Previously: We picked up an interesting escape pod (last chapter). And Anna's decided she needs to do some physical training if she ever wants to go through a Stargate...
Chapter 109. Heartless.
"What's a good time to run two kilometers?" Anna wondered idly while she packed up her gym bag. Her fingers closed around her radio while she considered it. She never wore it in the gym… it would get sweaty and no one ever needed her anyway.
If she went running, though… what if she got lost?
She wouldn't get lost.
Ronon paused weight lifting only long enough to look at her sideways. "I don't know. Sheppard seems to think the average is one and a half in five minutes." He lifted the weight again. "Seems slow."
"Five minutes." Anna took a deep breath and put her radio in a small pocket in her gym bag. That didn't sound like a very attainable goal. Just one kilometer seemed like a long way for just five minutes when she was running.
"Why?" Ronon asked. "You running two kilometers?"
"If my heart doesn't explode…" Anna sighed and looked toward the door and out to the hall.
She glanced at Ronon, wishing briefly that her legs could be that long. That would probably make a kilometer seem a lot shorter. Or maybe a lot longer, since she imagined that longer legs probably weighed a lot more. But they were also a lot stronger.
It was probably close to the same, anyway.
Ronon watched her out of the corner of his eye, looking amused. "You," he said again. "Running two kilometers."
Anna frowned at him, her heart skipping and shuddering uncomfortably in her chest from embarrassment and anger. "Don't act so surprised. I've been practicing with knives and learning how to shoot guns. I'm in better shape now than I've ever been and I…"
She snapped her lips together and stared into the distance. Almost said something stupid. Something even more embarrassing than Ronon thinking that she didn't actually know how to run.
"I don't think you can't do it," Ronon said with an innocent shrug. "I never thought you were interested."
"I'm interested." Even though she tried not to snap, she didn't think she succeeded.
Ronon didn't seem to notice anyway. And, fortunately, he wasn't one to go probing for motivation when there were punching bags to pummel, weighted bars to lift, and kilometers to run. "Well, good luck. Don't try to do it all at once."
"Thanks. I won't."
Anna went out to the hallway and looked from the right to the left. Her careful measurement of a circuit that ran from the gym here out into one of the piers and back was exactly two kilometers if she managed to run in a straight line in the middle of the hallway. It was also pretty deserted, and she'd done that on purpose, too. For some reason, she didn't want anyone to see her all sweaty and gross.
It didn't make a whole lot of sense when she thought about it, but she wasn't going to measure a new route.
She took off down the hallway, away from the central tower. Almost immediately, her own extremities reacted in violent objection to Anna's intentions.
The corner of the wall enclosing the neighboring volleyball court down the hallway from the gym was further away than it looked, and she couldn't risk Ronon stepping out of the room to see her gasping for breath a few feet away from where she'd started. She hadn't realized that physical strength and agility didn't exactly translate to any kind of endurance the way she hoped it would.
She turned the corner and paused, looking at her feet. "Jsi slabá," she said in disappointment. In English parlance, she added, "A wimp."
It didn't matter if it killed her, she decided. She was going to run two kilometers. Or, at least, travel two kilometers. She may jog, walk, or crawl, but she was going to do it.
She picked up her feet and started again at a lowly pace. It might take her an hour or more to do the route she'd set out to do, but it didn't matter. She had all day. The rest of her life.
A few more Atlantis-sized blocks and her heart felt like it was going to burst. But that was okay. Anna was sure she didn't actually need it that much.
#
"So you're saying that Elizabeth isn't actually Elizabeth when she says she is." Colonel Sheppard apparently recapped everything Rodney said on a regular basis. He was imprecise, but he got the message well enough most of the time.
Rodney sighed impatiently. "I'm saying it's too big a risk."
"If you remember," Radek spoke up, "we talked to Phebus first. She told us Elizabeth was overcome by the effects, presumably to the extent she wasn't able to speak to us first. Wouldn't it have been to Phebus's advantage to let Elizabeth talk first if she could?"
"There was a difference between when Phebus was speaking and when Elizabeth was talking to us," Colonel Sheppard said. He looked around the table, apparently, for someone to agree with him. There might have been general agreement, but it wasn't forthcoming.
And Radek didn't think it relevant.
"I mean, I thought so," Sheppard mumbled.
"Was—"
"We could never be sure," Radek broke in. He glanced at Rodney. He didn't look amused at having been cut off. "Sorry," he offered, but hurried to continue anyway. "Phebus was able to remember your name, Colonel." He glanced at Colonel Caldwell, who nodded slowly as he seemed to be recalling that first encounter. "She seemed able to access Elizabeth's memories as though they were her own."
Colonel Sheppard frowned. "I don't like the sound of that."
