Another wave of relief washed over him, and once again Rodney was surprised and impressed by the pilot’s resourcefulness. “Nice work.”
“A guy’s gotta make himself useful.”
Oddly enough, Sheppard’s shield turned aquamarine. Rodney glanced down at his own and noted that they had begun to glow. Of course. He should have realized sooner. “The Shields went temporarily inactive because the device doesn’t allow you to defend and attack simultaneously.”
“That’s how it works on the Enterprise, so it seemed worth a try.” Stepping out of the chamber, Sheppard stumbled, listing to one side. Rodney instinctively reached out to steady him. “It’s okay. I’m good.” The Major tried to smile, but seemed to recognize that he wasn’t fooling anyone.
For Sheppard’s sake, the sooner they got back to Atlantis, the better. Unfortunately, there was still the minor matter of the hive ships in orbit around the planet.
Rodney took one last look around before stepping into the transport. The Wraith that had been swept up in the reconfigured beams had to have been transported somewhere. And then there was the issue of leaving two Wraith Queens behind—
— which was suddenly was no longer an issue. Features tightened against the pain, Sheppard was standing at the door of the transport, unleashing a hail of bullets into the stasis chambers.
When the clip was finally empty, Rodney batted away at the cordite-smelling smoke. “Was that really wise?”
Turning back toward him, Sheppard said simply, “Yes.” The grim look on the Major’s face told Rodney a great deal more. It had also answered his question of whether the device had brought him into contact with the minds of the immature Queens.
Swallowing again, this time against a momentary surge of nausea, Rodney nodded to Peryn, signaling it was time to leave.
Somewhere between the weapon room and Nemst, they’d managed to lose most of their entourage, while acquiring Ford and Teyla. John wasn’t entirely certain what they were doing in the village. Something about Teyla needing to be outside the influence of the Shielded Citadel to sense whether or not the Wraith had departed. It sounded like it would have made sense had his brain not been fairly scrambled.
When the doors to the transport opened, it was to a scene of devastation. The roof of the inn had collapsed, and they could see outside to the sky, now more or less free of the ubiquitous oily smoke. A large group of people, mostly men that John recognized as residents of Nemst, were surveying the area and looking mighty unhappy. He didn’t recall suggesting that anyone could safely leave the Citadel, but then, just staying upright was enough of a challenge for him at the moment. Having extra eyes and weapons around the place was probably a good idea in case they ran into any Wraith he hadn’t managed to scoop up with Dalera’s nifty anti-Wraith beam.
“The Wraith,” Teyla stated, her voice edged with a familiar bitterness. “They have retaliated by destroying much of the town.”
Rodney opened his mouth to correct that misconception, but seemed to think better of it. Which was fortunate. Concussed or not, John knew the makings of a lynch mob when he saw one, and he’d already had a taste of Daleran ‘gratitude’.
They climbed over more wreckage until they were standing in what had once been the inn’s entrance. “This is the way of the Wraith. Even when they are able to cull most of a population, they destroy much that remains behind.” The Athosian was directing her speech to the citizens of Nemst. Her stance and the quick look she sent John told him exactly what he needed to know. The Wraith had left. Even in his admittedly addled state, he understood what the Athosian was now trying to achieve.
Outside the inn they found a sight familiar to John. The men with them reacted with astonishment and anger. One of them released a cry of despair. “The wheel! The waterwheel that has stood for countless generations — it’s gone!”
Someone else began talking about the forge, and all too soon, the murmurs began turning to blame. “The Wraith destroyed our village because of the blackwater.”
“Why should we have to bear this burden alone?”
“Who will rebuild our beautiful forge?”
Beautiful forge? John ran an unsteady hand across his eyes. He was about to snap out a reply, but Yann beat him to it. “Thank Dalera that you still live to see and speak of such things. When the Wraith have departed, we will rebuild.” He strode out purposefully behind Ford as they made their way across the splintered wreckage to the impressive crater that had replaced most of the hill.
The bitter complaints and recriminations dropped to muttered whispers. Yeah, there was no getting around it. This place was going to face some serious social and political fallout.
“I do not believe Major Sheppard is well,” Teyla said softly. “Try telling him that.” Aiden used his binoculars to look out across the Citadel. When one of the blue beams had targeted a squadron of Darts heading west toward Nemst, Aiden hadn’t been entirely certain what to expect. But the Major had apparently taken a page out of Red Adair’s book. By using the beam to remove their Wraith pilots at just the right moment, the uncontrolled Darts had plunged into Black Hill. The massive explosion had starved the raging oil fire of oxygen just long enough for the flames to be extinguished. True, a few of the Darts had overshot their mark and crashed into Nemst, but when the bulk of the hill had collapsed its center, it had cut off the flow of oil. With nothing to feed it, the fire around the Citadel also was rapidly dying down. Although the resultant haze would provide a spectacular sunset, the strong afternoon west wind had blown the worst of the smoke away.
Teyla sighed. “Were I in his position, I would be much the same.” Aiden met her eyes, and she added, “As would you.”
Shrugging, he replied, “As long as we don’t have to go one-on-one with any Wraith who might have been left behind, he should be okay, but we really need to get him back to Atlantis.”
“The Wraith departed soon after the Major unleashed the weapon. None remain. Of that I am now certain.”
“And that’s a perfect end to a perfect day.” McKay turned back from the edge of the cliff, where everyone else was gathered, and strode across to the two of them. It hadn’t taken the scientist long to regain his typical bluster. “The oil flow has stopped, all right. Which of course was the desired outcome, but only if the Wraith don’t come back.”
“No!” came the forceful voice of one of the Nemst townsfolk. The guy marched up to the Major and waved a threatening finger under his nose. “It is your fault that our magnificent town is in ruins. You will not now bring the full force of the Wraith down upon us—”
“And steal our livelihood,” another injected.
“—by destroying what little remains of Black Hill!” finished the first man.
McKay gestured in the direction of the men. “As I was about to explain.”
Aiden moved the same instant as Teyla. Letting the Dalerans think that the Wraith had blown up Nemst seemed the wisest course of action. The Major was in no shape to be fielding an argument.
“Do you deny that releasing the blackwater onto the river defended the Citadel against the Wraith?” Yann yelled back just as loudly.
“The Citadel, yes. But what of our home?”
“It was the will of Dalera that the Citadel be your place of refuge during a Wraith culling,” Teyla began. “Never in all my travels have I seen a world untouched by the Wraith. They destroy what humans have built in order to stop us from finding ways to defeat them. What you call Wraithcraft—” She paused and shook her head.
“What you call Wraithcraft,” McKay continued, “interferes with the operation of the Shields. But in and of itself, it isn’t bad. For the most part, it isn’t even designed by the Wraith, but they’d prefer you to remain ignorant of it in order to prevent you from developing a functioning civilization.”