When they were alone, McKay turned to her. “Did you get all that? Are you thinking what I’m thinking?”
“Probably not,” she admitted. Keller found McKay’s thought processes pretty hard to keep up with, truth be told. He had this tendency to bounce from idea to idea, concept to concept, with no apparent train of logic between them. Her grandmother had called that having a ‘mind like a grasshopper’.
“That stuff he described, the ‘chariot’ and the ‘giants’? Black triangles, weird lightning, people being kidnapped, missing time experiences?” He gestured with his hands. “What, you’ve never watched an episode of The X Files?”
“We didn’t really watch the Fox Network —”
McKay kept talking. “This is a classic alien abduction scenario!”
“Take a look around, Agent Scully,” she retorted. “We are the aliens on this planet.”
Rodney shook his head. “No, no. You’d be Scully, I’d be Mulder. Anyway. That’s not important.” He tapped a finger on his lips, warming to the subject. “We should check the abductees for implants or unexplained markings on their skin…”
“You want me to look for evidence of probing, too?” Keller asked; then she chuckled without humor. “And strangely enough, that wouldn’t be the oddest thing I’ve done since coming to Atlantis.”
McKay nodded in agreement. “It’s not science fiction if you’re living in it every day —”
There was a rattle and crash from elsewhere in the house, and Jennifer heard Errian’s voice, gruff and angry. Heavy footsteps came closers, and Laaro called out her name in a warning.
McKay dove at the rattan floor where he had laid down his P90. “Jennifer, get behind me, quick!”
Her heart thudding in her chest, Keller’s eyes darted left and right, searching for an exit route and finding none. The window slats, maybe? But then she remembered they were in a mammoth tree house hundreds of feet off the ground. Maybe not.
Rodney had the gun up as the sliding door was roughly forced open on its tracks. Two locals, who had all the thuggish bearing of Takkol’s guards but none of the uniform robes or bangles, entered with a wiry man following on behind. The skinnier guy was clearly the one in charge. He had a tight cut to his hair and it had been deliberately stained yellow with some kind of earth dye.
“Where’s Laaro?” McKay demanded. “Who are you people?”
“The boy isn’t hurt,” came the reply. The man had a clear, frosty voice. “And Errian knows better than to stand in my way.” He nodded toward one of the bigger men, making the warning against such foolishness clear. None of the men seemed to be concerned that Rodney was pointing a submachine gun at them. “My name is Soonir. I want to talk.”
“About what?” said Keller.
“The Aegis. The things that Takkol refused to speak of.” He said the elder’s name like a curse word. Soonir beckoned them. “Come with me. I know you seek information, I know about your friends among the Taken. There are things you need to see.” He paused. “You may bring the weapons you carry if you feel better protected with them.”
Keller shot McKay a quick look, both of them remembering Sheppard’s clear and unequivocal order to sit tight.
“We’re not going anywhere with you,” Jennifer told him.
Soonir let out a slow, measured breath. “Ah. Now, that’s not the best reply to give me.” He stepped back, giving his men room to work. “You see, voyagers, I will not take no for an answer.”
Chapter Four
He didn’t awaken slowly; instead Ronon Dex jerked from his induced slumber as if he had been seared by fire, hissing through his teeth. He rolled from where he lay and his feet hit the metallic floor with a dull ring.
The first thing he saw was Teyla, sitting opposite him on a pallet made of spongy white material. She frowned. “Are you all right?”
Ignoring the question, he got up, taking stock of where he found himself. A small room with a low ceiling and curving walls, all arches and smooth lines. Two sleeping pallets seamlessly extruded from the floor, no windows. Diffuse, directionless light seeping in from panels in the ceiling; and an oval doorway sealed shut by a striated metal panel. A prison cell.
“How long have we been here?” he said, moving to the rear of the chamber. The Satedan’s hands ran down his tunic, his trousers, searching his pockets.
“It is difficult to be certain,” said Teyla. “I came to shortly before you did.”
He shot her a look. “You should have woken me.”
The Athosian woman gave him a wan look. “I saw little point in doing so.”
Ronon chewed his lip, his fury burning cold and slow. All his weapons and tools were gone. The gun belt hung empty at his hip, as did the numerous blade scabbards in his leggings and boots. The secret pockets in his tunic were vacant; even the needle darts in his wrist guards and the chain concealed behind his belt had been taken. At another time, he might have been impressed by the thoroughness of his captors in so completely disarming him, but instead his face set in a grimace as he weighed the thought in his mind, asking himself what it revealed. His hands contracted into fists; if they were all he had to fight with, it would have to be enough.
“They are clearly very careful,” offered Teyla, seeing the train of his thoughts.
“Not careful enough,” he rumbled. “They let us wake up.” He dropped into a crouch and ran his hand along the place where the wall met the floor. There were no signs of a weld or any manufacturing marks. The construction appeared flawless, almost as if it had been carved. Ronon began a careful circuit of the cell, probing at every part of the walls, looking for a blemish, a flaw, anything.
“I have already checked,” said the woman.
He nodded, but didn’t stop. Dex needed to look for himself, just to be certain. Presently, he came to the inset door and rapped on it with his fist. A dull report sounded. He pressed his ear to the cold metal and heard nothing. “Where did they take us?”
“We have no way of knowing how long we were unconscious,” Teyla noted.
“Had to be a few hours, at least. I’m hungry.”
“You are always hungry,” she said, forcing a thin smile.
“True,” he admitted. “And I can measure it like a clock. Less than a day.” Without warning, Ronon suddenly hauled back and slammed a punch into the door. Teyla blinked at the sound of the impact and the Satedan bared his teeth. “Not made of steel,” he hissed. “Something else.”
“One thing is certain.” Teyla gestured at the walls around them. “This place, whatever it may be, was clearly created by a science far too advanced for the locals on Heruun.”
“Those creatures,” he began, “the humanoids. I’ve never seen anything like them.” Ronon turned away, flexing his hand. “They’re not our usual breed of enemy.”
“And this cell was not built by Wraith technology.”
He eyed her. “You say that like we should be happy about it. Those things… They may not be Wraith, but they’re still a threat. ”
Teyla nodded slowly. “They must be this ‘Aegis’ that Aaren spoke of. The protectors of the planet.”
“How does kidnapping people protect them —?” Ronon’s terse retort was cut off as the door abruptly opened. The metal panel retracted into the wall, revealing one of the towering humanoids. Without pause, it stepped into the cell, stooping slightly, the door whispering shut behind it. The Satedan caught a glimpse of a long corridor beyond before it closed. The creature’s head turned, dark eyes studying Ronon. It aimed one of the glassy paralysis devices at him. The meaning was clear.
Dex raised his hands slowly and backed off a step; he had no desire to experience the horrible effects of the alien weapon again.
The humanoid had a different device in its other hand, spidery fingers curled around it, operating a display with tapping motions. The second object was an orb the size of a child’s ball, shimmering with a pearly glow. It pointed the device at Ronon, and a series of chimes issued out. The Satedan caught Teyla’s eye and she mouthed the word scanner? at him.