Rodney stood frozen in place as he stared at the Ancient device surrounded by the twisted trunks of the trees. "Not the Ancient building you were hoping for," he muttered. "Still, it's something."
He stepped into the bower and let the vines fall back into place behind him. The large, flat leaves on the vines tinted the dim light inside the bower with a soft green glow. It was noticeably cooler inside the bower, and Rodney zipped his jacket a little higher as he limped over to the source of the readings he had been tracking for most of the morning.
The device looked remarkably similar to a DHD. The top of the device stood on a stumpy pedestal and was of a similar diameter to the dial home device. Unlike a DHD, there were no tiled glyphs or a central crystal, and instead of the dark grey metal he was used to, there was a blueish tint to the grey metal of the device.
Probably from the different alloy the Ancients used to build it, Rodney thought to himself.
The top of the device was concave and polished smooth with geometric designs etched along the rim. Four support rods angled upwards from four equidistant points around the edge of the device. The four rods met half a meter above the concave center of the top in what looked remarkably similar to the electronic feed hood of a satellite dish.
Rodney checked the scanner and quickly searched the rest of the area under the trees. "Definitely the source of the alloy readings." He stuffed the scanner in his vest pocket and limped around the Ancient contraption. "So what do you do?" he muttered, studying the device.
He crossed one arm over his chest and pressed the index finger of his free hand to his lips. "It's obviously an emitter of some kind. Any idiot could see that. But it's too small to be one of those shield generators from M7G-677."
He reached out a hand and was about to touch one of the geometric designs when the device started to hum. Rodney took a hurried step back, nearly tripping on a tree root, and caught his balance on the tree trunk. A moment later, a beam of energy shot upward from the point where the four rods intersected above the top of the device. A distorted bubble in the air formed around the bower of trees and vines.
"Whoa." Rodney stared in amazement at the familiar-looking energy field. "Not a shield," he muttered. "A cloak?"
He limped over to the edge of the field, stretched out his arm, and touched the edge of the field with his fingertips. His fingers passed through the field easily, and he felt the same soft tickle up and down his arm as when he'd tested his cloaking shield.
Rodney stepped out of the bower and stared at the empty space in front of him where the clump of trees should be. "Definitely a cloak," he muttered as he reentered the bower and walked around the emitter. "Why build a cloaking emitter in the middle -"
He glanced from the faintly shimmering bubble to the device and snapped his fingers several times. "Teyla said the planet was called Haven. What if that was because the Ancients had devised a cloak big enough to hide the people living on this world from the Wraith? Was a field that big even possible?"
Rodney stood lost in thought for several seconds, working out the logistics of designing a cloak that would cover the entire landmass. "According to the information in the Ancient database, the continent is a quarter the size of the mainland. It would take, what? Sixty emitters to create a cloak big enough to cover the entire continent? Seventy? How would they link that many emitters together?"
Equations ran through his head as Rodney considered the possibility of a planet-wide cloaking device.
"There would need to be some sort of central control console. Not to mention …" He glanced down at the emitter.
Rodney knelt and pressed his hands around the base until he felt one section give under his fingertips. He found the edge of the loose section, pulled open the access hatch, and felt a jolt in his stomach when he saw the glowing Zed-PM nestled in its socket.
"Yes," he hissed as he pulled the Ancient scanner out of his vest pocket. He skimmed through the data until he found the information on energy signatures and felt his excitement fade.
"Too bad it's almost depleted," he muttered with another glance at the energy bubble less than a meter from the tops of the trees. "Whatever the Ancients had designed it to do, it's not doing it anymore," he told himself. "And Atlantis needs this more than a bunch of trees."
He was about to pull the crystal out of its socket when he glanced at the cloaking bubble again. Was it just a coincidence? he wondered. The emitter had powered up in reaction to his ATA gene, hadn't it? It had to be, he told himself. Why else would it …"
Rodney heard the whine of darts overhead and instinctively ducked.
"McKay to Shep -" Rodney started to shout into his radio and frowned when he didn't feel the transceiver in his ear. "No, no. no!" he exclaimed, frantically searching the ground near the emitter. "This cannot be happening!"
