Title: Atlantis
Author: Tonia Barone
Rating: Teen
Spoilers: "38 Minutes", blink and you miss it for "Duet"
Disclaimer: Still not mine. pouts as she watches Radek work on a laptop instead of the tablet for a change Poo.
Notes: Thanks to jakisbishlygay for beta.
Summary: I give them comfort: a safe haven to lay their heads, bathe and eat. What do they give me in return? A heart attack, if I could, when several Children get stuck in the Doorway. Why do I get the feeling that this will not be the last time trouble find my Children?
Time passed, as it does. She has watched the new Children explore her halls, seeking out her secrets. She has eased their lives as she can: providing the living quarters with light and warmth and the bathing chambers with both water and the energy-showers her former Children had preferred. She even gave those who wished it large basins in which they could submerse themselves to bathe, instead of using the showers. Unsurprisingly, most of the women chose this once they learned of it.
She learns fairly quickly that several of these Children have special needs, such as her Protector, the one whom saved them from the Darkness. So she gently eased into his mind and adjusted the firmness of the sleeping space so that he might be more comfortable. He slept very little, she found, and he needed to optimize any time spent abed as much as possible.
She watches as her Favorite Child, her Protector and four others leave through the Doorway in one of the puddle jumpers. Their leader has sent them to check on the planet they first encountered the Wraith. She has learned that her Favorite mistakenly awoke them and it is obvious to her how much he regrets it. He is looking to make up for his error.
She has no sense of them while they are away from the puddle jumper. She is not connected to what they call the 'life signs detector', not really. Not enough for her to do more than ascertain how many life signs are in the area. It does not tell her when her Favorite Child is caught in a web, nor when one of the Wraith 'bugs' attaches itself to his neck. This she learns both when they enter the puddle jumper and when the young soldier and her Protector recount the tale later to their leader.
Her link to the puddle jumper tells her when they leave the planet. They are under fire and taking damage. She sees before anyone the problem and grieves when they become lodged halfway through. If she were at full power, she could extend the time the Doorway remained open. She is not, however; she is barely at a fourth of her full strength in fact. The power sources they brought with them are strong, but not as strong as the power cells they've named 'ZPM's. They really have only given her enough power to make their stay comfortable and to give them glimpses of her true nature.
Her interest peaks when she sees the rumpled man enter another of the puddle jumpers. She has seen this one work alongside her Protector many times, and though they argue, she knows this one to be almost as knowledgeable in her ways as her Protector.
They are attempting to by-pass the commands to retract the damaged pods. She helps as she is able and though her sense of this rumpled one is as faint those not of her True Children or the Gifted, she is still able to connect with him enough to guide him. She wishes he was one of her True Children, for she senses that this one is aware of her in a way most are not. This one knows, or has an idea, of what she is capable of and respects her for it. She will make sure to help this one, this Engineer, in any way she can.
One of the thinkers has lost faith that the others could be saved. He goes to the Leader of her Children then the leader of those who call themselves 'Athosians'. This causes strife between the two groups and much tension around this thinker. Yet it is his idea that ultimately saves those in the puddle jumper. Just a contradiction, this man is.
The pods are retracted, but they are still within the Doorway. Those within the puddle jumper struggle to save her Favorite Child. A plan is made to 'blow' the back hatch of the puddle jumper. A bold move, she thinks, yet it works. They arrive, finally, and the Healer takes care of her Favorite Child. He is safely within her walls once more, whole and not permanently marked by the experience.
These new Children care for one another in a way her others hadn't, perhaps because there are so few of them. This is good, she thinks. Perhaps these Children will be able to do what the others could not: put a stop to the Wraith. Only time would tell.