Chapter Eight – Dead Ends

Rodney ducked instinctively as Ronon loomed over him, playing with his blaster, spinning it around. "Would you stop doing that?!" The scientist practically shouted in annoyance.

The Satedan merely sent him a glare.

However, Rodney returned it with full intensity and finally caused Ronon to straighten so that he wasn't leaning in between the two forward seats but rather stood behind.

"Remind me to thank Sheppard for dragging me on this journey. Coped up with you two in a jumper for several days," Rodney muttered.

Teyla raised an eyebrow and gave him an indignant look. "Someone's cranky," she said neutrally.

"Bet he's worse than Torren at his worst," Ronon returned.

"Hey, I heard that," Rodney snapped. He was about to deliver a snarky remark as an alarm suddenly blared. He turned around in the pilot's seat, his fingers flying over the console. "Oh," he said. "This is so not good."

"What?" Ronon demanded impatiently as he upholstered his weapon.

"Wraith," Rodney returned distraught. "A hive ship is coming our way and it's closing in fast."

"The cloak," Teyla suggested calmly from the copilot's seat.

"Already on it," Rodney said.

"You think they detected us?" Ronon asked gruffly as he leaned in between Teyla and Rodney's seats.

"No, I see no indication of that," the scientist returned as the Hive went past them. "But they'll probably discover the planet where Sheppard is."

Ronon scratched the back of his neck. "About that. How can they not know about it?" He asked.

"The Ancient's called it a beta site," Rodney explained but he didn't take his eyes off the instruments of the jumper. "A beta site is a codename the Lanteans' used for reconnaissance and information gathering. It was locked away under several layers of red tape in Janus' lab."

"Skip the riddles, McKay," Ronon returned in annoyance.

"Why am I even bothering?" the Canadian muttered.

"You think it's one of those places where several cities where tied up together?" Teyla asked curiously. "Like we saw on the Asuran home world?"

"Something like that," Rodney admitted. "I don't know why Janus hid the address or why it doesn't appear in the ancient database."

"There was no advanced culture," Ronon said with a shrug. "Only simple villagers that seemed offended by our presence."

"Simple villagers?" Rodney echoed. "Like the Genii, having a secret underground facility? Looks can be deceiving. Don't tell me you didn't notice the ZPM glowing faintly in the large cave."

"Janus died a long time ago, Rodney," Teyla reasoned softly. "I'm sure something was going on back then, but now – I'm not so sure. For all we know all the cities could have pulled away, if they were even here in the first place, and the traces of any Lantean civilization here would be gone."

"Look, I don't have all the answers," Rodney bristled in frustration.

Ronon turned to Teyla. "Definitely cranky," he deduced causing the Athosian's lips to curl upward.

OOOOOO

Sheppard came to an abrupt halt as he saw several dots appear on the life signs detector. Guessing this ancient city was constructed like Atlantis, he took a detour down the deserted corridors. To his dismay, the lights flickered and then brightened as they sensed his presence. The city had obviously been left for so long that commands didn't respond unless an ancient, or direct descendant, reactivated it again.

It was a feeling of déjà vu of a sort, wandering the corridors like this, it took him back in time to when he'd first set foot on Atlantis five years ago. He snorted, remembering his thoughts before travelling through the stargate for the first time. Then, as if struck by lightning, he came to a halt in the middle of the hallway.

"The stargate," he said.

Since the stargate next to the savages' village had been blown to pieces the proximity problem shouldn't arise. However, he didn't know the power levels in the remaining ZPMs. Sheppard suddenly hurried down the corridors, using Atlantis layout as a blueprint in his mind. Also, since having the life signs detector he could allow himself the luxury of not having to look over his shoulder and stop at every junction to make sure he was still alone. The only things that hindered him were the slight limp and the fever lingering in his body due to the slowly fading poison.

Working his way toward the nearest internal citywide transporter, he cursed as a blip turned up on the life signs detector. He was no longer alone, someone was coming toward him, and judging by the speed he'd say that someone was jogging. 'The resistance no doubt', he thought.

