Wen sat in the vent, right next to a square leading into the room below. The group hadn't known where to go, considering that the room they had escaped had had the only map they knew of. So, Wen had started crawling and everyone else had followed along. The grate, to the vent, next to her led into a dark, silent room she assumed was empty. Dacey was on the other side of the grate and was ready to take out the grate and put it quietly behind her. Shaun was behind her and was looking at her like she was the most important person in the world. Wen knew he loved her so, it wasn't that surprising that he was looking at her like that. The look was obvious to everyone except Dacey who thought he didn't like her whatsoever.
Wen glanced behind her to Zola who was sitting there uncomfortable. She seemed really nervous but, then again, they were in an alien underground complex, being chased by aliens from an alternate reality. Wen held up a thumbs-up for everyone to see. Dacey nodded and pulled out the grate and handed it to Shaun gently. She didn't even mention that the metal had cut her fingers and blood was now slowly seeping down her hands. Shaun lightly touched her back with his hand while she twisted around so that her butt was over the hole. Grabbing his hand, Dacey lowered herself into the room one handed and raised her P-90 with the other.
Dropping to the ground, Dacey rolled up into a shooting position on one knee. The small flashlight on her gun lit the room. The room was empty as far as she could tell. Dacey gave a quiet, "Clear."
Shaun held out his hand for Wen, who ignored him and just dropped to the floor and rolled up like Dacey had. Zola took Shaun's hand and gracefully dropped. Shaun held onto the side of the hole as he lowered himself. When he was hanging down by only his hands, he dropped and rolled. Dacey watched him, to make sure he was okay, until he stood up from his crouch.
The Atlantians backed up until they were in a circle, with their backs to each other. Their flashlights lit up most of the room, revealing that they weren't alone. Rows of beds were set up and Zamora were in every single one. They seemed to be sleeping, in a way. Their red eyes were closed and their breathing was steady. Their greenish-grey hands were crossed over a pistol that lay on their stomach. They looked like warriors, waiting to be called upon for battle. The door to the room was in the middle of the wall, between rows. The Atlantians stood in the far corner of the room, just beside a counter containing blankets; they weren't close to the door in the least. Dacey swore and quietly ordered the group to follow her.
Dacey began walking as quietly as humanly possible towards the row closest to them. She swallowed hard as she kept going down the row, even though every bone in her body wanted her to jump back into the vent. Shaun left out a small whimper as he saw a Zamora up close. Dacey glared at him for a brief second, to let him know not to make any other sound. To occupy himself and keep himself from making any noise, Shaun began studying the Zamora bodies as he passed them. He looked at him through his scientific side; so, he began to notice that they were different than the normal ones. The Zamora around them had a glowing symbol of their race on their chests. They glowed an ominous green. Shaun thought back to their previous encounters with the warriors. The symbol on their uniforms had been black. Shaun assumed they must be in hibernation or sleeping or something, until they were needed. Dacey held up her hand; then she signaled for the party to get down. They all crouched immediately.
The other Atlantians began wondering why they were crouching when they all heard it clearly. A low moan started up to their far left. Dacey stood and, furtiveness forgotten, ran for the door. The others ran after her. Shaun peeked over his shoulder in time to see a few Zamora stand up and their glowing symbols turn black. His head swiveled to face forward and he ran through the door. In the hall, Shaun told Dacey, "Find a room, to hide in, until them pass."
She nodded and opened a door to their right which led into a room filled with labeled cabinets: storage. They all filed in and shut the door. Heavy footsteps could be heard on the other side of the door. Obviously there was more than one Zamora awake and they were heading off somewhere. After the footsteps dissipated and quieted down, Shaun whispered to Dacey who was next to him, "Come on. We have to follow them without being caught."
Dacey hissed, "What? Are you crazy?"
Shaun shook his head furiously while saying, "No. I think they just got their orders for where to go. And I'm guessing they are going to wherever the Arhgohnnians are hiding and trying to kill them."
Dacey looked off into the distance for a minute and said, "Ok. Wen, you're on point. Zola, you're the last one out."
Wen shouldered her way forward and nudged the door ajar slightly. She could see the hall was empty so, she stepped into the hall cautiously, raising her blaster as she did so. Dacey followed and Shaun came after her. Mil sighed and wiped away sweat on her forehead before following. Mil carefully closed the door after herself.
Wen made her way after the Zamora. The hall before her took a turn to the right so, she assumed they had too. Sliding up to the corner of the hall's turn, Wen barely stuck her head around.
