— HIDDEN RESOURCES —
PART FOUR: KNOWLEDGE IS POWER
A few moments of tense silence followed the revelation, with Teyla looking at Shepard, McKay bending his head into his hand to hide his eyes and Ford trying to remain standoffish...without really succeeding. The Governor kept her back to them for almost a full minute, staring fixedly at the ashes of Decualion, before finally lowering her eyes away from the sight. With a sigh, she then shifted them back to the four people now standing in front of her desk. The look of distress and pity on their faces was not lost on her.
"What happened," Teyla asked softly. The older woman shrugged.
"We had no warning, none at all," she leaned against the wall by the side of the window, her head shaking slightly as she looked outside again. "The Wraith were early, decades early. How could we have known?" She paused, looking back at them, then shrugged. Stepping forward, she rested her hands on the back of her chair, her tone calmer now that she was no longer looking out the window.
"You see, normally, our people do not live here. Deucalion is much too small for the size of our population to exist comfortably for more than a short period of time, but it is usually enough time to outlast a culling. So, again, normally, we would only come here just before a Wraith cycle was about to occur, because, until now, the Wraith have always been predictable. We take shelter inside Deucalion, inside its many tunnels and bunkers below the real mesa's surface, tightly packed but safer than we would be outside the city's walls—because of the Weapon. The ruined structures you see above ground here were meant for brief occupation only—our people rotate, those brave enough to risk being above ground during the culling and incapable of not seeing the sun for too long—they live in them. Or they would have."
"How many have you lost?" Teyla asked quietly.
"Many. As soon as the first probes appeared, people started moving as fast as they could to get here, but we were too spread out. Worse, without the Weapon, Deucalion is even more vulnerable than the outside world, because the illusion is intended to attract the Wraith, like a pet shamra to bright light, and it did exactly that. By the time the first evacuees made it to the entrances, the Wraith ships had already come and were inside." She turned again to the window, staring once more to the devastation below.
"They came in through the illusion's walls...and shot fire from their ships. Whether or not they remembered about the Weapon, they obviously knew that this city was too advanced to be condoned, and so simply tried to destroy everything they could see. To teach us a lesson, I suppose. The people unlucky enough to arrive here at that time, or were trying to get in...died." She shook her head. "The Wraith left after seeing most of the city on fire, but they will be back--to start the culling. All they need are the right ships—the big ones—which I keep expecting to look up and see at any given moment." Her eyes lifted to the blue sky, "They know the Weapon will not work now, and they will take advantage. People are still flocking here from across our world, but they are only making it worse for themselves and easier for the Wraith. They don't understand the danger, and though I have tried over and over again to tell them, I may as well be talking to the mesa itself." Her head lowered, her eyes shut. "The Wraith will come, whether it be hours or days; they will come and they will take as many as they can."
"But," Shepard sat back down, and the other three followed suit, "why doesn't your weapon work? The illusion is obviously working--why was the trap not sprung as soon as the Wraith came?"
"The illusion is constantly maintained," she replied, looking over at him before shifting around and also settling herself back in her chair behind her desk. "It requires no additional work to make it function, and the machines generating it are buried deep within the real mesa's walls where even we can't reach them. It is just always there. The Weapon, however, needs someone to trigger and guide it, from the inside. There was no one here to do so, when the Wraith came. And now it is too late."
"You mean they succeeded in destroying it?" Shepard asked.
She frowned, and then the strangest thing happened. Something seemed to spark behind her eyes, and they suddenly shifted to McKay. He flinched a little at her gaze.
"How did you open that window?" she asked abruptly.
He frowned, "I didn't." He pointed to the still open window behind her, "You did."
"Not that window," she waved a hand impatiently, "I mean the one in the perimeter wall."
"Oh...the window...you mean, in the illusion?"
"Yes. How did you do that?" Her stare was penetrating.
"Uh..." McKay was honestly confused by the sudden change in topic, and he looked to Shepard for guidance.
"Why do you care?" Shepard asked the Governor, taking his cue from the doctor. "From what we saw, you can open windows in the illusion as well."
Her gaze flicked back to the major, her lips pressed in a grim line. She looked back at McKay, who's expression was merely curious, then again at the major, who's expression was now one of suspicion. Her eyes lifted up to her colonel still standing in the background, but the man wouldn't meet her eyes. The Governor gritted her teeth, her jaw muscles flexing. Finally, she sighed.
