The Prophecy

Chapter 10

A/N: Happy Holidays to those who are celebrating! Since Starstruck-SheylaFan and others asked when the story is finally getting to the Prophecy, it's going to be another three chapters, so in Chapter 13 Teyla will tell them about the Prophecy. But I've already got it written, so it's one update per day.

Lt. Ford looked up. McKay was the last person he wanted to talk to now. After three years on Atlantis, they got along, even were friends, but still, he and McKay had little common grounds and at the moment Ford just wanted to be alone with his own thoughts.

"I see your back from the rescue mission. I take it was a success?"

Ford didn't see how McKay could assume that seeing that he was clearly injured with his arm in a cast, but he could understand that the scientist too was worried about his friends. So he bit back his irritation and answered.

"We got them back, but the Aronans attacked us. We lost three men, the doc is still not sure what's going on with Teyla and John. I got lucky, I only broke my arm, but four of our men got serious burns. Beckett sent me to go and eat something. I'm going down there again as soon as I finish here. We haven't heard anything about how John's

doing yet."

"If you intend to be finished sometime in the near future, maybe you should start eating." McKay pointed out. "I'll get you a fresh bowl. Yours is all cold already." McKay momentarily abandoned his coffee and got up to get his friend another bowl of soup.

"Thanks." Ford was surprised at the sudden act of random kindness. Even after three years, McKay still didn't go out of his way to randomly help people very often. His mind was still either set on science or on himself – or on saving Atlantis, Ford had to admit. McKay had saved them more than once in the past.

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Dr. Beckett sat in his office studying the data on his two most puzzling patients. Telepathy was out of his expertise. But that was what he was here for. A lot of this here were out of his expertise, but he dealt with them, analyzed them and tried to find the best treatment for them. Apparently whatever telepathic influence Teyla and John had been exposed to, it had caused some kind of reaction in their own brains as well. Scans had revealed no bleeding or other sign of injury. Despite the fever that John had already experienced when he had arrived on Atlantis and which had struck Teyla a few hours later,Beckett had found no infection, alien or common to earth.

Now both were unconscious and the only thing he could do was try to keep the fever down, while their neural activity wildly varied, for reason he couldn't even begin to speculate about. For all he knew, it could just be an after effect of the telepathic interrogation techniques of the Aronans. Having done all that he could for now, he made his way to the waiting room, where he was sure he would encounter the rest of the team, eagerly waiting for new on the condition of the two injured team mates. He had only told Lt. Ford to get something to eat earlier, but as he had predicted, he was already back, along with Dr. McKay. Dr. Weir was nowhere to be seen, but she had an entire station to command and had requested his report on all the injured in the rescue mission before the end of the day.

As soon as the waiting half of the team had spotted him, they were on their feat.

"How are they doing? What's wrong with them?"

"They are both still unconscious, but they are stable for the moment. Unfortunately I don't know what's wrong with them. Arona is the first planet on which we had contact with telepaths; there is no way to tell whether their response is typical."

"Telepaths?"

"Yes, John and Teyla were interrogated by telepaths. I already informed Dr. Weir of that. Although their neural activity is irregular there seems to be no actual brain injury. That's all I can tell you for the moment."

"When will they be waking up?" Ford asked anxiously.

"I don't know. We're waiting on the results of some tests that will hopefully tell us more."

"Can we visit them?" this time it was McKay asking.

"I don't see why not. You both have half an hour."

While McKay sat with Teyla, Ford sat down at John's beside. His CO looked truly unwell. He was pale, sweating and his features were drawn as he was in pain, even though he was unconscious and not able to feel pain at the moment. Ford could not help feeling guilty. He had failed as second in command. John had once again risked his life for all of them, acting on the principle: 'The leader is the most expendable member of the team' and had given himself over to the enemy in exchange for their freedom. Now Ford knew there was nothing he could have done to change his mind on the planet, but he could have acted faster one he was back on Atlantis, he should have gotten a rescue team back faster, maybe if he had gotten help for John and Teyla faster, maybe then they wouldn't be in the infirmary now. He couldn't even imagine would it would have been like to be questioned by telepaths. How did you keep a secret from someone how could read your every thought? While he was about to lose himself in his dark musings, suddenly his pager went off. He grabbed it and, looking it the display, saw that Dr. Weir wanted to see him at her office.

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At Dr. Weir's office he was already awaited by her and Sergeant Bates. They asked him to sit down, then Dr. Weir moved to explain the situation.

"As you know, the Aronans pose a significant security risk. We have to assume they know everything that Major Sheppard and Teyla know. We have immediately changed their access codes and warned most of allies. We also warned the teams that are currently off world that the Aronans might try to ambush them. Luckily nothing has happened yet. But of course that doesn't solve our problems."

"Hopefully nothing will happen. Ten minutes ago we were contacted by the Aronan government. Of course we were suspicious and didn't let anyone through, but in their audio transmission, they claimed to have the rebellion under control. Apparently it just took some time to mobilize the military and retake the capital city, as well as to story the rebels' stronghold in the countryside. They offered an apology and are willing to pay restitution for the damages we suffered. They want to talk to us. Here or on their planet, the choice is ours. If we believe them, that is." Sergeant Bates expanded.

Ford was puzzled. He normally wasn't included in discussion at this level. Vaguely he realised that with John in the infirmary, he was the temporary military leader of the city.

"We invited you to this security meeting as you are the acting military leader of Atlantis for the moment and as it stands Major Sheppard will be down for some time." Dr. Weir explained as she saw Ford's puzzled expression. "What is your take on the Aronans? Do you think we can trust them?"

"Well, I was not directly dealing with them." Ford avoided the question, still dealing with the guilt about having failed as 2IC on this mission.

"According to the mission protocol you were present during all of Major Sheppard's dealing with government officials, so you must have an opinion on them." Bates insisted.

"In my opinion, they were open, honest and trustworthy. I don't think they would try to deceive us. As long as we are sure that this message really comes from the government and not from the rebels, I think we should trust them. Maybe they can even tell us something about the effects of telepathy on people. Dr. Beckett said he had no idea since he's never dealt with it before." Ford said what had been on his mind.

"I've had similar thoughts myself." Dr. Weir admitted. "I believe we should contact them again and tell them we accept their offer to talk."

TBC