The Ascension War; New Birth
Chapter 21; Fly Like An Eagle...
Time keeps on slippin', slippin', slippin'
Into the future
Time keeps on slippin', slippin', slippin'
Into the future
John entered his quarters, Teyla was waiting for him, "Heya sweetie" he said when he saw her, taking her into a tight hug. He held her a few moments. He seemed tired, as if ready to crash where he stood.
She held him for a few moments. "Is something wrong, John?" She asked him.
"No, nothing wrong, just tired, been overworked." John said, he was telling the truth, mostly, he seemed a bit confused though about this new operation
But he could never get anything past his wife. Nothing. "John." It was the way she said his name that made him tell his mind, and strangely, never get slapped for it. "Tell me."
"I'm not sure if it'll work. Snowmane's working with Rodney now on something, last I saw was Snowmane in Rodney's lab, but no Rodney. It was weird." How could a mission work that required Rodney, work without Rodney? Where had Rodney gone exactly anyhow for that matter.
"It will work." Teyla said softly. John sat down on the sofa in their room, pulling Teyla down to the sofa with him. She landed in his lap, "What makes you think it wont?" She asked hugging him tightly.
"I don't know, " John admitted, He felt the mission was going to be first a waste of time, and worse, a waste of people. "I guess I just have a bad feeling about it." He then said. He couldn't say much more, he was clueless of what else to mention
"You don't trust them?" Them being the Felinus people they had met almost two years before when they came across a seven foot tall feline woman, Teyilia, scrounging around for food on a Genii world. Teyla was the only one of the team at the time who had taken the feline in. Ronon held something of respect for the seven foot tall feline woman. But Teyla became her first friend in Atlantis, possibly her only friend. Possibly her only friend for the first few months, it was not until that mirror incident when the whole team was worried for her life when she went to that other earth.
"I trust you. And if you trust them, So I will too, I just can't help but feel a bad feeling about the mission" John said, it was true, the more he thought on it, the more worse he felt. Maybe a good sleep would be of help. He had a silly look on his face. "C'mere sweetheart I like you." She gave off a yelp and landed in his lap.
I want to fly like an eagle
To the sea
Fly like an eagle
Let my spirit carry me
I want to fly like an eagle
Till I'm free
Oh, Lord, through the revolution
"This plan has to work, Minarva, you know that don't you?" Teyilia asked a purple skinned woman, a Night Elf as the race had been called by the Wraith. Distant cousins of another faction.
"Don't worry, all the intelligence we have on the Robotical menace I uploaded personally into that hand device, including Layla's base codec as well." Minarva stood at exactly seven feet thre inches tall. Taller then even Ronon. But somehow, more formidable. She'd never forget that first meeting that she had with the Sedaten. Took nearly three others of her race and nine Felinus to keep Ronon and her from going into an all out fist fight.
"And Snowmane?" Teyilia asked, Snowmane was the main person to help Layla get used to humans again, as it had been a few thousand years or so since the last User had entered the Pattern, the Felinus though have been there many a time. So much that many of their own had transffered there ot live the remainder of their lives.
"She's in the Pattern now, She said something of trying to locate Layla to inform her of the plan." Minarva replied, she held up a ruby like device in one hand, data streamed across it. "It appears she has found Layla. The news is good, Layla will accompany the team as long as Snowmane goes with them."
"Lets hope she wants to do it, otherwise it'll be a dead mission for certain." Teyilia said thoughtfully. She traded looks with the Night Elf woman, "Do you think the Council would like it?"
"Can't say for sure." Minarva replied. "Knowing the council like we do, its possible they might have to vote on it." Minarva hated politics. To the point where she had to figure out a way to survive without having to work to ignore it. Which had her ending up in the most remote space stations, and shipyards. At least until Snowmane was found by those of Atlantis six months before, which was how the Felinus people, Night Elves and felines alike, had learned Atlantis once again flew.
"Then let us hope they vote in our favor." Teyilia said. Yeah, like the Council would gladly vote in favor of going on the mission. Oddly enough the council voted in favor of the mission. Which made Teyilia wonder if the council had some of John Sheppards Beer.
Feed the babies
Who don't have enough to eat
Shoe the children
With no shoes on their feet
House the people
Livin' in the street
Oh, oh, there's a solution
John arrived in Rodney's lab, only Rodney was there, unlike the last time when there was nobody in there and the door was sealed by Rodney's personal code. But now only Rodney was in there, he was downloading something to a handheld device. "So, any last words before we go?" John said when he arrived, sure he was a General, but he still liked to go with his team. Besides, it worked best. Everyone still thought him a colonel.
