Here's a late Happy New Year! and a new chapter. Have fun!
John has learned two things today. On is nice to know, the other leaves him to let his held breath escape in relief.
The nice to know thing is that Todd is freakishly fast at learning new languages. They connected the dart to a non-networked computer, deeming it unsafe to allow the wraith system to come into contact with Atlantis' systems. And it didn't take five minutes of Zelenka swearing and muttering in Czech as he tries to free the others from the dart's storage for Todd to start instructing him in a godawful mix of Czech and English, that slowly turns into a more fluent version of the first language. Zelenka himself didn't seem to notice, he just Czenglished right back at Todd while the team of linguists and anthropologists took their chance to stare and take notes in amazement. They want to make Todd undertake some tests to check on his general learning abilities and culture adapting and whatnot, and John refers them to Beckett. At the moment the doctor is the only person allowed to actively experiment on the wraith and his abilities. Come to think of that, John should probably go check on that progress at some point.
John also learned that no hive ship seems to currently be on its way to Earth. He breathes in relief, as do the others. Todd tells them the detection system of his dart is old, but this is simultaneously a disadvantage and an advantage. A disadvantage because it might not be very accurate. Even if they had a ZPM and enough weapons at their disposal, they can't pinpoint the positions of the hives well enough to launch a proper attack from afar. They would have to stalk out the section the system located a hive in for its accurate coordinates, risking being recognized and losing their advantage of surprise. But, at least all hives are still operating on that frequency. It makes them accountable, which is Atlantis' advantage. It tells the humans that all hives are still in Pegasus. And, should a wraith faction switch to a different ship signature system, Atlantis will know they are fighting among each other.
John guesses this info is worth the annoying jungle trip they had to take on to get it.
They set up a monitoring system. It doesn't show anything interesting as time goes by, so John falls back into the usual trot. He goes through the gate to explore, which is fun. He does his paperwork, which is decidedly less fun. They almost get their hands on a new ZPM when they investigate a planet whose inhabitants kill themselves when they turn 25 years old, to prevent the Wraiths from finding them profitable, but they decide to leave it with the kids. Nobody wants to take their best chance of survival away from them.
And then they stumble upon Hoff.
Beckett is very excited. Probably mostly because of the pretty, female Hoffan doc he works with, John thinks with an amused grin. But also because this might be a very real chance to solve the wraith problem. John himself is still a little skeptical. Life never hands you lemonade. It gives you lemons and you have to make the lemonade yourself. If it directly hands you lemonade, it's usually an old bottle that's gone bad. And what you think was a good thing will turn out a nightmare pretty quickly. So, John is a skeptic. Not to mention Todd is downright against this.
"Did you know about Hoffan and what they work on?!" John had asked the wraith the moment he came back from their first trip to the place, thinking either Todd doesn't know as much as he pretends to know or he's keeping things from them and following a different agenda than he pretends to follow. Because the Hoffan's research seems to be very useful in the problem they agreed to solve together, so why would Todd not mention it?
Todd grudgingly admitted to knowing about it.
John takes a deep breath and releases it slowly. "You mean you've left us to go search random planets, risking injury to and loss of our people, in hopes of finding something useful, when all the while you've known about the Hoffan vaccination?!"
His voice rises after all towards the end. But Todd has pissed him off and he's going to make sure the wraith knows that. "What the hell are you playing at? I thought you were all for finding a solution?!"
Todd snarls, which only riles up John all the more. What reason does Todd have to be pissed at him? But here the alien is, pacing up and down his cage before coming to stand and stare at John with disappointment of all things.
"I am all for finding a solution, Sheppard. But this isn't a solution, not on the terms we agreed on. We agreed to find a solution that benefits both parties, but the Hoffan disease will only bring death. Even if it works as intended, no peace will come from it. The wraith will still be reliant on feeding on humans and the humans being able to survive that will not change a thing about the relation among our races."
"Maybe if your people were less arrogant assholes and would accept that humans and wraith are on the same level, then there could come a nice agreement from it! Let the humans develop instead of culling them, offer them something in exchange for the service and maybe they won't have a problem feeding you! Ever heard of symbiosis?! Coexistence?"
"Yet still we would be dependent on feeding on you and therefore dependent on your mercy. What's a wraith to do if they cannot find a willing human, what if they have nothing a human is willing to suffer being fed on for? Are they supposed to quietly starve to death?!"
"It's still better than nothing. At least people can survive being fed on, whether it's done with their consent or not. It might not be the ideal solution, but it can bridge the gap until we closed it."
Todd just looks at him. Eyes narrowed, body far too still. It's a look John has seen on many a poker player back in Vegas. Todd is recalculating odds. Eventually, the wraith scowls and turns to pace the cell again.
"Continue with your vaccination, see what it brings you. But be careful, Sheppard, do not rush this. And do not expect me to be your test object. Your Athosian wears a transponder around her neck. It can be activated and deactivated by the touch of a wraith but your Doctor McKay should be able to get it going again. Use it to bait a wraith into your trap. If you found Hoffan, this should have happened anyway."
