Starship Daedalus.
With a billow of twisting energy the Daedalus cruised out of hyperspace and lined up on Atlantis, a gleaming point of light in the ocean. The ship was showing a few signs of the battle though luckily its shields had absorbed most of the damage. It's gun barrels were blackened with use and missile silos empty and now open to space, two of the spaces in the hangar bay set aside for the ships airwing also remained silent and unoccupied.
"Location confirmed." Major Foster spoke with relief. "Atlantis."
"Don't get too comfortable Major." Caldwell Cautioned and set up the communications panel by his chair. "We still have all hell snapping at our heels."
He was right, the scratched together fleet had torn up the Wraith forces heading for Atlantis but they had been stronger than expected and the allies simply hadn't done enough damage. About half the Wraith strength had been destroyed but it had cost one of the valuable Whitestar attack ships and caused heavy damage to the remaining ships. The Titans and Excalibur had taken a beating, and while both could still move and fight the ISA flagship had lost the ability to fire its primary cannon and Ivanova's ship was out of missiles and running short on fighters. The surviving Whitestar was in a similar condition, and while all three ships could still give the Wraith fleet a bloody nose ultimately they would all be destroyed without turning back the hive fleet. They had pulled a further ace out of the deck in the form of Galen, from what Caldwell could tell he had personally destroyed a Hive ship but the effort of creating such a massive effect had left him on the edge of a coma and he had returned to his ship which was now guiding the fleet home.
And that was the other problem, without the ZPM Daedalus could not extend it's own Hyperspace drive fields to incorporate the large Earth Force ships and so they were heading back through Hyperspace using the Technomages sensor grid to navigate safely. Unfortunately even with his First One level technology they were still hours or days away from home, while the Wraith would show up in just minutes. It was all going to be over before they got back unless somebody thought of something fast.
"Open a channel." Caldwell said. "Time to share the bad news."
The temperature in the Atlantis control room seemed to drop as Caldwell made his report. Weir could swear she felt the air turn to ice and sensed the hairs on her neck standing on edge.
"Bottom line is it didn't work." Caldwells voice boomed.
"Well at least you gave them something to think about." Weir did all she could to stop her voice from wavering. It was devastating news, her hopes had been built up and knocked down so often these last few days she was beginning to feel like a burnt out emotionless shell.
"We'll see." Caldwell returned. "But I don't think we'll be able to use the beaming tactic again, and even if we had the whole fleet it isn't enough raw firepower to stop them, plus we've all taken damage."
"It was the right thing to do." Shepherds voice added. "They're not far behind us, but we should make it home first, we'll be entering orbit in a few minutes."
"I hope it was." Weir said heavily. "We'll keep the Porch light on for you." She nodded and then ended the communication. "Okay, what are our options?"
She glanced at Doctors McKay, Zelenka and Beckett
"Well let me see," McKay fielded the question and looked up at the roof for a moment. "We've got slow death, quick death, painful death, cold, lonely death…"
With a hint of a sigh Weir turned and headed up for her office, refusing to entertain Rodney's sarcastic pessimism.
"Okay, you said yourself that the shield should buy us at least some time?"
"No more than a day." McKay answered. "But I guess I'll think of something, kind of what you pay me for."
"Thank you Doctor." Weir smiled briefly before looking to a technician. "Clear Daedalus to land on the east pier as soon as it arrives, maybe they have some ideas of their own."
A few minutes later the unlovely but surprisingly graceful starship twisted over the city and carefully landed on one of the petal like piers of the city. Before its engines had fully shut down the shield was back up and running, a pearly sheen in the sky above barely noticeable to the naked eye. A small garrison of soldiers from the SGC and Earth Force met the command staff as they disembarked and made their way to the meeting with Doctor Weir in the command centre.
"Welcome back to Atlantis Colonel."
Caldwell nodded curtly without breaking pace. "The Wraith are right behind us."
"I wasn't really expecting you to land." Weir mentioned. "The arrangements were more of a formality."
"Until repairs are complete the Daedalus is going to need Atlantis' shields as much as you do."
