RATING: PG
SEASON: Season 5
MAJOR CHARACTERS: McKay, Sheppard, Teyla and Ronon - Team fic!
DISCLAIMERS: The characters, Atlantis, etc, all belong to Sony, MGM, Gecko, Showtime, the Sci-Fi Channel. 
SUMMARY: The team is trapped!  The only escape is through the catacombs
FEEDBACK: Yes please! comments and suggestions are greatly appreciated.
NOTE:  This story was in response to the SGA Genficathon: prompts Action/Adventure and Catacombs, and was originally titled "Hope and a Hole in the Ground"
DATE: May 22, 2009

The Bone Pit
By NotTasha - it's the pits

PART 1:  CRAP

The town stretched through the valley, filling it with dark streets, houses, shops and little factories. The city of Ellik had existed for centuries. Its old stone structures remained, heavy and foreboding, decorated with dark ornamentation.  Newer buildings were crowded in, looking less formidable, but equally ugly.

Chimneys chuffed.  Horse-like meeners drew carts through rutted streets.  Piles of manure dotted the byways.  People stood along the filthy walkways, pressed against the buildings and holding their children close.

The streets stank.  Litter was piled everywhere.  The alleyways were filled with broken carts and other useless trappings.  The buildings were coated with years of soot, with centuries of grime.  Narrow windows looked out on the narrow streets, and pale faces gazed out of them, watching the strangers who moved in their midst.  Thin children sat in doorways, watching.

There was something so hopeless about these people, as if they knew this was their lot and there was nothing else left for them.  Children should not be so listless.

Ronon's eyes fixed on the faces.  He didn't like the situation.  Too many people were watching.  Too many people had the high ground.  The place felt wrong.  He was taut, ready for anything as his team moved through the town.

Beside him, Teyla mimicked his movements, looking upward, and then all around, keeping a careful eye on their surroundings.  She wasn't comfortable either.

Ahead walked McKay and Sheppard.  McKay was talking, gesturing, pointing, and glancing to his scanner.  "Look," he said, indicating one big building.  "This is the library that was listed in our information.  And that's their central council building."

Sheppard nodded to his words, but was watchful as well.

In the lead was a small delegation of Ellikans.  They would look over their shoulders to offer encouraging smiles.  "It is just a short distance," one of them, Gaispare, said.  "We are nearly there."

"Yes," Rodney responded, glancing to his scanner.  "I know.  I've downloaded a map."

"Good to know," Sheppard muttered and, distracted by movement in a doorway, almost stepped in some sort of mess.

"I swear to God," McKay grumbled, "If anyone shouts 'gardy loo', I'm using Ronon for cover," and he hooked a thumb in Ronon's direction.

Ronon wasn't sure what the phrase meant, but figured he'd duck.

Dex knew little of the particular planet.  It was on his list of places that he didn't need to visit – ever.  Teyla had been the expert, having come to the planet in the past to trade.  She made a sour face at the mere mention of the place, and that was telling enough.

But they had recently received intel that a ZPM might be located at the site – secretly worshipped by the upper caste of the planet.  So, they'd come to check the idol.

McKay kept gazing at his scanner and fiddling with it.  He groaned and held it out.  "The ZPM must not be active because I'm not getting a power signature.  Either that or these walls are too thick to allow any readings to get through."

Gaispare's eyes flitted to McKay's device.  "Can you see the Fire Glass with that?"

"Like I said," McKay muttered. "I'm not seeing anything."

"But it shows you the way?" Gaispare looked intrigued.

"We have a map," Rodney said with a smile.  "It's probably a couple hundred years out of date, but it has the Temple on it."  He looked down in time to avoid some unpleasantness in his path.  He ran into Sheppard in the process and nearly forced him to slosh through a particularly ugly pile.

"McKay," Sheppard snapped as he made a little leap to avoid it.  "Watch it!"

"I am," Rodney replied. "What do you think I'm doing?"

Sheppard sighed noisily.  McKay harrumphed.  Teyla let out a slow breath.  Ronon kept moving, watching the faces that peered at them – eyes the followed – mouths held tightly.  A row of little children peered from a window, their grubby hands holding back grubby curtains.

"Here!" Clarifor, another of the delegation, cried.  "We are here!"

Squat and ugly, the building sat at the end of the street, as if blocking them from going any further.

"This is the Temple of the Fire Glass," Clarifor went on, smiling widely.

Sheppard cocked his head at the place.  The building was black and bleak and as old as time.  He turned to McKay and asked, "Does this look like a temple to you?"

"Sure, why not?" McKay answered as he held his scanner to check his map. "Yes, this is the place."   He frowned.  "Even if the ZPM was active inside, I might not be able to get a reading from it.  Those walls must be a yard thick."

"Come," Gaispare said.  "We shall show you our treasure."  And he stepped into a dark open doorway.

McKay moved to follow, but Ronon shoved him back.  The Satedan peered into the space, seeing an inner room, and a dim hallway beyond.  The interior was even uglier than the outside.

Ronon turned to Sheppard.  "I don't like it," he told him.

"You don't like anything," McKay huffed, folding his arms over his chest.

"Yeah," Sheppard said, responding to Ronon.  "What do you think, McKay?  Is there a ZPM inside?"

With an exaggerated sigh, McKay held up his scanner and declared, "I don't know. I can't read anything through this rock.  But this is the place described by the trader."

"Not exactly the situation we want to go waltzing into," Sheppard muttered.

"I'll check it out," Ronon said, looking into the building and glaring at Gaispare who waited within at the entrance of the hallway.

"Me, too," Rodney said enthusiastically.

"Just Ronon," Sheppard ordered.

Rodney rolled his eyes.  "I am desperate to get out of this street!  It's disgusting here.  It smells like a pit toilet, and by that I mean a particularly bad one.  And do you think he'll be able to find the ZPM?"

Ronon shrugged.  "They're worshiping it, McKay.  It'll be pretty obvious."

Sheppard glanced toward Teyla.  She nodded, and John stated, "Teyla will go, too.  Will that make you happy?"

"Not entirely," McKay responded.  "But if you find the ZPM, just come back and tell me."  He made a little hand gesture, a flip of the hand.  "And if you don't find it… same thing."

"Of course," Teyla replied.

"Right," Ronon responded and moved into the doorway, followed by Teyla.  Gaispare, seeing their progression, smiled and continued deeper into the structure.

The hallway led to an inner room in the center of the building.  The candle-lit corridor was narrow, and Ronon had to duck under the archways, careful of the sunken sill between the rooms.

He made his way toward the inner sanctum.  Teyla kept close, moving almost silently behind him down the long hallway.

Ronon didn't like it.

Maybe McKay was right – he didn't like anything.

They came out of the hallway and into a smaller room.  No windows.  No other exit.  It was dark and confining.  Sooty candles guttered in sconces, on ledges and along what must have been an altar.  The flames cast strange shadows and perfumed the room with the stench of old tallow.

His eyes fixed on the altar where something had been draped in an expensive cloth.

Teyla moved alongside him, and scanned the room briefly before her gaze also fell on the cloth and she smiled slightly at Ronon.  It was the right size and shape to be a ZPM.

Gaispare gestured.  "Here," he said reverently, "Here is our sacred Fire Glass."  And he bowed, holding out his arms, palm down.

Teyla waited patiently.  Ronon glowered, watching the Ellikan unhappily.

Gaispare's head lifted.  He looked hopefully at the others while the flickering candles cast his face in half-darkness.  "Please," he said.  "It is time.  You may approach the Fire Glass."

Obsequiously, he backed away, allowing Teyla and Ronon to move forward.

Ronon sneered at the man and stepped toward the altar.  Teyla came with him, eager to see as well, and Ronon smiled a little. If this was a ZPM…

There was a sound – a creeping, scraping, grating sound.

Ronon and Teyla spun around in time to see the stone doorway begin to drop.  Gaispare was disappearing behind it.

Ronon shouted in rage, and dove toward the exit.  He knew it was too late, even as Teyla flung herself at him, keeping him from getting crushed under the falling door.

The stone slab crashed down, shaking the floor beneath them.  Ronon bellowed in rage as the candlelight sputtered in the rush of air as they were sealed inside.

OooOoOooooOoOoOo

The shout and the ominous crash sounded from within the building and Sheppard surged into it.  McKay was directly behind him, calling into his radio, "Ronon!  Teyla? What happened?"

Sheppard listened as he made his way quickly through the first room, and then into the hallway.  No response.  Damn.  Damn!

He proceeded into the candlelit corridor, squinting into the dimness and leveled his weapon at the flailing form that came toward him.  He lowered the 9mm, but only slightly, as he heard the voice – Gaispare.

"Help!  Help!  Oh, please, help!" The man looked horrified, terrified, bereft.

"What?" McKay sputtered from behind Sheppard. "What happened?  Where are the others?  What's going on?"

Gaispare looked frantically between the two.  "There's been an accident.  I… I'm going for help."  He gestured down the hallway.  "Go to them!  Hurry! They need help!"

And then the Ellikan shoved past McKay and ran toward the exit.

Sheppard resisted the urge to grab hold of the departing man, but his team was in danger, and he moved in the direction they had gone.  A moment later, he deeply regretted the choice as a familiar sound filled the space.

Something groaned and scraped.  Sheppard turned in time to see the daylight disappear from the far end of the hall with a thunderous thud.

Gaispare was gone, and darkness capped either end of their hallway.

McKay ran toward the shut door, reaching for it and gasping before he let out a despairing, "We're trapped.  He trapped us!"

Sheppard sighed, let his weapon lower, and said the only thing appropriate to the situation.  "Crap!"

PART 2:  DOWN AND OUT

"Rodney?" Teyla called as her hand reached for her radio.  "Rodney?"  She'd heard him for a moment, but the voice faded and she adjusted the equipment.  "John?"

Ronon stormed about the small room, growling.  Teyla kept her eyes on the stone door.

"If they've hurt either of them…" Ronon went on, clenching his hands at his sides.

"There will be retribution," Teyla agreed, and keyed her radio again.  "Rodney!"

"Teyla!" a voice finally called in return, and she felt flooded with relief.  "You okay?  Thank God!  Thank God! Sheppard, she's okay.  Ronon?  Is Ronon okay, too?"

"Yes," Teyla said with a small smile, glancing toward the enraged Satedan.  "Yes, he is fine."

Ronon frowned as he touched his radio.  "Can't hear them," he said.

