Part: 40/40
Note: Second chapter for the night and the final one for this fic...
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DAY 40 – The New View
Chapter 40 - Epilogue
It was another clear sunny day on Proculus, but John wasn't feeling very bright.
He hadn't slept well last night, having had a nightmare where he'd been searching for Teyla on that horrible Iratus Bug planet. Todd had been there, 'helping' but also threatening to drain the life out of him at any second. He hadn't been able to find Teyla through all the searching, just found massive cobwebs that would have made Indiana Jones proud to tear through and the disgusting bugs crawling everywhere. He'd woken up feeling anxious and kind of itchy from all the bug imagery.
He was technically on leave today, which Colonel Carter had forced him to take after all the extra hours getting the trading contract finished. But he'd not felt like doing anything fun like skating or maybe going down to the driving range. Teyla was off on some deadly mission and he was stuck doing nothing to help.
So, even knowing it was probably a serious long shot, and despite Colonel Sumner's disapproving look, they'd let him visit Proculus one last time.
The dark roasted coffee and magically gorgeous turkey sandwich had been waiting for him on the usual table in Chaya's courtyard. He'd sat down in the warm sun and tried to enjoy the delicious food, but he hadn't been able to pull himself out of the sullen mood that refused to go away.
It was bad enough that he had nothing to help Teyla, that he had no idea what she was going to face in the weeks ahead, but this last visit to Chaya was clearly going to be another bust.
Her message was as clear as the bright sky overhead. Everyone had told him as much, but he'd stupidly held out hope that Chaya would turn up saying she'd been away somewhere Ancienty, and that she had tons of intel on the Skerti for him.
But it was a fake out on himself.
She was an Ancient – she could probably be anyway she wanted at anytime, and the coffee and sandwiches clearly showed she knew when he was visiting and was choosing not to be here.
Or, at least, he wasn't able to see her.
He set his forearms on his knees and brushed the last crumbs of the sandwich off his hands. This was a no-go clearly; she was choosing not to be here, probably because of the Others playing prison guards over her, but he had to wonder if it was also because of Teyla.
He should probably just go.
He glanced at his watch; he'd been here half an hour. He looked up at the sky above the courtyard, enjoying the Proculus sunshine on his face one last time, and then looked around the courtyard full of its bright healthy looking plants. Every time he visited he could see some things had changed in the courtyard, like those two new pots of colourful flowers near the stone staircase. It was possible that Chaya's Abbots had done that for her, or rather for 'Athar', but he suspected it was her. She loved tending her plants.
He should go.
He looked up around at the open air above him again. "I'm not sure if you're here," he said out loud, feeling a little silly, but if there was a chance she was here in her floaty cloud form, he wanted to say goodbye at least. "But, I get it," he told the empty air. "I'm sorry things turned out the way they have, Chaya. And I know you would help if you could."
The air stirred around him.
He smiled at the tiny little sign. It could be just a summer breeze, but he took it as something more.
"I hope you get your freedom one day," he told the absence of her.
He wasn't sure what else to say.
"But if you ever need us, need me," he offered. "Well, you know where Atlantis is," he smirked. "You can visit any time, obviously."
If the Others let her do that, and considering the Wraith had attacked Proculus when she'd visited Atlantis the last time, he wondered if she would ever want to risk it again. He still believed the Others had done that, had let the Wraith arrive on Proculus just to teach her a lesson.
He pushed up off the warm bench and smiled up at the open space above him. "Take care, Chaya," he smiled. "I'm going to miss you."
The air definitely stirred this time, the breeze dancing the plants and scattering some dried leaves across the courtyard flagstones.
He nodded, feeling emotional now as he headed for the archway out. When he got there, he looked back into the courtyard, hoping that she'd appear one last time, but all he could see were the plants and the sunshine.
"Bye, Chaya," he offered as he turned away and headed out along the stone lined passageway that led to the large porch entrance to the temple. He stepped out of the porch, back into the open air, the Jumper sat in the field just ahead of him. It looked well out of place sat in the sun, surrounded by open grassland.
He guessed it had been worth asking Chaya one last time and, if nothing else, he'd kind of got some closure on the whole thing with her. He just wished he'd been able to see her and able to get something useful on the Skerti.
