Part I, Chapter 11
Strange that a place as barren as the Ruined Planet could be so important.
Maisica is still eerily quiet when Sheppard steps into the city center with McKay and Teyla behind him.
No surprises this time. Each team member carries a small filtering mask. The masks haven't been tested against the sallow mists, but they keep out other gases. No surprises at all.
They scramble over the city's debris, not stopping until they are out on the road towards the farm where Ronon fell. No mist streams from the pipes on either side of the road, which stretches straight across an undulating plain of nothing.
The original mission has not changed: Acquire pods for the besotted woman who said she possessed information about the Wraith and humans together. To this has been added another goal: Locate and retrieve Ronon Dex.
They travel the long distance from the stargate to the farm, reaching the settlement at sunset to find it deserted.
"McKay, you picking up any life signs?"
"Just us," comes the reply.
"Range?"
"Two hundred feet or so."
"Keep your eyes peeled, everyone," he says.
They check the entire farmstead, from main house to its many outbuildings to the edges of dried fields beyond, but find no pods or people or, thankfully, telltale gravesites.
As night falls, a distant lighted city halos the horizon. Sheppard, Teyla and McKay stand outside the main building after their evening meal, staring at the dim arc rising up beyond where the land curves away.
"How far away you think that place is?" Sheppard asks.
"Maybe thirty miles," McKay responds.
Teyla gazes back towards the lifeless Maisica, from which no lights shine. "At least one city survived on this part of the planet."
The night, though warm, is frankly still, with no wind or natural sounds to fill the ear-ringing silence. Burying his discomfort, John ponders the weak luster bouncing off low clouds so far away. If pods and Ronon are to be found, that is the most likely place to find them.
"I'll take first watch," he says. "Teyla, second, then Rodney. We'll head out at first light."
OoOoOoO
McKay tosses and turns on a thin mattress dragged down from the upper level of the main house. He is no longer sick from what the Dream Machine did to him, but sleep still proves elusive.
Eventually, he gives up and pulls a snack from his pack to keep him busy for a while. Since Elizabeth has kept his and Teyla's dream output, he studies other things on his datapad, problems that went by the wayside while he obsessed over playback.
Teyla shifts on a mattress next to his. She sits up and looks over at McKay's datapad glowing bluish-white in the darkness.
"You cannot sleep?" she asks.
"No," he replies.
"What are you working on?"
He shows her the pad. "Stabilizers under Atlantis. They draw a lot of power."
The pad illuminates her features, and McKay remembers Teyla's face--all of the magnificent things reflected in it--from his dreams: Courage and patience and an inborn cleverness that books and scholastics can't ever match.
"I am no longer angry with you," she says.
"You're not?"
She shakes her head. "I believe that the Dream Machine has a purpose, something that we do not yet understand."
Rodney's been thinking the same thing. Since his recovery, he's dropped the matter of the device and its uses for now. Sometimes ideas about the machine come to him, though, and he tiptoes into considering them as he would a quicksand bog.
"We won't know for certain anytime soon," he says, pulling his thoughts back to the pad.
She watches him studying the screen, then comes closer, well inside his bubble of privacy.
"I know you much better than before," she says, very quietly.
A shiver of terror and embarrassment rises up his spine.
"You…you do?"
She smiles knowingly, like an aged parent.
He looks away from her, feels his cheeks turning crimson and thanks the darkness that she can't see him very well.
"Same here," he says, adding quickly, "Not like a girlfriend or anything."
"Certainly not!"
"I'm just glad you're not mad at me, because we're out here in a place where they shoot needles at you and it's nice to know you've got my back in case…"
"Rodney."
"Okay."
"I would never let anything bad happen to you no matter how angry I may be."
"I know." And he does know. The playback told him so.
OoOoOoO
No one on the Ruined Planet uses fuel-powered vehicles any more. Factories that made personal carriers stand still, rusting in their quiet lots.
The Master has a vehicle, though, a hovercraft that his Second has at his disposal, propelled by puffs of air exhaled through vents in its balloonlike bottom. The Master's people keep the hovercraft fueled. They shine it each day and brush out the interior.
Into this vehicle pile the Second, Ronon and two security agents. One agent sits at the controls with the Second to his right. Ronon and another agent occupy the back, where their knees bend sharply in the small interior. Exterior lights shine brightly in the predawn darkness.
"You got time for this?" Ronon asks the Second.
"Not really," comes the reply. "But I'm tired of the war. Let the soldiers fight without me today."
The vehicle rattles when its engine starts, then rises a few inches above the smooth pavement in front of the Master's massive home. Then, with air jets providing buoyancy, the carrier slides towards Maisica, where the stargate stands.
The pods Ronon ingested have already begun wearing off. The saturation tube pushed him over the edge from craving into full-on enslavement. Less than an hour has passed, and his skin burns from deprivation.
Before leaving the Master's house, the Second placed a few more pods in his pocket, made a show of it so Ronon would notice.
"I know lots of other places where seeds come from," Ronon tells the Second, as the vehicle glides away from the courtyard in which it is stored. "For a price, I'll show you all of them."
