The Haunting of New Atlantia
Title: The Haunting of New Atlantia
Author: stella_pegasi
Genre(s): Gen, Action/adventure
Rating: PG
Character(s): John Sheppard, Rodney McKay, Ronon Dex, Teyla Emmagan, Evan Lorne, Carson Beckett, Original Characters.
Spoilers/Warnings: None / Minor Language
Word count: 9505
Disclaimer: I do not own them, I would have treated them better.
Summary: A missing science mission leads to an unexpected and unnerving discovery on New Atlantia.
Written for stargateland's Challenge Spooky Tropes.
THE HAUNTING OF NEW ATLANTIA
By stella_pegasi
John Sheppard was running for his life, and he had no idea who, or what, was chasing him. He ran down the corridor until it merged into a cross hallway, dim light illuminating the hallway to his left. He skidded around the corner running toward the silver light spilling through a narrow window at the end of the hall.
"Crap," he whispered in a raspy voice; the hallway was a dead-end. The only way out was through the small opening above his head. He spun around toward the darkness he had run from, then leaned against the cold, rough stone wall for support. His heart was pounding from the adrenaline flooding his system, his breaths ragged, shallow, his body flush with heat. He blew out deep puffs of air, trying to calm down.
"Okay, John," he chided himself, "there's got to be a good explanation for what just happened." He tried to will himself calm, but he wasn't having much success. "Damn it, what the hell just happened?"
Sheppard steeled himself to move back down the corridor toward the darkness. He was nearly at the corridor junction when a high-pitched scream pierced the silence. He halted, trying to orient himself to the location of the scream. He dropped his head; the noise was coming from the direction he had been running from. He didn't want to go back there, but someone was in trouble. Stealthily, he approached the junction, peeking around the corner, only darkness meeting his gaze; he took a deep breath and stepped around the corner. The last thing he remembered was an intense white-blue light enveloping him and a scream, his own.
~ooOoo~
Seven Hours Earlier
"Watch out, colonel!"
Sheppard ducked as a string of orange miniature lights swung toward him, brushing his shoulder. Turning to see who has yelled at him, he found Corporal Ray Rodriguez standing on a ladder, a grimace on his face.
"Sorry, sir; the lights slipped out of my hand."
"No problem, Ray; it's looking good in here."
The corporal gave Sheppard a wide smile, "Gonna be fun, sir. Got your costume yet?"
"Yep but not telling anyone."
It was mid-afternoon, and the lunch rush was over. Sheppard grabbed a sandwich and as he was heading for the table where Rodney and Teyla were sitting, he checked out the decorations for the Halloween party. Orange lights decorated the walls, and there were ghosts, goblins, skeletons, and bats hanging from the ceiling. The party was in two days, but Sheppard had cajoled Woolsey into allowing the decorations to go up earlier, to help create a festive atmosphere. The Daedalus had arrived the day before bring a couple of pallet loads of pumpkins, which were now stored in one corner of the mess hall.
Teyla smiled as he approached, "John, it is beginning to look like Halloween."
He returned the smile as he sat down, "You really enjoy this Earth custom, don't you?"
She grinned, "I have to admit that many of Earth's customs confuse me but for some reason, this one is fun. To be whatever you choose to be for one night and get candy in addition."
Rodney mumbled, having just taken a huge bite of meatloaf, "That's the only good part."
Sheppard smirked, "Really, Rodney…let's see…you seemed to love dressing up as me in a Captain Kirk uniform, with all your redshirts around you a couple of years ago."
"The only good thing about this holiday is playing jokes on you," Rodney muttered.
Teyla responded with an eyebrow arched, "I would be careful, Rodney; John mentioned after the clowns of last year that his motto was 'don't get mad, get even.'"
Sheppard noted a momentary look of panic cross Rodney's face, but he didn't give the scientist time to reply, let him stew about Teyla's comment. "Where's Ronon?"
"In the gym, some new Marines, who arrived on the Daedalus, took up the challenge to see if they could defeat him."
"Oh…I suppose I should go to the infirmary later and check on the injured."
"I believe that would be advisable, colonel."
Rodney pointed to the corner, "What's with all the pumpkins?"
"Well, the last couple of years, if you remember, the Marines volunteered to carve the pumpkins. This year, Zelenka and Dr. Biro decided to challenge the Marines to a carving contest. I'm not sure what they were thinking; those K-Bars make quick work of a pumpkin."
"A pumpkin carving contest, oh, joy; what idiots have been roped into judging these works of art?"
"That would be Woolsey, me and...you."
"No…I don't want to do that…"
"Stop whining, you're doing it."
They spent the rest of lunch teasing each other about what they were wearing to the costume party. Sheppard knew that Rodney was up to something, but he didn't know what. He did inform them that Woolsey had gotten a large package, and speculated that it might be his costume. Woolsey had surprised them all; on the surface, he tried to keep the festivities reined in, then showed up in costume. The Atlantis director was much more complex than any of them had imagined.
After parting company with Rodney and Teyla, Sheppard headed for the gym to check on his troops. When he walked in, the new Marines, at least the ones able to, came to attention.
He waved his arm casually, "At ease, Marines; carry on." He walked over to Major Lorne, who was leaning against the wall. "So, no permanent damage yet?"
Lorne chuckled, "Not yet, sir; Ronon's going fairly easy on them. We might have one problem though."
"Only one? That constitutes a good day, major; what's the problem?"
Lorne pointed to a tall, very muscular Marine, who was currently sparring with Ronon. "Sergeant Jarrod Minter, he's not exactly been good natured about his inability to take Ronon down. I started to intervene, but I got the look from Ronon and backed off."
"Minter, he's the one we almost passed on, isn't he?"
"Yes, sir; he's had some issues in the past, did good work on an SGC team, but requested a transfer here. He didn't really get along with his team leader, but stopped short of insubordination. I don't think either Colonel Mitchell or General Landry was too sorry to see him go."
"Whose team drew his assignment?"
"No one at the moment, I was thinking about putting him on Isaacs' team for training. Isaacs' is an excellent leader, fair and good-natured, but I'm beginning to think I might need to keep him with me for a while."
"No, assign him to my team."
Lorne looked surprised, but decided against asking why; he simply answered, "Yes, sir."
Sheppard and Lorne watched the sparring for a while longer, until they received a summons to come to the control room.
As he trotted up the gate room stairs, Lorne shadowing him, Sheppard spotted Woolsey standing next to the gate tech's console, manned on the day shift by Canadian Air Force Sergeant Chuck Campbell. He noted that Zelenka was working at another console.
"What's happening?"
Woolsey frowned, "Colonel; SGA-16 is four hours overdue."
"Four hours," his voice betraying a slight tone of anger, "why am I just hearing about this now?"
Chuck spoke, "Colonel, Lieutenant McDowell's team was escorting Dr. Egorov on a science mission. They were due to return at 1900 hours, but Lt. McDowell told us they might be later than that. However, she promised to call in regularly to keep us apprised."
"Have they reported in regularly?"
"Not as often as teams off world normally do, colonel; however, they did call in early this morning with a problem. According to Liang's log from 0622 hours, they spoke to Dr. Zelenka regarding an issue with the special topography scanning equipment attached onto the jumper." He read further down the screen. "It appears the matter was resolved, and they continued the mission."
"Have you tried to raise them, Chuck?"
"I have but I'm only getting dead air, sir."
Zelenka interrupted, "Colonel the issue with the scanning equipment needed only a minor adjustment. Chuck called me now to run a diagnostic on the communication system. We deployed COM buoys in orbit so that we could stay in touch with them while…"
Sheppard interrupted, "The same COM satellites you developed for the Coalition?"
"Yes, the same; we thought it would be safer since, they would be on the other side of New Atlantia for a great part of their mission. The COM buoys are working."
Sheppard sucked in a sharp breath, "Okay…we need to go find them." He turned to Lorne, "Get three jumpers ready for S&R; we depart in fifteen minutes. Zelenka, you're coming, too."
As Sheppard headed for the gear-up room, Zelenka in tow, he tapped his COM, asking Teyla to notify Ronon, and then contacted Rodney. Behind him, he could hear Lorne arranging for the S&R teams.
Minutes after they arrived in the gear-up room Rodney McKay entered. "Sheppard, what's happening?"
"Egorov's team hasn’t reported in for four hours, and we can't raise them, so we are going after them."
"Oh, great...that Russian pestered the hell out of me until I let him get that new equipment, so he could do this. He'd better not messed that scanner up; it took a big chunk of my budget."
"Rodney, it's just equipment; I think Egorov, and the others are just a bit more important. Now get your gear on, we leave in less than ten."
As Sheppard zipped up his TAC vest, Ronon and Teyla entered, as did the remainder of Lorne's team and Lt. Jeffers's team. Major Teldy's team arrived, Captains Stackhouse and Isaacs's teams, along with a couple of EMTs followed. Sergeant Jarrod Minter came in seconds later, still buttoning his uniform, his hair wet from a quick shower. He approached Lorne, "Sir, reporting as ordered."
Lorne jerked his head toward Sheppard, "You are being assigned to Colonel Sheppard's team, sergeant; report to the colonel." Lorne didn't miss the sergeant's eyes widening; good, he thought, the sergeant's uneasy about the assignment. His doubts about Sheppard's choice faded; the sergeant was about to get a lesson in what being a team really meant.
"Okay, everyone: Lorne's briefed you on the situation. Dr. Zelenka has uploaded Egorov's mapping grid; we'll start there. Jeffers, you fly polar orbit, the route McDowell was flying. Lorne, go east below the equator; I'll go west above the equator and fan out from there. Be alert for anything off the grid pattern, they may have deviated off course. Thanks to Dr. Zelenka's COM buoys we can stay in touch; check in every fifteen minutes. Get to the bay, we leave in five."
Sheppard was hooking his P-90 to his vest, as Sgt. Minter walked up to him, "Sir, reporting for duty." The sergeant stood extremely ramrod straight, causing Sheppard to stifle a chuckle at the panicked look on the young Marine's face. When he replied, he managed to keep his voice steady, serious.
"At ease, sergeant; come on, we've got some people to locate."
As they entered the jumper bay, Sheppard heard Dr. Beckett's voice. "Hold up, colonel; I'm coming along." Carrying his large med pack, Carson Beckett rushed up to the jumper Sheppard was entering. As he passed Ronon, the big man grabbed the med pack and placed it inside the jumper.
Sheppard stood on the ramp, "Teldy you're with Jeffers, Isaacs with Lorne; Zelenka, you and Stackhouse with me." The teams dispersed to their assigned jumpers and within minutes, the outer tower bay doors opened, and the three jumpers rose into the night sky.
~ooOoo~
Sheppard banked his jumper, dubbed S&R 1, one toward the west, leaving Atlantis behind them. Rodney was sitting in the copilot's seat, while Beckett and Teyla were behind them. Radek was sitting on the jump seat next to the science station. He glanced over his shoulder to see that Ronon had joined Stackhouse and his team in the rear compartment. Sergeant Minter was seated directly in front of Ronon, who seemed to be watching the young sergeant closely. Sighing, Sheppard thought, Minter was either going to realize Ronon was his ally, not his enemy, or this was going to be a very interesting mission.
He bought up the HUD, switching to long range sensors; the screen only displayed signals from Atlantis and the three jumpers. "Radek, Chuck is continuing to try and raise McDowell; he'll let us know. Anything showing up on your scans?"
"No, colonel, nothing; I'm getting a ping from the radio at the Athosian settlement but nothing else."
"Anyone contact Halling to see if they had seen the jumper?"
Teyla asked, "I asked Chuck to do so. He reported back just before we left; my people have had no contact with the jumper, colonel."
"They have to be here somewhere; we just keep looking."
"This is like looking for a needle in a haystack, Sheppard. If the jumper lost power, it's no telling how long it will take until we find them."
Sheppard was staring out of the jumper window at the sun, which was sinking toward the horizon. "Rodney, we'll keep looking; I'll put more jumpers in the air, whatever it takes." Gazing out the windshield again, he added, "For now, we chase the sun until we find them."
