Teta Prime
Written By: The Ascended Ancient
Chapter II: "Discovery"

One month later:

"Everyone, get to your stations, now!" Doctor Elizabeth Weir shouts over the loud blaring of the city's klaxon alarms. All around her people run to a fro. They're all repeating the same procedure they'd done every single day for the past two weeks.

"This is the Daedalus," Colonel Caldwell's voice sounds from the radio headset in her ear. "We are ready to engage."

"Understood," Weir replies. "Good luck."

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In orbit over Atlantis, the BC-303 cruiser Daedalus unleashes its final salvo against a Wraith cruiser making a beeline for the city.

"Sir, we have thirty Wraith Darts bearing down on Atlantis," the ship's tactical officer says.

"And we're way out here on the fringe of the system," Caldwell says to himself. The colonel sighs with frustration. With the Byzantium destroyed and the Valkyrie heading back to Earth for supplies and reinforcements, the Daedalus was responsible for hunting down the frequent Wraith incursions into the Atlantis system. Unfortunately, the Wraith always sent two attack groups from opposite ends of the system. The Daedalus could only handle one, which meant that the other always go through to Atlantis.

Oh, the squadrons of Darts that got through were nothing special. They weren't a major threat to the security of Atlantis. But with each raid the city was forced to use up more and more of the Drones they had so recently acquired. Current projections showed that if the Wraith kept up these raids the city would be out of Drones in under four months. When that happened, the massive Wraith armada that had been holding postition just outside of the system for so long would converge on Atlantis, and they would be unable to hold them off.

"Recall all fighters," Caldwell orders. "As soon as they're aboard, make a hyperspace jump to Atlantis."

"Yes, sir."

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In the control room of Atlantis, Doctor Weir watches the digital representation of the battle going on. Well, it wasn't really a battle, it was a slaughter. In a matter of minutes the Wraith Darts were destroyed. But that destruction cost them thirty more drones. The city had thousands of them, but eventually they would run out. When that happens, Weir thinks to herself, we're done for.

"Threat has been neutralized," her operations officer says.

"Thank you, sergeant," Weir tells him reassuringly. She smiled with a confidence that she didn't really feel, and walks down the narrow walkway to her office.

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Once inside her office, Doctor Weir engages the privacy mode, and watches as the windows go dark. This option was discovered two years ago, and it allowed Elizabeth to let her guard down within walking distance of the control room without anybody seeing her. As the leader of the group, it was her job to put on a brave face. Here, she didn't have to do that anymore.

Just as the tired Doctor rests her head on the desk, the door chime sounds. Weir groans softly.

"Come in," she says. The door to her office slides open, and Lieutenant Colonel John Sheppard walks in.

"John," Weir greets him. Colonel Sheppard was not only the commander of the military forces stationed in the city, he had over the past seven years become a close, personal friend of Doctor Weir.

"Hey, Elizabeth," John returns the greeting as the door closes behind him. Looking her over for a moment, he says, "Is this a bad time?"

"No," Weir tells him. "No, of course not. I was just, um," the dark-haired woman rifles through the papers spread out on her desk, "going over some, uh, reports." She forces a smile on her face.

"Elizabeth," John says comfortingly as he walks over to her desk. "It's all right to want a break every so often. God knows I'd kill for one right about now."

"That's just it, John," Weir tells him. "Everyone wants a break, but we can't afford to take one. And that includes me."

"Look, no one will hold it against you if you drop the strong-leader facade for two seconds." Sheppard rests his hands on Weir's desk.

"I know, John," Elizabeth tells him. "But I'm the leader here. And if I start cracking under the pressure, that gives everyone else permission to do the same, and..." the doctor trails off as she starts to get slightly hysterical. She takes a deep breath. "I need to put on a brave face, John. For them." Sheppard nods.

"I get you," he tells her. "Especially since I kinda have to do the same thing." They both let chuckle, but neither one is doing so because they thought that line was funny.

"I'll let you get back to those reports," John tells her. He turns and walks towards the door.

"John," Elizabeth calls after him. "Thank you." Sheppard shrugs.

"What're friends for?" he says as he walks out of her office.

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"No, no, no!" Doctor Rodney McKay shouts at one of his research assistants. "That won't work! I mean, did you even consider the phase variance in that equation!" He throws his hands up in the air and walks away.

"Rodney, you need to calm down," a concerned Doctor Zelenka tells his friend in his not-so-thick Russian accent.

"Radek, I've been working with these imbeciles for the past month with no results!" Rodney snaps. "And I haven't gotten any sleep in the last week!"

"Which is vy I think you should take a break, Rodney," Radek Zelenka says soothingly.

"But I can't," McKay says. "Without me, you'd all probably blow up the city." Zelenka sighs and gives up on Rodney. He turns and walks towards one of the computers in the room. Before he can reach it, a scientist runs up to him.

"D-Doctor Zelenka!" the scientist says excitedly. "W-We found something!"

End of Chapter II

Author's Note: So, what did the scientist find? And will it be of any use to the team? Find out in "Teta Prime", Chapter III of Teta Prime.