Chapter 7
John was busy with Rodney and Ronon in the gym. Actually, he was enjoying himself watching Ronon train Rodney in hand to hand combat while pretending he had something to do with his Banto rods.
"You have to keep trying to guess your enemy, McKay," Ronon said, circling around Rodney slowly. John could see that Rodney wanted to snap something at him but refrained, and didn't even bother to cover his smirk. "You have to always stay focus. Are you focused, McKay?" Ronon asked.
"I'm always focused," Rodney retorted, panting and blinking sweat from his eyes. He was annoyed, John knew, because he had been training with Ronon for close to an hour, his shirt was soaked with sweat, his muscles ached (as he kept complaining to John every time Ronon knocked him down), and he hadn't even scored a single blow. Ronon hadn't even broken a sweat.
Around them other people were training as well. Teyla was training with Doctor Ambrose on the far side of the room, Miller was practicing his Krav Maga and Stevens and Walker were facing each other with long wooden staffs in their hands. John knew it was a legacy from Lorne who, like some of the SGC personnel, had trained with Teal'c.
Just as John looked at them Walker attacked, a short string of succinct blows that sent Stevens back and almost into John.
John moved away hastily, looking at the two embarrassed men in front of him as they snapped to attention, flushed and panting. "If you can't control your range, maybe it would better if you take a private room for that," John said warningly.
"We're sorry, sir. It won't happen again!" Walker promised him, standing up even straighter. John sighed.
"As you were," he said dismissively, turning back to Rodney and Ronon only to discover that he had missed Rodney going down again. However, just as he turned to give Walker and Stevens a quick check up while Rodney got up, the door opened and Lorne marched in.
"Walker, Stevens," he called, exuberant and refreshed from the trip to Olam earlier that day. "We're going to 037, gear up," he said once he had his teammates' attention, smiling when he saw what they were doing before he came in. "How's the training going?"
Walker practically preened as he answered his team leader. "I'm beating the crap out of him, sir," he announced smugly. Stevens looked at Lorne with a rueful smile, but didn't seem to take his defeat to heart.
Lorne nodded his approval, and John could see that both his men were basking in it. They admired him, John realized. "Well, go get changed and geared up. Edison's team will meet us in the Jumper bay in forty minutes," Lorne announced, jerking his head towards the exit to expedite Walker and Stevens.
Only when Walker and Stevens were out did Lorne spot John, approaching him and smiling warmly. "Hi," he greeted quietly, tone warm, low and private, moving closer to John. John, on his part, moved a few inches to the left on the wall he was leaning against so that Lorne would have room to stand between him and the barrel of wooden staffs.
"Going off world again?" John asked, indicating Lorne's attire. He was wearing his vest and holding his P-90 close, ready to go. John caught a whiff of Lorne's shampoo as Lorne leaned close and knew that he had taken a shower earlier.
By the end of their first week on Olam John and Lorne had managed to establish a pretty comfortable position. They were greeted very nicely every time they arrived, and had already dined with most state officials who could tolerate the presence of a gay couple in their home. In fact, people seemed so eager to have them that John was beginning to think that it was the latest fashion, hosting the gay aliens. When he had told Lorne that, Lorne was laughing so hard he actually fell out of his chair.
The incident with the kid and his father wasn't repeated, but after it John became even more acutely aware of the fact that some of the stares they were receiving were not all that friendly. He had insisted that they all carry weapons and radios with them at all times if they were not in their designated room in Noman's office, and Woolsey agreed and added also that Ronon or Teyla must stay with John and Lorne at all times, unless they were meeting someone they trusted beyond doubt and were going to an isolated location.
Even touching Lorne was easier, mainly because it never went beyond hugs and holding hands. After the conversation they had had on Lorne's balcony he didn't mind it much anymore if he was required to hold Lorne, and sometimes even initiate a sort of semi-intimate gesture for the sake of their ever present audience. There wasn't any barrier to hold John back anymore now that he knew he wasn't imposing on Lorne when touching him, nothing that John's subconscious rebelled against, so John gladly did his part in keeping up appearances.
Lorne himself seemed to be feeling just like John did because he now smiled more in John's presence, spoke of personal things to John when they were alone, and even stopped apologizing whenever he would step into John's arms and cuddle close to him without warning. Teyla and Rodney didn't miss the change in their interaction, but Rodney being Rodney simply huffed and Teyla being Teyla simply sent him a knowing smile.
"Yeah, the SGC wants me to perform a radius evaluation. Apparently the Tok'ra need Naquadah now more than ever, and following the Orii occupation of the galaxy they were deprived of some of their usual mines," Lorne explained, watching with amusement when Rodney jumped in his place merely because Ronon sneezed.
