STARGATE ATLANTIS
PRIMIS : THE MISSING
SGA SGA SGA
ATLANTIS : THE PAST
Richard Woolsey felt Atlantis come to a halt and sighed. Its destination: Amitiyaz. The home planet of this galaxy's version of the Wraith, and also the last traced evidence of the whereabouts of one Lt. Colonel John Sheppard - and hopefully Torren as well.
He gently rubbed his forehead and wished the next few days were over already, and their missing friends had been found. Jumping ahead he couldn't do, so Woolsey stood and made his way to the conference room to head the meeting he had summoned.
Silence greeted him from the five people sitting down around the large table waiting on him. This was an unusual thing. If it were not Rodney annoying somebody, it was Carson trying to tell some poor joke. Today, nothing but anxious faces waited on him to begin the proceedings.
Woolsey pulled up his chair into position.
"Rodney has Atlantis arrived safely?"
"Like expected. Cloaked. In position."
The clipped answers worried him. Just enough to answer him, but no elaborate explanation of how they arrived or anything else technical for that matter.
"And?"
Rodney didn't even look up as Woolsey spoke to him; just twiddled with his thumbs.
"Sorry. Am I missing something?" Woolsey tried again.
"What? Other than Sheppard and Torren?"
At last a sarcastic remark. Funnily enough for Woolsey he could deal with that type of Rodney; not the shell of the one the last months had moulded. So he chose to ignore his bad manners; understanding fully that the man was at breaking point. He turned instead towards Teyla.
"Can you sense any wraith?"
Teyla was slow to answer, but finally nodded. "I believe I can, but it is slight; blurry if you like. I cannot explain it. Perhaps wraith are different for me to detect in this galaxy. Sorry. It is the only way I can describe it." Her head went down to her chest.
"No need to apologise, Teyla. You can feel something, and that is good enough. Gives us a head up."
She raised her tired face and smiled back at him. "I am sensing something else, though… I wasn't going to mention it until I was sure, but …"
"Don't stop there, lass. What is it?" Carson grabbed her hand and squeezed it.
Teyla let out a breath. "As soon as Atlantis arrived in this area of space… I got a sense of my son being near." All eyes looked towards her, and with a screech of chair legs, Ronon was up and standing beside her with a large hand on her slim shoulder.
"Really?" He asked, with a huge smile appearing on his face. Being in Teyla's company for so long now, they all knew of her wraith sensing abilities. But this was new. This was feeling her own son was near. He had a small part of wraith in his blood; something Teyla was now extremely thankful for.
Teyla reached up and grabbed the hand that dangled over her shoulder and smiled up at him.
"I believe so. I know it's Torren I sense."
"That's wonderful!" Carson said, matching everybody's reaction…except Rodney's.
"I have to point out that beside Amitiyaz, there are two smaller planets in its surround. He could be on either one of those."
Woolsey clapped a hand to his forehead. "I am sure Teyla is well aware of that fact. How about we go to Amitiyaz first and take it from there." He looked up and away from his hand. "Major Lorne, are your men prepared?"
Lorne leant forward. "Are they ever? We are ready to get the Colonel back." He nodded deftly in Teyla's direction. "And we are more than sure that Torren will be with him too, Teyla. Dr Keller had a paediatric medical bag packed ready just for him."
Teyla gulped. She hadn't thought of him being injured. Lorne, realising his words had hit hard, spoke quickly. "Not that he will need it…not with John protecting him with every footstep he takes." Lorne smiled at the thought of his commander defending the small child.
Teyla bowed her head, but remained struck dumb.
"And, John?" Rodney, asked suddenly.
Teyla knew what he meant. "I am unsure. I can only usually sense other wraith, but…well…it is said that some of my people have been able to sense their partners. But I think that would take …time…"
"When can we go?" Ronon asked, gruffly, not liking the way the conversation was going down-hill.
"I have asked for some scans to be done first, so tomorrow 09.00 you have a go if they show nothing untoward."
Ronon gripped the back of Teyla's chair hard, but understood. No sense in running in blind if it became detrimental to their mission to find John and Torren. No sense at all.
