Teyla woke to Ronon shaking her arm. "I am awake," she muttered as she sat up and blinked a few times.
Afternoon light flooded the room from the open door, and she watched as the guards pushed a group of prisoners into the room.
"You ready for this?" Ronon asked, watching the guards.
Teyla nodded and accepted Ronon's offered hand as he pulled her to her feet. She brushed at the dirt clinging to her sleeveless shirt and tattered trousers and looked around the room.
Rodney stood a few feet away, grimacing in pain as he tried to stretch his back. "I knew sleeping on that thing was a bad idea. Between shovelling radioactive rocks all night and then sleeping on the ground, I think I'm crippled for life."
"I think a backache is the least of our worries right now," John replied, but Teyla noticed Sheppard wincing as he twisted his torso one way and then the other.
Rodney grumbled something under his breath that Teyla didn't catch, dropped his arms to his sides and joined Sheppard standing a few feet away.
The prisoners around them shuffled forward as the guards pushed and shoved the men and women into line. One of the guards reached their end of the room, scowling and kicking a few of the slower ones to rise. Teyla frowned when one of the bodies on the ground never moved. The guard checked the body of a man and grunted as he straightened. "Another one for the pit," he called.
The prisoners nearest the body glanced at each other and shuffled away from the dead man. Teyla heard soft sniffling from a few feet away and saw a young woman staring at the body with silent tears streaming down her face.
Had the dead man been her father? Brother? Lover? Teyla wondered. She took a step toward the grieving woman, but Ronon grabbed her arm in a light hold.
"Don't," Ronon said in a low voice. "You'll only make things harder for her."
Teyla looked up at him and nodded. "Perhaps you are correct," she said with a last glance at the woman as a second guard walked over, and the two guards dragged the body out of the building.
"Move," the guard near the door ordered the line of prisoners.
"Stay behind us," John said softly to Teyla as the guards pushed them out of the building. "Once the fight starts, wait for your chance and go. Don't look back, and don't worry about us."
Teyla took a few deep breaths, forced herself to relax, and nodded.
The plan will work, she told herself as they left the building.
She raised a hand against the late afternoon sunlight shining directly in her eyes and watched the guards patrolling up and down the line of prisoners. She saw Graime looking at Sheppard with a raised eyebrow, but John shook his head as the guard passed them. The guard turned and started back up the line, and once he was about at the middle of the line, John gave a low whistle.
Graime glanced back at Sheppard and nodded.
"Get ready," John whispered to Teyla and jerked his head to his left, where the line of trees disappeared up the valley wall.
Teyla nodded and slowed her pace. She didn't want to get too far from the building and her escape route.
"I said, back off," Graime growled. He turned around and pushed Ronon in the chest.
Ronon stepped back a pace and scowled at Graime. "Try that again," he dared in a low hiss. "See what happens."
"Only been here a day, and you think you can take me?" Graime sneered at Ronon. Graime shoved Ronon again, this time harder, and Dex fell back into Rodney standing behind him.
"Hey!" Rodney exclaimed as Dex knocked him to the ground. "I don't remember agreeing to be part of this!" He grunted then tried to curl into a ball as Dex tripped over him, kicking him in the side in the process.
Sheppard pulled Rodney up and away from Dex. At the same time, Ronon clenched his hands into fists and punched Graime in the jaw.
Graime brushed his fingers over his bloody lip, bared his teeth, and charged Ronon.
"They do remember this isn't supposed to be real, right?" Rodney hissed as Graime delivered a series of blows to Ronon's head and body.
"Shh!" Sheppard said and winced as Ronon landed a solid counter-punch to Graime's ribs.
The prisoners formed a wall around Ronon and Graime as they continued to trade blows, the prisoners yelling and waving their arms as the guards stood by, doing nothing to break up the fight.
"Don't let him get away with that!" Teyla heard Alman shout from somewhere in the middle of the gathered crowd. "Hit him again!" She shook her head and wondered if Graime and Ronon weren't the only ones who had forgotten the purpose of the fight.
As Graime predicted, the guards seemed just as eager for the sudden entertainment as the prisoners. One or two tried to push into the tightly-packed ring of prisoners, but Teyla noticed they were more interested in having a better view of the fight rather than breaking it up.
Teyla took a step back from the crowd as the prisoners continued to shout and cheer. More guards pushed their way into the ring around the two fighters, and Teyla caught a glimpse of Ronon standing with his fists raised and blood dripping from his nose before the gap in the crowd closed again.
