Hello all! I bet you thought I'd left and would never finish the story. And I HATE myself for disappearing! When I lost everything from this story and my books, I kind of gave up writing for a while. I seem to be slowly getting back to writing and so I decided to work on this first! This chapter is just written as I couldn't get the original chapters back. Hopefully I've remembered the plot! YES, I WILL finish the story! :D Thanks for your patience :)

Chapter 27

As Caran closed the Jumper's door, the huge overhead shadow slipped past them and continued to creep on over the water into the murky distance.

"It's on approach for submersion," Nara offered from the front seat. "It looks as though it will break water further down the lake."

Teldy jumped into the pilot seat and carried out a systems check as the others took their places. "Any readouts on that thing?"

Nara shook her head. "I'm getting nothing from the ship itself other than its dimensions. It's bigger than the one back on Caronaa."

"We can't take on something of that size," Rella said shakily.

"I don't intend to," Teldy remarked as she pulled the Jumper into a sluggish one-eighty turn.

Shocked silence fell as the team saw more huge ships moving above the water.

"We'll never get out of here," Caran whispered. "What the hell are we going to do?!"

Ronon, peering silently out the viewport, pointed to the left. "We go there," he growled, pointing towards the fissure and the darkness that had swallowed John Sheppard some time before.

"Well that's a definite negative," Teldy replied. "We couldn't manoeuvre in there if our lives depended on it —which, I hasten to add, it does."

"We don't need to manoeuvre; we just need to get out of sight until we have a plan and an idea of what's going on."

"True," Teldy conceded and steered the Jumper towards the darkness and away from the wandering shadows.

It was a tight squeeze to get the Jumper through the opening, little wider than a Stargate, which was tight enough. There were a few hair-raising moments before the tunnel widened and made moving easier. They travelled steadily downwards for some distance before light became visible ahead. The occasional Goh swam past, eerie blue lights darting through the darkness only to disappear into cracks or holes in the tunnel walls.

Ronon was aware of Rella watching him, knew she could see the pain etched on his face. The painkillers had long worn off and the spike of adrenaline had forced it from his system completely. Rella dug around in her bag before offering him another two yellow tablets, but Ronon shook his head. She was about to insist until Ronon threw her a look that silenced her. She dropped the tablets back into her bag then turned away from him. It was rather heartless of him to treat her so, but in their current predicament, Ronon felt he couldn't afford to be affected by any medication.

Eventually the Jumper flew out of the long tunnel and into a space that shocked them all as much as the appearance of the Groten ships. It was an immense cavern, an underwater world large enough to hold Atlantis itself and still have room to spare. The surrounding walls clearly housed the Goh as they were filled with holes and crevices from which the creatures swam on the arrival of the Jumper. The space was illuminated by the glowing walls, a soft cream light that seemed to emit from the very rock itself. In the centre of the cavern was a large rock form which top sat just above a strange phenomenon.

At first Ronon thought it was a trick of his eyes.

At the bottom of the cavernous space the water appeared to split into two separate waters, moving independently of each other. The water above was calm and was where most of the Goh swam. Whereas the water below, surrounding the central rock form, was a speeding, writhing, snake of movement that encircled the massive place. It exited the cavern to a destination unknown through a huge opening in the far wall, only to return through another.

"The birthing valleys?" Mehra asked as they all looked down on the weird water.

"Yes!" Rella exclaimed. "Look!"

It took Ronon a few moments to see what had her so excited. Then he saw it, a fast moving dot of black, carried around the cavern then out through the rock.

"Was that Sheppard?" he asked with amused surprised.

"I think so," Rella laughed.

They were so focused on John and his travels that they failed to immediately notice the visitor which floated up to peer inside at them.

"Is that Primus?" Rella asked when its movement caught her eye.

"No idea, they all look the same to me," Mehra grunted.

Caran rushed to the rear of the ship. She gathered up the tablet used to communicate with Primus before, replaced the wire that had been in John's spine with a longer one then asked Teldy to open the bulkhead door. Seeing what Caran intended, Nara joined her and worked the shield to allow the wire to be placed outside of the ship. Caran then returned to the window and gestured to the Goh to move to the rear. Within seconds the first message appeared on the tablet.

Why did you come here?

I said more than a day, he is not ready.

"Primus! There are Groten ships outside," Caran spoke as she typed. "You are in danger."

A mass movement of Goh followed the message, a flashing shoal of them moved swiftly towards the centre of the cavern. They darted about with agitation, the information fully communicated from Primus.

You also are in danger.

The Groten will destroy you as soon as you are discovered.

Wait in the cavern until the danger passes.

We will all be safe, here.

"Ask him about Sheppard," Ronon muttered.

Sheppard is healing.

That's it? He's flying around down there like a leaf in a tornado and he's 'healing?'"

"Ronon wants more information," Caran translated his ire.

Primus took a moment to reply then said, follow me.

