Jo Graham - Death Game

“I think you’ve got something,” he said. “It looks like there’s a pool that’s draining down this pipe, and the drain is in the side of the pool, not the bottom. I don’t see a cover on it either.”

“Perhaps they are just as happy to let all the bodies aggregate in one place,” Teyla said grimly.

John nodded. “Probably. It would be a pain in the neck to have to hunt for them all over this place, even if they can turn the water off and drain the pools.” He let himself back down. “I think we can get up there. It’s not too steep to climb.”

“Then we had best do it,” Teyla said. “This cold water saps our strength. The sooner we are done with it, the better.”

“I’ll boost you,” he said, and put out his knee for her to climb on, his hands on her waist. With that it was easy to get up in the end of the pipe, though crawling forward through the water sent stabs of pain through her shoulder. Even on all fours her shoulder would not easily take her weight.

The pipe gave a little as John came up, his head just behind her buttocks in the tight space. “Need a push?” he said.

“I think I can manage,” Teyla said. The pipe was a gentle curve, and it was only the flowing water that made it difficult to climb. Her hands were numb with cold before she reached the top, and it was an effort to haul herself out of the pool onto the ledge just above the drain. She sat there, rubbing her chilled hands together, while John pulled himself up beside her.

“Well, this is different,” he said.

Above them the ceiling soared eighty feet, festooned with stalactites. From somewhere in the darkness around its final peak, blue lights shone out at intervals, casting eerie shadows among the stones, as though they were sharp teeth. On the far side of the pool a waterfall plunged down some half the distance to the ceiling, green lights below the water casting a nacreous uplight, turning the flowing water into a mysterious glittering green and blue curtain. For those who had never before seen colored electric lights, the effect must be beyond unsettling. It must be terrifying.

The pool itself lapped against the sides of the chamber, filling it nearly entirely except for the ledge they sat upon. Other ledges jutted out over the water at intervals, dark corridor entrances opening onto each one.

“This is very impressive,” Teyla said. It was no doubt designed to impress, and she could appreciate the workmanship even if she wished to be gone. It was beautiful, in a strange way.

“Yeah.” John looked around them. “That’s one word for it.”

On the far side of the cavern and far above three figures appeared at the cavern entrance, looking out across the expanse.

“Should we call out to them?” Teyla wondered.

John shrugged. “And ask them to do what?”

“You have a point,” she said. They were far across the chamber, and the entrance they stood upon looked out over a bare drop of thirty feet to the surface of the water. Teyla twisted around, looking up. There was another ledge about fifteen feet above where they were, but the sides of the chamber were steep and slick with spray from the waterfall. “I do not think I can climb that,” she said reluctantly.

“I figured that.” John scratched his head. “We’ll figure out another way.”

The people on the other side of the cavern disappeared from the corridor entrance, no doubt concluding that they could not go this way.

“I’m getting pretty tired of this game,” John said.

The blast from Ronon’s pistol was loud in the confined space, but Radek didn’t cover his ears. He wanted to hear what happened next.

The initial blast, Ronon shooting his way through the false wall, was followed by five sharp shots and then silence. The corridor was full of plaster dust, and pressed against the wall around the corner, Radek wondered what to do next. Unarmed, he was of very little use charging in if there were Wraith. But if Ronon had been stunned, he could not stand by and do nothing. He must do his best to rescue him somehow.

“Zelenka?” Ronon called out softly.

“It is about time,” Radek said, pushing through the plaster dust to the irregularly shaped hole in the false door.

Ronon shrugged, shoving pieces of door out of the way.

“Ah, now this is more like it!” Radek said happily. On the other side of the door was a control room, several banks of monitors and computers half obscured by dust. Two dead Wraith lay on the floor, taken care of by Ronon’s energy pistol. Doubtless they were the technicians who managed the machinery of the maze. Radek sat down before the nearest workstation, lit up with three screens and five or six glittering leads coming in.

“Can you get it to work?” Ronon said, leaning over his shoulder.

“It is already working,” Radek said. His fingers flew over the panels of touch sensitive electrodes that made up a Wraith keyboard. Data was streaming in from dozens of locations. “The problem is getting it to stop.”

“You can figure it out, right?” Ronon sounded worried. Perhaps the screens upon screens of data in Wraith made him a little nervous.

“Of course I can figure it out,” Radek said testily. “But it takes some time. I figured out how the rematerialization phase booster on a Dart worked, didn’t I? Otherwise Rodney and Lt. Cadman would not be alive. But it is not simple or quick. Wraith tech is not intuitive to the human mind.”

“I got that far,” Ronon said. “Can you find Sheppard and Teyla?”

“I am sure that I can in a few minutes.” Radek tried a combination of keys with familiar looking figures, glancing up to see if the display screens changed. They did. One screen showing an empty section of corridor shifted to a view of an empty room with a table and two chairs in it. “Ah!” he said.

“What?” Ronon leaned over, his chin almost on Radek’s shoulder.

“I have found a camera toggle. It changes between different cameras live in the maze. But I do not know how to tell it which ones…” Another touch, and it showed a view of different corridor, a body at the far end lying very still. “I think I am making it cycle through the cameras.”

“Can you get the corridors around us to see if anybody’s coming?”

Radek turned his head and gave Ronon a quelling look over the frames of his glasses. “I can, in time. I do not tell you your business. I do not tell you how to blast things or kick things. Please do not tell me how to do computers! I will work much faster if you will back off and let me.”

Ronon looked abashed. “Ok.” He took a step back. “I’ll just stand here by the door and guard.”

“Thank you,” Radek said, and bent his head to the board. Truly, one would think there was nothing to it, as little respect as his work garnered! Why there is nothing more simple than to crack an alien computer system in an unintelligible language in order to gain access to the security systems of a large complex!

A combination of touches brought up what must be another menu. Some of the labels were plain enough, even with the very limited Wraith vocabulary that Dr. Weir had worked out. Some were similar to the controls of the Wraith Dart that he had worked on, as little as there had been of that left. The cockpit interfaces had been almost destroyed.

But yet there were some things that made sense. Lights must control the artificial lighting in the maze, presumably leading to a submenu that broke lighting out into locations. Water? That was mysterious, but presumably the complex had plumbing. Steam? Perhaps he was not reading that right. Or perhaps the contestants were in worse trouble than he had imagined.

“Perhaps if we go around the pool,” Teyla said, “We might be able to get up on one of the ledges on the other side.”