Rodney twitched aside a few of the hanging vines and stared at the boulders at the base of the cliff. "You probably lost it when you fell."
Go look for the earpiece or stay where it was safe? he asked himself. On the one hand, the Wraith couldn't find him as long as the cloak remained active. The problem was that Teyla, Ronon, and Sheppard were still out there and didn't have the same protection.
"You have to warn them," he told himself and took a deep breath.
He peeked through the vines, made sure there were no darts overhead, and limped over to the boulders. He searched the ground for several seconds until he heard the distant whine of more darts and hurried back to the shelter of the bower.
He watched the darts shoot past overhead and grimaced. From the number of darts, the Wraith had to be engaged in a major culling, he realised. "And Sheppard and the others are out there somewhere."
Rodney heard another group of darts fly over the clearing, and even though he knew the Wraith couldn't detect him, he flinched and took a hurried step backwards. His knee twinged at the awkward movement and Rodney grimaced.
"It's going to take you forever to get back to the village," he grumbled as he sat on a convenient tree root. "Assuming the village is still there," he added and hoped Teyla would be all right.
He peeled back the torn material of his trousers and checked the bandage. There wasn't much blood, but as he suspected, the joint was swollen and felt warm to the touch.
"Lovely," he muttered and pushed himself to his feet. No radio. No way to warn his team. And now his knee decided to play up, which meant if he had to make a run for it … Rodney shook his head. "What else can go wrong?" he grumbled.
He heard the whine of another ship overhead, but this one sounded different. The whine was more of a low buzz that sputtered as it came closer to Rodney's position.
"Oh, you just had to ask that," Rodney chastised himself.
He pushed aside some of the vines, careful not to let them escape the protection of the cloak, and watched as a dart skimmed over the tops of the trees in the near distance. A thick column of smoke trailed behind it, and Rodney heard the engines sputter again before failing entirely.
"Don't crash here," he muttered as the dart flew closer and lost more altitude. "Please, don't crash here."
The ship sailed over the clearing, not more than a few meters above the tops of the gnarled trees. Rodney twisted around, ignoring his protesting knee, following the dart's trajectory. The ship dropped below the treeline, and he heard branches snapping and an explosion somewhere in the forest off to his right a few seconds later.
Rodney breathed out a sigh of relief. He waited a few seconds, and when he didn't see any more darts, he glanced at the boulders in the distance. He still needed to find his earpiece. Not to warn the others. They have to know about the Wraith by now, he told himself. No, he needed to make sure they were all still alive.
"And you want to gloat to Sheppard about the Zed-PM," he admitted to himself with a glance at the emitter. "I just hope I get the chance."
He let the vines fall back into place and paced around the bower a few times, trying to burn off the nervous tension. The more he moved, however, the more his knee throbbed. Rodney grimaced, more due to his mounting frustration than the painful knee, and sat on a tree root. He carefully stretched his leg, hoping to ease the ache.
What was he supposed to do now? he asked himself. He didn't have a radio. Other than the Beretta, he didn't have a weapon. He pulled the scanner out of his vest pocket and set the device to look for life signs. Dots crowded the screen. In some places, there were so many that the dots bled together into larger blobs.
He wasn't sure where the Satedan village was on the scanner, and with so many blobs, he wasn't sure where the larger town Sheppard had gone to investigate was either. He saw one of the blobs moving closer to his position and glanced at the vines dangling behind him.
"Not good," he muttered, stuffing the scanner into his vest pocket and pushing himself to his feet.
He felt for the Beretta on his hip and froze when he thought he heard the sound of children shouting off to his left.
It can't be kids, he told himself. Why would kids be running around in the forest when the Wraith were culling the planet?
"Unless they are running away from something," Rodney said and felt the blood drain from his face. Was that it? The Wraith had found the Satedan village, and the children were running away from the soldiers?
He fought with the dangling vines and nearly fell when his knee gave out under him in his haste to get a better view of the clearing.
"Glah!" he exclaimed, bracing his hand on a tree trunk. He rubbed the abused joint for a moment, then pushed the vines out of his way and peered out into the clearing.
