Chapter 28
2034
She was frozen. Rooted to the spot, unable to do anything but stare into her father's eyes as Lucas, Miller and Ferretti simultaneously raised their weapons.
An almost pitiful sound made its way up Evan's throat, deep and yet whimpering at the same time as the powerful arms threatened to cut-off his oxygen supply. Her stomach lurched and she slowly raised her own weapon, aiming for the other man's head. Her father had called him Ronon. He was supposed to be a friend.
"Who are you?" Ronon hissed and only now did Grace realize that Ferretti wasn't looking at him, but at the Wraith. Todd. Grace knew who he must be, of course. Knew he must be the Wraith they had fought alongside of several times.
"Let go of the General first," Miller said calmly.
"General, huh?" Ronon almost laughed and Evan closed his eyes in pain.
It took all Grace had not to pull the trigger there and then.
"They are not Replicators," the Wraith hissed. "I would sense it if they were."
With a low grunt deep in his throat, Ronon dropped Evan, who gasped for breath, doubled over. No longer hesitating, Grace rushed forward and put her hands on his shoulders, certain that her team would cover her. Determinedly, she pulled her father away from the three people.
Evan patted her hand and slowly stood up again, still rubbing his throat. "Should've remembered you were always the suspicious type," he said, his voice raspy.
"What are you doing here?" the other man asked, while Evan and Ronon kept staring daggers at each other. Grace had no idea who the other two were, but as she looked into those hazel eyes of the man who'd held her father in a headlock, she recognized him from the old mission files. There had been a few photos in them. The unmistakeable stare, the very same he was wearing now, had been present in almost all of them. Determined and, above all, distanced from the people surrounding him. But there had been other photos as well. Pictures her mother had shown her. Private pictures of this man and other members of the expedition. Pictures in which he was smiling, laughing even, as he was sitting around a table with John, Teyla and her father.
That time was long gone.
All that seemed to remain was this version of Ronon Dex. A seasones warrior who had lost his home and several years of his life to the Wraith. A man who had joined the expedition in their second year and who had helped them fight the Wraith, the Replicators, Ba'al and the Furlings. She'd been impressed by his commitment, just as she'd been impressed when she found out what Teyla had done for them all, but to see him stare down at her father, made Grace want to punch him in the face.
"Major?"
Evan visibly pulled himself together and he looked at the other man. "It's General," he said forcibly calm. "And it's taken us forever to get back here. Our government didn't want us to return here."
"So you figured we'd still need you? That we'd just sit here and wait for you to come back?" Ronon's voice was barely more than a whisper and it made the hair on Grace's neck stand on end. "General?"
"Do we have to discuss this right now? Right here? Carter and I violated several rules just to come here. You have no idea what's been going on."
"No," Ronon hissed. "You don't either. Where's Sheppard?"
"He's back home," Evan answered, that forced calm still in his voice, as he kept staring at Ronon. "He couldn't come." It took him a lot of effort to turn his head and look at the other man. What had he called him? Halling? "Neither could Teyla. But if we do this right, they might be able to come back. Please, just let us talk this through."
The Wraith snorted derisively. "I do not see you have any other choice but to stay here under my Hive's protection anyway."
"Protection?" Miller burst out. "You attacked and-"
"Major!" Evan shot her a look over his shoulder and Miller straightened her shoulders but kept her mouth shut. "Like I said, let's talk this through."
"This feels so weird," Torren said quietly. His skin looked ashen and his eyes were wide. What the heck was wrong with him? But he didn't seem sick. Just on edge and nervous. Well, that wasn't too surprising, Caleb thought. After all, he might meet his father today. If he was still alive. In any case, he was about to meet his mother's people.
"What exactly?"
Torren swallowed hard and shook his head. "It's like… a soft humming in my ears, but in here." He tapped his head and ignored the look Carter gave him. She didn't offer leaving him aboard this ship.
"It'll be okay," she said with a reassuring smile. Whatever the hell that meant.
Torren was walking next to Caleb when Carter led them down the ramp, talking quietly with Alex. Caleb still wasn't sure he liked seeing his mother in military garb, but, as usual, his opinion didn't really matter. It couldn't.
Grace and the rest of her team were waiting at the bottom of the ramp with the delegation from New Athos, and although they were all armed, Caleb couldn't help but notice that nobody seemed inclined to use their weapons, not even in a defensive position. After the short space battle from before that was quite reassuring. He watched, as his mother and Carter greeted Ronon, the Wraith and the other human, whose eyes lit up when he looked at Torren. His mouth opened as he stared at the other man and he quickly closed it again.
When the greetings were exchanged, they started walking; towards the village, Caleb expected, and he wasn't at all surprised to see one of the men fall back to talk to Torren. If he was right, and he really thought he did, then that man was one of the Athosians, and the tall, burly man with the long, wavy hair, decidedly not talking to his father and mother, was Ronon.
Caleb caught Josh looking at him and raised his eyebrows in question. "What?" he whispered.
