by Martha Wells
John ducked back to the steps to look at the outer lock from this side. Even from here, he could see a hot blue glow growing in the center of the hatch. Oh, hell. "Hurry it up, guys, they're burning through the inner hatch!"
He heard Rodney ask Trishen, "Can you seal off that section? Oh, at what point does that make sense!" John guessed the answer had been "no." Rodney added urgently, "Then keep going, overload everything-"
The blue glow was getting larger. The hatch was steaming, giving off a sharp odor far too close to burning flesh for John's comfort. He moved back up a few steps, crouching to keep the P-90 aimed at the outer hatch. The metal of the whole central core was starting to tremble and over the whine from the cutting tools he could hear a muted reverberation that had to be the overloaded drive. Trishen pushed away from the controls, saying, "It's done! We have to get away-"
John saw the blue glow of the cutting beams suddenly expand, the black hatch material turning white with heat. He yelled, "Go, now!" The hatch exploded inward, and John fired down at the first of the drones that slammed through the white-hot remnants. The first two drones collapsed in the lock; they would regenerate in a couple of minutes but right now they were dead weight, slowing the others down, forcing them to clamber over the temporarily inert bodies.
Trishen bolted out onto the platform, then started up the steps.
John fired at the hatch again, then pushed to his feet and darted up the stairs after her. At the next platform, he turned to fire down, catching a male Wraith just as it stuck its head out into the central well to look upward. It fell back and John charged up the stairs.
From above, Teyla fired her 9mm down the central well. John reached the shuttle connection platform and backed toward the hatch, firing to cover Teyla as she drew back from the railing. Then something hit him, sending him staggering. The right side of his body went instantly numb, and he sagged, barely clinging to the railing; he must have been clipped with the edge of a stun blast. Teyla shouted in alarm, firing down the stairs, and John knew the Wraith were almost on them. "Teyla, get out of here!"
Then Rodney ducked out of the hatch and grabbed John's numb arm, hauling him across the platform.
Teyla emptied her second clip as John and Rodney reached the shuttle's hatch. Turning, she shoved both of them through. The gravity field grabbed them and John slammed into the shuttle's deck, Rodney landing half on top of him. John managed to turn his head in time to see Teyla land on her feet beside him. A Wraith snarled up at them from the platform directly below, just lifting its stunner to fire. John awkwardly scrabbled for the P-90 with his good arm, but Rodney and Teyla were yelling, "Now, now!"
The hatch slid shut.
John let his head drop back. "Yeah, that was close," he gasped. "Thanks, Rodney, Teyla."
"Close?" Rodney shouted incredulously. "Shut up! And you're welcome!"
Teyla let her breath out in relief, sliding down the wall to sit on the deck. She looked at the sleeve of her jacket, where there was now a hand-shaped rip in the gray material. "Very close," she said with a rueful grimace.
Too close, John thought. A little less momentum, and that thing would have had her. He heard muted banging on the lock, and tried to shove himself upright. "We need to get out of here-" He felt a thump through the deck that sounded a lot like a docking clamp releasing, then a gentle push as the shuttle lifted away from the base ship.
Trishen's voice called from a nearby compartment, "We're away!"
"That's nice." Rodney shoved himself into a sitting position, planting an elbow in John's numb side in the process. He called back to her, "Are we cloaked?"
"Yes, it seems to be working!"
Rodney rolled his eyes. "Seems to. Oh, that's fine. We'll know for certain when the scout ship starts shooting at us." He yelled, "Is the base ship blowing up?" He added in a lower voice, "Please, please blow up."
Somewhere below the hatch, muted by distance, thin air, and the shuttle's shielding, John heard an explosion.
Rodney slumped in relief. "Thank you."
CHAPTER EIGHT
he sky was a deep purple when Ronon made it up to the roof, the big planet that filled the sky almost blocking all but the last light of the sun. He paused in the doorway of the little dome that sheltered the lift platform; it was too dark to see more than the outlines of the various lumps and projections on the roof, but he couldn't hear any movement.