"Okay," she looked directly at Shepard, "at this point, admitting the extent of our helplessness to total strangers can't be any worse than what will happen when the Wraith return." She lifted her hand and indicated the room around her, "All of this," she began, "was built by another race, long before my people ever came to this world. We were originally brought here by the Wraith over half a millennia ago. Once here, we discovered Deucalion by accident, and, from the pictographs written down in what we call the hall of ages, figured out how to use the Weapon to defend ourselves. Since that time, we have used it to save ourselves from the Wraith on numerous occasions. Some have tried to learn how the machinery controlling the illusion and the Weapon work, but we are simply not advanced enough, and lack of access and fear of breaking it has curtailed our efforts. For many, though, simply knowing that they work was good enough. Now, that reliance on their simply "always working" could prove to be our downfall." She looked at McKay, "Control panels allow us to open windows in the illusion, but we have no idea how they really work. You, however, have apparently managed to access the illusion without one. How?"
McKay shrugged, "Well, see, I can—"
"Hold on a moment, doctor," Shepard interrupted, cutting off McKay again as he focused on the woman opposite him, "you haven't answered my question from before, Governor. Why do you care?"
Her eyes narrowed as she leaned forward on the desk again, and the spark was back in her eyes as she answered: "Because, major, as you have obviously guessed, the Weapon was not destroyed. At least," she grimaced, "not as far as we know. After the Wraith attacked, something we have never seen before happened. When we went to inspect the Weapon, to see if it was even still there, we found some sort of...shield, I guess you call it...had formed. The doorway is open, but something that looks like liquid metal has blocked it. This shield radiates heat, and, when we tried to go through it, it left burns and welts too severe to treat. I assume this shield may have protected it from the Wraith's weaponry and, if they ever landed, the Wraith themselves, but we do not know how to shut it down, nor do we know whether the Weapon did in fact survive without harm." She looked at McKay, "But perhaps, if you can open a window in our illusion, you might find a way to lower the shield and discover if the Weapon is still functional?"
McKay's eyebrows rose, and he turned blue eyes to the major. There was no mistaking his expression, especially when the hint of a smile touched his lips. This sounded like a challenge, and McKay loved challenges. The scientist grinned smugly back at the Governor.
"I don't see why not," he agreed readily. "For someone of my abilities, I can't imagine—"
"McKay!" Shepard snapped, "Hold on there. Nothing is decided yet."
The scientist blinked at the order, obviously confused, and turned a questioning gaze to the major. Shepard also felt Teyla and Ford's eyes on him, both also clearly bewildered by his negative reaction. Teyla, in particular, he could feel. He already knew what side she would argue, and she was probably dying to voice it.
But, however up front these people were being, for some reason, as soon as the Governor has started in on McKay, warning bells had gone off in Shepard's mind. It was nothing obvious, but something about the Governor seemed...false to him all of a sudden. He cleared his throat.
"Look, before McKay touches anything, how about letting us see this hall of ages you spoke of? It might give us a better idea of—"
"I can't. I'm sorry," she said, shaking her head despondently, "like almost everything else in this city, it was destroyed in the attack."
Shepard's expression tightened, breathing slowly out of his nose at the information. The sense of being lied to...or at least of not being told the whole truth...was growing stronger. The Governor licked her lips, her hands moving to press palm down on the top of the desk. The same unnerving stare that she had favored McKay with earlier was now fixed on the major.
"Major Shepard, please. I will not force you to help us, in part because I do not think our weapons could stand up to yours, and in part because all that would really accomplish is more death. I don't want that. I only ask that you allow Doctor McKay to see if he can find a way to fix the Weapon. There are thousands of lives depending on it. Please."
The muscles jumped in the Major's jaw.
"Please," she pressed, "do not condemn us if you can offer aid. Please."
"You do realize that just moments ago, when we asked for aid, you were trying to get us to leave," he noted slowly. "Insisting that you couldn't help us. Now, however—"
"I am aware of that, yes," she replied, blushing a little. "But that's the nature of a politician, Major. We have to be changeable, to keep up with the winds."
"You mean," the major's eyes were still narrowed, "because now that it looks like we can help you, you need us to stay."
She gave a small smile in response, and nodded with a shrug, "Yes."
Shepard's face scrunched up, reacting both to her and to his own worries. But just seconds later, his face relaxed again, and, with a sigh, he frowned at her.
"Okay." He turned to look at McKay, "Go ahead. See if you can fix it, but be careful." McKay grinned as Shepard looked past him to Ford, who was standing over the doctor, "I want you with him at all times—don't let him out of your sight. He's your responsibility, understand?"
"Yes sir," Ford stood more at attention at the command, while the doctor tilted his head up to look at the lieutenant. Neither man quite understood the concern the major was showing, but, truth be told, they both trusted Shepard to know what he was doing.
