Entanglement

Chapter eleven

John returned to the jumper; he hadn't really expected to find anything wrong, but it was good to see Ronon standing on the ramp, warily keeping watch.

At Rodney's urgent wave, John halted, keeping what Rodney evidently considered to be a minimum safe distance from the bomb. Rodney jumped up, heading for the jumper's hatch, saying in passing, "I'm putting together the remote detonation control now."

Miko stood up, taking off her glasses to rub her eyes. She looked dead tired. "You okay?" John asked her.

She nodded, fumbling her glasses back on as she walked over to him. "Yes, it's just…we were attaching the detonators for the C-4. It was very..tense."

John nodded, eyeing the bomb. "McKay and touchy explosives are always a fun combination." There were seven drones wired together with the C-4 blocks, the drones' tentacles hanging out every which way. He just hoped it worked like Rodney thought it should.

Then a rumble shook the stone floor underfoot. "Oh, hell no," John said under his breath. Miko stumbled as the rumble escalated suddenly and the whole building seemed to sway. John caught her arm to steady her. On the ramp, Ronon swayed, but stayed upright. The few Eidolon left working on the other side of the bay looked around, startled. Dust trickled down from the seam of the giant hatch overhead. Just as John was about to grab Miko and run for the jumper, the rumble died away. Thinking, don 't let that be what it sounded like, he asked, "Earthquake? Or moonquake?"

"Oh no," Miko said, looking anxiously at the bomb. "Mirrorquake."

Then Trishen leaned over the railing of the upper control area, calling urgently, "Dr. McKay, we think the Mirror is destabilizing again!"

Rodney ducked out of the jumper, harried and angry. "Yes, the quake that shook the entire surface of this moon would possibly indicate that there just might be a problem! Did you make the adjustments to the array? Because the wrong sequence-"

Trishen shook her head, making a helpless gesture. "It's not working anymore."

"What do you mean `not working?' The array or the adjustments-" Rodney bolted for the stairs.

John told Miko, "Stay with Ronon," and ran after him.

John reached the top of the steps right behind Rodney, bumping into him when he stopped abruptly. Rodney said, "Oh, now, fine, look at this." He flung both arms in the air, annoyed. "This, this is what we couldn't find in our reality."

In the middle of the dais was a big round console, with an ornate silver rim inset with blue crystal panels. The air above it was alive with glowing diagrams, scrolling data, curves and graphs and figures in Ancient. In the center was a glowing silver pool, some sort of holographic miniature of the Mirror itself Looking at it, John felt prickles of unease climb his spine. The surface was disturbed, rippling continuously, like a puddle in the rain. If the Mirror was actually doing that… That just can 't be good. The holographic readouts seemed to agree; most of them were blinking in alarm.

A few Eidolon were watching the displays, and Kethel was carefully manipulating a set of touchpads on the console's rim. With a harsh tension in his voice, he said, "It's still not responding. This is the same sequence that worked earlier."

Trishen moved to the console, pointing toward one of the graphs. She told Rodney, "The accretion disk field has changed radically from-"

Rodney moved forward, half around the console, as John trailed after him. His expression grim, Rodney said, "Yes, this is about the cap to my day." He rounded on Trishen, making an abrupt gesture. "The connection to the Mirror in our reality is effecting this Mirror, and accelerating the destabilization. The singularity is detaching."

Kethel turned to him, face twisted into the expression Wraith made when they hissed in anger. Instead, he said, "It can't be."

"Oh, but it is!" Rodney snarled. "Check your figures!" He turned urgently to John. "I've seen this before, on the equipment we were using to monitor the Area 51 Mirror as it was being melted down. When the outer rim was destroyed, the singularity detached, closed in on itself, and vanished. Fortunately, we were expecting it, and all it took with it was a small concrete bunker and a naquadah generator." Rodney grimaced at the Mirror display. "This one's going to take this entire installation with it."

Trishen hit more touchpads on the console's edge, bringing up different data displays, enlarging others. The Queen came up the stairs, stopping at the top, her cold eyes narrowed slightly.

"Rodney." John kept his voice tightly controlled. "What does that mean for us, exactly?"

Rodney's jaw was set as he glared at the blinking displays. "It means we need to hurry. We need to do this now.

