Chapter 5

John walked out of the ship with Lorne following. They were both armed with military grade P90s, Satedan blasters, and various knives and grenades.

"Ready?" John asked Lorne.

"Ready."

"Then lead the way." They set off through the dense forest. After twenty minutes of walking, Lorne finally broke the silence.

"John. John!" John glanced over at him but continued to walk.

"What?"

"I need to know that you meant it... that you won't go after Kolya."

"I meant it... as much as I want to get that, that bastard, the others are more important."

"What exactly happened between you two?" John stopped and looked over at the younger man.

"It was a little over five years ago. I was on an outer rim world, Tholion, one of those places that people go when there's no where else they can go." John started to walk again, Lorne following close behind. "I was in a bar, and I met this girl." A sad smile flitted across his face. "She was young, really young. Didn't look it, hell, when I started talking to her I thought she was about twenty three, maybe twenty four. Turned out she was only 16. She... tried to seduce me, but that wasn't going to happen, so we started talking. She was scared, thought that I might have a ship, be able to get her off-world. That was... that was how she'd moved around in space, attaching herself to anyone with a ship. She'd been doing it for three years..." His voice trailed away. "It turned out that she was in trouble with this guy, some asshole named Kolya. She'd... been involved with him and then left him. Trouble was, he wouldn't take no for an answer. He'd followed her across three planets. She was terrified, scared of her own shadow, convinced she'd seen him on Tholion. I agreed to help her, try to find her a berth on a ship. I let her sleep in my room overnight. I, I tried to stay up on watch but I hadn't slept in days... When they burst in I was half asleep. Still managed to shoot one of them, but the other four took me down, threw me through the window. By the time I came round... she was already dead. I went after him. Took me three years to track Kolya down, and when I did I killed five of his men, but he got away. That was when the Genii decided to kill me, that was when I met Elizabeth. She convinced me that going up against the Genii was futile, that they were too powerful. So I signed on." He laughed slightly. "Getting off the planet was fun, she's never forgiven me for the way they blew off a railgun." They walked on in silence.

"She was right, you know." John looked questioningly at Lorne. "The Genii are too powerful, they've got a larger fleet than most governments... it would've been suicide to keep going after they knew who you were."

"Yeah... but if I get a shot, I'm taking it. Alright?"

"Yeah. Might even take a shot of my own."

SGA-SGA-SGA

They emerged from the forest. Before them was a small ruin. It didn't look promising. Three Genii attack vessels lay on the ground around the ruined building. Guards patrolled the perimeter.

"Alright Marcus, you got us here... now how the hell do we get inside?" John asked. Lorne smiled smugly.

"The same way I got out... over here." They moved back into the forest. 20 metres in John almost fell into a hole.

"I'm guessing we go down?"

"We go down."

They jumped down into a dark tunnel. No, not a tunnel, he realised, a corridor.

"How'd you find this?"

"We came under fire whilst excavating the... thing. Weir yelled at me to try and escape, so I ducked into a side tunnel. About an hour later I found the exit."

"Can you find your way back?" John asked as they passed an intersection, identical tunnels leading off in all directions.

"I can always find my own way -" He broke off as they heard voices coming towards them from ahead. They hurried back to the intersection and ducked into side tunnels. John went left, Lorne right. John signalled to Lorne, and drew his blaster. Lorne nodded and did the same. Three men walked past, chatting. John and Lorne leapt out behind them and stunned two before they turned round. The last man spun, bringing up his weapon until Lorne stepped in and smashed him in the face. The Genii dropped to the ground, stunned, and Lorne quickly disarmed him. John nodded, then grabbed the confused soldier.

"Hi there. Where are the prisoners?" The man blinked, his eyes trying to focus on John's face. John sighed and slapped him, hard. "I'll ask again. Where are the prisoners?" The guard stiffened as he felt John's gun pressed into his stomach.

"They're...they're in a holding room. Down the corridor, second left."

"That's near the main hall." Lorne remarked.

"Yeah, yeah. The boss wanted them close so that they could teach him how to use the machine." John nodded.

