Okay, this is a long and really full chapter. A lot happens really fast. I haven't done one of these for a while...hope it makes sense!
THIEVES IN ATLANTIS
BY TIPPER
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CHAPTER SIXTEEN: CONFRONTATIONS
McKay had stopped screaming. His voice had worn out—he couldn't draw in enough air to try anymore anyway.
He just pressed against the top of the coffin, nails digging into it, as if he could claw his way out.
With oversensitive skin, he felt the metal slowly stripping under his ministrations, and he scraped and scraped until he could no longer feel the tips of his fingers.
Finally, his numb hands fell to his burning chest, shaking against the hard ribcage, refusing to work anymore, the abused fingers curling in on themselves like drying flower petals.
His lungs felt like they were bound by steel cables. He could draw air in, but his lungs didn't expand with oxygen. They just burned more with each breath. To make it worse, his ears had started to ring, a sort of low pitched buzzing, while around him, he had begun to see images in the darkness—night terrors. Ghosts of memories come to life in the darkness in his mind's eye.
His eyes closed.
He couldn't breathe.
He couldn't hear.
He couldn't see.
He couldn't do anything.
The eyes opened again, and they absorbed the total blackness, letting it flow into his mind and through his body. It was comforting in its coldness.
Turning, he curled in on himself, pressing his hands to the side of his face to cover it.
And the walls finished closing in.
And crushed him.
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"Where is he?" Sheppard growled, lifting the gun higher. The dark storage room came to life with light, showing both of them clearly. Neera sneered back, her eyes mocking as she tucked Freya behind her. Sheppard walked straight up to her, staring down at the older woman...then reached behind her to twist the gun out of Freya's grasp, ignoring the young girl's gasp. Tossing it to Lorne coming up beside him, he returned his glare to Neera. "Where is he?" he demanded again.
Neera just shrugged, "Who? Is someone missing?"
"I wouldn't test me," the colonel hissed. "Where did you put him?"
She shook her head, and smiled again.
So Sheppard clubbed her, hard.
It was more than vicious enough to draw blood, staggering Neera and causing her to fall to one knee. Freya whimpered softly, holding Neera up from behind before she could fall the rest of the way down.
Neera growled angrily, glaring back at Sheppard, never giving up her sneer, even despite the blood now running from her nose. Sniffing, she wiped a hand across her face and then, arching an eyebrow, smiled up at him again.
Anger flooded Sheppard's veins, and he reached down, grabbing her by the straps of the military vest she wore and shaking her roughly. "Where is McKay!"
The smile didn't shift.
Damn it, he didn't have time for this. With a snarl, he threw her towards the door. "Get moving."
Neera stood for a moment in the entrance, before one of the other marines shoved her forward again, pointing her in the direction of the Infirmary. Glancing back, Sheppard saw Freya was now being held in an iron grip by Major Lorne. The younger man nodded—he was more than happy to drag her. Sheppard nodded back, spun around and strode out of the room after Neera and the other marines.
"Where are you taking us?" Freya whined, trying to pull herself free of Lorne's hold as he dragged her out after them. The major stripped her of her bracelet radio as he got her moving.
"The infirmary," Sheppard replied from his position in front, stripping Neera of her bracelet radio and doing a quick check for weapons, before pushing her forward again. "So you can tell Doctor Biro exactly what was in the food you served us this morning."
Neera just snorted a laugh, shaking her head as she glared back at him. "What makes you think we know?"
Sheppard glared at her, and shoved again, "And then you are going to tell us exactly where Ren and Garron are, and what you've done with McKay."
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At Sheppard's statement, Neera just smiled coldly. Obviously, Sheppard hadn't heard her entire conversation with Freya, or he would have known about the cloaked jumper in the Bay. "I'll never tell you anything of the sort."
Sheppard didn't look at her as he answered, "We'll see if you still feel that way after an injection of sodium pentothal."
She frowned, not recognizing the drug. "Of what?"
He just smiled. Neera gritted her teeth, looking forward. She couldn't let them be injected with something she didn't know. Was it a truth drug? A poison? A stimulant?
Freya started to cry softly, not hiding that she was scared. Neera wasn't sure whether it was faked or not.
They were coming up to an intersection in the hallway. Mentally, the Genii commander placed the marines around her—Sheppard at her back, one man in front of her, two men behind Sheppard, then Lorne and Freya, and one more behind them.
Her hand slid down her right leg, to feel the butt of the knife hidden there.
Then it went behind her back, and she formed a "V" with her fingers, hoping Freya would see the signal.
The little girl, who had been heretofore been whimpering suddenly burst into a full blown hissy fit.
Neera had to fight a smile. Good girl. She felt the men all hesitate, and, as they reached the intersection, heard Lorne's yelp of pain. The soldier in front of her turned around to look, and she acted.
