Space Pirates
Chapter 4
Teyla followed the trail of broken branches an flattened grass. The darkness slowed her down, but didn't hinder her as she read the language of the forest and traced the path her team-mate had taken not too long ago. The forest wasn't too thick, but the sky was heavily clouded, not allowing any moonlight to reach the ground. Using the flashlight, well aware of the need to conserve the batteries as long as possible, Teyla slowly progressed through the underbrush. She could tell that Rodney had moved fast and had not cared to take the easiest path possible. He must have literally torn through shrubs and plants, not caring that branches cut him. Teyla wondered what had driven her ill team-mate to run through the forest like that. What had he been running from? A ghost of his feverish dreams or a memory of what had happened on the planet earlier? For a physically weakened man, he had evidently moved with great strength and velocity. Teyla tried her best to speed up her search, trying to find Rodney before his exertion caught up with him and he was rendered helpless.
The loud crack of thunder above made Teyla stop dead in her movements. While she was still
glancing upwards through the foliage at the sky, rain started falling. The drops were large and the rain was dense. Even with the flashlight, vision was instantly reduced greatly to only a short distance around herself. While it had been slow going due to the dark before, her progress was slowed to a crawl now. She could only hope that Rodney would also be slowed down by the rain and hopefully find shelter under a larger tree. But even that would not help him for long, Teyla realized a few minutes later, while the foliage had kept her moderately dry for a few minutes, after maybe a quarter of an hour, her uniform was soaked with cold rain. In the chilly nigh of the planet, the combination of low temperature and wetness was dangerous. Teyla was aware that now, not only Rodney was at risk; she was also risking her own health. Not only was the nightly search putting strain on the bite wound she had suffered when the wolf-like animals had attacked their camp, now, the weather conditions put not only her, but also Aiden and John who were at their poorly shielded campsite, at the risk of suffering from exposure.
Teyla stopped suddenly when she heard a howling noise. Because of the heavy pounding of the rain, she couldn't properly tell the distance, but it sounded as if the source was nearby. She got her weapon ready and used its light to scan the immediate area. The rain rendered her nearly blind and deaf, she heard more noise, something moving through the branches, it sounded as if it was moving towards her.
---------
Just as Rodney thought his fall would continue forever, he was swallowed by ice-cold water. It violently engulfed him, tossed him around, having no mercy for his already battered body, as he slammed into rocks and branches. The shock of the cold had taken away his breath at first, but then his lungs desperately craved air but he no longer knew up from down. He frantically tried to get hold of something to stop his journey down the raging river, but he was powerless his body tumbled in the fierce current. It was pure chance that he managed to push his head up for a few second. He gasped for air, not caring about the pain every gasp sent through his chest. Too soon he was pulled under again. He continued to fight against the masses of water that tossed him around like he was a mere piece of wood, but his body had been running on adrenaline alone and his injuries and the infection were draining his strength. His lungs were already burning when he drew in his next life-saving breath. He fought for every second his head remained above the water while he drew in painful breath after breath, when suddenly he fell again. The whooshing sound of the night air, the rain and the rushing water enveloped him, drowning all other sensation. The hypnotic sound seemed to carry on forever, an endless natural patter repeating itself. Rodney felt himself getting lost in the sound, finally feeling calm and at peace. He could go on forever like this.
----------
When the rain had started falling, Aiden had realized that he had to do something. They couldn't stay somewhere were they were this exposed to the elements. They had to risk it and move into the ruins where the pirates had built their camp. It was the only place on the planet where they were somewhat protected from the weather. Teyla was still off searching for Rodney, but he couldn't wait for her to return, John's clothes were already soaked with water and so were his own. They had nothing to change into and the only way get their clothes dry in this climate was to built a fire. That was if they could find some dry wood. Not for the first time Aiden wondered how a rescue mission could have gone this wrong. He didn't see how they were going to get out of this one alive. He and Teyla might be able to survive on the planet with some luck, if they didn't starve or were killed by the wolf-beasts, but even if neither of them had said it, John and Rodney didn't have a chance. They had a couple of days at best. He seemed to make mistake after mistake since they were here. He had been late to recognize what John had been about to do. Had he been a bit quicker, he could have wrestled the gun from him and the man wouldn't have shot himself in the head. Then, he had managed to unleash the beasts which had attacked them, had bitten Teyla and had given Rodney the opportunity to take off. If he ever got back to Atlantis, he was never going through the Gate again.
