Note: Here we go…
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Chapter 21 – Trouble
The sun had broken through the clouds and was shining down across the fields below Tjaru, and John was really enjoying himself walking with Teyla through the carnival.
They were walking a wide circle round the left side of the fields, through the avenues of stalls that he and Ford hadn't seen. John wasn't looking at the stalls all that much though, instead he was enjoying the chance to just walk and talk with Teyla. Ford was walking further behind them, giving them some space, which had also allowed him the chance to do some proper shopping. John paused with Teyla frequently to wait for Ford as he traded small items he bought at other stalls for larger more interesting things in the next. Clearly, he was getting into the bartering thing, and it hadn't escaped John's notice that the traders were often pretty women, who seemed to respond to Ford's wide youthful flirtatious smiles.
John had been peppering Teyla with questions about the Elite's challenges as they walked. He had survived his tussle with Si with all his bones intact, though various parts of him were starting to ache, and one knee was a bit sore, but nothing that wouldn't heal up in a day or so. Clearly, again, Si had taken it easy on him. John wondered if Si had done it on purpose in front of the crowd.
"You think Si was taking it easy on me to put on a show for everyone?" John asked Teyla as they stood waiting for Ford, who was selling a colourful bead necklace in return for what looked like some kind of small string instrument.
"Si does not cater to other's needs," Teyla replied, somewhat carefully John thought.
He narrowed his eyes at her to let her know he wasn't sold on that answer. She was dressed in a long brown coat today, secured tightly around her middle, which showed off her toned waist and shapely hips, in his opinion. The front of the coat only reached her waist, while the sides were tailored out around her hips to make space for the gun on one hip and the long knife on the other. She was also wearing both her swords on her back again. He hadn't seen her wearing so much weaponry since they had raided Iketani' underground lair. Yet, despite the weapons and her controlled expressions for those around them, her eyes still seemed warm and bright as she smiled faintly up at him.
"I guess not," John replied, still not convinced that Si hadn't been soft on him. The last challenger had limped out of the ring, but John had been able to walk out.
Teyla glanced away, the dimple in her cheek just showing, suggesting she was trying not to smile in front of all the shoppers around them. Teyla got a lot of attention out in public; attracting more curious and nervous wide-eyed staring, or nods and the occasional bow as she passed people. The main exceptions were the traders, especially the guys who sold the candyfloss for some reason. Teyla had already turned down three offers of the stuff, politely saying that she had already had too much, but she had suggested that John and Ford might like them. The traders had seemed pleased with that. John had taken one, and Ford had eaten the next two that had been offered.
"So you find any potential Elite in the other challengers?" He asked as they continued on, Ford now ahead of them making a beeline for another stall.
"I do not believe so," Teyla replied as she nodded to a group who bowed at her as they passed. Several kids among them were loudly asking their parents questions about Teyla, who were quietly trying to answer as they steered the kids away from running up to Teyla. "Though perhaps someone will be found later."
"So, I guess, I didn't make the Elite cut?" John joked, wondering how much he could get her to smile with so many people watching.
"You lasted far longer than most," Teyla replied, her eyes moving over the crowd, far more on guard than when they had been alone in the Governing Buildings, but then he guessed that made sense. He didn't mind. "Yoda would be proud," she added, her dark eyes angling up to him from the corner of her wide eyes.
John grinned at her, pleased with the joke and that she had remembered what he had told her. If he personally brought nothing else to Pegasus, he had at least educated Teyla in the Force. Smiling to himself, John looked away to see that Ford had found another interesting stall and he was waving them over. "Lots like he's found something."
"His trading skills reflect well on Atlantis' possible future trading," Teyla replied with a more obvious smile as they made their way across to the stall where Ford was already talking with the trader.
However, as soon as the trader saw Teyla arrive, he practically tripped over his feet to get round his tables to meet her.
"Honoured Elite," he said with that mix of respect and excitement that all the other traders had shown at seeing her today. "I have some very interesting pieces to show you, if you are interested?"
The stall was quite a large tent, with three tables set inside, and all the other shoppers who had been inside evacuated quickly as soon as Teyla entered. It was another reminder how nervous people were around her. As John reached the central stall table, he glanced at her beside him. She was stood as straight and tall as her natural height allowed, her chin high and her expression controlled, and he guessed he could see that people could find her menacing, especially with all the weapons. The tattoos running down the left side of her neck, disappearing under the collar of her coat, stood out sharply in the shadow of the tent. He guessed she would seem threatening, but he just didn't see her that way anymore. He respected her skill perhaps more now than ever, but he had seen her smile properly, had sat eating at a banquet with her, and had even joined her on a mad dash through the Governing Buildings to find Ketra before Mino. Then there had been that stirring moment between them last night, stood in her nice Athosian quarters, the moonlight across one of her cheeks, and her eyes bright with what he was sure was the same interest as him. The moment had been short-lived, but it had fuelled one hell of a dream last night.
