“Food mostly,” Dekaas said. “We just picked up food on Mazatla, so I expect the captain thinks Lorvine is a logical next stop.”
“Aren’t they worried about the Wraith?”
Dekaas shrugged. “The mines are too far underground for a hive ship to be a problem, and the Ring is in too enclosed a space for Darts. Sometimes some parties on foot come through the Ring, but not often. It’s not a large population, and Wraith biotechnology doesn’t depend on metal ores. It’s not actually a big problem. The Wraith don’t want Lorvine.”
Elizabeth nodded. “That’s fascinating.”
He looked at her sharply. “You have a great deal of interest in how people live.”
“I do.” Elizabeth considered. “Atelia said that on Sateda she was training to be a scholar who studies other cultures. Perhaps I was a scholar too.”
“That could be,” Dekaas said. “And a Wraith connection does not preclude Sateda for your origin. Sateda fell ten years ago. You might have been captured then and only recently released.”
“That’s true,” she agreed. It was possible, though nothing about that felt familiar. “Well, if I can dial Sateda from Lorvine, I will go to Sateda.”
Elizabeth wondered how the Traveler ship intended to transfer people to the mining colony if it was underground, but she did not have to wonder long. It was no more than a few days before they arrived, the Durant settling onto a surface bare and devoid of any visible technology except a landing beacon. Through the windows she could see nothing but a sandy gray surface obscured by great clouds of dust kicked up by the ship’s landing. There was the same grinding sound forward she had heard before and the plastic tube snaked out, mating to an airlock door half-obscured on the surface.
“Very clever,” she said with a nod. “Also very defensible.”
Dekaas had joined her at the mess windows, a medical pack slung over his shoulder. “Very,” he said. “A hive ship could blow it up, but what would be the point?”
Elizabeth glanced at the bag. “You’re going down?”
“To see if they have any injured who need treating.” He shrugged. “It’s my trade and my skill. I barter for my work, like anyone.”
“I’ll help you carry your things,” she said.
This time crossing through the transparent tube wasn’t difficult at all, not with the planet outside and gravity pulling her firmly down. It wasn’t like free fall at all. On the other side of the planet’s airlock doors was a wide platform with a metal cage around it that slowly descended into the depths, a few lights here and there not really illuminating the shaft.
“This part always makes me a little uncomfortable,” Dekaas said with a smile as they stood among the other traders going down.
“I think I’ve seen something like this before,” Elizabeth said. This wasn’t at all alarming.
The caverns below were no more well lit, raw stone walls with openings from one chamber to another. A crowd had gathered around the bottom of the shaft, and Dekaas stiffened. More than one of them was bandaged, mostly with filthy pieces of cloth around their heads or limbs, some with arms in slings. “What happened here?” he asked loudly.
A big woman with cropped gray hair lifted her hand in greeting. “Dekaas! I’ve got work for you and more.”
He stepped out of the cage as soon as it rested, Elizabeth behind him. “Ho, Fenna! Did you have a cave in or an accident with explosives?” he asked concernedly.
“Neither.” Fenna spat on the dusty floor. “This was the work of the accursed Genii.”
“The Genii?” Elizabeth said.
Fenna nodded. “A day and a half ago they came through the Ring. They took all the prepared ore at gunpoint, told us we were part of their cooperative economic system. Anybody who resisted got it. Mostly people bashed with gunstocks, pistol whipped, things like that, but they did shoot two. One of them’s dead.” She spat again, apparently at the recitation of the Genii’s crimes. “It was the work of a full quarter, and now every bit of it’s gone. And a dozen wounded to boot. It was that she-wolf Sora.”
“I’ve heard of her,” Dekaas said. “She’s bad news. Where are your worst wounded?”
“Right this way,” Fenna said. “We’ve done the best we can for them. But Dekaas, in terms of payment…” She swallowed as if it pained her to say that they didn’t have anything left to pay him with.
“Consider it a debt,” Dekaas said. “Elizabeth, if you wouldn’t mind helping me? I could use another pair of hands.”
“Of course,” Elizabeth said. “I won’t leave when there’s work to be done.” She followed Fenna and Dekaas to the makeshift aid station.
Chapter Twelve
It took quite some time for Teyla, Ember and Rodney to find their way out to the jumper, following one passage and then another by process of elimination. By the time they had returned with flashlights and first aid kits, Ronon and Daniel Jackson were awake. Teyla helped Ronon to his feet while Rodney steadied Daniel. Ember watched, his hands at his sides, as if wanting to make sure no one misinterpreted his touch.
“It was the Asgard,” Teyla said to Daniel. “That is the logical conclusion. They stunned us and then took the ZPM and whatever else they wanted.”
Daniel rubbed his eyes. “But what was it?” he wondered aloud. “And was it sheer coincidence that they turned up here at the same time we did? I mean, they’ve had thousands of years to loot this planet. They did it today? Coincidentally?”
“That doesn’t seem likely,” Ember agreed.
“Whatever was here, they took it,” Rodney said.
“I need to examine the room,” Daniel said. “There may be something left.”
“There is not,” Teyla said. “There are no instruments left at all.”
Daniel shrugged. “Sometimes people drop things. Or there’s writing on surfaces. Or they lose some small attached part. There are lots of things you wouldn’t have seen in the dark.”
“That is true,” Teyla said. She took a deep breath. “It will only take a few minutes to search the room, and we are already here. Let us do it. Rodney, you and Ronon go back to the jumper and radio Atlantis and tell John what happened. I will go with Ember and Dr. Jackson.”
Together, they descended to the stripped room, which seemed no more promising to Teyla on second glance than on first. She and Ember watched while Daniel examined the floor, crawled under the tables and desks, and inspected the empty mounting brackets on the walls.
“There was some kind of device here,” Daniel said at last, pointing to a blank expanse of floor in front of two tables, five empty brackets behind it. “About two meters tall and one meter wide. It took a lot of power. These are multiple heavy duty power couplings.”
Ember’s brows rose. “And that means that something was connected there. What was it?”
Daniel shrugged. “I don’t know. I don’t know what it did. But I do know there was something that took a lot of power and that you couldn’t go near when it was operating.” He pointed to a small line of Ancient symbols on the floor. “Caution Induction Zone. Whatever was being induced, you needed to stand back from it.”
Teyla remembered something. “This looks like an installation in Atlantis,” she said.
Daniel turned around. “What? Where? I’ve never seen it.”
“Elizabeth insisted that we seal the room,” she said. “We found it years ago, and it proved incredibly dangerous. It was a device to help one Ascend. Rodney was nearly killed as a result of it.”
“Ah.” Daniel looked about, turning in place as though trying to visualize things that were no longer there. “That makes sense. That makes complete sense of these.” He pointed to a tiny row of symbols along one of the tables. “This says Reintegration Unit. This isn’t for Ascension. It’s for a device that causes someone to unascend.” He stopped, pushing his glasses up on his nose. “No, that forces them to unascend.”