Title:
In the Shadow of Ruin
Author:
Mer, Hah and Em
Genre:
Drama, Action/Adventure, AU
Warnings:
Violence and a few naughty words
Season/Spoilers:
none
Summary:
Earth is enslaved by the Goa'uld when their first attack is not
thwarted, but years later a small band of mercenaries led by Weir
discovers the secret of Atlantis, which could prove to be their
salvation. AU. Shep-centered. Weir, McKay, Lorne, Teyla and other
familar faces are involved.
Disclaimer:
We don't own any of the characters. If we did, Shep and Lorne would
be our cabana boys and we wouldn't get much writing done.
AN: No, we're not dead! Many apologies for the long delay between chapters. Real life kicked our butts. We should follow Mr. Garibaldi's advice⦠"I try never to get involved in my own life, too much trouble."
VK - "Is this gonna be like the 'Shep gets nekkid in every chapter' fic?" - Damn, you've figured us out!
In the Shadow of Ruin
By Mer, Hah and Em
- Chapter 3 -
John tried to remain calm and casual as he escorted the intruders towards their destination, though he was pretty sure he was failing at it. Elizabeth wore her cloak once again, and her two men were in Jaffa disguises. She'd introduced the pair as Marcus Lorne and Dr. Rodney McKay; doctor of bitching and moaning, apparently. He had little tolerance for either, at the moment. In fact, the less he thought about what he was doing right now the better, or he might change his mind and turn back. Maybe he would even be rewarded for turning in these trespassers...
His thoughts snapped back to their planned escape as they approached the guards outside the door to the airfield.
"You, lotar!" one of the guards barked. "This area is restricted."
"I'm escorting this honored guest of the Queen to her ship," John answered, hoping they were buying what he was selling. The Jaffa weren't usually known for their quick wits. The guards scrutinized Elizabeth, perhaps trying to recall which ship she had arrived on, or whether they'd ever seen her before at all.
"Let me see your orders." The guard crossed his arms, impatient.
Not satisfied with the progression of the conversation, Elizabeth stepped forward. "How dare you question me," she spoke. Spoke with a Goa'uld voice.
John fought hard to control his urge to stare at her in awe; any indication to the Jaffa that this wasn't completely normal could doom them all.
"Would you like me to tell Queen Amounet that her incompetent guards questioned and delayed an honored guest? Perhaps you would like a taste of her whip," she raised an eyebrow, daring them to protest. But instead, the Jaffa quickly apologized and allowed them passage.
As soon as they were through the doors and out of sight of the guards, John grabbed Elizabeth by the shoulder and spun her around.
"What the hell was that?"
"What?" She looked amused and still spoke with the alien voice. God, that was creepy.
"Oh, this?" She tapped at a button on a piece of gold jewelry that encircled her neck. "Better?" Her voice was human again. "What, you thought I was actually...?" Elizabeth laughed, mockingly, and looked at him like he was the most gullible man in the world. "Just a little toy that Rodney made for me. Thought it might come in handy. Now, I think it's about time we got out of here."
"Yeah, about that..." John surveyed the airfield, searching for their ship, but saw only a familiar cargo ship and a large Al'kesh alongside, looming over it. There was no sign of the escape ship she had referred to. "I thought you said you had a ship?" His patience with this whole mysterious plan was wearing thin.
"Right there," Elizabeth nodded her head in the direction of the cargo ship. "It's as good as ours."
"What, the Tel'tak? You want to steal a ship?" He was incredulous. "Of course you do..."
"Ships aren't exactly easy to come by, you know. We drove here in a salvaged jeep, but that won't get us where we're going." Elizabeth raised her voice and spoke to the whole group, back in leader mode. "Alright, here's the plan: me, John, and McKay will enter the cargo ship and gain control of it by force. Lorne, you know your part. Let's move."
"That's not much of a plan." John looked at her, doubting. He watched suspiciously as Lorne left the group. "Hey! Where's he going?"
"Need to know basis, John. And you," she punctuated her words with a finger on his chest, "don't need to know... yet." She looked him up and down, turned on her heel, and continued toward the Tel'tak.
