Ties That Bind
Chapter Three: Her Story
"You don't look like the female in the stasis chamber though. For one, you have different hair altogether." John looked at Astarea carefully.
John and Ford turned, looking at her properly as Elizabeth took a sip of her coffee. Astarea was wearing a dark blue, sleeveless dress with two slits up her dress just above her knees. Underneath, she wore black, laced boots. She had no jewellery on except for a lone silver earring, in the shape of a simple dragon or seahorse made with one line, on her left earlobe.
"What you saw was a hologram, projected from inside the chamber in front of me. You would not have seen me behind it," said Astarea.
John raised his eyebrows. "Why?"
"So I could move around freely. See if it was the same, as I once knew. I just never anticipated that I would be discovered so quickly."
"And by accident, at that. Maybe we should talk about this some place more suitable. Lets go into the com. room." Elizabeth said as she guided Astarea out, followed by John and Aiden.
"Sir, do you read? We couldn't find the ancient or Dr. Weir," Stackhouse reported over the radio.
"No worries, Sergeant, we've got them."
"Yes sir."
John turned to the females and gestured them towards the door. "Ladies first."
As the four of them walked towards the control tower with John and Ford behind the two females, John leaned towards Ford and whispered quietly in his ear.
"Is it just me or does Elizabeth and Astarea both have an uncanny resemblance?"
Ford looked at the two backs but noticed that they were the exact same height and had the same hair color. "Long lost twin?"
"Highly doubt it since Astarea was frozen on Atlantis for thousands of years." Ford chuckled and nodded.
Everyone was now seated around the conference table, listening to Astarea describe what happened to her to place her in her current predicament now.
"The very first of my kind were limited to a few thousands. We were called the Alterans but somewhere along the line when I was asleep, everyone called us ancients or the ancestors. I was one of them. The others decided that they would put one of us in stasis for the near future, to teach the young ones. I was chosen along with another but she was left behind on Earth to teach the new generation. There were also others who stayed on Earth to guard weapons placed in remote locations but that is all. The others programmed the database near my chamber so that all the information stored in any database would link up to me to learn what's been happening over time. One day, I was awoken prematurely."
Astarea woke up, confused as to why she did. She stepped out of the chamber and walked around the room to the door. As she walked to the control room in Atlantis, the ground shook and the alarm went off as many people rushed past her. She changed her destination to a room, which she was positive that no one but someone her specific DNA could enter. She looked around the room, happy that it was just as she had left it.
She walked around the room and gathered two daggers and a spear where both ends were sharp. She clicked the daggers on her waist belt that she found in the room and left the room, marching to the control room.
"If you are an ancient like you say you are, why spears and daggers? Why not just use the advanced technology that you have?" Ford looked back at everyone who looked his way.
"The "advanced" technology we had at the time was made to temporarily make the victim loose consciousness, not to kill."
Rodney held up his finger. "Question before we continue. How did you wake up? This time I mean."
"Someone must have touched something on one of the databases to awaken me." Rodney muttered darkly at that statement.
She passed many people with questioning looks but silenced them with a look. She finally got to the control room where Melia is standing with Moros. They turned at her arrival.
"Why have you awoken me?" Astarea wasn't asking, she was demanding.
"The Wraith has infiltrated Atlantis. Whoever gets near them, gets killed. I do not want to risk another life." Melia looked at Moros to continue.
"We read in the database that the first of our kind left behind one of their own for the future and that the one was trained to destroy any Wraith that ever infiltrated Atlantis."
"Is there anything that the others left behind to protect Atlantis?"
"No, there is not. I was no supposed to awaken until at least ten thousand years later." She was agitated now.
"Wait a minute. What do you mean by "left behind"? This is the city of the ancients!" McKay bit off a chunk of his power bar.
"We decided that it was best that we would evacuate most of my generation to other worlds where the Wraith had never touched and the few who that remained relocate our city to where it is today. It is that so if the Wraith ever found Atlantis, there would still be our kind. Over the thousands of years, the evacuated populated this galaxy and so different customs were made, different races were created and the knowledge of their origin came lost. Some the evacuated grandchildren returned and populated Atlantis like you have."
"We understand. Would you be able to kill ten Wraith?"
"Why should I? I was not supposed to awaken at this time."
"Just eliminate those them, please. They are the ones tampering with our systems, enabling them to stop the Stargate from activating." Melia looked at Astarea with kind eyes.
"Fine, but after this, I will return to my chamber to wait for the future."
"Of course."
"When I got to the designated area, the Wraith there had developed over the thousands of years since I last saw them."
"When did you first see them?" asked John.
"The first time was when we first came to this galaxy. We were on a different planet from this one and there we came in contact with a creature you call the Iratus bug." John cringed at the name. "When the danger became clear, we moved Atlantis to this remote planet unknown to the Wraith."
Rodney held up a finger again. "You're saying that the Alterans inadvertently made the Wraith?"
