In the gym: After the fight, Ajax recovered quickly, and set down his rods along with the others. Picking up the shattered remnants of Teyla's Bantos rods, he stood, and walked out of the gym after the crowd dispersed. Walking outside, he sat on the edge of the city, and listened to the slap of water against the hull of the city-ship. He sat thus for three hours, unmoving. As the sun's disk touched the horizon, he stood, flung the shattered Bantos rods out to sea, and stalked back to the door.
The twelfth level western balcony John had been watching, and had Teyla watching with him. Ronon had been taken to Sickbay, where Dr. Beckett tended his concussion. Teyla had been uninjured in the fight; when Ajax took her out of commission so as to better deal with the elves, he had not knocked her out, as with Ronon, but shattered her rods. His rods had never once touched her, and she suspected that it was on purpose. She resolved to ask him later about it.
Meanwhile, on the first level: Ajax walked inside, and turned to go down an adjacent hallway. When he came to the end of the hallway, he was faced with a closet. After a moments hesitation, he quickly entered, and touched one of the dots on the screen secreted in a panel in the rear of the closet. The doors covering the panel closed, and the 'closet' doors closed. They opened again, a moment later, in a different section of the city. Ajax flew out of the transporter, thoroughly freaked out. After a moment, he stopped, and looked around. Seeing that he was in the Sick Bay, he reviewed what he knew of Atlantis operating procedure.
"I'm Ajax, I'm here for my baseline tests."
"Are ye the one that beat the stuffing out of Ronon here? He's been beat pretty badly."
"Yes. I didn't want to knock him out like that, but the elves joined the fray, and I couldn't deal with the elves and Ronon at the same time. I put Teyla out of commission after Ronon. How bad is he?"
"He's got a concussion, but he should make a full recovery. Why isn't Teyla here?"
"W-"
"Now don't get me wrong, I'm glad she's not here, it means that she wasn't beaten very badly at all. I just find it odd that he would be out cold, and she nothin worth comin here about."
"I shattered her rods with a single stroke, effectively removing her from the fray. I make it a rule to never hit a woman. Can we get this done already? I'm getting…twitchy because of my current surroundings. Bad memories. And no, I don't need a psychiatrist to examine me. Just do what you need to do, and be done, please."
"Ye seem to be in a bit of a rush, lad. What's wrong? Oh, if you could lay down on the scanner bed, over there, good."
"I was a lab experiment. They tortured me, and treated me like some sort of sub-human because of the things they had done to me. I was supposed to be the predecessor to a weapon. I don't know if the Omega project ever took off, but they forgot to program a 'fail-safe' into me. Because I am so strong, they needed a glaring weakness that they could exploit if I ever went rogue on them. I had no such weakness. I had been taught to be relatively docile while I was with them, but when I fell in with six other genetically modifieds, I learned to be savage when threatened. Still, I kept one vestige of my previous life with me: Honor. I read a lot of books, spent hours on the internet, and in general, absorbed as much information as I could. As I read, I decided that I wanted to be honorable, and the whole bit about not hitting women, even in a fight, went right along with that. When the whitecoats captured me again, four years later, I smashed needles that were brought to me for use, and whenever a male labtech came in to try, he exited pretty badly bruised as my mobility allowed. Women exited with a few scratches from the needle being removed, but I tried to never harm them. I was released three months later when Itex collapsed. From there I went to America, and I found the Cheyenne Mountain complex. Entry was remarkably easy, and after a couple weeks in a holding cell while they decided what to do with me, I was given a Stargate boot camp of sorts. After proving myself as a fighter, they decided to send me here."
"Do you have…wings, lad? Or is the scanner malfunctioning?"
"Yes, I have wings. Do you need a blood sample?"
"Aye, I need it for your baseline."
"Can I do I myself? I would feel better in some way if I did it myself, mainly because I would feel like I was in control."
The Scottish doctor handed Ajax two vials, and a needle apparatus. Within two minutes, Ajax had the vials filled, and the needle out. Holding his thumb over the site of entry, he handed the vials to Dr. Beckett.
"Thank ye very much. For all I've heard of your story, you've been rather cooperative. I can hardly get Major Sheppard in here long enough to check him over."
"Yeah, see ya 'round, doc." Ajax walked out, then came back, and stood by Ronon's bed. "I'm sorry I had to hit you that hard, Ronon." He walked out again, headed for the Gate Room. As he walked at a brisk trot, dodging the patterns that appeared and disappeared in the clumps of people in the halls, he was intercepted by Teyla Emmagen. As he trotted, she came out of a side hall, and fell into step with him.
