Rodney had watched as the jumper disappeared through the event horizon, unable to hide the scowl on his face as John vanished with it. He couldn't believe after proving to Sheppard that Chaya had lied to them, to him, John was still running after her like some lovesick puppy.
She was an Ancient. He'd been stunned when he put the pieces together in the conference room, and for a moment, he thought he had John back on his side. That was until she'd told John Proculus was under attack and Sheppard had decided to play the hero and fly off after her. The Captain Kirk comment was more apt than he'd realised. He stared down at the now quiet stargate lost in thought. He'd done all of that work, and lost a night's sleep, to show John how Chaya was using him. Apparently, it was all for nothing.
He'd been used too many times in his life not to recognise the signs. Parents who only wanted a trophy child. Universities wanting the prestige of a child prodigy on their student rolls. Never mind the professors or fellow researchers who stole his data for their own use. He knew that hurt well. He didn't want a friend, a brother, to feel that same sense of loss when such trust was broken. He'd hoped explaining his conclusions in terms John would understand, in feelings and intuition, that Sheppard would listen to him when logic had him tuning Rodney out.
He'd been trying to help, damn it. Why couldn't John see that? he wondered. He stared at the silent stargate, his shoulders sagging in defeat, and wondered if he had actually broken the very trust he was trying to preserve. Rodney had been shocked to realise John had been angry with him. Yelling at him in a way he hadn't heard since the bacteria that had infected all of them several months ago.
Now John had left, without so much as a glance back, to fight who knew how many Wraith with a single puddle jumper. All Rodney could think about was that Chaya better pull another ball of energy out of her hat and protect John, or Rodney would go back to Proculus and give her hell for getting John killed. He didn't want to consider the idea their last ever conversation had been a fight. Over a woman of all things.
He sank into an empty chair at one of the rear consoles and rested his head on his arms. He hadn't slept since they returned from Proculus. Instead, he'd spent all of his waking hours figuring out what Chaya had been trying to hide. He was exhausted with a headache to match. All he wanted was to be left alone to figure out how he was going to fix the mess he'd created.
"Doctor McKay, are you all right," Teyla asked softly and Rodney heard another chair pulled across the floor before she sat down beside him.
He rolled his head over on his arms and looked first at her and then the rest of the control room. He realised, other than Grodin working at the control console in front of them, everyone else had left.
"Nothing I did seemed to matter," Rodney admitted in a low voice. "He refused to listen to anything I said about her."
Teyla leant back in her chair and pursed her lips. "I see," she said, still keeping her voice low so Grodin wouldn't overhear them. "Perhaps it was the manner in which you told him that was the problem."
"The manner?" Rodney said as he sat up and jutted out his chin. "I gave him the facts. She was lying to us. To him! She was hiding who she really was. Was I supposed to not say anything?"
He didn't realise how loud he was getting until Grodin glanced at them. Rodney glowered back at him and Peter shrugged then turned back to the console in front of him. Rodney lowered his voice and added, "Tell me you wouldn't have done the same thing."
Teyla closed her eyes with a sigh. "I would not have been so … blunt in my accusations," she said.
Rodney frowned. "I'm always blunt," he told her. "It eliminates misunderstandings if you just say what needs to be said."
She smiled sadly at him. "And yet, you are upset with how Major Sheppard reacted to your findings."
Before Rodney could reply, the stargate activated.
"Incoming wormhole," Grodin announced.
Elizabeth came out of her office and stood in front of the control console.
"Point of origin is P2J-883," Grodin added. "I'm receiving Sergeant Stackhouse's IDC."
"Lower the shield," Elizabeth said and turned to face the 'gate as a security team scrambled into position.
"Atlantis, this is Sergeant Stackhouse. Come in."
"We're reading you, Sergeant," Elizabeth replied. "You're six hours early for your check-in. Is there a problem?"
"No, ma'am," Stackhouse said. "We've uncovered a cache of what looks like Ancient devices in one of the lower rooms. Doctor Corrigan thinks we need someone to come take a look and let us know if the items are safe to transport back to Atlantis."