Since he'd involuntarily activated the other life signs detector they now had the means to use it to their advantage. Because if they followed closely enough he wouldn't be able to shake them off. Picking up his own pace to a jog, he soon reached the transporter. Sheppard breathed a sigh of relief as the board flickered to life before him. Stabbing a finger at an exit point he knew would take him almost on top of the gate room he waited for the familiar hum; it never came.

He tried again to punch in the same command but the system refused to comply. Either the exit point had suffered structural collapse or the system was faulty. Confused he tried another location, a bit further away from his goal, and smiled to himself as he felt the familiar sensation of being shifted within the city. He'd been whisked away to temporary safety from the resistance, the detector showed no other life round him. However, his high hopes of escaping the underground city grumbled as the door refused to open.

He reached out mentally but the door wouldn't budge. He tried to pry it open to no avail. After several unsuccessful tries he sighed in frustration and leaned back against the wall, running a hand through his hair.

"Okay," he mumbled, trying to think of another approach. "Where is McKay when you actually need him?"

To fire a volley of shots at the doors wouldn't help. He glanced up to scrutinize the ceiling, looking for any kind of weakness in the construction that he could use. The lights suddenly flickered, came on again for a little while, before they finally died and left in him in the dark.

"Crap," he mumbled indignantly, dismayed at his bad luck. He reached out with his hands before him and finally found the now dark screen in front of him. Not having much hope of getting it back up and running he was actually surprised as it came to life under his fingertips.

Sheppard decided to give it another go and pushed his current location. There was a rush of murky air coming through the doors as they parted slightly, not enough to let him through but enough to let him see what was on the other side. The cold air tussled his hair and pulled at his clothes as he stuck his head through the opening and stared in amazement at the destruction before him. He was actually looking down in a dark abyss; nothing seemed to remain of the city on the other side of the transporter door.

Out of curiosity he reached into his pocket and retrieved a small light rod, one usually used for measuring depths. He threw it down the gaping hole and stared after it as it vanished into the pit.

"Okay, pretty deep," he admitted sarcastically. "Definitely a no go."

Sheppard made a face as he turned to study the screen again, trying to decide where to go next. "Third time's the charm," he quipped and placed his index finger on a point further away from his original goal.

The door creaked forebodingly but closed behind him. In a flash he was taken across the city again. This time the door opened obediently but as he was to walk out he halted mid-step. He closed his eyes and reached up to massage his forehead in pure frustration trying to gather his wits. Hoping it was all a bad dream that would come to an end. However, when he opened his eyes again nothing had changed.

A chuckle escaped his lips and he shook his head. "I don't believe it," he said ironically, staring out in the dark corridor.

It was a free passageway two or three meters ahead, then the structure had collapsed, caved in on itself. He had reached another dead end.

OOOOOO

Katan's eyes darkened as he heard the reports from deep underground. Several casualties had been reported. Things had escalated beyond his control. He'd always known the moment was to come, still he'd dreaded it. Dreaded the moment when a gunfight between the two fractions couldn't be avoided any longer. The distrust in the system was so high that the city state would plunge into civil war. The escalating factor to it all, no doubt, the man calling himself John Sheppard.

Katan shook his head in frustration. Perhaps the fault wasn't entirely Sheppard's, but he'd acted as a catalyst. For a while the Military Organiser had thought Sheppard belonged to the resistance, but then he'd come to realise there were too many inconsistencies. For example, the resistance seemed to believe that Sheppard was one of his spies. When the medical reports came back from the hospital and he'd had several offices run a background check on the man, he understood he was neither. That scared Katan more than anything. Sheppard was not from Katan's world; he might look like them but he was an alien. That finding alone set the government on high alert.

The alien was deemed a threat to international security given the unknown weapon he'd been carrying and his obvious military training. There was also the fact that one of his officers had come back from the battlefield and claimed that Sheppard had the gift which was often spoken of by the savages.

'Who was he really?' Katan found himself musing. 'And how had he arrived at the planet if not by the ship?'

There had been other worrying things that demanded his attention of late. One of them was that the large monument, at the border of the savage land, had crashed to the ground and that the savages had disappeared into their caves for a tribe meeting.

