"We can't wait! Our people are suffering terrible injuries. The sand is eating away their skin! God knows what it's doing to the equipment. We may not be able to function much longer."
John sat down hard on the floor, determination evaporating as reality began to set in. It had been too long by now. Raising his head, he saw Ronon's distant gaze and knew that he believed Rodney had to be dead. Wild anger and grief swamped John's soul, and he turned away until he could regain some control.
"This cannot be," whispered Radek, pulling his glasses off and bringing a hand to his face. "He only returned for some data. That is all. There was to be no danger!"
"John, I don't have a choice!" Elizabeth was yelling, and the piercing screams around her triggered memories that John really didn't need to replay just now. "I have to raise the shield. Get back here as soon as you can."
The transmission ended. John detached his radio from his vest and looked at it for a long moment. Deciding that control was overrated, he hurled the device against the wall.
When the brilliant white flare faded from her vision, Teyla found herself on the bridge of the Daedalus. Beside her, Halling was already looking around at all the activity in the room.
Colonel Caldwell greeted them, perfunctorily returning Corletti's salute. "We've picked up everyone near the camp, from both sides of the river, and a number of your people from downstream," he told the Athosians. "Some of them were badly injured, so we beamed the entire group to the infirmary. Dr. Beckett is attending to them."
Teyla smiled in relief, feeling the weight of loss lift from her shoulders. "Thank you, Colonel."
"We are most grateful for your efforts," Hailing said. "Is there any news on the other hunting parties?"
"We have some of them on board. Due to the electromagnetic interference from the lightning Hermiod's having some trouble detecting everyone. We're getting there, though. I understand from the others that there's also a group up in the mountains?"
"Yes, Halling's son and five-"
"Sir," Novak called. "Sorry to interrupt, but we have a report from Atlantis. In an attempt to retrieve Dr. McKay from Polrusso, they have sustained a number of severe injuries due to caustic sand coming through the Stargate."
"What's their status?" Caldwell took a step toward her station.
"They're asking us to return immediately. Dr. Weir isn't sure they can even dial out to the Alpha site, and they're afraid they won't be able to activate the city's star drive without Dr. McKay's help"
"They didn't get him back?"
The nervous young woman shook her head. "No, sir. He's presumed dead."
Feeling a deep stab of sorrow, Teyla said a short, silent prayer for her friend. There was little time for anything more.
Exhaling heavily, the Daedalus's commander turned back to her. Before he could begin, she spoke for him, knowing what was coming. "You must return to Atlantis."
"With evacuation options diminishing, our priority now has to be repairing the hyperdrive. We can't do that while we're out here. I'm sorry." His regret was sincere, she knew, and she appreciated it.
"I understand." Giving Halling the briefest of glances, she continued. "We must ask you to send us back to the surface"
"Teyla, you need not go," Hailing said immediately. "Jinto is my son."
"And I am your leader, and his. I could not claim to be so if I abandoned either of you." She was dismayed that Halling had thought to make the comment. Had she been separated from her people for so long that they no longer knew where her heart lay?
Corletti cleared her throat. "Sir, with your permission, I'd like to go back as well. I may still be able to get Jumper Three operational."
Surprised, Teyla opened her mouth to voice an objection, but Caldwell reacted first. "That shoulder looks bad, Lieutenant"
"Due respect, sir, I can't screw it up any worse at this point. It'll keep."
Caldwell's gaze moved over each of the trio in turn. "All of you need to understand that, if I send you back, the odds are good that it'll be a one-way trip. I can't make any promises about being able to return for you before the exogenesis machine begins producing nanites."
"We understand, Colonel," Halling said. "Our choice has been made"
Her superior's scrutiny did not cause Corletti to waver. "That's a kid out there, sir," she said simply.
"All right. Good luck."
Teyla closed her eyes, thinking of Rodney and hoping that his death had somehow served his cause. The Daedalus was the last hope for both his people and hers, and she understood that leaving it now made it unlikely that she would ever be reunited with any of them. But her people's best chance for survival lay with her adopted team, and that was enough.
