This story is a FanFiction based on the TV show stargate Atlantis. This story was written only as a hobby and was by no means intended to impersonate the original material or to compete with it. (I don't think it could). Some of the characters and settings portrayed in the story are not this author's original creation.
Some information about the story.
I think a lot of people who watched the TV show have the general feeling that the 'wraith arc' was never fully developed or utilized as well as it could have been. My intention in writing this was to add depth to a small part of that, as well as interesting and complex characters.
Some people have commented on previous stories about the way I portray wraith characters. They seem to think I don't make them distinctly 'wraith.' It was my intention to portray the characters beyond the stereotypical 'bad guys.' If this bothers you, you have been warned.
No slash, no sex, no romance of any kind.
There are disturbing descriptions of violence here and there, but nothing worse than you would see in the show, and about as bad as you see skimming world news.
The story was not beta read, so grammatical and plot errors may abound. I would appreciate anyone volunteering to beta read the story.
_-oOo-_
The planet appeared, dissolving out of the swirling purple and blue effects of hyperspace. The planet's colors looked like a painting, peaceful and beautiful. The pale blue of the water contrasted with the brilliant white of the land near the coastline, turning a dark brown as it intermingled with the vast expanses of green farther inland. She imagined the people down on the surface, perhaps in their fields working, or resting peacefully in their home in the midday heat.
A stream of darts flew past the window toward the surface, disappearing into the landscape just as quickly as they appeared. She wished, with every fiber of her being that she could stop them. With each ship careening toward the surface, she could see the aftermath before they even arrived. Ruined homes, chaos, distraught people, searching for their family whom they may never see again, she could see all these things before it even happened. No matter how she tried to rationalize it, it never became easier to bear. Each time she saw a culling, it became more difficult to remain still, watching and doing nothing. She entertained it for the briefest of moments, that with not more than a thought, she could stop it all. She could order the darts back to the ship, and before giving explanation, she could destroy the ship.
That's what a wraith would do. How could she think of herself as better than a wraith if she stooped to their level of hate and violence? Besides, it was not even possible; they would not listen to her. The most she could do was hope that an opportunity would present itself to help those who were being culled.
But what good was this hope that had been shattered continually? Could she again delude herself into hoping it was even possible?
"One, I will at least save one."
She wouldn't let go of the hope that she would at least be able to do something. Before she had even set foot aboard the ship, she knew what it would be like. Even saving one person, at least in her mind couldn't seem to compensate for standing idly by right now, and doing nothing.
She turned quickly away from the window, unable to look on what was being done. She remembered though, that the time was approaching. Soon, just as had been planned so long ago, the time of this wretched and terrible race would come to a close. At the appointed time, they would be given a choice, and their fate would rest with themselves.
She had been there when it all began, to do what she was sent here to do. It was still unknown to her if she would see it through to the end.
_-oOo-_
John Sheppard generally thought of himself as an intelligent man, although he wasn't the type to go around stating that. Unfortunately Rodney had no such restraint. John gazed over at McKay, who was standing up at the front of the conference room busy preparing something on his computer. John yawned widely which caused his eyes to water, then closed them allowing his head to slump slightly onto his shoulder. The dark room and the relative quiet made it difficult pay attention to the presentation, but hopefully Rodney wouldn't notice if he dozed off. John knew he wasn't the only one in the room suffering this problem, he could hear at least three in the audience snoring quietly.
Rodney's idea to give presentations on various forms of advanced technology was well accepted by Dr. Weir, who maintained that it would allow off-world teams to operate more safely. They had found out recently that some of the people being assigned to the expedition from Earth hadn't even been off-world before they set foot on the Daedalus. Many of these new recruits were lacking basic knowledge of the advanced science and technology as well as cultures and peoples they had encountered. One of the cultural experts was handling the presentations on races and people; naturally McKay was handling the scientific aspect. John really did appreciate the idea, and he did agree that it would be good if everybody there, himself included had at least a basic knowledge of some of the things they were liable to encounter.
When General O'Neill first persuaded him to join the Atlantis expedition, he figured there would be steep learning curve; that much was obvious from the onset. Of all the people he knew were going, he was the only one who didn't have a PhD and had never stepped through a stargate. Suffice to say, he had felt a little out of place when the members of the expedition gathered in the gate room of the SGC to depart for the Pegasus galaxy.
"All right," McKay said, breaking through the peaceful silence which had blanketed the conference room. John raised his head, pretending that he had been waiting eagerly the whole time. "Let's continue onto naquidah." McKay flipped the slide on the projector, which showed a picture of elemental naquidah.
