Myths of Reality

Chapter 5: Grand Melee

Loyalty, the fifth myth of reality;
in the web of war the bounds of
loyalty become as fragile as glass!

The nature of reality, Gith database

“Too bad you can’t see the look on your face right now!” Gix taunted, “This that-can’t-be-happening look is priceless!”

“I must admit that you have managed to surprise me,” Belbe stated dryly, apparently having overcome her surprise, “How did you manage to get her that fast? Have you shrunk both Predator and your ego so you could use a Stargate to get here?”

“Not exactly,” the Wraith said, ignoring her sarcasm, “Recently I ordered some modifications on Predator’s hyperdrive, enabling us to travel a lot faster for a short period of time. I had the distinct feeling that keeping this new potential secret might come in handy if someone would choose to betray me and obviously I was right not to fill you in!”

“Yes, you’re a really smart Wraith!” the Necroshade replied, her voice dripping with sarcasm, “It has taken you only 10 years to realize that you can’t trust me, that’s really quite impressing! I’m surprised that you even made it to Commander with this limited knowledge of Gith nature! By the by what makes you believe that you and your three henchmen have a chance against us?”

Aiden shared the bounty hunter’s optimism for he was pretty sure that with the help of both Belbe and the enzyme he would be able to subdue the Lifestealers as well as their Wraith CO. McKay and Gix seemed to disagree with the Lieutenant at this point for the scientist seemed cowed by Gix’ threat and took cover behind the console he had been working on – Ford made a mental note to make sure that the annoying astrophysicist survived the skirmish, after all he still needed him – while the Wraith continued to smile his icy, smug smile.

“I have hunted humans centuries before you or your allies were born so I’m sure that we’re more than evenly matched!” Gix said before turning towards his minions, “You take care of Belbe and the other human while I will find out how extraordinary this Lieutenant Ford really is!”

Having given his orders, Gix rushed into battle, crossing half of the room with a single jump and landing next to the Lieutenant, hitting his opponent with a vicious backhand swing. The force of the blow caused Aiden to stumble backwards, unable to stop the Wraith from casually snatching his P90 and tossing it aside like a broken toy. However, Gix didn’t press his advantage and waited calmly for the Lieutenant to get back on his feet, completely undisturbed by the battle between Belbe and his subordinates that raged nearby.

Fuming, Ford got back on his feet and wiped the blood from his split lip, determined to make the Wraith pay for his arrogance. Gix may have drawn first blood and had grabbed one of his weapons but he didn’t need his P90 to draw last. After a quick glance in Belbe’s direction to make sure that the Lifestealers were still busy with fighting the bounty hunter, he fired several Wraith stunners in Gix’s direction, making a mental note not to lose this weapon as well.

However, Gix seemed far from impressed by this assault and evaded the stunners by jumping to a nearby wall, rebounding from it and slamming into Aiden with the full force of his momentum. The impact knocked the wind out of the Lieutenant and sent him on a one-way journey to the wall behind him, rendering him once again helpless to defend himself.

He felt blood running down the back his head what accompanied by a massive, pounding pain indicated a concussion as well as a serious laceration. These injuries combined with several cracked ribs – another result of his involuntary tête-à-tête with the wall – would probably have laid him low if the enzyme wasn’t improving his endurance and heightening his threshold of pain. After a few excruciating seconds the pain started to faint and everything slid back into focus, revealing Gix who was looking down on him and was currently busy with extracting each of his weapons out of his uniform and tossing them aside.

“Disappointing!” the Wraith said to apparently no one in particular, “I had expected a better fight after all problems that one has caused. Well, you can’t have everything and there’s still Belbe to fight against!”

Aiden noticed that Gix apparently thought him unconscious or at least unable to continue the fight and decided to use this opportunity to finally turn the tide of the battle. He made his move when the Wraith turned his head to observe the fight between Belbe and the Lifestealers – which had apparently turned from a gun fight into a grand melee in which the bounty hunter was hard pressed to defend herself against three enemies at once –, sweeping Gix’ legs away and trying to pin the Commander to the ground.

At first Gix was too surprised to fight back but he recovered quickly enough to avoid being immobilized and eventually pinned the Lieutenant beneath him. The familiar arrogant smile returned to his features when he regarded the thrashing Aiden who desperately tried to wiggle out of the towering Wraith’s grip.

“Your struggle is futile!” Gix said, sounding more than a little pleased with himself, “But before I feed on you I want to tell you that you’ve managed to impress me. Few humans would fight on with injuries like that and in close combat you’re almost toe-to-toe with me. Care to tell me the secret of your strength before you die?”

Aiden decided not to waste valuable energy by telling the Wraith to go to hell and concentrated on getting out of this mess instead. If only Gix loosened his grip a bit, it would be easy to break free but he guessed that the chances that the Wraith would do him this favor where slim indeed.