She checked the building behind her, then the mine and refinery. Graime had been right. The guards only paid attention to the fight in front of them. Teyla glanced at Sheppard, who nodded back, then she slipped around the side of the prisoner building and ducked into the trees.
The trees muffled the sounds of cheering as Teyla pushed through the edges of the forest, looking for the path Sheppard had described. She wanted to be at least a few hundred yards from the camp before the fight ended in case the guards discovered her disappearance sooner than they planned.
She was still scrambling through the undergrowth a few minutes later when the sounds from the camp changed.
"Break it up! Break it up!" she heard someone yell, followed by the crack of a whip.
The cheering died down, and she crouched behind a bush, waiting to see if anyone came looking for her.
"Get moving!" the voice shouted a moment later, and the whip cracked again.
"An extra hour added to the work detail," someone else ordered, and Teyla imagined the scowl on Rodney's face at that news.
She peeked around the edge of the bush and watched as the guards herded the prisoners into the mine. She caught a glimpse of Ronon, spotted Sheppard and Rodney walking a few paces behind Dex and nodded to herself.
Their part of the plan had worked. The rest was up to her. Teyla watched as the last prisoners disappeared inside the mine, then turned and made her way back into the trees.
Where was the path? she wondered after she'd been hiking for several minutes. Sheppard said it was close. Had she missed it somehow?
The surrounding trees formed long shadows as the sun set behind her, and Teyla peered through the deepening gloom for any indication of where the trail might be. Dim lantern light shone through the trees, telling her that the mining camp was still behind her.
"If that is the case," she muttered to herself, "then the path must be in this direction."
She set off through the trees to her right and blew out a breath when she spotted the wide, rutted trail leading up into the hills a few minutes later. Now that she had found it, Teyla stopped near the edge of the trail, hid behind a downed tree, and considered her next move.
The path would be faster, she knew, but also more dangerous. If anyone was looking for her, they would be looking on the track. On the other hand, speed was of the essence. If Sheppard was correct, the path led back to the stargate, and the sooner she found the 'gate, the sooner she could return with help.
She debated the pros and cons for a few more seconds, and in the end, the need for speed won out. Teyla watched the trail for another minute, and when no guards ran past her, she stepped onto the trail and jogged along the path, keeping her hearing alert for anything that didn't fit with the typical night sounds of the forest.
The path wound back and forth as it climbed up out of the valley, and Teyla had started to let herself believe she had made a clean escape when she heard a branch snap behind and to her left. She glanced around, saw another downed tree, and ducked behind the wide trunk. The light was almost gone, making it hard to see very far, but she caught movement in front of her, and a moment later, one of the green and brown-clad guards stepped out onto the path.
Now the color of their uniforms made sense, Teyla realised as she watched the man look up and down the path then survey the forest. The colors made for perfect camouflage for anyone wanting to hide in the woods.
Which explains how we never saw the ambush coming, she thought to herself.
The guard crouched on the path and pressed his hand against the packed dirt. He held the pose for several seconds, then nodded and walked back into the trees.
Teyla quietly blew out the breath she'd been holding and sat with her back to the tree.
Were the men part of a regular patrol looking for more people to kidnap, or had the guards discovered her disappearance and the men had been part of a search detail looking for her?
She swallowed and peered into a nearby cluster of trees, looking for more guards. If the guards were looking for her, what did that mean for Sheppard and the others?
"Focus," she told herself in a whisper. "The only way to help them is to alert Doctor Weir to what has happened."
Teyla closed her eyes and concentrated on listening to the noises around her. She didn't hear any footfalls nearby, only the chirping of a few birds nesting in the trees and the rustling of the tree branches in the breeze. She opened her eyes when she caught the scent of pine pitch in the air, reminding her of walking with Charin through the forest on the mainland soon after the Athosians had settled in the village.
"It is beautiful here," Teyla said. She knelt, gathered a few berries from a bush, and offered them to Charin. "And more importantly, we will be safe from the Wraith."
Charin took one of the berries and nodded. "Our people will finally have the chance to settle down and prosper," she agreed. She looked up at the sky and sighed. "I never dreamt I'd have the opportunity to spend the end of my days in peace."
"You have many years yet," Teyla said with a smile, taking Charin's hand. "I want my sons and daughters to know you, learn from you as I did."