John groaned internally. He reallywanted to learn about this stuff, and yet he couldn't stay focused; his mind kept wandering.
He imagined taking a trip to the mainland, to that sunny sandy beach they had discovered a few months ago, the one where waves were prefect for surfing.
"…unique crystalline tetrahedral structure which creates the ideal charged field for capture of anti-protons." McKay continued. "A small percentage of naquidah's mass is always going to consist of anti-matter, which as you know, releases tremendous amounts of energy when it interacts with ordinary matter." The slide switched to page full of numbers and equations. "When the naquidah is exposed to a strong enough charge, the strength of the field overcomes the natural charge, allowing the antimatter to react with the protons."
He smirked and leaned casually on the side of the podium, trying and failing badly to relate to the audience. "This is a gross oversimplification, but you can imagine this occurring when naquidah is used as a capacitor."
His mind wandered to powerful explosions. John thought of the Genii, busy building their nuclear weapons with the hope of attacking the wraith. He scowled at the thought of them; those people were treacherous. He wouldn't soon forget how they had been led on and betrayed by them.
Lost in thought, he didn't even know what McKay was saying at this point.
There was a lull in the noise level in the room as McKay paused.
"Off world activation," said the gate operator's voice over the intercom.
Everyone in the room stood up. In less than a few seconds, someone switched the lights on, and the main doors opened.
"Uhh, wait," McKay protested, "I haven't finished with the uhh." People began to file out of the room, Ignoring McKay and leaving him standing at the front, mouth slightly agape in shock.
Sheppard remained standing in the middle as the last person left. McKay walked slowly over to where Sheppard was standing, looking slightly dejected.
"I uh, guess they were needed somewhere else." McKay rationalized.
"Yeah," John re-assured, projecting a subtle sarcastic tone, "I'm sure that's all it was."
McKay sighed, frustration written all over his face. "Look, I'm putting a lot of effort into this, I mean, the least these people can do is pay attention."
John began walking slowly out of the room and across the bridge separating the conference room from the control room. "I know you're putting a lot of work into these presentations, but…"
"But what?" McKay interrupted rudely, "They're just not smart enough to understand?" McKay's face showed all the evidence of his chronic arrogance.
"No," Sheppard said patiently, "It just goes on a little long, and you need focus a little less on the math."
"Oh, I see, I need to dumb it down for you." McKay said smugly.
Sheppard turned away, shaking his head slightly. He knew that it was sometimes better to just ignore Rodney. Better to not give him more fuel to work with. Down below them, the active gate shimmered, causing the polished floor around the gate to shimmer in a moving display of bright blue.
The members of Major Lorne's team appeared through the barrier all at once. Lorne gazed up to where John was standing and gave a nod as a sort of greeting. The team continued away from the gate, but Lorne split off and walked up the steps onto the control platform. He put his hand in his face and seemed to rub his eyes in a massaging manner as he climbed.
"What's going on?" Sheppard asked as Lorne neared where he was standing. Lorne stopped a few paces away and paused. His face was distant and he appeared exhausted.
"You have no idea how hard it is to get those people to agree on anything!" Lorne said. "One minute they're all for letting us set up a mining outpost, and the next they're telling us they're offended by our offer."
Lorne continued toward Dr. Weir's office and Sheppard followed behind a distance. He knew he didn't need to follow, but he wasn't scheduled for another mission until the day after tomorrow when Teyla returned from a visit with the Athosians. He had nothing important to do, and found it difficult to ignore whatever was happening around Atlantis; he wanted to stay in the loop.
Dr. Weir was at her desk, looking intently at her workstation. Whatever she was reading really interested her, because she didn't even see them coming until Lorne knocked on the glass pane.
Elizabeth jumped slightly, startled at their appearance. She looked between the both of them, her face showing a trace of embarrassment. She touched the control on her desk which opened the sliding door.
"Major Lorne," She greeted cordially. "What is the status of your trade negotiation in regards to mine access?"
"There's not going to be a negotiation," Lorne said as he sat down on the chair in front of her desk.
You were gone for over a day." Weir stated, her tone showing slight confusion.
Lorne laughed, although it sounded more like a sigh. "After much discussion amongst themselves," he said this with emphasis, "they decided the cost would outweigh the risk."
"Really?" Elizabeth said. "I thought we were going to make headway this time around. You said last week they seemed open to the idea."
"Yes ma'am they were, but that was last week."
"What was their reason for declining?"
"Oh, a hundred different reasons from a hundred different people," Lorne said, his tone demonstrating exhaustion. "The main one was they were afraid we would have undue influence on their system of government."
