Chapter Two

Teyla was barely through the opening when a flurry of dirt and small rocks fell due to the rope rubbing against the edges of the hole.

"Damn it!" she heard John curse, then he yelled, "Hold up! Hold up! It's falling in on them!"

Methet shouted into the radio, "Ashina, stand back! Hide with your face against the wall!"

Teyla closed her eyes and rode out the shower of small debris, but it wasn't as bad as she had first feared when it had begun.

"Teyla, are you okay?" John shouted down at her.

She shook dirt from her hair, though the rain made part of it clump into mud. She twisted around and called to him, "Yes, I am fine. Do not stop, John, it is merely dirt and small rocks. Please continue."

There was some discussion she couldn't make out between Ronon, Rodney and John, then John called down, "Okay, we're going to start again, but more slowly this time so we can better control the movements of the rope."

"Understood," Teyla answered, then felt the rope begin to inch her downward again.

The cavern was huge, roughly fifty feet by fifty feet with the ceiling twenty feet above – much larger than Teyla had imagined with Rodney's earlier description. There hadn't been any hint in the landscape above that there could be something so expansive down below.

Even though there was some light streaming in from the hole up above, Teyla needed her flashlight to locate Ashina. She could see the little girl clearly now as she hid in the farthest reaches of the cavern. The girl's tear-streaked face turned toward Teyla and she didn't look happy.

"MAMMA!" Ashina screamed, her tone increasing in volume the closer Teyla got to her. "MAMMA! I WANT MY MAMMA!"

"It is okay, Ashina. I am here to help you," Teyla said, trying to assure the child as she held tight to the rope still lowering her down.

Ashina squirmed as if trying to press herself further into the wall. "NOT YOU, I DON'T WANT YOU! I WANT MY MAMMA! NOT YOU!"

"Ashina," Methet said over the radio, her voice deliberately soft and comforting. "It's Mamma, honey. You remember Teyla, don't you? She and her friends have celebrated the Trabben Festival with us a few times. We took them some desserts we made. You must listen to what she tells you to do."

"Mamma? Mamma, come get me! I'm scared!" Ashina pleaded. "I want you!"

Methet continued to speak and Ashina calmed down more as she listened. "Shini, Daddy is on his way back from the hills and should be with us soon."

"I want Daddy now! He could get me! I want him now!"

Methet's voice grew softer as she said, "Daddy will be here as soon as he can. Please, honey, please let Teyla help you. She will bring you to me. You want that, don't you?"

When Teyla's feet finally touched the rubble-strewn floor, Ashina didn't look at her with as much fear. Teyla smiled at her, sending her strength and peace, then said softly, "Hello, Ashina. Do you remember I helped you with your doll last time we visited? Remember how we fixed her leg so that it would move again? I know I look very different not with dirt and mud on my face and hair, and it's dark down here, but we really did have fun that day. Your doll's name was... Sodo?"

"Soho," Ashina whispered, a hint of recognition in her eyes.

Teyla continued, "Soho, yes, of course, I remember now. Ashina, I know you are scared, but I am here to take you to your mother. Are you ready to go, little one?"

John's voice came over the radio. "Don't waste any time, Teyla. Signal us when you are in position."

"Yes, John," she said as she stepped carefully through the rubble until she was beside the girl.

She knelt and looked her over for outward signs of injury. Ashina was dirty and her exposed skin revealed several cuts. Ashina held one arm close to her body. She had been crying so hard that her breathing hitched with each inhalation.

Teyla met Ashina's troubled gaze and asked, "Ashina, are you okay?"

Before the child could answer, Methet's voice came over the radio. "Ashina, Mamma loves you. Let Teyla help you."

A timid smile appeared on Ashina's tear-streaked face. She held up the radio in her small hand as her other arm hung stiffly at her side. Her voice was soft, almost impossible to hear. "That's my mamma talking on this box thing."

Teyla smiled and moved closer. "That is correct. The box thing is called a radio and you will soon be in your mother's arms again. She misses you very much, but in order for you to get to her, you will have to do as I say, okay?"

Ashina nodded and Teyla wiped away Ashina's tears with the back of her fingers. "Does your arm hurt?"

Ashina nodded, again her breath shuddered. "I fell on it."

Teyla reached down and touched the arm lightly, but released it when Ashina gasped and jerked it away. It wasn't an obvious break that Teyla could detect, but the shirt Ashina wore had long sleeves, hiding whatever damage was underneath. Without at least exposing the arm or feeling for a break, there was no way for Teyla to know for certain. It did seem to cause Ashina some discomfort, but the pain didn't appear severe – yet with children, pain was often difficult to gauge.

