There are things in Elizabeth's life she regrets, things she wishes she could go back and change. For example, telling her mother where she is regardless to the security protocol. It won't be a pleasant day for her only parent when she finds out her daughter has been killed and no one can tell her how, why or even where. Along with this, Elizabeth wishes she hadn't spent the first year here thinking Simon would wait for her. She should have known better. She regrets this wasted time that she could have spent with John Sheppard. They could have two years of history between them by now instead of six months.
She's fallen in love with him and for the life of her right now, standing in front of the sensors screen looking at the vast amount of space, she can't deny it. She's fallen in love with a man who's waited six long and arduous months for her. She can't even begin to contemplate how sexually frustrated he must be right now. He was so patient and understanding and she couldn't ignore how much she loved him for it. Can't ignore that he's spent every night of the last god knows how long in her bed fully clothed.
Yet at the same time she's afraid of their relationship. She wants so much, wants to be known as Doctor Elizabeth Sheppard; though she doubts she'll actually take his name. Wants to have children with him, grow old with him and so much more. The only problem is she has absolutely no idea if he wants any of that. Mara has brought most of this into perspective for her. She's grown attached to the girl and now somehow she finds herself feeling like a mother and all those times women say their uterus skipped a beat finally makes sense to her.
And now it could be too late.
Fear has been plaguing her for the last nine hours. She never expected John and Lorne to return within the day; she'd be a fool to believe it was that easy to get out there, find the crystal and get back. This morning though, she stepped into the control room and Chuck had tentatively approached to tell her neither team had returned. They'd tried contact of course, but the radios just returned static.
The gate behind her began to dial and she checked her watch. On the hour, every hour Chuck dialled and attempted to contact the teams. Nine times so far they had received nothing and she'd stood standing at the sensors the whole time. That was another fear in itself and this time it was paired with frustration as the empty looking space continued to deny her knowledge of the approaching doom.
This made her feel helpless as well. How did you prepare to fight an enemy you didn't know anything about and couldn't see?
She was responsible for every person in this city. There were 137 expedition members under her command and a further 48 Athosians who had chosen Atlantis's mainland over their new settlement. Of course Elizabeth couldn't blame them, a choice between fend for and defend yourself or fend for yourself and aid your allies wasn't much of a choice at all, especially against the Wraith. Right now, the only thing Elizabeth was grateful for was the fact that the Wraith thought Atlantis was destroyed.
Regret, love, need, fear, frustration, helplessness and responsibility; it was amazing that Elizabeth had managed to keep her sanity for as long as she had. She could hear Chuck behind her, updating her on the lack of contact with their off world teams, but she couldn't respond. She leaned forward on the console that stood in front of her and closed her eyes as the need to scream, kick and cry washed over her. It was all too much. Why couldn't something go right just for once? Why couldn't they just get that extra bit of help from all their knowledge and advanced gene therapy to tell them how far away these people were?
"Doctor Weir?" Chuck said and she felt his hand on her shoulder. Her heart pounded in her chest, her head ready to explode with the overwhelming emotion and she was bleakly aware of the beeping from a nearby computer as something flickered on the sensor screen before everything turned black in her vision. She was still there, standing and thinking for several minutes. She could hear the voices of the people around her. The sounds of the machines and tapping of fingers on keyboards before her head swam and her knees buckled. She felt the strong arms around her for a bare minute before there was nothing.
****
Radek sighed. He'd been staring at the computer screen for hours without a break and he could feel the dull ache behind his eyes increasing with time. Since Carson's request for information on the gene he had been doing research, but now he had two things to look for. The gene had been put aside slightly. Carson had the files they'd found on his own computer while Radek spent most of him looking for the weapon.
He knew the doctor was making some progress. He'd passed Elizabeth several times throughout the day as she headed to or from the infirmary and on one break he'd walked with her and stood for a moment as Carson did another test. He knew from that one time that she'd become quickly annoyed with this whole situation. She didn't want to have this unknown gene and she didn't really want to know what it did or how to use it. She'd told him, however, that Carson had been insistent the first time she'd tried to avoid the trip, putting on a hefty guilt trip about the progress of medical science and how they knew of no one else who possessed the gene.
Radek had suggested she order Carson to test the city for it and then as they stepped into the infirmary had wondered aloud if someone could posses both the Ancient and the Navo Gene. Carson had loved that idea and had taken Radek's blood before turning to several of his nurses, selecting those with the gene and drawing blood from them too. Elizabeth had given him a smile of thanks as he escaped the room.
"Lucror," he muttered again to himself as he spotted the word in yet another file. Problem was he was seeing it out of the context he required. The file he was currently scanning used it for winning a bet made between two factions of the city. It made him wondered just how alike the Ancients were to them, separating the city into regions and sectors almost like gangs.
A previous file had been a personal file that had used it in a `win the girl' context that Radek had found sickening. The person who had written it had seemed to think the girl was a prize or piece of land to be owned. He hadn't made it all the way through that file, getting sick of the man's attitude before he'd closed it down and marked it worthless so no one else would bother looking. The current file was explaining the profit one woman had earned against her competitor when she'd secured a deal with another company of the same type.
Radek signed again and closed the file, marking it the same as the last two and clicked lazily on the next. For a moment, and not for the first time, Radek hated Rodney McKay. It had after all been him who'd dumped this job on Radek. If Rodney had done his own work, Radek could still be working on the newest piece of equipment.
He flicked through file after file; not really concentrating on what he was opening and making them to be ignored as he went. He was considering dinner when he opened another file and froze. The diagrams flicked through like a gallery in front of him. The design, like most other ancient tech, was detailed and marked with each component. However it wasn't the fact that he'd come across a diagram that shocked him. It was what he was looking at. At the top of the schematic, the words translated to 'Transport Weapon' and in brackets it said 'Lucror'.
Radek yanked the laptop off its base and darted out the door. He needed to check this out. He knew this piece of equipment, knew where it was and what it looked liked. He'd been working on it at 4am the previous morning with Rodney, just before Mara showed up.
He rounded the corner and ran straight into one of the technicians and apologised hastily and moved into the room he was heading for. It was still there, standing in the middle of the room with his tools scattered around it as if it were ceremonial by nature. He moved around to stand in front of it and looked down over the control panel.
"So," he said, eyeing the buttons. "What do you do?"
****
Carson felt a little trapped. When he'd received the call to the control room he'd thought the worst, that the aliens had arrived and attacked someone. He felt relieved only to find Elizabeth had passed out and thankful that Chuck had been quick enough to catch her. But that was the wrong way to feel - especially for a doctor.
He'd determined that she wasn't in any danger while listening to the conversation going on around him. The sensors had come alive, displaying an unknown vessel on the scanner and every living thing in range. Though they weren't just shown, they were marked clearly. Even a Wraith ship was marked `Wraith Hive'. He made sure Elizabeth was secure on gurney and gave the medics a few quick orders before turning to Chuck.
"What happened?"
"I don't know. She's been standing there looking at the sensors most of the morning. I dialled to try and contact Lorne and Sheppard's teams and gave her the update and she sort of just passed out as the sensors went crazy."
"She didn't say anything?"
"Hasn't said anything for hours," Chuck offered. Carson nodded and turned to walk away. "Doc, I don't think she's had anything to eat or drink all morning," Chuck said, Carson thanked him and quickly made his way back to the infirmary.
He was barely through the door before he ordered a nurse to take a blood sample from Elizabeth. He paused near another nurse and quietly asked her to bring lunch and a bottle of water back for Elizabeth before he moved on to get a report from the medic.
He took a seat next to her bed, watching as blood was taken and another nurse set up the standard monitors and asked if she should start a drip. He understood that Elizabeth was under a lot of pressure when something like this happened and every time they came up against a new foe he found himself caught between taking her food and talking her into walking away for a few minutes to eat.
This time though, he suspected there was a completely different reason for her current state of unconsciousness. Late teams, enemy on the way and a city of people who were wound tight on nerves; her emotions must have sky rocketed. Chuck's comments about the sensors were sparking his curiosity to new heights. If Rodney were in the city, he would contacted him to ask if it was possible there was more than one level to Ancient technology, a sub level of more complex circuitry that only reacted to their recently discovered gene.
The nurse returned and place a sandwich, an apple and a bottle of water on the bed side table. He nodded to her and quickly checked over Elizabeth's vitals. There was no reason for her to still be unconscious and he was only going to give her a few more minutes before he used other methods of waking her.
Before he'd been called, Carson had been studying a sample of blood he'd taken from her the day before. He had just compared it to the first sample he took, noting that it had intensified since the time he'd taken it and that it had also taken on a few new properties. He did want to go back to that now, but he also couldn't turn away from his patient, at least not until she was conscious and eating.
"Carson," Elizabeth's voice made him jump and he turned his face to look down at her. "What happened?"
"You fainted, love," he said and turned as another doctor approached with a computer. "Though I have my suspicions as to why."
He accepted the computer from his colleague and scanned the blood results. As he suspected, the Navo Gene was running wild in her sample and again the unusual property he had seen earlier was present. It was familiar; he had seen it before but he just couldn't remember where.
"What would that be?" she asked, picking up the bottle of water.
"Well," he said, getting up and pulling the divider curtains in place. "What were you thinking about while staring at the sensors?" He didn't know why he expected her to answer, but he picked up the sandwich and apple all the same and placed them on her lap as she sat up.
"Everything," was all she could manage.
"Aye, I imagine your mother came to mind. All the people in the city. Your currently absent teams," he said picking up the computer again and opened a blood comparison chart. "The fact is, Elizabeth, your Navo Gene strength has been growing over the last few days. The closer to danger we've become the more powerful it sparks on your blood tests. What I don't understand is why I didn't discover it when the Wraith attacked."
