"Aaahh!" Rodney dived under the lab bench, instinctively hugging the laptop to his chest to protect it against the expected onslaught. When it didn't come, he slowly climbed to his feet, seeing others do the same. To his relief, he noted that the sand was pale yellow.
Looking guilty, Sheppard came up out of his crouch. "On the plus side, we know the storm's over," he offered lamely.
Rodney glared at him. "Your ATA gene needs a leash."
"I didn't even know the door was there. It's not like I opened it on purpose"
"All the more reason!"
Making his way over drifts of the apparently benign sand, Ronon walked through the airlock and looked out. As usual, the Satedan summed it up succinctly. "Back door."
The team moved to join him, and Rodney couldn't repress a satisfied "Aha!" at seeing his earlier suspicions confirmed. All of fifteen meters away were the Stargate and DHD. Beside the latter rose a bizarrely shaped sand drift that had blown up against the currently invisible jumper.
Sheppard turned to Vene with a broad smile. "Guess we'll be taking the shortcut."
"You will return?" the Elder asked urgently, his eyes wide as he stared at the strangely lumped sand.
"We will. And soon."
"You have no idea how much this will mean to my people," Vene declared, accompanying them into the open. "This gives us tangible hope that some of our youngest generation might live to see our world as it was meant to be."
Outside, Sheppard pulled the remote from his pocket and pointed it in the direction of the weird sand drifts. The jumper materialized, prompting Vene to clasp his hands together in wonder.
"Glad to be of help," said the Colonel in a matter-of-fact voice. "Keep an eye out for us in case another storm blows up."
"On that count, we need to find a way to open and close this door." Rodney clambered over the mounds of sand at the entrance. The air was just as dry and the sun just as relentless as they had been prior to the storm.
"Perhaps it's automatic," Carson suggested. He squatted beside a patch of reddish-colored grains that had collected near the jumper and carefully scooped some into a tube bearing a biohazard symbol.
Sheppard motioned for everyone to back away from the airlock. The inner door closed immediately. The outer doors followed suit a few moments later, slowing when they encountered the drifts of sand. When he approached the entrance again, both doors reopened.
That settled, Rodney gave a perfunctory farewell to Vend, leaving Sheppard to fill in any remaining diplomatic niceties while he stepped into the jumper. The storm had ended none too soon for Atlantis's sake, and further exposure to the unrelenting sun would exacerbate the wasp-sting sand bums on his face and neck.
"Wonder how Teyla's doing," Sheppard said, heading up the ramp.
"With any luck, she isn't getting blown into the land of ruby slippers and the Lollipop Guild." Rodney did worry about her. If the environment they'd faced on this planet was harsh, the one their teammate had willingly entered was magnitudes worse.
Seated beside Teyla in Jumper Three, Lieutenant Corletti said, "Jumper Five, tell me what you've got up there."
"Ahell of a lot of convective activity, ma'am," reported Sergeant Smithson, dispatched to fly weather reconnaissance. "Vertical development on those clouds is twenty thousand feet, easy. Some other storm cells are starting to pop up, too, mostly around the poles. Doesn't make sense-the biggest storms are forming over the land. Give us a minute to get a better look at the weather over the Athosians"
Corletti glanced at Teyla and slid her hand forward on Jumper Three's power console. "Let's drop the hammer, boys and girls," she instructed the two jumpers flanking theirs.
Thanks to the jumper's inertial dampeners, Teyla experienced no sense of acceleration, but the speed readout began to increase. She returned her gaze to the windshield, already sheeted with rain. Ahead of them, she could only distinguish the horizon because of the huge expanse of darkness that enveloped the sky. "I have not sufficiently thanked you for your willingness to make this flight," she said to her pilot. "You were the first to volunteer, were you not?"
"I've got a big family," Corletti replied by way of explanation. "If I knew they were in trouble this bad, I'd pull a gun on someone to get there."
