The
city of Atlantis,
the
Pegasus Galaxy.
"Now then, this is all preliminary at the moment, but one of Teyla's people has come forward with a very intriguing tale to tell," Dr Weir said to Lt Colonel Sheppard, within the privacy of her own office within the Ancient city of Atlantis. "I don't quite know what to make of it myself, so your thoughts on this would be most welcome."
"Sure, Elizabeth, lay it out for me," John replied, giving her a broad, warm and friendly smile.
"Well, this Athosian, along with Teyla as support and a witness to this man's character, came to me to say that a man, someone he had known and had done many trades with over the years, revealed to him in private that he was indeed a Genii spy." Weir waited a few long moments for her words to sink in, then carried on. "This had happened off-world, of course, on a trade mission to a planet the Athosians know of well. He made the approach to this Athosian, Malden, so that he could relay the conversation back to us. This Genii is claiming to be a very senior member of their intelligence organization, and promises to hand over a vast amount of useful information of their operations throughout the galaxy – for protection from his brethren, and asylum amongst the Athosians on the mainland."
"What? Why on Earth would he want that…?" Sheppard exclaimed. Then he realized just what he had said, smiled broadly, and shook his head in exasperation. "Well, you know what I'm getting at, Elizabeth. It really doesn't seem like a trade that a Genii agent would want to make, to give over such vital information and risk so much, betraying his own people, just to live amongst the Athosians as simple farmers and traders. This doesn't sit right with me… we might be walking into a trap here, or being purposefully led astray, some kind of Genii disinformation operation."
Weir sighed heavily, and rubbed the forefingers of both of her hands hard into her aching temple. "John," she said, her voice slightly muffled as she was speaking into her hands, "I really don't know what this is all about, and quite frankly I don't have a good feeling about this either. But there is a possibility that this is genuine and on the level – I want to play it out, to see if we can get any useful information out of this man or if not. I want to find out if it's a legitimate defection or if we're being set up, too, as soon as we can. But if this is real… we have to do whatever's necessary to make this happen."
"I understand that… but we can't trust the Genii. Ever. They're dangerous, manipulative, ruthless bastards, Elizabeth, you have to know that yourself…" the Lieutenant Colonel, his voice tightening up a little due to suppressed rage, said in almost a whisper.
"I know that, John, I know… this could be just what we need to get a leverage over their intelligence network, though, and isn't that worth a little risk?" Weir stated. She looked up at him, straight up into John Sheppard's eyes. "It is, and you know it too."
"Yes I know… look, Elizabeth, let me go out there and help Teyla and this Malden fellow. They need to be wary, on the lookout for lies and double-crosses. I don't quite think this is going to play out the way any of us expect, I really don't, but I'll do my best to get this guy back here to Atlantis, and then from there we'll see if he's for real or just a fake." Sheppard gave her his most pleading, puppy-dogged look he could manage. "Please, let me go out there and help bring this guy in."
"Go, Sheppard, go… that was what I was thinking of, anyway," Weir answered. "Teyla and Malden are on the alert for more Genii, and are cautious about the man who's supposedly wanting to join with us, knowing that he could betray them or mislead them. But they don't quite have the experience in these matters as I think you do."
John Sheppard nodded his head slightly. "Thank-you, Elizabeth. You won't regret this." He stood up out of his chair and moved away from the desk, towards the door that opened up out of Dr Weir's office. "I'll be ready to go in 15 minutes."
"Good…" Weir said. She wanted to say more, so much more, but cut herself off. She peered out the glass window beside her desk, staring down at the Stargate in the Gate Room below. And she let out a sad little huff, knowing that the burden of command was something she had to deal with, had to live with, every day she remained in charge of the Atlantis expedition.
Suddenly, though, she knew she had to say something more to Lieutenant Colonel John Sheppard, before he walked out of her office. As he was stepping over the threshold, she called out, "John!" He stopped, turned around slightly in the doorway, looked back at her. "John… good luck, and stay safe!"
The corners of his mouth turned upwards just a little, in a way that could almost be akin to a shadow of a smile. With that tiny little smirk, John Sheppard ducked away and was gone, out of sight.
Weir leaned back in her chair, and hoped and prayed that everything would turn out okay, that all of her people would come out of this alive…
# A #
Deep
within Sector 1146, onboard the USS Daedalus,
the
Pegasus Galaxy.
Rodney McKay leaned up against the far wall of the Officer's Mess alongside Ronon Dex, and waited for somebody on the bridge of the battle-cruiser to pick up the intercom on their end. It took a long while, but finally a gruff male voice answered on the other end of the line. "Tactical Officer here."
