From up close, it was evident that the structure that had resembled Atlantis from a distance was actually much smaller and far less elaborate than the floating city. It was also evident from what Karka and Avyan had said that the Ntsevu regarded the building as a temple and that only priests lived there.
The journey would've taken quite a chunk of the day anyway, but the relatively slow pace of Karka and Avyan made it all the worse. The two of them actually insisted on staying overnight with one of the hunter/gatherer tribes, so they could start early the next morning and reach the city before noon. Lorne could have argued, but it seemed like it would be a good idea to get along with these people. If it meant spending a little extra time here to get on the Ntsevu's good side, Dr. Weir would understand that.
They responded to a scheduled check in just before they were beyond radio range, and gave Atlantis an update on their circumstances. They'd known going in that they would be out of contact for a portion of the mission. One of Dr. Rodney McKay's geek squad had found reference to the structure the Ntsevu were using as a temple, though it was unclear what function the building had.
Frankly, there were other teams better suited to studying the ruins, but most of them were either occupied with other missions, or recouping from previous ones. And besides, while Lorne's team was not the best equipped scientifically, they tended to make a good first impression with locals by being a combination of visually intimidating and behaviorally friendly and easy to get along with. As soldiers, they were more than capable of defending themselves if need be, but with Lorne's fairly easy-going temperament and willingness to follow the guidelines devised by Dr. Weir with the help of Colonel Sheppard and others at the helm, they were not apt to start shooting before it became necessary.
Exploration was a multi-step process, and Lorne's team made a good first step because they gave the impression of strength without conveying an image brutality, of peaceful nature without helplessness.
Once they'd made their first impressions by talking with the locals and bringing up the notion of trade, possibly even making a small agreement, then they could begin bringing in more people with different specialties. Though he would never show disrespect by saying it aloud, Lorne quietly prided himself on being a better negotiator on average than Sheppard. There weren't many things anyone could say they were better at than Colonel Sheppard, but the man's abilities at the negotiation table were almost laughable... if anyone had dared to laugh at the colonel, or disliked him enough to do so.
Before they actually entered the city proper, Lorne pulled his team in from their travel formation, to a more compact defensive one, just in case they found themselves suddenly unwelcome. There had been some experimentation, but it was found that SG teams functioned best as four-man units. The combined fact of limited resources and the desire to not appear too threatening to the peoples they encountered made a full squad unfeasible, and anything between that and a single fireteam of four was unwieldy. On the rare mission when greater numbers were necessary, teams could be combined with a clear chain of command. Lorne's team had more than once been combined with Sheppard's, with Sheppard as their ultimate commander of course. Lorne didn't mind being a member of the "B-team."
Another thing that had proven successful over and over was something that at first seemed trivial. And that was having a big scary man on the team, someone like Ronon Dex for instance. Lorne didn't have anybody equal to Ronon, but he did have Lt. Reed, a tall, broad-shouldered man who looked more like the stereotypical Marine than a member of the Air Force. The man looked like a bear, but was really a pussycat. He served as the "big scary guy" of Lorne's team, towering over most people, speaking little and managing a good glower at ideal times. A big scary guy could end a potential conflict before it started. Lorne had seen many times over the look in someone's eye when they were thinking about picking a fight with him, then they would glance subtly at Reed and rethink the matter, deciding to pursue a more peaceful means of resolving a dispute.
Now Reed moved up so that he was just slightly behind and to Lorne's left. Reed served as Lorne's second on the team, as well as his "big scary guy". The other two followed them.
Karka and Avyan led the way into the city, which was hidden at first by the Ancient building they called a temple. Coming around the side of the building, Lorne was not surprised to find that the 'city' was really more of a village, mostly composed of fairly primitive hut-like buildings and open air stalls in the "market square". The only stone structure was on the opposite side from the Ancient building, and it was the palace.
From the look of it, the whole of the place was not much bigger than the Gate room, control room, Dr. Weir's office and the conference room combined. Admittedly that was actually quite a lot of space, but when you lived there it gradually began to feel less impressive, and certainly anything less wasn't something to stop and stare at.