“I’ll take this as a ‘no’!” Gix stated after a few seconds of watching Ford struggle, “Well, it probably wasn’t as impressive as my exoskeleton anyway. You see, my armor was designed by Evincar Tichondrius himself as a token of appreciation for many years of loyal service. It not only provides excellent protection but vastly enhances my speed as well as my ability to jump, making me almost unbeatable in combat! But you know all of this already because you have experienced its benefits first-hand when fighting me! I could go one like this for hours but unfortunately there are more pressing matters to attend and I’m starting to feel a bit pesky so this is your last chance for any heroic last words!”

While waiting for the Lieutenant to respond, Gix raised his right hand in order to plunge it in his intended victim’s chest. Felling his captor’s grip lessen, Aiden realized that this was the opportunity he had waited for and that despite his experience Gix had made the same mistake twice: he believed that the fight was already over.

“You know,” Ford said while subtly shifting his weight, “I feel flattered by your attention but I really prefer being on top!”

Before Gix could find an answer to this, Aiden broke free of his grip and kicked the Wraith in the stomach, shoving him of his chest in the process. Not wanting to give the Commander any time to recover, he quickly pinned Gix down in the very same position as he had been only seconds before. However, his tactical advantage was quite short-lived for his opponent freed himself when Ford was busy with pulling his knife – the only weapon he had left – out of his uniform and used his exoskeleton to jump out of reach.

“You really should stop to underestimate me!” the Lieutenant taunted, “Even in my maimed state I’m still more than a match for you!”

“I’ll kill you for this insolence!” Gix snarled, before once again crossing half the room with a single jump, probably trying to slam into Ford for the second time.

Aiden allowed himself a small smile – Gix was so predictable – and sidestepped the attack, causing the Wraith to hit not him but the wall with his considerable momentum. A satisfying crunching sound told him that the armor – that looked slightly different from the usual Wraith armors and seemed to be made out of a light and quite flexible metal-like material – hadn’t been able to absorb the full force of the impact and that his opponent would be out of the picture for a few moments, time he wanted to use for finding a suitable weapon.

“Ford, catch!” McKay yelled, tossing him his Wraith stunner, “Hurry up and finish this, I’m getting nervous with all this fighting nearby!”

The Lieutenant didn’t bother to answer McKay but rather fired two stunners on the still dazed Gix, hitting him in the chest and finally knocking him out. With his opponent rendered helpless, he searched the room for Belbe and the remaining Lifestealers, wondering if the bounty hunter might need his help. However, his concern was unnecessary for she had already knocked two of her opponents out with taking more than a few bruises and a cut on her left cheek and was currently involved in a heated melee with the last standing Gith.

Without the adrenaline of the battle gone, his headache returned in full strength, reminding him of the injuries that he sported and that he’d better give himself another shot of enzyme if he wanted to stay on his feet. Dropping down to his knees next to Gix’ inert form, he placed the knife on the Wraith’s arm and started to cut out his enzyme pouch when McKay interrupted him:

“Wait! I think…”

“I don’t care what you think McKay!” he replied testily, guessing that the astrophysicist was about to give him another the-enzyme-is-bad-and-you-shouldn’t-take-it talk, “I’m busy right now, so stop interrupting me!”

What exactly the scientist had wanted to tell him became obvious a few seconds later, when Gix opened his eyes and used his intact arm to push the Lieutenant away from him. The Wraith shakily got back to his feet, his uninjured hand wrapped around the wound on his right arm and a murderous expression on his face.

“I’ll kill you for this the next time we meet!” Gix snarled, hatred in his voice, “No human defies Commander Gix and lives to tell the tale!”

Before Aiden got the chance to finish him off, Gix pressed some controls and jumped towards the now active Door to Nothingness, dematerializing as soon as he touched the ground. The last standing Lifestealer tried to follow his CO but was stopped by Belbe who used her opponent’s distraction to drive a vicious punch home, knocking the Gith out.

“Seems like we have won this fight!” the bounty hunter stated while McKay deactivated the transporter, “But it’s a pity that Gix had escaped for I have the feeling that we’ll see him again sooner than we might like. After all, 10 years of working for him have told me that there is nothing worse than a Wraith with a wounded ego, so we should either kill him or get out of his reach as soon as possible!”

“I prefer the second option,” Ford said, sitting down so the world would stop spinning, “I’m in no state to fight him a second time!”

“If you had listened to my warning, Gix probably wouldn’t have escaped and we wouldn’t be in this situation!” McKay snapped, “You didn’t realize that he was still conscious because you were all-occupied with getting another fix and now we’re once again screwed because Super Ford messed things up! As if things wouldn’t be bad enough already we now have a Wraith ship to worry about whose Commander is holding a serious grudge against all of us and will probably have us blasted into oblivion!”

“Oh, quit being so melodramatic, McKay!” Aiden replied, in no mood to argue with the scientist, “Do you really think that Gix would risk destroying the Door to Nothingness as well as the city only to kill you? I’m speculating now, but I guess that the Evincar might have some objections to having his city destroyed and would probably use this Ray Cannon to blast Predator out of the sky, so I guess we’re quite safe here for some time. Thanks for the stunner by the way, your timing was excellent.”
“What? Oh, no problem,” the astrophysicist said, looking quite surprised by Ford’s gratitude, “But there’s something I don’t understand: Why did Gix flee at all? No offence but he had almost defeated you without taking more than a few bruises and this cut in the arm, both not serious enough to be a reason for him to retreat!”

