Thank you for all the reviews and for continuing to stay with me on this journey! I'm loving the reviews! Let's head back to Ignothia and see what's happening there...

Chapter 30

"Get that thing tied down!" Teldy yelled as Rella's medical bag flew through the air and nearly took Nara's head off.

The Jumper was speeding through the birthing valleys on what had to be the most dangerous ride any of the occupants had ever been on. The valleys were what amounted to a narrow tunnel system beneath the bedrock which created a whirlpool phenomenon beneath the warmer water above. The Jumper barely fit in the tunnels and it took every ounce of concentration Teldy could muster to keep the ship from smashing into one of the rocky walls.

Due to their speed there wasn't much more to see other than blurred rock, though occasionally, they would catch sight of a small, fast moving shoal of young Goh following an adult to safety.

"How much further do you think it will be?" Rella asked, her complexion a light shade of green.

"We're nearly there," Nara replied, looking at the HUD and the spaghetti-like map of tunnels it displayed. "A few more minutes."

"What's the plan?" Ronon asked.

"We stop that ship from firing its engines," Teldy replied pulling the Jumper up and to the right so hard Rella spilled onto the floor and Caran yelped as she stumbled and nearly dropped her laptop.

"Then what?" Ronon growled as he awkwardly helped Rella back into her seat.

"Then we head for the Gate and get the hell out of here. How are you coming with the cloak, Caran?"

"I'm doing the best I can. It isn't easy doing this while being thrown around all over the place!"

Ronon idly wondered if all Earth scientists were cloned from McKay. Most, if not all he had met, did little but moan while they worked. And, like McKay, they usually pulled a miracle from their bag of tricks. He hoped Caran had this same McKay trait.

The tunnel twisted left and upwards then levelled at what Ronon thought was probably the same height as the Goh cavern they'd left behind. Teldy didn't ease up on the speed as the exit appeared up ahead. She just charged on even when the first glimpse of the Groten ship came into view. It wasn't a welcoming sight, given that all they could see was two, huge circles of a rusty brown colour with a central dark mass.

"If they're engine ports, that thing must be huge!" Mehra whispered in awe.

"If they are, then we have a problem. Not only is the cloak not working, the weapons interface doesn't seem to be coming online. Caran?!"

"I'm trying!" the little scientist shouted while continuing to stab at her laptop.

She pulled a crystal and replaced it with another then pressed at her laptop again. She huffed and cursed beneath her breath as the laptop registered another failure.

"Caran, those engines are getting pretty big out there!"

"I'm try- wait, wait... okay, try it now!"

There was a clunking followed by a whine as the Jumper blasted out of the tunnel system, up and over the Groten ship, and hopefully invisible to any eyes that might be looking. They all breathed a sigh of relief when Caran confirmed the Jumper was indeed cloaked and that weapons were back online.

Underwater, the Groten ship looked like a rusting hulk, all browns and reds and oranges. But it was in perfect condition, merely coloured to look like a rusting hulk. Perhaps this was a ploy to make it look non-threatening, but to an experienced eye, the ship was quite clearly in good order. As such, it would take more than a little Jumper to bring it down, and so they were left with the option of getting the thing to chase them in order to stop them flushing the Goh tunnels.

"Is everyone ready?" Teldy asked quietly as she brought the Jumper to a stop before the ship.

A unanimous positive response prompted weapon fire. The fired drones fizzed through the water like torpedoes leaving a steaming wake of bubbles behind them. They smashed into the Groten hull and churned up water and gravel from the river bed that then clouded the area. They all watched to see what damage the drones had wrought as the water cleared.

A thunderous sound vibrated through the water to shake the Jumper and its occupants. Then, through the remaining dirt cloud, the Groten ship appeared, moving rapidly forward and honed in on them.

"Is the cloak down again?!"

"No, it's still up!" Caran assured them.

The Groten ship fired a missile that missed them by mere inches.

"They can see us!" Teldy cried and pulled the ship in a one-eighty then punched the throttle. There came another thunderous sound and the HUD showed multiple points of movement behind them. Five ships now followed, gaining ground as the Jumper rose through the water.

"At least the Goh are safe," Nara commented as the Jumper burst from the water and into the air, its nose straight up and heading for the sky.

"Oh yes, so long as the Goh are safe," Mehra snarked. "It's their fault we are in this situation!"

"No it isn't!" Nara retorted. "The Groten are to blame!"

Another thunderous sound reverberated through the ship and their skulls. Whatever it was, the noise disoriented not just the people on the ship, but also the ship itself.

"Damnit! The heads-up is down!" Nara cried.

Caran ran to the cockpit with her laptop, pressing buttons as she went. She pushed a cable into the console and frowned.

"That's not the only thing that's down. I'm registering a cascade failure throughout the system!" She continued to press buttons and connected more cables. "The whole ship is shutting down!"

The words were no sooner out of her mouth when, one by one, the Jumper systems began to power down. Lights flickered; the engines pulsed and spluttered, the weapon array didn't even initiate then everything just died. They were effectively flying a brick, and as it reached the apex of its upward momentum, it started to fall like a brick.

"If we survive this, I'm trashing this heap of shit!" Mehra screeched while holding onto the pilot chair.

"It's not the Jumper at fault! It's that noise! It must be some kind of sonic weapon or something. That's how they can see us and that's what's disabling the systems!"

Another thunderous sound hit them. The entire ship creaked and groaned as it fell back down towards the water, terminal velocity achieved within moments.

