Unfinished WIP: excerpt: SGA: Upward Over the Mountain [b]

[auburnnothenna]

Upward Over the Mountain
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Halfway to the jumper bay, Rodney started talking

"I've been holding onto this until I thought we needed it, but I think, considering our history with the Genii and the circumstances, this is the time, also if nothing happens then so much the better. You could consider this belt and suspenders and I really think you ought to let me do it. It won't take me more than fifteen, twenty minutes, I swear, and will be so worthwhile if they double cross us or we run into the Wraith, because they've begun compensating for the Ancient tech, in case you hadn't noticed."

Rodney walked faster as his words sped up, and his hands described arcs in the air that punctuated each declaration. John had to lengthen his stride to keep up as they approached the jumper bay.

"Rodney."

"I know, I know, you're thinking, why now, but really, why not? It's not that this has been a secret project, just that I've only been able to work on it in my spare time, which is, well, mostly nonexistent, and I didn't need you hanging over my shoulder asking when I'd be finished anyway. That's very annoying, you know, and it does not make me work faster."

"Yes, it does."

"No, impending painful death makes me work faster, you just irritate me and make me stop to explain what I'm doing when I could be doing it twice as fast if I wasn't constantly interrupted to dumb it down for your amusement," Rodney snapped. His stuttered to a stop in order to glare at John full force.

John kept walking and drawled as he passed Rodney, "If you say so."

Rodney broke into a trot to keep up, but his glare morphed into self-satisfaction as soon as he drew even. "As it happens, I am an unparalleled genius, even by my own standards, and even with criminally limited opportunity and constraints, I finished the program and did a simulation a week ago, so it is ready." He finished with an unvoiced yet clear 'Hah!'.

"Okay," John drawled. The doors into the jumper bay slid open ahead of them. "What is it?"

"What?"

"You never said whatever you're taking about."

John loved the jumper bay. The overheard iris was open, providing light that gilded each level and air that didn't depend on Atlantis' environmental systems. It hummed with the power feeding the jumpers neatly docked and charging there. Voices echoed from the walls, reminding him of a hundred different hangars he'd known during his career.

New Lantea's chillier climate made the jumper bay colder these days, but John didn't care.

Rodney immediately tugged the zip on his jacket higher though as they walked in, grimacing at the cool air curling through the bay from the open roof. He didn't complain, however. Probably too taken aback by John's words. His mouth had fallen open and he stared. It started to close twice, but fell open again. "Oh," he finally managed. "Didn't I?"

"So?" John cocked an eyebrow at him.

"Yes. It's a modification to the modulation of the jumpers' shields and the cloaks, basically."

Evan had his men standing ready at the hatch to Jumper Two. He stood next to Ronon just to the side. When they added Ladon's men and Tyre, the jumper was going to packed like a sardine tin. John nodded to him and he nodded back.

"Hey, where's Teyla?" Rodney asked.

Light steps behind them accompanied Teyla's voice. "I am here, Rodney. Are you ready to go?"

"Not quite yet."

"What does the modification do?" John asked. He wasn't enthusiastic about last minute changes to the jumpers before a mission.

"It's a small but significant change that should not only double their strength but harden them against detection by the Wraith or anyone else familiar with the way jumpers have always worked," Rodney said.

"Ten minutes," John told Rodney.

"What?!"

"Do Jumper One, we haven't got time to modify both."

"I said I needed twenty," Rodney protested, even as he headed for Jumper One.

"McKay."

Teyla smiled at him, though it looked strained.

"Major," John said, and began briefing Evan and his men on what he expected from them. Two of them were veterans of previous encounters with the Genii, including having their deaths faked after they had been taken prisoner during Ladon's coup. Teyla slipped into Jumper One as he finished.

"Remember we need him alive," John reminded Ronon. He would have rather had Ronon on Jumper One with them, but they needed someone with Evan's team to confirm Tyre's identity. He caught Ronon's gaze, holding it until Ronon got it. This wasn't about revenge or the honor of Sateda; it was finding out what the Wraith and their worshippers were up to and maybe saving some other lives. Or at least stopping anyone else from dying..

He clapped Ronon on the back and turned back to Evan. "The Genii have radios, so they're capable of monitoring ours. Use the encrypted channel. We'll be monitoring your transmissions."

"Got it," Evan told him.

"I know you have no love for the Genii, but if they're on the up and up, this is a hell of a favor, so remember you're acting as their support today."

"No more than you do, sir," Evan replied, confident and comfortable, a slight smile present. "I'll keep sweet, no worries."

"Worrying is my job," John said.

Rodney poked his head out the back hatch. "Could we get this show on the road? Or should I sit down and play a game or two of Freecell?"

"Done already?" John asked. He waved Evan to go and jogged over the Jumper One himself.

"Ten minutes you said."

"And you said twenty."

"I'm just that good."

"If the smug gets any thicker in here, Teyla won't be able to breathe," John said as he took the pilot's seat.

"I can breathe just fine," Teyla said.

John turned and grinned at her. He wanted to say how good it felt having her in that seat again. He missed her any time the team went out without her. Instead, he made a face at Rodney and said, "Buckle up."

Rodney made a face back at him, and said, "Way to get her back on the team."

John concentrated on the console in front of him.

"Sheppard," Rodney prompted.

"It would be good," John mumbled. "If you were. Back. When you're ready."

"Smooth," Rodney mocked, but John snuck another glance back over his shoulder and Teyla looked pleased.