“This cut wasn’t as mundane as you might think,” the Lieutenant stated, “The enzyme pouch is one of the most important Wraith organs and injuring it makes it impossible for them to feed on humans until it is healed. Such wounds bleed heavily so I guess Gix didn’t want to risk a fight without the ability to heal himself by feeding on us.”

“Speaking of wounds, if you want I can have a look at yours, Aiden,” Belbe offered, “You look terribly messed up and I guess we have a few more battles to fight before this coup is over!”

“Still no message from Sheppard or Teyla!” Ford heard McKay say while Belbe started to patch him up, “Let’s hope that means that they don’t need our help.”

Even though McKay really tried to sound hopeful, no one in the room was naïve enough to believe in this.

* * * * *

Predator

Gix was livid when he finally arrived at Predator’s bridge, swatting a Lifestealer out of the way who had blocked the path to his chair. Once he had sat down he paused a moment to examine the heavily bandaged wound on his right arm. The bluish Gith bandages were much more than the ordinary cloth many human cultures used when dealing with wounds for they were able to staunch even severe bleedings within seconds and vastly accelerated the healing process.

It galled the Commander that he had to rely on Gith technology to treat his wounds but without the ability to feed properly it was a necessary evil. With his enzyme pouch partly cut out, his victim would die almost instantly after the feeding process has started, leaving Gix without the energy he needed to heal himself. He made a mental note to kill this Lieutenant Ford as painful as possible the next time they met and was just busy with determine the most painful way to kill someone when one of his subordinates addressed him:

“Welcome back, Commander! What are your orders?”

“Any message from Crovax yet?” the Wraith inquired, resisting the temptation to kill the Gith for interrupting his thoughts.

“Not yet my Lord,” the Lifestealer replied, apparently wise enough not to ask Gix what the reason for his injury was or what had happened on the planet.

The Commander wondered what he should make out of Crovax’ silence: Was the Evincar just busy with killing some random human just for the fun of it – a hobby Gix considered as a big waste of food and time – or had Belbe and her fellow conspirators already slain him? Not that the brute’s death would bother Gix – in fact he would actually enjoy getting rid of the mad ruler himself – but if Belbe laid hand on the Seal of Dominion and gained control of Panopticon Predator would be powerless to stop her rebellion anymore.

He toyed with the idea to attack the Door to Nothingness again with more troops, using it to enter and search Panopticon but discarded the thought when he realized that he had no idea how many conspirators they might be facing. He doubted that Belbe was willing or able to start an upheaval like that without Highexecutor Veldrin’s permission and support what could mean that the entire Shadow Legion was involved in the putsch, making reclaiming Panopticon virtually impossible for Predator had a relatively small crew of about 50 Gith and 10 Wraith.

Of course that was another, more radical method to make sure that the Ray Cannon never fell in the Gith’s hands but Gix was hesitant to employ it because it would put both him and his ship into serious danger. He cursed Belbe and her puny treachery that forced him to do something that drastic and added her name to the humans-who-would-soon-die-a-slow-and-agonizing-death-list.

“Set course to Panopticon and activate our weapons,” he ordered, enjoying the shocked expression on his subordinates’ faces.

“But Commander, the Evincar will destroy us for threatening Panopticon and Predator is no match for the Ray Cannon!” his first mate – Gix had never bothered to learn his name for human names sounded all alike to him – argued, “Attacking the orbital fortress is suicide!”

“Questioning me is equally dangerous!” Gix responded, grabbing the Lifestealer at the throat with his uninjured hand and lifting him to eye level, “You do what I order you to do and if you object me ever again I’ll make sure that you’ll regret it! Am I clear?”

The Gith couldn’t respond, of course, for he was busy with trying not to suffocate but Gix took his labored gasps as a ‘yes’ and dropped him unceremoniously to the ground. Paying him no more heed, the Commander addressed the rest of his crew, determined to make sure that they won’t question his orders again:

“Any further objections to my plan?” he asked, breaking into a cruel smile when no one dared to answer, “Good, I would have hated to kill anyone of you simply to discipline the rest! Oh, and just to make sure that you have no illusions about my intentions: I don’t want to threaten or capture Panopticon, I want to destroy it!”

* * * * *

Panopticon

John tried to break free of Corvax’ vise-like grip but with both luck and gravity against him his struggle was pointless and only caused the Evincar’s claws – which he now considered as a result of Tichondrius’ experiments and not as an optical illusion caused by the faint light – to cut into his back. Crovax didn’t even try to stop the Colonel; probably knowing that there was no way the human could break free without help.

“Quit struggling!” the Evincar growled, keeping his voice low – probably to keep Teyla and Veldrin out of the picture until he was finished with John, “You’re only hurting yourself, ruining my fun in the process! Hmm, what could be the best way to kill you? I could rip out your throat and let you bleed out – no, that’s not nearly slow enough. Perhaps painful enough but not slow enough. Or I could – no, that’s slow but not painful enough. I really don’t know what to do! What do you think, Tichondrius, what shall I do with him?”

