Chapter 8
"Motion ahead!" Lorne called out.
"Take up positions!" Sheppard ordered. "Lock down that door Rodney!"
Rodney quickly disassembled the locking mechanism of the doorway and put it on a security lock down. "Done," Rodney said. Sheppard nodded and took cover behind a pillar.
A stupendous crash shook the door. For all its sturdy Ancient construction, the door shuddered.
"More lycans I assume?" Sheppard asked Selene.
"I think so," she said.
"You think so?" Sheppard asked.
"I can normally sense them, and they do seem lycan-like, but there's something wrong with them, I think," Selene said. "I can't explain it any better than that."
The door collapsed in a hail of metallic splinters. A creature stood in the doorway that looked vaguely similar to the two lycans they'd faced before, but only vaguely. It was more hunched over, and its fur was growing in patches, as if it were diseased.
"Open fire!" Sheppard shouted.
Selene's shotgun bellowed in his ears before he even finished saying 'fire'. Ronon's pistol made it's signature whine. Energy bolts and buckshot struck the creature center of mass and tore its guts out, putting it down in a mess of blood.
Three more of the creatures came bounding through the door. One of them grabbed a defender by the neck and lifted him into the air. The man tried to scream, but with his air cut off he just sputtered a bit. He drew a sidearm and shot the creature in the chest a half dozen times. Sheppard put a burst into it from his M-240 for good measure. The creature faltered, but it didn't fall.
It slammed its palm into the defender's chest like a Wraith would. The unfortunate soldier screamed, and in less than a second, his body desiccated. The creature tossed the soldier aside. Two seconds after that, the victim started to change.
Two seconds after that, the victim arose from the floor, fully transformed, like the creature that had attacked him.
"It appears to have healed itself when it fed on him," Selene shouted, firing into the nearest creature.
"Adjust fire!" Sheppard shouted. "Take down the closest one! Lorne, grenades!"
"Ready sir!" Lorne called.
Sheppard and Lorne tossed two grenades each among the enemy. "Fire in the hole!" Sheppard shouted. The sound was nearly unbearable in the enclosed space. Sheppard broke cover, M-240 at the ready.
The grenades had killed three of the creatures, but Sheppard had seen at least two more in the initial attack. "Didn't get them all," Sheppard said.
"No, but they don't seem all that tough individually," Ronon said.
"I don't think it's their toughness we need to worry about," Teyla said. "Did you see what it did to Captain Jefferson?"
"Yeah," Sheppard fumed. "I saw." Sheppard paced around, his blood boiling.
"Are you alright?" Selene asked.
"NO! DO I LOOK ALRIGHT?!" Sheppard shouted. A severe pain gripped him without warning, and it felt like his bones were swimming in his body.
"It will happen soon," Selene said. "You must control yourself," she said.
"Yeah, I'm trying," Sheppard grated out. The pain subsided finally and he picked himself up.
"Rodney," Sheppard said. "Any idea what the hell that thing is, or how it did that?"
"No. I would need to study one in a lab," Rodney said.
"I don't think we're going to have time for that," Sheppard said.
"Fine, I'll just perform the analysis with magic. Perhaps I'll read chicken entrails or something."
"Rodney," Sheppard said warningly.
"Look, could we at least stop at the library room in this section of the city? Maybe the Ancient database has something on this," Rodney said.
"Fine," Sheppard said.
"Sheppard, I just had a thought. What if every patrol that we've lost so far has been turned like Jefferson was?"
Sheppard stared at Teyla for a moment weighing the implications. "Holy Christ," Sheppard said. "We could be easily overrun, even in a strong defensive position."
Teyla nodded. "We have to contact the Daedalus. Whatever this is, it cannot leave this world. It would be a scourge as bad as the Wraith, maybe even worse."
"We're cut off from all the naquadah generators," Rodney said. "If we could get to one and overload it, the resulting explosion would easily destroy the city and the Stargate with it."
"We can't fight our way through that many," Sheppard said. "We don't have enough ammunition. We'll have to hole up at the south pier until the Daedalus arrives. When they do-"
Sheppard stopped when he heard groaning. "Elizabeth?" Sheppard ran to her side. He motioned to the two soldiers to set the stretcher down. "Elizabeth?" he said again.
"John," she said. "God, I feel terrible. I'm so thirsty," she said. Sheppard handed her his canteen. She took one drink, and then upended it, drinking the entire contents in seconds, but she still didn't seem satisfied.
She looked at his shoulder and her eyes dilated slightly. The blood from the lycan bite, Sheppard thought.
She seemed to shake herself out of a trance. "Why do I feel so strange?" she asked.
"You were injured severely Elizabeth," John said. "Don't get up, you need to-"
"Actually, I feel OK," Elizabeth said, standing up.
"Elizabeth, you shouldn't-" Sheppard began.
"I'm fine," Elizabeth said. Her skin had taken on a paler than usual hue. "What's the situation?"
Sheppard sighed. "The city is under attack by unknown creatures. We've lost most of the city and the gateroom. We are trying to get to the communications tower on the south pier to signal the Daedalus," Sheppard said.
Elizabeth nodded. "It's a good plan, though we should consider overloading one of the Naquadah reactors if we can't hold."
"We're cut off from them," Rodney said.
Elizabeth nodded. "Then the pier is our only option."
"Elizabeth, we need to talk privately," Sheppard said. She nodded and followed him. "Selene, you too."
They found a corner nearby, but far enough away to be out of easy earshot.
"There's something you should know, Dr Weir," Selene began. "For one, my name is not Dr. Shackleford. My name is Selene and I am a vampire."
Elizabeth looked at Sheppard, confused. "Seriously?" she asked.
