Chapter 12
The Great Divide
After they were dropped off at Tara, both Jumpers took to the skies once again. Each contained a pilot and co-pilot and all others sought shelter in the house. It allowed Elizabeth the chance to step foot inside it for the second time. A shiver ran up her spine.
All she wanted was to run screaming like a child from the haunted house at Halloween. The monsters were real. They kept jumping out at her in her mind's eye, so she halted. She kept reminding herself the job was not done. The fear hollowed out the numbness and in its place, a cold fury burned. Her…their entire planet was now in jeopardy. She dug for courage once more and continued on into the house.
Teyla and Carson preceded her into the foyer under their own power, consciousness a newly achieved state. Cadman and the rest of the Jumpers' teams escorted them. Warren ordered her to stay because Cadman knew her way around a computer as well as anyone. Plus, it would annoy the crap out of McKay if the lieutenant came up with a solution along with this whelp of a kid. Weir gave a small smile at that thought.
Stackhouse approached the group from a side door.
"Good to see ya, ma'am. Place hasn't been the same," he saluted and smiled warmly. He pivoted to face Carson. "Dr. McKay's downstairs. A local physician's with him. He's not complaining, but I really think he needs to see you."
"Not complaining? That, in and of itself, is worrisome. Lead the way."
Stackhouse disappeared through the doorway that led downstairs and Beckett followed him.
Elizabeth stopped because fury only carried one so far. She did not want to go down those steps again. Not the same this time, Weir. Teyla stood beside her, probably seeing her hesitation. She lightly touched Elizabeth on the arm.
"I will go first."
Slightly embarrassed, Elizabeth winced. "I feel like a small child afraid of the dark. How do you do it? You go from one frightening and adrenaline producing situation to the next and stay so fresh?"
"With both eyes open," Teyla replied and took the first step down.
Elizabeth followed; fury rekindled.
At the bottom, Ronon greeted them. "Glad you could make it. Beckett, McKay's this way."
Elizabeth noticed the scrutinizing once over Carson gave Ronon. She also noticed the slight sway he had as he waited for them to descend the stairs. He too was a battered mess: puffed out eye, waxen complexion and a gimpy stance.
Teyla grabbed him by the bicep as he turned to show them the way. He stopped the turn and looked down at her, "Ronon, it has been too long. It is good to see you as well."
He gave her a warm look, not quite a smile, but a recognition of two friends or family that need not say any more.
Beckett joined them. "Ronon, you alright?"
"No Beckett, but I can wait. McKay needs you more." With that, he limped towards the door at the end of the hall.
Stackhouse held the door open until everyone entered the large office with monitors that captured different sections of the lab. Underneath the screens a girl sat in a chair, a vacant girl staring at everything and nothing. Red stained her face and her clothes. Some of the red had already turned to crusty brown smears.
That definitely deserved an explanation, but now was not the time.
"Watch her, she and McKay didn't get on too well," Ronon told Cadman nodding in the opposite direction. "Or any of us, really," he added after a brief moment of thought.
Elizabeth was not sure she wanted to hear that explanation.
McKay lay on a backboard in a semiconscious state. He mumbled to himself and solved the meaning of the universe only to lose it within a fraction of a millisecond. An older gentleman sat with him and greeted Beckett as he sprinted to McKay's side.
"Dr. Garner Hallidy and you must be Dr. Beckett. He's been asking for you."
Beckett shook the man's hand and knelt by his patient. "Aye, now let's see what we can do for ya, Rodney."
"Lots of drugs," slurred McKay.
"That's a given, Rodney," Carson replied with a pat on the McKay's leg.
Weir nodded at the other doctor before Carson and he fell into discussion about the health of their patient. This was the man that had helped Sheppard and McKay the last time they were imprisoned on the planet. She would introduce herself properly later after all this was settled. She continued on into the main lab that housed that chair. Teyla and Cavanaugh followed as Cadman gave orders for two of the team to stay in the office.
Seeing them enter, Ford whisked past them to the only person in the group he did not know.
"You must be Cavanaugh! Good to meet ya, now get your ass over here and hack this mainframe!"
Ronon's fingers twitched on his weapon as Ford dragged the young corporal to a console. Weir figured the two had a tentative and very fragile truce. A truce that could be broken if one or the other moved wrong.
"Maj. Warren and Sgt. Fuller are going to try a sneak attack on the Hive ship. Hopefully, the drones can do enough damage to slowdown or disable the ship. In order to fire, they must de-cloak, making them vulnerable to the darts," reported Cadman.