"Corrigan," Rodney said and rolled his eyes. "Why couldn't it have been Jenson? She, at least, has some common sense."
Elizabeth frowned in his direction and Rodney realised Stackhouse could probably hear him.
"Is there any information on what the items are or what the site was used for?" Elizabeth asked.
"We've found something Doctor Corrigan thinks might be a data recorder and a what looks like a few notebooks. He hasn't been able to translate much of it, however," Stackhouse replied. "The cache was in an interior room of a building that suffered heavy damage at some point. Not a lot is left."
"I'll go," Rodney said suddenly and stood. "I need to … get away from here for a while." He looked around the control room, trying not to think about the shuttle descending down from the jumper bay and John disappearing through the stargate to follow Chaya.
"Hold on, Sergeant," Elizabeth said and turned to Rodney. "Are you sure?"
"I know more about Ancient technology than anyone else in the city. It makes sense for me to go." He crossed his arms over his chest, then clasped his hands behind his back when he thought he looked too defensive.
"I don't think Major Sheppard would want you going off-world without him," Elizabeth started to say.
"Well, Major Sheppard isn't here right now," Rodney snapped with a scowl. "He apparently has better things to do." He stopped speaking when he saw Elizabeth's expression and tried to get his temper under control. "I'm not doing anything else at the moment," he added, shoving the anger and hurt back down. "I can be ready to go in a few minutes."
Elizabeth studied him for a few moments and Rodney could tell she was about to tell him no, that she would send someone else. Considering Doctor Jenson was still in the infirmary with a broken leg, he wasn't sure who Elizabeth thought she could send in his place.
"I will accompany Doctor McKay," Teyla said, stepping up to Rodney's side and giving him a sideways glance. "This way he will have … backup, if anything should happen."
"You don't need to. I can take care of myself," Rodney argued, his expression stony.
"Doctor Weir is correct," she told him with a puzzled glance. "Major Sheppard would not want you to go off-world without one of us with you."
"Fine," Rodney huffed out with bad grace. "Come along if you want."
Elizabeth nodded at Teyla as she tapped her earpiece. "Sergeant Stackhouse?"
"Still here, ma'am."
"I'm sending Doctor McKay and Teyla to assist you. You can have them for two days, but then I need them back in the city. They should be ready to go in a few minutes."
"Copy that. We'll be waiting. Better let Doctor McKay know it's about four miles from the 'gate to the site, so he should only bring essentials."
Elizabeth glanced back at Rodney. He made a face and nodded as he stepped around the console and headed out of the control room as Elizabeth replied, "Message received, Sergeant. Atlantis out."
Rodney headed for the transporter and his lab for his combo-computer and tools, then met Teyla in the armoury.
"You are sure you want to do this?" she asked as she pulled on her tac-vest.
"This isn't some sort of dangerous mission," he snapped tiredly. "They've been there for almost two weeks."
"That is not what I mean," she replied, ignoring his tone. "Major Sheppard will return from Proculus soon -"
"We hope," Rodney muttered.
"And when he does, the pair of you will need to talk." Teyla gave him a measured look as he buckled his tac-vest and checked the Beretta before sliding it into its holster. "You are running away," she finished.
"I am not!" Rodney exclaimed with a glare. "I just want some time … to think," he added as he attached his pack to the vest.
Teyla waited for him to join her, then headed back out to the gateroom. "Then we should go," she said as Grodin started dialling the 'gate. "Before Major Sheppard returns and spoils your escape."
Rodney glared back at her but said nothing as the wormhole formed with a whoosh.
"Rodney, Teyla," Elizabeth said from the balcony. "We'll see you in a couple of days."
Rodney glanced up at the jumper bay, then over at Elizabeth before he stepped through the event horizon and found himself on a planet in the blush of spring. The air was cool and he knew he'd regret leaving his jacket behind before he got back to the city. The trees had leafed out and several bloomed with small purple flowers while the ground was a carpet of fresh green. It was a nice change from the city or even the mainland where the harvest was in full swing.
