Stargate Atlantis: Lion's Share
"Colonel Sheppard to the control room."
The announcement blared from the PA speaker, but the voice was calm. Yet John Sheppard could discern a trace of anxiety in Chuck Campbell's voice. John stood, about to exit the physics lab. Even after he looked away from the monitors the equations and formulas and star grids still danced in front of his eyes and he blinked to remove them from his mind's eye.
All that science in his head was giving him a headache.
"Wait, John!" Rodney McKay insisted, sitting in the middle of computers and charts and screens and data pads like a spider in a web. "Don't you see the significance? I used the city's long range scanners now that we are back online and this discrepancy, this shock wave, this massive outburst of energy originated from across the galaxy! It was a massive but contained blast, not an imploding star or black hole! I don't think it was an extraterrestrial event like a comet exploding or even impacting a planet or an asteroid field although there are certain similarities in the gravitational-"
"Later, Rodney," John interrupted the flow of words and science. "Tell me when you do know what is was and not what it isn't."
"Huh?"
"You know what I mean! If there's any relevance tell me."
"Of course there's relevance!" Rodney shouted at John's back as the military commander made his speedy exit. "John! This could be significant if it wasn't a natural event! Something happened out there and we are only feeling the impact now, which means that whatever it was it was big, real big, I mean colossal and there could be serious repercussions! John!"
John could hear his friend's voice all the way down the hallway, and it was only silenced once he got into a transporter and was instantly taken to another part of the city. He strode to the control room. Richard Woolsey was standing at a console, eyes narrowed as he regarded a screen. The Stargate was active. The wormhole shimmered like a pool of light, rippling with invitation. John stepped next to Evan Lorne as he stood waiting. "Major?"
Evan shrugged. "Incoming, sir, but so far no code has come through, and no IDC. Nothing."
"Are there any teams off-world?" Richard asked.
"No," John answered, quickly doing a mental tally.
A screech of static emitted from the console. Then a voice erupted, weak. A child's voice, interlaced with static. "…to come to Dagan. We need help after a terrible purge by the Wraith. I need to contact Doctor McKay. Please come to Dagan. We need help after a terrible purge by the Wraith. I need to contact Doctor McKay. Please come to Dagan. We need help after…"
At a gesture from John the transmission was silenced by Chuck. After a moment the wormhole dissipated. Silence filled the control room.
"A distress call," Richard identified needlessly. "I wonder how long it's been transmitting and only now we were able to receive it. They dialed in so they know our address and were able to make a sustained connection."
"Like R2 playing the message from…never mind," John said, scowling.
"You've been to Dagan?" Richard asked, trying not to smile at the movie reference.
"Yes. Years ago," John answered, regaining his solemnity. "They had a ZPM but they wouldn't give it to us. They were keeping it as a holy relic for when the Ancients returned," he explained, the disdain in his voice quite noticeable. "And then one of them betrayed us to the Genii. Stupid people," he grumbled more to himself and the city than to the others. His fingers played across the console for a moment.
"Nevertheless they were an ally, of sorts, and they are calling for help," Richard decided. He straightened, folded his arms across his chest.
"Yeah, I guess we better go," John agreed after a moment but he was reluctant. "Lorne, prep a team of marines just in cast this is another Genii feint but I want you to stay in the city while I am gone. Stick to our mission roster as assigned. I'll get my team ready to go in ten."
"Do you think that is necessary, colonel?" Richard asked, looking from one to the other as the two military men seemed to be communicating nonverbally. He found it unsettling. "An extra team of marines, even if this is a rescue mission seems overly cautious."
"Read the report," John retorted, his hands on the console. Power thrummed under his touch. "I don't want to be surprised by the Genii or any other betrayal again. And if they have a ZPM we are going to take it this time, no explanations required."
XxX XxX XxX XxX XxX XxX XxX XxX XxX XxX XxX XxX XxX XxX XxX XxX XxX
"Wow." Rodney stared round at what was left of the village. Trees were scorched, burned to the ground. Buildings were shattered beyond ruins, merely chunks of stone and brick and melted by high-powered weaponry. The air was cold, damp. A metallic tinge colored it. He lowered the binoculars and wordlessly handed them to Teyla Emmagan. "I'd be surprised if anyone was left here."
"Wraith?" John asked, stepping round the DHD. He gestured and the marines flanked the team, weapons at the ready. He fingered the device that had been transmitting the recording. Someone had activated it, but there was no one in sight.