He broke his staring and looked away from her to the table in front of him. There were masses of random pieces of technology and bits of scrap metal littered across it. Beside him, Ford was picking up pieces, looking them over and putting them back down. Most looked like miscellaneous pieces of factory machinery, one piece looked like a basic battery made out of coiled metal, and next to it two interlocking wrenches. The rest were a mix of twisted, sometimes blackened, random bits of metal that looked like they had fallen out of an engine and left behind on the road for a good reason.
The table to the right was more interesting, for it had various knives, more farming like in function that weaponry, though they were all either chipped or in varying stages of rust. John guessed the trader made a good enough business out of selling them for repair and the rest of the scraps for people to repair or fit into whatever alien factory machinery or basic engines there were in the Alliance. However, the trader had some more select pieces, which had been fished out from under the tables at the back. Two small metal crates had been set on the table in front of Teyla, the lids open to reveal the various items inside, in which Teyla seemed to be honestly interested.
"Look at this," Ford uttered and John looked round at the coil and metal block that Ford was holding up. "Looks like an electromagnet."
John nodded vaguely and looked further across the table. The smaller pieces closer to the near edge of the table were mostly twisted and black, but one caught his eye. It was small and flatter than most of the pieces around it, but it was covered in a thick black coat that spoke of some serious heat it had been exposed to, like re-entry kind of heat. John reached for it and as soon as his fingertips touched it, he felt a strange deep buzz that was clearly Ancient tech. He wondered if that was what had drawn his attention to it. He picked it up properly, sitting it in his hand and the buzzing was like an itch against his skin. Ancient tech didn't normally feel like that. A faint light had also lit up under one part of the thick coating. John rubbed his thumb over the light, breaking away a tiny charred flake to reveal the faint familiar glow of Ancient tech. They didn't usually feel like this though. It was almost uncomfortable the way it created a strange grating buzz against the nerves in his hand. He clenched his teeth at the sensation as he turned the piece.
"Ancient?" Ford asked quietly at his side and John nodded.
"Feels odd though," John muttered.
"Maybe because it's broken," Ford replied as he turned back to the table contents.
John guessed that was why the piece felt so weird. It had probably just seemed like a random bit of scrap, until he had picked it up. He glanced over the table again, wondering if there were any other bits of Ancient tech here. There were thousands of far more interesting Ancient bits and pieces fully working in Atlantis, but he looked over the wrecked pieces anyway. Teyla was talking with the trader, interested in what looked like random circuit components and a small decorative knife that had all been in the trader's extra special collection. John looked down at the table contents closer to her on his right side.
There was a heavy chunk of metal, almost a cube, and he imagined it wouldn't look out of place as part of a piston. He reached for it though out of interest, but as his hand passed over a small random length of blackened metal in front of it, the buzzing faintly echoed up his fingertips. He picked up the new piece and immediately he felt it respond as ancient tech. In fact, now he was holding both pieces, he could tell that they both had the same itching, somewhat agitating, feeling to them. He guessed they had been part of the same thing, both damaged to feel that way. On impulse, he brought them closer together and turned them, realising that the end of the new piece was almost the right size for the slot on the top of the first piece.
They slid together easily, despite the heat damage, locking together securely, and immediately the buzzing lessened, somewhat closer now to the normal sensation of Ancient tech.
"How did you do that?" The trader asked across the table.
John looked up to see the man was wide-eyed with interest.
"Just looked like they fitted together," John replied with a dismissive smile.
The trader rose up on his toes slightly, clearly having seen the small glow inside the still clearly broken Ancient tech piece. The trader looked back up to John. "You have the Ancestor's touch," he realised, "A descendent of Madumo, perhaps?" he added.
"Not of Madumo, no," John replied looking back down at the metal in his hands. "I come from far away; a galaxy far, far away," he added with a smile and Ford chuckled next to him.
"Do you-" the trader started, clearly about to suggest something that likely would involve John going through all the twisted bits of metal for him to see if he could peddle them as Ancestor technology.
"I will take these," Teyla interrupted, distracting the trader, "and the item for my Father's guest," she added indicating the Ancient tech in John's hand. She met John's eyes. "If you wish it?"
John thought again that this was hardly anything all that interesting, though it was Ancient, but he nodded without thinking.
