The difference between the cool controlled air of Atlantis and this planet’s hot suns was instant and it took Teyla completely by surprise. She had to stand by the gate and take a few gulps of air before she could settle her heart rate and breathing. Across the other side of the gate Rodney and Ronon were having similar trouble and Teyla turned just as John stepped through.
Her hands grabbed his arm quickly as he staggered and she pulled him forward to stop him tumbling backwards into the still open wormhole. She kept him steady for a moment before he reached for his water canteen and unscrewed the cap. He took a long draft before capping it and pulling the Ancient scanner out of his pocket.
“V3, South,” he said. “I think I finally understand what V3 means,” he said looking around at the terrain.
“What are you on about?” Rodney husked before tipping his canteen up and tipping it over his face with an opened mouth.
“I spy, with my little eye, something beginning with ‘V’,” John said sarcastically.
“Volcano,” Ronon said lazily.
“Oh how clever of you,” Rodney said straightening and looking into his now empty water bottle. “Give the caveman a prize.”
“He’ll be helping himself to your other water canteen if you don’t shut up and start walking,” John snapped and Ronon turned to give Rodney a menacing smile. If the heat hadn’t been so intense, Teyla would have laughed at how Rodney suddenly took a firm hold on the water container.
“Tell me someone has sun block,” Rodney said after only a few minutes of walking. “Preferably high factor, somewhere in the three-thousand range.”
Teyla reached back to her back and pulled the bottle out. She’d borrowed it from one of the nurses and if Rodney used it all she would have to find some way to replace it. Considering for a moment, she handed it over.
“Thirty?” he asked indignantly checking the sunburn protection factor. “That’s not going to do much.”
The walk to the third volcano was a long one; Teyla constantly wished she’d brought ever-lasting ice with her. The heat was frustrating enough on its own, but Rodney’s constant complaining about useless sunscreen and the heat didn’t help in the slightest. John kept the pace fast throughout the whole trip. At first she believed it was to get this task over and done with until he rounded on Rodney after their fourth hour and told him in a low tone that if he didn’t stop complaining he’d give him something to complain about and leave him between the first and second volcano.
Two hours later and they passed the second volcano to see a smaller one extremely close by. However, what she did see was less than inviting. Small as it was, there was still quite a climb and the smoke billowing from the top made her worry that it would soon erupt. That thought was doubly fearful when the ground rumbled beneath her feet.
“Oh great,” Rodney said.
“How long did it take us to get here?” John asked in a slight tone of worry.
“Six hours,” Teyla said.
“What do you think?” John said after a moment, “an hour to the top, hour back and six hours home.”
“Less if we can ride the magma flow,” Rodney said with false jocularity.
“You’re assuming the crystal will be sitting at the top waiting for us after ten thousand years,” Ronon put in ignoring Rodney.
Ronon had a point and she saw that point dawn on both John and Rodney’s face. John turned and looked up the volcano; she could see his brain ticking over the possibilities. The possibility that the crystal would be easy to get once they were up there, the possibility that it wasn’t up there at all, but somewhere down here or even in the volcano and the possibility that this particular volcano would explode any minute. She wondered if the possibility of it triggering the other volcanoes even occurred to him as she watched him look around the base of the mountain.
“Guess we should go find out,” he said.
“I am not going up an active volcano,” Rodney spat, “especially not to find that it isn’t even up there. This is a new mountain,” he said. “It probably didn’t even exist ten thousand years ago, for all we know the one we want could be that one,” he pointed to the next volcano a good three hours walk in the distance.
“Fine,” John said calmly, “you go check out that one, I’ll go up this one and Teyla and Ronon can walk the base to see if there are any clues down here before they come up and join me.”
“What? Are you insane?”
“We need the crystal, Rodney,” John spat his temper quickly abating. “Either you help us or you head back to the gate and wait by the DHD so you can dial in quickly.”
Teyla turned to watch the scientist, his face covered in sweat from the heat and his eyes searching the top of the mountain. She could see him weighing the chances of survival in his head. He wouldn’t walk away. He was just as curious as she was about this and he didn’t want to go back to Atlantis to die at the hands of another alien race.
Or so she thought.
Rodney grumbled something about wanting to stay healthy and turned his back on the team to start walking back to the gate. Teyla’s brow rose. She knew he never liked putting himself at risk, but she never thought he would value his life that much more than the expedition. She had hoped he realised by now that without this weapon, they’d only have a bigger problem than an erupting volcano six hours from the gate.
****
“So these children of Ceras… Ancients, right?”
Katie nodded to Lorne as they followed Sage through a less-travelled path in the forest.
“Yes. At least, that’s the first people who come to mind.”
“Think there really are gnomes protecting it?” Miller piped up behind Major Lorne.
Cole rolled his eyes. “Ya, and we have to ride on dragonflies to get there. Come on Miller, it’s probably some Ancient tech, if anything at all.”
“Whatever it is, we need to stay alert.” Lorne ordered. “I estimate we only have about six hours left of light and I’d like to be back to base before nightfall.”
Cole and Miller responded with their standard ‘yessir’ and the rest of the hike remained relatively quiet until they reached the cave. The mouth of the cave was over eight feet high and loomed over them like an entity. Lorne noticed Katie’s quick inhale of breath and placed a steadying hand on her shoulder.
Sage turned to face them. “I can take you no further.”
“That’s fine,” Major Lorne smiled, “we can take it from here. Thanks.”
Sage nodded. “We will leave someone at the entrance for one day in case you return.”
Lorne watched as the woman started back towards the village. When she was out of sight he returned his gaze to the cave.
“Well, this isn’t ominous at all,” he cast a reassuring smile to Doctor Brown before lifting his P-90 in the ready position and took point.
The entrance of the cave was large, but as they ventured further into the orifice, the walls slowly began to enclose in on them until they were forced to walk single file. Even then it was getting a little cramped.
“Shouldn’t have had that second piece of pie.”
Lorne smiled at Cole’s smart-ass remark and reminded Katie to watch her step as they inched forward. The light from the outside had disappeared and now they relied on the light from their guns for visibility; light which proved pretty much useless.
“I can’t see a damn thing,” Lorne muttered as he reached out in front of him. He didn’t like the fact that he had to feel his way in front. It left them open to surprises - especially when his face hit solid rock. He muttered something about caves under his breath and felt around.
“Looks like we’re crawling.”
He wasn’t exactly too thrilled about the thought either, but if this was what it took to get the crystal, then he was left with no choice. Miller grumbled about a wild goose chase as he dropped to his hands and knees behind Katie and followed the line.
“How you doing, Doc?”
Lorne would have looked back if he could, but he could only rely on her word at this point. Her laboured breathing indicated that she was, at the very least, struggling to keep up.
“Fine,” Katie breathed. “I just haven’t crawled since I was a teenager.”
It wasn’t like the rocky ground was particularly accommodating either. In fact, he was sure Doctor Beckett was going to scold them all when they got back to Atlantis about putting this much pressure on their knees.
