Chapter 20: Return and consequent explanations
O'Neil looked over at Jack as he cradled the tot they had been saddled with. They had been given a variety of items that were required for looking after children the age of the little boy including food and milk as well as a crib styled bed that seemed to mould with the soft surrounding of their cell and nappies. As much as he was enjoying looking after the tot it was bringing back memories he would rather remained buried deep within his sub-consciousness. The kid was cooing softly and laughing at the faces Jack was pulling but it was obvious to both of them that he was getting tired; his eyes were starting to droop even as he laughed. "Time for a nap I reckon, Jack." O'Neil commented as he watched the pair, "He's going to be out like a light in a few minutes, there's no point in risking waking him up when you have to move him."
Jack just nodded, gently picking Lucas up and depositing him in the crib-replica.
Yawning himself, he turned back to O'Neil and said; "They've had Sheppard a while, do you think he's ok?"
"To be honest, I haven't got a clue, but somehow I don't think they would go to all the trouble of taking us only to hurt us; they obviously need the gene for something... do you think this ship has a bit of an Ancient vibe to it?"
"There is a certain hum to it." Jack admitted, looking at the walls, studying the architecture.
The lights went out suddenly and an eerie silence descended across the ship; even the other prisoners had gone silent. It was the second time it had happened since they had been forced to join the ship and O'Neil was starting to wonder if there might be a way to take advantage of it. Their captors had not tried to take their watches so he determined to time the intervals between blackouts to try and spot a pattern they could utilise, if another opportunity to escape didn't arise before then of course. The lights came on again just as suddenly as they had gone off.
Before they could continue their conversation there was a bang from somewhere further along the corridor and the sound of something being dragged. They both approached the glass screen at the front of their cage trying to get a better look at what was going on. At first they couldn't see anything, but in less than a minute two men came into view dragging a dripping wet, unconscious, Sheppard between them. "At least he's still alive" the younger man quipped, echoing O'Neil's exact thoughts.
The pair stopped outside their cell and a third individual appeared from behind one of the hulking giants; "Move to the rear of your room and remain there until I say you can move." He ordered.
More concerned with ensuring the unconscious man hanging between the giants was alright, the two O'Neils moved rapidly to the back of the cell and stood there watching as the glass panel slid up into the ceiling and Sheppard was unceremoniously dumped on the floor near the front of the cell. A set of trousers were deposited next to him and the two giants retreated leaving the third man standing just inside the room.; "Make sure he is dried and dressed and when he wakes give him food and water so that he regains his strength." He instructed of the O'Neils.
"What did you do to him?" O'Neil asked as he looked looking towards the man, not worried about concealing the malice in his voice and on his features.
"Nothing that he won't recover from." Was the man's simple reply as he backed out of the cell and hit a button, causing the glass front to slide back into place.
As soon as the cell front was back in place both men approached Sheppard. There were no new external injuries other than a small cut on his lower back that still was still bleeding sluggishly as far as they could tell and, apart from the fact that he was dripping wet, Sheppard could have just been sleeping. There was a slight hitch in his breath as he inhaled, but until he woke up they had no way of telling what was causing this, so they set to the task of taking off his wet clothes, towelling him off and then pulling the scrub style trousers back on. The entire time he didn't as so much as move.
Once they were finished they both sat back and settled in to wait for the man to wake up. Looking across at the other cell, O'Neil could see Mitchell and Ronon trying to calm a frantic David, obviously trying to explain that there was nothing they could do at that moment.
As time went by, Sheppard became restless as he slept and moaned. It looked like he was having a bad dream and O'Neil was undecided about whether to try once more to wake him up. As the movement became more frantic O'Neil moved in, Jack staying further back, not wanting to scare the man should he wake up suddenly to faces he didn't really know. As he got closer, O'Neil noticed that Sheppard was rubbing the centre of his chest directly over an old scar and muttering low verbal protests as he did. Suddenly Sheppard began to thrash frantically. Deciding enough was enough O'Neil grabbed the nearest towel and, used it to put a barrier between his hands and Sheppard's skin. He grabbed Sheppard firmly by the shoulders and shook him with some insistency. "It's time to wake up, Colonel." He told Sheppard as he shook him and Sheppard began to come round.