Still, it was a lovely day, so he headed out across the grass towards the Jumper.
"Colonel Sheppard?" A male voice called from the left.
John paused and turned to find one of Chaya's red-robed Abbots stood in the shade of the temple wall.
"Hi," he replied. He'd seen the Abbots occasionally on his visits, but they'd always been leaving and just gave him a polite smile and nod. He guessed Chaya had told them to give him space, and maybe not to talk to him.
"I am afraid our High Priestess is not home today," the man offered with a large smile below soft blue eyes. He looked vaguely familiar, so John guessed he was one of the usual Abbots here.
"Yeah, I got that," John mused. Poor things, they still had no idea that Chaya was actually their Goddess Athar who protected them from the Wraith and gave them long healthy lives.
"You are leaving now?" The Abbot asked as he moved out of his shady spot into the sunshine.
"Yeah, I'm off," John confirmed, wondering if this guy was on bouncer duty making sure he left? Maybe the Abbots had noticed all his visits and had something to say about it.
"May I walk with you?" The Abbot asked as he indicated the short walk towards the Jumper.
John frowned at the unusual request. "Sure," he agreed, wondering if he was going to get a 'back off Chaya' talk.
"I understand that you are from the Ancestral City called Atlantis?" The Abbot asked.
"I live there, yes," John confirmed carefully. The guy was walking at a real slow, leisurely pace, so John matched it.
"I have heard many stories of the great city," the Abbot smiled cheerfully. "I am sure Chaya must enjoy hearing about them. I know she values your visits."
John wasn't so sure that Chaya had been 'enjoying' his repeated, pestering visits lately. And she certainly didn't need to be told anything about Atlantis.
"Sure," John decided was a nice safe answer.
The thought occurred to him that maybe Chaya had sent this guy. Maybe this was her way of saying goodbye through someone else?
"I used to dream of what it must have been like to live in the Ancestral City," the Abbot mused thoughtfully as he looked up at the clear sky above them, his hands tucked into the sleeves of his red robe. John imagined that the heavy robes had to be pretty hot to wear in this weather. Or maybe Chaya's powers allowed her to keep her Abbots cool?
"What it must have been like walking the hallways of the Ancestors' home," the Abbot continued. John nodded as they walked slowly across the grass. A lot of people in the Alliance said the same thing to him, and he had thought the same plenty of times in Atlantis. Imagined Ancients walking where he walked, that Ancients had used to sleep on his bed.
"I even pictured myself living with them," the Abbot chuckled, "helping them develop their advanced technology."
John frowned round at the man. Advanced technology? He had thought the people of Proculus weren't aware of that sort of thing. Unless, Chaya had started telling her Abbots more than the rest? Was she even allowed to do that in her punishment?
"I imagine that life must have been quite difficult for the Ancestors living in that great city," the Abbot continued.
John frowned at the man's profile and his soft calm smile. He was definitely familiar, but John wasn't overly convinced the guy had been wearing the red robes when John had last seen him, not that John could remember where. Though, maybe the Abbots didn't wear their robes all the time. He guessed they had time off. Maybe he'd just seen the guy around here one day?
"Fighting these horrific Wraith you've told us about," the Abbot added as he looked round at John.
"Yeah, the Ancients had their hands full," John replied.
"One imagines that they must have tried many things to try and save all of us from such threats," the Abbot went on.
"Maybe," John considered idly.
"I'm sure they tried everything they could, and probably came up with some good ideas to try."
John narrowed his eyes. It was possible this guy was just making small talk, maybe was a big fan of the 'Ancestors', or was this a message from Chaya?
"Such as?" John prompted.
"Oh, I would not know," the Abbot smiled and looked forward again. His hands were out from his sleeves and were now clasped behind his back, looking to anyone watching like he was just out for a nice Sunday stroll.
"Though in my dreams," the guy continued, "I would imagine that perhaps there had been two overriding ideas."
This was definitely a message from Chaya!
"Perhaps," the Abbot considered as he peered at the grass in front of him, "that one idea might have been to create something new, a type of metallic weapon. Something that could take orders easily, following them robotically."
Robotically?
Surely no one on Proculus would know what a 'robot' was?
"They would need to be vicious to deal with the Wraith threat and able to reproduce themselves as needed in battle," the Abbot continued, "but perhaps there was another idea that some preferred."