A slight breezed washed over Lorne’s face. “I think I see an opening,” he said. Evan couldn’t actually see the opening as much as feel it, but Lorne wasn’t going to let semantics get in the way. As they continued to crawl, light slowly began to filter back into the stone conclave until –
“Woah!”
Lorne halted abruptly causing a domino effect with Katie running into his backside and Miller doing the same to her. Cole grumbled at the end of the line. Lorne apologized and poked his head out of the hole.
“What is it?”
Katie’s question caused Lorne to grimace. “A way out,” he said, “but you’re not going to like it.”
The small crawl-space opened up to a one and a half foot ledge that overlooked a considerably farther drop down the mountain. It looked as if they had climbed the mountain from the inside, even though it hadn’t felt like they had been going up an incline.
“Maybe we should go back?” Lorne offered, but Katie refused.
“We need to get the crystal. I’ll be alright, really.”
Lorne took a few minutes to mull it over and decided he’d deal with Doctor Weir’s lecture when they got back to base.
“Alright, but stay close to me.”
Getting up from the hole proved to be difficult on such a small ledge, but walking on it was harder. At such a high altitude, the power of the wind was enough to knock you off your feet if you weren’t careful. Lorne took the lead with a hand out in front of him holding onto the side of a mountain while his other hand was holding onto Doctor Brown. Miller and Cole were in similar stances as they inched along.
Katie’s heart was racing as her feet shuffled timidly forward. When she woke up that morning, she did not picture herself scaling a mountain on another planet. Her right hand grasped firmly onto Major Lorne’s vest and she tried desperately not to look below them. Suddenly Lorne lurched forward. Katie gasped as she felt her body tilt forward, her eyes wide with panic. And then, nothing. She opened her eyes to find Major Lorne steadying himself in front of her. Lieutenant Miller had grabbed a hold of her vest and pulled her back upright. She exhaled.
Lorne pressed his lips firmly together. “Come on,” he wanted to get the hell off this mountain.
****
“You have got to be kidding me.”
Major Lorne and his team stood on a large clearing on the side of a mountain facing the tops of the tallest trees in history. The trees were surrounded by a maze of wooden platforms that circled the trunks with various bridges varying from wood to rope connected them. The only problem was that there were about 120 yards between them and the trees.
Lorne sighed and rubbed his palms into his eyes before looking at the situation anew. There was no line from the mountain to the trees and no visible signs of any possible way of transportation.
“Sir,” he turned around to see Sergeant Cole inspecting something on the side of the mountain. Major Lorne approached the wall.
“What is that? A triangle?”
Cole ran his finger over the grooved rock. “An upside down triangle in stone.”
“Weird,” Miller said. Lorne had to agree. It was weird. He exhaled loudly and turned around to face the trees again.
“Okay, so, assuming we’re on the right path, how do we get from here,” Lorne pointed towards the treetops, “to there?”
“It’s not a button,” Cole offered as he pushed the triangle again just in case.
Lorne frowned. He hated puzzles, but he was good at noticing people and right now he noticed Katie’s thoughtful stare at the symbol on the wall.
“What is it?”
Katie’s brow furrowed. “It looks familiar.”
“From where?”
She bit her lip. “I don’t know.”
Lorne checked his watch, three more hours until sundown. He suppressed his natural instincts and instead went with a smile. “Its okay, Doc, take your time,” he said and glanced at his watch. “Plenty of time…”
A couple of minutes passed and Lorne was about to order everyone back to the caves when Katie broke the silence.
“It’s missing something.”
Lorne looked at her and then the wall. For a triangle, it wasn’t missing anything. She must have noticed the perplexed expression on his face.
“I think,” she bit her lip again. “Well, I think it’s supposed to be an alchemy symbol.”
“Let me guess, for earth, right?” Katie nodded to Lorne who rolled his eyes.
“Okay, so what does the symbol look like?”
Katie demonstrated by drawing a line across the bottom point. Cole pulled out his knife and carefully chiselled what he could from the rock surface and created a line across the bottom. They waited and nothing happened.
“I’m sorry,” Katie frowned, but she had spoken too soon.
Something darted out of the wall and flew to the other side and attached itself to something over there. Lorne glanced up. It was a zip line. For him and his men, this would be fine, but for Katie… Lorne watched her eye the cable cautiously.
“This is going to be a walk in the park, Doc. I promise.”
Even though the words were meant to be comforting, it was easy to tell that Katie was still frazzled. This was supposed to be a simple mission, something to wet Katie’s nose for off world missions in the future. That’s why he had chosen the earth planet – it seemed like it would be easy. Now he secretly wondered if the fire planet would have been better.
“Miller, you go first. Doctor Brown, you’re with me. Cole, you follow us. Got it?”
That got a round of ‘yessir’ before Miller attached a carabineer to the cable and zipped across. Lorne attached Katie’s carabineer to the cable and then did the same with his. When he pushed off, he made sure to hold onto Katie the entire way down. It had been a ride for sure and when Katie reached the platform at the bottom her knuckles were white and she was shaking a little. Lorne decided he’d call for a rest at that point.
****
John turned shortly after Rodney left. He knew picking this planet was a bad idea, but it needed to be someone’s job and he wasn’t about to fob it off on Lorne’s team. Rodney’s attitude towards Elizabeth was annoying enough as it was, but the current ‘I know what’s needed right now’ one was getting him to the point where he would pick the water planet next and drown the man. He started up the hill as the ground started to shake again and stopped to look back at Teyla and Ronon.
“Follow me half way up, then one of you can do the round trip unless we see signs that the crystal is likely to be up there.”
They nodded at him and he started up the side of the volcano. He took in his surroundings the higher he went, his eyes picking up the distant volcanoes and a plume of smoke coming a long way off to the west. Whenever the tremors started, John’s mind snapped to the wrong place, namely back in Atlantis, the cool climate, the lack of humidity, clean clothes, chairs and beds to rest in and Elizabeth. For some reason though, he always pictured her holding a baby, not a five year old Mara, but a new born with a cute button nose and unruly black hair.
“I’ll go,” he heard Ronon and turned to see him start off at a jog in one direction around the edge of the mountain. He checked his watch, it had only been twenty minutes and he looked up to find them closer to the top than expected.
“Wait, Ronon,” he called out, stopping the man as he dug through his vest for his binoculars. He raised them to his eyes and peeked at the top of the mountain to see if there was a need for Ronon to walk the edge.
He saw the bridge instantly, wooden and looking very old, some of the ropes had come loose and was dangling off the poll at the end. Something glinted in his view and John scanned along the bridge to find something dangling low over the volcano mouth. His heart skipped. It was the crystal, but it was hanging off the side of the bridge that wasn’t secured.
“The crystal’s up there,” John said and Ronon turned to walk back to them. “It’s hanging off the middle of a very unstable looking bridge,” he explained and he started up the mountain again.
