Chapter 4 – The mystery deepens
He knew it was not a smart move, that it would only lead to trouble but he had done it anyway.
It had all started because of a sound. Dr Beckett and Evan had escorted him out of the conference room and back through the corridors of this weird base.
Evan promised to get him some real food and his mouth had watered with the prospect. So his friend had once more left him alone with people who should be friendly but just felt like strangers. He had a feeling that things were about to get complicated. Dr Weir had left the conference room suddenly and had not returned when Beckett had hauled him off to the infirmary. As he was escorted down the strange corridors he watched the people around him. They were either avoiding eye contact on purpose or giving him a look that made him feel distinctly cold. Nobody was celebrating finding the rest of the Jupiter's crew and that told him something bad was coming. By the time he got to the infirmary, his head was pounding and he was grateful that Dr Beckett, put him on a bed in the corner , hooked him back up to the IV and set up some privacy screens. When Don requested, "can I have some time alone", the Doctor was not offended just moving off to undertake some work.
Don lay down and closed his eyes trying desparately to feel at ease. But he could not. He tried to shut out the sounds of the infirmary and stretched his senses further. What was that he could hear, it sounded vaguely familiar . Then he realized It was water, the faint sounds of waves. A desire to see that water grew within him. It seemed to be that if he wanted to go somewhere, he needed to ask their permission. Stuff that, his mind told him. He opened his eyes and took a quick look around the room. Beckett wasn't looking his way and neither was anyone else. So he quietly disconnected the IV and slipped out of the infirmary.
He followed the sound until he came to these large doors, as he approached they opened and allowed him to step out onto a balcony .Don saw the beautiful sight of a blue ocean , it took all of his attention. For a moment he just stood there watching as the waves gently rolled to hit against the edges of .."Shit", the word fell out of his mouth as he took a good look around him. It looked like a city, all towering spires and the glint of glass from windows, yet it was like no other city he had ever seen.
"Where the hell am I", he whispered out as he took in the awe inspiring sights around him. He could feel panic rising and turned away from the ocean view. Of course that weird city was in front of him as well . He backed up against the railing feeling overwhelmed. When the door opened in front of him and Colonel Sheppard and Ronon came out onto the balcony Don pushed back against the railing until it was painfully digging into his back.
John Sheppard had been feeling rather unimpressed when Evan had told him Major West had gone from the infirmary. It seemed that the Major had forgotten what being in the military meant. Evan had wanted to be the one to bring him back. John had vetoed that, Major West was under his command, even though it was thankfully temporary, and had to learn to follow his orders. So he had taken Ronon and gone off to give the Major a direct order. When he had found him outside looking directly at the City John had not expected trouble.
"Major go back to the conference room", he ordered. It was only after he had given the order that he looked Major West in the eyes and saw the terror. Then he realized the Major was pushing back against the safety railing as if trying to escape. It was a long way down.
Don honestly did not ignore Colonel Sheppard on purpose, he was just overwhelmed. "Where am I", he demanded. Sheppard did not move closer moving his hands away from his weapon slightly, he now wanted to appear less threatening. His attitude had slipped away as he realized Major West was in panic mode. He needed to calm the agitated man down quickly and get him away from the railing. "Its alright Major, we will explain everything, come back to the conference room", he soothed. Beside him Ronon was silent, taking his lead, he too realized that Major West was dangerously scared, though it was the sight of Atlantis and not of them that had caused the problem.
Don could now feel terror being replaced by anger , there was no possible way this City could be on Earth, it would be too hard to hide. From the glimpses of the things around him, he could only make one conclusion, all of this had been built by aliens.
"Where the hell am I", he yelled. The anger made his head ache and for a moment he felt himself slip backward, further over the railing. In a lightning quick movement Ronon grabbed his wrist and prevented him from falling. Now he felt even more wobbly and did not resist any further when Ronon kept the pressure on his wrist and pulled him along after him.
All the way back he said nothing and would not make eye contact with them. As soon as he was back in the conference room Ronon let go of his wrist. It was then he looked up into the eyes of those who awaited him.
It was Evan's face that told him there was a problem. He was biting his lip and looking rather anxious.
"Sit down Major, we need to tell you something", Colonel Sheppard ordered. Major West just ignored him. "Fine, stand then", Sheppard stated. Donald West was almost looking through them and although the terror was still there, something else was as well.
