A/N: Again, thanks to everyone who reviewed. I'm glad you are all enjoying the fic so far. So THANK YOU ALL! And thanks to SallyLizzie for being my Beta.
Chapter 3
When they first arrived at the outpost, it looked like a white silo in the center of a treeless valley. Because of its mystery and age, the Feldarians considered the Ancient outpost a sacred place and called it a temple. No one really ventured out into the cold to visit the ancient structure; only a few very pious Feldarians would venture the cold once a year to be in the presence of their ancestors.
Inside the outpost, the first thing that caught everyone's eye was the Ancient weapons chair situated in the rear of the room, like a throne. The architecture was definitely Ancient in design and very reminiscent to the outpost they found in Antarctica. But due to its uninhabited and unattended condition, the front entrance, that once contained a door, was now only an open entrance, leaving the Atlantis research team to work under freezing conditions.
Everyone was bundled up in their warmest clothes and busily working in all corners of the outpost, while Elizabeth sat at a makeshift table reading reports on her laptop. Meanwhile, John stood behind her, reading over her shoulder, and kept himself warm by staying close to her portable heater.
"Is this what you do back at home, read reports all day?" he asked looking bored.
"Yes, read reports, go to briefings, read more reports, and go to more briefings. Occasionally, my routine is interrupted by you getting into trouble," she replied and scrolled the screen down.
"Are you trying to tell me something?" He crossed his arms over his chest.
"Yes, but apparently it's not getting through," she frowned, her eyes still concentrated on the screen. "Why don't you go and 'protect' me somewhere else?"
"The whole object of protecting someone means that I am around them in case something happens."
"John, I'm not going anywhere." She pulled her eyes away from laptop screen. "I'll be sitting here for the rest of the day just like I have been for the last week."
"I bet as soon as I walk away from you, Junior is gonna walk in and 'check' on you," he said making quotations gesture with his hands.
"We've been here for half of the day and neither Dolan nor any Feldarian have come in to check on us. Could it be you're just a tiny bit paranoid?"
"We've been here for a week, and Junior has always made an appearance to see you at least twice a day, and today being the last day we're here, he definitely has to come. I know I would."
Elizabeth furrowed her eyebrows. "John, please."
"Colonel!" Rodney yelled to John from the outpost chair.
"What, Rodney?" John replied annoyed.
"Could you please sit in the chair?" Rodney pointed to the empty chair next to him.
"What about Beckett?"
"Uh…" Rodney looked around the room. "We lost him."
"What?" Elizabeth and John exclaimed simultaneously.
"We didn't actually lose him. He went back for some sort of medical emergency," he said annoyed.
"What kind of emergency? And why wasn't I notified?" Elizabeth asked urgently.
"I'm sure it wasn't that much of an emergency. He was most likely making it up to get away with sitting on this thing." He pointed to the weapons chair.
"More like to get away from you," John said to Rodney.
"Yes, yes, yes," Rodney rolled his eyes. "Now could you please just sit in the chair?" he said hastily.
John looked over at Elizabeth. She only shrugged and urged him to oblige the scientist's request.
The tousled hair Colonel reluctantly walked towards the chair as Elizabeth followed.
"Have we found anything?" she asked Rodney as John sat down on the chair.
"Other than another depleted ZedPM, not much, but now that we've got the Mark-4 naquadah enhanced generator, we were able to discern that this outpost still has some drones left, but not much."
"Some is better than none," John said sitting in the activated reclining chair.
"Yes, having more drones is good, especially when we haven't found the Willy Wonka drone factory in Atlantis yet, but other than that, there is nothing really special here. I guess I can see why the Ancients left."
"So after a week, that's all we got?" John asked.
"Other than this planet is a big ball of ice and it is chapping my skin," Rodney said rubbing his mitten hands on his cheeks. "There is no reason for us to stay any longer. Other than to take what little drones they have back with us. Fortunately, your latest Captain Kirk fling got us a fair amount of drones." John shot an icy glare at Rodney.
"Well, today is the last day, so do what you can." Elizabeth wrapped her arms around herself as an icy breeze blew through the room. "Being here for a week makes me forget how it feels to be warm."
"I could use some nice warm coffee about now," John said and looked around the chair as if waiting for something to pop out.