“Should have made McKay come,” Ronon said. “Could have sent him out to get it.”
“Then we’d never get it,” John protested, adding a bit more speed to the climb.
“What’s with him anyway?” Ronon asked. “He was rude to Weir in the meeting, doesn’t seem to care that we’re soon to be under attack and has an even shorter temper than normal.”
“That time of month,” John said and received a glare from Teyla. “He’s jealous that Elizabeth’s got a more advanced gene than him. So he’s decided he’ll do what he wants instead of what Elizabeth tells him to do. He gave that search to Radek. Elizabeth cornered him in the lab for half an hour shouting at him about following orders instead of delegating to others because he can’t be bothered.”
“It is not Elizabeth’s fault that there is a higher gene, or that she has it,” Teyla offered.
“She doesn’t even want it,” John said. “Said there was poetic justice in the leader of Atlantis not having any Ancient Genes.”
“Was that why she was in your room?” Ronon asked.
“No,” he said, thinking fast for another reason to explain her actions. “She’d been shouting at McKay, wanted a break somewhere no one would find her.”
“And she chose your room?” Teyla asked disbelievingly.
“Is there something going on between you two?” Ronon asked with a grin on his face that made John think he knew something.
“What makes you think that?” He asked just a little too calmly.
“Zelenka told me you went into her room the other night without knocking,” Ronon said taking a step closer to John. “He also said he didn’t remember you leaving.”
“He stood in the corridor for an hour and a half?” John asked.
John picked up the pace. They were near the top now and in a few minutes he could change the conversation. ‘The sooner the better,’ he thought stumbling on a few loose rocks.
“No,” Ronon said, catching him. “He fell asleep watching the sensors.”
John stopped; Ronon on one side and Teyla on the other. The bridge was out of one of those suspense movies where they had to cross to survive and they only had a limited amount of time to do it in. ‘Why would they build a bridge out of wood?’ John questioned. The Ancients were an advanced race they could easily make a bridge that would hold up under the strain of an erupting volcano.
“This thing hasn’t gone off in a while,” Ronon said leaning forward to look down the mouth of the volcano. “Or that bridge wouldn’t be standing.”
“And the crystal long since swallowed,” Teyla added.
“Okay then,” John said unzipping his vest. “Ronon you hold one rope, Teyla the other and I’ll go get the crystal so we can get out of this excessive heat.”
“I believe I should go,” Teyla said placing a hand on his shoulder. “I am lighter than the both of you; I will cause less damage to the bridge.”
“It’s already damaged,” Ronon said, “but she’s right, it’ll be easier for us to catch her and pull her up fast if the bridge collapses.”
“Absolutely not,” John said firmly. “I won’t risk your lives like that.”
“John,” she said placing a hand on his arm to stop him from removing his vest. “You know I can be faster out there than you,” she reasoned and he knew she was right. He just didn’t like it. He considered it for a moment, his eyes checking on the bubbling lava below and the swaying bridge that crossed the opening.
“Fine,” he said. “But you’re to be extremely careful and keep a tight hold of the rope at all times, if that thing gives way it’s going to be the only thing we can use to pull you back.”
“Better hope the rope doesn’t snap first then,” Ronon said.
“That’s not helping,” John snapped.
****
“Don’t touch that!”
Miller slapped Cole on the back of his head who cried out in protest.
“Whatcha do that for?”
Miller pointed at the apple Cole was about to reach for. “Forbidden Fruit, idiot.”
“Whatever,” Cole rolled his eyes and went for it again, but Major Lorne stopped him before he had a chance to pluck it. Miller smiled smugly which got yet another eye-roll. It wasn’t that Lorne particularly believed that picking the apple would bring about bad luck or anything; there was just no time for them to stop for a snack.
His eyes wandered over to Katie Brown who had been particularly quiet since they took the zip line to the trees. He couldn’t blame her. Since then they had to scale a rope ladder, swing from one tree to another by a rope, and crawl through a narrow hole in the trunk of a tree. It was a lot of work to get a crystal, but Lorne was secretly grateful he didn’t have to deal with things like flying arrows or rolling boulders.
The maze-like structure led them to a tree with various Ancient writings carved into the bark. Lorne frowned a little.
“Any of you read Ancient?”
He knew the answer of course. No one did fluently. Parrish had known, but he wasn’t here and he wasn’t about to point that out to Doctor Brown either. Sergeant Cole moved over to the bark and began to inspect it.
“Thoughts, Doc?”
Katie shook her head reluctantly at Major Lorne who sighed.
“Alright,” his eyes focused on the writing. “There’s got to be something, right?”
Lorne approached the tree and looked it over from top to bottom and side to side. It looked like a normal tree, but you could never be too sure with the Ancients. His next move was to reach out and examine it with his hands the way Cole had previously.
“Well, I’ll be damned,” The moment Lorne’s hand touched the bark, the Ancient lettering glowed a bright blue, Ancient tech. They backed away from the glowing words as a humming sound slowly began to get louder. The lights flashed, the tree shook slightly, and then the lettering disappeared and was replaced by a dark hole. Flicking on his flashlight, Lorne peered into the hole.
“It’s a slide,” his voice echoed. “Okay,” Lorne stood up and looked at his team, “let’s go.”
The slide had not been what he expected. Lorne had expected twists and turns like those you saw in the movies, but instead, it was just a straight drop. The only thing this slide had in common with those in the movies was the rough landing. By the time everyone was at the bottom, they had all fallen on their backs.
“You okay?” Lorne asked helping Katie up from the ground and made sure she wasn’t bleeding before turning his attention to the area. It was just a clearing in the middle of the woods. This worried him. Had they missed the crystal and already finished the gauntlet without retrieving it? He didn’t want to go through all that again.
“That’s it?” Cole was the one to speak what Lorne was thinking.
Lorne glanced around again. “There has to be something. Spread out and look for… something.”
Upon further inspection, it revealed that there was no way out of the clearing. Large trees grew side by side and left no sizable gap to squeeze between, which told Lorne they were missing something. He glanced at his watch, 45 minutes or so before sundown. He was not going to enjoy having to camp out in this place.
Suddenly Katie’s voice yelled out and the three men’s heads swivelled to look at the woman who was waist deep in –
“Quicksand?” Lorne shouted as he and his men started to jog towards it. Miller had gotten there first and was trying to reach out and grab her. His arms weren’t long enough and Katie’s desperate reach for his arm caused her to sink further into the ground. This is not good, he thought as his eyes frantically looked around the area for something they could use. There was nothing.
Then Major Lorne’s face calmed down.
“Wait,” he had his hand on Miller, pulling him back. Miller and Cole shot him a questioning glance while Katie’s frantic eyes pleaded at him. He swallowed, his mouth suddenly dry. “Don’t fight it. Just let it happen,” Lorne spoke to Katie as calming as he could.
“Sir?” Miller’s posture was rigid. He wanted to be back down there reaching out for her, doing something.
“Stand down, Lieutenant.”
