Time Immemorial

Chapter 18: Square One

July 17th
0032 Hours

"Get up. On your feet," a voice said tersely.

John kept his head buried in his hands. He didn't need to see the speaker to know it was a Lacedami soldier. At the time he had made them, John knew his radio calls had probably been intercepted. It was a risk he had been willing to take. It had been his hope that they would all have vacated the area before the Lacedami showed up, after they retrieved Elizabeth... This goon probably was the nearest patrol that had intercepted his call.

"On your feet," the soldier repeated. John felt him nudge the barrel of the gun into his head for emphasis.

Sheppard was content to remain seated on the floor until the soldier either made him get up or put a hole in his skull, but raising his head he spotted a second, taller troop aiming his pistol at Drs. Zelenka and Beckett. The two Atlantis men had their hands raised above their heads in submission.

Reluctantly, he pulled himself to his feet and held his hands high. His legs trembled, his body still recovering from the physical and emotional toll of minutes ago. Water drops fell from his soaked clothing to the tiles below.

"Over there," the same man said. He prodded the major down the hall nearer his scouting partner. Like all their comrades, both men were of sturdy build. Both wore the traditional Lacedami tunics and bore the standard issue pistols and blades.

John offered no resistance. He felt like a zombie, mindless and drained and numb to the world. He allowed himself to be pushed along.

The three expedition members were grouped together, each keeping his arms above his head. One of the scouts stood guard over the trio while the other made his way towards Elizabeth's body.

John watched the furthest man carefully. He noticed the man bend down over her and his pulse spiked. "Don't you touch her," John warned menacingly. His voice was still hoarse from screaming.

The tall soldier paused. He smiled, amused. No doubt out of sheer spite, he continued to reach down to check the body for a pulse.

"I said don't touch her!" John yelled, fuming. He took a full step toward the man before Carson grabbed a fistful of his shirt. The first soldier removed the safety from his trained pistol.

This time, the Lacedami ignored him. He turned to his comrade instead. "Her heart is still," he confirmed with a nod, perhaps with the smallest hint of satisfaction. "Dead."

John shrugged out of Beckett's grasp irately but remained stationary. His eyes stayed locked on the guard nearest Elizabeth, wordlessly tracking his every move.

"You three will come with us," the first Lacedami directed. "Commander Antigonos will want you back with the others. I am sure he will have questions for you, Major Sheppard."

The man began to shuttle the three apprehended men down the corridor when something on John's person caught his eye. The Lacedami frowned, befuddled.

John knew what had piqued his interest, but his vision remained locked on the second guard. He appeared to be about to make a radio call to his superiors.

The stouter captor confiscated a Lacedami pistol from John's BDUs. He also reclaimed a blade - it, too, of Lacedami design. Both belonged to Kyros. The soldier snapped around at the major accusingly. "Where did you get these items?" he demanded, holding them up to John's face evidentially.

John listened as the far Lacedami was now reporting in over his radio. "Commander Antigonos, we can confirm Dr. Weir has gone the way of the Boatman. We also have the escaped Major Sheppard in custody, along with-"

It was all he was able to get out. In one swift move, John unexpectedly grabbed the nearest guard's gun hand and held it aside. With his other hand he struck the man in his now exposed face, hard. The stunned soldier dropped the knife reflexively and keeled over in agony. Grabbing the pistol with both hands, John then painfully twisted the weapon from the groaning solider's grasp. He trained it first on the furthest Lacedami who still knelt near Elizabeth's body. Two electrified rounds sizzled through the air and hit their mark in his chest, downing the combatant. Without remorse, John then fired a single shot at the nearest soldier at point blank range. The second Lacedami body joined the first on the floor with a thump.

No one moved for a beat.

Carson's mouth hung open, aghast. The swiftness and violence of the incident left him speechless. Zelenka's hands still hung stupidly above his head. The whole thing had taken less than two seconds.

