Blood Ties

Chapter sixteen

Since the very beginning of his association with the Stargate program, Rodney had prided himself on his ability to function at peak performance under extreme stress. It was a talent not many people possessed, certainly not at his level. At the moment, however, that capacity seemed to have deserted him. He couldn't move, couldn't speak, couldn't even force himself to swallow to alleviate his abruptly parched throat. The pounding of his heart assured him that at the very least his autonomic muscles were functioning. Of course, being frozen with terror hadn't done anything to prevent a rush of adrenaline, urging him to put as much distance as possible between him and the creatures that had seemingly appeared out of nowhere. Regardless, the analytical part of his brain informed him that he was currently incapable of any voluntary movements whatsoever.

The dinosaurs-the dozen or so bipedal animals now slinking into the lab had to be dinosaurs, right? Although the things looked more like two and a half meter tall escapees from a tolerable old television series called V, Geisler would no doubt bite Rodney's head off for even suggesting that they were reptiles. Then again, at this point, head biting was a far more significant concern in the literal sense than the figurative.

Seated in front of an Ancient computer connected to his laptop, his fingers frozen mid-stoke on the keys, he had barely enough control over his eyeballs to watch what was bound to be his final minutes of life.

Honestly, what was the point of bringing the Marines along if they couldn't handle the simple task of watching…?

Rodney ended that train of thought as soon as he realized he could now move his head sufficiently to see beyond the lab's entrance. The entire area was crawling with the twolegged dinosaurs, including, he could tell by peering through the windscreens, a bunch making themselves at home inside the jumpers. That was less worrying than the fact that several of the reptiles were carrying limp, uniform-clad bodies in their grips.

Through the floor, Rodney could still feel the rhythmic pulse of the ocean as the surf pounded up against the beach outside. For the first time, it occurred to him that the sound of seabirds was one sensation that was absent from this place. On Earth, gulls would descend on a low tide area in droves, dive-bombing and snatching up anything edible that had been stranded by the receding water. Some small recess of his mind tried to imagine what animal filled that ecological niche here. Another part wondered what had possessed him to waste his last thoughts before becoming a dino snack on the contemplation of the planet's ecology.

Seconds now, that's all that were left to him until he was eaten alive. God, of all the deaths he might have imagined-and he'd imagined quite a few even before coming to Atlantis-the only time he'd seriously acknowledged the possibility of being consumed was when he'd been contemplating his role as this galaxy's version of Jonah. But that experience at least had come with the consolation of knowing the water pressure would crush him to death prior to his consumption. And while death by Wraith was unquestionably horrific, nothing, absolutely nothing, beat the thought of having parts of him being ripped out and chewed upon while he just sat there helplessly, screaming inside his mind.

From vast experience with such matters, Rodney was fully aware that even he could only maintain an elevated level of dread for a certain length of time. When one of the creatures brushed past him without so much as a sniff, he got a wholly unwanted closer look at its smooth skin, patterned like a carpet shark, no doubt for camouflage. But he also got a sense that this entire situation might not end as badly as he had first assumed. This despite the fact that they definitely were cousins to the velociraptors made infamous by Jurassic Park, right down to the tails and the massive feet complete with a deadly upright killing claw on the third toe. The only real difference he could discern, given his limited range of movement, was that the cranial section of their skulls seemed significantly enlarged.

They were totally silent in their movements. No groans or grunts, and barely a crunch underfoot despite the litter that had been left behind by the obviously hasty departure of the lab's prior residents. More importantly, they didn't move with the sense of malevolent purpose usually present in hunters. Instead, intelligent eyes took in their surroundings in a manner that was oddly reminiscent of the way he and Radek had explored the space only an hour earlier.

Speaking of Radek… Rodney tried to turn his head to find his colleague. As he did so, he suddenly found himself freed of the inexplicable grip that had held him paralyzed since the raptors had arrived. His initial impulse to yell at the top of his lungs had also passed.

So it hadn't been simply fear after all. Of course it hadn't. He'd faced down Wraith before; he couldn't be scared into catatonia by a few overgrown-

One of the creatures aimed a hooded, ochre-eyed gaze at him, and he mentally backpedaled from that assertion. He was quite prepared to be scared into any state whatsoever if it would render him unappetizing.

"I think they will not hurt us." Radek's low voice was irritatingly calm.

