Hunt and run

Chapter Twenty-six

“There they are.”

“Just like you said. Damn, sometimes I hate it when you’re right!” Sheppard scowled and peeked again. They had woken shortly after dawn, and waited impatiently while Ronon had scouted the immediate area. When he’d returned and confirmed that it was all clear, they’d crawled back out of their cave shelter and stretched quickly. Sheppard had been happy about that part, at least. He still hated caves. They’d swigged some water from their canteens and chewed on some nutritious but boring ration bars — why couldn’t anyone make those things taste good? Then Ronon had led them back here.

Now the four of them were crouched down behind some rocks, looking out at the small valley below and the Jumper nestled neatly within it. Not a bad landing for an emergency, Sheppard congratulated himself. And taking off wouldn’t be a problem — none of the nearby peaks overhung the valley, so there was more than enough clearance for the little ship.

Provided Rodney could get it up and running again.

And, of course, assuming they could get past the two V’rdai who guarded it.

The Runners-turned-hunters weren’t even bothering to hide, he noticed. Which made sense, since they knew he and his team knew they were here. Whew! Plus the Jumper was their obvious destination, so why pretend you don’t realize that? Better to just plant yourself right in front of the door, guns at the ready, and take out anyone who approaches. It’s what he would have done, and he was disappointed but not surprised to see that the V’rdai had thought along similar lines.

“You sure the rest of them won’t be here somewhere, just waiting to jump out at us?” Rodney whispered anxiously.

“I’m sure,” Ronon replied. “Nekai knows we’ll have to come back here eventually, but he doesn’t know if it’ll be our first stop. So he’s got two out scouting for us, and Adarr and one of the others working on their own ship.” He held up the tracking monitor, which Rodney had grudgingly handed over after they’d exited the cave this morning. “See?” Sure enough, there were three pairs of dots on the screen, all widely separated.

“Okay, so what do we do now?” Rodney asked. He held up his hands when the other three glared at him. “Right, right, I know. I was just hoping you’d change your mind.”

“Can’t imagine why,” Sheppard told him bluntly. “It’s the perfect plan.” He slapped Rodney on the back and rose to his feet, staying hunched so the rocks still shielded him from the guards’ view. Teyla did the same. Ronon had already moved away, so quietly Sheppard hadn’t even noticed. Damn, the big guy could move!

“Easy for you to say!” Rodney shot back in a hissing whisper, but he stayed put as the other three crept off to one side. Then they worked their way a little closer to the ship, splitting up so that Ronon was approaching it from one side and Sheppard and Teyla from the other. They settled into place and waited.

And waited.

And waited.

“Come on, Rodney!” Sheppard muttered under his breath. The sounds were still on his lips when Teyla nudged his elbow and gestured silently with her chin. Glancing in that direction, Sheppard saw something shift behind a boulder a little higher than they were, and directly in line with the Jumper’s airlock. About time!

“Um, hello?” Rodney called out as he rose to his feet. “Anyone there?”

The two V’rdai were instantly alert, their bodies tensing and their guns swinging up to point at him. But Rodney was just a little too far away for effective range.

Exactly as Ronon had planned.

“Don’t move!” one of the guards shouted, and Rodney froze instantly except for his hands, which fluttered up as if to raise in surrender before stopping mid-motion. “Where are the others?” the guard demanded. It was a man, and Sheppard judged him to be about average in height, which meant the bearded man. The other guard, who had backed up against the Jumper’s hull, was probably the dark-skinned woman Ronon had mentioned before. The same pair he and Rodney had jumped at the V’rdai ship. Which meant they would be extra- cautious about ambushes.

Great.

“I–I don’t know,” Rodney claimed, his hands twitching again until he finally lowered them. Slowly. “I — when we got away, they ran. We all ran, I mean. But they ran faster than I did. I lost sight of them. I don’t know where they went. So I came back here. I was hoping they’d come back here too. But they’re not here. You’re here. And I’m here. Uh, hi?” Sheppard had to admit he was impressed. He’d never seen Rodney channel his own nonstop chatter and constant fear like that. He wasn’t entirely convinced it was an act, but it didn’t matter. What mattered was how the V’rdai reacted.

