02 - Reliquary Read Online Free PDF

lesson.”
    “We know what he means, McKay,” Kavanagh snarled and started toward the
nearest pile of debris.
    Leaving Ford on guard in the central chamber, John and Teyla did a brief
survey of the dozen or so connecting rooms. Their flashlights revealed nothing but more shattered glass and
twisted metal, bits of the crystalline material the Ancients had used for their
circuitry and wiring, the remains of incomprehensible machines, melted lumps of
plastic-like substances and ceramics. Everything was so wrecked, John suspected
that it wasn’t just the random destruction of a bombing and a surface battle. It
looked methodical and deliberate, as if someone had been careful to destroy
every working console, to leave nothing intact. “The Wraith must have been very
angry at this place,” Teyla commented, sounding sober and a little regretful.
    “We don’t know it was the Wraith.” John flicked a look at her, but it was too
dark to read her expression. He was glad to hear she thought the destruction was
unusual too, that it wasn’t just his imagination. “But yeah, whoever it was
definitely had anger issues.”
    They came back through the center chamber to find Ford keeping a wary eye
out, Kolesnikova and Corrigan hard at work, and McKay and Kavanagh having a loud
emphatic discussion that was probably another one of Kavanagh’s attempts to
challenge McKay’s position as alpha male of the science team. John trusted one
of the others to break it up if it progressed to the hitting stage. He decided
to risk a set of wide stone stairs that still seemed stable and do a quick sweep
of the upper galleries.
    There was no sign that anything alive had been in here for decades, despite
the open access through the doorway and the broken skylights. Up on these
levels, an undisturbed layer of dirt and dust coated nearly every surface, made
thick and corrosive by the moisture and salt in the air. There wasn’t even
anything like bird or rat droppings, no spider webs or other signs of insect
life. The local fauna seemed to be carefully avoiding this place. It was quiet,
except for his and Teyla’s footsteps and an occasional exclamation or clatter
from below. Creepy, John thought, and felt glad to rejoin the others on
the main level.
    Once they were back down in the center chamber, Teyla moved off to tell Ford
they hadn’t found anything, and John went over to Rodney.
    He was crouched down, already half-buried in the center control station near
the giant organ-pipe-tubes, taking what was left of it apart. John knew he was
trying to get some idea of what the connections to the power system were like,
hoping for a clue to where a ZPM might be hiding. McKay was also assembling a
little pile of useful spare parts to drag back home to Atlantis.
    “Hey, you think this damage looks deliberate?” John asked him.
    Rodney snapped automatically, “If I look busy it’s because I am!” Then John’s
question must have penetrated, because he pulled his head out of the console to
stare up at him. “What, you think it was accidental? Somebody tripped and
accidentally pushed the ‘bomb our own city back to the stone age’ button?”
    “No, no, I do not.” John held onto his patience. “I mean, like somebody came
through here with a crowbar or the high-tech equivalent and made sure nobody
would ever be able to use any of this stuff again.”
    McKay sat back on his heels, poking into his pack for another tool. “Wrecking
whatever human technology they can find still intact is probably standard
operating procedure for the Wraith, Major. What are you getting at?”
    “I know, but this looks different.” John gestured helplessly, giving up. He
didn’t know what he meant.
    He left Rodney to get on with it and paced, trying to keep an eye on
everybody, feeling a little like a hen with too many chicks. The back of his
neck kept itching, but he didn’t see how anybody or anything could be watching
them. Ford was