Note – Thank you for the reviews to the last chapters! I would like to make a quick shout out to Guest 64 and Sheyladebaloo, who have both written some lovely reviews throughout this fic, but to whom I'm unable to reply through the site. Thank you x
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Chapter 44 – The Mother Device
The metal planks under John's brown Captain America style boots felt gratefully secure as John stepped onto the bridge. The only problem was that now he was on the bridge he could see that there were plenty of missing planks, as well as random littered bits of brick and what looked worryingly like part of a bed hanging off one side of the bridge's simple planked top.
He took one step at a time, keeping low, and keeping his eyes fixed on the planks and the gaps between them as he hurried forward as fast as he felt comfortable. Well, maybe 'comfortable' wasn't the right word, but he had to keep moving. After all the Wraith could turn up any second, or the swirling clouds above could decide to maybe have another go at toppling over this bridge.
As back on the embankment, Giant's brownish red dust coated everything up here, clearly showing the boot prints of the others of the team who had already gotten across. For the most part, John stuck to where they had stepped, watching each plank carefully as each wobbled a little too freely under his boots.
The wind pushed harder at his side as he crested the middle and highest point of the bridge, and as he stepped over one particularly large gap he was treated to a view straight down to the muddy mess and scattered tornado crap embedded in the riverbed far below him.
He didn't have problems with heights – you couldn't become a pilot if you did – but if he lost his footing, fell that distance, maybe onto one of the embedded metal planks...
He moved on quickly, the dust gusting across the bridge around him as he headed towards the promise of the other side of the river.
He wanted to look back over his should to check Teyla was following carefully, that she was okay, but he didn't dare lose his concentration.
The wind suddenly gusted harder against his right side and he pulled up sharp, turning and bracing his back and shoulder into the push.
"Air pressure is picking up," a voice reported into his right ear. Yeah, like John couldn't work that out for himself.
"Storm front is still some distance away," another voice replied among the team. "At least as much as we can tell through this static."
The wind's aggressive shoving dropped and John moved on quicker, there being fewer gaps along this further end of the bridge. Solid ground was just ahead, and the rest of the team were waiting, backs pressed to a tall brick wall directly opposite.
With a few more hurried steps John's boots met solid ground. He wanted to kneel down and do the Robin Hood kissing the ground replay, but instead just stayed professional and hurried quickly towards the others.
As he scurried across the dusty ground, he looked back over his shoulder to check on Teyla's progress across the bridge, only to find she was only a few paces behind him
He reached the wall and leant one shoulder against it, letting it support his weight, and Teyla arrived at his side a second later.
Chatter went back and forward between the team, talk of energy readings, nothing sounded too worrying yet to John. He kept watch on the surrounding area, falling into his training a little more deeply. He reached down and pulled out one of the Alliance guns and checked it over.
"Let's go," Seifer announced a second later, and abruptly the line of the team moved forward.
John followed, keeping his profile low again, despite the tall height of the wall. As they followed the wall and the open road space this side of the river, he noticed there wasn't as much litter across the ground here. Instead, it was all piled up against the foot of the tall wall. For a second he had the funny imagine of the Wraith coming round and sweeping up each day, but instead it was simply obvious that the wind favoured this direction. And remembering the bottom of the riverbed, John recalled that everything had been embedded at a similar angle, clearly describing the direction of the tornados here.
He looked up at the ominous clouds overhead and yep, sure enough they were turning slowly in that same direction.
The team picked up their pace, the embankment, road, and the wall following a wide slow turn to the left. The tall wall was not as intact here, though still higher than anything on the other side of the river, but it was obviously falling apart in places. Through one such hole, John could see into a building on the other side, picking out two floors, the metal girders exposed and the brick walls collapsing.
It occurred to him that there were a lot of places to hide here, both for his team and for attacking Wraith. The structures looked highly unstable so they would have to be careful if it did become necessary to hide inside the crumbling buildings.
The wind was getting stronger again, or maybe it was just the road's new angle, but he was needing to lean into the wind to keep up his pace. There was more twister litter here too, twisted pieces of metal and dusty mess spiralling around the road. Overhead, a large long piece of a metal jutted out of the wall at a strange angle, buried there as if it were a giant needle stabbed through randomly.
At the front of the team, Seifer suddenly stopped and pressed his back to the wall, and everyone instantly copied him, shoulders and backs hitting the wall. Keeping up easily now, John shoved his left shoulder against the brown wall behind them and shifted his attention around the area, scanning for anything worrying.
Nothing was moving but the air and the ever present dust.
