Chapter Five Revelation

The constant roar of the wind subsided somewhat and the relative quiet was unsettling to the two young corporals who were making their way along the south side of the fortress. They knew if they could hear sounds, so could the bad guys.

Corporal Rodriguez was in the lead; Corporal Brenner was dividing his time between watching what Rodriguez was doing and watching behind him so that no one could sneak up on them. He had just looked back for a second and turned back toward Rodriguez, when he almost ran over his buddy who had stopped abruptly, fist raised.

"What, did you see something?" Brenner whispered.

"No, heard something. Be quiet."

The two men flattened themselves against the building and waited. After a few seconds, they heard a sound like a hammer pounding on wood and both reacted by crouching down into the snow. Rodriguez was about to tell Brenner to move toward the western corner of the building when a man emerged from the fortress running directly toward the steep slope just feet away from the building. They only had a brief second to register that the man was Colonel Sheppard before they heard the pop of P-90 gunfire. The two corporals watched in horror as at least one round hit the colonel in the back. Sheppard had reached the apex of the slope when the bullet struck him. The impact of the bullet threw him forward and he flew through the air for a few feet and then fell to the ground, rolling rapidly down the incline.

"Santa Madre de Dios," Rodriguez whispered, "that was the colonel."

Brenner grabbed his friend's arm and said, "Come on, we have to get down there. The colonel needs help." Pulling Rodriquez with him, Brenner headed for the tree line so that they could stay out of sight as they headed toward the bottom of the slope where they expected to find their C.O.

The Jumper

McKay was getting restless. He had stopped pestering the captain every five minutes to see if the radios were working but he was fidgeting enough to make everyone in the jumper nervous. Beckett had called him down once before but it wasn't helping.

"Look, it's going to be dark here soon; we need to do something."

Captain Water's looked over at McKay, "Doctor, instruments are working fairly well and according to the HUD, the wind is dying down and we may be able to get this jumper in the air soon."

McKay jumped up, "That's great; we can go find Sheppard and the others. How soon can we leave, five minutes?"

Beckett left the rear of the jumper and entered the cockpit. "Rodney, the first thing we need to do is get this women to the village and let their friends and families take care of them. They are stable now but they need to be with their loved ones to deal with what has happened to them."

"Beckett, we can't take the time to do that, we have to go after Sheppard."

"Rodney, we will but we canna put these women into harm's way. We are going to take them to the village first."

Behind them, Captain Waters had finally made contact with the other jumper and turned to speak to McKay and Beckett. "Doctors, conditions are getting better in the village, Salem is going to fly to the village and see how things are there. As soon as he gets there, he will let us know. Just sit tight and we will be moving soon."

Beckett slapped Rodney on the back and went back to his patients.

The Stream

"Ray, Ray, over here, I found him." Brenner was sloshing through frigid, ankle deep water along the edge of the shallow but swiftly moving stream trying to reach the dark shape that was lying so still in front of him. He could hear Rodriguez coming through the water, his boots making slapping sounds as he picked up his pace.

Brenner's heart was pounding as much from fear as exertion as he knelt down next to the deathly pale colonel. The corporal brushed as much of the snow that covered the colonel after his roll down the hill as he could. Sheppard was lying on his back, legs bent to one side; his left arm was pinned beneath his body, his head bent toward his right shoulder. He was partially lying in the cold water and Brenner knew they had to get the colonel out of the water as soon as they could. But first, he needed to make certain that Colonel Sheppard was alive. Pulling off his heavy gloves, Brenner pressed his fingers down on the colonel's throat, hoping that he was going to feel a pulse.

Rodriguez dropped to his knees next to Brenner, "Broki?" Brenner knew that it was more a plea than a question; Ray was scared that the colonel was gone as much as he was.

Brenner dropped his head as he felt a pulse, weak, but the colonel had a pulse. He thought maybe his heart was pounding more than before. "He's alive, Ray, he's alive." Both corporals took a simultaneous deep breath; knowing that now, they also knew that they had to keep their C.O. that way. Rodriguez spoke first.

"Let's get him out of this water, we gotta find out about that wound and get him warm. We need to immobilize his neck somehow. Let's straighten his legs, then you hold his head really steady, and then we'll move him up the bank, Paul."

