"Okay, so let me get this straight," John said, waving a hand to slow down the jumble of information coming at him from four different directions. "The... Tal'weans?" Nods all around. "The Tal'weans don't believe Atlantis exists, don't believe the Stargate exists, so they kicked you out, but then the crazy lady decided to take Major Lorne and Lieutenant Kennel hostage?"
"She only wanted Major Lorne," Parrish supplied. "Lieutenant Kennel volunteered."
"Sir, she's studied Ancients her whole life, and those people think they're some kind of myth," St. Clair said, glossing over Parrish's comment. "She's desperate. She wants to prove she's right about the Ancients."
John sighed and ran a hand through his hair, sharing a look with Elizabeth across the conference room table. They'd convened here to discuss the plan when Lorne's team had shown up minus two members. While he hadn't minded the interruption to the mind-numbingly boring work as a human light switch, he wasn't thrilled about the circumstances for said interruption. He wondered if Lorne's recent bout of needing to be rescued was some kind of payback for all the times he'd had to pull John's team out of trouble.
"How do you think the Tal'weans will respond to us returning?" Elizabeth asked, folding her hands on the table in front of her.
Sergeant Jones grimaced. "I'm not sure they'll take it very well, ma'am."
"They were pretty adamant that we get out of there and never come back," Parrish added.
"Well, they'll just have to get over it," John said, already forming a strong distaste for these people.
Elizabeth held up a hand to stop him from getting too worked up before she was done asking questions. "You said that this woman, Estie, wanted Major Lorne to help her find an Ancient temple? Maybe an outpost? And then she said she would let him go."
"Yes, ma'am," St. Clair confirmed.
"Elizabeth, you're not considering—" John started indignantly.
"I am just trying to get all the information before we go rushing in there and potentially start a conflict," Elizabeth said, cutting him off. "If Estie has no intention of harming Major Lorne or Lieutenant Kennel, that might give us some time to determine the best course of action to ensure their safe return."
"And what if these Administration people decide they need to track them down and get rid of them for not leaving when they were supposed to?" John countered.
Elizabeth inclined her head in a way that said she had already thought of this. "That is certainly a consideration. I'm not saying we don't send a team, but first let's find out all the details so we can make a plan that doesn't automatically destroy any chance of future relations with these people. Or worse, make us a new enemy."
John deflated, slumping back in his chair. She was right, of course. They couldn't just rush in guns blazing. They had to handle this diplomatically. But he hated diplomacy.
"Ma'am, the Tal'weans were really freaked out that we were there," St. Clair said. "If I can speak frankly, they're pretty xenophobic, and very unwilling to speak with us. I'm not sure there's much chance for future relations."
"Is there any way we could mount a rescue without them knowing we're there?" John asked. He was getting a strong sense that these were the sleazy, political type of characters that he hated dealing with. If there was any way around interacting with them, he'd take it.
"They didn't seem to notice us, or care that we were there, when we were on the surface," Doctor Ishihara pointed out. "But I would imagine they have monitoring technology closer to the city."
"And we have no idea where she took Major Lorne and Lieutenant Kennel," Jones added. "Estie's ship took off in the opposite direction of us, so they probably weren't going back to the surface. If they're still underwater…"
If they were still underwater, the scanners wouldn't be able to pick them up. Hell, even if they were on the surface somewhere, it would take time to find them. Blindly searching an entire planet wasn't practical; they needed a starting place.
"So what I'm hearing is we can wait and see if Estie releases Major Lorne and Lieutenant Kennel, or we can return to the city and speak with this Administration," Elizabeth summed up. "Which may or may not provoke them further." She sighed and rubbed her forehead, closing her eyes as she thought through the options. "Colonel Sheppard, which team is on standby?"
"Stackhouse's, I think," he answered.
She nodded, opening her eyes and folding her hands on the table in front of her. "Alright, let's send his team out to do a search from the air, in case they're somewhere on the surface. Colonel, your team will accompany me back to the city."
"Elizabeth, are you sure…?" John started to say with a wince. He really didn't like it when she went off world, even if there was a second team there to act as backup. Especially since it sounded like these Administration people weren't going to be very welcoming.
"Would you like to try speaking to them on your own?" she challenged, raising an eyebrow.
No, he really didn't. He knew his shortcomings when it came to these delicate, don't-piss-off-the-political-leaders-even-if-their-rules-are-stupid kind of situations. Hell, Lorne was strides ahead of him in that department, and if he'd made them angry, John didn't stand a chance. As much as he hated taking her into a potentially dangerous situation, she was their best bet at hammering out a peaceful solution to this mess.
