Chapter Twenty - Home Again, Home Again
The team stepped through the Stargate to face a visibly nervous Weir, running lightly down the steps to meet them. Peter Grodin watched them from the balcony, looking relieved, his hands moving across the control console to shut down the wormhole.
It immediately activated a second later, its chevrons lighting up one by one. Alarmed, Sheppard turned to the 'gate, only for Elizabeth to call out to him.
"It's alright, Major." She gave them an assessing look. "You're alright? You're nearly four hours overdue. We were starting to get worried."
"Long story," Sheppard breathed, looking around the gate room. He counted a dozen men in the shadows of the space, all of them armed and two carrying Wraith stunners. Several crates and a trolley hidden under boxes stood in one corner. The soldiers seemed twitchy, holding themselves at stiff attention, their gaze darting about the room. Up on the balcony, Bates had appeared over Peter's shoulder, his face stony, his eyes trained upon the returning team. "What's going on?"
Elizabeth winced, turning away. "We should talk in my office," she muttered tightly, causing a spark of fear to ignite itself in Sheppard's stomach. Her hand reached up to tap her radio. "Dr Zelenka, Dr Beckett, I need you both in the conference room."
"What's happening?" McKay demanded, trotting alongside Elizabeth.
She didn't answer him, glancing over her shoulder at the team. "You're uninjured?"
"Yeah." Sheppard paused, exchanging a confused glance with Teyla and Ford. Elizabeth seemed oddly detached, her relief at their return tempered by something he couldn't pinpoint. Her shoulders were knotted beneath the thin cloth of her shirt, her jaw was clenched tight, her eyes dark and…
She was scared, he realized, feeling nauseous. Hiding it well, to the untrained eye - but he knew her too well, and could she was afraid, and desperate.
They ascended the stairs quickly, Sheppard keeping astride with Weir and McKay, Teyla and Ford bringing up the rear. They were quiet, conscious of the strange atmosphere of tension, and the sound of the Stargate blooming into life behind them. Zelenka and Carson appeared together from the top corridor, the Czech carrying a laptop, and the pair dropped down several steps to follow the group into the conference room.
"Elizabeth," Sheppard pressed, firmly.
She didn't answer, moving around the large table to its head, and beckoning the others to follow. She waited until last before taking her seat, straight backed and tense, her arms resting lightly on the table top.
Sheppard felt wired, apprehensive, seeing the way Weir's fear was reflected by Zelenka and Beckett. The Scot was hiding it poorly, wringing his hands in a subconscious display of nerves, whilst Radek seemed even scruffier and more tired than usual. After being released from the game Sheppard's adrenaline spike had faded, and now he felt on edge and jittery. The feeling wasn't soothed when Elizabeth shut all the doors, effectively sealing the room and its inhabitants off from the rest of the city.
"How was the mission?" Elizabeth asked. It sounded formal, as though she were going through a ritual, than the easy question of a friend and leader. "Did you find anything useful?"
Sheppard glanced at McKay, sat opposite, and answered first.
"An outdated computer with abandonment issues. Several hundred Ancients in stasis but none of them sane enough to answer any questions."
"Several hundred?" Zelenka squeaked.
"Yeah, but," Sheppard hesitated, "even if we could wake them, I'm not sure we'd want to." He was aware of Ford shifting uncomfortably in his seat, of a look of guilt flashing across the young Lieutenant's face. "The only one we woke tried to kill me."
He looked towards Elizabeth, expecting to see a spark of interest, but her face was shuttered and dark.
"What about a power source? A ZPM?"
"The one powering the station was depleted," McKay explained, sounding apologetic. "Even more so than the one here. There's the remote possibility of a spare, but I'm not sure we could access it."
Zelenka leaned forward, his haste betraying a sense of desperation. "What happened?"
"We stumbled into a virtual reality situation the Ancients had been using as entertainment." McKay's lip curled. "It wasn't, particularly."
"It was distressing," Teyla admitted, "and proved difficult to escape."
"You're alright?" Carson asked, shooting them a concerned look.
