Unexpected by Oparu
Author's Chapter Notes: Shannon saved this chapter
Replicators, energy weapons and liftoff. (More guest shippyness from Sam/Jack)
Replicators, energy weapons and liftoff. (More guest shippyness from Sam/Jack)
John and Elizabeth weren't the only ones pulled out of bed. Jack's hair was a mess as he staggered out of the transporter a moment behind them. Carter and McKay were arguing passionately about something technical as they chased each other up the stairs. Caldwell and Teyla seemed to be the only ones put together. Ronon grinned somewhat tipsily as he followed Teyla up into the briefing room.
With her senior staff assembled, Elizabeth turned to McKay and Zelenka. "Report," she requested as she folded her arms over her chest.
"The sensors registered a large mass moving towards us," Zelenka started, turning around to call up the sensor data. "As soon as it got close enough I compared it to the specifications from Atlantis, and it's the same mass and size..."
"...and from that we were able to discern that the Replicators must have rebuilt their city ship to come after us," McKay finished anxiously. "Last time I came up with a brilliant plan that destroyed the ship from within..."
Zelenka and Carter shared an eye-rolling glance.
"...but this time we don't have that luxury, so I'm open to suggestions," Elizabeth finished for him as she looked at the exhausted faces around her.
"At least we got to watch the movie," Jack muttered across to John, who agreed as he fidgeted with one of the pockets on his jacket.
"The Artemis and the Daedalus don't have enough combined fire-power to get through a shield of that magnitude," Carter pointed out grimly. "Even with a ZPM on both ships, we'd never get through their shield without being destroyed."
"Okay then, that's not an option," Elizabeth said, looking from Carter to McKay and Zelenka. "I'm told that you three are the most brilliant people in two galaxies. How long do we have?"
"Four, maybe three hours," Zelenka promised. "It takes a long time to decelerate that kind of mass from hyper-space."
"There are systems coming on all over the city we can't access," Rodney complained grumpily. "Some of them appear to be weapon systems, but again, we can't access them."
"There's some kind of fire-wall," Zelenka explained. "We can't get into the control subroutines..."
"...we know they're there, we just can't get in," Rodney finished impatiently. "We just need some time, I, we'll get it."
"Okay, you three come up with something and present it in an hour," Elizabeth ordered, slightly relieved neither Caldwell or Jack had questioned her authority. "Teyla, I want you to ask any of your people with technical skill if they'd be willing to help us fly our new ship."
Nodding as she tugged on Ronon's arm, Teyla dragged him down the steps towards the gate. "We will also find some strong tea," she directed him.
The gate began to dial and Ronon just shrugged. "I can kill Replicators drunk or sober," he explained simply. "Either way they end up dead."
Elizabeth leaned over to John, who had been stuck to her side the enter, brief meeting. "I want you in the chair, Ancient technology has a huge mental component and if somehow you have to break the code that way..."
"...I'll find it," John said, nodding and squeezing her arm. "Back in an hour."
Jack lifted his arms from the console he was leaning on and hurried to follow him. "Mind if I?"
"No, go ahead, Sir," John offered quickly. "You've probably been in the damn thing as often as I have."
"Son," Jack began with his best patronizing look. "I discovered the chair."
"Steven-" Elizabeth pulled him away from the still not functioning communications console. "Feel free to say no if you think this is a bad idea..."
He smiled softly. "How much am I going to hate it?" he teased with a dead-pan expression.
"I don't know," Elizabeth returned dryly. "I haven't told you yet."
"I'm listening."
"I want you to take a ZPM and a skeleton crew and head for Earth," she revealed, feeling the headache start behind her eyes. "Neither ship is a match for that vessel out there, and I know Hermiod can get the most out of your engines."
"Sure you just don't want to throw a message through the gate tied to a rock?" Caldwell joked, trying to lighten her mood.
Elizabeth rubbed her temples, walking to the balcony and leaning on the railing. When Caldwell came up behind her, she sighed. "Earth isn't answering. We've tried to dial them five times once communications came back on, each time we enter our IDCs but none of them seem to be functioning. I don't know if they were all deactivated, but even General O'Neill's code doesn't seem to work."
"Landry might think you've been compromised," Caldwell suggested as he tucked his hands into his pockets. "I'm afraid I don't have one to try."
"Colonel Carter's failed when we tried it after dinner," Elizabeth explained darkly. "Something's going on there, and..."
"...and you'd like me to take my ship and figure it out," Caldwell nodded quickly. He looked across the scattered people moving through the gate room. "I'll go through my crew and leave you as many as I can."
"Thank you," Elizabeth said warmly, relieved that one more problem had been solved for the moment.
"Mind if I ask a personal question?" Caldwell said as he watched Teyla and Ronon disappear into the rippling water of the gate.
"You and everyone else," Elizabeth murmured softly. Turning around to look over at poor Carter stuck between Zelenka and McKay, she started to smile. "Go ahead."
"You feeling all right?" Caldwell asked gently, shuffling his feet as he turned to look at her. "You're a little pale."
"I'm fine," she replied immediately, relieved John wasn't here to see her. "Just haven't been outside in two weeks."
"I suppose that would do it," Caldwell agreed as his hands emerged from his pockets. "I'll radio when the Daedalus is ready to take off."
"Take care," she tilted her head towards him. "Be safe."
"Just a little Sunday drive between galaxies," Caldwell called back. He waved a hand back over his shoulder. "Keep the city in one piece until I get back."
Elizabeth went to the three geniuses next, drawing Carter out of the argument. "I want you on your ship, Colonel," she requested gently. "We might not get the chance to send you before that Replicator ship arrives and I'm going to need your expertise to get your crew ready. Radio Caldwell and have him start beaming up the people that you need."
Carter cast one look back at Rodney and Zelenka before nodding her acknowledgment. "I'll see you when it's over," she stated simply, making it clear it wasn't a question.
"Of course," Elizabeth promised hopefully. "Jack was already telling me about his plan for movie night next week."
~*~*~*~*~
"Just close your eyes and think about opening doors," Jack instructed as he watched the chair glow blue beneath John's head.
John smirked as his eyes moved beneath his eyelids. "That easy huh?" he asked sarcastically, twitching his feet out of frustration. "It couldn't just be a set of numbers? I usually like puzzles, big fan of Sudoku."
"Always been more into Tetris myself," Jack said as he circled the chair. "Carter's always trying me to get me to learn crossword puzzles. Any luck?"
"I think I'm just giving myself a headache," John answered with a sigh, sitting up he moved his feet.
Jack stood up, lowering an arm to drag John out of the chair. "I wanna try for awhile," he explained, helping the younger man down to the floor.
"Maybe you can figure it out," John hoped, kicking the side of the platform and trying not to think about the Replicator city bearing down on them.
"You could try to send her away..." Jack began slowly, knowing as well as John did she'd never agree. "Talk her into staying with the Athosians, they're good people, good food."
"She'll never," John confirmed quickly, walking past the display as Jack leaned back. The chair activated, sending blue light through metal. "No matter what happens, she'll never leave the city."
"There's something deeply attractive about stubborn women, isn't there?" Jack asked rhetorically. He relaxed into the chair, shutting his eyes as he ran through the systems with his mind. The star map erupted over his head, filling the ceiling with a thousand points of light. The power display on the wall climbed to just over a third and hung there.
"Do you think it's something beyond us? " John asked to the wall as he drummed his fingers impatiently on it. "When the Ancients from the Tria first showed up and tried to get us to leave; Helia did something, pulled some kind of pillar out of the floor. Turned things on we've never seen before."