A voice suddenly crackled over the communication system. "Doctor Weir, Wraith ships are exiting Hyperspace."
High above the battlegroup began to concentrate above the near defenceless city. No shining shoals of drones reached up to the Wraith, no Heavy particle beams or pulse cannons burned the air to smite the Hive ships, no fighters or warships sought to create a barrier of steel and plasma before them. The city lay silent, unmoving, poised and apprehensive in the face of the inevitable attack. It was how the Wraith loved their enemies to feel before battle, it was like fine seasoning to their food and it enticed their senses. Very deliberately so the entire city could savour the dread in the moment, they formed up and began to fire.
"The shield is holding." McKay reported from his station. "But it is under incredible strain."
"How long will it hold?" requested Weir.
"Well if they stop firing it'll last almost indefinitely but…"
"More than a day?"
McKay sighed. "There are more ships than we expected. At this rate the ZPM will be depleted in just over twenty six hours."
Beyond the control room the bombardment continued, bright flashes of light scattering over the shield and flinging brief shadows across the spires of the city with each brief impact. The small populace gazed quietly at the scene alone with their thoughts, for many it was the first time they had seen such a sight, for some among the Earth Force personnel it was an unpleasant reminder of their days huddled far below ground as Minbari warships levelled their surface bases.
Whatever the specifics they all shared the same truth, they were trapped.
"The Daedalus will be back in fighting form within the next twenty hours." Caldwell announced. The staff had gathered in the conference room to try and formulate some sort of plan. "The rest of the fleet will arrive about the same time, but if we fight them it'll end in the same result."
"Even if we were able to destroy these ships more would come a few days later." Weir grimaced. "And even more a few days after that. From where I'm standing I just don't see how we can win this."
"Well now we know how the Ancients felt." McKay remarked curtly. "Even with the resources of the ISA we just can't get enough ships here fast enough. Plus they have that whole Plague and interstellar war with agents of darkness on their to do list."
"Atlantis is the only way to Earth." The slightly wilted voice of Doctor Zelenka stated. "As long as they know it is here they will keep coming."
From the other end of the table Shepherd repeated the sentiment. "As long as they know we're here."
Weir looked his way. "What do you mean?"
"Zelenka just said as long as they know we're here they'll keep coming."
"yes." Rodney cut in. "he did just say that."
"Well what if they thought we were gone?" Shepherd turned the edges of his mouth up in a smile.
Beside him Teyla smiled enigmatically. "Then there would be no reason for them to stay."
"Exactly!" Shepherd beamed at her.
"Exactly what?" McKay added in excasberation.
Shepherd reacted like it was the most normal thing in the world. "We disappear."
Colonel Caldwell was frowning and trying to follow the course of the conversation. "We destroy the city?"
"No," Shepherd shook his head emphatically. "We just make it look like we did."
"How?" Weir asked.
"We cloak it!" McKay said triumphantly, rather like it had been his idea all along.
"Yes yes!" Zelenka joined in, having to restrain himself from jumping on the desk. "The Puddle Jumpers have cloaks impervious to Wraith scans! If we simply remove one of the generators…"
"I wouldn't say 'simply'" Interrupted McKay. "But yes, by interface a jumpers cloak into the shield we should be able to render the city invisible."
"Well that's all well and good." Caldwell raised his voice. "But if the city just disappears they might just put one and one together."
"Which is why we need to fake a self destruct." McKay spoke fast. "Have the Daedalus drop a nuke right over the city shield and then detonate it. While their sensors are blinded we cloak the city, and when the smoke clears…"
"…Nothing but Ocean." Weir finished.
"what about Radiation?" Caldwell pointed out.
"Oh I should be able to work out how long to wait until we switch over to the cloak." McKay dismissed.
"But what about the displacement issue?" Zelenka waved in.
"It's coporambulation." McKay took it as in his stride. "That's the easy part."
"Okay, what about the hard part?" Zelenka continued.
"Hard part?" Shepherd this time raised his voice.
"Well the cloak will replace the shield." McKay explained. "So once the cloak is activated we'll be completely unprotected."
"We'll be completely exposed?" Weir came crunching down on the inevitable flaw in the otherwise perfect plan.