Nearly four hours passed as the three jumpers crisscrossed the area where they speculated Lt. McDowell's jumper might be located. Lorne had reported an anomaly in his search area but after landing, they found only an unusual rock formation that was giving off low-levels of radiation, another mystery for another day.
Rodney was becoming impatient, "There has to be a better way to do these searches."
"If your geeks were working on how to adapt the Asgard transponders to the jumpers, this would be a lot easier."
"You know… we've been just a little busy, what with getting back to Pegasus and defeating the Wraith, and helping the Coalition." Rodney's tone was rather testy.
"Eat a powerbar, McKay; you're getting cranky."
"Very funny, flybo…," he stopped when Teyla dangled a powerbar over his shoulder. He snatched it from her fingertips, ripped the wrapper off, and bit off a great big chunk. While Rodney chewed, Sheppard glanced over his shoulder at Teyla and gave her a knowing grin.
They continued for another thirty minutes, the other two S&R teams reporting no sign of the missing jumper. The setting sun was still low on their horizon, the soft orange glow giving the sky an eerie glow.
Beckett, who had been reading reports on his pad to pass the time, looked up at the beautiful sight out the jumper view screen. "That sky is gorgeous, reminds me of sunsets over Loch Fyne."
Sheppard glanced over his shoulder, "Scotland is a beautiful country, Carson; I remember the sunsets when I was there training with the British SAS, the special air services' unit. We trained in the rugged highlands to simulate Afghanistan"
"Aye, lad, Scotland is beautiful. Have we ever been to this part of the planet, John?"
"No, at least, I haven't, big planet to explore, and little time to devote to it until now. But with the Athosians settlement and so many refugees from the Wraith and Replicators, who were allies of the Athosians, relocating here, it's time to make certain what's on this rock. We don't want any surprises to comprise the safety of the new inhabitants."
Teyla commented, concern in her voice, "I am most concerned about the additional people coming to live here. There is no other gate and should Atlantis have to leave or be destroyed, what would happen to them?"
"I am too, Teyla, as is Woolsey. If Rodney here can figure out how to bring a gate and DHD to the mainland and hook them up, then if we have to leave, we can put that gate into commission, so the Athosians won't be isolated, and at the mercy of the Coalition or the SGC for assistance."
"We're working on that Sheppard, just cool your rockets. It takes time to work out the intricacies," McKay snarked.
Glancing sideways at McKay, "You could always ask Sam for help."
McKay's head snapped around toward Sheppard, finger in air, about to snap back at the colonel, when the HUD popped up. There was a ping on the sensors; something large was ahead.
Sheppard adjusted the jumper's heading toward the object. "Looks like a structure of some kind, too angular to be natural. Any reports of an Ancient outpost or something in this area, Rodney?"
McKay shook his head, "No, nothing." He swiveled his chair to face the rear of the cockpit where Dr. Zelenka was sitting, "Radek, anything like this in the database?"
The Czech scientist answered, "No, there is really very little about New Atlantia in the database; we don’t even know what its real name is, if it has one."
Twilight had fallen and the planet's visible twin moons had risen, still low on the eastern horizon. As they approached the structure, they saw it was sitting on the edge of a lake, the water's surface glimmering in the moonlight. The building was expansive; most of the structure was two to three stories high, but at one end, along a point that jutted slightly into the lake was two multi-storied towers, one taller than the other. When Sheppard swung over the lake to get a better view of the building, he and Rodney uttered 'there' in unison. The missing jumper was sitting on an expanse of land between the lake shore and a tall imposing gate.
Sheppard tapped the jumper's COM, "Sheppard to S&R 2 and 3, located target, I repeat, located target. Sending coordinates now." He glanced up at the HUD and watched as the display confirmed the coordinates transmitted. He waited for acknowledgement of his message, but the radio remained silent. He repeated the message, requesting acknowledgement from Lorne or Jeffers. Glancing over at Rodney, who was listening intently, "Lorne, Jeffers, come in. Can you hear me? Acknowledge." Again, nothing.
"Rodney…"
"Give me a minute…," McKay ran his fingers across his pad, keying in commands, "I…everything appears to be working but according to these readings, our signal is transmitting, but only a few yards. There's some kind of dampening field, it's blocking the signal; the other jumpers can't hear us."
"Great…ok, let's see if McDowell and the others are in a range." He activated the COM link again, "McDowell...this is Sheppard, come in. McDowell...this is Sheppard; we're over your jumper location. Acknowledge." His message only generated more silence. After attempting two more times, Sheppard decided to land. The jumper was nearly on the ground when static flooded their COM units, through the static a faint voice echoed, "Col…help…"
Sheppard eased the jumper onto the ground, next to McDowell's, then turned to the others, "McDowell and the others are in trouble, get ready." He stood up, grabbed his P-90 from the storage cradle, and as he was re-hooking it to his TAC vest, he issued orders, "Zelenka, stay here and see if you can get communications working and get those other jumpers here; Sergeant Parker, you stay with him. Everyone else with me, let's go get our people."
Sheppard stopped at the rear hatch and with a thought, lowered the ramp. He exited, Stackhouse and Corporal Rodriguez flanking him, Corporal Brenner behind. Ronon and Minter were behind them; Teyla, Rodney, and Carson held at the hatch opening on Sheppard's direction.
The colonel whispered into his COM, "Stackhouse, take your team, scout out the building; Ronon, Minter you're with me; we'll check out the jumper. Teyla, Rodney, Carson stay here until I call you."
Sheppard's group moved toward the jumper with weapons raised. A quick walk around revealed the interior was dark. "No power…let me see if I can bring her online." Crouching under the viewport, Sheppard touched the jumper and concentrated, managing to power her up. Slowly, he rose to peek into the cockpit; the first thing he noticed was a small foot encased in an athletic shoe, the kind worn by the science team.
He rushed toward the ramp, thinking it open. By the time he reached the rear of the jumper, the ramp was partially deployed. He stepped up and entered, his companions behind him. They found the diminutive biologist Dr. Janice Peet curled behind the copilot's seat in the cockpit.
Sheppard dropped to his knees next to her; she was whimpering, "Dr. Peet... it's okay...it's Colonel Sheppard." She reached for him, clinging to him, as though frightened to let go. He turned to Minter, "Get Beckett."
Peet pulled away from him, wiping tears from her eyes, breathing hard as she spoke. "Colonel…I thought I was going to die. These weird lights… surrounded the jumper," she took a deep breath, "the lieutenant made us stay here, while they went to check it out, but…they never came back. Dr. Egorov…he and Dr. Patterson went to see what happened to Lieutenant McDowell and the others, and they…they didn't come back either. I kept hearing screams, then silence. I knew you come to save us; you have to find them."
"Don't worry...we'll find them. long have you been here?"
"I…I don't know…uh…it was around noon time when we spotted the structure. It's huge and Dr. Patterson…said there was nothing in the database…about such a structure on the planet."
Sheppard heard boots hitting the ramp in a hurry, Beckett. He stood up, pulling Peet to her feet. "Dr. Beckett is here; he'll take care of you."
He turned to Beckett, "Get her into the other jumper, Minter…you carry her." Minter picked up the 4'9" Peet, as if she was a feather and exited the jumper, Beckett behind them.
Sheppard walked off the jumper to find Teyla and McKay waiting with Ronon. "Looks like the others are inside the building. McKay, that pad telling you anything?"
"Some EM spikes in the area but nothing consistent. I'm not sure…," he was interrupted by a sharp scream.
Sheppard tapped his COM, "Stackhouse, report."
Over their COMs, they heard Stackhouse's steady voice, "Sir…that scream came from inside the building."
"Hold your positions; we're on our way, captain."
Sheppard quickly returned to the other jumper. Beckett was attending to Peet, while Zelenka was trying to establish communication with Lorne and Jeffers. "Beckett, stay here, I need for you to be able to get this jumper out of here. Zelenka any luck raising the others?"
Zelenka shook his head no, but said, "Colonel…we are losing power and I do not know why."
Sheppard chewed on his lower lip for a second, then ordered, "Radek, try to get the power fixed, but I want you guys inside this jumper, do not open this hatch for anyone, unless you get the signal." He turned to leave.
Beckett prodded, "And the signal is…?"
Sighing, Sheppard said, "If we can't get you by radio, we'll throw rocks at the viewport."
Beckett nodded, and Sheppard added, "Listen, regardless of what happens, when Radek gets enough power re-established to fly this jumper out of here, I want you to go. Contact Lorne and Jeffers once you are clear of whatever's blocking long range communication, and get them here."
Before anyone could answer, Sheppard exited the jumper, closing the ramp behind him. He joined the others, "Let's go." They headed toward the gate to join Stackhouse and his team.
The iron gate was about ten feet tall, the intricately curved design was rusted and broken in places. Stackhouse was standing at the gate with Corporal Brenner, while Corporal Rodriguez was returning from scouting along the building's outer wall.
"Anything, captain?"
"Only that the gate is open, sir; neither Brenner nor I have seen any of our people, the place looks deserted. At least, deserted if it wasn’t for the scream we heard."
Rodriguez trotted up, "Nothing that way either, sirs."
Sheppard turned to Rodney, "You got anything?"
Shaking his head, the scientist replied, "Only the sporadic EM spikes." In the pale moonlight, Rodney's face reflected his concern as he looked at Sheppard, "I'm only registering our life signs, nothing from inside."
Sucking in a deep breath, then blowing it out, Sheppard said, "They're in there, we'll find them."
He pushed the gate open with his booted foot, and walked into the fortress. A large heavy wooden double door loomed in front of them across the square courtyard. Huge pounded metal hinges and large round door pulls on the center of each door. Sheppard motioned to Minter and Rodriguez to pull the doors open, while the rest took defensive positions. Slowly, the team advanced into the fortress.
Light from their P-90 flashlights revealed a large high-ceilinged chamber; how large was difficult to tell as the darkness swallowed up the light. Sheppard whispered to Stackhouse, who was wearing a rucksack, "Got light sticks?"
Stackhouse slipped his pack off, and pulled four light sticks out, "I have four, sir."
"Okay, this place is huge; we're going to have to split up in order to search quickly. McKay, you're with me, Ronon with Minter, Stackhouse with Brenner, Teyla with Rodriguez. I want radio checks every five minutes…whatever's dampening the jumper COM's could begin to affect us. Move out."
As the teams drifted apart, Sheppard and McKay headed for a barely visible, wide staircase on the far side of the room. Approaching, they could see that the center staircase rose toward a second story, which was open to the lower chamber. On each side, were staircases leading to a lower level.
"Let's go down," Sheppard said as he started to descend.
"Why do we have to go down? It's really dark down there," Rodney whined.
"Yes it's dark, and we are missing people, and if I was gonna hide 'em, I hide 'em in the dark…come on."
McKay followed reluctantly, "There usually dungeons in places like this."
"McKay, I swear…" they had just reached the landing when the air became very cold.
"Damn, it's cold here," Sheppard took a couple of steps down off the landing, "and warmer here." He hopped back up to the landing, "Any EM spike?"
Huffing McKay looked at his pad, then at Sheppard, "Yeah, a pretty strong one, how did you know?"
"Cold spot; come on…need to keep going."
They proceeded slowly down the stairs, finding themselves in at the beginning of a wide corridor, both staircases spilling into the area. He whispered, "Any readings?" Rodney answered no.
Sheppard kept walking until they came to a cross hall. As he was shining his light down the side corridor on their right, he heard Rodney gasped.
In a timorous voice, McKay said, "To the left, I'm getting a life sign, but it's weak."
Sheppard didn't hesitate; he spun to the left, picking up his pace as he headed down the corridor, McKay trotting to keep up with him. The hallway consisted of cells, enclosed with rusty iron bars. As Sheppard shined his light into each cell as they passed, he thought he heard Rodney mumble something about 'dungeons.' They were nearing the midpoint when they heard a soft moan. Rushing toward the cry, they were shocked at what they found.
