Entanglement Page 18

  "Just us." Miko checked the detector, then jerked her chin toward the drones clustered outside the hatch. "And them. Nothing behind us, or to either side."

  John thought, breathing room, that would be nice. He said, "Rodney, any chance the consoles in this room are what we need?"

  "Oh, probably not." Not looking optimistic, Rodney turned to Zelenka. "Can you help or do you just want to sit there and nurse your concussion?"

  Zelenka glared up at him from under his bloody bandage. "I'm fine, give me your hand, prdelaty bastard."

  John circled around the crates, heading warily toward the force shield-sealed hatch, the P-90 ready. The drones on the other side stirred, straining against the field as John came near it, the faceless masks all turned toward him. He felt a chill walk down his spine; they were starving and he was a walking steak. But the field seemed to be holding.

  He backed away, then twitched at nearby movement, jerking up the P-90. The Eidolon who had activated the force shield lay sprawled next to the dead drone that had fed on him; his eyes were still open, aware, and he was breathing in harsh gasps. It was harder to tell than with a human, but John could see the withered texture of the blue-tinged skin, the shrunken flesh around face and neck. It-He had sacrificed himself for the other Eidolon trapped in the room. Wraith just didn't do that.

  "May I go to him?" a voice said.

  John turned to see one of the Eidolon who had taken cover by the far wall, cautiously getting to his feet. He had spoken to Teyla and was pointing to the withered being at John's feet.

  Teyla looked at John, brow lifted. He nodded, and she told the Eidolon, "You may."

  John backed away, out of arm's reach, as the Eidolon moved past him. It was one of the young ones, smaller than a mature Wraith, with more human features. Its voice hadn't been as deep, either. It threw him a frightened look, then went to kneel by the dying Eidolon.

  Yeah, that was pretty much our fault, John thought. He mentally pushed that aside to deal with later and crossed back to the control area, asking, "What's the word, Rodney?"

  Rodney shook his head, looking distinctly unhappy as he scrolled through the holographic display. Zelenka was leaning heavily on one of the consoles, his expression suggesting he was about to be sick. Miko was balancing the life signs detector and a tablet, holding it so Rodney could see it. Rodney said, "This is only monitoring equipment for the platform, I can't get good readings for the accretion surface with this, just the minor discharges it's still throwing off."

  "Okay." John bit his lip, looking at the consoles. "That wasn't what I wanted to hear."

  Rodney glared at him. "Yes, well, imagine how I feel." He took a sharp breath, threw a glance at the Eidolon still backed against the wall, watching fearfully. He lowered his voice. "There was monitoring equipment for the accretion surface in the pulse control room up on the roof. If that still exists in this reality, I should be able to see if the connection is stable enough to transport us back. If so, then we can try to steal a ship and make it through before the Wraith blow us up. And I know I'm simplifying it, but that's our best bet. Actually, it may be our only bet, unless we want to make a break for the mountains, learn to grow crops, and hide out for the rest of our lives on this moon.

  Zelenka muttered, "I don't want to learn to grow crops.

  That's a hell of a long way through this building, John thought, but he wasn't keen on the crops option either. He said, "Let's go."

  The inner doorway led to a corridor, lined with square pillars that were set with milky crystal lights. Many of the lights weren't on, as if this section was only partially powered. John had Rodney pull the crystals from the door behind them; the Eidolon inside could still call for help, but John didn't want them ducking out to see which way the alien intruders had gone.

  Once they were moving down the corridor, Teyla said, "What about the Wraith? We cannot leave them here, with access to this Mirror."

  His tone clipped, Rodney said, "If-When-If we get back to our own reality, we have to destroy the pulse array immediately. That scout ship could raid this installation for technology, bring Eidolon prisoners back to our reality to teach them how to build it, render the Ancient cloaks useless, including the one we used to hide Atlantis, and be free to feed on everyone we know." He looked up, lips thin with anxiety. "Everyone, basically."