So there's still a chance to do it at all, John thought, relief undoing a few of the knots in his spine.

The Queen glanced at Kethel, who nodded sharply, saying, "Even if he's wrong-"

"I'm right!" Rodney shouted.

"— nothing can be served by delay." Kethel waved a hand toward the holographic image of the Mirror, which rippled like it was experiencing a rip tide. "This will surely only get worse."

The Queen's dark gaze turned to John. "The explosive?"

John flicked a glance at Rodney, and in response got a nod and hand-wave combination that he hoped meant "yes." John told her, "We're ready."

First, the Queen had to contact the Wraith and get them to lower their shield. John wasn't looking forward to that part. Hell, he was worried about all the parts, but at the moment, mostly that one.

One of the work stations toward the back of the maintenance bay had the comm equipment, and Kethel was using it to set up the contact with the Wraith ship. He was wearing a weird organic headset device, frequently using it to speak to the Eidolon ships in orbit. John, Rodney, Teyla, and Ronon watched from a short distance. Miko and Radek were in the jumper, ostensibly so they could run a few last diagnostics on the repair. John also wanted Miko in there as a little extra insurance. She and Rodney hadn't removed all the drones, and if the Eidolon changed their minds about cooperation at the last moment, the armed jumper would be a powerful deterrent.

Standing nearby, Trishen shifted uneasily, saying, "This is my fault. If they hadn't activated the Mirror again to get me back, none of this would have happened."

John folded his arms, keeping his eyes on the displays that Kethel was manipulating. One held a real-time image of the Wraith scout ship where it hovered above the platform. He was starting to get used to Trishen's voice, but it was easier to talk to her if he didn't look at her. He said, "We're not in any position to point fingers." He didn't really care whose fault this was or wasn't at this point; as long as they could get back home and permanently disable their Mirror, he was fine with it.

Rodney was standing next to John, arms folded, rocking back and forth on his heels impatiently. "Besides," he said, "This is a far more effective method of destroying the Mirror in our reality. And by far more effective, I mean incredibly dangerous."

John and Teyla exchanged a bewildered look, and John frowned at him, asking, "What? I thought when we got back we'd still have to destroy the array."

Rodney shook his head at the ceiling, as if asking it to witness what he had to deal with. He said pointedly, "The two Mirrors are still connected, that's what caused that minor discharge, and yes, compared to what's coming, that was minor. As long as that connection lasts, they are the same Mirror. Actually, they're always the same Mirror, all the Mirrors are the same Mirror, but that's too complicated to explain to you. But right now, because of the connection and the continued destabilization, they're more one than usual."

Teyla eyed him worriedly. "You are saying that when this Mirror destroys itself-"

Rodney waved an impatient hand. "The singularities are sharing the same reality. It's good for us in that the destination can't be reset, so there's no possibility of losing the connection for our reality. It's bad for us in that when this Mirror goes, the other one will go, except there is no other one, they're both one. It's a form of quantum entanglement."

John just stared at him, brow furrowed. Maybe he was missing the point here, but this sounded bad. "Rodney-"

Kethel said, "They are accepting the transmission." The Queen stepped smoothly into position in front of the communications console.

John tensed, shifting his grip slightly on his P-90. Teyla had her arms folded over her weapon, outwardly casual, but like John she was holding it so her finger was near the trigger. Ronon was watching the other Eidolon, who were all gathered near Kethel.

A moment later the hologram appeared in a haze of blue static. It resolved into a male Wraith, possibly the same one that the Queen had spoken to earlier. It bared its teeth, demanding, "Why did you refuse to speak with us?"

She inclined her head and, with a faint trace of amusement in her voice, said, "I had nothing to say." Before the Wraith could react, she added, "I have decided to comply with your request. One of my ships will move into position above this structure, to beam the humans to you. Lower your shield and send coordinates."

This was the other part that John was worried about. From what the Eidolon had said, their transporter was more similar to the Asgard beam than it was to the Wraith culling beam. A quick test had shown that it couldn't get through the Wraith's shielding, anymore than the Asgard beam could. Since the Daedalus had destroyed a few hiveships by beaming aboard nuclear warheads, all the Wraith they had encountered had been extra careful about making preventative adjustments to their shields.

