Time Immemorial
Chapter 7: A Deep Breath
July 16th
1746 Hours
He watched the black bird of prey angle in toward the deck from a balcony several stories above Atlantis' western pier. If it had looked impressive on the ground, it looked surreal in the air. Under the attentive gaze of two hovering Jumpers, its Lacedami pilot expertly bled off speed and softly, beautifully set the ship down. Sheppard would have given anything to fly the thing, if only for five minutes.
"No, you can't keep it," Elizabeth warned next to him.
"You know," John tried anyway, "if you really wanted to get a better understanding of their technology, the best way to do that would be to see their technology in action, first hand. If I just took it around the flagpole I could have it back in two minutes—"
"Nice try, but no. What makes you think you can fly it, anyhow?"
"I can fly anything with wings."
"Uh-huh," Elizabeth dryly, seeing Ford and Bates join them. "How silly of me to forget."
"What did we miss, sir?" Ford asked.
"Nothing," John answered. "They just set down. I give the landing a seven out of ten."
"Whoa," breathed Aiden, seeing the ship for the first time. "Now that's cool. It looks fast."
"It looks dangerous," Sergeant Bates chimed in warily. He watched the ship's door open and three Lacedami disembark. Bates spotted two well-concealed snipers — Corporal Kirkland was one of them - on the Atlantis rooftops covering the newcomers' every move. A team of heavily armed marines escorted the newly arrived guests towards the City's entrance. Bates hated to admit it, but Dr. Weir was actually handling the situation quite well.
Above their heads, the two escort Jumpers peeled off and returned to the Jumper Bay. The sky seemed to sense their departure and began to release the rain it had been holding back. Small droplets of water pattered on the deck at Elizabeth's feet.
"And that's my cue to leave," Elizabeth said, addressing the three military men. "I'm going to make sure our guests receive a proper orientation from our personnel before meeting up with their commander. Gentlemen, I don't have to tell you to be careful."
With a nod, John led Bates and Ford below to the now empty western pier. The black menace stared down its sloping nose at them. As they silently approached in awe, John couldn't help but admire its craftsmanship once more. The engraved Ancient text flowed ornately over its obsidian skin. John reflected how far man had come from the seafaring cultures of ancient Earth.
The three men stood there, admiring the machinery in the light drizzle, before Aiden finally broke the silence. "It looks like a Raven."
Silently cursing his subordinate for ruining the moment, the pilot walked to the aft end of the ship. "We can name it later," he called back. Running his hands along the left side of the body, he found the almost indiscernible seam that marked the edge of the door. Its handle laid flush with the surface. Sheppard exchanged looks with the other two men, silently asking their opinion.
"Go for it, sir," Aiden prompted.
Sheppard doubted that the eager young man had thought through the possibilities of a booby-trapped door, or if the door would even open for him, but they had a job to do. With a determined twist, John disengaged the locking mechanism and pushed the hatch open and into the ship.
Exhaling and allowing himself a small smile of relief, the major motioned for his two fellow expedition members to follow him into the ship's belly.
"I think I'll check over the exterior, Major," Bates said guardedly.
Sheppard shrugged. "Suite yourself, Sergeant. What about you, Ford? Coming in?"
"You bet," the young marine said with a grin. He watched the pilot hoist himself up through the hatch and disappear into the plane's cabin. Several seconds later, the major poked his head out and gave the all clear for Aiden to follow.
Once Aiden was inside, he marveled at how roomy the cabin was. It looked to seat eight persons, four along each wall of the space. It wasn't lavishly adorned, which further added to the perception of spaciousness. Ford spotted storage racks above and below the seats, each currently empty of their usual array of weapons, ammunition and the like. Aiden preferred it that way.
While his 2IC examined the rear cabin, John had barely given it a cursory look before heading up toward the flight deck. The forward aisle way actually sloped down slightly, giving the ship its menacing guise. Once he had reached the cockpit, John marveled at the beauty of its simplicity.
Like the Puddle Jumpers, the cockpit was devoid of any gauges or displays. Two powerful looking yokes sat before the pilot and copilot's chairs. However, John noticed one glaring omission from the design, a trait that set apart this Raven from the PJs: its lack of a DHD. For the Lacedami, though, without regular access to a Gate, perhaps this was no surprise.
Pondering this new thought, John unthinkingly sank into the left hand pilot's chair. Suddenly, the cockpit lights illuminated the walls and bulkheads. He spun around to spot the lights in the rear cabin flickering on as well.
"What did you touch?" he called to Ford.
"Nothing, sir!" the Captain called back, jogging up the short aisle to meet his superior. "It must have been you."
