Reflections rippled in the floor of the gate room. A bar of shadow cast by the huge ring that dominated the Atlantis command center momentarily interrupting their flow. Dark splashes, a golden-brown sheen, and a dull blue-gray danced together in familiar harmony in front of a large silvery ramp, just as they had done hundreds of times before in the very same place. Another reflection joined the fray as McKay swung his overloaded pack onto the floor and stretched his arms. He wasn't exactly in the greatest shape for these kinds of trips anymore: one moment he was headed off-world, and six hours later, the team was called back for an excursion to a different address.

Colonel Sheppard's frown might have looked less somber if he hadn't gone several days without a shave.

Lifting her blaster strap over her shoulders, Teyla brushed her hair away from her face and exchanged glances with the silent Ronan, whose lion's mane of hair was as wild as ever. He tipped backwards a little, hands to the small of his back.

"Watch the master." McKay, half a candy bar stuffed in his mouth, simultaneously hooked a life-signs detector onto his belt and unzipped his pack.

"That was hard," Ronan said. "Check it out." He twirled his blaster until it became a blur before it landed nose down in its holster.

"You sure you're up for this?" Sheppard asked McKay. There was a metallic chink. Little blue lights twinkled into life as Chevron One engaged.

"Yes, of course, I am totally unprepared to go dashing headlong into a wormhole since we've literally never done this before," McKay said. "We didn't even get to visit that dine-in on P6X-493! They might have had coffee!"

"You won't need any once you're back doing what you're good at," Sheppard commented, nicely veiling the fact that McKay had spent their return trip through the Stargate half an hour ago jabbering about caffeine and all its wonders that were supposed to help him stay focused.

Chevron Two clanged into place in sync with another set of glittering blue dots.

McKay stopped scrabbling through his supplies to catch Teyla's eye. "So, why are we here again?" he mentally transmitted.

"Rodney," Sheppard said. McKay's ability to telepathically communicate with Teyla had been born of what he had undergone as a prisoner of Queen Death in the last few years and the effects were unfortunately permanent. But McKay still couldn't master how to hide the way his eyes screwed up a little when he was trying to send a silent message.

The Wraith-kin woman mentally transmitted, "I do not know," to McKay and a smile played about her lips.

"Teyla?" Sheppard said.

She fixed him with a gentle, sage expression.

"Hey…it worked!" McKay said in false amazement as if it was the first time.

Chink! Blue dots glowed within the confines of Chevron Three.

"We just don't want people to think you're going a little nuts," Sheppard smirked.

"Too late," Ronan said.

McKay glared. "Very funny."

"Guess we'd all like to know what you're thinking once in a while," Sheppard said.

"Huh!" McKay heaved his pack onto his shoulder. "Gee, so we'd all like to know what McKay's thinking, like when we were attacked years ago by that dream bug phase…mental…other-you…thingy…"

"Sometimes I don't have to try to know what you're thinking," Sheppard persisted. "Last time, I was right about those donuts you hid because you didn't want Zelenka to find out about jelly on the laptop screen." A smirk playing about one corner of his mouth, Sheppard watched the gate as Chevron Four made itself heard.

"I didn't know about the donuts, that was Jennifer," McKay sighed. "Commander incoming."

The others turned to see Woolsey, carrying a tablet, hurrying down the polished, red stairs.

"You already know why we sent a team to P6L-266," he said as he reached the team.

"I guess Melbrick's inhabitants weren't as friendly as he thought." Sheppard put his hands on his hips.

Ronan maintained his usual stance with his arms crossed over his chest and looked for all the world like a great, unfazed bear.

"We never received a transmission from AR-6," Woolsey stated.

The silence was like a clap of thunder, overriding the metallic tone that accompanied Chevron Five's engagement.

"You were there when Melbrick contacted us," Sheppard said.

"Who we thought was Melbrick."

Ronan squinted. "What?"

Teyla's lips were parted. "Their IDC's…"

"Could have been transmitted anyway," Sheppard finished.

A sixth glyph glowed, its dots a semicircular grouping.

"What do you mean, "who you thought was Melbrick?" McKay said.

"The transmission was assessed after the forty-eight-hour mark came and went with no contact attempted," Woolsey said. "When Charlton brought the video up again, there was no one on in it. Don't ask me how that's possible."

