THE NEXT EVENT - by Kolyaaa!
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN: THE LOST
A/N: Okay, I am back from the Spring Festival. I made a Nuttalli cake. Everyone seemed pleased. Julie brought ice cream that she had made herself. People weren't too happy with it but I made them eat it anyway. We had to sit at the kiddy table because we came late. How I loathe the kiddy table. The children do not show me the respect I deserve! I am KOLYAAAA! It's hard to fear me when I am sitting at a little card table in the kitchen with five-year-olds.
[{O}]
Dex kept his same steady pace, scanning the terrain for any other signs of wildlife. The flower-strewn ground, the feather-leaf trees, everything around them had taken on an air of menace. The Satedan tightened his grip on McKay, wishing he didn't have to carry the injured man like a sack of grain.
He'd spent his childhood daydreaming about this place. Were none of the old legends true? Was everything that was supposed to be good and pure in his people's mythology nothing but a twisted lie? Dex's gaze strayed to the bloodied horn the doctor still clutched like a weapon. The alicorn was supposed to be able to weigh a man's soul in the balance and judge his worth. The creature had killed Jerkin, then had savaged McKay, and had been about to do the same to Beckett. He'd known little of Jerkin, but he knew, knew, that neither Beckett nor McKay was unworthy. He hadn't known either man long, but he trusted his instincts, and his instincts had found the honor in both.
But, then again…
He glanced at Nonor. She had finally stopped crying, her bottom lip firmly pushed out in a terrific sulk.
He knew she believed that McKay had somehow stopped her from making a connection with the alicorn, but he just couldn't see it. McKay had probably thought he was saving her life. Beckett certainly seemed to think so. He wished he had been there to see exactly what had happened, but he'd only shown up in time to see Beckett run into that tree.
He snorted, trying not to find the image amusing. But, well…
"By the way," Beckett said suddenly, stepping up so Ronon could see him. "I wanted to…to thank you. For saving my life, I mean."
Ronon grimaced, never comfortable with this sort of thing. "Yeah, well, you would've done the same for me." He had said it without thinking, and realized it was true.
"Sure, but I wouldn't 'ave figured out that shooting off its horn would leave it vulnerable."
"Figured the horn was what was making it heal so fast." He wanted to shrug, but the weight on his shoulder was too heavy, so he just grimaced again. "Then figured, if I took it off, I could kill it."
"Yeah, well, you obviously figured rightly." Beckett smiled up at him, "And I'm truly grateful. So, thank you. Saved all our lives. Colonel Sheppard was right about you - we're blessed to have you standing with us, Ronon Dex."
Ronon just grunted in reply, hoping Beckett would think the flush in his cheeks was from exertion. A glance at the physician's pleased smile as he fell back to check on Rodney again, though, told him he probably hadn't succeeded.
And he also knew that, yes, Satedan mythology was nothing more than that – a bunch of myths. Fact was, the real thing was brutal – as reality always was in this galaxy. But that didn't mean there wasn't goodness and purity in the universe – that he had found in the men with him now, and in many others he had met over the years. It was in the hearts of real heroes like Beckett, Sheppard, Teyla and McKay - not in the creatures of a warped fable.
And it made him even more resolved to save the man hanging over his shoulder, and the rest of his team on this planet. He wouldn't give up until he had gotten them all home.
Home.
Involuntarily, he smiled.
Ahead, the forest lightened and thinned, showing they were nearing their destination. Still leading the way, Nonor reached the clearing and stopped, staring at something. Beckett jogged forward until he was beside her, with Dex just behind.
"Where's the jumper?" Ronon asked, frowning in confusion.
There was a lot more earthquake damage down here. Huge trees had come crashing down, as had a large section of the plateau to their left, in the direction he knew Sheppard and the others had set off. The jumper was simply gone.
Beckett jogged forward toward where the jumper once stood. There was nothing – nothing but blackness – a hole in the ground. "Oh God, no," he moaned, coming to a halt at the yawning pit.
"What?" Nonor asked, still not getting it.
"This is the spot," he moaned. "This is where we parked it. The jumper's down there," he pointed into the darkness, "somewhere..." Timidly, he edged forward until he could peer within. "Good God," he murmured, keeping a good two feet from the very edge. He squinted, focusing on something beneath a covering of dirt, showing white in the pretty half-swallowed sunlight.
Nonor, heedless of the danger, charged forward until she stood on the verge of the pit, the toes of her boots pointing out over the abyss. Inquisitively, she peered down, catching the same glint of something in the blackness. "Why would someone have put something so far down in the ground?" she asked, head tilted charmingly. Her voice echoed and she smiled, delighted to her own voice returned to her. "Do you see something glittering down there?"
"Aye, lass," Beckett spoke, his voice awed as he leaned, keeping his center of gravity well over solid ground. "That's what I'm trying to tell you. That...that's our jumper." Somewhere below, water dripped, sounding far off and lonely. "I think that's the windshield we can see all the way down there...maybe." He glanced at her, "You shouldn't get that close. The ground is unstable. It could crumble."