"What do you mean?" Rodney asked, he was multitasking apparently, his radio going off about technobabble that would make Sam wonder what was going on, the computer took in data, and whatever Snowmane had rigged up was depowering as she herself hit the closet door like a Toyota Prius without brakes.
"This mission going to work or not?" John asked putting a hand to the bridge of his nose, this was going to be a long day, for all he cared people hitting closet doors only made things slightly worse. "I think I figured something out about you, Rodney"
"What do you mean?" Rodney asked, his attention focused on the handheld device as a program showed a green bar, fully downloaded.
"I think I am starting to see a pattern in the women you date." John said, earning himself a dark look from Rodney, and if looks could kill the daggers shot at him from Snowmane herself made him smile. When Rodney made to move towards Sheppard John said, "I think I'm going to see my doctor, I'll be back by to get you guys for the mission, if the council agrees"
"They will agree, when they hear that I spoke to the Program in the Pattern myself face to face, even taking Rodney into the Pattern with me to do so. The Council will agree" John just waved off Snowmane as he left, he had little need to get himself emboriled with the affairs of a cat and a human.
John arrived in the medical area shortly there after, "So doc, how's things?" He said to Carson
"Not bad, not too good either. From what I hear of this whole Pattern thing, it might be deadly." Carson replied. He h adn't seen inside the pattern before, so he was just guessing.
"Well, if it is I might need a new doctor." John said. Just as Radek entered, Carson spoke up.
"General Sheppard, allow me to introduce your new doctor." Carson said in a scarasic way. Radek had a 'what?' look on his face
John took it in stride, turning to Radek, apparently lack of sleep was getting to the guy lately. John thrust out his hand, saying "Dr Windbag I presume"
"Well blow me down" Radek said in stride taking John's hand with a confused look to Carson, who just shook his head as if to say, Don't ask. John then fainted to the floor. With John clean out on the floor at his feet, Radek asked, "What was that all about?"
"I knocked him out with a sedative, tomorrows mission and its worries had me up to here with him and his worries" Carson said making a motion to his neck of how fed up he had gotten. "Lets get him onto a bed, it'll taper off soon." The two men lifted John onto a medical bed to sleep off the sedative.
I want to fly like an eagle
To the sea
Fly like an eagle
Let my spirit carry me
I want to fly like an eagle
Till I'm free
Fly through the revolution
"So, you actually got your Judges to agree?" John asked as the two Felinus arrived onboard the Bane's bridge. John was starting to think that if the pair did not show up, the plan was off. But apparently the plan was still on. The holographic table flickered to life as the Night
Minarva nodded, Teyilia just held her head in her hands. Seemingly in a daze. "Yes" the Night Elf replied, the purple hued seven foot tall woman had seen many a sleepless night herself and looked ready to collapse where she stood. "The Council voted in favor of the mission when they heard that the combat program wanted to help anyway. There is no telling the word no to a combat ready program.".
"So we're doing the mission?" John pressed for a simple answer.
"Yes." Minarva said at last. "You are doing the mission, Snowmane is going with you." Ok that complicated things, slightly at best. At Johns looked Minarva explained as simple as she could. "The program that will aid you on this mission into a Cylonii held location trusts Snowmane, and has yet to meet with any of you in person."
"And how do we do that?" Do what exactly, was written all over John's face. At Minarva's questioning look John rephrased his question, "How do we meet this Program?" Minarva smiled, seeing a Night Elf smile was a scary thing indeed, the purple skinned woman was the same hight as Teyilia or Snowmane, maybe taller, and just with a pistol on her hip, and a strange looking dagger on her left leg made her scary enough for John to keep his distance as much as possible. Now why was Teyilia facepalming?
Teyilia answered both questions at once, first the unasked question, "Minarva, sit down before you fall down will ya? John, the council wants you and your team to go into the Pattern when the mission is completed to meet the Combat Program, Layla. Until then, Layla will remain in the handheld device used by Rodney."
"And the mission objectives?" Somehow John liked having a step by step objectives list.
"Enter the basestar at the planets surface, download Layla into their datastream, let her do as much damage as she can, then extract her back into the handheld device. Then get out of the basestar before it gets blasted sky high." A simple mission, wait, blasted sky high? John did not like the sound of that...
Oh well, a mission was a mission.
Time keeps on slippin', slippin', slippin'
Into the future
Time keeps on slippin', slippin', slippin'
Into the future
Time keeps on slippin', slippin', slippin'
Into the future
Time keeps on slippin', slippin', slippin'
Into the future
"How long's this gonna take?" John asked, it was already several days to a month since the Bane successfully fended off three basestars, and then some. Now they had gone back to the planet. The team of four moved around the basestar, The team consisted of Teyla, John, Rodney, and Snowmane. The seven foot tall feline woman stalked ahead, she carried a small handheld computer like item. Rodney had his touchscreen computer on his back, the map readout in the handheld that John carried.
