Kate K: Thanks for the spelling heads up (I'm really crap at spelling :-P) however, in regards to the character of 'Peter Grodin' while British, is of Asian origin (from India I do believe). I read recently that Craig Veroni, the actor who plays Grodin was originally going to be a 'scientist of Indian birth with a British education', but he dropped that and made him just British.
Authors Note: Now I'll be a good little lustmuppet and get all you desperate people off the cliff...but as they say, 'out of the frying pan, into the fire!!' -evil laugh-
Warnings & Disclaimers: See previous chapters
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Chapter 5
Blaise felt his Father's fear before hearing Khlan's approach.
"Father!" The boy relinquished his grip on his sister, who wriggled free and dashed towards the sound of approaching voices. Blaise remained rooted to the spot, unwilling to let Erin out of his sight.
"Blaise! Kiera! Erin!"
The shouting ceased for a moment, as the boy listened to the deep rumble of his parent's voice and knew his sister had found the arms of safety. More men called for him, emerging onto the bank before Blaise could reply, his twin leading the way. Khlan wasn't far behind, carrying little Kiera. He rushed to his son's side, dropped to his knees and gripped the boy's arm.
"Blaise where is Erin?"
The boy pointed to the river and watched the colour drain from his father's face. Rising to his smoothly to his feet, Khlan handed Kiera to one of his companions and dashed to the waters edge, two others joined him.
"Erin! ERIN!" The big man felt his heart ache with fear.
Out in the river Erin was struggling to hold on; cold had eaten into her limbs, sapping their strength. She shivered uncontrollably and could do nothing but hold on to the body in her arms, desperately trying to keep both their heads above water. Her father's voice continued calling, she focused on it and called back, scared to realise how weak her own had become. What seemed like moments later Khlan and others splashed into the water beside her.
"Danu, take the stranger from Erin." The man instructed, pulling his daughter's stiff fingers from their death grip on the logs.
More men had arrived on the shore and were already making their way towards the rocks. Danu pulled the stranger gently from Erin's grip, exposing the broken arrow shaft protruding from his chest. Others arrived to help, taking the bodies with them and dragging the two men, supported by the water carefully between the rocks towards the shore.
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Sheppard felt his body growing warm, somewhere in his mind basic first aide training told him this was the last stage of hypothermia. Out of the various ways he could go, including some funky alien bug sucking the life out of him, this wasn't half bad, almost cozy. But as the warmth spread, the pain in his side and leg returned. Funny they hadn't mentioned this in class; it was cold, numb, warm then dead, not cold, numb, warm then...OUCH! Someone or something poked him in the side.
For the first time Sheppard realised he wasn't in the freezing water anymore and the sun was back to beating at the back of his eyelids. Someone poked him in the side again and this time he managed to squeeze out a weak protest.
"He is alive Khlan!" The voice sounded surprised, he wasn't the only one.
John opened his eyes to find himself flat on his back on the pebbled beach of the river. In the place of the young woman, a shaggy haired youth was examining his side. Another face joined it, a small girl with the biggest, darkest eyes he'd ever seen. She smiled sweetly as if to reassure him. Rolling his head to the side he found Beckett's still form. Someone had cut away the doctor's sodden uniform and wrapped him in brightly coloured blankets.
"Do not be afraid, you and your friend are safe." Another new voice, Sheppard was having trouble keeping up.
Rolling his head to the other side he found the source of the voice and their rescuer wrapped in blanket's like Beckett's, held tightly in the man's arms. He was tall, massive from this point of view, solidly built with piecing blue eyes, short greying hair and strong features.
He struggled to find something to say, tried to say 'thank you' and found although life and feeling were returning to the rest of his body, his mouth was refusing to co-operate.
"Don't try to speak...rest." The man knelt smoothly and placed a hand on his shoulder. The need to sleep rushed over Sheppard like a warm, comforting wave.
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Weir waited anxiously out on the balcony, giving the Ambassador his privacy. If she really wanted, Peter could have monitored the transmission; by the concerned and frustrated look on the British scientists face it seemed she wasn't the only one who'd thought of that. Instead she tried to occupy her mind by starring down at the Stargate, wouldn't it be nice if shear will power alone could open it and bring her people home? Elizabeth's father had often called her stubborn; it was part of what made her a good at her job. But then what her father called stubbornness, her mother called tenacity.