"Wait, what, how could there be no one in it?!" McKay demanded right on queue.

Sheppard frowned. "I don't get it, Melbrick was chatty and smiling like he was on some sort of vacation. Pretty sure I wasn't hallucinating."

Chevron 7 locked. A giant watery bubble shot outward from the center of the gate and pulled back, morphing into blue and white ripples. All within the reach of its light took on an unnatural glow, Woolsey's bald head shone, and a whisper of distant worlds breezed through the gate room.

"He was smiling," Woolsey went on. "Doesn't that strike you as a bit odd?"

Sheppard turned to Ronan, who shrugged. "Ohh…kayy, guess I didn't pick up on that."

"Guy's got a grin on his face and you call it trouble?" Ronan said, half-jokingly.

Woolsey's mouth formed a thin line. He held out his tablet and McKay snatched it indignantly. "The MALP we sent through half an hour ago showed us that the DHD was missing its power crystals. AR-2 took care of replacing them. The search team is waiting with the jumper, they've done a sweep of the area and found no traces of AR-6. Major Brandon will fill you in on the other side."

Sheppard was nodding uncertainly. "Got it."

"Report back in two hours. I want answers."

"Yeah, we're excited to find out. Or not," Sheppard said.

"This is ridiculous, there's no one in the video!" McKay squawked, his fingers flying over the tablet screen.

"Rodney!" Sheppard shouted.

McKay dropped his arms to his sides and sighed before following the colonel. "This is insane...!"

"Good luck." Woolsey watched the foursome clattering up the ramp and vanish into the vertical pool of light. The wormhole disintegrated with a static rip.

...

"Two trips in one day," McKay said, wiping his brow as he stepped away from the empty stargate. "Whoosh it's hot. Should have worn a T-shirt." He pulled at his pocket-laden vest.

"You'll get used to it," Sheppard smirked as he strode across the grass toward the DHD.

"I'm making you watch this," McKay said, waving the tablet under Sheppard's nose.

"I'll see it after we get an update," the colonel said patiently.

"Yeah but..."

"Colonel!" The big, African Major Brandon hurried out from the shadow of the jumper's open back doors; his ammo buckles glimmered. "Well, we've made some discoveries, but there's not a sign of a living human being. Or a dead one."

"Any idea what could have happened to them?" Sheppard said, squinting in the bright sunlight.

"They were definitely pursued back to the gate. They came from the forest."

Ronan approached a few markers the blond-haired Technician Fay was standing beside and crouched down beside her to examine the matted grass. "A few people were here," he said.

"Yeah, I found a few traces of blood, there and on the DHD," Fay said. "Check it out, its only on the runes used to dial Atlantis."

"Thanks," McKay said bossily, scurrying past her to the DHD.

Teyla's hair hung over her face. "One of them seems to have lain for quite some time." She looked up. "Or landed hard…"

"Landed?" Sheppard said.

McKay was studying his detector.

"You probably won't see anything," Brandon said.

"I'm not so sure." McKay stepped around the DHD and squatted down to examine its base.

Ronan looked up. "They were thrown."

"Wraith stun bomb?" Sheppard said.

"Likely."

"No kidding." Sheppard walked over and scuffed gently at the burnt grass with a boot. "No bits of clothing, no weapons lying around…"

"A ton of ammo shells," Brandon said. "There's a couple other things you'll want to see, not sure which is the more exciting. This way." He headed eastward and Teyla fell into step behind him with Ronan and Sheppard.

As the team followed Brandon, Sheppard took note of the surrounding forest, thick with shadows and golden highlights. "They can't have gone very far in the first place," he said, "they made it back to the gate."

"You'll see the blast trail after this," the major assured him. He stepped over some hilly tufts of dry foliage and the heat ended abruptly as the group entered the shadow line. "Here." Brandon sidestepped and slapped his dark hand against a large tree trunk. Carved roughly into the bark was a long, thin rune. "Looks like Ancient."

Some of the branches were low and Ronan pushed them aside as he ducked.

"Hang on, that's the Wraith symbol for the letter R," McKay said, fumbling with his tablet.

"Ritha…?" Sheppard murmured.

"Has to be," said Ronan.

Teyla came close to the tree and peered closely at the ripped edges framing the long downward stroke topped by its curious upper curve. "It's a couple of days old, the sap has hardened and cracked," she said, running her fingertips around the shape. "The carver used a knife. It was probably Ritha."

