The beam continued towards Sheppard, who dived into the mud to avoid it. He was winded by the fall, and it took him a few moments to recover. Taking deep breaths, he scrambled to his feet, and searched the sky for the Darts. They were nowhere in sight. He ran to the Puddle Jumper.

"Where are the Darts?" he called as he ran in.

"They've gone," Rodney said, a puzzled tone to his voice. "They seemed to just vanish."

"Well find them!" John said, urgently. "They've got Carson."

"Colonel," Teyla's soft voice reached him from the entrance to the Puddle Jumper. He looked round.

"What?" he asked, impatience in his voice.

"It's Carson," she said. "He's still here."

"What," he repeated, this time in amazement. He ran over to the door just in time to see the doctor getting, rather unsteadily, to his feet. He and Ronon ran over to help the shaken doctor.

"Carson," John said in relief. He put a hand on his shoulder, as if to make sure he was really there. "I thought the Dart had got you."

"So did I, lad," Carson replied, his voice still shaky. "It felt very odd. The beam came right over us but it didn't seem to actually touch us."

His words reminded them of the woman they had encountered. She was lying, unconscious, several yards away. Carson hobbled over to her, his medical training immediately kicking in.

"She's unconscious, but her pulse and breathing seem more or less normal. Let's get her back to Atlantis so I can check her over properly."

Ronon picked her up easily. She seemed almost like a child in his arms. He carried her back to the Puddle Jumper and gently laid her down.

John still seemed uneasy by her presence. "Can't you check her over here, Carson," he said.

"I can only do a rudimentary check here," he replied. "I'd much rather take her back to the Infirmary and check her over there. She's not showing any signs of regaining consciousness, and that is worrying me."

"We still don't know who she is," John persisted. "This could have been a set up to get a spy into Atlantis."

"Aye," the doctor agreed. "It could. But all I know is that she saved my life. I don't know what she did, but she protected me. And I'm not about to leave her lying here, unconscious, and vulnerable to attack by goodness knows what."

John looked round at the others, trying to gauge their feelings. "Carson is right," Teyla said softly. "We can't leave her here. We can keep her guarded at Atlantis. She doesn't even have to know where she is."

"Okay," John agreed, after a moment's thought. "But remember, she might not be a friend. So treat her with caution." The others nodded. He then moved forward to the controls. "Let's go home."

They were greeted by a concerned looking Elizabeth as they came out of the Puddle Jumper. A team of medics met them there, and under Carson's supervision moved the woman onto a stretcher.

"Do you know anything about her?" she asked John.

"We didn't have enough time to get to the social niceties," John responded. "One minute we were asking her why she had commandeered our campfire and the next we were running away from Darts."

"Did she save you from the Darts?" Elizabeth asked.

"I don't really know," John admitted, rubbing his hand through his hair. "I'm sure that she and Carson were caught up in a culling beam, and then it was heading towards me. But neither she nor Carson was taken up and the Darts just disappeared off our sensors. It all seems a little crazy, and I can't help that she was somehow involved in that craziness."

Elizabeth sighed deeply. "Put a close guard on her," she ordered. John nodded his agreement. "And let me know as soon as she wakes up. She has some questions to answer."

John followed the stretcher carrying the stranger to the Infirmary. Carson was hobbling along on his sprained ankle, but seemingly oblivious to it. As soon as they put the woman's stretcher down, he was fussing round her, hooking her up to machines and taking blood.

John and the others all went through their normal post-mission check-ups, but John made sure that his eyes were always on the woman. Carson was eventually persuaded to allow his ankle to be looked at, but as soon as it was bandaged up, he was back with his patient checking on readings and fussing over her.

John approached him. "What's the verdict, Doc?" he asked.

"I cannae find anything physically wrong wi' her," the doctor replied, his accent more pronounced in his anxiety. "It's as if she's exhausted. All the tests are consistent wi' someone who's run three marathons in a row."

John looked down at the woman on the bed. She did look exhausted. "She seemed fine at the camp," he said, a puzzled look on her face.

"Aye," the doctor agreed. "She seemed full of energy and life then. But whatever happened, seemed to drain all that energy from."

"Do you think it was the culling beam?" John asked.

"I dinnae ken," the doctor responded.

John looked at him, confused.

"Sorry," Carson repeated. "I just don't know, Colonel."

"Doctor," one of the nurses called out to Carson. "She seems to be waking up."

John and Carson looked at each other. Maybe now they would get some questions to all those questions.