Unexpected by Oparu
Author's Chapter Notes: Carson finds the first city. Jack comes home. Teyla finds new uses for Earth technology. Chaya returns. This chapter jumps three weeks ahead in the middle but it's labled.
one hundred eighteen days after Earth
"I think you should go back," Sam suggested as she lifted her head from her hands. "Rodney and I will keep going. We'll drag the city out of the nebula and get it to a place where you can dial in from Ceol."
"And do what?" Rodney interrupted petulantly looking up from the Asgard computer core. "We don't have any idea how to fix the city. We're almost worse off because now we have some mumbo-jumbo from a suicidal alien that promises we'll figure it out."
"There has to be something we're missing," Sam mused. Jack tousled her hair as she stared at her computer screen and drew a glare that softened into an exhausted smile. "Rodney and I can figure it out, but I need you to go back and prepare everyone. If Thor's correct and I need people with the gene, you need to find them."
"So you and McKay get to do the geek stuff and I'll just round up villagers?"
Sam's expression turned apologetic. "We haven't been able to radio them..."
"...not my fault," Rodney interrupted quickly shaking his head to absolve himself. "So not my fault. You were the one who tried to link two transgalactic Stargates together in order to make a long distance phone call and completely blew out our communications system with the feedback."
"We need Coel to know what's going on," Sam's head dropped again and she sighed heavily. "If Thor's right..."
"...little guy usually was," Jack finished softly reaching for her shoulder and squeezing it. "
"We'll need more than McKay and I to fix the city. Daniel, Doctor Weir-" something dark flashed through her blue eyes but Jack pretended not to see it. "They both might be able to find something we can't. Some eccentricity of the Ancients we're missing. Something that will let us repair Atlantis." Frustration echoed through her being, radiating out from her shoulders and tightening her back.
"Elizabeth-" Rodney missed the involuntary tremor that ran through Sam's hands. "And Doctor Jackson are probably the two biggest experts on the Ancients. Besides, the crazy woman who lives there is an Ancient. She's not all there, but if she remembers how to play genetics with Carson, she might remember how to fix Atlantis."
"Jack," Sam started as she turned around. Her hand ran up his arm and he caught it when she reached his shoulder. "Do this for me. Find what I can't find, help me make this right because we're all so lost. If Atlantis is going to be what brings us together- what makes us whole again- help me save it."
Rodney would have given anything to melt into the computer console in front of them and leave them to their moment. He stared down, keeping his expression as neutral as possible. He could hear it when General O'Neill started to kiss her. She exhaled and fell into it. Clothing rustled and when Rodney stole a glance upward her arms were around his neck.
Holding up his portable computer up in front of his face, Rodney left through the nearly silent door out of the cargo bay and wondered if they heard him. He hoped not as he retreated towards the control center. Doctor Keller was sitting in the command seat in the center, taking her turn as the lighthouse keeper.
She jumped when he entered, but he'd never seen her not startle when anyone came into a room. It hadn't gotten better, either, in the weeks they'd been traveling.
"Rodney, sorry, I..."
"It's all right," Rodney offered as he headed for his favorite place at the science station. "I could have knocked."
"Are we okay?" Keller asked as he started to check the readings. "We're still going the right way? The Wraith aren't after us?"
"More the replicators in this galaxy," Rodney corrected without looking up. "But yes, everything's fine, the general and Colonel Carter are deciding how to send him back to the planet."
"Do you really think that's the best idea?" Keller asked as she tried not to touch anything near him that might set off an alarm of some kind.
"You can sit there," Rodney suggested as he pointed to one of the chairs nearby. "They move."
She smiled slightly and pulled it over to him. "What are you doing?"
"Trying to decode the Asgard hyperdrive technology, see if they know anything that might help us make what we have here more efficient." Rodney looked up and met her eyes just long enough to be polite and prove he wasn't ignoring her. "However, Ancient hyperdrive technology seems to be the best there is."
"Don't you hate it when you have the best?" Keller joked brightly and Rodney peered up at her in surprise.
"I usually do," he agreed with a quick nod.
"My brother's a geek," she explained as she rested her elbows on the edge of the controls. "Whenever he has the best of something he's bored with it."
"Transgalactic hyperdrive is the second fastest way to travel I know of, well, third maybe but that's debatable," he stared past her through the door down towards the cargo bay and wondered what it felt like to kiss Sam Carter. "Anyway," he pulled himself back and sighed. "Nineteen days back isn't too bad, right?"
"As long as we don't run out of MREs I'm good," Keller replied easily peering over his shoulder. "Don't feel like I'm doing much good though."
"You're a doctor," he argued as he logged into the Asgard database. One thing he did have to give them credit for was their neatly organized database. There were no pretentious holographic interfaces, no insane remnants from a time long past, and instead, logical lists of data. Calling up their weapons technology, Rodney started at the beginning and began to read.
"Want some freeze-dried nearly dreadful coffee?" Keller asked as she left her chair. "Maybe what passes for a turkey sandwich too?"
Rodney nodded without looking up and then turned. "Yeah, I think I'd like that."
"I'll be back."
He watched her go for a moment and regretted he haven't talked to her more often on the long trip over. "Hey," Rodney called suddenly. "Thanks."
Carson sighed and set down the rations John had make him take. He didn't need the food. His body was pulsing with a new energy that required no fuel. Running the distance to the old city, he stopped when he realized his feet weren't moving. He thought he was running but maybe he was going about it wrong.
Closing his eyes, Carson thought about the old city. He pictured himself running to the gates and the gate opening before him. He walked inside the old city in his mind.
When he opened his eyes, the gates of the old city were creaking open before him. The heavy wood was so old it looked like stone as it allowed him in. How long had this city sat unoccupied? The plants were gone, and there was no wind left to stir the dust that lay in the street.
He knew the way through. Carson could see the medical lab in his mind, but he liked the feel of his feet in the dust beneath him. He didn't breathe because the air would have been stale. This city, the old city, was so tired it didn't even feel him coming. None of the technology welcomed him home, but he could feel it start to stir as he got closer to the central tower.
Six arms circled a central tower of stone and metal. Six arms full of laboratories and storage centers, weapons lockers and barracks. This city was once home to thousands and children had run through these streets. When he reached the doorway and waved his hand over the crystals, pale blue light flashed within them. The transporter had barely enough power to carry him, but it was a formality anyway.
He walked inside and closed his eyes. The transporter was too old to move him, but Carson no longer needed such primitive methods of motion. When he opened his eyes, he was home. The lab in the old city was so familiar that he could have been on Atlantis. The tissue-thin dust cloths still covered the consoles inside but he removed them with a thought.
The computers were still running patiently. Carson could feel the power coursing behind the walls. It was weak and tired, like the last few beats of a dying heart, but it would work for him. Everything would work for him.
Imprimis, the first of all cities, welcomed him home as best it could. The worn keys on the computer in front of him reminded him of the skin of his grandmother's hands when she hugged him to her chest. He didn't need to type. He didn't need to activate the computer. Carson felt the threads of power running through from what was left of the ZPMs to the extremities of the city. He brought them to his computer and felt his way in.
"You gonna be okay?" Jack asked as he held onto the back of her neck.
Sam lowered her head back to his shoulder but nodded slightly. "I'm okay," she murmured faintly as she pulled back and smiled. "I've been okay with you gone before."
"Maybe I won't be okay," he teased and slid his hand down around her neck to rest on her stomach. "This has been hard for both of us."
"Jack-" Sam caught his hand and tried to pull it away, but he held it steady.
"It's a going to happen, someday," Jack promised as he kissed her forehead. "You and me, we're just not quick at anything."