"And you think we can't get in because we're not Ancients?" Jack wondered grumpily, opening his eyes to look up at the star map spinning lazily around his head. "Well that would be annoying."
"I want to be wrong" John answered with a shrug. He leaned against the wall, digging his feet into the floor in frustration. "If we even get going, how fast is an intergalactic hyper-drive engine like this one?"
"Don't tell the little gray guys," Jack advised with a shake of his head. "But, Carter says it's better than the Asgard."
"Shouldn't argue with Carter," John agreed as he stared blankly up at the star map. "If she's anything like McKay."
"She's way more attractive than McKay..." Jack corrected immediately, temporarily losing focus on the star map.
"If you like blondes," John teased back, abruptly realizing that he might have gone too far. He put his hands behind his back, locking his fingers together. "Sir."
Jack just chuckled dryly in the chair. "Maybe I had a little too much fun with that Czech guy and his vodka...why don't you try again, Colonel?"
"Yes, Sir," John said, switching places with the general and calling back up the map. "Do you think we could really take them? If we got the city flying?"
"They're just Replicators..." Jack sighed and stuffed his hands in the pockets of his pants. "They're cold, unfeeling machines. We have ingenuity."
"Ingenuity doesn't seem to be getting us through this damn firewall," John complained. Above his head, the Pegasus galaxy swirled lazily, as if it was waiting for him to act. He wondered what Elizabeth was doing in command. If the geek trinity of Carter, Zelenka and McKay had come up with something, they would have radioed. He drifted with the stars for a moment, his tired mind wandering through the planets he thought they'd been too.
Finally, focusing on a tiny point of light on the very edge of the galaxy John put the full force of his mind into the single thought that he wanted to be there.
Jack saw the chair erupt with a blue-white light so bright it encompassed all of John's body. On the wall the display panel shot past halfway, flying all the way to ninety percent of capacity. He desperately tapped his radio. "I think we did it," Jack yelled over the deep rumble that filled the entire room.
"General?" Rodney's voice came back comfortingly. "Whatever you did is driving the computer crazy, I can't even get in right now. I can tell you the inertial dampeners just came on, along with some kind of force-field."
"The water-filled parts of the city are emptying," Zelenka added with astonishment.
"You did it John," Elizabeth gushed excitedly.
"I don't think he can hear you," Jack had to explain. "There's something here, with light, I don't know how to describe it. Maybe you should send someone..."
~*~*~*~*~
John only saw light. He was standing, somehow, in an empty, wall-less room that went on in all directions. His feet hung in the air without gravity. His hands floated by his sides and he didn't seem to be breathing.
"You are seeking..." A disembodied voice drifted around him in the light. "Why should you be allowed control of Atlantis?"
"I need to defend my people," John conceded. He wondered how he could speak without breathing. "The Replicators are coming."
"I do not know the Replicators," The voice came from behind him.
He tried to turn around, but his body spun without his control. She hung in the air, clad only in a see-through white dress that seemed to be part of the light around them. She looked like Elizabeth, but an Elizabeth with pure white eyes.
"You are not Alterran," Not-Elizabeth accused him.
"I'm human," John explained pathetically, wishing she had chosen to look like someone else. "And you're not Elizabeth."
"She was in your mind," Not-Elizabeth said without emotion. "Form was required. Human is acceptable, you carry the key."
"The gene?" John wondered aloud, watching as Not-Elizabeth nodded once.
"The key to Atlantis," Not-Elizabeth added without bothering to clarify. "You must be worthy of what you seek."
"What do I seek?" John demanded forlornly. "I didn't mean to seek anything."
"You wish to control Atlantis," Not-Elizabeth said dully. "Atlantis is power. Why should this be allowed?"
"Because we need to get the hell away from the Replicators before they kill us," John spat out angrily. His rage tinged the light around him, darkening the blue to a reddish hue. "I don't think you want them controlling Atlantis, because, trust me, they're way worse than anything I'd ever do."
Not-Elizabeth shrank back. "You are angry," she noticed quietly.
"Of course I'm angry," John tore his hand from the force that held it and shook it at her. "While I'm here my people are suffering. My people will die if you don't let me go."
"No time has passed," Not-Elizabeth promised softly, revealing her sorrow. "Show me your heart," she commanded finally.
John fell to the floor, suddenly released from the force. "Why?" he wondered as he picked himself up.
"Truth is in the heart," Not-Elizabeth justified. She moved towards him, he couldn't say she walked because he couldn't see her feet beneath the dress. "You are John Sheppard. You are human, you call yourself Colonel."
"Lieutenant Colonel, United States Air Force," John volunteered.
Not-Elizabeth nodded as she took it in. "She is in your mind," she said.
John sighed, wondering if he should bother hiding anything. "I love her," he said without hesitation.
"Love is precious," Not-Elizabeth replied with the first emotion he'd heard from her.
"So is Elizabeth," John grabbed her shoulders, trying not to think about the fact that he was arguing with someone who looked like just like her about Elizabeth. "If you don't let me turn on the engines, and the weapons, she- Elizabeth, you- whoever you are, are all going to die."
"Death is only the beginning," Not-Elizabeth said cryptically, remaining limp in his grasp.
"I'm not ready to begin yet," John begged, drawing closer to her, looking through the white space where Elizabeth's eyes should have been. "I still have things to do. If you know what I'm thinking, which you claim to, you know Elizabeth is pregnant." He leaned closer, nearly touching her translucent lips. "Do you know what that means? It means out of all the things I have left to do, I have to be a dad."
"Life is dynamic," she said, tilting her head as she studied him. "Life continues."
"Yes, yes it will, if you let me turn on the star drive," John slid his hand up to her chin marveling at the way touching her tingled his skin.
"Show me your heart," Not-Elizabeth commanded again.
"You're a hopeless romantic, you know that?" John teased her nervously, knowing she'd never understand. "She is my heart..." Her nose touched his cheek as he leaned closer still; when he kissed her, she finally understood.
Not-Elizabeth dissolved into a thousand points of light, becoming the star map over his head.
"You are worthy, Lieutenant Colonel John Sheppard," Not-Elizabeth's voice ran through his head and in an instant, he understood.
~*~*~*~*~
Twisting his hand in the soft controls in the arm of the chair, he coaxed the inertial dampeners to life, and then he started to power the star drive. Feeling the energy build within the city, he opened his eyes. "Tell everyone to hold on," he yelled to whoever was there to hear him.
He heard voices yelling over radios over the rumble of the engines. The star map faded, turning black before becoming a massive heads-up-display. Atlantis groaned sleepily, spewing the last of the water from the passages they hadn't even discovered yet. Deep in the bowels of the city, everything woke.
Way up in the command center, Elizabeth ran to the edge of the balcony and watched the water boil beneath them. The city jolted once, sending a mass of spray in all directions. She clung to the railing, keeping her feet as the city leapt into the sky. Once they'd left the ocean, the inertial dampeners helped them feel like they weren't moving at all.
"Jack, can you hear me?" Elizabeth demanded from the radio in her ear. "We've taken off, we're leaving the water."
Jack was laughing, giddy with excitement when he replied. "You've got to see this, Elizabeth. I really can't explain it."
So she went, hurrying through the halls of her city, stopping in front of each window as clouds flew past the stained glass. It was like being in a plane during lift-off, except that she felt nothing; no acceleration, no lowering pressure, nothing she usually associated with flying. Atlantis just rose into the heavens as if it was flying on thought alone
Rodney met her at the base of the tower. "There are systems coming on that we've never even seen before," he blurted out, completely astonished. "Power levels are higher than we thought the city could go, even with three ZPMs. When John dismantled the firewall he unlocked parts of the computer we didn't even know existed."
