Edit: So sheppardlover928 pointed out to me that I had a big continuity error and I revised the chapter.
"Now, the goal of the game is to checkmate the other king." John said. "Checkmate happens when the king is in a position to be captured and cannot escape from capture."
"Okay, I get that much."
John and Lydia set up the chess board that John and Rodney played almost every day. Lydia's mind raced as she looked at all of the pieces. She was totally confused. She didn't like playing games with lots of rules. She liked simple things and things that she was good at.
They both had some downtime after lunch and he decided to teach her how to play chess. Rodney was off in his lab doing God knows what. Teyla and Ronon were visiting New Athos.
"Now, each of the 6 different kinds of pieces moves differently." John said picking up a pawn. "The pawns move-"
"Sheppard, Barkova," McKay's voice came over their radios.
"Yes, Rodney?"
"You need to get down to my lab now!" Panic was in Rodney's voice.
"What's wrong?"
"Jennifer's been shot."
The two raced out of the cafetaria and to McKay's lab, leaving the chessboard on the table. They made it there just as Dr. Rossi rolled Jennifer out of the room.
"Rodney, what happened?"
"I have no idea. She was perfectly fine when I went to get a cup of coffee. When I came back he was lying on the floor bleeding."
Lydia walked around the maze of tables and computers to the pool blood.
"You didn't find anything else weird?" she asked.
"No, but they're sending a forensics team down." Rodney answered
"Why was she down here?"
"She was spending her lunch with me.
"Are you ok, McKay?" John asked.
"What? Yeah, yeah, I'm fine." He said, his hands shaking a bit.
"Maybe you should go down to the infirmary, just to make sure."
"No, I'm fine."
"Now I know something's wrong if you're refusing to go to the infirmary."
"I'm just a little shook up. I'll be ok."
"Ok, I want to go down anyway so we can be there when Jennifer's out of surgery."
-…-
Dr. Rossi came out of the operation room.
"So, docs," John said, "how's she doing?"
"She'll be fine. Thankfully the bullet didn't hit anything important and we were able to easily stop the bleeding." he said.
"Any idea on when we can talk to her about who shot her?" Lydia asked.
"She'll be unconscious for a few hours, so you'll have to wait until then." Dr. Rossi said, "And even then you'll have to be easy on her. She will be on bed rest for a while."
"I did pull this out of her," he handed them a dish with the bullet in it, "I hope that helps."
"It looks like it's from a Beretta."
"So, the gun all military personnel on Atlantis have."
"Great, that definitely narrows things down." Lydia said sarcastically.
After John made Rodney get checked over, the three went to Woolsey office.
"I've put the city on lockdown." Woolsey said. "No one's going through the Stargate and all nonessential personnel are in their quarters."
"Why would someone want to shoot Jennifer?" Lydia asked.
"I think she was at the wrong place at the wrong time." Woolsey said. "What have you and Zelenka been researching, Dr. McKay?"
"The same thing we've been going over for a few weeks now, the disease. It's not anything to shoot over; most people on Atlantis know what we found. I don't think anyone can keep a secret here."
"I have to disagree, Dr. McKay," said Dr. Woods said walking in, the forensic scientist on Atlantis.
"What do you mean?"
"I searched the scene and went over Dr. Keller's body. I think I know exactly what happened. The shooter walked into your lab, shot Dr. Keller in the back and then went onto your computers. I had another scientist go over your computers and found that someone copied all the information you have on the two Ancient scientists you've been researching on a flash drive."
"What? Why?"
"I don't know doctor. I just know that what, not the why."
"Is there any way to get fingerprints off the keyboard?" John asked.
"I checked, but there were too many overlapping to get a good print."
"Thank you, Dr. Woods." Woolsey said politely.
She nodded and left the room.
"How did this happen?" Rodney said. "All of the personnel here have had background checks."
"Just because someone hasn't done something in the past doesn't mean they wouldn't do something now, Rodney." John said.
"Especially if there was some type of deal involved." Lydia added.
"Like I said before," Rodney said, "who would make a deal for information that everyone already knows about?"
"A group back on Earth? Or maybe the deal was for something else and they just decided to take the information and see how much they could get for it." John said
"Are you saying that something else on Atlantis is missing?" Woolsey asked.
"Or it hasn't been taken yet."
At that moment the lights all around Atlantis flickered a few times and then came back on. Rodney started to snap his fingers and raised his eyebrows.
"The ZedPMs,"
Rodney, John, and Lydia raced down to the ZPM room. The two guards outside were lying on the ground. John and Lydia checked on them while Rodney went into the room. She put her fingers on the guard's neck and found no pulse. Blood was pooling around his head from the bullet hole that was above his ear.