She was crying or laughing as she buried her head in his chest; Jack loved her more for trying. "Maybe we just need to fix the damn city and get settled, be in a better place and all that." Kissing her hair, he sighed away his own desire to cry. "I'll go back and get the kids ready to move back home. Tell John and Elizabeth their little camp out is done and it's time to get back to work."
"Jack," she started and stopped before she relaxed. "I can tap our ZPM long enough to let you dial Pegasus, but you'll have to be quick about it."
"I'll jog if I have too," he promised sardonically as he lifted his bag of possessions from their bed. Jack held the bag for a moment and then looked back at her. "Sure I can't convince you to crawl in here?"
Sam shook her head but her eyes were starting to smile.
"Just making sure," Jack answered his own question and slipped the bag over his shoulder. "What are you going to do with McKay?"
"Leave him and the Asgard database alone and hope they get along?" Sam ventured taking his hand as they walked towards the transporter Thor had been thoughtful enough to send over with the computer core. "We'll be all right. It's a good ship and I'm just starting to make her a friend."
Squeezing her fingers tighter, Jack grinned and pointed at the corridor in front of them. "I've always liked the 'getting to know you phase' of a relationship. Lets you ask all the right questions and learn to fall for your answers."
"I'll be able to fly circles around Teal'c when we see him again," Sam promised as she walked him over to the console. Grabbing him to kiss him, she made him grunt in surprise when her tongue broke into his mouth and made him forget his age.
Kissing her back like a teenager, Jack pinched her butt before releasing her. "See you in a couple weeks."
He saw her smile and wave her right hand before she activated the controls and sent him away in a flash of light. She'd be all right or at the very least hold it together until she was ready to deal with it. The clean air of the ship faded from his nose and when the light of the transporter went out he was standing on a rocky platform in the middle of nowhere.
It was an outpost. A transfer point between galaxies that had once been part of the Asgard-Lantian alliance. It had once been powered by an Asgard generator, but all Asgard technology had been destroyed in their final purge. All that was left of the once great race was in the cargo bay of the Artemis.
He picked up a rock and tossed it off into the distance. It bounced twice before disappearing into the mist. Jack sighed and waited for the Artemis to power the 'gate in front of him as he picked up another rock. Turning it over in his hands, he got ready to throw it when the beam of blue light poured through the clouds and illuminated the 'gate.
Hurrying over to the DHD, Jack wondered if he was really ready to chase a child. His legs were stiff and it took more effort than he liked to clamber up to the device. He was going to have to start jogging again, Jack decided as he started the eight symbol address.
He'd gotten lazy on the Artemis. Chasing after Sam when she fled his attempts coax her into talking was the most exercise he got on board. He was the general now. He didn't need to go off-world when he had youngsters like Sheppard and Mitchell to go through for him.
Jack was still musing about the last time he'd actually had to go on a mission off-world when the 'gate sucked him up and spat him out in the snow. The cold of the space between worlds faded into an even greater cold. Blowing snow assaulted his face and he sputtered as he lifted his hand to shield his eyes.
"Didn't think we had a Stargate in Minnesota," he muttered as he glanced around at the gun barrels leveled at him. "Or this many P-90s."
"Identify yourself," Someone called out from behind a scarf and a gun.
"General Jack O'Neill," he responded as he wrapped his arms tightly around his thin jacket. "Highest ranking sonofabitch left in three galaxies."
"Good enough," a voice he knew as Mitchell's decided and the weapons went down. "Come on, get inside before you're our newest welcome statue."
Stamping the snow from his clothes and rubbing his hands together for warmth, Jack started to feel the stinging sensation of blood coming back into his cheeks. "Next time we hide somewhere," he began to complain, "I pick the planet and it's going to be a tropical planet."
"Welcome home General," a softer voice wished him as someone brushed snow off his shoulder behind him. "I am sorry we couldn't have better weather for you."
"You should be," he removed his jacket and shook it out. "Though I guess you didn't have a way to warn me."
"You haven't called in awhile," Elizabeth teased as she held up a cup of hot tea and waited for him to turn around and take it. "We've been worried."
"You know how it is," Jack sighed turning towards her as he tossed his jacket over a chair and watched his welcoming committee taking off their winter clothes. He recognized Major Lorne and the very tall man with wild hair who was known as Ronon. Sheppard was circling him to get closer to Elizabeth, removing his hat and coat as he went. "Get busy, hang out a little too late with some friends, and the time change is insane between galaxies."
He took the tea gratefully and wrapped his hands around the warm wood as he started to smile. "Elizabeth--" he began without being able to finish. His eyes flew over her body as his mouth shut abruptly. "This is new." He gestured towards the prominent swell of her belly and shrugged in surprise before he started to smile. "How you doing?"
"I'm okay," she promised shyly staring back at him as she tried not to blush.
Jack lifted an elbow towards her belly and shook his head. "You look great," he murmured as he looked her over again. "I didn't think I was gone that long. And you gentlemen, run out of razors while I've been gone?"
Major Lorne smirked and rubbed the beard on his chin. "Nearly that, sir," he explained lightly. "Water needs to be rationed ever since our wells started to freeze over."
"Seems like Mitchell and Sheppard found the time-" Jack teased and tried not to show just how thrilled he was to see his family.
"They had to," Ronon answered simply tucking his gun into the holster on his leg as he shook snow out of his long dreads. Jack marveled at the way the Pegasus native seemed to be unchanged. A month wasn't that long, but everyone, even Elizabeth, looked thinner. Their faces were tighter and slightly pinched around the eyes. Maybe he'd been too protected on the Artemis, but everyone on his- Sam's- crew didn't look like this.
Sheppard ran a hand through his unruly hair and tried to silence Lorne with a look. Jack's eyes followed the look and landed on Mitchell, who's face was purposely vacant. Deciding to pass up the obvious chance to make fun of John, he attacked the man who had taken his place as leader of SG-1.
"So," Jack cracked his fingers lazily. "I can guess why John's been keeping up with his shaving...but you Mitchell?"
Cameron rolled his head on his neck and finally smiled. "I'm getting hitched, sir," he answered shamelessly. "Seems there's something else in the water here, General, that causes a bit more excitement than shaving."
"I'm afraid I'm fresh out of shotguns," Jack began sardonically watching Elizabeth's hand move over her belly. He could tell from the faraway look in her eyes that the baby was moving inside of her.
"Is he insinuating what I think he's trying to be clever about?" Jack asked as he watched fascinated as Elizabeth bit her lip in concentration. She stopped with her hand on her left side, just above her navel.
Suppressing the tears in his eyes, Jack had just enough time to smile before he felt himself get grabbed from behind. Losing Elizabeth, he bear-hugged Daniel in return. "It's good to see you too," he patted Daniel's back and grinned. "Been up to no good?"
"You could say that," Cameron teased and Daniel started to blush.
"All right!" Jack demanded as he looked from wicked grin to wicked grin on the faces of his family. "What have you done now? Both of you! Out with it!"
Ronon and Lorne shared a look and the Satedan's white teeth flashed. Cameron and Daniel looked sheepish and neither of them managed to speak.
"How about dinner?" John interrupted the three-way staring contest and cut through the tension in the room. "We were just getting ready to head down there when the 'gate started to activate."
Jack watched as John's hand slid beneath Elizabeth's for a moment and her lips curled into a smile. So some things were good here. There was a hole just above the waist in Cameron's t-shirt and it was nearly big enough to put a gun barrel through. Lorne's BDUs were worn to the point that his pants were grey instead of black but there wasn't a planet to call for resupplying.
"How were the Asgard?" Elizabeth wondered as she fell in between John and Jack in the narrow tunnel of canvas beneath the snow.
"Busy," Jack muttered as he ducked a low point in the ceiling. "They've been busy little guys."