"So we're hoping to score some points with the Tok'ra by giving them some of our suddenly very large supply of Naquadah," John summarized.
"That's right. They want to bring in three or four teams, depending on the results of the tests I do today," Lorne replied.
"Well, they're lucky that they have you, aren't they?" John commented absently. He knew that the SGC was very keen on the possibility of mining Naquadah with no pesky natives around. That they kept sending Lorne back to M5R-037 for more tests without even caring that they were only adding to the strain he was already under with all those trips to Olam was making it very obvious. Lorne didn't seem to be worried, and was happily conveying them information and data from scans he had preformed with the Ancient devices that were still operating on the planet, helping them pick a suitable team and equip them with all the suitable tools for when the Deadalus would be leaving for Atlantis.
"Mind if I come along?" John asked suddenly.
Lorne looked surprised at John's request. "Uh… sure. If you want to, we could always use an extra pair of hands," he said, dismayed, but didn't question John about why he wanted to tag along. It was good, because John wasn't sure he would have had a good enough answer.
It really wasn't his kind of thing, walking around a deserted planet and looking for rocks. It sounded boring, not to mention that the last time he did it he ended up with an evil doppelganger on the loose in Atlantis. But the truth was, he wanted to come mainly because of Lorne. Lorne was excited every time he talked about that planet and John wanted to see what all the fuss was about, wanted to see what had gotten him so happy.
"Why did you become a mining engineer?" John asked out of curiosity.
Lorne shrugged. "It was useful. I had a choice between many things at the academy, and that was the subject that sounded most like it could secure me positions in interesting places. And it did," he answered easily.
Rodney called something at them with his back to them, and John and Lorne shared a confused look. "What was that, Doc?" Lorne called back.
Rodney's reply was once more unintelligible, though John could make out that it was a question by the tone of voice. When Rodney realized that no one was answering him he spun around, face red and chest heaving for breath.
"I said-" he began exasperatedly, looking annoyed, before ducking and spinning around just in time to avoid the blow Ronon send his way. "We've agreed that this is a time out! I saw that! See? Focused!" he complained, but he was still smiling gleefully at having caught Ronon when he turned to John and Lorne again.
Rodney had just enough time to open his mouth before Ronon's rods brought him down to the mattress face first. John winced as Rodney whimpered, and stepped forward to help him stand.
"That's enough for today, Chewie," John told Ronon mildly above Rodney's groan, and Ronon shrugged.
"That was a time out! As in, we're having a break!" Rodney griped when he got his breath back, glaring at Ronon while Ronon handed him a towel. "At any rate, I asked if I could come with you too. I'm very interested in that Ancient drilling platform you've found. I've looked it up in the database and it should be similar to the mobile drilling platform we left behind on Lantea," Rodney babbled on, wiping the sweat from his face with the towel and completely forgetting about his irritation with Ronon.
"Are you sure you want to go? You said you had a million things to do, didn't you?" John asked, remembering Rodney complaining about the lack of brain power in Atlantis and how he was the one who needed to do everything on his own. And not only on Atlantis.
Rodney, after a few days spent with the scientific community of Olam (though he would rather eat a lemon pie than call any of them that, John knew) had insisted that he needed help. The mystery surrounding the Wraith lack of interest or awareness of Olam bothered Rodney greatly, and eventually he got Radek to agree to come with him and Ronon to carry the loads of equipment he insisted he needed with him. Needless to say that the scientific community of Olam was overwhelmed.
"I'll be fine," Rodney dismissed John's words. "So, when do we leave?"
Lorne looked at Rodney up and down. "As soon as you get changed," he teased lightly, and Rodney looked down at himself as well, grimacing.
"Right. I'll uh… meet you there?"
"Sure thing, Doc. Thirty five minutes."
Thirty five minutes later Rodney and John met Lorne's and Edison's teams in the Jumper Bay, all ready to go.
"You wanna drive?" Lorne asked as they boarded Jumper 8 and the men settled on the benches in the rear compartment, leaving the forward section for John, Rodney, Edison and Lorne.
"I'll drive us back," John promised and Lorne sat behind the controls, bringing them through the gate and onto M5R-037 without a hitch. To John's surprise, the planet was green with groves on mountain sides, and even though a dust giant could be seen in the horizon, the sun was yellow and warm.
"I always imagined these places as giant rocks," John commented while Lorne navigated them towards their destination.
"I can understand why you would think that, but in truth Naquadah enriches the soil and makes it more fertile. Most places with Naquadah are flourishing, making the land good for farming, and that's the reason why it's so hard to find abandoned planets to mine it. It makes a very supportive environment," Lorne explained, coming down to land next to what really did look like a mobile drilling station half buried in the rock.
