Gizan
Homeworld,
the
Pegasus Galaxy.
The Gizan people were just as John had imagined – quiet, simple folk, not altogether hostile towards him, but also not particularly warm and welcoming either, because he was a stranger to them. They had well-established shelters that seemed to be built well, and quite properly designed to hold up against all the viciousness of the natural elements of this planet.
As he continued to move further on into the settlement, with Teyla Emmagan walking by his side, Lt Colonel Sheppard could see that they were getting quite a lot of attention from the local inhabitants, and he wasn't entirely sure if that was a good thing or a bad one. John looked up at the sky above, and saw a big, bright sun beating down on him from the heavens – he winced from the pain of the sunlight, and quickly reached into a shoulder-pocket of his combat outfit to take out a pair of tinted, anti-flash wraparound sunglasses to put on.
"Yes, the sunlight on this world is extremely intense," Teyla Emmagan, with a slight smile creasing her attractive features, said softly. "I have encountered few habitable worlds in my travels that are as close to their sun as this world… but the Gizan have made it their home for countless generations."
"Well, let's just try and get ourselves under some cover before I break out into blisters all over, shall we?" John replied dourly. He felt a little uneasy still, and when they started moving out again, he was forever glancing around their immediate environs, trying to scope out any and all possible threats amongst the houses and the trees all around them…
The house Teyla had led John to was indeed near the very heart of the Gizan settlement – it was a large building, larger than the other houses around them, and was three storeys tall. Teyla Emmagan explained that it was the home of the chieftain of the Gizan, a good friend of Malden and the Athosians, who had been more than happy to accommodate them in properly securing their Genii captive until his true intentions could be verified.
They stepped up to the front door of the building, and Teyla was about to knock on it so they could get inside when, inexplicably, the Colonel's already-heightened sense of danger peaked to a real, immediate threat to their lives…
Suddenly, John felt as though they were both in mortal danger right at that precise moment, and every fibre of his being screamed at him to move, move, MOVE!
Sheppard didn't wait for one single second to think about his innate feeling – he simply reacted, grabbing Teyla Emmagan roughly by her right arm and yanking her off her footing, over with him as he dove into some nearby bushes.
The bullets slammed right into the wooden front-doorway where they'd both been standing a split-second later, shredding the door and sending splinters of plywood flying out from the impact zone. High-velocity rounds, fired from a concealed position very close by – and Sheppard would have bet his mother's life on the culprit, or culprits, being Genii.
Rolling along the ground until he had quickly righted himself, with his P-90 assault rifle trained outwards in the direction of the weapons-fire, John made a razor-quick calculation and decided to take a chance – he returned fire, pulling back on the trigger of his automatic-weapon so that it spat out hundreds of rounds of deadly, armour-piercing rounds.
The trees, bushes and other foliage all around the area Lt Colonel Sheppard was firing at were decimated, as the lethal discharge wrought its deadly handiwork and cut through everything with equal efficiency. After about 15 seconds firing on full-auto, John released the trigger, ejected the spent magazine of bullets, and quickly, effectively replaced it with a new mag in one smooth and fluid motion.
"Are you alright, Teyla?" John asked after a short while, as he rose up slowly to his feet, still with his wraparound glasses on, breathing heavily, his entire system flooded with adrenaline.
"Yes John… thanks to you I'm fine." Teyla looked around at the damage done to the front of the wooden building, with all the massive bullet-holes blown through the door and the front wall of the house. They had been in the direct line of fire but a split-second before the impact of those rounds… she shuddered to think what would have become on them if it weren't for the Colonel and his quick-witted actions.
"Come on, I want to see if I managed to hit anything out there," Sheppard said, as he moved cautiously out away from the damaged safe-house, towards the part of the forest-area off to the left that the weapons-fire which had almost killed them had come from.
The trees were all stripped of their bark, or cut through completely by the maelstrom of bullets John had unleashed, and the bushes and shrubs had been scythed through with an almost clinical uniformity. There was little of anything left unscathed by the devastation of Sheppard's P-90 volley. They found the corpse a little way in amongst the trees, still clutching the long-rifle she had used to try and kill them both…
Teyla gasped. It looked at first as though the perpetrator was Gizan – she was dressed in the usual drab, somewhat tattered clothes of those people, and had her hair styled in the short-cropped, practical way of their womenfolk. But then she looked closer, just as John was doing, and noticed what the woman with the gun was dressed in underneath her outer disguise.
