The Weapon

Chapter 4

"Which building now?"

McKay sighed, "I'm not known for my psychic abilities, you know."

"Which one?"

"Why are you always asking me? Ask Teyla."

The guard drew his knife and pointed it as McKay, "Which building?" he repeated.

"I don't know… That one."

The guard with the knife took a step closer and McKay stepped back. "We have already been in there," the guard said.

"Oh, right. Sorry." McKay looked around and pointed at another building. The guard nodded and they walked on.

Half way down the street, Teyla appeared at his side, "You are not acting like yourself," she told him.

He shrugged, "Being kidnapped and forced to wander around a deserted city doesn't bring out the best in anyone."

Teyla shook her head, "It is more than that," she said.

McKay sighed and lowered his voice, "I need something to eat," he told her, "all I've had today is that bowl of soup and half an energy bar. My blood sugar is too low. It has this effect on me sometimes."

"You have the other half of your energy bar in your pocket," Teyla reminded him.

McKay nodded, "But I don't want them to see," he explained, nodding at the guards, "I don't think they like me very much, if they see me snacking on the job they might do something bad."

"If you must eat, then eat," Teyla told him. Then she increased her walking speed to catch up with the guards, who were walking several paces ahead.

McKay heard her speak to them. They answered, seeming to have lost all interest in him. When e was sure that they were distracted, he felt inside his pocket for the bar, unfolded the wrapper and gratefully stuffed the food into his mouth. It wasn't much, but it should do until they returned to the village where hopefully they would be fed.

They walked inside the building and followed the now familiar plan. Daynen walked into the first room, followed by McKay and Teyla, the second guard went last. In the first room it took a matter of seconds for them to realise that there was nothing of interest. They all filed out and repeated the pattern in the next room.

This continued until they reached the third floor where, just as they were about to leave the second room, the unnamed guard heard a noise. He suddenly became still and alert, like an animal that hears a predator. "Wait here," he whispered to Daynen, who nodded.

The guard crept out of the room and down the stairs. As soon as he was gone, Daynen turned to his prisoners "I am very sorry," he told them, "I did not mean for this to happen. Are you both alright?"

"Oh yes," McKay told him in a voice dripping with sarcasm, "we love doing this. We live for days like these"

Daynen glanced out of the window and watched his companion walk past on the ground below, checking for search parties from Atlantis. "I am sorry," Daynen repeated, "I will do everything I can to free you."

Teyla and McKay glanced at one another, then Teyla looked back to Daynen, "Then set us free now. Allow us to make contact with our people outside."

Daynen shook his head, "There is no one outside," he grinned, "I found a stone on the ground outside and dropped it out of the window."

"Why?" asked McKay.

"So that I could speak to you. I needed to apologise. To let you know that I did not plan this. I did not lure you back to our village hoping to trap you." He sighed. "I knew that the village elders would ask for your help," he explained, "I even hoped that you would give it, but I did not know that they would do this. They have forgotten that the Chosen must go of their own will. I suspected that this would happen when I was asked to bring our Elder Warrior, and I should have told you of my suspicions. Please understand, our people have lived so long in fear of the Wraith. Finally there was a chance to free ourselves of that fear. We had no choice."

"My people also know what it is like to live in fear of the Wraith," Teyla told him, "but we never resorted to kidnapping."

"Wait a second," interrupted McKay, "the Chosen? What's that? Why are we chosen?"

"Not all of you, Doctor McKay, you. You are chosen."

"Chosen by who? For what?"

"Chosen by the Gods," Daynen told him. "They chose you when they saw fit to place the box where you would see it. That you were able to coax sound and light from the box only showed that the Gods have more faith in you than in others that were chosen before you."

McKay shook his head, "That's ridiculous," he said, "it was just chance that I found it. Any one of us could have picked that thing up and made it squeak. It wasn't even as though it needed the ATA gene. I just pressed the buttons."

"The Gods have chosen you," Daynen told him, "whether you choose to believe it or not. And my father should know better than to treat someone chosen by the Gods in this manner."

"Jareil is your father?" asked Teyla, surprised.

Daynen nodded, "Yes, and I will try to convince him to let…" he broke off suddenly as the second guard appeared in the doorway.

"No one there," he said.

Daynen nodded, "Then we will stop for a while to rest, and then continue the search." He opened up a small bag that he had been carrying on his back, and removed flasks of water. They sat down on the floor and drank thirstily.

