AN: 'sigh' Nobody loves me. Well, I'm gonna keep trying and post the next chapter. Please leave me some reviews! I really want to know what you think!

Chapter Two: A Simple Mission

Ree'an and Major Sheppard circled each other on the matt. Faces grim with concentration, each searched for an opening or a way to take the other off guard. The morning light bathed them both in a golden glow and shown from the polished wood of their weapons. The Major twirled two long sticks in each hand, but Ree'an held a long staff that was almost as tall as she was. The Kor'ania people preferred staffs and learning the fighting style had been one of her favorite lessons.

Sheppard came forward suddenly with a hard blow from above. She blocked and tried bringing the other end of her staff to his side. He block just as easily and the two continued to circle. Ree'an watched and waited, binding her time and searching for a way to use her speed and agility. The Major was much stronger than her and she knew she would never win in close quarters.

He tried again, this time aiming for her shoulder. This time instead of blocking, she ducked and the weapon whooshed past above her head. Moving quickly, she struck his knee and circled around his back. He faltered and before he could recover, she appeared behind and whacked him in the small of his back. He fell forward, caught himself with his hands. For a second Ree'an hesitated, thinking to let him recover. Suddenly he rolled over and caught her legs in his own, making her slam to the ground in surprise.

Sheppard was on his feet again, but Ree'an was already on her knees and prepared. Before he could strike again, she jammed her staff between his legs and drew it forward. Thrown off balance, he tripped and fell heavily on his back in a tangled mess. She rose quickly and placed one end of her weapon on his neck before he could make another move.

"Not bad," he said, sounding casual despite being out of breath.

"You still need to move faster," Teyla scolded him. She gave him a hand up. "Shall we try again?"

He checked his watch and shook his head. "We have to get going; Dr. Weir is expecting us." He starting to pick up his things and shove them into a duffle bag. When he'd finished, he rubbed his head with a small grin. "You're stronger than you look, Ree'an."

"Did I hurt you?" she asked in a worried tone.

"Nah," he waved dissmissively. "And it was a compliment, ya' know."

"Oh."

"You are very skilled," Teyla told her with an approving smile.

Ree'an smiled back. "Thank you."

The three began to walk back to command. Ree'an paid careful attention to which way they went, so she would be able to find her way back on her own. Though she had been in the city for almost a week now, she still got lost easily; even when it was just getting to the mess hall and back.

"So, Ree'an," Sheppard began. "What do you think of Atlantis so far?"

"I like it a lot. The city is so beautiful. It's like living in one of my childhood stories."

"And what about us? I mean, do you like living with us? Anyone mean to you or anything?"

"Oh no. You are all very kind to me. I am grateful." She smiled, but Sheppard sensed that she was holding something back.

"But?" he asked knowingly.

She sighed. "I miss the trees," she admitted

Teyla smiled kindly. "You should visit the mainland. I visit my people there often and the village is surrounded by many trees."

Another thought occurred to Sheppard at this suggestion. "We can go after we get back. And I can teach you how to fly the jumper on the way over."

Ree'an's eyes light up like a child on Christmas. "Truly? Thank you so much!" She hadn't flown anything since the Wraith dart, and even though it had been terrifying, it had been exhilarating too. She couldn't wait to get into the air again. "When will you be back?" she asked eagerly.

"Tomorrow. If all goes well."

They reached the control room a few minutes later. The place was still in a bit of a shambles from Ree'an and McKay's crash a few days earlier. The broken window was covered in plastic until they could figure out how to fix it and the stairs also had a few nasty dents in them. The dart itself had been laboriously removed and lifted into the jumper bay. Dr. Weir and Lt. Ford were already waiting for them in front of the briefing room. Dr. McKay was there too, looking very disgruntled.

"I don't know why I have to go on this mission," he complained. "I still have a lot of work to do on the dart and frankly I don't think anyone else has the competence to do it while I'm gone."

