Stargate Atlantis: Cat's Cradle2
John sat in the bio lab. He found it easier to work here, undisturbed, tucked away in the back at Moira's work station. He found it more conducive to interact with the city when no one was watching him, although he wouldn't have minded if Moira had been watching. She had an inkling of his connection with the city, and she could probably explain it better than he could.
He sighed, accessing the computer. At his touch the machine flared to life, was instantly responsive. He barely had to type in commands. He just thought the data he required and it scrolled on the screen. It was very similar to the way he communed with the Jumper, but on a much larger and a much more powerful scale. His gaze scanned star charts, planetary alignments. He pulled up Rodney's map of the galaxy with the Stargate network. John's search parameters were simple, really.
He needed a map of the planets which had Ancient cities.
He knew there were several cities much like Atlantis, if not identical to the mother city. Over the years he had encountered a few of them—derelict remains of former glorious cities run by the Ancients, but now they were abandoned and had fallen into disuse and neglect. The knowledge of how to operate them had been lost over the tens of thousands of years, as had the ATA bloodline and the energy to run them. The indigenous populations only had scraps of knowledge, if even that, and worshipped the Ancients as if they had been gods and treated their cities as holy temples or seats of power.
They had no idea how to truly access that power. But John did.
He frowned, searching, but only the cities they had discovered over the years were emerging. "Come on, baby, I need more than that. I know there are more out there," he complained, fingers stroking the keyboard as he opened another window and extended his search through the Ancient records. He knew that those other cities might contain the power they needed to defend Atlantis. Those other cities might contain Drones or Ancient Chairs or even ZPMs that were not depleted.
He scowled, reaching for the beer he had brought with him. He sipped it, trying to think strategically. He overlaid the Stargate network over the planets and the known cities they had discovered through the years, trying to see some sort of pattern of settlement. He licked his lips, set the beer bottle aside and touched the console again. It softly hummed. John's gaze narrowed as he stared at the monitor. "Come on, baby…give it to me. I need those other cities to defend you, only you, I swear. Show me where they are. Show me an untouched city and I will bring her here to defend you, and only you."
His lips quirked. It was like wooing a woman, which in his experience was fairly easy. The wooing of a city, of a semi-sentient city was proving to be more difficult. He wondered if he should be in the Ancient Chair, but that would draw too much attention and result in too many questions he didn't want to answer. Or couldn't. He closed his eyes a moment, forcing himself to relax. The lights fluttered around him. The room was plunged into darkness except for a bluish glow that bathed him in a circle of illumination. He opened one eye.
The monitor stubbornly appeared exactly the same, yielding nothing new.
John opened his other eye. "Come on, baby. Give it to me. I need it. I need it to keep you safe. I need an untouched city I can access and fly here…or at least salvage for parts, but I think I can do that elsewhere. We need serious back-up against this new enemy. It's all for you, baby, I swear…give it to me," he argued, feeling slightly ridiculous talking out loud to the city but feeling the need to do so nonetheless.
A whisper breathed into his ear, along his mind. The city knew. The city could tell him where to go and what to look for, because of course she knew the location of every sister city. She knew the locations of all of her sisters, and had felt their deaths one by one over the thousands of years of dormancy. She knew which had fallen, and which were merely dormant. It was very closely guarded information, encrypted and hidden behind failsafe after failsafe, nearly buried in mounds of data in order to protect it at all costs. Only an Ancient could access it.
John Sheppard was not an Ancient, however strong his ATA gene was.
John ran his fingers along the console, closing his eyes again, as if he was stroking the back of a woman. He argued with logic, concise information about what he needed, promising to use the knowledge only to defend Atlantis and to keep her safe at all costs. Yes, he wasn't an Ancient but he did have the strongest ATA that the city had encountered in thousands of years. He had even flown the city between galaxies. He would do anything to keep her safe, to keep her functional and strong and together they would eliminate every threat to this galaxy one by one. Together they would face every obstacle and overcome it because unlike the Ancients he would never leave her. John Sheppard was here to stay.
It took concentration and quick thinking at the same time. A pattern was beginning to emerge, as John opened his eyes to see the screen had subtly changed, as if reluctant. There were a few planets highlighted, revealing a perimeter grid through the galaxy. Not every planet had a Stargate and not every planet had a sister city to Atlantis. But those that did were forming a pattern, a web that John's military mind could follow and fill in the blanks. He concentrated, fingers playing on the keyboard now, eliminating those cities they had already discovered, eliminating those that were inaccessible. He honed in on what he needed, what he wanted as his mind locked into that strange interface between man and machine.
