Just the right size and shape for cupping in the palm of one's hand, the glassy drop appeared to weigh less than a silver piece. However, it was disproportionately dense. Ritha smoothed her thumbs over its surface. The glass was a perfect, transparent blue, and two preserved jaw pieces of an Iratus bug floated serenely in its center. Ritha closed her eyes as the coolness tingled along the nerves of her fingertips.

"Long ago, the wraith evolved after humans seeded throughout the Pegasus Galaxy were bitten by an insect known as the Iratus. The Ancients took to experimenting on the being that evolved over hundreds of years; it is said the Ancients were searching for immunization to preserve their race…"

Ritha's fingers curled around the glass drop as she reminisced. Dr. Rodney McKay's tense, eager facial expressions were just as visible to her as on the day he had given a little speech in the science lab.

"What if the Ancients lied to the original Wraith about what they were really doing? If the possibility of ascension looked futile, achieving immortality would have been next on the agenda…"

Ritha opened her eyes, recalling Elizabeth Weir's descension a few years ago. Ritha was not well-versed on such things as ascension, although she knew the theory. But it bothered her. She preferred what was physical and solid and relatively explainable, especially scientifically. She opened a drawer and carefully laid the glass drop inside. Her hands strayed to her tablet. She was due to leave on a mission in an hour and she knew that P6L-266 had been explored only a couple of times in the past year since the day she had attempted to drop hints to Woolsey and anyone who would listen regarding the retrovirus. She had taken to burning off some of her frustration and years of unrewarded concerns with extra enthusiasm on missions.

Woolsey and Major Melbrick would never guess that she was digging all the more deeply for information having to do with the past and current conditions of the Wraith scattered throughout the galaxy. Brushing up on her knowledge of Wraith speech and runes, derivatives of the language of the Ancients, was her constant daily practice. Long ago she had solicited help from Dr. Daniel Jackson and he granted her such a rigorous course on the language of the Ancients that she had no trouble deciphering the basics of Wraith dialect. She could not necessarily form any sounds, but she could write in code, upside down and right side up. And time and time again, her treatises on the tall, white-haired aliens piled up in ever greater quantities, filling the hearts of her secret wall safes with data cases, silent and asleep, perhaps forever…

Surprisingly, recognition of Ritha's knowledgeability had spread somewhat and she was now a permanent member of RA-Six as scientist and joint linguist with another team member. No more medical bays and cubicles for her; she had abandoned the post long ago.

Her ankle-length, midnight-hued coat was now continuously worn over a hardy, belted uniform…

The ground sped away beneath her pounding boots.

Crack! Another chunk of tree wood vanished in a shower of sparks. Twigs whipped at the faces of the black-clad members of RA-6. Stumbling and panting, they scattered, the foursome casting themselves behind tree trunks and brush.

"Can't you see what they are?!" Ritha yelled as blaster fire erupted again.

"No!" The blond-haired Lieutenant Darok rolled over to reload his P90. He craned his neck. "Watch it!"

Chips of bark flew in the face of Melbrick and he whirled back behind the tree to wait for an opportune, open shot.

Bluish lasers zipped among the tree trunks like miniature darts. A hundred feet away from the major, Ritha crouched in the soft pine needles, feeling underbrush poking her shins as she shifted into a more convenient position. Her particle magnum blaster slipped in her grasp as she tapped her communicator. "Sir, are you hurt?"

"Not really," Melbrick answered. "The DHD is only a few hundred feet away…make a break for it, Foster and I'll cover."

"If we run you run with us," Ritha muttered, flinging an arm out and ripping off a few red shots with her blaster.

"GO!" Foster yelled, jumping up suddenly and letting his P90 spit nonstop as he backed away, allowing Darok and Ritha the chance to sprint out of hiding.

Ritha zigzagged as she ran. Darok burst into the clearing ahead of her and started punching runes on the DHD.

Ka-chink! Ka-chink!

