“We are from Atlantis,” Teyla said.
“Right, you can come up, we heard about you,” she said. “Vyk and Annais have gone to trade with the dirtsiders. Locals, I should say, because I’m supposed to be polite. You want to talk to Dekaas, though, he’s the one who talked to the woman with no memory.”
“She was here?” Teyla said quickly. “A woman who knew nothing of where she came from?”
“Sure,” the girl said without much interest, backing up to make room for them to ascend the rickety metal stairs. “Probably had all her family killed in some Culling. It happens.”
“So it does,” Teyla said. She didn’t look dismayed by the girl’s matter-of-fact tone. Probably it was a fact of life here in Pegasus, like natural disasters or fighting in war-torn regions back on Earth.
“She knew something about medicine, so she was helping Dekaas.”
Daniel glanced at Teyla, who looked unwilling to commit herself to either hope or disappointment. “Our friend was not a doctor, but she would have known something about medicines, particularly Lantean medicine.”
“It’s down this way,” the girl said. “Follow the green signs, see? And that’ll take you to the infirmary.”
“Thank you,” Teyla said gravely.
“You’d think they’d guard the ship better,” Daniel said.
Ronon shook his head. “The girl was wearing an energy pistol,” he said. “The Manarians don’t have anything like that. She could cut them down without breaking a sweat.”
“Besides, the Manarians are hardly likely to anger their trading partners,” Teyla said. “Certainly not when they need the metal they have brought to trade.”
The infirmary was small, with only three beds, but neat and uncluttered compared to the corridor outside, where coils of wire and crates that smelled of fresh food had been left haphazardly lying. The doctor turned from his workbench where he was sorting pills into smaller bottles, and nodded to them in greeting.
Daniel couldn’t help staring. He had assumed the name was a coincidence, a common one in the Pegasus galaxy, but now that he was face to face with the man, he knew he’d seen him before. Or, at least, he’d seen his counterpart in the alternate universe he’d visited using the Ouroboros device. He was a Wraith worshipper, the trusted pet of the same Wraith who’d been so interested in finding out what made Daniel tick, even if he had to take him apart to do it.
This man looked older, though, his hair graying and wrinkles beginning at the corners of his eyes. But then the Wraith could keep their pets artificially youthful, feed them life as well as take it away. “You’re the Lanteans?” he said.
“We are,” Teyla said. “We are hoping that you can tell us of the woman who has lost her memory.”
Dekaas nodded. “Elizabeth.”
Teyla’s breath caught, and Ronon stiffened. Next to them, Rodney looked suddenly very calm, as if he’d worked out an elegant solution to a problem.
“Elizabeth’s alive,” he said.
“Is she here?” Teyla asked.
Dekaas shook his head. “We left her on Lorvine. She said she was going on to Sateda.”
“If she’s on Sateda, we’ll find her,” Ronon said.
Teyla held up a hand to quiet him, clearly more reluctant to believe yet. “Her name was Elizabeth Weir?”
“She couldn’t remember any other name but Elizabeth,” Dekaas said. “She was medium height, a little taller than you and I expect a couple of years older. Fair skin, dark hair, blue eyes. She said she couldn’t remember her home world. I assumed that she was a survivor of a Culling. Possibly of the Culling on Sateda.” His eyes flicked to Ronon.
Teyla frowned in concern. “She remembers nothing?”
“It happens,” Daniel said. “When I… went through what we think she went through, I didn’t even remember my own name for a while. It took months for most of my memories to come back.”
“She remembered a few things,” Dekaas said. “She had some medical knowledge. She read Lantean — it shouldn’t surprise me that she’s one of your people.”
“You know that she read Lantean?”
Dekaas reached into one of the metal drawers and held up a packet of sterile bandages, very clearly American military issue. “She could read the writing on this.”
“How do they have our supplies?” Daniel asked.
“We gave medical supplies to the Genii,” Teyla said. “And to various other worlds.”
“And we pay well for them,” Dekaas said. “But probably not as much as we’d have to pay if we traded directly with you.” He shrugged. “They’re being put to good use.”
“What else did Elizabeth tell you?” Rodney asked impatiently.
“She had been involved in a war on her homeworld. Some conflict in which she was not a soldier, but was helping refugees. From what she said, the war was fought with technology far beyond any I have seen used except in fighting the Wraith. She spoke of… ” He reached for a notebook and flipped back through its pages. “The Red Cross, Vietnam, Bosnia. And a man called O’Neill.”
“That’s Elizabeth,” Rodney said, as if daring anyone to contradict him.
“It certainly sounds like it,” Daniel said.
“Come on, it has to be her.”
“Or someone with her memories. Last time you saw Elizabeth, she was in a Replicator body.”
“Do you have a photograph of her?” Teyla asked.
“That won’t tell us whether she’s a Replicator,” Ronon said.
“Even so.”
“I didn’t think to take one,” Dekaas said.
“The Wraith don’t use photographs the way we do,” Daniel said, making the connection.
Ronon looked at him sharply. “The Wraith?”
Teyla turned to look at him. “Please explain,” she said, and he was reminded abruptly of Jack O’Neill’s least friendly moods. He was already regretting speaking the thought aloud, but there seemed nothing to do at this point but answer.
“I know you’ve spent some time living with the Wraith,” Daniel said.
Dekaas’s face went very still. “I can’t say that I remember you.”
“You wouldn’t. Dekaas was one of the humans on the hive I visited in the alternate universe,” Daniel said, for the benefit of the rest of the team.
“That was in an alternate universe,” Teyla said. “We do not know that the same events transpired here.”
“No, of course we don’t, but… I think I’m right.”
Dekaas considered them cautiously. “Alternate universe?”
“It’s a long story.”
“You are making guesses,” Teyla said. “And this is not why we are here.”
“No, I’m… well, yes, but it’s an educated guess. Alabaster and Guide did say that this universe’s version of Seeker also had human worshippers.”
“What they said was that he kept pets,” Ronon said.
Dekaas seemed to be struggling to decide whether to speak or not. “Alabaster,” he said finally. “The Young Queen. She survived?”
“She did,” Teyla said. “Guide sent her to safety, and was nearly killed himself.”
Dekaas let out a humorless laugh. “Guide. You’ve seen Guide.”
“Oh, we’ve seen him,” Ronon said. “He nearly killed one of our people.”
“And has been an ally more recently,” Teyla said firmly.
“We’re not exactly friends,” Dekaas said. “Guide used to tell Seeker that he ought to either eat me or let me go, because I was too dangerous to keep as a pet. I think he inclined toward eating me.”
“But Seeker didn’t.”
“No. He taught me most of what I know about science and medicine. I think at first he wanted to find out how much I could understand. And I think the answer disturbed him as much as it fascinated him.”
“You said Guide wasn’t your friend. Was Seeker a friend?”
“My captor. My teacher. I… with all due respect, it’s really none of your business how I feel about the fact that he’s dead.”