Disclaimer: The characters of Stargate: Atlantis do not belong to me. I'm just taking them out for a spin.
Characters: Team fic, plus Lorne. Shep/Weir pairing more obvious toward the end.
Rating: T, for language and some icky stuff
Spoilers: Pretty much all of the first two seasons, but specifics for Hide and Seek, Seige II, and Duet.
Author's Note: This fic is already complete, so I'm posting all four chapters and the epilogue at once. I know I'd probably get more reviews if I did one a day, like I did with the werewolve fic, but this one I'm done editing and it can be published in its entirety! Hope you enjoy!
On any other occasion John Sheppard was escorting Elizabeth Weir through the stargate, he would have been relieved to find a peaceful and quiet planet on the other side. This time, however, he took one look at the silent clearing in front of him and immediately swung up his weapon.
He glanced behind him to see that the rest of his team – at least the usual fighting contingent – were also ready for combat. The final two members were engaged in conversation, one of them, as usual, completely unaware of the wrongness of their situation.
"... why you can't understand how important this is!" Rodney McKay was saying to Elizabeth. He turned toward John. "You have to talk to her. She'll – " He broke off sharply as Teyla Emmagan turned to him sharply and hissed his name.
"What?" he asked, then blinked as if noticing their surroundings for the first time. "Where is everybody?"
Ronon Dex seemed to be thinking about turning his weapon on the physicist. Noticing the impatient looks of John and Major Lorne, Elizabeth decided she'd rather not have to explain to the SGC why she'd let her chief scientist be killed by friendly fire. "Rodney!" she said sharply.
Rodney turned to look at her, seeming about to protest, but something in her face stopped him. This was clearly not the time to disagree.
Elizabeth turned back to the leader of this little foray offworld, worried. John had indicated that they had little to fear from the Palimins, but something was clearly wrong now. She wanted to ask him what, but judging from his hyper-alertness, and that of the rest of the team (sans Rodney, of course) she decided it might be best to wait.
Satisfied that his team was finally in order, John signaled them to move out. He took point, Teyla in the middle, while Ronon guarded their rear. Lorne moved up to cover Elizabeth; protecting her was his primary mission on this trip.
As they entered the clearing, they found banked fires and neatly arranged packs of food. Tables had been arranged, but the settings and other accoutrements of the feast that was supposed to have greeted the team were still packed neatly away. There was no sign of their hosts.
The Palimins had been eager to trade, and the abundance of wildlife, both plant and animal, on the planet would have added some much needed variety to the diet on Atlantis, as well as provided plentiful seed for the Athosians on the mainland. The Palimins had only one requirement for the negotiations; they wanted to seal it with John's superior. They promised that if Elizabeth were present for the initial negotiations, they could guarantee that the trade agreements would never expire, even if leadership in the Palimin community should change hands.
John had been forced to take the demands back to Elizabeth. As much as he respected Elizabeth's skills, it worried him to have her offworld. At least when she was on Atlantis, he knew that whatever trouble he might get into, she was still safe. Well, safe as long as the Wraith didn't see through their ruse. Or as long as another giant storm didn't appear. And if no more weird shadowy thingies were found in the labs.
But still, safer than he felt she would be out there with him.
So he tried his best to express disapproval during the meeting in which he presented the Palimin demands. After the initial briefing, Elizabeth said she would think on the matter, then asked him to stay in her office.
She sat down behind her desk, and John took the seat on the other side. He found the couches more comfortable, but he felt like she might take this more seriously if he sat in a real chair.
Leaning back in her chair, she crossed her arms. "What's your threat assessment, John?"
"The Palimins are peaceful," he admitted. "The planet seems quiet enough, and they claim to have never heard of the Wraith."
As he hoped, she picked up on the key word. "Claim?"
He settled back in his own chair. "All their history seems to start about two thousand years ago. But from what Rodney could tell, all their structures are much older. So something happened that wiped out a lot of the population, around two thousand years ago."
He could see that Elizabeth was weighing his words, and he appreciated the trust she showed in him. Now if only she wouldn't ask any more questions...
At last she leaned forward, steepling her fingers on the desk. "Have you considered that it might have been a natural disaster?"
John sighed. He'd known she would ask, and truthfully he'd probably have told her if she hadn't. He could justify keeping some things from her, but this wasn't one of them. "Yeah," he said. "Rodney said there appears to have been some kind of planet wide tectonic upheaval about the time their stories begin."
Distracted slightly, Elizabeth raised an eyebrow. "Rodney said? When did he become a geologist?"
John grinned at that. "I think he's trying to impress Katie Brown with his knowledge of something other than physics. I'm pretty sure it was Lieutenant Cadman's idea."