The Wraith stared at her, unblinking. Then it said, "Send them outside, we will take them."

"If I open a passage in or out of this facility, you will attack."

It hissed at her. "We have an agreement."

There was something in the Queen's tone that suggested she was talking to a somewhat backward child. "Then lower your shield and send the coordinates."

The Wraith snarled. The Queen stepped out of pick-up range, and Kethel cut the transmission, the hologram disappearing in an angry flash of light. The Queen eyed the spot where it had been, as if an afterimage of the Wraith's form still lingered. All emotion gone from her voice again, she said, "They will comply. Their limitations make their actions easy to predict."

"Yeah, that's what we've noticed," John said, and thought, so far so good.

Rodney grimaced, saying in a low voice, "They'll give us coordinates for a hold area. If we could get the device closer to the main drive, it would be more effective, but what's she supposed to say? `Oh, give me the coordinates to your weapons and shield control compartment too; no reason, just curious."'

Since Rodney's idea of a low voice wasn't all that low, Trishen heard him anyway. She said, "We can get those coordinates with a sensor sweep."

Rodney's eyes lit up. "Wait, your sensors can get past their hull plating?"

She nodded, explaining, "One of the ships in orbit has special equipment for scanning ruins and underground structures left behind by the Creators. Once the Wraith shield is down, its sensors should be able to get a partial schematic."

Kethel looked up from his control board, telling the Queen, "We're received the information, and they have lowered their shield."

Trishen went forward to one of the consoles, picking up another headset and speaking quickly into it. After a moment, she set it aside, saying in relief, "Yes, it worked. They've managed to get the data."

A schematic started to form above the console, next to the real-time view of the scout ship. It rotated, offering alternate views, but there wasn't much detail, just blots and blurs of energy, dark spaces apparently indicating large compartments.

Rodney nodded. "Good, good. We're going to want to beam it right here." He pointed to a spot on the schematic, one of the brightest red blots. "Right where all these highoutput energy signatures are, the drive, shield generators, and weapons."

Kethel looked at the Queen, and she gave him a nod. "Beam the device."

With everybody else, John looked at the bomb where it sat near the jumper, but he kept one eye on Trishen. All the Eidolon had been careful to keep a non-threatening distance, but she was standing only a few paces away, close enough for easy conversation. If the Eidolon were going to screw them and send them instead of the explosive to the Wraith, it would be now. And if that happened, John intended to take Trishen with them.

A haze of light sparkled around the bomb, and it vanished with an audible pop. Okay, still not screwed, John thought, the tension in his shoulders relaxing just a little. He heard Teyla exhale in relief, and saw Ronon shift his stance slightly; he hadn't been the only one tensing for a last-second double cross.

"Give it a minute," Rodney muttered, his gaze on the overlapping images of the Wraith ship.

Kethel put a hand on his headset, apparently listening to a communication from the ship that had done the beaming. "Confirmed arrival." He pointed at the schematic of the scout ship. "It should be in what we believe to be the main engine compartment."

"Perfect." Rodney pulled something the size of a radio base-unit out of his vest pocket. It looked like it had started life as some other kind of handheld control device, but had recently undergone some major alterations. There was a small readout screen with Ancient characters and a couple of touchpads. "Signal is good. And here we go." Rodney pressed a touchpad.

John looked at the image of the scout ship. It didn't appear to be exploding. He had a bad feeling about this.

"No," Rodney said under his breath. "No, no, no." He pressed the touchpad again. John looked at the detonator, saw that the Ancient characters were now blinking an error code. Rodney said through gritted teeth, "Nothing's happening."

"What do you mean `nothing's happening?"' John demanded. "What happened?"

"I don't know!" Mouth twisted with angry despair, Rodney popped the cover off, studied the weird combination of Ancient and Earth technology inside, and shook his head. "It should be working, but it isn't. If there's some sort of interference with the signal-I can try to boost it-" He turned away, heading for another empty console, ignoring the Eidolon who scrambled out of his way.

Kethel looked from the schematic to his section of the control board, his face set in a frustrated snarl. "It may have been the transport beam. If our coordinates were off-"

John knew they didn't have time for a post-mortem on why the frigging remote detonator wouldn't work. "In a minute, they're going to find it-" They were going to find it, open fire on the Eidolon ships, then break into the installation. John turned to Kethel. "Can you beam us over there, to the corridor where you beamed the bomb?"

