Rodney followed Sheppard and Ronon through the 'gate to P2X-306, zipping his jacket a little higher as a cool breeze blew past as he looked around. The sun rising behind them was still low on the horizon, but there was enough light that he could see they were in a small clearing surrounded by a forest of tall pine trees. Morning dew clung to the grass and low bushes growing near the 'gate, and a well-worn path led away from the DHD toward a series of low foothills in the near distance.
"Ronon. Teyla," John said with a nod at the clearing. "Rodney, what's on the scanner?"
Rodney pulled the Ancient scanner out of his vest pocket and watched Ronon and Teyla scout the edges of the clearing as he mentally turned the device on. He paged through the various screens of data and stopped on the one for life signs.
"It looks like a fair-sized village or maybe a small town in that direction," Rodney reported and pointed in the same direction as the path that led into the trees.
John walked a few steps toward the path, the P-90 held loose in his hands.
Rodney changed the scanner settings to search for chemical and mineral readings and whistled when he saw the readout.
"What?" Sheppard asked with a glance back at Rodney, still standing near the DHD.
Rodney looked up from the scanner and gazed at the tall mountains backing the foothills. "If these readings are correct, this planet is a resource goldmine. Coal. Copper. Iron. I'm even getting traces of naquadah."
"Naquadah?" John parroted and walked over to Rodney's side.
"Nothing of real significance. But there are traces." Rodney looked up from the scanner. "The Ancients probably mined all of it a long time ago."
"The area is clear, Colonel," Teyla reported.
"Recent tracks on the trail," Ronon added with a jerk of his chin toward the path. "Someone was here in the last few hours."
John nodded. "So they probably saw the MALP." He adjusted his grip on his P-90 and glanced around the clearing. "All right, let's go meet the neighbors. Ronon, take point."
Ronon checked the charge for the particle weapon, then holstered the gun and led the way into the trees. Rodney kept one eye on the scanner as he followed Teyla into the surrounding forest.
"Huh," he muttered. He refined the search parameters of the scanner and glanced at Sheppard walking behind him. "I think the people on this planet are still mining something. I'm picking up particulates in the air. Carbon. Sulfur. All at the levels you would expect from a smelting operation."
"How large of an operation?"
"More than just a blacksmith making horseshoes," Rodney replied. "This is something big." He tapped the screen and frowned. "Oh, that's not good."
"What now?" Sheppard asked.
Rodney stopped in the middle of the trail and stared first at the scanner then up at the sky.
"McKay!" John exclaimed as he skidded to a stop.
"I'm picking up traces of radiation in the atmosphere," Rodney said, ignoring Sheppard's glare. "Not at dangerous levels, but it's definitely there."
"So?" Ronon asked as he walked back to Rodney and Sheppard.
"So, we haven't run across that many civilisations with a technology level higher than the Middle Ages," Rodney retorted. "So, where is the radiation coming from?"
"Sateda had advanced weapons," Ronon replied. "Not that uncommon."
"Yes, and look what happened," Rodney replied and hurriedly stepped back when he heard Ronon growl low in his throat. "My point is, we might want to stop and think about how we approach these people. They aren't going to be the typical farmers and hunters we usually deal with."
Sheppard pursed his lips and nodded. "All right, you might have a point. We'll find the village and see what we're dealing with before we go walking into the middle of the town square."
They walked for another ten minutes before Rodney followed Teyla into another, smaller clearing. Ronon stood in the middle of the clearing, turning in a slow circle, his particle weapon raised.
"Ronon?" Sheppard asked in a low voice and raised the P-90. "What's wrong?"
"Someone is watching us," Ronon replied. "We need to move."
"There's the path," Rodney said, pointing to the trail on the opposite side of the clearing.
Ronon shook his head. "Doesn't feel right." He glanced at Sheppard. "We need to get back to the 'gate."
Sheppard studied Ronon for a moment, then looked around the clearing. "All right -" he started to say but stopped when a small canister flew into the clearing.
Several more canisters followed, and Rodney heard a soft pop and a hiss as the cans hit the ground. A greyish-white smoke spewed from the cans, and he started to cough.
