SGA-14 Death Game

by Graham, Jo

  “Can you get the corridors around us to see if anybody’s coming?”

  Radek turned his head and gave Ronon a quelling look over the frames of his glasses. “I can, in time. I do not tell you your business. I do not tell you how to blast things or kick things. Please do not tell me how to do computers! I will work much faster if you will back off and let me.”

  Ronon looked abashed. “Ok.” He took a step back. “I’ll just stand here by the door and guard.”

  “Thank you,” Radek said, and bent his head to the board. Truly, one would think there was nothing to it, as little respect as his work garnered! Why there is nothing more simple than to crack an alien computer system in an unintelligible language in order to gain access to the security systems of a large complex!

  A combination of touches brought up what must be another menu. Some of the labels were plain enough, even with the very limited Wraith vocabulary that Dr. Weir had worked out. Some were similar to the controls of the Wraith Dart that he had worked on, as little as there had been of that left. The cockpit interfaces had been almost destroyed.

  But yet there were some things that made sense. Lights must control the artificial lighting in the maze, presumably leading to a submenu that broke lighting out into locations. Water? That was mysterious, but presumably the complex had plumbing. Steam? Perhaps he was not reading that right. Or perhaps the contestants were in worse trouble than he had imagined.

  ***

  “Perhaps if we go around the pool,” Teyla said, “We might be able to get up on one of the ledges on the other side.”

  John squinted across the dimly lit water. “I don’t think it’s any better over there. The walls are pretty steep. And the water’s awfully cold.”

  Teyla thought that he might be shivering, though he tried his best to hide it. A long swim in icy water was not exactly what the doctor ordered for a man with a head injury. Swimming across the pool would chill him to the bone again, and in truth the sides of the pond did not look any easier to climb over there. All of the ledges on that side looked as though they were at least ten feet above the water. If they gave onto corridors that was all very well, but she did not see how they would get up to them. “I suppose we could go back down the drain and try the door again,” she said.

  The alternative was to sit right here, trapped on this ledge, until the games ended and the Wraith came to round up the losers. That also seemed like a bad plan. Going back down the drain involved another plunge into the icy water, but the room below seemed warmer. Even if they could not get the door open, it might be a better place to be stuck. And perhaps they would find a way to get the door open in time.

  “Sheppard!”

  Teyla’s head jerked up.

  Jitrine stood on the ledge above them with a torch in her hand. She turned and looked back down the corridor. “They’re here,” she called excitedly to someone. “Come on!” In a moment Nevin and Suua hurried out onto the ledge.

  “What the hell?” John said to Teyla.

  She shrugged. “I do not know.”

  “We found you!” Jitrine said triumphantly. “We knew if we followed the water we would find you eventually.”

  Suua began lowering down a rope ladder made of the ropes from the bridge. His hair was plastered wetly to his head, and his clothes were dripping. “Come on up,” he said with a grin.

  Teyla began laboriously to climb up. Without the rope ladder it would be impossible, and as it was it was both difficult and painful.

  “Why did you look for us?” John said, a note of genuine confusion in his voice.

  Jitrine reached down to put her hand beneath Teyla’s good shoulder and help her up. “Did you think that after you had fought on our behalf we would desert you?”

  “Kind of, yeah,” John said.

  Jitrine gave him a stern look. “You have much to learn of Pelagia, Sheppard. You underestimate us.”

  “A hero’s got to have friends, right?” Nevin piped up. “Those guys who are in the story too.”

  John looked abashed. “Thanks,” he said.

  Suua gave him a hand up the last few feet. “No problem,” he said. “We’re going to get out of here, right?”

  “Right,” John said. “And when we’ve shut this place down, we’ll get you home to your wife and daughter. I promise.”

  “Then we have a deal,” Suua said, and shook John’s offered hand.

  Teyla blinked. It was like him to remember Suua’s family, in case he needed to know that. But then she had seen him send far too many messages to families, messages to break hearts and rend lives.

