Chapter Eight

Rodney had insisted they went for weapons. Elizabeth figured he was right, considering what they were planning to do. She had no idea where the soldiers from the Daedalus were, but they didn't have time to locate them.

She felt uncomfortable in this room. Even a year at Atlantis had no made her feel anymore comfortable about the use of weapons. She turned around to find a handgun pointed at her chest.

"Oh my god, Rodney point that somewhere else," she said, moving away slightly.

"Take it," he said, turning it around and holding the handle out to her.

She stared at him. "Rodney I will not take that gun…"

"And what happens if we get separated and you run into a Wraith?" Rodney replied.

"There's not much one small little gun can do," Elizabeth replied sharply, pushing his hand away. "I am not taking a gun, Rodney."

He looked at her for a moment before lowering his hand. She looked to Rodney's right where Carson was standing, a P-90 held in his hands. It surprised her, her chief medical officer and her head scientist standing before her, one with a handgun and one with P-90. It was something she had never imagined when she had taken these people to Atlantis. They weren't brought to fight a war. Yet here they were.

Carson looked uneasy holding the P-90 and held it awkwardly, not used to it. Rodney however held the handgun naturally.

Turning around he grabbed another P-90 off the wall, placing the handgun back down on the table.

"Let's go," Rodney said, heading out of the room as though he'd been doing this his entire life.

Carson walked quickly after him. Elizabeth remained for a moment, staring at the handgun lying on the table before her. She couldn't take it, that would be against everything she'd ever stood for, the protests, the negotiations, everything.

But this was different. The Wraith weren't human, they were hungry animals, a plague wiping out an entire galaxy of people. Destroying civilisations, hunting people less powerful than their own, always searching for a larger food source, growing people before culling them, making them live in fear.

Then again maybe that made them human...

She reached forward, touching the cold metal with the tip of her finger.

"Elizabeth, hurry up," Rodney called.

She jumped and turned around. "Coming," she replied, jogging out of the room, leaving the gun behind.

Teyla watched as Ford walked slowly around their small confinement, as though he were searching for something.

"What are you doing?" she asked, watching him curiously.

"Looking for something I can knock a Wraith out with," he replied.

"You will find nothing," she replied.

"I know," he said, turning to face her from across the room. "But I can't give in this easily."

"We have not given in yet, Aiden," she replied.

He looked at her dubiously, not quite believing what she said. She felt a queasy feeling inside of herself, the familiar coldness growing. She glanced at the hallway, it was still empty, but she knew they were approaching.

"They are coming," she said, quietly, standing up and walking over to where Ford was standing.

"This is our chance…" he said, looking towards the webbed entrance.

"No…we will take our chance once we are on the planet, they will be less wary then," Teyla replied, touching his arm lightly in an attempt to calm him.

Ford sighed and looked out towards the hallway, as though he could also sense the Wraith coming. She knew it was difficult for him, to stand by and let himself be pushed around, it was against everything he'd ever been taught.

"Yeah, OK," he muttered, looking back at her. "But the minute we're on that planet I'm trying to escape…"

Teyla nodded and looked out to the hallway. Four Wraith were headed in their direction.

Unfamiliar looking men flooded in from all directions. Radek was pushed aside by the Wraith, falling to the ground.

The men were all donned in camouflage, leading Radek to believe they were the men from the Daedalus. That was slightly useful to him. But as they continued firing it seemed to dawn on them that their weapons would run out of ammunition faster than the Wraith would die. Radek slumped inwardly.

He watched as the first soldiers fell, hit by Wraith stunners, their comrades faltering as they did so. He could see they wanted to run, to hide from the Wraith, as though returning to childhood, to the nightmares they'd probably all experience at one time or another.

But they stood still, firing away.

"Hey! Why don't you pick on someone your own size!"

Radek looked behind him to see Rodney, Elizabeth and Carson standing there. Radek looked around and noticed that the Wraith had condensed themselves to the control room, minus the two that had been guarding the array of scientists and other personnel in the gate room.

The personnel who were now standing behind the others.

They had obviously freed them, of course he wouldn't have noticed the gunfire amongst that of the Daedalus soldiers.

He watched as the Wraith at the back of the group slowly turned around, facing their new enemy. As their smiles slowly spread over their faces Radek realised it was over. There was no way they could win against the creatures…

Elizabeth felt a complete idiot standing there, without a weapon in her hand. For the first time in her life she wished she had picked up the gun. But it was too late now, and she wasn't alone, the prisoners they'd freed that stood behind also had no weapons.

In fact they were an entirely useless group and she started wondering what Rodney had been thinking when he called out to them.

"OK, bad idea," he muttered to himself as the Wraith started towards them.

She was relieved to see Zelenka still alive, she'd been worried for a moment when she'd seen him absent from the pool of prisoners they'd released. She jumped back as gunfire erupted from both sides of her, not used to the loud noise. The Wraith kept coming towards them. The two P-90's doing nothing to help.

Then she heard the noise she dreaded most.

Click, click, click…

The closest Wraith reached out and threw both Rodney and Carson to either side, before reaching forward and grabbing Weir by the collar.

"You are the leader," the Wraith said.

"No," she denied.

"We have observed you and you are clearly the leader of this facility," the Wraith said, sneering at her.

Elizabeth froze. They knew? How could they possibly know? That meant only one thing…they knew that she was the person to threaten if they wanted to get to Earth. She wouldn't let them get to Earth.

"Elizabeth!" Rodney shouted from the ground, struggling to stand up but being thrown back again by another Wraith.

The Wraith holding her grinned.

"Elizabeth hold on, just for a couple more minutes…"

"John…" she whispered.

"What was that?" the Wraith asked, jerking her closer and tracing its long fingernail down her face.

"I'm not going to help you," she said, confidently.

"If you will not, he will," the Wraith said, pointing at McKay. "All I must do is threaten your life and your friends will protect you."

"No, not for this…" she said, sending a silent message to everyone else in the control room. "They won't sacrifice our entire planet for me."

The smile faded slightly. "Tell me or I will feed upon everyone in this room one by one."

"I won't tell you," she said.

She had to protect Earth, she knew that, as much as she just wanted to tell him how to dial Earth, to curl up into a ball and cry - she couldn't. This was where she had to be a leader.

The Wraith glared at her before pulling its hand back. Elizabeth knew what was coming, she saw the hand drawing closer to her at every moment. She closed her eyes and tried to swallow her fear, waiting for the claws to dig into her chest and suck the life from her…

It never came.

Instead a large, bright light filled the room. She opened her eyes again to find the room void of the Wraith, their stunners lying on the ground.

"Oh my god, I'm OK," Rodney said, breaking the silence, before looking up at Elizabeth. "I mean you're OK, we're all OK…"

"He did it," she whispered, looking up at the sky.

"Who?" Rodney asked.

She looked at him and instant realisation sank into his face. He understood.

"Dr Weir to you read me?" the radio came to life.

"Loud and clear, Colonel," Elizabeth replied. "We're Ok, the Wraith are gone."

"Same up here," he said. "We're coming down."

"We'll see you soon," Elizabeth sighed.

As the radio fell silent again she looked around the room. There was a lot to be cleared up, but first they had to contact the Athosians. She still had to rescue Ford and Teyla…