"Oh, that's what you think, is it?" Before Rodney could argue the point out of reflex, the dinosaurs carrying what Rodney could now see was Lorne and the Marines stepped through the lab's entrance. Although there was no particular sense of care attached to the manner in which they placed the men on the floor, neither was it reckless or haphazard. `Indifferent' was the best description Rodney could summon.

"Ah…hi," he began with a weak smile, and then stopped. He recalled reading somewhere-or maybe it was something that Geisler had been babbling about once-that a smile was some sort of bizarre evolutionary outfall from the bearing of fangs during displays of aggression. So, no smile. He was about to raise one hand in his best universally accepted greeting when his radio crackled to life.

"Rodney, Radek, Major Lome, if you can hear me, do not make any sudden movements. We will be there very shortly."

That reassurance from Teyla ushered in an overpowering sense of relief. Right on its heels, however, was frustration; even though Rodney finally could move enough to toggle his radio and bombard her with questions, such an action would have fallen fairly decisively under the heading of sudden movements.

"Their hands," Radek breathed. When Rodney glanced over at him, he pushed his glasses further up on his nose. "Look at their hands."

Primed to point out to Radek that adjusting his glasses definitely constituted a sudden movement and that, generally speaking, flesh eating giant chickens from hell didn't have hands, Rodney was startled to see that the raptors' powerful forearms in fact ended in long fingers with curved claws and… could that be an opposable thumb'?

Teyla arrived then, stepping through the entrance just ahead of Geisler, who was beaming like he'd just won a Nobel. His excitement seemed glaringly inappropriate, given that the creature following him had Ronon's body clutched in its forearms. Was it the damned opposable thumbs that had him all worked up? Rodney could admit that the discovery was staggering, but even his scientific curiosity had limits. After all, monkeys had opposable thumbs, and monkeys were some of the nastiest creatures in existence.

His expression must have reflected his distaste, because Teyla reassured him, "It's all right. I have been able to make contact with these…" Turning, she met the gaze of one of the dinosaurs, slightly larger and more muscled than the others. "The beings who inhabit this world."

Beings? She was calling them beings? The dinosaur carrying Ronon deposited him on the floor next to the sprawled Marines, who seemed to be slowly starting to wake. At that point, Rodney realized-a bit late, possibly, but under the circumstances the delay seemed justifiable-that there was no evidence of blood anywhere. None of the men had been injured; at least, not visibly.

When Lome pushed himself upright enough to reach for his weapon, though, his motion was halted almost as soon as it began. Immobilized, he fairly radiated tension and frustration. Rodney recognized the same circumstances in which he'd been caught earlier. Good God! That meant these creatures were actually capable of-

"Be at peace, as difficult as that may be for you," Teyla warned the group. "Although I sense from them only curiosity, not malice, they are meat eaters and very protective of their own kind. If they consider us to be a genuine threat, they will have no compunctions about killing us merely by wishing our hearts to cease beating."

If this really was what it appeared to be, namely ESP-telepathy as well as some form of telekinesis on an unprecedented scale, and Rodney saw no evidence that it could be anything else-the implications were staggering. The existence of these dinosaurs confirmed that the Ancients had been experimenting with entirely different forms of intelligence evolving on Earth.

After a moment's hesitation, Lome gave a small nod. It wasn't apparent whether the rest of the Major's body was still immobilized or whether he didn't want to inflame the situation by moving, but Rodney was convinced the Marines would have shifted from their clearly uncomfortable positions on the ground if they'd had the option. Maybe they were having trouble thinking happy thoughts. Tough to blame them, although they needed to shape up rapidly for everyone's sakes. Ronon, lucky him-and quite possibly lucky for all of them-still appeared to be out cold.

"I am able to share mental images with this one," Teyla said, still facing the larger raptor, likely the leader if size and exceptional coloration mattered. Maybe all that meditation nonsense was good for something besides Ascension after all. "It is…complex-a vastly different way of perceiving the world, and us, than anything I have ever encountered." She smiled and her entire bearing relaxed as the two of them seemed to settle into an unspoken tete-a-tete.

The whole situation ranked up there with the most bizarre meetings Rodney had ever witnessed. It was like something he might have envisaged in the way of first contact with a truly alien life form, an area in which the SGC had had only limited experience. The rest of the-whatever they were; he settled on raptors for the moment-continued their prowl around the laboratory, sniffing experimentally at objects. To their credit, they had the good grace not to actually touch anything or, more unnervingly, drool on anything. Particularly him.