"Colonel, it didn't work in the Jumper with the turkey sandwich, and it isn't going to work here with the coffee," Rodney said rolling his eyes.
"How do you know?" John glared at Rodney.
"Because this is a weapons chair, not a coffeehouse."
As the two men continued bickering, Elizabeth noticed Dolan enter from the main door, and left them to greet him.
"Dolan, how are you today?" she said with a smile.
"I am well. I would have come sooner to see you, but I was delayed. Is it too cold in here?" he asked as he noticed Elizabeth hugging herself.
"It's a bit on the cold side, but we'll manage. We have for the past week. I think I just need to move around a bit, but thank you for your concern," she said.
"I think another storm is about approach. Today does seem much colder."
"You mean you can tell the difference?" Elizabeth rubbed her hand up and down her arms rapidly.
Dolan smiled. "I thought you might be cold, so I brought you this." He held out a container to her. "It is a Feldarian brew that we drink often to keep our bodies warm."
"Is that coffee I smell?" John said coming up behind Elizabeth, leaving Rodney with an empty chair again.
"Dolan was kind enough to bring us some Feldarian brew to warm us up," she informed John as she took the container and cup from Dolan's hands.
"All of us?" John said eyeing the small container in Elizabeth's hands.
"Yes, Colonel, for all of you," Dolan said and gestured to several more Feldarians entering with larger containers along with some food.
"Oh, good," John said. "I'm usually not one to share things."
"John," Elizabeth interrupted, "could you please put this on my desk?" she asked and handed him the beverage Dolan had given her. John reluctantly complied with her request, and kept an eye on Dolan and Elizabeth as they conversed.
"Dolan, thank the Governor for me. This was definitely not necessary, but greatly appreciated. The hospitality of the Feldarians has been wonderful for the past week," she said.
"This is the least we can do for your people since you've saved my father and many others lives. Also my mother insists that you are much too thin and must eat more."
"So she tells me each time we meet," Elizabeth chuckled.
"She doesn't mean anything by it."
"Of course, it's apparently something that mothers in every galaxy do."
"Doctor Weir, you do not know how happy your arrival in Feldara has made us. Not only are we thrilled to have allies like you, but if having your research team here can help benefit us, you would have done our people a great deed.
"Let's not get ahead of ourselves," John said returning to his place next to Elizabeth. "From what we've gathered so far, there isn't much left."
"What does the Colonel mean?" Dolan inquired.
"This is no doubt a place of the Ancients, but we haven't been able to find much of anything that can be useful," she explained. "Other than several drones that can help destroy a couple Wraith darts if they happen upon your planet."
"And not to mention the power source that powers this place is completely depleted," John inserted.
"Does this mean you will be leaving soon?" Dolan asked.
"Yes, as a matter of fact, today is our last day. We should have everything removed from here by the end of the day. We wouldn't want to encroach on your hospitality more than necessary."
"But your presence is not an inconvenience. We very rarely have any visitors," Dolan assured her. "And in fact, we are allies now. So you will never been an inconvenience to us."
"That is true, but this place is a sacred temple to your people, and we wouldn't want to linger and disrespect your people's beliefs for our research for too long."
"I admit when I saw the Colonel sitting in the ancestral throne I was shocked to see such desecration to such a revered object in the temple," Dolan said. "It is a good thing our harsh weather keeps most of our citizens underground. The elders would not approve."
"That is why we have decided to complete our research as soon as we can. We don't want any misunderstanding to compromise our newly formed alliance," Elizabeth said.
"I see," Dolan said disappointedly.
Then a warmly dressed Feldarian came running hurriedly through the outpost entrance. "Dolan! Dolan!" he cried. "The Wraith have returned!"
Just then Major Lorne came in on their radios.
"Colonel, we have gate activity. Three Darts just came through and are heading towards the city."
"Copy that," John said into his radio. "Looks like the search party for the last two Darts is here," he said to Elizabeth and ran towards the Ancient chair. "Rodney, is the chair still powered up?"
"Of course it is, I wasn't done yet when you—"
"All right, shut up," John interrupted him and sat down on the chair. Immediately the chair lit up and reclined. Elizabeth watched as he sat in the chair concentrating.