Teyla showed him how to boost the transmission.  The minerals in the stone must affect communications, she thought and obviously, Rodney had figured this out already.

"Rodney, we are trapped within the inner chamber of the building," she explained quickly.  "A stone door has lowered and I don't believe we'll be able to lift it."

"Yeah," Sheppard drawled. "They got us, too."

Ronon looked alarmed.  "Where are you?"

"Well, if I'm right, we're just on the other side of your stone door," Sheppard told them.

Teyla stepped closer to the door, and touched it.

"They dropped another door at the entrance to this hallway," Rodney said quickly.   "God, how much air do you think's in here?" His voice became higher with that comment.

"Plenty," Sheppard responded.  "Look, Ronon, Teyla, we're stuck in a hallway with nothing.  All four sides are solid stone.  What do you got in there?"

"Our situation is similar," Teyla replied as Ronon started searching the room.  "The walls are decorated with faded images of people performing ceremonies.  There are no windows and the ceilings are low.  I see no sign of ventilation."  And with that, Teyla moved to the candles that remained lit and started blowing out the flames.

"I'm going to need to see," Ronon commented.

"We have flashlights and glowsticks," Teyla reminded him, as she pulled her P90 from her vest.  "It might be wise to conserve our oxygen."

"Yeah, right," Ronon replied, and blew out the candles nearest him.

She paused at the covered shape on the altar, and even though she already suspected her answer, she pulled back the cloth – and was not surprised to find nothing more than a ZPM-shaped rock.

Like so many of their ZPM searches – they were going to come back with nothing.  And she paused with that realization.  They were going to make it back.  She had no doubts. They only needed a plan.

Under the glow of a flashlight, Ronon continued to examine the room.  "Nothing," he muttered unhappily.

Rodney and John were talking to each other on the radio – squabbling really.  It made Teyla feel a little better.  The panic had left Rodney's voice as he argued with Sheppard, and as long as her teammates were fighting about something, there was hope.

They did their best thinking that way.

Ronon moved back toward the door and squatted beside it to examine the bottom edge.

"Can it be lifted?" Teyla asked.

Ronon glowered.  "It's recessed," he grumbled.  "The sill was at least a thumbs-width deep."  Reluctantly, he glanced at Teyla.  "I won't be able to get under it – even with a lever."

"There must be some mechanism for lifting it," Teyla remarked.

"Yeah," McKay responded on the radio.  "There's a counterweight on this side."

Teyla waited a moment, knowing that there was more to the story.

"Rope was cut," Sheppard filled in. "We're not going to be able to get it reattach."

Rodney squeaked,  "So we're really trapped?  Trapped like rats!  Like slowly suffocating rats!  This is not the way I wanted to die.  I can definitely think of a lot better ways to go!  Old age!  That's a good one!"  

The panic was back.

"Rodney, calm down!" Sheppard stated sharply.  "Come on, think!  You have any other ideas?"

"Even if we had some C4 with us, we'd kill ourselves before we managed to blow a hole in the wall," Rodney raged on.  "Ronon's blaster isn't going to get us anywhere either.  This place is built like a fortress!  I suppose Ronon could throw the ZPM at the wall, but that would kill just about everyone in this city, and I seriously doubt that the ZPM even exists. We're going to die here.  That was probably their plan all along."

"Rodney!" Teyla cut in, "We must not give up.  We must have hope.  We will get out."

"Yeah?" Rodney shot back. "What makes you think that?"

It was John who answered, "Because we always do.  You always come up with something to save our bacon."

And Rodney responded with a quieter, "Well…"

"Of course, I help -- al lot." Sheppard added.  You couldn't do it without me.  I come up with all of your best ideas."

"You are so full of it," McKay grumbled.

Teyla went on, "What is the purpose of this building?  Is it a temple as they described?" and her voice trailed off as she directed her flashlight on the decorated walls.  The old paintings were faded, layered with grease from the candles.  It was difficult to discern much, but one thing was obvious.  "This room was used for ceremonies concerning the dead."

"Great!  That would be fantastic if it actually helped.  I take it the Ancients didn't leave any of their tools behind.   We're in a stupid hallway, at least you have pictures to look at!" McKay spat back.   "And, hello, we're going to be dead soon, so I guess we're in a fitting location."

"Rodney!" Teyla snapped. "Think about it!  Is this helpful to us?"

Over the radio, she heard Sheppard say, "Yeah, Rodney.  Think about it."

"Fine." Rodney seemed to draw in a breath, and his voice calmed a little as he thought.  "So, it's a funeral home, or something.  But there's no cemetery nearby, is there?   Teyla, what do they do with their dead on this planet?"

Teyla frowned.  "I am unsure," she admitted.  "It is possible that they cremate the remains.  Some societies send their dead through the Gate, to the 'Realm of the Dead'."

"Remind me not to go there!" McKay shot back.

"These people wouldn't send their dead away," Ronon said. "Or burn them.  They like hanging onto stuff too much."

Teyla had to agree with that assessment.  There were people who clung to their possessions, and the Ellikans were of that ilk.  They would keep their 'stuff' and they would keep their dead.

"There's another building that's just like this in the town, right?" Rodney said.

Teyla had minimum exposure to this planet, but had walked through the streets on occasion, in search of certain traders.  "Yes," she remembered.  "There is another, but on the opposite side of the Gate."

"Sheppard, point your flashlight over there, would you?"

A few minutes of chattering followed, that amounted to Sheppard mostly saying that he saw nothing, but McKay insisting that he saw something

Teyla and Ronon waited.

"It's just a rock, McKay," Sheppard finally announced.  "A big flat piece of slate or something.  There's nothing to see."

"Well of course," McKay muttered.  "We're in a hallway.  It would be worn away.  Ronon!  Teyla!  What's on the floor in there?"

They pointed their lights downward, and at first, Teyla saw nothing but the rectangles of stone.  But she frowned as she discerned some differences.  "There is a pattern, an irregular pattern on each stone," she said.  "It is too difficult to see.  It has been nearly obliterated with time."

"Check close to the wall.  Look where nobody can walk easily."

She moved around the altar and shone the light into the corner – and then it was obvious.  "There are letters and what appear to be dates," she declared.  She couldn't read the language, but it wasn't hard to figure out what was recorded.  "Names," she decided.  "Memorials."

"There's a face here," Ronon stated, shining his light into a different area.

Teyla came alongside him and saw the faces looking back at her from another corner – a man and woman carved into stone, their features flat and strange.  Now that she knew what she was looking for, she could find the nearly gone faces, names and numbers carved into every stone beneath their feet.

"There are many memorials here," Teyla said softly.  "I believe that every stone in the floor is a grave marker."

"Great!" Rodney commented, sounding a little giddy.

Teyla stated seriously, "We are walking on memorials for the dead."  And she closed her eyes, sending quiet prayers to whatever deity might protect their souls.

Rodney went on, "Ronon, ah, you think you can… lift one of the floor stones?"

Teyla faced Ronon, aghast at the idea.  "We will be desecrating graves, Rodney.  And for what purpose?"

"Yeah, Rodney.  Why?" Sheppard responded.

Ronon was already crouched beside the stones in front of the altar – picking one of the smaller pieces with wide seams around it.  He pulled a knife from his back and was worked the blade into the space between stones.

"Is this necessary?" Teyla persisted.  "What do you hope to find in their graves?"

"If I'm right," McKay replied, "And I usually am… it's not just a grave under the floor.  It's something a whole lot bigger."

There was a pause, and then Sheppard said, "You're thinking it's a catacomb?"

Teyla watched as Ronon ran his knife all along the edge of the stone, and then he worked to wedge the blade underneath to lift the piece.

"Yeah, I'm pretty sure of it," Rodney went on.  "Fairly sure."

"And if we get down there, you think we can get out somewhere?"

"It's possible."

"The other building?  You think they're connected by the underground tunnels?"

"There's a chance."

"It's not as if the other building is just next door, Rodney."

"And these people have been living on the planet for centuries.  I'm thinking there are a lot of dead people down there, and that's going to take up some room.  What else do we got?  Do we just wait until the Ellikans deal with us?  Yeah, we might be able to take 'em, but honestly, if I was one of those guys, I'd just leave the prisoners walled up in this tomb like Fortunado until we suffocated or starved to death.  Care for a cask of amontillado?"

"Yeah, and I'd rather take them on our own terms.  But, Atlantis will check in.  They'll come looking for us."

"Great, but will they find us?  I couldn't get any readings through that stone.  Unless someone narks, they won't have any idea where we went."

"Didn't you file a report about this 'Temple'?"

"I didn't know for sure that this was where they'd bring us.  We really should check the catacombs.  There should be more air down there.  Do you think we're running out of air?"

There was a long sigh, and then Sheppard said, "Ronon, you think you can get one of those stones lifted?"

Ronon already had his fingers under the plate and was pulling up on it.  Stale air rose from the space as he pulled it out of place.  He let the plate fall on the floor beside them, as he replied, "Yeah, no problem."

OooOoOooooOoOoOo

Sheppard squatted, trying to get a knife worked in-between the floor stones.  McKay paced the narrow hallway.

The stone just wasn't moving.  "You really think this is the way into the catacombs?"

"From here?  Not necessarily," McKay answered.  "I mean, why would anyone put an entrance in the hallway?  At least if Ronon and Teyla are done there, they might figure out how to get us out.  Send for help.  Something like that."

"Yeah," Sheppard answered, and then touched his radio.  "Everything going okay?" he asked nonchalantly.

"Yeah," was Ronon's curt reply.

"If you can," Sheppard said, "Make your way to the Gate.  You can send reinforcements to free us and…"

"I think we got it figured out," Ronon responded.  And then, with a gritty, grinding noise, the floor next to Sheppard started to move.

Sheppard moved to one side, and McKay spun about and directed his light at the square of stone that started to shift.

"You were trying to move the wrong one," McKay pointed out.  "Probably only one of the panels can be lifted."

Sheppard grimaced.  "It was hard to tell with all the wear on the stones."  He moved in to help Ronon. "You think they've used the ceremony room recently to plant some new corpses?"

McKay crouched beside him.   "They have to put their dead somewhere."

"Why the big heavy doors though?  Why do they need that?"

Rodney sighed.  "Maybe this is meant to be a prison.  Maybe it's ceremonial.  Maybe they have serious issues about the undead rising," he said as they moved the slate aside.