Sgt. Bates had arrived within minutes of being summoned and stood sullenly behind on the balcony, silently fuming. He'd been a mass of questions and only got more agitated when all she could offer in reply was 'we don't know yet'. Weir knew the soldier had held Colonel Sumner in great respect, the death of his friend and superior officer was a blow to all The Officer's men, but Bates seem to be taking it personally. It made the soldier single-minded in his execution of security duties but in the same respect, perfect for the job.
"Dr. Weir. The transmission has ended." Grodin called, standing up from his console. Laric's assistant Daron emerged from the office moments later, along with the ambassadors two security aides who requested to return to their guest quarters.
"The Ambassador would like to speak to you and requests that you allow myself and the rest of his staff to return to Nian, he will remain as your...guest until the situation has resolved itself."
"No one is going anywhere until..." Weir put a hand up to silence Bates.
"That's very generous of the Ambassador, first however I would like a full explanation of what exactly is happening and why my people have been arrested."
"Ambassador Laric is willing to discuss that with you and make 'special' arrangements for their release." The way Daron said 'special' made Weir frown, both the security aides looked at Daron for a brief instant, there was more going on here, the man was trying to tell her something.
"Very well, Sgt. please escort our guests to their quarters."
"Ma'am..." Weir knew the argument was coming before the soldier had a chance to speak and cut Bates off by ignoring him and walking into her office.
The Nian ambassador sat silently and alone behind her desk, elbows resting on the surface as if deep in thought. Weir cleared her throat making the man jump to alertness and rise smoothly to his feet.
"Please Ambassador, sit down." He nodded but moved around the desk and took the guests seat without waiting for Weir to sit. Laric was not trying to hide his emotions and his face was anything but neutral; that more then anything scared Weir. It also intrigued her.
She sat, and waited for the ambassador to speak, by the look on the man's face, he was making a hard decision internally and finding the words to go with it. Finally, after a few moments silence he spoke. "First let me say how truly sorry I am for what has happened." Weir nodded for him to continue. "I'm afraid as first impressions go we have not made the best."
"Just what are you trying to say?"
"You're right, I will tell you want has happened before I try to explain my people's actions." He took a deep breath and continued. "Your people have been taken into custody and are being held by the central security forces. I do not have but the briefest of details however I have experience of these matters and can make...safe conjecture as to what has happened."
"Do you're people 'arrest' their guests often?" Unlike the ambassador Weir did not feel like putting a euphemistic twist on her words.
"I'm sorry Dr. Weir, I know how this may sound. No, my people have few visitors and none approaching our level of civilisation. When you first made contact my people were surprised and eager to learn more. We never stopped to think that what has prevented us from being the victims of 'The Dark Ones' once more would not be practiced by others and therefore affect their safety when visiting our world."
"I assume by 'Dark Ones' you are referring to those we call 'The Wraith'."
"Indeed."
"How would the Wraith have any bearing on this discussion, its obvious that unlike many of the worlds in this galaxy, yours has remained untouched for millennia?"
"It has done so because, in my people's infinite wisdom we have cleansed ourselves of any trace of their ancient enemy, the Tuadudanan." Bitterness now dominated the Ambassadors voice.
A slow understanding started to creep over Weir. "You mean the ATA gene?" Laric looked at her perplexed. "Our scientists, in fact Dr. Beckett himself discovered that a small portion of our home world's population carry a gene that allows them to use the technology left behind by the Ancients...the..."
"The Tuad...The EverLiving Ones."
"The Everliving Ones?"
"I'm sorry the name is more folklore now then truth. It seems these 'Ancients' and the enemies of 'The Dark Ones', we call the Femorian, are two in the same. They too gave their bloodline to some of my people, many, almost all of whom were sought out and destroyed by the Fem...The Wraith millennia ago, before being destroyed by the last of the Ancients."
"How long ago?"
"We are not sure, 6 maybe 7 millennia."
"But that's impossible; we know the last of their kind returned to..." She hesitated to use the name, "...our world 10 thousands years ago."
"The ancient tablets of my people's history tell the same story..." Weir put a hand up to stop Laric proceeding further, this was all overwhelming and beside the point.
