Stargate Atlantis: Sleep Before I Do
By: Shadow Chaser
Disclaimer: Stargate SG-1 & Stargate Atlantis and its characters are the property of Stargate (II) Productions, Showtime/Viacom, MGM/UA, Double Secret Productions, Gekko Productions, AcmeShark Productions, and Scifi Channel. This story is for amusement only and I didn't get any money for it. No copyright infringement is intended.
Category: Action Adventure, Drama, H/C
Pairing: Hints of Shep/Weir, Shep/McKay friendship, hints of Ronon/Teyla, hints of Shep/Teyla.
Notes: I might end up changing the rating back down to a PG-13 but it mostly depends on how much violence I use in this fic. The R rating is mostly for later chapters… Please tell me if I'm getting the characterizations of a few characters wrong!
Story:
Chapter 2 – Return
Teyla lead Major Lorne and his team along with the other team of Marines, fresh from the Daedalus' last drop off of supplies, through the thick undergrowth. Behind her she could hear the excited murmurings of Dr. McKay and allowed a smile to appear on her face. The good doctor could be so excitable at times, something she found amusing.
"I hope you're paying attention back there Captain Pearson, step where we step and you won't look like you went two rounds with a pitbull," Major Lorne called back to the second team.
"Sir, yes sir!" the Captain called back in a clear and loud voice.
Sometimes, Teyla was puzzled at how much respect those in the military of the Lanteans from Earth showed to each other. She was puzzled at how those ranked Captains or lower could have so much enthusiasm and respect for their superiors when clearly, between the Major and Colonel Sheppard, there seemed to be more camaraderie.
She had asked Major Lorne one day about that and he had explained that it was something to do with Sheppard's "command style." That had left her even more confused… Until Dr. Weir cleared it up for her, mostly. She still did not understand the animosity between Sheppard and Colonel Caldwell, even though the captain of the Daedalus was of a higher rank than Sheppard.
"We're almost there," she half-turned to tell Major Lorne who nodded and hefted his P90 to a more comfortable grip.
She could see the clearing and burst into the bright sunlight, sighing as they finally came out of the heavy underbrush. Brushing twigs and leaves from her uniform, she glanced back and saw the others also stumbling out, a couple of the Marines from the new team looking a bit worst for wear and were covered in scratches.
"Do not worry about your scrapes and cuts. The locals have a healing balm that would be most useful," she called to two of them who were wincing as they pulled out at least ten prickly looking things from their hair and parts of their bodies.
"Now I get why the Wraith don't like coming here," Captain Pearson muttered, shaking a prickly from his hand.
"Come, the village is just up ahead," she motioned for them to continue on and turned back around, Rodney moving along side of her, his head buried in the datapad while he was taking notes. How the scientist never crashed into anything or stumbled around, even on Atlantis with his nose buried, was a mystery to Teyla. She had thought that it was some kind of genetic trait that enabled Dr. McKay to avoid obstacles in his path, but Colonel Sheppard had reassured her that even he was baffled.
As they approached the entrance to the village she noticed a few of the people waving to them, some of them dropping their things and running to get the leader of the village, Taethos. She patted Dr. McKay on the shoulder to get his attention.
"Hmm? Oh," the doctor looked up from whatever he was doing and put away the datapad, a grin appearing on his face.
"Teyla, Dr. McKay, so good to see you returning so soon. I take it your leader wishes to trade with us?" Taethos' booming voice echoed down the main street of the village as the large tall man walked towards them, with some of the village-folk behind him, grins on their faces. He had a rakish looking air to him, with short dark hair and sparkling brown eyes, but his manner was most definitely not of a pirate.
"Taethos, it is good to see you again," she greeted with a short bow and a smile on her face. She had to admit; he was a good leader to his people and was very kind and helpful in providing for their needs during their stay. Clasping hands with him, he smiled at her before moving to clasp hands with Rodney, to whom she saw him grimace slightly, but endured.
"Where are Colonel Sheppard and your good friend Ronon?" he asked looking around.
"They are leading more teams to explore other worlds as we speak," Teyla explained before half-turning and gestured to Major Lorne and the Marines. "This is Major Marcus Lorne and his team: Lieutenant Kaili Wescott, Dimitri Sevanov, and Lieutenant Roger Brown. Captain Quinn Pearson and his team: Lieutenant Pai-an Li, Dr. TJ Ashley, and Dr. Ami Hendrisk."