"Is that supposed to be like that?" John asked, pointing at the towering, lifeless machine.
"Yes. It needs to reach deep underground to get to the richer veins," Lorne smiled, turning around to the teams sitting in the Jumper's rear compartment. "Okay, people. We're going to conduct a simple radius test. We'll split directions and I want you to look for Naquadah on the ground. You should be able to see it right away, it's gray and Quartz like, you've seen it before. The thinner the Naquadah gets the smaller the veins are. When you reach an area where there's no sign of Naquadah radio me and I'll come check. Let's go," Lorne instructed, clapping his hands once when he was done while Stevens opened the rear hatch.
"You can come with me, I'll show you what to look for," Lorne offered John discreetly, allowing the rest of the men to leave first. Edison was assigning each of them a direction to go to and Rodney was making his way towards the drilling station, already typing away on his computer tablet.
Lorne took John out into the shadow of the station and knelt, picking a seemingly random rock from the ground. John knelt beside him, leaning close to see what was so special about it. "This rock contains traces of Naquadah," Lorne explained. "You see the small, glass like crystals on the side here? It means that when this rock was formed underground it was formed in an environment containing Naquadah and it still carries traces of it."
Suddenly Lorne took John's hand in his and placed it on the rock, his fingers covering John's and guiding them to feel the rock's surface. "Feel this? Like sand paper?" Lorne asked, and John suddenly noticed that Lorne's voice was low pitched and soft, and Lorne's hand was warm and gentle. He nodded jerkily, and Lorne let go of his hand and put the rock down, smiling at him.
"Now let's see if you can find another one," he challenged, indicating the ground around them, and John looked down, trying to remember what Lorne had said instead of the tone of his voice and the feel of his hand.
John picked a rock up, surveying it until he found the glass-like crystals on the underside. It wasn't as though it was a real challenge, searching for Naquadah traces on what was probably the dead center of the richest vein around, but John held it up nonetheless.
"This one okay, Evan?" he called, presenting the rock in his hand, and the world seemed to freeze around him. Rodney stopped just short of the station's entrance and turned to look at him with alarm, Edison and his men became quiet and watched with amazed eyes and Lorne raised his head from some sort of a device he was fiddling with, startled.
John had idiotically used Lorne's first name.
Being with Lorne for most hours of the day for over a week and now having Lorne hold his hand had caused John to forget where he was. It was a slip of the tongue, but a stupid one and an unfortunate one, considering the audience they had.
In the silence that followed John's question Lorne's footsteps were loud and echoing as he approached John and took the rock from his hands. After a quick inspection he smiled, showing none of his earlier surprise, and returned it to John. "It's exactly right, sir," he told John warmly, like John used his first name all the time and his turn of phrase was nothing unusual. "I think you can take north-west. Edison, you got someone covering that area yet?" he called, projecting business as usual.
"Billick's covering that area. How about south?" Edison asked, and John allowed himself to breathe once again. The other men returned to looking at the map they had in their hands but Rodney still lingered just outside the station, observing.
"South okay with you, sir?" Lorne asked, and John shrugged.
"Don't have anything in particular against it," he said casually, and Lorne smiled a small and private smile at him before walking over to Edison to talk about radio contact.
John turned his back to them and sighed. He was getting too comfortable with Lorne. Up until now he had disliked the man, and it wasn't a big secret. Now he had let it slip to Edison and his team that he and Lorne were practically on a first name basis. That they were friends all of a sudden.
Or worse – lovers. That was what John would have assumed if he had observed such behavior. Why else would they suddenly be this thick? Call each other this intimately? Why else would Lorne be holding his hand and talking with such a pitched voice, so close to John's ear?
It seemed like Lorne was forgetting himself too. Their pretence was overlapping the reality and they were slipping, both of them. They needed some time apart, some privacy after returning from Olam to clear their heads.
As John started walking south, he made up his mind to talk to Lorne about it. He was sure that Lorne would agree.
John, however, never got the chance to talk to Lorne about his conclusions after going to M5R-037. They were so busy that it slipped his mind.
On their next visit to Olam after M5R-037 the gate platform had been exposed just enough that they were able to come with Jumpers, shocking the entire crowd of curious viewers into speechlessness. None of them had ever seen flying machines, and John and Lorne took turns taking Jumpers full of people up to space to see their planet from high above.
