Stargate Atlantis: Journey's End2

"You okay?"

At first Rodney ignored the soft voice. He was standing on the pier, staring out at the night and the gentle motion of the waves under him, under the city. Finally he turned to see Katie Brown slowly approaching him. She looked lovely in a dark green dress which set off her auburn hair. He waited until she reached him. "Yes. Well…to be honest, I'm not sure." He turned back to view the waves.

Katie stepped next to him. "I know it must be, it must be painful for you. All of this."

"Yes. But I'll be fine. I mean I couldn't be happier for Ronon and Amelia…it's just…" Rodney sighed and shifted his stance, uncomfortable. He didn't want to talk about his almost wedding, his almost engagement, his almost fiancée who had been killed by Todd the Wraith. He couldn't help but be reminded of all that. He couldn't help but feel a tiny bit of resentment as this should have been his wedding day…that is, if Jennifer Keller had accepted his proposal. Now he would never know if she would have accepted or not.

Katie touched his arm. "I understand, Rodney. I don't mean to impose. If you ever need someone to talk to, you know…" She inwardly winced, realizing the offer was awkward and most likely unwelcome but she made it anyway.

Rodney met her gaze and briefly smiled. "Thanks. Who would have thought that of all of us Ronon would be the one to take the plunge?"

Katie smiled. "You just never know what's around the corner, do you?"

"No…I guess you don't."

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Moira O'Meara softly swore as she sat at the computer terminal in the bio lab. She checked the data again, contrasting the older findings with it and any other relevant streams of information. She looked over as Alan Simmons was reading through his own findings. "It's wrong," she said.

"Excuse me?" he asked, meeting her gaze.

She stood. "It's all wrong. Those projections you made. They don't fit the facts. They don't fit the genetic sequencing and according to this it has nothing to do with the enzyme at all! You can't present that to either Sheppard or Woolsey or—"

"They don't fit your theory, you mean. We've been over this, Moira. It's bad enough you're making leaps about their species, now this? I am going to present these findings now before the wedding takes place. Until you can prove anything you will keep—"

"No. Colonel Sheppard wants to know everything ASAP and I will give him—"

"You will give him nothing without my approval! Get back to work!" He stormed out of the lab.

Moira swore. Grabbing her own data pad she quickly followed after her boss.

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John was standing in the control room, fiddling with his tie as he stared over Radek's shoulder. Both men were eying the monitor. "Anything?"

"Nothing. There is still too much static interference. And this…" he tapped the screen where a blip flared then was gone, "could be anything. It could be the Daedalus, it could be a Hive ship, it could be an alien vessel, it could be a meteor. I just don't know yet. It's a wonder we were able to pick up on it at all."

"Whatever it is," John sourly noted. "Last known location?"

"Here." Radek typed and the screen showed the vastness of space. "Whatever it is it is still light years out from us. If it is the Daedalus then their next hyperspace window should be here where they will drop out to jump and alter their heading." He ran his finger across the screen. "This is where the wormhole should open. In about an hour, give or take."

"And if it's not the Daedalus?"

Radek sighed and nervously ran a hand through his hair. "Whatever it is it could be heading for us. I say could be because at this distance it is impossible to predict the trajectory of an unknown target."

"Keep scanning. I'm putting a Jumper at that twenty to intercept whatever the hell that is, or at least get a positive ID on it. I'll take the Jumper myself."

"John?" Richard joined them, frowning at the conversation. "I think we should wait until we can determine exactly what that is."

"I disagree. We need the intel now, especially if it's an enemy vessel."

"No. We wait. Radek, keep monitoring all systems and keep looping that recording. Until we can at least determine if that object is a friend or a foe we all stay here. If need be we can shield and cloak the city and defend it ably."

John shook his head. "I still think that's a…" He paused, looking over suddenly to see Alan heading for him, waving a data pad like a weapon. His white lab coat flapped to either side of him. The biologist appeared angry.

"Colonel Sheppard, Mr. Woolsey, I have some new findings that cannot wait, I'm afraid."

"About the fuglies?" John asked, irritated.