"It all depends on where the datanode is located. All basestars have one somewhere," Snowmane said as the four looked about at a three way fork going in four different directions. Rodney looked to his map system at the same time John looked at his.
"There looks to be a dataport about fifty meters from here." Rodney said. "No lifesigns though, are you sure this thing is set to find those, cylon things?" He asked the seven foot tall white furred feline creature. It was hard for Rodney to not keep his eyes off her. Her knoweldge of machinery, and other things made her even more likeable to the Canadian.
"Yes, I had my cousin set it, after all , she spent many a day with them as a prisoner" Snowmane replied, When she had heard that Rodney liked computers and wanted to get into the Felinus machines to 'poke around and see what information about them they could get after a first meeting' had at first made the seven foot tall feline on edge, but when he said he wanted only to see what made them be who they were in terms of technology, and after he mentioned the Asgard, not to mention the Asgard and Felinus made starship, The Wraith's Bane, was under the command of John Sheppard, did she allow Rodney McKay into one of the Felinus machines. Allowing him to not only skim the files of their history, but go even deeper into the Pattern. Rodney had the time of his life.
"Forget the lifesigns and focus, where's the datanode?" John asked to Snowmane, the sooner they found the thing the better. He was on edge and ready to go home. "Forty meters, first door on the... right." Snowmane replied. She still had yet to thank Dr Beckett for his help in healing her after that Genii raid. Thankfully Beckett's drug of revert for the Wraith worked wonders, and stuck, thankfully before the Genii tried to do a Wraith Feeding Sessional.
"Lets go" John said leading the way, he found the door, no enemies so far. The door opened without a sound, "Oh boy." He said after taking one step forwards. "That's the datanode?" He asked poiting towards what looked like a simple boxlike computer screen ontop of something else that looked like a car trunk.
Snowmane shook her head, "No that's just the accessport," she said, she pointed downwards, "That's the datastream itself the node is hooked up to. Once we have the program uploaded to their system, we're in complete control." John just stared, it was three hundred meters straight to the torqurise field down below. That was a long way down. "Lets get this overwith." John said moltioning for Rodney and Snowmane to go towards the datanode while he and Teyla followed, "What is it with these people and hights?" He wondered aloud.
Snowmane went right to the panel and started typing, a moment passed and the top slid open. "We're in." She said, a second later a silent alarm blared and thje lid sealed itself. Snowmane swore in her native langauge before saying, "Catdamnit! The system detected my stolen codec. We can get it, but we need that open and the panel's gone." The panel had gone black, she pointred to the silver accessport the size of a manhole cover.
"I can fix that." Rodney said laying on his back, the catwalk was only two meters at its widest point around the node he slid under the panel and took out a few wires, cossed them, and a moment of sparks, the panel lit back to full life. "That did it, we're in." Snowmane said. She started typing to open the sealed lid of the datanode.
John spotted movement outside what appeared to be a window. "John" Teyla said quietly, He and Teyla got their weapons ready. "I see it too." He said, he called over to the pair at the datanode. "How long is this going to take?"
"Nine minutes." Came the reply of a seven foot tall white feline on too much red bull. "What if we don't have nine minutes?" John pressed, things were going downhill rather fast. "Then we'd have to figure out how to go down three hundred meters to upload the program directly into the datastream, why?" Rodney said working alongside Snowmane to get into the sealed lid.
"'Cause I seriously doubt that we have nine minutes." John replied. What seemed to be dozens of hundreds of Cylons were seen 'outside' the room, as if a glass wall had been set up out of nowhere. Rodney would have fainted if it weren't for the seven foot tall Feline woman who's tail he had a iron grip on."My God" Rodney said quietly at the sight of all the metal heartless steel machines moving towards them, climing upwards. "They're going to..." He started to say before glass shattered and dozens of Cylons fell upon them from dozens of meters above.
"Time to go!" John shouted opening fire, two Cylons exploded in midair. Teyla kept the door clear. Dozens of the things fell from above. As more climbed upwards. "Doors open people lets go! Rodney! Snowmane lets move it!"Snowmane went back to typing into the panel, until one of the Cylons fired at it, making explode, "That's it! No more nice cat!" She went crazy, she grabbed upwards, "Get away, you bother me!" She hissed as she shoved the robot off the side, unslinging her pistol, she fired shots of what appeared to be pink colored energy, they lanced into her enemies. Two more fell. "Rodney! I have an idea, open that lid!"