"Yeah." Sheppard shrugged, though he couldn't feel so casual. "Relived a couple of old nightmares but no permanent harm done." He paused, unable to subdue a flicker of doubt. His team looked away, Ford pale and intent upon the table top, Teyla fixing her gaze on the wall, and McKay picking at the skin on his finger tips.
"You say the ZPM was depleted?"
"Atlantis is a Duracell bunny compare to this one," McKay replied, without looking up. "The entire system was on the verge of collapse. There was barely enough power to dial up the Stargate to come back here." He lifted his head, and looked across to Zelenka. "What's going on?"
The Czech winced, and dropped his gaze.
"The Wraith," Weir said, quietly. "Dr Ashcroft was doing a routine check on the jumpers when one of them picked up their approach on its sensors. Four hive ships are headed straight here."
Sheppard had to restrain himself from leaping up, his mind recoiling from the idea. "How long?"
"A little under forty minutes."
There was a long, stunned silence.
"I'm sorry, John." Elizabeth looked up from her folded hands, looking tired and resigned. "I wish I could give your team a breather before…" She broke off.
He felt cold, his hands and feet strangely numb. "What's the plan?"
Her gaze drifted to a spot over his right shoulder. "As you know, Major, we still haven't picked an official Alpha site. Peter selected the best from the shortlist we have, M4J-492, and we've already started sending through as many people and as much equipment as we can organize."
He ran through the list in his head quickly, and picked up on the designation. "M4J-492? We've barely explored a fraction of that planet, we have no idea what's there!"
"We know there is plenty of fresh water, fertile land, and it has a seemingly stable geology." Her eyes dipped briefly. "Please understand, Major, we've known of the Wraith's arrival for barely longer than you have, and," her tone became more pointed, "every minute counts. We can't afford to be picky."
"Right." He huffed softly, feeling frustrated.
"What of my people?" Teyla asked, concerned.
"We're shuttling as many as we can from the mainland," Carson explained. "But some of your hunters are proving hard to track down, lass."
The Athosian's eyes darkened, and her head lowered. "They will travel for a great distance over several days." She paused. "I know you are doing your best."
The physician nodded, looking older than he had since Hoff, scrubbing a hand across his face. "It's not enough."
"I was hoping," Elizabeth interrupted, "that some of your people might be willing to fight alongside us, Teyla. I realize that this isn't their home but…"
She nodded. "You will have many volunteers, Dr Weir."
"Thank you."
"Um, ma'am?" Ford placed his hands on the table top, then pulled them away with a flush of self-conscious nerves. "Can I ask what our aim is?"
Weir sighed deeply, and Sheppard caught a glimpse of immense grief and heart break. "We defend the city for as long as we can, to get the most people to safety. Then we destroy it."
Sheppard flinched, as though for a second he shared Atlantis' pain. "To protect Earth."
"Yes." She paused, clearly at a loss for words.
McKay looked over to Zelenka. "I take it you haven't had any moments of inspiration while I was away?"
The Czech shook his head sadly. "Only of ways to destroy the city, not to save it. Unless you have ZPM hidden in your jacket?"
Rodney shook his head. "What ideas?"
"We destroy the city stabilizers. We sink the city, quickly." The Czech made an expressive movement with his hand. "The pressure of the water will… kerlupf."
McKay raised an eyebrow. "Not the technical term, but accurate. Of course, we'll have to wipe the computers first…"
"Fortunately, the program we have been working on to do that is completed."
The physicist's eyebrows shot upwards. "The virus? That was only a theory…"
"One I have been working on for a while." Radek shrugged. "Call me a pessimist."
"A pessimistic, sneaky, conniving - all this time?"
"Rodney," Weir interrupted, firmly.
"Yes, well…" Zelenka coughed. "The problem is that we still have no effective means of spreading the virus at the correct speed. The systems of Atlantis are complex and hold a great deal of data. If we allow it free reign then it would wreak havoc with the parts we still need to control, such as lights, doors, and the Stargate. Done too slowly, and the Wraith will be able to retrieve information from its memory before the virus can complete its task."
