Rodney crossed his arms staring at the man sitting on the throne, he looked sickly and pale making him older than Rodney was sure he was but his eyes were green almost emerald and serpent like making Rodney shiver.
"Who are you?" Rodney demanded.
"I..." the man coughed, "I am Artemis Thame."
"And I care why?" Rodney asked with a sneer.
The man rose unsteadily, "I am of those you call the Ancestors."
"No," Rodney replied sharply with bravado he was amazed he could muster, "They call you the Ancestors; I'd refer to you as something completely different. So, let me go and I'll forget about this but, and trust me on this one, my friends will come after me which you will regret."
The man pulled himself to his full height and caught Rodney's face so that Rodney couldn't look away, the green eyes started to sparkle pulling him in.
-
"Here," Allina handed Rodney tools he wanted as he sat on the ground next to the controls, "Do you think you can fix it?"
Rodney nodded thoughtfully, "It might take a while. It's very like Ancient technology but there's things in here I've never seen before. I'll have to work slowly so I don't accidentally destroy anything."
Allina smiled again, "I shall assist you."
"Great," he grinned back squeezing her hand before he returned to trying to fix the machine.
Allina moved to the other side of the room to continue her own work, every so often glancing back at Rodney who pretended not to notice. His life was perfect with work he loved and a wife he adored. Turning his attention back to his work Rodney felt something push at his mind but he shook it off refocusing on the task at hand.
Again the push came and he stopped working again frowning in confusion.
"Rodney?" Allina asked, "Is something wrong?"
"No," he shook it off once more, "Never mind," taking a deep breath he turned once more to his work.
The push came once more only this time it hit him so hard he dropped the box he was holding, "Jeannie!!!!"
*********************************************
Jeannie kicked the tyres on her car swearing under her breath, this had up till this moment been a good day. She'd quit her crappy job and was looking forward to a year of doing nothing, possibly travelling but at the moment there was no plan. Now she had to get her car fixed. Hunting out her cell phone Jeannie started to dial Marissa to tell her she wouldn't make it in time when she felt something move past her, it felt like an ice wind circling her. Jeannie's body clenched as ice filled her entire being, loneliness and despair filled her. With tears flowing down her cheeks Jeannie stepped out into the road ready waiting for a car to come and stop her misery.
A man appeared from nowhere and grabbed her just as a car bore down on her, Jeannie struggled but she was unable to stop him dragging her away from the road. Her next conscious memory was of being in a strange room that had some sort of control console in the centre.
"Where..." she managed to force out.
A man appeared at her side and offered her some water, "Here," he smiled slightly crookedly; he was wearing a frilly shirt with a velvet coat, "This should make you feel better."
Jeannie swallowed the water gratefully, "Thanks. Who are you? What just happened?"
"I'm the Doctor," he introduced himself with a grin, "And you were attacked by a creature, it doesn't have a name, that goes after telepaths. Lucky for you the TARDIS has a telepathic field of its own now protecting you."
Jeannie stared at him, "Huh."
The Doctor laughed, "Never mind. What's your name?"
"Jeannie," she managed to reply still thinking about what she'd been told.
The Doctor smiled, "Jeannie..."
-
"Jeannie...Jeannie..."
Jeannie grimaced as she could hear someone calling to her before someone gently tapped her cheeks.
"Jeannie, wake up," the voice continued to call to her, "Come on, you need to wake up."
"What?" she moaned.
"Jeannie!!!" the tone was sharp, commanding but tinged with worry.
"Go 'way," she moaned pushing away the hand gently tapping at her, confused as the hand caught hers.
"Jeannie, come on," the voice continued, "You need to open your eyes."
She forced her eyes open blinking in the harsh light, frowning as a blurry face moved into view, "John?" she guessed putting the voice and blurry features together.
"Hey," he smiled at her, "You look like hell but we've got to get out of here."
"Wha' happened?" Jeannie moaned.
"We crashed," John slipped his arm around her waist, "As far as I can tell you've no broken bones but you may have a concussion. Jeannie, you have to help me. I think my wrist is broken."
Jeannie forced herself to keep her eyes open, the man kneeling over her coming into focus finally.
"You look like hell," Jeannie muttered making him smile.
"But I scrub up fabulously," he rolled his eyes, "Are you ready?"
Jeannie nodded unable to stop crying out as John pulled her up, her whole body ached especially her head and nausea was building in her stomach. Unable to stop herself Jeannie doubled over and vomited. John used his good arm to hold onto her steadying her as she stood upright again looking embarrassed.
