Radek went back to his quarters after Dr. Alley had given him and Elizabeth the bad news. He sat down on the bed. His mind was reeling. Carson was dead. There was something that seemed wrong in this picture and it wasn't just that one of his friends had died. Radek got back up and left his room, he needed some fresh air. Five minutes later, he stood on Rodney's favourite balcony. It figured that it was next to his lab. Radek leaned his arms on the railing and let the time since their first contact with the Yamin pass through his mind. It had almost been nine month since they had discovered the advanced civilisation by chance. Six months of contact and negotiations had passed peacefully and without problems. Radek himself had spent two weeks on Yamin, participating in negotiations and technology exchange. It had been the Yamin who had helped them build the mining operation on M5X-209. The Ymanhin had showed them the used of the Lavinthin. Without them, they would have run out of bullets by now. But the Lavinthin made even more effective bullets against the Wraith than conventional bullets against the Wraith. Radek could also remember Carson talking about meeting a healer from Yamin and their extraordinary medical technology. He had even mentioned the nano-technology. If the Ymanhin were hostile, why would they share so much of their technology with them? It didn't make any sense. The only thing that had made them suspicious initially had been that the Ymanhin had claimed that the Wraith had never been to their planet. Elizabeth had found that hard to believe, but without evidence to the contrary; the Ymanhin civilization was far more advanced than that of an, except the Ancients, she had let it be.

Yes, and then things had suddenly gone South without warning. John and Carson had disappeared and Rodney had been injured. And treated on Yamin. And his injuries had healed perfectly. So far for Dr. Alley's theory of the nano-technology not being compatible with human physiology. Radek saw two possibilities, either the Ymanhin had intentionally manipulated the nano-bots to kill humans, or someone on Atlantis had helped.

Radek stared out onto the ocean and thought about it. He wasn't used to thinking about people. Logically, the Ymanhin didn't have a motive to doctor with the nano-technology. If they wanted to make John and Carson to disappear they could just have done that. Atlantis had thought them lost after the terrorist attack on the trade negotiation, if the Ymanhin had produced their dead bodies and attributed their deaths to the terrorist, things would have been a lot easier. The Ymanhin society reminded Radek of Earth. It was the closest they had seen in the Pegasus galaxy. Unlike the hunter-gather people like the Athosian, the Ymanhin were not threatened by outside influences like bad weather or the Wraith, but they were as perfect as the Ancients had been. The Ymanhin were a threat to themselves, like every Earth society, Yamin was rife with conflict, criminals, terrorist, politicians, hidden agendas. The Ymanhin fought against each other, spied on each other, things that had seemed unique to the humans on Earth. Radek was sure that if the Ymanhin politician had wanted John and Rodney dead, they would have chosen a more inconspicuous way.

Assuming that someone on Atlantis was involved in what was ultimately murder, would open another range of new possibilities. Radek didn't see any motives and he saw even fewer opportunities. On Ymanhin, the only people with access to Carson had been Elizabeth, Rodney, Teyla, Ford and John. Limiting the time frame to the twelve hours before his death, the people who had definitely had contact with Carson were John, Teyla and Ford on the planet. Dr. Alley, Dr. Biro and various infirmary staff back on Atlantis. None of them struck Radek as killers. He didn't know the infirmary staff all that well, but unless someone had had a personal grudge against the chief of medicine, there were no motives.

Then he had an idea how to narrow down the time frame. Radek hurried to McKay's lab. Rodney kept it locked, but after he had spent the last two month mining on M5X-209, he had given Radek the pass code for the door. Radek booted up the computer and typed in McKay's password. It never hurt to know your boss' password. As the chief scientist, McKay had to review the data sheets and the final reports. Rodney hated the paperwork and liked to delegate the work to Radek and other scientists.

Radek pulled up the most recent data sheets sorted by date. He was looking for the data sheets of blood work from Carson and the others. Radek searched for the data sheets from the medical lab. Seven data sheets labelled 'standard post-mission' from late last night. Radek had taken a look at the data, but it was outside his field. The numbers were meaningless to him. There was another data sheet also labelled 'standard post-mission', this one from early in the morning. Radek opened the file. Lots of numbers. What jumped out to him that Dr. Alley was listed as the technician. Aside from research, the medical staff didn't carry out standard tests.

John hadn't slept for the rest of the night after Velig had led him back into the building. She had not locked him in, but John had still stayed inside. He had thought about what Velig had told him. It sounded almost to crazy to believe but it would explain the fragments of memory that John remembered.

Yamin. The name of the planet. He had been there with Rodney and Elizabeth. He recalled the inside of a room with large window, overlooking a city. Then they were in the corridor, Rodney was yelling, there was blood and gunfire. John was pretty certain that those memories belonged together. There were other fragments that made less sense. A dark room, Carson was there, badly injured. A man with a gun. He now recalled that he had indeed seen Velig before. He could see the image clearly in his mind. She had been dressed differently and the room had been different, but it been definitely her. John was not yet sure what it was that had happened.

An unplanned escape was unlikely to succeed. He was vastly outnumbered and without any resources. John didn't plan to stick around for too long, but for the moment to best plan seemed to be to play along and find out as much as possible.

