Hold On
…Chapter Six …
A/N: JS – The time has come to find out if a dart fits the gate room!
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Sheppard and Carson looked on in horror at the sight of the Wraith dart flying back and forward, obviously wanting to land on the west pier.
"Thank goodness the shield is still up and running." Carson voiced but not expecting Sheppard to reply. He was as white as a sheet and Carson felt his fingers dig into his forearm for support.
They watched for a minute before Sheppard hopped on his good leg to face him.
"If we can't get to the chair room, we had better make our way there." Sheppard whispered.
"Son, are you out of your mind. You are in no condition to fight a Wraith! Even in top physical condition, it's hard to fight a Wraith!"
"Carson. I have to…and you have to help me. I suspect we must have one or two traitors working here and it will not be long before these shields are down again… I can't allow a Wraith in here to feed on everyone...and worse; tell the Hive where we are. The strange thing is… it looks like …this is all part of the plan for the guys attacking us."
Sheppard bowed his head. That little speech had taken it out of him.
Carson gripped the hand that was tightly holding onto the wall. "John…listen to yourself. Your body cannae cope with this much longer. You are seriously hurt, do you understand that? Your head wound alone; well you should be lying down in a quiet dark place."
"Not going to happen any time soon, doc." Sheppard said with just a hint of acerbity.
"Well you could have stayed in that…actually, you couldn't have stayed hidden there for too much longer..." Carson reasoned. "…what's your plan?"
Sheppard scoffed. "Try and put one leg in front of the other!"
Carson looked at him and then allowed a small smile to escape. "You are something else John. I don't suppose anybody else could be as stubborn as you and as resilient. I almost feel sorry for these men that have overtaken us for now; they have no idea who they are up against." He smirked.
"Wish I had the confidence you do about me!"
Carson patted his shoulder. "Come on then, if we are going to the chair room, we had better get there before the shields do go down."
Sheppard never replied but nodded and allowed his friend to support him as they slowly made their way to the transporters in the hope they met no confrontation on their way.
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Klen watched as Gillam directed the men he had gathered in the direction of where they could find strong enough cutting equipment to take to the west pier, and, once the dart had landed, kill the Wraith flying it and cut the dart into the pre-arranged four sections that would be easy to transport to the SGC, where the trucks were waiting to take them direct to Stringer and then to be re-instated in one of his many hangers never to fly again.
That was the plan anyway.
It was funny to be watching a plan he had helped orchestrate continue on without his influence anymore. Did he feel a sense of relief? – It was possible, even though he now knew he had a death sentence hanging over his head. Stringer did not allow for ex-employees to snitch about his private collection and the ways he had to procure them. He had had no love for the I.O.A himself when he worked for them, so when Stringer had offered him a position, he had accepted it gratefully; liking the danger element of it and the pay wasn't bad at all.
Now it was biting him somewhere important and he watched Gillam closely to see if his latest little communication with Stringer had been about him, but after the men left, Gillam moved to the two 'scientists' working at the computers.
"The dart has been here for ages now, get that shield down! It is imperative we move on this faster than we are – we do not want to be here when that Hive turns up!"
Klen stepped up behind him and was mildly surprised to see Gillam jump slightly, noticing for the first time that their new leader was looking a tad nervous.
"Go and oversee that the men at the pier are capable of killing that creature. Do it yourself if you have to."
Klen looked him in the eye for a moment, but nodded and walked over to where he had left his jacket earlier. He took off the heavier leather one and donned the lighter one that was a snug fit. Lighter it was, but it was also made of a prototype material that was impervious to a Wraith stunner's blast – or so they believed. Stringer had given him one, he noticed; but not Gillam. Strange the way of things.
Klen took a look up at Woolsey's office and noticed the senior staff watching the proceedings with a mixture of anger and horror and caught the eye of the one who kept trying to make his way to the command centre – Rodney, he thought his name was. His eyes were pleading at him; to be let loose to try and raise the cloak no doubt.
A man of poor beginnings, Klen was finding the richness and beauty of this towering floating city to be something to behold. He actually didn't want it, or the people on it destroyed. He was more than eager to fulfil his mission to retrieve the dart for Stringer, but he was not hungry for the power that the younger Gillam was out to prove; he knew beforehand that he would take casualties with no remorse. He used to be like that himself. How ironic it was now, in his older age, that it was him that had ended up killing someone first, and it had been no way to go; thrown backwards through that window and falling from the tower. He hadn't wanted that for anybody. No, that was not the way to die and he felt a regret for the poor man.
"Klen?" Gillam called over.
"I'm going." He shouted back, not so eager to see a live Wraith up close. He had been briefed and read the files before about the alien creatures and knew them to be especially hard to kill – and very happy to eat you! He cocked his head to the side as he took in Rodney watching him, with a worried look now, but turned away and started to make his way to the transporters. The city's lights hummed slightly and he thought he felt a strength come from it but he couldn't describe to himself how he felt about that, only that he felt connected somehow. He had heard of the ATA gene, of course; did he have it?
That would be a turn up for the books.
He met up with two men who were looking a bit sweaty. "Wish you could take the transporters, Klen, there's miles of corridors to get to where you want to go here." One of them said.
"That right? Well, carry on with your assignments. We should be out of here in a few hours."
"Klen."
Klen watched them go and just out of the corner of his eye he thought he saw a flash of some clothing. All personnel had been reported as secure except for the missing larger man that had taken a hit to his head and the doctor whom he had thought must have stayed with him. Klen realised he had probably just caught sight of one or both of the missing men.
Good.
Klen liked a bit of spice to the mix.
