John stilled his breathing and listened. After a moment he heard movement far up the corridor. It was a weird soft sound, like a large group of people walking barefoot. Or shambling, John thought, suddenly struck by a half-buried memory of reading H.P. Lovecraft in college. That’s definitely shambling. He looked at Ford. Brow furrowed, listening hard, Ford shook his head. Keeping his voice to a low whisper, he said, “That’s not people, sir. Not human people. Animals?”
“Could be. It’s not Wraith, at least.” John glanced at Teyla for confirmation. “Is it?”
“No, it is not the Wraith,” she said, shaking her head, baffled and worried. “Something that lives underground, in these tunnels?”
“I vote we open the door,” Kolesnikova said uneasily.
John had to admit that the enigmatic door had started to look a lot more friendly in the past minute. If they tried to go further up the corridor, they might find themselves trapped in a dead end. A literal dead end. “Yeah. McKay?”
“I’m doing it,” Rodney snapped from somewhere behind him. John heard a muted thump and a low power hum.
“Do you need help?” Kavanagh demanded.
“Of course not! If I can’t hotwire one stupid blast door — That’s probably been sealed for ten thousand years — With intermittent power—”
“McKay, be nice and let Kavanagh help,” Kolesnikova told him, sounding anxious.
“Rodney, what she said,” John ordered tensely. He could hear a soft murmur echoing down the corridor now, even over their voices. There was something about it that made his skin crawl and his back teeth itch. He caught movement in their lights, something with gray and silver mottled skin that flicked hastily out of sight.
The low power hum from the door intensified. “Wait, wait!” McKay yelped. “I’ve got it.”
John swung around to cover the door, gesturing sharply for Kolesnikova and Kavanagh to move to the side. Teyla and Ford stayed in position, still watching the corridor.
The blast door clunked again and a dark seam formed down the center, splitting it into two sections. With a deep bass groan, it began to cycle open, each section lifting up to reveal a large empty chamber lit by several white globes suspended from the high ceiling. There were big round pillars, either conduits for something or supports for the weight of stone and metal overhead. It was quiet and nothing moved.
John eased forward, wary, checking the nearest shadows with the P-90’s light. McKay moved up beside him, his eyes moving from the detector to the room around them. “Power readings all over the place,” he said, keeping his voice low. “But no life signs. From in here, that is,” he added urgently. “The ones outside are holding steady.”
“Right, everybody inside.” John didn’t have to say it twice. From down the corridor came a low hooting that was almost ape-like and a growl that made John’s scalp prickle. Kolesnikova hurried in and Kavanagh followed, throwing an eager look around the big room. Ford and Teyla took up positions on either side of the door, and McKay was already prying open the control panel on this side.
McKay handed the detector off to Kavanagh so he could use both hands on the cables and circuits inside the wall, saying, “Twenty-five yards and closing, and in my opinion, that’s way too close.”
John agreed wholeheartedly with that. “You can get this door shut again, right? You didn’t break it, did you?”
“Of course I didn’t break it!” McKay snapped, then muttered something under his breath that John didn’t quite catch.
Before John could demand further information on the door front, Teyla asked, “But why did the detector not show them before this?”
“There could have been some kind of shielding that blocked the detector.” Rodney grimaced, digging a tool out of his vest pocket to tinker with the panel’s insides. “Or they were too far away. But it’s always worked before.”
“Fifteen yards and closing,” Kavanagh reported grimly, his eyes on the detector. “Some have broken off from the main group and are moving faster.”
Ford told McKay, “You were distracted. Maybe you didn’t notice them.”
John didn’t buy that. “He looks at that thing every two seconds, that’s why we let him carry it. These guys, things, whatever, just appeared about a hundred yards away down one of these tunnels, however they did it.” He threw a look around the shadowy chamber, hoping for inspiration. “When we close this door, they’ll have us trapped in here,” he added, thinking aloud.
“I don’t think we have a choice,” Ford said, keeping his eyes and his P-90 on the corridor.
“Not so much,” John agreed. There was nothing in here to make a barrier across the door, no cover.
“We should see what they are first,” Teyla added, stepping close to the opening, narrowing her eyes. “We cannot fight them if they are just noises in the dark.”
With a gasp of relief McKay shut the panel and tapped at the controls. Ford and Teyla stepped back, and the big doors began to slide down and together. John breathed out in relief. “Right. We need to—”
Something struck the door, scrabbling at the rapidly shrinking opening at the center. McKay skipped back with a yelp, and John jerked up his weapon.
The light flashed off iridescent scales and white claws, just as the door slid shut.
John took a deep breath, feeling his heart pound. “Okay. That wasn’t good.” McKay backed away another few paces, and Ford shifted uneasily. Kolesnikova was breathing hard and fanning herself. Only Kavanagh seemed unaffected. A muted thumping sounded from the door, as first one something, then a lot of somethings, pounded on it. After a few moments, the pounding died away.
“It was unpleasantly close,” Teyla commented, throwing John a worried glance.
McKay recaptured his detector from Kavanagh. “Fifteen yards? Thanks for the warning!”
“I read exactly what the screen said.” Kavanagh looked around impatiently. “We should spread out and search for the power source.”
“Not yet,” John told him sharply. “After we check this place out. We don’t know what’s down here.”
“Yes,” Kolesnikova put in grimly. “As you may have just noticed, we have good reason to be wary.”
“Whoa, whoa, we’ve got an abrupt increase in energy readings,” McKay said suddenly, scanning the room with a worried grimace.
“Where, what? Nobody touched anything!” Kolesnikova stepped toward him, alarmed.
“The door opening must have activated something. It’s this way.” McKay started forward, face intent.
“Like activated as in turning all the lights on, or activated as in getting ready to blow up?” Ford asked as John took long steps to catch up with McKay.
“I don’t know, that’s why I’m trying to find it!” McKay snapped back.
McKay led the way past the pillars, through a triangular arch, and out onto a broad gallery opening into a darker space. A single overhead light emphasized the crannies and shadows in the rocky walls. The gallery was empty, but a broad metal stairway led down to an area with several open doorways that were more like the entrances to caves. McKay hesitated, grimacing at the detector, then started down.
John stopped halfway down the stairs, startled. He had just realized the odor of rot had faded, as if they had left it behind in the corridor. That’s weird. Either good weird or bad weird.
Sounding concerned, Teyla asked, “Major, what is it?”
“Huh? Nothing.” John hurried to catch up to Rodney at the bottom of the stairs. He saw lights flickering on in the room ahead, heard the low-power hum of a large installation coming online.
They both stopped in the arched doorway. The walls of the room were lined with panels and readouts and controls, but in the center there was a coffin-sized transparent case, set on a platform with more humming equipment. The inside was obscured by a white mist, but as John stared in consternation it cleared, revealing the body of a human man. It was hard to see much detail, except that he was dressed in a loose brown robe.