He activated the comm. "Major Lorne, I'll be following you through the stargate, so don't stop too close. We'll be cloaked and radio silent, but we'll be right behind you all the way."

"Yes sir."

"Cloak activated," Rodney said.

Ahead of them, Jumper Two lifted off.

"Let's do this."

John hovered their jumper directly above Jumper Two. If Rodney said even the Ancients wouldn't be able to detect them with the modifications he'd made, John believed him, but there were things like air displacement that were a dead giveaway. Blowing grass would tell anyone with eyes and ears something was there, whether sensors said so or not.

Evan kept his radio on, mic open, as he met with Ladon ad the Genii in charge of the pick-up team and they listened in.

Ladon showing up himself was either an indication of how important this was to the Genii or that it was a personal matter for him. No way to know yet.

Ladon's men had been waiting at the stargate, geared up and ready. Ladon had been with them, greeting Evan courteously before introducing the officer in charge of the pick up. The Genii solders weren't in uniform, instead dressed in the sort of homespun farmers clothing worn by half the galaxy. The weapons they carried were top of the line Genii manufacture, though.

Evan must have had his microphone cranked to the max. Everything he said came through overly loud, while nearby voices came through as well, a little more blurred, overlain with the sounds of rustling fabric and his breathing.

"Let me," Rodney said. "I can clean this up."

Both sides of the conversation began coming in clearly as Rodney worked.

"Strike Leader Madar Lacos," a rough voice said. In the grassy field where the jumper had landed, Evan stepped forward and offered his hand to a tall Genii.

"Major Evan Lorne."

"We've seen pictures," Lacos said, amusement curling clear through his voice despite the less than optimal transmission.

Beside John, Rodney snorted. "Seen them, distributed them, kidnapped, offered a bounty...Oh, wait that was you and me." He flicked his gaze toward John.

"Ah, the old days, when we were wanted," John said, sharing a glance with Rodney, who ducked his head, hiding a smile.

"We'd hoped Colonel Sheppard would come," Ladon said.

"He was busy."

"We're wasting time," Lacos commented.

"Okay," Evan said easily. "My orders are to fly you wherever you want. My men stay with the jumper unless you really need them and I fly you back here with the prisoner. Any problems with that?"

"None. We won't need any help." Lacos sounded put out by the implication his men might need back up. Not surprising. One thing the Genii never lacked was pride.

"Ronon can confirm this guy's identity."

"The Satedan?"

"Yes."

"Fine. He stays out of the way."

A rustle of paper carried through the microphone. Ladon or someone unrolling a map for Evan. John wished the jumper had surveillance cameras he could use to zoom in on it. He gently manipulated the drive pods to position the jumper in an on-its-nose hover so that he could see the ground through the front viewport.

"Avibo is here, where the Treem River leaves the Iron Hills," Ladon said.

"Looks like about two days march on foot from the gate," Evan commented, cluing John in smooth as butter and just as innocent.

"Yes, that's why we asked for your help."

"Funny place for newcomers to show up."

"They mine iron ore. Workers are welcome from anywhere."

"Do you know enough now, Major Lorne?"

"Most pilots like to know where they're going, Strike Leader. As well as what they're likely to run into."

"You know now."

"Charming," Rodney commented.

"We'll be back in two shakes of a lamb's tail," Evan told Ladon.

"What does that mean?" Teyla asked, sounding cross.

"Two snaps of McKay's fingers."

"Oh."

"Hey!"

John took the jumper straight up, out of Evan's lift area.

"Dialing the gate," he noted, watching the stargate cycle. "Rodney, you getting the coordinates?"

"Yeah."

Jumper Two hovered just outside the splash zone. John brought Jumper One in line right behind it.

He accelerated forward as Jumper One entered the wormhole, following it in less than a second later, tight enough only a close and paranoid observer would catch the extra ripple of something else passing the event horizon.

They came out into pre-dawn darkness, stars shocking bright, carpeting the sky thicker than Earth's sky had ever boasted, even before the era of light pollution from an industrial society that never completely slept. Avibo circled a star far closer to the Pegasus galactic center than most, but not close enough to notice the dark hollow of a super massive blackhole at its heart.

Jumper Two took a course curving into a right angle from the stargate, in the direction of the dawn.

East, John thought. Sunrise side whispered in his brain, in the abbreviated trade tongue everyone who passed through a Pegasus stargates picked up. It made things easier, let them talk without interpreters to figure out a new language each time they made contact.

Right up until they ran into people who hadn't gone through the stargate in a while and found out just how far language could drift. 'We're explorers' in trade tongue ended up meaning 'we're invading'. They hadn't figured it out until they brought someone from that world through the stargate with them and let linguistics do their part.

Lacos seemed to have his plan together. Pre-dawn raid had to have been figured before they left Genea. That explained his impatience. Everyone in Avibo would be home, out of the way and accounted for, as the strike team went in.

John followed Jumper Two, hanging back about two lengths. The Iron Hills were black silhouettes against a sky just beginning to pale at the horizon, indigo fading into lemon where the rounded shapes of an old, old geological formation opened into the flat lands. He could just pick out the silver thread of the river Ladon had mentioned.

"Land outside the town, where the river turns," Lacos told Evan.

"You know where Tyre is?" That was Ronon. He'd turned his radio on too.

"Fadar will guide us."

"Rodney, can you - "

A HUD display resolved over the control console, offering a green-lined gridwork version of the town, life signs glowing within most buildings. Another clump showed next to a jumper symbol and the river. Rodney kept typing and several of the jumper life signs changed to blue. "I've tagged the signs with the signals from the subcutaneous transmitters."

