Elizabeth watched John shift Mara in his arms and turn sharply towards Chuck. His eyes scanned the laptop screen quickly taking in the same information she had – the communication was still open. He turned again, this time to face her, moved forwards and forced the child into her arms.
“I’m going to get them,” he said and turned to walk away.
“John, no,” she said stopping him as she shifted Mara.
“No?” he questioned rounding on her. “You want me to just let them die?”
“And if you go out there and end up dead? Then what?”
“She has a point,” Rodney put in and John gave him a look to shut him up.
“John, the comm. channel is still open, that means the Jumper is still in one piece. They may make it home and just can’t send messages. You’ll just have to wait.”
“Elizabeth,” Carson called, taking the stairs two at a time with Radek close behind him. They both paused at the top. “I need you to come in for some tests.”
“I can’t just sit by and wait while three of my men die, Elizabeth,” John said ignoring Carson.
“You don’t know what’s out there. Something just made a Wraith hive ship vanish,” Rodney said his voice rising in pitch.
“We found something,” Radek said.
“I don’t care what’s out there, those are my men,” John said fuming at Rodney.
“The database has masses of information about the gene, your gene,” Carson stated.
“Right,” Rodney returned sarcastically, “and who is going save us when the big bad wolf comes for us?”
“Enough!” Elizabeth shouted, jarring Mara awake and quickly placing her back on her feet. “John, you’re not going anywhere. You can keep trying to contact the Major and his team, but I can’t let you go out there until we know more about what happened. Rodney, Radek, I need you to run whatever scans you can to find out what’s out there and fast.”
Elizabeth turned to Carson, gave him an apologetic look and turned to crouch in front of Mara. She waited as the girl rubbed at her eyes looking as though she wanted to cry for being so rudely woken. With a soft smile and forceful voice Elizabeth made it clear what she needed.
“Mara,” she said. “I need to know everything about this ‘evil’ and why they sent you to warn us.”
“My mom discovered the gene,” she said, “but they said I was a good choice because I didn’t know enough about it.”
“Charming,” Carson said. “Send the one who can’t give us too much detail.”
“And these people who are coming?” she asked. “They’re not Wraith?”
“No,” Mara said stepping into Elizabeth’s frame as though she wanted to be picked up again. “They’re the Xe-ne,” she said. “A long time ago they were our friends,” she continued, resting her head on Elizabeth’s thigh.
Elizabeth wrapped her arm back around Mara’s tiny waist and lifted the child back into her arms before turning to Carson. She nodded her head to indicate they could head for the infirmary before starting down the stairs.
“Do you know what happened?” Carson asked Mara as they reached the bottom of the stairs.
Mara shook her head. “Mommy said they didn’t agree with us and said we should be killed for not agreeing with them.”
“Doesn’t sound like a good reason to kill people,” Carson said and rounded the corner with Elizabeth and the child close behind him.
“Which means we’re dealing with another unreasonable enemy,” Elizabeth said and entered the infirmary shortly after Carson and sat Mara down in Carson’s big chair. She looked a little disappointed that she had been set down, but Carson was quick to walk over to Mara with a stethoscope and let her play with it. It seemed to do the trick.
“Obviously they didn’t succeed in destroying Atlantis,” Carson mused as Elizabeth hopped up onto one of the beds and held out her arm to Carson who began to prep it for a blood test. Elizabeth’s attention wandered over to Mara who had the stethoscope on her chest.
“Mara, how close did they get to Atlantis?” Elizabeth questioned.
A brief moment of confusion crossed the child’s face before she looked up at Elizabeth and Carson.
“They got into the city. It was a big surprise. No one was ready.”
“So they know the city pretty well,” Elizabeth said with a sigh as Carson checked the mark he’d made on her arm. “That gives them a slight advantage to start with. Assuming in the last ten thousand years they haven’t come up with a way to just blow the planet up with a push of a button,” she gave a nervous laugh before something occurred to her. “Mara,” she asked, watching the girl try the end of the stethoscope on her arm. “How did your people defeat them?”
“Can I listen to your heart?” Mara asked, plucking the stethoscope from her ears. Carson moved over to pick her up and placed her on the bed beside Elizabeth.
“Mara,” Elizabeth said as the end of the listening device touched her chest. Mara laughed as she heard the sound of Elizabeth’s voice reverberate through her ears. “How did your people defeat them?”
“There was a device,” she said as Elizabeth moved the end of the stethoscope to her mouth to blow gently into the end. Mara laughed again before yawning.
“Like a weapon?” Carson asked.
“It sent them away, far away. Like the transporters do, but not to another place in the city.”
“Do you know where it is?” Carson asked. Mara nodded.
“Down under the main part of the city,” she said. “But they had to take it apart.”
Elizabeth’s heart sank with the last sentence, their only hope was in pieces and chances were their five year-old friend didn’t know how to put it back together. An age-old enemy, with knowledge of the city and who were more advanced were heading their way and there was no way to stop them.
“So,” she said, “all we have to do is find out where they stored the parts and put it back together.”
“Easy,” Carson said with a touch too much sarcasm.
“The crystals are on other planets,” Mara said sliding back onto the bed behind Elizabeth and getting comfortable. She reached into her pocket and pulled out a slip of paper and held it out to Elizabeth. “They’ve been there since the last war.”
****
"Four crystals?" Ronon asked with a raised brow. "On four worlds?"
"Yes," Elizabeth said and John turned to study her haggard expression. "Mara gave me this," she produced the piece of paper which held a single word on it and handed it to Rodney. "I think it's a search word, it translates as ‘lucror’."
Rodney looked at the paper and flipped it over. John knew he expected more and wondered just how long he'd be able to hold his tongue while the sarcastic comment rose in his throat. It was a moment before the paper was placed on the desk at arm's length from Rodney and he huffed in disappointment before turning to his computer.
"Well?" John asked after several minutes of listening to Rodney's fingers tapping at the keyboard.
"Well what?" Rodney asked looking up from the screen.
"The search," John said pointing at the paper.
"I'll get to it," he said.
“Get to it now,” John walked over to where Rodney was sitting. “What are you looking at?” He turned the monitor over to one side for a better view. He read what was on the screen and his face sunk in disbelief. “You’re looking up information on the Navo Gene?”
Rodney looked up at John, then to Elizabeth and the others who were giving him an odd look. “What?” he turned the monitor back hastily.
John rubbed his forehead. “Don’t you think looking up information on the weapon is more important than looking up a rare gene that only Elizabeth has?”
“Not necessarily.”
“You’ve got to be kidding me”
“What?” Rodney looked at him with indignation.
“You’re trying to figure out if there is a way to use gene therapy with this new gene, aren’t you?”
Rodney feigned a shocked and hurt expression. “Of course not,” John was obviously not buying it. Rodney threw his hands up in the air. “Excuse me, I figured if Elizabeth is so much more advanced than maybe it would be in all of our best interests to help the process along in, you know, the rest of us.”
“You mean in you,” John pointed out.
“Yes. I mean, no. I mean, of course I should get the gene therapy because I’m a highly valued member of your team and there may be times where I am needed to activate things…”
John rolled his eyes. “I can’t believe this.”
"There is an enemy coming to the City, Rodney," Teyla interjected calmly.
"I know that."
"He won't have to worry about them," John said leaning closer the scientist, "I'll have killed him first."
“What did I do?” Rodney’s voice pitch was high.
“You won’t even look up the damned word!”
“Why can’t Zelenka do it?”
“Rodney.”
“Stop,” Elizabeth had her arms crossed looking at the two men who were acting more like children than leaders in their field. “We don’t have time for this.”
“But –“ Rodney started.
“End of discussion,” Elizabeth interjected Rodney’s protest. “Look up the word Rodney. I want a full report in an hour.”
Elizabeth stood, rounded the table and left the room.
****
Radek looked up as Rodney entered the lab muttering under his breath. He couldn’t hear what was being said, but he caught the words “high-o-mighty” and “queen” and wondered who had just placed herself on a pedestal in front of Rodney McKay. It baffled him for a few seconds as he knew the meeting the man had just been in only had Elizabeth and Teyla in it and neither of them would be crazy enough to make him feel inferior. Then it occurred to him, he was referring to Elizabeth and her gene.
