Fic:: WIP::Gypsies, Tramps, and Thieves IV:: SGA/SG-1::[c]
Gypsies, Tramps, and Thieves IV
an Alternate Universe SGA/SG-1 Crossover
by Auburn
Gen Plot with Mixed Slash and Het Elements
Part One
Part Two
Part Three
Part Four [a] [b] [c] [d]
"A ZedPM!" Meredith exclaimed. "You didn't think to mention that before?"
Zelenka shrugged and pushed his glasses back up his nose. Of course he'd mentioned in the middle of the rec room, while Kell was there with Vala. Mer didn't know if she'd slept with the Satedan or not - he thought not - but Kell seemed to be attempting to charm her. It made his skin crawl to watch and he'd been on his way out when Zelenka popped in. The hungry light in Kell's eyes as Zelenka explained about Kolya and the Genii mission to blackmail the Daganese into turning over their religious treasure bothered Meredith too.
"I was, perhaps, tired and confused," Zelenka said. Meredith's gargled, "Arrrgh!" did not appear to move him.
"And it's a ZedPM that you need to reach the City of the Ancestors," Kell questioned. He stumbled over the phrase but had the concept just fine. Mer didn't like it. Kell reminded him of that Lucien Alliance warlord, Netan, only cleverer. Teyla and Jehan had both mentioned the unstable situation they'd left behind on Belkan, where the Satedan refugees were basically untouchable by the local law thanks to their fire power. Kell had tasted power; having done so, he'd want more.
Vala wasn't worried, of course.
"Yes," Mer snapped. "Well, that and someone with this ATA gene. I wonder if I have it?" He needed to go down to the infirmary and have Fraiser do a blood test. The Prometheus mission had the expedition's paperwork, including everyone's medical records; she could compare Mer's results with one of the ATA positives.
"Miko is ATA positive," Zelenka said. He smiled with satisfaction. "We did not tell Commander Kolya this. It is lucky Brendan did not pay attention or remember that."
"Never mind that," Vala said. She latched onto Zelenka's arm, her eyes bright with the excitement and the prospect of loot. "Tell us where this Dagan is, Dr. Zelenka."
"Ask Teyla," Mer suggested. "Once you know the address, I'll run the stargate address through our navigation conversion program." He'd be relieved once they had the Satedans and their payment in ammunition off the ship. Too many of them kept turning up all over the ship and Mer didn't believe they were exercising for an instant. Jehan could plot a course to Dagan after they got rid of them at Belkan. He glanced at the clock over the rec room's door. "I've just got time to pick up something to eat and a coffee before I relieve Novak in the drive chambers."
Zelenka removed Vala's hand from his arm. "Dr. McKay?"
Mer had already started toward the door. "Yes, yes, what?"
"Would it be possible to examine the hyperdrives later?"
"Of course. Bring Dumpy and Kuzugaga."
"Dumais and Kusanagi," Zelenka corrected.
"I knew that."
He had. Did they think it was easy to come up with ridiculous wrong names that were still recognizable? He'd use their proper names when they proved they deserved to be remembered, never mind that his remarkable brain meant he would remember them anyway. Meredith kept moving. A ZedPM! If they could recover a charged zero point module he could rig a power feed to Revenge's hyperdrives. It would make this 'adventure' in Pegasus more than worth their time. Jolinar hadn't been interested in pure research, but they had done a great deal of development work together and Mer had some ideas about marrying Tok'ra technology to the Asgard designs Revenge boasted. Nothing could get through their shields, they could dive into a sun - no, even a ZedPM wouldn't let them do more than skim the corona - they'd be nearly invulnerable to any attack.
He sighed, because of course they would end up using any ZedPM in Atlantis, but it was a lovely fantasy. He put it away with the dream of performing pure research again someday.
"Come along, Dr. Zelenka," he heard Vala say behind him.
"I'll come with you," Kell said.
Meredith walked faster. If he could get Zelenka and the two others to sign on as crew, they'd be able to take one of the reactor chambers off-line for an hour or two, flush the radiation to vacuum and work on it without pulling Novak off-shift to cover for him. He wanted to inspect the shielding inside. The slightly uneven power feed could be the result of subpar material or a manufacturing defect. The contractors on Earth delivering the parts to the Air Force wouldn't have had clearance to know what they were building, which meant they might have overlooked any number of potential problems. Borzin should have caught anything in the refit, but Borzin was a money-hungry weasel, who no doubt figured if a hyperdrive blew up no one on the ship would survive to come back and make him pay.
He nearly ran into Liraz Tyre just outside Engineering and demanded, "What are you doing down here?"
"I had hoped to persuade Engineer Novak to join me in the mess for a meal," Tyre replied. He looked amused.
Meredith eyed him. Novak had mentioned Tyre being pushy in the material labs.
"Leave her alone," Mer told him.
"As you say," Tyre agreed, still unruffled. "She informed me she was working."
He headed for the interdeck elevator.
Meredith turned and watched the Satedan suspiciously until he was gone.
~*~
Revenge could be cranky sometimes. Little things mostly, related to being a prototype hybrid or to the lack of crew to maintain her at optimum. Jehan had a diagnostic routine running and Recks had the environmental console half disassembled when Vala brought Kell onto the bridge. He glanced up, but dismissed them in favor of puzzling over the glitch in the course calculation program. The bastard mixture of Tau'ri equipment, scavenged Goa'uld technology and Asgard science was amazingly flexible, but Caias had tried to put together a short-cut for calculating hyper jumps using Hebridan math and it wasn't working. There was glitch somewhere, Jehan could feel it, and he wanted to track it down so they could use it the next time he set a course.
"Delma's moon-sized ass!" Reckell cursed. He thumped the monitor with one clawed hand. "I keep getting intermittent temperature variations in hold two." He groped for a tool from the kit beside him and twisted the fit it into the open panel underneath the console. Revenge hadn't been designed for beings as big as Serrakin.
"Problems?" Vala asked. The hold two contained certain supplies that had to be maintained within a specific temperature window.
Reckell snarled and hissed in his native tongue. "If Borzin slipped in subpar temperature gauges, I'm going to go back and feed them to him," Reckell griped, distracting Jehan despite a niggling hint of something wrong.
"He wouldn't have dared," Vala said.
"Eh, I think it might be a loose connection here," Reckell muttered. He dropped down to his knees and crawled under the console again. "Jehan, slave the read-out to your console and tell me if it evens out."
Jehan frowned and did as Reckell asked, checking the temperature and the spikes that were bothering the first mate. "All within normal parameters," he reported. Something kept bothering him.
Something about Kell.
"What's that?" Kell said. "On this monitor?" Pointing to the locked down weapons console next to the captain's chair.
Jehan saw Vala step away from Kell out of the corner of his eye. Kell glanced at the ship's chronograph read-out on the main viewscreen. Vala said, "What? I don't see anythi-"
Too tense. Mai'tec. Kell was too tense. Something was wrong.
Jehan scrabbled to get at his blaster, hampered by his sitting position, as Kell pulled a hand version of the Satedans' larger guns and fired into Reckell's back. He shifted his aim and fired again, this time at Jehan. The bullet tore into his leg and he lost his blaster, rocked by the impact and the immediate agony that rushed from his thigh through his entire body. He clutched at the bloody mess desperately and barely stayed in his chair. Wet heat pulsed between his fingers from the wound. Fuck, fuck, fuck.
Everything narrowed down to the pain until the hot circle of gun muzzle pressed against his forehead.
