“Destroyed by whom?” Ronon said.
Cumby shrugged. “If you believe the Bible, then God,” he said. “It was destroyed by God. The historical records aren’t clear on what started the fire only that the city was absolutely consumed.”
“Nice story,” Ronon grunted.
The last chevron locked and they all watched as the gate came to life. The air within the circular portal shimmered. There was a strange sound like a heavy breath of air, and the center of the shimmering light bulged inward. It surged out from the center forming a swelling cylinder of light and then snapped back flat. The room seemed charged with energy when the gate opened, and every time it happened, it gave Sheppard a thrill.
* * *
“Receiving MALP telemetry,” Woolsey called down from Stargate Operations. “Atmosphere is acceptable, temperature… I hope you packed your sun block, Colonel, it’s going to be hot.”
From his position at the gate, Sheppard glanced up. “Tell me something I don’t know.” Then he turned and gave his team the nod, watching as one after the other, they stepped into the wormhole and disappeared. Woolsey watched until they had all passed through and the gate had shut down. He stood still for a few moments after they were gone, then turned to the technician on duty.
“Dial again in two hours for a SITREP — I want to keep a close eye on this one.”
He didn’t tell the man why he felt uneasy, but ignoring a warning of any type rubbed against the grain and now that the deed was done he couldn’t get it out of his head. His time in Atlantis had worked subtle changes in the way he viewed things and, though he still had to bite his lip at times to keep from speaking up, he’d learned to trust the instincts of those who served under him. Sheppard in particular. Still, it was one thing to trust Sheppard to do the right thing, but changing the cautious, careful nature of his personal world to accept that trust was a different thing entirely. He was working on it, but old habits died hard. He had to let one or the other rule his mind, and now that he’d made his decision, he had to find his own ways to deal with the mental fallout.
The gate stood silent and empty and he stared at it, wondering what was happening on the other side, but its giant eye stared back at him and held no answers. After a few moments, he turned away. He trusted his team, but there was nothing he could do to prevent his own fear. And he didn’t really want to prevent it, he realized — it kept him alert.
Chapter Six
The team stepped into a dusty clearing, the MALP parked off to one side. They were surrounded by trees, but most of the branches were bare. There was a breeze, but it was hot and dry. The gate stood in a small valley between rolling hills and there was a stone tiled circle surrounding them, creating a perimeter that had once kept off encroaching plant life. But the trees and shrubbery were brown now — desolate and forgotten. The clearing was surrounded by the remnant of what seemed to be a terraced garden, the gate set into the stone at the lowest level, and several more flat, open levels rising like huge steps up to the right and left. Directly ahead, a trail wound off into the distance. It didn’t look as if anyone had traveled that way in a very long time.
“Cheery place,” Rodney said.
The team fanned out. Sheppard, Ronon and Teyla circled to either side, weapons leveled. They scanned to the right, left, and behind, watching for any sign of movement. Rodney switched on his scanner and began running sweeps of the area. Airman Cumby hovered close by and watched over his shoulder.
Rodney glanced up. “What are you doing?”
“I’m watching,” Cumby said. “I thought maybe I could help.”
“You thought that maybe by blocking sunlight or shielding me from deadly radiation with your body I might think more clearly? Or maybe you think you’ll see something I’d miss?”
“Let it go, Rodney,” Sheppard said. “Which way is it to the city? Have you got a lock on that power signature?”
Rodney eyed his screen, and then glanced up. “Straight ahead, down that trail,” he said. “I’m picking up several signatures, but they are weak, and not exactly like anything I’ve seen before. Something is out there.”
“Then let’s go find out what it is,” Sheppard said.
Ronon took point and moved out ahead of the others, Teyla crossing over to the opposite side of the trail. Rodney and Cumby followed behind, the former lost in some signal on his scanner, and the latter glancing about nervously.
“Any signs of life?” Sheppard asked.
Rodney was studying the scanner as he walked. “Nothing so far,” he said. “I…wait.” He tapped at the device and then glanced up.
“What is it?” Sheppard peered over his shoulder.
“There’s something alive,” Rodney said. “I’m getting a variety of readings, but they’re even weaker than the power signatures. I’m not sure, but they look as if they might be coming from behind some sort of shield.”
“You can’t tell what it is?”
Rodney shook his head.
“Alright,” Sheppard said. “Keep your eyes peeled. We don’t seem to be alone here, so let’s not have any surprises.”
Ronon glanced back over his shoulder and raised an eyebrow. It was obvious from his expression that he’d like nothing better than a few surprises, but he kept his silence.
They headed up the trail slowly. Nothing moved. There were signs that others had traveled the trail before them, but they were aged and faded. They walked in silence, not wanting to give away their position, in case whoever else was nearby wasn’t friendly, and not wanting to accidentally muffle the sound of a potential enemy approaching. The trail wound up the hill before them and curved off to the left. Ronon disappeared around the bend, and then Teyla. Moments later, Sheppard reached the turn. He spun, scanned the trail ahead, and then gestured for Rodney and Cumby to follow.
“Look!” Teyla called out.