"Back!" Sheppard ordered, his voice rough as he coughed. "Get back to the 'gate!"
Rodney turned in the direction of Sheppard's voice, but the low hanging smoke made it difficult to see. He took a few stumbling steps, but he couldn't see anything, and worse, it was getting harder to breathe. He thought he saw someone standing a meter or so away, but the world tilted around him, and he lost his balance.
"Sheppard!" he tried to shout but choked as the gas filled his mouth and nose despite his best efforts to cover his face with the collar of his shirt.
He heard the others around him, Sheppard calling to each of them in turn, Ronon yelling at whoever threw the gas cans to come out where he could fight them, but everything sounded like it was coming from down a long tunnel. His body felt heavy, and Rodney sank to the ground, coughing and gasping, inhaling more of the smoke as a result. He saw a flash of light from Ronon's particle weapon off to his right and heard the hissing noise from a canister near his head, but his brain felt soft and mushy, and he couldn't think. The vertigo was getting worse, and Rodney closed his eyes, letting his mind drift as the noises around him faded away.
~*~*~*~ SGA ~*~*~*~
"Graime," a distant voice said, and Ronon felt someone shift his head. "Look at the insignia on his neck. Is that what I think it is?"
Someone moved his head again, and Ronon growled low in his throat.
"Mark of the Third regiment," a second voice replied. "I'll be damned. I thought they were all dead."
Ronon felt someone touch the tattoo on his neck and opened his eyes to the hazy impression of two men bent over him. He didn't recognise either of the men and lashed out with a fist as he blinked his vision clear.
"Get away from me," Ronon ordered in a low growl.
One of the men caught his wild punch, and Ronon jerked his arm free of the light hold.
"Easy, friend," the first voice said. "We aren't going to hurt you."
Ronon lurched to his feet, glaring at the two men standing in front of him, then at the rest of the men and women huddled around him. A wave of vertigo washed over him, and Ronon braced one hand on the wall beside him and the other on his head as he tried to sort out where he was and how he had ended up in a room surrounded by strangers.
The last thing he remembered was several men entering a smoke-filled clearing. The smoke prevented him from seeing who was attacking them, but he heard them well enough and fired several shots in the direction of the new threat. He'd heard at least one of the men fall with a startled groan and was listening for more targets when Sheppard had ordered them to get back to the 'gate.
Ronon had managed a few staggering steps back toward the path when he heard Sheppard yell something about more hostiles, then McKay coughing and weakly calling out for Sheppard, followed by a soft thump. Ronon had tried yelling Sheppard's name, then McKay's and Teyla's, but none of them answered him. He had spun in a circle looking for his teammates and had felt the world tilt around him as he fought to keep his balance. He remembered falling to the ground, still searching for their attackers, and then nothing until he woke up in the dimly lit room.
He looked down and found his holster and the particle weapon were missing along with his leather duster. A quick check of the rest of his clothing, and he discovered most of his knives were gone as well.
"Where am I?" he demanded, glaring at the two men closest to him. "Where's Sheppard and the others?"
A man with a thin fringe of greying dark hair around his ears stepped forward with his hands raised in a placating gesture. The man was older than Ronon. He looked older than Sheppard too, and Ronon guessed he was at least in his fifties. The other man with him looked younger, maybe closer to Sheppard's age. He was shorter than Ronon, with dark, curly hair down to his shoulders.
The older man wore a long, grey shirt under a thin black vest and tattered brown trousers. As Ronon glared at the two men, he thought the cut of the leather trousers and black shirt the younger man wore looked similar to that of the Satedan military. Neither of the men seemed particularly healthy, and Ronon frowned as the older man coughed into a scrap of cloth he held in one hand.
"Take it easy," the older man said once the fit passed. "You need to give yourself a chance to recover from the gas. What's your name, son?"
Ronon scowled at the use of the diminutive but answered, "Ronon. Ronon Dex."
The older man smiled and bowed his head. "My name is Alman Orci," he said, placing one hand on his chest. He motioned to the younger man standing behind him and added, "This is my brother, Graime. Welcome to Purgatory, Ronon Dex."