The blue lights of two glyphs twinkled into life in sync with a blue laser blast from a nearby patch of trees. Ritha whirled on the spot, dropping to one knee, and sent return fire.

Ka-chink! Ka-chink! Ka-chink!

"Hurry!" Ritha shouted.

Melbrick and Foster came pounding into the clearing, skipping as they turned to send more lasers into the dark forest.

Foster ducked and Ritha's mouth fell open. The air burst apart with white lightning, and then the team was in the air, flying, falling, hitting the ground, Melbrick flipping like a Chinese star and Foster landing on top of his weapons belts with a crunch. Ritha came to with sap on her lips and something else sticky that she knew was not the blood of a tree. The muddy ground offered no relief to her aching body and a few crinkly leaves fluttered near her open mouth.

How long had she been out? Moaning, Ritha pushed herself up, her palms stinging. Bird chatter and nature's general music were totally absent from the environment. "Colonel?" she gasped, spitting out fragments of mud. "Anyone?" Breathing heavily, Ritha scooted backwards and propped herself against the tree she had slammed into. The light was different than it had been during the team's frantic flight, as the sun of Planet P6L-266 continued to drift toward the horizon. Ritha pressed a hand to her forehead and it came away streaked with red. Slowly, she climbed to her feet.

Calling as she staggered about, she repeatedly tapping her communicator, willing a response that never came. Every so often her heart would leap when she thought she saw the wrinkle of black fabric or the gleam of an ammunitions belt, but each time, she would discover her mind playing tricks on her with shadows, boulders, and piles of dark, damp leaves. Suddenly, she remembered. The life signs detector! She cast about for the device. She had had it stuffed in an open pocket during the fight. Willing the Ancient gene to show her its location, she frantically kicked leaves aside. Ritha wiped her aching forehead. The detector had probably been flung quite far. Ten minutes of searching revealed no sign of the valuable tool.

The DHD stood, silent and solitary in the dying light like an altar. Glancing around in all directions as her head cleared, Ritha cocked her weapon. The longer she waited, the more she worried whether or not to approach and dial, fearful of being fired upon while her back was turned. Suddenly Ritha flung herself forward and hit the seven chevrons that would dial Atlantis. Click! Click! Click! Ritha breathed hard as she hit the rune plates, her heart hammering. She slammed her aching palm onto the domed center.

Nothing happened.

Ritha looked up frantically. The dialing sequence hadn't even commenced. Fingers clutching the edge of the dial table, Ritha crouched, feeling utterly stupid. And what she saw made her heart freeze.

The DHD base had been opened; the orange and red crystals were not glowing. Ritha peered closer, her eyes refusing to believe what they saw. The crystals were missing entirely.

Sighing as loudly as she could, Ritha sat back on her heels, unsure whether to cry, scream, or fall over in total despair. She pictured Dr. McKay squawking, gesturing at everyone to get out of his way and coming up with a magical solution by pressing some buttons on a touch screen and diverting power from thin air.

Ritha berated herself for not stopping by the science lab before departure: "Oh by the way, I'd like to borrow some control crystals in case the other ones get stolen."

Heaving herself to her feet, the woman turned her back on the offensive, silent gate. She might as well head back to the last place she had been with RA-6 before the attack. Her boots crunching softly through the brush, Ritha flicked on a small, piercingly brilliant flashlight. Thankfully, she still had her firearms and her tablet. Maybe there was a way she could figure out how to contact Atlantis in the morning. At the edge of that fateful clearing, Ritha halted. Come to think of it, the blue lasers had been a lot like those of Wraith stun weapons. And the explosion… a Wraith stun bomb. Of course! Ritha just had time to halt a facepalm as she remembered her bruised, aching forehead would not appreciate it. She must have been too intent on escaping to recognize the weaponry that had driven RA-6 out of the forest.

