Teyla looked pale and her eyes were closed when Elizabeth approached her bedside. Dr. Biro had finally given her the okay to talk to the Athosian woman, if only for ten minutes. Although the doctor had cautioned her not to expect too much from the conversation, Elizabeth hoped that it would give her some clue as to what had happened to John. At the moment, they had no idea what had happened to him. Why had he not been with the others when the explosion had occurred? If he was safe, then why had he not contacted Atlantis by now?
Elizabeth pulled up a chair next to Teyla's bed, willing to wait for Teyla to wake again. The feet of the chair scrapped over the metal floor of the infirmary and Elizabeth scooted closer to the bed. The screeching noise roused Teyla and her eyes slid open. She blinked, her gaze slowly settling on Elizabeth. Elizabeth didn't like the glassy look in her eyes and the way she seemed to look through her, instead of at her. But Teyla had registered her presence all right.
"Dr. Weir?" Her voice sounded sleepy, but still carried her usual confidence.
"I'm here Teyla. It's going to be all right. You are going to be fine." Dr. Weir reassured her, not sure if Teyla needed reassurance. She only knew that if the situation were reversed, she would be scared to death.
"Are the others going to be all right? I asked Dr. Biro before, but she would not tell me."
"They are going to be all right." Elizabeth paused. "But John didn't come back through the Gate with you. So far we don't know what happened to him. Can you tell me what happened before the explosion?"
Teyla's brow furrowed and she closed her eyes for a moment. "It does not make any sense. I saw him, just before. He was with Lieutenant Ford and Doctor Beckett. I was across the hall. That is the last thing I remember clearly." Teyla licked her lip. "I think…I tried to get out, get some fresh air, but I couldn't…"
"It's all right, Teyla. We'll find John. We'll contact the Ymanhin and start an investigation." Elizabeth placed a hand on Teyla's. "Get some rest. We can talk more when you feel better."
"Good night, Doctor Weir." Teyla said, closing her eyes.
Elizabeth stayed, waiting for Teyla's breaths to even out. When she was sure that the other woman was asleep, she quietly left the infirmary.
Elizabeth yearned for a shower and a good night's sleep, but there was work to be done. She had already lost track of one of her people on Ymanhin and now Rodney had been exiled onto a prison planet. She wasn't going to lose John, too. Grodin was gone from the control room. He deserved his rest. Private Reynolds was leaning over her computer console, resting her head on her arms. She looked asleep. Dr. Weir checked her watch. The nightshift had already started, but the private had already been on duty for all of the day shift. Organizing the military work force was John's resort and in his absence it had fallen into Bates' hand, who had shared some of the responsibilities with Ford, as he also was tasked with the security of the city. Now all three men were out of commission. Elizabeth waved to the technician on the other side of the room. He looked up, putting his beverage down.
"Dr. Malloy, dial Yamin and try to establish contact on any of their known frequencies." Elizabeth ordered.
Dr. Malloy looked at her. "I'm running a computer diagnostic here."
"The diagnostic can wait. This can't."
oOo
Maje had given Rodney the grand tour of the Atlentian ship. For a ship that had been lying on the floor of the ocean for millenia it was in amazing condition. Just like Atlantis, it didn't betray its age. The green-grey metal still had the magnificent luster of a new vessel. From what Rodney could see the ship was in perfect condition. There was no sign that the ship had crashed.
"The ship looks perfect. Has it ever flown?" He asked, already knowing the answer. The Ymanhin couldn't get as much as a beep out of the ship without a person with the ATA gene to initialize the systems. Rodney assume that the ship was most like Atlantis. Once activated, a lot of the system could be handled by people without the gene.
"No, the systems seem to be dead, but our engineers can't find what's wrong. That's where you come in. We know that you are an expert on the Ancient system. You will find the defect."
The fact that the ship had remained dead and cold even in his presence told Rodney everything he needed to know. Depleted power source. And he suspected that a ship this size needed a ZPM to fly. If that was the case, the Ymanhin would threaten him for nothing. There was northing he could do.
"Could I see the power systems?" Her turned to Maje.
Five minutes later he knew. The ZPM was depleted. The ship wouldn't fly no matter what he did. But he couldn't tell that to his captors. The moment they realized that he was useless, his life was worthless. He would be lucky if he went back to prison.
He had to play for time. "This is diffenrent form the ship we have at our disposal. I need to study the energy distributionm system." Rodney said the fisrt thing that came to his mine.
"All right. Our enigineers have drawn complete blue prints of alls the ship's systems. I'll bring out back to your room and have someone bring the plans." Maje agreed.
Although Maje had not challenged him, he didn't like the way her eyes lingered on him after she had spoken. It wouldn't be easy to fool her.
oOo
The air was to hot to breathe. Every breath seemed to singe his lungs, sending stabs of pain through his body. He tried to run but suddenly everywhere around him flames sprung from the ground, dancing wildly, licking the ceiling, leaving black patches. The ceiling started cracking, the snapping sound well audible over the wild fire. The first peices of the ceiling rained down, some missing him by mere inches, some tumbling into the flames. He raised his arms to protect himself, but suddenly there was a shark crack and what remained of the ceiling burst into flames. He gasped in the hot air, the fire consuming all oxygen. His legs gave out under him and he fell to his knees. When he looked up he saw the flaming ceiling slowly falling down.