"It's right behind us!" a girl shouted.
"Coby, you need to take the others and go!" a male voice shouted. "Get through the clearing and into the deeper woods on the other side. I'll give you as much time as I can."
"What about the shrine?" another boy asked. "We could hide there."
Shrine? Rodney wondered and glanced at the emitter. They think it's a shrine? Figures.
"No. It won't be safe," the first male voice replied. "The Wraith will search the bower. Your only chance is the woods."
"But -" the second boy said.
"Don't argue with me!" the first boy ordered. "Just go!"
Rodney had a flash memory of Sheppard telling him the same thing any number of times over the last two years and felt another stab of worry in his gut. John will be all right, Rodney told himself. He knows how to take care of himself.
Rodney was still trying to convince himself the rest of his team would be fine when a boy with curly brown hair ran into the clearing, followed by a gaggle of other children. The curly-haired boy skidded to a halt at the edge of the trees and held out his arms, forcing the rest of the children to stop.
"We have to run!" one of the girls said and tried to push against the boy's outstretched arm.
"No, wait," the boy replied. "Something's wrong. Where's -"
Rodney heard another dart closing on the clearing, and the boy pushed the children back under the nearby trees.
The children ducked under the branches and huddled together near the edge of the forest as the dart passed by without engaging its culling beam. Once the ship disappeared, the children were up and running through the clearing.
It took Rodney a few seconds too long to realise they were heading directly for him. Before he could get out of the way, the curly-haired boy ran through the cloak and bowled Rodney to the ground. The rest of the children following the boy tripped over their sprawled bodies, and Rodney found himself at the bottom of a pile of terrified children.
Panic took over, and Rodney felt his heart rate skyrocket. For a moment, he wasn't on a planet in another galaxy. He was back in a college gymnasium as panicked students pushed him to the ground and trampled him. He pushed off one of the bodies lying on top of him and scooted back until his shoulders hit the pedestal for the emitter.
"Everyone all right?" the curly-haired boy asked the other children.
"Where did the trees come from?" one of the children asked.
"Who's he?" someone else asked.
Rodney ignored the questions and tried to catch his breath but ended up coughing instead. He groped for the canteen clipped to his belt, choked down a few sips of water, and finally got the fit under control. His throat and chest hurt, but Rodney ignored the dull ache as he looked into the startled faces of the children sitting on the ground in front of him.
The children ranged in age from about eight or nine to maybe twelve. Each one had a pack of some sort strapped to his or her back, and Rodney pursed his lips when one of the younger children started to cry.
"Hey," the curly-haired boy said, pointing at Rodney. "You're one of the people who came to our village yesterday."
"What?" Rodney croaked and stifled another cough. He took another sip of water and capped the canteen.
"Are you all right, Mister?" the curly-haired boy asked.
"Fine," Rodney replied. He cleared his throat and asked, "What did you say about a village?"
The boy didn't look convinced by Rodney's assessment of his health but replied, "You were in our village yesterday. I saw you talking to Orlin."
Rodney felt his heart sink at the news. He'd been right, he realised. The Wraith had found the Satedan village. Did that mean Teyla was dead or, worse, culled? he wondered.
"Oh, umm, Orlin. Yes. I'm Doctor Rodney McKay," Rodney said to the boy.
"I'm Coby," the curly-haired boy said. "These other are -"
"Don't really care," Rodney replied, pushing himself to his feet with a groan. "Would you stop that?" Rodney ordered the girl, still sniffing beside him.
The girl stared at him, wide-eyed, and Rodney saw her face screw up as she started to cry louder.
"No, no, you're not doing that," Rodney told her. He wasn't good with children at the best of times. This was not the best of times, and he had no idea what to do with one who insisted on crying.
Tears ran down the girl's cheeks, and one of the older children wrapped her arms around the crying child. "It's okay, Katia. It will be okay," the girl cooed to the crying child while she glared at Rodney. "She's scared," she scolded Rodney as the crying child clung to the older girl. "You're being mean."