"I'll gather the rest of my team," he agreed, standing.
Sergeants Jones and St. Clair opened their mouths, but Elizabeth cut them off before they could speak. "Yes, you can come, too," she told them. They smiled in relief, nodding their thanks as they got up to leave. "And, no," she told Parrish and Ishihara before they could ask, "you can't."
The two scientists looked slightly disappointed—the entire expedition had a ridiculous sense of duty to not leave a team member behind, even among the civilian population—but they hadn't really expected to be involved in the search and rescue.
"We'll meet in the gateroom in thirty minutes," Elizabeth said, concluding the meeting. "Let's hope the Tal'weans are not as inhospitable as they seem."
"You know, there's no reason to keep a gun pointed at Kennel. It's not like we can go anywhere."
Estie glanced over her shoulder at Major Lorne's words, frowning as she realized her assistant still had the weapon he'd taken from the guard aimed at the lieutenant. "He is right, Zeb. Put it away."
Zeb looked unsure, and more than a little flustered, but lowered the gun slowly and tucked it away nearby where he could easily reach it again if needed. He watched the Lieutenant warily with wide eyes, as if he expected Kennel to suddenly attack him. Kennel wasn't as tall as the other two soldiers that had been sent back to the Stargate, but out of the entire group of Lanteans, he was the bulkiest. His size combined with the expression of unadulterated irritation at being held captive was more than enough to intimidate meek Zeb.
Pursing her lips in irritation, Estie decided she didn't have time to worry about Zeb's nerves right now. He wouldn't have obeyed her order to take the guards' weapons if he wasn't as committed to this as her. He believed as strongly as she did that they held the key to her peoples' future.
She only hoped that she would be able to convince the Lanteans of this.
"So," Lorne said conversationally, though it was easy to hear his displeasure in his tone. "You going to tell us what we're doing here, or do we have to guess?"
It was a valid question, one she wasn't sure she could answer. She hadn't fully known what she was doing when she'd taken the Lanteans hostage, only knew that she couldn't let them leave. Not after all the years of work she and her grandfather had put into proving their existence. "We are going to find the lost temple," she said.
"You mentioned that. But why do you need us to find it? It's not like we know where it is."
Estie hesitated, remembering how guarded Lorne had been about revealing information about himself. Maybe she should be more cautious. What if the Lanteans weren't who she thought they were?
But, of course, they already weren't. These were only descendants of the Great Race, and while they may share the attributes that allowed them to power Lantean technology, they were not the people she had studied. Yet, so far they had done nothing except offer friendship. It was her people, and herself, that had acted aggressively toward them. Perhaps if they understood her motives better, they would be more willing to give her a second chance.
"The temple holds the key to my people's survival."
Lorne shook his head. "Still doesn't answer my question. Why do you need us?"
"I believe only Lanteans can enter it," she explained. "The same way that only Lanteans can fly the gateships. It seems to be a common thread in the lore. We were searching for a way around this, once we located the temple, but since you can fly the gateship…" Theoretically, he would be able to enter the temple as well, but she had no way of being certain. What if she'd guessed wrong?
"Third time this year, sir," Kennel noted from the back.
"Yes, I'm aware," Lorne answered, his voice carrying an annoyance that spoke to something more than being an unwilling participant on this particular journey. As if he knew exactly what she was talking about. So perhaps she was correct in her assumptions.
"Maybe Beckett has some kind of reverse gene therapy."
Estie frowned, wondering what exactly Kennel meant by that, but Major Lorne's only response to the comment was a resigned sigh before he turned his attention back to her. "So do you at least have an idea where this temple is?"
"An idea, yes." She winced, wishing not for the first time that she would have known she would have met the Lanteans today. "We need my research."
"Estie," Zeb hissed, "you know we cannot return to the center. That is the first place the Guard will look for us."
"I know," Estie threw back irritably. "But without it, how are we to find the temple?"
"And how are we to find the temple if we are in prison?" Zeb's voice rose with barely controlled panic. "Because that is where we will be if they capture us."
She let out another frustrated sigh, knowing he was right. Her impulsive plan was quickly falling to pieces. Self-doubt crept in as she searched for any way forward with this that didn't end in her and Zeb's imprisonment. Or worse, considering how adamantly the Administration had been that the Lanteans leave immediately and never return. Something about them obviously terrified the Tal'wean leaders. Perhaps they would forego imprisonment and choose instead to silence Estie once and for all.
