The Hunted
1. Titans
Teal’c had spent the last three weeks in pure hell as far as he was concerned; he was in the gym of Atlantis. The trip had been made on the Daedalus which was the fastest ship known to anybody except the Asgard. The Asgard were an advanced race of aliens that looked like the Roswell Grey but were very friendly although they did not share much of their technology. They did help with some of the smaller things and they did let them use their beaming technology for the Daedalus.
He had been stuck in his cabin for almost the entire trip and it was not a very large cabin. Teal’c was a man of action, he was six foot four and weighed three hundred and twenty pounds but it was pure muscle. The people at the SGC (Star Gate Command) told anyone that was not in on the fact that he was from another planet that he was from Kenya. He had learned to speak Swahili quickly so that if someone tried to speak to him in his supposed native language he could converse without a problem. Although most of the people from Kenya were tall and thin he would remark that he was a healthy eater and also that there were people from Japan that were as big as he was.
Teal’c did not like being inactive, he could meditate only so much then he needed to were off some of the mounting energy, he needed his exercise that setup’s and push ups were not working for him. At the SGC he would find a group of Marines to work out with one at a time for training purpose and all of them at once for his pleasure which meant the Marines took a good beating but it only made them stronger. They would say that if you want to get better you have to take on the best. With Teal’c training them they were getting very good. Unfortunately the Marines at Atlantis had not been training with a Jaffa and it showed.
Ronon was the biggest man on the Atlantis station and he was doing a lot of training with the service personal but Teal’c scared the crap out of them. He was very intimidating and he was not happy that they were not putting up a very good fight. Teal’c scowled at the cowardice of the people of this base that would not take him on in a simple training exercise. The door in front of him opened quickly sliding to the side to reveal a tall man of about six foot three and close to two hundred and ninety pounds of muscle. Ronon had brown dreadlocks that hung down to his shoulders and a semi well maintained goatee. His shirt was sleeveless showing off his strong arms and shoulders; beside him was Tayla a beautiful dark lady that carried herself as a leader of people and a warrior in her own right.
Ronon had heard nothing but tails of the great Teal’c since the word had gotten around that he was coming to translate the writing’s and logs of an ancient Goa’uld ship that had been located in the outer reaches of the galaxy a couple of months ago. The ship looked like a rogue comet when it first entered the galaxy and was being watched because of it’s heading in the direction of a solar system that was inhabited by some of the people Atlantis traded with. The computers of Atlantis recognized the comet as a danger and sent messages to the screens giving warning. The comet had passed within the range of a star long enough for the ice to melt off making apart of the ship visible.
Ronon gave Teal’c a withering stare that could only be taken as a challenge. The big Jaffa turned from the five men that were putting up a feeble fight dismissing them and thanking them for their time. He turned to Ronon with the bare hint of a smile and invited him to the mat. Ronon removed the laser pistol from his holster and unsheathed his second favorite weapon his short sword that was over his right shoulder laying them carefully out of the way. He removed his boots and wordlessly stepped onto the mat. Teal’c did not need to worry about the people of Atlantis finding out he was an alien so he stepped off the mat for a moment to remove his shirt. The muscles of his chest and stomach were as impressive as his arms and shoulders and stripped to the waist revealed his Symbiote pouch which was a five inch x across his abdomen where the larva Goa’uld had lived. It had giving him strength and perfect health for countless years until he was forced to have it removed.
The larva Goa'uld was dieing and he had been forced to go to a drug that was made to replace the effects of the larva giving him a substitute immune system along with fast healing and strength that was twice that of a normal human. Not to be outdone Ronon stepped back to remove his own shirt revealing an equaling set of toned muscles. Ronon wasn’t as big as Teal’c but he was still a force to be reckoned with.
Ronon looked at the men that Teal’c had been sparing with to speak for the first time.
“When you fight with someone as large as this man is you have to take out his legs. You don’t chop a mighty tree from the top down, you cut it at its base.”
Teal’c knew that the men had been trying that maneuver for the last half an hour without any luck. He also knew the saying and had learned a long time ago what to do to protect against such an attack. More people started coming into the room and someone started taking bets as to how long the match would last and who would win, first take down ect.
Ronon started the bought with an extremely fast, low sweeping kick to the back of Teal’c’s legs. Teal’c turned into the kick blocking it with his foot then kicking Ronon in the upper chest with a side kick causing him to flip backwards. Ronon caught himself as he went over by placing his right hand on the mat and doing a one handed cart wheel landing in a fighting position. Teal’c was not stopping with the one kick and moved to the side of where Ronon landed. Most people fought in a lingerer pattern coming at an opponent in a strait line but Teal’c new that would not do for this man and circled in from the side. Ronon was quick and did a half step to the back side where Teal’c’s side was exposed in the attack and delivered a left hook into his ribs before he could step away. As Teal’c was stepping away though he delivered a devastating backhand slap with his left hand and followed with a right ridge hand as he brought his left hand down in the guard position covering his ribs on his right side the shoulder of the right arm protecting his face. Ronon ducked under the ridge hand that would have taken his head off if Teal’c had meant business and connected with it and did a backward roll flipping back up and in with another set of hand maneuvers and kicks that were blindingly fast.
Teal’c was impressed with the fighting style and speed Ronon was showing. It would have been a match for most of the Jaffa but Teal’c had not become the First Prime in charge of all of the forces of Apophis had he not been the best. He met the attack Ronon had given with an equally fast set of counter maneuvers.
The people in the room were starring wide eyed at the seen that was being displayed wishing that someone had a movie camera to record what they were seeing. Nobody was going to believe what they were witness to. It seemed that everybody that was not on duty was going to the gym after hearing that the two biggest people were in a sparing match the likes of which had never been seen before.
Elizabeth Weir and Samantha Carter came to the room quickly after receiving the news that the two men were in a sparing match. Sam had seen Ronon briefly when she first came to the station and wondered how well he and Teal’c would get along. Elizabeth Weir was just wondering if half of the city would be destroyed before the match was over.
Everybody in the room noticed something at the same time, Teal’c suddenly stepped back and actually smiled, and he visibly loosened up, then stepped back into the match with only a small amount of the tension. He was now in instructor mode; Teal’c brought his hands up with the first two fingers extended on each hand. Sam had seen Jack using this same technique several times with the people he worked with and Teal’c had learned it quickly as he did all fighting styles.
Ronon was still tensed but went strait into the attack, there was a series of very quick punch and kick combinations but he was not able to touch the big opponent. Teal’c simply stepped away or around Ronon letting him hit nothing but air. Teal’c did a half step turn bringing him into the side of Ronon after he had delivered a punch. Teal’c made a combination of left and right strikes with the finger tips of both hands striking pressure points on the shoulder and arm of Ronon. One of the points was on Ronon’s inner bicep which Teal’c was able to get at with the help of the first strike, this made Ronon’s arm drop to the side like a lead weight. Teal’c then didn’t have too much trouble doing the same thing to the other arm. Ronon kicked at him not giving up the fight and hoping he would get the sensation back into his arms soon.
Teal’c caught the leg with his right hand and used the thumb of his left hand to strike the inside of Ronon’s leg causing it also to loose function.
Elizabeth looked at Sam giving her the expression of what happened. Sam smiled as she answered. “When Teal’c stepped back he was able to relax his body allowing the muscles to work with less hindrance from the opposing set making him stronger and faster. He also cleared his mind letting his body work on the subconscious level more than the conscious level which also made him that much faster. He could react without thinking about what was happening. When a person is able to get to this level of fighting, time appears to slow down during the fight but it is just the ability to focus and react quickly that makes it seem that way. It‘s a weird feeling to see something coming at you in slow motion but professional baseball hitters say they can see the ball coming when it’s traveling at ninety miles and hour because of this kind of concentration.”
Elizabeth Weir had a glazed look in her eye, she was a genius in her own right. She was able to speak five languages fluently. She had brokered several peace agreements that the people of Earth said could not be done before coming to Atlantis as the commander of the facility. Sam had gone into technobable, which meant that only a hand full of the scientist on the station would be able to understand her.
“You should speak to Rodney McKay about this some time, I’m sure he will find it very interesting.”
Sam gave her a somewhat cold look. “Rodney McKay wouldn’t have the faintest idea about what I was saying, he would have to get up from behind his desk and actually do something physical to understand and he couldn’t do that if his life depended on it.”
“Rodney has changed since he got here; he’s going on field missions and can even fire a pistol now. He can even hit the target most of the time.”
“Would you be willing to put him in a sparing match with Teal’c or Ronon? Or better yet put him in a match with me for only ten minuets. The laundry girl I saw earlier that couldn’t weight more that a hundred pounds could kick Rodney’s ass without getting out of breath.”
“I take it you have had dealings with our Dr McKay before?”
“Several times, he’s arrogant, overbearing and way to confident in his ability to do things he has no idea of what he is doing.”
“Isn’t that your job as a theoretical astrophysicist, to make an assumption of how something works and test that theory?”
“Yes, but some common sense has to be brought into the equation or you end up blowing up something important like half the building. Or a planet which I heard that he actually did, not too long ago. What was it, just three quarters of a solar system wasn’t it?”
Dr Weir had to give that one to her; it looked like Sam had been reading the weekly reports sent to Earth and had all the scoop of what was going on at the station.
Teal’c helped Ronon off the floor as soon as his arms and leg started working again, he was still tingly but he could stand.
Ronon quietly spoke to Teal’c.
“May I ask a personal question of you?”
This would have shocked everybody in the room if they had overheard the question, Ronon was usually very blunt with his questions but he had just had his ass handed to him by this big man and it seemed like a good idea to him to be polite to him.
“Where did you learn to fight like that and what is the thing on your forehead?”
Teal’c was not one to brag or boast about himself but Ronon had fought well and he deserved an answer. “This is the mark of the First Prime of Apophis; I was the leader of all his Jaffa warriors which incorporated hundreds of worlds. I learned and am still learning from the First Prime before me that was my instructor, Master Brata’c.
“Aren’t you a Master also then?”
“Yes I am, but I will not use the title out of respect to Master Brata’c until he has gone to Keb which I hope will be many years from now. He is like a father to me.”
John Sheppard walked by in the hallway as they were leaving the gym. He looked quizzically at Ronon. “What happened to you?”
Ronon just growled and limped off rubbing his arms.
John smiled and looked at Teal’c. “Will you be ready to go to the ship tomorrow?”
Teal’c raised an eyebrow at him. “Indeed.”
2. The Trip
The next day Colonel John Sheppard took Sam, Teal’c, Ronon and Rodney McKay all too the ship. Rodney had to explain how they were able to get all the ice off the ship and slowed down, they had pulled it into an orbit around a planet with an atmosphere and skipped the ship off the atmosphere several times to heat it up and melt the ice off then they pulled it back into a stable orbit.
Rodney seemed very proud of the accomplishment, until Sam ask if he had gone onboard and turned on the life support systems and heating. He looked a little downcast that he had forgotten such a basic thing as life support. This meant that someone would need to put on a space suit and EVA into the ship to start the necessary systems so that they would be able to work.
Teal’c was too big to fit into the onboard suit and Rodney wouldn’t go near the thing. One of his biggest phobias was being set adrift in space to die slowly. That was something Sam was willing to help him with by throwing Rodney out the airlock so that he wouldn’t have to fear it any longer.
She was able to keep her opinion to herself this time. John Sheppard volunteered to go but he was needed to fly the ship. Ronon was in the same shape as Teal’c he didn’t fit into most spacesuits and he was not very skilled at EVA anyway. Sam put on the suit but she wanted McKay to know that she was not happy about the situation and put all the blame on him.
The docking went smoothly and everything in the ship was stowed away so that when the door opened it wouldn’t fly out. Everyone went into the front compartment which was very crowed and the air was pulled out of the back compartment. The Puddle Jumpers didn’t have an air lock that they new of. When Sam went back to open the rear hatch she saw a faint blue glow behind her, she turned and put her hand out. There was a force field that separated the back third of the ship; she used her mic to tell Colonel Sheppard about this. He vented some of the air back into the room and it stayed in the front two thirds of the ship. They did have an airlock compartment and didn’t even know it.
Sam maneuvered out of the hatch then activated the magnetic boots. She had a safety line attached to the outside of the Jumper then she slowly walked to the hatch Teal’c had told her about.
There was a panel with a gear inside that opened the outside door on a small airlock. When the door was open she found a frozen body crunched up into a small ball that would conserve body heat for a short while anyway. The body was covered in rags so it was not a Goa’uld or a Jaffa it had to be a slave but why would it have been in the airlock. After conferring with Sheppard it was decided that they should jettison the body and proceed. She carefully maneuvered the body out of the airlock and pushed it toward the planet below where it would be cremated while reentering the atmosphere of the planet.
The ship was powered still, she found the button that closed the outer hatch and pressurized the chamber. Inside the ship the lights came on to give an odd light to the frost covered room.
The door to that room was blocked with a box which was good because she wasn’t sure if the door would have opened with all the frost on it. She made her way to the bridge past some closed doors to find the control room. Teal’c had told her what the control for the life support looked like but it still took a while to get the control to work. There was air in the ship but it was very old and she didn’t think it would be breathable. The air did carry the sound of long unused machines coming to life cleaning the air and heating the ship. It was going to take a while for it to be suitable to work without the spacesuit.
