Sam looked where he was pointing. McKay and a group of scientists were huddled in the door of one of the shattered buildings. None of them seemed to be armed, and even as she watched another half dozen drones appeared on the streets in front of them. She held her breath, hoping they wouldn’t notice the cowering humans, but sure enough one of them turned his head sharply, and the others copied him, raising their stunners. Sam took a deep breath and stepped out into the street, switching her P90 to automatic fire. She pulled the trigger, the drones jerking and staggering for a moment before one managed to turn his stunner toward her, and she ducked as blue fire crackled past her head. She was up and firing in an instant, and the drones staggered back again, first one and then the rest collapsing under the weight of fire.
“McKay!”
He waved in answer, and she saw him shove Kusanagi forward. “Go, go!”
Kusanagi darted across the open space, and Zelenka caught her hand, pulling her to shelter. “Down the slope and into the tunnel. There are lights, follow them.”
She nodded, mute, but did as she was told, disappearing just as two more scientists stumbled into the shelter. Zelenka dispatched them as well, and reached to grab another stumbling man, hauling him to his feet. A Dart shrieked overhead, energy weapons firing. Sam flattened herself against the stones, flinching at the weight of the blasts, but the Dart soared past without dropping more drones.
“McKay!” she called again. “Come on!”
The last of them came in a rush, Grodin and another man supporting Dr. Campbell, who seemed conscious, but unable to move one leg.
“A stunner caught me,” she said, almost in tears. “Leave me, I’ll just slow you down.”
“Nonsense,” Grodin said, and he and the other man lowered her bodily down the slope.
“Well?” McKay demanded, slithering into place beside her, and Sam blinked.
“We’re trying to get everyone out and safely to the Athosians,” she said. “And I need volunteers to stay with me and cover the route.”
“Yes, I know that. Did you bring me a gun?”
“I’ve got one P90 to spare,” Sam said. “Are you sure you can handle it?”
McKay glared at her. “Despite what some people think, I have been trained, and I do know how to use automatic weapons.”
“Except for the friendly fire incident,” Zelenka said briskly.
“That wasn’t friendly fire!” McKay said. “That was a ricochet.”
“Great,” Sam said, weakly, but handed over the P90.
Grodin looked up at her form the bottom of the slope. “I’d like to stay, too, Colonel Carter.”
“I don’t have a weapon for you,” Sam answered. “I’m sorry, Dr. Grodin.”
“Get them out of here, Peter,” Zelenka said. “You know the tunnels better than McKay does.”
Grodin nodded and turned away.
Sam looked at McKay. “This can’t be everyone. Where’s the rest of your people?”
“Coming, I hope,” McKay answered. He looked over his shoulder as though he expected to see them there. “It was all planned.”
“Except for the Wraith attacking,” Zelenka said.
“We could hardly plan on that,” McKay snapped.
“We’ll wait,” Sam said firmly, riding over whatever else McKay might have said.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Finders Keepers
TEAL’C crouched in the underbrush beside the lake, watching the Darts wheel and dive over the expedition’s camp, energy beams flaring blue against the purpling sky. A part of him wanted fiercely to be back there, with O’Neill or Carter, but he knew that this crossing was the most dangerous part of the escape. The lake was at its narrowest here, with brush and broken walls that came down almost to the water’s edge, but even so there was a thirty-yard span of open water, far too visible from above, and utterly vulnerable to a Dart’s attack. And the Athosian boat was small and unstable — larger than the one they had crossed in, but still not enough to hold all of the escaping scientists.
He turned his head as Ronon Dex slipped through the brush to kneel at his side. “Halling says the first party’s in sight.”
“That is good.” Halling was the Athosians’ other leader, Teal’c remembered, the one who had been reluctant to involve himself until now. Teal’c suspected Teyla had something to do with that; she seemed to have a gift for persuasion.
“Damn it.” Dex shook his head unhappily. “They’re getting pasted in the city.”