The dark, clearly militaristic dress of the Genii soldiery marked this woman out clearly as the enemy she was – obviously, a sniper sent to eliminate the danger that their spy might pose… OR help cement his legitimacy in the eyes of the Atlantis expedition. John really didn't know what to make on the attempt on their lives – the only thing he knew of for sure was that the threat was still there, that this woman marksman might not be operating alone, and that their position at this house might just be fatally compromised.
"We have to get out of this settlement… tonight, when the sun goes down," Sheppard said resolutely. "It's possible that this woman is not operating alone, that there are more Genii out there who may or may not now know the location of our safe-house. We must relocate."
"Agreed," Teyla concurred, taking another glance down at the Genii soldier's body. John Sheppard was saddened that he had taken this woman's life, but she was a Genii fighter who had posed an immediate threat to both his own safety and that of a fellow team-member. The only option available was to act, and to take decisive measures…
"Okay, I guess I ought to meet this Genii spy then, and see if he really is for real about this. Maybe he might even know some tactics about how his former comrades will be coming after us," John said, chuckling softly to himself. "Because I sure as hell know this –" with that, he indicated the bloodied, bullet-riddled corpse lying sprawled out at their feet "-isn't gonna be the end of it…"
# A #
The Genii spy's name was Oskar, and he was a tall, lanky man of indeterminable age. A strangely enigmatic character, with eyes that glimmered with an inner light that was hard to gauge, Oskar was quite obviously a highly intelligent, calculating individual. John felt as if he was being stripped away layer by layer under those cold, steady, intense eyes, as though the Genii's gaze was stripping him down, dissecting him, with ease…
It was wholly unnerving for the Lieutenant Colonel.
He had a soft, almost raspy voice, which made it difficult for Sheppard to catch all of the other man's words unless he strained himself to hear. "I heard the commotion from the other end of the house, Lieutenant Colonel Sheppard. I hope you and Teyla Emmagan are fine…"
John glanced over at Teyla, who was standing slightly behind the Genii and near to a doorway – she shrugged her shoulders almost apologetically. So she had told him a little of what was to come, including some information about him… fine, Sheppard knew he could work with that. It just made things slightly more difficult but then, this was never going to be a cakewalk to begin with.
"Oh yeah, we're quite alright… Oskar, is it?" The Genii nodded, with a slight twist of his lips that could almost have been viewed of as a smile. "It seems the Genii have gotten a little antsy with you, my friend. They've sent one of their ice-maidens out to try and take you down – and kill us as well, so it seemed. Well, she's no more. We just want to know first if there are more besides her out there that we've gotta watch out for."
Oskar sat there on the stool across the table from Sheppard for a short moment, thinking. Then he looked up into John's eyes. "Is the body nearby? With all the gear she had been carrying when she was shot?"
"Yes we brought her in a few minutes ago."
"Then let me see her," Oskar said, "and I will tell you if she was operating alone, or was a vanguard to a larger Strike Force."
# A #
In another section of the three-storey house, the dead body of the Genii sniper that had almost succeeded in killing Lt Colonel Sheppard and Teyla Emmagan had been laid out across a large oak-wood table. The dead soldier had been left in her tattered Gizan disguise that mostly concealed, but didn't quite manage hide the entire Genii military uniform underneath.
Malden, the Athosian merchant trader who had originally been contacted by the Genii intelligence operative to sound out a possible defection, was going through the kit that the deceased warrior had been equipped with. He looked up when Teyla, John and Oskar entered the room, and nodded to them respectfully.
"Have you found anything of importance, Malden?" Teyla Emmagan asked her companion.
"No, I am afraid not… it just seems like a regular batch of Genii infantry hardware and weaponry," the trader replied. He knew a little more about the Genii than most of the Athosians, as he had contacts amongst some of the powerful race's allies, on a number of worlds throughout Pegasus, and had a rudimentary knowledge of almost every aspect of their primary technologies.