Ronon glanced at Alman and then Graime. "You're Satedan," he said and couldn't completely hide the surprise in his tone.
Alman nodded. "As are you. It is good to meet another survivor. There are so few of us left." He paused and glanced at Graime. "I was a scientist with the Consortium." He took a deep breath and coughed into the cloth in his hand. "My group had been trying for more than a year to convince the planetary government we needed to take steps to hide our technology from the Wraith. Maybe if we had tried harder …" He ducked his head as his voice petered out.
Graime wrapped an arm around Alman's shoulders. "It wasn't your fault they didn't listen," he said in a low voice. "And no one could have predicted the Wraith would attack in such force."
Alman blew out a breath and raised his head. "You fought in the war," he said to Ronon and pointed to the tattoo on Ronon's neck.
Ronon nodded. "Fourth battalion, third regiment." He glanced at Graime and raised an eyebrow.
"Second battalion, first regiment," Graime said. He pulled down the collar of his shirt and showed Ronon the tattoo on his neck.
Ronon stared at Graime in surprise. "You're supposed to be dead. Kell ordered your regiment into the worst of the fighting near the portal before …"
Ronon felt his temper rising at the memory of watching as Kell had ordered two hundred men to their death so that he could escape the fighting. He clenched his fists and forced himself to focus on the problem now, not a long ago lost battle.
"Before Commander Kell deserted his command and ran for the safety of another planet," Graime finished for him, his expression hard. "Most of my men died defending the portal, but a few of us managed to reach one of the bunkers on the outskirts of the city and regroup. Never heard where Kell ended up."
"He's dead," Ronon told him, his tone flat.
"You're sure?"
Ronon nodded. "I made sure."
Graime studied him for a moment longer, then nodded. "Good riddance."
Ronon unclenched his hands and surveyed the rest of the room.
The space was one long open room made of stone with a vaulted roof. Windows cut high into the walls allowed sunlight to trickle into the room along with fresh air. The floor was little more than rotting planks of wood that creaked as he stepped away from the wall. A wide double door at one end of the room marked the only way in or out of the building. Thin, straw pallets lined the walls, and most of the men and women in the room sat staring into space and occasionally coughing. A few lay still on the pallets, and Ronon wondered if they were asleep or dead.
A group of women, all wearing white tunics and brown leggings, stood several feet away watching him. A woman with long red hair stepped forward from the group, and Ronon tensed in response. To his surprise, the woman didn't back down. She continued to stare at him until the younger woman standing to her right said something, and the woman turned away. Ronon watched the women for a few more seconds, then looked around the rest of the room. He needed to find Sheppard and the others. Then he needed to figure out how to get back to the 'gate.
"There were three others with me," Ronon said, turning back to Alman and Graime. "Where are they?"
"They are just over here," Alman said and gently pushed aside a few of the people surrounding them. "They are still unconscious, however. The gas is rather potent."
The people milling around them parted, and Ronon found Sheppard, Teyla, and McKay lying on thin pallets lined against the wall. None of them wore their uniform jackets or tac vests, and Ronon noticed their packs, earpieces, and weapons were also gone. A teenage girl with brown hair plaited in a long braid down her back and wearing a plain grey dress sat next to Teyla's pallet with her hand resting on Teyla's forehead.
Alman nodded to another man sitting next to Sheppard, who looked around the same age as Alman with shaggy brown hair and a beard. The shaggy man's brown shirt and trousers were torn in several places, and Ronon spotted another scrap of cloth poking out of one of the man's pockets as he stood.
"Brandt, this is Ronon," Alman said.
"Happy meeting, Ronon," Brandt said with a bow. "My daughter, Sera, has been looking after your friends." He nodded to the girl as she moved from Teyla to Sheppard.
Ronon stepped closer to Sheppard, spotted the bruise over Sheppard's left eye, and turned to Brandt with a glare.
"What happened to him?" he asked, pointing at the welt.
"It wasn't us," Brandt said, holding his hands away from his body. "His face was already bruised when you arrived. He must have fought with the soldiers when they captured you."