The elders had appeared scared. That was the report one of his lieutenants had given him after returning to base. Furthermore his report mentioned that before the monument fell to the ground, the ring had suddenly sprung to life. He had dismissed that last part as a fantasy too farfetched to be reality, but now he wasn't so sure.

The ring had been a sacred thing to the savages. They claimed the Old Ones once walked the ground of the planet through it. But then again, the savages had many tales that seemed too farfetched for his liking. Even though he no longer considered the savages to be simple in the way they claimed – they'd shown him another side while coming into the city to tell the story of the prophecy – he had a hard time believing the story about an enlightened race that came in numbers to the planet many thousand years ago in flying cities.

Nevertheless, some of the city people had wanted it to be true and an expedition had been launched to go down to the old structure beneath the city. However, the place was unsteady, too damaged and left unattended for so long that the expedition got cancelled after the mysterious death of a member of the Inner Circle who came along. The resistance blamed the military for infecting the dead man with the virus he supposedly died of and it was decided between the government and the military that Katan would claim that to be the case. However, the experimental bunker and the military scientists there had nothing to do with it. It came from the old site itself and with that knowledge the government prohibited people to enter the place.

It then became a perfect hiding place for the resistance – a place Katan could not clear out without risking the city built above it.

The Military Organiser sighed, a million questions competed for his attention. 'Was it possible that the mysterious ship's presence had coincided with John Sheppard and his sudden appearance and that they knew not of each other?'

Some of the younger savages had chatted among them as one of his scout team drew near, obviously upset about a team of four people entering their caves. One of the members of the team fitted the description of Sheppard perfectly and that was before the ship had appeared in orbit.

Katan shook his head nearly giving up on trying to fit the pieces of the puzzle together, he was at loss. He needed to find John Sheppard.

OOOOOO

Having no choice but to turn back, the Military Commander of Atlantis stepped back into the internal citywide transporter. He readied the blaster and brought up the life signs detector from his pocket as he chose an exit point on the city map. Adrenaline rushed through his body but he still wasn't feeling all that good. His body was still recuperating from the injury he'd sustained as well as the poison that had ravaged his body, wreaking havoc with his bloodstream before he'd received the antidote.

With a shaky finger he tightened the trigger of the weapon and shifted weight off his injured leg feeling he'd used it too excessively running around the hallways.

OOOOOO

"I really don't like the proximity of that," McKay whined as he stared at the Hive, entering orbit at the planet before them.

"I agree, it's inconvenient," Teyla spoke up.

McKay snorted. "Now, that's an understatement-" he began.

"What are they doing?" Ronon growled.

The three team members gazed out the main window of the jumper as the Hive suddenly powered its weapons and started firing at the planet.

A bright shimmer surrounded the planet, countermanding the weapons fire, neutralizing it.

"It must have been following the Traveler's trail," Ronon said grimly. "However, the Ancient ship had no trouble getting through the obvious shield."

"Let's hope we don't have that either," Ronon mumbled sourly.

"I do not wish to be the bearer of bad news, but even the Wraith can come through the Ancient shield," Teyla said as she pointed at the view screen. "Do you see those rings displayed? They indicates holes."

"So, the Wraith have been following the Traveler's trail and accidentally found themselves a new feeding ground," Rodney deduced.

"They will begin culling," Teyla said in a low voice. "With the level of advancement we saw back there they'll have nothing to fight back with."

Rodney watched helplessly as darts started pouring out of the bays of the Hive. "With Sheppard in the middle," he said dejectedly.

"What is that?" Teyla asked curiously as the jumper began its decent.

Rodney followed her gaze and narrowed his eyes suspiciously as he thought he saw a faint glow of light emanating from the planet's surface. He called for a magnification and brought it up before him on the screen.

"It's a city," Ronon stated, standing between Rodney and Teyla.

"I might have been right about the level of advancement," Rodney mumbled as he got the vast area of the large city down below. "I just hope it's not a repeat history of the Genii."

"It cannot be," Teyla said softly although with a hollowness that made her statement eerie. "The Genii hid their advancements from us, these people display it openly."

OOOOOO

To be continued