The Lost

Chapter Six: Live Wires

“Look, here they go again,” Lorne said in frustration as the security readout flickered. “We’re having these long periods where we’re not getting any data from the external sensors, and then when we do — ”

“Yes, I see,” Radek said, pointing out the same faint blur that Lorne had seen at the edge of the city. As long as he was hanging out in the control room waiting for Woolsey to clear him to take his team out, Lorne thought at least he might be able to pin down what was wrong with the sensors. It would be nice to be able to cross one problem off their list.

“If it’s not some kind of software error — ”

“It should not be,” Radek said. “We have not made any modifications to the programming of the sensors since before we left Earth. It is possible that the external sensors themselves could be accumulating ice.”

“Great,” Lorne said. If he was remembering right, the external sensor arrays weren’t anywhere that would make removing ice from them easy. “We can go out in a jumper and see if we see any ice. At least that would be a simple problem. What about these weird readings, though?”

“That is actually of more concern to me,” Radek said, the green light from the display reflecting off his glasses as he leaned closer and frowned. “Our preliminary scans of the planet found no signs of habitation, or of concentrations of large animal life in the oceans surrounding our landing site.”

“We didn’t find out about the whales for a while, though, either.”

“Well, we were not looking,” Radek said.

“We scanned this planet pretty fast,” Lorne pointed out. “And I know Teyla always says that planets in Pegasus that aren’t inhabited aren’t inhabited for a reason.”

“In this case, the reason is that there was no Stargate here,” Radek said without looking up. “The only people with any way of reaching this planet would have been the Travelers, and there are few natural resources on this world that would be of interest to them.”

“Or to us, it seems like.”

Radek spread his hands. “We did not have a lot of choice. We had to set down somewhere.” His hands were moving swiftly over the keyboard. “As much as our power had been depleted by malfunctions at that point, we were lucky to find a habitable planet and make a safe landing. And as for taking off again — ”

“I’m not saying we have to,” Lorne said.

“No, but you are not the only person to suggest it.” Radek shook his head. “This was the best planet we could reach with the power we had at the time. And now that we have landed and would have to factor in the power required to take off again…”

“We’re stuck here.”

“Unless you have brought a spare ZPM in your luggage.”

“Afraid not.”

“All right, I have reduced the sensors’ range, which should provide a stronger signal in our immediate area.” He zoomed in on one of the piers. “You see here? That may be ice.”

“Sea ice?” Lorne said, frowning. “It’s not that cold.”

Not nearly cold enough for the sea water around us to freeze, no, Radek said. I would like to get some samples of the ice. Assuming it is ice.

Always assuming, Lorne said. What are we looking for, here?

Saltwater ice has a different concentration of salt than freshwater ice, Radek said, his hands sketching what might be chunks of ice in the air. If this is freshwater ice, we are probably looking at pieces of ice that have calved off an ice shelf. Oceanography is not exactly my field, but…

But you're worried about icebergs. Lorne shrugged in answer to Radek's quick sideways glance. it's not my field either, but I do know something about problems that ships can run into.

I will ask Dr. Bryce to take a look, Radek said. He adjusted the sensors again, frowning, the display zooming in on another part of the city, high on one of the towers. that cannot be ice.

Probably not, Lorne said. Switch over to life sign readings, will you?

Radek raised his eyebrows. I would not think so, there is nothing. Unless… He tapped at the keyboard again. We keep the sensors programmed to ignore life sign readings below a certain size. That was after we found that alarms were going off every time a bird landed on the city.

That birds going to be out in this weather?

The weather is not so bad as that, Radek said, sounding a bit frustrated. We are not talking penguins, here. And there should be few available food sources to attract birds to the city, although it could be that because of the storm.

He trailed off as the blur suddenly sharpened and resolved itself into what looked like dozens of small, moving blobs of light.

That's a lot of birds, Lorne pointed out.

It could be just the local equivalent of a flock of seagulls, Radek said hopefully. Nothing to worry about, just a perfectly natural phenomenon with no effect on the city's systems whatsoever. That is possible, yes?

Sure, Lorne said. They both watched the small moving forms cross and recross the display.

After a moment, Lorne sighed. I'll get together a team to check it out.