"Yeah. Right," he muttered to himself as he trudged along behind her, trying not to think about the fact that she'd given him no weapon with which to defend himself. "Wouldn't want me to know what I'm risking my life for."
Unlike the neighboring Al'kesh, the cargo ship wasn't guarded from the outside, making it easy for the trio to approach unchallenged.
"Once we're through the airlock, we'll move to take the flight area," Elizabeth commanded, now speaking at a near whisper so as not to alert the Jaffa inside, then looked at McKay. "And don't fire until I give the word. We'll need the Jaffa's help."
"You realize that even if we do manage to take this ship, they'll just blow us out of the sky with the Al'kesh," John pointed out, trying to show as little fear and panic as possible.
"One thing at a time," she replied, brushing aside his concerns. "Let's move."
Elizabeth produced a zat gun from under her cloak before opening the ship's door and moving in, gun raised and posture forceful and confident. A single Jaffa stood in the flight area, most likely checking some data or schematics, and he turned to face them at the sound of their footsteps. John noticed with great relief that the Jaffa was completely unarmed, with no staff weapon in sight. Elizabeth clearly noticed as well, and she walked forward to hold her gun just inches from the Jaffa's confused face.
Then she spoke to him with a cocky, sadistic expression on her face. "In case you hadn't noticed, we're here to steal your ship. And if you want to live to see your queen again, you're going to fly us out of here." She smiled at him. "Now, what's your decision?"
After contemplating for a moment, the guard suddenly reached for the controls and shouted a warning in Goa'uld. His words were cut short as Elizabeth fired at him and the Jaffa pilot slumped over the controls.
"Oh, that's brilliant," John glared at Elizabeth and Rodney, more anger seeping into his voice. "Shoot him after he warns all his buddies. Do you even know the first thing about stealing a ship?"
"Why yes, John, I went to Pirate College. How about you?" She returned his angry glare.
McKay nervously stepped in between the two. "Look, I'm sure we'd all love to play a game of 'who's a better pirate,' but shouldn't we be--"
"Yeah," John interrupted as he pushed the unconscious Jaffa out of the way and eyed the ship's controls. "I could start by getting this ship off the ground before the whole Jaffa army gets here." He'd seen these and other Goa'uld ships operated before; he was pretty sure he could handle it himself.
"No," Elizabeth replied, with a look of fear that had him worried, "it's already too late." As soon as she'd said it, John heard them as well; dozens of heavy footsteps closing in on the ship.
"We're so screwed!" McKay shifted from his usual state of panic to a state of even more panic. "I knew it! I knew this was a bad plan! I told you this was a bad plan! But why would you want to listen to a genius? Of course you wouldn't! That would be too--"
"Rodney!" Elizabeth cut off his rambling.
McKay finally finished his ranting, just in time to alert the approaching Jaffa to their position.
The cockpit fell silent, and they heard the soldiers shouting orders in Goa'uld and the sound of staff weapons activating. John took cover beside Elizabeth as a staff blast flew past his head. She was busy firing at what looked like an entire army pouring into the ship.
John leaned in close to her ear. "Maybe if you'd given me a gun we could hold them off--"
Without stopping to argue, Elizabeth grabbed him by the arm and pulled him towards the cargo bay door. "Come on! We'll get into the cargo area and seal the door behind us."
Knowing they stood no chance out there, he let her pull him to their only escape route. The group frantically took shelter on the other side of the wall as McKay worked the controls to close the door and Elizabeth took up a guard position in front. Staff blasts still flew past the open door and the Jaffa were just steps away from the nearly defenseless trio.
Elizabeth turned her head cautiously around the corner to see how many Jaffa had followed them, but just as she was beginning to plot the best means of killing them, their entrance was finally sealed. "Well, that should hold them off..." McKay thought out loud, as he finished his work on the door's control panel, "...for a few seconds, until they break the door down and we all die horribly." He looked pointedly at Elizabeth.
"Yeah, about that horrible death part..." John was regretting, not for the first time, getting involved in this crazy scheme. "I hope that's not part of your plan." Elizabeth didn't answer. He glanced around the room, then back at her. "Ok, what now?"