Rodney had no response to that and turned to Coby. "What happened -" he started to ask but stopped when another dart flew over the clearing. The dart hovered over the bower, and Rodney held his breath.
"Greta, make her stop," Coby hissed to the girl holding the crying Katia.
"You're not my boss," Greta replied with a scowl.
"Be quiet!" Rodney ordered and glared at both of them.
It can't detect us, he told himself, peeking through the vines. It doesn't know you're here. At least not yet, he added with another glare at Greta and the whimpering Katia.
Were there other kids still in the forest? Rodney wondered. Was the dart picking up their life signs? Would the Wraith land in the clearing and start searching for them on foot? What could he do then? The cloak wasn't a shield. It wouldn't stop a Wraith from walking through it, just like Coby and his friends had.
He was still debating what he could do about the dart when it abruptly turned and flew off over the hills.
Rodney ducked his head and blew out a breath of relief.
"The Wraith just left without doing anything," Coby said in awe.
"We can't stay here," Greta said at the same time. "Liam said the Wraith will find us if we stay here."
"No, they won't," Rodney replied. "As long as you stay quiet," he gave Katia, still sniffing against Greta's side, a pointed look, "the Wraith will have no idea we're here."
"You don't know that," Greta argued, her hands on her hips and her chin jutting forward.
"As a matter of fact, I do know that," Rodney retorted with an impatient glare at Greta.
His knee ached. Thanks to the coughing fit, his throat was scratchy and sore. And he was worried about Sheppard and the others. He did not want to deal with demanding, crying children on top of everything else that had gone wrong today.
"The shrine is invisible," Coby blurted, and Rodney heard the hint of awe in his voice.
"Yes," Rodney replied. "Finally. One of you is thinking."
"How -" Coby started to ask, and Rodney pointed to the Ancient device in the middle of the bower.
"That isn't a shrine. It's an Ancient cloaking device. The energy field created by the emitter hides this place from the Wraith."
Coby stared at the device. "Really? Orlin told us the shrines were left by some long-forgotten people to their gods."
Rodney snorted. "He was half-right."
Shrines? Rodney thought as what Coby said sank in. So there was more than one emitter out here. If that was true, he'd been right. The Ancients had created some sort of multi-emitter cloaking field. So why wasn't it working now?
Rodney shoved the question aside when he heard the whoosh/whine of a Wraith stunner coming from the trees to his right. He pushed past the huddle of children standing near the emitter and brushed some of the vines to one side. His hand reached for Beretta in its holster as he peered out into the cleaning, looking for the Wraith with the stunner.
"How many more of you are out there?" he asked with a glance at Coby.
"Umm, just my brother, Liam. He told all of us to run …" Coby sniffed and glanced through the vines at the clearing.
Rodney heard the whoosh/whine noise again. A moment later, an older boy ran into the clearing, firing an energy beam from his rifle into the trees behind him. Unlike Ronon's weapon, however, the burst produced by the rifle didn't appear to do much to the drone that followed the boy into the clearing. The young man managed to hit the drone twice with the energy beams, but the Wraith only staggered back a step and shook itself before charging after the boy again. Undeterred, the young man kept firing as the drone closed on him.
"That's Liam!" Coby cried and tugged on Rodney's arm. "You have to do something!"
Rodney grimaced. All he had to defend himself with was the Beretta. On the other hand, he couldn't just let the kid get fed on, either. He debated what he should do for a split second, then blew out a breath and unholstered the Beretta.
"Stay here," Rodney told Coby. "And keep them quiet. Just because the Wraith can't see you doesn't mean they can't hear you."
Coby nodded and herded the huddle of younger children to the other side of the emitter. He said something to the little girl still whimpering, and after a few last hiccupy sniffles, she stopped crying.
Rodney heard another whoosh/whine from the Wraith stunner and took a deep breath. He raised the Beretta, pushed through the curtain of vines, and aimed at the drone only a couple of meters away from him. He squeezed his eyes shut, pulled the trigger, and kept firing until the weapon clicked empty. When he opened his eyes, Rodney was surprised to see the Wraith drone lying, unmoving, on the ground.
