The resulting hum sounded almost like a sigh, as if the system were somehow grateful to have been awakened. A blue glow lit the entire room, eliciting gasps of wonder from the children. The little girl who had previously appropriated Rodney’s hand seemed oblivious to their rapidly approaching doom. “It is very beautiful.”
Rodney didn’t see anything particularly beautiful about a piece of technology. All it had done so far was turn itself on. If the blasted thing performed as he hoped, then he’d consider viewing it more poetically. “Major, think about where we are in the solar system,” he instructed. “Rapidly.”
“How would I know the first thing about where we are in this solar system?”
Even as he spoke, however, an image appeared overhead. Rather than a diagram of space, it was instead a map of the planet. The murmurs, punctuated by several ‘oohs’ and ‘ahs’ from the kids, grew louder. Rodney was fairly amazed himself, and unlike them, he’d seen this kind of thing before.
Two large blips appeared on the projected image. Wraith hive ships, almost certainly. Thousands of smaller blips winked into existence — Darts, no doubt — and buzzed around the larger blips like gnats.
“I’m thinking about shooting them down,” Sheppard said in a hopeful voice. Silence stretched as everyone watched the projection for any change.
“Nothing’s happening.” Rodney felt his pulse accelerate. “Maybe it’s the concussion — maybe you bashed in whatever neurological centers this thing taps into.”
“Or maybe I’ve used up my allocated brain power for the day,” Sheppard shot back.
“Major, your propensity for snarking at inopportune moments—”
“Rodney, unless you want to try this yourself, shut the hell up.”
They’d found the weapon and activated it. Surely that would be enough. Wouldn’t it? How much more could Dalera ask of them? Come on, come on… “The interface!” he blurted, and scrambled around the console for a piece of curved ceramic that he’d seen earlier. Snatching it up and thrusting it into Sheppard’s free hand, he ordered, “Put it on!”
Sheppard turned the ceramic over. It was identical to the skull caps worn by the Wraith. His gaze slid from his teammate to the Queens, then back to Rodney. He didn’t need to voice his concern. This contraption could very well link his mind in some way to the Wraith. But as usual, they were out of options. Jamming the thing on his head, he said, “This is Wraith tech, right? I’m gonna try something a little different.”
Choking back his panicked impatience, Rodney watched as the scene playing over Sheppard’s head changed to a three-dimensional map of the Citadel and surrounding countryside.
Behind them, the transport doors opened and a wild-eyed Peryn staggered to the entrance, but did not step out. “The Wraith have invaded the Enclave. Lieutenant Ford…ordered me to tell you.”
Teyla ran to him and caught him in her arms before he fell to the floor.
“Don’t let that transport recycle or we’re all dead!” Rodney directed his order at Teyla, but then his eyes fell to the Shield on Peryn’s belt. It had stopped glowing. Swinging around, Rodney saw that Sheppard’s had also ceased to glow. Desperately, he grabbed his own methodically accumulated collection of Shields. “No, no, no no! This can’t be happening!” Every one of the Shields had turned black.
“Wraithlight! Wraithlight!” people screamed.
“What the…?” Aiden looked up and saw hundreds of Darts crossing what he had thought of as the no-fly zone. Glancing at the Gene beside him, he noticed that the man’s Shield had gone black. The momentary surge of panic that hit Aiden was brief, but it was just long enough to allow the Wraith he’d been pumping bullets into to reach him. Next thing he knew, he was on the ground and the Wraith was standing over him with its hand upraised.
For the second time in less than ten minutes, Rodney felt his knees give way. He clasped the edge of the console, swallowing against his suddenly dry mouth. This time they were dead, no question about it. The little girl squealed and ran into the transport, trying to hide behind Peryn. Several of the other children followed — until Teyla slowly stood and walked toward him, her eyes fastened to a point over Sheppard’s head.
Rodney turned and looked up at the hologram. The images of dozens of frighteningly familiar lights shot out of multiple locations around the Enclave.
The expected impact of the hand on Aiden’s chest never came. Abruptly the Wraith vanished in a liquid blue beam.
Around him, the sounds of the battle ceased and everything went strangely quiet. He picked himself up, grabbed his weapon, which had been knocked out of his hand, and looked around the Enclave. The Wraith were gone. He staggered across to the upended fountain where most of the creatures had been pouring out, and looked down. All he could see was the remains of plumbing. There was no sign of the Wraith anywhere. The Major had done…Aiden wasn’t entirely certain what he’d done, but he turned to the group with a yell of triumph. “It’s Dalera’s weapon. Major Sheppard is using it to attack the Wraith!”
Just at that moment, the transport doors opened and a second group came rushing out. But then they paused and, along with the first bunch of refugees who had been fighting off the Wraith, looked skyward.
Yann stepped out behind them and came across to Aiden. Like everyone who stood amid the ruins of the once elegant temple, the Gene watched in awe as the watery blue beams streaked across the sky, cutting through the squadrons of Wraith Darts — which began falling from the sky. Even through the thickening black smoke of the oil fires, they caught sight of balls of fire where the craft hit the ground.
“How can this be?” breathed a villager. “Who does this?”
“We do!” Yann shouted, jabbing a victorious fist into the air. “Our brothers and sisters hold the power of Dalera’s Weapon now. By joining together we have made ourselves worthy of her glory and driven the Wraith from our world!”
Cheers swept through the crowd. The warriors congratulated each other and mingled with the townspeople, reveling in the moment. Yann slapped Aiden on the back, nearly knocking him off his feet in the process. For the first time since Aiden had set foot on the planet, he heard the sound of Daleran laughter.
“Finally,” he said under his breath. Finally, these people believed they had a future.
In the weapon room, the din of celebrating young voices was piercing. Rodney cringed, sure that the noise wasn’t doing the Major’s headache any favors. “All right, enough already,” he snapped, locking his fear back up behind a familiar veneer of annoyance. “Imminent doom averted and all that. Next.”
His relief was so strong it hurt, and the best way to conceal that was to move briskly on to the next problem. They’d won the battle, but the unchecked oil fire was likely to make the Citadel and nearby countryside — possibly even the entire planet — unfit for life. Nor was there any guarantee that the hive ships wouldn’t wait around and send in more Darts as soon as evacuations began. Yet another unanswerable question he’d inevitably be required to answer.
Rodney opened his mouth to instruct the Major to explore any other functions the device might have — and stopped mid-thought when the activation lights died out. Whether through the departure of one of the Genes or through some malfunction in the device, the grid had failed. He resisted the urge to kick something — could they not get a break for once?
Without a word, Sheppard dropped his hand and opened his eyes. At the same time a distant explosion made itself known. Even from inside the room, they could feel a tremor. Rodney stared at Sheppard. “What did you do?”
Sheppard merely returned his gaze. “What’s the one way you can extinguish an oil fire?”