X: Confessions

Doctor Monahan had never the leader of the Atlantis expedition so very, very furious. After all, Meaghan hadn't been there during the Kavanagh Affair (as it had been affectionately dubbed); she hadn't been there during the stand-offs with various military man; she hadn't been there the time that Elizabeth was on Olesia. And, up until now, she had found that her personal own quirks were treated with impressive patience and good-humour. All of which meant, well – to find herself abruptly at the receiving end of a fury that she hadn't even expected existed beneath the woman's calm exterior―?

She had known that Weir would be angry.

But this angry?

Meaghan almost wished that McKay were there because at least seeing him sneer at her discomfort would be familiar. She paused mentally. On the other hand, if he were there then she'd probably have to dig herself a great big old hole and drop herself in it from shame. It was bad enough that she was witness to her own humiliation, without someone who would rib her about it for months doing so as well.

Elizabeth was still yelling. 'Are you telling me that there are humans on this planet? That there are plague-carrying humans here? And that you never saw fit to share this information with me? And you've been off doing what, playing Margaret Mead all this time – for how many weeks?'

The leader paused to draw breath and Meaghan seized the opportunity to break in desperately before she could start again. Men yelling at her she could deal with, Meaghan had grown used to that and could normally ignore it. But women – a shudder ran down her spin. No, yelling women all brought back images of her irate mother and it wasn't pretty. Her mother was a fantastic, loving woman, but when she got riled, she needed a warning sign taped to her forehead that informed the world to Be Afraid – Be Very, Very Afraid.

'They wouldn't hurt us, Doctor Weir,' burst out Meaghan. 'They haven't hurt us. It's not a health risk, if that's what you're worried about. Yes, they are the descendents of the few people who managed to survive the Lantean genocide and, yes, they all carry the plague. But it's not like we thought. What I know now – it makes it even clearer why the Lanteans thought of them when it came to biological warfare, if they knew the whole deal. The Purified – that's what they call themselves – they have the ability to turn it on and off at will. Like... like someone who could give you a cold just because they wanted to. We haven't threatened them – yet – and so they haven't infected us. The Lantean archaeologists, on the other hand – well, they left them alone too at the start. The Purified are a peaceful people, Doctor Weir. They didn't want revenge, even though they knew that it was the Lanteans who almost wiped them out. But they left them in peace – until they found out that the purpose of the Lantean visit was to create a great weapon with the aim of committing genocide again. I know we don't think of killing off the Wraith as genocide in that sense. But the Wraith never came here – I still don't know why – so the Purified don't know them. In their eyes, it was just the Lanteans repeating history with yet another group.'

Elizabeth gazed at her, incredulous. 'Just how much time have you spent with these people?' Then she paused, stared, and then exclaimed, 'That was where you were returning from when we arrived, wasn't it? That's why you were checking for leeches. Because you'd been tramping around in the rainforest with these – these people!'

Meaghan nodded, and her chin jutted out stubbornly. 'Yes, that's where I was. You know, we should actually be thankful that they confronted me and gave me a chance to explain who we were. When they saw the Lantean puddlejumpers they feared the worst and could easily have killed us all.'

Elizabeth's eyes narrowed and she searched the girl's face to try and work out if this was really the whole story now. Eventually she sighed and ran a hand across her forehead, leaning ever so slightly against John who stood, still silent behind her, just to feel him there. Actually, he would dearly have liked to talk, but for the moment he thought he'd better let the women battle it out. He had a feeling it was one of those cases where if he butted in, they might unite against him – cranky women were funny like that. And, in reality, whether Elizabeth acknowledged it or not, John knew that what Meaghan had done was exactly the kind of thing Elizabeth herself would have done. So he kept his mouth shut and, for the moment, just listened.

Meaghan looked relieved to be given the chance to continue talking. She gathered her thoughts. 'I haven't been playing Margaret Mead but—' She caught herself, then almost-grinned and conceded sheepishly, 'Well, perhaps just a little. I know I should have told you, Doctor Weir. I was just concerned that someone would charge in here weapon-toting, and asking stupid questions, and getting these people riled...' She stopped, then added more to herself than to the others, 'It's odd, you know. McKay realised last time you were here that I knew more. I'm actually surprised—' She was frankly surprised that he hadn't said anything to anyone. Perhaps he was human under all that gruff and grump. She glanced back at Elizabeth, then John, and continued hurriedly, 'Anyway. They found me in one of their ruins and demanded to know what our motives were. I explained our curiosity about the bones, and that we were searching for some particular data. That was a few months ago. Since then I've been learning their dialect. It's Ancient, but of course has evolved almost as much as them over time. Doctor Weir, Colonel – you have never met more wonderful, peaceful people. I don't know how many hours I've spent with them but I have never seen them treat anyone with anything but respect. You know, from what I can tell, apparently their society was just like the one in Atlantis at the start, but when it was destroyed they decided to cast off their old ties and create their own kind of community. They've evolved beyond us, Doctor Weir, evolved away from the direction we're heading in. They can do things. Advanced, strange things.'

John smirked and finally couldn't help himself. 'How advanced can they be?' he joked. 'There aren't even any buildings on this planet except the one we're standing in.'

A spark of anger lit the palaeoanthropologist's eyes. 'What is it with that? People don't live in houses and don't drive cars and so they aren't advanced! I would have thought that you'd have seen enough different worlds by now, here in the Pegasus Galaxay, to know that advancement isn't a straightforward line you can judge by Earth standards, or how many MacDonalds they have, or something, Colonel Sheppard. It's like that old chestnut about the Indigenous Peoples in Northern Australia – the Yolngu for example. Everyone always wants to know, why didn't they take up agriculture since they knew about it from the Indonesians and the Papua New Guineans? It never seems to occur to anyone that they might simply not have been interested. Why does materialism equate to advancement?'

Slightly brow-beaten under the onslaught of her diatribe and making a mental note to himself never to ask that in her presence again, John blinked. 'Sorry, stupid question. So, they're advanced. Good for them. But how does this all relate to me getting to the goodies lurking inside that there Ancient Area 51 of mine?'

She shook her head, and pointed at the diagram of the sphere and it's power-source. 'That thing, I've seen it. I obviously never imagined that it was connected in some way with the sphere, I presumed it was a globe. The Purified have it. They've got a few things like that, I think from the archaeologists – they call them their Lantean artefacts. Most of the personal stuff they sent back to Atlantis apparently. I guess that's how the sphere got there. And before you ask, I don't know how they managed to do that without a functioning stargate – we know they didn't use the archaeologists' puddlejumper because one of my team finally found it in the underbrush. Like I said, they can make things happen.' She halted, and then added apologetically, 'I'm sorry, Doctor Weir, but I really doubt they'll give it to you.'

John shrugged, grinned, and patted his sidearm. 'We can be awfully persuasive.'

Meaghan just looked at him a little pityingly. 'You're dreaming, Colonel. There is nothing that you or any of your military mates have that can bother this people. They've come a long way since the Lanteans tried to wipe them out. Doctor Weir, if nothing else, you have to take them seriously. I really wouldn't want them as enemies.'