"I can't the thing is fried." Rodney said, taking out his pistol and opening fire on the nearest Cylon, it fell with a single shot to the head. "Hook up the hand deivce!" Snowmane shrieked as she shot down another Cylon, John headed closer to his wife. "When you have your hand device hooked up you can access the main datastream!" She shouted over the gunfire. "Access the datastream? Its 300 meters down! How can I access it from uphere?" Rodney yelled back, he then saw her plan, with John and Teyla providing a clear way to the door, and Snowmane provding him enough cover, they could make it. He hoped. "Good plan, cover me!" Rodney slid away his gun and withdrew the hand deivce that held the combat program, labled as Layla. How Teyilia was able to get the program to agree to doing the attack was beyond Rodney. All that mattered was getting the Program loaded into the Cylon's systems.
With gunfire and laserfire only inches from him he dropped to the ground and shimmed under the datanode, he hooked up his hand device, a minute passed and he was seeing the words used by the Cylons scrolling past his eyes, he typed a few commands, a minute more and he'd be in. "I'm in! Whoa!" He yelled when a lasershot got too close, he could feel the heat against his leg. "There's a human down here!" he yelled to Snowmane.
"Tell that to them!" Snowmane said, she fired some more. Rodney typed one more command, Layla was uploaded, the words on his hand device said simply 'I'm in' He smiled, perfect, he typed a few words into the touch screen, Layal replied 'I can handle things from here, Let me infect the mainstream first, it'll go red momentarliy.' A few seconds later words scrolled across the screen, 'Eject me.' The bluegreen datastream had changed from blue green to dark nearly blood red, "Its time to go guys, what we wanted to do is done, can we go now?"
"Good plan!" John yelled, he threw a grenade, the thing went off, opening a door for them to get out. "Doors open lets go!" The group took off, leaving the boiling energy of the datastream behind them. The group took a hard right then had to dive behind cover as gunfire exploded all around them. "Rodney, give me your combat knife" John said, he took a mirror out of his pocket. Learning on the job helped. Rodney handed over his knife. John hooked the mirror onto the blade tip and leaned it out the corner a bit. "Looks like two G43's, a 88, and a pair of 32s" He said.
Rodney pretty much knew what that meant, but Snowmane beat him to it. "It's a Catdamned firing squad." She growled. Clearly iritated at these robot creatures. "Can you give me some covering fire so I can get close to them to do some damage." She said, John nodded, she got into a running stance, ready to take off like a rocket. "On three, Ready ?" John asked, Snowmane nodded, John took his weapon, he'd have to be fast. He failed to notice Rodney typing into his hand device to Layla about something. "One, two, three! Move!" He didn't have to say it twice, Snowmane was around the corner, shooting, rolling and running. All but climing the walls as she got closer to the robot creations. After a moment of yelling and shooting, Snowmane called out. "Clear"
"Why don't we just go ahead and hand out blindfolds, Sheppard?" Rodney retorted seeing the carnage that Snowmane had done, she was holding her side, apparently one of them had gotten in a hit. Rodney noticed the wound, "You're hit." "Yeah, one of them got me, I'll be fine though, if Layla did as programmed to, we need to get out of here as fast as we can. Lets go." Gunfire erupted as she spoke, forcing her to duke back around the corner next to Rodney, "Don't they ever give us a break?" She asked to Rodney.
"That isn't Cylons, that's Lorne's team!" John said, Teyla nodded, yeah, that sounded like P90s, not rockets. "What is he doing here?" None could answer before the door blew open and Lorne's voice called through, "Thunder!" John smiled. "Flash." He said, Lorne lowered his weapon and entered the hallway the team found themselves in. "Nice of you to show up. What kept you?" John had a snarky look on his face, it was all Snowmane could do to keep from laughing.
"Dr Weir said you'd need backup. Told us to wait half a day then come after you. Glad we did, otherwise you'd have been blasted to bits on your way out." Lorne replied. "Good to have the company Lorne, shall we get going, we need a medic." John said. "I'll be fine" Snowmane growled. The last thing she wanted was to see a medic, unless it was Carson. "You sure?" Snowmane nodded stiffly as Rodney wrapped her arm with the provided bandage from one of Lornes teammates. "Lets get going while the getting's good." John said, "Lorne, lead the way."
Lorne nodded, "This way ladies and gentlemen, easier way out of here is to simply follow the bodies." He said with a hint of humor, only Snowmane smiled. The trek out was not as easy as it appeared, Cylonii had found their location and had begun trying to cut off other routes of escape. Thankfully enough they had made it to the open air, Lorne got on his radio, "Dr Rush this is Lorne, We've located General Sheppard and his team, ready for beam out."
