Chapter Eight – Conversations
The next morning Alora woke fairly early and went to check on John. She found him still sound asleep and decided to let him rest since he obviously needed it. Her stomach reminded her that she hadn't eaten yet this morning so she made her way to the commissary. After breakfast she stopped by the ZPM lab to go over the previous day's events with Dr. McKay. They identified the problem and the team of scientists quickly went back to work on the design. While Alora was discussing the next step with Dr. McKay, Dr. Weir entered the lab.
"Good morning Alora, how are you feeling today?" Dr. Weir asked as she noticed that her hand was no longer bandaged and the cut above her eye had disappeared.
"I'm doing well, thank you," Alora said, "I'm stopping by the infirmary just before lunch."
"Carson will be glad to hear that," Dr. Weir said with a smile, "Do you have some time to meet with me today?"
"Sure, I'm free right now," Alora said, "We figured out what went wrong yesterday, so we won't have the same problem again."
"Great, follow me," Dr. Weir said then exited the lab.
Alora followed Dr. Weir to a balcony just off the control room where a couple of tables and chairs had been set up for when control room staff took a break. The two women sat down at one of the tables with the cups of coffee they had picked up on the way.
"I wanted to talk to you about Colonel Shepherd," Dr. Weir said.
"You're a good friend to him," Alora said.
A little surprised, Dr. Weir asked, "He said that?"
"No, but he didn't need to," Alora said, "And your concern for his well-being is evident."
"Oh, well, I'm a little concerned with recent events and I just wanted to make sure he was doing ok. Lord knows he won't go and see Dr. Heightmeyer if anything's wrong." Dr. Weir said.
"That's something you should be asking John," Alora said, "And if you do, he will answer."
"How about you, how are you doing with all this?" Dr. Weir asked.
"It's more than I could have hoped for to reconnect with him," Alora said with a smile. "My intention upon returning to this plane was not to reenter his life, I just wanted to try and repair our mistakes."
"So, Colonel Shepherd being here was just a happy accident?" Dr. Weir asked.
"Pretty much, but I would still be here even if he wasn't," Alora assured the other woman.
"Thank you for talking to me about this Alora, I know you want to keep your relationship with Colonel Shepherd under wraps." Dr. Weir said, "And I'll have a talk with him this afternoon."
"He should be up soon, he really needed his sleep, he healed me last night and it took a lot out of him."
"He can heal?" Dr. Weir asked astonished.
"All humans with the passed on gene can, it's just a matter of thinking the right way," Alora answered, "John is only marginally better at dealing with our technology than the others because of his more direct source of the identifying gene. What really makes him better able to interface with our technology is the way he thinks, the way his mind works, and that's because of the combination of being the direct offspring of an Ancient and a much more evolved human. Everyone else with the gene only received it because thousands of generations before them did and each one was a little less advanced than the one that came after them. If Dr. Beckett was to have a child with an Ancient, that child would be even more adept at using our technology than John is. Not because of my contribution to his or her genetic make up, but because of Dr. Beckett's."
"Can you teach our people how to heal?" Dr. Weir asked.
"No," Alora said shaking her head, "I probably could teach children, but the thought processes of adults are already ingrained and usually can't be changed. Besides, it takes a lot of energy and it's too dangerous for an inexperienced individual to attempt."
"I see," Dr. Weir said, the disappointment evident in her voice.
"Humanity is still evolving, one day you will be able to master the latent abilities within each of you, but you must be patient. We learned the hard way that evolution must be allowed to happen naturally." Alora said then took a sip of her coffee.
After her conversation with Dr. Weir, Alora made her way to the infirmary for her appointment with Dr. Beckett. He gave her the once over and pronounced her as good as new before releasing her. After lunch Alora headed back to the ZPM lab to check on their progress.
"How's everything going Rodney?" Alora asked as she entered the room.
"We've already started production on the crystal that was destroyed, and the remaining crystals should take another week." Dr. McKay answered.
"Good, just in time for the Daedelus to arrive," another scientist said.
"Perfect, since we need that ZPM to initialize the power to this one. Once we have this first one done, the next ones should take half the time." Alora said.