"He's dead," she said.
"So is he," John said getting up from his the other guard.
"One of the ZedPMs is gone." Rodney said coming out of the room.
"Son of a bitch." Lydia said.
"Why did the lights flicker?" John asked.
"If a ZedPM is taken out by someone who doesn't know how to transfer power properly then the remaining ZedPMs will take a couple seconds to readjust."
"Well, what are we going to do now?"
"What about the security camera?" John asked.
"Whoever stole the ZedPM shot out the camera."
"Yeah, but it has a feed upstairs. There could be even a millisecond of footage of the shooter."
"You're right."
-…-
"Did you find anything yet, Rodney?"
"Maybe if you give me more than a couple seconds next time you asked that, then the answer will be yes." He said annoyed.
"John, Lydia," Teyla said walking into the room with Ronon close behind, "Mr. Woolsey explained what was going on."
"Do you have any leads yet?" Ronon asked.
"No, not yet," John said. "Hopefully we'll get something out of this video."
"Oh my God."
"What, Rodney?"
"It was Captain Vega and Dr. Parrish."
-…-
"Captain Vega and Dr. Parrish," John said.
He and Lydia walked into the room that held the two. Woolsey and McKay were in the observation room above them. Lorne, Teyla, and Ronon were searching Parrish and Vega's rooms for the ZPM and flash drive.
"Why are we here, sir?" Vega asked crossing her arms over her chest. Parrish sat looking around rather nervously and stayed silent.
"You don't need to lie to us, Captain. We have footage of the two of you stealing a ZPM."
"What? You can't be serious."
John slapped a few stills of the video showing the two walking into the room and shooting out the camera.
"What I don't get is why you two are working together. You couldn't be on more opposite sides of Atlantis." He said.
Parrish and Vega looked at the photos with disbelief in their eyes.
"Sir, this can't be right. This isn't us."
"You're trying to tell me this isn't you."
"Yes!"
"I don't remember any of this either." Parrish finally said.
John pulled Lydia aside.
"Maybe they really don't remember," he said, "it's not like we haven't ran into things like mind control before."
"Wait," Lydia's eyes widened, "I think I know what's going on."
She went back to the table Parrish and Vega were sitting at. She put her hands on the table and got in Vega's face.
"I guess I was right about The Trust not ending with Ba'al."
Vega frowned. She and Parrish looked at each other and then back at Barkova. Their eyes glowed.
"How did you know?" Vega asked her voice deeper.
"Good guess," Lydia said with a smirk, "now why don't you tell me who you two are?"
"I am Aengus." Parrish said.
"Aengus? I'm going to have to ask Levine about you" Lydia said.
"And I am Athena, the new leader of The Trust."
"I remember you, Ba'al's second in command. If you're the new leader, why would you go on mission?"
"Sometimes if want something done right you have to do it yourself."
"Well it's too bad you didn't get it done." John said.
-…-
"So, what are we going to do with them?" John asked as he and Lydia walked into the observation room.
"The only thing we can do," Woolsey said, "send them to the Tok'ra to extract the symbiotes."
"Maybe have Lorne's team escort them through the gate to Earth tomorrow morning." Lydia suggested to Sheppard.
"Yeah, that sounds like a good idea."
"I'll make sure Chuck dials in and warns them tonight."
Teyla, Lorne and Ronon walked into the room.
"We found the ZPM and flash drive." Teyla said handing the flash drive to Rodney. Ronon held onto the ZPM.
"Where were they?"
"The ZPM was in Vega's room and the flash drive in Dr. Parrish's."
"Alright, well someone needs to take the ZedPM to Zelenka so he can put it back." Rodney said.
"I'll do it." Lorne said taking it out of Ronon's hands and out of the room.
-…-
"Are you serious?" Rodney said with a mouth full of toast.
"Yes, Rodney, I am serious." Zelenka said.
"That could never happen. "
"Yes, but we also thought things like time travel weren't possible at one time."
"Well this is really never going to happen."
"What are you two fighting about now?" Dr. Levine asked sitting with them in the mess hall.
"Something that you would never understand." Rodney said rudely to the anthropologist.
"You're so nice McKay, you know that?" Levine said sarcastically. "Anyway, when are the two Goa'uld being taken back to Earth?"
"Around now, actually." Zelenka said. "What do you know about them?"
"Athena was the Greek goddess of many things, most notable wisdom and war. Aengus was the Irish god of love, youth and poetry before the introduction of Christianity. Isn't it funny when there's a Goa'uld who was the god of poetry and then he tries to be menacing and evil."
