Disclaimer : Stargate Atlantis and all articles of the Stargate franchise are owned by MGM, not me.


Chapter Seven



The injuries were like nothing Keller had seen before, even in the Pegasus galaxy. From the split-second view she had got of the impact, it seemed that the fireballs were almost like fine strands of fire wrapped into a sphere. That would go some way to explaining the wounds on the survivors.

Wherever the lashes of fire had touched them, their bodies had simply melted away beneath the contact. Some of them had been luckier than others. As she had looked for survivors she had seen a couple of people lying prone that looked untouched, until she had got close enough to see the thinnest of gouges slicing across the line of their foreheads as they lay next to each other. The expressions of shock and fear hadn't had time to fade from their faces.

Others had suffered similar but shallower gashes. Two or three had critically damaged internal organs. One woman's femur had been completely severed, her leg almost hanging by skin alone.

Once the survivors had all been moved to the infirmary she summoned stasis chambers out of the walls. There were too many people perilously close to death for her to try treating them all at once and the temporary respite gave her a welcome opportunity to think.

The wounds were so regular, so precise. Whatever the fire had touched had been vaporised but there was almost no damage to surrounding tissue. The inside surface of each laceration that had been exposed was seared such that there was no internal bleeding. Keller knew nothing about space weaponry but she knew the human body extremely well. Such controlled damage would be impossible to achieve unintentionally.

That didn't make sense though. Why design a weapon to attack targets from orbit and then severely limit its destructive power?

A sudden pounding on the wall curtailed her musings.

"Dr. Keller! Dr. Keller!"

The wall opened as she stepped toward it, framing the frantic figure of Morlena. Tears streamed down the young girl's face.

She opened her mouth to speak and her voice caught as she sobbed. She stumbled into the room and thew herself at Keller.

Keller knelt down to hug the distraught child.

"What is it Morlena?" she said, gently stroking the girl's back.

"I saw it!" she said between heaving breaths. "Saw it, wanted to help, so scared, saw it all."

"What did you see?" Keller urged.

"Blood-" she sniffed. "Lots of blood, in the dark, the tower, it stabbed him. Bleeding, the floor, it-"

"Morlena," Keller said, in a voice that shook. "Something stabbed Rodney?"

Morlena nodded solemnly, eyes wide and reddened.

Keller straightened up and briskly crossed the floor to retrieve her sidearm and her pack. "What was it?" she called to Morlena over her shoulder.

"I do not know," she said, shaking her head. "It was dark, I could only see the projection that he spoke of."

"Go and find Elworth and stay with him," she said. "Don't worry, I'll go and help Rodney. He'll be fine."

After Keller made sure Morlena was on her way she closed her eyes and took a deep breath before raising her gun and sprinting for the tower.

The wall dissolved into the familiar arch as she approached. McKay lay on his back, ashen-faced. Blood pooled beneath him and his P-90 was beside him on the floor. Keller controlled her instinct to immediately tend to her patient and stood back, carefully surveying the interior of the tower. She strafed a short way around the outside to confirm the room was empty before she entered.

"Rodney, can you hear me?" she asked as she knelt down beside him.

He mustered a groan in response but his eyes opened.

"Tell Sheppard he was right about this mission," he muttered.

Keller smiled at him as she reached for gauze to pad the wound.

There was a blur of motion. McKay sat bolt upright and pushed her down with his left hand. A gunshot rang behind her back and something clattered to the floor behind her.

McKay lay back, grimacing in agony. Keller looked round to see a figure in a black cloak collapsed on the floor.

"Sorry about that," he hissed between clenched teeth. "I knew it was still there. I was-," he winced. "I was worried if I warned you it'd attack again."

"No problem," she managed as she got up, he was surprisingly forceful when he wanted to be.

She slipped on some latex gloves and carefully rolled him onto his stomach to inspect the wound. "Is it... is it bad?" he asked, breath coming in sharp heaves from the pain.

Keller gently probed the wound and peered closely. "It's not life-threatening," she said.

"Really? Are you sure?" he queried. "I mean, could it be infected or-"

"You're going to be fine, Rodney," she assured him. "Trust me."

"Oh thank God," he sighed. "I really thought I was... I thought that was it."

