Chapter 29

2034

Their children looked uncomfortable.

It wasn't as though anyone seemed to enjoy sitting in this big room with so many things still unsaid. They were hanging between them, making the air feel it heavy and the silence almost penetrating. What really astounded her was how worried Grace and Caleb looked. Alex couldn't exactly figure out why that was, and maybe it was just her mind playing tricks on her.

She refused to believe she felt that way because she and Evan had already lost a child to the Stargate Program. They would not lose these two. The thought alone was ridiculous. The Wraith had stopped attacking the moment they realized who they were dealing with and had granted them sanctuary for as long as it would take the engineers to repair their ship. They were in no imminent danger.

She'd taken a seat next to Miller, McKay's niece. Miller didn't share any of the smugness or arrogance that her uncle was infamous for. Far from it, she seemed downright calm. Alex swallowed hard, folded her hands on the table and forced herself to look towards the head of the table, where Ronon, the Wraith Todd and Halling were sitting along with Carter and Evan.

"What happened here?" Evan said calmly as soon as everybody had taken a seat and Alex could tell their hosts weren't too happy about that question.

"What makes you think you have the right to ask first?" Todd hissed, his sharp teeth bared.

"Fine, you wanted to talk to us. So, let's talk." Evan leaned back in his chair, seemingly unaware of the dozen or so people looking at them. Alex hadn't failed to notice they had not posted guards at the entrance. Clearly they were here at the mercy of that Wraith Hive and its leader.

Todd grunted. "You vanished."

"The city was lost," Carter said, overriding Evan's right to speak first. "Daedalus barely got two hundred people out of there before the Furlings overwhelmed them."

"I was there," Ronon said, his voice so low it was barely audible.

"How many people did you get through the Gate?" Alex asked, speaking for the first time and when Ronon turned his attention to her, she felt her insides churn. He was angry. And he had every right to be. She'd known it from the moment Evan told her Daedalus would head home straight away.

"Twenty," he said. "We gated to an uninhabited planet, then we headed here."

An uncomfortable silence filled the room, stretching the seconds so they felt like minutes. The Athosians had done what the Tau'ri had been unable to. They had provided these people with shelter. They had taken in not just Ronon, but people from Earth as well. They had taken them in, when they had been deemed acceptable losses by the IOA and the US Air Force. She remembered it like it was yesterday and the moment Ronon locked eyes with her, she felt that pain again. That sensation of being punched in the gut, strengthened by twenty years of denial. They'd failed these people. Why hadn't they fought harder to get them back? To help? Had Sheppard been right in resigning his commission? Probably. He and Teyla had been the only truly decent people.

Evan cleared his throat, drawing Ronon's attention to himself but Todd cut across him: "How long will you be staying this time?"

Evan stared at the Wraith for a moment, pausing but seemingly unfazed by the rudeness of the Wraith's tone and words. "Carter and I risked everything coming here," he said. "People were killed in the attempt to get us here." He was looking at Ronon now, who couldn't know or care about Mitchell and their suspicions. "I am sorry we couldn't be here sooner. There was nothing we could have done back then." Ronon snorted derisively and Alex could tell Evan was fed up trying to defend himself. "If you want our help now, while we're here, let us know. If anyone wants to come back with us, they're welcome."

Ronon clenched his hands into fists and he shook his head. But he wasn't the one who answered. Halling got up from his chair. "Let us take a break," he said, his voice still easily carrying through the crowded room. "We are all rattled by today's events."

"No, let's fill them in," Ronon grunted and motioned for Halling to sit down again. "Let's get this over with."

"We're going to let him go." It was more an outraged statement, than a disbelieving question. McKay flung himself on one of the chairs in their little conference room and shook his head.

"Who?" Emma Rogers, one of the expedition's newer members asked. She was a linguist, and Alex was looking forward to her help with the translations of the steles. Since Daniel couldn't come along and Jonas was often preoccupied with other research, they'd really been missing linguistic support.

"Todd," McKay sighed, wiping his face and picking up the thermos sitting in the centre of the table.

Emma still looked quizzically at him, but he was too focused pouring himself a large mug of coffee, so, instead, Jonas answered. "The Wraith who helped us occasionally."