"Hey," Ronon said as he poked his head through the floor.

"So…" McKay started, looking a little queasy at the hole in the ground.  "Is it okay down there?"

"Yeah," Ronon said.

"No zombies or anything?" McKay tried.

"Haven't seen any."  Ronon told him.

Standing near him, Teyla stated, "There are several small tunnels, but the largest goes in the direction of the other building." And she pointed her flashlight. "I believe we might find our exit."

Ronon studied Rodney.  "If we're going to another building just like this one, you think it has big stone doors on it, too."

"Yes, probably," Rodney admitted.  "They might not have lowered them.  I mean, the doors were open when we came in.  Hopefully the other building is that way, too. They might not have figured out what we're doing."

"Well," Sheppard said, "we'd better get moving then."

And Ronon ducked out of the hole to allow the others to step in. Sheppard swiveled his legs in first.

McKay hesitated, wringing his hands.  "Are there a lot of bodies down there?" he asked, his voice a squeak.  "Like partially-decomposed, mummy things?"

"Bones," Ronon told him.  "Lots of bones."

"Oh, okay," McKay said quietly as Sheppard stepped down into the hole.  "As long as they're just bones.  Nothing moving around?"

"Just bones," Ronon repeated. "They're not doing anything."

Sheppard moved out of the way once he was down.  "Come on, Rodney," he encouraged.  "Faster we get to the other side, the better chance we have of getting out."

And drawing a breath, McKay entered the catacombs.

OooOoOooooOoOoOo

It was dark.  The light from their P90s carved into the blackness, revealing the tunnels.   Some of the corridors were short, going back a hundred feet or so.  Others seemed to go on forever, their ends swallowed up in darkness.

McKay shrunk away from the walls as he directed his light into one of the divots.  The niches were three or four high, looking like berths on an old sleeper car – each was long enough to accept a stretched out corpse.

And within each repository, there were bones.  McKay watched the play of light against the bones -- noticed the way his flashlight seemed to light the eye sockets of the skulls.

Rodney pointed his light to the next ossuary.  Three skulls looked back to him, their eyeholes dark.  Another space seemed full-up with skulls – eight or nine, all lined up -- a family crypt perhaps?

All totally creepy!

Ronon was moving.  Rodney hardly noticed what he was doing until he heard the grating, horrific sound of stone being dragged over stone.  Ronon was resetting the tablet above their heads.  McKay cringed as he looked up, just in time to see the low candlelight from above being blotted out.

"Do you have to do that?" he asked weakly.

Ronon shrugged.  "If they ever open those doors, it probably won't take the Ellikans long to figure out where we've gone," he said.  "Still, it doesn't hurt to screw with them."  And he moved to cover the other hole.

"Slow them down if nothing else," Sheppard added, peering into the blackness all around them.  When the second panel scraped against stone, Sheppard added, "And give us some clue that they're coming."

They waited as Ronon finished his work.  McKay stepped closer to one of the niches, peering into the area behind the skulls, and frowned a little.

"Where are the rest of the bones?" he asked.

"The rest of them?  This place is full of them," Sheppard commented.

"No, really, they're missing whole bodies back there. See?  There's on a few femurs and maybe some pelvic bones with all these skulls."

"I guess there wasn't room in these more crowded crypts," Sheppard replied.  "I wouldn't worry about it."  And then he asked, "Do you really think we'll be able to get out when we reach the other building?"

Rodney shrugged.  "Maybe," he said.  He looked at the crypts again, directing his light all around.  "These bones look pretty old.  The Ellikans have to be putting their dead down here somewhere, just not in this area."

"Then it is reasonable to assume that they are opening the catacombs at the other location," Teyla decided. "Closer to where they are interring their dead."

And Rodney smiled, glad to hear her agree – if for no other reason than to believe they had a chance of getting out again.

"Let's go," said Sheppard.  And so they started moving.

McKay fell in behind Sheppard, trying to not pay too much attention to what was around him, being sure that he didn't accidentally rub against any of the skulls.  He hated the way the shadows moved, making it look as if something was moving within the crypts.

Rats?  Were there rats in there?  No, something smaller.  Frantically, he shone the light about, catching nothing by the grin of a jawbone and the shadows thrown up by long bones.  Just your imagination, he told himself, and gave Teyla a little reassuring grin before continuing on.

Stupid imagination!

Another skull greeted him, sitting a little askew in its crypt.  It looked jaunty.  Above it was a space with four skulls of graduated sizes.

Rodney talked, because he needed to talk.  "Someone must come back to rearrange the skulls after all of the…'flesh' is gone."  He shook his head.  "I wouldn't like that job.  Think about how gross that would be.  There must be stuff and goo hanging off the bones sometimes.  How long do you think it takes for a body to get to this state?  So that just the bones are left?"

"Longer than you'd think," Ronon said.

"It must stink when they have bodies down here, doing their rotting away thing."  McKay winced at the thought.  And then, he sniffed warily.  He found a moldering odor of decay, but not exactly what he'd expect from a pit of decomposing body parts.

"They must use something to speed up the process, don't you think?" McKay asked.

"Yeah," Ronon responded. "Probably that."  And he pointed to the wall.

Rodney frowned and then pointed his light where Ronon had indicated.  Something moved.  Something small – tiny.  He had to step closer to get a good look.  "Ants!" he declared when he recognized the shapes.

"They're called jiats," Teyla corrected as she moved in alongside Rodney and they both peered at the little line of insects that crawled along the wall.

The insects were small, resembling sugar ants, but with huge mandibles.  They moved in a line, climbing the wall and disappearing into a crack in the ceiling.  Rodney pulled back in case one of them had any sudden ideas.

"This entire catacomb must be infested with them," Teyla decided.  "They are known to live in dark places and be carrion eaters.  I have heard that they are employed in this fashion."  She nodded to the bones in on a nearby shelf.  "They clean the bones."

"Okay, that's disgusting," Rodney declared, but then considered the situation.  "But, as long as they just eat the 'carrion', I'm okay with that.  They probably keep this place a lot less disgusting, right?  Just keep them away from me!"

He glanced to Sheppard and found him stepping away from the marching insects.  "So," Sheppard said evenly, "carrion eaters.  That means they're not going to eat any living flesh?"

"This is usually the case," Teyla replied with a tight smile.

"Usually, huh?"  Sheppard pursued.

"They have been known to take live prey when no other food is available," Teyla told him evenly as she watched the creatures move.

Sheppard did not look happy.  He sighed, and asked, "How much farther until we reach the other end?"

"We're not even halfway," Ronon noted.

"Okay.  Let's keep moving then," Sheppard took point, hurrying into the darkness as if he wanted to get away from the ant-like jiats.  "So, what was the purpose of these tunnels?" he asked.  "Did they dig all of this just for the dead?"

McKay shrugged.  "I'm thinking that this might have been a mine at some point.  That would explain the weird little offshoot tunnels."  And he paused, shining a light into the side tunnel.  It stretched out for a distance, and then either ended, or curved off in a new direction.   "The main tunnel is pretty straight, so I'm thinking we're on the right track."

"Good," Sheppard replied. 

Rodney paused as he reached one vault.  It seemed full-up with skulls – the front was a wall of faces.  Many of the skulls were tiny– children, babies – a family with generations of heartbreak.  God, how many children had they lost?  He started to count them.

Teyla touched him lightly on the shoulder and he stopped the process and moved forward, blinking his eyes to try and rid himself of the image.

They journeyed onward.  Rodney spotted little lines of jiats from time to time.  The insects meandered about the crypts, probably looking for some last scrap to eat.  He gripped his P90 tightly as he considered that the other end of this tunnel, if it was the 'active' part of the catacombs, there might be some new bodies loaded in there.  He really, really didn't want to find any corpses, all crawling with ants.

He shuddered at the thought, and his steps quickened.

Their lights turned their shadows into giants.  Their footsteps made hollow sounds.  Their breathing echoed, sounding louder than normal, sounding like some great living thing was nearby.

And there was a drip.  They could hear it – liquid falling from some ceiling.  It sounded cold and terrifically forlorn.  There was something lonely about the sound of water dripping onto stone.  Rodney clutched his jacket shut and pointed his P90's light into every side tunnel that they encountered.

"Might as well turn off that light, Rodney," Sheppard said from in front.

"Why?" McKay shot back.  "I need it!"

"You keep shining it in my eyes every time I turn my head," Sheppard snapped.  "Turn it off.   Conserve the battery.  You don't need it if Ronon and I have ours on."

Behind him, Teyla turned off her flashlight, and Rodney sighed as he did the same.  The light from the two remaining sources was sufficient to see – with John in the lead and Ronon at the end -- but every time Ronon turned around, shining his light behind them to sweep the area, Rodney felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand up as darkness swallowed them up.

The group said little.  Rodney kept his head high, not wanting to see any more of the skulls or the bones, or their lonely little holes on the wall. He didn't want to see the little skulls all stacked together.

Suddenly, with the sound of a coconut being struck, his foot connected with something and he hopped a moment to catch his balance as the debris smacked into the wall.

"What was that?" he hissed.

Sheppard had already found the source, illuminating a skull near a dark water stain.

The team said nothing, and John started to move forward again.

"Wait, wait," McKay called as he stooped down.  "This has to go back where it belongs."

"How are you going to figure that out?" Ronon asked shining his light into to the carved holes.

McKay sighed as he crouched beside the forgotten skull.  "Because, it has a place. The family would want it put back."

In all this strangeness, Rodney just wanted something to be right.  How could he just kick a skull?  Ronon was directing his light into the niches, but all of the sites appeared to be occupied.  There was no obvious gap in any of the collections.

Rodney frowned.  "I don't want to put it in the wrong place.  I mean, what if there's a family feud or something?"

"Leave it then," Sheppard said.

Rodney's hand hovered near the thing.  It didn't seem right to just leave it on the floor – but he really didn't want to touch it.  At least, it wasn't in the middle of the corridor anymore.  Over by the side, it would be less likely to be drop-kicked again, right?

The water stain in the floor moved and McKay blinked.  "Can you shine the light over here, Ronon?" he asked, and felt sorry he'd requested it when he saw what was illuminated.

Ants.

Not just a thin line, but hundreds of them, all squiggling and squirreling around, coming down the wall and pooling on the floor.

Squirked, McKay straightened quickly, stepping away rapidly until he slammed into the wall at the opposite side.