She left a sensor that would give them the atmospheric reading on the Jumper. She made her way back to the compartment where the airlock was but decided to check some of the rooms as she went.
Like she had thought before the closed rooms would not open but some of the other doors were open already. The cargo bay was one of those doors. There were boxes and boxes of very old equipment compared to today’s standard. As she walked by one of the boxes that was opened she failed to notice the spear point that was sticking out and wedged against another create. This did two bad things at once, she ripped her spacesuit and put a large hole in her side as the point went in she fell causing the spear to rip through more of the suit and her side.
In the Jumper Sam’s vital signs went wild all at once, her heart rate went high and her blood pressure went low. Her respiration went way high then they heard a grunt then something hitting against something hard.
“Colonel Sheppard, I believe that Colonel Carter is in trouble.”
Sheppard gave a serious look to Teal’c. “I think you’re right about that, Big Guy.”
“I must get to her right now!”
“Easy Big Guy, we will get to her as soon as possible. Okay, the heaters are working overtime and the atmosphere is almost breathable already but it’s low on oxygen and still about twenty degrees below zero in there. I’ll back the Jumper to the door and extend the shield around the ship when the door opens it will let some of our air into that ship. With this shield covering the back half of the ship it will keep our air safe in here.” Teal’c and Ronon would go together to get Sam out while he waited at the back of the Jumper.
John Sheppard changed the air in the back half of the jumper as rich with oxygen as possible to give the men a better chance. When the door opened the air supply was cut in half because the space it was filling was doubled.
Teal’c went strait for the hatch using the lever again. He then opened the door to the inside with some effort. The compartment was small and with the two big men in it he was just barley able to get to the button that released the door. Once the door was opened they needed to find Colonel Carter as quickly as possible. Ronon went forward while Teal’c went toward the back of the ship.
Sam was just starting to regain conciseness when Teal’c found her. The blood had frozen her suit to the floor. Teal’c looked up to see that someone had set a trap and Sam was the unlucky victim. The suit was stuck tight to the floor. His only option was to take the suit off to get her back to the Jumper. He pulled his knife out cutting through the tough material as fast as possible without filleting Colonel Carted in the process.
Teal’c called to Ronon telling him that they were leaving. Ronon was a little smaller than Teal’c so he carried Sam through the airlock into the Jumper. Teal’c followed shivering but none the worst for ware. Ronon had been holding his hand over as much of the wound as he could to try to stop the bleeding or at least slow it down.
John Sheppard got the medical kit and pulled out a pressure bandage telling McKay to hold it firmly in place. “Okay guy’s, I made a big mistake when I enriched the oxygen supply before you went into the Goa’uld ship.”
Ronon gave him a suspicious look. “What do you mean, you made a big mistake?”
“I gave you too much of our oxygen, the reading was wrong when I tapped it, it fell to well below normal for our remaining air. We only have enough oxygen to last three people to get back to Atlantis. I need to fly the ship and McKay wouldn’t last ten minuets in the Goa’uld ship.”
Teal’c gave him a lifted eyebrow. “Could we not stop along the way and replenish the air supply?”
“There are no habitable planets along the route to Atlantis and if I go out of the way Sam might not make it back.”
Teal’c would do anything for Sam and if it meant staying onboard a derelict Goa’uld ship then that is what he would do. “I will stay.”
Ronon wasn’t too happy about staying but he knew if they were going to make it back he would also have to stay. He just shook his head at Sheppard letting him know that he would stay also.
“Alright then breakout the thermal blankets and some of the portable heat packs out of the med kits. It’s already almost up to ten below now.”
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“My queen, one of our scout ships while looking for a suitable planet to cull has spotted an odd ship that is not in our databanks. We should investigate incase it has something we could use, perhaps another feeding ground or weapons we might be able to use.”
“Very well set a course for the ship, we need to do something while we wait for our next feeding.”
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Teal’c and Ronon were freezing. Teal’c had diverted most of the heat to the engine room which was smaller. They had taken the oxygen bottle off of the spacesuit which would not have been enough to make it back to Atlantis with but it did help in the small room where the environmental system was doing its job, just not fast enough. The oxygen was too low to exercises to keep warm so they had to set still.
Ronon was not happy, he had to leave his blaster and swords on the Jumper on the first trip and he didn’t have time to gather them before they had left. The only weapons he had were a set of knives and whatever Teal’c had, all Ronon could see was a field knife.
They had been there for about an hour and a half when they both heard a loud scraping and a bang of metal on a hard surface. They both ran to the airlock getting there just as a Wrath warrior was stepping out. Teal’c didn’t need to be told that this was the Wrath he had been told what they looked like and what they did. He pulled his knife and in one smooth motion cut the throat then used a backward stabbing motion to sever the spine of the creature. The next one to come through Ronon shoved his knife through the bottom of the mouth to the brain.
He quickly took the weapons of the dead Wrath. Teal’c was busy with a third one which was able to block several of his moves until Teal’c put the knife through the left eye of the thing killing it. The Wrath stopped coming through the door, Ronon grabbed Teal’c’s arm and told him to run. The wall of the ship vanished in a wave of heat and a smell that Teal’c could not place but it had an acidic odor to it. He turned to see a group of Wrath pointing a strange weapon at them but they had no place to go.
It took the Wrath several shots to both men to knock them down. One of the warriors started to bind the big dark human when he was caught by the throat, which was ripped out quickly and efficiently.
Teal’c was shot with the Wrath stunner's a couple more times and kicked and stomped him before one of the breeding males came in to stop them.
3. The Hive
Ronon woke first, rolling over to check where he was. He spotted Teal’c then rolled over to him to make sure he wasn’t dead. The Wrath wouldn’t have left him in there if he was dead but the man wasn’t looking too good at the moment. There were two more people in the cell with them, a child of about ten years old and a pregnant woman. The woman came over to check on Teal’c while the little boy stayed back away from everybody.
Teal’c opened his eyes, the little bit that he could open them to see a beautiful set of green eyes looking back at him. The woman had long midnight black hair and a pale complexion. She smiled at him but he saw the deep hurt behind those eyes that went all the way to the bone. This woman had been made to suffer not physical but mental pain. He slowly and painfully raised a bloody bruised hand to her face then gave her a cracked lip smile meant only for her to say thank you for your concern.
He reached into his pocket to get his vile of Tratonan to find it was broken. He had a spare on the Jumper because when your life depends on a medication you always have extras around. The problem was that the Jumper was not around and he had not had his injection since yesterday. It was time for another one and he did not have it. The Tok'ra were working on making a dose that would last longer letting him go for about two weeks between injections but they were not finished before he had to leave for the Atlantis mission.
“Ronon, I have a problem.”
Teal’c went on to tell Ronon what the problem was and that he would continue to get weaker as time went by until he was dead. Ronon did not like the idea of Teal’c not being able to fight and knew that he wouldn’t go down without a fight evidenced by the Wrath blood all over his chest and arm.
“What does this medicine do for you; how does it work?”
Teal’c told him that it gave him strength and stamina but it also worked as an immune system for him.
“I have a plan but you aren’t going to like it.”
&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&
Sam opened her eyes a little but the room started to spin again and her side was on fire.
“Easy there Carter, you’ve lost a lot of blood but we’re doing our best to get you safely back to Atlantis. We should be there in about thirty minuets.”
“Rodney you worm, why is your hand under my shirt?”
Rodney McKay took great offense to being called a worm by Dr. Samantha Carter who was a Colonel in the United States Air Force and his only rival. She was the only person that was as smart as he was but she was the one that always won if there was an idea to save the world or fix some critical part. He was jealous of her brains and he really liked her body.
“For your information Dr. Carter; I’m holding the pressure bandage in place to keep you from bleeding to death.”
“Then you need to hold it a little lower and to the left, Please!”
“Oh! Sorry about that, I didn’t realize what I was doing.”
Sam looked down at his pants for a second. “Right! I’m sure you didn’t realize.”
He didn't let go of the pressure bandage but he was making sure it was in the right place now. The Jumper radioed that they had wounded onboard so that a medical staff would be ready on landing. The door opened allowing Dr. Carlson Becket access to his patent on landing.
“Rodney, what are you doing?”
“I am applying a pressure bandage to this persons damaged area.”
“Well you need to apply the pressure a little lower and to the left. You know, so that you're actually covering the wound.”
Rodney McKay just got up and left Samantha Carter in the skillful hands of the Doctor.
Sam spoke in a shaky weak voice. “Dr. Becket, I think there might have been some kind of poison on the spear that I cut myself on.”
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Teal’c forced himself to get up. He was going to need to get them out of this cell if Ronon couldn’t. The warrior had used all his arsenal of hidden knives to try and hit the nerve that controlled the door. It hurt to move but he had no choice, they were either going to escape or they would die there. He pulled off his left boot to retrieve the package that was in the end of the boot. It was a very tightly sealed package of termite cord.
Ronon had never seen anything like it before. Teal’c just put is boot back on. “What are you going to do with that little string, saw through the bars?”
Teal’c had been smiling a lot this trip, his face was starting to hurt. “Watch and learn my friend.”
He wrapped the cord several times around the bars that he wanted to remove then struck a match to the end of the cord. It flared bright with the match and melted through the bars in just a few seconds, it also ate a hole through the floor. Ronon was impressed but he ran out into the hall retrieving his knives so he would be ready for their next move. It was time to go hunting.
Floating
Sam opened her eyes again but this time she didn't feel the sharp burning pain like before, she did feel the pain killers doing their job. She was starting to enjoy the feeling of almost weightlessness. She tried to push herself off the foot of the bed thinking she would just float easily across the room where she could give an easy push and just keep bouncing all day like that. When she pushed though she did not float, she was disappointed and was wearing a frown when Dr. Becket came in to check on her.
Her disposition changed again, she smiled up at him forgetting the disappointment at not being able to fly for the moment.
“Hay, what’s up Doc?” She started giggling at her own joke and Dr. Becket had to smile with her.
“Nurse, I think we need to cut back on the pain meds just a wee bit.”
He then took the time to examine her bandages and to make sure she wasn’t bleeding. He was surprised at the state of closure on the wound itself.
“Nurse, would ya come look at this.”
“That new Wrath enzyme you’re working with is great.”
“I’ll say so.”
Sam suddenly blew a raspberry at the Doctor.
“Where’s Jack? Jack is always with me when I wake up in the infirmary, and sometimes at home, scratch that, a lot of the times at home.” She let out another giggled that turned into laugh that hurt her stitches. Then she fell asleep happily thinking about floating around the room.
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Ronon was silently moving through the halls until he found what he was looking for. It was a cocooning station. He carefully cut out one of the glands on the underside of one of the tentacles on a body that wouldn’t last much longer. The tentacle was about to inject him with another dose of the enzyme that would keep him alive and promote healing, the other gland would sedate him so that he slept until the Wrath were ready to feed on him. That was its job, heal them to be harvested then it would be fed.
Ronon carefully moved back down the hall to the cell. He took one of the slimy green glands and told Teal’c to hold it under his tongue and not to spit it out, it would be very bitter but it would help him to recover. Ronon went back out into the hall to find the next thing he would need to get them off of the Hiveship.
Ronon was able to sense the Drown long before it realized something was going on. Ronon shoved the knife into the hollow of the back of its head killing it instantly. He quickly cut the enzyme sack out of the right arm then drug the body to the ships feeding tub after removing the weapons, the body disappeared. Ronon did this two more times then went back to the cell.
Most of Teal’c’s swelling and bruising had gone away when Ronon got back, he was still week but he did feel better. Ronon told him to take out the gland but not to throw it away he would be using it again soon. He then told Teal’c to open his mouth and hold up his tongue.
“Whatever you do, do not throw this up, it will be the nastiest tasting stuff you will ever put in your mouth. Its nasty stuff but it'll give you your strength, speed and do the work of your immune system like that other medicine but it will also make you very aggressive. If you know about this it will not overtake you. One more thing about this that we don’t have any choice about, but this stuff is very addictive.”
Ronon poured about a third of the pouch under Teal’c’s tongue then watched him make the most facial expressions he had seen since his arrival to Atlantis. The enzyme moved quickly through his body from the small capillaries under the tongue which fed strait into the bloodstream. Teal’c was retching but he did not vomit up the precious and hard won Wrath Juice. Ronon used the bag that Teal’c had gotten the thermite out of, which would keep it fresher longer. Teal’c was feeling stronger in just a few minuets
“Okay Big Guy, we need to get off this ship somehow.”
“Do they have any ships that are larger than the Darts?”
“Yes, but I don’t know how to fly them.
“That is no problem, I can fly anything.” Teal’c was shocked to hear himself sounding just like the General. He shook it off.
Ronon asked the question that was on his mind at the moment. “What if we take one of the Darts then?”
Teal’c was angry that he would even suggest the idea. “We will not leave the woman and child behind to be fed upon like cattle.”
“While you were gone she told me how there were twenty people in this cell alone including her oldest son and her husband. They were taken out one at a time to be fed on; one of the breeding males took great pleasure at feeding on her husband in this very room.”
