DISCLAIMER – Stargate: Atlantis is not my property. The concept and characters are the intellectual property of MGM/UA and associates. I have not received compensation in any form, from any source, for the creation of this story. I am doing this solely for fun and enjoyment, not profit.

The song "Daddy Sang Bass" was written by Carl Perkins and recorded by Johnny Cash in 1968. Obviously, it is not my intellectual property, either. I only wish it was.

RATING – Story rated T. Yes, definitely a T-rated piece.

ARCHIVE – You have my permission to archive this story if you'd like. All I ask is that you let me know where it is being archived. Thanks.

SPOILERS – Anything up to the end of Season 2 is fair game. There are references to "Before I Sleep" and "Aurora" in this chapter.

A/N – Once again, I really need to say a tremendously huge thank you to all who commented and replied on Chapter 21. I appreciate the feedback so much, and am very encouraged by it. I love having fans! You guys are great!

Chapter 22 is another short one, but I wanted to end it in a particular way, so that's why it's not as long as it might otherwise have been. Besides, shorter chapters equal more frequent updates, so it's a win-win situation, right? I hope you all like Chapter 22.

I still have no beta reader. Blame any mistakes on me. That is all.


The Song Of Silent Rivers

22. Unravelling The Strands

John tried to keep an eye on Radek and Rodney as the group walked away from the clearing filled with bones. He was a little worried about the two scientists, especially Rodney, who seemed not to have recovered his equilibrium as quickly as Radek. The Canadian walked along beside Ronon, pale and subdued and looking haunted.

Radek, who was easily keeping pace with Teyla, looked haunted too, but in a different way than Rodney. John surmised the troubled expression on Radek's face was one that belonged to a soldier who had seen far more destruction and violence than he could handle, someone who had hoped against hope that he could leave the memories of fear and oppression behind him, buried in some obscure corner of his mind. John understood that. He'd seen war and death enough to torment his dreams for a lifetime, and he often wished he could forget, too. Afghanistan. John would remember that place, perhaps not all the time, but the nightmares would creep up on him when he was sleeping and vulnerable.

John made himself think of something else. Now was not the time to dwell on history, at least not the history of Earth. Planet M4X-382 had a story of its own that needed attention, so John attempted to concentrate on that instead.

So, the Wraith had come to this world. John guessed they'd been here at least twice, because Shadow had told Radek the Wraith had come on the day of her birth; the day of her creation, John had to assume now. Shadow had said the Elders believed the coincidence of her arrival and the arrival of the Wraith had been an evil sign. For someone to have related this to Shadow, several of the people had to have survived the first Wraith attack. Evidently, the majority of them had not lived through the second one. The bones in the clearing spoke eloquently of that.

John began to wonder if, aside from Shadow, there had been any other survivors of the second attack at all. They hadn't found anyone else alive so far, nor had they seen any signs of life. The horrible notion occurred to John that perhaps Shadow had been the only one to escape the culling. If that was true, she had been utterly alone on this world since it had happened.

How long ago had that second Wraith attack occurred? The condition of the remains told John it hadn't been recently. The process of decay had long since taken away all traces of flesh and tissue from the forsaken bones. Years. It had to have been years since the Wraith had culled the people of this world. Shadow couldn't be any older than twenty, now, so she'd probably been just a child when her people had been killed. John's guts twisted themselves in knots at the idea of Shadow growing up by herself in this forest full of predators and hazards and spirits of the dead.

God, he didn't want to think about that, either. John had a sudden urge to put his hands to his ears and squeeze his eyes shut in a vain and childlike attempt to get away from the mental anguish he was creating for himself. He compulsively repeated the lyrics to a Johnny Cash song over and over in his head, trying to purge all the terrible stuff from his mind. Daddy sang bass, Mama sang tenor…singin' seems to help a troubled soul…

The song helped a little. John discovered he couldn't recall anything else when he concentrated on remembering all the words.