Sheppard, making the same realization, flinched from them, and tried to look cool about it. 

McKay said nothing as the colonel came closer to him, but he frowned as the floor seemed to vibrate.  He looked down, finding that they were suddenly standing on wood instead of stone, and he wondered why.

And then the ground gave way and they were plunged into darkness.

PART 3: SLIP SLIDING AWAY

"No!" Teyla shouted, lunging toward Rodney and John as they disappeared. But they were gone.

"Sheppard!" Ronon shouted.  "McKay!"  The sound of the cave-in continued, rumbling like thunder, as if it would go on forever.  Rodney and John shouted, their voices getting eaten up in the roar, growing fainter with incredible speed.

The wall on the far side crumbled.  Stones near the hole collapsed.  Bones and rock were tossed after them.  Ronon tried to spring in and stop the wall from falling, but stopped short as the floor shuddered beneath him.

The crackling, rumbling, tumbling finally came to an end.  The stones along the wall stopped tottering.  The shelves were now empty of bone.  Nothing else fell.

All was quiet except for the clatter and tumult in the hole, but even that faded to nothing.   Teyla quickly edged forward, keeping a tight grip on Ronon's arm.  The Satedan played his part, providing an anchor for her.

"Rodney?" she cried, stretching toward the cave-in, sweeping her P90's light over the ragged hole that seemed to smolder with dust.

It was dark below, black as pitch.  A pit, carved through the stone floor, had been covered with wood that had rotted through.  Her light caught the motes and lit them like living things, making it impossible to see very far.  She frowned, not finding John's light.  "John! Rodney?" she called again.

Finally, the dust cleared, revealing a strange chute beneath that sloped, twisting out of sight.

"What is it?" Ronon asked tersely.  "Are they okay?"

Teyla tried to keep her voice neutral, as she said, "I cannot see them."

Ronon carefully stepped alongside Teyla and peered in.

Teyla knew that it would be wise to get around the hole and continue toward the exit.  There was a chance that the doors hadn't been dropped.  If they could escape from the catacombs, get past the Ellikans and return to the Gate.  They could return with help from Atlantis.  At the very least, they could find a rope in the town.

And she continued to shine the light downward, seeing the darkness and the depth and hearing no further sound from their companions.

They needed to find help.  They needed ropes.  They needed to discover if the other end of the tunnel was clear.  But Rodney and John might be hurt…

Ronon shrugged out of Teyla's grip and leaned out over the hole.  Then, seeming to form a plan, he crouched at the edge.  He gave one look to Teyla before letting himself drop.

She watched him catch his balance on the steep floor.  He braced his hands on opposite sides of the chute and looked up at her expectantly.

So she sat down at the edge of the hole.  As she handed her P90 to Ronon, the light lit the ceiling.

The last thing she noted as she lowered herself onto the slope below was that the ceiling of the catacomb was alive with jiats.  She ducked her head and followed Ronon.

OooOoOooooOoOoOo

"Gah," Sheppard voiced, squeezing his eyes shut and trying to force back the pain that engulfed him.  Where was he?  His eyes shot open.

Blackness.

He sneezed, violently, and the pain hit his chest, nearly making him puke.  He gasped and sneezed again, in agony.

Dust.  There was too much dust.

"Rodney!" he called, his voice echoed in the close darkness.  "Rodney!"

No answer.  Where was he?

Light.  John needed light, but where was his P90?

He was on sharp rocks.  He tried to get a particularly pointed one out of the small of his back, but his shoulder spat at him in pain – radiating all through his chest.

God!   And he clenched his arm to his chest as he breathed through it, and tried not to sneeze again.  Freakin' great!

"Rodney!" he called again.

Nothing.

Dammit.

He felt about with his right hand, and suffered an electric buzz of pain through his collarbone.  "Rodney?  McKay?"

He touched his ear, looking for his radio, but couldn't find it. Great.

Rocks.  Just lots of rocks.  And bones.  Yeah, that one was definitely a bone.  He kept searching in the blackness, trying to locate something that could help him.  His hand glanced on what might have been the barrel of a gun, but it turned out to be a femur.

God this sucked!

Bones and rocks.  He needed to find Rodney in the blackness.  He needed light and he had to find Rodney.  He shifted, carefully holding his arm to keep his clavicle from shifting as he got onto his knees to increase his range.  His knees weren't really happy about the change in position, but they would survive it.

He'd fallen, sliding down on a funhouse slide from hell with rocks and skulls and all sorts of crap raining down.  He'd seen Rodney a moment and then blackness as he lost his P90 and the light.  After that, there was only darkness and shouting and clunking and clattering and a lot of hurt.

And now, stillness.

Except, far off, he could hear a sound, a scrabbling, scraping sound that made his hair stand on end.  What the hell was that?

"Rodney!" he called again, putting so much sharpness into the call that his chest ached.  He was rewarded with a quiet groan.

He smiled a little.  "Rodney?" he called again, softer, and he moved toward the sound.  "Rodney?  Where are you, buddy?"  He kept crawling, holding his jaw tight to combat the pain across his shoulders and hoping he didn't ram his head into something.

And he could still hear that sound, growing closer.  Muffled muttering seemed to accompany it, like the voices of ghosts.

He reached out as he moved, feeling his way.  Finally he touched something other than hard rock and bone – a boot.

Yes!

He moved, sliding across the rocks, edging his way closer to Rodney – shoving bones out of the way, swatting his hand above his head in case a stalactite wanted to crown him.

A boot, a leg, a knee.  The leg bone's connected to the knee bone.

Finally, he was alongside his friend, and he shook him gently, calling, "Rodney? Come on, say something."

He heard a quiet, thick, "What?"

Good.  Finally. "Where's your P90?" Sheppard asked as he felt about, and found it still attached to Rodney's vest.

"Where's yours?" Rodney returned, his voice a quiet and annoyed slur.  "Lost it?  Always getting lost…"

"Never mind that.  Yours will do," Sheppard said as he unclipped the weapon from Rodney and then flipped the switch.  He let out a silent thank you as the light came on, and he instantly winced at the brightness of it.

He blinked, clearing his vision.  First, he saw only the wall in front of him.  They were in a room -- a small room.  He lowered his gaze to Rodney, who was rolled up against the wall, looking limp.  His face was covered with blood.

The scuffing noise continued.  He swung the light around, trying to find the source.  About six feet up, there was a hole in the wall, and when he directed the light into it, he saw that the hole angled upward -- the bottom of a chute.

Well, he thought, that's how we got here.

Rodney groaned, and Sheppard returned his attention to his friend.

"Hey," John called softly.  "You okay?"  He settled the P90 nearby, jamming it amid some of the debris to keep it upright.

"You blind?" McKay snapped.  "Do I look okay?"  Rodney squinted, turning his head slightly to look at Sheppard.  His tight expression softened as he said, worriedly, "You're bleeding."

"Yeah," Sheppard responded, running the back of his hand over his cheek.  It stung. The hand came back bloody. Great.  "Figured as much.  Mostly bruises.  Might have broken my collarbone.  That's gonna smart for a while.  You're a mess."

Rodney let out a breath and let his head rest again, only to jerk it suddenly up.  "What?  Oh God, we're laying on bones!"

"Calm down, Rodney!" Sheppard ordered as he rested a hand on Rodney to keep him still. Bones?  Yeah, there were bones, but… damn!

He was right.  These weren't rocks – it was a pile of human bones.  Hundreds of them – filling the space -- small bones, vertebrae, rib bones, finger bones.  "What is this place?" Sheppard questioned.

"It's a garbage pit of bones!" McKay murmured.  His eyes fixed on the shattered bones all around him.  "Oh God, what level of hell is this?"

"Calm down, Rodney.  It's no big deal."

"No big deal?"  McKay's voice got higher, and then he closed his eyes as he concentrated.  "Okay, okay.  They're just bones. Yeah, that's right." his voice became calmer as he thought.  He licked his lips and continued, "I didn't think there were enough bones in the catacombs.  The Ellikans must have just dumped the extra bones down here.  Just swept them off the floor and down the garbage chute."

"Frickin' great," Sheppard grumbled, trying to shuffle into a better position, but feeling really weird about it because he was kicking human bones out of the way.

He heard the scrabbling sound and looked to the black hole.  The sound stopped and started and stopped again, and then he heard a voice call out, "Sheppard?  McKay?"

It echoed hollowly, but the voice certainly improved John's mood.  "Ronon!"

"Sheppard!  You okay?"

"Okay?" McKay squawked.  "We're almost dead!"

"We're pretty banged up," Sheppard shouted.  "But we're not dead."

"We're coming," Teyla called.

"You guys think that's the best idea?" Sheppard called.  "We're kinda stuck down here, and not really in shape to climb out.  You might want to get help."

"We're coming," Ronon repeated Teyla's sentiment.

"There's about a six foot drop at the end of the slide," Sheppard told him.

Ronon chuckled.  "That's not going to be a problem.  I'll be able to get back out."

"Fine," Sheppard called. "Suit yourself.  It'll be good to see you."

Rodney had sat up a little during the conversation, but he winced as if the effort was too much and returned to his original place.

Damn it.   Sheppard leaned closer to Rodney, trying to get a better look at him.  He looked horrible -- pale and bleeding from dozens of scrapes, the worst of which was a gashed and swollen side of his head.  Yeah, it looked as if Rodney had whacked his head pretty badly.

That had to hurt.

Sheppard unzipped a pocket on Rodney's vest and drew out a dressing.

"What are you doing?" Rodney asked.

"Going to see what I can do to patch you up.  Don't want you bleeding over everything."

"Be sure you use antibiotic ointment!" McKay insisted.  He brought up a hand to get the requested packet, but his movements were slow and sloppy.

Sheppard told him, "I'll take care of it." And batted away Rodney's ineffectually reaching hand, and instantly regretted it as the action sent bolts of pain through his collar and he sucked a lungful of air through his teeth.

"Sorry," Rodney said, his eyes filled with regret.

"Don't worry about it," Sheppard told him, trying not to be too concerned about the unevenness of Rodney's pupils.

"The antibiotic ointment…" McKay returned to his pervious issue,  "…use a lot.  We don't know what kind of horrible horrible old diseases are in this place.  God!  What do you think killed all these people?  What if it was a plague?  I might get Black Death!  Or whatever the Pegasus galaxy calls it.  I catch a cold every time someone sneezes in my direction.  Oh, God, these people might have all been killed by some bone infection or Ebola or a flesh eating virus or..."

