Before she could deny any such intent, Cestan edged in with a demand of his own. "Do the raids on my people mean nothing? Why should their gate be protected and not ours?"
"Your gate?" Galven spat. "I think not."
The Falnori governor allowed his manners to slip. "You hardly use this one. Now you want two?"
"We'll come up with a shield for the gate here as well," Elizabeth hurried to say. She had no idea whether or not it was possible to fashion a gate shield from scratch, but if it needed to be done Rodney and Radek would find a way to make it happen. "Until then we can continue to guard this gate. How long will we need to go without a raid before you're convinced that no one on this planet is involved?"
She never got an answer. Before either man could speak, Cadman appeared on the stairs again. Her stiff backed posture conveyed a warning more clearly than her words. "Ma'am, we've got some kind of standoff topside."
Only the combined experiences of two-plus years in the Pegasus Galaxy allowed her to take that statement in stride. Even so, the three seconds she took to process it gave Lorne enough of a head start to beat her to the stairwell and up to the Hall's entrance-where he thrust out a hand to halt her.
"Better stay back, Doctor."
"You're not armed either, Major," she pointed out.
"That's true, ma'am, but I think we both know what our respective roles are supposed to be here."
The Falnori and Nistra representatives had followed her up the stairs to investigate. Elizabeth compromised by staying with Carson, a few steps behind Lorne and Cadman, as they climbed the hill toward the gate.
"I need a sit-rep, Lieutenant," the Major said quietly.
"About twenty people showed up out of the eastern edge of the forest," Cadman reported. "They must have come in covertly, split up into pairs, and circled around. They put at least two guys on each of ours before demanding our weapons and sending me off to get you. Nobody's made a move yet-everyone's waiting for someone else to be first."
"What about their weapons?"
"Mostly bows and arrows. We could take `em, sir, but it'd be ugly."
Hearing Galven and Cestan's footfalls behind her, Elizabeth wondered whose soldiers these were-and whether or not they were acting under orders.
The situation at the top of the hill appeared just as Cadman had described. Having spread out to cover the area around the gate, the Marines had been herded together by a ragged yet focused squad. The four Falnori who had taken part in the sentry duty now knelt on the ground, disarmed. That effectively answered her question.
Although one side wielded P-90s and the other bows, neither showed any sign of backing down.
One soldier glanced over at the newcomers and bobbed his head in acknowledgment. "We serve, Minister."
If Elizabeth had been asked to guess which group would take the first step toward escalating the conflict, she probably would have said the Nistra. Still, a surge of indignation propelled her toward Galven. "Do you really expect to solve anything like this?" she accused. "Through control of the gate?"
"Control of the talks," Galven corrected matter-of- factly. "It is in our interests to complete a new treaty. However, the long-held Falnori view of the Nistra as an inferior people must end. I will no longer negotiate from a position of weakness."
"Galven, you finally have defied all justifications," seethed Cestan. "Peace at the point of a spear is no peace at all."
"My hunters are here to guard the Stargate and this gathering, nothing more. We have no reason to bring bloodshed into an open and sincere proceeding." His emphasis made clear his doubt that the negotiations could truly be described as such.
"And we're meant to take your intent on faith? What will you ask next? Our full harvest?"
Elizabeth battled to maintain some shred of authority. "Minister, we had an agreement for my people to stand guard as an impartial force."
Galven's eyebrows lifted. "Please forgive me, Doctor, if your claims of neutrality no longer reassure me."
And then two of the bows were aimed at her and Carson, sending a ripple of renewed tension through the Marines. A corporal took aim at the hunter pair. "Ma'am, just say the word," the young man stated, his tone deadly earnest.
For a few seconds, the air was silent, and Elizabeth's heartbeat thudded in her ears. It wasn't fear, at least not directly; she knew that the hunters threatening her would be the first to fall if she told the Marines to open fire. Once that happened, however, they'd be set on an irreversible course. The Nistra would see enemies in the Falnori and Lanteans alike, and the casualties on this hill would be only the first.
"Lower your weapons," she said at last.