"Yeah, that," John said.

The HUD showed Ronon, Evan and his marines as blue dots surrounded by the nine lifesigns of the Genii strike team. Ronon's radio remained silent as the team exited the jumper and infiltrated the town, heading directly for an outlying house that had to be Fadar the spy's home. Teyla slipped out of her seat and hovered behind John's chair where she could see the display better. Outside the viewport the stars were fading, the sky along the horizon glowing nectarine and rose. A few lights were coming on in the town, the flicker of candle and oil lamp slipping through shutters and curtains. Curls of smoke twined into the sky from more than one chimney.

John shifted the jumper until they could observe Fadar's house, listening without comment as Fadar consulted with Lacos, confirmed that 'Hakan' remained in town, supposedly looking for work as an ore shipment guard. He'd rented a house several streets away from Fadar's, one that had been abandoned after the last culling.

The Genii team didn't talk after they left Fadar's house. The colorless pre-dawn illumination probably provided them enough light to rely on hand gestures if they were a practiced team. Lacos seemed experienced enough; Ronon hadn't said anything anyway.

John took their jumper higher, hovering over their life signs, hoping none of them noticed the way the chimney smoke twisted on displaced air currents. He doubted the Genii would look up. Aircraft weren't common in Pegasus, despite the common knowledge that flight was possible.

"This is just so thrilling," Rodney complained. "I'm going to scan for energy signatures. Woolsey might be a little happier if we bring back something he can bribe the IOA - I mean, useful data."

"You do that," John told him absently, checking his altitude to hide how that had warmed him inside.

The thing was that Rodney didn't pay attention to many people. He paid attention to Sam Carter, to the team, to Radek and a few others in the science department, the ones who pushed themselves to the same limits he did. His disdain for Woolsey hadn't eased with time, either; Rodney resented the man for replacing Carter, especially the way he had. John had trampled over Woolsey's prerogatives enough this time that he might be facing trouble . It surprised him that Rodney had noticed. Rodney would, if he had to, put his life on the line for people he'd never met and thought were idiots and fools, but right then he was trying to cover John's back, something he'd only do for someone that mattered to him.

"Rodney?" Teyla's rising voice snapped John's attention to the co-pilot's display.

"Oh, this is not good," Rodney said. He hunched further over his laptop, fingers racing over the keyboard, squinting slightly. Several new displays opened. One showed a gridwork image of the planet, their location a bright spot just to the side of the daylight meridian. A red energy signature appeared to be holding station above the atmosphere, the rotation bringing their position into a straight line relation to it. Not their position, John realized: Avibo's. That was a ship up there.

"Wraith," Teyla whispered. Her hand grabbed onto John's seat and tightened as she swayed. He risked a glance back and saw she'd squeezed her eyes shut. "A Queen."

God damn it, he thought, but he activated the radio, and said, "Major Lorne, cloak you jumper now."

"Sir?" Evan sounded startled; they'd agreed John's overflight would remain radio silent and simply observe if the Genii were playing it straight. "Do I need to seal up or relocate?"

"Wraith ship just outside the atmosphere," John told him. "Just cloak for now, our people need to be able to find you."

"It's not a hive," Rodney said, puzzled, looking to Teyla.

Evan muttered something obscene sounding. The caret displayed for Jumper Two went dark.

"I feel her."

"What is it?" John asked Rodney.

"Cruiser."

A swarm of dots left the cruiser, the numbers beside them running down as they penetrated the atmosphere, spiraling around the Avibo target while bleeding altitude.

"That's new." The queens were rare and important enough to the Wraith he'd thought they stayed in the hives. Todd's words came back to him. There is much you do not know about the Wraith. No kidding. The stupid Ancients hadn't bothered to find out. How they'd expected to win against an enemy when they didn't even understand them...The problem was once you understood the enemy, they became real and it cost more in personal terms to kill them. John did his best to not think about Todd for just that reason.

"Hmn."

He watched the darts on the HUD.

"Ronon, buddy," he radioed. "You've got incoming darts. Twenty of them."

Rodney had gone on working and now said, "Tell him that there is both a radio and subspace signal coming from two houses to the west of his location."

"Get that?" John asked.

A grunt indicated Ronon had, then he laconically warned Lacos without even giving away he'd received a transmission on his headset. "Darts." He could have heard the sonic boom as they decelerated through the sound barrier.

Faded, barely audible, John heard one of the Genii mutter, "Ancestor's balls!"

"Mythical," Rodney said.

"What?"

"The Ancients didn't have balls."

It made John laugh; he couldn't help it.

"I mean, if they had, they might have used them, and then they'd have needed some decent beds," Rodney went on, warming up to the subject, while John went on chuckling, even as he monitored the darts' approach and the strike team's status. "They weren't midgets, we've seen them, so what the hell is with the beds that are too short for any human being of normal height - "

John wanted to know that one too. You either slept propped up, curled in a fetal position or feet hanging off the bed. It sucked. Some nights he considered hijacking a gym mat and sleeping on the floor.

" - permanent damage to my back and - "

"Someone should warn the townspeople," Teyla said.

John eyeballed the first dart, a black dot against the sky, barely visible, but rapidly growing, until he could see the growing light reflect from its belly. Others were behind it. For another half second, their approach remained silent, the screaming roar of engines still outrun by their speed. Then it arrived, shaking windows and doors, a clap of doom through the once still air.

"I think they know," he said.