He had already learned one thing; he was no longer on the Ymanhin home world Yamin. It hadn't occurred to him at the time, but when he had been back inside he had thought about it. From the planet Yamin, one could see both moons, Shukur and Jolan. The night sky had been completely dark, no stars, no moons. He could still assume there was a Stargate on the planet. The Ymanhin didn't have spacecraft, their shuttle technology was only developed for travel within the atmosphere. Unless of course, they had lied about that, which wouldn't be surprising, John thought. After all, they had never let on how much they knew about Atlantian technology and the gene.

oOo

"I'm not sure what your point is Dr. Zelenka." Elizabeth pinched the bridge of her nose. She definitely needed to sleep. The coffee substitute was vastly overrated. She still took another sip.

"My point is, that I think it is unlikely that Dr. Beckett died as a result of the nano-technology." Radek explained. He had not mentioned that he had concrete suspicious as to what had happened. "I'm only asking that you have the blood samples taken last night tested again."

"Tested for what?" Elizabeth asked. She had the feeling that Radek was making even less sense than the average scientist.

"The presence of the nano-bots." Radek said. He really had no clue what exactly he was hoping to find. It could be any number of toxins or poisons, possible alien ones. But if he could prove that the nano-bots had not decayed yet, them Elizabeth would have to believe that there was some other explanation.

"All right, I will have Dr. Biro retest the blood samples." Elizabeth said. "I'll let you know when she has the results." She paused. "There is also something else. You were one of Dr. Beckett's good friends, as far as I know?"

Radek nodded.

"I want you to go through his quarters. Put together things we can send back to his family, and things to put in storage."

"But it's only been..."

"I know. You don't have to do it today or tomorrow. I just want things to be taken care of."

"What wishes that Carson have?" Radek asked.

"None, he just left letters for his family and for Rodney."

"When will the memorial service be?"

"I haven't decided yet. There seems no good time for it." Elizabeth sighed. "Probably tomorrow."

"Is there any news from Yamin yet?"

"No, they haven't replied yet to our messages. We trusted them when we shouldn't have. I trusted them. It cost us three good people. If that's the price, maybe we should have come here."

"Everyone knew what they were getting into."

"Are you sure? We are alone out here and everyone is out to get us. The Wraith, the Genii, the Ymanhin!" Elizabeth was sorry she had ever heard of the Stargate Project.

oOo

It had just started to dawn when Velig came back. John had been expecting her. He could have run, but he doubted that he would have gotten far. From what he had seen from his window and when he had been outside, the building his room was in, was part of some sort of settlement surrounded by a desert. John estimated that about four hours had passed, but his watch had been taken.

"Good morning, John." Velig greeted him in a friendly voice. "Did you sleep well?"

John wasn't sure what to make of his captors. He was treated with respect, even kindness, yet there was no doubt that he was a prisoner.

"Honestly, I haven't slept at all."

"I hope you are rested." Velig smiled. "We will start treatment today."

oOo

John thought he had experienced pain. Accidents, combat injuries, even purposely inflicted pain, he had been there. he had thought he was prepared, he had thought he knew what was coming, how he react and how he could pull himself back to a place where the pain didn't exist.

When ten minutes after the injection, he had started to feel pins in needles in his extremities, he had expected that it would get a lot worse.

When five minutes later, his muscles were burning like he had just run a marathon, he forced himself to relax, to breathe slowly and evenly.

When three minutes later, John didn't even want to breathe, so much did his muscles hurt, it took all he had not to scream. He had never hurt this much in his entire life. People had tried to cause him pain and hadn't mange to cause him agony like this. John could feel tears on his face, but he couldn't care less. His hands were gripping the bedcovers, maintaining the grip so hard that the muscles of his hand were cramping painfully, but he didn't let go.

His sense of time and reality were fading and John wasn't sure what had happened any more. He only knew that everything hurt, breathing, moving, everything. He was gasping for breath, staring at the swirling colours dancing in front of his eyes. Waves of red so intense that it hurt his eyes swirled together with blue and purple like a crazy kaleidoscope. John blinked trying to find Rodney or Carson, not remembering that he was alone.

John was lost in pain and confusion when Velig stepped into the room. He emitted a low moan when she put her hand on his. Velig stood next to his bed, watching him, before she prepared an injection. She hadn't anticipated the human's reaction to the treatment. He seemed to be in great pain. The human's co-operation was not necessary, but highly desirable to their goals.

The pinprick of the needle barely registered in John's mind. But the wave of warmth that started to spread through him felt like the best thing that had ever happened to him.

Within minutes, the pain decreased from being all consuming to being just there.

John tried to open his eyes, but everything was blurred and he couldn't keep his eyes open. He felt utterly drained. He wanted to ask Carson what was going on, but his body wasn't reacting to the message his brain was sending. Panicked, John tried to move, but his body was heavy and numb. He felt himself slipping away and tried to hold on, but the pull of oblivion was too strong.

When she was sure that he was asleep, Velig quietly left the room. It would be several hours until the human would wake up.

TBC