"You were communicating with it, you could have asked if it was human," Rodney pointed out in exasperation.
"Well, yeah, but that seemed kind of rude. Get ready, I'll be there in a minute."
He lifted the jumper up to a low hover, then took it through a decorously slow turn and back toward the pit. The sensors informed him the ground was stable, confirming that there was some kind of stone construction buried under the dirt. He set her down close to the edge of the steps and opened the ramp. It was going to take the jumper some time to re-pressurize, so he rapidly changed out his own air bottle, then loaded a pack with spares. He carried it down to the shaft and lowered it with the rope. And since there was no point in doing it the hard way again, he got the collapsible chain-link ladder out, secured it to the ramp, and dropped it down the shaft.
Teyla came up first, moving immediately to the edge of the pit to keep watch. "He is still standing in the hatchway, watching us," she reported quietly as John gave Rodney a hand up out of the shaft.
"Good," Rodney said, heading toward Teyla and ducking to keep his head down. "If there's only one of them in that thing, then no one is inside powering up weapons."
John had thought of that too, but they were still at their most vulnerable right now. Leaning down to help Miko over the edge of the shaft, John said, "Rodney, just get in the damn jumper."
Radek made it to the top, sweating and nervous, with an impassive Ronon right behind him. John sent Radek into the jumper after Miko, and he and Ronon hurriedly dragged the ladder up. Getting everybody into the jumper and closing the ramp didn't make him feel any more secure.
As the jumper re-pressurized the compartment, John dropped his pack and went forward to the cockpit. The others were already crowded inside, looking out the port at the other ship, Miko in the shotgun seat with Teyla and Zelenka standing behind her, craning to see. John moved Rodney out of the way so he could sit down in the pilot's seat, and Ronon ducked in, standing in the hatchway. They had a good view of the other ship, still sitting quietly in the sand near the jumper's previous position. The occupant had vanished.
"He went inside when you closed the ramp," Miko reported, flushed with excitement. She was holding one of the video cameras, aiming out the port. John was glad somebody had remembered to take DV of the ship.
The HUD was cycling through different sensor screens and Rodney shook his head, his mouth twisted. "We're not getting much data. I don't think it's an energy shield that's blocking us. It seems to be the material of the hull itself."
John nodded decisively. He could sympathize with the jumper; he had nothing at the moment either. "Right. So what are our options here?"
"Should we not go outside and try to speak to the pilot again?" Teyla said, studying the ship intently, her brows drawn together. "He does not seem hostile."
"Not yet," Ronon contributed grimly.
John wasn't exactly an optimist about this, but he couldn't side with Ronon on that one. "No, I don't think he's hostile. Unless he was faking..I think he was scared."
"We could run away," Radek offered. Everyone turned to look at him. He shrugged eloquently. "I just wanted to put it on the table, I'm not saying we should do it."
Rodney gave him a withering look. "You know, this is why I don't bring you along on these things-" He stopped suddenly and snapped his fingers. "Wait, we're being very stupid."
`° We?"' John asked him pointedly.
Rodney sat down in the other jump seat, opening the laptop and its interface into the jumper's systems. "Well, all right, you. He's probably trying to contact us right now, that's why he went back into his ship."
"Ah." Zelenka made an annoyed gesture. "You are right."
John frowned. "But the jumper should pick that up automatically."
Intent on the interface, Rodney huffed in exasperation. "No, because its comm system has been adjusted to scan our frequencies and the range the Wraith use. If he's broadcasting in a different range, which he probably is-" He went still, his face transfixed, one hand going to his headset. "It's there. This is… It's an Ancient frequency." He tapped the keypad hurriedly and the transmission filled the cockpit.
It was the light hesitant voice John had heard earlier, still tinny and now distorted by bursts of static."…of the Eidolon ship.. hear me? Are you there?"
"Interference from the Mirror is causing the disruptions," Zelenka whispered.
"Did he say Eidolon?" John glanced back at Teyla and Ronon. "Anybody heard that before?"
"Never," Teyla said, frustrated. "And I could not tell if he is saying he is the Eidolon ship, or he thinks we are." Ronon shook his head, shrugging.
John chewed his lower lip, eyeing the controls. "Yeah, I didn't get that either."
Rodney was making frantic motions at John. "Will you answer him?"
"Okay, okay." John opened the channel, cleared his throat, and said, "We're here. Sorry about that. Uh, we… forgot that we didn't have the radio on."
Rodney glared and said furiously, "Excuse me! You're making us sound like idiots. What are you going to tell him next, that we startle easily because things try to eat us a lot-"
John glared back. "Do you want to do this? Then shut up.
"Dr. McKay, Colonel!" Miko pointed urgently at the comm readout. "He can hear us."
Crap, John thought, staring at the comm panel.
The voice corrected carefully, "I'm female."
"Oh." Miko bit her lip in embarrassment. "Sorry."
John mouthed the words, "Everybody, quiet. Especially Rodney." He said aloud, "Sorry about that, again. We're peaceful explorers, and, uh-" They weren't telling anyone that they were from Atlantis anymore, hoping to keep from spreading the information that the city hadn't self-destructed. Necessary, but it had made quite a hole in the standard "we come in peace, let's not try to kill each other" speech. Trying to get some idea whether he was talking to a human or not, he said, "We've never seen a ship like yours before. Is Eidolon the planet you come from?"
"No, I'm not from…here." There was a static-filled hesitation, then the voice blurted, "I came to this plane of existence through the Quantum Mirror."
There was a collective gasp from the others and Rodney pounded on the back of John's chair. "Okay," John said slowly, stalling. The first question that occurred to him was "was that really a good idea?" but he managed to keep that one to himself. He said, "Why?" Though if she was the scout for an invasion force, she probably wouldn't come out and say so.
"I was with my line studying the-" There was another burst of static and John thought he heard"…no alien races but I believe that…." more static, then"…common ancestor."
Rodney was now doing some kind of little dance behind him. John said carefully, "Say again? What was that last part?"
There was an edge of desperation in the voice. "I said, I believe we share a common ancestor. We call them the Creators. They originated much of our technology, including many things we still do not understand fully, like the Mirror." Holy crap, John thought. If that's true He was aware of Miko bouncing in her seat, Teyla lifting her brows in astonishment and Rodney and Radek having some sort of fervent sign language "I told you so" thing. The voice was continuing, "I didn't intend to come here. I was col lecting data from the Mirror. There is a similar complex around it in my reality, a ruin of the Creators' civilization, and my research-" static fuzzed out a few words "-exploring it. The Mirror activated suddenly and my ship was pulled through. I tried to return, but the Mirror on this side seems to be more damaged, more unstable." There was another hesitation. "I am alone here and…I need help."
"Oh, yeah, apparently you have to watch that. Quantum Mirrors suck people in suddenly." John looked up to see even Teyla making urgent "get on with it" motions. "What kind of help do you need? Besides, obviously, you'd like to get back home."