"You know, you might want to get us out of here," Rodney interrupted himself to say. The first darts were screaming toward the town. It wouldn't take Ronon's hearing to detect them, the sound even shivered through the jumper's hull. "Because while they may not be able to detect us? One of them could run right into us if we're - " He pointed at the dart flying straight at them, looming suddenly huge in the viewport. " - in the way!" Rodney's voice rose to shriek itself as John sent the jumper into a brutal evasion maneuver, glad it didn't have wings to tear off under the strain. They scraped over the roof of one house, ripping away shingles that showered down to the street beside it. "Oh my God, you're going to get us killed!"

"Calm down, Rodney," John drawled as he dropped the jumper down into the street between two buildings in a maneuver he wouldn't have risked with a helicopter. "We're fine. Darts are fast movers, but they aren't made for getting down in the treetops, so we can just stay out of their way."

Rodney sucked in a couple of wheezing breaths, glaring at John, before choking out, "I hate you so much."

"What?" John glanced at him, but Rodney's eyes just got wide.

"Pay attention to the flying!"

John corrected to keep from scraping away a second floor awning. A proximity alarm began dinging in the background. He told the jumper to shut it down.

"Hate, hate, hate," Rodney chanted. "Hate."

"Rodney," Teyla said.

"Hate."

"Come on, Rodney."

"You're smiling, you adrenaline-addled lunatic! You enjoyed that and I almost had a heart attack." Rodney tried to incinerate John with the power of his glare - John knew it from previous missions - then when that failed went back to his laptop, still repeating, "Hate, so much hate. Both of you."

John grinned for a second. Riling up Rodney never got old, even in the middle of a small corner of hell.

His amusement disappeared as the first culling beam stabbed to earth. He'd reached the edge of town and begun guiding the jumper toward the river, intending to follow it to where Jumper Two waited in cloak. The eye searing white of the beam touched down within easy view, showing them the clutch of Wraith drones it left behind. John jigged the jumper to the side, hoping none of them would hear the sound of its passing.

The darts circled the town. John lifted the jumper high enough to watch as they sent down more drone parties, coordinated in a way he hadn't witnessed from the Wraith before. They surrounded the town at a series of equidistant points, spreading out and working in tandem. It disturbed him because it was smarter, more calculated than the hungry animal attack style they usually displayed. This looked more like when they'd attacked Atlantis, not a culling. They were trapping everyone in the town within a net, while the darts loitered overhead.

"John - "

"Wait," he said, watching. "We need to know what they're doing." He knew it sounded cold, but he and Teyla had had this out before. That cruiser up there had more then enough darts to take out two jumpers and the Genii team. The mission came first. Ladon's intel had been right. This wasn't a normal culling. The Wraith were doing something different.

Rodney swiveled his chair enough to face her where she still stood behind John's seat. He reached over and closed his hand around her wrist, the movement a blur in John's peripheral vision. "That's a cruiser up there." He spoke quietly, a striking change to the whining tone of only moments before. "Hundreds of Wraith, too many darts to shoot down even if John and Lorne use every drone they've got. We can't stop them here and now. Teyla, you know."

Christ, when had Rodney learned emotional triage?

Because he knew that's what Rodney was doing, cutting out the emotions that wouldn't help them stay alive.

John stared ahead into the rising sun, letting it burn the tears from his own eyes, because it got easier and the pain only came back if you looked at the people with you, the ones who still felt it too. What could he say to Teyla that he hadn't said before? She knew he was only a man, not a savior, no matter his promises, no matter what he was willing to sacrifice of himself. He had obligations beyond his desire to be the dream she'd once thought him to be.

What could he say that Teyla didn't already know, even if she hadn't let herself think of what it meant here and now?

The Genii were here to find out what the Wraith were doing, why their culling pattern had changed. John and their people were along because they might uncover something to either protect Atlantis or use against the Wraith. If they interfered now, they might lose their only chance. If the Wraith weren't up to something, then they were all wasting their time. If the Wraith killed the people of Avibo, then they had likely done the same elsewhere, despite the new pattern.

If, or, maybe...They never had enough information to make good decisions. John blinked into the light and swallowed hard. The innocents of Avibo wept and screamed, herded before the implacable drones. They didn't know anyone saw their plight, couldn't feel betrayed by that or that no rescue came. They expected none.

Teyla's hand came to rest on his shoulder, jolting him from his thoughts, warm pressure and silent absolution. He coughed around the tightness in his throat.

"Ronon and the rest of them need to get out of there," Rodney said.

"Yeah." He cleared his throat again. "Major. Are you tracking anything near your jumper?"

"No sir. I've got the cruiser on sensors now and the darts. Why didn't we see them before?"

"The cruiser was on the opposite side of the planet from the stargate. Looks like they were waiting for dawn, just like we did," Rodney explained.

"You get that, Major?"

"Yes sir."

Rodney stared at his life sign display and John followed his gaze. The Wraith were sweeping inward, their signs merging with the humans indistinguishably. Lacos' team stood out, a clump of signs moving independently of the Wraith. Tyre, presumably, remained in the house with the energy reading. No Wraith appeared interested in it. Wasn't that curious? John wished they'd quizzed Todd a little closer on the subject of feeding. Did the Wraith sense life or biochemical energy or some kind of psionic signature? They could make people think they saw things that weren't there; did they also sense people thinking? Queens could pull information from your head, so the telepathy wasn't just a push thing. They could have learned so much more from Todd if they hadn't been so damn squeamish about facing up to what he was while they worked with him.