Oskar moved forward, towards the table with the female Genii corpse lying across its surface. He had a bland, expressionless look to him, but his eyes were alive with inner radiance, as he reached out with one hand to pull away the flap of cloth that covered the dead woman's left breast.
There, on the front of her Genii military uniform right over her heart, was a little badge made out of a strange, smooth black mineral – a shield, with a lightning-bolt crossing through it, from the upper right side down to the lower left. Oskar looked at the badge for the longest time, and then turned away. He glanced up at John Sheppard at last.
"Colonel, we don't have to fear any more Genii for a while – this is one of the Order. An assassin," Oskar said by way of elaboration. "They always operate alone, and usually report directly to a Grand Master. In this case, I believe this woman would have answered to Cowen. He is the one that would realize first that I wish to turn against the Genii, that I want to defect to your side of the equation – and Cowen can never allow this, or he would fall by the wayside like so many other disgraced Genii leaders before him."
"So this is political?" Sheppard asked, incredulous. He was starting to see just what Oskar was trying to achieve, and he could hardly believe the manner in which he was going about it… the extremities he was employing to see the job done. "This entire defection? You want to help us so that you can bring about Chief Cowen's downfall?"
"That might seem like an unbelievable reason to betray my countrymen, Colonel Sheppard, but you must understand my reasoning before you condemn me," the defector replied. "Cowen is hell-bent on striking out against the Wraith with whatever little advantage we have managed to create for ourselves over the centuries. Because of the fact that the Wraith are now on the move, culling worlds across the galaxy and awakening in numbers that are unsustainable over time, the Genii High Council cannot hope to deliver anything near the decisive blow against our common enemy that Cowen dreams of. He is leading my people to their doom, but I am determined to do whatever is necessary to see to it that this does not come to pass."
He seemed to speak with strength and determination, every word that he spoke echoing with the resonance of truth – at least, that was the impression cast upon John Sheppard. The Colonel looked over at the body of the Genii woman, the assassin that had been sent, so it seemed now, to kill them all by the orders of Chief Cowen. He wondered how many more would come through after them next…
John did not doubt that they would come, though, and soon. There wouldn't be a shelter they could take refuge in on this entire planet that the Genii killers would not track them to.
The Colonel was forced to make a major decision. But now, after coming so close to death and having met the Genii operative, and having shared a few brief words with the man, the decision was much easier to make…
# A #
On
the outer edge of Sector 1146, onboard the USS Daedalus,
the
Pegasus Galaxy.
Primary, secondary and auxiliary systems all over the vessel had been devastated by the electromagnetic pulse – and that was definitely what it was, Rodney McKay confirmed, by the reports he got from many on the bridge of the Daedalus who had been able to monitor readings coming from the wave of energy just before it swept over their battle-cruiser, and did its deadly damage to their electronics.
He was half-jammed underneath a massive super-computer conduit near the back of the spacecraft's huge bridge, rummaging through copper wires and microchip processors in an unhatched compartment that opened into the innards of the conduit.
McKay was trying to remove all the fried, burnt-out circuitry and replace it with new parts – but so much of the original, highly complex console had been irreparably damaged that the repair-job would take hours.
He was already well on the way to getting this computer console back up and running, and with that console operating again, McKay had a chance to get some auxiliary systems rebooted and functional…
"How is it going in there, Dr McKay?" Colonel Caldwell's voice drifted up to Rodney's ears, as he reached out with all his strength, stretching his right arm as far out as he possibly could, to pry the last of the burnt microchips out of its socket.
"It's going real fine, Colonel!" Rodney shouted back, his voice laced with enough sarcasm to get across his incredible displeasure. This was a job McKay knew he should never have had to do… if only those who mattered had listened to him in the first place. "Real fine…"
"Well, please move along as fast as you possibly can, doctor. We all want to get moving again as soon as possible, and get enough functions back up and running so that we can plot a hyperspace jump back to Atlantis."
McKay had to literally chomp down on his lower lip to stop himself from launching back at Caldwell with a verbal tirade of insults and abuse. He KNEW the stakes just as well as the Colonel did, if not better, and WAS doing the best job he could, as fast as he could do it, already… there was no need for the continued haggling and harassment.
