Chapter 24: I want you to take these.
Prior to my trip to the Tower with John I'd been on a few missions with my team. I was already beginning to feel an old hand at stepping through the gate. Contrary to what John said that first day, he did always manage to be somewhere in the gate room when we returned which always resulted in a low key public hello. Goodbyes however were always said in private so I was confused on my first mission after our trip to the Tower when John followed me to the Gateroom.
"John?" I raised an eyebrow in query.
"I want you to take these," John requested, holding up a couple of dangerous looking blades complete with scarabs. "Hide one in your boot and the other up your sleeve."
"Okay," I said with a puzzled frown, taking them and putting them carefully where he'd suggested, making sure they wouldn't cut me if I jumped around too much. "Why?"
"You never know when you might need some extra ... protection," John said simply. Before I could comment John pulled me into a fierce hug. I was so surprised at that, given we were both on duty, that I didn't offer any resistance.
"Are you okay?" I pulled back a little and looked up at him in concern. There was a look in his eyes I hadn't seen before that had me a little worried.
"Not really," John admitted, still maintaining his hold on me like he really didn't want to let me go.
"Do you want me to ..." my voice dwindled off as I looked at him, unsure what to say.
"You have to go," John replied. "It'll be fine."
"You're not convincing me here," I protested, still trying to figure out what was going on. We stood staring at each other for a few moments before our reverie was interrupted by Major Lorne requesting the dial up of the gate.
"I have to go," I almost whispered.
"You do," John looked at me intently, seemingly struggling with himself. "Ah hell," he muttered before swooping down and kissing me passionately. There was a hint of desperation in John's behaviour that drove the kiss into dangerous territory for such a public display. I had certainly forgotten where I was and only came back to myself when the gate kawoosh roared out behind me.
"Um," I pulled away distractedly,"... I better ... um ..."
"Be careful," John ordered, running a hand down my hair before urging me towards the gate. I nodded without response, then turned and followed Major Lorne through the event horizon.
"What was that all about?" Major Lorne asked once I'd emerged from the gate onto M6B-373.
"I guess Colonel Sheppard just wanted to ... say goodbye," I replied, still dazed and a bit shaky on my feet.
"That was one hell of a goodbye!" Major Lorne teased.
"Yeah," I blushed slightly. "Which way are we headed?"
"Teyla's contact said the village was a few miles away in that direction," Major Lorne pointed through the trees to the left of the gate. "Lieutenant Brown, you take point, Parker, you watch our six. Sabina, you're with me. Let's move out."
The walk to the village was going to take over an hour. Major Lorne took his job seriously but was also friendly and personable. I counted myself lucky to be on his team ... although I suspected that it was John rather than luck that had got me that particular spot.
"This is really nice," I commented, gesturing to the majestic trees that towered above us. It was a very sunny day and the trees were sparse enough that sunlight made its way easily to the ground.
"Looks just like every other planet we've gated to," Major Lorne pointed out.
"You're as jaded as Colonel Sheppard," I said without any real complaint. Major Lorne looked almost pleased to be compared with John, even in a not exactly positive way.
"Do you think the villagers will agree to trade with us?" I asked the Major when we'd been walking for about half an hour.
"Teyla was confident they would appreciate the chance to acquire new medicines," Major Lorne replied.
"She told me not to approach them about the ruins until after we'd struck a trade deal," I said. "They believe the ruins to be sacred – Teyla thought they might let me look at them if they felt they could trust us."
"I'm sure –" Major Lorne stopped abruptly when Lieutenant Brown raised a hand out in front of us. We all stopped, looking around to see what Brown had detected.
"DART!" Brown yelled.
"HEAD BACK TO THE GATE!" Major Lorne ordered, grabbing my arm and pulling me around, urging me to run back the way we'd come.
Never gladder of all the morning runs I'd done in the last year I easily kept up with the others as we sprinted back through the trees. What had taken us half an hour to walk took only minutes at a dead run and we burst through the trees to the welcome sight of the Stargate. Lieutenant Brown veered off to the DHD to dial Atlantis while the rest of us took up defensive positions near the tree line. The event horizon settled into place and the IDC was sent through.
"GO!" yelled Major Lorne, pushing me forward before turning to make sure Lieutenant Parker was also moving. It happened in the blink of an eye. The Wraith Dart screamed overhead, collection beam skimming the ground. It passed across our path to the gate and ...
... I opened my eyes to find myself encased in a Wraith cocoon.
"Ah Crap!" I said, feeling the panic rise and spread throughout my entire body.
"You're okay, you're okay," I reassured myself shakily. "You've just become the Wraith version of a packed lunch ... but you're okay."
This was seriously bad ... I could barely stop myself from flying into a mad frenzy in an effort to escape. This was so not the time for me to discover that I really didn't like being enclosed and unable to move my limbs.
"Okay, think," I ordered myself. "What would John do?" John! That was it! My arms were trapped at my sides but if I was careful I should be able to get to one of the knives I'd hidden and use it to cut my way free.
Grimacing in discomfort I contorted my position enough to get some movement around my arm. I had the knife positioned between my shirt and jacket sleeves, handle down. By bending my hand forward over my palm as far as I could I managed to get a finger on the edge of the handle and pull down. It was a slow process but eventually I'd moved the blade out of the scarab enough that I could shake it into my palm.
"Okay, now we're cooking," I muttered as I set to work hacking at the thick weblike structure that covered the entrance to the cocoon. Every now and then I paused, listening hard, but heard no other movement nearby.
Finally I managed to cut through enough of the structure that I was able to push myself out into a long corridor stretching off in either direction. I was covered in a sticky mess that made my skin crawl – I had to pause to remove as much of it as I could. There were cocoons on either side of me but none of them were occupied – I took that as a good sign that the rest of my team had not been culled.
Picking a direction at random I moved as silently as I could down the corridor, wishing I had a weapon besides the knives. The Wraith had taken my gear but clearly hadn't bothered to search me thoroughly. Lucky for me. I have to say that a Wraith ship was creepy on a level beyond anything I'd ever experienced. It was dim and cold and the fact that it was organic as well as mechanical made me feel like I was walking through something's insides ... the fact that there was a decidedly unpleasant scent in the air and weird sounds of movement from inside the walls made me think of all the more ... disgusting parts of an animal I could be walking through.
I really had no idea where I was going ... I was counting on recognising something useful if I were lucky enough to stumble upon it. Unfortunately my luck that day seemed to be weighed very heavily on the bad side and instead of finding inspiration for escape I found two Wraith guards patrolling the corridor.
They saw me straight away and moved menacingly towards me – stunners pointed in my direction. Knowing it was futile I still turned and attempted to run back down the corridor. I say attempted because they hit me with a stun shot almost immediately. I had just enough time to appreciate how excruciating a Wraith stun blast was before I passed out.
Authors Note:
I made the gate address for the planet (M6B 373) up – if by some weird freaky chance that turns out to be a real gate address it was completely unintentional!
Thank you to Allie108 for the encouraging reviews ... hope this and the next few chapters live up to expectation. Thank you chevron7 for the time you spend on your reviews - I appreciate the detailed feedback. Glad I made you laugh during The Tower. They did get to keep the dress ... it will be making another appearance in a between seasons story I've got planned. And finally thanks godsdaughter77 for your reviews (both for my season 1 story and for this one) - welcome and I hope you continue to enjoy the story!
And now, on with my little episode ...