"Any luck with Atlantis?" John asked and Jack felt the insecurity in his voice. "Can the Asgard help us?"
"They gave us what they could," Jack answered as he felt the disappointed look on Elizabeth's face cut into him. "Maybe we should all eat first."
"How did you find me?" Mab asked without turning around. "It shouldn't have been easy. I've had years of practice covering my tracks. Burying myself in the deepest, darkest holes I could find so no one would see me. Not my daughter, not my people--" She lifted her frail human body from her chair and smiled as she turned. "You're not who I thought."
Teyla smelled her fear in the air and tilted her head to take it in better. "You expected Carson," she murmured as she took a step further into the cavern. Damp stone squeaked beneath her feet as she advanced slowly, grinning with terrible teeth. "You thought he'd find you."
"Hoped," Mab corrected calmly, Teyla was no threat to her. "What do you want, creature?"
"The answers to all of your petty little questions," Teyla replied in a growl. She extended her mental abilities, feeling out other queen's strengths. The mind in front of her was roiling like a great ocean. Mab didn't really understand the weakness she had; how easy it would be for Teyla to slip her way into inside and take over.
"They are not your answers, creature," Mab spat and Teyla smelled the sweetness of fear give way to something more dangerous. Burns were the one thing they couldn't regenerate easily and perhaps that was why the smell of ash still made her wince. She didn't have much time.
Mab knew the attack was coming. Teyla could see it in her eyes. The whole fight could have been over within that space between them. One winning, one walking away and the other joining the dust and the dampness on the floor of the cave. Impossibly black eyes stared down a mirror image full of hate and betrayal.
Teyla lifted her arm and it froze in midair, as if the air itself had become stone around her. She couldn't move. Sweat beaded up on Mab's forehead. It boiled, evaporating as her hair started to burst into flame.
Teyla was losing. She couldn't fight the fire. She couldn't break Mab's hold on her arm. She wasn't quite strong enough. She was going to die, burning into a crisp and falling to ash at Mab's feet.
Then the fire was out, snuffed; gone into smoke around her and Mab fell to her knees.
"I thought we agreed you wouldn't try this?" Michael reprimanded her as he dropped the glowing blue and steel disc to the floor of the cave. "Like it?" he purred superiorly as he nudged it with his foot. "Found it in the ruins of a little place on Earth. Originally it was used to suppress the mental abilities of the Ori priors but a little bit of a modification and--" He started to smile as the smell of smoke faded from the room. "She's all yours."
Teyla reached down and caught the fabric of Mab's simple black dress. Using that to drag her to her feet, she stared her down just long enough to see surprise flash through her victim's eyes. Tearing the fabric open, Teyla lovingly caressed her way down the bare skin of Mab's neck and wondered what it would feel like to feed on an Ancient.
In the part of her mind that had been Teyla Emmagen, she wept for the Ancestor she was about to kill. The Wraith Queen within her shivered with anticipation of what was to come. Resting her hand between the breasts on Mab's naked chest, Teyla leaned down and kissed her forehead with cold lips.
"In a moment, we will understand," Teyla whispered as she felt the blood begin to flow hot against her palm. "We will understand together."
Jack watched as the plates disappeared from the long wooden table. John kissed Elizabeth's forehead and blushed when she made him kiss her again. "I'll see you after my briefing?"
"Stay warm," she warned and watched him leave with Lorne and Ronon.
Jack leaned forward onto his elbows and stared down at his mug. "Keeping everything together?"
"Best we can," Elizabeth shrugged and picked at the piece of bread she had left of dinner. "John's been coordinating the search teams. Major Lorne and Colonel Mitchell have been trying to find supplies, trade partners; anything that can help us."
"Any luck?"Jack wondered as he swirled his mug of what passed for beer on Ceol.
"Sometimes we bring home more refugees," Elizabeth replied darkly tearing a piece of crust off her bread. "The galaxy's not exactly a safe place. I doubt life in the Pegasus galaxy has ever been easy, even before we awakened the Wraith. We've heard only scattered stories of new queens who leave nothing behind."
Jack finished his beer and stood to reach one of the pitchers further down the table. "I thought the Wraith had a bit of trouble with the Pegasus replicators."
She nodded and smiled wistfully at his beer. "Last we heard from Teal'c, he thought there were forty hive ships remaining."
"Forty," he repeated thoughtfully. "Sounds easy enough. That makes it ten to one. Not bad for humans really." Jack grinned at his beer mouthed his apologies before staring down at her belly. "You got big," he offered simply as her blush made her smile.
"It's been the strangest experience of my life," Elizabeth admitted as she stared down at her own changed body. "Being possessed by a violent alien, and meeting my ten-thousand-year-old-self are paling in comparison."
"From what I've heard, the violent alien still had quite a thing for John," Jack teased as he studied her smile. "Move around on you a lot?"
Elizabeth nodded as she let him help her to her feet. Making a face as she awkwardly dragged her legs over the bench, she caught him biting back a laugh. "John usually finds it pretty funny when I get out of bed."
"I do seem to remember you being more graceful," Jack admitted as he let go only to immediately take her hand again when he questioned her balance on the rough stone floor. "How many do we have now?" he wondered as they passed the nearly continuous line for food.
"Counting the villagers, and the refugees from other planets, just over two thousand," Elizabeth explained as she smiled her way down the line and through the crowd in the corridor. Jack watched as everyone acknowledged her, children and adults. Someone in uniform, Corporal Villard, saluted him and then he was recognized. Jack nodded behind Elizabeth, starting to understand what she must go through every day. Her presence was all the reinforcements anyone on this planet had.
"How long has the queen been gone?" Jack asked when the people around them thinned on the way back to control.
"Just over two weeks, but I don't think the Wraith have realized she's gone," Elizabeth sighed and he caught regret in her eyes. "We lost Carson two days ago. She left something behind in her notes, he started to ascend..."
"...ascensions a crock sometimes isn't it?"
"He was looking for answers," Elizabeth explained as she pointed Jack through the canvas tunnel back to control. "Queen Mab denied herself ascension for thousands of years because she was trying to find something. Something so important she was willing to give up her life and her sanity to search for it. I think it's what Carson's looking for now."
"See, that's what I just can't stand about the damn Ancients," Jack complained as he settled on the edge of her desk. "Left every galaxy they touched a mess and disappeared leaving us to pick up the pieces and take care of their mistakes."
"What mistakes would we have made in their place?" Elizabeth asked him as she took his hand. Jack hesitated, but she placed his hand anyway. Beneath her flesh and his fingers the baby stirred, like his son once had; Charlie had lived and died a lifetime ago. "What kind of world were we leaving on Earth? In our world the greatest discovery of our time had to be kept so secret we couldn't even use it to save our people." Her fingers were tight on his hand and Jack recognized the stubborn lines on her forehead.
"We're going to make a better world than that, Jack," Elizabeth promised with iron sincerity. Jack felt his eyes sting and he realized she saw through to his pain.
"Sam and I, we tried, she lost-"
Elizabeth's cool fingers touched his cheek. When he was defeated by angry tears that he'd held back, her lips were warm and her arms were comforting. "I am so sorry." Her hair smelled like wood smoke and her arms were tight around his back. There was no justice in it; no peace for either of them in the sea of grief around them.
"You'll try again," she murmured with her head on his chest. "If we give the Ancients a second chance, the least we can do is extend ourselves that kindness."
one hundred forty-one days after Earth
"They no longer feed on just the people," Ronon raised his hand high and dust fell from his palm like ash onto the table. "The entire planet, all of Manara, is dust and sand."
