“Has Lorne come back yet?” John asked stepping into Elizabeth’s office and taking in the sight of Elizabeth sitting on the couch hovering over Mara. The girl was on her back, a blanket tucked snugly over her and her eyes fighting to stay open.
“Yes,” Elizabeth said as she rubbed at the cover over the child. She didn’t elaborate on that and it made him wonder if he’d done something wrong between leaving and stepping into her office.
“Did he get the crystal?”
“Yes,” Elizabeth said. Mara yawned and her eyes drifted shut for a moment before she forced them open again. “Go to sleep,” Elizabeth said soothingly.
“I’m not tired,” Mara protested sleepily.
“It’s late, Mara, and you are tired. You can’t even keep your eyes open.”
“Yes, I can,” she said, attempting to stifle a yawn. Elizabeth didn’t reply for a moment, continuing to rub the girl’s chest and John watched as her small eyes closed and sleep overtook.
“You’re gonna make a wonderful mother one day,” John said. He knew he had a stupid grin on his face when she turned to glare at him. “Okay,” he said dropping the smirk. “What did I do?”
“Let’s see,” she said moving to stand in front of him and closing the door in a swift move as she got up. “You knew the walk would be long, and didn’t leave someone at the gate. You didn’t tell Rodney where you were heading and that the database said high possibility of volcanoes. If you had, he could have taken equipment to tell you how long you had before a possible eruption,” she paused and moved to sit behind her desk. “You let Teyla risk her life going half way across an unstable bridge to get the crystal…”
“We need that crystal and Teyla volunteered. She even made a good argument about being lighter than us,” he spat, his voice sounding twice as loud as hers.
“Keep your voice down,” she hissed. “You let Rodney walk back alone,” she continued, “and you almost got burned to death.”
A flash of fear that crossed her face clued John into the real problem. He’d come close to death again, putting himself and his team in danger and it frightened her. It frightened him to put her through it, but he hadn’t expected the world to be that dangerous. Aware that people were watching them from the control room, John shifted and wet his lips.
“I didn’t expect it to be that bad,” he said. “I should have left Rodney at the gate in case we needed backup,” he gave her what he hoped was a comforting smile. “I’m sorry.”
“You can’t just brush this off, John,” she said, heading for the other door and down the stairs outside it. John gave Mara a quick look and turned on his heels to follow. “Your reckless behaviour will one day come back to haunt you and get you or one of your team killed.”
He didn’t answer. Instead, he just followed her through the corridor waiting for her to step into somewhere private so he could apologise without people watching. He listened as she recited the medical report of his team: Teyla’s strained wrist from when they pulled her back sharply, a burn on Rodney’s arm that John suspected had come from something stupid he did on his way back. Not to mention the sunburn they all had despite the suntan lotion Teyla had managed to borrow.
Eventually she turned into a small meeting room and swung around to look at him. The look she gave him told him she didn’t believe he’d listened to any of it and unconsciously, he quirked a brow.
“You scare the life out of me every time you put yourself in danger,” she said, her voice dropping to a whisper. He stepped forward without thinking and wrapped his arms around her, pulling her against him. He still said nothing. He waited, just waited, letting her calm down for a moment so that when he did speak she wouldn’t cut him off or glare at him.
“I’m sorry,” he said again, his hand rubbing slow circles on her back to soothe her. “It’s not like I do it on purpose,” he added. “Besides, would you rather send Lorne on that mission with a new team member?”
“You could have waited for the Daedalus.”
“I know, but we didn’t know how long that walk would be. I figured they could drop by and pick us up,” John said. He drew back to give her a smile. “They always have such good timing,” he teased. She gave him a playful slap on the arm and stepped away just as the door opened.
“Doctor,” Lorne greeted. “Colonel.”
“Major,” John said, thankful that Elizabeth had moved away when she did.
“Not your usual meeting place,” Lorne commented, “but I was told there’s a sleeping beauty in your office.”
“I expected you earlier, Major,” Elizabeth said, leaning against the table.
“I know,” he said looking apologetic. “Doctor McKay cornered me and demanded to know how I could ‘do that to Katie’,” he said with air quotes around Rodney’s comment.
“What did you do?” John asked.
“Nothing, sir,” he said defensively. “She came back exactly how she went, just a little shaken.”
“You let her sink in quicksand,” Elizabeth said with a raised brow and John swung around to face him in shocked horror.
“You what?”
“I knew it wouldn’t hurt her,” he explained. “You said yourself, Doctor Weir, ‘Trust comes in many forms and often where we least expect it’.”
“I was talking about her trusting you, but I have to give you credit for interpretation.”
Lorne grinned at his slight and unusual praise and silence fell for a moment. He watched Elizabeth as she moved from the table to look out the window. They were still quite high up the tower and from where he stood he couldn’t see any other part of Atlantis. He suspected she could though, as she strained her neck to look at something.
“So, what’s next?” Lorne asked a moment later, drawing Elizabeth from the window and John from his musing.
“Well,” John asked. “Do you wanna go flying or swimming?”
“John,” Elizabeth warned.
“I’m giving him the option.”
“You’re hoping he’ll take the water world,” she knew him far too well. “You’re both pilots, you want the same thing.”
“She has a point,” Lorne said, turning to face John.
“Alright,” John said. “Well, I’m not entirely sure Ronon or Teyla can swim.”
“Teyla can’t,” Elizabeth said, none too helpfully.
“And Katie can’t,” Lorne added.
Elizabeth moved back to lean against the table. Her arms folded over her chest and her brow rose as she watched the team leaders in front of her. John could see from the look on her face that she knew how this would turn out and he wasn’t going to give her that satisfaction.
“You choose,” John said suddenly turning to her. “Which of us gets the flying session?”
“Oh no,” she said hands up defensively. “I told you both before, this is between you.”
John swallowed and looked back at Lorne. The man’s brow quirked as if to say let’s get this over with. John sighed and stole a glance at Elizabeth and turned to fully face the Major.
“Ready?” John asked as they both made fists. He had the crazy urge to just hit him and say ‘I out rank you, we’re going to the air world’. It would have looked manlier for Elizabeth than Rock, Paper, Scissors. “One, Two, Three,” he said and turned his fist to show rock. “Damn,” he said, realising Lorne had flattened his hand out.
“Looks like I get to choose,” Lorne said. “We’re going flying.”
“Best of three?” John tried.
“Sorry, sir,” Lorne said with a grin. “Ma’am,” he nodded to Elizabeth and left. Elizabeth pushed off the table and chuckled as she wrapped her arms around his middle.
“You okay?”
“I always pick Rock,” John said with a small laugh as he kissed the top of her head.
“Maybe that’s why you lost.”
****
“I think I’m getting sick of mountains,” Sergeant Cole groaned as the Puddle Jumper materialized on the other side of the event horizon and flew out of the gate. Below them was a large expanse of mountainous terrain. “Who puts their Stargate on top of a mountain anyways?”
Lorne was in the driver’s seat pressing a few buttons to bring out navigation. He was also trying not to smirk.
“Think of it this way, Cole. At least we’re flying this time.”
Lorne almost felt bad for having won against Colonel Sheppard. Sheppard was his commanding officer and could have just pulled rank, but that was why so many of the military personnel on Atlantis respected the Colonel. He wasn’t a tight-ass.
“You’re flying, sir,” Cole pointed out from behind him. “We’re just along for the ride.”