Teyla wished her relationship with her people could be so clearly defined. She was their leader, and yet so often she could not be among them. In making the choice to live and travel with the Earth team, she had acted to help the suddenly displaced Athosians as best she could. At the same time, she could not fault them if they sometimes doubted her sense of duty.
In truth, she felt duty-bound to both groups. When she had been preparing to brave the storm, Dr. McKay had at first tried to dissuade her. At Colonel Sheppard's subtle urging, the scientist had yielded and eventually given her a brusque but sincere wish of luck. Ronon had even offered to accompany her, but the journey was her responsibility. The expression on the Colonel's face just as he'd turned to leave had spoken clearly enough. He understood better than most the difficulty of divided responsibilities and loyalties.
The jumper bucked then, jostling her into the bulkhead.
'Pikes. It takes an awful lot to exceed the inertial dampeners' capabilities" Her mouth set in a hard line, Corletti made a quick adjustment to the controls and toggled her radio again. "How about that update, Smitty?"
"Ma'am, the worst of the storm looks to be heading away from the camps, further inland," Smithson said. "It doesn't seem to be losing strength, though."
When Jumper Three was again buffeted, nearly knocking them out of their seats, Corletti bit back a curse. "Roger that," she muttered. "Colonel, are you still on the line?"
"Right here," Caldwell's voice replied from Atlantis. "How much daylight have you got left, Lieutenant?"
"Almost none, sir."
"Then I suggest waiting until morning to effect evacuations. It'll give the Athosians time to gather everyone and assemble in the best possible locations for extraction."
Though it was not her place to object, Teyla could not be silent. "By morning, Colonel, the situation may have changed considerably. The storm may be unpredictable, but I believe we can be assured that the situation will only worsen."
"That is by no means a certainty," Caldwell argued. "The fact is, no one really knows what this machine will do. Even its creators never knew, because it was never tested."
Her rebuttal was cut off when the jumper tilted dizzyingly, dumping her onto the floor.
"Damn it, damn it, damn it," Corletti hissed, keeping her seat only by tightly gripping the armrests. "Everybody still hanging together?"
"Sort of, ma'am," came Smithson's answer. The sergeant sounded as though he'd had the breath knocked out of him. "I'm okay, but Donnelly just bit through his lip during the last bump, and he's bleeding pretty much all over the deck. Few stitches should deal with it okay."
"And it'll only be worse with the jumpers full of passengers." Over the radio, Dr. Weir's voice was resigned.
"We have to recall them," announced Colonel Caldwell. "Our resources are already divided between the city evacuation and the Daedalus repairs, and if they fly into that mess, we're only going to lose people"
In the pause that followed, Teyla heard her hopes slip away. She was not surprised when Dr. Weir said softly, "I'm sorry, Teyla. Jumpers, return to base."
The latest blast of wind shear rocked them violently, and Teyla barely managed to regain her seat. She heard static in her earpiece, but the view outside the windshield drew her focus. Seeing a rainblurred area of green and brown beyond the gray, she made one final attempt. "Dr. Weir, Jumper Three has the mainland in sight. We request permission to continue."
She looked over at Corletti, prepared to apologize for speaking for the both of them. But the Marine made no objection, concentrating on performing a stable descent.
The response from Atlantis was garbled. Their ship was tossed hard, its nose pitching up to near vertical before slamming back d
own. "Crap, I'm losing it!" Corletti's hands flew over the controls, but the planet's surface suddenly loomed ever larger in front of them. "Oh, God... Hang on. We're going in!"
he jumpers should have arrived by now," Hailing yelled above the noise. They had erected tenting across a narrow gorge, little more than a cutting in the side of the cliff, and so were protected from the worst of the wind and the rain. But outside-Hailing did not need Dr. Weir to confirm that this storm was not natural.
Droplets of water falling from his nose and chin, the engineer, Kwesi, leaned in close to speak into his ear. "If Dr. Weir said they were on their way, they will get here."
"I do not doubt Dr. Weir's word, or the pilots' intent" Halling moved to the entrance and, ignoring the wind and rain that pounded his face, looked up at the sky before replying. "But it has been too long. Perhaps they were forced to turn back. I should have left sooner to bring the others down from the mountains."