Sheppard sucked in a deep breath, in front of them was Sergeant Jeff Murray and Corporal Gary Schaeffer, standing upright, chained to the back wall of the cell, their bodies encased in a pale green glow. Soft moans seemed to emanate from the Marines as Sheppard rattled the cell door. The door didn't budge; it was locked securely.
"Crap, they're alive, right?"
"Yes, the signal's weak but it's probably because of the energy around them…some kind of force field I think."
Their COM's cackled as the other teams began to report in. Sheppard interrupted them, "We've found Murray and Schaeffer, in a cell on the lower level, chained, and held in some kind of force field. We're going to keep looking down here for the others. Report again in five…Shepp…" A loud scream flooded their COMs; Sheppard yelled, "Who was that? Everyone report."
"Colonel…Rodriguez…sir, something…I don't know...bright light…took Teyla…"
"Where are you?" Sheppard asked as he started running toward the center corridor.
Rodriguez had regained composure, his voice steady as he answered, "We headed left from the entrance. We had just gotten to this archway leading to another wing when the light appeared and Teyla vanished, sir."
"Stay there, I'm coming to you. Everyone else, continue where you are."
Sheppard and McKay ran up the stairs and headed for the archway where Rodriguez said he was, but there was no Rodriguez. "What the hell…McKay, tell me something."
"There's nothing to tell, just more EM spikes but much stronger than before."
"Some kind of beaming thing or something?'
"I don't know...maybe…I…don't know."
"Well, find out McKay, we've got people chained up and people disappearing. I need some answers." He tapped his COM, "Everyone back to the entrance chamber…now."
He grabbed Rodney's sleeve, "Come on." They turned, hurrying back down the corridor when they passed through another cold spot. Sheppard slowed a bit, "Cold again; if I didn't know any better, I'd think we were in an episode of "Ghost Hunters."
"Ghost Hunter's…what the hell is that?"
"Don't you ever watch the DVDs of TV shows they send us?"
"No, I don't, too busy."
"Never mind…I should have…," he stopped when he heard moaning again, coming from behind them. Sheppard whirled around to see a pale blue and purple glow at the end of the long corridor. He was convinced that his eyes were playing tricks on him; the glow seemed to be in the shape of a human, and it was moving. He spun back around, pushed McKay in front of him, and yelled, "Run."
As they made it to the entrance chamber, Sheppard glanced behind him to discover that the glow had disappeared. Turning back, he saw Stackhouse and Brenner waiting for them.
"Teyla and Rodriguez are missing; where are the others?"
Stackhouse answered, "Don't know, sir; we just got here."
Calling for the others, Sheppard only heard silence, "Ronon, Minter, come in…." He waited for a couple of seconds, chewing on his lower lip, "Ronon, Minter, where are you?" Once again, no answer.
"Okay, now I'm pissed. We stay together, and keep your eyes open for these lights." He turned to McKay. "Any EM readings?"
"Yeah…that way…pretty strong, too." McKay pointed to the direction that he and Sheppard had just run from.
"Okay, we go back that way and find out what the hell's going on."
The four men took off down the hallway toward the arch at a rapid clip, but Sheppard motioned for them to slow down as they approached the arch. Deep into the building, past the archway, the faint sound of wailing floated to them.
Brenner asked nervously, "What the hell is that colonel."
"I don't know, stay alert…" Sheppard kept walking.
The wailing had ceased, but their nerves were still raw. Brenner tripped over a threadbare, frayed rug, stumbling, which caused Rodney to yelp loudly.
"Keep quiet," Sheppard whispered.
"Yeah, like whatever can pluck our people out of thin air can't hear me if I whisper…right."
"Humor me, McKay."
Rodney's mouth was open, ready to reply when a bright light appeared directly in front of them. Bright white, blue, and purple light swirled in random patterns, looming over them. Sheppard started backing away from the apparition, motioning for the others to backup. Glancing over his shoulder, he stopped in his tracks; Stackhouse was suspended about ten feet in the air, slowly spinning, a look of anguish on his face. Brenner's P-90 was raised but there was nothing to fire at, only Stackhouse and light.
"McKay, what is that?"
"I...uh…pure energy…I can't tell you what it is…Sheppard…look..." Following Rodney's outstretched arm, the colonel saw that Brenner was now suspended in mid-air as well, with the same look of pain on his face.
"Rodney, I need to know how to get them out of there….Rodney…," when McKay didn't answer, Sheppard was almost afraid to look back. When he did, Rodney was suspended as well.
The bright light swirled around all three Atlantians, then one by one, Stackhouse, Brenner, then Rodney vanished, leaving Sheppard standing in the dark. While he attempted to assimilate what had happened, he became aware of another noise. A deep guttural sound that made his bones rattle, looking toward the archway, he saw a large imposing figure. The entity definitely resembled a human; a human made of what appeared to be pure white light, and it was gliding directly at him. As the figure got closer, he could feel the hair on his body begin to react, standing straight up, his skin prickling as though he had been electrocuted. Sheppard began to back up, but the entity closed in on him. He backed into the arch that jutted into the corridor, and for a brief second, the entity halted. Taking advantage of the pause, Sheppard turned and ran.
~ooOoo~
Present
He was freezing; he tried to move, but discovered he was restrained. After several attempts, to break his bonds, Sheppard gave up. Even with his eyes closed, his vision was flooded with a bright green glow. He allowed his lids to open to narrow slits, but the light was intense, like staring into a neon tube from an inch away. He scrunched his eyes shut as tight as he could, but the light still penetrated. Immobile and unable to see, he concentrated on his hearing, then wished he hadn't. All around him, there were mournful cries; he had no idea who was making them, but he suspected it was his people. Blind rage began to build within, but he dampened it down. He needed to control his anger, direct that energy to find a way out for all of them. Exactly, how he was going to do that was the question.
Time passed, but he had no way of measuring it; he wasn't as cold as he had been, and he thought the green light had lost some of its intensity. He tried to break his bonds again without luck; he wanted to kick something out of frustration but couldn't, which frustrated him more. He fervently hoped that Zelenka had fixed the jumper's power drained, and they had gotten away. Then he thought, if Lorne and the others came here they would probably end up in the same place…captured.
Sheppard's mind was racing; he knew there was nothing he could do as long as he was in his current state. He would just have to wait. Then, without warning, he fell to the floor.
Stunned, he took a couple of deep breaths, then opened his eyes. His heart beat faster as he looked around the large cell, finding Corporal Vassar, Dr. Egorov, and Dr. Patterson restrained in the same way that Murray and Schaeffer had been in the other cell. The same way he most likely had been. Lieutenant McDowell, however, was lying on the floor; he hurried to her; pressing his fingers to her neck, he was thankful to feel a pulse.
"Lieutenant, it's Sheppard, can you hear me?"
She stirred, "Col…colonel…," she struggled to sit up. "What happened?"
"I was hoping you could tell me. We came looking for you and got trapped here as well."
She spotted Vassar, Egorov, and Patterson, "Sir, are they alive?"
"Yeah, I think, just in some kind of force field…I think we were confined that way as well, but for some reason, they let us loose.
He stumbled to the iron bars, rattling the door, not really expecting it to open. "Crap" Sheppard leaned against the bars; he was exhausted, his head was pounding, and he was thirsty. Remembering he had a water bottle in his TAC vest, he grabbed it, gulping half of it down, then handed the remainder to McDowell.
"Why are we awake and they aren't?"
"I don't know, but we have to find a way out of here."
In the dim green glow, McDowell gave her CO a slight smile, holding up her P-90, "We have these, sir; maybe we could blow the lock apart."
Sheppard looked down, realized that he was still armed, " Let's wait until we've exhausted all other ways to get out of here, which I doubt are many, before we go shooting up the place. I don't want to alert these 'things' that we're awake, any sooner than I have too. Besides, letting us keep our weapons could be either good or bad. Either they don't know what these are, or they don't have any effect on them."
She chuckled weakly, "We could hope they're clueless, sir."
"Yes, we could. Let's see if we can raise anyone." He tapped his COM, "Sheppard here, can anyone hear me?" No response, he repeated the message, still no response. Sighing, he leaned against the bars again, "Lieutenant you wouldn't happen to have a hairpin that we could pick the lock with, do you."
She ruffled her fingers through her very short blond hair, "No, sir, but I’m thinking I might let my hair grow after this so I'd have one."
Sheppard was watching her, thinking how strong she was that she could keep her sense of humor in a situation like this when he saw a look of panic cross her face. He was about to spin around when a powerful arm slipped through the iron bars, covering his mouth and pinning him against the hard iron. He started to struggle, when a familiar voice whispered in his ear.
"Sheppard, want out of there?"
The arm released him and he spun around, "Ronon, how the hell…yes, we would like to get out of here."
"Step back," Ronon said as he raised his blaster. Sheppard grabbed McDowell and covered her as the blaster made quick work of the lock, shards of rust flying all around.
Joining Ronon in the corridor, Sheppard noticed Minter with him, "Sergeant, way to go, not being captured."
Minter nodded, "Wouldn't be so lucky without Ronon, sir."
Sheppard glanced quizzically at the Satedan, who answered, "The ghosts don't seem to like my blaster; when I shot at them, the light disappeared."
"Really…damn, I wish we had more of those damn things. Did you find anyone else?"
"Not yet."
Minter spoke, "Sir…we scouted a couple of floors, and the lower level seems to be where all the cells are located, there are several more corridors."
Ronon wiggled his blaster, "Sheppard, maybe I can get them free," pointing to the three Atlantians still imprisoned.
"No, can't risk it; even with your blaster set on stun, we can't take the chance that a direct hit like that won't hurt them. Let's go, we need to find McKay, Teyla and the others, then we'll look for the power source; maybe we can turn these restraints off."
Five minutes of searching brought them to a cell where Teyla and Rodriquez were restrained and encased in the familiar green glow. Another few minutes brought them to a cell where Stackhouse and Brenner were similarly restrained, and a very pissed-off Rodney McKay was wide-awake.
"Where the hell have you been?"
"Good to see you too, Rodney."
Ronon raised his blaster and McKay, who was standing directly in front of the door, panicked, "What…are you possessed or something…?"
Sheppard calmly said, "Rodney, he's only going to blow the lock, step aside…,and cover your face." McKay quickly retreated as Ronon blasted the door open.
Following Sheppard, they made their way back toward the staircase to the main floor. Within sight of the staircase, the temperature dropped drastically. Sheppard's skin became prickly in anticipation. He didn't have to wait long before the lights appeared again. Through the curtain of light that spread across the staircase, they could see the outline of three glowing human forms.
Sheppard heard Ronon's blaster power-up; he raised his hand, "Hold it a second, maybe they want to talk." Ronon uttered his unhappy grunt but lowered his weapon.
Sheppard stepped closer to the cascading white, blue and purple lights, peering at the entities on the other side. "Who are you and what do you want from us?
McKay whispered, "What the hell are you doing, get away from that light." An irritated glance from Sheppard shut him up.
"I asked you a question, who are you?" Sheppard was certain he heard them reply, but he couldn't make out the words.
The only response came from the light curtain in front of them; it brightened until it was almost blinding, more colors swirling around and the cloud of light was expanding. Ronon didn't hesitate; he fired three quick full-power shots from his blaster, and the light show dissipated. The three glowing entities lingered and Sheppard, P-14 in hand, raced toward them. Just before he reached the figures, they vanished.
"Damn it…" He spun toward the others, "I could see them through the light, they look human. Rodney, are they in some kind of projection or something?"
McKay was alternately staring at his Ancient scanner and his pad, "There was a huge EM spike, but this time they showed up on the LSD. Whatever those glowing lights were they registered as life signs.
Minter asked, "Ghosts, colonel?"
McKay answered testily, "Ghosts…did you not just hear me say that they were alive?"
Sheppard watched Minter as the sergeant's face twisted into an angry glare at McKay. He thought, 'okay, here it goes, I'm going to have to deal with this now.' He was about to admonish McKay, and attempt to calm Minter when Ronon spoke up.