He couldn't take everything in one go. Everything could wait, except John, getting him dry and warm was the most important thing right now. Collecting their cooking gear and other non-essentials could wait. Aiden tried to take John in a fire-man's carry, but didn't get far, before he had to set him down. Through the long trip with many break while he alternated between dragging and carrying John, it continued to rain heavily. It seemed to take forever until they finally arrived in the rectangular stone room on the second floor of the most intact building of the ruins. Aiden had chosen this room, because it offered the best view over the area and because the 'window' would allow them to have a fire going. Ignoring his aching muscles and waterlogged uniform, Aiden went in search of dry would to get a fire started to dry their clothes and get them warm again. He had briefly glanced at the rooms during the day, but hadn't had time to do a detailed search before the fiasco with the wolf-beasts.
He descended the stone stairs that were worn by centuries of use and started to search through the remnants of what had been the ground floor. The building must have once been impressive, but aside from one room, the rest was mostly rumble. The intact room on the ground floor had evidently been used by the pirates for storage. Aiden made a mental note to come back later and examine the bottles, boxes and barrels stashed there more closely. But for now, firewood was his first priority as he descended into the basement. At first he didn't realize, but when he had taken a few steps in the low, narrow corridor, he realized that this was the very corridor where John had been kept prisoner. Aiden shuddered involuntarily and not entirely due to his wet clothes and the chilly air in the damp basement. Willing away his uneasiness, he proceeded, remembering the crate John had sat on. The crate would make excellent wood for a fire, he told himself. Even though there was no one around to see him, Aiden carefully controlled his expression before entering the room at the far end where the tragic events had taken place less than three days ago. He fought to keep the memories at bay, but no matter how hard he tried, the image of John sitting on the grate, pointing out the body of Rodney materialized in his mind. The man sitting on that crate hadn't been John. He had looked like him, but all likeness and personality and behaviour had been gone. Aiden didn't even want to know what the alien pirates had done to break push John Sheppard to that point where he was rather going to kill himself than being rescued. And it looked like he was going to succeed, Aiden thought glumly. Shaking the dark thoughts and memories, he picked up the grate, when something caught his eye. At first he thought it was the gruesome sight of the lake of dried blood on the stone floor where John had tried to kill Rodney by stabbing him to death. But that wasn't what had distracted him. A small blue-ish object was lying in the corner. He sat the crate down and went to take a closer look. It looked like an injector pen, alien edition. He pocketed the object. He would ponder this discovery later, getting warm and dry again was his first priority. Aiden picked up the crate again, glad to be finally able to leave the basement again.
----------
John listened for footsteps. He tensed as he heard them coming in his direction. He could feel his body telling him to run, but in his current position of being restrained to the bed, this was impossible. He strained his eyes to see who was approaching, but was incapable of recognizing more than a dark shadow. There was nothing he could do but wait. The figure came closer and closer. The outline looked familiar, not too tall, no athletic built. It put something down on the night stand. Something that looked like a gun.
"Rodney" he whispered.
"Shsh!" was the reply.
John felt a warm hand on his and someone was working on the restraint on his left wrist.
"I'm here to get you out." Rodney whispered and freed his left and. Then he went over and repeated the procedure and his right wrist.
"Not that I don't appreciate it. But what are you doing with a gun!?"
"It's only a tranq gun." Rodney reassured him, still talking in a low voice. "I had to take out the nurse on duty."
John stared at him. He hadn't time to formulate a response as Rodney thrust a bundle of clothes at him.
"I brought a something to wear. Wouldn't want you to have to walk around like this."
"Thanks." John stammered and put on the clothes. It wasn't like he liked being in the infirmary, restrained on top of it all, when he didn't even know why.