He was stopped in his thoughts as Rodney shoved a piece of paper under his nose and sat back down.
“What’s this for?” Radek asked.
“It’s a search word,” Rodney said sarcastically. “You look it up.”
Radek raised an eyebrow wondering just what had gone on in the meeting to annoy Rodney this much. As he watched, Rodney returned to the computer screen and began to read for a moment before he looked back at Radek.
“What? You need written instructions or something?”
Radek swung around before he could say anything back that he would regret or be made to pay for later and started typing in the search parameter.
“Elizabeth wants a report off me in an hour for that,” Rodney muttered.
“Then why am I doing it?”
“Because I’m busy,” Rodney snapped.
“I’m busy as well,” Radek said and before Rodney could say something sarcastic about his current job Radek added: “and I wouldn’t submit my work in your name.”
“Whatever,” Rodney muttered not taking his eyes off the screen.
****
John stopped in the corridor to think this through. After Elizabeth had left the meeting she hadn’t returned to her office and before he could follow her, she’d vanished completely. He’d checked the obvious place first, the balcony, only to find it empty, and asked Chuck if he knew where she went. Chuck just shrugged and pointed to the back stairwell.
Since then, he’d gone to the infirmary to see if she’d gone back to Mara, but the girl was still asleep curled up on one of the infirmary beds and Carson hadn’t seen the missing leader since he’d taken blood and run some tests before their meeting. Perplexed, he had looked in the mess hall, her room and the gym for her and no one seemed to have seen her. He knew Rodney’s attitude had gotten to her. She didn’t like feeling superior because she was in charge let alone because of a gene she had.
“Hey,” Ronon said stopping in front of him, “I have a question I never thought I’d ask,” he said. John quirked a brow thinking this would be a question that wasn’t meant for the corridor of a busy city.
“Okay,” he said slowly.
“Why did Weir go into your room?”
His eyes widened and both brows rose to his hairline. He hadn’t thought to look in his room, as they always spent their nights in her room. Then again, trying to stay away from everyone required her to be somewhere unexpected and lucky for John someone had seen her go in.
“Hiding place,” he said patting Ronon on the chest sharply before darting off down the hallway.
He jogged down stairs and corridors to his room and patted the control to let him in and stepped into surprising darkness. Looking around in the half light he couldn’t see any sign that someone was there, yet he reached behind him and closed the door.
“Elizabeth?”
“I’m here,” she said from the corner of his room and he squinted in her direction to see her leaning against the wall beside his window. “I just needed somewhere quiet.”
“You alright?” he asked sitting down on the end of the bed.
She hummed to indicated she was, but he didn’t completely believe her and he wasn’t about to push her to tell the truth. So he waited in the silence for her to say something or for something of a different topic to come to him, but all he could think to say was that he loved her and now was far from the right time to announce that.
“I used to spend hours trying to work out which would drive me crazy first,” she said eventually. “The worry about the teams I send on missions, or Rodney’s ego,” she sighed. “Now I spend hours wondering if I can lock us in a room for a day until I get my sanity back from dealing with him.”
John gave a small laugh. He knew what she meant. Rodney was a handful sometimes and today he seemed to be purposely trying to push her temperament.
“He’s jealous,” John said. “He’s wanted to be better than everyone since he was born. Now you’ve beaten him to the punch and he’s probably brooding over the fact that it took him six months more than the rest of his class to learn to tie his own shoes.”
“Really?” she asked, her voice pitch rising in amusement and shock. He stood up and moved to stand with her, leaning his shoulder against the wall next to her and smiling as he nodded.
“I teased him for a week and he just kept telling me that ‘his brain didn’t want to deal with such a mundane task’. But that didn’t stop me.”
“I don’t want this,” she said, turning into him and wrapping her arms around his waist. Her head came to rest on his chest before she gave a deep sigh and continued. “I want things to be easy for once. Normal and relaxing instead of always having to find a way to power the shields or save our necks from some random alien race who doesn’t like us for whatever reason,” she continued. John wrapped his arms around her in return and placed a kiss on her forehead.
“I wanna take Rodney’s brain out and see how he does as a dunce.”
She chuckled and then couldn’t stop herself and it developed into a full laugh. He didn’t release her. Instead he enjoyed the feel her body vibrating from the fit of giggles she was battling. When she managed to control them at last she turned her face up to him and he watched as she pulled her lower lip into her mouth for a moment before reaching up to kiss him.
He let it linger, enjoying the feeling of something they had only so recently enjoyed. He honestly didn’t want it to end and would even thank any god that listened if it moved on to something even more enjoyable. But he knew his chances were slim at this moment in time, evil race on the way to kill them and all.
But Elizabeth took a step back, forcing him to release his hold on her and place his hands on her hips. He couldn’t quite make out her expression. The darkening sky and shadowed room making it impossible, but he soon got the idea when she moved away from him completely and pulled him over to the bed.
‘This had better not be last chance sex,’ he thought as she sat down on the edge and pulled him down as she rested back. He’d be damned if he was going to let this be rushed and the one and only time he’d get to see Elizabeth naked. Not to mention he wanted to put some light on that situation before he died.
“Elizabeth,” he protested, keeping his body a good few centimetres off hers and paused for a moment to mentally scold himself for something he really wanted. “Why now?”
“It’s time,” she said simply and stretched up enough to kiss him. “Its okay, John,” she promised him, “no one knows I’m here.”
“Ronon does,” he said, “how do you think I found you?”
“And I thought I was careful enough not to be seen all the way here,” she gave a small pout before she broke into laughter. He’d give anything to be himself with her anywhere in this city, not just their rooms and he knew she’d like to have that freedom too.
He chuckled as he leaned down to kiss her and slowly lowered his body weight over her. This was too good to be true, and it was all his, though knowing his luck he’d be woken up in a few minutes by his mom banging on the door for him to get up and go to school. Either that or a Wraith, Genii or Rodney would show up and spoil it while forcing them to come up with some excuse about why Elizabeth was in his room with him and in the dark.
He moved away from her lips, slowly trailing kisses down her neck to her shoulder and the red v-neck that blocked his path. His hands moved from beside her on the bed, resting up on his elbows so he could tug the cloth down on one side and reach her collar bone. That was when it happened. The intercom clicked on and the immortal words of something happening reached their ears.
“Doctor Weir to the control room, please.”
Damn the bad timing of what or whoever was causing problems now. If it was Rodney he was seriously going to kill the man and let Radek have his glory and place on his team. Maybe he’d just break his legs and watch him suffer for a while.
****
“What is it?”
Doctor Weir rounded the corner of the control room and was followed by Colonel Sheppard a few paces behind. Chuck looked up from the monitor with a slightly worried expression. “It’s an incoming wormhole.”
Elizabeth glanced over the balcony towards the active Stargate and noticed that the shield was still up. She looked back at Chuck. “Who is it?”
“We don’t know, ma’am. Haven’t received an IDC yet.”
This brought a small frown to the corners of Elizabeth’s lips as she glanced over at John. There were no teams currently off world. None except for –
“I’m getting Major Lorne’s identification code.”
“Get Doctor Beckett down here,” Elizabeth ordered. John had already started off down the stairs to the gate room and she followed close behind him. The shield dropped and moments later Lorne and his team came walking through the gate looking a little worn out.
“Major?” John eyed the man’s wound on his forehead.
“It’s nothing sir; bumped my head landing the Jumper.”
“What happened? Where’s the Jumper?”
Lorne dropped his pack as a team of paramedics rushed in from one side of the gate room and began to examine his men. One of the nurses hovered nearby. She wanted to take a look at Major Lorne’s cut, but remained out of the way for him to give his initial report.
“We couldn’t clear the blast zone in time; caught the tail end of the explosion and knocked out our communications and weapons. Damaged the engines too. We basically crawled back to the planet.”
“Where’s the Jumper now?” Elizabeth had made sure Cole and Miller were alright and now came to stand beside John.
“Still on the planet, ma’am. The damage to the Jumper was so bad that it didn’t take too well to re-entry. It was a bumpy ride.”