Sheppard and Ford, plus armed escort, were just about to enter their fifth building of the day when they heard voices and footsteps. Immediately, both guards were completely alert. The first man, the one with black hair, crept away to see where the search party was while his younger companion stayed with the prisoners, his knife drawn and at Ford's throat. "Make any noise to let them know where you are, and I will kill you," he whispered.

Sheppard nodded wordlessly. For whatever reason, Jareil may want them to help search the city, but this guard was not Jareil, he might well carry out the threat. And even if he had not believed him, Sheppard would never be willing to stake Ford's, or anyone else's life on his opinion. He just didn't think he was that good at reading people.

The first guard arrived back quickly and beckoned to them to follow him. The younger guard released Ford, but kept his knife in his hand, and they crept quietly away. As they went, Ford carefully unfastened the strap of his watch and let it drop to the ground.

They arrived back in the village almost ten hours after they had left, and were immediately locked in their hut. As soon as the door closed, each of them lay or sat on their beds, exhausted. Almost immediately, the door opened again, and a tray was pushed inside, containing soup, bread and water. McKay stood up and limped to the door. "Oh good," he said unhappily, "more soup."

"I thought you told Jareil you liked the soup," said Sheppard.

"I was being polite." He picked up the tray and carried it closer to the centre of the room, "That was before he kidnapped us, locked us up all night and then made us wander for around for hours on some sort of holy quest."

"What do you mean 'holy quest'?"

McKay shook his head, "I'll explain when I've eaten," he said.

Sheppard nodded in agreement. He didn't feel much like conversation just yet either, but then a thought hit him, "Wait a minute, you were being polite? You?"

"Very funny." He dunked his bread, ate it and winced, "You didn't actually think I liked this, did you?"

"Well, Zelenka did mention to me that you liked military rations. And hospital food. I just thought you had weird taste."

McKay washed the lingering flavour of the soup away with a mouthful of water, "Apparently I do," he said, "but not this weird."

They finished their foul soup. Drank their water and sat in silence for a while, until Sheppard remembered what McKay had said earlier, "So, what's this holy quest stuff?"

McKay explained what Daynen had told them and how he seemed willing to help them escape. He also mentioned that the boy was Jareil's son, and that he wasn't sure he trusted him. "I've just got a thing about people who tell me I've been chosen by God. They tend to be a little funny in the head."

"That's just what he was brought up to believe, McKay. It doesn't mean he's crazy, just religious. Anyway, that would explain why he seemed so excited about that thing you found."

"Great," muttered McKay, "so this is all my fault."

"If it hadn't been you, one of us would have found it," Sheppard assured him, "What I don't get is why these people built up a religion based around people finding old scraps of technology. How'd that happen?"

"It is far more likely that this aspect of their beliefs was added after the Wraith destroyed their civilisation," Teyla said, "possibly someone decided that anyone that could work the remaining technology could use the weapon."

"But it's definitely not the ATA gene?" asked Sheppard.

"I don't know," McKay admitted, "but I doubt it. In any case, the gene had nothing to do with the device I found, I just pressed the buttons."

"And I couldn't make it work. Okay. Whatever the weapon might be, if it still exists, I for one don't want to spend any more time than I have to being led from building to building trying to find it…"

"They led you around?" asked McKay smugly, "they made me choose where to look."

"They believe that their Gods are guiding you," Teyla reminded him.

"Anyway," said Sheppard, "I don't want to spend any more time than I have to trying to find it. Especially since Ford pointed out that it might not even be in this city. Unless Daynen comes up with something to help us out, we're going to have to escape for ourselves. The best way I can think of to do that is to try to make contact with one of the search parties. We encountered one today, but we were forced to hide. I don't know how long they'll stay in the city. If they leave, they could never find the village, or if they do Jareil could easily lie to them about having seen us. We need to leave some sort of sign to let the search parties know that we are still in the city."

"Sir?" said Ford, "while we were hiding from the search party today, I dropped my watch in the street." He held up a watch-free arm to demonstrate. "I'm not sure, but I think we walked down that same street coming back later, and the watch definitely wasn't there."

"Good thinking. If anyone else gets a similar opportunity tomorrow, take it. We need to let them know that we're still around. Those search parties may be our best chance of getting back in one piece."

