Marta stared at Teyla in disbelief. "You can sense the Wraith?" she asked, and Teyla saw suspicion flit across Marta's face. "How is this possible?"
Teyla shook her head. This wasn't the time or the place to try and explain the Wraith experiments with her people.
"It is … complicated," Teyla replied. "However, it is a gift that has saved my people in the past. Please. Trust me. Your people are in danger."
Marta studied her for a moment, then turned to Bren and Henny. "Run ahead. Find Orlin and tell him about Teyla's warning."
Bren and Henny nodded, opened the gate for the fence, and ran back up the path toward the village.
"Thank you," Teyla said. She picked up one of the abandoned fruit baskets and followed Marta back to the village.
"If your feeling is correct, it will be us thanking you," Marta replied. "You said you've had this feeling in the past?"
"Yes," Teyla replied. "It started when I was a child. There are a few others of my people with the same gift."
Marta nodded and glanced at the sky. "How long before the Wraith attack?"
"It is difficult to say," Teyla said with a distracted glance at the forest. "Rodney, where are you?" she muttered under her breath.
"Pardon?"
Teyla glanced at Marta and shook her head. "The Wraith are close. They will be here within a quarter of an hour. Possibly less." She stopped, set down the basket of fruit, and tapped her radio. "Teyla to Doctor McKay. Rodney? Please come on." She waited a few seconds, and when he didn't respond, she tried again. "Rodney, it is Teyla. Please respond."
"Teyla?" Marta asked.
"Something is wrong," Teyla replied and tapped the radio again. "Colonel Sheppard? Come in, please."
"This is Sheppard," he replied, and Teyla released the breath she'd been holding.
"Colonel, where are you and Ronon?" Teyla asked.
"We're in Kiroma talking to Tiernan, their leader. Is everything all right in the village?"
"I am afraid not. Colonel, I am sensing the Wraith."
"Damn," Sheppard muttered.
"Colonel?" Teyla said at the same time.
"How many and how long before they get here?"
"From what I am sensing, it must be a hive ship," she replied. "They are close. We do not have very long."
"And we're hours away." Teyla heard the frustration in Sheppard's voice and could sympathise. She glanced anxiously at the trees hoping to see Rodney walking out of the forest.
Had the Wraith already found him? she wondered. Was that why he was not answering the radio?
She pressed her lips together and pushed the thought from her mind.
"All right," Sheppard said after a brief pause. "You and McKay do what you can to help the Satedans get to safety. And stay off the radio. The Wraith may have figured out a way to track the signal."
"But, Colonel -" Teyla started to explain that Rodney was missing, but Sheppard interrupted.
"Don't worry about us," Sheppard ordered. "We'll get back to you as soon as we can once the Wraith leave. Sheppard out."
Teyla sighed and tapped her earpiece. Sheppard and Ronon were hours away. Rodney was possibly lost somewhere in the forest. And the Wraith were about to attack. Teyla glanced to her left and saw Marta's white-knuckle grip on her basket as she stared at the trees.
Her sons, Teyla realised. They were somewhere in the forest as well. And just as out of reach as Rodney, she added to herself.
"It is a hive ship?" Marta asked with an anxious glance at Teyla.
"I believe so," Teyla replied.
Marta took a deep breath and wiped her eyes. "The children," she whispered. "They are out there with no means of defending themselves."
"I, too, am worried," Teyla said. Marta shook her head, and Teyla continued, "My friend is also somewhere in the forest, and he is not responding to my hails."
"Liam and Coby. My sons. Liam was leading a trip into the forest to teach the younger children how to forage and hunt." Marta stared at the trees. "They are all I have left," she said, wiping the tears off her cheeks. "I don't -" She sniffed, and Teyla squeezed her hand.
"All we can do is hope they find a way to escape the culling," Teyla said, "For now, we must do what we can for the rest of your people."
After one last glance at the trees, Marta nodded and turned toward the village. "We will be safe in the village," she said.
"How?" Teyla started to ask. "The Wraith will destroy the village if they have to in order to find us."
Marta waved away Teyla's concern. "Structures can be rebuilt," she said. "After we arrived here, we took steps to ensure our people would be safe if the Wraith attempted to cull this world as they did Sateda." She glanced at Teyla and smiled. "Now, it is you who must trust me."
