Chapter 3

John looked back at the distance he and his team had travelled, and then up at the way they had yet to go. They had done well, in that their progress has been steady and nobody had picked up any injuries, but although the sun was still high in the sky, John decided they would almost certainly be spending the night high on the mountain; inside the shelter of the Ancient buildings, ideally, because they'd be in trouble if the wind picked up again and they were out in the open.

"You getting anything, McKay?"

Rodney sat, his laptop on his knees, tapping and studying with his usual intense concentration. He closed the laptop abruptly, with a snap, and sat up.

"That's a firm 'no'," he said. "I think we should take a route round to the west before we climb any higher. See if we can pick up traces of the path or maybe a low level entrance."

"There're still energy readings, though, right?"

"Yes, yes, same as before. Don't worry, that was no glitch. There's definitely something in this pile of rock."

"Glad to hear it," said John, dryly. "Teyla, find us a safe traverse. We'll stop every fifteen and Rodney can check for traces of the path."

They set off, picking their way around the ever-increasing patches of scree; several times Teyla pointed out boulders that she thought looked unstable and they moved carefully round them. John noticed that Ronon was lagging behind, studying the rocks closely and occasionally picking up a piece of loose stone, turning it over in his hands and then throwing it away.

"What's up, big guy?"

Ronon held out the piece of rock he'd been studying. John took it and turned it over. On one side were patches of blue and yellow lichen; the other side was smooth and blank. John raised an eyebrow.

"What am I looking for?"

"It was this way," said Ronon, taking the stone and turning it blank side up.

"And?"

Ronon shrugged. "Must've moved recently.

"Yeah, so? I'm kicking bits of rock all the time. Teyla and Rodney, too."

"These weren't on the path."

"So, you're saying something else moved them? Grenza?"

"No. Too many of them. It's not a trail; they're everywhere."

"So..."

Ronon shrugged again. "Dunno. Just seems wrong."

"Oh."

They continued, but John felt his senses kick into a higher state of alertness. He trusted his team; trusted each of them with all their lives; and, on many occasions, with the lives of others. If Ronon's instincts were sparking, even over something as seemingly innocuous as a few stones, then it meant he should pay attention. They rounded a curve of the mountain, to find Rodney setting down his pack to take out his laptop. John was about to get out his canteen and take a drink, and had begun to wonder where they might find a source of water, when he felt his boots slip beneath him slightly. He shifted his position, thinking he'd just stood on an uneven rock, but then the ground definitely moved, a shuddering tremble lasting a couple of seconds.

Then suddenly he was in the midst of chaos; a blur of small, gray-brown shapes burst out from beneath a rocky overhang and hurtled in amongst them, the ground began to shake violently and John saw loose rocks dancing, felt his feet lurch, and flailed his arms to try to keep his balance. Falling helplessly backward, his eyes full of the blue sky, he saw something erupt from the mountain peak, streak high into the atmosphere and then fly apart like a firework, sending out a starburst of tiny shapes in all directions. They shot, staggeringly far and fast, away to all points of the compass and disappeared out of sight. John landed hard and skidded, bumped and rolled down the slope, the jagged surface hurting, but saving him from a much longer fall. His bouncing progress was halted as he came up hard against a boulder; he felt the tremors subside and slowly fade away.

oOo

Teyla had been bowled over by a fleeing mountain creature; it had run, full-tilt, into her legs and she had landed on her hands and knees. Which meant that, when the ground began to shake, she simply knelt further down and put her arms over her head. She felt some impacts through the pack on her back and was grateful for its protection. She heard Rodney cry out amid the rumbling and clashing of rocks, but could do nothing but wait. The ground stopped shaking and the skittering and bouncing of loose stone tailed off. Teyla sat up, slowly, coughing in the dusty air, noticing some bleeding cuts on her arms, which seemed, thankfully, minor. Another shape was uncurling nearby and Teyla blinked, trying to clear her streaming eyes of dust and grit.

"Rodney?"

"'S me."

"Ronon. Are you alright?"

"Yeah. Think so. Coupla rocks hit me. Where're McKay and Sheppard?"

A muffled voice came from beneath a heap of grey rock, then the rock shifted and revealed itself to be Rodney and his pack, covered in dust and rock chips.

"I stuck my head in my..." He paused and sneezed loudly. "In my pack. For protection." he began brushing his clothes down and sneezed again at the clouds of dust he'd raised. "Where's Sheppard?"

Teyla heard a scuffing, scrabbling sound from the slope below and a tangle of muttered curses. A hand reached up, searching for a firm hold and Ronon swiftly strode to the edge, grasped the hand and pulled. John regained the safety of the ledge in undignified style, his legs sliding out from under him on the treacherous surface so that he would have landed in a heap if Ronon hadn't grasped his tac vest and set him on his feet.

"Thanks, Chewie," John said breathing hard. He too was covered in rock dust and chips. Blood had mixed with the dust on one side of his face and he turned his hands, palms up and regarded them with a wince. "Everyone okay?" he asked.

"What the hell was that?" Rodney demanded. "I've had no indication of any seismic activity in the area, so that shouldn't have happened! Couldn't have happened!" He began pulling his laptop out of his bag. "I need to check..."