"There's another slot on this side," Ford said from John's left side. "You think there's another bit of it somewhere here?"
"Don't know," John muttered, but he was already reaching out, running his hand over the pieces, like a psychic in a movie, sensing 'the feel' of the scraps spread out across the table.
Ford pointed to a few bits, but nothing had the feel of the two linked pieces in his hand. Until, Teyla set several pieces down in front of him that had been on the table to her right. One of them, similarly shaped to the second piece, buzzed faintly in John's hand as he picked it up.
"Think it's more broken than the other two," John decided. It still slotted into place into the first piece, though the connection had clearly been warped and it wasn't as secure a fit as the other piece.
"Heat damage," Teyla considered with interest, leaning slightly against his arm as she looked closely at the Ancient tech. "Intense heat to do such damage."
John nodded, slightly distracted by her side against his arm. "It doesn't feel quite like other Ancient tech," he muttered. "Still feels off."
"It's broken," Ford concluded again, his attention having wavered away again.
"Still active though," Teyla murmured watching as John turned it over his hands again. Teyla reached out and brushed several charred flakes off its back, and she ran her fingers over a slight indention that was set into it. John watched her fingers slide across it. "Perhaps a distribution power node," she considered, "Or perhaps more structural?" Her arm was rested over John's and he tilted the gadget slightly for her to see better, which brought her slightly closer to him.
"Don't recognise it from anything back in Atlantis," John considered.
The trader slid into view from behind the table, his mouth opening at hearing what John had said. Teyla however moved from John's side and lifted a small electronic pad. "Ten credits."
"Yes, thank you, Honoured Elite," the trader replied as he took her pad and passed her one of his own, his eyes mostly on John and Ford though. Teyla tapped in a corner of the trader's pad and handed it back. The trader handed her back her pad, along with the wrapped up circuit pieces and the small knife. Teyla slid them into her coat's pockets and led the way out of the trader's tent. Leaving, John could practically feel the trader's curiosity burning into his back.
Ford reached out for the Ancient gadget, offering to put it in the fabric bag that hung from his shoulder, which held all his own bargains, and John willingly handed it over. The gadget dimmed into darkness once John let go of it. It left a slight echoing buzz along his nerve endings, but it died away once they were back out in the sunlight. John wiped his hands on his jacket.
"We'll pay you for it," John offered Teyla as he stepped up to her side.
"Consider it a gift to keep Dr McKay happy," she replied immediately and he grinned at her.
"He'll probably say it's nothing and then spend hours studying it."
"It will likely be a power distribution node that had a small secondary storage capacitor," Teyla replied as they walked on with the same comfortable relaxed pace back towards Tjaru.
"If it can keep McKay quiet for just an hour it'll be worth it," John joked back, though it was true enough.
They had already looped their way back round the field's stalls and were now almost back to the large stage close to the slope back up to the Gateway. John looked at his watch. They only had twelve minutes until they had to meet up with Woolsey again. As much as John had enjoyed the last two visits to Athos, his time with Teyla was always so limited. He wished they could just head back to the bantos courtyard and sit together looking out at the sunlight across the sand again.
"You think we should visit Torren while we're here today?" John asked her.
"He is likely very busy. His day is full of arrangements for tomorrow and in entertaining Rhakshar's family and the Representative of Xinda," Teyla replied.
John felt a heavy touch of disappointment at that. With tomorrow being the big wedding day, it likely meant that they wouldn't be able to visit, and then Teyla would probably be off back to her Elite life after that. She had even said that she was looking forward to getting back out into firing line.
"So, the big wedding?" John asked her, "Is it going to last all of tomorrow? Are there any more big wedding festivities?" They had reached the slope back up towards the Gateway. Ford was close behind them, munching on something he had bought when John wasn't looking.
"Tomorrow there will be just the wedding ceremony and the wedding banquet. Tomorrow is very much about the contract of the marriage, about the official ties it will bring Athos and Xinda as Zabetha and Rhakshar set their names to the marriage contract for all to see. Once the banquet is complete in the early evening, all the celebrations will be over," Teyla replied as they worked their way up the slope beside each other.
"That means Rhakshar is going be living here most of the time right?" John asked her knowingly.
"Yes," Teyla replied with a slight smile. Away from the press of crowds below, she was smiling more naturally now. "But, it seems that I have perhaps been mistaken in my suspicions of him, since so many of you disagree with me." Her breath was faintly husky with her increased breathing during the steep walk up the slope. John doubted he sounded as sexy as he talked breathlessly. She set quite a pace up the slope.