"Anything we can use?" Elizabeth asked pragmatically. New systems were undoubtedly exciting, but they needed a plan. They needed weapons that could defeat the Replicators.
"Zelenka's found energy weapons ," Rodney revealed as they entered the chair room together. "He said they weren't there, and then, suddenly they were. The firewall's completely gone."
"John did that?" Elizabeth mused with a tiny smile of pride.
"He did," Jack said, pointing up and drawing their attention to the ceiling.
A ceiling that appeared to have vanished entirely. Had she not just been in the control tower, Elizabeth never would have believed that the starscape above them was a projection. Beneath it was John in the chair, his face quiet with concentration. The atmosphere of the planet that had so long been their home dissipated around them as Atlantis returned to the stars.
Elizabeth walked over to the platform, taking a step and touching the back of his hand. John opened his eyes, directing a smile up at her. "I passed the test," he announced proudly.
"There was a test?" Elizabeth posed, confused by his calm.
"Something in the city," he said as his eyes closed again. "We hadn't been deep enough before."
Elizabeth returned to the main floor, looking from Jack to Rodney in surprise. "Is that possible?"
Rodney shrugged, trying to make sense of it in his head. "Anything's possible when we know so little about Ancient technology," he admitted. "It seems probable that they might have left something in the computer to prevent just anyone from getting full access, and consider how much they depend on a mental component to run things..."
"John turned the key the right way in his head?" Jack translated, reaching over to pat John's shoulder proudly. "Good work, son."
The planet fell away to the left, a swirling blue ball smattered with white. On their left the Artemis was a tiny silver creature, like a bird seen from a plane. Jack waved slightly, mouthing hello to Carter when he thought no one was watching.
"So we have energy weapons?" Elizabeth asked, trying to keep herself caught up.
"Oh do we have energy weapons," Rodney held up his computer, grinning like he'd been giving the secrets of the universe. "We have twelve long-range cannons, like the one on that satellite. We also have two high powered ones that are either long-range, or just really powerful up close." He scrolled through his computer, staring through it.
"Oh my God," Rodney exclaimed suddenly. "Energy weapons, how could I..." he trailed off as he nearly ran towards the door. "I have an idea; just keep us flying until I figure it out."
John rolled his eyes towards the ceiling, willing the ship into a death-dance with the other city. Elizabeth returned to his side, craning her neck to watch the stars spin around them. "It's beautiful," she said to no one in particular.
Jack nodded behind her, startling her with a hand on her shoulder. "The universe might be cruel, heartless and down-right mean sometimes," he started philosophically, "But, it is lovely at the same time."
"John, are you okay?" Elizabeth wondered, peering down at him.
"I don't think I can tell you how cool this is," John said with complete awe. "I used to think a puddle jumper was as good as it got, but this...it's like being able to actually fly through space. I can feel the gravity of the planet, smell the space dust." He tore his eyes from the display long enough to wink at her. "This is why I became a pilot."
"He's gone..." Jack mocked with as serious of an expression as he could muster. "You'll never get him back."
Elizabeth touched his hair, reminding him that he had the best reasons to come back. "I'm going back to command," she told Jack because she knew he was listening. "I'll try to get Rodney to explain his idea to us mere mortals."
"Oh good luck with that," Jack wished her sardonically. "I've been trying to learn to speak Carter for ten years."
~*~*~*~*~*~
Two hours later, Elizabeth finally succeeded.
"We can use the original plan!" Rodney began, his hands shaking as he pointed to the diagram in the conference room. "The city has energy weapons, which is great, but the really interesting part involves the shield. If I tie together the emitters from the weapons systems and shield's ability to create an energy field I should be able to use our shields and weapons in concert..."
"Creating an energy wave that'll knock out the Replicators on the other ship," Carter finished for him from the communications station on the table. "Nicely done, McKay."
Pouting slightly that she'd stolen the end of his idea, Rodney sank back into his chair. "Of course, the downside is even if it works we might have to go through resetting the weapons and shields again."
"What are the chances of it not working?" Elizabeth demanded firmly, praying he'd have good news for her.
"Only ten...twenty percent," Rodney started to defend himself. "And even if the ARG part of it fails we're still hitting them with a massive pulse of energy. Assuming their systems are anything like ours..."
"...which they definitely seem to be," John finished for him, tapping his hand nervously on the table. Elizabeth stopped him by covering his hand. She had promised she'd send him back to the chair as soon as the meeting was done. Until then poor Carson was stuck with keeping Atlantis level in space.
"The city has stopped approaching us," Zelenka reported from his place at one of the corners of the huge table. "They might be waiting for something, setting a trap, who knows with Replicators."
"I'm afraid this time it's going to be our trap," Elizabeth decided. "Rodney, Zelenka, I want you two to figure it out. Do what you do best and reconnect everything you need to. Colonel Carter, I'd like you to keep an eye on them for us, stay as close as you can while maintaining a safe distance."
"Yes, Ma'am," Carter agreed from the radio. "I'll try to get my crew up to speed."
"How are Teyla and Ronon holding up?" John asked the radio. "Are they having fun?"
"Teyla's people are quick learners, I could use some Air Force Cadets that were this bright," Carter joked lightly. "Artemis out."
Jack stared at the radio a second longer than everyone else.
John left the table, ready to head back down to the chair room. Catching his shoulder by the door, Jack shook his head. "Let me relieve Beckett for awhile, I haven't got to try it yet."
"Yes, Sir," John agreed quietly, disappointment dancing across his face before he smiled. "Have fun Sir."
"Oh thank you," Jack returned cheerfully as he rubbed his hands together. "I intend to."
"No joyrides!" Elizabeth called after him, using the table to help pull herself to her feet. Her watch read just past oh-three-hundred hours. She'd intended to go to bed hours ago. The coffee from the mess hall sat neatly in the corner of the conference room. She knew she shouldn't, but exhaustion weighed on her mind. All the people who had filed out of the room before her were counting on her. John drove the city, Rodney solved the unsolvable problems, and she held it together.
She was alone. No one saw her fill the cup with black coffee and gulp it down. Silently apologizing to her unborn baby, Elizabeth wondered if her child would understand someday. Would her child have to make these decisions? Or by some grace unknown to her would her child have a chance to grow up in a peaceful galaxy? It seemed unlikely, considering that every galaxy they encountered seemed to be filled with another all powerful enemy.
Elizabeth filled her glass with water and drank it quickly. She was just in time when John poked his head around the door. "You coming back up to control?"
"Yeah, just needed a drink," she lied pathetically, feeling guilt knot her stomach.
John kissed her forehead, smiling at her hopefully. "You wanted a plan, and you got one," he said. His hands wrapped around her back, surprising her slightly.
"I did, didn't I?" Elizabeth returned his smile, hoping he didn't see the guilt in her eyes. "Should use the Replicators as a threat more often, seems easier to get things done that way."
"Not too often," John pleaded as he dug his fingers into the tight muscles of her lower back. "It'll just get old after awhile."
Elizabeth clung to him as the kneading of his fingers sent tension screaming out of her back. "God, who told you to do that?" she demanded breathlessly.
"Carson mentioned it might be killing you," John admitted with a proud smirk. "He's a smart guy." She moaned and leaned into his touch, reminding him what they'd been pulled away from when the Daedalus arrived. He let Elizabeth lean on his chest, enjoying the clean smell of her hair.
