“Not careless. But she’s started sympathizing with the Wraith, even liking some of them. That’s… wrong,” he finished, unable to come up with a word for it that was as strong as he felt it deserved.
“Which do you think is more important? Whether or not she likes the Wraith, or whether or not she’s careful?”
There was an answer on the tip of his tongue, but he bit the words back. “Whether or not she’s careful,” he said after a moment.
“It won’t hurt to remind her to be careful. Vigilance isn’t a bad thing when you really are in a dangerous situation. It only starts to be a problem when you can’t relax when things get back to normal.”
“What if this is normal, now?”
“I don’t think anyone’s suggested having the Wraith as permanent residents of Atlantis. It may feel like this is lasting forever, but it’s really a temporary situation.”
“We keep working with the Wraith, though. That isn’t a temporary situation.”
“And you’ve certainly got plenty of reasons not to want to work with the Wraith.”
He shrugged. “It’s not up to me.”
“Not whether we have an alliance with the Wraith, no. I’m just wondering if you want me to recommend that you not be assigned to missions that involve working directly with the Wraith.”
“You can’t do that.”
“Well, yes, I actually can recommend that,” Eva said. “Now, I can’t tell you if Colonel Sheppard would take my advice, but I think he’d at least listen to it. There’s plenty of work around here that doesn’t involve being an ambassador to the Wraith.”
“Yeah, but they’re going to keep wanting Teyla to do it.”
“That’s probably true,” Eva agreed. “Teyla has established a good working relationship with Alabaster and her people. No one’s going to want to waste that.”
“So I’m stuck with it. I have to watch her back.”
“Aren’t there other people who could do that?”
“Teyla’s my family,” he said after a moment. “Maybe you don’t understand that.”
“I understand that,” Eva said. “But sometimes what’s good for one person in a family isn’t good for another person. I know that on a mission like this, you bond with people incredibly tightly. You eat with them and work with them and spend all your free time with them, and it’s hard to think of letting go of any of those things.”
“But,” he prompted when it seemed like there was more she wanted to say.
“But sometimes there are missions that one person on the team would be perfect for and that another person on the team can’t do. And sometimes the answer to that is splitting up a team temporarily, and other times it’s thinking about whether the way the team is put together still makes sense.”
“If I wanted to quit the team, I’d leave Atlantis,” Ronon said.
“I’m just saying those aren’t your only choices. And maybe that’s something for you to think about.”
“Maybe,” he said. “You won’t say anything to Sheppard, right?”
“Not a word,” she said.
Ushan Cai proved to be an older man in a coat that had known better days, though both it and he were clean, suggesting that they had adequate water for washing. Elizabeth was eating some kind of sweet bread at a long table when he strode up and swung his leg over the opposite bench to sit down with her. “I’m Ushan Cai,” he said. “I hear you came in last night.”
“That’s right.” Elizabeth put the bread down quickly. “It’s good to meet you.”
“The boys said you were a medic.” He smiled approvingly. “That’s always useful.”
“I have some medical skills,” Elizabeth clarified. “I’m not a doctor. The truth is, I’m not entirely sure what I am.”
“How’s that?” He seemed curious rather than skeptical.
“People found me on Mazatla. I had no memory of how I got there or of what happened before that. I remembered things that made them wonder if I were Satedan, so they took me to the Travelers. I met a young Satedan woman there who said she agreed that the things I remembered sounded like Sateda, and that a lot of other Satedans who had been off-world were wandering too. She said some people had started returning home and gave me the gate address. As soon as the Traveler ship I was on came to a world where I could dial out, I did. And so I came here.”
He nodded thoughtfully. “What do you remember?”
Elizabeth glanced out the window at the buildings across the square gilded with first light. “Steel bridges across a river. Railroads. A hospital. Doctors, drugs, a university. My parents.” She didn’t glance at him. “A man who was a doctor. I think he was…” She stopped. “I think Simon was very close to me. I don’t know what happened to him. I thought he was dead and then I thought that was just a dream.” She looked back at Cai, who was watching her compassionately. But then he must have heard all this before. A doctor’s wife, probably. Maybe a nurse or a humanitarian of some kind, traumatized by what had happened, remembering and forgetting his death it was very plausible.
“Well,” Cai said. “You’re welcome to stay here and look for your loved ones. Also more people are returning every day. Any time someone might arrive looking for you.”
“That’s true,” Elizabeth said. Someone was looking for her. Not Simon, but someone.
“Everyone here who can needs to work,” Cai said. “We don’t have a lot, but we share what we have with anyone who returns. But we expect everybody to pitch in as they’re able.”
“I’m more than happy to pitch in,” Elizabeth said. “I’ve been assisting one of the Traveler’s doctors, or I can do other work as you need it.” She dusted her hands off on her pants. “I’m no engineer, but I can follow directions. I can even help with the naquadah generator if you need it.”
Cai’s eyes widened a little. “That’s not ours,” he said. “Not Satedan. We just got it. How did you know what it is?”
“One of the guards told me last night,” Elizabeth said, which was perfectly true. Only…
His face relaxed a little. “Well, let me send you over to the medical salvage team. We’ve got a team going to all the old clinics and hospitals around the city seeing what equipment and supplies they can salvage. They’ve found quite a lot, actually.” He shrugged. “Not drugs, of course. Most of them would be too old to use or spoiled. But there’s some equipment, surgical packs, gurneys, all kinds of useful things. Think you’re up for medical salvage?”
“Absolutely,” Elizabeth said.
The salvage team was led by a woman named Margin Bri, hard faced and golden skinned, about Elizabeth’s age. There were four other people in the party. “Alright folks,” she said as they stood in what had once been the lobby of the hotel. “Grab your bedroll and check out two boxes of rations. This is an overnight trip. We’re walking up to Paiden and seeing what’s left of the Regional Clinic there.”
“What’s Paiden?” Elizabeth asked.
The man next to her glanced at her. “It used to be one of the suburbs. It’s up the rail line.”
“That’s right,” Margin said. “We’re going to follow the tracks. No way we can get lost, no matter how different things look! But there used to be a Regional Clinic there. I think since it was out of the city there may be a chance that there’s more left of it. We’re looking for hand held equipment in working order or large pieces that we can tag and come back for. Particularly if we can find a working x-ray machine, that’s a priority. We know the Regional Clinic used to have one. What we don’t know is how bad the physical damage was up near Paiden. They were Culled heavily, but hopefully with beams. So let’s head out. It’s half a day’s walk.”
The ration boxes proved to be a pair of rectangular containers made out of something like rattan with a hinged lid. Inside were several packets wrapped in oiled cloth, more of the sweetbread from breakfast, dried meat, some dehydrated vegetables. There was also a foil packet in each that looked suspiciously familiar. Elizabeth frowned. “Energy bars,” she said.