Chapter 6 – On a Mission
The wind was blowing around small dust circles in the barren, treeless lowlands. The soil was rough, dry; no sign of plants could be seen. Only where the mountains loomed at the horizon, a green patch of a forest appeared.
"Are you sure it is a suitable planet for reasonable creatures?" John Sheppard asked McKay, half-joking, referring to the ice-cold air and the hopeless, grey desert.
"The MALP signed that every parameter fits for human living." The scientist answered with a shrug. "As for me, I'd rather choose Acapulco."
"If we eliminate the super-hive, I will ask Elizabeth to give us a week off and get us free rooms in a five-star hotel in Hawaii," John said, kidding.
"Hawaii and Acapulco? What are these two things?" Ronon inquired.
"You should visit them with us. Some beautiful places on the Earth with palm trees, beaches and sexy, suntanned girls in bikinis," Sheppard winked. "After we exploded that ship..."
"I have no idea why you believe that it is possible to find anything against the super-hive," McKay snapped, becoming oddly edgy. "Even if we knew the proper technology of that ship, it would not help us much. It can be destroyed only from the inside, and unfortunately we have no traitor in the heart of the Wraith community to help us."
John made a wry smile. "Any other negative thoughts?"
"Yes, there are a lot," Rodney snorted. "For example, if they are able to find out from the database of the Orion the coordinates of the Earth, or if they are able to break through the hiding system of Atlantis..."
"Okay, I did not say that I wanted to hear it," John sighed. "Let's talk about the weather."
They were three, Sheppard insisted on the fact that Teyla should come back as soon as possible, and it was unimportant to replace her for the next few missions. Doctor Weir wanted McKay to stay in Atlantis, for she thought he could be more useful there, but John convinced her that he needed McKay in his team, and it was often better if Zelenka and Rodney did not work together. They just hindered each other with their constant debating. While Radek was up to convert one of the subroutines of the detectors, McKay and the team should search for some alien technology which is able to destroy the super-hive. Weir was not completely assured, but she let Rodney join Sheppard and Ronon on their next mission.
"The weather is not much fun either," McKay lamented. "The wind desiccates my skin. Do you have any idea how much it hurts when your skin chaps?" He asked irritably when he saw on the face of the others that they they did not share his worries about his problem.
"I'm sure it is a real suffering," Ronon murmured with a sarcastic grimace.
"You should try it once," McKay retorted, and intended to explain the horrid nature of dry skin, but they reached a group of black rocks, and suddenly a beam crossed the emptiness of the grey dust, and hit the ground not far from Ronon's feet.
"What the hell..." McKay moaned, growing pale.
"Wraiths!" Ronon shouted, and grabbed his gun. He scanned the place for shelter, and he caught sight of a nearby rock. "Come!"
He ran behind the rock. John tugged the petrified Rodney with him. They reached the rock just in time, because the next shots hit their footprints stirring up the cool dust in dark whirls.
McKay closed his eyes tightly. "If the dust gets into my eyes, I will have horribly red eyes," he explained.
"They were waiting for us," Ronon snarled. He leaned out of the shelter, and shot with his weapon in the direction where the Wraiths' shots came from. Sheppard followed his example and fired.
"Could it be that the traitor in Atlantis informed the Wraiths about the planet we were visiting?" Sheppard asked from the others.
"Oh, no! Why would anyone send Wraith assassins after three guys?" McKay shook his head. "With the super-hive, they could destroy the whole city of Atlantis in no time if they were able to elude our hiding system. It's no use killing us this way."
"I'm sure it was planned in advance!" Ronon murmured. "It's no accident that a couple of Wraiths were hiding behind a group of rocks waiting for travelers to come from the direction of the Stargate. They are after us!"
"Are you sure they are Wraiths?" Rodney asked.
"Yes. These shots are coming from Wraith weapons."
"We should find an idea how many Wraiths there are here," Sheppard marked. "As long as we don't know it, we can't be sure if we are able to fight against them or we should retreat back to the Stargate."
"I suggest the second option, the one with the word retreating in it," McKay groaned.
"Rodney, could you open your eyes, take your gun and help us?" John asked, becoming slightly irritated. "I understand this red eye thing, but if you keep on sitting here like that, the Wraiths will kill us, and then you can't use your healthy eyes anymore!"
"Oh, yes, sorry." McKay hastily grabbed his machine-gun, and joined the others in the shooting.
They hit two or three Wraith soldiers, and it seemed there was only a small group waiting for them, because the beams rarefied, only one Wraith remained on foot.
"I'll go nearer," Ronon said. "I'll catch this one alone."
"Wait," John stopped him. The lasers ceased to come, showing that the last Wraith ended the shooting.
"Why did this monster leave it off?" Ronon wondered. "We should go right now and check..."
"It's too dangerous," Sheppard shook his head. "We should approach her shelter slowly, carefully."
In the very next moment, they heard a sharp, familiar humming.
"A Wraith Dart!" McKay screamed, realizing that the last Wraith got into a Dart instead of engaging in useless shooting in the desert. "Run as fast as you can!"
He wanted to jump out from behind the rock, but Ronon held him back.
"I'll get it down," he promised, and he took off from his muscular shoulders the greater laser-cannon he carried on his back.
"Be quick, otherwise the Wraith will collect all of us into the Dart, and we'll become his or her lunch," Rodney stammered.
Ronon aimed at the nearing Wraith Dart's shining metal point in the sky. He narrowed his eyes, and followed with the tip of the cannon the quickly moving spot. He concentrated deeply, and then he fired. The fireball left the tube, crossed the dust-swirls and glided directly in the direction of the Dart. The Wraith piloted the Dart out of the line of the shot in the last minute.
"Oh, no!" McKay moaned out.
