Stargate: Atlantis; The Alternate First Season
By WeaverOfDreams777
Rating: PG-PG13
Genre:Action/Adventure
Disclaimer: I do not own Stargate:SG1 or Stargate:Atlantis.
Warning: This story is not meant to fit the storyline set forth by the producers of Stargate. It is AU, Alternate Universe. If you don't like that, don't review. You don't have to read it.
Than's for your review, Raven2004, your request has been granted. D
Shi Aka: Shee-Ahkah; Red Death (Japanese)
Chapter five: Wraiths and Ranking Officers
The hour had arrived. Jerhun had disabled the security codes for this one function, and after this, no one would be able to arrive or leave without a beacon. Jerhun stood in ranks with the rest of the millitary personell, straight and tall and in full battle gear. He matched well.
A stable wormhole was generated, and men and supplies began to march though it. Some female nurses were dispersed between the ranks, and Dr. Jackson, like a nervous mother hen, darted to and fro with this and that. Twelve men, dressed in urban camoflage, stepped through gate in tight formation, heavy packs on their backs and silenced M-16 A2 assault rifles in their hands. Sheppard inhaled sharply at the sight of this team.
"S.E.A.L.s." he thought. "Damn. They probably all rank higher than I. O'Niell wasn't kidding."
The S.E.A.L. team leader saluted Sheppard smartly, and Sheppard could almost hear the heavy heels of the combat boots click together.
"Captain Lawrence H. Crawford reporting for duty to Major John Sheppard." he drawled, an obvious Texan.
"As I'm sure General O'Niell arranged already, I resign command to you, Captain Crawford."
"Now Major, just because I outrank you does not mean I'm here to assume command. You're a chickenfarmer, I'm a squid. I'll take care of the sea, you handle the air. I believe we can each manage our respective domains without interference."
The massive S.E.A.L. stuck out his hand to Sheppard with a smile.
"Call me Larry."
Sheppard grinned.
"John."
Four strapping young men brought in sonar equipment.
"Submarine sonar technicians." Larry whispered to John. "They're cracked, for sure, but not a bad lot to have about. They can fix their equipment like no others."
Various other representatives of various other branches of service from many other countries filed in. Two depleted ZPM units were trundled in last. The gate shut down, and 300 new people with loads of supplies filled the halls and the entire gate room. Jerhun reinserted the security code containing circut boards. A S.E.A.L stopped the blind hybrid in his tracks.
"Captain, this one isn't part of the expedition." said the S.E.A.L.
Captain Crawford turned from Sheppard, looking Jerhun over, and ignoring the muffled laughter of the original team members.
"Well, I do believe you are right, Anderson. Mr. Jerr Hun, you've got five minutes to explain yourself."
Jerhun looked confused.
"Explain myself? Whatever do you mean?"
"Are you a stow away, boy?"
Weir stepped in.
"Stop picking on Jerhun, for goodness sake! He's blind! If it wasn't for him, you wouldn't be here, he fixed the ZPM."
"My apologies." Captain Crawford said, offering Jerhun a handshake. Jerhun couldn't see the Colonel's hand, let alone shake it. Slightly put out at being rebuffed, Crawford started to round up the new personell and assign them where they belonged. They would be living in various areas of the city
"That Jerhun fellow is a cold fish, what made him go blind? Why does he still act sighted?" Crawford asked Sheppard.
"I almost killed him. It was an accident, really, I knew that the drugs we gave him would make him ill, but I didn't realize that they could kill him so easilly. He ran a very high fever, he was lucky to live, and he has been unable to see since. He acts like he's sighted, because in a manner of speaking, he still is. He has some telepathic or psionic ability, he can read minds to a certain extent, and that can tell him what he needs to know. In a way, he sees through everyone else's eyes." Sheppard admitted. "He's becoming indispensable. The most interesting thing is that he holds no grudges, he still helps us as freely as he helped us before, and maybe his attitude is better, even. You'll warm up to him. He's actually a very normal individual, all things considered. His father, Gonfalon, on the other hand, is just a little whacked."
"What do you mean, 'all things considered'?"
"He's one quarter Wraith, and the Wraith are the enemy we're fighting right now. In his defense, he's also one quarter human, and half Ancient. He's very trustworthy."