It was Woolsey's idea, taking the Jumpers, born from thinking that by showing off their capabilities they'd tilt the balance a little more in their favor. It was the pinnacle in a series of demonstrations they had given the people of Olam, all of them related to technology or medicine. It started with John bringing his and Rodney's toy racing cars with them to Olam after receiving a tour to the engineering museum, courtesy of Lorne's friend Nahar. The engineers were so fascinated that John had to promise to get them some more to study, and all the young boys were begging him to let them drive. After that were many more technological wonders they brought with them from Atlantis, like computers and calculators, cameras and MP3 players.
True to his word, Noman allowed them to bring only harmless technologies and had ordered them not to reveal any of the manufacturing secrets to his people, claiming that he did not want to overwhelm them. Noman had agreed to bring Jumpers in only when Woolsey met with him in person on Olam and convinced him that it would make a very good impression on his voters, but they had all underestimated Shedim's reaction.
The debates were always tense, and Lorne always seemed to react badly to them, but they were all getting better at handling the questions and diverting the subject of conversation to other channels such as development plans and the contribution an alliance between both their peoples could bring. John wasn't sure what got Lorne so furious, but he knew that Lorne's anger spiked whenever Shedim called either of them degrading names.
When it was time for the debate on the day they had introduced the Jumpers John and Lorne entered the amphitheater with significantly lighter hearts than usual. They had just pulled one of their winning cards, and things seemed to be going well. They took their usual seats down on the raised podium, automatically shifting to be in closer contact, and waited for the round to begin, feeling victorious and confident as they hadn't felt in any other debate.
Shedim rose to his feet, face grave. It was his turn to choose the topic of debate, and choose it he did.
"You've been impressing the masses with your technology and your advancements, Colonel," he opened, voice so solemn and hard John had to fight the urge to flinch. "But you have yet to prove to us one very important thing during your visits here," he paused and looked at John and Lorne with penetrating eyes. "Are you the lovers you claim to be?" he asked, enraged.
"What kind of a question is that, Shedim? Have you not been here for the last few days?" someone from Noman's party called, rising on his feet, equally as angrily.
"I have," Shedim shot back sharply. "And during their entire time here we have yet to see some convincing evidence that these two people are truly together as they claim to be!"
"We've all seen how they act around each other!" someone else called.
"Indeed. They are acting around each other like I act around my brother and my sisters," Shedim sneered, looking down at John and Lorne.
John didn't like where this was going. They had cornered Shedim and he was lashing out with desperate measures.
"Our society is a very private one, and we are very private people, Shedim. We won't go about turning our relationship into a street show," Lorne answered coolly, eyes hard.
"So you keep on saying. I think that you're here merely to steal our ancestors' treasures, and are trying to get us to turn a blind eye by impressing us with your ships and the superiority of your technology. I think that you are not, in fact, the lovers you claim to be and that your motives and interests are questionable at best," Shedim said derisively, causing the entire room to erupt into a heated argument where not even the neutral observers could be heard.
John had learned enough of the politics of Olam to know that the swiftly escalating fight was a very rare thing, and was amazed that the subject of his and Lorne's alleged relationship was causing such a strong reaction. It had brought home just how loaded and serious the whole homosexuality issue was to these people. He knew that punishments would be issued by the neutral observers to all those who violated the order, as soon as the observers could make themselves heard.
As it was, it was only the shrill gong-like tool that signaled the end of the debate that finally got everyone to settle down, and the debaters were sent home for the meantime until the heads of each party could be contacted and spoken with regarding the entire ordeal.
Once the debate was over Noman ushered them out and away from the angry dispute that had resumed outside of the amphitheater and into one of the carts of the transport that had just stopped in their station, a worried frown adorning his forehead.
"Noman, you're not worried about what he said, are you?" Lorne asked, concerned himself. John watched Noman carefully and had a nasty feeling that he was. That somehow something wasn't going according to Noman's plan.
"Actually, I am," Noman confessed, looking at Lorne with eyes that were almost as sharp as Shedim's were. "Because Shedim is right. Or, the most accurate thing to say is that he is not the only one who has noticed that more than trying to advance my party's interest, we're all busy with the alliance between our worlds. While this is a matter of outmost importance in its own merits, this is not the right time to discuss it. We need to get back on subject, and we need to make everyone believe that Shedim's words were the act of a desperate man and not a lone righteous man," he looked at John and Lorne with determined eyes.
"The people of Olam need to know the truth. By continuing as you have thus far, they never will," he stated, and John looked down at the bottom of the cart and cursed inwardly.
Noman had no idea just how wrong he was. If these people learned that they'd been lied to, the alliance would never happen and their precious ZPMs would be unreachable. The people of Olam must not know that truth. At the same time, if things continued as they have, the people of Olam were bound to know the truth despite their best efforts. Shedim would see to that.