Unable to curb his impatience for some form of information from Teyla, he was about to demand a description of the images she'd mentioned, but she nodded slowly and spoke before he could begin. "They comprehend that we communicate using sounds, for there are other animals on this world who also still vocalize, but they regard this as a. primitive attribute, something for which they have little need."

"Of course!" Geisler put in, practically bouncing with enthusiasm. "That would explain the enlarged craniums in counterpoint to their jaws remaining essentially identical to their ancestors on Earth. They don't need the mechanical structures to support speech."

Comparative anatomy lessons'? Did no one have a sense of priorities around here'? "Fascinating, and yet not helpful in the slightest," Rodney snapped. "Teyla, ask them what they want. Also, if you can do it without making them angry, ask them why-

Teyla shushed him with a quick shake of her head. She seemed to be concentrating rather hard, her eyes closed and her graceful features creased in a frown. "Their world is so vibrant, so rich in sensory perceptions. They see the pulse and flow of life between all things. Through this, they share with one another an awareness far beyond themselves."

"Okay, that's definitely an Ascended trait."

"They are gathered around the computers," remarked Radek, causing Rodney to turn. Sure enough, several of the dinosaurs were focused on the information scrolling across the Ancient screens. They couldn't possibly comprehend what they were seeing, could they? It was most likely the equivalent of a dog watching television. Wasn't it?

"Teyla?" Rodney said again, this time more quietly.

"My contact with them is tenuous," she replied without opening her eyes. "This is unlike anything I have ever encountered. It is not a hive mind, as the Wraith have, for they are very much individuals. Rather, it is a completely different way of comprehending their world and their place in it. While I cannot explain it, it is clear that they are extremely intelligent-possibly more so than we are, in some respects."

As if the rest of this mission wasn't difficult enough to believe already. "We wouldn't know it from the way they've been behaving like animals," Rodney objected.

"How can you define their actions as `animal'?" Geisler demanded.

Oh, here we go. "If they're so intelligent, where's their civilization'? Buildings, clothes, books, art?"

"Where is theAscended's civilization? What of their works of art?" Geisler retorted.

"These beings," Teyla said, "exist in a richly woven tapestry of life. That is more manifest to them than anything taken from the living world and fashioned into dead things. That is why they find the jumpers so curious, for they sense no con nection to the life force that embraces them."

"Yes, fine, the noble savage and all that," Rodney said. "Until, of course, a T. rex comes along and they have to defend themselves. I'm assuming they use that mind-freeze trick, but what I'd really like to know is whether they evolved that ability naturally or the Ancients had a hand in it. And if so, how?"

Ignoring him, Teyla continued, speaking in what even Rodney recognized as unbridled wonder. "I have always thought of my people as deeply spiritual, but compared to these… We have faith in something greater. They understand it."

"And so do I, having recently had a near miss with Ascension." As much as Rodney wanted to be patient with his Athosian teammate, they really didn't have time for the Hare Krishna thing.

Teyla shook her head. "This is unrelated to Ascension. It is…" For a moment, she had to search for words. "The empathy we felt from the microceratops on Atlantis was barely a glimpse. They are capable of control over so much." Locked in a surreal staring contest with the raptor leader, apparently conversing with it-Him'? Her'?-she only continued after a protracted pause. "Beyond a vague genetic memory of the Ancients, they have no concept of what a human is. Even so, they comprehend our basic emotions. They are aware that some of us regard them and their world with respect and fascination, but they are also well aware of our… savagery."

Rodney wanted to burst out laughing at that, given the video footage he'd seen of the T. rex, but then he recalled that humans were nothing more than a branch from the same evolutionary tree that had produced monkeys. He glanced at Radek, who had pursed his lips in a guilty-as-charged look, and right at that moment Rodney had the distinct impression that something was lightly rummaging through his mind. He tried to shake it off, but his eyes were drawn across to where two of the raptors were staring at him, unblinking. Calm places, wide-open fields, communing with nature… preferably pollen free… certainly not thinking about any expertise in blowing up things… especially not entire planets.

Breaking her long gaze, Teyla glanced over at the Marines, who finally were showing some ability to move. "They will show us no mercy if we take any action to threaten the balance of their world. We cannot and will never be able to find a place here, and so they do not wish us to remain. I believe we should leave as soon as possible."

