John was only a few steps behind the rest of his team. They where running through the sparse forest. Scared didn't adequately describe how he felt. He was terrified. He was running for his life, still clutching his useless weapon.

Rodney was leading the way, panting like a fish out of water. John wasn't sure how long Rodney could keep running like this. He could only hope that Rodney would be able to make it. Rodney tripped and fell. Ronon quickly hauled Rodney back to his feet. "Keep going McKay!" Ronon yelled.

John turned around and emptied another clip of ammunition into the pursuing wraith. He noticed the wraith slowed down slightly as the bullets flew in all directions. John wasn't trying for accuracy, he already knew his weapons were useless. He merely needed time. He dropped the empty clip on the ground and rammed a new one into the gun. "How much further?" He yelled up at Rodney.

"Should be just a bit further." Rodney screamed in return, still panting for breath.

John reached into his vest pocket and withdrew the remote for the jumper. He quickly activated it. The jumper appeared directly in front of them. "Teyla, Ronon, cover me!" He yelled as he raced into the jumper. The jumper instantly powered up to his presence. "Everyone on board?" John asked.

"We are all here!" Teyla shouted in reply as she raised the rear hatch.

"What are you waiting..." Rodney began.

"Shut up!" John said as he took the jumper off. "Time to finish this guy." John piloted the jumper high into the atmosphere and then turned back towards where the wraith was still standing. He fired the two drones into the wraith.

The drones impacted at an incredible velocity. They turned the area near the wraith into a burning maelstrom. John turned the jumper back around, heading for orbit. He took a deep breath. "That was just too close." He said. "Everyone okay?"

"I think I'm going to have a heart attack." Rodney said, still breathing heavily.

"I'm fine." Ronon said, taking his usual seat.

Teyla sat down before answering. "I will be alright."

"That's good." John said. "Now let's just make it to the gate."

John flew into the direction of the stargate. Oddly enough however, the jumper couldn't detect the stargate. John slowly scanned the area around where the stargate orbited. He still couldn't detect anything.

"I think we have a problem." John said. Teyla immediately looked at him.

"What could possibly be worse?" Rodney snapped.

"The fact that I can't find the stargate." John said.

"Oh no, this is bad." Rodney spun around, using the console behind him to scan. "This is really bad. I can't find any indication of the stargate."

"Try dialing Atlantis." John said, nodding to Teyla.

Teyla reached over and dialed the coordinates. "The gate should be open." She said after she finished dialing.

"Atlantis, this is Sheppard. Can you hear me?" John waited. "Atlantis, can you hear me?" John turned around. "McKay, I need a solution."

"John." Teyla said quietly. "Look forward."

John turned around and gasped. A massive ship had appeared. It was shaped like a wraith hive ship, but had a distinctly ancient look. "Hang on!" John reached down and activated the cloak.

"Scan that ship." Ronon said to Rodney. "Maybe it has the stargate in its fighter bay."

"What?" Rodney snapped. "Why would the ship have the stargate in a fighter bay? That's where the darts are. It's far to big to use it and if it's moved its coordinates are no longer valid and..."

"Just do it Rodney." John snapped. "I don't think we've got long before they can detect us."

"Hold on." Rodney put his hand in the air to prevent John from responding. "I've got a good scan on it. It's some kind of variant on the wraith hive ship." Rodney muttered something to himself. "No, this isn't right!"

"What's not right?" John replied.

"It's a wraith hive ship, but it's using ancient technology!"
"I thought that wasn't possible."

"Apparently we were all wrong."

"Is there a weak point?" Teyla asked. "Something we can exploit to our advantage."

"I need time to go over these readings."

"Time is something we don't have Rodney." John put the jumper into a sharp dive as the wraith ship opened fire.

"The moon." Teyla asked. "Can we not seek shelter there?"

"It's a long shot. Hang on!" John turned towards the moon.