The smirk still hung on Major Lorne’s face as they flew over some more mountains. The information for this planet was a set of coordinates which looked like they were taking them to a plateau on the other side of a tall mountain. So far the mission had been rather easy and he was thankful for that. Katie had been a little shaken from her first mission and he wanted to show her what a routine mission was like. Unfortunately, it didn’t look like that was about to happen.
Turbulence. Even with the inertial dampeners the Puddle Jumper was shaking and buckling. Lorne’s hand tightened on the handle of the Jumper as he tried to stay in control.
“What’s wrong?” Katie asked from her position behind Lieutenant Miller sitting shot-gun.
Lorne pulled up some sensor readings and frowned. “It’s just a little windier than we expected,” he said. It was actually a lot windier than they expected. According to the sensor readings, the wind speed was 250 miles an hour and it was picking up speed.
“Are we slowing down?” Miller asked and leaned forward, reading the information on the Heads-Up Display.
“No,” Lorne said between tight lips. “Our speed hasn’t changed.”
“I think we’re slowing down,” Miller glanced at Lorne and added, “Sir,” the moment he caught the unpleasant expression on his CO’s face.
The Jumper lurched downwards, but Lorne held steady on the controls and evened it out. The shaking was growing more violent, causing the rest of the occupants to hold onto something. Then the Jumper’s alarm sounded.
“Shit,” Lorne cursed, his lips pressed together as he felt himself lose complete control of the helm. “Hold on tight!”
When flying a puddle Jumper, it was hard to realize just how heavy they were. They handled and flew like a dream. But when they began plummeting to the ground, one became uniquely aware of how hard a landing there was going to be. The best thing Lorne could do was to keep the ship from falling in a vertical nosedive. Instead, they were falling in a diagonal line towards the plateau. His eyes narrowed in concentration as the rocky ground grew closer.
When the Jumper hit the ground, it hit hard. Cole went flying out of his seat and onto the ground. Katie almost followed, but her grip was strong enough to keep her in her seat. The spaceship skidded sideways across the terrain, emanating a loud scraping sound over the slate rock. Finally the friction was enough to slow the metal chassis down to a complete stop.
Lorne let out a loud exhale and sat back in his chair. It wasn’t his smoothest landing, but it hadn’t been the roughest either. He glanced back to Cole on the ground and then to Katie and Miller. “Everyone alright?”
Cole slowly climbed to his feet and checked his swollen lip. There was a little blood. “I’ll live,” he muttered. Katie and Miller confirmed that they were both ‘fine’ as well. At least none of them were badly hurt. As far as missions went, this was still ranked pretty high on the ‘good’ side according to Lorne.
That is, of course, until Miller shifted to grab a piece of debris and Lorne felt the entire Jumper tilt forwards a little. “Whoa, whoa, whoa! Everybody freeze.”
Lorne was back to holding his breath and Miller remained in the bent-over position he had been in. Something was wrong and Lorne was getting that familiar sinking feeling. After a minute of no one moving, Lorne shifted his eyes to Cole. “Sergeant, I need you to slip into the back. Carefully.”
Cole slowly stood up and shuffled into the rear compartment. When Cole reached the far back of the cabin the Jumper hit back onto the ground under Cole’s weight. Lorne let out an exasperated sigh. “This isn’t good.”
Miller, who had faithfully been maintaining his bent position, couldn’t maintain it any longer and moved to sit up. Cole let out a small shout of surprise when the rear of the Jumper lifted again.
“Miller!”
“Sorry sir!”
Lorne’s white-knuckled hands were out as if to help balance himself in the ship. “Okay. Doctor Brown, I need you to get up –slowly- and join Sergeant Cole.”
Lorne didn’t want to risk looking back at her to see if she was complying, but he didn’t need too. The Jumper lurched forward a little as she stood, but Lorne told her to continue and after a brief pause she did. She let out a sigh of relief when she reached Cole at the back of the ship. However, while the Jumper tilted back towards the ground, it didn’t touch it.
The new angle must have thrown off the weight distribution. Great. Lorne glanced at Miller who was also holding his breath and tried to think of a solution. After a moment he spoke to Cole at the back of the ship. “On my mark I want you to release the ramp. Got it, Sergeant?”
Lorne received a confident ‘yessir’ before he turned his attention to Miller. Miller nodded in silent understanding. “Alright. On the count of three. One. Two. Three –”
Cole hastily pressed the release button as Miller and Lorne were off their feet and hurrying towards the back. The Jumper lurched again and began to slide forward. Cole grabbed onto the back of Katie’s vest and the four hauled ass out of the Jumper. Only a moment after Lorne’s feet left the metallic ramp did the ramp leap up and the Puddle Jumper went over the edge of the cliff. A not-so-pleasant sound echoed from below as the ship hit another ledge.
Major Lorne took a moment to catch his breath before peering over the cliff to assess the damage. It was intact. The only problem was it was upside down. He wondered silently to himself if Jumpers could fly upside down and made a mental note to ask McKay or Zelenka when they got back to Atlantis.
“Where are we?”
Miller was up on a protruding rock scouting out the surroundings. The plateau seemed to be made entirely of rock and nothing was overtly visible. Lorne flicked open the cover on his watch and took a look at the compass.
“We’re only a few clicks away from the designated coordinates,” Lorne gestured to the north. “We should be able to get there within an hour.”
****
“See?” John said looking around. “There is land on this planet.”
Rodney huffed from behind and Ronon turned to give the pair a grin. They were standing on a long thin island large enough to hold the Stargate and the Dial Home Device. Though, Ronon noted, whoever dialled would get their feet wet standing in the small puddle of water that brushed against the land like a wave over a beach.
Rodney huffed in displeasure and started to mumble about going from hot to cold water. Ronon watched Teyla move to the end of the island before he moved to stand on the opposite end from the Stargate, which looked out over the vast expanse of ocean. At least in the city, he knew there was land somewhere on the horizon.
“And just what are we supposed to do now?” Rodney spat and Ronon turned to catch the thoughtful look on Sheppard’s face. Instead, he noticed something else; something that could cause them a problem or two on their return.
“Sheppard,” he said and indicated the DHD he stood almost directly in front of. John moved forward, stepping around the device and Ronon only just caught the ‘Oh crap’, he breathed.
“Rodney,” John said, looking up at the scientist. “You can stay by the gate.”
“Why?” McKay said, moving towards him, looking ready to start screaming about anything remotely resembling a problem. “What did you do? Oh, that’s just peachy.”
Ronon couldn’t hold back his grin at the last sentence; it was just what he expected Rodney to say when he discovered the damaged device. Rodney pushed John to the side and started checking the crystals. Ronon watched for a moment before his eyes caught movement from Teyla. She had backed away from the edge of the island, her eyes fixed on the water below.
Something made her jump and she took a quick step back before she tripped and landed hard on her backside. Ronon moved, thinking he would only need to help her back on her feet, but as he passed John, something reached out of the water, wrapped around Teyla’s ankle and pulled her quickly into the water.
He lunged, hitting the ground hard and feeling something dig in against his stomach, but he ignored it. He took hold of Teyla’s arm and tried to pull her back, but the creature from the water was stronger than him and pulled them both along.
They were pulled quickly over the land and off the edge and Ronon only had a second to take a lung full of air before he vanished under the water.
****
“You know,” Cole came up behind the rest who were staring at the mouth of a cave. “I’m starting to think these Ancients had no imagination.”
Lorne suppressed a smirk as he took another glance at the compass. “It should be just beyond this cave.”
“Right,” Cole muttered. “And up a mountain and across a large gulley.”