"Me?" John repeated doubtfully. "I don't think so. I didn't do—"
Just then, a virtual HUD appeared on the windscreen before him, in the same spot one might find a PJ's HUD. It currently displayed a schematic of the ship's active systems, namely the lights, and highlighted the user station that had commanded their inputs. Sheppard's chair glowed yellow on the screen.
"Okay, I might have done that."
"I think this thing likes you, sir."
"I don't know about that, but I'm having déjà vu. Doesn't this seem a little familiar to you?"
"More than a little," Ford agreed. "It reminds me of when you first sat down in a Puddle Jumper. Everything started lighting up then, too. Like it could read your thoughts."
"Uh-huh…" John responded, but he had stopped listening. This ship was too cool. He eyed the darkening sky out of the forward windscreen. He could just make out the last bit of blue sky through a single hole in the cloud cover above them, closing rapidly—
The HUD instantly refreshed, plotting a three-dimensional course from their current location up through the crack in the clouds and into the stratosphere.
"Major," Ford cautioned, seeing the temptation unfold before his CO's eyes, "maybe we'd better get back to work."
"Yeah…" John was forced to consider, looking out the windscreen once more. The hole to the heavens had closed, and his opportunity had been lost. Damn rain. Great timing. He focused back on the present."Okay, let's finish up our sweep in here before we bug out. Keep an eye out for anything suspicious."
Thirty minutes later, after practically turning the ship inside out, the pair had found little more than a few crumbs from a Lacedami in-flight snack. Bates, too, had found nothing on the ship's exterior.
"What do you think, Major?" asked Ford as they walked quickly through the rain toward the City.
"I think I'm in love," Sheppard said of the ship.
Bates, in typical fashion, interrupted. "I think that if the Lacedami have hidden something, it's not on that ship."
"I don't know what they would try to hide," continued Aiden.
"A bomb, maybe? A booby trap, a communication device – who knows?"
"Maybe they're not trying to hide anything."
"Or maybe they knew we'd look there and have hidden it somewhere else."
"Where? We've searched all of them. They're clean."
"Then we should search them again. Captain."
"All right, you two," John interjected before the quarrel escalated into something unpleasant. "Don't make me send you to time out. These Lacedami guys have come up clean thus far, but that doesn't mean we let our guard down. Got it?"
Receiving murmurs of agreement, John opened a heavy door into the City and allowed his two subordinates to enter first. He checked his watch and frowned. Damn, it's already past 1800. "Hey, why don't you guys grab some chow. Ford, tell the team to meet up in the Control Room after dinner. We've got some things to discuss, and I'd like everyone to be there."
"Roger that," Ford said. The three men parted ways.
Grabbing a meal-to-go from the mess, John headed back to his quarters to catch up on some extremely overdue paperwork. As he wandered back through the corridors, John thought about the past few hours. Several occurrences weighed heavily on his mind. Something just didn't add up about the Raven – about the Lacedami as a whole. He had a theory, but he needed to bounce it off of Elizabeth before he allowed his imagination to run any further.
One hour later, John found himself walking through Atlantis' hallways once more on his way to the Control Room. As he passed a window, he noticed that the sun had almost completely set. It was past 1900, and most of the City's personnel had just ended their shift and had begun retiring to their quarters or sharing in leisure time with fellow colleagues. It was no surprise, then, that his team – who didn't know the meaning of 'leisure time' – was already assembled in the Control Room, awaiting his arrival. A skeleton crew of two scientists manned the consoles.
Elizabeth spotted his entrance. "All right, let's get started."
"What about Carson?" queried John. Though Teyla, Rodney, and Ford were present, the doctor was nowhere in sight.
"He said he was compiling some test results for us to see. He'll be over shortly. Until he arrives, I'd like to discuss our new friends. Firstly, I checked the Ancient database for any mention of the Lacedami people. The search turned up nothing."
"A little odd for a race with Ancient text plastered all over the place, wouldn't you say?" mused the Canadian scientist.
"My thoughts exactly. So all we have to go on are out first impressions. Opinions?"
"They're not my favorite people," John answered.
"A little cold," added Aiden.
"Bullies, if you ask me," piped in Rodney. "Creepy bullies. They remind me of this one clique in high school…."
"While they are not the most warmhearted of people," Teyla added genuinely, "their demeanor should have no bearing on our ability to conduct trade with them. Though their behavior has proven odd, that is no reason for us to abandon our hopes of earning their business. We, too, should all be responsible enough to put aside our feelings about them in order to come to a resolution."
"Thank you, Teyla," Elizabeth said in a tone that rebuked the men in the room, "for not taking the question lightly."
"We were being serious, too," McKay protested.