Kell shoved Jehan's head back until his neck arched and swallowing hurt. "Drop you weapon or he dies like the other one," he ordered.
Jehan slid his eyes left. Vala had her zat out and aimed at Kell. Reckell's body lay limp on the deck.
Kell shook his head. "Your weapon doesn't kill. Mine will spatter his brains all over."
"You can't pilot this ship without him," Vala snapped. Kell wouldn't hear the fear in her voice and her face would never give it away, but Jehan sensed it. She'd shake apart later, after she stuffed Qetesh's ghost into its compartment again, but for now Vala would channel the haughty Goa'uld queen. Kell would zero in on any apparent weakness on her part.
"You have a second pilot. One who isn't happy."
Jehan had known bringing Caias with them would be a mistake. He'd assumed the smuggler would double-cross them, not make killing Jehan an easier choice. Turned out it was both. He twitched and whimpered in pain. No matter how tight he pressed into his leg, blood was soaking through his pant leg and running between his fingers. Jehan panted through the pain, trying to focus on the situation, but between breaths he could hear droplets of his blood pattering down to the deck. If he didn't do something soon, he would slip into shock and be useless. Not that he wasn't useless anyway - the only thing keeping him conscious was a murderous fury sparked by knowing Recks was dead.
"Zat him," he croaked. "I'm bleeding out."
Vala ignored Jehan and said with sweet venom, "Caias doesn't have the command codes. Without Jehan or Mer and myself, this ship will self-destruct in thirty-six hours."
"Still don't need him, then," Kell replied. "I sent Tyre to get the mouthy ass-fucker."
Mer. Fucking hell, Kell meant Mer.
"With you and him," Kell told Vala, "I don't need this one." He jabbed the muzzle of his gun against Jehan's forehead again and Jehan swayed back. He grabbed with his right hand at the console to keep from falling out of his chair.
The heel of Jehan's hand landed next to the covered switch that would initiate a shipwide alarm and lockdown.
"I'm going to pass out in a second," Jehan slurred for Vala's sake. He hissed in pain and batted clumsily at Kell's gun with his left, flicking blood into Kell's eyes. It distracted Kell long enough to flip the cover off the switch. Kell took a step back and wiped at his face. The gun remained aimed at him, but no longer in contact. Good enough. "Kill him."
Jehan tripped the switch and threw himself onto the deck as the alarms shrieked through the ship. Zat and gun fired together. He hit on his wounded leg and screamed, unable to do anything except clutch at his wounded leg, his universe reduced to pain. A bullet exploded into the nav console which showered sparks onto his neck and face.
A second bullet ricocheted until it shattered the forward viewscreen in an explosion of plastic and crystal.
Jehan curled away from the console and squinted at the body that collapsed beside him. Energy from the zat blast chased over Kell's body. He managed to lift his head as Vala stepped over Reckell.
"I knew I could rely on you, darling," she said as she kicked Kell's gun away and stood astride him.
The zat in her hand whined as it powered up. A second hit, so close to the first, would kill.
"Qetesh would make him pay and pay and pay," she said.
"You aren't Qetesh," Jehan panted.
Vala glanced at him, unsmiling, and said, "Sometimes I am."
Jehan shuddered, half expecting her eyes to flare gold and her voice to echo. It made his skin crawl when Vala showed how much of the Goa'uld queen had become part of her. He would have flinched away if he hadn't been on the edge of passing out.
She looked down at Kell. "Rak'lo najaquna shel're hara kek."
It is time for you to die, Jehan translated. Fine by him. The bridge reeked of gunpowder, ozone, and blood and Reckell's body lay under the environmental console, already decaying.
Vala zatted Kell a second time.
~*~
The colorful rec room reminded Teyla of her people's tents. The furniture was heavier than they'd used, but it was low and comfortable, piled with lush furs and soft pillows covered in silks and velvets. Intricately patterned rugs layered over the cold deck and tapestries decorated the bulkheads. Small lamps that gave a warm light in place of the ship's normal illumination, which made everyone look wan, were placed conveniently. Musical instruments, toys and games from many worlds of the crew's home galaxy were left out for everyone, along with the Tau'ri's ubiquitous laptops. A gold-encrusted sphere balanced on a pyramid incised with hieroglyphs projected holographic performances and a wide version of the viewscreens on the bridge displayed moving pictures instead of tactical data on one wall.
She was playing roes, a tactical game of dice standard through most of Pegasus, with Ronon Dex, Signe, Dushka, Til and Daniel. Signe had picked it up fast but Daniel was swiftly catching up; Til and Dushka were losing everything but their skins to Ronon. One of the Tau'ri scientists they'd freed had curled up on a lounge and started talking with Melena Dex.
Dex rose to his feet with a scowl as Rakai, Chisa, and Ara marched inside with guns in hand. Rakai aimed at Til. Chisa and Ara covered the others.
"Explain," Dex ordered.
"Kell's orders," Ara said when Dex narrowed his eyes. She looked faintly apologetic as she nodded at Melena. "He didn't trust her not to warn their doctor."
"Or because I would have told you it's stupid," Ronon growled. He glanced at his wife and his frown softened. "Go to our quarters and stay there. You'll be safe."
"I was safe before your idiot friends started waving guns around," Melena argued.
Teyla shifted and scooped the six carved dice into her hand. They weren't much as a weapon, but flung into an enemy's eyes, they could slow and distract. She had her knives and her bantos rods, but the Satedans were familiar with such weapons. She did not know whether Daniel carried a weapon, but Signe and Til were both armed. She doubted Dumais had a weapon and couldn't guess how she would react. If the Satedans had not been armed, she would still have accepted such odds gladly, for she was very angry at the Satedan's failure of honor.
They were despicable as the Genii.
"What's going on?" Daniel asked.
Teyla glanced at him sidelong. Despite the oblivious-seeming question, he wasn't naive, he'd gone into the Genii bunkers with the Satedans. He'd been on some kind of team with Mer at one time; there was a story there, but one held almost as closely as Jehan's secrets. Daniel sometimes started to argue with Meredith, only to stop himself with an obvious air of guilt. Janet Fraiser knew, but would not speak of it.
"Kell is taking this ship for Sateda," Rakai declared.
"None of you can fly it," Daniel said. "You can't read English or Goa'uld. How do you think - "
Rakai grinned at him.
"You'll do that for us, Scholar. And you others will fly it for us."
"Not by Hathor's tits," Signe interrupted. He shoved his chair back and came to his feet, hand going to the weapon he carried at his belt.
Teyla snapped her hand out and clutched Til's forearm when he would have lurched to his feet and attacked too.
Rakai shot Signe. The loud crack of the projectile weapon echoed as Signe grunted and fell backward. The wail of the basic ship alarm jolted everyone, as if the gunshot had set it off. The alarm was carefully calibrated - no one could ignore it, but it didn't overwhelm anyone's voice, allowing orders to be given and heard. What it meant under the circumstances was anyone's guess.
Teyla gritted her teeth and resisted the need to go to Signe side as he folded to the deck, bright blood spilling from his belly through his fingers, a spreading pool of it staining the edge of one of the rugs dark. Ara and Chisa were vibrating with adrenaline. Any quick movement would push them over the edge, into pulling their triggers. She had no desire to have a fist-sized hole punched through her body. Signe rolled onto his side, hand going to the wound, kicking at the floor with one heel as whimpered in pain.
Melena pushed her way to her feet and started toward him.