Charin smiled. "For that to happen, you first must find a mate, my dear." She glanced at Teyla and added in a conspiratorial whisper, "You and Kanaan would make a good match."
Teyla blushed. "Perhaps," she replied and refused to meet Charin's gaze as they continued walking through the woods behind the village.
Teyla let the memories wash over her for a few moments then swallowed the lump in her throat. If she had known she would only have another year or so with Charin, she would have spent more time with her on the mainland.
Perhaps Charin would have told her more about the Hallow, she thought as she wiped a tear from her eye.
A branch above her creaked, and Teyla forced herself to focus on the present. Sheppard and the others were counting on her. She needed to get back to the stargate. She made one last survey of her surroundings, then crept through the trees until she found the edge of the path, then kept to the undergrowth to one side of the trail. If the guards were looking for her, they would expect her to take the obvious path. She planned to stay in the trees near the track and hopefully avoid any patrols.
Full night descended, and the moon rose in front of her, giving her just enough light to see where she was going. She didn't see any more patrols, and Teyla began to hope she might make it back to the 'gate undetected when she heard a steady thumping noise coming toward her.
Not guards, she thought to herself as she huddled next to a wide tree trunk. The sound wasn't right for a two-legged animal. It must be some sort of predator, she realised.
The thumping noise came closer, and Teyla heard the heavy panting of several animals, confirming her guess that whatever was coming toward her wasn't guards. She peeked around the tree trunk and watched in amazement as a pack of wolves ran past her.
The pack numbered at least twenty, but what surprised her more was their size. These were not the small animals that had roamed the forests on Athos. These wolves were huge, easily standing as high as her waist and ranging in color from deepest black to a salt-and-pepper grey.
The pack was nearly past her when one of the animals at the back of the group stopped and sniffed the air. It glanced in her direction, and Teyla saw the intelligence in its eyes as it watched her for several seconds.
Was it hungry or merely curious? she wondered as the wolf stared at her with its ears perked forward.
Before she could decide what she would do if the animal chose to investigate what she was, the wolf shook itself, gave her one last glance, and ran to catch up with the rest of its pack.
Teyla slowly blew out the breath she was holding and waited until the sound of the running animals faded. She was ready to continue on her way when she heard howling off to her right. More howling joined in from her left, and Teyla stood with her eyes closed, listening to the chorus.
"The wolves are singing," Teyla said and clapped with childish delight as she glanced at her chaguo bibi.
Charin smiled. "In a manner of speaking, child. The wolves are talking to each other."
"What are they saying?"
"They are telling each other where they are and if there is any prey nearby."
Teyla bent and peered into the gloom under the trees as the wolves continued to yip and howl.
"Come along, dear," Charin said and held out her hand. "We must be getting back to the village. Your father will be wondering what is taking us so long to gather berries."
"Will you teach me to talk to the wolves, Charin?" Teyla asked as she took Charin's hand.
"When you are a little older, perhaps," Charin replied.
Teyla smiled at the memory. It wasn't long after that conversation that she lost her father in a culling, and she had gone to live with Charin permanently. And Charin had kept her word. Over the years, she taught Teyla about the wolves and so many other animals in the forest.
She listened to the howling for a few more moments, then smiled. "Thank you, Charin," she whispered.
After her near-miss with the guard, Teyla stayed off the path as much as possible. Unfortunately, the effort needed to force her way through the undergrowth was both time-consuming and made too much noise. She glanced up, saw the moon was well above the mountains, and decided she would have to risk the path.
Twenty minutes later, she finally found the clearing with the stargate. She crouched near the edge of the trees, watching for any indication of guards waiting for her. After several minutes when she didn't hear anything other than the usual night sounds around her, she decided she was alone and stood. She crept out of the trees and had taken a few steps toward the DHD when a new thought crossed her mind. She did not have a radio or a GDO. She had no way to alert Atlantis that she was a friend to lower the shield protecting the city's 'gate.
"Colonel Sheppard and the others are counting on you," she told herself. "You have to find a way to contact Doctor Weir."
She found a tree stump near the edge of the clearing, sat down, and kept one eye on the clearing as she considered her options.
She ran through the list of off-world teams in her head, discarding them one by one.
Major Lorne's team was still grounded after their encounter with poison oak during their last mission, she knew. Likewise, Sergeant Thompson's team hadn't been assigned a new mission, and they were still in the city.