"well… yes."
"So if they are not fooled by this ruse…" Caldwell began.
"Then they destroy the city." Shepherd finished. "Which is exactly what we were gonna do anyway."
"What about Daedalus?" Weir looked to Caldwell.
"With our shields recharged we can break through their lines and escape, and we know we can out run them."
"Alright, lets get as many people off city as possible in case it doesn't work." Shepherd suggested. "The fleet can pick them up from the new Alpha site and take them home."
"Hopefully Hermiod can find a way to stretch our power to get the ISA ships back too." Caldwell commented.
"How much time do you need?" Weir asked the two scientists.
"Oh, well…" McKay blinked as he thought.
"A week." Zelenka announced.
"A few hours." McKay countered.
"I'll take the second estimate." Weir confirmed. "Go."
A few hours later the scene was set, with Zelenka and McKay crouched around a cloak embedded in a jumper with a cacophony of wires and crystals scattered around the device linking it to the city. Above them the Daeadalus waited, having slipped out during a short lull in the barrage. Teyla was preparing to use her connection to the Wraith to further aid the deception by planting false information. The city waited, with no other options everything hung on this plan.
"The message is delivered." Teyla announced with a knowing smile. At almost the same moment the intense barrage stopped.
In the control room Weir fought to remain calm. "Seems like they heard Teyla loud and clear. Rodney?"
"Yeah, I think I'm ready." The Canadian huffed.
"You think?" Weir emphasised with a hint of annoyance.
"I am definitely ready." He confirmed with more strength in his voice, willing himself to believe it.
Weir leaned in and activated her communication system. There was no turning back now. "Daedalus, launch the weapon. All personnel prepare for detonation flash."
"Ready Major?" Caldwell asked.
"Yes sir." Foster replied. "At least I can't think of anything else to do as crazy as this."
"Well look at it this way," Caldwell remarked. "If it works we deny the city to the Wraith, if it fails we deny the city to the Wraith. There's just a crap load more paperwork the second way, so lets hope this goes to plan." He switched on station to station comms. "Doctor Novak, go."
Deep in the hull of the ship Hermiod activated the transporter system and put the last nuclear warhead the ship had into the air above the city.
"The Weapon is away." Novak confirmed.
A second later her words were confirmed by a titanic blast that tore up the atmosphere and blanked out the view to the city.
Beneath them McKay waited tensely until the blast subsided enough to take down the shield without burning them all to a crisp.
"Standby sublight on my mark." Caldwell ordered.
"Standing by sir." Foster echoed.
"Rodney?" Weir repeated with a little duress.
"Okay, we're cloaked!"
Above the mushroom cloud still boiled over from the explosion, a vast tortured shape of black and red.
Weir looked around, seeing everything exactly as it was earlier. "How can you tell?"
"They're scanning for us." McKay had dropped his voice to a whisper and sent the occaisional furtive glance around. "I don't think they've detected us."
"Why are you whispering?"
"I dunno." McKay frowned, catching himself. "Just seemed like the thing to do."
"Is it working or not?" Weir asked in a raised voice.
"Atlantis," the gruff voice of Colonel Caldwell filled the room. "This is Daeadalus, our sensors show the Wraith fleet is breaking orbit."
"I can confirm that! They're heading for Hyperspace!" McKay tried with limited success to curb his enthusiasm. "I'll keep the cloak up a little longer just to be sure, but I think they bought it."
"So it's over?" Shepherd asked.
"For now." Weir nodded. "For now
Atlantis, later that day.
Galen stepped quietly into the darkened room, the air was slightly colder in here as a result of the high ceiling and cavernous space. In an artificially controlled city like this one all the rooms should be the same temperature, apparently the Ancients appreciated instilling a sense of awe in their work. He breathed in deeply and exhaled a slight mist, following its progress as it rose and dissipated. With the city safe for the time being he had taken his leave and come to investigate this room which held the access to the Ancient data base, a holographic projection system which could display anything he sought to ask of the city computer.
