14 – Give me Liberty or Death !

(Atlantis – Briefing Room - 06.02.2022, 1347)

Mitchell had finished his story. Woolsey and Doctor Keller had joined Sheppard as he had explained the mission. At first, Woolsey had been skeptical about Mitchell's brief. But then Sheppard had reminded him of the time he had been seen forty-thousand years forward in time. It had been knowledge he had gained in the future that had allowed them to rescue Teyla from a considerable pickle. It had convinced Woolsey. And now all three teams were in the briefing room.

The mission needed a 304-class ship to deliver Mitchell and company to the Liberty. After some discussion, the USS Daedalus had gotten the job. It had been the first ship to be assigned to the Pegasus Galaxy, so it had the most experienced crew of the defense fleet. Which was why she gotten the assignment. Colonel Caldwell was present to represent his ship, while Colonel Ellis represented the rest of the fleet.

"So, you think this plan of yours is going to work ?" Ellis asked.

"It'd better," Vala said. "Or else things will end badly for Atlantis."

"What about the other…." Keller said, before turning to Sheppard. "…you. If we change the timeline, won't the Sheppard and Banks that the Terrans took be deleted ?"

Sheppard didn't answer, only making a face. He knew it was a fair question. But he also knew it wasn't a yes or no question. After all, if the Terrans had taken that Sheppard back home, he would be in another universe. And that might shield him and Banks from whatever changes they made to the timeline of this universe. But it might also NOT shield them.

~In which case, they'll go *poof* as soon as we change history.~ Which might mess up the history of the Terran universe in ways unforeseen. But letting Atlantis get destroyed was not an option either. Before he could ponder it further, Colonel Ellis spoke up again.

"Are you sure that the three teams are enough ?" He asked. "We could send several teams of marines along."

"This needs to be a surgical strike," Mitchell said. "We're trying to safe the Liberty, not conquer it."

"Okay, people, let's get to it," Woolsey said.

Caldwell activated his radio and the Daedalus beamed him and Mitchell's teams up. Then he Ellis activated his radio and he was beamed to the Apollo. This left only Sheppard, Woolsey and Keller in the room. Keller left to prepare the infirmary, while Woolsey was called to Operations Center by Banks. Sheppard would love take his team to join Mitchell's expedition to the Liberty, but he had to oversee the defense of Atlantis. ~Talk about irony.~ So he took a deep breath and followed Woolsey to the Operations Center.

(Sub-Atlantis – Street, Seventh Circle – 13.02.2022, 0945)

Guide was still stuck waiting for a chance to enter the elevator. The good news was that he had not been caught yet, the bad news was that his chances of getting through into said elevator were not good. He could feed on only one of the guards at a time, which meant that the other one would be able to shoot him. Before he could complain internally about this was not going to end well, an alarm sounded. One of the guards reached for his ear, clearly activating some kind of communications device. It was the chance Guide needed. He bolted forward and punched the nearest guard in his face. The man went down. His partner reached for his weapon, but it was too late. Because Guide had reached him already and began feeding on him.

When the man was dead, he grabbed the guard he had knocked out. Next to the elevator was a pad, which was clearly a scanner. He put the guards hand on it and it activated, causing the elevator to open. He dragged the man inside and used his hand to activate the controls. ~Going up.~ The elevator only went up to the Fourth Circle, but Guide was not complaining. Of course, there was the issue of what to do once he reached the highest level.

The elevator reached its destination and the doors opened to reveal….John Sheppard. And he was not alone. Behind him was a group of people, including….himself ? ~Okay, this is….awkward.~ Then he realized that this must be an alternate version of himself. He figured this out so quickly because this was not the first time that something like this had happened. ~But now is not the time for that story.~ Sheppard gave him a look.

"Guide," He said.

"Sheppard," Guide said as he left the elevator and joined the group. He approached the other Guide, who studied him. "Future ? Past ?"

"You are no longer in your universe," The other Guide said. "This version of the galaxy was conquered by the Terrans many years ago."

"So," He turned to Sheppard. "How are we going to escape this place, John Sheppard ?"

"Yeah, about that," He nodded towards the elevator. "You…well, the other you, helped us figure out that our best chance of escape is at the bottom of the this place. So, I guess the question is…do your trust yourself ?"

Guide nodded, while noticing that Teyla was giving Sheppard a look. It appeared that she trusted this other version of Guide. But the look made it clear that she did not trust him. As they entered the elevator, he realized that this was the Teyla from *this* universe. ~A different universe and they are still on the same team.~ He guessed that some thing were indeed…he snickered…~Universal.~ As they made their way down, he made a mental note not to turn his back on her.