"Doctor McKay. Teyla," Stackhouse greeted as they stepped down from the dais. "The excavation site is this way." He turned and led the way across the small clearing with the 'gate to where Rodney could just glimpse a few deteriorating buildings and a couple of white dots that had to be the Earth-issue tents in the distance.
"We've set up a large tent with the items Doctor Corrigan found so far," Stackhouse explained as they walked. "Corrigan and Stephens did most of the work. Since they don't have the gene I thought it would be safe."
"You mentioned a data recorder?" Rodney asked.
Stackhouse nodded. "Doctor Corrigan thinks that's what it is. It's this box full of crystals all lined up in rows. He's also found what he thinks are logbooks written in Ancient."
"There have been no signs of people in the area?" Teyla asked.
Stackhouse turned back to her. "Nothing we can really confirm," he hedged.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Rodney asked. "I thought Elizabeth said the planet was deserted."
Stackhouse shrugged. "Stephens keeps getting this feeling like we're being watched. I've sent Stephens and Ortega out on patrol a few times, but we haven't found anything. No one has bothered us or come near the camp since we arrived."
"There are stories of marauders," Teyla said as they walked. "Men and women who live in ships and subsist on plundering planets and selling what they find or steal."
"Oh, wonderful," Rodney groused as he gave the surrounding landscape, especially the forest, a wary look.
They entered the excavation site an hour later and Rodney headed for the large tent open on one side where Corrigan sat studying something on his computer, several Ancient devices sat on the long table beside him. Rodney did a double-take when he saw one of the items was a largish box just like the one he'd had in his lab for the last nine months.
He walked over to the end of the table with the box and examined every inch of it. It was the same size, and unlike the one in his lab, he could see this one had crystals lined up in neat rows inside of it.
"Doctor McKay," Corrigan said in greeting.
Rodney grunted at him as he continued to study the box. This one, for all it had been buried under a collapsed building, was in better shape compared to the one he'd found in Atlantis. Peering through the top of the device, it looked like all of the crystals were intact.
"Doctor Corrigan, I hope you are well," Teyla said from Rodney's other side.
Corrigan smiled at her as he came over and stood on the other side of the table.
"I think it's a data recorder," Corrigan said, pointing at the box. "From what I can see of the inside, the crystals are arranged in groups and I think those groups act as a sort of partition in a hard drive. I'm not sure how one would go about retrieving the data, however."
Rodney reached out a hand and touched the top of the box and mentally told the box 'on'. Nothing happened. He frowned slightly and touched one of the sides and repeated the silent command, then used both hands and picked the box up. Still, nothing happened. He put the box down, slipped off his pack, dug around inside, and came up with a power bar and his tools. Dragging a folding stool over from one of the other tables, he sat down and examined the box again.
"I believe I will look around the rest of the area," Teyla told him and started to walk away.
Rodney gave her an absent nod of acknowledgement as he opened the power bar and reached for the box again. It didn't take him long to figure out the box opened just like the one in his lab and he was soon elbow-deep in the innards of the device, pulling out crystals and tracing conduit paths with his fingers. In spite of Corrigan hovering over his shoulder every ten minutes, Rodney felt himself finally start to relax as he spent a pleasant couple of hours tinkering.
Maybe Teyla was right, he thought to himself as he worked. He had been blunt, maybe more blunt than usual, regarding Chaya. He'd suspected something was off as soon as she told them Athar refused to help them. He'd never had much patience for religious rigamarole and that, added with the way Chaya was eyeing John, had set him on edge.
Worse, the more time John spent with Chaya, the less he was willing to listen to reason. Listen to him. While he and John disagreed about things on a regular basis, this was the first time Sheppard refused to even hear what he had to say. Rodney had given a passing thought to telling Sheppard it was little more than his and Chaya's Ancient genes creating a sort of pheromone reaction, but he stopped himself at the last moment. Some instinct told him that would be a step too far, and John would never forgive him.