"We will have our doctor look at your arm once you are back to your mother. Are you hurt anywhere else?"

Ashina's lip trembled. "All over."

Teyla took a deep breath. "Well, then let us not linger here any longer. I will need to hold you while they pull us up. Will that be okay?"

Ashina looked uneasy, but she licked her lips and nodded.

"Very well then," Teyla said as she adjusted her harness, preparing to pick Ashina up. "Let us begin."

Teyla was surprised that Ashina went so willingly into her arms. Mud and water dripped down on them at a steady pace as they stood directly below the opening of the cavern, but Teyla ignored it. She was about to signal for the others to pull her up when she heard John exclaim, "Whoa!"

Dirt started cascading more heavily from above. John shouted, "Damn it! Watch out below!"

Teyla bent over to protect Ashina as she moved toward the nearest cavern wall, though her heart was with her friends up above still in harm's way. She tightened her grip around Ashina and pushed even deeper into the far reaches of the cavern as the commotion above continued.

oOoOoOoOo

John put out his hands for balance as the horizontal ladder he stood upon started to shift. He looked over at Ronon and McKay standing a short distance away on different sets of ladders, doing the same thing. The rain-slick wood they were on didn't help things one bit.

"Those damn beasts will be the death of us!" McKay exclaimed, his eyes dark with barely controlled anger.

John looked over at the object of McKay's fury, a terrified miraffe that had escaped from its handlers while unharnessing it from the wagon. Mita's men were still trying to control the remaining miraffes. In its panic, the renegade miraffe had trampled part of the outer arrangement of the lattice work, destabilizing the basic integrity of the whole setup, putting all of them on the platform at risk, especially since the miraffe was still on the loose.

John lowered his hands and exhaled, then said, "It's okay, McKay. Just focus on the problem at hand."

"That is the problem! That's exactly the problem!" He pointed at the miraffe as it evaded a couple of the handlers when they tried to near it, sparking the miraffe to make another run at the lattice work again. McKay held his breath, fear and anger giving his expression harsh lines until the miraffe turned away at the last moment and ran to the darker areas under the cliff face. "Do you realize how screwed we are at this moment?" Rodney began to breathe heavily as panic settled in.

John softened his voice and said, "Okay, Rodney, this was unexpected, and it sucks, but we will just have to go forward from here. Think for a moment. Is there anything we can do to make the situation better?"

McKay tore his gaze away from the miraffe and exclaimed, "You have got to be kidding me! There is no way in hell – "

Ronon made McKay jump when he growled, "McKay, get a grip. We've got work to do."

John nodded, but kept his tone calm. "Exactly, we've got to work to do. Remember, there's a little girl depending on us. Now, is there anything Mita's men can do to help stabilize things from where they are?"

McKay looked around, his shoulders slumping. He wiped the rain off his face and shook his head. "No, there isn't anything anybody can do. Screwed, remember? Teyla and the kid will just have to wait until more help comes from Atlantis," he paused, glaring at the sky above them. "But if somebody can do something about this damned rain!"

John had learned over time how to read McKay. Right now, what he saw didn't encourage him, but he believed in Rodney's assessment of the situation. "Forget about the rain. Okay, if we can't do anything more to help Teyla and the girl, we need to move nice and slow off – "

He started to take a step forward, but McKay shouted, "No, don't move!"

John stopped himself in mid-step. When he looked up, McKay's eyes were wide with fear. "Do you want to plummet to your death?"

John's eyes bulged for a moment, then he said, "Not exactly, Rodney, but we've got to do something. We can't just stand around here indefinitely."

John glanced at the men behind Ronon and McKay. "You guys better back away as slowly as you can. The fewer people on this lattice work, the better."

As the men retreated, Mita, who was still standing at the wagon, called out, "Our apologies for allowing the boyan beast – the miraffe as you call them – to escape. What can we do now to help you?"

The rain was steady now and heavier. John shook his head. "Nothing right now, Mita. Give us a moment to figure out our best way out of this."

John looked at Ronon and Rodney, and said in a lower tone, "You two better start moving away, too."

Rodney shook his head. "No, no, let it settle a little more."

The ground near John's ladder eroded further, making John swallow hard. "If it settles any more, Rodney, I'll wind up down there with Teyla. You, too, if you aren't careful, so move away."

"If we move, you'll fall for sure. Look at the way the lattice work has shifted. Damn that obnoxious beast for trampling my design! This is so not my fault, damn it!"

John shook his head. "Nobody said it was, Rodney. If it was anybody's fault, it's mine for rushing us into this situation."