"Rodney!" John interrupted.

"What?"

"Let's just take a minute, okay?" John eased himself down to sit on the ground and slid off his pack. Teyla took hers off too, and moved closer to the rest of her team, sitting cross-legged next to Rodney. "Injuries?" asked John.

"A few small cuts," Teyla said, holding out her arms.

"Just some bruises," said Ronon.

"Ronon, there is blood on your neck," Teyla pointed out.

"Oh. Yeah," said Ronon, probing his head. "Rock musta hit me."

"We'll check that out in a minute," said John. "Rodney?"

"I think some of those sheep-things ran over me," he said. "I've probably got hoof marks everywhere!"

"What about you, John?" Teyla asked.

John shrugged and grimaced. "Just a bit banged-up, I guess." Teyla glared at him.

"Please do not hide any injuries, John. I will find out!"

"Nothing major, honest, Teyla. My pack protected me a bit. See?" he angled his pack so that she could see where some of the outer layer of fabric had torn. "We'll check weapons first; make sure all this dust isn't gonna be a problem. Then first aid."

"Then can we do the, 'What the hell was that?'" said Rodney.

John pushed his pack over to give himself a horizontal surface to work on, and began to field strip his P90. Teyla copied. She noticed John and Ronan exchange glances. His energy weapon shouldn't be affected by the grit, but he'd wait to check it until they were finished; attack could come at any time.

"That was nothing natural," John said. "I take it none of you were looking at the sky?"

"Head in pack, therefore, no," said Rodney, checking his Beretta.

"What did you see, John?" asked Teyla, sliding out the bolt system of her weapon. it looked dirt-free, and she slid it straight back in again, reluctant to set it down on her dusty pack.

"Some kind of projectile, a rocket, missile," he said, scrutinising the inner workings of his weapon. "Shot straight up a good few thousand feet, then exploded, or deliberately divided maybe, and spread out. Fast, covering a wide area." He slotted the magazine back into place, looking at Rodney.

"From where, the mountain?" Rodney asked.

John nodded. "Seemed that way."

"A defence system, then? Still active. Sounds like the work of a ZPM, to me." Rodney slid his Beretta back in its holster, cheerfully. John and Telya checked their sidearms.

"Sounds dangerous to me," said Ronon. "Could bring the whole mountain down on us."

"Well, there's nothing we can do about that, is there? Not until we get in there and I find out what's going on, turn whatever it is off, and snag us a nice juicy ZPM."

"Will we test-fire, John?" asked Teyla, hesitating over returning her Beretta to its holster.

"No," he replied hesitantly. "We could bring more rock down on us. Or hostiles."

"Hostile sheep," said Rodney, trying to reach round and rub his back.

"Grenza," said Ronon. "They'll be around, if that's what they eat."

"That is why they invaded the lowlands last winter," said Teyla, bringing out her first aid kit. "Councillor Smeadon's men had killed large numbers of their prey." She recalled the cave full of the butchered carcasses of the creatures, and the long, frightening journey in the dark that had followed.

Teyla found and cleaned the cut on Ronon's head and he cleaned the cuts on her arms and put band-aids on them. She liked band-aids; so simple and effective. She realised John and Rodney were arguing, John holding his hands up out of Rodney's reach.

"They're fine, they're clean now, leave them alone!"

Teyla noticed that Rodney had cleaned the scrapes on the side of John's face, which looked quite shallow. She swiped the roll of bandage out of Rodney's hands.

"Rodney, please check the readings on your laptop! John, sit!"

He sat. She examined the cuts on his palms and picked out one or two bits of embedded grit that Rodney had missed.

"They don't need bandaging, do they? They're not bad."

"On Atlantis, where it is clean, and you can wash regularly, no. Here, were everything is dirty and we have little water, yes. You do not want them to become infected."

John grumbled, as she began carefully wrapping, leaving his fingers free.

"I just didn't want to be mummified from fingertip to elbow," he muttered, under his breath. Teyla didn't reply, knowing John was probably right about Rodney's over-enthusiastic first-aid skills, but too diplomatic to agree.

"I'm getting some readings," said Rodney. "I think we'll hit the path if we keep going round."

"Right, let's move out. We've lost enough time," said John.

oOo

Rodney felt energized, despite his arduous hike and the small, hoof-shaped bruises he could feel developing on his back. They had actual proof that there was still a working power source somewhere in the mountain, and, having found the route of the ancient path, he felt he was hot on the trail. The trail itself was still awkward and jagged, covered with loose rock, but in amongst the natural rock-fall he had glimpsed, just once or twice, the unmistakable appearance of Ancient masonry.

The naquadah traces showed that the path zig-zagged back and forth across the north-west face of the mountain; sometimes it was the best route to take, sometimes the deformation and erosion of the land in ten thousand years and more meant that they had to take a different route. Either way, it was steep and Rodney plodded, head down, hoping they'd come to some kind of entrance soon.

