It's Not Easy being an Intergalactic Space Explorer

Chapter 6

Rescue and Revelations

Inside the Wraith Worshippers' Compound…

The doctor, holding onto his injured arm, stood stunned and dismayed inside his devastated office. It had only taken him a few minutes of stumbling through the wreckage to realize he was wasting his time. Sheppard had thwarted him again. The data unit had been obliterated, and with it probably his best chance at elevating himself in the eyes of the Wraith. In fact, if the next round of attacks failed, then the doctor could also say goodbye to his life. Thank the Masters that he had transferred the Colonel's biological specimens and data to Xethos. Work on isolating his ATA gene and the associated proteins and enzymes was proceeding well, as were the analyses of Sheppard's full-body scans.

The prisoner had been moved to a room on the second floor. In his fury, the doctor had wanted to throw him into one of the filthy cells instead. Sheppard was too vulnerable to infection, though, and needed to be under close medical care. But once the doctor had no further use for him…

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John breathed in gingerly, careful not to aggravate his inflamed stitches. God, he wished he could get a shave; his scruffy, days-old beard was itching like hell, and he couldn't raise his arms high enough to scratch. His head was pounding, and his wrists and ankles were chafing painfully against the leather cuffs. It felt like an awfully long time since he HADN'T woken up tied to a table or a bed. C'mon Atlantis, get a move on, he said to himself. I'm running out of options here. He was slowing down the doctor's plans, but he couldn't do that much longer.

John looked up at a sudden sound and….he – and his hospital bed – were in the dimly lit room in the unknown galaxy where he had first met the Azeron. Two of the violet-eyed aliens were with him.

"What do you want now!?" said John angrily, remembering to think his words and not speak them. "Are you planning on not rescuing me again? Do you have any idea what I've been going through, thanks to you?"

"Your time may be ending soon."

"Yeah, I know. You sure have a talent for stating the obvious. If this mad scientist doctor doesn't kill me first, then the Wraith will."

"No, Colonel. Time may soon end for all your people, not just for yourself."

"Uh…say that again?" John was still pretty sick; he must have heard him wrong. Or, the Azeron were just being incredibly cryptic as usual.

"You're not hallucinating, John."

Sheppard took a long moment before he spoke again. "Who exactly are you?" he asked in a quiet, measured tone. He didn't understand why, but he wasn't completely startled by what the Azeron had just said. It was almost like he'd been expecting that, or something else equally…momentous.

"In your language, we would be called 'mid-wives.' "

Oookayyyy, the surreal-o-meter was going up fast.

"Uh, who – or what – is being born?"

"A new people are 'waiting in the wings' as your expression goes. They will succeed all humans, or all Wraith."

And there it was. The Azeron were finally getting to a (scary) point. "So, this is what I thought. It is about our war with the Wraith; whoever wins gets to stay alive, and the loser gets completely destroyed. That's why you kidnapped me, that's why you probed my mind: to see if us humans can put up a good, entertaining fight against the Wraith. Have you done the same thing to a Wraith – kidnapped one of them, dug through his mind, studied how they stack up against humans? You know, it's kinda like that episode of Star Trek, the one where Kirk is forced to match wits with the lizard guy, and whoever loses, their ship gets wiped out by an unknown alien race. Gee, where could we find an all – powerful race like that?" Sheppard said, staring pointedly at the Azeron.

"John, we are not like that," said the Azeron with a slight smile. "Our role is to prepare the way for the arrival of something new. We are not that race itself."

"Whose arrival?! Why is this happening? If you're not the invaders then who….."

And they were gone again, leaving John just as imprisoned, but much, much more confused, than before.

Meanwhile, back on Atlantis…

"Teyla! It's good to see you up and around," greeted Richard Woolsey. He went over to the table in the cafeteria where Teyla was having breakfast with Ronon and McKay.

"Anything new on Sheppard? Anything at all?" a hyper Rodney interrupted. He clearly already had too much coffee.

"And good morning to you, too, Dr. McKay." Woolsey said brightly. He was learning that the best way to deal with McKay's anxiety was to avoiding feeding into it.

