Author's Notes: Sorry for the long period between updates. Work is rather hectic at the minute, everyone's off sick and the survivors arepickingup the slack.I blame the snow. Thanks for the reviews! Heh, they're not very dissimilar from the Genii.I know,but it's okay.It's Stargate's fault. I feel like Trey Parker and Matt Stone: "Can't do that. Simpsons did it." There are just no new ideas anymore...
If I Die
Chapter Ten - Shut Up, McKay
Teyla crouched in the shadow of a leafy shrub, taking care not to crush any branches beneath her feet.
The men before her were not so careful.
The Stargate lay before her, thirty meters or more up the mountain ahead. It might as well have been a thousand. Two dozen men stood between her and the 'gate, dressed in the uniform of the Silani guard, and carrying the same ugly guns. They stood stiffly, eyes scanning the surrounding forest for any movement, and when Teyla turned away she did so slowly, careful not to reveal her position.
Fortunately she had been a hunter much longer than the men she now hid from.
The three men were waiting in a shallow cave, carved by a stream which ran past their feet. She caught Ford's eyes first, glimpsed him as he lurked in the darkness keeping watch, his hands and knees muddied from the earth on which he rested. McKay lay bound to the stretcher, Sheppard crouched beside him, one hand on his friend's shoulder.
His eyes met hers, asking silently, and she responded with a shake of her head. Saw his shoulders slump a fraction.
McKay had seen their movements despite their every effort at subterfuge. "I take it we're going to be here a while?"
"Not long until Elizabeth calls in," Sheppard said, quietly.
Weakly: "Just waiting for the cavalry."
Sheppard patted him. "I realize it's rare for me to say this, but Rodney, the best thing you can do is lie still and shut up."
"Hmpf," came back the response, thought the scientist's eyes had closed, "very rare." His features slackened, breath evening out, shallow and slow.
Teyla saw the empty needle Sheppard now discarded, and the single hypodermic left.
"We can't stay here," the Major said, packing away the kit. "We need somewhere dry, ideally with a roof."
"I believe I saw a structure close to the crest of the mountain," she offered. A circuitous route to the 'gate had led her up to the peak at some distance from the Stargate, and she had then followed the rocky outcrop before dropping back down to spy on Jawesh's men. Emerging on the top, she had spied a building through the trees, a glimpse of a roof and grey stone ignored by either side, submerged in greenery.
It was to this she now led them, Sheppard and Aiden bearing the stretcher and an unconscious McKay. The group moved slowly, traversing a short distance and then stopping whilst she scouted ahead, looking for any sign of Silani or Hallan activity. Fortunately the border land, only recently broken, was mostly untouched, and the only obstacle in their path was the deep undergrowth.
The building was set into the mountainside and partially crumbled. Green tiles came out from the rock and sloped downwards, supported by bricks overgrown with moss. A thin, rectangular hole ran the length of the front wall, overlooking the valley. Teyla wondered whether it had once been a look out point, used by the Silani centuries ago – it looked almost as old as the council halls – though it had since been abandoned, lost in the area of contested neutrality between the two sides.
A no-man's land, Major Sheppard had said. Another new human term.
The only entrance was a locked wooden door, but a quick push and both the rusty lock and rotten wood crumbled. She entered first. Her torch illuminated a ceiling covered in small, glittering stone tiles, and a floor patterned by larger squares of the same material. A wooden bench ran across the front wall beneath the window, though she would not have trusted her weight to it. In the centre of the room stood a number of short, wide pedestals, waist high, with wide, flat tops. Everything was covered in a layer of dirt and dust, the front of the room splashed with mud, but she could see a metallic glint beneath.
Kicking some of the rubble away, Major Sheppard cleared a small space big enough to place the stretcher. McKay didn't stir, lay in a repose that might have been described as peaceful had his face not been pinched in pain. Ford dropped his pack and leaned it against the stone wall.
Crossing to one of the pedestals, Teyla reached out to clear away some of the moss from its surface. To her shock, upon contact the pedestal released a short burst of light illuminating the entire room, before fading to a dull glow.
"What the hell?" Sheppard breathed, stood over her shoulder.
Carefully clearing its surface of more moss, Teyla saw a flat panel of blinking lights and diagrams, not too dissimilar to those used in Atlantis, albeit cruder. She ran a hand across the screen and the image changed, displayed the picture of a planet rotating slowly.
"Silan?" Sheppard asked.
"I assume."
"Does it make any sense to you?"
She shook her head, tried pressing the screen experimentally. The machine bleeped at her, but there was no change to the image. Tried again, then hit one of the buttons on the side of the panel. Another bleep.
"Must be locked," Sheppard explained, "maybe with a password or a DNA sequence like the ones on Atlantis."
"Could Doctor McKay unlock it?" she asked. Regretted her words when she saw Sheppard's face fall.
"Probably," he admitted. "So let's not tell him about it. You know what he's like."
She nodded, smiled slightly, trying to reassure him. "Not even a bullet wound could prevent him from a new discovery."
Ford was stood in the doorway, keeping watch. "Anything interesting?"
"Nothing of high priority." Sheppard turned away from the console and looked through the window to the darkening night sky. "Six hours until Weir calls in. We should all get some rest."
Ford winced. "It was really only yesterday we were still in Atlantis?" Volunteered: "I'll take first watch."
Sheppard nodded at him appreciatively, then grimaced, pushing one hand across the back of his neck and massaging the skin deeply. "I'll take second. Teyla?"
She nodded, was already making herself comfortable in the far corner, using her pack as a pillow. Closed her eyes on an image of Ford's silhouette in the doorway, and Major Sheppard crouched beside McKay, whispering into his friend's ear.
