In the next car over, a mother leaned into the backseat to hand her young child a juice box. Rodney wondered if they carried the retrovirus and if their bright-faced ignorance would end up costing the entire planet dearly.
"Carson had a theory as well," Radek pointed out. "He believed the Ancients were pursuing a method of manipulating the iratus virus, either to disable it in the Wraith popula tion or to make others immune to the feeding process °"
"Like Ronon's immunity," Elizabeth said, accelerating when the light turned green.
"Or the Hoffan vaccine." One side of Radek's mouth curled upward in a wistful half smile. "It gave Carson a measure of peace to know that our failures were not unique to us.
Rodney took another sip of his drink, wishing they didn't have to face this issue with the ghost of his friend hovering over their shoulders.
"Dr. Geisler recently discovered records in the city database associated with one specific researcher named Lilith," Radek continued. "A number of planets were referenced in conjunction with the projectfiles-possibly some testing was conducted on those worlds. One file in particular looked most promising, because it appeared to contain several references to Earth long before the Ancients left Antarctica for Lantea."
"Which is why General Landry ordered Major Lorne, Ronon and Teyla to check out Ml M-316," explained Elizabeth. "We're hoping they'll locate Lilith's research laboratory."
The name set off a chime of familiarity in Rodney's memory, taking the edge off his terror and giving him something on which to focus. "Lilith is the researcher? That can hardly be coincidental."
The SUV swung into the parking lot of the county sheriff's office, which looked entirely too sedate and tranquil to contain a morgue. Jackson's head turned toward him. "Since when did you become a scholar of Talmudic texts, McKay?"
That threw him off. "What? I'm talking about the name-I've run across it in the Ancient database. What are you talking about?"
"I believe Lilith was also the name of Adam's first wife," Radek contributed, earning a surprised glance from both Jackson and Rodney.
"As in Adam and Eve?" Elizabeth parked the vehicle and switched off the ignition. "There was a first wife?" She glanced over her shoulder.
"And you picked up that piece of trivia where exactly?" Rodney followed her gaze and watched as Sheppard's `CDC' vehicle passed them, heading for the rear of the building.
Radek's response seemed to be directed at Jackson rather than Rodney. "Carson believed the Ancient Lilith continued her retrovirus research after relocating from 316 to Earth. Possibly the virus escaped, or else she intentionally released it into the population."
"I'm beginning to find myself agreeing with John's assessment of the Ancients," Elizabeth declared, sounding drained. "They created some staggering messes and made little or no attempt to clean them up"
Radek nodded his agreement. "Wraith, Asurans, succubus-"
"Succubi in the plural," said Jackson. "And we should include incubi, the male version, since, according to the profiler, a male was responsible for the Colorado Springs murders."
As if the FBI's profiler could have even the slightest clue what they were dealing with here. Rodney climbed out of the SUV and pulled his lightweight jacket tight around himself, uninterested in the details Elizabeth was providing on the profiler and the tall tale they'd be feeding her. He was focused on only one thing. "What do we know about this Lilith so far?"
He'd asked Radek, but it was Jackson who answered. "`Her gates are gates of death, and from the entrance of the house she sets out towards Sheol. None of those who enter there will ever return, and all who possess her will descend to the Pit."'
"Talmud?" Radek inquired.
The archeologist shook his head and started walking. "Dead Sea Scrolls."
Rodney stared at the neatly lettered sign near the front door of the building, helpfully directing coroner business to the lower level. The panic that had earlier threatened to overwhelm him now settled into a tight ball of nausea in the pit of his stomach. He doubted it would disappear any time soon.
Chapter five
"Quetzalcoatlus," Geisler announced from where he'd fallen against the lower bulkhead inside the jumper. "An entire colony!" While all color had left his face, he seemed more excited than concerned.
Another of the enormous birds-or maybe they were bats-collided with the jumper, sending it careening into the side of the cliff. The shield and inertial dampeners protected them, but Ronon found the impact less disturbing than the fact that they were being attacked by animals the size of the airliners he'd seen on during his brief time on Earth. "I thought we were cloaked?"
"We are," Lome replied shortly, struggling to bring the jumper under control. Below them, the river straightened out again as they emerged through the gorge and into another wide valley, misted by cascading water and remnants of the morning fog. According to the HUD, there were even more of the massive land animals here than they'd seen previously. The life signs indicator showed almost a continuous bright streak for mile after mile.
"You mean they can detect us through the cloak?" Teyla asked, glancing to the rear of the craft to make certain everything was still secure.
"I…don't think so." Once clear of the mist, Lome angled the jumper to fly lower until he was nearly brushing across the tops of the strange trees, branches heavy with seeds, that Geisler had earlier called ginkgoes. "I think they just flew into us.
Ahead of them, four or five of the giant, long-beaked flying. .things regrouped with the rest of their kind and kept right on flying, apparently uninterested in the jumper.
"See that?" With Ronon's help, Geisler picked himself up off the deck and reclaimed his seat. "They fly in formation. Prezwilitz insisted that they were solitary predators, but look at that. He's wrong! And look at the size of them. It has to be a result of the lower gravity and denser atmosphere. They're half again as big as the Quetzalcoatlus of Earth."
How Geisler knew that, given that he'd just finished telling them that these same animals had become extinct on Earth millions of years ago, Ronon had no idea. Nor did he much care, because they weren't out of trouble yet. "Major!"
Lorne had already reacted, weaving the jumper through a cluster of giant serpents sticking up out of the trees. As they passed Ronon saw that the `snakes' were in fact necks, attached to huge bodies ending in tails that appeared equally as long as the necks. He'd seen large animals before, but never anything on a scale even remotely resembling this.
"My God, did you see them? Titanosaurs!" Geisler was out of his seat and leaning forward over the center console, trying to get a better view.
"See them?" Lorne repeated, dodging another group of the yellow-necked beasts. "I'm trying to avoid them. This is nuts!"
"Look at those colors. They're magnificent. It couldn't possibly be restricted to a threat display mechanism because all of them have similar colorings!"
"Perhaps you should de-cloak us, Major," Teyla suggested.
Lorne shot her a look of disbelief.
"She's right," Ronon said, ignoring what sounded like a one-man argument from Geisler about names and colors. "Most animals I've encountered leave you alone unless they're hungry, scared, or have young." He pointed to another formation of flyers riding the thermals over the next gorge. "If those dinosaurs can see us, they'll probably avoid us."
"They're not dinosaurs." Geisler sounded mildly frustrated. "They're pterosaurs. You can't just blithely lump everything that roamed the Earth millions of years ago into the one category, which is why none of this makes any sense, because that's a diplodocus!" He pointed to a herd of green mottle-skinned giants, rows of sharp spines sticking up along their back all the way from their tiny heads to their whip-like tails. "They vanished eighty million years before the K-T extinction event, which pushes the time frame back to one hundred and forty-five million years!"