The ISA fleet had arrived several hours after the Wraith left and was settled into orbit conducting what repairs they could to make them space worthy again in lieu of a true dock. The Daedalus was likewise repairing its engines and with Hermiods disgruntled help Colonel Caldwell was confident he could bring one ship back with him on the next supply mission, presumably the more Valuable Excalibur with the Titans and the Whitestar waiting for the second and third trips. It at least gave Ivanova and her crew some time to relax and some of the Earth Force Marines planetside had asked for a chance to travel through the Stargate on an offworld mission.
As soon as they arrived galen had quietly made his way to the Excalibur bridge, taking a moments joy in surprising the crew with his sudden presence. While very weakened by practicing the spell of destruction on such a scale he showed little of the fatigue, and with his physical self refreshed by spending time within the sanctum of his ship he could once more walk among people. Though he wouldn't be doing much casting for a while.
He had been rather excited about visiting this place and took his ship down as soon as was practical, announcing his intentions to the staff and being given permission to look around the City on his own. If he needed help they would do what they can between damage limitation.
"Ah." The quick spoken tone of Rodney McKay entered the room. "I see you found it, took us a while to pin point this place."
"It helps if you can read the ancient language." Galen answered. "This city is surprisingly well sign posted."
"Well I suppose if you are fluent in six million forms of communication everything is readable." McKay huffed.
Galen smiled and extended his hand palm up, with a flash a data crystal appeared on it. "This is all I have on their language. I doubt it is complete, and the grammar may be incorrect, but it should help you translate any documents you may find written by the Ancients."
McKay eagerly grabbed the crystal. "You are kidding me? We've had our top men working on this for years! You do it overnight!"
"Well, I can't take all the credit. That should go to my ship, it has a rather impressive computer that did all the hard work." Galen did not elaborate on the fact that it was Shadow technology, an artificially created organic computer core more like a living brain than a machine. "Consider it a gift, a sharing of information."
"Speaking of, I'm sure you're interested in checking this place out."
"More than you can imagine." Galen smiled cheerily. "I assume it draws a great deal of power?"
"Yeah, you could say that." McKay glanced at the room. "Pity really, I could spend weeks in here just looking at stuff. But after your help I'm sure Doctor Weir would allocate you some time here."
"I wouldn't be long." The Mage lowered his hood. "Glad you could join us Matthew, Captain Ivanova, oh, and Major Shepherd."
Gideon was not surprised Galen judged their entry into the room so precisely, but the other two members of the group exchanged a quick glance. Ivanova knew of technomages and figured that Galen had some type of in built sensor system, Shepherd just felt a little creeped out.
"Well here we are." Gideon took the lead. "Can I ask why you wanted us here when you switched this place on?"
"Well it promises to be quite a show for one thing." Galen grinned. "And I suspect we may find a great many valuable things in the database, especially in the medical section. I can send on what we find to Doctor Chambers, and then on to Earth."
"But you also wanted us here." Shepherd gestured at McKay.
"I thought after spending time here you might be interested in finding one or two secrets." McKay guffawed rather enthusiastically. "Well you know, we have only been trying to figure it out for the last year or so. We might find it just a little interesting."
"Rodney, dial down on the coffee next time." Shepherd commented. "I've arranged for about an hours worth of time from one of the Naquadah reactors, is that enough?"
"Oh don't worry about that." Galen waved and bent down, opening a panel on the floor. "This is where a ZPM would go?"
"Well yes, if we could spare one." McKay said. "But the room is also wired up to the main power grid."
Galen took his staff and with a whisper placed it into the ZPM receiver. With a slight crackle the room powered up and sprung into bright illumination. "There, that should do it. My staff is receiving power directly from my ship, should give us all we need."
"What, since when?" McKay demanded. "How much power?"
"Enough for my needs." Galen replied. "Which is as much or as little as the situation demands. A Wizard never has too much of anything, or too little."
"Sure thing Gandalf, but if that thing can power our shields I'll be testy you didn't mention it earlier." McKay grumbled, then looked up at the holographic projections. A few simple spheres floated overhead as Galen sat in the chair.
"Don't you need Gene therapy or something to work that?" Gideon asked.
