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They were less than week away from finishing the installation of the Daedalus's ZPM interface when SG-3 radioed in from the Land of Light to report that they'd just found Lieutenant Aiden Ford. Colonel Reynolds had recognized him instantly; Ford hadn't even recognized their uniforms.
Then SG-12 literally tripped over Dr. Weir on P2X-459, two days later a botanist named Parrish turned up at the Alpha Site, a pretty soon they were averaging a steady trickle of two or three expedition members a month. Their memories began coming back, gradually, but none of them could remember anything about Atlantis. They certainly couldn't remember how they'd joined the glowing squid club or why they'd all apparently been kicked out.
It became one of the standard questions to ask at the beginning of every offworld encounter: Found any naked amnesiacs lately? The answer wasn't always yes, but it was often enough. Village elder after village elder nodded, startled, then sent someone to fetch the person usually being referred to by some local translation of "naked one," John Doe, or "hey you."
Some things, it turned out, not even memory loss could change. They found Dr. Beckett setting broken bones on P3C-864 and Dr. Zelenka directing the construction of a water-powered mill on P4F-513. Dr. McKay was within a few weeks of independently inventing gunpowder. Major Sheppard had been drafted into childminding; he'd independently invented flag football.