John had been the worst about it too. He'd avoided anything to do with Todd, not wanting the reminder, not just of the feeding, but the gift, the rush of life back into his cells, the way the enzyme had sung through his veins for a day after, and worst of all, the way his senses had nearly overwhelmed him, nearly as acute as they'd been during the retrovirus experience. He'd never admitted how frightened he'd been until Beckett gave him a clean bill of health after that. Seeing his Wraith had uncovered too many raw places in his psyche for him to be comfortable with anything but repression and denial. Hell, he'd only dubbed the Wraith 'Todd' after he'd been gone.

"The cruiser is coming down," Rodney said.

"Ronon, hurry Lacos' ass up," John ordered. All he got in return was a grunt, but the strike team appeared to move finally, splitting to surround Hakan aka Tyre's house and entering from two points. They weren't taking a chance of him rabbiting out a back door.

The cellophane cracker crackle of gunfire heard through a tiny radio pick-up made all three of them in the jumper jolt. The gunfire stuttered again, then the distinct sound of Ronon firing his gun. "Stay down," he snarled over the background of Genii shouting curses, thumps and bangs that finally settled into silence.

"Have you got him?" John radioed.

"Yes."

Rodney bent forward and John glanced at him. Green lines reflected in his eyes and traced over the topography of his face. He frowned, typed a command and switched off the planetary display, replacing it with an almost familiar graph of a wave function. John narrowed his eyes, reading the numbers beside it for a clue. "Subspace?" he guessed.

"Yes," Rodney muttered, distracted as he read something on his laptop.

The morning sun poured through the jumper's viewport, turning Rodney's skin from pale to flushed between reflected lines of green light. His hair stood out in short, disorganized tufts. He'd forgotten to have it cut again, which John thought was Rodney's unconscious method of denying his gently receding hairline and found endearingly irrational. He felt overwhelmed with affection for Rodney in that moment, all his foibles and fears that were wrapped around a basic decency he'd probably deny to his last breath. Someday, Rodney would be known as a great man for his achievements, but it was his flaws as much as his intellect that made him more than a great scientist. Rodney was the foundation that held everyone in Atlantis up, whether they realized it or not and John wanted to reach out and soak in some of the firm purpose and maybe give back some of his own confidence right then.

He shoved it down, though, where he kept all his impulses about Rodney and had since Everett walked through the wormhole.

"He's got equipment here," Ronon said. "Wraith. A lot of it."

Rodney turned on his own radio and snapped, "Describe it."

"Looks Wraith. Gooey."

"Really helpful, Ronon," Rodney said. "Can you fit it in the jumper? I assume you can carry it since he must have brought it here with him."

"Not and shoot," Ronon grumbled in an undertone.

"Well, get the Genii to carry some of it."

"It's Wraith."

"Yes, yes, we've established that. It's sticky, disgusting and half-organic. Don't tell me you've suddenly developed a prissy streak, I once saw you taste some vile orange scat, you may remember."

John wondered when the hell that had been; he certainly thought he'd remember something like that and he didn't. He watched the HUD. The team, including - he counted - Tyre, were exiting the house. They started toward the river. Teyla leaned over his shoulder. "Do you believe he will know where my people have been taken?" she asked. Her breath ghosted warm over John's ear.

"I hope so," he replied in all honesty.

The cruiser took a position directly over the town square. Its shadow darkened the open space, before a culling beam shot down from its belly. Brighter than the beams the darts used, it seared the eye even in daylight. The circumference didn't equal the one John had seen reach from a hive in orbit to the surface. That didn't make it less frightening. The drones on the ground pushed and even threw people into it. Those that tried to break away and run were stunned and tossed in too.

Not a single life sign had dropped off the display during the round up. The drones weren't feeding. Drones fed even in a fight, gathering strength and healing wounds. No one had fought them in Avibo, but it still bothered John. Atypical behavior meant they were under strong control. Teyla had said there was a queen in the cruiser. He glanced at her.

"No problems?" he asked.

"No, she is unaware of my presence. I have not entered the hive mind," Teyla answered. "I - "

"Don't even think about it," John said. "I know you want to help, but we're going to do it without letting the Wraith know we're coming."

Teyla closed her mouth. She looked rebellious for a moment before nodding.

"Ronon, tell Lacos to go around the town limits," he radioed. It looked like teams of Wraith were working outward from the town square, searching out the few people they'd missed.

He watched Lacos' team and Ronon move out. They took a path that paralleled the river and would bring them to Jumper Two without entering the town limits again. Several darts had curved up from the sky around the village and returned to the cruiser's launch bays. John's hands itched on the jumper's controls. He loved the little ships, but ached for something that could chase the cruiser into hyperspace when it jumped out of the system. It could be done; the Ori had done it, hounding the Odyssey to its destruction, tracking its Asgard core through hyperspace in a fashion no one had reverse engineered yet. He'd sat through more than one rant on Rodney's part over the loss of the Asgard and all their knowledge. Rodney could virtually recite the report Carter had written afterward, if it hadn't been for the furious foaming at the mouth. Well, maybe Rodney hadn't actually foamed at the mouth, John acknowledged, but there certainly had been some flying spit.

Four dots that had to be Wraith split away from the others and assumed a course that would intercept Lacos' team before he reached Jumper Two.

"Damn it."

When the team changed course, probably going around some ground obstruction, the Wraith adjusted.

"Rodney," he said, "the Wraith are tracking - "

"Yes, I can see, thank you very much. I just don't know how - Sonovabitch."

"What?"

