• For the rest of the day, Akaeda showed Teyla favorite parts of the ship, talking with her more than she had with any other human since That Time. She even listened with interest when the team conversed with their commander through black things in their ears and even a black box. There must have been more going on outside than a normal culling, for the hive hadn’t left by nightfall. Kalgen assumed that they were either looking for someone or having a few runner exercises, the later not sitting well with Ronon at all. Akaeda didn’t care too much, for she got to spend more time with Kalgen than she’d had in a while. He’d been trying to get her to live on her own instead of on a cruiser all the time.

    By the time Akaeda was ready to sleep, she was more comfortable than she’d been in a while. The last thing she remembered before sleep encompassed her was Kalgen stroking her hair.

    She was back in The Light, strapped to The Chair. He loomed over her with a small box in hand. Akaeda cried out and tried to struggle free, but the straps held her tight. The Bug skittered onto her chest and crawled up to her neck. It reared back and attached itself, sucking out her life with hungry voracity.

    Akaeda woke up shrieking like nothing she’d done. Her hands shot up to her neck where The Bug’s legs had wrapped around her throat. Half mad with terror, she flung herself out of the bed and ran beneath a table near the wall. Curling up didn’t help and she just held her head while she screamed and cried. Now He gets into my dreams! Her mind wailed.

    The door into her room slid open and Teyla burst in. “Akaeda?” She yelled over Akaeda’s screaming. “You are safe, Akaeda!”

    “Go away!” She shrieked and threw the first thing her hand grasped; a pitcher of water. “Leave me alone!” Akaeda backed up as far as she could, but the wall pressed into her back. In her mind, that same memory and feeling kept repeating itself and she whimpered between her screams. The shattered pitcher was keeping the door open and the four forms there weren’t Kalgen. “Go away! Don’t eat me! No!” The Bug’s rattle filled her hearing and she clapped her hands to her ears. “Make it stop, make it stop!” She begged. No one seemed to hear it!

    An angry yell briefly rose over The Bug. “Get out of my way!” A fifth shape shoved the others aside nearly in a panic. “You are making it worse! She does not know you!” The shape was snarling furiously.

    Glancing at the face, Akaeda saw the green Wraith skin and shrieked harder. “No! I won’t do it! Leave me alone!” She tried to scramble away, but the wall kept her from going any farther. Her screams lowered to whimpers and she shook terribly. “Not again.”

    “‘Kaeda? ‘Kaeda, relax,” a voice soothed in her ears as well as her mind. “‘Kaeda, it is only me. I am not who you think I am. Do not be afraid.” Cold hands rested on her shoulders…

    Akaeda frantically wrenched free and scrambled away until she was in another corner, out from beneath the table. “Not The Bug, please,” she begged, now more crying than screaming.

    Those hands gripped her arms. “Nothing is going to happen, ‘Kaeda, you have my word. You are safe. ‘Kaeda, listen to me, please.” The voice turned pleading.

    Panic made her struggle to free herself from those hands, but they were too strong.

    “‘Kaeda, forgive me for this,” the voice sighed and suddenly Akaeda’s mind was ringing painfully with a strong mental slap.

    Akaeda froze for a long moment as the world lost its terror and she could see the owner of those hands…Kalgen. Sobbing in relief and the remnants of her fear, she sagged against him and clasped her hands behind his back. The smell of his leather soothed her senses. “I’m-I’m s-sorry,” she managed between sobs. “I-it was s-so ter-terrible.” She shuddered as Kalgen’s hands ran soothingly up and down her back.

    “Do not worry about that, ‘Kaeda,” Kalgen reassured quietly and rested his forehead against her hair. “Whatever happened shall not happen again, you have my promise.”

    Eventually, Akaeda calmed down enough that she knew she wouldn’t panic again once Kalgen left. However, she couldn’t make herself fall asleep again, and only a minute after Kalgen had left, she followed the hallway he had taken until she reached the doorway into one of the ship’s labs. She didn’t want them to know she was there, so she sat down just shy of the open door and peered through a tear.

    Kalgen seemed about to explode as he entered and he hovered dangerously over a piece of equipment.

    “How’s she doing?” Sheppard asked, shifting uncomfortably.

    That question snapped Kalgen snap and his hand swiped viciously at the computer, sending it flying into the wall while he roared out his anger and frustration. This was a glimpse into what Kalgen could have been and Akaeda stared in awe. “I cannot help her,” he hissed despairingly. “Everything I have done has not had an effect. Sleep used to be the only time Akaeda could find relief and now even that is tainted with what happened to her.”

    “Never before has she had these nightmares?” Teyla whispered.

    “Never,”

    “While she was…frightened, I heard Akaeda say something about a bug,” she added with a puzzled frown.

    McKay snapped his fingers. “And she asked us not to eat her. You know what I’m thinking?”

    “Don’t tell me—” Sheppard began with a pained face.

    “Iratus bug.” McKay interrupted. “Something must’ve happened and she got fed on by one.”