Title: Fata Morgana
Author: Santa
Recipient: starry_haze
Pairing: John and Teyla
Rating: PG-13
Disclaimer: Not mine. I just borrow their characters.
Author's Notes: Many thanks to yappichick , foxyinthecity , and wedjatqi . They were my saving grace. *smooch* THANK YOU...However, I've edited more since they looked at it, so all faults are mine. I'd also like to thank Alyse for her patience, kindness and understanding. Inspiration was simply not there and well, it came in a big whopping number at the very last minute. To starry_haze, I hope you like this because it was the only thing that came to mind. :) This story is complete and I will be posting chapters every day or every other day unless real life takes over. Comments are truly loved. Enjoy!
Summary: This was the future, he kept telling himself. This was what it felt to be alive in a galaxy where miracles and wonders happened inexplicably on an everyday basis.
Fata Morgana
The two representatives opposite John morphed into transparency. The meeting had been going on for hours. He could feel it. They were nowhere being close to a resolution and his headache was getting worse.
And yet, John Sheppard had the nerve to feel tired. He felt like he hadn't slept in weeks.
"It is with the utmost respect that we welcome you to our city. However, you must understand that the matters for which you care to intervene is not one that we are prepared to negotiate." Woolsey had been at it for hours now and still there was no clear understanding as to what sort of alliance and negotiations were on the table.
The Geodes were a highly advanced race that had contacted Atlantis only hours after the team had arrived from a rather successful mission in which Sheppard's team had acquired a sophisticated weaponry with substantial energy that would bring the "mother ship" as Rodney called it, to its full capacity.
Rodney had detected a strong energy field coming from the waters of the planet and had immediately advised for a team to go and retrieve its source. John recalled how earlier today they were both arguing over the name that Rodney had called the device, the Core.
Yet, he found himself no longer amused by the Geodes claim that the Core was extremely powerful and dangerous. Nothing new. They knew that already. The problem was that they claimed it as theirs and they wanted it back. And they were taking their sweet time in trying to convince the team why they must have it returned to its original place.
"Power tends to corrupt. The lust for power never dies, some cannot have enough. Simply because you live in the Ancestral city does not give you the assurance to claim all which you have clumsily discovered, fortuitously. Is it not? Power has always most to fear from its own illusions," said a plump tall Geodes woman with red cheeks that shone brightly through her translucence.
They requested a meeting with the leaders of Atlantis and even though John took every precaution following regular safety protocols, they arrive with no weapons and no military escorts. They claimed to come in peace and only for negotiations purposes. Of course, John always had his suspicions about these types of negotiations, and from the look around the room he wasn't the only one.
"That's your opinion," Rodney interrupted. "I'll have you know that half of the equipment in this ancestral city has been functioning because of my expertise. I think you only want the Core back so that you can use it against us."
"Rodney," John warned.
"Of all the illusions that beset mankind none is quite so curious as the tendency to suppose that we are mentally and morally superior to those who differ from us in opinion." Of the two Geodes present, Commander Reus, who accompanied the female Geodes in hopes to retrieve the Core and set it back into its designated oceanic waters of this planet where John and his team had acquired it.
From the corner of his eyes, John observed as Teyla picked up the cylinder relishing its lightness before she turned toward the high Commander of the Geodes. He had an almost irresistible urge to snatch the device from her hands, and that fact alone unnerved him.
"It is kind of you to offer your services to us, Commander." Teyla's voice faded and returned. "I believe that we could come to a compromise as to how best to utilize this piece of weaponry to fit both of our needs. Our fight against the Wraith has moved considerably since our return from Earth, yet our communications, allies and resources have diminished substantially due to the damages caused to the city that have yet to be repaired."
Her gaze went briefly to John.
"Wisdom knows the proper limits of things and wisdom takes counsel of itself. Do you speak on behalf of these people, Ms. Emmagan?" asked Commander Reus, who appeared to be more passive with his words than the female Geodes.
John heard enough! Brusquely, he rose from his seat. "She speaks what we have been trying to say to you for the past two hours, Commander Lydia."
"Colonel." Woolsey began but was soon interrupted.
"We have come here in the hopes of enlightenment." She turned and faced John, "You of all people should understand, Colonel Sheppard. We thought you would be the one to show the rest of your people the wrongness in this quest for power."
Her companion, Commander Reus, briefly touched her crystalline sleeve.
"We only understand that which is already within us. Those who understand only what can be explained understand very little and much learning does not teach understanding. Now, we shall let you see in a mirror dimly, and then face to face, you will understand fully."
John stared blindly at the window beyond him only to be startled by Commander Reus presence beside him.
"Do you believe in coincidence, Colonel Sheppard?"
John faced Commander Reus. He observed the Commander's emergence, seeing the edges of his suit blend into the exterior. For a moment, the details of the Commander's suit were blurred and ill defined, then suddenly, snapped into sharpness. In a matter of seconds, Commander Reus appeared in front of John in his true form.
"Not really," John answered.
"Our greatest illusion is to believe that we are what we think ourselves to be. Perhaps you should concentrate closely on what matters to you the most, for the future is big with every possibility of achievement and of tragedy."
John stared at the Commander suspiciously before setting his eyes on Teyla.
"Sooner or later you are bound to see what has been there all along," Commander Reus added evenly.
John thought he had a memory; a flash of an explosion, of Teyla, but nothing was clear and so he let it pass.
He felt Teyla's warm hand on his as she stood from her seat, clearly noticing his sudden lapse of focus. "John, are you alright?" she whispered.
His lips tightened, and for the first time in awhile, he couldn't fandom what was it about this entire ordeal that bothered and alarmed him. He wanted nothing more than this to be over. He had remained silent for most of the meeting, but he was on edge and frustrated. The information about the Core that the Geodes had shared was overwhelming and foreboding. Darkness seemed to surround both the Core and its guardians, as they so called themselves, and he was sure that mistakes would soon be followed with regrets. But he couldn't prove anything. Couldn't make any accusations without anything concrete to bring forth to the table. The only thing he might cause is for him to be put under observation and every thing in his being was telling him to be on alert. That something was simply not right.
But, he would have to keep those intuitions to himself for now.
"I'm fine, Teyla."
The meeting continued slowly, and for several times John would loose himself deep in thought; which was so unlike him. He kept telling himself that it must be his own exhaustion taking over him, because he almost missed the soft touch of Teyla's hand on his arm indicating to him that the meeting was finally over. From the corner of his eye, he saw Teyla nod at the Geodes heading for the door. Rodney had left complaining with Ronon trailing behind him while Woolsey continued to apologize and request another meeting. As Teyla exited the conference room, he was startled when Commander Lydia blocked her exit. Teyla turned at the door to look at him, briefly. Her face was without expression, but there was something there in her eyes, in her stance. That interchange between them disturbed John. She was evidently as discouraged as he was about the lack of information they'd gotten from the Geodes. That little insight of information was not enough for John and he figured she could read it in him.
Politely, Teyla smiled at Commander Lydia's comment and walked away.
Something was missing. There was a link between the Geodes and the Core. That was obvious. What wasn't so clearly defined was the link between the Geodes, the Core and Atlantis, especially, since he was getting this strange feeling that something terribly wrong was about to happen.
He needed to speak with the Geodes by himself.
And while his mind was reeling with incoherent flashes of imagines, he kept telling himself to stop thinking, to relax, to catch his breath and not let the other side see his obvious frustration. But as he turned to speak to the Geodes, a bright flash blinded his eyes for a brief moment, and the two Geodes de-materialized into nothingness.
TBC...