"These bones are old, Rodney.  There's nothing living down here.  No bacteria or virus could still be here."  He picked up a bone for emphasis, and tapped it on the wall.  It made a hollow 'tonk'.  "They are just lots of people who died over centuries."

"And we're lying on them.  You think about that?  Hundreds of dead people!"

"Don't think about it," Sheppard said as he dropped the bone and picked up the first aid kit with one hand.

"You're going to sterilize your hands first, right?" McKay asked, looking at where the bone had fallen.

Sheppard signed, and dutifully opened an antiseptic wipe, cleaned his hands, and then tore open a wound wipe to clean the bleeding cut on Rodney's head.

Rodney hissed and screwed his head further into the bone pile as Sheppard worked.  The cut was pretty bad and the bleeding wasn't stopping.  "Ow!" McKay complained. "Ow!"

"Quit being a baby," Sheppard told him, being as careful as he could.  He tore open a packet of Neosporin with his teeth and squeezed the contents directly onto the bleeding cut.  "Happy?"

Rodney winced.  "Ecstatic!"

As he applied the bandage over the wound, Sheppard asked, "You hurt anywhere else?"

"I've probably bruised every inch of my body!" Rodney grumbled, but there was little strength in his comment.

"Okay, besides that…" Sheppard continued.  He looked toward the chute, still hearing the scuffling – seeing light now.  Ronon and Teyla were getting closer.  Obviously, they were moving slowly to avoid falling.  They weren't idiots.  "How are you feeling?"

Rodney sighed deeply.  "I feel like my head's going to split open.  I'm seeing double.  My back really hurts.  My leg hurts.  My arm really hurts.   I can hardly move."

"Do you think you broke any bones?"

"Probably broke a bunch," Rodney said, one hand touching a shattered bone nearby -- possibly a humerus.  He lifted his eyes to meet Sheppard's gaze.

"Any of your own bones?" Sheppard tried the question again.

Rodney blinked.  "You're bleeding," he said again.

"Yeah, I know.  We both are," Sheppard said quietly.

"You should take care of that."

"I will," Sheppard said as he opened another wound wipe and tried to take care of some of Rodney's other visible scrapes.

Rodney flinched as Sheppard worked and his voice became softer as he said, "And I'm … I just feel so tired.  I feel… weird."  It was as if he was sliding away from Sheppard.

"Weird isn't anything new for you,"  Sheppard said sharply, trying to keep Rodney's attention.

"Yeah…" Rodney said, his voice trailing off.

"Stay awake, Rodney!  Ronon and Teyla are coming."

"They'll get us out," Rodney said.

Sheppard nodded at that statement.  "We'll figure out something."

McKay blinked again, staring out in front of him, and he swallowed before saying, "Door…" And his eyes closed.

"Yeah, we could use one," Sheppard said. "Think you can make one magically appear?"

Rodney didn't respond.

"Rodney?" Sheppard said sharply.  "Rodney, don't you fall asleep!  Wake your ass up!"  He jostled McKay's shoulder.  "Rodney!"

McKay opened his eyes as if he was really trying to awaken, but the eyes were unfocused and his eyelids quickly fell.

"Don't!"  John pressed a hand against Rodney's forehead, not finding a fever.  The head wound continued to bleed, staining the bandage.

Unable to wake him, Sheppard leaned against the wall and looked toward the bottom of the chute, and smiled a little as Ronon peeked his head out, braced on either side of the passage.  Ronon grinned at his victory.

PART 4:  BONE TIRED

"Hey," Ronon said, he balanced at the bottom of the chute, looking at the bone pile, and then he lifted his gaze to take in Sheppard and McKay.  They were both bloodied and bruised.  McKay wasn't moving. "You guys look bad," he said and lowered himself.

"Yeah, I know," Sheppard responded, sounding a little annoyed at the comment.

Ronon couldn't help it if he spoke the truth.  He turned to help Teyla.  She handed him both P90's, then easily made her way to the boney floor.

"You sure you can get back out of here?" Sheppard asked.

"I can brace myself," Ronon told them, and he nodded to Teyla as he returned one of the weapons to her.  "Not so easy for her, but we managed.  Don't know why you didn't do it."

Sheppard sneered.  "You weren't falling in total darkness with rocks and bones and a McKay and God knows what else coming down on you.  It's a miracle we survived."

Yeah, that was true.  Rodney looked especially rough – too pale and too still.  Ronon moved carefully over the crunching bones and squatted beside Rodney.  He rested a hand on his head, careful of the bandage, and Rodney flinched a little at the touch.

Dex couldn't see any immediate signs of broken bones or any other excessive bleeding.  That didn't mean that something wasn't seriously wrong. "How is he?" he asked, his gaze not leaving Rodney's still face.

"I don't know," Sheppard said with a sigh. "He was talking for a while, but then he just drifted off and I can't wake him.  I think he's mostly beaten up with the fall, but he hit his head pretty hard.  He said he hurt all over, but didn't offer any real specific information."

Ronon raised his gaze to meet Sheppard's.  "And you?"

The colonel winced as he tried to shrug. "Pretty sure that I broke my collarbone," he said, sounding embarrassed.  "Other than that, bruises and scrapes."  He looked at his arms that rested in his lap.  "I won't be able to climb."

"We'll figure something out," Ronon declared. He looked around, noticing that they had only one light.  "What happened to your P90?"

Sheppard shrugged.  "I was holding it when we fell.  Must have gotten buried under this mess when we landed."  He looked toward the bottom of the chute.  "Does anyone have a plan?"

"We still need to discover a means of escaping the catacombs," Teyla said from her place near the wall.  She stood as if she didn't want to disturb the bones. "Ronon can return to the upper level to search for an exit and I can remain with you."   She glanced to Ronon for approval.  "Perhaps you can return to the Gate for help without catching the attention of the Ellikans."

Ronon nodded, but Sheppard grimaced, saying, "Do we really want Ronon to go on alone?"

"I can handle it," Ronon told him.  "Teyla should stay with you."

"I don't need a babysitter," Sheppard shot back, trying to cross his arms defiantly, but failing as he ended up gasping and groaning and glaring instead.  "Besides, I think we're pretty safe in here.  What could possibly happen?"

"Those jiats might get in," Ronon reminded.

Sheppard expression fell, and he turned his head toward the chute. "Thanks for the reminder."

Ronon focused his light on the on the walls of the room, searching for any sign of the insects.  Nothing.  Good.  He narrowed his eyes as he got a good look at the surroundings.  "What is this place?"

"Some sort of bone pit," Sheppard told him.  "A garbage dump."

"Looks different from the other rooms," Ronon muttered, looking about the space with his flashlight.  "It's smoother," he pronounced.

Teyla nodded, and turned toward the wall, running a hand over the surface.  "He's right," she said softly.  "This is not carved stone."

"What is it then?" Sheppard asked.

Ronon touched the wall and smiled a little in recognition.  "It's like Atlantis," he stated.

Sheppard sat up at that comment, groaning as he clutched his arm, but he managed to turn and face the wall. He grinned a little.  "Oh," he said, "This is totally Ancient design.  Rodney!" and he gave McKay a little shove.

"Ngrh," McKay muttered.

"Come on, Rodney," Sheppard called, sounding excited.  "Wake up and look around.  Do you have any idea what we've fallen into?"

"Wha?" Rodney responded, blinking at him, but his eyes still didn't seem to focus and he really wasn't with them.

"Rodney, wake up.  Come on," Sheppard cajoled.  And then he seemed to remember something.  "Door!  You said something about a door."

"Yeah," Rodney said, his voice quiet.  He licked his lips as if preparing to say something profound, and then said, "Drghn," before he closed his eyes again.

Sheppard made a disappointed sound and sighed.

"Door?" Ronon repeated.  He turned from the pair and scanned the room.  There was nothing to see except bones for a floor, smooth walls with the opening to the chute above.  A domed roof completed the room.

He didn't see a door.  They needed a way out of this place.

McKay's head was at floor level.  Ronon adjusted his gaze, staring at the wall directly in front of McKay, just above the bone floor.  Nothing still.  He moved closer to the wall.

And there, just barely visible, just above the scattered bones, he could see a line, a break in the wall.  It didn't look like much.  Not really anything he'd bother with, but if McKay had seen a door.

He lowered himself to his knees and started digging through the bones.

OooOoOooooOoOoOo

Sheppard watched Ronon, not sure of what to make of his activity, then he too saw the line on the wall. "Really?" he asked. "That's a door?"  And then he realized a fact.  "If that's the top of the door, then there's a hell of a lot of bones in here."

"Yeah," Ronon said, shoving the bones away. "Looks that way."  He pushed them into piles along the walls.

Sheppard moved to assist, but Teyla was already in his way.  "You remain.  Ronon and I will do the work."

"It's not that hard to do," Sheppard grumbled, making a limited gesture.  "I can move a bunch of bones."

Her gaze took in his collar, and then met his eyes.  "You can keep the bones from falling back into the area near the door."

"That's right," he responded.  "Give me the hard job."

She smiled slightly at that response and moved to the other side of the door, settling her P90 nearby so that they could use the light.  And then, she started shoving bones out of the way.

And she was right.  Every time they dug out an armload, another armload of bones would fall back into its place.  John did what he could to stop it, inserting his body in-between the newly created hill and the deepening hole.

The mound at one side of the room increased as Ronon and Teyla dug.  Teyla worked with a grim expression.  Ronon moved with surprising speed.  They tossed the bones beyond Sheppard, and John tried to keep it all from falling back at them.  It became harder to hold back the excess from a sitting position, so Sheppard stretched out, creating a wall.   Ronon and Teyla tossed the displaced bones over him.

He felt a little like Grand Coulee.

"Sorry, Rodney," Sheppard muttered as he pushed at the growing mound of dry bones, shoving them toward his insensible friend.  It wouldn't be long, and he'd be covered with them. "Not much we can do about it."

Rodney would be safe at the far side of the room, but the mound was going to get high, and the room was small.

Bones clicked and clanked as they were hefted to the top of the pile.  They 'thunked' as they hit something soft – Rodney.  They found Sheppard's P90, but its light was broken.  Ronon hefted it up toward Rodney, being careful not to hit him.

"Hang in there, Rodney," Sheppard said quietly.  "Just keep still.  We're going to be out of here in a minute."  And yet with each toss of bone, he knew that Rodney was getting buried.