"So it would seem," Teyla replied.
"Come. We must hurry."
The village was a scene of organised chaos when Teyla and Marta arrived in the square several minutes later.
Two men stood on one side of the tall memorial pillar in the center of the square handing out weapons.
Orlin stood near the column, a sword strapped to his back, as he gave orders to the villagers. "Make sure everyone has extra power cells for the guns," he said to the man handing out the weapons.
"Kelg has it covered," the man replied with a nod at the second man passing out the same type of power cell Teyla had seen Ronon use for his particle weapon.
Teyla heard several clicks as the men and women snapped the power cells into place.
"I want ten people covering the pastures," Orlin said, pointing to the crenellated walls along the roofs of the buildings surrounding the square. "Another ten watching the fields and orchards near the lake. The Wraith can use the open ground to mass their drones before they attack. We need to take out as many as we can before they reach the village. The rest of you take positions where you can watch the forest."
"Sophisticated weapons," Teyla said as the men and women scattered to their positions along the roofs.
"Mmm," Marta replied. "The Wraith did not destroy everything when they culled Sateda. Once they left, Orlin found an ammo dump outside the capital city. When we realised Sateda was truly lost, we took as much as we could carry and came here."
Women hurried from the nearby buildings carrying bundles and prodding younger children in front of them toward the center of the square. The women dropped the bundles at the foot of the column and grasped the children by the hand as they scanned the skies.
"Why is everyone standing in the open?" Teyla asked.
"You'll see," Marta replied with a nod at the memorial pillar.
"I do not understand," Teyla said. "What is so special about the column?"
Two men ran into the square from the direction of the fields. "Fields are clear," one of the men reported. "No one left in the orchards, either."
Orlin glanced over the square. "Get the hatch open," he ordered, "Then make another check of the outer village for any stragglers."
"Hatch?" Teyla asked Marta.
"I told you we had a plan to protect ourselves from another culling," Marta replied.
The two men nodded to Orlin. "Make a hole," one of them ordered the women standing near the pillar.
The women and children shuffled out of the way, and one of the men did something to one of the stones lined along the column's base.
"Got it," he said and nodded to the second man. "Ready?"
The second man nodded, and together the two men pushed against a large stone set into the pillar's base with a series of low grunts. The two men continued to push against the stone until a triangular section, roughly a quarter of the size of the base itself, opened.
"Carefully," the first man said once the hatch was open. Two women climbed into the exposed hole, and the men handed down the bundles while the remaining women waiting to climb into the base grasped the children by the hand.
"I'll take the south side," the first man said as the women and children filed into the hole.
"I'll head that way," the second man said, pointing down the street that led to the school.
"What do you see?" Orlin called up to one of the men standing on the roof of a nearby building.
"Still clear," the man replied. "Are you sure they're coming?"
Orlin glanced at Teyla. "I'm about to find out," he said to the man on the roof. "Let me know the moment you see anything."
"Orlin," Marta greeted. "What can we do to help?"
Orlin glanced at Teyla, then turned to Marta. "Make sure everyone -" he started to say but stopped as Tressa ran up to him, her face streaked with tears.
"Orlin, the children," Tressa cried as she clasped his hand. "They are out in the forest alone." She pointed to the forest. "Someone needs to warn them."
Orlin pursed his lips, but his expression was kind as he rested his free hand on Tressa's shoulder. "I know you're worried about Katia, but Liam and the children left hours ago. Even if I could spare someone to warn them, they would never find the children in time."
"But -" Tressa started to argue.
"They are deep in the forest," Orlin said. "We have to hope that will be enough to keep them safe. You need to worry about yourself now. You promised Katia you would be waiting for her when she returned." He smiled at Tressa and patted her shoulder. "You don't want to disappoint her, do you?"
Tressa wiped her eyes and shook her head.
"Go. Get into the shelter," Orlin said with a glance at Marta. "They will be fine, you'll see."
"Come with me," Marta said to Tressa. "Do you have everything out of your house?"
Orlin sighed as Marta led Tressa down one of the side streets. "She lost her husband and older boy when the Wraith attacked Sateda," he said to Teyla. "Jonah was only thirteen. When the attack started, his school class had been taking a survival course in the woods behind the capital city." Orlin scrubbed a hand over his face. "They were all culled."