"You made it clear to them that we're not in the business of acquiring territory?" Sheppard added.
"Oh I tried," Lorne said, "But there's always one or two present that are cynical and paranoid."
Dr. Weir smirked slightly, "And I suppose next week they'll contact us yet again and ask to resume negotiations?"
"Wonderful," Lorne said with mock enthusiasm.
"Thank you," Weir said, dismissing him politely.
Lorne stood up, groaning faintly as he did so. Sheppard guessed he had been standing up for a long time.
Sheppard stood there for a second and watched Lorne walking away, and then turned his attention back to Elizabeth who was staring at him. Sheppard only then picked up on the awkwardness of his presence there. He tried to remember why he was in her office in the first place.
"Hello," Elizabeth said, her tone expressing awkwardness.
"Hi," Sheppard said flippantly. Sheppard guessed it boiled down to the fact that he was bored. He didn't like spending multiple days at a time sitting around doing nothing. He really wished Teyla would hurry up and get back from whatever she was doing.
Sheppard stood there, hands in his pockets trying to look casual while his mind frantically searched for something to talk about. Should he risk embarrassment and say he didn't need anything, or should he try to find a reason to be here?
"Did you need something Colonel?" Weir asked?
"Whatcha reading?" John blurted out. He immediately wished he could retract that question. What if she was reading something personal?
Weir smiled, suppressing a laugh. "You're really that bored?"
"Yeah," Sheppard said honestly. "Don't get me wrong, McKay's presentations are interesting, but…" He paused to search for the right description.
"But you don't want them to last five hours."
"Exactly, I start falling asleep after about the first hour."
"I'll talk to Rodney about that. I'll see if I can get him to make it a little more tolerable."
"Thank you," He said, over-exaggerating his thanks.
"In case you still want to hang around," Weir said, changing the subject. "I am reading something interesting."
"Oh really?" He was grateful for something to distract him.
"Rodney managed to recover a surprising amount of information from the ancient database which had been removed."
"Removed? Why?"
"Well, most of it seems to be superseded information, things which were no longer relevant, but we have found a few vague references to some of the ancient's top secret projects."
The mention of 'top secret' grabbed his attention. "You mean like that huge space gun that Rodney used to blow up a solar system?"
"Yes," Elizabeth said, "I did find mention of that, along with a lot of other things."
"What else have you found?" John asked, gaining interest.
"Well…" Dr. Weir hesitated. "I didn't want to mention anything right away…"
"What?" Sheppard asked. Curiosity wouldn't allow him to let the issue go.
"I found deleted records of the Lantean council regarding allotment of resources to an unnamed project."
Sheppard paused, waiting for the rest. "Is that it?" he asked.
"No, Weir continued. "I grant you this doesn't sound particularly important until you see the tremendous amount of resources they put into this project.
Dr. Weir turned the screen of her monitor so Sheppard could see it. He had been learning how to read ancient, but it still took a lot of effort for him to recognize words. He didn't even try reading the tiny lines of text,
"What is it?" Sheppard asked.
"They put nearly twice the manpower into this project as they did into project arcturus. The weird thing is there's no further mention of it beyond these secret council meeting records."
"Well, it must have been pretty important if it was kept secret. Do we know what it was?"
Weir shook her head minutely "No," she said, "but, that's what I'm trying to find out."
_-oOo-_
Teyla's father had warned her that good trading partners don't necessarily make good friends. In the case of the people of Mitstra, good friends don't necessarily make good trading partners. Teyla had frequented this planet in years past with her father. Although it was only a hot oasis in the middle of a desert, the people were very hospitable. When she was younger, she often wondered why her father seemed in such high spirits up to the point trade began. As she aged, she came to understand that these people were somewhat rude traders.
Although she didn't necessarily like it, responsibility for representing the Athosian people had fallen to her. Her father had been their leader, one whom they trusted, and after his death, the task became hers. It was a task she took very seriously; she wouldn't let responsibility to her friends in Atlantis supersede her responsibility to her people.
Nicomek, the self appointed spokesman of the city respected Teyla, mostly because he and her father had been friends. Nicomek owned a large portion of the arable land in this region, and he used most of it for growing crops. He was also a merchant, and because of this he was among the wealthiest people in the area.
The primary export of Mitstra was wheat, which grew well here because of the irrigation from the large river nearby. Since Teyla's people lived in cold temperate forest regions, they couldn't grow such crops. The one thing the Athosions did have in quantity to trade was fur and meat. This world did not have any species of animals suitable to domesticate for meat, and previous attempts at importing them had for one reason or another failed; therefore these people had to rely solely on trade for meat.