Meanwhile, Colonel Shepherd was just waking up for the day. As he got up out of bed he realized he was still dressed in his uniform from yesterday. His sleepy mind cleared and he began to remember the previous day's events. He smiled with pride at his accomplishment until he saw his alarm clock. Cursing at the late hour he ran for the bathroom and set a new personal record for getting ready. He was putting on his jacket as he sprinted out the door and headed for the control tower.
"Relax, I cancelled your appointments for the day, you needed the rest," Alora's voice sounded in his mind, "Dr. Weir does want to see you, but have something to eat first."
"Thanks mom," he replied with more than a little attitude.
"You're welcome dear," She fired back.
Colonel Shepherd grabbed a late lunch and made his way to Dr. Weir's office.
"Alora said you wanted to see me," he said when he entered.
"Yeah, I do, but why don't we take a walk," Dr. Weir said.
Shepherd immediately knew what this was about, Dr. Weir only took discussions out of the office or conference room if they were personal. The two leaders went down one of the lesser used corridors where they knew they wouldn't be likely to be disturbed.
"I wanted to see how you were doing with all this," Dr. Weir began.
"It was a little uncomfortable at first. I mean, my whole life I thought she had run away, that she didn't want me. Turns out she was in just as much pain as I was. Last night she shared a memory with me, one of my father. It was like I was actually there, I could feel how much they both loved me, and how much she loved him. I've never experienced anything like that before." John said, his voice full of emotion.
"So, you're getting along," Dr. Weir said.
"Yeah, it's still a little weird that she's physically younger than me, but at the same time she's over 10,000 years old," John said.
"I imagine that would be confusing at times," Dr. Weir said. "I take it you'd still like to keep your relationship to yourselves."
"Definitely, it's like mom said, Jinto already has this hero-worship thing going on, can you imagine what it would be like if he knew my mother was an Ancient." John said with a smile.
Dr. Weir pictured the young boy's face and started to laugh.
It was very late in the evening and Dr. McKay and Alora were the only ones left in the lab, the rest of the scientists and technicians having already turned in for the night. Alora pushed her chair back from the computer she was working at and stretched.
"I think it's time to call it a night," Alora said as she got up.
When she got to the door, Alora turned around and noticed that Rodney was still working.
"Rodney, go get some rest, this will be here in the morning," Alora said.
Dr. McKay looked up and nodded before shutting down his laptop and joining her at the door. They headed to the nearest transporter and took it up several levels to the living quarters area. Just as they went their separate ways Dr. McKay called out to Alora.
"What's up?" Alora asked as Rodney walked up to her.
"There's something I've been meaning to ask you," he said nervously.
The next morning Dr. Weir, Colonel Shepherd, Lieutenant Ford and Teyla were seated together in the conference when a rather dejected looking Dr. McKay entered. They went on with their briefing as normal and reassembled in the gate room for their mission an hour later. The wormhole was established and the team turned to give Dr. Weir and Alora a wave goodbye.
"What's up with you McKay? You look like someone just ruined one of your toys," Colonel Shepherd asked as the wormhole disengaged behind them.
"Nothing," McKay grumbled.
"I heard he got shut down last night," Ford said.
Shepherd grinned evilly and said, "By whom?"
"No one," McKay barked as they continued to walk.
"One of the marines informed me that it was Alora Valeran," Teyla said with a straight face.
Colonel Shepherd stopped dead in his tracks and Dr. McKay nearly ran into him.
"You asked Alora out?" Shepherd said angrily as he spun around to face the scientist.
"Yeah, so," Rodney mumbled before finally looking up to see Shepherd's face.
Shepherd grabbed Rodney by the shirt and pulled him closer so that his face was only inches from Colonel Shepherd's.
"If you go anywhere near Alora again, other than to work on the ZPM, I will snap you in half," Colonel Shepherd growled.
"Sorry, it's not like you have to worry, she said no," Rodney spat back.
John released Rodney and the two men took a step back. John was about to order the rest of the team back to the mission when he heard Rodney mumble something.
"What did you say?" John asked.
"I said, after that thing with Chaya I should have known you had a thing for Ancient women," Rodney said harshly.
"Rodney! That's just…wrong" John cried.
"Why? She's incredibly hot," Rodney started.
"Dude, she's my mom!"
The End