"They are responsible for the turmoil on this world!" Teyla shouted back. "They will make for the gate. We can attempt to cut them off."
Ronon fired one final blast at the retreating raiders, watching it deflect off the hull of their craft, and turned to sprint up the hillside. Teyla and the Marines followed in close pursuit, the scientists and Nistra guards lagging behind.
The incline was long, and Teyla's lungs began to burn as she pushed onward. However, the raiders must have required some time to power up their ship. The Stargate was already coming into view at the top of the hill by the time she heard the whine of engines overhead. The ship swept past and swung around in a wide arc to face the gate, which soon whirred to life.
"They have an… onboard dialer," Rodney panted from somewhere behind her, sounding impressed and winded. "Where the hell…'d they get that?"
Through illicit means, no doubt. More significant in Teyla's mind was the fact that the ship itself did not appear to be armed. Quite a fortunate state of affairs. Waiting until a familiar rush of noise accompanied the engagement of the gate, she dashed out between the craft and its destination, pointed her borrowed handgun at one engine, and fired multiple shots.
No effect from the small weapon was noticeable. The Nistra guards swung their whips in vain, unable to reach their target. The ship remained airborne, flying directly over their heads toward the event horizon only a few paces away. As it did so, one of the raiders opened a hatch and threw something out onto the ground.
The ship vanished through the gate, just as she heard a horrified shout from John. "Teyla-get out of there!"
She had no time to wonder where he had come from, because Ronon slammed into her from the side without warning. A great explosion lifted her off her feet, and then she knew nothing more.
John had acted against instinct when he'd sent Teyla to investigate the fragmented radio call rather than go himself. While he trusted her implicitly and in no way believed her incapable, the responsibility was his. He'd let the political niceties of the situation sway his judgment, though, worried that offending their hosts might risk their access to the technology and materials on this planet.
He regretted the decision almost exactly ten minutes later, when another brief radio transmission broke through: static peppered with the unmistakable sounds of gunfire.
Out of his chair in a split-second, he waved Lorne back when the Major moved with him. "Stick to Dr. Weir no matter what," he ordered in a low voice. "She might need a bodyguard after all."
"Understood, sir."
Throwing Elizabeth an apologetic look over his shoulder, John headed for the stairs. "Everybody stay down here, out of sight."
Demands and accusations flared up in his wake. He ignored the raised voices, taking the steps two at a time and mentally kicking his own ass the entire way. What kind of idiot lets himself be out of contact with his team on a planet two steps away from declaring war?
As soon as he reached the surface, he was confronted by a chaotic mass of noise. Most of the sounds he could isolate and identify: P-90s on automatic, along with a 9-mil and Ronon's blaster. And something else. Not a jumper, but close. All of it seemed to be coming from the gate area.
Hustling up the slope, he keyed his radio. "Somebody want to give me a sit-rep?"
Surprisingly, it was a wheezing Rodney, not one of the Marines, who answered. "Had a visit… from some raiders.
Okay, that was well and truly confusing. "Why aren't you still in the labs?"
"Second entrance. Tell you later. Get up here."
For once, John had no objection to being told what to do. He picked up his pace, finally arriving at the gate in time to see a ship screaming toward the event horizon. Teyla, Ronon, and the Marines fired volley after volley at the craft as it passed, with no luck.
A small, round object fell to the ground just before the ship was swallowed up by the puddle, rolling to a stop only a few yards from where Teyla and the Nistra guards stood.
Recognition, immediate and awful, stopped John cold. "Teyla!" he yelled. "Get out of there!"
Ronon must have realized what it was at almost the same moment, because he raced toward her. Before he could shove her out of the way, the grenade detonated.
The shock wave was strong enough that it knocked John flat from thirty yards away. By the time he was able to push himself upright, the ringing in his ears slowly subsiding, he saw that the wormhole had snapped shut, almost as if cut off by the blast itself. A rough circle of grass in front of the gate had been blackened, and on its perimeter lay the scorched, broken bodies of the two Nistra guards, clearly beyond help.
There was no sign of Teyla or Ronon.
"What the hell just happened?" he demanded.
A couple of the Marines had been caught in the periphery of the blast as well. Thankfully, they were in better health than the Nistra and their clothing had offered them more protection. Sergeant Ellis went to assist Corporal Adams with his leg wound, while Rodney and two shellshocked engineers stood nearby, staring at the now-silent gate.
"Rodney!" John strode forward and grabbed his friend's arm. "What happened?"
After a pause, Rodney blinked and turned to him with stunned eyes. "The explosion," he said dully. "It propelled them through the event horizon just before the gate shut down."
John wasn't sure how close Ronon and Teyla had been to the grenade. There was a chance they might not be too badly injured-wherever they were. "Did you see what address the raiders used?"
"Yes, but-"
"But nothing. If we know the address, we can go after them. You memorized it, didn't you?"
The subtle challenge brought Rodney swiftly back to his usual form. "Of course I did," he snapped. "I also observed that the grenade had a surprisingly strong concussive effect on the wormhole, and there's really nothing good that can come of such effects." He hurried over to the DHD, fumbling in his pocket for a scanner. "I need to check the transit data against some historical files back on Atlantis before we go charging off on a rescue."
"Fine. As long as we make it quick. We don't know how much time they've got." If any, he refused to say aloud. He'd be damned if he was going to write off half his team.
"Colonel, report." Elizabeth's voice came through the radio.
So much for her staying put in the underground facility. "I thought I said-"
"We're in the ruins, which still qualifies as `out of sight.' I think you can understand why I needed to use the radio. What's going on?"
John couldn't blame her for wanting answers. "There was a raider attack," he said curtly. "They escaped in a ship through the gate. Ronon and Teyla accidentally ended up going through with them."
"Damn," she said quietly.
"It gets worse. The Falnori and Nistra guards that were left at the gate are dead. All of them."
He heard her intake of breath and the outraged reactions of Cestan and Galven in the background. "What's your plan?"
Good question. Scanning the remains of the Atlantis group, John replied, "McKay, Wen, and Kendall are with us-apparently there's another way out of the facility, and the raiders were using it. I'm going to take them and head home. Rodney's got the gate address the raiders used so we can go after our people. A couple of my guys are a little banged up, so we'll take them back with us and send you some reinforcements. Assuming you want to continue the talks."
"I think I have to try. Especially now that there have been fatalities… this is going to make things substantially harder."
"Yeah, I'll bet." Afraid to waste too much time, he added, "We'd better get going. We'll check in as soon as we know something."
"All right. Good luck."
Hurrying over to the injured Marines, John bent down and slung Corporal Pratt's arm across his shoulders. "Help Adams," he told the engineers, jarring them into action at last. "Rodney, dial the gate."