Chapter Two

The distress call from the Pegasus Alpha Site came the next morning as Sheppard stepped into his office. He listened as Weir spoke with Captain Erickson, the Marine in charge of maintaining the site once thought to be Atlantis's sanctuary should they be required to evacuate the city. It had happened a few times over the years, but the Pegasus galaxy had settled in the last fifty years or so. Still, they couldn't be too careful.

Weir terminated the communication, and Sheppard stepped forward. "What happened?"

"Someone broke into the Alpha Site."

"Really?" Sheppard frowned. "Isn't that where all our storage is?"

"Get your team, Colonel." Weir tried to smile, but it didn't quite reach her eyes. Sheppard touched her elbow as he left the control room. He understood. Normally, Elizabeth would have already ordered him through the gate. Today, she still couldn't cope with yesterday's problems. Sheppard didn't mind. He knew he could run Atlantis while she grieved.

Teyla and Ronon appeared within minutes of his page. They moved quietly around the armory, not willing to destroy his focus. Sheppard appreciated that, but he didn't want it. This was just another day on Atlantis, and they had a mission. He revised that thought when Rodney appeared, looking less than thrilled. The scientist still seemed shell shocked. And he'd cut his arm when he fell off of the chair.

"What? A mission?" McKay stared incredulously. "Are you kidding me?"

"Life goes on, Rodney," Sheppard replied.

"Life may go on, but you can't just act like nothing happened." McKay motioned behind him. "You just went from telling us that Earth was destroyed to ordering us out on a mission as if nothing happened. That's not right, and you know it. No."

"No, what?"

"No, I'm not going." McKay folded his arms across his chest, his chin rising self-righteously.

Sheppard's eyebrows rose. "Are you refusing an order?"

"Yes." McKay glanced around. "It's not like you can really command me, anyway. I'm not military."

"You're a member of my team." Sheppard glared. "We went through this years ago."

"No, no we didn't." McKay actually looked ready to break down. "Years ago, we came here knowing we might never get home. But we had a home to return to. Now, we don't."

"McKay!" Sheppard glared. "I don't have time to explain that this is now home. This-Atlantis-has been home to us for more years than we lived on Earth. You know that. I know that. Right now, though, I need for you to quit arguing and get ready to go."

McKay simply stared.

"Listen, I don't know how you feel right now." Sheppard shrugged. "I'm not even sure how I feel. But, we have a mission, and I need you to come with us. You're part of this team, and I'm not going anywhere without you."

McKay softened a little. "Really? I mean, you wouldn't go on a mission without me?"

"Yeah, I'd go on a mission without you." Sheppard took a deep breath, reigning in his anger. "But I'd rather go with you. Especially now."

"Why?"

"There was a break-in at the Alpha Site. We're going to investigate and see what was stolen." Sheppard shrugged. "I need you there, Rodney. You know those archives better than just about anyone."

"Well, I should. I set them up." McKay stopped as he realized he'd just been neatly manipulated. "Oh, you will pay for that."

"I'm sure I will." Sheppard tossed a TAC vest his direction. "Now, get suited up."

After the argument, Sheppard walked into the control room and spoke briefly with Elizabeth. He didn't necessarily like psychologists, but he recognized how people like McKay needed them. Right now, he wanted Rodney on the top of Dr. Harrison's list of command personnel. His eyes narrowed as Elizabeth simply nodded without much spirit. He wanted Rodney on Dr. Harrison's list of command personnel immediately after Elizabeth. This nearly catatonic version of her was creepy.

Captain Erickson met them on the other side of the gate. After years on Atlantis, the military regulations had loosened a bit. Military personnel now fraternized with one another but were always careful to uphold the chain of command. Sheppard understood that a closed society like Atlantis lent itself to romantic trysts. Heck, he'd had his own romantic trysts. But he didn't want to hear about them from the grapevine.