"Here," Rodney handed him a gun , "just in case. Come on, we need to hurry. I have everything prepared. I even rigged to security cameras. By the time they know we are gone, we'll be so far away, they'll never find us." Rodney smiled broadly.
John frowned in confusion. "Where are we going? Why?"
"Don't worry. You're still confused. Beckett said it could take a while until you're back to normal." Rodney tucked on his arm. John followed reluctantly, trusting Rodney to know what was going on.
They didn't get very far. In the corridor leading down from the infirmary, they ran into Dr. Beckett and Dr. Mitchell, the city's psychologist. Both of them wore grim expression as they saw the pair approach.
"Rodney, we told you that he needs rest and can't leave the infirmary yet." Dr. Mitchell said in a patronizing tone that John didn't like. Rodney didn't like it either because as soon as the doctor had spoken, he shot her. For good measure, he downed Beckett as well, before he had a chance to even move. John just stared as the two doctors collapsed to the floor unconscious. Something was very wrong. The Rodney he had dreamt about had never been like this. Sure, this Rodney liked him and protected him, but he also ran around and shot people. John's thoughts were interrupted when Rodney tugged on his sleeves again. Rodney started to run and for lack of alternative John followed him. In this bizarre version of his dream world, Rodney was the only person, he could trust. He soon realized that Rodney was headed towards the jumper bay. Oddly they didn't encounter a single person on their way there. However when they entered the jumper bay, they were suddenly faced with half a dozed marines from Sergeant Bates security forces, weapons aimed at them.
"Drop your weapons and surrender or we will shoot!" Bates shouted.
"Never!" Rodney cried and fired his tranq gun at Bates.
"Nooo!" John screamed in the same instant as he threw Rodney down to the ground, knowing what was going to happen.
Instead of hitting Rodney, the bullet tore into his side. He felt as if his nerves were on fire as he slid to the ground, blood rapidly flowing from the wound. People were shouting all around him and someone was pulling Rodney away from him, just as the pain overwhelmed him and everything darkened.
When he opened his eyes a second later, the fire along his nerves was gone. The pain was now different. More an all around kind of severe muscle ache than a bullet hole in his side.. John was staring at a stone ceiling. He was back at the pirate's camp. They had tricked him again! It had been nothing but a dream. In reality, he was still chained up in the cellar, waiting to be sold. Panic surged through him again and he tried to sit up. When his body failed to react, he became frantic. What had they done to him? His entire body hurt. Had he made them mad enough to beat him up? They couldn't sell him if he was beaten up. That was good. He couldn't let them sell him. With renewed determination, John drifted off to the world of his dreams again.
--------
Teyla fired a shot in the air, hoping that it would scare away the animal like it had initially done when they had been attacked before. While they had been at the advantage over the creatures at the camp with their deadly weapons, now, in the forest with the heavy rain, the creatures that could track her by heat and smell, were at the advantage because to use her weapon she had to see the creature. Cautiously, Teyla proceeded on Rodney's trail, hoping that he hadn't fallen victim to the beasts when he had fled into the forest unarmed. She had advanced maybe ten steps when she heard the howling noise again, this time definitely ahead of her. She fired a blind shot and was rewarded by a pained shriek that indicated that she had struck her target. More confident she resumed her path through the forest. Suddenly, she hadn't paid too much attention one of beast was behind her, leaping in her direction. She fired a shot, but tripped and the bullet went high up in the air. Frantically, she scrambled back to her feet, but the creature caught her arm between it's jaws. She yanked on it before it had a chance to bite, but its teeth had still torn her flesh. Pain ran through her arm, making her grip on the gun shaky as she finally managed to shoot the animal. She sank to the ground, cradling her injured arm. She let her weapon slip from her grasp. When it suddenly slipped down the soft incline of the ground and disappeared into the darkness, she looked up. Pointing her flashlight up ahead, she saw that she was sitting only a few feet from the border of a ravine. With the heavy rain and the attack by the creature, she hadn't noticed the raging river below. The heavy rain had caused it to swell. She was lucky not to have fallen down the ravine into the water. But there was no telling if Rodney had been equally lucky. She had followed his trail as far as she could only to find it ending at the border of a ravine. The painful conclusion was that he had fallen in. He had had no light source and if he had been in panic, being chased by the wild beasts, he could have easily taken a fall.