As they rounded the bend they caught sight of her and followed her gaze. In the distance the spires and towers of a city had come into view. They were so tall they speared the clouds overhead. The walls of the city rolled out to the right and left and curled in behind more hills. It was a magnificent sight.
Between where they stood and the city walls, a series of gardens and parks formed a trail of death and decay. Nothing had lived in any of them for a very long time, and the layout of the trees and the way the dead vines trailed up and over stone decorations and abandoned resting places was macabre.
“Those walls look familiar,” Ronon commented.
Sheppard shook his head in amazement. “Looks like you were right, Rodney,” he said. “If I didn’t know we’d just left it behind, and that we’d have to be standing in an ocean for it to be true, I’d swear that was Atlantis. The walls are different, but I suppose that’s because there’s no sea surrounding them. The gardens are…were…a nice touch.”
Cumby stared up at the rising spires. He didn’t smile, but his face was transformed. It was an awe-inspiring sight, and the implications of it were even more far-reaching.
“You could stand there gaping,” Rodney said, “or we can move on and see what’s over there. I’m guessing that the computer systems and artifacts will be even more intriguing than the picturesque skyline.”
Cumby shook his head to clear it, grinning ruefully. “Sorry but — ”
“Let’s move out,” Sheppard said, cutting them off. “We don’t have much time here.”
They all glanced up at that point toward the sun overhead. Normally sunlight was comforting, but given the circumstances it felt like the ball of fire and death might fall and crush them at any moment.
They hurried down the trail toward the city, moving as quickly as they could without compromising their safety. It was easy to believe, studying the desolate landscape they passed through, that nothing else could be alive nearby. Surely if there was a civilization here, there would be some sign? If people lived in or around the city, there had to be signs.
“There’s a gate ahead,” Ro
non called back. “It’s open. Looks like the door is broken.”
“Broken?” Sheppard said. It wasn’t really a question.
Ronon was right. The gates leading into the city hung at odd angles. The one on the left was cracked at the hinges, as if it had been blasted by a high powered projectile. The right was still attached to its hinges, but the outer bottom corner had dug into the dirt. Debris was piled around it, holding it in place.
“That can’t be good,” Sheppard said. “No one I’ve ever met uses rubble for a doorstop.”
Teyla reached out to touch the gate. “Whatever did this, it happened a long time ago.”
“Yeah,” Sheppard said. “But you’d think if the ‘good guys’ won, they’d have fixed it eventually, wouldn’t you? Let’s get in there. We don’t want to spend any more time here than we have to.”
They moved ahead again, Ronon and Teyla disappearing inside the city. The gates were massive and loomed over them menacingly.
“What could have broken these?” Cumby wondered as he passed through, running his hand down the frame of the door.
“Let’s hope we don’t find out,” Rodney said. “The life signs are stronger now, and the power signatures are definitely from multiple ZPMs. I don’t know if anything still works in there, but there’s still power, and if there’s power, we should be able to use it to do something useful.”
Once they’d stepped over the gate’s threshold and could see beyond the still formidable walls of the city, they noted that the trail of ruined gardens and outbuildings continued on toward a large, central structure. The main entrance to the city was overgrown with plants and there were signs of damage, but it was in much better repair than the gates. Dusty marble stairs led up and into a huge main hall that was obscured in shadow.
“Whoever is in there,” Cumby said, “they aren’t much on yard work.”
“It looks pretty familiar,” Sheppard said. “Remind you of anything, Rodney?”
“Of course it does. It’s almost a duplicate of Atlantis, but on land. This is what the city might have been if it weren’t floating like an island.”
They climbed up the stone steps and entered the main hall, Ronon and Teyla moving ahead of the others. Inside the entrance they fanned out, Ronon to the left, Teyla on the right. They swept the huge chamber quickly. Nothing moved, but they didn’t relax their guard.
“Keep your eyes open,” Sheppard said. He stood aside and let Rodney and Cumby enter ahead of him, then brought up the rear, turning now and again to check the entrance behind them.
They moved in slowly. Rodney kept his eyes on his computer. Now and then he punched a button. Now and then Cumby gently urged him onward, reminding him to walk.
“If this was Atlantis,” Teyla said, pointing to the right, “The control room would be that way.”
They turned down a corridor that ended in another set of stairs. Their steps echoed eerily. The stairs were strewn with dust and small bits of rubble, as if they’d been abandoned and overrun by animals for decades. There were no footprints, or any other sign that anyone had passed that way for many years.
“Look at this,” Ronon called out.
They climbed up to stand beside him. He pointed to the wall beside the stairs. Cumby stepped closer and brushed his hand over the wall, removing a coating of dust. Beneath it was a colorful image. It had what was obviously a lighted frame, but the lights weren’t lit.
Teyla cocked her head, studying the image. “What is that thing?”
“It looks like a dragon,” Cumby offered, turning to Teyla and Ronon. “On Earth, we have legends of giant lizards that breathed fire — they never existed, but we have stories about warriors fighting them. Ancient legends are full of them.”
“I wouldn’t want to fight that,” Sheppard said.
