John shook his head with a grimace. Crap. I knew this was going to happen. Teyla's face hardened and she threw a grim look at John. Rodney threw his arms in the air in exasperation, saying, "Well, that limits your options, doesn't it? I told you they would want this ship, and they're going to want to know where you got it. Believe me, you won't like the way they ask the questions!" He added with bitter emphasis, "And if you don't let us go now, you might as well kill us yourself."
John snorted derisively to himself, thinking there wasn't a chance in hell of that. So it caught him completely by surprise when Trishen said, "I'll let you go, but listen to me first." She hesitated, shook her head a little. "I could take this shuttle, leave this system, but it isn't meant for long-range trips, and I know I have nowhere to go." She looked at Rodney, intent and desperate. "You told me you thought you could make the Mirror functional. If you agree to do that, or at least to try, I'll agree to destroy my base ship, so there is no possibility the Wraith will get its technology. If the Mirror can be activated, I'll take this shuttle back to my reality, and then you'll be free to do what you like to the Mirror."
Teyla lifted her brows, startled. Rodney stared at Trishen, so taken aback it was obvious he hadn't really expected her to give in either. He said, "Wait, that… sounds reasonable. That would work for us." He looked at John. "Right?"
John just really hoped this wasn't a trick, because otherwise he didn't see what the hell they were going to do. He asked Trishen, "What if he can't fix it?"
"Oh, fine!" Rodney objected, turning to John in outrage. "Let's cast doubt on my abilities right now! That'll help!"
Trishen shook her head impatiently. "I understand it may be impossible to make it operate again. I won't try to stop you from destabilizing it, if it comes to that. I'm trusting you to just give me a chance." She hesitated nervously. "I'm also trusting you not to kill me."
"Yeah, we're trusting you about that, too," John felt he had to point out. If the only thing she really wanted was to get back to her home reality, then this had half a chance of working. He threw a look at Teyla, got a sharp nod in reply. Rodney was making get on with it gestures. John said, "You've got a deal."
Trishen nodded tightly, and touched a control on her wristband. John saw the force shield shimmer. He moved forward, waved a hand to make sure it was really gone, then stepped through. Trishen backed away hastily, all the way to the far wall, which was fine with him. He said, "Where's our weapons?"
"In that cabinet." She pointed and he headed for it. The door was dark metal, thin and pleated into tiny ridges, almost like fabric. She began, "I have to unlock-" But when John touched it, the door slid open. She laughed a little, sounding startled rather than amused. "You really are descended from the Creators."
John didn't bother to reply, hauling out the P-90 that lay atop the pile and taking rapid inventory of the rest. Only one pistol, still holstered in Teyla's gun belt, but all three of their tac vests were there, Rodney's pack, and the SCBAs.
Rodney said, "It was set to respond only to the Ancient gene? Colonel Sheppard is a natural carrier, I have it artificially." He added, "What?" when John shoved his pack at him with a meaningful glare.
"We don't have time to chat." John handed Teyla her gun belt and tac vest and rapidly checked the P-90, making sure it hadn't been damaged or tampered with. So they had a temporary deal; he didn't want to give Trishen any more intel on them than they absolutely had to.
"We have no other weapons?" Teyla asked, buckling on her gun belt as she kept one eye on Trishen.
"That's it. At least we've got plenty of ammo." John pulled on his vest, clipping the P-90 to it, thinking, so far so good. He found a stray headset caught in the velcro on the vest and hooked it over his ear, switching the base unit on. He winced at the roar of static he got in response. He looked at Trishen, who was still watching them nervously. "We'll have to use your comm system to call our ship."
Rodney had torn open his pack, muttering a quick inventory of the contents. "Yes, I'm going to need Radek and Miko to work on this too, but first things first." He turned to Trishen. "Does the base ship have a selfdestruct?"
She shook her head. "No, it's a research vessel, there was no need for one. I was going to overload the drive. Should we-"
Rodney held up a finger. "First, I'll need to convert your shields to a cloak. The Wraith scout ship won't detect the shuttle's lift off, and when the base ship is destroyed, they'll assume everything went with it. Hopefully any Wraith on the ground close enough to notice the shuttle's sudden disappearance won't survive the explosion."
Trishen nodded, starting out of the compartment. "Yes, that's an excellent strategy."
Following her, Rodney's mouth twisted in grim amusement. "We've had some success with it in the past."
She led the way down the passage, past two other small compartments. The shuttle was filled with weird semi-organic devices, in colors from black to purple to pink. John had to admit, disturbing as the organic part was, it didn't look like a Wraith ship. But then the lack of webbing and skeletons and cocooned captives made a big impact.
Trishen stepped into a semi-circular cabin filled with the organic control consoles. Several round holographic displays floated in the air, most of them data readouts. She pointed to one of the consoles. "These are the controls for the shields. Can you-"
"Yes." Rodney studied the rapidly shifting display floating above it, and touched a few of the colored pads. "It's extremely similar to At-" Rodney turned the word into a cough, and finished hurriedly, "To shield consoles I've seen before. It should only take a few minutes."
Teyla kept her expression perfectly neutral and John rubbed the bridge of his nose, thinking that was close. Trishen's version of the Pegasus Galaxy wasn't likely to have an Atlantis, unless the Ancients had built one there, but the name might have appeared in their history somewhere. Even if the Mirror was destroyed, John just didn't want to send Trishen home with the idea that there was anything in this reality worth having.
But she hadn't appeared to notice Rodney's near-misstep. She nodded, saying, "Good. I've already set the drive to build up power, but I have to manually disengage the failsafes because-"
Rodney nodded, absorbed in the controls and readouts. "Because the drive is specifically designed not to do what you're trying to make it do, right. Get to it."
She hesitated. "I need to use the main console in the base ship…"
John got it. She didn't want to leave them up here alone, since Rodney was obviously capable of operating the shuttle without her help. He said, "I'll come with you.
She nodded, relieved, and started back into the passage. John followed her, Teyla with him. The passage led into a lock that apparently connected it to the base ship. It was open, but John stopped, lifting a brow.
The shuttle apparently fit into the base ship in such a way that its deck was at a right angle to the base ship's deck. The hatch was looking down the base ship's open central core; straight down, so it appeared as if they should be falling down it already. "Just step through," Trishen said, noticing his hesitation. "The artificial gravity adjusts automatically."
"Okay," John said, figuring he had a fifty-fifty chance of breaking his neck. He stepped through and suddenly found himself standing on the small stair platform, clinging to the railing.
Teyla lifted her brows. "That is clever."
"Yeah." John grimaced, waited until Trishen had stepped through, and gave Teyla a signal to guard the hatch area. She nodded and he followed Trishen down the stairs that spiraled around the core area.
Compartments opened off the platforms on each level, much like the shuttle, only on a slightly larger scale. John realized he could hear a high-pitched buzz from below. Trishen had said the other Wraith were trying to break in. "Is that from the outer hatch?"