----------
The whooshing sound lulled him to sleep, but cold and pain were tugging him back to consciousness. Rodney groaned, he didn't want to go there. All he wanted was some sleep. The whooshing sound turned into the sound of the flowing rivers and the falling rain as his mind returned to a waking state. He realized that his lower body was still in the water, while the rest of him had been caught between stones along with driftwood. He realized how lucky he had been. Otherwise he surely would have drowned after going down that waterfall. He was cold all over, the river was cold and had numbed his legs. He tried with his left arm to pull himself out of the water and found it a task that only progressed millimetre by millimetre. He tried to push himself up more by his legs, but the cold water had numbed them beyond the point of usefulness and the muscles refused to co-operate with his brain. The painstaking task of crawling to the shore took Rodney until morning. By the time the sun come up, he had crawled onto the land. For the first time, he glanced around. This area of the planet looked similar to where the pirates had put up their camp. A flat plane of grass, a few tress, some ruins of abandoned houses. Rodney just wanted to get some sleep, somewhere where he was going to stay dry. With renewed determination, he set out to crawl to the nearest of the ruined buildings.
----------
By the time Teyla returned to the campsite only to find it abandoned it had already dawned. The heavy rain had made way to a drizzle. She felt cold to the bone. The pain in her arm drew up to her shoulder and the wound was still bleeding. The bite wound in her leg was protesting after the exhausting march that had lasted all night.
She saw the scattered remnants of equipments and concluded that Aiden had probably relocated to a more sheltered location inside the ruins. She collected the remaining cooking gear and set out towards the ruins.
By the time, she was within sight of the ruins, she knew where Aiden was. The smoke coming from one of the ruins more intact rooms betrayed the new position of their camp. She made her way up the stairs to the first floor room. Aiden saw her once she stood in the empty doorway. Her ragged appearance was enough to tell the story. When he shot her a questioning look, she just shook her head. Another disaster on a doomed mission. Attracted by the warm fire, she let herself sink down to the ground.
"Are you all right?" Aiden asked, feeling slightly stupid asking when Teyla was obviously injured.
"I will be all right. One of the beasts attacked me in the forest. " Teyla explained, not being able to prevent the weariness from sneaking into her voice. Aiden handed her a strip of the sheets he had found when going through the ruins earlier. They were out of bandages and he had cut the sheet into stripes when he had rebandaged John's head wound earlier. Silently, Teyla accepted his help at dressing her injury. She tried no to show it, but the pain and exhaustion were getting to her as well.
"I tracked Dr, McKay's tracks to the edge of a ravine. I believe it's most likely that he fell down the ravine into the river below."
"Oh God." Aiden nearly whispered as he realized the implications. Rodney might or might not have willingly gone over the edge of the ravine after he had simply run away from his team-mates. What else was going to happen in this nightmare?
"I believe he might have survived the fall into the river. Once the weather improves, we should go and search for him." Teyla insisted.
"We don't even know where the river goes. It's to far away and one of us has to stay with John. He had another seizure tonight and I think his wound has gotten infected. I'm trying to get his clothes dry." Aiden pointed to John, who was wrapped in several of the sheets that Aiden had found earlier. "I also found this." He pointed out the blue object that he had found down in the basement. "It's an injector of some kind. They were drugging him. I checked him out. The insides of his arms are full of marks, old ones and newer ones." Aiden said with disgust.
Teyla didn't know what to say. They both knew that they needed to get off the planet and they both knew that currently, they didn't have the means to do so.
----------
"Come on, John, come on. John! John!" Rodney's voice wouldn't leave him alone.
"Uhmm, wanna sleep." He mumbled in reply, trying to get rid of the voice.
"John, you have to wake up!" Rodney insisted and started shaking him. The shaking hurt, it sent pain shooting though his side. His side? He had been shot in the side. John fought to recover the memory. He had been in the jumper bay, along with Rodney. Bates and his men had been there. They had been about to shoot Rodney, but he had caught the bullet instead. Why was he still alive? John opened his eyes to see Rodney hovering above him, looking very concerned.