The young man slung the strap for the rifle over his shoulder and stared at Rodney. "I don't know where you came from, Mister, but thanks."
Rodney busied himself with ejecting the spent magazine and loading a fresh one. He was about to holster the weapon when he saw the Wraith twitch.
"Not good," he murmured. "Really not good." He turned to the young man and added, "We need to go."
The young man shook his head. "I can't. There were kids with me. I need -"
"They're in there." Rodney waved his hand toward the invisible bower.
"There's nothing -"
"Liam!" Coby shouted and hurtled out of the bower toward the young man.
Liam staggered back a step as Coby crashed into him, and Coby wrapped his arms around Liam's middle.
"Hey, I'm fine," Liam replied with a gentle smile. He returned the hug and asked, "What about the others?"
Coby stepped back and swiped a hand across his nose. He turned and pointed at the empty space behind them.
"Wow," Coby said to Rodney in an awed whisper. "You weren't kidding. The trees really are invisible."
"Coby? Where are the others?" Liam demanded.
"They're right there," Coby replied. He tugged Liam's hand and stepped closer to where the bower should be. "Doctor Rodney called it a cloak -"
Rodney was about to tell Coby he was not 'Doctor Rodney' when the Wraith drone shifted on the ground, and it groped for the hand weapon lying next to it.
"That doesn't matter right now," Rodney said and scooped up the stunner. "We can't stay here."
"But you said we would be safe because of the shrine," Coby countered.
"That was before," Rodney told him. "Now we have a Wraith drone about to figure out this clearing isn't as empty as it seems. We need to get out of here before it's fully awake again."
As he spoke, the drone's head twisted in Rodney's direction, and Rodney aimed the stunner at the Wraith. Unlike the larger stun rifles, he had never fired one of the hand weapons before. He wasn't even sure how the weapon worked, but his only other choice was to drop the stunner if he wanted to use the Beretta, and he wasn't willing to give the drone back its weapon.
"Get the others," Liam said to Coby as he unslung the rifle. "We'll head that way," he pointed off to the right. "the forest is more dense -"
"No," Rodney said. "Don't go that way. A Wraith ship crashed not far from here in that direction. Let's not find out the hard way that the pilot somehow survived."
Liam grimaced. " All right, we'll head down the valley."
"But the village is in the other direction," Coby argued. "We need to get back -"
The drone sat up and twisted its head one way and then the other.
"We need to go!" Rodney interrupted and fumbled with the stunner.
He squeezed the grip of the stunner, and a burst of light erupted from the weapon with the familiar whoosh/whine. The blast missed the drone but startled Rodney.
"Now!" Rodney ordered as he took a hurried step back from the drone and tried to find the trigger for the stunner again.
"Go!" Liam shouted at the same time. He readied the rifle in his hands as Coby disappeared back into the bower.
A few seconds later, he ran out again, leading the gaggle of children into the woods to Rodney's left.
Rodney squeezed the stunner's grip again and, this time, managed to hit the drone with one of the randomly-fired beams.
The drone dropped back to the ground, and Rodney pushed Liam in the direction where Coby and the other children had disappeared into the trees.
"Follow the kids," Rodney ordered.
"What about you?" Liam asked as he backed away from the twitching drone on the ground. He fired a shot into the drone, but it didn't have much effect.
"I'm right behind you," Rodney replied.
He aimed the stunner at the drone, fired again, then turned and ran after Liam.
~*~*~*~ SGA ~*~*~*~
Teyla sat on a bench near the tunnel entrance, watching as Orlin walked back and forth along the tunnels offering encouragement to the women and reassuring the children that the Wraith would be leaving soon. Willem and the few other men stood in a group not far away from Teyla. She could tell they were all tense as they checked over their weapons and glanced at the hatch from time to time.
Do they wish they were fighting the Wraith? she wondered, Or were they worried the Wraith could break through the hatch? She glanced at the hatch as another loud crash echoed from the village above.
Two men stood on the stone steps on either side of the closed hatch, watching through the peepholes and offering a whispered commentary of what the Wraith were doing.