"Remind me to put you in for another promotion," Elizabeth teased gratefully, standing on her toes to kiss him. "Back to work?"
"I suppose we have to, don't we?" John said, catching her chin with strong fingers. "You okay?"
Elizabeth nodded her way out of his grasp. "Yeah," she promised. "It's just getting to be a long day."
"Sorry about that," he said, leading the way to back out into control. "I tried to talk them into attacking later in the day, it just didn't work out."
"Well, you did try..." Elizabeth replied, locking her fingers with his.
~*~*~*~*~
"They must have seen us through the magnetic field of the planet," Carter yelled over the explosions in the background of the radio signal. "We tried to run, but they took out our engines with the first shot."
"We'll be right there, Carter," Jack promised as he leaned over the communications console. "You just keep it in one piece until then."
Behind him Elizabeth whirled on Rodney. "Are we ready?" she urged, watching his hands fly over the console.
"I guess?" he said, fingers flying as he spoke. "Yes, yes I think so."
"If it doesn't work, can we go to hyperspace?" Elizabeth asked quietly, almost hoping he'd say no.
"Yeah, that shouldn't be a problem," Rodney assured her, not realizing completely what that meant. "The system's entirely separate from the ones we jury-rigged together."
Jack met her eyes, destroying her confidence with a glance. Elizabeth stared back as long as she could before shutting her eyes, knowing how she'd feel if the colonel in danger was John. "All right, John, Rodney," she paused, swaying slightly on her feet as her stomach lurched desperately. "Let's do it."
John took the ship briefly into hyperspace, sending a wave of distortion through everyone's vision. Elizabeth's exhausted eyes only added to her nausea. Praying she could hold it together until the battle was done; she tasted the metallic adrenaline in her throat.
Down in the control chair, John felt the displacement of hyperspace surge through his body before he let go. Dropping the city in impossibly close to the Replicator city, he put Atlantis between the enemy and the damaged Artemis. The blasts of the other ship's weapons slammed into the shield so hard his teeth rattled. He could feel the energy as if the city were part of his body; or rather he was part of it.
He felt Rodney's corrections; the differences in the city Rodney had left. it was kind of like trying to hit someone with both hands tied together in front of him. John left the shield up for one more volley. As the phantom pain rolled through his body he struck back, pouring all the energy he could summon into one massive wave of energy. It ripped through him, carrying his soul with it, as all that was him melted with all that was the city.
In space, Atlantis exploded with a wave of energy that raced out like an amoebic arm, encompassing and engulfing the other ship. The last shots of the Replicator vessel cut into three of the towers, spewing air and wreckage into space. As Atlantis vomited wreckage, the other city seized, like her heart had been torn from her chest.
He brought the shield back, forcing the circuits to handle the energy. The sensor started to report, itching at his mind. Without hearing Rodney's voice scream that ZPMs were about to overload, or looking at any of the data in front of him, John felt the death throes of the other city. Reaching out with the shields he cupped the Artemis, holding it safely beneath Atlantis as if he was holding a flower out of the rain.
The explosion ripped through space, sending heat, light, and raw energy pounding through his body. It ran over and through him, cracking across the shields he held forcibly in place. Elizabeth was beneath those shields and he'd die before anything happened to her. The city shared his wish, obediently sacrificing some of the other towers to keep the shields around her heart and the tiny form of the Artemis.
When the explosion faded into the blackness of space, he felt the Artemis limp inside on thrusters and momentum alone. John moved the great city to assist the ship's landing on the south pier. He pulled the city into a slow orbit of the Lantian star, letting it sleep.
John came out of the chair, sitting up and blinking his eyes. His own body felt small, confining and restrictive. His feet swung over the edge of the chair and he rolled out of it.
Major Lorne was waiting for him as he swayed to his feet. "You got them, Sir," he congratulated respectfully. "Nicely done."
"Didn't mean to blow them up," John said, rolling his head across his neck. He felt disconnected, like his feet were a poor substitute for thrusters.
"I think they deserved it, Sir," Lorne suggested as he moved up to the chair.
"Keep it warm for me?" John teased, starting down towards the door.
"That's why I'm here," Lorne quipped dryly, "To keep the city from falling into any black holes while you get some rest."
"That's thoughtful of you," John called back as he heard the chair come on. He felt tiny as he walked through the city. Like he'd been shrunk to the size of one of his cells and had to walk through his own blood vessels. He passed more scientists in the hall with damage control kits and the air smelt of smoke and burnt metal. Dragging himself up the stairs to command, John looked immediately for Elizabeth.
Rodney was dealing with computer system, helping Zelenka deal with the myriad repair requests flooding in from the city. He looked up briefly and nodded. "Nice explosion," he congratulated.
"I do what I can," John forced his feet to keep walking through the room.
"Have you seen Elizabeth?"
"Ahh," Rodney chirped sympathetically. "Bathroom down the way."
"Too much shaking," Zelenka added just as gently, "Or was it the smoke?"
Rodney raised his eyebrows and put up a finger to make his point; "It was the smoke, I think," he agreed. "General O'Neill went with her."
John looked across both men and felt like he was a walking target and no one had told him. "Thanks," he shrugged tentatively. Down more stairs and he found his way to the bathroom.
There was no sign of the general as he peered in shyly. Elizabeth was hunched over the sink, spitting water as she rinsed her mouth. Looking up at his worried expression in the mirror, her face fell. "Oh, hi," she said.
"I guess I made the ride a little too bumpy," John quipped as he pulled himself up to sit on the counter next to the sink. Leaning back against the steel mirror on the wall, he watched as her hand trembling slightly on the faucet. "You okay?"
"Maybe?" Elizabeth ventured as she rinsed out her mouth a second time. "I really was doing all right, it's just five in the morning now, and I haven't slept. The stars went flying past the window...I never used to get motion-sickness."
"You can't keep doing this Elizabeth," John urged her with deep concern. "You haven't slept, I haven't seen you eat since the popcorn. You're so tired flying with inertial dampeners is making your queasy."
"It's probably just me, making me queasy," Elizabeth admitted as she rubbed the tension from her temples. "We lost five people when tower six was hit, John. Another four died and twenty-three more were injured on the Artemis. Carson has everyone with any medical training down in the infirmary to give him a hand."
He slipped from the counter and caught her, wrapping his arms tightly around her back instead of saying anything. Elizabeth stood there for a moment, too exhausted to move. When her hands went around her neck, John knew everything was going to be all right. "Teyla? Ronon?" he asked down toward her head.
"They're okay," Elizabeth lifted her head and stared at his chest darkly. "Carter took a blow to the abdomen; she's on Carson's surgical list."
"And the general's down with her?" John asked rhetorically as she nodded.
"Carson has to take the nastier cases first," Elizabeth said, shaking her head. "He's going to come through this the worst for wear I'm afraid. There's just so much death."
"Not all of its death," he reminded her as he kissed her forehead. "You're okay, I'm okay...selfishly, I have to admit I'm feeling pretty good."
Elizabeth choked, but successfully fought off her tears. "Come with me down there, to the infirmary? I should be there for Jack."
"Yeah, okay," John agreed, watching her fight with her emotional control. "You know, it's okay if you aren't always..."
"I know," Elizabeth said, biting her lip against her exhaustion. "I just, can't."
