Disclaimer: I own none of the Stargate franchise.
Chapter 3
Teyla slowly opened her eyes, light piercing her aching, foggy head. Where was she? That question was answered by merely glancing about her surroundings. She was on a wraith ship. Fantastic. That just figured. She shook her head, her lips curling slightly. She had been spending too much time around John lately. Getting up, she took stock of her small cell, looking for any way to escape. She noticed a control panel on the other side of the webbing separating her from the corridor, much like the one in the last wraith cell she had been in. Except that time, Ronon and his many knives had been there, and they had been hopped up on wraith enzyme. Where was that spot Ronon hit? Ah, there it was. Having located her target, she reached down for her leg knife. It was gone. There went that idea.
Just then, a male wraith and two drones came down the corridor toward her cell. The webbing slid open, allowing them to enter. The male wraith walked up to her and stared her in the face, hissing menacingly. Then he signaled the drones with a toss of his head. They stepped forward, grabbed hold of Teyla's arms and marched her out of the cell.
A short time later, they reached a dark, cathedral-like room with a dim circle of light in the middle of the floor. On the other side of the room there was a throne, with a male wraith sitting on it. The last time she had seen a wraith this ugly was on Sateda, when Ronon had been made a runner again. The drones deposited her in the circle of light, then stepped back out of it. The wraith king rose from his throne, and walked slowly toward her, stopping mere inches away. She spat in in his face. The drones immediately grabbed hold of her arms again, and the wraith king wiped his face, his eyes never leaving hers. Then with the lightning speed he her punched her in the stomach. She grunted and doubled over, and the king leaned over with her.
"You have spirit," he hissed. "good. You will make an excellent runner."
Teyla glared at him. "Is that why your drones did not feed on me?" she spat.
"Yes. I stopped them when I sensed something—different about you." The king circled her as he spoke. "You have a part of us in you. Most of us view your kind as an abomination, but I and some others view them as an . . . opportunity. If you allow it, your 'gift' can tell you where we are . . . just as we now can know wherever you are."
Teyla's eyes widened slightly on hearing his last sentence, and she shot up one of her hands to feel her back. In between her shoulderblades, she could just feel a scar that had not been there before. They had implanted her with a tracking device. The king smiled, showing his decaying, gray teeth.
"You see, some of the older hunters grow tired of always knowing the location of their prey, and the prey never knowing the location of the hunters." He leaned in closer. "I have been searching for another such as you, ever since our last runner was disposed of. The hunters will be very pleased."
He smiled cruelly, then turned and walked back toward his throne, regally retaking his seat. The drones seized Teyla's arms and led her roughly out of the the room.
Instead of being brought back to her cell, she was brought to the hangar, and led out to one of the piers she recognized as where the darts land. The drones brought her to the end of the dock, then stepped back, stunners still aimed in her direction. She wondered briefly what was going on, then she heard the whine of a dart overhead. Looking up, the last thing she saw of the wraith ship was the blinding light of a culling beam.
o-o-O-o-o
"I'm fine, doc, really!" came the petulant voice of a certain Col. John Sheppard.
"No, you're bloody not, colonel," Dr. Beckett said in his Scottish brogue. "Your shoulder was dislocated!"
John rolled his eyes."Yes doc, operative word there being was. I'm fine now!"
Unfortunately, he made a bit to animated of a gesture with that last sentence, causing him to wince at the pain radiating from his shoulder. The wince did not escape the sharp eye of the doctor.
"Oh, you are, are you," he said victoriously.
Sheppard deflated."Look, Carson," he said quietly, "I need to get out of here. A member of my team is missing, and I'm not about to let an ex-dislocated shoulder stop me from looking for her!"
Carson seemed to soften."All right, colonel," he said. "But you have to wear the sling, and actually take the pain medication I gave you this time!"
Sheppard smiled, already on his way out of the infirmary. "You betcha, doc!" he called over his shoulder. Stopping for a moment outside the infirmary to put his sling on, he headed off the briefing room.
o-o-O-o-o
"What do you mean, 'No' ?!" John shouted.
Dr. Elizabeth Weir took a deep breath before facing the angry man before her.
"John, you know why I can't sanction the search," she said. "Judging from the facts you just gave me, Teyla could be anywhere. I simply can't expend the manpower to search every planet in this galaxy!"
For a moment, silence reigned in the room.
"I'm sorry, John." she said more quietly. Sheppard looked crestfallen. Then he abruptly turned and walked quickly out of the briefing room. Rodney and Ronon got up and followed him, leaving Elizabeth sitting alone. She sat there for a minute, staring at the folder in front of her. Then she shook her head, got up and left the room.
o-o-O-o-o
When Ronon and Rodney found found him a few moments later, John was standing alone on a balcony, staring out over the city. His head was bowed, and his hands gripped the railing so tightly his knuckles were turning white. They said nothing for a long moment. Then Ronon broke the silence.
"We'll find her," Ronon said.
John raised his head, but kept his back turned. "How can you know?" he said, his voice quiet.
This time Rodney joined in. "Teyla's smart," he said. "she'll stay alive until we can find her."
John was silent for a minute."We won't find her unless we're looking for her," he said, still not looking at them.
"Look, I know this is probably the last thing you want to hear right now, but Elizabeth's right. We don't have any idea where she is." Rodney said.
If it were possible, John's face fell even more. "Yeah. I know."
No one said anything for a moment, and John just continued his silent vigil over the city. Ronon nudged Rodney and pointed his head toward the door. Taking a last look at Sheppard, Rodney followed Ronon off the balcony.
John stayed there for a long time, thinking if there was something he overlooked, anything that could possibly tell him where Teyla could be. He could find nothing. As the sun began to drift toward the horizon, he wondered how a day that started out so wonderfully could end up so horrible. He sighed and considered going back inside. Maybe things would be better in the morning.
As he was leaving, his radio clicked in his ear. "John, please report to my office," Elizabeth's voice said.
"I'm on my way," he replied. With one last look at the blazing red sun, he turned and left the balcony.
TBC . . .
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