This was a monumental stuff-up on the part of the military men here, regardless. It was fortunate for them all that he was here to get them all out of this mess… at least, that's what McKay thought about it all.
# A #
Two hours later, and auxiliary systems were running through one-third of the vessel. Repair and medical teams were moving throughout the Daedalus pretty much at ease, despite the loss in power for most systems – this was due to all the emergency hatches and crawl-spaces built into the design of the battle-cruiser. This stroke of designing genius was really coming into its own in this crisis, and Colonel Steven Caldwell offered up a silent prayer to the man or woman who'd seen to that nice little addition.
Thank God for small miracles…
McKay was doing wonders for the repair effort, despite the fact that he was more snappy and narcissistic than ever.
Having to do major repairs and rebooting key computer-systems, because of a danger he had warned the command echelon about well in advance of the EMP strike… it was really grating on the good doctor, but still he was buckling under the workload and doing his jobs.
Caldwell had to admit, he was impressed. But still, he knew that he'd made a critical error in this case, had allowed his greed and ambition put the Daedalus and its crew at extreme risk… McKay had warned him of a danger but he had dismissed the scientist outright, when instead he should have listened to him, given the man a chance to explain himself.
Ah, enough of that. Now was not the time for self-recriminations. They had to get a few more systems operational, and then steer this hunk-o-junk back home…
# A #
External sensors were going to come back online, finally… Rodney had been fiddling around with this sub-system for about twenty minutes now, thinking that they would be a pretty easy function to get back after replacing a couple of fried circuits and doing a full system-reboot. But he was wrong; everything that could go wrong did go wrong.
Still, Dr McKay was not having a very good day, and he sure as hell wasn't about to give up and turn tail just because a stupid, no-good-for-nothing primary sub-system like the external sensors were being finicky!
"Yeah, there we go, darlin'… got ya!" Rodney exclaimed, leaping away from the wires and circuits he was fiddling with as the big black monitor in front of him, dormant for so many hours thanks to the energy weapon's strike, flickered back to life. Dr McKay moved in to see what the sensor arrays were picking up – he was glad, too, that they themselves seemed quite unaffected by the strike.
Rodney let his eyes sweep over the plotted-out, two dimensional representation of the ship's immediate environs -
- and, a second later, started to step back away from the screen, his face creased with concern, confusion… and fear.
He seriously had no idea whatsoever that they were in such a huge mess. Major Edward Norris noticed McKay's stricken state, and moved over to him to check out the situation. Rodney didn't even bother speaking – he simply pointed to the external sensors console. Norris went over to it to see everything for himself.
And soon enough, he too came back to stand with McKay, his face ashen-white. They were all in a real ugly situation, alright – unless the Daedalus got moving, quick-smart, things were going to go from bad to worse in a real big hurry.
Around them, quite a distance apart in space but not really all that far with hyperdrive engines, were four Wraith cruisers… they too were listing through space, most likely struck down by the same EMP pulse-weapon that had devastated their ship.
But if they were to get the drop on them in this precarious situation… McKay didn't like their chances of fighting it out against the Wraith with the Daedalus' functions so critically depleted.
Suddenly, the Canadian caught something on the monitor that gave him pause. He moved forward again, and peered down at the screen for the longest time. Norris soon joined him. "Are they…?" the Major asked, hardly believing his own eyes.
"Yes they are…" McKay replied softly. "Puddle Jumpers." There were about five of them, shooting up from the surface of the planet that had been the origin of the 'Ancient' distress beacon signal.
"It must be help, from Atlantis!" Norris exclaimed. He spun around to look back at Caldwell, who was getting up from his command chair and coming forward to see what the commotion was all about, his eyes bulging with glee at the prospect of getting some desperately-needed support.
"No, Major, I really don't think so…" Rodney replied softly. There was no way the expedition would have known they were in trouble, let alone where they were on their route back to Atlantis. No, this was something else… something that made the scientist's stomach knot up in dread. "I don't think these are our boys at all. In fact, I think everything's just got a whole lot worse."