Evelyn POV
I stood in front of a large group of prisoners who were picking through our stuff like a kettle of vultures. Ronon, John and Teyla had already been stripped of their gear and taken inside a hut to be restrained, and I was currently being held by one of the prisoners as I watched McKay go through the same process. Torrell, as I'd learned, was their leader and he'd taken a special fancy to me. In what was probably the worst way.
"You know you took out a lot of my men today," he told me. I shrugged. He quirked a brow at me.
"You can apologise later but can only save lives now," I said. The prisoner who was holding my tightened his hold on my arm he was bending behind my back.
"Save lives?" Torrell scoffed. "Who's lives did you save?"
"My own, my friends," I replied. "Or I would have, if we hadn't surrendered."
"There's a certain beauty in loyalty," he told me. "And another entirely, in someone who's not afraid to kill to get what they want."
He approached just as McKay's jacket was thrown on the ground and he was yanked away into the hut. It was just me left. I tried not to look at the dirty face of my criminal captor, the look he was giving me was almost predatory. He reached a hand forward, trailing a grubby finger down my jaw. I struggled against the hold of the prisoner I was in front of. Torrell reached for the zipper of my vest and yanked it down. The prisoner let me go long enough for it to be confiscated and then grabbed my wrists again.
Torrell squatted in front of me and started giving me a pat down, looking for hidden weapons and he found most of them. Most. He looked almost impressed when he removed them all, I think he'd found more on me than he had Ronon. But that's because Ronon was the weapon. When he stood again he was unbearably close. He looked down at my chest and smirked. He pressed down hard on the deep bruise that had been forming from the crash. The seatbelt might have saved me from flying forward, but it wasn't without its own form of injuries. I winced, struggling to get back away from the source of pain and he chuckled.
"You behave and you'll be rewarded," he told me.
"And if I don't?" I asked and he smiled.
"I have ways of making you," he shrugged and then with a flick of his wrist the prisoner who'd been holding me dragged me away into the hut.
When I was thrown on the ground by the broken bed and bound with a bamboo rod I didn't realise I was shaking. I don't know if my encounter with Torrell had done it or if I was still reeling from the crash. I took a deep breath, pushing aside what was going on in my mind, clearing myself of all thoughts.
"Are you alright?" Teyla asked and I took a moment before answering.
"Yeah," I said nodding.
"It took longer for you to be brought here," she told me and I shook my head.
"It's nothing," I said. "I just had a fair amount on me."
John looked like he didn't believe me but chose not to press right now. I leaned my head back against the bed frame I'd been tied to. I listened to what was going on outside, it sounded like they were playing with the automatic weapons they'd taken from us. That should be distraction enough for us to escape but if there were too many people milling about, we mightn't be able to sneak away.
"Is now a good time to escape?" I asked.
"Any time is a good time to escape," McKay scolded.
"What are you planning?" John asked.
"I think I can remove my arm," I said. "I do so and I can get out of my restraints. I've got a knife hidden inside it, which they didn't find. But I can't tell if what's going outside is good cover or going to get us caught."
"Let me worry about that," he said. "Try it if you think you can."
I wiggled my arms a little bit, loosening the seal on my 'realistic' arm. I was glad I'd worn it today, despite hating it so much. I thought missing an arm might worry certain people if we'd met with a less advanced community. On Earth much earlier in our timeline, missing limbs usually meant treason or criminal activity, and I didn't know what the cultural connotations were here.
I grunted as I felt the suction pop as my arm disconnected and it hit the ground. I moved my elbow stump over the bamboo bar I was tied to and used my outstretched legs to pick up and move my prosthetic to the reach of my human fingers. I looked up as I wrapped my fingers around the handle of a knife and the others looked impressed. I smirked and cut the bindings of my wrist. I nicked the skin lightly, but it wasn't bad and I was also free.
I crawled over to the others just as the door flew open. Knowing I didn't have much time I slashed the bindings of John's wrists and felt someone grab the scruff of my neck and yank me back. I swore and struggled against the hold of whoever had grabbed me and looked up to see Torrell's amused face. He'd walked in the door just after I'd been grabbed and we practically bounced over to me.
"I thought you might have another trick up your sleeve," he said and then laughed. "Or should I say knife in your arm."
"You should know our people are expecting us. If we don't show up soon, they'll come looking for us," Sheppard told Torrell as someone came in to tie him up again. I soured as Torrell smirked.
"Ah, is that supposed to concern me?" he asked.
"Don't go getting all full of yourself, chief. A few cannons are nomatch for the kind of firepower they'll be bringing with them. Although… I should compliment whoever took that first shot. It was a good one."