Taethos went around shaking hands with everyone, trying to remember their names and made comments that made the two female Lieutenants and doctor blush slightly. When he was done, he turned back to Teyla.
"Did you bring anything to trade?" he asked.
"Yes," she dug out a small bag full of sample medication that Dr. Beckett had given to her for some initial trading before they can firm out real agreements, and handed it over to Taethos. "These are some medicinal supplies we use for treatment of wounds and whatnot. I hope that your scientists would be able to study them and perhaps perfect them along with the healing balm that your people use."
"Ah yes…I've also noticed that some of your team have cuts from the underbrush. Perhaps if you'll all step to the Main Hall, we can get them treated and talk more," the tall leader said.
"Um…Taethos, sorry to bother you, but can I look at the device some more?" Rodney spoke up quickly.
"Why of course, Dr. McKay…after all, you are most welcomed to it. If you can get the systems online we will most certainly be able to defend ourselves from the Wraith during their next culling!" Taethos grinned, "Some of my men will accompany you to help you with your research."
"Uh huh," Rodney didn't really pay attention and instead turned away from the group and headed towards the area where the device was, Sevanov, Dr. Ashley, and Dr. Hendrisk following him.
Teyla shook her head, a rueful smile coming to her face before she turned back around, "My apologies Taethos. Dr. McKay has been very excited to get back to working on the device since we've left it."
"No worries Teyla Emmagan. I see a happy soul when I see one. Come, we shall talk more of what the Lanteans, Athosians, and our people can trade with each other," he held out an arm to her and she accepted gracefully, ignoring the curious look Major Lorne gave to her.
No one noticed when one of the villagers stayed behind; only a small child, he watched the Lantean party go into the village. Making sure that no one was in hearing range, he pulled out a small circular device and whistled into it. A series of whistles replied back from the device before he flicked a switch on and spoke into it. "They have arrived…wait for my signal."
He then shut off the device and ran back towards the village.
Rodney let a smile blossom on his face as he approached the room the device was held in. It was a little ways off from the village and in an underground bunker, which made him that there was probably more to the bunker than meets the eye, but he had yet to find a power source like a ZPM that would be able to raise the bunker. The bunker was most definitely Ancient in design and looked very similar to that of the Atlantis, but Atlantis didn't have this thing in it.
He was in his happy place on this planet.
"All right, Sevanov, I want you to start running E-M scans to see if you can find anything that would be able to power this little baby. Ashley, I need you to run a few scans through the thing, and Hendrisk, um, follow me," he waved to the scientists, dropping his own pack to the floor and walking towards what looked like a circular console board filled with buttons and a few symbols of Ancient writing.
He pointed to a secondary console. "Since you have the gene, try seeing if you can activate something over there."
"Yes sir," the female doctor with a degree in engineering physics and astrophysics went to the station and began studying it.
Rodney knew that she was one of the new crew and contrary to everyone else's belief, did memorize all of the scientific staff's names and what their specialties were. He had Dr. Ami Hendrisk's recommendation from one of his former colleagues who was now residing in Germany. He hoped that she would prove to be an asset since they were short on staff that had the natural gene instead of the gene therapy one.
Taking out his laptop and quickly plugging it to connect with the Ancient console he had been working from just yesterday, he tapped a few buttons and smiled. "Good, now we're in business," watching as the readings from yesterday appeared and he began to type in a few equations.
He had been looking at the power readings that were obviously on, but the source of it was hidden, almost as if cloaked. Figuring it was probably cloaked, he had tuned the laptop to see if there were any anomalous frequencies that would betray where the cloaking was coming from. "Hmm…it says here that it's not picking up anything," he commented out loud.
"Nothing here either, Dr. McKay," Hendrisk replied.
"I wasn't talking to you, Hendrisk," he snapped back, a bit annoyed, "just commenting to myself."