"They've nearly destroyed all of the buildings in the square," one of the men reported.
"How many Wraith are still in the village?" Orlin asked.
"Maybe thirty," the man reported. "And there are still two ships circling the village."
Teyla listened to the whine of the darts, heard the whooshing sound of the dart's weapons firing, and winced when she heard another crash.
"That was the pub," the man reported.
Orlin sank down on a nearby bench and rested his head in his hands.
"Orlin?" Teyla asked as she scooted over and rested a hand on his arm.
"Seven years," he muttered, glancing at the women and children huddled nearby. "Seven years of work and toil to build a new home for my people. The Wraith are destroying it in an afternoon."
"Homes can be rebuilt," Teyla reminded him. "Crops sown anew. The important thing is that your people are still alive and safe." She nodded at the women and children seated nearby.
"But for how long?" Orlin asked her. "The Wraith are attacking now at a level we haven't witnessed since the fall of Sateda. More and more people have sought refuge on Haven in the last two years. More than ever in the past."
"I know," Teyla replied. "We have seen this as well."
"Listen." Orlin pointed at the hatch, and Teyla heard the whine of the dart's weapons firing on the village. "This is not merely a culling," he said. "What future can our children have while the Wraith remain such a constant threat?"
"I cannot answer that," Teyla replied with a sad smile. "I can tell you there are those like Colonel Sheppard and his people who are willing to stand and fight against the Wraith."
Orlin shook his head. "No one can win against the Wraith."
"They have had some successes," Teyla told him. "When the Wraith attacked Atlantis, Sheppard's people managed to destroy several hive ships."
"And they still lost the fabled city of the Ancestors in the process," Orlin countered with a dismissive shake of his head.
Teyla clasped her hands in her lap and looked down the tunnel at the women and children. She wanted nothing more than to reassure Orlin and the others that Atlantis still stood in defiance of the Wraith and as a beacon of hope for the galaxy. But until they had confirmation the Wraith knew the city had survived the siege, she had a duty to protect not only the Earth people but her own people on the mainland.
Orlin rubbed a hand over the scars on his arm. "We tried to fight," he replied and glanced at Teyla. "Sateda tried to stand against the Wraith. This," he pointed to the scars on his arms and neck, "this is what happens when you try to defy the Wraith."
Teyla heard another crash outside and winced.
Orlin glanced at the hatch and shook his head. "I was part of a small militia," he said, rubbing the scars on his arm. "We were charged with defending the smaller villages while the official army dealt with containing the Wraith near the cities. One of the Wraith ships broke formation and strafed the village my group was meant to protect." Orlin paused and wiped his eyes.
"The ship hit one of the buildings on the outskirts of the village where the women and children were hiding." Orlin stopped and took a shuddering breath.
Teyla glanced at the thick scars on Orlin's arms and hissed in a breath.
"We did what we could to rescue them," he whispered. "We managed to save a few."
"I am sorry," Teyla whispered.
Orlin nodded and scrubbed a hand over his face. "When the Wraith left the area, we made our way to one of the bunkers near the capital city. Other survivors were there ahead of us, many of them from the capital. One of the women was a nurse who worked at the same hospital where Melena …" He stopped again.
Teyla reached out and squeezed Orlin's fingers. "I, too, have lost family to the Wraith," she said and tried not to think about her parents. "I understand the sense of pain and loss all too well."
"She didn't have to die," Orlin hissed, pulling his fingers from Teyla's hand. "It was Ronon who encouraged her to move to the capital. His unit was one of the ones charged with defending the city. He told her she would be safe there. As the fighting grew worse, I begged her to leave. Leave the city. Leave the planet. But she refused." Orlin clenched his hands into fists and glared at Teyla. "I know it was because of him. Ronon is as much to blame for her death as the Wraith."
Teyla wasn't sure what to say. Ronon had never talked much about what had happened when the Wraith attacked Sateda. All she knew before coming to Haven was that a man named Kell had sacrificed hundreds of men during the last days of the siege to ensure his own escape.