"How do we know this isn't a weapon they fire from orbit?" Elizabeth asked as her chest went tight and cold. John stood behind Ronon, hands folded across his chest. His chin was in his hand and she could share his thoughts in his soft eyes. Manara was one of their last trading partners. Of all the named planets, those that had traded with them, most of them were falling to the new Wraith.
"We brought this," Lorne gestured with his head and two of his marines dragged forward a piece of what had once been a great tree. The bark was grey and dead, as if it had sat dead for centuries. In the center of the piece they set before Elizabeth and Jack was a single handprint, burned white into the flesh of the tree. "Each tree, every plant, the streams, the lakes and rivers, even the air is dead."
"The planet is a tomb, just like the last two," Ronon added darkly as he slammed his gun onto the table. "Never in my lifetime, or the history of my people, or in any story that I have ever heard told, have the Wraith fed on anything but humans. They come, they take what they want and they leave to come again. This time they are not coming back." Elizabeth saw the tendons in his neck grow taunt and his eyes burn with a desperation she'd hadn't seen since he had come to Atlantis.
"I've been reading the oldest texts," Daniel began from behind Jack. Elizabeth watched as his hands touched the whitened wood. "In the beginning the Alterrans came to this galaxy with one city-ship. That was the first of its kind, called Imprimis. It was so old at the time of the Wraith war, that it was left to ruin. From what I've read I don't think it was the city Colonel Sheppard's team found three years ago, that one was too similar to Atlantis."
"Wait," Jack sat back in his chair and looked over at Daniel. "I thought Atlantis itself was already millions of years old."
"Imprimis is the prototype," Daniel explained as he lifted his hand from the wood. "It predates the Wraith, the Asurans, the replicators and the Goa'uld. Imprimis quite literally was the beginning."
"Okay, Daniel," Jack set his arms on the table and stared at his hands. "What does that mean to me? It's a fantastic vacation spot?"
"It means the answers are there," Daniel's voice was soft and confident and out of everyone in the room, he was the only one who still had hope in his voice as he spoke. "Maybe even the answers to the questions we don't know how to ask yet."
"Does your old city know why the Wraith now drain the life of entire planets?" Ronon demanded as he lifted his gun and shoved it back into the holster at his hip. "Why they took Teyla? Why the Asurans attacked Earth instead of the Wraith?"
"You can't steal or sell a thing until you know why someone else would want it," Vala answered from the corner. "What do the Wraith want Atlantis? Why do the Asurans build technology in exactly the same form as the Ancients? What do the Ancients want? Are they still listening?"
"Is there a god?" Daniel added thoughtfully. "Jack, I'll keep reading, but I think the old city is something we should explore."
Jack looked to Elizabeth waited for her to nod. John stared through to her and when he spoke the room grew quiet around him. Elizabeth felt the weight of his thoughts before he added them. "We should hear from the Artemis tomorrow, with Queen Mab gone we cannot defend this planet. We need to get everyone back to Atlantis before the Wraith realize where we are."
His eyes dropped to her belly and Elizabeth knew what he was thinking. Whether or not Atlantis was designed to hold families, raising their child there was deeply preferable than in tents and old castles, constantly on the run from the Wraith.
When she looked away from John, Jack was waiting for her to reply. Elizabeth started to speak, but the alarm came from outside the tent. The shrieking siren was followed by the sound of everyone getting to their feet. The rustling of clothing fell beneath the sound of metal on metal as the quiet meeting suddenly bristled with weapons. John retreated from the doorway towards Elizabeth, but she saw the nod that passed between Jack and her lover.
Her right hand dropped to the pistol John insisted she carry and her left hand wrapped anxiously around her belly. Sensing her nervousness, her child kicked the inside of her ribs hard enough to make her startle. Jack settled his P90 in his hands and Elizabeth wondered if it would be this way for the rest of her life. If every unauthorized gate activation would send her running for a rifle to protect her family.
Chuck was waiting in the control room. "It's Proculus ma'am, we got a garbled message, then the light appeared." He pointed to the protected courtyard.
"More refugees?" Jack murmured as he kept her behind him. Elizabeth saw a cloud of light settle in front of the 'gate. The light condensed, forming a figure with ashy white hair. The green dress she wore was vaguely familiar and when she turned to shut off the 'gate with a wave of her hand, Elizabeth realized who she was.
Chaya's hair was completely white and she collapsed to the snow as if her bones had been removed from her body. John and Lorne went to her as Cameron started to ask for medical assistance. Elizabeth watched as John lifted the dying woman from the snow and started bringing her in.
He only got as far as the table in the meeting room before she tried to stand. John set her down as she struggled and Elizabeth remembered how smitten Chaya had been with him. He'd mentioned kissing her once and a tiny corner of Elizabeth's mind felt a pang of jealousy. She'd held onto it because it was normal. It was crazy, but it was something other than fear.
The Ancient coughed and Elizabeth saw blood on the dry skin of her lips. "I've never seen a queen like that," she reached for John and dug gnarled fingers into his shirt. "I- I brought down one of her ships, but she destroyed my system, walked right through my defenses." Her eyes were yellowed with age and the rims of her eyes were red to the point of bleeding. The front of her dress was torn open and the bloody handprint on her chest was indicative how she'd been fed on.
"She let me go-" Chaya sputtered as John tried to calm her down enough to get her to the infirmary. "Teyla- Teyla- she walked through my abilities like I wasn't-" Her breath shudder in her chest, rattling dryly through nearly dead lungs.
"It's all right," John repeated softly.
Elizabeth shivered, feeling goose flesh forming on her arms as she crossed them over her chest. Mab made her feel like she was on fire whenever they were in the same room. Carson had the same effect once he had started to ascend, but this time she was ice cold. Jack touched her shoulder when her teeth started to chatter.
Ronon was turning a knife over and over in his hand. The steel moved so quickly that Elizabeth couldn't see his fingers moving the blade.
Chaya tried to choke her last words out of her cracked lips. "She let me go Sheppard, she knew- she knew-" Chaya's eyes went glassy and still. Elizabeth was still shivering as she felt Chaya pass on. In the sudden quiet, she felt warmth seep back into her body.
John stood up suddenly realizing what she was saying. "Deactivate the 'gate!" he ordered suddenly prying Chaya's hand from his shirt and running towards the Stargate. "Shut it down."
Chuck obeyed immediately and Evan helped him start taking apart the dialing device.
"Teyla knew Chaya would be able to find us," John turned back to explain in a low voice. "Thats why she stopped feeding before the end. Chaya would want to warn us."
"Call the Daedalus," Elizabeth ordered as the weight of John's realization settled into her stomach.
John was already running to the control room and Jack set down his P90 to follow. Simon arrived slightly out of breath with his medical team and he only showed his surprise for a moment before he and his team started to move her to a stretcher and cover her with a sheet.
Elizabeth remembered when he would have been shocked by the handprint on Chaya chest. She had known a Simon who would have been shaken by what he saw.
Now he touched her shoulder with concern. "Everyone else okay?" Simon asked softly.
"So far," Elizabeth answered as she tried to force herself to smile. "Thank you."
"Elizabeth-" John's voice cut though the canvas between her and the control room. Ducking through into that part of the tent, her heart skipped a beat as she looked from John to everyone around him.
"Caldwell just radioed down," John's voice was flat and he couldn't look away from her. "Four hive ships have just come out of hyperspace at the edge of the solar system."
"Don't suppose we have one of those spiffy chairs?" Jack asked lightly.
"The only defense this planet has can only be accessed by an Ascended being," Daniel explained as Vala wrapped her arms around his waist and clung to him. "We might have enough time to dial out before they can dial in but-"
John's face went slack with surprise as the Daedalus comm officer spoke into his headset. Elizabeth couldn't read him for a moment, but his smile was unmistakable. "Something else just appeared."