(USS Daedalus – Cargo Bay – 06.02.2022, 2230)

Daedalus was in position to intercept the Liberty. They wanted to give the Terrans as little chance as possible to figure out what was going on. And that meant keeping the timing as close to the original as possible. So they had been forced to wait for a couple of hours. To pass the time, Eli and Ginn had been making sure that "Alex" – their dimension hopping machine – was fully functional and had been properly wired into the ship's hyperdrive.

Ten minutes ago, Mitchell had ordered them to wrap it up and make their way to the cargo bay. Which was exactly what they had done. As they waited for the countdown to hit zero, Eli fidgeted with his watch. Which was why he didn't notice Vala approaching him. This resulted him nearly jumping out of his skin.

"Nervous ?" She paused. "I'm Vala, by the way."

"Yeah, this is not really what I normally do," He nodded. "I'm Eli Wallace."

"I know. Just stick with me and you'll be fine."

The PA activated and Colonel Caldwell announced that they were one minute from dimension hopping. The clock hit zero and a bright, blue light permutated the room for a second. As soon as it faded, the Daedalus' hyperdrive engaged. While Eli and Ginn had been checking on Alex, Rush and Volker had been calculating an intercept course that would allow them catch their target. At the same time, Zelenka had done the math on the beam-in coordinates. Two teams would go after the spy, while one team would keep the Goa'uld escape pod with the decoy safe. Caldwell announced that they were approaching beaming range.

"Here we go, boys and girls," Mitchell said.

The transporter activated and they found themselves in an Ori cargo bay instead of a Tau'ri one. ~Well, I guess a cargo bay is a cargo bay, not matter whose ship you're on.~ Besides the three teams, the transporter had also delivered the Goa'uld escape pod and several crates full of supplies. The supplies had been Daniel Jackson's idea. He figured that they would make for a good bargaining chip once they had dealt with the sabotage.

"Well, this is a change of scenery," Eli said.

"Indeed," Teal'c said with a smile.

"NR-7, hold this position. Teal'c, Vala, Wallace and Rush, you're covering port. Jackson, Ginn and TJ, we're on starboard."

Eli nodded and followed Vala and Teal'c out the door. Now it was good, old-fashioned race against the clock. ~Just like in the good, old days about Destiny.~ So maybe he was not as ill prepared for this mission as he had thought.

(Sub-Atlantis – Shaft – 13.02.2022, 1008)

The trip in the elevator had been short and now they were making their way back through the Seventh Circle. But now that they had strength in numbers, they did not have to be as careful as Guide – the non-native one – had been the first time around. So this time, thing were a bit faster. They were now in the shaft that he had used to reach the Seventh Circle. Fortunately for them, the shaft ended at the very bottom of the city. The problem would be getting through the outer wall. Guide was the last to exit the shaft.

"So, now what ?" Teyla asked.

"Now, we find a way out of the city ?"

"And go where ?" Anita asked. "There is nothing out there, but desert. What's our long-term plan here ?"

The honest answer would have been that Sheppard and Banks had not thought that far ahead. Their final goal was to get back to their home universe and warn them about the Terran invasion that Empress Banks was planning. While Guide would warn the Wraith. But there was the little hiccup of actually getting there. ~We'd have to steal a ship with a dimension drive.~ Sheppard figured that their best chance of getting a ship was to start by stealing a puddle jumper. But he also knew that it would probably be the most heavily guarded room in this version of Atlantis. ~Still, it's better than the original answer.~

"We're going to try to steal a Puddle Jumper," Sheppard began. "If there are more habitable places anywhere on this planet, we'll find them."

"And if there aren't ?" Pedro asked, getting him a glare from his mother.

"The Puddle Jumper comes with a computer that control the Stargate," Sheppard said. "So, we have Plan B. By the time the Terrans realize what we're up to, it'll be too late."

Pedro nodded. But before they could steal that Puddle Jumper – which he had still to figure out – they still had to do the whole escaping thing. So Guide led the way towards what he thought was the outer wall. This was confirmed when he spotted a small window. Looking out, he saw the desert. As for getting out, the outer wall was about forty centimeters thick. Which meant that they would need a pretty big blast to get out of here. ~And that will bring a LOT of angry Terrans down on our position.~ A fact that, considering that nobody was armed - Sheppard had lost his weapon during his little trip to the Empress – was rather problematic.

"We need to get through this wall," Teyla said.

"Any ideas ?" Banks said.

Before anybody could answer, there was the sound of energy weapons powering up. The group turned to see Admiral Quinn and a fresh batch of soldiers and security officers. They were aiming their weapons at the potential escapees. ~I should have known it was not so easy.~ Sheppard thought. And once again, they were preparing to unleash a wall of weapons fire.

(Liberty – Corridor - 06.02.2022, 2237)

After the Ori had been defeated, Cameron Mitchell had expected never to set foot on one of their ships again. But here he was, looking for Tyler McNamara. They had a picture of the treacherous engineer, so they knew what their target looked like. As for the rest of the crew, the Liberty had taken heavy losses during their escape from the Terrans. Combined with the fact that it was big ship, it was not surprising that they hadn't encountered any crew yet. Next to him, Ginn had her tranquilizer gun at the ready.