Carson cannily watched the major relieve the two dead Lacedami of their weapons. He worked coldly, methodically. The sudden and drastic change in demeanor had him concerned. It was not the demeanor of someone who had just witnessed the death of a close friend. For the first time since, Beckett skeptically asked, "Major Sheppard, are you doin' alright?"

"Yeah," John replied all too quickly. He didn't look up from where he busied his hands with a Lacedami radio. "Yeah, I'm doing alright," he repeated tightly. His hoarse voice was barely audible.

Beckett wondered who he was trying to convince. He sensed there was still a whole lot of repressed rage simmering below the surface. "Why dinna you take a moment, lad."

John raised an eyebrow at the doctor as he continued working. To do what, grieve? Grieving isn't going to bring her back. Grieving wasn't going to stop those guys from killing us, he thought, looking to the two dead Lacedami soldiers. He dismissed Carson with a caustic look and resumed searching the bodies for anything useful.

Standing in uncomfortable silence, Beckett looked like he wanted to press the issue further but bit his tongue.

Radek finally lowered his hands from above his head. The physicist's mind had finally processed what his eyes had witnessed. He looked back to Dr. Weir's body and cleared his throat. "Major, I'm... sorry I didn't get here sooner," he offered quietly.

This time, Sheppard stopped what he was doing, dismayed. He hung his head. "Radek, it's not your fault." It's mine.

Just then, a malicious voice cut in over John's newly acquired Lacedami headset. John instantly froze.

"Major Sheppard," greeted Antigonos over the radio. His low voice took on an insidiously jovial tone. "I can only assume that since my two men have failed to answer my hails you have successfully dispatched them."

John remained still. He didn't want deal with Commander Antigonos, the Lacedami, or the ascension device anymore. He just didn't have the capacity to care. He was done.

Carson noticed Major Sheppard frozen, head cocked to the side, listening. Realizing it was a Lacedami radio he was tuned into, the doctor scrambled over to the second solider's body and gingerly plucked the headset from his ear and affixed it to his own.

"No doubt you are plotting revenge against me for the death of your Dr. Weir."

Biting his lip, John fought to keep his emotions in check. He felt the hatred once again begin to churn in the pit of his stomach.

"Lieutenant Straton informs me how she cried for you like a child during their time together, begged for her life like the bitch cur that she was."

Sheppard found himself instinctively placing a hand on his Lacedami pistol.

"But take heart, Major. Straton also tells me that while you valiantly charged in on your misbegotten rescue attempt, he was sure to take very good care of her for you."

John cocked the slide on his gun and began to storm toward the Control Room, ready to tear the bastard's black heart from his chest and feed it to him-

"Settle," Beckett cautioned, once again holding him back. "Dinna listen to him. He's only tryin' to get your goat."

Shutting his eyes, John breathed deeply and forced himself to calm down. He couldn't recall a time he had ever struggled so hard to keep his cool.

"You have some words for me, I am sure," the commander continued, "and I, too, would like to speak with you. So I propose this: return to your dining hall in and let us speak as gentlemen."

Caron shook his head. "Dinna do it," he implored. "The commander is anything but a gentleman. He'll kill you."

John met the doctor's gaze with hollow eyes. He didn't refute the theory.

"If you are in need of more persuasion, I will kill one of your colleagues in the dining hall for every minute you are tardy."

Running a hand through his hair in vexation, John brought the microphone to his lips. "I'll be there," he relented.

"Ah, the great disappearing major speaks." John could picture the bastard sneering on the other end. "Be there in ten minutes. Bring any friends that might be keeping you company, as well."

Crap, Sheppard thought. He wanted to scream. The situation was spiraling more and more out of his control and he couldn't do anything to stop it. He tried desperately to formulate a plan that exonerated Beckett and Zelenka, but nothing came to him. He couldn't focus. Without Elizabeth, his touchstone, he clawed for sensibility.

"Okay," John said, thinking aloud. He turned to Radek, slipping back into a familiar quarterbacking role. "Did anyone follow you here?"

The Czech shook his head. "I didn't see anyone, no."

"What about you, Beckett? Did anyone see you come here?"