Sheppard glanced toward the dark chute opening and for a moment he saw tiny movement. He wished he could reach one of the P90s for light.

Ronon and Teyla kept digging.  Now that more of the lines were revealed, there was no doubt that this was indeed a door.  They only needed to get deep enough to reveal the opening mechanism.  Sheppard hoped that the damn door wasn't locked – and that it opened like all Ancient doors and didn't swing inward.

Something caught his attention, movement along the wall.  It trailed down the walls like water.

It wasn't water.

"Ronon, can you hurry it up?" Sheppard asked, watching the moving trail.  It was spreading out.  He needed to be out of here – they all needed a way out right now!

Teyla had abandoned digging and was also playing the part of a wall, staying near the door, holding back the bones to clear a space for Ronon to work.  She glanced to the wall as well and then looked to Sheppard.

Her gaze held the answer to his question.  Yeah, she saw them, too.

Crap!  They were trapped in here.  McKay was helpless and those flesh-eating ants were in with them.  If those damn things got to Rodney before Ronon was done with this archeological expedition…

"Rodney, you okay back there?" John asked quietly.  He fought to keep in place as the pitch of the slope and the weight of the accumulating bones tried to drag him down.

"Just a little more," Ronon stated.

"Teyla, can you see him?" Sheppard asked anxiously, because he sure as hell couldn't move.

She strained to stand up enough.  "I cannot," she stated.  "There are too many bones now."

"Those ants?" Sheppard asked.

"They are on the wall," Teyla said confidently.  "They are not near him."

John remembered seeing a TV show where a man wore a beard of bees.  He hoped jiats didn't form into beards.  And he closed his eyes tightly, trying to rid his mind of that image.

Ronon moved faster, sweeping his hand again through the bits of vertebrae and fractured tibias.  The bones becoming more busted up the deeper he went.   Something appeared – the shape of a control box.  Dex grinned and shoved at the debris with all his might, using his body to block anything from falling back into place, fully exposing the device.

The ants were still on the wall, but they were getting closer. Lots of ants.

From behind him, Sheppard heard soft moan, and then a quiet, "Oh God…"

"Rodney?"

"Oh God… I'm… Oh…"  There was the crinkle and clatter of bones being dislodged.

"Keep still!" Sheppard ordered, afraid to move a muscle, lest he allow the mountain to fall.

"Rodney!" Teyla called.  "Do not move, Rodney."

"Help!  The bones are… they're everywhere.  I…"  Panic edged his voice and suddenly, bones were flying about as Rodney fought to get clear of them.  "Sheppard?"

"I'm right here, Rodney!" Sheppard tried to assure.  "Keep still!"  And to Ronon, he shouted, "Open it!"

Ronon tried to activate the door.

Nothing.

Freakin' great!

"I'm buried!" Rodney cried pitifully.  "Got to get out.  Oh, God!"

"McKay!  Stop it!  Stop moving!"  Sheppard commanded, but the mountain was slipping.  John could feel the weight that Rodney had dislodged, piling up behind him.  He tried to make himself bigger, to hold it all back, but – God it hurt!   And Rodney was determined to get himself out from under everything.  It was all coming down.

Teyla kept calling to Rodney, trying to quiet him, but Rodney wasn't listening.

"Bridge!"  Sheppard shouted at Ronon, who continued to furiously wave his hand at the control.  "Try the bridge!"

Ronon was reaching for his blaster with one hand.  Instead, he punched the control panel, dislodging the cover as he was pelted with falling bones.  Cupping his arm around the exposed control panel to keep it clear, he pulled out the middle crystal in the group, moved the top one into its position, and then bridged them both with the first.

Light.  The display lit up, and Ronon hurriedly activated the control.  The half-uncovered door opened.

And then came the avalanche.

OooOoOooooOoOoOo

They rolled, falling with the wall of bones, turning and tumbling and clattering into the darkness.  The light from the P90s was swallowed up in the bone-fall.

Sheppard shouted in pain as his broken collarbone was cruelly yanked.  Someone kicked him in the head – McKay, no doubt – and his ears rung.

And after a few seconds of falling and spinning and pain, everything came to a halt in the blackness as John landed on his back.  He groaned.

Darkness again!  Can't we catch a break and get some light? 

Then light – it came up slowly until the whole room was gloriously aglow.  He blinked against it, and smiled to see familiar Ancient architecture surrounding them.

Thank God!

Sheppard looked about, quickly finding Ronon and Teyla.  They were already on their feet in the mess of spilled bones.  Teyla was moving, heading to McKay who was on his hands and knees, looking confused and panicky.

She touched the scientist softly on the shoulder as she crouched beside him.  "Rodney, you are all right," she insisted softly.  "We are free of the room."

"Bones…" Rodney said, his voice haunted.  "There were bones everywhere.  I… they were on me.  I was buried.  I…"  His gaze strayed along the bones that covered the floor, and he jerked one hand away from them.

"You are free of it now," Teyla insisted.  She moved in front of him, trying to look him in the eyes.  "You are no longer in there."

His gaze finally met hers, his eyes still wide.  And then he blinked and seemed to come to himself.  "Yeah," he said softly, and he winced as he reached to touch the loose and bloodied bandage.  "Ow!  My head!"

Teyla kicked a clear space on the floor, and helped to get McKay seated and somewhat comfortable.

Sheppard struggled to stand, clutching his arm to keep his collarbone still.  Ronon was helping him before he was even aware that the Satedan had moved.

"Where are we?" Ronon asked.

And Sheppard, letting Teyla look after McKay, finally took the time to really examine the room.  It was obviously Ancient design – with consoles and panels, buttons that lit up and screens that displayed letters and figures and colors.

To him, it was just pretty nonsense – but so much better than anything else they'd encountered so far.  He moved closer to a console to examine it.  Hopefully, it would help them get out of this hole in the ground.  He stared at all of it blankly.

Nope, nothing.  No idea.

So, he gave up on the panel and looked toward the one person who could make real sense of it.

Teyla was fussing with the scientist, nodding to his whining as she worked to replace the bandage at his head.

"And it really hurts," Rodney complained.  "Like someone's driving a screwdriver right into my head.  And I ache all over.  I don't think there's one inch on my body that isn't bruised or scraped or broken in some way.  I swear to God, I have some dead guy's teeth imbedded in my thigh right now because it hurts like…"

"Rodney," Sheppard called.

"What were all those bones doing on me?" Rodney asked, his voice pathetic and small.

"Rodney…" Sheppard tried.

Rodney glared at him, "I'm hurt and could barely move and you buried me in bones!  How the hell is that a fair thing to do to a man?  You guys seriously suck!"  He touched his head and grimaced.

He was right.  They had buried him.  It sucked.  But it had to be done.

The man looked awful, even after Teyla had replaced the first bandage.  Drying blood filled in the lines on his pale face, making him look haggard and old.

"Rodney, we need your help with something," Sheppard continued, trying to get him onto a different track.  "If you can figure out the purpose of this room, we'll probably be able to find a way out."

Rodney blinked and then said, "Oh."  And then, "How did we get here?  Last thing I remember was… well besides the horrible internment under six feet of bones…"

"There wasn't six feet of bones on you, Rodney," Sheppard grumbled.  "Maybe that's how much was in the whole room, but…"

"And we opened the door," Teyla filled in.

"I opened it," Ronon added, shoving a thumb at his chest.

Rodney turned to the doorway that was still blocked with far too many human bones.  "Right," he said.

"And we ended up here," Sheppard added, looking about in the area.  The new room was several times larger than the previous one.  It had a door that opened back to the bone room – that was it.  "So, Rodney, do your magic.  Conjure us a way out."

Rodney looked up at him, gave a measured nod, and slowly tried to stand.

Ronon gave Sheppard a pat and came alongside Rodney.  He helped Teyla get the physicist to his feet.  McKay was shaky, but apparently capable of standing.

Ronon stayed at his side as the Canadian hobbled and finally reached one of the workspaces.  McKay punched a button and the display came to life, flashing symbols and colors in kaleidoscope.

"What is it?" Sheppard asked.

"Hang on. Hang on," McKay mumbled.  "I may have seen something like this before in the database."  The speed of the scrolling symbols increased as he touched controls, and Rodney's eyes narrowed, watching them go.

Ronon and Teyla exchanged glances with Sheppard, and waited as Rodney examined the information.

"Anything?" Sheppard asked.

"This might take a while," Rodney growled.

"How long?"

"Give me a minute, would you?  My head feels like it's going to explode and I really don't need the extra pressure right now."

"60 seconds," Sheppard said, checking his watch.  "You got it."

Rodney jutted out his chin, but said nothing as he kept working.

With nothing else to do, Sheppard wandered around the room and toward the bone room.  It was still partially full, and now darkened.  They'd lost the P90s and the lights that went with them.  The room, apparently, had no light of its own.

He wondered if the ants were still marching down the wall.  Of course they are.   He glanced about the dark space, looking for movement, wondering how long it would take for the insidious insects to figure out where the humans had gone.

It was only a matter of time and the tiny sons of bitches would be in here.  His skin crawled at the thought of it.

"Huh," Rodney said.

Sheppard checked his watch.  "63 seconds. You're slipping."

"Bite me," Rodney growled.

"Did you figure it out?" Sheppard asked.

To that, Rodney smiled, looking smug as hell.

"Well, what is it?" Ronon growled.

Rodney pointed to the display.  "This system is concerned with a mining operation," he responded.  "I already surmised that the tunnels were dug for this purpose, but now I think I know why."

"Well?" Sheppard said tiredly, not up to Rodney's usual slow reveal.

Rodney pointed to the display.  "The symbol for 'crystal' is all through this system."

"What kind of crystal?" Teyla asked as she drew near the scientist.

"Not certain yet, but they certainly mined a lot of it." He shook his head a little in frustration and immediately stopped as a hand shot up to cradle his wounded forehead.  "Oh…" he said quietly, and he pressed his weight against the console.

"Rodney?" Sheppard called, concerned.

"It's… important stuff," Rodney said.  "I just haven't discovered why they wanted it so badly."

"But you will," Sheppard went on.  He checked his watch. "Another 63 seconds?"

Rodney frowned.  "I already have an idea.  I just need to see what else is here.  It's not easy to get through all of this without a laptop interface."  And he pushed himself from the console and shambled to the far side of the room to a little raised podium.  Ronon stayed with him.

