CHAPTER 4 – A FRIEND IN NEED

Ronon was feeling a little uneasy. Both John's reaction to the woman, and the behavour of the woman herself, well, it was not normal. He sat brooding at the table in the mess for a while longer, contemplating whether he should interfere – John was afterall a grown man, and capable of making his own mistakes, and when it came to women, he had already made his fair share.

Taking his tray and removing the rubbish, he made his decision and went to find Elizabeth.

Scrolling through the personnel files now, Elizabeth looked up in confusion. "I don't understand Ronon. There is no engineer by the name of Andrea and there have been no new recruits through from earth for the past two months. In fact, there is no one by the name of Andrea in Atlantis, at least according to my personnel files. Are you sure that is her name?"

"I was there when she came and introduced herself to us. She is... different... Elizabeth. The way she looks at him is unusual and I get a weird feeling whenever she is around. Can't put my finger on it – and the way John is acting around her is very unJohn."

"UnJohn? Is that even a word Ronon? I don't know what to tell you. The best thing would be to call her in here, but we'd have to do it discreetly or John will get angry that we are going behind his back, especially is she turns out to be above board."

Ronon just nodded his head and thanking her, left the room to find Andrea.

The woman in question had taken John to an empty room and now stood quietly in front of him. She had said nothing to him yet, and he had just stared at her as though trying to see into her mind, still feeling that strange pull of pure connection that threaded its way between them.

"Ok Andrea... silence is not a good thing here. You need to tell me something, I get that – and I have a bad feeling that I'm the one that's gonna end up with egg on his face!"

"Colonel John Sheppard – I do understand some of the expressions you use, it is difficult to formulate what you wish to say." Consciousness warred with consciousness, the need to mate strong, but the need not to hurt beginning to make itself felt, a foreign feeling for the alien consciousness.

"Andrea. Whatever it is you want to tell me, just say it, now... please!" He took her hands, sensing the turmoil that was building up inside her.

She began the story from her beginning, telling him about her species where they had resided since the beginning of known time, as specks of radiation on the Lantian Star. Non tangible forms of pure energy, co existing in harmony with other such life forms, until the time that the star began to... The build up of energy from this event slowly began to kill off many of her kind, until there were only a core group left, about to face the extinction of their species. A plan was formulated, they had the ability to take on the form of another, for the time required to mate and once the task was complete, the form that they had taken would slowly perish and exist no more. This consciousness was chosen to take the required form and in turn, had chosen Colonel John Sheppard as the one with which to continue their species.

Shock, and a dawning horror began to grow on his face and he released her hands suddenly as though stung. "Alien? You're telling me you're a damn alien? Why the hell does that always happen to me? Couldn't you have been a nice normal girl, wanting a nice normal guy for all the right reasons? No, you had to be a damn alien? Needing a mate! Jesus, is that even possible? How can a human and you... consciousness...damn, don't you even have a name? … mate? And just what the hell will the child look like? Jesus!"

John's hair was in disarray as he dragged his hand through it relentlessly, staying as far away from Andrea as he could.

Another voice emerged. It was the more hesitant one, and John understood this to be human consciousness. "Please Colonel John Sheppard... I know you are angry and I want to explain further. There should have only been one consciousness, the human form is just the vessel. You would not have known and we would have completed the mating ritual and I would have taken my offspring away to nuture. The human form would have perished and you would have been none the wiser." She stopped now, noting that he looked confused, as though warring himself, with two sets of feelings inside him.

"I am no longer just a human form. Something went wrong in the transformation, instead of just a shell, I created a whole persona, with feelings, emotions and a separate consciousness. This should not have happened, and it is difficult to share this body with two separate corporeal forms. My feelings are not her feelings. I feel... emotions … for you. I like it when you touch me, when you hold me... I like the feel of your skin and your smell. She does not feel these things, but she has grown fond of you also, in her own way and did not wish to hurt you any further."

She attempted to close the distance between them so that she could touch him, but he looked down at her hand and backed away. "Don't Andrea... just don't!"

Sighing a little, she continued with her explanation. "I wanted you for myself and I knew that her intentions were not for your good, so I attempted to push her away as I grew stronger, and it was working, but it is difficult. In some small way, she is a small part of me also, and I think that because the transformation went wrong, we will possibly merge, rather than have one consciousness destroy the other. This is an unknown for her... for us."

"Andrea... I'm feeling a little out of my depth here, and I can't think straight. I have to report this to security, I'm sorry – whether you are here for malicious reasons for not, and they would be considered questionable, we cannot have alien life forms running around on this base. Hell, it's against protocol. You understand that, don't you Andrea?"

He continued keeping that distance between them and she shook her head sadly. "My feelings are real Colonel John Sheppard... John... They are not part of the transformation, they are learned. Please believe that..."

He almost reached out to her then, becoming lost in those violet eyes and feeling again the pull between them – wondering if it was a real emotion or a fabricated one. It hurt to think about it, and tapping his ear comm he opened a channel to both the security team and Ronon, telling them to come immediately. Andrea slid down to the floor and put her head in her hands. She had failed. Her species would not survive