"Whatever you're people's history Ambassador and while I would very much like to continue this discussion, the matter at hand is what has happened to my people."
"Indeed Dr. Weir, please forgive me. As I have said, in the last attack those who carried the blood of these...Ancients were sought out and destroyed and countless more of my people taken by the Femorian never to be seen again. In our fear and grief we believed that by removing those the Femorian sought to destroy, we would be safe."
The idea forming in Weir's head finally slotted into place, Beckett and Sheppard both had the ancient gene, but then so did half of the expedition thanks to Beckett's gene therapy. "What are you trying to say?"
Laric sighed again, looked a little ill and continued. "To ensure our people's safety, we have practiced a ritual screening of our children and any of those found to have traces of the bloodline are....removed. It appears that Dr. Beckett was being shown this screening process in one of our medical facilities when it was discovered he was a carrier."
"I assume this lead to the arrest of Sheppard and his team and discovery that the major also carried the gene?"
"Indeed, that is why they are being held separately."
"Held where exactly?"
"Actually not held at all, they have been sent through the gate and made outcasts."
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"How could you be so foolish Erin?"
"There was no time father."
Sheppard awoke slowly, brought to consciousness by the sound of soft voices. His body felt numb again, but this time it was a pleasantly numb, the unreal, drugged numb you felt full of pain meds. Funny this didn't feel like one of the infirmary beds, it was far too comfortable. Flickering light cast patterns on his eyelids, but it was soft and warm, the light of candles and fire.
Listening to the sounds around him, John realised it was night time, the coolness of the air and calling of insects a dead give away. You didn't get insects in Atlantis either. In fact that's one of the things that unnerved him about the place, it was silent, not even the soft hum of machinery to interrupt the night. Halling had once said you could hear the ocean if you listened hard enough; wishful thinking more like.
"You could have been killed!" The man's voice was filled with anguish.
"I couldn't stand by and do nothing."
"I am not questioning your decision or your courage girl, but why, they are strangers."
"No father, they are like us."
"What?" The man seemed surprised.
That got Sheppard's attention, washing away some of the nice fuzziness. For some reason he had a feeling they were talking about something important. He strained to hear more but the voices fell silent and footsteps approached.
"And one of them appears to be awake." The girl whispered softly..
How did she know he was awake? Cracking an eye open Sheppard was pleased to find the light didn't hurt his eyes. A face appeared above him again, which seemed to becoming a habit. The face was that of his rescuer, shoulder length sun kissed, golden brown hair and beautiful eyes, not to mention the most perfect, full, kissable lips. Ok maybe they'd given him a little too much of the happy drug.
"How are you feeling...?"
"John..." He managed to croak, his throat dry.
Funny how nearly drowning could make his throat feel like he'd spent the day in a desert. Without asking a cup was pressed to his lips. He drank carefully, relishing the feeling of cool liquid flowing down his throat.
"Major John...Sheppard...and I'm much better, thank you."
"I am Erin and this is my father Khlan." She replied resting a gentle hand on his forehead and frowning a little.
Sheppard raised an eyebrow wondering about the concerned look but found a lopsided grin he knew the girls loved. Spending more time then he would have liked in the infirmary had given the pilot time to perfect it on the nurses. The Infirmary. Sheppard suddenly tried to sit up, then immediately regretted it as his ribs blossomed to life.
"Be still Sheppard, you are hurt." Khlan moved in closer and tried to push him back into the bed.
"The doc...my friend is he...?"
Despite the pain in his side, and the rather large man trying to push him gently back into bed Sheppard managed to twist and found the doctors still form lying near. They were in a small room, a fire place set into the wall opposite. Beckett's bed was placed along the wall above his head near the stone entrance way. Looking around he realised the whole room was made from blocks of stone, some of it carved like the cliffs.
"He lives..." There seemed more to the sentence and both Khlan and Erin looked grave. "Now you must rest, be concerned for your own health."
Khlan placed a large hand on his shoulder, the warm wave washing over him again. This time Sheppard fought it, but try as he might it dragged him under.
To Be Continued...
N.B. Some of you may have recognised the mythological references, but I'm not going to explain until the end of the story, wouldn't want to spoil any surprises now would we?