"Okay," John whispered as he settled for taking her hand. "Maybe cafeteria first? I know eating's the last thing on your mind..." he drifted off, pulling her to a stop before she left the bathroom. "...Carson said you could lose the baby if you're not careful. I know I can't get you to sleep, but I won't let you keep going without eating something."
"All right John," Elizabeth agreed softly, feeling guilt wash over her for the coffee she'd had earlier. "I'll eat."
With her senior staff assembled, Elizabeth turned to McKay and Zelenka. "Report," she requested as she folded her arms over her chest.
"The sensors registered a large mass moving towards us," Zelenka started, turning around to call up the sensor data. "As soon as it got close enough I compared it to the specifications from Atlantis, and it's the same mass and size..."
"...and from that we were able to discern that the Replicators must have rebuilt their city ship to come after us," McKay finished anxiously. "Last time I came up with a brilliant plan that destroyed the ship from within..."
Zelenka and Carter shared an eye-rolling glance.
"...but this time we don't have that luxury, so I'm open to suggestions," Elizabeth finished for him as she looked at the exhausted faces around her.
"At least we got to watch the movie," Jack muttered across to John, who agreed as he fidgeted with one of the pockets on his jacket.
"The Artemis and the Daedalus don't have enough combined fire-power to get through a shield of that magnitude," Carter pointed out grimly. "Even with a ZPM on both ships, we'd never get through their shield without being destroyed."
"Okay then, that's not an option," Elizabeth said, looking from Carter to McKay and Zelenka. "I'm told that you three are the most brilliant people in two galaxies. How long do we have?"
"Four, maybe three hours," Zelenka promised. "It takes a long time to decelerate that kind of mass from hyper-space."
"There are systems coming on all over the city we can't access," Rodney complained grumpily. "Some of them appear to be weapon systems, but again, we can't access them."
"There's some kind of fire-wall," Zelenka explained. "We can't get into the control subroutines..."
"...we know they're there, we just can't get in," Rodney finished impatiently. "We just need some time, I, we'll get it."
"Okay, you three come up with something and present it in an hour," Elizabeth ordered, slightly relieved neither Caldwell or Jack had questioned her authority. "Teyla, I want you to ask any of your people with technical skill if they'd be willing to help us fly our new ship."
Nodding as she tugged on Ronon's arm, Teyla dragged him down the steps towards the gate. "We will also find some strong tea," she directed him.
The gate began to dial and Ronon just shrugged. "I can kill Replicators drunk or sober," he explained simply. "Either way they end up dead."
Elizabeth leaned over to John, who had been stuck to her side the enter, brief meeting. "I want you in the chair, Ancient technology has a huge mental component and if somehow you have to break the code that way..."
"...I'll find it," John said, nodding and squeezing her arm. "Back in an hour."
Jack lifted his arms from the console he was leaning on and hurried to follow him. "Mind if I?"
"No, go ahead, Sir," John offered quickly. "You've probably been in the damn thing as often as I have."
"Son," Jack began with his best patronizing look. "I discovered the chair."
"Steven-" Elizabeth pulled him away from the still not functioning communications console. "Feel free to say no if you think this is a bad idea..."
He smiled softly. "How much am I going to hate it?" he teased with a dead-pan expression.
"I don't know," Elizabeth returned dryly. "I haven't told you yet."
"I'm listening."
"I want you to take a ZPM and a skeleton crew and head for Earth," she revealed, feeling the headache start behind her eyes. "Neither ship is a match for that vessel out there, and I know Hermiod can get the most out of your engines."
"Sure you just don't want to throw a message through the gate tied to a rock?" Caldwell joked, trying to lighten her mood.
Elizabeth rubbed her temples, walking to the balcony and leaning on the railing. When Caldwell came up behind her, she sighed. "Earth isn't answering. We've tried to dial them five times once communications came back on, each time we enter our IDCs but none of them seem to be functioning. I don't know if they were all deactivated, but even General O'Neill's code doesn't seem to work."
"Landry might think you've been compromised," Caldwell suggested as he tucked his hands into his pockets. "I'm afraid I don't have one to try."
"Colonel Carter's failed when we tried it after dinner," Elizabeth explained darkly. "Something's going on there, and..."
"...and you'd like me to take my ship and figure it out," Caldwell nodded quickly. He looked across the scattered people moving through the gate room. "I'll go through my crew and leave you as many as I can."
"Thank you," Elizabeth said warmly, relieved that one more problem had been solved for the moment.
"Mind if I ask a personal question?" Caldwell said as he watched Teyla and Ronon disappear into the rippling water of the gate.
"You and everyone else," Elizabeth murmured softly. Turning around to look over at poor Carter stuck between Zelenka and McKay, she started to smile. "Go ahead."
"You feeling all right?" Caldwell asked gently, shuffling his feet as he turned to look at her. "You're a little pale."
"I'm fine," she replied immediately, relieved John wasn't here to see her. "Just haven't been outside in two weeks."
"I suppose that would do it," Caldwell agreed as his hands emerged from his pockets. "I'll radio when the Daedalus is ready to take off."
"Take care," she tilted her head towards him. "Be safe."
"Just a little Sunday drive between galaxies," Caldwell called back. He waved a hand back over his shoulder. "Keep the city in one piece until I get back."
Elizabeth went to the three geniuses next, drawing Carter out of the argument. "I want you on your ship, Colonel," she requested gently. "We might not get the chance to send you before that Replicator ship arrives and I'm going to need your expertise to get your crew ready. Radio Caldwell and have him start beaming up the people that you need."
Carter cast one look back at Rodney and Zelenka before nodding her acknowledgment. "I'll see you when it's over," she stated simply, making it clear it wasn't a question.
"Of course," Elizabeth promised hopefully. "Jack was already telling me about his plan for movie night next week."
~*~*~*~*~
"Just close your eyes and think about opening doors," Jack instructed as he watched the chair glow blue beneath John's head.
John smirked as his eyes moved beneath his eyelids. "That easy huh?" he asked sarcastically, twitching his feet out of frustration. "It couldn't just be a set of numbers? I usually like puzzles, big fan of Sudoku."
"Always been more into Tetris myself," Jack said as he circled the chair. "Carter's always trying me to get me to learn crossword puzzles. Any luck?"
"I think I'm just giving myself a headache," John answered with a sigh, sitting up he moved his feet.
Jack stood up, lowering an arm to drag John out of the chair. "I wanna try for awhile," he explained, helping the younger man down to the floor.
"Maybe you can figure it out," John hoped, kicking the side of the platform and trying not to think about the Replicator city bearing down on them.
"You could try to send her away..." Jack began slowly, knowing as well as John did she'd never agree. "Talk her into staying with the Athosians, they're good people, good food."
"She'll never," John confirmed quickly, walking past the display as Jack leaned back. The chair activated, sending blue light through metal. "No matter what happens, she'll never leave the city."
"There's something deeply attractive about stubborn women, isn't there?" Jack asked rhetorically. He relaxed into the chair, shutting his eyes as he ran through the systems with his mind. The star map erupted over his head, filling the ceiling with a thousand points of light. The power display on the wall climbed to just over a third and hung there.
"Do you think it's something beyond us? " John asked to the wall as he drummed his fingers impatiently on it. "When the Ancients from the Tria first showed up and tried to get us to leave; Helia did something, pulled some kind of pillar out of the floor. Turned things on we've never seen before."
"And you think we can't get in because we're not Ancients?" Jack wondered grumpily, opening his eyes to look up at the star map spinning lazily around his head. "Well that would be annoying."
