All she can see of Atlantis at the moment is the spacious room that holds the Stargate, and about a dozen armed soldiers, but something about the place gives Ezrikos a bad feeling.
A you-really-aren't-going-to-like-this feeling.
She was the last person through the gate; around her the rest of the party is gasping for breath and looking around warily. Well, the Alketch are looking around warily. The Atlantians have collapsed in relief.
"Status?" she calls out. A dozen half-hearted mumbles of "I'm fine, skipper" result.
Usually they're better behaved than this. Although these are kind of trying circumstances.
But you should never look undisciplined in front of…she's not sure what the Atlantians are to them. Well, you should never look undisciplined period.
"Strike Force One, status?" Her shout echoes from the high ceiling, and instantly her people are standing at attention. They bitch and moan about all the drills, but those things sure are effective.
Lt. Emmons says, "One casualty, sir. PFC Owens. Only minor injuries otherwise."
Owens had been killed in one of the initial skirmishes. The Wraith got him alone.
"Thank you, Lieutenant." She turns her attention back to the room at large. Major Sheppard is standing a few feet from her, shaking his head slowly. He doesn't look good.
Well, he always looks good. He looks unwell is the point.
"Sir?" one of his sergeants is asking, "you alright?"
He visibly straightens. "I'm fine, sergeant. I just…"
A woman's authoritative voice cuts him off.
"Major Sheppard, at the risk of sounding clichéd, who are these people, and what happened to not getting into trouble?"
The Major looks chagrined. "Ah. That. Umm, well…" he trails off. "I'm sorry about that, but we didn't really have a choice."
The woman, Ezrikos can see her now, is a brunette slightly older than the major appears to be. A civilian, she thinks.
"You never do, Major. The Wraith?" the woman is saying.
"Yeah." He looks around at everyone else in the room. "Doctor, this is Strike Force One of the Royal Alketch Space Force, and this," he tilts his head to the left, "is Captain Ezrikos."
He turns to look at her, and says, "Sorry about your lost man."
To which she replies, "Sorry about yours."
He nods, the lines around his eyes far more pronounced than usual. "Captain, this is Doctor Elizabeth Weir, the head of Atlantis base."
The civilian woman has come partway up the rampart to them; she holds out one hand and says, "A pleasure to meet you, Captain."
Ezrikos takes the hand and nods politely. "A few of my people may require medical attention…"
"Of course, Captain." Dr. Weir turns back toward the staircase calling, "A med team please, Doctor Beckett."
Her gaze is very intense when she faces them again. Born to command, this one. "I assure you your people will be taken care of. Do you require attention yourself?"
At Ezrikos' assurance that she does not, Weir says, "I would like an explanation. If both of you would accompany me?"
Without waiting for a reply, she turns and heads back toward the main part of the structure, Major Sheppard on her heels.
Once ensconced in her office, Dr. Weir drops a little of the stiffness, but none of the competency.
"Now then, Captain," she says briskly, "you and your team are welcome to remain as long as you require, but I would like to know where you come from. And what happened."
Ezrikos starts with an explanation of the situation that led to their residency, and then moves into the spiel about the Empire which every Stargate team is required to memorize and when Dr. Weir tries to take the conversation toward military capabilities, Ezrikos gently steers away from the topic and lets the talk degenerate into a discussion of economics.
Dr. Weir lets her, but with a gentle smile that says she isn't fooled in the slightest.
"Very well," she says when satisfied, "suppose we go out to control and contact your Stargate command." She raises her eyebrows to make the statement an implied question and adds, "I assume you can tell my technicians how to do that?"
Ezrikos smiles slightly. "Of course."
What follows is a very one-sided discussion between the unorthodox leader of the best Stargate team in the Empire, and her commanding officer: a man with a world view slightly left of Attila the Hun.
"No, sir, the move was dictated by necessity, I…yes, sir. No sir." She listens for a moment and then turns to Dr. Weir who is standing nearby politely ignoring her. "Would it be possible to put this on speaker? Commander Madison would like to speak with you."