In the picture, an alien with long dark hair and rippling muscles lunged at a giant scaled lizard. The man wielded an impossibly heavy broadsword that seemed to shimmer with some form of energy. The creature reared back, long neck rippling and jaws open wide enough to swallow the warrior whole. Cumby brushed the dust away from more of the image, revealing writing at the bottom.
“It’s a poster,” Sheppard said.
“Advertising what?”
“If I’m translating this correctly,” Rodney said, “it’s an ‘entertainment’. That’s all it says. No indication if it’s some sort of movie, or…”
“There’s another one up here,” Teyla called.
She’d moved up the stairs and they joined her. The second poster showed a creature that seemed to be part human and part Wraith. It stood twice as tall as either and brandished its feeding-hand, ready to suck the life from a pair of very human warriors. They held spears, and appeared to be taunting the creature. Its expression of rage and hunger radiated from the poster.
“Not sure what that means,” Rodney said. “I can catch a couple of words. One is undefeated. This one,” he reached out and tapped an odd symbol, “Is something like ‘Woard’ — but that doesn’t mean anything to me.”
“What kind of place was this?” Cumby muttered.
“Fun?” Ronon raised an eyebrow and grinned. Teyla shook her head.
“Let’s keep moving,” Sheppard said. “We don’t have much time.”
They continued up the stairs. Along the way they saw a series of the odd posters, each more fantastic than the last. All of them appeared to advertise some sort of event, but none was any clearer what the event might be. There were huge creatures, aliens pitted against one another with an array of strange weapons, and always the lifeless lighted frames that indicated the images had once had significance. Rodney took pictures for later translation, but they didn’t slow down to ponder them further.
At the top of the stairs they found another corridor. They took the large double doors to their right, and stepped into a large room. The room resembled the control room in Atlantis, with the noted exclusion of the gate.
“I wonder why they built their gate so far outside the city?” Teyla said. “It would have made more sense to place it here, within the walls. Like in Atlantis.”
“The walls don’t seem to have made much difference to whoever, or whatever, took this place out,” Sheppard said.
“It makes more tactical sense to have the gate outside the walls for a land-based city,” Rodney said. “They could launch ships or teams and still keep their shields in place to protect the city. If something came back through the gate, or managed to open it without their knowledge, it would still be beyond the city’s defenses.”
“Makes sense,” Sheppard agreed. “What about this place? You said there were power signatures…”
Rodney had already stepped up to one of the control consoles. As Sheppard’s words trailed away, he pressed a sequence of buttons on the panel in front of him. There was a deep hum that vibrated through the floor and the walls. The panels to either side of him flickered, and then came to life. Within moments, the room was powered up. Lights in the hallway came on as well, and music filled the air.
“What’s that sound?” Ronon stepped back to the door, his gun raised.
“It started when the power came back,” Cumby cut in. “It’s got to be a broadcast of some sort.”
They fell silent to listen.
“Tonight, one night only,” a voice called out. “In the main arena — undefeated in twelve confrontations — he’s half man, half wraith, and ALL battle. The Woard! Arrange your seating now, and get your bets in early. We have a new warrior just in from off world. You won’t want to miss his first — and possibly last — appearance.”
In the corridor beyond, the posters lining the wall had come to life. Lights ran and flickered around their edges and the voice they’d heard moved along the passageway, first emanating from one speaker, and then the next, singing the praises of whatever event was heralded by each display.
The music playing in the background was intricate, beautiful and haunting, yet at the same time oddly repellent.
It was like something you’d expect to hear at a carnival.
“Rodney,” Sheppard said quietly. “Can you locate the ZPMs?”
“I just turned on a city that’s been sitting dormant for, what, a thousand years? And now you want to know if I can find the battery?”
“Well?”
“I’m working on it,” Rodney said, turning back to the computer.
As he worked, Teyla and Ronon stepped up to two of the other consoles and began checking systems and maps. “It’s very similar to Atlantis,” Teyla said. “There are a number of lower levels. Power is active on all of them. There’s a shield in place that is causing some interference.”
“Of course they’re active,” Rodney snapped irritably. “I just turned everything on.”
“No,” Teyla said. “If these logs are correct, the power on the lower levels has been on for many years.”
Rodney flipped through some screens and looked up. “She’s right,” he told Sheppard. “The computers have been active all along. All we did was activate the main level. There has been access to the system regularly. We are very definitely not alone here.”
Sheppard’s hands tightened on his weapon. “Who’s down there?”
“I might be able to answer that.” The voice rose from down the corridor and Teyla and Ronon spun into the hall, weapons raised. A man stood at the far end of the corridor, dressed in very fine clothing — long robes festooned with gold ornamentation, and brightly polished black boots. His hair was thick and flowed down over his shoulders.
“That would be appreciated,” Sheppard said, stepping forward and reaching out to press the barrel of Ronon’s gun down gently. “Maybe you could tell us why the surface of this planet looks like it’s been through a war, why the lights are off, and who you are?”
“No need for weapons,” the man said. “I’ll be happy to answer any and all of your questions. First, I would like to welcome you all to the city of Admah. I am Saul.”
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