Everyone started to leave the room, leaving Teyla and Ronon alone.
Ronon spun Teyla's chair around until she faced him. Tears that had threatened to spill for days, now streamed down her cheeks. Ronon pulled her off the chair and into a hug, stroking her hair to calm her down.
"This is it, Teyla. Tomorrow we are a step closer to finding them than we have ever been before."
"You say that, Ronon. But they might not be there."
"And yet they might." He pushed her back slightly so he could look at her. "John will have kept him close, so I am confident we will find them both at the same time."
"He will not recognise me."
This, Ronon had not considered she was thinking. Damn, it had been over a year now, of course. Torren would be over two years old.
"He would never forget his mother." Ronon gripped her shoulders and squeezed. "You surely know that, Teyla?"
"I do. I am just being silly." Teyla's chin touched her chest again.
Ronon raised it back up. "One thing is that John and Torren's relationship will be stronger…hell, given the amount of time they have been gone - much stronger! I'd be more worried about that!"
"What do you mean?"
"It will be more like a father and son relationship by now. Torren will see him as his father. United. That means they will be two against your one when they are back." He smiled and chucked her chin.
He got the desired effect. Teyla laughed and poked him in his stomach. "They will be united in going against me right enough."
"In a good and joking way." Ronon said.
"Ronon. Do you ever wonder what they will be like when we find them?"
Ronon smiled gently and nodded. "I hope that they are unhurt. That they have fared well."
"I do too."
"But…we are in a different galaxy and we have already met some unsavoury characters, so you have to be strong. We have already caught one wraith who acted differently from what we already knew about wraith."
"Also, they have a tracker in John." Teyla added
"And Rodney can make sense of how that works." Ronon soothed. "We are taking it to the planet tomorrow in the hope it helps us. All good things, Teyla."
"I think …"
"…I know, we are all thinking up things here." Ronon stopped her mid-sentence. "Let's wait to see what tomorrow brings. Come on. Dinner. Bed. See you in the morning. All in that order."
Teyla surrendered her ruminating. "You are correct. I will be of no use to either John or Torren tomorrow if I am not focused."
"Then let me amend that plan of mine slightly. Let's go to the gym first and work off some of that tension?"
Teyla made for the door, nodding in agreement. She turned around to face him. "You are a good friend Ronon Dex."
"As are you, Teyla Emmagan. Come on, John will not want his first sight of you in several months to be an unsmiling, unfit one!"
Teyla playfully whacked him on his arm for two counts, only to start laughing as Ronon pretended to be hurt.
SGA SGA SGA
After a restless night by everybody; with all their faces looking tired, Woolsey gave the order to go planet-side and accompanied them into the 'jumper bay to see them off.
Rodney, Ronon and Teyla stood to one side as Lorne and two of his men, together with Carson and Keller walked towards them.
"As soon as we land, we remain cloaked until we do a sensor check." Lorne repeated to Rodney, aware he was eager to check on what reports the tracker was going to give out."
"As I said this morning at the meeting, Major. I will not jeopardise John's life by checking on it prematurely."
The 'Major' bit pointedly stood out. Rodney was not happy. He had wanted to run straight down the gang plank and turn the tracker on. But of course, that could be reckless and detrimental to the mission – it took him too long to come to terms with it though and he sulked.
"Good." Was all Lorne replied with. "Okay men. Load up and let's bring our men back."
Teyla actually smiled at that. Her men.
Woolsey wished them good speed and they were soon on their way to Amitiyaz.
"You are staring at me again, Jennifer." Teyla broke the nervous tension by smiling back at her friend.
"I was thinking that Torren will need new clothes with him being older…he will be taller." She grimaced. "Sorry, I should keep my thoughts to myself."
"No. It is alright. You are correct. I think the same things all the time. What will he be like with me? What will he look like? Will he …need new clothes?"
Lorne took the moment to interrupt. "Here's Amitiyaz. Let's saddle up."
Lorne had allowed Sgt Neco to fly 'jumper one and his landing was so flawless, they didn't realise they were down until the Sgt came walking to the bulkhead doors carrying his P-90 against his chest.
