John looked at the image of the scout ship. It didn't appear to be exploding. He had a bad feeling about this.
"No," Rodney said under his breath. "No, no, no." He pressed the touchpad again. John looked at the detonator, saw that the Ancient characters were now blinking an error code. Rodney said through gritted teeth, "Nothing's happening."
"What do you mean `nothing's happening?"' John demanded. "What happened?"
"I don't know!" Mouth twisted with angry despair, Rodney popped the cover off, studied the weird combination of Ancient and Earth technology inside, and shook his head. "It should be working, but it isn't. If there's some sort of interference with the signal-I can try to boost it-" He turned away, heading for another empty console, ignoring the Eidolon who scrambled out of his way.
Kethel looked from the schematic to his section of the control board, his face set in a frustrated snarl. "It may have been the transport beam. If our coordinates were off-"
John knew they didn't have time for a post-mortem on why the frigging remote detonator wouldn't work. "In a minute, they're going to find it-" They were going to find it, open fire on the Eidolon ships, then break into the installation. John turned to Kethel. "Can you beam us over there, to the corridor where you beamed the bomb?"
Kethel stared. "To set it off directly?" He shook his head, looking at the screen again. "It's too dangerous for living beings. If our coordinates were off enough that the device was beamed inside a bulkhead-"
Fine, John got why that was a bad idea. "What about here?" He pointed to another more open area, only one level up from the bomb.
"The bridge?" Kethel asked, astonished and sounding like he thought John was completely crazy. "But-"
"Sure, there's probably only a couple of them in there right now." John thought it was a great plan. Okay, not a great plan, but a plan. The only plan he could think of.
"I agree," Teyla said, looking urgently from Kethel to the Queen. "It is our only choice."
Ronon just shrugged. "Sounds good to me."
John added, "Look, you beaming us in there to take them on is the last thing they'll expect." He did a quick inventory of his tac vest, making sure he had ammo and grenades. Teyla was doing the same. Ronon just checked the set of his knife in its scabbard.
"He's correct." The Queen's gaze was fixed on the image of the scout ship. "This must be done."
Kethel looked at the screen again. He shook his head slightly, as if he meant to refuse. Then he said, "Once on their bridge, I might be able to activate their selfdestruct."
John stared at him. "Wait, you, what?"
Edane, the younger Eidolon that kept wanting to talk to them, stepped forward. "I'll go too." He looked around at the few remaining Eidolon. "Surely I'm not the only one.
Rodney came back from the console with the detonator, his expression caught between horror and incredulity. "This is insane, we can't possibly get through the ship to the bomb. And how are we getting back?" he demanded.
"You're not going," John told him. "You need to stay here to deal with the damn Mirror." If they didn't succeed, the scout ship might be too occupied with shooting at the installation and the Eidolon ships to worry about the Mirror or the cloaked jumper, and Rodney might still have a chance to get himself, Radek, and Miko back home. But Rodney did have a point. John eyed Kethel. "How are we getting back?"
Trishen had been hurriedly digging into one of the equipment cases stacked up to be transported out, and now came back with a handful of little silver buttons, each set with a flat green stone. "We have emergency transponders. Simply touch this crystal and it will signal the ship to beam you back here." She looked at the image of the scout ship, adding worriedly, "As long as their shield remains down, these should work."
Famous last words, John thought. He just said, "So let's go."
With a few moments of scrambling, they were ready. Kethel was bringing two other young male Eidolon, Edane and Caras; John wasn't happy about it, but Kethel might be able to activate the ship's self-destruct and render the bomb unnecessary, so he was willing to put up with it. Kethel also had a handheld scanning device that would help them locate the engine compartments where the bomb had been sent, just in case the self-destruct proved elusive. The Eidolon also had weapons, long elegant silver-gray devices about the size of sawed-off shotguns.
"Those are stunners?" Teyla asked Kethel. John had assumed they were just a different model of the Wraith version.
"No." Kethel glanced at her, distracted. "They are energy weapons, the blast is fatal. Stunners are forbidden."
Teyla lifted her brows, obviously not getting it anymore than John did. So shooting to kill is fine, stunning and asking questions later is forbidden, he thought. John just said, "Okay. That's handy."
Rodney came back to shove the detonator into John's vest pocket, saying, "I tried boosting the signal, still nothing. Hopefully you won't need this. And if you do need it, the damn thing probably won't work, but there it is."
"Great. Wait for us in the jumper," John told him, taking the detonator out of that pocket and putting it in a more convenient one.
Rodney shook his head impatiently. "I need to monitor the array-"
John glared. He didn't want Rodney out here alone, distracted with the Mirror, with no one to watch his back. "Rodney, jumper, now."
Rodney glared back, unimpressed. "Yes, because I respond so well to that sort of thing. What are you going to do, threaten to shoot me in the foot?"
John just stared at him, narrowing his eyes. "You want to stay out here alone with the folks who look like Wraith?"
Rodney looked around, apparently realizing it was just going to be him, the Queen, and the scatter of other Eidolon left in the room. "All right, fine," he snapped, and started toward the jumper.
John told Kethel, "We're ready." Kethel signaled to the Eidolon who had taken his place at the control console. White light flashed.
Abruptly another room shimmered into existence around them, John's ears popping at the sudden transition to a pressurized space.
They were in a large dimly-lit chamber with dark walls of a rubbery black substance. There was a raised center dais, with three consoles each supported by weirdly organic-looking stalks. John spun around, opening fire on two surprised Wraith standing in front of a large irregularly-shaped viewport. Ronon and Teyla fired at the same time, and both Wraith jerked and twitched under the combined onslaught. They dropped, sprawling on the deck.
John pivoted, checking the room, as Ronon moved around the dais to watch the door. Teyla finished her own survey of the chamber, saying, "We are clear."
John pulled the detonator control out of his vest. "Let's see if this is going to be easy." He hit the touchpad. The readout did the same thing that it had before, blinking the error code. And he hadn't heard anything, either. "Anybody hear an explosion?" he asked, hoping against hope.
"Nothing," Teyla said with a grimace. Ronon and the Eidolon shook their heads.
Kethel was already stepping up onto the dais, examining the consoles. "I'll look for a self-destruct. Perhaps something onboard is still interfering with the detonation signal." Edane and Caras were warily looking around the control area.
John shoved the detonator back in his pocket and pulled out the life signs detector. There were blips moving on the level immediately below, but none coming toward them. The Wraith probably didn't realize anything had been beamed aboard yet, and were still waiting for the Eidolon. That wasn't going to last long.
Looking around, Caras asked, "What is that smell?" John had barely noticed it; the air had that sour taint common to every Wraith ship John had been in, the sick stench of death and rot.