Strange Bedfellows
A/N: I need to slow things down a bit, otherwise it will feel to rushed. Bear with me on this chapter, it's the deep breath before the plunge, to use a line from Lord of the Rings.:) The next ones will have more stuff happening and then a major turning point. I may need an extra day or two to get it together; my computer decides to die randomly and I've been really busy. But I will try to post ASAP!
Spoilers: There is a spoiler for the episodes "Suspicion" and "Rising" in this chapter. If you haven't seen "Rising," you probably shouldn't be reading this fic, lol.
Chapter 10: Secrets Uncovered
Lt. Ford ran his hands through his hair in frustration. He was seated in the briefing room along with Teyla, Rodney, Sgt. Stackhouse, and the ever-aggravating Sgt. Bates. All five of them had been discussing the possibility of a rescue mission for several hours now, and so far they had gotten nowhere.
"A rescue mission is absolutely out of the question, Lt. Ford," Bates explained. He was the chief reason Ford and his team weren't already searching for the Major and Elizabeth. "We have no idea where the Wraith have taken Major Sheppard and Dr. Weir or even if they are still alive."
"We know they can't be far," Rodney countered. "Well, not as far as one could be if one traveled through subspace," he said, as if that explained everything. Receiving questioning looks from the two Sergeants, he clarified himself. "We saw the Darts capture the Major and Elizabeth, and afterwards they headed off toward the horizon."
"So? Like I said, we have no clue where--"
Bates was cut off by Rodney.
"No, you're not listening to me, Sergeant. We saw them head off toward the horizon, not toward the Stargate. They didn't use the Gate to return to wherever they came from, so that narrows it down quite a bit. And considering the fact that Darts are short-ranged craft, they must have come from somewhere close to the village we visited. My guess is they were flown to somewhere on that planet or to a Hive Ship in nearby orbit," he finished, pleased with himself.
"That's smart," Stackhouse marveled.
"Yes, I know," was the smug reply.
"No, it's not smart. It's one giant assumption. And even of you are correct, the planet Klaan is roughly the size of Earth. How the hell are we going to search the entire planet for two missing people?" Bates asked.
"Are you suggesting we leave Major Sheppard and Doctor Weir to die by the hands of the Wraith?" Teyla asked in disbelief. She had never liked Sergeant Bates, especially since he had suspected her and her people of being spies for the Wraith. She found him cold and heartless, caring nothing for the concerns of the others around him.
"They may already be dead for all you know."
Teyla stood up, ready to confront Bates for his heinous remark, when Lt. Ford finally spoke.
"That's enough, Sergeant," he said, stressing the man's rank to emphasize his superiority over him. The powers of the chain of command: a little something I learned from the Major, he thought bittersweetly.
After everyone had settled down and Teyla had taken her seat, Lt. Ford continued. "While I appreciate your input, Segeant, I'm certainly not going to abandon two of our people -- especially the head of Atlantis and the head of military personnel." With Weir and Sheppard now gone, Lt. Ford was the ranking military officer. He was in charge; it was his call. Hell, I don't even know why I'm listening to this jackass.
"Sir, may I ask how you are going to find them?" Bates asked pompously.
Ummm…. He hadn't quite figured that part out yet.
"Sir, may I suggest returning to the village and talking with the locals?" proposed Stackhouse. "Perhaps they saw something or maybe this has happened before…?" he shrugged.
Ford doubted it. Hadn't Weir said the village had avoided being culled for some time? Still, Aiden believed it was a good idea to see if the Klaans knew anything useful.
"Yes, I agree," McKay spoke up. "Besides, I'd like to take Dr. Silverman to look at those ruins. Maybe there's something we missed. It did say something about the Wraith, but I couldn't translate it entirely."
"Yeah, good idea McKay," Ford agreed, feeling things fall into place. "Okay, this is what I want to happen," he continued, taking charge. "Stackhouse, get together your team, including Dr. Silverman, and be ready to go at 13:00 hours. McKay, find the doctor and fill her in on what you know so far. I don't want to waste any more time going over what you have already translated. Teyla, get three extra packs prepared for Dr. McKay, me, and yourself, and take along some extra ammo, just in case." Though he seemed calm and collected on the outside, he was inwardly awash with doubt. I wish Dr. Weir was here. She'd know what to do.
"Lt. Ford," Bates began heatedly. "As head of security, I strongly suggest that you do not waste any more time searching--"
"You can suggest all you want, Sergeant." Ford had had enough. It's wasn't like Bates was putting his ass on the line for anyone, so what the hell did he have to worry about? "I have had it up to here with your bullshit! Now I'm sending a team back to M4H-213 whether you like it or not."
