Teyla kept an eye on their six, saying sourly, "At least I can sense them now that they are not in Trishen's ship."
"It's still only an assumption that they came from her ship," Rodney corrected her sharply. "If they have some kind of advanced shielding now that our sensors can't penetrate, they could have been concealed anywhere-" He stared at John, appalled. "They could have already found the jumper. That ship has sensors that can penetrate the jumper's cloak-"
Still trying his radio and getting nothing but static, John shook his head. "They had time to get away." He didn't want to say anymore, because it was all too frigging possible the Wraith had found the others.
His eyes on the detector again, Rodney reported, "They're turning down this passage." His voice was urgent. "We need to-"
"Yeah." John increased his pace to a fast jog.
A short distance up ahead the corridor took an abrupt turn, ending in a triangular hatch. John stepped back to the corner to cover the passage behind them, while Rodney hurriedly wrenched off the wall console and Teyla watched the door. Rodney said in frustration, "And how the hell do they know we came this way? As far as we know, they don't have bio-sensors this exact and they can't use the Ancient devices-"
"The corridor floor was covered with sand," Teyla pointed out, her voice grim as she kept a wary eye on the door. "Our tracks led them to us."
John flicked off the P-90's light before he risked a look back down the passage. He could hear a faint scraping that might be footsteps. "Now would be good, Rodney," he whispered harshly.
"No, really?" Rodney snapped, "I thought we'd just stand around here and wait forGot it," and the doors were sliding open, releasing a rush of air.
In another moment they were through the hatch, with the doors sealed safely behind them. Rodney pulled two of the crystals from the wall console on this side and tucked them into a vest pocket. "That should hold them for…a minute or so, anyway."
"That's all we need," John said, flashing his light around. It glinted off cool blue stone and embossed metal. They were in a large foyer, with three open corridors heading off in different directions. Teyla shone her light across the floor. No sand, so they wouldn't leave tracks. This section was pressurized and the seals must have kept out the dust and dirt. The Wraith would be expecting them to head for the outer edge of the installation, toward the jumper's last position, so John picked the corridor leading back toward the inner ring and Mirror platform. "This way."
They started down the new corridor, and not far along they were rewarded with another set of branching passages. His eyes on the life signs detector, Rodney said in relief, "We're good. They picked the wrong corridor." As if in response, a low vibration trembled through the floor; the Mirror was still dangerously active. "They might be doing something that's setting off that interference," Rodney added with a grimace. "If they have darts or another ship close enough to affect the Mirror's nimbus, it could be causing those energy bursts."
Teyla said reluctantly, "There may have already been another Wraith ship in position to attack the jumper. Once we entered Trishen's ship, the trap would have been sprung."
"Yes, but the problem is that the trap wasn't sprung," Rodney bit the words out. "Why didn't she lock the hatch before she showed us what she was? It doesn't make sense! If she had just left her helmet on, she could have kept us there, out of radio contact, with no chance to warn the jumper until the attack was over." He waved his free hand, warming to his point. "Trust me on this one, if Miko was in a dogfight with darts or Ronon was manfully wrestling drones in the rear cabin, Radek would have mentioned it!"
"I don't know," John said, teeth gritted. The radio was still picking up nothing but static. "You said that data wasn't fake. If these Wraith got that ship and that shielding technology from some place they went to through the Mirror-"
"Maybe." Rodney shook his head, frustrated. "I still think we could actually be dealing with Wraith from another reality."
"I believe you are right," Teyla told him. "She did seem different. And it is strange that she gave us a name. I did not believe they had names, even among themselves."
"But it doesn't matter which reality they came from." Rodney's face was grim, his mouth a hard line. "We have to shut this Mirror down permanently, now. Even if it destroys this entire installation in the process."
John exchanged a look with Teyla, just in time to see a flicker of hope in her eyes. If this new technology spread to all the other Wraith… That wasn't an option. They couldn't let it be an option. "What do you need?"
"I don't know yet…" His expression intent, Rodney dug into one of the pockets of his tac vest, pulling out the camera he had used to record Trishen's data display. "But this might tell me."
Rodney needed a place to concentrate with a little less threat of imminent painful life-sucking death. He would have preferred his main lab at Atlantis, but that not being available, he settled for following Sheppard and Teyla further up into this section of the installation.
A short distance down the passage they found a stairwell and went up a couple of levels, further away from the area the Wraith were searching. The power was fluctuating all through this section, lights blinking out at random, doors wedged partly open, drafts where bursts of recycled air came out of broken vents. Now that Rodney knew that Trishen might be monitoring the security system, he set his equipment to scan for the video signals. But fortunately the system didn't seem to be active here.
Sheppard found an empty lab where most of the vents were working, providing enough air to let them turn off their SCBAs and save the tanks. Rodney sat down on a broken stone plinth and said, "Don't talk to me." He ignored Sheppard's eye roll, got the camera out, and started reviewing the playback and the data downloaded to his tablet. Sheppard and Teyla took up guard positions on the door, and Sheppard tried to raise the jumper again.
The static on the radio seemed to be dying down, but Sheppard still couldn't get any response. Rodney swal lowed in a dry throat, put that out of his mind, and tried to concentrate.
At one point, Sheppard showed the life signs detector screen to Teyla, telling her, "The interference keeps messing with the signal, but it looks like the Wraith are leaving this section, heading in toward the Mirror platform."
She frowned. "Perhaps they are going to Trishen's ship. But I wonder why."
"Maybe they're having a meeting," Sheppard said. He sounded sarcastic, but then everything Sheppard said sounded sarcastic, even things like "pass the salt," and Rodney had always put it down as an unintentional byproduct resulting from the combination of his unidentifiable accent and his slacker attitude. Sheppard seemed completely unaware of it, though it probably explained the recurring problems with his military career. And of course, the damn Mirror could pick now to have one of its catastrophic discharges and wipe out the Wraith on the platform, but Rodney knew their luck didn't run that way, and if the Mirror was going to kill anybody that way it would be them.
Then his headset crackled and Rodney heard a babble of familiar voices. Startled, he looked up as Sheppard hurriedly keyed his radio, saying, "Jumper One, please respond. This is Sheppard."
Over the rush of static, Rodney heard Zelenka saying, "Colonel! Such a relief to hear your voice!"
Rodney felt the tightness in his chest unclench just a little. The Wraith hadn't found the jumper. So far, despite the Mirror, the Wraith, and what was apparently a group inclination for suicidal behavior, they had all managed not to get killed. He went back to verifying the direc tional indicator on that elusive power signature that kept reappearing in the data. "You too," Sheppard replied to Zelenka, exchanging a look of relief with Teyla. "What's your situation?"