And he would have to do that five more times just to defuse this section, and a dozen more just like it, and they were running out of time. He shook his head, and reached for the next cable, clamping down hard to hold it still. It fought back, but now that he knew what to expect, he could hold it. It seemed to die more quickly, or perhaps it was just that he understood the process now, and he moved on to the next.
He was damp and faintly sticky when he had finished, but at least these bombs were defused. A dozen more to go, if he'd scanned them correctly. There had to be a better way, but he didn't know one, hadn't seen it in his hasty scan. Maybe if he looked again, if he had time…. He touched his radio.
"Sergeant. Have we cleared the city?"
"Yes, sir," Ramirez answered.
Okay, that was good. Radek hauled himself up and over the now-disconnected fuse, dragging himself toward the next junction. That would give a little more time, maybe enough to figure out something better than brute force.
"Doc. We've got a Wraith. Ms. Emmagan says he's here to help."
A Wraith. One of Todd's people, presumably, and, yes, someone who really understood how these systems worked would be extremely useful. And if Teyla said he could be trusted, well, Radek would rely on that. "I am on my way."
He worked his way back out of the crawlspace, dropped down to the corridor in front of the waiting Marines. And the Wraith. He was one of the long-haired ones, with two thin wisps of beard trailing from the points of his chin and a tattoo like stylized wings between them. It was hard to read his expression, but Radek thought he might be frowning.
"You are the human clever — engineer?"
"Yes, that is me," Radek answered. "You're here to help?"
The Wraith nodded. "The bombs still need to be defused?"
"Yes." Radek stretched for the tablet he had left at the entrance to the crawlspace, turned it so that the other could see the schematic he had built from the Wraith data. The Wraith leaned closer, his hair whispering across the leather of his coat, and in spite of himself Ling raised his P90. Radek gave him an admonishing look, and pushed his glasses up on his nose. "This is what I've been able to trace. The explosives are here, all along the spine of the ship, and they are wired to a series of fuses within this central access space. I have cut the connection to the proximity fuses and the pressure sensors on the hull, but the bombs are still armed."
"Presumably they are intended to be detonated remotely," the Wraith said. "But?"
"We have jammed any transmissions," Radek answered. "Or at least any likely frequencies. But —"
"There are still too many fuses," the Wraith said. "There was no central control?"
"I have not found one," Radek answered. "You'd know better than I would where it might be hidden."
The Wraith hissed softly, and reached to turn the tablet for a better view. Radek made himself stand motionless as the feeding hand with its heavy vein slid along the metal next to his own fingers.
"I — this is not a tactic I would recommend," the Wraith said, after a moment.
"Effective, however," Radek said dryly, and thought the Wraith smiled.
"Yes." He looked back at the tablet. "To pull the fuses one by one will take too long."
"I am open to alternatives," Radek said. "If you were doing this, where would you put a master fuse?"
"I wouldn't," the Wraith said. "A kill switch, I think, some way to render the ship inert if it were not used as intended —"
Radek reached for the tablet, a new idea taking shape. "When I ran a power trace, there was an odd end. I thought it was part of the ship's systems, but —"
"Yes." The Wraith fumbled with the tablet's controls, claws clicking on glass and metal. Radek took it from him, touched the screen to expand the image. "Yes, there, in the engine room —"
"That's where that system goes," Radek said, nodding. "But how does it connect —?"
"There." A green-black claw tapped the tablet's screen. "There will be other connections within the engine room, but there — that's where the fuses will come together."
Radek studied the schematic. The point the Wraith indicated was not quite all the way to the engineering spaces at the stern but at the end of the ship's spine, where several of the access conduits came together. There was a power node there, but he'd assumed it was just part of the ship's normal systems. "Yes, I see. All right, we'll take it out there." He touched his radio. "Teyla. We are heading aft to disarm the kill switch."
"Copy that." It was the Marine lieutenant who answered, not Teyla, and Radek lifted his eyebrows. That could not be a good sign.
"Come. We must hurry."
The access hatch was the same as all the others he had found, a narrow oval that yielded reluctantly to the pulse of his probe. He turned to beckon to Ling — the hatches were too heavy for one man to move — but the Wraith put his shoulder to it, rolling it aside.
"Thank you," Radek said, and shone his light into the opening. Yes, there was the usual set of handholds, not quite a ladder, and then the maw of the access tube. For a moment, he wondered if it would be better to send the Wraith ahead of him, but that would mean giving him first access to the device. He took a breath, and pulled himself up into the tunnel.
It was larger than the ones he had been in before, large enough for a man to go on all fours and two abreast, though the Wraith stayed at his heels, claws loud on the hardened surfaces. More probably it was his boots, Radek told himself, not claws, and anyway he was here under orders to help. And beyond that, he himself had taken Dr. Keller's retrovirus, so probably he wasn't going to die even if the Wraith decided to eat him — He stopped abruptly, the tunnel widening ahead of him into a hemispherical chamber. A device like a stunted tree stood in its center, dozens of vine-like cables winding their way into its branches.
"I would guess this is it," he said, and pulled himself aside so that the Wraith could see.
The Wraith hissed in answer, teeth sharp and white in the dim light. "Death's men were taking no chances."
"What do you mean?"
"See there?" The Wraith pointed to a knob that protruded from the device near the junction of the upper limbs. "That is intended to receive a detonation signal. Apparently your jamming device works."
"Apparently." Radek cleared his throat. "So. Do we cut these cables, or is there a central switch, as you said?"
The Wraith tipped his head to one side. "Both would be safest, I think. But where to start…."
Radek let the beam of his flashlight play over the device, picking out what looked like a primary control node. "Is that it?"
"Yes." The Wraith crawled closer, reaching beneath his coat for a tool of his own. "I do not see any particular protection."
And how the hell am I supposed to tell if there's some sort of booby trap? Radek swallowed the words as unhelpful, and leaned close himself. "There are — wires — coming off in four, no, five places. Are they part of the mechanism, or a trap?"
The Wraith showed teeth again. "An excellent question." He probed carefully, then sat back on his heels. "I believe they all belong to the mechanism. And that means we should cut the head wire first."
"Head wire?" Even as he said it, Radek realized what the Wraith meant. The wires were laid out in a star pattern, or like a human figure spread-eagled. "This one?"
"Yes."
"All right." Radek was closer, and he reached for his cutters. "You're sure?"
"As sure as I can be."
And if he was wrong, there would be no second chances. Radek touched his radio again. "Teyla. Are we clear of the city? We are ready to cut wires, but if we are wrong…."
"We are far enough away from the city," Teyla answered, her voice serene. "Go ahead."
Radek braced himself and worked the clipper's blade under the head wire. He took a deep breath and squeezed hard. The blades sheared through the organic cable with a dull click, and that was all. Radek heaved a sigh of relief, and looked at the Wraith. "All right. Which one next?"