"You are knowingly endangering the lives of six valued members of this expedition on the off-chance that maybe two people are still alive. Do--"
"What are you saying, Bates?" Ford prompted, getting a little heated himself. "Are you implying that the Major and Dr. Weir are not worth the risk?"
There was a moment of heavy silence as Bates contemplated whether to tell the truth to Ford. Teyla, Rodney, and Stackhouse wisely remained silent, not daring to interrupt the fiery discussion that had erupted.
Finally, Bates spoke. "Yes, that's exactly what I am saying. Sir." He let the last word roll off his tongue drenched in disrespect and contempt.
Ford closed his eyes, attempting to keep his cool. Taking a deep breath, Aiden gathered his thoughts and spoke in a measured tone. "Sergeant Bates. Do I have to remind you about our first encounter with the Wraith?"
"That--"
"And do I have to remind you that when your ass was one of the ones taken, it was Major Sheppard who risked his to get you back? I'm beginning to think he should have left you on that Hive Ship…."
"All I am saying, sir, is that we have better things to do with our time. If you haven't noticed, we still have a bit of a food shortage problem."
Lt. Ford couldn't believe what he was hearing. Did Bates honestly think that food was more important than human life? "I'll tell you what, Bates. Since you are so concerned with running low on food, you can be the first to ration. In fact, you can stop eating altogether. That should save us at least a little bit. I'm sure the members of Atlantis will thank you for your sacrifice, Sergeant."
"But--"
"That will be all, Sergeant. Dismissed."
Bates glared at the Lieutenant, wondering if this could be considered cruel and unusual punishment. He really doesn't expect me not to eat, does he? Bates then turned on his heel and stormed off to somewhere he knew these four wouldn't be.
Ford breathed a sigh of relief. He had seen Dr. Weir do that kind of thing all the time, and he had to give her credit. It was a lot harder than it looked.
Teyla smiled at Aiden, proud of his unwillingness to back down and his loyalty to his friends. Not more than a day ago this same man was pitying himself while sitting on a tree stump. Now he had quickly grown into an authoritative commanding officer, had stepped up to the plate when the need arose, and she had to respect him for that. Teyla knew he would be trying to model himself after John, and those were big shoes to fill.
"Wow," a surprised Rodney declared. "That was, um… impressive."
"Ditto, sir," echoed an equally shocked Stackhouse. Apparently, Bates had rubbed a lot of people the wrong way, including fellow enlisted personnel.
"Thanks," replied Ford with a small, slightly embarrassed smile. He had to admit he enjoyed chewing Bates out. Immensely.
"Lieutenant, as much as I liked seeing Sergeant Bates put in his place, we should not waste anymore time," Teyla suggested.
"You're right," he agreed, clapping his hands together. "Okay everyone, you have one hour to get your gear together. We move out at 13:00 hours."
------------------------
The trip to the village had been boring. Which, Rodney supposed, was fine with him. Boring is good. Boring means you're not getting shot at. I much prefer my brilliant self in one piece, thank you very much.
While Stackhouse had taken his team, minus Dr. Silverman, to the interior to the village to question the locals, Ford, Teyla, Rodney, and Dr. Katherine Silverman had returned to the ruins outside the town.
"I forgot how fascinating this place is," Ford remarked sarcastically as they entered the area. It was little more than a few dilapidated columns and stone structures, obvious remnants of civilization. Aiden remembered how bored he and Sheppard had been while they had waited for McKay to finish the translations, though he wished he were back in that situation if it meant his CO was here and well.
"On the contrary, Lieutenant," Dr. Silverman replied, staring wide-eyed at the ruins before her. The anthropologist in her took over and she immediately approached one of the nearby columns, studying it. Instinctively, she began to translate the text.
"What's it say?" McKay asked, curious as to the text's meaning and doubly curious as to why he couldn't translate it.
"This here is just what you told me earlier: explaining who the Wraith are, a brief history of the Ancients, how the two were adversaries…."
"Yes, yes, we got that," he replied, exasperated. "Anything of, oh, I don't know, importance?"
Dr. Silverman took off her glasses and turned to Rodney. "Look, Dr. McKay. Judging by the amount of text and the number of columns, there is enough information here to keep me occupied for weeks."
"Do you think you could find what you're looking for sometime this century, maybe?"
She sighed. Luckily, she had worked with Dr. McKay before and had thus became accustomed to his irritability. "It's possible. It seems to be a written history progressing in chronological order, so if I just scan each column…." Her voice trailed off as she walked around the nearest column and began her examination.
Ford moaned. This situation was all too familiar. They had been here only five minutes and already he was bored to tears. Which reminds me, he thought. "Hey Teyla?"
"Yes, Lieutenant? What is it?" she replied.
"Who's your favorite Angel?"
He was met with silence. "I am sorry?"
