The Journey
Chapter 11
John's quick reaction had saved them from the explosion itself, but not from the massive shockwave that followed in its wake. The inertial dampeners that normally prevented anyone inside the ship from being affected by the accelerations and decelerations of the ship were powerless when the shockwave collided with the small ship, propelling it off course. Before they had a chance to process what had happened, the ship's occupants were tossed around the innards of the vessel.
Frantic activity that was almost bordering on panic had broken out on Atlantis. The evacuation to their off-world sites was in full swing. All non-essential personnel was already gone and supplies were being gathered and sent through the gate as fast as possible. Over the past three years, there had been several drills, but this was the first time that there was a real threat. They were doing well, they were still ahead of schedule. Dr. Weir went back to her office. There was nothing she could do at the moment. She was still hoping that the rest of the team would return from Athos in time, before they had to disable to gate. They would be done with sending the supplies and remaining personnel in less than an hour and after that they were going to destroy the dialing system and disable the gate. Many hours had been spent debating plans for this day. They had all know that it would eventually come and Dr. Weir had to admit that she was surprised that it had taken three years for the Wraith to attack Atlantis directly. She'd always know that she'd be among the ones to stay behind in Atlantis until the end, no matter how it was going to end. While Rodney and John had been responsible for coming up with most of the plan, they were needed in the aftermaths. John had worked out how they could maximize the city's defenses with what little power they had and Rodney had rigged the dialing system with a naquadah bomb to prevent anyone from ever dialing Earth again. She hadn't told them yet, that they weren't going to be staying, as she had expected them to argue with her. But right now, she would be happy to be able to argue with them. They were off-world, probably in trouble and in less than an hour, they would be cut off from Atlantis for good.
"…Major Sheppard! Come on major, wake up!"
Beckett's voice was nagging him, preventing him from drifting peacefully between blissful oblivion and harsh reality.
"Major Sheppard, I know that you are fine. Wake up!"
This time, John opened his eyes and as expected saw Dr. Beckett in his field of vision. John sat up and indeed, he didn't feel any pain or dizziness. He looked around and it all came back to him. The Ancient ship, the Wraith, the explosion of the temple. Why weren't the blow to smithereens?
"Why the hell didn't we blow up?" John asked no one in particular. Rodney still felt inclined to answer. He looked up from the consol he was hunched over and turned towards John. "It's the ship, it's smart. It must have timed it perfectly. Fast enough to escape the explosion but not too fast, either wise we would have smashed into the force field. It's actually quite impressive. This is definitely far more advanced than a Puddle Jumper. Makes you wonder what a really big Ancient ship would be like." McKay seemed to have gotten over the shock of recent events and was back to his usual scientific excitement.
"I have seen cave drawing of big ships in the sky. It is likely that those big ships were those of the Ancestors." Teyla who had been listening so far, joined the conversation.
"Or the Wraith, we have seen how big their ships can be. Speaking of ships, where are we going?"
"Atlantis, the shockwave just knocked us a bit of course, we'll get there in about three hours."
Nobody said anything in response. They all knew that they were going to be too late. The Wraith would reach Atlantis well ahead of them. While the city had some defense resources and without the Gate connected to a power source, there was even more power available for the shield, but either way, it was not going to last. They were no match for the Wraith. They might hold out for a while. But eventually the Wraith would win. John thought back to the Prophecy. It had foretold the fall of Atlantis.
The next hour passed in silence. The ship flew steadily on autopilot. Everyone had a lot on their mind. The last twenty-four hours had been long and taxing and the upcoming battle with their strongest enemy weighed heavily on everyone's mind. It was McKay who eventually broke the silence.
"How did you actually kill the Wraith back in the temple?"
"I'm not totally sure myself. " John shrugged.
"The Wraith are said to be vulnerable to the powers of the mind, according to the stories told among my people. We never had to chance to test that. Although there used to be telepaths among the Athosians, the gift has long since died out. We believed it had been given to them by the Ancestors."
"Yeah, you told me that before. That would explain what I saw when I confronted the old model Wraith in the control room. It was like reading someone's mind, but somehow, more…I don't know more…intimate. It was like I was inside his head. I could see all what he had seen, I knew everything that he knew."
"Major, that could be a serious advantage over the Wraith. What exactly did you learn, anything that might help us?"
"Maybe. I'm not sure it will help us. It's hard to get it all together in the right order. It was a lot of information all at once. And the Wraith wasn't exactly informed about anything up to date, but I learned something interesting about their history. You remember the hologram when we first came to Atlantis? It told us that they first encountered the Wraith on their native planet and accidentally woke them up, much like we did. What the hologram didn't mention was that the Wraith they met back then were quite different from the Wraith today. The Wraith we ran into at the temple is the old model so to speak."
"What happened?"
"I don't have all the details, I only know that the Wraith knows. The bottom line is, that when the Ancients found out that their weapons couldn't defeat the Wraith, they engineered a virus to kill them."
"As far as I know, the historians have never found any reference to such events. I cannot imagine that the Ancients would resort to genocide."
"Not every people are proud of their history. On Earth many societies have tried to twist and misrepresent their history." Beckett explained to Teyla. "We are often ashamed of whatour forefathers did."
"It's a bizarre concept." Teyla admitted. "I have a hard time imagining that the Ancients would try to erase any of their history."