Katie’s eyes locked onto Major Lorne. He looked so confident, so controlled, but she was panicking. The sandy water beneath her was cold, grainy and it felt like it was swallowing her up alive. She wasn’t in control and there was nothing she could do. She blinked back tears.
“Major Lorne?” She called out meekly, pleadingly. Did he really expect her to just give up? Just let go. She sniffled as she cried out for help again, but there was no response. Katie would have tried again, but her mouth was now below the sand. She kicked, kicked hard to reach the surface, but it was useless. Her chest heaved as she closed her eyes and her head went under.
****
Teyla quickly deposited her jacket, parted with a few knives about her person and set a careful foot on the first wooden board of the bridge. She took hold of the ropes on either side before putting the whole of her weight onto the wood. It held and she started forwards along the bridge.
John kept a tight hold of the good rope, his eyes fixed on Teyla’s progress and distance to the crystal and his mind once again wandering back to the comforts of Atlantis. He wondered just how many other people had seen him go into Elizabeth’s room at night. Ronon had seen her go to his, and the rumours about them had picked up a few weeks ago, but from what he’d heard, they didn’t include any night time visits.
He checked his watch every now and again as well as the bubbling pit beneath Teyla for any signs that it would blow anytime soon. Nothing changed for the twenty minutes it took her to reach the middle and John caught the movement as Ronon tightened his grip on the loosened rope.
Teyla carefully took her hand off the rope John was holding and turned towards the crystal. John moved, following her movements with his eyes as he shifted to stand beside Ronon and add to the grip. Her back straight, she crouched and took hold of the rope attached to the crystal and began pulling it up. The ground trembled below them and John watched the lava level rise as Teyla jarred forward and released the crystal in favour of holding the rope.
“That thing’s gonna go soon,” John said, watching as Teyla took hold of the smaller rope again and this time managed to collect the crystal. “I think we should either walk fast or run back to the gate,” he said as she tucked it into a pocket and turned to them.
John returned to his own rope as Teyla once again moved back towards them, a hand on either side of the bridge. Half way back the ground shook again, harder than the previous times and Ronon tightened the rope. He pulled it too far and it snapped. The bridge tilted dangerously on one side and Teyla wrapped both arms around the only remaining support. She quickly regained her feet on the now crooked bridge and started back. She was in arms length when another tremor started; the lava level rose again and just when John was ready to relax the bridge broke and Teyla lunged forward to grab Ronon’s extended arm.
“Let’s go before that thing does,” John shouted grabbing Teyla’s vest and knives.
They sprinted down the side of the volcano, stumbling at the bottom as the ground shook violently and Ronon had to catch Teyla to stop her hitting the ground half way through putting on her vest.
“Keep to a slow pace,” John called over the rumbling. “We need to keep our strength in case that thing actually goes.”
“It’s going,” Ronon said looking over his shoulder. John swung around to see the thick smoke and the slow seep of lava over the top of the creator.
“Crap,” he said and activated the radio. “Rodney, dial the gate, find out how far away the Daedalus is. We need an emergency pick up.”
“You are sure the Daedalus is in the area?” Teyla asked as she turned to start running with them.
“I made sure of it,” John said. “I didn’t want to take the chance that we’d run out of water and end up dehydrating to death or severely burnt.”
“I’m not back at the gate yet,” Rodney said, “It’s only been an hour or so. What’s going on?”
“Mount Vesuvius is heading for Pompeii,” John panted, his chest tight around him and he spotted a few other volcanoes smoking and spitting lava. “And it’s taking some friends with it.”
“Should have left McKay at the gate,” Ronon said and John turned to glare at him for the obviously late thinking.
“Everyone start praying for the Daedalus for the first time ever,” John said sarcastically as he broke into a run.
John couldn’t help but notice how much closer the lava had gotten in the last twenty minutes or so. He checked his watch, wondering if Rodney was close to the gate by now or if they’d catch up to him. Assuming they could pass the lava flow quickly. Ahead of him, Teyla and Ronon were keeping up their pace and John found himself wishing he had a little more stamina. He’d have to run himself ragged after this was over until he could keep up with them for more than ten minutes.
Then they stopped and as John approached he realised they were in a much worse situation than he hoped. The lava had cut across their path, the wide river stretched over the only way ahead and to turn back now would slow down their progress. Not to mention trap them there through the big event.
“Rodney,” John said a moment later. “Tell me you’re near the gate,” A panting sound came back for several minutes before Rodney, completely out of breath, replied.
“No,” he said. “Got at least another hour.”
The ground rumbled again and John stumbled forward towards the lava river and was instantly thankful Ronon had good reflexes.
“We don’t have an hour,” he said.
“John,” Teyla said, drawing his attention and he turned to find the way back blocked. The ground rumbled again and John’s eyes settled on a flow of hot red and orange that was slithering their way.
“We don’t have a minute,” John corrected, pulling Teyla a step back as he felt the cool air sink over him. A bright light covered his vision and when it cleared he found himself looking through the view screen of the Daedalus and out into space. He swung around to quirk a brow at Caldwell.
“Colonel,” he said with a curt nod. “Could have waited a second longer for the lava to reach us.”
“I considered it,” the colonel said. “Go get yourselves checked out; it’s a couple of hours to Atlantis.”
“Thanks,” he said, checking that Rodney was amongst them before heading out the door.
****
Katie gasped for air as she awoke on her back in darkness. Was she dead? She sat up quickly, the blood rushing from her head and causing a slight ache in the back of her skull. She groaned. Her clothes were dry, her body was dry. Just as her eyes tried to focus on the darkness, a solitary light flashed on in front of her. In the middle of the spot light was a round pedestal.
After climbing to her feet, Katie cautiously ventured toward the stone column. The pedestal came up just above her waist. Its surface was flat with an engraving that, at first, made little sense to the botanist. The engraving was a circle with five subtle bumps along the perimeter and a single line reaching down from it. She bit her lip in thought. The engraving looked familiar.
A flower. It was an outline of a flower.
Her eyes searched the bare room for other hints, but came up empty. That was until she remembered what was in her vest pocket. Pulling back the Velcro, Katie carefully pulled out the strange blue five-petal flower. She held it up to the light before lowering it onto the pedestal inside the grooves. It fit.
The column rumbled and shook, causing Katie to step back from it. It descended slowly into the ground and became part of the solid mass that made the cave she was in. It was silent for a minute before an emerald crystal appeared on the ground where the pedestal had been.
Katie smiled and reached out to grab the crystal.
****
Lorne was watching the now solid ground with a furrowed brow. He thought he had made the right call, but now he wasn’t sure. Miller and Cole had the same look, even though they tried to hide it.
A branch cracking drew their attention away from the ground and to Sage who was standing off in the direction of the village. “Lady Brown was successful in procuring Ceras’ gift. She awaits you at our village.”
Sage gestured for them to follow. It took them a minute to actually respond to the woman.