Teyla waited inside the tent, wishing the proceedings would hurry up. She sat on an elaborately decorated couch, the cloth of which was composed of a multicolor fabric. Teyla tilted her head up at the roof and could see the hot sun overhead, shining dimly through the weave of a small 'window' on the roof.
The temperature inside was very warm, warm enough to sweat, but thankfully she had dressed in breathable light colored robes typical of what the women here would wear. A slight breeze parted the tent door momentarily, sending a gust of warm air inside.
Nicomek had a habit of making you wait before proceeding with trade discussions; he had done the same every time she could remember being here. She couldn't understand why upon mentioning trade, he would suddenly disappear on some important errand while only moments before he had been a host entertaining a guest. She supposed it was a way of trying to assert superiority during the negotiations, as if to imply what he owned was of more value than what she had to offer.
Teyla remembered it was important to not allow him to undervalue what she was offering, and not to be too eager to make the trade.
Teyla heard someone approaching the tent, she saw the tent door part open, and Nicomek appear in the doorway. He bent over slightly as he crossed the threshold.
Nocomek was an older man, possibly nearing his sixties, although Teyla was too polite to ask. His skin, like the natives of this planet was a darker tan color, and his moustache was dark with hints of gray. He was dressed nicely in white colored robes, with stripes of color here and there. His garb would have been considered modest for his stature in the community, and he seemed to make a habit not to flaunt his wealth. His primary residence in the city was almost a palace, but even then he spent most of the year in a tent near to his fields.
"Teyla," he greeted happily. "It's good to see you! Sorry to keep you waiting, I had some very important matters to attend to." He walked farther into the room and sat down on a couch across from Teyla.
"I understand," Teyla said, trying to smile politely. She knew that probably wasn't true, but there was no point in bringing it up.
"Good," he said, "Shall we proceed?"
Teyla nodded but didn't speak.
"As I understand it," he began, "Your people have recently found a new home?"
"Yes," Teyla replied, "Our old home on Athos was destroyed by the wraith."
"That is terrible," he said. He shook his head and averted his eyes. "Have your people fared well since?"
"Yes," Teyla said, "We have been able to re-locate." She knew even to old friends, she could not disclose the continued existence of Atlantis, therefore she omitted the Atlanteans contribution to helping them.
"I am pleased to hear it. Now, what have you come to trade?"
"Our new home is abundant in wild game, and we have determined we are able to gather much more than we need."
"I see," Nicomek said, attempting to appear neutral. Teyla knew from his stance and tone that he was very interested. The signs and gestures were very subtle, taking years of trading experience to recognize. "How much?" he asked.
"We are confident we can deliver one hundred redzak over the course of the year, as well as the hides. We anticipate two cured skins each week. In return, we would ask three hundred kesas of wheat delivered in its season."
Nicomek paused, seeming to contemplate the offer "I believe we could benefit from such a trade," he said, trying not to sound too eager. "But your price is far too high. No, I believe one hundred and eighty kesas would be fair."
Teyla knew she needed to remain calm. She had overpriced her offer slightly, knowing he would try to negotiate it down, however she hadn't anticipated such a dramatic offer."
"Three hundred is what my people will need," Teyla said. "Anything less wouldn't be fair to them."
"I may offer you two hundred," Nicomek said, "But anything more wouldn't be fair to my people."
Teyla paused, thinking of her next move.
"Perhaps it will be necessary to keep whatever animals we kill," Teyla said standing up slowly, "We may have to manage with less wheat this year."
There were already several planets the Athosians were trading with for wheat, but for all the difficulty they gave her, this was one of the best places to buy it.
Nicomek paused, his chin resting in his hand as though deep in thought. "That is unfortunate," he said indifferently. "Perhaps we could move onto something more pleasant?" he said, suddenly changing mood. "Are you able to stay for dinner? My servants have prepared much more than is necessary, and I would be honored if you stayed."
Teyla smiled faintly, "Thank you, I would."
_-oOo-_
Rodney McKay already knew himself to be a genius, and this accomplishment only served to re-affirm that. Who else besides himself could have recovered information which the ancients removed from the city's database? Rodney conceded that they had been very thorough in their attempts, but there were still a few redundant systems which they had missed.
Even more interesting was what he found. Most of what he was seeing was absolute junk, information which had been proven wrong, or errant data. Even though this sorting had gone on only for a day, they had already found reference to potentially priceless information.
