smiling at Jack's scowl when she'd mentioned McKay being with Sam.

They'd spend another day policing this area – they'd already cleared out all the shell casings that would give evidence to who had ambushed the patrol should anyone come looking – but there were other things that needed to be cleared, too, and Jack wanted to take another look for a bigger ship. Just in case.