"Where's the ceremony going to be held?" He asked. His sore knee was complaining at the climb, but he made sure to hide it.
"In the largest park of Tjaru, further out in the city than you have seen so far, behind the Governing Buildings," she replied. "Though most political wedding ceremonies are held quickly and relatively quietly, some are more open and celebratory."
"And Zabetha and Rhakshar have gone for the big sparkly wedding," John guessed with a grin.
They were almost at the crest of the slope and the displays and tables at the top came into view.
"Yes, and they wished to share the ceremony with our people," Teyla replied. "I suspect the entire population of Tjaru will be present, as will many from other cities and settlements."
"Looks like most of them have turned up already today," John commented, fighting to regain his breath as they reached the top of the slope. The flat ground in front of the Gateway was busier than before, the post lunch rush, he guessed.
A few people, who had been closest to the slope, looked shocked at Teyla's abrupt appearance, and they nodded and made room for her quickly to walk forward. There was a loud rumbling noise, like several rolling bowling balls, which was followed by a crashing rattle of possible skittles being knocked over, and a roaring cheer went up from somewhere deep in the crowd to the left. Ford arrived at John's side, somewhat out of breath himself, and grinned off towards the sound.
"No, we don't have time," John told him with a smile. He looked down at his watch. They had to meet Woolsey in three and a half minutes.
"We have a moment or two if you wish to see the game," Teyla said having seen Ford's interest. "Charin is only over there with Mr Woolsey, still outside the Gateway."
John looked in the direction she indicated to see the flowing length of Charin's white robes through a break in the crowd. She was at a stall talking with several people and John caught a glimpse of Lorne next to her through another gap in the moving crowd. Woolsey would be there too, so maybe John had a bit more time with Teyla.
"Okay, let's check out the game," John replied to Ford, who grinned, and Teyla smiled at him as well.
"This way," Teyla said, leading the way to the left towards the loud game, "It is only over here."
John followed, but paused to look back towards Lorne, hoping to catch his attention and report that he and Ford were close by, but the crowd had closed in and he couldn't even see the stall anymore. Oh well, they would all meet up in a few minutes anyway, and it wasn't as if they couldn't check in via their radios. John considered that maybe calling in that he and Ford would be a few minutes late could work. It wasn't like there was any rush to meet up, since clearly Woolsey was still busy.
John lifted one hand towards his earpiece as he looked at the crowd to his right, hoping to see Lorne again. A black shoulder caught John's attention in the crowd, further to the right than John had expected. Maybe it was Martins. John stopped, leaning one way and then the other to see through the moving crowd, hoping to catch a better view of Martins. The shoulder was now connected with a black jacket, but the hair above it was blonde. John watched as the crowd flowed again, his eyes watching the area of the jacket. There were all shapes and colour of clothes here, but black wasn't as common, probably because it was a full summer's day. A break in the mass of people gave him another view of the jacket's owner. It was definitely not Martins; he could see that now. Crazy how similar the jacket was to the Atlantis uniform though.
John moved on, realising he had lost a clear line of sight with Teyla and Ford, but with a few long strides he saw Ford's own dark jacket and Teyla's sword hilts against her back. They were only a few metres ahead. John headed towards them, but glanced back towards the other black jacket. He caught a few glimpses of the man moving out of the main crowd and into the flow of those walking through the Gateway. It was so busy now, but John was again struck at how similar the jacket was to Atlantis' uniform, but the guy was gone from view and John had almost reached Teyla and Ford.
They had stopped at the side of a large area fenced off with posts and brightly coloured string strung between them. Inside the area there were large wooden mushrooms painted in various crazy bright colours. They were clustered in four groups, each with someone stood among them with a large ball in their hands. All four players stood ready to throw their ball towards their opponent's mushrooms. The spectators were smiling and laughing, and several children were shouting out excited advice to one woman in the game who was clearly their mother or aunt. Teyla was explaining the basic obvious rules to Ford, and John stood at her other side.
In the distance directly ahead, John heard the sounds of heavy thuds and cheers. Just over people's heads, he could just about see a large circular target high up in the far distance, various sized circles painted across it. He saw a javelin hit one circle, right in the middle, and there was a responding distant cheer. Abas had said there were throwing games that way, and Teyla had said Garthew and Thadeu were there, which didn't surprise John. He turned on the spot, looking up towards Tjaru's high city wall that ran out from the Gateway.
Another flash of a dark jacket caught his eye among the crowd. He found himself fixing on it, but he couldn't see much, other than brief glimpses, until the person stopped by a stall allowing John a moment's better view. It wasn't the same guy as before, and he wasn't just wearing a black jacket, he was wearing a tac vest!