"Thanks." He shot the guard, stunning him, and stood. "Let's get going." They moved swiftly down the corridor, passing another intersection. "How large is this place?"

"Don't know, sir." John glanced over, surprised at how... military Lorne had sounded, but the younger man carried on, oblivious. "We didn't explore much before we got hit. Hey, that's the corridor we want." John nodded and stopped. They slid round the corner, blasters ready to fire, but there was no one there. They carried on, moving quietly but quickly down the corridor, until the came round a bend. Five guards stood or sat at a closed door with a clear window, through which John could vaguely make out the bulky shape of Ronon. They slid back a little way.

"Alright, we need to do this fast, so sonic grenades followed by blasters, alright?" Lorne nodded and pulled the spherical grenade. He paused a moment whilst John shifted into a better position, then rolled the sphere hard round the bend. It rolled to a stop directly in front of the door. The guards leapt to their feet, but the grenade went off, sending waves of powerful sound pulsing over them. Two collapsed completely, whilst the other three staggered around, deafened and confused. The two men dropped them within seconds. John ran to the door, blasting the locking mechanism and pulling it open.

"Evening folks, anyone want a ride?" Everyone in the cell looked up, shocked. Elizabeth was the first to recover.

"John, how the hell did you find us?"

"No time to explain, here." John said, handing his blaster to Ronon and tossing Elizabeth a Genii rifle. Lorne gave Teyla his blaster, and they both readied their P90s. "Alright, let's go."

"No, we can't!" John turned, shocked by Elizabeth's emphatic statement.

"What? Why the hell not?"

"We can't let the Genii get their hands on the machine, it's too valuable."

"Alright, what exactly is this machine?" John asked, exasperated.

"You didn't tell him?" Elizabeth asked Lorne.

"No ma'am, we've...been a little busy here." Lorne replied.

"Fine, I'll tell you as we go." They left the cell, and suddenly an alarm sounded. "Damnit!" John said angrily. "They must've found the bodies. Whatever this machine is, we can't get it now." Elizabeth looked angry, but nodded. They ran back to the intersection, heading for the hidden entrance, only to run into at least a dozen Genii soldiers.

"Wrong way!" John yelled, spraying the group with bullets before turning and running. Elizabeth moved past him.

"This way!" They ran past the intersection and down another identical corridor, emerging into a large hall, where another group of Genii guards were reacting to the gunfire. The crew skidded to a halt and took cover behind some crates next to a strangely curving wall, opening fire on both the group in the hall and the men running in behind them.

"Well Liz, looks like we're stuck here!" John yelled over the gunfire. Elizabeth rolled out from behind cover and opened fire, taking down several Genii with expert shots, before taking cover again.

"Like hell we are. Everyone, get inside!" John paused, confused, as the crew moved back and then disappeared behind the curving wall. He was shaken out of his confusion by the bullets ripping into the crate, and staggered after them, blindly firing behind him as he ran. The curved wall ended after a few metres and he nearly fell into the machine.

"Sheppard, get up here, now!" Elizabeth yelled. John ran forwards through the... ship, he suddenly realised. Shaped like a cylinder cut diagonally, it was like nothing he'd ever seen, but the controls in the cockpit looked usable. He sat down next to Elizabeth, and was shocked when the control panel lit up.

"What the hell..." Elizabeth remarked, shocked.

"Perhaps explanations could wait for another time!" Teyla yelled from the entrance at the back of the ship, where the others were still holding off the Genii. More were flooding into the chamber all the time.

"She's right, hold on!" Sheppard grabbed the unfamiliar controls and was shocked as they responded easily to him, as if he'd been flying it for years. Behind them, the door slid shut and Teyla, Ronon and Lorne staggered forwards, collapsing into chairs. The ship rocketed off it's launch pad and into a narrow tunnel, leaving the shocked Genii soldiers behind. It exploded out of the tunnel and into the clear sky, small drive pods extending from each side. John looked over at Elizabeth.

"Nice. Very, very nice."

"Yeah," Elizabeth replied tersely, "but I wish it had a hyperdrive."

