Part Seven

When Sheppard showed up in the Jumper Bay with Beckett and Markham in tow, he found Ford and Teyla ready and waiting.

As soon as Elizabeth gave him the go-ahead, they sped through the Stargate. On the other side, Sheppard brought the ship around in a tight turn to face the 'Gate and was easily able to activate the 'Star 69' function. He watched the DHD panel on the Jumper console light up.

"This address looks familiar. Teyla?"

The Athosian leaned forward between the front seats to look. "It should be familiar, Major. That is the address for Pataskala."

"That," John said, "makes a lot more sense than Proculis." He maneuvered the ship through the Stargate, then made another tight turn over the fields of Pataskala and once again 'Star 69'ed the 'Gate.

As the DHD lit up, John began to frown. "Atlantis?" he muttered, and as soon as the wormhole was established, he radioed the Ancient city.

"Atlantis, this is Sheppard. Did McKay come back?"

"No, Major, he didn't. Where are you?" They heard Elizabeth's startled voice.

"The Proculis Stargate led us to Pataskala. Rodney must be somewhere in the vicinity. We're going to scout out the area. Sheppard out."

John sat there, eyes closed, after the radio link was broken. Ford heard him whisper, "What would McKay do?"

When he opened his eyes a few seconds later, Sheppard didn't look like he'd come up with an answer, but he said decisively, "Let's go check out the village first."

They flew over the village and several miles of farmland around it, but there was no sign of the other Puddle Jumper or any life at all.

"The Wraith took them all," Carson commented sadly.

"Any ideas, Beckett?" John sounded dispirited.

Shaking his head, the Scotsman replied, "This is Rodney we're talking about. The only thing we can be sure he didn't do is go after the Wraith."

The Jumper came to an abrupt halt and Ford instinctively braced himself against the console even though the inertial dampeners kept him in his seat. He watched Sheppard swivel around to face Beckett, eyes wide and startled.

"What did you say?" His voice was unusually soft.

The doctor flustered, turned red in the face and said, "Uh – he – he wouldn't go after the Wraith?"

"Not normally, no, but now? After what happened to the one he met here?" His elation quickly turned to horror. "Oh my god, he hasgone after the Wraith. That idiot! He always gets brave at the wrong time."

Sheppard spun around to face the console and took them up out of the atmosphere. A map materialized in front of his face, showing a small pulsating blip heading towards a large spiky blip that was surrounded by little arrow-shaped blips.

"I didn't know we could do that!" Markham exclaimed.

"Neither did I," his CO muttered. "The little blinking one is the other Puddle Jumper. The big one…" he swallowed audibly, "…the big one is a Wraith hiveship."

In the silence that followed that statement, John made up his mind. "Look, I'll take you back to Atlantis. We can't catch up with McKay before he reaches the hiveship. Anyone who goes after him may not make it back. I can't order you to come with me."

A chorus of protests answered him, and he couldn't help but grin.

"Okay, then. Let's go get our resident genius." He set a course to intercept them and pushed the little craft to its top speed.

"How long will it take us to catch up?" Carson asked.

"The hiveship is moving pretty slowly…about eight hours. But Rodney has a head start on us by about two hours."

"If he attacks the hiveship, he will not survive," Teyla said quietly.

"I think he plans to sneak on board and try to take them individually. What I don't understand is why he's doing it. Even if he can drain the Wraith and kill them, there's just too many of them. They'll find a way to take him down without letting him touch them. It's like he's on a – " John's voice failed him for a moment, " – a suicide mission. I don't know, maybe he's afraid he'll turn on us."

Beckett added, "There's no way to tell how his mind has been affected by the changes happening to him. He may not be the man we know anymore."

"Wait a minute, you said all he had to do was touch you to drain your energy. So how are we going to take him back to Atlantis if he doesn't want to go?" Aiden wondered.

Carson opened his pack, pulled out a package of latex gloves, and handed everyone a pair. "When I put my hand on his shoulder, touching his shirt, I was fine. It wasn't until he touched my hand and we made skin to skin contact that I collapsed. It doesn't happen all the time, either. I'd held his arm to keep him from falling over only a few minutes before, and nothing happened. I'd prefer not to take chances, though, so I suggest you try to avoid touching him. I hope it won't be necessary, but we might need to restrain him."


The sight of the huge hiveship, surrounded by a cloud of Darts, would have been terrifying and awe-inspiring if Rodney hadn't been mired in a seething quagmire of grief and rage. His earlier cold resolve had been eroded by the hours of traveling to catch up to the Wraith, who seemed to be taking their time getting to their next feeding ground.

He felt dizzy and sick and oddly hungry, but ignored the sensation fiercely, maneuvering the cloaked Puddle Jumper through the surrounding Darts and into the open docking bay. Once the engines were shut down, he sat there with his face in his hands for a moment. It took all his resolve to stand up, wipe suspiciously damp eyes, and leave the relative safety and comfort of the Jumper for the cold, dark corridors of the hiveship.


As they watched, the little blip seemed to merge with the large blip.

Carson paled. "Is he – "

"It's okay, I think he docked with the hiveship," Sheppard replied. "He must be cloaked, they don't seem to have noticed him."

Teyla's voice was calm and resolved. "How long until we reach them?"

"Two hours now."