"And betrayed us even more often." Zelenka added and McKay nodded grimly, before passing the thermos on to Zelenka. He'd arrived late to their weekly meeting along with McKay and he looked just as rattled. He passed the thermos on to Jonas.

"Why?" Jonas asked as he filled his own mug. "Why are we doing such a stupid thing?"

"Because the IOA thinks he's more valuable as an ally," Zelenka explained and David Parrish of the botany department snorted derisively.

"Oh, I'm really looking forward to the next big Wraith attack," Parrish muttered, looking at his tablet. He was a rather quiet person in general, only speaking up when it came to plant life. He'd been assigned to Evan's team on a few missions now and Alex never got tired of listening to her husband complain about being stuck in a meadow for half an hour just because Parrish was examining some leaves. Really, Evan was far more patient with her field of studies. He rarely complained about Jonas anymore after all.

She looked down at her own tablet and cleared her throat. "I mean, we can't change any of that anyway, so why don't we get started? McKay? Where's Keller anyway?" She caught Fisherman grinning at her. He was leaning back, twiddling with the black ring on his left finger. He and Chuck and gotten married only a few weeks ago.

With a low grunt, McKay turned on the projector in the centre of the table. The heads of departments met once a week to update each other on various ongoing research projects and Keller was usually there as well. "She'll be here," he said, his cheeks reddening as he looked up at the hologram, where a brand new set of schematics was rotating in front of them. So, as usual, they'd be starting with his project.

Alex felt Emma shift next to her when Rodney began speaking and next second a message popped up on Alex's tablet.

Did I miss something?

It was a message by Emma. With a slight shake of her head, Alex wrote back: They're dating. He's embarrassed.

Out of the corner of her eye, she caught Emma grinning, as McKay started on about some kind of new energy source and she couldn't help but snigger, when Emma's next message popped up. Cute.

Someone kicked her shin and she quickly looked up to see Jonas shaking his head at her. With a shrug, Alex returned to attention to McKay's lecture. And it looked like this was going to be a long one. She only hoped Evan would pick up Caleb from Teyla's place when she didn't get out of this meeting on time.

The sun had set long before the exchange of stories was done. And when everybody got up, Alex still felt rooted to the spot, her eyes trained on Evan as he stood there, talking quietly to Todd, Ronon and Halling. Carter was standing right next to him, her arms crossed over her chest.

Evan and Carter had given a brief report on the politics and wars of the Milky Way galaxy and when they'd come to the part about the Emperor's death and subsequent peace treaty, Ronon seemed truly interested for the first time since they sat down.

The peace treaty had not mentioned Pegasus or the return of Atlantis, but around the same time the Furlings had relinquished control over roughly half of the Milky Way, the Furlings had become quieter in this galaxy as well.

But not before they nearly extinguished the Genii.

Not before they unleashed a virus into the systems of most Hives, slowly poisoning the Wraith and robbing them of their ability to feed. Only the gene therapy which Keller and Beckett had started and which Todd finally finished working on and perfected, managed to save around twenty percent of the Wraith population. Only one Wraith queen remained, and she had been put into stasis so as to preserve her ability to spawn offspring in the future.

Todd's description had left Alex feel light-headed. The Furlings had succeeded where the Ancients and humans had failed, but she couldn't help but feel sick at the mere thought. Yes, the Wraith fed on humans. They conquered worlds and destroyed those who would oppose them. But unlike the Goa'uld or the Furlings, they didn't have much of a choice. What the Furlings had done had been nothing short of genocide. There was no other way to put it. The Tau'ri's research, coupled with Michael's had led to this. They were responsible.

Had someone else, someone who didn't flinch away from this step, been in charge of the expedition, they might have been even more involved.

Out of necessity, Todd's Hive had struck a truce with the Athosians, just as other Hives belonging to Todd's coalition made peace with other humans to rig up a network that could defend and ensure their survival in this galaxy.

And then the unthinkable happened.

The Furlings just vanished.

Several hundred Gates went off-line, although their planets remained inhabited. But with the Gate network down and the Travellers' and Wraith fleets massively diminished, it was impossible to stay in contact.

What a mess.

Alex blinked and wiped her burning eyes. She was tired. Dead on her feet.

