"We live in one of their cities." John didn't see any need to tell him which one. "We have access to a fair amount of their technology."
"If that is true, could you not have overpowered the warriors and taken what you needed?"
Maybe. Probably, especially if they'd sent for Marine reinforcements. But that was a judgment made in hindsight, and besides… In any case, Cestan's frank appraisal of them was starting to make John twitchy. "That's not the way we do things," he replied.
That seemed to confirm something for the governor. After a moment, he turned toward the door, his dark blue robe swinging out behind him. "Come. I suspect there is much we can discuss."
As the team moved to comply, John got the feeling they'd just passed some sort of test.
The corridors didn't look any different the second time through, although they took a few extra turns on this pass. "You have the use of an Ancestors' city and everything it contains," Cestan remarked, setting a decisive pace. "What need do you have for more?"
Teyla lengthened her stride to keep up. "There is a race of beings which even the Ancestors could not defeat."
"The Wraith." Cestan's tone was grim. "We know all too well. Our people were fortunate that their last culling was brief."
"Well, there's them, too, but we're talking about someone else," John said. "Someone who wants our home, preferably without us in it. They're coming after us, and we were hoping to find something in the Hall of Tribute that might help us defend ourselves against them."
"We are open to many types of trade," Teyla added. "If we might be allowed to visit the Hall-"
"Perhaps we each may learn something here first." Before Cestan reached the nearest door, a warrior hurried ahead to open it for him. John stepped through behind them and found himself in the training field they had been observing previously. The apprentices had finished their exercise and taken off, leaving a couple of dummies behind.
"As you suspected, Dr. McKay, the whips are powered by adarite." The governor held out his hand, palm up, to Merise, who placed her whip in it. "Our history tells us that many uses for the ore were once known. However, much of our knowledge of the Ancestors' work has faded from memory over the generations. Many of the machines left to us have fallen into disrepair. Mostly we are able to make adarite lamps, and of course the whips."
Leaning in, John examined the weapon. The flexible portion looked like a braid of several very thin strands of metal. One brighter strand stood out from the other, more tarnished ones. The handle had been fashioned from the same metal as the unique strand-adarite, no doubt-and was encircled by row after row of tiny etchings. "A lot prettier than any weapon I've ever carried," he admitted.
Cestan smiled. "Our craftsmen take great pride in their work. Many weeks of labor are devoted to a single whip."
"Yes, nice work," said Rodney brusquely, reaching for it. "May I?"
Merise opened her mouth-probably to tell Rodney where to stick his outstretched hand-but Cestan passed the whip to him. "I have hope that, in studying the adarite with the insight of the Ancestors, you may be able to tell us more about its other uses which have been lost to time. It may be of some assistance to you as well."
"Governor," Merise said urgently, her eyes never leaving her whip.
"Do you have so little faith in your brethren, Merise?" Cestan arched one eyebrow and inclined his head toward his other two bodyguards. "If the visitor, who has no experience with your weapon, were to challenge two expert warriors, who would you expect to win?"
Only partially mollified, if her sharp sigh was anything to go on, Merise reluctantly stood aside.
"I can only do so much here, with limited diagnostic capability," Rodney warned, holding the whip handle up to eye level. "And I'll have to rely on our own equipment, since this adarite seems to give garbage readings to Ancient scans. Listen, I saw them turning these things on and off-?"
"Find the widest engraved band on the handle and squeeze it," Cestan instructed. "Take care to hold it away from yourself and others."
As if suddenly remembering that these things were dangerous, Rodney shoved the whip into John's hand. "Go ahead. Power it up," he directed, reaching into his pack for a gadget, presumably something Earth-made.
With a shrug, John closed his fingers around the handle and squeezed. Instantly he felt a slight tingle in his arm, and the metal strand within the whip began to glow. "Kind of tickles," he commented.
"There is a constant, minimal level of power in the handle. Pressure discharges a much greater amount of energy." Merise was obviously itching to get her weapon back, so he released the power band and handed it back to her.
"Could you give us another demonstration?" Rodney had retrieved something like a beefed-up voltmeter from his pack. "For analytical purposes."
"Gladly." The warrior stepped clear of the group and raised her whip over her head. With a spin worthy of a dancer, she attacked. The whip stood out straight and struck the nearby dummy from the side, reducing it to a brief flare and then smoke.
John had known it was coming, and it still dazzled him.
"Incredible," Rodney breathed, his head buried in his equipment. "It's an electrothermal release on the order o…
No way was John letting that detail slip by. "So I wasn't far off with the electric charge theory after all?"
"Try not to let it go to your head. The generation mechanism has to be much more efficient, though." When Rodney finally looked up, he had that manic gleam in his eye that usually signaled a Nobel Prize fantasy. "This could be huge."
"We believe the adarite was the reason for the Ancestors' interest in this world," Cestan informed them.
"No, I mean huge. For us." Catching himself, Rodney amended, "That is to say, I'm sure we can help the Falnori understand the ore's properties and explore other applications as well."
Ronon folded his arms. "As well as what?"
"The discharge from that relatively small weapon is strong enough to incinerate organic material. I suspect it would also have the effect of superheating the water in a human body, the results of which would be both spec tacular and gruesome." Rodney glanced at the warriors, whose expressions confirmed his assumption. "It breaks down the structure of whatever it touches. Just imagine what kind of damage it-or, better yet, a scaled-up version-could do to nanotechnology."
He'd had John's attention before, but the word `nanotechnology' provided a jolt of its own. "You think it would work against the Asurans?"
"It would undoubtedly have a disruptive effect on their molecular cohesion, and the discharge frequency varies enough that adapting to counter it would not be a trivial task. As an added bonus, it probably wouldn't do too badly against a Wraith, either." Like usual, Rodney was already about five steps ahead of the others. "We'd need to investigate better delivery methods, specifically something that wouldn't require such close proximity to the target. The potential applications are virtually unlimited. If we explore the Ancient research facility, I'm confident we'll find data to jumpstart our efforts."
This was what they needed, what they'd come for-a fighting chance.
"You are interested in learning more, I take it," Cestan remarked, a trace of amusement in his voice.
John stared at the whip in Men'se's hand and felt a flicker of guilt for his excitement. No matter how many jokes certain teammates cracked about Pavlovian responses, he didn't harbor any deep and abiding love for weapons. Weapons broke stuff and killed people. He knew that at least as well as anyone; he accepted it as an ugly yet fundamental aspect of his profession. Nowhere in the oath did it say he had to like it.
But others had weapons, too, and he sure as hell didn't like sending folded flags and empty explanations back to grieving families. He couldn't stop the Asurans from coming for Atlantis any more than he could stop the Wraith from needing to feed, but he could defend his people with everything he had. If that meant appearing a little too fascinated by firepower on occasion, he'd live with it.