The Lost

Chapter Nine: Desert Trek

Even in the shade of the rocks it was about a hundred and five degrees. John winced. Death Valley.

That sounds encouraging, Teyla said in a tone that he wasn't sure if it was supposed to be ironic or not.

It's a place on Earth, John said. He looked up at the sides of the canyon, the lambent deep blue sky above. I lot like this, unfortunately.

We will have to get down there, Teyla said.

Twenty five or thirty feet below where the jumper had come to rest was the bottom of the canyon, a nearly dry stream bed marked by some spiny grayish plants. It would be possible to walk along the stream bed. He thought. John glanced up and winced again. Eighty feet or so to the top, broken rock all the way. Rock climbing was not his favorite thing, and he knew for sure it wasn't Carson's. Dahlia Radim aside, the idea of trying to get Carson up that cliff was daunting. He was a doctor, not special forces. Yeah, down. Not up, he said.

We came along the top of the cliffs before, Dahlia said, shouldering her pack. We followed the line of this canyon but we didn't come down here. It was much easier walking along the plateau above. She looked up at the bright sky. Though there is much more shade here.

Well, let's get down then, John said. Teyla, you go left and I'll go right. Let's see if we can find a place that is easier to get down. Carson, hang out here with Radim until we find a place.

The ledge thinned out about a hundred feet along, but it did slope downward gently, until it was only about fifteen feet from the bottom of the canyon. A rough fifteen feet, but if they put down guide ropes it was probably doable. Teyla?

Yes? she replied, his headset crackling.

You got anything? I've got a fairly easy fifteen foot drop.

I have nothing, Colonel, she said. The canyon deepens and the drop is steeper here than beside the jumper.

Ok, everybody down here then, he said. Carson, you got that?

We are coming, Carson said.

A few moments later he and Dahlia Radim walked up, followed momentarily by Teyla. She looked at the drop. I will get the rope from the jumper, she said.

I'm not sure, Carson began.

It's easy, John said. Teyla will climb down while I hold the rope, and then she'll belay the rest of us down. We're got a harness and everything.

Teyla's going to hold me? Carson looked dubious. The tiny little thing.

It's on belay, Carson, John said soothingly. It's all pulleys. Teyla could hold Ronon that way.

Letting Teyla down was fairly easy. John didn't actually need Carson and Dahlia to help, but they wanted to so they held the end of the rope behind him while he let Teyla down hand over hand. Teyla with all her gear and weapons probably didn't top out over 150. She was, as Carson said, a tiny little thing a good ten inches shorter than he was, and fairly slightly built. It was just that Teyla always seemed to take up so much space in a room.

Once down she went about setting up the belay in a methodical fashion, and it didn't take long to let Dahlia down beside her, going cautiously as the scientist was no more of an experienced climber than the doctor was.

Carson looked doubtful as John clipped off the harness around him. You're sure I'm not too heavy?

Lot a bit, John said. Just relax and lean back. You can put your feet on the canyon wall if it's more comfortable and just walk them down. Lots of people found that helpful, even if they weren't actually doing any of the climbing.

How are you going to get down? Carson asked as his head dipped down to the edge of the ledge.

I'll tie the rope off through the pin up here and Teyla will let me down too.

Carson looked skeptical.

It's ok. Just relax.

I've a bit of a problem with heights, you know, Carson said.

Then just look at me and keep talking, John said. Beyond Carson he could see Teyla belaying him down slowly, hand over hand. Carson's head was two feet below the ledge, so already his feet were only seven or eight feet from the ground. If Teyla dropped him that second he's probably do no worse than break an ankle.How are the new medical personnel working out?

Well, that's really Jennifer's department more than mine,Carson replied, not looking down. The Chief of Medicine now. I'm not sure what I am, except along for the ride.

How the optometrist working out? Two more feet. Three.

We haven't got an optometrist, Carson said. I wish we did. We are got a PA who knows a bit, which is better than we had. Carson looked surprised when his feet touched the ground.

Where you are, Teyla said. Let me unclip you, Carson. She smiled at him. You see? Just as you say, easy peasy.

Right.

His own descent was easy and fast, unclipping himself at the bottom while Teyla looked up at the dangling ropes. We are going to have to leave them, she said.