Ritha was no expert, but she did know something about wilderness survival. The approach of night saw her building a small fire several hundred yards from the DHD, as she wished to keep an eye on the area while remaining out of sight. Her head injury wasn't as bad as it seemed, her forehead had been scraped. After binding a bandanna about it, Ritha ate some of the tinned food stashed in her various pockets and packs and settled down, her blaster in hand. Throughout the long hours of the night, she dozed in and out of sleep, fully aware that she was not at all safe. Why hadn't Atlantis attempted to make contact yet?

Ritha's stiff fingers were still clutching her communicator when the cold hues of early morning light dampened the skies. The journey out of oblivion took some time; it was like floating upwards out of an endlessly deep pond. Ritha's thumb clicked the contact button. "Does anyone read me?" she murmured. "Major Melbrick, do you read me? Foster? Darok, come in." The ever-faithful static answered. Ritha released the button and let her hand flop against her vest. The Stargate was still as mute as it had been all night long. Why wasn't Atlantis sending a search team? Ritha yawned mightily and rolled over, groaning as she got to her feet. Her back was stiff and her right arm hung down at her side, blaster still in hand. Ritha kicked halfheartedly at the cold remains of the fire and debated whether or not to remain near the Stargate until it would come to life.

Her curiosity peaked and she lifted her face; the breeze was gentle and cool and it might eventually wash her headache away. No, there was no reason for her to hang around and do nothing while Atlantis was silent. Selecting a nearby tree, she pulled out her knife and panted a bit as she struggled to engrave the Ancient symbol for "R" into the tough bark. She should have chosen a softer tree, but this one was more likely to be noticed by visitors. Sheathing the blade, Ritha headed back to the gate.

The clearing around the DHD was swimming with shadows and mist. Ritha spent an hour crouching and crawling around on her knees, peering at the grass and underbrush where the team members had landed after the explosion. There was certainly evidence that they had been physically present, but not a trace of a human being could she find. She picked up one of the scattered P90 shells and turned it over and over in her fingers, watching it catch the morning rays. Ritha frowned, remembering Foster's frantic scramble to reload his weapon.

The trip through the Stargate had been uneventful and RA-6 had spent a good few hours trekking the land, with Ritha trying not to hurry ahead in her eagerness as she gripped her life-signs detector. Having been informed years ago that she possessed the Ancient gene granted her the satisfaction of knowing she was in some small way connected with the Wraith via the gene in addition to her lengthy knowledge.

The team had encountered nothing but the most boring life signs in the galaxy: grass and trees. Ritha had taken careful note of the strange mosses that hung, dank and fir-colored and soft, from the branches of multiple tree species. After only ten minutes of trekking, the teams' boots were rather mud spattered. Melbrick held up a fist. As the team cautiously followed him forward, Ritha had been startled to see a granite landmark of great size and bearing fill her view as the wooded area abruptly ended.

Darok had estimated the geological marvel to be over two hundred feet high.

"Ok, people, let's check it out," Melbrick had finally said when they were done gawking.

Foster and Darok had taken up positions as Ritha approached the incredible feature that appeared to have forced its way out of the unforgiving earth with a vengeance.

Shading his eyes, Melbrick squinted upwards. "This seems a little out of place."

"Uh huh," Ritha muttered, looking at her detector that indicated the area was still devoid of other intelligent beings. Huge rags of mossy material hung from the great jagged edges. In some places, the dank, wet-looking green expanses were tucked into rifts, reminded her of a thick carpet spilling down a stairway. Ritha had walked right up close, sank to one knee, and remained there, tilting her chin to gaze at the towering summit. The angle created a moment's dizziness, and Ritha felt as it the whole thing would fall upon her. There was something strange about its aura. Ritha had not voiced to Melbrick that she was subconsciously connecting with inanimate matter, but Foster had interrupted her thoughts with, "What the heck is it?"

"I have no idea," Ritha murmured, pressing her hand flat to the cold, bare rock. It was rough, like granite, but something felt off and Ritha could not explain her feelings. She turned to Melbrick. "I'll need some time."

Melbrick had shrugged, still squinting, his hand resting comfortably on his P90. "See what you can dig up."