"Sheppard." Ronon, who was leading, had stopped. Their route had led them to a shoulder of rock that jutted vertically in their path. There was no obvious route either above or below and just a narrow ledge that ran around the bluff and out of sight. "Climb round?" asked Ronon, neutrally. Rodney shuddered and gulped, edging away from the precipitous drop. John studied the terrain.

"It would take us a long time to double back to find another route," said Teyla.

"Yeah," said John. He made his way over to the section of cliff where the path had fallen away, and stood, scrutinising the total lack of any sensible route, his lower lip between his teeth, his eyes narrowed.

Great, thought Rodney. Fantastic.

And, right on cue, John said, "I think it's doable. We'll use ropes."

Ronon went first with a rope around his waist, a quirk of one eyebrow and a twitch of his lips.

Unbelievable, thought Rodney, helping to pay out the rope. Ronon moved easily along the six-inch ledge, finding handholds and looking totally relaxed about the whole thing. He quickly reached the point of the bluff, disappeared round and almost immediately called back.

"Hey! There's a shaft. Shall I go in?"

"A shaft?" John shouted back. "How big? Can you see in?"

"Sounds dangerous," said Rodney.

"Big enough," said Ronon. "I can't see in far. Slopes down."

"Can you see further round?"

"Yeah. It's easier soon," Ronon replied.

"Keep going. I'll check out the shaft," said John.

"You're not just going to dive headfirst into a hole and hope for the best, are you?" Rodney asked, with alarm.

"I said check out, McKay, not dive in," said John. "Anyway, you're going next."

"Okay," said Rodney, hearing his small, trembling voice and clearing his throat to cover it up.

"You'll be fine, Rodney. You heard Ronon. It's not far."

"That way's far!" replied Rodney, pointing straight down. "And that's what counts in terms of gravitational field strength and impact velocity and just plain... impact!"

"Rodney," said Teyla, placing her hands on his shoulders as John looped the rope round his waist. "You are strong. You can do this."

"Okay," he squeaked. "But if I don't get a fully-charged ZPM out of this mission, then there's no justice in this world or any other. And there usually isn't," he added, miserably.

Rodney made his cautious way to the broad section of the ledge and, gritting his teeth and trying to control his breathing, he began to edge out, checking that each foot and hand hold was steady before shifting his weight. He felt the rope secure around his waist, pulling him closer to the cliff. He tried to avoid any thoughts of the drop beneath him and focussed just on his slow shuffle, one foot, one hand, the other foot, the other hand.

"Good job, McKay," called John.

Rodney slid round the end of the bluff. His hands encountered a straight ledge, just above head height, which he guessed was the window or shaft that Ronon wanted to explore. Rodney ignored it and carried on, and, as he moved further round the curve, he caught a glimpse of movement out of the corner of his eye and risked a fleeting glance toward Ronon and safety; and nearly lost his footing altogether. He froze, astonished, and, if he hadn't been at an unthinkable height above cruel, jagged rocks, clinging to life itself with fingers and toes, he would have also been delighted. The weathered turquoise of Ancient walls stretched in broken serried ranks above the platform where Ronon stood; walls like cliffs, studded with windows and the remains of balconies, towers nearly intact and great vertical gouges where towers had fallen, blind curves of collapsed flying buttresses, cracked domes open to the sky like great, shattered eggshells, and surmounting all, the sunlight shining through the irridescent surfaces, the huge shards of transparent material, pointing like vast rainbow sugar decorations, toward the sky.

"McKay! You stuck?" Ronon called.

"No! No, I'm coming!"

Rodney barely noticed the rest of his climb. He stepped onto the broad platform and vaguely felt Ronon steer him away from the edge and untie his rope. He gazed at the Ancient complex, noting where it met the rock of the mountain toward the eastern side, and, now that he was closer, he could see the outlines of openings in the rock; rows of windows or ventilation shafts and, in one area, at the far eastern edge, a great collapsed arch, which would have caught the light of the rising sun. The place had a desolate beauty after millennia of abandonment; it must have been astounding when inhabited.

"Truly, this must have been a palace," said Teyla, beside him, her voice filled with awe.

"Pretty cool," agreed John.

"Big," commented Ronon.

"It's huge!" said Rodney. "Look, see," he pointed. "It goes right inside the mountain! It could be as big as Atlantis!"

"Could be," John said. "That shaft back there definitely sloped down, so there must be rooms below where we are now."

"Let's look for an entrance!" said Rodney, surging forward. He stopped abruptly and realised John had grabbed the back of his pack.

"Hold up, McKay!" Rodney began to protest, but John continued. "Yes, we're going to check this place out, but there's only an hour or so til sundown, so our priorities are," (he let go of Rodney's pack and looked at the whole team), "a safe place to camp and a source of water. The wind's picking up already, so it's gonna be cold. We need somewhere sheltered and structurally sound. And we need to be careful; the footing's pretty bad and that quake could have left all kinds of things just ready to fall."

John nodded at Teyla and she took the lead, picking her way over the broken masonry, slowly and with great care. Rodney knew John was right, but nevertheless, he seethed with impatience; a whole Ancient complex to explore, probably older than Atlantis, some parts of it clearly retaining power. The exhausting, frightening climb forgotten, Rodney followed Teyla upward, into the magnificent ruins.