"Elizabeth, we're flying an Ancient ship. I don't care if it doesn't have a hyper-" He broke off as something impacted the hull. A head's-up-display appeared showing the three Genii gunships in the air and following them fast. A crackle came over the radio.

"Major Sheppard, my men tell me you are in command of my ship. Hand it over, or we blow you out of the air." Sheppard's hands clenched on the controls as he recognized Kolya's voice.

"Go to hell Kolya, I'd rather be blown out of the sky than hand this beauty over to you." He cut radio, then turned it onto another frequency. "Mckay, Sheppard here. Looks like you're going to need those flying lessons. We need a pick-up, now."

"Okay, fine, I can do that. Where?" Mckay's nervous voice replied.

"That's the tricky part." The ship dived down close to the ground, weaving to avoid blasts from the gunships. "We're in an ancient ship... should fit in the cargo hold."

"WHAT!" Mckay yelled.

"Calm down, I'll do the fancy flying, just get the damned ship in the air now. We'll be with you in two minutes." He spun the ship desperately to avoid more fire. "Damnit! Does anyone see a weapons console?" The HUD changed to a targeting icon, which locked onto the lead ship. A schematic of the ship showed some kind of missile fly backwards out of the side of the ship and strike the lead gunship. It exploded instantly. "Holy crap!" The ship was slammed by a weapon again. John concentrated, but nothing happened. Lorne leaned forwards.

"Sheppard, do it again!"

"I'm trying, that hit must've broken something!" Elizabeth leaned over, pointing.

"Look, there's the Pegasus!"

The ship hurtled towards the ship, a distant dot on the horizon.

"Wait a minute John, you're heading straight at it!" Elizabeth gasped as the Deadalus grew rapidly.

"Yep."

"You're going too fast!"

"I know. Mckay, lower the shield...NOW!"

Sheppard grasped the controls tightly as the cargo hold grew from a dot to a gaping hold. He heaved back as they entered the hold, bringing the ship to a halt so rapidly that they were all thrown forwards, Elizabeth falling off her chair and hurtling into John.

"Mckay, we're onboard, get us out of here!" They tumbled out of the damaged ship into the hold. Teyla, Lorne and Ronon ran towards the railguns whilst John and Elizabeth headed for the bridge. They slid into the pilot and co-pilot seats as Rodney ran back to the engine room. John sent the Pegasus though the atmosphere into space, still pursued by the two, no, four Genii ships. Behind them, the railguns opened fire.

"I'm plotting an emergency jump... 70 seconds 'till we're clear" Elizabeth snapped. The ship was shaking continuously under the bombardment, the shields were down to 30.

"Hyperspace in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1" Elizabeth said, and activated the hyperdrive. The Pegasus leapt forwards into the hyperspace window, leaving the Genii ships behind. John slid down in his chair, sighing. Elizabeth activated the intercom.

"Great job people. Rodney, you have a new toy to play with in the cargo hold. The rest of you, get some rest." She deactivated the intercom. John glanced over and was struck by how tired she looked.

"You okay?" She looked at him for a minute, and smiled.

"Yeah, thanks to you." John smiled awkwardly.

"Don't mention it." There was an awkward silence. "So where are we headed?"

"We're going to see Beckett." John looked at her, confused.

"What? Why?" Elizabeth swivelled her chair round to stare right at him.

"John, we all spent time in the Ancient ship. It didn't work for us... it did for you. I want to know why."

"Alright fine, but we have to think of a better name for it than 'the Ancient ship'..." He paused for a moment, then brightened, activating the radio. "Hey Mckay, the Puddle Jumper took some damage to the outer hull, it disabled the weapons. You mind checking it out?"

"We're calling it the Puddle Jumper? Why?"

"I like it." Elizabeth said, grinning at John.

"Yeah, but... alright, fine." Mckay snapped, and turned off his radio.

"I think he wanted to name it." John remarked.

"Yeah. Right, I need a shower, and some sleep. Get some rest as well John, you look awful!" Elizabeth said as she left the cockpit. John smiled, and sank down in his chair, staring out into hyperspace.

A/N: Sorry for the delay, Real Life is a harsh mistress... no idea when the next one will be out, but reviews make me write faster!