Lorne couldn’t keep the smirk from surfacing this time as he motioned for the team to follow him into the cave with their P-90s in hand. The moment they stepped into the darkness was the same moment they stepped out into a meadow of waist-high grass.
Miller glanced back at Cole. “Guess they still have some tricks up their sleeves.”
Katie, who had been relatively quiet since they had entered the gate, was the first to ask a troubling question. “This didn’t show up on the sensors, did it?”
Major Lorne frowned. “No. No, it didn’t.”
Katie was also the one to ask the second troubling question. “Where’s the cave?”
The three men turned around and were met with more meadow. As far as they could see, there were no mountains. There didn’t even seem to be much of any hills.
“Yep. Tricks,” Miller shot at Cole, who rolled his eyes.
“Alright,” Lorne exhaled. “Let’s keep heading north and see where that gets us. As far as I can tell we should be right where the coordinates that Mara gave us indicated.”
“Right, because a six year old is a master navigator.”
Lorne looked back to Cole. “She’s five.”
Walking through the long, dappled grass proved easier than the uneven terrain of the forest from their last mission. The ground was soft and even and there was a constant breeze that took the heat off of the overhanging sun. However, there seemed to be nothing but grass for as long as the eye could see. That is, of course, until the meadow dipped and suddenly the team was presented with a monster fleet of large, old-fashion Dutch windmills.
“Reminds me of Don Quixote.”
“Who?” Cole looked at Katie.
“Don Quixote. He’s a character from a self titled book that fought an army of giants who turned out to be windmills.”
“Ah,” Cole said and gave a look over to Miller who smirked as the foursome continued to move forward.
****
“Why didn’t we bring a Jumper?” Rodney shouted from the middle of the island. John had moved quickly, though not quickly enough, trying to grab hold of Ronon and Teyla before they were submerged in the ocean. “Why the hell didn’t we bring a Jumper? We could have been floating in the air right now.”
“And what if we needed to land?” John spat back, spotting a light gleaming from below the surface. It was hard to tell how far down it was, but there was definitely something there. Behind him, Rodney hadn’t answered the question, but simply stood right in the middle of the small island looking at the edge as though it was dangerous.
John had to do something. He couldn’t just stand there and wait to see if Ronon and Teyla resurfaced and hope they were still breathing. He couldn’t very well go back to Atlantis, get a Jumper and submerge it to see where the light was coming from. With the DHD broken and time running out he had only one choice and that was going in after them.
“I’m sorry, Elizabeth,” he breathed as he unzipped his vest.
“What are you doing? You can’t seriously be thinking of going in there. It’s probably freezing and they’re probably miles away by now.”
“Rodney,” John snapped, rounding on the scientist and taking in his wide eyes. “I can’t just leave them,” he added. He sighed and moved closer to his friend. “I need to go. You need to fix the gate. Quickly.”
“Right,” Rodney said. “Right. Fix the gate.”
John watched as Rodney’s eyes flicked to the DHD and then back to him. He knew Rodney was thinking about what he’d just seen and how closer the device was to the edge of the island and that was something he didn’t need the man to think of right now.
“Rodney,” John snapped drawing his attention again. “Fix the gate, get a Jumper and... come look for us,” he said, trying hard not to say ‘rescue’ or ‘see if we’re alive’.
He turned back and took a deep breath before toeing off his boots. He dropped his jacket to the ground before stepping to the edge and looking down. He fixed his gaze on the light below and readied himself for a moment before he dove off the edge.
The water felt strange on his skin, almost like a gel or a mix of gel and water. John held his breath as he manoeuvred along the surface placing himself directly above the light before he surfaced. It was a second before he breached the top of the ocean that his lungs gave out and he took a sharp breath. But the water didn’t flood his lungs or throat. It just lingered like he had taken a deep breath of fresh air.
He looked back towards the island, now a fair distance from him. He couldn’t see McKay or any movement and hoped the man hadn’t been dragged off while he was checking out his location. Swallowing, John moved his arm along the water; it shifted like normal water despite not feeling remotely the same. He took a deep breath and let it out slowly before pulling himself under the water. He waited, just a moment, and daringly took another breath still submerged in the liquid. Again it felt like air being added to his chest and experimentally he tried it again before surfacing slowly.
He looked around for the island and creased his brow when he found it. The distance between him and it had increased in the last few seconds and he wondered if he’d drifted from the spot he had selected.
“Don’t worry,” a voice said from behind him and John’s arms flung out to force his body to turn. He saw a girl with bright green eyes and long hair that vanished into the water below her shoulders. “It will come back,” she said. They studied each other until she smiled and asked, “Are you Altera?”
“Erm,” John hesitated, not sure if answering either way was a good idea. It would only be half a lie; he was Atlantean, just not of the original Alteras.
“You can control the city of Atlantis?”
“Yeah,” John answered; this was a much easier question.
“Then you are Altera. Follow me.”
She ducked below the water, bending almost double and he caught sight of her legs and feet before they followed her. He turned back to the island to find it now gone completely from his view and frowned. He wanted to go and find it, but before he could move something wrapped around his ankle and pulled him down.
Under the water again, the girl motioned for him to follow before turning and diving down towards the light. John tried to follow, but she was much faster than him. That and he spent a lot of his time checking out the underwater structure. Several large bubbles, for lack of a better word, created an underwater city. They curved neatly and seemed to overlap in places, making him think of a time he blew bubbles for a group of kids on his street and some of them stuck together.
The girl appeared in his view as he approached and she beckoned him over to one of the globes. He searched for a door only half considering that such a thing would be ridiculous underwater. The city would become flooded. He came to a stop beside her and watched momentarily bewildered as she forced her foot to the small platform and effectively stepped through the bubble and into the city.
John blinked before he copied her, first one foot, then the other on the small ledge and then he took a step forward. For some reason, he expected the bubble to burst and closed his eyes as he moved from water to air. It was an even stranger feeling than entering the water. His skin tingled and he was soaked to the skin while feeling completely dry. He turned back to look at his way in and creased his brow as his brain conjured up images of how new born babies felt when they first hit the new and unusual air. Shuddering, John turned back to his smiling young host.
“I am Pax,” she said.
“John,” he replied and licked his lips. “Listen, I had some friends with me. They were sort of dragged into the...,” he motioned back out the way he came and wondered if the substance out there could be called water.
“They are safe,” she said. “They needed to be brought down, or they would not have lived through the journey.”
“Why not?” John asked.
“They are not Altera,” she said and he picked up the slight anger in her voice as if she found the idea repulsive. “I will show you to them, they are in the council chambers waiting for you.”
****
“Elizabeth.”
Elizabeth looked up from her desk and over to Carson while giving him the universal ‘shh’ signal and standing. Mara was still sleeping over on the couch by the wall and she didn’t want to wake the child if it was possible.
“What is it, Carson?” her voice was hushed as she ushered the doctor onto the small connecting bridge that linked her office to the control room.
Carson offered an apologetic smile and looked back at the sleeping babe on the couch.
“She’s still asleep then?”
“Yes,” Elizabeth nodded, but she was more interested in the computer tablet Doctor Beckett was holding under his arm. She gestured to it with a small smile. “Bring me something?”
“What? Oh, yes,” Carson rested the portable computer on the railing and hit a few buttons with his fingers. “I figured out how we missed the gene until now.”
Elizabeth quirked an eyebrow. “I thought it was because we just never looked for it.”
“Aye, but when you know where to look for it, it sticks out like a sore thumb.”