McKay knew this guy – Norris, was his name Norris? Rodney thought it was… he also was pretty sure the man held the rank of Major but wasn't quite confident about this point. "Major Norris, listen to me, it's Dr Rodney McKay here. I need to talk to Colonel Caldwell immediately, it's a matter of life and death."
"Really, Doctor, the Colonel is extremely busy here… we don't have time to keep you informed at this point."
"Major, JUST PUT CALDWELL ON THE PHONE, NOW!" McKay screamed down the line. Ronon was stunned, Norris was stunned… and Rodney was shocked most of all by his outburst. He didn't even know he had it in himself, let alone was able to bring such gutsy, brutish bravado out when it was needed most.
There was silence on the other end of the line for a moment, but then the sound of muttered voices, soft conversations, reached Rodney's ear. Then McKay was suddenly almost deafened by hissing feedback, and finally the deep, monotonous voice of Colonel Steven Caldwell came onto the intercom. "Dr McKay, this had better be real important."
"Trust me, Colonel, it is," Rodney replied, with all of his confident bravado and lofty cockiness. He was now back in his element, explaining a grand new discovery he had made that was going to save them all from calamity. "I don't exactly know how they did it, or who exactly they are to begin with, but we are not reading an Ancient distress beacon. I doubt there is any Ancient technology at all on this world we are travelling towards. No, what we are actually picking up is a WRAITH transponder relay of some kind, created to pick up Wraith messages and signals, and bounce them along a network that runs across the entire length of the galaxy. In this way, the Wraith can keep communications active across a vastly large span of space. Someone has very cleverly rewired it to give out a signal similar to an Ancient beacon, but it is not exactly the same, there are minute differences – and I'm also picking up the original Wraith signal buried deep within the readouts we've been picking up; it was too deep within the overriding fake Ancient signal for your analysis programmes to pick it out."
"So what you're saying is… someone's 'hotwired' a Wraith relay station to broadcast an Ancient signal?" Caldwell asked, disbelief quite evident in every word he spoke.
"Yes Colonel, that's exactly what I'm saying. I see this all quite clearly right before my very eyes, Dr Novak could have verified this as well if she was onboard the ship in the first place, and Dr Zelenka would definitely have spotted this too, probably just when it's too late to do anything about it but still…" Rodney huffed, then pulled himself up short, tried to calm himself as much as possible, and laid out his recommendations as best he could. "Colonel, I don't think we should proceed any closer to the planet. This signal you are detecting is bogus, its fake, and someone set it up for a reason… to draw somebody into a trap of some kind, is my likely thought. It's best if we just turned around right now, and carry on our journey back to Atlantis."
"Dr McKay, you cannot seriously expect me to turn this vessel around and carry on our way again, like we never picked up any transmission at all…" Caldwell replied, incredulously. "No, we will continue onward as planned. I will make sure that every precaution is taken to ensure the safety and security of this ship, Doctor. You have nothing to be concerned about."
There was an audible click as Colonel Caldwell hung up on Rodney. McKay stared down at the receiver hanging limply in his right hand for the longest while, then at last shook himself out of it and put the device back on its cradle, up by the intercom.
"So, what's the Colonel going to do?" Dex asked. He had heard McKay's side of the conversation at least, so he had a lot more of an understanding of what was going on than before.
"He's just going to keep going…" Rodney said softly. "I have no idea what we're getting ourselves into, Ronon, but I tell you, whatever happens, it won't be good for us."
# A #
On a small world on the outer edge
of
Sector 1146, the Pegasus Galaxy.
This planet had a Stargate, but it was quite obvious that travellers did not come to this world from the moment Kolya set eyes upon the bland, inhospitable wastelands that stretched out to all the horizons. There were few if any vegetation to speak of, little water, and the ground looked quite ragged and infertile.
To the west of the Gate, a huge range of towering mountains rose up out of the nothingness, the one distinctive natural marker Commander Acastus Kolya and his people had found on the planet so far. It was within the vast, dank catacombs of those mountains, that he had found his salvation…
Egan, the current acting Group Leader of the Genii Strike Force due to the 'tragic' death of his illustrious predecessor, came driving up to Kolya in one of the eight Genii all-terrain vehicles. It was a buggy that had a roll-cage, four wheels with the two forward ones hunched further forward from the chassis than the back ones, two seats at the front and a gunner's chair on the back, with its own rear-mounted swivel auto-cannon for heavy-weapons ordinance, and a supercharged petroleum engine. They were beasts, the Genii ATVs, and Acastus was proud of his people for being able to get their hands on some using the right trading contacts.
"Would you like a lift, sir?" the young officer said to his superior with a slight bow of his head, sitting behind the driving wheel of the high-speed vehicle.