"Yeah, was nice, wasn't it?" Torrell said.
"What do you want from us?" Teyla demanded.
"Well, we've already got your weapons," Torrell replied. "Now I do believe we'll take your ship. You see, we had been planning a little trip to the mainland but after seeing you fly that thing through the ancestral ring.."
"You're referring to the ship you just shot down? The one that doesn't stand a hope in hell of ever flying again?" McKay asked.
"The ship that you're going to fix, yes," Torrell replied simply.
"Who am I, MacGyver? Fix it with what?" he demanded and I smiled, trying to stop my mind from wandering to my dad and how I always thought the two held a striking resemblance. Torrell gestured to another prisoner.
"Get him up," Torrell ordered and McKay was yanked to his feet, released from some of his bindings. "You seem like a smart man. I'm sure you'll think of something. Maybe all you need is a little motivation." He produced Ronon's gun and fired a blast just past McKay's head, leaving a giant hole in the side of the shack.
"Maybe you should think about fixing it, Rodney," Sheppard said.
"Good idea," McKay breathed, shocked he'd almost had his head blown up.
"My friends all tell me I have a remarkable gift for persuasion," Torrell joked and a prisoner finished untying McKay and dragged him out of the hut. He turned to me and got closer. "Now you," he said and I shook a little. "I thought I told you to behave?"
He paused, seemingly looking for a response. I didn't have anything to say. He nodded to himself. He gripped my jaw and I tried to tug it out of his grasp but couldn't because I was being held in place by his friend. He shoved the gun into my, now much darker, bruise. I let out a small cry before I could stop myself and he smirked.
"Do you have any other weapons on you?" he asked, glee sparking in his eye. I shook my head. "Good. Now, are you going to be a good little girl and stay put this time?"
I glared at him. He pulled Ronon's gun away and stowed it by his hip. He stepped back a single step and gestured for the guard to let me go. I didn't have time before I was suddenly overcome by a burning pain in my jaw and hit the hard, wooden floor. I went to shoot up, to grab his legs and yank them out from under him, to do something, anything, when a boot collided with my stomach. I let out a gasping cough, for the second time today the wind had been knocked out of me. I writhed on the ground as I tried to push myself up. He kicked me onto my back and then pressed a boot firmly down on my chest. My black, uniformed shit had burst open and he was now getting mud all over my chest and grey tank. He pressed down just hard enough to cause the seatbelt bruise on my chest to ache.
"I didn't think you would," he said. "That's not your style is it? Tie her up, just there. That should teach her a lesson for now."
Two guys hoisted me up off the ground and threw me on the broken down bed and started tying each limb individually to the frame so even if I wanted to escape, there wouldn't be a way to wriggle free. He walked out the door and was shortly followed by the rest of his convict cronies and I was left coughing on the straw mattress.
"Are you alright?" Sheppard asked and I nodded. I groaned with the movement.
"Yeah," I said. "Yeah I'm okay."
"He seems to have an odd fascination with you, Captain," Teyla commented. "Are you sure nothing happened earlier?"
"He was a little...excited.. I guess, that I uh.. took out so many of his men," I replied. "He said if I behaved I'd be rewarded, I didn't fancy sticking around to find out how."
"Right," Sheppard said. "Well, we won't then. We're getting out of here."
I tried to relax as I was tied there, figuring if I did, I might be able to save a bit of strength for when the others managed to get free and we could escape. I was in too much pain to really fight against the restraints, even if I could. I wondered if Torrell had known the whole time my arm was fake, he did get pretty close to it, I hadn't thought.
Out of the corner of my eye I could see all of the others eagerly struggling against their restraints but it seemed it was to no avail. I could see their wrists start to change colour, bruising as the restraints tightened around their wrists.
"Anyone having any luck?" Sheppard asked.
"Not yet," Ronon said.
"These bindings are very secure," Teyla said.
"Well, leave it to convicts to know the best way to tie people up," Sheppard said and I laughed. I immediately winced due to the pain in my chest, I wondered if I'd cracked a rib, he did kick me hard enough.
"Well, eventually I will get free and when I do, he's going to pay for this," Ronon said, seething.
"Well, listen to me. When you get free, you get us free, and we all get out of here," John warned. "Let 'em find out we're gone after we're gone."
"You expect me to let them get away with this?" Ronon asked, nodding towards me.
"The operative words are 'get away'," he replied.
"After I kill him," Ronon said.
"That type of thing will get us killed," John told him. And I agreed. As mad as I was, I'd rather just go home.
"Well, if you would've just returned fire.." Ronon started.