There also wasn't a great deal of security outside the palace, or even inside. Apparently the queen of the Ntsevu didn't have to worry about assassins or angry mobs. That in itself was a little reassuring. When the leader had to hide from their own people behind a wall of soldiers, something had usually gone wrong. Likewise, a complete lack of security on the part of a leader could also bode ill, because that could mean they had control of their populace by some untoward means, such as mind control or manipulation of that sort. In the case of the Ntsevu, there were no other people in their valley, so they did not have to worry about rivals or enemies.
Though security was lax enough that Lorne could probably have gone into the throne room all by himself and killed the queen if that had been his mission, there were some guards in the room itself, though they looked to be more ornamental than anything, and made absolutely no attempt to stop or search Lorne and his team as they followed Karka and Avyan almost right up to the Queen's throne.
The inside walls of the building were unadorned, except for torches placed at regular intervals to provide light at night. During the day, the light mostly came in through large windows set above head level, as well as the front entrance to the throne room, which stood wide open. The throne room seemed to open right out onto the street, but the reality was that the path up from the market square was actually quite steep, which both slowed down anyone attempting to storm the castle as well as prevented someone with a projectile weapon from getting a good shot at the back part of the throne room, which of course was where the Queen and her throne were located.
Coughlin, close at hand, touched Lorne's shoulder. Lorne glanced at him, and Coughlin jerked his head subtly upward. Following that gesture, Lorne noticed a chandelier on the ceiling that looked suspiciously like it ran on electricity. This was relevant mainly because it was a clue as to where these people were technologically speaking, and that was important to know.
The ceiling was braced with wood beams, and the floor was of simple stone that was polished only by the number of feet that had trod on it. The Queen appeared to live in minimal opulence, though without seeing how the commoners lived, one could not be sure if this was because she didn't believe in lording over her people more than necessary, or if resources were merely limited.
It did not surprise Lorne to see that the Queen's throne was very out of place in this primitive structure. This was not the first time a Control Chair had been appropriated for royalty. Lorne supposed it said something that the Queen had only the chair itself, instead of living in the Ancient building, which certainly had to be a lot nicer than this palace of hers, even if it was completely without power or nobody here had the ATA gene required to make it function, as seemed to be the case, at least at first glance.
The Queen sat motionless on the chair as Lorne and the others approached, her quiet expression showing no surprise or concern as they did so, as if she had seen off-worlders every day of her life.
Something in her gaze reminded Lorne of Teyla, who -while not a queen- was the leader of her people and thus royal in her own right. But it was there that the resemblance ended. The Queen wore a pale dress of light fabric, and a crown that looked like silver. Her skin was fair, her eyes blue, her hair blond and down to her waist, held back from her face only by ribbon that matched the dress she was wearing.
Lorne stopped what seemed like a polite distance away, while Karka and Avyan continued forward a few paces and knelt before the Queen, Karka hurriedly explaining their presence here, and the unexpected guests they had brought while the Queen listened in impassive silence.
She spoke to them quietly when they had finished, and the two rose from their kneeling position and stepped aside. Lorne was somewhat surprised to see the Queen rise from her throne and step towards him and his team, instead of demanding that they come closer. He didn't know if it was an attempt to meet him as an equal, or if it was a show of confidence. Or both.
Regardless, Lorne stood his ground passively. He wasn't about to kneel before the Queen, but he had no intention of reacting aggressively either. Like as not, she was actually just curious, or perhaps trying to establish in her mind how potentially dangerous these strangers were.
Lorne had to remind himself that neither she nor her people had ever seen an outsider. Karka had explained that there were what she called tribes in the area who hunted and gathered, but seldom entered the city and certainly didn't live there. But they were ultimately ruled by the same queen as the city dwellers, and also referred to themselves as Ntsevu.
After looking him and his team over in silence for many seconds, the Queen finally met Lorne's eyes.
"I am Jahnavi," she said, "Queen of the Ntsevu."
"Major Lorne," Lorne replied, "I'm here as a representative of the people formerly living on Atlantis."