Elizabeth's head dropped her chest. He could see the cogs working and he wondered if there was anything different now than there was back then. In their first year, before the Wraith had attacked, Carson had learned that Elizabeth had left someone behind when she agreed to the expedition. He also knew that that relationship had ended shortly after their initial return, and he'd only found out then because she'd been in every night for a sleeping pill.
"What's changed in the last year, Elizabeth?"
She peeled her sandwich open and peeked at the cheese and tomato content for a moment. He wondered if she'd actually take a bite from it or if she'd just pick it apart like he'd seen her do so many times before. Elizabeth raised it to her mouth, hesitated, then took a bite from the corner of the triangle cut. Carson sat back and waited, considering changing his question or getting up to move onto something else.
"After the nanite incident," she took a breath. "John came to make sure I was alright. I think I scared him, sitting on my bed staring at the wall without answering. I was tired," she looked up at him, "but I was afraid to sleep in case I woke up back there; back on Earth in that same mental hospital."
"I knew he was the one to call Doctor Heightmeyer. I read that report."
"It didn't help much," she said with a shy smile, "at least not the first day. I still wouldn't sleep. I was afraid to even blink at that point. John refused to leave, threatened to sit in my chair all night if that's what it took for me to get some rest."
Carson gave a small laugh. He would have done the same if he'd seen her in that state, though back then the only people with access to her room were John Sheppard and Kate Heightmeyer. Carson had kept his distance knowing that if medical intervention was needed then he'd be the first point of contact.
"He did," she offered. "He sat there all night. Neither of us slept. And then he was back the next night, and the night after that," she sighed. "Until I asked him why."
"He cares a great deal about you," Carson said. Elizabeth nodded and picked a small chunk of her sandwich off to pop into her mouth.
"He still comes," she said quietly, almost at a whisper. "Only now it's not for the comfort or to make sure I sleep. I can't honestly say that watching him step through the gate doesn't feel different now. I used to just hope he'd come back alive and with all his team..." she trailed off.
"And now?"
She looked up, her eyes meeting his and he was taken aback by the amount of emotion he could see in them. For the first time since he'd met her she was showing her feelings for what they really were. And he could see quite clearly that she'd fallen in love with John.
"I pray every time."
Carson let out a sigh and looked back down at the screen. He'd give her a few minutes to compose herself. Mostly because he needed them to catch his breath over what he'd just found out, but also because he respected her enough not to push or remind her that a part of her job was sending Colonel Sheppard out without knowing what he'd face.
"The gene is being intensified by these emotions," he said after a few minutes. "They've taken on a property I've only seen in one other place. It took me by surprise and I just had to go back to Ronon's DNA to check, but in the same location in both your DNAs is a strand that I suspected saved him and his people from being fed on by the Wraith."
"I have the same DNA marker that stops the Wraith feeding on Ronon?"
"Aye," he said with a nod, still not meeting her eye. "It's only in the strongest of emotions but I suspect face to face with any Wraith will bring that out," she chuckled and he looked up with a smile. "You should also know that before you collapsed you activated a few new sensors. Seems things are popping up on the monitor we never saw before."
"Finally some advantages," she said with a weak smile. Carson smiled back before patting her leg.
"Finish your lunch," he said more as an order than a suggestion. "Then you can go and find out about your new sensors," he stood up and moved away.
"Carson," she stopped him and waited for him to turn back to her. "Thank you."
****
"'Lure forth' must be connected to `assist'. The thigh bone's connected to the hip bone," Radek muttered, reading the instructions he had found for the weapon. The last part wasn't there, but it was just a list of parts that were collected together. Not that any of it made any sense.
He sighed, staring at the instructions with a creased brow. What were `Lure forth' and `assist'? They were very confusing words in the sentence. But then again, he was translating from Ancient to English; maybe he should leave the words as they were.
"'Prolixi' must be connected to `Subvenio'. And the neck bone's connected to the back bone," he added, thinking this was more like a body diagram for a weapon than anything else he'd ever seen. This connected to that, which connected to something and then something else. Though from what he understood, they all connected to a centre two panels - those two, `Prolixi' and `Subvenio'. Now he just had to work out what they were. He knew that the one he was leaning on was one of the named parts of the weapon, but he didn't know which and more daunting was that he didn't know where the rest of them where.
He wondered if Carson was having this much trouble with his files or if Elizabeth had accidentally used her gene to activate some console they had long since abandoned. He quirked a brow at the thought. If she could switch on panels and controls that no one with the ATA Gene could, that could explain a lot about the technology. It made sense that finding a new gene would be important to city's control. They could lock any number of things with a gene very few of the population possessed.
Like a weapon.
"D... Doctor Weir," he said, fumbling to activate his radio and waited impatiently for a reply. For several moments, in which Radek rescued his laptop from hitting the floor, there was no answer. He dropped his computer on the desk behind him and rushed out the door. He ran to the transporter and from there to the control room. Out of breath, he pointed into Elizabeth's empty office in a question to the nearest technician for her whereabouts.
"I think she was summoned back to the infirmary," Chuck said and Radek knew he used the word `summoned' correctly. Sighing, he took off back down the stairs and followed the well walked route to the medical bay. He was vastly out of breath when he stepped into the room and he spotted Elizabeth's red shirt quickly as she stepped out of the scanner room.
"Radek?" she asked, approaching him with her radio in hand and concern on her face.
"I," he said, pausing to take a deep breath. "You need," he took another breath and smiled at Carson as he joined them. "Tell me you have progress," he said quickly.
"Some," Carson offered. "Still not sure how the Ancients made use of the gene or even if they did."
"I think they did," Radek said. "I think that's why Mara told you about it. The console we've been working on is part of the weapon," he explained, watching Elizabeth straighten her back at that piece of information. "'Prolixi' and `Subvenio"' he repeated. "I think it takes two people to run, one with the ATA and one with the Navo Gene."
"Which would be which?" Carson asked.
"I think Prolixi would be for the new gene, `lure forth'. And the ATA would be Supvenio, `assist'."
"Makes it sound like the ATA took a step back when they discovered the Navo," Elizabeth said and Radek could feel the contempt in the statement. He was starting to get a new idea about the people they were trying to learn about and it wasn't looking all that much different from them. He moved on quickly.
"I think the console hasn't been working because it's locked to the Navo Gene," he explained. "The only way to find out..."
"Is for Elizabeth to try and activate it."
"I don't have time for this," she said. "I left Mara in the control room and no one's seen her for a few hours, not to mention I have reports to write and..."
"Elizabeth, none of that is gonna help if we can't protect ourselves," Carson said and Radek watched the moment of weakness that forced Elizabeth to drop her head and stare at the floor.
"Alright," she said, "I’ll be along shortly."
****
Lorne stepped back into Atlantis a little ahead of his team. He'd left Cole to take up the rear before leaving their windy planet and dead jumper behind him. He knew he'd have to explain the jumper and couldn't help but think their lives and the crystal were the more important aspects of the mission, at least right now.
"Doctor Weir," he said with a short nod as she approached him.
"Major, everything alright?"
"Sure," he said with a smile. "We love climbing millions of stairs on the outside of a building in a force nine gale. But we're back and in record time I might add."
Weirs brow raised and he knew she didn't agree. He had hoped to beat Sheppard's team back but apparently he wasn't that lucky.
"How long is record time?" she asked and his brow creased.
"Eleven hours and seventeen minutes," Katie put in, checking her watch. "It was a long walk without the jumper and then finding the right windmill and all those stairs."
Lorne shifted uncomfortably. "How long have we been gone, ma'am?"
"Just over thirty three hours."
"What?" Cole spat. "That's impossible."
"We weren't there more than a day," Miller added.
"We don't know how long we were there," Lorne pointed out. "When we stepped into that cave and out the other side the sun was in a different place," he gave Doctor Weir an apologetic look. "Any ideas how long until our new friends arrive?"
"Two hours," she said. "I need you all through your post mission medical ASAP. Major, you, Cole and Miller need to report to Lieutenant Simard to take over the preparations for the attack. Doctor Brown, civilian personnel are being moved to sub levels. I recommend you take only what you can carry. Last minute evacuations are a possibility."
"Ma'am," Lorne said, stopping her from turning away. "Colonel Sheppard's team?"
"They're not back yet. Contact with both your team and theirs has been impossible."
She turned and walked back to the stairs and Evan turned back to his team to dismiss them before he was stopped.
"Major, what happened to the jumper?"
"We, erm, had a bit of a rough landing and it, erm," he scratched at his chin idly for a moment. "We lost it over a cliff. It's sitting on a ledge about thirty feet below gate level."
"Any chance it can be recovered?"
"Well," he said licking his lips. "We have twenty years to think of a way around the wind shear and cliff side drop."
She hummed at him in contemplation before starting up the stairs. He turned to follow his team out of the gate room and ran his hand idly through his hair for the first time since they left. It was a complete mess, sticking up in all directions. Somehow he wished he had it shaved like Cole to avoid looking like Sheppard.
****
"This isn't working," Elizabeth complained an hour later.
"Maybe we're missing something?" Carson suggested looking down at the schematics Radek had open on his computer. He wasn't likely to understand them, but maybe there was something they'd overlooked.
"Like the rest of the weapon?" Elizabeth said with a touch of sarcasm. For a whole hour they'd stood there trying to work out why it didn't work. They'd tried various ways of evoking emotion in Elizabeth one of which nearly had her walking out the door. Carson was pretty sure he'd never again ask her if her mother was worried about her; not knowing where her daughter was for most of the year and only seeing her once.
Carson looked up at her with a curious expression, his brows raised. His brain was running through the possibility that she was right, or that the machine was powered by the most intense emotion they could muster.