The Second turns in his seat. "You are a sorry piece of rot."
"You made me this way," the Satedan snarls, leaning forward to meet the Second face-to-face. The security agent pulls him back, holds his needle weapon to Ronon's side.
Every pothole registers on the air jets, making the little chassis shake and jar when it passes over them. At a spot where the road has heaved up massive wedges of pavement, the Second orders his driver away from the highway entirely to travel above the scrappy remains of farmland.
To busy himself, the Second provides commentary. "Citizens are not allowed to grow their own food anymore." He points down. "This last farm settlement was cleared out only a few days ago; a young man, a mother and infant. The Master loves babies and…."
The agent driving suddenly jerks the little conveyance into a sloping circle. From his position in the back seat, Ronon sees Zin's and Cobel's farm, the cabin and the white main house with rutted fields beyond.
"I see them," the security man to Ronon's left says to his Second.
"See what?" Ronon asks.
The man ignores him. "Four?"
"Three," the Second replies. "Arms at hand!"
The vehicle lands with a graceless thud, spitting up dust and rocks when it hits the dirt.
"Who are they?" the Second says, staring out the windscreen at people running for cover. He grasps Ronon's hair and pulls him forward, forcing him to look ahead. "Are they yours?"
A flash of copper. Teyla's hair. A small white object held in his hand. McKay's life signs detector. The briefest glimpse of a black wrist band. Sheppard reaching out, pulling the scientist in behind him.
Cobel admitted writing the note that Sheppard found tucked into his vest, but Sheppard wouldn't know that. As far as anyone in Atlantis knows, Ronon told them not to come back. But here they are.
"Never seen 'em before," Ronon says, looking away as if he doesn't care.
Donning masks, the Second and his security agents bring their needle weapons to bear. The vehicle's doors open, allowing the Visians to exit.
"Close the door, big man, or the mist will take you," says one agent through his respirator.
Yellow clouds fizz up from broken tubes thrown towards the Lanteans hiding in the farmyard. Ronon's body shudders as a needle weapon fires. He can't think can't think from Happy, can't think can't think from fear. He reaches for the door beside him, which closes at his touch as the battle begins.
OoOoOoO
Sheppard, Teyla and McKay have taken cover behind a derelict animal pen. Its wide boards provide adequate protection for the moment. Mist obscures his view, but Ronon knows Sheppard is planning strategies, watching McKay's and Teyla's backs, as they are watching his.
One side of the vehicle faces the conflict. The Second crouches behind the other side, springing up from time to time to shoot a seemingly unending supply of needles, which spit out from the weapon and hit the fence boards like a hailstorm.
Sheppard and the others wear masks of their own, but Ronon swears he hears them call to him above the sounds of P90s rattling and needles singing as they pierce the air.
Ronon expects the hail of bullets thumping into the hovercraft. One shining slug pierces a window, nicks a stray dreadlock. Mist drifts in through the tiny leak. A little catches in his throat. He places his hand on the bullet hole. Through the cracked pane, Ronon sees Teyla fall back and McKay reach over and pluck a needle from her neck. The scientist moves lethargically, shakes his head as if to clear it. Sheppard holds a fencepost to support himself.
Ronon stops thinking. Sateda and Happy and everything else vanish from his mind as the simple urge to end the mess he's created overtakes him. He slams open the hovercraft door, knocking the surprised Second to the ground, and snatches the needle weapon from his hands. The decorated soldier ineffectually kicks at Ronon's legs, as if he had never learned how to fight, only how to wear ribbons and badges.
Ronon whisks the mask from the man's face and fits it onto his own. The mist has already begun working on the Runner, blurring the edges of his vision. His hands feel slow and clumsy as he digs into the Second's pocket, bringing out a few of the pods placed there one by one to steal his soul. He aches at the sight of them and uses a pocket of his own to hide this treasure.
With fear in his eyes, the Second stares up the barrel of his own weapon. Ronon remembers the Second's jolly expression when, posing as a spice merchant in the market, he first tempted Ronon with pods.
The Second coughs when the mist reaches him. "Without Happy, you will die, big man," he manages.
"Don't care."
"You will never know the Divine One's love."
Ronon responds by pulling the trigger.
The mask's warped plastic eyepieces and the putrid gas pull everything into a shifting haze. Sheppard has stopped shooting all together and the security agents who approach the animal pen pay no attention to Ronon at all. They don't see him stand clear of the vehicle or take careful aim.
Seconds later, both agents lie sprawled in the dirt, killed by needles shot through the backs of their heads.
Hurling aside the slender gun, Ronon races towards the enclosure. All three occupants lie slumped together, straining to breathe behind their masks. Uncertain what to do or say, Ronon crouches in front of Sheppard, shakes the Colonel's head by grasping his chin.
"You okay?" he asks, realizing how ridiculous that question is.
Sheppard opens his eyes halfway. "Took you long enough," he says, clumsily grasping his P-90 and pointing it at Ronon's head.
OoOoOoO
Eyes locked, the two soldiers try to read each other.
