Chapter 18
Duck, Duck, Duck…Goose!
"Try it now!" McKay yelled over the din of noise in the Jumper bay. It was unnecessary as the major pointed out.
"Doctor, the radio can pick your voice up even if you speak in a normal tone."
"Oh, sorry, yeah that makes sense since my mouth is right here and the other noise is over there…" He scrubbed his face with his hand. No sleep and no sleep make Rodney…make Rodney forget what he should be doing.
"Try it now," he said in a normal voice over the din of noise in the Jumper bay.
"Engaging alternate cloak," Warren relayed as the Jumper disappeared, as it should.
"Excellent," Rodney said unenthusiastically as he kept an eye on power utilization. "Shut it off. Let's keep it moving folks, next experiment."
The Jumper reappeared, as it should.
"It looks like it will give us at least twenty minutes before it shorts out and showers anyone standing near it with sparks," observed Zelenka as he watched the same little computer screen.
"Yeah, that's what I'm getting too. We just don't have the time to completely repair it. If I can find any spare time when we get to Earth and the Wraith give us fair warning and…"
"We still have to create connections and directions for the cloak to interact with our software and hardware," said Zelenka cutting McKay off.
"That's what the next phase is for," replied a weary McKay. The cloak was scavenged from a Puddle Jumper from the other Atlantis. They had it hot-wired to one of their Jumpers to see if it still worked. Obviously, it did. Rodney rested his head on top of the laptop.
"You need to sleep. Nor, are you fully recovered."
"I'll sleep when I'm dead or when you don't need my expertise on everything." Rodney walked to a different laptop hooked up to a device that defied all logic. It should not work with the crazy alien construction. Thing looked like it was made with bailing wire and tape, the bumble bee of electronics. He was not kidding about using duct tape to keep this plan together.
"Turning on cloaking projector, now," he pressed the keyboard with a dramatic and heavy punch. "Beautiful baby," Rodney looked at the shimmering projection in place of the Jumper. "Is it broadcasting, Radek?"
"Yes, it sure is."
The image decided to waver and distort into a mess of pixels. "Refine! Tune! Sharpen! Do something!"
"I am!" Zelenka yelled as the image twisted and blurped until it finally went back to its normal shape.
They exchanged satisfied looks. "The interface had a short." Zelenka held up more duct tape. "I fixed it though."
Perturbed but not overly, Rodney clapped his hands. "OK people, next step a full size recreation on the Daedalus!"
Everyone picked up cords, computers and any other equipment necessary for transfer to the ship.
"Major Gruman, uh hi, we are preparing to move everything over there to do the final testing. Is Hermiod ready?"
"Yes Dr. McKay, we are ready to receive you."
"Give us about fifteen minutes and that should do it, McKay out."
"Understood, Gruman out."
McKay sat down for just one little second. Radek shook his shoulder ten minutes later. "We can do this Rodney. You go to your room now or I call Ronon to carry you there."
"I'm good, really."
"Yes, snoring is normal when one is good. Go, I will update you when you wake up."
McKay scrubbed his face, yet again, and stood up gingerly. "Maybe I'll just go catch a couple of winks and then join you…"
"Ronon, this is Dr. Ze…"
"Going, going. Sheesh Radek." McKay stopped and turned around. "Don't hesitate to call if you should…"
"Please come to the Jumper bay…"
The door shutting was Zelenka's answer. Rodney must have been so tired he did not even notice that Radek had never activated his radio. "People are so easily manipulated," Radek mumbled before turning around and yelling orders to those left in the bay.
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"Ronon, Teyla, permission granted." Weir gave them both a congratulatory smile from behind her desk.
"Thank you Dr. Weir, I thought it would take a little more cajoling."
"Gen. Landry agrees that you should be there for the Hive's arrival. You and Ronon are both definite assets against the Wraith. Plus, John might need a friendly face when he…" Her face sobered as she sat down. "Dr. Beckett, Rodney, Stackhouse with his team, and anyone they need to take with them will be heading to Earth."
"We will do what needs to be done," Ronon rumbled from behind Teyla. "Anyway, I've wanted to check out the televisions. They sound very interesting,"
"I know you will Ronon and I hope you get to checkout more than just television. You leave in three days." Weir smiled at her desk. "I envy you, but I can't go with you. Once there, it might be a while before you come back."
"We understand Dr. Weir. We are prepared for an extended visit."
Ronon and Teyla exited the office with grim smiles on their faces.
"I've been curious about their world since the Mist planet," commented Teyla as Ronon and she crossed the catwalk. They stopped and looked at the Stargate.
"It sounds dangerous, wonderful and strange," observed Ronon when they started walking again. He skipped every other step as they descended the stairs. "Can't wait to see some of it, if they let us."
"That would be nice. I also want it be with the same guide I had last time."
"But you weren't really there."
"I know, but it seemed wondrous. You must see their shopping malls. The market place on Belkan is small in comparison."
"On Sateda, we had indoor markets that took up entire city blocks."
"Then you will, no doubt, fit right in." They entered the mess hall and stood in line. After filling their trays, they sat down at a far table.
"You don't think he'll be alive, do you?" Ronon asked as he shoved some potatoes in his mouth.
"He will be alive, it is just…" She put her fork down. "What state of alive, I am not sure."
"He's strong Teyla, he adapts."
"But weeks Ronon. Weeks with them doing…I cannot allow him to suffer anymore than he already has."