Her hands grabbed at his half turned frame and wrenched, pulling him fully around and with a well placed shoved, sent him reeling into Sheppard who was just catching on that something was happening. At the same time, she pulled the Wraith hand stunner from the man's holster.
"Freya!" she yelled, stunning one of the guards behind Sheppard with the Wraith gun at the same time as she pulled her knife, "Run!" She threw the knife at the other guard behind Sheppard who was raising his P90 at her.
Her eyes never left the men she fought to check on Freya—she'd trusted the girl's training to have gotten herself free. Instead, she stunned the guard she thrown at Sheppard, managing to hit both of them with one jolt, and took off running down the left hand hallway. Gunfire exploded behind her as one of the marines must have recovered, but she managed to get around another corner and down another hallway without being hit.
Her mental map had her heading back to the back stairs to the Bay.
Freya was on her own now.
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Freya had kicked Lorne in the shin, following it by a sold punch to his groin, then whipped around to plunge her hidden knife into the hip of the soldier behind her.
Laughing insanely, the girl pulled the knife out and ran down the other hallway...headed for the infirmary.
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"Sergeant!" Sheppard yelled into his radio, shaking off the tingling from the stunner—it had hit the marine Neera had thrown at him, and he had received a strange sort of aftershock by being in contact with him, but it hadn't knocked him out. "Tell me you have them on your screen!" As he spoke, he took stock—two men stunned, one man with a knife in the shoulder, the other gripping a bleeding leg, and Lorne...
"I do, sir," answered the Canadian tech, "I've one life sign moving very swiftly...towards the south end stairs. The other...straight to the infirmary."
"Major Lorne," Sheppard turned to look at the Major, who was wiping tears from his eyes as he gasped for breath, still half bent over, "you've the infirmary."
Lorne's shaky affirmative was to thin air as Sheppard took off after Neera.
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Ren wiped the sweat from his forehead, trying to calm his breathing as he reached the Jumper Bay level. Sliding down the hall towards then Bay entrance, jumping at every noise that someone might be coming, he darted in and out of doorways, rooms and pillars, dragging the second rucksack the whole time. It amazed him that he hadn't been spotted. His only theory was that the Atlantians must have been spread too thin to be able to watch every nook—meaning they were only focused on watching the main corridors and entrances and exits.
Breathing hard, he reached the last room before getting back to the Jumper Bay. This was the hardest part. He'd managed to slip out of the Bay past the guards by climbing through the ventilation system inside the walls, to get into the room he was now in. But the shaft was barely large enough for him to slide through, because of his size. There was no way he could get back in with the two rucksacks the same way.
Which meant...
He blew the air out of his cheeks, and lifted up his wrist to reveal the bracelet radio. He tapped it, "Garron."
A pause, then, "Ren."
"I'm outside the South entrance to the Jumper Bay—in the first room on the right. I need you to stun the guards standing in front of the door."
"Right. How's now?"
Ren had to smile, "Now's good."
Silencing the radio, he moved towards the door, and waited.
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Sheppard stared at the radio bracelet in his hand, the one he'd taken from Neera, and grinned. Pivoting on his heel, he turned and ran towards a transporter, and, switching to a different frequency on his radio, issued orders for men to meet him up at the Jumper Bay.
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Garron opened the Bay doors, and smiled up at the two marines turning to face him, shocked expressions on their faces to be caught off guard from behind. He shot them both with his Wraith stunner, then jogged down the hall to meet his brother.
Ren said nothing as he shoved a rucksack at him, and the two were soon jogging back into the Bay. As they did so, Ren noticed that Jumper Two had finally been settled back into its dock.
They were good to go.
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Biro checked Ronon's vitals, and nodded slowly to see a marked improvement. Patting him on the arm, she looked around at the stirring infirmary. All around her, people were shifting on their beds and pallets, coming back to wakefulness.
A rare smile settled on his lips as she met the eyes of Sergeant Greene across the way, the blond medic nodding at her as he pulled a blood pressure cuff off of Doctor Bryce's arm. The scientist was groaning, a hand lifting up to her head.
Then Biro turned towards the back room, where Jackson and Donovan were still working on Doctor Beckett. The smile fell.
It was still far too early for any real information about Carson. She sighed, and tucked her stethoscope back into her pocket.
Ronon grunted, and she looked down again, pleased to see the movement of his eyes behind his eyelids.
Man had the most amazing constitution, she thought, they really needed to find out his secret.
She patted his hand...and was amazed when he suddenly grabbed at her wrist. Her smile broadened. Damn!
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Freya was small, and she knew how to use that fact to her advantage. She was like a rat on speed, flying down the hallway towards the infirmary. The corridors were filled with gurneys and people lying on pallets, and the few nurses and marine medics reacted with startled yelps as she sprinted past. She leapt over people on the ground, slid under beds and ducked under tables, ignoring the yelling following her desperate dash.
She'd made a promise, and she was going to keep it.
