A/N – So sorry that it took so long to get the rest of this up. That'll teach me to finish a story before posting! :-) Anyway, thanks for all the awesome reviews. I'm glad you like it so far.
Chapter 8
Alarms blared down in the control tower, startling Jennifer out of her fugue state. She'd been gripping the handrail hard for a good couple of minutes, and as she loosened her hand, momentary pain shot through the tendons and bones. A red ridge down the middle of her palm spoke of the intense hold she'd had on the railing. The dizziness had passed, leaving a slight lightheadedness, but she ignored that in favor of finding out what was alarming the city sensors.
What is it, Rodney?" Sam asked, unease underlying the casual question.
"Um, yeah, I was right." There was a moment of silence, and Jennifer hurried down the stairs, not caring that one of them might send her away.
She came around the corner in time to see the three of them – Sam, John, and Rodney – all leaning over one of the consoles. Ronon was leaning up against one of the windows that looked down on the gateroom. The large display to the left was blaring information in Ancient script, red warning symbols flashing along the bottom.
Rodney straightened up and turned to face Sam. "See, there's something coming through." He pointed down at the computer. Then he turned to Chuck. "Can you turn that off? Really annoying."
Chuck obliged and there was a relatively calm moment after the alarm shut off.
"So what, exactly is it?" John tapped a couple of keys on the keyboard.
Rodney swatted his hand away. "I don't know. If you move, I will tell you."
"Fine, I'm moving."
"Gentlemen, can we concentrate, please?" Sam ran a hand through her bangs in frustration.
Both of them shot her a look. Rodney went back to the computer. "It looks like a ship." He held up a hand to forestall John's next question. "I can't tell what ship, or what kind yet, it's not all the way though, but from what the sensors can tell, it's pretty beat up. It's also emitting on a frequency that I've never seen before. Almost on the VHF band, but not quite." He was silent for a moment, thinking. "I'll see what I can do to resolve the differences." He moved quickly to another computer, ousting Chuck from his usual seat.
"Okay, so it's a ship." John turned to Sam. "Do they know we're here? Are they coming here, or what?"
"Well, the fact that they are broadcasting some sort of signal tells me they…"
"Ahha, got it!" Rodney straightened up. "It's a distress call." He typed in a command on his tablet. "It's pretty garbled but I should be able to clean it up. Enough to understand, anyway."
"From who?"
"Still wondering that myself, Mr. 'you think I know everything!'" He hit a button on the keypad and a static-filled image came up on the screen to the left. "There," he said with some pride, "this ought to do. Now," and he turned to John, a sneer on his face, "now we can find out who and what this is."
The static cleared briefly to reveal the face of a man with a definitely worried look. "This…Captain…Fire…ss…Serenity…questing aid, please…spond." The image was still grainy and static cut out most of the words, making it difficult to decipher the message. Jennifer, in her position out of the way, knew though.
The message repeated just as Rodney did something else to clean up the static. The image also resolved more to reveal a man appearing to be on the verge of collapse, face dirty and tense, eyes showing a need for some sort of connection. "This is Captain Malcom Reynolds of the Firefly class transport ship Serenity. We are requesting aid, please respond."
Sam, John, and Rodney all exchanged blank looks. John turned and jerked his head at Ronon in a "come here" gesture.
As Ronon pushed off the window and ambled over, another sensor started beeping.
"Uh, Dr. McKay – a ship just came through the anomaly." Chuck consulted his terminal before adding, "It's heading straight for the planet."
The repeating distress call on the screen moved to the background as a picture of the ship was sent to the display. John looked at Ronon. "Look familiar?" He received a negative shake of the head in reply. So he turned to Sam with a questioning look.
She in turn looked at Rodney. "Can you open a channel to them from this end?" She turned back to the screen and pursed her lips. "We'd better find out what they want before they land on our doorstep."
"Sure." Rodney typed in a command on his datapad. "Okay, you're good to go."
"Transport ship Serenity, we read your distress call. This is Colonel Samantha Carter of Atlantis base. What is the nature of your emergency?"
Relief was visible on the face of the captain. "Oh thank God, we weren't sure there was anyone down there." He ran a hand over his lips. "Uh, we're having engine trouble. We ran into some sort of wormhole that seems to have taken us from where we were. There was some kind of energy discharge that played havoc with our electrical and nav system, creating all kinds of problems."
"Yes, subspace anomaly," Rodney inserted with his usual lack of tact.
"Rodney," John hissed.