Radek looked weary. That is probably best.

Before he could head out to do that, alarms sounded, making Salawi's eyes widen as she looked down at her board. Unscheduled offworld activation, Lorne prompted.

Unscheduled offworld activation, she repeated over the communications system, her voice growing more confident as she spoke. We are receiving Colonel Sheppard's IDC and a radio transmission.

But him on, Lorne said.

This is Sheppard, Sheppard said.

Good to hear from you, sir, Lorne said. Or. Woolsey just went down to lunch. Let me get him up here for you.

That's all right, Sheppard said. Must tell him that Radim may have some information for us, but he wants us to do a favor for him and go check out a wrecked Ancient spaceship that he thinks he can salvage. We are going to take the jumper and go take a look. We'll report in after we are checked it out.

Yes, sir, Lorne said. He wondered what about this plan Sheppard expected Woolsey to object to. Will you need a science team?

We are just going to take a look, Sheppard said. Radim's sister has been investigating the wreck, and we think with her help we may be able to get the thing working. Zelenka's eyebrows rose, and he looked like he was about to say something, and then like it had occurred to him that doing so would mean volunteering to go wander around wreckage offworld. He frowned and bent over his console again instead. We are waiting on her right now.

Okay, sir, Lorne said. I'll let Mr. Woolsey know.

Zelenka met Lorne's eyes again as the transmission cut off. I hope they know what they are doing.

Lorne shrugged. There wasn't much he could say, and certainly not in front of Salawi, who was smart enough to pick up on any hint he might drop that he thought Colonel Sheppard might not have entirely thought this through. We'll sure they do, he said.

Dahlia Radim didn't keep them waiting long. She was a few years younger than Teyla, in her mid thirties, blond hair pulled back in a long pony tail, wearing a serviceable jumpsuit and carrying a large pack. I'm sorry to have kept you waiting, she said, pulling herself up the last rungs of the ladder into the barn.

No trouble, love, Carson said, bending to help her the last little way. We've just called in by radio and let them know where we're going. He gave her a warm smile.

Teyla approved, both of the smile, and of letting Radim know that Atlantis would know exactly what agreement they made and where they were going. Carson was much better at the iron hand in a velvet glove than John was. He had an iron hand and a velvet glove, but there was no meeting between the two.

Are we ready? John asked by way of greeting.

I'm ready, Dahlia said, letting Carson lift her pack for her so that she could slip her arms through the straps.

That's pretty heavy, Carson said.

It's my equipment, Dahlia said. I led the expedition that did the repair work on the Ancient warship. Of course without the ATA gene we couldn't initialize systems, but I think we have both sublight and hyperdrive working, though we have no shields or weapons, and only limited power outside of certain sections. There are hull breaches we haven't been able to repair, though it appears that the ship has airtight bulkheads that have sealed off those areas.

John frowned. Are you sure this thing is spaceworthy? If there are decompressed sections and any of those bulkheads are damaged, it's going to be a serious problem.

No, Dahlia said frankly. I'm not sure. But I can't be sure without initializing systems. We've been all over the ship three times, and its as tight as I can make it without being able to turn it on and get readings. She glanced from John to Carson. That's where you gentlemen come in. We're gone as far as we can go without a pilot.

We'll give it the old college try, Carson said.

Dahlia gave him a brilliant smile. I'm sure you will, Doctor. She looked back at John. If the ship proves unspaceworthy, we'll return and tell Chief Radim that it needs more work. The ship is a four day journey overland from the Stargate, so as you can imagine it’s been an effort to get crews out to work on it, especially given the environment.”

Teyla felt her brows rise. “Is the planet hostile, then?”

“A planetary day is forty of your hours long,” she said. “And the atmosphere is thin. It’s not impossible, but it’s thinner than most human inhabited worlds. Given the length of day and the atmosphere, there are extremes of daytime and night time temperature, from very hot to very cold in a matter of hours, and day and night are each twenty hours long. We found it a challenging work environment.”

“We’re not planning on staying there long,” John said. “With the jumper we can reach the ship from the Stargate in a few minutes, and then it shouldn’t take too long to either get the systems running or to know we can’t. Either way, it’s a short trip.” He opened the barn door. “Let’s get going.”