Rodriguez gently pulled the colonel's legs straight and as Brenner grasped the colonel's head, Rodriguez straddled his torso and lifted. They slowly walked him out of the water and as they put him down, Ray pulled his left hand from under Sheppard, "Anda pal sirete, Paulie, I found his wound." His glove was covered with blood.

The Jumper

Dr. Rodney McKay was getting impatient, again. Salem had checked out their landing area in the village and declared the weather clear enough for Captain Waters to land and then Salem returned to the gate. At the least, they would be able get Losa and Clessa back to Beston. The captain landed the jumper in the town square and Dr.'s Beckett and McKay escorted the women into the Tribunal building. Jast Veron rose from his seat as the other villagers rushed to greet the two women whom they thought had been kidnapped.

Losa Harben waved off her neighbors and stood in front of Jast. "Leader Veron, I have one question for you. Did you know that your brother killed my husband?"

Jast Veron paled and grabbed the table edge, "Dever…Dever killed your husband? I don't understand…why, why would he do that?"

Losa stepped closer to Veron, "Dever wanted to know where the ancient treasures were hidden; the ancient treasure that only the Keepers knew about. I know and my husband knew because both of our families are Keepers. The Keepers have hidden the secret of our ancestors' crimes for all of these years; we thought that the Wraith came as our punishment but the truth is the Wraith came because our ancestors led them here, discovered because they were looting culled worlds. But Dever knew, how did he know, Leader Veron? Only the Leader of the Village Tribunals is told outside of the circle and you are Dever's brother, did you tell him?"

Jast Veron was devastated, "I did not tell him, I did not tell him anything. I promise you, Paut was my friend, and I would have never, ever betrayed him. You are sure it was my brother?"

"I saw it with my own eyes; Dever shot my husband in front of me and in front of his daughter."

The other villagers surrounded Losa and took her to the other side of the room where they had taken Clessa who was still groggy from her ordeal. Dr. Beckett suggested to proprietor, who agreed, that the women should stay at the inn for a couple of days to rest while Atlantis dealt with the problem

McKay sat down next to Veron, "You didn't know?"

"No, Dr. McKay, I did not know and I beg you to help us take care of this. He must be brought to justice; our law givers will know what is appropriate for his crimes."

"We lost contact with Colonel Sheppard and the rest of the team during the worst of the blizzard. They are with Dever and his men heading for the fortress; do you have any idea if Dever might take them somewhere else?"

"No, Dr. McKay, I do not. I am so sorry."

Captain Waters walked in at that moment. "Dr. McKay, Dr. Beckett, we need to go. Lt. Salem is under attack at the gate."

The Stream

"How bad is it?"

"Bad, broki, he's lost a lot of blood." Rodriguez had grabbed an emergency blanket from his TAC vest and laid it on the ground. "Help me move him onto the blanket, Paulie."

They moved the colonel onto the emergency blanket and Rodriguez started to use his knife to cut Sheppard's shirt off, then realized that they had nothing else to put on him. He slipped the colonel's wet BUD shirt off but left the black turtle neck and thermal undershirt on him, both felt fairly dry. Paulie gently rolled him over on his left side as Rodriguez checked to see where Sheppard was injured.

"Damn, he got hit in the back about four inches above the waist, right side; the only good news is that it's a through and through. Looks like the bullet exited slightly below his waist on his right side; man, he's still bleeding, gotta get this stopped." Rodriguez pulled a couple of quick-clot sponges and pressure bandages out of a pocket of his TAC vest; quickly applying the sponges into the wounds. Then he placed the pressure bandages against the wounds, wrapping the long tendrils of the bandages around the colonel's torso.

Brenner had begun to activate the heating packs and lay them on Sheppard's chest as Rodriguez pulled the colonel's wet boots and socks off and removed the rest of the his wet clothes. They worked as quickly as they could because they both knew they had to get out of the area as soon as possible.

"Ray, we need to get Colonel Sheppard out of this cold as soon as we can. Remember Dever telling us that there were caves along this stream when we were breaking up into teams. Maybe we can find a cave deep enough to build a fire or at least get the colonel out of the direct weather."

