Author's Reply to Reviews:
Harm Marie - Thanks. I still wish I could have given him a little more but I just didn't have an opportunity available to give him that.
HAZMOT - Thanks so much. It's cool to see which parts were your favorites.
Nessie1701 - Thank you. :)
not a zatarc - :D
Aveo amacus - Thanks, Aveo!
Liery - Thank you so much for the correction. I remember looking it up on gateworld when I wrote it but I was probably really tired at the time and screwed up the letters. Anyway, thanks so much. You're right. I'm kind of anal about stuff like that so it's much appreciated!
Devilish Me - You shall see, you shall see...
pain in the mikta - Well, I think it would be cool to actually see this on screen. Of course the writers would have to do alot of adding of scientific jargon. McKay so doesn't say nearly as much in my story as he does on the show. But alas, my brain is not near so large as his.
lkhoward88 - I really tried to make this story have alot of twists and turns to where you can gasp and go, 'she didn't! oh my god! she did!'. lol. So I'm glad you're enjoying that aspect of the story.
Sam woke to the feel of Jack's mouth exploring the length of her neck and collarbone.
In the dark and stillness of the morning, they made love, pouring all they felt into each kiss and caress. Teasing each other in a way only familiar lovers could.
Both satiated and slick with sweat, they panted heavily, trying to bring their breathing and heart rates back down to a normal level. Jack resting his head on her chest. Sam stroked his damp hair with her fingers until he lulled back to sleep on her. Looking over at the clock on the nightstand, she saw that it was just a little after four in the morning. Instead of joining him in sleep, Sam simply enjoyed holding Jack in her arms and prayed that it wouldn't be the last time she did so.
By six o'clock, Jack was working on the DHD in the operations center. McKay scrunched down behind him, doing his best to see every little thing Jack was doing. Jack sighed for the sixth time in as many minutes and finally turned around to glare at McKay.
Rodney looked at him, confused. "What?"
Jack pointed for him to go away. Far far away.
Rodney pouted. "Oh, come on! You can't just expect me to leave! The things I could do with this..."
Jack closed his fingertips and thumb together in a shushing motion. He looked up at Teal'c, who had been with Jack since they met in the mess hall, with a silent message. His large Jaffa friend took an imposing step forward in McKay's direction. Rodney stepped back hastily. "Okay. Okay. Fine! I'll go."
Rodney muttered angrily as he left, leaving Jack free to work on the alterations to the dialing program in peace.
At seven, Jack had the Sator Aevum brought into the chair room and connected it's power to that of the chair's. Sitting on the floor, he rotated the top portion of the sphere. It clicked with each turn just like the turning of a safe lock. Clockwise and counter, he repeatedly moved over the notches in the metal. Different people gradually filtered into the room. Teal'c had been with Jack the whole time, but then Daniel came, a cup of coffee in hand. Vala stayed for a while, but everyone was too quiet for her tastes and she needed a distraction from her restless nerves. She hated the waiting. Vala would much rather the Wraith get to Atlantis now than to have this eerie dread hanging over everyone.
John and Ronon trailed in together. John felt a responsibility to be there. Atlantis was his home and for all intents and purposes, that was his control chair. Should anything go wrong, this was where he would most be needed. Ronon didn't particularly like this plan. If it worked, that would be great, but Ronon wasn't one to sit around helpless and that's exactly what he felt like in all of this. Helpless. This plan depended on one man. And one man alone. General O'Neill. A man he didn't know very well. John respected him and that held a lot of weight in Ronon's book. Even more than that, John actually listened to O'Neill. Which was one thing John wasn't particularly good about doing to anyone. Teal'c, too, seemed to have unwavering faith in the General. And while that wouldn't have meant squat when Ronon first met him, the incident at Midway gave him a begrudging respect for the Jaffa. This General had also won the love of Colonel Carter. A woman like her wouldn't fall for just anyone.
Radek rushed into the room. "They're here!"
Jack jerked his head up sharply at the Czech. Turning the sphere half three more times, it clicked loudly into place, humming. Jack sat in the control chair and pulled up a map of the sensor readings above their heads. Twenty red blips appeared above the planet. The first ten moved forward and opened weapon's fire.
At operations, Rodney yelled off shield statistics while Sam waited for her signal to dial the gates.
Cam rocked on his feet. "What's taking so long?" Clicking his radio, he asked, "Teal'c? What's the hold up?"
Back in the chair room, the four men watched as Jack rapidly pulled different molecule combinations together overheard. All motion stopped. Jack had formed a perfect visual sample of Wraith DNA with his mind. Changing the screen back to the sensor readings, they could now see that fifteen of the hives had pulled in, though not all were firing.
"Jaack?" Daniel drawled.
"Aft epica mi mesa teinomai."
"What?" Ronon asked for all of them.
"Those hives," Daniel said, pointing to the last five. "They aren't in range. He can't use the weapon yet because they aren't close enough to the planet."
"Well, the shields are gonna drain all our power fast at this rate. We don't have time to wait. What about the jumpers? We can use them to draw out the hives."
"Sounds like a suicide mission to me. Couldn't they just shoot you?"
John smirked. "They'd have to be able to hit me to do that."