“The child was witness to his parents being killed and drug off in the same manner. They will not be staying. We do not leave people behind.”
Again he was sounding like his friend Jack O’Neill but what he said was true.
&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&
Sam woke again but this time she was not floating. She was a little disappointed that she wasn’t floating, she liked that feeling.
“Oh, oh still a little out there just not as far out as we were.” She looked down under the covers and moved the hospital gown out of the way so that she could see the incision. When she saw the hospital gown she started thinking that Jack had said that she looked sexy in those paper gowns and he always wanted to rip them off with his teeth. That thought started another giggling fit which brought in the nurse.
“How are you feeling now Colonel?”
Sam looked around the room, no Jack was a General now and she was the Colonel. That started the giggles that never really stopped in the first place. “I’m doing really, really good right now. I'd be doing even better if you gave me one of those little blue pills that I get back home in the infirmary.”
“Nooo, I think you have plenty of pain medications going right now, as a matter of fact I think we need to go down another notch.”
“Spoil sport.”
“So the General’s big brown eyes get to you don’t they.”
“Shhhh, don’t tell anybody, it’s a secret but he has those big brown eyes and big hands and big feet and he’s a really good kisser. Ooooh ya he is that.
The nurse smiled then left the room.
Sam just wiggled around in the bed thinking someone needs to go get Jack; 'He needs to be here with me.'
&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&
Teal’c was feeling very good now, he felt like he could take on the entire Hiveship by himself, but he needed to get these people out and away from the life suckers first. The woman was about eight and a half months pregnant so it was not possible to move her with any real speed. The boy was afraid, he stayed close to the woman always holding her hand or her dress but never letting go unless he just had to. They worked their way to the hanger deck avoiding the patrols and hiding when necessary.
The hanger bay had three Drones guarding it. Ronon took one while Teal’c grabbed the other two bashing their heads together like it was nothing. He turned to the other guard that Ronon was still struggling with hitting him so hard in the chest; Ronon heard the bones break from behind. The guard dropped dead out of Ronon’s grip.
“Damn, we better cut your dose down by quite a bit.”
Teal’c just grunted then he let out a low growl while wishing that there were more guards. Ronon cut the enzyme sack out of the Drones, he took all their weapons again then he had Teal’c toss them into another feeding tube. The ship was eating well today.
Ronon finally got Teal’c in the smaller ship used for transporting things between Hiveships when they weren’t fighting with each other. When Teal’c settled down a little he was thinking about how to fly the ship. Okay, there are only a few things that we need to do, up, down, forward, and backward, along with left and right, shields and weapons would be nice. The ship lifted off the deck heading for the hatch that led to the outside of the ship. When they got out into space they were right above a very beautiful planet. That’s where they would be going for the time being.
&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&
“My Queen, the humans have left the ship, they took the woman that was with child and the small boy.”
“That's a pity, I wanted him for next week, the young ones are so sweet when I’m able to feed on them.”
“I did not expect them to be able to make it off the ship, the big dark one was badly injured. They are much more resourceful than I anticipated.”
“Very well, the hunt begins at dusk tomorrow on this world.”
&&&&&&&&&&&&&&
The child was very shy but he needed to tell the big men what he knew about the ship. He quietly walked over to the larger of the two men when he was close to them he felt that they both had strong feelings of loyalty, pride and they cared about the people around them once they let people into their lives. The dark man was having trouble with his thoughts of aggression but he was getting better as the day went by.
Teal’c could feel the Wraith enzyme starting to ware off some as his head began to clear from the fog of battle. The young boy walked up to him laying a hand on his arm, the feelings of hate started melting away having been replaced with a feeling of peace. Teal’c was surprised at the sudden change of his mood. The look of an innocent child disappeared being replaced with something that should not be seen coming from a child and was very disturbing to Teal’c. The child slumped for a moment then he was back to his normal self again.
“It was the stuff from the Wraith that made you feel like hurting things. I blocked the bad feelings but you still have the other benefits of the stuff that you need. You just won’t have the bad feelings.”
Teal’c put his massive arms around the child and thanked him. The child crawled into his lap while he piloted the ship to the planet below. The ship was just a shuttle without long range capability; the planet was the only place they could go to get off the Hiveship so that is where they would end up.
The Planet
The planet was mostly forest with mountains mixed in now and then for a little change of scenery. Teal’c landed the transport by a river at the mouth of a lake. There was a small waterfall that had only about a ten foot fall. The end where they were had a very light fall with the heavy waterfall further toward the center.
The child had fallen asleep with Teal’c holding him. The pregnant woman told him that his name was Ting. Her name was Salinah. Teal’c carried the child out of the ship to a grassy area to lay him gently down so as to not wake him. Salinah eased herself down in the area with him in case he started having the nightmares that haunted him since the Wraith started taking people out of the cell. He knew what they were doing and could feel the fear of the victims until there were no more thoughts coming from them. No child should have to go through that ever, but he had been through it time after time.
Ting had told her that they would not post a guard in hopes of an escape attempt. The Queen wanted to play a game and to sharpen the warriors’ skills. She had thought that it would only be the pale human warrior that would try to make it to the ships. She was very surprised that all of them were able to make it off her ship.
Teal’c started looking for firewood while Ronon went out hunting. There wasn’t much to hunt; he did find a large number of husks where the Wraith warriors had harvested the animals. He knew that the Queen and breeding males were given the humans first while they did reward a Drone with a human every now and then if he did a superior job. The Drones mostly fed on the animals of a planet while the lower servants had rodents, snakes, things like that.
The Hive got all the husks and creatures that died before they were fed on. The Wraith did feed on life energy so if something was dead it was of no use to them. The Queen was very particular about leaving breeding stock on the planets so that they could feed again later. The conservationist would be proud of their skills, they did not like to take the old but if that was what was available then they did take them. It was the young that would breed often and were left on the planets to repopulate them. Darts and transports connected to the Hiveship with an umbilical to feed and repair themselves. No one new how the biomechanical ships were made but they did well and the Mothership could make more of the smaller ships when they were needed.
&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&
Ronon finally found something that looked like a large chicken to stun and he had already found some tubers that would work nicely for dinner. Teal’c had built a small fire knowing that it might give their position away but they would have to eat to keep up their strength. Another thing was that Teal’c would not watch the child go hungry for another day. Ting and Salinah had not eaten for a couple of days, the food that the Wraith would throw in the cell for them was usually not fit to eat and they didn't know what it was. Some of it looked like human body parts.
The chicken thing was cut up and cooked with the tubers being put in the fire surrounded with rocks to keep the direct fire off if them to cook. Teal’c had washed a flat rack in the river to clean it then piled some rocks on each side of the fire; by laying the rock over the fire he was able to make a cooking surface for the chicken. It was easer to fry than to make a spit that would have to be continually turned.
Teal’c found some thin stringy vines that was fairly strong, with some of the bones laying around he made some fish hooks he tied some small rocks about six inches from the hooks to weight down the lines. Gathering some of the local insects for bait he waded into the river tying the lines to limbs that hung over the river.
When the food was ready he and Ronon took the cooked chicken cutting it up into bite sized portions then they did the same for the tubers that looked like a big potato but it had a kind of nutty taste to it. Teal’c used some more of the smaller flat rocks that he had washed earlier as a plate serving Ting and Salinah their first meal in days. Ronon had found some gourds while hunting that served as cups.
Teal’c had just finished his portion of the meal when his sharp hearing picked up the sound of rustling in the brush long before a small black head popped out from behind a bush. It looked like a small cat but everybody in the camp could tell that it was just a baby. Ronon was looking carefully at the brush around them.
“Careful Teal’c, its mother is probably close by.”
Both of the men had the hand held stunners at the ready. Ting went over and picked up the kitten before they could stop him. Salinah also had one of the stunner's in her hand ready to help protect if possible. Ting was cuddling the kitten then he looked over at the men.
“It’s hungry; its mother was killed by the Wraith in their last hunting party. Can we keep it? Please!!!”
Ting brought the kitten over to Teal’c who was broadcasting the kindest feelings toward both he and the small animal. Teal’c took some of the parts of the chicken which he had cleaned and washed buy the river, using some of the parts he was going to use for bait he cut the parts into very fine peaces for the young animal. It had small teeth which led him to believe that the mother would have been feeding it some partially digested meat already; they didn't have anything like that so the finely chopped meat would have to do.
Ronon volunteered to take first watch that night. Teal’c laid down on the soft grass with Ting on one arm and the kitten on his chest. Salinah ask if he would mind her using his other arm. She was frightened and needed to be close to somebody at the moment. It wasn't a sexual thing, she just needed to be comforted and Teal’c could provide a lot of comfort for her and Ting, with some left over for Shadow, the newest part of the group. In about six hours Ronon took Teal’c’s place with the kitten snuggling to Salinah. Teal’c made his rounds of the camp.
Just before full sunup he waded back into the river checking his limb lines which caught two fairly good size fish. He baited the lines again then cleaned the fish and stoked the fire. Ronon eased out from under Salinah and Ting but Shadow was wide awake as he started to move. Ronon went back to where he found the tubers to gather more. He cooked them on top of the grill this time on the other side away from the fish
Ronon and Teal’c both were wishing for some coffee but the nearest store was a few million light years away.
On a Wing and a Prayer
The General was not at all pleased with the weekly report that had just come through from the Atlantis base. His people were in trouble, Sam Carter was wounded with an unknown poison from an ancient Goa'uld ship that was found floating abandoned in the wrong galaxy. Not only that, but Teal'c was missing along with the ship and another member of the Atlantis crew. According to the reports the ship could not have powered up to the point of being able to move from its orbit around a planet that could not support life. Now it was not where they had left it seven hours earlier. General Landry picked up the phone to call Jack O'Neill's office to give him the news.
General Jack O'Neill's secretary stayed as far away from his office as she could while still doing her job. She was advising others to not go in unless the building was about to explode.
When he did come out of his office he told her that he would be out of pocket for an undetermined amount of time and to have the Colonel take his calls, referring everything else to General Pike.
Jack jumped into one of the security trucks that were making the rounds telling him to make his best speed to the Air Force base. He was able to get one of the pilots with a trainer to fly him to Colorado. General O’Neill was at the SGC in record time. When Jack O'Neill came out of the SGC office he surprised everybody when he went past all of them strait to the science labs. When he got into the lab he grabbed the tech that usually worked with Sam on the larger of her experiments. Jack was asking her if two of the Mark 2 Naquada generators would get a person to the Pegasus Galaxy. The poor woman was very surprised at the technical question coming from the General in the form of a direct question.
“It would let us connect for a couple of minuets and possibly allow one person to go through but it would be risky. If we connected three it might overload the computers, so that’s why we don't use them that way.”
“You have thirty minuets to connect them and get ready to send me to Atlantis.”
“Yes Sir!”
Jack went to his old locker and got into his field uniform which he kept there for when he got the urge to go through the Gate and could fit it into his schedule. He then went to the armory and gathered his field gear and back down to the Gate room where the techs had just finished setting up the generators. He told the control room to dial the Atlantis station. He had several people telling him that this was not a good thing and he could be killed or just not rematerialized on the other end.
Jack informed all of them that he has been through this before and lived through it but this was something that he felt that he needed to do. Two of his people were in trouble and he didn’t have time to wait for the Daedalus to return to Earth. It would then make the three week trip to Atlantis which would make the time five weeks before he could do anything. He was not going to wait one week let alone five. The Stargate was almost instant in transporting objects from one point to another.
&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&
Dr Weir was informed that a traveler was inbound with the GDO of Earth. She called the guards in ready to defend the base if need be while she had her hand on the shield that would stop any further attempts to gain access to the base if it was a hostile. As far as she knew there was no way to travel from Earth to the Atlantis base without a zero point modal which were almost imposable to come by. The only other way was too risky to do because of the week link between the Galaxies with anything less than a ZPM.
The Stargate flared to life allowing Jack O'Neill to step through just as it shut off, he looked back noticing that the back half of his boot heel was missing where the Gate had not materialized it as he came through. He was looking at the bare sock sticking out of the back of his boot when he noticed that part of his P90 stock also didn't make it through in one piece.
Jack was checking to see if all the other parts that he really wanted to keep had made it through with him when Elizabeth Weir walked up. Jack had a relieved look on his face as he let go of his crotch and was making sure his butt had made it through.
“General this is a big surprise; I didn’t think we could travel by Stargate without a ZPM.”
“It’s not safe to transport with the Stargate without the ZPM but I needed to be here with Colonel Carter poisoned and Teal'c missing. I was just not able to wait for transport in the normal manner so I took the chance this way, but I will not be doing that again and I will not allow anybody else to do it either.”
The person that was on Gate duty at the control station called down. “Dr. Weir, General O'Neill, you had better move out of the way, we have another traveler coming through with the Earth GDO signal.”
They stepped out of the way as the vortex washed forward, Jack knew that only one other person would have tried this other than himself. Jack stepped forward grabbing Daniel by the shirt and pulling him away just as the wormhole vanished, pulling him to a safe distance.
“Wow; that was a rough ride.”
“Yes Daniel, it usually is when you go to another Galaxy. Why are you here?”
“I heard that Sam and Teal'c were in trouble and you came through, so I thought if you could go this way then so could I.”
