A/N – Sorry for the delay everyone! This chapter was a hard one, as are the ones after it, and I'm still not sure I'm happy with it. Action, to me, is easy to write. Emotions are much harder, and this chapter and the ones following are kinda crazy with emotional fallout. I've read and revised it so many times now without making it better (maybe even making it worse), so I'm just giving up and posting...
THE THERMOPYLAE
By TIPPER
———————————————————————
CHAPTER TEN: THE FALLOUT
Sheppard picked himself up off the ground, frowning a little and looking around. From McKay's shout, he'd expected to be surrounded by flames and smoke right now—but the forest was fairly quiet. Only the faint sounds of fire crackling somewhere nearby were audible, and a dull rumble as the ground shuddered slightly underfoot, as if a large tree had just fallen over. Still, nothing major. He assumed that last explosion—which had been close, yes, but not that close—was the third dart going down.
Next to him, Teyla rolled up onto her feet in one fluid motion, her head tilted a little to the side as she also studied her surroundings curiously. He watched as she moved away from him, headed in the direction of the explosion, her every muscle tensed with watchfulness.
He tapped his radio then, looking up through the canopy at the pale blue sky. "McKay? Ronon? You okay?"
"We're fine," Ronon's gruff voice replied.
"We're so not fine!" McKay snapped in retort. "We're so far from fine, it's not even funny!"
"We're not hurt, the Thermopylae's still intact, and the dart is down," Ronon said then, as if to modify his earlier statement. McKay just huffed, obviously not mollified by this.
The colonel's eyes narrowed for a moment, then he shrugged. Typical McKay doom and gloom, probably because they had almost bit it up there. "Good, so, uh," Sheppard turned and started to follow Teyla, who was several yards away now, heading at a slow jog towards the Gate. She still had her head tilted, obviously trying to see through the trees. They could clearly see the smoke rising from the explosion ahead of them, rolling up into the sky like the black ash from a bonfire. Sheppard had to admit, there looked to be more than from the first two… "McKay, what was that yell for? Telling us to get down? You sounded like the world was about to end!"
There was no answer to that, causing Sheppard to frown some more.
"Colonel!" Teyla's voice snapped him back to the present. Looking up, he saw her start to run. Without questioning, he took off after her…then came to an abrupt halt when he saw what had gotten her moving. Teyla herself had stopped on the edge of the clearing, her mouth agape.
The Gate was on the ground, covered in debris from dozens of pieces of filleted dart. The DHD was a smoking husk in front of it, looking like a mushroom with the head burnt off. Even from here they could see…the Gate had snapped off the base, broken by the weight of the ship crashing into it.
Oh Crap.
"McKay," Sheppard said the name carefully, as if testing it on his tongue, and took a deep breath before asking, in a low, deadly tone, "what the hell happened?"
"We got lucky," McKay replied, sounding very small all of a sudden. As Sheppard watched, the silver Thermopylae, with some nasty new small gashes in its side and venting something that looked like a yellow gas, floated into view over the clearing.
"Lucky?" Sheppard repeated, looking up at the ship as if he could see through it, "LUCKY? McKay! You destroyed the Gate!"
"Lucky because, the DHD got blown first, cutting power to the Gate just before the ship hit it…"
"Oh yes," Sheppard snarled. "That makes me feel so much better!"
"I'm just saying…if the Gate had exploded at full power…it could have blown up the entire planet."
Sheppard said nothing to that, he just stared at the Thermopylae floating serenely overhead.
He was going to kill him, this time. He really was.
Finally, after a few moments, he stated softly again, "You destroyed the Gate, McKay."
"Technically?" McKay said, and they could hear him swallow over the line, "Ronon did."
"MCKAY!" Sheppard yelled furiously, absolutely not letting him slough the blame this time. "Damn it all to hell! What were you thinking? Do you realize that's our way home?"
"It was sort of my fault," Ronon noted calmly. "If I hadn't—"
"Stay out of this, Ronon! You weren't the one in charge!" Sheppard snapped. "Jesus Christ, McKay! All you had to do was destroy one dart. One dart! I could do that in my sleep! You have a superior ship with greater fire power and you waited until the last second to destroy it?! And you have to destroy the Gate in the process?"