"There are two pilots and we can make that scrawny one we grabbed from the Genii take the engineer's place or the skinny girl," Rakai stated. "The rest of you are only alive to make them cooperate."
"For Sateda?" Dex muttered. "Sateda's gone. This is all for Kell."
"Kell is Sateda now," Rakai insisted.
"Kell destroyed Sateda!" Melena shouted. "He's nothing but a murdering monster - " Chisa shifted her aim, almost pointing a weapon at Melena. Dex moved faster than Teyla expected - or Chisa - and closed his hand over her gun hand, putting himself between it and Melena.
"Never aim at my wife again," Dex growled. His hand tightened over Chisa's until she was sweating with pain, her knees folding.
Melena dropped down beside Signe and began checking the wound. "He isn't dead," she snapped. She glanced up and caught Dushka's gaze. "Help me."
Dushka met Ara's stare and tipped her head, receiving a nod in return. She rose from the table slowly and went to kneel beside Signe.
"Dex!" Rakai shouted, "let her go!"
Dex tore the gun out of Chisa's hand.
"Ronon, we can save him if we get him to their infirmary," Melena called before the confrontation between the two Satedan men could escalate.
"Get him up," Dex said. "We're going there now."
"Ronon - "
"He's no threat like this. Or in the infirmary."
"Let us go now, Rakai," Melena added, "or the next time you're wounded, you can save yourself, because I won't."
"Fine, go," Rakai acceded. "The rest of you stay here until Kell gives other orders."
Dex and Dushka pulled Signe up between them and staggered for the doors while Melena pressed a make shift bandage to the wound Teyla thought would be lethal, no matter what skills Melena or Janet Fraiser possessed.
Teyla's hand was still clutching Til's arm. She felt the muscles flex and contract, but his face was expressionless when she risked a glance at him. Daniel was quiet but tensed as well.
"I think he broke my hand," Chisa complained, cradling it to her chest.
Teyla made a note that Chisa would be weak on that side and she was disarmed now too. That left Rakai and Ara with guns.
Only Ara kept an eye on Teyla, even though they'd seen her put down two of theirs on Belkan. They were all Wraith-tall and so confident in their size as well as their skills; they didn't see her as a threat.
Teyla knew Ara was the real danger of the two Satedans left to guard them.
Daniel fidgeted with his glasses, drawing Rakai's attention. Ara stared at Teyla. That meant she couldn't see Lydia Dumais slowly draw a closed laptop closer. Chisa dropped onto a blue sofa and tried to wrap a length of leather around her rapidly swelling wrist. Til growled under his breath and Rakai sneered back at him. The unsteady wail of the alarm clawed at all of their nerves.
"I'm going to shoot that Wraith-damned alarm if it doesn't shut up," Ara snapped.
She flinched and half-turned to the doors as the airlocks thunked closed without warning. Teyla flicked the dice into Rakai's face then dived toward Ara. Dumais jumped to her feet and used both hands to slam the laptop into the back of Chisa's head repeatedly. Daniel and Til shoved the low table in front of them forward into Rakai's legs. He went down as Ara spun back and fired where Teyla had been, but Teyla wasn't there. Instead she tackled Ara's legs and brought her down. She rolled to her own feet, kicked the gun away from Ara's hand, and disabled her in five fast blows. Ara was bigger than her, but so were the Wraith, and Teyla had survived a year as a Runner.
Til had Rakai down and was methodically beating him unconscious.
Lydia Dumais picked up Rakai's gun and handed it to Daniel once he'd straightened his glasses.
Teyla walked over to the upended game table and retrieved Ara's gun.
"Well done," she told Lydia.
"That laptop's history."
"I do not think anyone will be upset." Unless it was one of Meredith's, but Jehan would quiet him.
"Should we tie them up?" Lydia asked.
Daniel joined them. "I think so. We might be in here for a while. The airlocks only close for emergencies."
Til dropped Rakai's unconscious form back to the deck and got to his feet. He stirred Rakai's torso with the toe of his boot and when that got no reaction, nodded in satisfaction. A trickle of blood made its way from his nostril but he wiped it away without concern.
"Vala probably vented the corridors," Til said. "Keeps everyone where they are."
Daniel glanced at the airlock doors. "So we're probably safe enough for the moment?"
Til nodded confidently.
"Vala and Jehan will deal with Kell and the others. If they don't, Mer will blow up the ship."
"Yeah," Daniel said, "that's... not exactly reassuring."
Til shrugged and began ripping long strips off one of the heavy silken throws covering the furniture to tie up the three Satedans.
Teyla shared a look with Lydia Dumais. The other woman seemed unbothered by the prospect.
Once Til finished securing Rakai, Chisa and Ara, he walked over and nodded to Lydia Dumais. "You bought yourself a crew share, I figure."
Lydia looked interested. "For what?"
"Fighting for the crew. Up to Vala and Jehan and Mer whether you stay, but they'll pay you out a share for the trip on that basis, even if you don't stay on."
"Hmmm."
"Oh, come on," Daniel muttered. "Am I the only one who isn't enamored of this space pirates crap?"
~*~
Lindsay was off shift, but she couldn't resist showing off her hyperdrive babies to the scientists they'd rescued. Vala wanted to recruit all three of them and Lindsay knew the hybrid tech would be as big a selling point as the relative safety of the ship. Meredith could be overwhelming, too. Besides, she was damned proud of her designs.
Meredith was telling Zelenka he was wrong about something when she came in, so Lindsay smiled at Kusanagi. "Come over here," she said, "I'll show you how we've merged the Asgard protocols with Goa'uld materials in the refit."
"I am honored," Kusanagi said.
Lindsay grinned at her. "You're going to love this." She gestured for Kusanagi to come around the control console. "I'm Lindsay, in case no one told you."
"It would please me if you called me Miko."
"Great."
"Where in Anubis' unspeakable depths did you get your degree!?" Meredith snapped at Zelenka. "It's not base ten!"
"It is a Tau'ri ship!" Zelenka yelled back.
"Not any more!" Meredith shouted back.
Miko looked alarmed, but Lindsay kept smiling. Meredith yelled at Jehan and Vala all the time, Reckell and Signe and even Daniel. He expected them to yell back. He smiled at her the day she called him a constipated, arrogant bastard with his head up his ass. He and Zelenka were going to get along wonderfully.
The door sliding open for Tyre and a squad of Satedans made her heart stutter with terror, but Lindsay didn't panic. The awkward L-shaped angle of the drive chamber was a result of the shape of the hyperdrive generators, but it meant the console where she and Miko stood wasn't immediately visible from the door. Lindsay snagged Miko's sleeve and dragged her down out of sight.
Miko's eyes were wide behind her thick, scratched glasses, but she was silent as Lindsay stuffed her into the knee well and squeezed in beside her.
"You don't belong down here," Meredith snapped at Tyre. That dismissive tone grated any time it was leveled at someone. "Get out."
"Kell wants you on the bridge, ahr-danp," Tyre sneered.
Lindsay guessed ahr-danp meant something disgusting and insulting in the Satedans language. She didn't dare raise her head to see either Tyre or Meredith's expressions.
"Sokar take Kell and what he wants," Meredith said. "You aren't in charge."
"Kell wants you alive," Tyre replied, "he didn't say anything about in one piece."
Lindsay worked her smaller knife out of its hiding place quietly. Her palms were greasy with sweat. She gave it to Miko who looked bewildered, but gripped with tightly, while Lindsay slid her favorite out of the sheath at her belt. Teyla had told her to carry two. She thought after this she'd add a couple more to her collection.