"This feels too easy," She said.

"Don't worry, I've done this long enough to know that it will go horribly wrong soon. Somehow."

They reached a door and Mitchell opened it. It was a supply room. And sitting in the middle of that room was Tyler McNamara. The Engineer appeared to be calibrating this time period's version of 'Alex'. Ginn ended the work by shooting him twice. The saboteur slumped to the floor. She quickly deactivated the device.

"So far, so…," A transporter beam snatched them all up. "….good ?"

The supply room had been replaced by what appeared to be a cargo bay. But it was not the one they had beamed into when they had boarded, because it was much bigger. Besides Mitchell's team, the transporter had also snapped up the others and the Goa'uld escape pod. McNamara and his machine were also present. They were all surrounded by resistance fighters armed with a wide variation of weapons. And they were clearly not happy.

"Like I said, horribly wrong," Mitchell said.

"Indeed," Teal'c added.

Mitchell looked at the people surrounding them and realized that Tomin wasn't amongst them. ~Probably on the bridge, busy captaining the ship.~ Nor was the local version of Daniel Jackson. ~Running what passes for the Sickbay on this ship.~ This gave him the feeling that convincing these people not to shoot them was not going to be easy.

(Sub-Atlantis – Hydroponics Level - 13.02.2022, 1014)

Quinn and his group of unhappy campers were about to vaporize them. ~This is getting REALLY old.~ Sheppard thought. Then the world seemed to ripple. When this ripple touched Quinn and his people, they just….vanished. One moment, they were present. The next, only the escapees and the plants remained.

"Okay, what just happened ?" Sheppard asked.

"The Ori," Banks said.

"No," Zachary – the Ori leader – said as he walked out of from one of the greenhouses. "This was not us. It turns out that we are not the only ones capable of manipulating time. Homeworld Command wasn't happy about Atlantis blowing up, so they did something about it. If you make it back home, you might want to have a conversation with Colonel Mitchell."

"Not that I'm complaining," Banks said. "But if they altered the timeline, how come we haven't been deleted ?"

"That WAS us," Zachary began. "Good luck with the escape."

And with that, Zachary vanished as he done before. This left Sheppard and company to see about their escape. The group set to looking for a way bring the wall down. As they did so, Sheppard wondered how Mitchell had been able to pull this one off. He hoped that he would be able to get back to ask him.

(Liberty – Main Cargo Bay - 06.02.2022, 2242)

The resistance fighters had not fired yet. Apparently, somebody had noticed the familiar faces amongst the group. Which was enough to cause whispers between the group. The piece of technology next to McNamara had also not escaped notice. Mitchell put his gun down and held up his hands. Normally, this was Jackson's part of the plot. But since the local Jackson was a Terran, he figured that it would be better if he did the talking.

"Hi, I'm Cameron Mitchell."

"Commander Mitchell is dead," A woman stepped forward. She was the counterpart of Laura Cadman. "He died when the Phoenix was destroyed. So, who are you ?"

"I'm Cameron Mitchell, I'm just not your Cameron Mitchell. And I can prove it."

"Why should we believe a word you say ?" Cadman drew her sidearm and aimed at Mitchell. "Why shouldn't I simply do my job as Chief of Security and blow you all away ?"

"Because Tomin wouldn't be happy if you killed his wife," Vala said. "Even an alternate one. And you don't have to believe us…," She held up a note. "…you have to believe him."

Keeping her weapon trained on Mitchell, Cadman took the note and opened it. She read whatever it said, then made her way to a control console and pressed several buttons. There was a pause, then a beam swept over Mitchell and the rest of his group. He could hear a series of beeps as the sensors spit out its finding. Cadman ordered everybody to lower their weapons. Then she gave the note to Mitchell. It was written in Tomin's handwriting. ~Run Protocol 117-Alpha on Vala and her people.~ Mitchell figured that this protocol was some kind of scan that identified people from alternate universes.

"Take Mitchell and Vala to the bridge," Cadman ordered. "The rest will stay here and if try anything, they will die."

"Yes, Commander," One of the officers began. "But what about McNamara and…," The man pointed to the dimension hopper. "…that device, ma'am ?"

"Take McNamara to Sickbay, I want Doctor Jackson to take a look at him. The device is to be taken to Main Engineering. Tell Colson to figure out what it is and what it does."

"Yes, ma'am."

The rebels set to their tasks. Some left with Vala and Mitchell, a couple carried away McNamara and a small team took care off the device. Teal'c realized that between these three tasks, half of the people surrounding them had left. He figured that they could take out their captors without losing anybody. But he decided against it. For now, this was up to Mitchell and Vala.