Rodney stabbed his finger at the HUD display, then turned his wide, we're-so-screwed gaze on John. "I thought Tyre must have some kind of communicator among the equipment Ronon found in the house. I saw the damned transmitter signal." He scrubbed at his hair and then sucked in a breath before finishing, "I saw it and didn't make the damn connection. He's not communicating with them, he has a tracker in him just like Ronon did."

"Tyre is not a Runner," Teyla objected.

Rodney shook his head. "So what, you don't think the Wraith can use their equipment for more than one purpose?"

"So, it's like our subcutaneous transmitters," John said.

Of course, if the Wraith could hunt a man for sport and training, why not send another like a hunting dog - no, a Judas goat - in to find exactly what they wanted, then just home in on the tracker as soon as he stopped moving. They probably tagged their favorite worshippers like chipped pets on Earth. John's mind raced forward to what Tyre being tagged meant.

"Ronon, tell Lacos that they can't take Tyre to Genea. The Wraith will follow, they can track him like a runner, they're on your tail right now," he radioed.

Ronon grunted, then began talking. John dialed the feed from his radio down.

They couldn't take Tyre back to Atlantis for the same reasons. Not until they got that tracker out of Tyre or neutralized. Sonovabitch.

"Lorne, get back to the gate and Atlantis, inform Atlantis we need Keller to do an emergency operation in the field to remove a wraith tracker. You need to be ready when we dial in with our location. We'll be picking up the Genii team and the target and heading for somewhere without a population," John said.

"Sir, we can - "

"No, this jumper has better shielding," Rodney said.

"That's an order, Major. Go."

"Going, sir," Evan acknowledged. "Jumper Two, out."

"Acknowledged."

John took the jumper straight down the river toward the strike team. The Wraith would be in stunner range of them in another moment, once they cleared the last house. He skimmed along the water, throwing a wake of froth behind the jumper. "Teyla, I want you to cover the Genii, just in case," he said.

"Very well." She didn't sound pleased and he understood, they were supposed to be allies in this, but the Genii had burned them before and he didn't know Lacos. There could be grudges involved. He'd killed too many of their people over the years to ever be easy with one of them.

The river curved past a tree leaning far over the water. John jigged the jumper to the side, but they were moving fast and the far bank was a steep face of rocks, so not far enough. A limb scraped against the jumper's side and tore away with a gunshot like crack. It made every one of the Genii suddenly visible along the town side bank look up. He could see two men had pieces of sticky purple-red Wraith tech strapped to their backs. Two more had Tyre slung between them though he was on his feet. Ronon and a blond man a head shorter than him were covering the team's six.

John took the jumper to the river bank and spun it, dropping the back hatch open. The jumper was a little lower than the bank and the hatch hit the ground with a jarring thud before it finished opening.

"Ronon, get everyone in here now!" John shouted into the radio. "The jumper's right behind you."

"Oh, Christ, they're too stupid to get it," Rodney snapped and jumped from his seat. He raced back out of the jumper and up the inclined ramp.

John twisted his neck and tried to help by bring the jumper up to level. He saw several of the Genii jump as Rodney appeared from seeming thin air. Then Rodney grabbed one man's arm and shoved him into the jumper, yelling, "Get inside, the Wraith are coming!"

A stunner bolt punctuated Rodney's warning, sizzling into the ground at their feet.

Ronon and the blond man immediately shot back at the drones that had appeared, marching toward them.

"Rodney! Get back in here!" John yelled.

The Genii flung themselves and Tyre inside. Rodney tumbled after them, narrowly avoiding another stunner blast that hit and dissipated inside the jumper, sending sparks fingering along the overhead bins.

"Ronon!" Teyla shouted. "Move!"

One of the drones went down, but two more kept firing; the air tingled from the stray energy, sending a static buzz through John's nerves from the jumper's systems. Two of the Genii dropped to crouches just inside the jumper hatch and began firing cover for Ronon and their man.

Tyre had been thrown to the floor and forgotten. Rodney scrambled past him back to the co-pilot's seat, cursing when he tripped and fell only to catch himself against the seat back. "Macho morons, don't listen to sense, you think they could find a better time to measure who has the biggest balls - "

John lifted the jumper higher, clear of the bank and reversed power, sending it sliding back toward Ronon and the last Genii. The ramp dug into soft soil and violently threw up divots of dirt and grass that thumped against the two men's legs and fell inside too. It screeched in protest, a light on the pilot's console warning that the mechanism was over stressed and alignment had been compromised; the jumper would no longer seal against vacuum. Radek was going to rip him a new one for that.

He'd twisted around enough to see out the open cockpit bulkhead through the main jumper cargo space to the open hatch. The blue sizzle of the stunner bolt that caught Ronon in the side and sent him down left yellow and orange afterimages in John's vision. Ronon crumpled sideways, his gun falling from nerveless fingers, landing on the dirt strewn ramp.

The Genii that John thought might be Lacos, stumbled back onto the ramp. He emptied his weapon at the advancing drones and then threw it back into the jumper, before crouching and grabbing Ronon's arm. The instant Ronon was more on than off the ramp, John triggered the hatch closed. It pushed Ronon inside as it came up, blocking any more stunner blasts. Ronon's gun skidded onto the decking.

John wasted no more time and sent the jumper arrowing toward the stargate, though it occurred to him he owed Rodney, Radek and the rest of the jumper maintenance crew a huge thanks for rigging the new hatch controls to the pilot's console. The jumpers might not have been originally engineered with combat ops in mind, but the oversight, considering the level of Ancient technology, had boggled all of them. Rodney had muttered viciously through the entire retrofit of their little fleet. John considered it little strange himself, since he'd been able to open and close the trunk of his last car from the driver's seat and he'd have thought something similar would have occurred to someone designing the jumpers; it was just a modification of the circuits and program that let them lock up with a remote from outside.