"But Katie's a botanist. Why geology? Wouldn't botany make more sense?"
"They're the only scientists who would help him without telling the whole city that Rodney doesn't know everything. I think he wanted to start with a 'real' science, but the chemists wouldn't have him. And botany is definitely not a 'real' science."
Elizabeth laughed at that. "He hasn't told Katie that, I hope." Smoothing her face out, she turned back to the topic at hand. "Tell me honestly, John. Is it too dangerous for me to go?"
He fidgeted a little in his chair, but couldn't lie to her. "No."
"Then why are you so reluctant?"
"Because," he sighed, "lately whenever we go to a planet that seems too good to be true, it usually is."
Elizabeth considered this. She usually trusted John's instincts, but she couldn't allow his overprotectiveness to prevent Atlantis from acquiring some much needed resources. She opened her mouth to say as much, but he beat her to it.
"There's no reason you can't go," he said, although she heard a hint of sulkiness in his voice. "We really could use what they're offering. I just... it makes me worry when you're offworld," he admitted reluctantly.
She smiled at him, but continued speaking before he began to feel awkward. "If it makes you feel better, bring Major Lorne along to look after me." After all, it wouldn't do to have the mission leader too worried about protecting her to function properly.
John agreed to the suggestion. It would make him feel better. He was sure that the young major was a little in love with their beautiful expedition leader, but he believed that it meant Lorne would only try harder to protect her.
Of course, if Lorne ever got unprofessional with her, John would have to kick his ass.
John was just leaving her office when she spoke up again. "And, John? I'll follow your lead in any military situation, but you have to know that I'll be in charge when it comes to the negotiations. No jumping in just because you don't like the way things are going."
He nodded sheepishly, remember a past instance when the negotiator for another planet had insulted her, rather badly. He'd leapt over the table, grabbing the man by the neck of his shirt. How was he supposed to know that trading insults was a part of their bargaining process? Of course, Elizabeth had pointed out that she'd briefed him about it before they left, but... still!
So here they were on a foreign planet, a peaceful foreign planet, and of course everything had gone wrong the moment they stepped through the gate.
The group worked their way past the clearing, seeing no clue as to where their greeting party had gone. When they reached the village without seeing any people, John chose the tavern as the most defendable location. They took shelter inside.
"Okay," he began. "This can't be good."
Rodney repeated his earlier question. "Where is everyone?"
Elizabeth could see that John was tempted to snap at the scientist. The two were normally friends, of a sort, but John had already been on edge because of her presence, and the strange lack of people had him tightly wound. She stepped in. "I think that's what we're trying to figure out, Rodney."
"Wherever they have gone, they were in no hurry as they left," Teyla said from her position by the bar. "Everything has been recently cleaned and carefully stored."
"So... what?" Lorne asked, not looking up from his post at one window. "All the people just packed everything up and disappeared?"
John started to reply, but Ronon, by a window on the other side of the door, cut him off. "Not just the people."
"What?" John asked.
"It's not just the people," Ronon repeated. When John simply raised his eyebrows, Ronon continued. "Did you hear any birds on the way here? And the livestock pens were all closed and locked, but empty."
There was a moment of silence as the rest of the group considered this. "Perhaps they took the livestock with them," Elizabeth offered.
John shook his head. "Ronon's right. What about the birds and wildlife? We should have seen some – there were a lot of animals here."
"We should leave," Rodney declared. When the rest looked at him, he became a little defensive. "What? There's no other reason to use this planet – no power source, no technology – except for food, and whatever the Palimins said about there being no big predators, if something here is large enough to take out an entire village, I, for one, don't want to eat it."
"And what about the Palimins, Dr. McKay?" Teyla asked. "Should we not attempt to discover what has happened to them?"
Lorne glanced nervously at Elizabeth. "I agree with McKay. We don't know what happened here, and I think we should at least get Dr. Weir back through the gate."
Elizabeth frowned. "We don't know what happened to them. We can't leave until we know more. What if they need help? I can't leave until we see." On the last sentence, she looked directly at John.
He recognized the determination in her eyes. As much as he would prefer to have Elizabeth safely on Atlantis, he knew she wouldn't agree to go easily. He could order her – this was a military situation if there ever were one – but he felt that doing so would cause even more problems down the line.
At the first sign of real danger, though, he was going to have Lorne drag her back to Atlantis, willing or not. He'd do it himself, but if that happened he'd probably be a little busy shooting something.
He turned to look at Teyla and wasn't the least bit surprised when she tilted her head towards Elizabeth and simply said, "I agree."
John glanced back at Ronon, noticing that the big man was watching Teyla. He looked briefly at John, and then returned his attention to the window. "Well?" John prompted.
"Stay."
John nodded. He wanted to know what had happened here, too.
