"Ours's not to reason why. Ours's but to do or die," Rodney paraphrased, his voice little more than a mumble. Later, he would wonder if our's really was a word.
"What?" Sheppard whispered, his eyes fixed on the horizon. Rodney repeated his words, and much to his surprise the Colonel didn't scoff at his pessimism. Instead, green eyes closed for a brief moment and then opened, cynicism clear in their depths. "Noble four, right?"
Ronan and Teyla, caught by the voices they could barely hear, looked over, and their reaction was enough to silence the other two for some time. The wraith scouting party was unusually large, and looking for something in particular. The Atlanteans were more than a little afraid it was them.
About half an hour later, when their nerves had been stretched beyond breaking, and despite themselves their bodies and minds began to give in to their exhaustion, Sheppard spoke up again. "It's do and die, McKay." At Rodney's obvious bewilderment, he sighed and elaborated. "You said 'do or die.' You were wrong- it's do and die."
"What's the difference?" Ronan asked, bored enough to be interested. He hated waiting. If it had been up to him, they would have attacked the scouting party. But he knew that the chance of all of them surviving was fairly low, and Sheppard wouldn't take those odds, and he was grateful for that. But still, he hated waiting.
Rodney frowned. "I suppose it means that whatever they were fighting for, it wasn't their lives. Because they knew they were going on a suicide mission."
Teyla smiled, and her grip on her weapon tightened. "What they were fighting for, it was more important. Like we do. We fight to save this galaxy."
"Or make the deaths of our people less meaningless," the Satedan growled.
This time, Rodney didn't try to silence his sharp bark of angry laughter. "Oh please," he sneered. "Who is going to live or be avenged if we die here? On some God-forsaken planet with an abandoned, useless Ancient outpost that is just one more remnant of a once-great civilization we depend on to save us from the enemy they couldn't save themselves from! And they, those Light Brigadiers were fighting over a piece of land that religions have been fighting over for centuries, millennia, in fact! Human against human, earthling against earthling, European against European... If they only knew!"
"Then why don't you tell them?" Teyla asked the obvious question.
"Yeah," Ronan added. "Our people have always known about the gates, and we've dealt fine with it."
Sheppard kept his eyes on the horizon, knowing that aside from Rodney, his team was not allowing the conversation to become much of a distraction. Instead, it was helping them deal with the tension. "Maybe we trust our people a little less than you did yours. We're at war with each other because we fear one another. How much more will we fear the wraith, the Goauld, the Replicators? What will that drive the masses to do?"
"Turn your weapons away from each other and point them towards the real enemies," Ronan suggested.
"Yes, but who'll turn first? Who'll be the first to trust the other not to shoot them in the back?"
As Rodney finished speaking, they heard the gate come to life in the distance, and Elizabeth's voice echoed in their ears. "This is Weir. You're overdue."
Sheppard tapped his ear. "We've run into some trouble. We could use a cloaked jumper running interference, allow us to get to the gate and dial out."
"Will do. Lorne's team is standing ready. As soon as they're flying, we'll send them through. Just get to the gate. They'll dial from the jumper. Weir out."
The wormhole disengaged. Although they had been hoping for Weir to check on them, they became even more wary because the wraith would have seen the wormhole engaging. Though the wraith couldn't hear her voice, they would know that someone had to be there. And they would keep looking.
They still hadn't seen anything by the time Atlantis established a wormhole and sent Lorne's jumper through. And though they could hear wraith weapons trying to shoot down a ship they couldn't see, as Sheppard, Ronan, Teyla and Rodney ran to and then through the gate, they did not engate the enemy once. As the jumper rose behind them, Ronan slapped the physicist on the back and smiled wolfishly. "I guess we didn't do or die this time."
Rodney stopped walking and stood at the bottom of the stairs. He looked up at his compatriot, manning the controls that allowed people to enter and leave their planet. Behind him, the American diplomat stood proud and regal, her eyes and smile welcoming them home, safe and sound. Carson's brogue washed over him as sharp, healer's eyes examined their bodies for injuries. Radek's English interspersed with Czech was already audible over his ear-piece, complaining about something Dr. Lopez had done, while the woman in question was approaching him, defending herself in a thick Spanish accent.
Yes, they were a world capable of the Crimean War, the Crusades, the continuing conflict in the Middle East and wars that had the potential to bring their own world to its news. But if they could come together here, if they could build this, someday they could on Earth too.
The only question was- how many would have to do and die before that came to pass?
THE END