"Yeah, McKay, ghosts; on Ghost Hunters, they glow…it get's cold around them… they have those EM things…ghosts. So, like Minter asked, are they ghosts?"
Sheppard blew out the breath he was holding as he saw Minter look at Ronon, his face now calm. Whether Ronon was asking the question for real or just to ease the situation, Sheppard didn't know. The Satedan constantly amazed him; he believed Ronon was well aware why he had Minter assigned to the team. Nice to know the big guy not only had Minter's back, but his as well.
"No…they're not...I don't know what they are, but they are registering as life forms." McKay was clearly exasperated.
"Doesn't matter, ghosts or not, they still have control of our people, and we need to figure out how to get them free. When I got close, I swear I could see human features. Rodney, is there anything in the database about previous inhabitants of New Atlantia?"
"No, nothing…I had Radek's team comb through as much of the database as they could to learn about this planet. There wasn't much information about it, no report of a gate here or much activity, at least by the Ancients."
"Well, someone's here and we need to find out what's going on. Come on, let's get to the main level. Rodney, you need to see if you can locate a power source, they have to be controlling our people and these lights from somewhere. We need to find it."
The five Atlantians headed up the stairs, into the main hall. Rodney was peering at the screen on his pad, then at the LSD and back again. After watching him for a moment, Sheppard grabbed his arm.
"Rodney, I feel like I'm watching a tennis match…I know that look...your brain cells are in high gear. What are you thinking?"
Cocking his head in a mischievous manner, McKay answered, "I am thinking that I know why you and I and McDowell are no longer restrained, and perhaps why we got a reading on those three ghosts."
At the use of the word 'ghost,' Sheppard heard Ronon chuckle, but he ignored it. "What are you thinking?"
"Only three of us escaped the restraints, the three who have the Ancient gene…even Peet was unaffected, and I think the beam of light would be strong enough to pluck her out of the jumper. So why didn't they, because Peet also has the gene, weak but natural. McDowell and I have the synthetic gene, but with all three of us together, I have a feeling we are affecting whatever energy source these people are using.'
"So you think we can get close to them?"
"Well…why would we want to do that?"
Sheppard glared at him, "Now that you have had this epiphany, could you figure out where the power source is, so that we can get our people and get out of here?"
Scowling, Rodney turned his focus back to his pad; after a couple of moments, he flashed a negligible but smirky grin. "Here," he pointed to a location on the far end of the fortress well past the archway. Sheppard didn't hesitate; he started trotting down the long corridor. The others hurried along behind him.
Along the way, they were stopped three times by swirling lights, once getting close enough to take Minter off his feet but each time, Ronon's blaster dissipated the energy. As they neared what they hoped was the power source, McKay explained that the frequency of the energy produced by Ronon's blaster apparently disrupted the energy beam. He was becoming more convinced that the energy was a transport beam that had been manipulated to look like apparitions.
They were nearing the location of the power source when McKay grabbed Sheppard's arm, "Wait, the readings are really beginning to spike; I think we are about to have another light show."
He was right; within seconds, the swirling bright lights appeared all around them, more brilliant than before. The intensity nearly blinded them but Ronon managed to fire his weapon enough to fade the lights and the power, enough for Sheppard to make a run through the veil of lights.
Once passed the lights, he skidded to a stop. There were now four of the glowing humanoids standing in front of him. He slowly walked toward them, this time they didn't vanish immediately. "I asked you once before, who are you, and why are you here?"
None of the figures moved as he moved closer. He raised an eyebrow, "Not very friendly are you, but then holding people captive and torturing them is not my idea of being friendly. Let my people go now."
Again, the four figures stood silent, but Sheppard began to detect a slight fading of the image of the two standing furthest from him. Determined not to allow them to escape before he had a chance to see who they were, Sheppard leapt toward the closest figure, wrapping his arms around the glowing being. A second after he touched the figure a surge of energy passed through him, and he passed out, but not before he looked into bright, deep-blue eyes, human eyes.
~ooOoo~
"Colonel, John, wake up…come on…I know you can hear me, wake up."
John Sheppard slowly responded, opening his eyes slightly, then widened them as quickly as he dared. Once his eyes were fully opened, he flinched, he was staring into deep-blue eyes. He scrambled to get away, but strong hands restrained him.
"Laddie, calm down, it's me; you're safe."
"Carson?"
"Yes, it's me. Now rest."
"How long was I out?"
"Nearly an hour and you've got a nasty bump on your head, so you need to rest. I don't think you have a concussion, but I want you to take it easy."
"Yeah right, need to talk to Lorne.
Sheppard tried to rise but he was dizzy, the strong hands behind him, which belonged to Ronon, helped him into a sitting position. His vision was slightly blurred, and it took a few minutes for him to be able to focus enough to comprehend what was happening around him. When his vision stabilized, he realized he was on the floor in the main hall of the fortress and that all the people who had been captured were sitting or standing around him. Lorne and the other rescue team members were milling about. As he took a deep breath, Teyla, who was sitting nearby, crawled over to him.
"John, are you okay?"
"Yeah, I think so, just dizzy, what about you and the others?"
Beckett answered for him, "Everyone is fine, a little dizzy from the after-effects of being held in something akin to stasis for several hours, but no long-term effects. We'll check everyone out thoroughly when we get back to Atlantis."
Sheppard spotted Lorne and attempted to stand up, but a wave of dizziness overcame him; he looked at Beckett, "Help me up." The doctor reluctantly helped him to his feet. When Teyla attempted to follow him, he shook his head, "No, rest…I just want to talk to Lorne."
Somewhat unsteady, Sheppard walked over to where Lorne was talking with Teldy, "Majors, good to see you both."
"Colonel, good to see you as well," Lorne replied, echoed by Teldy.
"What happened, Lorne?"
Well, sir...Dr. Zelenka got the jumper operational. Dr. McKay thinks because both Dr. Beckett and Peet were aboard, he explained the gene theory to us. Once they got far enough away from the fortress, they were able to contact us. We'd been here about ten minutes when we heard Ronon's blaster and located you near the power center.'
"That's when flyboy here jumped onto the big, bad alien." Rodney McKay walked up.
Sheppard, who was trembling slightly from the energy surge he had gotten from grabbing the alien, gave McKay a smirk, "Good to see you're okay, too, Rodney."
McKay looked sheepish, "Yeah…well, glad you're okay. What happened after you attacked the glowing guy was that he simply faded away. I think some kind of transport beam and a very sophisticated one if it didn't take you along for the ride. We found the power room, and I managed to get the restraint fields turned off."
Lorne spoke up, "By that time we were here, so we had people deployed at all the cells to prevent injuries as the captives were released. We've made a sweep of the fortress, and found no other indication of these 'entities' or any other power sources."
"I don't think this was their main power source."
Sheppard jerked his head around, making himself dizzy, "What do you mean?"
"I think this was a relay point of some kind; the power center we had here was mostly for projection. There wasn't enough equipment here to generate the light and effects that we witnessed, much less the transport beams. No, they have a power plant somewhere else."
Beckett approached, "I am ready to transport my patients, major. If you could have your people help get them loaded, I would appreciate it. Please put the colonel in the jumper I'm piloting back; I want to keep an eye on that head wound."
Lorne nodded, grinning at the colonel, who seemed a bit miffed, "He declared you all patients and told me to assume command."
Sheppard shook his head, "Geez…he loves that power, doesn't he?" Lorne only shook his head in return.
As Sheppard and McKay, with Major Teldy escorting them, headed for the jumper, Sheppard asked, "So, who the hell are these 'aliens?"
"No idea…but whoever, they are I doubt they like the Ancients, not if the gene affects their power that way."
"Well, I'm not sure I want to see these 'ghosts' again."
~ooOoo~
Across the lake, in a hidden bunker, several of the ghosts were gathered, watching as the four jumpers lifted off. It wasn't until the Ancient ships disappeared from sight that one of them spoke.
"We are no longer safe here; we must leave."
"But where will we go, Dormount; our ancestors came here to escape the Alterans. There was no gate here, no populations. We were free to pursue our quest; now we are simply to leave because they found us."
Another voice joined in, "Faca is right; they still do not know who we are, and there were only few of them who possess the Alterans abilities. Only one was strong enough to affect us with any efficiency that he could see through the shields."
Dormount slammed the table, "We are not like them. Do not forget that the masters were stripped of the gene then left to die on Matusus. It was a miracle that they found transport off that forsaken planet and made it to this galaxy. If the Alterans discover who we are, and that we escaped, we will be executed, not exiled. They made that implicitly clear when they punished the masters."
Walking to the one-way viewport that overlooked the lake and the fortress they built so long ago, Dormount spoke quietly. "We have been here for generations; but now we must leave. Over the hundreds of years our order has been in exile, our forays within this galaxy have provided us with sufficient raw materials. We have been able to adapt the vessel that brought the masters here into a ship capable of returning us home. We cannot afford to be discovered, and have our plans thwarted before we can implement them. We knew when the Alteran cityship landed on this planet that it was only a matter of time before they located us. All our elaborate precautions will not protect us. We are ready, and it is time we re-established our rights; it is time to return to Altera."
Oblivious to the murmuring behind her, Dormount thought about the green-eyed, Alteran, who had grabbed her. She had seen the immense power behind those eyes, power her ancestors had once possessed. If she were to avenge the atrocities that happened to her people, she would need to possess that power once again.
~ooOoo~
It was nearly time to leave for the Halloween party, and John Sheppard was adding the final accessories to his costume. Thirty-six hours had passed since they had returned from the fortress, and everyone was fine, suffering no ill effects from the energy restraints, even his bump on the head didn't warrant a stay in the infirmary.
Sheppard may have been able to shake off the bump on his head, but he couldn't shake the uneasiness of the events at the fortress. When he tried to sleep the night before, each time he closed his eyes, the piercing dark-blue eyes of the alien invaded his thoughts. Impressions of the alien's other features floated through his mind, but none as clear as its dark-blue eyes. Something ominous and wicked about those eyes, eyes filled with hatred. The image left him with an unsettled feeling.
His door chimed and Lorne and Major Winters, along with Dr. Julius Jackson, one of Keller's physicians arrived. Sheppard was pleased at his idea. Last year, when they were having 'specter' trouble on Atlantis, Rodney McKay had asked if they thought he was Dr. Stantz from the Ghostbusters and had all the answers to the problem they were encountering . Sheppard decided that being the Ghostbusters would be fun, so he ordered the costumes along with some mockups of the famous proton guns. Sheppard was going as Dr. Raymond Stantz, Lorne as Dr. Peter Venkman, Winters as Dr. Egon Spengler and Dr. J as they called him, because everyone kept asking him if he was the infamous Dr. Jackson, was going as Winston Zeddmore.
Sheppard grinned, as he put the ghost trap backpack on and picked up the 'proton gun' "You guys look great…McKay is going to be pissed." Sheppard pointed to the nametag he was wearing, Dr. "Meredith" Raymond Stantz."
Lorne shook his head, "You are the bravest man in this galaxy, sir."
"Well, after what happened at the fortress, I am not certain that a costume that has anything to do with ghosts was smart. However, too late now; on to the party, let's have some fun."
Walking to the party, Sheppard's thoughts continued to drift to the dark-blue eyes that revealed so much hatred. After meeting with Woolsey and Lorne, they had decided to return to the fortress, there were far too many questions that needed to be answered. However, they agreed that only military personnel possessing the Ancient gene, along with Ronon and his blaster, would carry out the mission. He chuckled to himself, looking down at the toy Ghostbusters 'proton gun' strapped to his hip, thinking he might need to bring it along as well. After what they had gone through, they needed all the help they could get.
As they approached the mess hall, the sound of laugher and eerie music drifting toward them, Sheppard whispered under his breath, "There is one good thing, at least they weren't clowns."
The end…
Banner background of Eilean Donan Castle, Dornie, Scotland from photo by Marcus Gunn.
