AN. disclaimer, Atlantis and it characters don't belong to me I just play with them.
Thor Was working in the control room of one of the Asgard's oldest outposts In fact it was the only one left from the time before the war with the replicators began. He was doing some research on the replicative fade effects of the cloning process at an ancient console, this outpost had been where the ancient Asgards had first created the cloning technology and Thor hoped that by going back to the beginning he could find the flaw in the process. He was studying one of the original scientists notes when he was disturbed by a beeping sound. He looked up from the panel he was working at and crossed the room to find the disrupting noise. He traced the sound to a console that hadn't been used For as long as he could remember. Thor decided that the alarm must have been caused by a glitch, muted the sound and turned to go back to his work. Hen he paused. These outposts rarely glitches so he went back to the console and just to reassure himself he read the information on the display detailing the reason for the alarms activation. As soon as he was done he reached a shaking hand into the bag slung across his chest for and pulled out his communicator.
"Thor to the Carter"
"Bridge here"
"Make the ship ready to depart immediately, Then transport me back as soon as we are good to go. Also I need one of the spare bridge science stations set up get it online and establish a link between it and this base. I am uploading a monitoring program."
"Yes sir"
Thor got back to work And within a few minutes the science station on the Carter was linked to the work station that had issues the alert which of had worried Thor so greatly. Moments after that the Carter was traveling at its top speed heading out of the Asgard Galaxy"
Some time later
Ronan walked into Beckett quarters to find Rodney packing up beckets things.
"Hey"
"Hey"
"You ok?"
Rodney hurumphed gently "uh not really"
"You need some help?"
"No I'm almost done. He didn't have a lot of stuff here"
"Are you sending it all back home to his family ?"
"Yeah, well I mean We will. they don't know yet. There isn't a body so We are sending all this back to earth and Erm I'm going to tell his mother. Rodney picked up a picture of him and becket laughing on a mission.
"I should have just gone fishing with him."
"Hey this isn't your fault."
"Yes it is. If I had just gone fishing with him then we would have been on the mainland. Beckett always goes incommunicado when he is off duty and away from the city. Nobody would have been able to call him in and he wouldn't have been anywhere hear those damn bombs, but Im a coward And now he's gone. I should have gone with him. I wanted to go with him but I was To scared to be alone with him, too scared that I might blurt something out. I should have said something while I had the chance. I was just too scared of what he might say and Now I will never know."
I'm not entirely sure what you are on about Mcay but there was a saying on Setteda. It's not particularly poetic but it makes the point, "if you will regret leaving it forever unsaid then say it today cos tomorrow might not come"
"That doesn't really make me feel any better but thanks for trying Ronan."
"No problem, the memorial is about to start you coming?"
"Yeah I'll be there in a sec you go on"
Ronan turned and left the room. Rodney looked at the photograph again moved as if to place it in the box of Carson's things then stopped, he looked at it again and decided that Carsons family surely wouldn't mind if he kept one photograph.
He tucked it into his pocket then followed Ronan towards the gate room.
In the gate room all of the senior staff and a great deal of the secondary personal were grouped in a semi circle in front of the gate. An empty coffin covered with a Scottish flag sat on the debarkation platform. Dr weir stepped forward to speak but was stopped in her tracks when an Asgard beamed into the gate room materialising just a few inches in front of her. The Asgard looked round and addressed Dr Weir.
"Greetings, I am Thor of the Asgard. I apologise for my sudden and slightly badly aimed entry and I also apologise for not making contact with you sooner.
Somehow Dr Weir managed to both remain upright and retain the capacity to speak
"Apology accepted although I'm not sure why you are apologising for not making contact sooner. And for that matter What are you doing here?"