"Time you learned your place," Tyre said. "Chali, Agha, watch the little one."
She didn't know exactly what to do, beyond not get caught - Jehan had thought she was a threat when he and Vala took the ship. Lindsay swallowed. If she could get to the auxillary control room, she could lock down the ship, shut down life support, even vent atmosphere. If nothing else worked, she could threaten to blow the hyperdrives, either killing or stranding them, if the Satedans didn't give up. She just had to stay free.
That meant being forced to listen as the Satedans beat Meredith, her breath coming too fast, incandescent rage burning under her breast bone. How dared they!? This wasn't like the way the Prometheus had been taken. Zelenka spat a litany of curses at the Satedansholding him. She could hear the thick thud of fists hitting flesh and Tyre laughing as Meredith sobbed for breath. Tyre's laughter sounded like her brother's had every time he'd broken something he knew Lindsay loved.
There had to be something else she could do. The knife she had wouldn't be enough against five trained soldiers so much larger than herself, even though Lindsay was shocked to realize she had no compunctions about using it. Miko probably knew less about fighting than Lindsay did, though from the set expression on her face, she was ready to charge out to Zelenka's rescue.
Lindsay needed a better weapon. A zat would be nice and she had every intention of carrying one from now on, but for the moment she'd settle happily for anything.
Anything being the blaster Meredith hung in its holster over the back of the chair at the main control console.
The chair was turned the wrong way, seat facing her and the back away. She could spin it, but the Satedans might see. If she crawled around, she lose her cover. She'd never fired anything like the blaster either. It might take her a second or two to figure out its safety and power settings.
Lindsay figured she'd only have one chance.
She leaned close and put her lips against Miko's ear. "Miko, I need you to create a diversion," she whispered.
Miko stared at her.
Lindsay pointed at the blaster in its holster. "I can stun everyone with that."
Miko took a deep breath and nodded. She pressed close to Lindsay and murmured, "I would be honored."
Lindsay swallowed. Okay. They were going to do this.
Meredith was making gutteral, horrible sounds now and she was afraid Tyre and his thugs were having too much fun to remember to keep him alive. "On three," she breathed.
Miko wriggled out from under the console, still clutching Lindsay's second favorite knife, crouched and waited until Lindsay was out and in position with her hand on the chair, ready to spin it.
"One," she mouthed.
Miko went up on her toes and the fingers of one hand like a runner. She kept a white-knuckled grip on the knife with her other hand.
"Two."
Lindsay exhaled silently and focused.
"Three."
She spun the chair. Miko erupted from behind the console, screaming, and went over the console. Lindsay grabbed the butt of the blaster and drew it. It was big in her hand, but her thumb fell naturally on the safety and she flicked it up into the stun setting. She aimed over the console and shot the Satedan holding Meredith against the bulkhead. Tyre snapped his head around and saw her.
Miko crashed into the man closest to the console, Chali or Aghal, as Zelenka twisted, kicked, and bit at him. She slashed the edge across her target's eyes, shrieking in Japanese, then whipped it at the hand of the other man who had been holding Zelenka.
Tyre started to pull his own weapon and Meredith began sliding down the wall onto the man Lindsay had stunned, tangling his legs between the ankles of the other thug.
Lindsay squeezed the trigger again and again, spraying the room with stun blasts. The edge of one caught Tyre's arm and he dropped his gun. She aimed the next time and hit his legs. Swung the blaster, aimed and hit the chest of the last man before he could kick himself free of Meredith.
Miko's first victim had his hands clamped over his eyes and was screaming, blood and fluid running down his cheeks. She and Zelenka had the other man down, ripping at him with the mad savagery of long pent up terror. Lindsay thought they'd already killed him.
Lindsay staggered to her feet, supporting the weight of the blaster with both hands.
Tyre tried to wrest a gun from one of his stunned fellows. Meredith got there first. Tyre tried to roll away as Meredith lifted the Satedan gun and aimed it at him. Lindsay wondered if Meredith could even see; both of his eyes were swelling shut while blood ran from his nose and his mouth.
Lindsay stunned the blinded Satedan, then aimed at Tyre again.
"Don't move," she ordered. Her voice was shaking.
Tyre tried to get to his feet.
"I said don't move!" she yelled. She didn't want to shoot him again; she didn't know if the blasters worked like zats did. Too many stuns might kill him.
Meredith spat something unintelligible, blood spraying out with the word.
Tyre's knee folded under him and he sprawled face down, but his fingers scrabbled over the deck, reaching for his lost weapon.
Lindsay fired. So did Meredith.
The ship wide alarms began shrieking.
Meredith forced himself to his feet using the bulkhead. He spat again and wiped at his mouth with the back of the hand still clutching the Satedan gun.
"We have to secure here and then get to the bridge," he slurred. "Ze - you, get a weapon."
Zelenka pulled back from the body under him. Slick red painted his face and hands. "Yes, yes," he croaked.
Meredith stayed propped against the bulkhead. Lindsay watched him waver and point the gun at the stunned Satedans. She flinched as he pulled the trigger again and once more, killing the last man.
Lindsay averted her eyes, but that left her looking at the mess of blood, hair, bone and gray matter that had replaced Tyre's face. She doubled over and vomited convulsively.
Being a pirate had been supposed to be fun, not... this.
~*~
Janet had never heard the infirmary alarm outside of drills. The cycling wail made the hairs on her arms stand up and the lack of any announcement over the shipwide comms disturbed her, but she did what she'd been trained to do. She scrambled to set up for incoming casualties, setting out trays of instruments and unlocking the drug cabinet for easier access, then scrubbed up and donned a set of sterile gloves. She finished as the doors opened and four people came inside at a stumbling run. Three people really, two of them carrying a third, and Melena Dex doing her best to keep him from bleeding out.
Signe. Damn it. He was a cross-tempered asshole, but Janet had never expected to see him shot. She caught glimpse of the wound; that was a bullet wound. She'd sewn up enough of them in her career as an Air Force doctor to know.
"What the hell the happened?" Janet demanded even as she pointed at the exam table. Dex and Dushka hefted Signe up, while Melena kept pressure on the wound in his gut. "What's going on?"
"Kell's taking the ship," Dex said.
"Well, good luck," Janet snapped. "It's not like there isn't a precedent."
"Kell's trying," Melena amended.
"Did you shoot him?" Janet accused Dex as she yanked out the sterilized trays of instruments.
"He got in Rakai's way," Dex replied.
"He didn't have to shoot him!" Melena yelled at her husband. She was soaked in Signe's blood from breast to thighs, fingertips to shoulders, furious and scared.
Dushka headed for the doors and he caught her shoulder and dragged her back. "You're safer in here with us."
Janet grabbed a set of gloves and threw them at Dushka. "Put those on." It gave Dushka something to do; Janet figured Signe had all of Dushka's germs anyway.
She pointed at Dex and Melena. "You, get out of the way. Melena, scrub up. Dush, help me roll him onto his side, I need to see if the bullet exited."
"It did," Dex said as he retired to the doors.
Signe's lips were turning blue-gray. His head lolled to the side and his blood pooled on the table and ran over the edge. Janet gritted her teeth, sparing a instant to wish she could use the Goa'uld healing devices. Signe was a mess; the Satedans' ammunition had been designed to to maximize damage. Still, she had him in her infirmary, she had everything she needed - except a trained trauma team - and she knew she could save him.