The ATA was a bridge between them but now there was more. There was so much more.
John found it easier to try to picture the city as woman with whom he could converse, argue, woo and order if need be. He pictured the personification of the city as a woman, ethereal and ill-defined yet oddly familiar. The details were hazy and a dazzling light blocked his inner eye from discovering any discernible features. It reminded him of some old Irish story, a myth about a king having to woo the Sovereignty of Eire in order to gain his kingship. He couldn't remember the details. Moira would know. She would understand.
He started, hands flying off the keyboard. A chill shivered up his back, up his neck, and for a split second he could have sworn he felt the caress of a woman's fingers run through his hair. At the same time he heard a sound, a voice that wasn't quite a voice. A voice trying to say his name but it sounded more like a noise than a word, as if the speaker didn't know how to say his name or even how to speak at all.
"JO—H—NN," it whispered hoarsely, softly from nowhere, from everywhere.
John felt goose bumps on his arms. He whirled, moving to his feet but he was alone, quite alone, standing in a circle of blue light while all around him was darkness, utter darkness. His heart was racing and he forced himself to calm down. He almost expected to see a ghost. He swallowed past a suddenly dry throat. "Um…hey. I…you…" He turned back to the monitor and stared.
Several planets were highlighted for him. Colors swirling on the screen, their addresses displayed. He sat in the chair, pulling it up to the desk and began to quickly type. "Okay, baby, here we go. Give me what you got. I want it all. All. And no one will see this…except maybe for Rodney, okay? You know what I need, what I want…give it to me….just give it to me. Give it to me now!" His voice was low, husky, and his body was beginning to respond if in fact he was wooing a woman and not a city. He shifted in the chair, ignoring the completely inappropriate reactions although he did wonder what Rodney would make of it, or even Carson.
He was sure that Moira would find it hilarious.
And suddenly there it was. There was one planet on the grid, highlighted in purple, with an active Stargate. A planet they hadn't yet visited as it was off the main pattern of planets that encompassed their mission rosters. He saved the information, downloading it all to his data pad and locking it with a password. He stared, smiled. "Thanks, baby. You can trust me. You can trust me. That's a good girl now."
He sat back as the system powered down and the screen went blank. Suddenly he was drained, utterly drained, and at least his pants weren't tenting any longer. He snorted in amusement, wiping his brow, surprised to find a thin sheen on sweat on his skin. He grabbed the beer bottle but it was empty. He tipped it up, sucking out the last few precious drops of the amber liquid, tongue extending to grab them.
"J—OH—NNN."
The empty bottle dropped from John's grasp, shattering into pieces. He leapt to his feet, fatigue forgotten as he whirled. His hand slid to his gun. He caught a glimpse in the blink of an eye of a figure clothed in light, humanoid and beckoning. In the next blink it was gone.
Pain flared.
John groaned, falling to his knees, crushing the broken pieces of glass under his knees as he pressed his hands to his temples. A headache was roaring in his skull, pulsing pain that made his eyes water and he hunched, buckling under the violent assault. It felt as if it was going to tear his skull apart and he fell forward, scrunching the glass under him and scratching the skin under one eye. Blood burbled down his cheek but he didn't notice as the pain was assaulting him, reprimanding him, threatening him all at once and he could only writhe on the floor, unable to form any coherent thought.
Then it was gone.
John blinked back tears, catching his breath. He rolled onto his back, feeling the glass under him. He gingerly freed his head as a dull ache remained, as if to remind him of the consequences of disobeying or disappointing the city. He stared up at the ceiling, wiping the blood off his cheek.
Despite his strong ATA he wasn't master of the city. Yet.
He sat, brushing glass off his clothing, wincing at the tiny shards that pricked him. He moved to his feet, staring round but the room had returned to normal. The lights were normal. The sounds were normal. He snatched his data pad off the console and eyed the broken glass, knowing he should sweep it up before someone stepped on it. Instead he wiped at the cut under his eye again as blood was slowly seeping in a crimson line down his face. An expletive came and went.
He looked at the work station, regaining his composure. There was a little plush mammoth on the desk and he knew it could only belong to Moira. He stared at it until his heartbeat returned to normal, until his breathing was regular. He left the bio lab with quick, quick strides. He didn't look behind him.
He didn't see the flare of power that briefly illuminated the screen.
He didn't see the woman's face staring out of the monitor at him.
He didn't see her ghostly smile.