Was John back from his foolhardy trip to Proculus? he wondered. Did he know Rodney wasn't in Atlantis? Did he even care? Teyla had accused him of running away from the situation with John, but he'd told her the truth. He needed time and space to think. He wasn't sure what he could do to fix what had happened. He couldn't take back the things he'd said, or pretend it hadn't happened. So what was he supposed to do?
The last fight he'd had with Jeannie resulted in a four-years and counting rift where she refused to speak to him. Atlantis was too small and held too few people for John to give him the complete silent treatment, but would he call their friendship quits? Would Sheppard go back to calling him 'Doctor McKay', stop visiting his lab to talk about whatever came to mind, and only have contact with him on missions?
Rodney looked up from the box as he considered what life in Atlantis would be like without John's friendship. He wasn't sure he wanted to go back to the cold, impersonal relationship they'd had when they'd first arrived in the city. He'd changed in the months since their arrival, Gall had told him as much as he lay dying in the Wraith ship. The old Rodney wouldn't have cared if a colleague was used the way Chaya was obviously using Sheppard. Hell, he thought to himself, the old him probably would have stood back and watched with a certain sadistic glee as John made a fool of himself.
He caught movement out of the corner of his eye, glanced out the open side of the tent, and saw Teyla, sitting with her back against one of the crumbling walls, talking to Stephens. That was another puzzle his head was still trying to work out. Why did she come with him? Was it just out of a sense of duty to Sheppard and the team or was something more? After all these months, he still wasn't sure where exactly he stood with Teyla. Were they friends or merely teammates?
This was why he'd always kept people at arm's length in the past. He just couldn't understand the messy emotions and innuendo. Science and engineering responded to logic. A given set of parameters would yield a predictable result. Simple. Neat. People were neither simple nor neat in their responses. He thought he'd had made progress, but the fight with John, and Teyla's comments made him question that conclusion. He shook his head and turned back to the box, pulling his mind back to a puzzle he had a chance of solving.
He reached back into the box, trying to figure out where the next line of conduit led and cursed when the screwdriver slipped and he cut his first two fingers on the edge of one of the crystal brackets.
"Doctor McKay?" Corrigan said looking up from a hand-drawn schematic of a building laid out on the table in front of him.
"Nothing," Rodney growled as he pulled open one of his vest pockets and found an antiseptic wipe. "Just cut myself."
Corrigan nodded once and pointed at a first aid kit sitting on the other table. "I think there are some bandages in there," he said.
Rodney finished cleaning the cuts and dug through the kit until he found the box and pulled out a couple of bandages, covered the cuts on his fingers, and went back to work. He finished tracing the conduits and started replacing the crystals. As one part of his mind worked on reassembling the box, another part concluded maybe Teyla was right, as usual, and he'd made a mistake leaving Atlantis when he did. He'd half-expected to see Sheppard stride into the camp at some point during the day, demanding explanations, and found he was a bit disappointed when it didn't happen.
He leant back on the stool, his back popping as he shifted position. He looked up when Teyla came into the tent and walked over to the table.
"Corporal Ortega is heating several MREs for dinner," she told him as she stopped next to the table. "Have you learnt the purpose of this device?" she asked as Rodney set down the screwdriver in his hand and stood.
"No, not yet," he replied. "I'm pretty sure it's not a data recorder, though."
She nodded and turned back to the opening in the tent.
Rodney swallowed. "Umm, Teyla?" he said in a low voice, and waited for her to turn around. "I've been thinking about … well, about what you said earlier. I still say I wasn't running away, but you might have been right. Maybe I shouldn't have left Atlantis before talking to Sheppard."
She came back over to him. "I suspect John will be concerned when he finds out we left without consulting him first."
Rodney pursed his lips. "If he hadn't run off," he started to say and stopped himself. "I don't know how to fix what happened," he admitted a few moments later. "I think I might have screwed things up permanently."
"I do not believe that is the case at all. You and John share a very strong bond. Family members are allowed to disagree with each other. Even," she said with a small smile, "get into yelling matches in the hallways. You and John simply need to talk to each other. Tell him exactly what you are telling me, that you are sorry for your part in the disagreement. I am certain he will forgive you."
