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Chapter Six
"They have asked for Dr. Beckett's presence, and suggested you may wish to accompany him for it appears he has lost his memory as to who he is."
Acknowledging the report, Elizabeth cut communication before helping her daughter pack a few things for a lesson she had with Dr. Zelenka.
"Can't I come with you Mom? I don't want to go to school without seeing Daddy first."
"Not this time love, I need to see for myself if this is the real deal, and make sure that there are no dangers before you join us."
"If there are possible signs of danger you shouldn't be going either. The city can't afford to loose you."
Elizabeth gave Grace a hug before walking her to the science lab where Zelenka would be waiting. "If you ask me, you've been spending to much to with Uncle Rodney, he says that to me on way too many occasions."
"And he's right."
Elizabeth couldn't argue with that one, he has before now been right. "Occasionally he's been."
The door to Elizabeth's room slid closed after they had exited the apartment. Effectively cutting off their conversation.
--
Just as Beckett and Teyla had returned to the house, there was the sound of a large explosion outside, which quite obviously made everyone jump.
Bates legged it back outside and could see smoke rising in the distance at the location the puddle jumper had been parked. He looked back at everyone, showing his worst fears, before running back across the barren desert towards it.
Teyla and Ronon soon followed; McKay opted to keep away from danger and remained by the house and watched from a safe distance.
Upon reaching the site they could see that it was indeed their ship that had exploded somehow and knew then that they were marooned until the other craft arrived.
--
Back at the house Bates kept everyone up to date. "We need to stop the other ship from landing, at least until we find the cause of the explosion."
It was at this stage Nigel had reappeared and got an angry glance from Scott when he had. Nigel just pasted a smirk upon his face.
"Until they come in radio range we have no other way of contacting them," pointed out Rodney.
"Which is why we need to keep a lookout for them."
--
Waiting outside under the hot sun. Bates tried for what felt like the tenth time in two hours, radioing Doctors Beckett and Weir on the radio and he wasn't having much luck.
He knew Beckett would be the one piloting the ship, being the only one out the two who could. They were just too far away to reach via their recoded radiation bursts. "Dr. Beckett, this is Sergeant Bates do you read me?"
--
"… Beckett, this is Sergeant… do you read me?"
The message was distorted but Carson just about made it out. Looking at Weir, who was sleeping in the co-pilot seat from the long three-hour ride, he quickly tapped his ear-piece to respond. "Go ahead Sergeant."
Bates relieved voice was noticeable. "Finally, I 've been trying to contact you two for ages."
"What's the problem lad? I'm coming as fast as I can."
"We advise… not land, we have a hostile situation here which needs to be resolved."
A quick moan from Elizabeth alerted Carson that she was waking up. He quickly put the ship on automatic and moved to the back. "What do you mean by hostile?"
"Our puddle jumper was destroyed; we believe deliberately. We found wreckage of another… possibly John's."
Elizabeth quickly opened her eyes when she became aware that no-one was flying the ship, and scanned the vicinity to find Carson in the back compartment talking to someone on the radio. But he kept his voice deliberately low so she couldn't hear. That caused her frown to crease in concern.
It wasn't long before Carson returned to the front and retook his position; he noticed Elizabeth had removed the blanket he had wrapped around her to keep her comfortable. "Sergeant Bates, wants us to stay in orbit for a while once we arrive."
Elizabeth straightened herself up and stretched her muscles. "Why? I thought the whole point of coming…"
Carson interrupted her sentence before she could finish. "A situation has developed, and they're concerned about our safety if we land."
Elizabeth hated it when she was kept in the dark. She knew they were only looking out for her well being, but she didn't want to wait any longer then necessary to see John, two years was long enough. "Care to elaborate?"
Carson couldn't help but sigh and it didn't go unnoticed; he knew she wasn't going to like it. "Their puddle jumper was destroyed whilst on the ground. They have yet to determine the cause… But they believe it was sabotage."
Elizabeth was curious to find out how it was destroyed. "There aren't many races that have the technology to destroy a puddle jumper, let alone have the capacity to create a Zero Point Module."
"That's what they're afraid off, if they have done it once already, they could do it again, before or after we land."
"But we need to get down there. I need to know Carson."
"Trust me lass, I know. But it's out of my hands."
Elizabeth was aware of the risk of going over Bates head, but she wasn't prepared to wait any longer. "I understand everyone's concern. But since I'm in charge here, I'm ordering you to land ASAP."
Carson cringed; he knew this was going to happen. "I'm sorry Dr. Weir. But I can not obey that order. There is too much at stake here."
It was times like this Elizabeth wished she had the ATA gene; only it didn't work on her when the gene therapy was tried a year ago. The inactive replicator nanites inside her made it incompatible with her DNA. Plus, for as long as she'd known Carson, he had never refused an order like this. She knew then that things were more serious then he was letting on.
She decided to try another approach rather then to risk loosing a good friendship over a stupid 'I'm in charge' argument. "What if we land away from the settlement so we wouldn't be detected upon approach."
Carson weighed up the option provided and considered how far was too far. Would they have enough supplies to reach the place on foot? "We'll see when we get there. We're still half hour away at best."
Elizabeth placed an appreciative hand on his shoulder before getting up to stretch her legs. "Thank you."
--
Rodney had been given orders to discreetly scan the surrounding area for traces of any advanced technology that could've been used to destroy their ship, Teyla had gone to talk to John in his room and try and help him remember, and Bates was keeping an eye on their hosts, whilst Ronon patrolled the grounds outside.
Rodney had reached the kitchen and was about to go outside when he heard someone enter the room. Not thinking he spun around to see who had entered, only to find out it was Bates "You scared the crap out of me."
Bates walked over to him. "You should try and be a bit quieter. Have you found anything?"
Rodney shook his head. "Not yet. These people certainly don't like giving out their secrets."
Just as Rodney was about to go outside, Janice came in and started to make them all drinks. He quickly tucked his scanner away and closed the door.
"Need a hand?" Asked Bates as he went over to see what the girl was doing.
Janice opened the cupboard under the sink and pulled out a jar with some strange peppered contents inside.
Bates watched as she added a teaspoon full of it into each cup. "What are you making?"
She stirred each cup to dispel the compound before handing Bates and Rodney a cup. "Just tea. What's in the jar is a substitute for tealeaves. Makes it taste better." With that she left with the remaining cups to hand them to the rest of the group.
Rodney was about to drink his, when Bates grabbed his hand just as it reached his mouth and shook his head, distrust showing in his eyes. "Come on. I'm thirsty."
Bates let go and took the jar that was left on the worktop. "Check the contents first."
Rodney snatched the jar from his hand and gave it a shake. "There just tealeaves."
Bates quickly radioed Teyla and Ronon once he knew it was safe to do so. "Teyla, Ronon, this is Bates. If you have been given a drink. Don't drink it. I have reason to believe it's drugged."
TBC