"What I said," Ronan confirmed as if Teyla ought to have heard him the first time.

"Ok," Sheppard murmured. His eyes roved uneasily around at the quiet forest. "So she was here at the time of the transmission, it happened about sixty hours ago.

Teyla was staring up into the branches as though wondering if Ritha had climbed it.

"Start tracking," Sheppard ordered the former runner.

"On it. Which way, Major?"

"Over here. We scouted this morning, you might read our tracks as well," Brandon said.

"Doesn't matter."

Brandon lead him north along the tree line and pointed. Ronan took a couple of determined strides and the wood-scape swallowed him completely.

McKay drummed his fingers on the edge of his tablet and put his face close to the cut rune.

"What do you think?" Sheppard asked.

"Here." McKay thrust the second tablet at Sheppard. "Watch that."

Sheppard hit play on the video as Teyla looked over his shoulder. It was indeed as Woolsey had described: no human faces and no Melbrick. Blue sky only was present for the entire clip and not a sound emanated from the tiny speakers. Chills ran up and down Sheppard's spine. "And this is what the MALP recorded."

Teyla shook her head. "I...I don't know what to say. Could it have been wiped and replaced?"

"Not likely," Sheppard said, holding the device out to McKay.

"Hold on a minute…" McKay scrolled around on his tablet. "Question is, what was going on when she carved the rune, she definitely had the strength."

"Ritha's pretty tough," Sheppard remarked. "And she may have been only slightly injured. Also, we don't know for sure she's the one who carved it." He turned to Brandon, who had just returned. "No life signs…that's weird."

"We scouted with the jumper. Nothing." Brandon's irises were dark in their white backgrounds. "This planet's not too-well explored. We may have missed a lot."

Teyla lowered her voice. "Colonel, we know the wraith can make us see things that are not really there."

"I was just thinking the same thing," Sheppard said. "We're with Ronan. Rodney, you stay here and do your homework; later we'll inform Woolsey that the Wraith are involved in this."

"The Wraith?!" McKay looked up.

"Scratch that, it's very likely they are involved," Sheppard said. "We're going to look over the blast trail."

"I'll let you know what I can come up with," McKay said, fingers dancing across the tablet screen. "Going back for a better look at the DHD."

With Brandon leading the way, Sheppard and Teyla took off into the woods, and at last they spotted Ronan up ahead. He was a dark silhouette, shadows and highlights flitting up his sleeveless vest as he worked his way through the foliage.

"They were pinned," Sheppard said, pointing out how some of the burnt gouges were only two feet from the ground.

"It is here they took cover," Teyla added. She peered at the underbrush and silently pointed to chips of wood sprinkled over the muddy pine needles. "There is blood."

Brandon patted his firearm. "Is it just me or do you get the idea we're being watched? Second time I've felt like this."

Teyla straightened and exchanged a glance with Sheppard. Neither of them needed any telepathic powers to know that both their thoughts had been voiced by Brandon. The three hurried ahead and caught up with Ronan. "Staffs weapons," Sheppard remarked.

"Yeah," Ronan said. "Fight or attack started not too far ahead. I don't think they could have run from whoever was after them for longer than like five minutes. These guys are serious runners."

"Seems a little odd that you put it that way," Sheppard remarked.

"Huh." Ronan slowed down and let the slight breeze float strands of hair over his face. "Up ahead. I think there's a clearing."

"Looks like we didn't exactly need your tracking skills," Sheppard murmured as they pressed on. A tunnel of blast marks, broken twigs, and crushed ferns made a long tunnel ahead, crossed with beams of shadow and sunlight, little clouds of insects, and low hanging branches.

"There's still something to learn," Ronan said. "What or who the attackers were."

"I suspect the Wraith," Sheppard said. "Just keep it simple. It's usually them."

Ronan stopped to feel a dark patch on some bark. He looked up, the tiny gold highlights in his eyes glittering. "Doesn't really smell like the wraith."

Sheppard wrinkled his nose a bit. "When I did smell them, it was usually on the hives, and sometimes it varied."

"Yeah. Well, I mean…it's got the same flavor, but it's different. Bugs, but maybe not the ones we're used to." He stepped over a vine.

"Ok," Sheppard said. "What size?"

"Can't tell. Warrior class?"

"I prefer drones."