Ronon studied him for a moment longer, then turned away with a grunt.
Sera stood and smiled at Ronon. "They should be waking up soon. The gas tends to make people groggy and sometimes ill for a little while."
Ronon stepped around the girl and knelt next to Sheppard. "Sheppard?" Ronon said and gently slapped Sheppard's cheek a few times.
Sheppard groaned and turned his head away from Ronon.
"Sheppard, wake up," Ronon ordered and slapped him again, this time a little harder.
"Stp, tht," Sheppard mumbled and cracked his eyes open.
"Wake up, and I will," Ronon replied and sat back on his heels.
Sheppard blinked a few times and groaned again. "What the hell happened?" he muttered with a glance, first at Ronon and then the rest of the room.
"Someone ambushed us," Ronon replied as he helped Sheppard sit up with his back against the wall.
"Yep, got that from the fact we were gassed," Sheppard replied and covered his face with his hands. He dropped his hands a moment later and stared at Ronon. "Teyla? Rodney?"
"Here," Ronon said and moved so Sheppard could see the other two pallets. "Still out."
Sheppard glanced at McKay, then Teyla lying on McKay's other side. Sheppard grasped McKay's wrist, and after a few seconds, he nodded. "Not the warm welcome we were expecting," he muttered as he laid McKay's arm down at his side. "People should just put up a sign next to the 'gate if they don't want visitors."
"'Gate?" Alman asked with a puzzled frown.
"Stargate," Ronon replied. "It's what Sheppard's people call the portal."
"Who are your friends?" Sheppard asked with a glance behind Ronon.
"My name is Alman," Alman said with a bow. "This is Graime, Brandt, and Sera," he added, pointing to each of the others in turn.
"Lieutenant Colonel John Sheppard," Sheppard replied.
"Colonel?" Graime growled with a suspicious glance at Sheppard. He turned to Ronon and added, "After everything that happened in that last battle, you aligned yourself with another pretentious officer?"
"Hey!" Sheppard protested.
Graime scowled at Sheppard. "He'll just sacrifice you the first chance he gets. You know it's true. They're all the same."
"Graime," Alman said and rested a hand on Graime's arm.
"Not Sheppard," Ronon said, and Graime scoffed.
"Someone want to tell me what the problem is here?" Sheppard asked.
Ronon studied Graime standing in front of him with his arms crossed over his chest as he glowered at Sheppard, then glanced at Sheppard still sitting on the ground, rubbing his head.
"Graime was part of Kell's regiment," Ronon said to Sheppard.
'Ahh,' Sheppard mouthed with a nod and a glance at Graime. "We going to be okay here?"
Graime looked Sheppard up and down, then dropped his arms and stepped back. "You can't order me to do anything," he replied with a sniff. "You're a prisoner just like the rest of us,"
"Not for long," Sheppard muttered and held out a hand to Ronon. "Get me up."
Ronon pulled him to his feet and kept his hold on Sheppard's arm until he found his balance. After a moment, Sheppard pulled out of Ronon's grip and looked around the room.
"You said we were all prisoners?" Sheppard asked with a glance at Graime. "Where did all of you people come from?"
"Came looking for work," a woman said, and several of the others standing nearby murmured in agreement.
"Scouting mission," another woman said, and Ronon saw the red-haired woman watching him again.
"I just want to get back to me Mam and Da," a boy of no more than fifteen added and sniffled into a grubby sleeve.
Brandt wrapped his arm around Sera's shoulders. "We had heard that the people here were friendly and willing to take in refugees. We came here with several others from our planet looking for a fresh start after the Wraith culled our homeworld." Brandt pursed his lips and looked around the room. "That was three months ago," he added in a whisper.
Sera wrapped her arms around Brandt's middle. "It will be all right, Papa," she said with a brave smile. "You'll see."
Brandt patted her arm, but Ronon saw the defeated look in his eyes when Sera looked away.
Ronon looked around the room, saw the same hopeless expressions on many of the faces of the people standing around him, and felt his temper rising. Whatever was going on, someone needed to stop it, Ronon decided, before the people here kidnapped anyone else.