"The Daedalus is not far," Teyla interrupted, watching Sheppard with concern. "They were within range of Atlantis when we left. I'm sure that they can be here quickly. As soon as Elizabeth realizes she cannot dial us back, she will—"
"And in the meantime," Sheppard flung back, running over her calmness with a busload of fury, "we've Wraith on the ground and who knows how many Hive ships on the way, wondering what happened to their scouts! Not to mention a whole mess of villagers we can't evacuate!" Teyla flinched at his anger, looking away as he continued, "And how about those people still trapped on that other dart, huh? McKay's just condemned them to death!"
"Oh God," McKay muttered, obviously having forgotten about the second dart.
"Colonel," Teyla was frowning now, "I am sure that if Doctor McKay and Ronon had any other alternative—"
"Not now, Teyla," he ordered. He wasn't having any of it. He was mad, damn it. "McKay! Land that ship, now!"
"Sure, yes, right," McKay replied. "I'm putting it down in a clearing about a mile southwest of here, where I landed it before."
"We'll meet you there," Sheppard replied, already heading in that direction at a jog. Behind him, Teyla sighed heavily and started to think about how they were going to break this to the Cutsarkians.
———————————————————————
McKay settled the ship down softly, almost with reverence. Probably because he wasn't really paying attention to 'doing it right' as it were. Ronon leaned against his console, casting surreptitious glances towards the scientist as McKay started shutting things down once they were on the ground.
Sheppard was being unfair. But then, Sheppard, like Ronon himself, had a habit of reacting before thinking things through.
He just hoped the colonel had allowed a little reason to seep in before he came charging in and started accusing McKay of doing it on purpose. After all…McKay had tried to stop him from increasing the speed on those two missiles.
Ronon pulled himself up a little—time to set that right. "Hey," he offered, "about what I did…."
"Don't." McKay just shook his head, not looking up from whatever he was now tapping into this data tablet on his lap. "It wasn't your fault." He stood up from the command chair then, holding the tablet tight in one hand as he did so, and hit a couple more buttons on the arm of the chair.
"Yeah, it was," Ronon replied, frowning a little. "I fired the missiles, and I sped them up so they'd hit the dart before it went through the Gate. I didn't listen to you when—"
"No, Sheppard was right. I should have had you take it down a lot earlier, just like he told us to." Stepping down off the dais, McKay walked distractedly over to one of the burnt out consoles. "I need to find a way to get the cloak back on," he said then.
"McKay…"
"You should check the sensors. They're still on-line. Maybe you can figure out where the Wraith are by combining life signs with the tech sensors. There should be a way." He frowned at the burnt out screens, waving a hand at Ronon. "I'm sure you can figure it out."
Ronon watched for a moment as McKay knelt down in front of the console he thought controlled the cloak and started to pry open the panel at its base. Then, with a grimace, the Satedan turned around and tried to figure out how to make the sensors work more accurately.
———————————————————————
Sheppard and Teyla ran as fast as they could, following the trajectory of the Thermopylae, but it still took them almost fifteen minutes to reach the ship. With the gate down, the Wraith would probably be pretty interested in the only still flying ship on the planet—even if, right now, it wasn't really space-worthy. Sheppard had been annoyed when McKay didn't turn the cloak back on, but then, the rational part of him recalled that it was probably because the cloak had been damaged.
They reached the clearing McKay had landed in without incident, and Sheppard hoped that was because the Wraith on the ground were either up closer to the village or simply too far away to get here quickly. Not about to question their good luck, they headed straight for the closed entrance, Teyla reaching up to tap her radio to ask them to open it.
At almost the same time, the Thermopylae's surface rippled…and the ship disappeared from view.
"Well done, Rodney," Teyla said by Sheppard's side. The colonel gave her a look. She didn't return it, tapping her radio for real this time.
"Doctor McKay, Ronon, we are outside the ship. Can you…?"
"I'm dropping the stairs now," Ronon's disembodied voice floated down from the area where they knew the entrance to be. He must have already opened the door. "Hang on."