Doctor Weir cleared her throat, they had decided on how to proceed with questioning the Major. The consensus was that he had contributed to what had happened to the crew in some manner and was now trying to avoid the consequences by making up a story. They had even questioned whether Doctor Smith was real or just an imaginary figure conquered to take the blame. Elizabeth was not sure that Don was deliberately lying, his mind may simply be unprepared to acknowledge the truth. Sheppard had unfortunately broached the theory that the rest of the crew could be dead. It was a horrible possibility they had to consider. For the moment she made no comment upon the fact he had ditched Evan and the security detail , they had more pressing concerns.
Taking a breath Elizabeth began.
"We checked the coordinates you gave us, but the area was not suitable for landing a spacecraft", she stated. Don let that comment wash over him like a wave and said nothing. He now looked directly at them a challenge clear in his gaze. It was obvious they were accusing him of lying and that just made him feel even angrier. He wondered how long he could stand here and say nothing before they got annoyed. It was probably not a wise thing to do, but he no longer cared. He needed answers. So he stood silently while the minutes ticked away.
John Sheppard decided to be more direct at that point as Major West's silence was beginning to annoy him. "What she is saying is that what you have told us cannot be correct. We have checked the whole planet and found there is no possible way you could have landed a space ship there. That forest completely covers the world". He put the image the Daedulus had taken up onto the view screen, to show the Major visual proof. John wondered what was going to happen next. He was sure the Major could not keep silent that much longer.
He was right. Don stared at the photo, then back at them, the rage was coming forth now. "So you are accusing me of lying, you who have hardly been honest with me . This is not a military base, it's a City and it does not look like it was built by humans. Did you really think that if you kept me away from the outside I would not notice. Weirdness is just all around this place . Now you are showing fake photos to me and expecting me to confess to something I have not done. Do you need a scape goat for something and I am the perfect candidate"
Well fuck you". I am not telling you shit". Don felt the heat go out of his rant with the swear words. He was sure he had just gotten himself into a whole lot of trouble. Curiously though nobody had exploded in anger yet, they were now staring silently at him.
Elizabeth had to admit Major West's explosion was a spectacular one as it had effectively altered everything she had intended to say. In fact now she was not sure that their theory was correct.
John had looked had her for a second, it was evident he now wanted to take the lead. She nodded at him. "What do you mean fake photos", John asked. He did not call the Major out about his attitude because he knew what he had said was accurate. They should have told him everything awhile ago. If he had been in the Major's position he probably would have said something worse. The end result though was not an expected one, as now the Major was confusing them.
Don looked him in the eye, not worried about ending up in their version of a jail if he mouthed off at his CO. "Well, the trees are too large for a start". Nobody could get a ship down on that surface" . Why are you showing me these photos ,he stated.
He noted they all traded glances again. It was obvious something unexpected had happened. "What's wrong did I stuff up your carefully orchestrated plan", Don stated firmly. "I am not sorry about that ". I thought I had finally come home and was amongst friends. It still feels like I am lost. I guess I will find out what a cell looks like in this city". Don had no heat left in his words, he now felt tired. He did not even really care if they locked him up.
"We are not putting you in a cell", Elizabeth told him firmly. "That's right, we are not", Sheppard agreed. He nodded at the photo, "that is not fake, it is a picture taken from space of the planet where we found you." I agree that we have not told you everything but we are being honest about this".
Don felt himself go pale as his confusion rose, "I don't understand", he told them. "Neither do we", Elizabeth said gently. "Okay I admit we thought you were not telling us everything, that perhaps something terrible had happened that your mind would not let you remember. We were going to have to get you to tell us everything .Our methods were going to make you feel uncomfortable. I am sorry for that Don. We do want to help you." I believe you are telling us the truth about everything that has happened".
Silence fell in the room then and Elizabeth saw with shock that a small tear was falling from the Major's eyes. She felt a wave of sympathy rise up. He had been missing for two years and must have thought that finally he was safe amonst friends, only to find himself facing accusations
Don finally sunk into a chair, and took a sip of the water that was pushed over to him .He looked at them now to offer explanations.
There was a moments more silence as they thought about his words. That silence seemed more comfortable now. "How long had he been unconscious when we found him on that planet", Teyla asked Carson
"It would have been several hours at least", Beckett replied. "So he does not know what occurred during that time", Teyla remarked.
Elizabeth nodded and so did Sheppard. There was only one explanation for all of this, "The planet where we found you is not the same one on which you landed the Jupiter 2", the Colonel stated.
It meant that someone had carried the unconscious Major through the Stargate and left him. "That can't be right. Why are you making up things like that", Don felt totally confused.