“I’m going to kill General Landry when I get back for allowing this to happen. He should never have let you go through the Gate as dangerous as this trip is.”
“He didn’t have a choice Jack, I told them to dial the Gate and I just walked through like you did. It's not the first time we’ve done this Jack; we did it several times with General Hammond. We just didn’t go this far away except when you went to the Asgard to have the knowledge of the Ancients business taken care of.”
Jack turned Daniel around checking him out. “Jack what are you doing?”
Jack didn't answer he just showed Daniel the heel of his boot and the severed stock of the P90. Daniel turned a little pale and grabbed his crotch to make sure all his vital parts were there.
Dr. Weir looked strangely at both of the men but she knew from long observance that all men did the same thing when they were in danger of loosing a part of their body that was the first thing that they checked.
Jack looked over at Dr. Weir. “Could we get a report as soon as possible please and I would like to see Colonel Carter right away.”
“Yes General, I’ll have someone take you to the infirmary right away then Colonel Sheppard and I will have our reports ready when you’re done there.”
“Please call me Jack; I never did like all the pomp that went with the General thing.”
“That will be fine with me if you’ll call me Elizabeth.”
He gave a nod then followed his guide to the infirmary.
&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&
Sam was feeling sick again, it had been a couple of hours now and the pain along with the burning sensation would return and now the pain medications were not helping. She was about to call for the nurse or she was going to vomit in the trash can again. Jack walked in as she was turning a nice shade of green and was ready to blow. He held the pan for her while holding her hair back. When she was finished he got a washcloth and cleaned her face.
“Why do I keep hallucinating about having you here when I know that you couldn't be?” Then she rolled over to close him out of her mind.
Jack leaned close to her and whispered into her ear. “It's me Baby; I am here in the flesh.”
He then gave her a kiss on the side of her neck that was exposed to him. The nurse was watching from the doorway, she blushed then backed out quietly. She could see why Samantha Carter was so taken by the General, he had risk his life to be with her in her time of need and to do whatever it took to get his people home.
Sam rolled back over with a surprised look on her face. She threw her arms around his neck like she would drown if he ever let go. “But how did you get here?”
“I'd grow wings and fly to get to you if you needed me, but in this case I hooked two of the Mark 2 Naquada generators together which just barley got me here then Daniel came along a few minuets later.”
Jack was looking at the bed she was lying on. It was one of the beds that had originally been on the base when they had arrived. The others had the Ancient gene in their system but only Jack had the download which the Asgard did not take out, they just slowed it down so that it didn't take over his conscious mind.
Dr. Carson Becket came in as he brought the bed on line. It gave a reading of what was in her system. “How did you get that to work?”
Jack was holding her hand as he answered. “It just came to me that this is what needed to be done to make her better.”
“Well I'm glade that it's working for you, there are some unusual readings here and I don’t know what this one is.”
Jack got a concerned look in his eye at what the Doctor was saying. “So do we need to have it removed or do we leave it there. That's not Naquada and there are two chemicals present there not just one.”
Carlson looked at the readings for a moment. “This one is the Wraith enzyme that I have been using to keep her alive and heal her. She nearly died from blood loss.”
Jack looked relieved that he was able to do something for her. “This table will remove the substance but it will take a while.”
Dr. Becket wanted Jack to show him everything he was doing and explain what he was doing so that he could do it himself. Jack showed him several other functions that the table could do. Jack pushed a series of buttons that caused Sam's stomach to settle and gave her a feeling of floating again without the medications.
Sam gave him a beautiful smile that immediately brightened the room. “Jack, come lay down and float with me for a while.”
She was giggling again which Dr. Becket was happy to see again instead of the pain she had been going through for the last couple of hours. Jack pushed another button and she went to sleep with a happy smile on her face.
Dr. Becket smiled at Jack. “Don't ya want ta float with her for a wee bit Jack?”
Jack told him to put his hand into the field on the bed. When he passed his hand above Sam's body he felt a tremendous relief wash over him and he got very sleepy all at the same time.
Jack pulled him back where he came back to normal. “Be careful Doc, it can be very addictive if used too much like anything else that can make you feel good.”
The Hunt
Teal'c woke Salinah and Ting for breakfast. He took Shadow to feed the kitten some of the fish meat that he had saved for her. When Ting finished he went over to Teal'c.
“The Wraith will start the hunt tonight at dusk. They didn’t expect us to make it off the ship and thought that they would be only hunting Ronon while he tried to evade them there. The Queen is very upset that we are not on the ship now but she is going to make this a great hunt for her Breeding males and high Drones.”
Teal'c nodded his understanding and went to Ronon to start making preparations for the coming task. Ronon found a cave under the waterfall that would work to hide Salinah and Ting with a few modifications. They had a couple of the big knives that the Drones carried so Teal'c went one way and Ronon went another way to start setting traps. If the Wraith were coming to hunt them they were going to get a bit of a surprise.
&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&
The Queen sent three of her Breeding Males and five of her best Drones for the sport. She didn’t think this was going to take long but they had already surprised her once so she was doing a little overkill to be on the safe side.
The Darts made a pass over the campsite just in case the humans were foolish enough to be sitting out in the open where they could just scoop them up with the capture beams. There was nothing in the camp but an old fire and some stones that were used for cooking. This was going to be more challenging than they had first anticipated. The two Darts and the transport landed in the field where the first transport that the humans had taken was located. It was getting late in the day but still bright enough to hurt their eyes some. They were grumbling about next time they wanted to do the hunt on a planet that had more cloud cover or a sun that was not so bright.
One of the Drones was in the lead as they fanned out in the search. His foot caught on something that was running across his path. He fell forward trying to catch himself but the ground gave way as his hand came in contact with it. He didn’t have time to do anything before the spikes that were in a hole in the ground and covered by small limbs and grass passed through his body two of them passing into his skull killing him instantly.
The odds on this hunt just went up along with the challenge. It brought a smile to the Breeding Males that the humans were going to put up a fight. There were stories that one human had even defeated all that had been sent to capture or kill him. Most of the Wraith thought that this was just a story because no human could defeat the mighty Wraith. This group of escaped prisoners had already killed five of the Drones along with the ones that were killed on the strange ship that they were taken from. Now they were trying to protect a pregnant woman and a child and they had killed another Drone which was not an easy thing to do. They spread out again this time they would watch where they were stepping.
&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&
Teal'c had taken some more of the Wraith enzyme which was making him stronger and much more dangerous. He didn’t take as much as before and Ting was able to help curb the rage that he was feeling but he was still in a battle rage. Teal’c was at the edge of the clearing and watched as the Drone fell into his trap. He smiled as he felt the life drain from the thing as Ronon had said that he would. The enzyme connected him to their life force as much as they felt him, he now could feel them.
Teal'c had a vast knowledge of setting traps from his training before coming to the Tau'ri but since he had come to know Jack O'Neill he had learned some very interesting things about how to set a trap and the best way to use the things on hand. Ronon was very good at these things himself. So they both had things to add to the mix of Wraith killing devices. After one of them made a trap they would show the others where it was and how it worked so that they wouldn’t trip it and so that they could make it later if they needed to.
Teal'c went around the Wraith to a point that was just out of most of their senses except the one that he wanted to lure into position. The Drones were not as intelligent as the Breeders so they were working on eliminating them first. Teal'c was working on the biggest of the Drones.
The Drone was sniffing the air; he could feel the life force of one of the humans close by. He was getting excited at the thought of bringing one of the humans back to the Queen and wanted to do it by himself. When he saw the large dark male human he went strait for him wanting to get the first human of the hunt. When he stepped between two trees a flat rock moved under his foot releasing two branches on each of the trees.
The branches met right where he was standing. The humans had sharpened the limbs were they met and cut the end of the branch off letting it swing with speed driving the barbed spikes into the Drone in a scissor like motion, two at the chest and two at the head from both sides. Just before he was hit with the spikes and killed he saw the large dark human smile and point his finger at him. Then there was nothing as the spikes drove deep into his brain and heart. The others could not believe this, two of their best Drones killed in a short time period.
&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&
Ting earlier that day had sat down with Shadow petting and caressing the young cougar like creature. He picked up on its mental wavelength quickly and called to the others of its species.
Ting let them know that there were more of the creatures that had killed so many of them before. They would be coming soon and he told them how to tell the difference between the humans and the bad creatures. Ting told them of their weaknesses and strengths. He had to do all this with mental pictures but he was happy about the results.
&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&
Ronon waited by the stream for the Wraith to get closer. When two of the Drones came into view he maneuvered them to into position then he stood up doing something he had seen Colonel John Sheppard do now and then. When he stood up he extended his middle finger on both hands pointing them in the air. The Drones didn't know what the jester meant but they knew that they had just been insulted by the lighter, smaller male human.
They came rushing across the stream to pound some manors into this creature before feeding on him. They were supposed to bring them back to the ship but they would dispose of the body and no one would know any better.
Ronon had tied a thick branch across the end of a large branch that was about seven feet long about a foot up from the bottom. Then he used more of the very strong vine that they had found to tie spikes along the pole. He set the cross pole on rocks that he had positioned on the bottom of the stream, then he took large heavy flat rocks positioning them so that they had a pivot point about half way across the center. John had described it as a teeter totter but Ronon had no clue what that was but he did understand what it did.
When the Wraith stepped on the end of the rocks it pushed the poles bottoms down bringing the end with the spikes up and into its victims. It did not hit a vital or killing spot on either one of the Drones but Ronon had no problem walking over and finishing the job with his knife. He let the bodies wash down the stream after he relieved them of any useful items that they might need. He reset the traps and went back to wait for another Wraith to play with.
Aggression
Daniel came in to see Sam while Jack was getting all the information he could about what could have happened to Teal'c and Ronon. When the nurse came in she found that Daniel had pulled a chair up next to his friend’s bed and taken her hand which put him into the field of the bed and put him to sleep. Daniel had his head on the bed which was also in the field which was in sleep mode. The nurse pulled him out of the field and laid him out on another bed with the help of an orderly. The nurse had been told how to do what she needed to do without the field affecting her but she had put her hand into the field to see what it was like and it had overtaken her also but she had someone there to pull her out.
Three hours later Sam was feeling much better and her sleep was getting lighter along with the affect of the bed that was supplying her with the pain relief and sedation. The bed was reading her vital signs and adjusting itself according to those readings. The bed knew that she was far enough along to stop the sedation to cut the pain relievers to a very small amount. When she woke up she was feeling strangely aggressive. Not all of the Wraith enzyme had been removed from her system and she wanted to fight something or anything to take care of this need to do battle. Her side was healed now and she jumped out of the bed to find her clothing. Daniel was still sleepy but he woke up just as Sam left the room.
He was already dressed so he got up and put on his boots. He followed her but couldn’t get her to stop or slow down as he called to her from the other end of the hall. Sam went to the gym where Tayla was practicing with her escrima sticks. Sam picked up a set of the sticks which were twenty six inches long, the practice sticks were lighter than the ones used in actual combat.
They were not padded and it hurts when you're hit with them even with the practice sticks. The trick to this is not to get hit. Tayla had seen Colonel Carter a few times and she knew that she had come with the Jaffa Teal'c so when she picked up the sticks Tayla was expecting a challenge from her. They bowed to each other then just as Daniel came into the room Sam attacked with a flurry of strikes that were so fast that they were hard to see. Tayla was driven back against the wall but she was able to block most of the blows that were raining down on her.
She rolled out of the corner that was threatening to trap her but as she rolled out Sam whacked her on the butt while it was exposed. Tayla was a little embarrassed to have been caught in such a position and driven to the wall so easily. Tayla now went on the attack herself but Sam was feeling the extra strength and speed of the Wraith enzyme and stood her ground giving back what she got then she started driving Tayla to the wall again.
Daniel had called the control room telling them that Jack was needed in the gym as soon as possible which got him there just in time to stop Sam's attack. He could see the aggression in her eyes and knew there was something wrong.
Both Tayla and Daniel were surprised to see Jack step in and take the escrima sticks out of Tayla's hands while he stepped between her and Sam. He didn't miss a beat taking her attack and defending himself and Tayla while getting her out of the way. Sam and Jack smiled at each other as the challenge became much more intense. Tayla stepped back out of Jack's way and went over by Daniel to watch. Jack knew about the modified Wraith enzyme so he was expecting the extra strength and speed that she now had.
Tayla was very good with the weapons that they were using and she was learning some interesting new tricks while watching these two dance around the room in a blur of movement as the sticks whistled through the air.
Jack was having trouble keeping up with her as she pushed forward with her attacks but being that he was taller and heaver than Tayla gave him an advantage. He didn't stay in one place for long causing her to bring the attack to him and concentrated on defending himself and letting her ware herself out as he conserved his strength. When she started to lag some he would push the attack which made her go into the offensive again. Her body could only go so long even with the Wraith enzyme and soon she bowed to him and laid her sticks on the table. She had worked out the aggression and was feeling much better now. She wanted to go to her room and shower and change clothes. Jack walked with her leaving Daniel and Tayla wondering what had just happened.
