A/N: From this point on, the story will unfortunately not be beta-read anymore. For the record...
Chapter 5: A Quick Turn Around
Meanwhile, Daniel, Vala and Teal'c had found nothing. Daniel had a rough idea of where the pods would be - or should be - from the discovery of an immense number of such pods at Atlantis during recent exploration. He also knew that they would take up a massive area but, so far, though they were deep in the place where they should be, they had found nothing. Teal'c wrenched open another door, leading off the main passage, and stepped inside. Cautiously, as always, Daniel and Vala stepped in behind him. Their torches revealed yet another abandoned Ancient lab, displaying a decaying interior, and a damp smell coming from around a large tear in the metal through which a sharp edged rock was visible. Shards of a thousand year old abandoned experiment lay scattered on the ground, adding to the Oblivion Ayleid ruin appearance of the place, with its now dead crystal lights and white walls.
"I do not believe there is anything here," said Teal'c, stating the obvious. His deep voice echoed around the room. The stasis pods were large and unmistakeable.
However, set into the right hand side wall there was a half open door, which on closer expection led to what was apparently one of the city's transporters. They walked up to the door and shone the beams of their torches through into it.
Daniel's radio crackled. He stopped momentarily and said, "Daniel here."
'Hey, you two, hear that noise?' asked Vala, interrupting him.
"Mitchell here. You guys need to get back to the gateroom. Now!" Mitchell's tone carried a note of urgency which the others picked up instantly.
"We are returning, Colonel Mitchell," said Teal'c. Even Daniel followed immediately, though reluctantly, as Teal'c strode away, back the way they had come.
Anticipating the next question, Mitchell explained, "McKay and Davidson ran into some kind of critter - it, or they, or whatever, killed two of Davidson's men. The things have McKay and Davison holed up in the ZPM room." He paused. "On a brighter note, they did find three fully powered ZPMs."
Vala glanced at Daniel and then said accusingly, "I thought you claimed there wasn't a chance some kind of creature killed those men?! What did these things look like anyway?'
'No idea' he replied 'Although from what Mitchell said I'm guessing they look something like...' he paused for a moment, looking ahead '...that!'
A large, greenish grey, insect like creature had dropped onto the floor in front of them. It reared onto its back legs raising it up to a good foot above the ground, and clanged back onto the ground running at them. It promptly was reduce to a large pile of shell plates on the ground as gunfire echoed around the room. Teal'c had pushed Daniel aside and opened fire. He flashed his light up onto the ceiling, revealing a number of deep, dark holes. As they looked around, the clicking Vala had already heard began to get louder, and suddenly bugs rushed from around the corner and leapt from the holes in the ceiling.
"Back into the transporter!" shouted Daniel. He lept back through the door in a rush, pulling Vala with him. Teal'c stopped shooting and followed, wrenching the lifeless door of the transporter shut behind them.
Doctors Lam and Lee had run every test possible on the sample they had been given and the result were clear - the subject hadn´t died of anything even closely related to the disease of the Ancients as they knew it - it seemed instead, against all the odds to be some kind of fast acting (supervenom as Lee had called it) venom. It wasn't even possible it was a poison - it was a full blown venom, like you'd get from a cocktail of the most deadly creatures known to mankind. Whatever had bitten this man was a nasty piece of work, that much was for sure. Regardless, it mean´t that the team to Alterus didn´t stand the slightest chance of running into any kind of problem, as far as they could see. Regardless, Landry would want to know about this.
Well, time for the reports ...