The men dragged Carson along a dark and damp corridor. His mind was racing. He couldn't remember the last time he'd felt so afraid. Even through all the horrors of Genii and Wraith attacks on Atlantis, he hadn't felt as afraid. It was a feeling of helplessness, of having no control over his own destiny, that was truly frightening. Mixed in with that emotion, was the hurt he felt at the betrayal by Ria. He had trusted her, thought of her as his friend. He had even hoped, somewhere in the back of his mind, that she might become more than a friend. And now, he was facing death because she had led him into a trap. Even after all the conversations, when he had opened his heart to her, about Perna, about Michael, she had still asked this of him. The question that kept coming to his mind was why. Why had she done this to them?
"I had no choice," a gentle voice said in his mind. His eyes opened wide, and his body went tense.
"Relax, Carson," the voice said. Her mental voice was so like her physical voice, that there was no mistaking who was speaking. "Just think what you want me to hear," Ria said in his mind. "And I can answer you."
"What about the others?" he thought.
"They can't hear us," she said. "This is just between you and me."
"What do you mean you had no choice?" he asked. "There is always a choice."
"Not this time," she replied. "They have my brother. If I didn't do what they wanted me to, they would kill him."
"So instead they're going to kill me?" he asked, a certain edge to his thought.
"I didn't think this would happen," she admitted. "I thought you would help us. I guess I wasn't looking at the bigger picture, until it was too late, much too late."
"Don't you see," he said. "I can't turn you all into super-humans. It would be too bloody dangerous. Can't the leaders of your people see that?"
"These aren't our leaders, well not exactly," she admitted.
"And just what you mean by that?" he asked.
"The real leaders don't want anything to do with this. The people here are a breakaway faction who feel the only way we can secure a future is by increasing our mental abilities."
"And you agree with them?" he asked.
"I don't know," her voice echoed quietly in his mind. "I don't want to be powerful. I'd be scared I'd hurt someone. But the thought of the Wraith scares me. And we need some sort of defence against them."
"Strength, physical or mental, doesn't always guarantee victory," Carson reminded her gently. "If you start thinking like that, lass, you're half way to thinking like the Wraith. And even without being powerful, you can still hurt someone."
The look on Ria's face told Carson that his comment had hit home. He was hurting, emotionally, from her betrayal. And before long, he could well be hurting physically too.
"Just how did you get mixed up with this crowd?" he asked her.
"It was through my brother," she told him. "He got caught up with their ideas, and dragged me in."
"And now they're using him as a hostage?" Carson asked.
Before they could continue their conversation, the guards dragging Carson stopped. The wall in front of them opened up, and before them was the same laboratory they had been in earlier.
Patra was standing there, his evil grin firmly in place.
"Welcome, again, Dr Beckett," he said. "I believe you know what we plan to do to you. You still have a choice. You can help us willingly, or we take the information from you. But I warn you, no one has yet survived our methods of extracting information." The man looked as if he enjoyed the thought of killing Carson.
"Carson," voice in his head said gently. "Please, for my sake, help us! Give me some time to work this out, and maybe we can all survive."
Carson hesitated for a moment. In his heart he wanted to trust Ria, but his head reminded him that she had already betrayed him. But above all, he didn't want to die. His self-preservation instincts had been well honed by his time on Atlantis. They had got out of seemingly impossible situations on many occasions before, to the extent it had become almost commonplace, worrying so. It scared Carson that even now, when he faced the possibility of his own death, he was half expecting the cavalry to ride over the hill, rousing music playing in the background. He had to remind himself that this was reality, and death was a distinct possibility.
Suddenly, it occurred to him that these people could read his mind. So even if he did agree to help them, he wouldn't be able to fool them. And even at that very moment, they could be silently laughing at his scattered thoughts.
"Don't worry, Carson," Ria's voice echoed in his mind. "I've made sure none of them can read your thoughts. They belong to you."
"Can you do that all the time?" he asked.
"Only if I'm close to you," she admitted. "I really have to been the same room as you, to be able to see you, before I can cloak your thoughts."
With the decisiveness that was only usually evident when he was caring for a patient, Carson decided on his course of action.
He turned to Patra, and looked the man directly in the eyes.
"You don't really leave me much choice," Carson said. "All right, I'll do the research for you, but I need help. I'll need someone to act as a test subject."
Ria, her mind still linked with his, saw his intent.
"I'll be the test subject," she said meeting his eyes steadily.
Patra looked at them both.
"What an excellent idea," he said, his smile widening even further. "That way, Dr Beckett, if you make any mistakes, it is our little friend, here, who will suffer. Since she is the reason you here, that seems completely appropriate to me."
Carson looked at the man in front of him. It was rare for him to hate anyone. But, at that moment, he came very close to hating Patra. It was obvious that the other man saw this as an ideal opportunity to get rid not only of Carson, but of Ria too, or at the very least, to make them both suffer. Carson looked at Ria, and he could see the same knowledge in her eyes. It was now up to Carson to make sure that they both came out of this alive.