"We are not your enemy today," Reder Wilhye told Lorne, crouching down so that he would be a smaller target for anyone else out there, and speaking in a low voice to avoid drawing attention.
Major Lorne would have sworn his heart stopped when the man identified himself, and it took a moment for it to start beating rather painfully in his chest again. After everything leading up to it, that the man who had shot him on his last visit had killed Ellet just before she could put a definitive end to Lorne was too much for him to take in immediately, making his only option one of non-reaction while he attempted to process.
Reder Wilhye was about Lorne's height, but much more heavily built and nearly twice as broad at the shoulders. The sort of man you expected to bounce harmlessly off of if you tried taking a run at him. Assuming he didn't simply crush you in his bear arms.
He was still talking, "The shots taken at your people today were accidents. We expected to encounter only Bethashaya here. And I certainly did not expect to see you again. Not alive, anyway."
Finding his voice, Lorne muttered, "Sorry to disappoint you."
"Hardly," Reder Wilhye replied, seeming suddenly aware that his gun was still aimed at Lorne and lowering its muzzle, "Given the injury I inflicted, I am surprised you survived the river. Such a feat would have taken considerable strength. And great cunning to evade the Bethashaya as well."
Lorne decided not to bother with an explanation of what had actually happened. It had not been either Lorne's strength or his cunning that had kept him alive, it had been the skill and determination of his fellow Lanteans. But this guy didn't need to know that. Not right now anyway.
Reder went on, "I did not think to get the chance to undo the damage, especially once you killed two of my men. I simply hoped you would leave and we could avoid further bloodshed."
"I like avoiding bloodshed," Lorne said.
He wasn't even beginning to think about trusting Reder, whom he was considering to be about as predictable as the future according to chaos theory. Every time a butterfly flapped its wings somewhere, Reder Wilhye did an about-face on his whole stance with regards to shooting people.
Colonel Sheppard had mentioned Reder in his report, as had Reed and Coughlin in theirs, so Lorne knew what had happened after he and McKay went into the drink. He knew that Sheppard's team had been captured without casualties and later released. But he also knew that Janko and Dorsey were even now somewhere nearby, bleeding from wounds inflicted by Reder's people mere moments ago. And he knew that West was dead because of this man as well.
"You didn't seem shy about killing two of my people," Reder observed, likely aware of the turn of Lorne's thoughts but politely pretending not to be, "And from the looks of things, you and yours were reorganizing for an assault on me and mine, not a retreat."
"You shot us first," Lorne reminded Reder fiercely, "And you were between us and the Stargate, which is our way home. What did you expect us to do?" he purposely didn't mention the team mates still trapped in the Temple. What Reder didn't know could be Lorne's advantage if things got sticky.
"Surely you knew we outnumbered you," Reder said, ignoring Lorne's tone as he continued thoughtfully, "Your best chance would have been to try and avoid us, which I believe you are intelligent enough to realize, and I know you are not above retreat when the odds are so against you. So I am curious about your tactic, which seems disadvantageous at best."
He seemed entirely unconcerned with the fighting, which Lorne noticed had died down somewhat. Undoubtedly, Reder knew that killing Ellet was like cutting off the head of a snake. As soon as it spread through the Bethashaya ranks that Ellet was dead, their organization started to fall apart and they began to melt back into the forest, to regroup at least, if not surrender. Probably Reder had told his people to simply let them flee for now, as he had other concerns.
"Yeah well, I'm not as smart as Colonel Sheppard," Lorne admitted without hesitation, both because it was true and because he wasn't about to explain his true motivations.
"Perhaps not," Reder said amiably, "But you are intelligent enough to know the value of living to fight another day. Of that much I am certain. So you must have had some reason. Unless I am very much mistaken, you are the commander of this unit."
"You're not mistaken," Lorne replied flatly, "And, no offense, but my reasons are my own. I am under no obligation to explain myself to you."
"No," Reder agreed with a nod, "You are not."
Lorne breathed an internal sigh of relief that this guy wasn't going to try to force an explanation out of him. He was obviously curious, but didn't deem finding out Lorne's motivations to be of vital import. At least, not unless and until another damn butterfly flapped its wings out there.
"However," Reder offered as a suggestion, "I would ask that you inform your people that we are not interested in doing battle with you. It is the Bethashaya we are at war with. Now we are aware of each other's presence, there is no need for further violence between us."
"I'd rather not go traipsing through your ambush site again, so if you could put it somewhere else or tell us where it is so we can avoid each other-" Lorne began, but Reder interrupted.
"This was not an ambush. We are in Bethashaya territory. They will kill us if they can, as you've seen already. We heard your approach, and took cover. The younger among us made the fatal assumption that you were the enemy. They had never been faced with the Bethashaya, or else they would have known by your clothing and yours eyes that you were not our enemy."