"Sorry," she murmured.
"Your brother's worse after a night drinking," John told her with a grin, "Come on, we have to go."
She nodded and moved slowly with him towards what had at one point been the back of the ship. Jeannie concentrated on taking each step feeling as though her head was going to explode; she was confused as John stopped suddenly.
"What?" she breathed.
"I think they're the welcoming committee," John told her nodding towards the three men standing in front of them holding them at gunpoint."
-
The Doctor forced open his eyes to a stark white room noting that he was strapped to the bed he was on. Turning to his right he saw Teyla laying in a similar predicament.
Hoping Jeannie and Sheppard were safe, he started to squirm slowly working the ropes loose until he managed to ease his right wrist out of its binding. The Doctor winced at the bloody mess of his flesh but managed to ignore it. Unbinding the rest of his extremities the Doctor jumped off the gurney and turned his attention to Teyla. Quickly untying her he shook the woman awake jumping back as she started up ready to attack.
"Easy," the Doctor told her.
"Where are we?" Teyla demanded looking around.
"I'm guessing inside whatever brought the ship down," the Doctor mused, "I hope Jeannie and Sheppard are alright."
"Do you remember what happened?" Teyla asked as she started moving around the room checking for her equipment finding the pack stuffed in the corner.
"Nope," the Doctor replied checking his pockets smiling as he found his sonic screwdriver, "Did you see anything like this the last time you were on this planet?"
"No," Teyla shook her head, "This is...new."
"This is not from here," the Doctor mused running his hand across the walls, "I know this but it's...odd."
"Odd?"
"Never mind," the Doctor brushed it away, "Let's see if we can get out of here, find the other two and Rodney and find who's behind this then stop them. Possibly even in that order."
A little surprised Teyla picked up her pack throwing it on her back before following the strange man out of the room.
-
Jeannie gratefully took the drink, feeling her headache reduce at the herbal remedy they had been brought to the small village where their wounds had been attended to.
"How do you feel?" Tari asked. She was the leader of the small group, tall with weathered tanned skin; her brown eyes were wrinkled but filled with wisdom and gentleness.
"Much better," Jeannie smiled, "Thank you."
Tari sat beside her guest, "We're sorry that we could not give you a softer landing but we're still unsure how to use the machine properly."
"I'm just glad you managed what you did," Jeannie gave a half-laugh before becoming serious, "What can you tell us about what happened?"
Tari sighed, "It was approximately two moons ago he arrived. It was in a ship that none of us had ever seen before. He exited and proclaimed himself to be one of the ancestors. Those of the Brotherhood flocked to his side immediately, not even defending us when he started to destroy our forests and lands. Myself and other village leaders gathered as many people as we could and brought them to places like here so we could fight. The device we used to help you was one of the few things we managed to steal."
"What is his name?" Jeannie questioned intently.
Tari gave a sharp snort, "He calls himself Artemis Thame but I know that is not his true name."
"Can you help us get to this ship?" Jeannie asked before explaining at the shocked look, "This man has my brother."
Tari sighed, "Then your brother is lost to you. None who enter the ship return as they once were."
"I don't believe that," Jeannie snapped.
Tari rested her hand on Jeannie's shoulder, "I shall ask if anyone will volunteer to take you both but until then, you need to eat and rest."
"Thank you," Jeannie smiled, "I should check on John."
-
John was finding it awkward to get dressed again after cleaning off the remainder of the crash. His left wrist was definitely broken but the pain was manageable especially after whatever it was he'd been given to drink. His biggest problem at the moment was getting his pants on using only one hand.
"They're going to find us a guide," a voice from behind him made him jump.
"Jeannie," he yelled finding her leaning against the doorframe dressed in native comfortable dark tan leather trousers and top, "Do you mind?"
"No," she replied with a grin giving him a long look up and down before looking back up to his face with an innocent smile, "Having problems?"
John struggled to fix up his pants properly; glaring at her hoping she didn't see the embarrassment colouring his neck as he grabbed the clean shirt he'd been given by their hosts, "I'm fine."
"Tari is checking to see if she can get us a guide and until then she's ordering us to eat and sleep," Jeannie told him, "I'll go save you a seat," she started to move before turning back to him, "Unless you want me to stay and help?"
"I'll be there in a few minutes," John growled hearing her laugh as she left him alone.