"You've grown quite attached to Mara," Carson said daringly and watched as her stance changed to something slightly protective. She knew this game of his by now. "Does it worry you that no one's seen her for a few hours?"
"She's a five year old girl with no parents, Carson. Of course it worries me."
Nothing happened with the console and Carson almost let out a sigh of frustration before something occurred to him. When he'd been testing his theory on an emotion driven gene, he'd mentioned John again and the readings had spiked to the highest he'd seen. If Colonel Sheppard was in the city, he'd call him down here, but he was still off world so he'd have to settle for a mention.
"Someone mentioned it looked like you'd become a second mother to her," he said and Elizabeth's brow rose. "And Colonel Sheppard had become her second father."
Her other brow rose and her cheeks coloured. She quickly averted her eyes and he could see the idea working its way over her face just as the console flickered to life under her hands. Carson exchanged a look with Radek before the scientist started to work at his computer.
****
"How long have they been there?" Lorne asked, stopping in front of the sensor screen.
Elizabeth checked her watch before turning her attention back to the white blip on the screen labelled `Xe-ne'. When Carson said she had activated a few new sensors she figured one or two new things had shown up. Instead she had come back to the control room and felt as though she was looking at the whole galaxy and every life in it. It had been Chuck who pointed out the one important thing amongst the craze of new beings.
"About half an hour," she answered the major and checked her watch again.
"Maybe they're deciding the best way to kill us," Miller offered. Elizabeth quirked her brow and turned her head to look at him. "Sorry," he muttered.
"Maybe they're just scanning us, seeing how many people are in the city and what weapons we have active."
"How many of us are Human, Ancient and Navo," Elizabeth added, saying the last word as though it was a dirty one.
"Or perhaps their wondering if negotiations would work," Chuck offered.
"Wonderful," Elizabeth spat a little too sarcastically. "Just what we need is another race telling us we don't belong here and we should leave before they kill us all," she said before turning and heading back to her office. "Let me know if something changes."
She stepped into her office, rounded her desk and dropped into her chair. Today was turning into one of the worst days of her life, though she had yet to decide if it was better or worse than the Wraith siege. She opened her email and browsed through the subjects looking for something interesting to occupy her mind. Not finding anything to distract her, she opened an old message from John. It wasn't work related and even with him still off world she knew it would make her smile.
She managed only a few lines before her attention was drawn. She looked up as Lorne's gun was raised, she heard the click of the safety being switched off and her eyes settled on a thin, pale blue form standing in her office. Elizabeth rose to her feet and caught a glimpse of several others along the bridge and in the control room before she turned her attention back to the person standing almost directly in front of her.
Its skin was so pale it could have been white and there were no scars to show there had been any conflict somewhere along the line. The only broken skin was on the forehead where four small pointed horns protruded and curved upwards to the hairline. Beyond that they were perfectly smooth as if they were made of ice.
Eyes of pure white stared at Elizabeth, giving her an uneasy feeling of being looked through or at least as far through her skull as if to read her thoughts. It was as though they were cleansing her soul while looking as thought they weren't seeing a thing. His face held dark blue lips, formed in a straight line and entirely un-amused.
Atop their heads, their hair was cut short, just shy of shoulder length. The roots black and the tips blue-white like water and equally as transparent. Ram's horns curled from the head following the same tint of the hair as it shaded from black to white. She couldn't help take in the masculine build of the man, and for the first time Elizabeth wondered if it was male or female. Scales littered the skin she could see, curling around the beings side as though they were tentacles from their origin. They were shaped like jewels and glittered with each breath it took.
Elizabeth swallowed, wondering if she should address it first and at a lost for how. A mix of male and female features confused the being's gender. She licked her lips, stealing a glance over its' shoulder at Lorne, who was still standing at arms' length with an alien in a similar stance.
"You should not be here," he said. She decided it was male from the tone of its voice.
"I disagree. You shouldn't be here. This city belonged to the Ancients and most of my people carry their genes. You can't say the same, can you?"
"Are you as arrogant as they?"
"I like to think we're learning from their mistakes," she offered in hopes that showing a weakness would go in their favour. "We've read their logs and visited old friends... in hopes that we can rebuild what they once had."
"They were misguided, deluded and it led to the destruction of so much and the deaths of so many. What makes you think you will not make the same mistakes?"
"I can't assume we won't make mistakes. I can only hope ours won't be as deadly and that we can correct them," she told him. His eyes narrowed on her briefly and she suppressed a shudder as he studied her from head to toe. "We're not the people you once knew. We are their decadence and we are only just learning what they built for themselves."
"That makes you more irresponsible and reckless."
"We're careful with our experiments."
"Are you careful with other cultures when you visit new planets?" he asked, taking a step forward. "Are you careful in your dealings with the Wraith?"
"My people have used the gate for over a decade to visit other worlds and we try to help other cultures as often as we can without interfering with the natural course of their development," she said, catching sight of Lorne moving into her office. "And in regards to the Wraith, we have fought off several hive ships and prevented the destruction of this city. We try to help the people of this galaxy who are victims of the Wraith."
Lorne stiffened as he moved around to the side of her desk with his gun now pointed at the intruder in Elizabeth's office.
"You do not belong here," the alien repeated.
"And you do?" Lorne asked quickly.
Their visitor's eyes narrowed again and Elizabeth looked past him quickly to see several other armed soldiers moving around the control room. Several of them moved to the bridge and took up their places to protect her.
"If you think you're better than the Ancients," Lorne continued, "why don't you go stop the Wraith instead of wasting your time here?"
Elizabeth's hand came up before he finished the sentence, but he didn't stop talking. She wondered just how long she could get away with waiting before the Xe-ne stewed a little too long. Eventually giving in she opened her mouth to apologise, but he spoke first.
"You have one hour to leave this city or you will be destroyed along with it."
With that he was gone. Elizabeth relaxed and took a deep breath before turning to Lorne.
"Next time, leave the negotiations to the professionals, Major."
"Sorry," he said, "but you know I'm right."
"That's not the point."
****
A slew of Czech strung out of the frazzled man as Radek clamoured to his feet from under the console and sat warily on the chair. Propping his elbows on the metal station, he ran his fingers through his hair before resting his head in his hands.
"Doctor?"
Radek looked up at one of the female scientists assigned to help him fix the machine. She was looking at him like a confused child. He offered her a tired smile that was meant to be reassuring, but probably wasn't. If he had been Rodney, he would have rolled his eyes and gave her a snarky response. As it was, the thought brought unsettling feelings up. He pushed his glasses back to the top of the bridge of his nose.
"Has Colonel Sheppard's team gotten back yet?"
The woman shook her head reluctantly. "I'm afraid not," she opened her mouth and seemed to hesitate before continuing. "Is something wrong, Doctor Zelenka?"
He let out a long exhale and sat back in the chair. "We've fixed it," he gestured to the console and when he saw the confused expression on the scientist's face, he added. "If this is really the weapon, there should be..." his hands waved in a vague expression, "more."
"More?"
The man nodded. "Yes. From all the information we have, the weapon should have at least four places for the crystals to go. As it is there isn't even a place for one."
He shook his head in frustration. The radio headset crackled.
"Doctor Zelenka?" It was Chuck.
"Yes?"
"We're picking up a life sign two levels down from you. Did you send one of your team members down there?"
Radek's brow furrowed a little in confusion. "No."
There was a pause at the other end before Chuck spoke again. "We're sending a security detail to that location. Try to stay put."
Radek nodded into the headset and he intended to stay put, but as he sat there in silence looking at the console uselessly, his curiosity got the best of him. Pushing off the chair, he told the others to continue working while he ventured out into the hall.
The stairs to the next several levels were close by enough that he was on the lower level in minutes. The security detail would probably be another ten minutes or so, but Radek pushed forward anyways. A lot of the rooms where empty, shells of former science labs long ago out of use. He was at the end of the corridor with one room left to check and he still hadn't found a single sign of life.
Passing his hand over the sensors, the doors slid open and Radek cautiously poked his head inside.
"Hello?"
His eyes scanned the room slowly from his position in the threshold. A hand reached out and grabbed at Radek's shoulder.
"Doc."
Radek jumped and turned around to see Major Lorne and his security detail. His heart raced and it took him a moment for him to calm down.
"Major Lorne."
Lorne grinned a little. "Sorry Doc didn't mean to startle you," he nodded his head into the room. "I see you found our life sign."
Zelenka peered back into the room in confusion. "I have?" There seemed to be no one there.
Major Lorne look into the room at the tiny brunette child twirling around the room humming a slightly familiar tune and then back to Zelenka. He forgot the Czech couldn't see her. Handing his gun to Miller, Lorne stepped into the room and casually crossed his arms over his chest.
"Hey there, Mara," he said, smiling at the girl. She stopped twirling and smiled up at Lorne who got down on one knee so he was eye level with her.
"This isn't exactly the safest place for you to be playing."
Mara's attention was on a strand of her curls which she was tugging at with her fingers. "I came back to help."
"Help?"
"Major?" Radek looked at him oddly and then eyed the empty space in front of him.
Major Lorne sighed silently.
"Look, Mara. Is there any way you can let Doctor Zelenka here see you? He's been working really hard and I think he'd like to meet you."
Mara tilted her head upwards for a moment and was silent for a little while before she nodded. "Okay, Mommy."
"Oh, my!"
Lorne looked over to Radek and could tell from the gasp and the look on his face that he could now see the child. "Pretty little thing, ain't she, Doc?" He smiled as a soft giggled escaped the girl.
Radek, who had never really been good around children, felt a little flustered as he took a step forward and knelt like Major Lorne.
