Fate's Fickle Humor
A/N: I know this has been a long time coming and I apologize, I just couldn't seem to get this chapter to cooperate. I'm still not completely happy with it, but here it is anyway. Please review!
Chapter 10: Unwelcome Answers
John swallowed hard against the lump that suddenly took up residence in his throat, history's pattern as clear in his mind as any math equation.
"No Colonel O'Neill meant no General O'Neill to grant me spur of the moment clearance. That's why everything is different here!"
In some strange backhanded way, the realization eased his conscience a bit. Without him, Atlantis and the Pegasus Galaxy appeared to be at least as screwed as with him! The Wraith were even awake... and they had lost Atlantis.
"Sheppard!"
Rodney's sharp rebuke made him aware that he'd been speaking out loud some things that certain people probably shouldn't have heard. The scientist rolled his eyes at his friend.
"If you're done with the 'Wonderful Life' moment, I'd like to know what happened to the city! I thought the plan had always been to take the control crystal with us and destroy the place, not leave it!"
Elizabeth flushed, head darting nervously around to look anywhere but at them. The move was so uncharacteristic for the normally unflappable leader that John found himself staring at her in horror. This was just- wrong.
"Disconcerting, isn't it? If you're wondering if history would be better off without you, I think you just got a pretty clear answer."
John flinched a bit at the soft voice in his ear, turning to find that Daniel had settled against the wall next to him. The archaeologist gave him a slight smile, daring him to contradict the statement with a cock of the head. What was really disconcerting was how well the man read him though they'd barely met before, though the colonel didn't say that to him.
"Yeah." Mouth suddenly dry, he swallowed hard. "I know that, Dr. Jackson. What did happen here, anyway?"
The last he addressed to the city's leader, who finally sighed and settled to the floor with the cautious movements of someone accustomed to pain every time they moved.
"The Wraith is what happened. Without a ZPM or any effective defenses, we really couldn't put up much of a fight, especially since they have ships. We found some here that the Ancients must have used, but we didn't have anyone who could really get them to fly. As for Earth, as far as we can tell, there isn't anything to go back to, that's why the crystal was destroyed. Just before the Wraith came, we had our only contact with Earth since coming here- a short message. 'Earth is lost. The Ori-' The wormhole cut out, but we decided the message was clear enough."
BAM!
The sharp sound of flesh impacting metal had them all jumping, straining their eyes toward the source through the darkness. A flashlight clicked on to illuminate Cam, standing near the far wall, carefully shaking the hand he'd obviously just used to punch the solid barrier. O'Neill made a quiet noise of annoyance deep in his throat while John winced, understanding his friend's frustration.
"Breaking your hand won't help anything, you know."
Daniel's soft statement earned a snort of disgust and dirty look from Mitchell.
"Yeah, thanks for that news flash, Jackson. The bastards couldn't get past us in the present, so they changed the past. How the hell can we possibly fix this? Can't play the game if they keep screwin' with the rules! Even if we manage to send SG-1 back to the right time, what's to stop the Ori from just having the Priors kill them?"
"The same thing that forced them to use such an elaborate trap to get SG-1 in the first place- the Ancients."
Daniel shrugged, a smile playing on his face. Clearly, he knew more than he was telling them, and John doubted his team mates, past and present, had missed that little fact. Everyone, however, was staring at him in various stages of confusion and annoyance. Finally, Carter broke the silence.
"Daniel, you said it yourself on Abydos. The Ascended aren't allowed to interfere!"
"That only applies if they're actually caught at it, Sam." Now the archaeologist was openly grinning. "Do it quietly enough, like, say, just talk to someone, or fiddle with a machine so it works instead of exploding..."
Stunned silence, then-
"Daniel!"
Several voices overlapped in varying degrees of anger and exasperation. John just leaned back against the wall with a groan, realizing that the man had basically admitted to setting the whole thing up. This wouldn't be going over well with McKay, he was certain of that.
"You- you- Ancient Egyptian! I should have known! That damn tablet was planted! How could you do that to me?!"
The colonel's head began throbbing in time to the regular high pitches in Rodney's rant, not that the officer was inclined to stop him. Why hadn't Daniel just come to Elizabeth and him, told them the problem? Why the phony tablet and fake mission? Daniel was raising his hands as if to ward off physical blows as multiple voices and arguments overlapped, but no one was really paying much attention.
"Enough!" O'Neill's sharp bark overrode everyone, quiet once again descending on the small space. "They could probably hear the lot of you in the Gate room, sound proof walls or not. Now, let the man tell us what's going on."
That was as much an order to Daniel as to the others. The archaeologist, however, just shrugged off his friend's glare.
"It wasn't intentional. Well, at least not now it wasn't. I- uh. I didn't think I had much of a choice at the time since they were planning on the explosion killing all of you, then kinda didn't remember until now. Sorry."
Well, at least he looked contrite! Plus he'd saved SG-1's lives so they had a chance to reverse this, so none of them could really say much.
"Fine. Whatever. Don't do it again." O'Neill flapped a hand in the direction of the younger man, dismissing the apology, though the glare quite clearly told everyone Jack would have some choice words for his friend later. "Let's talk about recon on our guests, shall we? Colonel Sheppard?"
Sheppard straightened, accepting the colonel's redirect with a wry grin.
"Right. Ronon, Teyla, I'd like you to take Colonel Mitchell and Colonel O'Neill, do a little recon to see how hard its going to be to get to the gate. Don't engage them unless there's absolutely no choice, since right now we have the element of surprise and I'd prefer to keep it."
John looked pointedly at Ronon when he said that, having already noted the large man's tendency to go straight through any obstacle unless specifically ordered not to. So far, the man had become an indispensable addition to his team, but Ronon's habit of shoot first, last, and often needed to be checked. The Satedan scowled, but gave a reluctant nod, acknowledging the order. The Atlantis colonel wasn't happy about sending O'Neill in his place, but with these unpredictable waves of pain he'd been suffering, there really wasn't a choice. Mitchell, however, looked less than pleased with his colleague's orders.
"Why O'Neill? I thought we were trying to limit the amount of the base SG-1 saw?"
Rodney immediately rolled his eyes at the other colonel, answering in a 'idiot' tone before John could.
"The ATA gene's a bit necessary for you to be able to get back in here, remember? I don't do all that soldier stuff, neither does Carson, and having Sheppard fall on his face again the minute he gets around working Ancient technology would work real well, so O'Neill's the only option left. Unless you've miraculously gained the gene? No? Didn't think so."
A shock running through him, John met Carson's eyes, realizing that Rodney was right.
"Every time I'm around Ancient technology... It was the gate activating that caused the last one! Some side effect of the machine malfunctioning when SG-1 came?"
The doctor shook his head, though he looked thoughtful.
"I can't be sure, son, but from what Ms. Emmagen told me, its possible. How are you feeling now?"
"Fine, just a bit sore and tired. Headache."
John shrugged, shooting Rodney a warning look before the scientist could begin making cracks about his team leader's loose interpretation of the word 'fine'. O'Neill caught the expression and snorted.
"Stay here and rest, colonel. I'm sure we'll be fine, and, hey, maybe they aren't even enemies out there. Come on, kids, let's go."
TBC...