"Good thought, broki. Let's get him into a bag and try to get him warmed up and then we can scout for a cave."

Rodriguez reached over to grab the cloak that had been tangled under the colonel using it to dry Sheppard's lower body and wipe some of the blood off of his body. When he was done, he hooked the cloak on a branch that was sticking out over the water and let the rest dangle in the water. He hoped that if the bad guys came to the stream looking for Sheppard they would see the bloody cloak and think that the colonel had been swept downstream.

Brenner had just finished putting his sleeping bag system together when he remembered that there were socks that came with the thermal underwear. He reached in his pack for the extra socks. "Hey, put these on him before we put him in the bag," throwing the socks at Rodriguez.

Ray checked one more time to make certain he wasn't bleeding and then they laid the colonel in the sleeping bag, piled as many warming packs as they could around him, saving some for later, and zipped him up. "OK, broki, I'll stay here with the colonel; you go find us some shelter."

The Gate

Captain Waters kept the jumper cloaked as he approached the gate. McKay was in the co-pilot's seat and was monitoring sensors.

"Captain, there are about six life signs surrounding Salem's jumper."

"Lt. Salem, this is Captain Waters, we are cloaked and hovering above you. What's your status?"

"Captain, I'm fine, sir; back in the jumper and she's all closed up."

"What happened?"

"After I returned from the village, I left the jumper to do a perimeter check since the visibility had improved and got shot at by a P-90. Wasn't sure if was a Marine pissed off at me or if it was bandits, sir. Lucky for me, it turned out to be bandits."

"Lucky for you is right, Lieutenant, those Marine's are more dangerous." He grinned at Parker who was smiling. The lieutenant was USAF as was Captain Waters and there was a good-natured rivalry between the Atlantis contingents.

Parker, with a nod to Waters, spoke up, "Lieutenant, would you like for this Marine to take care of the bad guys for you?"

Salem laughed, "You go right ahead, sergeant; let me know if you need any help."

Despite their banter, all five Atlantians geared up to take care of the 'bandits'.

The six men were surrounding the back of Salem's jumper when the ramp descended. Jumping back, they regrouped and cautiously, two of them started up the ramp. They didn't notice the other jumper, ramp end toward them, uncloak behind them. As they turned at the sound of the second ramp opening, they found themselves face to face with Captain Waters, Sgt. Parker, and from behind his bulkhead door of his jumper, Lt. Salem. Dr. McKay and Dr. Beckett emerged from behind the bulkhead door of their jumper. Surrounded, the Glostern men surrendered.

Sgt. Parker pulled some disposable handcuffs from the stash in one of the jumper and he and Salem secured the prisoners while Waters, McKay and Beckett took a quick look around. Near the gate and out of sight of Salem's jumper, they found a large number of boxes which contained what appeared to be ancient artifacts. Once the prisoners were secure, they moved the boxes into the jumpers; the Captain order Salem to return with them to unload the artifacts and then return to the gate.

As they landed in the village square, the winds were beginning to pick up again and visibility was dropping.

Cave

Brenner was back in about twenty minutes; he had found a cave that he thought would work. It took an additional twenty minutes for the two corporals to carry the colonel across the shallow stream and east toward the cave.

"Stop, Ray, we're here."

Ray looked around; all he could see was a tall rock wall. "Where is here, Paulie?"

Brenner pointed behind the rocks and Ray peaked around to see an entrance hidden behind the rock outcropping. Although it was a tight squeeze, they managed to get the colonel in without too much trouble. They laid Sheppard down for a moment and Brenner threw a couple of light sticks down the narrow passage to the area where the cave opened up. They picked up their burden and headed toward the larger area.

A couple more light sticks and Ray could see why his buddy chose the cave. "Looks like someone else has used this place to hide, I like this." In the center of the room there was a ring of stones lying side-by-side where someone had built a fire before and against one wall, a few pieces of wood had been left.

"How's he doing?" Brenner asked about the colonel.

"Still with us, pulse is a bit erratic but weak and he's still way too cold, let's get a fire going. I sure would like to get him warm and see if he will wake up."

"Ray, we're going need more wood, that won't be enough. I'm going go see what I can find. That should be enough at least to get a fire going. I don't think with the wind blowing and with us being this far back in the hill that anyone will be able to see or smell a fire. Be back as soon as I can."