Author: stella_pegasi
Genre(s): Gen, Action/adventure
Rating: PG
Character(s): John Sheppard, Rodney McKay, Ronon Dex, Teyla Emmagan, Evan Lorne, Carson Beckett, Original Characters.
Spoilers/Warnings: None / Minor Language
Word count: 9505
Disclaimer: I do not own them, I would have treated them better.
Summary: A missing science mission leads to an unexpected and unnerving discovery on New Atlantia.
Written for stargateland's Challenge Spooky Tropes.
THE HAUNTING OF NEW ATLANTIA
By stella_pegasi
John Sheppard was running for his life, and he had no idea who, or what, was chasing him. He ran down the corridor until it merged into a cross hallway, dim light illuminating the hallway to his left. He skidded around the corner running toward the silver light spilling through a narrow window at the end of the hall.
"Crap," he whispered in a raspy voice; the hallway was a dead-end. The only way out was through the small opening above his head. He spun around toward the darkness he had run from, then leaned against the cold, rough stone wall for support. His heart was pounding from the adrenaline flooding his system, his breaths ragged, shallow, his body flush with heat. He blew out deep puffs of air, trying to calm down.
"Okay, John," he chided himself, "there's got to be a good explanation for what just happened." He tried to will himself calm, but he wasn't having much success. "Damn it, what the hell just happened?"
Sheppard steeled himself to move back down the corridor toward the darkness. He was nearly at the corridor junction when a high-pitched scream pierced the silence. He halted, trying to orient himself to the location of the scream. He dropped his head; the noise was coming from the direction he had been running from. He didn't want to go back there, but someone was in trouble. Stealthily, he approached the junction, peeking around the corner, only darkness meeting his gaze; he took a deep breath and stepped around the corner. The last thing he remembered was an intense white-blue light enveloping him and a scream, his own.
~ooOoo~
Seven Hours Earlier
"Watch out, colonel!"
Sheppard ducked as a string of orange miniature lights swung toward him, brushing his shoulder. Turning to see who has yelled at him, he found Corporal Ray Rodriguez standing on a ladder, a grimace on his face.
"Sorry, sir; the lights slipped out of my hand."
"No problem, Ray; it's looking good in here."
The corporal gave Sheppard a wide smile, "Gonna be fun, sir. Got your costume yet?"
"Yep but not telling anyone."
It was mid-afternoon, and the lunch rush was over. Sheppard grabbed a sandwich and as he was heading for the table where Rodney and Teyla were sitting, he checked out the decorations for the Halloween party. Orange lights decorated the walls, and there were ghosts, goblins, skeletons, and bats hanging from the ceiling. The party was in two days, but Sheppard had cajoled Woolsey into allowing the decorations to go up earlier, to help create a festive atmosphere. The Daedalus had arrived the day before bring a couple of pallet loads of pumpkins, which were now stored in one corner of the mess hall.
Teyla smiled as he approached, "John, it is beginning to look like Halloween."
He returned the smile as he sat down, "You really enjoy this Earth custom, don't you?"
She grinned, "I have to admit that many of Earth's customs confuse me but for some reason, this one is fun. To be whatever you choose to be for one night and get candy in addition."
Rodney mumbled, having just taken a huge bite of meatloaf, "That's the only good part."
Sheppard smirked, "Really, Rodney…let's see…you seemed to love dressing up as me in a Captain Kirk uniform, with all your redshirts around you a couple of years ago."
"The only good thing about this holiday is playing jokes on you," Rodney muttered.
Teyla responded with an eyebrow arched, "I would be careful, Rodney; John mentioned after the clowns of last year that his motto was 'don't get mad, get even.'"
Sheppard noted a momentary look of panic cross Rodney's face, but he didn't give the scientist time to reply, let him stew about Teyla's comment. "Where's Ronon?"
"In the gym, some new Marines, who arrived on the Daedalus, took up the challenge to see if they could defeat him."
"Oh…I suppose I should go to the infirmary later and check on the injured."
"I believe that would be advisable, colonel."
Rodney pointed to the corner, "What's with all the pumpkins?"
"Well, the last couple of years, if you remember, the Marines volunteered to carve the pumpkins. This year, Zelenka and Dr. Biro decided to challenge the Marines to a carving contest. I'm not sure what they were thinking; those K-Bars make quick work of a pumpkin."
"A pumpkin carving contest, oh, joy; what idiots have been roped into judging these works of art?"
"That would be Woolsey, me and...you."
"No…I don't want to do that…"
"Stop whining, you're doing it."
They spent the rest of lunch teasing each other about what they were wearing to the costume party. Sheppard knew that Rodney was up to something, but he didn't know what. He did inform them that Woolsey had gotten a large package, and speculated that it might be his costume. Woolsey had surprised them all; on the surface, he tried to keep the festivities reined in, then showed up in costume. The Atlantis director was much more complex than any of them had imagined.
After parting company with Rodney and Teyla, Sheppard headed for the gym to check on his troops. When he walked in, the new Marines, at least the ones able to, came to attention.
He waved his arm casually, "At ease, Marines; carry on." He walked over to Major Lorne, who was leaning against the wall. "So, no permanent damage yet?"
Lorne chuckled, "Not yet, sir; Ronon's going fairly easy on them. We might have one problem though."
"Only one? That constitutes a good day, major; what's the problem?"
Lorne pointed to a tall, very muscular Marine, who was currently sparring with Ronon. "Sergeant Jarrod Minter, he's not exactly been good natured about his inability to take Ronon down. I started to intervene, but I got the look from Ronon and backed off."
"Minter, he's the one we almost passed on, isn't he?"
"Yes, sir; he's had some issues in the past, did good work on an SGC team, but requested a transfer here. He didn't really get along with his team leader, but stopped short of insubordination. I don't think either Colonel Mitchell or General Landry was too sorry to see him go."
"Whose team drew his assignment?"
"No one at the moment, I was thinking about putting him on Isaacs' team for training. Isaacs' is an excellent leader, fair and good-natured, but I'm beginning to think I might need to keep him with me for a while."
"No, assign him to my team."
Lorne looked surprised, but decided against asking why; he simply answered, "Yes, sir."
Sheppard and Lorne watched the sparring for a while longer, until they received a summons to come to the control room.
As he trotted up the gate room stairs, Lorne shadowing him, Sheppard spotted Woolsey standing next to the gate tech's console, manned on the day shift by Canadian Air Force Sergeant Chuck Campbell. He noted that Zelenka was working at another console.
"What's happening?"
Woolsey frowned, "Colonel; SGA-16 is four hours overdue."
"Four hours," his voice betraying a slight tone of anger, "why am I just hearing about this now?"
Chuck spoke, "Colonel, Lieutenant McDowell's team was escorting Dr. Egorov on a science mission. They were due to return at 1900 hours, but Lt. McDowell told us they might be later than that. However, she promised to call in regularly to keep us apprised."
"Have they reported in regularly?"
"Not as often as teams off world normally do, colonel; however, they did call in early this morning with a problem. According to Liang's log from 0622 hours, they spoke to Dr. Zelenka regarding an issue with the special topography scanning equipment attached onto the jumper." He read further down the screen. "It appears the matter was resolved, and they continued the mission."
"Have you tried to raise them, Chuck?"
"I have but I'm only getting dead air, sir."
Zelenka interrupted, "Colonel the issue with the scanning equipment needed only a minor adjustment. Chuck called me now to run a diagnostic on the communication system. We deployed COM buoys in orbit so that we could stay in touch with them while…"
Sheppard interrupted, "The same COM satellites you developed for the Coalition?"
"Yes, the same; we thought it would be safer since, they would be on the other side of New Atlantia for a great part of their mission. The COM buoys are working."
Sheppard sucked in a sharp breath, "Okay…we need to go find them." He turned to Lorne, "Get three jumpers ready for S&R; we depart in fifteen minutes. Zelenka, you're coming, too."
As Sheppard headed for the gear-up room, Zelenka in tow, he tapped his COM, asking Teyla to notify Ronon, and then contacted Rodney. Behind him, he could hear Lorne arranging for the S&R teams.
Minutes after they arrived in the gear-up room Rodney McKay entered. "Sheppard, what's happening?"
"Egorov's team hasn’t reported in for four hours, and we can't raise them, so we are going after them."
"Oh, great...that Russian pestered the hell out of me until I let him get that new equipment, so he could do this. He'd better not messed that scanner up; it took a big chunk of my budget."
"Rodney, it's just equipment; I think Egorov, and the others are just a bit more important. Now get your gear on, we leave in less than ten."
As Sheppard zipped up his TAC vest, Ronon and Teyla entered, as did the remainder of Lorne's team and Lt. Jeffers's team. Major Teldy's team arrived, Captains Stackhouse and Isaacs's teams, along with a couple of EMTs followed. Sergeant Jarrod Minter came in seconds later, still buttoning his uniform, his hair wet from a quick shower. He approached Lorne, "Sir, reporting as ordered."
Lorne jerked his head toward Sheppard, "You are being assigned to Colonel Sheppard's team, sergeant; report to the colonel." Lorne didn't miss the sergeant's eyes widening; good, he thought, the sergeant's uneasy about the assignment. His doubts about Sheppard's choice faded; the sergeant was about to get a lesson in what being a team really meant.
"Okay, everyone: Lorne's briefed you on the situation. Dr. Zelenka has uploaded Egorov's mapping grid; we'll start there. Jeffers, you fly polar orbit, the route McDowell was flying. Lorne, go east below the equator; I'll go west above the equator and fan out from there. Be alert for anything off the grid pattern, they may have deviated off course. Thanks to Dr. Zelenka's COM buoys we can stay in touch; check in every fifteen minutes. Get to the bay, we leave in five."
Sheppard was hooking his P-90 to his vest, as Sgt. Minter walked up to him, "Sir, reporting for duty." The sergeant stood extremely ramrod straight, causing Sheppard to stifle a chuckle at the panicked look on the young Marine's face. When he replied, he managed to keep his voice steady, serious.
"At ease, sergeant; come on, we've got some people to locate."
As they entered the jumper bay, Sheppard heard Dr. Beckett's voice. "Hold up, colonel; I'm coming along." Carrying his large med pack, Carson Beckett rushed up to the jumper Sheppard was entering. As he passed Ronon, the big man grabbed the med pack and placed it inside the jumper.
Sheppard stood on the ramp, "Teldy you're with Jeffers, Isaacs with Lorne; Zelenka, you and Stackhouse with me." The teams dispersed to their assigned jumpers and within minutes, the outer tower bay doors opened, and the three jumpers rose into the night sky.
~ooOoo~
Sheppard banked his jumper, dubbed S&R 1, one toward the west, leaving Atlantis behind them. Rodney was sitting in the copilot's seat, while Beckett and Teyla were behind them. Radek was sitting on the jump seat next to the science station. He glanced over his shoulder to see that Ronon had joined Stackhouse and his team in the rear compartment. Sergeant Minter was seated directly in front of Ronon, who seemed to be watching the young sergeant closely. Sighing, Sheppard thought, Minter was either going to realize Ronon was his ally, not his enemy, or this was going to be a very interesting mission.
He bought up the HUD, switching to long range sensors; the screen only displayed signals from Atlantis and the three jumpers. "Radek, Chuck is continuing to try and raise McDowell; he'll let us know. Anything showing up on your scans?"
"No, colonel, nothing; I'm getting a ping from the radio at the Athosian settlement but nothing else."
"Anyone contact Halling to see if they had seen the jumper?"
Teyla asked, "I asked Chuck to do so. He reported back just before we left; my people have had no contact with the jumper, colonel."
"They have to be here somewhere; we just keep looking."
"This is like looking for a needle in a haystack, Sheppard. If the jumper lost power, it's no telling how long it will take until we find them."
Sheppard was staring out of the jumper window at the sun, which was sinking toward the horizon. "Rodney, we'll keep looking; I'll put more jumpers in the air, whatever it takes." Gazing out the windshield again, he added, "For now, we chase the sun until we find them."