Only a few more minutes of walking brought the Ancient structure into view. John had never been so relieved to get to a place in his whole life. The Ancient building was made of stone that was a soft shade of grey. It seemed pure and clean and inviting to John, even though he had no inkling of what lay beyond its walls. He resisted the impulse to quicken his pace. He wondered if the machinery inside would recognize him and welcome him the way Atlantis did. He hoped so. He needed to find something responsive and familiar on this forbidding world.

The door of the Ancient building opened for John when he touched it. Nobody seemed surprised at that, and they all followed him in without comment. The place was dark inside, but when John placed his hand on the cool, smooth wall and thought about light, the room in which they were standing became illuminated. A little of the tension started to leave John's body in response to his restored sense of order and control. It was good to have things go the way they were supposed to. He thanked the Ancients and whatever cosmic powers had blessed him with the ATA gene.

Taking a deep, calming breath, John stepped further into the room and let his eyes take in the visual panorama. It was evident to him that the place had been a research facility. The room in which he and his team stood closely resembled some of the labs in Atlantis. There were devices of all descriptions. Doorways led away into other rooms that held, presumably, more interesting objects.

John was thankful to notice that his two scientist friends had perked up a little at the sight of all the Ancient technology just within their reach. That was a good sign. John allowed himself a little smile at the looks Rodney and Radek exchanged with each other. John guessed if it hadn't been for the awful discoveries they'd made earlier, those two would be acting just like kids in a candy store about now. He'd probably have been forced to remind them to behave. He could imagine himself warning Rodney not to touch anything that looked like it could hurt him and admonishing Radek not to take apart anything he was uncertain of being able to put back together again. John was tempted to say those things now, but he thought better of it. In the scientists' current state of mind, they might not take it very well.

He made eye contact with each of his team members in turn. "Well, here we are," he said, with considerably more false cheer than they needed or deserved to hear. "Let's see what we can find. I guess I don't need to remind you all to be careful, but I'm going to do it anyway. Everybody keep your eyes and ears open."

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-

Rodney would have been excited if his brain hadn't already been on emotional overload.

He would never admit it to anyone in a million years, but even his amazing mind had Its limitations. There was only so much he could see and hear and feel in the run of a day and still be able to cope with it all, and everything he'd observed on this godforsaken planet so far had been nearly too much. Some part of him wanted to go through the Ancient laboratory and explore, but the greater part of him just wanted to get the hell out of there and go back to Atlantis. He was almost afraid to look beyond the main room. He didn't want to know what he might find.

He resigned himself to it, though. He was one of the two members of their group with the ATA gene. He could turn the lights on and get things to function. That meant he would have to lead someone else around the structure. Sheppard would doubtless take the remaining team members with him.

Vowing not to be utterly defeated by the situation, Rodney decided that if he had to guide a non-carrier of the ATA gene around, he might as well have somebody who understood what the hell he was talking about. He was getting tired of the taciturn Ronon, impatient with the big man's apparent lack of interest in anything Rodney found fascinating. Rodney crooked a finger in Radek's direction.

"Come on, Zelenka," he said. He tried to inject some bravado into his voice. "Maybe we'll find that ZPM. It'll be free and clear if we do. I'm guessing nobody around here is going to need it any more."

Radek gave him a dubious look, and Rodney tried to guess whether his Czech friend doubted their chances of finding a zero point module or whether Radek just didn't want to go exploring with him. Finally, Radek said quietly, "Okay."

"I will come with you as well," said Teyla.

The Athosian woman had been sticking to Radek like industrial grade adhesive ever since they'd found those bones in the clearing. Normally, Rodney would have wondered what was up with that, but now he barely gave it a passing thought. He was incredibly sorry he'd recalled the bones again. That was something he'd been trying actively to forget.

He glanced at Teyla. "All right, then. If you insist on following us, I can hardly stop you, can I?"

John cut in at that point. "I insist on her going with you, McKay."

Masking his impatience and his tattered nerves was proving harder than Rodney had anticipated, especially with John putting in his two cents. It wasn't that Rodney resented John's authority. It was only that he sometimes grew frustrated with the way John assumed he was incapable of making common-sense decisions. He huffed audibly and concluded attempting to fake civility was too great a waste of energy.

