The water was pure liquid shock. Never before had something felt so wonderful and terrifying.

Sheppard broke the surface first, gasping for a lungful of air before the current pulled him under again. The water was rushing, destination unknown, but definitely going down. He slammed into rocks as he tumbled in the rapids, which quickly narrowed into the most harrowing water slide he'd ever ridden. The darkness was constant, the roar filling his ears painfully, and the cave tossed him about like a toy. After an eternity the wild ride eased and he managed to pull himself onto a small ledge that led to a flat area. Something managed to grab onto his leg before it was fully out of the water, and Sheppard managed to grab hold of an arm just before it slid by.

Rodney surfaced, and was pulled halfway to the ground. He vomited water and cried out as his shoulder was jostled, then coughed violently, not wanting to think about the many awful things he could have swallowed. He found himself in Sheppard's grip, and held onto the arm that was wrapped desperately around him, preventing him from sliding back into the water as he recovered. The pull on his lower body decreased, allowing for a painful struggle to scramble ashore.

Both men gasped for air, shivering, using each other's presence as a security blanket. Rodney swallowed and panted for a moment before saying, "I– I think – I've had enough of this crap."

He saw Sheppard's sympathetic agreement, and that was when the notion sunk in.

He could see.

He blinked in astonishment, and slowly sat up. "Some kind of phosphorous. Amazing."

Sheppard braced Rodney for a moment, then stood with him. The walls around them gleamed with an eerie greenish light, lichen lining the walls like glow-in-the-dark worms, veining the cave. Below them the water rushed by in a ghoulish stream. The water level was dropping.

Rodney gave a small nod of approval. "I think we're close."

"I think we're lost. But yeah, you're right." Below them the water level continued to fall. "I guess this is just flow-through."

Rodney had steadied himself and was examining the walls. "We have to be close. If we can wait until the water level drops sufficiently, we can follow the river bed, maybe all the way to the geyser."

"You do realize this geyser probably won't be active."

Rodney smirked, his face glowing in the light. "You do realize, with these tremors, it could actually go off any time now."

"So we start walking." Sheppard jumped back into the now knee-high water, and helped Rodney in. And they started to wade.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

The water level continued to drop. And it was much, much warmer.

Rodney had to reign in every bit of meager discipline he had not to just sit and lounge like a lizard. Even with the extreme heat, there was something about the water that was totally soothing, and he was totally ready for that.

Sheppard blamed it on the sediment. Called it a relaxing mineral bath.

Rodney didn't care if it was sulfuric acid. He sank back against a rock, out of breath and nearly out of gumption.

Sheppard waded around, feeling the water wrap thickly around his ankle, massaging it. He glanced back at his friend, sitting there with eyes half closed in exhaustion. "You okay?"

"Food would be nice."

He looked very pale, and more than a bit shaky. Sheppard counted back, trying to remember how long it had been since the last power bar. Both of their packs had been missing for quite some time, his own still buried, and McKay's didn't show up with the rescue.

Around them the walls glowed, the light slightly more dim than before, but plenty enough to see by. He was trying not to puzzle too much about how there were going to get out without the ability to see once they retreated to higher ground. Maybe they could scrape the lichen from the walls, but how long would that last on a stick? And where the hell would he get a stick? His torch pole was long gone. All he had, he wore. And the other bit of his possession sat slumped on a rock, half asleep. "Sit up. You'll fall in. Drown." The usual optimism was gone. Sheppard realized just how tired he sounded.

McKay raised exhausted eyes to him. "Might be a good thing."

"Don't start that."

"Who's starting?"

"Look, why don't we just . . ." and that was when they heard the noise. Sheppard held up his hand, and both men froze.

It wasn't even an alien noise so much as an odd chatter. And it wasn't a chatter in so far as verbalized words, but a chattering of teeth of someone, or something, very cold, or very hungry, and considering their luck the latter was the most probable. And yet it wasn't even that. But words weren't needed to describe the chill it gave the two men, the nuance of danger that surrounded it, and the feeling that they really needed to get the hell out of there, really fast.

It was the large, distorted shadow on the wall that made them take to their heels.

They sloshed their way as quickly and quietly as possible through the water, which was no easy task. McKay took several face dives, with Sheppard pulling him out every time, urging him on, only to take a dive himself. Soon the pretense of silence was forgotten, and they ran as fast as they could, because no matter how hard they tried to get away, the shadow was following, and the angry chattering sound was growing louder.