&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&
Ting and Salinah were in the cave with Shadow when Salinah gave a squeak as two huge black panthers walked through the waterfall into the cave, the animals had to weigh more than three hundred pounds each. The big cats walked over and laid down about six feet away from the water so that they were not being splashed.
Ting was grinning but did not go near the big cats. “Don't be afraid of them, they're here to protect us while the females are hunting.”
Salinah looked rather puzzled at that statement. “What are the females hunting?”
“They're hunting the Wraith that are looking for us.”
“What about Teal'c and Ronon?”
“They're not looking for food and they know the difference between the humans and the Wraith now, we all kind of looked alike before so they didn't want to get too close.”
&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&
Teal'c was trying to catch one of the Breeders; Teal’c taunted him which caused the Wraith to run through a small opening between some rocks. The snare caught him around the neck triggering the trap. The noose tightened up releasing the tree that was bent over which sprang back into its normal position along with the vine rope and the Wraith that was now dangling by his neck.
The Wraith that was right behind him did not stop, he charged on but a huge black cougar stepped between the rocks and slapped him with one massive paw. The Wrath went down twitched one time and died.
Now there were only two left one Drone and one Breeder. The Breeder had seen what had happened to his companions and did not want to stand around waiting to die like they had. He told the Drone to protect him as they made their way back to the ship. It was starting to get very dark now and the Wraith had the advantage as far as the humans were concerned but the cats were night hunters.
Teal'c moved forward going onto the attack now that there were just two left. The Drone did as he was told and stepped between the Breeder and Teal'c.
The Drone was upset that the humans could do so much damage to the hunting party in such a short time. He did not want to use the stunner this time, he wanted to do some damage to the big warrior and pulled his knife so he could do the job up close and personal.
Teal'c was feeling the Wraith enzyme and he wanted to do the same thing but he did not pull his knife. The moon was bright, giving the two warriors light to see but Teal'c did not need to see to do what he wanted to do. Master Brata'c had worked for many years with Teal'c blindfolded doing battles one on one and with multiple attackers. Teal'c was very comfortable fighting in the dark. The shadows caused more problems with his vision than the dark so Teal'c just closed his eyes.
The Drone watched him as he closed his eyes and took the opportunity to kill this human so that they could leave this planet. The knife shot forward toward his throat from the Drones right hand. Teal'c pushed the hand to his left while grabbing the hand with both of his hands and stepping to the right with a half step and twisting the wrist down and back. This motion bent the wrist inward at an angle breaking the wrist, elbow and shoulder joints all that the same time. The Drone rolled back up to his feet without the knife and in pain. It would take time to heal that many breaks which was something he did not have right now. He tried to get to his stunner but the human was there thrusting his knife at him. The Drone was able to hit Teal'c's wrist with his left hand knocking the knife out of his hand. Teal'c did not even slow down as he spun to the right hitting the Drone in the back of his left elbow with a palm strike which broke that joint also.
The Drone was resourceful though and brought his knee up into Teal'c's stomach then his ribs. Teal’c had a large amount of muscle on his stomach and ribs and the maneuver did not have the desired effect that the Drone wanted. Teal'c just shrugged it off and used his left hand to pull the Drones esophagus out. The Drone couldn’t grab his own throat with both arms broken so fell to the ground where Teal'c picked up his knife to finish the job. He didn’t want the Drone to die a slower death then necessary even if it was just a minuet or two.
Radar
Daniel spent the afternoon with Tayla talking with everybody that had an idea of what could have happened to Teal'c and Ronon. It was the general consensus that it would take a very large ship to be able to take the Goa'uld ship on board or even to tow it any distance. That meant that it was able to be detected by the deep space radar if they could get it to work with more distance that it was presently able to do. Daniel went to the room that had been assigned to Sam when they first came to the station and knocked.
Sam was still not used to the doors opening automatically all the way so when she answered she was just wearing Jack’s shirt. She had been gone for almost a month and was working out more of her aggressions in another way. She smiled at Daniel and invited him in.
Daniel was red faced at interrupting his friends but he needed to get some things done. “Ummm, we need to see if Jack can do something with the deep space radar so that we can find Teal'c.”
“Okay, we’ll be there in a few minuets to see what we can do.”
Daniel heard the shower come on and Sam excused herself, Daniel went back to the control room to wait. Forty five minuets later Jack and Sam came to the control room. Daniel looked at his watch and gave a sigh.
Jack looked at him and smiled. “Sorry Daniel something came up that we needed to take care of.”
Sam smacked him on the arm and Daniel just shook his head. Daniel told Jack what they had come up with and asked if he knew how to configure the radar to be able to find a large ship.
Rodney McKay came in at that moment and turned a little green seeing General Jack O'Neill standing in the control room and hopped that Dr. Becket or Sam hadn't said anything about the was he had been holding the pressure bandage for the trip home after Sam's injury. He was looking for a way to get out of the room when he saw Sam walk over to the General and put her arm around him and whisper something in his ear.
Jack O'Neill had a way of putting fear into a person with one look.
“McKay, in the office, right now!”
Elizabeth Weir nearly jumped out of the way as the General went into her office.
McKay looked like a man going to the gallows but he knew that if he didn’t get in there soon Jack O'Neill would come out and get him. When he got into the office Jack was looking out the window. The door shut automatically behind Rodney making him jump, then the windows went dark on there own which no one had ever seen happen before. The lights came on and Rodney was frozen in place from the glare that was directed at him.
“Rodney McKay, you are a civilian scientist and needed on this base to maintain operations so I am going to tell you this and I want you to understand that I mean every word.”
Rodney couldn’t speak but he nodded his understanding.
“If you even look at Samantha Carter in a way that she doesn’t like, you will be in serious trouble. If I hear of you touching anybody in an inappropriate manor I will come back through that Stargate personally and break the offending hand off along with the main cause of the problem.”
“Do You Understand ME!”
Rodney was able to squeak out a,”Yes Sir!” Just before he fainted.
&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&
Jack went back into the control room with a smile on his face. He had taken care of something that had bothered him for a long time.
Elizabeth Weir went in to check on Rodney McKay to make sure the General hadn’t killed him or caused any major damage to her chief scientist. When she saw that he had just fainted she called Dr. Becket to have a medical team sent to check him out then went back into the control room herself.
Jack went over to one of the stations and pushed a button that caused a strange keyboard to come out that no body had found before. He entered some codes and the radar started moving sector to sector looking for ships in a search pattern starting from the planet where the Goa'uld ship was in orbit. One of the techs had pointed out the solar system that they had been in earlier that day.
They found several Hiveships in free space but the closest one to the solar system was in orbit around a planet. Sam pointed out that they could be on a culling so Jack entered some more codes and it showed the Goa'uld ship parked inside the hive. Sam was happy that they were able to fine some information but was terrified that they were in a Wraith ship.
Jack went to another station and entered more codes in Ancient which caused Daniel to watch in amazement as he entered the commands faster than he would type out a report on Earth. In the two and a half years that the base had been in operation they had only explored about half of it. The city was huge and the search took personal away from their normal duties where they were trying to figure out what the things they had already found did.
Jack took Sam and called for Colonel Sheppard to meet him at the transport. Next Jack walked into the office where Rodney was just coming too with the aid of a med tech and some smelling salts. Jack reached down and picked him up by the arms which caused him to faint again. Jack was shaking his head as he told the med tech to hold Rodney. Jack slapped him not too gently which caused Rodney to come around and bring his hand to his face.
“Owe, that hurt!”
Then he saw who had slapped him and tried to back up tripping over the med tech.
“McKay, pull you shit together, we have work to do and your on the job, now follow me.”
Rodney was a little wobbly but he did as he was told.
Sam was following Jack closely while smiling about what he had done with Rodney, the man was terrified of Jack and now he was about to wet himself. She was a little surprised that he was able to come out of the office with dry pants as it was.
When they got to Colonel Sheppard he was asked to follow them. Jack had everybody get into the closet like transporter where Rodney scrunched into the corner as far away from Samantha Carter and Jack O'Neill as he could get in the tight quarters. John Sheppard was looking at Rodney and his odd behavior but didn’t say anything.
Jack took them to a part of the station that had not been explored yet. John gave a whistle at the ships that were docked in the hanger. They were all the size of the Daedalus or larger.
Jack turned to the two scientist looking Rodney dead in the eye. “You two pick the best of the ships to get to that Hiveship, which means fire power and stealth. I don’t want to hear any arguing so just get the job done.”
“Colonel Sheppard, I want a crew for that ship with all of the available troops that we will need to get into one of those ships and out again. I want all the high explosives you can muster so that if we cannot capture that ship we want to blow it to Hell.”
John Sheppard dropped his jaw at the mention of capturing a Hiveship. “Sir, there are thousands of Wraith on those ships.”
“Yes, I know and I also read the report that your people have developed several compounds to put them to sleep and some that will change them to humans so get those people busy also, we’re doing this in the next twelve hours.”
“You’re in charge of the military portion of this base so let’s see what you can do.”
“Move it, people!”
&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&
Ronon had gone to the landing sight where he found a large number of the black cougars in the trees around the area. None of them had made any aggressive moves toward him.
When the last Breeder got close to the area he could smell the life signs of the lighter human as well as a large number of the animals that had killed one of them earlier. The Breeder went back to the camp area where he was able to pick up the sent of the young one.
Ting was at the entrance to the cave where he could read the thoughts of the Wraith. He knew that the Wraith was looking for him and it wanted to feed on him.
He took Shadow and walked to the cave telling Salinah to move back to the back of the cave. It wasn’t easy for her to get up off of the floor where she had been sitting. Ting helped her as much as he could but he was small for a ten year old and was not able to help much.
Ting sent a mental message to the big cats at the front of the cave telling them that the Wraith was coming but they already knew.
The Breeder walked through the water to get to the cave and was nearly impaled by the traps set by Ronon and Teal'c. There were several guarding the entrance to the area and Ting had known where all of them were so that he could guide the big cougars through them.
The Breeder was aggravated with the delay and he had been injured when he was not able to get out of the way of one of the traps which grazed his arm. He thought he was going to be able to take the female and the child easily once he was able to get into the cave. He hated the water and he was going to have to walk through it to get to them.
Ting had been sending mental pictures to the Cougars letting them know what the Wraith was doing, he stepped through the water with his claws bared and hissing with his anger. It didn’t take both of the big cats to do the job, the biggest one growled as he stepped through and the Wraith’s hiss turned into a squeak just before the cat broke his neck with a single swipe of his massive paw. Each of the cougars took an arm in their mouth and drug the body out of the cave at Tings request.
&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&
The Queen was not happy; she had been waiting for the men she had sent to the planet to bring the child to her. She had told the leader of the group that they could have the two men and the woman but she was to have the child for herself. How long was it going to take to find one sick and injured man, a boy and a pregnant woman, there was only one man that could give them any resistance at all and she still didn’t know why he took the others with him when he left the ship. She had come to the conclusion that she would never be able to understand the thinking of humans.
&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&
Sam was impressed with the ships and Rodney was being a gentleman all the way through the process at every step. He asked her opinion and was not pushy about getting his way which was a big change on his part.
Sam felt a little sorry for him because she had seen Jack bring some really big men down on the carpet when it was necessary. It was never a pleasant sight to see Jack rip a person apart verbally because they knew that if the verbal warning didn’t take then the physical part came next. It was even possible to see it in his eyes that he could and most likely would do a person physical harm if it was needed.
John Sheppard was working on getting the scientist and troops ready. He was cracking the whip getting the sleeping gas ready to go thinking it would be better to knock them out rather than have a ship full of humans that didn’t know what was going on and would turn back into wraith at some point which was not a good surprise.
Sam and Rodney were powering the ship up and checking the systems with a crew of technicians to get everything ready. The ship that they picked was different from the Daedalus; it appeared to be faster and had a lot more weapons. The ship was fully stocked and armed like it was about to be put into service at any moment like a battle ship should be rather than one that was in dry dock or mothballed.
Jack came by to see how things were going and Elizabeth Weir was with him to see this armada of ships that she had no idea that they were sitting on. She had asked him to stay for a while after this was over so that they could use his knowledge of the Ancients to find more of their secrets. Jack had told her that it was a possibility and he would think about it.
Rodney McKay had been working on the translation computer that Sam had done with Jack’s help a couple of years ago and it was coming in handy converting the ship to English so that more than a couple of people could understand what was on the screens.
Rodney had done a good job of setting up the interfaces on the puddle jumpers and it was working just as well on these ships. Sam told him that he had done a great job on the Puddle Jumpers which made him smile but he still wouldn’t go anywhere near her and only said what needed to be said. The look in the General’s eyes when he told him what he would do to him was going to give him nightmares for months to come.
Daniel was there with Tayla and Dr. Weir when Jack whispered something in Sam's ear and they left the bridge together. Dr. Weir was looking at Daniel for an explanation which he came up with something. “He probably asked for a tour of the ship.”
Of course Daniel knew that Jack had most likely asked to see the Captions quarters and was hoping that it had a locking door but he didn’t say that. Elizabeth Weir gave a look like she didn’t believe him. “You know that sounds like a really good idea John, would you like to give me a tour of this ship?”
John Sheppard wasn’t sure what was going on but he smiled and extended his elbow to take her on the tour. Elizabeth smiled at Daniel for giving her such a good idea then looked back at John. “John, do you know where the VIP quarters are?”