"You're actually quite lucky," she said, after another close inspection.

McKay grunted in disbelief.

"I mean you're lucky it didn't hit anything important."

McKay grunted again. "What about me?"

"You know what I mean," she said, punching his shoulder lightly. "It's going to hurt a lot but once I stop the bleeding you'll be fine."

She cut away his shirt and padded the wound.

"This one is going to scar, I'm afraid."

"Chicks dig scars, right?" he said, hopefully.

"Right," she said, smiling as she wrapped a bandage tightly.

"How did you know-ow!" he exclaimed as she applied pressure to his back. "How did you know I was in trouble?"

"Morlena saw what happened and warned me."

"Thank God for annoying kids," he muttered.

"Are you dizzy or nauseous?" she asked as she checked his pulse and pressed her hand against his forehead.

"No, not really," he said. "Just in a whole lot of pain."

"You don't seem to be in shock and the bleeding is stopping already," she said.

"Shock? Are you kidding me? After all the things that happen to me in this job? I can't believe I ever let anyone tell me science wasn't where the action was," he scoffed indignantly. A frown creased his brow. "Wait, it is good that I'm not in shock, right?"

"Yes Rodney," she said. "You'll be fine. Let's get you sitting up."

She helped him up and into the chair, rechecked his bandaging and handed him a bottle of water from her pack.

"From the position of the wound I don't think he meant to kill you."

"Could've fooled me!" he spluttered.

"Did you see the wounds on the villagers?" she pressed. "Their injuries aren't what I expected. It's like the weapons were designed not to kill everyone they hit."

"The trials," he muttered. "They don't want to kill us, they want to test us."

"The trials!" he repeated and scrambled to his feet.

"Where do you think you're going?" she asked, stepping in front of him.

"There were more of them," he said. "They could be slaughtering people right now!"

She put a hand on his shoulder to stop him as he moved to leave again.

"And you need stitches and rest. Think you're in good shape to hunt them down?" she asked, eyebrow raised disapprovingly.

"It's what Sheppard would do," he mumbled absently, distracted by her warm grip on his shoulder.

"You're not Sheppard," she said.

"And you don't need to try to be," she added quickly, noticing he had taken it as a personal slight. "I'll do it."

"Are you sure?" he asked.

"Only one of us can stand without swaying," she pointed out, as she pushed him into the chair. "Look at it this way. You know when some idiot says they can do something and you know better than them that it's impossible?"

"Well yeah, every time one of what they loosely call scientists in Atlantis speaks pretty much."

"Exactly. That's what you'll be doing if you don't listen to me. The Rodney McKay I know isn't an idiot. Are you going to prove me wrong?"

"I guess not," he sighed, accepting defeat.

"Good," she said. "Now what will I need to find them?"

McKay adjusted a few settings on his Ancient scanner.

"Take this," he said. "It's not interfaced to any of the systems around here so it should still be trustworthy. They'll show up in red. But watch out, they phase in and out so you wont always be able to see them."

"What exactly are these things?"

McKay referred to the hovering holo-display.

"I don't know," he said, frowning. "The system calls them Lurkers. I don't know who or what they are, possibly some city robot defence or even preserved members of the builders that were frozen or stored in a dematerialisation buffer. Wait, here's something. Their phasing ability is limited. Their chance of collision varies proportionally to kinetic energy!"

"So a bullet will hit them?"

"Er, yeah. Exactly," he said. "But also, they probably can't hit you without being visible."

She arched an eyebrow. "Probably?"

"Almost certainly," he amended.

"Now," she said, grabbing his P-90 gingerly. "I'll be back shortly. I'd tell you that you should rest but somehow I don't think it would do much good."

McKay grinned sheepishly. "I'll keep an eye out on the map."

Keller nodded. "Seriously, don't move much or you'll start bleeding again. You'll need stitches when I get back."

McKay watched as she set off.

"Good luck," he called.

She turned and smiled at him and was gone.

***

The Hive was dying. It was an odd thing to behold. Sheppard had seen a number of them destroyed in one way or another but this one was decaying before his eyes. Taking the jumper around to have another pass, he joined Zelenka in looking down at it.