Actually, of course, he was a representative of the people currently living on Atlantis, but that was a secret kept from all but their most trusted allies, though he suspected it didn't make any difference at this juncture, because the Ntsevu had been trapped here for so long and had lost so many records according to Karka that they likely had no idea what Atlantis was.
Queen Jahnavi showed no more recognition of the name Atlantis than Lorne felt when he heard Ntsevu.
"I am told that you have come seeking trade," Queen Jahnavi said, "Tell me, what could we possibly have to offer you who can travel the stars by using the Stargate?"
"Food," Lorne said simply, "Possibly medical supplies. Our technology is probably beyond yours, but you may have the raw materials we need to make medicines."
Actually, these had become minor problems of late, but it was always a good place to start. Food and medicine were always understood to be important commodities, and established Lorne's people as ones who were sensible in their priorities. Later, once relations were more firmly established, more complex and less obvious items of trade could be talked about, asked for and offered.
"And what would you offer us in return?" Jahnavi inquired reasonably.
"While our supplies may be low, our technology is not. Perhaps we could improve your medical knowledge," Lorne suggested, though he had an idea Jahnavi would be very much interested in something entirely different.
"We are, as you might imagine, more interested in seeking to understand the Stargate, and to defend ourselves from the creatures which hunt us."
"The Wraith," Lorne nodded, "We've tangled with them a time or two."
"Then you understand why it is more important for us to be able to defend ourselves against or hide from the Wraith than it is to improve our knowledge of medicine."
"I do," Lorne confirmed, "And it's possible that we may be able to come to an agreement on that."
The Queen's expression had been carefully calculated up to now, showing nothing in the way of emotion, no hostility or welcome. But now she smiled, an expression which transformed her face from cold and rather plain-looking to beautiful and actually quite warm.
"A possibility is all that I could ask," she said, "At least, until we know each other better. To that end, I welcome you to our city. You are free to explore and speak to my people. I would also ask that, in a few hours, you join me for a midday meal so that we may get better acquainted."
"We'd be delighted," Lorne told her, "Thank you."
He guessed that, in the meantime, Queen Jahnavi would be speaking with her advisers, and probably observing the movements of Lorne and his team. She probably also hoped to learn more about them from what her people would later be able to tell her. He suspected she knew she would learn more about them in the informal and free setting of the streets of her city than she would at a formal and etiquette restricted luncheon. Lorne was happy to oblige in this instance, because he knew that he would learn more about the Ntsevu by talking to them than he would by speaking with the Queen about them.
Lorne and his team had been given free rein to look around the city, and that's exactly what they did. They weren't looking for woven baskets or fresh fruits or bunches of herbs. What they were looking at was the level of technology, assessing what sort of things the city was lacking that they might be able to provide in trade, whether it was a lack of medicine or a misunderstanding of how to build wells. They were also looking for friendly locals to whom they could speak indirectly about such things, as well as get a better feel for how the place was run.
Lorne also intended to subtly get a closer look at the Ancient structure, though he didn't actually expect to be allowed inside the temple, because who would allow perfect strangers into their sacred places?
The team stayed together but at a distance, spreading out enough that they were regarded as curious individuals instead of a daunting unit. It also allowed them to recover if one of them made a blunder, because his distance from the other three made it look like he alone had done it.
Eventually, they collectively wandered to the temple, with Lorne in the lead. He was moderately surprised to find no one blocking his way or asking him not to approach the temple. When he did approach it, he did so directly, in full view, so that he might be stopped before doing something offensive, if indeed it was offensive for him to go inside. Nobody looked up or said anything.
The rest of his team hung back, waiting to see if this was a mistake they could get in trouble for, instead of all clustering in at once. Lorne knew he'd have to keep firmly in mind that -to the Ntsevu- this was a holy place. To him, it just looked like an Ancient building, remarkable but hardly miraculous.
Some of the building's systems were operational. The lights, for example, came on the moment Lorne stepped across the threshold. In that moment, everything changed.
The people on the street reacted, surprised and seemingly afraid. From one of the hallways just inside the temple, a priest appeared and gaped at Lorne. Lorne started to back up, only to hear the sound of his team snapping their weapons to a firing position. He turned in time to see the Queen's security forces appearing from behind buildings, surrounding them, weapons drawn.