"What about you?" Sheppard said to Graime.
Graime glanced at Sheppard, then ignored him and turned to Ronon. "Like the others, we came here looking for work. What we found …" He glanced around the room and shook his head.
"All right, the first thing we need -" Sheppard started to say but stopped when Teyla groaned and shifted on her pallet.
Sheppard stepped around McKay, knelt beside Teyla, and laid a hand on her shoulder. "Teyla," he said softly and shook Teyla's shoulder.
"Mmm," Teyla replied and opened her eyes. "Colonel Sheppard?" she asked in a whisper, and Ronon knelt on her other side.
"Yeah," Sheppard replied as Ronon helped her sit up.
"What happened? The last thing I remember is gas filling the clearing," Teyla said as she rubbed her temples.
"That's apparently the way the people around here greet visitors," Sheppard replied with a wry smile. "How're you feeling?"
"My head aches," Teyla replied. She dropped her hands and looked over at McKay. "You are both all right?" she asked, glancing at Sheppard and then Ronon.
"Fine," Ronon replied as he helped Teyla stand.
Sheppard stood and looked around the room. "Why capture all of these people? It doesn't make sense."
"They need workers for the mine," Alman explained.
"Mining?" Ronon asked and glanced at Sheppard. "I thought McKay said the mines were depleted."
"For naquadah," McKay muttered and rolled onto his side with a moan. "Is the room spinning for anyone else?"
Sheppard smiled and knelt next to McKay. "Come on," he said with a grunt as he helped McKay sit up.
McKay squeezed his eyes shut and sat with his knees drawn up and his back against the wall. He rested his arms on his knees and his head on his arms.
Ronon saw Sheppard rubbing the back of his head and glanced at Teyla, who shook her head.
"So what are they mining for now?" Sheppard asked, dropping his hand.
"Could be anything," McKay said. He leant his head against the wall and closed his eyes.
"If I may," Alman said, and Sheppard nodded. "The mineral is not one I am familiar with. It is a sort of bulbous dark stone that is very heavy."
McKay's eyes popped open, and he stared at Alman.
"Sounds like naquadah," Sheppard said. "Why would -"
"It's not naquadah," Rodney told him. He swallowed and pushed himself to his feet. "This is bad. Very, very bad."
"Rodney?" Sheppard asked with a frown. "Spit it out."
"Heavy, dark rock," McKay muttered to himself. "Increased radiation levels in the atmosphere." He flinched when Brandt started coughing. "People getting sick."
"McKay!" Ronon growled.
"It's uranium," McKay said, fear plain in his expression. "They are mining uranium."
"You're sure?" Sheppard asked, and Ronon heard the underlying concern in his tone.
"It all fits," McKay replied. "Dark, heavy rock. The radiation readings I found when we came through the 'gate. And look at these people." McKay waved a hand at the room. "They're all sick." McKay's face paled, and Ronon wondered if he was about to pass out.
"Rodney?" Sheppard asked as he grabbed one of McKay's arms.
"Who do we know that uses uranium?" McKay said, staring at Sheppard.
"You don't think -"
"Unless these people are a lot more advanced than we thought, it has to be."
"Colonel?" Teyla asked.
Sheppard glanced at McKay then turned to Teyla. "Uranium is a key component in the making of nuclear bombs."
"The Genii," Teyla said, her tone flat.
"Exactly," Sheppard replied. "We need to get back to base. Where's the 'gate from here?" he asked Alman.
Alman shook his head. "No one knows. This building, the refinery, the mine, it is all within the same valley. The portal is not. No one is awake when they arrive here, so we have no idea where the portal is in relation to the valley."
"Sun was coming up behind the 'gate when we arrived," Ronon said.
"What direction does the sun set in?" Sheppard asked, looking from Alman, to Graime, to Brandt.
"Sun sets behind the mountain with the mine," Graime replied.
"All right -" Sheppard started to say but stopped when a young man near the front of the building turned and waved his arms. "Guards are coming!"