"Yeah, not really scary like they try to be."
"Scary or not, I'm glad they didn't get away with the ZPM and it's back powering the city." Levine said.
"What?" Zelenka said.
"What do you mean what?" McKay said.
"I was told that the ZPM was still missing."
"Who told you that?"
"Major Lorne."
McKay and Levine looked at each other.
"You don't think,"
"I do."
They ran out of the mess hall with Zelenka trailing behind. Rodney weaved through people in the halls and lost Levine and Zelenka in the crowd. He jumped into the transporter. It moved him to the control tower and he jumped. He started running again, even running into a few people. He finally made it to the gate room just before Lorne and his team escorted the Goa'uld through the gate.
"Stop!" Rodney shouted.
Everyone stopped and stared at McKay. John and Lydia came running down the steps to him.
"McKay, what's going on?" Lydia asked.
"Lorne's a Goa'uld." Rodney said out of breath.
"What?"
"Excuse me?"
"You can't be serious, McKay." Lorne said coming up to them.
Zelenka and Levine finally caught up with Rodney and joined the group.
"He stole the ZPM," Rodney said. "He never took it back to Zelenka like I told him to."
"He's lying." Lorne said.
"He is not lying," Zelenka said. "He never gave me the ZPM."
"How do we know you're not the Goa'uld?" Lorne said getting in Zelenka's face.
"You can search any of my things and you won't find it."
"Well maybe that's how we should settle it," John said. "We'll just search both your rooms."
"I like that idea."
Lorne looked at both the Colonels and then set off running towards the still active gate. Mercer ran and tackled him to the ground just before he ran to through the gate. The rest of his team helped her pin him down to the ground.
"Chuck!" Lydia shouted. "Shut the damn gate off!"
The wormhole shut down.
"Now, would someone get Lorne in a cell, please? And, um," Lydia rubbed her head as a migraine began in her head.
"Get those two Goa'uld locked away. We'll take them to Earth once this is finished." John finished.
People scurried around them. Men dragged Lorne away while some others led Athena and Aengus to a room. Rodney picked up Lorne's backpack and found the ZPM inside.
"I'm going to take this myself this time." He said.
"That's a good idea, Rodney." Lydia said as he walked away.
"You okay?" John asked her.
"Yeah, I just have a headache."
-…-
"So," Lydia said walking up to the cell Lorne was in, "since you're not really Major Lorne, who are you?"
"I am Raijin." He said with a deep voice.
"You want to tell me who else is a Goa'uld?"
"I do not know what you mean."
"You really want me to believe that no other Goa'ulds are here? You've proven you would do anything to get a ZPM."
"I will tell you that there is one more left. His name is Vulcan."
"That's all you're going to tell me?" Lydia said crossing her arms over her chest.
Raijin stayed silent, staring at her. She stood in front of the cell for a moment before leaving the room. She left two guards in the room with him with stunners and then walked through the halls. They were empty now and the city seemed eerily quiet. She made it to the conference room where the others were waiting. Even they were being watched by a few guards with stunners.
"His name is Raijin," she said to the others, "and he said there is one more Goa'uld here who goes by the name Vulcan."
"Vulcan? You mean like," John said holding up the Vulcan salute from Star Trek.
"No," Levine said, "Vulcan was the Roman god of fire long before Star Trek came along. And Raijin was the Japanese god of thunder, lightning and storms."
"Knowing his name doesn't tell us anything." Woolsey said, "We need to keep doing what we're doing, testing everyone in the city. Including everyone in this room. All of the doctors and guards have already been tested and cleared. Everyone who hasn't been tested is confined to their quarters."
"Can't we just test the men since the Goa'uld is a guy?" Ronon asked.
"Doesn't work that way," Lydia said, "we've seen a male Goa'uld in a woman before."
"Well we definitely want to make sure we test everyone. He could have lied about there only being one more." Rodney said.
-…-
John walked out of the infirmary and put his black uniform jacket back on over his t-shirt. The halls were slightly busy again with over half of the city. The rest were still waiting to be checked. No Goa'uld had been found yet.
He walked through the maze of halls to the mess hall. He picked up a water bottle and a ham sandwich and made his way outside to the balcony.
"So, I guess neither of you are an evil alien." John said sitting down with Lydia and Teyla.
"We are not." Teyla said grabbing a handful of popcorn from a bag.
"More people are filtering into the city, so that means we'll find out who it is soon."
"That's good." Lydia said fiddling with a few grapes on her tray.
"Are you alright?" Teyla asked.
"Yeah, I just have a weird feeling in my stomach and my migraine won't go away. My head is pounding."