"I am sorry," Teyla said.
Orlin sighed. "You were at the school this morning. You saw Tressa there with her daughter."
Teyla nodded. "I saw Tressa trying to console a young girl."
"Katia," Orlin said. "She was only a baby when the Wraith attack happened, but she knows her brother was lost on a similar trip. Tressa wasn't sure Katia was ready to go on this trip, but Marta and a few other mothers convinced her it was time."
Orlin blew out a breath and glanced up at the sky. "And now it's happening again."
"What can I do to help?" Teyla asked.
Orlin studied her for a moment. "You're certain the Wraith are coming?"
"I am," Teyla replied. "I have had this feeling many times in the past before the Wraith culled my world."
"Then you have done more than enough."
Teyla pursed her lips and watched as more people hurried into the square from the direction of the school. They will need more time, she said to herself and glanced first at the sky and then at the surrounding trees. "I have a weapon," she said. "I can assist with your defence of the village."
Orlin glanced around the square. "Fine," he replied. "Take the roof over the pub."
"They will be all right," Teyla said with a nod at the forest. "You'll see."
Orlin humphed a breath and turned away, but not before Teyla saw the mix of regret and fear in his eyes. As he walked away, the walking stick thumping on the cobbled stones with every step, Teyla ran back to the pub.
She pushed open the door and stopped short when she saw Tanis standing on one side of the bar, handing bundles of food to a woman, who packed them into a large crate.
"That's all of it," Tanis said. He came around the bar and grasped the handle on one end of the crate. Tanis looked up as Teyla hurried past and frowned. "You need to get to the square," he said to Teyla. "The Wraith will be here any minute."
"I know," Teyla replied. "I am just gathering our belongings."
"Don't take too long," Tanis admonished and nodded to the woman holding the other end of the crate. "Let's get this to the shelter," he said.
Teyla watched them leave, lugging the heavy-looking crate between them, then hurried up the stairs to the room the team had slept in the previous night. She found her P-90 where she had left it under her bed, checked the weapon, clipped it to her vest, and picked up her pack and Rodney's. She felt a flutter of guilt in her stomach at the reminder Rodney was out in the forest alone but pushed the feeling aside as she shouldered both packs.
"There is nothing you can do for him now," she reminded herself. "Concentrate on the people you can help."
Teyla glanced around the room, then went back downstairs, searching the building until she found a set of stairs leading up to the roof. She stepped onto the roof and nodded to a man standing near the door.
"My name is Teyla," she said to the dozen men and women settling into positions along the roof. "I came to help."
"Willem," the older man standing near the door replied. "And we'll take all the help we can get," he added, and the others nodded. "Take the far corner," he ordered and pointed to the far side of the roof. "If you see any Wraith, give a shout and start shooting."
Teyla was halfway to the indicated corner when she heard the tell-tale whine of darts overhead.
"Here they come!" Willem shouted and pointed a three-barreled rifle toward the sky. "Orlin," he shouted over the side of the roof. "Get ready!"
Teyla dropped the packs and glanced down into the square as the few remaining women scrambled for the safety of the hole under the memorial pillar. Orlin looked up when Willem shouted, nodded, and braced himself against the wall of a building opposite the pub. He drew a weapon from under his tunic and tossed his walking stick on the ground.
The darts drew closer, and Teyla could see them now as tiny dark spots in the sky over the forest. She braced her back against one of the merlons and steadied the P-90 on the edge of the crenulated wall.
Within a few seconds, a squadron of darts flew over the village with their culling beams activated. Teyla opened fire on one of the darts as it flew over the village. Three men at the other end of the building disappeared as the dart's culling beam swept the roof, and Teyla fired until the dart was out of range.
She turned back toward the forest and fired at another dart, making a run over the village. Teyla heard Willem firing behind her, and a few seconds later, a cheer went up from the men and women along the roof.
Teyla looked up and saw smoke pouring from a section of the dart, sending the ship spiralling out of control over the forest. A moment later, she heard an explosion and saw a fireball erupt from the forest.
As smoke billowed over the trees, a second cheer went up from the villagers still in the square.
