A/N: I wrote this chapter on the anniversary of a dear friend's death, so, um, it got a little dark ...
IX: Nasty Problem, Simple Solution
Rodney wisely stayed away from the tinu again, but he made a good dent in the pile of cold Jubjub. Turned out Shadow used the cold storage unit as a refrigerator, too, and currently had quite a stockpile. And he had a lot of raw Jubjub stored down there as well, and when one of the women brought him a huge chunk I was very happy Rodney didn't see – a puking Rodney would not be a good thing right now. Shadow wisely took it to his room to eat, and I wondered if his choice of food had something to do with the healing process. Either that or his inner cat was asserting itself more than usual right now. Either way, I was happy not to see him gnawing away on the thing.
Zelenka had patched the scanners into his computer so he could keep an eye on things while he ate. He was almost done with his analysis of the shield system and planned on working through the night to finish. Katie and her two scientists were going to finish up after dinner and I was going to ferry them back to Atlantis as soon as they were done. I got my boys on the wall fed before the rain started back up again for the night, and because of that full dark came early. I'm glad I made the second team I brought over bring night vision goggles. We were going to need them if anything happened.
Shadow was pretty quiet when he joined us after his meal. And we were all startled into momentary silence at the sight of new red scars from his encounter earlier in the day. He didn't have his belt over the simple loin cloth he was wearing and it just didn't look right. He sat down next to me and leaned back against the fountain. "I've been thinking – we need to post a few more sentries near the unfinished section of the wall. The First Ones would have no problem climbing the wooden wall, and the spikes near the top will more than likely not deter them the way they do an Ixlatecutl."
"Good idea," I said, and it was eerie because not even ten minutes ago the same thought crossed my mind. I relayed the orders. "Do you think they'll try something tonight?" I wondered out loud.
He shrugged. "They attacked us in the jungle today with such … hatred that I really do not want to take chances."
"Sensors are working perfectly," Rodney said. "And there is the shield."
"Yes, there is," Shadow said. "But that is only a temporary solution."
I don't know what made me turn my head toward him and study his face. Might have been the tone he used, or the maybe my subconscious was picking up on something. I saw his lips were drawn in and he had that still, intent air about him that made me uncomfortable. "You still want to kill them off."
"Yes." He answered calmly and without hesitation.
Teyla lifted her head and regarded Shadow. "Are you certain that is the only solution?" She asked the question calmly, too, but I could see she was not pleased with the idea.
"Yes," Shadow said again. "The Ancients shirked their responsibility – something I have learned they were very good at doing. And if I am to fix their mistake, I will do it correctly and with finality."
I heard Zelenka snort and saw Rodney jut his jaw out. Ronon was even smirking and nodding in approval.
Teyla started to open her mouth but Shadow raised a hand and cut her off. "When I engaged them in the jungle, I caught enough of their scent to know they are not a healthy race. I am certain that this solution will be merciful for them. They are not … right."
Teyla briefly lowered her eyes and nodded. "I understand, but it is such a harsh solution for a people who had no choice in their existence."
A ripple of fur rose along Shadow's arms and he got utterly still.
"I did not mean to offend," Teyla said and ducked her head in a faint bow of apology.
"You did not," Shadow said softly. The corner of his mouth rose in an ironic smirk, but his eyes remained fixed. Intense. "But of all the people here right now, I think I am the most qualified to make such a decision."
oOo
At twenty-two hundred I checked in and reported everything was just hunky dory. I used more professional terms, of course, but that pretty much summed it up. The extra Atlantis personnel were back home, Zelenka was finishing up his analysis several hours sooner than he expected, and the Marines on guard duty were able to rotate out for a quick snooze. Shadow opened up a long forgotten observation room at the very top of the tower, and Rodney was currently entrenched up there with his computer playing lookout and bouncing from a tinu he thought he'd snuck past me. It was a very good thing there were nearly a hundred vertical feet separating my boot from his ass right now.
It was now an hour after check-in and I was in the Jumper and using it as my makeshift command center. The only light came from the HUD and the scanners were showing the First Ones were less than a klick from the jungle perimeter. They had been slowly creeping in since sunset but were still keeping their distance. I was nervously watching a solitary blip that was less than twenty feet from the largest cluster of ten and slowly moving in. My heart damn near stopped when it quit moving practically on top of the others, and I kept up a litany of quiet cussing that consisted mainly of stupid fucking God damned sonuvabitch until it started moving away again. Shadow insisted he was only going to do some scouting – he wanted to take advantage of the steady rain that had yet to quit falling since sunset – but during the course of the past hour several solitary blips had disappeared from the scanners.
It was a good thing there was a klick between my boot and his ass right now, too.
