CHAPTER 5

Isabel pulled Dr Weir aside at the end of the briefing, her eyes filled with alarm. "Where's Dr Beckett?" She felt sick to her stomach, dreading to hear what she was going to say.

"We had an incident a while back. A research team had been infected with tumours that, when they reached critical capacity, would explode." Dr Weir started. Isabel's expression sank, tears starting to sting her eyes. "We had already lost three people because of it and Dr Beckett took it upon himself to operate on the last surviving member of the team. It went smoothly until it came to getting the tumour to a bomb proof case, which was on its way down from the gate. He handed the surgery over to another doctor and tried to meet the person carrying the case because the tumour was almost at critical capacity. He didn't reach it in time."

Isabel let a tear fall from her eye, another one of the people she loved was dead. She didn't love him the way she loved Ryan but she thought of him as a brother. A brother that she no longer had. "This was when I was with the Nox wasn't it?" She asked, unable to think of a reason why she hadn't heard.

"Yes it was." Elizabeth frowned apologetically, placing a hand on Isabel's arm. "You should probably talk to Rodney about it. As annoying as he is, Carson was his best friend, he might be able to help."

"I'm just going to head down to Dr Keller for my exam." Isabel took a deep breath, wiping the tears from her eyes and walking from the briefing room as if they had said nothing about it.

…

Skye couldn't bear what she was hearing. Screams were echoing down the vast corridors, many of them not returning after they went silent. Of the fifteen people who were in the cage with her, now six remain, and five of them have been through too much already. It's just her and a small woman left, the woman more terrified than the rest of them. When their captors came back Skye stood back, the terrified woman clinging to her arm. Their leader pointed to the woman, the two others dragging her from the cell.

"No." Skye screamed, running forward. Before she could get to them she was hit by the leader, sending her flying into the back wall. When she woke up, the woman wasn't there anymore.

...

After several minutes, Ward had mastered flying the puddle jumper and was done learning how to cloak it. "Do you think we'll be ready in time?" Ward asked John, flying the jumper back into the bay.

"Yeah, I think so." John nodded, not sounding as confident as Ward would have liked. "We leave in an hour so gear up." With that John left Ward in the jumper, worrying about how he was going to fly the thing on his own.

...

An hour later everyone congregated in the jumper bay, each boarding one of three jumpers. Ward's job was to touch down with the other three and when everyone got out become a distraction for the wraith darts, hopefully surviving until everyone was back aboard the other jumpers and ready to leave the planet. They didn't know how may people would still be alive so he might have to pick up a few people if there wasn't enough space in the others.

They left and the plan moves swiftly, two of the three jumpers cloaking once they left the event horison. Isabel, May and Coulson moved quickly, using the trees for cover for as long as they could. When they reached the tree line Isabel cloaked them and they continued to move up to the entrance of the large hive ship.

"We can't stay cloaked while we move through here, the Wraith will be able to sense it if I try to use their mind to find Skye and the others." Isabel explained, removing the cloak. They moved swiftly, frequently doubling back and taking slight detours to avoid the Wraith. Within five minutes they could see the cell where everyone was being held. May and Coulson moved to run to them but Isabel held them back as three wraith walked round the corner dragging Skye back to the cell. Isabel motioned for them to move further back as the wraith turned to leave the group in the cell. Luckily they didn't spot the three of them and continued on their way.

Isabel quickly ran over to the keypad, using her powers to open the cell door. The officers, in varying degrees of lucidity and with the help of Coulson and May, moved through the facility, following Isabel as closely as possible, who was carrying Skye. They quickly made it to the jumpers and began their escape.