She could see the Zamora turning left down another hall. Wen crept around the corner and quietly paced to the next corner. The party behind her followed her example perfectly.
Wen peeked around the current corner too. The Zamora were had stopped in front of one of the side doors. The front few were firing their guns at the door. The door was resilient and hadn't really been damaged yet. Wen turned around to face Dacey and Shaun, who was looking at Wen over Dacey's shoulder. Wen said, "I think we just figured out where the Arhgohnnians are holding out. We need to find a way to the other side of the door."
Dacey said, "Any one feel like crawling through more vents?"
Wen pursed her lips and frowned but didn't object like Dacey thought she would. Dacey nodded and said, "Alright, look up and see if you can find one. We need in that room."
Shaun looked up and saw one directly over his head. He said, "Dacey, I'll give you a hand."
Shaun cupped his hands together and Dacey put her foot into his hands. He lifted her up and she lifted up the grate while scooting it into the vent beside the hole. Dacey then stuck her arms into the vent and lifted herself in. Shaun helped the rest into the vent uneventfully. Dacey held down her hand and he jumped up and caught it. She pulled up Shaun while he lifted himself in.
Once inside, Shaun put the grate back over the hole. Wen waited until it was in place to start crawling. Based on the hall architecture, she began crawling in the vent accordingly. When Wen reached the spot she thought was directly behind the door, she stopped. She said, "This is it."
A grate was directly in front of Wen too so, she picked it up and looked down. Below, Arhgohnnian soldiers prepared to fight the Zamora, who were bound to break through. A female, obviously in charge, yelled orders left and right to other females. No males were present, meaning Ahn hadn't escaped and regrouped with his people; he was truly captured.
Dacey was the first to respond, she scooted to the edge and jumped out. Zola went next followed closely by Shaun. Wen was the last out and she just left the grate the way it had been, not bothering to put it back where it was meant to go.
All the Arhgohnnians turned towards the Atlantians. All the commands and noise stopped immediately. The tables that were being tipped over and moved into defendable positions stopped moving. Dacey turned to face the female who she assumed was the leader. She told the alien, "Hi. I'm Major Sheppard and this is my team. We're from Atlantis."
The alien soldier nodded and responded, "Yes. We radioed you for help. The Zamora are about to break down our door. Get ready."
Wen said heatedly, "Yeah, we got that. Is there any way to track one of your kind?"
The alien responded irritated, "Why?"
Wen rolled her eyes and said, "Ahn was taken by the Zamora. I want him back."
The alien said, "Of course. Do you think we would chance one of our few males running away? We put a tracker inside every born male on Arhgohnn. We will find him."
After that, she yelled to a female, with short white hair, behind her. Loudly, she ordered her to go to the computer room and track Ahn. The other female said, "Yes, First."
The short-haired female scurried off while First looked back to Dacey who said, "Thanks."
The door was pounded on and the pounds became increasingly louder. First said, "Get behind the defenses."
Dacey took no time in following her words. The Atlantians hid behind the table closest to the doorway. First took up a position beside Zola who barely noticed or cared. The door showed its protest with a high-pitched metal-scraping-metal sound.
The door flew open while Zamora started bustling in. The enemies shot their blasters freely at the Arhgohnnians. The tables were partially melted with every blaster hit. Dacey peeked over the table and started firing at the Zamora near the front of the pack. The Zamora fell as they were killed. Arhgohnnians behind Dacey could be heard hitting the ground as they were hit by blasts.
A shot hit Dacey in the left shoulder. The blast burned away part of her shirt and left a large burn covering her shoulder. Dacey let out a sharp cry of pain and shot down the Zamora who had got her. After the alien hit the floor, she shifter her weight and kept shooting. Beside her, Shaun paused and reloaded his pistol. Wen kept firing her blaster at the enemies. Smoke filled the room from their guns firing and such. Bodies of the dead littered the floor increasingly.
When the smoke cleared, Dacey stood up and approached the opened door. Stepping over bodies, she glanced cautiously into the hall. The hall was clear except for a few Zamoran bodies. She crept slowly into the hall further while Shaun came to stand at her side. After she made sure there weren't any more Zamora, Dacey allowed Shaun to spin her around so he could look at her. He lightly fingered the burned edges of her shirt. He tried moving her shirt away from the burned flesh so he could get a full view of the injury. When Dacey winced, Shaun pulled back his hand. He knew she wouldn't show that it hurt her unless it was extremely painful.
