Disclaimer: Don't own 'em, don't make money off 'em.

See Chapter 1 for Authors Notes

Written for SGA Big Bang 2009

Chapter Eleven

Britgate

Night fell over the compound, but Teyla couldn't sleep, as sounds from the other cells echoed from the hallway. Screams, sobs, curses…and much worse, and she tried to close her ears to them all. She felt the presence of many Wraith, all crowding her mind and trying to gain access to everything she knew about her universe, and Grodin's Atlantis. It was an effort to shield her thoughts, but as the hours went by, she grew weaker, her control slowly slipping away. It was as if little pieces of herself were being ripped away.

Tell us what you know, Teyla. Tell us and your friends will live. Stay silent, and they will die.

I will tell you nothing.

You will tell us everything. The only difference will be if your mind will be salvageable at all when we are finished with you.

You will not take over my thoughts. I will not allow you.

A shrill klaxon pierced her concentration and she sat up from her cot. What was happening? Blaster fire…down the hall, the sounds of Genii curses and locks ripped from their housings, the cry of prisoners free to turn onto their captors…Teyla went to the door, hoping against hope.

"Teyla?"

"John? Carson? I am here! I am here!" She pounded on her door as she screamed her reply.

She smelled the telltale smoke of C4 and dove behind her cot, just as a loud explosion shook the room. A piece of ceiling tile fell, splintering into pieces, and white-hot pain nearly knocked her senseless. Teyla tried to move, but saw a piece of debris buried into her side.

"Oh…" She sagged back and tried to stay awake. "Oh, no…"

"Teyla!" She felt a pair of strong hands grip her own. "Bloody hell—"

She clung to his voice. "Carson?"

"You've got debris that's impacted your side and you've lost a lot of blood. Stay still, love. We're going to help you."

She nodded as other hands gently examined her wound, then another unexpected voice cursed a blue streak. "Teyla, I'm going to give you something for the pain, then I'm going to immobilize this so it'll stay put. Dammit, Fumble Fingers, watch it, or I'll smash your paws to bits myself!" Ben Kavanaugh sounded more furious than she'd ever heard him in either universe. "Aiden, by all that's holy, go take care of those Genii shooting at us and leave the doctoring to me, okay?"

Aiden Ford's voice floated somewhere above her as the anesthetic took her. "I promised to help her and I will. Come on, Doc, let's use this cot's frame to make a stretcher for her…"

"Aiden, thank you," she mumbled as she fell headlong into darkness. The last thing she heard was his quiet, "You're welcome."

"That'll do it," muttered John. He glanced over his shoulder as Beckett, Kavanaugh, Ford, and Sora Radim helped secure Teyla's motionless body to the makeshift stretcher. A wave of guilt came over him; he should have known the Genii had rigged Teyla's door to blow if someone tried to rescue her. Aiden had tried to warn them, but too late, and…

"How is she?" Ronon demanded as he and John laid covering fire in the hallway.

"Bad," Kavanaugh snapped back. "We've got to get her back to Atlantis or she'll die!"

Ronon calmly let out a series of shots and Genii fell. He nodded to Tyre, who was keeping their avenue of escape open. Tyre bellowed an order and the Satedan squad moved out ahead of the rescue party. John tapped his mike and said, "Halling, we've got her, but she's hurt."

"Acknowledged," replied Halling. "We have cleared a way to the shuttle bay—" A squeal of static overwhelmed his voice, then he came back with "Wraith…five or six, heading in your direction, Colonel."

"Damn." He looked at Aiden, who nodded back calmly, as if he was the second-in-command that John remembered so well. "Another way out?"

"Follow me." Aiden said shortly and pointed to their right. "This way."

Ronon frowned as they followed him. "You trust him?"

"Don't have much of a choice." John hoped that Aiden wouldn't decide to hand them all over to the Genii and the Wraith. After all, he had been the contact who had disabled the security protocols that allowed them inside the compound. Aiden seemed more than eager to turn against his Genii allies. He had glared at John with his one good eye, and said:

"This is for her, not for you. Not for Beckett or Atlantis or anyone else. For her. She's the only one who's ever showed me any kindness, and I won't let anyone hurt her."

It was slow going, as both the Genii and Wraith fought back with everything they had, but Ronon's squad and the Atlantean forces cleared another way to the shuttle bay. Combatants on both sides fell as the air grew heavy with weapons fire. Finally, John spotted Halling and his group near the entrance to the bay; Halling waved him over.

"Take Teyla into the Jumper. Tyre's squad and mine will cover your escape and follow when we can."

John clapped Halling on the shoulder. "See you back at Atlantis."

"Go with the Ancestors, Colonel. Now, hurry!"

Tyre nodded in agreement as he fired his blaster over his shoulder. "Go with them, Ronon. We will hold here!"

Ronon looked like he wanted to protest, but said, "I will see you later, my friend." He and John looked over at Beckett, who nodded at Kavanaugh. The doctor's face was grim, but set in determination, which struck Ronon as odd, for he'd never seen Kavanaugh as anything as cowardly. Perhaps he had underestimated the man.

"When I tell you to run, you run. Got it?" John told him. Kavanaugh didn't protest, but gave him a curt nod in reply. John counted mentally to three, then yelled, "Go!" He and Aiden led the way, with Kavanaugh and Sora carrying Teyla's stretcher, and Ronon and Beckett covering them. John reached the Jumper first and hit the door control. As the others clambered into the Jumper, Beckett dove into the pilot's seat as John closed the hatch.

Aiden pointed ahead of them. "They've closed the bay doors."

