Chapter Four
They had to surrender all their weapons to the foreman and his men before they moved out. Stripped of their vests and anything else the foreman thought could be used to make a quick escape, they were shoved and manhandled in the direction of the top of the trail leading down to the town. Little effort was made to search them for anything that might have been concealed on their person and none of them chose to mention that Ronon was a walking one man arsenal, with weapons hidden in places that would make you scared to think about. The journey to the town was swift but the men were strangely quiet, any attempt at communicating with these people was met with murderous glares and if they did speak it was under hushed breaths to the person next to them. There was no jeering, no shouted accusations, just angry stares that spoke in volumes, that unsettled John and he thought he would have preferred the typical angry mob to this. He was glad then that they didn't have torches and pitch forks.
On arriving in the town, they could clearly see the images on the MALP were very misleading. There was no rich sector, not any more, the only divide was whether or not the building was fit for living in.Maybe once this civilisation could have been proud of the place they called home, but on closer inspection most of the buildings looked as though a good breath of wind would bring them tumbling down. All that was left now was a shell of what used to be. The result of centuries of Wraith cullings leaving not enough people to ensure the maintenance of the majority of structures. Scaffolding and wooden supports were being used around the base of many buildings, making the streets cramped and in some places impassable.
As they went, they passed more of the town's folk, at stalls lined along the streets buying and selling their wares. There was no short supply of variety, whether it was food or clothes, or household goods, there was plenty to choose from. It was certainly alive with humanity, unlike the workmen that first greeted them. John was puzzled by this; the apparent dereliction of their buildings would suggest a poorer way of life but everything he could see about him, pointed to a thriving trading outpost. For the most part the people looked well fed and their attire was more than the mere rags one would expect to see in a place like this. It revived the unpleasant memory of when he and his team had first encountered the Genii, a false face to hide the truth that lies just under the surface.
They didn't have to go too far into the town before they arrived at their destination; one of the larger, well kept buildings that stood three stories high with a small plaza at the front which seemed to be the focal point for the local businesses. They were herded up the few stone stairs to the entrance and most of the workmen who had accompanied them stopped at the large, heavy, main doors, their presence apparently no longer needed from here on. The silent lobby inside was a cool contrast to the brilliant sunshine outside. Three double doors lined each side of the hall and each of those had two guards, armed with batons, held around their waists by a strap on their belts.
At the sight of the angry foreman striding right for them, without instruction, the two guards at the first door on the left reached for a handle and pulled open the doors. John's team were marched in and found themselves standing before a balding man of middle years, who had been sat behind his desk but was now coming to his feet at the uninvited intrusion to his office.
"Athen, what is the meaning of this? You enter these offices unannounced! And who are these people?" His outrage directed at the foreman.
"Councillor Goran, you'll forgive me, but this was not a matter that could wait." The previously silent foreman had found his tongue again.
"Why are you not supervising the relocation of the Ring?"
"That is in part why I am here. When the men had hoisted the Ring, these came through. Their actions caused the Ring to fall from it's restraints and resulted in the death of three of the men." He paused then he added in a quieter voice, "Athos was among them."
The man was quiet for a minute, a brief sadness passing over his face before he could control his features into the mask a leader must wear. His eyes steeled as he looked over John and his team and then at Athen. "I'm sorry Athen. Has your sister been informed yet?"
"I will tell her myself, but first I had to make sure the ones responsible were in custody."
The councillor looked a little confused at this and questioned, "Custody?"
Athen took a step closer to the smaller man. "Yes, custody. Did you think my family would just let Athos' murderers go free? They must answer for their crimes!"
The councillor was shaking his head and began to stammer as words failed him.
Athen took another step and now he was as close to Goran as the desk between them allowed. "Councillor Goran," The way Athen spoke made John doubt that there was any respect in his words, even if this man seemed to be in a position of power. "Once my father and sister are told of what happened, they will expect nothing less than your full support and a judgement to be made, about how these people will be punished."
The mention of Athen's father seemed to bring the man up short and John could tell that his obedience would not be in question again. This man was afraid of Athen's father. From what he'd seen so far, it seemed that 'councillor' was not much more than a title and the real power lay with Athen's family, this man just provided a face to it. This wasn't going to be as simple to get out of as John first thought, but there was no way to change his mind now. They'd just had to play along and wait for the best opportunity to get the hell out of here.
They had all remained quiet until now, but on hearing they were expected to be punished for what happened, Ronon had heard enough, "Hey, what happened back there was an accident. It was no one's fault."
Athen was not best pleased that his charges weren't that keen to submit to his will and turned angrily on them, "You will have no say in the matter. This is our world and you will be punished in accordance to our laws."
"Just out of curiosity... um... What exactly is your policy when it comes to causing accidental death?" Rodney had shaken the haze from his head that had kept him quiet thus far. John suspected that Rodney had been beating himself up over the death of the men and in turn he too felt guilty for giving him such a hard time when he was late reporting for their mission. But what was done was done, they'd all have to live with what happened. That is if Elizabeth could arrange for another team to come through and talk these guys into letting them go.
