James Swallow: Nightfall

Kullid shook his head. “It’s not a disease, not in the manner of something that can be spread by infection. This malady is inflicted upon our people.” His manner grew grave and Teyla saw him shoot a look at Laaro, as if he didn’t want to say too much in front of the boy.

Keller’s mind was working as she studied the patients in the room. “Disorientation? Chronic fatigue, physical weakness?”

Sheppard frowned. “The same as —”

“My father,” Laaro broke in, swallowing hard. Abruptly the deliberate bravado the youth had shown outside melted away and all at once he was just a scared little boy. “He’s worse. Worse than he was the last time. I knew it would happen if he went to the Aegis again… I knew it…” He trailed off.

Kullid put a friendly hand on Laaro’s shoulder. “I’ll come to your lodge later, before the celebration, see to him, yes?” Laaro looked at the ground and nodded. “But you should go home now.” He ushered the boy out toward the door.

Laaro composed himself and looked at Sheppard. “If you need a guide, I can do it. Come find me.”

“Will do,” said John.

The moment the boy was gone, Keller shrugged off the medical pack she was carrying. “His father has this… ‘Sickness’ too?”

Kullid nodded. “At first it was only one or two of the Taken and Returned who had it, and then they would recover in a few days. Now…” He spread his hands, taking in all of the sick lodge. “More.”

“Laaro said the last time ,” noted Sheppard. “How many times has his dad gone missing?”

“This is the fourth Returning for Errian,” Kullid replied grimly.

“I want to draw some blood,” said the doctor. “Maybe run an analysis?” She pulled a syrette from her pack.

The Heruuni healer held out a hand to stop her. “It… You must not.”

“She’s offering to help. We all are,” Teyla told him.

“I can’t let you.” Kullid was shaking his head, making dismissive gestures with his hands even though the tone of his voice said the exact opposite of his words. “I’m sorry. You must go. Laaro should never have brought you here.”

Keller held out the injector. “If this is some local taboo thing, then you do it. Just put the needle in the vein.”

“No!” he snapped. “Please don’t ask me any more!”

Teyla felt the tension in the room jump a notch as one of the less listless patients around them reacted to some new arrivals. She turned, her hand dropping by reflex toward one of the fighting spars sheathed on her thigh.

Elder Aaren and a trio of men bearing similar golden bracelets of rank filled the sick house doorway; Teyla recognized one of them as the man who had disappeared in the street after Sheppard had greeted him.

Aaren’s expression shifted from annoyance to suspicion and then finally settled on a forced geniality. “What brings you here, Colonel Sheppard?” It was less a question, more a demand. “This really isn’t a suitable place for voyagers.” He gave Kullid an acidic glance.

“I’m a doctor,” Keller replied. “A healer. We have a lot of experience with infections, and we could help —”

Aaren cut her off with a tight, false smile. “No need. The Aegis will provide, and our friend Kullid has everything else in hand.” He beckoned them with the same gesture he had used before, out in the grasslands. “Come now. Elder Takkol would be most distressed to learn you were in this place.”

“Who?” said Sheppard.

“The settlement leader,” explained Kullid. “Elder Aaren’s superior.”

Aaren nodded. “He asked me personally to see to your well-being. He looks forward to meeting you at the feast…” At a nod from the elder, the three larger men standing silently behind him took a step forward; a thinly-veiled threat lay beneath their manner and Sheppard saw it, stepping into their path.

“Hey, how you guys doin’?” he asked mildly. The colonel’s eyes said something very different, however.

Keller spoke again, her tone rising. “I’m not going to stand by and —”

“ Jennifer ,” Teyla silenced her. “Perhaps we should respect the elder’s request. We are guests on his world, after all.”

“You are, certainly,” Aaren insisted.

The doctor looked down at the syrette in her hand, and then returned it to her pack with a frown. “Okay,” she said at length, clearly unconvinced.

“My men will escort you back to Jaaya’s lodge,” Aaren insisted, before any more words could be spoken. In a silent line, they followed the elder’s guardians out and back into the bright sunshine of the morning. As they walked away, Teyla caught the sound of two men arguing; the words were indistinct, but she knew it was Aaren and Kullid.

“That was… Interesting,” said Sheppard, in low tones that didn’t carry to the ears of their erstwhile new companions.

“Some of those people were dying,” hissed Keller, drawing a sharp look from Teyla. “We can’t just walk away from that!”

“We’re not walking away,” John insisted.

“Looks that way to me, Colonel,” Keller retorted. “It looks exactly like that.”

“The direct approach is not always the best one,” Teyla explained. “We cannot afford to disaffect these people. Your actions may have angered them. They may have cultural strictures against alien intervention.”

Keller sniffed. “What kind of strictures do they have about letting sick people die?”

Sheppard threw her a look. “Look, Doctor, I know your heart’s in the right place, but trust me, you try to bulldoze these people and they’ll dig their heels in. I know Aaren’s type, I’ve dealt with them before.” He sighed. “Too many damn times.”

The other woman lent in closer and when she spoke, she said the words that John Sheppard had been thinking. “That wasn’t about any ‘taboo’ thing back there. We stuck our nose in the wrong place and the people in charge didn’t like it. We saw something we weren’t supposed to.”

“Maybe so,” he agreed, “but still, we’re supposed to be playing this sortie on the down-low. We’re not here to mount a humanitarian mission. This is a reconnaissance.”

“I think the mission has changed, Colonel,” Keller replied. “It changed the moment we stepped through the Stargate.”

Sheppard blew out a breath. “Story of my life.”

They walked in silence for a while before Teyla spoke again. “John…” She said his name like a quiet challenge.

He didn’t look at her. “Go ahead, say it.”

The Athosian grimaced. “I think Doctor Keller is right. We should consider being more… Candid about our purpose here on Heruun. If only to build some trust with these people. We cannot expect them to be open with us if we keep things from them.”

Sheppard eyed her. “I’m not ready to do that yet. We’ve only just got here. There are still too many unknowns…” He stopped and gave a dry, humorless chuckle. “Like that’s a change from the usual.”

But the fact was, John didn’t like it any better than she did. He thought about the reasons they were here, and for a moment, he was back there in Atlantis’s control room, his arms folded across his chest as he watched Zelenka and McKay give an animated briefing in front of one of the big screens.

Radek pointed at a single star out at the edge of a nebula. “M9K-153, according to the Ancient database, an Earth-normal world with a planetary Stargate.” The Czech scientist adjusted his glasses.

“Ordinary and uninteresting, rather like my colleague here,” added McKay, ignoring the affronted look his comments brought him, “or at least it was until recently.” Rodney worked a datapad and remotely toggled a series of sensor overlays, placing one on top of another. “We’ve been monitoring Wraith activity as far as the city’s sensors can scan, keeping a check on the battle lines in the fight with the Asuran replicators…”