And what of the Lanteans? She realized with sudden horror that she'd put them in grave danger by keeping them here. If they were to be caught after the Administration had ordered them to leave… Surely they would simply be sent away. The Administors may be unwavering in their beliefs, but they were not cruel. Even they must acknowledge that this was all Estie's doing; the Lanteans had no choice in the matter.
At the moment, her confidence in the Administor's reason was not very strong. She had always believed them to have her people's best interests in mind, to act justly based on the information they had, even when they would not listen to her theories. Yet, to ignore actual irrefutable evidence… There was something deeper going on there than the simple fear of looking like fools for not ascribing to the "religious nonsense" she'd been trying to prove.
All the more reason she had to find the temple quickly, before the Guard caught them, so she could keep her word in returning Major Lorne and Lieutenant Kennel to their people unharmed.
But how would they find the temple without her research? They needed the maps, the legends, the…
"My father," she said, the solution suddenly becoming obvious.
Zeb's voice dropped. "Estie…"
"I know he kept my grandfather's journal, no matter how much he denies it," she argued, more to herself than to Zeb. He, after all, had never met her father. Only heard her rant about him on occasion. "And the Guard will not expect us to go to him."
Zeb made a sort of choking noise, leaning closer in the crowded space. "Because he would be the first to turn us in!"
"You know," Lorne observed, "it's sounding increasingly like you might be in over your head here. What if, instead of getting caught and going to prison, you take us back up to the surface where our people can find us and take us back to Atlantis? Hell, you can come along if you want. We can figure this all out like the civilized people we are."
"No," Estie said firmly, shaking her head. As tempting as that was, she could not abandon her people, and after the actions she'd just taken, it was unlikely the Lanteans would help her willingly. "We will go to my father. Once he sees that you are real, he will give us the journal and we will find the temple. Then we will let you go, I swear it to you." It was going to work. It had to work.
"If you're going to drag us on this treasure hunt, at least tell us why it's so important," Lorne demanded.
"Our planet is dying, Major Lorne," Estie snapped back, the stress of trying to figure this all out finally boiling over.
She took a breath, forcing her hands to loosen their death grip on the controls, and reminded herself that they didn't know of any of the problems her people faced. They deserved an explanation as to why she was doing this.
"Long ago, the Lanteans brought my people here to hide us from a great evil," she began, ignoring the scowl on Lorne's face. "They built Ola'we, deep beneath the sea where the enemy could not reach us, and gave us the power to sustain it until the war was over.
"But they never came back for us, and after a time, my people forgot that we had not always lived here. The Lanteans became a legend, the Stargate a story told to children. For thousands of years, Tal'weans have believed this is where we are from, that this is to be our home forever. While we once remained here for fear of a war and an enemy we could not fight, now we remain because we no longer believe we are capable of leaving.
"The Administration may not believe in the old stories anymore, but the fear of anything outside the city has been ingrained within my people. No one is to leave Ola'we. To them, the city is our only salvation. The surface of our world is uninhabitable, and to suggest that there would be another world… You heard them; they say it is blasphemy. But this world cannot sustain us, even with the sacrifices we make. The seas grow colder every year, and the power supply left to us diminishes more and more."
Estie had the Lanteans' full attention, the deep blue of the surrounding sea reflecting off their faces as they listened to her speech. It was impossible to tell what they were thinking, but she pressed on, determined to convince them that she wasn't their enemy.
"The Administration refuses to see the truth before their eyes. They would rather cower in fear from something they do not even know than accept that we must leave Ola'we. And unless they do something soon, we will not have the power to make the journey elsewhere. We will die at the bottom of the sea."
She sat up a bit straighter, squaring her jaw with determination. "I believe the temple holds another source of power, one the Lanteans left for our return to our home once the war ended. If I can find it, I can prove to my people that we once lived among the stars. That we can return to them again. That it is better to fight whatever danger exists out there than to do nothing and die here."
Lorne's expression was still inscrutable as he pondered her words. "You know," he said after a long pause, "it's never that simple. Even if you find this temple, it might not save your people."
She pursed her lips, understanding what he was really saying. Just because she brought them proof didn't mean her people would believe her. The day had already proven that. But this wasn't about believing whether Lanteans existed or not, this was about convincing her people that they did not have to live in fear anymore. That they could leave Ola'we. That they could live.
"I know," Estie assured him quietly. "But I must give them the option."
Lorne shared a long look with Kennel and then nodded. "All right. Let's find this place."
Hope you're still with me! I am going to try to keep updating about once a week, but I've been pretty busy at work, so I apologize if it takes me a bit longer. Keep those comments coming; I love to hear what you think about the story!