Elizabeth sighed. "I know how you all feel about them; I share the sentiment. But we're in a predicament right now that we currently have no solution to. Now we know these people are technologically advanced. We know they don't have a ZPM, but they do know where some are. Maybe they have something else entirely stashed among their technology that could help us. If that proves to be our only out, I'm taking it."
"I agree," John voiced to the group. "If they can help us out with our power problems, great. If not, then at the very least we'll learn an interesting history lesson or two. And if nothing else, we could team up with them against the Wraith. Either way, we should pursue this."
Nodding her head in appreciation of his support, Elizabeth turned to the others. "I have no problem holding my nose and stomaching their impoliteness, but the issue goes beyond that. Though we have found no evidence of any ill will against us, based off what we've seen, we can assume the Lacedami are withholding information, lying, or both. I'm not saying they harbor some sinister plot, but I will honestly say that I am not 100% sure what we are getting ourselves into. My question to all of you is: is it worth it?"
A silence hung over the group as they pondered her words.
"Ma'am, may I ask a question?" Aiden posed.
"Of course, Captain."
"What makes you assume that the Lacedami are being dishonest?"
Elizabeth involuntarily looked down, knowing that her theory was losing credibility. "Truthfully, Aiden, only a feeling. That's it."
"More than that," John corrected, coming to her aid. "For a supposedly thriving civilization, where were all the women and children in their encampment? Why were they so cagey when I tried to get a better look at another part of their camp, or when Elizabeth tried to enter another room in one of their huts? There is no mention of them in the database; they have advanced technology yet the rest of their culture is primitive; they freak out when we subject them to our rules; they practically salivate over the mention of Atlantis or anything Ancient…. The list goes on and on. They're hiding something."
"Yet you still feel they are worthy partners," Teyla prompted.
"I feel it's worth checking out further."
"Okay, then," Elizabeth said, clasping her hands together. "I know Major Sheppard's opinion on the matter. But I'd like a unanimous approval before pursuing this."
"I'm with the Major," Ford responded immediately.
"I agree," Teyla answered next. "If there is even the slightest hope of earning assistance from these people, we must pursue it."
Lastly, Elizabeth looked to Rodney, the last to speak. The scientist sighed despairingly. "As much as I hate to admit it, we could use the help. Radek is fresh out of ideas and my list of things to try is dwindling."
Elizabeth nodded, pleased with the outcome. "Thank you. Your backing means a lot."
"Where are the six Lacedami now?" wondered Sheppard.
"Still in their guest suite, with two guards posted outside their door. The newcomers were clean. They've completely sequestered themselves for the past hour. Apparently they brought word that the ill village elder has taken a turn for the worst. I suppose our next step will be—"
"Ma'am, you should see this," one of the techs said from a nearby console, a slight edge to his voice.
"What is it?" She moved for a better view of the screen. Her team followed.
"I was running through our host of sensors and systems, cycling each one on for only a minute every two hours to save power, like you asked," the technician answered. He definitely sounded worried. "I came across this."
John looked at the screen. It was Atlantis' city-based long-range sensor. A green needle was currently sweeping around the circular scope, emanating from a center point that represented Atlantis, much like a Doppler radar. The rest of the scope was black… until the needle passed the two o'clock position. The scope suddenly lit up like a Christmas tree.
"Whoa!" John exclaimed. "What the hell are those?"
A handful of green blips just kissed the outer edges of the scope, situated in a tight group somewhere on the planet at the extreme of the sensor's range. John counted them: one, two, three—
Abruptly, the power to the Control and Gate Rooms cut out. With the sun now set, the room was plunged into darkness. Still in his offworld attire, John clicked on the flashlight mounted to his P-90. The highly directional beam did little to illuminate more than a small swath of space, but prompted the team to erupt in a flurry of nervous dialogue.
"Oh, come on!" Rodney cried out.
"Ford, do we have any birds up?" Sheppard asked.
"No, sir," the captain replied quickly, anticipating the question.
"We need that sensor back up," John called to no one in particular. "We've got to know what those things were."
"I spotted eight of them, maybe nine," Elizabeth offered quickly.
"I counted ten, ma'am," Ford amended.
"Did anyone see which way they were heading?" Teyla asked.
"It was hard to tell." It was Ford again. "They could have been heading to the southeast—"
"Yeah, and they could have been heading straight here!" McKay shrieked.
"What, do you think they were Wraith?"
"I do not sense any Wraith nearby," Teyla put forward.
"Well that's good," McKay said wryly. "Because I was just thinking that life-sucking aliens would have been the cherry on top of this wonderful day!"
