Hello. So, I wrote part of this a few months ago and began uploading each chapter as I wrote it, and then I stopped and abandoned it and for that I'm really sorry. This time I've finished it, all of it. I did debate uploading the whole thing as one big chapter and if it had been shorter I probably would have, but somehow I think if I just dropped a piece of work that is a little short of 30000 words on you all, you might be a little mad.
Anyway, if you're re-reading this, I'm sorry and thanks for giving it another go. If this is the first time, thanks. To all of you, please enjoy, oh and review!
The world was still when he woke up and it took a moment to work out what had disturbed him. Finally, his ears picked up on the whispering that was coming from outside his door. Climbing out of bed, Dr. Bonadan put his glasses on and went to the door, sweeping his hand over the sensor. Stepping outside he looked up and down the corridor, trying to see what was causing the noise. The whispering had gotten louder in his ears but the hallway was empty. Logically it made no sense. Taking a few steps in each direction the Doctor headed towards the noise, following the corridor round until he could see the ocean through the tall windows. When he saw a shadow standing against the wall, he was all set to tell them to be quiet, the harsh whispering almost deafening, but as he began to approach the hairs on his arms stood on end and a chill ran down his spine. Something was very wrong. He stopped when the shadow seemed to spot him, turning to face him, beginning to take slow deliberate steps in his direction. When it got close enough for the Doctor to see it clearly he did the only thing he could think of, turn and run. He just hoped he was quick enough to escape it.
He was late, he knew it, not that knowing he was late helped any; what he did know however, was that Elizabeth would be annoyed. So, when he barrelled through the door John expected to hear her question on why he was late, raised eyebrow included. What he actually got was Rodney making the expected snappish comment and Elizabeth asking, "have you seen Dr. Bonadan?" a hopefulness in her voice.
"I know, I'm late." He'd already replied when his brain processed what she'd said, "wait, you're not annoyed?"
"No," she sighed, "we're still waiting on Dr. Bonadan. Like you, he's almost twenty minutes late." Rodney made a snorting laugh at that, stopping when he saw Sheppard glare.
"Have you tried contacting him on the coms?"
"I wanted to give it a few more minutes before announcing to the entire city that he was late." Nodding in understanding, John took his seat at her right and looked around the room. It was the type of meeting he hated, but as military leader had to attend. All around him sat scientists, mostly from the biology department, all with eager faces, excited eyes and stained lab coats.
Rodney cleared his throat finally attracting John's attention. "Late again Sheppard. What was it this time? Faulty alarm clock?" His tone was mocking and John wasn't in the mood. Why these damn meetings had to be scheduled for oh eight hundred he'd never know.
"Didn't sleep," he grunted. Part of him wondered what would happen if he told him the truth, but then again, giving Rodney a heart attack in the briefing room would probably upset Elizabeth.
"What reason do you have not to sleep. It's not like you have any pressing matters to trouble your mind. I on the other hand, have several experiments I need to keep an eye on." The superior tone wasn't lost on John. Shaking his head at Rodney he turned back to Elizabeth, making eye contact and after a moment giving her a brief nod. Looking over to two of the scientists he sent one to Dr. Bonadans' lab and the other to his quarters while Elizabeth tried to reach him on the coms, her voice echoing throughout the city. After a couple of attempts and getting nothing she shook her head and dismissed the assembled scientists, thanking them for coming and apologising for wasting their time. John watched as they filed out shaking their heads and muttering at Bonadan's laziness before following Elizabeth to her office, dropping into the chair opposite her desk. He could see the frustration on her face, coupled with a touch of concern. Doctor Bonadan was one of the first scientists she'd recruited onto the expedition, back when they were still based in Antarctica and since they'd arrived in the city he'd headed up the biology department.
"He probably just overslept." It's not much in the way of comfort but without proper information it's all he's got.
"I know. It's just not like him. He was so excited about the new lab we've discovered and the biological compounds he'd found. He even claimed that they may be able to be used as an organic power source. It was him who asked for this meeting." For a few minutes they sat in silence, enjoying each other's company and watching the activities of operations, only moving when they saw the two scientists come back into the gate room gesticulating emphatically. Meeting them on the catwalk to her office, Elizabeth looked at them expectantly.
"Neither of us understand it Dr. Weir. He's not in his room or in any of the labs. In fact, he hasn't been seen since last night."
"Are you sure?"
"Yes, I saw him head off to his quarters last night," Dr. Resh replied, her eyes bright with worry, "he said he'd be here for the briefing today."
"Okay. Thank you." Elizabeth and John watched as the two scientists left before heading back to her office. "John, how long would it take for a team to do a city wide search?"
"Depends on the number of teams, couple of hours for the control tower with three teams." He waited for her nod before he left his office, tapping his radio as he went to assemble the personnel he'd need.
Tapping her own earpiece Elizabeth waited for Rodney's voice to crackle into her ear, "is there any way that the biosensors can tell us exactly how many people are in the city?"
"Oh yes, of course, I'll just flip the switch and make that happen." His reply was pretty much what she expected, so she waited through his little rant knowing he'd come up with an actual solution. "It would take a few hours to write the programme, longer if it was Zalenka you'd asked, but not everyone is as good as me at-"
"Rodney," she cut him off, "please."
