(In honor of Anna's birthday, here's one more chapter...)
FAILURE TO COMMUNICATE
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX: AND THAT'S ENOUGH OF THAT
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It took the guards some work to get the City back in order. By the time all the captives were back in one place again, looking a little worse for wear because of attempted escapes during the escapade (Teyla was sporting a bloody lip, Travis had a black eye, Elizabeth looked positively green, Sheppard now carried a bullet in one shoulder, though he acted as if it were just a scratch, and, funnily enough, Ronon just looked more awake), it was nearly half an hour later. Still, the trip up to the Citadel after that was remarkably quick. The people of Garillion watched from windows and from doorways with a muted and unhappy air.
Subdued, but still refusing to appear beaten, the five hurting and, in Sheppard and Elizabeth's cases, limping captives were cajoled, pushed and shoved up several flights of stairs, until, finally, they emerged on the roof just below the top level. Then, one by one, they were sent up the ladder leading to the very top roof of the Citadel.
Commander Chanee and about twenty guards met them up there, the wind up this high blowing their long, black military jackets up like bat's wings. The commander gave Elizabeth a smile when he saw the state she was in, her arm cradled to her chest and blood on one pants leg.
She stared back impassively, not blinking.
Chanee growled at the simple act of defiance, and turned to the young lieutenant behind him.
"Take them up onto the gallows platform," he ordered.
The two captains who had brought the five prisoners this far yielded them to the fresh guardsmen, and stepped back.
Sheppard led the way, climbing up the steps and walking with a determined, albeit limping, step to the farthest noose on the platform and moving to stand right in front of it. Elizabeth followed, standing before the next, her chin lifting in the air. Teyla was third, then Travis, and finally, on the end, Ronon.
Down below, the braver citizens of Garillion stood and watched, staring up at the five people on the roof of the Citadel with something akin to sadness. If Chanee had hoped for a typical hanging, where the people jeered and mocked the prisoners, he was sorely disappointed. Of course, it was his own fault, but he would never be able to see that.
He stepped forward on the platform and, pulling in a deep breath, began his recitation.
"PEOPLE OF GARILLION!" he yelled, his voice carrying down the cliff. "I, COMMANDER CHANEE, HEREBY DECLARE THAT THESE FIVE PEOPLE—COLONEL JOHN SHEPPARD, DOCTOR ELIZABETH WEIR, TEYLA EMMAGEN, DOCTOR ORRIN TRAVIS, AND SPECIALIST RONON DEX—ARE WAR CRIMINALS. PROFITEERS OF THE WORST KIND. THEY HAVE BEEN ACCUSED OF PARTICIPATING IN TREASON OF THE BASEST KIND, THREATENING THE STABILITY OF OUR WORLD. FOR THAT, THE PUNISHMENT CAN ONLY BE ONE. I THEREFORE SENTENCE THAT THEY BE HANGED BY THE NECK ...UNTIL DEAD."
The lack of any kind of reaction from the normally rambunctious city was louder than any actual noise could ever be.
Chanee frowned, but didn't try again. Turning, he looked to Elizabeth.
"Any last words, Doctor Weir?" he asked.
She arched an eyebrow at that. "Just that you've made a huge number of mistakes this day, Commander, and you'll know the sting of that soon enough."
Chanee snorted, then looked to Sheppard.
The colonel was staring off somewhere to the left, his head cocked at a strange angle, as if listening to his shoulder. The Commander didn't hide his puzzlement, especially when he thought he heard a sound like something clicking come from the colonel's shoulder—almost like a code. Looking around, he regarded the empty sky and the quiet valley. Still, whatever the clicking meant, it couldn't possibly save these people in time.
With that comforting thought in mind, he looked again at Sheppard. "What about you, colonel? I hear you led our men on a merry chase. Any last words?"
Sheppard turned unconcerned eyes to the Commander, then, slowly, smiled.
"You know what, commander?" he said, "Doctor Weir was right. You're an unqualified, unadulterated prick. AND IF I WERE YOU," he yelled, purposefully stepping forward, "I'D OVERTHROW HIS FAT ASS AS SOON AS HUMANLY POSSIBLE!"