"Tell me what to do," Melena said as she pulled on her gloves.
~*~
continued in [d]
an Alternate Universe SGA/SG-1 Crossover
by Auburn
Gen Plot with Mixed Slash and Het Elements
Part One
Part Two
Part Three
Part Four [a] [b] [c] [d]
"A ZedPM!" Meredith exclaimed. "You didn't think to mention that before?"
Zelenka shrugged and pushed his glasses back up his nose. Of course he'd mentioned in the middle of the rec room, while Kell was there with Vala. Mer didn't know if she'd slept with the Satedan or not - he thought not - but Kell seemed to be attempting to charm her. It made his skin crawl to watch and he'd been on his way out when Zelenka popped in. The hungry light in Kell's eyes as Zelenka explained about Kolya and the Genii mission to blackmail the Daganese into turning over their religious treasure bothered Meredith too.
"I was, perhaps, tired and confused," Zelenka said. Meredith's gargled, "Arrrgh!" did not appear to move him.
"And it's a ZedPM that you need to reach the City of the Ancestors," Kell questioned. He stumbled over the phrase but had the concept just fine. Mer didn't like it. Kell reminded him of that Lucien Alliance warlord, Netan, only cleverer. Teyla and Jehan had both mentioned the unstable situation they'd left behind on Belkan, where the Satedan refugees were basically untouchable by the local law thanks to their fire power. Kell had tasted power; having done so, he'd want more.
Vala wasn't worried, of course.
"Yes," Mer snapped. "Well, that and someone with this ATA gene. I wonder if I have it?" He needed to go down to the infirmary and have Fraiser do a blood test. The Prometheus mission had the expedition's paperwork, including everyone's medical records; she could compare Mer's results with one of the ATA positives.
"Miko is ATA positive," Zelenka said. He smiled with satisfaction. "We did not tell Commander Kolya this. It is lucky Brendan did not pay attention or remember that."
"Never mind that," Vala said. She latched onto Zelenka's arm, her eyes bright with the excitement and the prospect of loot. "Tell us where this Dagan is, Dr. Zelenka."
"Ask Teyla," Mer suggested. "Once you know the address, I'll run the stargate address through our navigation conversion program." He'd be relieved once they had the Satedans and their payment in ammunition off the ship. Too many of them kept turning up all over the ship and Mer didn't believe they were exercising for an instant. Jehan could plot a course to Dagan after they got rid of them at Belkan. He glanced at the clock over the rec room's door. "I've just got time to pick up something to eat and a coffee before I relieve Novak in the drive chambers."
Zelenka removed Vala's hand from his arm. "Dr. McKay?"
Mer had already started toward the door. "Yes, yes, what?"
"Would it be possible to examine the hyperdrives later?"
"Of course. Bring Dumpy and Kuzugaga."
"Dumais and Kusanagi," Zelenka corrected.
"I knew that."
He had. Did they think it was easy to come up with ridiculous wrong names that were still recognizable? He'd use their proper names when they proved they deserved to be remembered, never mind that his remarkable brain meant he would remember them anyway. Meredith kept moving. A ZedPM! If they could recover a charged zero point module he could rig a power feed to Revenge's hyperdrives. It would make this 'adventure' in Pegasus more than worth their time. Jolinar hadn't been interested in pure research, but they had done a great deal of development work together and Mer had some ideas about marrying Tok'ra technology to the Asgard designs Revenge boasted. Nothing could get through their shields, they could dive into a sun - no, even a ZedPM wouldn't let them do more than skim the corona - they'd be nearly invulnerable to any attack.
He sighed, because of course they would end up using any ZedPM in Atlantis, but it was a lovely fantasy. He put it away with the dream of performing pure research again someday.
"Come along, Dr. Zelenka," he heard Vala say behind him.
"I'll come with you," Kell said.
Meredith walked faster. If he could get Zelenka and the two others to sign on as crew, they'd be able to take one of the reactor chambers off-line for an hour or two, flush the radiation to vacuum and work on it without pulling Novak off-shift to cover for him. He wanted to inspect the shielding inside. The slightly uneven power feed could be the result of subpar material or a manufacturing defect. The contractors on Earth delivering the parts to the Air Force wouldn't have had clearance to know what they were building, which meant they might have overlooked any number of potential problems. Borzin should have caught anything in the refit, but Borzin was a money-hungry weasel, who no doubt figured if a hyperdrive blew up no one on the ship would survive to come back and make him pay.
He nearly ran into Liraz Tyre just outside Engineering and demanded, "What are you doing down here?"
"I had hoped to persuade Engineer Novak to join me in the mess for a meal," Tyre replied. He looked amused.
Meredith eyed him. Novak had mentioned Tyre being pushy in the material labs.
"Leave her alone," Mer told him.
"As you say," Tyre agreed, still unruffled. "She informed me she was working."
He headed for the interdeck elevator.
Meredith turned and watched the Satedan suspiciously until he was gone.
~*~
Revenge could be cranky sometimes. Little things mostly, related to being a prototype hybrid or to the lack of crew to maintain her at optimum. Jehan had a diagnostic routine running and Recks had the environmental console half disassembled when Vala brought Kell onto the bridge. He glanced up, but dismissed them in favor of puzzling over the glitch in the course calculation program. The bastard mixture of Tau'ri equipment, scavenged Goa'uld technology and Asgard science was amazingly flexible, but Caias had tried to put together a short-cut for calculating hyper jumps using Hebridan math and it wasn't working. There was glitch somewhere, Jehan could feel it, and he wanted to track it down so they could use it the next time he set a course.
"Delma's moon-sized ass!" Reckell cursed. He thumped the monitor with one clawed hand. "I keep getting intermittent temperature variations in hold two." He groped for a tool from the kit beside him and twisted the fit it into the open panel underneath the console. Revenge hadn't been designed for beings as big as Serrakin.
"Problems?" Vala asked. The hold two contained certain supplies that had to be maintained within a specific temperature window.
Reckell snarled and hissed in his native tongue. "If Borzin slipped in subpar temperature gauges, I'm going to go back and feed them to him," Reckell griped, distracting Jehan despite a niggling hint of something wrong.
"He wouldn't have dared," Vala said.
"Eh, I think it might be a loose connection here," Reckell muttered. He dropped down to his knees and crawled under the console again. "Jehan, slave the read-out to your console and tell me if it evens out."
Jehan frowned and did as Reckell asked, checking the temperature and the spikes that were bothering the first mate. "All within normal parameters," he reported. Something kept bothering him.
Something about Kell.
"What's that?" Kell said. "On this monitor?" Pointing to the locked down weapons console next to the captain's chair.
Jehan saw Vala step away from Kell out of the corner of his eye. Kell glanced at the ship's chronograph read-out on the main viewscreen. Vala said, "What? I don't see anythi-"
Too tense. Mai'tec. Kell was too tense. Something was wrong.
Jehan scrabbled to get at his blaster, hampered by his sitting position, as Kell pulled a hand version of the Satedans' larger guns and fired into Reckell's back. He shifted his aim and fired again, this time at Jehan. The bullet tore into his leg and he lost his blaster, rocked by the impact and the immediate agony that rushed from his thigh through his entire body. He clutched at the bloody mess desperately and barely stayed in his chair. Wet heat pulsed between his fingers from the wound. Fuck, fuck, fuck.
Everything narrowed down to the pain until the hot circle of gun muzzle pressed against his forehead.
Kell shoved Jehan's head back until his neck arched and swallowing hurt. "Drop you weapon or he dies like the other one," he ordered.