Teyla hung back to go last, Dahlia and Carson chatting amiably ahead of her. It was not like John to be so quick to dismiss any warning, she thought. He was worried about Rodney, imagining horrible things happening every moment that Rodney remained in captivity. She supposed he had been the same when she was in Michael’s hands. She had heard as much from Sam and others. This was no different. John’s team was his family. That had never been more obvious than on Earth, when he thought the team was disbanded forever. It had begun to worry her considerably, what would become of him if Atlantis did not return to the Pegasus Galaxy. He had no other home.

Teyla settled into the copilot’s seat as she usually did, with Carson behind John and Dahlia in the seat behind hers that was usually Ronon’s.

“Ok,” John said, moving the indicators forward, “Punch the gate.”

Teyla pressed the coordinates they had been given, Dahlia looking forward over her shoulder. “This ship is extraordinary,” she said. “I only wish we had one like it.”

“Yeah, I bet you do,” John said. He didn’t lift his eyes from his instruments. He knew that Teyla would take that as she did. Still, Dahlia Radim was one person, and even if her backpack held weapons or a bomb Teyla was quite sure she could take her out by herself, discounting Carson and John entirely, if Dahlia tried to take control of the jumper. The only way she could do that would be by threat, as she couldn’t fly it herself.

“I didn’t mean that…” Dahlia began.

“Of course not,” Carson said, but Teyla heard the note of doubt in his voice.

“You can search me if you want,” Dahlia said, the color rising in her face.

John glanced sideways at Teyla.

She shook her head very slightly. “I see no need for that,” she said. “After all, we must learn to trust one another.” Dahlia could not see her face, but John could. He could read perfectly clearly what was there. I will be watching her, never fear. And I can handle her if I must.

“Right then,” John said, replying to her expression as well as her words. “Let’s do it.” He shoved the indicators forward, and the puddle jumper soared through the gate.

Into the middle of a flight of Wraith Darts.

“Crap!” John said, pulling up wildly and rolling like a fish in shallow water as blue fire erupted all around them. Dahlia screamed. Teyla clutched the seat arms and managed to make no sound at all.

Four Darts. No, five. They swarmed around them in a pinwheel as the jumper jinked, John looking for an opening as the ground swam beneath them, wheeling with his spins. With the inertial dampeners on full, Teyla could not have said which way was down, or how far. Not far, surely. They had just come out of the gate. There was no altitude to play with.

There was a bang and a pop, one of the displays behind Dahlia shorting out in a cascade of sparks.

“Bloody effing hell!” Carson said, grappling for the fire extinguisher behind his seat.

The jumper jinked again, and John found an opening, pulling ninety degrees straight up, a full power climb into the indigo sky. The atmosphere was so thin that even at midday the sky had a purplish tinge, a few bright stars showing through. Teyla kept her eyes on one as they climbed, growing brighter with altitude. Another shot rocked them, and then John leveled abruptly, rolled left, and began a power dive back toward the ground. He spun past a Dart so closely that Teyla could see the pilot, his silver hair held back in a dark chain, and then they were past, skimming over the red brown dirt.

“What happened?” Carson shouted, spraying foam liberally in the smoke-filled cockpit.

“We have engaged the cloak,” Teyla said. On the display she could see the Darts hunting behind them, still gaining altitude along the jumper’s last known course. “I think we have lost them.”

“That’s not all we’ve lost,” John said grimly, his fingers white on the controls. “We’ve lost main propulsion and the vertical stabilizers. Carson, can you lock it down?”

Carson looked around wildly. “How do I do that?”

“Maybe I can,” Dahlia said, coming out of her seat. “Where are the control panels?”

“I don’t know!” Carson said.

“You’d better figure it out,” John said. “Fast. Because we’re losing altitude and I’m going to have to land this bird on the auxiliary steering thrusters.”

“Not again,” Teyla said quietly.

John spared her a sideways glance, the ghost of a smile quirking his mouth. “Been through too many jumper crashes with me?”

“The only time it is too many is the last time,” Teyla said, and held on tight.

