Vital Lies

Chapter 7

The sun rose outside as Teyla and Aiden waited. Carson had drifted off again into an exhausted sleep. Teyla sat at his bedside, carried off in a world of her own thoughts, when he woke again.

"Ah, thank God. You're still here, Teyla." Carson whispered, sounding almost overcome by emotion.

"Of course I'm still here." Teyla smiled and turned to Carson.

"I wasn't so sure." Carson said as way of explanation. When Teyla looked at him puzzled, he explained.

"Waking up. I wasn't so sure it was real." he shook his head.

"It is real Dr. Beckett. You're safe now." Teyla reassured him.

"I was expecting my infirmary. Are we still on Yamin?"

"We're in Fiatyn. But we're going back to Atlantis as soon as Major Sheppard wakes up."

"How is he?"

"The healers here say that he will be fine. You both will be fine. He should be waking up soon."

"I didn't think..." Carson trailed off, wrapping his arms around himself. He looked over to John, who was still lying in bed unmoving.

A few minutes later John started to stir. Aiden and Teyla were immediately by his side, anxiously waiting for him to return to consciousness. "Major Sheppard?" Aiden tried and was rewarded by a groan.

"Stay still, don't try to move yet." He cautioned remembering Velig's words, as John tried to roll onto his back.

Sheppard's eyes stayed closed, but some of Aiden's words must have filtered through as he stopped his efforts to roll over. Instead, he reached out a trembling hand towards his head, as if feeling whether it was still there, firmly attached to his neck.

"Ford?" John's eyes slid open for a moment before shutting again.

"Yes, sir." Aiden smiled brightly.

"What's going on?" Aiden wasn't sure what to say.

"You were rescued, but you're injured." Teyla jumped in.

"No shit." John rolled onto his back and opened his eyes to look at his two team mates.

"The others?" John asked.

Beckett is just over there, he woke up a few hours earlier than you did. Elizabeth and Rodney are busy on the planet." Aiden said evasively.

John was just about to comment when Teyla spoke again.

"We have to leave here as soon as possible, major. It may not be safe to stay here. Dr. Weir ordered us to get you and Dr. Beckett and to return to Atlantis as soon as possible."

John shook his head. "This is all wrong. What's really going on here?" he asked sharply.

"We will explain back on Atlantis, but we cannot trust these people here. Please."

John was more than confused. He had never expected to wake up again after the guard had put that gun to the back of his head. Although he had never heard the shot fired, nor felt the bullet pierce his skulls; he had assumed that it was game over for him. Waking up with his head intact had been a big surprise. His body ached fiercely, especially his back seemed to be on slow burn, but all in all, he felt a lot better than he would have expected given the still fragmented memories of what had happened after all hell had broken loose during the negotiations.

John was glad to have woken up to familiar faces, although he really wished Rodney would have been there for him to see that he was really all right, but Teyla's and Ford's urgency and secrecy was making him suspicious. There was too much in his memories, images that he couldn't even place yet, that could be explained away with a simple 'you were rescued'.

Rodney had read enough, yet he could not stop reading. This report, while basically describing the same events as the report Wam Vter had given him to read earlier, was much more detailed, describing ruthlessly how his friends had been mistreated and interrogated by the Denebria extremists. It was nearly morning when Rodney had finished reading through the torturous description of the interrogations that Sjel had mandated in detail. Rodney hadn't been there, but just reading the cold recount of events had brought scenes to life in his mind, scenes that had horrified him.

During dinner, Olyg had the idea to offer Target #2 some water, as a gesture of our good will. He had not asked for any, but with the questioning lasting since morning, and the fever from his injuries, he would be thirsty. I had Uhiw prepare two bottles of water for me, one with salt, one without. I ordered Olyg to return to Target #1 and continue with him while I continued with Target #2.

Kiryl continued to question Target #2 in my absence without success. Although physically weakened, he refused to answer our questions. He had not taken up Kiryl's offer of basic treatment of his injuries in exchange for information. When I offered him water, he was briefly hesitant as I had expected, but then drank from the bottle.