It took nearly twenty long minutes for Shadow to slowly creep away from that cluster of First Ones, and once he had some distance his speed increased. By the time he hit the jungle perimeter he was flying.
I relayed a warning to Ronon and Teyla at the gate so they didn't shoot his furry ass.
"Man, he's really pressing his luck, isn't he?" Rodney said over the radio. "Kinda remind you of someone we know?"
"Say, have you figured out how to make all the walls and floor of that room go transparent yet? I can come up and help in case you haven't." That was one of the first things Rodney found out when he called up the schematics of that room, and he made the big mistake of telling me about it.
"Asshole. Besides, it's dark out. Wouldn't bother me anyway because, let's see – it's pitch black out right now and I couldn't see a damn thing."
I could just see his little so there head waggle.
"Hey, Radek – I've been looking over the power grid and I think we can boost the scanner sensitivity as well as the shield strength if we reroute some power from the ZedPM in the clone room," Rodney said.
"No. No. Already considered that," Zelenka replied from Control. "System is fairly contained – only outlet large enough to possibly handle that amount of power is through cold storage retrieval system, and the strain would be too severe in short time. Could cause cryo-system crash."
"Not if we raise the temperature temporarily – not enough to let things thaw, mind you, but at least enough to take some of the strain of the cooling units and allow for a smoother rate of energy transfer between the main units and back-up."
"Hmm," Zelenka said. "Maybe. Maybe. Give me moment." We could hear the Czech humming under his breath as he worked. A couple times Rodney piped in with something actually useful, and in less than ten minutes they were ready to try. Zelenka initiated the transfer. "Good. Good. Everything holding – transfer rate steady and well below red."
"Reconfiguring scanners now," Rodney said.
The HUD grew sharper and actually started showing topographical data. Then it went dark. "What the hell just happened?" I said as I tried to mentally coax the thing back to life.
"Um," Rodney replied.
"Scanner system crashed," Zelenka reported. "Shutting down transfer now!" Then he proceeded to cuss for the next, oh, fifteen seconds. "Power held fine – scanner, pfft. Will take me some time to get back online."
"Rodney …." I growled.
"Hey! It worked. It isn't my fault the scanners are old and couldn't take it! And hell, who knows when they were serviced last."
I sighed. "Get down there and help Radek."
"I can handle it," Zelenka replied instantly. No doubt those four words had Rodney moving faster than any threat from me. "In meantime, the Jumper's scanners should work for short distance."
"Thanks, Radek," I said and called them up. Short distance was right – with the village and Temple and wall, I could only get a decent reading to the edge of the jungle. At least there was a good thirty yards of low foliage in the clearing surrounding the village. My boys would be able to see anything coming and take it out before it got here.
I caught the smell of wet earth in the Jumper and turned my head to find Shadow standing in the back. The kid was naked again, covered from head to foot in mud, and I could see the twin blue-green reflections of his pupils amid all that brown. I was never, ever, going to get used to that eye thing. "What has happened?" he asked, the concern in his voice giving it a low growl.
"Temporary glitch," I said. "And what in the hell were you doing out there besides trying to get your fool self killed?"
Shadow showed a flash of white fang, and it really showed up against the mud. "My scent was masked, and they did not see me."
I can imagine he would be hard to see at night while in that panther form, but still …. "And those ones you took out? I thought you were supposed to be scouting."
"They did not know I was there until I ripped their throats out. They died in silence."
Okay, I admit it - that freaked me out a little. I ran a hand across my mouth and forced myself to ask, calmly, "What did you find?"
Shadow cocked his head faintly, then lowered his eyes. "There are twenty-one left, nine of them severely injured. And I am quite certain they are getting ready for an attack."
oOo
It was shortly after oh-one-hundred and the rain was coming down harder than before. I was standing on the narrow catwalk on the wooden palisade along with Shadow, Ronon, Ferguson, Pawlowski, and a half a dozen hunters. We had ample cover at the moment as we peered through the gap between the sharpened ends of the logs at a lone First One standing in the clearing. It had been standing there for the last ten minutes, just staring at the wall, and it was wearing a leather mantle that vaguely resembled a human run over by a steamroller. Three tiny human skulls hung from its belt. "I'm going to take a wild stab in the dark and guess it's the leader," I drawled sarcastically as I studied it through my night vision goggles.
Shadow chuffed. He was in his half form and I could see his claws were buried halfway into the wood of the palisade.
I turned my back to the wall and glanced toward the center of the village and the Temple. "You two have the scanners up yet?" I asked through my teeth.
"Almost," Rodney replied frantically.
"You said that a half an hour ago."
"This time we are truly …." Radek trailed off. "There!"