"I want to be wrong" John answered with a shrug. He leaned against the wall, digging his feet into the floor in frustration. "If we even get going, how fast is an intergalactic hyper-drive engine like this one?"
"Don't tell the little gray guys," Jack advised with a shake of his head. "But, Carter says it's better than the Asgard."
"Shouldn't argue with Carter," John agreed as he stared blankly up at the star map. "If she's anything like McKay."
"She's way more attractive than McKay..." Jack corrected immediately, temporarily losing focus on the star map.
"If you like blondes," John teased back, abruptly realizing that he might have gone too far. He put his hands behind his back, locking his fingers together. "Sir."
Jack just chuckled dryly in the chair. "Maybe I had a little too much fun with that Czech guy and his vodka...why don't you try again, Colonel?"
"Yes, Sir," John said, switching places with the general and calling back up the map. "Do you think we could really take them? If we got the city flying?"
"They're just Replicators..." Jack sighed and stuffed his hands in the pockets of his pants. "They're cold, unfeeling machines. We have ingenuity."
"Ingenuity doesn't seem to be getting us through this damn firewall," John complained. Above his head, the Pegasus galaxy swirled lazily, as if it was waiting for him to act. He wondered what Elizabeth was doing in command. If the geek trinity of Carter, Zelenka and McKay had come up with something, they would have radioed. He drifted with the stars for a moment, his tired mind wandering through the planets he thought they'd been too.
Finally, focusing on a tiny point of light on the very edge of the galaxy John put the full force of his mind into the single thought that he wanted to be there.
Jack saw the chair erupt with a blue-white light so bright it encompassed all of John's body. On the wall the display panel shot past halfway, flying all the way to ninety percent of capacity. He desperately tapped his radio. "I think we did it," Jack yelled over the deep rumble that filled the entire room.
"General?" Rodney's voice came back comfortingly. "Whatever you did is driving the computer crazy, I can't even get in right now. I can tell you the inertial dampeners just came on, along with some kind of force-field."
"The water-filled parts of the city are emptying," Zelenka added with astonishment.
"You did it John," Elizabeth gushed excitedly.
"I don't think he can hear you," Jack had to explain. "There's something here, with light, I don't know how to describe it. Maybe you should send someone..."
~*~*~*~*~
John only saw light. He was standing, somehow, in an empty, wall-less room that went on in all directions. His feet hung in the air without gravity. His hands floated by his sides and he didn't seem to be breathing.
"You are seeking..." A disembodied voice drifted around him in the light. "Why should you be allowed control of Atlantis?"
"I need to defend my people," John conceded. He wondered how he could speak without breathing. "The Replicators are coming."
"I do not know the Replicators," The voice came from behind him.
He tried to turn around, but his body spun without his control. She hung in the air, clad only in a see-through white dress that seemed to be part of the light around them. She looked like Elizabeth, but an Elizabeth with pure white eyes.
"You are not Alterran," Not-Elizabeth accused him.
"I'm human," John explained pathetically, wishing she had chosen to look like someone else. "And you're not Elizabeth."
"She was in your mind," Not-Elizabeth said without emotion. "Form was required. Human is acceptable, you carry the key."
"The gene?" John wondered aloud, watching as Not-Elizabeth nodded once.
"The key to Atlantis," Not-Elizabeth added without bothering to clarify. "You must be worthy of what you seek."
"What do I seek?" John demanded forlornly. "I didn't mean to seek anything."
"You wish to control Atlantis," Not-Elizabeth said dully. "Atlantis is power. Why should this be allowed?"
"Because we need to get the hell away from the Replicators before they kill us," John spat out angrily. His rage tinged the light around him, darkening the blue to a reddish hue. "I don't think you want them controlling Atlantis, because, trust me, they're way worse than anything I'd ever do."
Not-Elizabeth shrank back. "You are angry," she noticed quietly.
"Of course I'm angry," John tore his hand from the force that held it and shook it at her. "While I'm here my people are suffering. My people will die if you don't let me go."
"No time has passed," Not-Elizabeth promised softly, revealing her sorrow. "Show me your heart," she commanded finally.
John fell to the floor, suddenly released from the force. "Why?" he wondered as he picked himself up.
"Truth is in the heart," Not-Elizabeth justified. She moved towards him, he couldn't say she walked because he couldn't see her feet beneath the dress. "You are John Sheppard. You are human, you call yourself Colonel."
"Lieutenant Colonel, United States Air Force," John volunteered.
Not-Elizabeth nodded as she took it in. "She is in your mind," she said.
John sighed, wondering if he should bother hiding anything. "I love her," he said without hesitation.
"Love is precious," Not-Elizabeth replied with the first emotion he'd heard from her.
"So is Elizabeth," John grabbed her shoulders, trying not to think about the fact that he was arguing with someone who looked like just like her about Elizabeth. "If you don't let me turn on the engines, and the weapons, she- Elizabeth, you- whoever you are, are all going to die."
"Death is only the beginning," Not-Elizabeth said cryptically, remaining limp in his grasp.
"I'm not ready to begin yet," John begged, drawing closer to her, looking through the white space where Elizabeth's eyes should have been. "I still have things to do. If you know what I'm thinking, which you claim to, you know Elizabeth is pregnant." He leaned closer, nearly touching her translucent lips. "Do you know what that means? It means out of all the things I have left to do, I have to be a dad."
"Life is dynamic," she said, tilting her head as she studied him. "Life continues."
"Yes, yes it will, if you let me turn on the star drive," John slid his hand up to her chin marveling at the way touching her tingled his skin.
"Show me your heart," Not-Elizabeth commanded again.
"You're a hopeless romantic, you know that?" John teased her nervously, knowing she'd never understand. "She is my heart..." Her nose touched his cheek as he leaned closer still; when he kissed her, she finally understood.
Not-Elizabeth dissolved into a thousand points of light, becoming the star map over his head.
"You are worthy, Lieutenant Colonel John Sheppard," Not-Elizabeth's voice ran through his head and in an instant, he understood.
~*~*~*~*~
Twisting his hand in the soft controls in the arm of the chair, he coaxed the inertial dampeners to life, and then he started to power the star drive. Feeling the energy build within the city, he opened his eyes. "Tell everyone to hold on," he yelled to whoever was there to hear him.
He heard voices yelling over radios over the rumble of the engines. The star map faded, turning black before becoming a massive heads-up-display. Atlantis groaned sleepily, spewing the last of the water from the passages they hadn't even discovered yet. Deep in the bowels of the city, everything woke.
Way up in the command center, Elizabeth ran to the edge of the balcony and watched the water boil beneath them. The city jolted once, sending a mass of spray in all directions. She clung to the railing, keeping her feet as the city leapt into the sky. Once they'd left the ocean, the inertial dampeners helped them feel like they weren't moving at all.
"Jack, can you hear me?" Elizabeth demanded from the radio in her ear. "We've taken off, we're leaving the water."
Jack was laughing, giddy with excitement when he replied. "You've got to see this, Elizabeth. I really can't explain it."
So she went, hurrying through the halls of her city, stopping in front of each window as clouds flew past the stained glass. It was like being in a plane during lift-off, except that she felt nothing; no acceleration, no lowering pressure, nothing she usually associated with flying. Atlantis just rose into the heavens as if it was flying on thought alone
Rodney met her at the base of the tower. "There are systems coming on that we've never even seen before," he blurted out, completely astonished. "Power levels are higher than we thought the city could go, even with three ZPMs. When John dismantled the firewall he unlocked parts of the computer we didn't even know existed."