Ray threw up his hand to acknowledge Brenner and turned to the task of building a fire. He pulled a paperback that he had been reading from his pack and ripped the pages out he had already read; taking a piece of wood he used his knife to slice off some strips of wood for kindling and using the lighter his grandfather gave me when he enlisted, he lit the paper and wood. Once he had a strong flame going he began to add some larger pieces of wood until he had good fire going. When he could start to feel some warm air around him he pulled the colonel up closer and tried to relax.

The Fortress

It was getting colder in the meeting room and Ronon had pulled Teyla close to him spreading his long leather coat over her legs. He pulled a power bar out and told her to eat.

"I am not hungry, Ronon, but thank you. I am worried about Colonel Sheppard."

"Yeah, I know but right now without weapons, we can't do anything."

We at least have some scalpels, Ronon." Teyla laughed half-heartedly. "And I am certain you might have a knife or two, somewhere."

Before Ronon could answer, the door swung open; Dever Veron and several more men walked in. Ronon and Teyla rose and moved toward them but were grabbed by some of Dever's men before they could reach him. Teyla tried to get away from the man holding her but she couldn't. Dever nodded slightly to his henchman and he let go of Teyla.

"Where is Colonel Sheppard?"

"Ah, worried about Sheppard are you? Well, you don't have to anymore, he made a fatal error; he killed two of my men and tried to escape. I shot him in the back, your colonel is dead."

Several of the Marines and Ronon reacted but Major Lorne who had regained consciousness about an hour before, motioned for them to settle down. He walked over to stand next to Teyla.

"What are you planning to do with us?" Lorne asked.

"I plan to let you go, just as I had planned to let the colonel go but he forced my hand. I told him I really didn't want Atlantis hunting us down once we get off this rock but I suppose now that I have killed Sheppard, I can kill again, it really won't matter. So don't give me any reason and you will walk out of here. Try something and you will all die."

Dever turned and walked out of the room.

Beston

Rodney was punching buttons on his pad and muttering to himself. He knew the worst of the storm wasn't over and he also knew that he had to tell Waters. Although he would be willing to risk taking the jumper toward the fortress regardless of the weather, he doubted the captain would. He might as well tell the Air Force captain about the weather and get it over with.

He looked around the public house to locate the captain and found him talking to a pretty young woman who had been serving dinner. McKay shook his head and thought to himself, 'what is it with these Air Force flyboys that women just swooned over?' OK, so Waters was a good looking guy, nice not spiky dark hair, tall; as Jeanie, his sister would say, 'Well, he's no John Sheppard' but he seemed to do alright with the ladies. Geeks just don't have a chance but then, there was Jennifer; so he hadn't done badly, he thought, not badly at all.

"Captain Waters, could you come here for a moment?"

The captain walked over and sat down next to Rodney, just as Dr. Beckett came down the stairs and joined them.

Captain Waters asked, "Doctor, how are the ladies doing?"

Beckett shook his head, "Not well, I'm afraid; the shock of what has happened is wearing off and the reality that Paut is dead is beginning to sink in. But they have some family and good friends with them; time and support will help. Fortunately, physically there doesn't seem to be any lingering problems from their ordeal in the basement."

"This whole thing is screwed up, doctors. These seem like good people, why would one of their own want to turn on them, is beyond me."

Beckett shook his head in agreement, "Aye, captain, I know but greed and power always seems to trump kindness with some people." Turning to McKay, "You don't look happy, Rodney. What's wrong?"

"As much as I hate to admit it, the weather is going to be worse tonight than it was most of the day. Winds may reach gusts of up to 80 to 90 mph, more snow and visibility will suck. You don't even have to say it, captain; we aren't going anywhere."

"Any good news, doctor?" the captain asked.

"Actually yes, this storm should break by early morning; the winds should be a lot calmer and the snow clouds gone."

"OK then, we stay put for the night. I am going to have Salem contact Atlantis and let them know what our status is at the moment and that it will be daylight before we will be able to go look for the rest of our people. Once the weather gets better we will take both jumpers to look for the colonel and the rest of teams."

Rodney sighed, "Now all we can do is wait."