John nodded. Yeah. But it's just as well if we wind up having to get back up to the jumper this way for some reason. All right, people. Let's walk.

He took the point, Teyla on six with Carson and Dahlia between them without a word spoken. The late afternoon shadows had deepened. Even on a planet with forty hour days, sunset would eventually come. Maybe that’s why he was so tired. The movement of the sun told him that it had only been a few hours since they landed, but… John checked his watch. Four in the morning, Atlantis time. They’d been twenty hours on this mission already, and he’d been up for twenty two. No wonder he was tired. They should have napped in the jumper while they were waiting for the Wraith to leave, but it had seemed impossible to sleep then, cornered like a mouse.

John looked up at the sun again, or rather at the sky above the canyon walls. The sun was already behind the walls, out of sight from its meridian. He hated to call a halt when they’d just gotten started. Better to put a few miles behind them first. He wasn’t sure how long the daylight would last, but they might even make the Ancient ship before it got completely dark. Eighteen miles as the crow flies, or as the jumper flies. No. They wouldn’t make that in one march. But they’d feel better stopping if they were a bit closer. Three six mile treks would probably do it with Carson and Dahlia, with some breaks between each one.

Out of the corner of his eye he thought he saw something move and whipped around, raising the P90 as he did. Behind him he heard Teyla flicking off her safety.

The jumbled rocks were full of deepening shadows. There was no sound. His eyes searched the rocks, glancing over tumbled stones. Nothing moved.

“Did you see it?” he asked Teyla.

“I saw nothing,” she said. “I moved because you did.” She took a few steps forward, coming up even with him. “What was it?”

John shook his head, squinting. “I don’t know. I saw movement. That’s all.”

“This planet does have life forms,” Dahlia said. “We encountered a few in the process of working on the wreck. Small mammals, about as long as my forearm. They eat the tuberous roots of those gray plants.”

“Perhaps that is what you saw,” Teyla said.

“Maybe.” It could have been. He’d just seen motion. “It might have been one of those prairie dog things.” John lowered his gun. “Ok. Just keep an eye out, people.” It was probably nothing at all.

Shadows deepened. They followed the canyon, the stream a tiny trickle surfacing sometimes, then disappearing for a while beneath the stones. It was rough going, and John doubted they’d made three miles.

He dropped back a moment to talk to Dahlia Radim. “Do you know where this canyon goes?”

She nodded, sweat rolling down her face in the sultry heat. “It twists around to the north and then widens out into the plateau just north of the wreck.”

“How much distance does that add?” John asked. It would be too much to hope for that the canyon would come out in the right place.

“I do not know in your miles, but four hours’ walk perhaps? We did not come down by the canyon as I said, but cut straight across the plateau above.” Dahlia looked as tired as John felt. He sincerely hoped he didn’t look that tired. There was a twenty hour night coming, and he felt like he could sleep all of it. Still, a four hour walk was probably better than trying to get up eighty feet of cliffs. Going down was one thing, but he didn’t think he’d care to go up himself, with nobody at the top. Rock climbing was really not his thing.

“Ok,” John said. “That works.”

“Are we stopping soon?”

“Yeah.” John glanced at his watch. “In just a few…”

There was the movement again. He swung the gun up, pivoting right and dropping to his knee.

Carson let out a muffled sound, and he heard Teyla move behind them.

Ahead, the rocks were still and quiet. Nothing moved in the crevices of the stones. There was no noise at all, except the harshness of their own breathing.

“One of those mammals?” Teyla asked after a long moment.

“I did not see it,” Dahlia said.

“Probably.” John got up, dusting off his knee. “Let’s go on a little further and then we’ll take a breather. Maybe down there where the canyon widens out a bit and the stream looks like it comes up.”

“Excellent,” Carson said.

John nodded, taking the point again, conscious of Teyla’s eyes on the back of his head. There was no point in saying anything. For a moment, in the shifting shadows, he had thought he saw a man.

They rested in the shade. The temperature had dropped down into the nineties, which felt good. Water was what he needed. He’d probably sweated out half a gallon. The stream was fairly clear, but he added some water purification tablets and refilled his canteen. You never knew what might be in the water on an uninhabited planet. Strange bacteria would be just the beginning.