Beckett growled, "Not for long, lad." Seconds later, a pair of drones leaped from the Jumper and slammed into the bay doors, just as the Jumper took off. The sudden acceleration knocked John off his feet, and he barely avoided landing on Kavanaugh.

"Where'd you learn how to drive, Carson?" John yelled.

"Shoulda strapped yourself in, Colonel," Beckett shouted back with a faint smirk.

"Yeah, a little warning would've been nice." He crawled over to Teyla's side and gripped her wrist. There was a faint pulse, but it was there. "How is she?"

Kavanaugh shook his head. "I need to get her into Surgery as soon as possible, Colonel. She's already lost a lot of blood, and I don't have the necessary equipment here."

"Do what you can, Doc." John staggered over to the front compartment and managed to sit down behind Beckett. "The Gate?"

"On approach. Retracting the drive pods now."

"Make sure they're in all the way. Now's not the time to get stuck halfway."

Beckett gave him a look. "Happened in your universe too, I take it?"

"Yeah…" John looked at the scanners and muttered, "That's odd."

"What?" Ronon asked.

"I'm not seeing any signs of pursuit. You'd think they'd sent somebody after us."

Aiden scowled, but addressed John instead of Beckett. "You're right. No Genii or Wraith ships after us."

"Too easy," Ronon commented, glaring at Aiden.

Kavanaugh snorted and turned to him. "You call this easy?"

"I'm not picking up Halling's or Tyre's ships either. Something's definitely not right." John also glanced at Aiden. "You know anything about this?"

Aiden shook his head, a hint of nervous fear in his eyes. "No. Nothing about this."

Ronon's hand swung up and gripped him by the throat. "You betrayed us, didn't you! You told them we were coming!"

"No, no…" Gray began to tinge Aiden's dark complexion. "No, I swear, I didn't say anything—"

"Three minutes to the Gate," Beckett announced. He didn't turn to address Aiden, but he didn't have to; the chill in his tone made Aiden pale even further. "Son, if you aren't telling the truth, I'm kicking you out the damn hatch without a spacesuit."

Movement at Teyla's side caught Ronon's eye, but before he could react, Kavanaugh's hands shot up and gripped Sora's right wrist. She held a syringe in her right hand, ready to stab it into Teyla's shoulder. Ronon dropped Aiden like a sack of potatoes, but Kavanaugh had already wrenched the syringe away from Sora and pinned her against the wall with surprising strength. Again, Ronon's estimation of the man went up considerably.

"You're too late. A fleet of Genii and Wraith ships are heading into Atlantis airspace right now," she hissed. "By the time you return, it will be all over!" Sora laughed hysterically, a high-pitched cackle, then she clenched her jaw and went limp. It was so unexpected that Kavanaugh nearly dropped her.

John launched himself out of his chair to help, but Kavanaugh shook his head. "Dead," he said bitterly. "Cyanide capsule between her teeth, damn her."

John nodded and looked up at Beckett. "We've got to get back to Atlantis."

"Already on our way. Strap in this time, Colonel, and we'll get there."

"Captain Zelenka, the Apollo and Daedelus report a fleet of Genii warships and Wraith Hive ships just hit our outermost sensory boundary," Chuck reported.

Zelenka let out a string of Czech invectives under his breath, then asked, "How many and how far away?"

"Eight Genii capital ships, six smaller vessels, and three Hive ships. Their ETA is thirty eight hours."

"Jeszi." It was his worst nightmare come true, but he pushed back any hesitation. "Scramble our defense forces, Sergeant Campbell, and send a call for backup to anyone who can assist us: Sateda, Hoff, Manaria…everyone you can."

"Yes, sir." Chuck nodded and did as ordered. Zelenka issued the evacuation order for all the civilians in Atlantis, then consulted with the Allied commanders about the emergency protocols.

Miko looked up from her board. "Captain Zelenka, tightbeam message from Colonel Lorne on the Orion."

"Put him on, Miko." At her nod, he continued, "Evan—?"

"We heard, Radek. I've got Captain Miller standing by on the Ancient space station, but they've been having power issues. Miller says that they're trying to find the source of the problems."

"Tell him he'd better hurry or—" He didn't finish the sentence; Rodney's words came back to him, about how his Peter Grodin had died on board a similar space station in an attempt to destroy the Hive ships.

Lorne didn't have to ask. "I'll tell Miller to speed it up. Lorne, out."

"Miko, get me the Chair Room." At her second nod, Zelenka asked, "Rodney?"

Bates replied, "He's in the Chair, talking with Melia. They're almost done realigning the Gate network on this side. It's pulling a hell of a lot of power, Radek. I don't want to activate the Bridge until we're ready, or we're liable to lose planetary shielding all over the network."

"And with the Genii and the Wraith coming, not a good thing."

"No. Melia says she'll be able to detect when the Bridge is ready on the other side, but the timing on this is gonna be tricky."

"Do prdele. How are we going to know when—?"

"Melia says that the extra power should enable Rodney to send some sort of signal over to the other side. Whoever's in the Chair over there would know."

Rodney's voice echoed on the speakers. "Our Carson Beckett's got the strongest Gene over there and if Peter's told them what to do, they'll have Carson in the Chair, even if they've got to tie him into it."

Despite himself, Zelenka chuckled. "He doesn't like the Chair?"

"Carson hates the Chair, but we make him sit in it anyway."

"Assuming Colonel Sheppard's team doesn't make it back in time—" Zelenka refused to give up hope, but the possibility was a strong one, if not a comfortable one.

Rodney's tone was sharp. "They'll be back. Don't even think that, Radek."

Zelenka sighed and looked at the monitor. The invasion fleet seemed to loom large on the screen, and he couldn't help but shiver at the destruction to come, if they couldn't prevent it.