  She turned instead to Jitrine. “How did you get across the stream?”

  “After you and Sheppard were swept away the men on the other bank laughed at us, saying we would never get across and we had lost already. We waited until they left, and then Suua swam across. He threw the ropes back for us, and Nevin and I crossed on them,” Jitrine explained. Her face was serene, as though she had never had any doubts that Suua, who had so lately attacked them himself, would keep his promise to throw the ropes to them once he was across. Perhaps it would have made no difference, and Jitrine would have stayed with Nevin regardless. Or perhaps she truly had never had any doubts.

  “After that Jitrine said we needed to follow the water,” Nevin said brightly. “She said that it all flowed downhill, and that we needed to get to the place where it came out. That all cisterns have a basin.”

  Teyla looked at Jitrine in surprise.

  “I am a Pelagian scientist,” Jitrine said firmly. “Do you think we do not have cisterns and sewers? Do you think I have no idea how they work?”

  “Of course not,” Teyla said. Perhaps John was not the only one to underestimate the Pelagians. Perhaps she had, too.

  “How did you get here?” John asked. “Do you know where these corridors go?” He craned his neck, looking back in the direction they had come.

  “There are many corridors back there,” Suua said. “It seemed like they were coming together, but we heard the running water so we backtracked up one of them until we found this ledge.”

  “We came out first on the other side,” Nevin said helpfully, “And we saw you, but we couldn’t get across.”

  “That was you?” John said.

  Jitrine nodded. “So we backtracked and found another way down. I think Suua is right. The maze is converging. I think we are coming to the end, or at least to some major obstacle that they wish all contenders to face.”

  “Great,” John said. “The big monster.”

  Teyla looked at him swiftly. “The big monster?”

  “There’s always one,” John said. “The big guy with all the hit points. The penultimate challenge of manhood and strength, an epic adventure the like of which has never been seen before!”

  “Why has your voice gotten funny like that?” Teyla asked.

  John dipped his head. “It was like a dramatic voice over. In a preview. Oh, never mind…”

  “You mean when it says, ‘Next week on Star Trek, Jean-Luc Picard takes his shirt off?” Teyla asked. She could not help breaking into a broad smile. No matter how cold and wet and hungry and miserable they were, she could always rely on John to keep everyone moving by whatever means worked best. It took a great deal to dampen his spirits. He was, perhaps, the most resilient man she had ever met.

  “Yeah, like that,” John said. “But I don’t think they actually say the part about the shirt. And there’s always a plot-related reason for it. Like he’s dead for the fourteenth time or something, or he’s about to be impregnated by shrimp.”

  “That observation is very meta,” Teyla said.

  “I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Suua said. “Again.”

  “This is the witty banter,” John said. “I don’t know why, but she likes it.”

  Jitrine looked at Teyla seriously, though a smile played about the corners of her mouth. “I see why you do not marry him.”

  Teyla shrugged. “The
re is only so much of this one can take.”

  “The big monster,” Suua said. “Is there really a monster, do you think?”

  “If there is, we’ll take care of it,” John said. “Can’t be much in here you and me can’t handle, right?”

  Suua nodded seriously. “That’s true.”

  Teyla bit her lip, refraining from saying, ‘Except about forty Wraith!’ That would be extremely counterproductive. John was doing a fine job of countering the strangeness and spookiness of the labyrinth with humor, and it would not be a good idea to deflate him. Especially as the one most in need of something to keep him going with was probably John. He ought to be lying down resting, not swimming across icy streams and climbing walls.

  “Onward and downward then!” He took the torch from Jitrine and started down the corridor, back into the heart of the maze, leaving wet footprints on the floor of the corridor behind him. His boots made a distinct squishing noise.

  Suua came just behind him. “To the left,” Suua said. “And then down the stairs. That’s where we came from before we doubled back here to come to the water.”

  “Got it,” John said. “Teyla, on six.”