Sheppard watched with raised eyebrows.  "Well?" he asked when Rodney arrived. "What's that one for?"

"If you'd just let me look, I might have a chance of answering."  And Rodney bowed his head as he examined the device.  Then, with another, "Huh," he glanced toward the bone room.  "I think that's a transporter control."

Sheppard looked to the other room.  "For that?" he asked.  "Bones?"

"The mining operation must have used the chute to remove rock from the quarry.  They dumped it all down here, and then it was transported up and out of the shaft," Rodney said.

"The Ellikans came later and used the emptied mines as a catacomb, and took the stones to build the city," Teyla completed.

"And used the transporter for a trash heap," Sheppard added.  "The Ancestors kept the crystals."

"Exactly!" Rodney replied.  "And, it's a good thing that they took it with them.  From what it said in the database, that crystal was highly unstable."

"How unstable?" Sheppard asked.

"Like big BOOM unstable," Rodney said, and seemed to regret the exclamation instantly as he gasped, grimaced and rubbed at his head again.

Teyla watched him sympathetically as she said, "That might also explain the heavy doors at the entrance to the mine.  The blast doors were meant to contain any explosions during the mining process."

"Yeah," McKay agreed.  "The mine would have been completely sealed during operations.  The transporter, on this lower level, would've been the only way out."

Sheppard frowned.  "Okay, so they were dealing with extremely volatile stuff.  So, what was your idea concerning the crystals?  What were they for?"

"Maybe, just maybe, they were mining a crystal needed for constructing ZPMs," Rodney responded, swallowing and closing his eyes.  He hardly seemed to notice that Ronon was directly beside him, making certain that he didn't fall.

Teyla made her way around the room to stand near Rodney.  "Do you believe that a ZPM still exists on this planet?" she asked.  "It wasn't just a ruse to bring us here?"

Rodney lifted his head just enough to look at her.  "There's a good chance that one's around.  The natives know what one looks like, and there has to be a power source just to run this room and the transporter. It's probably above ground, because, well, they've seen it.  They know what an active ZPM looks like.  The minerals in these rocks would certainly hide it if it's in any of those buildings."

"Right," Sheppard gazed at the bone room and said, "And because this system has power, maybe we can use the transporter to get out of here."

"Probably," McKay responded.  "We'll clean out the transporter room a little.  We need to be able to close that door to use it."

"Yeah, gotcha."  Sheppard said.  "Clean out the bone room."  Or, at least clear out the doorway so that it could fully close – it was currently awash in the discarded bones.  He wasn't looking forward to that task.  Bending over would be murder on his clavicle.

Of course, Ronon could probably get it done in two minutes – so no worries.  The big man picked up a P90 from the mess of bones and tried the light.  Either it was John's weapon, or they'd blown out another flashlight.  Great.

John pulled a glowstick from his vest pocket, and snapped it. Instantly, it let off a sickly greenish light.  He tossed the rod into the room to let it do its job and illuminate the space.

The bones seemed to vibrate, to twitch, to move.  They seemed to be covered in tiny hairs that fluttered.  He hissed as he back-stepped, stumbling a little to get out of the way as the ants came in at him.

PART 5: ANTS COME MARCHING

"Shut the door!" Sheppard shouted.  "Shut the door, Rodney!"  He stomped on the little things, feeling the painful vibration through his chest, but the army kept approaching.  A little gut churning agony wasn't going to stop him from murdering them.  "Shut it!"

"It won't!' Rodney insisted.  "The door's blocked!  Look at all the bones in the way!"

"Rodney!  Now!" Sheppard yelled.

"Do it!" Ronon insisted.

"There's too much debris!" McKay continued, "I'll probably break the mechanism and then we'd never be able to get out."  But then he got a good look at all the ants waiting just beyond the doorway. "Oh God, there must be thousands of them in there!" he moaned.

"Close the damn door, Rodney!" Sheppard shouted, trying not to shriek, trying not to see what Rodney had just witnessed.  He couldn't help himself.  He looked up.  Thousands!  Good God!   "Now!"

Rodney slammed a hand on the control, and the door whisked down, smashing into the layer of bones and they went flying.  With a hiss of pain, Sheppard twisted away from the shrapnel and flying carrion-eating ants.  Everyone ducked.

Balls!

Bits and pieces clattered to the floor, impacting the control panels, smashing against the walls and bombarding the inhabitants.

The force of the closing door was enough to seal it shut, and the bone room was closed off, but they were locked in with a couple regiments of the horrible ant-like jiats.

"Good ol' Ancient technology," McKay said with a sigh as he stared proudly at the shut door.  "It takes a lickin'."

Sheppard held his arm, trying to keep the ache from consuming him as he smashed at the ants.  Teyla joined him, smooshing whole platoons.  Ronon brushed some stray jiats off of the scientist.  Then, he joined Sheppard to dispatch as many of the insects as possible.

Rodney was staring at the transporter console – either studying it intently, or drifting.  He looked about ready to drop.

"Rodney?" Sheppard called as he continued with the massacre.  When the scientist didn't immediately answer, Sheppard tried again, "Rodney?"

"What?" Rodney answered, his voice dripping with annoyance.

"Just checking," Sheppard replied, smashing as many of the bastards as possible while trying not to pass out from pain each stomp caused.

Then, after a moment, John stated, "I take it that our only way out of here is through that room."

"Looks that way," Rodney said with a sigh.

"That ant-filled room," Sheppard went on.

"Yes," Rodney snapped.

"And you're working on a way of transporting them out of there so that we can have a crack at it?" Shepard continued.  His collar ached as he continued to slaughter the ants.  Some of them had crawled onto his pant leg, and his stomach rolled as he bent to slap them off.  Teyla leaned in to help him.

One got under his pant leg and the rat bastard bit him.  Sheppard almost went insane, trying to get at it without killing himself.  It was Ronon who steadied him while Teyla lifted the pant leg and swiped the biting jiat away.

Sheppard hated ants.  He really really hated ants. All those years of burning them with a magnifying glass, drowning their hills with a garden hose and exposing them to sweet-horrible, amber-like death in the recreation of the Boston Molasses Flood were coming back to haunt him.

He hated ants.

Sheppard didn't immediately notice that Rodney hadn't answered.  Once he was fairly sure that he didn't have any more ants in his pants, Sheppard looked toward the scientist.  The bandage at his head was red with blood again.  He had new wounds visible on his face from the barrage of flying bones, and he swayed as if barely able to stay on his feet.

"McKay?" John prompted.

"There's a problem," Rodney responded.  "We can't just transport all of these ants to the surface.  They belong underground.  According to this information the other end of the transporter is right above us, in the middle of the city.  The jiats looked pretty ravenous.  I mean, if they followed us down here, they're desperate.  If we unleash these creatures on the surface, they'll go after the townspeople."

"The townspeople are the ones that locked us down here with them," Ronon reminded.  "I got no problems."

Rodney looked miffed.  "And we have to get out using the same escape route.  Did you see how many ants were in that room?  Even if we transport them and then wait a while, there's no telling if those horrifying things will have dispersed. The other end of the transporter is probably a room similar to that one.  Looks like it's a bit bigger, but it's an enclosed space. We'll end up inside a giant ball of angry, flesh-eating ants.  If you're okay with that idea, I certainly am not!"

"He's got a point," Ronon admitted.

"Yeah," Sheppard grumbled as he continued to smash the ants, grinding them into paste.

"There's probably millions of them in there now, and still pouring in through that chute.  I bet we're the first good meal they've seen in a long time!" McKay went on.

"Well, can you shut down the chute at least?" Sheppard asked, because certainly, if that room was a transporter, it had to be sealed at some point.

"Oh yeah," Rodney replied and pushed a button on the podium.  There was a quiet sound in the room beyond them, and apparently the room was sealed off.  "No more ants getting in.  But, of course, none of them can get out of there now," Rodney pointed out.

Yeah, whatever, thought John.  Just as long as no more can come in here.

The worst of the intrusion into the control room seemed to be over.  The remaining ants had high-tailed it to whatever crack or crease was available.  John was left swatting at his clothing, trying to rid himself of the unpleasant sensation that hundreds of the creatures were crawling all over him.

Seriously, he did not want to end up transported into a room full of those sons of bitches.

But would that even happen?  "Hang on," Sheppard stated.  "It can't transport us into the same place as the ants, can it?  If the ants and the bones are still in place in the room at the other side, the transporter won't initiate for us."

Rodney gave him a disgusted look.  "I've run extensive tests on our system, and as long as the new arrivals can fit in room at the other end, multiple transportations can occur into the same spot.   A person who remains in the other transporter room sees pretty much what happens when we use the Daedalus transporters, just in close quarters."

"That can't be good for a person…" Sheppard muttered, "…to be right in the middle of a little transporter room when someone new transports in."

"Well, it's not as if I tested it on myself."  Rodney sighed.  "But, it works.  There's a failsafe that kicks in when the room becomes too full."

Sheppard admitted, "Good thing that hasn't happened when I use the transporters, because I know I wouldn't want to be jammed up with someone in there.

McKay lifted a hand and let it drop quickly, as if he was afraid to let loose his hold on the podium.  "Why do we think I sent out all those emails?  'Remove your gear and immediately step clear of the transporter once you have arrived at your destination'.  Don't you ever read my messages?"

Sheppard shrugged a little, and gasped at the pain.  Okay, this seriously sucks!

"Can you open the doors on the other end after you transport the jiats and the bones?" Ronon asked.   "The bugs will leave."

"Yes, I can open doors," Rodney said tiredly.  "But who's to say how many of those things will actually leave?  And I'll have to seal those doors again on both ends for our transporting, trapping the remainder of the ants to wait for our arrival – angry, hungry ants."

"And do we really want to send these insects into the town?" Teyla reminded quietly.

Sheppard sighed, remembering the children, remembering the poverty.  Clarifor, Gaispare and the other officials had been the ones who led them to the trap.  But the rest of the townspeople… did they deserve that?

"Can you just transport the air out of the room?" John asked.  "You know, suffocate those things?  Then we'd be transporting only dead ants.  Not a problem, right?"

Rodney shook his head slightly.  "I don't think I can do that.  It's all or nothing."  His forehead puckered and he rubbed at it again, fretfully.

"Great."  Sheppard hugged his arm to his chest to keep the weight off his clavicle.  He muttered, "There has to be another way, Rodney."