"Well shot," Willem said as he checked the power cell for his rifle.
"And you," Teyla replied. She dropped the spent magazine for the P-90 and loaded a fresh one.
More darts flew out over the forest, made a wide turn, and returned to the village.
"They're making another pass!" Willem shouted to the men and women on the roof. "Get ready!"
Teyla aimed her P-90 at one of the low-flying darts and was ready to fire when she heard screaming coming from the center of the village. She peeked over the edge of the roof and saw two Wraith drones lumber into the square, firing their stun weapons at the few villagers still waiting near the open hatch. A beam from one of the stun weapons hit a woman running toward the hatch with a young boy. The woman fell to the ground, and the boy knelt at her side.
"Momma!" the boy cried. He pulled on his mother's arm, but the woman's dead weight was too much for the child.
"Get into the tunnels!" Orlin shouted at the loiterers hovering near the hatch, then opened fire on the drone nearest the stunned woman.
The remaining women in the square didn't wait and ran for the cover of the hatch.
Teyla aimed her P-90 at the second drone. After several seconds of continuous fire from the P-90, the Wraith drone finally fell to the ground. She aimed at the first drone, saw it was dead, and lowered the P-90.
Orlin glanced up at Teyla, nodded, and ran toward the two Wraith. He fired several shots into each body lying on the ground, then waved at the hatch.
"Get them inside," he ordered, pointing to the stunned woman and the child sitting on the ground next to her, crying.
Two elderly men and a young woman climbed out of the hatch under the pillar and hurried over to the woman. The men picked up the unconscious woman, while the woman picked up the little boy and carried him down into the shelter behind his mother.
Teyla waited until they were all safely inside the shelter before she turned her attention back to the darts swarming the village. She did her best to hit as many of the ships as possible, but it wasn't long before she realised theirs was a losing battle. There were too many darts, and more drones were coming out of the forest.
"Retreat!" Orlin shouted a few minutes later as more drones entered the square. "Get to the shelter!"
"Move, move," Willem ordered, waving his arm toward a corner of the roof. "Down the back stairs."
Teyla scooped up the two backpacks and followed the rest of the defenders down the stairs and into the square.
Four more drones entered the square from the direction of the fields, and Willem knelt behind the corner of the pub. "We can't let them get to the hatch," he said to Teyla, popping a fresh power cell into the three-barreled rifle.
Teyla nodded and knelt beside him, aiming the P-90 at the advancing Wraith. She fired until the rifle clicked empty, then ducked around the corner of the building to reload as Willem continued to fire on the drones. She snapped the fresh magazine into place just as another Wraith drone came around the other end of the pub. Teyla opened fire, dropping the Wraith where it stood.
"Good job," Willem said, glancing at the dead drone. "The square is clear. Get to the hatch."
Teyla nodded, shouldered the two packs, and sprinted across the square to the open hatch under the pillar. She nearly fell down the narrow steps as she climbed into a stone-lined tunnel, but an anonymous hand on her arm steadied her. Willem followed her and passed off the three-barreled rifle to Orlin as he and another man pulled on a rope next to the hatch.
The stone hatch closed with a low thud, plunging the tunnel into darkness except for two pinpricks of light on either side of the closed hatch near ground level. The tiny peepholes didn't allow for much light, but it was enough for Teyla to make out Orlin standing in profile a few feet away from her.
Teyla dropped the two packs against the wall and tried to get her breathing under control.
"Shh!" Orlin ordered in a harsh whisper as several children started to whimper.
The whimpering stopped a moment later.
A man stood on a stone step and peered through the peephole.
"Well?" Orlin asked.
"A dozen or more Wraith drones are searching the village," the man reported. "Several Wraith ships are circling overhead."
Teyla heard a crash above them a few minutes later and cringed. "What was that?" she wondered aloud.
"One of the ships just destroyed the council building," the man at the peephole reported.
There were several more crashes, and the man winced. "They are pulling down every building in the square," he reported to Orlin. "They must know we're here somewhere. They just don't know where."
"But they aren't coming near the column?" Orlin asked.
The man shook his head. "Not so far."
Orlin nodded. "Long may it last," Teyla heard him mutter under his breath. "Everyone just stay calm, and stay quiet," he said in a low voice. "Willem, find the switch for the lights. That will help keep the children quiet."