Teyla arrived at his right elbow, stood slightly away from the wall, her back partly to him as she watched their six. He watched her mask turn and look off towards Seifer, no doubt assessing body language through that silent communication you had with team mates.
"The closest point of the Wraith structure overlooks part of the inlet," Seifer's voice announced, breaking the radio silence since the bridge, and John could see the male Elite had his scanning pad lifted up to the front of his glass mask. "Emmagan?"
"They are not yet aware of us," Teyla replied instantly. She shifted to his right and John switched his attention back to her. She angled her head slightly as if listening to something. "I would estimate there to be about eight of them in close vicinity, most likely in or near that structure."
He didn't know she could be that precise!
"There are more in the distance," she added, "but not too greater numbers in the area."
"I'm picking up clear readings of power conduits nearby, off to the left," one of the team added from their own pad. "Leading to the Wraith structure. It seems clear they are siphoning off geothermal power."
"Hopefully the Mother Device will still have power," someone else worried.
"It will," Seifer replied with confidence that John considered a little optimistic. If the Elite had left here over a year ago and the Wraith had been tinkering with the local energy supplies, could that end this mission before it began?
For a crazy moment, John kind of wished McKay was here to pester with such questions.
At the head of the team, Seifer moved forward slowly and peered around the end of a large break in the wall. John leaned his head out a little further to see that actually it might be where another road met the river embankment. In a low crouch, Seifer carefully peered around the crumbling end of the wall and looked off to the far left, down the as yet unseen new road.
"The Wraith structure is just visible over the ridge," Seifer reported over the slightly crackly radio link. "There are cables or pipelines running up to the structure."
"We should move quickly," Teyla suggested. "The chances of the Transport Crafts being detected increases with each moment."
"Agreed," Seifer replied, his mask dipping as he consulted his pad once more and then he swiftly headed across the open space ahead. The others followed, keeping low, all their masks turning to the left, scouting out what Seifer had seen.
His turn, John scurried forward, keeping a low profile and very grateful for the brown suit now as he moved into the open brown dust covered space.
It was indeed a new road, along which were further eroding buildings, though not as damaged as those on the other side of the river. Above the town there was a high rise, and sitting above it John could make out the stark contrasting dark organic lines of the Wraith structure. The top of it was just visible, though the dark pipelines Seifer had mentioned were far more obvious. They looked like they were coming out of the ground itself, up and over the rise to the Wraith base.
He couldn't see any actual Wraith. He glanced round at Teyla on his six, feeling immensely grateful that she was here for her gift as much as her Elite skills. How great was it to have a literal Wraith sensor with you on these missions! He'd always appreciated her gift, had seen her stop a Wraith Queen in her tracks with it, but they hadn't really talked about that side of her. In fact, he kind of had the feeling that it was a sensitive subject for her. He wondered why, because clearly it was an amazing superpower, and he wondered how the hell she was even able to do it.
He made it to the far side of the road and back behind the protection of another wall, following Seifer and the others along behind it once more.
John kept his gaze moving, watching for anything worrying, the actions long inbred in him, and the full glass mask of the atmospheric suit certainly making it easier than the confined view out of a hazmat or spacesuit. A brief turn of his head would bring Teyla into his peripheral vision, enabling him to watch her for any indication that the situation was going to change. She was their first line of defence against the Wraith.
The team paused against the wall once again, and Seifer moved away alone, crossing the open road space back towards the river's edge. John watched the Elite moving over and around littered bricks and a couple of metal planks towards a waist-height metal railing at the edge of the embankment. John frowned as Seifer stopped at the railing and then began to disappear down out of view, obviously moving down an unseen staircase that ran down the inside edge of the embankment. As Seifer disappeared out of view, the others double-timed it across the road after him, all eyes watchful at this vulnerable point.
John moved across the road quickly, watching as many directions as he could, the wind buffeting against his front as he reached the metal railing. This afforded him another view of the wide littered riverbed, with its thick wide muddy channel and the tiny stream remaining at its middle.
His turn to head down the new staircase, he switched his weapon to his left hand to get a good hold of the metal railing attached to the narrow metal steps. As he headed down them he could feel the vibrations of the others' boots up through his feet.
He glanced up and back to see that Teyla was following. They weren't leaving anyone up top then? Maybe it would be too much of a risk to draw attention to where the rest of the team were, or maybe Inifee was watching over them from above somewhere. John looked up to the overhanging turning orangey clouds again, which meant that when the team member in front of him pulled up fast John almost ploughed into their back.