How very Klingon or Romulan of them, thought Weir. "Thank you, lieutenant."
Another young man dressed similarly to Ford entered the lab. "Wow! This is bigger than I thought, Aiden!" His face showed the same awe that was in his voice. He looked from one end of the lab to the other. "Oh, Kocak's on the generator," he said distractedly.
"We need your deciphering skills, Mulden." Ford pointed to where Cavanaugh sat at the console. Mulden kept looking around the room. "Now!" Ford shouted as he grabbed Mulden by the arm and pulled him to the console.
Weir looked up too. "Maybe I can help." Finally, something that would make her feel useful.
Ignoring her offer, Ford spoke into his Genii radio. "Kocak, raise the shield."
Cavanaugh listened as Mulden interpreted the screens. Cadman threw in her two cents worth and Weir translated other screens.
"This isn't linked to the Hive. It's linked to one of the cruisers," observed Mulden.
"Damn, damn, damn, damn it! No one plays fair!" Ford yelled. He stalked back and forth in front of the computer.
The radio crackled and Warren informed them of the situation outside the room., "Hive's lifting off. What's your status?"
Tremors shook the room verifying the major's words.
"Major, do what you can. We've hit a snag," Weir answered.
"Understood. Starting my run…de-cloaking…firing." There was a pause before he continued, "Direct hit to port side engines…negligible damage…Shit! Darts!"
"They must have extra shielding," conjectured Sgt. Fuller. "Starting my run now. De-cloaking. Darts already know I'm here…Wraith might be ugly, but they sure aren't dumb. Taking evasive maneuvers…yeah, I see that one! Firing…ambush! Amb…!" Screaming followed explosions and then there was terrible, terrible silence.
Those at the computers kept working. Those standing behind them looked at their shoes.
"Jumper One's destroyed. His drones struck the starboard side of the Hive ship's engines- no damage. I'm going to de-cloak and try again," a subdued Maj. Warren relayed over the airwaves.
"I'm in! Let's see what I can get at…" Cavanaugh's eyes studied the screen along with Mulden. "Gotta find backdoors…" A big grin spread across his face. "Is that the program for communications?"
"Yes," answered Mulden.
"Let's see…beacons…transponders…jamming codes." Cavanaugh's hands flew across the touch board. "Defensive measures…fire control! Navigation!"
"Yes, that's the symbol for navigation." Mulden's grin matched Cavanaugh's.
"I can fire at the Hive ship!"
"Maj. Warren, abort! We need you as our eyes and ears," Weir practically screeched into the ear piece.
Then, something occurred to her. She looked at Teyla. "Can you find Col. Sheppard? Somehow direct him to get off the ship? Control one of them as they have you in the past?"
"I can try." Teyla closed her eyes and they fluttered. She frowned, "I cannot…he cannot…he is completely cocooned in a special section of the ship. He is unconscious according to the…" She broke contact. "They knew I was there." After a momentary, silent sigh, she almost apologized, "We cannot help him."
She looked at Ronon then back to Weir, her face unreadable as to her emotion. Was it sadness, disappointment, or regret written across her face? It could have been one or all of them.
Ronon shifted from foot to foot uncharacteristically avoiding eye contact. He sagged against the far wall of the lab with one shoulder against it. Weir noticed Beckett in the other room directing one of the corpsmen to keep watch over the young man.
Elizabeth turned back and stared at the screen. At least Sheppard was unconscious and would not feel anything when the end came. It was a morbid thought she kept to herself. It was a small consolation, anyway, and something those on the Jumper did not have.
"Cpl. Cavanaugh, when you have a shot, take it," directed Weir.
He nodded back silently, and then produced a strong, "Yes ma'am."
It was time to say good-bye to a good and trusted friend. She looked back at Ronon whose jaw tensed and un-tensed. Lingering illness racked his body. His expression, his complexion, his posture and his eyes betrayed him. He stood next to the door to the office. Every once in a while, he stole a look at Beckett and McKay in the other room. The medic stood sentry next to him just as Ronon stood sentry near the doctors.
"We need to wait until the Hive ship's out of the atmosphere. If we destroy it now, it would rain red-hot debris over a huge area," said Mulden shattering the solemn silence.
"So, what if it does?" Ford asked. "We're safe under the shield."
Mulden glared sourly at him, "There're other people on the planet not under the shield. The darts haven't culled everyone. Also, according to the computers, the cruisers'll physically join the Hive for the jump to hyper space at the last minute. We need to do it before then. Seems the Hive takes over computer control and everything runs on automatic. We'll lose our computer control and they might see our handy work."