Ronon smoldered and answered with anger his voice, "Do not give up on him yet. Give him the chance. If anything, he's a survivor and you know it. They allowed you to see possible outcomes, not actual outcomes. The Wraith believe we're animals for the picking. They use fear to further our submission to their hunger. Let's show them that we can fight back and win."
She picked up her fork and ate her own mashed potatoes. "I will give him that chance. You are right, because he will take it. He will spit at them until the very end."
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John found out when you name, rank and serial number the Wraith long enough, they punch you- hard. He spat blood at the male's (henceforth, to be known as Linus) face.
"How very human of you," John responded with a dark grin. He had that one saved for a special occasion. Best insult he could come up with while his head was ringing.
The male hissed at him as the Queen (Lucy) stood back and appraised the situation. John spat more blood from where his teeth had met the inside of his cheek. While it was hard, Linus must have pulled his punch because his jaw did not feel like it was in a thousand tiny pieces. Also, he could talk, which was another good clue of it being in one piece and on its hinge.
They wanted more information on allies, enemies, weapons- anything that would greet them upon exiting hyper-space. Her formal interrogation technique of mind manipulation only annoyed John. For whatever reason, he could resist, not easily, but he could resist. That really pissed her off. Hence, the more human interrogation techniques.
She gestured to the male with her head and he stood in front of John.
"Tell me about your offensive weapons."
"Lieutenant Col…"
Linus sunk both sets of claws into John's chest.
"How many ships does your world have?"
With the shock of ten, sharp, clawed fingers sinking into his skin, he missed the question and did not answer. The claws twisted and he howled as already torn flesh tore a little more.
"Who has the teleportation technology?" Lucy gestured to Linus. He pulled each finger out, one at a time.
"Lieu…Lieu…"
"Enough! I would have been disappointed if you had answered. I might have had to kill you."
Now she tells me.
"Does not matter, I have my own ways of testing defensive and offensive preparations of the herd."
Sheppard just stared hatefully at the both of them. They weren't waiting for answers, just asking the questions and using him as a scratching post. Linus open palmed him across the face as a parting shot while Lucy activated her personal HUD. John spat more blood out of his mouth and looked at the screen. He had a bad feeling that she had something already planned. His session was just the warm-up.
As he looked at the screen and at her, he inwardly smiled. It had taken awhile, but he had finally come up with the names for his mistress of the dark and her flunky. Elvira was too good- Morticia or Lily, too nice. Lucretia popped in there and he went with that. He shortened it to Lucy and decided for her second in command that Linus was a good fit. The crazy Van Pelt siblings became his hosts.
Where were Chuck and that damned football? Oh that's right, his little caretaker could be the bald headed kid. The ball would be getting jerked away from her anytime now. He saw how Lucy toyed with her as well.
The blue glow of hyper-space abruptly stopped streaming and a little blue planet hung in the inky blackness. Through the haze of pain, tears, and snot, he stared at the little marble comprised of mostly water. He looked at the land masses and could not help but wonder…Had they been in space long enough to reach Earth already?
His stomach clenched and he felt a cold knot in the pit of it. He did not have a clue as to time or place and really did not know if enough time had passed or not. He also realized that he had never seen Earth from orbit. He had circled so many alien worlds, but Earth was not one of them. Panic threatened to overcome him. Was there anything he could do to thwart this? Nothing was coming to mind.
With Lucy's regal, permission granting nod, Linus released the darts. They filled the screen like a swarm of locust bent on the destruction of a crop of corn. It was truly an apocalyptic scene. All it needed was frogs raining down out of the heavens and cats and dogs living in sin.
John Sheppard waited for something to come to the rescue. Little ships, big ships, medium ships, anything to appear and destroy this royal witch's flock of death. He waited, hoped and prayed, but nothing came to stop them. The panic finally choked him and he vainly tried to remove himself from the cocoon.
Where is everybody?
She turned to look at his foolhardiness and smiled.
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"The Al'kesh will target the star drive," instructed Mitchell. "Of course, the Death Gliders and F-302's will intercept the darts."
"The Ha'tak will coordinate with the Odyssey where Dr. McKay and I'll be," added Carter.
General Landry nodded while listening to each piece of the plan. Slowly but surely, it was coming together. Atlantis had access to technology to swing the advantage in their favor. Having allies on their end helped to pad it further.
"If ground forces do get through, they will try and secure the Stargate. They have the ability to dial one up like the Puddle Jumpers can. Fortunately for us, we're under ground and most likely out of range beneath a few miles of rock." Mitchell leaned back in the chair.
"We have more troops on the way to secure Cheyenne and all points of interest. All Earth bound allies have been updated on this crisis. We'll have to deal with the fallout over this afterwards, but nothing new about that situation," Landry said to the entire room.
"Our preparations are ready. Just waiting for the contingent from Atlantis to get here so we can make our theories a reality," said Carter with a little smile.
His people had been working hard exploring every avenue in hopes that it would lead to an even better solution.
Before they could continue the briefing, a much frazzled Sgt. Harriman poked his head into the conference room before stepping all the way in. By the look on the man's face, Landry knew he was about to have another "oh shit" moment.
"General Landry, sorry to interrupt. The Wraith are attacking."
Oh shit.
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A/N: Thanks for the vote of confidence. As other authors state, it really does help. It's Summer break and the kiddies are out so hopefully I can get this story finished before school starts up again. That was a joke...I hope.
The bunnies frolic in the meadows and...ooh, that hawk just took one. Ouch.