Chapter 10

“Alright, is anyone familiar with the work we do at Cheyenne Mountain in Colorado?” McKay started.

“Ehm, sort of?” McGee replied. “Although I never really believed that there’s such a thing as deep space telemetry. We’ve got NASA for that.”

“Ah, you’re the smart one,” McKay nodded appreciatively. “Anyway, to make a long story short, we physically go further into space than NASA by means of a Stargate,” he continued. “A few years ago we managed to go to a whole new galaxy, and we encountered the Wraith.”

“The Wraith are vicious, they cull entire planets to feed themselves.” Teyla jumped in.

“This sounds so much like Wormhole X-treme,” Tony mused.

“Ah yes, plausible denialbility.” McKay nodded. “Anyway, about a year ago, we managed to stop the Wraith invasion of Earth, and we thought we had gotten rid of them all.”

Gibbs didn’t know whether he should laugh or cry. These people were perfect for being admitted into a mental hospital.

Ziva sat there staring into space. It certainly explained John’s behaviour the night they watched that movie. She wasn’t sure what to make of it still. When he was ‘out of the country’, he wasn’t joking. The man was in another freaking galaxy!

Abby and Ducky had both been called up as well for the lecture and after all had been said, they signed without hesitation and they got down to business. The information was so unbelievable, yet everyone was pretty much engrossed in the story.

“Let me get this right,” Ziva said, closing her eyes. “You two are aliens? But you are so – human!”

“The people that created the Stargates, in a way actually created us as well. It’s too long of a story to get into and I highly doubt your feeble Navy cop brains could handle it,” Rodney rattled, ignoring the glares he received.

Sheppard smiled and put his hands behind his head. “I got to apologize for him. He tends to forget that not everyone could have two PhDs and save the galaxy every day.”

“Two galaxies,” the scientists corrected before turning back to his papers. “Anyway, your bodies. Wraith. We need to hunt it down and kill it. End of story.”

“Thank god. Can we go do that now?” Ronon replied after he seemingly fell asleep standing against the wall.
“I doubt that an alien killed our men.” Gibbs said stoically, keeping the rest of his thoughts – that they were mental and that his team needed a psychological re-evaluation – to himself.

Rodney dug in his briefcase and held up photos with bodies similar to the ones the NCIS agents found, looking very pleased with himself.

Pulling them over for a look, Ducky frowned. “Well that is certainly interesting. I have never come across something of this magnitude and I have seen a lot in my day my boy,” he replied fascinated.

Gibbs looked at the images and even he couldn’t hide the look of disgust. “What does this – wraith look like?”

“More importantly, how do you kill it?” Ziva said looking at John’s friends.

“Well, obviously it’s been feeding… a lot,” Rodney frowned. “Even if we manage to find the Wraith, it’s going to be a bitch to kill.”

“We’ve got these,” John held up his Zat like a kid in a candy store

“I’ve got this,” Ronon cocked his energy gun. “I think that your Earth guns with the bullets will only tickle it.”

Ziva leaned forward already thinking up fighting strategies in her head, the Mossad training kicking in. “Okay I get that, but it is possible to bring these things down, right?”

John looked at her and smiled. “Oh yeah.”

“Good. Let’s do this then,” she replied standing. “The sooner we get rid of it, the sooner I get my answers from you,” she pointed at him.

Rodney laughed. “Oh Sheppard, you’re pussy whipped already!”

Sheppard let his head fall back and took a deep breath before reaching out to head-slap him. Gibbs’ eyes went large and even smiled with respect.Maybe he wasn’t so bad after all, he thought.

“So, how about we follow you guys to Virginia, and start this Wraith hunt?” he said, as if Rodney hadn’t said anything.

“Let’s go,” the lead agent nodded. The team left the room leaving Vance behind watching them. Sighing, he rounded his desk and pulled one of the agent’s file out to look it over before beginning to write. Gibbs wasn’t going to be pleased with him for this.
Rodney insisted on riding along with Gibbs and his team, which would make the car very crowded so Ziva joined Sheppard in his car along with Ronon and Teyla in the back seat. “Well, this is weird,” Ronon deadpanned.

John glared at Ronon through the rear view mirror before he spoke. “I’m sorry you had to find out about my work this way,” he said to her.

“It is understandable,” Ziva replied. “We all have our secrets that we must keep to ourselves.”

He nodded and concentrated on the road, not exactly knowing what to say about that. She had no idea how big this secret was. John wondered who the hell taught Gibbs to drive. Not only was he speeding, he was breaking too late and a few times he nearly rear-ended the other vehicle. “Damn.” he muttered, knowing fully well that McKay would probably have thrown up in the car.

She gave him a sly smile knowing what he was speaking of. “You get used to it,” she said. “Tony says that I’m worse, but I don’t see it.”

I’m used to crazy driving… but this is worse than crazy.” He braked for the millionth time when Gibbs decided to take a corner without the turn signals.

“He’s testing you,” Ziva shrugged. “It means he likes you.”

“Poor McKay,” Ronon grinned.

“Yeah well, it looks as if he wants to get himself killed, and us too!” John exclaimed.

Looking out the window, Ziva noticed the signs. “We are almost there. Not much longer.”

Their car pulled up to the park just ask Rodney’s door flew open and he fell out to the ground, kissing the pavement. “Oh thank god I lived!”

John couldn’t help but laugh. “You travel to another galaxy, visit other planets, and you can’t handle one car ride?”

“Shut up! That wasn’t a car ride! That was worse than a four year old that planned a rollercoaster in an amusement park! It’s begging for trouble!”

Sighing, John shook his head.

“This park isn’t dense enough for a Wraith to hide.” Teyla noticed. “He must be living in one of your houses.”

Ronon was already off trying to find tracks, but it had been two days since the last body was found, and the tracks were either dried up or gone. “It looks as if he’s heading out of the park.”

“We can’t just go door to door to ask if someone saw something strange.” Tony remarked. “Do you know how much time that takes?”

“Yep.” John replied. “I hate to say it but maybe the best way to actually find him is to wait him out.”

“Any idea why he likes to kill marines?”

“Beats me.” Rodney shrugged, holding up his life signs detector.

Tony looked thoughtful. “Maybe they just taste better.”

“Don’t be ridiculous.” Rodney rolled his eyes. “I think I saw a sign somewhere along the road that there’s a country club for Army and Navy here?”

“That makes sense, if they use this park to go home, then of course, there would be a chance of getting one of your marines killed,” Teyla answered.

Ziva had wandered away from the group as she stared into tree line. She might not have the wraith gene like Teyla does, but her Mossad ninja training certainly offered her a sixth sense about danger. Pulling out her gun, she started to go deeper into the park towards the river.

Tony for the most part kept an eye on her. “Crazy ninja is picking up something,” he said as he went after her.

“Ninja?” John asked looking at Gibbs who only shrugged. If Ziva didn’t tell her boyfriend she was formerly with Mossad, it wasn’t his place to say. He would just have to figure out that the man was sleeping with a skilled assassin.

“Teyla, Ronon, you stay with Gibbs’ team. Make teams if you have to, but don’t let them wander off alone,” John said and looked at Gibbs. “No offence, sir, but my people are more experienced dealing with the Wraith.” He pointed at McKay and then into the general direction that Ziva and Tony had gotten off to.

Rodney looked at him wide eyed. “Why can’t I just stay here?”

“Because you’re a pain in the ass, come on.”

“Oh. Well that’s a good reason as any,” he grumbled as he followed Sheppard.

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