“Indeed.” Teal’c didn’t really want to think about that, about they way they were using Colonel Sumner to cover their retreat. Even if the man had become deranged, it was a bad end.
He turned at the sound of footsteps behind them, to see Halling and the first group of refugees emerging from the ruins. Teal’c lifted his hand in salute, received the same acknowledgement, and turned his attention back to the weaving Darts. He heard splashing as the boat was launched, the soft mumble of warning and advice as the passengers climbed aboard, and then the steady splash of paddles as the boat began to cross.
“It’s too light,” Dex said, under his breath. “The Wraith will see them.”
“Hopefully they will be concentrating on the city,” Teal’c said. “The lights there should be deceiving.” He glanced over his shoulder, saw the boat halfway across. “They are making good progress.”
“Yeah.” Dex’s hands tightened on his P90, and he relaxed them with an obvious effort. “It’s just — the first thing we were taught was never to get bunched up.”
Teal’c nodded, accepting the logic of that advice. The Wraith Culling beam would all too easily sweep up any group on the ground; far better to spread out, so that the Wraith could only attack one person at a time, and all the rest could cover them. And yet in this case… “There is no choice,” he said, and saw Dex nod.
Jack followed Sheppard around the corner of the building the expedition had been using as its infirmary, stopped dead as Sheppard raised his fist. Jack repeated the gesture, and heard Teyla and the others freeze in place. They’d made a wide circuit around the edge of the fighting, hoping to come in behind the Wraith and Sumner’s men, somehow open up an escape for the handful of civilians and Air Force personnel who were still trapped in the mess hall. Jack had thought from the start that it was a long shot, and he hadn’t seen anything yet to change his mind. In the distance he could hear the chatter of P90s, see the blue flash of the Wraith weapons, centered on the mess hall area. At least nobody seemed to know they were here, at least not yet…
Sheppard slipped back and waved the rest of the team off to his left, circling further around the camp site. “Wraith overhead,” he said softly, and everyone froze as another Dart screamed past.
Another followed, and a third, slowing to release another of the wide blue-white beams. Drones materialized where it hit, half a dozen of them, plus two of the long-coated leaders. Their plan was obvious: they were behind Sumner’s position, had a fighting chance of taking him by surprise.
“Crap,” Sheppard said, and Jack nodded.
“Yeah. We’d better take them, Major.”
“That will give away our position,” Teyla said, cool as ever.
“So we take them out and run,” Jack answered.
To his surprise, she smiled. “Very well, then.”
The long-coated males were conferring, white heads together, gleaming in the dark, while the drones stood slack, their attention elsewhere.
“Now,” Sheppard said, and stepped out of the shadows, P90 blazing. Jack joined him, bracing himself against the recoil, and Teyla opened fire beside him.
“The leaders first!” she called.
Jack had already targeted the long-coat on the left, saw him fling up his arms and stagger forward. He tried to turn, but Jack caught him with a second long burst, and the Wraith went sprawling. The second long-coat fell beside him, but the drones had seen them. They charged, stunners firing, and Jack jumped back behind the nearest wall, duc
king as blue fire shot over his head to hang writhing against the stones. He fired back, a long burst that sent the nearest drone tumbling into his neighbor. The other Wraith were down, unmoving, and Teyla raised her hand.
“Quickly, this way!”
Already another Dart was winging back their way. Jack raised his P90, fired at the leading wing. He didn’t think he did any damage, but the Dart wheeled away as though any attack was unprecedented. It wasn’t going to be easy to take one of them out that way.
“Come on,” Sheppard called, and Jack scrambled after him.
“What now?”
“Work our way a little further west, and try again.”
From the look on his face, Sheppard didn’t really think it would work, either, but Jack nodded. They had to try.
The boat had made it back to the city side of the lake, ready for the next load of civilians. Teal’c knelt behind the remnants of a low wall, his eyes still on the fighting in the city. Darts spun through the air over the expedition’s camp, and the sound of gunfire was almost constant, punctuated by the snap of the Wraith stun weapons. For a moment, Teal’c allowed himself to wish for a staff weapon, then put the thought aside as purposeless. Things were as they were: there was no point in wishing them otherwise.