John concentrated and activated the drones with his mind. Moments later the roof above them opened up exposing the clear cold sky of Feldara. Everyone moved away from the opening roof, as the snow that had gathered upon it fell into the room. When the roof was completely retracted, in the center of the room, a circle they previously hypothesized as remnants of a decorative fountain, opened up and several squid-like drones flew out through the open roof.
In his mind, John could see the drones flying out into the open air. He could see the Wraith Darts racing towards the city. He sent several drones to track the first Dart he saw, and in a blink of an eye, the Dart was a ball of flames in the air falling swiftly towards the snow-laden ground. John quickly switched his focus to the last two Darts. They split off into different directions to try and lose the drones, but the several drones John sent also split into different directions chasing after them. One of the Darts continued to race towards the city, but before it reached the outskirts of the city, the drones sped up and collided with the Dart, causing a brilliant explosion in the cloudy sky.
"Two down, one more to go," John said to himself and concentrated all his efforts on the last Dart. The Dart made an attempt to evade the drones, but no matter how much evading the Dart attempted, John kept the drones locked onto it, until finally the drones caught up with it, and the final Dart joined its fellow Darts burning on the ground.
When the last Dart was destroyed, the blue light of the chair turned off and the chair straightened as John got out of the chair.
Elizabeth came up to John. "I take it everything went well," she said with relief when she saw the smile on his face.
"Now we know that the chair still works," he smirked.
"Yes, we know the chair works, but now there is nothing left," Rodney complained as he looked at the tablet computer in his arms.
"There are still some drones left. I didn't use them all." John walked up and looked over Rodney's shoulder at the computer. "See, there are still three left," he pointed to a number on the screen.
"Yes, only three left. Why don't we just name them Alvin, Simon, and Theodore?" Rodney snarked.
"Rodney, they are inanimate drones, not chipmunks," John said.
Elizabeth closed her eyes and sighed as the two men started to bicker and banter with each other again.
"The city is safe again?" the Feldarian who brought the news asked her.
"Yes, the city is safe again," she replied.
The Fedarian nodded in relief.
"Do you know if they will return, Doctor?" Dolan asked.
"I'm sorry. I do not know," she replied shaking her head. "They may come again or they may not. But it looks as though as your people have not suffered as badly as others we've come across."
"I believe we survive because our harsh weather makes it difficult for them to cull us. But they are still a plague to our people."
"I guess the cold weather is a blessing in disguise then," Elizabeth said.
"I guess you can put it that way," Dolan smiled. "Since today will be your last day, will you please stay and join us for a banquet in the city, in honor of our new alliance?"
"Banquet? I'd love a nice dinner," John said appearing next to Elizabeth again.
Elizabeth gave John a look. She wondered when he had finished annoying Rodney.
"Yes, of course, Colonel." Dolan nodded in the direction of John. "We are extending this dinner invitation out to you, as well. Since you have saved our city from the Wraith once again and my father would like that very much," Dolan said.
"Oh, would he?" He glanced over at Elizabeth, who was trying not to roll her eyes at him. "Well, I'd like that too."
"Excuse me, but I must return to the city to see if anything has happened from the surprised appearance of the Wraith. I will see you both this evening." Dolan bowed slightly and left with his fellow Feldarian.
Elizabeth stood in place and looked at John with her arms crossed over her chest.
"What?" John asked. Elizabeth remained silent. "You were going to say yes, right?"
"That's not the point," she finally said.
"Then what is the point?" He asked as he walked over to her makeshift desk and poured some of the Feldarian brew into a cup.
"I never thought I'd say this, but I'll be glad to go home so you can stop protecting me for once," she said and took the cup he was about to drink from his hand.
"I'm hurt," he said, looking at his empty hands confused that the cup he just had was missing. He shrugged and poured himself another cup.
"Next time, I'm bringing either Major Lorne or maybe even… Colonel Caldwell," she said mischievously and sat back in her chair.
She wrapped both of her hands around her cup and felt the warmth of the brew permeate into her hands. She took in a deep breath of the spice filled brew and lightly blew on it before taking a sip.
"Apparently, destroying three Wraith Darts and saving your life several times in one week isn't enough," John said.
"No," she said dismissively and typed a few keys on her laptop.
"May I ask why?"
"Because you're special," she said with a smile.
"Okay…" John knitted his eyebrows in confusion. "I'm going to go and protect you on the other side of the room," he said and walked towards the table where the food provided by the Feldarians was laid out.
