Ronon sneered. "Their supplies."
Caras stared at him, uncomprehending, and Ronon didn't elaborate.
Kethel frowned down at the console, his hands flat against the surface. From his expression, the news wasn't good. John knew the Wraith systems weren't anything like the Ancients' or what he had seen of the Eidolon's. The interfaces weren't touchpads or buttons, but thin membranes that the Wraith apparently manipulated by passing their hands over them. John asked, "Any luck?"
Kethel shook his head, wiping his hands off on his coat, as if disgusted by the contact. "It's not responding to me. If I had time-"
The blips John could see were starting to move rapidly. "No time, we've got to get down there." He headed for the door, checked the detector again, and hit the slimy control-thing on the wall. The door membrane folded open, revealing a long curving corridor, the dark ceiling arching overhead, draped with shrouds and strands of web. As Teyla led the others out, John hung back with Ronon, pulling out a fragmentation grenade. When the others were all out in the corridor, he gave Ronon a nod and they both tossed their grenades onto the dais, Ronon landing his directly atop one of the consoles. John hit the control, closing the hatch. The muted thump from inside didn't sound destructive enough, and he asked Kethel, "Can you jam this door?"
"Yes." Kethel pulled out a tool that looked like a scalpel, slit open the bulbous control panel, and stuck his hand into it, manipulating the slimy things inside.
John figured that would slow the Wraith down, but the ship had to have alternate controls for the shields, and they had to move fast. He looked deliberately at the Eidolon, saying, "Any time you want out of here, if you get separated, cornered, whatever, just hit your transponder. If you fall behind, we're not going to have time to come back for you."
Kethel looked at Edane and Caras, giving them a sharp nod to reinforce the order. Life signs detector braced over the P-90, John headed down the corridor.
They found the first cocooned body only a few paces along, crammed back into a cubby in the wall. John glanced at it only long enough to see it was dead, withered to a husk, with the gaping wound of the feeding mark in its chest.
"What is that?" Edane asked, in what sounded like horrified fascination. He tried to stop, but Kethel took his arm and pulled him into motion again.
"What do you think it is?" Ronon countered.
John really didn't want to get into this just now. He said, "Just keep moving." They passed two more desiccated bodies webbed to the wall, then a dozen more, all dead. More passages led off the first corridor, dim and web-draped. Kethel guided them with his scanner, finding a path toward the big blot of energy signatures where the ship's drive was located. John caught some blips off the detector, but most of the Wraith seemed to be down below. His headset came on and Rodney's voice suddenly demanded, "Can you hear me?"
John flinched, startled. "Yes, dammit."
"I had to boost the gain before I could get through," Rodney explained impatiently. "Did you try the detonator again? The signal might have-"
"Tried it, didn't work. Are you in the jumper?"
There was a hesitation. "I'm near the jumper."
John swore. "Rodney-Later." John signed off, his eyes on the life signs detector. Four strong blips, coming up toward them from the lower level, moving rapidly. That's an elevator He held up a fist to signal the others to stop, ignoring the slight scuffle behind him as the Eidolon belatedly realized what that meant. Where the hell is Hah, got you. The corridor had widened a little and there was a membrane stretched across an indentation in the bulkhead.
Ronon stepped forward with John as Teyla covered the corridor. The membrane slid open, and four more surprised Wraith died in the elevator doorway. With a wary glance at the bodies, Kethel stepped forward. "The drive area is one level below."
Teyla told him, "We cannot take this elevator, they could shut it down and trap us."
John tried the detonator, just for luck, and got the error code again. Son of a bitch. He shoved it back in his pocket and checked the life signs detector. As he expected, the blips on this level were moving their way. The level below, at least in this area, still looked clear. "We need another way down, now."
Kethel nodded, eyes on his scanner. "I'm reading a maintenance passage..this way."
They found it around the corner, in another intersection of passages. It was a ribbed shaft like something's gullet, with multiple ladder rungs down the sides, leading down into a chamber lit with dim red light. John exchanged a wince with Teyla and grabbed for the first rung.
Halfway down, Rodney's voice burst into John's headset again, almost making him lose his grip on the slick material of the ladder. "The Queen says the Wraith know you're there."
"We know they know that, Rodney," John said through gritted teeth. The rungs had been spaced for adult male Wraith only, and Teyla and the two younger Eidolon were moving slowly, having to awkwardly stretch to reach them. Kethel slowed down, waiting for Edane and Caras, and John waited for Teyla, motioning Ronon to go ahead. "Rodney, what the hell are you-"
Rodney said in annoyance, "I'm entering the last codes for a pulse array adjustment. The detachment of the singularity started to accelerate, but this should-Oh, oh, that's… unusual. Hold on a minute."
Ronon climbed around John, then swung down, dropping to the bottom of the shaft and landing in a crouch. As the others caught up, John climbed down the rest of the way, remembering at the last moment not to drop the last few feet; his knee just wouldn't take it right now.
The shaft opened into a wider corridor that curved out of sight just past a couple of membrane-sealed hatchways. John pulled out the life signs detector.
Kethel checked his scanner, nodding toward the first hatchway. "It should be there-"
That was about the moment John's screen registered a dozen or more blips headed straight for them. He yelled a warning, ducking across the corridor and hitting the control to open the hatch. Ronon and Teyla moved instantly, taking cover with John in the hatchway, but the Eidolon were slow to react.
Kethel and Edane reached the hatchway just as the first group of drones burst around the corner, but Caras was still in the middle of the corridor. He took a stun blast in the face, dropping his own weapon before falling to the ground in a limp sprawl. Edane ran for him, as John and the others fired on the drones, driving them back.
Edane reached Caras, stooping to touch the transponder. The Eidolon's body vanished in a flash of blue-white light. More drones poured into the corridor, and in a moment Edane would be hit, with no one to trigger his transponder. John yelled, "Go, go! Get out of there!"
Edane looked at the drones, wide-eyed. Then he touched his transponder and vanished.
John and Teyla kept up steady bursts of fire, with Ronon using his energy gun, and the first few drones dropped. The others retreated back around the corner, a few leaning out to take shots. John had time to notice the membrane sealing the hatch still hadn't opened. "What the hell is-" John reached around, hitting the door control again, a narrow miss from a stun blast making his fingers go numb for an instant. "It's locked! Kethel-"
Kethel stepped past him, slashed open the control surface, and shoved his hand inside. John leaned out to cover him.
Abruptly the door membrane folded open. As Teyla turned to cover the room inside, a stun blast hit Kethel in the side. John made an instinctive grab for him but Kethel staggered backward, away from the hatchway, and fell, sprawling on the deck.
John stepped back into cover as more stun blasts hit the wall near him. Ronon leaned out, took several shots, and the blasts abruptly stopped. John could see Kethel wasn't unconscious, his eyes were open, but his hands were twitching helplessly. The Eidolon couldn't lift his arm to reach the transponder on his shoulder.