"Jeez, I'm sorry, but all we've gotten for days is crappy leads and I….."

"I share your frustration, Doctor. I am confident, however, that our allies will eventually come up with something."

Later that same day…

"You've got something?!" Ronon practically yelled at Woolsey in the conference room.

"Yes, yes," said Woolsey excitedly. "Security forces on the planet Gedrel are holding a suspect for us, a man named Sedrig. Apparently, he got drunk the other evening in a tavern and was boasting about being involved in this last attack on the Sil. The Gedrel believe he is telling the truth."

A prison on the planet Gedrel…

McKay studied the man that Ronon was towering over, the one who allegedly was involved in Sheppard's kidnapping. He didn't look like a terrorist; in fact, he didn't look very conspicuous at all. Maybe that's why sometimes terrorists were so effective – they were the kind of people you'd never suspect were capable of such violence.

This time around, Ronon had decided to forego the 'breaking furniture' approach in favor of the 'just stand there and terrify the guy' method of interrogation. Major Lorne had initially begun the questioning, but it soon became apparent that, on this particular occasion, Ronon might be better at it.

"Let's go through this again: You say you've been on their planet."

"Yes," answered the man named Sedrig.

"The one where you're certain they're holding Sheppard."

"Yes."

"So what's the planet's name? Where is it? What's the Gate Address?!"

"I told you, I don't know. Whenever I travelled there, someone more senior than I always dialed the Ring. I wasn't allowed to know the address, or the planet's name, for security reasons. I have not yet earned the right to know such important information."

Ronon was about to boil over. "Is that really the answer you want to give us?!"

"If I knew it, I'd tell you," Sedrig answered pathetically.

Teyla was with Ronon and McKay on Gedrel. Feeling better and recovering from her injuries, she wanted to witness the interrogation and be more involved in the search for John. She sat looking at the prisoner with a puzzled look on her face, and then asked, "What does it look like?"

"What does what look like?" the man answered.

"The planet – what does it look like – what are its features?" Teyla asked again.

McKay scoffed. "Pardon me, Teyla, but what kind of question is that? It's a planet. Trees, grass, blue sky, all the usual stuff."

"Blue sky and green vegetation are not always 'usual' on some worlds, Rodney," reminded Teyla. "Perhaps the place where John is being held captive looks different."

McKay was surprised. She actually had a very good point.

"Please, Sedrig, tell me what you know of this world," Teyla gently prodded.

"Well…the sky isn't blue; it's sort of a sickly yellow color. The climate is often cool and damp. There's a village, but it's very small. Not much grows there. It's a hard planet to live on. That's why the Compound is there – it doesn't attract a lot of strangers."

"How long are the days?" McKay suddenly asked.

"What?"

"The days – how long are they? – it's a simple question! Oh, and how many moons, if there are any?"

"Uh," stammered Sedrig, "…26 hours. And, during the season it is there now, there's daylight for about 11 hours. There are….two moons. One of them appears quite large in the sky and sometimes looks pale orange."

McKay jumped up excitedly. "I'm heading back to Atlantis. I can cross-reference worlds like he's described with the characteristics of planets where we already know, or that we think, have Wraith Worshipper bases on them. We finally have something to go on!"

The rescue mission…

Only one planet in the database fit the description that Sedrig had provided and was also rumored to be a Wraith Worshipper stronghold: a planet called Tefra.

The crews of five Jumpers stood at attention in the Gateroom as Major Lorne reviewed the rescue mission logistics.

"Let's go through this one more time, everyone. We've already agreed that an approach a few hours before dawn is the best strategy. It reduces the chances of our being spotted. Each Jumper will cloak immediately upon arriving on Tefra. But remember, because we can only cloak after coming through the Gate, we have to expect that someone might see us, even in the middle of the night, in that brief moment we're exposed. We'll be at the Compound in seconds, but we have to expect that the Wraith Worshippers will have had enough time to get ready for us."

