The short song in this chapter was written by me and the reason it looks like this is because Randy is actually singing in the Ancient's language without realizing it.

Chapter Eighteen

After eating I slipped out of the mess hall while Ronan was distracted by a group of soldiers who had wanted him to fight with them. I was heading back down to the bio lab when I realized I hadn't told anyone about the fertilizer with the growth chemical in it so I decided it would be easier to just hide it. I could have done it without actually walking back to the Greenhouse but I wanted a few minutes to just breathe in the fresh air and let myself think about nothing.

As I walked back over to the Greenhouse taking it slow as I enjoyed the beauty of a night unhindered by the large amounts of noise and smell pollution that was always going on back on Earth. The sound of the waves gently crashing into the city walls drew me like a siren and I couldn't help but glance around, making sure I was alone before I pulled off my shoes, socks and jeans before diving into the somewhat chilly water.

Swimming was one of the many things that I loved to do, the repetitive motion and feeling of being weightless in the water always made me associate it with freedom. Something I had craved desperately since the age of six when the pressure of being Patrick Sheppard's eldest child had begun to close the walls of what had been a cold and restrictive prison around me.

Sighing I turned around and stared up at the water as I floated with the waves, knowing that what I was doing was reckless because mother had drilled it into me and John that we should always tell at least one person if we were going swimming or mountain climbing or hiking. As I started up at the beautiful and mysterious stars that were glimmering in the sky I felt a song appear in my mind along with a hauntingly beautiful melody. I couldn't help but hum the melody and sing the lyrics as they came,

"...beautiful angel

Guardian me from the heavens

light my path

home…

Ebbing and flowing waters

caress me gently

take me to meet

those that wait for me beneath the sea...

As I continued to hum the beautiful tune I heard what seemed to be a deep faint but growing closer echo of my tune. Surprised and curious as well as a little worried I put my legs back under the surface and began to tread the water glazing around for Atlantis I realized to my surprise and dismay I had drifted at least five miles away from the city.

Shifting through the information I knew about the planet Lantea I felt dread creep in as I realized that there was a native people who lived here on Lantea, they just lived deep beneath the water. The fact that the Ancients had built a large and thick immovable wall that encircled Atlantis and kept the waters within the wall free of the ferocious native people and the various large and deadly creatures who lived within the waters as well didn't put my mind at ease.

Obviously someone or something had been trapped on the inside of the wall when the Ancients had closed the wall and abandoned the city 10,000 years earlier. Steeling myself for a possible fight I reminded myself that I now had a power I was telekinetic as all of my fighting abilities would be pretty much useless underwater when I couldn't see. Taking a deep breath I dropped below the surface of the water and felt relief run through me as I saw the creature that was coming towards me echoing the melody I had been humming. It was a Flagisallus a baby if a creature over 10,000 years old could be considered a baby. It's size was enormous and yet from the knowledge I had the size of an adult was at least six times the size of this baby.

"Lost...sad...trapped.." The creature said only slightly surprising me as I realized that the Ancients had actually taught some of the Flagisallus how to speak a little in their language. I was going to try and communicate with it when a loud rumbling call came from the direction of the wall,

"My baby...trapped...help.."

"Oh boy." I whispered to myself forgetting that I was underwater but remembering that fact quickly as the oxygen left my lungs when I spoke. Swimming to the surface quickly I took a minute to breathe while trying to think of what I could do when I had a facepalm moment. I could use my telekinesis to help the baby Flagisallus jump over the wall so it could rejoin it's mother on the other side. Taking a deep breath I dove back down and speaking as clearly as I could underwater I managed to get the baby to understand what it should do.

Lifting the baby far enough out of the water to get it over the large and thick wall was the last thing I remembered doing as I came to realize that using my telekinesis had at least one side effect which was draining my energy levels. My entire body felt like jelly and I was helpless to do anything but float completely at mercy of the water as I fell into an unconscious state.

"RANDY!"

"RANDY SHEPPARD!"

"Randy?"

Hearing several voices hollering my name I slowly woke up and yawned, stretching quickly before bringing my hands up to rub my heavy eyes only to flinch as my pruny wet hands touched my face dripping salty water into my eyes.