"Ronon, they are still heading away from you," Zelenka whispered in his headset. "Five hundred yards, a little further. They are moving fairly slowly, crossing back and forth in a search pattern. I think they are looking for the puddlejumper."
He heard Kusanagi add, "Perhaps they think the others landed on the roof, that the ship is still there, cloaked. They must suspect we are from Atlantis."
"Suspecting is fine," Zelenka told her. "As long as they don't know for certain. And even the possibility of a jumper doesn't tell them the city is still there. It would be unreasonable for them to believe that none of us escaped through the Stargate before the destruction."
Using the low platforms as cover, Ronon headed for the roof's edge. There was still just enough light for him to see the darker shadow of the trench. He took out the little battery lightstick and crouched low, cupping his hand over it to shield the beam, and flashed it over the floor of the trench. He moved along the edge until the light found disturbed dust, the marks of tracks and scuffling. Then the light caught the glint of the metal shells cast off by the Atlantean weapons. It happened here, he thought
He jumped down into the trench, landing lightly, and paced down it. After a few moments' search, he frowned. This was the right place, but something important was missing. He touched his headset. "They aren't here."
"The Wraith?" Zelenka asked, a little startled. "The detector shows they are still searching-"
"No. The others." Ronon had thought he would find their bodies. The Wraith discarded human corpses like trash, leaving them where they fell; they would never have bothered to move the bodies after a feeding. Something else caught the light and he crouched, running his fingers through a scatter of plastic and metal debris. The remains of one of McKay's computers. He allowed himself a grim smile; the destruction was thorough, nothing left to give the Wraith any information, any hint that Atlantis still lived.
"Oh, you mean ...no bodies?" Zelenka hesitated. "But then perhaps they are alive? If the Wraith beamed them up, their life signs would disappear from screen-"
"Maybe. That doesn't mean they're alive now." Ronon stood, moving to the metal housing that shielded the device they needed to destroy. He felt along it, looking for an access panel. If the others were alive... They would be aboard that Wraith scout ship.
The jumper couldn't take on a Wraith ship that size. Ronon would have to figure out a way to get onboard. And then get off again, if he found them alive. And he couldn't believe he was planning something this mad, but then the Atlanteans seemed to encourage this kind of thinking. Sheppard would do it, he thought. So would Emmagan.
He shook his head. This first, he told himself. Ronon's fingers found an indentation in the metal; an access panel. "I found-"
The sudden explosion sent him to the ground, crouching low. A moment later he realized it couldn't be the Mirror; the blast hadn't even made the building tremble. "Zelenka, what was that?"
Zelenka was cursing in his own language again. "We heard it, but whatever it was was too close to Mirror platform for our sensors to detect the source. Wraith scout ship is still in orbit, we're detecting no darts-"
The Wraith had no reason to blow things up near the Mirror. And explosions made Ronon think of Sheppard and McKay. He stood, feeling for purchase on the housing, and found a spot to plant his boot; he pushed himself up. Craning his neck, he could just see over the top.
It was too dark to see much, but near the far side of the Mirror's frame there was a large scatter of debris that was sparking with energy. It was right about where the strange Wraith ship had been.
"It's been blown up," Ronon reported. "The Wraith female's ship."
Then his headset crackled with static and he heard, "This is Sheppard. Ronon, is that you?"
"Sheppard?" Ronon grinned, jumping down from the housing. That explained the explosion.
On the headset, Zelenka demanded incredulously, "What? Colonel? Colonel, you are all alive? Rodney and Teyla?"
Sheppard's voice answered, "We're all fine. Zelenka, what's your position?"
"The same one we had before," Zelenka said, sound ing deeply relieved. Ronon could hear Kusanagi laughing and clapping with joy in the background.
Sheppard said, "Good. Just stay there for now and wait for instructions."
Ronon broke in, "Sheppard, I'm on the roof, near the pulse generator."
"There are Wraith up there with him," Zelenka added hastily. "Well, not with him, but they have turned and are heading back in his direction. I think they are only heading back toward the explosion, but-"
Ronon heard McKay in the background this time, then Sheppard said, "Ronon, we're going to beam you off the roof, back outside the installation, near where the jumper is.