The ground came up with dizzying speed, reds and browns blurring together. The jumper pulled up, the horizon stabilizing in front of them. They skimmed over the ground heavily, like an injured bird, reds and browns and tans dissolving into canyons and peaks, plateaus and gorges carved by dry rivers.

The jumper shook and John’s left hand flew over the board, a look of intense concentration on his face.

With a bone-jarring thud the jumper sunk into one of the canyons, rock scraping along one side, and came to a stop.

Dahlia and Carson were coughing, foam from the fire extinguisher around them.

John came out of his seat them moment the jumper settled, pistol in hand, pointed straight at the middle of Dahlia Radim’s chest. “I want some answers,” he said.

“It wasn’t me!” Dahlia’s blue eyes were wide, soot streaked across her face. “I swear by everything I hold holy that it wasn’t me!”

“You’re going to tell me that we just happened to run into a flight of Darts the moment we came through the Stargate because of pure dumb luck?” John demanded, his jaw set. “This had nothing to do with the Genii?”

“Why would I do that?” Dahlia yelled back. “Why would I set myself up to get myself killed? If the Darts had blown us to bits I would be as dead as you were! Why would Ladon do that?”

“They weren’t pulling any shots,” Carson said.

“Maybe Ladon didn’t know about it,” John said. “I don’t know. But this was a set up.” He didn’t drop the muzzle of the.45 four feet from her heart.

“Maybe it was,” Dahlia said. “Maybe my brother has a traitor on his staff! But this was not me! This was not Ladon! I had nothing to do with this!”

“John,” Teyla said quietly, but he had already lowered the pistol.

Smoke swam around him in the cockpit, though the fire was out. “Nothing to do with it,” he said skeptically.

“Why would I commit suicide this way?” Dahlia demanded. “There are easier ways to kill you people, you know. We get nothing out of this. Nothing!”

“Is there really an Ancient warship?”

“Yes!” Dahlia’s eyes were wide. “Everything I told you is true!”

“Then why were those Darts waiting for us?” John asked.

“I don’t know!”

“And why haven’t they found us?” Carson asked.

“The cloak is still working,” John said. “And it’s about the only thing that is. We’ve lost the main engines and the DHD.”

“Aw, crap,” Carson said, his face falling. “You mean we’ll have to walk back to the Stargate and dial manually?”

“With a bunch of Darts hanging around waiting for us,” John said. “Oh, and we’re about sixty miles from the Stargate, just to add to the fun.”

Carson brushed past John and leaned over the board. “We’ve still got passive sensors. There’s a hive ship in orbit.”

“Oh yeah,” John said, not taking his eyes of Dahlia. “There sure is.”

“Perhaps they saw the wormhole open and came to investigate,” Teyla said.

“And started shooting the minute we cleared the event horizon? That’s coincidental,” John said.

“I’m not saying it wasn’t a trap,” Dahlia said. “I’m just saying that Ladon and I weren’t part of it. Look, he has a lot of enemies. They’d love to kill me and destroy his alliance with Atlantis. It’s possible that someone tipped off the Wraith. But it wasn’t us.”

Teyla shook her head. “That is true. I do not see what Ladon Radim would gain from killing his sister and destroying his own alliance. He does not gain Atlantis merely by killing us, and he is wise enough to know that any agreement with the Wraith to leave the Genii alone will last only as long as is convenient for them.”

John let out a long breath. “Ok. Teyla, search her. And then Carson, I want you to run a scan for a subcutaneous transmitter.”

“Fine.” A blush rose on Dahlia’s face, but she lifted her chin.

Knowing how the Genii were about personal modesty, Teyla picked up Dahlia’s pack and handed it to John. “Why don’t you and Carson stay in the cockpit and check this while we go in the back and I search her?” John’s eyes met hers and she answered his unspoken question. “Yes, it will be fine. I will call you if I need anything.”

Dahlia’s face was flaming as Teyla closed the bulkhead door. “I take it you expect me to disrobe completely.”

“Yes,” Teyla said, and her voice was cold. “It is the only way we can be certain.”

“Better you than the others,” Dahlia said, unzipping her jumpsuit.

“I thought you would agree,” Teyla said. “I did not think you would prefer to have Colonel Sheppard search you.” Her hands were quick and methodical, but still Dahlia shuddered.