“How’d you know, sir?”
Lorne looked up at Cole silently for a minute. “The clue was trust, Sergeant,” but secretly, he hadn’t been sure of anything.
Her hands grabbed his arm quickly as he staggered and she pulled him forward to stop him tumbling backwards into the still open wormhole. She kept him steady for a moment before he reached for his water canteen and unscrewed the cap. He took a long draft before capping it and pulling the Ancient scanner out of his pocket.
“V3, South,” he said. “I think I finally understand what V3 means,” he said looking around at the terrain.
“What are you on about?” Rodney husked before tipping his canteen up and tipping it over his face with an opened mouth.
“I spy, with my little eye, something beginning with ‘V’,” John said sarcastically.
“Volcano,” Ronon said lazily.
“Oh how clever of you,” Rodney said straightening and looking into his now empty water bottle. “Give the caveman a prize.”
“He’ll be helping himself to your other water canteen if you don’t shut up and start walking,” John snapped and Ronon turned to give Rodney a menacing smile. If the heat hadn’t been so intense, Teyla would have laughed at how Rodney suddenly took a firm hold on the water container.
“Tell me someone has sun block,” Rodney said after only a few minutes of walking. “Preferably high factor, somewhere in the three-thousand range.”
Teyla reached back to her back and pulled the bottle out. She’d borrowed it from one of the nurses and if Rodney used it all she would have to find some way to replace it. Considering for a moment, she handed it over.
“Thirty?” he asked indignantly checking the sunburn protection factor. “That’s not going to do much.”
The walk to the third volcano was a long one; Teyla constantly wished she’d brought ever-lasting ice with her. The heat was frustrating enough on its own, but Rodney’s constant complaining about useless sunscreen and the heat didn’t help in the slightest. John kept the pace fast throughout the whole trip. At first she believed it was to get this task over and done with until he rounded on Rodney after their fourth hour and told him in a low tone that if he didn’t stop complaining he’d give him something to complain about and leave him between the first and second volcano.
Two hours later and they passed the second volcano to see a smaller one extremely close by. However, what she did see was less than inviting. Small as it was, there was still quite a climb and the smoke billowing from the top made her worry that it would soon erupt. That thought was doubly fearful when the ground rumbled beneath her feet.
“Oh great,” Rodney said.
“How long did it take us to get here?” John asked in a slight tone of worry.
“Six hours,” Teyla said.
“What do you think?” John said after a moment, “an hour to the top, hour back and six hours home.”
“Less if we can ride the magma flow,” Rodney said with false jocularity.
“You’re assuming the crystal will be sitting at the top waiting for us after ten thousand years,” Ronon put in ignoring Rodney.
Ronon had a point and she saw that point dawn on both John and Rodney’s face. John turned and looked up the volcano; she could see his brain ticking over the possibilities. The possibility that the crystal would be easy to get once they were up there, the possibility that it wasn’t up there at all, but somewhere down here or even in the volcano and the possibility that this particular volcano would explode any minute. She wondered if the possibility of it triggering the other volcanoes even occurred to him as she watched him look around the base of the mountain.
“Guess we should go find out,” he said.
“I am not going up an active volcano,” Rodney spat, “especially not to find that it isn’t even up there. This is a new mountain,” he said. “It probably didn’t even exist ten thousand years ago, for all we know the one we want could be that one,” he pointed to the next volcano a good three hours walk in the distance.
“Fine,” John said calmly, “you go check out that one, I’ll go up this one and Teyla and Ronon can walk the base to see if there are any clues down here before they come up and join me.”
“What? Are you insane?”
“We need the crystal, Rodney,” John spat his temper quickly abating. “Either you help us or you head back to the gate and wait by the DHD so you can dial in quickly.”
Teyla turned to watch the scientist, his face covered in sweat from the heat and his eyes searching the top of the mountain. She could see him weighing the chances of survival in his head. He wouldn’t walk away. He was just as curious as she was about this and he didn’t want to go back to Atlantis to die at the hands of another alien race.
Or so she thought.
Rodney grumbled something about wanting to stay healthy and turned his back on the team to start walking back to the gate. Teyla’s brow rose. She knew he never liked putting himself at risk, but she never thought he would value his life that much more than the expedition. She had hoped he realised by now that without this weapon, they’d only have a bigger problem than an erupting volcano six hours from the gate.
****
“So these children of Ceras… Ancients, right?”
Katie nodded to Lorne as they followed Sage through a less-travelled path in the forest.
“Yes. At least, that’s the first people who come to mind.”
“Think there really are gnomes protecting it?” Miller piped up behind Major Lorne.
Cole rolled his eyes. “Ya, and we have to ride on dragonflies to get there. Come on Miller, it’s probably some Ancient tech, if anything at all.”
“Whatever it is, we need to stay alert.” Lorne ordered. “I estimate we only have about six hours left of light and I’d like to be back to base before nightfall.”
Cole and Miller responded with their standard ‘yessir’ and the rest of the hike remained relatively quiet until they reached the cave. The mouth of the cave was over eight feet high and loomed over them like an entity. Lorne noticed Katie’s quick inhale of breath and placed a steadying hand on her shoulder.
Sage turned to face them. “I can take you no further.”
“That’s fine,” Major Lorne smiled, “we can take it from here. Thanks.”
Sage nodded. “We will leave someone at the entrance for one day in case you return.”
Lorne watched as the woman started back towards the village. When she was out of sight he returned his gaze to the cave.
“Well, this isn’t ominous at all,” he cast a reassuring smile to Doctor Brown before lifting his P-90 in the ready position and took point.
The entrance of the cave was large, but as they ventured further into the orifice, the walls slowly began to enclose in on them until they were forced to walk single file. Even then it was getting a little cramped.
“Shouldn’t have had that second piece of pie.”
Lorne smiled at Cole’s smart-ass remark and reminded Katie to watch her step as they inched forward. The light from the outside had disappeared and now they relied on the light from their guns for visibility; light which proved pretty much useless.
“I can’t see a damn thing,” Lorne muttered as he reached out in front of him. He didn’t like the fact that he had to feel his way in front. It left them open to surprises - especially when his face hit solid rock. He muttered something about caves under his breath and felt around.
“Looks like we’re crawling.”
He wasn’t exactly too thrilled about the thought either, but if this was what it took to get the crystal, then he was left with no choice. Miller grumbled about a wild goose chase as he dropped to his hands and knees behind Katie and followed the line.
“How you doing, Doc?”
Lorne would have looked back if he could, but he could only rely on her word at this point. Her laboured breathing indicated that she was, at the very least, struggling to keep up.
“Fine,” Katie breathed. “I just haven’t crawled since I was a teenager.”
It wasn’t like the rocky ground was particularly accommodating either. In fact, he was sure Doctor Beckett was going to scold them all when they got back to Atlantis about putting this much pressure on their knees.