"Uh, okay." Ronon studied the dark sky uneasily. Beam? "Where are you?"
"That's a long story" From Sheppard's tone, Ronon didn't think he was going to like this story. "I'll tell you once we get you out of there."
Nobody had liked John's brief summation of their plan: John could practically hear Ronon's expression of deep cynicism over the radio, Radek had muttered in Czech, and even Miko had said doubtfully, "Dr. McKay thinks this is a good idea?"
"Yes, yes he does," Rodney had inserted into the conversation. "Now just shut up and do it."
The jumper rendezvoused with the shuttle, and with both ships cloaked, they headed toward the mountains. They were looking for a spot where they could land and regroup; they needed the breathing room, and Rodney needed the jumper's equipment to come up with a way to fix the Mirror.
The flight away from the installation would only take a few minutes, but John could tell it was going to be an awkward few minutes. He and Teyla were standing back in the main compartment area, watching Trishen in the cockpit while Rodney worked at pulling more data out of the terminals. Trishen was flying the shuttle using only the instruments and a couple of bubble displays; there wasn't anything like a viewport, and that was making John's nerves jump. He was used to flying by instrument, but no windows at all just felt all kinds of wrong. And Trishen didn't trust them, and they didn't trust her. Even Rodney, who had pushed the "let's work together" solution, was jumpy and uncomfortable in the confined space of the compartment and passages.
At least they had intel on the Wraith's movements. The shuttle was still receiving data from sensor buoys Trishen had placed around the Mirror when she had first arrived. She had set one of the holographic bubbles in the compartment to display the video feed, and they had a good view of the Mirror platform.
The eclipse was waning, the light getting steadily brighter. They could see the base ship's glowing debris field, and the Wraith climbing around the Mirror's frame. John asked Teyla, "You think they know what it's for yet?"
Teyla studied the little figures moving in the display, her brows drawn together. "It is hard to tell. As the shuttle was lifting off, I could sense their frustration, their anger at being thwarted, that was all. There was no feeling that they had made a great discovery." She shook her head. "But they must realize the Mirror is a portal to somewhere."
"They probably think it's just a giant Stargate, like we did at first," John said, then snorted at himself. Just a giant Stargate, like that's something to sneeze at. The Wraith might think it went to some hidden refuge of the Ancients, some nice new feeding ground for them. Well, it could, if we don't get the damn thing shut down. He stretched, rolling his shoulders, wincing as sore muscles and bruises protested the motion. From the cockpit, Trishen glanced up, saw he and Teyla watching her, and quickly looked down at her terminal again. John let his breath out. He really hated this. There was just too much about her they didn't know. He lowered his voice and said, "If she can do that mental communication thing... she could tell them where we are without even touching a radio."
Teyla didn't look happy either, but she said, "But she released us, destroyed her ship. She seems as if she truly wishes to escape them, and this reality."
John shrugged, resigned. "Yeah, I know. I'm just... paranoid. Every time we trust somebody new they turn around and stab us in the ass." And he couldn't help thinking that her description of the Eidolon or whatever they called themselves was too good to be true. "And if the Wraith in her reality don't feed on humans or any other kind of people-like alien, what do they feed on?"
"She does have water and some sort of rations in this ship." Teyla's lips twisted and her brows indicated skepticism. "Though I find it hard to believe that her kind are entirely human in that respect. Perhaps, unlike the Wraith here, they are able to feed on the life force of animals."
John nodded to himself "Well, we're never going to find out, and I'm okay with that."
They reached the foothills a short time later, and found a low plateau for a landing site. It was stony and bare of the tall red grass that would betray the presence of two cloaked ships, and sheltered by high bluffs and rocky overhangs.