First approached the two from behind. Shaun gave her a look and asked, "Do you have any medical supplies available?"
First shook her head regretfully and said, "I am afraid the Zamora have destroyed our medical room and all of our supplies."
Shaun frowned and told Dacey, "I promise when we get back to Atlantis, I will fix you up."
Dacey nodded and gave a forced smile that looked more like a grimace than anything else. Shaun gave her a worried look and nodded slowly. The rest of the Atlantians came out to hall and proceeded to check again for the Zamora. After a few seconds, the short-haired Arhgohnnian approached First. The little female said, "I have located him."
The little female handed over a little metal thing that looked like a bracelet. First nodded to the girl, as if to dismiss her. The female hurried back into the room, obviously scared more Zamora would randomly attack. First gave the bracelet to Wen, who shoved it onto her wrist and looked to First for instructions. First said, "Wave your hand over the top of the band."
Wen did what she was told and a green three-dimensional map popped up. It clearly showed the base and a bright blue dot glowed in one of the far off rooms, on the other side of the base. Green dots surrounded a red dot, which Wen assumed was her. She asked, "What are all the dots?"
First seriously studied Wen before saying, "The green ones represent all female Arhgohnnians. The red one is you. The blue ones are male Arhgohnnians. Since none have come to battle, the only blue dot has to be Ahn."
Wen cocked her head to the side as First added, "We will stay and attempt to find any other stray Arhgohnnians. We believe some are even unaware of the attack and are going about their normal business. You can take your people to find Ahn. A smaller team will be able to be stealthier. Be careful."
Wen didn't give a response but, instead, began following the map to where Ahn's dot glowed. Dacey grimaced and headed after her. Shaun sighed and set off after an injured Dacey. Sweat made his shirt stick to him, he was so nervous. Zola silently floated after them. She debated over a whole different issue. She was still clueless on what to do about her being an alternate reality knock off and all. She was driving herself crazy trying to figure out what to do all on her own.
Wen was barreling to rescue her love so recklessly that Zola was becoming increasingly worried they were going to attract some unwanted guests. However, the entire time, they didn't run into any Zamora, alive anyway. Every few minutes, they would run across a scene that had obviously been a battle but, was long over. Bodies were strewn about, Zamora and Arhgohnnian. Wen made them charge on every time they came across these scenes.
When they arrived at the hall, outside the room containing Ahn, they stopped. Listening for anything coming from the other side of the door, Wen slowly approached the door. Silence was all that could be heard from the other side. Wen opened the door with her free hand while bringing up her blaster with the other. The room on the other side was full of computers, in neat rows. At the end of the middle row, and facing the door, Ahn sat on the floor. His wrists were fastened together, behind his back, as were his ankles. A strip, of what looked like duct tape, covered his mouth. He tried to yell something at them but, it was muffled through the tape.
Wen rushed forward and ripped off the tape. A burning red mark was over his mouth from ripping off the tape. He yelled in pain and then hurriedly said, "It's a trap!"
As he said the last words, Zamora stood up from their hiding places behind some of the computers. The enemy aliens fired at the Atlantians. Wen, furious, began shooting faster than almost humanly possible. The Zamora's shots missed Wen by a couple of inches as she fired wildly. The Atlantians joined in the firefight, except for Dacey who knelt down next to Ahn and began freeing his wrists.
The Zamora all fell, one by one, clutching at their wounds. Shaun rushed to Dacey's side as the last enemy fell. Ahn said, "I don't think there are any more hiding. But, I'm sure more of them heard you."
Shaun frowned and held out his hand to help up Ahn. Accepting his help, Ahn managed to stand. When he was up, he began stretching his limbs and muscles. Wen ran into him, giving him a hug. The embrace lasted only a few seconds before Wen composed herself and let go and made her face look unreadable again.
Dacey looked at Shaun and said, "Any ideas?"
Zola took a step back, giving the group more space. No one noticed until she said, "So, do the Zamora have any idea where the rest of the Arhgohnnians are?"
Ahn said, "I couldn't really tell if the Zamora knew or not."
Dacey knit her brows together, "What do you mean you couldn't tell?"
Ahn shrugged, "Well, they just grunt and don't form actual words."
Dacey grimaced and said, "Alright, so that brings us back to square one. Wen, can you make that map bigger so we can find the rest of the Arhgohnnians?"
"I can try."
Dacey nodded and said, "So, how are we supposed to find the Zamora? I highly doubt that we got all of them."
Shaun started snapping his fingers excitedly and said, "I know how."