And with that Todd turns to ignore him. He doesn't react to any further questions nor verbal bait. John accuses him of a cheap attempt to drive a wedge between him and his teammate by insinuating Teyla of all people would have a wraith transponder, but Todd just keeps pacing, like a caged lion in a zoo that's blending out the spectators.
John is not happy about being blended out. He snaps "Fine, I'll ask her!" And turns on his heels to leave. Because he's sure it's not true anyway and if it is, she doesn't know about the transponder. He doesn't trust easily anymore but he'll be damned if he lets the stupid wraith rattle the new bonds he's found here.
Found here because Todd kept him alive. Because Todd sent them to Athos. Would he have ended up there and met Teyla without Todd, too? Chances are yes, apparently, the other Sheppards have. But his only evidence for that is the words of the crazy wraith down in the brig. Great.
"What's up with you?" McKay asks when John enters the lab. Seems like his attempt to not look as pissed off as he feels wasn't successful. He puts some more effort into it.
"Our resident wraith apparently knew about Hoffan, but likes it about as much as your cat liked your attempt to bath it", he pointedly looks at the scratches that are still all over McKay's arms," and he also seems to think Teyla's got a wraith transponder, so I need you to come check that out."
"Teyla? She grew up with the wraith culling her people, she probably has more reason to hate them than we do. Why would she have a transponder?" McKay wonders but gets into motion to follow John.
"He says it's around her neck." John shrugs. "But the only thing I've ever seen around her neck is the collar of her shirt and that necklace I picked up back on Ath-... Oh."
"You think some Athosian picked up old wraith tech and decided it would make a nice necklace?" McKay concludes.
"One day I'm going to strangle him." John decides. "He could've told us earlier. Preferably when he was strangling her back then in the infirmary. I bet he turned it off then so he could keep it around for later." He really needs to be more careful around the sneaky bastard wraith. McKay says so aloud.
They find Teyla in the gym. Not long after, they acquire Steve.
Steve is different from Todd, John surmises as he stalks around Steve's cage. They have activated another unit of the Ancient's town's brig section because everyone agreed that putting both wraiths into one cage wouldn't end well. But even without Todd here for a direct comparison, the differences are easy to spot.
Outwardly, Steve has definitely taken a lot more care of his hair. Not that Todd had had much of a chance to groom himself for the last years, but he has yet to ask for a comb so that might also simply be his style. Steve's also not as tall as Todd. He makes up for that in viciousness, though. John doesn't think they'll get anything useful from him but it seems he is now considered Atlantis' ego to guy when it comes to dealing with the wraith and has therefore been ordered to ask Steve all the questions Todd won't really answer. John gives it his best, he's curious and, after all the trouble he stirred recently, looking obedient will probably do him some good.
So John asks away and Steve keeps threatening and mocking him. He doesn't seem inclined to play games the way Todd does. He doesn't seem to have a sense of humor, either. Steve is simply boring. Arrogant, angry and out for himself only. John is a little disappointed, which irks him. He should not enjoy having to deal with a secret-keeping, game playing hindrance more than dealing with the prisoner who, given the right incentive, might barter the information away without trouble.
Still, he's not sorry to see Steve keel over.
What he's sorry for is all that follows.
The Hoffans drop like flies. He watches Beckett lose his pretty doctor, he watches Atlantis teams in hazmat suits help dig up the mass graves, he watches Hoffan's politicians declare that the death of more than half their people is still worth it.
He should have been more adamant, should have tried harder to convince them to wait for the duration of further tests, to not just hand this out to everyone when long term consequences are still unknown. He wants to be angry at Todd and shift the gut-wrenching anger onto the wraith, but even Todd told him not to rush this, had called the vaccination a disease that will bring death. And John had just assumed that Todd was using his pretty words again, didn't mean it literally but as some sort of metaphor for an escalating factor in the everlasting conflict between humans and wraith.
Todd has the good grace to keep his mouth shut when John finally makes his way down to the brig again. He doesn't say a word while John just stands there and tries his best not to fidget until the marines have finished chaining the wraith up. He keeps his silence even when the marines leave them and it's only the two of them on the way to the infirmary. There is no blaming, no arguing, no told you so!-s. Just an oddly peaceful kind of cooperation.
Maybe Todd simply understands that this is an olive branch of sorts. John has to ask him to try and fix whatever can be fixed, to try and make it a vaccination instead of a disease for humans, because John is human and he will always fight for his people. But he doesn't also have to offer Todd the chance to fix up whatever makes this deadly for the wraith, to cut losses on both sides. But John wants to.
Because if humans and wraiths are to work together, they need to find some common ground.
.
.
Edit: a BIG thank you to sheppardlover928 who was kind and attentive enough to point out that the earlier wording of
"Todd has the good grace to keep his mouth shut when John finally makes his way down to the brig again. He doesn't say a word when John chains him up and brings him up to the infirmary."
contradicts the promise John gave Todd in chapter 12.. This was not on purpose, this was an oversight on my part that stems from not updating my notes after writing this in way earlier than planned.
So, in case someone wonders later on why that break of promise was never addressed and comes here to check on what they read: You didn't remember this wrong, I just wrote it wrong and fixed it now ^^'