Erickson didn't salute Sheppard, but he straightened slightly. The captain had not received Anna's gene therapy. He'd been in Pegasus for five years, watching over the Alpha Site for three. The mundane day-to-day tasks suited him, and he liked living there. Sheppard wondered if the captain was okay, but he never asked.

"Sir." Erickson's voice stopped him a few feet from the Stargate. "Is it true?"

Sheppard knew what the younger man asked. "Yeah, it's true." He tamped down the memories of the lifeless planet orbiting in space. "I saw it myself."

Erickson's face crumbled, but he didn't cry. Instead, he pulled himself together with admirable grace. "Understood, Sir."

He led them the rest of the way to the Alpha Site, not commenting here and there like usual. Sheppard refused to break the silence and gratefully slipped into command when they reached the scene of the break-in. McKay immediately went to work in the storage room, cataloging what had been present and what was missing. Given the amount of research archived here over the years, that alone would take hours. He left McKay grumbling about how the robber had torn the archive room to bits and went looking for Ronon.

"Sheppard." The low growl just outside the room gave the Satedan's location away. He pointed. "Blood."

Erickson nodded. "Yeah, Clark managed to get a lucky shot in." He held up a vial. "I got a sample before it dried."

"Good work." Sheppard glanced around. "How is Clark?"

"Beat up, but fine." Erickson shrugged. "No real damage outside of the cuts and bruises. It was like the guy tried to minimize damage."

Ronon scowled. "Why would he do that?"

"Any number of reasons." Sheppard accepted the vial from Erickson. "We'll get this to Beckett and see if he can do anything with it. Thanks, Captain."

Erickson went his way, and Sheppard returned to the room where Rodney worked. He watched for what seemed like hours before checking his watch. Thirty minutes had passed. Deciding that watching McKay work when he wasn't in the mood to talk had about as much appeal as vacationing on a Wraith hive, Sheppard slipped out of the room and circled the Alpha Site. Nothing happened here, which was why they'd picked this planet. Long before they ever came to Pegasus, the Wraith had destroyed this world and left it barren. That made it attractive for so many reasons.

Several hours later, McKay stormed out of the archive room with an angry look on his face. "I found it."

"What is 'it?'" Sheppard asked.

McKay answered, and Sheppard felt his heart sink. "Okay. Let's get back to Atlantis. You can tell everyone there."

SGA SGA SGA SGA

Rachel stood outside Weir's office, observing the other woman. She wanted to help, and she needed to have this meeting. But her own emotions were still too raw to do much beyond implementing a plan. In the office, Weir attempted to look busy, but Rachel knew the signs. She saw the glances at the clock and the deep sighs, not to mention how Weir shielded her computer screen from view. Odds were good she was simply playing Solitaire to pass the time.

Rachel took a deep breath and poked her head in the door. "Dr. Weir?"

"Dr. Harrison. Come in." Weir rose and extended a hand. "I haven't had a chance to welcome you to Atlantis."

Rachel smiled to put the other woman at ease. "I understand. And, please, call me Rachel."

"Elizabeth." Weir motioned to one of the chairs positioned on the glass wall of her spacious office. "What can I do for you this morning?"

"Well, I wanted talk to you about my plan for the next few months." Rachel crossed her legs at the ankle and folded her hands in her lap. "Right now, the city's in shock. But that will change."

"I know." Weir turned and stared at the Stargate. "I'm in shock. I just don't know how to handle this."

"I understand," Rachel said quietly.

Weir looked at her. "I'm sure you do." After a moment of silence, she seemed to pull herself together. "You have a plan?"

"Yes, and it'll require your help." Rachel drew in a deep breath. "I can't expect the personnel of Atlantis to talk to me or my psychologists if the leadership doesn't. Losing Earth affected everyone here, whether we were born there or not. With a city like this, there's a lot at stake. We are a military base as well as a civilian research center. The soldiers are going to come out of their shock soon, and all that anger will need to go somewhere."

Weir nodded. "You're right." She drew in a deep breath. "As far as military personnel, you'll have to speak with Colonel Sheppard when he returns from his mission."