Fortunately for John not Tichondrius’ but Teyla’s voice which broke the silence, causing the Evincar to growl in irritation:

“Colonel? Colonel, where are you?”

“Don’t worry, I’ll come back to you in a few moments,” Crovax hissed, “I’ll just make sure that your little friend over there doesn’t feel left out!”

John groaned when the Evincar’s weight suddenly left him and tried to get up or at least to shout a warning to the Athosian but Crovax’ grip had left him dazed and close to suffocation so he spend the first 30 seconds of his freedom with trying to draw breath properly. However, the movement seemed to have gotten Teyla’s attention for she appeared at his side a few moments later.

“What happened, Colonel?” she asked, worry evident in her voice, “Are that claw marks on your back?”

“Careful..,” John gasped, “Corvax not dead…close by…wants to kill you!”

“Of course I want to kill her, after all she drove about a dozen bullets into me!” the Lord of Shakuras stated, dropping from the ceiling right behind Teyla.

Teyla span around and pulled the trigger of her P90 but this time several crystals inlaid in the Evincar’s armor lit up and an energy shield deflected the attack. Crovax put on an arrogant grin when he answered with a couple of lightning fast counterattacks, hitting his opponent in the chest, knocking the wind out of her and disarming her.

Before the Evincar could press his advantage, John had finally recovered and tried to sweep his legs away, causing Crovax to stumble and to loose the newly acquired weapon. His move had apparently bought Teyla the time she needed to recover for she engaged Crovax into a vicious hand-to-hand combat which was way too fast for John to actually follow.

At first it seemed like the Athosian had gained the upper hand, she was definitely faster than her massive opponent and managed to dodge almost every blow he aimed at her. However, Crovax was one of the toughest persons Sheppard had ever seen for despite getting hit far more often than Teyla, the blows seemed to have much less effect on him than on his opponent.

Not wanting to take any chances, John retrieved and readied his CMG in order to pierce Crovax’ personal shield but was hesitant to use it while Teyla was in the line of fire. He toyed with the idea of joining the melee but guessed that he would be more a burden than an actual help for the Athosian because despite training with her for so long, he still wasn’t even close to reaching her skill in hand-to-hand combat.

The Evincar’s painful howl broke into his train of thought, causing Sheppard to concentrate on the brawl again. Teyla looked exhausted and severely bruised but had apparently gave Crovax a good whack on the head with her reclaimed P90, resulting in a nasty-looking laceration at his right temple. However, the Lord of Shakuras recovered startling quickly, taking the Athosian by surprise and hitting her with a series of vicious counterattacks aimed at her head and her chest. Unable to defend herself properly, Teyla took the full force of the blows that sent her flying towards the now deserted throne where she slumped to the ground, apparently knocked out.

Crovax flashed Sheppard a toothy grin that looked more like a leer than an actual smile and turned his attention back to the Colonel. John realized that the wound Teyla had inflicted was already half healed – leaving no traces except a bluish bruise that was healing as he watched – and was unpleasantly reminded of his encounter with the 10000 year-old Wraith months ago. Determined not to make this fight a reversal of last time – which would be pretty bad because there was no Jumper in sight this time – he decided to avoid melee and brought his CMG to bear instead, letting loose several bullets loose in Crovax’ direction.

The Evincar calmly hold his ground and activated his personal shield, obviously either unaware of the shield-breaking effects of the projectiles or well, simply crazy which was an option Sheppard really couldn’t rule out. Three of the CMG bullets found their mark, slamming right through Corvax’ chest, right arm and left shoulder, oblivious to the energy shield the Evincar had created in front of him. Looking both surprised and livid, the Evincar brought his wounded arm to eye level and broke into a shark-like grin when the wound closed after a few seconds.

When John tried to fire again, hoping to finally overtax his opponent’s regenerative ability but instead of a projectile only a single clicking sound emerged from his CMG. Now absolutely sure that his streak of bad luck was still far from over, Sheppard realized that he had ran out of ammo and had to fight Crovax without means to break through this annoying energy shield.

“Seems like you now have to fight without your toy,” Crovax taunted, “Let’s see if you fare better than your little friend over there!”

John dropped the now useless Gith weapon and went for his P90 instead but his opponent gave him no time to use it. Apparently tired of playing with the Colonel, Crovax lunged forward and tried to rip the other human’s throat out with his claws. Sheppard stepped back just in time to avoid getting killed but one of the claws raked his left biceps and left a painful and heavily bleeding wound. Before he could recover from the blow, a fist connected with his lower jar, causing the world to get all fuzzy and sending him on a one-way journey to the ground.

He saw the blurred form of the Evincar looming above him and braced himself for the final blow which would lead into oblivion. Though he wasn’t a very religious person, John sent a final prayer to whatever deity might feel responsible for reckless pilots who always managed to get into trouble that the rest of his team would survive and that Atlantis would be safe. Then he closed his eyes, not wanting to witness the deathblow and the expression Crovax would wear when killing him.