Kethel stared. "To set it off directly?" He shook his head, looking at the screen again. "It's too dangerous for living beings. If our coordinates were off enough that the device was beamed inside a bulkhead-"

Fine, John got why that was a bad idea. "What about here?" He pointed to another more open area, only one level up from the bomb.

"The bridge?" Kethel asked, astonished and sounding like he thought John was completely crazy. "But-"

"Sure, there's probably only a couple of them in there right now." John thought it was a great plan. Okay, not a great plan, but a plan. The only plan he could think of.

"I agree," Teyla said, looking urgently from Kethel to the Queen. "It is our only choice."

Ronon just shrugged. "Sounds good to me."

John added, "Look, you beaming us in there to take them on is the last thing they'll expect." He did a quick inventory of his tac vest, making sure he had ammo and grenades. Teyla was doing the same. Ronon just checked the set of his knife in its scabbard.

"He's correct." The Queen's gaze was fixed on the image of the scout ship. "This must be done."

Kethel looked at the screen again. He shook his head slightly, as if he meant to refuse. Then he said, "Once on their bridge, I might be able to activate their selfdestruct."

John stared at him. "Wait, you, what?"

Edane, the younger Eidolon that kept wanting to talk to them, stepped forward. "I'll go too." He looked around at the few remaining Eidolon. "Surely I'm not the only one.

Rodney came back from the console with the detonator, his expression caught between horror and incredulity. "This is insane, we can't possibly get through the ship to the bomb. And how are we getting back?" he demanded.

"You're not going," John told him. "You need to stay here to deal with the damn Mirror." If they didn't succeed, the scout ship might be too occupied with shooting at the installation and the Eidolon ships to worry about the Mirror or the cloaked jumper, and Rodney might still have a chance to get himself, Radek, and Miko back home. But Rodney did have a point. John eyed Kethel. "How are we getting back?"

Trishen had been hurriedly digging into one of the equipment cases stacked up to be transported out, and now came back with a handful of little silver buttons, each set with a flat green stone. "We have emergency transponders. Simply touch this crystal and it will signal the ship to beam you back here." She looked at the image of the scout ship, adding worriedly, "As long as their shield remains down, these should work."

Famous last words, John thought. He just said, "So let's go."

With a few moments of scrambling, they were ready. Kethel was bringing two other young male Eidolon, Edane and Caras; John wasn't happy about it, but Kethel might be able to activate the ship's self-destruct and render the bomb unnecessary, so he was willing to put up with it. Kethel also had a handheld scanning device that would help them locate the engine compartments where the bomb had been sent, just in case the self-destruct proved elusive. The Eidolon also had weapons, long elegant silver-gray devices about the size of sawed-off shotguns.

"Those are stunners?" Teyla asked Kethel. John had assumed they were just a different model of the Wraith version.

"No." Kethel glanced at her, distracted. "They are energy weapons, the blast is fatal. Stunners are forbidden."

Teyla lifted her brows, obviously not getting it anymore than John did. So shooting to kill is fine, stunning and asking questions later is forbidden, he thought. John just said, "Okay. That's handy."

Rodney came back to shove the detonator into John's vest pocket, saying, "I tried boosting the signal, still nothing. Hopefully you won't need this. And if you do need it, the damn thing probably won't work, but there it is."

"Great. Wait for us in the jumper," John told him, taking the detonator out of that pocket and putting it in a more convenient one.

Rodney shook his head impatiently. "I need to monitor the array-"

John glared. He didn't want Rodney out here alone, distracted with the Mirror, with no one to watch his back. "Rodney, jumper, now."

Rodney glared back, unimpressed. "Yes, because I respond so well to that sort of thing. What are you going to do, threaten to shoot me in the foot?"

John just stared at him, narrowing his eyes. "You want to stay out here alone with the folks who look like Wraith?"

Rodney looked around, apparently realizing it was just going to be him, the Queen, and the scatter of other Eidolon left in the room. "All right, fine," he snapped, and started toward the jumper.

John told Kethel, "We're ready." Kethel signaled to the Eidolon who had taken his place at the control console. White light flashed.

