Rodney and Jim went directly to the infirmary for a check up. Ian hesitated at the embarkation room with Jack and Sam – and Hunt.
"Do you have any teams due back?" Ian asked Hunt, looking over his shoulder at the Gateship. There was room for people to come down the ramp if needed, but not much more than that, and if Hunt had any large groups of people out, there could be a problem if they needed to return in a hurry.
The general shook his head.
"Not for a while." He turned and looked up at the control room – and the technician at the dialing computer. "Dial Atlantis, please."
Ian separated from the others and headed for the control room. This was definitely a call he needed to make.
OOOOOOOOOOO
River Hayden was in the control center when alarms suddenly blared from all directions and the shield that protected the city from unauthorized access came up automatically. He looked over at the Airman who was manning operations at the moment, and the man looked down at his screen immediately, typing for a moment before looking up.
"We're receiving an audio signal from Earth," he reported.
Hayden nodded, wondering if he should call in Cassie, just in case it was about Ian. He didn't like the thought of getting her hopes up for what could just be a weather report or something equally mundane, however, so decided to wait and see what it was.
"Let's hear it."
"Atlantis, this is Stargate Command," the voice said. "Stand by for Colonel Brooks."
River grinned, slapping the Airman on the shoulder.
"Call Dr. Brooks up here, will you?"
"Yes, sir."
The Airman smiled, too, just as relieved, and tapped his com unit, while River reached over his shoulder and tapped the city's communications panel.
"Stargate Command, this is Atlantis. What's Colonel Brooks' condition?"
"I'm tired and hungry," came the reply – and there was no denying that New York drawl, which made River smile even broader. "Where's Cassandra?"
"She's on her way," River reported. "Are you coming home?"
"Not yet." And now he could hear that Ian was annoyed as well as tired. "It won't be long, though."
A motion at one of the entrances to the control center drew Hayden's attention and he smiled a greeting to Cassie, who was slightly out of breath from sprinting up.
"Hold on a second, Ian. Cassie's here."
She smiled, relieved, and walked over to the computer.
OOOOOOOOO
Jack and Sam had joined Chelani and McKay in the infirmary, leaving Ian to the relative privacy of the control room to make his call to Cassie. McKay was bursting to tell them about how he – with a little help from Chelani – had managed to find Ian on the very first try. He had just finished explaining how they'd been received by the people in the alternate reality when Ian walked in, looking a little less tense and gracing them all with a slight smile.
"How's Cass?" Jack asked.
"Relieved," came the answer, as Janet joined them in the main room and waved Ian over to the examination table beside Rodney's. "She sounded tired, though, so let's make this as quick as possible, please."
It was a pretty well calculated comment, since Janet would be concerned about Cassie, too, and might actually get him out of there within a half hour or so.
"We can debrief here if you want," Jack told him as Hunt came over as well.
"That's fine."
While the medical staff checked him, Rodney and Chelani out for any kind of anomaly that might prove dangerous to those on Earth – and Atlantis – the three of them (mostly McKay) filled them in on the events of the past few days. The whole alternate reality thing was interesting, but what interested Jack the most was the same thing that had taken Ian by surprise as well.
The Ancients that hadn't abandoned Atlantis.
"You're sure they were Ancients?" Jack asked.
Ian nodded.
"I recognized more than one of them."
"And you told them about the Wraith virus?"
"Yeah."
"Because…?"
"The sooner they kill the Wraith, the better, as far as I'm concerned," Ian replied.
McKay nodded his agreement with that statement. Of course, he and Ian lived in Atlantis, and were constantly under the threat of the Wraith – unlike Earth, since the Wraith had never managed to make it that far. Not yet, anyway.
"Not to mention, they'll be able to help those guys with their Goa'uld problem," Rodney added. "I wish we had them here."
"Of course, we'd never have been able to colonize Atlantis if they were here," Ian pointed out. "But they will make a huge difference there, I think."
"If they really are who you think they are."
Jack was automatically suspicious, but that was the way he was. If something seemed too good to be true, it almost certainly was.
"They're legit, Jack," Ian told him, confidently.
"If they had designs on Earth or some other idea, they never would have given us the ZedPMs," McKay added.
"Or the Gateships," Chelani said, unable to keep from joining the conversation.
"For that matter, they would have recognized Ian as an informational goldmine and tried harder to keep him," McKay said.
"They probably realized they'd never been able to afford to feed him," Janet put in, giving her son in law an affectionate smile.
Ian grinned, and Sam looked over at McKay.
"So you guys told them everything?"
Rodney nodded.
"We even made a copy of the data on our laptops for the Sam there to have."
"And you don't think that was a little dangerous?"
Ian shook his head, but it was Rodney who spoke.
"Would you have done differently?" he asked. "Knowing that you could have given them even a little extra help in the fight against the Goa'uld, or the Wraith – or one of the other crazy out for power races out there that we've run into in the last twenty years or so – would you have left without giving them every tool you could? Every weapon?"
Ian knew from her expression that she wanted to say yes, but he also knew that she would have been lying.
"We did what we thought was right," he said, shrugging. "I'd do it the same way again if we had to do it over again."
Jack nodded, looking thoughtful but not annoyed.
"That's all we need for now, Ian," he said. "You can write me a report on it when you get a chance, but for now, you need to get home – and so do we."
Ian couldn't agree more. He looked over at Janet, who nodded as well.
"We're done here. Get something to eat when you get home, and then get some sleep."
"I will."
"You, too, McKay," Janet added, giving Rodney a stern look.
McKay snorted.
"Are you kidding? When I get home I'm going to find the biggest sandwich – or maybe a roast or something and then I'm going to sleep for a week."