Weir smiles pleasantly. Diplomat, Ezrikos decides. Definitely. "Of course." She looks over at a tech, and then says, "Commander? This is Doctor Weir."
The voice that comes over the speaker could have been bottled and sold to take the veneer off furniture. "Doctor, since you know who I am we shall skip the preliminaries."
It is not a question.
"I have been informed of a development on one of the worlds we have had previous contact with. Logistically speaking, Strike Force One in Atlantis is now the closest team to this world. I would ask that you allow them to remain and use your Stargate on this mission. I am also interested in your team, Doctor. Our societies should consider a dialogue."
He sounds very sure of himself, Dr. Weir looks surprised. Ezrikos could have told her he's always like this.
"I would not be averse to opening a dialogue between our worlds, Commander, but I will admit my curiosity about this mission."
The commander waves her concerns away, linguistically speaking. "I am sure it is nothing of great importance, Doctor. If you wish to you are certainly welcome to send your own people through as well." He hesitates, then, being a military man, adds, "Subject to Captain Ezrikos' approval, of course."
Dr. Weir appears to consider it. She looks at Major Sheppard, who both nods and shrugs at the same time, and then at Ezrikos, who does her best to stay absolutely expressionless.
"I believe that would be entirely acceptable, Commander. A pleasure to make contact with you."
They exchange brief pleasantries, during which Ezrikos interrupts to mention the deceased private, and then Weir signals to cut the connection.
Dr. Weir turns to her new military presence, and says, "Welcome. Come and have a look at the city."
Apparently, the best place to "look at the city" is from a little balcony that sticks out from an even larger conference room than the one they were just…
Ezrikos' thoughts come to a screeching halt, and she fights hard not to show what she's feeling.
Atlantis is surrounded – she checks, yes, completely surrounded – by water.
Well, great.
Weir walks out to the railing, leaning against it. "Isn't it beautiful?" She takes a deep breath and smiles out at the huge expanse of water.
Ocean, Ezrikos thinks; this place is in the middle of the freaking ocean!
Nothing but water as far as the eye can see.
She takes slow, careful breaths, and tries not to scream when Major Sheppard comes up behind her.
"Really something, huh?"
Ezrikos swallows before replying. "Oh yeah, really something."
Something she'd like to get as far away from as possible.
"Is there land on this world?"
Major Sheppard is holding a hand to his head. Serves him right for refusing to go to medical. "Yeah, there's a huge chunk of land about twenty-five minutes...uh, that way."
He points off toward the horizon, but Ezrikos, not wanting to look out over the water again - gods, the water - doesn't follow his motion, and so is looking right at him when he puts his hands to his head and leans against the wall.
"Major?" She frowns at him when he doesn't respond. "Are you…"
She was going to ask if he was alright, but before she can finish he slumps a little and she knows the question is pointless. "Call medical," she orders Dr. Weir out of habit, and she takes another step toward the man.
"Major?"
He makes a strange, pained sound. Ezrikos, who has had considerable battlefield experience, has never heard one like it.
She never wants to hear it again.
He has both hands clamped over his head like he's having a migraine attack, but migraines don't make you…
She cuts the thought off and catches him as his knees buckle, his weight taking her to the ground with his head and shoulders sprawled against her.
She leans over him and moves one of his hands…and hopes the emergency medical team is comprised of Olympic Sprinters.
There's blood coming out ofhis ears…
A/N: Yeah, so it's a cliffhanger, bite me. New stolen things: the Attila the Hun comment from my history teacher, the "blood coming out of his ears" thing from Adalanta's story Any Crash You Can Walk Away From, one line from an Anita Blake book (anyone who knows what I'm talking about see if you can spot it), umm…I think that's it actually. So, no real action in this chapter, but you'll all read it anyway. Plushie Steve in my review future?