Sergeant Stackhouse's team was on a survey mission to M2J-605, she realised and sat up with a spark of hope, then remembered she didn't know the 'gate symbols for the planet.
"Allies," she muttered to herself. "Who would have a radio or GDO to communicate with the city?"
She thought of Yev and Klaus, then shook her head. It was winter on Lurra now, and she didn't even have a thin uniform jacket for protection against the cold, much less the heavier coats the team had worn on their last visit during the frigid Lurran winter. She rubbed her hands up and down her bare arms. There was no way she would survive the miles-long hike from the 'gate to the village.
The weather wasn't an issue on Kalani's planet, she knew, but the village was too far from the 'gate for her to reach it quickly, and time was becoming a factor. She glanced up at the moon overhead and felt her frustration mounting.
Teyla considered and rejected two more planets before she remembered Jor-tan and the people on Drellim. She would have to run the entire way from the 'gate to Jor-tan's house, but she was out of options.
"Drellim, then," she muttered under her breath.
She made one last survey of the clearing, then dashed to the DHD and input the address for Drellim.
The 'gate whooshed into existence, and Teyla winced at both the light and the noise. If there were any guards nearby, they would undoubtedly be alerted to her presence. She glanced in the direction of the mining camp, "Just a little longer," she promised and ran through the event horizon.
~*~*~*~ SGA ~*~*~*~
Rodney winced when Graime punched Ronon in the face, and Dex's nose started bleeding. Ronon wiped the blood from his nose, grinned, and charged Graime, landing several blows to Graime's face and stomach.
Graime managed to shove Ronon off balance, then stepped back, one arm wrapped around his middle as he bent forward, trying to catch his breath.
Ronon kept his guard up as he watched Graime. "Had enough?" he asked, still smiling.
"Not even close," Graime replied with a grunt.
He ran at Ronon, and instead of trying to hit him, he tackled Dex around his middle. The crowd scrambled out of the way as Ronon landed on his back with Graime on top of him.
Rodney heard Ronon grunt as Graime landed another blow to his jaw and glanced at Sheppard.
"It's fine. Just watch," John said and nodded at Dex.
Rodney looked back at the fight and saw Ronon trap Graime's right arm and leg. Ronon then arched his back, and in less time than it took Rodney to blink, Ronon twisted, shoving Graime off of him as their positions switched.
Graime wrapped his legs around Ronon's hips as Ronon hit him again, but before he could do anything else, the guards pushed their way through the crowd.
"Break it up!" one of the guards ordered.
Two other guards pulled Ronon off Graime and restrained his arms behind his back.
Ronon growled and lunged forward as Graime climbed to his feet, but the guards held fast.
"I said break it up!" The first guard pushed into the middle of the circle and cracked the whip in his hand.
Ronon shook off the hold on his arms and swiped a hand across his bloody nose.
"Show's over," the guard said with a glare at the crowd. "Get moving." He cracked the whip again as the prisoners slowly dispersed and turned toward the mine entrance.
"An extra hour added to the work detail," the guard at the back of the line said.
Rodney groaned at the pronouncement he would be spending even more time trapped in the mine. "Great plan, Sheppard," he muttered as they entered the mine.
"Don't knock it," John replied. "It worked."
Rodney glanced behind him and realised Teyla was no longer there. What was more, none of the guards seemed to have noticed her disappearance.
"You all right?" Sheppard whispered to Ronon.
"I'm fine," Ronon replied, wiping his bloody fingers on his trousers. "Good fight," he added to Graime walking in front of him.
Graime turned and grinned at Dex. "You too. Nice hip throw at the end."
Rodney stared at both of them and rolled his eyes. "Figures," he muttered and shook his head.
"Silence!" the guard walking down the line of prisoners ordered.
Ronon glared at the guard until Sheppard tapped him on the arm. "Don't push it," he ordered in a low voice.
Ronon humphed and followed Graime into the large central cavern.
Once again, the prisoners lined up along one wall of the cavern, waiting for their work assignments. Rodney stood next to John and forced himself to keep his panic under control.
"Wide open fields," he muttered over and over under his breath, paying scant attention to the guards pulling people out of the line.
"You! Over there."
Rodney glanced at the guard standing in front of him in confusion. "What?" he asked, taken by surprise at the order. He had expected he would be spending another night shovelling ore with Sheppard and Ronon.