"How dare you!" Channee yelled, "I..." he trailed off when he heard the cheering from down below. He turned and peered over the edge of the gallow's platform to the people in the City. Turning furious eyes back to Sheppard, he jabbed a finger at him, "You did this! You filthy cur!"
"No, I didn't," Sheppard snapped back, "you did."
"Kill them!" Chanee squealed, the sound remarkably reminiscent of a pig running from a farmer. "Now!"
"Actually," Sheppard said, taking another step forward away from the noose behind him and smiling more broadly now. "I don't think we want to be killed today."
Chanee stared back at him, "What?"
"In fact, I think we'll say goodbye now. Everyone?" Sheppard leaned forward, looking at the others. "Say goodbye to Commander Chanee."
And, curiously, all four people standing along the gallows platform did just that; four very different voices saying, "Goodbye, Commander Chanee." Elizabeth even smiled.
The Commander's eyes widened, his nostrils flaring furiously.
Sheppard just continued to smirk when Chanee glared at him again. "So long, asshole," he said, then, stepping forward on more time, he shouted down to the city, "AND GOOD-BYE, GARILLION!" And he raised a hand up high as of to wave...but ended up making a fist, sticking his thumb out like a hitchhiker and looking up.
The people cheered wildly, just as five identical flashes of light enveloped the prisoners up on the gallows...and they disappeared.
The cheering stopped instantly.
For a moment, no one in the city made a noise, too shocked to react, then the deafening clatter of a thousand people clapping and shouting approval echoed up the walls of the Citadel, and into the completely stunned ears of Commander Chanee.
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"Get us back to Atlantis!" Beckett ordered inside the hovering jumper near the Citadel's roof, feeling Rodney begin to shiver and convulse, "NOW!"
Lorne didn't need to be told twice, swinging them around and accelerating rapidly towards the Gate at the far end of the valley, Stackhouse already dialing the Gate. Beckett yelled orders at Greene, trying desperately to sustain McKay's life just a little bit longer...
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Caldwell acknowledged Sheppard's salute, then smiled at Elizabeth and the others where they all stood on the bridge of the Daedalus orbiting the planet. "Are you all alright?" he asked.
"No," Sheppard replied, stepping forward, any mirth he felt gone instantly. "Colonel, we need to locate Doctor McKay, he..."
"Is being carried through the Stargate home to Atlantis as we speak, Colonel," Caldwell stated. "Not to worry."
Sheppard released a breath he didn't know he'd been holding, and his shoulders seemed to slump a little. "Then, he's alive?" he asked, his voice soft. "He's okay?"
"I believe so," Caldwell replied. "He is in Doctor Beckett's hands now."
Sheppard suddenly grinned and threw his head back, releasing a huge sign of relief. Caldwell gave a small smile as well.
"And you have him to thank. If we hadn't gotten his message from that trader, we—"
Sheppard tilted his head back down, eyes wide, "Trader? You mean Connam?"
"Yes, I believe that's his name. He's probably still at the Alpha Site if you wish to speak with him."
Sheppard just continued to grin, turning to meet the relieved eyes of his teammates, Weir and Travis. They met his joyful look with grins of their own.
"Right," Caldwell stated, in a tone that suggested he was getting back to business, "now, I want all five of you to report to the med bay, where Doctors Biro and—"
"Oh!" Sheppard suddenly shot a finger in the air, "Colonel, wait, one more thing!"
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Chanee was down on the ground floor, now, pacing back and forth as he inspected the items they had managed to retain of the off-worlders, though they wasn't much. He hoped it would be enough to keep the King happy.
He walked up to the speedwheel, and felt himself relaxing a little as he took it in.
At least he still had...
A flash of light enveloped the speedwheel.
And for the first time since he was a child, Commander Chanee really wanted to cry.
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TBC...Phew! They're heading home! Oh, and I toggled a bit with the chapters, so it will seem like there are 29 here...Oh, and, to all the medical professionals, I know, I know...Please forgive me for the blatant ignorance of medicine.Oh, and, one more thing, yeppers, twotoe, Doctor Travis is a lawyer and a scientist. :)