John looked up sharply from the vest to the guy's head, trying to place him, but he moved again, people getting in the way away and John lost sight of him in the crowd. John hadn't seen the guy's face clearly, but was certain that he wasn't Lorne or Martins, John was sure of it.
John turned, his eyes moving quickly over the crowd, trying to predict where he might catch a glimpse of the man again through the moving crowd. A brief opening revealed a black shoulder again, but he was turning out of view. It had been enough though for John to see the empty Velcro spaces where the Atlantis arm patches were worn on one arm and a flag on the other arm when in the city. It was an Atlantis uniform for sure. He must be a newbie, that was why John didn't recognise him, but why was he here? Had something happened in Atlantis?
John took several paces away from Teyla and Ford. Had Colonel Carter sent another team through? Why hadn't the team called on the radio though? John tapped his earpiece activating his own radio, but sure enough it was alive and working. Maybe there was a good reason why they were maintaining radio silence.
"Lorne, this is Sheppard," John called into the radio, covering his ear and jaw slightly to cover some of the background noise of the crowd. He had lost sight of the guy completely now, but John kept his eyes on the area of the crowd in which the guy has been heading. If he could catch his attention…
"Lorne here," the Major replied. "You want more time to shop?" He sounded bored.
"You heard from Atlantis?" John asked.
"No. Why?" Lorne asked, picking up on John's tone.
"I've just seen two what have to be newbies from the city here, but separate out in the crowd, looks like they're looking for us," John considered. The black jacket had reappeared; the man had stopped and was looking around, trying to orientate himself.
"Where are they?" Ford asked from behind John, having overheard the conversation on the radio. John didn't look round though for he was keeping his eyes on the newbie. Willing him to look round, but something was wrong… If they had their radios open, they should be hearing John talking to Lorne.
"They sent through another team without calling us?" Lorne asked doubtfully.
"Hang on," John replied as he stepped forward, frowning towards the back of the distant man's back. The newbie turned his head and John could see his right ear was absent of a radio earpiece. Maybe he wore it on the other side.
Teyla arrived at John's side, though he registered her presence only from how close she stood and the flowery sense around her, because he didn't take his eyes off the man. He felt as if all his senses were expanded with the situation. Something was niggling at him about this. The guy still hadn't looked in this direction allowing John to attract his attention, but he didn't have a clear unobstructed view anyway. The crowds were so thick now, people constantly crossing back and forward across the distance John was watching him through.
Why wouldn't they have their radios on, unless they were purposefully not using the radios. Something so urgent had happened that Colonel Carter had sent through a radio silent team through to the carnival to find John's team.
The man had stopped in the crowd again and John saw him nod sharply to someone, before he turned sharply and headed off in the opposite direction from before. He was striding away with a determined step, no longer seeming lost or unsure. John tracked him for a moment, now going in completely the wrong direction off towards all the fighting displays and he disappeared into the thicker crowd further away from the Gateway.
John frowned, how were they going to find this new team? Only then another black jacket caught John's eye, back where the other newbie had stopped. John moved forward, seeking out the other team member the guy must have nodded to. Surely the commander of the team would be someone John knew.
He saw the third jacket and tac vest moving quickly to the right now, back towards the Gateway. Good. He was moving with a determined step. Maybe he had finally seen Lorne and Martins.
John took a breath to speak to Lorne, to get him headed towards the new guy, only now the man was walking through enough of a space that John got a good look at his face. A face that John definitely didn't recognise.
Something felt wrong about this man.
He was moving wrong, his head slightly down, sliding between people smoothly as if he had a determined task, and his eyes were focused forward with a sharp gaze. Everything about him triggered every warning instinct John had.
John started forward immediately. "I've seen three guys in Atlantis uniforms, one heading away at a right angle from me now, heading towards you guys. I don't recognise him. I saw another heading through the Gateway a few minutes ago," John reported sharply, moving parallel and to the right, tracking the man in the closing distance.
John's eyes felt dry as he watched unblinking, following the man who may or may not be a newbie. John pushed his way around a bickering couple, too many people in the way now, only suddenly the way parted for him, and he realised it was because Teyla was close at his side now, moving with him, her eyes scanning out into the crowd with concern.
"More of your people?" She asked with a frown in her voice, but John didn't look at her, he kept his attention on tracking where the new guy was moving through the crowd. The man was moving into the thickest group around the stalls where Woolsey was, and John's view of him was getting broken up more and more. Following parallel to him and moving steadily closer, though hampered by stalls and displays, John was closing the gap as best he could through the crowd.