"Because you're part of my team," Sheppard reminded him sternly. "And, like it or not, you can't just decide to stay for your own reasons. Besides, I'm sure Dr. Zelenka is more than capable of taking care of the dart in your absence."

McKay opened his mouth to protest more, but Weir stopped him. "Alright gentlemen. Let's get this briefing started."

Ree'an smiled a farewell and left to find something to do while she waited for the promised flying lesson. She had a feeling the time would pass very slowly. Weir watched her go. "She certainly is remarkable."

"Yes she is," Sheppard agreed.

"Any luck figuring out where she got the Ancient genes?"

"Not yet. From what she's told us, I don't think she even knows. And she certainly isn't any kind of threat to security and we could us someone else with gene around."

She nodded. "I agree." She smiled. "In the mean time, let's keep trying these addresses. We're going to need more resources if we want to survive." They both turned and closed the tall doors behind them.

The mission was to visit a new planet from the Ancient database. The little they knew was that the Stargate was in a dry, mountainous region with little plant or animal life in sight. Neither did there appear to be any native humans on the planet and the team was assigned to scout for signs of sentient life or possible resources. A simple, routine mission.

At least, that's how it began.

X X X

"McKay, have you found anything yet?" Sheppard asked. He flew the jumper up higher so they could get a better view of the landscape. It looked bleak.

"No," he replied irritably. "There's nothing here but rocks and dust. This is a waste of time, we should just go back."

"We've only been here ten minutes. We'll keep looking."

A few minutes later, Ford pointed to something in one valley. "What's that?"

Sheppard magnified the area to reveal what looked like a small, walled city. "That looks promising." He cloaked the jumper and landed a short distance from the settlement.

The land was rocky and choked with dust. Great white capped peaks rose in the distance. Vegetation was scarce and usually only rough grasses or scraggly hedges. Water was more scarce than life; not a single drop could be seen anywhere beyond the tantalizing snow thousands of feet up.

The city itself had a high wall of pinkish stone. The wall was old and crumbling with the tops of thin trees peaking above its edges. A high gate, closed with row of sharp spikes, seemed to be the only way in or out. Just inside they could see green fields lined with irrigation ditches and a few dilapidated huts, but no people.

"I wonder where everyone is?" Sheppard said. His voice seemed startlingly loud in the prevailing silence.

"I do not know," Teyla answered. "It is most strange."

"Can we worry about that later and get into some shade?" McKay asked. "I don't even want to think about what all this UV radiation is doing to my skin."

"It's not that bad," Sheppard scolded. This wasn't really true. It was brutally hot. The sun blazed overhead making them all extremely uncomfortable. Sheppard stuck his head through the bars of the gate and glanced around. "Hey!" he shouted. "Does anyone live here?"

An irritated man appeared out of a small shack just beyond the entrance. His hair and eyes were jet black and his skin was extremely tan. He looked like he had just gotten out of bed and was very annoyed. "What do you want, strangers?" he snapped.

"At the moment we would like to get out of the sun," Sheppard answered pleasantly. "Eventually, we'd like to get to know your people a bit, maybe do some trading..."

The man grunted in disinterest and began turning a winch to raise the bars of the gate. "You can come in, but be silent! Everyone sleeps at the noon hour." With that he closed the gate behind them and went back to his shed, presumably to resume his nap.

"What's his problem?" Sheppard scoffed.

"He probably didn't like us waking him up," Ford pointed out.

Sheppard shrugged. None of them really minded the man's rudeness. They were just glad to get under the cool shad of the trees. Granted, it wasn't much, but it was a major improvement to being outside on the dusty ground. They all sat down took long grateful drinks from their water bottles.

"I wonder if it's always this hot here," Ford mused.

"Well it certainly is now," McKay huffed. He was smearing himself with more of his smelly homemade sun block. "And the people don't seem very nice either."

"We haven't really met them yet," Sheppard said. "Don't judge them too quickly."

"Still..." Teyla put in. "I also have a feeling that these people are not friendly."

"Well, we'll find out soon enough."

TBC