"Yes Egan, I sure would." Then, to the 20 men that had followed Kolya through the Stargate and were acting as his personal bodyguard retinue, he said, "Fan out around the Gate and deploy yourselves in a defensive pattern you deem fit. I want the Gate held against any and all possible threats, for as long as it takes. If it comes to a fight here, I know you will not let me down!"
With that, the passenger got out of the side of the ATV and went around to the empty gunner's position, taking up the controls of the auto-cannon and sitting back in the big chair to take up the ride. Kolya got into the newly vacated seat beside Egan, and they were off with a swirl of dust across the wide-open plain, at an incredible, almost reckless speed.
# A #
It only really became apparent once you were very close to the mountains, Acastus thought reflectively to himself. Then the structure became clearer, carved so majestically into the very rock itself. It was a magnificent structure, broad and incredibly squared, shaped and sculptured with uniformity solely on the agenda.
A Wraith construction if ever there was one, but of a much older design than most of their architecture that still survived – many thousands of years old, older than most things that still remained in Pegasus.
Not all things were built to last for eons, to survive through the ages, but this was definitely created to withstand the very bombardments of time itself…
The Genii Commander, who utterly loathed the ceaseless brutality and ferocity of the Wraith, could not help but find himself impressed by those who could construct such an unimaginable building. But they were not so much like the creatures Kolya dealt with now, he did not believe they had been at heart, not those who built this structure. Those had to be a thoroughly different kind of Wraith to those who now infested the Pegasus Galaxy.
Egan slowed the ATV down, and then pulled up at last to a stop right out the front of the Wraith-constructed building. They both quickly got out of their seats and scurried up the staircase to the large, dark entryway to the interior of the structure, leaving the Genii soldier out on the gun-turret on the back of the ATV to say on guard-duty.
Within the structure itself, there was a dim light coming from further within. As they drew nearer to the light, the two men could see the dark shadows of the five Genii troopers they had left to guard the two logistics personnel operating within the facility. One of the men, a Platoon Leader, noticed the men approaching and, once he saw that one of them was the venerated Commander Kolya, he snapped up to attention and saluted promptly. The rest of his men quickly followed suit.
Kolya returned the gesture, and congratulated the men on a successful task. Then he quickly moved on past the soldiers, in search of the two people he'd left there at the Wraith structure.
Kayne, the Wraith technologies and weapons expert, was hunched over a very complex-looking conduit network, which he'd been able to gain access to by removing a very old, quite heavy granite slab the Wraith had used in much of the construction of the facility.
Commander Acastus Kolya walked over to stand beside the older, wizened Genii, and stayed silent, calmly waiting for Kayne to finish what he was doing and respond to his presence in his own time. Few men at all had ever earned Kolya's respect, and fewer still had earned his deference – Kayne had both.
"I've managed to mask the lingering Wraith signal completely in our false Ancestor beacon transmission," Kayne said softly to his Commander, without looking up from what he was doing. He used a copper-wiring tool to pry away a vein-like relay cable within the Wraith panel, then wired the cable to another cut server and welded both connections together. With a slight smile of satisfaction, the old tech rose up from his crouched position and at last looked Kolya full in the eye. "It would have been quite improbable indeed if the Lanteans picked up on our subterfuge, and Venetia assures me that the vessel has continued on its current course and speed, so it does not look like we have to be concerned."
Out of one of the side rooms came a stunningly attractive woman, a brunette, with her hair tied back in a tight ponytail, sharp cold blue eyes, an exquisite aquiline face, and a full, tight muscular physique that was honed to a razor point for ruthless, brutal combat. Her name was Venetia, and she was just as smart, quick-witted and deadly-intelligent, as she was gorgeous. She was a combat technician, with a variety of specialties that made her a useful component of Strike Forces operating in important missions off-world.
"Yes Commander, the Lantean space-vessel is travelling towards us at a continuous course and speed, with little in the way any of noticeable deviation. I have also detected a number of Wraith ships making course changes to investigate our signal – we already have four Wraith cruisers within the solar system, and within ten minutes, all of those vessels and the Lantean ship will be within the effective operations-range of the energy weapon." Venetia spoke with the calm, deadpan monotone of a calm, concise professional.
That was one of her great drawcards – Kayne's also. They were not arrogant, self-confident egotists, Kolya thought. He still remembered that ingrate bastard, Dr McKay, and the way he acted even when he was staring death right in the face. He was a weak, foolish piece of scum. Acastus had detested the man for his selfishness, more than anything else.
"Okay, well that was much more than we could have possibly hoped for – to strike out against the Wraith as well as at our Lantean foes!" Kolya said joyously. He turned to look at Kayne. "I need that device operational within five minutes, Kayne. Can I count on you?"
"Consider it done, Commander." The ageless Genii expert grinned, and his whole face crinkled up into one big wrinkled mass. "None of those ignorant fools have a clue what's coming to 'em!"