John woke with a start, gulping for breath. He had expected singing hot air and smoke, but the air was cool and smelled clean. He felt cool air on his skin and soft sheets under his hands. He opened his eyes to blackness, but after his eyes adjusted, he could make out the outlines of a small room. It wasn't is room on Atlantis. Besides, he should be in the infirmary. His memories weren't very clear. All he remembered for a long time were fragments. But he knew that he had been in a fire, together with his time. He couldn't tell how much time had passed since the incident, or whether he had woken before, but he remembered the fire, and he remembered being back on the way to Atlantis. Obvisously he hadn't made it.
He raised his arm to see what time it was and found his watch gone. Unsettled, he pushed himself up. He reghretted his moved instantly. His whole upper body protested painfully. He remembered his back wound. His back had been hurt when they had been on their way to Atlantis, he could remember now. He wasn't too clear on what had happened. There were some fragments floating around his mind. A conference room, Elizabeth, Rodney, blue-skinned aliens. A corridor, half caved in. Dust filling the air. Rodney screaming his name. Rodney...
John swung his legs over the edge of the bed. Steadying himself on the wall, he came to his feet. His whole body hurt. It felt as if his skin was to small. Burns! He had once come to close to a bomb back in Afganisthan and sufferend 2nd and 3rd degree burns on his back. He had been lucky, the damaged area had been small and had healed without complications. The scar wasn't visible in daily life, John hardly ever thought about the incident, even though he had the permanent memento on his skin.
John switched on the light. A warm light, revealed a surprisingly nice room. The furniture was wooden instead of steel, bed, desk, chair, wardrobe, nightstand. The desk stood under a window. John took a look outside, but he couldn't make out much, aside from several building blocks across the road.
He opened the wardrobe and found it filled with clothes. All tee-shirts and sweat-pants, Earth-style. Nothing like the tunics the Ymanhin wore. His curiosity peaked, he went to check out the nightstand.
Books. In English. He checked out the printing information. Printed in the USA. They could only have gotten these from Atlantis.The clothes they could have made, but not the books. They had even payed attention to his interests, by including a book about the millenium problems, a selection of maths problems, unsolved so far.
Just for fun, John tried the door. To his big surprise, it wasn't locked. The hallway was dark. As soon as he stepped out, the lights flickered on. Motion sensor.
Still, John proceeded down the coridor. On the left, on his side of the corridor was another door. On the bottom of the corridor was a glass door. John didn't know why, but something compelled him to get out of the building. Like the door to his room, the glass door wasn't locked. He stepped outside and was hit by a wave of icy air. The floor under his bare feet was freezing. He was ill equiped wearing thin bedclothes and being barefoot.
"Aren't you cold?" A voice from behind made John swirl around. A Ymanhin woman dressed in a blue tunic and blue pants stood in the doorframe.
"Who are you?" John asked
"I'm Velig. I'm here to help you."
Velig. The name sounded familiar. but he couldn't place it. The woman looked like thousands of her people, as far as he was concerned.
"Come back in, there is nowhere to go." There was an underlying threat.
John went back into the building, glad to be back in the warm.
"Are you in pain?" Velig asked him softly.
"A little." John replied.
"Your wounds are still healing. It's important that you make a full recovery. I will give you something for the pain. Come with me."
John ignored her.
"Where is the rest of my team?"
Velig looked at home with a blank expression. "I don't know. I assume they are back on your planet. But that is no longer your problem."
"What do you want from me?" John asked as reality started to sink in.
"We need you. Our society hasn't made any new advancments in the last 300 years. The Ancient gene will be the next step in our evolution. We will finally move on to a new level. Our technology has stagnanted, with the gene we will gain access to a new generation of technology."
"I can't help you there." John tried.
"We will make this work. We have invested too much to give up now. We already impregnated a woman with your sperm, but the child didn't bear the gene. We cloned you, but we couldn't replicate the gene with our technology. This time, we took your DNA and the DNA of one one of your team mates of the gene, to insure that the child carries the gene. Ideally, we would have chosen a woman with the gene to carry the child, but none was available. Artificial wombs are risky, so we chose you to carry the child."
John thought he hadn't heard right.
"Me?"
"Yes. There is enough precedent among our people and we have run simulations using your anatomy and the results have been promising. Of course, it would be a first." Velig sounded excited.
"But-"
"It's not an easy procedure. We are under a lot of time pressure. The foetus is ready for implantation, but your body isn't ready yet. You only had your first injection..."
"Injection of what?"
"Modified tumour cells. Together with nano-bots, an artificial womb develops in a matter of days. The process is somewhat painful."
John didn't know what to say. Obviously his consent didn't matter in this scheme.
oOo
Kijen didn't know how long he had sat there, next to the man he had murdered. He only got up, when he felt the sun burning on his skin. His limbs were stiff and his head felt like it was in a vice. He walked up the front of the van and open the passengers door and rifled through the glove box. He found a paper bag with a sandwich, and a bottle of a water. He had to get away from the body. But he had no where to go. Back to Deakon? He couldn't fend for himself here. Not without his memories and with his injuries. But he couldn't depend on Deakon forever. But if the doctor could help him recover his memories, he had to return there. On foot the journey would take at least days, in this climate impossible. He had no memories, but he knew about deserts. He had spent time in a desert climate, even though he couldn't recall the details. Looking at the sky, he could that the sun was past its zenith. He had about eight more hours until sunset. Then the deadly cold would settle over the landscape. On foot there was no way, he could reach shelter before nightfall. He had to take the truck.