They had reached a platform set down on the inside of the embankment, jutting out over the empty muddy riverbed. It had probably been a launching point for boats, but now just looked like a waiting unused shelf. Two long metal strips with symbols on them stretched along the wall beside the platform, probably to measure how high the water had reached. The obvious old water stains on them showed just how high this river used to be.
The platform was mostly free of debris, except for a large metal door that leant against the river wall. Seifer headed towards it and began shifting its heavy weight aside, which revealed an open doorframe, which presumably the door used to fit into. The door was warped and burnt black one side – weapons fire.
As Seifer revealed the space that the door had once hidden, one team member dipped and peered inside, their pad glowing in front of their mask.
"They have been in here," came back a report, "but no readings."
"They are not here," Teyla confirmed. "And are still unaware of us."
John gripped his gun tightly, back in his right hand now, and looked out across the river to keep watch as the team arm wrestled the door further out of the way.
Which was when he finally noticed that the river widened dramatically up ahead. It opened up to a massive flat space that stretched away as far as he could see, the land on which the town stood sitting high above it.
"Did that used to be an ocean?" John asked shocked.
"Yes," Teyla was the one to answer him.
He looked round to her stood half a metre away to his right. "What the hell happened to this planet?"
"It is very unstable," Teyla summarised, her voice sounding confined by her mask over the radio. "It has most likely been caused by seismic activity."
"And they're tapping the geothermal power," John added.
She nodded in return as she looked out to the former ocean, the dark dangerous orange clouds above reflecting against her full glass mask.
"Giant was inhabited long ago," she added. "We added a few extra structures and the bridges, but whoever they were, they are long gone."
"All is clear in here," Seifer reported. John looked round at the damaged doorway to see that the others were all inside the room set inside the embankment. He moved towards the dark doorway.
He took a breath as he stepped through the warped doorframe, realising he was trying to smell the air to tell if it was dank in here. Instead all he got was the excessively clean smell of the air he was breathing.
It was very dark inside the room, the only light provided by the bars of lights inside everyone's masks and from a few glowing pads in their hands. The lights inside his own mask hadn't been obvious to him outside, but now felt bright as he blinked at the change in light level. Blinking repeatedly, his eyes adjusting, he finally got a good view of the small room inside.
There was nothing inside except two large Alliance style consoles, the contents of which had been gutted – presumably by the Wraith. There was no power to anything, which the team discussed over the radio, confirming that everything had been turned off when Giant had been abandoned.
As he passed by one console, John ran his gloved hand over the top of it. Brown Giant dust coated his fingertips. The door had blocked most of the way in here, so for this much to build up on the console told of a lot of time. "They didn't gut any of this recently," he commented.
"They most likely checked over the entire area when they obtained sole control of the planet," one of the team answered him.
"So at least they're unlikely to come looking around any time soon," John replied, glad for the sudden bit of conversation with the team.
"Hopefully," Seifer's voice was the one to reply.
John turned to watch the male Elite running his hands along a side wall until he stopped at one seam.
"There are no signs of weapons fire here," Seifer reported over the radio link, his voice slightly breathless as he got a grip on something in the seam and abruptly the seam became the edge of a hidden door.
The new door swung open, dust scattered through the shafts of light glowing out from all the watching masks. Behind the door there was only darkness, into which Seifer stepped, taking his mask's light with him.
It was a closet.
Seifer kicked out a metal box and an actual broom.
If the Wraith had found this closet then all they would have found were cleaning supplies – good disguise.
Seifer scratched a cross through the light dust on the small floor on the inside of the closet and stepped back out. The Elite held up his gun and pointed it down at the cross.
John quickly turned his back and got his eyes half closed before Seifer fired.
He couldn't hear the full blast through the mask's air tight seal, but John felt it, and saw the bright flash of light through his eyelids. The flash gone, he carefully opened his eyes to the inside of the room and a view of Teyla stood near the warped doorway, looking out.
Was she picking up something?
Trusting she would report it if she did, he looked back towards Seifer to see him and half the team were punching their boots down into what was now a large dark hole in the floor of the closet. John moved closer, the mask lights revealing pieces of concrete falling down into gloom far below the floor. The top rung of a ladder was just about visible on the near side. Great, why was it always an underground bunker?
Seifer crouched down at the edge of the hole, but looked up to the rest of the team. "Yanna, stay up here," he ordered to one of the team and then reached down into the darkness below for the top rung and swiftly disappeared down into the gloom.
Yanna stepped away, leaving the remaining two team members to follow Seifer down into the darkness. As he waited for his turn, John looked back round to find that Teyla was approaching. She had a slight frown to her face lit brightly inside the mask.