Elizabeth nodded. “We’ll send a team to see if they can get it working again. In the mean time, you and your team should report to the infirmary.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“What could take out a Wraith hive ship like that?” Elizabeth asked turning to John with a worried expression written on her face.
John didn’t have an answer for her. It was obvious that if the Wraith activated their self-destruct that they had been backed into a corner and felt it was their last resort. It wasn’t a comforting thought. He opened his mouth to reply –
“Doctor Weir!”
John looked perplexed. That wasn’t the sound of his voice. He shut his mouth and turned around in time to see Zelenka rushing up the stairs from the other side of the gate room. The Czech looked like he was in a hurry. Radek scrambled up the stairs and stopped in front of them. He took a moment to catch his breath and push his glasses back in place.
“What is it, Radek?” Elizabeth folded her arms and leaned in a little bit trying to calm the scientist down.
“It’s the weapon. I did the search for the word you gave Rodney. I think you need to see it for yourself.”
Minutes later Elizabeth, John, and Radek were in Elizabeth’s office staring at the text on the computer screen. There were times and dates and calculations that meant little to John or Elizabeth. John was the first to look up at Radek. “What exactly are we looking at?”
Zelenka secured his glasses again before gesturing at the text on the screen. “They’re calculations that predict planetary shift.”
John raised an eyebrow. “And?”
“Remember the reports from when the Stargate program first started and we could only get a lock on Abydos?”
Elizabeth nodded. “That’s because we didn’t have a DHD and we didn’t take into consideration planetary shift.”
Radek nodded. “Exactly.”
Elizabeth shook her head. “But we don’t have that problem. The Atlantis computers compensate for us.”
“Yes, but unlike the computers at Stargate Command, the Atlantis computer has a lot more safety protocols that prevent us from dialling planets for various reasons.”
John looked up again. “And this affects us how?”
Radek pressed his lips together. “Currently the four planets that Mara has provided for us are accessible, but according to my calculations, in just a few days they will be inaccessible for another twenty years.”
Elizabeth frowned. “We don’t have that much time to wait.”
John glanced at Elizabeth for a minute and then back to Radek. “Can’t you just override the protocols?”
“Unfortunately, no,” Radek could see the ‘why not’ question written on Colonel Sheppard’s face so he continued. “It would be easy if it was just a matter of recalculating planetary shift. However, by the look of the planets’ orbits, it places the planet directly behind their suns. Even if we could override the protocols here to be able to gate there, there is no guarantee that we could program the DHD to send us back.”
“And we’d be stuck on a planet for twenty years.”
Radek nodded at John. “Precisely.”
John looked at Elizabeth. “We need to talk to Mara again.”
****
“Mara,” Carson said gently, trying to rouse the girl from her sleep. It had been a few hours since Elizabeth left and though he would have loved to leave her there, Elizabeth had asked him to wake her up and bring her to her office. “Come on sweetheart,” he urged as she slowly opened her eyes and blinked up at him. “Elizabeth wants you in her office.”
She stretched out on the bed and her eyes closed again. Carson chuckled before taking her hand and drawing her into a sitting position. She groaned in protest before jumping from the bed and started to leave. Carson followed, taking her hand as she offered it to him along the way.
Mara yawned as they started up the stairs to the control room and Carson started to listen to any conversations coming his way. There was nothing of interest, just the usual comments of those at work, but as he neared Elizabeth’s office he picked up the end of the conversation.
“Sounds easy enough,” John said.
“Easy?” Elizabeth said as Carson stopped in the door way. “Last time we tried to take something off another planet they called the Genii,” she added. Mara let go of his hand and moved into the room. She faltered for a minute choosing between Elizabeth and John before moving around the desk to climb on Elizabeth’s lap.
“I think we’ve been adopted,” John joked having watched her make her choice. Elizabeth gave him a knowing grin before turning her attention to Mara.
“Hey,” she said with a smile as the girl rested her head on Elizabeth’s shoulder. “Can you tell me anything about the planets the crystals are on?”
“The elephants,” was all she said.
“Elephants?” John asked with a quirked brow as Carson moved to take a seat on the sofa.
“The crystals are four parts of the five elephants,” she said giving another yawn.
“Elements,” Elizabeth corrected.
“The planets they are on represent them.”
“So what are the elements?” Carson asked, “I can only think of four.”
“Fire, Water, Air and Earth,” Mara offered. “Life is the fifth one and it needs the Navo Gene and the Ancient Gene.”
“So,” John said thinking this over carefully, “we can expect to get burned, soaked, buried and go flying?”
“You have to be able to survive on these planets, right?” Radek asked studying the crystal on Elizabeth’s large monitor while avoiding the unusual way she sat holding an invisible girl.
“Aye,” Carson interrupted, “so you won’t get burned. Just extremely hot in all likelihood.”
“I’ll do that one just to annoy Rodney,” John said with a grin and Mara grinned back and gave a short laugh.
“I’ll let Major Lorne pick his planet when he’s released from the infirmary and then you can fight over the last two,” Elizabeth said. “Go get your teams ready,” she ordered giving John a quick smirk.
****
“All ready?” Elizabeth asked and John turned to smile at her.
Mara was again in her arms and he couldn’t help but think she’d be a wonderful mother one day. Sooner rather than later he added to his mental picture, otherwise they’d either miss their opportunity or feel too old to have kids all together. Then again, with yet another race of aliens attempting to kill them, it was probably better that they waited for... who was he kidding? There was no safe time to have children.
“Yep,” he replied. “Out of curiosity, what planet did Lorne pick?”
“Earth,” she said, “he wants to give Katie her first off world experience somewhere she should feel relatively comfortable.”
“Katie?” Rodney asked picking that moment to join them. “As in Doctor Brown?”
“Yes,” Elizabeth said, “Major Lorne talked her into joining his team.”
“Good for her,” John put in tickling Mara’s neck.
“No,” Rodney said indignantly, “not good for her, she’ll get hurt, or killed or... something.”
“Relax, Rodney, I’ve already told the Major to keep a close eye on her and make sure she comes back the same way she went out.”
“You think he’s going to listen to that?” Rodney said, his voice pitch rising.
“I expect him to listen to me, yes,” she said before turning to John. “I told him if she came back injured I’d let you assign his team member. He seemed to think you’d give him the most annoying person available.”
“Nah,” John said. “Rodney’s already on a team.”
“Hey!” Rodney said loudly while Mara laughed. “Where are we going anyway?”
Elizabeth turned back to John, her eyebrow raised in curiosity and John felt his throat tighten a little. In preparing his team, John should have told them all where they were going but he hadn’t. Even through her amusement he knew she’d be angry that he’d, avoided telling one of this own team.
“You didn’t tell him,” she said at length and it was hard to tell from her tone if she was more annoyed or amused.
“I told him it was P6X-887,” John said defensively. “I just forgot to mention the rest,” he added slyly and turned to look at Teyla and Ronon who were standing ready behind him. Teyla quickly tucked a sun tanning cream into her pack and turned to Ronon to avoid joining or being involved in the discussion.
“You’re looking for the fire crystal,” Mara said.
“What!? She’s kidding right?” Rodney yelled and John shook his head. “You expect me to go to a planet hotter than hell and look for some stupid crystal?”
“Yes,” John said firmly and slightly high pitched. “If you want to live to see tomorrow.”
“Oh, yes, I’m so afraid of the big bad Air Force colonel.”
“It’s not just me threatening you, McKay,” John said stepping up and intimidating into Rodney’s space. “Consider an enemy that we can’t detect who can take down a hive ship in the blink of an eye. An enemy we’ve been told only half the population will be able to see.”
“I could be doing better things with my time than getting burned. Like fixing systems.”
“Systems that won’t help us, Rodney,” Elizabeth said. “Why is it you’re the only person who can’t see that there is something out there that’s far more dangerous than anything we’ve had to deal with in the past?”
“Because you’re listening to a three year old midget,” he argued angrily.
“I’m five,” Mara spat.
John turned at that point and indicated for Chuck to start dialling. He wasn’t willing to let McKay go on with his pointless protest or waste time getting more ‘required items’. They were going now. He pushed Rodney away, thinking that distance between him and Elizabeth might curb that jealous streak he was on. Instead he got a string of complaints about the heat on the world they hadn’t even stepped onto and a threat every so often about coming back with burn marks or radiation poisoning.