"Thank God, John, I already thought you were…" Rodney sounded relieved and helped him sit up. Only now John realized that they were in a jumper. Probably on autopilot.
"Rodney, how did we get here? What happened with Bates?"
"Don't worry John. Bates can't hurt you anymore. You are safe with me." Rodney gave him a crushing hug that made John yelp with pain, yet Rodney seemed unconcerned. John looked down on himself. His lower torso was bandaged, but blood was already starting to seep through the white material.
"Rodney, I'm bleeding!"
"I know, honey, but all that matters is that we are together." Rodney kissed him.
This wasn't real, he knew that now. He couldn't really die, now could he? John reminded himself. It was all a trick. He had woken up and seen what was really going on.
----------------
When they heard the loud humming coming from the sky, it was already too late. The pirate ship was already starting to set down in to free space in the middle of the ruins. They had to be blind not to have spotted the smoke giving away the camp. Teyla mentally chided herself for not brining up this point when she had first thought of it, but there was no time for doubts. They had to defend their position, with John along, there was no way they could run and leaving him behind was not an option. They were short on ammo as well, having lost much when defending themselves against the creatures and Teyla had lost her weapon in the forest. Aiden gave her his handgun while he made his way down the stairs to surprise their visitors early on. Teyla stayed up in their camp, spying out the 'window'. Down on the ground, two aliens, both of them well armed exited the small ship. Two on two were good odds for them. One shot rang out and one alien stumbled, but didn't go down. Not good for them. Teyla fired a shot from above to distract them. The aliens split up, one of them probably going after Aiden, the other making its way up to their camp.
Aiden had been stunned to see his first shot have so little effect; he had tried for an immediate second but had missed. Now, he was being hunted and didn't like the situation one bit. He had already heard two shots being fired in his direction without even having the opportunity to fire a shot back at the alien. He was clearly at the disadvantage here. The aliens knew the territory, he didn't. Their only advantage was that the aliens didn't know that there were only two of them. He made a run for the basement. If he put enough distance between himself and the alien, he would be able to duck into one of the room and fire from a secure position. With the alien being potentially injured from his first shot, his chances weren't so bad. He dove into the first open doorway and spun around, waiting for the enemy to approach. His plan went ahead as intended. His shot hit the alien in the neck, above the protective armour the pirate was wearing. He went down to the ground, still grasping for his weapon.
It was as if her gun was useless. She had fired three shots into the alien already and it was advancing on her without slowing down. The thick armour it was wearing obviously protected it from ordinary projectile weapons. The only success her attack had had, it had made the alien drop its weapon. But Teyla doubted that the point was to kill her. This race enslaved people to sell them, nobody was going to pay for a dead person. Driven to the wall, there was no where for her left to run. The alien roughly grabbed her by her injured arm and shoved her to the ground, next to John. The alien swiftly tied her wrist together and yanked her back to her feet. It tried to do same with John, but of course, he collapsed back to the floor.
"You have to carry him." Teyla explained curtly "He's ill." The alien accepted the explanation and made its way with the two prisoners back to the small spacecraft. Teyla hoped that Aiden had had better luck, but neither he, nor the second alien were to be seen when the stepped out onto the surface. Her captor shoved her and John into the back of the space craft. Teyla winced when John's body hit the metal floor hard, unable to break the fall. With her hands tied behind her, there was nothing she could do either to help him. Another shot exploded outside and a few seconds later, Teyla could hear the ship's door opening. Instead of the alien she had expected, it was Ford who entered. He looked exhausted, but was wearing a grin.
"Time to get off this planet." He climbed back and undid their bindings, then he and Teyla climbed to the front portion of the ship. A collection of controls were in front of them and neither of them really knew what to do. Aiden concentrated on what he had learned from his few flying lessons at co-piloting the jumpers and tried to apply that knowledge to a completely different ship. His efforts were rewarded with a roaring of the engines. The ship made a sudden leap forward and then lifted up in the air.