John stopped walking. Vicious robotic weapons that could reproduce? That sounded just a little bit too familiar from the stories he'd head from Colonel Carter.
The Abbot had stopped walking too, turning now to face John. "Maybe the other idea was the one that prevailed. That perhaps it would be better to ally themselves with an enemy of their enemy, that together they could fight the Wraith scourge."
An enemy of the Wraith, like maybe the Skerti?
This was it, the answers he'd been waiting for.
"But something went wrong?" John asked. "Maybe the new allies turned on the Ancestors?" He guessed.
"Maybe something far worse," the Abbot replied, "Maybe the new allies saw a way of defeating the Wraith by removing their food source."
John felt a chill pass over his skin as he realised what that meant. "Humans."
The Abbot nodded. "Such behaviour wouldn't have been tolerated by the Ancestors, so the former allies had to be...contained."
"Contained?" John frowned at the choice of word. "As in locked away somewhere? Somewhere from which they could escape thousands of years later, pretty pissed off?"
"Perhaps that was not anticipated," the Abbot replied. "Maybe there had been a secret withheld."
John frowned at that. "Secret?" This guy was pretty good at telling a story Chaya had told him.
"Perhaps the Ancestors had not known that the new enemy shared a particular ability with the Wraith that allowed them to sleep."
"Hibernate?" John guessed.
The Abbot nodded. "Which allowed them to survive this long."
John rolled his eyes up to the sky. It all made a lot more sense now. So the Skerti had been betrayed by the Ancients, locked up and then been hibernating since; which meant they'd woken up super pissed, found that most of the galaxy was dominated by the Wraith and that their former prison wardens were long gone.
"The Ancestors had provided a place for them to live and grow, perhaps evolve as they would naturally. It was not seen as a prison, but a well supplied and safe containment. But the Ancestors of old never realised their folly and they had been far too focused on their own safety in the face of increasingly overwhelming numbers of Wraith. Retreating back to the Ancestral City had been all they could do."
"And from there eventually escape to Earth," John finished the story.
The Abbot nodded.
John didn't miss the fact that the guy seemed to know what 'Earth' was; Chaya had been pretty thorough in her information.
"It sounds a truly terrible story," the Abbot added as he turned and restarted the walk to the Jumper. "One full of difficult decisions, battles, and great struggles."
John nodded as he walked alongside the Abbot, but a worrying thought played through his head. If the Skerti were going to return to their mission to wipe out the Wraith, would they keep to their original plan to take out Humans to starve out the Wraith? But wouldn't that be taking away their own blood food source? Though, the Elite report had included evidence from that Rogue Hive that the Skerti could feed off Wraith, so was the whole of Pegasus a feeding ground for the Skerti?
The Ancient's desperate warning on that black box recording suddenly made even more worrying sense than before.
Was Pegasus about to become a vicious battleground between the Skerti and Wraith?
Had it already started?
He tried to push away the rising sense of panic at knowing Teyla was heading out to the Skerti' last known location. He had to focus on the fact that he had some actual intel now, and the Sythus was still in Alliance space, so they had plenty of time to get this info to the Elite and out to her and Sythus. It wasn't a great deal of intel on fighting the Skerti, but it was far more than he'd had earlier. Though...
John looked at the Abbot walking silently now beside him. "So, is there anymore to the story someone...I mean, that you dreamed about?" He asked.
The Abbot didn't answer straight away, his attention fixed on the side of the Jumper as they reached the ship. John watched the man smile as he reached out and flattened one palm against the Jumper's outer hull.
"In my dreams," the Abbot finally replied, "I would imagine myself to be someone who would have worked tirelessly to try to make things better, to test boundaries and push against our limited understandings."
John looked from the guy's hand on the Jumper to his face.
"That maybe," the Abbot continued as he looked round at John, "Chaya is not the only one who struggled with such things. And maybe where she is unable to help you, another may do so."
John froze in place. "Who are you?" He asked.
"Someone who, if such dreams were true," the Abbot smiled almost mischievously, "might have left some details of interest in a secret place hidden in Atlantis. A place that even the Council could not find."