Ronon aimed again. "Very quick and dexterous, this bastard," he murmured. He fired once more. Now the Dart already got so near that he could be more precise. The quick shot hit the vehicle, and it exploded with a great boom. Red fire-circle flashed across the sky, and then burning pieces rained down onto the dark rocks.
"Nice aiming, Ronon," John stepped out of their shelter. "Let's check the place if our way is completely clear or not."
They walked around the groups of rocks, searching for living Wraith soldiers, but there was no sign of any. Finally, they reached the place, where the exploded pieces of the Dart landed.
They approached the wreck watchfully. The flames were dancing on the crooked, broken metal pieces with shining sparkles and grey wisps of smoke. As they reached the nearest fragment, they caught sight of something moving among the debris. A greenish hand of a Wraith was hanging from under pile of metal, and its fingers kept bending spasmodically.
"Halt!" Sheppard signed for his team to stop. He passed round the slightly moving body carefully.
It was a seriously wounded female Wraith. Her chest was pinned by a broken part of the Dart's control panel, and her left side was badly burnt by the hot metal of the blown-up vehicle. The greenish, amorphous lines of her face squirmed. "Help me," she rattled off. "Don't leave me die here..."
Ronon took his weapon, and pointed it right at the Wraith. "We won't leave you," he smirked. "We'll kill you."
"Wait," Sheppard broke in on him, pushing his gun aside. He turned to the injured Wraith. "Have you ever seen a woman called Teyla Emmagan?"
"Teyla...?" The voice of the Wraith died, her head fell back onto the ground, and she lost her consciousness.
"Maybe she knows something about Teyla," Sheppard guessed.
"I'm sure she has not got the slightest idea," Ronon objected. "We should kill her right now."
"No. I have other plans. I think we should bring Carson to heal her," Sheppard answered.
"What?" snapped McKay and Ronon at the same time. "Healing a Wraith?"
"Look, she may be our only chance to make sure that Teyla was captured by the Wraiths or not, to get to know who the traitor is in our city, and to find a way to destroy the super-hive."
"I don't think it's a good idea," Ronon snarled. "I've never seen helpful Wraiths."
"We can give it a try," Rodney joined in Sheppard's plan. "She might tell us about the super-hive, if we manage to establish a nice relationship..."
"A nice relationship?" Ronon snorted. "Even if I torture the hell out of her she won't tell a word about Teyla or the super-hive! Do you think that a nice relationship would persuade her?"
"Well, it's one of our tactics from the Earth," Sheppard said. "You'll see how beautifully it works."
Ronon shook his head with disapproval. "I know these monsters well enough. You won't get a true word from her."
"Have you ever seen a Wraith begging for her life? She must have held her safety incredibly important if she wanted to survive so much that she asked us to help her."
"Okay, it was truly strange, but that doesn't mean that she can be useful for us."
"Ronon, I want to find Teyla. We must use this chance." Sheppard declared firmly. "We have no idea how the Wraiths could get the key to the protocols of our sensors, we have no idea how Teyla could disappear from Atlantis. If there is a traitor who cooperates with the Wraiths, maybe this is our only opportunity to find it out quickly."
"That's the worst plan I've ever heard," Ronon murmured, adjusting a huge cutlass at the left-hand side of his belt. "What if she points someone out? Would you believe her that one of our friends is disloyal if a Wraith says it so? I wouldn't. What if she tells us a plan to stop the super-hive? Would you believe her? I wouldn't. What if she shows us a place where Teyla might be? Would you walk into her trap?"
"Okay, we must be really careful with believing what she says, but that's why Rodney used the phrase nice relationship. That doesn't mean that we want to fraternize with this monster, it means that we try to convince her that our interests are the same as hers."
"I want to find Teyla as much as you do," Ronon shook his head, "but I'm sure that a Wraith won't help us in any way. You'd better believe me, I know these beasts well enough."
"I still find it very strange that she begged us for her life," John noted. "I've never seen any sign of fear of dying in the case of a Wraith. Have you?"
"Me neither," Ronon admitted.
"She has some reason to cling to her life. If we were able to find out about it, maybe we could persuade her," Sheppard said hopefully.
Ronon winced. He held the plan to be nearly impossible, but he had an intense bad intuition about Teyla. He felt that she must have gone through terrible pain, and if she was still alive, they needed to find her quickly. He was more worried about her than he imagined he would be, and he was ready to hold on to every chance that could help them get nearer to her whereabouts.
"Alright," he sighed. "Let's try it, but I'd like to be here to listen to the things she says if she recovers consciousness. I'm more conversant with these monsters, so I can be helpful with seeing through her lies."
"Okay, let's dial Atlantis," John turned in the direction of the Stargate. "I'll ask for Elizabeth's permission to call Carson."
As Doctor Beckett arrived with his medical bag, they were still standing around the unconscious Wraith. Her body was motionless, only her black, long hair stirred as the wind was blowing it with the mixture of the dust and grime.
"Uh-oh," Carson hemmed in front of him, when he caught sight of the huge metal-piece piercing through the Wraith's bust.
"We extinguished the fire before it could burn all her body," John explained, "but her left side looks very... smutty."
"Yes, half of her body is burnt," the doctor noted. "Alright, let's look at the case more thoroughly."
He kneeled down beside the body of the Wraith. He checked her heartbeat, he examined the torn edges of the gross wound on her chest, and then he carefully turned her on her unhurt side and made the spot visible, where the sharp, six feet long part of the blown up Dart stabbed her chest from behind.
"We have a problem," Carson noted, getting up from the side of the wounded Wraith.
"What's that?" John inquired, frowning.
"She is very seriously injured. I'll need the whole equipment of my lab to save her life, but those machines won't function here. If we want to keep her alive, we have to bring her back to Atlantis immediately."