"Hello."
Mara beamed. "Hi."
The scientist pushed his glasses back up his nose and offered a sheepish smile. He stumbled over his words for a moment until he got the nerve to ask the question. "We're missing a piece of the device. You wouldn't happen to know where it is, would you?"
She nodded and looked to the ground. "Underneath us."
"Underneath us?" Radek seemed to study the ground, perplexed.
Major Lorne continued to look at the girl. "You mean like on the next level?"
She nodded. "But it's awfully cold."
****
Elizabeth stepped through the doors to find Radek bent over, seemingly talking to Mara. It resulted in a slight eyebrow raise as Major Lorne walked over with a smile.
"Seems everyone can see her now."
"Really?" Elizabeth's gaze moved back to Mara for a brief moment before she stepped forward towards Zelenka. "What's the problem?"
Radek looked up from Mara and climbed to his feet. "I finished the repairs on the first console, but something was bothering me about it. It seemed," he searched for the right word, "incomplete. Like it needed something more."
A worried expression crossed over Doctor Weir's face. "We don't have time to go searching for more parts of the weapon."
"No need, ma'am," Major Lorne smiled. "Mara here's told us where the rest of it is."
"Oh?"
Lorne tapped the ground with his boot. "Right underneath us."
"And completely submerged in water," Radek added as he fidgeted with his glasses.
Elizabeth frowned. "Can we get to it?"
Radek took off his glasses and began wiping them with his shirt. "Possibly." With his glasses back on, he picked up a portable computer tablet and brought up the city schematics. "I can reroute the city's ventilation systems to drain the water out of the room." He paused for a moment, "The only problem is it would result in temporary flooding other parts of the city. Mainly the geodesy and botany labs."
She took it in slowly. "We don't have time to move all the research from those labs."
Zelenka nodded. "I know, but there should be time to move as much of the extremely important stuff. I'll need to re-write some of the city's safety protocols before I can initiate the program."
Elizabeth was quiet for a long minute. They had little choice in the matter. They needed to get to the weapon or else they faced something worse than a couple of lost experiments.
She nodded. "Alright," she said, her eyes moving to Radek poignantly. "Just hurry."
****
"Doctor Weir to the control room"
Chuck only had time to blink before Doctor Elizabeth Weir came up the stairs and was looking expectantly at him. She looked tired and frazzled. She opened her mouth to ask what the situation was when the final chevron glowed and the gate activated. Her lips pressed together pensively.
"Who is it?"
Chuck looked at the monitor and shook his head. "No identification code yet, ma'am."
Elizabeth walked to the side of the balcony and peered at the gate. The shield was up, protecting them if it was the enemy on the other end. But glancing at her watch, she found herself hoping it was John and his team. They were nearing the cut of time and if they didn't get back in time not only would the enemy be here, but John and his team would be stuck on that planet for a long time.
"Receiving Colonel Sheppard's IDC code."
"Lower the shield," Elizabeth was off and starting down the steps when the shield was lowered, but she jumped back as gallons of water rushed through the gate. The moment she spotted four bodies, she shouted for the shield to be raised once again and the gate was quickly shut off.
John, Rodney, Teyla, and Ronon heaved and coughed as the waters filtered quickly through the various vents of the city. They were soaked to the bone and struggled to catch their bearings.
"Medical team to the gate room!"
Elizabeth stepped quickly down the steps and over to them in the middle of the gate room. Her brow furrowed and lips set as she tried to keep the panic from her face. The medical team rushed towards them from the side of the room. John shrugged them off and pointed them to Rodney who was clearly more exhausted than the rest of them.
John was up and on his feet, eyes searching for Elizabeth. When his eyes fell on her frame his heart leaped for a minute before he took long, poignant strides and put his hands on her shoulder.
"Elizabeth."
"John?" His expression sent a small spark of panic through her. He took a deep breath and offered her a small smile as his hands left her.
"Nothing. It's alright," he mentally gave a sigh of relief as he dug into his pocket and retrieved the crystal.
"Did you have a nice swim?" she asked, seeing him relax a little. His eyes flicked up to her face and her smile quickly faded from the look he gave her.
"Can we..." he trailed off and took a deep breath, "talk somewhere private for a minute?"
"Sure," she said and took a look around at the others. "How about one of the small meeting rooms on the way to the infirmary?"
John nodded and they turned to follow the others out and down the corridor. She handed the crystal to an airman and instructed him to take it to Radek quickly before leading John into the first meeting room they came to. Elizabeth caught Carson's glance before he passed the door and she closed it.
"What's..."
She didn't get the chance to finish the sentence; John had crossed the distance between them, pressed her against the door and kissed her. She could feel the wet of his clothing seep in through her own and shivered slightly at the cold. When he pulled back she didn't know what to ask first.
"You alright?" she asked, settling on that question. John's fingers trailed down her cheek before he answered with a deep swallow.
"They had these trials, to prove you were worthy to own the crystal. In mine, you were changing, into one of those Iratus bugs and begging me to kill you," he almost choked on the end of the sentence. Composing himself he continued. "I did it," he said. "I killed you but then you weren't the bug, you were you and I had killed you," he sped up until Elizabeth raised a hand to cover his lips and stop the outpour.
"I wasn't there," she said soothingly. "I won't become one of them and I won't ever ask you to do that."
He smiled weakly at her before kissing her fingers still over his lips. His eyes travelled down her front before he looked back at her with a smirk.
"You're all wet."
"You can talk," she teased before opening the door and pushing him out.
****
Radek stepped out of the transporter with Lorne and his team. His eyes took in the ominous surroundings of the dank and grimy lower level. Below them there was only one other floor before Atlantis dropped off into the sea. Along with the other scientists, he had thought that this section of the city was the star drive, but instead the rooms he passed looked like labs with console's and beds similar to the infirmary.
The water from this level had only been vented a few moments ago and Radek had quickly added Doctor Brown to his list of people to avoid. Katie's botany lab had been one of the fatalities required to clearing this floor and he was thankful that for the time being, she had been separated from the rest of her team.
"This way," Mara said, interrupting his dip into things he regretted. She was pointing down a corridor and Radek checked the schematics before nodding to the Major.
"Spooky down here," Miller said, following his team leader down a musky, fish smelling hallway.
"Kinda reminds me of your room," Cole retorted from the rear and Mara giggled.
"Play nice now, boys," Lorne put in, glancing down at the little girl holding tight to his vets. "Wouldn't want to start fighting with only half an hour on the clock."
"Not to mention you set a bad example for children," Cole said. "Then again, you do that anyway."
"You're a funny man, Cole," Miller said, rounding the bend close to Lorne.
Radek stopped short as he stepped around the corner and had to stifle a laugh as Miller, still intent on insulting Cole walked right into Lorne. Ahead of them, by only a foot was a wall. Radek looked on either side of it for a door or panel and found nothing.
"Did we go wrong somewhere?" Radek asked, looking back over his shoulder.
"No," Mara said, stepping forward and pulling Lorne with her. She was almost against the wall when it slid to the side.
Radek stepped up to where the wall had been and peered into the room. It was large, the biggest he'd seen in the city and even more massive than the Jumper Bay. Around the edge of the room there were chairs lining the walls, but the water had left them floating slight away from their position and on one side they were pushed up against the glass panel that drew a circle in the middle.
He crossed the room to the glass and placed a hand on it. Like the conference room doors, they twisted in unison to let him into the middle. A stream of water flushed out over his feet and he spared a moment to listen to the squelch of his shoes before he moved into the middle of the room. It was a slight step up onto the floor, another layer of the metal that made up the rest of the city and Radek looked up to see a glass ceiling shining a few inches below the real one. A small gap in the ceiling caught his attention and he checked their location in the city schematics. Right now, where they stood was just under one of the piers, and it looked as though this room had been converted from a Jumper Bay into its current use.
Inside the device, Radek took in the five consoles. There was one in the centre that looked exactly like the one he'd been tinkering with all day, and four smaller ones placed at points around the edge. He stepped over to a slightly green tinted one and examined it. The shape was like nothing he'd seen in the city before, it curved instead of being the straight lines and corners that made up most of the city and as he stole a glance at one of the others he noticed its colour was unique. A slot in the top was the right size and shape for one of the control crystals that had been recovered from another planet. His brow quirked.
"Major," he called and waited for Lorne to approach. "The crystal you brought back from the windy planet, what colour was it?"
"Yellow," Lorne said, "why?"
Radek turned from the current pedestal and looked across the room to the blue stand then to his right at a red one before turning to his left and approaching the yellow.
"It goes in here," he said and looked at Lorne who raised a questioning brow. "The one you brought back from the plant world was green, yes?"
"Yeah."
"It goes there," he said, pointing back to the stand he'd just left. "And the two Colonel Sheppard retrieved belong in those two," he added pointing at the others.
"What goes here?"
"People," Mara said. "John and Elizabeth," she corrected and turned to Radek and Evan. "They have to be the strongest of the two genes to make it work."
"I'm not sure Doctor Weir will agree to that," Miller said. "She's spent most of her life fighting the use of weaponry. It'll probably be scary as hell to actually be the one using it."
"It doesn't kill though, right?" Lorne asked Mara and she shook her head. "Just have to play that up when she starts questioning the reasons and see if we can't change her mind on this one."
The room shook as Lorne finished speaking and Radek checked his watch. Twenty minutes to the end of their departure time. He looked around as everyone else did and wondered if some experiment had been tested or if they'd set something off in here that could cause the quake. As if on cue the room shook again. Mara screamed and wrapped her arms around Miller, who happened to be closest, and the comm. crackled to life.
"All military personnel to their stations. All military personnel to their stations."