Athen looked at Rodney with disgust. "The penalty for murder is death. There will be an inquiry, though there is not much to discover considering my entire work force was witness, and when it is over you will be hung in the plaza outside where all our people will be able to see that justice has been served."
Ronon surged forward, Athen's last words more than enough to send his temper boiling over, but before he could lunge at the man, the two guards from out in the hall came barrelling in, their momentum sent all three of them sprawling onto the plush carpeted floor. They were quickly proceeded by several more guards and it took five of them to finally subdue Ronon and another three assigned themselves to watch each of the others.
With a bit of an effort, the guards got Ronon to his feet as he continued to struggle to free himself, but their grasp on him was firm and he wasn't going anywhere. Athen had not moved while this happened and now that things were under control again, he took a couple of steps closer to Ronon. He matched the Runner in height so he could look him directly in the eyes as he commanded the guards. "Take them down to the holding cells."
"Hey, hey, wait a second." It was John that spoke now, before they carted them away he had to try something. " Where we come from, we don't make a habit of leaving our people on a strange planet to get hung by the locals. Our leader will contact you, Athen that devise that you saw us talk into before, get it and use it. Just listen to what she has to say. We could have something of value for you."
Athen looked like he was considering it for a second, but then with a small gesture of the hand, the guards were instructed to move them out of the office.
Councillor Goran had been listening very carefully to the stranger's words and while he remained wary, the prospect of gaining something that could be used in trade was very appealing to him, so once the prisoners had been taken away, he asked Athen, " What is this devise he spoke of?"
Athen perched himself on the edge of the councillor's desk and sighed. He still had to break the news to his sister that her husband would not be returning home to her tonight, nor any other night. "Before we left the Ring site, it was activated again. They used something to communicate with the people of their own world."
Goran was intrigued by this and his eyes began to light up at the thought of possessing such technology. "Did they have other items like this with them?"
"That was the only thing we witnessed them use but many things were confiscated when we took them. I believe several of them were weapons."
"Weapons!"
"Yes. I will arrange for them to be brought here so you may examine them. Now, I must go." Athen got up and made to leave, but didn't get far.
"Just one more thing Athen. You said these people came through the Ring while it was suspended on its side? Then how is it that they did not fall back through the Ring and perish also?"
"Did I not tell you Goran?"
Goran shook his head no.
"They came through in a ship. It was liken to nothing I have ever seen before."
John, Rodney, Teyla and Ronon had been led down several levels of the same building, through twisting corridors and now a heavy bolted door, which could only mean one thing. They had arrived at their designated quarters and there was no shortage of bars and locks to keep them stuck there. The long corridor they were on now was all reinforced concrete, white washed some time in the past, but years of dirt and grime had tainted the colour, and the cells were the same. Being so far under ground, the bars that formed the cells' forth wall were the only things to let in the light from the lanterns hung on the walls, but at least there was somewhere to sit - a narrow cot, barely enough to fit a grown man and with a mattress as thin as cardboard was pushed up against the far wall. Apparently blankets were more than prisoners could expect.
They were split up and each given their own cell, John's being the closest to the only way in or out of this place. Their separation was made greater still as the guards had decided to put a couple of empty cells between each of them, so that if they wanted to speak with each other, they wouldn't be able to do it discretely. There would be no secret whispers designing a discrete exit.
"Is everyone all right?" John called from between the bars, once the guard had left.
"If you call being manhandled, imprisoned and put on death row all right, then yes Colonel, I'm perfectly fine!"
"Glad to hear it Rodney. Ronon? Teyla?"
"I'm fine." Ronon rumbled.
"I'm well enough Colonel. However, our situation does not suggest we will be that way for long."
"I know that, but we've been held in worse places before. We'll just have to suck it up for the time being."
"What do you think will happen?" Teyla asked.
"I'm not sure. But Elizabeth will try to contact us and if they've got any sense, Goran and Athen will speak with her. Did you see the way that guy's eyes lit up when I mentioned the radio? Maybe we'll be able to trade our way out."
"Do you think Elizabeth would really trade technology for our lives?" Rodney bellowed.
"No. But she might let them think that long enough for us to get out of here." John said this as quietly as possible for fear that a guard had been posted just outside the cell block door and was listening in.
Each of them in their own cell had nothing to do now but settle in for the long haul. Ronon began examining the bars, the joins and frame of the door, looking for the slightest weakness that could be exploited. Rodney, full of nervous energy resolved to pacing the length of the little room as he began to process all the bits of information they'd obtained. He was sure he could figure something out if he could find something to give them an edge. Teyla and John had both decided that pacing or staring at the bars, willing them to melt away, would be of little help and so they had made themselves comfy of their cots.
As the silence closed in around him, John couldn't help but question his decision not to try and get off the planet while they were at least close to the stargate. He shook the thoughts from his head. He knew better than to second guess himself. There really was no good way to do it once they had landed the jumper. They were severely out numbered even if they did have weapons, they would have been swamped very quickly. At least this way they were uninjured, alive and had something to barter with in exchange for their freedom. He just hoped Elizabeth could get through to them.