"Ready to find the Colonel, Sir."
"Good. Because that's what we are going to do. We are in the trees and cloaked?"
"Affirmative."
"Okay, my men with me. Let's go. Ronon, Rodney, Teyla." Lorne paused. "See you back here in two hours. Radio silence, but two clicks if you have something."
Ronon darted forward into the forest; not really interest in anything else but to find John. A perusal of the forested land beneath showed several life signs. With John's own Atlantis tracker obviously destroyed, it was making this harder. But, it was possible they could be John or Torren, but Teyla had shook her head dismissively at the idea. Still, it was worth investigating the humans that managed to survive on a planet so full of wraith.
Rodney held his LSD out in front of him like a life line. Perhaps it was. A life line to his sanity if John could not be found.
"How many?" Ronon asked.
"I'm picking up ten."
Ronon then turned to Teyla. "Teyla?"
"I'm not sensing any wraith."
Rodney came over to Ronon. "There's a few close. They are almost…"
"Who are you, and what are you doing here?" A man shouted out from the foliage.
Ronon stepped forward, but was pulled back slightly by Teyla.
"We are strangers here. Searching for a friend." She said. "Who are you?"
The man ignored her but showed himself by stepping forward with his companions, all armed with sharply carved sticks and other make-shift weapons pointing straight at them.
"Did you escape the Hive?" The man continued with his questions.
He suddenly stopped walking and looked at his friends with a query on his face. He stepped nearer.
"Your clothes?" His mouth fell open and did not close again until it was pulled back into a huge smile and he spoke.
"He said you would come!"
Rodney rushed forward. "Who said?"
Crone laughed. "John Sheppard. You must be Rodney. He described you so well, now that I see you." He pointed at Ronon as they started to realise they were in the company of somebody who knew John. "Ronon." He said, and then turned to Teyla. "You have to be Teyla. Your son looks just like you."
Teyla made a noise in her throat and almost fainted until Ronon took her elbow. "You know John? Is he here?"
Crone's face grew sad.
"He was here, yes. Him and little Torren." He smiled at Teyla. "I knew them for a few months. He instigated our escape from the wraith hive some months back. He wanted to leave this planet with us all in a stolen dart so he could then find you, but some of us remained. Anyway, he did manage to leave, just like he said he would. Beamed up a few with him." Crone stopped talking, realising he might then pass on some bad news.
Teyla stepped forward. "Do you have any idea where he might have went first?"
Crone put down his weapon. "Come, join us at our fire. Have some tea. John and Torren loved our tea."
"I cannot wait to hear about what happened here, but, please!" Teyla implored. "Tell me?"
Crone's smiling face of friendship vanished.
"It's quite possible, dear Teyla…that the dart - as he called them - came down in a fight."
This time Teyla wavered and both Rodney and Ronon stood beside her for strength.
"How do you know that?" Rodney asked.
Crone was now standing in front of Teyla, and he pointed upwards.
"The sky had a bright light show that day. To us it looked like they all took each other out, if the fireworks and loud explosions didn't lie. I am sorry. No darts returned to base that we witnessed."
Teyla looked so worried Crone took pity on her. "I won't see about filling you in with what happened to them when I knew them, until you sit down and have a cup of tea with us. John would hate the bad manners."
Ronon touched his ear piece twice and on the return double click, spoke to Lorne about finding Crone and a piece to the jigsaw puzzle being filled that was John and Torren.
Ronon rushed to catch up. "Lorne will be here in ten minutes."
"More friends. Time enough to boil up more then."
Teyla took in his older features and instantly liked him. Most of all, he – and the others – could tell her about what they knew about John and Torren. Teyla's heart was beating so fast she started to feel like she had ran a marathon, such was her excitement.
She turned to face a familiar yell, and the next thing she knew Keller and Carson were running to catch up.
"We just heard. Oh, my goodness, Teyla!" Keller mumbled.
Carson came up to shake Crone's hand. "Dr Carson…"
"…Beckett." Crone finished.