"It actually makes sense. Because the virus that they had developed failed. A couple of Ancients let themselves be infected with the virus and sacrificed themselves to the Wraith. Once within the Wraith population the virus spread very rapidly. But instead of killing them, the Wraith adapted far more quickly than the Ancients had anticipated. In the end, the virus made them stronger than before. Originally, the Wraith could only feed off the Ancients because other races weren't compatible with them. With the virus, the Ancients had wanted to disable several genes within the Wraith, including some of the genes they shared with the Ancients. An unforeseen consequence was that the Wraith could now also feed on all other life forms. In their efforts to defeat the Wraith, the Ancients had turned them into a threat for the entire galaxy. In the beginning, the Wraith were small in numbers, but as their available food sources increased, so did their population. The temple has been used as a sort of research lab. The Ancients abandoned it when the Wraith were closing in on them. The creature was left behind, locked up until we unlocked the doors." John recounted what he had seen when he had invaded the mind of their enemy.
"Somehow it is both encouraging and terrifying to see that even the Ancients make mistakes. It would even be funny if the mistake of theirs wasn't about to costs us our lives."
"They didn't make a mistake with malice. It is impossible to know what any act can trigger. None of us knew that by coming to the Old City, we would bring about a Wraith attack."
Everyone was silent. During their time in the temple, they hadn't had much time to contemplate the implications, they had been too busy just trying to survive and find a way off the planet. The Wraith attack had only been a distant threat looming over their heads. No one needed to say it out loud, everyone knew that Atlantis wouldn't be able to withstand a full-on Wraith attack. They could power up the shields for a short while, but the Wraith just needed to wait until they ran out of power and then destroy them.
"I might have something!" McKay interrupted the silence. "Remember when I showed you the energy scan earlier. There were several small energy signatures with the ship. I didn't have the time to check them out because someone couldn't keep their hands to themselves and activated the self-destruct sequences. If you'll excuse me, I'll go and have a look at what's inside the storage compartment." McKay got up from his seat.
The time was passing slowly. It was quiet aside from the humming of the engines and the sounds of McKay rummaging through the contents of the cargo hold. John and Teyla sat on the floor, next to each other. Both were exhausted, still trying to process the events of the day. Neither of them heard Dr. Beckett approach. Only when he tapped John on the shoulder, the major looked up.
"What's up?"
"It's time for another shot, they seem to wear off rather quickly in humans."
"I'd prefer not to get one. We're going to fight the Wraith, they are vulnerable to telepathy. It might just give me the edge we need."
"You already overexerted yourself with the old Wraith today. You need a clear head in the battlefield. I can't have you distracted by all the thoughts and feelings floating around. It will only get you hurt. You take the shot or you are not setting foot on the station."
"You wouldn't. Not this time, this time it matters. We could lose Atlantis, you are not keeping me away." John said with a wry smile on his face.
"I know. But Atlantis needs you to be fit to fight."
"Atlantis needs every advantage we can get. This is something we can use against the Wraith and I'm not giving it up."
"I see, I can't persuade you otherwise. But I'll not hesitate to give you the shot later, against your will if necessary if your mental abilities become too much of a strain on you."
"You are going to be nowhere near any fighting, doc. With your healing ability, we can't afford to lose you. You're going to stay out of this. As soon as we reach Atlantis, you're going to go to one of the off-world sites." John insisted.
"What about those injured on Atlantis?" Beckett argued.
"One of the other doctors can treat them. Besides, the Wraith don't go for injuries, they are out to capture and kill." John reminded the doctor.
Beckett didn't reply, he could see John's point and part of him had to agree, but he couldn't just abandon his friends in a crisis, especially when he was the one best qualified the help them. Even though he was very inexperienced with his healing ability, he had already learned that he could heal fairly fast and that he could heal injuries that normally would be fatal. He had seen that by his own example. He could save lives that would otherwise be lost. He couldn't accept that.
There was a soft knock on here door. Dr. Weir knew who it was without having to turn around. Peter was going to tell her that they were reading to destroy the dialing system and disable the Gate.
"Dr. Weir. Are you all right?"
"I'll be. I just thought that we would eventually find a way to go home, or at least find a way to let them know that we are still alive. But here we are, destroying our only chance to ever get back." She didn't turn around.
He didn't point out that in destroying their only way home they were saving Earth from a terrible enemy. They both knew it. There had never been any doubt about that.
"Dr. Zelenka says he is ready. He needs you to authorize the destruction mechanism."
"I want to give them all the time possible." Elizabeth said with determination. She was not giving up on some of her closest friends and best people without a fight.
"Twenty minutes at the most. But..." Peter hesitated.
Elizabeth didn't let him finish.
"They get every minute they can get. I'm not giving up on them."
"You can go ahead through the Gate then. I can handle it from here on. Dr. Zelenka has all the technical details under control and Sergeant Bates has just reported that all teams are ready. I'm only waiting for confirmation from Sergeant Hamlin from the Jumper Bay. It's all taken care of." Grodin tried to smile and failed miserably.
"I'm not leaving." Elizabeth said firmly.
"If you want to go over it one more time, we can still do that."
"No, I'm not leaving the City, I'm staying here." Elizabeth's voice was cold and made it clear that she would not accept compromise.
"Dr. Weir, with all due respect. We need you on the alpha site. You can't do that."
"I can and I will. This is my City and I will stay for the end. I'm not going to run from my command. That's not good leadership. You have a lot to learn." Elizabeth smiled her first genuine smile all day as Grodin stared at her, baffled.
"I've taken care of everything." She handed Peter a big envelope. "You go ahead to the alpha site. The last of our people should be leaving any minute."
"Uhhm, I don't suppose I can change your mind." Peter took the proffered envelope.
"No." Elizabeth replied simply and led Peter out of her office.
The End