Lorne reflexively raised his own weapon, but he could see his team was woefully outnumbered, and he didn't really want to fight these people, especially not when he'd evidently done something he shouldn't. He decided to try and smooth their obviously ruffled feathers.
"Uh..." he began, "Sorry?"
Their feathers did not appear to be smoothed.
Lorne and his team surrendered. It seemed like the only thing to do. Cooperatively, they allowed themselves to be searched, disarmed and herded into the Queen's throne room.
Queen Jahnavi was perched upon her throne, and her narrowed eyes glittered as she looked at the prisoners being brought before her. But, oddly, she did not look angry. In fact, if anything, she appeared pleased.
"Which of you lit the temple?" Jahnavi asked when they were halted before her, her question ringing out like an accusation and a rebuke all in one.
Around him, Lorne observed the Ntsevu security men flinching at their queen's tone. Lorne was not so impressed, though he knew what having provoked the Queen's anger might do to him and his team.
"That was me," Lorne said, "I didn't do it on purpose, it happened automatically."
"Automatically," Jahnavi repeated, and Lorne realized it was possible that was not a word she knew.
Linguistics wasn't his thing, but he supposed maybe automatic was a somewhat new word, new enough that maybe it wasn't invented at the time the ancestors of the Ntsevu had been put here by the Ancients. He decided that it might be best to elaborate, just in case.
"The lights came on because I stepped through the door, not because of anything I did on purpose. It was a response to my presence," Lorne said, wondering how in the world he could explain why that had happened with him when it obviously hadn't with the priests inside the structure.
"Would the temple respond to these three?" Jahnavi inquired, pointing to the rest of Lorne's team, who stood beside him silently.
Lorne shook his head, "No, it wouldn't. Not unless the system was already activated."
Queen Jahnavi looked at one of the security men and addressed him, "Take them to the temple. If what he says is true, return them to the Stargate; I have no further need of them."
"You're making a mistake," Reed protested loudly, for it had suddenly become apparent to him that his leader was to be held for an unknown purpose while he and the rest of the team were released.
It was one thing for them all to be captured and held together, but no member of the Atlantis expedition ever liked it when one of their number was singled out specially. The bond they shared was in some ways even closer than the typical military bond, or even what SG personnel had. They were alone in the galaxy, living in close quarters with one another, and their lives routinely depended on each other. They were relatively few in a massive and largely unfriendly galaxy, defending friends and strangers alike, at the same time they were on the front lines, defending Earth from the threat of the Wraith. And all of that was in addition to their inherent team bond, which demanded that no man be left behind.
Reed and the others would not leave without a fight. Not unless Lorne invoked an even more powerful military law: a direct order from their CO.
"Lieutenant," Lorne said calmly, "Go."
He didn't have to add what Sheppard had already told them the minute Atlantis' continued existence became a secret. Whatever they did, if there was even the slightest possibility of someone reading even part of the address, they were not to go straight home. They must go to an off-site location first, check to make sure it was still secure, and then gate home.
Reed looked like he'd balk, but then he allowed the Ntsevu security men to push him and the rest of the team out of the throne room. Lorne knew they would be back. Nothing ticked off Earthlings like having one of their own held captive. As soon as he found out what had happened, Colonel Sheppard would be here with a team (or several), pissed off and demanding that his man be returned to him. It didn't matter who Lorne was on the team, or how Sheppard felt about him personally. Even had he been the most hated member of the Atlantis expedition, men and resources would still have been employed to bring him home. That was how the people of Earth operated. It was why they had succeeded so often against both the Goa'uld and the Wraith. They had a combined willingness to die for their cause, and a fierce refusal to ever admit anyone was truly lost until they saw the body; even then they were ever determined to bring it home if that was at all possible.
Their loyalty and determination had saved them.
Reed and the others could do nothing for him now. They were only three, and they had been disarmed. But Lorne wasn't worried. His leader would come for him, and his team would undoubtedly return with him. Knowing that, he felt he had no reason to worry.