Elizabeth urged Carson to continue with a small smile as she leaned over to look at the diagrams on the screen. There were three-dimensional representations of cells and what looked like a DNA strand.
“You know how the ATA Gene is always active, instructing various cells in the body to produce a series of proteins and enzymes that interact with the skin, the nervous system and the brain, thus enabling the gene carriers to operate Ancient technology?”
Elizabeth nodded and Carson pressed another button.
“Well, the Navo Gene works the same way on a basic level, but in a much more complicated way.”
“More complicated, you say?” Elizabeth had a wry smile which produced a tiny laugh from Carson.
“Aye. You see, we still don’t understand the human genome completely, but we have been able to map 3 billion base pairs and about 20,000 to 25,000 genes so far within the DNA and RNA strands.”
“RNA?”
“Ribonucleic acid. It’s similar to DNA except their strand of information is only single while DNA has double strands”
“Of course,” Elizabeth leaned on the railing. “Go on.”
“A gene is a union of genomic sequences encoding a coherent set of potentially overlapping functional products, right? Well, in cells, genes consist of a long strand of DNA that contains a promoter, which controls the activity of a gene. The coding sequence determines what the gene produces, while non-coding sequence can regulate the conditions of gene expression. When a gene is active, the coding and non-coding sequence is copied in a process called transcription, producing an RNA copy of the gene's information. This RNA can then direct the synthesis of proteins via the genetic code.”
“Carson,” Elizabeth ran a hand over her face, “the simplified version, please.”
“The Navo Gene is hidden in an RNA strand,” a small voice responded.
Carson and Elizabeth looked at each other for a moment before turning to look at the tiny child who had spoken. Mara yawned and rubbed her eyes. Elizabeth looked at Carson who nodded. “She’s right.”
“How did you know that?” Elizabeth looked down at Mara who had walked over and taken hold of her hand.
“Mom said it once.”
Elizabeth smiled at Mara and looked to Carson. “How does it work?”
Carson shook his head. “We haven’t figured that out yet. I’d like you to come to the lab for some tests. I have a theory.”
Elizabeth quirked another eyebrow, but nodded.
****
Teyla’s eyes took in every crook of the luxurious room. Everything from the detail on the tapestries and the embroidered cloth hanging down the walls, to the simple design of the chair where Ronon sat. She had no idea how long they had been here. She barely remembered how they got here. Neither of them did. They had arrived on a small island and she had been checking the surrounding area when she had been pulled under.
The door opened on the far side of the room and a short, snide-looking man appeared clad in home-spun weaved clothing that was neither familiar to Ronon nor to Teyla. He remained at the other end of the room as he spoke to them.
“My apologies for keeping you waiting so long.”
“Where’s Sheppard?” Ronon was already up on his feet before Teyla could react, but she was able to stop him from charging the little man.
“Ronon…”
Ronon slid a weary glance to Teyla and sat back on his heels. His arms crossed over his broad chest as he stared expectantly at the strange man. Teyla silently sighed and turned back to face the man.
“We were with two others when we arrived.”
“Yes,” the man said ignoring Ronon. “One has remained on the surface and the other is also here in the city.”
A bit of relief washed over Teyla. “May we see him?”
The man merely nodded and gestured for them to follow him. As Teyla and Ronon stepped out of the room, they were accompanied by four burly men who were no doubt security operatives judging by their girth and the weapons on their hips.
They were led down a series of corridors plastered with rich paintings and expensive looking furniture. It was as if the room they had been in expanded throughout the labyrinth of hallways. Teyla paused as they passed a large pane of glass. Her hand reached out to touch the glass.
“We are under water?”
“Yes,” the man curtly replied and continued walking. “The entire city is under the water.”
Teyla remained where she was, looking out into the vast water, until she was nudged by one of the large men. From what she had seen, the city was not like Atlantis. While she knew very little about the technology of the ancestors, she could recognize that the city was stationary, unlike the Lantean city.
They were ushered into a large, bright room that was painted in rich tones, but lacked many of the excessive additions like the rest of the rooms they had seen. Colonel Sheppard was sitting on a black, straight-backed chair and was leaning forward with his elbows on his knees. When Teyla and Ronon entered, he stood and walked briskly over to them.
“You guys alright?”
Teyla glanced up to the clearly irritated Ronon and then back to John with a small smile.
“We are fine.”
“You okay?” John asked looking up to the grumpy-looking Satedan and gave a little smile of his own.
“Fine,” Ronon answered.
John looked over to the woman who had brought him to the city. “Pax here was just telling me some of their local history. Seems they were good friends with the Ancients.”
“The Altera and our people were great allies,” Pax added.
Ronon grunted. “Where were they when the Wraith showed up?”
The snide-looking man scowled. “Enough talk.” He nodded to the security men who started herding Teyla and Ronon towards one side of the room where a large mirror stood flat against the wall.
John, having been pushed out of the way, raised a not-so-amused eyebrow and followed closely behind. It wasn’t until one of the larger men turned around and stopped him that John Sheppard started to get an uneasy feeling about the whole situation. Ronon and Teyla cast a questioning look over to John. They were clearly tensing up.
“Hey, wait a minute.”
Pax lifted off her chair and made her way over to John. Placing a reassuring hand on his shoulder, she smiled.
“Do not worry, John.”
“It’s hard not to when you have my people surrounded,” John argued. He was trying to control his irritation, but he was doing a poor job of it.
“You wish to possess the crystal of Arnemetia, do you not?”
John looked at Pax. “Yeah, so?”
“The high council will only give audience to those deemed worthy.”
John tried hard not to roll his eyes and was pretty successful. He sighed and ran a hand down his face.
“Okay,” he said. “How do we prove we’re worthy?”
“You do not have to prove anything,” the little man practically spat out. “They, however, must.”
“Why?”
The little man looked over to John indignantly. “They are not Altera. They did not pass the tests of old.”
John’s hands clenched into fists as he looked at the man who reminded him a lot of Woolsey. He was about to start shouting when Pax’s hand was back on his shoulder. He turned to look at her.
“Long ago, when the Altera met our ancestors, they had to prove themselves trustworthy. They passed. And when they asked us to protect the crystal for them, we took an oath to only allow those whom we trust to take it.”
“Alright, so what do you want us to do?” John asked. If McKay were here, John was pretty sure he’d hear some grumbling right now. As it was, he hoped Rodney had fixed the DHD and was already in Atlantis getting a Puddle Jumper.
“You don’t do anything,” the Woolsey mini-me sniffed. “They must,” he signalled to the security men who grabbed a hold of Ronon and Teyla. Ronon instinctively threw back his arms, sending a man sprawling to the ground while Teyla took up a defensive stance. Yet there were too many of them to handle at once – others coming in to help with the situation – and before Colonel Sheppard had time to reach Teyla and Ronon, they were tossed into the mirror. The mirror seemed to flicker for a moment and they were sucked into it and disappeared.
John’s gun was out of its holster and rose to face the group of men. He was clearly outnumbered, but he felt better with his weapon drawn.
“What the hell just happened?”
The man lifted his nose at John. “They must pass the trials like the Alterans did long ago.”
Colonel Sheppard’s eyes narrowed as he holstered his gun and started walking to the mirror.
“Then I’m going too.”
“John, no. You have already proven you can be trusted.”
John turned on his heel and looked over to Pax.
“They’re my team. I’m not leaving them. So either I’m going or you get them back.”
