DISCLAIMER -- I do not own Stargate: Atlantis. It is owned by MGM/UA and other companies. They own the characters, too. I am writing this story because it's fun to write fanfiction. I'm not getting any money for this. No suing...please!

SPOILERS -- None in this chapter

A/N -- Here's a longer chapter for you all. I am working on the fourth chapter right now, so I should be able to post it tomorrow or early on Saturday in my time zone. I hope you are all enjoying this story so far. I'm having a lot of fun writing it. Oh...there is some whumping coming up, so if that's not your thing, you are warned. I love comments, so if you would like to give me some, there's probably chocolate in it for you.

Yep, still no beta, so you guessed it. All mistakes are mine.


The Song Of Silent Rivers

3. Downstream

Radek had the uneasy feeling that he and his teammates were being watched not by something, but by somebody. Rodney had said the planet was uninhabited, and they hadn't seen any evidence of civilization, but still...

Radek couldn't help thinking of the stories his uncle had told him when he was a boy, about all the ghosts that wandered the streets of his native Prague. Listening to Uncle Jaromir's stories had been intriguing. Sometimes when Radek walked with his cousin Dusana through the streets of the Mala Strana, he liked to imagine he saw the ghosts from his uncle's stories drifting like smoke in the shadow of an alley, a barely-there movement viewed from the corner of his eye. He never really believed in them, of course. Uncle Jaromir's tales were the urban legends of Prague, doubtless told by a thousand other uncles to as many wide-eyed little boys. Harmless fun, Radek's uncle had said, and it was fun when Radek's surroundings had been the familiar streets of home. Uncle Jaromir had never been to an alien world in another galaxy, though, where things were not always as they seemed. Perhaps the Prague ghosts wre make-believe, the stories about them told just for fun, but in this place so far-removed from Earth, who could really say what legends might prove to be true? Atlantis, after all, was supposed to have been a legend, too.

That line of thought made Radek shiver a little, despite the day's heat. He made himself concentrate on something else. The power reading they had been following was stronger than ever, and he guessed they were very close to its source. He decided to mention it to Colonel Sheppard.

"That's great," said the colonel, and then a moment later amended, "Ah, crap!"

"What?" Radek said.

Radek hadn't been paying much attention to his surroundings since they'd started walking again. He'd just been trudging along, single file between the colonel and Teyla, keeping an eye on his scanner. Now, he looked up to see what might have elicited such an outburst from Sheppard.

"That's what." The colonel was pointing straight in front of him, and Radek saw what he should have noticed several minutes before. Several meters ahead was a deep ravine. The distinct sound of rushing water came from it. Sheppard groaned. "Nothing's ever simple, is it?"

"Life would get too boring if things were simple," was Ronon's comment.

"I do not think we can cross this," said Teyla.

"Let's not jump to conclusions too quickly, okay?" Sheppard said. "I don't know about you, but I wouldn't want to have walked all this way, only to find out we can't get at whatever's giving off those power readings. Let's check this out. Maybe there'll be a safe place to cross, further downstream."

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-

John believed in luck. With the lifestyle he lived, especially here in the Pegasus galaxy, he had to be a believer. Lucky breaks had played a key role in saving his ass far too often for him to be a pessimist, but even so, he refused to let himself swing all the way into blind optimism. Sometimes good things were just too good to be true. Finding a bridge over a river on an uninhabited planet, John guessed, was most likely one of those things.

They'd only walked a short distance downstream before they'd discovered it. John had seen countless bridges similar to it on Earth, and he'd even seen a few on other worlds. This was a swinging bridge constructed of rough wood and suspended over the river with ropes that appeared to be made of some kind of tough, twisted vines. Building this thing had taken more than a little human ingenuity and intelligence. So much for Rodney's theory. Still, it was weird that no life signs other than their own registered on the life-signs detector. John shrugged.

"What do you think, Ronon?" John asked.

"People built this," said the Satedan, and John marvelled at his grasp of the obvious.

"You think any of those people might still be around? I'd hate to get shot for trespassing."

"If there are people here, they don't use this bridge," Ronon said. "There's no sign that anybody's been here in a while."

"Well, somebody had to have been living here at some point. Somebody built this bridge."

"That means McKay was wrong about this place being uninhabited."

"Not necessarily," John said. "It might be uninhabited now."

Nobody had to ask what he meant by that. They all knew why inhabited planets in the Pegasus galaxy became uninhabited, and nobody liked to talk about it. The Wraith were hated and feared among the people of the Pegasus galaxy, and the accounts of their culling of worlds was enough to send tremors along nearly anyone's spine. If this world had already been culled by the Wraith, then that would explain a lot. John pushed the thought away. The death of so many innocent people, even hypothetically speaking, was too gruesome to contemplate. He made himself bring his mind back to his team's immediate circumstances.

John judged the risk of crossing the bridge to be an acceptable one. They were here to explore, and unless they crossed, they'd be restricted to exploring this side of the river. That might have been interesting, but it'd be unproductive, seeing the source of the power readings were probably on the other side. John stepped closer to the bridge so he could get a better look. The water flowed along beneath it. John wouldn't have classified this part of the river as particularly rapid or dangerous, but the current was moving along swiftly enough that he thought it might be fun to go downstream in a canoe.