"There's just too much data missing," Zelenka said, standing to one side as Rodney sat in front of the workstation.
"I can compensate for it!" Rodney insisted. He really did wonder why Zelenka would bother to make such a statement. After all, this was his computer program, wouldn't he know what it was capable of?
"You're going to get huge portions of it missing."
"Thank you Dr. Obvious," Rodney said with flamboyant sarcasm. "I'm well aware of what the result will be. Perhaps you could consider that I only really need to get a gate address!"
"I'm just saying, I don't think it's a good idea to start fiddling with-whatever this is without knowing everything about it."
"Look, no matter what, we're not just going to gate in there and turn it on, we…" Rodney's tone faded. He remembered all too clearly what happened with project arcturus. He supposed he had earned back everyone's trust by now, but he could still remember the feeling of utter failure, of losing everyone's trust. To make it worse, nobody had made mention of the incident after a day or so. Rodney expected to be continually harassed by everyone; he expected them to use it as a reason to not trust him. But so far he hadn't heard one mention it, and that almost made him feel more guilty.
"We're going to be careful," he said calmly.
The computer screen in front of him flashed, and lines of text appeared.
"Here we go," Rodney said with excitement. His excitement vanished almost immediately when he saw what was in front of him.
Raddik muttered something unintelligible, although Rodney knew it probably was a Czech phrase for 'I told you so.'
The text displayed in front of Rodney was broken and unreadable; not more than two or three Ancient letters were displayed in sequence with huge gaps in between. Rodney began scrolling through the text, hoping to find something usable.
"I don't see anything that resembles a gate address," Zelenka stated.
Rodney scrolled through the data twice, looking for something which resembled a stargate address.
"Yeah," Rodney said in defeat. "I guess I'm just gonna have to keep working on it."
"What are your search parameters for the database?"
"I'm searching the deleted council meeting records for any mention of project P7J88HT."
"You mean this project or experiment or whatever it was, was never given a formal name?"
"Nope," Rodney said, "Apparently it was too secretive for that."
"That's odd," Raddik mused, "I saw the numbers for the man hours and resources devoted to it. I wonder why they wouldn't give it a name?"
_-oOo-_
The table in front of Teyla was decorated with an ornate table cloth, consisting of fine silk fabric. Nicomek sat at the opposite end finishing his meal. Nicomek's wife and two of his youngest children had departed already, leaving only Teyla and Nicomek's servant as the remaining guests.
Nicomek's servant wasn't a slave or a servant in the sense Teyla knew the word. He was to Nicomek, more like a friend The servant rose and began gathering the silverware and plates from the table. Teyla knew if nothing was mentioned soon, she will have missed the opportunity to re-start the trade discussion. She readied herself, thinking quickly of some way to lead into the conversation.
"You are restless," Nicomek said, interrupting her thought. "Either it's the stew which is upsetting you," he said wryly, "or you wish to continue our earlier discussion." Nicomek's servant paused from gathering the dishes; he looked to his master who waved in return, signaling that he would be allowed to listen in.
"Yes," Teyla said. Realizing her answer was ambiguous she quickly added, "That is, I would like to continue our earlier discussion."
"I agree," Nicomek said, "But I think we both also agree the price is too high."
Teyla fidgeted minutely. "I may be able to reduce my price slightly, but I cannot accept an unfair offer."
"Two hundred and ten is the most it is worth," Nicomek offered.
"Two hundred and fifty," Teyla countered.
Nicomek sighed heavily, "Two hundred and ten," he said. "Even that is slightly above fair market price."
Teyla bit her lip uncertainly. It could be possible the market value had changed slightly.
"Agreed," Teyla said in concession.
Something in the room changed suddenly. The bright and warm tent turned cold, and the sunshine which bled through the fibers of the tent turned to twilight. A cold feeling came over Teyla and memories began to be drawn to the surface. These memories were feelings, things from the past which were embedded deeply into her subconscious. It was the kind of memory which was powerful and vivid when called up, but only stayed a moment. She felt the memory of fear, of anger, the pain of loss. Her skin began to feel as though it was ice cold, even though the tent was unbearably warm. Her breath caught and she momentarily sat still with her mouth agape.
There was a multitude of dissonant voices, each speaking without words. All the feelings, voices, and emotions of thousands became mixed, yet there was a common thread among them all.
Hunger
Teyla focused and forced her mind out of that dark place. As quickly as it happened, the environment around her returned to normal.
"Teyla?" Nicomek asked. "Are you well?"
Though the cold and darkness had departed, the familiar and terrible feeling remained. She knew there were Wraith nearby-many of them.