Warren's voice crackled once again in everyone's ear. "Darts are returning to the ship."
"Or not," said Ford and he repeated the message for Mulden.
"Or not," agreed Mulden.
"I have a shot. Taking control now…and firing." Cavanaugh pressed a touch key on the screen.
The seconds ticked off and everyone waited for the good news or relatively good news.
"Holy shit!" Warren exclaimed.
Good holy shit or bad holy shit? Weir did not have to wait long.
"The other cruiser blocked the shot! They found us out! Hive's unharmed! I'm de-cloaking…" He paused. "Mother…The Hive just fired on our Cruiser, taking evasive maneuvers!"
Bad holy shit.
Another set of long seconds passed.
"Major. Maj. Warren?" Very bad holy shit.
"We're here Dr. Weir, but the Hive ship just entered hyper space. The explosion of both Cruisers blinded us and messed with sensors. Nothing more to do up here. Returning to rendezvous."
Everyone was stunned silent.
An appropriate sense of dread washed over Elizabeth and an equally inappropriate sense of relief washed over her as well.
They had three weeks- give or take a day or two- to save Earth.
"…I could make it last," the Queen's voice replayed in her head.
They also had one more chance to save John Sheppard. Hopefully, there would be something left to save. She looked at each and every face associated with Atlantis. She hoped they knew it too.
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The gulf between him and the others opened even wider. The three on the otherside ran farther back as more ice spewed into the air obscuring his sightline once again.
"They'll be back, Dad."
John looked at the teenager sitting next to him in the Elmer's glue-like snow. The slurry kept him from trying anything of consequence.
"I know. We're tenacious creatures."
"What's tenacious mean?" The light brown-haired boy asked.
"We don't quit easily."
"Do you think I could've been a pro baseball player? Maybe another Barry Bonds?"
"God, I hope not. Ballplayer, yes. Muscle bound drug user, no." He looked at the top of the boy's head. The hair was even more unruly than his. "You could've been anything you wanted to be."
"Hmm. Guess we'll never know."
"A man can dream," John mumbled.
The boy wore a scrunched-up, introspective look before continuing, "Scientist! No, Astronaut! Nah, your job's more fun. But, having myself pulled apart and put back together again is really scary."
John smiled, "You need to meet Beckett."
"No, you need to see Beckett. I know, garbage man. You find the neatest stuff in the garbage; action figures, TVs, furniture. Plus, you get to ride the truck- on the outside." He gave a big smile and an eager nod before looking back at the chasm. "Dad, look. They're climbing down the ice cliff."
John shook his head and scowled, "No." Damn this quicksand-like, icy menace, he could not help. "They should not do that. What if the entire thing gives way and buries them?"
"It's OK Dad; they know what they're doing. You'd do the same."
"It's not safe, not worth the risk. Is it getting colder?" He asked changing the subject while his shivering increased.
"Clever Dad, master of subterfuge you are. Anything worth having is worth the risk. Friendship included." The boy looked at him with smoky brown eyes. "Especially friendship, your arm has grown shorter. It's good to see you letting people in again."
This time, John drew the boy into a side hug. "Not easy."
"Nope, it's not. You just need to wait and endure." The boy looked him up and down. "And, get some clothes."
"That would be nice." Why his own dream would not let him have a wardrobe remained an annoying mystery. It was the ultimate in going commando. He was displayed for the entire world to see, vulnerable to the elements. Of course, his imaginary butt was frozen in the Elmer's glue-like snow. T'was a might uncomfortable.
"No plaid bell-bottoms, Dad. Don't want you looking like a doofus."
"That would have been your grandfathers and great-grandfathers' threads. I would wear parachute pants and a Members Only jacket. Might need a mullet and a single, sparkly glove to finish off the outfit."
"On second thought, stay like you are," the boy replied with a snicker.
Looking forward, they both smiled at the horizon and watched the dots of humanity continue their descent into the rift.
He remained frozen in place. The only movement was his slow sinking into the slush.
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A/N: Well, the bunnies really love jumping from box to box. I have corralled them and placated them with carrot based Bloody Mary's. Isaac's really outdone himself this time. The stacks of boxes grow in height and I fear and avalanche may be in order to clear room. Getting out a piece of cardboard to ride the wave.
As always, thanks for reading and hope you are enjoying. I won't threaten you with fluffy, carnivorous bunnies or militant lizards like other authors, but please feel free to review.