"Doc, you better get to work," Cole shouted before he followed Lorne out of the room. Radek turned in time to see Miller pry Mara off him before she turned and ran the distance to him. She wrapped him in a hug just as the room shook again and they were knocked to their feet.
The attack had begun.
She's fallen in love with him and for the life of her right now, standing in front of the sensors screen looking at the vast amount of space, she can't deny it. She's fallen in love with a man who's waited six long and arduous months for her. She can't even begin to contemplate how sexually frustrated he must be right now. He was so patient and understanding and she couldn't ignore how much she loved him for it. Can't ignore that he's spent every night of the last god knows how long in her bed fully clothed.
Yet at the same time she's afraid of their relationship. She wants so much, wants to be known as Doctor Elizabeth Sheppard; though she doubts she'll actually take his name. Wants to have children with him, grow old with him and so much more. The only problem is she has absolutely no idea if he wants any of that. Mara has brought most of this into perspective for her. She's grown attached to the girl and now somehow she finds herself feeling like a mother and all those times women say their uterus skipped a beat finally makes sense to her.
And now it could be too late.
Fear has been plaguing her for the last nine hours. She never expected John and Lorne to return within the day; she'd be a fool to believe it was that easy to get out there, find the crystal and get back. This morning though, she stepped into the control room and Chuck had tentatively approached to tell her neither team had returned. They'd tried contact of course, but the radios just returned static.
The gate behind her began to dial and she checked her watch. On the hour, every hour Chuck dialled and attempted to contact the teams. Nine times so far they had received nothing and she'd stood standing at the sensors the whole time. That was another fear in itself and this time it was paired with frustration as the empty looking space continued to deny her knowledge of the approaching doom.
This made her feel helpless as well. How did you prepare to fight an enemy you didn't know anything about and couldn't see?
She was responsible for every person in this city. There were 137 expedition members under her command and a further 48 Athosians who had chosen Atlantis's mainland over their new settlement. Of course Elizabeth couldn't blame them, a choice between fend for and defend yourself or fend for yourself and aid your allies wasn't much of a choice at all, especially against the Wraith. Right now, the only thing Elizabeth was grateful for was the fact that the Wraith thought Atlantis was destroyed.
Regret, love, need, fear, frustration, helplessness and responsibility; it was amazing that Elizabeth had managed to keep her sanity for as long as she had. She could hear Chuck behind her, updating her on the lack of contact with their off world teams, but she couldn't respond. She leaned forward on the console that stood in front of her and closed her eyes as the need to scream, kick and cry washed over her. It was all too much. Why couldn't something go right just for once? Why couldn't they just get that extra bit of help from all their knowledge and advanced gene therapy to tell them how far away these people were?
"Doctor Weir?" Chuck said and she felt his hand on her shoulder. Her heart pounded in her chest, her head ready to explode with the overwhelming emotion and she was bleakly aware of the beeping from a nearby computer as something flickered on the sensor screen before everything turned black in her vision. She was still there, standing and thinking for several minutes. She could hear the voices of the people around her. The sounds of the machines and tapping of fingers on keyboards before her head swam and her knees buckled. She felt the strong arms around her for a bare minute before there was nothing.
****
Radek sighed. He'd been staring at the computer screen for hours without a break and he could feel the dull ache behind his eyes increasing with time. Since Carson's request for information on the gene he had been doing research, but now he had two things to look for. The gene had been put aside slightly. Carson had the files they'd found on his own computer while Radek spent most of him looking for the weapon.
He knew the doctor was making some progress. He'd passed Elizabeth several times throughout the day as she headed to or from the infirmary and on one break he'd walked with her and stood for a moment as Carson did another test. He knew from that one time that she'd become quickly annoyed with this whole situation. She didn't want to have this unknown gene and she didn't really want to know what it did or how to use it. She'd told him, however, that Carson had been insistent the first time she'd tried to avoid the trip, putting on a hefty guilt trip about the progress of medical science and how they knew of no one else who possessed the gene.
Radek had suggested she order Carson to test the city for it and then as they stepped into the infirmary had wondered aloud if someone could posses both the Ancient and the Navo Gene. Carson had loved that idea and had taken Radek's blood before turning to several of his nurses, selecting those with the gene and drawing blood from them too. Elizabeth had given him a smile of thanks as he escaped the room.
"Lucror," he muttered again to himself as he spotted the word in yet another file. Problem was he was seeing it out of the context he required. The file he was currently scanning used it for winning a bet made between two factions of the city. It made him wondered just how alike the Ancients were to them, separating the city into regions and sectors almost like gangs.
A previous file had been a personal file that had used it in a `win the girl' context that Radek had found sickening. The person who had written it had seemed to think the girl was a prize or piece of land to be owned. He hadn't made it all the way through that file, getting sick of the man's attitude before he'd closed it down and marked it worthless so no one else would bother looking. The current file was explaining the profit one woman had earned against her competitor when she'd secured a deal with another company of the same type.
Radek signed again and closed the file, marking it the same as the last two and clicked lazily on the next. For a moment, and not for the first time, Radek hated Rodney McKay. It had after all been him who'd dumped this job on Radek. If Rodney had done his own work, Radek could still be working on the newest piece of equipment.
He flicked through file after file; not really concentrating on what he was opening and making them to be ignored as he went. He was considering dinner when he opened another file and froze. The diagrams flicked through like a gallery in front of him. The design, like most other ancient tech, was detailed and marked with each component. However it wasn't the fact that he'd come across a diagram that shocked him. It was what he was looking at. At the top of the schematic, the words translated to 'Transport Weapon' and in brackets it said 'Lucror'.
Radek yanked the laptop off its base and darted out the door. He needed to check this out. He knew this piece of equipment, knew where it was and what it looked liked. He'd been working on it at 4am the previous morning with Rodney, just before Mara showed up.
He rounded the corner and ran straight into one of the technicians and apologised hastily and moved into the room he was heading for. It was still there, standing in the middle of the room with his tools scattered around it as if it were ceremonial by nature. He moved around to stand in front of it and looked down over the control panel.
"So," he said, eyeing the buttons. "What do you do?"
****
Carson felt a little trapped. When he'd received the call to the control room he'd thought the worst, that the aliens had arrived and attacked someone. He felt relieved only to find Elizabeth had passed out and thankful that Chuck had been quick enough to catch her. But that was the wrong way to feel - especially for a doctor.
He'd determined that she wasn't in any danger while listening to the conversation going on around him. The sensors had come alive, displaying an unknown vessel on the scanner and every living thing in range. Though they weren't just shown, they were marked clearly. Even a Wraith ship was marked `Wraith Hive'. He made sure Elizabeth was secure on gurney and gave the medics a few quick orders before turning to Chuck.
"What happened?"
"I don't know. She's been standing there looking at the sensors most of the morning. I dialled to try and contact Lorne and Sheppard's teams and gave her the update and she sort of just passed out as the sensors went crazy."
"She didn't say anything?"
"Hasn't said anything for hours," Chuck offered. Carson nodded and turned to walk away. "Doc, I don't think she's had anything to eat or drink all morning," Chuck said, Carson thanked him and quickly made his way back to the infirmary.
He was barely through the door before he ordered a nurse to take a blood sample from Elizabeth. He paused near another nurse and quietly asked her to bring lunch and a bottle of water back for Elizabeth before he moved on to get a report from the medic.
He took a seat next to her bed, watching as blood was taken and another nurse set up the standard monitors and asked if she should start a drip. He understood that Elizabeth was under a lot of pressure when something like this happened and every time they came up against a new foe he found himself caught between taking her food and talking her into walking away for a few minutes to eat.
This time though, he suspected there was a completely different reason for her current state of unconsciousness. Late teams, enemy on the way and a city of people who were wound tight on nerves; her emotions must have sky rocketed. Chuck's comments about the sensors were sparking his curiosity to new heights. If Rodney were in the city, he would contacted him to ask if it was possible there was more than one level to Ancient technology, a sub level of more complex circuitry that only reacted to their recently discovered gene.
The nurse returned and place a sandwich, an apple and a bottle of water on the bed side table. He nodded to her and quickly checked over Elizabeth's vitals. There was no reason for her to still be unconscious and he was only going to give her a few more minutes before he used other methods of waking her.
Before he'd been called, Carson had been studying a sample of blood he'd taken from her the day before. He had just compared it to the first sample he took, noting that it had intensified since the time he'd taken it and that it had also taken on a few new properties. He did want to go back to that now, but he also couldn't turn away from his patient, at least not until she was conscious and eating.
"Carson," Elizabeth's voice made him jump and he turned his face to look down at her. "What happened?"
"You fainted, love," he said and turned as another doctor approached with a computer. "Though I have my suspicions as to why."
He accepted the computer from his colleague and scanned the blood results. As he suspected, the Navo Gene was running wild in her sample and again the unusual property he had seen earlier was present. It was familiar; he had seen it before but he just couldn't remember where.
"What would that be?" she asked, picking up the bottle of water.
"Well," he said, getting up and pulling the divider curtains in place. "What were you thinking about while staring at the sensors?" He didn't know why he expected her to answer, but he picked up the sandwich and apple all the same and placed them on her lap as she sat up.
"Everything," was all she could manage.
"Aye, I imagine your mother came to mind. All the people in the city. Your currently absent teams," he said picking up the computer again and opened a blood comparison chart. "The fact is, Elizabeth, your Navo Gene strength has been growing over the last few days. The closer to danger we've become the more powerful it sparks on your blood tests. What I don't understand is why I didn't discover it when the Wraith attacked."