"It sure looks a lot more interesting than those other rocks," Darok had commented, indicating the boulders lying in and amongst the trees.

"You're telling me," Ritha muttered, her nose inches away from what she was examining. "It looks like it's got some form of biopolymer structure." She picked up a stick and began to prod at the plant life. Suddenly, a pattern caught her eye and she had turned briefly to call out, "I think I've got something!"

And that's when the buzzing of incoming lasers had collided with her ears and the team was running for its life.

Ritha dropped the bullet casing. It was time to follow the path of any laser burns back to the sector RA-6 had been exploring before the attack.

The black concaves in the injured trees felt rough and clotted. They were definitely burns from staff weapons. Ritha counted the marks and by the time she had reached the other clearing, she had counted more than a hundred. She had come across no bodies, no staffs, no weaponry of any kind, and most disturbing of all, Ritha could not find any footprints. She was probably walking right over them this very moment, but she was not Ronan Dex. She should have learned more about tracking.

The giant outcropping of granite cliff finally dominated her field of vision. The spongy, green turf embedded in huge, dark folds and hanging off rocky ledges looked intensely hued; the morning sun gilt the highest rim of the landmark with sharpest gold. Ritha approached, squatted and used a stick to lift a small curtain of vines, in order to examine the strange rune fashioned out of some spongy sort of mush she had discovered right before the attack. The shape clung to a bare circle of stone and seemed to have grown a little during the night. The rune evoked some distant memory and Ritha racked her brains for where she had last seen such a shape. Her tablet was brought out for further consultation. Nowhere in the glyph lists could she find anything that looked remotely like the mossy rune; however Ritha was sure beyond a doubt that it was Wraith.

Laying the tablet aside, she used the stick to prod back a portion of the mushy green mass around the circle and saw what appeared to be tough, black sinews, three inches wide at their triangular joints, woven among the fibers and disappearing into the cold stone. Ritha drew back, dropping the stick.

"Pathogen material?" she wondered aloud. Her quick fingers stopped just shy of her knife handle. Would it really be wise to cut off a piece of what was likely far more alive than it appeared? No, of course not. Ritha reluctantly left the knife alone and gave the huge cliff a long looking over. Ritha resorted to taking pictures of her findings with the tablet, and tucked the device into her pack. Hefting her blaster, she set off for a stroll around the perimeter and half an hour later she was still skirting the landmark. The ground became rockier and the plant life darker and wetter. Ritha halted. She had come too far, it was time to retrace her steps. By now the sun was peaking to midmorning phase. P6L-226 had a rotation of only sixteen hours.

Arriving back at the rune stone, Ritha set to work searching for tracks in the underbrush, and when she looked up again, the cliff was out of sight. She sank to the ground near a large, imposing tree, realizing the hunger pangs that had been bothering her were quite severe now.

She had peeled the lid halfway off a tin when the sound came.

There it was again.

A long, low whine…

And a shriek rent its way through the forest like a sonic boom.

Ritha somersaulted backwards and fell headfirst into a large hollow situated behind the tree. Doing her best to stifle the sound of her breathing, she set her blaster to kill She could feel the unforgiving hardness of the tree through the back of her coat. The strange whining had ceased. Ritha slowly peered around the tree. The soft breeze played about in the leaves and sun-dappled grass. She lay there for some time further, the blaster limp in her grasp, and she pondered what to do next. Either she would have to find an inhabited area or leave the planet. The former seemed in better order.

Ritha could not believe she had lost her life-signs detector. She angrily got to her feet and continued on her way through the forest, back past the towering landmark, and onward across great expanses of grass and into a patch of sparsely wooded forest, stopping every now and then for a breather and to search for water. She looked back often at the geological summit. It never seemed to grow much smaller with distance; however Ritha wanted to keep it in sight as a point of origin. She was going to strangle the Atlantis teams for their dawdling. But she had no intention of returning to the stargate. If anyone had arrived, they could track her down. "Their problem," she huffed as she threw herself to the ground to rest and eat once again.