McKay took another face dive and rose. "This has ceased to be fun! I can't tell you how much fun this isn't!" And he pushed Sheppard on, stumbling behind him.

They found an incline, and managed to climb out of the water, Rodney's hand at Sheppard's back, urging him on through the pain the colonel felt in his ankle. His own arm was nothing more than a fiery block of agony, and the fact that he was becoming used to it frightened him. They scrambled up the gentle slope, exited through an opening onto a ledge, and halted at the sight that suddenly yawned below them.

The vast area was inner lit with the lichen, not only green, but yellow and white and stretching from one end of the huge cavern to the other, lighting every square meter. The area was easily the size of a soccer arena, the walls melding downwards into a slope which led to a huge crater deep beneath them. A very faint and constant rumble shook the ground at their feet.

Rodney stared, his eyes wide with shock and possibility. Sheppard's eyes were narrowed in thought as he analyzed the scope of land below. "This it?"

"I think so. Has to be."

He nodded, and quickly pulled Rodney aside as the chatter behind them reminded them of their dangerous predicament. "Okay, now would be a good time to see Ole Faithful blow a fuse."

"You kidding?" Rodney spun. "You seriously think we want to be in here when this happens?"

"It goes up, right?"

"Yes, and what goes up must come down. Not all of the water will evaporate, you know!"

"So . . . you're saying bath."

"I'm saying drowning!"

"Oh. Good. That the one thing that hasn't got us yet." The thing behind them bellowed in a odd, high pitched whine.

Sheppard yanked Rodney by his good arm and shoved him against the wall beside him. He looked around desperately for a good size stone, and managed to find one right as the creature showed its face, and slowly turned to them.

"Ever see 'Alien'?" Rodney asked in a low, petrified voice.

The creature was nothing more than an exoskeleton. The large head swiveled to face them, the macroscopic eyes pinned them down. Long claws curled around the side of the opening, one broad skeletal foot stepped forward. A thin body followed, black skin just barely covering it, stretched to the limit over a frame that resembled a rotten carcass. The creature hesitated, then gave a long hiss.

Sheppard raised his stone, trembling, trying to hide it, and his other arm reached around to push his friend to the rock. With one graceful swipe the creature knocked the stone away, and resumed a defensive stance.

It didn't attack.

Sheppard's brows tightened. He waited, but the creature didn't move. Instead, it watched. The ground trembled beneath them.

Who are you? The voice sounded in Sheppard's mind, and beside him, Rodney jumped.

"Did you say something?" he asked slowly.

I asked, who are you?

"I . . . we're . . . friends. Who are you?"

We are Riatu. I guard these caverns.

"Against what?" Rodney asked nervously.

Against you. I know why you are here, why your kind comes. This water is ours.

Rodney pulled away from the wall slightly. "You mean there are others who have come down here? They've been able to get this far?" He turned to Sheppard. "Am I really talking to a bug?"

Not this far, no. I encounter them elsewhere.

"Okay," Rodney said with as much nerve as he could muster, "let's get down to it." He blinked a few times as his bravado failed. "Are you going to eat us?"

If it were possible for the creature to look amused, it would have.

"You do realize," Sheppard said, "that the lack of water is killing those on the surface."

That is no concern of mine.

"But, this planet is dying!" Rodney exclaimed. "You do realize that if the planet dies, you'll die."

There is enough water down here to sustain the planet.

"Yeah, hence the problem. It's down here. What about the people?"

The water belongs to us.

"Okay," Rodney said, his ire rising. It was becoming obvious that the creature didn't intend to attack, not yet anyway, and he wanted answers. "If there is plenty of water to go around, why not be good little insectoids and share?"

The creature took an irate step forward, giving Rodney visions of deep-dish physicist. They wish to bring the water to the surface.

"I'm sorry, am I the only one to detect a no-brainer here? You can just go to the surface to get the water you need."

We will die if the water is released.

"How?" Sheppard frowned. "You're down here with it, or you can go up for it, how . . ?"

"No, no wait. I get it." Rodney gestured, rather disgustedly, to the body before them. "Look at it. This thing is designed for the desert heat and dry air." He addressed the Riatu. "I'm assuming you're not the only one of your kind?"

