Death Game

Chapter Twenty-Four

The Stargate whooshed open in a burst of blue fire, and the jumper leaped through, climbing into the morning sky. Carson Beckett eased back on the controls, mindful of the problem of altitude. They mustn’t get too close to the energy shield that protected the planet.

Major Lorne pointed to the map on his laptop, as Carson never could get the heads-up display working properly. “Cadman said they’d gotten as far as this.”

Rodney, leaning over the back of the copilot’s seat, snorted. “That’s not very useful. Half our flight path will be over ocean that way.”

“And we’ve established that Ronon and Zelenka left the island in a boat,” Lorne said patiently. “Don’t you think it might be a good idea to look for them at sea?”

Rodney allowed that might be wise. The problem was that there were so many small boats at sea on a clear day. They made low approaches over a dozen small fishing boats and transport ships laboring over the clear blue waters, but the radio stayed ominously quiet. Even Rodney was beginning to find Lorne’s continual radio calls irksome.

“What the hell is that?” Carson asked. He must have answered his own question, because a moment later he put the controls over, diving sharply toward the sea and pulling up at what looked to Rodney like a dangerous few hundred feet, driving hard toward the coast.

“What?” Lorne looked up from his laptop, where the search grid was connected to the jumper’s sensors. “What?”

“A Wraith cruiser,” Carson said shortly. “Our sensors were picking it up at extreme range. It was almost masked because it was grounded and not powered up.”

“A Wraith cruiser?” Rodney said disbelievingly. “How could this mission get any worse? Oh, I know! There could be Wraith here!”

“Did it see us?” Lorne asked.

Carson’s hands moved nervously over the board. “I don’t see how. It was grounded with minimal systems using power. That would suggest to me that it was parked and that they didn’t plan on taking off anytime soon.”

“Great,” Lorne said.

“How about we engage the cloak instead of running like scared bunnies in the opposite direction?” Rodney asked. “You know, we don’t actually have to run away. The Wraith can’t detect us cloaked.”

“Oh. Right then.” Carson engaged the cloak. “Forgot that for a minute.”

Rodney rolled his eyes. “How long have you been flying this thing, Carson? A year?”

“I don’t fly it very often,” Carson retorted. He turned back, banking long and low over the sea.

“Keep flying the grid,” Lorne directed. “We want to make sure we don’t miss spots searching the sea. If Ronon and Zelenka took off in a boat, we need to make sure we don’t miss them. And cloak or no cloak, if we start transmitting right on top of that cruiser they’ll notice. It masks our ordinary electronic signature, not an outgoing signal. So let’s take this easy, one step at a time.”

For once Rodney wanted to swat Lorne for his methodical, calm style. Sheppard would just charge in and blow up the Wraith cruiser or something. But he had to admit that Lorne was more likely to find their missing people. Just not as quickly as Rodney would like.

Rodney checked the ordnance. Two drones. Two ought to take out the cruiser at most. Well, unless they were unlucky. Certainly even Carson ought to be able to hit a sitting duck, with the cruiser parked and powered down.

“One thing at a time,” Lorne said softly. “First we find our missing people. Then we deal with the Wraith. Remember what we’re here for.

“Two doors,” John said. “The old two doors, one to the left and one to the right.” They were more like openings, really, leading into another pair of torchlit corridors. No doubt they had the obligatory cameras too. Down the one to the left he could see another door thirty feet or so along.

“Left?” Teyla said.

Nevin was standing beside Jitrine, looking the worse for wear but a bit stronger since Teyla had given him one of her granola bars and told him how well he was taking his injury.

“Yeah,” John agreed. He led the way down the hall, poking the floor every few feet as he went, Jitrine and Nevin behind him. It seemed a little odd that none of the groups behind them had run up on them while they had paused, but maybe taking the door in the same wall a ways back had been an unpopular choice. It was fine by him if they went through the entire maze without running into anybody.

