Blood Ties

Chapter three

A pair of huge, golden eyes peered up at Teyla. She froze, uncertain whether to withdraw her hand from the mossencrusted remains of the wall or remain still-until a movement caught her attention. A second creature, this one with faceted eyes and four translucent insect wings each as long as her arm, flittered briefly around her head before settling on the broken wall. The lipless mouth of the first, golden-eyed creature opened wide, and a sticky pink tongue shot out at a blinding speed.

"Good God, did you see that?" Dr. Geisler asked for perhaps the fifth occasion since they had arrived on M1M-316.

The frog-Teyla classified the yellow and blue patterned creature as a frog, despite its size-snatched the unfortunate insect into its mouth. Gossamer wings dripping with moisture fluttered desperately for a moment before the victim was entirely consumed.

"I expected something bigger," Ronon said, joining them. "Didn't Sheppard say this place was full of animals called dinosaurs?" Water beaded his forehead and dripped from his nose, perspiration washed away by rain in the sticky, cloying heat. Blinking away a few more drops, he continued to sweep the nearby jungle with his gaze, alert for any dangers that had yet to make themselves known in this most unusual world.

Dr. Geisler turned to him with an indignant stare. "Young man, that amphibian was the size of a Labrador. In this lower than normal gravity, with such a high oxygen content in the air, be thankful that's all-"

"Get back here-now!" Major Lome called aloud from the entrance of the nearby jumper, putting an end to the discussion. "Something's headed our way."

Although the pelting of the rain and low rumble of a nearby waterfall served to mask the sounds of any large animals that might be approaching, Dr. Geisler did not argue with the Major's command. Indeed, despite his advanced years, the paleontologist turned and quickly made his way back across the remains of what once had been an Ancient structure.

"Perhaps we will have better luck at the next location," Teyla reassured him, thankful for the poncho that had kept her moderately dry-at least on the outside. Her shirt and pants were damp against her body, not from exertion but from the remarkable humidity. "Did you not say that the records pertaining to this world contained references to several different laboratories?"

"I'm not worried about finding something for McKay to go gaga over." Dr. Geisler grasped a twisted vine to steady himself and clambered over a rotting log speckled with a multitude of riotously colored fungi. Careful to avoid releasing any spores from the growths, which he had earlier warned them might contain poisons or hallucinogens, he added, "I'm just a tad perturbed by the familiarity of all this. The vegetation is exactly the sort of thing I'd have expected to see on Earth during the mid to late Cretaceous, right down to the masses of conifers, cycads and, most particularly, the huge number and variety of ginkgo trees. That rancid smell, by the way, is the butyric acid in the integument of the ginkgo seeds rotting all over the ground." With his other hand, he patted the plastic case he carried, already overflowing with samples. "Of course, I've yet to confirm my hypothesis, but I have a sneaking suspicion that much, if not all, of the vegetation on this world originated from Earth."

A curious frown accompanied his statement. Teyla was uncertain as to the reason why until the scientist, puffing slightly from his hurried effort, added, "Earth of sixtyseven to seventy million years ago. If I'm right, it means the Ancients were in the Pegasus Galaxy a long, long time before Atlantis left Earth."

"C'mon, we gotta get moving!" Major Lome was still standing at the jumper's hatch, gesturing for them to hurry.

That's when Teyla felt it: a rhythmic shuddering beneath her feet.

Seeing that the three of them were almost there, Lome darted inside and flung himself into the pilot's chair. Dr. Geisler lost his footing and slid on a rain-slicked layer of leaves at the base of the ramp, dropping his bag as he fell heavily to the ground. Ronon quickly dragged him to his feet and inside, while Teyla recovered the bag. There was no mistaking it now. Something large enough to send shockwaves through the ground was heading in their direction-fast.

Ronon slapped his fist against the mechanism that raised the hatch just as a terrible roar shattered the air. Teyla caught a whiff of something even fouler than the pervasive odor that had met them on arrival, and then the hatch was locked.