If she were to die this day, she would do so unafraid. She nodded to the Asgard, and the beam swept her away.
-ohn dropped his head and stared at the floor of the lab, feeling beaten and aged. A few grains of sand still lanced the side of his face with pinpricks of heat, and he brushed them off. Hadn't he learned by now never to take anything for granted in this godforsaken galaxy? He'd had the possibility of a sandstorm half in mind; it was the reason why he'd brought the jumper despite the lab's proximity to the 'gate. But he'd never actually voiced that thought, never pointed out the obvious fact that arriving in a jumper assured their protection against the vagaries of climate.
"We...we came as soon as we realized a storm was upon us. Often we have no warning!"
Vend was stammering about some guy who'd offered to wait by the 'gate for Rodney to return, but John couldn't make himself listen. For a brief moment his anger redirected itself toward Rodney. Had he taken the jumper back to Atlantis and left it there, or not used it at all? The man had an advanced degree in self-preservation-why hadn't the risk crossed his mind? Such a pointless, inexplicable, infuriating, stupid waste... God, what were they supposed to do now?
A loud crack jerked him from his thoughts. Ronon had punched the glass again. John pushed himself up from the floor, knowing that trying to make sense of it all would be a waste of time. Rodney was gone. Atlantis was not, and they all needed to get their heads in the game fast if they were going to be of any help in protecting the city.
Still chalk-white, Radek lifted shaking hands to reposition his glasses. "I should have gone," he murmured. "I told him that it was in his computer, but I did not bring it. My ankle is not so bad that I could not have gone..."
"Radek, knock it off," John said quietly but firmly. "You can't hold yourself responsible for anything that slipped Rodney's mind, whether it's data or the jumper. Right now, we have to concentrate on what we can do for everyone else. All right?" He turned to the Polrusson, who was still babbling on about the abrupt nature of the storms. "How long will this last?"
Visibly shaken, Vend replied, "There is no way of knowing. Sometimes it takes hours, sometimes days. Although this is difficult and unpleasant, you must understand. We are able to bear the storms, so their length has never held much importance."
"To you. It matters a lot to us." Ronon stalked toward him, letting his anger show. "If your people can stand being outside, they need to go out there and find McKay."
"There will be little of him remaining by now." Shira cast her gaze downward, but the sadness in her voice was evidence that she spoke from experience. "Sometimes only yellow sand blows, other times a mixture of both, as you encountered on arrival. As you can see, this was a red storm."
"Even so. Having the body is important to our people."
At that, John glanced over. Our people. He'd never heard Ronon use such a phrase before, and he hoped it hadn't taken a teammate's death to make the Satedan feel that way.
"Of course," said Vene. "We will assemble a group immediately to search for your friend's body. After all he has sacrificed for us, it is the least we can do-but do not hope for much. As Shira has said, this is a red storm."
John swallowed, recalling Carson's words just a few hours earlier.
"I will acco
mpany you back to the village," Vend offered. "I assume that you want to return to your home when possible."
"You assume right." Seeing Radek motionless in front of the computer, John reached out to grip his shoulder. "Radek?"
After a moment, the Czech shook himself and looked up. "We can still accomplish the water release and gather the ZPMs. I will need time to run more simulations, but...this is something Rodney would have wanted."
"Yeah, it is." And maybe it would keep Radek, and the rest of them, functionally sane in the process. John addressed Vend and Shira. "Can you give us a minute? We need to finish up some things here."
The Polrussons nodded and stepped out into the corridor, their faces darkened with regret. Once they were out of earshot, John said, "I didn't want to say too much with them hanging around. Elizabeth said that a lot of the sand got into the control room. What kind of damage could it have done?"
It took Radek a moment to process the information before he admitted, "I do not know the systems as well as Rodney. Could be big problem. I will not be able to say without investigation. But I can extend the life of the city shield once we recover the ZPMs from this planet. At least there will be time then to repair Daedalus."