John caught Zelenka eyeing both him and the gently swaying bridge. The Czech was swallowing nervously. He said, "Is safe to cross, do you think?"

"Sure," John said after a few more seconds of consideration. "I'd say it's been here a while, but it looks pretty good to me. Ronon?"

The Satedan sized up the bridge with a critical eye. "Looks okay."

"Okay, then we're good," John said. Decision made, he announced, "I'll go first."

"No, I'll go first," sad Ronon. "If it holds my weight, it'll hold any one of you."

"Fine, then. Ronon, you can go first, then the doc and Teyla, and then me."

"Fine," Ronon said, and without any fanfare or warning, he stepped onto the bridge.

John watched the Satedan with amazement. Ronon actually jogged across the bridge, agile and incredibly light on his feet despite his mass and size. When he reached the far side, he turned and gestured for the others to join him.

John glanced at the other members of his team. He nodded at Zelenka. "Okay, Doc. You're up."

The engineer looked terrified, but to his credit he said nothing as he stepped onto the bridge. Once again, John found himself admiring the Czech. Zelenka obviously didn't like heights and he had a self-admitted fear of water, yet here he was, lips pressed together in a grim determined line, trying to cross a swinging bridge over a small but swift river. That took guts. If it had been McKay out here, the Canadian would probably have been wailing like a scared kid right now, and John wouldn't know whether to laugh or yell at him. With Zelenka, there was no question in John's mind about what to do. Once the engineer made it across the bridge, John Sheppard was going to insist everyone give him a round of applause.

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-

Radek had gone slightly less than halfway across when he stopped. His mistake, he realized, was looking down. The swaying motion of the bridge made him feel sick to his stomach and his brief glimpse of the rushing water below him made him terrifyingly dizzy. He knew his knuckles must be white from clutching the twisted vine ropes that served -- inadequately in his estimation -- as supports for anyone crossing the bridge. He tried to calm his breathing. The situation was bad enough. Hyperventilating certainly wouldn't improve anything.

Hey, Doc. You okay?" Sheppard's voice said from somewhere behind him.

How to answer that question, Radek thought. He most definitely wasn't okay. He knew the question Colonel Sheppard was really asking was, can you cross the bridge? He turned his eyes to focus on his goal, but now all he seemed able to see was the river. The sound of the current seemed unnaturally loud. It roared in his ears and drowned out the frantic beating of his own heart.

"No...no I am not okay," he said, unsure if he had spoken aloud or if he'd just heard the words in his head.

'Stay where you are, Dr. Zelenka," said Teyla. "Do not worry. I will come to you. We will cross together."

Radek risked taking one hand from the rope and turning slightly so he could see the Athosian woman. She smiled encouragingly at him as she stepped onto the bridge.

"Teyla, I don't think that's such a good idea," Sheppard said.

"Do you think the bridge will not support our combined weight?"

'No, but I think you might--"

Radek didn't get to hear what the colonel thought. He barely had time to realize Teyla's weight on the bridge made it swing in a way he hadn't been prepared for. Half-turned and with only one hand on the rope railing, the shift in motion promptly overbalanced him and he felt himself beginning to fall. For one heart-stopping second, he felt as though he was hanging in midair and then gravity snagged him and pulled him down toward the river. The last thing he heard before the water closed over him were the united voices of Teyla and Colonel Sheppard, shouting his name.

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-

"Zelenka!" John yelled. "Zelenka, hang on! We'll get you!"

John hadn't really thought about how they were going to get the engineer out of the water, but he didn't have the luxury of taking the time to form an elaborate plan. Even as he shouted, he was dropping his P-90 and shedding his backpack. He scrambled down the steep embankment to the water's edge, aware of Ronon doing the same thing on the farther shore. Small stones rolled and tumbled beneath John's boots. He fell and skidded the last few metres on his back. It took him less than a second to regain his feet, and he ran along parallel to the course of the river.

"Zelenka!" he bellowed again.

He'd seen the engineer's tawny-haired head break the surface once, only to go under again. Zelenka hadn't seemed to be struggling at all, which made John worry. John knew Zelenka didn't know how to swim, but even so, John thought he should have been trying to get out of the water. John was concerned that the Czech might be unconscious. If that was the case, Zelenka could drown before John or Ronon ever reached him. They needed to hurry.

Without stopping to consider the advisability of his actions, John started to pull off his boots.

Above him, Teyla called out, "Colonel Sheppard! What are you doing?"

"I'm going in!" John said. "I want you to head back to the 'Gate. Contact Atlantis and tell them what's going on. We'll be right behind you."

John didn't even wait to see if she'd obey him. He took several deep, oxygen-rich breaths and then, steeling himself for what he was about to do, he plunged into the water.

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-

Amid the frenzy of activity at the river's edge, no one noticed a silent witness, watching from the covering shelter of the trees.

TBC

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A/N #2 -- A cliff-hanger? Oops... did I do that? Well, I guess you'll just have to watch this space for the next bit, won't you? On a totally unrelated note, I'm getting a puppy for my birthday! I know, I'm probably too old to be this excited about my birthday, especially considering it isn't until the end of September, but yaahhh! I'm getting a PUPPY! dances Now, please leave me some comments, please...? puppy eyes hehe.