"You're sure?" Willem's voice wafted from somewhere on Teyla's right.
"It's only a little past midday, and none of the lights are near the hatch. It should be safe."
Teyla heard shuffling steps, and a moment later, lights strung along the walls a foot or so from the ground glowed to life.
Teyla made sure the safety for the P-90 was engaged and stared in amazement as the light revealed wide, stone-lined tunnels stretching away from the hatch in three directions. The tunnel floor was packed dirt, and each stone had been carefully set into the wall, creating a cobbled pattern. Shelves lined one wall of the tunnel leading away in front of her. Tanis stacked the food he had saved from the pub on one shelf. Baskets of vegetables and fruit sat on the ground under the shelves. A young woman stood farther down the tunnel, pouring water from a barrel into earthen cups and passing the cups to the children.
Most of the villagers sat on long benches scattered along the remaining two tunnels. The women huddled in groups of three or four, with the children sitting on the ground at their feet.
Willem walked up and down the tunnel, whispering to the few armed men and women and passing out fresh power cells for the rifles. He walked back toward the hatch and stopped next to Orlin.
"Status report," Orlin said with a glance toward the hatch as another crash reverberated from the village square.
"We lost a dozen men," Willem replied, his expression hard. "All of them were culled."
Orlin pinched the bridge of his nose. "Understood," he replied with a tired sigh, and Teyla appreciated the weight he was under.
"I am sorry for your losses," she said to Orlin.
"Without your warning, it would have been worse," Orlin replied. "We owe you a debt."
"You do not," Teyla replied. "We are all allies in the fight against the Wraith." Orlin studied her for a moment, then nodded. "What do we do now?" Teyla asked.
"Now?" Orlin said. "Now we wait and hope the Wraith don't discover the mechanism for unlocking the hatch."
~*~*~*~ SGA ~*~*~*~
Let at least one of them still be charged, John thought to himself as he walked over to the rack of power crystals caked with dust and cobwebs. How long have they been here? he wondered as he picked up one of the ZPMs and scrubbed the dust off a patch along one edge with his hand. The crystal appeared to be intact, and John glanced from the ZPM in his hand to the rack.
"Unbelievable," he muttered. He put the crystal back in its cradle and picked up another one, turning it over in his hands.
"Well?" Ronon asked.
"We'd need McKay to confirm it," John said, placing the ZPM back on the rack, "but I think they might be fully charged. This is better than we could have ever hoped for."
Ronon swiped a finger along another one of the crystals, then cleaned his hand on his trousers. "I thought you said these were rare."
"They are," John replied.
"Then why do these people have so many of them?"
Good question, John thought to himself. The Kiromans obviously had access to Ancient technology. Were they -
"I think you need to tell me exactly who you people are," Tiernan said, his tone hard.
John turned and froze when he saw the small handgun shaking in Tiernan's grip.
Ronon reached for his particle weapon, but John stopped him with a hand on his arm. "Wait," he muttered. "Tiernan," he said loud enough for Tiernan to hear him. "I can explain."
John stepped forward with his hands held out in front of him. "Just put that down," he added, pointing at the weapon. "You're making Ronon here nervous."
Tiernan glanced from John to Dex and shook his head. "Explain first."
Ronon growled low in his throat, and John shook his head. "All right," John said.
John took another step but stopped when Tiernan pointed the weapon at his chest. "I assume you know who the Ancie … Ancestors were, yes?"
Tiernan jerked his head in a short nod. "At one time, they protected the people in this galaxy from the Wraith. That is until they all disappeared."
"Right," John said. "They left your galaxy and came to mine."
"You're from a different galaxy?" Tiernan scoffed and tightened his grip on the weapon in his hand.
Ronon flexed his hands and inched closer to Tiernan.
John gave him a minute head shake and focused on Tiernan. Just a little closer, he told himself and glanced at the nearest console. He needed to find a way to distract Tiernan, just for a moment, then he could end this before things got completely out of hand.
"It's true," John said, taking another step toward Tiernan. "The people you call the Ancestors went through the 'gate to -"
"'Gate?" Tiernan asked with a scowl.