"You dealt Ronon a good deal of damage." she noted quietly.
"Yeah." He kept going, intent on his destination.
"Yet I emerged from that fight with only a pair of stinging hands from your final stroke."
"So?" He slowed on account of the traffic approaching the Gate Room.
"You had many opportunities to strike, but you never did. You blocked every move I made, but never took advantage of the times I was exposed. Why?"
"My Code of Honor. One of the rules is to never hit a woman."
"You would do that even if a woman decided she would do all she could to kill you?"
"I would bat away her weapons, block her attacks, wear her down, but I would not strike back."
"What else does your code encompass?"
"Well, Rule No. 9 is to always wear a good pocketknife." his tone suggested that he was mildly joking, but his face suggested otherwise. Trotting up the stairs and turning right, he maneuvered his way through ops, and ran up the stairs to the Jumper bay. When he arrived, he heard Teyla right behind him. Picking up his bags from where they had been beamed to, he positioned them right over the bottom door. He ten went back down to ops. Walking over to one of the Lantean computers, he pushed a button, and yelled out "ROCK!" Two or three of the people had be climbing before coming to Atlantis, and instinctively lowered their heads. Seeing that his warning was not enough, he ran down to the same level as the 'gate, and yelled, "HEADS UP!" People looked up to see the door opening, and scrambled for cover. Ajax walked to where he estimated the bags would fall to, and waited. Suddenly, he heard the sound of fabric as it rolled slightly, and fell. Looking up, he could tell that he was not in the right place, and moved to intercept. The giant duffel fell in slow motion, and Ajax reached up towards it as it fell. Grabbing the side of it, he swung it to convert the downward force to sideways force, and slung it over his shoulder. A backpack followed the monstrous duffel, and he reached up and grabbed it with his free hand. Walking out, he miscalculated one of the steps, and decided to skip that set of stairs for the time being. Sheppard walked in moments before Ajax walked out, and he turned around, saying "What on earth do you have in there?"
"Memory in shock-proof cases. Ah, where are my quarters?"
"I'll show you…" The Major reversed course, and went back the way he had come. "Here we are" he said, sweeping his hand over the door control. The door opened, and Ajax walked in.
"Are there any standardized power outlets here? Or maybe a converter kit?"
"Oh! Yeah, I'll get McKay to come by with a universal. I've got to get to the Chair." he added, looking at his watch. He ran out.
In the Gate Room: McKay walked up to the Jumper Bay, followed by the elves. Picking one of the Jumpers, he climbed in, and activated the systems. Closing the door, he maneuvered the Jumper down through the door, and waited for Atlantis to dial the 'gate. As soon as the vortex effect stabilized, Rodney dropped down, and moved through the 'gate.
["Atlantis. This is Rodney, I'm ready to start my work on the shield. I'll talk to you later. McKay out."]
"[Good luck, Rodney. We'll see you when we splashdown.]" The 'gate cut out, and Dr. Wier switched over to city-wide communications. "This is Dr. Wier. We are about to fly the city out of here, and go somewhere safe from the Wraith. It will be somewhat bumpy as we clear the atmosphere, so grab ahold of something, and hold on. The ride should smooth out as we clear the planet's atmosphere, then get kind of bumpy again as we enter the atmosphere of our new homeworld. Take us up, John." She switched off the city-wide. The city began to shake, gently at first, but more roughly as the Star Drive fully engaged. The cloak fell away, replaced by the shield that would hold the atmosphere inside the city. As the city rose, it shuddered under the strain from her ancient drive. Clearing the atmosphere, the ascent smoothed out considerably.
In the Chair Room: "I think that's far enough." John muttered. Reaching around, through, and between a series of mental switches, he activated the hyper drive, sending Atlantis hurtling faster than light itself toward a planet on the other side of the galaxy. The trip would take about four day, but the Daedalus was due to arrive in two.
In Du Weldenvarden: "Probe." McKay said, holding out his hand behind him in anticipation of the probe being handed to him. "Probe!" McKay repeated, a little more insistently than before. "Oh, for crying out loud, do I have to do everything myself?" he extricated himself from the hole he was in, and picked up his probe. While he was out, he took a look at the timer. It showed two countdowns: One for Atlantis' arrival, and on for the Daedalus' arrival. The latter countdown showed that he had less than eighteen hours left before the Daedalus arrived. "I need more coffee. Where is everyone? I can't believe this. They need our help, and they can't be bothered to help me help them." The scientist walked towards Ellesméra, muttering unhappily to himself. No sooner had he walked away from his work than an elf came towards him with a relatively large flask.