"Oh, lucky me," Rodney said. "I get to have the Warrior Princess as my own personal bodyguard. You have no idea how safe I feel now."

Teyla's tone was mild. "I do not recall anyone saying I was your bodyguard, Dr. McKay," she said.

"Don't tell me. You're Zelenka's bodyguard, then."

"If he wishes me to be," Teyla said, still infuriatingly calm. "As you have stated many times, Dr. McKay, you are quite capable of looking after yourself and do not need 'baby sitting'. I should point out I am merely accompanying you to observe, but I will stay with Dr. Zelenka if you wish me to keep out of your way."

"You're coming along to observe, huh? Observe what?" Rodney said. "Do you think you can contribute anything useful?"

"Rodney, please," Radek said. "This is not the time or place for your usual behaviour. Teyla knows what we are looking for."

"How can she know what we're looking for?" Rodney snapped. "We don't even know what we're looking for, Radek. Well, of course there's the ZPM, but we don't even know if there's actually one here. If there's no ZPM then we don't really know what else we're looking for, do we?"

"Rodney."

"What?"

"You are making no sense," Radek said. "Please, it will help if you stop talking until you have something to say."

"You—" Rodney began, incensed at having been interrupted and told to be quiet. "You miserable little man. I'll—"

"McKay!" John interjected. "What did I tell you earlier about picking on people?"

"They started it!" Rodney said.

"Just go," said John.

Teyla put her hand on Radek's forearm. "Come on," she said. "Dr. McKay can join us when he is ready."

For a moment, Rodney stood glaring at them, but then he realized they were moving in the direction of one of the doors, and they really did intend to start exploring without him. He hurried to catch up, calling out, "Hey! Wait for me!"

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-

Rodney's presence made the lights come on.

Radek never ceased to be awestruck by the power the Ancient gene gave to the people fortunate enough to have it. He thought of Colonel Sheppard being able to fly the 'jumpers, Carson being able to operate the Chair, and Shadow using her little pendant to cloak herself. It was nothing short of amazing, and Radek envied all those people a little for their abilities.

He thought he could understand why someone would be interested in genetically engineering a child with the ATA gene. If it were possible to create a male and a female child who possessed the gene, there was a high possibility they would grow up and produce children of their own who were also gifted with it. Theoretically, it might be possible to generate a small population of ATA-gene enhanced humans. The implications of that were enormously frightening and fascinating all at once.

Radek supposed the real question was one of motivation. If the person doing the creating wanted to make humans capable of operating Ancient devices and weapons to help defend them against the Wraith or any other predatory enemies, one might consider his purpose noble. Of course, for the action to be pure, the creator would have to possess no ulterior motives. That, in Radek's experience, was an exceptional condition indeed. People rarely did things out of untainted altruism. There had to be something to gain in return for their effort in most cases.

Radek couldn't even begin to guess what Shadow's creator had hoped to gain. Perhaps he'd only wanted a gifted daughter, but Radek sensed it had been far more than that. He had the idea Shadow represented something more to her so-called father than his ideal child. Shadow had been used, whether she herself realized it or not. Radek wished he knew the how and why of it all. He wanted to get to the bottom of the mystery, because he wanted to make sure it didn't happen to any more innocents like Shadow.

He thought he was beginning to comprehend the ethical dilemma faced by scientists on his own world when it came to questions of human cloning and genetic engineering. There was too much blurring of the space between philanthropy and malevolence, too many shades of possibility between helping and hurting. The potential for disaster was just too high.

Radek observed his surroundings as he and Rodney and Teyla entered the new room. Clearly there had been experiments taking place here. One side of the room was dominated by a big lab table not unlike his workspace in Atlantis. Radek had found his own work table just the right size for spreading out large blueprints and diagrams. The owner of this table had been using it for something else entirely. Radek noticed a lot of vials and test tubes, and a machine that resembled a microscope. There were other machines, too, which he could not immediately identify but which he knew were not of Ancient design.