"The Ancestor's ring," Ronon told him.
Tiernan glanced at Ronon, and John mentally cheered, Thank you, Ronon, as he took one more step.
"They came through the ring from your galaxy and settled on my planet."
"You still haven't - Hey!" Tiernan exclaimed as John grabbed Tiernan's gun hand and twisted his wrist until Tiernan released the pistol.
John took the gun, and Tiernan swallowed as he raised his hands. "So I was right. You are a militaristic race. What happens now? You kill me and take those crystal things?" he asked, glancing from John's face to the gun in John's hand.
John checked the weapon, found what looked like a safety switch, and flicked the switch before setting the gun on the nearest console. "We aren't here to steal anything from you or hurt anyone," John replied, stepping back from the console.
Tiernan stared at John a moment longer, then slowly lowered his hands. "Then why are you here?"
John scrubbed a hand over his chin. "Okay, yes, we did come here looking for one of those," he said, pointing at the rack of ZPMs. "But we want to trade for it, not steal it."
"Why? No one I've talked to even knows what purpose they serve."
John studied Tiernan for a moment, then walked over to the console with the glowing tiles, found a stool, and pushed a second stool toward Tiernan. "This could take a while," John said, waiting for Tiernan to take the offered seat.
Tiernan glanced from John to Ronon, standing near the door with his arms crossed over his chest. He hesitated for a moment longer, then sat on the offered stool.
"You know what these devices do," Tiernan said to John. "Don't you?"
John glanced at the consoles and the large screen on the nearby wall. "Not really," he admitted with a wry smile. "But I know someone who does. All of this," he waved his hand at the console, "this is technology left here by the people you call the Ancestors."
Tiernan twisted around on the stool, staring at the control board in front of him. "I don't understand. Why would they do that?"
"Without knowing what the consoles control, I couldn't tell you," John replied.
"But that friend of yours. He could show us how to use this technology?"
"Probably," John hedged. "We've had some experience with this sort of technology before."
Tiernan leant back on his stool and gave John a shrewd look. "Which is why you need the crystals."
"Yes," John admitted. "The crystals are the power source for this sort of technology."
Tiernan pursed his lips. "If that's the case, it would seem we need them here." He tapped the console with a finger. "Why should I give them to you? Clearly, the Ancestors left them here for a reason."
"We don't want all of them," John said, trying to keep his mounting impatience under control as memories of Allina and her brotherhood danced in his head. "We only need one. And in exchange for that, we are willing to show you and your people how to use all of this." He nodded at the console and the screen.
"That sounds -" Tiernan started to say but stopped when the scroll of data on the screen beside them changed, and a series of tiles on the second console started blinking.
"Sheppard," Ronon said and walked over to the screen.
John stood and stared at the scroll of data on the screen. Figures, he grumbled to himself. The one person who could explain what the screen was trying to tell them was miles away.
"This has never happened before," Tiernan said. "What did you do?"
"We didn't do anything," John told him. "This must be some sort of automatic system."
"That does what?" Ronon asked.
"No idea," John said and glanced at Tiernan. "How often do you come down here?"
Tiernan shrugged. "Not that often. Mostly I come here when I want to get away from Cerese."
John grimaced and studied the blinking tiles. Here goes nothing, he mentally muttered and pressed one of the blinking tiles.
"Anything change?" he asked Ronon.
"The writing disappeared," Ronon reported.
John turned and frowned when he saw several familiar blobs moving across the screen. "That looks like -"
"Colonel Sheppard? Come in, please," Teyla said over the radio.
"This is Sheppard," John replied. Those blobs, and now Teyla is radioing, he thought to himself. This is not going to be good news.
"Colonel, where are you and Ronon?" Teyla asked.
"We're in Kiroma talking to Tiernan, their leader. Is everything all right in the village?"
"I am afraid not. Colonel, I am sensing the Wraith."
"Damn," John muttered as his bad feeling was confirmed.
"Colonel?" Teyla said.
"Problem?" Ronon asked at the same time.
John tapped off his earpiece, looked at the screen, and then a Ronon. "You could say that. I knew those blobs looked familiar. Teyla says she's sensing Wraith."
"Those are Wraith ships?" Tiernan muttered and stepped closer to the screen. "They are coming here?" he asked.