"Everything okay?" John asked.
"Emmagan?" Seifer demanded over the radio, somehow having understood John was talking to her.
"I am aware of Si," she reported in response. "He is concerned about something, but not alarmed."
"About the Wraith?" John worried.
"They are still unaware of us," she reported back, her mask lifting slightly, so that he could see more of her beautiful face.
"Good," Seifer replied over the radio. "There is no evidence the Wraith have been down here in the chambers."
John looked back to the hole down to those 'chambers', the others already down it – it was his turn.
He carefully crouched down beside the hole inside the closet and reached down for that top rung. As the lights of his mask ghosted down over it, he could fortunately see more rungs below, and further down the shaft he could see the moving light of the last team member at the bottom of the ladder.
He set about climbing down carefully, and almost immediately he became aware of the temperature increasing around him. Something shifted in his backpack and suddenly the air he was breathing became slightly cooler. Okay, that was a handy feature, but a little worrying too. Geothermal meant underground lakes of lava didn't it?
The bottom of the ladder approached, and John turned his head, shining the light from his mask into the tunnel that ran away from him. The others were moving down it, their lights moving across rough walls.
His boots on solid ground again, John looked up, spilling light up towards Teyla's quick descent towards him. He stepped back, but kept his head upturned to light the rungs for her. He could see that she, or Yanna, had closed the closet door overlooking the shaft. The soldier in him itched at such a vulnerable position as being possibly trapped down a hole on an alien world he didn't know.
Teyla made it down the ladder in the half the time it had taken him, and once she was near the bottom, he turned away, giving her space and to take in the tunnel for himself.
It looked roughly chiselled out of the living rock, like something had just chewed its way through and no attempt had been made to smooth off the walls. As he followed the others, he found there were several open doorways cut off the tunnel. The two team members ahead of him were checking each room in turn, making sure no Wraith were lurking inside. However, a few quick glimpses into the rooms himself, confirmed to John that there was nothing inside at all. If the Wraith had found their way down here there was nothing to find.
Up ahead, Seifer, still at the head of the group, had stopped. His mask lights were shining around the floor and then swept up the wall to his left. John watched as the Elite ran his gloved hands over the rough surface of the tunnel wall. There was a loud grunt over the radio as Seifer put his weight behind something and John watched as part of the tunnel's wall began to swing back. A large door, literally a whole part of the entire wall, swung inwards, Seifer following it into the gloom.
"Room is clear," Seifer announced a second later as John stepped up behind the remaining two team members and watched their mask lights hit more rock walls inside.
John followed them inside, the room overly warm even with this Elite powered cooling system. It was a large room, again cut right out of the rock itself, but most of the room was dominated by a huge metal table. A few chairs were set around it at odd angles, and a few abandoned pads and maps were coated in dust on top.
Seifer brushed the maps and pads off the table without interest, clattering them to the hard floor. He then held his own pad over the metal table and pressed a few buttons. A brief series of tones played out in the dull dark room and abruptly the top of the table broke open. The surface parted to reveal red lights flickering to life inside. Parts of the table folded in on itself and others lifted, presenting a complicated looking console.
John moved closer as small screens booted up, displaying lines and lines of code. The two team members began immediately tapping away on controls, while Seifer slid his pad into a large slot. This brought another screen to life. John guessed the new EM field data was being downloaded.
"The readings are all good," one of the crew reported as she pressed numerous buttons on the console. "Mother Device is pulling power, and a good amount," she added with obvious relief.
"The EM frequency programme is loading," Seifer reported further.
John frowned at the table. He had kind of gone with the plan until now, but now he was stood at a table buried under a planet's surface. He had heard numerous lectures about subspace from Rodney, but it was hard right now to believe that this table was going to reach a whole other system.
"Is this going to work?" John had to ask.
"It will work," Seifer replied sternly as his screen stopped displaying lines of data and then flashed blue twice. Seifer tapped a control and red lights began shining out from the underside of the table and down its base to the rocky floor.
A sudden vibration began to shake up through John's boots.
Earthquake? Volcano?
"The main device is underground," Teyla's voice arrived in his ear, all calm. He looked round to see she was stood back near the large rock door, which allowed her a clear view down the tunnel outside. John glanced at the table console, realising he was no help here at all, so moved back towards her.
"Is the frequency going to make it all the way to the Nest System?" He asked her, keeping his voice low, despite knowing it would still be broadcast over the radio to everyone.
