Title: Uneasy Alliance
Author: Milliecake
Rating: K
Spoilers: Spoilers up to mid Season 2, possible heavy spoilers for The Eye, The Storm and The Brotherhood
Summary: Stranded alone and injured while attempting to recover a ZPM, Colonel Sheppard is forced to work with an old enemy in order to survive
Disclaimer: Don't own any of the SG Atlantis team nor Kolya
A/N: I'm not very active in this particular fandom, so apologies if this is a retelling of another story.
OoOoO
Another world reaped by a ravenous and relentless enemy, thousands taken in a culling the like of which the galaxy had never seen, leaving smouldering ruins and empty dwellings of the people that had once thrived there.
Oh Charin, I am glad that you found your peace before you discovered what had come to pass. As always when she thought upon the woman she had known as a grandmother, Teyla Emmagan felt a wash of sorrow. It had been weeks since the elder's passing and the gap her presence once filled had not closed. But the doomed Itrians had been a people known to the Athosians, and though they had fared better under the Wraith than her own kind, richer in both technology and culture, Charin had spoken well of them.
Now they were gone as so many worlds before them and if any survived to flee to the mountains beyond, they had not yet returned to a city destroyed, a civilisation crushed under the unforgiving hunger of the Wraith.
Shouldering her weapon, Teyla followed in the wake of Lieutenant Colonel Sheppard and Dr Rodney McKay as they walked along the floor of the dry ravine. Behind her, Ronan Dex prowled restlessly, as if he could still sense the foul presence of the Wraith as they fed upon the dying world.
She wondered and not for the first time his thoughts upon seeing the remnants of the Wraith culling. Did he relive his own people's destruction, see them perish anew every time he witnessed this. Or did his impassive regard truly reflect his feelings, refusing to allow such tragedy to cloud his judgement.
Had he not once told her to clear her mind if such things distracted her. Or to use it to fuel her anger to aid in their common fight. Yet seeing the empty streets, the scattered belongings, the child's toy carelessly lost amidst the panic…neither was appropriate. Someone must grieve for those lost.
"All I'm saying is, it wouldn't hurt."
McKay's loud and irreverent voice took her from her musings and Teyla glanced ahead to where he walked with Sheppard, the laptop he was rarely caught without cradled protectively in his arms as they searched along the river bed.
"Rodney, Atlantis is the single most important find in this galaxy," Sheppard replied, with a world weary tint to his voice. "It's home away from home for some of the most brilliant minds from Earth…"
"Me being one of them…"
"So I can't see Dr Weir going for a Starbucks next to say, oh, the secret Ancient laboratories."
"I didn't say a Starbucks. Well ok I did, but you get my drift." McKay floundered, but only for a moment. "I'm not saying we recruit people whose previous line of work included the arduous task of asking customers if they want fries with their burger. But is it too much to ask for a decent cup of coffee in the morning for your 'brilliant minds'? The stuff the Daedalus ships in I wouldn't give to my cat."
Sheppard pulled a wry face at that, turned his attention back to their surroundings.
"I like coffee."
To their surprise it was Ronan who spoke, giving them all a small smile and a shrug as they turned to him.
"Yes well, why is that not surprising," McKay continued on, belligerent. "Zelenka told me he almost had to call security the day you found Atlantis was running low. I'm assuming it's not just me that doesn't want to be caught out in the field with a jittery, armed-to-the-teeth java junkie going cold turkey."
"Relax McKay," Sheppard cut in, easily, before the other man could respond. "I mean, here we are, out in the fresh air and sunshine, taking a stroll…"
"With a burning city behind us and who knows how many Wraith still hanging around. Oh and walking down a river bed that's protected from like two gazillion tonnes of water by a tiny, overstretched dam that might have been hit and weakened in the battle and burst at any moment."
For some, the banter between the two men might have seemed disrespectful and careless in the wake of what the Itrians had suffered, but Teyla knew it was simply their way. They did not dwell upon their losses, but focused instead on what they could do to fight the Wraith.
"Look, the sooner we find what we're looking for, the sooner we can leave," Sheppard was saying, with an easy smile that earned him a glare from the scientist. "How's that coming by the way?"
McKay glanced at the device in his hand, tapped on the buttons. "It's picking up something, but the reading is too faint. For all we know we could be tracking the Ancient equivalent of a battery, let alone a ZPM."
"But it could be a ZPM."
"It could be a battery."
"Charin once told me the Itrians possessed a powerful relic said to have once belonged to the Ancients," Teyla put in. "But I am curious, how is it that the sensors from the puddlejumper picked up this energy reading and yet the Wraith did not?"
"Because the energy output is minuscule, they wouldn't have given it a second glance," McKay told her, brusquely. "Normally we'd be looking at much higher readings for even a minimally charged ZPM, which suggests that if this is one it's either extremely run down or buried deep in the ground."