----------
Finally they seemed to hold a steady position in the air. At least any rocking motion inside the cabin that disappeared. An unspoken question was on both of their minds. Teyla was the first to voice her opinion on it.
"We must search for Rodney. From the air we can search the riverbank very easily. The river runs outside the forest. If he is there, we will find him." Teyla stated firmly. They would find him, dead or alive. For her it was no question that they would rather die than leave their comrade behind. It was what their commander would do, and now that he was incapacitated, they were to do likewise.
"That's far too risky. What if we crash or the pirates send or reinforcement? Neither of us are trained pilots. Checking out the riverbank takes precise flying, neither of us have any idea how to fly this ship. Why can do nothing for Rodney by crashing into the river and drowning. And didn't you saw it was a thirty feet fall down the ravine and the river was full because of the rain, the chances that Rodney is alive are minimal, we are wasting our time." Ford couldn't help but finally vocalizing what he had been thinking all along. Normally, he was all for being positive, but on this mission, there was nothing to be positive about. His CO, whom he had thought to be a hero, one of the strongest, unbreakable people, he had ever seen, had tried to kill himself right in front of him, after doing a fairly good job at trying to kill a team mate with a piece of glass. That just wasn't in the protocol.
"Major Sheppard would not leave a team member behind. We should act like he would want us to." Teyla argued, interrupting.
"He's unconscious and God knows if he'll ever come out of it again." Ford snapped, having reached his boiling point. He hadn't slept since the their first night on the planet and the constant deterioration of their situation while he was technically in command were not something his training had ever prepared him for. "We're trying to get to the nearest planet with a Stargate, land there and 'gate back to Atlantis. They can send a jumper to search for McKay." He said, trying hard to sound determined. Teyla said nothing, knowing that he was in command and had the final say.
The lack of optimism on the part of her friend disturbed her. She had found that most humans were rather optimistic and generally believed in their power to overcome even overwhelming odds. In her time on the team of Major Sheppard, she had seen that mostly the humans seemed to be right. Aside from Dr. McKay, who preferred to believe that everything would go wrong, the rest of the team, believed in good fortune. She wondered what had shaken Ford up that badly that he felt so negative about their situation. They had faced great adversity before and compared to the Wraith the pirates were a laughable enemy. Maybe, it was concern about the injuries of the major and the scientist. But his off-handed remark, about the major's grave condition didn't fit.
----------
Cold. Cold that seemed to penetrate every bone on his body. He had never felt this cold. All Rodney wanted to do was go back to sleep, go back to the place where he wasn't cold. But he was freezing so badly that it hurt. He opened his eyes and recognized the 'house' he had crawled into in the morning. He had no idea how long he had been out, but judging, but the dampness of his clothes, he guessed not longer than twelve hours. It was still light outside and the rain had stopped. Sunlight came in though the openings that had once been windows. If the sunlight carried any warmth, he couldn't feel it. He was numb from the cold. Even his earlier injuries only protested mildly when he struggled to get up to his feet. He still felt ill, but the cold must have temporarily combated the fever.
Slowly, supporting himself on the wall, he went looking for anything that he could use. Something to eat, something to built a fire, something to keep himself warm. His progress was slowly. Every step was a conscious effort. Three steps, then leaning against the wall, catching his breath in shallow gasps, trying to avoid triggering the stabbing pain in his chest. His vision threatened to grey as he was gasping for air. Avoiding the inevitable fall to the hard stone floor, he slid down to the floor. It seemed to take an eternity for his breathing to normalize. The next room seemed to be miles away. He'd never get there and even if he did, what then. He'd maybe find a blanket or something wooden to built a fire. But no matter what happened, he was trapped. Even if hypothermia didn't do him in, the infection from his stab wounds was going to catch up with him sooner or later. His chest ached with every breath since his fall down the ravine and he didn't even want to know what he had managed to bust there. Rodney was a realist. He wasn't going to get off this planet alive. Even on the off-chance that his team mates found him, they were trapped just like he was. It would be a fitting end, but the others didn't deserve to end like this. John didn't deserve this. John wouldn't give up, no matter how dire the situation. Rodney really wished John was there.
TBC?