Instead of the distinct sound of a clawed hand whistling through the air, the next thing he heard was the familiar, horrible sound of Veldrin’s daggers ripping through flesh. Opening his eyes again, he saw that the Highexecutor was just busy with retrieving his knifes which were buried up to the hilt in Crovax’ back. They came free with a sickening, slurping sound that made John want to throw up and plastered a triumphant smile on their owner’s face who calmly took a step back, apparently quite sure that his opponent was as good as dead.

However, the Evincar was far from finished and when he turned around to lunge at his new opponent with one claw, Sheppard saw that the cuts in his back were already closing – much slower than any injury he or Teyla had inflicted but closing nevertheless. Veldrin overcame his surprise fast enough to teleport to safety, reappearing a few meters away with a rather shocked expression on his face.

“Veldrin! That explains how this vermin managed to get into my throne room!” Crovax sneered, “But your treachery and puny intrigues will get you nowhere, you pathetic opportunist! I have slain everyone who dared to defy me and you’ll have to do better than that if you want to defeat me!”

“As usual you’re far too full of yourself, Crovax!” Veldrin responded, looking completely unconcerned by his opponent’s sudden recovery, “Your regenerative abilities are impressing but they won’t save you from me! I’ll kill you like I would kill a real Wraith: Cut him once and he’ll heal, cut him thirty times and he’ll perish! Farwell, Crovax, I’m already looking forward to search your corpse for the precious seal I’m looking for!”

Again, Veldrin disappeared in a soft blue light and appeared behind his opponent, pushing his daggers right into the half-healed flesh before vanishing again and rematerializing in front of Crovax were he continued his gory work. He repeated this process another 4 times; never giving Crovax any chance to defend himself. John thought he heard a faint popping sound when the Highexecutor finally sheathed his daggers and watched his opponent drop to the ground, a mixture of triumph and remorse on his face.

The reason for Veldrin’s displeasure became evident when the Highexecutor rolled up his left sleeve, revealing an ornate bracelet inlaid with several blackened crystals. John guessed that this was the device that enabled his unloved ally to teleport and that the stress of the last minutes had caused the trinket to burn out, a conclusion that was apparently shared by the Highexecutor.

“Damn this pathetic would-be Wraith!” he cursed, throwing the bracelet away, “Let’s hope that disposing him was worth the effort!”

While John got back on his feet and bound his arm with some bandages out of his backpack, Veldrin was busy with searching Crovax’ unmoving form and eventually produced an ornate, silvery amulet. All remaining anger vanished from the Gith’s face and was replaced by the first genuine smile John had ever seen on his face.

“Thanks for saving my ass,” he said while helping the conscious but still dazed Teyla back to her feet, “Did you find what we’ve been looking for?”

“I didn’t interfere to save you but to get the Seal,” Veldrin stated without taking his eyes from the amulet, “And yes, this is the Seal of Dominion, the token that marks its bearer as Evincar of Shakuras! Now, Panopticon is mine and the Wraith’s rule over the Gith is over once and for all!

“We have fulfilled our part of the bargain, so now make sure that we can leave this dammed planet!” Sheppard said, not quite convinced that the new Evincar would keep his promise.

Veldrin gave him a cold smile and moved over to his predecessors’ deserted throne which lit up and leaned back much like the control chair in Atlantis. The Gith seemed lost in thoughts for a moment before opening his eyes again and concentrating back on his allies:

“I have deactivated both the energy shield and the security algorithm that actives it, so you should have no problem with getting out of here anymore,” he said, “Now you should head back before…what the hell is Predator doing here?”

A series of vibrations followed his words that knocked everyone except Veldrin to the ground and told John that something was horrible wrong. When he had regained his footing he realized that a holographic image had appeared in midair, depicting Panopticon as well as a Wraith cruiser that fired at the orbital fortress.

“What the hell is going on?” he asked Veldrin, having the distinct feeling that this meant more trouble for him.

“Predator is trying to destroy us,” the former Highexecutor answered, his mind clearly on other things, “Our shields absorb the damage for now but if I don’t manage to get the Ray Cannon up soon we’re in serious trouble!”

Before Sheppard could ask him why the Ray Cannon hadn’t already pulverized the Wraith ship, he spotted a movement out of the corner of his eyes and turned around just in time to see Crovax staggering out of the room, still bleeding out of several wounds. This also got Veldrin’s attention who threw one of his daggers at the fleeing Evincar, missing him narrowly.

“What are you waiting for?” he bellowed, “Go and get him!”

“No,” John said flatly, “I am done with being a pawn on your chessboard. We have done what you wanted us to do and now we’ll get out of here as fast as possible! If you want Crovax, go after him yourself!”

The new Evincar shot John a murderous look and seemed to consider killing him here and now but was apparently hesitant to do so without the ability to teleport. The dangerous moment passed and Veldrin tugged his remaining dagger back into his clothing, while pulling out his communicator.

“Belbe, I need you to get up here and search for the former Evincar Crovax,” he said, “Make sure that he doesn’t leave the orbital fortress!”