"Jake, Kev." Klen shouted out to the two. "What happened to the two men that were taking that big bloke to the Infirmary, do you know?"
"Dunno, why?"
"No reason."
Klen walked away, but with a smile on his face. Gillam had made a mistake not checking on the whereabouts of two of Stringer's men, and it could be very costly to them. But by shouting out to Jake and Kev, the large man would understand that Klen knew he was watching him.
The urge to turn his head and catch the big man out was overwhelming, but Klen kept a level head and continued walking. If he was him, he would hang about the command centre and try and help his friends, so Klen didn't think he would follow him for now, so walked at a faster pace and waited around a corner for a minute to see if he would appear. He didn't, so Klen walked a little bit further until he arrived beside one of the transporters. Moving his head back and forward; judging what to do, Klen raised his hand and as it glided over the lit controls, he was left with an open mouth when the door automatically opened for him.
"Well, would you look here?!" He said out loud in disbelief.
Klen took the plunge and stepped in. The schematics of the city were in front of him and after studying it for a moment he pressed on the area before the west pier and the door closed quickly behind him, and after a slight pull, he was at his chosen destination.
Simple, stunning and utterly beguiling; the city was growing on him. Klen stepped out and walked towards the pier with the air of a man who had nothing else to lose. He was going to kick this Wraith's ass and then he was going to see what he could do about staying in the city after all this was over. He might just have found his niche in life.
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The pain was reducing slightly Sheppard was glad to note; due in part to a healthy dose of adrenalin that was coursing through his body after nearing the unguarded transporter. A stronger painkiller, but nothing to knock him out, from Carson was also in the cocktail, so he broke away from the docs hold and made him stand behind him whilst he palmed the door open.
Nothing.
Sheppard hopped in and Carson followed. Sheppard studied the wall and then decided to go straight to the pier and take his chances with what he found there. No weapons, intruders and a wraith on the way – walk in the park!
Within seconds, the door opened but Sheppard held Carson back for just a second. When it seemed like nobody was there to ambush them, Sheppard tentatively stepped out and felt the cooler temperature in the lower corridor and it was very welcome. He thought of Ronon, and of their morning runs here every morning, so knew the area well. He wondered if Ronon was hiding here somewhere, but reckoned that he had probably made his way to ether the control room or the armoury.
Still, he motioned to Carson the way they would go with a couple of quick finger points and occasionally ducked into a recess looking for his friend, but was not surprised to come up empty.
They were just reaching the outside doors when they heard footsteps come from behind them. It was too great a distance to double back and reach either a recess or transporter, so Sheppard pulled on Carson's coat and reluctantly, they made their way through the double doors to the outside pier.
Pushing Carson's head down low, they quickly made their way to an overhang that was just at the entrance, and side stepped to the left of the doors for a short time until they could remain under it and behind a command pillar that they used to direct the Deadalus in safely. It would do to hide them just now and to get a bit of a breather.
"How are you holding up?" Carson whispered, reaching for his wrist.
"I'm fine." He said looking up at him and in no way expecting the doctor to believe him.
"Well, I suppose that will have to do for now." Carson rocked back on his heels. "Hey!" He nodded to the ground beside his feet.
Sheppard looked and a broad smile crept on his pained face. It was a cane.
"Great, pass it here. And Carson, it wasn't me!"
"The amount of crutches, canes and goodness know what else you have not used when I have directed it, does boggle my mind, but this time I believe you…unfortunately, I know who did leave it here, as I recognise the score on it. Believe you me, he will know about it later."
"Go easy. That's the first weapon I have been able to have."
Carson raised an eyebrow at the mention of weapon but soon realised it had a double use when he looked at the blood seeping through his bandages.
"Let me look, John."
"Leave it just now, doc..." Sheppard stuttered out and then gasped. "Shields are down, dammit!"
Then the unmistakable whine of a Wraith dart started flying straight towards them and it was at that point Sheppard noticed two of their intruders come out from their hiding place parallel to where they had been hiding. They fired a quick warning shot his way but he ducked in time. Pulling Carson down to the ground, he picked up the cane in a tight grip.
"John. Fat lot of good that's going to do against their weapons and a Wraith stunner."
Sheppard would have replied, but the double doors opened again and out stepped the man who had almost taken his life earlier. Sheppard paled, and started to shake at the memory of flying backwards out the window by his gun.
The man stepped outside and Sheppard watched as he instantly noticed the Wraith dart about to land. He then looked confused when he witnessed his fellow soldiers firing at the console to his left, and Sheppard and Carson could only watch as his head slowly turned to take in their position. This time it was the man whose eyes looked like they were going to pop out of their sockets when he took in the sight of the badly injured man he had shot earlier; very much alive, if not absolutely bloody and broken.
Sheppard watched as he began to judge the situation and could only keep watching as the man lowered his weapon and then took the place parallel to them that the two soldiers had just risen from before shouting at the two men to apprehend the Wraith.
"What's he doing?" Carson whispered.
Sheppard slowly shook his head.
Klen dropped his body from the Wraith's view and mimicked the wounded man and friend's crouch opposite him. The man he had shot earlier watched his every move and he had never seen anyone watch him so intensely his entire life. Not sure himself what he was doing, he found himself nod his way and indicate with a shake of his gun that he was going to kill the Wraith.
"Stay hidden." He mouthed and turned with a smile on his face to watch the Wraith walk menacingly towards his next victims, stunner poised.
Sheppard looked to Carson and then over to the Wraith and then back to his attacker again.
Let it begin.
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TO BE CONTINUED …