The Journey

Chapter 7

A/N: This story is part of four stories which I mapped out after having seen the first ten episodes of SGA. The story contradicts several things we learn in later episodes, so you can consider it AU after The Eye. This chapter has slight spoilers for 38 Minutes.


Dr. Weir was pacing in her office. She knew that something like this was going to happen. It hadn't just been a bad feeling, no; she had downright known that it would happen. Or maybe she had been around Teyla and her prophecies too long. The exploration team on Athos had missed its last two schedules contacts with the security back-up team on the planet. The back-up team which had secured the location and the gate had reported no trouble, but could offer no explanation why the exploration team was not responding to any communication attempts. A preliminary search of the city had revealed nothing, the best guess was that the team was somewhere within a huge temple structure which was protected by a force field. That was the last she had heard from the surface. The next contact was scheduled in three hours. Dr. Weir was just about to resume another round of pacing when there was a knock on her door.

"Come in!"

It was Dr. Grodin. "Dr. Weir, Dr. Zelenka needs to see you in the lab. He says the Wraith are coming."

Both of them hurried down to the lab, where Dr. Zelenka was already waiting for them, pacing nervously.

"What do you have for us?"

"I was working with the scanner from the Genii, trying to hook it up to our sensor to enhance the range and get a more precise reading. I finally got it to work, and this is what I found." He pointed to the screen of his laptop. "Four ships are headed towards Atlantis. Preliminary ETA is 10 hours 23 minutes, but the computer is working on a more exact estimate right now."

"Good work, stay on it. Peter, get in contact with our people on Athos, tell them to get back, their mission is over. Recall all other off-world teams."

Atlantis erupted in a frenzy of activity as evacuation of the city began and military and science personnel got together to work out strategies, one seeming as futile as the next.


John swept the room with the light of his weapon. As he and Teyla had sensed there were no hostiles present, but the ray of light revealed two bodies slumped on the floor. Once reassured that the room was safe, Teyla turned on the flashlight, illuminating most of the small, empty room. In the far corner was the body of Dr. Devon, the anthropologist who has joined them on this mission. It was impossible to tell whether the scientist was merely unconscious or dead. The second body was far more worrisome. They could only guess that the desiccated remains of what used to be a human body belonged to Lieutenant Young, who had been paired up with Dr. Devon to search the temple. They had seen bodies like this before. Bodies of people the Wraith had fed upon. John turned to the doorway to make sure they weren't about to get company while Teyla checked out Dr. Devon.

"She is still, alive, but just barely. It is like she is in some state of hibernation." Teyla stated. "I cannot wake her. If there are indeed Wraith here, it is very unusual that they haven't fed upon her as well. Their hunger has no limits, they will feed upon everything that is available, they leave no survivors. At the moment I cannot sense any Wraith in the area. "

"Do you know of anything else that could have done something like this? I mean if it's not typical for the Wraith, maybe it wasn't the Wraith. It doesn't make sense for the Wraith to be here already. We only triggered the sensor less than two hours ago, it will take them another eight hours to arrive here by ship. Also, how far can you sense the Wraith anyways?"

"You are correct, if they were somewhere in this level of the temple, I would be able to sense them, as would probably you. Their thought pattern differs greatly from that of humans and the drug that Dr. Beckett gave us has worn off by now. It could be that Lieutenant Young was killed by one of the Wraith tics that attacked you three years ago short after you came to Atlantis." Teyla theorized.

"Lovely idea. We have to warn the others, whatever threat is out there, it could have already gotten to them. We are not going to find out anything more while we are here in this room. We need to get to the nearest computer panel, or better yet, the control room. From there we can access the sensors and track it. We know it shows up on the sensors." John set up their plan of action.

"I agree. But we cannot leave Dr. Devon behind." Teyla remarked.

John handed Teyla his weapon and shouldered Dr, Devon. Slowly with Teyla leading on, they made their way out the small chamber, following the corridor they had come from. Luckily Teyla could rely on her mind to inform her in advance of the presence of others, so the darkness of the temple was only minor problem. As they had planned, they made their way to the control room to warn Rodney and Carson about the danger. Half-way there, Teyla stopped, having picked up a presence. It wasn't a human mind, nor of any other species that she could recognise. It was less refined in its thought patterns. It was intelligent all right, but the emotions were wild and raw and it was driven by more instinct instead of than reason. The presence was approaching them fast. She signalled John to retreat.


Rodney had watched in horror how Beckett had crashed to the floor after the hit to his head. He could only hope that the healing gene kicked in as before, fixing any injury caused by the blow. When he thought about it, that healing gene could be seriously useful on missions. McKay was soon brought back to the stark reality of his situation when the creature let out another distorted laugh. It came over and bent down to Rodney's eyelevel. If possible at all, Rodney would have shrunken back, but he couldn't move a muscle below his neck, so he just closed his eyes, waiting for something terrible to happen.