"Oh, shit," Rodney said.
"Sir?" Morales said from the Jumper. I put him there because he had the ATA gene and the ability to speak as fast as Rodney if it came down to him relaying play by play of enemy movement to us. "Our friends brought reinforcements."
"How many?" I asked and glanced towards Shadow. The kid was looking at me and I was pretty damn sure he heard the transmission because his ears were both swiveled toward me and he was snarling.
"There are twenty-five in the jungle at your position, twelve at the front gate, and fourteen more coming up to the wall behind the Temple."
"Harper, confirm!" The kid and two of Shadow's people were on sentry duty on the rear section of wall. "Harper!" The radio remained silent. "Shit."
That was when the leader let out one of those piercing, scrotum crawling screams, and dozens more echoed from the jungle. Shadow stood briefly and returned it with a ear-drum rattling roar of his own. The screams faltered momentarily, then Shadow had to duck as a sling stone knocked splinters from the palisade.
"Oh, God, I hate that sound," I heard Rodney mutter in my ear.
"Enemy is moving," Morales informed us.
"Fire at will." I glanced at Shadow. "Teyla – meet me and Shadow at the back wall. We may have a breach."
"Understood," Teyla replied.
Shadow shook his head. "Send my hunters." I gave him a questioning look – they were all armed with blow guns, and even though he assured me the poison their darts were dipped in could take down a Jubjub in under three seconds I was still dubious. I mean, jeez – blow guns? "They know the garden, and this is what they excel at – stalking prey through dense foliage," he said.
"Okay," I finally said and relayed the order to Teyla before she got too far. I waited a moment for a reply. "They're on their way."
Shadow nodded and just jumped from the catwalk. He landed crouched on all fours thirty feet below and I wanted to shout showoff. I had to resort to the simple ladder – just a pole, really, with cross pieces tied onto it – and jumped when I was three-quarters of the way down. My landing wasn't nearly as graceful as Shadow's, but it worked. Gunfire erupted from above us and up near the gate as we broke into a jog. We went through the edge of the empty village – Shadow evacuated everyone to the Temple as a precaution and they were spread out between the atrium and two floors of the tower – and skirted the flagstone lined 'courtyard'. I hadn't been behind the Temple so the sight of an extensive cultivated garden surprised me. It was a set up that reminded me of the vineyards in Napa Valley, and unfortunately would provide a lot of cover. I pulled my life signs detector from my vest and scanned the reading. Looked like there were already six in the garden, and in the next second another dropped down from the wall. "Morales, you be Teyla's eyes," I said softly. "Channel two. We'll keep anything from passing on the left."
"Yes, sir," he replied.
I showed Shadow the scanner and he nodded. We faded into the row at the edge of the field. "Damn, I wish we had some light – full moon, floods, anything," I whispered to Shadow as I watched blips move along the rows. Those goggles just didn't cut it, and I could see two more blips show up. Then from the other side of the Temple came eleven blips that quickly fanned out in a line from the flagstones to the wall and started creeping slowly forward.
"I think I may have something," Shadow whispered. I glanced his way and saw he had his head cocked and that odd, faraway look on his face.
"Hold off for a moment – I don't want my people on the wall backlit."
Shadow nodded.
"Gate is secure," one of the Marines up front reported. "Targets are eliminated. Sending Stackhouse and Johnson to Ronon's position."
"Copy that," I said. "Ronon, how's it looking?"
"We took out thirteen in the first wave – the rest are staying back, under cover." I heard him fire a couple times. "They're waiting for something."
Yeah, probably the ones on this side to take you out, I thought. I glanced at the scanner and saw the rest of that party drop into the garden, then in the next instant three blips nearest Teyla and the hunters just winked out. I heard Shadow chuff softly in approval as another one disappeared from the scanner. Apparently unnoticed by the other First Ones, too. Okay, this is looking better. "How bright a light?" I asked him.
"Very bright," Shadow replied.
"Okay, people, get ready to drop your goggles. Ronon – keep your men down. Teyla – keep your head down, too. Shadow is going to turn on the lights." I pulled my goggles down around my neck and turned in the direction I knew Shadow was. "Do it." I focused on the detector in my hand and saw three blips were two rows away and closing fast.
The entire top of the Temple where the observation room sat lit up like the Luxor, and a beam of blue-white light shot up into the low lying clouds. It cast the village in the light of three very bright full moons, and in the next instant I stood and very clearly saw the three First Ones I picked up just a moment before standing and staring up at the clouds. I could see others spread out behind them – their pale fur made them glow against the darker foliage and made them easy targets. I opened fire at that nearest trio. The first dropped instantly and the second actually turned its head towards me before it went down. I clipped the third before it ducked down behind the low bushes, and I felt Shadow charge away from me. Yeah, he'd take care of that one in no time. I crouched down and charged down the row, the life signs detector letting me know where the others were, and then cut diagonally through a few rows. I was making a hell of a racket, but I didn't care, because two more blips from Teyla's side winked out. That made six left. Hey, we might make it after all.