The Governor grinned, unable to stop herself as Shepard turned his eyes back on her. "Thank you, major," she said. "You have returned hope to—"
"Not yet, Governor." He stood up abruptly then, and Teyla rose with him where she had been sitting to his right. McKay stayed seated, staring up at Shepard. "I need to consult with my own people, tell them what we've found here." When the Governor opened her mouth to argue, he held up a hand. "You trusted us this far, ma'am, I ask you keep doing so. I am giving you the help of our best mind; people at home will want to know why."
She grimaced, then nodded, "I understand. Will you need to return to your ship in order to do so?"
"Yes. If you could show Teyla and I out of the mesa, then after we reach the ship, I will send Teyla back here. When she returns, I would like you to tell her absolutely everything you can about what the Wraith did here, including the exact timing of the attack."
Teyla turned her deep eyes to the Governor, who met them, and nodded. "All right, if you think it will help."
"Knowledge is always helpful, Governor Borin," Teyla replied, smiling again. "It can be as powerful as any weapon, if used well."
The Governor tried to match her smile, but it was weakly done. "I will see that you are escorted down and out of Deucalion," she said, "and welcomed upon your return."
"Thank you."
Half an hour later, Major Shepard and Teyla were once more in the thick forest, nearing the cloaked Puddle Jumper. Both walked with their hands on their weapons, alert for anything—the major because he was still distrustful of the Governor, and Teyla because she was worried about the possibility of the Wraith once more returning without warning.
"You know," Shepard was watching the trees for movement, in case they were being followed, "we were teasing you with them earlier, but you almost quoted one of our more famous idioms back there."
"Oh?" Teyla watched the trees on the other side.
"Knowledge is power."
She smiled, nodding, "Now that is an idiom I understand." The she frowned a little, "Tell me, Major, why I understand in general why you wish me to question Governor Borin about the Wraith's attack, I feel there is more here than just a desire for, as your people put it, 'intel.'"
"Well, in response to that, I have another idiom for you."
"All right."
"Better safe that sorry."
She smiled again, "Ah."
"Perhaps it's because Deucalion is designed to trap the unwary by using illusion," he shrugged, "but I just couldn't shake the feeling that there was something more they weren't telling us. Something else hidden that they didn't want us to know."
"I saw no dishonesty in their dealings with us," Teyla replied. "The Governor in particular seemed very forthright in her meeting with us."
"I know--that's what worried me."
"I do not understand."
"As she said herself, Governor Borin is a politician, Teyla. Telling the truth is not often in a politician's nature. Especially not at a time like this."
"A time like this? But I would think a time like this is when the truth is most needed."
"That is because you are a different kind of leader, Teyla, and because, from what I can tell, your people value honesty very highly. I did not get that same sense from Governor Borin."
Teyla frowned. It was true—her people did not lie, or at least, they did so rarely. Their lives had been too difficult, leaving little occasion for lying. It was probably why she was always willing to accept other people at their word. It did not come as naturally to her as it did to Shepard to doubt the intentions of others.
"We have a third saying," Shepard said, "that may explain better what I mean." He frowned, "Needs must when the devil drives."
"The devil?"
"Pretend I said Wraith. It means, in essence, that events can compel you to do things that you may not want to. The people here are desperate, and I don't like that. They may not want to lie to us, but if they feel it is the only way to save themselves, they may well do so."
"And you think they have?"
"I don't know. I just don't think they told us everything they know."
Teyla sighed.
"Look," the major smiled a little as the field came into view where the puddle jumper was cloaked, "I know that you feel responsible for the situation these people are in. We woke the Wraith, and they came here before these people were prepared to face them, but there is nothing we can do about that now. All we can do is what we are doing. I just want us to be careful, that's all. I need you to keep your eyes open."
"I understand," Teyla replied.
"Good. Now listen," Shepard walked up to where he instinctively knew the back hatch to be, and reached out a hand to touch the side, "what I want you to do is to stay with the Governor as much as possible. Ford can watch out for McKay at the ground level, but I need you to watch out for the two of them from above."
"I will do so," she said. "And I will, as you say, keep my eyes open."
Shepard gave her a smile, then a nod.
"See you in a bit," he said. "Probably back within the hour. I already told Ford that you're in charge while I'm briefing Weir."
She nodded in acceptance and raised a hand as he disappeared into the invisible hatch, vanishing from sight. Turning, she headed back towards the hidden city, her ears picking up the now familiar drone of the puddle jumper as it rose in the air and headed back to the stargate...and back to Atlantis.
TBC