The two guards leaned toward each other slightly, muttering too softly for Sheppard to hear. Then the man moved forward, gun still up, slowly making his way toward Rodney. The woman kept her back to the Jumper itself and scanned the surrounding area. Smart. That way they were prepared if someone did jump out, and in a minute Rodney would be within range of the bearded man’s gun.

Of course, Rodney knew that as well. “Hey, wait!” he whined, starting to back up a step but freezing again when the man waggled his head ‘no’. “Look, let’s talk about this! I’m sorry about what they did, okay? I had no part in that! I’m just the scientist, that’s all! I just want to fix my ship and go home!” Sheppard tried not to bristle at Rodney’s calling the Jumper “his” ship, and tensed, waiting for the right moment. “Look, you can come with me!” Rodney offered. “Your ship isn’t working either, right? Well, let me fix this one and the three of us can get out here together! To hell with the rest of them!” Rodney was far too convincing when he said that, Sheppard decided.

But it was convincing the V’rdai as well. “You think we’d abandon our teammates?” the man asked, his voice a low growl as he continued to stalk toward Rodney. “We’re not cowards! We’re V’rdai! We don’t run, we fight!” His attention was entirely upon Rodney now, and the woman’s glances around the area had subsided as well. She was starting to believe that Rodney really was here alone.

Perfect.

“Okay, okay,” Rodney tried again. “How about this, then? You let me fix my ship, and then gather up the rest of your crew and we all fly out of here together. I can drop you guys off anywhere you want — or you can drop me anyplace that has at least a small city, if you’d rather do it that way. How does that sound?”

“It sounds like you’re desperate,” the man answered, and Sheppard privately agreed. The guard was almost close enough to shoot Rodney now, and perhaps thirty feet from Sheppard and Teyla. It was time.

Sheppard nodded, and Teyla responded by rising to her feet. She had her gun out already, of course, and she aimed and fired as soon as she had a clear shot. It winged the V’rdai guard but didn’t take him out, and he spun around to face her —

— and Sheppard’s shot hit him full in the chest. The man collapsed instantly, falling in a limp heap on the hard rocky ground, his gun clattering as it dropped from his hand. Sheppard sighed. The man was dead, no question about it. He wished there had been another way.

“Castor!” The woman had dropped into a crouch as soon as she saw Teyla, and she squeezed off a shot but Teyla ducked back behind a boulder. Sheppard could tell she was trying to decide who to shoot at — Rodney was still frozen in front of her but too far away, Teyla was back out of sight, and he was standing there, bringing his own weapon around toward her. Easy choice. She turned to face him, raising her pistol as well —

— and Ronon shot her in the back. She crumpled without a sound, and not for the first time Sheppard envied his friend’s unusual pistol. The P90s were lethal, but Ronon could set his weapon to stun or to kill. Sheppard could see the woman’s back moving slightly with each breath. The big Satedan had only stunned her.

“Good plan,” Sheppard commented as he and Teyla stepped out and hurried over to meet Ronon by the airlock. Rodney was already working his way down from his vantage point, and joined them a second later.

“Yeah, of course you liked it,” he complained, carefully not looking at the dead male V’rdai. “You weren’t the one playing bait!”

“I wouldn’t have been half as good at it as you were, Rodney,” Sheppard assured him, forcing himself to keep his tone light. That way he could avoid thinking about the man he’d just killed, at least for a little while. “You have that certain look of terror I don’t think I could ever match.”

“Ha ha,” the scientist snapped. “If you’ve had your amusement, do you mind if I get to work?”

“By all means.” Sheppard bent and grabbed the woman under the arms, then hauled her away from the airlock. Ronon was already moving the dead man off to the side, and Sheppard was glad he didn’t have to shoulder that task. “Go right ahead.”

“Thank you.” Rodney turned and raised his hand to the door panel, but Ronon called out and stopped him.

“They’ll have rigged it,” the Satedan warned.

“I guessed as much already,” Rodney snapped at him. “I have done this before, you know.” He opened the panel and checked the wiring. “Just as I thought — the exact same configuration as last time,” he said to himself. “Easy enough to disconnect.” He snipped a few wires, rerouted something else, then closed the panel again and activated the door release. Nothing blew up as it lowered, so Sheppard figured he must have gotten it right.