“He is a hard man,” Dahlia said.

“Yes.” Teyla did not let awkwardness make her hurry. “He is a soldier. It makes one cruel.” Dahlia would know that. The Genii were no different, Ladon Radim included.

Dahlia nodded, turning and raising her arms with only a little wince. “And you?”

“I am that which is worse,” Teyla said. Let her make of that what she would.

There was a word in the language of the Genii for such as her — Bloodtainted, whose Gift of Wraith DNA had made tainted, made to glory in the mastery of others. They meant it as a mental disorder now, a name for those whose pleasure came from domination. It had been several generations since they had killed the last of those with the Gift among them. Most of those who, like her ancestors, had been the subject of those Wraith experiments had been slaughtered by the humans who came in contact with them. Only on worlds like Athos had any survived.

“You may dress,” Teyla said, and opened the communicator to the cockpit. “She is clean.”

“Her bag is fine too,” Carson said. “When Miss Radim is dressed I’ll come in and do the scan. There’s nothing she needs to take off for that.”

“Understood,” Teyla said. She turned and gave Dahlia a reassuring smile. “It seems your pack is clean as well.”

“I have told you that I was not in on this,” Dahlia said indignantly, still putting her arms in the sleeves of the jumpsuit.

“Do you think we could afford to believe you?” Teyla asked.

Dahlia’s eyes met hers, swimming with humiliation, but level all the same. “Of course not.” Her voice was stark. “That’s not the way it works.”

In a moment, when Dahlia was fully dressed, Teyla opened the doors and she and Carson traded places. She heard him chatting in his best bedside manner while she slid into the copilot’s seat next to John. Outside the front window there was nothing to see except the rocky side of the canyon.

“Ok?” John looked at her sideways.

“Yes.” Teyla leaned forward, her elbows on the edge of the console. “What is the situation?”

“We still have the cloak,” John said. “Which is why we aren’t dead. There have been four or five flyovers, but they haven’t spotted us. I got us down in a canyon, so there isn’t a lot of surface torn up that they could see even if they couldn’t see the jumper.” His hands slid over the board. “But the engines are dead. We’ve got power, but I’m not getting anything to the main drive or the vertical stabilizers. All I’ve got are the steering thrusters. That might, and that’s a big might, be enough to take off with but it won’t get us back to the gate. It wouldn’t get us a mile.”

“And the gate is sixty miles away?” Teyla rested her head on her hands. “What is that thing you say when you have done something before?”

“Déjà vu,” John said. “Maybe Carson can fix the engines.”

Teyla looked at him sharply. “Maybe Dahlia can. You know that Carson knows absolutely nothing about fixing a puddle jumper’s engines. You might as well ask me to fix them, or do it yourself.”

John’s mouth tightened. “Go on. Say it.”

“If you had listened to me about going to get Radek we would not be in this situation.”

“There. You said it.” John winced. “Need to say it again? Let me help. John, you are stupid as a stupid, stupid thing.”

“I only needed to say it once,” Teyla said. “I am certain that you will flog yourself more thoroughly than I would flog you.”

“And it will be much less fun,” he said darkly.

Surprised, she couldn’t help but laugh. “I hope you do not mean that! All this time I thought you were simply terrible at stick fighting!”

He had a sheepish expression on his face. “I didn’t mean that! Not that way.”

“You do not mean that you are throwing the fights so I will hit you?”

“Not usually.” The corner of his mouth twitched and she could not be sure whether he were teasing or not.

For a moment their eyes locked, the tension in the air between them live as electricity.

The back door slid open. “She’s good as gold,” Carson said, Dahlia behind him. Her blush had faded, and she seemed to have regained her self-possession.

Which made one of them, Teyla thought. John looked as though he had just swallowed a frog, and she imagined she looked no better.

“Great,” John said.

Teyla turned to Dahlia, her professional trader’s smile plastered to her face. “I regret that we could not take your word,” she said. “But as we are now all in this together, we must work together to solve our problems.”

Nodding, Dahlia sat down once again in her seat, Carson almost protective at her elbow.

“Let’s hear the bad news then,” Carson said. “Colonel?”