James Swallow: Nightfall

The warrior — and Laaro knew without question that the man could be nothing else but that — threw him a look of grim amusement and holstered the pistol with a flick of the wrist. Then, without pause, he rocked off his feet and grabbed Laaro by the scruff of the neck, lifting him clean off the ground. Before the boy could argue, he was being carried back down into the valley of the Gateway. The warrior dropped him to the dirt, and Laaro landed hard, smarting.

“Take it easy, Ronon,” said a woman’s voice, her words pitched high with concern. “It’s just a little kid.”

Anger pushed Laaro back to his feet. He tried to make his voice firm, but it trembled slightly at the end of his words. “I’m not little,” he snarled, looking up to see four more figures emerging from the shadows to join the warrior.

“Ah,” said another female, coming closer. “He has fire in him.” Laaro saw a woman with auburn hair and a careful, measuring gaze. She had the same look to her as the warrior did — he imagined she would be a keen fighter if pushed to it — but where the big man was all feral energy, she was calm and metered.

Laaro swallowed hard. Were these people from another settlement, perhaps from the northern tribes? He had to warn them. “I… I saw a Wraith!” He managed, the words tumbling from his lips. “Over there!” He pointed at the stone columns.

“Oh, hardly.” The strangers all carried small metallic lanterns that cast a powerful pool of light, and another man stepped into the glow from the direction Laaro had indicated. The boy flinched, recognizing the face he had seen lit by moon-glow only moments before. “That was me.” The man looked down his nose at Laaro, as if he thought the youth might be poisonous.

He felt foolish. The new arrival was not Wraith at all, but just pale of face in a way that the boy had never seen before. Glancing about he saw that only the warrior and the auburn-haired woman had skin like his; he looked beyond the lantern glow and saw there the other woman, the one who had called him little. She had long hair the color of straw pulled back in a tail, and on her face there was an expression of apologetic kindness.

Along with the one who had screamed and frightened him so, there was the last of them, who had had spiky black hair and a wry smile playing about his lips. All three of the pale-skinned people wore similar clothing, all in jackets the color of berrywater.

The one who smiled stepped forward and offered Laaro a hand in greeting, looking him in the eye. The boy understood immediately that he was being measured, but the man’s gaze didn’t feel like the accusatory glares of Elder Aaren. When he spoke, the dark-haired man didn’t use the tone of voice that most adults did when conversing with a child, as if being younger somehow meant you were an idiot. He talked to Laaro as if he were speaking to an equal.

“Hi there. You’re out a little late, aren’t you? Isn’t this a school night?” His smile deepened. “My name’s John, John Sheppard. What’s yours?”

The kid took the colonel’s hand and shook it firmly, not giving in to the fear playing around in his eyes. “I’m Laaro. Are you… Northerners, John-John-Sheppard?”

Sheppard smirked. “Just John is fine. And, uh, no, not exactly. We’re from a bit further away than that.”

“A lot more,” added Ronon, earning him a look from the boy.

“You’re… From the stars?”

McKay frowned. “He catches on quick.”

Laaro fixed him with a hard state. “I’m very clever.”

“Then you two should get on fine.” Sheppard gestured at his team. “Laaro, these are my friends. This is Teyla and Jennifer. These guys are Rodney and Ronon, who you already met. We’re, uh —”

“Voyagers?” asked the boy.

He nodded. “I guess that’s as good a name as any.”

The boy nodded back at him, thinking for a moment. Then he cleared his throat, speaking with the kind of careful formality that only a child could muster. “Um. Then, uh, welcome to the planet Heruun.”

“Thank you,” said Teyla. “We’re sorry if we scared you.”

“I wasn’t scared,” the kid lied immediately. “I was just… Surprised.”

Rodney made a Yeah, Right face and Ronon caught it, pointing at the boy “You screamed louder than he did, McKay.”

“That wasn’t a scream, all right?” Rodney sniffed. “It was an exclamation.” He waved at Laaro. “He could have been anything.”

“A Junior Genii?” Sheppard offered mildly.

Keller chimed in. “Maybe a pint-sized Replicator?”

“Why were you out here all alone?” asked Teyla.

Laaro’s face creased and Sheppard saw immediately that the emotional rollercoaster this kid was on was threatening to throw him off. “I… Wanted to track him down. Rescue him.”

“Rescue?” Keller repeated the word with a frown. “Rescue who ?”

The answer came out in a rush. “My father. After the wane-night of the greater moon, when he disappeared —”

But the boy never got the chance to finish his sentence. Sheppard saw Ronon’s expression shift in an instant from watchful amusement to a warning glare. He knew that look from experience; it meant trouble was coming.

“Hear that?” The Satedan’s particle magnum pistol was already clear of its holster. “We got company,” he grated, panning his gun upward toward the valley ridge.

Sheppard brought his P90 submachine gun up to his shoulder, aware of Teyla doing the same at his side. He heard the mutter of voices and an odd sound that reminded him of growling engines.

A heartbeat later, harsh lanterns from the ridge were sweeping the ground around them and the colonel saw men with spindly rifles being led forward by animals straining against heavy leashes. He blinked in the light, his thumb on the gun’s safety catch.

Keller’s voice came from behind him. “Those are lions,” she said evenly, in a way that suggested she didn’t believe her own eyes.

The doctor wasn’t far off; the growling wasn’t from motors, but the big cats themselves, pawing at the earth and spitting. There were three of them, and as Jennifer had noted, they looked a hell of a lot like lions, but with sharper, more triangular skulls. They had the same kind of teeth, though. Lots and lots of teeth.

“Nobody said anything about us gating into the middle of Wild Kingdom ,” said McKay with a grimace.

“Take it easy,” Sheppard retorted, making the casual words into a command.

“Laaro? Laaro!” A woman called out the boy’s voice, and John guessed that she had to be his mother. By the way the kid’s shoulders sank there was no other person it could be; the big cats didn’t seem to faze him at all, but the ire of his mom… Well, Sheppard could relate. He’d heard his own name called in just the same way when he’d been Laaro’s age.

Figures detached from the main group and came scrambling down toward them, but the cats remained where they were, snarling and pulling on their leashes. Like the boy, they were regular humans, all of them with the rangy look of people who lived off the land and worked it hard in return. There wasn’t a fair face among them, their skin-tones ranging from warm browns to deep ebony; they looked on Sheppard and his team with suspicion.

A man with a stern expression shot the boy an acid glare and then turned the same look on the colonel. At his side was a woman wearing her hair in a high top-knot; Sheppard saw the family resemblance between her and Laaro immediately, confirming his earlier thoughts.

“Who are you?” demanded the man. “We saw the flash from the Gateway…”

“They’re voyagers ,” said Laaro, putting emphasis on the word, “from the stars. They… Perhaps they can help me!”