Bewildered, the Marines looked to Major Lorne for guidance. "You heard the order," Lorne barked, mostly concealing his skepticism. "Be advised that she said lower, not drop."
Cestan watched the Marines stand down and whirled on Elizabeth. "How can you appease him?" he demanded, betrayal written across his face. "My people..."
Time for some tough love. Mind racing to stay a step ahead, Elizabeth addressed both leaders in a cool voice. "If you're certain this dispute can't be resolved without force, that's your choice. I'm willing to continue mediating up to a point. What I am not willing to do is risk my people. With your permission, Minister, I'd like to send these Marines home."
No doubt Galven interpreted that as a victory. Sweeping out a magnanimous hand, he agreed. "You are free to do so."
Lorne leaned in and spoke urgently. "Ma'am, if you're suggesting that we stay here unarmed-"
"Not you, Major. You need to go get Sekal out of his cell, throw him in a jumper, and drag him down here. And bring every last bauble he and his gang had with them, in case any of it's recognizable to either the minister or the governor. If anybody can prove to these two models of intractability that neither group is deliberately antagonizing the other with the raids, it's him."
The Major's eyes narrowed. "All due respect, but if the rest of the team is heading home, you're going to need backup now more than ever. Dr. Beckett can go round up the prisoner instead of me. Right, Doc?"
Carson looked as though he wanted to protest her plan to stay behind. He must have thought better of it, because he blinked rapidly and nodded. "Aye, suppose I can. But I think a few of these Marines had better take the return trip with Sekal."
"I'd recommend it. As quickly as possible." Elizabeth gripped his hands for a brief moment, attempting to convey some kind of reassurance.
She may not have entirely succeeded. Carson's gaze pierced her and he murmured, "I do hope you know what you're doing."
As much as I ever do in this galaxy. She alone had made the choice to press on with this Sisyphean task, and she'd be the one to live with the consequences. Stepping back, she told Cadman, "Dial the gate."
The lieutenant marched past a half-dozen hunters, seemingly taking the most direct route to the DHD on purpose so as to prove that the Nistra hadn't won anything. When the gate activated, Elizabeth watched Carson and the Marines troop through and tried not to feel desperately isolated.
Donning her confidence like a cloak, she faced the governor and minister as the wormhole shut down. "This changes nothing about the talks," she informed them. "Control of the gate is not to be used as leverage in any discussion. Keep in mind that my people hold the key to shielding either gate. The first time an ultimatum is issued here-about adarite or raids or anything at all-I'm gone, and no one gets a gate shield."
The presence of the Nistra hunters allowed Galven the freedom to be more accommodating. "Your position is reasonable and understood," he said. "Shall we-"
A sharp crack, like the sound of lightning, tore through the air, followed shortly by a cry-and then chaos.
Elizabeth hit the ground on her side, pain blossoming where her hip struck the hard-packed dirt. It took a half-second for her to realize that Lorne had yanked her down, and another half-second to realize that she should be grateful for his instinctive action. Scattered, r
andom flashes illuminated the area around them, and arrows hissed past overhead.
"I think Cestan's team just showed up to play," Lorne said into her ear, struggling to be heard over the shouts of the hunters. "We need to get out of here."
She raised her head to look for the gate. Between it and them lay forty yards and far too many combatants. Each leader had been swallowed up by a protective cluster of fighters almost immediately. Adarite whips sizzled all around, creating a light show that would have been breathtaking if it hadn't been grisly at the same time. "The Hall," she told him. "We can wait this out in there."
The Major's eyes scanned the newly christened battlefield for the safest route down the hill. No doubt he'd noticed, as she had, that both sides fought in relatively small numbers so far. This wasn't the start of a carefully planned campaign by either group. Rather, it seemed more like a first skirmish between scouting parties. They would have to hope that an opportunity to reach the gate would present itself later, before Atlantis was forced to send a rescue team into the fray.
"Stay as low to the ground as you can until we open up a safe distance," Lorne directed, pointing toward the clearest path. "I'll be right behind you."