"Oh that shouldn't be a problem." Replied the cheery technomage. "Now, let's start with medical shall we? How about nano virus records?"
The lights danced and coalesced high above the chair, it was an extraordinary display with none of the projection lines or wavyness that Earth Alliance or even Minbari holograms suffered from. Alien text and symbols ran through the air swiftly passing from one wall to another as if they were spectres creeping through the walls of an abandoned church.
"You do need the Ancient genes to work this though, right?" Captain Gideon asked quietly.
"Yes, yes you do." McKay answered. "It was sort of a defence mechanism to prevent Ancient technology being used by others. Now luckily there are certain humans where the line of descent is strong enough that they have a similar genetic make up to the Ancients themselves."
"Alright." Gideon nodded slowly, assimilating the information. "So why can Galen do it?"
"He must have the ancient gene, which means somewhere in the past his ancestors were the same Ancients who built this place." McKay explained. "Probably that gate too."
"Speaking of." Galen raised his voice. "There is a mention of it here."
"What, really?" Ivanova stepped closer. "What does it say?"
"A great experiment, only partially successful." Galen recited. "It was supposed to be an instrument of time travel, but instead it opened into a parallel world. Hmm, apparently they had a better method of visiting parallel universes, some sort of mirror, so they didn't build anymore."
"Yeah, I saw that once at Area 51." McKay smiled fondly. "But they wouldn't let me touch it, the big men in black suits manhandled me away."
The lights moved and danced until they stabilised into the form of a familiar spiral galaxy, some stars glowed blue, green and red with legends attached.
"Is that the Milky Way?" Gideon asked.
"Yes." Both McKay and Galen replied together.
"That would be Earth." Ivanova pointed to the blue world.
"So what are the other two?" Shepherd asked. "Goa'uld worlds?"
"On the contrary." Galen examined the image in pure wonder, it was a mystery building before his eyes. "That is Z'Ha'Dum, homeworld of the Shadows."
"Holy…" Ivanova gasped. "That's our galaxy?"
"How?" Gideon added. "Did these Ancients explore our galaxy? Why haven't we ever heard of this before?"
"I don't know." Galen replied. "But this green world is deep in unexplored space, behind sector 912."
"Vorlon space." Ivanova said quietly. "We still haven't been able to pass the borders, they still have automated systems guarding their space."
"But it looks like the Ancients mapped it out." McKay remarked. "Well that's gotta be pretty good."
"Based on the locations, this is the galaxy as it appeared about a million years ago, maybe five million years ago." Galen remarked. "At the height of the First Ones power. Look here, the orange world, Sigma 957. I assume these other marked planets are other major systems relating to the ancients."
"IPX would murder for this map." Gideon said.
"And that's a fact." Ivanova agreed. "Earth Force Black Ops works through them, with respect Captain I think we should disclose this map only to President Sheridan."
Gideon nodded, he'd seen enough of the seedy side of the Alliance to have some healthy caution. "Agreed. Galen, can you store this somewhere?"
"I shall keep it on my ship, it will be safe there."
"This is potentially huge." Ivanova mentioned. "Anything with information on the First Ones is eagerly sought after by all the governments back home. And by Eager I mean clawing desperation."
"We need to keep the extent of the database absolutely secret, the ISA controls the gate in name but we can't gurantee a rogue group won't try and hold the SGC to ransom with warships to get this information." Gideon warned.
"Nice friends you got out there." Shepherd grimaced. "Guess self interest is just the same everywhere."
"You're not wrong." Galen nodded. "Now, Nano virus…"
Infirmiry
Captain Thorne sat on the edge of the admittedly comfy bed and sighed while Doctor Beckett frowned and mumbled as he went over her test results. She had endured a fairly close encounter with a Wraith and taking a nasty couple of hits in the process, but as far as she was considered she was fit and ready for duty. She'd suffered much worse in the past. Much worse.
"Doctor, I do have duties to attend to." She repeated for the fifth time.
"I am sure you do Captain." The Scotsman replied. "But until I'm sure you are healthy you'll have to stay here, at least for a few more minutes."