  "We got that, Rodney," John said. Nothing had changed. They had the same problem as before, just less chance of surviving the possible solutions.

  Moving quickly, they found a stairwell that only went up one level, then they cut through a dusty unused section with no power. Past it, they found a big room with partial power, and one of the triangular doorways that in their reality had marked the lift platforms.

  But it wouldn't open at John's touch and Rodney swore, tearing the console off the wall. "What the hell?" he said, startled. "The crystals are gone."

  Teyla looked up sharply, alarmed. John thought, Crap. Their time had just run out. "Back the other way, now."

  They were almost to the door when Miko waved the tablet urgently. "Colonel, energy signature!" She turned back across the room, pointing to an empty section of the blue stone wall. "It's a transporter! Life signs!"

  John turned with Teyla, covering the wall. A seam was already forming down it, splitting into doors. Then he heard a startled yelp behind him. He risked a look back, just in time to see a curtain of energy ripple across the open doorway. Rodney stepped back, his face horrified. "Force shield. We're trapped." Ronon tried to push a hand through anyway, flinching back when the field zapped him.

  "Get behind us," John said, because this was it. He aimed the P-90 at the transporter, setting his jaw. "Ronon, don't fire, wait for my order." Rodney grabbed Zelenka, pushing him back with Miko, and Ronon stepped up beside John, snarling under his breath.

  The transporter doors slid open and a male Eidolon stepped out, then another, until eight of them moved out of the bay. The two in front were unarmed, but the others in the back were holding long rifle-sized objects, with a shape suggestively like the Wraith stunners. We can't get captured, John thought. Even if Trishen wasn't lying, these were aliens. They had no idea what the Eidolon might want, how interested they would be in Atlantis' existence even in another reality, what they might want from humans. Obviously thinking along the same lines, Rodney whispered harshly, "They've never seen humans before, they could want anything from us. It's like the XFiles in reverse."

  John grimaced. He hadn't even thought about medical experiments. "Thanks, Rodney, you had to bring that up.

  Then the first Eidolon lifted his hands and said, "We mean you no harm."

  Beside John, Teyla shifted uneasily, throwing him a worried look. It would be nice to be able to believe that. John swallowed the dryness out of his throat, and made his voice hard. "We don't want to hurt anybody either. We're just trying to get out of here."

  There was a flicker of light from the transporter behind them, and then another Eidolon pushed out through the group, a smaller female. The male tried to stop her, saying something too low to hear.

  Teyla whispered, "Is that Trishen?"

  "I don't know," John murmured back. He still had no idea how this was going to go; it felt like they were breathing on borrowed time. "I could never tell Wraith apart.

  "It's her," Ronon told them quietly.

  "Of course it is," Rodney snapped. "Oh, this is just fantastic."

  Trishen shook her head, pushing past the male and stepping out to face them. She said, "It's me, Trishen. Please put down your weapons."

  John heard Ronon snort. That pretty much summed up his feelings. He said, "If you want to talk, we can do that just as well while we're holding our weapons."

  Rodney said acidly, "Trishen. Your ship was pulled into the Mirror, too. How lucky for you, since I was locked out of the system before I could make the last adjustments to the pulse array."

  "What? She did this?" John asked, startled, then thought, oh come on, of course she did
.

  His voice rising with anger, Rodney told Trishen, "The early activation caused a gravity well to form above the accretion surface, drawing in everything in range, including your new Wraith friends who in the interest of interspecies camaraderie are going to try to blast their way in here so they can feed on everything that moves!"

  There was a murmur from the other Eidolon, a gentle stir. They were all staring, and the weight of those watching eyes made John's skin creep. In a weird way, it was worse than being stared at by Wraith. Wraith looked at you with that frightening combination of hunger and lust, the lust without any seeming awareness that the thing they wanted was a living sentient being. But at least you knew what a Wraith wanted from you. John had no idea what the Eidolon really wanted, except that considering the way things were going, it was probably worse.

