Alright I'm very sorry that I haven't update this for a while but I've been mad busy with my school work; there's only a few more weeks until my exams and I'm already doing my art one!

But, I will obviously try to update this as often as possible and hopefully there might be ten chapters by the end of April; hopefully.

Edwina B. Karch: Thanks. Hope you enjoy.

Shorty McGee: Enjoy

Anyway, I hope you like this chapter and ENJOY

KaseyKC

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Seven

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"To be conscious that we are perceiving or thinking is to be conscious of our own existence". – Aristotle 'Nichomachean Ethics'.

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I'm going to die now.... no! I can't die! Eli! I have to protect Eli! Rush glared at the creature as it peered at him, I've got to save my son... my son...

It cocked its head to the side, looking intently into Rush's eyes almost as though it were trying to peer into his soul; to say that Rush found it unnerving would be quite the understatement. He found that it terrified him for some unknown reason.

After what felt like a millennia had passed the creature blinked owlishly and gripped his shoulder even tighter causing Rush to wince. As it continued to apply an ever increasing amount of pressure on his shoulder Rush let out a quiet whimper as he felt his shoulder and collar bone shift slightly; why was it doing this?

"Stop please..." he gasped quietly, reaching out a hand to grab the clawed extremity, hoping that he could get it to let go. But his hand didn't make it that far.

Using its other clawed hand the creature gripped Rush's hand in a bone-crushing grip which caused Rush to cry out in pain; he swore he could feel a bone break in his hand.

"Please stop.... please..." he almost cried closing his eyes in a vain attempt to shut out the pain; which obviously didn't work as it simply increased steadily as the creature continued to crush both his hand and his shoulder until-

"H-h-he-hel-hell-hellooooo...." and the pressure on both his hand and shoulder suddenly disappeared when a strange and croaky-voice spoke next to him.

Using his other, uninjured hand, Rush gripped his, probably broken, hand and cradled it; his eyes still shut and refraining from causing his shoulder anymore pain by moving it about too much. Again the voice spoke, "hellooo..."

He heard a dull sound from somewhere around the room but he didn't acknowledge it until he also heard a very human groan. That was when he opened his eyes and was greeted, once again, by the piercing stare of the creature that had happily tried to crush his hand.

"Helloo... I-I... a-a-a-ma... s-s-s... sor-rr...sorree...sorree..." the creature croaked as it cocked its head again, "I-I-I... ne-nee-needd-neededdd.... to... l-lerr-lernna... y-y-yoor.... your... la-lan.... lange.... langu...langua-languagg... language..."

Rush tried to glare at the creature but found that his attention was drawn to the sounds of groans and quiet grunts that he guessed were coming from the others... and Eli. He risked a side-glance at Scott, Greer and Eli and found two-out-of-three of them awake; Greer was still unconscious. Thank God.

Scott mumbled, almost to himself, as he rubbed his neck; his eyes closed, "damn... that's some hangover..."

Rush, unable to help himself, even with an alien staring at him and a broken hand, said sarcastically, "not a hangover Lieutenant... unless you happen to have a thing for leggy-dinosaurs?"

Scott immediately opened his eyes and when he saw Rush and the creature he immediately reached for his P-90, that was still attached to his tac-vest; the creatures hadn't removed it. Why?

The creature turned its attention to Scott and held up a single clawed hand and spoke in broken english, "no.... p-ple-pleasee... do... n-nota.... s-s-sh-shoo-shoott..."

Rush, though he was still hating and afraid of the creature, chose to also come to its aid, "Lieutenant, don't shoot without thinking please; it makes the rest of the military contingent look intelligent. This creature told me that it needed to learn our language. How did you do that by the way?" Rush looked from Scott to the creature.

"Yeah... that's a good question...." another voice said, sounding tired and grouchy but also intrigued. Eli was awake at last.

"I.... u-use... tele...telep..." the creature seemed to be finding it difficult to pronounce the word 'telepathy' so Rush kindly butted in.

"You mean 'telepathy'? You used telepathy to learn our language?" he raised an eyebrow in surprise, the pain in his hand had already become a dull ache and it mixed in with the pain from his shoulder also.

"Y-yes... telep-athy..." the creature nodded slowly, as though it were not used to performing such an action.

"Why did you attack us?" Eli asked softly, looking at the creature which stared at him as intently as it did with Rush.

"We... we we-re... p-pro-protec....protect-ing.... you..." the creature explained, its attention focused solely on Eli, "th-the...G-ga.... Gat... Gat'urz... Gat'urs... th-they.... w-were... h-hun-hunt... hunting...."