"The what? Oh. Yes, about the new alien species. There has been an error in judgment and I have found that the enzyme is in fact present in their—"

"No, it's not!" Moira was hastening towards them, waving her own data pad and John had to smile at her persistence.

"Ignore her, colonel. As I was saying it's not what we thought it was, not at all, and the sequencing has been—"

"No, colonel, the sequencing is correct and the results are irrefutable!"

John was trying not to smirk. He eyed Moira. She was flushed from running or arguing, clad in her Atlantis BDUs and her hair was escaping her ponytail. "Is that the lincRNA stuff you were telling me about earlier?"

She smiled. "Yes! But there's more! The—"

"I can explain it to you, colonel. The results are quite striking and we need to reassess the chemical identification of the transcription of the RNA—"

"Stop." John held up a hand, silencing the biologist. "Moira, conference room, please."

"Colonel Sheppard, you can't—" Alan began to protest.

John glared at the man, halting his protest midstream. "I just did." He smiled, and followed after Moira.

Moira turned in the conference room, unsettled and pleased at the same time. She held the data pad to her chest, watching as John joined her and shut the door. He was incredibly handsome in his black and white suit, although the tie was out of line and part of his shirt was slowly escaping his pants. She blinked, realized she was standing there stupidly staring as he waited. "Um…"

John smiled. "Um? Wow, doctor, I'm glad I dropped everything for that astute scientific finding. Um."

Moira smiled then scowled at his merriment. "Here." She turned away, sat and opened the data pad. "It will be easier if I show you. I've had time to refine the genetic analysis plus I was able to extrapolate backwards and give a reasonable simulation of their evolution, if you will. A simulacrum based on the footage we have plus what we know from the Homo erectus that were on our own planet. Admittedly we don't know much but we can surmise quite a bit and since the computer programs here are much more advanced and respond quickly I can create a facsimile."

John sat down next to her, blinking at the rush of words. He smiled, eying the data pad, then her. "So you were thinking of me?"

"What?" She met his gaze, startled by the question and the fact that he was sitting very close to her. So close, in fact that their knees bumped. "Oh. Yes…to facilitate the program."

"Ah. They must have been very naughty thoughts for you to have achieved culmination so quickly."

"What?" She stared. He was completely serious, but merriment twinkled in his green eyes and he raised a brow in case she had missed the sensual pun. She hadn't. Moira scowled at him, looking back at her screen, feeling a blush warming her face but ignoring it. "I'm sorry, I know this isn't the best time for this sort of thing but I had to head Simmons off before he led you in the wrong direction. And you said, you said to come directly to you, at any time…" Suddenly the rush of confidence she had felt was evaporating.

"Yes, I did, and yes, I still do. Could you ballpark it for me?"

"Of course." Her fingers flew on the keyboard. "See? The lack of the enzyme does prevent the Wraith from feeding on them. What is there is something that is completely foreign to anything we have ever seen before. It may account for their genetic development. But what is really exciting is this!" She brought up another screen. "This here." She tapped the screen. "They have the capacity for speech!"

John eyed the genetic coding. Frankly it meant nothing to him, but her words did. "Because they are human, right? A species of human?"

"Yes, but God knows what language they created. They are human but utterly alien to us, John! But this…this proves that they do have a language, the capacity for language."

"Then how do we speak to them? That is what you're suggesting, isn't it?"

"Yes. We use the universal language." She met his gaze.

He considered, enjoying the excitement in her brown eyes. "Mathematics."

"Yes, colonel! But there's more! You need to see the simulation I was able to create! You need to see the-"

"John?" Rodney had ducked his head into the room. Apparently the closed door was not an barrier to the physicist. "It's about time! Let's go!"

"Oh…okay, Rodney." He stood, gaze still locked with hers. "Later. I want you to show me everything, doctor. And get dressed."

"I am dressed," she said, glancing down at her uniform.

John smiled. "I mean get dressed up. Everyone is invited to the wedding, and last I looked everyone includes you. See ya there."

Moira nodded as he followed Rodney out of the conference room.