“I’m on my way, Highexe…um, I mean Evincar,” Belbe replied, only to be interrupted by McKay who urged her to ask Veldrin about Teyla and Sheppard.

The Evincar tossed the communicator to John who interpreted this as a new way of getting dismissed, an order he was happy to oblige. Motioning Teyla to follow him, he started to make his way towards the transporter that would get him back to the City of Traitors and eventually back home. Another tremor shook the orbital fortress; reminding him that he was still far from safe and that should get out of here if he didn’t want to be reduced to dust along with Panopticon. He noticed that Veldrin continued to sit in his new throne what meant that either he had a plan up his sleeve to safe his new fortress or that he was oblivious to the danger he was in.
Sprinting through the corridors with Teyla, he activated the Gith communicator and contacted McKay to find out if the Door to Nothingness was still safe as well as to give new orders to the scientist.

“McKay, this is Sheppard,” he said, “We have deactivated the energy field and are on the way back to you!”

“Finally some good news,” the scientist replied, “It’s about time that we get away from here. We have been attacked by a Wraith called Gix and he could be back any moment so it would be great if you could hurry!”

“Is everyone okay?” John asked, worried not only about Ford and McKay but also about Belbe who unlike Veldrin didn’t treat him like a pawn on the chessboard.

“Well, Ford is little battered but Belbe took care of most of his wounds,” Rodney stated, a hint of disapproval in his voice when he spoke about the bounty hunter, “I’m currently busy with copying part of the Gith database onto a crystal so we can take it back to Atlantis. It seems like that great parts of it are damaged or restricted but given enough time I’m sure that I can restore and copy those parts.”

“Listen, Rodney!” John interrupted before McKay got all excited about copying an Ancient database, “Panopticon is under attack and I’m not sure if we can make it out in time so I want you to take Ford and whatever information you have and to get to the Gate. You should reach it without problems if you take the same way we took earlier. If we don’t catch up to you in the next 30 minutes, dial out and tell Atlantis what happened to us.”

“No way, I’m not going to leave you here!” McKay snapped, “Quit playing the hero and concentrate on getting out of Panopticon alive! We’ll all leave together!”

“Trust me Rodney this is the only way to make sure that at least some of us come out of this alive,” John said, “Do what I tell you or I’ll order Ford to drag you back to Atlantis!”

“Fine!” the astrophysicist responded furiously, “I’ll go but if something happens to you remember that I was against it in the first place!”

John guessed that McKay being right was the last thing he would thing about when things went that wrong.


* * * * *

Panopticon, transport chamber

“’I would hate to see that gorgeous body of yours damaged’” Belbe quoted herself, shaking her head, “Why in the name of the Legion did I say something like that? He probably thinks that I’m some kind of bounty hunter whore who jumps every handsome guy she lays eyes on!”

Since she had been ordered to guard the transporter that led back to the Door to Nothingness she had passed her time with thinking about her relationship with Aiden – if you want to call it that way. The good news was that he had no hard feelings about her bringing him here and even had admitted being fascinated by her, a revelation that had really touched her. Gith rarely made compliments and if they did they called you cunning, manipulative, ruthless, ambitious, insidious or a combination of these attributes, so being called fascinating was something completely new to her.

As flattered as she was by his reaction as angry she was at herself for reacting the way she had. Originally, she had intended to tell him that she felt more than physical attraction for him – another aspect she was unfamiliar with for Gith were by no means romantic and she had never felt the urge for more after a night with a man before – but had been hesitant to do so when she had the opportunity and had made up this pathetic excuse to avoid telling him more about her feelings.

At first she had blamed her experience as a bounty hunter for this sudden change of heart, guessing that her instincts had stopped her from revealing a weakness. Though the logic behind this explanation sounded valid – revealing a weakness was something no Gith would do voluntarily for it was likely that your enemies would learn about it and exploit it – she guessed that it wasn’t the true reason for her cowardice.

Perhaps the problem was that she didn’t know what exactly she wanted from Aiden and had gotten cold feet when she tried to explain something she didn’t even understand herself. The more she considered this thought the more sense it made, after all the only thing she knew for certain was that she liked Aiden too much to hurt him or to get him deliberately into harm’s way, another point on her things-that-never-happened-to-me-before list.

Like most Gith, she was used to put every being she encounter into one of two categories: There were enemies who had to be disposed of as quickly and efficiently as possible and there were the others who could be exploited at will and served as tools to get what you wanted. Up to now, the only person that really mattered in this scheme had been herself and that she suddenly had qualms about using someone, was as disturbing as it was unexpected.

In her position as a high ranking member of the Unseen, as designated right hand of Evincar Veldrin, she couldn’t afford weakness of any kind for it was unlikely that the new ruler would consider her personal feelings on whatever schemes might be on his mind. She had no illusions about the former Highexecutors’ tolerance for failure and falling out of his grace would be unpleasant, dangerous and possibly deadly so it would be best to avoid it as long as possible.

She hoped that Veldrin would concentrate on fighting the Wraith because she would be in serious trouble if he ordered her to capture or even kill Aiden. She had no idea what she should do at such an occasion because she wasn’t sure if she could kill him and because defying Veldrin would be suicide so she made a mental note to avoid this dilemma at the first place.