Feeling distinctly queasy, Rodney wasn't inclined to argue for a change. He saw no good reason to antagonize questionably intelligent but evidently well-armed beings zealously maintaining some kind of primeval utopia. "Fine. I've downloaded plenty of information from the database here. I'll be able to examine it more carefully back on Atlantis, but it's safe to say I have the gist of what Lilith and her compatriots did here. Let's head out."

"I do not wish to burst any bubbles, but it will not be quite that simple." Radek rubbed his chin. "So far we have been unable to shut down the force field around the Stargate. It may take several more hours to accomplish this, if it is even possible, and we will have no way of knowing whether or not we have succeeded because we cannot contact the security team at the gate."

"I will try to convey our concerns." Teyla faced the head raptor again and closed her eyes.

Doing his best to project a sense of serenity, Rodney edged around a couple of the animals as he gathered up his data devices. Lorne climbed slowly to his feet and instructed the Marines in a low voice to carry Ronon out to one of the jumpers.

It occurred to Rodney that his teammate's condition might be cause for some concern. "Uh, Teyla? Not to interrupt, but do you have any idea why Ronon is still out?"

Her task-or at least her attempt-presumably finished, Teyla answered, "I believe his initial reaction to the crea tures was stronger than the others. They have assured me that he will wake in a short time. We must proceed to the gate-now."

Well, if a giant lizard said it, it had to be true. More importantly, Teyla's expression bore a distinct don't argue air.

Although Rodney wasn't certain just what he was meant to do with the force field at the gate when all the applicable equipment was inside said force field, he followed the Marines out of the lab for lack of any better ideas. The raptors trailed along behind, two of them flanking an embarrassingly euphoric Geisler, who kept reaching out to touch their forearms and backs. Surprisingly, they didn't seem the least bit bothered by his pestering, but Rodney didn't trust them to stay that way if it continued. "Would you knock it off?" he muttered. Either Geisler didn't hear, or he pretended not to.

"He does not threaten them," Teyla said. "They sense his genuine delight and wonder, and that inspires in them a measure of regard for him."

At the very least, it was still discomforting. Rodney chose to ignore the man in favor of stepping aboard Jumper Three and focusing on the preflight procedure. Settling into the pilot's seat, he powered up the craft and turned to ask Teyla to offer their goodbyes to the raptors-only to find two of the beasts stooped over in the rear cabin, gazing unblinkingly at him.

"Holy-" When his suddenly racing heartbeat returned to something close to normal, Rodney glared past them at his teammate. "At the risk of sounding entirely too much like Sheppard, what the hell, Teyla?"

"They insist on accompanying us to the gate," she replied, a layer of steel behind her placid expression. "Would you prefer to risk angering them with a refusal to cooperate?"

"When you put it that way…" Rodney forced a smile, trying desperately to think inoffensive thoughts. Don't think of an elephant… "Ah, welcome aboard."

Radek came forward to sit in the copilot's seat, while Teyla and Geisler crouched beside the two raptors, the paleontologist still grinning like an idiot. The rest of the Marines piled into Jumper Two with Lorne, which certainly looked like the wisest choice for all concerned. Sighing, Rodney closed the hatch and eased Jumper Three off the ground.

The Atlantean puddle jumper, in all other respects a nearly ideal vehicle, obviously had not been designed for dinosaur use. The two raptors, including the one Rodney thought of as the boss, took up most of the cabin all by themselves, and their rather pungent scent gave the air scrubbers a considerable test. Rodney was sure he could feel their breath on the back of his neck as he guided the jumper toward the continent that hosted the Stargate.

As the two jumpers rose out of the grotto, Lorne spoke up over the radio. "I don't know if this should matter to us, but how are your passengers going to make the return trip'? If we let them off at the gate, they'll be thousands of miles and an ocean away from home."

If the raptors were let off at the gate? They weren't planning on hitchhiking all the way to Atlantis, were they? Flushed with renewed panic, Rodney twisted in his seat to face Teyla.

The Athosian shook her head. "We need not concern ourselves with their journey, nor with the force fields. I am certain that all we must do is return to the gate."

High overhead, dozens, maybe hundreds of pterosaurs circled. A few darted down to snatch bits of food from among the rocks, thus answering his earlier musings, but the majority of the winged animals seemed to be…waiting.