"We're outta here," Lorne announced, powering up the jumper for departure.

Teyla stripped off her poncho and looked through the windscreen, but there was little to see. Even the Stargate, only a hundred feet away, was all but invisible in the dense mist. Just as the jumper lifted into the air, however, she could almost make out a shape in the darker shadows beyond. The shudders through the ground caused by whatever creatures were coming their way now sent ripples through the fog itself.

When Jumper Two lifted into the air, Lorne ineffectually brushed sweat from his forehead with his sleeve. "That was close."

"What was?" Ronon asked, moving into the cockpit and taking the front seat beside the Major.

Eyes bright with excitement, Dr. Geisler answered Ronon. "The dinosaurs you were so anxious to see."

Satisfied that the scientist's sample box was properly stowed, Teyla went forward with Dr. Geisler to the passenger seats. On the Head Up Display, the life signs indicator showed such an abundance of life that it was nearly impossible to dis tinguish individual readings. Becoming evident, however, were several dozen creatures moving swiftly across the ruins, through and around the Stargate, while two additional animals followed several jumper lengths behind, presumably in pursuit. There was no scale on the display to indicate the size of either hunters or prey. If the echoes she'd felt through the ground and the power of that roar were anything to go by, she was very glad to be airborne.

Dr. Geisler unzipped his jacket and removed it, then tugged with distaste at the saturated shirt clinging to his chest. Teyla removed her own jacket. It had indeed been excessively warm outside, and for once she was grateful for the artificially maintained temperature and humidity inside the jumper.

Pointing to the HUD, which displayed an increasingly detailed topographic map as they gained height, Dr. Geisler explained, "The Stargate is situated in a valley carved out by glaciers tens of thousands of years ago. The river, fed by the melt water from glaciers in the nearby mountains, must periodically flood and change course, which would explain those uprooted tropical hardwood trees we saw. Deluges of that magnitude would flatten the vegetation in great swaths, allowing passage through the forest to large land animals. The result has been to create those semi-open areas like the one around the Stargate."

"hi this climate, I'm surprised the entire gate wasn't covered in jungle."

"Not jungle, Major," Dr. Geisler corrected, sitting forward to look outside. "Tropical rainforest."

"Got the rain part right." Ronon's hair was dripping, and he wiped his face with the sleeve of his discarded jacket.

"You can see, from the manner in which the vegetation surrounding the Stargate has been grazed at different heights, that a range of big herbivores live in this area. Those odd scrapes through the mosses and liverworts on the Ancient structures also indicate the presence of small, beaked dinosaurs. And where there are herbivores, there are also carnivores." At Ronon's quizzical look, the scientist clarified, "Plant eaters and meat eaters."

"The natural history lesson is all very interesting, Doc." Lome glanced back over his shoulder. "But General Landry wants us to locate those labs you found in the database. So far I've got no power readings anywhere in this area, aside from the trace activity of the DHD and gate."

"Which is no doubt why only ruins remain. The materials used by the Ancients in the construction of their cities aren't all that strong, relatively speaking. Without a force field for protection, it's a wonder there's anything left at all."

They abruptly emerged from the fog into brilliant blue sky. "Might I suggest that a way to narrow the search would be to scan for power sources that could indicate an active force field?" said Teyla.

"Doing just that," the Major replied.

The sky darkened as the jumper continued to climb into low orbit. The distant primary planet, a bluish gaseous world, briefly caught Teyla's eye, but then her attention was drawn back to the world below. It quickly became evident that M1M-316 was comprised of vast continents separated by equally vast oceans, speckled with many island chains that might have joined the land in times when the level of the ocean was lower. That observation came from the map on the HUD, however, because many of the landmasses and even the islands were covered in swirling clouds.

"It's the heat and atmospheric pressure," Dr. Geisler observed. "Probably rains most of the time on most days… just like home."

Smiling, Teyla asked him, "Where is home for you?"