Almost as soon as Sheppard opened his eyes he began to cough deep, hacking, wet coughs that sounded as though his lungs were trying to exit his body violently.
"Well, that sounds healthy," O'Neil quipped as he helped Sheppard to sit up and breathe. "have you got any injuries we should know about?"
Sheppard was still coughing and didn't look like he had completely understood the question, but instead of speaking he just shook his head indicating no. "Ok, well that's a good start, I suppose." O'Neil said to no one in particular.
O'Neil saw Sheppard visibly tense as he came back to the world of awareness; he took in a deep breath and then let it out as he groaned softly.
"That is putting put a new spin on the Duracell Energizer bunny," he groaned, his voice barely audible.
"Are you alright?" Jack asked as he watched from his position further across the room. Sheppard levered himself up a little more into a better sitting position,. O'Neil could already see that the man wouldn't be able to maintain the posture for long and reached over with his towel clad hand to steady him. Sheppard was looking incredibly pale beneath his black mop of hair and was starting to shake even as they watched. He nodded in response to jack's question, drawing in another deep breath to talk, but instead it was released in a wet hacking cough that lasted a minute or so. When the coughing fit stopped Sheppard drew in a much smaller breath and said,; "I think this is an Ancient ship, but it's different to anything I've ever experienced before. I think these people, whoever they are, have found a way to harvest energy from people with the Ancient gene. We're living batteries to them essentially. It's not a pleasant experience, but I don't think it does any lasting damage."
"Are you sure?" O'Neil asked insistently; he wanted to know exactly how dangerous the situation they now found themselves in actually was.
"I can't be one hundred percent, what with the whole breathing liquid thing, but overall I just feel a bit weak; like I just healed someone, only not as bad."
"Wait, back up... breathing liquid?!" Jack demanded, clearly as worried as O'Neil was.
"Yeah, sorry I wasn't clear." Taking a deep, raspy breath Sheppard continued. "They put you in a big liquid-filled tank they call the power cell. At first it feels like you're are drowning, but once your lungs are full of liquid it's just like breathing; It must be some sort of oxygen rich liquid."
A look of incredulity passed between the two O'Neil's; it sounded like something straight out of a science fiction show and that was really saying something with all that they had seen.
Seeing the look, Sheppard couldn't help but smile before he continued, guessing what they had been thinking. "It's not totally unheard of, even on Earth. I've heard of oxygenated liquid being used on premature babies that don't have fully formed lungs; it helps to take the strain of breathing off their lungs until they have had more time to form."
The O'Neil's looked a little less disbelieving now; "Even so, this can't be the same thing; your lungs are definitely already formed."
"Yeah, so were the lungs of the girl in the tank before me," Sheppard muttered before continuing "Maybe the liquid acts as some form of medium for the energy transfer, although why you have to breathe it's is beyond me. I'm fairly sure it's is literally a power cell though, as because when they took the girl that was in before me out the ship shut down, all the lights went off and the engines sounded like they powered down."
"That happened again not long ago, right before you were brought back" O'Neil admitted., Sheppard's idea of what was going on was starting to seem more credible with every minute that he thought about it. Looking back at Sheppard, O'Neil could see that he was starting to fade again so, heeding the advice of their captors, he made sure Sheppard was going to be able to support himself before he got up and retrieved a bottle of some sort of drink that tasted a bit like earth energy drinks and a flat, round piece of food that seemed to be somewhere between a biscuit and a piece of bread in texture. It had little to no taste, but both he and Jack had succumbed to hunger and eaten and drunk a small amount, suffering no ill effects so O'Neil decided it was probably worth trying to keep Sheppard's strength up. Returning to the man's side he handed him the food and said "Eat this and then get some rest, we need to be as fit as possible in order to be ready when the opportunity comes to get out of here. The exhausted man didn't have the energy to argue so he took the food; and within minutes he had eaten and fallen asleep again. Making sure he was lying in a comfortable position on the floor; O'Neil covered Sheppard with the dry towel that hadn't been used so as to hide his scarred and modified body from the prying eyes of the members of the cell opposite and keep him warm. He had been aware of some commotion in the other cell upon Sheppard's return but had steadfastly refused to acknowledge it, assuming that Mitchell would be able to deal with the situation.
