Thanks to my reviewers, I love you guys:) Of course O'Neill COULD have them flown in, but where would be the fun in that?

Chapter 2

(Atlantis)

"SGA-1 to the briefing room immediately, SGA-1 to the briefing room immediately." Teyla Emmagan blocked Sheppard's latest attack and stopped the sparring match.

"Huh. Wonder what this is about?" Sheppard mused, putting his sticks back in his bag. "Let's go." Sheppard told Teyla, letting her go out of the room first.

"That sounded like Dr. Weir. We should hurry." Teyla advised, and they picked up the pace. To be honest, she didn't really want to go to a briefing. John had been improving in his sparring style, and he was becoming more of a challenging apponent. Things were just getting interesting when the summons halted their match.

"You have been practicing, Colonel." Teyla said, and Sheppard smiled down at her. "Well let's just say I was getting tired of always ending up on the mat. Not that there's anything wrong with losing to a woman." He teased when he caught her look.

"I do not think you will be winning any time soon yet Colonel. I have been going easy on you." Teyla teased back.

Before Sheppard could retort, a panting Rodney McKay caught up to them, holding a diagnostic instrument. "What's going on? I was in the middle of running a test on that depleted ZPM we found on P4A- 672. I think I might have found a way to... repower it."

John looked at him. "'Repower it'? That doesn't sound like a technical term, McKay." Rodney just smirked back. "I was trying to find a term you would understand."

"Oh. How thoughtful." John replied, walking into the briefing room to find Ronon, Caldwell, and Elizabeth already there. By the looks on Elizabeth and Caldwell's faces, this wasn't a routine briefing.

"What's going on?" Sheppard asked suspiciously, taking a seat beside Teyla.

She didn't waste any time starting. "We just recieved word from the SGC. The Wraith somehow managed to find a way to send a message to the Goa'uld, and they're going to meet to talk about forming a partnership of sorts."

"The Wraith do not have partnerships." Teyla interrupted. "Yes, but the Wraith want to find a way to Earth. They know our galaxy has a veritable feast of healthy human hosts for them to feed upon." Weir told her.

"Plus they probably want to size up the gould, see what they'd be like as possible enemies." Sheppard added with a nod.

"And the gould probably want to see if the Wraith would make good hosts." Caldwell said with a frown.

"So maybe they'll annihilate each other and get off of our backs. Wouldn't that be nice?" Rodney said. "Yeah, but it would be way too easy. And from what I've heard of these 'gould' they aren't a match for the Wraith." Ronon said, testing the sharpness of a blade against his thumb.

Rodney shuddered as Ronon licked the blood from his thumb. "Could you not do that... ever? Ugh, do you know what infections could be on that thumb? I did a study on it- you don't care." He finished flatly at Ronon's glare.

"Can we get back to the problem at hand please?" Elizabeth asked, calling their attention back to the possible doom of humankind.

"General O'Neill knows where this is going to happen, and he wants one of our teams to accompany his team to sabotage this meeting. You're going to be that team who goes. You have the most experience fighting the Wraith, and Teyla, your ability to sense them will come in handy."

Sheppard nodded, while Rodney just looked like he was going to be sick. "When are we going?" Sheppard asked.

"As soon as you're ready. This thing is happening in less than a month, so we need to go ASAP." Caldwell said.

The team stood up. "We'll be ready in ten, Colonel." Sheppard told the Caldwell, turning to leave.

"Ten minutes! I can't be ready in ten minutes! What do we take? What do we need?" Rodney sputtered, following John out of the room.

"We're going to EARTH, McKay. What could you possibly need that they won't have there? Just grab your mission stuff and get to the Dedalus." John walked to his quarters, leaving McKay to get to his room at a run.

Fifteen minutes later, the team-except for Mckay- was on the Dedalus, ready to set out. McKay ran in, gasping.

"You're late, Dr.Mckay." Caldwell said, eyeing the doctor with an unreadable expression. "Oh, well excuse me for not being as efficient as you military types." He snarked back, but Caldwell just grinned and turned to the front of the ship.

"Let's go, Lieutenent." He told the pilot, a petite blonde. It would take them 18 days to get to Earth, 18 days the SGA team had to read up on everything they could about the Goa'uld.

"Lieutenent Parker will show you to your quarters." Caldwell told Sheppard's team, effectively dismissing them.

"If you'll some with me, sir." A thin Air Force officer said, leading the team down the hall to crew quarters. He pointed out four rooms, and went back to the bridge.

" Well, let's all get comfortable. And catch up on our reading..." Sheppard said, nodding to his team member and walking into his room. It could have been worse. At least the bed had a decent mattress, something McKay couldn't complain about.

Sheppard saw a stack of folders on the nightstand marked top secret, and flopped down onto the bed with one. If this mission was going to go well, they'd need every edge they could get.

A/N: I know, it's pretty slow right now, but next chapter it'll pick up when the Dedalus reaches Earth. Stay tuned! And review revire review:)