"Looks that way," John said but was distracted when Ronon growled low in his throat and turned toward the door. "Ronon, freeze. That's an order."
Ronon spun on his heel and glared at John.
John stood his ground and matched Ronon's glare with one of his own. With Teyla and Rodney hours away, he did not need Dex haring off on his own too.
Ronon crossed his arms over his chest and scowled but stayed where he was.
John studied him for a moment longer, then tapped his earpiece. "How many and how long before they get here?" he asked Teyla.
"From what I am sensing, it must be a hive ship," she replied. "I believe they are close. We do not have very long."
John glanced at the screen and silently agreed. "And we're hours away," he muttered. There was no way he and Ronon could get back over the hills to the Satedan village before the Wraith launched their attack.
"All right," he said over the radio, "you and McKay do what you can to help the Satedans get to safety. And stay off the radio. The Wraith may have figured out a way to track the signal."
"But, Colonel -" Teyla started to say, but John cut her off.
"Don't worry about us," John ordered. "We'll get back to you as soon as we can once the Wraith leave. Sheppard out."
"What's the plan?" Ronon asked.
"I don't know," John admitted and pinched the bridge of his nose. He knew what could happen to Rodney and Teyla once the Wraith started their culling. He didn't like the idea of leaving them to fend for themselves any more than Dex, but he also knew, in this case, there was nothing he could do.
More tiles lit up on the first console, and the information on the screen changed again.
"What's happening now?" Tiernan asked.
John ignored him as he studied the screen. "What the hell?" John muttered when he recognised the new graphic on the screen. "It can't be."
"What?" Ronon asked.
John glanced from Ronon to Tiernan. "I think I just figured out what all of this equipment is for," he said and turned toward the door.
"Sheppard?" Ronon said and followed John up the stairs. "Are we finally leaving?"
"No," John said to Ronon. "We aren't going anywhere. At least not yet. There's something I want to see first. If I'm right, I think I know why the Wraith never cull this city." He glanced back at Ronon and Tiernan trailing after him. "The question is, how far does it extend?"
"It?" Ronon asked.
John ran up the steps, skidded to a stop in front of the windows in Tiernan's office, and peered up at the sky. "Can't see far enough from here," he muttered and turned to Tiernan. "We need to get up high. Somewhere that I can see the entire valley and the surrounding forest."
"The roof," Tiernan replied, looking a bit bewildered. "Follow me."
Tiernan led the way out of his office, across the open atrium, and toward the staircase.
"Provost!" Cerese cried as Tiernan ran up the stairs. "Where are you -"
"No time," Tiernan replied. "If Colonel Sheppard is right, you'll know why soon enough."
Oh, trust me, John thought as he followed Tiernan. I'm right.
Tiernan pushed through another door that opened onto a wide corridor lined with doors.
"Offices for the lower members of the council," Tiernan explained as he hurried down the hall.
John glanced in a few of the open doors and saw various men and women staring at them as they ran down the hall and around a corner.
"Through here," Tiernan said and pulled open a narrow door at the end of the hall. A short, wooden staircase led up to a small door, and John stepped out onto the flat roof of the city house.
"What are you looking for?" Tiernan asked as John turned in a slow circle.
"That!" John replied and pointed to where the air wavered in the near distance. As he watched, the distortion effect spread and soon covered the entire valley.
"What is it?" Tiernan asked in an awed whisper.
"That is the reason the Wraith have never culled this valley," John told him.
John heard a loud bang and shouting coming from the street below. John looked over the side of the roof and grimaced when he saw the men and women on the sidewalks staring up at the sky, pointing at the faintly shimmering dome. Two other men helped a third man climb out of the wreckage of an electric car that had collided with the building across the street.
From the roof, John couldn't make out anything the people were shouting, but the cacophony grew louder as more and more people ran out of the nearby buildings and stared at the sky.
"A shield?" Ronon asked.
John shook his head. "No, the distortion is different for a shield," he replied, remembering how the sky in Atlantis looked when the shield was raised during the storm and the siege. "My guess is it's a cloak."
"Won't do much to stop the Wraith," Ronon pointed out.