Rodney squawked over John's com. "What is taking so long?!"
"Slight delay in plans, Rodney." Switching his com, John ordered, "Lorne?"
"Yes, sir."
"Get me every pilot with the Ancient gene at the Jumper Bay in five minutes."
"We'll be there."
Eying Daniel again, John questioned, "If we can get three of them in range, can he take out the other two with the drones?"
Daniel asked.
"Etiam. Vado."
"Yes. Go."
John and Ronon took off for the Jumper Bay, explaining to the pilots what they were doing over the com on the way. By the time they got there, the others were ready to go.
"Alright boys and girls. Let's go bait us some Wraith," John called once in the driver's seat of his Puddle Jumper.
Jack, Daniel, and Teal'c watched the action from the chair room. Ten puddle jumpers surrounded one of the hives, generally making a nuisance of themselves and surprisingly not getting shot. Not that the Wraith weren't trying. Then the darts were released. The jumpers had the advantage of being able to cloak but unfortunately that didn't help much in trying to bait something. Two of the hives moved into range but the others wouldn't budge.
John uncloaked his jumper to try and lure another Hive closer but quickly had to retract that plan as he was mercilessly pelted by dart fire. He cursed under his breath. Out his window, he could see Lt. McGregor's jumper being tailed by a dart.
"Gregs! Turn your cloak on now!"
"No can do, sir. Lost cloaking abilities."
"Then get your ass back to the city!"
One of the hives targeted McGregor's jumper and it blew up before John's eyes. Sheppard cursed loudly, pounding his fist against the front of the jumper.
Jack saw the jumpers' blip disappear from the screen and clenched his jaw.
Meanwhile, at the operations center, Vala looked out the shield toward the ocean. "Umm, is it supposed to be doing that?"
Cam walked beside her. "What?"
"Oh, I don't know. Boiling?"
The city vibrated under their feet.
"Teal'c!" Mitchell shouted. "What the hell is going on?"
"I am unsure, Colonel Mitchell," was the absurdly calm reply.
"Um, you might want to come look at this," Vala directed.
The vibrations stopped as Rodney and Cam both made their way back to the window.
"Oh my god!", Rodney exclaimed. "He's flying the city!"
Daniel watched as the city's blip started moving towards all the other blips overhead. "Jaack?? What are you doing?"
"Sermonus thro porta."
Daniel clicked his radio. "Sam, Jack said it's time."
Still staring out the window of the rising city, Sam said, "Uh, okay. I'll let you know as soon as we're ready."
Sam started the dialing program, setting off each of the gates in the Pegasus Galaxy minus Athosia.
Once completed, Sam clicked her radio. "Daniel, we're all set."
John stared in shock out his window at the city coming in to space. Guess the General decided to take matters into his own hands.
In the chair room, the overhead view of the battle disappeared. Jack closed his eyes, fully focusing with his mind. The hum from the Sator Aevum increased and a blue energy wave expounded out of it, growing exponentially.
John watched on with a sense of panic at the first sight of the wave coming toward him. It passed through his jumper so fast that he didn't even realize it until after it had already gone through. The wave expanded as far as he could see and then ...nothing. Literally. The hives were no longer firing. The blue wave dissipated and space was still.
"Colonel Sheppard?"
"Go ahead, Lorne."
"Is that it?"
John nodded to himself with a shocked expression. "Yeah. I guess so."
"Kind of anti-climactic."
John smirked. "I think I can live with that."
Lorne laughed over his com. "Me too, sir."
"Let's go check out these hives before we start celebrating. Just to be sure."
"I'm with you on that, sir."
All the residents of Atlantis waited anxiously for word from the jumpers that had been sent to scout the quiet hives. Woolsey activated the city-wide com so everyone would hear the news at once. Jack apparently wasn't too concerned because he brought the city back planet-side, much gentler than Sheppard did, Sam noted.
"Atlantis, this is Colonel Sheppard." Everyone held their breath. "Mission was a complete success!"
The whoops and hollers from Atlantis members could probably be heard by the jumper pilots without the assistance of com's. They had finally won!
"Jack!" Daniel shouted. "You did it! The Wraith are gone!"
Jack told Daniel to tell Sam to start the dialing program again.
"What? Why?"
Jack pulled up a picture overhead with what he planned to do and Daniel understood.
"Sam?"
"Yeah?" she shouted in her com over the noise of the people in the backround. Ronon was currently lifting and twirling a petrified looking Rodney in the air.
"Jack wants you to run the dialing program one more time."
"Daniel?"
"Trust him, Sam."
Sam bit her lip, starting the dialing program again.
Woolsey and a few others appeared at her side. "Colonel Carter, what's going on?"
"General O'Neill says he's not done yet. Apparently, there's one more thing that needs to be taken care of."
"This wasn't part of the plan, Colonel!", came from the irate expedition leader.
"Hey!" Cam defended. "He just saved this city. Hell, this whole galaxy!"
The blue energy wave from the Sator Aevum washed through them as Cam spoke.
When the gate shut off, Sam clicked her radio. "Daniel?"
A frantic sounding Daniel clicked on the line. "Sam! Get a medical team down here now!"
...
dun dun dun CLIFFHANGER!
...