There was no reply from the scientist and Rodney turned back to his readings. He glanced sideways towards the console he was at and pushed a few buttons. He had already gotten the console to work for him, sensing that he had the ATA gene, but so far, it just gave him little to no readings he could work with. He had a vague idea of what the buttons did and tried to research some more in the village's very extensive library, but it came up empty. How the village preserved their library and other artifacts during the Wraith cullings after the device had failed was a mystery to him and Taethos seemed reluctant to explain how or why. He hoped Teyla would have better luck in convincing the village chief to say so, after all, as childish as it was the village chief seemed to be taken by the Athosian.
Touching a few more buttons, he stepped back slightly and blinked in surprise as the console suddenly lit up, a hum filling the air. "Whoa…"
"Dr. McKay?" the other three scientists stopped what they were doing and were staring at him and at the console.
He looked at them, a bit befuddled, but then approached the lit console and hesitantly reached out to touch one of the buttons on it.
Nothing happened.
There were three collective sighs of relief and Rodney glanced up and glared at all of them. "What? Did you think it was going to blow up!"
Wisely, all three turned back to what they were doing and he shook his head before turning his attention back to the console. He glanced at the readings on his laptop and noticed to some degree of curiosity that it was reading a higher than normal power output than what he had seen with the Atlantis consoles. Just what was this thing using for power and what was it?
A thought occurred to him.
He snapped his fingers in the general direction of Hendrisk, "Hey, um, Hendrisk…get over here."
"Sir?" Hendrisk came over, adjusting her glasses.
"Stand over there," he pointed to a small raised circular platform where he was sure that was the place to operate the device. He glanced up as she stood on the device and touched a few buttons on the panel.
Almost immediately Hendrisk was surrounded by a circular glowing panel encompassing her as the device also lit up. "What do you see Hendrisk?" McKay was careful to monitor the power levels and different electrical outputs as he glanced back and forth from Hendrisk to his laptop and to the console.
"It's…all Ancient writings, I can't translate any of this stuff…" she had gotten over her initial fear of having the device activate and reached out a hand to touch a button…
"No wait!" Rodney shouted the warning a little too late just as the scientist touched a button…
Nothing happened.
After a few minutes of silence, Rodney let out a breath that he had been holding and got pointed looks from the other scientists. He just glared at them before suddenly a holographic monitor popped up in front of the console he was working at, showing a bunch of Ancient writings and what looked like diagnostic systems.
"Did you touch...?" he asked in an absent tone as he stared at the readings, his mind trying quickly to translate the writings. For the past three years, constant exposure to the Ancient writings made him efficient for a fast, if somewhat messy, translation in the field. But he had to admit, even through his own ego, Dr. Jackson and Elizabeth would have an easier time translating this stuff and probably more accurately if they were actually here.
"No…I think it could be a delay in the system since it's so old," Hendrisk replied from where she stood.
"Of course it's a delay," he grumbled, tapping a few buttons on his laptop to synchronize with the Ancient hologram, "this thing hasn't been activated-"
He trailed off as he looked more closely at the writings. "Oh no…no, no, no…" Typing furiously into his laptop, he pulled out the small Ancient life signs detector (doubled as his small pocket PC for now) and tapped a few buttons.
"Dr. McKay?" Hendrisk asked as the other two scientists stopped what they were doing and were staring at him.
"No, no, no…" he muttered, a feeling of dread and horror filling him. He glanced up and noticed all of them looking at him. "Hendrisk, get off of that thing, now!" he barked at the physicist who jumped off immediately.
The device turned off and the holographic projection dissipated, leaving them in the glow of their own lights set up in the area.
"Dr. McKay?" Dr. TJ Ashley asked, worry all over his features. "Is there something wrong?"
"We can't activate this," he said, starting to pack up his laptop and shoving everything into his bag.
"What? But I thought you said-"
"I was wrong," he glared at the Ethopian national who blinked in confusion, "this isn't some device we can use against the Wraith…its designed to kill Ancients…and us."
"What!" all three scientists looked shocked.
"We need to leave, now," he shoved the last of his equipment into his pack and slung it around his back. Tapping his radio he spoke into it, "Teyla? Teyla its McKay…do you read?"
Static answered him and he glanced at his radio, puzzled. "Hmm, maybe it doesn't work down here with all of the shielding and stuff?" he wondered mostly to himself before gesturing for the others to follow him.