Elizabeth's head dropped her chest. He could see the cogs working and he wondered if there was anything different now than there was back then. In their first year, before the Wraith had attacked, Carson had learned that Elizabeth had left someone behind when she agreed to the expedition. He also knew that that relationship had ended shortly after their initial return, and he'd only found out then because she'd been in every night for a sleeping pill.
"What's changed in the last year, Elizabeth?"
She peeled her sandwich open and peeked at the cheese and tomato content for a moment. He wondered if she'd actually take a bite from it or if she'd just pick it apart like he'd seen her do so many times before. Elizabeth raised it to her mouth, hesitated, then took a bite from the corner of the triangle cut. Carson sat back and waited, considering changing his question or getting up to move onto something else.
"After the nanite incident," she took a breath. "John came to make sure I was alright. I think I scared him, sitting on my bed staring at the wall without answering. I was tired," she looked up at him, "but I was afraid to sleep in case I woke up back there; back on Earth in that same mental hospital."
"I knew he was the one to call Doctor Heightmeyer. I read that report."
"It didn't help much," she said with a shy smile, "at least not the first day. I still wouldn't sleep. I was afraid to even blink at that point. John refused to leave, threatened to sit in my chair all night if that's what it took for me to get some rest."
Carson gave a small laugh. He would have done the same if he'd seen her in that state, though back then the only people with access to her room were John Sheppard and Kate Heightmeyer. Carson had kept his distance knowing that if medical intervention was needed then he'd be the first point of contact.
"He did," she offered. "He sat there all night. Neither of us slept. And then he was back the next night, and the night after that," she sighed. "Until I asked him why."
"He cares a great deal about you," Carson said. Elizabeth nodded and picked a small chunk of her sandwich off to pop into her mouth.
"He still comes," she said quietly, almost at a whisper. "Only now it's not for the comfort or to make sure I sleep. I can't honestly say that watching him step through the gate doesn't feel different now. I used to just hope he'd come back alive and with all his team..." she trailed off.
"And now?"
She looked up, her eyes meeting his and he was taken aback by the amount of emotion he could see in them. For the first time since he'd met her she was showing her feelings for what they really were. And he could see quite clearly that she'd fallen in love with John.
"I pray every time."
Carson let out a sigh and looked back down at the screen. He'd give her a few minutes to compose herself. Mostly because he needed them to catch his breath over what he'd just found out, but also because he respected her enough not to push or remind her that a part of her job was sending Colonel Sheppard out without knowing what he'd face.
"The gene is being intensified by these emotions," he said after a few minutes. "They've taken on a property I've only seen in one other place. It took me by surprise and I just had to go back to Ronon's DNA to check, but in the same location in both your DNAs is a strand that I suspected saved him and his people from being fed on by the Wraith."
"I have the same DNA marker that stops the Wraith feeding on Ronon?"
"Aye," he said with a nod, still not meeting her eye. "It's only in the strongest of emotions but I suspect face to face with any Wraith will bring that out," she chuckled and he looked up with a smile. "You should also know that before you collapsed you activated a few new sensors. Seems things are popping up on the monitor we never saw before."
"Finally some advantages," she said with a weak smile. Carson smiled back before patting her leg.
"Finish your lunch," he said more as an order than a suggestion. "Then you can go and find out about your new sensors," he stood up and moved away.
"Carson," she stopped him and waited for him to turn back to her. "Thank you."
****
"'Lure forth' must be connected to `assist'. The thigh bone's connected to the hip bone," Radek muttered, reading the instructions he had found for the weapon. The last part wasn't there, but it was just a list of parts that were collected together. Not that any of it made any sense.
He sighed, staring at the instructions with a creased brow. What were `Lure forth' and `assist'? They were very confusing words in the sentence. But then again, he was translating from Ancient to English; maybe he should leave the words as they were.
"'Prolixi' must be connected to `Subvenio'. And the neck bone's connected to the back bone," he added, thinking this was more like a body diagram for a weapon than anything else he'd ever seen. This connected to that, which connected to something and then something else. Though from what he understood, they all connected to a centre two panels - those two, `Prolixi' and `Subvenio'. Now he just had to work out what they were. He knew that the one he was leaning on was one of the named parts of the weapon, but he didn't know which and more daunting was that he didn't know where the rest of them where.
He wondered if Carson was having this much trouble with his files or if Elizabeth had accidentally used her gene to activate some console they had long since abandoned. He quirked a brow at the thought. If she could switch on panels and controls that no one with the ATA Gene could, that could explain a lot about the technology. It made sense that finding a new gene would be important to city's control. They could lock any number of things with a gene very few of the population possessed.
Like a weapon.
"D... Doctor Weir," he said, fumbling to activate his radio and waited impatiently for a reply. For several moments, in which Radek rescued his laptop from hitting the floor, there was no answer. He dropped his computer on the desk behind him and rushed out the door. He ran to the transporter and from there to the control room. Out of breath, he pointed into Elizabeth's empty office in a question to the nearest technician for her whereabouts.
"I think she was summoned back to the infirmary," Chuck said and Radek knew he used the word `summoned' correctly. Sighing, he took off back down the stairs and followed the well walked route to the medical bay. He was vastly out of breath when he stepped into the room and he spotted Elizabeth's red shirt quickly as she stepped out of the scanner room.
"Radek?" she asked, approaching him with her radio in hand and concern on her face.
"I," he said, pausing to take a deep breath. "You need," he took another breath and smiled at Carson as he joined them. "Tell me you have progress," he said quickly.
"Some," Carson offered. "Still not sure how the Ancients made use of the gene or even if they did."
"I think they did," Radek said. "I think that's why Mara told you about it. The console we've been working on is part of the weapon," he explained, watching Elizabeth straighten her back at that piece of information. "'Prolixi' and `Subvenio"' he repeated. "I think it takes two people to run, one with the ATA and one with the Navo Gene."
"Which would be which?" Carson asked.
"I think Prolixi would be for the new gene, `lure forth'. And the ATA would be Supvenio, `assist'."
"Makes it sound like the ATA took a step back when they discovered the Navo," Elizabeth said and Radek could feel the contempt in the statement. He was starting to get a new idea about the people they were trying to learn about and it wasn't looking all that much different from them. He moved on quickly.
"I think the console hasn't been working because it's locked to the Navo Gene," he explained. "The only way to find out..."
"Is for Elizabeth to try and activate it."
"I don't have time for this," she said. "I left Mara in the control room and no one's seen her for a few hours, not to mention I have reports to write and..."
"Elizabeth, none of that is gonna help if we can't protect ourselves," Carson said and Radek watched the moment of weakness that forced Elizabeth to drop her head and stare at the floor.
"Alright," she said, "I’ll be along shortly."
****
Lorne stepped back into Atlantis a little ahead of his team. He'd left Cole to take up the rear before leaving their windy planet and dead jumper behind him. He knew he'd have to explain the jumper and couldn't help but think their lives and the crystal were the more important aspects of the mission, at least right now.
"Doctor Weir," he said with a short nod as she approached him.
"Major, everything alright?"
"Sure," he said with a smile. "We love climbing millions of stairs on the outside of a building in a force nine gale. But we're back and in record time I might add."
Weirs brow raised and he knew she didn't agree. He had hoped to beat Sheppard's team back but apparently he wasn't that lucky.
"How long is record time?" she asked and his brow creased.
"Eleven hours and seventeen minutes," Katie put in, checking her watch. "It was a long walk without the jumper and then finding the right windmill and all those stairs."
Lorne shifted uncomfortably. "How long have we been gone, ma'am?"
"Just over thirty three hours."
"What?" Cole spat. "That's impossible."
"We weren't there more than a day," Miller added.
"We don't know how long we were there," Lorne pointed out. "When we stepped into that cave and out the other side the sun was in a different place," he gave Doctor Weir an apologetic look. "Any ideas how long until our new friends arrive?"
"Two hours," she said. "I need you all through your post mission medical ASAP. Major, you, Cole and Miller need to report to Lieutenant Simard to take over the preparations for the attack. Doctor Brown, civilian personnel are being moved to sub levels. I recommend you take only what you can carry. Last minute evacuations are a possibility."
"Ma'am," Lorne said, stopping her from turning away. "Colonel Sheppard's team?"
"They're not back yet. Contact with both your team and theirs has been impossible."
She turned and walked back to the stairs and Evan turned back to his team to dismiss them before he was stopped.
"Major, what happened to the jumper?"
"We, erm, had a bit of a rough landing and it, erm," he scratched at his chin idly for a moment. "We lost it over a cliff. It's sitting on a ledge about thirty feet below gate level."
"Any chance it can be recovered?"
"Well," he said licking his lips. "We have twenty years to think of a way around the wind shear and cliff side drop."
She hummed at him in contemplation before starting up the stairs. He turned to follow his team out of the gate room and ran his hand idly through his hair for the first time since they left. It was a complete mess, sticking up in all directions. Somehow he wished he had it shaved like Cole to avoid looking like Sheppard.
****
"This isn't working," Elizabeth complained an hour later.
"Maybe we're missing something?" Carson suggested looking down at the schematics Radek had open on his computer. He wasn't likely to understand them, but maybe there was something they'd overlooked.
"Like the rest of the weapon?" Elizabeth said with a touch of sarcasm. For a whole hour they'd stood there trying to work out why it didn't work. They'd tried various ways of evoking emotion in Elizabeth one of which nearly had her walking out the door. Carson was pretty sure he'd never again ask her if her mother was worried about her; not knowing where her daughter was for most of the year and only seeing her once.
Carson looked up at her with a curious expression, his brows raised. His brain was running through the possibility that she was right, or that the machine was powered by the most intense emotion they could muster.
"You've grown quite attached to Mara," Carson said daringly and watched as her stance changed to something slightly protective. She knew this game of his by now. "Does it worry you that no one's seen her for a few hours?"
