Chapter 2
The doors burst open to reveal half a dozen armed men rushing into the room. Their clothes resembled those of the Genii and for a moment John thought they had stumbled onto a Genii-controlled planet. But as they fanned out around the Atlantis team, he realised their weapons were not of Genii make. In fact, it resembled the small weapons John had seen being used by the crew of the Aurora.
"Now look, I wasn't touching anything," Rodney defended himself as he put his hands in the air. John, Ronon and Teyla still had their own weapons trained at the new arrivals, but John had to admit the odds weren't good. If these people weren't friends, then there was nothing he or his team would be able to do about it.
But John wasn't ready yet to lay down his arms. Carefully he sighted along the barrel at the one that he thought might be in charge. The man was dressed more lavishly than the rest and he was obviously older than the rest of the troops.
"Look," John began. "We have no desire to fight you guys," he tried to explain to them. "In fact, we only arrived here and we don't even know who you are," he added with a wry smile. Somehow it seemed that whenever he and his team stepped through the gate, someone – or something – was waiting on the other side with malevolent intentions. What happened to the nice days when they went through the gate and met nice people, like Chaya. At the thought John winced. Okay, perhaps that was not the best destination to wish for, considering. He was, after all, happily married now. And now, in hindsight, he realised that his preoccupation with the Ancient woman had hurt Elizabeth even back then. Damn, why can't these insights not come at times when he was in the position to do something about it?
The guy in charge did not seem to fall for John's attempt at an explanation. Instead he scowled even more and gripped his weapon even firmer. "You have disturbed the sanctity of the chromulus," he snarled. John frowned and nearly looked back at the gate. The 'chromulus?'
"I've heard the gate called by many names, but never the 'chromulus.'" Ronon spoke aloud the thought uppermost in John's mind. But before either John or Ronon – or even Rodney (and that said a lot about the mentality of the people) – could question the commander of the group, the inhabitants of the planet opened fire. The familiar tingle and darkness of a stun-weapon engulfed John and he unwillingly passed into oblivion.
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"We're going to have to find more P-90's," John gave voice to the first thought that ran through his mind as he woke from the stun blast. His whole body ached as he tried to sit up on the cold, hard floor. When he looked around it did not surprise him to find he and his team were locked in a room with bars at the one end.
To his left Rodney muttered something and John turned his aching head in that direction. "What?" he grumbled. It was usually best to have Rodney get whatever was bothering him off his chest.
"I said," Rodney grumbled, "that what I'm going to need if this keeps up, is some new pants." And though John had no wish to hear the rest of Rodney's complaint, the scientist indulged them anyway. "They've ripped a tear in my last pair of BDU's about the size of my fist," he complained.
"Have Sitnalta fix it," Ronon grumbled to John's right. The big man and Teyla had ended up in a heap in one corner and were busy detangling themselves. Teyla looked slightly uncomfortable.
Rodney snorted. "Sitnalta has many fine qualities," he answered, "but she can't sew."
"I am rather proficient at sewing," Teyla piped up, but when all three of the men glared at her, she added: "but I would not dream of touching Rodney's pants." At that Ronon snickered and John managed a slight grin. Only Rodney seemed unimpressed.
"Well, perhaps if the lot of you can contain your mirth, we might find a way out of this cell," he loftily told them.
"Nah," Ronon replied even as John was trying to stand up without falling over from dizziness. "I've already checked. This is a very well-made cell," he explained. John finally managed to stand up against the wall without embarrassingly falling over and he secretly envied Ronon's apparent immunity to stun weapons. He supposed it had something to do with the frequency with which the big man had been stunned over the years.
As John took a tentative step towards the bars, another thought occurred to him. Only moments ago he had witnessed Ronon and Teyla heaped together on the floor. But if Ronon had already checked out the cell even before the rest of them had awoken...
With a slight frown John looked over at the big man. He saw Teyla giving Ronon the same look and John surmised the same thought had occurred to her. Only Rodney seemed oblivious.
John turned his attention back to the cell door. Ronon was correct: it was a well-built cell. Often the cells they were dumped in were nothing more than a crude iron railing set within a stone wall. But this was quite obviously related to their own holding cell on Atlantis. As John reached out his one finger, he discovered it even had the same energy field than the one on Atlantis.
"That was very smart," Rodney ironically told him. John scowled from where he had landed on his back from the jolt of the energy field.
"I did tell you," Ronon reminded him as well and John gingerly sat up. Sometimes he wondered if he wasn't getting too old for this kind of thing.
Just then they heard a crash somewhere to their right. The next moment a man as big as Ronon appeared at their door. In fact, not only did he have Ronon's size, he also had a similar tattoo on his neck.
"Draven," Ronon greeted the guest at their door. The new Satedan grinned roguishly at the gathered group.
"When I heard they had captured a group of strangers coming through the ring, I would never have guessed it would be the fearsome Ronon Dex," he told his fellow Satedan. Well, ex-Satedan. Ronon was now officially an Atlantean.
"Yeah, well, even the best of us cannot compete with a stunner," Ronon grinned at the other man, yet John thought he detected an undercurrent of anger in his friend.
Draven returned the look Ronon was giving him, and suddenly something John had heard a while back clicked into place. "You're Draven Navac, leader of the Forty," he stated more than asked. Draven turned his head to look at John.
"You've heard of us?" he demanded. John nodded slightly.
"A little fellow told us to find you," he replied. The Satedan frowned at that.
"You are John Sheppard?" the Satedan asked. He didn't seem too happy about it. John wondered if there wasn't some bad blood between Ronon and Draven. That might explain why the new man seemed hostile.
"These are my brothers in arms," Ronon told Draven with a proud tilt to his head. John knew that look: it never boded well. Draven shifted his gaze back to Ronon, but within seconds he looked away and instead looked at Rodney.
"You are the scientist, Rodney McKay?" Draven asked and Rodney looked slightly pale.
"Yes," he carefully answered. "What of it?"
"You can get us off of this forsaken planet," the Satedan answered. Rodney looked confused.
"Well, yes, getting off of this planet has always been right there at the top of things to do," he replied; some of his fire returning. "Right after breaking out of this cell."
Draven grinned, as did Ronon. "Well, I think I can help you with that," he answered. He looked to his left and nodded at someone unseen. The next moment the energy field was disengaged and the door opened. "Welcome to Sheab," he told them. "You are now officially part of the Sheaban resistance," he added with a flourish. Then he and Ronon embraced briefly; stiffly and Rodney muttered low enough that probably only John heard it:
"If that Noxin had been mistaken about this man, I'm going to kick his ass!"
