Chapter 5
It always amazed Rodney that John's first reaction to trouble was to go investigate. And Teyla was never far behind him. Instead of hiding – like anyone with good sense would – they always had to run into the fight.
So when Ronon disappeared, the two of them lifted their P-90's and stepped over to the spot where the big man had been half a second ago.
"Ronon?" John asked. "Where are you, buddy?" They moved closer, sweeping the area with their weapons. Rodney was still lacing his boot. He suddenly realised he felt naked without his own weapon in his hands. Strange how much constant terror could change one, he mused, thinking of all the times he had been chased, caught, terrorised and even tortured.
Sheppard took another step closer to the now-empty spot. And still closer. There was no sign of Ronon.
Then, as suddenly as with Ronon, John disappeared as well.
"Colonel!" Teyla yelled, propelled forward by instinct and surprise.
"Perhaps..." Rodney began. But it was too late. Before he could finish the word the Athosian disappeared as well.
He quickly tied the last knot in his laces and stood up, ready with his own weapon. The scientist was aware that Sitnalta was right next to him, as quiet as a dormouse.
"Sheppard? Teyla?" he asked. Yet he did not expect anyone to reply. If Ronon could, he would have the moment John had called to him. Now the Colonel and Teyla were both lost, as well. If they were alive, they were probably in the same place.
"Either way," he said out loud, "we're not going to find them on our own." He looked at Sitnalta. She did not look so much afraid as curious. "We have to return to the gate for help," he said.
Sitnalta finally looked at him. "Why?" she asked.
"Because," he began, exasperated, "we're going to need some help getting them back!"
She frowned. "But you always figure it out," she told Rodney.
"Well, not on my own," he said. Then he thought about it for a moment. "Well, actually I do." He shook his head. "But this isn't one of those times. This isn't science. This is more along the lines of a mystery. And I'll gladly leave mysteries to those best suited for the job."
"Like you," the white-haired woman said. He only now realised her hair was neatly pulled back in two long braids hanging down her back.
"No, not like me," he tried to explain. "Besides, what makes you think I am the one that always solves everything?" he suddenly wondered.
She looked over at the spot where his friends had disappeared. Her thoughts seemed miles away. Finally she turned to him; looking embarrassed. "I read all your mission reports."
He frowned. "Why would you read my mission reports?"
The young woman looked at him, almost daring him to say something. "No, not just yours. Everyone's."
Rodney was astonished. Mostly he tried to ignore the very existence of mission reports, but now here this woman stood and told him she had read them all. Only one dumb question popped into his mind. "Why?"
She squared her shoulders and lifter her chin. "I wanted to know those living inside Atlantis."
As she spoke the word 'Atalntis', it was almost as if some part of his mind leapt up and tried to tell him something. But at the same time he realised he was starting to enter waters made muddy by female emotion and he needed to beat a hasty retreat.
"Let's just go back to the gate, okay?" He turned around and started back the way they had come, hoping she would have the sense to follow.
It took them quite a bit longer to return than it had taken them to hike out. Mostly this was because he could see her struggling and had set a slower pace than before. He was not keen on the idea of her giving out on him and then having to carry the woman.
Finally they crested a hillock and saw the gate only a few hundred feet away. In the afternoon sun it appeared to shimmer.
Much faster now they made their way down the incline towards the gate. Just beyond it laid help.
By now he knew Atlantis' address by heart. His hand flew over the DHD, activating the wormhole and telling it where to go. He pressed down on the last chevron and stood back a little, waiting for the familiar whoosh as the wormhole opened.
Instead he heard the sickening sound the gate made when it was unable to establish a wormhole. He frowned and dialled the address again. But once more the gate refused to open.
Sitnalta stood closer, looking over his shoulder. "Why isn't it working?"
Frustrated, he went over the address again. When the gate was still unresponsive, he ducked down beneath the DHD. He could find nothing wrong with the crystals, so for a last time he stood up and dialled the address. As he did so, he told Sitnalta:
"I don't know. It should be working." He gestured at it. "But it's just dead."
Again the gate only blurbed at them. He stood back, looking at it in disgust.
"Possibly whatever it was that made Ronon, Teyla and the Colonel disappear is interfering with the Stargate," Sitnalta told him. He looked at her.
"Possibly," he said. "Or perhaps one of a thousand other things has gone wrong."
For some reason his reaction made the woman smile. "Don't be so gloomy, Rodney," she told him. From the start she had insisted on calling him by his given name. He wasn't sure why, for she addressed the rest of the people either by rank or by status.
"Perhaps the village could offer us an explanation," she suggested, sounding too much like Teyla. Usually just when he was settling in for a good rant, Teyla would interrupt with her calm, soft logic.
He glared at Sitnalta, but she only smiled at him. Two weeks old and she already knew how to mess with a guy!
Together they hiked to the village, giving the spot where their friends had disappeared a wide berth. Twice Sitnalta stopped and cocked her head as if listening to something. He couldn't hear anything, though. Which was strange: usually the wild was teeming with insect and animal noises.
The sun was low in the sky by the time they crested another hill and saw the village sprawled in a valley. Perhaps there they would find some way to get their friends back.
It was only as they were descending that Rodney realised he had never once even considered the idea that John, Teyla and Ronon might be dead.