"I did not say that. Whoever made the Wraith is unknown to myself as well."
Rodney scoffed which earned a look shot by Elizabeth. "How can you not know? You were awake at the time."
"Over the years of being in the stasis chamber, it has some-what…" She paused and thought for a moment. "…made my memory fuzzy as to what transpired several thousand years ago. During this time, the machines in the lab you found me in informed me of information about the happenings of this city. The extensive knowledge of events that covers thousands of years makes my original and personal memories deteriorate."
When Astarea got there, eight of the ten Wraith were huddled around the database while the one stood guard at the door, she didn't know where the last one was but didn't really care. She gripped her spear as she charged at the Wraith guard, silently as she could. She stabbed him right in the stomach as it gasped. Astarea yanked the spear out of him. The Wraith dropped dead.
When it gasped, it alerted the others and two more came out.
Astarea cursed under her breath and killed off the first one but was thrown backwards by the second Wraith. Astarea groaned in pain as the Wraith fired two shots from the stunner. She quickly dodged it but the second shot hit the edge of her leg. She got up quickly, ignoring the pain of her leg, and slammed the Wraith on the wall, cutting off it's air supply when she was pulled back, lifted and knocked to the ground. The second Wraith gently put his foot over her head before applying pressure until the pain numbed her.
She gritted her teeth together, forcing herself not to yell out in pain. The first Wraith stood next to her and positioned Astarea's spear over her back. Astarea decided that it was time to do something and swiped at the second Wraith's foot that was on the ground, knocking it over. She quickly rolled out of the spear's pathway as the Wraith lunged at her. She rolled away and stood up, grabbing her spear in the process. She was now in between the two Wraiths as they both charged at her the same time. She held the spear horizontally. By the time the Wraith registered in their minds what she did it was too late. The impact of the spear in their stomach made a sick squelching sound.
"How can you kill them that fast?" Everyone looked at Rodney. "Well, it takes more than a round of P-90 to kill one, how can you kill them with a simple stick?"
"Their healing systems were not as advanced as they are now. Over the generations, they have gotten crops worth picking and have fed on them. Now, their healing systems are at a stage where they can no longer advance."
She shoved the stick down and took the Wraith stunner and shot multiple shots at the five Wraiths inside. They all fell back barely able to move as Astarea took out her daggers and stabbed each one of them in the throat, making them unable to breathe, eliminating them. There was only one left and she didn't know where it was.
She walked around the area, scouting it, before she was spun around face to face to the last Wraith. It pulled back its hand and slammed into her. Just as it was about to feed, Astarea stabbed him in the stomach area and ripped the daggers outward from inside. The Wraith stopped before it fell backward.
"You...shall...regret...the day...you stepped foot...in our galaxy!" gasped the Wraith as it stabbed Astarea with his claws before dieing.
Astarea fell down and gasped for breath as she focused on healing herself. She dragged herself to the intercom she hit the toggle switch.
"It is…done," Astarea coughed out.
"Thank you."
Astarea wearily stood up and leaned against the wall as she dragged herself to the stasis chamber where she once came, healing herself along the way.
"Um, don't mind me interrupting but how can you heal yourself? You don't have the DNA as a Wraith so how can you heal yourself," asked Carson as he looked up from his laptop.
"My DNA is the first of your kind and had healing abilities. Since then, it has degenerated and the advanced healing abilities are no more," Astarea explained.
Teyla sat up in her chair. "Does that mean that you, the Alterans, are no more? You are the last of your kind?"
"Yes for the Alterans are the ones who first lived here yet did not ascend, choosing death over power over the universe."
"Why choose death when you can still live on?" John's brow furrowed.
"Because having the power over the universe is powerful and dangerous. It consumes some, the ones who are foolish enough to use it for personal enjoyment. They turned against the others but were banished from this galaxy."
"Wow." John along with the others in the room was speechless. "And you got all of that from the devices in the lab over the years?" Astarea nodded.
Elizabeth cleared her throat and started gathering her notes. "Well that explains a lot. I believe you must be tired and hungry. Would you like to eat something?"
"Food would be nice."
"I'll show her to commissary then to her quarters." John stood up as Astarea shook her head.
"I will be able to find my quarters on my own but I would like the see your commissary."
"Sure thing. Follow me."
Once John and Astarea left the room and was out of earshot, Elizabeth turned to the others who looked back questioningly.
"I suspect that you too feel that there is something not right with her or you would have left with John." The look on their faces made Elizabeth nod in the affirmative. "If she is hiding something, I want to know what it is. Dismissed."
Just as they left, Elizabeth sighed and put her head in her hands. Teyla, being the last one to leave the room and was still able to see into it, saw the tired look on her face. Elizabeth almost dozed off then and there but remembered that she was still on duty and decided to go back to her office to finish up on some reports.
There was one thought on her mind when she walked through the control room towards her office.
'Why does John always have to be Captain Kirk with these situations?'
tbc...
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