"Like the location of Earth," Sheppard finished, sighing.
"Precisely. I believe that if we manually distribute the virus to specific points in the city's system we will have greater control over what it deletes." The Czech spread his hands wide in a gesture of apology. "But that is tricky."
"What about weapons?" Ford asked.
"There are no drones left. The shield cannot be powered." Radek closed his eyes, and lifted his glasses to pinch the bridge of his nose.
"We are defenseless," Elizabeth said, from the head of the table. Her voice, though quiet, held a note of finality. "We have to abandon it." She paused briefly, then looked towards Sheppard. "Sergeant Bates is organizing groups to protect the city's core. Dr Zelenka has a team working on the application of the virus. Peter is concentrating on the Stargate, and redialing the Alpha site between every shut down before the Wraith can dial in. Your job is to liaise with them and…"
"Run?" McKay shook his head. "We only just got here. There's still so much we…"
"I know, Rodney." Her mask slipped for a moment, and Elizabeth's sorrow was abruptly on display. "Believe me, I wish there was another way."
She drew a shaking hand through her hair. Sheppard watched closely, suddenly aware of a small, niggling sensation at the back of his mind, the sense of something being odd, and out of place.
"How many personnel are through the 'gate already?" Aiden asked.
"Between fifty and sixty, including some Athosians." Carson glanced at Teyla. "If you could help organize your people for the move, it'd be appreciated."
She nodded. "I will return with fighters."
Elizabeth rose, pushing herself back from the table, once more in command. "Then you all know what the position is. We now have roughly thirty minutes until the first Wraith dart enters the atmosphere." She paused. "I realize what I'm asking of anyone who stays behind to fight, and it's the same I ask of myself. But the Wraith cannot be allowed to find Earth."
She was pale, but determined, and Sheppard was struck by the age-old cliché, a captain going down with his ship. He rose quickly, hoping to stop the room's inhabitants from dwelling too long on her words.
"I guess we get to it, then."
There was a brief pause and then the group started to move, with an increasing sense of urgency. Elizabeth was out of the door first, moving towards Grodin, Zelenka and McKay close behind. Carson tailed them, accompanied by Teyla, but Ford hovered, waiting for his CO to go first.
The young lieutenant was studying the floor, his fear barely disguised behind a thin mask of professionalism. He spoke quietly, out of the others' earshot. "Sir, what Dr Weir meant…"
"Is that anyone who stays and fights will likely never make it through the Stargate." Again Sheppard felt an odd sense of displacement, that he was forgetting something important. He frowned, and scratched at the back of his neck.
Aiden had a distant look in his eyes. "I guess we always knew it could end like this, huh? Dying to protect Earth."
"Let's not count our chickens yet," Sheppard admonished. He paused, thinking of Aiden's family, of the families of all the other men under his command. Of Sumner. He had the sudden, horrible longing for the acerbic Colonel's return, for the older man to take command, allowing Sheppard to fade into the insignificant background.
He moved away from Aiden, out of the conference room and towards the balcony, vaguely aware of the Lieutenant following him. What ifs haunted him. If he hadn't woken the Wraith, if he'd been able to save Sumner, if he hadn't fallen for O'Neill's argument and left Antarctica…
Below him, the Stargate flickered, the event horizon sending shimmering splashes of silver light around the room. They bounced off the stained glass in the outside walls, and shed strange, twisted shadows on the floor.
There was a whisper, and the sensation of wrongness rippled over him, and made him shudder. Realization dawned, cold and sick in his stomach.
"Oh crap."
Aiden, moving his weight restlessly from foot to foot, looked up at him. "Major?"
"This isn't real." Sheppard wrapped his hands around the cold balcony railing and squeezed, hard. "We're still in the game."
A/N: Okay, so you don't win anything for seeing that one coming... The next chapter should be a biggie, so it might take me a while to write it. Please bear with me, RL has this annoying habit of getting in the way of fic!