That was a puzzle to debate in the mess some time. He needed to concentrate on the here and now.

They needed to get to the stargate before a dart could, otherwise the Wraith would dial where they wanted and keep the gate occupied for the thirty-eight minute window.

The blond Genii made his way forward past his men. He pushed Tyre out of his way with a boot. He had bruise forming on one cheekbone and bloody knuckles that probably corresponded to Tyre's bleeding mouth.

"Colonel Sheppard, we were led to believe you weren't available for this mission," he said. He watched the earth, trees and grass blur beneath them. "I am Strike Leader Lacos."

"Yeah, about that..." John gave him a sheepish smile. "We just came along for back-up. We're not here officially, I guess you could say."

"Why reveal yourselves then?"

"This jumper has a better cloak and we figured out Tyre has a Wraith tracker somewhere on or in him, like a Runner. If you'd taken him straight back to Genea, they would have followed you there."

A muscle ticked in Lacos' cheek.

"So, Lorne's jumper went back to get a doctor who can operate, take the tracker out. We'll rendezvous somewhere neutral, in case they're smart and try tracing DHD addresses."

"I will inform Chancellor Radim of your care for our people."

"Rodney, dial up that rock world we checked out two weeks ago," John said. "Look, Lacos, we don't want the Wraith feeding on anyone, not even enemies. Which, you know, your people aren't."

"Anymore," Rodney muttered. His hands moved over the dialing mechanism. He pressed the last chevron. Ahead of them, the stargate cycled, gate signs lighting one after the other, and the wormhole splashed open, brilliant blue and white.

John sent the jumper through it without pause. He'd done it so many times now that there was no instant of disorientation as the world literally become different on their exit. Teyla and Rodney were just as experienced, unlike the Genii who were still in the back, trying to pull themselves together in the wake of the mission and the skirmish with the Wraith. The Genii were used to stargate travel, but not flight. Lacos was riveted by the viewport vista of PXG-344's monument stones dyed purple and red by a setting sun gone crimson and so huge it filled half the horizon. John had his mind on guiding the jumper between the towering stone pillars, almost enjoying himself as he wove and dived between them.

A scuffle, followed by a choked shout and a gunshot wrecked whatever enjoyment John had experienced. Three more shots followed. Lacos started to turn, Rodney was twisting around and Teyla was moving, but Tyre moved faster, pistol-whipping Lacos before settling the muzzle of one of the Genii pistols to Rodney's temple.. The restraints the Genii had used on him were torn and blood dripped steadily from his wrists.

"Put down you weapon, Teyla Emmagan," he warned, "or I kill Dr. McKay."

John had his left hand on the jumper's stick. He dropped his right to his thigh and slowly, as silently as possible, pulled the snap on his holster open.

"Show me both of your hands, Colonel Sheppard," Tyre said.

John cursed silently. Damn the Genii and himself for assuming Tyre was secured. He was Satedan. John and Teyla at least knew how good Ronon was and Tyre had to be close to that level. He lifted his right hand into view, flicking his finger over the inertial dampeners' control, deactivating them.

He bared his teeth at Tyre. "If you ask me to let go of the controls, we'll all end up as bloody pancakes." A proximity alarm underlined his words as the side of stony mesa loomed close, filling the viewport. He had to look away from Tyre and guide the jumper into a curve away from it, slowing them as he did, braking so smoothly no one but Rodney and Teyla could feel the difference the lack of dampeners made.

Tyre grinned back at him, blood on his teeth and his chin. "Take us back to the ring. The queen will be pleased when I bring her an Ancients' ship and one of their favored blood. She'll probably even keep you."

"Not happening."

Tyre cocked his head, studying John, and then he laughed, sending a chill through John. "You'll bow to her the same way I did."

Rodney squeaked, half dismay and all fear, defying Tyre anyway, "You really don't know us."

John risked a glance his way. Tyre had the muzzle of the Genii gun shoved tight to Rodney's temple, dimpling the flesh, his other hand locked tight in Rodney's hair. He'd pulled Rodney's head so far back, Rodney's Adam's apple moved obviously as he tried to swallow against the pressure. Rodney looked scared, but holding it together, his wide gaze on John full of confidence John didn't feel.

"Tyre," Teyla said, "you know we will not bow to the Wraith. They are not gods."

"Doesn't matter," Tyre replied, "when they drain you down to nothing and then fill you with life again, better than before." He stared at John. "He knows. When the Gift rushes into you, it's better than anything, isn't it, Colonel?"

John kept his face blank, even while he flinched inside. How the hell did Tyre know? Was there a mark left somehow, a taint left in his soul, from what the Wraith had done? He couldn't see it in Tyre. All he saw was a familiar mania, reminding him of Aiden Ford, the last time they'd seen him, burning with enzyme.

"It's better than fucking, better than killing. Isn't it?" Tyre said. "Better than anything and you'd give up all the rest to have it again and again."

"No, I wouldn't. I'm not an addict," John said, "or a traitor."

That made Tyre flinch, just for an instant, but John thought it would be their only chance. The pistol muzzle came away from Rodney's head. He pushed the jumper to max power and flipped it on its side, then headed it straight up. It slammed John and Rodney back in their seats, sent Teyla flying back into the cargo area, and threw Tyre back. He knew it had probably hurt some of the Genii in the back with Ronon, but it couldn't be helped.

