Chapter 63

2008

"Do you think he's here?" Alex whispered and the soft rasp in her voice made him pull her closer again. She leaned her head against his shoulder and as he brushed his hand over her belly, he felt the soft thump beneath her skin as their son kicked.

"You mean the parasite who thinks he's a god?"

Alex didn't answer but weaved her fingers through his while he avoided looking up at the recording device to their right. There was simply no way to hide from it. No way to keep it from picking up each and every one of their movements or the things they said out loud. He cleared his throat, kissed her temple and started digging for the right words in German.

"Yes, I think so," he said into her ear, his voice so low he could barely make it out himself. He was by no means fluent anymore, but he figured at least talking in a language other than English might increase their chances. If not their chances of survival, then at least their chance of privacy.

She shuddered again. They had been taken here roughly half an hour ago and still the ship hadn't jumped into hyperspace. Or at least Evan didn't think they had. Those were the kind of things you usually felt.

"But there's no way to be sure, so…" he added in German, far more slowly than he would have spoken ten years ago. He felt like he was swimming as he dug through his brain to find what he needed to express himself in another language.

"What did you want to say earlier?" she asked, matching his volume and turning her head slightly so she could look at him. "About Johnson?"

"I'm not sure…" he hesitated. Things were bad enough as they were, weren't they? "I think…" Evan bit his lip and closed his eyes for a moment. His heart was racing again. How much longer would they give them? How much longer until they heard steps outside in the corridor? How long until he'd wasted the opportunity to tell her? "I think she might be a-" he hesitated, looking for the right word, "a copy?" Was the word he needed and couldn't find any different in German? He wouldn't know. This one was suitable enough, no matter how weird it sounded. It made it sound like it was less. Less than a clone. Like it lacked a soul. And the thought made his heart contract painfully. "I don't know."

The only response he got was her fingers tightening around his. Her breath hitched for a second and she nodded. She didn't speak, but he could see that she'd gone pale. Maybe he shouldn't have told her. Maybe he should have just kept his damn mouth shut. He might be wrong, after all! He might be… he didn't think so, however.

When Javier had been killed, he'd checked the files of all new expedition members. The new ones…of the ones who had arrived in the six months leading up to the incident. Johnson had been there for much longer. She never went off-world, which meant that her health wasn't as closely monitored as his or Alex's or anybody else who was routinely exposed to alien environments. And then of course there was that comment Fisherman had made a few weeks ago. It had struck a chord with him.

Fisherman had called her creepy. Asked if she was his cousin.

And yes, Johnson kept a low profile. She seemed to vanish in the crowd, it'd taken him almost a year to even remember her name, and yes, that might just be a part of the subterfuge. And yet… he'd worked side by side with her for months, had spent hour after hour in the operations area in the main tower with her. He should have realized sooner that something was off. "I… I don't know… she-"

"She has your eyes," Alex whispered tonelessly, avoiding his gaze and staring straight ahead. "Your chin… your hair." It took him a bit longer to make sense of her words, for his brain to translate and process them, but when it did, he closed his eyes.

"Your nose," he added.

"She-"

"Nobody would ever bother to check her DNA. To- you know-" he broke off again, unable to find the verb he needed and incapable of describing it any other way. He wasn't even sure if he wanted to be able to do it.

"Cross-reference it with Nora's. No." She swallowed hard. "It's not her, though," she said tonelessly after another moment. "That is not our daughter."

They came ten minutes later. Ten minutes during which neither of them had been able to say another word. Ten minutes during which all they could do was hold each other and cling to the thought that the woman who had betrayed him wasn't the girl who had been taken from them.

It couldn't be, Evan told himself over and over again. Because, how could it? The child who had died in their home had been theirs. It'd been the one he'd rescued from Ba'al, the one they'd gotten to know, the one who was theirs… and yet, they'd known that there must be others. That there must be other clones out there. But none of those could ever be truly theirs. Could it? Especially not this one. Especially not this grown woman.

If it really was her, that was… yes, she might just be an agent of Ba'al's, but the moment Alex had collapsed against Johnson, the moment he'd seen their faces next to each other, he'd felt a sudden surge of recognition. The shape of the nose, the lips, the face... how could it not be? Hadn't fisherman said so? Hadn't fisherman asked him if Johnson was related to him? There were bound to be similarities there as well.

He'd waved it off. He'd told him, no, because the thought alone was ridiculous… but now… they had to face the possibility at least, and best to talk about this with his wife for the first time than with their enemy.