“The next group is ready,” a woman’s voice said — not Teyla’s — and a man’s voice rode over hers.
“No, I am not going with them. I’ll wait here, for the rest of my people.”
“Dr. McKay,” Halling began, and Teal’c looked over to see McKay shaking his head vigorously.
“No arguments! I’m not going.”
“Fine, then,” Dex said, and held out his hand to an older man, steadying him into the boat.
“Go, and don’t stop,” Halling said, and shoved the boat free of the shore. It slid out into the dark water, and the sound of paddles began again.
Movement over the camp caught Teal’c eye, and he looked back in time to see one of the Darts break off from the fighting, wings tipped to vertical as it turned toward the lake. Dex cursed, and raised his P90, then lowered it again.
“Everyone under cover!”
Halling echoed the order, but there was no hiding the boat still struggling toward the opposite bank. The paddlers had given up on trying to be discreet, were pulling with all their strength, throwing up fans of spray. The Dart was still coming, dropping lower, black against the lights and flashes of the fighting behind it. It would have them, Teal’c knew. The Culling beam couldn’t miss them, not at that height, and the boat was too unwieldy to attempt evasive action.
He stood in a single quick movement, tucking his weapon against his chest, and took quick but careful aim. The P90 kicked in his hands, all his shots on target, and beside him Dex rose up shouting, his own weapon blazing. The Dart seemed to stagger, then came on, dropping lower. Teal’c kept firing, saw the tiny canopy shatter. The Dart pitched up, rolled over, and came down hard in the lake a dozen yards beyond the expedition members huddling in the boat. The wave from the crash swamped them, but they were almost across, in water that was barely chest deep. The bulk of the party struggled ashore, the taller ones helping the smaller, and a handful of Athosians broke cover to help them out of the water. Several more plunged into the water and joined the group attempting to refloat the long boat.
“Nice shooting,” Dex said.
Teal’c dipped his head. “As was yours.”
“We’d better make sure it’s dead,” Dex said, and waded into the water. Teal’c followed, newly wary, the water creeping cold up his thighs.
The Dart had crashed wing down, and either the wing was broken off under the water, or it had wedged deep into the soft mud of the lakebed. The canopy was shattered, the pilot unmistakably dead, half his head missing, and Teal’c saw Dex draw a sigh of relief.
“Ok, he’s not going to be yelling for help.”
“Indeed not.” Teal’c examined the cockpit, found what he hoped was the canopy release, and pulled it. The frame lifted away, shedding the last fragments of canopy, and both he and Dex ducked away from the shower of sharp shards. “Help me get him out of here.”
“You’re not seriously going to try to fly this,” Dex said, but reached for the body. Together they dragged it out of the cockpit and half onto the shore, heaving it most of the way out of the water.
“If we are to rescue Daniel Jackson, this may be our only chance,” Teal’c said, and waded back out to the Dart. He leaned into the cockpit, his heart sinking at the amount of water already filling it, at the controls that looked nothing like Goa’uld or Ancient technology, and Halling called from the shore.
“Teal’c! We need you here.”
“I am on my way,” he answered, and splashed back to his position. Already another group of scientists had appeared, stumbling out of the ruins, and the Athosians were swapping paddlers for the next trip across. If it could be done, Colonel Carter would do it. He would have to trust in that.
The last of the civilian scientists were into the tunnels along with a handful of airmen; the rest of the Air Force personnel, the ones who’d managed to get away armed, perhaps ten of them, were clustered in the dubious shelter of the building. A few of them had minor cuts and bruises from scrambling through the ruins, but no one had been more seriously hurt. That was one good thing about the Wraith stun weapons, Sam thought. You were either stunned or not, and a stunned person could apparently make a full recovery.
