A/N: Okay I had planned on this to be the last posting for this episode. But unfortunately, as I was writing it the number of pages it is amounting to (so far not done yet) is in the range of a whole separate episode so ya'll get another cliffhanger. This one was unintentional! but it was either cliff hanger or have the posting so long that it would drag on FOREVER! So yeah. But as the episode title suggests, we're finally getting somewhere with all of these dangling storylines while new ones present themselves. *cue dramatic music* So please bear with me.
And guess what? I'm getting to the end of this "season" (read as story)! And plans for next "season" are already in the works if everyone wants me to continue! Although I will be trying to intersperse it with other projects, both here and in normal life. See my profile page for possible and upcoming projects and drop me a line if you really want to see one on my list.
Also, and this is the last note I promise, some of you may have noticed the title change. I'm not married to this one either but we'll see. I thought it was slightly more appropriate.
Anyway love to all. And as always like, follow, favorite, subscribe, comment, review, and all that jazz.
J.R.
Recap:
Medical
"I'm shocked." She admitted, sitting on the bed after a breath. "I'm scared that I won't be able to carry to term, with all the things we've been through." Squeezing his hands as he sat beside her, she forced her lungs to fill with air. "I'm glad that we'll be headed back to Earth for the space station dock construction. I'm terrified of being a mom." Then finding a smile under the weight of all her worries, Sam turned a watery smile on him. "And I'm beyond happy. I just wasn't sure about you. After… Everything."
Kissing her forehead again, Jack pulled her onto his chest as he leaned back on the raised back of the bed. "After Charlie." He nodded into her braided hair. "If it had been right after, I don't think I would be able to handle it. But now?" He sighed, gently rubbing her back. "I think where ever he is now, he would be happy to have a little brother or sister to keep an eye on. And if he is just gone, I still think he'd be happy to have them. And I can handle it now. Won't promise to be perfect though."
Relaxing into his hold with a relieved little sigh, Sam snorted. "You? Perfect?"
"Hey!"
Security Holding Cell
"And had you managed an escape without getting mortally injured, you would have been killed by the first wraith whose path you crossed." She reminded none too gently. "You would either be killed in the attempt because shepherd won't let you leave alive, or executed at a traitor to the Wraith species." Once more rolling her eyes, she swung her leg back over the bench and folded both legs underneath her. "Death or death. Maybe quickly, maybe slow, and painfully. But you had nothing to look forward to. I gave you another option and you should be on your knees thanking me."
Once more Todd prodded at the aura that emanated from this creature, feeling knowledge of what it was niggle at the back of his very long memory, and then slip away like a handful of mist. A legend he had heard whispered as a child perhaps? A hushed word among the queens that he served but trusted no more than he would a rabid animal?
Something.
And it bothered him more than he could express that the memory just would not come to the fore.
Episode 11 Part 5
Residents wing. Sophie's Quarters.
Waking to the ambient light of the night cycle lights, Ronon's eyes snapped open. He never left those lights on when he slept, preferring the pitch black of his nearly empty room that echoed if someone who didn't belong entered. Not moving in his disorientation, Ronon glanced to the side and relaxed. There was a picture of a sand-covered Sophie and Luka on what looked like a beach surrounded by a soft, wood looking frame with gnarled knots that had been worn smooth by ocean tides. Driftwood, Sophie called it.
He had fallen asleep in her bed, he remembered. But the silent room told him no one was with him now. Sliding his hand across the bed beside him told him they had been gone for some time. Even the sheets under the blankets where mother and son had curled up beside him were cold and their scent had faded slightly from the air.
Sliding from the bed, he nearly stepped on one of the great dogs that seemed to follow the family members around the city. Normally there was one with one of the mothers and one with one of the dads, and it was normally the one who was alone at the time like they were guarding them.
Frowning, Ronon tugged his shirt out from under the great animal who huffed at him before laying his head back on his paws. At least Ronon thought it was the male. The female had shown herself more likely to take offense to whatever he did than the male. She had once or twice snapped at him or growled when he got near her.
Turning the small clock that occupied the table with the picture around, Ronon tried to make out the glowing numbers but made a face instead. Of course, she would have one with the little sticks that moved around instead of the one everyone else favored that just had numbers and said if it was morning or afternoon. It had taken him long enough to figure that one out. Sateda didn't have clocks like this and when he had been on the run it didn't really matter. It was day or it was night.
Pulling on the shirt with a small grunt as his back popped and released a tight muscle, Ronon sighed before leaning to pat the animal's head. "Do you have any idea what time it is?" He asked quietly.
"The time is currently five twelve, or seventeen twelve military time, in the afternoon."