Parts of the hull were rotting away, a deathly brown hue. The blue flames crackled along the inside surfaces.

"That really does look like an anti-Wraith weapon," Zelenka commented.

"Yeah," he replied. "It's strange though. We spent ages searching for anyone who could take the fight to the Wraith. Now it seems whenever we find anyone that can, they're just as interested in blasting us too."

Sheppard banked the jumper as they passed over the fallen Hive. On the horizon the bubble of the shielded city came into view. It continued to flicker with the impact of the falling projectiles.

"I think we should look for where those missiles are coming from," said the Czech.

"Agreed," he said. "I'll take us in from above though. I don't want to get too close in case they have a means of detecting us through the cloak."

"You think that's likely?"

"I really have no idea but I wouldn't rule it out."

Sheppard flew in the opposite direction from the city for a few minutes before ascending.

"My God," said Zelenka.

Sheppard just stared. In front of them a monstrous pillar reared from the planets surface.

"It's impossible," said Zelenka. "That's hundreds of miles tall."

Sheppard's gaze travelled up the column until it was capped by an equally enormous ring that stretched as far as he could see in either direction. Zelenka tapped a few controls and shook his head in bewilderment.

"It girdles the whole planet," the scientist said. "Another ring crosses it halfway around the planet. There are sixteen of those struts in total. I've never seen anything like this."

"Neither did Teyla when she was up here looking at the Wraith," he said. "This whole damn thing just appeared in a few hours."

"Look," said Zelenka, pointing at the encircling ring as Sheppard turned the jumper to fly alongside it.

Lines of fire lit up on the underside of the ring and ran together until they met and pulsed, sending fireballs downward.

"At least that's one mystery solved," he said.

"I think I have found an airlock," said Zelenka.

"Let's check it out," said Sheppard, eyes still fixed on the rain of fire in front of them.

* * *

The sun was still below the horizon as Keller moved away from the tower. Shadows crept across the city in the watery dawn light. The crops in the valley below the city swayed in a light breeze.

This was definitely not what she had thought the future would hold for her when she went to med school. Stranded on an alien world under attack from hostile forces and taking the responsibility to hunt down and destroy the enemy.

There were five of them, lit up as red dots on the scanner. It had sounded simple when she took the gun and set off. Just use the scanner to track and outmanoeuvre them and then shoot them from a distance.

Now that she was close to the first of her targets it seemed a lot less simple. McKay had warned her they could go out of phase so that she wouldn't see them but he had said a bullet would still hit them. But what if she missed? It had to be visible to attack her but it could get very close before it phased in. What would she do then?

Don't think like that, she told herself.

The nearest dot was moving away from her. She hurried round a corner. The figure had its back to her, closing in on one of the villagers who stood at the end of the street, gazing at the last of the fading stars.

Keller scurried as close as she dared and took aim. A flash, a staccato rattle and the robed figure at the end of the street was falling to the ground.

The villager screamed and for a terrible moment she thought she had shot him but it was only out of fright.

"Get inside," she said, as she jogged up beside him. "There are more of these things in the streets. Tell everyone to stay inside. I'll let you know when it's safe."

The man ran off with grim terror on his face. Keller was left in the street with a gun in her hand and a dead body at her feet. The words "never do harm to anyone" ran through her mind. What choice had she been given though?

The hood of the robe had slipped over the head revealing the features of a young man of Aryan appearance. Blood dampened the back of his robe where the bullets had pierced his back.

Who was he? Where had he come from? He looked human. She knew he couldn't be but he wouldn't have looked out of place on Earth.

And she had just killed him. It had been so... straightforward. He? It? It was going to attack someone so she stopped it. It had to be done. Yet it was a life extinguished. Possibly a life at least.

She shook her head and checked the scanner. Three were on the other side of the city. The other was a couple of streets away. Damn. He would have heard the gunfire. He would know she was coming. Damn.

He wasn't moving either. She couldn't afford to do the same, if she tried waiting him out the others could engage in wholesale slaughter, as far as she had seen they weren't wasting any time in heading for the populated area.

Clenching her jaw, she raised the P-90 and the scanner in front of her and doubled back to enter the street at the opposite end from where her adversary waited. Peering round the corner, she saw a villager lying on the ground.