The floor seemed solid and good, and listening at the door produced nothing. John flung it open, then laid about on the non-hinged side with the stick, whacking the bare wall with great enthusiasm. Nothing. Jitrine looked at this little performance skeptically.

“Ok, then.” John sauntered into the room. “Just checking.”

Another made to order dungeon. Ten by ten, with two torches and two cameras.

“You’d think these guys could do better than this,” he said to Teyla as the others filed in. “Maybe a large chest to check for traps.”

Teyla crossed her arms across her tank top, her head to the side. “Because spandex can be dangerous?”

“Trunk!” John said quickly. “Chest like trunk! A trunk kind of chest.”

Teyla looked like she was going to laugh. “I do not see any trunks in here. Why would there be one?”

“They just…go in dungeons.” John shrugged. “To hold treasure. Or magic weapons. Or giant poisonous snakes.”

“Why would a giant poisonous snake be in a trunk?”

John blinked. She had a point. “You know, I’ve always kind of wondered that.”

Jitrine looked at Teyla curiously. “And you’re not his wife?”

“I have better taste than that,” Teyla said seriously, but the way she looked at him sideways took the sting out of it.

John looked up at the ceiling. “You know, this is pretty lame.” The cameras were right there where they ought to be. “No traps, no special effects, nothing more lethal than a stairway. This isn’t right. This isn’t legendary danger.”

“Perhaps we are not to the dangerous part yet,” Teyla said.

John nodded thoughtfully. “Maybe. Maybe they figure these first rooms are for the contestants to thin each other out a little bit. The obstacle is the other contestants. And then further along comes the good stuff. This is all totally straightforward. Nothing to it.”

“Empty rooms,” Teyla said.

“There’s only one way out,” Nevin said, looking at the door in the opposite wall.

“Then I guess we go that way.” John opened the door and half turned toward it when a fist connected with his face, spinning him around. The floor came up with amazing speed.

“Cameras,” Radek whispered.

“I see them.” Ronon crouched in a shadow just ahead of him.

“They are on both sides of this corridor,” Radek whispered, craning his neck to see. “I do not think there is a way to pass that is not in view of one camera or the other.”

“Backtrack again,” Ronon said.

Radek shook his head. “We cannot. There were only two converging corridors at the end, and we have tried them both. Unless we go back to the very beginning by the guard post, we must go through one or the other.”

Ronon’s brows twitched, and he moved back quietly to Radek’s side. “Any bright ideas?”

Radek looked up at the cable running camouflaged along the ceiling. “We could cut the electric cable. I cannot reach it, but if you lift me up I will be able to. We must be far ahead of the contestants, since we are working this back to front, so perhaps they will think it is a camera malfunction if they lose the visual on a corridor that no one has come to yet. I doubt they will send someone to fix it, with contestants in the maze.”

“Sounds like a plan,” Ronon said.

Radek looked at the cables again. “I have another thought.”

“What?”

“If we trace the cables we should be able to find the control room. It might be a remote routing center. They may have this running on automatic so that they can sit back somewhere and relax while they watch it.”

Ronon nodded. “Or it might be full of Wraith.”

“I thought that was your department, my friend,” Radek said with a smile.

Ronon loosened his energy pistol in its holster. “I’m beginning to like the way you think.”

Feet spun around him. Teyla’s feet. Teyla’s feet in her black boots were doing an elaborate dance, forward and backward, now advancing, now retreating. Other feet were dancing too, four other feet in leather sandals. Some of them belonged to someone who said, “Ooof.”

That would be Teyla getting him in the stomach with a stick.

John reached out and grabbed the nearest foot and yanked as hard as he could. It slid out from under its owner, and the person attached to the foot came crashing down, landing hard on the floor with a crack. The other feet retreated.

“Sheppard?” It was Jitrine kneeling beside him, helping him to sit up. “Sheppard, can you speak?”

“Yeah,” he managed, turning over. His jaw hurt. A lot. He moved it experimentally. “That was not fun.”