A slight breezed washed over Lorne’s face. “I think I see an opening,” he said. Evan couldn’t actually see the opening as much as feel it, but Lorne wasn’t going to let semantics get in the way. As they continued to crawl, light slowly began to filter back into the stone conclave until –
“Woah!”
Lorne halted abruptly causing a domino effect with Katie running into his backside and Miller doing the same to her. Cole grumbled at the end of the line. Lorne apologized and poked his head out of the hole.
“What is it?”
Katie’s question caused Lorne to grimace. “A way out,” he said, “but you’re not going to like it.”
The small crawl-space opened up to a one and a half foot ledge that overlooked a considerably farther drop down the mountain. It looked as if they had climbed the mountain from the inside, even though it hadn’t felt like they had been going up an incline.
“Maybe we should go back?” Lorne offered, but Katie refused.
“We need to get the crystal. I’ll be alright, really.”
Lorne took a few minutes to mull it over and decided he’d deal with Doctor Weir’s lecture when they got back to base.
“Alright, but stay close to me.”
Getting up from the hole proved to be difficult on such a small ledge, but walking on it was harder. At such a high altitude, the power of the wind was enough to knock you off your feet if you weren’t careful. Lorne took the lead with a hand out in front of him holding onto the side of a mountain while his other hand was holding onto Doctor Brown. Miller and Cole were in similar stances as they inched along.
Katie’s heart was racing as her feet shuffled timidly forward. When she woke up that morning, she did not picture herself scaling a mountain on another planet. Her right hand grasped firmly onto Major Lorne’s vest and she tried desperately not to look below them. Suddenly Lorne lurched forward. Katie gasped as she felt her body tilt forward, her eyes wide with panic. And then, nothing. She opened her eyes to find Major Lorne steadying himself in front of her. Lieutenant Miller had grabbed a hold of her vest and pulled her back upright. She exhaled.
Lorne pressed his lips firmly together. “Come on,” he wanted to get the hell off this mountain.
****
“You have got to be kidding me.”
Major Lorne and his team stood on a large clearing on the side of a mountain facing the tops of the tallest trees in history. The trees were surrounded by a maze of wooden platforms that circled the trunks with various bridges varying from wood to rope connected them. The only problem was that there were about 120 yards between them and the trees.
Lorne sighed and rubbed his palms into his eyes before looking at the situation anew. There was no line from the mountain to the trees and no visible signs of any possible way of transportation.
“Sir,” he turned around to see Sergeant Cole inspecting something on the side of the mountain. Major Lorne approached the wall.
“What is that? A triangle?”
Cole ran his finger over the grooved rock. “An upside down triangle in stone.”
“Weird,” Miller said. Lorne had to agree. It was weird. He exhaled loudly and turned around to face the trees again.
“Okay, so, assuming we’re on the right path, how do we get from here,” Lorne pointed towards the treetops, “to there?”
“It’s not a button,” Cole offered as he pushed the triangle again just in case.
Lorne frowned. He hated puzzles, but he was good at noticing people and right now he noticed Katie’s thoughtful stare at the symbol on the wall.
“What is it?”
Katie’s brow furrowed. “It looks familiar.”
“From where?”
She bit her lip. “I don’t know.”
Lorne checked his watch, three more hours until sundown. He suppressed his natural instincts and instead went with a smile. “Its okay, Doc, take your time,” he said and glanced at his watch. “Plenty of time…”
A couple of minutes passed and Lorne was about to order everyone back to the caves when Katie broke the silence.
“It’s missing something.”
Lorne looked at her and then the wall. For a triangle, it wasn’t missing anything. She must have noticed the perplexed expression on his face.
“I think,” she bit her lip again. “Well, I think it’s supposed to be an alchemy symbol.”
“Let me guess, for earth, right?” Katie nodded to Lorne who rolled his eyes.
“Okay, so what does the symbol look like?”
Katie demonstrated by drawing a line across the bottom point. Cole pulled out his knife and carefully chiselled what he could from the rock surface and created a line across the bottom. They waited and nothing happened.
“I’m sorry,” Katie frowned, but she had spoken too soon.
Something darted out of the wall and flew to the other side and attached itself to something over there. Lorne glanced up. It was a zip line. For him and his men, this would be fine, but for Katie… Lorne watched her eye the cable cautiously.
“This is going to be a walk in the park, Doc. I promise.”
Even though the words were meant to be comforting, it was easy to tell that Katie was still frazzled. This was supposed to be a simple mission, something to wet Katie’s nose for off world missions in the future. That’s why he had chosen the earth planet – it seemed like it would be easy. Now he secretly wondered if the fire planet would have been better.
“Miller, you go first. Doctor Brown, you’re with me. Cole, you follow us. Got it?”
That got a round of ‘yessir’ before Miller attached a carabineer to the cable and zipped across. Lorne attached Katie’s carabineer to the cable and then did the same with his. When he pushed off, he made sure to hold onto Katie the entire way down. It had been a ride for sure and when Katie reached the platform at the bottom her knuckles were white and she was shaking a little. Lorne decided he’d call for a rest at that point.
****
John turned shortly after Rodney left. He knew picking this planet was a bad idea, but it needed to be someone’s job and he wasn’t about to fob it off on Lorne’s team. Rodney’s attitude towards Elizabeth was annoying enough as it was, but the current ‘I know what’s needed right now’ one was getting him to the point where he would pick the water planet next and drown the man. He started up the hill as the ground started to shake again and stopped to look back at Teyla and Ronon.
“Follow me half way up, then one of you can do the round trip unless we see signs that the crystal is likely to be up there.”
They nodded at him and he started up the side of the volcano. He took in his surroundings the higher he went, his eyes picking up the distant volcanoes and a plume of smoke coming a long way off to the west. Whenever the tremors started, John’s mind snapped to the wrong place, namely back in Atlantis, the cool climate, the lack of humidity, clean clothes, chairs and beds to rest in and Elizabeth. For some reason though, he always pictured her holding a baby, not a five year old Mara, but a new born with a cute button nose and unruly black hair.
“I’ll go,” he heard Ronon and turned to see him start off at a jog in one direction around the edge of the mountain. He checked his watch, it had only been twenty minutes and he looked up to find them closer to the top than expected.
“Wait, Ronon,” he called out, stopping the man as he dug through his vest for his binoculars. He raised them to his eyes and peeked at the top of the mountain to see if there was a need for Ronon to walk the edge.
He saw the bridge instantly, wooden and looking very old, some of the ropes had come loose and was dangling off the poll at the end. Something glinted in his view and John scanned along the bridge to find something dangling low over the volcano mouth. His heart skipped. It was the crystal, but it was hanging off the side of the bridge that wasn’t secured.
“The crystal’s up there,” John said and Ronon turned to walk back to them. “It’s hanging off the middle of a very unstable looking bridge,” he explained and he started up the mountain again.
“Should have made McKay come,” Ronon said. “Could have sent him out to get it.”
“Then we’d never get it,” John protested, adding a bit more speed to the climb.