She just smiled back at him, shaking her head, "Oh no. Nothing here will harm me," she assured him, then the smile fell as she regarded him darkly. "I am not the unworthy one." At that, Beckett grimaced, but didn't reply.
"How far down is it?" Dex asked from some distance away. With McKay on his shoulder, he wasn't about to get too near that hole. He shifted a little, adjusting his balance as he pondered how he'd manage to climb with the injured man. He didn't like the way the scientist was breathing, and McKay was feeling terribly hot against his shoulder.
"Long way," Beckett said, gazing at Nonor's reckless stance. A stone, loosened from her proximity to the edge, toppled. Carson sucked in his breath, watching its long decent until it obviously collided with a quiet metallic 'thunk' on the top of the jumper. It clattered away, coming to rest, unseen, alongside the sunken craft.
Beckett waited for it to settle, listening until all that remained was the constant wet drip that filled the space. "Long way," he repeated hollowly.
The show over, Nonor sniffed. Imperially, she drew to her full height. "The very earth cries out against the murder of the gentle alicorn," she said, flinging out her arms dramatically as she strode toward her brother. She smiled smugly - apparently forgetting that the jumper was her ride off this benighted planet, too. "See what happens to those that dare harm the serene and wise alicorn?"
Ronon just lowered his head to glare at her – he had finally had enough. "If killing the alicorn caused this, Non, then I guess it's a good thing I didn't hit that pink rodent back there. What do think that'd bring down on us? An asteroid shower?"
Nonor looked surprised, then angry, opening her mouth to reply…when she suddenly froze, staring at his arm. Dex glanced down, startled to see his arm sheeted in red. McKay's blood was trickling down his sleeve in slow rivulets, tickling his wrist, dripping from his fingertips to stain the wildflowers.
"Damn," Ronon muttered, backing further from the hole and moving to the far side of the clearing, in the direction of the lake, hoping it to be more stable.
"Beckett!" Ronon called, sinking down on one knee and rolling McKay gently onto the turquoise-colored earth, mindful of the scientist's cracked ribs. McKay's eyes fluttered open at the change in position, blinking up at him in pained confusion. His face was sweat-slicked, pale and bloodless. Dex shrugged out of his long coat and draped it over his injured teammate as McKay closed his eyes again and began to shiver. Absentmindedly, Ronon rubbed at his blood-coated arm, trying to free himself from the uncomfortable sensation.
Beckett was suddenly there, throwing himself down beside Rodney.
Muttering to himself in an accent so thick the two Satedans couldn't begin to make out the words, Beckett pulled back Ronon's coat and peeled away the bandage to get a better look at the shoulder wound. It shouldn't be bleeding this badly, this long. The wound didn't seem to be clotting at all and the flesh around it was already turning an angry, inflamed red.
Beckett studied the putrefying wound for a long moment, and then touched his radio.
"Boris?" he called. "We have a problem." He sighed and brushed McKay's sweat-soaked hair back from his forehead. "Two problems, actually."
There was silence on the other end of the radio.
"Boris?" he tried again.
The radio crackled to life with a hideous burst of noise.
[{O}]
Gunshots and human screams rang out over her head, startling Teyla so badly she almost lost her grip on the slippery earthen wall of the hole. She clawed for purchase, feeling nails rip and skin shred as she fought to save herself. The trench was deeper than she would have believed, and only the fact that it was angling into a slope, rather than a dead drop, gave her hope that she might find Colonel Sheppard in one piece at the bottom of it.
"Boris!" she cried, blinking up into the small square of sunlight high above. The sergeant's frightened cries continued, punctuated by automatic weapons fire.
Teyla started climbing, scrabbling for purchase on the sliding earth and loose scree of the steep slope.
Abruptly, the terrible noises above ended. Teyla froze, arms and legs locked, one cheek pressed into the cool, damp earthen wall.
"Sergeant Boris?" she called softly.
A shadow appeared on the edge of the drop-off, dark and indistinct against the sunlight. A small shower of dirt and pebbles pattered down on Teyla's upturned face.
Teyla coughed, blinking to clear her vision. Her legs and arms were starting to tremble from the effort of holding herself up.
"Sergeant?" she called again.
The shadowy figure shifted, crouching closer to peer down at her.
"SHHHHH!" the monster hissed. There was blood on its whiskers.
Their gazes locked for a long moment.
Then the nuttali pounced.
Teyla shrieked, flinching back reflexively, losing her grip.
And then they were both falling.
[{O}]
Beckett's hand dropped from his radio, cutting off the hissing, chittering, gnawing noises that had filled the transmission since Boris's final pain-filled scream.
He turned wide, frightened eyes on Nonor. "What else aren't you telling us about this planet?" he gasped. "What else is waiting out there to kill us?"
McKay stirred and groaned as Beckett tightened fresh bindings around his shoulder. His blood was spotting the new bandage already. Beckett crooned to him, soft reassuring nonsense, while he waited for Nonor to answer the question. Dex hovered nearby, watching his sister through narrowed eyes.