She huffed and went back to examining the rather plain room, there were two other occupants including a Lieutenant Ford who had also been attacked by a Wraith and was being checked out. Casualties among the defenders had been fairly light, the battle had been ended before a real assault could take place and the few landing parties had been rapidly dealt with once the orbiting ships were destroyed. With Atlantis now apparently safe there was talk of heading back home and Thorne for one was eager to get home. Killing Wraith was fine, but all things being equal she'd rather be slaughtering Drakh.
"So," Carson began. "I understand you're telepathic."
Thorne brought her attention back to the present. "Yes doctor."
"So you could read my mind?"
"If I wanted to yes, but there are rules and laws that prevent unauthorised scans."
The man shook his head and chuckled. "This has to be an amazing breakthrough in medical science, the idea that Parapsychology was correct and ESP is a natural phenomenom."
"It isn't." Thorne said. "At least not in humans, it's the result of an advanced alien race genetically tampering with us."
"Really? Why?"
"To make us obedient little foot soldiers in their wars, happily a fate we avoided." Thorne answered. "But it's raised a lot of questions. We know what we were made for, we know our purpose in the universe, we just don't have it anymore. Gets confusing sometimes but not for me."
"You have a purpose?"
She nodded. "Came with the uniform."
The doors swished open allowing a pair of American Marines in dressed in their distinctive digital pattern uniforms. They made their way over to a medical bed and started up a conversation with it's occupant, Captain Thorne instantly recognizing one of the new soldiers.
"Doctor, who is that Sergeant? Have you seen him here before?"
Beckett looked over at the man. "No, he looks like he came through the gate with your team."
"There was something odd about him, he took a Wraith in hand to hand."
"He can't have done, Wraith are too strong for normal humans."
"Which is my point dear doctor, I know what I saw and I think you should try some tests on him. He might not be as friendly as he seems."
The Sergeant laughed with the man in the bed, then left him talking to the other soldier and stepped up to see Doctor Beckett still stood beside the Earth Force Captain.
"Doc, can you tell me if Private Harris is in good shape? He looks okay."
"Sure, Sergeant…?"
"Peters." He answered. "Marine Corps."
"Well Sergeant your man Harris should be up and fighting again in a couple of days, he took a shrapnel wound to the leg but its healing just fine. You can thank our Earth Force friends for the quick recovery time, they have a way of stimulating accelerated tissue repair."
"I'll do that." Peters nodded to Thorne.
"Excuse me, I better check on Lieutenant Fords blood test." Carson said and scurried away leaving Peters and Thorne alone.
"So I should say I'm glad you guys shared your medical tech." Peters offered. "And those gunships, they're pretty cool."
"There's no easy way to say this." Thorne stated. "What the hell are you?"
"Staff Sergeant William Peters, United States Marine Corps."
"Don't feed me that, you're hiding something." Thorne snapped. "No human can stop a Wraith without some heavy weapons on their side."
"I guess that makes me special, Ma'am."
"I am in my rights to scan you." Thorne warned. "You could be a direct threat to this city and this mission."
The conversation was interrupted by a laugh from the distance. They turned to see Ford get up out of bed. "That's crazy." He announced.
"Will you please sit down.." Carson said. "I need to run a lot more tests."
"I am not a Wraith!" he exclaimed.
"No, no you aren't but you do have some enzymes in your blood that need investigating."
"I've never felt better doc!" Ford grinned. "I'm fine!"
"You're in a hypermetabolic state, your body is running on a chemical high." Carson warned. "If you do not rest you'll burn out, go into a coma and die. Now lay down, I need to administer a sedative."
"You're not going to stick a needle in me." Ford lowered his voice threateningly.
"Lieutenant, in my sick bay I do what I need to do to save lives. Now sit down and take a rest."
Ford slapped the syringe out of Carson's hand and pushed him back. "I know, why don't you take a rest instead? I've got work to do."
"Lieutenant, using my authority as chief medical…"
Ford grabbed the Doctor and threw him to one side, the Scot crashing down hard amid a shelf of glass jars. Two Marines moved fast to restrain Ford but the young officer quickly knocked them down and threw them out of his way with remarkable strength.