"West coast of New Zealand's South Island. Annual precipitation on the coast itself is around three meters, but just a few kilometers inland on the Southern Alps it can be twelve meters-almost forty feet."

Even Ronon appeared impressed by that statement.

"The entire region has been sculpted by glaciers. We still have two flowing through temperate rainforest-right down to the main highway. That's why I recognize the landforms here."

Within minutes the sensors had located all eight of the Ancient facilities presumed to exist on the planet. However, in all but one instance the power sources appeared to have either been depleted or removed, and the structures that remained were little more than rubble. Major Lome adjusted the jumper's scan settings, and the image on the HUD altered, focusing on the remaining laboratory. "That's interesting," he noted.

Beyond recognizing that the stream of data as the component materials of the building, Teyla had no idea what it meant. "Major?" she inquired.

"I suspected as much-this confirms it!" She glanced across to see the aged scientist nodding in recognition. "The exterior of that lab is made from the same composite materials the Ancients used in the Milky Way Galaxy," he added.

"Are you sure?" Lome asked, putting the jumper into a shallow descent over the landmass. "Maybe it's just-"

"Major, I've spent four of the last ten years on planets in the Milky Way Galaxy where Ancient structures have been found. I'm telling you, this predates anything we've seen so far in this galaxy-although `we' might exclude you and Ronon," Dr. Geisler added with a deferential glance in Teyla's direction.

When a break in the cloud cover developed, Teyla was thankful, for the jumper descended between two majestic, snowcapped mountain chains and the view was breathtaking. Dozens of glaciers, glinting blue and white in the sun, threaded their way through the peaks. The true scale of the mighty frozen rivers could only be appreciated when Major Lome brought the jumper down low. Jagged rents across their surface-crevasses, Geisler called them-were large enough to swallow the jumper whole. The scale was far greater than anything Teyla had previously beheld, and for a moment she felt the desire to stop and explore the crystalline caves.

"Look at that!" Dr. Geisler pointed ahead as the jumper followed one of the great ice tongues along the valley. "The glaciers extend far past the tree line, which means that any minute now we should see-"

The valley widened where a second glacier joined the first. Jumbled chunks of dirty white ice and black rocks the size of the Daedalus plowing into one another in spectacular, frozen fury, but along the cliffs on either side of the valley the snow had given way to verdant growth, as thick and luxuriant as the rainforest that surrounded the Stargate. Every few miles, waterfalls gushed out seemingly from nowhere, cascading down into the crumbled blocks below. Where the glacier came to an abrupt halt, a wide, milky river emerged and flowed through rubble covered with green growth.

The valley continued to widen and as it did so, much of the landscape changed to expanses of grassland. Dr. Geisler laughed with excitement. Years fell away from his lined face, to be replaced with the glee of childhood, for wandering along the grassy riverbanks were hordes of gargantuan, long-necked animals, the likes of which Teyla had seen only in Atlantis's collection of movies-except that these beasts were far more colorful and, if the tiny shadow of the jumper was any guide, considerably larger.

Slowing the jumper to offer a better view, Major Lome glanced back over his shoulder, an indulgent grin on his face. "Well, Doc, guess you get to see your dinosaurs after all."

Unfamiliar and intricate words tumbled out of the doctor's mouth: names, Teyla assumed, of the many beasts that inhabited the valley. "Definitely late Cretaceous," he declared. "Before the decline, perhaps a million years prior to the K-T event. But the scale! It has to be the lower gravity. They're at least twenty percent larger than any fossil we've ever seen. And look at the colors on the head of that torosaurus — just magnificent!"

Preoccupied with the observing the hordes of great creatures, Teyla barely noticed several shadows overtaking them, until Major Lorne shouted, "Whoa!" He threw the jumper into a steep climb, but was not swift enough to avoid a collision with something unseen-something large enough to toss them tumbling through the air toward a narrow gorge and the foaming rapids beneath.