"It doesn't have to stop them. We know Wraith sensors can't penetrate the Ancient's cloaking technology. It's how Rodney managed to …" John paused and glanced at Tiernan. "It's a trick we've used before."
Ronon shrugged, and John studied the distorted air overhead.
"It makes sense," John said. "A cloak uses less power, which explains how it's still working after all this time."
"Better hope you're right," Ronon said and pointed to his left.
John followed Ronon's finger and spotted a squadron of darts in the distance heading toward the city. A few seconds later, the darts flew over the city, and the noise below changed to screams of fright. John peered over the edge of the roof and watched as the people below scattered.
"And we're safe?" Tiernan asked as the darts disappeared over the forest.
"Safer than anyone outside of this valley," John replied and forced himself not to think about Teyla and Rodney. "As long as the cloak remains in place, the Wraith will have no idea the city is even here." The sentence petered out as John glanced at the narrow door behind them.
They wouldn't? Would they? John wondered, thinking about the rack of fully charged ZPMs as a terrible thought entered his mind.
"Why is this planet called Haven?" John asked Tiernan.
Tiernan shrugged. "I don't know. I guess it's like how I told you. Refugees have always been welcome here."
John shook his head as he walked around the edge of the roof, peering out at the forest. "I think it's more than that," he said. "That equipment you showed us was meant to control more than just a handful of cloaking devices." He stopped and stared out at the trees. "How many ZPMs are stored in that basement?" he asked Ronon.
"Close to fifty," Ronon replied.
"Fifty," John muttered. "Fifty emitters might cover most of this continent."
"You mean -" Ronon started to say, and John nodded.
"Someone wanted to make sure Kiroma was safe even if it meant the rest of the planet was exposed to the Wraith every time they came to cull," John finished.
More darts flew over the city, and Ronon growled as he turned on Tiernan. "The people out there are going to die." He grabbed the front of Tiernan's shirt. "While you sit here doing nothing."
"I didn't know," Tiernan squeaked, trying to pry Ronon's hands loose. "I told you. No one I spoke to knew what any of those devices I showed you did."
"There was nothing written in your histories about an Ancient cloaking device?" John asked.
"No," Tiernan replied. "The last culling was more than a hundred years ago. It was noted in the city records as little more than an afterthought."
"The Wraith culling a planet is not an afterthought," Ronon told him. He tightened his grip on Tiernan's shirt, and John saw Tiernan's face turning red.
"Ronon, let him go," John said. "From the amount of dust and cobwebs covering those ZPMs, chances are whoever stored them there did it hundreds if not thousands of years ago. Tiernan isn't responsible for that."
Ronon glared at Tiernan a moment longer, then released his grip on the front of Tiernan's shirt.
Tiernan took a hurried step back from Dex and straightened his shirt. "Thank you, Colonel Sheppard," he said and turned to Ronon. "To answer your question, the people here were dealing with a severe drought at the time that resulted in a food shortage and a fire that burned most of the northern section of the city. Beyond noting that the Wraith came and that the city suffered no additional damage or loss of life, there was nothing else in the official logs."
John stood at the edge of the roof, leant on the edge of the parapet, and watched the Wraith darts buzzing through the air in the distance. Were Rodney and Teyla able to get to safety? he wondered. What about the Satedans? He glanced at Ronon as Dex walked over and stopped next to him.
"We can't stay here," Ronon said. "We need to fight."
John shook his head. "You saw the scanner screen. Hundreds of Wraith are either in darts or scouring the ground for anyone they can find."
"That's it? You're just going to leave McKay and Teyla to die?" Ronon asked, and John felt another stab of worry in his gut.
"Do you think I like this?" John hissed. "I'd like nothing more than to blow that hive ship out of the sky. But there is no control chair down there." John pointed to the door behind them. "Without a chair or drones, we have no way of taking out that hive ship, and we are hours away from them with a ground force that likely outnumbers us hundreds to one."
"Then we'll just have to even the odds," Ronon replied. He turned on his heel and headed back down the stairs at a run.
"Damn it," John said as he turned to follow.
"What are you doing?" Tiernan asked. "You can't leave. You'll put everyone in the city at risk!"
"We'll do our best to make sure the Wraith don't know you're here," John told him.
"But -"
"We'll be back," John said and ran after Dex.