Straightening with a start, Ronon looked around. No one but the animal was in the room with him. He knew that. Eyebrow raising, he pushed from the bed and carefully stepped over the animal before he searched through the rest of the quarters. Still no one. There was no one in the bathroom or kitchen. No one in the living area or Sophie's office area. Not in Luka's small bedroom or any of the closets.
"I know I heard a voice." He muttered.
"Down here."
Looking down, Ronon didn't see anyone. Even the creature by Sophie's bed hadn't moved during the search. "Where?"
The clear band on his wrist flashed once before it glowed a faint light green.
Eyes growing once, Ronon tried to pull it off in surprise. But it didn't budge. It didn't warp or tear with his straining. Frustrated, he took a knife to it. Neither the band nor the closure even scratched. He tried the heavy scissors from Sophie's desk drawer. The scissors bent but didn't cut, they didn't even scratch the thing. He tried the wire cutters and bolt cutters too. The bolt cutters felt like they almost worked. But the handles snapped before their jaws did any damage.
"Are you done trying to remove me?" The band asked. "And if not let me save you some time. You cannot cut or saw me off. I do not burn or melt. There are only three ways to get me off. Die, cut off your hand, or release the clasp." If an inanimate object could express derision, it would have been. "I would suggest option three as One of my primary functions is to keep you alive and uninjured. To release the clasp simply place your thumb on it or have another Furling release it."
"I tried that." He snarled. "Where is Sophie? Or any of the family? And why are you talking? Their's don't."
"It was determined by the makers that you needed the audio input and output until you learned how to use me." The band supplied almost as if it was offended at him for needing it. "They do not require the feature unless under dire circumstances. Sophie, Luka, and the brothers are in the gym looking at sensors along with Doctors McKay, Zelenka, and engineering programmer Timmons and several Marines. Luka has supplied that they will be completing their task within fifteen minutes."
"The mothers and fathers are within Eric and Kara's quarters looking over planetary records for Sateda. They request the name and designation of the last planet that housed the Satedan refugees." The band added in its metallic computer voice. "All have reported that they will be done in time for supper at eighteen hundred hours."
Ronon didn't even wait for the back to finish its announcement before he was sprinting Eric and Sigrun. As soon as the door slid open to admit him he was holding out his arm to the gathered group. "Take it off."
Smirking, Sigrun turned to his wife and shrugged at her raised eyebrow and silent question.
"Why?" Erik asked, not looking up from the aerial map of Sateda's main city that the Atlantis teams had brought back. One map was overlaid with a transparent of another that showed the damage that occurred when he had his showdown with the Wraith on its surface. Ronon honestly hadn't remembered doing that much damage, but he supposed it was possible.
"This looks like a hospital block," Eric pointed. "Is it? We're looking for hard salvage targets to help the survivors rebuild either on planet or if they would rather not be on Sateda, then another planet."
"I had thought about trying to get them to join Atlantis," Ronon admitted, his hand lowering slightly. "There aren't many Athosians left and most of my people that are left are soldiers." And then remembering his original issue, his wrist came back up. "Now take it off."
"No," Erik answered, circling a section of the city in a red marker. "What's here?"
Looking over the map, Ronon frowned. "It was a shopping center."
"Soft target then." Kara studying the section that contained the destroyed hospital. "Was there more in this section? Or is it all destroyed from this explosion?" She tapped the crater. "And the band has a bio-sensor, locator, com unit, city interface, can find you in a cave six miles deep and across a galaxy, and can go through a bomb blast without malfunctioning. It comes off when you die and not before."
"It's a security risk." He insisted. "It talks."
"In multiple languages, yes." Rota agreed, sipping at the steaming liquid that filled her bright teal mug. "But if you need it silent just tell it." She lifted her own wrist and tapped the tiny metal clasp that housed the biometric sensors and processor. "Audio please."
"Yes, Rota?" The band asked in the same voice that was quickly becoming annoying for him.
"Silent run. Confirm." She ordered.
"Confirmed." The band answered and then fell silent even as Rota pointedly asked it questions. It would light up and display the answer but not talk. And as soon as she stopped pointedly asking it questions the light turned off.
Then, giving her own wrist a sharp jerk the light came back on. "Audio, confirm."
"Audio confirmed." Once again Rota demonstrated how to use the basic features using the audio feature in both English and Furling before turning it off again.
"It learns your habits and needs as it goes." She explained. "But the sensors will inform us if you are injured or if you're lost help us to find you. We've all put it through everything we can possibly think of. The boys wear theirs on missions. Sophie and Luka wear their's scuba diving and surfing. Erik was trapped in a collapsed building with it one time. Longest night of our lives but we could find him."
"Point is, "Sigrun growled, handing him a mug of steaming coffee. "That band stays on. We'll show you how to remove it in an emergency and hide it. But otherwise, it stays."
"Ronon," Kara tapped his shoulder. "What's here?"