They trudged back up to the surface and Rodney clicked his radio a few times again. "Teyla? Major Lorne? Anybody?"
Static still answered him and the bad feeling he had in his stomach started to grow worst. "Um…TJ…go with Hendrisk to the gate and dial back. Tell Elizabeth we may have a problem. Dimitri, we're going to the village to see if Teyla and the others are there." He drew out his handgun, a smooth confident motion that had been, to his chagrin at times, ingrained into him by Sheppard.
"Doc?" the young Russian was still just barely a graduate, fresh out of his masters program at MIT…
"Get your damn gun out, but don't point it at anything. We don't know what's going on and I don't like it," he rolled his eyes and started forward just as he heard the two other scientists go the opposite direction and back towards the Stargate. Hopefully nothing had happened to Teyla or Major Lorne's party; otherwise…he didn't want to be stuck on this planet.
He decided to head to the village through its rougher back entrance, figuring if he could see anything suspicious, he would be able to escape quickly and find his way to the Stargate to tell Elizabeth to get Sheppard and a whole slew of Marines to help them.
"Doc, where are we going?" Sevanov asked in a hush voice as he half ducked through the brush and wooded area.
"The back entrance, now shut up and don't say anything until I tell you to," Rodney hated whiny, noisy scientists who never learned how to shut up. Wisely, Sevanov didn't say anything and the only sound was the crunching of their boots amongst the ground. They quickly made their way through the woods and towards the edge of the village.
Crawling up behind a trunk of a large tree, he peeked beyond it to see the villagers milling about. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary…perhaps none of these people actually knew what they had in the underground area. Curious though, was why their history books made no mention…
Snap…
Rodney froze. That sound came from behind… He turned around and cold fear gripped him. It was… Even his cat, Bernoulli wasn't that huge…
"Oh my…l-large…c-cat," he stared at the humanoid figure that towered over him, at least by two feet, and was staring down at him, sharp teeth bared and what looked like an energy weapon of sorts pointed at him. The cat-like creature hissed at him, much like a Wraith would, and Rodney jumped. Its dark brown fur was raised and it looked angry…
"Lower your weapon," it hissed and McKay immediately dropped his gun, hands raised half way up.
"Don't shoot, don't shoot," he muttered quickly, "nice kitty…"
The cat-like creature gave a yowl of anger and he jumped again.
"Okay, okay…s-sorry," he apologized hastily.
The angry humanoid cat stared at him through narrowed slit eyes for a few seconds before suddenly clipping him in the back of his head. Darkness consumed the Canadian scientist as he fell to the ground unconscious.
Dr. Ami Hendrisk ran for her life.
Behind her she could hear the screams of Dr. Ashley along with the unearthly yowling of those horrific creatures that had ambushed them and were ripping him to pieces with their claws.
She had managed to scramble from their grip, though with wounds all over her body, and ran blindly towards the gate, not caring that the heavy underbrush was ripping into her clothes. That was secondary pain. Tears streamed down her face as she heard the distant rapid fire of P90s along with more howls and growls.
What were these creatures! Colonel Sheppard's team and certainly Dr. McKay said that they had never even once encountered such creatures…none of the villagers seemed worried when they had met out in the clearing…was it because they had trespassed one too many times into the forest!
"God no…" she choked out as she pushed past a thorny bush and stumbled into the clearing where the stargate stood. She glanced around and saw a few rustling in the bushes and hurried over to the DHD and with her bloodied, shaking hands, punched in the coordinates to Atlantis.
The stargate wooshed to life and she input her code before running into the event horizon…
The same child that had a circular looking device stepped out of the thorny bush, surprisingly unharmed and stepped carefully towards the DHD. With each step, it was as if the child's appearance disappeared and meshed with a darker, mottled furry skin, until all that was left was a small diminutive cat-like creature.
There were more rustling from the surrounding wooded area and a few more cat-like creatures came out.
"One escaped…" one of the cat-like creature hissed, staring at the stargate's watery event horizon disappear.
"Yes," the diminutive one replied, "but…the address…it can not be. City of Alterans…"
"He did warn us that there were trespassers in the City of the Alterans. For all we know, they can be the Asurans, but more evolved," the same one replied.