"Our eyes?" Lorne inquired curiously.
"No Bethashaya has blue eyes," Reder explained, "In fact, it is somewhat unusual among Mhisi, particularly the dark-haired among us."
"Not that you could tell that in the dark," Lorne remarked.
"The scopes on our weapons allow us to see as we would in daylight when we look through them," Reder told him.
Lorne tried to avoid looking surprised. He'd gotten the impression that the Lanteans were somewhat more advanced than the Mhisi, but even their night-vision equipment didn't let them see perfectly in the dark. Certainly they could not be expected to identify anyone's eye color.
By now things were pretty quiet out there. Lorne wasn't quite ready to take a chance on calling his people on the radio yet. He figured to let nerves settle for a few beats, and to give himself time to think about what he actually wanted to tell his people. After all, he didn't want to tell them not to fire only to have Reder turn on him, kill him, and then the rest of his people.
He decided to change the subject, "What brings you into Bethashaya territory? It seems like a risky move, especially since they have some of your people among them."
"Physicians," Reder grunted, "No concept of military tactics."
"That doesn't answer the question," Lorne pointed out mildly.
"Actually, we are here because of you," Reder said.
"Us? What did we do?" Lorne asked.
"One of yours discovered how the Sentinels function. Or, more accurately, why they have stopped functioning," Reder answered.
Sentinel seemed to be the Mhisi term for the Ancient towers. Lorne remembered that McKay's tablet and other equipment had been left behind when they took their swan dive. Apparently someone among the Mhisi had figured out how to work the tech, and also discovered what the information on it meant, then put it together with what they knew, and made the logical leap McKay had not managed until after he lost his equipment. The upshot of this was that the Mhisi were on their way to the Temple. And that meant the Mhisi were doing exactly what Lorne had been afraid of, exactly what the strategy he'd devised was intended to prevent. But with his team scattered, some injured and possibly dead now, there was no chance at all that they could stop the Mhisi from advancing.
Checkmate, he thought ruefully.
Reder took a sudden deep breath, and understanding came into his face. He looked at Lorne with an expression of renewed respect and said, "That's why you're here. You came to study the Sentinels first, discovered they drew power from the Shayan Temple, and so you returned to study that as well."
Lorne said nothing, though he knew there was no believable denial he could make.
"Your Colonel Sheppard isn't here, nor is the one whom you took into the river with you. Yet I am certain that the latter was the one who made the discovery, and the former is your commander. I don't believe you would have come here a second time without at least one of them," Reder went on, clearly thinking aloud, "And you were coming back from the Temple, not going towards it," he paused, then concluded firmly, "They are in the Temple. As when you took one of them with you into the river, your actions have been to defend them. Perhaps reckless and ill-informed, but well-intended nonetheless."
Lorne didn't answer. He knew he didn't have to. Reder wasn't just guessing, he'd figured it out, and was satisfied by his own explanation. Denial would accomplish nothing except to decrease the man's respect for him. What value Reder's respect had, Lorne wasn't certain, but he saw no reason to lose it for nothing.
"Do you not understand that without the information gathered by your people, we would have been doomed?" Reder inquired, "We had not learned that the Temple was the source of power, and the Bethashaya are more ignorant still, as I'm sure you've noticed. The Wraith come with greater frequency, and our defenses are worthless against them. The Sentinels are our only hope of survival."
"So?" Lorne asked without inflection.
"So," Reder said, "Regardless of your intentions in studying the Sentinels and their power source, it is your knowledge which has given us a chance of survival."
Lorne reasoned aloud, "You're saying you owe us."
"That is a way to put it, yes," Reder answered.
Lorne closed his eyes briefly, realizing what he had to say next, but scared anyway. He had to make a decision here, and there was only one remotely good move, but only if everything was as he thought it was. Otherwise, it was a potentially fatal mistake.
"If you really feel that way," Lorne said cautiously, after taking a deep breath, "Then help us."
Lifting his head slightly, Reder replied, "I'm listening."
If John had been asked to place bets on what Major Lorne was going to come back with, Reder Wilhye and his Mhisi soldiers would not have even made it on to the list of possibles. At first, John was actually a little bit irritated with Lorne for having gone out and brought in yet another complication, especially as Lorne offered neither excuse nor explanation besides the assertion that Reder and the others were here to help, which wasn't very reassuring.
But there wasn't really anything John could do about it, especially once several of the Mhisi had come down the hole to help move the injured and defend against the Crocuta. Among their number was Reder, and he repeated the explanation he'd given Lorne, including an apology for the men who were shot. At that point, it was obvious to John why Lorne had made the decision he had.