Jehan slid his eyes left. Vala had her zat out and aimed at Kell. Reckell's body lay limp on the deck.
Kell shook his head. "Your weapon doesn't kill. Mine will spatter his brains all over."
"You can't pilot this ship without him," Vala snapped. Kell wouldn't hear the fear in her voice and her face would never give it away, but Jehan sensed it. She'd shake apart later, after she stuffed Qetesh's ghost into its compartment again, but for now Vala would channel the haughty Goa'uld queen. Kell would zero in on any apparent weakness on her part.
"You have a second pilot. One who isn't happy."
Jehan had known bringing Caias with them would be a mistake. He'd assumed the smuggler would double-cross them, not make killing Jehan an easier choice. Turned out it was both. He twitched and whimpered in pain. No matter how tight he pressed into his leg, blood was soaking through his pant leg and running between his fingers. Jehan panted through the pain, trying to focus on the situation, but between breaths he could hear droplets of his blood pattering down to the deck. If he didn't do something soon, he would slip into shock and be useless. Not that he wasn't useless anyway - the only thing keeping him conscious was a murderous fury sparked by knowing Recks was dead.
"Zat him," he croaked. "I'm bleeding out."
Vala ignored Jehan and said with sweet venom, "Caias doesn't have the command codes. Without Jehan or Mer and myself, this ship will self-destruct in thirty-six hours."
"Still don't need him, then," Kell replied. "I sent Tyre to get the mouthy ass-fucker."
Mer. Fucking hell, Kell meant Mer.
"With you and him," Kell told Vala, "I don't need this one." He jabbed the muzzle of his gun against Jehan's forehead again and Jehan swayed back. He grabbed with his right hand at the console to keep from falling out of his chair.
The heel of Jehan's hand landed next to the covered switch that would initiate a shipwide alarm and lockdown.
"I'm going to pass out in a second," Jehan slurred for Vala's sake. He hissed in pain and batted clumsily at Kell's gun with his left, flicking blood into Kell's eyes. It distracted Kell long enough to flip the cover off the switch. Kell took a step back and wiped at his face. The gun remained aimed at him, but no longer in contact. Good enough. "Kill him."
Jehan tripped the switch and threw himself onto the deck as the alarms shrieked through the ship. Zat and gun fired together. He hit on his wounded leg and screamed, unable to do anything except clutch at his wounded leg, his universe reduced to pain. A bullet exploded into the nav console which showered sparks onto his neck and face.
A second bullet ricocheted until it shattered the forward viewscreen in an explosion of plastic and crystal.
Jehan curled away from the console and squinted at the body that collapsed beside him. Energy from the zat blast chased over Kell's body. He managed to lift his head as Vala stepped over Reckell.
"I knew I could rely on you, darling," she said as she kicked Kell's gun away and stood astride him.
The zat in her hand whined as it powered up. A second hit, so close to the first, would kill.
"Qetesh would make him pay and pay and pay," she said.
"You aren't Qetesh," Jehan panted.
Vala glanced at him, unsmiling, and said, "Sometimes I am."
Jehan shuddered, half expecting her eyes to flare gold and her voice to echo. It made his skin crawl when Vala showed how much of the Goa'uld queen had become part of her. He would have flinched away if he hadn't been on the edge of passing out.
She looked down at Kell. "Rak'lo najaquna shel're hara kek."
It is time for you to die, Jehan translated. Fine by him. The bridge reeked of gunpowder, ozone, and blood and Reckell's body lay under the environmental console, already decaying.
Vala zatted Kell a second time.
~*~
The colorful rec room reminded Teyla of her people's tents. The furniture was heavier than they'd used, but it was low and comfortable, piled with lush furs and soft pillows covered in silks and velvets. Intricately patterned rugs layered over the cold deck and tapestries decorated the bulkheads. Small lamps that gave a warm light in place of the ship's normal illumination, which made everyone look wan, were placed conveniently. Musical instruments, toys and games from many worlds of the crew's home galaxy were left out for everyone, along with the Tau'ri's ubiquitous laptops. A gold-encrusted sphere balanced on a pyramid incised with hieroglyphs projected holographic performances and a wide version of the viewscreens on the bridge displayed moving pictures instead of tactical data on one wall.
She was playing roes, a tactical game of dice standard through most of Pegasus, with Ronon Dex, Signe, Dushka, Til and Daniel. Signe had picked it up fast but Daniel was swiftly catching up; Til and Dushka were losing everything but their skins to Ronon. One of the Tau'ri scientists they'd freed had curled up on a lounge and started talking with Melena Dex.
Dex rose to his feet with a scowl as Rakai, Chisa, and Ara marched inside with guns in hand. Rakai aimed at Til. Chisa and Ara covered the others.
"Explain," Dex ordered.
"Kell's orders," Ara said when Dex narrowed his eyes. She looked faintly apologetic as she nodded at Melena. "He didn't trust her not to warn their doctor."
"Or because I would have told you it's stupid," Ronon growled. He glanced at his wife and his frown softened. "Go to our quarters and stay there. You'll be safe."
"I was safe before your idiot friends started waving guns around," Melena argued.
Teyla shifted and scooped the six carved dice into her hand. They weren't much as a weapon, but flung into an enemy's eyes, they could slow and distract. She had her knives and her bantos rods, but the Satedans were familiar with such weapons. She did not know whether Daniel carried a weapon, but Signe and Til were both armed. She doubted Dumais had a weapon and couldn't guess how she would react. If the Satedans had not been armed, she would still have accepted such odds gladly, for she was very angry at the Satedan's failure of honor.
They were despicable as the Genii.
"What's going on?" Daniel asked.
Teyla glanced at him sidelong. Despite the oblivious-seeming question, he wasn't naive, he'd gone into the Genii bunkers with the Satedans. He'd been on some kind of team with Mer at one time; there was a story there, but one held almost as closely as Jehan's secrets. Daniel sometimes started to argue with Meredith, only to stop himself with an obvious air of guilt. Janet Fraiser knew, but would not speak of it.
"Kell is taking this ship for Sateda," Rakai declared.
"None of you can fly it," Daniel said. "You can't read English or Goa'uld. How do you think - "
Rakai grinned at him.
"You'll do that for us, Scholar. And you others will fly it for us."
"Not by Hathor's tits," Signe interrupted. He shoved his chair back and came to his feet, hand going to the weapon he carried at his belt.
Teyla snapped her hand out and clutched Til's forearm when he would have lurched to his feet and attacked too.
Rakai shot Signe. The loud crack of the projectile weapon echoed as Signe grunted and fell backward. The wail of the basic ship alarm jolted everyone, as if the gunshot had set it off. The alarm was carefully calibrated - no one could ignore it, but it didn't overwhelm anyone's voice, allowing orders to be given and heard. What it meant under the circumstances was anyone's guess.
Teyla gritted her teeth and resisted the need to go to Signe side as he folded to the deck, bright blood spilling from his belly through his fingers, a spreading pool of it staining the edge of one of the rugs dark. Ara and Chisa were vibrating with adrenaline. Any quick movement would push them over the edge, into pulling their triggers. She had no desire to have a fist-sized hole punched through her body. Signe rolled onto his side, hand going to the wound, kicking at the floor with one heel as whimpered in pain.
Melena pushed her way to her feet and started toward him.
"There are two pilots and we can make that scrawny one we grabbed from the Genii take the engineer's place or the skinny girl," Rakai stated. "The rest of you are only alive to make them cooperate."