Abruptly another room shimmered into existence around them, John's ears popping at the sudden transition to a pressurized space.

They were in a large dimly-lit chamber with dark walls of a rubbery black substance. There was a raised center dais, with three consoles each supported by weirdly organic-looking stalks. John spun around, opening fire on two surprised Wraith standing in front of a large irregularly-shaped viewport. Ronon and Teyla fired at the same time, and both Wraith jerked and twitched under the combined onslaught. They dropped, sprawling on the deck.

John pivoted, checking the room, as Ronon moved around the dais to watch the door. Teyla finished her own survey of the chamber, saying, "We are clear."

John pulled the detonator control out of his vest. "Let's see if this is going to be easy." He hit the touchpad. The readout did the same thing that it had before, blinking the error code. And he hadn't heard anything, either. "Anybody hear an explosion?" he asked, hoping against hope.

"Nothing," Teyla said with a grimace. Ronon and the Eidolon shook their heads.

Kethel was already stepping up onto the dais, examining the consoles. "I'll look for a self-destruct. Perhaps something onboard is still interfering with the detonation signal." Edane and Caras were warily looking around the control area.

John shoved the detonator back in his pocket and pulled out the life signs detector. There were blips moving on the level immediately below, but none coming toward them. The Wraith probably didn't realize anything had been beamed aboard yet, and were still waiting for the Eidolon. That wasn't going to last long.

Looking around, Caras asked, "What is that smell?" John had barely noticed it; the air had that sour taint common to every Wraith ship John had been in, the sick stench of death and rot.

Ronon sneered. "Their supplies."

Caras stared at him, uncomprehending, and Ronon didn't elaborate.

Kethel frowned down at the console, his hands flat against the surface. From his expression, the news wasn't good. John knew the Wraith systems weren't anything like the Ancients' or what he had seen of the Eidolon's. The interfaces weren't touchpads or buttons, but thin membranes that the Wraith apparently manipulated by passing their hands over them. John asked, "Any luck?"

Kethel shook his head, wiping his hands off on his coat, as if disgusted by the contact. "It's not responding to me. If I had time-"

The blips John could see were starting to move rapidly. "No time, we've got to get down there." He headed for the door, checked the detector again, and hit the slimy control-thing on the wall. The door membrane folded open, revealing a long curving corridor, the dark ceiling arching overhead, draped with shrouds and strands of web. As Teyla led the others out, John hung back with Ronon, pulling out a fragmentation grenade. When the others were all out in the corridor, he gave Ronon a nod and they both tossed their grenades onto the dais, Ronon landing his directly atop one of the consoles. John hit the control, closing the hatch. The muted thump from inside didn't sound destructive enough, and he asked Kethel, "Can you jam this door?"

"Yes." Kethel pulled out a tool that looked like a scalpel, slit open the bulbous control panel, and stuck his hand into it, manipulating the slimy things inside.

John figured that would slow the Wraith down, but the ship had to have alternate controls for the shields, and they had to move fast. He looked deliberately at the Eidolon, saying, "Any time you want out of here, if you get separated, cornered, whatever, just hit your transponder. If you fall behind, we're not going to have time to come back for you."

Kethel looked at Edane and Caras, giving them a sharp nod to reinforce the order. Life signs detector braced over the P-90, John headed down the corridor.

They found the first cocooned body only a few paces along, crammed back into a cubby in the wall. John glanced at it only long enough to see it was dead, withered to a husk, with the gaping wound of the feeding mark in its chest.

"What is that?" Edane asked, in what sounded like horrified fascination. He tried to stop, but Kethel took his arm and pulled him into motion again.

"What do you think it is?" Ronon countered.

John really didn't want to get into this just now. He said, "Just keep moving." They passed two more desiccated bodies webbed to the wall, then a dozen more, all dead. More passages led off the first corridor, dim and web-draped. Kethel guided them with his scanner, finding a path toward the big blot of energy signatures where the ship's drive was located. John caught some blips off the detector, but most of the Wraith seemed to be down below. His headset came on and Rodney's voice suddenly demanded, "Can you hear me?"

John flinched, startled. "Yes, dammit."

