THE ELEDGIAS
CHAPTER FOUR: IT'S NEVER EASY
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McKay grumbled under his breath as he stomped up the steps out of the caved in stairwell, not hiding his annoyance at once again being blocked by a solid curtain of rocks from the prize he knew to be just beyond his reach. Halling had said that the second entrance was not as blocked as the first, but McKay hadn't taken him literally. Turned out Halling had spoken with exactness--it was not as blocked, but it was still blocked, just further in and, given time, would probably be easier to break through with the right tools.
"Check the next one?" Teyla asked, following him out and looking around.
"Yeah," the scientist replied despondently, brushing some rock dust from his sleeve. He couldn't help but think that this was pointless without having a proper archaeological dig team along, and if the Athosians were insistent about not disturbing the ruins too much…well, it could be a problem.
Teyla was thinking something similar, recognizing the rising frustration in her companion and guessing what he was thinking. All she could do was hope that the colonel and Ronon were having better luck.
Almost as if he were reading her thoughts, McKay suddenly hit his radio.
"Colonel? Any luck?"
A moment's pause, then, "No. Not really. First one we hit was completely blocked. We're at the second one now. Ronon seems to think we can get through—insisting he can feel a breeze coming from inside—so he's been moving rocks around. Personally, I think he's whistling Dixie, but that's just me."
"What is whistling Dixie?" Ronon's peeved mumble asked over the radio.
"Nothing," Rodney answered quickly. "It's a song of hope," he lied, "just go with it."
Sheppard's soft chuckle answered them, and another incoherent mumble from Ronon. They didn't need to hear the words to get the meaning. McKay sighed.
"Okay, well, any progress you make, let me know. McKay out."
Teyla was smiling wryly at him when he turned to look at her, his head indicating they head off to find the next entrance. She nodded and followed as he led the way.
"A song of hope?" she queried of his broad back. "Why do I get the impression you just lied?"
He rolled his eyes, stomping along through the low lying brush, feeling her presence just a foot behind, shadowing him. "Probably because I did?" he replied. Then he snorted angrily. "You know, I hate the fact that you and Sheppard think you know me so well, think you know everything I'm thinking."
"Thinking? No," she shook her head. "I rarely know what you are thinking. I do not think anyone, except perhaps Doctor Zelenka and Colonel Sheppard, can keep up with you when you are thinking. However, when you are simply responding to someone? Answering a question or replying to a threat--whether it be Doctor Weir, Colonel Sheppard or anyone else--I can always tell when you are lying."
He gave her a brief glance as he turned sideways to step between two thin birch trees, still heading unerringly in the direction of the next staircase as shown on his map. "How?"
"Your face changes. When you know what you are talking about, it is very flat. When you do not, as in, when you are lying or are uncertain about something, it grows more animated. Almost as if you are overcompensating." She shrugged, "You have a very expressive face."
"Hunh," he frowned at that, not sure whether to take it well or poorly. He didn't like the idea that he was that easy to read. "Well," he said after a little while, "I suppose it's because we spend so much time together, right?"
She nodded, circling around a largish rock. "Of course."
"I mean, I can tell the same thing about you."
She looked amused at that, and clearly incredulous.
"What?" he asked, catching the expression out of the corner of his eye as he stepped over a fallen tree branch. "You don't believe me?"
She shook her head, "No. I have been told that I have a remarkable talent for hiding my thoughts. It is part of the reason I am considered one of the most skilled negotiators among my people. You can not trade in the markets if you can not mask your emotions."
Rodney gave a tiny smile, "Yeah, well…I can tell."
She laughed, "I am sure you believe so."
"You think I'm lying? Try me!"
She laughed again, shaking her head.
"Oh, come on," Rodney huffed, "Go ahead. Tell me something, and I'll tell you if you're lying or not."
"Like what?" she asked, looking ahead into the woods, eyes squinting a little as she thought she spotted something.
"Like...anything. Tell me something about your childhood, or Athos, or Halling...anything."
Teyla's face softened a little. "What if I do not wish to speak of those things," she asked quietly.
Rodney was completely oblivious to her tone, shrugging as he shoved through the branches of a small tree. He was also oblivious of the fact that they nearly hit Teyla after he let them go. "Doesn't matter. I don't care what you talk about. Say something about Atlantis, then. And I'll tell you whether or not you've lied to me or not."
She sighed, her eyes now fixed on whatever it was that had caught her eye and she stepped up next to him. "All right."
"Good," Rodney grinned. "So go."
"Is that it?" Teyla said instead, pointing at something.