"Depends which kind," Ronan smirked, alluding to the failed gene therapy results seven years prior.

"I was excited about the retrovirus. Got kind of worked up into a positive attitude for a while."

"Yeah. Guess we all were." Ronan squinted as he lifted a low hanging branch aside.

Sheppard glanced over his shoulder every minute or so. Teyla was casting her gaze right to left, studying the roots and lower trunks of the trees. Brandon turned full circle, his blaster ready, the belts on his uniform creaking as he moved his solid frame along without a hint of clumsiness.

Leaves fluttering in partial sunlight became long, pale hair and old jagged tree trunks camouflaged robes of leather and tough hide. The green hues were skins, long gone from their boney frames. Sheppard kept his blaster up, feeling the long years of practice surging through his forearms and shoulders and in his soundless footsteps.

Suddenly, Ronan held up a fist. He looked back, his mane of hair hanging over his face. "Guys."

"This is it," Brandon said.

Sheppard squinted as he walked his way through the ferns.

An extraordinary expanse opened up before them as though some giant theater curtain had been pulled aside. The view contained a small mountain at least two hundred feet tall covered in great swags and curtains of mossy green substance. Sunlight blazed off the bare rock and steam rose from the carpets that rolled and folded up and away out of sight.

Teyla stared. "What is this place?"

"Dunno," Ronan said, his blaster held out straight ahead of him.

"Major Brandon?" Teyla's eyes were wide.

"We didn't stay long. I have no idea what this is. Especially that moss."

Teyla strolled forward, her blaster cocked. "I don't think this is a result of nature."

Sheppard shaded his eyes. "Then where the heck did it all come from?"

"I don't know," she said. "There is something strange about this place as well, I feel it. It's stronger than it was earlier."

"Well, it's pretty obvious this is where AR-6 was attacked," Sheppard answered. "They ran for the DHD and never made it."

"They made it," Ronan reminded him. "Probably didn't get to finish dialing."

"You know what I mean. Whoever or whatever dialed us…"

"Found some ashes back there, near the rune in the tree," Ronan added. "Someone camped overnight. Doesn't look like anyone was with her though."

Sheppard frowned. "No bodies so far. And no dead wraith. Melbrick isn't a bad shot either. This is weird."

"Agreed," Ronan said, his sharp, dark eyes like almost like a wolf's.

"Colonel?" Teyla's voice was distant; she looked very small against the base of the cleft-ridden hillside.

"I'll keep an eye out," Brandon said.

Sheppard and Ronan jogged toward Teyla. Heat made the grass shimmer.

Teyla's worried frown was shaded beneath her hand. "Look at this." She used a long stick to lift some torn vines and there, situated in a bare patch of rock, was an organic looking glyph.

"Recognize it?" Sheppard said after a moment.

"No," Teyla shook her head. "I do not."

"I'll check with Rodney." Sheppard thumbed the contact button. "How's it going?"

"Not bad, I've been examining the DHD central power cover, it was torn off pretty roughly by a powerful being, I can't imagine what kind. You?"

"Teyla found some sort of organic glyph. She doesn't recognize it."

"Elaborate."

"Well, it's slimy and green and it's growing out of the rock..."

"N-n-n-no, how would you describe how to draw it?"

"Kind of an oval-shaped spiral, with three smaller spirals inside, they're off-center. Like a worm that got tied up."

"Hm," McKay said. "Give me a sec." There was a moment's silence. He made contact again. "It doesn't look like any of the rune data I've skimmed through. I'll come in the jumper."

"Two people stay with the gate."

A few minutes later, the rushing sound of an airborne ship echoed off the rocky walls, and the cylindrical puddle jumper zoomed over the treetops and settled into the short, brownish grass. Fay in his wake, McKay disembarked and hurried forward, staring up at the mountain. "Ok, that looks entirely unnatural," he exclaimed.

"So Teyla thought," Sheppard said.

McKay joined them near the glyph and huffed a few times. "Sheesh, the heat's bad. Hm." He squatted down and peered at the rune under the vines Teyla's stick held aside for him. "I don't think we should touch this. Please tell me you didn't touch anything."

"None of us has," Teyla assured him.

"Yeah, think I'd want to stick my hands in that stuff?" Sheppard asked.

"It looks like some sort of pathogenic compound," McKay said.