"Anything we can use?" Elizabeth asked pragmatically. New systems were undoubtedly exciting, but they needed a plan. They needed weapons that could defeat the Replicators.
"Zelenka's found energy weapons ," Rodney revealed as they entered the chair room together. "He said they weren't there, and then, suddenly they were. The firewall's completely gone."
"John did that?" Elizabeth mused with a tiny smile of pride.
"He did," Jack said, pointing up and drawing their attention to the ceiling.
A ceiling that appeared to have vanished entirely. Had she not just been in the control tower, Elizabeth never would have believed that the starscape above them was a projection. Beneath it was John in the chair, his face quiet with concentration. The atmosphere of the planet that had so long been their home dissipated around them as Atlantis returned to the stars.
Elizabeth walked over to the platform, taking a step and touching the back of his hand. John opened his eyes, directing a smile up at her. "I passed the test," he announced proudly.
"There was a test?" Elizabeth posed, confused by his calm.
"Something in the city," he said as his eyes closed again. "We hadn't been deep enough before."
Elizabeth returned to the main floor, looking from Jack to Rodney in surprise. "Is that possible?"
Rodney shrugged, trying to make sense of it in his head. "Anything's possible when we know so little about Ancient technology," he admitted. "It seems probable that they might have left something in the computer to prevent just anyone from getting full access, and consider how much they depend on a mental component to run things..."
"John turned the key the right way in his head?" Jack translated, reaching over to pat John's shoulder proudly. "Good work, son."
The planet fell away to the left, a swirling blue ball smattered with white. On their left the Artemis was a tiny silver creature, like a bird seen from a plane. Jack waved slightly, mouthing hello to Carter when he thought no one was watching.
"So we have energy weapons?" Elizabeth asked, trying to keep herself caught up.
"Oh do we have energy weapons," Rodney held up his computer, grinning like he'd been giving the secrets of the universe. "We have twelve long-range cannons, like the one on that satellite. We also have two high powered ones that are either long-range, or just really powerful up close." He scrolled through his computer, staring through it.
"Oh my God," Rodney exclaimed suddenly. "Energy weapons, how could I..." he trailed off as he nearly ran towards the door. "I have an idea; just keep us flying until I figure it out."
John rolled his eyes towards the ceiling, willing the ship into a death-dance with the other city. Elizabeth returned to his side, craning her neck to watch the stars spin around them. "It's beautiful," she said to no one in particular.
Jack nodded behind her, startling her with a hand on her shoulder. "The universe might be cruel, heartless and down-right mean sometimes," he started philosophically, "But, it is lovely at the same time."
"John, are you okay?" Elizabeth wondered, peering down at him.
"I don't think I can tell you how cool this is," John said with complete awe. "I used to think a puddle jumper was as good as it got, but this...it's like being able to actually fly through space. I can feel the gravity of the planet, smell the space dust." He tore his eyes from the display long enough to wink at her. "This is why I became a pilot."
"He's gone..." Jack mocked with as serious of an expression as he could muster. "You'll never get him back."
Elizabeth touched his hair, reminding him that he had the best reasons to come back. "I'm going back to command," she told Jack because she knew he was listening. "I'll try to get Rodney to explain his idea to us mere mortals."
"Oh good luck with that," Jack wished her sardonically. "I've been trying to learn to speak Carter for ten years."
~*~*~*~*~*~
Two hours later, Elizabeth finally succeeded.
"We can use the original plan!" Rodney began, his hands shaking as he pointed to the diagram in the conference room. "The city has energy weapons, which is great, but the really interesting part involves the shield. If I tie together the emitters from the weapons systems and shield's ability to create an energy field I should be able to use our shields and weapons in concert..."
"Creating an energy wave that'll knock out the Replicators on the other ship," Carter finished for him from the communications station on the table. "Nicely done, McKay."
Pouting slightly that she'd stolen the end of his idea, Rodney sank back into his chair. "Of course, the downside is even if it works we might have to go through resetting the weapons and shields again."
"What are the chances of it not working?" Elizabeth demanded firmly, praying he'd have good news for her.
"Only ten...twenty percent," Rodney started to defend himself. "And even if the ARG part of it fails we're still hitting them with a massive pulse of energy. Assuming their systems are anything like ours..."
"...which they definitely seem to be," John finished for him, tapping his hand nervously on the table. Elizabeth stopped him by covering his hand. She had promised she'd send him back to the chair as soon as the meeting was done. Until then poor Carson was stuck with keeping Atlantis level in space.
"The city has stopped approaching us," Zelenka reported from his place at one of the corners of the huge table. "They might be waiting for something, setting a trap, who knows with Replicators."
"I'm afraid this time it's going to be our trap," Elizabeth decided. "Rodney, Zelenka, I want you two to figure it out. Do what you do best and reconnect everything you need to. Colonel Carter, I'd like you to keep an eye on them for us, stay as close as you can while maintaining a safe distance."
"Yes, Ma'am," Carter agreed from the radio. "I'll try to get my crew up to speed."
"How are Teyla and Ronon holding up?" John asked the radio. "Are they having fun?"
"Teyla's people are quick learners, I could use some Air Force Cadets that were this bright," Carter joked lightly. "Artemis out."
Jack stared at the radio a second longer than everyone else.
John left the table, ready to head back down to the chair room. Catching his shoulder by the door, Jack shook his head. "Let me relieve Beckett for awhile, I haven't got to try it yet."
"Yes, Sir," John agreed quietly, disappointment dancing across his face before he smiled. "Have fun Sir."
"Oh thank you," Jack returned cheerfully as he rubbed his hands together. "I intend to."
"No joyrides!" Elizabeth called after him, using the table to help pull herself to her feet. Her watch read just past oh-three-hundred hours. She'd intended to go to bed hours ago. The coffee from the mess hall sat neatly in the corner of the conference room. She knew she shouldn't, but exhaustion weighed on her mind. All the people who had filed out of the room before her were counting on her. John drove the city, Rodney solved the unsolvable problems, and she held it together.
She was alone. No one saw her fill the cup with black coffee and gulp it down. Silently apologizing to her unborn baby, Elizabeth wondered if her child would understand someday. Would her child have to make these decisions? Or by some grace unknown to her would her child have a chance to grow up in a peaceful galaxy? It seemed unlikely, considering that every galaxy they encountered seemed to be filled with another all powerful enemy.
Elizabeth filled her glass with water and drank it quickly. She was just in time when John poked his head around the door. "You coming back up to control?"
"Yeah, just needed a drink," she lied pathetically, feeling guilt knot her stomach.
John kissed her forehead, smiling at her hopefully. "You wanted a plan, and you got one," he said. His hands wrapped around her back, surprising her slightly.
"I did, didn't I?" Elizabeth returned his smile, hoping he didn't see the guilt in her eyes. "Should use the Replicators as a threat more often, seems easier to get things done that way."
"Not too often," John pleaded as he dug his fingers into the tight muscles of her lower back. "It'll just get old after awhile."
Elizabeth clung to him as the kneading of his fingers sent tension screaming out of her back. "God, who told you to do that?" she demanded breathlessly.
"Carson mentioned it might be killing you," John admitted with a proud smirk. "He's a smart guy." She moaned and leaned into his touch, reminding him what they'd been pulled away from when the Daedalus arrived. He let Elizabeth lean on his chest, enjoying the clean smell of her hair.
"Remind me to put you in for another promotion," Elizabeth teased gratefully, standing on her toes to kiss him. "Back to work?"
"I suppose we have to, don't we?" John said, catching her chin with strong fingers. "You okay?"