Trying not to appear too impatient, Sheppard turned his back on the ship to scout the area, just in case. He saw Teyla do the same.
"Come on," Ronon said then, much closer. Turning around again, they saw him half-in, half-out of the cloak, gesturing them inside and up the stairs.
"I got the sensors to combine Wraith tech signatures with life signs," Ronon told them as he led the way back to the control room at the front of the ship. "And the range is pretty broad—covering most of this side of the mountain, cutting off at the far end of the village; you know, about where that cliff is." He shrugged a little, "Picked up eight distinct signals—have to be Wraith stunners."
"Just eight?" Teyla repeated.
"Yeah. Seems we already got most of 'em. Shouldn't be hard to finish 'em off."
Sheppard just grunted, causing Ronon to fall silent as they strode into the white control room, sunlight shining brightly through the windows to augment the lightness of it. The Satedan continued to lead, stepping over some fallen bits of metal to get to a specific sensor station. Teyla frowned at the newly burnt out consoles scattered around, and the ripped open panels with exposed wires. The whiteness of the room had hidden it somewhat, but there was clearly damage here.
Sheppard, though, was only looking for one thing. And he frowned when he didn't see it.
Rodney wasn't there.
"Where's McKay?" Sheppard asked, looking at the Satedan as Ronon hit some buttons on the console. Hologram images depicting the side of the mountain appeared on the screen, along with a bunch of blips. Ronon turned at the question.
"He's in the engine room. The ship took some damage." Master of the obvious, that Ronon.
Sheppard studied the control room, "Can the ship fly?"
"Short distances," Ronon shrugged, "So he said. But not far. Something to do with power levels. I didn't really get the explanation."
Teyla narrowed her eyes. "If it can fly, we should move it to another clearing while it is cloaked. The Wraith will probably be looking for it."
Ronon nodded, not disagreeing. "That's why he got the cloak back online first. He had to divert power away from something else to do it though."
"What's the something else?" Sheppard asked.
Ronon frowned, his brow knotting in annoyance. "Maybe you should just go ask him these questions."
Sheppard gave a short nod, "Maybe I will." Turning on his heel, he left back through the doors into the corridor.
Ronon's brow furrowed. "Sheppard, wait…" But he was too slow.
———————————————————————
Teyla watched the colonel leave, then moved the rest of the way to join Ronon at his station, her eyes studying the downturned face. The Satedan had sighed heavily when he didn't manage to stop the colonel, and now leaned with his back against the console, looking down at the floor.
"Are you all right?" she asked quietly. Ronon gave an almost imperceptible shrug in reply, then shook his head.
"It's nothing." He lowered his head more, dark eyes tracing the patterns in the metal grate flooring. Teyla just nodded, accepting the non-answer for now. Standing next to him, she looked up at the 3D images floating around them, and smiled, impressed despite herself.
"You did this?" she asked, gesturing to the screens.
"Huh?" Ronon answered, looking at her, then turning fully to peer at the screens above his station. "Oh, yeah. Kinda. McKay started it."
Teyla studied the arrays for a moment, before arching an eyebrow at Ronon. "What are we looking at?"
"Life signs, mostly. The Wraith are the red ones. Look," he pointed to a series of red dots burning steadily away on one side of the screen. "I figure those five dots on the far side of the village are waiting for something, though I'm not sure what. These two, on the other hand..." he trailed off, showing the two steadily moving red dots headed in their direction.
"Are coming here," Teyla nodded. She tilted her head at the blue dots sprinkled liberally within the village confines. One of the stationary red dots was surrounded by blue. "What are those blue dots?"
"General life signs not carrying Wraith tech," Ronon replied. "Those are the villagers." He frowned, pointing to the one lone red dot surrounded by blue inside the village. "I'm hoping this Wraith is either dead, or tied up somehow."
"That's Innis," Teyla said, smiling a little. "I gave her a Wraith stunner, although I don't think she really wants to use it."
"Oh," Ronon nodded. "Gotcha."