The creature appeared again at the viewport then dove deeper into the cavern. Teldy slowly pushed the Jumper forward and followed Primus down into the depths. There was a surprising amount of light within the cavern. For a place not only under water but under the river bed, it was illuminated as bright as the day was above water. Primus directed them to touch down on the central rock formation; far beyond the reach of what they assumed were the birthing valleys. Once there, Primus swam away, only to return a few moments later with a new shoal of friends.

These Goh were much smaller than Primus. A dark grey in colour, they were almost mature Goh, larger than the ones Ronon had seen burst from the Groten by the lake side, though smaller than Primus and the black shoal of Goh from before. The shoal moved right up to the viewport as Primus darted back behind the Jumper. They swam forward with obvious caution, and then parted to either side of the Jumper to reveal John Sheppard.

He floated vertically some feet before them, gently swayed by the water into a lazy rotation. The breathing apparatus and umbilical floated beside him. Small bubbles occasionally rose above him, indicating that he was, at least for now, still breathing and alive. Finally he faced them, his pallid complexion made even paler by the light emitted by the rock formations. He looked ghastly, like a man long drowned and departed. But there was one thing different from when they last saw him.

His eyes were open.

In fact, they were crinkled by a smile hidden behind the oxygen mask as he raised his head slightly to look at them.

"Well, ho-lee shit!" Mehra laughed as they all stared unabashedly. "Would you look at that?!"

While it appeared there was an improvement in his health, John's eyes soon fluttered closed as his body continued with its slow rotation. His head lolled back and he was once again unconscious. The shoal of premature Goh quickly swam back to him and enveloped his body. Ronon continued to watch the moving mass as it returned John to the swirling maelstrom of water.

As you can see, John is healing.

The waters are having unprecedented effects on the human body.

He is healing better than I ever thought possible in his condition.

But he still needs time.

"This is great news," Caran typed. "We didn't expect a change in his condition so soon.

Nor did I.

But he is still in danger.

He needs to stay in the birthing valleys.

"We won't ask to see him again until he is ready," Caran replied.

I will send scouts out to review the Groten situation.

Primus darted to the front of the Jumper and out into the expanse of water. There it met with several large Goh specimens. With a suddenness that surprised Ronon, they all disappeared out into the long access tunnel. As they waited, Ronon and the others watched the swirling birthing valleys and the occasional view of Sheppard as he whizzed past. If it hadn't been such a bad situation, John's rapid swim might have been hilarious. To an extent, it was, and for a short while the Jumper crew were amused by the sight, until they remembered why they were hiding.

"What are we going to do if the Groten ships find us?" Nara's nervous query broke the resulting uneasy silence.

"We barely made it in here; I doubt their ships could squeeze inside this place." Teldy replied. "Are our sensors able to pick anything up from above?"

"Not a thing. I'm afraid the sensors seem to be malfunctioning," Caran replied as she typed on her laptop. "I'm guessing it's either yet another problem with this tired old Girl, or the rock formations are affecting them."

As AR-3 continued discussing the ever increasing problems with their ship, Rella once again offered Ronon her painkillers.

"Your argument about keeping your mind clear for battle is null and void at present. No sense sitting in pain if we're not going anywhere."

With no convincing counter-argument, Ronon reluctantly took them. Truth be told, the pain was starting to tire him, and the last thing he needed was to fall in battle because of his reluctance to listen to medical advice. He dry swallowed them then leaned back against the cool wall of the ship and closed his eyes. He was dozing and on the verge of sleep when Nara called out.

"There, I think that's Primus!"

"How the hell would you know?" Mehra asked with annoyance.

"Because, it's heading this way," Teldy said leaning forward in her seat.

Primus raced behind the ship and soon started conveying messages through to Caran's laptop.

"Primus says there are five ships in total, all converging on the fissure. It thinks they are about to cast nets and... commence a flush?"

"What does it mean, flush?" Teldy asked.

Caran ignored the question, continuing to converse with Primus in private. Her expression changed from one of confusion to one of worry, then, when she eventually looked up from the laptop, one of fear.

"Primus says there will be one more ship at the other end of the birthing valley, ready to power up its sublight engines and blow everything in this cavern out through the fissure, us included."

"We'll be smashed to pieces!" Mehra cried.

"Give me that thing," Teldy growled and took the laptop. She glared at the screen as she furiously typed questions to Primus. After a while she handed the laptop back to Caran. "We have one chance. Primus says we can fit through the birthing valley tunnels. Primus will take its people into the walls and we will head out to that other ship and stop it from firing those engines."

"What about Sheppard?" Ronon asked, already regretting giving in to Rella and her medication.

"They're taking him with them."

"And then what?"

"Then we get those ships to follow us and leave the Goh, and Sheppard, alone."

"What?" Nara cried. "How are we going to do that?!"

Dusty Mehra laughed, her eyes gleaming as she stared at Teldy. "Lorne put us on this mission for just this kind of reason," she nodded towards Teldy. "We're flying with one of the best pilots on the force, save for Sheppard himself. I guess it's time to put your famed skills to the test, ma'am."

"Damned right it is," Teldy replied as she prepared to move the Jumper. "Buckle up folks; this might well turn out to be the ride of your lives!"/

To be continued!