"This should help." The elf said.
"Thank you." came the sincere response as he accepted the flask. He tilted it back, and took a swig. As the contents of the flask entered his mouth, his eyes bulged. "That's…strong" he croaked. "What is it?" he practically squeaked the last part out.
The elf tilted his head slightly, as if considering the scientist's reaction. "Faelnirv. Do you like it?"
"I won't be needing any coffee after all. I'd better get back to work…" he pointed to the unit he had been tampering with. Grabbing his probe, he wormed his way back into position, and continued his work.
The balcony overlooking the 'North' side of Atlantis: "It's beautiful, isn't it?" murmured Dr. Wier.
"Yeah. When do you arrive?"
Dr. Wier smiled. "You're just like the kid in the backseat asking 'are we there yet?' "
"Maybe. I just don't like the idea of hanging here in space, and maybe a shield malfunctions, and we all die. I'm just pessimistic that way. I hate the idea of dying of suffocation."
"I could see how you would think that way." conceded Dr. Wier.
"I'm gonna go spar with Ronon or something. Maybe I can get my mind off this kind of subject."
"Do you really think that Ronon will spar with you after the last fight you had? Dr. Beckett still has him in the infirmary."
"Oh yeah…Well, I have a super computer to assemble. I guess I'll go do that."
"You have a supercomputer?" asked the incredulous Dr. Weir.
"Umm…yup. It even has data on Ancient power systems and Zero Point Modules. At least it did if it wasn't deleted before I left Stargate Command."
"You have information on that? I would very much like to see that information." she had switched in an instant from incredulous to hungry.
"Yeah, I've got the data, but I have to wait until someone can drop by with a 'Universal' power supply. Also, I'm not plugging those data cores in until we have done all the shaking and thudding and splashing, and whatever else is associated with landing a city from orbit. They are very sensitive. I designed them myself, and they can hold a whole bunch of data, but it is kinda like sand inside. The data is written in the sand, and if the sand gets disturbed, when it runs through the reader, some files are not in their proper places. It would take a couple days to reset all the grains so that everything could be found easily. As it is, there will be some memory displacement." He walked away.
"[Dr. Zelenka, this is Dr. Wier. Could you get one of those universal kits and bring it to Ajax's quarters? Thank you.]"
In Rodney's lab: "Ugh, why do people seem to think I am a courier when I am quite clearly a scientist?" he continued on in Czech, muttering to himself about the injustices of life. Finding the universal power converter kit in question, he picked it up, and walked to the residential sector of Atlantis.
Ajax's quarters: Ping: the door chime sounded to alert the occupant of the room that someone was at the door. With a grunt, Ajax picked himself up off the floor, and opened the door. "Yes?"
"I am here with the requested Universal power converter." replied Zelenka.
"Oh, good. I had thought Rodney was going to come by, but he had to 'gate to our destination before we left."
"Well, he left ME to take care of all of his research while he was away. And there is very much to do. I do not have time for it all." the Czech scientist walked away, headed back to the lab he had come from.
"Wait!" the scientist stopped for a moment. "Would you like some help? I am relatively familiar with Ancient systems."
"Yes. Yes, help would be very appreciated. Well, come with me."
In the lab: "…and you can work at this station over here, we've been having some anomalies in the power distribution grid…here…and here. I need you to get that fixed while i work on this over here…"
"Sounds good. I'll get right on it. Hey, all this stuff is in Lantean."
"What would you expect in a Lantean facility?"
"Touché. Besides, I can read it. The stuff on my machine was translated to English before I left Earth. Just for convenience, you know."
The city shuddered briefly, then was still. Quickly manipulating the computer in front of him, Ajax brought up sensor information. "We dropped out of hyperspace, and there is a Wraith cruiser hanging right over top of us."
"Just what we need. Now the secret is out."
"I've been engineering a work around with the shield/cloak thing. I think we can just flip on the cloak and have the shield as well. The problem is that the shield keeps the atmosphere in, and when we engage the cloak, the shield will still be visible. Actually, the shield is invisible, but the effects are visible. The main problem is getting rid of the cruiser."
Well, Master of the Blood Wolves, there's your answers. At least one, anyway. It will be harder than just an average 'removal' of wicked people. As for Ajax, your question was answered in this chapter about WHAT he is.