He was extremely thankful when the gate activated and Ronon stepped forward, grabbed Rodney by the scruff of the neck and stepped through the gate. Teyla gave him a look of interest before she followed the others through.
“You going?” Elizabeth asked watching him as he bounced on his feet for a moment.
“Giving Ronon a moment to threaten him into silence,” he said and she quirked a brow. “What? What I don’t know I don’t have to deal with,” he grinned at her as she chuckled and then he set off with a lazy salute.
****
In a small clearing, in the middle of a dense forest, the Stargate stood erect. Its massive size was dwarfed by large tropical trees with various brightly coloured flowers on them. The pungent pollen smell was what first greeted a traveller to the planet; the second being the thick, hot, and humid air that caused your clothes to cling almost instantly to your body. Major Lorne watched as Katie Brown took her first few steps down from the Stargate. Her eyes were wide and filled with the same fascination that Parrish had had on him when they initially arrived. He smiled.
“See, Doc? I know you had your doubts, but isn’t it worth it?”
Actually, Lorne didn’t much care for plants the way he figured Katie or Parrish did, but he appreciated them on a merely aesthetic quality. Katie, on the other hand, took a few moments with her eyes poised upwards at the tree tops before addressing Lorne’s question.
“This is amazing. There has to be a least a half dozen tropical plants all co-existing at once.”
Lorne glanced upwards, but could only differentiate some of them because some had orange flowers while others had blue, yellow, pink, red, or white. “And that’s unusual?”
Katie nodded. “These trees are very similar to ones back on Earth, but many of them only grow on particular continents,” she said and pointed to a tree with violet trumpet flowers and then to a tree with orange flowers. “This one is only found in Brazil whereas this one is indigenous to India, but here they are side by side.”
Lorne smiled. “If you like this, then you’ll love the rest of the planet. Come on.”
The team ducked under a low-hanging branch and began to walk single-file down a narrow path. While it was clear that nature dominated the area, the path was well travelled. Katie couldn’t picture the kind of people living in such thick brush, but Lorne had assured her that there was an entire village a few miles from the Stargate.
A mile into the hike Katie’s legs were beginning to burn. Her body wasn’t meant for hiking. It was meant for sitting over a microscope and analyzing plant samples. Be that as it may, she continued to push herself, but was glad when Lorne and his men seemed to slow their pace. She felt bad for slowing them down – they were under time restraints after all.
After a mile and a half, they had to take a break. It was Lorne who suggested it, but there was no question that the men could have made it the extra one and a half miles to the village. Lorne noticed the defeated expression on Katie’s face and took a seat next to her.
“It’s harder to hike in uneven terrain.”
“Thanks,” Katie looked up with a smile. “I feel bad for slowing you down.”
Lorne shrugged. “You’ll get used to it,” he grinned. “If McKay can do it, anyone can.”
Lorne got up and went to talk to Lieutenant Miller while Katie took a few more minutes to breath. She let her eyes wander over the different specimens again and fell upon an interesting blue five-petal flower partially hidden beneath a rock. She leaned closer. Out of all the flora on the planet, this was the first one that wasn’t something familiar from Earth. She reached out and ran her fingers over the petal and then under the stem, studying it carefully.
“Ready?”
Sergeant Cole’s voice caught her off guard and she jerked her hand hard enough to snap the flower from its stem. Katie frowned a little at the flower in her hand – it would die now.
“Sorry.”
Katie shook her head as she carefully pocketed the flower so she could dry it when they got back to Atlantis for her collection.
“It’s alright. I’m ready.”
The rest had been enough to get the team to the village. It wasn’t what Katie expected. There were no huts or houses or anything remotely resembling a civilized village. Instead, the area was home to large trees with some of the largest trunks any of them had ever seen before. If you hadn’t known there was a village, you would walk right by, for the villagers lived within the tree trunks and were quiet.
Katie glanced over to Lorne curiously. He nodded and pointed to a large stump in what was considered the middle of the village.
“I’d walk with you, Doc, but the folks here seem to respond better to your gender than mine.”
She took a deep breath and stepped slowly towards the center. As she passed by the large trunks, she tried to peek inside as casually as she could, but there was nothing to see from her vantage point. Katie was starting to think that no one was here or that this was some sort of hazing ritual for new team members when a tall, attractive woman with wavy auburn hair emerged from one of the trunks.
They spoke a few words, but Lorne couldn’t make out what was being said. He was thankful that she hadn’t turned around and started running like Parrish had. In fact, it looked like the two women were getting along. He smiled, but it was brief as he watched Katie be led somewhere inside one of the trunks. His posture stiffened – he could hear Doctor Weir’s voice reminding him that he was supposed to keep Katie Brown safe.
By the time there was movement in the village, the three men had taken positions resting on the ground. Miller was leaning against a trunk with his chin on his chest and his eyes closed while Cole and Lorne were finishing up an MRE each. It was only when the auburn-haired woman approached them did they react and clamour to their feet in a hurry.
The woman towered over the men with a few inches on any one of them. Her broad shoulders and intense emerald eyes only served to remind Lorne that these women were different from the ones back home. There was something wilder, more mystical about them. Her eyes passed over the men before she spoke.
“The one with the eyes of water may join us.”
It took a moment for Lorne to decipher that meant him. He gave a couple of standing orders to Cole and Miller before plastering on what charming smile he could for the woman and asked her to lead the way. He couldn’t help think that when he got back Colonel Sheppard was going to have a remark or two about how he got one of the better planets. Rumour had it that Sheppard had chosen the fire planet and Lorne was secretly thankful he hadn’t drawn that stick. As much as he loved hot weather, the planet did not seem very appealing.
When Major Lorne walked into what looked like a council chamber, it took him a moment to collect himself. While the outside appeared to be a tree trunk, the inside was large and home to comfortable décor. Pillows laden the ground for people to rest on and various fruits and vegetables were set in the middle on a low-rise table. Katie sat at the head of the table on one side while a woman with short, fiery hair sat on the other end.
“Sit.”
The red-head pointed at a seat near Katie and waited with unmoving eyes. Lorne would have been lying if he said he didn’t feel a little intimidated. Several other women sat around the table while others stood around the room with what he considered were judgemental stares. He took a breath and sat.
Katie introduced him as Major Evan Lorne and the woman, whose eyes matched her hair, was named Avani. Avani regarded Lorne quietly before speaking in a resonating tone.
“Lady Brown informs us you seek Ceras’ gift.”
Lorne looked over to Katie who leaned in and whispered. “I think Ceras is similar to the Roman goddess Ceres back on Earth. She was considered to be like Mother Nature.”
Of course it did Lorne thought before nodding to Avani. “Yes, Ma’am. We need it to save our people.”
Avani was a hard woman to read. She sat rigid with her knees folded under her and her hands on her thighs. Lorne was pretty sure this woman could give Teyla a run for her money with her banto sticks.
“It has been many generations since travellers have come seeking Ceras’ gift. Our people only know of it by legend.”
The auburn-haired woman, later discovered to be named Sage, spoke up across the table from him. Her voice was somewhat gentler.
“The legend is that many generations ago the children of Ceras came to our planet with her gift and entrusted it to our people. They hid the gift within the Tree of Life.”
“Any chance you know where the Tree of Life is?” He thought it was worth a shot.
Sage offered a look of consolation. “Unfortunately, its location has been lost to us for a long time. However, you may find your answers in the sacred caves.”
“Sacred caves?”
Avani’s eyes flicked to Katie who stiffened and looked sheepishly to Lorne.
“There’s a cave at the base of a mountain that they said was where the, um, children of Ceras entered and never came out of again. It’s a place they don’t go into out of respect.”
“Ah,” Lorne nodded, “but it’ll be okay if we do, right?” He wasn’t quite sure who to pose the question to, so he left it there in the middle of the table. It was Sage who answered.
“We have granted Lady Brown and her protectors passage.”
Lorne glanced over to Katie who flushed. He couldn’t help but smile subtly.
