Part Three – The afternoon of the mission
(i)
A fire burned merrily close enough for Amelia's back to be uncomfortably warm. Ronon had gone back to the woods for the third time to collect wood after a late lunch of field rations and bottled water. Amelia's mind was half on the repair that required a carefully removal and testing of several circuit boards and half on whether she should send Ronon in search of water. What they had with them was adequate for twenty four hours but since her diagnostic had shown merely that there was something preventing the station from completing its start up routine she was going to have to visually check several circuit boards and if that didn't reveal any actual physical damage, start checking the programming.
That would mean running a full diagnostic on the code, something that would take at least four hours; then she'd need to correct any faults and that would take as long as took.
So much for saying she'd be done before nightfall. Bearing in mind Ronon's appetite she'd brought a lot of field rations, but not much water. Field rations were light, water was heavy. She was considering the pro's and con's of finishing the repair on site or dowloading all the programming and taking it back to Atlantis for analysis when a shot from the woods made her jump and nearly drop her tablet. She froze, ears straining, one shot could mean anything, Ronon might be simply scaring away some small inoffensive animal or taking a balistic approach to wood chopping.
Another shot and she did drop her tablet, though carefully onto a patch of springy moss, she swooped on her branch and ran towards the noise.
Ronon's gun sounded again, then again. Amelia had to stop for a moment to try and pinpoint the direction because the sound was bouncing of the rocks.
She heard his bellow and a growl, cut off in a high pained yelp.
Bearing in mind Ronon's advice Amelia leapt towards the sounds, her club raised above her shoulder, screaming like a banshee and hair flying out behind her and catching on the bushes.
She broke through a clinging wall of creepers and found herself in a clearing. Three light grey blurs circled Ronon and two humps of hair lay on the ground, one whimpering, the other completely still, a smoking hole the size of a football in it's side. Ronon had his back against a tree, one foot elevated off the ground his gun muzzle swinging from target to target.
Her scream had worked, the animals froze in shock and then ran, whether from the noise or the threat of the raised branch she didn't know.
Ronon didn't give her time to ask questions. "Go! Now!"
She obeyed automatically, spinning on her heel. Hearing him follow she didn't stop to consider his injuries until he literally fell on her from behind.
She hit the ground with a startled oof of expelled air, the weight on her legs and back quickly disappeared and she dragged in a breath, rolling onto her back her club raised... and froze. A large, no huge pale grey, somewhat wolf like creature was bearing down on her. It paused barely a foot from her boots and started growling, it's pale eyes fixed on her face. Long, still seconds passed. Finally it made a feint to her left and Amelia's brain finally forced her body to catch up with events, she scrabbled frantically backwards using her feet and elbows.
Immediately the animal made an almost playful pounce, snapping at her feet it caught the left awkwardly in its mouth and seemed puzzled by her boot. While it was distracted Amelia kicked it on the nose with every ounce of strength she had and followed up with a smack on the head with her branch. The animal jumped up, knocking her wheapon flying and turned and ran.
Amelia jumped to her feet and span around looking for Ronon, finally she saw him off to the right, his arm locked around the neck of another wolf creature, blood trickling down his cheek and arm. The animals claws raked at his sides as it scrabbled to be free and a third animal circled warily growling and making little darts towards Ronon as if it was uncertain of what to do. Looking around for her club Amelia spotted Ronon's gun on the floor and without thinking scooped it up, firing first at the hovering animal.
She blew a hole in some bushes, barely clipping the animal's leg but it yelped and ran away. Finally she levelled the gun at the man and animal struggling in their bizarre embrace and waited, deciding to fire only if he was immediate danger, or the other animals came back. She was not a soldier, had never pretended to be, had never fired a weapon at a living creature and didn't trust her aim.
The creature's struggles became steadily weaker; its growls softer and with a final wrench of his arm Ronon broke its neck with a crack that Amelia found both nauseating and exhilarating at the same time.
She watched him roll the dead thing off his body and ran to his side.
"How badly are you hurt?" she asked, eyes cataloguing his injuries before he could answer. His face, arm and side were bleeding but she couldn't see the extent of the injuries for ripped clothing and gore.
Ronon didn't get time to answer, there was movement in the bushes along with a faint growl. Without asking Ronon grabbed her arm and Amelia, quick on the uptake helped him to his feet.
He took his pistol from her hand. "Back towards the edge of the trees," he said softly, leaning heavily on her shoulder, "Just keep going."
The bushes moved again, the growling got louder. Amelia took her first step backwards and barely managed to remain upright as Ronon hopped backwards, briefly placing his whole weight on her shoulder.
It felt like an hour before Amelia felt warmth on her back. They finally stepped out into the open and she was shocked to realise that the sun was still shining. The canopy of leaves was so dense and the experience so much like a horror movie that she'd forgotten it was daylight.
She kept backing towards the weather station, each hop Ronon made compressing her spine.
The bushes at the edge of the wood rustled and shook, Ronon's arm swung in an arc covering the whole edge of the wood but nothing emerged into the sunlight.