"I was about to relieve Dr. Cole in the infirmary when Kyros arrived an' brought me to Dr. Zelenka, waitin' outside in the shadows. There was a guard in the infirmary who saw me leave with Kyros. He dinna seem to be suspicious," Carson posed with a shrug.

John frowned. It wasn't the singular guard in the infirmary that troubled him - the guard would have acted had he suspected anything afoot.

But there was an added complication: Kyros. The resolute young man has had aided them yet again. John didn't know what to make of the young soldier. He wanted to trust him. Part of him wanted to strangle him for the part he had played in Elizabeth's death, and part of him wanted to thank him for trying to undo his mistake. Kyros had boldly risked himself multiple times to save Elizabeth, betraying his own commander and his own people, and if the Lacedami started putting two and two together John feared his seditious actions would be exposed.

"So we're going to just walk into the mess hall and turn ourselves in?" Radek queried, apprehension creeping into his voice.

"I am," John answered. "You two aren't."

"But the commander said we were to come also. He knows we are here-"

"He's bluffing. He doesn't know."

"Are you really willin' to take that risk?" Carson asked, now more than mildly concerned about the officer's state of mind. "If he for one moment believes you are deceivin' him, it's not us he's goin' to take it out on. It's you."

"Look," John explained, conscious of the clock. "The only two people who know for sure that you two helped me are those two guys," he argued, pointing to the two soldiers on the floor. "And now they're dead."

"Yes, but we are not out of the woods yet," the Czech pointed out. "If those two scouts were on our radio net, we must assume others were as well. They will be looking for us throughout the City."

"Agreed, and the first place they're going to look is where they know I've been."

"Here?"

"Here. You both need to vanish."

"To where?"

"Radek, I have a special task for you," John explained. "Please tell me you know where Rodney's Ancient ascension device is."

The physicist thought a spell. He had completely forgotten about the device. "Yes, yes. Rodney gave it to me to take to the lab. But when the fighting broke out I ran. I'm afraid I never made it to the lab."

Arching an eyebrow, John asked, "So where is it?"

In response, Radek reached into his jacket and pulled out what appeared to be a wadded bed sheet. Zelenka unrolled the package to reveal the brilliant glass facets of Rodney's device. The multicolored faces caught the light like a geode. Bitterness filled John's heart. Could this be what Antigonos had killed for? What Elizabeth had died for? John stepped forward to re-cover the object, looking around like a prospector protecting his haul from prying eyes.

"Listen to me, Radek," John urged, putting as much weight behind his words as he could muster. "The Lacedami are after this. No matter what, we cannot let them get their hands on it."

Radek nodded. "Why do they want it?"

"Elizabeth thinks-" John stopped himself, realizing his mistake. He blinked to stay focused, burying his grief. "Elizabeth thought it was pretty important to them, which is a good enough reason for us to play keep-away. I want you to hide it somewhere, somewhere they'll never be able to find, and then I want you rig it with C4 and a remote detonator. If you suspect they're even thinking about coming within 100 yards of its hiding spot, blow it to high hell, understand?"

Radek didn't look too pleased with the explosive part, but he nodded anyway.

"Good. Then hole up somewhere safe and don't come out. Doc, I want you to do the same."

The Scot shook his head vigorously. "I'm sorry, Major, but I canna do that. I have patients to attend to and I canna let Dr. Cole fend on her lonesome."

John let out a small sigh. "The more people we can break away from them the better. You can't just go walking back into a hostage situation."

"What, like you're about to?" Carson challenged. "I winna let you risk yourself for your people and then be told I canna do the same. I'm goin' back to the infirmary. And the way things are goin', you might even end up there soon enough and be thankful I'm there," he scolded.

John accepted his criticism with a nod. "Fine," he relented. "But take these. You, too, Zelenka." He distributed all of the confiscated Lacedami weaponry to the men, hoping Carson could successfully hide his under his lab coat. He also indicated for Zelenka to take the remaining Lacedami radio.

"What about you?" asked Zelenka, noticing Sheppard had kept nothing for himself.

