(I was only going to post one part tonight, because I'm revamping the end a bit—which is all your collective faults by the way, because you gave me some ideas to ramp it up a bit—but, then figured, eh, what the hell, one more part tonight...)

THE ELEDGIAS

CHAPTER FIFTEEN: CHASING THE CHASERS

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McKay landed the jumper in a tiny clearing barely large enough for the jumper—he might even have taken a few baby trees out. Didn't matter. It was the closest one to the place where he was fairly certain he'd be able to get down into the underground chambers of the eledgias.

That android had to have come out somewhere. He and Teyla had checked three entrances. Sheppard and Dex had only checked two. That meant there was one more that hadn't been explored. It had to be the way the android had come out, which meant it was open.

Shutting down the jumper, he grabbed his pack and the datapad, opened the rear hatch, and took off at a sprint for the sixth entrance. He'd heard the radio communiqués between the colonel, Elizabeth, Carson and Teyla back on Atlantis, telling him they weren't far behind. He didn't have much time.

He didn't notice that he'd left his gun behind.

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Beckett steered the jumper across the ocean with a tense jaw, not hiding either his fear or his worry. The android sat in the co-pilot's seat, its gun still trained on the physician. He couldn't believe how effectively fooled the rest of them had been by it. And now he was terrified not just for himself and Rodney, but for Teyla. Where was she?

"Why are you doing this?" Beckett asked, banking a little in the jumper, causing the ship to jerk a bit. The android frowned a little at his rough control.

"I needed you to fly this ship, or, as you call it, jumper," it replied. "I can access most Lantean machines, but certain items, like the jumpers, weapons systems and other things, require a living person. You are not Lantean, but you are able to work their machines. I assumed you would be able to fly a jumper."

Beckett sighed in annoyance at having been misunderstood, and tried again. "No, that's not what I meant. You're obviously an Ancient creation. Why are you trying to hurt us?"

"Hurt you?" The android seemed puzzled by the question, turning its Teyla-like face to peer at the nervous physician. "I have not decided whether or not to hurt your kind yet. I have not enough information to determine whether you are a threat to the City yet."

"You did this for information?" Beckett replied, incredulous and now a little angry, and the jumper took a small nosedive. "You impersonated a friend of ours, killed her for all I know, just for information?"

"Teyla Emmagen is not dead," the android replied, grimacing a little at the sight of more water than sky before them as they dropped altitude. "If she were, I would not be able to impersonate her. I have not yet hurt anyone fatally."

Beckett snorted, and the jumper shuddered a little as he brought it level, "But you say we have to stop Rodney somehow. How are we to accomplish that without hurting him, as you say," he winced, "fatally?"

"There are other androids. I plan to replace both him and you with them."

Beckett deflated a little at that—he should have guessed. "Well, great," he muttered. He shook his head, glancing at the android briefly before looking back out the window. The jumper jerked again when he realized he was tilting a bit to the left. The android gripped a little tighter on the edge of its seat. The gun still in its hand wavered a bit.

"You are not very good at this," it noted.

"You told me to fly it," Beckett replied coolly. "You never said anything about flying it well."

The android snorted. It was an odd noise—very human. Beckett glanced at it, then turned back to his flying.

"You still haven't answered my question," he said, peering a little into the distance. He could see the edge of the Mainland now, a thin strip of darker color on the horizon.

"What question?"

"I still don't understand why you're doing this. Why do you need information about us? If you've read the database, which I assume you have, then you'll know we came from earth."

"You are not Lantean."

"No, we're not. The Ancients are long gone, I'm afraid. They ascended millennia ago. It's part of the reason we call them the 'Ancients.'"

"Ascended?"

"Moved onto a higher plane."

"You mean, dead."

"No...well...sort of. We...that is, my people, we are the second evolution of their kind."

The android's eyes narrowed and looked out the jumper window at the approaching Mainland, the beach visible now, as well the cliffs and mountains in the distance, all dappled in a golden glow. The sun was setting behind them. The android seemed to need time to process this news. Then it looked up again.

"That may explain why that human had Lantean DNA."

Beckett glanced at her, "You mean Rodney?"

"Yes."

"Is that what this is about?"

"Two people entered the eledgias. The AI scanned both. They were human, but one had Lantean DNA in its makeup, while the other had Wraith DNA. The AI did not understand this. It transported the part-Wraith to a funeral chamber, and I took its place to try and learn its intentions. The AI was about to do the same to the part-Lantean, but something happened and the AI was interrupted by the earthquake. I continued my mission, though I have not been in contact with the AI since that time. Because of you, however, I may now have some of the answers I was sent to find, if you are to be believed, which will please the AI. However, I still do not understand the part-Wraith. The Wraith are the Lanteans' greatest enemy. Others have come and gone, but none with the ruthlessness of the Wraith. The AI assumed that the two humans were both Wraith creations, sent to try and fool my AI into letting them have access to the eledgias files. My AI will not let that happen."

Beckett blew the air out of his cheeks, "Teyla is not a Wraith. She has some of their DNA in her, yes, but she is human. We all are. Every one of us, a mutt of some kind. Even the Lanteans were human, just a different model." He shook his head, "I can't believe you don't know this."

The android was studying him, then looked again out of the window. They were just reaching the beachhead.

"You are wrong. Lanteans are not humans. Lanteans are superior to humans."

"They were more advanced, but they were not superior," Beckett replied, his anger emerging again.

"That is not what my AI was programmed to understand. You are wrong."

"No race is superior to any other race," Beckett snarled, and the ship jerked sharply to the right as he turned to glare at the android. "Lord knows people on my planet having been trying to learn that lesson for centuries now."

"That is because your planet is populated by lesser species. Lanteans are flawless. They do not need to fight to show their superiority. They are simply better."

Beckett snorted in derision, despite his fear, and the ship veered to the left, back on course. The beach appeared to be rapidly approaching now. "If they truly believed that," he muttered, "then I'm not surprised the Wraith beat them."

The android's eyes widened, turning back to Beckett. Then they narrowed.

"If you were truly their descendant, you would not mock the Lanteans so," it warned.

"On the contrary," Beckett said, calling up the location of the ruins on the hud, and searching for Rodney's jumper's signature, "it is because they are my ancestors that I can mock them. The Ancients were fallible, as all beings are. To think otherwise would be to view them falsely, and to honor them without being true to what they were." He glared again at the android, then returned to his focus to the screen and his erratic flying, " And one of their greatest failings was hubris, a sin we suffer from as well at times, some of us more than others," he added almost affectionately, before getting angry again "but we are doing our best not to let ourselves get caught in its trap as much as we can. We live to learn from the Ancients, to recognize their failings and to emulate their virtues, but not to become them."

The android shook its head. "Well, I wouldn't worry," it jeered, hefting the gun in its hand a little higher. "You will never become them."

Beckett gave a tiny, wry smile at that, but didn't respond. He realized this was an argument he would never win.

The hit the edge of the beach and sailed on forward, and now the dark tops of the trees flew past underneath, only occasionally broken up my clearings of dark brown and pale green earth.

Beckett turned the ship towards Rodney's landing site. He just hoped the others in the City would figure out what had happened to him and Rodney and Teyla before it was too late.

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Back on Atlantis, two jumpers, carrying Sheppard, Dex and a healthy contingent of other marines, lifted up out of the Jumper Bay, headed for the Mainland.

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TBC...