While Rodney disappeared inside to make sure the V’rdai hadn’t caused any additional damage or left any other presents, the rest of them turned to the two bodies. They stripped off the V’rdai’s camouflaged jumpsuits, facemasks, and goggles, and Sheppard and Teyla quickly donned them and took up the guards’ weapons while Ronon bound and gagged their captive and hauled her off behind some rocks where she wouldn’t be found right away. He was still carrying the man’s body away when Rodney reemerged.

“The interior’s as we left it,” he said. “They didn’t break anything, so it’s just the existing damage I’ve got to fix.” He had his tools with him, and set to work at once, wrestling a battered panel open and removing a mass of burnt-out wiring and circuitry. “Excellent.”

“Can you fix it or not?” Sheppard asked him. He had to raise his voice because the facemask muffled it. Plus the jumpsuit was armored in strategic locations, which made it stiff and heavy. How did the V’rdai stand it? At least Castor had been roughly his height, and these things were made to be a little loose, so it fit him well enough for appearance’s sake. They were also dark enough to hide bloodstains, Sheppard noticed, and deliberately pushed aside the reminder that he was wearing the clothing of a man he had just killed. Teyla had had a little more trouble with hers, since she was shorter than the dark-skinned woman, but hopefully no one would notice her rolled-up cuffs.

“Of course I can fix it!” Rodney snapped. “I just have to replace a few things and reroute some of the systems. It won’t be perfect, but it’ll get everything up and running again, and it’ll hold long enough to get us back home.” Sheppard believed him. Rodney did have a very high estimation of his own abilities, but in all honesty there was a very good reason for that. And he wouldn’t risk his own life on something he didn’t think was fully functional.

“How long?” was Sheppard’s next question.

“A few hours, at least,” Rodney answered. He didn’t bother to snap this time, because he was already focused on the task at hand. Which was fine. The sooner they could get out of here, the better. Sheppard hoped they might manage it before any more of the V’rdai came looking for them.

But he’d never been that lucky.

“Hey!”

Sheppard had been half-dozing where he stood, head bowed against the sun — it was close to noon, and the small orb was almost directly overhead, even its weak rays beating down on him like a sledgehammer. But the shout jerked him awake, and his hand reached instinctively for his P90 before he remembered that he was holding a pistol already and raised that instead.

The exclamation had come from a tall man gliding down from between the nearby boulders, and as Sheppard took in the other man’s mottled gray coverall and headgear he snapped fully awake again. Right, the V’rdai. Apparently the second team had found them.

“What?” he called back, trying to make his voice sound like what little he’d heard from the man he was impersonating. Fortunately the facemask muffled him already, so that would help. He saw the short, broad-shouldered V’rdai right behind the tall one, glancing around as they approached. Teyla was still next to him, Sheppard realized, and Rodney was somewhere, hopefully out of sight — he couldn’t risk checking. But where was Ronon?

“What do you mean, what?” the tall V’rdai — Adarr — replied. He sounded downright pissed. “You were half-asleep!” He was less than forty feet away now.

“So what if I was?” Sheppard said. “This is ridiculous! They’re not stupid enough to come back here!”

“They’ll be here,” Adarr assured him. Twenty feet. His partner was just a little behind him, and Sheppard hoped Teyla had a clear shot at the shorter man. He was planning to drop Adarr any second now, but he didn’t want to get shot while doing it.

As it turned out, he didn’t have to worry about that. Just as the two V’rdai reached him, Sheppard heard a faint noise from up among the rocks and a little to the left. It sounded like someone brushing against a boulder, someone who didn’t know how to keep completely quiet — or someone who did and was pretending he didn’t.

Ronon.

The two V’rdai heard it as well, and both whirled around, guns raised. Adarr was barely five feet away, but even so Sheppard wasn’t taking any chances. A quick step and his pistol pressed against the back of the tall man’s head, right above his jumpsuit collar. He had just enough time to stiffen in surprise before Sheppard pulled the trigger. Teyla had stayed against the Jumper’s hull but she’d taken careful aim, and she dropped the shorter V’rdai an instant later.

