Colonel Caldwell was almost glad to see Elizabeth come on board. He didn't really like political negotiations. He was military; and man of actions not words. Elizabeth, on the other hand, seemed to thrive in the political arena, and, for all that he may not agree with her decisions, she was a good negotiator.

As she came onto the bridge, she headed immediately for Colonel Caldwell.

"Have you made contact yet?" she asked.

"No," he replied. "I thought I leave you that pleasure."

"Thank you," she said, a smile on her face.

Colonel Caldwell nodded to one of his officers who immediately responded by flicking a switch.

"Channel open, Sir," the officer confirmed.

"This is Dr Elizabeth Weir; please confirm if I am speaking to the Kelta."

A moment of silence followed her statement. She turned to look a Caldwell, ready to make another transmission. But before she could say anything else, a voice could be heard responding to a statement.

"This is Malteen, of the Kelta; I can confirm that you have reached the Keltan home world. Please confirm the nature of your business with us."

Elizabeth glanced a Caldwell, an excited smile on her face. "Several of my people were invited to planet three days ago, we haven't heard from them since, and we are concerned about them."

"One moment, please," the voice said.

"Dr Weir," a new voice said. "I am Telen, one of the High Council of the Kelta. Please tell us little about your people who were invited to our planet."

Elizabeth thought for a moment, uncertain about how much information she should give at this stage. "One of the people belongs to our military, two are from different planets here in Pegasus, another is a scientist, and the other a doctor."

"May I ask, Dr Weir?" Telen replied. "Is either the scientist, or the doctor a genetic expert?"

Elizabeth's eyes met Caldwell's, both pairs of eyes reflected the concern they were feeling.

"Yes," Elizabeth confirmed. "Dr Beckett is a genetic expert. Can I ask you why you asked that question?"

"Dr Weir, I think it would be best if you and I met," Telen said. "Would you allow me to bring you to the planet?"

"I don't think that's a good idea," Caldwell interrupted quickly. "This is Colonel Steven Caldwell. Dr Weir's safety is my concern. We've already lost five people on your planet, with all due respect Sir, I do want to lose any more people."

"Your caution is noted, Colonel Caldwell," Telen responded. "And it is also appreciated. Would it then be possible for me to join you on your ship?"

Caldwell looked at Elizabeth, who nodded.

"I agree to your visit,"Caldwell confirmed

OoOoO

Carson had managed a few hours uninterrupted sleep, and felt marginally better for it. He had used the work he had done with Rodney and Radek before they left Atlantis as the basis for what he was doing now. He had now been able to identify the gene sequence which resulted in the telepathic and telekinetic abilities being present, and which determined their strength.

In many way, that was the easy bit. The difficult part was translating this knowledge into the means to create or enhance these abilities in an individual test subject. It was always at this stage that the unknown factors crept in. It was at this stage that the unlooked for side effects would show themselves as they had on Hoff. It is also the stage at where the success rate would become obvious. It was distinctly possible that this genetic manipulation would only have the same success rate as the ancient gene therapy, and that was less than fifty percent. All these thoughts were chasing each other around in Carson's brain to the extent that he didn't even notice when Patra came into the laboratory.

"Dr Beckett!" Patra said, in a voice demanding attention. "I want a progress report, and now!"

Carson turned, momentarily startled by the other man's appearance, and it took a few seconds to gather his scattered thoughts. Ria stood at Patra's side, an apprehensive look on her face. Carson considered for a moment what he should do, then motioned the equipment that were scattered across the bench in front of him.

"Well," he said, starting hesitantly. "I've managed to identify the gene that gives you these abilities."

Before he could go any further, Patra interrupted him with an enthusiastic cry.

"Excellent, excellent!" he said. "I knew you could do it, Doctor. Now you can test it on Ria."

"Now just wait a minute," Carson said, his voice full of nervous tension. "There's no way I'm ready to test this on a human patient yet. I need to run a number of computer simulations before I'm ready to think about that. There's no point in jumping into this, it just causes problems."

"I'm not happy, Doctor," Patra said, drumming his fingers in the bench as he spoke. "If I find out that you're stalling, then I'll be very unhappy indeed. And you don't want to see me very unhappy; people tend to suffer when I'm like that."

Ria caught Carson's eye. He raised his eyebrows questioningly. She responded with a gentle shake of her head.

"I'm not found him yet," her voice said gently in his head.

"I'm sorry, lass," he replied.

Patra seemed to sense that some form of communication had been going on between the two of them. His eyes narrowed, and he turned on the doctor.

"You aren't holding out on me, are you?" he said, his voice sharp.

"Of course not," Carson replied quickly, almost too quickly.

"I'm not sure I trust you, Doctor," Patra said. "So let me remind you just what you will suffer if I ever find out that you are hiding something."

At that moment, an excruciating pain screamed through Carson's head. He collapsed to his knees, his hands clutching his head in agony. He looked up at the other man, his eyes beseeching him to stop. But Patra just laughed, and increased the agony another notch. Carson fell to the ground, curled up in a foetal position, moaning in pain. With another twist, Patra increased his suffering, and the doctor welcomed the release of unconsciousness.