"Whoa," said Lorne at the exact moment Rodney noticed a new signal illuminated on the jumper's instrument panel. "The force field around the lab-"

"— just reactivated," Rodney cut him off. "What did you do?"

"Me'? What do you think I could do that might result in that, McKay?"

"Our new acquaintances are responsible for restoring the force field," said Teyla.

Oh, really? Rodney glanced back at the boss raptor, whose head and shoulders now poked between the front seats as he looked out through the windshield. Apparently the jumpers had picked up an escort: the group of pterosaurs had closed in to fly alongside the craft. One animal came in for a near pass and peered in at Jumper Three's occupants, eliciting a soft laugh from Teyla.

"Major," she called, "I believe we have found the flyer who collided with us early in our first visit. He seems to be conveying his apologies."

"Well, uh, tell him not to worry about it. No harm done." Lome's disbelief was clearly audible. "And tell them we appreciate the company, but we're going orbital for the rest of this hop."

The avian dinosaurs-okay, pterosaurs-must have understood the basics, because they peeled off before the air could get too thin. Even though the boss raptor didn't look perturbed by the jumper's climb toward the stars, Rodney knew it had to be a distinctly new experience. New experiences, more often than not, made for tense situations, and this situation was plenty tense enough already. "Teyla, what's on his mind?"

Teyla paused a moment and then smiled. "Mostly he is thinking of his young. I still cannot grasp more than basic concepts, but I sense a kind of satisfaction-something related to an old mystery regarding the Ancient lab."

The suborbital flight path made the trip fairly brief. Lome brought his jumper down next to Jumper Four, parked just outside a shimmering blue energy field that surrounded the Stargate. Reducing power to do likewise, Rodney was baffled by the presence of hundreds of ridiculously oversized animals gathering around the shield and, like the pterosaurs above the lab, waiting.

"Torosaurus," Geisler murmured behind him, sounding overwhelmed. "Look at that bright red cranial plating. My God, it's nearly glowing- and the iguanodons…"

More critical to their current status and thus more interesting to Rodney was the force field, which lowered as the jumpers settled onto the jungle floor beside the third craft. He didn't bother questioning Jumper Two this time; he was satisfied that neither Lorne nor Radek had triggered the action.

Teyla moved to the back of the jumper and lowered the hatch. When their stowaways padded down the ramp, Rodney exhaled a relieved breath. As much as he trusted his teammate's intuition, he hadn't fully trusted the raptors not to change their minds about what was planned for the evening's menu.

"The force field will be raised again once we are gone," Teyla said. "Permanently this time, I believe. It will leave an area just large enough around the gate for any later visitors to dial out and depart."

While Rodney was still wrapping his head around the idea that the animals had such fine mental control of Ancient technology, another thought came to him in parallel. "If they want to be left alone, why couldn't they have put up the force field before? Surely we're not the only people to use the gate in the past ten thousand years."

Standing at the hatch, Teyla bowed her head to the departing raptors and turned toward him. "We are not. We are, however, the only ones who did not fall prey to the T. rexes living in this valley."

A muted groan over the radio signaled Ronon's return to consciousness in the other jumper. "We'll fill you in later, buddy," Rodney heard Lorne say. "Jumper Two is dialing the gate."

They'd achieved their objective, more or less. That said, Rodney felt a bit like he'd been hit by a bus. Several dozen questions vied for attention, most of which stemmed from the issue of Lilith's work on the planet. She and the other Ancients could not possibly have created this bizarre form of intelligence, because the inhabitants had obviously been seeded here millions of years earlier. Had they merely been observing its progress? Or were they looking for something that might be used against the Wraith'? Or to enable Ascension?

As Teyla raised the hatch, the event horizon rushed into being. Geisler's choked laugh captured everyone's attention. Rodney followed the other scientist's outstretched finger. Beyond the windshield, the raptors who had accompanied them now climbed onto the backs of two huge creatures the paleontologist identified as Quetzalcoatlus. As Jumper Three rose from the ground, the winged animals did the same.

"Perhaps they should have inherited Earth after all." Geisler's eyes were unashamedly bright. "They've been far better custodians of this planet than we have of ours."

Feeling somewhat charitable by virtue of not having been eaten alive, Rodney allowed Geisler the last word and guided the jumper into the wormhole.