"Yes colonel," Teyla acknowledged. She handed the binoculars to Ronon Dex. "I have seen this kind of retaliation and it is their way to decimate a village as an example and to make it uninhabitable."
"But why?" Ronon asked, restoring the binoculars to Rodney. "There were no Hoffan plague survivors here."
"At least none that we know about," Rodney temporized. "Remember we have been gone for a few months, and haven't visited this world in years."
"The Daganians did not seem the kind to harbor fugitives," Teyla grimly remarked, recalling that their hospitality had been false, only given to achieve their own objectives.
"Then why destroy them?" Ronon asked. His question hung in the cold air, unanswered.
"We're gonna find out. Morris, fan out. Perimeter sweep. We'll advance and find what we can," John ordered. "Rodney, is there—"
"Not a damn thing, no energy signatures, nothing," Rodney answered the question before it had been completed. He pocketed his scanner along with his binoculars. "As I recall the Daganians had little in the way of any kind of technology."
"Let's head out."
The team began to head for the village, away from the DHD and the Stargate. For once John did not need his sunglasses. He patted them in his pocket nevertheless. Teyla was looking round for any signs of life. Ronon was doing the same but was looking for any signs of danger. Rodney was quiet for a change, seemingly lost in memories of the last time they had been here.
John found himself thinking back as well, but his mood was darker as he recalled being betrayed to the Genii, to Kolya and then having the ZPM taken from them by the Daganians. He shook his head at their childlike belief in the all-powerful Ancients, as if they would return like errant gods and restore the galaxy to peace.
Atlantis had returned, and only Atlantis could restore the galaxy.
Suddenly he stopped, held up his fist. The team halted. John looked round. He had heard a noise. His gaze darted all around as they stood on the road. A wind whistled above them, was gone. The destruction could be more clearly seen now. Buildings were nothing more than rubble that had been pulverized by powerful laser weapons. The intense heat had practically vitrified the materials to sand that was as smooth as glass.
"High, close bursts of energy. Look at that."
Rodney nodded, eying the remains. "Incredible. The heat must have been concentrated to induce that. Not staff weapons. It must have been a weapon from a ship in space."
"A Hive ship," Ronon agreed. "We endured the same on Sateda before the end." Ronon shoved the grim memories of his home world aside. The last days on Sateda before he had been captured had been brutal and bloody.
"Perhaps they culled the population as well," Teyla said softly.
"That wouldn't explain the distress call," John reminded. He looked round, adjusting the P90 in his hands. His finger stroked the trigger.
"Perhaps they are in hiding," Teyla reasoned.
"Or they gave up when no one answered the distress call," Rodney said.
"Or they ran to their good friends the Genii," John sourly noted. "We're wasting time here. Let's get back to Atlantis."
"John! We have barely arrived! Would you abandon these people so readily?" Teyla challenged, shocked at John's almost cavalier attitude. Even Ronon and Rodney appeared surprised as they all stared at their team leader.
John shrugged. He wasn't sure where all of this cold, dour sentiment was coming from but it felt right to him in this situation. Nevertheless he shook off the mood, licked his lips. "Fine. A quick recon but if we fail to make contact we return to base. Understood?" Without waiting for an answer or even agreement he turned to lead the team towards the remains of the village.
A noise made the men freeze and raise their weapons. Something was moving through the dry vegetation. It was making a scurrying sound. It was loud in the surrounding silence. Teyla stared, trying to peer through the mess of destruction and vegetation. She did not sense the Wraith and was not overly concerned. Whatever it was it sounded small, and she wondered if it was just some animal curious at the human voices.
"Daddy! Daddy! Daddy!"
A little boy emerged from the tangle of bushes and weeds and debris. He ran towards the adults, half tripping in his haste. He was a mess, with dirty clothes and a dirty face and light brown hair that kept flopping into his eyes. He made a beeline for Rodney and knocked into the startled physicist, nearly felling them both as he hugged the man's legs.
"What the…the…hey, hey, I think you've got the wrong guy!" Rodney stuttered, pushing free to stare at the little boy.
The little boy stared back at him, about to cry as his blue eyes widened. His lower lip quivered briefly. "You…you aren't Rodney McKay?"
"Yes, I am Doctor Rodney McKay," he sternly affirmed. "Who the hell are you?"
The boy smiled, relieved. "I am Barath," he announced in a high voice. "Barath Rodney McKay. I am your son."