Nearly four hours passed as the three jumpers crisscrossed the area where they speculated Lt. McDowell's jumper might be located. Lorne had reported an anomaly in his search area but after landing, they found only an unusual rock formation that was giving off low-levels of radiation, another mystery for another day.
Rodney was becoming impatient, "There has to be a better way to do these searches."
"If your geeks were working on how to adapt the Asgard transponders to the jumpers, this would be a lot easier."
"You know… we've been just a little busy, what with getting back to Pegasus and defeating the Wraith, and helping the Coalition." Rodney's tone was rather testy.
"Eat a powerbar, McKay; you're getting cranky."
"Very funny, flybo…," he stopped when Teyla dangled a powerbar over his shoulder. He snatched it from her fingertips, ripped the wrapper off, and bit off a great big chunk. While Rodney chewed, Sheppard glanced over his shoulder at Teyla and gave her a knowing grin.
They continued for another thirty minutes, the other two S&R teams reporting no sign of the missing jumper. The setting sun was still low on their horizon, the soft orange glow giving the sky an eerie glow.
Beckett, who had been reading reports on his pad to pass the time, looked up at the beautiful sight out the jumper view screen. "That sky is gorgeous, reminds me of sunsets over Loch Fyne."
Sheppard glanced over his shoulder, "Scotland is a beautiful country, Carson; I remember the sunsets when I was there training with the British SAS, the special air services' unit. We trained in the rugged highlands to simulate Afghanistan"
"Aye, lad, Scotland is beautiful. Have we ever been to this part of the planet, John?"
"No, at least, I haven't, big planet to explore, and little time to devote to it until now. But with the Athosians settlement and so many refugees from the Wraith and Replicators, who were allies of the Athosians, relocating here, it's time to make certain what's on this rock. We don't want any surprises to comprise the safety of the new inhabitants."
Teyla commented, concern in her voice, "I am most concerned about the additional people coming to live here. There is no other gate and should Atlantis have to leave or be destroyed, what would happen to them?"
"I am too, Teyla, as is Woolsey. If Rodney here can figure out how to bring a gate and DHD to the mainland and hook them up, then if we have to leave, we can put that gate into commission, so the Athosians won't be isolated, and at the mercy of the Coalition or the SGC for assistance."
"We're working on that Sheppard, just cool your rockets. It takes time to work out the intricacies," McKay snarked.
Glancing sideways at McKay, "You could always ask Sam for help."
McKay's head snapped around toward Sheppard, finger in air, about to snap back at the colonel, when the HUD popped up. There was a ping on the sensors; something large was ahead.
Sheppard adjusted the jumper's heading toward the object. "Looks like a structure of some kind, too angular to be natural. Any reports of an Ancient outpost or something in this area, Rodney?"
McKay shook his head, "No, nothing." He swiveled his chair to face the rear of the cockpit where Dr. Zelenka was sitting, "Radek, anything like this in the database?"
The Czech scientist answered, "No, there is really very little about New Atlantia in the database; we don’t even know what its real name is, if it has one."
Twilight had fallen and the planet's visible twin moons had risen, still low on the eastern horizon. As they approached the structure, they saw it was sitting on the edge of a lake, the water's surface glimmering in the moonlight. The building was expansive; most of the structure was two to three stories high, but at one end, along a point that jutted slightly into the lake was two multi-storied towers, one taller than the other. When Sheppard swung over the lake to get a better view of the building, he and Rodney uttered 'there' in unison. The missing jumper was sitting on an expanse of land between the lake shore and a tall imposing gate.
Sheppard tapped the jumper's COM, "Sheppard to S&R 2 and 3, located target, I repeat, located target. Sending coordinates now." He glanced up at the HUD and watched as the display confirmed the coordinates transmitted. He waited for acknowledgement of his message, but the radio remained silent. He repeated the message, requesting acknowledgement from Lorne or Jeffers. Glancing over at Rodney, who was listening intently, "Lorne, Jeffers, come in. Can you hear me? Acknowledge." Again, nothing.
"Rodney…"
"Give me a minute…," McKay ran his fingers across his pad, keying in commands, "I…everything appears to be working but according to these readings, our signal is transmitting, but only a few yards. There's some kind of dampening field, it's blocking the signal; the other jumpers can't hear us."
"Great…ok, let's see if McDowell and the others are in a range." He activated the COM link again, "McDowell...this is Sheppard, come in. McDowell...this is Sheppard; we're over your jumper location. Acknowledge." His message only generated more silence. After attempting two more times, Sheppard decided to land. The jumper was nearly on the ground when static flooded their COM units, through the static a faint voice echoed, "Col…help…"
Sheppard eased the jumper onto the ground, next to McDowell's, then turned to the others, "McDowell and the others are in trouble, get ready." He stood up, grabbed his P-90 from the storage cradle, and as he was re-hooking it to his TAC vest, he issued orders, "Zelenka, stay here and see if you can get communications working and get those other jumpers here; Sergeant Parker, you stay with him. Everyone else with me, let's go get our people."
Sheppard stopped at the rear hatch and with a thought, lowered the ramp. He exited, Stackhouse and Corporal Rodriguez flanking him, Corporal Brenner behind. Ronon and Minter were behind them; Teyla, Rodney, and Carson held at the hatch opening on Sheppard's direction.
The colonel whispered into his COM, "Stackhouse, take your team, scout out the building; Ronon, Minter you're with me; we'll check out the jumper. Teyla, Rodney, Carson stay here until I call you."
Sheppard's group moved toward the jumper with weapons raised. A quick walk around revealed the interior was dark. "No power…let me see if I can bring her online." Crouching under the viewport, Sheppard touched the jumper and concentrated, managing to power her up. Slowly, he rose to peek into the cockpit; the first thing he noticed was a small foot encased in an athletic shoe, the kind worn by the science team.
He rushed toward the ramp, thinking it open. By the time he reached the rear of the jumper, the ramp was partially deployed. He stepped up and entered, his companions behind him. They found the diminutive biologist Dr. Janice Peet curled behind the copilot's seat in the cockpit.
Sheppard dropped to his knees next to her; she was whimpering, "Dr. Peet... it's okay...it's Colonel Sheppard." She reached for him, clinging to him, as though frightened to let go. He turned to Minter, "Get Beckett."
Peet pulled away from him, wiping tears from her eyes, breathing hard as she spoke. "Colonel…I thought I was going to die. These weird lights… surrounded the jumper," she took a deep breath, "the lieutenant made us stay here, while they went to check it out, but…they never came back. Dr. Egorov…he and Dr. Patterson went to see what happened to Lieutenant McDowell and the others, and they…they didn't come back either. I kept hearing screams, then silence. I knew you come to save us; you have to find them."
"Don't worry...we'll find them. long have you been here?"
"I…I don't know…uh…it was around noon time when we spotted the structure. It's huge and Dr. Patterson…said there was nothing in the database…about such a structure on the planet."
Sheppard heard boots hitting the ramp in a hurry, Beckett. He stood up, pulling Peet to her feet. "Dr. Beckett is here; he'll take care of you."
He turned to Beckett, "Get her into the other jumper, Minter…you carry her." Minter picked up the 4'9" Peet, as if she was a feather and exited the jumper, Beckett behind them.
Sheppard walked off the jumper to find Teyla and McKay waiting with Ronon. "Looks like the others are inside the building. McKay, that pad telling you anything?"
"Some EM spikes in the area but nothing consistent. I'm not sure…," he was interrupted by a sharp scream.
Sheppard tapped his COM, "Stackhouse, report."
Over their COMs, they heard Stackhouse's steady voice, "Sir…that scream came from inside the building."
"Hold your positions; we're on our way, captain."
Sheppard quickly returned to the other jumper. Beckett was attending to Peet, while Zelenka was trying to establish communication with Lorne and Jeffers. "Beckett, stay here, I need for you to be able to get this jumper out of here. Zelenka any luck raising the others?"
Zelenka shook his head no, but said, "Colonel…we are losing power and I do not know why."
Sheppard chewed on his lower lip for a second, then ordered, "Radek, try to get the power fixed, but I want you guys inside this jumper, do not open this hatch for anyone, unless you get the signal." He turned to leave.
Beckett prodded, "And the signal is…?"
Sighing, Sheppard said, "If we can't get you by radio, we'll throw rocks at the viewport."
Beckett nodded, and Sheppard added, "Listen, regardless of what happens, when Radek gets enough power re-established to fly this jumper out of here, I want you to go. Contact Lorne and Jeffers once you are clear of whatever's blocking long range communication, and get them here."
Before anyone could answer, Sheppard exited the jumper, closing the ramp behind him. He joined the others, "Let's go." They headed toward the gate to join Stackhouse and his team.
The iron gate was about ten feet tall, the intricately curved design was rusted and broken in places. Stackhouse was standing at the gate with Corporal Brenner, while Corporal Rodriguez was returning from scouting along the building's outer wall.
"Anything, captain?"
"Only that the gate is open, sir; neither Brenner nor I have seen any of our people, the place looks deserted. At least, deserted if it wasn’t for the scream we heard."
Rodriguez trotted up, "Nothing that way either, sirs."
Sheppard turned to Rodney, "You got anything?"
Shaking his head, the scientist replied, "Only the sporadic EM spikes." In the pale moonlight, Rodney's face reflected his concern as he looked at Sheppard, "I'm only registering our life signs, nothing from inside."
Sucking in a deep breath, then blowing it out, Sheppard said, "They're in there, we'll find them."
He pushed the gate open with his booted foot, and walked into the fortress. A large heavy wooden double door loomed in front of them across the square courtyard. Huge pounded metal hinges and large round door pulls on the center of each door. Sheppard motioned to Minter and Rodriguez to pull the doors open, while the rest took defensive positions. Slowly, the team advanced into the fortress.
Light from their P-90 flashlights revealed a large high-ceilinged chamber; how large was difficult to tell as the darkness swallowed up the light. Sheppard whispered to Stackhouse, who was wearing a rucksack, "Got light sticks?"
Stackhouse slipped his pack off, and pulled four light sticks out, "I have four, sir."
"Okay, this place is huge; we're going to have to split up in order to search quickly. McKay, you're with me, Ronon with Minter, Stackhouse with Brenner, Teyla with Rodriguez. I want radio checks every five minutes…whatever's dampening the jumper COM's could begin to affect us. Move out."
As the teams drifted apart, Sheppard and McKay headed for a barely visible, wide staircase on the far side of the room. Approaching, they could see that the center staircase rose toward a second story, which was open to the lower chamber. On each side, were staircases leading to a lower level.
"Let's go down," Sheppard said as he started to descend.
"Why do we have to go down? It's really dark down there," Rodney whined.
"Yes it's dark, and we are missing people, and if I was gonna hide 'em, I hide 'em in the dark…come on."
McKay followed reluctantly, "There usually dungeons in places like this."
"McKay, I swear…" they had just reached the landing when the air became very cold.
"Damn, it's cold here," Sheppard took a couple of steps down off the landing, "and warmer here." He hopped back up to the landing, "Any EM spike?"
Huffing McKay looked at his pad, then at Sheppard, "Yeah, a pretty strong one, how did you know?"
"Cold spot; come on…need to keep going."
They proceeded slowly down the stairs, finding themselves in at the beginning of a wide corridor, both staircases spilling into the area. He whispered, "Any readings?" Rodney answered no.
Sheppard kept walking until they came to a cross hall. As he was shining his light down the side corridor on their right, he heard Rodney gasped.
In a timorous voice, McKay said, "To the left, I'm getting a life sign, but it's weak."
Sheppard didn't hesitate; he spun to the left, picking up his pace as he headed down the corridor, McKay trotting to keep up with him. The hallway consisted of cells, enclosed with rusty iron bars. As Sheppard shined his light into each cell as they passed, he thought he heard Rodney mumble something about 'dungeons.' They were nearing the midpoint when they heard a soft moan. Rushing toward the cry, they were shocked at what they found.