&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&
Ronon went back to the cave after daybreak to see if everything was okay there. He saw the body of the Breeder lying in the water with his head resting at an odd angle and large deep cuts across his neck. He kicked the body after removing the gland that Teal'c would need sending it down stream and out of the area of the camp.
Earlier that day Ting had been playing with Shadow and got a small scratch on his finger which made his hole hand go numb and it wasn’t working. He was crying when he showed Salinah the scratch. She told him that it would be fine but he was telepathic and picked up on her worry right away.
She picked up Shadow and looked at her paw. She pushed on the pad which extended the claws and she saw that one of the claws was a little different that the others, it had a small bead of liquid coming out of the end of it.
She asked Ting to get some information about the claw from the big cats. They informed him that it was used for hunting and it caused their pray to fall quickly and was not used much except for the old ones that were not as strong as they used to be.
Ting gave this information to Salinah which she asked him to ask the cats if the animals ever got up after a while. The big cats gave a mental laugh and said with images that if the old one fell asleep before making the kill then the animal would stager away and he or she would need to hunt again. It was nearly an hour later when Ting started to get feeling back into his hand.
After Ronon checked on the people in the cave he went to find Teal'c. Teal’c had started the fire and almost had breakfast ready when Ronon came out of the cave and found him. Shadow went over to Teal'c where she was fed and given plenty of attention. Shadow was pleased that these humans were so easily trained. Ronon told him of the last kill but Teal'c knew that none of the Wraith were near, he could feel it. With the last of the Wraith in this hunting party dead they were able to make preparations and get ready. Teal'c called Ronon over to tell him that he was going to take one of the transports to the Hiveship.
“Why would you want to do that?”
“If the Hiveship leaves orbit it will be taking the only thing that is keeping me alive with it. If I’m going to die it will be doing battle not lying in a bed because I’m unable to get the drug that is keeping me alive. I will take out as many of our enemy as I can and die an honorable death.”
“Then I will go with you.”
“No, you must stay with Salinah and Ting, she will be giving berth soon and Ting needs someone to take care of him also, he is still too young to be on his own. They need you more than I do.”
Ting came over with an idea of his own.
&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&
The ship was ready in ten hours with all the troops and supplies that were not part of the original equipment such as the knock out gas and weapons that they were used to. They were taking Dr. Becket, Tayla, McKay and Laura Cadman as the base explosives expert. It was strange to launch the ship underwater then breaking the surface water to fly strait out into space. The ship was put into Hyperspace as soon as it was safe to do so. John Sheppard was at the controls of the ship with Jack in the copilot seat and Sam standing right behind him.
He would have loved to let her do the copilots job but she didn’t have the Ancient gene so it was not possible for her to fly the ship. She was very disappointed which was easy to see for Dr Becket. Dr. Becket told her to follow him, they went to the med lab where he had a shot prepared and gave it to her.
“What was that for?”
“That Lass was a retrovirus that will add the Ancient gene to your system and allow you to use the equipment of the Ancients just like the General, it will not be as strong as his but you should still be able to do whatever you need to do.”
She smiled her thanks and left the lab thinking that this could be a nice change for her. Now she could work with Jack doing some of the things that needed the Ancient gene. Sam stopped off at one of the labs on the ship where she brought up some of the specifications of the ship so that she could familiarize herself with the functions that it was capable of doing compared to the Tok'ra and Asgard ships that she had worked on. She had spent about an hour and a half when she heard her name being called to the bridge. The door had just closed behind her when she heard a very loud explosion came from the room she had just left. She went back to feel the door but instead of feeling heat like she would have expected from an explosion of that size the door felt cold. There was a breach in the hull to cause that kind of cold.
She ran to the bridge to see John and Jack struggling to get the ship back under control. She went over to see what was going on and saw a ship dropping what she could only call depth charges in Hyperspace. The glowing spinning objects were coming out of the back of the ship and exploding in the general area of their ship.
Sam went over to the controls and started putting in commands.
Rodney couldn’t help giving her a look of I can't believe you are trying this.
“You know Dr. Carter that the shields will not work in Hyperspace or haven't you been paying attention to what the Asgard have been telling you.”
She pushed the last of the commands and a blue energy field surrounded the ship and there attacker in a different field.
The next charge that was dropped by the ship exploded in the field and made a large blue bubble that would leak plasma into space for years to come as it dropped out of Hyperspace. Sam looked over in Rodney McKay's direction as she had her hand on Jack’s shoulder to hold him in place. Jack was about to rip McKay into very small pieces but he let Sam handle him this time.
“If you haven’t noticed yet Rodney this is not an Asgard ship, it’s an Ancient ship and has some interesting features that you should look into.”
She smiled at him and then turned to Jack. “We have a hull breach in the lab on B deck that is contained by a force shield but we will need a repair team in there as soon as we can spare personal.”
Jack was happy that she was taking control of the situation but he was going to have a few words with Dr. McKay later anyway.
“Right now we need to see why we were being fired on, Colonel Sheppard would you please drop us out of Hyperspace.”
When they came back into normal space Sam did a sweep of the area which brought up a large group of ships in the distance. The radio crackled to life in a language that Jack didn’t know. Tayla stepped up to the communications station and addressed the speaker. She spoke for a moment and then translated for them. Tayla didn’t know that the ship was listening to her conversation and associating words as it was able to understand them for the automatic translation program.
“They said that this is a Galactic game that is not to be disturbed and we have brought a battleship into a non military region of space. They also said that any ship that enters this sector has to be part of the games or it will be attacked for breaking the terms of the treaty.”
Jack looked pissed and told Tayla to let them know that they did not know about the treaty and entered the space by accident while on a rescue mission. Tayla spoke to the people for a while before coming back with what they said. They didn’t care why he was there and said that if he tried to leave he would be attacked; all he had to do was participate in the games to make everything right.
“We have enough firepower to blow right through them and be on our way, power up the shields and bring all weapons to bear.”
Dr. Weir stepped forward. “Jack, we cannot do that, we need allies in this sector and this is an advanced race of people, we need them.”
All Jack wanted to do was to get to Teal'c and get him out of harms way. Elizabeth Weir was the diplomat and she was very good at her job. “Jack sometimes we need to do something that is for the good of all not for the good of a few. Ronon and Teal'c will need to hang on a little longer if they’re alive at all. We need the forces that are available to fight the Wraith or we’re all dead.”
Jack knew that she was right and he still didn’t like it. “Call them and find out what we will need to do, get all the rules and let's get this thing on the move.”
It turned out to be a solar system wide race with two ships participating from each team. Both ships had a course to follow which had to be defended by both ships and a ground race on one planet to get two flags before the race could be continued.
“Well Sam this is your kind of game and I will take the other ship.”
“No Sir, you need to be here to take care of the mission, we cannot loose you to a game. Teal'c will need your expertise to get him out alive if at all possible. Colonel Sheppard can fly the other ship.” Jack was getting tired of his orders being countermanded already but he knew that what she was saying was true. Colonel Sheppard was a very good pilot and possibly even better than he was. That would give Sam a better chance and he wouldn’t risk all of his military leaders on one race.
“Okay we will need gunners in the ships, these are two man fighters.”
Laura Cadman stepped up for one of the gunners positions and Tayla said that she would fly as John Sheppard's gunner which caused Elizabeth to get a gleam of anger in her eye but she didn’t say anything.
The ships were stored under the ship where only the hatch to enter it was at the floor level. John and Sam both didn’t like the idea of not being able to do a walk around of the ship to visually inspect it for damage of or abnormalities.
The ships were round in shape like the flying saucers of the old movies on earth with the top bubble being where the pilot and gunner sat. The gunners seat was able to swivel in all directions which was strange because the seat always felt like it was in the normal position even when it was upside down or sideways and there was a full view in all directions even when they were looking in the direction of the pilot it was like they were setting by themselves out in space and very unnerving. The chair moved to align the sights and a trigger on the chair fired the weapons, the chair aimed automatically at a target and all the gunner had to do was pull the trigger when the target was acquired and decide if that was something that needed to be blown away. The headset was the gunners only communication with the pilot but they could see them if they looked all the way to the side to get their bearings.
The course was sent to the pilots and set into a holographic display with the objectives laid out and a colored dot for each team. If they missed a section the objective turned red and they would have to go back to do it before they could go to the next item on the list.
The race was going to start at the designated planet from orbit going around the entire solar system to hit all the stops along the way which were marked. The map didn’t have any kind of description of the object that they were going to until they got with in a hundred miles which was not much time travailing at just under the speed of light. They would have to slow down to see the challenge that they would be up against. After the full run around the solar system was made then they would land on the planet and retrieve two flags which would be their color at the beginning of the race to make the second leg of the course which was the reverse of the first half. All this while the others were trying to disable your ship in any way they can but it was discouraged to actually destroy the ship or kill the people in the ship.
Sam had pulled all of the information she could on the ships that they were flying. The pilots were not in a normal chair they were laying down on their stomachs in a very comfortable position that allowed them to look strait forward but it was like looking down while in bed.
The hand controls were at a comfortable angle where there was no strain on their arms. Just forward backward up down and left to right. There was a trigger on the joystick that could fire the weapons if needed. Sam and John took the craft out to test them and to get the feeling for what they would do.
Jack went over to a station and turned on two monitors one that went to Sam's ship and one that went to John’s. He watched as they played a game of follow the leader and tested the speed of the ships while seeing how fast they can turn at high speeds.
Jack was watching Sam's ship while Elizabeth was watching John's. Sam told Laura to target an asteroid as they passed to see how the weapons worked. They were both surprised to see it blown to pieces with just two shots. John had Tayla do the same with a different set of asteroids and the pair of ships was moving around destroying a section of the field practicing moving and shooting. It didn’t matter what position the ship was in it could hit any target that the gunner aimed at. Sam tried out the shields by making a close flyby on a small asteroid causing it to fly away from the ship and gave Laura a challenge to hit it.
&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&
The ships lined up along a laser line that told them when they were in position. There were two frequencies that were being used one for the other people in the game and their own that they used for communications between themselves and the destroyer. They were not allowed to fire on other ships until the first quarter of the race was over so that the ships were not holding back to shoot out the engines of the other ships. It would be fairly safe for a while unless they could push you into an object. When the beep came telling them to start the ships were off in a blur. Sam let John take the led at the beginning of the race then came up beside him giving him something to work against racing each other for a while.
They slowed down as the first objective was coming up which turned out to be an asteroid field that had lights going through like smoke outlining their path that each group was to take. This was still in the no fire zone so they couldn’t just blast their way through. John was first in and moving around while Sam did the following, they couldn’t shoot their way through but their shields could bounce them off the larger asteroids and it pushed the smaller ones out of the way. The problem with doing this was that the others were doing the same thing which made moving through the field very difficult. Sam started using her shield to aim for the other ships and told John what she was doing it in tandem with her.
They were soon out if the field and to the next objective which was an asteroid that had a large hole through its center. There task was to fly through the center, there wasn’t much room to get through and the asteroid was spinning making the hole look like the wind mill at a miniature golf course. Sam was first to go through using her shields to stay off the walls and John was right behind her. The shields pushing on the walls caused an irregular spin of the asteroid and two ships crashed trying to get through after they got out. All the others had to slow way down and stop while in the middle of the rock so that they could get out at the right angle and not have to go out of the way to get back on course.
The screens at the viewing panel on the Destroyer were packed with people watching the race as it was progressing. Jack and Elizabeth were both on the edge of their seats. He had adjusted the screen so that they were looking through the pilots view and several people were getting motion sickness from the fast moving screen.
The next objective was on another planet that was at the half way point which meant that the first quarter of the race was about to be over and they would be allowed to use their weapons. This time it was a series of laser rings that could not be broken or it would reset and move to a different location, then they would have to go back through after they found it again. That meant that the shields would need to be turned off making the ship signature smaller to keep from breaking the beam.
Each group had a double set of rings in their colors so each ship had to go through their own set. The rings were at ground level and there were things like rocks and trees in and all around each of the rings which had to be shot out of the way without breaking the rings. This tested the skill of both the pilots and the gunners. One of the other ships was trying to shoot the rocks around one of their rings that would cause them to break the ring and start over.
Tayla was able to shoot his primary weapon which did little damage to the ship but caused a great deal of problems for them trying to get through their own obstacles and they pulled away. The other parties decided that it was best to leave the new ships alone or they would have more trouble that they wanted. It was difficult to get through the rings at any speed at all while cutting a path through the other side. Sam and John had to make a couple of loops to redo some of the rings but they did make fair progress compared to some of the others and reported back to the Destroyer that they were headed back out into space.
From this point it was a full out run to the planet to get the flags. Sam took the led this time and went at full speed slowing only when she had to go through another field of asteroids which Lauren was having a field day blowing up and setting them in motion to slow the others down.
The planet was hot, dry and dusty, both ships landed at their color building which was a small unit with a lock that takes two people to open so that they can get the flag. Suddenly there was debris flying everywhere as another ship was landing. Two very large aliens with very rough scaly green skin that was not quite scales got out of their ships and started walking toward them. They both stood about seven feet tall and were in excess of three hundred and fifty pounds of muscle and bad attitude. They weren’t going for their locker they were walking towards the two teams that were from Earth. Sam and John both figured it out at the same time. If they didn’t have the flag then the race was over for them. The green aliens didn’t look like they were going to play nice.