Elizabeth knew they had to tell him about the Stargate now. "There is a way you could have been moved". Let me show you". She rose from the table and Don silently followed her out of the room and into another one. A lot of strange instrumentation was all around him now and the people here were staring at him. But none of that held his attention because his eyes were drawn to the thing in the corner. "You have one of those", he said. So he had seen one before, Sheppard thought.
"Do you know what it is", Elizabeth asked."Don shook his head, "we have seen them before on some of the planets we landed upon. At first Professor Robinson thought it was some type of architectal piece, like a sculpture. Then we found some sort of module with symbols on it, that blew that theory out of the water. It looked like it had a purpose, but we did not know what", Don swallowed as he finished speaking. He had a feeling he was about to find out more.
"Its called a Stargate", Elizabeth told him. "You can travel through it to other worlds. We came through one to get to this City." She looked over at Don and told him the rest. "You are in another galaxy Don, in a City called Atlantis".
Don nodded at that, "I thought we were no longer in our galaxy, as there were no familiar stars or points of reference. No wonder we could never find our way back. "
"We are in the Pegusus Galaxy", McKay told him, and then he added exactly how far away from Earth they were. As yet there was no explanation for how the Jupiter 2 had ended up many galaxies away from its point of origin. It seemed Donald West was probably not conscious for that event either, being frozen at the time it happened. So if he had not lied about Doctor Smith then they needed to find him to seek the answers they needed.
If they could find him, because they now had no idea of the location of the correct planet. First though she had to reasurre Major West that they were on his side. "Dial the forest planet, we will show Major West exactly where we found him", Elizabeth instructed.
Don stood there as the gate was dialed and watched as something formed within the centre of the gate. "It's a wormhole that will take you to that world", Elizabeth told him. She could feel a moment of expectation coming, they would take Don through the Stargate and show him the truth. He would most likely love the adventure aspect.
"Colonel why don't you prepare a team and take the Major for a little trip", Elizabeth stated.
Don had stood there the whole time, again saying nothing ,just staring, he looked at the gate and back at them. "No, I am not going through that thing", he found the words slipping out and they sounded harsh.
Now that was a surprise. Evan was staring. This did not sound like the Don he knew. "Don you have already been through it twice. "It's not going to hurt you ", he told his friend. Don looked at him, "is this what you have really been doing", he asked. "Yes", Evan told him. "We found a gate on Earth many years ago and sent teams through. Lot's of people have been using gate travel since then and they have not suffered any ill effects."
"No",Don repeated backing away again." I do not remember going through the gate and certaintly do not want to do it again". If you order me, I will refuse". You can lock me up for disrespect if you want". He felt like he wanted to run away and even stopped the attitude and added, "please don't make me ". Now everyone in the gate room was staring as well. They had never had anyone as adamant as Donald West about not going through the gate.
It was an odd reaction. Elizabeth found herself frowning. Behind them Major West looked panicked. "It's okay Major no one will force you. I guess the trip is not necessary, the others are not on that forest planet. " "Do you know the coordinates of the right planet Major", Sheppard asked. Don bit his lip," I could find them by following the flight path from the last planet we landed upon, that's all".
"They are on a forest planet and while we can search the ancient database using that description, we may get back more than one result", McKay told them. Of course the other planet might not be listed in the database either, which left them with another problem.
Don seemed a little more at ease now they were not talking about using the stargate. He pulled a large piece of paper closer and drew upon it for several minutes. When he had finished the others found themselves looking at a very good artists impression of a forest planet. "It looked like that, if that helps any", Don told them.
"Yeah it would if we can find a corresponding picture. "We are relative newcomers to this world as well Major and have not explored everywhere. Teyla and Ronon are from this galaxy and have provided us with a lot of information. But their people are not capable of actively exploring this galaxy, it is not like our own Major as it consists of several habitable planets." Elizabeth activated the hologram and let Don look at the ancients map of the Pegasus Galaxy. He went rather pale she noted.
Don could feel his head pounding again, this galaxy was vast and it would take awhile to search. He thought back to what they had told him so far. 'If you took pictures from space, then you must have a ship". They really had covered up a lot he thought
"We have more than one type of ship", Sheppard told him. "The biggest one is the Daedulus, which we could certaintly use, though there are some security concerns."
Like the wraith he thought. It was interesting that Major West had said nothing about encountering them. Was it actually possible they had avoided all wraith contact. They were going to have to tell the Major why they needed to find the Jupiter's crew quickly.