John shook his head. "They'll confiscate whatever I have on me." He studied the two doctors, armed and ungainly. The weapons didn't suit them. He hated putting them in a situation that forced their use.

"Just be careful," Sheppard implored.

"And you, Major."

"Actually... there is one more thing I need to ask you," John started awkwardly. "About Elizabeth. Can you... I don't want her just left here in the hallway."

Carson nodded, understanding. "I'll make sure she gets somewhere safe. I'll take care of it. You just take care of yourself."

John nodded silently in thanks. Glancing at his watch, he noted he had less than eight minutes before Antigonos started executing his people. He looked at Zelenka and Beckett once more, wondering if he was bidding a final farewell to two more friends, and ran off. He was thankful to depart that cursed corridor, though a part of him would never leave it.

As he retraced his earlier steps, distancing himself from the marine biology lab, he felt his sorrow give way to ire. With every turn of the hallway, he grew more furious. He felt his muscles tense up. He began to see red in his peripheral vision. In some dark corner of his mind, he actually looked forward to confronting Antigonos. When he laid eyes on the Lacedami commander he didn't know if he'd be able to stop himself from wrapping both hands around his throat and squeezing until the man stopped kicking. Instinctively he increased his pace. Less than a minute remained.

Sprinting round the final corners, he noticed Lacedami troops were nowhere to be seen. John guessed that Antigonos had pulled them all back to either the Control Room or mess hall. The commander knew there was no point in having them detain him as he approached the cafeteria; Antigonos knew John was going to comply with his demand, knew he was going to show up. That alone inflamed him further.

The set of automatic double doors parted and John burst into the cafeteria. He hadn't realized just how hard he had been running until he stopped. Immediately he doubled over, bracing his hands against his knees, and sucked in lungfuls of air. He noticed several troops move in on him instantly. They each aimed their handguns or rifles at his head.

A flurry of murmurs and gasps permeated through the mess hall, dispirited and hushed only moments ago. The captive Atlantis personnel, civilians and military camps alike, wondered aloud why Major Sheppard had just arrived looking utterly terrible: haggard, near-hypothermic, dripping wet, eyes bloodshot, arm bloodied, and emotionally beaten.

They also wondered why he had arrived alone.

The guards barked commands to quiet the crowd.

"Major!" a nearby McKay shouted in hushed tones. "Major! What happened? Where's Elizabeth?"

John couldn't stop himself from meeting his friend's eyes for the briefest moment before breaking away. McKay instantly saw the anguish, heartache, and guilt that registered on the pilot's face and knew at once that he would never see Dr. Weir again. "Dead?" Suddenly moved to speechlessness, the physicist's mouth hung agape. His eyes darted along the floor, as if answers rested there.

McKay's reaction must not have been subtle, for word of Elizabeth's death quickly spread around the room like wildfire. A few of the on-edge civilians began to cry softly. As before, the guards quickly dissuaded any overt reactions. As the murmuring spread, closing in upon him like a claustrophobic room, John began to feel as if Elizabeth was not the only one he had failed.

Kyros, having just slipped furtively back into the room amongst his comrades, was puzzled by the commotion. He spun round, trying to discern any intelligible words from the cacophony. It was only when he saw the major, hunched over and on the edge of an emotional breakdown, that he realized his plan to save Dr. Weir had failed. Kyros swallowed and hid his own sorrow. He raised his pistol and aimed it nowhere in particular, once again assuming the part of Lacedami soldier.

The sound of a door opening at the far end of the mess drew John's gaze forward. Suddenly he saw Commander Antigonos enter the large room and instantly forgot about everything else: all the eyes on him, the sobbing, the guards surrounding him at gunpoint. All he saw was the bastard who was responsible for Elizabeth's death standing just across the hall, smirking smugly back at him. He felt his fists clench unconsciously. He was going to kill the prick, right here and now. John took a step forward-

- and felt the crack of a pistol on the back of his head. He slumped unceremoniously to the floor, his vision fading to black.

TBC