"Oh, man. What has he said about me?" Carson laughed, also giddy with the relief at knowing John had actually been on this planet. They had traced him well. Perhaps he was still on it?
SGA SGA SGA
The sun gave way to the moon and still they sat around the fire circle listening to the accounts of John and Torren's missing months.
Saddened by what John had been through, Rodney fingered the tracker, but put it away immediately when Crone caught sight of it.
"It might show up on their sensors. Don't be stupid."
"Put it away, Mckay!" Ronon growled.
"It was like no tracker used before." Crone advised. Unique to your man. It used ancient blood." Crone looked at Ronon. "They experimented on him, but we have no idea what it could fully do to him…"
"Do to him?" Carson leaned forward.
Crone nodded his head. "Unfortunately, yes. It's not just a tracker. They surgically placed in him the receiver to it, but it was modified with some sort of chemical that was being slowly released into his system. It made him ill. The queen would not leave him alone and one of the wraith – John called him 'long-hair' – particularly liked to pick on John and would watch him all the time, sometimes even beating on him. Shall I go on?" He asked as he witnessed Teyla stiffen. The thought of Torren witnessing this horrified her.
"Please do." Lorne asked, aware Teyla was struggling with this, but he needed all the information he could get.
"He once pressed it lightly and John dropped to the ground unconscious. It seemed it had many functions. John knew he had to escape or it would kill him. Teyla, we never allowed Torren to witness John being hurt. He saw him bruised and ill afterwards, obviously, but we – and John – shielded him from what was happening, along with some other of the children."
Teyla bit her lip but allowed Ronon to slip an arm around her shoulders.
Silence fell for a couple of minutes whilst all this new information was being absorbed. "My son was well behaved?" Teyla spoke up. Her voice weak and barely wanting to hear the answer.
"Torren." Crone and the others smiled. "A delightfully funny child that was always willing to help out…that's when he wasn't worried for his father, that is!"
Some of the men nodded their heads. Another spoke up. "When John came back after being missing for a while, Torren helped bathe him and give him something to drink."
"They were so good with each other. Like a true father and son."
"At night John would protectively curl his body around him and they would remain like that until morning. Made my wife smile a lot when she saw that. Must admit it gave me lump in my throat."
"They really loved each other, it was nice to watch how they spoke to each other and gazed at the stars. Torren copied everything John did. He worshipped him – and, John was just as mad about him."
More and more shared their stories, but Ronon wanted an answer to something one of them had mentioned first up.
"What do you mean John was missing for a while?"
Crone looked sad. "We do not know, Ronon. When he came back to us he was in a bad way. He did not even know the length of time that had passed. It worried him for many days, I can tell you. By the time he had escaped in the dart, he was still none the wiser. He, like us, dreaded the answer, but knowing the wraith it wouldn't have been good. I …we all…well, we hope you find him and Torren."
"We do too." Lorne said softly. "We can take you out of here?" He asked.
Crone shook his head. "I think I speak for all us when we say no for a second time to you Atlantians. Our place is here, on our own world. We hope to get it back one day. We just have to wait on the last Hive leaving and…"
"Last Hive?"
"Yes, last one. There is a war in the far side of the galaxy we hear."
"And your Queen is readying a Hive to go join."
Crone reached over. "Our Queen is only a minor one. I don't know where you come from but we have an Empress that rules over all the Hives in our quadrant. Sheppard, they believed would somehow be an advantage to them to win the war, what with his blood and everything. If he isn't already dead, they will stop at nothing to find him, and from what we hear from other runners that visit briefly, time is running out for them to please their Queen."
"Why, what's happening?"
Crone's face darkened.
"The Empress is coming!"
SGA SGA SGA
To be continued.
A/N : Well! I don't know quite how it happened, but I have imagined a whole new galaxy to play with, and see a series of stories ahead with our favourite Atlantians based there.
'The Missing' will be concluded in the next chapter to a certain degree; but it has become too long a story to tell in just one go (I can't possibly round everything up nicely in one more chapter, and I need time off for the real world!) – So hold that thought when you read the last chapter coming up soon…..