With so many injured personnel and so much danger between them and home, they needed the backup. And they especially needed not to make more enemies. Even if Lorne had possessed the numbers to stop the Mhisi from getting to the Temple, the cost would have been high, and possibly for no good reason. As it was, Lorne had only two guys in good shape out of the original seven, not counting the Major himself. Lorne was in no position to stop anyone from doing anything, knew it, and so had made the best he could of a bad situation.
One of Reder's people, Vusaneti, turned out to be the Mhisi equivalent of Rodney. So while Reder's people provided aid to the wounded and set up a litter they could haul through the hole in the floor, Rodney and Vusaneti crouched around the power generator and spat technobabble at each other like a couple of angry cats about to have a fight. Laurenson couldn't get a word in edgewise.
While Reder and John caught each other up and coordinated things from below, Lorne managed what happened on the level above. Given sufficient manpower and the right equipment, the rescue operation was something of a snap, though all the while John was tense about the presence of the Mhisi, and the possible reappearance of the Crocuta.
He worried what the Mhisi would do once Rodney spilled that he didn't believe this was fixable. John knew Elizabeth would demand to offer help with evacuating the planet, but that was always tricky, even if people agreed to it. And since the Mhisi were at war with the Bethashaya, things were bound to get even more complicated. Despite how the Bethashaya had treated the Lanteans, Elizabeth would insist on John offering help to everyone. But John knew that bringing warring factions together was never an easy task, and it was one that often ended in failure.
And that was assuming the Mhisi didn't think the Lanteans were lying to them and consequently tried to kidnap Rodney and force him to repair what was broken just as the Bethashaya had. John was far from confident about the disposition of the Mhisi, which seemed to be mercurial at best.
However, like Lorne, John saw that they didn't really have any choice but to trust the Mhisi. For now, anyway.
"Have you any idea what they're saying?" Reder asked, with a nod in the direction of Rodney and Vusaneti.
"Yeah... not really," John said, which was only a shade off from the truth, "I generally find it's best to let Rodney figure out whatever he's going to figure out and then have him tell me about it. Easier than dealing with all the sentence fragments and long pauses when he gets lost in thought."
Reder nodded sagely, "Vusaneti is also that way. And he is very temperamental when interrupted."
"I hear that," John replied.
There was a pause as each leader pretended to be thinking about his particular geek, when they were actually looking for a way to avoid rubbing each other the wrong way without seeming weak. Reder was better at this than John was, so he spoke next.
"Your Major Lorne, he is a most loyal soldier."
"Yeah, he is," John said somewhat guardedly.
"I told you that we mistook him and his for Bethashaya in the forest," Reder said, as though John needed the reminder, "And that we were then both attacked by the Bethashaya. But there is something else that you should know."
"Oh?" John asked, feigning limited interest.
"If not for the timely interruption of the Bethashaya, the fight between us would have continued, and I am well aware that the blame for that lands squarely on my fallen soldiers," Reder paused, apparently regretfully, then he continued, "Would that I had even one like Major Lorne. Though the odds were against him, he nonetheless concocted a reasonably sound strategy for attempting to best us. Rather than surrender or flee, he sought to stop us in our tracks. Knowing that he had previously fled in the face of unequal odds in an effort to preserve the life of Dr. McKay, I quickly surmised that he had something or someone which he was attempting to defend, even to the cost of his life. That is how I guessed you were here," Reder smiled faintly, "He was wiser than to attempt denial."
John now had a pretty good picture of what had happened, especially since he had a piece of information Reder was still missing. Specifically, he knew about the life signs detector. He'd need Lorne (or at least the Major's report) to fill in the blanks, but he was pretty sure he knew the essentials, enough to realize that Lorne had been backed into a position where there were no good answers, but he had to act regardless. As usual, he'd done just that, without hesitation.
But Reder was still talking, "I know so few who would act as he. Under such circumstances, most would either simply surrender, flee, or fly blindly into the enemy in the vain hope of taking their adversary with them. They would abandon strategic thinking once they knew there was no good choice left. But," and here Reder smiled again just a little, "as we have seen tonight, there are times when such a situation can be turned around. Also, I think perhaps he might have stood a chance of taking us by surprise. Enough that it might have evened the odds."
"Now you're just exaggerating," John said, "Tryin' to get on my good side."
"I assure you, I am not," Reder replied, "It is not my habit to give compliments or flattery lightly. Major Lorne has earned my respect. Because of his obvious loyalty to you, you also have that, because I do not think he would have such devotion without good reason."
"Well… thanks," John said, fumbling for some reciprocal thing he could say but realizing he hadn't paid enough attention to any of Reder's people to think of anything, so he just said, "I'm sure you've got some good, loyal people too."