Sheppard sucked in a deep breath, in front of them was Sergeant Jeff Murray and Corporal Gary Schaeffer, standing upright, chained to the back wall of the cell, their bodies encased in a pale green glow. Soft moans seemed to emanate from the Marines as Sheppard rattled the cell door. The door didn't budge; it was locked securely.
"Crap, they're alive, right?"
"Yes, the signal's weak but it's probably because of the energy around them…some kind of force field I think."
Their COM's cackled as the other teams began to report in. Sheppard interrupted them, "We've found Murray and Schaeffer, in a cell on the lower level, chained, and held in some kind of force field. We're going to keep looking down here for the others. Report again in five…Shepp…" A loud scream flooded their COMs; Sheppard yelled, "Who was that? Everyone report."
"Colonel…Rodriguez…sir, something…I don't know...bright light…took Teyla…"
"Where are you?" Sheppard asked as he started running toward the center corridor.
Rodriguez had regained composure, his voice steady as he answered, "We headed left from the entrance. We had just gotten to this archway leading to another wing when the light appeared and Teyla vanished, sir."
"Stay there, I'm coming to you. Everyone else, continue where you are."
Sheppard and McKay ran up the stairs and headed for the archway where Rodriguez said he was, but there was no Rodriguez. "What the hell…McKay, tell me something."
"There's nothing to tell, just more EM spikes but much stronger than before."
"Some kind of beaming thing or something?'
"I don't know...maybe…I…don't know."
"Well, find out McKay, we've got people chained up and people disappearing. I need some answers." He tapped his COM, "Everyone back to the entrance chamber…now."
He grabbed Rodney's sleeve, "Come on." They turned, hurrying back down the corridor when they passed through another cold spot. Sheppard slowed a bit, "Cold again; if I didn't know any better, I'd think we were in an episode of "Ghost Hunters."
"Ghost Hunter's…what the hell is that?"
"Don't you ever watch the DVDs of TV shows they send us?"
"No, I don't, too busy."
"Never mind…I should have…," he stopped when he heard moaning again, coming from behind them. Sheppard whirled around to see a pale blue and purple glow at the end of the long corridor. He was convinced that his eyes were playing tricks on him; the glow seemed to be in the shape of a human, and it was moving. He spun back around, pushed McKay in front of him, and yelled, "Run."
As they made it to the entrance chamber, Sheppard glanced behind him to discover that the glow had disappeared. Turning back, he saw Stackhouse and Brenner waiting for them.
"Teyla and Rodriguez are missing; where are the others?"
Stackhouse answered, "Don't know, sir; we just got here."
Calling for the others, Sheppard only heard silence, "Ronon, Minter, come in…." He waited for a couple of seconds, chewing on his lower lip, "Ronon, Minter, where are you?" Once again, no answer.
"Okay, now I'm pissed. We stay together, and keep your eyes open for these lights." He turned to McKay. "Any EM readings?"
"Yeah…that way…pretty strong, too." McKay pointed to the direction that he and Sheppard had just run from.
"Okay, we go back that way and find out what the hell's going on."
The four men took off down the hallway toward the arch at a rapid clip, but Sheppard motioned for them to slow down as they approached the arch. Deep into the building, past the archway, the faint sound of wailing floated to them.
Brenner asked nervously, "What the hell is that colonel."
"I don't know, stay alert…" Sheppard kept walking.
The wailing had ceased, but their nerves were still raw. Brenner tripped over a threadbare, frayed rug, stumbling, which caused Rodney to yelp loudly.
"Keep quiet," Sheppard whispered.
"Yeah, like whatever can pluck our people out of thin air can't hear me if I whisper…right."
"Humor me, McKay."
Rodney's mouth was open, ready to reply when a bright light appeared directly in front of them. Bright white, blue, and purple light swirled in random patterns, looming over them. Sheppard started backing away from the apparition, motioning for the others to backup. Glancing over his shoulder, he stopped in his tracks; Stackhouse was suspended about ten feet in the air, slowly spinning, a look of anguish on his face. Brenner's P-90 was raised but there was nothing to fire at, only Stackhouse and light.
"McKay, what is that?"
"I...uh…pure energy…I can't tell you what it is…Sheppard…look..." Following Rodney's outstretched arm, the colonel saw that Brenner was now suspended in mid-air as well, with the same look of pain on his face.
"Rodney, I need to know how to get them out of there….Rodney…," when McKay didn't answer, Sheppard was almost afraid to look back. When he did, Rodney was suspended as well.
The bright light swirled around all three Atlantians, then one by one, Stackhouse, Brenner, then Rodney vanished, leaving Sheppard standing in the dark. While he attempted to assimilate what had happened, he became aware of another noise. A deep guttural sound that made his bones rattle, looking toward the archway, he saw a large imposing figure. The entity definitely resembled a human; a human made of what appeared to be pure white light, and it was gliding directly at him. As the figure got closer, he could feel the hair on his body begin to react, standing straight up, his skin prickling as though he had been electrocuted. Sheppard began to back up, but the entity closed in on him. He backed into the arch that jutted into the corridor, and for a brief second, the entity halted. Taking advantage of the pause, Sheppard turned and ran.
~ooOoo~
Present
He was freezing; he tried to move, but discovered he was restrained. After several attempts, to break his bonds, Sheppard gave up. Even with his eyes closed, his vision was flooded with a bright green glow. He allowed his lids to open to narrow slits, but the light was intense, like staring into a neon tube from an inch away. He scrunched his eyes shut as tight as he could, but the light still penetrated. Immobile and unable to see, he concentrated on his hearing, then wished he hadn't. All around him, there were mournful cries; he had no idea who was making them, but he suspected it was his people. Blind rage began to build within, but he dampened it down. He needed to control his anger, direct that energy to find a way out for all of them. Exactly, how he was going to do that was the question.
Time passed, but he had no way of measuring it; he wasn't as cold as he had been, and he thought the green light had lost some of its intensity. He tried to break his bonds again without luck; he wanted to kick something out of frustration but couldn't, which frustrated him more. He fervently hoped that Zelenka had fixed the jumper's power drained, and they had gotten away. Then he thought, if Lorne and the others came here they would probably end up in the same place…captured.
Sheppard's mind was racing; he knew there was nothing he could do as long as he was in his current state. He would just have to wait. Then, without warning, he fell to the floor.
Stunned, he took a couple of deep breaths, then opened his eyes. His heart beat faster as he looked around the large cell, finding Corporal Vassar, Dr. Egorov, and Dr. Patterson restrained in the same way that Murray and Schaeffer had been in the other cell. The same way he most likely had been. Lieutenant McDowell, however, was lying on the floor; he hurried to her; pressing his fingers to her neck, he was thankful to feel a pulse.
"Lieutenant, it's Sheppard, can you hear me?"
She stirred, "Col…colonel…," she struggled to sit up. "What happened?"
"I was hoping you could tell me. We came looking for you and got trapped here as well."
She spotted Vassar, Egorov, and Patterson, "Sir, are they alive?"
"Yeah, I think, just in some kind of force field…I think we were confined that way as well, but for some reason, they let us loose.
He stumbled to the iron bars, rattling the door, not really expecting it to open. "Crap" Sheppard leaned against the bars; he was exhausted, his head was pounding, and he was thirsty. Remembering he had a water bottle in his TAC vest, he grabbed it, gulping half of it down, then handed the remainder to McDowell.
"Why are we awake and they aren't?"
"I don't know, but we have to find a way out of here."
In the dim green glow, McDowell gave her CO a slight smile, holding up her P-90, "We have these, sir; maybe we could blow the lock apart."
Sheppard looked down, realized that he was still armed, " Let's wait until we've exhausted all other ways to get out of here, which I doubt are many, before we go shooting up the place. I don't want to alert these 'things' that we're awake, any sooner than I have too. Besides, letting us keep our weapons could be either good or bad. Either they don't know what these are, or they don't have any effect on them."
She chuckled weakly, "We could hope they're clueless, sir."
"Yes, we could. Let's see if we can raise anyone." He tapped his COM, "Sheppard here, can anyone hear me?" No response, he repeated the message, still no response. Sighing, he leaned against the bars again, "Lieutenant you wouldn't happen to have a hairpin that we could pick the lock with, do you."
She ruffled her fingers through her very short blond hair, "No, sir, but I’m thinking I might let my hair grow after this so I'd have one."
Sheppard was watching her, thinking how strong she was that she could keep her sense of humor in a situation like this when he saw a look of panic cross her face. He was about to spin around when a powerful arm slipped through the iron bars, covering his mouth and pinning him against the hard iron. He started to struggle, when a familiar voice whispered in his ear.
"Sheppard, want out of there?"
The arm released him and he spun around, "Ronon, how the hell…yes, we would like to get out of here."
"Step back," Ronon said as he raised his blaster. Sheppard grabbed McDowell and covered her as the blaster made quick work of the lock, shards of rust flying all around.
Joining Ronon in the corridor, Sheppard noticed Minter with him, "Sergeant, way to go, not being captured."
Minter nodded, "Wouldn't be so lucky without Ronon, sir."
Sheppard glanced quizzically at the Satedan, who answered, "The ghosts don't seem to like my blaster; when I shot at them, the light disappeared."
"Really…damn, I wish we had more of those damn things. Did you find anyone else?"
"Not yet."
Minter spoke, "Sir…we scouted a couple of floors, and the lower level seems to be where all the cells are located, there are several more corridors."
Ronon wiggled his blaster, "Sheppard, maybe I can get them free," pointing to the three Atlantians still imprisoned.
"No, can't risk it; even with your blaster set on stun, we can't take the chance that a direct hit like that won't hurt them. Let's go, we need to find McKay, Teyla and the others, then we'll look for the power source; maybe we can turn these restraints off."
Five minutes of searching brought them to a cell where Teyla and Rodriquez were restrained and encased in the familiar green glow. Another few minutes brought them to a cell where Stackhouse and Brenner were similarly restrained, and a very pissed-off Rodney McKay was wide-awake.
"Where the hell have you been?"
"Good to see you too, Rodney."
Ronon raised his blaster and McKay, who was standing directly in front of the door, panicked, "What…are you possessed or something…?"
Sheppard calmly said, "Rodney, he's only going to blow the lock, step aside…,and cover your face." McKay quickly retreated as Ronon blasted the door open.
Following Sheppard, they made their way back toward the staircase to the main floor. Within sight of the staircase, the temperature dropped drastically. Sheppard's skin became prickly in anticipation. He didn't have to wait long before the lights appeared again. Through the curtain of light that spread across the staircase, they could see the outline of three glowing human forms.
Sheppard heard Ronon's blaster power-up; he raised his hand, "Hold it a second, maybe they want to talk." Ronon uttered his unhappy grunt but lowered his weapon.
Sheppard stepped closer to the cascading white, blue and purple lights, peering at the entities on the other side. "Who are you and what do you want from us?
McKay whispered, "What the hell are you doing, get away from that light." An irritated glance from Sheppard shut him up.
"I asked you a question, who are you?" Sheppard was certain he heard them reply, but he couldn't make out the words.
The only response came from the light curtain in front of them; it brightened until it was almost blinding, more colors swirling around and the cloud of light was expanding. Ronon didn't hesitate; he fired three quick full-power shots from his blaster, and the light show dissipated. The three glowing entities lingered and Sheppard, P-14 in hand, raced toward them. Just before he reached the figures, they vanished.
"Damn it…" He spun toward the others, "I could see them through the light, they look human. Rodney, are they in some kind of projection or something?"
McKay was alternately staring at his Ancient scanner and his pad, "There was a huge EM spike, but this time they showed up on the LSD. Whatever those glowing lights were they registered as life signs.
Minter asked, "Ghosts, colonel?"
McKay answered testily, "Ghosts…did you not just hear me say that they were alive?"
Sheppard watched Minter as the sergeant's face twisted into an angry glare at McKay. He thought, 'okay, here it goes, I'm going to have to deal with this now.' He was about to admonish McKay, and attempt to calm Minter when Ronon spoke up.