The orbital fortress quaked again, reminding her that this was not the right place to contemplate about her love life and that she should keep her eyes open for the former Evincar Crovax. It galled her that for the second time this day she had been ordered to do boring and single-minded guard duty – searching Panopticon for her target would take ages so she had decided to simply wait for him to come here – but arguing with Veldrin while the former Highexecutor was busy with securing his new power was probably even more dangerous than arguing with Gix had been.

Guarding a transporter within an orbital fortress that was under fire from Predator – she had overheard Sheppard telling McKay about the attack while using the Door to Nothingness to get up here – wasn’t safe either but she was quite confident that Veldrin would take care of Gix and she still could use the transporter again if things started to get out of hand.

She snapped out of her thoughts when something moved at the corner of her field of vision and immediately activated her cloaking device while cursing her lack of vigilance. Once invisible she carefully moved into the direction of the movement, making sure to stay close of to wall so the possible intruder wouldn’t accidentally slam into her. However, the corridor in front of her was deserted, causing her to wonder if her eyes had played a trick on her and the stress of the last hours had finally taken its toll.

Dismissing her suspect as paranoia – a term she had learned on one of her many journeys for few Gith actually believed that there was a pathological amount of caution – she became visible again and intended to resume her position in a shadowy corner next to the transporter. Remaining invisible would be a huge tactical advantage but her amulet needed time to recharge so she didn’t use it unless it was strictly necessary.

Only seconds after she had dismissed her invisibility a Wraith stunner slammed into her back, causing her to slump helplessly to the ground. Her steelsilk armor – made out of extremely resistant and surprisingly light metal fibers that offered excellent protection without slowing its wearer down – absorbed part of the blast and saved her from being knocked out cold but couldn’t ward off the resulting paralysis entirely.

Unable to move more than her eyes, all she could do was watch when her assailant dropped from the ceiling right in front of her. Judging by the armor and the wounds the ebony-skinned man sported she had finally found Crovax, former Evincar of Shakuras, but on completely other terms than she had expected. Crovax lifted on of his clawed hands much like the Wraith did when they wanted to feed on someone and she wondered if she would die right here on the hands of a Gith/Wraith hybrid because she had been stupid enough to let her guard down in the wrong moment.

Before her captor could finish her off, another much more intensive tremor shook Panopticon, causing Crovax to loose his footing. When he had struggled back to his feet he didn’t close in on her again but headed for the transporter.

“A pity I don’t have time to suck the life out of you, traitor!” he said while activating the teleporter, “But I have more pressing matters to attend and I’m sure that there will be time to kill you later!”

Belbe made a mental note to kill the former Evincar for this and hoped that the feeling would return to her limbs before Panopticon exploded.

* * * * *

Crovax’ former throne room

“This is not good,” Veldrin stated matter-of-factly when he studied the holographic display that hovered in front of him.

According to the display, shields were down to 20% of their usual capacity and the Ray Cannon wasn’t even close to being sufficiently charged. By now, the new Evincar had identified the reason for the strange inactivity of the fabled weapon but had yet to find a solution for this problem, preferably before the energy shields protecting Panopticon failed completely.

The Ray Cannon was powered by three separate ZPMs whose power was used to create an artificial vacuum that functioned as a gigantic version of a ZPM and provided the necessary energy for the weapon. At the moment the vacuum was just being created and didn’t generate enough energy for the Ray Cannon to shoot, rendering Veldrin unable to do anything against Predator’s assault for Panopticon carried no other weapons anymore. A weapon system that used so-called ‘drones’ was mentioned in the database but they had been used up when the Ancients had attacked the City of Traitors and apparently his predecessors hadn’t bothered to replace them.

Usually, the charging process was completed in a about 30 seconds but at the moment a great part of the ZPMs energy was needed to power the shields so the extremely taxing process took much longer than usual. Veldrin had considered to divert energy from the shields to the weapon system but had discarded the thought due to the high risk of getting blown up in the process.

He had even checked the database for a similar combat situation only to find out that up to now Panopticon’s deep room sensors had located every threat soon enough to prevent such a predicament. Veldrin hated to admit it but at moment he felt quite checkmated by Gix, a feeling he hated above all. He knew that he had to find a solution if he wanted to keep his new position, so he began checking the blueprints and technical instructions again, searching for something he had overlooked.

He found what he was looking for in the part of the instructions that dealt with catastrophic events that could occur when the Ray Cannon was powered. According to the manual, a sudden increase of the power supply could trigger a chain-reaction in the building vacuum that could destroy Panopticon but could also vastly speed up the charging process. Even though he despised gambling and had no idea how much energy would be generated, he decided to grasp this straw because he was rapidly running out of options. A strong enough impulse, powered by energy from the shields, should charge the Ray Cannon sufficiently to blast Predator into a million pieces – provided everything worked out as planned.

Veldrin gave the required mental commands before lifting himself out of his throne and running towards the transport chamber. He had done everything he could and wanted to make sure that he was close to a teleporter should his actions actually destroy the orbital fortress.