Ronon had obviously been watching the whole time, because as soon as both V’rdai were down he appeared from among the rocks and quickly picked his way back down to them. Sheppard helped him bind and gag the unconscious men, and then Ronon took them one at a time to wherever he was stashing the others.

“How’re the repairs going?” Ronon asked after he returned.

“They’re going fine,” Rodney replied — fortunately he’d been inside the Jumper, recalibrating the controls to compensate for the engine modifications. “But they’re not even close to done yet. I need at least another hour, maybe two.”

“Two?” Sheppard shook his head. “I thought you said you were good at this, Rodney?”

“You think you can do it any faster?” the scientist told him sharply. “Be my guest.” He had a diagnostic tool in his hand, and offered it to Sheppard. “No? Fine. Then trust me when I say I am doing this as fast as humanly possible — maybe faster — but if you actually want us to be able to make it all the way to the Stargate I need another hour at the absolute minimum!”

“Okay, keep your shirt on, Rodney,” Sheppard said, raising his hands in surrender. “I give up.”

“We all know you are working as quickly as possible,” Teyla assured him. “We are simply anxious about the remaining V’rdai, that is all.”

“There’s only two left,” Ronon pointed out. He pulled out the tracking monitor and held it where they could all study the tiny screen. Two dots showed, close together and a short distance from here.

“You think they heard what happened to their friends?” Sheppard wondered aloud. Most guns made a lot of noise when fired, and the V’rdai’s pistols were no exception. The sound of each shot had reverberated across the tiny valley, and probably up into the hills beyond as well.

“I know they did,” Ronon replied. He pointed at the monitor again, and Sheppard saw that the dots had now separated. One was stationary, but the other was moving farther from them. “That’s Nekai,” the big Satedan said, indicating the dot on the move.

“How do you know?” Teyla asked.

“I know how he thinks,” Ronon answered. “They know we took down at least two of the others, and possibly all four. So he’s worried. He wants to give us time to panic, to make mistakes. So he’s giving us some space. He doesn’t want to risk going after us unprepared.”

“And the other one?” Teyla pointed at the first dot, which still hadn’t moved. “That is the other woman, is it not?”

“Lanara,” Ronon agreed. He half-sneered as he said her name, just as he had back in the cave. “She’s too angry and too bitter to be cautious. She won’t back down, no matter what.”

“But they’re making themselves vulnerable,” Sheppard pointed out. “They’re visible to the Wraith again because they split up.”

“They must be more worried about us than about the Wraith,” Teyla remarked. “We are the more immediate threat, after all.”

“Lanara must be really worried if she disobeyed Nekai,” Ronon agreed. “She’s never gone against him before.” He frowned and tapped the tracking monitor with one finger, lost in thought. Then a slow, nasty smile spread across his face.

“Of course, I don’t blame her for being worried,” he said, not bothering to be quiet about it. If anything, he raised his voice slightly, and it echoed faintly off the rocks all around. “She’s got nothing without Nekai, and he’s got nothing without the V’rdai. So if we kill all the others, that leaves him weak and her even weaker.”

Sheppard saw what his friend was doing. “She didn’t seem weak to me,” he commented loudly. “Just angry.”

“That’s how she covers it up,” Ronon explained. “She’s always angry. It’s just a cover, though. Inside, she’s just scared. Scared of everything — and everyone. Scared to move, scared to fight, scared to run. That’s why she clings to Nekai so tight. She’s too scared to stand up on her own.”

There was a scritching noise from somewhere off to one side, and Sheppard saw a flicker of light speeding toward them. He dove to one side, but it hadn’t been aimed at him, and Ronon had been expecting it. The big Satedan spun to the side, and the throwing knife sailed past him, just missing his shoulder. If he hadn’t moved, it would have imbedded itself in his throat.“You missed, Lanara,” Ronon called out. “You’re getting sloppy. Is that why Nekai left you? Because you’re losing your edge?”

Sheppard heard what sounded like a low growl from the direction the knife had appeared, and he turned, training his gun that way. But he didn’t see anything except rocks and more rocks.

“You used to be a good shot,” Ronon was saying. “Of course, that was years ago.” He faced the same direction and spread his arms. “Want to try again?”

A second glitter, and another blade sped toward Ronon’s throat. This one was easier to spot, however — perhaps because they knew where to look and what to watch for — and the Satedan actually caught it, grabbing the knife by the handle. The blade’s tip was less than an inch from his throat.