  She took up her usual place in the rear, behind Nevin, who turned and smiled at her. “Do you want this back?” He held out her jacket, the one she had shed before leaping in the stream after John.

  “Yes, thank you so much,” Teyla said, taking it and putting it on. It was warm and dry, and she felt it improve her morale on the spot.

  Ahead, John froze silhouetted against the faint light that came around the corner from the corridor ahead.

  “Shhhh,” Teyla whispered to Nevin, who had begun to say something. She held up a warning finger as they all came to a halt.

  John looked back at her, meeting her eyes, and passed the torch to Suua. He was going ahead to scout.

  From around the corner ahead came a scarlet glow, as though there was a vast inferno. Or a bunch of red lights. Teyla shook her head. These kind of mindgames with the credulous were so characteristic of the Wraith, who loved to torment their prey.

  Anger began a slow burn in her belly. Anger is good, she thought. Anger keeps you strong. Anger makes you warm.

  John slipped off down the corridor ahead, a dark shadow against the ruby light. It was some minutes before he returned, and when he did he herded them all back up the corridor and behind the first turn.

  “What is it?” Teyla whispered.

  “The big monster,” John said grimly.

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Teyla crept forward, peering around the corner. The corridor broadened out into a large chamber, though she could only see part of it from her vantage point. It looked like another cave, but instead of being partially filled with a frigid lake, this one seemed to be filled with pits of fire. The floor was uneven, marked with narrow paths between sharp stalagmites, though even those paths were broken and a person crossing them would have to stop and carefully climb over the stones. Here and there, among the stalagmites and stones, vents of steam emerged unexpectedly from the ground, shooting into the air in great gouts, rendered pink and red by the lights below.

  No, thought Teyla, there were no real fires. Those were lights. But the steam was real, as was evidenced by one of the men leaping backwards from the edge of a vent, holding his scalded arm.

  At the edge of the chamber were the four thugs they’d encountered before, now armed with the butts of torches they’d picked up along the way. They had a prisoner with them, the girl who had stood with Nevin on the ship from Pelagia.

  Crowding up behind Teyla, he let out a gasp. “That’s my sister,” he whispered urgently. “That’s my twin sister, Ailan!” He turned, clutching at John’s arm. “You’ve got to do something!”

  John grimaced.

  Two of the thugs were arguing, apparently debating the best way across the chamber. On the other side, a darkened doorway with carved lintels made it plain what the goal was. As they watched, more vents erupted in steam, almost obscuring completely the narrow, winding paths.

  “This is a wretched place,” Teyla whispered to John. “I am not sure there actually is a safe way across it, except by chance.”

  “Tell me about it. These guys have been going crazy with the hydraulics.” John hefted the butt of the torch himself, then ground out the flame against the stone.

  “You’re not going to challenge those men,” Teyla said, her brows rising. “Four to one?”

  “I don’t have much choice, do I?”

  One of the men seemed to have prevailed to his companions, and now he and another thug converged on Ailan, pointing to the maze. She shook her head. One of them hit her hard across the face, snapping her head back. He pointed to the path, his hand raised for another blow.

  Nevin scrambled up, Suua catching onto him. “Let me go!” Nevin pleaded, struggling hopelessly against Suua’s strong grip. “I have to help my sister!”

  “They want her to walk the path for them,” Teyla said grimly. “To find the safe way through. That way, if there are traps to be tripped it is she who will be badly burned.”

  John looked from Teyla to Suua. “Let’s take them,” he said.

  ***

  Carson Beckett eased the jumper around in a long turn while Major Lorne leaned over the back of the pilot’s seat. The skies above the island had cleared of the night’s rain, and it was a lovely, bright day. “Having trouble finding a parking place, doc?”

  “Just a bit,” Carson said. “This island is heavily populated. I don’t want to set it down in the middle of the street. Even cloaked, people will notice the ship when they walk right into it.”