"What? That's not a statement. It's a question. How am I…oh," and Rodney looked forward, getting it a little late. As he took in what she was pointing at, his lips grew into a smile.
"Yes," he said, "That's definitely it."
Like the other two places they had looked at, the entrance was a staircase running down into a depression in the ground, but, unlike the other two, this one was twice as wide…and didn't appear to be blocked. It barely appeared to be damaged.
Telya looked up and around, noting the overgrown structures surrounding it appeared more intact than in the other locations. It gave the place a more haunted feel.
"It would appear these fixtures were more solidly built," she noted, walking right up to the top step of the down leading staircase, looking around at the two ivy covered columns still standing tall on either side. There was no evidence of scorch marks on either from Wraith blasts, which was very odd. Even the vegetation sticking to them seemed less dense.
"This must have been the main entrance," Rodney agreed, peering down into the darkness. "That's why it was better protected, more carefully designed to withstand a casualty."
"Or an attack?" Teyla added. Rodney shrugged.
"I don't know, to be honest. The database did tell me that this structure was built well before the war began with the Wraith. Much more than ten thousand years ago. They may not have been at war with anyone back then."
Teyla nodded, and took a hesitant step down, flicking on the flashlight atop the P90. She swept the light down into the darkness below, seeing no obvious danger, and took a few more steps. Behind her, McKay had pulled out his own flashlight and was using it to light up the walls on either side.
With a nod to Teyla, he followed her down the stairs.
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Sheppard was leaning against the cold, stone wall, staring longingly back behind him towards the stairs leading back up to the surface, bathed in inviting sunlight. They were some twenty feet behind him. They had made it down those stairs from above easily enough, cautiously entering this dark corridor underground, only slightly put off by the wet, damp, disused smell of the place. They'd hit a blockade of stones fairly quickly, but Ronon had insisted he could feel a breeze from beyond them, and had started cleared them away. That was when McKay had first called, asking for an update.
And Ronon had been successful. He'd made a fairly large hole and smugly clambered through it to enter this corridor. With a sigh, Sheppard had followed.
Then they had come to another blockade. Ronon's stubbornness had gotten them this far, pushing them through a looser wall of rocks, but now they were at a much more solid one. Moss and lichen lined the stone—it looked fairly immovable.
Ronon, though, was still being stubborn. He was pulling and wrenching at stones, still claiming to feel a breeze emanating from somewhere, trying to get through this second barrier. He was making a mess of the corridor floor, such as it was, rolling rocks all over the place. Sheppard had to admit, he wasn't really sure why the former Runner was being so dogged. With another sigh, he propped up a foot on a large one Ronon had shoved near where he was standing.
"You could help," Ronon muttered, throwing a glare behind him at the casually leaning officer.
"True," Sheppard said, "I could. But you seem to be doing just fine on your own." He grinned lazily at the big man, and then looked down to check his nails. Ronon's eyes narrowed.
"Do you not wish to discover what is behind here?"
"Well, sure I do. But we're not going to, now, are we? There's nothing back there but more rocks. This is pointless. I say we check in with Teyla and McKay and call it a mission. Maybe, when the Athosians are in a better mood, we can try again. Let the proper archeologists have a go."
"Is Doctor McKay not an archaeologist?"
"Sort of. He's sort of a little bit of everything, meaning he knows something of archeology. Else, how else would he get in touch with all this?" He waved a hand around. "Man's freakish that way. But he's no more a digger than I am. Or you are." He glanced at the now quite dirt covered Ronon. "Seriously, do you really want to keep trying?"
Ronon moved another rock, then straightened, head tilted inside the close space to stop from hitting his head.
"Not really."
"Then let's go."
Ronon stared at the wall of rocks. Fact was, part of him enjoyed the sheer physicality of it, of moving through the seemingly impossible, but part of him knew Sheppard was right. This was pointless.
"Okay," he mumbled, and turned. Sheppard straightened up from his lean with a smile.
And that's when the earth began to shake.
"Whoa," Sheppard looked up at the low ceiling as the walls began to creak and moan, the ground literally quivering beneath them, "Whoa, whoa, whoa!" Dust and dirt started to fall on his head, momentarily blinding him. "Go, go, go!" he yelled, scrambling over the loose rocks Ronon had shifted towards the stairs.
"Look out!" Ronon yelled, as Sheppard tripped over a piece of shifting masonry. The big man climbed over to the fallen colonel and wrenched him up by his vest, pitching Sheppard forward towards the stairs, where the colonel promptly tripped again.
And then the ceiling cracked wide open, and neither man knew anything more.
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TBC – Ha! Thanks for the reviews everyone! You're all awesome!