The moon was a small, cold rock. John could see nothing but craters as they got closer and closer. There were no signs of life, no signs of water. Luckily, they had at least several days worth piled into the jumper. Fortunately, the wraith ship had lost them after they'd flown far enough away from it.

"I'm going to set us down on the dark side of the moon," John said, "in one of those deep craters."

"Good idea." Rodney complemented. "It will make it harder for the wraith to find us."

"I knew that." John snapped. "I'm a fighter pilot. Remember?"

"Uhhh... yeah... sorry. I'll get to work on finding a weak spot."

"Sorry for snapping at you Rodney." John took a deep breath. "I'm just stressed."

John set the jumper down in a massive crater on the dark side of the moon. The crater was several miles wide and equally as deep. Whatever had made it had been huge. John guessed a comet, or maybe even a massive wraith ship of some kind colliding with it. He'd seen stranger in the past day.

He couldn't get the image of the wraith from the planet out of his head. It had said that it was the real master of the order. That it had all the powers of the order of time. That it had feed on the members of the order through time. Was the old man all a wraith plot too? He would have to return, get some answers. He shook his head, shutting down most of the jumper's systems with his mind.

"Is something wrong?" Teyla asked.

"It's what that wraith said." John replied. He spun his chair around so he faced her. "He said that he was the true leader of the order of time. That's the same thing the old man claimed to be a member of. He also acknowledged me as an apprentice."

"A strange coincidence, although there is no denying your claim this time."

"No. You all saw it. You all heard it." He paused, scratching his head. "What if that whole series of tunnels was a base of some kind. Maybe the bodies were those that the wraith fed upon. He said he'd fed upon their numbers for a long time."

"That is true, but what does it mean to be an apprentice to the order of time?"

"I honestly don't know. The old man said things about being able to control time."

"Again, this is assuming that you even really saw the old man." Rodney said.

"If you don't have anything important to say Rodney, then don't say it." John said angrily. "If and when we get out of this mess, we need to go back to that planet."

"That much we can all agree on." Teyla said, silencing a remark from Rodney.

"But first we've got to figure out how to deal with that hive ship." Ronon said.

"Any ideas Rodney?" John asked, already knowing the answer.

"Not yet and the second I find one, I'll tell you." Rodney turned back to his work.

John reached into his vest pocket and withdrew a power bar. He unwrapped it from its plastic covering and began eating it. It didn't taste like anything, but it was better than nothing and he was suddenly very hungry.

He looked at his watch, it was 20:00. They'd definitely missed the evening meal. They'd also missed a scheduled radio contact with Elizabeth, but since they couldn't find the stargate, it didn't matter.

He stole a glance at Teyla, debating whether or not to ask her about Athosian wedding customs. He decided against it, this was neither the time nor the place. Not to mention, Ronon was around. He still was unsure about Ronon and Teyla. Despite Teyla's reassurances to the contrary.

There were simply too many unknowns. For several weeks, Teyla and Ronon had been very close. Even through the early parts of this day, they'd spent almost endless amounts of time with each other. While John had been jealous, he was now confused. As far as he knew, he was about to marry Teyla, yet he wasn't exactly sure what had happened between her and Ronon.

On top of his worries about Teyla and Ronon, were his worried about the order of time. He knew absolutely nothing about them, other than that he had all the genes to be an apprentice and that their leader was a wraith who had fed upon the order. How could a wraith have had that much power, or was it that the order of time was not as good as they claimed to be. He just didn't know. There was a lot he didn't know.

XXX

The next couple of hours were very quiet. Ronon was snoring quietly in his seat. Rodney hadn't moved the entire time. John had caught a few moments of sleep, but he'd done little more than rest. The ship was slowly getting colder and colder. He'd have to power back up to warm it up. It was something he didn't want to do, especially not with a wraith hive ship looking for them.

He glanced over at Teyla. She was awake, but with her eyes closed. She had her arms wrapped around her body. He stood up. "Want me to get you a blanket?" He asked quietly.

"Thank you John." Teyla replied, her voice barely a whisper.