When they had first come to the mainland, his people's priority had been to learn what this world had to offer by way of new food crops and animals, medicinal plants, and spices that they could use both for themselves and for trading. Although Teyla's presence had been sorely missed, their explorations had been filled with the excitement of discovery. After establishing a base, they had then set up outlying hunting camps, including one up in the mountains, on the shore of a lake. There, the waters contained plentiful fish, reeds suitable for making rope grew along the banks, and the shores were thick with an excellent clay for making pots, something in which Jinto had expressed interest. For that reason, and believing that it was safe, Halling had encouraged his son to spend time up in the mountain camp.
"Jinto will be all right," Kwesi assured him, motioning for him to come back under cover. "They have sturdy shelter and their camp is on high ground, well above the lake's shoreline."
Reluctant to turn away from the mountains and his son, Hailing replied, "Perhaps, but they do not know the nature of this storm. If the jumpers do come, we have a better chance if we are together." He pushed rain-soaked hair from his face and shook the water from his jacket. "When we came to Atlantis, many of my people feared that the Ancestors did not wish us to trespass on their sacred home. While we are very grateful to you for helping us, perhaps this is a further warning that we should have settled elsewhere."
"I do not believe that to be true. On Earth, my own people have suffered much tragedy through the generations, but through it all, their spirit has remained strong." Kwesi squeezed his arm reassuringly. "Almost as strong as the Athosians. We will get through this together, but you must have faith""
"It is not my faith that concerns me. Those in the other camps and out hunting may suspect that this storm is not normal, but they cannot know that it will worsen, nor that they must make their way here. Can you promise me that, should the jumpers arrive, the pilots will go up into that and bring back my son?" He pointed to the maelstrom of lightning and clouds that swirled like an enraged beast around the mountaintops.
Any reply Kwesi might have given him was drowned out by a tremendous noise that momentarily cut through the howling wind and rain. The ground beneath their feet trembled, prompting Halling to step further outside and seek the origin of the sound. It was not an earthquake; of that he was certain, for he had been on many worlds where such things were common.
Ignoring the rain, others now joined him. Was it the river, perhaps? Slogging across the churned-up mud beneath his feet, Hailing moved out even further, away from the limited protection of the cliff and into the full fury of the wind and rain, hoping to see if the expected floodwaters had reached the main campsite. It was not something that he relished, on the contrary, but he needed affirmation.
Kwesi, too, had thought to check on the river. Walking just ahead of Halling, the engineer stopped and peered down at his feet, then abruptly turned to face him. In the harsh storm light, the man's dark skin was pallid, and his eyes grew wide with terror. "Run!" Kwesi took an urgent step towards Halling, grabbed his arms and shook them for emphasis. "Go as fast as your feet will carry you. Take nothing! Flee to the other side of river!"
"What?" Had they not come here to escape the rising waters? But Kwesi had already rushed back under the shelter, calling for everyone who was still there to leave. Following him, Halling yelled, "Why?"
Inside, Kwesi gathered together the items he'd used to communicate with Dr. Weir, shouting for people to hurry. Halling did not understand. They were already on high ground, well above the level of even the worst floods. He knew this because he had seen the marks on the riverbanks, and had always respected such signs. "Why?" he repeated. "What's wrong?"
Around them, people were staring at each other in confusion, reluctant to leave what little shelter the cutting provided. It was dangerous outside, not simply because of the river, but because wind gusts had already knocked over trees, and branches were flying everywhere.
"The clay!" Kwesi snatched up his bag, grabbed a fistful of Halling's jacket, and pulled him across to the wall of the gorge. While a few bushes and weedy plants clung tenaciously to the almost vertical face, patches of damp earth were visible in places. Some water dribbled down, but for the most part, it was far drier than outside. Using his fingers, Kwesi scooped a handful of the clay into his palm. "Too much water!" he shouted above the noise of the storm.