Ronon had made sure Kell paid for his crimes, but Teyla had suspected there was more to Ronon's story than what little he had told her. His single-minded desire to kill Wraith had to stem from personal loss as much as the destruction of the planet itself, she had surmised. Now she knew he had lost someone dear to him in the fighting.
And probably blames himself for Melena's death as much as Orlin does, she thought to herself.
"Was this his doing, too?" Orlin asked in a low growl and pointed at the hatch. "You admitted the Wraith were tracking him."
"No," Teyla replied. "One of our doctors removed the Wraith tracking device months ago. The Wraith arriving on Haven now is a coincidence, nothing more."
Orlin snorted in disbelief. "You expect me to -"
"Shh!" one of the lookouts hissed. "Wraith soldiers heading this way."
"Douse the lights," Orlin ordered. "And keep the children quiet!"
Someone switched off the lights, plunging the tunnels into darkness, and Teyla tightened her grip on the P-90. She felt for the spare magazines in her vest pocket and found she only had one left. How many Wraith could she kill before the tunnel was overrun? she wondered as she checked over the weapon by touch.
The lookouts ducked away from the peepholes, and Teyla stood with the P-90 aimed at the hatch. She felt more than saw two others flank her and took a deep, calming breath. If she was to die, at least she would die protecting innocents, she reminded herself.
"Back," Orlin said, and Teyla heard shuffling footsteps behind her. "Give them room."
"Well?" Willem asked in a low hiss a few seconds later. "What are they waiting for?"
A shadow moved across the ground near one of the peepholes, and the light coming through the tiny gap vanished as one of the lookouts snuck a peek outside.
"A dozen Wraith," the lookout reported in a barely audible whisper. "Standing at the base of the pillar."
"What are they doing?" Orlin whispered.
"Noth - Wait. Down! Get down!" the lookout exclaimed.
Teyla heard a thump, presumably the man jumping down from the step where he'd stood watch, and a moment later, a thunderous crash echoed through the tunnels. Dust sifted down from the roof, and cracks formed in the stone covering the hatch as the rumbling noise above them continued.
A piece of stone broke through the hatch cover, and Teyla tried not to cough as more dust drifted over her. She glanced at the hatch and saw a piece of stone wing wedged into a corner of the hatch.
Several children started crying, and Teyla heard their mothers frantically trying to quiet them. She tightened her grip on the P-90 and waited to see if the Wraith noticed the weirdly canted angle of the bird sculpture.
"What was that?" someone asked from the back of the tunnel.
"The memorial column," the lookout replied from somewhere behind Teyla. "The Wraith destroyed it."
"Quiet!" Orlin ordered. "They'll hear."
Teyla heard more sniffling, this time from a few of the women as well as the children, before the noise tapered off into fearful silence.
"Will the Wraith notice the odd angle of the stone?" Teyla whispered to herself, but Willem must have heard her.
"We'd better hope they don't," Willem replied. "The hatch is the only way out of the tunnels. If the Wraith discover us down here, there won't be any escape. For any of us."
"What?" Teyla hissed. "Why did you not build other means of escape?"
"It has taken seven years to dig this," Willem replied. "We were in the process of adding an escape hatch near the forest, but …" Willem stopped speaking, and Teyla heard something grind across the hatch. "We ran out of time."
Teyla pursed her lips and said nothing as she glanced at the walls of the stone-lined tunnel. She had to admit it was an impressive feat. The tunnels were dry and large enough to accommodate the village's entire population, if a little on the crowded side, as well as stores of food and water.
Everyone in the village must have helped with the digging, she thought to herself. But would it be enough?
After several minutes when there were no other noises from the village, Orlin whispered, "Kelg, see what's happening."
Someone shuffled forward. "Sorry, sorry," the low voice said, and Teyla felt someone bump into her arm.
Teyla heard a low grunt, and then the voice added, "No good. The hole is blocked on this side."
There was more shuffling, and then, "Umm, I think they're leaving," Kelg reported, and Teyla heard the sense of relief in his tone.
"You're certain?" Orlin asked.
"It's hard to say for sure. There is debris blocking both of the peepholes," Kelg replied a few seconds later. "I can see a corner of the village, closer to the forest. I don't see any Wraith. I don't hear their ships, either, but I can smell smoke. I think they are burning the fields."
