Jo Graham - Death Game

“So they know,” Ronon said. “The Wraith know somebody spoiled their party. They know we’ve got the control room. Which means they’re on their way down here.”

“There is that,” Radek said. He didn’t take his eyes off the monitor. “Shutting down the water, that is it there. Main pump off. Backup pump off. I am leaving the special lights on and bringing up the general safety lighting throughout the complex.” He stroked the board with satisfaction. “Locking the movable floors in the safety position. All traps turned off, in the maintenance mode.”

“Right.” Ronon hauled him out of his chair by the back of his shirt. “Time to go.”

“I think you are correct,” Radek said, grabbing onto his glasses as Ronon let forth a salvo with his energy pistol into the servers and monitors. They exploded most satisfactorily in clouds of sparks and smoke, and he flung up his hands to shield his eyes from the glare.

“Here.” Ronon thrust the two Wraith stun pistols taken from the dead controllers into Radek’s hands. “Let’s get out of here. Do you know how to shoot one of these?”

“Um…” Truthfulness was probably the better part of valor. “No.”

“Then stay behind me.” Ronon plunged into the hallway, pistol at the ready.

“Where are we going?” Radek demanded, following after.

“To find Sheppard and Teyla,” Ronon replied. “Where else?”

Radek shrugged. “Where else indeed?”

They dashed through the halls, not bothering to dodge cameras now, though some of them were no doubt active. Even if the cameras were still operative, without the control systems the Wraith would not be able to use them to spy on what happened within the maze. They might not know where the Wraith were, but the Wraith were also now essentially blind. They could not track them, or the contestants. Radek thought with satisfaction that many of the traps, like the steam room, could not be reactivated without the controls that were now destroyed. Presumably the water hazards would all empty swiftly, the water flowing downhill to the storage cisterns without the pump to bring it to the upper levels. In a few minutes the maze would be oddly silent, the flowing water stilled. Perhaps this would save more than a few lives, those of contestants still trapped within the maze. Whether they might have a chance of escape, or would simply be hunted down by the Wraith later, he could not guess.

Ronon dodged around corners, checking ahead with a speed that Radek did not understand. How could he tell so quickly if the corridor ahead were full of Wraith or not?

Fortunately, it was not far to the steam room. The big set piece trap of the maze, it was near the end, with only a few corridors leading on from there, providing a last opportunity for any teams that had beaten the steam room to betray one another. No doubt this was very entertaining for the Wraith. It seemed the sort of game they would enjoy.

Ronon barreled ahead of Radek into the steam room. “Wraith! They’re on the way!”

Sheppard looked around with an expression of utter amazement. “Ronon?” Then he saw Radek and boggled again. “Zelenka?”

“We gotta get out of here,” Ronon said. “The cameras were still live when the steam went off. The Wraith will be coming.”

Teyla looked at Radek with a gratifying expression of thanks, putting two and two together quickly. “You turned the steam off?”

“I did,” Radek said modestly. “We are quite a good team, Ronon and I.”

To his surprise, Ronon nodded solemnly. “That’s true.”

Sheppard looked from one to the other, questions like ‘how’ and ‘why’ dancing in the air over his head, then apparently decided that all explanations could wait until later. “We’re glad to see you,” he said. “Are those spare stunners?”

“Yeah. One for you and one for Teyla.”

Radek passed them over gratefully. Better nearly anyone else than him.

The elderly woman Radek had seen on the monitors came over, standing beside Sheppard. “Is there a moment for me to see to Teyla’s shoulder? She will be in much less pain and better able to fight if I do it first.”

Radek looked at Teyla, only now aware of the drawn expression on her face. The drape of her jacket mostly hid the shape of her left arm, but now that he looked something wasn’t quite right.

“I can go on,” Teyla said, her words sharply enunciated.

Sheppard looked from her to the older woman and back. “Do it,” he said. He forestalled Teyla’s protest with a hand on her sleeve. “It only takes a minute, and you’ll feel a lot better if you let her pop it back in.”

She gave him a hard look. “If you think we have a minute.”

Carson Beckett came around for another pass at the roof he had selected, a broad expanse only a block or so from the courtyard where the Wraith ship was parked. It looked like it was part of the palaces. Below it, a hillside dropped sharply away, though a road meandered along it. Halfway down there was a courtyard ornamented with bright, waving flags, as though for some sort of festival. There were people in the streets, a busy market set up.

However, the palace roof itself seemed safe enough, quiet and deserted. There were no guards on the roof, which made sense as there was really no way for anyone to get up there from the ground. Clearly the Wraith were not expecting any kind of assault from the air.

Major Lorne looked over the Marines in the back. Cadman was adjusting the chin strap on her helmet. “Everybody ready?”

“Ready, sir,” Cadman said.

Rodney checked his P90 for the millionth time, trying to ignore the sinking feeling in his stomach. This was so not going to be fun. In fact, experience had taught him exactly how not fun it could be. This was one of those occasions where ignorance was indeed bliss.

“You stay back, doc,” Lorne began quietly, then broke off as Carson started swearing under his breath, his head going up like a hunting dog’s. “What is it?”

Carson put the ship over again lifting to circle around rather than set down. “The Wraith cruiser just started powering up.”

Rodney snapped around. “Why?”

“I don’t know, do I?” Carson said grimly. “But it’s not good news.”

Her shoulder did indeed feel better, Teyla thought, letting John help her put her jacket back on and taking up the Wraith stunner in her right hand. There was no question the muscles were torn, however. If and when they got back to Atlantis she no doubt had several weeks of anti-inflammatories and physical therapy ahead of her. When, not if, she corrected herself. Surely it would be possible. Surely, if Radek and Ronon had found them, with all of a strange world between them, anything might now be possible!

“Get down!” Ronon yelled from by the door, and Teyla flung herself behind one of the ornamental stalagmites that littered the floor of the steam room, Radek to her left and John to her right.

John was crouching on the grate of a big steam vent. He looked down doubtfully. “They can’t turn this back on, can they?” he said to Radek.

“Not a chance.” Radek shook his head. “We did a very thorough job, Ronon and I.”

A blue Wraith stun beam cut the air above the stone he sheltered behind, heralding the arrival of the Wraith. Beside the door, Ronon’s energy pistol spoke loud. Ronon was flattened against the wall beside the door, and ducked out to get off one shot. He pulled his head back in time before a barrage of blue fire answered.

“Four to six,” Teyla guessed aloud. “Based on the concentration of fire.”

John nodded, and she saw that he’d come to the same conclusion himself.