Sheppard looked at him with some concern. “I think we’re all a little short on sleep, Rodney,” he said. “Try to spend some quality time with your pillow when you can.”
McKay was about to fire off a sarcastic comment when there was a sudden squawk from behind him.
“Oh God, not now…” he moaned, and turned back to the array of electronics in the rear of the bay. If a component was about to fail, he wouldn’t be responsible for his actions. He quickly scanned the diagnostic read-outs. “I don’t believe it…”
Sheppard ran back up the exit ramp. “What is it?”
“The gate was opened!” McKay looked down the list of data on the screen with mounting disbelief. “We’ve just had a communication from Atlantis.”
Ronon felt his heartbeat return to normal. The fear was over, and the oppressive cold had returned. He kept his gun by his side. Imperfect as it was, it was still his only defense.
The low and winding tunnels were cramping his long limbs. They’d followed the course of the tunnel they’d been driven into by the Banshee, and it was just as long and circuitous as all the rest. Every so often the rock ceiling would rise a little, but it was never enough to allow him to stand at his full height, and the malevolent ice shimmered in the candlelight, mocking their attempts to escape the labyrinth.
Despite himself, he was beginning to lose hope. Dying here would be a bad way to go, locked in a freezing maze of narrow tunnels, far from the sunlight. How long would their bodies lay undisturbed in the ice, before the next band of foolish explorers stumbled across them? It was a ghoulish image.
In the dim candlelight, Orand looked worried. Sensing he was being watched, he glanced over at Ronon.
“I’m sorry, big man,” he said. “This was meant to be a hunt like all the others. I’ve brought you into danger.”
Ronon shook his head to dismiss the young man’s concern. “I’ve been in worse places. Got outta them too.”
Orand looked over his shoulder, back into the impenetrable darkness of the underground kingdom. “Perhaps we should have tried to ascend the crevasse you came down. I thought — ”
“Orand!” The nervous cry came from up ahead, echoing down the narrow tunnel. Ronon raised his gun instinctively, even though it had proved useless against the Banshee earlier. “There’s a light.”
Ronon turned and saw a slight, almost imperceptible lightening up ahead. At last!
Pushing forward through the ranks of the other hunters, Ronon and Orand arrived at the front of the party. Lapraik was waiting for them.
“There’s something up ahead,” he said. His voice was a curious mixture of apprehension and relief.
“Let’s take a look,” said Orand. “Ronon?”
He answered only with a nod and together they walked on, stepping carefully over the treacherous ground. The ceiling was lifting slightly and with every step a faint bluish glow became stronger. After just a few yards, it was even possible to make out the surface of the walls around them without the aid of the candles.
“What’s this?” whispered Ronon.
“No idea,” Orand said. “Looks like sunlight filtered through ice, but we’re a long way down.”
They pressed on and the light continued to grow. The tunnel snaked back on itself a couple of times, and then resolved into a smooth, straight course ahead. Ronon was able to stand up fully for the first time in hours. Despite his fatigue, the chance to stretch his muscles was a massive relief. He began to walk more easily, and the pain in his joints ebbed.
Ahead of them, the blue light had grown fierce. After so long in the perpetual gloom, Ronon’s eyes watered as he looked at it. The tunnel plunged steeply toward it, the rock smooth and even — as if it had been worn by running water in the distant past.
“Guess that’s where we’re going,” Ronon said.
Black ice underfoot made the sloping tunnel treacherous. Behind them, several hunters stumbled and slipped, and their muffled curses echoed against the rock and ice. Ronon missed his footing a couple of times, and at one point nearly fell; he was tired, they all were.
“It’s a doorway,” whispered Orand as they neared the light. Ronon came up alongside him and saw that Orand was right. There was a man-made object in front of them. The significance wasn’t lost on the hunters.
Orand turned to Ronon, torn between relief and fear. “We’ve got to go on,” he said. “One way or another, this is the end of our journey.”
Chapter Twelve
McKay frowned as he read. Unbelievably, Atlantis had managed to send something through.
Sheppard stiffened. “Why’d they wait so long?”
There was a lot in the transmission and idiot questions weren’t helpful. “Steady. Let me read it already.”
McKay scanned a few more lines. This was Zelenka’s work. He began to see what was going on. “OK, OK,” he said to himself, feeling the pieces of the puzzle begin to slot into place. “Do you remember the big Wraith attack, the one where we thought we were all going to die?”
“Which one?” asked Sheppard.
McKay ignored him. “You’ll remember that we didn’t have enough power to send real objects through the intergalactic link,” he said, his mind working rapidly. “That was purely a power issue: the network was fully intact. Zelenka’s done something similar. A databurst. It’s just coming across the screen now and the Jumper’s storing it in memory.”
“Good thing you got it working, then.”
“Perfect timing, yes,” said McKay. “More importantly, there’s some data in here about our predicament. Radek thinks that our nasty little experience in the wormhole was an anomaly caused by a power outage. Apparently, this node within the gate network has some rather intriguing properties. The extreme power demands mean that we can’t make it back with a standard Jumper. In fact, we never ought to have attempted it. The fact we got through was more dumb luck that anything else.”
Sheppard looked awkward. “Dumb luck, eh?” he said. “Just how dumb?”
“Oh, sweet mother of molecules,” said McKay. “And I really hate this. According to Zelenka, the chamber we discovered was a laboratory for some new kind of power module. Without this in place, there’s no hope for us getting back.”
“Hey, you were gonna hold back on the bad news. Anything on the positive side?”
“Depends on how crazy you think Zelenka is.”
“Try me.”
“He reckons we can construct a suitable module from equipment on the Jumper. That’s what the databurst is: a set of schematics. Apparently, he’s managed to make one on Atlantis. Good for him. He’ll no doubt want to boast about that when we get back. If there’s anything — anything — I can’t stand, it’s arrogance.”
“Yeah, I’ve always liked that about you.”
“Anyway,” McKay continued, “that potentially solves one of our problems. If we can construct the module, we can get back through the wormhole. In theory. That’s the good news.”
“There you go again with the bad news…”
“If I’m right,” said McKay, “and I’m very seldom not, then Zelenka’s little databurst will have finished off any residual power in the Stargate. Frankly, having seen it up close, I’m amazed there was anything left in the reserve at all. He must have gambled that we’d be able to make use of his information even without a working gate. I’m not ashamed to admit that I’ve absolutely no idea how to get enough juice to it again. We know that it can’t draw power from the Atlantis end, and I’m guessing that buffalo oil won’t quite do the trick.”
Sheppard brightened up. “Yeah, but we’re getting there, right?” he said. “I find the others, you get this thing working, and we’ll be home and dry.”
McKay felt a flare of deep-seated irritation. “Hardly,” he snapped. “Radek couldn’t have known this, but half the equipment he’s used I already pulled out of their sockets on the way over. He’s created this magical module in the Jumper bay with a team of support staff and a whole bank of diagnostic equipment. I’m going to have to do the whole thing with a few rolls of duct-tape and a hair-dryer.”