There are many of us.

"And you require these insanely rough conditions in order to survive."

Sheppard shook his head. "There used to be a steady water cycle. Where were they then?"

"Well, it depends on just how long ago this land was lush. Brouk referred to his ancestors, but we really have no idea how far back that is." He counted off on his fingers. "No idea how long these people live, no idea if he is referring to a direct ancestor or one much, much further down the line, and for that matter no idea if the notion of a once fertile land is a myth. In short, we have no idea how long this planet has been this way, possibly for hundreds of years. It would be enough time for a species already used to hot climates to adjust to desert conditions, especially if they were living in a desert region already. The deserts just expanded with the lack of water."

We must protect ourselves.

"But if all of this water was released, it would definitely change the climate of the planet as it stands now, never mind what may have happened in the past," Sheppard asked Rodney.

"If there is as much as they think, absolutely."

"And you know all this," he asked the Riatu.

Yes.

"So basically," Sheppard said, "no water for the people above, no climate change, they die out. Water for the people above, climate change, you die out."

Yes.

Sheppard gave a small sigh. "Well, this is a pretty little problem, isn't it?"

We protect the water. It tries to escape. It never goes for long.

"Where does it try to escape?" Rodney asked. "Here?"

There was another rumble as Riatu pointed with a long claw to the ground seventy-five feet below them. There.

Rodney nodded. "But how, I mean, the sky has to collect it. Cloud formation and all."

Sheppard had leaned out, and looked up. "Rodney," he muttered, "the sky does collect it. We just didn't notice."

Rodney followed his gaze. Several hundred feet above them, the rock opened in a near-perfect circle. "Night time." He sighed in relief. "I thought the air was fresher in here."

A huge rumble nearly knocked their feet from under them. Rodney turned to the creature, who had sunk its claws into the rock to steady itself, and he heard a loud shout from below. There was a loud burst of gunfire, and the Riatu shrieked, a painful, high pitch of pain, and released its grip, falling from the cliff. It landed on the rocks below, the body fracturing like splinters.

Rodney lunged forward, and was pulled back by Sheppard as another burst of fire sounded. He slammed back against the wall, breathing hard. "They have our weapons," Sheppard muttered in frustration. "Bastards have our goddamn weapons!"

A satisfied voice called up to them. "Colonel Sheppard, you may stop hiding now. We've killed the beast, you are safe."

The colonel leaned forward over the edge to see a familiar white grin against dark flesh. "Brouk! You are a pain in the ass, you know that?"

"I have been told." He smiled again and shouldered the weapon. "But on the good side, you have kept your end of the deal. I believe this is where the water rises, is it not?"

"And just what clued you in?" Rodney called down loudly.

Brouk winced and raised his hand. "Please, the acoustics here are very good. I heard everything you said to the creature, and thanks to the telepathy, what it said to you."

"You know about these . . . Riatu?"

"Of course."

"And I suppose neglecting to tell us was a strategic move on your part?"

"It was not necessary. There is nothing to be done about them."

"Nothing to be done? You have our guns!"

"Protection."

"Hey, we could've used those, you know!" Rodney shouted.

Again Brouk winced against the onslaught of sound. "They were recently acquired."

"From whom?"

"Not your concern."

"This doesn't sound good," Sheppard muttered in an aside to Rodney. Aloud he asked, "If you know about the Riatu, then you know releasing this water could kill an entire species."

Brouk shrugged. "As it said. I don't care."

"How could you not care?" Rodney snapped. "It may not be like you, but it's perfectly coherent, and seemingly more decent!"

"I must protect my own, as they must protect theirs," he acknowledged. "In this case, it seems I may have won the battle."

Rodney straightened. "Well, can't really put up a defense against the whole survival of the fittest thing."

Sheppard shook his head and called down, "Just how do you plan to release this water? At most it'll merely create another rainstorm."

Brouk smiled. Then he laughed. And he continued to laugh. "Colonel Sheppard," he said, "you must take me for a fool. Do you really believe I have not considered every contingency?" He snapped his fingers, and three men were brought forth by Brouk's companions.

"Oh my god," Rodney breathed, his toes on the edge of the cliff as he peered off.

Tied and with guns trained on them, Lorne and his team stared back from below.