“Be forewarned,” Avani cast her eyes specifically at Lorne. “The gift is protected by the gnomes and only those they deem worthy of their trust will find it.”
“I’m going to get them,” he said and turned to walk away.
“John, no,” she said stopping him as she shifted Mara.
“No?” he questioned rounding on her. “You want me to just let them die?”
“And if you go out there and end up dead? Then what?”
“She has a point,” Rodney put in and John gave him a look to shut him up.
“John, the comm. channel is still open, that means the Jumper is still in one piece. They may make it home and just can’t send messages. You’ll just have to wait.”
“Elizabeth,” Carson called, taking the stairs two at a time with Radek close behind him. They both paused at the top. “I need you to come in for some tests.”
“I can’t just sit by and wait while three of my men die, Elizabeth,” John said ignoring Carson.
“You don’t know what’s out there. Something just made a Wraith hive ship vanish,” Rodney said his voice rising in pitch.
“We found something,” Radek said.
“I don’t care what’s out there, those are my men,” John said fuming at Rodney.
“The database has masses of information about the gene, your gene,” Carson stated.
“Right,” Rodney returned sarcastically, “and who is going save us when the big bad wolf comes for us?”
“Enough!” Elizabeth shouted, jarring Mara awake and quickly placing her back on her feet. “John, you’re not going anywhere. You can keep trying to contact the Major and his team, but I can’t let you go out there until we know more about what happened. Rodney, Radek, I need you to run whatever scans you can to find out what’s out there and fast.”
Elizabeth turned to Carson, gave him an apologetic look and turned to crouch in front of Mara. She waited as the girl rubbed at her eyes looking as though she wanted to cry for being so rudely woken. With a soft smile and forceful voice Elizabeth made it clear what she needed.
“Mara,” she said. “I need to know everything about this ‘evil’ and why they sent you to warn us.”
“My mom discovered the gene,” she said, “but they said I was a good choice because I didn’t know enough about it.”
“Charming,” Carson said. “Send the one who can’t give us too much detail.”
“And these people who are coming?” she asked. “They’re not Wraith?”
“No,” Mara said stepping into Elizabeth’s frame as though she wanted to be picked up again. “They’re the Xe-ne,” she said. “A long time ago they were our friends,” she continued, resting her head on Elizabeth’s thigh.
Elizabeth wrapped her arm back around Mara’s tiny waist and lifted the child back into her arms before turning to Carson. She nodded her head to indicate they could head for the infirmary before starting down the stairs.
“Do you know what happened?” Carson asked Mara as they reached the bottom of the stairs.
Mara shook her head. “Mommy said they didn’t agree with us and said we should be killed for not agreeing with them.”
“Doesn’t sound like a good reason to kill people,” Carson said and rounded the corner with Elizabeth and the child close behind him.
“Which means we’re dealing with another unreasonable enemy,” Elizabeth said and entered the infirmary shortly after Carson and sat Mara down in Carson’s big chair. She looked a little disappointed that she had been set down, but Carson was quick to walk over to Mara with a stethoscope and let her play with it. It seemed to do the trick.
“Obviously they didn’t succeed in destroying Atlantis,” Carson mused as Elizabeth hopped up onto one of the beds and held out her arm to Carson who began to prep it for a blood test. Elizabeth’s attention wandered over to Mara who had the stethoscope on her chest.
“Mara, how close did they get to Atlantis?” Elizabeth questioned.
A brief moment of confusion crossed the child’s face before she looked up at Elizabeth and Carson.
“They got into the city. It was a big surprise. No one was ready.”
“So they know the city pretty well,” Elizabeth said with a sigh as Carson checked the mark he’d made on her arm. “That gives them a slight advantage to start with. Assuming in the last ten thousand years they haven’t come up with a way to just blow the planet up with a push of a button,” she gave a nervous laugh before something occurred to her. “Mara,” she asked, watching the girl try the end of the stethoscope on her arm. “How did your people defeat them?”
“Can I listen to your heart?” Mara asked, plucking the stethoscope from her ears. Carson moved over to pick her up and placed her on the bed beside Elizabeth.
“Mara,” Elizabeth said as the end of the listening device touched her chest. Mara laughed as she heard the sound of Elizabeth’s voice reverberate through her ears. “How did your people defeat them?”
“There was a device,” she said as Elizabeth moved the end of the stethoscope to her mouth to blow gently into the end. Mara laughed again before yawning.
“Like a weapon?” Carson asked.
“It sent them away, far away. Like the transporters do, but not to another place in the city.”
“Do you know where it is?” Carson asked. Mara nodded.
“Down under the main part of the city,” she said. “But they had to take it apart.”
Elizabeth’s heart sank with the last sentence, their only hope was in pieces and chances were their five year-old friend didn’t know how to put it back together. An age-old enemy, with knowledge of the city and who were more advanced were heading their way and there was no way to stop them.
“So,” she said, “all we have to do is find out where they stored the parts and put it back together.”
“Easy,” Carson said with a touch too much sarcasm.
“The crystals are on other planets,” Mara said sliding back onto the bed behind Elizabeth and getting comfortable. She reached into her pocket and pulled out a slip of paper and held it out to Elizabeth. “They’ve been there since the last war.”
****
"Four crystals?" Ronon asked with a raised brow. "On four worlds?"
"Yes," Elizabeth said and John turned to study her haggard expression. "Mara gave me this," she produced the piece of paper which held a single word on it and handed it to Rodney. "I think it's a search word, it translates as ‘lucror’."
Rodney looked at the paper and flipped it over. John knew he expected more and wondered just how long he'd be able to hold his tongue while the sarcastic comment rose in his throat. It was a moment before the paper was placed on the desk at arm's length from Rodney and he huffed in disappointment before turning to his computer.
"Well?" John asked after several minutes of listening to Rodney's fingers tapping at the keyboard.
"Well what?" Rodney asked looking up from the screen.
"The search," John said pointing at the paper.
"I'll get to it," he said.
“Get to it now,” John walked over to where Rodney was sitting. “What are you looking at?” He turned the monitor over to one side for a better view. He read what was on the screen and his face sunk in disbelief. “You’re looking up information on the Navo Gene?”
Rodney looked up at John, then to Elizabeth and the others who were giving him an odd look. “What?” he turned the monitor back hastily.
John rubbed his forehead. “Don’t you think looking up information on the weapon is more important than looking up a rare gene that only Elizabeth has?”
“Not necessarily.”
“You’ve got to be kidding me”
“What?” Rodney looked at him with indignation.
“You’re trying to figure out if there is a way to use gene therapy with this new gene, aren’t you?”
Rodney feigned a shocked and hurt expression. “Of course not,” John was obviously not buying it. Rodney threw his hands up in the air. “Excuse me, I figured if Elizabeth is so much more advanced than maybe it would be in all of our best interests to help the process along in, you know, the rest of us.”
“You mean in you,” John pointed out.
“Yes. I mean, no. I mean, of course I should get the gene therapy because I’m a highly valued member of your team and there may be times where I am needed to activate things…”
John rolled his eyes. “I can’t believe this.”
"There is an enemy coming to the City, Rodney," Teyla interjected calmly.
"I know that."
"He won't have to worry about them," John said leaning closer the scientist, "I'll have killed him first."
“What did I do?” Rodney’s voice pitch was high.
“You won’t even look up the damned word!”
“Why can’t Zelenka do it?”
“Rodney.”
“Stop,” Elizabeth had her arms crossed looking at the two men who were acting more like children than leaders in their field. “We don’t have time for this.”
“But –“ Rodney started.
“End of discussion,” Elizabeth interjected Rodney’s protest. “Look up the word Rodney. I want a full report in an hour.”
Elizabeth stood, rounded the table and left the room.
****
Radek looked up as Rodney entered the lab muttering under his breath. He couldn’t hear what was being said, but he caught the words “high-o-mighty” and “queen” and wondered who had just placed herself on a pedestal in front of Rodney McKay. It baffled him for a few seconds as he knew the meeting the man had just been in only had Elizabeth and Teyla in it and neither of them would be crazy enough to make him feel inferior. Then it occurred to him, he was referring to Elizabeth and her gene.