"Oh, I already have." Rachel allowed a small smile to escape when she thought about Sheppard's insistence that he was "fine." "I've already told him that I am making it a requirement for all command staff see me at least once. If not twice. I'm hoping that, while I may not yet know how to deal with this, we can find a way to help each other through it."

Weir grinned at Rachel's words. "I can't imagine Colonel Sheppard was very happy with you."

"We came to an understanding." Rachel studied the woman again. "How are you?"

Weir's eyes went back to the Stargate. "I don't know. I find that I'm constantly thinking about the people here on Atlantis. We may be the last of our kind-the Tau'ri from Earth, as the Goa'uld used to call us. We have a legacy here, and I'm not sure we realize that, yet."

"Give it time. Give yourself time." Rachel slipped into "psychologist mode." "Grief is a process. It begins with denial. That's where we're all at. We don't want to believe that Earth is really gone. We'll isolate ourselves while we deal with the sharpest bit of the emotion.

"When that wears off, the anger will come." Rachel propped her chin on her hand, also studying the Stargate. "That's where my concern lies. When all these soldiers start experiencing the anger, it's going to get ugly quickly. I want to have some sort of system in place so that command staff can handle that while going through our own process."

Weir nodded again, but she didn't comment. Rachel let her think for a bit, not at all uncomfortable with the silence. Many times, people made the mistake of trying to talk and give advice rather than letting another person think. Finally, Weir stirred. "What are the other steps to grief?"

"Bargaining, depression, and acceptance." Rachel shrugged. "These are a little less violent than the anger. But the depression can be troublesome if let go. With this entire city experiencing these symptoms at the same time, it could get tense. Again. Honestly, I'm not worried about how they'll handle the pressures of every day life. They've been doing that for years. I'm worried about how they'll handle the pressure of not having an Earth to return to."

Weir opened her mouth to speak, but the Stargate activated then. A moment later, the shield dropped, and Sheppard and his team stepped through. Rachel watched from Weir's office, content to observe the behavior of the team. McKay looked furious, as did Sheppard. Teyla and Ronon appeared only slightly less angry. Sheppard spoke with Weir, who nodded once and sent them off to the infirmary for their post-mission physical. Then, she turned and stared up at Rachel.

Rachel held her gaze, knowing that Elizabeth was thinking about their conversation. The news Sheppard brought back couldn't be good.

SGA SGA SGA SGA

He slipped into the warehouse after dark. It was always like this. When he went out to retrieve something, the drop-off location changed. But it was always a warehouse. Always after dark. Always someplace where he couldn't meet her directly.

Oh, he knew he worked for a woman. Had known it for years. But he didn't know who she was. She distorted her voice and remained in the shadows, preferring to give him instructions via video link. But this time was different. This time, he had been invited to her laboratory.

"Do you have it?" The distorted voice came from a small monitor in an office.

"Yes." He shrugged and then grunted in pain at the bullet wound in his shoulder. "Why did you need that particular bit of research?"

"For my plan." A light appeared behind him. "Take a look."

He turned and stepped over to the darkened window. The office looked down on what must have been an operating room of some kind. A hospital bed sat in the middle, unoccupied by anything more than tangled sheets. Various monitoring equipment circled the bed, reminding him of the isolation rooms on Atlantis. A man stood in the corner of the room, his back to the window. A moment later, the man turned, and his stomach dropped.

"How is this possible?" he asked the shadow on the screen behind him, a shadow he'd taken to calling "The Boss."

"Technology. Research." The woman seemed to be smiling. "And, now, with this new information, we will be able to make him as strong as we possibly can. Upgrade him, so to speak."

He continued to stare at the man moving around the room beneath him. He couldn't think straight for a moment, couldn't quell the anger. So this was her grand plan? Well, this plan had so many holes in it that it barely held water.

Then, he stilled. This plan could work. With the shock of whatever had made the Alpha Site such an easy target, the Lanteans would be unable to react appropriately. He nodded, a smile breaking out on his face. Yes, this was a good plan.

~TBC