"Or shielded somehow," Sheppard added, then with a grin. "The Ancients, as we all know, liked to hide their really cool stuff."
"Well as hide and seek goes, this one has to be the most pointless." McKay shook the laptop, peering at the results.
"Hey watch it Rodney," Sheppard complained. "We don't got a whole lot of those things."
"Is it my fault it's decided now is a good time to malfunction?" McKay demanded in disgust. "Either that or something's interfering with the signal to our fabled ZPM."
At that Sheppard came to a halt and Teyla could see his wariness at McKay's absent words. "Let me check." Reaching into his jacket pocket, the Colonel took out their jumper's scanning device, the handheld technology coming instantly alive at his touch.
Teyla peered over Sheppard's shoulder, her hand tightening upon her weapon at what it revealed to them. Four dots blinking rhythmically where they stood, and yet some distance ahead and hidden over the next rise, were five more signals.
"Isn't that…?" she began, furrowing her brow, before hearing Sheppard's swift intake of breath.
"Take cover!" he bellowed, grabbing Rodney by one elbow and dragging the scientist down with him as he dived for the cover of rocks.
Teyla reacted on instinct, spinning around and down, gritting her teeth as her right awkwardly knee hit the rocky ground. With her back safely to a rock, she looked to see Ronan had followed suit behind them.
"What the hell was that!" she heard McKay complain loudly. "I think you broke my arm…"
"Rodney, shut up," Sheppard hissed. "You think I don't know an ambush when a Ancient hand device tells me?"
"Then those dots are…"
"Very good Major Sheppard."
The words echoed down to them from up high and Teyla frowned as she recalled that voice. Risking a quick glance towards John and Rodney, catching their equally disgusted and angry looks, she knew she was correct.
"Bad guys," McKay finished, slumping back against the rocks.
"Kolya," Sheppard ground out, as a curse.
OoOoO
Commander Acastus Kolya rose from behind his cover, sparing a grim glance at his team members, each trusted man armed and experienced. Their ambush had been sensed and yet he should have expected no less from his cunning opponent, the man had proven his metal and acuity in both previous confrontations, but this time Kolya was determined to win, his orders clear.
Retrieve the Itrians power source if the Wraith had not yet claimed it, what the Atlantians called a ZPM, and return it to the Genii homeworld, alongside any other useful assets.
He had not expected nor planned for Sheppard's presence, but luck was on his side. They had spotted the smaller team a mile back and so had time to plan an ambush, one that would succeed. Even now Kolya's sniper had moved into position and should any of the Major's team attempt to flee, they could easily be killed.
"You remember what I told you last time we met, Kolya?" Sheppard shouted furiously, from behind his tenuous cover.
"That you would kill me, Major," he called back, calmly. "I remember. But you are in no position to make threats. I have you and your entire team covered. You have no where to go."
Silence met that remark but Kolya was unsurprised. The Atlantians did not give up easily, that much he knew.
"Surrender and I will not have your team killed," he pressed.
"You have zero credibility with me after the stunts you've pulled," his enemy shouted back. "So if you don't mind, I think we'll sit tight and wait for our reinforcements to arrive and kick your ass all the way back to Genii."
Kolya frowned at the disrespectful words, but the Major's threat was empty. It was true that Sheppard's team could not flee without being slaughtered, yet neither could he nor his men approach their position without risking the same.
"Stand-off I believe," the one called McKay added, his smug if somewhat nervous voice echoing up from the ravine. "So go on, shoo, back to wherever it is you came from."
Kolya recalled him all too well or rather his incessant chatter. Annoyingly brilliant, it made him useful to the Genii as a prisoner and the Commander would see to his capture if possible.
"This time you are wrong Dr McKay," Kolya replied, coldly. "There is no stand-off. You cannot retreat or go forward and the walls of this ravine are too high for you to scale..."
It was time for the Atlantians to be pushed into either surrender or death, both would suit his purpose. He nodded to one of his men, who spoke quickly into his communicator, giving the signal to their comrades back at the city.
"On my homeworld we have a particularly persistent pest that digs deep burrows amidst our meadows and grazing lands and there is but one way to bring it to the surface."
"Oh I get it, you're gonna bore us into surrender."
"Defiant to the last, Major. But now I will show you the meaning in my words."
Distantly, there came the sound of an explosion and the knowledge that Atlantians' precious stolen C4 was being used against them gave Kolya great satisfaction.
"Do you hear that, Major Sheppard?" He knew his enemy had heard the sound, would recognise and understand what Kolya had done. "That was the dam that held back the Itrian's great reservoir, it is now gone, destroyed with your own C4. And now you will witness what the Genii do to flush pests from their burrows."
He almost smiled as, in the distance, a great wall of water arose and began to thunder towards his enemy.
END OF CHAPTER ONE