"Yeah," McKay scoffed. "Frankly, neither do I."
This was even worse than what happened to Rodney and Cadman. They couldn't retrieve one another's memories like this. On the other hand, it was just as possible that Elizabeth simply provided the information on their names as Phebus needed it… But, according to Phebus, Elizabeth was still "unconscious" at the time. That left Radek with one unpleasant option: Phebus had unremitted access to Elizabeth's mind.
For a private person like Elizabeth… what was that like?
"As I was saying." Rodney glanced at Radek, as though to make sure he wasn't about to be interrupted again. "We can't know if Phebus was letting us talk to Elizabeth or using her knowledge of Elizabeth to fool us. We can't let anyone—especially not Sheppard—rent out brain space to the other alien. In absence of Elizabeth, Sheppard's in charge here, for all intents and purposes."
Everyone was quiet, perhaps letting that sink in. Caldwell seemed to be more concerned with the whole "Sheppard's in charge here" theory. Radek was still worried about Elizabeth. Was she aware of what was happening to her?
Suddenly, Doctor Beckett sighed. "So there's nothing we can do?"
"What do you mean?" Rodney asked.
"For Phebus. Sure, it's possible that she's lying to us and using Elizabeth's body to fool us to get some sort of upper hand—though I don't know what it would be. But it's equally possible she's telling the truth and she just wants to speak to her husband one last time." Doctor Beckett looked around the table for any response, but no one had one immediately. "She's been honest with us so far."
"As far as we know," Rodney pointed out.
"Assuming you're right and her access to Elizabeth's memories give her the ability to act—quite convincingly, might I add—like Elizabeth," Doctor Beckett said, "why would she have introduced herself as Phebus in the first place? Why not pretend to be Elizabeth from the start?"
"Maybe she didn't realize what was happening," Radek suggested. "She had to orient herself to her surroundings and… new body." He frowned. "She seemed to have trouble recalling Colonel Caldwell's name, which might happen if she didn't know precisely what information she was looking for. It's like a library. Phebus isn't familiar with the call numbers in Elizabeth's brain, so it took her longer to find information that would have been available to Elizabeth immediately."
Everyone looked at Radek like he'd just stepped out of the 1800s. Library call numbers? Really?
"Well, I do know she was telling the truth about the time limit," Beckett said. "This 'imprinting' won't last more than a couple of hours. I can't tell much more than that from scans, except that there appears to be two consciousnesses occupying one brain. I can't tell you which is in control, or if there is even only one in control."
"All the more reason to just wait it out," Rodney said. "We know Phebus is there and we don't know what she wants. She knows virtually everything there is to know about Atlantis at this point. We can't give them Sheppard, too."
Colonel Caldwell nodded. "Agreed."
Doctor Beckett sighed again, and shook his head helplessly. "I'm sorry, but this is damned heartless of us." He looked from one face to the next around the table. "What if it were one of us? I know if I were dying and I had one last chance to talk to my loved ones… I would hope you'd give me that opportunity."
"We know you, Carson," Colonel Sheppard mumbled. "I mean, I don't think I'd be immediately willing to let Cadman share my consciousness, but I guess I would if I had to. We don't know Phebus." Sheppard leaned back in his chair when he finished. "Rodney's right. It's too big a risk."
"Then why not someone else?" Doctor Beckett asked. "Someone not in charge of Atlantis, someone who could be replaced for a few hours."
Radek didn't want to mention he'd thought of that, too. That he'd nearly considered volunteering. He rested his chin contemplatively on his knuckles and decided. No. It sounded like some version of hell to let someone use his brain and body for who-knew-what purposes. Everyone around the table seemed to be thinking the same thoughts.
Doctor Beckett took a deep breath and put his hands on the table. "I'll do it."
"Carson," Rodney scolded.
"Rodney," Beckett snapped over whatever Rodney might have said. "Doctor Cole can handle anything in the infirmary for the next few hours. The rest of you may not, but I believe her. If we find out that she was telling the truth and let her consciousness slip away without giving her this chance, what kind of people are we?"
"The kind of people that care about the hundred other people on this city and not letting it fall into control of potential bad guys," Sheppard mumbled, a concerned crease in his brow. "But, yeah, if you're okay with this, then so am I."
A/N: Yeah. I feel like if just one person was standing back in the corner (like Radek would, because he likes the back corner?), like, "Hey, guys, can we not, you know, have aliens inhabit the bodies of all the people in charge?" something like this could have happened.
Should be fun. That's all I'm saying. And this is my story. And I want to have fun.
Thank yous
Bubblea- Thanks for checking out the story, and I'm glad you enjoyed it! I'm glad Anna fits in really well. And... haha, yeah, I'd watch this show, too. x3
Next time: I'm not trying to make you angry. I just want to kill you.