"I had to boost the gain before I could get through," Rodney explained impatiently. "Did you try the detonator again? The signal might have-"

"Tried it, didn't work. Are you in the jumper?"

There was a hesitation. "I'm near the jumper."

John swore. "Rodney-Later." John signed off, his eyes on the life signs detector. Four strong blips, coming up toward them from the lower level, moving rapidly. That's an elevator He held up a fist to signal the others to stop, ignoring the slight scuffle behind him as the Eidolon belatedly realized what that meant. Where the hell is Hah, got you. The corridor had widened a little and there was a membrane stretched across an indentation in the bulkhead.

Ronon stepped forward with John as Teyla covered the corridor. The membrane slid open, and four more surprised Wraith died in the elevator doorway. With a wary glance at the bodies, Kethel stepped forward. "The drive area is one level below."

Teyla told him, "We cannot take this elevator, they could shut it down and trap us."

John tried the detonator, just for luck, and got the error code again. Son of a bitch. He shoved it back in his pocket and checked the life signs detector. As he expected, the blips on this level were moving their way. The level below, at least in this area, still looked clear. "We need another way down, now."

Kethel nodded, eyes on his scanner. "I'm reading a maintenance passage..this way."

They found it around the corner, in another intersection of passages. It was a ribbed shaft like something's gullet, with multiple ladder rungs down the sides, leading down into a chamber lit with dim red light. John exchanged a wince with Teyla and grabbed for the first rung.

Halfway down, Rodney's voice burst into John's headset again, almost making him lose his grip on the slick material of the ladder. "The Queen says the Wraith know you're there."

"We know they know that, Rodney," John said through gritted teeth. The rungs had been spaced for adult male Wraith only, and Teyla and the two younger Eidolon were moving slowly, having to awkwardly stretch to reach them. Kethel slowed down, waiting for Edane and Caras, and John waited for Teyla, motioning Ronon to go ahead. "Rodney, what the hell are you-"

Rodney said in annoyance, "I'm entering the last codes for a pulse array adjustment. The detachment of the singularity started to accelerate, but this should-Oh, oh, that's… unusual. Hold on a minute."

Ronon climbed around John, then swung down, dropping to the bottom of the shaft and landing in a crouch. As the others caught up, John climbed down the rest of the way, remembering at the last moment not to drop the last few feet; his knee just wouldn't take it right now.

The shaft opened into a wider corridor that curved out of sight just past a couple of membrane-sealed hatchways. John pulled out the life signs detector.

Kethel checked his scanner, nodding toward the first hatchway. "It should be there-"

That was about the moment John's screen registered a dozen or more blips headed straight for them. He yelled a warning, ducking across the corridor and hitting the control to open the hatch. Ronon and Teyla moved instantly, taking cover with John in the hatchway, but the Eidolon were slow to react.

Kethel and Edane reached the hatchway just as the first group of drones burst around the corner, but Caras was still in the middle of the corridor. He took a stun blast in the face, dropping his own weapon before falling to the ground in a limp sprawl. Edane ran for him, as John and the others fired on the drones, driving them back.

Edane reached Caras, stooping to touch the transponder. The Eidolon's body vanished in a flash of blue-white light. More drones poured into the corridor, and in a moment Edane would be hit, with no one to trigger his transponder. John yelled, "Go, go! Get out of there!"

Edane looked at the drones, wide-eyed. Then he touched his transponder and vanished.

John and Teyla kept up steady bursts of fire, with Ronon using his energy gun, and the first few drones dropped. The others retreated back around the corner, a few leaning out to take shots. John had time to notice the membrane sealing the hatch still hadn't opened. "What the hell is-" John reached around, hitting the door control again, a narrow miss from a stun blast making his fingers go numb for an instant. "It's locked! Kethel-"

Kethel stepped past him, slashed open the control surface, and shoved his hand inside. John leaned out to cover him.

Abruptly the door membrane folded open. As Teyla turned to cover the room inside, a stun blast hit Kethel in the side. John made an instinctive grab for him but Kethel staggered backward, away from the hatchway, and fell, sprawling on the deck.

John stepped back into cover as more stun blasts hit the wall near him. Ronon leaned out, took several shots, and the blasts abruptly stopped. John could see Kethel wasn't unconscious, his eyes were open, but his hands were twitching helplessly. The Eidolon couldn't lift his arm to reach the transponder on his shoulder.

