The raider's reply was indifferent. "We never hold onto the ore for long. Once payment's been received, I don't know or care what anyone does with it."
Nice. "That's a beautiful sentiment. Really. I'm all choked up." John did another slow lap around the outside of the cell, forcing Sekal to twist around to keep him in view. "How did you find the second gate on the planet?"
"We stumbled upon it some time ago during a visit but found that it had no dialing device. Fortunately, some of our business associates in another system were able to aid us in procuring something suitable for the purpose." Sekal smiled, clearly trying to hold onto a semblance of leverage through attitude alone. "Once we confirmed the manner in which two gates operate under the same address, we could use our device to override the planet's main dialer. The additional gate became a great asset. The miners certainly haven't figured out our methods. I don't think many of them have even recognized the fact that there's a large ring under all the plant growth in those ruins.
"They're pretty aware of being robbed blind," John pointed out, dropping the wry humor from his tone. His patience had limits, and Ronon's posture suggested that this was getting old even faster for him. "Do you have any idea what kind of rift you've opened up on that planet? The Falnori are convinced that it's the Nistra who've been raiding them, and vice versa. They're about to go to war over your actions."
Seeing that his captors were getting rattled, Sekal seemed to gain confidence. "We're not responsible," he replied airily, "for the misconceptions of the foolish."
With a growl, Ronon slammed both hands into the bars separating him from the prisoner. When he reached for the cell's locking mechanism, John had to intercede, hurrying over to grab his teammate's shoulder. "Hey! No beat-downs. Even if he is scum."
"They're not foolish," Ronon snarled at Sekal, who'd managed to fold himself into a compact package in a corner of the cell. "They're kind and honorable people. Unlike yours-loyal to nothing except your own fortunes."
If nothing else, John had to give the raider credit for guts. Recovering somewhat, Sekal remarked, "We've found it to be the most beneficial ideology around."
"Where are you based?" Ronon demanded. "What planet?"
Sekal stretched his legs out in front of him and regarded them coolly. In place of an answer, he said, "I could be persuaded to convince the rest of the Cadre to leave your friends the Nistra and Falnori alone. I have little doubt that this city of yours contains enough wealth to pay the fee."
John had seen The Godfather plenty of times and recognized a protection racket when he saw one. After pretending to consider the offer for approximately half a second, he turned to Ronon. "I changed my mind. Have fun.
The gasp from inside as he unlocked the cell shouldn't have been satisfying, but it was.
Before Ronon could advance, a voice from the corridor halted them. "Ronon, Colonel." Teyla entered the room, taking in the cowering Sekal and her teammates with raised eyebrows.
"You're back," John greeted her. "Ronon was in the process of scaring the crap out of this guy. Right, buddy?"
Ronon paused, stepped back from the cell's entrance, and relocked the door. "Right."
"I approve. He deserves that and more." Teyla's gaze remained steady. "Since he may still prove useful later, though, I wanted to make sure that someone was here to fill the role of the `good cop."'
John thought about objecting to her implication. He decided against it when he couldn't be sure at what point he would have stopped Ronon from attacking this time around. "All right, we've got things to discuss. Let's go up to the briefing room." Facing the raider, who was now officially intimidated, he said, "Remember, your deal depends on me liking what you have to say. So far, I don't. We'll try again later. Enjoy your day."
On the way to the briefing room, he called Rodney, who managed to get there before the rest of them. The scientist was scribbling restlessly on a datapad when they entered. "So we need a plan regarding 418," John stated without preamble, sitting down in his usual chair. "The raiders are an independent third party, but somehow I don't think either Cestan or Galven will suddenly decide to believe us if we tell them that. They've spent far too long building up a hatred for each other to let it go so easily."
"Since the adarite influence is so widespread among the Nistra, their collective knowledge may be as weak as their individual memories," Teyla said. "And the Stargate within their territory was very obscured by foliage overgrowth. We should find out if Minister Galven is even aware of its existence."
"More than that." Ronon paced along one wall of the room. "We need to find a way to keep the Cadre from using that gate."
At the comment, Rodney glanced up from his datapad with a wary expression. "This is starting to feel suspiciously like one of those moments wherein I'm asked to do something that treads the fine line of sanity. For instance, manufacturing a gate shield out of thin air."
Now that he mentioned it, a gate shield sounded like a pretty good idea. John looked at him at the same time the others did, and Rodney recoiled under their scrutiny. "Did everyone miss the derision attached to that statement?"
Teyla didn't hesitate before speaking. "Ronon and I are indebted to the Nistra. The hunting circle did not have to take us in, yet they did."
"We could have been raiders, for all they knew. They trusted us when we said we weren't." Ronon stopped his aimless walking and leaned forward over a chair. "I don't remember much, but I remember that."
"Then let's take care of their problem by removing the gate entirely." Rodney waggled the datapad in his hand. "I did the distance calculation. Once the Daedalus returns, it could get to 418 in a couple of days. We can remove the second gate to use as part of our bridge back to the Milky Way."
"Elizabeth said that Galven and Cestan were arguing about gate access, though," John reminded him. "If we can make the second gate functional, they'd have two gates for two societies, and that'd solve that problem."
"While that's a laudable goal, it's not something we can achieve in a reasonable time frame." Rodney blew out a frustrated breath. "None of the gates we've harvested so far for the galactic bridge project have had operational DHDs; that's one of the reasons why they were good candidates for harvesting. If I could scrounge up enough spare parts to put together a DHD and a shield control for the the Nistra-and by no means should you take that as a promise that such a thing is possible-it would take weeks. From what we're hearing about the negotiations, the Falnori and Nistra are going to be killing each other long before that."
John realized he was drumming restless fingers on the tabletop and stilled his hand. Looking at Teyla and Ronon, he asked, "Are you sure there was absolutely nothing in that wreckage that could have been the remains of a DHD?"
"I am sure of very little from our visit," Teyla replied honestly. "We searched the area, but we did not have specialized equipment."
"We could take a jumper through that gate, scan the area with its sensors, and use the onboard dialer to get back." John turned toward Rodney. "Couldn't we?"
"Yes, no, and yes." Rodney rolled his eyes. "The energy emitted from adarite disrupts Ancient sensors, remember? Based on our limited testing, it doesn't affect the power sources used by other Ancient technology, such as the jumper's propulsion system. If you gave me a couple of hours to bend Jumper One's dialing computer to my will, I could force a DHD override and make sure we can arrive via the Nistra gate the way the Cadre did, but we'd have to land and use Earth-built equipment to perform any kind of search."