Pax shook her head hesitantly. “Once you’ve entered the Cloister of Trials there is no turning back.”
He tried to control his voice as best as he could. “Then I’m going too.”
“Yes,” Elizabeth said as she rubbed at the cover over the child. She didn’t elaborate on that and it made him wonder if he’d done something wrong between leaving and stepping into her office.
“Did he get the crystal?”
“Yes,” Elizabeth said. Mara yawned and her eyes drifted shut for a moment before she forced them open again. “Go to sleep,” Elizabeth said soothingly.
“I’m not tired,” Mara protested sleepily.
“It’s late, Mara, and you are tired. You can’t even keep your eyes open.”
“Yes, I can,” she said, attempting to stifle a yawn. Elizabeth didn’t reply for a moment, continuing to rub the girl’s chest and John watched as her small eyes closed and sleep overtook.
“You’re gonna make a wonderful mother one day,” John said. He knew he had a stupid grin on his face when she turned to glare at him. “Okay,” he said dropping the smirk. “What did I do?”
“Let’s see,” she said moving to stand in front of him and closing the door in a swift move as she got up. “You knew the walk would be long, and didn’t leave someone at the gate. You didn’t tell Rodney where you were heading and that the database said high possibility of volcanoes. If you had, he could have taken equipment to tell you how long you had before a possible eruption,” she paused and moved to sit behind her desk. “You let Teyla risk her life going half way across an unstable bridge to get the crystal…”
“We need that crystal and Teyla volunteered. She even made a good argument about being lighter than us,” he spat, his voice sounding twice as loud as hers.
“Keep your voice down,” she hissed. “You let Rodney walk back alone,” she continued, “and you almost got burned to death.”
A flash of fear that crossed her face clued John into the real problem. He’d come close to death again, putting himself and his team in danger and it frightened her. It frightened him to put her through it, but he hadn’t expected the world to be that dangerous. Aware that people were watching them from the control room, John shifted and wet his lips.
“I didn’t expect it to be that bad,” he said. “I should have left Rodney at the gate in case we needed backup,” he gave her what he hoped was a comforting smile. “I’m sorry.”
“You can’t just brush this off, John,” she said, heading for the other door and down the stairs outside it. John gave Mara a quick look and turned on his heels to follow. “Your reckless behaviour will one day come back to haunt you and get you or one of your team killed.”
He didn’t answer. Instead, he just followed her through the corridor waiting for her to step into somewhere private so he could apologise without people watching. He listened as she recited the medical report of his team: Teyla’s strained wrist from when they pulled her back sharply, a burn on Rodney’s arm that John suspected had come from something stupid he did on his way back. Not to mention the sunburn they all had despite the suntan lotion Teyla had managed to borrow.
Eventually she turned into a small meeting room and swung around to look at him. The look she gave him told him she didn’t believe he’d listened to any of it and unconsciously, he quirked a brow.
“You scare the life out of me every time you put yourself in danger,” she said, her voice dropping to a whisper. He stepped forward without thinking and wrapped his arms around her, pulling her against him. He still said nothing. He waited, just waited, letting her calm down for a moment so that when he did speak she wouldn’t cut him off or glare at him.
“I’m sorry,” he said again, his hand rubbing slow circles on her back to soothe her. “It’s not like I do it on purpose,” he added. “Besides, would you rather send Lorne on that mission with a new team member?”
“You could have waited for the Daedalus.”
“I know, but we didn’t know how long that walk would be. I figured they could drop by and pick us up,” John said. He drew back to give her a smile. “They always have such good timing,” he teased. She gave him a playful slap on the arm and stepped away just as the door opened.
“Doctor,” Lorne greeted. “Colonel.”
“Major,” John said, thankful that Elizabeth had moved away when she did.
“Not your usual meeting place,” Lorne commented, “but I was told there’s a sleeping beauty in your office.”
“I expected you earlier, Major,” Elizabeth said, leaning against the table.
“I know,” he said looking apologetic. “Doctor McKay cornered me and demanded to know how I could ‘do that to Katie’,” he said with air quotes around Rodney’s comment.
“What did you do?” John asked.
“Nothing, sir,” he said defensively. “She came back exactly how she went, just a little shaken.”
“You let her sink in quicksand,” Elizabeth said with a raised brow and John swung around to face him in shocked horror.
“You what?”
“I knew it wouldn’t hurt her,” he explained. “You said yourself, Doctor Weir, ‘Trust comes in many forms and often where we least expect it’.”
“I was talking about her trusting you, but I have to give you credit for interpretation.”
Lorne grinned at his slight and unusual praise and silence fell for a moment. He watched Elizabeth as she moved from the table to look out the window. They were still quite high up the tower and from where he stood he couldn’t see any other part of Atlantis. He suspected she could though, as she strained her neck to look at something.
“So, what’s next?” Lorne asked a moment later, drawing Elizabeth from the window and John from his musing.
“Well,” John asked. “Do you wanna go flying or swimming?”
“John,” Elizabeth warned.
“I’m giving him the option.”
“You’re hoping he’ll take the water world,” she knew him far too well. “You’re both pilots, you want the same thing.”
“She has a point,” Lorne said, turning to face John.
“Alright,” John said. “Well, I’m not entirely sure Ronon or Teyla can swim.”
“Teyla can’t,” Elizabeth said, none too helpfully.
“And Katie can’t,” Lorne added.
Elizabeth moved back to lean against the table. Her arms folded over her chest and her brow rose as she watched the team leaders in front of her. John could see from the look on her face that she knew how this would turn out and he wasn’t going to give her that satisfaction.
“You choose,” John said suddenly turning to her. “Which of us gets the flying session?”
“Oh no,” she said hands up defensively. “I told you both before, this is between you.”
John swallowed and looked back at Lorne. The man’s brow quirked as if to say let’s get this over with. John sighed and stole a glance at Elizabeth and turned to fully face the Major.
“Ready?” John asked as they both made fists. He had the crazy urge to just hit him and say ‘I out rank you, we’re going to the air world’. It would have looked manlier for Elizabeth than Rock, Paper, Scissors. “One, Two, Three,” he said and turned his fist to show rock. “Damn,” he said, realising Lorne had flattened his hand out.
“Looks like I get to choose,” Lorne said. “We’re going flying.”
“Best of three?” John tried.
“Sorry, sir,” Lorne said with a grin. “Ma’am,” he nodded to Elizabeth and left. Elizabeth pushed off the table and chuckled as she wrapped her arms around his middle.
“You okay?”
“I always pick Rock,” John said with a small laugh as he kissed the top of her head.
“Maybe that’s why you lost.”
****
“I think I’m getting sick of mountains,” Sergeant Cole groaned as the Puddle Jumper materialized on the other side of the event horizon and flew out of the gate. Below them was a large expanse of mountainous terrain. “Who puts their Stargate on top of a mountain anyways?”
Lorne was in the driver’s seat pressing a few buttons to bring out navigation. He was also trying not to smirk.
“Think of it this way, Cole. At least we’re flying this time.”
Lorne almost felt bad for having won against Colonel Sheppard. Sheppard was his commanding officer and could have just pulled rank, but that was why so many of the military personnel on Atlantis respected the Colonel. He wasn’t a tight-ass.
“You’re flying, sir,” Cole pointed out from behind him. “We’re just along for the ride.”
The smirk still hung on Major Lorne’s face as they flew over some more mountains. The information for this planet was a set of coordinates which looked like they were taking them to a plateau on the other side of a tall mountain. So far the mission had been rather easy and he was thankful for that. Katie had been a little shaken from her first mission and he wanted to show her what a routine mission was like. Unfortunately, it didn’t look like that was about to happen.