The aliens were between them and the ship and it wasn’t going to be possible to get around them. It looked like this was a game they have played many times before and it was a well coordinated attack. Sam picked up some rocks and started throwing them which made the aliens smile as the rocks just bounced off their tough skin like it was nothing to them.
Then Sam and Tayla both pulled out a double set of spring loaded cobras that Jack had given them before they had left. John and Lauren took out their knives while the aliens kept coming forward. The cobra's were a spring loaded steal shaft that was about eighteen inches long with a half inch ball on the end. It was rather like the escrima sticks that Tayla was always using but these were smaller, faster and heavier.
The green giants were barefoot with long nails that looked like they could do some damage if they kicked you with them. Sam and Tayla were thinking alike and went in low hitting them in the feet and shins which made the creatures jump back with surprising speed. The big green aliens were both doing a little hopping dance while giving the Earth women a hateful glare.
Sam and Tayla did a little play on them by tapping their right cobra's on each side like a playful sword fight while smiling at each other. This angered the big green things even more and they charged. The girls were ready and went into a blur of flying steel, they knew that they probably could not block the massive arms and kicks that were coming at them so they stayed out of their range or ducked under them to attack the few vital parts that they could see. They already knew about the feet and shins but they were also going for any small bones and joints that they could hit. When the girls were done the green giants were limping back to their own ship without getting their flags. Sam and Tayla had broken several bones in the feet and hands of the attackers and probably a couple of ribs also.
John and Lauren were highly impressed with their team mates’ abilities and would have a set to the cobra's replicated when they got back. In the meantime they needed to finish this race. Sam wasn’t as interested in winning as she was in getting it over with so they could get back on course to get to Teal'c and Ronon. They now had to go in the reverse of how they got to this point.
Jack and Elizabeth were on the edge of their seats watching the fight with the large green aliens. Jack was proud of Sam for the great demonstration of skill she had shown and he also was impressed with Tayla's fighting skills. The big guy's were fast and strong but the girls had taken control of the fight from the beginning and followed through with skill and tenacity. Both of the ships were back in the air and heading back now. The race was half over.
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Teal'c had a problem with the big cats, they were ticklish and he needed to milk the claw to get some of the enzyme that worked so well to knock out their pray. It might be a big advantage if they could use something to take out a few of the Wraith quickly. He had used a gourd with grass inside to keep the liquid in. the big male that had learned to let Teal'c rub his belly and pet him was going with him along with several of the older cats that did not have kittens to raise now. The younger cats would be able to produce enough offspring to replenish the population in several years.
It wasn’t easy to pilot the ship with the big male's head on his lap but it was not going to move if he could get a loving stroke or possibly and nice scratch behind the ear. Teal'c was thinking that he if he lived through this he was going to need to name the big cat. At this time it didn’t look like he would be walking away from this fight. He didn’t want to take the cats with him; he knew that this was most likely a one way trip. Ting had explained to them that Teal’c was going to hunt the Wraith in their own den which was strangely appealing to the cats. They had been hurt and had lost several of the pack mates and they wanted revenge.
Normally they would only hunt for food and they would sometimes fight over territory but the Wraith had done a very bad thing to them and they were intelligent enough to know that they needed to be stopped. Now the cats were going to hunt the Wraith with the big human.
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The Hive gave notice that one of the transports was on its way back. The Queen sent several Drones to the landing bay to bring her the child. She had waited long enough for her treat and she didn’t want to wait a minuet longer than she had to. There were six of them waiting for their Hive mates to join them and tell them of the hunt.
The door to the ship opened then and all hell broke loose. Four large black creatures were on the Drones in seconds ripping them to shreds. Ting had told them to stay close to the human and to protect him when they could. Teal'c took their weapons and what he couldn’t use or carry comfortably he destroyed. Teal'c was working his way along the hall going into different rooms to check out what was where and if there was anything of use. The cats were following at a few paces in front or behind him so when he would go into a room the position would change. The big male would always stay right beside him no matter what unless he was on the attack. One of the Drones had gotten a lucky shot and stunned one of the cats before he was taken down with one knife sticking out of his throat and three big cats ripping him apart. Teal'c stayed beside the stunned cat petting it and soothing it as much as he could until it was able to get up and move on comfortably.
One of the rooms that Teal'c checked was a storage room that has all kinds of things in it. There were weapons and armor, machines that Teal'c had never seen before. Teal'c tried several of the sets of armor on before he was able to find one that fit properly. The weapons weren’t much, mostly out of ammunition or discharged completely but one weapon was not discharged. Teal'c picked it up and turned it on. This weapon made him smile. He found another one and turned it on also. He now had two working light sabers. Both of the light sabers had blue laser light then he found another one with an orange laser. He tucked this one in his belt as a spare.
The low growl coming from the big cat at his side let him know that there was trouble ahead. Teal'c pulled out his new toys and fired them up charging into the room. The cats went left and right while he went strait up the middle. It didn’t take him long to find out that the weapons attracted power charges to themselves pulling them away from him. There were twelve of them this time including four of the Breeders leading the group. With his two weapons cutting a path through the middle and the cats working the outside it didn’t take long to work through the room. He was hit one time with a stunner but the armor he was wearing stopped most of the charge although it still had a sting to it. Another thing that he learned about the weapons was that the person holding it was not affected by the laser making it impossible to cut his own leg off which was a really good feature.
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The ship was giving the queen warnings about the invaders on board but it couldn’t tell her how many or what they were. She was feeling that her people were being decimated quickly as these invaders were moving through the ship. She sent out more of her troops telling them that if they couldn’t stun the invaders they were to kill them. She hated to waist good life energy but she couldn’t risk the chance that they might be able to take her ship. The problem with that was they needed to get to the storerooms which were behind the enemy lines now.
Teal’c now had a really big problem. They had gone as far as they could without going through the large open area that was used for the sleep chambers for the Wraith when they were hibernating. This area was big enough for the Darts to fly in and they would be out in the open until they got to the other side of the walkways. It was a long way to the other side of the chamber and he was going to need to protect his new pets now. It was getting to be a constant thing for the cats to come up and start rubbing along his legs which was a common thing for cats but these cats weighed as much as he did with the females being only a little smaller. He had two females and two males with him with the two males being the ones that had protected the cave for Ting and Salinah.
This was something that he needed larger weapons for. He really liked his new toys but they were not going to be able to take down a Dart. He had found more weapons in some of the other storerooms that would do but he would need to double back to be able to get to them. He wasn’t going to be able to go across the open space without them so he turned back. There were several rooms that were secured which he had not bothered to break into so that he could see want was in them. It was time to do that now; it wasn’t like he had a time limit or someplace he needed to be.
The first two rooms had some old things in them that were interesting but of no real use to him at this time. One of the rooms had some food stored in it that was mostly gone bad over time. There were some canned foods that were in clear jars that looked like it would still be good. Teal’c knew that the cats were getting hungry and he was also. They were not eating the dead Wraith so Teal’c figured they had a bad taste to the cats. The food in the jars seemed to have a lot of meat in them so he figured it wouldn’t hurt the big cats. He opened several of the jars and tried some of the contents. It tasted rather bland but it wasn’t spoiled. He poured some of it out for the cats which caused them to sniff the contents for a while then one of them bravely tasted the stuff that the human was eating and it wasn’t too bad. Once the others started eating Teal’c poured several more jars out for them.
In the next room over he dug through several boxes until he finally found a weapon that Ronon had been telling him about while they were at the campfire. It had three barrels that fired an energy based projectile. It wasn’t like his staff weapon and it wouldn’t do the job of a Stinger missile to bring a Dart down but it would do. He had to search the room over several times before he found the ammo belt that went with the weapon. Now it was time to move out again. The cats had cleaned themselves up and one of the females had tried to clean Teal’c’s face for him. He hugged the big cat and gave it an affectionate pat on the side before going out the door.
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Sam and John Sheppard were moving as fast as their ships could move now. They had to make the circuit back through the same obstacles that they had come through in order to get the flag. When they got to the rings this time they had been moved and it was just as hard to get through as it was the first time. This slowed them down a little but they were getting good with the ships so they moved through much faster than they had last time. Sam told Laura to shoot the rings of the other ships as they passed through the last set of their own rings. Tayla heard this and was doing the same as they were leaving the planet. That put a long delay for the other ships and it didn’t do any damage to the ships themselves. Then it was quick trip to the asteroid to go through the asteroid. It was spinning at an odd angle now and they had to get the rotation stabilized to get through the center. They used a small asteroid that they grabbed with a tow beam to hit the rotating asteroid and slow the rotation. It took several hits to get the rotation slowed properly so they could get through. On the way out John used the shield to bump the edge of the opening putting the asteroid back into a bad rotation so that it would be harder for the others to get through.
They then went on to the asteroid fields where again the paths had changed leading them through the fields. Now they were able to move much faster by destroying the asteroids that were in the way and letting the shield bounce the other smaller asteroids into the paths of the other ships. Tayla and Laura were busy shooting the asteroids while Sam and John were shooting and maneuvering the ship through the course.
Jack and Elizabeth were moving back and forth in the seats as the ships were going through the asteroid fields mimicking the movements of the ships as they maneuvered around the larger sections of floating space rocks that were the size of a small mountain. The big ones were really small moons and they attracted a lot of the smaller asteroids around them with their gravitational pull. Once they started to get clear of the asteroids though it was a quick dash to the finish line.
There were all kinds of flairs and explosions all around them as they finally finished the race. The noise of the explosions couldn’t be heard but the affects were visible. Sam and John had some things beamed onboard their ships then they opened a Hyperspace window to get to the planet where the Hiveship was located. Jack wasn’t at all happy about them leaving like that but it was the best way to go about things for now. It concerned him that the two fighters were going up against a Wraith Hiveship though. He turned to Dr. Wear telling her to make this a fast as possible so they could get on with their mission.
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Teal’c had made it across the expanse without having to shoot any of the Darts down and he was thankful for that. He was concerned that the Dart would puncture the hull of the ship as it crashed which would have destroyed the ship. In another way he was thinking that at least it would have been quick that way and they would still have destroyed the Hiveship. He was now trapped in a section of the ship that had a large space between where they were and the only other door in the room. The Wraith were gathering on the other side of the far door. It had become a stalemate and he was getting low on ammunition for the weapon that he had found. It had been a great help in taking out a group of Wraith by being able to shoot through several of them killing or injuring several with only one shot. The room was built with membranes and braces going across the upper section of the ceiling. The cats had simply jumped up when the Wraith were busy and were crossing the room from above. Teal’c wasn’t about to let his new pets be harmed by sitting by while they attacked the Wraith.
He slung the rifle across his back then stood pulling his light sabers and switched them on. The Wraith thought that he had run out of ammunition for his other weapon and this was their opportunity to stop at least one of the intruders that were attacking their ship. They rushed into the room weapons poised ready to fire. Teal’c had worked with Jack O’Neill on the use of ancient weapons which included the sword and he had gotten pretty good at using them, both as a single weapon and as a set. This was one time that he was glad that he had learned to use a weapon like this. The light sabers were much lighter than a normal Katana or scimitar so it was much easer to move quickly in the double figure eight that he was weaving in front of him. This captured all the attention of the Wraith as they were moving forward and they did not hear or see the big cats when they quietly jumped down to the floor. Teal’c screamed out in a battle cry as he charged the Wraith while they were also being attacked from behind by the cats.
The strength of the forepaws on the cats was something that would always amaze Teal’c from then on. The cats moved with incredible speed and strength ripping through the Wraith from the back as he was tearing into them from the front. The Light Sabers were taking the majority of the blasts that were coming at him and the armor deflected nearly all the rest. One of the shots finally got through to him taking him down but as he was falling he saw the last Wraith that was attacking them go down from a the biggest male as it snapped the neck of the Wraith as he would have done to any animal out in the forest.
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John and Sam came out of Hyperspace as they and planed on the far side of the planet which shielded them from being detected by the Hive. Sam asked John to check the planet while she was doing some things with the Hiveship. They didn’t want that ship getting off where they wouldn’t be able to find it again. Sam moved around the planet quickly and had Laura fire on the Hyperspace drives of the Hive so that it wouldn’t be able to jump away from them. With the way that they were able to do the attack the shields were at a minimum and the drives were taken out on the first pass. That didn’t stop the Darts though and they were coming out of the Hive in droves. The Hiveships only had one bay that they could launch the Darts from though and Sam was using that to her advantage. She stopped the ship just off to the side of the bay and let Laura fire at will. A few got through out into the open and Sam was also able to use her weapons to take out a group of Darts. It was time to start moving again before she became a sitting target.