She looked at Sergeant Florian, who seemed to be the ranking person there: a big man, big enough that the P90 looked small against his chest. “What’s the situation, Sergeant?”
A rattle of gunfire punctuated her question and she saw Airman Salawi wince. The young woman had managed to grab a tac vest that was too big for her, but she looked ready to go.
“Not good, Colonel,” Florian answered. “The Wraith were driving them back onto the mess hall. If they can’t break out, they’ll be trapped.”
Sam peered around the edge of the building, trying to make sense of what she was seeing. If Sumner was in trouble, they ought to go back for him — she couldn’t leave him or his men to be eaten by the Wraith, no matter how stupidly they’d behaved. If they came around from the north, taking cover in the buildings that ran up the side of the broad street where their quarters had been, they could get almost to the mess hall without too much chance of being seen. And, just as important, they’d have a decent chance of getting back underground without being seen.
“All right,” she said. “We’re going in.”
It didn’t take long to outline the plan, and she led them along the edge of the ruins, keeping to the deepest shadows. The Wraith’s attention was focused on the mess hall, and as they drew closer, she could see that the perimeter was shrinking. Sumner’s men were being driven back on the mess hall itself, and there were too many bodies on the ground between the edge of the camp and the buildings. The Wraith were massing, two groups of them assembling in shelter, and there were more of the unmasked warriors among the drones. And she’d brought them out perfectly, in position to take the nearer group under solid fire.
She waved for her men to split, sending one group further along the ruins where they could take cover behind a set of fallen columns. Florian signaled that he was in position, and a moment later Sam saw her people were set as well.
“Now!”
She fired as she spoke, the first blast of her P90 sending a drone staggering. The rest of her unit fired as well, long blasts that knocked the drones back and pinned them until they ceased moving. They got two of the warriors in the first salvo, but the rest got themselves into makeshift cover, and the drones ducked for cover as well. The warriors had to be controlling the drones, Sam thought. That was the only explanation for their behavior.
“Target the ones in the long coats!” she shouted, and the lines of fire converged.
Sumner’s men had seen their chance and rose from their positions to counterattack, dropping seven or eight drones. Overhead
, a Dart turned and wheeled, and the broad blue beam flashed from its belly, dropping another dozen Wraith, drones and warriors together.
Sam shifted to cover them, felt her magazine empty itself, and slammed a new one home. She had three more; two more for this, she thought, and one to get us out of here. She picked a warrior out of the melee, brought him down with three quick bursts.
“Colonel! Incoming!” Florian pointed to the sky just as another Dart flashed past. More drones materialized, closer to their position and clearly focused on it.
“Crap,” Carter said, and waved for her people to retreat. Ok, Sumner, she thought. We did what we could.
Jack lifted his hand at the sound of gunfire from a new point — from the far side of the camp, near where Sumner had put their quarters — and his half of the party froze in place. A moment later, Sheppard slipped into cover beside him.
“Your people?”
“Or some of yours that got away,” Jack answered. But he’d bet it was Carter, that was the kind of thing she’d do, come back for Sumner once she’d gotten the civilians out of harm’s way…
“It does not matter,” Teyla said. “They are the diversion we need.”
She was right, and Jack nodded sharply. Only a little further, and they could come in almost on the Wraith’s rear, and he lifted his hand, waving his people forward.
“Go!” Teyla said, and they opened fire. Jack aimed for the line of drones that was stalking toward a knot of Marines in bad cover. Two of the Marines were already down, stunned, he hoped, and the stones behind them crawled with blue fire. A Dart screamed overhead, cannons firing, but they were too well sheltered between the standing walls for the blasts to touch them. Another line of drones materialized, and Sheppard yelled something, urging the Athosians to bring them down. The locals might not manufacture the technology themselves, Jack thought, but they’d certainly learned how to use it fast enough. Though they’d seen that in the Milky Way, too — the Stargates meant that no culture was ever entirely isolated. And a damn good thing, too, at a time like this.
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