Keeping a close eye on the scanner, she sidestepped into the street. She sidled over to inspect the prone figure. It was a young man. She remembered seeing him helping his grandmother walk up to the city the previous day. He was dead, throat sliced open. She knelt down and closed his eyes.

She slowly stood up and saw there was still no movement from her quarry on the scanner. It appeared to have gone inside one of the buildings on the left of the street. Keller inched forward and then a thought struck her. What if he didn't know she could track him? He would probably wait till she had passed and then follow her up the street.

She set off more quickly, steeling herself to turn and fire as soon as she saw movement on the scanner. She had cleared the street and turned the corner before he emerged from his hiding spot and came after her.

Keller fired as soon as the scanner showed he had rounded the corner but the red dot just kept moving. Shit! Panicking, she sprayed more bullets in the direction of the invisible antagonist. She missed again.

Backing away she followed his movements as best she could with shaking hands as he strafed around her. Then the dot lurched toward her. She fired. He burst into view in mid-leap, knife extended toward her. She leant out of the way but he cannoned into her and the impact sent them both sprawling to the ground.

Keller lashed out wildly with her elbow and rolled away, training her gun on him. Then she saw he was dead. Distantly she noticed the blood on her own clothes as the roaring in her ears slowed and her breathing returned to normal.

Wearily she stood up. Three to go. With a certain amount of surprise she realised she had changed clips without thinking about it while she checked the positions of the last three. When did she get used to handling guns so comfortably?

A scream echoed across the city. Breaking into a sprint, she realised they had surrounded the infirmary. She slowed down as she approached the building, trying desperately to think of the best strategy to use. Surprise had just about got her through so far but there was three together now, she couldn't afford to miss even once.

One of them moved away into a street running parallel to the one she stood in. The other two maintained their position in front of her. She was weighing up her chances of taking them out when she realised what was happening. The third had begun sprinting along its street and would emerge behind her in seconds.

Keller raced towards a side street but one of the two was already heading for the other end. She was surrounded. Wheeling around to run back into the wider street, she lost her grip of the scanner and it fell to the ground.

She skidded to a stop and froze. How close were they? Could she risk turning her back to retrieve it? Blood pounded in her ears. The sun climbed above the buildings opposite and stung her eyes. She spun to her left and fired a volley of shots and was rewarded as a robed figure phased in and slumped to the ground. Backing up towards that figure she fired another salvo.

A second figure phased into view but she had only clipped his arm and it took another few rounds to put him down. Keller heard movement behind her and spun frantically. The P-90 was sent flying out of her hands as a knife swung into it and she was knocked to the ground as the robed man raised the knife and stepped toward her.

Keller fought the reflex to panic as her adversary bore down on her, knife outstretched. She forced herself to wait until he was about to strike and rolled to one side. A body cannoned into her back as she rolled. She tried to get up and her leg was pulled from under her.

Collapsing to the ground again, she saw the robed figure tussling with McKay, his face drawn tight with pain.

"Get the gun!" he hissed, as he struggled to keep the knife away from himself.

She turned to reach for it but their assailant shoved McKay aside and wrestled her back to the ground. Raw, ancient instincts took over and Keller struck and kicked and elbowed and clawed at her enemy. Blind rage overtook her and she sought desperately to crush and kill.

There was still a knife wielded against her though and a wild swipe nearly slashed her throat. McKay struggled over and grabbed the arm that held it. The three of them struggled viciously. McKay caught an elbow in the face and recoiled. Keller's knee connected with the Lurker's midriff. Her fingers closed around its hand, trying to prize the knife away.

Confusion reigned as limbs flailed and the three of them twisted and wrestled and then finally the knife was lodged in the robed figure's chest. Keller and McKay collapsed together on the ground. They lay next to the dead Lurker, shaking in relief and shock, as blood pooled beneath it and shone in the morning sun.


Author's Note : Originally I planned this chapter to end with Jennifer locked in mortal combat with the last Lurker but I decided that would be a cheap shot to introduce jeopardy. I'd be interested to know if people agree with that reasoning or not.

As ever I'd like to thank you for reading and invite you to leave a review to share your thoughts on this chapter.