McKay said nothing, just staring at the transporter's controls.  "Yeah," he said and looked disconsolate as he stared, "I just can't think of anything."

"We cannot give up hope," Teyla said.

"Yeah, you'll think of something," Ronon said.

"There's always another way."  McKay remained still for a moment before a smile crept across his face as he said, "Just like there's always a buffer."

That got Teyla's attention.  "We can dematerialize the bones and ants, but not allow them to rematerialize on the other end?" she asked.

Rodney didn't really nod, he just tipped his head a little.  "The buffer is huge.  It's designed for transporting a room full of rock to the surface.  If I can partition the buffer, we can use part of it to hold the stuff that's in the room right now.  Then, I use the other part of the buffer for transporting us."

"Sounds tricky," Sheppard said.

"Well yes, if done incorrectly, we could all be turned into horrible, multi-limbed ant hybrids with some sort of weird dried-up bone protrusions," McKay commented, his hands already working the controls.  "That would really ruin your day."

"You're kidding," Sheppard tried.

"I've got the mother of all headaches already," Rodney complained.  "I really don't want to find out what adding another creature's DNA would to for it."

"Great," Sheppard grumbled.  "Maybe it would be better to just send the ants into town."

"Don't worry.  It'll be easy," Rodney said.  "Well, relatively easy."  He hunched his shoulders as he worked, as if it was an effort to keep his head up.  He took a deep breath before stating, "Without the interface, it's a hell of a lot harder.  For anyone else, it would be nearly impossible."

"Good to know," Sheppard responded, watching him carefully. "You think you'll be done soon?"

Rodney pressed his lips together and then said, "I'll get it."  He continued to press keys.  Various screens lit up, characters scrolled, but his movements were slowing, and McKay blinked languidly as he stared at the displays.

Ronon was beside him again, keeping one arm ready as the scientist slumped.  Rodney kept pausing, closing his eyes tightly for a moment, and them forcing them open.  It was obviously an effort for him as he resumed keying in information.

Dex exchanged a worried glance with Sheppard, but let Rodney do his work.  McKay kept accessing the various systems, making a change here or there.  Sheppard glanced at his watch.  It was taking longer than 63 seconds this time.

After a few more minutes, McKay spoke, "There, there we go.  I think I got it.  I truly am amazing."

"You truly are something, McKay," Sheppard responded, not wanting Rodney's head to swell any further.

"Well, yes.  No time like the present to try it, right?" And he gave the others a little grin.  He threw the control.  There was a hum.  A light over the door illuminated for a moment and then went dim.  Rodney continued, "They're in the buffer now – bones and bugs together.  Not that ants are bugs exactly, but you get my drift -- not 'true bugs' at least.  They're most closely related to wasps.  Of course, jiats aren't really ants so I can't say for certain what they're related to."

"I got it, Rodney," Sheppard responded.  "So we can transport now?"

"I'm just saying that I don't know the classifications of all the flora and fauna in this galaxy," McKay kept talking, his voice now, with hardly any strength behind it.

"Rodney!" Sheppard barked.  "Can we go?"

Rodney tapped a button and the door opened.  Sheppard cringed a little, but was pleased to find the 'bone room' empty.  Not even the dust remained.

"Great!" Sheppard exclaimed.  "Now, get us the hell out of here."

Rodney hadn't even lifted his head to check the room.  He kept working, typing with one hand, the other was locked to the podium to keep himself upright.  His eyes were barely open.  "In less able hands than mine… this would not have been feasible.  I… am incredible."

"If you say so," Sheppard replied.

Ronon stayed near and Teyla hovered over McKay's shoulder, watching.  Sheppard kept out of the way, holding his arm to keep the weight off his collarbone.

"You done yet?" Sheppard asked.

"Just about," Rodney answered, his voice airy.

Sheppard tried not to look concerned when the scientist paused, drawing his hand back from the keyboard and looking suddenly lost.  "Rodney?" Sheppard called.

Rodney raised his head slowly and looked around the room as if seeing it for the first time.  When he saw Sheppard, his expression crumbled a little.  "I just…" he started to say, but his voice trailed off and he started to slide.

"Rodney?" Sheppard called again, bolting toward Rodney and gasping in pain.

"Gotcha," Ronon proclaimed, easily catching Rodney's weight.

McKay lifted his head a moment and he seemed to focus on Ronon for a moment, but his eyes rolled back and he went limp.

OooOoOooooOoOoOo

Dex lowered Rodney carefully.

"How is he?" Sheppard asked urgently as Teyla swept clear a space.

Ronon kept a hand around the back of Rodney's head as he settled him on the floor. "He looks bad."

That was an understatement.  Rodney's face had lost all color, his skin was clammy and, when Sheppard felt for a pulse, he found it was racing.

They had to get out of here.  They had to get out of here now!

And Rodney had just messed with the buffers.  Was the work done?  Could they even use the transporter?  Would they be turned into horrible Man-ants if they tried to initiate the thing?  Skeletants?  Mants?

"Teyla?" Sheppard looked to the Athosian who immediately stepped to the podium and started checking what Rodney had already completed.

Her expression was grave, as she said, "I am unsure if the work was complete.  I don't know if it is safe."

But Rodney was breathing raggedly now, and they sure as hell didn't have much time left.

"We're going for it," Sheppard declared.  "Ronon, do you think you can …"  He didn't need to complete the request; Ronon was already hefting Rodney up.

The Satedan quickly carried Rodney into the other room in his arms–carrying him like a child.  Once within the room, Ronon settled him on the ground again, but ready to lift him again if necessary.

"Teyla," Sheppard asked.  "Can you activate it on a time delay so you can get into the room?"

"I don't know," she said, biting her lip as she examined the controls.  Then, with a resolved tone, said, "I will remain here while you bring Rodney to Atlantis.  You can retrieve me when…"

"It looks like there might be controls in here," Ronon said from the next room.  He pointed.

Sheppard and Teyla immediately joined him, and John smiled a little, seeing another cover on the wall.  It had been too low to see when the room was filled with bones.  He touched it and the protective top opened to display a new set of controls.

It looked easy enough to operate.  "Let's just hope that Rodney's little scheme with the partitioned buffer works."  Sheppard glanced to Rodney.  Ronon held him partially upright, ready to move at a moment's notice.

"I believe that it will work," Teyla stated resolutely.

"We better not end up with feelers on my head when we reach the other end," Sheppard muttered.  "I kinda like my hair the way it is right now.  Let's go."  And he activated the control.

PART 6:  FIRST TIME EVER

Sheppard waited in the infirmary, running one hand through his hair, glad to know that there would be no antennas growing there.  He'd seen "The Fly" once too often.

He was a little alarmed at how many ants he'd already pulled from his hair (and promptly smashed).  A half-dozen or so of the little bastards had taken the trip with him through the transporter – a journey that started at 'the bone room' and ended up in the fanciest restaurant in town.

It was a surprise to dematerialize in a simple room, and rematerialize in a larger, elegant one, on top of a table filled with plates and glasses and serving dishes.  Food went flying.  People yelped and jumped to their feet.  Chairs were overturned.  A wall hanging was torn and accidentally caught on fire by a tipped candle.  Patrons screamed in shock.  A waiter fainted. 

Sheppard stumbled over a tureen of some sort, planted one foot on top of a pile of pastries and then upended a table.  Teyla knocked over a potted plant, dumping it into what looked like a plate of ravioli.   Ronon, looking completely unfazed, dutifully picked up Rodney and headed toward an exit.

Sheppard and Teyla were right at his heels.

The upper transporter room must have been declared the 'nicest building in town' at some point, and an entrepreneur had moved in to take advantage of its beauty and excellent location, converting it into a gilded dining room, all decorated with velvets and rich decorations (some of which were currently aflame).

The town suffered great poverty, but there was always a well-heeled element that needed a special place to eat.

Sheppard was almost sorry he hadn't sent in the ants first.

They ran from the place and into the street, finding townspeople staring at them in amazement, big-eyed and with strangely wide smiles.  The people surged forward, trying to get near them, trying to touch them.

But Sheppard had no time for that.  He commandeered a rag-filled 'ox' cart, and Ronon carefully settled Rodney into the back.

Rodney was failing, and their only hope was to get back to Atlantis as soon as possible.

Teyla took the reins and they charged through town – sending people hopping.  They knocked over a few vendor stands, and one lady in a fine gown swore like a sailor as she jumped out of the way.

Sheppard ground his teeth the whole way as he desperately tried to keep his collarbone from jarring, hoping that he didn't end up puking on anyone.

Many of the townspeople followed them – more joining all the while.  They had to run to keep up.  Sheppard could have sworn they were having a great time.  The people waved, and seemed to dance and sing – but it could have been the pain clouding his reason.

"Hang in there, Rodney," Sheppard said, because he needed to say something to keep from passing out.  "We'll be home soon."

Teyla expertly guided them.  Ronon swatted at people who tried to climb on.  The vehicle reached the Gate within minutes and they left the cart.  They activated the wormhole.  And, as the crowd roared, they stepped through the event horizon and were home.

That was hours ago.

One of Keller's people had taken John aside when they reached the infirmary.  His scrapes and cuts were treated.  X-rays were taken.  He was given a pair of pills for the pain and a sling to keep one arm in place to allow his abused clavicle some rest.

Rodney had been nearby during the beginning of Sheppard's treatment.  John had listened as hushed voices had spoken of 'swelling' inside his skull.  Sheppard recalled the skulls lined up with the crypts.

And then there was talk of surgery, and Rodney was whisked away.

And John waited.  It still felt like ants crawled on him, even after a fairly thorough examination for them.  It felt as if their little legs kept ticking him, taunting him, but that could have been the painkiller.

He waited.  Keller returned and told him that they were trying to avoid surgery, treating the swelling with drugs.  It was only a matter of time before they knew whether or not that would work.  They would have to wait to find out whether Rodney would awaken.

"He might not?" Sheppard had asked, alarmed.

And Keller had tried to look sure, pasting on a pleasant expression as she said, "There's always a danger in these sorts of injuries.  We'll just have to wait and hope."

They brought McKay back to the room, and set him up in one of the beds, where he was monitored constantly, until finally someone decided that the danger had passed, the swelling was reducing.  There was no need to drill into the genius physicist's skull again.

Thank God.

Yet, Keller remained quiet and unsure.  Only time would tell…

THE END

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