Chapter 11

Morning dawned clear and bright on their new planet. Or at least it did for the women. Rodney woke to the smell of coffee and the searing pain of a hang-over. As he finally managed to open his eyes to the blinding light of day, he saw Sitnalta flitting about in the room, doing those early-morning female-things that seemed so important. In her one hand she had a steaming cup of coffee. And she was humming.

"Could you please be – not so loud?" he whispered. His jaw ached from the effort of talking. "And give me some coffee!"

Obviously she had not heard him, for she smiled brightly at him as she noticed he was awake.

"Hey, you're awake!" she stated the obvious in a sweet voice. He felt as if his head would explode at the sound of it. "Well, I'm off," she continued. She picked up her coat and went to the door. Just as she reached it, she turned back and smiled at him. "Oh, the coffee is finished. You'll have to get yours in the mess-hall." And she flipped her hair at him as she turned and left. Right there and then he promised himself he would never touch anything Radek distilled ever again!

As he left the room half an hour later, he found a grumbling John passing his room. He was wearing dark glasses, and Rodney wondered why he hadn't thought of that.

"I have no idea how I got to my room last night," the other man admitted.

"Yeah, me neither," the scientist agreed. In revered silence the two of them went to the mess-hall, craving coffee and breakfast.

At one table – in a dark corner – they found Ronon, Radek and one of the Becketts. The three of them looked the way John and Rodney felt.

"If you ever distil anything ever again, I will kill you," Ronon was threatening Radek as the two friends joined them. Radek only sat back in his chair and folded his arms.

"Well, I'm sorry," he sneered before adding something obviously snide in Czech. Immediately Ronon pulled out his gun and pointed it at the owl-eyed man.

"If you speak one more word in that language..."

"Yeah, you will kill me," Radek finished the sentence.

Just then Beckett – it turned out to be Carson – sat down at the table, handing out little white pills. "Aspirin," he explained. Gratefully they each took a couple and downed it with dark, bitter coffee.

After a while John looked up. "Has anyone seen Lorne?" he suddenly wondered. The six of them looked at one another, then got up together and ran to the conference room. But they were too late. A frowning Woolsey stood with arms crossed, glaring at them. A befuddled Lorne was crawling out from underneath the big table.

"Would anyone care to explain?" Woolsey demanded.

"Well, we had a little get-together last night," Rodney began, waving his hand in the air.

John nodded. "Yeah, just a little get-together," he said with a negligent wave of his hand.

"We played cards," Duncan added to the pot.

"Aye, nothing dangerous," Carson said. Ronon snickered.

"Except for the moonshine," he snickered, giving everything away. Rodney glared at him.

"Oh, do give it away, won't you!" he complained. But Ronon only grinned.

"Yeah, just a little moonshine," John explained. Then he grinned as well. But the effort made his head ache, so he stopped.

"I would appreciate it if you confined your drinking to your private quarters," Woolsey began. "And I would like to talk to the person responsible for the moonshine," he added in a voice load enough to make their heads pound. "Besides, all of you are late for your shifts!" Then he majestically turned around and went to sit at his seat at the big table. "And go clean him up," he said as he gestured towards Lorne. The next thing they knew the doors slammed shut in their faces, leaving them stranded in the control room.

It was a giggle that gave it away. As they turned around they found Anne, Laura, Sitnalta and Jennifer giggling. A little distance away Elisabeth and Teyla stood, supposedly in conversation but obviously enjoying the moment.

"You planned this," John accused, indicating the scene with a finger while squinting in the general direction of the women.

"No, not really," Anne smiled. "But serendipity seemed to be on our side this morning."

"Ha-ha," Rodney mocked them. But the act of shaking his head made it pound, so he stopped. Grumbling he marched away to his lab, Radek following. Ronon grabbed Lorne and dragged him away, probably to hose him down somewhere. The rest of the men soon dissipated, as well.

As the last man left, the doors to the conference room opened and Woolsey came out, grinning. "You think that worked?" he asked the women.

Teyla smiled serenely. "I believe it would be a while before they do something like that again," she answered before she, Anne, Laura and Jennifer left for their various tasks. Sitnalta and Elisabeth exchanged a few more words before the latter left, as well.

#####

The sun had already set over the city when John got the call from the control room. Someone was attempting to dial in. As he entered the control-room, Amelia was checking her lap-top a final time. "Incoming wormhole," she informed him. "Signal is coming in now." A worried Woolsey and Elisabeth stood to one side. A single screen showed the ugly face of Todd.

"Todd?" John asked.

"No doubt you are surprised to see me, John Sheppard," the Wraith opened the conversation. The rest of the conversation was even more disturbing: the Wraith had built a Super Hive ship.

While talking to the Wraith, John idly thought that perhaps last night had been a bad night for drinking, after all...

The End

Author's note: And here ends 'Spite and Malice.' But the story does not end here. If you wish to know what happened after they got to earth: just be patient!

Oh, and I read all your comments and suggestions. One of you (I forgot who) said I had to stop the fight between Weir and Sheppard. Well, I am a true believer in relationships, so just hang on there, perhaps in the next story...