It didn't stop Tyre firing twice. Rodney cried out and blood spattered the viewport as the second shot cracked it into a crazed mesh of breaks. The jumper kept accelerating straight up, pulling six, seven, eight, then nine Gs. If it kept accelerating, they'd all black out soon. The viewport groaned and crackled, promising failure before they topped out of the atmosphere. John fought the hellish weight and turned to look, but Rodney was pinned to the co-pilot's seat, threads of blood pushed back over his forehead, his features too distorted by G force to show any expression or life. All John could do was close his eyes and turn his face away, tucking his chin into his shoulder, as the viewport groaned again, then blew in with a cannon shot crack. Thousands of pieces of the clear material the Ancients used - that wasn't glass or plastic as Earth knew it - tore through the cabin, followed by the rushing, roaring air, so strong it stole the breath from his lungs.

He had to struggle against the Gs and his vision was graying out at the edges before John reached the controls and slowed their climb, leveling the jumper out. He didn't re-engage the dampeners yet, but the release from the doubled and tripled and more weight made movement easy again.

Rodney's head lolled against the seat back. The blood was everywhere, sheeting down his face. John didn't let himself look long, didn't let himself think at all, because Tyre was still a threat. Someone was screaming in the back. He fumbled his sidearm out of the holster, then levered himself out of the seat, muscles quivering, sure that intel or not, he was going to put a bullet through Tyre's head, maybe every bullet in his clip, then reload and do it again, until Tyre's face was another mask of blood, until Tyre didn't have a face any longer.

Tyre was still trying to get to his feet, but he was tangled with Lacos, who had lay half beneath him. Lacos had locked both his hands around Tyre's wrist and wrested his arm and the hand still clutching the stolen gun away from aiming at John. The wind still whistled through the broken viewport and John spared a thought for how the jumper would eventually lose altitude and ground itself without a pilot if Tyre shot him too. There were probably enough supplies for Teyla and Ronon to make it back to the stargate on foot, the Genii would be more problematic, but not his problem if he was dead, he reflected grimly.

He tried to aim at Tyre, not wanting to shoot Lacos. The sight on the nine millimeter lurched though and he didn't know if it was the jumper or him that wasn't steady. John lined up again and began to squeeze the trigger.

Teyla crawled back into the cockpit, on her knees, supporting herself on one hand that was fisted tightly around the butt of Ronon's energy pistol. She clutched her other arm to her chest. She moved right between John and the two still fighting men, jammed the muzzle into Tyre's side and fired. Red energy crawled all over Tyre, flinging Lacos away with a pained cry.

Tyre's fingers went slack and the gun fell away.

"John," Teyla panted, "you must fly the jumper back to the stargate and dial Atlantis."

John swayed where he was, feeling the untended and much abused jumper lurch and shudder without the inertial dampeners to compensate for the radically altered aerodynamics, wind roiling into the cabin and tugging at all of them, high altitude thin and cold. He kept his pistol aimed at Tyre. The enzyme let Ford and the others shrug off a stun. Tyre had fooled them once already.

"John!" Teyla yelled. "There are wounded!"

He heard one of the men in the rear screaming and beneath that the wet gurgling cough of someone drowning in their own blood.

"Stun him again," he croaked.

Teyla did.

John dropped back into the pilot's seat. He felt a thousand cuts stinging over one side of his face. Pieces of the viewport tinkled and fell from his hair and shoulders and tac vest as he moved. The hot wetness on his cheeks was blood. Scarlet drops fell from his chin onto the backs of his hands as he re-engaged the dampeners and set a course for the stargate at a speed that wouldn't blind them without the viewport's protection.

He couldn't look at Rodney, still limp and silent in the other seat.

Teyla and Lacos both levered themselves to their feet. Teyla moved between John and Rodney. She placed Ronon's pistol on the co-pilot's console and bent over Rodney, moving with the care of someone in pain.

Lacos recovered the gun Tyre had taken off one of his men, shoved it in his belt and headed into the rear compartment.

"There's a medical kit in the second overhead bin," John forced himself to say. "White background, red cross."

He heard Lacos talking to his men, but couldn't make it out through the rush of air and the hollow bell tone that seemed to resonate through his own head. The screaming became sobbing. John didn't know if it was an improvement. The wind made his eyes water and burn.

He blinked his eyes clear and spotted the stargate, gleaming silver where it had been placed at the top of a great mesa of red and purple stone. Dim sunset light still lit the sky, but the mesa had succumbed to the night and everything was shadowed as John brought the jumper down and landed a few length's beyond the splash zone and enough to the side another jumper could come through. Stones scraped under them as the jumper settled into stillness. John shivered once, convulsively, and then touched Teyla's back.

"I've got to reach the dialing console," he said.

She shifted to the side and he noticed she still had her other arm held close, then spotted the broken bones trying to shove their way through her flesh.

"Hurry. Rodney's unconscious and several of the Genii are badly hurt," Teyla said.

John fumbled, his fingers sliding over the triangular buttons with the gate symbols, his gaze jerking to Rodney.

Rodney still looked...dead, unmoving. John had thought he was, all his brilliance, his pettiness and his bravery, all wiped away with a single gunshot. Something inside him still twisted at that. He stared, biting his lip, until he saw the movement of Rodney's chest, the flutter of a pulse at his throat.

Relief felt as nauseating as grief. John swallowed hard, looked away, and finished dialing Atlantis, opening the comm to call Atlantis as soon as the stargate opened.

[c]