Alex was walking behind him. He'd pushed past her before anyone could even think of pushing her out the door before him. Ronda had been the one to fetch them. When he first met her, when he found out she was a Wraith Worshipper, he'd thought the worst of her. Then he'd found out about those Worshippers benefiting from selling people and his opinion hadn't exactly improved… and now? He couldn't make sense of it, and he'd rather think about that than about a copy of his child, now all grown-up and willing to kill them. "Why'd you switch sides? I thought you liked the Wraith."

She didn't answer but kept walking along the dreary corridor until they reached lift again. "Why would it matter to you, Major?" she asked as the door closed behind them and the three guards who had come along. The symbols on the panel next to the door showed Goa'uld symbols, none of which were familiar to him. For a second he wondered why Ba'al was relying on lifts in this ship when he might just as easily have used rings, but what did he even know about the layouts of ships this size…

"Just curious," he said. Alex was standing right next to him, their hands touching as they were crammed together in this tiny space.

Ronda looked down at him with a raised eyebrow. "Some alliances are more profitable than others," she said and the lift came to a halt. Evan quickly grabbed Alex's hand and gave it a short squeeze. Her skin felt cold and clammy against his and he wished he could pull her close and reassure her.

But he couldn't. And she didn't really need it. She was stronger than he would have thought when she first joined the Stargate Program.

She met the boy again the next day. He'd brought a frisbee and a book on castles of the region. The sand got stuck between the pages as they sat there, ignoring the waves and his mother and her father chatting, while Adam and his friends tried climbing on top of a surf board.

The sun wasn't as strong as it had been the previous day, but it was still very warm.

Alex pulled her hair back into a ponytail and cocked her head as the boy told her about how important the fortifications were.

"But isn't that dumb?" she asked and he frowned at her.

"What d'you mean?"

"Locking yourself inside this thing?" Alex frowned at the page, at the high walls drawn around the central tower. There was just a small vegetable patch depicted in one corner of the inner area. Was that enough for the hundred or so fighters Evan had just told her about? "I mean, when you get attacked, you're stuck."

"So you fight to get out."

"So what do you eat?"

"You don't need to eat, you need to fight."

Alex rolled her eyes and was just about to tell him that he wasn't listening to her, when his mother called him.

"Come on, let's get some ice cream. Ellen is already waiting with dad."

"Can Alex come too, mom?"

His mother hesitated for a moment and she exchanged a quick glance with her father. "Sure," she said. "Alex, would you like to come a long?"

The bridge wasn't far, and, unlike the rest of the ship, it looked a lot more like the bridge on a Goa'uld vessel than the rest of the ship did, probably for good reason. His gaze immediately flew to the massive chair towards the back of the room, and though he'd expected it, he felt his stomach give a small lurch of apprehension when he saw the man sitting in it. Johnson was standing right next to him, her hands clasped behind her back. Can it really be her? Do I look like that?

The last time he'd Ba'al's face, it had resulted in the man's brains splattered on the floor. It was intact now. Intact and that smug smile on his face almost made him ball his hands into fists. But he was being watched and there was no way he would give in and let Ba'al see how agitated his presence made him.

"We meet again," Ba'al said, refusing from using his Goa'uld voice. He'd dropped that act a long time ago. Evan wasn't sure if he's preferred that voice to the eerily human tone. Ba'al got up from his chair. His robes were as ridiculously over the top as always. High collared black shirt, a dark brown overcoat, trimmed lavishly with gold. Really, who was he trying to impress here?

"I doubt I've met you before," Evan said as Ronda stepped to the side to take up position next to the large viewscreen, while the other guards flanked the exit.

"Oh, but we have. I had the pleasure of watching you writhe in pain on a planet called Larsa. A few months later you took that child from me? Surely you remember that?"

Of course he did. How could he not? "Sure," he muttered, though he doubted this was the Ba'al clone he'd met there. Who could tell the difference these days? "Last time I saw you, you were dead."

Ba'al nostrils flared slightly.

Evan's eyes drifted over to Alex, who was still as pale as a sheet.

"What do you want with us?" she said, her voice calmer than Evan would have expected.

"For now?" Ba'al raised his eyebrow at her and nodded at the window up ahead. "Do you see this?"

Unwillingly, Evan followed his gaze. He hadn't paid the outside any attention yet, but now he could make out the Wraith cruiser, dark against a backdrop of black dotted with stars. "So?"

"We're experiencing some mild difficulties with shields and weapons," Ba'al said, almost lazily and he waved at the consoles around him like he didn't care too much. "And we will have to drop the cloak before we open a hyperspace window. You see the problem, of course."

Evan clenched his jaw and stared back at him. Of course he did. "I'll repeat myself," he said. "So?"

"So, I need you to call Atlantis for backup. This is not the way to get away from here I would have planned, but as you know plans need to change occasionally."