Elizabeth nodded her way out of his grasp. "Yeah," she promised. "It's just getting to be a long day."
"Sorry about that," he said, leading the way to back out into control. "I tried to talk them into attacking later in the day, it just didn't work out."
"Well, you did try..." Elizabeth replied, locking her fingers with his.
~*~*~*~*~
"They must have seen us through the magnetic field of the planet," Carter yelled over the explosions in the background of the radio signal. "We tried to run, but they took out our engines with the first shot."
"We'll be right there, Carter," Jack promised as he leaned over the communications console. "You just keep it in one piece until then."
Behind him Elizabeth whirled on Rodney. "Are we ready?" she urged, watching his hands fly over the console.
"I guess?" he said, fingers flying as he spoke. "Yes, yes I think so."
"If it doesn't work, can we go to hyperspace?" Elizabeth asked quietly, almost hoping he'd say no.
"Yeah, that shouldn't be a problem," Rodney assured her, not realizing completely what that meant. "The system's entirely separate from the ones we jury-rigged together."
Jack met her eyes, destroying her confidence with a glance. Elizabeth stared back as long as she could before shutting her eyes, knowing how she'd feel if the colonel in danger was John. "All right, John, Rodney," she paused, swaying slightly on her feet as her stomach lurched desperately. "Let's do it."
John took the ship briefly into hyperspace, sending a wave of distortion through everyone's vision. Elizabeth's exhausted eyes only added to her nausea. Praying she could hold it together until the battle was done; she tasted the metallic adrenaline in her throat.
Down in the control chair, John felt the displacement of hyperspace surge through his body before he let go. Dropping the city in impossibly close to the Replicator city, he put Atlantis between the enemy and the damaged Artemis. The blasts of the other ship's weapons slammed into the shield so hard his teeth rattled. He could feel the energy as if the city were part of his body; or rather he was part of it.
He felt Rodney's corrections; the differences in the city Rodney had left. it was kind of like trying to hit someone with both hands tied together in front of him. John left the shield up for one more volley. As the phantom pain rolled through his body he struck back, pouring all the energy he could summon into one massive wave of energy. It ripped through him, carrying his soul with it, as all that was him melted with all that was the city.
In space, Atlantis exploded with a wave of energy that raced out like an amoebic arm, encompassing and engulfing the other ship. The last shots of the Replicator vessel cut into three of the towers, spewing air and wreckage into space. As Atlantis vomited wreckage, the other city seized, like her heart had been torn from her chest.
He brought the shield back, forcing the circuits to handle the energy. The sensor started to report, itching at his mind. Without hearing Rodney's voice scream that ZPMs were about to overload, or looking at any of the data in front of him, John felt the death throes of the other city. Reaching out with the shields he cupped the Artemis, holding it safely beneath Atlantis as if he was holding a flower out of the rain.
The explosion ripped through space, sending heat, light, and raw energy pounding through his body. It ran over and through him, cracking across the shields he held forcibly in place. Elizabeth was beneath those shields and he'd die before anything happened to her. The city shared his wish, obediently sacrificing some of the other towers to keep the shields around her heart and the tiny form of the Artemis.
When the explosion faded into the blackness of space, he felt the Artemis limp inside on thrusters and momentum alone. John moved the great city to assist the ship's landing on the south pier. He pulled the city into a slow orbit of the Lantian star, letting it sleep.
John came out of the chair, sitting up and blinking his eyes. His own body felt small, confining and restrictive. His feet swung over the edge of the chair and he rolled out of it.
Major Lorne was waiting for him as he swayed to his feet. "You got them, Sir," he congratulated respectfully. "Nicely done."
"Didn't mean to blow them up," John said, rolling his head across his neck. He felt disconnected, like his feet were a poor substitute for thrusters.
"I think they deserved it, Sir," Lorne suggested as he moved up to the chair.
"Keep it warm for me?" John teased, starting down towards the door.
"That's why I'm here," Lorne quipped dryly, "To keep the city from falling into any black holes while you get some rest."
"That's thoughtful of you," John called back as he heard the chair come on. He felt tiny as he walked through the city. Like he'd been shrunk to the size of one of his cells and had to walk through his own blood vessels. He passed more scientists in the hall with damage control kits and the air smelt of smoke and burnt metal. Dragging himself up the stairs to command, John looked immediately for Elizabeth.
Rodney was dealing with computer system, helping Zelenka deal with the myriad repair requests flooding in from the city. He looked up briefly and nodded. "Nice explosion," he congratulated.
"I do what I can," John forced his feet to keep walking through the room.
"Have you seen Elizabeth?"
"Ahh," Rodney chirped sympathetically. "Bathroom down the way."
"Too much shaking," Zelenka added just as gently, "Or was it the smoke?"
Rodney raised his eyebrows and put up a finger to make his point; "It was the smoke, I think," he agreed. "General O'Neill went with her."
John looked across both men and felt like he was a walking target and no one had told him. "Thanks," he shrugged tentatively. Down more stairs and he found his way to the bathroom.
There was no sign of the general as he peered in shyly. Elizabeth was hunched over the sink, spitting water as she rinsed her mouth. Looking up at his worried expression in the mirror, her face fell. "Oh, hi," she said.
"I guess I made the ride a little too bumpy," John quipped as he pulled himself up to sit on the counter next to the sink. Leaning back against the steel mirror on the wall, he watched as her hand trembling slightly on the faucet. "You okay?"
"Maybe?" Elizabeth ventured as she rinsed out her mouth a second time. "I really was doing all right, it's just five in the morning now, and I haven't slept. The stars went flying past the window...I never used to get motion-sickness."
"You can't keep doing this Elizabeth," John urged her with deep concern. "You haven't slept, I haven't seen you eat since the popcorn. You're so tired flying with inertial dampeners is making your queasy."
"It's probably just me, making me queasy," Elizabeth admitted as she rubbed the tension from her temples. "We lost five people when tower six was hit, John. Another four died and twenty-three more were injured on the Artemis. Carson has everyone with any medical training down in the infirmary to give him a hand."
He slipped from the counter and caught her, wrapping his arms tightly around her back instead of saying anything. Elizabeth stood there for a moment, too exhausted to move. When her hands went around her neck, John knew everything was going to be all right. "Teyla? Ronon?" he asked down toward her head.
"They're okay," Elizabeth lifted her head and stared at his chest darkly. "Carter took a blow to the abdomen; she's on Carson's surgical list."
"And the general's down with her?" John asked rhetorically as she nodded.
"Carson has to take the nastier cases first," Elizabeth said, shaking her head. "He's going to come through this the worst for wear I'm afraid. There's just so much death."
"Not all of its death," he reminded her as he kissed her forehead. "You're okay, I'm okay...selfishly, I have to admit I'm feeling pretty good."
Elizabeth choked, but successfully fought off her tears. "Come with me down there, to the infirmary? I should be there for Jack."
"Yeah, okay," John agreed, watching her fight with her emotional control. "You know, it's okay if you aren't always..."
"I know," Elizabeth said, biting her lip against her exhaustion. "I just, can't."
"Okay," John whispered as he settled for taking her hand. "Maybe cafeteria first? I know eating's the last thing on your mind..." he drifted off, pulling her to a stop before she left the bathroom. "...Carson said you could lose the baby if you're not careful. I know I can't get you to sleep, but I won't let you keep going without eating something."
"All right John," Elizabeth agreed softly, feeling guilt wash over her for the coffee she'd had earlier. "I'll eat."