"It will be broadcast via subspace," Teyla replied, her face coming into view. "Distance does not matter."
"But does this thing have enough power to do that?" John asked doubtfully. From the little he knew about these things he had kind of got the impression that it took a hell of a lot of power to do what they were planning. At least that was the tiny bit of information he had retained from Rodney's many rambling complaints about working with subspace.
"There is more than enough power on this planet," Teyla replied to him, her head turning slightly towards him. "It will draw what it needs from the geothermal power directly beneath us."
"By geothermal," John noted, "you mean lava."
"The planet is under a great deal of seismic activity, and that will assist us."
John glanced back at the table. He didn't like the sound of tapping lakes of lava when you were stood directly above them.
The lights on the underside of the table began to flash bright and fast, and the vibration to the floor suddenly hit a new uncomfortable frequency, rattling up John's legs.
Seifer stepped back from the console. "Programme is uploaded and ready to transmit."
"All readings climbing," one of the team reported. "Power levels constant and rising faster than anticipated."
"A problem?" John asked, eyeing the glowing table worriedly.
"The device will automatically begin broadcasting once the levels are the right level," Teyla explained.
"And we're going to be okay down here?" John checked worriedly, turning back to her, his mask's lights casting over her.
"We should leave as soon as the transmission begins," she confirmed.
"Almost at full capacity," came another report, the vibration now shaking John's jaw like a dentist's drill.
"This is going to work," Seifer grinned in the red flashing lights of the table.
"Won't the Wraith be picking up this power surge?" John asked.
"Yes," Teyla replied. "They already are," she added, her voice sounding more distant.
John looked round to see her attention was directed up at the ceiling, as if she could see through it.
"Si is more concerned," she reported more loudly. "Something is happening above us."
"They might have found one or both of the transports," Seifer guessed.
"The Wraith might be heading this way," John suggested worriedly, looking back at the table.
"Full power has been reached," the female crew member reported. "Device is charging, program is running, transmission will commence in three seconds."
The vibration was getting worse, rock dust peppering down from the ceiling through the console's pulsing lights. John brushed a glove over his mask, brushing away the dust, and watched as tiny pieces of rock began crumbling down from the walls.
"Maybe we should get out of here," he suggested.
"Transmission is-" one of the team began to report, but didn't need to finish the sentence because the noise of the device made it through John's mask and suit. He cowered at the burst of noise, the lights of the console dimming for a second and the vibration abruptly stopped.
"Transmission complete," the crew woman reported as she leant back in over the console checking something, wiping dust from the small screen. "The repeat cycle is initiated."
The vibration began again, but building quicker this time.
"All out," Seifer ordered, and suddenly everyone was running towards John.
"Okay, so now we're leaving," John uttered as he turned and followed Teyla out of the device's room and down the tunnel outside back towards the waiting ladder.
He could feel the vibrations even out in the tunnel. It was a rumbling sensation that that was travelling up from the soles of his feet, up through his legs to his middle. It shouted to him in a very primitive way that he should run a lot faster.
The ladder just ahead, the tunnel burst with noise and red light, the vibration abruptly pausing again, making John almost lose his footing on the dusty floor surface. Another transmission had been sent already apparently, but within a second the red lights began glowing down the tunnel again and the vibration started working its destructive magic on the rock around John again.
Teyla had made it to the ladder and was a few rungs up above him already, but she abruptly stopped and he heard her gasp through the radio.
"What?" John shouted over the vibrating noise and the crumbling rock around them.
"I think it is working," she reported over the radio. "I can feel them...across Giant. They are angry," she reported.
"Let's get out of here then," Seifer ordered, which seemed to kick Teyla back into action heading up the ladder.
"Do they know we're here?" John shouted up towards her as he clambered up the ladder as fast, but as carefully as possible. The vibration of too many people on one ladder added to the device's crazy shaking, made him worry, but the most important thing was to get up and out of here as quickly as possible. They needed to get off Giant now as quickly as possible, because out there in the Nest System hopefully the fight had just started.
The vibration at a crescendo point again, another burst of light and noise flooded down the tunnel, but this time John was ready for the visual and auditory assault.
"They are looking for us," Teyla shouted over the radio as she reached the top of the ladder and, being first up, she pushed open the closet door above, spilling a little extra light down over the ladder.
John followed quickly, almost at the top, almost up into the closet as he saw Teyla disappear into the room up top.
At which point there was a sudden loud violent roaring noise that had nothing to do with the Mother Device. It crashed in over him and, over the radio, John heard Teyla cry out in shock and pain.
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TBC