"I see they are coming for you, too. You can thank your Ancient friends for that." The creature said tauntingly and then Rodney felt something akin to four razor blades being dragged across his left cheek, warm wetness immediately following. When he dared to open his eyes again, he saw the creature's retreating back, leaving the control room. Rodney could feel panic well up inside of him. Not being able to move didn't help exactly. He knew what was coming, he tried to calm himself down, but his mind was racing and soon he was gasping for air in full fledged panic attack.


There was no way they could outrun their pursuer, not with a deadweight slowing them down in unfamiliar territory. The footsteps were now audible coming closer as they were still trying to flee. They rounded a corner, now totally lost in the maze of the temple when their pursuer caught up with them. Teyla immediately opened fire, but with little effect. Like the Wraith, this creature, which bore a vague similarity to the Wraith was only slowed down by the hail of bullets. In second it jumped on top of Teyla, wrestling her to the ground and getting a hold of the P90 with brute strength. Having seen that display of force convinced John that he could neither win with fire power nor in hand to hand combat. For a second he was torn between concern for Teyla who was motionless on the ground and escaping while their attacker was still occupied with Teyla. While he was torn between fight and flight, he could feel the presence of mind of the creature more strongly then before. He didn't consciously know what he was doing, but he sent a wave of pain towards his attacker. He hardly knew what he had done, when the creature howled in pain, distracted for a moment, giving him the perfect opportunity to get a head start in his escape.

He was considerably slowed down by the weight of the lifeless Dr. Devon, but for the moment, he had no choice but to lug the scientist with him. He could hear gunshots echo behind him and was glad he had run the moment he did. He didn't want to get shot with a P90 to top his day. It had been exciting enough. Once the gunshots had stopped and his body was begging him to slow down and his lungs were begging for oxygen, he carefully set down his burden and slid down the wall, gasping for air, his muscles trembling slightly from exhaustion. He had been in better shape, but after having spent the previous week in the infirmary, he wasn't used to that much anymore. Beckett would be having a fit if he could see him now. He had to figure out a plan to get the others out. He had to assume that whatever this thing was that had attacked Teyla and him, was the same thing that had killed Lieutenant Young and had attacked Dr. Devon. Whatever it was, it was somehow related to the Wraith. Exactly how many relatives did they have? First the tics and now the Neanderthal version?

Feeling somewhat rested, Sheppard resumed his trek through the corridors of the temple. His plan was to get back to the control room of the upper level. Finally, he found a control panel in one of the corridors. He quickly managed to bring up a map which showed him the nearest way up to the next level. Once up there, he carefully sat down Dr. Devon, glad to finally have gotten the weight of his aching back. He had no time to lose, so he turned immediately to the computer console, bringing back the map with the life signs. He zoomed in on the lower control room where two life signs were almost on top of each other, with two very faint life signs along the walls of the room. The two faints signs were probably Rodney and Teyla. Whatever poison the creature used dampened people's life signs. The two strong signals probably belonged to Beckett and the creature. This was bad. The creature could kill Beckett at any moment and there was nothing he could do from where he was. Maybe there was something he could do, if he hurried up. A vague plan formed in his mind. It was risky and even on a good day, it was not a good plan, but it was the only plan he had.


"Shh, Rodney, calm down." Beckett whispered, hoping that he was getting through to the panicking man. He wasn't sure whether he could affect mental states or poisonings, but he put a hand on Rodney's shoulder. It seemed like the right thing to do, even if Rodney wouldn't be able to feel his touch.

"We are going to get out of here. The major will come up with something." Beckett said, tring to reassure not just Rodney, but also himself. He wasn't sure whether he was imagining it or not, but Rodney's breathing seemed to slow down slightly. His eyes which had been darting around fearfully, fixated on Beckett.

"I woke up a bit ago. It wasn't a bad hit." Beckett answered the unspoken question. Only when he had said it, it occurred to him, that the hit had probably been violent enough to given him a hefty concussion, his body had just recovered quickly. "Are you feeling any better?"

"Sort of, I still can't move, but I got some feeling back." Rodney replied, definitely calmer now. "I think you're doing that, because I can fell your hand on my shoulder and some around that." Rodney's scientific curiosity was back in spite of the circumstances.

Carson was just about the answer, when the heard the creature return, this time with Teyla slung over his shoulder and a P90 in its hand. It deposited Teyla next to McKay, obviously not caring that Beckett was already awake again after the punch to the head and could have walked away if he had wanted to. The creature ignored its prisoners and returned to the computer, switching through the projections like Beckett had done before. McKay watched, puzzled by what he saw. To operate the projections like this, the user needed to have the gene, his artificial gene hadn't been enough once he had been locked out of the system. But the creature seemed to posses the natural gene like Beckett and Sheppard did, yet it was more Wraith like in behaviour and appearance. The creature growled in dissatisfaction, pounding the console.

"Where is the ship?" It turned to its prisoners. "Tell me or I shall have him next." It yanked Beckett to his feet and pulled him close.

"You mean …you mean our ship, it's on top of the cliff." McKay stammered, surprised by the creature's interest in the Puddle Jumper.

"Not your puny ship, the ship of the Ancients. You can't fool me; I know it's hidden in this temple. Now tell me where it is, or I will feed on him. Don't think I will spare you. After I had my fill of him, I will kill you."

TBC