Chapter 5
Worse and Better
AN: OK, thanks to Out of Phase, angw, Dee, and J for their reviews. Now, back to our regularly scheduled story, already in progress.
Déjà vu All he felt was pain. Broken ribs made it impossible to breath. Other broken bones were jarred even more by the shaking brought on by the hypoglycemic reaction. Blood was seeping out of everywhere from the whip they used. They had stopped yelling what he assumed to be questions at him after the second day, but had continued to beat and torture him, laughing when he cried out or withered away. They made him choke down some weird kind of food to keep him alive.
The shaking increased in interests as night came, making it drop about twenty degrees. Rodney's violent shivering made it almost impossible to breath, and he could feel himself loosing his grip.
He started thinking about Atlantis. Radek's waiting until his glasses fell off his nose to push them back up. Carson with all his annoying needles and loveable mice. Grodin talking of his old football/soccer days back home. Elizabeth and how she was somehow able to put up with them all. His team. The only reason he was hanging on this long was because he knew they wouldn't give up on him. He knew in the beginning he tested their sanity, but the three of them had somehow seen through him. They saw he wasn't as harsh as he tried to be and began to understand all his snide remarks. They depended on each other and they had actually trusted him to watch their back in a fight. He knows with certainty they're still looking for him. Too bad they're only going to bring me home in a body bag. With that thought, he fell back asleep.
The guards came in again when morning came again. He tried to curl himself up into a tighter ball, but the pain and numbness in almost everything didn't let it happen. But the guards didn't start in on him. Two of them picked him up and started dragging him. Breathing became even harder as pain flamed up even more than seemed possible. Despite the freezing caves, it was unbearably hot outside. Even more dirt was getting into probably infected wounds on his lower body as he was dragged.
Their destination was a tiny shack; it looked like it was made out of metal. When he saw someone throw a bucket of water on the top of it, he suddenly realized what it was. He could feel himself giving in to his lack of oxygen, and sent out a silent goodbye to his friends before telling himself fall into the darkness.
"Major Sheppard, Lt. Ford, and Teyla, report to the conference room immediately." Peter Grodin's voice rang out over Atlantis and the three he called rushed to the conference room only to be met with Weir and a still fully geared up Bates looking over what appeared to be a map and a gate address.
Sheppard was the last one to arrive and instantly yelled, "What the hell's going on?"
"We may have found him, sir!" Bates answered, no one needed him to say who.
"What! Where is he!" Sheppard barked at Bates.
"Gentlemen!" Weir spoke quickly to stop the chaos that had erupted in the room after Bates' statement as Ford and Teyla joined in interrogating Bates. When they all stopped talking at her shout, she continued. "Sgt., if you would please start from the beginning."
The Sgt. took a breath, and began. "Not long after my team arrived on MX3-424, we meet up with the locals who call themselves the Lomineans. Robertson and I spent the day brokering a deal with the government for food and such while Coleman and Baker talked with the locals. They started talking about the Wraith and warning them about their waking. They told Baker and Coleman that the Wraith weren't their society's only problem. They told them they were at war with another society called the Wantarians, who stalk their people while scouting other planets, then subdue and capture as many as possible. They then raided me and told me this, seeing the connection between these attacks and the ones that took Mckay. We questioned the officials and they gave us the location of the planet and where the prisoners are kept to work the mines."
"Wait a minute. If they have all this Intel, why haven't they gotten their people out?" Sheppard jumped in and questioned. It was a miracle he kept quiet this long.
"They don't have the force to do it. Their world is left with farmers and pitchforks." He directed the next statement back to Weir. "Ma'am, their pretty much willing to give us whatever food we need if we get their people back along with Mckay."
"So your proposing a full scale take over compared to an extraction?" Weir asked, not to sure what to think.
"Yes, ma'am." He replied, determined eyes locking with hers.
"If I'm looking," Sheppard jumped in, looking at the map. "It won't take that much of a force at all. Cloaked jumpers could easily take care of the guard stations, especially if we go early morning. Says here all guards except ten at each camp are in the buildings. I'm hoping the prisoners won't just stand around, but two snipers at each camp taking care of the guards at the same time the jumpers take care of the buildings should get rid of almost everyone."
"The Lomineans will give us their scouts to help. They would probably know the best positions for our snipers to be." Bates added as he joined Sheppard at the map, along with Teyla and Ford.
"Gentlemen." Weir stepped in again. "I'll ignore for the moment that you're already planning this mission before I even approved it and deal with that later. Sgt." She turned completely on Bates. "Gather your team and head back to the planet. Bring back who you need to. Officials, scouts, whatever. Depending on the planets time cycle, we'll go an hour before sunrise. We'll bring everyone back here to treat any wounded, then send them home. Leave as soon as you're ready."
"We'll go now ma'am. My team is still in the gate room." Weir wasn't surprised by anything anymore, and just nodded. Bates returned it and left the room, heading for the gate and only pausing to tell Grodin what address to put in again. When she looked back to the table, Ford, Teyla, and Sheppard where talking strategy. She almost found herself smiling, feeling it in her gut that he was on the planet. Hold on Rodney, she mentally sent out. We're coming
Little did she know her friend was still doing all he could in his unconscious mind to fight his losing battle against his broken body and the drastically rising heat in the metal shed with the rising sun.
AN2: That's it for a while folks. I'm going to try and get this story done before finals in two weeks, but I highly doubt that will happen. Just stick with me and please review, they keep me sane in this unending world of misery known as school. REVIEW!