Jo Graham - Death Game

“Still cloaked?” Major Lorne asked.

“Still cloaked,” Carson confirmed. “They shouldn’t be able to see us or otherwise detect an EM signature.” He eyed the radio in Lorne’s hand. “Unless you start using that radio. The cloak isn’t going to hide an outgoing signal.”

“I know,” Lorne said. “But my team needs radios to keep in contact. You stay with the jumper, doc.” He looked around. “Dr. McKay? This is your call. If you’d like to stay with Dr. Beckett…”

“I’m going,” Rodney said. He swallowed hard. “You’ll probably need me.”

“Yeah, probably,” Lorne agreed. “Ok, we’re on then.” He hit the release on the rear door and led the way out.

The maze looked different with the lights on. Nevin and Jitrine came just behind John up the passages, showing him how they had gotten there. Overhead lights in the ceiling rendered them about as spooky as any hallway anywhere, which was to say not so much. At one point they passed through a gallery high above what had been the waterfall room. Now, lit by bright fluorescent lights dangling from the ceiling, with the waterfall silenced, it was just a big room with a very shallow pool at the bottom, three feet or so below the level of the drain. Anybody could wade across it.

“Not so impressive now,” John said.

Jitrine nodded. “It was beautiful and eerie both. I do not know why the waterfall glowed as it did.”

John pointed down, showing her. “See those blue and green things just below the water? They’re spotlights and they shine up the sheet of the falls. It was a pretty impressive effect, but they’re just lights with colored covers on them.”

“Like silk screens placed before lamps in the theater,” Jitrine said. She shook her head. “Nothing but theatrical effects.”

“Pretty much,” John said.

Radek had fallen back beside Teyla. “What is the matter with your arm?”

“I dislocated my shoulder in the jumper crash,” Teyla said quietly. “When Colonel Sheppard hit his head.”

“You crashed the jumper?” Radek sounded incredulous. “Again?”

“The Wraith cruiser attacked us,” Teyla said. “They outgunned us considerably. The Colonel lost them, but we had taken such damage that he could not keep it in the air. We crashed in the desert. Fortunately, we were not more seriously injured.”

Radek blew out a breath. “That is bad news,” he said. “That the jumper is gone. I had hoped you might have it, or have supplies. We lost all of ours two nights ago, radios, food, everything.”

“You have not had food since?” Teyla sounded concerned.

Radek shrugged. “We had some bread. And a hardboiled egg.”

“John? Hold up for a moment,” Teyla called out.

He stopped immediately. “What’s wrong?”

“Radek and Ronon have had almost nothing to eat in two days,” Teyla said. “Give me a moment to get out what I have left of the emergency supplies.”

There wasn’t much left. They’d eaten the fruit leather and some of the crackers for breakfast, washing it down with the two juice packets. There was a granola bar and a bag of salted corn kernels, and two rather mashed packets of peanut butter crackers.

Radek looked at the small spread hungrily. “Might I have the granola bar?” he asked hesitantly, as though he did not wish to be greedy.

Teyla handed it over. “Of course.”

“I’m good with the corn kernels,” Ronon said, popping the bag open. “Save the rest for later.”

Radek glanced at him in surprise. “Don’t you want more?”

“Shouldn’t eat too much right before I fight,” Ronon said. “Just a little bit to give me energy. I’m set.”

Teyla offered the crackers to Jitrine. “Are you hungry?”

Jitrine looked at Suua, Nevin and Ailan. “We had breakfast,” she said firmly. “The contestants all were offered reasonable food at daybreak in the palace. We will not take anything from your meager stores.”

Suua looked like he wanted some crackers, but he shrugged. “We’re fine.”

John thought it wasn’t such a great sacrifice, as at least he’d had breakfast. That couldn’t have been more than five or six hours ago. Of course, they could have had breakfast too, if John’s escape attempt hadn’t landed them in solitary.

“Time to go, people,” he said.

They turned a corner and ascended another flight of stairs. There were voices ahead, a woman’s voice raised in anger. In the room above four other contestants stood about arguing, three women and a man who had lagged behind or been left by others intent on victory. Seeing the strong and well armed party, they didn’t wait. With a scream, one fled down the entrance corridor, followed by the others.

“Wait!” John yelled.

“We mean you no harm!” Teyla called after.

They were talking to their backs.

Jitrine shook her head. “They think we are one of the parties that has been killing people in the maze. I cannot blame them for running.”

“Yeah.” John looked around in frustration. “We’d help them get out of here too, if they’d give us a chance.”

“They are too frightened to do that,” Jitrine said sadly.

“I know.”

It wasn’t long until they came to the hazard that had given them so much trouble the first time, the swift flowing stream with the broken bridge. Five people were sitting against the wall on the other side, knees drawn up. The water was off, and had long since drained down from this part of the labyrinth. There were overhead lights on, and the stream bed was dry.

It was still dangerous, though. The bridge was missing, and to get over they’d have to climb down the loose stones of one side and back up the other. This was much easier without the cold, fast running current, but John knew it was still going to be tough for Jitrine, and for Teyla with her bad shoulder and Nevin with his broken wrist.

“I’ve still got this,” Suua said, holding out the rope ladder he’d made from the bridge ropes. It looked…pretty good.

“Where’d you learn to do that?” John asked, testing the knots, though he’d already put his weight on it, getting up from the ledge at the waterfall pool.

“I’m a fisherman,” Suua said patiently. “I make nets. Out of rope.”

“Well, great.”

One of the women on the other side stood up and called across, “Who are you and what do you want?”

Before John could think of an answer better than ‘I’m a guy from outer space here to kill the gods,’ or ‘I’m an immortal hero here to slay the minotaur’ Jitrine forestalled him.

“I am a Pelagian physician,” she said. “We are returning to the entrance. We do not wish to harm anyone.”

“Why are you going to the entrance?”

Jitrine glanced at John. “We think we may be able to get out that way. Will you let us cross without hindering us?’

They consulted together. John saw some gestures at the kids, at Jitrine, at Teyla with her injured arm and Nevin with his taped wrist. “I guess we don’t look too scary,” John said quietly to Teyla.

Her mouth quirked in a smile. “You look very scary. You look like an unkempt madman.”

“I do not.”

“You do too.” Her smile broadened. “You look like a thug. Try looking friendly.”

John smiled weakly, and she burst out laughing.

“The Smile of Wrongness!” Teyla said. “I did not know you could do it on purpose!”

“The Smile of Wrongness?” he asked, laughing. “What’s that?”

Teyla shook her head. “It is an expression you get when you feel that you must smile, but you do not in the least want to. When someone is threatening you, or when you have to deal with Colonel Caldwell. You did it when you first came to Athos. ‘Yes, let us talk about ferris wheels and drink tea while stranded in a galaxy far from home with the city about to flood while I am on my very first alien world and Colonel Sumner is gunning for my ass!’ That smile!”