"Yeah, McKay, ghosts; on Ghost Hunters, they glow…it get's cold around them… they have those EM things…ghosts. So, like Minter asked, are they ghosts?"
Sheppard blew out the breath he was holding as he saw Minter look at Ronon, his face now calm. Whether Ronon was asking the question for real or just to ease the situation, Sheppard didn't know. The Satedan constantly amazed him; he believed Ronon was well aware why he had Minter assigned to the team. Nice to know the big guy not only had Minter's back, but his as well.
"No…they're not...I don't know what they are, but they are registering as life forms." McKay was clearly exasperated.
"Doesn't matter, ghosts or not, they still have control of our people, and we need to figure out how to get them free. When I got close, I swear I could see human features. Rodney, is there anything in the database about previous inhabitants of New Atlantia?"
"No, nothing…I had Radek's team comb through as much of the database as they could to learn about this planet. There wasn't much information about it, no report of a gate here or much activity, at least by the Ancients."
"Well, someone's here and we need to find out what's going on. Come on, let's get to the main level. Rodney, you need to see if you can locate a power source, they have to be controlling our people and these lights from somewhere. We need to find it."
The five Atlantians headed up the stairs, into the main hall. Rodney was peering at the screen on his pad, then at the LSD and back again. After watching him for a moment, Sheppard grabbed his arm.
"Rodney, I feel like I'm watching a tennis match…I know that look...your brain cells are in high gear. What are you thinking?"
Cocking his head in a mischievous manner, McKay answered, "I am thinking that I know why you and I and McDowell are no longer restrained, and perhaps why we got a reading on those three ghosts."
At the use of the word 'ghost,' Sheppard heard Ronon chuckle, but he ignored it. "What are you thinking?"
"Only three of us escaped the restraints, the three who have the Ancient gene…even Peet was unaffected, and I think the beam of light would be strong enough to pluck her out of the jumper. So why didn't they, because Peet also has the gene, weak but natural. McDowell and I have the synthetic gene, but with all three of us together, I have a feeling we are affecting whatever energy source these people are using.'
"So you think we can get close to them?"
"Well…why would we want to do that?"
Sheppard glared at him, "Now that you have had this epiphany, could you figure out where the power source is, so that we can get our people and get out of here?"
Scowling, Rodney turned his focus back to his pad; after a couple of moments, he flashed a negligible but smirky grin. "Here," he pointed to a location on the far end of the fortress well past the archway. Sheppard didn't hesitate; he started trotting down the long corridor. The others hurried along behind him.
Along the way, they were stopped three times by swirling lights, once getting close enough to take Minter off his feet but each time, Ronon's blaster dissipated the energy. As they neared what they hoped was the power source, McKay explained that the frequency of the energy produced by Ronon's blaster apparently disrupted the energy beam. He was becoming more convinced that the energy was a transport beam that had been manipulated to look like apparitions.
They were nearing the location of the power source when McKay grabbed Sheppard's arm, "Wait, the readings are really beginning to spike; I think we are about to have another light show."
He was right; within seconds, the swirling bright lights appeared all around them, more brilliant than before. The intensity nearly blinded them but Ronon managed to fire his weapon enough to fade the lights and the power, enough for Sheppard to make a run through the veil of lights.
Once passed the lights, he skidded to a stop. There were now four of the glowing humanoids standing in front of him. He slowly walked toward them, this time they didn't vanish immediately. "I asked you once before, who are you, and why are you here?"
None of the figures moved as he moved closer. He raised an eyebrow, "Not very friendly are you, but then holding people captive and torturing them is not my idea of being friendly. Let my people go now."
Again, the four figures stood silent, but Sheppard began to detect a slight fading of the image of the two standing furthest from him. Determined not to allow them to escape before he had a chance to see who they were, Sheppard leapt toward the closest figure, wrapping his arms around the glowing being. A second after he touched the figure a surge of energy passed through him, and he passed out, but not before he looked into bright, deep-blue eyes, human eyes.
~ooOoo~
"Colonel, John, wake up…come on…I know you can hear me, wake up."
John Sheppard slowly responded, opening his eyes slightly, then widened them as quickly as he dared. Once his eyes were fully opened, he flinched, he was staring into deep-blue eyes. He scrambled to get away, but strong hands restrained him.
"Laddie, calm down, it's me; you're safe."
"Carson?"
"Yes, it's me. Now rest."
"How long was I out?"
"Nearly an hour and you've got a nasty bump on your head, so you need to rest. I don't think you have a concussion, but I want you to take it easy."
"Yeah right, need to talk to Lorne.
Sheppard tried to rise but he was dizzy, the strong hands behind him, which belonged to Ronon, helped him into a sitting position. His vision was slightly blurred, and it took a few minutes for him to be able to focus enough to comprehend what was happening around him. When his vision stabilized, he realized he was on the floor in the main hall of the fortress and that all the people who had been captured were sitting or standing around him. Lorne and the other rescue team members were milling about. As he took a deep breath, Teyla, who was sitting nearby, crawled over to him.
"John, are you okay?"
"Yeah, I think so, just dizzy, what about you and the others?"
Beckett answered for him, "Everyone is fine, a little dizzy from the after-effects of being held in something akin to stasis for several hours, but no long-term effects. We'll check everyone out thoroughly when we get back to Atlantis."
Sheppard spotted Lorne and attempted to stand up, but a wave of dizziness overcame him; he looked at Beckett, "Help me up." The doctor reluctantly helped him to his feet. When Teyla attempted to follow him, he shook his head, "No, rest…I just want to talk to Lorne."
Somewhat unsteady, Sheppard walked over to where Lorne was talking with Teldy, "Majors, good to see you both."
"Colonel, good to see you as well," Lorne replied, echoed by Teldy.
"What happened, Lorne?"
Well, sir...Dr. Zelenka got the jumper operational. Dr. McKay thinks because both Dr. Beckett and Peet were aboard, he explained the gene theory to us. Once they got far enough away from the fortress, they were able to contact us. We'd been here about ten minutes when we heard Ronon's blaster and located you near the power center.'
"That's when flyboy here jumped onto the big, bad alien." Rodney McKay walked up.
Sheppard, who was trembling slightly from the energy surge he had gotten from grabbing the alien, gave McKay a smirk, "Good to see you're okay, too, Rodney."
McKay looked sheepish, "Yeah…well, glad you're okay. What happened after you attacked the glowing guy was that he simply faded away. I think some kind of transport beam and a very sophisticated one if it didn't take you along for the ride. We found the power room, and I managed to get the restraint fields turned off."
Lorne spoke up, "By that time we were here, so we had people deployed at all the cells to prevent injuries as the captives were released. We've made a sweep of the fortress, and found no other indication of these 'entities' or any other power sources."
"I don't think this was their main power source."
Sheppard jerked his head around, making himself dizzy, "What do you mean?"
"I think this was a relay point of some kind; the power center we had here was mostly for projection. There wasn't enough equipment here to generate the light and effects that we witnessed, much less the transport beams. No, they have a power plant somewhere else."
Beckett approached, "I am ready to transport my patients, major. If you could have your people help get them loaded, I would appreciate it. Please put the colonel in the jumper I'm piloting back; I want to keep an eye on that head wound."
Lorne nodded, grinning at the colonel, who seemed a bit miffed, "He declared you all patients and told me to assume command."
Sheppard shook his head, "Geez…he loves that power, doesn't he?" Lorne only shook his head in return.
As Sheppard and McKay, with Major Teldy escorting them, headed for the jumper, Sheppard asked, "So, who the hell are these 'aliens?"
"No idea…but whoever, they are I doubt they like the Ancients, not if the gene affects their power that way."
"Well, I'm not sure I want to see these 'ghosts' again."
~ooOoo~
Across the lake, in a hidden bunker, several of the ghosts were gathered, watching as the four jumpers lifted off. It wasn't until the Ancient ships disappeared from sight that one of them spoke.
"We are no longer safe here; we must leave."
"But where will we go, Dormount; our ancestors came here to escape the Alterans. There was no gate here, no populations. We were free to pursue our quest; now we are simply to leave because they found us."
Another voice joined in, "Faca is right; they still do not know who we are, and there were only few of them who possess the Alterans abilities. Only one was strong enough to affect us with any efficiency that he could see through the shields."
Dormount slammed the table, "We are not like them. Do not forget that the masters were stripped of the gene then left to die on Matusus. It was a miracle that they found transport off that forsaken planet and made it to this galaxy. If the Alterans discover who we are, and that we escaped, we will be executed, not exiled. They made that implicitly clear when they punished the masters."
Walking to the one-way viewport that overlooked the lake and the fortress they built so long ago, Dormount spoke quietly. "We have been here for generations; but now we must leave. Over the hundreds of years our order has been in exile, our forays within this galaxy have provided us with sufficient raw materials. We have been able to adapt the vessel that brought the masters here into a ship capable of returning us home. We cannot afford to be discovered, and have our plans thwarted before we can implement them. We knew when the Alteran cityship landed on this planet that it was only a matter of time before they located us. All our elaborate precautions will not protect us. We are ready, and it is time we re-established our rights; it is time to return to Altera."
Oblivious to the murmuring behind her, Dormount thought about the green-eyed, Alteran, who had grabbed her. She had seen the immense power behind those eyes, power her ancestors had once possessed. If she were to avenge the atrocities that happened to her people, she would need to possess that power once again.
~ooOoo~
It was nearly time to leave for the Halloween party, and John Sheppard was adding the final accessories to his costume. Thirty-six hours had passed since they had returned from the fortress, and everyone was fine, suffering no ill effects from the energy restraints, even his bump on the head didn't warrant a stay in the infirmary.
Sheppard may have been able to shake off the bump on his head, but he couldn't shake the uneasiness of the events at the fortress. When he tried to sleep the night before, each time he closed his eyes, the piercing dark-blue eyes of the alien invaded his thoughts. Impressions of the alien's other features floated through his mind, but none as clear as its dark-blue eyes. Something ominous and wicked about those eyes, eyes filled with hatred. The image left him with an unsettled feeling.
His door chimed and Lorne and Major Winters, along with Dr. Julius Jackson, one of Keller's physicians arrived. Sheppard was pleased at his idea. Last year, when they were having 'specter' trouble on Atlantis, Rodney McKay had asked if they thought he was Dr. Stantz from the Ghostbusters and had all the answers to the problem they were encountering . Sheppard decided that being the Ghostbusters would be fun, so he ordered the costumes along with some mockups of the famous proton guns. Sheppard was going as Dr. Raymond Stantz, Lorne as Dr. Peter Venkman, Winters as Dr. Egon Spengler and Dr. J as they called him, because everyone kept asking him if he was the infamous Dr. Jackson, was going as Winston Zeddmore.
Sheppard grinned, as he put the ghost trap backpack on and picked up the 'proton gun' "You guys look great…McKay is going to be pissed." Sheppard pointed to the nametag he was wearing, Dr. "Meredith" Raymond Stantz."
Lorne shook his head, "You are the bravest man in this galaxy, sir."
"Well, after what happened at the fortress, I am not certain that a costume that has anything to do with ghosts was smart. However, too late now; on to the party, let's have some fun."
Walking to the party, Sheppard's thoughts continued to drift to the dark-blue eyes that revealed so much hatred. After meeting with Woolsey and Lorne, they had decided to return to the fortress, there were far too many questions that needed to be answered. However, they agreed that only military personnel possessing the Ancient gene, along with Ronon and his blaster, would carry out the mission. He chuckled to himself, looking down at the toy Ghostbusters 'proton gun' strapped to his hip, thinking he might need to bring it along as well. After what they had gone through, they needed all the help they could get.
As they approached the mess hall, the sound of laugher and eerie music drifting toward them, Sheppard whispered under his breath, "There is one good thing, at least they weren't clowns."
The end…
Banner background of Eilean Donan Castle, Dornie, Scotland from photo by Marcus Gunn.