"Why don't you get some rest? We can handle this." John said.
"I would, but I wouldn't be able to relax with this going on."
Within a few minutes Lydia had fallen asleep with her head lying on her arms. The sun was beginning to set, the sky full of oranges and reds. The two moons were already in the sky, waiting for the black sky of night. Rodney and Ronon found the group outside after being cleared by Jennifer.
"What's this?" Rodney asked gesturing to Lydia.
"This, Rodney, is a human being of the female kind." John said sarcastically.
"I know what she is," Rodney glared at John, "I mean why is she asleep?"
"She is exhausted, Rodney," Teyla said, "and she has a migraine."
"I get exhausted and migraines, too, you know." He said gruffly while sitting down.
"Yeah, but she doesn't complain about it every day." Ronon said.
The three laughed as Rodney folded his arms over his chest. Suddenly, the city's alarm started going off. Everyone on the pier immediately stopped what they were doing and looked at the city. Lydia jumped awake and looked around.
"What the Hell's going on?" She shouted over the alarm.
"I have no idea." Rodney said getting up.
He raced into the city with the team close behind. Pushing people out of the way and making rude comments as he went, Rodney was first to the control room.
"Chuck," McKay said out of breath.
"It's the self-destruct, sir." Chuck said, "It turned on by itself."
"Move," Rodney said taking Chuck's seat.
McKay furiously typed away on the computer as the clock ticked off under a minute. Something caught Teyla's eye and she walked to the other side of the control room.
"I need both of your codes," McKay said pointing to Barkova and Sheppard.
The two hurriedly typed in their codes in the computers and the alarm stopped.
"Nice job, Rodney." John said.
"Thanks, but that wasn't all that hard." Rodney said getting up from the chair.
"What do you mean?" Lydia said.
"It was just as if someone set of the self-destruct; it just needed a couple of codes to turn it off. Usually when an enemy sets it off they make it harder to turn it off."
"An enemy?"
"Please, you really don't think this was the other Goa'uld?"
"I think Rodney is right." Teyla said, "It looks like it was a distraction."
The group joined her next to the city's life signs detector.
"Oh, no."
A blue dot was leaving the ZPM room and was a few steps away from rejoining the rest of the city's population and being lost to them.
"Shut that door!" Lydia shouted.
Rodney jumped onto a computer and quickly typed away.
"Done!" He said looking back at the dot.
The dot started moving faster toward the doorway, trying to get through before it closed. Thankfully the door closed before he or she could make it. The dot stopped for a moment and then turned around.
"Rodney, shut all the doors you can to trap that Goa'uld." John said. "The four of us are going to go get it."
McKay nodded and turned to the computer. The group of four set off to the locker room.
"Finally something I can do." Ronon said pulling out his gun.
"Just make sure you set that thing to stun, Chewie."
-…-
"We're here Rodney." John said.
The four of them were in front of a door that trapped the Goa'uld. Teyla, John and Lydia had vests on and were holding Wraith stunners. The door opened and they slipped inside, the door closing behind him.
"Take the second left hallway and then make a right turn. He should be there." McKay said over their radios.
The group silently walked down the blue hallway of Atlantis. Their stunners were raised up, ready to shoot. The sky outside was dark, the hallway only illuminated by the two full moons. They rounded the corner through to the left hallway. Lydia's heart was beating so fast that it was drumming in her ears. She wouldn't be surprised if the others could hear it. A shoe squeaked on the floor and they stopped and looked at each other.
"Who was that?" Lydia asked.
The other three shook their heads and shrugged their shoulders.
"He's right around the corner." Rodney said over the radio.
John signaled that he was going ahead and for the others to stay behind. He raised his stunner to eye level and slowly circled the right corner. His face dropped into an expression of surprise. Suddenly a shot rang out and John fell to the ground.
"John!" Teyla shouted as Ronon pulled her behind a pillar,
Lydia's heart dropped as she looked at John's deathly still body. She came back to reality and jumped behind a pillar as a few bullets came her way. A man came around the corner, handgun raised at them. Lydia peaked around the corner and her eyes widened.
"Mr. Woolsey?"
The man looked up at her and glared behind his glasses.
"My name is Vulcan."
He had the ZPM in one hand and a handgun in the other. His red Atlantis uniform was splattered with a few flecks of Sheppard's blood. He looked from the three behind the pillar to John on the floor.
"Tell Dr. McKay to open the doors." The deep voice said.
"Why the Hell would I do that?" Lydia asked.
"Because, you wouldn't want the good Colonel to die." He said pointing the gun at Sheppard.
