Space Pirates

Chapter 10

"Thank you, nurse." Elizabeth thanked the young woman, who had wheeled John from the infirmary to her quarters. Dr. Beckett had protested that John was not yet fit to leave, but Elizabeth had plain told him to shut up or suffer the consequences. She had specified what these consequences would be, but seeing that Beckett had paled at the prospect, John assumed that it was serious and that Elizabeth meant what she said. She had also ignored John's own protestations about his side still hurting every time he moved, but had eventually conceded to take John in a wheelchair. This was not how John had wanted it to go. John had planned to get her to stay in the infirmary. So far he had spent the most time with Beckett in this nightmarish world. He had some idea of what made the man tick. He couldn't make out Elizabeth. Besides, Beckett had only limited power over John's fate; Elizabeth on the other hand was all powerful on Atlantis. And last but not least, he preferred Beckett's sneering and baiting over Elizabeth's dubious advances. But in the end, only Elizabeth's word counted.

Elizabeth pushed him inside her quarters. At first he was stunned at their seize. The room had more the proportions of a hall than anything else. It was dominated by a huge four poster bed, with red satin sheets. It just looked tacky and wrong to John. Just like everything in this bizarre world.

"You must be hungry" Elizabeth caressed his cheek. "Carson didn't feed you in the infirmary, did he?"

"No, he didn't" John answered, deciding to play along for now and see what Elizabeth was up to. She had to have some reason for getting him from the infirmary. He was curious about those plans she had mentioned. It might all be a dream, but all his real life amounted to was wasting away in a cell, this was his reality.

"I had Aiden bring us something to eat. The table is set out on the balcony. But you might want to change before we go out there. I got you some clothes from your quarters." She handed him a folded pair of jeans and a black tee-shirt.

Elizabeth helped him get up and walk over to the bathroom to get changed. His side still hurt, but whatever Beckett had put him on was doing its job. Without too much pain, he managed to change. When he was done and walked back into the main room, Elizabeth had changed as well. She was wearing a very form-fitting, crimson dress, appropriate for a far more festive occasion than a simple dinner.

"You look stunning, major." Elizabeth said.

"So do you, doctor." John gave her his best smile. Still moving a bit stiffly, he followed her to the balcony.

Out of habit, he tried to think open the door to the balcony, but it refused to budge. He frowned. Elizabeth turned around, obviously having noticed.

"I had Beckett deactivate your gene John. Don't worry, it's only temporary. But for now, it would only get in the way." Her smile never wavered, but John could see a glint of something else in her eyes. It reminded him of Kolya.

"That's okay." He nodded, when he realized that Elizabeth expected a response from him. In reality this was very much not okay. He could burry any escape plans right now. To fly he needed the gene. He had to get on Beckett's good side and get him to unblock the gene. What was Beckett so afraid of that Elizabeth would do? John was determined to find out.

They sat down at the table. The table was beautifully arranged. John wondered where Elizabeth had gotten the table cloth, the wine glasses and the beautifully ornate white plates from. Elizabeth raised her glass.

"To our partnership"

"To our partnership."

John took a sip of the wine and gazed over the ocean. It couldn't be. But it was no trick of the sun. It was real. The shield was up. He turned to Elizabeth.

"Elizabeth, the shield, how…"he trailed off, as his vision started to blur. Damn, he should have known better and stayed away from the wine. He grabbed the edge of the table to stay steady, but gravity failed him and the ground rushed towards him.

Time had ceased to exist for Aiden as he made his way towards where the ship had gone down. He clung to the hope that it was the long awaited rescue. This hope was the only thing pushing him forward now, one step after another. He didn't know whether ten minutes or an hour had passed when he smelled something acrid in the air, the smell of something burning. Somewhere in his head an alarm sounded, weakly warning him that this was dangerous. A fire in a forest was a bad thing. He was too intend on finding the ship to heed the warning of his weakening rational mind. The smell intensified, telling him that he was going in the right direction. When he heard voices in the distance, his pace quickened. Maybe it was the fatigue and the stress, but he thought he could detect a hint of familiarity in the muddled voices. As he came closer, bits and pieces of sentences floated towards him.

"…much longer?"

"With all….asked me twice…"

"…fire under control."

Aiden now saw the beams of several flashlights cutting through the night. A wave of giddiness washed over him. It was really the rescue party from Atlantis. He could hardly belief it and some part of him still didn't trust his perception, insisting that the sleepless days must be getting to him. With a last bit of rational thought, Aiden raised his arms, as he stepped into the visual range of the downed Puddle Jumper. He didn't want to risk getting shot by their own.

What happened next seemed almost surreal to him. He had thought about it so often, that now, as he was actually being rescued, it all but overwhelmed him. As anticipated, as soon as he was no longer hidden behind the trees, he found himself at the wrong end of a P90. But suddenly, he had no idea how and when it had happened, he was supported by Bates and Markham and led to the rear end of the Jumper. They were talking but he didn't understand them. He was to busy trying to get his legs to obey him. He looked up and saw Dr. Beckett look at him with concern. The next thing he knew, he was lying on something hard¸ looking at what was probably the ceiling of the Jumper. Lying down felt good. He hadn't done that in a while. In fact he couldn't recall the last time he had been lying down. The dizziness was receding and his mind regained some of its focus. All came back with clarity. John and Teyla. They were still out there. Without any help. He had to find them and get them to safety before the Wraith got to them. That was assuming that they hadn't already. Suddenly desperate about his still missing team mates, he rushed to sit up. Beckett had not been prepared for the movement and was knocked aside. The doctor thought Aiden was confused and disoriented, so he tried to reassure him.