"Copy that Colonel, beaming you in five." Came Rush's voice, a few seconds passed at the two teams beamed away to the Bane's bridge. Just as a group of six Cylonii appeared and fired their weapons at the spot where both teams had once stood. Out in space the Bane left its place in orbit of the planet as the lone basestar's main engines went critical, the planet was doubtlessly cracked when the explosion happened, sending volcanic ash into the air that soon shrouded the planet.
"Lets head for a unknown planet and use the gate to get home. I got a mission report to write up." John said as he entered the bridge of the Bane as it traveled through hyperspace. The ship did an amazing job in keeping off the enemy fighters a few weeks before when they first encountered the strange robotical creatures.
"Right, mission reports, why did you have to remind me that I love writing those?" Rodney said in a snarky tone of voice that made John simply point in his direction and ask.
"Why... do I not believe you?" Rodney didn't answer. John took his seat at the bridge. "Remind me to give Lorne a pay bouns on showing up rather right on time."
"Yeah sure, why not?' Rodney said going to the massive holographic map and started looking for a planet to use to dial to Atlantis. The only thing he found was a random spacegate near to a binary system. John went with it and had the Bane head in that direction, Wraith core to be visited for sure. As the spacegate was in a Wraith breeding area. Rodney found the proper address and headed to the gateroom one level below the bridge.
I want to fly like an eagle
To the sea
Fly like an eagle
Let my spirit carry me
I want to fly like an eagle
Till I'm free
Fly through the revolution
The gate shut down, Weir came down the steps from the control room. "Sheppard, did it work?" She called out seeing that the four that arrived were Teyla, John, Rodney and Snowmane. But why had they come through the gate and not on the Bane? "Yeah, it worked. Rodney'll tell you about it" John said trying to catch his breath. As if they had been running.
The first words out of Rodney's mouth were, "Next time I want to go into a pattern that is not Felinus made, someone stun me!" He said, "Whooo, what a trip." He looked back at the now off gate. Yeah, if nearly killing his own team was a good plan, at least it got them out of there.
"Be happy that Snowmane kept you from going into a non felinus database." John retorted. What a mission, they had succeeded in getting the combat program onboard the Basestar, but what good did it do? Dr Weir looked at Rodney, "Did you?" She started to ask. Rodney shook his head no, thankfully he had not gone that far.
"If it weren't for Lornes timely arrival I'd have gone in." Rodney said, and he would have, but thankfully he did not have such a need to go, Lorne had arrived in time.
John spoke up, "I seriously doubt their data systems, if they had any, are anything like the Pattern the Furlings use" The glare thrown at him from Rodney for getting the race name dead wrong made him shut up for just a heeartbeat before saying to Weir, "Mission, so far, accomplished. I'm going to bed. Wake me up if anything bad happens or if we hear anything from the Bane"
John left, Weir turned to Rodney, "What happened, I take it the mission was a success?" She asked him, hearing only bits and pieces from radio broadcasts. Whatever the robotical creatures were, they sure put a crack into their homeworld.
"Well, as far as we know, the place is destroyed, as was the original plan of attack." Rodney said, he took out his laptop, showing their mission objectives as all in the clear and marked as completed. "As far as I know, Lalya did her thing, infected several key systems and caused the nuclear plasma drive of the starship, if that was what the thing even was. To go critical. We managed to get out of the system before the planet core went supernova. As far as we knoe even the planet is gone." He sighed
"Mission accomplished then?" Weir pressed, she saw how Rodney acted around Snowmane, who was now being tended to by Carson as she sat on the floor, her back up against a small pillar near the control room stairs. Rodney nodded.
"Yeah, but not without injuries though, Snowmane took a hit to the arm and shoulder pretty bad." Rodney said as Carson did a fast once o ver for the wound. Weir could see the concern Rodney had for the Feline woman. "as far as we know, at least until Snowmane or Teyilia enter the Pattern, Layla did her side of the mission. Nothing followed us on the Bane to where he gated from." Weir nodded.
"Good, a mission finished, until further notice, I want you to take some time off and try to relax." Weir said to Rodney, who just nodded, it was hard to relax in Pegasus, but he did not voice that thought as he took a coke from a nearby airman who held out the drink to him, draining it before he knew what he just drank. Rodney and coca cola was a bad thing. A very bad thing.
Time keeps on slippin', slippin', slippin'
Into the future
Time keeps on slippin', slippin', slippin'
Into the future