Evan would have laughed, had it not been for his wife standing there next to him. And as though he was reading his thoughts, Ba'al nodded once at Johnson, who stepped forward and took up position right behind Alex. Once again the obvious similarities made him catch his breath. The small birthmark at the base of Alex's neck was in the exact same position on Johnson's. Alex looked at her once, a look of apprehension flying over her face.

"You're going to cooperate, of course," Ba'al added. "Tell them to take care of the cruiser. I believe this plague you call Michael sent his operatives here to oversee the sickness spreading down on the surface?"

Johnson's right eyelid twitched slightly and Evan nodded again, forcing himself to look at Ba'al again. "Don't hurt her and I'll do anything you want."

He felt Alex twitch slightly by his side, but she stayed silent.

Ba'al nodded appreciatively and invited Evan to step forward. There was nothing for it. He could cooperate now, or watch Johnson hurt Alex and his unborn son. Ba'al wouldn't kill them, not yet. There had to be a reason why Ba'al had gone to such trouble to get them here, but Evan was also sure that the System Lord wasn't beyond hurting a pregnant woman. He'd proven that point at least once.

Ba'al motioned for him to stand next to him behind one of the consoles and Evan spotted a spread of symbol to his right. A DHD, probably salvaged from a Jumper, or a downright copy of the thing. Ba'al entered the symbols of New Lantea's address in one fluid motion and Evan knew the Gate below must be activating, because the symbols remained lit-up. Ba'al shifted his hand over the console and Evan knew he must be activating the comms. "This is Ba'al, I need to speak with Mister Woolsey."

Evan bit his lip. He could almost hear the hubbub this announcement must cause in the control room. Ba'al must be sending a visual as well, why else would he ask Evan to stand right next to him? Behind them, Evan heard a soft shuffling and one look over his shoulder confirmed that Johnson was pushing Alex into position, so she would be visible as well. Evan's gaze drifted to her belly, which was somehow more visible than it had been when he'd seen her down on that planet. The military hadn't provided maternity clothes for the Atlantis expedition, so she was wearing a baggy blue shirt beneath her open black jacket.

"I repeat, this is Ba'al."

"Yeah, we hear you." Sheppard. "We can see you too. What're the Lornes doing there, if you don't mind my asking?"

Evan clenched his jaw. The Lornes. It stung to hear that. Johnson was right there behind them. Did Sheppard know? Had anyone bothered to check her medical records? Probably not. But just hearing those words struck a chord with him. One which he didn't much like.

In front of them, a small picture appeared within the gold-framed window. Sheppard, Woolsey and McKay. Seeing those three familiar faces, and a figure which must be Chuck in the background, made his stomach flip. "This is Woolsey, you should know we don't negotiate with terrorists."

Evan felt his stomach tighten. He agreed with Woolsey. Of course he did. Rationally, it made sense. But he couldn't- no, he didn't want to believe that Woolsey actually meant that. Not with Alex's life on the line.

"Go ahead," Ba'al said gesturing invitingly at Evan and completely ignoring Woolsey's previous statement. He must know that Woolsey was probably just playing for time. A barely contained whimper from Alex raised the hair on Evan's neck.

"Sir, he says he needs backup to get out of here. There's a Wraith cruiser dead ahead and he wants you to send some Jumpers to help him get rid of them."

With a frown, Sheppard crossed his arms in front of him. "Lorne, have you lost your mind?"

"Just relaying the message, Sir." He could only hope Sheppard wasn't thinking he'd switched sides, too, and for a second there, he could see a flicker of doubt in Woolsey's eyes.

"Let me make this easy for you," Ba'al said, raising his hand and next second a loud, gut-wrenching sound rang through Evan's ears. He smelled ozone and he whipped around to catch Alex before she could hit the ground. Johnson was holding a Zat and looking at Alex as though it all meant nothing.

"Are you taking me seriously, yet?" Ba'al asked, as Evan cradled Alex's head against his shoulder and held her upright. Another stunner. This couldn't be good for her. Not so soon after the first.

He raised his hand to feel her pulse and closed his eyes for a moment when he felt the steady beating. He looked up at the screen, saw that McKay had jumped to his feet.

"Stop that already," McKay said, his eyes wide, his face white as a sheet.

"Send the ships and I will."

"Listen, you really don't want to get on our bad side here," Sheppard said quietly. "What do you want for the two of them. You can keep Johnson for all I care."

"Five will do." Ba'al stepped forward and was about to terminate the connection, when Woolsey spoke up, pushing McKay to the side.

"Five ships and you let them go?"

"Five ships and I'll let them live, Mr Woolsey."