  Trishen stared, then said in helpless exasperation, "No, I didn't do it! I was as surprised as you. I-"

  She stopped at another flicker from the transporter, as someone else beamed in. The males parted this time with no argument, and another female stepped forward. Every hair on the back of John's neck stood up in individual alarm. Her features were more distorted than Trishen's; further from human, closer to Wraith. She was taller than Trishen, and her long hair was a dark red. She was wearing something black and flowing that looked liquid against her dead white skin.

  "Careful," Ronon said in a low-voiced growl. "That's a hive queen. She can get inside your head, if you let her."

  "Yeah, we know," John said quietly, thinking of the Wraith caretaker, when he had found Colonel Sumner being questioned by her, as she slowly drained out his life.

  The Queen looked at them with flat opaque eyes, and said, "This was not my daughter's doing."

  Daughter? John exchanged a look with Teyla. Teyla rolled her eyes, exasperated. She whispered, "We were not negotiating with a scientist as we thought, but with a Hive Queen."

  The Queen said, "We had been attempting to activate the Mirror, to retrieve her. When you made the adjustments to the pulse generator, it must have allowed the connection. With unanticipated results. It was not our intention to bring you, or the others, here."

  "Well, whatever your intention, you brought them here. Any idea what you're going to do about it?" John asked. He was pretty sure he wouldn't like the answer.

  But she said, "The few ships we have left here are scientific research vessels, unarmed. We've called for help, but it won't arrive for several days, and from what we have seen, that ship has weapons far superior to anything we can bring to bear." The Queen's eyes flicked from Rodney to John to Teyla, coldly thoughtful. "Does your ship have weapons?"

  Maybe it was a legitimate question under the circumstances, but John didn't like giving the answer. It might be the only bargaining point they had. Trying to stall, he said, "Our ship is damaged, or we'd be in it right now."

  She tilted her head, obviously picking up on what he hadn't said. "But if it was repaired, could it destroy the Wraith ship?"

  John countered, "That depends. Can you activate the Mirror and send us back?"

  She inclined her head. "Yes. We were able to activate it successfully once, we should be able to do so again."

  John felt the others stir behind him, and he lifted his brows, exchanging a startled look with Rodney. He hadn't been expecting that concession; he was torn between more suspicion and relief at the first glimpse of an actual way out of this.

  Trishen spread her hands, saying, "We had an alliance. We can still cooperate."

  John felt he had to point out, "You know, every time you want to cooperate, we almost get killed."

  Trishen gestured in helpless exasperation. "Yes, but it's not my fault!"

  "We don't have a choice," Rodney whispered harshly. "If they have the right Ancient crystals, the jumper is repairable."

  Teyla nodded. "I dislike this as much as you, but we must take the chance."

  "Yeah, I know." John didn't see any other option. He looked at the Eidolon Queen, still watching them impassively. "Our ship is armed, but those weapons are only powerful enough to destroy the darts, the small fighters that are wrecked all over the platform. The scout ship has shields to protect it that we can't get through."

  The Queen accepted that without argument. "I appreciate your candor." She looked thoughtful. "But there is a way?"

  Rodney said briskly, "Yes, there's a way. But we'll need unimpeded access to our ship, some materials to repair it, the Quantum Mirror, and your beaming technology." He hesitated. "The Wraith shields may be configured to prevent anything from being beamed aboard. We'll also need a way to get around that."

  The Queen just nodded. "I think I can provide that."

  CHAPTER TEN

  he Queen said, "There is a monitoring area nearby. We will continue this there." She touched a control on her wristband, and the force shield across the door disappeared.

  "Well, that sounds... best," Rodney said, as she headed for the door, with Trishen and three of the males in tow. He added to John, "I suppose we should follow her."

  "I suppose we don't have a choice." John lowered the P-90 as she passed.

  Ronon dropped back to warily cover their six and they followed the Queen down the corridor, the other Eidolon trailing them at a careful distance. One of the males with the Queen spoke to her, his voice low and urgent. John had trouble reading his expression, but it was probably suspicious.