The shuttle was bigger but John had made it clear that they were doing any joint research in the jumper. It was awkward, as they would need to keep the ramp down and everyone would have to wear SCBAs the whole time, but he didn't want any unpleasant surprises. Rodney agreed with an impatient grimace. "Yes, let's skip the possibility of an intruder control system that leaves us all helpless now that we've introduced her to the other members of our little group," he muttered, watching Trishen as she was absorbed in her instruments. She was carefully guiding the shuttle into a landing on the stone shelf. "I thought she'd at least try to keep one of us as a hostage, and that we'd waste an hour threatening each other and arguing about it."
"Yeah." John had thought so too, and he wasn't sure if the fact that she hadn't gone that route made him less suspicious or more so. "Maybe she realized just how badly that would go over." Who knew, it could be common sense. Controlling a hostage was harder than it looked, and Trishen had been working on the Mirror for a while now without success; she knew she needed their help, or specifically Rodney's help. And that she wasn't likely to get it if they thought she was a danger to them.
Once the shuttle was down, John got on the headset and talked Miko through landing the jumper. The jumper's sensors couldn't pick up the cloaked shuttle, though the cloaked jumper appeared as a ghostly outline on the shuttle's display. John figured the two ships crashing into each other at some point would be the perfect cap to this day, but the jumper set down safely on the stony ground about thirty yards away.
They got their SCBAs on, and went out to meet the others. Ronon came down the ramp first, eyeing Trishen warily. She was standing back near her shuttle's open hatch, holding the black sphere that was her portable terminal. She was wearing the helmet part of her environmental outfit, but hadn't bothered with the rest of the concealing suit. With the dead-white skin of her hands visible, it was a lot more obvious what she was. Ronon began, "How do you know-"
John cut him off, "We don't know anything. We just know that this is the deal we made, and so far she's keeping up her end of it."
"Seriously, we've gone over it all already," Rodney told him wearily. "Several times."
Zelenka stopped in the hatchway, peering around Ronon. "Proboha ' He looked at Rodney, his eyes wide above the SCBA mask. "She's a Wraith."
Rodney glared at him in irritation. "What, did you think it was a cruel joke?"
Zelenka gestured in annoyance. "Of course not! But you said she was not like the Wraith of our reality. I was hoping there wouldn't be so much.. .with the hands, and everything."
John took Zelenka's arm, turning him so they weren't facing toward Trishen. "Listen, we've got a temporary deal wit
h her, but don't let down your guard, don't let her get you alone." He gave Rodney a meaningful look, including him in the admonition. "Don't forget what she )J is.
Rodney just nodded tightly. With an aghast expression, Zelenka said, "I don't think that will be a problem."
Rodney rolled his eyes. "On that note, let's get to work." He waved imperatively to Trishen, calling her over.
Under Ronon's highly suspicious gaze, they got two laptops set up at the end of the rear cabin, and Trishen put her portable terminal on the ramp. It was a little reassuring that she still seemed just as nervous of them as they were of her.
Miko was using the station tied into the jumper's systems in the cockpit, so she could keep an eye on the HUD. John ended up in the jumper's cockpit with her, Rodney, and Teyla, not so much for a secret meeting out of Trishen's hearing, but because the cockpit was pressurized and they could take off the SCBAs long enough to eat and drink something.
As they stood around knocking back water and power bars, Miko looked up from her laptop to tell them, "We were so afraid! And you all look-"
Rodney interrupted her with, "Work now, sympathy later." He crumpled a wrapper. "I want this over with as soon as possible."
John could get behind that attitude.
Rodney and Teyla went back outside, but the HUD showed that the interference from the Mirror had calmed down enough to send another databurst back to base camp, so John stayed to record a brief report. He just hit the highlights: Wraith, more Wraith, what they were planning to do. Miko added compressed files with copies of Rodney's data on the Mirror, and sent it. It worried him that they hadn't gotten a reply back from the last transmission Zelenka had made. But if it had come during the Mirror's last big discharge, the jumper's comm might not have been able to receive it.
John went back outside, where Teyla and Ronon were standing out in the open space between the two ships. This spot was shadowed by the cliffs, which were striped with red and yellow mineral deposits. The sky was reassuringly empty of anything but the gas giant, growing brighter as the moon moved further out of the eclipse.