A wee bit of whumping on the way. Please review, as I love to know what you think of the story. Reposted 7/03 after a slight revision.
Part 7 – Your Pet Ancient
The next night, John attempted once again to sleep as he waited for them to come for him. He'd had an absolutely dreadful day trying to appease the Tyrell woman without letting her get too close. She'd eventually let the gardeners and engineers show him to biosphere domes, which had proved somewhat interesting. They certainly had technical advancement, though nothing they used was of Ancient design. As far as John could tell, the power source was similar to a naqahdah generator, but the air and water purification units had fascinated him the most, as they were truly amazing in their simplicity.
Ultimately, fatigue from lack of sleep the night before drove him into a restless slumber until he felt a hand on his arm waking him. Silently, he got up and followed the doctor, only this time Dr. Ricaud took him to some labs lined with equipment he'd rather not know about.
"We'll wait here a moment, as Tamar will join us shortly." The doctor instructed.
A few minutes later, Tamar came in alone this time. "Ah…Colonel Sheppard it is good to see you again. Come this way, I'd like to show you something."
Without another word, Jonas Tamar led the way through endless passageways and down countless flights of stairs until they came to what John guessed were underground basements. The area was damp and musty from years of disuse and a network of rusty old pipes and cables lay exposed and littered the overhead ceilings, long discarded for newer systems. Tamar suddenly came to a stop in front of an old filing cabinet. Pushing it aside, he revealed a small crawl space behind and without further a do, he dropped to his knees and clambered in leaving John and the doctor to follow. The hole led them into a small hollow space dug out from behind the basement wall. There was just about enough room to stand for the others but John, who was taller, found he had to crouch under the low rough and stony ceiling. Beyond the hollow, he could see a tunnel of sorts that led to, god-knows-where.
Tamar turned to face him. "We have been excavating this area for five years. It has proved to be a very difficult task but at long last we are only about a day or so away from breaking through to a building adjacent to the main dome."
Trying not to get too eager, John asked. "How long is the tunnel?"
"Oh, our engineers reckon about half a kilometer. Our biggest problem has been removing all the rock and soil without anyone finding it. Luckily, this area isn't patrolled very often and we have been able to fill up some of the disused underground chambers. Many of our members work in the garden and engineering sections, so they have closed a blind eye to the goings on. Our other problem was shoring up the tunnel to prevent collapse. For that, we utilized old metal panels, wooden planks and the like. The engineers assure me that it is safe but crawling down there now takes a long time, so we have devised a small platform and pulley system. In a minute, I'll be bringing one of are excavators back."
Looking at his watch, he crouched in front of a thick rope that John had only just seen. "You work at this every night?" Sheppard asked.
"Not always." Dr. Ricaud answered for him. "It depends on the security shifts and other factors. You must understand, Colonel, Sanjava is like an enclosed city. We have family units here but the population is very much controlled, Dr. Tyrell sees to that. Speaking of which, has she left you alone so far?"
John knew exactly what he was getting at. "Yes, thank god." he murmured.
"Uh…we were under the impression that she kept you because she wanted…to…err…now how can I put this…utilize your Ancient gene."
John really didn't want to know in what way she wanted to – utilize - his gene, but he had a good idea. "You mean she wants to reproduce with me?"
"When you put it that way, then, yes," The doctor smiled. "But that goes to show how crazy she is because a pregnancy would - in all likely hood - kill her current body. My guess is that she realizes that and has decided to leave you alone for now. I'm also guessing that you would not be a willing party?"
Sheppard looked disgusted. "Definitely not, the woman doesn't do a thing for me and I hate admit it, she scares the hell out of me and I've faced a Wraith queen before now."
Dr. Ricaud looked astonished. "Really? I'd love to talk about that sometime but other matters are more pressing right now."
They stopped talking just in time to see Tamar pull out a rather dirty and disheveled short and skinny man from the tunnel. Immediately, the wiry fellow was on his feet and he turned angrily towards the security officer. "Who the hell is this, Tamar?"
"Jon Bola meet Colonel John Sheppard of… I'm sorry, but you never did tell us where you come from?"
"I'm sorry, too, but I can't tell you that. Let's just say, I'm from a galaxy far, far away." John replied.
Dr. Ricaud looked surprised again. "Galaxy? I had no idea you weren't from our systems of stars but you're an Ancient or at least that's what Dr. Tyrell keeps telling us."
Sheppard nearly laughed at that. "No…I'm not an Ancient even though I have the ATA gene."
"Really…that's interesting…"
Jon Bola interrupted the doctor looking angry. "What the hell has all this got to do with getting out of here?"
"Nothing really, only that Colonel Sheppard is going to help us." Tamar answered him. "You will help us won't you?"
"I want to get out of here as much as you do, so what do you want me to do?"
"What can you do, Colonel?" Tamar asked.
John was beginning to feel better about this. "Fly ships, shoot guns, activate ancient devises, run for my life, and if required, dig holes with my teeth."
"Well, we won't ask you to do that but you can help us fight when the time comes. We have accumulated quite a small arsenal of guns over the years." Tamar told him.
"I'm glad to hear that," John stated. "What's the time scale and what's your plan?"
"You're really not going to tell him all that are you, Tamar?" Bola objected. "He could undo all our hard work these last five years."
"I take it you don't know that I'm being kept here against my will?" John put in. Bola shook his head, so John told him his story.
By the time he'd finished, everyone agreed that it was time to get Sheppard back to his room. The planning would have to wait for another night.
-SGA-
The next three nights went much the same with Ricaud coming early each morning to take Sheppard to meet Tamar. They'd discussed plans, John had seen their weapons and eventually the tunnel was ready when they had finally broken into the run down and empty basement a block away.