Turbulence. Even with the inertial dampeners the Puddle Jumper was shaking and buckling. Lorne’s hand tightened on the handle of the Jumper as he tried to stay in control.
“What’s wrong?” Katie asked from her position behind Lieutenant Miller sitting shot-gun.
Lorne pulled up some sensor readings and frowned. “It’s just a little windier than we expected,” he said. It was actually a lot windier than they expected. According to the sensor readings, the wind speed was 250 miles an hour and it was picking up speed.
“Are we slowing down?” Miller asked and leaned forward, reading the information on the Heads-Up Display.
“No,” Lorne said between tight lips. “Our speed hasn’t changed.”
“I think we’re slowing down,” Miller glanced at Lorne and added, “Sir,” the moment he caught the unpleasant expression on his CO’s face.
The Jumper lurched downwards, but Lorne held steady on the controls and evened it out. The shaking was growing more violent, causing the rest of the occupants to hold onto something. Then the Jumper’s alarm sounded.
“Shit,” Lorne cursed, his lips pressed together as he felt himself lose complete control of the helm. “Hold on tight!”
When flying a puddle Jumper, it was hard to realize just how heavy they were. They handled and flew like a dream. But when they began plummeting to the ground, one became uniquely aware of how hard a landing there was going to be. The best thing Lorne could do was to keep the ship from falling in a vertical nosedive. Instead, they were falling in a diagonal line towards the plateau. His eyes narrowed in concentration as the rocky ground grew closer.
When the Jumper hit the ground, it hit hard. Cole went flying out of his seat and onto the ground. Katie almost followed, but her grip was strong enough to keep her in her seat. The spaceship skidded sideways across the terrain, emanating a loud scraping sound over the slate rock. Finally the friction was enough to slow the metal chassis down to a complete stop.
Lorne let out a loud exhale and sat back in his chair. It wasn’t his smoothest landing, but it hadn’t been the roughest either. He glanced back to Cole on the ground and then to Katie and Miller. “Everyone alright?”
Cole slowly climbed to his feet and checked his swollen lip. There was a little blood. “I’ll live,” he muttered. Katie and Miller confirmed that they were both ‘fine’ as well. At least none of them were badly hurt. As far as missions went, this was still ranked pretty high on the ‘good’ side according to Lorne.
That is, of course, until Miller shifted to grab a piece of debris and Lorne felt the entire Jumper tilt forwards a little. “Whoa, whoa, whoa! Everybody freeze.”
Lorne was back to holding his breath and Miller remained in the bent-over position he had been in. Something was wrong and Lorne was getting that familiar sinking feeling. After a minute of no one moving, Lorne shifted his eyes to Cole. “Sergeant, I need you to slip into the back. Carefully.”
Cole slowly stood up and shuffled into the rear compartment. When Cole reached the far back of the cabin the Jumper hit back onto the ground under Cole’s weight. Lorne let out an exasperated sigh. “This isn’t good.”
Miller, who had faithfully been maintaining his bent position, couldn’t maintain it any longer and moved to sit up. Cole let out a small shout of surprise when the rear of the Jumper lifted again.
“Miller!”
“Sorry sir!”
Lorne’s white-knuckled hands were out as if to help balance himself in the ship. “Okay. Doctor Brown, I need you to get up –slowly- and join Sergeant Cole.”
Lorne didn’t want to risk looking back at her to see if she was complying, but he didn’t need too. The Jumper lurched forward a little as she stood, but Lorne told her to continue and after a brief pause she did. She let out a sigh of relief when she reached Cole at the back of the ship. However, while the Jumper tilted back towards the ground, it didn’t touch it.
The new angle must have thrown off the weight distribution. Great. Lorne glanced at Miller who was also holding his breath and tried to think of a solution. After a moment he spoke to Cole at the back of the ship. “On my mark I want you to release the ramp. Got it, Sergeant?”
Lorne received a confident ‘yessir’ before he turned his attention to Miller. Miller nodded in silent understanding. “Alright. On the count of three. One. Two. Three –”
Cole hastily pressed the release button as Miller and Lorne were off their feet and hurrying towards the back. The Jumper lurched again and began to slide forward. Cole grabbed onto the back of Katie’s vest and the four hauled ass out of the Jumper. Only a moment after Lorne’s feet left the metallic ramp did the ramp leap up and the Puddle Jumper went over the edge of the cliff. A not-so-pleasant sound echoed from below as the ship hit another ledge.
Major Lorne took a moment to catch his breath before peering over the cliff to assess the damage. It was intact. The only problem was it was upside down. He wondered silently to himself if Jumpers could fly upside down and made a mental note to ask McKay or Zelenka when they got back to Atlantis.
“Where are we?”
Miller was up on a protruding rock scouting out the surroundings. The plateau seemed to be made entirely of rock and nothing was overtly visible. Lorne flicked open the cover on his watch and took a look at the compass.
“We’re only a few clicks away from the designated coordinates,” Lorne gestured to the north. “We should be able to get there within an hour.”
****
“See?” John said looking around. “There is land on this planet.”
Rodney huffed from behind and Ronon turned to give the pair a grin. They were standing on a long thin island large enough to hold the Stargate and the Dial Home Device. Though, Ronon noted, whoever dialled would get their feet wet standing in the small puddle of water that brushed against the land like a wave over a beach.
Rodney huffed in displeasure and started to mumble about going from hot to cold water. Ronon watched Teyla move to the end of the island before he moved to stand on the opposite end from the Stargate, which looked out over the vast expanse of ocean. At least in the city, he knew there was land somewhere on the horizon.
“And just what are we supposed to do now?” Rodney spat and Ronon turned to catch the thoughtful look on Sheppard’s face. Instead, he noticed something else; something that could cause them a problem or two on their return.
“Sheppard,” he said and indicated the DHD he stood almost directly in front of. John moved forward, stepping around the device and Ronon only just caught the ‘Oh crap’, he breathed.
“Rodney,” John said, looking up at the scientist. “You can stay by the gate.”
“Why?” McKay said, moving towards him, looking ready to start screaming about anything remotely resembling a problem. “What did you do? Oh, that’s just peachy.”
Ronon couldn’t hold back his grin at the last sentence; it was just what he expected Rodney to say when he discovered the damaged device. Rodney pushed John to the side and started checking the crystals. Ronon watched for a moment before his eyes caught movement from Teyla. She had backed away from the edge of the island, her eyes fixed on the water below.
Something made her jump and she took a quick step back before she tripped and landed hard on her backside. Ronon moved, thinking he would only need to help her back on her feet, but as he passed John, something reached out of the water, wrapped around Teyla’s ankle and pulled her quickly into the water.
He lunged, hitting the ground hard and feeling something dig in against his stomach, but he ignored it. He took hold of Teyla’s arm and tried to pull her back, but the creature from the water was stronger than him and pulled them both along.
They were pulled quickly over the land and off the edge and Ronon only had a second to take a lung full of air before he vanished under the water.
****
“You know,” Cole came up behind the rest who were staring at the mouth of a cave. “I’m starting to think these Ancients had no imagination.”
Lorne suppressed a smirk as he took another glance at the compass. “It should be just beyond this cave.”
“Right,” Cole muttered. “And up a mountain and across a large gulley.”