Rodney snorted as he led the way out of the tent. "I think I mentioned once I had a sister," he said. "We had a huge fight years ago. She didn't speak to me for four years."
"But you eventually reconciled?"
Rodney looked out at the deepening night sky as a few stars started to twinkle. "No," he admitted softly. "I was sent to Antarctica and then here. I tried to call on her before I left. She didn't answer when I went to her house." He glanced over at her. "What if John does the same thing?"
"He is your chaguo ndugu," Teyla told him with a reassuring smile. "He will forgive you. You must decide if you will forgive him as well. Only then will you both be able to move past what has happened."
~*~*~*~ SGA ~*~*~*~
Rodney stepped out of the tent used as sleeping quarters the next morning, pulling on his tac-vest out of habit. The Beretta was already strapped to his leg. Sheppard would be proud, he thought idly as he watched the sun rise over the ruins. He usually wasn't such an early riser, but he'd spent most of the night tossing and turning, trying to sort out what he was going say the next time he saw John. As the sun started to rise, he gave up the illusion of sleep and left the tent to try and get some more work done before they had to return to Atlantis. He'd already decided the box was coming back with them. One of the privileges of being the head of the science department, he thought with a smile.
He entered the work tent and booted up his combo-computer. He pulled the box over to where the light coming in the tent was better and looked around when he thought he heard a noise behind the tent. He remembered Stackhouse saying something about the excavation being watched. Then he remembered Teyla's stories about raiders and swallowed nervously before creeping out of the tent.
He walked all the way around the tent but didn't see anything or find anyone lurking nearby.
"Must have been an animal," he mumbled with a shrug and went back inside the tent. He settled at the work table with the box in front of him, the combo-computer beside him, and soon lost himself in trying to figure out how the box worked.
He looked up when Corrigan walked in an hour later and came over to the table. "Have you been able to get it to work?" he asked Rodney with a glance at the still inert box.
Rodney bit back the first thing he wanted to say and merely shook his head. "Not yet. It's not a data recorder though. The crystals are wired in sequence which suggests some sort of power distribution, not data."
Corrigan frowned but said nothing for a few moments. "In that case, Sergeant Stackhouse said you were only staying until tomorrow morning," he said a bit stiffly as he stood at the end of the table. "Did you want to see the area where we found the artefacts before you went back?"
Rodney tossed the screwdriver he was using back on the table and stood. "Might as well," he replied as he stood from the table. "Maybe there's something you missed that will tell us what this site was used for."
Corrigan pursed his lips but said nothing as he led the way out of the tent and over to the large building in the center of the camp.
"Doctor McKay?" Teyla called as they made their way over to the building.
"Morning, Teyla," Rodney replied as he walked. "Corrigan is showing me where they found the cache. Wanna come?"
Teyla nodded and fell into step beside him. "I would be most interested to see something of the Ancestors settlement."
Rodney followed Corrigan inside the building and down a hall lit by the wavering beam from Corrigan's flashlight.
"I think this was a sort of research lab, or think tank, maybe," Corrigan said as he moved down a long wide hallway. "There seems to be a number of smaller rooms off of this main corridor," he pointed to the line of doorways along the hall, "almost like individual labs."
"Did the items you have discovered so far come from these different rooms?" Teyla asked as she walked beside Rodney.
"No," Corrigan replied. "That's the odd thing. All of the devices we've found so far have been in the largest, most central room in the building. The smaller rooms we've been able to search have all been empty. Which is actually a good thing. Many of the smaller rooms appear to be completely caved-in."
Rodney glanced in the next doorway they passed and saw what Corrigan meant. Rubble blocked the entrance less than a meter inside the door. There was no way the expedition would be able to dig through the blockage in the limited time they had.
"Perhaps the people feared an attack and were trying to preserve the items in the most fortified part of the building," Teyla offered as they passed another of the blocked doorways.
"Maybe," Corrigan said with a shrug. "I've found a few books buried under some of the rubble in the main room, but I haven't been able to translate much, yet. One looks like a research log or diary. It's broken into sections with what could be dates followed by long lines of text."