They studied the map for a moment, before Ronon shrugged. "I say we go after the Wraith on the ground. Take care of them. Then let McKay fix this ship. Maybe he can get it fixed well enough so that, if a Hive does come, we can do some damage. If not, maybe it can at least get us off this planet."
Teyla nodded, looking around at the still elegant interior, despite the damage. "I would love to take this ship back to Atlantis," she said wistfully. "But if we can not…I would be just as pleased if it killed as many Wraith as it could." She gave a dark smile, and saw it matched on her friend's face. Then Ronon's smile fell as he turned around again, looking out the door leading to the central corridor.
Teyla saw him looking, and turned herself.
"Rodney can take care of himself," she assured the Satedan. "The colonel is angry, yes, but you know how Rodney reacts to anyone angry with him. He simply gets angry right back." She gave a small smile. "I am sure there is a good reason for what happened."
"Yeah, but," Ronon grimaced, looking at her, "you gotta understand—wasn't McKay's fault. I fired the missiles."
"I had guessed as much," Teyla nodded. "But that does not matter…if it was Rodney who told you when to fire."
Ronon grimaced, "Yeah, he did, but…"
"I know," Teyla soothed, patting him on the arm.
"No," Ronon shook his head, his eyes narrowing in annoyance. "I don't think you do. You would have listened."
That earned him a puzzled look, but Ronon didn't respond to it. He just turned around, his attention back on the sensors.
———————————————————————
McKay was kneeling in front of the power control panel Teyla had read for him earlier, arms deep inside the machinery. He was fiddling with something Sheppard couldn't see when he reached the doors to the massive engine room, but the expression on McKay's face suggested it wasn't pretty.
Pausing, the colonel simply stood at the top of the dozen or so steps leading down to the main floor below, content for the moment to just watch the scientist work. McKay was his usual diligent self, pulling crystals and examining conduits and messing with wires with efficiency and confidence.
The colonel breathed to calm down the anger still roiling inside. He knew it was mostly irrational anger, that his emotions had gotten the better of him upon seeing the Gate destroyed, but…
After counting to ten, he started down the stairs and took a more careful look around, grimacing at the sight of more burnt out panels and the smell of cooling metal. Something was whirring softly, and he realized that there must be invisible fans inside the engine turbines he couldn't see, cooling them down. The Thermopylae had been put through the ringer.
"McKay," he called as he reached the bottom, stepping around a console in order to get to the man on the ground.
Rodney leaned out of the panel, looked up at him, frowned, then returned his attention to his work.
"Colonel," he greeted coolly.
"McKay, I—"
"I think I've figured out a way to save those people in the second downed dart," McKay interrupted quickly, not bothering to meet Sheppard's eyes as he spoke, arms once more deep into the machinery. "I think I can connect the dart's buffer to the main power supply on the Thermopylae. There's a singular power conduit in this ship's version of a mess hall that I can hook it up to. It won't be enough to release the people trapped, but it will be enough to stop the signals inside from degenerating."
Sheppard frowned, momentarily forgetting that he'd come here to yell at McKay under the sheer weight of the information that had just been thrown at him. Worst of all, only one thing really stuck out… "There's a mess hall?"
McKay rolled his eyes a little, "Yes. There are three levels, remember? The central level, with the big corridor you just came down, then a level above and a level below." He pointed as he spoke, showing doors with ladders leading up to them high up on the main wall, and two doors on this level even with the floor—all were closed and dark. "The bottom level is mostly one big room—hence mess hall."
"Oh, right," Sheppard nodded, remembering that they still hadn't really had a chance to explore the ship at all, "I didn't remember that."
"Yeah, well, anyway," McKay's focus was back on the guts of the console, "once I've got enough power going to the mess, we can go get that buffer from the dart. Hook it up."
Sheppard just nodded, then tilted his head, "Speaking of power, Ronon said there was something wrong with the power levels so that we couldn't fly this ship too far."
McKay grimaced, and a flush crept up his throat, as if embarrassed, "Yeah. A couple of the dart's weapons fire managed to impact the main power coils. Took some of them out. I didn't realize how much power was lost until it was over. It wasn't helped by the fact that the shield device covering that big hole in the side expanded to fill every new hole that dart made…though I still don't understand why. Anyway, it just drained more and more power. With main power so low, I don't think we're going to be able to fly this thing off this planet unless we want to fly without most of the systems operating, like artificial gravity and life support…"
"Or long range sensors or weapons..."