"Lie back down. You're safe now, but you need to lie down so that I can help you." He put a hand on Aiden's shoulder, lightly pushing him down, but not forcing the action.

"John and Teyla." Aiden gasped before launching into a coughing fit. "The Wraith, I have to find them, they are still somewhere, but I lost them. I couldn't find them. I have to go."

"Sergeant Bates and Lieutenant Markham are already searching for them. They will find them. You don't need to worry. Just lie down again."

"Don't want to lie down, I can't breathe lying down." Aiden argued. His head was spinning again and he knew that he was going to pass out. He had used up the last bit of his reserves on the way to the ship.

Beckett nodded and settled Aiden against one of the bulkheads before continuing his assessment of the man's injuries.

John's ears were ringing with the force of a loud scream. Pain, there was nothing but darkness and pain. Pain that burned his body alive, tore his muscles apart and broke every bone in his body at once. He couldn't see, he couldn't breath and all he could hear was the never-ending scream. The scream died and he realized it had been his own. The force sapped from his body. Despite the pain his eyes flew open. He found himself staring into the distorted face of a Wraith who was riding the thrill of his meal. He sill couldn't breath. He was paralyzed by pain and could do nothing but stare into the face of his killer. He could already feel the pain numbing in his extremities and knew that this was not a good sign. As long as he was in pain, he was alive.

An explosion sounded close by and a second later a weight fell on his chest. The Wraith who had been feeding on him, fell down on him, his blood spilling on him, mixing with his one where he was bleeding from attack. The pain was ebbing away and he could finally draw a breath. He wanted to shove the dead body off himself, but his body wouldn't obey the commands of his mind. Suddenly the corpse was moved and a hand was on his neck. The face above him was blurred at first, but then flicked into focus. He knew the man. He was a friend. His mouth was moving, and his was kneeling down next to him. Another face came into view. A woman. Teyla. Was that her name? It sounded right. He couldn't see clearly, everything was getting dark again. John gratefully sank back into blackness.

"Damn, we need to get him to Beckett asap." Bates hissed as Sheppard's eyes slid shut again. His pulse was still there, but it was weak and the shallow movements of his chest were just barely enough to convince him that the man was breathing. The bright light of the flashlight highlighted the pale face and his black shirts, glistening was dark blood where the Wraith had touched him. Markham had helped Teyla get up the incline was looking out for further Wraith while Teyla was also crouched next to Sheppard, maintaining contact with him.

"We're leaving." Bates ordered. "I'll take Sheppard, Markham, you'll take Teyla." It would be a hard walk back with the rough terrain and the two injured, but they had little choice.

"I can walk." Teyla insisted weakly.

"You still can't see." Bates pointed out sharply. "The major doesn't have any time to lose, we're leaving now."

John woke with a gasp. He had dreamt that he couldn't breathe. That was only thing that he could truly recall, the feeling of being suffocated. That and pain, terrible pain. He wasn't in pain now and he could breathe. His surroundings came into focus. He was lying on the red satin sheets of the four poster beds, still in Elizabeth's quarters. He recalled the wine. Something was in his face. He tried to move his hand to remove the object, but found that his wrists were tied to the bedposts, as were his ankles. He turned his head to his side and saw Carson standing on his right, watching him. He seemed to enjoy watching him struggle. But beyond the smile on his face, John still thought he detected some concern on his face.

"Lie still, John" he said. "There is an IV in your hand and you don't want to tear it out."

"What happened?" John asked. His own voiced sounded muffled to his ears, the foreign object in his face had to be an oxygen mask. He had to pretty good idea of what happened. Elizabeth had him drugged by putting something in his wine, but he was still surprised to end up with Beckett again.

"Let's say that Elizabeth overdid it a bit. It's a shame really. She should have finished you off all the way. Instead she called me to here to fix you up again. You were already started to get blue in the face when I got here. She should really have called me sooner." Beckett told him as he checked John's pulse.

Even though Beckett sounded fairly casual, John was sure there was some concern hidden behind his words. Now was the time to find out how Elizabeth had the doctor under control. Before John could say anything, Beckett went on.

"You should really be back in the infirmary, I need to run some tests, but she wouldn't allow it. You have to be careful, the poison did a number on your heart. " That sounded almost like the doctor he knew. It was now or never.

"Can you reactivate my gene?" John asked.

"Now why would I do that?"

"I can't fly without the gene."

"It's game over for the fly boy." Beckett laughed. "There isn't even a way to reactivate the gene. She has lied to you. I didn't figure out a way to deactivate the gene. We got the drug from the Yularans. There was no an antidote. Elizabeth is the only one with a gene now. I gave her the gene and then I deactivated everyone else's gene."

"Why did you do it? Where you afraid that she'd kill you?"

"No, she wouldn't kill me. She controls the medication supply."

TBC