"All right, all right. Everyone calm down," Elizabeth interjected. Her words seemed to do the trick. "We won't know anything for sure until the sensors are back online, so there's no use speculating—"
The whirring and beeps of equipment announced that the power was returning to that section of the City. Several seconds later, the overhead lights blinked on once again. Immediately, the seven occupants of the Control Room snapped their heads as one back to the sensor display.
It was blank.
"Well that's just great," Rodney announced. "Now we'll have no idea who they were or where they were going."
"Not necessarily," John mused. "Ford, take Stackhouse and hop in a Jumper. Fly out to where those contacts were and see if you can find anything; if not, use the Jumper's scanners to look around a bit. Make sure you stay cloaked the entire time. We need to know if there's a threat coming our way."
"Yes, sir," came the Captain's reply before dashing up the stairs to the Jumper Bay.
"You don't think it's possible that the scanner was wrong, do you?" Elizabeth asked John quietly, though she herself did not believe her own words. "Maybe it's gone haywire with all the power problems."
John said nothing, but shared a strained look with her indicating that no, he did not believe the sensor was in error. He frowned. Things were starting to happen a little too quickly. A trio of rude Lacedami guests he could handle. Another three and the Lacedami were starting to show a little too much interest in Atlantis. And now, this new contact's timing was just too coincidental for his taste.
Elizabeth seemed to read his thoughts, or at least the dour expression that had manifested on his face. Her expression soon changed to match. She opened her mouth to question this new line of thinking but was beaten to the punch.
"There's something else," the technician said, having shifted his chair in front of another console. Once more, the group joined him.
"I picked this one up just before the power outage, and sure enough, it's still here. This screen shows a signal, one originating from inside the City," he explained, as he pointed to an electronic schematic of the entire City. A pulsating dot was positioned over one area of the City, appearing and disappearing at regular intervals. Unlike the long-range contacts, this one was stationary.
"What sort of signal?" Elizabeth asked.
"It's hard to say. Without our normal diagnostic software up and running, your guess is as good as mine."
"And my guess is infinitely better than both of yours – sorry – so let's see here…" Rodney said as he leaned in. "It's bimodal – on and off are its only two settings – and judging by the length of the time it's on, it's probably just a data burst. It's doubtful that it's radio communications. And it looks like that whatever message it's sending, it repeats itself every several seconds or so."
"So someone inside the City is sending a message to… whom? To where?" wondered Elizabeth.
"Like the man said, without our systems up and running, I can't say for sure. We could turn them on and try and intercept the signal, but that would drain a lot of juice."
"No, no, let's not do that," Elizabeth cautioned immediately. "Is it receiving any return signals?"
Rodney squinted at the screen. "Doesn't look like it, no."
"It could be an automated message designed to broadcast when one of the other City's systems fails, or… it could be an expedition member without power trying to contact us."
But Teyla wasn't so sure. "Is there any way to more accurately pinpoint the location of the signal's origin?"
"I think so…" the tech said as he input several commands into the console. He worked for several moments in silence.
"Something doesn't feel right," Elizabeth muttered quietly.
"This whole thing suddenly doesn't feel right," agreed John.
"Got it," the technician announced. The screen zoomed in to the dot's location. Individual rooms and corridors were now visible. It looked as if the signal was emanating from one of two adjoining rooms.
Upon seeing the location of the signal, Teyla and Elizabeth both shared a look of dismay. McKay caught the correspondence.
"What?" Rodney asked. "Where is that?" He noticed that John, oddly, hadn't needed to look at the screen yet had obviously reached the same conclusion as the others.
Elizabeth expelled a lungful of air. "It's the Lacedami's guest quarters."
The implication of the discovery weighed heavily on everyone as the room fell into a suffocating quiet. The Lacedami's actions thus far had been odd at best, but this skipped them right past suspicious and onto dangerous. John didn't know what Antigonos' plan was or how this development played into it, but his team needed to know everything about that signal that they possibly could.
"We need to get our hands on whatever is broadcasting that signal," he announced.
"No kidding," Rodney snorted. "How's that one phrase go? 'With friends like these…?'"
"Maybe it will give us an idea of what they're planning," John continued, ignoring the acerbic scientist.
"And what makes you think you can learn anything about their plan without tipping them off that we're aware of said plan?"
"Because whatever is broadcasting that signal," Sheppard began, looking Elizabeth in the eye. She wasn't going to like what he was about to say. "I'm going to steal it."
TBC
Author's note: Thank you to my one reviewer who posted a comment on each chapter! It is so very much appreciated. Otherwise I feel like the writing equivalent of talking to a wall and it's not very motivating. The rest of you, I can tell you are reading... :)
Things will start to pick up soon, I promise.