Taking a glance away from nearly glaring at the older man, Ronon answered her. Looking back, it was obvious that Sigrun was not paying him any attention so he took a seat at the map table and began labeling sections as destroyed or what they were in careful blocky English letters.
Rebuilt Military Training Gymnasium
If she never saw the access tunnels of the city from the direction of the training gym again it would be too blasted soon. But the best place to find out why the sensors malfunctioned in the gym and tunnels was in the gym and tunnels. And unfortunately, she had this annoying little habit of not asking anything from someone else she wasn't willing to do.
So while her son and brothers sat in a corner of the gym talking about god only knew what, she was literally wedged into the walls of the place looking for the proverbial needle in a large and prickly haystack.
"You're sure it's got to be in here, Timmons?" She yelled from inside what was rapidly beginning to feel like a metal coffin.
"It's the only thing I can think of causing readings like this ma'am." The rather competent young woman called back from her own section of wall. "There is no issue with the coding that I went over. But if there's a repeater in here, it would be child's play to spoof a signal."
"You do realize that this entire city is one damn supercomputer right?" She asked, pushing sweat-soaked curls back into the headscarf she had them tied in. "The sheer enormity of places it could be if that is even it?"
"Yes, ma'am." The woman's woeful voice came back. Echoing through down the tiny metal tubes like the baying of a very tired hound down.
Sophie snorted at the picture her mind produced of a basset hound with Kelly's glasses and mop of hair. It really wasn't fair, she decided. Kelly was just as tired of climbing through the walls as she was, and looked nothing like the dog of her imagination, and was really very nice once you got past her sharp temper and biting sense of humor. "I know you've gotta be tired, Timmons. Thank you for working so diligently on this."
"It's my job, ma'am."
Silence fell upon the pair as they crawled, slid, clambered, shimmied, and occasionally wedged themselves into and through places that no sane person would climb just to place a signal repeater. Finally deciding that it wouldn't make any sense for it to be in the exact opposite direction from any easy access like the tunnels that they had started their search from, they made their way back to the main room and stretched out on the floor with a groan.
"Whoever put it here wouldn't have wanted it so hard to get at ma'am." Kelly panted, rubbing sweat from her face only to leave a streak of ten thousand-year-old dust. "It has to be there though. The ghosting I keep picking up isn't possible any other way."
Smacking her arm on the floor, Sophie waved her hand for the engineering programmer's tablet. "Lemme see it again."
Timmons tapped open the page with her readings again and shoved it to her boss, simply too exhausted to move and very grateful that Dr. McIntyre wouldn't hold it against her. Rodney on the other hand…
"Oh, was it too tight in there for you?" He cooed in a voice that had Sophie the energy to do it, she would have kicked him in the shins. "That's what you get for being so small."
"Is that why you're always stuffing your face?" She groaned, sitting up and rubbing her aching back. "If I'm ever pregnant again I'll take your advice and send you into the dark, cramped, dusty…" She trailed off picking up the tablet.
"Don't be silly," Rodney replied, retrieving their canteens of water from the sides or their tool kits and handing them over. "That's why we have Zelenka."
"What?" The Ukrainian asked, popping his head up from behind his own tablet where he had been working on isolating the minuscule power drain that the repeater would have created.
Both women chuckled until Sophie abruptly stopped. "Rodney." She murmured, pausing in her scrolling of the ghost code that Kelly had found. "Does this look familiar to you?" Quickly highlighting the section she was looking over, she held it up for his outsider's eyes. "Like something we saw during the attack while we were on earth? Like a signature?"
Rodney paled and snatched the tablet away so fast it would have scorched her fingers had she been a cartoon character. The curse that the Canadian scientist let loose echoed off the walls. His face was nearly puce when he demanded, "where is he!"
Sophie sighed, slowly rolling to her knees and standing. All she could think of was why? Why was he the one sabotaging the city? Anger boiled away in her veins masked behind the pain and betrayal. She just wanted to lay down and cry. "Go get Sheppard, Rodney." She breathed, scrubbing her face before turning to her brothers. "Please take Luka back to mom."
A hand clamped around her elbow and yanked her around. Rodney was so close to her that she could feel his breath on her cheeks. "Where is he?"
Appearing at Rodney's elbow, Radek tried to separate the two. "Rodney, what is going on? What did you two find?" Catching the tablet that Rodney shoved at his stomach, she quickly clicked through the information on the screen, his eyebrows rising by the second. "Oh."
"Radek, please continue looking for the repeater." Sophie leveled tired eyes at her old friend. "I'm going to find him." She said, all the air leaving her lungs in a single breath until her shoulders slumped like a deflated balloon. Closing her eyes, the blond spun on her heel and walked out the door.
No one saw her scrubbing tears from her eyes.