Two blips came together one row away, and I could tell the difference between Shadow's deep rumbling growl and the wounded First One's raspy one. Two more blips were also closing in on me pretty damn fast. I stood and saw a head and shoulders above the row of plants and fired. The burst took the top of its head clean off and the second one following it ducked and disappeared from sight. I saw Shadow not too far away and barely saw the movement of his arm as he swiped at his opponent and took its throat out in a spray of black blood.
Then I saw movement out of the corner of my eye and barely jerked away as I turned and aimed my P90. I felt the faintest kiss of pressure on my Adam's apple as I saw the First One finish the swing with his obsidian tipped spear and start to bring it around for another swipe. I fired directly into its ugly face.
Then there was a flash to my left in the pale blue light and I learned something very interesting about obsidian as I glanced that way – that shit is so sharp you see the blood flowing long before you feel the cut. The life signs detector fell from suddenly numb fingers as I backed up frantically and just avoided getting sliced again. The First One that stood in the same row of me was easily as big as Ronon and was wearing a leather mantle. The necklace of jawbones he wore clattered obscenely as he brought his spear around.
Then Shadow was on him.
He flew through the air and caught the First One's spear arm in his hands, landed, and twisted down and kind of leaned to the left as he shoved with all his strength to the right. The spear was momentarily pinned between them and the sound of the mutant urtal's arm breaking and shoulder dislocating was very loud over the steady pounding of the rain. It screamed and Shadow backed up a step.
He was between me and the First One so there was no way I could get a clear shot to finish it off. Then I saw a flash of pale fur, and its free hand came up, a knife in its malformed hand. Shadow jerked back and the arterial spray from his neck hit the First One in the face, then I saw him slap a hand to his neck, take two staggering steps to the side, and crumple.
I pulled the trigger and held it down for all it was worth, but my P90 betrayed me by spitting out maybe a half a dozen rounds before the clip emptied. "Oh, fuck," I said as I saw the First One just rock back a few steps. I caught it in the chest, but apparently the thing was tougher than it looked because all it did was drop its knife and shake itself. I dropped my P90 because I knew there was no way in hell I could reload with a numb left hand and drew my sidearm. It had kicked its spear up from the ground in that brief instant, and he lunged just as I fired. I tried to roll away from the blow, let the ceramic guts of the tac vest deflect the obsidian blade, but that damn thing hung up and I felt it slide between plates and ribs before it snapped. I spun and went down, and when I landed on my wounded arm I know I screamed.
So did the First One. Its lunge carried it into one of the low thick bushes, and it kind of hung up there for a moment. Then it reared back out of it, and when it faced me I saw my shots had clipped its neck and face, and blood was flowing steadily from its ruined cheek and throat. But the sonuvabitch was still breathing and obviously very pissed, and it lifted its broken spear.
I raised my gun and froze as Shadow just popped up behind the First One, landed squarely on its back, reached over its head to grab a long saber tooth in each hand, and yanked backwards with all his strength. Its neck snapped and Shadow damn near ripped its head clean off from the jaws up.
Okay, that was gross, I thought as my arm dropped because I simply no longer had the strength. The First One fell forward and Shadow rolled off its back and came to a rest near my legs. "Hey, kid, you all right?" I rasped out. Oh, man – I sounded like I was ninety-years-old. When he didn't answer I tried to sit up. Big mistake. The world swam with black anti-sparklies and I felt the broken point grind against a rib. I flopped back down. "Speak, God damnit," I growled.
"I … am alive," Shadow finally said. Jesus, he sounded a hundred. "Stopped … bleeding."
I felt his hand fall on my shin and try to squeeze. About all I could really feel were the tips of his claws. Then I heard Teyla in my ear.
"Colonel, where are you?"
"Over here," I croaked out. It was getting difficult to breathe.
"Where? Morales, where is he?"
Oh, that's right. I'm on the ground – she can't see me. The evil black anti-sparklies were crowding my vision again as I planted my right elbow on the ground, lifted my nine-mil, and fired straight up. I waited a second, and fired again. And that was all I could do before my arm plopped down again.
"I'm on my way, Colonel," Teyla said. A few seconds later her face filled the little tunnel of vision I had left before it went completely dark as the Temple's beacon shut down. I heard her call for the Jumper before it got even darker.