"Weird, huh?" Josh turned to look ahead at the Wraith.
"This whole year has been weird," Caleb said quietly, although he hadn't even been with the SGC a year ago. How long had it been? He couldn't even remember exactly. Travelling with a ship through space for weeks on end was like being stuck in time.
"You are Teyla's boy, aren't you?" the man asked, and Caleb watched as Torren nodded, his expression unreadable.
"And you're Halling," Torren said. "My mother's told me a lot about you."
Halling. What a strange name. Caleb's brain started rummaging for names or words that sounded familiar, but then he realized that the only connection the cultures of the Milky Way and Pegasus shared were the Ancients. How should he even begin to find the roots of the words from which this name had originated. He'd just have to take these things for face value.
"How is she?" Halling asked. "When you did not return, we feared the worst. There has not been any contact with Earth for decades."
Torren bit his lip and looked up ahead. "I guess that's something you'd better discuss with the people in charge. I'm just tagging along for the ride." He cleared his throat. "And my mom's alright. How is… is…" he broke off and Caleb caught his eye. He must be thinking of someone else. Of course he would be, with his mother being mentioned. How weird that must feel. To know there was a father out there you'd never even met before. "Well, maybe we should talk about my father later."
Halling nodded gravely. "Indeed."
Caleb stared at the ground ahead. Some kind of assortment of coniferous trees had left the ground strewn with pine needles in all shades of brown. The ground itself was soft and he tried focusing on that sensation and not on the weird feeling that Halling wasn't looking forward to talking about Torren's father either.
He felt a soft nudge in the side and looked up at Josh, who nodded in the direction of Halling.
"You two must be Josh and Caleb?"
Caleb frowned and nodded. "Yeah?"
"You look like your parents. It is a pleasure to meet you. I am Halling."
What a strange introduction. Of course the Athosian must know them. Josh and Caleb had spent some time here in this galaxy when they were little, although Josh had been taken back to Earth by his mother long before Atlantis had returned home for the first time in millennia. Caleb nodded. "Hi," he said. Why was it that only now was he starting to fully grasp what this whole thing meant?! He'd been here before. On this planet. And he didn't remember a thing! If things hadn't unfurled the way they had, if the Furlings hadn't attacked and then conquered Atlantis, this place right here might very well feel like home to him! And how much worse this whole situation must feel to Torren, who most likely still had family here.
What a mess their lives were.
The Athosian village had lost a lot of the Nomadic touch.
Alex looked around curiously when they passed the first buildings and she saw the homes these people had built. Whatever had happened here, they certainly weren't afraid of having to abandon their homes at a moment's notice. Most of the dwellings even had two storeys, some sported variations of verandas, making them look like frontier houses. Definitely the touch of survivors from the Atlantis expedition. There were still the symbols she remembered from the Athosians, though. The angular wave design was still used, whittled in the black beams of houses, sometimes inlaid with thin strips of metal. They weren't just ornaments, but used in remembrance of the Ancients, and to bless the dwellings. Alex remembered that shape from the tent poles the Athosians had used to set up their tents. This new use seemed adequate.
Grace was on her right, Evan, Carter, Todd and Ronon in front of them, as they walked along the wide, well, tended road, heading for the centre of the village.
"So, I take it you and the Wraith struck some sort of alliance?" Evan asked and Todd turned to look at him directly.
"You could say that," Todd said quietly. "With my Hive at least. There are not too many Wraith left in this galaxy."
Evan didn't respond, although the obvious question remained. If the Wraith and the Athosians had formed some kind of Alliance, then what were the Wraith feeding on? Somehow Evan couldn't quite believe the Athosians and those from Earth who had managed to escape through the Gate with Ronon, had knowingly sold out the rest of the human population in this galaxy. The price was too high, and Ronon had never struck him as the type to give up his fight against the Wraith.
He caught sight of even more people, the closer they got to the centre of the village. Most of them were either younger than himself, or about the same age, but he recognized some of them. Most of them appeared to be former Marines and there were even two Gate technicians. Who else would have been in the Gate Room when the city was attacked? His heart leapt as he spotted Amelia Banks, one of the Gate technicians, standing in the doorway of a fairly big house, which appeared to be some sort of village pub. Ronon approached her and, with a curt nod, held it open for them.
Banks held his gaze for a moment. She, too had gone grey, and she wore her hair short nowadays, but apart from that she hadn't changed too much. She nodded curtly, then stepped inside ahead of them.
The bar room was big, and apparently it'd already been prepared for this meeting. Tables and chairs had been placed in a circle, but he watched Alex as she took in the wall hangings. He quickly tore himself away from gazing at her. He'd ask her what she was thinking about later on. Right now there were more urgent matters to discuss.
"Please," Halling said, stepping towards one of the chairs. "Sit. We have a lot to talk about."
A/N: A rather short chapter, but I didn't want to put the whole explanation and reunion thing into one chapter. I hope you enjoyed this one!
See you next week!