Teyla sat down beside him, offering him one of the MREs from her pack, but he waved it away. He was too hot to eat anything that heavy. An energy bar was enough to give him a boost without turning his stomach.

Teyla apparently thought the same thing, for she was nibbling on one as well rather than the heavier rations. Above, the sky was turning purple, dotted with a million stars. Quite literally. They must be looking toward the center of the galaxy, because it was bright as a moon as night fell. She tilted her chin up, as though looking for an errant breeze that wasn’t here. “It is quite beautiful,” she said.

John nodded. “I’ve seen the Milky Way like that on Earth. You can’t see it that way in San Francisco or DC, anywhere you’ve been. There are too many people and too many lights. But it does get that bright.”

“Where?” she asked.

John shifted, ostensibly because the stones beneath him were hard, a chill running up his spine, though his voice was casual. “In clear desert air. I’ve seen it that way in Afghanistan.”

“Ah,” she said, not turning her face to him, her eyes on the sky.

She had been with him on that planet where a Wraith mind control device had gone haywire, the only one of them immune to it because of the Gift, been with him a whole day as he slipped further and further into a hallucination. Afghanistan. He didn’t know entirely what he’d said and what he’d only imagined he’d said. He was afraid to ask. But he’d probably said enough. More than enough.

There wasn’t any more to say, so they sat in silence until it was time to move on, through this world’s slow twilight.

Carson offered his water bottle to Dahlia Radim, but she shook her head. “I have my own,” she said. “I won’t need yours, Doctor.”

“Carson,” he said. “I think we know one another well enough for that.”

“Carson,” she said, her eyes skimming his face. “Then you should call me Dahlia.”

“I’d be pleased to,” he replied.

Her eyes went past him to where Teyla and Sheppard sat in an identical pose crosslegged on the ground, both of them looking up at the sky without saying a word. “Would he have shot me?” she mused.

“No,” Carson said quickly. “Of course not. Not unless you’d been carrying a hidden bomb or the like.”

“I’m not sure of that,” Dahlia said. “Emmagan said that he was cruel and she was worse.”

Carson blinked. “I wouldn’t say that. Not at all.”

“Probably not.” Dahlia shrugged. “But you’re on their side.”

Carson was still digesting that when Teyla got to her feet with a smooth movement and came toward them.

“Are you ready to walk a little further?” she asked.

Dahlia got to her feet. “Yes.”

“We will go on a little while,” Teyla said. “And then we will rest for a few hours. Carson?”

“I’m game,” Carson said, getting to his feet. Beyond Dahlia, Sheppard had shouldered the heaviest pack and was taking up his weapon. He would go first, of course, and Teyla last. Carson hung back walking beside Teyla, letting Dahlia get ahead. When there was enough room not to be overheard, he leaned toward her. “Teyla, why did you tell Dahlia that Colonel Sheppard was cruel? What in the name of heaven is that about, making out he’s some sadistic bastard?”

Teyla looked at him levelly. “He is the military commander of Atlantis, Carson. It is important that the Genii fear him. Do you think they would do so if I told Dahlia Radim that he is a fluffy bunny?”

Carson huffed. “Well, not a fluffy bunny! But he’s not precisely Vlad the Impaler either!”

Teyla stopped, and he stopped with her. “Michael,” she said.

Carson blanched.

“Yes,” she said with a strange half-smile that did not touch her eyes. “And you and I bear as much taint as anyone for that. We are not harmless, even if we choose to be kind. A lion is a lion, even if you keep it as a pet or call it your friend.”

He swallowed, and she touched his arm gently. “Come now. Let us not fall too far behind. It would be dangerous for us to get lost in the dark.”

“Right.” Carson hurried along the broken ground ahead of her, the starlight bright enough to cast vague shadows on their path.

They had almost caught up to Dahlia Radim. Almost.

There was a blur of movement to Carson’s left, a momentary brief impression of a flying body, but before he could so much as shout something hit him hard, claws scoring across his shoulder as it threw him to the ground, borne beneath hard muscle and scaly weight, its scream echoing in the night air.