Black and White.
Chapter Ten
AN: Thank you to everyone who has reviewed this story. It has been overwhelming to receive so many reviews. I have not replied individually but tried to respond by updating as quickly as possible. Chapter Eleven will follow in a couple of days.
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"Sometime today would be good, McKay."
Rodney straightened slowly from where he had been crouched over his laptop, throwing a thin lipped glance of annoyance in John's direction.
"I know that we are in the right location," he exclaimed petulantly. "If someone had not been in such a hurry, I would have had time to calibrate everything correctly instead of having to leave it to someone less competent. The entrance is here but ten thousand years of volcanic activity isn't helping."
John was sitting on a rock again, feeling as though he was becoming a bit igneous himself. Not being too greatly informed on volcanic geomorphology he could only express his irritation at their lack of progress by either glaring at Rodney or the side of the mountain that the energy readings had led them to. The Ancients had outdone themselves with this outpost. It blended perfectly into the chain of mountains, among which it had been built, and the occasional eruption of real neighbouring volcanos had enhanced its natural appearance.
Rodney had chosen the western side of the false mountain to search for an entrance, displaying his usual level of confidence in his abilities. It had turned out that the Chief Scientist, among his many projects, had been trying to locate just such an ancient weapon outpost and was using schematics scanned from other worlds to determine the way in. If the Wraith had found it – he was sure that he could.
A sudden thud made both John and Rodney start. Ronon had finally given into his frustration and kicked the mountain. The tall Satedan gave them an apologetic shrug and continued his restless pacing.
They were all very jumpy. John acknowledged that he was himself. This was hardly surprising, due to the events of a couple of hours before. The two Puddle Jumpers had nearly reached the location of the "Mountain of Fire" when both craft had gone into automatic evasive action.
"Oh God – there's a targeting lock." Rodney had yelled at John from the co-pilots seat as the 'jumper threw itself into a deep dive, everyone holding on for dear life.
John had prepared himself to compensate and evade whatever was coming, when Rodney had reported that the lock had suddenly dispersed. This had been followed by an energy pulse registering from the peak ahead but nothing had visibly shown on the surface. The two Puddle Jumpers had circled for a little while before deciding to land.
The 'jumpers had parked in two different locations to find a way in, according to the possibilities indicated by Rodney's schematics, and since then, apart from watching Rodney getting increasingly worked up, little else had taken place.
"Doctor Mckay, Colonel Sheppard." Teyla's voice came to them from a little way along the cliff face. "I believe that I have found something." They quickly joined the lithe Athosian, where she was staring at a section of the rock wall. Dex had run ahead of them and was holding his weapons in readiness.
"There is a shield … I think, just here." She reached forward, her hand vanishing into a revealed shimmering force field. And then she strode confidently forward despite Rodney's warning cry. The field flickered and dispersed, revealing a round entrance, a long dark tunnel beyond.
Teyla turned smiling. "It was like the shield I encountered before … a device of the Wraith."
"Yes, of course," Rodney muttered, "a Wraith shield, not Ancient. Damn!"
"Not your fault, Mckay." Sheppard threw him a lazy smile. "We're all a little shook up. Now let's call up some armed support and get in there."
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Rodney would have described the style of the structure that they were moving through as Utilitarian Ancient. It had been built in a hurry and with a sole purpose in mind.
He was in the middle of the party advancing cautiously yet swiftly up yet another tunnel in this complex. Ronon and Teyla were on point, Sheppard alongside him and two marines were bringing up the rear.
The lights mounted on their guns provided the only illumination. Rodney was uncomfortably aware of how far they had come from the entrance. Reaching the surface, if they ran into a large number of hostile Wraith, would not be easy. He was also aware, as they penetrated further in, that the air was becoming tainted with an acrid tang. There was a smell of burning machinery and smoke that was becoming steadily stronger. John had already reached across to pat the pocket on Rodney's jacket where the air filter mask was stored to remind him of its location.
They reached a cross section in the tunnel and Ronon at the front hissed them all to stillness. After a moments hesitation he turned left, indicating that they could follow and Rodney, through the beam of his torch, saw a most unwelcome sight. The tunnel ahead was lined on one side with the organic webbing that indicated Wraith storage pods.
Ronon and Teyla had reached the first one and halted – dismay on both their faces. Sheppard and Rodney advanced swiftly to their side. Rodney drew in a breath. In the pod was trapped the husk of a man, withered skin tight across the skull, a wraith feeding mark burned across its caved in chest. The uniform left no doubt – it was one of John's men. The height of the body and the skin tone told him he was looking at the mortal remains of Petersen.
"Damn." Rodney heard John murmur; this was the worst case scenario. Rodney felt nauseous, his stomach tight with fear at what the other pods might hold – there had to be several dozen of them.
Teyla swung up her gun to shine her light upon the next pod – another corpse, a German flag patch still visible upon the shoulder of the Atlantean uniform – they had found Heinrik.
The next – this time it was obviously a woman. Alice Carstairs' face looked unmarked – she almost looked as though she were merely sleeping, nestled in the webbing. Rodney reached out to touch the still face of one of his people. He started back in surprise as her eyes shot open and she began to scream incoherently. She started struggling frantically against her bonds, her eyes not seeing him at all.
"Shhhhhhh! No, no, no, no!" Rodney tried frantically to stop her cries, his hands flapping, gun falling to the floor. He was horribly aware that if there were Wraith nearby they would hear this. Ronon had crouched, his P90 pointing up the dark tunnel, glancing back at them with a face tight with urgency.
John suddenly lunged past Rodney, a hypodermic in his hand, injecting Alice swiftly in the side of her neck. Her cries quickly faded into soft moans.
"Rodney!" John's voice cut through his rising panic. "Help me cut her free. Teyla hold your light steady."
"You drugged her." Rodney almost squeaked. His horror of needles rising up.
"Yep – had to do it. Here we go. " Sheppard eased the unconscious woman's body onto the floor of the tunnel, quickly clearing the remnants of the webbing and checking her for injuries. Satisfied that there were none, John called up the two marines, from where they were guarding the cross tunnel, and gave Alice into their care to be taken back to the Puddle Jumper.
Rodney did not want to look at the next pod but Teyla swung up her light. The husk of a man met his gaze but, Thank God, it was too small, the body shape, the skin tone was that of one of the Gulathais. It was not Carson. Rodney would never have believed that he would be pleased to see someone dead. He drew in a shuddering breath.
The line of pods stretched further up the tunnel, each one containing a grim discovery but there was no sign of Beckett. All the other victims were from the village. They found two more young women alive but unresponsive and cut them from the pods to lie on the tunnel floor, hoping to retrieve them later.
"The Wraith were hungry," was Ronon's reply to John's question as to how some of their victims had survived. "They took the biggest and strongest to sate their hunger – it sometimes happens that way."
"And where's Beckett?" Rodney queried. "Why wasn't he here?"
John Sheppard looked at Mckay, his face grim. "I guess they had something else in mind for the doc."
The depleted party continued up the tunnel, their thoughts bleak, hope fading that they would find their friend alive. The smell of smoke was growing stronger.
TBC