"I don't know," John replied to Teyla. In his peripheral vision, John saw Ford was on Teyla's other side, his P90 in his hands for the first time today.
"Where is he?" Ford asked, anxiety clear in his voice, having picked up on it from John and likely because Ford couldn't see who John was following.
John was about to answer, but his target stopped and turned in John's direction, frowning into the crowd. Following his instincts completely, John stopped himself and stepped quickly back, hiding behind the wide shoulders of one of the sparkly magicians, who was waving some bright pieces of material around for his audience.
Peering round the magician's shoulder, John watched the unknown man frowning, likely having sensed someone staring at him. John had long ago accepted that extra sense was real, he had had it proven to him far too many times, and that this guy responded to it like this too meant that he likely led a less than normal life.
As the man kept looking around into the far distance, a clear break in the press of people, afforded John a more complete few of him, and several things all grabbed John's attention at once.
First, his nose had clearly been broken and not reset properly – John would have remembered someone like that in the many new faces he had seen among the newbies in Atlantis.
Second, the intense way the man had been moving through the crowd was now backed in the dark dangerous almost sneering look on his face. Just the way the man stood and looked out at the people around him, almost predatory, screamed at all John's experience. This man was dangerous.
Lastly, John saw that the front of the man's tac vest was open, a P90 in his hands, but it wasn't connected up to the supporting strap as everyone in the city wore. The guy was carrying it loose in his hands.
Someone John didn't know, in an Atlantis uniform, dangerous, scary and with a P90 held ready in his hands.
"He's not ours," John declared into his radio and to Teyla and Ford next to him. "We've got three bogies in uniform," John announced, moving swiftly forward towards the man now, who had turned away, not having made John.
"Where?" Lorne asked over the radio.
Beside him, John heard the smooth rush of one of Teyla's swords being drawn, and several things suddenly happened all at once and in quick succession.
First, the crowd abruptly thinned ahead slightly and John saw their target on a clear line towards the tables around which Woolsey and the others were stood. Lorne was a metre away from them, his P90 up and halfway through asking his question over the radio when he spied John through the crowd. John looked immediately away towards the target, knowing Lorne would see him now, but he also registered that there were a hell of a lot of civilians in the way, all messing through the space and limiting how fast John could move forward. Lorne also had two tables in his way.
In that split second of awareness, John heard someone gasp and cry out in shock loudly to his right, and the crowd of people ahead of him were suddenly running for cover. The sudden exodus left the target bogey abruptly on his own in the thinning corridor between John and the table where Woolsey stood with Charin, their backs to them. John saw them hear the commotion, but it was too late. The bogey was lifting his stolen P90, holding it awkwardly, and thank God he hadn't been using the supportive strap.
John had his sidearm in his hand without thinking, lifting it towards the man's back and he took a breath to shout out his warning, seeing Lorne doing the same ahead.
Then light shining across a blade, Teyla's sword ahead of him now. He heard her shouting something to herself, presumably into her own radio, or perhaps a warning of her own, because everyone was diving for cover now in all directions, creating chaos around him.
John sighted down his sidearm, arm out, finger on the trigger, as he shouted his own warning. But, he saw the target's trigger finger was already too, and the barrel of the P90 was focused, with a clear line of sight, unlike with everybody else, towards where Charin was turning, her long white robes swinging round her in the slow motion of John's adrenaline fuelled vision.
A flash of light again, moving so fast ahead of them, that all John saw was the hilt suddenly in the man's shoulder. Several rounds were fired from the P90 though, but the man's shot had been disrupted and they were twisted down towards the ground. He hit the ground hard on his side, and John saw the tip of the knife Teyla had thrown peaking through the front of his right shoulder. Teyla was on the man in a second, her sword under his chin and the man froze.
The screams and chaos around them suddenly hit John's senses fully, and the details of the panicked running crowd came into sharp clarity.
"Charin?" Teyla demanded loudly.
Lorne was already round by the elderly woman's side, gently pulling her and Woolsey away, Martins on his other side, both keeping their attention on the pinned would-be assassin.
"I am unharmed," Charin replied to Teyla's question, but her voice was wavering with the affects of shock. John looked worriedly at her pale fail face.
Oneakka exploded out of the panicked crowd to Teyla's side.
Teyla looked up at John, her eyes dark and wide. "You said there was another?"
"Two more. One was headed that way," John replied indicating towards the left along the city wall, the direction of which he realised was suddenly louder with shouting and some screams and what he thought might be Si' booming voice in the distance. "And another one, headed into the city," he added quickly.