John scanned the planet and found the Wraith ships that were on the ground but there were no living Wraith on the ground. He did find three humans on the ground near the Wraith craft. John landed his ship in the area of the others to see who the humans were, hoping that they were Ronon and Teal’c. When John and Tayla came into the camp though they found Ting sitting down and playing with Shadow while Ronon was checking the limb lines so they could eat, Teal’c was nowhere in sight. Salinah was lying on the grass resting and rubbing her stomach to try and sooth the baby as it was using her kidneys for succor balls. Salinah had no idea who was walking into the camp and she had a stunner out the moment she saw them. Ting had scooped up Shadow and was hiding behind a tree peeking around it to see the new people. Ronon came back to the camp and dropped the fish next to the fire as he was smiling at his friends. “It’s about time you got here, I was wondering if you were going to make it this week.”
John was smiling back and he could give as good as he got. “Well we would have been here sooner but we had some games to play so we had to delay looking for you for just a bit. Where’s Teal’c, is he alright?”
“Teal’c took a ship and went to the Hiveship with some new pets. I need to get up their as soon as possible but I need to get Salinah and Ting fed first.” He had been busy cleaning the fish as he was talking. “I can put this on the fire and Salina can watch it while I’m gone but I need someone to stay here with them. Did you bring my weapons or anything that I can use?”
It took a while but they finally got a plan worked out. John needed to get back up to the battle and help Sam as soon as possible so it was decided that John would take Salinah and Ting with him. Tayla could fly the Dart and she would fly by and beam up Ronon so that she could deposit him inside the Hive. She would then land the Dart and join them as they were searching for Teal’c.
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Sam was moving fast and hard trying to stay out of the firing range of the Darts and taking out as many as they could. It was a wonderful sight when John appeared and started taking out more of the Darts. There was one Dart though that he was protecting which puzzled Sam so she called him asking what was going on. John told her what was happening while she was getting the visual of Ting sitting on the floor of the ship holding Shadow while Salinah was in the gunners seat shooting at the Darts. It would seem that she was a natural at the weapon and she had a lot of aggression to take out on the Wraith for what they had done to her and her family.
John told her that Tayla was flying the Dart that he was protecting and she had Ronon with her. He also told her that Teal’c was on the Hiveship with the Cougars trying to take out the Hive by himself. John told her what Ronon had told him about using the Wraith enzyme as a substitute for his Tratonan so he was going to be a lot more aggressive than he normally would be. Sam had a very surprised look thinking about Teal’c being even more aggressive but she had experienced the effects of the Wraith enzyme herself although at a deluded strength. Sam told them that they needed to get inside the Hive also and John agreed. The Darts were nearly gone now so they finished what they were doing but Sam told John that he couldn’t risk taking Salinah and Ting back on the Hive. John agreed and he was to wait outside until their ship got there to lend support and to get Salinah and Ting to safety.
Sam followed the Dart into the Hiveship and landed while Tayla flew further into the ship to drop Ronon off closer to where they thought that Teal’c would be by now; that is if he was still alive.
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Teal’c woke with a bad headache and two rough but loving tongues working both sides of his face. He sat up as quickly as he could to see that there were even more Wraith lying on the ground now around the room where more had tried to attack them and the Cats had taken care of the problem. Teal’c saw that one of the Cats had been cut but the bleeding had stopped but the wound would need to be stitched up soon if he had the chance and could find the things that he needed to do the job with. Then he thought about the glands that he was carrying with him in the baggy. He took out the one that Ronon had used to heal him. He gently opened the big Cats mouth and squeezed the gland under his tongue. The Cat pulled his face away and shook his head but Teal’c though that he had gotten enough under the tongue to help the big male. He watched as the wound started to heal some anyway. It closed nearly half way before it stopped. If Teal’c could find the cocoons that Ronon had gotten the gland from he would get more to finish the job. For now though it was time to get up and start moving again. He was getting tired and he knew that he needed to use more of the Wraith enzyme but he didn’t have Ting their with him to curb the aggression so he was going to wait until he just had no other choice.
Tayla moved forward as far as he could in the Dart before she had to deposit Ronon on the deck and turned back to land the Dart so that she could join him. Ronon had his favorite weapons back now and he wanted some action. The Wraith had destroyed everything that he had ever had along with his wife and unborn child. He hated the Wraith with every fiber of his being and it was time to let them see just how angry he was at them. He was going to find Teal’c first if at all possible then he was going to locate the Queen of the ship and have a few words with the little lady.
Sam landed her fighter where she had Laura could get out without a problem. They had gathered radios and weapons before they had left the main ship so they were now loaded for bear. She knew that Tayla now had her machetes for close work and her P90 along with extra clips and her sidearm. Sam and Laura were setup the same way. That was the main reason for learning Escrima in the first place, it was to learn to better use the short swords or machetes like they had.
It would seem that the back half of the ship was deserted now and Sam knew that Teal’c had done a lot of damage as he was moving through the ship. She knew the way he thought and if it was possible to take the ship he could help the people that he had left on the planet. She also knew that he would realize that it would be nearly impossible to do but he would either do it or die trying. Sam also knew his determination to get a job done which was evident by his coming to a fully manned Hiveship with nothing but a couple of knives and a stunner even if he did have some interesting new pets to help him out. Sam watched as Tayla landed the Dart and joined them as they started moving forward.
Teal’c was running into heavy resistance again and he was wishing that he had his staff weapon again. He had located a length of wood that he had cut off to the right length so that he would at least have a wood staff if he needed it. He had called the big Cats back to him again. They were intelligent animals and they were beginning to understand his signals to come, stay and lie down or go around something. It has surprised him to see the animals doing what he was asking them to do but they were. Now he was out of shells for the rifle and the only thing that he had was the stunner that could reach out and touch the Wraith with. He was trying to figure out a way around them when he heard one of the Cats growl. It wasn’t a threatening growl like they would have used for the Wraith. This growl was more of a greeting or acknowledgement that someone was there that they knew. He turned long enough to see Ronon coming into the room with them. Several shots were fired from the stunners trying to take Ronon out before he could get to cover but they missed as he dove for cover. Ronon reached over and rubbed the head of one of the males Cats that he knew which got a pleased growl out of the Cat. Ronon handed Teal’c the P90 as he was setting up then he started shooting the Wraith as fast as his weapon could fire. Teal’c switched the P90 to single shot and was taking out the other Wraith with single head shots. He was conserving his ammunitions as much as possible.
Sam, Tayla and Laura weren’t having any trouble following where Teal’c and Ronon had gone with all the Wraith bodies lying all over the ground. Sam was taking time to check out the rooms as they went through the ship to make sure that nobody could come in from behind them and to see what was in the rooms. They found several things that were nice including more of the weapons that Ronon used. This must have been one of the ships that had attacked his home world and when they beamed up the soldiers they also got the weapons. All three of the woman gathered what they could carry that wouldn’t get in the way and started forward again.
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The Queen knew that her ship was in deep trouble now, they had lost about half the ship to the invading forces and they were loosing ground quickly. She put out a distress call to all the ships in the vicinity. Even though they were in a civil war for the few feeding grounds that were left, no ship would refuse to come to the aid of a ship in distress. They would come if for no other reason than to take what was left of the ship and personal. It was one thing for them to kill each other but when someone attacked one of their ships it was an invasion into Wraith society. Two ships were dispatched to take care of the problem and pick up the mess if they were too late. The ships would be in range in about two hours time. The Queens of these ships were on guard in case this was a trap to lure a lone ship into an area that contained a trap. They were not only fighting the humans from Atlantis but also several other planets that had banded together which had spaceships and were growing stronger all the time. The Darts were loaded and their pilots were at the ready to attack as soon as they came out of Hyperspace if they needed to.
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The festivities were long and drawn out onboard the ship where the awards were being handed out for the race. It would seem that Sam and John had set a new record and they had done it without killing or disabling any other person or craft in the race. Elizabeth was in just as much of a hurry to get to her people as Jack was but some things you just can’t hurry along.
If Jack wasn’t able to hurry them along on this account then he was going to use the time to his best advantage. He had all the pilots that were onboard the ship training on the fighters so that they were used to flying them and firing the weapons. With Sam and John learning the fighters so quickly Jack was certain that he could have enough people trained to fly and shoot to make a difference when they got to the location. John Sheppard had called in letting them know what was going on and where everybody was. Elizabeth was relieved to hear the Ronon and Teal’c were safe for the moment anyway. Sam had her radio on and Ronon had the two that John had given him. They now knew what was happening with their missing people and how things were going onboard the Hiveship. Sam reported in when she got to the location with Teal’c and Ronon. At first the big Cats had no idea who these new humans were but when Teal’c greeted them the Cats settled down and even let the new people pet them.
Sam was a little surprised when the big Male Cat that was with Teal’c rolled over on his back so that she could rub his belly. Sam was a long time cat person and she knew that most domestic cats of Earth wouldn’t let a person rub their bellies unless they really trusted them. Tayla and Laura came over and gave the Big Cat some love also which he seemed to be eating up. This was something new for him and he was mentally telling the others how good it was to let the humans do this new thing with them. Soon all the Cats were gently slapping the humans with their front paw and rolling over to get the bellies scratched and rubbed if there wasn’t any danger around. The Cats were always watching and if one was being petted the others were all watching for danger.
The Queen of the Hive concentrated all of her remaining personal around the control room as they waited for a rescue ship to help them out. She was worried that the attackers would pull out and blow her ship apart once they had planted explosives or done something to the ship which would destroy it but the ship was telling her that they were still moving forward toward her position. For some reason they wanted her ship whole. She was now thinking that this might be a group of mercenaries that had been promised great riches if they could take the ship for one of the other Queens. It was disgusting to think of using humans as more than servants and food but she knew that some factions felt that humans could be domesticated and made into pets for their amusement; that is until they needed to feed. She was not of that group of thinkers.
The ship was giving warning that there was a Hyperspace window opening which was a great relief to her as she was thinking that this was help on the way. When the two Hiveships and a couple of the smaller support ships and battleships that had come along with them appeared she thought that her ship would now be saved. The attackers were still moving forward though and she was calling the ships telling them to hurry. The ship was now giving more warning that there were more Hyperspace windows opening in the area which puzzled her. The Queen watched as the Darts were deployed from the Wraith ships. Then the unthinkable happened. An Ancient battle cruiser came out of the hyperspace window and it was followed quickly by an armada of other ships of all kinds and all of them were deploying fighters.
Jack ordered the fighters to converge on the Hiveships and larger battle cruisers to take out their Hyperspace drives and the light speed drives if possible so they couldn’t get away.
When Jack had gotten tired of all the talking going on at the awards ceremony he took control and told the people that they had a Wraith Hiveship that they needed to take and that it might have company when they got their. This got a great battle cry from all the people of all races at the assembly. They had never united to fight against the Wraith before and it was about time that they did. All of the ships had seen the fighters that had been deployed from the ship as it was practicing on the asteroids getting their maneuvers and the gunners coordinated. At first they thought that it was just the big ship showing off their fighting abilities and weapons but now that they knew they were going to take on a Hiveship they wanted in on the action.
They all agreed that Jack would take command of the armada to coordinate the attack. The ships were fast to take up the challenge and they were soon on their way. Jack called his people onboard the Hiveship letting them know that they had arrived and they had brought friends with them. Jack had told the other captions of the ships that he did not want the ships destroyed only stopped while they got things ready. Jack called the Sam again telling her to get her people out of the Hiveship as soon as possible.
John Sheppard landed the fighter on the Ancient ship and had Salinah taken to the med station, she was starting to have contractions now and he needed to get her and Ting taken care of. John called the bridge and asked for a gunner and someone that could take care of Ting so that he could get back out and do what he was being paid for. There was a flash of light and Ting was now standing next to Jack on the bridge of the ship. A gunner was assigned to John’s fighter and he was off in a shot to get back into the action. Jack had Elizabeth organizing the scientist for their part of this next operation. When they had the all clear from Sam that everybody was clear of the Hiveship the canisters with the aerosol version of the chemical that Dr. Becket had developed were beamed in with a group of men that could protect the area while the canisters could be setup and turned on. In only a few moments everything inside of the Hiveships got quiet. The Darts still had to be dealt with but the Hiveships and battle cruisers were no longer a problem. The support ships were also taken out but they were small enough that all they and to do with them was to beam over a small canister that went off as soon as it materialized.
Some of the Darts got away and landed on the planet which was no big deal to the others. There wasn’t a Stargate in this system that they could get to. They would have to live out their long life on the planet with the animals that now knew how to deal with them. When Teal’c got back to the ship Ting came to see him and he was still holding Shadow when he came into the infirmary. All of the medical personal were staying close to one side of the room which was the farthest away from the big Cats that were surrounding the bed that Teal’c was lying on.
Ting asked the big Cats what they wanted to do. Three of them wanted to go home but the big male had become attached to Teal’c and wanted to stay with him. Ting had let him know that it was rather like Shadow staying with him as a member of the family and the big Cat liked that. Ting told Teal’c that the big male wanted to stay with him if that was alright with him. Teal’c reached down and rubbed the cat on the head and scratched him behind the ears letting him know that it would be a good thing.
When Jack found out that Ting could communicate with the large cougars Jack had him tell the Cats that he would be beaming them down close to an area where there was a concentration of Wraith if that was alright with them. The Cats really liked that idea and they were beamed down a few hundred yards away from the camp. The Cats were glad that they could now go on the hunt on their own territory. The Wraith were now the hunted.
END
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The Hunted von Twobits
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