Ronon watched as the people on the mats slowly stood and shuffled away from the door. "What's going on?" he asked.
"Shift change," Graime replied. "You're about to see the mine up close."
Ronon heard thumping sounds from outside the building, then the doors were pulled open, and late afternoon sunlight poured into the room. Ronon flinched as the brighter light temporarily blinded him. He blinked a few times, letting his vision clear and saw a group of six men all dressed in long green tunics and brown leggings enter the building, followed by about thirty people dressed in assorted rags. Four more of the men in green brought up the rear, pushing a few of the stragglers ahead of them.
"Those aren't Genii soldiers," Ronon said.
"No, they aren't," Sheppard agreed.
"They're probably the people who live on this world," Rodney said. "The Genii probably used the people living here first to mine the uranium, but then the natives realised they could save themselves the trouble if they found other unfortunates to do the work for them."
The men and women entering the building looked exhausted, several were coughing or wheezing, and fine grey dust covered all of them from head to foot. They entered the room in a single-file line and crawled onto the first available pallet they could find.
"Let's go! Move!" one of the guards ordered the people on Ronon's side of the room.
Two other guards walked down the row of pallets, kicking anyone still lying down and shoving the slower ones into line.
"What do we do?" McKay asked, wide-eyed, as the guards came closer.
"For the moment, we keep our heads down," Sheppard replied.
"You aren't seriously saying we work in the mine?" McKay argued. "Do you have any idea how dangerous it is to mine uranium? And I seriously doubt they are following any safety procedures."
"Do you have a better idea?" Sheppard replied in a low hiss as the guards came closer. "We don't know how many guards there are. We don't know where the 'gate is. We don't even know what the terrain outside looks like. What do you think our chances of successfully escaping would be right now? We need more information."
"Fine," McKay grumbled. "But when I die of cancer, I'm blaming you."
"I'll keep that in mind," Sheppard replied. He glanced at Ronon and Teyla, then the guards coming toward them. "Keep your eyes open," he said as the guards shoved them toward the rest of the prisoners standing near the wide double doors.
The men and women around them shuffled into a ragged line, and Ronon wasn't surprised when Sheppard glanced at him, jerked his head over his shoulder, and stood in front of McKay. Ronon caught the unspoken message and followed Teyla as the guards pushed them out of the building. He blinked against the sunlight as he walked out of the building and looked around.
Undulating hills covered with tall pine trees climbed the walls of the valley. A waterfall cascaded down the valley wall to his right, into a wide pool. A stream led from the pool, across the valley floor, and out of sight. The building housing the prisoners stood at the base of the hills on one side of the stream. A large, two-story building, also made of stone, stood on the other side of the stream. Two tall chimneys pumped thick grey smoke into the air, and a crude metal track led from the building to a dark gaping hole in the hillside.
A low bridge made of rickety wood spanned the stream, and Ronon heard McKay grumbling under his breath as his boots were soaked when the stream splashed over the edge of the bridge as they crossed.
"Must be the refinery," McKay said a moment later, wrinkling his nose as they passed the building spouting smoke. "Explains the pollution readings from the MALP."
One of the guards walking up and down the line of prisoners shoved McKay in the back. "No talking," he ordered and pushed Rodney again.
"Do you mind?" McKay retorted as he ran into Sheppard's back.
Sheppard steadied him as the guard closed on McKay. "Prisoners will not speak," the guard said in a low growl as he fingered the coiled whip at his hip. "Now, move. Into the mine." He pushed McKay again, and Ronon clenched his hand into fists as he glared at the guard.
"Try me," the guard said, matching Ronon's glare with one of his own.
"Ronon," Sheppard said in a near-whisper.
Ronon glanced at Sheppard standing a few feet away with one hand on McKay's arm. Sheppard shook his head, and Ronon scowled in reply but unclenched his hands and stepped back.
"That's what I thought," the guard said to Ronon with a sneer. "Move it," he ordered the men and women who had stopped to watch the exchange. "No one eats until you fill your quota."
"Lovely," McKay muttered as he shuffled toward the mine entrance.