Ronon grunted in disagreement, then brushed at his dreads. The big guy was beginning to look a little waterlogged. He flexed his shoulders. "It was a good plan until now."

McKay nodded. "Well, we – we need a new plan in place before anyone moves anywhere."

"I'm all ears – " John started, then the miraffes still tied to the wagon suddenly brayed loudly, as if they too sensed impeding doom. The unexpected noise made John flinch and it grated on his nerves. It didn't help that every time he tried to shift his weight, more ground near his ladder crumbled away.

"The weight distribution here is just too damned precarious. I never did like those 'miraffes' as you call them. Stupid, stupid beasts and now they may be the death of us all." He closed his eyes and let out a long breath.

John cleared his throat, then squared his shoulders. "Think positive, Rodney, you can do this."

Rodney opened his eyes and looked around. He frowned, rubbing the back of his neck. "Just – just let me think for a moment."

"Yeah, sure, take your time," John repeated as he forced his clenched fingers to open, and tried to estimate their odds of success if he just had all of them make a run for it. The numbers he came up with weren't any more reassuring than McKay's had been, so he added for McKay's benefit, "Just remember, adults don't bounce as easily as kids."

John's gaze darted to the miraffe as it was being led back toward the trading outpost, still fighting against its handler, then over at Methet as she gaped in horror at their plan gone wrong. They were down to minutes, maybe seconds – time they didn't have to spare.

The other miraffes still yoked to the wagon brayed loudly now with an almost constant commotion as they shifted against their harness uneasily. John wondered if the buzzing he heard was also affecting the miraffes – after all, the high frequency signal had destabilized the ground and was giving him one hell of a headache... it wasn't beyond the realm of possibility that the miraffes heard it, too.

Ronon cursed under his breath as he had to change his stance due to more eroding ground near him, and said, "Come on, McKay. We're running out of time."

McKay snapped his fingers. "Grab hold of the ropes tied to the wagon. The others can pull us to safety if the lattice work gives way."

John's patience was wearing thin and it was reflected in his voice. "It took you that long to come up with that pearl of wisdom? Geez... maybe that buzzing noise is frying your brain – otherwise you'd realize your idea might save us, but what about Teyla and the kid down below? That lattice work has got to go somewhere."

Rodney's eyes widened as John's words hit home, then he reacted. "I hate to burst your bubble, but this thing is going to go down there whether we help it along or not. Maybe, we could – we could... "

More ground dropped away, sparing McKay from another suggestion, then the tripod they'd set up over the hole to lower Teyla and some wooden beams in the lattice work started dropping into the cavern.

"Ah, crap," John said, then he turned and shouted, "Teyla, incoming!"

There was the echoed crash of the wood hitting the bottom of the cavern, then an awful silence, followed by heart-wrenching shrieks.

"Teyla?" John shouted, then repeated, "Teyla? Come in."

McKay chewed on his lower lip for a moment, then he squinted as if that would help him see through the ground separating them from Teyla. "I'm pretty sure they're okay. That cavern is huge – really huge. If they were against any of the walls, they'd be okay." He glanced down and whispered, "Please, be okay."

"Ashina! Ashina! Talk to me!" Methet's voice resounded with fear.

"She is fine, Methet," Teyla said finally, speaking over Ashina's crying. "The noise merely frightened her and I had to settle her down, but we are fine."

John's gaze darted over to Methet. The woman looked like a stone statue, unmoving even as the women around her tried to offer comfort, except for her gaze, which felt like it was boring a hole deep into John's soul.

Teyla spoke next. "What is your situation, John?"

"Uncertain," John answered after a moment. "Just stay back in case this goes badly. At best, it looks like we'll have to wait until help arrives from Atlantis to set up something more elaborate to pull you and the girl out."

"Understood," Teyla said. John could almost see her worried expression as she added, "Be safe."

"Yeah, that's the game plan."

McKay's head swivelled, taking in the area around them, then he started snapping his fingers. "Okay, have Mita and his people throw us some ropes for us to tie around us. That way if the ground below us gives way, they can still pull us to safety. It's better than holding onto the ropes going to the wagon, but there's no way for us to get off this lattice work without at least some of it falling below. Teyla and the kid will be safe as long as they stay to the far corners of the cavern."

John frowned. He didn't like the options available to them, but McKay was right. It was a lot safer to be tied to a rope than clinging to one as they waited to be pulled to safety. John wiped the rain from his face, then tapped his fingers against his pant leg and nodded. There was no other way to proceed. At least they knew with Teyla down there with the girl that Ashina would be kept safe until more help arrives.

He shouted to Mita. "We need you to throw each one of us a line. We're going to tie the ropes to ourselves before we try to move off the lattice work."