He was stopped in his thoughts as Rodney shoved a piece of paper under his nose and sat back down.
“What’s this for?” Radek asked.
“It’s a search word,” Rodney said sarcastically. “You look it up.”
Radek raised an eyebrow wondering just what had gone on in the meeting to annoy Rodney this much. As he watched, Rodney returned to the computer screen and began to read for a moment before he looked back at Radek.
“What? You need written instructions or something?”
Radek swung around before he could say anything back that he would regret or be made to pay for later and started typing in the search parameter.
“Elizabeth wants a report off me in an hour for that,” Rodney muttered.
“Then why am I doing it?”
“Because I’m busy,” Rodney snapped.
“I’m busy as well,” Radek said and before Rodney could say something sarcastic about his current job Radek added: “and I wouldn’t submit my work in your name.”
“Whatever,” Rodney muttered not taking his eyes off the screen.
****
John stopped in the corridor to think this through. After Elizabeth had left the meeting she hadn’t returned to her office and before he could follow her, she’d vanished completely. He’d checked the obvious place first, the balcony, only to find it empty, and asked Chuck if he knew where she went. Chuck just shrugged and pointed to the back stairwell.
Since then, he’d gone to the infirmary to see if she’d gone back to Mara, but the girl was still asleep curled up on one of the infirmary beds and Carson hadn’t seen the missing leader since he’d taken blood and run some tests before their meeting. Perplexed, he had looked in the mess hall, her room and the gym for her and no one seemed to have seen her. He knew Rodney’s attitude had gotten to her. She didn’t like feeling superior because she was in charge let alone because of a gene she had.
“Hey,” Ronon said stopping in front of him, “I have a question I never thought I’d ask,” he said. John quirked a brow thinking this would be a question that wasn’t meant for the corridor of a busy city.
“Okay,” he said slowly.
“Why did Weir go into your room?”
His eyes widened and both brows rose to his hairline. He hadn’t thought to look in his room, as they always spent their nights in her room. Then again, trying to stay away from everyone required her to be somewhere unexpected and lucky for John someone had seen her go in.
“Hiding place,” he said patting Ronon on the chest sharply before darting off down the hallway.
He jogged down stairs and corridors to his room and patted the control to let him in and stepped into surprising darkness. Looking around in the half light he couldn’t see any sign that someone was there, yet he reached behind him and closed the door.
“Elizabeth?”
“I’m here,” she said from the corner of his room and he squinted in her direction to see her leaning against the wall beside his window. “I just needed somewhere quiet.”
“You alright?” he asked sitting down on the end of the bed.
She hummed to indicated she was, but he didn’t completely believe her and he wasn’t about to push her to tell the truth. So he waited in the silence for her to say something or for something of a different topic to come to him, but all he could think to say was that he loved her and now was far from the right time to announce that.
“I used to spend hours trying to work out which would drive me crazy first,” she said eventually. “The worry about the teams I send on missions, or Rodney’s ego,” she sighed. “Now I spend hours wondering if I can lock us in a room for a day until I get my sanity back from dealing with him.”
John gave a small laugh. He knew what she meant. Rodney was a handful sometimes and today he seemed to be purposely trying to push her temperament.
“He’s jealous,” John said. “He’s wanted to be better than everyone since he was born. Now you’ve beaten him to the punch and he’s probably brooding over the fact that it took him six months more than the rest of his class to learn to tie his own shoes.”
“Really?” she asked, her voice pitch rising in amusement and shock. He stood up and moved to stand with her, leaning his shoulder against the wall next to her and smiling as he nodded.
“I teased him for a week and he just kept telling me that ‘his brain didn’t want to deal with such a mundane task’. But that didn’t stop me.”
“I don’t want this,” she said, turning into him and wrapping her arms around his waist. Her head came to rest on his chest before she gave a deep sigh and continued. “I want things to be easy for once. Normal and relaxing instead of always having to find a way to power the shields or save our necks from some random alien race who doesn’t like us for whatever reason,” she continued. John wrapped his arms around her in return and placed a kiss on her forehead.
“I wanna take Rodney’s brain out and see how he does as a dunce.”
She chuckled and then couldn’t stop herself and it developed into a full laugh. He didn’t release her. Instead he enjoyed the feel her body vibrating from the fit of giggles she was battling. When she managed to control them at last she turned her face up to him and he watched as she pulled her lower lip into her mouth for a moment before reaching up to kiss him.
He let it linger, enjoying the feeling of something they had only so recently enjoyed. He honestly didn’t want it to end and would even thank any god that listened if it moved on to something even more enjoyable. But he knew his chances were slim at this moment in time, evil race on the way to kill them and all.
But Elizabeth took a step back, forcing him to release his hold on her and place his hands on her hips. He couldn’t quite make out her expression. The darkening sky and shadowed room making it impossible, but he soon got the idea when she moved away from him completely and pulled him over to the bed.
‘This had better not be last chance sex,’ he thought as she sat down on the edge and pulled him down as she rested back. He’d be damned if he was going to let this be rushed and the one and only time he’d get to see Elizabeth naked. Not to mention he wanted to put some light on that situation before he died.
“Elizabeth,” he protested, keeping his body a good few centimetres off hers and paused for a moment to mentally scold himself for something he really wanted. “Why now?”
“It’s time,” she said simply and stretched up enough to kiss him. “Its okay, John,” she promised him, “no one knows I’m here.”
“Ronon does,” he said, “how do you think I found you?”
“And I thought I was careful enough not to be seen all the way here,” she gave a small pout before she broke into laughter. He’d give anything to be himself with her anywhere in this city, not just their rooms and he knew she’d like to have that freedom too.
He chuckled as he leaned down to kiss her and slowly lowered his body weight over her. This was too good to be true, and it was all his, though knowing his luck he’d be woken up in a few minutes by his mom banging on the door for him to get up and go to school. Either that or a Wraith, Genii or Rodney would show up and spoil it while forcing them to come up with some excuse about why Elizabeth was in his room with him and in the dark.
He moved away from her lips, slowly trailing kisses down her neck to her shoulder and the red v-neck that blocked his path. His hands moved from beside her on the bed, resting up on his elbows so he could tug the cloth down on one side and reach her collar bone. That was when it happened. The intercom clicked on and the immortal words of something happening reached their ears.
“Doctor Weir to the control room, please.”
Damn the bad timing of what or whoever was causing problems now. If it was Rodney he was seriously going to kill the man and let Radek have his glory and place on his team. Maybe he’d just break his legs and watch him suffer for a while.
****
“What is it?”
Doctor Weir rounded the corner of the control room and was followed by Colonel Sheppard a few paces behind. Chuck looked up from the monitor with a slightly worried expression. “It’s an incoming wormhole.”
Elizabeth glanced over the balcony towards the active Stargate and noticed that the shield was still up. She looked back at Chuck. “Who is it?”
“We don’t know, ma’am. Haven’t received an IDC yet.”
This brought a small frown to the corners of Elizabeth’s lips as she glanced over at John. There were no teams currently off world. None except for –
“I’m getting Major Lorne’s identification code.”
“Get Doctor Beckett down here,” Elizabeth ordered. John had already started off down the stairs to the gate room and she followed close behind him. The shield dropped and moments later Lorne and his team came walking through the gate looking a little worn out.
“Major?” John eyed the man’s wound on his forehead.
“It’s nothing sir; bumped my head landing the Jumper.”
“What happened? Where’s the Jumper?”
Lorne dropped his pack as a team of paramedics rushed in from one side of the gate room and began to examine his men. One of the nurses hovered nearby. She wanted to take a look at Major Lorne’s cut, but remained out of the way for him to give his initial report.
“We couldn’t clear the blast zone in time; caught the tail end of the explosion and knocked out our communications and weapons. Damaged the engines too. We basically crawled back to the planet.”
“Where’s the Jumper now?” Elizabeth had made sure Cole and Miller were alright and now came to stand beside John.
“Still on the planet, ma’am. The damage to the Jumper was so bad that it didn’t take too well to re-entry. It was a bumpy ride.”
Elizabeth nodded. “We’ll send a team to see if they can get it working again. In the mean time, you and your team should report to the infirmary.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“What could take out a Wraith hive ship like that?” Elizabeth asked turning to John with a worried expression written on her face.