Barkova watched him silently, going over scenarios in her head.
"Unless this is what you want." The Goa'uld said. "Without him you would be able to be military leader all be yourself."
He began to laugh, his cackling reminding her of the other Goa'ulds she met on SG-4. She looked at John on the floor, a small pool of blood forming around his shoulder. He laid there silently, hopefully unconscious. She looked behind her at Teyla and Ronon when an idea hit her.
"Open the door."
The others looked at her with surprise.
"What?" Rodney's surprised voice came over the radio.
"You heard me, McKay." Lydia said.
"Done."
Vulcan pointed his gun at the three and slowly walked backwards away from them. After a few feet, he turned and ran down a hallway. Teyla, Ronon and Lydia ran to John. Teyla crouched down beside him and checked his pulse.
"He's alive." She said putting pressure on the bullet wound on his right shoulder.
"Why did you open the door for him?" Ronon asked gruffly.
"I needed him to walk away so we could get to Sheppard. Trust me, I have plan." Lydia explained. "Teyla, stay here with Sheppard and call a med team. Ronon and I are going after the Goa'uld."
"I will." Teyla said pulling out pads to put more pressure on the wound.
"McKay," Lydia said into her radio. "As soon as I give the word, I want that door closed again."
"I'm on it." He said back.
Ronon and Lydia left Teyla and John, sprinting in the direction Vulcan went. They turned down a hallway and heard the squeaking of the Goa'uld's shoes not far in the distance. They quietly turned the corner and found him quickly walking towards an open doorway. Lydia motioned for Ronon to hide behind a column as she sneaked closer to the Goa'uld.
"Now, McKay!"
The door closed in front of them, Vulcan turning to her.
"Drop it!" Lydia shouted as he raised his gun.
Instead of pointing it at her, he pressed the barrel against the ZPM.
"Let me go or I'll destroy it."
"Why does that matter? Either you have it or it's gone and I'd rather it be destroyed than in your hands."
"How do you know we're not taking it for your own good?"
"Please, when has a Goa'uld ever tried to actually help humans? When you steal something it's always for your own personal gain."
"Killing the Wraith is also something you would like."
"We would like that, but I still don't trust you. I'd rather have the ZPM here to protect Atlantis when the Wraith finally figure out we're back."
Vulcan raised his gun at Lydia. He shot in air just as Ronon tackled him to the ground. Lydia fell to the ground, hearing the bullet fly past her ear. She sat up just as Ronon pulled the gun out of Vulcan's hand. She stunned him, the man unconsciously going limp. Ronon and Lydia sat there for a minute, catching their breath.
"We got him Rodney." Lydia said over the radio. "Get a team down here with cuffs and someone to replace the ZPM."
-…-
The next night, John sat in a bed in the infirmary. He was immediately wheeled into surgery when the medical team had made it to Teyla and him. Now he was bored just lying in bed with his right arm in a sling.
"Well, well, look who's up." Lydia said pulling a chair over to his bed.
"Hey, Barkova, heard you almost got shot, too."
"Yeah, heard it fly past my ear. Thankfully Ronon saved me."
"What happened with the Goa'uld?"
"They were all sent back to Earth so they could be taken to the Tok'ra. It'll probably be about two weeks before they can all return. I sent Zoe with them to debrief everyone. General Landry is testing everyone at Stargate Command just to make sure there are no Goa'uld there."
"How's Dr. Keller?"
"She's fine, sleeping in a bed on the other side of the infirmary. Rodney's been with her ever since this ended."
"So, who's in charge with Woolsey gone?"
"I am actually." Lydia said with a smirk. "What about you? How long are you gonna be out?"
"Doc said I'll be in the sling for at least four weeks, probably five. Then I have to wait two more weeks until I can go back on missions."
"Hmm, seven weeks without Sheppard. I think I'm going to like this." Lydia said.
John glared as Lydia began to laugh.
"What do you have there?" John asked pointing to a bag she had next to her.
"Oh, yeah, you never finished teaching me how to play chess."
Lydia pulled a chess set out of the bag and placed it beside John on the bed.
"Unless you don't think you can with one hand."
"If I can beat Rodney blindfolded, I can teach you with one hand."
"Yeah, but you cheated that time. You didn't tell Rodney you could see through that scarf."
"What he doesn't know won't kill him. Now let's see if you remember where the pieces go."
John taught Lydia everything she needed to know about chess. They even played a game well into the night when most of the nurses had gone to bed. John would never tell her that he let her win.
A/N: Hope you guys liked the chapter :)
"checkmate" - just got the idea for the title after writing the first couple sentences