"For Sateda?" Dex muttered. "Sateda's gone. This is all for Kell."
"Kell is Sateda now," Rakai insisted.
"Kell destroyed Sateda!" Melena shouted. "He's nothing but a murdering monster - " Chisa shifted her aim, almost pointing a weapon at Melena. Dex moved faster than Teyla expected - or Chisa - and closed his hand over her gun hand, putting himself between it and Melena.
"Never aim at my wife again," Dex growled. His hand tightened over Chisa's until she was sweating with pain, her knees folding.
Melena dropped down beside Signe and began checking the wound. "He isn't dead," she snapped. She glanced up and caught Dushka's gaze. "Help me."
Dushka met Ara's stare and tipped her head, receiving a nod in return. She rose from the table slowly and went to kneel beside Signe.
"Dex!" Rakai shouted, "let her go!"
Dex tore the gun out of Chisa's hand.
"Ronon, we can save him if we get him to their infirmary," Melena called before the confrontation between the two Satedan men could escalate.
"Get him up," Dex said. "We're going there now."
"Ronon - "
"He's no threat like this. Or in the infirmary."
"Let us go now, Rakai," Melena added, "or the next time you're wounded, you can save yourself, because I won't."
"Fine, go," Rakai acceded. "The rest of you stay here until Kell gives other orders."
Dex and Dushka pulled Signe up between them and staggered for the doors while Melena pressed a make shift bandage to the wound Teyla thought would be lethal, no matter what skills Melena or Janet Fraiser possessed.
Teyla's hand was still clutching Til's arm. She felt the muscles flex and contract, but his face was expressionless when she risked a glance at him. Daniel was quiet but tensed as well.
"I think he broke my hand," Chisa complained, cradling it to her chest.
Teyla made a note that Chisa would be weak on that side and she was disarmed now too. That left Rakai and Ara with guns.
Only Ara kept an eye on Teyla, even though they'd seen her put down two of theirs on Belkan. They were all Wraith-tall and so confident in their size as well as their skills; they didn't see her as a threat.
Teyla knew Ara was the real danger of the two Satedans left to guard them.
Daniel fidgeted with his glasses, drawing Rakai's attention. Ara stared at Teyla. That meant she couldn't see Lydia Dumais slowly draw a closed laptop closer. Chisa dropped onto a blue sofa and tried to wrap a length of leather around her rapidly swelling wrist. Til growled under his breath and Rakai sneered back at him. The unsteady wail of the alarm clawed at all of their nerves.
"I'm going to shoot that Wraith-damned alarm if it doesn't shut up," Ara snapped.
She flinched and half-turned to the doors as the airlocks thunked closed without warning. Teyla flicked the dice into Rakai's face then dived toward Ara. Dumais jumped to her feet and used both hands to slam the laptop into the back of Chisa's head repeatedly. Daniel and Til shoved the low table in front of them forward into Rakai's legs. He went down as Ara spun back and fired where Teyla had been, but Teyla wasn't there. Instead she tackled Ara's legs and brought her down. She rolled to her own feet, kicked the gun away from Ara's hand, and disabled her in five fast blows. Ara was bigger than her, but so were the Wraith, and Teyla had survived a year as a Runner.
Til had Rakai down and was methodically beating him unconscious.
Lydia Dumais picked up Rakai's gun and handed it to Daniel once he'd straightened his glasses.
Teyla walked over to the upended game table and retrieved Ara's gun.
"Well done," she told Lydia.
"That laptop's history."
"I do not think anyone will be upset." Unless it was one of Meredith's, but Jehan would quiet him.
"Should we tie them up?" Lydia asked.
Daniel joined them. "I think so. We might be in here for a while. The airlocks only close for emergencies."
Til dropped Rakai's unconscious form back to the deck and got to his feet. He stirred Rakai's torso with the toe of his boot and when that got no reaction, nodded in satisfaction. A trickle of blood made its way from his nostril but he wiped it away without concern.
"Vala probably vented the corridors," Til said. "Keeps everyone where they are."
Daniel glanced at the airlock doors. "So we're probably safe enough for the moment?"
Til nodded confidently.
"Vala and Jehan will deal with Kell and the others. If they don't, Mer will blow up the ship."
"Yeah," Daniel said, "that's... not exactly reassuring."
Til shrugged and began ripping long strips off one of the heavy silken throws covering the furniture to tie up the three Satedans.
Teyla shared a look with Lydia Dumais. The other woman seemed unbothered by the prospect.
Once Til finished securing Rakai, Chisa and Ara, he walked over and nodded to Lydia Dumais. "You bought yourself a crew share, I figure."
Lydia looked interested. "For what?"
"Fighting for the crew. Up to Vala and Jehan and Mer whether you stay, but they'll pay you out a share for the trip on that basis, even if you don't stay on."
"Hmmm."
"Oh, come on," Daniel muttered. "Am I the only one who isn't enamored of this space pirates crap?"
~*~
Lindsay was off shift, but she couldn't resist showing off her hyperdrive babies to the scientists they'd rescued. Vala wanted to recruit all three of them and Lindsay knew the hybrid tech would be as big a selling point as the relative safety of the ship. Meredith could be overwhelming, too. Besides, she was damned proud of her designs.
Meredith was telling Zelenka he was wrong about something when she came in, so Lindsay smiled at Kusanagi. "Come over here," she said, "I'll show you how we've merged the Asgard protocols with Goa'uld materials in the refit."
"I am honored," Kusanagi said.
Lindsay grinned at her. "You're going to love this." She gestured for Kusanagi to come around the control console. "I'm Lindsay, in case no one told you."
"It would please me if you called me Miko."
"Great."
"Where in Anubis' unspeakable depths did you get your degree!?" Meredith snapped at Zelenka. "It's not base ten!"
"It is a Tau'ri ship!" Zelenka yelled back.
"Not any more!" Meredith shouted back.
Miko looked alarmed, but Lindsay kept smiling. Meredith yelled at Jehan and Vala all the time, Reckell and Signe and even Daniel. He expected them to yell back. He smiled at her the day she called him a constipated, arrogant bastard with his head up his ass. He and Zelenka were going to get along wonderfully.
The door sliding open for Tyre and a squad of Satedans made her heart stutter with terror, but Lindsay didn't panic. The awkward L-shaped angle of the drive chamber was a result of the shape of the hyperdrive generators, but it meant the console where she and Miko stood wasn't immediately visible from the door. Lindsay snagged Miko's sleeve and dragged her down out of sight.
Miko's eyes were wide behind her thick, scratched glasses, but she was silent as Lindsay stuffed her into the knee well and squeezed in beside her.
"You don't belong down here," Meredith snapped at Tyre. That dismissive tone grated any time it was leveled at someone. "Get out."
"Kell wants you on the bridge, ahr-danp," Tyre sneered.
Lindsay guessed ahr-danp meant something disgusting and insulting in the Satedans language. She didn't dare raise her head to see either Tyre or Meredith's expressions.
"Sokar take Kell and what he wants," Meredith said. "You aren't in charge."
"Kell wants you alive," Tyre replied, "he didn't say anything about in one piece."
Lindsay worked her smaller knife out of its hiding place quietly. Her palms were greasy with sweat. She gave it to Miko who looked bewildered, but gripped with tightly, while Lindsay slid her favorite out of the sheath at her belt. Teyla had told her to carry two. She thought after this she'd add a couple more to her collection.