Jerking upright I let out a very loud and pained yelp as my entire body came into full contact with the metallic side of Atlantis which I was very happy to see even as I rubbed my now bleeding nose. As the circulation began to improve in my body I began to shiver like crazy as my body began attempting to warm itself. Reaching out slowly I managed to slip my arms around the closest piece of Atlantis and I waited for the opportune time to expend the little energy I had into a loud noise. I was very happy to hear John's voice holler above the noise,

"Everybody quiet! I think I heard something!"

As the noise of people hollering my name faded I took a deep breath and yelled as loudly as I could,

"OVER HERE! I'M FREEZING!"

That was all the energy I had left and my hold on Atlantis collapsed and I fell backwards into a dead-man's float once again as I waited to be found my eyes began to close again as the darkness once again beckoned I drifted off with the sound of footsteps racing in my direction and the sound of faint splash before everything went black.

Waking up again was extremely painful all of my limbs felt like jelly and yet they simultaneously felt like they weighed a ton each and the thought of having to move them felt like a waste of precious energy but the rich smell of coffee that was teasing my nose coaxed me to attempt it.

"See I told you she would wake up for coffee." John's voice said from close by.

"It is fortunate that she brought the book that explained how to make it from the bean with her." Teyla's voice said from the same direction as John's.

The knowledge that the coffee was actually real perked me up and I struggled even harder against the darkness that wanted to keep me asleep causing me to finally open my eyes.

"Would you look at that, our patient's awake." Doc Beckett's Scottish brogue said from my right as his face slowly swam into view.

Blinking the world around me grew sharper into focus and I saw the cup of steaming coffee being held in John's hand and my body moved on it's own as it shot into an upright position, my suddenly strong hands grabbing the cup out of John's grasp and bringing it to my face.

Taking a deep sniff of the beautiful dark liquid I felt a tear escape my eyes at the pure joy of having my favorite caffeine addiction once again in the palm of my hand. Taking a small sip I relished the heat on my tongue and the taste actually sent shivers down my spine as I felt fully alive.

"What were you thinking going swimming alone?" John demanded bringing me back to reality.

"I would have been fine if the baby Flagisallus wouldn't have needed help in getting over the wall." I said pouting as I defended my actions which I knew were a little reckless but honestly wouldn't have been a problem if I hadn't used my telekinesis to lift the Flagisallus over the twenty foot thick wall that had separated it from its mother and pod.

"The baby what?" Doctor Weir's voice said, causing me to glance down to the foot of my bed and discover I was being watched by Ronan, Rodney, Doctor Weir, a soldier as well as Doctor Beckett, two nurses and John and Teyla.

"Flagisallus. They're basically an extremely large, very smart fish that look like whales from back on Earth. The baby that I helped out was by my best estimation about 500 to 600 tons and since they live deep underwater the baby wasn't able to move too well the closer it got to the surface of the water. Basically I expended way too much energy in lifting it over the wall which is why I fainted in the water. That reminds me! The whole reason I was back out there last night is because I was going to hide the fertilizer to make sure that it wasn't used on the plants again in case I forgot to tell anyone about it. The Ancients put a chemical in it that causes the crop to increase it's yield but if it's used more then once on the same crop it will actually cause the crop to die." I said taking another slow sip of the precious coffee.

"I am sorry about worrying you all." I added on after swallowing realizing that even though I did feel my actions were defendable it could have just been the ego of the Ancient whose memory I now carried as my own and no matter what I did NOT want to ever be as prideful as her.

"Your actions could have put the whole of Atlantis at risk." Doctor Weir said in a way that sounding to much like our judgmental step-mother to me which made me prickle and bite my tongue to keep from telling her what I thought of her and her judgmental sounding criticism.

Taking a slow deep breath I tried to focus on the coffee that I was holding and the joy that just the smell of it brought me which helped me relax a bit.

"My actions, no matter how much you may not like them, are a thing of the past and cannot be changed so there is no point in trying. I have already apologized and I do mean it, I am sorry for how my actions affected all of you. What happened was not something I went out looking for and I will try to be more careful in the future however right now, as lovely as this coffee is and as much as I would like to just spend the day in bed I have work that I need to get started on so I will be in the bio lab should any of you wish to come find me." I said before giving them all a nod and transporting myself to the bio lab.