Eli held the creatures stare with the same sort of determination that Rush would normally have; if he wasn't in pain of course, for a long time before he nodded and said, "I'm guessing your English will improve the more you talk and hear us talk, right?"

The creature smiled, or what constituted as smiling for a two-legged-dinosaur type creature, "r-righ...right..."

"okay.... best get cracking then...." Eli gave the creature a half-grin, and the others too, before it faded when he noticed that Rush was cradling his hand, "what happened?"

Rush repressed the urge to smile, and instead shook his head slowly, "I don't think our friend here, realised that we're kind of fragile..."

"I am... so-sorry.... Nic-Nicho-Nicholass..." the creature said quietly, "I did n-not... me-meann... you... h-har-harm..."

"It's al- hey, you know my name," Rush looked at the creature and frowned.

"Y-yes... m-my... n-name... i-is... F'r... F'ra-F'raen.... F'raenia.... F'raeniass..." the creature said, stumbling over its own name.

"F'raenias?" Rush muttered, testing the name out, before smiling slightly and saying, "nice to meet you F'raenias."

-SGU-FB-SGU-FB-

"Why isn't the gate engaged yet!?" Young exploded as he stomped into the gate room and noticed the gate was only just being established, "I said I wanted it open when I got back here!"

"Sorry Colonel, we had a bit of a problem with the dialling sequence. I don't think we'll be able to re-establish another wormhole from this side again," a technician hurriedly explained as the scientists that had been around the dial-up computer hastily scattered.

"Will anyone on the other side be able to dial Destiny?" Young asked, trying to temper his anger and annoyance; he couldn't have a go at them if this wasn't their fault right? Yeah right.

"Yes. Dr Rush will understand this if you give it to him Sir," the technician nodded and handed Young one of the hand-held computer units that they'd found on Destiny; they resembled the tablet computers on Earth but were stream-lined and had Ancient instead of English as the main language on their systems. And they could interface with any Ancient technology which was a God-send for them.

"What's this?" Young took the tablet and slipped it into his tac-vest; the fact that they were about the size of the Life Sign Detectors that were on Atlantis was useful also since that meant they were compact.

"It's a diagnostic program that Dr Rush will need to run on the gate on the planet so that it can establish a safe wormhole with Destiny," the technician replied as he edged away slightly, towards the dial-up console, "Sir, the gate's only got another 12 minutes before it disengages."

Young grimaced and nodded curtly, turning towards the open event horizon and said to the assembled teams; SGD-2 and SGD-3, and said, "Right, move out!"

-SGU-FB-SGU-FB-

It swerved in and out of the trees looking for something, anything that it could devour to temper its nauseating hunger. It couldn't continue for much longer without something to eat.... it needs sustenance. It can't survive much longer like this...

-SGU-FB-SGU-FB-

"We're peaceful explorers from another Galaxy. We've been trapped on a ship far from home and we're hoping to find a way back eventually..." Eli explained along with hand motions to F'raenias, hi voice fast and slightly higher than normal; it was like he thought something was wrong.

That made Rush curious; Eli was worried about something but he didn't mention it, didn't even think about it he was fairly certain since these creatures had the ability to read their minds. Not the nicest thing to contemplate; the idea that your most private of thoughts could easily be discerned and heard by a complete stranger.

He decided to cut into the conversation that had been going on for about ten minutes, which allowed him to assume that F'raenias had heard enough to be able to speak English the language quite well, and ask straight up about the telepathic abilities the creatures had, "You say you're telepathic? Can you read my mind right now?"

F'raenias looked over at Rush, as did Eli who he'd cut off, and answered; still in broken English but far better than before, "not unless... I have... co-contact... y-your... phys-physi.... physiol...."

"Physiology?" Eli supplied looking at F'raenias in interest.

"Yes. It is...dif-different.... to ours... so I need.... c-contact..." F'raenias finished looking at Rush with interest, "why do... you a-ask?"

Rush shrugged one shoulder and said, "Oh, I was just wondering because you obviously need to speak with your people so I figured that it must be telepathic between you, but different with us... since we're not from.... around here," Rush finished smiling slightly, hoping that F'raenias really couldn't hear his thoughts because he was starting to understand Eli's fear.

These were aliens that needed contact to read their thoughts. This creature had learnt of his name via telepathy. What else had it learnt from him?

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Oh.... isn't this just hotting-up hm?

I think this is going to be fun to write since I'm all for drama and action; it's a weakness of mine. If you don't believe me just read my latest fics.... they're land of drama and action!

As I said at the beginning; I don't know when I'll be updating but I'll try for the weekend. Work permitting of course. I know I have two weeks off in April (which I'll be spending doing revision... fics.... more fics... bit of revision.... more fics :p)

KaseyKC