John swore and ducked out into the corridor, leaning over Kethel. He grabbed the scanner where it had fallen on the deck, tossing it back to Ronon. Then he pushed the transponder on Kethel's shoulder. It pulsed blue, and John flinched back as Kethel's body dissolved in a sudden blue-white flash.

As he started to stand, a drone barreled around the corner, almost on top of him. It lunged for him and John fell backward, firing the P-90 almost point blank. Then a blast from Ronon's energy gun took the drone in the face, and Ronon grabbed John's arm, yanking him back through the hatchway.

Teyla hit the door control, but just as the membrane was folding down, another drone reached the hatchway, leaning down to fire his stunner under it. Ronon caught a burst in the leg and staggered, dropping his gun. He went to one knee, reeling. John lunged for Ronon's fallen gun, grabbed it and fired at the door control. The burst of energy fused the organic components just as the membrane sealed. The burned area steamed, releasing a sickening smell like fried meat.

Wincing at the odor, John said, "I hope that worked." He turned to Ronon. "You okay?" Ronon didn't look okay. He was trying to stand, but one arm hung limply and he struggled to move his leg; he looked like he was having a stroke. Teyla grabbed his arm, just managing to keep him upright. "How many hits did he take?" John asked incredulously.

"At least two," Teyla said with a sympathetic wince. Ronon tried to lurch to his feet and almost fell over. She set her jaw and held onto him. "Send him back?"

John nodded. "Do it."

Ronon growled an incoherent protest, glaring at them, but Teyla let go of his arm and pressed his transponder. She stepped away as Ronon disappeared in the flash. John keyed his radio, "Rodney, you got Ronon?"

"What? Hold it, wait-Yes, yes, he's here!" There was a slurred grumbling protest in the background. Rodney came back on, sounding sour, "He's not happy about it, but he's fine."

"Get him to the jumper." John signed off as he looked around. The dimly lit chamber was packed with pulsing membranes and bizarre organic shapes that looked like the internal organs of something huge, all shrouded with web. He could hear thumping and a high-power hum from just outside the closed membrane, a pointed reminder that they didn't have much time before the Wraith cut their way in here.

Teyla pivoted, flashing her P-90's light into the dark corners, her face grim. "I do not see it. Will Kethel's scanner work for us?"

"Good question." John studied the little device, brow furrowed. The screen showed the same schematic that Kethel had used to pick a spot for the damn bomb, and according to it, these were the coordinates it had been beamed to. John turned, surveying the chamber again. "It's working, and it looks like we're in the right spot, but where the hell is-" Then his eyes fell on a set of small familiar-looking tentacles sticking out of the bulkhead. They were near one of the pulsing organ-things, a foot or so above the deck. The energy drones. Oh, crap. The bomb was melded to the organic material of the ship's wall. "That can't be good."

Teyla followed his gaze, shocked. "Kethel was right, it was beamed into a wall." She shook her head, her brow creased. "Can it still work like that?" She threw a look back at the door membrane; a glowing spot was forming in the center, letting off steam and smoke as the Wraith outside burned their way through. "There is no time for anything else."

There was only one way to find out. "Get ready to hit your transponder." Just for luck, John closed his eyes, concentrating the way he did in the puddlejumper or the weapons chair, thinking about the energy drones, thinking about launching, targeting, impact. He pressed the detonator touchpad again.

There was a muted thump. John opened his eyes to see the heavy bulkhead around the bomb bulged out, like it was a misshapen helium balloon. He exchanged a desperate look with Teyla. "Okay, that's-"

Across the room, the door membrane exploded outward, sending them staggering back, showering the room with slimy debris. John ducked, raking the doorway with a burst of fire from the P-90, driving back the first two drones to step inside. Teyla opened fire an instant later, shouting, "We must go! It is not going to-"

Suddenly the distended bulkhead started to glow white, a high power whine filling the chamber. That did it, John thought. He yelled, "Go, go now!"

Two drones forced their way through the shattered door membrane, just as Teyla hit her transponder. She vanished and John pressed the crystal in his. The drones lifted their stunners, then the chamber disappeared in a haze of white light.