"You know, the television show Charlie's Angels? These three women worked for a man named Charlie whom they never saw. They only heard his voice over the telephone and it was their job…." He stopped when he noticed Teyla's expression of utter bewilderment and helplessness. Hasn't anyone taught her about Charlie's Angels yet? Her brain's probably on overload right now, he thought. "Nevermind. Some other time maybe." He wished Sheppard was here.
Hours passed and still they were no closer to learning the whereabouts of John and Elizabeth. Sergeant Stackhouse dutifully reported in on the hour via their radios, but so far none of the locals knew anything.
Late into the afternoon, a tired Stackhouse and his team rendezvoused with the others in the ruins.
"Sergeant, were you able to gather any valuable information at all?" Teyla asked hopefully.
"No, ma'am, unfortunately not. None of the locals saw the attack and they haven't heard of anything similar to this happening before. And to make matters worse, Hergon and some of the other Klaans are apparently missing, off on some hunting trip. I'd track him down, but no one knows where he is for sure. What about you? Anything of interest?"
"You could say that, yes," Dr. Silverman replied, poking her head from around a pillar. "Come take a look at this."
The team rushed over and stood behind her, eager to see what she had uncovered.
"This here," she began, pointing to an area of text, "is the history of the Klaan people. It tells of how they migrated to this planet long ago. In the beginning, they were a weak race, not able to defend themselves from opposing tribes' attacks. It also says they are were nomadic hunters and gatherers, but settled down in this village soon before this text was written."
"Yes, yes, that's all well and good," Rodney interrupted, rolling his eyes. "But we don't need a history lesson. Can we move on to something beneficial?"
"I'm getting there, Dr. McKay. Now it says here that when the Wraith began to cull their planet, many of their people died for lack of the ability to defend themselves. So they did the unthinkable. They struck a deal with the Wraith."
There was silence.
"They what?" Ford asked incredulously. If this is her idea of a joke…
"Unfortunately, you heard me correctly, Lieutenant. They forged an alliance with the Wraith which promised the Klaan people and exemption of sorts from the Wraith cullings. But it gets worse. The Klaans were eager to get revenge upon the peoples who had continuously attacked them, so they… they sold them out, their own kind. In return for the Wraith's protection, the Klaans agreed to provide them with the location and population of every culture that had attacked them so the Wraith could feed upon them. Soon after, the Klaan began to scout random planets via the Stargate in search of more worlds the Wraith could cull. This has been going on for hundreds of years, and by according to this--," she pointed to a newly etched engraving, "-- it still does."
No one spoke for several minutes. They all attempted to digest the information she had just given them, but they simply could not fathom how the humans and Wraith could peacefully align themselves with one another.
"I am sickened," Teyla said, breaking the silence. "I do not see how the Klaans can simply turn their backs on their fellow humans."
"Wouldn't some of the Klaans object to the alliance? I mean, someone must have disagreed with the partnership," Stackhouse asked.
"Yeah, someone sane," Rodney muttered under his breath.
"Well, according to this," Dr. Silverman explained, "not everyone in the village knows about the alliance, only a handful of people. The rest simply attribute their evasion of the Wraith cullings to their Gods protecting them. Luckily for them, none of the Klaan people venture into the ruins for fear they will suffer the wrath of the Wraith -- most likely a notion those handful of people planted into their heads. So their secret remains safe."
"And let me guess. Hergon and the others who are conveniently missing are the handful?" Ford asked, though he already knew the answer.
"Well why keep it all written down? Why run the risk of letting their secret out?" asked Rodney, with good reason.
"'To ensure the knowledge of the Alliance is passed on to our children and to their children, assuring the survival of the Klaan race,'" Dr. Silverman quoted. "It's a generational thing. In each generation, it is guaranteed that there is always a handful of people who know the truth."
"Does it say anything about the location of a Hive Ship or a nearby Wraith outpost?" Teyla asked, fighting to keep the anger from her voice. Never in her wildest dreams would she have imagined something like this. She knew her people would never betray their own.
"No, I'm afraid not," Dr. Silverman replied sympathetically. "I'm sorry…."
"It was a good idea, sir," Stackhouse offered.
"Yeah, I guess…" Ford replied. They had failed once again. They would return to Atlantis without one scrap of information on the location of their missing colleagues. Major Sheppard and Dr. Weir were truly gone, and there was nothing they could do about it.
TBC
Look, no cliffie! Again! What's gotten into me???
They all can't be about Liz and John, ok?! I wanted to establish that they were in fact looking for them. Sorta tie up some loose ends with the alliance thing. Don't worry, Ford and the others will catch a break, thought it might not be the best for all involved….hmmm…. I was going to call this chapter "Bates is an Ass" but decided not to. I REALLY don't like that guy. Review por favor!