"I'm afraid so," Sheppard said.
"Huh," Elizabeth said. "OK then. Why are you here?"
Selene blinked. "You took that in stride pretty well."
"Like I said," Sheppard began, "in light of the normal strangeness we have around here, this only rates about a 5 on our weird-o-meter."
"John," Elizabeth chided. "You were about to say, Selene?"
"My people had gotten word that the lycans had infiltrated a secret government project, and that they had uncovered some kind of information that might pose a threat to us," Selene said.
"Lycans?" Elizabeth asked.
"Werewolves, basically," Sheppard said. "That's what's been attacking the city."
Elizabeth placed a palm over her forehead and grimaced. "What is wrong with me?"
"You were injured, Elizabeth," Sheppard said. "You were bleeding out. We had to do something."
"Do what?" Elizabeth asked.
Sheppard sighed. "Vampires apparently have powerful regenerative abilities. We had to...well. We had to do something."
"OK, John, pretend for a moment I have no idea what you're talking about. Because I don't," Elizabeth said.
"My kind can be born naturally, but a vampire can also be made. From a bite on the neck by another vampire," Selene said.
Elizabeth stared into space unmoving. "Oh my God," she said. "Is that why I have an unbearable urge to lick the dried blood off your shoulder?" she asked Sheppard.
Sheppard swallowed. The question had been innocent and disturbing at the same time. He wasn't sure if he should've felt repulsed, terrified, deeply disturbed, or attracted to her at that very moment. "Oookay, that was a bit strange, but, yeah, I'd guess so," he said.
"Was there really no other way?" Elizabeth asked.
Sheppard hung his head in shame. Selene answered for him. "You were nearly gone. Your medics did their best, but they just didn't have the right equipment on hand. Frankly, I'm surprised you've tolerated the change so well."
"What am I going to do?" Elizabeth asked. She looked at Selene. "Are your kind allergic to sunlight?"
"By and large yes, but I'm a little different," Selene said. "The sunlight does not harm me. Most likely it will not harm you. You received the bite from me, and turned vampires usually inherit traits of their progenitors."
"It's not just you, either, Elizabeth," Sheppard said. "One of werewolves bit me earlier. Apparently, I'm about ready to go furry."
"Great," Elizabeth said.
"You will have to feed soon," Selene said.
"That's going to get interesting," Elizabeth said.
"We shouldn't stay here," Sheppard said. "We need to keep-"
Sheppard was interrupted by a rude crash. An entire wall between him and the rest of his men blew inward, and a half dozen Wraith poured through. The Wraith opened fire with stunners on the defenders, and several went down immediately.
"Down!" Sheppard shouted, taking cover. He was behind the Wraith, and had a clear line of fire. He unleashed the M-240 upon them, sending dozens of 7.62 NATO rounds into them. Wraith began to fall and, realizing they were flanked, they started trying to retreat.
Selene moved in a blur and appeared next to a pair of retreating Wraith. With another blur, blood was gushing from their cut throats. A third's neck snapped as she caught the alien in passing.
The Wraith went into headlong retreat toward their entry. Sheppard was about to pursue, when his instincts screamed a warning. He turned, only to catch a pale green fist in the face. He landed on his back, more pissed than hurt. The blow had been strong, but nothing extraordinary. He scrambled back to his feet, but he'd lost the M-240 in the shuffle. He drew his 1911 pistol and aimed it at the Wraith in front of him, but he held his fire.
It had Elizabeth and was using her as a human shield.
"Human," the wraith hissed. "And accompanied by one of the other predators our compatriots told us of. Order your men to stand down, or I will consume this one's life."
"Just let her go," Sheppard said, "and you have my word, I won't try to stop you from leaving."
"Do I look like a fool, human?" the wraith mocked him. "You are all toying with things you don't even understand. Even the predator herself is ignorant of the truth about her own people."
"What truth?" Selene demanded.
"Order your men to stand down!" the wraith demanded.
"Shoot him!" Elizabeth shouted. "Shoot him!" She started struggling. The Wraith drove its fist into a kidney, and she grimaced as the pain overtook her. She arched her back, an agonized mewling sound coming from her lips. Her eyes were closed tightly against the pain, which just wouldn't seem to stop.
When her eyes popped back open, they were that unsettling blue he'd seen in Selene's eyes. Elizabeth lunged forward, easily breaking the wraith's grip. The wraith drew its palm back like it was going to feed.
She beat the wraith to the punch. Literally. Elizabeth slammed her fist into the wraith's torso and she struck with such force that the wraith was thrown back several feet. The force was even such that Elizabeth was thrown back a couple of feet herself, and she nearly fell.
Sheppard lined the pistol up on the wraith and emptied all eight of the magazine's .45 caliber rounds into it in rapid succession.
Elizabeth held up her fist and looked at it questioningly, not understanding what had just happened. "Nice shot," Sheppard said.
"Wraith? How did they get here?" Rodney asked.
"I don't know. We're damned lucky I just happened to walk away from the group for a moment. I don't think we'd have stopped them without having them flanked like that." Sheppard turned to Selene. "Any ideas on why or how the wraith got here?" Selene was staring at the dead wraith and didn't answer. "Selene?" Sheppard asked.
"Oh, sorry," she said, shaking herself. "Never saw an alien before. Not in person, at least...I was just a bit curious. To answer your question, I don't know."
"It sounds like these wraith are working with the lycans on the base," Sheppard said. "My money says that these weird lycan-like things are probably the result of their efforts."
"That doesn't make any sense," Rodney said. "The creatures would undoubtedly be effective for wiping out a human population, but the wraith do not exterminate their food source completely."
"We're not going to figure it out here," Sheppard said. "Let's get out of here."