At around the same time the next night, they were sitting once again in their hut, now minus three watches and a power bar wrapper, when the door opened a crack and Daynen slipped inside. He closed the door behind him, "I have sent the guard to eat," he said, and handed two knives to Sheppard, "This was all I could manage, I tried to bring your own weapons, but they are well guarded. You must leave tonight. I will leave the door unlocked. Your guard is not my friend. If the Gods are on my side, my father will believe that he forgot to lock the door." He opened the door a crack, peered outside nervously and then closed it again, "Wait several hours," he said, "most people will be asleep and the guard may be tired. Watch out for other guards on the way and please, if you are caught do not let my father know what I did."

"Thank you," said Sheppard. But the boy had already left, closing the door behind him.

Sheppard looked at the knives, then back to his team, "Ready to get out of here?" he asked.

Ford grinned, "Yes sir."

"So we just creep out and leave?" said McKay, "What do we do about the guard?"

Sheppard shrugged, "I was thinking take him with us," he said, "we'll let him go when we reach the Stargate, but if he sees us escaping and we leave him, he's going to sound the alarm."

"Perhaps we can convince him to help us avoid the other guards," Teyla said.

"Maybe," agreed Sheppard, "but I wouldn't trust him"

McKay nodded, "He could lead us right up to them and get us all captured again. And if they do recapture us, we might not get another chance to escape."

"Right," said Sheppard, "here's the plan. The three of you get a few hours sleep, while I stay up to make sure we don't sleep all night. I'll wake you up in about four hours, and we'll move. Be as quiet as you can when you wake up, we don't want to alert the guard. We'll surprise him when we open the door, and take him hostage. We won't hurt him, we just need to make sure he can't alert the rest of the village."

The others nodded.

"Good, then try to get some sleep. We might have a tiring night ahead."

"Major?" said Ford, "I can stay up if you want some sleep."

Sheppard shook his head, "I'll be fine," he assured him.

"Half the night then," Ford said, "wake me after two hours. You're going to need some sleep yourself."

"Really, Ford. I'll be fine. Just get some sleep, make sure you're alert for tonight."

Ford nodded. "Yes sir." But he didn't like it. He lay down closed his eyes, hoping that if he couldn't make himself useful by staying up, he could at least try to get some sleep. And the only way that would happen, would be if he fell asleep before the snorers.

"McKay!" Rodney woke up to his arm being shaken and his name urgently whispered. It was almost completely dark in the hut, the only light filtered in under the bottom of the door and around the edge of the shutters.

"Wha…mmmpf?" A hand covered his mouth, stopping the word before he could complete it. Angrily, he pushed it away and opened his mouth to speak again, before he remembered what was happening, "We're leaving?" he whispered.

He could just about make out the shape of Sheppard nodding and covering his mouth with a finger to indicate silence. McKay nodded.

The others were already awake, apparently he had been the last one to be roused. He sat up and rubbed his eyes, hoping that his head would clear of the sleep-induced fog that he could normally never clear until he had eaten, or at least had coffee. He quietly felt for his pack. The villagers had returned them once they had removed anything that could be used as a weapon. He felt inside and retrieved a chocolate bar. His last bit of food. Maybe next time he went through the Stargate he would pack more, after all you never knew when you would be kidnapped again. He quietly inserted the chocolate into his pocket. He couldn't eat it yet, but maybe once they were on their way he would have chance.

Sheppard signalled for them to get ready. He was standing, back to the wall, next to the door. Ready to open it and surprise the guard. McKay shook his head, not quite sure whether this was real. If he was awake, it was only barely, he was in no way fit to be breaking out of prison, even if the prison only happened to be a hut on the outskirts of a primitive village. It took him at least half an hour to wake up in the morning. What had he been thinking? He should have remembered to ask Sheppard to wake him up earlier. But he had been so exhausted from the day's search that he had barely had the energy listen to the plan, let alone think of something that complicated. When he was tired, it seemed that all his brains meant nothing. He might as well be an ordinary person.

If he had asked Sheppard to wake him earlier, he would have had time to eat and wake up and…wait a minute. Sheppard had stayed up. He hadn't had any sleep at all. And he had had just as tiring a day. He hoped he was better able to cope with sleep deprivation, because…

"McKay!" whispered another voice. Ford. He looked up to see that the door was already open, and Sheppard and Teyla were outside. He hadn't, had he? He hadn't fallen asleep? Oh, that was just great.