Reder raised an amused eyebrow and said, "It is well that we are not politicians."
"Now that I agree with," John told him.
Rodney didn't exactly like Vusaneti, but the Mhisi scientist was like a notice board explaining all the ways Laurenson had proven inadequate for the task at hand. Vusaneti was a field operative, likely more competent than Rodney in that area. But it was hard to say because this was Vusaneti's home planet, which gave him an unfair advantage. No telling how he'd take to an alien world. Although 'Gate travel was rather commonplace out here in the Pegasus Galaxy, unlike in the Milky Way where most people had never even suspected it was a real possibility, much less actually experienced it.
But what really stood out with Vusaneti was his competence and focus. Laurenson had been nothing but a big, annoying distraction to Rodney for most of this trip. It wasn't just that Laurenson was panicky, that was par for the course. Rodney himself frequently got that way, especially under these conditions. The real issue was that the man seemed more interested in fighting than doing his job. With Rodney, the bad personality was something like the cost of dealing with him, but at the end of the day, he was always thinking about getting the job done. So was Zelenka, come to that. Rodney and Zelenka argued and insulted each other, but in the back of their heads was always the priority of fixing what was broken, discovering what was unknown, bringing to life technology that had lain dormant for thousands of years... Laurenson on the other hand...
Of course, there was another bit of value to be found in Vusaneti. Because he was a native, Vusaneti had been looking at the towers -Sentinels- a lot longer than Rodney had. His people weren't as advanced, technologically speaking, so he hadn't had the tools to realize that the Sentinels and Temple were connected, but he'd looked over every inch of the Sentinels before, and was clearly at least passingly familiar with the Temple. He knew things without knowing them, and had information Rodney had yet to glean on his own. In fact…
"Sheppard!" Rodney called out, looking around and finding with some surprise that the room had emptied out. He hadn't noticed how the evacuation was going while he was preoccupied. The only people in the room besides himself and Vusaneti were Laurenson, Hall and Teyla.
In response to the call, Sheppard returned from down the hall. Reder Wilhye was following him. As soon as they were in range, both Rodney and Vusaneti started talking, each to his respective CO, and as a result no information was exchanged.
"Okay, okay!" Sheppard cried after a moment, raising his hands, "One of you has to shut up and the other one talk."
Rodney and Vusaneti exchanged looks, then Rodney explained.
"We think we can restore power to the Sentinels."
Sheppard shifted his weight a little and frowned, "I thought you said that wasn't possible."
"Based on the information I had before, it wasn't," Rodney said with a nod, "But Vusaneti and I have been talking, and I think we can power the network of Sentinels with a naquadah generator or two. I don't need to tell you what having a world even partially protected from the Wraith is worth. And," he hurried on before Sheppard could respond, "And, given the opportunity to study this thing further, we might still learn a lot about ZPMs, and Ancient technology in general. Besides, you've seen this Temple. Who knows how much other valuable stuff is in here, behind locked doors? We get power going, and get these people to agree to let us conduct research… there's no telling how much we might learn."
"There's something you're forgetting," Sheppard pointed out.
"Oh?" Rodney asked, stopping short, "What?"
"This Temple?" Sheppard replied, "It's in the middle of Bethashaya territory. It doesn't belong to the Mhisi. And even if it did, the Mhisi Council didn't seem to want to deal with us on a forward going basis, they just wanted us to go the hell away."
"Oh," Rodney said, "Oh, that is a problem."
"Did not the Bethashaya want Rodney to 'fix' their Sentinel?" Teyla inquired, speaking for the first time in quite awhile.
"Well yeah, but-" Teyla cut Sheppard off.
"And is that not what you are now proposing?"
"Well-"
She did not wait for him to get further, "And is powering the Sentinels not of great benefit to all the peoples of this world, including both the Mhisi and the Bethashaya?"
"I see your point," Sheppard conceded, and he turned to Reder, "Do you think your people and the Bethashaya could agree to a cease fire? Because there's no way I'm sending my people in here if there's any chance they get caught up in the crossfire. Again."
"I will speak with the Council," Reder said, "I believe they will be willing to open negotiations with the Bethashaya and surrounding tribes. As she has said," he nodded to Teyla, "This is of potential benefit to all, not just the Mhisi or the Bethashaya. And neither we nor the Bethashaya nor any others can repair the Sentinels ourselves, that much is certain."
"Well then," Rodney said with a sigh, "Maybe this hasn't been a complete waste of time after all."
"Worth the dip in the river?" Sheppard inquired with a raised eyebrow.
Rodney frowned, and grumbled, "Let's not get carried away."