Thorne stood up with a focused expression. "Another super strong man." She glanced at Peters. "At least we know this one is hostile."
"What are you going to do?"
"I'm gonna mind-frag the son of a bitch, what do you think?"
"Wait, let me try it." Peters said. "We don't have to kill him."
"Look whoever you are, best way to stop a threat is to stop it dead." The Captain answered.
"He's one of us, he needs help not an execution. I can handle this, and if he kills me then you can toast his brain."
Peters moved quickly towards Ford who was making for the door.
"Men, always gotta do it the hard way." Thorne sighed in resignation.
"Lieutenant, sir." Peters blocked his path. "You're going to have to stop."
"Out of my way!" Ford reached out but found his hand caught in a solid grip by the Sergeant.
"Right now sir, or she's going to melt your brain out through your ears." He gestured at Thorne who was staring intensely at the scene.
"I knew this was a lie! Alternate planet Earth? That's a pile of crap!" Ford pulled away. "You want Atlantis! You'll kill us all to get it!"
He threw a punch at Peters, who rapidly tilted his head so the fist passed by touching just thin air. The Sergeant moved fast, stepping back and avoiding a follow up kick by the increasingly psychotic officer.
"Captain Thorne," Peters called as he sidestepped another strike. "As ranking officer, permission to restrain Lieutenant Ford."
"Go ahead." She remained sat on the bed with her arms folded. "Have fun, beat up a junior officer."
Despite the situation Peters wanted to do this by the book, something ingrained in his sense of responsibility objected to just outright punching an officer. Now though, with permission from a senior commander, he was free to take action.
He blocked a punch from Ford and twisted the officers arm around, putting a jab of his own into Fords side with a sharp push of speed. The man buckled under the strong attack but did not give way, kicking back and forcing Peters to give some distance. Ford countered with a quick combination attack of punches and kicks, all of which Peters avoided or blocked. Ford was using his standard hand to hand training, techniques Peters would be very familiar with as a fellow Marine, but with far greater strength and speed than usual.
"Don't make me hurt you Sergeant!" Ford half yelled, losing control of his faculties. "Can't you see what's happening? Am I the only one who's going to do something?"
With an inward sigh Peters accepted negotiation wasn't going to work, neither was fighting defensively. If he couldn't bring Ford down he'd get himself killed, either by Captain Thorne or gunned down by his own men. That was no way to go for any officer.
Peters lashed out without warning, the speedy jab from his right fist slamming hard into Ford's jaw. With a slight yelp of surprise he backed up left himself open to three more sledgehammer like impacts from the unusually fast and strong NCO. It didn't last, and as Peters made a second drive aimed at pushing Ford against a wall the officer made his move.
He ducked under the swing and threw an uppercut at Peters catching him by surprise. Ford had no idea how he was able to move this quickly, a little part of his brain put it down to adrenalin but mostly he didn't care. In fact he was beginning to really enjoy it. He grabbed the Sergeant and hauled him off his feet, throwing him down hard on the ground with a thud that shook the table beside Thorne several feet away. He drove his fist down but Peters rolled quickly away and Ford crunched his knuckles into the cold floor instead.
Then it was Ford's turn to be on the receiving end. Peters snapped a scissor kick from the floor launching the officer a couple of feet through the air and dropping him awkwardly to the ground. Ford scrambled quickly to his feet but Peters was already up with surprising dexterity and pressing his advantage, curving a booted heel into Fords chest and sending him back into a bed with a wince of pain. The Lieutenant felt cold steel at his fingers and whipped around a silvery round plate scattering the glass vials that had been on it across the floor. He raised it like a shield and intercepted a punch from Peters, the steel plate actually bending in the middle as the blow landed. The impact must have hurt the Sergeant as he let up for a moment, long enough for Ford to throw the plate at him and find some open space to fight from.
"Sergeant?" Thorne prompted.
"No Captain, not yet." Peters gathered himself and circled towards Ford. "Just a little more time."
"You aren't going to stop me." Ford grinned "No way, just no way."