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Biro heard the commotion, and, loosening her arm from Ronon's hold, moved over to stand in the middle of the infirmary, to face towards the doors.
Freya barreled into the smallish woman, knocking her sideways into a metal shelving unit. Biro screamed, feeling the pain of every sharp edge of the shelves and implements as the whole thing collapsed with her.
Freya twisted away, almost like a footballer after a great play, and kept moving, headed for the operating room in back.
She knew he'd be there. She knew.
Bloodied knife still in hand, she slammed through the plastic sheeting separating the operating room from the main infirmary, startling the two surgeons. Donovan hunched over, instinctively trying to cover his patient, while the black doctor with him took a step towards the entrance to block the girl. But she was too quick for both of them.
Darting under the first doctor's arms, eyes wild with insanity, Freya leapt up onto the operating table like a cat, and slashed at Donovan, who fell back with a cry as she cut his arm. Then she held the knife up in two hands over her head, ready to plunge down.
"For my papa!" she screamed, looking down at Beckett lying there, unconscious. "And my brother!" And she started to stab down, aiming for his heart, ignoring Donovan's attempt to once more stop her with his arms.
And suddenly, she stopped, her mouth still open, her eyes wide.
Donovan, arms outstretched across Beckett and half bent over, looked up at her, confused.
The blood encrusted knife fell from the girl's slack fingers, and, slowly, very slowly, Freya turned, eyes still impossibly wide, to look behind her.
Ronon leaned against the door frame, the edge of it holding him up. He held a throwing knife in his hand, his expression one of both disgust and dismay. He was ready to throw it, if need be.
Just as he'd already thrown the one now buried in Freya's back.
The girl gasped once, an attempt to bring in air, and it choked her. Blood trickled down one side of her mouth.
The blue eyes, still staring at Ronon, glazed over.
And she fell off the table, nearly tipping it over as she collapsed.
Ronon dropped the knife in his hand, and slid down the doorframe, never taking his eyes off of the young girl he'd just killed.
His dark brown eyes filling with tears, he looked up as the tall, dark skinned doctor checked to make sure Freya was really dead. After a pause, the young man grimaced, looking over at the Satedan. Freya's dead eyes still stared at Ronon, and the former Runner stared back, even after the doctor shut them.
"She's...just a child," Ronon whispered from his position on the floor, "What...did I just do?"
"Saved Doctor Beckett's life and maybe ours," Donovan said still standing next to the operating table, fixing him with a clear eyed stare. "Thank you."
Not answering, Ronon just covered his face with a shaky hand. He felt other people come in behind him, one of which had blonde hair. Lieutenant Cadman helped pull him away from what had just happened, saying something about seeing it from the gallery and whispering words of thanks...
And, behind them in the room, the two surgeons quietly and expertly got back to work as a nurse quickly bandaged Donovan's arm.
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Ren stared at the quiet trunk, not sure whether to believe his brother that McKay had never woken up or made a sound from in there. He itched to check.
"Get up here!" Garron shouted at him from the pilot's seat. "We have to go!"
Biting his lip, Ren did as he was told, stumbling to the front just as Garron lifted the cloaked ship off the ground. He slid out of the dock and into the air above the Jumper Bay.
"Right," Garron said, "Dial it."
Ren nodded, reaching forward to touch the DHD...just as Neera burst into the Jumper Bay.
"I'm here!" she shouted, looking around. "Where are—"
"DON'T MOVE!" Sheppard's voice shouted, barreling into the Jumper Bay from another doorway, a dozen men on his heels. He had his P90 pointed directly at Neera's head. From the other direction, another six or seven men appeared, all holding P90s pointed directly at the Genii leader standing in the middle of the room.
Neera spun in place in the Jumper Bay, hands outstretched, staring the marines all down. Sheppard moved closer, his eyes narrowed to slits.
"You're not going anywhere," he hissed angrily at her, never lowering his aim. "I get it now. You're going to try to use a Jumper to get out of here, but it's not going to happen. You can't fly it—only those with the Ancestor's gene can fly it." He lifted his head, turning towards where Jumper Four should have been, "Garron! Ren! Uncloak that jumper now, or I'll kill her!"
Garron's eyes widened, breathing hard. Ren just stared at his older brother, out of ideas.
Steeling his jaw, the teenager made a decision.
He hit the decloak to reveal them flying overhead...and opened the weapon pods.
"You're right, Colonel Sheppard," he shouted, using the Jumper's communicator to make himself heard. "Only those with the gene can fly it...and Ren and I have the gene."
Sheppard's eyes widened, as did the others in the Bay. Several marines stepped back as they quickly changed their aim to point their P90s up into the air at the flying Jumper.
"Unless you let Commander Neera go," Garron threatened, "we will blow up the Bay, including all your jumpers...and you."
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TBC...
Phew! Now what are they going to do? LOL!