What caught his eye more than the machines were the books. Some of them were thick texts, bound in the craftsmanship of a technologically superior world. Others were notebooks, lab journals that appeared uncannily similar to the ones Radek and Rodney and their colleagues often used. Radek wanted to look at them, to see what might be written inside. He crossed the room and approached the wide lab table with as much caution as he'd approach a fellow scientist's work in Atlantis. He was about to lift one of the notebooks from the tabletop when he heard Teyla's voice call out from behind him.

"Dr. Zelenka, I think you should see this," Teyla said. "So should you, Dr, McKay."

Radek turned around to find out what Teyla wanted him to look at. She was standing at the opposite end of the room from him. It took him only a few seconds to hurry over to her.

She was standing by a row of capsules that each measured about two metres in length. Their tops were transparent and there were controls on the ends of them. Radek remembered Rodney telling him about having found pods similar to these on the Ancient ship Aurora. Another one had been discovered in Atlantis with an alternate version of Elizabeth inside, Radek knew.

Radek counted six capsules here. He held his breath as he stepped up close and peered through the transparent panels.

The three nearest him held the forms of children. He guessed they were no older than three or four years. The first two were little girls with golden-brown hair and brown eyes, so identical in their appearance that they surely must have been twins. The third child was a small boy. All three children looked like porcelain dolls, white and perfect and still.

Radek knew they were dead. He felt light-headed with the knowledge, but he didn't experience the same dizziness and impending nausea that he'd had in the clearing full of bones. He realized he was already too numb to react that way at the sight of three more bodies. Maybe he was in shock, he decided. He couldn't stop staring at the beautiful, unmoving faces of the children, and he didn't have the overwhelming reflex to look away this time.

The little boy reminded him of his nephew Zdeněk at that age, with his curly dark hair and wide, dark brown eyes. Thinking of Mirek and Milena's son caused an unexpected hollow feeling in his chest. He looked away from the boy and let his gaze stray back to the twin girls. They might have been little sisters to Shadow. They looked just like her, right down to the dusting of freckles across their cheeks and narrow noses. The hollowness increased to a dull ache. Radek didn't like the sensation, but he was grateful he was still able to feel something.

At last, he managed to get his attention away from the three little bodies. The fourth capsule was empty. Radek looked past it and focussed on the people in the two remaining capsules. A man and a woman, both of whom appeared to be extremely old, rested in their glass coffins side-by-side. The woman's chocolate-brown eyes were open and glassy. Dead. The old man's eyes were closed. He didn't look as pale as the others.

For a moment, Radek believed the man's colouration might be nothing more than a trick of the light. He walked to the end of the row of capsules and rested his hand lightly atop the one that contained the old man.

Radek was peripherally aware of Teyla watching him and of Rodney approaching him from the side. Rodney looked as weakened and emotionally anaesthetized as Radek felt. He stopped next to Radek and gazed down at the old man in the capsule. The Canadian's face scrunched in concentration.

"There's something different…" Rodney began.

"Rodney?" Radek inquired quietly when his friend didn't finish the sentence. "Are you okay? What are you thinking?"

"Move your hand," Rodney said.

Radek obediently lifted his hand from the capsule, and Rodney leaned forward to stare through the transparent surface at the old man's face. Radek watched his friend, and tried to determine what might be going through Rodney's head.

"What is it?" Radek asked at length, when all Rodney did was continue to stare at the man. "Tell me what's wrong, Rodney."

"He's…" Rodney said. Radek could see the flesh of his friend's throat ripple as Rodney swallowed convulsively. When he spoke again, it was in a hoarse near-whisper. "Oh, God… I…I think he's alive, Radek. I think this guy is alive."

TBC
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A/N #2 – Well, what can I say? I love to create that feeling of suspense! I bet you guys can make a few good guesses as to who the old fellow in the capsule might be, though. Well, I promise I won't keep you waiting too long to find out… Please leave me some feedback, cos you know I love it. -hugs you all- I love having an audience!