He was staring at the computer screen as he spoke, focused on something undefined. John didn't know Radek Zelenka all that well, didn't know anything about his background or life experiences, but he recognized and respected the determination he saw in the other man's features.
Rubbing distractedly at his right ear, which felt like it had been scoured from the inside and was starting to ache, John listened as the scientist continued. "There remains a possibility that I will be able to locate Atlas's exogenesis machine, if the Polrussons can retrieve the data disc that Rodney brought back."
John's stomach lurched at the idea that they might find the blasted thing clutched in his friend's dead hand. He forcibly pushed that thought aside. "So, do you want to work here or back on Atlantis?"
"Here. I need to get more of these systems running." Radek eyed him with an unreadable expression. "If you are willing to stay, your gene will be most useful."
John wondered if he was being offered a coping tactic and decided he didn't care one way or the other. "Sure. I'll let Vene and Shira know you and I are going to hang out here for a while."
Passing the HAZMAT-suited personnel moving swiftly toward the 'gate room, Elizabeth headed for the infirmary, vainly trying to imbue order on all the information thrown at her in the space of moments. They'd been able to raise the shield by remote access to the computer system, and the wormhole had just recently disengaged after the requisite thirty-eight minutes. The control room, her office, and the surrounding areas were off-limits while a hastily assembled emergency crew removed the worst of the corrosive sand.
Simpson's team had completed its survey of the subsystems Rodney had deemed necessary to make Atlantis spaceworthy, and the news wasn't good. Many of the systems appeared to have problems that were beyond the team's understanding, let alone their capacity to repair. Simpson had told her honestly that it simply couldn't be done without Rodney's input.
And even though she had no evidence, Elizabeth knew that holding out any hope of Rodney's survival would be nothing more than denial. Two of her control room techs were now in critical condition after being struck by far less sand than anyone on Polrusso would have gotten. Most likely, Rodney had been dead before they'd even enabled the 'gate shield.
A sudden thought chilled her: it was possible that he'd fallen victim to the 'gate shield itself.
The professionalism of Carson's staff kept the infirmary from falling into chaos. A number of people had received injuries and bums of varying degrees. Elizabeth affixed a reassuring smile to her face and strode through the main bay, toward the bed of the 'gate operator. The young man opened his eyes at her approach.
"Sean, how are you feeling?" she asked, sliding into a chair by his bed.
"Okay, ma'am. I didn't get hit too badly." His hoarse voice and the heavy bandages enveloping his hands and forearms belied that statement.
"That's good to hear. Can you tell me any more about what happened?"
"I wish I knew. We didn't receive an IDC when the 'gate activated, but then Colonel Sheppard came on the radio and said that Dr. McKay was on his way. I tried to lower the shield, but it wouldn't respond. I don't know if it detected the sand or what, but the Colonel was yelling that Dr. McKay was already in transit and I had to get the shield down." Sean lifted a troubled gaze to her. "I thought it was the right thing to do, ma'am, but then Samir got hit right in the face... Do you know if he's all right?"
"The doctors are working on him now. He's in good hands." She knew that Samir would be lucky if he only lost his eyesight. Since the Ancients had told the Polrussons that the sand was a normal component of terraforming, it stood to reason that the 'gate shield would be programmed to guard against it. Not that any of them could have known. "It was the right thing to do," she assured Sean, leaning forward and laying a gentle hand on his shoulder. "I would have given the same order if I'd been in the control room. I just-I need to know something." It was an awful question, but there was no way around it. "Before you were able to lower the shield, did you hear anything large strike it?"
His eyes widened. "No."
"You're certain?"
"Yes, ma'am. I'd know if anything... anyone hit the shield. You can run a diagnostic to make sure."
While Elizabeth wanted to do just that, everyone qualified to run the program was either stuck on Polrusso, on the returning Daedalus, in the infirmary, or dead. "Thank you, Sean. Get some rest."