I had planned on continuing the interrogation all night, but a communiqué from head 657 informing us that our information collected so far from the targets had been confirmed and was sufficient. The targets were to be disposed of and all evidence destroyed. I sent a message to Turan informing him that we were ready to proceed to stage three.

I ordered the aliens to be secured into the basement. Kiryl was preparing two stasis pods from the shuttle crafts on my orders. I wiped the computer systems, backing them up on a data chip beforehand. After all evidence was removed, Olyg and I went down to the basement to kill the prisoners. With Olyg as a witness that the prisoners were eliminated, I placed them into the stasis units that Kiryl had prepared.

Rodney closed his eyes and shut the file. It wasn't real; John and Carson were not dead. It couldn't be real. He had seen them both at the medical centre! They were just trying to mess with his head. Why else would the woman have him read the report? Rodney asked himself not for the first time, if he could still trust anyone. He didn't want any of what the report detailed to be true. No one deserved to go through that. Not John, not Carson. But they just couldn't be dead. If they had been put into stasis just after their hearts stopped, maybe it was possible that the Ymanhin healers had revived them. Rodney wanted that possibility to be true more than anything in a very long time. He didn't care about who was a traitor on Yamin or whether Wam Vter was telling Elizabeth the truth or not, as long as John and Carson were alive. He didn't care about the Ymanhin's business, but Elizabeth needed to know about it. If there was even the slightest possibilities that someone on Atlantis was working with Denebria, Elizabeth needed to investigate anyone who had ever been on a mission to Yamin.

Rodney got up and paced. Despite the sleepless night he was feeling wired, his thoughts racing, exploring possibilities, weighing odds, trying to pull together fragments together. As long as he was thinking, calculating and constructing scenarios, he could put off his feelings for a while longer.

In the middle of the third impossible scenario, the door opened, and the woman from the previous night entered. "Dr. McKay, I trust you have read the report." She walked up to him.

"Is it a report or spy thriller?" He asked coldly.

"Sjel would not lie on his report. It is what really happened."

"How do you know? He doesn't seem to be quite the gentleman when it comes to murder and torture."

"Believe what you want, Dr. McKay, It is the truth. Sjel did what he had to do to protect his cover."

"What about the people he tortured and murdered?" Rodney yelled, his pent up worry transforming into anger.

"Unfortunate sacrifices. Without them and his work, Denebria would still be there, to torture and kill more people in the future." She argued calmly.

"Then what do you expect from me?"

"Find the truth, nothing else. This concerns your people as well." She referred to the wealth of information that the extremists had had available about the Atlanteans, suggesting that they had a traitor in their midst.

"We'll do that."

"That's all we ask. That's why we showed you the report. We want the truth to be known. You have a right to know that you are being lied to."

"I appreciate it." Rodney said not sure if he meant it. He paused then asked what had been on his mind ever since finishing the report. "Why would Sjel kill them and then put them in stasis?"

"To save them. Sjel isn't a murderer and they are important witnesses, they could testify against Uhiw, Kyril and Olyg. If there was a chance that he could spare their lives, then he would have done it. I worked with Sjel twenty-five years ago just before he went undercover to join Denebria. We were--" Rumbling, crashing, and shouting voices from somewhere above interrupted her.

"Quickly!" She grabbed Rodney by the wrist and dragged him towards the door as the noise from above grew louder. Rodney couldn't hear what was being yelled. Two gunshots rang out above as they ran out into a narrow dark corridor. Suddenly, a beam of a flashlight was dancing crazily between them, blinding them.

"Stop! Don't move! You're under arrest!" A male voice yelled and a gunshot exploded directly above them.

Elizabeth stirred a cup of Ymanhin tea. She hated the passivity of remaining at the villa while waiting for news from Wam Vter, but she was sadly used to waiting while the action took place elsewhere. The situation reminded her of the murky uncertainty that settled over her every time one of the teams was delayed in returning from a mission. Aiden and Teyla were on there own, she would not know whether they were successful in their mission to retrieve John and Carson and return to Atlantis. They shouldn't run into any problems, but Elizabeth had come to always expect the worst, that way, she was ready for anything. She had found that in dealing with most of the races they'd encountered in the Pegasus galaxy, it was the best policy. She wanted to believe that the Ymanhin were different, that they, like the Athosians were to be taken at face value and were trust worthy allies in the fight against the Wraith. Bit by bit doubt had started to accumulate.

