"Who are you," Ronon demanded with authority. He already had all the information he needed to satisfy his curiosity on that front but the answer he got back to that question would answer other questions without the interloper knowing it. Another person in a cave during a Wraith attack was pretty natural, except this person was in his cave and Ronon didn't know if that person had taken the same pains he had to avoid giving the location away. "Are you armed? Keep your hands where I can see them." Simple commands, the type most likely to be obeyed by someone staring down the business end of a weapon.

“My name is Ladon,” Ladon said, seeing no reason to lie about it. As well-known as his name was in Genii society, outside of his people it had no significance. It was a slightly odd sensation, not being recognized, but he didn’t mind. He was comfortable with himself, not one of those people who went around always huffing ‘don’t you know who I am?!’ Being underestimated usually worked in his favor, too, anyway.

“Yes, I’m armed,” he answered, slowly bringing his empty hands out into plain sight. The long guns were leaning against one of the smaller cavern’s walls and his sidearm was in its holster, a bit of carelessness he would have kicked himself for but for the fact that it wouldn’t have helped him at all in this situation. If anything, it probably would have made it worse. “There’s a gun on my hip.”

Managing to drag his eyes from the gun to look more closely over its wielder, he noted the man’s rather battered condition. He wondered at the cause, but now didn’t seem to be the time to be asking questions, or mentioning that he was a medic.

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The name obviously meant nothing to him but the question hadn't been about knowing his name, it had been about finding out whether he would lie about it or not. Ladon had answered quickly enough, without any of the tell tale signs of a lie that Ronon felt comfortable using it as a baseline for figuring out when the guy started lying. The only other alternative was assuming the guy was so good at lying that he already had a name prepped and practiced. A bit of a stretch and foolish to presume, just as foolish as presuming there was no threat from a stranger who just popped up in his hidden cave. "Take the weapon out with thumb and first finger, and toss it aside." Pragmatic matters first.

The man behind the gun was extremely tall, towering over Ladon himself by at least a head, but the Genii scientist wasn’t fazed by that. He was used to being the shortest guy in the room, having been so his entire life. The man with the gun was taller even than most Genii, but another couple inches didn’t make much difference one way or the other.

Doing precisely as he was instructed, Ladon extracted his sidearm from its holster and lobbed it away from himself as carefully as he could. About the last thing he wanted was for it to go off suddenly and startle the man. “What do you want me to do with the other guns?” he asked, tilting his head in the general direction of the small cavern behind him and to the side.

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"Same thing you were gonna do when I was gonna have to check the tunnel manually, step away from the opening and your side arm, toward that wall." He didn't gesture with his gun, he never took his weapon off the target. He wasn't gonna give the other person a chance to do something clever. When the man was where Ronon had ordered him he stepped over to the opening, glanced in to see if he could spot the weapons in question and then decided to get on with the questions. "What are you doing here, in this cave?"

Once again, Ladon did as he was told, making sure to continue to keep his hands in sight and to move slowly as he shuffle-stepped sideways over to the indicated wall. The weapon covered him steadily the entire way, not that he was inclined to try anything without a weapon. Even with one, it was too close quarters and the big man would be on him before he could bring it into play.

The man with the gun took a fast peek into the tunnel that led to the rear cavern, but Ladon knew he wouldn’t be able to see the weapons from there. He’d set them toward the back of the smaller chamber, deliberately out of view from anyone approaching.

"What are you doing here, in this cave?"

The Genii scientist blinked in surprise at the question. “Same thing you are, I suspect – hiding from the Wraith.”

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"You usually pick places that are already obviously occupied?" Ronon moved to the other end of the cave, keeping the weapon trained on Ladon even as he glanced out of the mouth of the cave to see if the interloper had left a terrible trail for the Wraith to follow. Ronon hadn't seen the other weapons but the man had said 'weapons', automatically intimating more than one. He had a side arm, a rifle or the like would make a primary, why have more than that not strapped to him by default the way blades would be. So, why. "What's with the extra weapons? Any chance you were followed?"

At the question whether he usually picked occupied places, Ladon blinked, then raised his eyebrows. "When there are Wraith around," he said, "I pick the deepest hole I can find, occupied or not, just like any sane person does."

Still remaining by the wall, he kept his hands raised, moving only his head as he watched the big man prowl around and glance outside. Presumably, he was checking to see if there were Wraith outside, or if his uninvited guest had left a swath of broken branches and footprints pointing at the cave. Ladon prayed there were none of the former and was fairly sure there were none of the latter. While he wasn't a tracker himself, any Genii who left the Bunker was taught how to come and go without leaving a trail.

"What's with the extra weapons? Any chance you were followed?"

Ladon shook his head. "I had two men with me," he said. "We killed two Wraith that attacked us, but they didn't make it." Despite his strong nerves, the scientist's jaw tightened at the memory of the shriveled husk that was all that remained of a man he'd known. "I took the long guns and cleared out, sticking to a game trail until I was well away."

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There were threats, there was violence, there was physical force. And then there was the best reason in all the galaxy for why the man should voluntarily excuse himself from Ronon's space. "They can track me, without a trail. Even if I do everything perfectly. I'm a Runner." He glanced outside again but then moved away from the entrance entirely. He didn't want a directional signal getting out by accident.

Then Ronon paused, by the fire. "You killed two? You're certain they're dead?" That would be it. The whole three man team. If they were the same Wraith, but there was no reason for any others to be on the ground even if they were running a culling. That was done with their airships, always. They didn't even touch down when they took his homeworld. That got Ronon thinking as well. "You're not from this world, you don't dress like the locals. Where are you from?" Again, a test of a lie. Because the name was unlikely to mean anything to Ronon. He never got to learn the names of the worlds he ran to.

Ladon drew in his breath sharply at the big man's revelation that he was a Runner. They weren't common -- or at least those who survived very long weren't -- but everyone had heard of them. More primitive societies believed that they were people who had been cursed by the gods and that curse would bring the Wraith down on any who got too close to them. As a scientist, Ladon accorded such silly superstitions the contempt they deserved, but he still had to take a firm grip on himself to keep from taking a reflexive step back.

"You killed two? You're certain they're dead?"

The question pulled Ladon's focus back to the stranger. "Yes," he said, unable to completely repress a shudder. He wouldn't have gone anywhere near them if he hadn't been.

The lead up to the next question gave him a second or two to anticipate it and prepare his reply, though he might not have needed it even then. Among the Genii, especially at his level, if you didn't lie as easily as you breathed, you tended not to last long. "Tyra," he replied, without hesitating or batting an eye. "I'm a scientist. But I also have some," he cast a weather eye over the big man's wounds, "medical training."

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