Though Halling still had yet to see why that was a problem, Kwesi's distress was enough to hold his attention and that of the others who had now gathered around them. The engineer manipulated the clay between his fingers, pounding and squeezing it. Without warning, it liquefied and flowed from his hands.
Although he did not understand how this could be, Halling instantly understood the implications. Rushing outside, he looked up at the huge mountain looming over them and was struck by a terrible sense of dread. He grabbed up the nearest child, thrust her into her father's arms, and yelled, "Everyone must go down and cross the river-now!"
Teyla staggered to her feet, trying to find order inside the confusion of the puddle jumper. The machine had rolled and, as far as she could ascertain in the dark, flipped over upon landing. It now rested at an unidentifiable angle to...what? The bottom of the ocean? It had been dusk when they had gone in, and the ship was still shifting periodically, as if caught in a wayward current. Perhaps they were still sinking.
A jagged flash illuminated the interior of the jumper. It was almost immediately followed by a second bolt of. .. lightning! Relief swept through her. They had reached dry land, which meant that they could not be too far from the camp. Testing her com, she was not surprised to hear nothing but static.
The pain above her ear and the throbbing at the back of her eyes were indications that she had been rendered unconscious, although she had no idea for how long. "Lieutenant?" she called.
The next lightning flash confirmed that they had indeed landed upside down. Of Lieutenant Corletti she could see no sign. Teyla took a step-and froze when the jumper slid backward nearly its own length before coming to a jarring stop. She glanced at the windshield and saw nothing but violently thrashing branches. Their landing site, if it could be called that, did not feel at all stable.
"Lieutenant Corletti?" Another sharp ribbon of light allowed her to look into the back of the shuttle, and she quickly located the Marine's form sprawled up against the rear hatch. A pang of remorse struck Teyla. Had it not been for her insistence in continuing to the mainland, the young woman would not have been injured-or worse.
Although the jumper continued to shudder in the gusts, it seemed to have settled in position by the time Teyla cautiously made her way to the Marine. The flashes of stark white light were almost continuous now, showing all too clearly the lieutenant's grimace of pain. "Lieutenant?"
A soft moan was followed by colorful string of expletives. "My shoulder. It's dislocated."
"You are certain?"
"Oh, yeah. Not the first time." Biting her lip, Corletti brought her right hand across her chest to
brace her shoulder before easing into a sitting position.
Having treated similar conditions in the past, Teyla said, "I can help, if you would allow me" The sooner it was set, the easier it would be and the faster it would heal.
"Where are we?" The pilot peered out through the cockpit. "Hell of a storm. At least we landed in one piece-more or less-instead of ditching in the ocean." In the ragged light her grin became a wince, but she added, "You know what to do? I'm pretty sure it's an anterior."
Finding a suitable location for first aid in the upended shuttle took several minutes. Eventually, Teyla braced the woman against the chairs and rotated her arm with decisive force. Corletti clenched her jaw, giving only a brief, wordless cry when her shoulder locked into position with an audible `click'.
Battling the obvious pain, the lieutenant hissed a series of short breaths through her teeth. "Oh...man," she said finally. "Feels better already-thanks."
"Are you certain that is your only injury?" The Marine's words of gratitude contradicted her pale features.
Corletti frowned at Teyla. "I figure I'm probably doing better than you. Your face is caked in blood."
"It is a scalp wound, nothing more. I have tried to call Atlantis," Teyla continued. "Perhaps the jumper's radio?"
"Doubt it " Allowing herself to be helped up, Corletti reached for the control panel and endeavored to power up the jumper. "Must have busted something when we hit, which makes us the luckiest people in the Pegasus Galaxy. I would have thought that anything violent enough to damage a jumper would have turned the contents into Spam."
"Spam?"
Pulling out a panel, Corletti replied, "You don't want to know-on either count."
Teyla used the light from her weapon to locate the medical kit. The lieutenant was favoring her left arm, and although the shoulder appeared to be in place, Teyla suspected there was additional damage. "Your arm needs to be strapped."
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