Elizabeth shook her head and took another sip of her beverage and continued reading her reports.
For the banquet, the Feldarians went all out for their guests and served their best traditional dishes. John and Elizabeth were their guests of honor and sat next to the Governor and Dolan. John enjoyed the dinner by letting Elizabeth handle all the polite chitchat while he ate to his heart's content. Since Elizabeth spent most of the time speaking to the Governor and Dolan, John took the obligation to keep Elizabeth's plate full of food by putting on spoonfuls of the different dishes that were being passed around. He figured if she did not finish it, he could eat it later, but to his surprise, Elizabeth ate most of the food he put on her plate. Even though he swore he hadn't seen her stop talking to take a bite.
"Governor, I thank you for inviting us for these wonderful Feldarian dishes," Elizabeth said when they finished eating dinner.
"You may return whenever you like to visit and sup with us again, Doctor Weir," said the Governor.
"Thank you," Elizabeth said. "The food was just delicious. I don't think I could make anything as appetizing myself."
"If you like, I can teach you how to make them yourself." The Governor's wife entered the room with another dish and placed it in front of John and Elizabeth. "I'm sure as busy as you are as a leader; you will surely find time to prepare meals for your husband," she said and sat took her seat next to Dolan.
John nearly spit out his food when he heard the woman's comment, but his eyes immediately glanced over to Elizabeth since he was curious to how she was going to get out of this "diplomatic" conversation.
"Of course, ma'am, if there is time I would gladly like to learn how to make these wonderful dishes. As for preparing dinner for a husband, that is still very much in the future."
"The future doesn't seem too far for you, Doctor, especially, when you are acquainted with so many exceptional men," the older woman said glancing at her son then at John. "Did you like the food as well, Colonel? There is plenty more if you like," she asked John, who had just popped a piece of bread in his mouth.
John quickly swallowed the food in his mouth and choked out a "Yes, very delicious," and "I'm quite full, thank you."
Elizabeth suppressed a chuckle and glanced at her watch. "I hate to just eat and leave, but we really should be returning home," she said to their gracious hosts.
"I understand, Doctor. A leader can not be away from her people for too long," the Governor nodded understandingly.
"Wait!" Dolan suddenly exclaimed after speaking to someone, who had entered unnoticed into the room. "You can not leave!"
Instinctively, John's hand went to his side arm. Elizabeth noticed this and put her hands on his arm for him to wait.
"Why not, Dolan?" she asked.
"You remember how I told you that the weather in Feldara is harsh and unpredictable And that it felt like another storm was coming?"
"Yes, of course," she nodded.
"I've just received word that a blizzard has approached. You wouldn't make it to the Ancient Ring without freezing to death," Dolan explained.
"So we're stuck here?" John looked hopelessly at Elizabeth. "Not that your hospitality hasn't been great, but—"
"I am afraid so, Colonel," Dolan said.
"Do not fear, Doctor. You can stay in the room you occupied in the past week, and we would be glad to have you both stay until the storm ceases," the Governor's wife assured them.
"I guess it couldn't hurt to stay the night," John shrugged and looked over at Elizabeth.
"It might not be a night," Dolan quickly said. "I have seen blizzards that have lasted weeks before."
"Weeks?" Elizabeth asked surprised. She knew that was not impossible especially from the condition of this planet. She was surprised they were lucky enough to have a week respite of snowfall to do their research. But she was disappointed at this news since she was ready to return to Atlantis to thaw.
"I'm sorry," Dolan said sympathetically.
"There is no need to apologize. It is not your fault," she said to Dolan. "I guess we will have to encroach on your hospitality a bit longer," she said to the Governor and his wife.
"This is no problem at all, Doctor Weir," he said to Elizabeth. "Dolan, please take our guest to their rooms. It has been a long day for them. They must be in need of rest."
"Again thank you, Governor," Elizabeth said.
John gave Elizabeth a forlorn look as they exited the dining hall. But Elizabeth only shrugged and followed Dolan as he told her about one of the worse storms in their history.
John rolled his eyes as he eavesdropped on their conversation. At least someone was happy for their unfortunate predicament. He was sure he saw a sparkle in Dolan's eyes when he told them about the blizzard. Alas, they were stuck here until the blizzard ended. The next few days were going to be interesting, he thought to himself.