Her thoughts strayed to the material she had uncovered on the cliff. The odor, the toughness of the tendons, and the semi-sleekness that encased them... Ritha slowly stopped chewing. Bewildered, she pondered the possibility of a bio-metallic compound. Ritha downed the last of her food and turned on her tablet. It still had plenty of battery life.

Calculations on how long it would take to seed the wraith population with the retrovirus were only educated guesses. The hive ships were as numerous as ants in a colony and dominated light years of space. The retrovirus could only take root at a certain rate. Who knew how many planets and solitary bodies held knowledge and millennia of secrets, not to mention pathogenic organisms? There was only so much history that could be learned at a time.

Ritha spent the remainder of the daylight hours nestled in the brush. There was no point in exhausting herself further. She kept a firm grip on her miniature recorder and spoke about everything that had occurred in the last twenty-four hours, from the attack to her discoveries, to the useless DHD; she did not fail to elaborate on her opinions of the Atlantis service in the realm of search and rescue. Having finished the report, Ritha felt a little better, but it did nothing to remove the feelings of unease that crept upon her like a shadow.

There had to be a way out of this place. Ritha's thoughts turned constantly to "the Stone", with its great shags of green and the silent rune.

…..

"Commander, AR-6 has reported back. They won't be contacting us for another two days," Lieutenant Charleton announced, shutting down the screen.

Commander Woolsey released his grip on the bar of the observation deck that overlooked the gate room.

"Melbrick thinks that there's plenty to explore," Colonel Sheppard answered. "They'll get back to us after they've established contact with the inhabitants. Apparently, they're friendly. Melbrick was actually smiling."

"Well, there's always a first time," Woolsey said, his eyes smiling through his dark-framed glasses.

"Yeah," Sheppard murmured, his dark brows knitted.

"I suppose they might as well enjoy themselves," Woolsey said.

"It's not every day us RA teams get the cushy welcomes off-world," Sheppard said.

"New turns of events, new discoveries, new allies…" Woolsey said, smiling with his lips. "Ah such are the fine luxuries offered to us by a simple gate address." He smiled more, his eyes distant.

Sheppard's eyebrows quirked, giving him both a worried and annoyed expression. "Thanks." Behind him, the tall and imposing Ronan gave him a nudge. Sheppard looked back. "I know, he's happy because he doesn't have to go along," he muttered, just loud enough for Woolsey to hear.

Woolsey continued to smile as he made his way off the command center bridge, and Sheppard watched him disappear through the exit.

"So?" Ronan said after a moment's silence. His burly arms were still crossed over his chest.

"So, it means we go and get lunch," Sheppard said, lifting his chin toward the door. "You hungry?"

"Nope. Starving."

The pair stalked out into the corridors and made their way to the mess hall. Loading their trays with food, Sheppard and Ronan selected their usual table in the far eastern section and starting eating. As usual, Ronan wolfed down his food, but Sheppard was slower.

"You know what," Sheppard said around a mouthful.

"What?" Ronan said, lifting his heavy eyebrows.

"Oh just thinking about the teams," Sheppard said. "I was talking to Zelenka. He seems a bit…well you know, out of sorts. So I was nice and lent him an ear. It's just Ritha."

"What'd she say this time?"

"Well she's really come far, she's really competing with Zelenka, only on a different level than we're used to."

"How so?" Ronan said, taking a drink, and then catching on to Sheppard's sarcasm. "Oh. You mean with the Wraith. Course. Don't know why I'm not surprised."

Sheppard took another bite and then let his sandwich dangle in his hand. "Did you hear what she said before they left?"

"Nope."

Sheppard leaned on the table. "I could be wrong but... it almost sounded like she wasn't coming back."

Forgetting to keep chewing, Ronan raised his eyes. "What did she say?"

"Only that she hoped to gather enough information and that if she didn't…" Sheppard lifted his sandwich again. "…she'd stay until she did."