Peters didn't say another word, instead he just lashed out with a left hook. Ford responded before realising it was a feint, and the real danger was a jab coming from the right. He turned his head away but not fast enough to totally avoid the attack and felt the strike ringing inside his skull. His face was already reddening as blood vessels protested the attack and he was going to have some nasty bruising, but in his mind he didn't care. Sergeant Peters had proven himself an enemy and the immense and ever growing rage within ordered him to destroy the threat, to kill his fellow Marine.
The Lieutenant swept his legs around in a risky attack aimed at Peters knees, striking one and causing the Sergeants leg to buckle. Using the opportunity Ford struck the off balance man three times quickly to further disorientate him before rushing around behind the beleaguered Sergeant with uncommon speed and then lock his arm around Peters throat from behind. Then he started tightening the hold on Peter's neck.
"You should have just got out of my way!" Ford hissed. "You won't take Atlantis, not you, not the Wraith, nobody!"
Captain Thorne had moved from her bed and now stood before the Lieutenant, looking suddenly very serious. Her cold blue eyes focused completely on the out of control officer.
"Lieutenant, I am directly ordering you to let Sergeant Peters go."
Ford scoffed. "Like hell, you're not one of us, you're as bad as he is!"
"Last chance." Thorne warned. "I don't want to do this, but I will kill you if you do not surrender."
Ford ignored her and kept tightening his arm around the Sergeant's throat. Thorne sighed slightly and began to gather her thoughts for what the Psi Corps had cheerfully called 'Mind Ripping' a very dangerous and difficult skill to master.
"No!" Peters croaked. "Wait!"
With all his strength he pushed at Fords arm, the Lieutenants enhanced strength held firm for a long moment, but then began to give way. Peters opened up enough space to take a deep breath as Ford snarled and tried to force his arm back around the Sergeants throat. His limbs were shaking with the exertion, but Peters managed to let go with his right arm and jab his elbow back with all the force he could muster into Ford's chest. The Lieutenant shuddered like a bolt of electricity had gone through his body and loosened his grip enough to give Peters space to move. He elbowed the Lieteneant a second time, now able to put more strength to it, and then followed with a third and a fourth driving the air from Ford's lungs.
Finally the winded Lieutenant loosened his grip enough fro Peters to act. He kept hold of Ford's right arm and dropped his shoulder, pulling Ford up and throwing him over his back and dropping the officer hard to the floor in dazed confusion. He kept hold of the arm and pulled it taught before placing his boot on Ford's own neck and applying pressure. All he had to do was pull that arm and apply a little more pressure with his foot, and Ford would be a dead man.
"Sergeant." Thorne's voice was like a whisper heard dimly through the blood pumping furiously through his ears. "Sergeant Peters." She tried again. "William?"
It had been a long time since anyone had bothered using his first name, at least when it wasn't shortened to Bill. His eyes blinked and he looked up at the raven haired officer like he was waking from a deep sleep.
"It's done Sergeant." She continued in a perfectly measured voice. "Let me put some cuffs on him, just keep him steady."
Peters did just that, allowing Thorne to put three separate sets of hand cuffs on the dazed Lieutenant before Peters finally hauled him to his feet, the hot convictions of the fight cooling and wearing off, giving way to clearer senses. While he lifted Ford onto a bed Captain Thorne checked up on the unconscious Doctor and Marines before signalling for help.
"They're going to be fine." The Captain remarked.
"Did the Doctor say something about Wraith enzymes in the Lieutenant's blood?" Peters asked.
"Yes, right before he decided to go wacko." Thorne said with a shrug. "His thoughts were extremely disrupted during the fight, he wasn't in control of himself and had a lot of very primal anger and hate going on there. Let's hope he hasn't inherited some of the Wraith's more vampiric traits."
She reached to the floor and picked up the dented metal plate that Peters had punched into its current state. "So anyway," she began. "I was going to ask you exactly what you are because you clearly aren't a normal human."
"It's a long story."
"Well give me the quick version, the Marines will be here for him and Doctor Beckett is coming around. What are you?"
Seeing no other option Peters told her the truth, and it wasn't what Thorne had been expecting.