30 minutes earlier...
The lights had gone out and come back on again and Mitchell was beginning to worry. Dave and Lily were starting to panic a little, to be honest he was surprised it had taken this long to happen - they had been taking what was happening well, all things considered. However, the constant strain of not knowing what was happening, wondering if their loved ones were alright and the sudden disappearance of the lights was starting to wear them down and Mitchell was pretty sure he could see cracks starting to show. Lily had taken to sitting as close to the front of the opposite cell as she could get and, although Mitchell was pretty sure she wasn't aware of it, she was rocking as she watched every movement her son made. David on the other hand, was wasting what could prove to be valuable energy later, pacing frantically back and forth across the small expanse of their cell. He was muttering something beneath his breath but Mitchell couldn't make it out from where he was standing.
Mitchell turned as he felt rather than heard Ronon come up behind him. "We need to find a way to calm them down," Ronon stated quietly, "we can't afford to draw unnecessary attention to ourselves."
"I know, big guy. I'm just not really sure what we can do..." he paused as he ran though all the methods he had learned for calming people during his years in SG-1, but drew a blank when he realised he had never had to deal with untrained family members who had no idea of the potential of space travel. Shrugging, he cleared his throat, hoping to draw their attention before he started speaking. Before he could even start to speak, David made a bee line for the front of the cell as Sheppard came into view, hanging limply between two guards.
Mitchell was thankful to see that the guards were still wearing gloves and so no skin was coming into contact with the unconscious man. He could see from where he was standing that Sheppard was still breathing - slow, deep, regular breaths with no obvious injuries so he hoped that Sheppard was only unconscious and not injured in any way that might complicate a future escape attempt.
David watched every movement the guards made and gasped aloud when they turned to deposit Sheppard on the floor, exposing his bare torso for all to see. David took in every single blemish on Sheppard's skin as the guards walked away and Mitchell was relived to realise that he was waiting for them to be out of earshot before he began to voice his worries and questions.
When finally the guards had been gone for several minutes David managed to peel his eyes away from Sheppard long enough to ask, "What the hell have they done to him?! He's a mess!"
"None of that was done here," Ronon replied. Mitchell couldn't get used to the big man saying much and he was still taken by surprise when he volunteered information. "Mitchell told you earlier he had been injured during a mission, that's why it has taken him so long to recover, his injuries were extensive."
"What about the things in his back?"
"Those are the bio-monitoring devices I was talking to Ronon about earlier," Mitchell admitted, not wanting to go into too much detail at that point;. "Again, it's a long story probably best told at a later date."
David merely nodded, turning back to watch the O'Neils drying off his brother and changing him into dry clothes. He was surprised when David didn't ask any more questions but realised that the questions would probably come later when the man had had a chance to adjust to the reality he was currently facing. For the time being he settled down on the floor next to Lily and wrapped his arm around her, both offering her comfort and as well as drawing comfort for himself from the action.
After about 20 minutes of the entire group watching Sheppard sleep, the man in question began to thrash violently and O'Neil grabbed a towel to wake him up. Mitchell was eternally grateful that O'Neil took such a keen interest in the welfare of his subordinates and made every effort to keep up to date on their mental and physical states. This meant that he was aware of the need not to have skin to skin contact with Sheppard, bit but it did present David with another opportunity to ask a question,; "I noticed earlier on that those two are being very careful to cover their hands with towels. Earlier I thought it was just because they were drying him off, but the older guy, the general, he just made sure his hands were wrapped in that towel before he touched John. Why is that?
David could have been talking to anyone as he never took his eyes off his brother who, although now sitting up, looked incredibly groggy and was coughing frequently.