"I haven't seen anything moving yet," Sheppard asked warily.

"Well, it's definitely alive. Oh no. Seriously?" McKay had borrowed the stick. He pushed the portion of carpeted green farther, exposing black, tendon-like material. It looked like a dense net.

Sheppard bent for a closer look, then slowly straightened up, exchanging glances with Teyla.

"I've never seen it before. But…well…actually I have. Something like it," McKay said.

"I'm back in your hive prison cell again," Sheppard said.

Ronan hefted his blaster. "Let's see what this does."

"N-n-n-n-no!" McKay said, unloading one of his pockets and pulling out a miniature canister. "This organism could have a defense."

Ronan lowered the weapon.

"I want to see this mountain from the air. Ronon, Fay, you stay with Rodney. Teyla, let's check this place out."

The major had been standing back a ways, his sharp eyes roving. "I'm still waiting for doomsday."

"Tell me about it," Sheppard said.

They boarded the jumper, and Brandon moved into copilot position for Sheppard. "We saw it during our first run," Brandon said. "There's a lot of plant life. But growing out of bare rock like that..."

"It's not like we haven't seen stranger things," Sheppard said, punching controls.

The jumper lifted off and, in a few seconds, had soared over the mountain.

"It looks like a giant tumor," Brandon said as the view grew easier to comprehend.

"Or a hive," Teyla remarked.

"Don't get my hopes up." Sheppard guided the jumper skyward.

The point of interest had the shape of a long spine, curving northeast for about a thousand feet; the summit was not sharp, but rounded, like a snake whose sides had melted downwards. The blue lines of the scanner revealed its dimensions and Sheppard followed the trail.

Teyla, leaning on the back of Brandon's pilot seat, focused out the viewport. "Perhaps I can try and connect with it somehow," she said.

"Not such a great idea," Sheppard said. "Let's check out the dark side of the moon." The jumper zoomed around the range as Sheppard banked to the northeast. The side facing east was much darker, and Sheppard could almost feel the damp mugginess. "Swamp land. Don't know what could be down there."

At that moment McKay made contact with the ship. "Uh, guys?!"

"What's up?" Sheppard asked.

"I think this thing's talking to me!"

"Did you say hi back?"

"It's nothing I can translate or mimic."

"We're coming. Don't touch anything."

"I wouldn't touch it!" McKay retorted. "And I need Teyla to be here."

"Sounds like he's got the same idea you do," Sheppard told her, piloting the jumper so that it landed quite close to where McKay was situated. The engines' whistling pitch throttled down and Sheppard, Teyla, and Brandon rushed through the passenger bay and back out into the unwelcoming heat.

McKay was standing stock-still before the rune, the stick he had used dangling in his fingers. Ronan's magnum blaster pointed steadily at the green substances.

"What happened?" Teyla said as she approached.

"I think it transmitted something telepathically," McKay explained. "I can't get it to respond again."

Sheppard frowned up at the massive rocks. "Ronan?"

"Didn't hear a thing."

McKay was sweaty.

"You ok?" Sheppard said.

"Yeah, I'm just tired suddenly," McKay said, wiping his hands over his eyes and down his face. "That was weird. Something made a connection and the next minute I was in communicating...on an entirely different level...but it felt familiar, too."

"Looked like he was about to puke," Ronan said.

"I was not going to puke, how many times have I told you?" McKay said. "I thought I heard something that sounded like…I don't really know, it was…"

"A word you cannot speak audibly?" Teyla asked. "As though it has no form."

"Except that it's audible in my head," McKay said, pointing to his tablet. "I was about to try coding a message with a biotech frequency…"

"McKay, not happening," Sheppard warned. "Can you still hear it?"

"No, it stopped right before you guys landed." McKay tossed the stick on the ground and shoved his free hand into his pocket. "Seems to hate loud noises."

"Actually, it's cause I yelled and pulled you away from the stuff," Ronan said.

"Perhaps I should look into this," Teyla said, looking at Sheppard.

"She did take out the most powerful Wraith queen in all of history," McKay reminded them.

"And we all appreciate it," Sheppard said pleasantly. "But that doesn't mean we're going to play mental games with something that is probably a foreign entity. In fact, it could be taking in whatever we're saying right now."

"I admit I felt some eagerness to connect with it at first," Teyla said in a low voice. "I believe this has everything to do with the disappearance of AR-6."