"I will explain fully"
"Would you like to come to my office"
"No thank you. I will explain here where anybody who wishes to listen to what I have to say will be able to"
"Erm alright then"
Thor looked around briefly before speaking again
"I know what has happened here over the last 36 hours. I have been monitoring the situation from my ship, The machine that caused two of your personal to develop self detonating growths was a joint effort between the ancient Lanteans and the ancient Asgard. However whist the machine was constructed here on atlantis The Asgard scientists worked from a science base in our home galaxy which was connected via a subspace link to the machine and to Atlantis sensors in that sector of the base. The Asgard station received realtime information of what was happening in Atlantis to enable the Lanteans and the Asgard to work together. When the project was deemed too dangerous and shut down the link was not severed instead its strength was simply reduced And a system put in place so that the Asgard would be warned if anyone reactivated the machine, it was not unheard of in Those days for lone Lanteans to go back to abandoned projects in secret to try and make them work. When your personnel activated the machine it sent a signal to the Asgard science station. However due to the age of the station in the Asgard Galaxy and the low strength of the sub-space connection it took some time for the monitoring system to begin broadcasting a warning. Yesterday morning I was running an early test flight of my new ship the Samantha Carter. My planned flight path brought me in range of the science station, which had been used for more that just this project. As I would be in he area I had arranged to spend some time in the station doing research on another matter while my crew analysed the data from the test flight. It was fortunate that I was onboard the station when the alert from atlantis came in. I traced the source of the alarm and soon gathered what was happening in Atlantis but the nature of the Reduced sunspace link only allowed me to observe And if I was to be of any help I did not have time to reestablish a full link. I connected the data feed to my ship and set a direct course for Atlantis. Unfortunately my new ship The Carter Was the only ship available and it is only half built, at yet it has no long range communications and only half speed capability I feared I would be to late to render any assistance and I nearly was. I arrived just as the second self detonating growth exploded."
Thor paused
"This is where my apology comes in. I didn't Contact you immediately as I didn't want to give you False hope. Due to my late arrival the small amount of help I was able to attemp might have been for naught, however my attempt has proven fruitful and so it transpires that by my lack of communication I have put In fact put a great many of you though much unnecessary suffering."
"I don't understand" interrupted Weir
"Two people were caught in the second detonation. A man who was wearing protective clothing I used my beaming technology to throw him out of the explosion radius before it could overwhelm his protection. And a second man who was already seriously injured by the blast as I arrived. I beamed him out but he was dying."
"That's why there was no body. You have it" interrupted Weir again
"Yes, and no" replied Thor
"What do you mean. do you have Carson becketts body or not" wier demanded " however it seemed that Thor was determined not to be rushed but to give a full and detailed explanation.
"Due to the fragility of the Asgard clone bodies the first thing to be constructed on any new Asgard ship is the medical bay and our medical bays are incredibly advanced by your standards. it is one of our ship building regulations that the med bay of any new ship is fully complete before the first test flight is performed. I beamed your Carson becket straight there but as I said Up until a few minutes ago I was unsure wether or not I would be able to save him."
Suddenly something clicked for Mcay and he stepped forward .
"Hold up a second, you said that your lack of communication had caused unnecessarily suffering and that your attempt to help us had been ultimately fruitful. Surely you can't mean that you saved him?!"
"Indeed I do mean that Doctor Mcay. your Carson becket is alive and Well, I have returned him to full health. In fact he is waiting to beam down"
This announcement was greeted by silence, it seemed that Thor had finally managed to do the impossible and shock both Mcay and Weir into silence.
"I will go ahead and initiate transport" Thor touched a crystal on his wrist and suddenly Carson was standing in the middle of the debarkation platform (Thor had simultaneously beamed away the empty coffin)
He and Rodney Stared at each other for a moment as the events of the last few days fully caught up with them both. then suddenly Rodney wasn't afraid anymore. he didn't even care that half of Atlantis was standing around them watching he only had eyes for the miraculously alive Scotsman in front of him, he launched himself at Carson and enveloped him in a hug which the scot eagerly returned. After a minute Rodney pulled back and looked at Carson, Rodney was trying very hard not to cry.
"I thought you were dead"
"Aye I know, Thor has filled me in"
"It was awful"
"I'm alright Rodney. im here and I'm alright"
"I've got something to say that i should have said a long time ago but I was scared but I'm not scared now and I don't care anymore who knows and I don't care who is watching. I just want you to know so I'm just gonna say it"
"Rodney stop rambling and just spit it out"
"I love you Carson"
Carson grinned at the Canadian.
"You're right, Ye should have said it A long time ago Ye daft git. But so should I. I love you too"
The end