Mitchell was amazed at how observant David was being, but looked helplessly at Ronon; he had only just learnt about John's condition and he certainly didn't know the circumstances behind it.
Ronon frowned with the realisation that he was going to have to try and explain what was going on.
David had been unaware of the silent exchange occurring behind him, but when neither of them started talking he turned around "well?"
Ronon shifted uncomfortably as the eyes of everyone in their cell came to rest on him. "When we were captured on our last mission the guy that held us captive gave Sheppard drugs. No one really understands what happened, not the doctors and not the guy that held us captive. From what the doctors say, it appears the combination of drugs mixed with the trauma of his injuries altered Sheppard's DNA... if he touches anyone who is injured or ill he heals them but it usually costs him..." Ronon trailed off, not sure it if that actually answered David's question, not knowing if he had said too much, - this was why he preferred leaving the speaking to other people.
David just stared, his mouth hanging open slightly. But it wasn't David who broke the silence.
"Who are you people?" Lily demanded.
Mitchell was patient with her. "As I said before, we're are with a branch of the military, Ronon's a consultant, but essentially we are we're space explorers, for lack of a better explanation."
Now it was David's turn to talk; "But we've only managed to send people to the moon; how can you explore space and did John heal me? I haven't felt this good in a really long time..."
"Our technology is much more advanced than you think. Originally we were travelling using stable wormholes, but over time we made friends with advanced cultures and they helped us to develop spaceships capable of inter-galaxy travel. And yes, we are fairly sure that Shep healed you; he wasn't supposed to, but I don't know how anyone could truly believe he wouldn't try to save his brother. You're lucky you only had cancer, apparently that's easier to heal than physical injuries." He wasn't sure how much of this was going over David's head, but he felt it would be easier to tell him all at once rather than in little bits.
David gaped. "If you had tried to tell me this on Earth I would have thought you were absolutely crazy and spent way too much time watching that terrible show, Wormhole Extreme."
Mitchell grimaced. "Yeah, that show was given the go ahead with the idea of promoting that sort of reaction should members of the public ever encounter a whistle-blower; or a situation we weren't able to contain..."
"That figures," David said slightly grumpily. "trust the government not to trust the population with something like this. You know, if they told us about the possibility of this happening then people could be more prepared for it! I almost feel bad for people who claim they have been abducted by aliens... how many of those are real?"
David's rant petered out, but Mitchell felt the need to answer his question "Before 2003 it's highly likely that a lot of them are telling the truth; an alien was caught abducting people and replacing them with clones until he was done with them. That's how young Jack over there happened; a glitch in the cloning process. Since then though it's less likely; we have very good detection and defence systems in place."
"I think you might need to put some more work into them." Lily pointed out, and indicating their surroundings.
"I didn't say it was a fool proof system,." Mitchell replied slightly defensive,. "We're getting off topic here; the point is Shep will be fine and we will work out a way to get out of here and back home."
It was at that moment the sound of cells further down the corridor being opened reached their ears. A moment later they also heard a voice instructing, "Where possible, take two men from each cell." Mitchell vaguely recognised the speaker as the man who had quizzed him about Sheppard earlier.
It took another couple of minutes before a large group of armed men with a slightly smaller group of prisoners stopped in front of their cell. The prisoner's clothes were in various states of disrepair, indicating that some of them had been on board longer than the newest arrivals. The guard who appeared to be in charge of the group had a cursory glance inside the cell before saying, "you two" indicating David and Ronon, "work party." The cell was opened and a glaring Ronon and a slightly unsure David stepped out, joining the group standing in front of them. As they did, there was a noticeable change in the sound of the ships working.
A/N: As one reviewer pointed out recently it has been almost 8 months since the last time I updated and for that im eternally sorry. This year has been one of my busiest and I just dont seem to have much time for writing at the moment... you can thank one reviewer for stroking my ego and several long train rides for the next few chapters and I will try much harder to finish the story off in style :)
A Huge shout out must also go to my new beta AmyCat for reading my chapters with a critical eye and offering helpful advice