"Yeah."
"But…it could, if push came to shove?"
McKay just grimaced, "Maybe. I'd have to do some serious rewiring though. And there'd be no life support anywhere but controls and back here, not even in the corridor joining the two. Make a long trip really horrifically awful—especially if we're going to try to cram a bunch of people in here."
"But, don't we have a hyperdrive? How long would it be?"
McKay shook his head, "We can't risk using it with all the damage to the hull. I'm not even sure the ship would let us go that fast, knowing the strain it would put on the shields—if I can get them to behave. At best…we'll be able to limp along at medium thrust. Meaning…slow. It could take a week just to get to the next solar system."
"Hunh. How long to get to a solar system with a gate?"
McKay stopped working for a moment, his hands stilling on the wires, his eyes shifting around as if reading something inside his head…
"Two systems over," he said finally. "P3G-112. It's two systems over."
"How long?"
"Three weeks. I'm not sure we have enough power to get that far, though."
"Well…There's the Daedalus. If we can contact it through subspace communications, which I'm guessing this ship has, it can come and get us wherever we go. It may be that, just getting off this planet to another that can support life with as many people as we can carry might be the way to go."
McKay grimaced, but didn't disagree. Neither spoke again for a few minutes. McKay shifted deeper into the console, so that more of his body was hidden.
"Sounds like a plan, then," Sheppard said, dispelling the uncomfortable silence. When McKay didn't look up or lean out from the panel to face him again, he sank down next to him on one knee, crossing his arms over the bent leg.
And then didn't say anything again for a few minutes. He realized he didn't know what to say.
For some reason, Sheppard no longer wanted to yell at McKay. Blaming the man was second nature, because McKay took it. Even if it wasn't his fault, the scientist accepted blame as quickly and as deeply as he took praise. His ego was just that big.
But Sheppard knew, deep down, this wasn't McKay's fault. The scientist had been out of his depth. He had asked him to do something McKay just wasn't skilled at, or even prepared for—he wasn't a pilot and he wasn't a soldier and this ship...wasn't a jumper.
The mistake, as always, was his own. He should never have ordered Ronon and Rodney to the Thermopylae. They should have found another way.
Rodney continued to fiddle, his hands moving quickly and efficiently inside the panel. The only indication that he even knew the Colonel was still there was the small furrow of his brow whenever he accidentally met Sheppard's eyes as he worked. At one point, he shifted more deeply into the guts of the console, and, unhappily, Sheppard knew it was so he wouldn't be able to see the colonel anymore.
At one point, Rodney muttered a small "ow" and Sheppard smiled when McKay shook out his right hand.
"You okay?"
"Pinched my finger," Rodney replied, pushing out from the console and putting his right index finger to his lips to blow on it. "Hate that. I think the Ancients must have had smaller fingers. Probably related to those same people who invented the 'some assembly required' furniture. You know the kind—where only if your fingers are half the size but twice as strong could you possible get the screw into the right place?" He snorted, peered back into the panel, sighed, then slid back in.
"Yeah," Sheppard nodded. "I know the kind." He waited a second longer, then sighed. "Look, Rodney..." he bit his lip for a second, then plowed on, "I'm sorry I yelled."
"Oh God," Rodney muttered, deflating a little inside the console. "You're kidding. That's why you're still here? To apologize?"
Sheppard's brow furrowed. "Yeah," he said, not hiding that he was affronted by that response. "Look, I was kinda pissed off, what with the whole," he waved a hand, "Stargate destruction thing, and—"
"So you yelled at me." McKay's jaw flexed as he pulled out a crystal from the console, looked at it, then placed it on the floor before reaching in for another. "What else is new?"
Sheppard pursed his lips, his annoyance growing, "Okay, fine. Yes. I yelled at you. Though...you kinda deserved it, you know. I mean, you have to admit, it wasn't your best moment, McKay. I know you were probably doing what you thought was best, but you should've thought ahead more. Thought about what was—"
"I know," McKay ground out. "You don't have to coddle me, Colonel." He leaned out from the panel, staring unwaveringly at Sheppard. "I should have let Ronon take down the dart earlier. I know."