"Bet that's what everyone's been thinking all along," Sheppard said. "I haven't ruled out the possibility that they might have climbed this thing or that one of them came in contact with whatever's growing on it."

"I can't imagine Ritha would have agreed to anything leading to such events," Teyla said.

"Well, she wasn't exactly in charge."

"Look, we hardly know anything that went on here in the last seventy-two hours," McKay interjected, his syllables broken as he yanked and twisted the pair of tweezers he had embedded in the plant. "Arrgh…this stuff doesn't want to let go, that's for sure." The small cake of moldy-looking green suddenly came free with a squish and he held it up. "Thing's got no root system!" He wiped his brow. "Look at this."

"Do I have to?" Sheppard said, watching slime dangle.

McKay dropped the sample into a transparent, impregnable canister. "Not sure I should cut one of the tendons."

"Don't," Teyla advised. "Not until we know more about it."

"Right." McKay wiped his brow again. "I was about to make somebody else do it anyway. Think I'll just swab one." He pulled out a sample gatherer.

Ronan, still pointing his blaster at the "carpets", looked back at Sheppard.

"Not now," Sheppard said to the former runner's silent pleading. "We don't need to find out what else it can do."

"I think it literally grows on the rock," McKay explained, holding his hands up demonstratively and wrapping his second sample before placing it in a test tube. "You just need some starter culture. Notice it doesn't smell at all. But that doesn't mean that bacteria in the air can't be affecting this specific type of geology or reacting with it or with one of the invisible bio-structures that naturally makes its home here, thereby creating a massive eruption of an entirely new species. Kind of like cheese…"

Sheppard winced a little. "We get the picture. You and Zelenka can diagnose it back on Atlantis."

"I need to find out if it's going to grow back," McKay said, now swabbing the stone surface he had exposed. "I didn't get any readings of by-products or gases. It's almost like this is some sort of artificial biology."

"Sorry to cut the science lesson short," Sheppard said, shading his eyes as he looked around. "We're heading back to the gate to report in."

"Do you have all that you need?" Teyla asked. "At least for now?"

"No," McKay said, putting a lot of emphasis on the "n" and screwing the lid on the canister. "I've barely scratched the surface."

Ronan grunted. "Funny."

"Not."

The team headed silently to the jumper. True to the colonel's prediction, McKay had absolutely nothing to say about coffee, and spent the quick return trip studying the sample with Teyla. Sheppard settled the jumper before the giant ring bearing its silent glyphs. The shadow of the stargate pointed eastward, elongating as the sun plodded toward the horizon.

"Stay here," he said, "Woolsey may want us back right away." He dashed outside, feeling the hairs on the back of his neck rising.

Sheppard was used to quick dialing, but the DHD glyph plates burned his hand, making the process that much faster. Bare sunlight blazed turned the wormhole bubble a deadly white as it shot forth and pulled back into a pool. Sheppard had already made sure his IDC was transmitting. A few seconds later, Woolsey's voice came over the comm.

"Sir, there are no traces of bodies or human beings," Sheppard said. "I think the Wraith are involved. Evidence of staff weaponry blasts. We've got a Wraith rune, an unusual geological structure covered in bio-crud and indications that AR-6 got back to the DHD before they disappeared. Ritha Guider seems to have escaped capture initially, but she's gone as well."

Woolsey's voice was sharp. "Return to the city."

"On our way."

Once safely back in Atlantis after threading the needle, the teams scurried out of the jumper.

Woolsey was waiting. "Everyone to the medical bay for exams, and we will meet in the briefing room."

"We won't know more until Rodney does work on that sample," Sheppard said quickly.

McKay hurried forward and held up the canister.

Woolsey nodded. "I want a report inside of an hour after your exam."

The two teams headed swiftly for the medical bay.

"Anything else come up?" Sheppard asked as the group of nine hurried through the corridors to the medical bay.

Woolsey was silent for a few seconds. "Perhaps. How well do you know Ritha Guider?"

"Ronan knew her the longest," Sheppard said. "She's not exactly a close friend but she gained attention after her work with Keller on the retrovirus and her studies on Wraith linguistics. She used to study with Dr. Jackson."

"That rune you spoke of. What was it?"

"McKay recognized it as the Wraith symbol for the letter R," Sheppard told him.

"That's what I was afraid of."