Teldy hit every button she could then pressed her fingers to her temples. "If we hit that water, we're dead!"

Another soundwave hit them, more intense this time. It filled the Jumper with an unending noise that smashed against their ear drums and shook the brains within their skulls.

"Do something!" Rella screamed as she writhed in her seat.

Ronon covered his ear with his good hand and forced the other into his shoulder to try block out the noise. He saw Mehra clamp her hands to her ears and make her way to the cockpit with a fierce look on her face. Rella now lay on the floor hands over her head which was tucked between her arms.

Then he saw Caran.

She stood to the rear of the ship, ears exposed and tears streaming down her face as she valiantly continued to try and save the doomed craft. Her hands were too full to protect her ears and so she struggled on while quite clearly suffering. Ronon stepped up, grabbed and spun her to look at him. He placed his good hand over his ear then motioned to her to come closer.

For her part Caran didn't question the gestures. Sometimes you just had to trust your teammates and get on with the job. Ronon recognised the reasoning in her eyes and admired her trust. She turned back to the console as he pulled her head against his chest and clamped his good hand to her exposed ear, effectively deafening her to the cacophony around her.

Caran ripped out crystal after crystal. She delved into a sack in the packing netting and grabbed different crystals then rammed them into the console. Her hands moved fast, stripping down the console and rebuilding it as they plummeted to their deaths, hoping she could hit that magic sequence and get the Jumper working again.

Ronon's nose was bleeding and when he felt a sharp pain followed by something warm trickling down his neck, he guessed that his eardrums had ruptured. Undeterred, he continued to shield Caran against the noise while putting his trust in her ability to somehow pull something out of the bag and save them like McKay often did.

Another blast of the Groten sonic weapon shook them so much Ronon thought the Jumper might shake itself apart. Out of the viewport he saw the water of Ignothia rushing up to meet them.

They were out of time.

He felt Caran pushed from him as she slammed a crystal home then hit it with her fist. Suddenly the console flickered to life. The Jumper shuddered and vibrated. Systems came back online. Ronon collapsed back into a seat as Teldy fought to pull the Jumper out of its death dive. Despite the dodgy inertial dampeners every one of them felt the G-force heavily upon their bodies.

Against all odds the Jumper missed the water and rose steadily into the air. The viewport was filled with the sight of Groten ships, all slightly smaller than a Wraith Cruiser. They turned laboriously towards them, but Teldy took no chances and just steered the ship straight upwards. The fall assisted their upwards speed and they hurtled into the upper atmosphere before the Groten ships could react. The sonic weapon boomed again and, though it lacked intensity, it still made their teeth rattle. Thankfully, their growing distance lessened the overall effect.

They burst through the atmosphere and out into space. Never had a sight ever been more welcomed than that blackness pin-pricked with sparkling dots. The vast desolation gave them a moment to breathe before they snapped back to reality and focused on the task at hand. The lead Groten ship was still far behind them but steadily gained ground. Teldy pulled back on the speed and turned the Jumper downwards again towards the Stargate in the upper atmosphere. Nara dialled and the Stargate wormhole exploded to life seconds before the Jumper entered the event horizon.

A few moments later they exited the Stargate over the planet Caronaa.

Ronon leaned his head back against the bulkhead and breathed a sigh of relief. He could hear very little, and from the faint yells from the others, neither could they.

"You do realise they'll be waiting on us when we go back for Colonel Sheppard?" sounded someone's muffled shout.

The thought had crossed Ronon's mind. They'd barely made it back to Caronaa alive yet in twenty-four hours they'd return to Ignothia and the Groten would be on the alert and watching for their return. One thing was clear, this Jumper wouldn't be returning. The damned thing had crapped out so many times that it was a miracle they were still alive.

Ronon closed his eyes. This whole thing started on a promise that he himself didn't make, and since then there had been more promises made than could be fulfilled. So many lives now hung in the balance it boggled the mind. Not to mention this new and ferocious enemy that had bested and almost killed him. The risks were high, yet Ronon's spirits were not. He was bone tired; weary beyond anything he'd felt before and though he hated to admit it even to himself, his pain was almost too much for him to bear.

His mind wandered as he tried to listen to the various voices he couldn't quite hear and he began to drift off to sleep. All too soon someone shook him awake and he opened his eyes to see Rella offering him some more painkillers. This time he accepted them without argument.

It took him a moment to notice that the rear of the Jumper was open and they had already landed on Caronaa. Outside, people milled about, some injured, some in bio-suits. Ronon got wearily to his feet and stepped out of the Jumper to be met by the sight of many walking wounded, and the corpses of human and Groten strewn about the village. His heart pounded as he made his way to the place where he'd left his teammates. Inside, seriously wounded people crowded the area. Ronon searched the space for any sign of Rodney or Teyla. He couldn't find them, but he did see Carson.

The Scottish doctor was attending to a small form too covered with bandages to make out who or what they were. Ronon moved directly towards him and as if sensing his presence, Carson spun to look at him. He gesticulated frantically, his face flushed, his eyes worried. What Ronon could make out of Carson's muffled voice was that McKay and Teyla were missing.

Shock and exhaustion stopped him still. Ronon just stood there, looking around at the dead and wounded as he came to an awful conclusion that he wasn't quite ready to entertain or face.

If they were all gone, if John, Teyla and Rodney never returned, he would once again, be alone.

TBC... cookies...!