"We shall wait. They will return…" the smaller one held up a hand, "then we will find out for our selves why they have come in search of Wra'ithgul."
Living on the edge of a frontier gave you a sort of sixth sense as to when things were going to be wrong. And most certainly being the Stargate Program or whatever branch of it definitely gave you that extra sense. So when Sergeant Rawlings said that there was unscheduled off-world activation, Elizabeth knew that it was trouble…and it was something to do with the return trip to M3R-154.
"What've got?" she asked Sergeant Rawlings calmly.
"It's Dr. Hendrisk's IDC," he replied.
"Open the iris," she replied and the Lantean energy shield disappeared. Immediately, the security team on guard at the gate readied their weapons, taking cover in the various corners and lower stairs in case any incoming fire was to come through.
She glanced up as she saw John walk in, concern etched into his features. It was the dead of night and she knew that he had been sleeping, same as she. However, he was completely alert and ready for anything.
"Unscheduled activation from M3R-154," she answered his silent query.
"McKay shouldn't be done yet…" he commented, puzzled.
She shrugged and turned back to watch the activity in the gateroom.
Elizabeth felt a shock run through her body as she saw Ami Hendrisk run through, covered in blood and multiple injuries. She immediately touched her radio, "Medical team to the gateroom!"
Moments later, the stargate shut down, but she was already running down the stairs, John hot on her heels. She arrived just as Carson and his medical team ran into the gateroom with a stretcher. She stopped back just a few feet away from the collapsed Dr. Hendrisk and let Carson and the other medics stabilize her.
"Carson?" she asked quietly.
Apparently her query prompted a severe reaction in Ami as she twisted in the stretcher to look at her, startling some of the medics.
"Dr. Weir…!" Ami twisted to stare at her with eyes wide with fear, pulling on the oxygen mask and the hands of the medics that were trying to pull her back onto the stretcher.
Elizabeth took a half-step forward before Carson stopped in front of her, shaking his head.
"It's best if you don't talk to her right now, Elizabeth. We need to get her stabilized," he said.
"Dr. Weir…!" Ami gave a half shout of her name and Carson turned to the injured scientist.
"Please, miss, you're bleedin' all over the place," he gave an unseen nod to one of the medics who began injecting her with what looked like a sedative.
"No…please…must," Ami's eyes started to glaze over and Elizabeth walked to her side, staring down at her with comforting look.
"It's all right Ami…tell me later," she gave her, what she hoped, was an encouraging smile.
"No…" Ami fought the drug's effects, "Dr…McKay…Wraith…device…attacked…cat-creatures…captured…" She finally succumbed to the drug and her eyes closed as she fell unconscious.
"We'll do the best we can," Carson patted her reassuringly on the shoulder as the medics rolled the stretcher away from the gateroom and towards the infirmary, before he followed them, giving orders on his radio for a team to standby for surgery.
Elizabeth watch them go, worry filling her at Ami's message to her. If Dr. McKay had discovered what the device on M3R-154 was in relation to how they can defeat the Wraith and had been captured…that meant…"
"Give me one hour to get a team ready and we'll go after them," John said beside her and she turned to face him, shaking her head.
"No," she replied, her mind racing with possibilities.
"But you heard the doctor-" John protested and she shook her head harder, emphasizing her point.
"We need to figure out what happened on the planet and until Carson has stabilized Dr. Hendrisk, no one is going back to that planet," she stared firmly into his brown eyes, "no one."
Touching her ear-radio she spoke into it, "Patch a call to the Daedalus. As soon as they arrive, have Colonel Caldwell report down to me."
She glanced back to John and saw the tiniest tremor of anger at not being able to help McKay and the rest of the team back on M3R-154, but he masked it down with a neutral expression. It was times like these that she hated seeing him so hurt and unable to do anything, but she knew that if he went now, without any other intelligence, he would most likely be captured too, and that she could not afford.
"We'll get Rodney, Teyla, and the others back, don't worry," she reassured him.
He nodded once, curtly before touching his own radio to probably wake Ronon up and gather a secondary team to go after the others. She turned away and headed back up stairs to the control room. The Daedalus wasn't due for another few hours and hopefully, by that time, Carson would have had Dr. Hendrisk stabilized.