Lorne couldn’t keep the smirk from surfacing this time as he motioned for the team to follow him into the cave with their P-90s in hand. The moment they stepped into the darkness was the same moment they stepped out into a meadow of waist-high grass.
Miller glanced back at Cole. “Guess they still have some tricks up their sleeves.”
Katie, who had been relatively quiet since they had entered the gate, was the first to ask a troubling question. “This didn’t show up on the sensors, did it?”
Major Lorne frowned. “No. No, it didn’t.”
Katie was also the one to ask the second troubling question. “Where’s the cave?”
The three men turned around and were met with more meadow. As far as they could see, there were no mountains. There didn’t even seem to be much of any hills.
“Yep. Tricks,” Miller shot at Cole, who rolled his eyes.
“Alright,” Lorne exhaled. “Let’s keep heading north and see where that gets us. As far as I can tell we should be right where the coordinates that Mara gave us indicated.”
“Right, because a six year old is a master navigator.”
Lorne looked back to Cole. “She’s five.”
Walking through the long, dappled grass proved easier than the uneven terrain of the forest from their last mission. The ground was soft and even and there was a constant breeze that took the heat off of the overhanging sun. However, there seemed to be nothing but grass for as long as the eye could see. That is, of course, until the meadow dipped and suddenly the team was presented with a monster fleet of large, old-fashion Dutch windmills.
“Reminds me of Don Quixote.”
“Who?” Cole looked at Katie.
“Don Quixote. He’s a character from a self titled book that fought an army of giants who turned out to be windmills.”
“Ah,” Cole said and gave a look over to Miller who smirked as the foursome continued to move forward.
****
“Why didn’t we bring a Jumper?” Rodney shouted from the middle of the island. John had moved quickly, though not quickly enough, trying to grab hold of Ronon and Teyla before they were submerged in the ocean. “Why the hell didn’t we bring a Jumper? We could have been floating in the air right now.”
“And what if we needed to land?” John spat back, spotting a light gleaming from below the surface. It was hard to tell how far down it was, but there was definitely something there. Behind him, Rodney hadn’t answered the question, but simply stood right in the middle of the small island looking at the edge as though it was dangerous.
John had to do something. He couldn’t just stand there and wait to see if Ronon and Teyla resurfaced and hope they were still breathing. He couldn’t very well go back to Atlantis, get a Jumper and submerge it to see where the light was coming from. With the DHD broken and time running out he had only one choice and that was going in after them.
“I’m sorry, Elizabeth,” he breathed as he unzipped his vest.
“What are you doing? You can’t seriously be thinking of going in there. It’s probably freezing and they’re probably miles away by now.”
“Rodney,” John snapped, rounding on the scientist and taking in his wide eyes. “I can’t just leave them,” he added. He sighed and moved closer to his friend. “I need to go. You need to fix the gate. Quickly.”
“Right,” Rodney said. “Right. Fix the gate.”
John watched as Rodney’s eyes flicked to the DHD and then back to him. He knew Rodney was thinking about what he’d just seen and how closer the device was to the edge of the island and that was something he didn’t need the man to think of right now.
“Rodney,” John snapped drawing his attention again. “Fix the gate, get a Jumper and... come look for us,” he said, trying hard not to say ‘rescue’ or ‘see if we’re alive’.
He turned back and took a deep breath before toeing off his boots. He dropped his jacket to the ground before stepping to the edge and looking down. He fixed his gaze on the light below and readied himself for a moment before he dove off the edge.
The water felt strange on his skin, almost like a gel or a mix of gel and water. John held his breath as he manoeuvred along the surface placing himself directly above the light before he surfaced. It was a second before he breached the top of the ocean that his lungs gave out and he took a sharp breath. But the water didn’t flood his lungs or throat. It just lingered like he had taken a deep breath of fresh air.
He looked back towards the island, now a fair distance from him. He couldn’t see McKay or any movement and hoped the man hadn’t been dragged off while he was checking out his location. Swallowing, John moved his arm along the water; it shifted like normal water despite not feeling remotely the same. He took a deep breath and let it out slowly before pulling himself under the water. He waited, just a moment, and daringly took another breath still submerged in the liquid. Again it felt like air being added to his chest and experimentally he tried it again before surfacing slowly.
He looked around for the island and creased his brow when he found it. The distance between him and it had increased in the last few seconds and he wondered if he’d drifted from the spot he had selected.
“Don’t worry,” a voice said from behind him and John’s arms flung out to force his body to turn. He saw a girl with bright green eyes and long hair that vanished into the water below her shoulders. “It will come back,” she said. They studied each other until she smiled and asked, “Are you Altera?”
“Erm,” John hesitated, not sure if answering either way was a good idea. It would only be half a lie; he was Atlantean, just not of the original Alteras.
“You can control the city of Atlantis?”
“Yeah,” John answered; this was a much easier question.
“Then you are Altera. Follow me.”
She ducked below the water, bending almost double and he caught sight of her legs and feet before they followed her. He turned back to the island to find it now gone completely from his view and frowned. He wanted to go and find it, but before he could move something wrapped around his ankle and pulled him down.
Under the water again, the girl motioned for him to follow before turning and diving down towards the light. John tried to follow, but she was much faster than him. That and he spent a lot of his time checking out the underwater structure. Several large bubbles, for lack of a better word, created an underwater city. They curved neatly and seemed to overlap in places, making him think of a time he blew bubbles for a group of kids on his street and some of them stuck together.
The girl appeared in his view as he approached and she beckoned him over to one of the globes. He searched for a door only half considering that such a thing would be ridiculous underwater. The city would become flooded. He came to a stop beside her and watched momentarily bewildered as she forced her foot to the small platform and effectively stepped through the bubble and into the city.
John blinked before he copied her, first one foot, then the other on the small ledge and then he took a step forward. For some reason, he expected the bubble to burst and closed his eyes as he moved from water to air. It was an even stranger feeling than entering the water. His skin tingled and he was soaked to the skin while feeling completely dry. He turned back to look at his way in and creased his brow as his brain conjured up images of how new born babies felt when they first hit the new and unusual air. Shuddering, John turned back to his smiling young host.
“I am Pax,” she said.
“John,” he replied and licked his lips. “Listen, I had some friends with me. They were sort of dragged into the...,” he motioned back out the way he came and wondered if the substance out there could be called water.
“They are safe,” she said. “They needed to be brought down, or they would not have lived through the journey.”
“Why not?” John asked.
“They are not Altera,” she said and he picked up the slight anger in her voice as if she found the idea repulsive. “I will show you to them, they are in the council chambers waiting for you.”
****
“Elizabeth.”
Elizabeth looked up from her desk and over to Carson while giving him the universal ‘shh’ signal and standing. Mara was still sleeping over on the couch by the wall and she didn’t want to wake the child if it was possible.
“What is it, Carson?” her voice was hushed as she ushered the doctor onto the small connecting bridge that linked her office to the control room.
Carson offered an apologetic smile and looked back at the sleeping babe on the couch.
“She’s still asleep then?”
“Yes,” Elizabeth nodded, but she was more interested in the computer tablet Doctor Beckett was holding under his arm. She gestured to it with a small smile. “Bring me something?”
“What? Oh, yes,” Carson rested the portable computer on the railing and hit a few buttons with his fingers. “I figured out how we missed the gene until now.”
Elizabeth quirked an eyebrow. “I thought it was because we just never looked for it.”
“Aye, but when you know where to look for it, it sticks out like a sore thumb.”
Elizabeth urged Carson to continue with a small smile as she leaned over to look at the diagrams on the screen. There were three-dimensional representations of cells and what looked like a DNA strand.