"We are not alone out here, Don", Elizabeth said the words. "There is a very dangerous adversary, that threatens all life, not only here, but back on Earth as well. They have been actively trying to obtain the coordinates to Earth and their measures of obtaining that information are brutal. They are called the wraith".
" We have had to take extreme measures to ensure our own safety. At the moment the enemy think we have blown up this city. Bringing the Daedulus too close now, may cause them to become curious and investigate further", Elizabeht had fear in her voice.
Don said nothing for a minute and then nodded slowly. He did not look that surprised Elizabeth noted. "Have you seen them" , she asked. "Not up close, we encountered evidence of the prescence of something terribly dangerous and have been trying to avoid contact, Don replied with a shiver.
His mouth felt dry. and his heart was beating rapidly. "We did not see any signs of them on our forest planet", he told them.
"Could a small spaceship get through the stargate there", John asked. Don nodded. Then the rest of the crew are not totally safe. The wraith have ships that can travel through the gate as well." Don felt the fear rise at that.
"We need to decide on the safest method to continue the search. One method will be to look in the ancient data base and obtain the addresses of all the worlds with forests. Then we will have to search them all", Elizabeth stated. It would take time and power she reflected. She supposed they could ask the Daedulus for help searching some worlds.
"I am not going through the gate", Don reminded them. That might be a problem, Elizabeth thought.
"We can use the jumpers to explore search some of the closer worlds", Sheppard stated. "You'd be fascinated by them Don, they are amazing craft", Evan told his friend, he hoped that Colonel Sheppard might allow Don to fly one of the jumpers himself. Don looked at him, his eyes reflecting no excitement. Evan supposed that Don may still feel tired and need awhile before he could fly a jumper.
Thinking along the same lines Elizabeth looked at Carson who shook his head. It meant that Don did not have the gene necessary to fly the ships. She would not recommend that he be given the gene therapy either as his general attitude was of concern. If they had not needed his help in locating the others she would recommend that he be put on medical leave and then sent back to Earth as soon as possible. Telling an experienced pilot he could not actually fly their craft was going to be yet another kick in the guts that would make him feel even more uncomfortable.
Elizabeth was thinking about how to broach the subject of the jumpers when Don asked. "Do you have to fly to each planet, can't you just take photos from space like before . The coordinates of the landing site were correct and I could identify plantary differences from a photo", he said. Now it sounded like he did not want to fly as well, which was strange considering he was a specialized pilot.
But he was right, it was probably faster just to look and then move on rather than sending a team to each planet.
"Something else occurs to me", Teyla said. She had been quiet for awhile now. "Who put him on that forest planet", she looked at them, "it was not an accident that we found him".
John Sheppard looked pensive, "no, he said. "Have you been to an Island planet before", he asked. Major West still looked skittish as he shook his head. John sighed inwardly they could not take the Major on any investigation of the Island planet as it meant a trip through the stargate. While he was sure Ronon could knock him out, he did not then want to have to deal with any problems that arose.
"I could return to the Island world and ask questions", Teyla remarked. John wanted to kiss her for a moment, she always thought of the best solutions."The people there are not so different to my own. If someone there did give us that pot as a trade to help us discover Major West then we need to know why."
For the first time Don actually relaxed a little, "thank you", he said to Teyla. She smiled at him.
Don knew he needed to do more to help. He could sense his demenour and attitude was confusing them. Soon they would probably order him back to the infirmary and he'd be spending the rest of his time under medical observation. "All we need is a point of reference", he told them. "If even one of the planets that we landed upon is in your database, or is a world you have visited before then we will have one location. I can then plot the path to the othes planets and finally to the forest world".
"Since we have never had too much trouble there, I am hoping the others will remain safe enough while we search", he stated.
"Good that will give us more than one way of searching", Elizabeth told them." Colonel Sheppard, I think I will keep you here in case we need to use one of the jumpers. "Ronon and a small team can go with Teyla."
Elizabeth beckoned Lorne closer and whispered, "I have a job for you, find out what is wrong with Major West", she stated. Something was, that was evident to all of them. She thought that maybe he had suffered some sort of trauma , that went beyond just the injuries he had suffered when they found him. As he was still tense around them, Evan was the better choice to try and find out the problem. If he could.
Evan looked over at Don who was just staring at the walls. Most of the people in the room were trying not to stare at him. Getting answers from Don meant moving him away from the gaze of others and taking him to somewhere quiet, where he could try and reestablish the easy going friendship they once had. Evan wondered how easy that would be as Don almost seemed like a stranger to him.