Jerhun was merely twenty feet away, trying to help move equipment, being constantly rebuffed due to his blindness. Finally, with a sigh the young hybrid turned to the ZPMs. He pulled off the coverplates and ran his hands over the internal mechanisms. Beckett came over to help, a large bag of tools shared between them. The ZPM slowly came apart, and Jerhun modified circuts and pulled out of his equipment the pieces that would make the ZPMs function faster and better, providing more power. Lawrence Crawford watched with mild interest.
He had other things to do, unfortunately, so he couldn't stay and watch Jerhun right now.
The flurry of activity had settled down, and McKay had finally found a respite from his studies of their captive Wraith. Now he was wracking his brain to find a cure for Jerhun's blindness. Beckett thought he was nuts, which really wasn't too far from the truth, and the new medical officers didn't yet have time to examine an alien being.
If McKay had been honest with imself, he would know he was a bit obsessed with this idea of restoring Jerhun's sight.
"Not all Jerhun sees is darkness. He may not see the light and color that you and I do, but he sees something far better, he sees the reflection of your soul. Would you take that from him and make him subject to the mere shadows we see?" McKay remembered Gonfalon saying that. It didn't make sense, which, coming out of Gonfalon's mouth, wasn't unusual. McKay didn't believe in 'souls'. He was a scientist, such paltry fairy tales were just that, fairy tales. Scientific facts were as important to him as breathing, but religion had nothing to do with his life. He was too enlightened for that.
Beckett was a Catholic, though. And all the new members of the S.E.A.L. team were deeply religious. As these thoughts flitted through his mind, Jerhun walked up to him.
"Would that you could see the world through my eyes, Dr. McKay." Jerhun's voice echoed over McKay's thoughts. "I do not wish for my sight back, I am quite content to get along without it. Why should you be so obsessed with giving back to me something which I do not miss?"
McKay had really never though of it in that way before.
"Come with me. I want to show you what I see." Jerhun said suddenly, grasping McKay's shoulder. Darkness filled McKay's eyes, and he clung to Jerhun's arm in order to remain balanced and so he wouldn't trip over anything.
"Do you see anything yet?"
"No."
"In a moment you will. Tell me what you see."
A brilliant light in the shape of a man strode through McKay's line of sight.
"I see a bright figure walking by."
"That's Commander Jason Odgers."
"I see a bluish light walking by."
"That's Teyla. Look closer, doesn't she look strange?"
Teyla's form emerged from the blurr. She looked skeletal and somewhat Wraith-like.
"Yes she does! Why does she look like that?"
"Her spirit is in decay. Com. Jason Odgers has a strong spirit."
Another bright light crossed his visual area. This one was a warm yellow light.
"Okay, I see another."
"That's Lieutenant Raymond Brooks, he's one of the S.E.A.L.s."
"You see such strange things, Jerhun. How do you tell these people apart?"
"I get to know them. And to me, Dr. McKay, the reflection of your spirit looks much like Teyla's. Stop letting your obsession with restoring my sight consume you. Even if you could restore my sight, I wouldn't let you."
Luminious green eyes hovered in front of McKay's, and in their depths, McKay could see his own reflection. It frightened him. It faded, until McKay realized Jerhun himeself was standing there in front of him, and it was into those eyes he was staring. Jerhun's soft dark curls feathered around his face, framing it and drawing McKay's attention to his eyes. Jerhun blinked, and the spell was broken.
Jerhun turned and walked away.
Nurse Emily McEachren had never seen anything quite like this slavering Wraith. The team had fed it some of the indigenous animals, and it had eaten, but its bloodlust was not slakened. Emily's hair was caught up in a tight, orderly braided bun at the nape of her neck, which easilly concealed its length. Her hair was a soft auburn, it was quite obviously a token of her Irish heritige. She was an Irish Protestant, too, so she and Dr. Beckett didn't always see eye to eye.
She was, however, fascinated by this Wraith, and by Kamil and Jerhun. Sometimes she had a fleeting concern that Jerhun was watching her, maybe even stalking her. But she knew for a fact that he couldn't see her, so he probably didn't even consider her worth paying any extra attention to. He was usually nearby, working on something, and since he was the go-to maintainence man, that was no surprise. He'd never spoken to her, though.
Even as she mulled this over, Jerhun was working on a maze of wires within an access panel. She watched the Wraith inside the containment cell as he tried to stave off boredom by scratching abstract designs in the surrounding walls.
"His name is Shi Aka," Jerhun said quietly, without turning to face Emily. "Red Death."
He closed the access panel and stood.
"Would you like to see him closer, Miss?"
"Are you insane? He would eat me!" Emily exclaimed.
"I won't let him. You'll be safe with me."