“You know how the ATA Gene is always active, instructing various cells in the body to produce a series of proteins and enzymes that interact with the skin, the nervous system and the brain, thus enabling the gene carriers to operate Ancient technology?”
Elizabeth nodded and Carson pressed another button.
“Well, the Navo Gene works the same way on a basic level, but in a much more complicated way.”
“More complicated, you say?” Elizabeth had a wry smile which produced a tiny laugh from Carson.
“Aye. You see, we still don’t understand the human genome completely, but we have been able to map 3 billion base pairs and about 20,000 to 25,000 genes so far within the DNA and RNA strands.”
“RNA?”
“Ribonucleic acid. It’s similar to DNA except their strand of information is only single while DNA has double strands”
“Of course,” Elizabeth leaned on the railing. “Go on.”
“A gene is a union of genomic sequences encoding a coherent set of potentially overlapping functional products, right? Well, in cells, genes consist of a long strand of DNA that contains a promoter, which controls the activity of a gene. The coding sequence determines what the gene produces, while non-coding sequence can regulate the conditions of gene expression. When a gene is active, the coding and non-coding sequence is copied in a process called transcription, producing an RNA copy of the gene's information. This RNA can then direct the synthesis of proteins via the genetic code.”
“Carson,” Elizabeth ran a hand over her face, “the simplified version, please.”
“The Navo Gene is hidden in an RNA strand,” a small voice responded.
Carson and Elizabeth looked at each other for a moment before turning to look at the tiny child who had spoken. Mara yawned and rubbed her eyes. Elizabeth looked at Carson who nodded. “She’s right.”
“How did you know that?” Elizabeth looked down at Mara who had walked over and taken hold of her hand.
“Mom said it once.”
Elizabeth smiled at Mara and looked to Carson. “How does it work?”
Carson shook his head. “We haven’t figured that out yet. I’d like you to come to the lab for some tests. I have a theory.”
Elizabeth quirked another eyebrow, but nodded.
****
Teyla’s eyes took in every crook of the luxurious room. Everything from the detail on the tapestries and the embroidered cloth hanging down the walls, to the simple design of the chair where Ronon sat. She had no idea how long they had been here. She barely remembered how they got here. Neither of them did. They had arrived on a small island and she had been checking the surrounding area when she had been pulled under.
The door opened on the far side of the room and a short, snide-looking man appeared clad in home-spun weaved clothing that was neither familiar to Ronon nor to Teyla. He remained at the other end of the room as he spoke to them.
“My apologies for keeping you waiting so long.”
“Where’s Sheppard?” Ronon was already up on his feet before Teyla could react, but she was able to stop him from charging the little man.
“Ronon…”
Ronon slid a weary glance to Teyla and sat back on his heels. His arms crossed over his broad chest as he stared expectantly at the strange man. Teyla silently sighed and turned back to face the man.
“We were with two others when we arrived.”
“Yes,” the man said ignoring Ronon. “One has remained on the surface and the other is also here in the city.”
A bit of relief washed over Teyla. “May we see him?”
The man merely nodded and gestured for them to follow him. As Teyla and Ronon stepped out of the room, they were accompanied by four burly men who were no doubt security operatives judging by their girth and the weapons on their hips.
They were led down a series of corridors plastered with rich paintings and expensive looking furniture. It was as if the room they had been in expanded throughout the labyrinth of hallways. Teyla paused as they passed a large pane of glass. Her hand reached out to touch the glass.
“We are under water?”
“Yes,” the man curtly replied and continued walking. “The entire city is under the water.”
Teyla remained where she was, looking out into the vast water, until she was nudged by one of the large men. From what she had seen, the city was not like Atlantis. While she knew very little about the technology of the ancestors, she could recognize that the city was stationary, unlike the Lantean city.
They were ushered into a large, bright room that was painted in rich tones, but lacked many of the excessive additions like the rest of the rooms they had seen. Colonel Sheppard was sitting on a black, straight-backed chair and was leaning forward with his elbows on his knees. When Teyla and Ronon entered, he stood and walked briskly over to them.
“You guys alright?”
Teyla glanced up to the clearly irritated Ronon and then back to John with a small smile.
“We are fine.”
“You okay?” John asked looking up to the grumpy-looking Satedan and gave a little smile of his own.
“Fine,” Ronon answered.
John looked over to the woman who had brought him to the city. “Pax here was just telling me some of their local history. Seems they were good friends with the Ancients.”
“The Altera and our people were great allies,” Pax added.
Ronon grunted. “Where were they when the Wraith showed up?”
The snide-looking man scowled. “Enough talk.” He nodded to the security men who started herding Teyla and Ronon towards one side of the room where a large mirror stood flat against the wall.
John, having been pushed out of the way, raised a not-so-amused eyebrow and followed closely behind. It wasn’t until one of the larger men turned around and stopped him that John Sheppard started to get an uneasy feeling about the whole situation. Ronon and Teyla cast a questioning look over to John. They were clearly tensing up.
“Hey, wait a minute.”
Pax lifted off her chair and made her way over to John. Placing a reassuring hand on his shoulder, she smiled.
“Do not worry, John.”
“It’s hard not to when you have my people surrounded,” John argued. He was trying to control his irritation, but he was doing a poor job of it.
“You wish to possess the crystal of Arnemetia, do you not?”
John looked at Pax. “Yeah, so?”
“The high council will only give audience to those deemed worthy.”
John tried hard not to roll his eyes and was pretty successful. He sighed and ran a hand down his face.
“Okay,” he said. “How do we prove we’re worthy?”
“You do not have to prove anything,” the little man practically spat out. “They, however, must.”
“Why?”
The little man looked over to John indignantly. “They are not Altera. They did not pass the tests of old.”
John’s hands clenched into fists as he looked at the man who reminded him a lot of Woolsey. He was about to start shouting when Pax’s hand was back on his shoulder. He turned to look at her.
“Long ago, when the Altera met our ancestors, they had to prove themselves trustworthy. They passed. And when they asked us to protect the crystal for them, we took an oath to only allow those whom we trust to take it.”
“Alright, so what do you want us to do?” John asked. If McKay were here, John was pretty sure he’d hear some grumbling right now. As it was, he hoped Rodney had fixed the DHD and was already in Atlantis getting a Puddle Jumper.
“You don’t do anything,” the Woolsey mini-me sniffed. “They must,” he signalled to the security men who grabbed a hold of Ronon and Teyla. Ronon instinctively threw back his arms, sending a man sprawling to the ground while Teyla took up a defensive stance. Yet there were too many of them to handle at once – others coming in to help with the situation – and before Colonel Sheppard had time to reach Teyla and Ronon, they were tossed into the mirror. The mirror seemed to flicker for a moment and they were sucked into it and disappeared.
John’s gun was out of its holster and rose to face the group of men. He was clearly outnumbered, but he felt better with his weapon drawn.
“What the hell just happened?”
The man lifted his nose at John. “They must pass the trials like the Alterans did long ago.”
Colonel Sheppard’s eyes narrowed as he holstered his gun and started walking to the mirror.
“Then I’m going too.”
“John, no. You have already proven you can be trusted.”
John turned on his heel and looked over to Pax.
“They’re my team. I’m not leaving them. So either I’m going or you get them back.”
Pax shook her head hesitantly. “Once you’ve entered the Cloister of Trials there is no turning back.”
He tried to control his voice as best as he could. “Then I’m going too.”