"My team, Major Cappelli's, Captain Bergen's and Captain Elliott's will fly directly to the Compound. Captain Levine, after neutralizing any unfriendlies you will land your Jumper and deploy your men around the Gate. Under no circumstances is anyone to use it. As Dr. McKay has instructed, your team will keep the Gate activated to prevent anyone, such as the Wraith in darts, from coming through."

"The structure: It's defended by a force field that's on 24/7. We'll take it out with drones. The informant says it's a three-story building that can house upwards of 30 people. He isn't sure if they have levels underground. He's only been on the first floor where there are guard quarters, so he doesn't know what's upstairs. So, we have to assume that Colonel Sheppard could be anywhere in the building. We'll scan for his subcutaneous transmitter, but odds are they took it out as soon as he was captured."

"Any questions?" No one had any. "OK, then. Everybody go to the Jumper bay and get ready to move out. We're gonna find the Colonel and bring him home – alive."

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The inky blackness surrounding Tefra's gate was suddenly dispelled, bathed in rippling blue light as the five Jumpers came through the event horizon. As planned, Captain Levine's team remained behind at the Gate as Lorne and the others sped off to rescue Sheppard.

The Compound was quiet; it was well past midnight and everyone not on guard duty was asleep. John was where he had been for days now, bound to his hospital bed, and extremely well-guarded, with one man stationed inside his room, and another two outside in the hall.

John awoke with a start. He never slept well here, and often awakened in the night, but something was pulling at him…

Suddenly, explosions rocked the building. The Lanteans were bombarding the force field and taking out land mines they had detected that were booby-trapping the grounds. Inside the Compound, emergency lights came on and ear-splitting alarms began screeching. One of the men guarding Sheppard took off to cover the stairs, but the other two stayed behind. John gave them a look that said, 'you're totally screwed now!' But that was a bit premature, as one guard menacingly drew his stunner while the other began untying John from the bed…

The Compound's external defenses quickly collapsed; they could not withstand a drone attack from four Jumpers. As the ships landed and Sheppard's friends and fellow soldiers moved in, they took heavy fire from Wraith stunners. At least nine Marines fell, dead or wounded, from grenades thrown from one of the upper floors. The weaponry on both sides was powerful and well-matched, but ultimately the Lanteans had the advantage by having more men. They breached the main entrance to the building and then fanned out across the first floor, going from room to room in search of Sheppard. An armory, also on the first level, was quickly secured.

Ronon throttled the first guard he met and shoved his particle gun under, and practically through, the man's chin. "Where is he, what are we up against, and don't even think about lying to me…" he demanded.

"The second floor, the second floor! On the northwest side. Usually there are three men guarding him."

"Thank you," Ronon said, and stunned him twice for good measure. Then he, Lorne, and 8 other men made for the stairs. When they reached the second floor, they were met by surprisingly little resistance. If Sheppard was being held up here, then why…? They soon had their answer. They broke into his locked room and….the Colonel was nowhere to be found.

"He lied to me!" roared Ronon.

"No, I don't think he did," said Lorne. "This door was locked from the inside. C'mon, there must be another exit."

There was. A hidden staircase led down from John's room to an underground tunnel system. The Lanteans didn't know about it, because the low-level informant didn't either. Two guards were now dragging along a handcuffed Sheppard in a desperate attempt to escape. But John wasn't going easily. He knew that he was too valuable for them to kill; he was an asset the Wraith Worshippers were trying to protect, not a human shield who might die if they got into a shoot-out with the Lantean forces. The guards wanted to get the hell out of the Compound, and do it fast. John did his best to slow them down. He went limp, trying to make it difficult for them to keep up a quick pace. His plan backfired, though, when one of the guards stunned him and was big and strong enough to sling Sheppard over his shoulder.

John could just not catch a break – or maybe he could.

The Jumper attacks on the force field and the land mines had collapsed part of the tunnel. When Lorne's team finally caught up with them where they had been stopped by debris, the guards had no choice but to surrender.

Sheppard's ordeal was finally over. At least THIS one was. According to the Azeron, something worse might lie ahead.

TBC…..I hope you enjoyed this! Please read and review! John's free for now, but many dangers await!