"She's a five year old girl with no parents, Carson. Of course it worries me."
Nothing happened with the console and Carson almost let out a sigh of frustration before something occurred to him. When he'd been testing his theory on an emotion driven gene, he'd mentioned John again and the readings had spiked to the highest he'd seen. If Colonel Sheppard was in the city, he'd call him down here, but he was still off world so he'd have to settle for a mention.
"Someone mentioned it looked like you'd become a second mother to her," he said and Elizabeth's brow rose. "And Colonel Sheppard had become her second father."
Her other brow rose and her cheeks coloured. She quickly averted her eyes and he could see the idea working its way over her face just as the console flickered to life under her hands. Carson exchanged a look with Radek before the scientist started to work at his computer.
****
"How long have they been there?" Lorne asked, stopping in front of the sensor screen.
Elizabeth checked her watch before turning her attention back to the white blip on the screen labelled `Xe-ne'. When Carson said she had activated a few new sensors she figured one or two new things had shown up. Instead she had come back to the control room and felt as though she was looking at the whole galaxy and every life in it. It had been Chuck who pointed out the one important thing amongst the craze of new beings.
"About half an hour," she answered the major and checked her watch again.
"Maybe they're deciding the best way to kill us," Miller offered. Elizabeth quirked her brow and turned her head to look at him. "Sorry," he muttered.
"Maybe they're just scanning us, seeing how many people are in the city and what weapons we have active."
"How many of us are Human, Ancient and Navo," Elizabeth added, saying the last word as though it was a dirty one.
"Or perhaps their wondering if negotiations would work," Chuck offered.
"Wonderful," Elizabeth spat a little too sarcastically. "Just what we need is another race telling us we don't belong here and we should leave before they kill us all," she said before turning and heading back to her office. "Let me know if something changes."
She stepped into her office, rounded her desk and dropped into her chair. Today was turning into one of the worst days of her life, though she had yet to decide if it was better or worse than the Wraith siege. She opened her email and browsed through the subjects looking for something interesting to occupy her mind. Not finding anything to distract her, she opened an old message from John. It wasn't work related and even with him still off world she knew it would make her smile.
She managed only a few lines before her attention was drawn. She looked up as Lorne's gun was raised, she heard the click of the safety being switched off and her eyes settled on a thin, pale blue form standing in her office. Elizabeth rose to her feet and caught a glimpse of several others along the bridge and in the control room before she turned her attention back to the person standing almost directly in front of her.
Its skin was so pale it could have been white and there were no scars to show there had been any conflict somewhere along the line. The only broken skin was on the forehead where four small pointed horns protruded and curved upwards to the hairline. Beyond that they were perfectly smooth as if they were made of ice.
Eyes of pure white stared at Elizabeth, giving her an uneasy feeling of being looked through or at least as far through her skull as if to read her thoughts. It was as though they were cleansing her soul while looking as thought they weren't seeing a thing. His face held dark blue lips, formed in a straight line and entirely un-amused.
Atop their heads, their hair was cut short, just shy of shoulder length. The roots black and the tips blue-white like water and equally as transparent. Ram's horns curled from the head following the same tint of the hair as it shaded from black to white. She couldn't help take in the masculine build of the man, and for the first time Elizabeth wondered if it was male or female. Scales littered the skin she could see, curling around the beings side as though they were tentacles from their origin. They were shaped like jewels and glittered with each breath it took.
Elizabeth swallowed, wondering if she should address it first and at a lost for how. A mix of male and female features confused the being's gender. She licked her lips, stealing a glance over its' shoulder at Lorne, who was still standing at arms' length with an alien in a similar stance.
"You should not be here," he said. She decided it was male from the tone of its voice.
"I disagree. You shouldn't be here. This city belonged to the Ancients and most of my people carry their genes. You can't say the same, can you?"
"Are you as arrogant as they?"
"I like to think we're learning from their mistakes," she offered in hopes that showing a weakness would go in their favour. "We've read their logs and visited old friends... in hopes that we can rebuild what they once had."
"They were misguided, deluded and it led to the destruction of so much and the deaths of so many. What makes you think you will not make the same mistakes?"
"I can't assume we won't make mistakes. I can only hope ours won't be as deadly and that we can correct them," she told him. His eyes narrowed on her briefly and she suppressed a shudder as he studied her from head to toe. "We're not the people you once knew. We are their decadence and we are only just learning what they built for themselves."
"That makes you more irresponsible and reckless."
"We're careful with our experiments."
"Are you careful with other cultures when you visit new planets?" he asked, taking a step forward. "Are you careful in your dealings with the Wraith?"
"My people have used the gate for over a decade to visit other worlds and we try to help other cultures as often as we can without interfering with the natural course of their development," she said, catching sight of Lorne moving into her office. "And in regards to the Wraith, we have fought off several hive ships and prevented the destruction of this city. We try to help the people of this galaxy who are victims of the Wraith."
Lorne stiffened as he moved around to the side of her desk with his gun now pointed at the intruder in Elizabeth's office.
"You do not belong here," the alien repeated.
"And you do?" Lorne asked quickly.
Their visitor's eyes narrowed again and Elizabeth looked past him quickly to see several other armed soldiers moving around the control room. Several of them moved to the bridge and took up their places to protect her.
"If you think you're better than the Ancients," Lorne continued, "why don't you go stop the Wraith instead of wasting your time here?"
Elizabeth's hand came up before he finished the sentence, but he didn't stop talking. She wondered just how long she could get away with waiting before the Xe-ne stewed a little too long. Eventually giving in she opened her mouth to apologise, but he spoke first.
"You have one hour to leave this city or you will be destroyed along with it."
With that he was gone. Elizabeth relaxed and took a deep breath before turning to Lorne.
"Next time, leave the negotiations to the professionals, Major."
"Sorry," he said, "but you know I'm right."
"That's not the point."
****
A slew of Czech strung out of the frazzled man as Radek clamoured to his feet from under the console and sat warily on the chair. Propping his elbows on the metal station, he ran his fingers through his hair before resting his head in his hands.
"Doctor?"
Radek looked up at one of the female scientists assigned to help him fix the machine. She was looking at him like a confused child. He offered her a tired smile that was meant to be reassuring, but probably wasn't. If he had been Rodney, he would have rolled his eyes and gave her a snarky response. As it was, the thought brought unsettling feelings up. He pushed his glasses back to the top of the bridge of his nose.
"Has Colonel Sheppard's team gotten back yet?"
The woman shook her head reluctantly. "I'm afraid not," she opened her mouth and seemed to hesitate before continuing. "Is something wrong, Doctor Zelenka?"
He let out a long exhale and sat back in the chair. "We've fixed it," he gestured to the console and when he saw the confused expression on the scientist's face, he added. "If this is really the weapon, there should be..." his hands waved in a vague expression, "more."
"More?"
The man nodded. "Yes. From all the information we have, the weapon should have at least four places for the crystals to go. As it is there isn't even a place for one."
He shook his head in frustration. The radio headset crackled.
"Doctor Zelenka?" It was Chuck.
"Yes?"
"We're picking up a life sign two levels down from you. Did you send one of your team members down there?"
Radek's brow furrowed a little in confusion. "No."
There was a pause at the other end before Chuck spoke again. "We're sending a security detail to that location. Try to stay put."
Radek nodded into the headset and he intended to stay put, but as he sat there in silence looking at the console uselessly, his curiosity got the best of him. Pushing off the chair, he told the others to continue working while he ventured out into the hall.
The stairs to the next several levels were close by enough that he was on the lower level in minutes. The security detail would probably be another ten minutes or so, but Radek pushed forward anyways. A lot of the rooms where empty, shells of former science labs long ago out of use. He was at the end of the corridor with one room left to check and he still hadn't found a single sign of life.
Passing his hand over the sensors, the doors slid open and Radek cautiously poked his head inside.
"Hello?"
His eyes scanned the room slowly from his position in the threshold. A hand reached out and grabbed at Radek's shoulder.
"Doc."
Radek jumped and turned around to see Major Lorne and his security detail. His heart raced and it took him a moment for him to calm down.
"Major Lorne."
Lorne grinned a little. "Sorry Doc didn't mean to startle you," he nodded his head into the room. "I see you found our life sign."
Zelenka peered back into the room in confusion. "I have?" There seemed to be no one there.
Major Lorne look into the room at the tiny brunette child twirling around the room humming a slightly familiar tune and then back to Zelenka. He forgot the Czech couldn't see her. Handing his gun to Miller, Lorne stepped into the room and casually crossed his arms over his chest.
"Hey there, Mara," he said, smiling at the girl. She stopped twirling and smiled up at Lorne who got down on one knee so he was eye level with her.
"This isn't exactly the safest place for you to be playing."
Mara's attention was on a strand of her curls which she was tugging at with her fingers. "I came back to help."
"Help?"
"Major?" Radek looked at him oddly and then eyed the empty space in front of him.
Major Lorne sighed silently.
"Look, Mara. Is there any way you can let Doctor Zelenka here see you? He's been working really hard and I think he'd like to meet you."
Mara tilted her head upwards for a moment and was silent for a little while before she nodded. "Okay, Mommy."
"Oh, my!"
Lorne looked over to Radek and could tell from the gasp and the look on his face that he could now see the child. "Pretty little thing, ain't she, Doc?" He smiled as a soft giggled escaped the girl.
Radek, who had never really been good around children, felt a little flustered as he took a step forward and knelt like Major Lorne.
"Hello."
Mara beamed. "Hi."
The scientist pushed his glasses back up his nose and offered a sheepish smile. He stumbled over his words for a moment until he got the nerve to ask the question. "We're missing a piece of the device. You wouldn't happen to know where it is, would you?"