"And?" Jack demanded as he waved his hand impatiently.
"They haven't made contact yet," John tried not to look too excited. "It looks like Atlantis."
"I think you should go back," Sam suggested as she lifted her head from her hands. "Rodney and I will keep going. We'll drag the city out of the nebula and get it to a place where you can dial in from Ceol."
"And do what?" Rodney interrupted petulantly looking up from the Asgard computer core. "We don't have any idea how to fix the city. We're almost worse off because now we have some mumbo-jumbo from a suicidal alien that promises we'll figure it out."
"There has to be something we're missing," Sam mused. Jack tousled her hair as she stared at her computer screen and drew a glare that softened into an exhausted smile. "Rodney and I can figure it out, but I need you to go back and prepare everyone. If Thor's correct and I need people with the gene, you need to find them."
"So you and McKay get to do the geek stuff and I'll just round up villagers?"
Sam's expression turned apologetic. "We haven't been able to radio them..."
"...not my fault," Rodney interrupted quickly shaking his head to absolve himself. "So not my fault. You were the one who tried to link two transgalactic Stargates together in order to make a long distance phone call and completely blew out our communications system with the feedback."
"We need Coel to know what's going on," Sam's head dropped again and she sighed heavily. "If Thor's right..."
"...little guy usually was," Jack finished softly reaching for her shoulder and squeezing it. "
"We'll need more than McKay and I to fix the city. Daniel, Doctor Weir-" something dark flashed through her blue eyes but Jack pretended not to see it. "They both might be able to find something we can't. Some eccentricity of the Ancients we're missing. Something that will let us repair Atlantis." Frustration echoed through her being, radiating out from her shoulders and tightening her back.
"Elizabeth-" Rodney missed the involuntary tremor that ran through Sam's hands. "And Doctor Jackson are probably the two biggest experts on the Ancients. Besides, the crazy woman who lives there is an Ancient. She's not all there, but if she remembers how to play genetics with Carson, she might remember how to fix Atlantis."
"Jack," Sam started as she turned around. Her hand ran up his arm and he caught it when she reached his shoulder. "Do this for me. Find what I can't find, help me make this right because we're all so lost. If Atlantis is going to be what brings us together- what makes us whole again- help me save it."
Rodney would have given anything to melt into the computer console in front of them and leave them to their moment. He stared down, keeping his expression as neutral as possible. He could hear it when General O'Neill started to kiss her. She exhaled and fell into it. Clothing rustled and when Rodney stole a glance upward her arms were around his neck.
Holding up his portable computer up in front of his face, Rodney left through the nearly silent door out of the cargo bay and wondered if they heard him. He hoped not as he retreated towards the control center. Doctor Keller was sitting in the command seat in the center, taking her turn as the lighthouse keeper.
She jumped when he entered, but he'd never seen her not startle when anyone came into a room. It hadn't gotten better, either, in the weeks they'd been traveling.
"Rodney, sorry, I..."
"It's all right," Rodney offered as he headed for his favorite place at the science station. "I could have knocked."
"Are we okay?" Keller asked as he started to check the readings. "We're still going the right way? The Wraith aren't after us?"
"More the replicators in this galaxy," Rodney corrected without looking up. "But yes, everything's fine, the general and Colonel Carter are deciding how to send him back to the planet."
"Do you really think that's the best idea?" Keller asked as she tried not to touch anything near him that might set off an alarm of some kind.
"You can sit there," Rodney suggested as he pointed to one of the chairs nearby. "They move."
She smiled slightly and pulled it over to him. "What are you doing?"
"Trying to decode the Asgard hyperdrive technology, see if they know anything that might help us make what we have here more efficient." Rodney looked up and met her eyes just long enough to be polite and prove he wasn't ignoring her. "However, Ancient hyperdrive technology seems to be the best there is."
"Don't you hate it when you have the best?" Keller joked brightly and Rodney peered up at her in surprise.
"I usually do," he agreed with a quick nod.
"My brother's a geek," she explained as she rested her elbows on the edge of the controls. "Whenever he has the best of something he's bored with it."
"Transgalactic hyperdrive is the second fastest way to travel I know of, well, third maybe but that's debatable," he stared past her through the door down towards the cargo bay and wondered what it felt like to kiss Sam Carter. "Anyway," he pulled himself back and sighed. "Nineteen days back isn't too bad, right?"
"As long as we don't run out of MREs I'm good," Keller replied easily peering over his shoulder. "Don't feel like I'm doing much good though."
"You're a doctor," he argued as he logged into the Asgard database. One thing he did have to give them credit for was their neatly organized database. There were no pretentious holographic interfaces, no insane remnants from a time long past, and instead, logical lists of data. Calling up their weapons technology, Rodney started at the beginning and began to read.
"Want some freeze-dried nearly dreadful coffee?" Keller asked as she left her chair. "Maybe what passes for a turkey sandwich too?"
Rodney nodded without looking up and then turned. "Yeah, I think I'd like that."
"I'll be back."
He watched her go for a moment and regretted he haven't talked to her more often on the long trip over. "Hey," Rodney called suddenly. "Thanks."
Carson sighed and set down the rations John had make him take. He didn't need the food. His body was pulsing with a new energy that required no fuel. Running the distance to the old city, he stopped when he realized his feet weren't moving. He thought he was running but maybe he was going about it wrong.
Closing his eyes, Carson thought about the old city. He pictured himself running to the gates and the gate opening before him. He walked inside the old city in his mind.
When he opened his eyes, the gates of the old city were creaking open before him. The heavy wood was so old it looked like stone as it allowed him in. How long had this city sat unoccupied? The plants were gone, and there was no wind left to stir the dust that lay in the street.
He knew the way through. Carson could see the medical lab in his mind, but he liked the feel of his feet in the dust beneath him. He didn't breathe because the air would have been stale. This city, the old city, was so tired it didn't even feel him coming. None of the technology welcomed him home, but he could feel it start to stir as he got closer to the central tower.
Six arms circled a central tower of stone and metal. Six arms full of laboratories and storage centers, weapons lockers and barracks. This city was once home to thousands and children had run through these streets. When he reached the doorway and waved his hand over the crystals, pale blue light flashed within them. The transporter had barely enough power to carry him, but it was a formality anyway.
He walked inside and closed his eyes. The transporter was too old to move him, but Carson no longer needed such primitive methods of motion. When he opened his eyes, he was home. The lab in the old city was so familiar that he could have been on Atlantis. The tissue-thin dust cloths still covered the consoles inside but he removed them with a thought.
The computers were still running patiently. Carson could feel the power coursing behind the walls. It was weak and tired, like the last few beats of a dying heart, but it would work for him. Everything would work for him.
Imprimis, the first of all cities, welcomed him home as best it could. The worn keys on the computer in front of him reminded him of the skin of his grandmother's hands when she hugged him to her chest. He didn't need to type. He didn't need to activate the computer. Carson felt the threads of power running through from what was left of the ZPMs to the extremities of the city. He brought them to his computer and felt his way in.
"You gonna be okay?" Jack asked as he held onto the back of her neck.
Sam lowered her head back to his shoulder but nodded slightly. "I'm okay," she murmured faintly as she pulled back and smiled. "I've been okay with you gone before."
"Maybe I won't be okay," he teased and slid his hand down around her neck to rest on her stomach. "This has been hard for both of us."
"Jack-" Sam caught his hand and tried to pull it away, but he held it steady.
"It's a going to happen, someday," Jack promised as he kissed her forehead. "You and me, we're just not quick at anything."
She was crying or laughing as she buried her head in his chest; Jack loved her more for trying. "Maybe we just need to fix the damn city and get settled, be in a better place and all that." Kissing her hair, he sighed away his own desire to cry. "I'll go back and get the kids ready to move back home. Tell John and Elizabeth their little camp out is done and it's time to get back to work."