"Time you learned your place," Tyre said. "Chali, Agha, watch the little one."
She didn't know exactly what to do, beyond not get caught - Jehan had thought she was a threat when he and Vala took the ship. Lindsay swallowed. If she could get to the auxillary control room, she could lock down the ship, shut down life support, even vent atmosphere. If nothing else worked, she could threaten to blow the hyperdrives, either killing or stranding them, if the Satedans didn't give up. She just had to stay free.
That meant being forced to listen as the Satedans beat Meredith, her breath coming too fast, incandescent rage burning under her breast bone. How dared they!? This wasn't like the way the Prometheus had been taken. Zelenka spat a litany of curses at the Satedansholding him. She could hear the thick thud of fists hitting flesh and Tyre laughing as Meredith sobbed for breath. Tyre's laughter sounded like her brother's had every time he'd broken something he knew Lindsay loved.
There had to be something else she could do. The knife she had wouldn't be enough against five trained soldiers so much larger than herself, even though Lindsay was shocked to realize she had no compunctions about using it. Miko probably knew less about fighting than Lindsay did, though from the set expression on her face, she was ready to charge out to Zelenka's rescue.
Lindsay needed a better weapon. A zat would be nice and she had every intention of carrying one from now on, but for the moment she'd settle happily for anything.
Anything being the blaster Meredith hung in its holster over the back of the chair at the main control console.
The chair was turned the wrong way, seat facing her and the back away. She could spin it, but the Satedans might see. If she crawled around, she lose her cover. She'd never fired anything like the blaster either. It might take her a second or two to figure out its safety and power settings.
Lindsay figured she'd only have one chance.
She leaned close and put her lips against Miko's ear. "Miko, I need you to create a diversion," she whispered.
Miko stared at her.
Lindsay pointed at the blaster in its holster. "I can stun everyone with that."
Miko took a deep breath and nodded. She pressed close to Lindsay and murmured, "I would be honored."
Lindsay swallowed. Okay. They were going to do this.
Meredith was making gutteral, horrible sounds now and she was afraid Tyre and his thugs were having too much fun to remember to keep him alive. "On three," she breathed.
Miko wriggled out from under the console, still clutching Lindsay's second favorite knife, crouched and waited until Lindsay was out and in position with her hand on the chair, ready to spin it.
"One," she mouthed.
Miko went up on her toes and the fingers of one hand like a runner. She kept a white-knuckled grip on the knife with her other hand.
"Two."
Lindsay exhaled silently and focused.
"Three."
She spun the chair. Miko erupted from behind the console, screaming, and went over the console. Lindsay grabbed the butt of the blaster and drew it. It was big in her hand, but her thumb fell naturally on the safety and she flicked it up into the stun setting. She aimed over the console and shot the Satedan holding Meredith against the bulkhead. Tyre snapped his head around and saw her.
Miko crashed into the man closest to the console, Chali or Aghal, as Zelenka twisted, kicked, and bit at him. She slashed the edge across her target's eyes, shrieking in Japanese, then whipped it at the hand of the other man who had been holding Zelenka.
Tyre started to pull his own weapon and Meredith began sliding down the wall onto the man Lindsay had stunned, tangling his legs between the ankles of the other thug.
Lindsay squeezed the trigger again and again, spraying the room with stun blasts. The edge of one caught Tyre's arm and he dropped his gun. She aimed the next time and hit his legs. Swung the blaster, aimed and hit the chest of the last man before he could kick himself free of Meredith.
Miko's first victim had his hands clamped over his eyes and was screaming, blood and fluid running down his cheeks. She and Zelenka had the other man down, ripping at him with the mad savagery of long pent up terror. Lindsay thought they'd already killed him.
Lindsay staggered to her feet, supporting the weight of the blaster with both hands.
Tyre tried to wrest a gun from one of his stunned fellows. Meredith got there first. Tyre tried to roll away as Meredith lifted the Satedan gun and aimed it at him. Lindsay wondered if Meredith could even see; both of his eyes were swelling shut while blood ran from his nose and his mouth.
Lindsay stunned the blinded Satedan, then aimed at Tyre again.
"Don't move," she ordered. Her voice was shaking.
Tyre tried to get to his feet.
"I said don't move!" she yelled. She didn't want to shoot him again; she didn't know if the blasters worked like zats did. Too many stuns might kill him.
Meredith spat something unintelligible, blood spraying out with the word.
Tyre's knee folded under him and he sprawled face down, but his fingers scrabbled over the deck, reaching for his lost weapon.
Lindsay fired. So did Meredith.
The ship wide alarms began shrieking.
Meredith forced himself to his feet using the bulkhead. He spat again and wiped at his mouth with the back of the hand still clutching the Satedan gun.
"We have to secure here and then get to the bridge," he slurred. "Ze - you, get a weapon."
Zelenka pulled back from the body under him. Slick red painted his face and hands. "Yes, yes," he croaked.
Meredith stayed propped against the bulkhead. Lindsay watched him waver and point the gun at the stunned Satedans. She flinched as he pulled the trigger again and once more, killing the last man.
Lindsay averted her eyes, but that left her looking at the mess of blood, hair, bone and gray matter that had replaced Tyre's face. She doubled over and vomited convulsively.
Being a pirate had been supposed to be fun, not... this.
~*~
Janet had never heard the infirmary alarm outside of drills. The cycling wail made the hairs on her arms stand up and the lack of any announcement over the shipwide comms disturbed her, but she did what she'd been trained to do. She scrambled to set up for incoming casualties, setting out trays of instruments and unlocking the drug cabinet for easier access, then scrubbed up and donned a set of sterile gloves. She finished as the doors opened and four people came inside at a stumbling run. Three people really, two of them carrying a third, and Melena Dex doing her best to keep him from bleeding out.
Signe. Damn it. He was a cross-tempered asshole, but Janet had never expected to see him shot. She caught glimpse of the wound; that was a bullet wound. She'd sewn up enough of them in her career as an Air Force doctor to know.
"What the hell the happened?" Janet demanded even as she pointed at the exam table. Dex and Dushka hefted Signe up, while Melena kept pressure on the wound in his gut. "What's going on?"
"Kell's taking the ship," Dex said.
"Well, good luck," Janet snapped. "It's not like there isn't a precedent."
"Kell's trying," Melena amended.
"Did you shoot him?" Janet accused Dex as she yanked out the sterilized trays of instruments.
"He got in Rakai's way," Dex replied.
"He didn't have to shoot him!" Melena yelled at her husband. She was soaked in Signe's blood from breast to thighs, fingertips to shoulders, furious and scared.
Dushka headed for the doors and he caught her shoulder and dragged her back. "You're safer in here with us."
Janet grabbed a set of gloves and threw them at Dushka. "Put those on." It gave Dushka something to do; Janet figured Signe had all of Dushka's germs anyway.
She pointed at Dex and Melena. "You, get out of the way. Melena, scrub up. Dush, help me roll him onto his side, I need to see if the bullet exited."
"It did," Dex said as he retired to the doors.
Signe's lips were turning blue-gray. His head lolled to the side and his blood pooled on the table and ran over the edge. Janet gritted her teeth, sparing a instant to wish she could use the Goa'uld healing devices. Signe was a mess; the Satedans' ammunition had been designed to to maximize damage. Still, she had him in her infirmary, she had everything she needed - except a trained trauma team - and she knew she could save him.
"Tell me what to do," Melena said as she pulled on her gloves.
~*~
continued in [d]