The other man stared at Rodney for a moment, face completely blank. "You have a name for it. Well, that's…good, I s'pose. Anyway, we'd be grateful if you'd be able to lend us a parking spot while we get Serenity back in working order." He looked off to the side for a moment. "My engineer tells me it shouldn't take long, just enough patches to get us off the ground and keep us in the air. That whatchamacallit really shook us up."
"We would like to help you out, but before we do that, Captain Reynolds, we need certain assurances that you are friendly and not working for certain elements in this galaxy." Sam had her arms crossed over her chest, and her stance was firm.
The captain had a dumbfounded look on his face. His mouth opened and shut before he could think of anything to say. Jennifer really felt for him but she completely understood Colonel Carter's position. From Sam's point of view anyone and everyone could be a Wraith worshipper or a spy for the Genii, or a…
"What kind of assurances are you looking for? That we aren't Reavers?" He gave a snort of laughter, although the look on Mal's face was anything but amused. "Surely you could tell by scanning my ship and this here civilized conversation we're having."
John, Sam, and Rodney exchanged a perplexed look. John spoke up. "Well, more along the lines that you aren't Wraith worshippers, Asurans, or Genii."
"Or working for Michael," Rodney added sotto voce.
"That we aren't what?" The look on Mal's face was definitely blank and guileless. It was obvious he had no clue to what they were referring.
The three standing in front of the screen looked at each other again, this time to confirm what the others thought - the captain didn't know what they were talking about.
Chuck tapped Rodney on the shoulder. "Dr. McKay, I've been tracking the ship. They are on a course for us, but their descent trajectory is too steep as well as slightly erratic and its speed is far too fast at this point for a safe landing."
As he was speaking, Rodney moved to the work station, Chuck following, and double checked the readings again. He straightened up, announcing in usual McKay doomsday style, "We have a problem."
Sam and John turned toward him, eyebrows raised. On screen, the captain was speaking off mike to someone outside of the frame, gesturing anxiously. There was a shivering along the edges of the still grainy image suggesting serious shaking on the other side.
"He's right." Rodney noticed the eye-rolling said technician was giving him, but ignored it. "If they aren't able to pull up a little and slow down, they'll hit the water like a ton of bricks, never mind actually landing nicely on the East Pier. There is a danger of some structural damage in either scenario."
"So what do we do?" Sam turned back to the screen. "Or rather what do they do? I'm inclined to let them land, if only out of curiosity of where they come from and what contacts they have."
Captain Reynolds turned back to them, face red and apprehensive. "I'm sure you've noticed that we're a little off course here. We're trying to correct it, and Kaylee's working on the engines to slow us down some." He listened to someone off-screen again. "Try the emergency booster then." There was a brief pause. "Gorram it, Jayne, I don't have time for this. Get your ass down to the engine room and help Kaylee then. Get out of Zoe's way." He ran a hand through his hair, making it stand up.
"I think I've got a way to sync their nav system through Atlantis's controls." Rodney came up between John and Sam. "I've been taking a look at their operating system," and he held up his tablet, "trying to find a way to match our to theirs or vise versa. It's very oddly configured, but I think I've got it. That way we can guide them down, kind of like a remote tractor beam."
Sam stared at him for a moment. "Well, do it, then." When Rodney left, she rolled her eyes at John. "I wish he would just do it without all the talk sometimes."
"Yeah, me too," John answered.
Sam addressed the screen. "Captain Reynolds, we are going to sync with your nav system and guide your ship down from here. You will need to slow down your ship, however, enough to safely land on our East Pier."
"We know, and are working on it. I'm grateful that you'll let us land."
"Please understand that there will be security measures, and I hope you don't take it personally. It's very rare that we let anyone in Atlantis anymore." She glanced at John before continuing. "As soon as you're in the atmosphere and on a steady course for us, we'll be providing a jumper escort."
John nodded agreement.
"Completely understand, Colonel. I need to get to my engine room and help out, but I'll keep the channel open. Thanks again."
Sam turned away from the screen as Mal left the camera. "Have Lorne get his team in a couple of jumpers. I want to make sure that ship stays on course."
John nodded, already turning away. "I'll go, too."
"No, John, I need you here, when they land. Organize security teams for the time they are here, watchful but not obviously so."
Ronon straightened up from his slouch. "I can help with that, too."
"I think she just said 'not obvious,' big guy." John grinned and pummeled him on the shoulder. "You can be on the welcoming committee, though." He turned away to the stairs then looked back. "Don't forget to wear that big sword of yours." Then he was bounding out of sight in search of Major Lorne.
"I'm going, too!" Nearly every eye in the control tower turned to Jennifer as she stepped out of the shadows, arms crossed defiantly across her chest. "I want to be there when you meet the crew of Serenity."