“What’s with him anyway?” Ronon asked. “He was rude to Weir in the meeting, doesn’t seem to care that we’re soon to be under attack and has an even shorter temper than normal.”
“That time of month,” John said and received a glare from Teyla. “He’s jealous that Elizabeth’s got a more advanced gene than him. So he’s decided he’ll do what he wants instead of what Elizabeth tells him to do. He gave that search to Radek. Elizabeth cornered him in the lab for half an hour shouting at him about following orders instead of delegating to others because he can’t be bothered.”
“It is not Elizabeth’s fault that there is a higher gene, or that she has it,” Teyla offered.
“She doesn’t even want it,” John said. “Said there was poetic justice in the leader of Atlantis not having any Ancient Genes.”
“Was that why she was in your room?” Ronon asked.
“No,” he said, thinking fast for another reason to explain her actions. “She’d been shouting at McKay, wanted a break somewhere no one would find her.”
“And she chose your room?” Teyla asked disbelievingly.
“Is there something going on between you two?” Ronon asked with a grin on his face that made John think he knew something.
“What makes you think that?” He asked just a little too calmly.
“Zelenka told me you went into her room the other night without knocking,” Ronon said taking a step closer to John. “He also said he didn’t remember you leaving.”
“He stood in the corridor for an hour and a half?” John asked.
John picked up the pace. They were near the top now and in a few minutes he could change the conversation. ‘The sooner the better,’ he thought stumbling on a few loose rocks.
“No,” Ronon said, catching him. “He fell asleep watching the sensors.”
John stopped; Ronon on one side and Teyla on the other. The bridge was out of one of those suspense movies where they had to cross to survive and they only had a limited amount of time to do it in. ‘Why would they build a bridge out of wood?’ John questioned. The Ancients were an advanced race they could easily make a bridge that would hold up under the strain of an erupting volcano.
“This thing hasn’t gone off in a while,” Ronon said leaning forward to look down the mouth of the volcano. “Or that bridge wouldn’t be standing.”
“And the crystal long since swallowed,” Teyla added.
“Okay then,” John said unzipping his vest. “Ronon you hold one rope, Teyla the other and I’ll go get the crystal so we can get out of this excessive heat.”
“I believe I should go,” Teyla said placing a hand on his shoulder. “I am lighter than the both of you; I will cause less damage to the bridge.”
“It’s already damaged,” Ronon said, “but she’s right, it’ll be easier for us to catch her and pull her up fast if the bridge collapses.”
“Absolutely not,” John said firmly. “I won’t risk your lives like that.”
“John,” she said placing a hand on his arm to stop him from removing his vest. “You know I can be faster out there than you,” she reasoned and he knew she was right. He just didn’t like it. He considered it for a moment, his eyes checking on the bubbling lava below and the swaying bridge that crossed the opening.
“Fine,” he said. “But you’re to be extremely careful and keep a tight hold of the rope at all times, if that thing gives way it’s going to be the only thing we can use to pull you back.”
“Better hope the rope doesn’t snap first then,” Ronon said.
“That’s not helping,” John snapped.
****
“Don’t touch that!”
Miller slapped Cole on the back of his head who cried out in protest.
“Whatcha do that for?”
Miller pointed at the apple Cole was about to reach for. “Forbidden Fruit, idiot.”
“Whatever,” Cole rolled his eyes and went for it again, but Major Lorne stopped him before he had a chance to pluck it. Miller smiled smugly which got yet another eye-roll. It wasn’t that Lorne particularly believed that picking the apple would bring about bad luck or anything; there was just no time for them to stop for a snack.
His eyes wandered over to Katie Brown who had been particularly quiet since they took the zip line to the trees. He couldn’t blame her. Since then they had to scale a rope ladder, swing from one tree to another by a rope, and crawl through a narrow hole in the trunk of a tree. It was a lot of work to get a crystal, but Lorne was secretly grateful he didn’t have to deal with things like flying arrows or rolling boulders.
The maze-like structure led them to a tree with various Ancient writings carved into the bark. Lorne frowned a little.
“Any of you read Ancient?”
He knew the answer of course. No one did fluently. Parrish had known, but he wasn’t here and he wasn’t about to point that out to Doctor Brown either. Sergeant Cole moved over to the bark and began to inspect it.
“Thoughts, Doc?”
Katie shook her head reluctantly at Major Lorne who sighed.
“Alright,” his eyes focused on the writing. “There’s got to be something, right?”
Lorne approached the tree and looked it over from top to bottom and side to side. It looked like a normal tree, but you could never be too sure with the Ancients. His next move was to reach out and examine it with his hands the way Cole had previously.
“Well, I’ll be damned,” The moment Lorne’s hand touched the bark, the Ancient lettering glowed a bright blue, Ancient tech. They backed away from the glowing words as a humming sound slowly began to get louder. The lights flashed, the tree shook slightly, and then the lettering disappeared and was replaced by a dark hole. Flicking on his flashlight, Lorne peered into the hole.
“It’s a slide,” his voice echoed. “Okay,” Lorne stood up and looked at his team, “let’s go.”
The slide had not been what he expected. Lorne had expected twists and turns like those you saw in the movies, but instead, it was just a straight drop. The only thing this slide had in common with those in the movies was the rough landing. By the time everyone was at the bottom, they had all fallen on their backs.
“You okay?” Lorne asked helping Katie up from the ground and made sure she wasn’t bleeding before turning his attention to the area. It was just a clearing in the middle of the woods. This worried him. Had they missed the crystal and already finished the gauntlet without retrieving it? He didn’t want to go through all that again.
“That’s it?” Cole was the one to speak what Lorne was thinking.
Lorne glanced around again. “There has to be something. Spread out and look for… something.”
Upon further inspection, it revealed that there was no way out of the clearing. Large trees grew side by side and left no sizable gap to squeeze between, which told Lorne they were missing something. He glanced at his watch, 45 minutes or so before sundown. He was not going to enjoy having to camp out in this place.
Suddenly Katie’s voice yelled out and the three men’s heads swivelled to look at the woman who was waist deep in –
“Quicksand?” Lorne shouted as he and his men started to jog towards it. Miller had gotten there first and was trying to reach out and grab her. His arms weren’t long enough and Katie’s desperate reach for his arm caused her to sink further into the ground. This is not good, he thought as his eyes frantically looked around the area for something they could use. There was nothing.
Then Major Lorne’s face calmed down.
“Wait,” he had his hand on Miller, pulling him back. Miller and Cole shot him a questioning glance while Katie’s frantic eyes pleaded at him. He swallowed, his mouth suddenly dry. “Don’t fight it. Just let it happen,” Lorne spoke to Katie as calming as he could.
“Sir?” Miller’s posture was rigid. He wanted to be back down there reaching out for her, doing something.
“Stand down, Lieutenant.”
Katie’s eyes locked onto Major Lorne. He looked so confident, so controlled, but she was panicking. The sandy water beneath her was cold, grainy and it felt like it was swallowing her up alive. She wasn’t in control and there was nothing she could do. She blinked back tears.