Strangely, Emily felt that Jerhun was not making an idle boast. He was perfectly serious somehow.
"Yes, I would like to see him closer. But oh, be careful!"
"Well then, come with me."
"But, I thought you were going to bring him up to the observation window..."
"No. You can't appreciate him from out here. I promise he won't hurt you, Miss. I feed him, he knows me."
"You speak as if he were some kind of animal, a lower life form."
"Do I? Forgive me, I do not intend to speak so. I have great respect for him. If I didn't, he would have eaten me by now. I don't fear him, however."
"Well, I fear him."
"You have nothing to fear. Would you feel better if I brought him out here? Dr. Weir prefers to have him brought to her as well. Major Sheppard likes to go to him rather than have him outside his cell."
"I see. I think I will follow Major Sheppard's preference."
Shi Aka's blood red hair fell to the small of his back, his orange eyes malicious until he saw that Jerhun was his visitor. It did him no good to be malicious toward Jerhun, it was a battle between two immortals, a battle that could last forever, or as long as their strength held out. Emily could appreciate the male Wraith so much better now. The muscles in his arms rippled with power, were he not blue and vicious, perhaps he could be a movie star back on earth. (So long, Brad Pitt!) Come to think of it, he could still be a movie star, they would just have to replace the actors frequently.
Really, the Wraith was as beautiful to look at as he was terrible to behold. Maybe he was even as beautifully formed as he was evil,but that was certainly open to debate. Were she an artist, she probably would have spent hours sketching him. One of the other RNs, Tsuki Yamagata, was an artist, and she had already sketched Shi Aka for three hours the day before. Emily wondered how Shi Aka liked all the extra attention. Maybe Tsuki just made him hungry. Come to think of it, were Emily in Shi Aka's possition, Tsuki might look like grade A beef cattle to her. That was not a comfortable thought.
Camilla Crawford, Captain Crawford's sister, was an artist and cartographer. Shi Aka would surely have met his match in her, were he so foolish as to go after her. Camilla had red-brown hair and hazel eyes, she was altogether unremarkable except for her height. She was almost six feet tall. Camilla's mission was to map the planets the team visited and to journal what the indigenous climates, animals, and peoples were like. Emily wondered how Shi Aka would react to her own touch, if the Wraith were really so heartless. Jerhun's hand gripped her shoulder.
"I would that you could get that close, but Shi Aka and I have an agreement. He won't eat you if you content yourself with just looking." he said gently.
Shi Aka's firey eyes seemed to flare for a moment, then he turned away.
Emily accepted that this interview was over, and allowed Jerhun to lead her out of there.
Camilla was seated in a chair next to the glass when Emily was leaving, and she had a drawing tablet in her lap, with a whole box of three hundred colored pencils.
Emily felt tired, and headed to her dwelling.
Camilla tapped the glass lightly, drawing Shi Aka's attention to herself. Shi Aka came to the glass, recognizing the tall, proud woman. She had come to this window every night since the day he was captured. He'd come to trust her in a sense.
"Hello, Shi Aka. You look better today, no headaches?" she said softly.
Shi Aka's sharp hearing caught her words, and he replied as best he could that he did feel better.
"Want to see your picture?" she asked, flipping through the drawing tablet.
Shi Aka nodded eagerly, this human intrigued him. Camilla found the picture and held it up to the glass for Shi Aka to appraise. In the drawing, Shi Aka was hanging upside down from one of the bars on the wall, like had had been doing to amuse himself the day before. Camilla put her hand up on the glass opposite Shi Aka's. She knew how much the Wraith liked that. Shi Aka loved the warmth of a human's palms, it felt so nice. After interacting with the captive Wraith for almost half an hour, Camilla glanced at her watch.
"It's late, Shi Aka, you should go to sleep now. I'll see you tomorrow. Would you like the light off or on?"
"Off." rasped the creature behind the glass.
"Okay. Good night. Don't eat anything you shouldn't."
Shi Aka affected an innocent look. It basically said 'Now what are you talking about?"
"Anyway, see you tomorrow, Red."
Camilla turned out the light and left the room. Shi Aka obeyed her directive and went to bed.
In the darkness, Kamil was watching. A plot was beginning to form in her head, a plot to wreak her vengance on these humans and the Ancients who had held her captive for so long. Shi Aka would simply be a tool. She smiled wickedly. She was more intelegent than the Ancients had ever dreamed, more intelegent that Shi Aka easilly. Her vengance would be swift.