"Jack," she started and stopped before she relaxed. "I can tap our ZPM long enough to let you dial Pegasus, but you'll have to be quick about it."
"I'll jog if I have too," he promised sardonically as he lifted his bag of possessions from their bed. Jack held the bag for a moment and then looked back at her. "Sure I can't convince you to crawl in here?"
Sam shook her head but her eyes were starting to smile.
"Just making sure," Jack answered his own question and slipped the bag over his shoulder. "What are you going to do with McKay?"
"Leave him and the Asgard database alone and hope they get along?" Sam ventured taking his hand as they walked towards the transporter Thor had been thoughtful enough to send over with the computer core. "We'll be all right. It's a good ship and I'm just starting to make her a friend."
Squeezing her fingers tighter, Jack grinned and pointed at the corridor in front of them. "I've always liked the 'getting to know you phase' of a relationship. Lets you ask all the right questions and learn to fall for your answers."
"I'll be able to fly circles around Teal'c when we see him again," Sam promised as she walked him over to the console. Grabbing him to kiss him, she made him grunt in surprise when her tongue broke into his mouth and made him forget his age.
Kissing her back like a teenager, Jack pinched her butt before releasing her. "See you in a couple weeks."
He saw her smile and wave her right hand before she activated the controls and sent him away in a flash of light. She'd be all right or at the very least hold it together until she was ready to deal with it. The clean air of the ship faded from his nose and when the light of the transporter went out he was standing on a rocky platform in the middle of nowhere.
It was an outpost. A transfer point between galaxies that had once been part of the Asgard-Lantian alliance. It had once been powered by an Asgard generator, but all Asgard technology had been destroyed in their final purge. All that was left of the once great race was in the cargo bay of the Artemis.
He picked up a rock and tossed it off into the distance. It bounced twice before disappearing into the mist. Jack sighed and waited for the Artemis to power the 'gate in front of him as he picked up another rock. Turning it over in his hands, he got ready to throw it when the beam of blue light poured through the clouds and illuminated the 'gate.
Hurrying over to the DHD, Jack wondered if he was really ready to chase a child. His legs were stiff and it took more effort than he liked to clamber up to the device. He was going to have to start jogging again, Jack decided as he started the eight symbol address.
He'd gotten lazy on the Artemis. Chasing after Sam when she fled his attempts coax her into talking was the most exercise he got on board. He was the general now. He didn't need to go off-world when he had youngsters like Sheppard and Mitchell to go through for him.
Jack was still musing about the last time he'd actually had to go on a mission off-world when the 'gate sucked him up and spat him out in the snow. The cold of the space between worlds faded into an even greater cold. Blowing snow assaulted his face and he sputtered as he lifted his hand to shield his eyes.
"Didn't think we had a Stargate in Minnesota," he muttered as he glanced around at the gun barrels leveled at him. "Or this many P-90s."
"Identify yourself," Someone called out from behind a scarf and a gun.
"General Jack O'Neill," he responded as he wrapped his arms tightly around his thin jacket. "Highest ranking sonofabitch left in three galaxies."
"Good enough," a voice he knew as Mitchell's decided and the weapons went down. "Come on, get inside before you're our newest welcome statue."
Stamping the snow from his clothes and rubbing his hands together for warmth, Jack started to feel the stinging sensation of blood coming back into his cheeks. "Next time we hide somewhere," he began to complain, "I pick the planet and it's going to be a tropical planet."
"Welcome home General," a softer voice wished him as someone brushed snow off his shoulder behind him. "I am sorry we couldn't have better weather for you."
"You should be," he removed his jacket and shook it out. "Though I guess you didn't have a way to warn me."
"You haven't called in awhile," Elizabeth teased as she held up a cup of hot tea and waited for him to turn around and take it. "We've been worried."
"You know how it is," Jack sighed turning towards her as he tossed his jacket over a chair and watched his welcoming committee taking off their winter clothes. He recognized Major Lorne and the very tall man with wild hair who was known as Ronon. Sheppard was circling him to get closer to Elizabeth, removing his hat and coat as he went. "Get busy, hang out a little too late with some friends, and the time change is insane between galaxies."
He took the tea gratefully and wrapped his hands around the warm wood as he started to smile. "Elizabeth--" he began without being able to finish. His eyes flew over her body as his mouth shut abruptly. "This is new." He gestured towards the prominent swell of her belly and shrugged in surprise before he started to smile. "How you doing?"
"I'm okay," she promised shyly staring back at him as she tried not to blush.
Jack lifted an elbow towards her belly and shook his head. "You look great," he murmured as he looked her over again. "I didn't think I was gone that long. And you gentlemen, run out of razors while I've been gone?"
Major Lorne smirked and rubbed the beard on his chin. "Nearly that, sir," he explained lightly. "Water needs to be rationed ever since our wells started to freeze over."
"Seems like Mitchell and Sheppard found the time-" Jack teased and tried not to show just how thrilled he was to see his family.
"They had to," Ronon answered simply tucking his gun into the holster on his leg as he shook snow out of his long dreads. Jack marveled at the way the Pegasus native seemed to be unchanged. A month wasn't that long, but everyone, even Elizabeth, looked thinner. Their faces were tighter and slightly pinched around the eyes. Maybe he'd been too protected on the Artemis, but everyone on his- Sam's- crew didn't look like this.
Sheppard ran a hand through his unruly hair and tried to silence Lorne with a look. Jack's eyes followed the look and landed on Mitchell, who's face was purposely vacant. Deciding to pass up the obvious chance to make fun of John, he attacked the man who had taken his place as leader of SG-1.
"So," Jack cracked his fingers lazily. "I can guess why John's been keeping up with his shaving...but you Mitchell?"
Cameron rolled his head on his neck and finally smiled. "I'm getting hitched, sir," he answered shamelessly. "Seems there's something else in the water here, General, that causes a bit more excitement than shaving."
"I'm afraid I'm fresh out of shotguns," Jack began sardonically watching Elizabeth's hand move over her belly. He could tell from the faraway look in her eyes that the baby was moving inside of her.
"Is he insinuating what I think he's trying to be clever about?" Jack asked as he watched fascinated as Elizabeth bit her lip in concentration. She stopped with her hand on her left side, just above her navel.
Suppressing the tears in his eyes, Jack had just enough time to smile before he felt himself get grabbed from behind. Losing Elizabeth, he bear-hugged Daniel in return. "It's good to see you too," he patted Daniel's back and grinned. "Been up to no good?"
"You could say that," Cameron teased and Daniel started to blush.
"All right!" Jack demanded as he looked from wicked grin to wicked grin on the faces of his family. "What have you done now? Both of you! Out with it!"
Ronon and Lorne shared a look and the Satedan's white teeth flashed. Cameron and Daniel looked sheepish and neither of them managed to speak.
"How about dinner?" John interrupted the three-way staring contest and cut through the tension in the room. "We were just getting ready to head down there when the 'gate started to activate."
Jack watched as John's hand slid beneath Elizabeth's for a moment and her lips curled into a smile. So some things were good here. There was a hole just above the waist in Cameron's t-shirt and it was nearly big enough to put a gun barrel through. Lorne's BDUs were worn to the point that his pants were grey instead of black but there wasn't a planet to call for resupplying.
"How were the Asgard?" Elizabeth wondered as she fell in between John and Jack in the narrow tunnel of canvas beneath the snow.
"Busy," Jack muttered as he ducked a low point in the ceiling. "They've been busy little guys."
"Any luck with Atlantis?" John asked and Jack felt the insecurity in his voice. "Can the Asgard help us?"
