So it was slower when she she badly injured, as his first guess confirmed. Eventually it did kick in but it took time.

But when it came to him, it was erratic.

Why?

She'd said before she'd touched aliens before. So what made the Wraith special that it fluctuated between ripping his arm out of his socket to nothing at all?

It had to be some combination of their natural healing ability and...was her ability somehow sensing his own ability to take the life force of others? No, it wasn't a separate entity...which probably would have made things easier to figure out if it were.

Charles had spent far more time with her than he did, so he had to take her word on his word that he believed the ability to control her gift was within her somewhere.

He silently contemplated all this, looking out across the ocean.