Chapter 3 - Investigation

"What the hell has happened to her?" John asked anxiously, examining the blood-stains on the floor. "She must have gotten seriously injured."

Weir looked in the bathroom of Teyla's place. "There's no blood in there," she told him. "And there is not a single blood-drop out on the floor of the corridor."

"Okay, what does that mean?" Sheppard asked frowning. "The only guess I can make is that she should be still in this room heavily injured, but as far as I see she is not here."

"I don't understand either." Elizabeth sighed wearily. "Maybe it's not her blood all over the place."

"If not hers, where is the wounded person who made the mess? And that mop of hair on the floor is surely hers." John gestured in the direction of a blood-pool.

"I think we should call Ronon here," Doctor Weir said. "He is good at traces. I hope he can tell us what this all means."

Afterwards, she keyed the channel of the infirmary on her headset and asked Doctor Beckett if he knew something about Teyla's (or someone else's) injury with that much loss of blood, but he did not hear about it either.

Ronon examined the room thoroughly. Weir and Sheppard stood in the doorway nervously as they were waiting for him to share his conclusions.

"She was charged at by someone. From the direction of the blood-spots, she was beaten with a heavy object. The attacker grabbed her hair, that's how her hair got torn and a bunch of it fell onto the floor," Ronon murmured in front of him, as he was walking up and down in the room. "The thing I can't understand is how Teyla disappeared from this place. Every sign shows that she never left it after the struggle. There is no trace of dragging, and I'm sure that she could not get out of this room on her own with such injuries. Maybe, the attacker wrapped her in something preventing her blood from spattering on the floor in the corridor, and he or she carried Teyla away..."

"That's impossible," Sheppard shook his head. "Someone would have noticed if someone was dragging a covered body down the halls. This part of the base is never empty."

"Asgardian beam-technology," Doctor Weir whispered suddenly. "That's a way she could be transported out without being seen."

"Okay, then some marks of the operation can still be recognized on the computers aboard the Daedalus," John stated. "The only appliance that is able to use this technology is built in that ship."

"Oh, wait, wait," Weir protested. "I did not mean that. This Asgardian beam-technology-thing was just a quick idea..."

"And it's a really good one," Ronon nodded at her. "We should have a look at that ship."

Elizabeth put her arms around her chest as if she were cold, and stared, broodingly.

"We must arrange the case carefully," she said slowly. "It would not be good if someone found out that we had suspicions about the crew of the ship. I suggest we go right now and look around there. At this time there are only a few scientists, and maybe Hermiod aboard. They won't bother to ask what we are doing there."

"Okay, let's try it." John agreed. "Hopefully, we'll get a hint of Teyla's whereabouts."

They locked Teyla's room, and went to the transporter to teleport themselves to the stairs next to the resting ship. As they stepped out, unfortunately, they ran into Colonel Caldwell who was coming right from his spaceship. He raised his eyebrows as he caught sight of the three of them.

"What are you doing here?" he asked surprised.

"Let me explain it," Doctor Weir stepped forward, and secretly signed for Ronon and John to go on with their way to the Daedalus while she was distracting the attention of Caldwell from the entrance of his ship.

"Alright. Explain it." He wanted to turn after Sheppard and Ronon to watch what they were doing, but Elizabeth grabbed his uniform jacket, and forced him to stay with his back to the entrance.

"Can you, please, listen to me?" she asked in a stiltedly inquisitive tone of voice. "This situation is really important. Teyla has been injured, she has disappeared from her room, and we are looking for her..."

Her voice failed because she realized that she was holding him too tight, she was pulling him by his jacket so forcefully in her own direction that his nose nearly touched hers.

"Oops, sorry," she said quickly, and let him free. She stood in front of him blushing nervously, putting her weight from one leg to the other.

"And, what are you doing here on my ship?" he asked coldly, adjusting his uniform.

"We are just... erm... on our way to the labs" she replied timidly.

Caldwell turned around. "Where are Sheppard and Ronon?" he wanted to know, frowning.

"They went away to search for Teyla at... at the main lab..." she lied.

"It's late in the evening. Why are you three still occupied with the disappearance of that barbarian woman?"

"Don't you dare speak about her like that again!" she protested. "Teyla is an important part of the team, and she is not a barbarian, she is intelligent, emphatic and a good person."

Caldwell shrugged. "I still don't see a reason for running up and down the corridors looking for her. You should order everyone to their respective rooms, and then you can check her life-signal with the detectors."

"It's true, however..." She was searching for a good improvisation, but in this awkward moment Ronon stepped out of the entrance of the spaceship with a blanket in his hands.

"Look at this," he roared, and showed the blanket to her. It was blood-stained. "It's Teyla's blood and hair on it!"

Caldwell and Weir both stared at the blanket. The brown plush texture was covered with dark, reddish spots. John appeared behind Ronon.

"We found it stuffed into a built in cupboard," he explained.

"What the hell were you doing in the Daedalus?" Caldwell asked irritated.

"We were searching for clues of Teyla's disappearance." Sheppard answered casually, but as he saw Elizabeth Weir ducking her head with reddening face, he knew at that instant that he should not have told the truth.

Caldwell's glimpse at Elizabeth was sharp like a blade. "You wanted to mislead me," he stated coolly.

"Erm, I didn't mean it..." she muttered.

"You don't trust me, do you?" he asked bitterly.

"Oh, it's not about that." Her answer was quick. Too quick.

"Do you think that I have something to do with hurting that woman?"

Weir gulped. It seemed to her unavoidable to talk about a suspicion that crossed her mind.

"Well, I... I was just wondering... you know, that Goa'uld that controlled you for a short time... it could have left some parts of it in your personality..." She could not go on, because Caldwell stared at her with so much astonishment and pain in his eyes that her voice died away.

As she realized how offensive and hurtful her hasty reply was, she felt unable to carry on her previous line of thought; she was considering feverishly the proper way to apologize, but she could not find it. They were looking straight into each other's eyes speechless. When Caldwell finally got to his words again, his voice was dry and stand-offish.

"Alright, it's your job to investigate the case," he told her. "Do what you have to do." He turned away from her, and he left.

"Are you sure it was a good idea to mention the Goa'uld?" John asked Elizabeth silently.

Weir could kill him with her eyes, her glance was so resentful.

"No. It was definitely the rudest and most idiotic thing I've ever said!" she snapped. "I believed that he found out about my suspicion, I thought that was why he kept asking those questions. I... I just wanted to come up with the explanation quickly... Well, I was wrong." She clenched her fists forcefully.

"And, what now?" Ronon asked. "We know that someone brought Teyla aboard the Daedalus in this blanket. Shall I interrogate the whole crew of the ship?"

"No, no, no," Elizabeth shook her head. "We'll need more sophisticated methods. Maybe, if I had not spoiled everything, we could ask for Colonel Caldwell's help for questioning his team, but now, we have a more complicated task."