The communication screen beeped. Elizabeth answered instantly. As expected, it was Wam Vter with his promised update. Rodney had been found, but the news was not good.

"Dr. McKay is currently in being held by KAIA. He was arrested in a raid early this morning. They've only just contacted us, when they found out who he was."

"I need more details. What kind of raid and why is Dr. McKay being held?"

"A group of KAIA agents raided a suspected meeting point of Denebria sympathists. They found stolen government documents and weapons. The building has been under surveillance for quite some time apparently in an internal KAIA investigation of an information leak."

"I'll ask you again, why is Dr. McKay being held?"

"He was in the company of a traitor and terrorist supporter and there is evidence that he has had insight into stolen government documents. So I'm told."

"This proves nothing. He hasn't even been charged with anything? I want to know the details, all of them and I want to talk to Dr. McKay and hear what happen from him."

"I don't know any more than I have told you." Wam Vter quickly said. "You will have to talk to the chief investigating agent at KAIA, but I don't know whether this can be arranged for you. It is a courtesy that I'm informing you of the details as far as I know. But I will see what I can do. As for speaking to Dr. McKay, it is normally not permitted for people in holding to have contact with anyone from the outside while an investigation is in process, but in this case there will hardly by much to investigate. The facts seem to be rather clear. It is unfortunate, I must say, that you have misplaced your trust in Dr. McKay."

"On our world, people are innocent until they are proven guilty. Until you can show me sufficient proof that Dr. McKay was involved in activities that violate any of your laws I refuse to acknowledge that he is guilty of any crime." Elizabeth said firmly.

The problem was only maybe Rodney had, through misjudgement or carelessness let himself get dragged into a situation that had violated the law of Yamin. As their guests they had to adhere to the law of their hosts.

He couldn't move, couldn't breathe. Everything hurt. Two men, their shapes blurring and trailing every time they moved were shouting at him in hurtful noises. He didn't understand what they were saying; the words were mangled lumps of sound that drove sharp spikes of pain through his head. He wanted to scream at them to stop, but his voice had given out hours ago.

One of the men leaned close to him, he closed his eyes, and he couldn't bear to look into the face of his abuser anymore. He woke with a start, opening his eyes not to the brightly lit cell, but to a room that looked familiar even though he was devoid of a previous memory of it. The barren ceiling was bathed in soft yellow light, creating a calm atmosphere. He had been here before. He could not recall any details, but he knew that this place was familiar. He had no memory of its name, or how he had come to be here. Before waking up, everything was a blank.

Panic surged through him at the grim realization that he knew nothing, not even his own name. Suddenly, he felt trapped, couldn't breathe, like he was falling very fast. He groped for something to hold him, a name, a place, a face, but his mind came up empty. He sat up with a start, the adrenaline release giving him sudden strength and energy. His body responded with an intense wave of pain that rippled from his abdomen all through his body. He bit his lip and tasted blood as he tried to catch his breath.

The pain grounded him momentarily and the worst of his mindless panic ebbed away. He was still frightened out of his mind, but he could breathe again. Lifting the grey shirt that he was wearing, he discovered that his midsection was wrapped tightly with a white bandage. At the edges of the bandage, his skin was tinged in angry blue and dark violet. The whole area was painful to touch and didn't take kindly to movement. It reassured him that his wounds seemed to have been taken care of by someone.

Carefully, he moved to get up from the bed he had woken up on. He needed the wall for support to get upright, but with its help and considerable pain he managed to get to his feet. He looked around the small room. The bed was the only piece of furniture. There were no windows, one door at the front side of the room and an open doorway leading off to the right.

Step by step, he worked himself forwards, towards the door. His body protested from the first step and sweat was soaking his thin shirt after three, but he kept going. Why, he wasn't so sure. There was something about that door that drew him in. Maybe it was that he expected to find answers behind it to the myriad of questions that were running through his mind.

TBC