Sucking in a breath, Elizabeth began to crawl forward on her forearms, the way she'd seen the Marines do in training. Before long she had to shut her eyes against the long grasses that scratched her face. She wasn't covering ground as fast as she would have liked; Lorne surely could have outdistanced her in seconds. He didn't, of course, instead keeping his body between her and the majority of the fighters.
As the ground started to slope away under her, hope crept into her thoughts. Once they were partway down the hill, the odds of being followed or struck by a stray weapon would diminish.
She'd just gotten brave enough to get up on all fours when she heard a soft moan nearby. One of the Falnori whip-warriors lay in a heap a few feet away, an arrow driven through her thigh. Elizabeth paused, glancing back at Lorne and the first-aid supplies she knew were stored in his vest.
"Helping her might be interpreted as taking sides," he warned under his breath. "Which would be a dangerous thing for us to do."
The warrior looked near to Elizabeth's age, and had she not been wounded she might have carried herself in a similar manner. Her gaze displayed acceptance; she looked as if she knew that the off-worlders would be taking a risk to aid her, and she would understand if they chose not to do so.
It was the most rational viewpoint Elizabeth had seen from anyone on this world in days. She shuffled awkwardly on her hands and knees toward the woman. "Grab her other arm," she told the Major, who moved to comply. Together they dragged the warrior down the hill until they felt safe to stand and pull her arms across their shoulders.
By the time they reached the Hall, Elizabeth's lungs burned with exertion, the sun was inching toward the horizon, and the battle sounded distant. The trio stumbled only a few steps inside the entrance before stopping, unable to negotiate over the rubble on the floor. Trained in basic field medicine, Lorne did his best to make the warrior comfortable and slow the bleeding, although he elected not to remove the arrow from her leg.
"It'll just bleed more if I do. Somebody who knows a lot more than me will have to stitch you up," he told her apologetically, handing over a couple of pills and his canteen. "Take these. They're painkillers." She accepted them with a strained smile.
Exhausted though she was, Elizabeth couldn't resist remarking to Lorne, "Bet you're rethinking your choice to stay here and send Beckett home."
"No, ma'am. I'll take this little paradise any day over the ass-kicking the Colonel would deliver if I left civilians alone and unarmed off-world."
"Thank you." The soft comment came from the woman they'd propped against an overturned bench. "I would not have lasted long had I remained on the battlefield."
"Don't thank us yet. We may not be able to get out of here for some time." Elizabeth sat with her back to the wall and drew her knees up to her chest. "I'm Dr. Weir, by the way, and this is Major Lorne."
"I am Merise. I was one of the first to encounter your people near the gate, days ago."
The name struck a familiar chord. "Teyla mentioned you. She admired your fighting abilities."
"We owe you much for being willing to help us reach for peace." Merise cast her gaze down at the rough projectile embedded in her leg. "Even if it is beyond our grasp. We remain honored by the attempt."
In other words, thanks for playing, and we have some lovely parting gifts for you. Just `trying' had never been good enough for Elizabeth. Still, she had to wonder if she'd been foolish to keep pushing when all signs had pointed to failure. Had she been hopelessly arrogant to believe she could halt a tide that had been building for centuries? Or had it been a blind, desperate play to regain some shred of the rigidly moral life she'd left behind on Earth?
Forcing herself to focus on the immediate situation, she looked at the Falnori woman. "I'm assuming, based on your quick reaction to the Nistra seizing the gate, that your own army isn't far away."
"It is near," admitted Merise. "My group rode ahead. We did not come to provoke a battle, however. We merely planned to patrol the western woods, as we often do. When we saw that the gate had been overrun, we were in place to act."
"Can't really fault you for that," Lorne said. "But now that the fighting's started, we're going to have to treat this like a war, because that's what it's turned into."
On that cheerful thought, Elizabeth leaned her head back on the wall and closed her eyes.