  That didn't bother John; the suspicion, at least, felt normal under the circumstances, and he knew how to react to it. It was everything else he wasn't sure about.

  "I don't like this," Ronon said, a growl under his voice.

  Rodney snorted derisively, looking back at him to say, "No, really? Because the rest of us have always hoped something like this would happen."

  Beside John, Teyla whispered, "They have not asked for our weapons. Even with the best of intentions toward an alliance, we would not let aliens walk our corridors armed."

  "Yeah." That one was bothering John, too. He didn't know if it was meant to be a sign of confidence or a trap, or what.

  Rodney muttered, "Thanks, yes, I needed something else to worry about."

  Behind them, Zelenka whispered, "But what does that mean?"

  "We don't know," John told him.

  One of the other males with the Queen slowed to walk even with them, looking at them with open curiosity. It was a younger one with more human features, which for some reason creeped John out even more. Then the Eidolon asked Teyla, "Are you all the same species?"

  "We are," she said, perfectly composed, though John could see the tension in her shoulders.

  John rolled his eyes. He supposed it wasn't meant to be insulting. The Eidolon were like the Wraith; all the adult males here were close to the same height and build, with barely any noticeable variation in skin or hair color. But he still wanted to take it that way.

  The Eidolon looked them over again, as if trying to decide if Teyla was serious. He asked, "Do they need medical attention?"

  Ronon had black eyes and vivid discolored bruises on his face. Zelenka, leaning on Miko's arm, won the prize for most obvious concussion, and the cut on his forehead had bled through the quick bandaging job. John's knee was stiffening up again, his side hurt with every quick movement, and he and Teyla still had the bruises from their first encounter with the Wraith. But he didn't want any help from the Eidolon, no more than what it took to get them home. Especially help that involved physical contact. He said, "No, thanks."

  The Eidolon looked from Teyla to John, startled and uncertain. "You are the leader?"

  John flicked a narrow-eyed look at him. "Yes."

  The Eidolon shook his head slightly, his white hair shimmering with the movement. "Our leaders are all female. It is...odd to see females in a subordinate role."

  John gritted his teeth. "They're not subordinates."

  Rodney frowned, pointing out, "Well, technically, as far as rank and pay grade go-"

  John glar
ed at him. "Yeah, technically, but not like he means.

  Teyla broke in hastily, saying, "The leader of our... community is female. Colonel Sheppard speaks for her here."

  Trishen dropped back, saying uneasily, "Edane, go back with the others."

  Edane protested, "But I was only curious-"

  "Perhaps there will be time for questions later," she told him.

  John lifted a brow, exchanging a sour look with Rodney, thinking, Hell, I hope not. And he wasn't sure if Trishen had chased the young male off because she was afraid they would freak out and kill him, or because he might reveal something.

  Two turns of the corridor and a security door took them into a large control room, lit by overheads and lights in the square pillars. There was a row of observation windows across the far wall, looking out onto the Mirror platform. A bank of consoles stood in the center, a couple of different holographic displays floating in the air above them. The Queen went straight to the consoles, passing her hand over a touchpad, and the windows turned to an opaque milky crystal.

  One of the older males, the one who had been making the objections to their presence on the way here, had followed the Queen to the control board. Apparently the group skeptic, he said, "If this fails, they will attack in force, and we haven't had time to evacuate more than a few of our people."

  Trishen turned to him impatiently. "Kethel, they will attack in force anyway. And you yourself said that our ships won't arrive for days; we have no choice."

  The Queen didn't acknowledge either of them. Apparently the others were allowed to argue, but she wasn't under any obligation to even pretend to listen. She turned to regard John steadily. "First I will try to secure your ship. I assume you have materials aboard it that you can use to build some sort of destructive device, to be beamed aboard the Wraith vessel?"

  John met her gaze steadily. "That's the idea."

  Rodney added, "I may need more materials from you." He strained his neck to see the control station without going any closer to the Queen. "I won't be certain until I can evaluate what we already have."