John didn’t have an answer for her. It was obvious that if the Wraith activated their self-destruct that they had been backed into a corner and felt it was their last resort. It wasn’t a comforting thought. He opened his mouth to reply –
“Doctor Weir!”
John looked perplexed. That wasn’t the sound of his voice. He shut his mouth and turned around in time to see Zelenka rushing up the stairs from the other side of the gate room. The Czech looked like he was in a hurry. Radek scrambled up the stairs and stopped in front of them. He took a moment to catch his breath and push his glasses back in place.
“What is it, Radek?” Elizabeth folded her arms and leaned in a little bit trying to calm the scientist down.
“It’s the weapon. I did the search for the word you gave Rodney. I think you need to see it for yourself.”
Minutes later Elizabeth, John, and Radek were in Elizabeth’s office staring at the text on the computer screen. There were times and dates and calculations that meant little to John or Elizabeth. John was the first to look up at Radek. “What exactly are we looking at?”
Zelenka secured his glasses again before gesturing at the text on the screen. “They’re calculations that predict planetary shift.”
John raised an eyebrow. “And?”
“Remember the reports from when the Stargate program first started and we could only get a lock on Abydos?”
Elizabeth nodded. “That’s because we didn’t have a DHD and we didn’t take into consideration planetary shift.”
Radek nodded. “Exactly.”
Elizabeth shook her head. “But we don’t have that problem. The Atlantis computers compensate for us.”
“Yes, but unlike the computers at Stargate Command, the Atlantis computer has a lot more safety protocols that prevent us from dialling planets for various reasons.”
John looked up again. “And this affects us how?”
Radek pressed his lips together. “Currently the four planets that Mara has provided for us are accessible, but according to my calculations, in just a few days they will be inaccessible for another twenty years.”
Elizabeth frowned. “We don’t have that much time to wait.”
John glanced at Elizabeth for a minute and then back to Radek. “Can’t you just override the protocols?”
“Unfortunately, no,” Radek could see the ‘why not’ question written on Colonel Sheppard’s face so he continued. “It would be easy if it was just a matter of recalculating planetary shift. However, by the look of the planets’ orbits, it places the planet directly behind their suns. Even if we could override the protocols here to be able to gate there, there is no guarantee that we could program the DHD to send us back.”
“And we’d be stuck on a planet for twenty years.”
Radek nodded at John. “Precisely.”
John looked at Elizabeth. “We need to talk to Mara again.”
****
“Mara,” Carson said gently, trying to rouse the girl from her sleep. It had been a few hours since Elizabeth left and though he would have loved to leave her there, Elizabeth had asked him to wake her up and bring her to her office. “Come on sweetheart,” he urged as she slowly opened her eyes and blinked up at him. “Elizabeth wants you in her office.”
She stretched out on the bed and her eyes closed again. Carson chuckled before taking her hand and drawing her into a sitting position. She groaned in protest before jumping from the bed and started to leave. Carson followed, taking her hand as she offered it to him along the way.
Mara yawned as they started up the stairs to the control room and Carson started to listen to any conversations coming his way. There was nothing of interest, just the usual comments of those at work, but as he neared Elizabeth’s office he picked up the end of the conversation.
“Sounds easy enough,” John said.
“Easy?” Elizabeth said as Carson stopped in the door way. “Last time we tried to take something off another planet they called the Genii,” she added. Mara let go of his hand and moved into the room. She faltered for a minute choosing between Elizabeth and John before moving around the desk to climb on Elizabeth’s lap.
“I think we’ve been adopted,” John joked having watched her make her choice. Elizabeth gave him a knowing grin before turning her attention to Mara.
“Hey,” she said with a smile as the girl rested her head on Elizabeth’s shoulder. “Can you tell me anything about the planets the crystals are on?”
“The elephants,” was all she said.
“Elephants?” John asked with a quirked brow as Carson moved to take a seat on the sofa.
“The crystals are four parts of the five elephants,” she said giving another yawn.
“Elements,” Elizabeth corrected.
“The planets they are on represent them.”
“So what are the elements?” Carson asked, “I can only think of four.”
“Fire, Water, Air and Earth,” Mara offered. “Life is the fifth one and it needs the Navo Gene and the Ancient Gene.”
“So,” John said thinking this over carefully, “we can expect to get burned, soaked, buried and go flying?”
“You have to be able to survive on these planets, right?” Radek asked studying the crystal on Elizabeth’s large monitor while avoiding the unusual way she sat holding an invisible girl.
“Aye,” Carson interrupted, “so you won’t get burned. Just extremely hot in all likelihood.”
“I’ll do that one just to annoy Rodney,” John said with a grin and Mara grinned back and gave a short laugh.
“I’ll let Major Lorne pick his planet when he’s released from the infirmary and then you can fight over the last two,” Elizabeth said. “Go get your teams ready,” she ordered giving John a quick smirk.
****
“All ready?” Elizabeth asked and John turned to smile at her.
Mara was again in her arms and he couldn’t help but think she’d be a wonderful mother one day. Sooner rather than later he added to his mental picture, otherwise they’d either miss their opportunity or feel too old to have kids all together. Then again, with yet another race of aliens attempting to kill them, it was probably better that they waited for... who was he kidding? There was no safe time to have children.
“Yep,” he replied. “Out of curiosity, what planet did Lorne pick?”
“Earth,” she said, “he wants to give Katie her first off world experience somewhere she should feel relatively comfortable.”
“Katie?” Rodney asked picking that moment to join them. “As in Doctor Brown?”
“Yes,” Elizabeth said, “Major Lorne talked her into joining his team.”
“Good for her,” John put in tickling Mara’s neck.
“No,” Rodney said indignantly, “not good for her, she’ll get hurt, or killed or... something.”
“Relax, Rodney, I’ve already told the Major to keep a close eye on her and make sure she comes back the same way she went out.”
“You think he’s going to listen to that?” Rodney said, his voice pitch rising.
“I expect him to listen to me, yes,” she said before turning to John. “I told him if she came back injured I’d let you assign his team member. He seemed to think you’d give him the most annoying person available.”
“Nah,” John said. “Rodney’s already on a team.”
“Hey!” Rodney said loudly while Mara laughed. “Where are we going anyway?”
Elizabeth turned back to John, her eyebrow raised in curiosity and John felt his throat tighten a little. In preparing his team, John should have told them all where they were going but he hadn’t. Even through her amusement he knew she’d be angry that he’d, avoided telling one of this own team.
“You didn’t tell him,” she said at length and it was hard to tell from her tone if she was more annoyed or amused.
“I told him it was P6X-887,” John said defensively. “I just forgot to mention the rest,” he added slyly and turned to look at Teyla and Ronon who were standing ready behind him. Teyla quickly tucked a sun tanning cream into her pack and turned to Ronon to avoid joining or being involved in the discussion.
“You’re looking for the fire crystal,” Mara said.
“What!? She’s kidding right?” Rodney yelled and John shook his head. “You expect me to go to a planet hotter than hell and look for some stupid crystal?”
“Yes,” John said firmly and slightly high pitched. “If you want to live to see tomorrow.”
“Oh, yes, I’m so afraid of the big bad Air Force colonel.”
“It’s not just me threatening you, McKay,” John said stepping up and intimidating into Rodney’s space. “Consider an enemy that we can’t detect who can take down a hive ship in the blink of an eye. An enemy we’ve been told only half the population will be able to see.”
“I could be doing better things with my time than getting burned. Like fixing systems.”
“Systems that won’t help us, Rodney,” Elizabeth said. “Why is it you’re the only person who can’t see that there is something out there that’s far more dangerous than anything we’ve had to deal with in the past?”
“Because you’re listening to a three year old midget,” he argued angrily.
“I’m five,” Mara spat.
John turned at that point and indicated for Chuck to start dialling. He wasn’t willing to let McKay go on with his pointless protest or waste time getting more ‘required items’. They were going now. He pushed Rodney away, thinking that distance between him and Elizabeth might curb that jealous streak he was on. Instead he got a string of complaints about the heat on the world they hadn’t even stepped onto and a threat every so often about coming back with burn marks or radiation poisoning.