“Definitely losing your touch,” Ronon remarked, holding the dagger up and examining it. “I hope you have a lot more knives. We both know you’re not going to face me directly — that wouldn’t even be a contest.”

Apparently that last dig was the final straw. Sheppard heard someone roar, definitely a person but someone driven to the limits, pushed so far she reverted to baser instincts and actions. Then there was a scrape and a clatter as Lanara burst from the rocks and charged them. She had a pistol in one hand and a third throwing knife in the other. And she was screaming as she ran, no words but just a long endless exclamation.

Ronon waited until she was ten feet away, then shot her in the throat. The impact actually brought her charge up short and knocked her off her feet. She groaned once, shuddered slightly, and then stopped moving altogether.

“Did you kill her?” Teyla asked, looking down at the woman but not making any move toward her.

“No,” Ronon answered. He holstered his pistol and crouched down beside Lanara, removing her weapons before binding and gagging her. “She’s just stunned.” Without another word he hoisted her onto one shoulder and stood, carrying her off into the rocks and the shadows.

“I need to go after Nekai,” Ronon announced when he returned. “Alone.”

“Alone? Don’t be ridiculous,” Sheppard told him. “One of us” — he indicated Teyla and himself — “can come with you. The other can stay here and guard Rodney and the ship.”

“I’m starting to enjoy this whole “Rodney is too important to risk’ attitude,” Rodney commented from under the Jumper’s right wing. “You should definitely handle situations this way from now on.”

“Shut up, Rodney,” Sheppard said without turning around. “I’m serious, Ronon. You can’t go after him alone.”

“I don’t have a choice,” Ronon replied. “Rodney needs to fix the Jumper so we can leave. You need to make sure he’s safe enough to do that. The V’rdai we captured could get loose. There could be other dangers here. And now the Wraith are on the way. You both need to stay here and protect Rodney. But someone has to go after Nekai. We can’t leave him at our backs — we’d never wake up.”

“I’ll take care of him, then,” Sheppard offered. “You and Teyla stay here with Rodney.”

But the Satedan was already shaking his head. “You don’t know Nekai like I do,” he pointed out. “I know how he thinks. I know how he hunts. I can anticipate that. You can’t.”

Sheppard stared at him for a second. “You’re just doing this to avoid having to put up with Rodney,” he accused finally. Ronon laughed even as Sheppard sighed. He knew arguing about it was hopeless. And Ronon was right — he was the only one of them who stood a chance against the V’rdai leader.

“Good luck,” he told his friend.

“Don’t leave without me,” Ronon replied. He was already turning back toward the rocks in the direction of the wrecked V’rdai shuttle — Sheppard had missed seeing that firsthand, but Rodney had told them all about it. Within seconds Ronon had slipped between two rocks and was only a shadow. A rapidly receding shadow.

Sheppard started to turn away when he noticed something. There was a small, dark shape where Ronon had been, a patch against the gray rocks. Too small to be a weapon, but too even to be a stray shadow or a natural indentation. Curious, he walked over to check it out. What he found was a small, dark metal square with a faintly glowing rectangle inset on one side. He recognized it immediately.

The tracking monitor.

“What — did Ronon drop it?” Teyla asked when he rejoined her and showed her the device.

“Not likely,” Sheppard answered, studying the object. “He’s not that careless, and this is too important.” He tossed it from hand to hand. “I’m betting he left it behind deliberately. This way we can tell exactly where Nekai is.”

“But he cannot!” Teyla pointed out.

“No, he can’t,” Sheppard agreed. “He’ll have to do it the hard way.”

“Do you think he will be all right?” Teyla asked, scanning their surroundings again.

“I think he’ll be fine,” Sheppard replied. “I hope we can say the same for us. Rodney, hurry it up!”

“Don’t rush me,” Rodney snapped, still working. “Unless you want to crash before we even make it off of this planet’s ridiculous surface!”

Sheppard shook his head. Ronon had completely disappeared already. Barring any sudden problems, Sheppard knew he wouldn’t see his friend again until they were almost ready to leave this place. Or until Ronon had settled his dispute with Nekai for good.