He walked to the back of the jumper and opened up the crate with the camping supplies in it. He withdrew a pair of thermal blankets and walked back into the cockpit. He placed one on his seat and then unfolded the second one. He then carefully laid it over Teyla.

She smiled and extended her hand. He took it and gave it a brief squeeze. He then released it and sat down in his own seat, pulling the thermal blanket over him. He instantly felt warmer. The seat was still warm from him sitting in it and the blanket kept all of his body heat inside it's warm cocoon.

"Any progress Rodney?" John asked. Rodney didn't answer immediately. "Hey Rodney, any progress?"

Rodney shook his head. "Nothing of real value yet. I think I know where the stargate is, the trouble is getting to it. On top of that... that hive ship is amazing. It's got all the benefits of ancient technology, yet its still wraith."

"So where's the gate?"

"It's in the secondary cargo bay. I'm working on trying to figure out how to get into the cargo bay."

"Can't we just blow it open?"

"Not without risking sending the gate into a spiral in which we'll never be able to get through it."

"Okay, bad idea. So what are we going to do about it?"

"I'm working on a command that will open the cargo bay doors for us. Then we simply dial and leave."

"You make it sound simple." John mocked Rodney.

"Believe me Colonel. It's not even close to simple."

"Never said it was." John shifted so that he was comfortable. "I'm going to try and catch some shut eye. So make sure you pay attention."

"That's great Colonel. You sleep and I'll think up a way to save us."

"You're not the one who has to fly the ship and make you're crazy plan work. You're not the one who had to dodge an ancient space gun's fire while expecting the entire solar system to explode on us."

"That was low Colonel."

"Guess I'm still a bit sore from that. Sorry Rodney. You get to work, find a plan. Then I'll do it."

"Fair enough."

John closed his eyes and forced himself to relax. There was nothing he could do to help Rodney. He would simply have to wait. He hated waiting.

XXX

John awoke to a knife against his throat. He immediately tensed, looking up at who held the knife. He was shocked. "Ronon!" He said. "What the hell are you doing?"

"Making a point Sheppard." Ronon said gruffly. "Stay out of my life."
"How am I in your life?"
"Teyla's mine. Stay away from her."

"What the..."
"I know all about that charming necklace you gave her. I know all about how you feel. She's mine... stay away from her."

"From what I got, she's not interested in you... not in that way."

"You lie Sheppard. Don't interfere." Ronon withdrew the knife. "I'm not above fighting for what I've claimed as mine."

"Don't think Teyla would appreciate that line of thinking." John said, his hand dropping down to his own knife on his belt. Thankfully, he still had the blanket on, covering his movements.

"You don't know her at all." Ronon's reply was like a whip.

"On the contrary, I think I know her better than you do." John stared Ronon in the eyes. "Just how far are you willing to go? You think you don't want to be here, then leave, but not until we get back to Atlantis." John smiled.

Fortunately, Ronon sat back down, grumbling incoherently. John allowed himself a sigh of relief. He had been worried about this. He'd have to talk to Teyla once they got back to Atlantis. He didn't have a choice in that matter.

Rodney had stayed mercifully quiet during the entire exchange. John turned to Rodney. "Thanks for staying quiet." He whispered.

"That's really scary." Rodney whispered back. "I think I've got an idea though."

"Let's hear it."

"I think I can get the command to work, thanks to the fact that we're in an ancient ship."

"There's a bad part to this plan. Right?"
"Yeah. To send the signal, we need to have actual contact with the hive ship's hull."

"Oh, that's not cool." John said grimly.

"I'm working on a way to disable their sensors too. It takes them time to detect a cloaked ship. If we move in quickly enough, we shouldn't have a problem."

"Think it'll be ready in an hour of so."

"I should have it ready by them."

"Good. We need to get back to Atlantis." John turned around, closing his eyes. He didn't spot the display that appeared, showing that the hive ship was scanning the moon, and that it was getting closer. Rodney was working too hard to notice.