She couldn't bear to stay there any longer, looking at all the people who'd been hurt in their failed attempt to bring a colleague home. Escaping into the corridor, she was waylaid by the engineer in charge of monitoring Ea's exogenesis machine.
"I was hoping I'd find you here, Dr. Weir." The man's grim expression elevated her tension even more. "The device is gaining speed. It's digging through the ground at nearly triple its previous rate, and it's still getting faster. We're theorizing that it recently hit softer rock."
Just what we needed. "How long?"
"Impossible to tell. It could slow down again if it encounters a harder layer. If it continues at its current pace, days at most before it reaches the mantle." He sighed. "But if it continues to gain speed, or stops drilling because it's tapped into sufficient heat to power the next stage of operations, we'll need to consider enhancing the city shield as soon as the Daedalus returns. The longer we wait, the more we risk an uncontrolled nanite infestation on Atlantis."
She hadn't thought it would be possible, but Elizabeth felt yet another spike of anxiety. "If we increase the power to the shield too soon, we'll drain our reserves before the Daedalus can complete repairs."
"That's true. But the exogenesis machine is already beginning to separate." The engineer withdrew a printout from a folder in his hand and showed her the progression over time: first a single bright area of the Ancient composite material, then two, then four. "For all we know, these could be the component parts of the nanite manufacturing process. I plan to ask Dr. Beckett about it as soon as he arrives-he might know more."
"Please do that. And keep me informed." Elizabeth's com signaled, and she bit back a multilingual slew of curses. "Go ahead."
"Dr. Weir, we've just finished the diagnostic on the main dialing computer," another engineer reported-God, she was starting to lose track of who was doing what. "We can't dial out at all, even by remote access."
She ran her fingers across her temples and leaned against the wall. "Can you fix it?"
"We'll make it happen, ma'am, but..."
"But what?"
"But it would go a lot faster if Dr. McKay or Dr. Zelenka were here."
Ronon hefted a large sack onto the nearby cart and gave the animal hitched to it a wary look. The creature snuffled and ducked its head. "He will not provoke you," Shira promised, lifting another sack.<
br />
"He keeps looking at my hair like he wants to chew it."
The Polrusson woman laughed. "It probably reminds him of his mate. She had a long mane."
That didn't reassure him in the slightest. Ronon eased out of the animal's reach and continued to load the cart with goods. The storm still raged outside, and he'd grown increasingly frustrated with doing nothing in the Ancient lab, so when Shira had timidly requested his help in packing her cart with food and water for the new village, he'd agreed without a second thought.
While they worked, her children chased each other around the cart's wheels and through the adults' legs. In the market square, a dozen or so other carts were also being loaded with possessions. From what he had seen on the walk there, the entire village was gearing up for the exodus to its long-awaited future home.
A barrel of water stood beside the cart, and he reached in for a scoop. When he raised it to his lips, the salty taste caught him unawares, and he spat it out.
The children shrieked when the water fell on them, then they began to giggle. With an apologetic smile, Shira picked up a gourd lying next to the barrel. "You must drink through this. It filters out the salt."
Self-consciously, Ronon accepted the gourd and dipped it into the water. Sure enough, the water that seeped out through the slits at the bottom was sweet. "Everything around here has adapted to a hard life "
"You could say that. All of our plants have this ability. Their tough skins make them resistant to the sand. We have long traded with other worlds who find such plants useful." Shira's voice took on a note of wonder. "I can hardly imagine what it will be like to see water fall from the sky. Many people have seen this on other worlds, and they say it is amazing. A cousin of mine even speaks of a planet that is nearly covered by a single, vast ocean." She turned shining eyes to him. "Have you ever encountered such a thing?"
He was considering how to reply when several people, still wearing their sand-resistant robes, entered the open area from an atrium that led outside. Ronon recognized the men as the search party sent out after McKay. One of them produced a small, flat metallic object from under his cloak.
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