She nodded and looked to the ground. "Underneath us."
"Underneath us?" Radek seemed to study the ground, perplexed.
Major Lorne continued to look at the girl. "You mean like on the next level?"
She nodded. "But it's awfully cold."
****
Elizabeth stepped through the doors to find Radek bent over, seemingly talking to Mara. It resulted in a slight eyebrow raise as Major Lorne walked over with a smile.
"Seems everyone can see her now."
"Really?" Elizabeth's gaze moved back to Mara for a brief moment before she stepped forward towards Zelenka. "What's the problem?"
Radek looked up from Mara and climbed to his feet. "I finished the repairs on the first console, but something was bothering me about it. It seemed," he searched for the right word, "incomplete. Like it needed something more."
A worried expression crossed over Doctor Weir's face. "We don't have time to go searching for more parts of the weapon."
"No need, ma'am," Major Lorne smiled. "Mara here's told us where the rest of it is."
"Oh?"
Lorne tapped the ground with his boot. "Right underneath us."
"And completely submerged in water," Radek added as he fidgeted with his glasses.
Elizabeth frowned. "Can we get to it?"
Radek took off his glasses and began wiping them with his shirt. "Possibly." With his glasses back on, he picked up a portable computer tablet and brought up the city schematics. "I can reroute the city's ventilation systems to drain the water out of the room." He paused for a moment, "The only problem is it would result in temporary flooding other parts of the city. Mainly the geodesy and botany labs."
She took it in slowly. "We don't have time to move all the research from those labs."
Zelenka nodded. "I know, but there should be time to move as much of the extremely important stuff. I'll need to re-write some of the city's safety protocols before I can initiate the program."
Elizabeth was quiet for a long minute. They had little choice in the matter. They needed to get to the weapon or else they faced something worse than a couple of lost experiments.
She nodded. "Alright," she said, her eyes moving to Radek poignantly. "Just hurry."
****
"Doctor Weir to the control room"
Chuck only had time to blink before Doctor Elizabeth Weir came up the stairs and was looking expectantly at him. She looked tired and frazzled. She opened her mouth to ask what the situation was when the final chevron glowed and the gate activated. Her lips pressed together pensively.
"Who is it?"
Chuck looked at the monitor and shook his head. "No identification code yet, ma'am."
Elizabeth walked to the side of the balcony and peered at the gate. The shield was up, protecting them if it was the enemy on the other end. But glancing at her watch, she found herself hoping it was John and his team. They were nearing the cut of time and if they didn't get back in time not only would the enemy be here, but John and his team would be stuck on that planet for a long time.
"Receiving Colonel Sheppard's IDC code."
"Lower the shield," Elizabeth was off and starting down the steps when the shield was lowered, but she jumped back as gallons of water rushed through the gate. The moment she spotted four bodies, she shouted for the shield to be raised once again and the gate was quickly shut off.
John, Rodney, Teyla, and Ronon heaved and coughed as the waters filtered quickly through the various vents of the city. They were soaked to the bone and struggled to catch their bearings.
"Medical team to the gate room!"
Elizabeth stepped quickly down the steps and over to them in the middle of the gate room. Her brow furrowed and lips set as she tried to keep the panic from her face. The medical team rushed towards them from the side of the room. John shrugged them off and pointed them to Rodney who was clearly more exhausted than the rest of them.
John was up and on his feet, eyes searching for Elizabeth. When his eyes fell on her frame his heart leaped for a minute before he took long, poignant strides and put his hands on her shoulder.
"Elizabeth."
"John?" His expression sent a small spark of panic through her. He took a deep breath and offered her a small smile as his hands left her.
"Nothing. It's alright," he mentally gave a sigh of relief as he dug into his pocket and retrieved the crystal.
"Did you have a nice swim?" she asked, seeing him relax a little. His eyes flicked up to her face and her smile quickly faded from the look he gave her.
"Can we..." he trailed off and took a deep breath, "talk somewhere private for a minute?"
"Sure," she said and took a look around at the others. "How about one of the small meeting rooms on the way to the infirmary?"
John nodded and they turned to follow the others out and down the corridor. She handed the crystal to an airman and instructed him to take it to Radek quickly before leading John into the first meeting room they came to. Elizabeth caught Carson's glance before he passed the door and she closed it.
"What's..."
She didn't get the chance to finish the sentence; John had crossed the distance between them, pressed her against the door and kissed her. She could feel the wet of his clothing seep in through her own and shivered slightly at the cold. When he pulled back she didn't know what to ask first.
"You alright?" she asked, settling on that question. John's fingers trailed down her cheek before he answered with a deep swallow.
"They had these trials, to prove you were worthy to own the crystal. In mine, you were changing, into one of those Iratus bugs and begging me to kill you," he almost choked on the end of the sentence. Composing himself he continued. "I did it," he said. "I killed you but then you weren't the bug, you were you and I had killed you," he sped up until Elizabeth raised a hand to cover his lips and stop the outpour.
"I wasn't there," she said soothingly. "I won't become one of them and I won't ever ask you to do that."
He smiled weakly at her before kissing her fingers still over his lips. His eyes travelled down her front before he looked back at her with a smirk.
"You're all wet."
"You can talk," she teased before opening the door and pushing him out.
****
Radek stepped out of the transporter with Lorne and his team. His eyes took in the ominous surroundings of the dank and grimy lower level. Below them there was only one other floor before Atlantis dropped off into the sea. Along with the other scientists, he had thought that this section of the city was the star drive, but instead the rooms he passed looked like labs with console's and beds similar to the infirmary.
The water from this level had only been vented a few moments ago and Radek had quickly added Doctor Brown to his list of people to avoid. Katie's botany lab had been one of the fatalities required to clearing this floor and he was thankful that for the time being, she had been separated from the rest of her team.
"This way," Mara said, interrupting his dip into things he regretted. She was pointing down a corridor and Radek checked the schematics before nodding to the Major.
"Spooky down here," Miller said, following his team leader down a musky, fish smelling hallway.
"Kinda reminds me of your room," Cole retorted from the rear and Mara giggled.
"Play nice now, boys," Lorne put in, glancing down at the little girl holding tight to his vets. "Wouldn't want to start fighting with only half an hour on the clock."
"Not to mention you set a bad example for children," Cole said. "Then again, you do that anyway."
"You're a funny man, Cole," Miller said, rounding the bend close to Lorne.
Radek stopped short as he stepped around the corner and had to stifle a laugh as Miller, still intent on insulting Cole walked right into Lorne. Ahead of them, by only a foot was a wall. Radek looked on either side of it for a door or panel and found nothing.
"Did we go wrong somewhere?" Radek asked, looking back over his shoulder.
"No," Mara said, stepping forward and pulling Lorne with her. She was almost against the wall when it slid to the side.
Radek stepped up to where the wall had been and peered into the room. It was large, the biggest he'd seen in the city and even more massive than the Jumper Bay. Around the edge of the room there were chairs lining the walls, but the water had left them floating slight away from their position and on one side they were pushed up against the glass panel that drew a circle in the middle.
He crossed the room to the glass and placed a hand on it. Like the conference room doors, they twisted in unison to let him into the middle. A stream of water flushed out over his feet and he spared a moment to listen to the squelch of his shoes before he moved into the middle of the room. It was a slight step up onto the floor, another layer of the metal that made up the rest of the city and Radek looked up to see a glass ceiling shining a few inches below the real one. A small gap in the ceiling caught his attention and he checked their location in the city schematics. Right now, where they stood was just under one of the piers, and it looked as though this room had been converted from a Jumper Bay into its current use.
Inside the device, Radek took in the five consoles. There was one in the centre that looked exactly like the one he'd been tinkering with all day, and four smaller ones placed at points around the edge. He stepped over to a slightly green tinted one and examined it. The shape was like nothing he'd seen in the city before, it curved instead of being the straight lines and corners that made up most of the city and as he stole a glance at one of the others he noticed its colour was unique. A slot in the top was the right size and shape for one of the control crystals that had been recovered from another planet. His brow quirked.
"Major," he called and waited for Lorne to approach. "The crystal you brought back from the windy planet, what colour was it?"
"Yellow," Lorne said, "why?"
Radek turned from the current pedestal and looked across the room to the blue stand then to his right at a red one before turning to his left and approaching the yellow.
"It goes in here," he said and looked at Lorne who raised a questioning brow. "The one you brought back from the plant world was green, yes?"
"Yeah."
"It goes there," he said, pointing back to the stand he'd just left. "And the two Colonel Sheppard retrieved belong in those two," he added pointing at the others.
"What goes here?"
"People," Mara said. "John and Elizabeth," she corrected and turned to Radek and Evan. "They have to be the strongest of the two genes to make it work."
"I'm not sure Doctor Weir will agree to that," Miller said. "She's spent most of her life fighting the use of weaponry. It'll probably be scary as hell to actually be the one using it."
"It doesn't kill though, right?" Lorne asked Mara and she shook her head. "Just have to play that up when she starts questioning the reasons and see if we can't change her mind on this one."
The room shook as Lorne finished speaking and Radek checked his watch. Twenty minutes to the end of their departure time. He looked around as everyone else did and wondered if some experiment had been tested or if they'd set something off in here that could cause the quake. As if on cue the room shook again. Mara screamed and wrapped her arms around Miller, who happened to be closest, and the comm. crackled to life.
"All military personnel to their stations. All military personnel to their stations."
"Doc, you better get to work," Cole shouted before he followed Lorne out of the room. Radek turned in time to see Miller pry Mara off him before she turned and ran the distance to him. She wrapped him in a hug just as the room shook again and they were knocked to their feet.
The attack had begun.