"The weapons systems were damaged," John replied bitterly. I could see he was starting to get annoyed.
"If you say so," Ronon said.
"I do say so, and right now, I'm saying knock it off," Sheppard said.
"Is that an order, Sheppard?" Ronon asked, indignantly.
"I am beat up, tied up, and couldn't order a pizza right now if I wanted to, but if you need it to be, yeah, it's an order," John said sternly.
"Okay," Ronon replied calmly. Sheppard gave Ronon a look of certain amazement. How he'd just switched like that. I almost wanted to laugh. I wiggled my wrist, yep. As I thought, really tight.
"Don't take this the wrong way but, I kinda wished I'd just stayed in bed today," I said and Ronon laughed a little.
"At least you're in bed now," he replied and I chuckled, wincing again. Yeah, my ribs definitely felt cracked.
"Good, I think I cracked my ribs," I said. "Beckett's always pretty strict on bedrest for those kinds of things."
Rodney POV
"There is no power getting to any of these controls, you understand?" I told Torrell frustratedly, walking towards the back of the Puddle Jumper and pointed to the overhead compartment for control crystals. "Look, nothing!"
"Why not?" Torrell replied.
"Let me go out on a limb here and say that maybe it had something to do with the crash. Which, of course, begs the question, how in the hell did you get your hands on explosives?"
"Eldon made them," Torrell said as he leaned leisurely against the divider between the back compartment and the front of the ship. He turned away toward the window to look out it. "He fashioned them out of minerals and materials he found around the island. Crude, yes, but effective. We shot you down, didn't we?"
O'Neill had said something about that on the way home. I wished I'd listened to her instead of talking about Margaret Thatcher. The Magistrate had even said the ore was very volatile if handled incorrectly.
"Eldon? Who is Eldon?" I asked. A cross eyed man walked up the ramp onto the Jumper.
"That would be me," Eldon replied.
"You're a prisoner?" I said, turning to him.
"I was accused of killing one man," Eldon answered before Torrell butted in.
"He's a scientist," Torrell told me.
"It was a case of mistaken identity," Eldon explained and I internally rolled my eyes.
"Tell you what, Eldon. You can tell him your whole life story. Just help him fix the ship," Torrell said finally.
"Look, I don't know what you expect me to do. I don't have any of the proper diagnostic tools, not to mention the fact that…" I tried to argue but was once again cut off. Torrell was making talking gestures at me with his hand, the same kind I bet O'Neill would have slapped him for if she was here.
"You'll figure it out," Torrell told me.
"And if I don't?" I challenged.
"Well, I could kill you. But you strike me as the type of man who, despite being weak and cowardly on the outside, harbours a strength of character he doesn't even know he has," Torrell told me and I was taken aback.
"I'm sorry, was there a compliment in there?" I asked.
"See, the way to motivate a man like you, Mr McKay, not to threaten your life. It's to threaten the lives of your friends," he explained and I frowned. "That's right. Fix the ship. Otherwise, they start dying, one after another until you change your mind or until they're all dead. I don't care."
"You wouldn't," I said, challenging him again. I wondered if O'Neill would be proud of me for standing up for myself, being brave. I did worry though, he was a violent criminal in a penal colony.
"I would, Mr McKay," he replied. "Don't worry though, I won't kill all of your friends, at least not right away. In fact, if you don't start working, I'll go and pay your friend O'Neill a visit. Plenty of things I can do to her alive that'll be enough to persuade you."
"Alright," I relented. He had spent an awful long time out of the hut with her before she was brought in to be tied up. I could only imagine what he was doing inside when I was first escorted away.
"The technology on this ship is far more advanced than the Olesians'," Eldon told me.
"How ironic, then, to have been shot down by the cast of Braveheart," I remarked, trying to concentrate on fixing the ship, lest something awful happen to my friend. I couldn't forgive myself if I let something happen. I turned to him to see he'd removed a control crystal and snatched it back from his grubby paws.
"Well, I'm surprised we were able to shoot you down," Eldon said.
"Well, it's the old low tech versus high tech argument, I suppose," I replied, trying to concentrate but having little luck.
"We've been working on those weapons for years," Eldon said. He was clearly fighting a stutter with every sentence he spoke, which made me wonder how this wimp had supposedly killed someone.
"Yes, well, well done. Good for them, huh? Now, are you going to continue talking or, uh.." he silenced himself and blinked at me. I nodded. "Thank you." I saw him out of the corner of my eye pick up another control crystal and hold it up to his face to study it. I sighed internally and snatched that one back as well. "Oh.. give me that. See, where did that come from?"