ALIEN VS. PREDATOR
"Uh, Kisri?" McKay asked hesitantly, staring cross-eyed at the weapon aimed at his heart. "Uh, who are these guys?"
"You remember when I told your leader that he wouldn't be the first to try to kill me?" Kisri asked, slowly raising her hands to eye level so that the three people facing them could see that they were empty. "Nor was Daras here, but he's the only one to have tried more than once."
The man with red hair laughed. It rang with the light-hearted recklessness of a true sociopath. "Kisri. I heard you were dead."
"Daras. I had hoped the same was true for you. You down here for the treasure too?" She cocked her head significantly, as if she were trying to tell him something. He hesitated, then nodded.
"That would be right. Who are these jesters?" He gestured with his weapon at Ronon and McKay. The two worshippers flanking him, a man and a woman, were less sanguine. In fact, they were borderline twitchy.
"This is Rony. He's a friend of mine." Kisri tilted her head meaningfully. Ronon stiffened as he realised what she was casting him as.
"A friend?" Daras repeated. "You got proof of that?"
"Show them the scar," Kisri said, nodding at Ronon. For a moment he didn't move, then, reluctantly, he pulled his collar down, exposing the fading, star-shaped scar on his chest. Daras nodded in satisfaction, and turned to McKay.
"And the short one?"
"Not a friend." Clearly she wasn't sure if McKay had a scar that would let him masquerade as another worshipper like Ronon's did. "But, he knows how to get through traps, and we've had more than enough of those already."
"Tell me about it. There were six of us when we landed."
"We were five before we ran into you and yours."
"Sorry about that," Daras said insincerely. "Couldn't tell who you were, in the gloom, you know."
"Doesn't matter, Rod and his friends were just in it for the treasure," Kisri said meaningfully. "So is Rony."
McKay didn't know what was going on. Everyone knew why they were down here. Kisri sounded like a teenager trying to remind her friend of the excuse they were using to leave the house so that they could go to a party.
On the other hand, if the other worshippers didn't know that he and Ronon knew, they might have room to manoeuvre.
"So?" Kisri prompted. "Do you know the way to the treasure?"
"Yes," Daras said slowly. "But… we may have been… turned around."
"You're lost," Kisri said bluntly. "We're not."
That was such a blatant lie that Ronon and McKay exchanged glances. It would be interesting to see Kisri keep that one rolling. "So you're saying you could guide us?"
"Right to the centre of the planet. I need these two, though," Kisri said, gesturing at Ronon and McKay. "Call it… insurance."
"What did Kisri call them?" Sheppard asked, unslinging his gun slowly. "Gollums?"
"I believe they were called gogoms."
"Don't suppose you remember if she said they were bulletproof?"
"I do not recall."
"Well, I guess we're about to find out the hard way."
The skittering noise increased, then stopped. There was a moment of silence, in which Sheppard imagined ears twitching and nostrils twitching; then a deep, chuckling noise rolled down the tunnel towards them.
"That's remarkably unsettling," John commented, unnerved. "Is that… what is that, a growl?"
The noise came again. This time it was echoed by another voice, in a higher pitch. "There is more than one of them," Teyla said.
"Yeah, but how many more?" The way the tunnel distorted the noise made it almost impossible to count the different voices, but the first two had been joined by at least three more.
"I believe there are five of them," Teyla said.
"Goddamn maze with its goddamn traps and its goddamn space hyenas…" John growled. "Alright, let's try retreating. Maybe they're just trying to get us out of their territory."
"This whole maze is probably their territory, John."
"Alright, their immediate territory. Look, it just seems to me that it might not be a bad idea to walk away from the space hyenas, alright?"
Slowly, he and Teyla began retreating. The soft chuckles followed them.
"They are following us."
"Bets on how they'd react to gunfire?" John asked.
"I believe it may be our best option."
"Alright, count of three, be ready to run. One… Two…" A deep, hissing growl rolled down the tunnel, and John saw a shadow move. "THREE!"
As the gunfire lit up the tunnel, Sheppard finally saw the gogoms that were stalking him and Teyla. They were stocky creatures, as Kisri had said, but apart from that, all he could make out were blocky heads, a beaded, lizard-like hide and teeth. Lots and lots and lots of teeth.
They recoiled from the bullets, and a high-pitched whistling noise told Sheppard he had injured at least one of them. Then he and Teyla were running, pelting headlong down the corridor.
"These things… don't give up…" John panted, using the movement of turning a corner to pause and fire down the tunnel once more. The gogom pack pursuing them ran right into the hail of gunfire, but it didn't thwart them.
"JOHN!" Teyla yelled. Sheppard wheeled around and found her facing a dead end, with no symbols in sight and only the picture of a doorway carved into the stone.
"They built a flying city and they can't manage a door?" Sheppard yelled. "Come on!"
Teyla was pressing on the symbol, trying to turn it or move it or do anything at all. "Hold them off," Sheppard ordered, taking her place and praying that his Ancient gene would get a response out of the door. Nothing happened; the symbol was just that, a mark carved into the rock.
"They have stopped," Teyla whispered.
"They're waiting for us," John said grimly. "They must know that this is a dead end. They probably chased us into it on purpose."
"We cannot stay here."
"No arguments on my part." A scratching noise caught John's attention, and he looked up, just in time to see a dark shape detach from the wall and launch itself at him. With a yell of alarm, he brought his gun up, but the gogom fell on him, knocking him onto his back.
Its teeth had been aimed at his stomach. The creature hissed in frustration as they tore through the vest to find Sheppard's body armour underneath. Suddenly, it lunged forwards and tried to fasten on his throat, but Sheppard jammed his forearm between the creature's jaws, yelling in pain as its teeth punctured his flesh.
He couldn't reach his knife, but his gun was still in his hand. Thrusting the gogom back, Sheppard managed to get the gun muzzle under its jaw, and pulled the trigger with a vengeance. Bullets tore through its thick neck, and with a pained whistle, the creature recoiled and fell to the ground, twitching.
Sheppard hauled himself wearily to his feet and stepped away from the dying gogom. Teyla, seeing the last of them off with some well-placed gunfire, glanced over at him, and her eyes widened. "Colonel! You must let me treat that…"
"We need to get to safety first," Sheppard croaked. "We need to work out how to get through this god-damned door."
"The Ancients would not have made their maze impassable, surely," Teyla said, worried.
"Unless we took a wrong turn somewhere, which, you got to admit, is looking kind of likely," Sheppard told her. He was starting to feel a mite dizzy.
"Colonel, let me bind your arm."
"We don't have time–" Suddenly, he sat down, his legs too weak to support him.
"I am treating you," Teyla told him, in a voice he imagined she was practicing for when Torren grew old enough to give her trouble.
"Ok, I guess we have time," he told her meekly.
Teyla smiled and began examining his arm. As she turned away to retrieve a bandage from her pack, she allowed her worry to show on her face, just for a moment. The wound was more serious than she had realized. Sheppard was very badly injured.
Oh no! How will they make it? Is Sheppard going to survive? Will the space hyenas return? What will happen to the other three? Will I ever be less melodramatic? (no). Tune in next week to find out!