There was no way to get everyone out on the first try as the rebels were too numerous, so it was decided to send a small well armed group out first while others try to take important areas within Sanjava. John decided he should go with the first group and then try to make his way back home to bring in reinforcements. They didn't really trust him on that one, however he gave them his word that he would return.
Now the time had come to make a break for it; the scheduled was for the early hours. John had gone to bed as usual to wait for Dr. Ricaud. Instead of donning his usual nightwear, he decided to dress in a hardwearing tunic, which reminded him of thick linen. John didn't have a weapon yet for fear of detection, he would receive one at the tunnel entrance.
Again, he tried hard to get in a little sleep before whatever events lay ahead. As he rested in readiness on the top of the bed in the dark room, he tried everything from counting sheep to complex math equations but nothing induced the much-needed sleep or least that's what he thought. However, he must have dozed because suddenly, he felt a strong hand fall across his mouth.
Startled by the unusual force, his impulse was to try to push the hand away but before he could do anything, his assailant forcibly dragged him off the bed. Something told him this wasn't Dr. Ricaud and his fight instincts took over as he tried to overpower the heavy being on top of him. John managed to get a knee in where it counts and was pleased to hear a grunt of pain from his attacker. However, his advantage didn't last long as he felt other hands pull him upright and a powerful fist connected with his jaw leaving him seeing stars and woozy. Before John had time to recover, another blow connected with his stomach. He doubled over in agony, and he felt like losing his supper as he sank to the ground. Another blow from a foot connected with his back and he collapsed onto his side as more feet joined in to kick and beat him until the blessed relief of oblivion claimed him.
-SGA-
He woke sometime later to the unpleasant sensation of having his arms stretched high above his head as he hung suspended from the ceiling in a cold white walled room. He could barely touch the ground with the toes of his shoeless feet. Every breath that he took caused pain to shoot through his battered body and John was vaguely concerned about internal damage from the beating he'd taken. His shoulders and arms screamed in protest at having to support most of his weight.
Off in the distance, he dimly heard the sound of angry voices as he drifted in and out. His awareness returned when the voices suddenly grew louder as they approached him. One voice he recognized as belonging to Lena Tyrell, so he forced his eyes open and was shocked to see her angrily facing two men, the dreaded Aldrich and disturbingly, Dr. Ricaud. This is not good, his brain hazily registered as his eyes drifted closed again but whirling in and out, he still heard them ranting.
Lena Tyrell screamed. "What gives you the right to bring him here? He's mine and I'll not have him treated this way."
"Get real, Lena, your pet Ancient is nothing other than a common human, Dr. Ricaud can vouch to that." Aldrich snarled.
Tyrell was incensed. "My pet Ancient! How dare you call him that? You're only jealous because I don't want you anymore!"
Aldrich's horrible sickly laugh echoed around the room making John's stomach turn. "If you think you can have children with him, think again. Haven't the doctors told you time and time again that your useless body couldn't stand it?"
"The same goes for you," Lena shrieked making John's skin crawl.
"Don't be absurd, woman, you know the doctors have made sure my body is superior to yours. Anyway, I'm not planning on getting pregnant, am I?"
John wouldn't have believed what he was hearing if he didn't already know that these two beings were totally insane. The only problem was how to stop Aldrich from doing him permanent harm. He was currently in no position to do anything but hope for a miracle, so he let their hate filled words drift over his head.
The next thing he knew, Lena Tyrell had come over to hug him, and for the first time, he was unable to shy away from her. His nerves went on edge as she softly cooed. "I've left you alone until now, John, because I wanted you to fall in love with me before we shared a bed. You do love me, don't you?" she implored.
John was speechless not knowing how to reply, if he said – no - she'd probably get angry making his predicament worse, and if he said – yes – then it could still cause a problem? However, Aldrich saved him from having to answer when he tried to make a grab for Lena causing her to hang on tighter and put an incredible strain on John's arms. He cried out and Tyrell hugged him even tighter.
Just when John thought he couldn't take anymore and his arms would dislocate, the weight suddenly vanished. He opened his eyes to see that Aldrich had successfully pulled her away. The mad man was struggling to keep the woman under his control as she ranted and raged, biting and kicking while trying to break free.
What happened next sent a shock wave racing through John's abused body as he heard the loud retort of a gun going off. Forcing his eyes open, he looked down to see Lena Tyrell lying in a large pool of blood. Alarmed by this turn of events, he felt a rush of adrenaline and raised his eyes to find Dr. Ricaud holding a small pistol. However, there was no sign of Aldrich.
The doctor lowered his gun and wasted no time in cutting John down from the ceiling. "I'm so sorry I couldn't intervene before", he stated with an edge of weariness, "but I had to wait until Tamar and his people had hopefully escaped."
John sat on the floor trying to suppress the pain that seemed to emanate from every inch of his body. "Where's Aldrich gone to?" he enquired through panting gasps.
"He ran off when I shot Dr. Tyrell. We'll have to watch out for him and his henchmen." Ricaud stated as if it was all in a day's work.
"So I missed the party?"
Ricaud looked sad at John's disappointment. "I'm afraid so. It was most unfortunately that Aldrich selected this time to grab you. Can you move? I'm asking because Aldrich may come back at any moment. Anyway, we shouldn't stay here as I have a job to do."
John knew he didn't have any choice, so he attempted to stand with the doctor's help. For a second or two the room swam before his eyes as he stood on shaky legs trying to regain his balance. "What job do you have to do, doc?" he whispered as his equilibrium finally settled down.
"I must destroy all the duplicates, Colonel, or the cycle will never end."