"They gave us what they could," Jack answered as he felt the disappointed look on Elizabeth's face cut into him. "Maybe we should all eat first."
"How did you find me?" Mab asked without turning around. "It shouldn't have been easy. I've had years of practice covering my tracks. Burying myself in the deepest, darkest holes I could find so no one would see me. Not my daughter, not my people--" She lifted her frail human body from her chair and smiled as she turned. "You're not who I thought."
Teyla smelled her fear in the air and tilted her head to take it in better. "You expected Carson," she murmured as she took a step further into the cavern. Damp stone squeaked beneath her feet as she advanced slowly, grinning with terrible teeth. "You thought he'd find you."
"Hoped," Mab corrected calmly, Teyla was no threat to her. "What do you want, creature?"
"The answers to all of your petty little questions," Teyla replied in a growl. She extended her mental abilities, feeling out other queen's strengths. The mind in front of her was roiling like a great ocean. Mab didn't really understand the weakness she had; how easy it would be for Teyla to slip her way into inside and take over.
"They are not your answers, creature," Mab spat and Teyla smelled the sweetness of fear give way to something more dangerous. Burns were the one thing they couldn't regenerate easily and perhaps that was why the smell of ash still made her wince. She didn't have much time.
Mab knew the attack was coming. Teyla could see it in her eyes. The whole fight could have been over within that space between them. One winning, one walking away and the other joining the dust and the dampness on the floor of the cave. Impossibly black eyes stared down a mirror image full of hate and betrayal.
Teyla lifted her arm and it froze in midair, as if the air itself had become stone around her. She couldn't move. Sweat beaded up on Mab's forehead. It boiled, evaporating as her hair started to burst into flame.
Teyla was losing. She couldn't fight the fire. She couldn't break Mab's hold on her arm. She wasn't quite strong enough. She was going to die, burning into a crisp and falling to ash at Mab's feet.
Then the fire was out, snuffed; gone into smoke around her and Mab fell to her knees.
"I thought we agreed you wouldn't try this?" Michael reprimanded her as he dropped the glowing blue and steel disc to the floor of the cave. "Like it?" he purred superiorly as he nudged it with his foot. "Found it in the ruins of a little place on Earth. Originally it was used to suppress the mental abilities of the Ori priors but a little bit of a modification and--" He started to smile as the smell of smoke faded from the room. "She's all yours."
Teyla reached down and caught the fabric of Mab's simple black dress. Using that to drag her to her feet, she stared her down just long enough to see surprise flash through her victim's eyes. Tearing the fabric open, Teyla lovingly caressed her way down the bare skin of Mab's neck and wondered what it would feel like to feed on an Ancient.
In the part of her mind that had been Teyla Emmagen, she wept for the Ancestor she was about to kill. The Wraith Queen within her shivered with anticipation of what was to come. Resting her hand between the breasts on Mab's naked chest, Teyla leaned down and kissed her forehead with cold lips.
"In a moment, we will understand," Teyla whispered as she felt the blood begin to flow hot against her palm. "We will understand together."
Jack watched as the plates disappeared from the long wooden table. John kissed Elizabeth's forehead and blushed when she made him kiss her again. "I'll see you after my briefing?"
"Stay warm," she warned and watched him leave with Lorne and Ronon.
Jack leaned forward onto his elbows and stared down at his mug. "Keeping everything together?"
"Best we can," Elizabeth shrugged and picked at the piece of bread she had left of dinner. "John's been coordinating the search teams. Major Lorne and Colonel Mitchell have been trying to find supplies, trade partners; anything that can help us."
"Any luck?"Jack wondered as he swirled his mug of what passed for beer on Ceol.
"Sometimes we bring home more refugees," Elizabeth replied darkly tearing a piece of crust off her bread. "The galaxy's not exactly a safe place. I doubt life in the Pegasus galaxy has ever been easy, even before we awakened the Wraith. We've heard only scattered stories of new queens who leave nothing behind."
Jack finished his beer and stood to reach one of the pitchers further down the table. "I thought the Wraith had a bit of trouble with the Pegasus replicators."
She nodded and smiled wistfully at his beer. "Last we heard from Teal'c, he thought there were forty hive ships remaining."
"Forty," he repeated thoughtfully. "Sounds easy enough. That makes it ten to one. Not bad for humans really." Jack grinned at his beer mouthed his apologies before staring down at her belly. "You got big," he offered simply as her blush made her smile.
"It's been the strangest experience of my life," Elizabeth admitted as she stared down at her own changed body. "Being possessed by a violent alien, and meeting my ten-thousand-year-old-self are paling in comparison."
"From what I've heard, the violent alien still had quite a thing for John," Jack teased as he studied her smile. "Move around on you a lot?"
Elizabeth nodded as she let him help her to her feet. Making a face as she awkwardly dragged her legs over the bench, she caught him biting back a laugh. "John usually finds it pretty funny when I get out of bed."
"I do seem to remember you being more graceful," Jack admitted as he let go only to immediately take her hand again when he questioned her balance on the rough stone floor. "How many do we have now?" he wondered as they passed the nearly continuous line for food.
"Counting the villagers, and the refugees from other planets, just over two thousand," Elizabeth explained as she smiled her way down the line and through the crowd in the corridor. Jack watched as everyone acknowledged her, children and adults. Someone in uniform, Corporal Villard, saluted him and then he was recognized. Jack nodded behind Elizabeth, starting to understand what she must go through every day. Her presence was all the reinforcements anyone on this planet had.
"How long has the queen been gone?" Jack asked when the people around them thinned on the way back to control.
"Just over two weeks, but I don't think the Wraith have realized she's gone," Elizabeth sighed and he caught regret in her eyes. "We lost Carson two days ago. She left something behind in her notes, he started to ascend..."
"...ascensions a crock sometimes isn't it?"
"He was looking for answers," Elizabeth explained as she pointed Jack through the canvas tunnel back to control. "Queen Mab denied herself ascension for thousands of years because she was trying to find something. Something so important she was willing to give up her life and her sanity to search for it. I think it's what Carson's looking for now."
"See, that's what I just can't stand about the damn Ancients," Jack complained as he settled on the edge of her desk. "Left every galaxy they touched a mess and disappeared leaving us to pick up the pieces and take care of their mistakes."
"What mistakes would we have made in their place?" Elizabeth asked him as she took his hand. Jack hesitated, but she placed his hand anyway. Beneath her flesh and his fingers the baby stirred, like his son once had; Charlie had lived and died a lifetime ago. "What kind of world were we leaving on Earth? In our world the greatest discovery of our time had to be kept so secret we couldn't even use it to save our people." Her fingers were tight on his hand and Jack recognized the stubborn lines on her forehead.
"We're going to make a better world than that, Jack," Elizabeth promised with iron sincerity. Jack felt his eyes sting and he realized she saw through to his pain.
"Sam and I, we tried, she lost-"
Elizabeth's cool fingers touched his cheek. When he was defeated by angry tears that he'd held back, her lips were warm and her arms were comforting. "I am so sorry." Her hair smelled like wood smoke and her arms were tight around his back. There was no justice in it; no peace for either of them in the sea of grief around them.
"You'll try again," she murmured with her head on his chest. "If we give the Ancients a second chance, the least we can do is extend ourselves that kindness."
one hundred forty-one days after Earth
"They no longer feed on just the people," Ronon raised his hand high and dust fell from his palm like ash onto the table. "The entire planet, all of Manara, is dust and sand."
"How do we know this isn't a weapon they fire from orbit?" Elizabeth asked as her chest went tight and cold. John stood behind Ronon, hands folded across his chest. His chin was in his hand and she could share his thoughts in his soft eyes. Manara was one of their last trading partners. Of all the named planets, those that had traded with them, most of them were falling to the new Wraith.