Nonor collapsed in a dejected heap. "You don't understand!" she whined.
"What don't I understand?"
Nonor ignored him and turned to Ronon in appeal. "They won't hurt us, brother! Only those who are unworthy are attacked!"
Ronon shook his head as if to clear it. "Just answer the question, Nonor," he growled.
She sniffed. "The legends say the nuttalli are the mischievous little creatures who dance in dew circles. They didn't say anything about eating people's faces!" Her voice climbed to an aggrieved wail.
Dex loomed over his snuffling sister. "What else do the legends tell us?" he prompted.
Nonor gnawed her lower lip, frowning. "Well..." Her eyes looked upwards. "Reportedly, the skies above Ctesias are patrolled by great flying beasts, ever ready to swoop down upon evildoers with their razor beaks and claws. They are so imposing that no race has ever dared name them."
"Oh, fabulous." Carson hunched his shoulders, willing himself not to look up to scan the bright, cloudless sky.
"And then there are the feathered serpents...trees that uproot themselves and walk by moonlight..." Nonor was warming to her topic now. "Toads the size of haystacks...molemen..."
"Molemen," Beckett whimpered, looking down at the ground below him. Moles were supposed to be amazing diggers – what if it wasn't the earthquake that had taken the jumper…or Colonel Sheppard for that matter? He shivered, wondering if they could be safe anywhere on this planet. At that moment, McKay jerked and mumbled something, and Beckett rested a light hand on his forehead in a soothing gesture. His skin was furnace-hot under Carson's touch.
Dex crossed his arms, hoping the others couldn't see his skin crawl, and looked to Beckett. "Yeah, Molemen. The old stories say a race of monsters live beneath the earth here."
"Molemen!" Nonor interrupted brightly, regaining some of her old spark now that the conversation had turned back to the comfortable realm of legends and children's stories. "Ghastly creatures that sprout in shadows like mushrooms! They shamble instead of walk. They blindly grope because their eyes have been eaten up in darkness. Flesh eaters! Mortal enemies of the righteous alicorn!"
Carson wondered whether it was a good thing or a bad thing that there were creatures on this planet tough enough to tackle an alicorn. Shaking his head, he turned back to Rodney, tuning out the rest of Nonor's excited recitation. He had enough to worry about with the monsters they'd met thus far.
His mental triage list was getting longer by the minute. They needed to get Rodney someplace safe, someplace where he could try to clean and tend his wounds. Below them, the jumper was gone, lost inside a sinkhole, with no obvious way to get to it. Boris was most likely dead, poor Bedevere, too, and Jerkin certainly so.
And somewhere in this fractured fairy tale of a planet, Sheppard and Teyla were still missing.
[{O}]
Sheppard's eyes fluttered open – he was lying on the slope of dirt. He must have dozed off for a moment. Still feeling very disoriented, he decided that maybe trying to get up would be a good idea. Get up…and move. Somewhere. Else. But what if there were other creatures down here? Ones that made the nuttali seem tame? Creatures just waiting to creep up on him in the dark…
And then he chuckled slightly at his ridiculousness and turned the life signs detector about so that he could actually look at the screen and use it correctly. He frowned at what was revealed. Dots – nuttalli, he decided. The device was displaying the creatures although the things were on the surface. And his expression darkened as he thought about Teyla and Boris – still up there – with the death-balls of fuzz.
He scrambled up to his knees, grimacing at the little pains that went through him, and reached for the hole. He could probably climb back out, he decided – maybe – if he didn't have a broken arm and if he wasn't riddled through with a dozen little bite holes. He imagining himself leaking like a sieve if he were to take a drink at that moment.
Glancing to the display again, he examined the dots. Was one of them Teyla and one of them Boris? Which of the dots were the attack rabbits? How many were worms or voles or maybe glowy things under the earth?
He frowned. But there was something curious about how the dots were arranged; they seemed to be in a line, as if the creatures had queued up for something. And he slowly lowered the device, holding it out in front of himself as he stared beyond it to the dark tunnel that stretched in either direction.
The dots, he realized, lined up exactly with the tunnel. The life-forms weren't above him. Oh no. They were right here in the tunnel with him. He breathed slowly, listening as something quietly scrambled beyond the little halo of light.
"Hey!" he called. "Anyone out there?"
More scuttering answered him.
"Whatever you are out there," he paused, wondering what he could say to the unknown creatures. "I could take ya…" he tried.
WHUMP! Something fast and large came down on top of him, tackling him, driving him downward. Shocked, he tumbled as he grappled with the attacker. He gasped in agony as the bones in his arm ground, as the shape forced him from the pile of dirt to the floor of the tunnel. The Life Sign Detector flew from his grasp and he was plunged into darkness once more.
TBC
A/N: We returned to the bunker to find more evidence of lizard occupation. Sydney has not departed. I believe he has brought friends. It looks like they were having a meeting of some sort as there are several tiny folding chairs set up on my rumpus room. I shall rid the bunker of lizards one way or another!
