There was a hesitant knock at the door, and John and Sam both said, “Come,” at the same time.
Airman Salawi stuck her head in. “Sirs, Banks said to tell you that Ronon has just missed his check in.”
John frowned. “Check in?”
“Ronon took a team to investigate some Ancient ruins on one of the islands in the large archipelago,” Sam said. She glanced at her watch and winced. “That was eight hours ago.”
“Missing check in isn’t Ronon,” John said.
“He must be in trouble,” Teyla agreed.
“I cannot imagine what,” Radek said. “He is right here on this planet. There is nothing arriving that we would not detect with the city’s sensors.”
“Unless there were something already here,” Sam said. “Ancient installations…”
“I’ll take a jumper to check it out,” John said. “Who’s he got with him?”
“Cadman,” Sam said. “The new archaeologist, Dr. Lynn, and Dr. Robinson went to fly the jumper.”
John grimaced. Cadman was a good choice, but Lynn was new to everything and Robinson could fly the jumper on a good day, but had no combat skills at all. “Ok,” he said. “Teyla, you talk to Jennifer and Carson and fill them in. I’ll be back in a few.”
Night was coming swiftly over the sea, the lights of Atlantis shining out into the darkness from every tower. For a change it wasn’t snowing, though the instruments showed it was getting bitterly cold, eight degrees Fahrenheit and dropping. A couple of time zones westward the sun hadn’t set, and John flew into daylight as he made periodic radio calls. “Ronon? Come in, Ronon.”
Nothing. Of course it had looked like whatever was left of this Ancient installation might be underground, and if they were inside they might not be getting radio signals. John frowned. That was the most likely explanation. And yet he had a funny feeling about it. In his experience, things were rarely easy.
“Ronon, come in.” There was the island, and John rolled the jumper in a neat maneuver to lose altitude, dropping down for a close air pass. The setting sun glared in his eyes and then he dropped beneath it, the shadow of the planet’s curvature plunging him into shade.
There was the other jumper parked neatly on the plateau over the sea, alone in the midst of a field of snow.
“Ronon, come in.” Something was wrong. He should be answering the radio unless he was far underground, but for the life of him John couldn’t see any door or entrance to anything. “Ronon, please respond.”
“Colonel Sheppard?” Captain Cadman’s voice was full of utter disbelief.
“Cadman? What’s going on?” John asked, coming around for a second pass.
“Is that you?”
“Yes, it’s me.” John shook his head. “Cadman, where are you?”
“We’ve had some trouble, sir,” Cadman said. “We’re underground and our radios won’t reach you.”
“I’m hearing you loud and clear.”
“We’re using the comm system of a wrecked puddle jumper,” Cadman said. “It’s a long story. But Dr. Robinson is injured, and an avalanche has blocked the entrance to the Ancient hangar that we came in.”
“Ok,” John digested that for a second. “Is Ronon there with you?”
“Yes. Let me put him on.” There was a momentary silence.
“Ronon?”
“Hey Sheppard.” Ronon sounded relieved. “Thought you were captured.”
“Yeah well, Teyla rescued me.” John scrubbed his hand through his hair. “Cadman says you’re stuck.”
“We’re stuck,” Ronon confirmed. “Robinson needs medical attention as soon as possible. And there’s no way we’re getting out that door.”
“All right. Hang in there,” John said. “Back with you in a minute.” He switched frequencies, calling Atlantis. “Atlantis, this is Sheppard. Put Colonel Carter on if you would.”
She must have been standing right there, because it was only a second before Sam came on. “What’s the problem, John?”
He sketched it for her quickly, ending with, “So is the Hammond up to atmospheric flight and are the Asgard beams working?”
“They are,” Sam said. “And we can about manage atmospheric flight. I don’t think the hull is up to hard vacuum at this point, but we should be good for a little low altitude cruise to come get our guys. Tell them I’ll be there in fifteen minutes.”
It was twelve and a half, actually. John stayed on station, talking with Ronon and Cadman, until the Hammond arrived. At that point it was the work of a moment to beam them straight to the Hammond’s infirmary.
“Off into the sunset,” John said, turning the puddle jumper for home and following the Hammond in, Atlantis glowing ahead of them like a star resting on the sea.
Radek folded his hands, casting a quick look at William, who had at last subsided into silence. “I agree that the Ancient ruins are interesting,” he said.
John nodded. “Yeah, but is that really a priority right now? With everything we’ve got going on?” He looked around at Ronon and William. “You guys found some stuff, and it’s great if there’s more down there, but is that really where we need to focus our best efforts right now?”
“It appears that this was once an Ancient prison, and perhaps also a weapons testing laboratory,” William put in. “Some of the database seems functional, beyond the environmental systems. It’s quite possible that we could retrieve information on the research that was undertaken here, and that some of it could be germane. I think we need to go back.”
Carter winced. “You said that the entire entrance was blocked. “That’s going to require a lot of work with heavy equipment and a lot of time to dig back in. And a lot of expertise. A squad of engineers at least and somebody with the ATA gene to activate things.”
“Yes, well,” William began.
John shook his head. “I appreciate that it’s interesting. And that it might be worthwhile. But we’ve got a lot on our plates right now. We can’t pull people off the Hammond’s repairs or off other critical functions. In a couple of weeks, when Kusanagi’s team is free, then we’ll think about it.”
“It is really Dr. Kusanagi you need,” Radek put in. “She has the ATA gene naturally expressed, and she is a fine engineer. I would recommend Dr. Kusanagi and the Marine combat engineers, and perhaps Captain Cadman, when the time is appropriate. But Miko is occupied with the Hammond, which I was given to understand is the first priority.”
“It is the top priority,” John said. “The Hammond is pretty much our only defense right now. Getting all systems fully restored is critical.” He glanced around the table. “So we’ll talk about the Ancient installation next week.” He looked down at his laptop as if he had a to do list there. Which, Radek thought, he probably did. He knew what was coming and John making it so casual, in the midst of a biweekly meeting, made it seem less frightening and bizarre. And it was bizarre. “Next up, Todd.”
Ronon shifted in his seat, not looking at Teyla who sat across from him.
“Todd wants a deal,” John said. “Let’s talk about it.”
Carson leaned forward, his blue eyes grave. “First, let me say that I am skeptical that this idea of his can work without serious side effects. He’s taking the track of strengthening the human victim during the feeding by tinkering with the makeup of the Wraith enzyme that is injected at the inception of the feeding process. We’ve seen with Lt. Ford what the effects of a mega dose of the enzyme are. And we’ve seen how drastic the physical and psychological changes are as a result. It might be possible for humans to survive the feeding, but the cost to them would be enormous.”