"Oh," one of the women exclaimed as the smell of smoke from the burning crops wafted into the tunnel.
"I think they're gone," Kelg reported a few minutes later.
Teyla felt the tension melt from her shoulders as she lowered the P-90. Hiding in the tunnels had worked, she thought to herself. The villagers were safe. But what of her team?
"Lights," Orlin said.
The lights came on, and Teyla let the P-90 dangle from the clip on her vest. Willem stood on Teyla's left and lowered the triple-barreled rifle in his hands. He gently pushed Kelg to one side and studied the stone cover for the hatch.
Teyla tapped her earpiece and said, "Teyla to Colonel Sheppard. Colonel? Please come in." When Sheppard didn't reply, she tried Ronon and Rodney and felt her heart sink when they didn't respond either.
She saw Orlin watching her but ignored his knowing look. Instead, she took a deep breath and smiled as she watched the women hugging their children and heard the relieved chatter as word spread the Wraith were gone.
"Stand back," Willem said, grasping a rope attached to a pulley. "We'll get the hatch open."
"No," Orlin countered. "We'll stay here a little while longer. Just to be sure the Wraith have really gone."
Willem frowned and gave the rope a tug. He stepped closer to the edge of the hatch and pulled the rope again.
"Willem, I said to wait," Orlin ordered as Willem tugged the rope again.
"I think we have a problem," Willem said. He let go of the rope and scrubbed a hand over his chin.
"What is wrong?" Teyla asked.
"That," Willem replied, pointing at the chunk of stone wing protruding through the hatch.
Teyla stared at the stone for several seconds before she realised part of the wing had wedged itself under the lip of the hatch.
"The stone is acting like a doorstop," Willem said. "We can't get the hatch open with it in the way like that."
"Is the mechanism itself damaged?" Orlin asked.
Willem nodded. "The pulley won't engage." He tugged on the lax rope. "That could mean the rope was cut, or the pulley might have been damaged."
"Is there a way to open the hatch without using the rope?" Teyla asked. "Perhaps by working together, there is a way to push the stone out of the way."
Willem pulled one of the benches under the hatch, stood on the bench, and braced his shoulder against the stone wing. Kelg joined him, and together they tried to force the debris back through the hole in the hatch. Teyla heard them grunting and saw the muscles in their shoulders bulge as they worked, but the stone refused to move.
"It. Won't. Budge," Willem said, panting as he jumped down from the hatch.
Kelg landed beside him, rubbing his shoulder.
Willem glanced up at the stone. "Maybe more of the pillar is piled on top of it," he said. "It would explain why the Wraith never noticed the hole. Unfortunately, it also means we're trapped down here." Willem glanced at Orlin, and Teyla wondered how many times they had argued about the construction of the escape hatch.
"Surely someone will come looking for us," Teyla said into the charged silence as Orlin and Willem glowered at each other.
"Eventually, someone might come to the village," Orlin agreed, "but they won't know to look for us here."
"Why not?"
Orlin sighed and rubbed his forehead. "Because for our own safety, we never told anyone outside the village about the tunnels."
"Colonel Sheppard and Ronon will -" Teyla started to say.
Orlin made a disgusted snort at the mention of Ronon's name.
"They will find us," Teyla told Orlin with a frown.
"They were most likely culled," Orlin replied, shaking his head. "Or they're dead."
Teyla felt another stab of guilt in her chest and looked down at her hands.
Sheppard and Ronon might be able to defend themselves, at least long enough to find a place to hide, she told herself. But what about Rodney? He had been in the forest, alone, because she had wanted to try and mend Ronon's relationship with Orlin. Her actions had most likely sentenced him to death. Or something worse, she reminded herself.
"Best you accept that now," Orlin finished.
Teyla blew out a breath and stood straight. She knew Orlin was most likely correct, but a tiny corner of her heart held out hope that Sheppard, Ronon, and maybe even Rodney had somehow found a way to escape the culling.
"They will find us," she said again. "We do not leave people behind."