Elizabeth flashed a grin that one facing certain death does not usually make. "We all get onto that ring platform over there and get the hell out of here."
"Oh, great idea... too bad the ring controls are on the other side of the door that we just sealed shut!"
She smiled again and moved in close to him, placing her hand on his shoulder. "Trust me."
John rolled his eyes as she walked casually to the rings; he'd heard that one before. But what did he have to lose? He was dead either way. With a sigh he followed Elizabeth and stood beside her in the middle of the platform.
Elizabeth looked over at him with approval and spoke into her radio, "Lorne, we're in position. Do it."
They stood in awkward silence for an agonizingly long time while precisely nothing happened. As staff blasts shook the cargo bay door, Elizabeth grew increasingly nervous. "Lorne, this is Elizabeth, do you read? Now would be a very good time--"
"I told you this would never work! This is never going to work!" Rodney blurted as he started pacing back and forth within the small confines of the ring platform. "Using the rings was a terrible plan! And now we're going to be stuck in here for the rest of our natural lives because as soon as the Jaffa open the only door out of here, they're going to shoot us and our natural lives will be officially over - oh, God-" As he spoke, the door crashed to the ground and half a dozen Jaffa stormed into the room, staff weapons raised and aiming.
Instinctively, John reached over and took Elizabeth's hand in his; even though she was the one who'd gotten him into this whole mess, he felt the need to hold her now, at the end. She looked back into his eyes and opened her mouth as if to speak, but no words had a chance to pass through her lips. John saw the flare of a staff weapon firing and a flash of bright light enveloped his vision.
- - - - -
When his vision returned, he found himself standing on another ring platform, with no Jaffa in sight. What the...? John's eyes darted around the room, trying to determine where they had ringed to; it appeared to be another Goa'uld ship. He looked back at to Elizabeth, who had that satisfied look on her face she got when things went her way. McKay looked like he was about to lose his lunch.
"Well," Elizabeth sighed, letting out the breath she had been holding. "We made it. Now let's get the hell out of here." She waved them to follow her through a door.
When they emerged onto the bridge of the ship, Lorne was standing at a console, a look of relief on his face. "Glad you could make it."
"You always did have excellent timing, Marcus," she replied, but her fierce glare told him what she really thought of this close call.
"I had a bit of trouble taking out the Jaffa guarding the ship. I hope this flyboy of yours can get this bird in the air," he nodded in John's direction.
Now that he'd had a minute to look around, John recognized the ship's configuration. "We're on the Al'kesh!" I guess there's hope for her pirating career after all. But she could have mentioned this particular detail, he thought in frustration. "I suppose this was your crazy plan all along?"
"Could we maybe have less questions about plans and more getting the hell out of here?" McKay interrupted, growing irritated again.
"It's a good thing you're here Rodney, or I might not have thought of that," Elizabeth mocked. "John, can you fly this thing?"
"Don't you think that's something you should've asked me before?" he questioned incredulously, studying the ship's controls.
"I knew if anyone could do it, it would be you."
"Well I've seen these ships operated before," John said as he slid into the pilot's chair. "Should be no problem at all." He put on a confident grin as he tried frantically to figure out what the hell he was doing before the Jaffa realized what they were up to. With a touch of the controls, the ship's engines fired and they were safely off the ground. He slowly moved the ship away from the base, quickly getting a feel for handling it.
An alert beeped from a console. "Liz, we've got company," Lorne announced. "They're following us in the cargo ship."
Elizabeth scoffed. "Fools. A cargo ship doesn't have any weapons. Take them down."
"Gladly."
John targeted the pursuing ship and fired several bursts, sending it into a shower of fire and debris. Though he wouldn't usually take satisfaction in destroying an unarmed ship, John felt exhilarated not only by this act of retribution, but by being in the sky again, flying one of the ships that he'd been taunted with for so long. While the others reveled in their victory and relief at having pulled off this crazy plan, John just smiled to himself, remembering the joy that flying brought him. At this moment it didn't matter what other plans this group had for him or where they were headed; for the first time in nine years, John felt freedom... and maybe even hope.
- - - - -
