Stargate Atlantis: Cupid's Arrow

"John? John?"

The Scottish voice sounded nervous and uncertain, relaying the qualms that Carson Beckett felt as he stood the Ancient Podium. His hands were splayed on the console and his eyes were tightly closed, as if he expected to be attacked at any moment.

John Sheppard had to smile. He stood near the Podium, in reach but as yet not touching it. "Just relax, doc. You are only going to access some information, if it is there. You'll have to go deep and try to convince the city, but we're here in case we need to pull you out. Right?" His gaze swung to a striking brunette who was keeping a watchful gaze on the monitors that were near.

"Right," Alison Porter agreed. She stepped to the Podium and adjusted an electrode on Carson's temple. "I'm right here, Carson. Nothing will happen to you, I guarantee it."

Carson opened his blue eyes to see Alison smiling at him. He smiled in return, and John felt a flare of both envy and happiness for his friend. "Och, in that case bring it on." They gently laughed together. Carson looked at John. "What is it exactly I am trying to find?"

"It's in the past…way back, but before the end of the war with the Wraith." John glanced round the room but they were alone except for Richard Woolsey who was standing near the monitors, watching with curiosity.

"It's a sister city to Atlantis called Tur.." John paused as a pain flared in his head. He grimaced, scowling at the sudden reprimand. "That doesn't matter. There should be something about a city that defied orders and was trying to get back to Atlantis. Just be careful, Carson," he added as the pain lessened to a dim ache.

"Aye. Here we go." Carson tried to relax, flexing his fingers on the Podium. Lights danced on the console and above his head. "Bypassing the greeting and all of that fuss. Here we go. History, that's the ticket! Now, my lady, what would you rather not reveal to us, hmm?" he muttered, as the strange interface of man and machine filled his mind.

Alison stared, about to say something when John shook his head. "Don't. It's how we have to, um, connect." He shrugged apologetically.

Alison raised a brow, but she remained silent. She turned back to the monitor. "Brain waves are very active, but so far it's just him."

"Let's keep it that way," Richard said. He stepped forward to stand on Carson's other side. He couldn't begin to understand the way these two men connected to the city and interacted with it as if the AI was a living being, but nonetheless he trusted them both as along as suitable precautions were taken. He envied them their strong ATA genes, but at the same time he did prefer not being able to plug into the city's heart with such intensity.

"Something's happening! His heart rate is elevated, not to dangerous levels but still…" Alison was looking back and forth between Carson and the monitors.

John stepped closer. "Talk to us, Carson. What do you see?" John glanced up to see a star chart twinkling in the air, a floating graph of pinks and purples. It was indistinct.

"She's trying to evade me, clever girl, but I can almost get there. It's quite hidden and not in any official records…not in the historical data they compiled about their conquest of this galaxy and the subsequent…" Sweat was beading along the doctor's brow. He squinted against the brightness only he could see even though his eyes were shut. His hands were clinging to the console lest he fall. "Battle…a…she defied you, didn't she? She explored beyond the barrier and into the…grabbed a…thing…I can almost get there! I can almost see it! That city…John! John, the city you found it's there in the archives but there's a black…"

"Carson!" Alison exclaimed, as blood was trickling from the doctor's nose. "Get him out of there now!" she ordered, whirling to see the monitor was still only recording one brain wave but that wave was now highly erratic, as erratic as his heart rate.

"Carson, let go! Let go!" John ordered, trying to pull the doctor away from the Podium but Carson wouldn't budge. Richard grabbed Carson's hands and began to pry them off the console, finger by finger.

"I'm almost there, man!" Carson said angrily.

"Stand down! That's a direct order!" John bellowed, but whether he was talking to the doctor or to Atlantis he wasn't sure.

Suddenly the power was gone and the room was plunged into darkness. Carson fell backwards but both John and Richard supported him, easing the doctor down to sit on the floor. Both were shoved aside as Alison dropped to her knees and checked Carson's pulse.

"Carson? Carson, can you hear me? Carson!" She removed the electrode and was about to administer a sedative when the doctor caught her arm, halting her.

"Aye, love, I'm here." Carson blinked rapidly, breath slowing to normal. He scowled, wincing as the light resumed in the room. "Och, I've got a divil of a headache now. John?"

John returned to his side, ignoring the glare of Alison. "Are you sure you're okay, doc?"

"Aye, I am. I'm grounded here." He glanced at Alison as his hand entwined with hers. He looked at John again. "Sorry, but it wouldn't let me get any closer. It's very sensitive material. If I went in again perhaps I could—"

"No!" John, Alison and Richard said at once.

Carson sighed. "Very well." He wiped at his nose with a Kleenex. "I will tell you one thing, though. Whomever these rogue Ancients were…they were even more arrogant than the ones we've encountered."

"What makes you say that?" Richard asked. He glanced at John but the military commander appeared equally perplexed.

"The arrogance of them, striking out on their own like that! Then having to run with their tail between their legs and beg for help!" Carson flared. "She was not happy about that, not at all but she couldn't abandon her sister now could she? Could she? But by then it was already too late and the dreamtime began, the abandonment…"

"Carson?" John looked at Alison. "Is he okay?"

"I'm not sure. Carson, Carson, can you hear me?" Alison leaned close as the doctor's gaze seemed to look through his friends and towards a place he could only see in his mind. "Carson?"

Carson blinked and groaned. "Aye, aye! I'm here…it's just for a moment…"

"You were there," John finished for him.

Carson met his gaze. "Yes. She wouldna take me as far as she took you." There was a brief flare of resentment in his blue eyes, but a squeeze from Alison's hand on his own made him meet her gaze and smile. "Thanks, love. I really need to get off this bloody floor and get some aspirin. A pint of Guinness wouldn't hurt either."

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John sighed. He ran a hand through his hair, fingers absently rubbing at the shadow of the headache that still lingered behind his eyes. He sat in darkness, legs stretched out, feet propped up on the desk as he slouched in a chair.

He was in the deserted bio lab.

He slowly nursed a beer, sipping the alcohol and letting the tang take away his disappointment. The good thing was that Carson hadn't been harmed. The bad thing was he couldn't find any relevant information in the data base.

Or the city had decided not to let him find it.

John's long fingers played up and down the neck of the cold bottle as he stared at nothing. As he stared at the blank computer monitor and then the haphazard stack of papers and books and the little plush mammoth next to it he wondered about that lost city.

He wondered why they had gone against orders and taken a leap of faith into a new galaxy, only to steal something and end up running from an implacable foe. He wondered why Atlantis didn't want anyone to even know that city's name, not to mention its location except for John. He wondered why the city had taken him on that strange journey to show him the past and had denied Carson the same experience.

Because the city trusted John, that's why, he decided, and felt a surge of pride and confidence. He rubbed his temple, however, dousing the feelings that perhaps, just perhaps weren't quite all his own. Sometimes he wasn't sure.

John wished he could have an equal trust in the city.