Mita nodded. "Fine, give us a moment."

McKay raised his head and spoke up. "Try to spread out and throw them from different locations around us. That way we shouldn't get in each other's way as we dangle helplessly while waiting to be pulled to safety... " his voice trailed off at the end.

John frowned as he looked around them and then at the wagon, pointing at it as he said, "Mita, cut the ropes connecting Teyla to the wagon and move the wagon all the way back to the road."

Turning back to the others, John muttered, "Doesn't look like we'll be able to use the wagon anyway."

Linder nodded and Straen hopped up into the driver's seat. By the time the others were done, the wagon was away.

Rodney cleared his throat as he stuck out a finger in John's direction. "When we do this, you better start first, John, that way if you fall, it won't be our fault."

Both John and Ronon turned in Rodney's direction, causing him to backpedal a bit. "Well, you know what I meant, I'm just saying it won't be because of Big Foot or me, instead it will be from your own actions."

"Right," John said as he rolled his eyes a little. He looked over at Ronon and Rodney. "Okay, I'll go first – just be ready to move your asses if this all goes south... literally."

He wiped his damp gloves against his BDUs and nodded again. He kept telling himself that their plan was going to work despite the fact that everything inside of him screamed it wasn't.

Mita yelled, "Okay, we can throw the ropes to you now."

John nodded. Mita's men were spread out in a semi-circle around them in teams of three, each team ready to help pull their man to safety. The ropes were flung outward and John, Ronon, and Rodney caught the ropes thrown to them, but then Rodney dropped his and it fell too far away from him to reach.

Mita waved at Rodney. "We shall try again, Dr. McKay. Just a moment."

As they pulled back the rope to try again, Rodney looked a little sick, and said, "Maybe – maybe if that damned buzzing in my head would stop for half a second, I could concentrate a little better to hold onto things... Crap, the galaxy's greatest mind is probably frying as we speak."

John smirked. "Don't worry, Rodney, I don't think your brain is fried yet."

There was the briefest glimpse of relief before McKay steeled his gaze. "And how the hell do you know that?"

John shrugged slightly. "Because you're still talking too damned much to have fried brains."

"Wonderful. Jokes in the face of imminent death. I should be used to it by now," McKay muttered.

When John glanced back at Ronon, he saw Ronon was nearly done securing his rope. John decided he'd better get moving, too, and wrapped his rope around his waist. Rodney's rope was tossed to him again. John started to tie himself off when more ground behind him started to fall.

John whispered, "Ah, crap," and tried to adjust his stance.

McKay was scurrying to wrap his rope around himself, saying, "I'm not ready, I'm not ready. I am so not ready."

"Hurry, Rodney," John said as he finished, gripping his rope tightly just as the ground beneath him gave way.

There was a look of sheer panic on McKay's face and John knew why. His rope was still not tied and he was falling. John tried to swing toward McKay, already knowing he was too far away to catch hold of him. At the last moment, Ronon latched onto McKay's arm with one hand, and then they swung out of John's line of sight.

John held onto the rope as he fell. Its length slid quickly through his gloved hands, eating up the slack between him and the men holding the other end of his rope. The friction became uncomfortably hot despite his gloves, but John knew it wouldn't last long – there wasn't very much rope left, and once that was used up, things would probably get a little dicey.

Just as he predicted, the rope snapped taut, the momentum threw John into a wild swing about ten feet above the floor of the cavern toward one of the cavern's walls. The rope cut into John's waist and it felt like the force would snap him in two, but he had other things to worry about.

Problem number one: The bulk of the lattice work from above was falling through the now enlarged opening behind him and problem number two: one of the cavern walls was coming up fast in front of him. He tried to spin around and hit the wall with his feet, but the rope didn't cooperate and there was just too damned much going on with dirt and rock still pelting him from above. He threw up his arms to protect his head, but didn't quite make the maneuver in time. The impact flashed white hot pain that shot from his head, chest and left arm to the rest of his body and knocked the air from him.

Even in his dazed state, he felt movement through the rope and knew Mita's men were attempting to pull him up but all it did was cause more debris fall. Besides, he could hardly breathe because of the rope around his waist. He heard Ashina screaming with fear and he wondered if Teyla was okay.

It only took a split second to decide that he needed to stay down in the cavern with Teyla and Ashina, so he pulled his knife from its sheath at his back and sliced through the rope as he swung. With the rope cut, he fell the remaining ten feet to the ground and tried to roll, using his momentum, rather than impact with the ground, but the ground was uneven with rubble and he hit it hard, then everything went black.

oOoOoOoOo

Chapter 2