"You coming back? Nicely?" Sheppard pants, his weakened voice sounding more like a plea than a threat. He lowers his weapon slowly as his arms lose the conviction to hold it up.
"Yeah," Ronon replies, reaching out with both hands to show that he is unarmed and ready to help them.
The mist has been blown off by the constant winds that whistle around the farmstead's buildings. Ronon removes his own mask and then reaches forward to gently pull Sheppard's away. The Colonel breathes deeply and, never taking his eyes off the Satedan, holds out a hand, which Ronon takes to bring him to his feet.
McKay grunts with effort, drawing their attention as he pulls Teyla up and drags her half-standing out of the livestock surround. She is limp as cloth against him save for one hand, which grasps McKay's jacket like a vise.
"Oh…help," McKay sputters, swaying from the mist. He holds one hand against Teyla's neck, which bleeds freely where the needle struck her. "Shot…"
When McKay's legs threaten to give out, Ronon comes to his side, helping the scientist stay upright. Sheppard moves to Teyla's other side and together the four scuttle out of the enclosure.
Ronon nods towards the hover vehicle. "Sheppard, can you drive that thing?"
Sheppard looks worriedly at the tiny rover. "Whatever," he says, which Ronon takes as a "yes."
After helping McKay and the wounded Teyla into the hovercraft's rear seats, Ronon settles himself next to Sheppard in the front. After a number of false beginnings, Sheppard starts the vehicle and gets the air jets working well enough to scoot across the plain to the roadway beyond.
The ride to Maisica is nauseatingly rough as Sheppard collides with building debris jutting up from the street and from the city proper once they reach it. Teyla moans and wheezes and shifts spasmodically in the cramped back seat, while McKay, his speech slurred almost beyond comprehension, speaks quietly to calm her. Bright-red blood runs between his fingers as he holds his hand against the puncture in Teyla's neck. Rivulets slide down his wrist and drip onto the front of her vest. His voice is weak, a pale whisper as the mist overtakes him.
"Be home soon," he says, even though his eyes are closed. "Any minute, now…"
Sheppard keeps nodding out, which doesn't help matters. Ronon, beside him up front, calls his name and nudges him awake.
"Stay sharp," he says.
"'m sharp," Sheppard replies, snapping his head up and blinking emphatically.
Nearing the gate Sheppard half-crashes the hovercraft fifty feed from the dialer. He wipes a trembling hand across his face, then groggily tries to restart the motor. Ronon focuses him with a hand on his arm.
"No time," he says. "Teyla."
"Oh," says Sheppard, nodding dumbly. "I'll dial…"
But instead he passes out completely. Ronon shakes him, but the Colonel merely slumps over the control console.
Leaping from the vehicle, Ronon dials the gate with swift, certain movements. He'd long ago memorized the sequence for Atlantis, could press them in his sleep.
Never in a million years would he have brought the Visans to the gateroom. The Second and his agents were to die on a toxic planet on the perimeter of the galaxy, a beautiful and desolate place where Ronon himself had almost perished as a Runner years before. He intended to take them there, bring water or food from the benign-looking land, and watch the three succumb.
Then, unwilling to live as a captive to anything any longer, Ronon intended to bring the same poison to his lips and free himself, as well. He still hopes to take himself to that lonely place, to die where no one will hear him.
The gate activates. Atlantis waits on the other side. Wresting the Colonel from the hovercraft, Ronon pauses to allow the IDC to go through, then heaves Sheppard into the void.
Returning to the vehicle, Ronon finds McKay in a flat-out panic.
"It won't stop bleeding," he says, his hand lingering on Teyla's wound. Together Ronon and McKay struggle to remove Teyla. McKay walks with his eyes closed, making a valiant effort to prevent Teyla from bleeding out as Ronon supports him.
"McKay," Ronon says, "Can you hear me?"
"Yeah…."
"The drunk woman was gonna tell us that the Master wants to get the Wraith on Happy."
"'Course I'm not happy!"
"No, the Wraith. You have to tell Elizabeth."
"Tell…her what?"
They limp along, McKay holding Teyla, Ronon supporting McKay.
"You don't have to come back here. I got some pods for the drunk lady, but the Master…"
McKay's head falls against Ronon's shoulder. His legs give out not twenty feet from the gate, taking Teyla down in a heap with him. His hand comes away from the wound in her neck, which resumes its pulsating exsanguinations.
Ronon grapples with both unconscious teammates, but he cannot take them through together. Not knowing what else to do, he heaves McKay past the event horizon, then takes Teyla in his arms and places an awkward hand over her horrid injury, pressing hard to keep as much blood as possible within her.
He thinks of Sheppard's frank expression as he aimed his gun at Ronon's head. Surely no one in Atlantis will forgive him for bringing such misery into their lives. He will never forgive himself.
Then, although he never intended to see Atlantis again, Ronon tightens his grip on Teyla and walks into the blue.
End of Part I
Thanks to everyone who has come this far and to those folks who left feedback. Part II will be posted on the same every-other-day schedule, starting in two or three days.