"Right, on it." The connection died and with nothing to but wait, Elizabeth decided to start on the mountain of reports on her desk.
The search of the control tower took longer than John would have hoped, mostly due to scientists constantly stopping him and his teams to ask if they'd found Bonadan yet. By the time the teams had assembled back in the control room and reported they'd found nothing it was late and John was frustrated and hungry. How hard could it be to find one wayward scientist after all. Looking up to the glass walls of Elizabeth's office he shook his head when he caught her eyes and saw her frown deepen. He had to admit it was strange, even if he'd fallen down a flight of stairs or god forbid it died, they should have found him or his body at least, instead it was like he'd disappeared into thin air. Turning back to the soldiers gathered in front of him he ordered them to search again, this time expanding the search beyond the control tower before he turned and headed up to Elizabeth's office, almost being trampled by Rodney as he pushed his way past him.
"Hey, watch it," John shouted up the stairs, hardly surprised when Rodney didn't even look back.
"Are you heading to Elizabeth's office?" John was about to open his mouth when Rodney started speaking again, "good, because I don't want to explain this twice." Quickening his pace, John caught up with Rodney and squeezed through the door at the same time as him, quickly taking a seat in front of the desk.
Elizabeth looked at them both expectantly waiting for one of them to say something. "well," she prompted.
"A sweep of the control tower showed no sign of Bonadan. I've set the teams to search again, extending into adjacent sections of the city."
"No point Colonel." Both John and Elizabeth turned to Rodney, both with expectant expressions.
"And why would that be Rodney?" John asked, the frustration in his voice badly hidden.
"Because, when I finished the programme and the number of people were correlated, well, we're one short."
"How do you explain that?" Elizabeth asked to no one in particular.
"Possibly he was beamed up by the Asgard, or maybe a Wraith dart, although we should have detected a dart and what would the Asgard want with Bonadan. He's hardly the most intelligent person here."
"I think we discount both of those options," Elizabeth said, mostly in an attempt to prevent an argument between John and Rodney. "What does that leave us?"
"Maybe he fell in the ocean," John offered.
"No, the biosensors would have detected him, like with Ford."
Elizabeth sighed, they were getting nowhere. "So what, he just disappeared? I find that hard to believe. Could it have anything to do with the new lab he was working in?"
"That's possible," Rodney said as he stood up and left her office earing a raised eyebrow from Elizabeth. Not that he saw it.
"I guess he's on it," John muttered before standing up himself and turning to face Elizabeth, "I'm going for some food. Care to join me?" Frowning slightly when she shook her head and pointed at the large stack of papers. "Fine. Just don't stay in here all night." He heard her mumble something as he left her office.
It was two in the morning when the alarms started screaming waking Elizabeth, her head jumping off of her desk before she stood up and ran into the control room. "What's going on?"
"I have no idea. There's no incoming wormhole, no Wraith and the Daedalus is on Earth," the tech replied looking at the screens around him frantically.
"Find out what's happening," Elizabeth heard a chorus of 'yes, ma'am' as she turned away to look at the flashing screen behind them.
"Elizabeth," Rodney's presence wasn't unexpected, even at this hour.
"Did you do this?" she asked.
"Sort of." He muttered as he pushed a tech out of the way to access a computer terminal, turning off the alarm. There were several muted sighs of relief as the blaring alarm died and relative peace returned. Turning back to Elizabeth he explained, "I linked the alarm to the biosensors, to alert us if someone else disappeared." Quickly typing instructions on the console he was sat at, he brought the biosensors up on the screen. Dozens of gold dots were covering the control tower. "three people have disappeared."
"Tell me that includes Dr. Bonadan," she said, a silent plea in her voice.
"No. Including him, four people have gone missing."
"Can you tell who they are?"
"Without linking the biosensors to DNA profiles, no."
Briefly glancing at her watch, Elizabeth let out an exhausted sigh before contacting Sheppard, asking him to set up check-in points in the mess hall for all awake personnel and to send teams room to room I order to find out who had gone missing. "How long would it take for you to link the biosensors to our DNA profiles?" she asked Rodney.
"I have no idea," he yelped indignantly. He was about to complain when he looked up at Elizabeth and saw the worry in her eyes, "but I'll get on it." Nodding her thanks, she headed out of the control room and to the mess hall. When she arrived there was a line of personnel queuing out the door, both military and science, all with a groggy eyes and most with coffee mugs in hand. Heading through the double doors, Elizabeth spotted John stood with several soldiers as they took names and checked them off of lists they'd assembled. Grabbing a mug and filling it to the brim with coffee she joined him as he dismissed the soldiers, watching as they joined the others in taking down names.
"You never left your office did you." John's face was full of concern; she knew he hated it when she worked all night.
"I might have done."
"Liar," his voice was stern but it held a hint of humour. "If this thing is going to be as bad I'm guessing, Atlantis is going to need its leader well rested." She didn't argue with him, she knew he was right and after a minute he let the subject drop, content to stand there drinking coffee while they waited to find out who had gone. It took hours, but eventually they were handed three names, Ashlee Simms, Tom Quill and Caleb Harris.