* * * * *

Predator

“Panopticon’s shields are almost down!” the first mate reported, “Only a few more hits and the fortress will be destroyed!”

“Excellent!” Gix replied, feeling a grim satisfaction, witnessing the destruction of Crovax’ former fortress, “Divert all expendable energy to the weapons and finish this as soon as possible!”

“What are you doing with MY fortress???” a familiar and unpleasant voice behind him said, “I want you to stop this, NOW!”

“Ignore this order,” the Commander stated before turning around to face his livid visitor, “How nice of you to join us in this crucial moment, Crovax! Seems like Panopticon is indeed in the hands of Belbe and her fellow conspirators. I’m sure that you understand that we cannot allow them to gain control of the Ray Cannon so we’ll destroy the weapon as well as the fortress that harbors it!”

“You certainly won’t do this!” Crovax hissed, “I’ll reclaim my fortress and destroy everyone who tries to stop me! And this includes you, Gix, so do yourself a favor and stop trying to destroy Panopticon!”

Gix was far from impressed by the former Evincar’s threats for Crovax looked as battered as he felt and wore several makeshift bandages over half-healed wounds. Even with his injured right arm, he was quite confident that he would be able to defeat the ignorant brute so there was no need to answer diplomatically:

“You’re in no position to threaten me, you foolish savage!” he snapped, considering killing Crovax right here, in front on his crew, “If you don’t shut up, I’ll have you transported back into your precious fortress and reduce both of you to dust!”

The former Evincar started to give an angry retort but was interrupted by one of Gix’s subordinates:

“Commander!” the Lifestealer said, panic in his voice, “The Ray Cannon has just fired a full salve into out direction!”

“That’s impossible! How did they – PREPARE FOR IMPACT!” Gix yelled, clinging to his chair and wondering how things could have gone so terribly wrong.

Seconds after his warning, the Ray Cannon’s energy beam found its mark, hitting Predator frontal and obliterating great part of its hull. Everyone on the bridge lost his or her footing and was blinded by the resulting explosion. When it felt safe to do so, Gix opened his eyes and was surprised to see that he was still alive. Tough several consoles had been smashed and a few circuits had been laid open, the bridge was still largely intact, which was quite surprising, considering the fabled destructive power of the Ray Cannon.

“Report,” he ordered his battered but still living subordinates who were busy getting back to their feet and nursing minor injuries that had been caused by the impact.

“We have lost our shield, our weapons and a great part of the hull,” his first mate reported, “There is minor damage on our secondary systems but otherwise we’re still intact. Apparently the Ray Cannon was charged to only about 10% because otherwise we wouldn’t be here anymore. However, we most certainly won’t survive another hit.”

“Is the hyperdrive still intact?” the Commander asked and let out a relived sign when the Gith nodded, “Than activate it and get us out of here before the Ray Cannon can fire again! Shakuras is lost for us!”

When no one protested – apparently even Crovax was smart enough to realize that staying here would be suicide – Gix leaned back in his chair and started to plan his revenge.

* * * * *

Panopticon, transport chamber

John was drenched in sweat when he arrived at the transport chamber with Teyla on his heels and made a mental note not to neglect his training anymore. Desperate to reach the controls and to get back on Shakuras, he almost tripped over Belbe’s unmoving form that was lying on the floor right in front of the transporter.

Apparently, the Necroshade was conscious but completely unmovable so John guessed that she had an unpleasant encounter with a Wraith stunner. Somehow she seemed to have resisted part of the blast though he wondered if being conscious and helpless wasn’t even worse than being unconscious and helpless. Her eyes – which seemed to be the only functional part of her body – lit up with hope when she recognized the visitors, flashing John what could be described as a quit-staring-like-an-idiot-and-get-me-out-of-her look.

Resisting the temptation to make a snide comment about her current situation, he picked her up and gently placed her on the transporter before being interrupted by McKay’s voice:

“We’re at the Gate,” the scientist stated sounding not too relieved about this, “Listen, I don’t want to put pressure on you but it’s quite creepy here and I’m getting nervous when my only protection is a drug addict so it would be great if you could hurry up!”

John activated the communicator and was just about to tell McKay to get a grip when the scientist’s voice was replaced by the voice of his former second-in-command whose voice sounded not at all comforting.

“Drug addict? That’s not a very nice thing to say, McKay,” Ford said, a dangerous edge in his voice, “Now the two of us will have a nice friendly chat about Atlantis and you won’t need that for it!”

“Ford, what the hell are you…” the astrophysicist managed to say before the connection was broken.

“Damn!” Sheppard swore, “We better hurry up, Teyla, Ford is acting like a maniac again!”

Without further delay he activated the transporter and felt the already familiar sensation of getting dematerialized, transported and put back together on the destination. However, instead of any empty room about a dozen Gith awaited them, weapons drawn and pointed on them.

“You’re under arrest for conspiracy, trespassing and murder!” one of them said, “Drop your weapons and don’t try any tricks!”

The word that came into John’s mind while dropping his weapons was ‘crap’.