"We brought this," Lorne gestured with his head and two of his marines dragged forward a piece of what had once been a great tree. The bark was grey and dead, as if it had sat dead for centuries. In the center of the piece they set before Elizabeth and Jack was a single handprint, burned white into the flesh of the tree. "Each tree, every plant, the streams, the lakes and rivers, even the air is dead."
"The planet is a tomb, just like the last two," Ronon added darkly as he slammed his gun onto the table. "Never in my lifetime, or the history of my people, or in any story that I have ever heard told, have the Wraith fed on anything but humans. They come, they take what they want and they leave to come again. This time they are not coming back." Elizabeth saw the tendons in his neck grow taunt and his eyes burn with a desperation she'd hadn't seen since he had come to Atlantis.
"I've been reading the oldest texts," Daniel began from behind Jack. Elizabeth watched as his hands touched the whitened wood. "In the beginning the Alterrans came to this galaxy with one city-ship. That was the first of its kind, called Imprimis. It was so old at the time of the Wraith war, that it was left to ruin. From what I've read I don't think it was the city Colonel Sheppard's team found three years ago, that one was too similar to Atlantis."
"Wait," Jack sat back in his chair and looked over at Daniel. "I thought Atlantis itself was already millions of years old."
"Imprimis is the prototype," Daniel explained as he lifted his hand from the wood. "It predates the Wraith, the Asurans, the replicators and the Goa'uld. Imprimis quite literally was the beginning."
"Okay, Daniel," Jack set his arms on the table and stared at his hands. "What does that mean to me? It's a fantastic vacation spot?"
"It means the answers are there," Daniel's voice was soft and confident and out of everyone in the room, he was the only one who still had hope in his voice as he spoke. "Maybe even the answers to the questions we don't know how to ask yet."
"Does your old city know why the Wraith now drain the life of entire planets?" Ronon demanded as he lifted his gun and shoved it back into the holster at his hip. "Why they took Teyla? Why the Asurans attacked Earth instead of the Wraith?"
"You can't steal or sell a thing until you know why someone else would want it," Vala answered from the corner. "What do the Wraith want Atlantis? Why do the Asurans build technology in exactly the same form as the Ancients? What do the Ancients want? Are they still listening?"
"Is there a god?" Daniel added thoughtfully. "Jack, I'll keep reading, but I think the old city is something we should explore."
Jack looked to Elizabeth waited for her to nod. John stared through to her and when he spoke the room grew quiet around him. Elizabeth felt the weight of his thoughts before he added them. "We should hear from the Artemis tomorrow, with Queen Mab gone we cannot defend this planet. We need to get everyone back to Atlantis before the Wraith realize where we are."
His eyes dropped to her belly and Elizabeth knew what he was thinking. Whether or not Atlantis was designed to hold families, raising their child there was deeply preferable than in tents and old castles, constantly on the run from the Wraith.
When she looked away from John, Jack was waiting for her to reply. Elizabeth started to speak, but the alarm came from outside the tent. The shrieking siren was followed by the sound of everyone getting to their feet. The rustling of clothing fell beneath the sound of metal on metal as the quiet meeting suddenly bristled with weapons. John retreated from the doorway towards Elizabeth, but she saw the nod that passed between Jack and her lover.
Her right hand dropped to the pistol John insisted she carry and her left hand wrapped anxiously around her belly. Sensing her nervousness, her child kicked the inside of her ribs hard enough to make her startle. Jack settled his P90 in his hands and Elizabeth wondered if it would be this way for the rest of her life. If every unauthorized gate activation would send her running for a rifle to protect her family.
Chuck was waiting in the control room. "It's Proculus ma'am, we got a garbled message, then the light appeared." He pointed to the protected courtyard.
"More refugees?" Jack murmured as he kept her behind him. Elizabeth saw a cloud of light settle in front of the 'gate. The light condensed, forming a figure with ashy white hair. The green dress she wore was vaguely familiar and when she turned to shut off the 'gate with a wave of her hand, Elizabeth realized who she was.
Chaya's hair was completely white and she collapsed to the snow as if her bones had been removed from her body. John and Lorne went to her as Cameron started to ask for medical assistance. Elizabeth watched as John lifted the dying woman from the snow and started bringing her in.
He only got as far as the table in the meeting room before she tried to stand. John set her down as she struggled and Elizabeth remembered how smitten Chaya had been with him. He'd mentioned kissing her once and a tiny corner of Elizabeth's mind felt a pang of jealousy. She'd held onto it because it was normal. It was crazy, but it was something other than fear.
The Ancient coughed and Elizabeth saw blood on the dry skin of her lips. "I've never seen a queen like that," she reached for John and dug gnarled fingers into his shirt. "I- I brought down one of her ships, but she destroyed my system, walked right through my defenses." Her eyes were yellowed with age and the rims of her eyes were red to the point of bleeding. The front of her dress was torn open and the bloody handprint on her chest was indicative how she'd been fed on.
"She let me go-" Chaya sputtered as John tried to calm her down enough to get her to the infirmary. "Teyla- Teyla- she walked through my abilities like I wasn't-" Her breath shudder in her chest, rattling dryly through nearly dead lungs.
"It's all right," John repeated softly.
Elizabeth shivered, feeling goose flesh forming on her arms as she crossed them over her chest. Mab made her feel like she was on fire whenever they were in the same room. Carson had the same effect once he had started to ascend, but this time she was ice cold. Jack touched her shoulder when her teeth started to chatter.
Ronon was turning a knife over and over in his hand. The steel moved so quickly that Elizabeth couldn't see his fingers moving the blade.
Chaya tried to choke her last words out of her cracked lips. "She let me go Sheppard, she knew- she knew-" Chaya's eyes went glassy and still. Elizabeth was still shivering as she felt Chaya pass on. In the sudden quiet, she felt warmth seep back into her body.
John stood up suddenly realizing what she was saying. "Deactivate the 'gate!" he ordered suddenly prying Chaya's hand from his shirt and running towards the Stargate. "Shut it down."
Chuck obeyed immediately and Evan helped him start taking apart the dialing device.
"Teyla knew Chaya would be able to find us," John turned back to explain in a low voice. "Thats why she stopped feeding before the end. Chaya would want to warn us."
"Call the Daedalus," Elizabeth ordered as the weight of John's realization settled into her stomach.
John was already running to the control room and Jack set down his P90 to follow. Simon arrived slightly out of breath with his medical team and he only showed his surprise for a moment before he and his team started to move her to a stretcher and cover her with a sheet.
Elizabeth remembered when he would have been shocked by the handprint on Chaya chest. She had known a Simon who would have been shaken by what he saw.
Now he touched her shoulder with concern. "Everyone else okay?" Simon asked softly.
"So far," Elizabeth answered as she tried to force herself to smile. "Thank you."
"Elizabeth-" John's voice cut though the canvas between her and the control room. Ducking through into that part of the tent, her heart skipped a beat as she looked from John to everyone around him.
"Caldwell just radioed down," John's voice was flat and he couldn't look away from her. "Four hive ships have just come out of hyperspace at the edge of the solar system."
"Don't suppose we have one of those spiffy chairs?" Jack asked lightly.
"The only defense this planet has can only be accessed by an Ascended being," Daniel explained as Vala wrapped her arms around his waist and clung to him. "We might have enough time to dial out before they can dial in but-"
John's face went slack with surprise as the Daedalus comm officer spoke into his headset. Elizabeth couldn't read him for a moment, but his smile was unmistakable. "Something else just appeared."
"And?" Jack demanded as he waved his hand impatiently.
"They haven't made contact yet," John tried not to look too excited. "It looks like Atlantis."