He really should have known it wouldn't be this easy.
Woolsey, of course, wasn't happy at all about the turn of events. His face grew graver and graver while John and Lorne told him about the debate and Noman's comment, and at the end of it he was quiet for a long time.
"It worries me that things got so out of hand," Woolsey said finally, his fingers interlacing on the conference table's surface. "To think that they would break their own rules and disturb the debate is a cause for concern," he looked up at Lorne and John, who were sitting close together without even being aware of it. John, worried, turned to look at Lorne as well and wondered who sat first, and how long had they been unconsciously sitting like this.
"As a matter of fact," Woolsey sighed as he spoke on, "I fear for your safety. These elections seem more intense than I first thought. This is not just about the ZPMs anymore. If things go the wrong way…" he trailed off, but he didn't need to say more. Pictures of what could happen were already running through John's head, taken from Earth's own bloodied gay history.
"I'm seriously thinking of abandoning this mission-" Woolsey started, but was cut off by both John and Lorne.
"No!" they called in unison. The cry was wrenched from John's lips without him even thinking about it. He didn't know why he had said it so vehemently, especially since all he had wanted at first was for this to be over with and to take some time apart from Lorne. But when presented with the option John knew only one thing for certain – they couldn't stop now.
Woolsey, Keller, Teyla and Ronon were all looking at John and Lorne, surprised and dismayed by their reaction. "Colonel? Major?" Woolsey inquired finally when John couldn't think of anything to say and Lorne remained stubbornly silent as well.
Lorne sighed. "It's just a shame to stop after everything we've done so far. We can do it, and we need those ZPMs," he explained, studiously not looking at John, and John was relieved. The explanation sounded reasonable, and could probably justify John's strong objections to the mere thought of calling everything off.
Woolsey looked gravely back at Lorne. "Major, I don't think that you fully understand the situation. Be it through outside threats or by the risk to your own careers, you are both in danger. We can do without the ZPMs, but we can't do without you-"
"Of course you can," John cut Woolsey off for the second time. If Woolsey was trying to convince them through flattery, it wasn't going to work. "Everyone's replaceable," he reminded Woolsey.
"True. But while I'm sure that Doctors McKay and Zelenka would continue to prove to be assets to the expedition, I'm not sure there's anyone who's…" Woolsey seemed to search for the right word.
"Crazy enough," Ronon offered easily. John looked at him, irritated.
"Thanks buddy," John told him sarcastically.
"Anytime," Ronon grinned, leaning back in his chair and lacing his fingers together behind his head.
Woolsey wasn't amused. "I'll use that, for lack of a better term. I'm not sure that we can find anyone who's crazy enough to pull Atlantis out of trouble like you have done in the past and will undoubtedly continue to do in the future despite my best efforts to stop it. I don't think you'll be of much use to the city sitting in Leavenworth or dead," Woolsey said bluntly, causing John to shoot him a sharp glance.
Teyla hurriedly cut in before John could argue about that, eyes intent. "Mr. Woolsey, perhaps there's a way to solve things without inflicting damage to the Colonel and the Major's lives or careers?" she asked, looking at all the participants of the briefing.
Keller suddenly leaned forward, eyes lighting up. "Pictures!" she exclaimed excitedly. "A picture is worth a thousand words, right? So how about we bring them an entire album of them?" she explained after facing the blank expressions of the others.
"Go on, Doctor. What did you have in mind?" Woolsey asked, curious.
"All we need is somewhere to photograph the Colonel and the Major posing intimate scenes in front of a black screen and then I can fit backgrounds to each picture using an image editing software. We can create them a lifetime's worth of pictures to prove our claim that they're married," she told Woolsey, smiling hopefully at him.
John frowned. "When you say 'intimate scenes' you don't mean…" he looked at Lorne, who was still not looking at him, then turned back to Keller. "Intimate scenes, right?" he asked.
Keller shook her head, amusement playing on her face. "No, Colonel. I mean pictures taken at home on the couch, or at the beach, at a restaurant, amusement parks, places couples go to and take pictures at," she clarified. "All you have to do is sit or stand together. I'll make it look like the pictures were taken on different days and different locations," she added.
"You can do that?" Teyla asked with wonderment.
"Of course. It's a piece of cake," Keller assured her.
"I think it's worth a shot," Ronon commented shortly, shrugging when Woolsey looked at him with surprise.
Woolsey took his time before answering, looking at each of them for a long while. Eventually he sighed and looked down at the table. "You will be careful, Colonel, Major," he said, and it was not a request or a recommendation. "And you will be discreet and alert."