Sheppard stared at him, taking that in, then his eyes narrowed slightly.
"So you could have?" he asked coldly. "You had the opportunity?" He hadn't been certain of that until this moment. He'd just assumed that events had gotten away from Ronon and McKay, that they'd been outmaneuvered and that was why the Gate had been destroyed.
McKay met his gaze for a few seconds, then looked away, his features losing their previous confidence. "Yeah," he gave a tight nod, and picked at a crystal he'd placed on his stomach. "There was a point when the dart was vulnerable. We could have taken it down. Ronon even asked me if he could fire. I told him not to."
Sheppard frowned, and all the anger he'd managed to quell surged back to the fore. "So...you actually deliberately ignored what I said to you, what I ordered you to do."
McKay grimaced, but didn't deny it. He just steeled his jaw and placed the crystal on the floor by his side with the others.
Sheppard's eyes blazed and he stood back up like a shot. "God damn it, McKay! What the hell were you thinking? You knew the dart could dial the Gate, and you knew it would probably try to escape the moment it had the chance! And you didn't fire?"
McKay shut his eyes, then opened them again. "I...I was..." he took in a sharp breath, "I was trying to save the people on the dart. I thought if I could just—"
"Well, you were wrong, weren't you? You were wrong and I was right. You should have listened to me."
McKay clenched his jaw so tightly at that, it looked like it might snap. The blue eyes regained some of their defiance as he met the other man's glare. "So I made a mistake. It's not like it's my first."
"So you made a mistake?" Sheppard repeated, sneering over the words. "That's all you have to say? Damn it, McKay, do you think I order you to do things for my health? You should have taken down the dart the moment you had the chance, but no, you had to try to prove that you're—"
"I get it!" McKay shouted at the colonel, glaring at him again, his blue eyes shimmering a little. "I said I was wrong," he added more quietly, turning back to the console. He blinked and put his hands back on the crystals inside the panel. "Look," he said, even more quietly, "I need to finish getting the power back on to the rest of the ship now, so we can maybe save those people in that second dart and get off this planet, so, uh...could you leave me alone now? I'm sort of tired of being yelled at."
Sheppard's eyebrows furrowed, "Tired of being yelled at?" He snorted, "That's rich, coming from you." He leaned back on his heels, crossing his arms as he glared down at the other man. "No. I'm not going anywhere until I know you've gotten my point."
"And what point is that, exactly?" McKay asked snidely.
"That you're a jackass, and if you're going to take charge of things, you need to think about more than just how cool the technology is and how to be the biggest hero!"
That earned a moment of complete and utter silence. Finally, after the air in the engine room cooled from hot to freezing (at least in Sheppard's mind), McKay leaned out from the console and fixed the colonel with a stare so stone cold the colonel almost backed up a step.
"Tell you what," McKay lifted his eyebrows, no inflection in his voice at all, "how about, when we get home, you can belittle me as much as you like. Tell me just how childish it was of me to think I could fly this thing without you, and tell everyone that, once again, McKay screwed everything up because of his unmitigated ego and lots of people died. Better yet, tell them how it wouldn't have happened had you been the one flying. How, had it been you, everyone would have been saved. Because that's what you were going to say, right? Well I give you free rein. I don't care. But right now, I need to finish doing this work. So how about you run along back to your fellow heroes and let me be, huh?" And with that, he slid himself so deeply into the console, that he was literally nothing but legs.
The colonel drew himself up tight, arms pressed so hard into his chest, his triceps started to hurt.
Fine. McKay wanted to play it this way? Then he'd play.
"Sure, okay, Rodney," he said. "If that's what you want, then that's what you'll get."
"Great," McKay snarled from inside the console. "Fantastic."
"Couldn't be happier to oblige," Sheppard sneered.
"I'm sure," McKay answered, still not showing his face.
Sheppard shut his eyes and gritted his teeth. He did not need the last word. Turning on his heel, he strode away from McKay, aiming for the stairs without looking back.