“Major Lorne?” She called out meekly, pleadingly. Did he really expect her to just give up? Just let go. She sniffled as she cried out for help again, but there was no response. Katie would have tried again, but her mouth was now below the sand. She kicked, kicked hard to reach the surface, but it was useless. Her chest heaved as she closed her eyes and her head went under.
****
Teyla quickly deposited her jacket, parted with a few knives about her person and set a careful foot on the first wooden board of the bridge. She took hold of the ropes on either side before putting the whole of her weight onto the wood. It held and she started forwards along the bridge.
John kept a tight hold of the good rope, his eyes fixed on Teyla’s progress and distance to the crystal and his mind once again wandering back to the comforts of Atlantis. He wondered just how many other people had seen him go into Elizabeth’s room at night. Ronon had seen her go to his, and the rumours about them had picked up a few weeks ago, but from what he’d heard, they didn’t include any night time visits.
He checked his watch every now and again as well as the bubbling pit beneath Teyla for any signs that it would blow anytime soon. Nothing changed for the twenty minutes it took her to reach the middle and John caught the movement as Ronon tightened his grip on the loosened rope.
Teyla carefully took her hand off the rope John was holding and turned towards the crystal. John moved, following her movements with his eyes as he shifted to stand beside Ronon and add to the grip. Her back straight, she crouched and took hold of the rope attached to the crystal and began pulling it up. The ground trembled below them and John watched the lava level rise as Teyla jarred forward and released the crystal in favour of holding the rope.
“That thing’s gonna go soon,” John said, watching as Teyla took hold of the smaller rope again and this time managed to collect the crystal. “I think we should either walk fast or run back to the gate,” he said as she tucked it into a pocket and turned to them.
John returned to his own rope as Teyla once again moved back towards them, a hand on either side of the bridge. Half way back the ground shook again, harder than the previous times and Ronon tightened the rope. He pulled it too far and it snapped. The bridge tilted dangerously on one side and Teyla wrapped both arms around the only remaining support. She quickly regained her feet on the now crooked bridge and started back. She was in arms length when another tremor started; the lava level rose again and just when John was ready to relax the bridge broke and Teyla lunged forward to grab Ronon’s extended arm.
“Let’s go before that thing does,” John shouted grabbing Teyla’s vest and knives.
They sprinted down the side of the volcano, stumbling at the bottom as the ground shook violently and Ronon had to catch Teyla to stop her hitting the ground half way through putting on her vest.
“Keep to a slow pace,” John called over the rumbling. “We need to keep our strength in case that thing actually goes.”
“It’s going,” Ronon said looking over his shoulder. John swung around to see the thick smoke and the slow seep of lava over the top of the creator.
“Crap,” he said and activated the radio. “Rodney, dial the gate, find out how far away the Daedalus is. We need an emergency pick up.”
“You are sure the Daedalus is in the area?” Teyla asked as she turned to start running with them.
“I made sure of it,” John said. “I didn’t want to take the chance that we’d run out of water and end up dehydrating to death or severely burnt.”
“I’m not back at the gate yet,” Rodney said, “It’s only been an hour or so. What’s going on?”
“Mount Vesuvius is heading for Pompeii,” John panted, his chest tight around him and he spotted a few other volcanoes smoking and spitting lava. “And it’s taking some friends with it.”
“Should have left McKay at the gate,” Ronon said and John turned to glare at him for the obviously late thinking.
“Everyone start praying for the Daedalus for the first time ever,” John said sarcastically as he broke into a run.
John couldn’t help but notice how much closer the lava had gotten in the last twenty minutes or so. He checked his watch, wondering if Rodney was close to the gate by now or if they’d catch up to him. Assuming they could pass the lava flow quickly. Ahead of him, Teyla and Ronon were keeping up their pace and John found himself wishing he had a little more stamina. He’d have to run himself ragged after this was over until he could keep up with them for more than ten minutes.
Then they stopped and as John approached he realised they were in a much worse situation than he hoped. The lava had cut across their path, the wide river stretched over the only way ahead and to turn back now would slow down their progress. Not to mention trap them there through the big event.
“Rodney,” John said a moment later. “Tell me you’re near the gate,” A panting sound came back for several minutes before Rodney, completely out of breath, replied.
“No,” he said. “Got at least another hour.”
The ground rumbled again and John stumbled forward towards the lava river and was instantly thankful Ronon had good reflexes.
“We don’t have an hour,” he said.
“John,” Teyla said, drawing his attention and he turned to find the way back blocked. The ground rumbled again and John’s eyes settled on a flow of hot red and orange that was slithering their way.
“We don’t have a minute,” John corrected, pulling Teyla a step back as he felt the cool air sink over him. A bright light covered his vision and when it cleared he found himself looking through the view screen of the Daedalus and out into space. He swung around to quirk a brow at Caldwell.
“Colonel,” he said with a curt nod. “Could have waited a second longer for the lava to reach us.”
“I considered it,” the colonel said. “Go get yourselves checked out; it’s a couple of hours to Atlantis.”
“Thanks,” he said, checking that Rodney was amongst them before heading out the door.
****
Katie gasped for air as she awoke on her back in darkness. Was she dead? She sat up quickly, the blood rushing from her head and causing a slight ache in the back of her skull. She groaned. Her clothes were dry, her body was dry. Just as her eyes tried to focus on the darkness, a solitary light flashed on in front of her. In the middle of the spot light was a round pedestal.
After climbing to her feet, Katie cautiously ventured toward the stone column. The pedestal came up just above her waist. Its surface was flat with an engraving that, at first, made little sense to the botanist. The engraving was a circle with five subtle bumps along the perimeter and a single line reaching down from it. She bit her lip in thought. The engraving looked familiar.
A flower. It was an outline of a flower.
Her eyes searched the bare room for other hints, but came up empty. That was until she remembered what was in her vest pocket. Pulling back the Velcro, Katie carefully pulled out the strange blue five-petal flower. She held it up to the light before lowering it onto the pedestal inside the grooves. It fit.
The column rumbled and shook, causing Katie to step back from it. It descended slowly into the ground and became part of the solid mass that made the cave she was in. It was silent for a minute before an emerald crystal appeared on the ground where the pedestal had been.
Katie smiled and reached out to grab the crystal.
****
Lorne was watching the now solid ground with a furrowed brow. He thought he had made the right call, but now he wasn’t sure. Miller and Cole had the same look, even though they tried to hide it.
A branch cracking drew their attention away from the ground and to Sage who was standing off in the direction of the village. “Lady Brown was successful in procuring Ceras’ gift. She awaits you at our village.”
Sage gestured for them to follow. It took them a minute to actually respond to the woman.
“How’d you know, sir?”
Lorne looked up at Cole silently for a minute. “The clue was trust, Sergeant,” but secretly, he hadn’t been sure of anything.