It was ten minutes later he managed to get his top on before he fixed the sling for his wrist so that it was strapped tightly against his chest. Exiting the room he found Jeannie sitting next to a campfire eating something he didn't even know how to describe. She looked up seeing him there and waved him over.
"Tari has found us a guide," she told him as he settled at her side.
"Great," he nodded, "When can we go?"
"In the morning," Tari replied, "It is too dangerous at night; there are patrols out bringing any they catch to the ship."
"I thought that was where we wanted to go," Jeannie said.
"On our terms," John reminded her, "Tomorrow will be great Tari. Thank you."
"But..."
"Jeannie," John cut her off, "We can't go running in there, we need to know what we're up against."
"I can find Rodney," Jeannie whispered desperately, "You know that."
John gripped her shoulder with his good hand, "I do. But we've also got to find the Doctor and Teyla," his hand moved to her cheek, "Trust me, okay."
Jeannie's grey-blue eyes filled with tears, "I do...I just..."
He pulled her into a tight hug, "I know. But we'll get him back; we'll get them all back. I promise."
"Okay," she nodded before turning back to their host, "How long will it take us?"
"Approximately two days assuming you do not run into any patrols," Tari replied, "But Yelt will get you there."
**********************************************
Rodney continued to pretend to work. He had to keep up the pretence until he could work out how to get out of here. There was something really familiar about this technology but he couldn't place it and it was beginning to annoy him. Allina was driving him insane as well with her constant, irritatingly cheerful persistence of trying to be helpful.
He wondered why he'd been convinced she'd been his wife, sure he'd been attracted to her when they'd first met but now after her betrayal especially knowing what taking the ZPM from him would do she wasn't at the top of his favourite people list.
To top it all off Jeannie was in trouble and he had no way of finding out if she was okay since his phone was back on Atlantis where he couldn't get a hold of it.
Artemis Thame had somehow hypnotised him, a fact Rodney was not too happy about considering he knew only people with weak minds were susceptible. So if he'd been hypnotised, Rodney reasoned, Jeannie's cry broke through it.
"Rodney," Allina touched his shoulder, "It is time to eat then you must rest. You've worked hard today."
He forced a smile, "Okay," he stood up and joined her; he didn't pull away as she took his arm chattering away about some nonsense. His mind stayed focussed on his sister hoping he'd get some sense she was alright because it was going to drive him crazy otherwise.
-
Teyla slammed herself flat against the wall as one of the patrols walked by. The Doctor was continuing to play about with some of the wires inside the panel on the wall.
"This is definitely wrong," he murmured under his breath.
"What is?" Teyla snapped, his constant fiddling with machinery when they were trying to escape was irritating her.
The Doctor stood up to face her, "The technology of this ship is very familiar but there are other parts that shouldn't be in here."
"What does that mean?" Teyla asked.
"I'm not sure," he replied with a frown, "I need to know more."
"We need to leave here and find Colonel Sheppard and Miss McKay," Teyla reminded him, "Then try to find Dr McKay."
The Doctor rolled his eyes, "Alright, lets find the exit."
Teyla nodded waiting for him. The Doctor looked at her confused for a second before realising she was waiting for him to fix the panel back in place.
Rolling his eyes he Doctor replaced the panel and stared off to find the exit. There was just something about this ship that bothered him, if only he could put his finger on it.
Teyla impatiently tapped his shoulder motioning him to hurry up so they could escape. The Doctor shook his head in annoyance.
"I'm coming," he told her, "Be patient."
They started along the corridor, the Doctor assuring her that he knew where he was going. Every so often they could hear guards moving nearby but they managed to avoid them all...almost.
"Halt," a man yelled appearing in front of them as they neared the door out.
"Now," the Doctor said, "Isn't that just a little bit unoriginal? You could have yelled anything, stand still, wait a minute, or how about run."
He grabbed Teyla's arm yanking her back into the ship, "I don't think we're getting out of here."
Teyla pulled him to a stop as they came across a wall of men, "I believe you are correct."
The Doctor sighed before grinning, "Take me to your leader."
Teyla turned to look at him amazed he actually said what Dr McKay always said was the biggest clich around, which only made Sheppard say it more. She didn't get much more time to think on it one of the guards moved forward, she tensed but was unable to do anything as the Doctor was struck across the head and crumpled to the ground. Teyla saw him hit it just before she was struck as well and the floor came up to meet her.
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