She saw Caleb approaching her. Grace and her team had already left the tavern and Torren had gone off with Halling, undoubtedly to meet his father. But Caleb remained behind while Evan and Carter spoke in low voices with their hosts.

"Are you okay?" He sounded concerned. He hadn't sounded like that in months.

Nodding, she leaned back and came to her feet. "I think so," she said. "It was a lot to take in. And there are more people here than any of us could have hoped for." Swallowing hard, she looked over at Evan again, who nodded briefly in her direction.

"Let's get some air, okay?" He took her arm, and she was grateful for his strength. Grateful her son didn't see the impact of what they had done here. Or maybe he did. He looked around cautiously as he pushed open the door and the cool night air hit their faces.

She took a deep breath and looked around. Street lamps had been lit, illuminating the village square with dancing light emanating from the flames. She had no idea which substance the Athosians were using to keep the small fires inside the glass containers going, and she refused to dive into that question. She refuse to let herself be distracted.

"Quite a day, huh?" Caleb asked, pointing towards a bench and Alex sat down gratefully. There were still people about, though whether the young people not in uniform were Athosians or children of Tau'ri as well, Alex couldn't even begin to fathom. There was a group of teenagers a few feet to their right and when they found Alex looking at them, they quickly disbanded, heading for the street leading away from the village square.

"You could say that," Alex said. "How do you feel about this?"

Caleb frowned, looking down at his feet and he shrugged. "I don't know. It's all surreal. Somehow going off-world in the Milky Way felt more natural. More believable. And that's weird."

"Well, we're far away from home, that's for sure."

Caleb grunted and nodded. "And then there's this lovely atmosphere in there," he said making Alex smile.

"Yeah, another instant where we screwed up."

"Yes," Caleb said, "but Dad's military. Had he resigned his commission, things would've been different. He's the one who killed that Furling Emperor, right? Who knows-"

"Still. It's no justification."

"It also doesn't help to dwell on what-if's, right?"

Alex sighed and nodded. "No, you're right." It didn't make that horrible feeling go away and it certainly didn't help that she knew Evan might face a court-martial when they got back home. But this had been the right thing to do. They all agreed on that at least.

She leaned back and looked up at the clear sky. The stars shone bright here, and even though she knew that a Wraith Hive was looming over them, she didn't feel scared. There was so much to worry about. About the people of this galaxy who were now stuck on planets that must be part of the Gate Network the Furlings had set up. About the Nox, who had welcomed Grace and her team, but who refused to talk about the Furlings. About Atlantis. About the people stranded here. And for a long time, she'd considered the Athosians her people as well. That had certainly changed.

A low grumbling sound made her turn her head and she saw Caleb smile at her. "Hungry?" she asked and he laughed.

"Let's head back to the Daedalus," he said. "I guess there'll be plenty of time to explore this settlement and face some more uncomfortable questions tomorrow?"

Alex nodded and got to her feet, thinking how much like his father Caleb really was. The door to their left opened and Evan and Carter stepped outside. "What else did they say?" she asked and Evan shook his head. Clearly he didn't want to talk here. "Let's head back to the ship," he said, almost echoing his son's words.

They started walking and as soon as they had left the village's boundaries, Evan's hand slipped into hers, giving her fingers a light squeeze. Grace's team was waiting for them, as was Caleb's. "I'm almost sure," he whispered, "they didn't tell us everything."

"There's nothing to do but wait until tomorrow," Carter said, taking a flashlight from her backpack. "I'm just wondering why there weren't any of the survivors from our expedition present."

"I'm sure they're just as angry as Ronon," Caleb suggested. "Wouldn't you be?"

Evan squeezed her hand again. They'd been left behind once. And, yes, they'd been angry. But the Air Force had managed to make it up to them. But would they be able to make up for more then twenty years of neglect?

A/N: A huge thank you goes out to Traveler's Chick who let me borrow Emma Rogers. Emma is her OC and she's a wonderful, wonderful character. Thank you for putting your faith in me. Go read her stories, especially Tempus Fugit. It's wonderful and she's an excellent writer!

Sorry this chapter took so long. It was really tough to write. Hope you enjoyed it.