"Cart detail," the guard ordered, and gave Rodney a shove toward the line of ore carts.
Rodney gave John a wide-eyed look as the guard pulled him out of the line. As much as he wasn't looking forward to more manual labor, getting separated from the rest of his team had not been part of the plan.
"Umm," he muttered and stumbled to a stop. "I don't -"
"I won't tell you again," the guard said with a scowl and fingered the whip at his side. "Move!" He shoved Rodney toward the nearest cart.
"You, too," the guard said to Alman.
Alman nodded and walked over to the cart behind Rodney's.
"Get moving," the guard ordered the woman standing at the head of the line of carts.
The woman tied her red hair back from her face as she glared at the guard.
"I said move," the guard ordered and gripped the whip handle at his belt.
The woman stared at the guard with a defiant expression for a moment longer, then bent forward and pushed the cart along the track.
Rodney swallowed and grasped the rough wooden bar for the cart. As the cart in front of him started to move, he glanced back and saw John watching him. Sheppard nodded and gave Rodney a tight smile before he turned and followed Ronon deeper into the mine.
All right, you can do this, Rodney told himself as he strained against the bar. You'll be fine, and at least this way, you won't be inside the mine.
Any hope Rodney had that the carts would be easy to push were dashed as the rusty wheels squealed against the warped metal of the track. He flexed his shoulders and ignored the protests from his back as he forced one foot in front of the other, straining to push the heavy cart out of the cavern.
Lanterns lit the path for the track, and guards stood every meter or so, watching the prisoners struggling to move the carts from the mine to the refinery.
Rodney winced as one of the guards kicked an older woman in front of him who moved too slowly. The same guard glared at him as he trudged past, and Rodney kept his head down as he pushed his cart along the track and into the refinery building. The going was marginally easier once he was inside the building, and Rodney glanced around at the lines of conveyor belts snaked from one end of the room to the other, dropping loads of ore into various cisterns. More conveyor belts led from the cisterns to large kilns belching smoke and the occasional tongue of flame.
Between the fires under the cisterns and the baking heat from the kilns, the interior of the refinery felt like an oven. Sweat poured down Rodney's back and flanks as he pushed his cart along the track and up a ramp. Once at the top of the ramp, the man in front of him helped him tip the cart over the side onto the waiting conveyor belt. When the cart was empty, the man went back to his cart and pushed it back down the incline and out of the refinery.
Rodney pushed his cart out of the way, helped Alman tip his cart over the edge, and followed the other man back out of the refinery. He shivered as the sweat dried in the night air once he was outside but took several deep breaths of the cooler air as he pushed the cart, only slightly less heavy now that it was empty, back toward the mine.
He soon lost track of time as he pushed the cart back and forth from the mine to the refinery. His back was a solid wall of pain, and the palms of his hands wept blood as the rough wood of the bar abraded the open sores through the thin material of his makeshift bandages.
He glanced up at the moon overhead as he left the refinery again, then lowered his head and pushed the cart back toward the mine. He was halfway back to the mine when he heard a gravelly voice behind him and froze.
"Doctor McKay. How nice to see you again."
"No, no, no," Rodney muttered to himself and tried to ignore the flutter in his stomach. "This is not happening."
The line of carts ground to a halt as the prisoners stopped and stared back at the refinery. Realising there was no way to escape the confrontation, Rodney let go of his cart and turned around.
Kolya walked with his hands clasped behind his back and a smirk on his face as he closed the distance between them. "Time to fulfil that promise I made to you in Atlantis last year."
Rodney crossed his arms over his chest and scowled at Kolya. "I told you then I wasn't going to work for you," he replied and hoped he didn't sound as afraid as he felt.
"That's where you're mistaken, Doctor," Kolya said, looking around. "Your watchdog isn't here to stop me this time." He nodded to Rodney's left.
Rodney turned in time to see another man, a Genii soldier, not one of the camp guards, standing behind him. Before he could react, the man grabbed him and twisted his arms behind his back.
Rodney tried to struggle in the soldier's hold and groaned when his arms were nearly wrenched from their sockets as a second soldier tied his hands behind his back.
"I won't do what you want," Rodney vowed through gritted teeth.
"Oh, but you will, Doctor," Kolya replied. "I'm going to make you an offer you can't refuse." He nodded to the guards flanking Rodney and turned. "Bring him."