She must have dozed for a while, since the daylight was all but gone when she opened her eyes again. The Major seemed to be exploring the ruined outer building of the Hall. Across the room, the beam of his flashlight played over broken equipment. "Looking for anything that might be useful as a weapon," he explained quietly, glancing at Merise, who also had fallen asleep. "Just in case.
"That will not be necessary."
Elizabeth pushed herself to her feet as Cestan entered the building. His only damage appeared to be to his robes, which were rumpled and smudged with dirt. Two of his warriors immediately went to assist Merise. "The battle's over?" Elizabeth asked.
The governor's nod was grave. "The first of many, I fear. We suffered few losses, but the gate remains under Nistra control."
"How did you...?"
Intuiting her question, Cestan gave a tired smile. "There are not many places you could have fled. Especially since Kellec witnessed you taking Merise with you. We are thankful for that."
"I'm relieved you didn't assume malicious intent on our part." Elizabeth let her focus drift toward a splintered window frame and the area beyond it. "The gate's inaccessible, you said?"
"I'm afraid so. I'd like to offer you a place in my army's command post, just on the other side of the woods. You will need protection for the night."
So much for not taking sides. They had no other viable options, though. Grateful for the invitation, Elizabeth nonetheless needed to hear the inevitable confirmed. "And when morning comes?"
There was a bleak, resigned ache in the governor's voice. "Then the conflict which has been expected for generations will finally arrive, and may the Ancestors help us all."
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
adek's first view of P7L-418 came at twilight, as Jumper One emerged from the Nistra gate. Had the landscape not been marred by the wreckage of the station segment, he might have thought it pretty, in an austere sort of way. Of course, amid those picturesque mountains lay enough adarite to make him forget his own name, so he wasn't disappointed to watch them grow smaller outside the jumper's windscreen.
Their ascent into planetary orbit took them over both Nistra and Falnori territory, giving them an overhead view of the continent for the first time. A scattering of small lakes demonstrated where the Falnori got the water to irrigate their crops; clusters of rugged stone dwellings set snugly into the foothills must have been the Nistra villages. In between lay a sort of no-man's land
of rolling plains and woods. Radek spotted the planet's main gate amid that patchwork and squinted, trying vainly to identify the small figures standing nearby.
"Check that out." Colonel Sheppard put the jumper into a shallow bank, allowing them a better look at the area. Tiny pinpricks of light, dozens of them, were gathered together under the encroaching darkness.
"They're closer to Nistra territory, though not by much." Rodney frowned, not comprehending. "Another settlement?"
"Don't think so." Sheppard called up the HUD. Apparently they'd now gained enough distance from the adarite deposits in the mountains for the sensors to work properly. "Lots of life signs, but no structures. It's a troop encampment. They're stopping for the night."
"From there they'll be able to march to the gate hill by mid-morning." Rodney sat hunched over in the right seat, his elbows resting on the console. "Is there another group out there on the Falnori side?"
In answer, Sheppard ran a sensor sweep to the south. "Sure enough," he confirmed. "Their group's smaller. They'll probably be better fighters, though, since their brains aren't scrambled."
Rodney sighed. "Well, that's a warm, fuzzy feeling. These people are determined to fight no matter what."
Radek spoke up from his seat behind them. "Then we should work quickly, I believe."
As Jumper One continued to climb, the lanterns and campfires that dotted the ground shrank into nothingness, soon replaced by starlight from above. Before long, the proximity alarm flashed, surprising no one. "That would be the space junk we've heard so much about." The Colonel shut off the alarm and engaged the jumper's shield. "Hold onto something, all right? If I have to make some sudden moves and the inertial dampeners can't quite keep up, I'd rather not have to peel anybody off the bulkheads."
"Another wonderful thought." Rodney watched with an expression of obvious trepidation at what lay ahead of them.
The jumper approached the labyrinth of wreckage. Radek found the view bizarrely fascinating. A derelict fighter was suspended in a bizarre pas de deux with a Wraith Dart, the two craft passing each other so slowly that the motion was almost imperceptible. Farther away, a larger ship floated in an orbit that would have looked perfectly normal if not for the great gash that had torn the ship open from bow to stern.
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