Suddenly John remembered exactly where he'd seen this man's face before, and it definitely hadn't been here on Proculus. No, it had been on a holographic record. He couldn't remember any more details than that, but he could remember the man's face from the long list of Ancients they'd recently gone through in Atlantis' database when they'd been trying unsuccessfully to ID the Ancients in the black box recording that had warned about the Skerti.
"You're an Ancient," John stated out loud.
The Ancient smiled as he looked back to where his hand was still resting on the Jumper. The back hatch of the Jumper suddenly started opening without John having triggered it and he could hear the Jumper powering up inside.
"You'll need help finding my hidden workroom," the Ancient said. "I believe Dr Daniel Jackson would be best placed to know where to look."
"Dr Jackson, okay," John nodded eagerly. A real life Ancient in front of him who knew everything they needed to know and apparently could help where Chaya couldn't.
He really should ask a ton of questions.
"How come you can help us when Chaya can't?" John asked first. "Aren't there like non-interference rules for all of you?"
"Chaya has considerable restrictions placed upon her because of her past choices," the Ancient replied, "whereas the rest of us have more free will, and past promises we need to keep."
John frowned at that. Past promises?
"And after all," the Ancient added with a tilt of his head, "I am just sharing a dream I once had, and perhaps suggesting a place to look. I'm not telling you anything you wouldn't have found on your own eventually."
John considered the loophole. "In your hidden workroom in Atlantis...?"
The Ancient nodded as he finally lowered his hand from the Jumper, but John noticed the ship stayed powered up; in fact, he was pretty sure he could hear the DHD dialling inside.
"There are a great deal of very interesting things to find and discover in my workroom," the Ancient said as he turned to face John, "but, knowing visitors will now find it, I have tidied up a few things first." The Ancient smiled like it was some sort of joke.
"O-kay," John nodded. "Or maybe you could just come back to Atlantis with me now, point out where this secret place is?"
The Ancient slid his hands back into the sleeves of his robe with a smile. "There are still some restrictions I have to follow. I am just offering suggestions, nothing more."
"You don't want to perhaps suggest any particular sections of the city where we should start looking?" John tried to prompt him.
The Ancient chuckled. "I like you Colonel Sheppard."
So that was a no, but hell John had something real now finally. But he still didn't quite get how this Ancient was getting away with what seemed a little more than just sharing some suggestions.
"Why now?" John asked.
The Ancient's smile dropped into seriousness. "I heard your arguments to Chaya during your previous visits here, and there are plenty among my kind who share my view that we have a responsibility to help repair some of the damage we unintentionally left behind us. Though it is not our place to just simply change things we don't like, there are some...unique...situations where we are able to advise and suggest."
"Seems like a real fine line," John considered.
The Ancient nodded. "And one that Dr Weir and I faced a long time ago when the survival of Atlantis itself was at stake."
John almost dropped his mouth open. Suddenly the reason why the guy's holographic image had stood out among all the others made so much more sense: he had been the Ancient the elderly version of Dr Weir had told them about; the Ancient who had helped her save the city.
"You're Janus?" John checked.
Janus smiled as he took two steps backwards. "It was nice to meet you, Colonel Sheppard," he said as he lifted his arms out to his sides.
John knew this routine, having seen Chaya do it a couple of times, and he stepped back a pace as Janus transformed instantly into a bright white cloud of light, briefly blinding John before he looked away. His vision clear again, John watched as the glowing swirling mist that was Janus lifted up into the sunny bright sky above him and vanished.
"Thanks," John called out belatedly.
Damn it, he should have asked so many more questions!
But he had the important answers he needed right now and a proper lead about the Skerti. Finally!
He rushed around and into the Jumper, scurrying as fast as he could to get into his seat and, yep just like he'd suspected, the DHD was glowing. Janus had helpfully dialled the address to Atlantis for him.
Finally he had something real. Something to help Teyla and everyone else.
The Jumper's back hatch was still closing as he lifted the Jumper up into the sky, soaring up through the thin wispy clouds over Proculus.
John triggered the radio. "Atlantis, this is Sheppard," he called out, barely able to contain his excitement.
They finally had something.
"Colonel," Sumner's voice came back over the radio. "You finally given up?"
"No, Sir," John replied eagerly as the Jumper reached orbit in record time and he headed towards the glowing Gate. "I've got something really good."
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THE END