"Show it to Elizabeth when you get back," Rodney suggested. "She's been studying the language. She might have better luck."
As they moved farther into the building, Rodney noticed more and more of the small rooms blocked. He also saw deep cracks in the walls and ceiling and found himself giving the walls frequent wary looks. He stopped and flinched in anticipation of the roof caving in on them when there was an ominous creaking sound from the ceiling.
Corrigan must have caught the motion from the corner of his eye, as he snickered slightly before turning down another hallway. "The main room is just up here," he said and waved the flashlight beam over a wide doorway at the end of the hall.
Rodney glared at Corrigan's back before he hurried forward. He walked into a room with a high ceiling and sunlight streaming in from where a large section of ornate roof was now strewn across the floor. He wandered over to one area where the team had obviously been working and poked around in the rubble. Broken glass and components littered the ground under his feet. He did a slow turn as he studied the room, surprised Corrigan had managed to find as many intact items as he had.
"Sergeant Stackhouse and Sergeant Stephens have proven to be apt students in anthropology," Corrigan said with a smile as Rodney wandered around the room. "I've been able to excavate most of this room with their help. With Jenson laid up from her last off-world trip, we wouldn't have nearly as much information as we do without their assistance."
Rodney only listened with half an ear as he caught a glimpse of something glinting under another small rubble pile in the morning light. He walked over to the corner of the room and carefully pulled away a couple of large slabs from the collapsed ceiling, reached in the hole, and pulled out a small device about the same size and shape as the scanner he kept in his vest pocket.
"What is it?" Teyla asked as she walked over to him.
"Not sure," he replied and turned the device over in his hands. "It almost looks like it should control something." He looked over at Corrigan. "Have you found anything that would need a sort of remote control?"
Corrigan shook his head.
The building creaked again and Rodney gave the walls a hard look before he headed back for the door carrying the little device. "I think I've seen enough," he said and motioned Corrigan to lead the way back out of the building.
He walked outside in time to see Stephens with a video camera and Ortega placing several Ancient devices on the ground along the wall of the building.
"What's going on?" he asked, absently stuffing his new find down the front of his vest.
Corrigan glanced back from where he stood near the work tent. "Daily video check-in," he explained with a shrug. "Sergeant Stackhouse makes a recording and one of us walks back to the 'gate to send it through. Haven't you seen my reports?"
Rodney ignored the question as he watched Stephens make a few last adjustments to the camera in his hands then give Stackhouse a nod.
"Sergeant Thomas Stackhouse, team leader, day ten on P2J-883," Stackhouse said into the camera.
Rodney stood to one side of the ruined building watching Stackhouse give his report. When the camera panned in his direction, he gave it a hesitant wave and wondered once again if John was back from Proculus and if he would see the video.
Stackhouse finished his report while Stephens let the camera move back over the site again. Once he was done, Stackhouse said, "Your turn to run it down to the 'gate, Mike." He smiled as Stephens groaned. "If you hurry, you'll be back in time for lunch."
Rodney watched Stephens jog out of the campsite then spent the rest of the day tinkering with the small device he'd found or with the Ancient box. The more he studied the small scanner-sized device, the more he became convinced it was only part of a larger instrument. The problem was it looked like the power crystal was cracked so he'd have to wait until he was back in Atlantis to see what the little device did.
He packed up the small device as well as the box and the small log books Corrigan had found for the trip back to Atlantis. He could finish the work on the devices while Elizabeth started on the translation of the diaries. Corrigan and the rest of his team were scheduled to remain on the planet for a few more days so it would give them a headstart on the research.
He looked up as the sun started to set and glanced around the tent. Once again he thought he'd heard something outside and weighed whether or not it was worth checking, and what he would do if he actually found someone lurking in the shadows.
Teyla walked in a few seconds later and he assumed what he'd heard was her moving around near the tent and let the matter drop. Three days of little to no sleep had him imagining things, he told himself.
"The evening meal is ready," she told him and waited for him to follow her over to the fire.