John saw something shift in Teyla's expression, saw her look from him to the Gateway, to Charin, and then back to the Gateway. John saw Teyla's cool mask slip for a moment, saw the colour drain from her face.
"Oneakka watch him," she ordered suddenly, releasing the would-be assassin towards the massive Elite.
"He is dressed just like you?" Teyla demanded of John, the fear almost palpable in her as she rushed past him.
There was a strange smell of burning in the air as John took a breath to answer her, and he heard more screams of panic from far to the left, but John kept his eyes on Teyla as she ran past him, one sword flashing in her hand.
"Yes," John replied, but he was following her without thinking, Ford at his side, because John suspected he knew now what she was thinking. The assassin had been after Charin clearly, not Woolsey because he had been stood slightly further away. So there was another assassin heading into the city right now, likely heading towards a target as important as Charin, and someone like that would only be in the Governing Buildings.
Maybe Torren himself was the target.
All these thoughts jumbled together in John's head as he rushed after Teyla as she broke into a run ahead of him. The Gateway was ahead of them, but people were standing around worried and confused and an Elite warrior running in your direction with a sword in her hand was never going to comfort anyone. People ran out of the way, and, ahead of Teyla, John saw the city guards were moving out, guns in hand. Teyla rushed past them, moving straight and fast to the high street directly ahead. None of the guards attempted to stop John or Ford behind him, hopefully because Teyla had said something or because chaos had really kicked in, or maybe because they could see that they were with her. John guessed they would never even consider that an Elite might be being chased, so they assumed John and Ford were with her.
Inside the city, John registered the many worried frightened people that he ran past, but there wasn't the same sense as panic as there was outside the Gateway. As John ran on, he passed many shouted worried words, people standing close together, and the way ahead was completely clear, mostly because of Teyla he guessed. As he ran, his mind was working as fast as his body though.
The assassin hadn't been wearing a close copy of the Atlantis uniform; he had been wearing a proper one. John realised he had even seen the shine of dog tags that had fallen free of the guy's collar when he had fallen.
Donovan's team – four people missing, four uniforms – he had only seen three uniforms so far here. Was there a fourth? Donovan and his team – were they dead? Killed for their clothes?
That thought gave John an extra rush of anger-fuelled power. Lorne was shouting in John's ear reporting that Woolsey was secure, that they were okay and that Charin was alright, but everything else was lost in the sound of more panic behind Lorne.
John focused on running, panting with the exertion, but already they had reached the rise of the city, people parting for them like the red sea. Teyla was already turning into the road up to the Governing Buildings. God, she could run fast!
As they ran towards the main path to the buildings' entrance, John saw rapid movement ahead, heard gunfire, and warnings shouted, Teyla's voice among them. The action was too far head though for John to see the details, but he did see the Governing Buildings' guards falling, and as he reached the grass lawn outside the main entrance, he saw the guards on the ground, blood staining the grass under them.
Teyla had been closer, and she hadn't chosen to run towards the main entrance hall, its doors wide open and unguarded now. Instead, she was running across the lawn to the right, where John could now see an open iron gate partially hidden by low hanging tree branches.
John guessed what was happening – there was a side entrance into the complex and the assassin knew about it. As he ran across the lawn after Teyla, John pointed to the left, towards the entrance hall's doors, past the fallen guards. "Ford, through there – there could be two of them."
There were more guards injured closer to the iron gate, and John saw bullet holes chipped into the formally smooth wall of the Governing Buildings. All the guards were moving, but clearly out of the fight. Ahead, Teyla had reached the gate, leaping over something on the ground as she did.
John ran after her, his lungs and legs burning, but he wasn't going to stop, he could still smell the gunfire in the air. He heard commotion as he reached the gate, but he guessed that was backup arriving at the main entrance, back up too late.
As he burst through the gate himself, John discovered what the obstacle was that Teyla had jumped over, another guard, this one with a bullet hole in the centre of his forehead. From an Earth bullet.
Cursing to himself, John pushed through the gateway after Teyla. There was a narrow whitewashed corridor of stone here and ahead it ended with a locked door to the left and a wall directly ahead. Teyla had reached the wall, dark boot polish smears up it – the guy had come this way, over the wall, and surely he must know Teyla was behind him by now.
"There could be two," John warned her as loudly as he dared, but she had practically vaulted over a white wash wall ahead of him.
John reached the wall seconds later, jumped up, grasped the top of the wall, and hauled himself over the top. As he did, he caught a glimpse of the man ahead, climbing over another far wall, and Teyla was a good twenty yards behind him.
John landed roughly on the damp watered grass below the wall and ran after them.