He was extremely thankful when the gate activated and Ronon stepped forward, grabbed Rodney by the scruff of the neck and stepped through the gate. Teyla gave him a look of interest before she followed the others through.
“You going?” Elizabeth asked watching him as he bounced on his feet for a moment.
“Giving Ronon a moment to threaten him into silence,” he said and she quirked a brow. “What? What I don’t know I don’t have to deal with,” he grinned at her as she chuckled and then he set off with a lazy salute.
****
In a small clearing, in the middle of a dense forest, the Stargate stood erect. Its massive size was dwarfed by large tropical trees with various brightly coloured flowers on them. The pungent pollen smell was what first greeted a traveller to the planet; the second being the thick, hot, and humid air that caused your clothes to cling almost instantly to your body. Major Lorne watched as Katie Brown took her first few steps down from the Stargate. Her eyes were wide and filled with the same fascination that Parrish had had on him when they initially arrived. He smiled.
“See, Doc? I know you had your doubts, but isn’t it worth it?”
Actually, Lorne didn’t much care for plants the way he figured Katie or Parrish did, but he appreciated them on a merely aesthetic quality. Katie, on the other hand, took a few moments with her eyes poised upwards at the tree tops before addressing Lorne’s question.
“This is amazing. There has to be a least a half dozen tropical plants all co-existing at once.”
Lorne glanced upwards, but could only differentiate some of them because some had orange flowers while others had blue, yellow, pink, red, or white. “And that’s unusual?”
Katie nodded. “These trees are very similar to ones back on Earth, but many of them only grow on particular continents,” she said and pointed to a tree with violet trumpet flowers and then to a tree with orange flowers. “This one is only found in Brazil whereas this one is indigenous to India, but here they are side by side.”
Lorne smiled. “If you like this, then you’ll love the rest of the planet. Come on.”
The team ducked under a low-hanging branch and began to walk single-file down a narrow path. While it was clear that nature dominated the area, the path was well travelled. Katie couldn’t picture the kind of people living in such thick brush, but Lorne had assured her that there was an entire village a few miles from the Stargate.
A mile into the hike Katie’s legs were beginning to burn. Her body wasn’t meant for hiking. It was meant for sitting over a microscope and analyzing plant samples. Be that as it may, she continued to push herself, but was glad when Lorne and his men seemed to slow their pace. She felt bad for slowing them down – they were under time restraints after all.
After a mile and a half, they had to take a break. It was Lorne who suggested it, but there was no question that the men could have made it the extra one and a half miles to the village. Lorne noticed the defeated expression on Katie’s face and took a seat next to her.
“It’s harder to hike in uneven terrain.”
“Thanks,” Katie looked up with a smile. “I feel bad for slowing you down.”
Lorne shrugged. “You’ll get used to it,” he grinned. “If McKay can do it, anyone can.”
Lorne got up and went to talk to Lieutenant Miller while Katie took a few more minutes to breath. She let her eyes wander over the different specimens again and fell upon an interesting blue five-petal flower partially hidden beneath a rock. She leaned closer. Out of all the flora on the planet, this was the first one that wasn’t something familiar from Earth. She reached out and ran her fingers over the petal and then under the stem, studying it carefully.
“Ready?”
Sergeant Cole’s voice caught her off guard and she jerked her hand hard enough to snap the flower from its stem. Katie frowned a little at the flower in her hand – it would die now.
“Sorry.”
Katie shook her head as she carefully pocketed the flower so she could dry it when they got back to Atlantis for her collection.
“It’s alright. I’m ready.”
The rest had been enough to get the team to the village. It wasn’t what Katie expected. There were no huts or houses or anything remotely resembling a civilized village. Instead, the area was home to large trees with some of the largest trunks any of them had ever seen before. If you hadn’t known there was a village, you would walk right by, for the villagers lived within the tree trunks and were quiet.
Katie glanced over to Lorne curiously. He nodded and pointed to a large stump in what was considered the middle of the village.
“I’d walk with you, Doc, but the folks here seem to respond better to your gender than mine.”
She took a deep breath and stepped slowly towards the center. As she passed by the large trunks, she tried to peek inside as casually as she could, but there was nothing to see from her vantage point. Katie was starting to think that no one was here or that this was some sort of hazing ritual for new team members when a tall, attractive woman with wavy auburn hair emerged from one of the trunks.
They spoke a few words, but Lorne couldn’t make out what was being said. He was thankful that she hadn’t turned around and started running like Parrish had. In fact, it looked like the two women were getting along. He smiled, but it was brief as he watched Katie be led somewhere inside one of the trunks. His posture stiffened – he could hear Doctor Weir’s voice reminding him that he was supposed to keep Katie Brown safe.
By the time there was movement in the village, the three men had taken positions resting on the ground. Miller was leaning against a trunk with his chin on his chest and his eyes closed while Cole and Lorne were finishing up an MRE each. It was only when the auburn-haired woman approached them did they react and clamour to their feet in a hurry.
The woman towered over the men with a few inches on any one of them. Her broad shoulders and intense emerald eyes only served to remind Lorne that these women were different from the ones back home. There was something wilder, more mystical about them. Her eyes passed over the men before she spoke.
“The one with the eyes of water may join us.”
It took a moment for Lorne to decipher that meant him. He gave a couple of standing orders to Cole and Miller before plastering on what charming smile he could for the woman and asked her to lead the way. He couldn’t help think that when he got back Colonel Sheppard was going to have a remark or two about how he got one of the better planets. Rumour had it that Sheppard had chosen the fire planet and Lorne was secretly thankful he hadn’t drawn that stick. As much as he loved hot weather, the planet did not seem very appealing.
When Major Lorne walked into what looked like a council chamber, it took him a moment to collect himself. While the outside appeared to be a tree trunk, the inside was large and home to comfortable décor. Pillows laden the ground for people to rest on and various fruits and vegetables were set in the middle on a low-rise table. Katie sat at the head of the table on one side while a woman with short, fiery hair sat on the other end.
“Sit.”
The red-head pointed at a seat near Katie and waited with unmoving eyes. Lorne would have been lying if he said he didn’t feel a little intimidated. Several other women sat around the table while others stood around the room with what he considered were judgemental stares. He took a breath and sat.
Katie introduced him as Major Evan Lorne and the woman, whose eyes matched her hair, was named Avani. Avani regarded Lorne quietly before speaking in a resonating tone.
“Lady Brown informs us you seek Ceras’ gift.”
Lorne looked over to Katie who leaned in and whispered. “I think Ceras is similar to the Roman goddess Ceres back on Earth. She was considered to be like Mother Nature.”
Of course it did Lorne thought before nodding to Avani. “Yes, Ma’am. We need it to save our people.”
Avani was a hard woman to read. She sat rigid with her knees folded under her and her hands on her thighs. Lorne was pretty sure this woman could give Teyla a run for her money with her banto sticks.
“It has been many generations since travellers have come seeking Ceras’ gift. Our people only know of it by legend.”
The auburn-haired woman, later discovered to be named Sage, spoke up across the table from him. Her voice was somewhat gentler.
“The legend is that many generations ago the children of Ceras came to our planet with her gift and entrusted it to our people. They hid the gift within the Tree of Life.”
“Any chance you know where the Tree of Life is?” He thought it was worth a shot.
Sage offered a look of consolation. “Unfortunately, its location has been lost to us for a long time. However, you may find your answers in the sacred caves.”
“Sacred caves?”
Avani’s eyes flicked to Katie who stiffened and looked sheepishly to Lorne.
“There’s a cave at the base of a mountain that they said was where the, um, children of Ceras entered and never came out of again. It’s a place they don’t go into out of respect.”
“Ah,” Lorne nodded, “but it’ll be okay if we do, right?” He wasn’t quite sure who to pose the question to, so he left it there in the middle of the table. It was Sage who answered.
“We have granted Lady Brown and her protectors passage.”
Lorne glanced over to Katie who flushed. He couldn’t help but smile subtly.
“Be forewarned,” Avani cast her eyes specifically at Lorne. “The gift is protected by the gnomes and only those they deem worthy of their trust will find it.”