He sat next to Teyla by the fire and listened as Ortega told stories about the hunting trips he went on with his father and brothers when he was a child in Colorado. Teyla offered a few stories of her own while Rodney stared at the fire, lost in thought. With all of the distractions from the dig site packed away, all his mind had left to think about was what would happen when he saw John tomorrow.
He left the others to their tale-spinning and went back to the tent and his cot to try and get some sleep. He shed his tac-vest and holster, took off his boots and tried to get some sleep. The others came in a little later and after listening to everyone else slowly drift off, Rodney finally fell into an uneasy doze.
He wasn't sure how much later it was when he heard voices nearby and rolled over to see what was going on.
"What's the problem?" he heard someone say near the tent flap.
Rodney sat up slowly and saw Stackhouse and Stephens standing near the front of the tent having a whispered disagreement.
"Someone is out there, sir," Stephens replied. "I know you guys all think I'm imagining things, but I swear I heard someone walk past the tent."
Rodney heard Teyla shift in the cot next to his and he saw her glance over at him before turning her gaze back to the discussion near the tent flap.
"All right, we'll go take a look around," Stackhouse said. "But we stay near the camp. No sense in getting lost in the woods."
"Yes, sir," Stephens replied and ducked under the tent flap.
Rodney gave Teyla a concerned look then reached under his cot for his boots.
"Is everything all right, Sergeant?" Teyla asked as Corrigan and Ortega sat up.
Stackhouse frowned as he stared at the tent flap. "Not sure," he finally admitted as he pulled on his tac-vest and started to follow Stephens. "Mike thinks he heard something. We're going to take a look -"
"Contact!" Rodney heard Stephens yell just before he heard three soft pops.
"Damn it," Stackhouse cursed and ran out of the tent.
"We need to help them," Teyla said as she reached for her Beretta lying on the ground under her cot.
Rodney swallowed and nodded as he grabbed his own weapon and followed her out of the tent.
As soon as he stepped outside, he knew they were in trouble. Several large men carrying torches stalked through the camp upending supplies and setting anything they could on fire. They slashed at the other tent and Rodney saw two of the men pick up the box he'd been studying as well as several of the smaller items he'd set aside to take back to Atlantis in the morning.
"Get Doctor Corrigan and Corporal Ortega," Teyla said as she ran toward Sergeant Stephens. "They will be trapped if they stay in the tent."
Rodney turned back in time to see Ortega, with Corrigan in tow, run out of the tent and head for the ruined building. "You get inside and find cover in one of those rooms," Ortega said to Corrigan. "Don't come out until one of us gives you the all-clear."
Rodney and Corrigan traded a quick look just before he heard Teyla yell and turned back to see one of the invading men had his arms wrapped around her as she kicked at him trying to squirm loose.
"Teyla!" Rodney shouted. He stopped and tried to fire the Beretta at her attacker, but Teyla was still fighting to get out of the man's hold, spoiling his aim.
He heard another soft pop and turning in the direction of the sound, saw Stackhouse fall on his side, clutching his shoulder. Ortega ran toward Stackhouse and Rodney turned back to Teyla, still struggling in the large man's hold.
He gave up trying to shoot the man and hurried forward to try and pry Teyla out of his grip.
Before he could get more than a few steps, Teyla kicked the inside of her captor's knee hard enough that he loosened his grip and she dropped to the ground, looking around the campsite. Rodney started toward her, the Beretta raised again when she turned to him and shouted, "Doctor McKay! Look out!"
He heard someone behind him and tried to duck away but he wasn't fast enough. Something hit him just behind the ear and he fell to the ground, losing the Beretta in the process.
He was vaguely aware of voices yelling and someone grabbed his hands, pinning them behind his back. His head felt as if it were about to split open and he didn't have the energy to fight what was going on around him or the darkness encroaching at the edge of his vision. The stray thought of what John would do when he found out about the attack crossed his mind, but the pull of the darkness was too much and he let himself sink into the nothingness where he didn't have to worry about Teyla, or John, or even himself.