Teyla reached the second wall and threw herself up it, pulling herself up with the most amazing agility. She disappeared over the top, and John hit the wall moments afterwards, but this one was higher and he lost his grip, realising only now how bruised his right hand was feeling from his sparring session with Si. He immediately jumped up again and got a good grip on the top of the wall and, grunting loudly, which seemed to help, he got himself up, boots against the wall, and over. He dropped down into a narrow tree-lined alley, running along the edge of the governing complex, and raced on after the two in front of him.
Teyla was completely silent as she belted after the man down the long narrow alley ahead of John. The right side of the long narrow space was a high wall, but the left became the back of plant-covered trellises. Was there a courtyard on the other side? Panic burst more power into John's tired aching legs as he rushed through patches of sunlight breaking through the trellises and he realised that he could hear people talking ahead. He took a rapid breath to shout a warning, but the man ahead had vanished from the alley, out into the space beyond it.
Teyla cried out a fierce battle cry that both terrified John and did something very basic inside him that made him feel a renewed burst of power as she disappeared from view as well.
He had moments running full out alone down the alleyway, every muscle in his body screaming at him. His sidearm, replaced in its holster as he had climbed the walls, was now back in his hand and he had no memory of drawing it. He clenched it tightly in the split second he was alone in the alleyway, fearing that he was going to be far too late for what was likely about to happen.
He heard shouting ahead, Teyla's battle cry again, but this time with a rush of breath behind as if she was fighting.
John broke out into a portico at the side of a massive courtyard. The family courtyard that Teyla had shown him briefly yesterday evening. Two massive reflecting pools to his left stretched down the long courtyard, but ahead at the far end, John saw people reacting in fear, Torren to the far right.
However, the assassin hadn't gotten off a shot.
John saw the bright red of the man's blood across the pavings, Teyla's sword still on its backswing. Torren's name had been shouted by someone, people gasping and stood in complete shock as the man's head dropped to the pavings at Teyla's feet.
Everything occurring ahead of him, something moved in John's peripheral vision and he looked to his left and, across the other side of the reflecting pool, he saw another stolen black jacket appear.
The man had stepped out of the door John had looked through last night, in the very far corner of the courtyard to where Teyla was now.
The man had his P90 lifted, bracing it to fire.
"Look out," John shouted as he turned in the man's direction, leaping forward over the flowerbed between him and the pavings to give himself a clearer shot.
The man ducked slightly and John saw the man's finger tighten on the trigger of his P90. John's shout made him hesitate for a split second, but he still pulled the trigger.
In that second, John had levelled his sidearm straight at the man and fired as well.
The two shots fired off loudly and almost simultaneously in the courtyard. John heard shouts from the right, and he saw the second burst of fire of the stolen P90 hit the wall instead, John's shot having clipped the man's shoulder. He wasn't going down though.
John fired again, but the man had turned, the P90 shifted into his other hand. John saw the man's face twisting with anger as he focused the barrel of the P90 towards John in the fast immediate move of a professional.
John stepped up onto something, the edge of a big stone flowerpot maybe, but whatever it was it gave him the extra height over the weapon he needed and he fired two clear rounds into the man's right shoulder and chest. The assassin fell backwards with a shout and splatter of blood.
John jumped forward though, unwilling to lose visual contact with the clearly professional killer. The reflecting pool in the way, John simply dropped down into, which afforded him a clear view of the fallen man as he strode through the water, sidearm fixed on the assassin. John was aware of shouting to the right, the sound of frightened panicked civilians yes, but something more, but John kept his eyes fixed on the fallen man.
Teyla suddenly appeared to his right, reaching the would-be assassin and slammed one boot down on the man's closest arm, but the fight was out of him. He was bleeding from three wounds, the dark red blood pooling out under him.
John climbed out of the pool, water splattering around his wet boots as he hurried across the pavings to join Teyla, sidearm still trained on the man's forehead at all times. John reached down and unclipped the P90 from the guy's vest and the sidearm from his leg and pulled back.
The Governing Buildings' guards arrived in a sudden abrupt rush, bursting through the doorway ahead of John, all carrying Alliance guns, which were immediately focused down on the assassin.
"Rhakshar!" Zabetha's wails registered in John's mind and he looked round to the far end of the courtyard to see that Rhakshar was on the ground, blood spilling over Zabetha's hand pressed to his middle. Guards were with them, Torren by their side.
"He stepped in front of her," Teyla stated. John looked at her, as pale as he had ever seen her, surely as shocked as an Elite ever could be. "He took the bullet meant for my sister."
0000
TBC