  The cloak did nothing to render the jumper immaterial. Anyone who touched it would know it was there. The island was rocky and a great deal of it that was level enough to land on was covered in trees. Some of the city streets were wide enough, but they were also busy. Crowds of people were out and about, bustling from place to place or doing their marketing in the city’s squares and streets. The chances of landing without making most of the city aware of them were slim.

  “Unfortunately,” Lorne said. He tightened his grip on the back of the seat. “How about we go around the other side again? Some of those orchards over on the back side of the island might be spaced enough that we could set down without hitting trees.”

  “If you say,” Carson said. “I don’t think there’s enough room anywhere except in the big plazas and such. But we can’t do that without people seeing us.”

  “What if we don’t land at all?” Rodney said. Carson twisted around to give him a dubious look, but Rodney persisted. “What if we just hover? Can’t we let some people out?”

  “Sure,” Lorne said. “If you don’t mind jumping.” Carson swept back over the city at a couple of hundred feet, wide plazas and narrow streets opening before them, all studded with trees and market stalls.

  “I was thinking like on a roof or something,” Rodney said. “There are all these big, wide roofs. Carson could hover a few feet above the surface and we could get out. Climb out on a roof and then get down from there.”

  Lorne’s face broke into a wide smile. “I think you’ve got something there,” he said. “Nobody’s going to walk into us by accident if we’re parked on the roof!”

  ***

  “Hey you!” John shouted. It wasn’t the most memorable speech he’d ever made, but they weren’t really giving him points for that.

  It did get the guy’s attention. The biggest of the thugs turned around. “You got a problem?” he yelled.

  John nodded. “Yeah. I’ve got a problem. You.”

  The thug didn’t seem disturbed. “Yeah? You and what army?”

  “This army,” Teyla said serenely behind him. She and Suua stepped out, one on each side, each with a torch stick in hand. “I would let go of that girl if I were you.”

  Instead he gave her a vicious shove and Ailan went sprawling on the sharp stones beside the path. Behind Teyla and Suua, Ne
vin lunged out, Jitrine holding on to his injured arm.

  The guy laughed. He was almost as big as Ronon, only hopefully not as fast. “Women and a little kid. Yeah, you try it.”

  “Suit yourself,” John said, stepping forward into guard, covering Teyla’s left so she could attack with her good side. Teyla’s good side with sticks was better than both his sides, any day. Three on four wasn’t bad odds. Time to plow on in. He rushed forward, stick in hand.

  By himself. Three of the thugs bore down on him, and he barely countered their moves.

  “What the hell?” John yelled.

  Teyla waded in next to him, smartly rapping with her stick the guy who had nearly decked John. “I am sorry! I thought it wiser to let them come to us.” She spun around in a flurry of kicks and movement, letting the momentum of her attacker carry him past her straight into Suua’s fist. One down.

  “Let them come to us?” John was incredulous. “They’re on the edge of a steam pit!” He ducked under the flailing club of one of the thugs, unfortunately catching the second man’s blow right across his back. That hurt.

  Teyla reversed direction, coming around in a long kick that barely missed John and connected with the man’s knee, dropping his leg out from under him. “We had the better ground,” she said serenely.

  “So what?” John hit the man in the back of the head, knocking him sprawling. He didn’t seem inclined to get up.

  He heard rather than felt the blow coming, in the rush of air preceding it. The third man’s torch butt connected with his left side, full force and momentum behind it, right on the sore ribs from the crash. John staggered backwards, unfortunately completely fouling Teyla in the process. It was about all she could do not to hit him with the attack she had half completed.

  The man’s second blow hit Teyla as she backpedaled, catching her in the upper left arm. The cry that escaped her lips was unexpected. He’d never heard her cry out, no matter how hard she was hit. This blow hand landed on her bad shoulder.

  John lowered his head and butted the man in the stomach, which did in fact distract him from Teyla. Unfortunately, it also brought the man’s club down on his back again. John staggered, the world spinning around him momentarily. Bad plan, hitting something with his head, he thought belatedly. Very bad plan.