"Colonel Sheppard, Doctor McKay," Teyla's voice called over the ship's communication system, slowing Sheppard mid-step. "We have a problem."
"Not another one," McKay sighed heavily, pushing himself up out of the console. Sheppard was already jogging back to the stairs leading up to the central corridor.
"What kind of problem?" the colonel called, taking the steps two at a time.
"We were tracking two Wraith, believing them to be on their way here, but we were wrong. They are at the crashed dart that Doctor McKay and Ronon were looking at before." She sounded far, far too calm.
"Oh, crap," Sheppard muttered, running faster now. He was most of the way back to the control room. The sound of boots running along metal let him know that McKay wasn't that far behind.
"Oh," Teyla sounded strange, as she obviously saw something she didn't like.
"What does 'oh' mean?" McKay demanded, huffing a little as he spoke.
Sheppard reached the main doors to the control room, and ran up to where Ronon and Teyla were staring up at the screens around Ronon's station.
A cluster of red dots were gathered in one area—presumably where the dart was.
"What is that?" Sheppard asked, taking in a deep breath. "Wraith?" He counted the dots—there were at least six. "I thought you said you were just tracking two?"
"We were," Ronon answered darkly. He turned to look at McKay, who came panting up alongside Sheppard, his brow furrowed as he looked at the same screen. "The Wraith somehow released their people from the buffer that Doctor McKay said couldn't be used."
"It couldn't!" McKay insisted, his eyes wide. "I don't…I don't know how…."
"There are no other life signs," Teyla noted, frowning. "Should there not also be blue life signs showing up if everyone was released from the dart?"
"McKay," Sheppard frowned, "was there enough power to release just a few people, but not all?"
The scientist was staring at the screen, his eyes blinking away. Finally he looked down, his facing paling. "I didn't think of that," he admitted softly. Radek had found that out the very first time they released anyone from a dart's buffer that you could release just one life sign at a time, if you could pinpoint it. Unfortunately for McKay and Lieutenant Cadman, Radek's attempt to separate the life signs hadn't been that accurate. The Wraith, on the other hand...
"The Wraith must have a means to distinguish their life signs from the rest," Rodney said morosely as he wrapped his arms around himself. "I didn't know they could do that. They freed their own, and left the rest inside."
Sheppard's jaw clenched, but, really, he couldn't blame McKay for that one.
"What about the other people who were trapped?" Ronon asked, looking perplexed by the idea.
"Releasing those few Wraith from the buffer would have used all the power," McKay said, not looking up. "The rest…all those trapped people…are gone."
Teyla closed her eyes. Ronon looked furious. Sheppard had gone cold, turning his eyes to look out the windows at the blue sky. McKay still stared at the floor.
"They're moving away from the crashed dart," Ronon said then, his eyes still on the screen. Sheppard turned his eyes back, noting the gathering of red dots was, in fact moving. But not in the direction they expected.
"Why aren't they coming here?" McKay wondered next to him, obviously surprised. "Surely they saw the ship land?"
"The culling beam takes a lot out of you, even if you're a Wraith," Ronon growled, his eyes narrowed. "They're headed back to the village, probably to join the others and..."
"To feed," Teyla finished quietly. "Get back their full strength."
"Damn it," Sheppard said, bristling. His back straightened, hand unconsciously tightening on the P90 attached to his vest.
"Wait," McKay said, his eyes getting that deer in headlights look of his, "I just thought of another reason. They could be looking to find the other Wraith still on the ground, to do that mind thing they do," McKay tapped his skull then pointed to the sky, "to call for help. There are eleven of them now—that could be enough. If there are any Hive ships in the area..." He trailed off, not needing to finish the statement.
"Sheppard," the Satedan turned to the colonel. "Permission to go and kill those Wraith in the most painful way possible."
Sheppard snorted, then smiled thinly. "Granted."
"Um," McKay lifted a hand, "If we can spare a minute, I might have something that can help. I noticed on the ship's schematics that the Thermopylae," he pointed behind him, "has a small armory…."
———————————————————————
TBC...