“I should think not,” Jitrine said.

There was a flurry of blows behind him, and then a strangled noise. “Mercy,” a man’s voice groaned. “Mercy, please…”

John twisted around.

Teyla had the other man down, her foot on his back forcing his throat down on the stick. Much more pressure and he would surely black out. Why should I do that? she asked, tossing her hair back from her face. You will just try to ambush us again.

No, I swear! he croaked.

John got to his knees. I'm ok, he said to Jitrine. I'm good. Nevin watched, wide-eyed.

I see no reason to trust you, Teyla said, but she did ease the pressure of her foot enough to let him breathe.

I just want to get through this thing, the man mumbled. That's all.

As do we all, Teyla said. But we do not do it by ambushing others. She jerked the stick from beneath his throat, letting him sag to the floor as she took a few steps away. Keet up.

Jitrine's hands were under John's arms, but he shook her off to get to his feet himself. I'm ok. Really.

The other man got up rather more slowly and laboriously. The way he clutched his side suggested Teyla might have cracked some ribs too. John knew the feeling. But then, one of his friends seemed to be out cold on the floor.

What is your name? Teyla demanded.

Suua, he said. Look, I'm a fisherman. I mean, I'm rather be a fisherman. I just want to get home.

Why did you do this? she asked.

I ran into those guys, and they said I was with them or against them, so I said I was with them. He rubbed his throat with one big hand. We heard you coming up behind. We didn't see you. I didn't know that you had a kid with you.

Nevin bristled visibly.

The guy's eyes strayed to Jitrine. You are a doctor. I don't go around attacking doctors.

So, just me, John said. So why shouldn't she lay you out again?

I can help! he said. Look, I can help you through. Most of the rest of them ran away, so they're still ahead of us. Don't you want some more muscle on your side?

And how can we trust you? Teyla asked. If we take you with us, how do we know that you won't turn on us the moment we run into your friends again?

And, you don't? He was thinking hard about that.

John walked over to stand beside Teyla. This guy is not the brightest bulb on the tree, he said out of the corner of his mouth.

I am a Pelagian doctor, Jitrine said. Do you think that I lie?

No, ma'am, Suua said respectfully. Clearly that meant something to him.

These people are not from our world, and they have come to release us from the service of these false gods, Jitrine said, the High King and his men are nothing but parasites demanding tribute. Is that not how you got here in the first place?

Suua's face turned red. I owed a lot of money, he said. And they said one of my family needed to be tribute so I figured better me than my wife or my daughter.

We will have no more tribute when they are done, Jitrine said. Sheppard has promised it, and he is a hero sent by the Ancestors.

Teyla looked at John and her eyes widened a little. He could read that as if she've spoken. Pretty tall order, and no idea how they were going to deliver on those promises. But he better figure out a way.

Sure, John said, trying to look nonchalant. We are going to shut this place down.

Suua blinked. No more tribute? Ever?

No more tribute, Teyla said. Now will you come with us, or stay behind and not hinder us? If you wish, you may, and nothing ill will be done to you by our will.

Suua looked at Nevin. What about that kid?

He is with us, John said.

Nevin swallowed.

Suua nodded slowly. That's right. If that's how it is.

That's how it is, John said. We are all going to get through this thing together.

Then I'll come with you, Suua said. No more tribute.

No more tribute, Jitrine said. This will be the end.

Ok, John said. Welcome aboard. This was turning into a regular party cleric, fighter, kickass ranger, random kid, and now dimwitted bruiser. What's next? he asked aloud. Vampires? Mummies? Ghouls? Gelatinous Cubes?

Teyla looked at him quizzically. I thought gelatinous cubes were those things Rodney liked so well in the mess hall? Why are they frightening?

Those are gelatin cubes, John said. I gelatinous cube is different. There was really no explaining this one. It's a long story.

Yeah.

They're a kind of monster.

I think we already know what monsters we will face, Teyla said. Wraith.