Chapter 29: The Start of a Plan

O'Neil was furious; if Sheppard was as weak as he felt right now just a day and a half ago then there was no way he had had the energy to put up any real resistance to being put back in the tank. Indeed from the brief glance he had got of the man he could see that, despite how hard he was trying to hide it, just the act of standing was energy sapping.

Now being helped back to his cell O'Neil flashed back to his time in the tank; the battle to overcome his natural reaction to hold his breath had been mentally taxing but once he had the burning sensation had only lasted a couple of minutes whilst his body adapted to the new medium.

His next natural reaction had been to slip towards unconsciousness but he had forced himself to stay awake; he wanted to figure out what else, if anything went on in the power cell and how the ship was being controlled. He had had a fair amount of practice in alien devices over the years and so had been able to ignore the effect the machine had been having on his body to some extent. What he had learnt was that while the technicians in the room seemed to maintain the power cell's systems and change the power output ultimately they did not appear to have control of the ship.

There was a single console in the corner of the room that O'Neil got the impression was a communications console as after consulting the consol the power outputs were altered. It meant that ultimate control of the ship was located elsewhere but, as long as there were no other power cells on the ship, gaining control of the power room would ultimately mean gaining control of a number of different functions of the ship.

A wracking cough brought him back to the present and he realised it was him that was coughing, still trying to clear the last of the liquid from his lungs. He was back in the corridor of cells and within about a minute they were back outside the cell that Jack and Lucas were in. He watched one of the guards speak into a small device and thirty seconds later the Plexiglas front of the cell slid up and O'Neil stepped onto the soft padding before he was pushed. He saw Lucas playing in his cot in the corner before Jack was in front of him looking worriedly into his face.

Not needing words to understand what the kid was thinking he sought to alleviate his worries; "I'm ok kiddo, just a bit tired is all." He sunk down wearily onto the padded floor, accepting the towel that Jack handed to him. He pulled off his top and towelled himself off.

"Why are you ok but Sheppard was so badly off after this?" Jack asked.

O'Neil continued towelling himself off as he thought about his answer. As he pulled on the fresh top that Jack handed him he said; "Sheppard wasn't one hundred percent when we arrived, he was already weak. That and they keep saying that he provides more power than anyone else, it's possible that the ship is literally taking more out of him than anyone else." He had finished changing now and stretched out on the floor sighing. "Why have you got Lucas in his cot?" he asked seeing the tot standing looking over the side of the cot at him.

Jack lifted the child out saying "He got out of the cell when they came for Sheppard, I didn't like the way the guy in charge looked at him. It was like he was looking at a bug he wanted to crush; I thought it would be better to keep him out of the way when I heard people in the corridor."

"Good thought kid. If the boss is the same guy I'm thinking of I'm pretty sure he was responsible for the fairly impressive shiner Sheppard was supporting the last time I saw him."

Jack just grimaced as he turned back to O'Neil holding some food. "Eat this and sleep, I'll wake you if anyone comes.

O'Neil nodded, accepting the food. "I wonder if Mitchell and the others are having better luck finding out about the control of the ship, I don't think our lot are going to see much more than the corridors to the power chamber and maybe the med bay..." O'Neil had finished eating by this point and had started drifting off. When Jack saw this he decided not to reply and instead picked up Lucas, quietly moving to the other side of the cell where he could play without disturbing the sleeping man.

From where Mitchell sat O'Neil looked to be in pretty good compared to the way Sheppard had when he was bought back, at least the General was conscious and appeared to be holding a coherent conversation with Jack as he cleaned himself up. He hadn't been happy to see Sheppard taken again so soon and the frustration at not being able to help him had welled up.

O'Neil getting changed had prompted another awkward conversation as his scars had come into sight. Most of them were pretty old now with the exception of some relatively new ones on one of his knees, Mitchell knew that the General's knees had taken a beating over the years and he had relented last year and had keyhole surgery on the worst one.

The conversation had started when Lily had commented on the fact that there seemed to be a lot of individuals who were badly scarred. Mitchell had sighed, he seemed to be doing a lot of that lately; "The General was part of the first group to travel to other planets the way we do now, over the eight years he was part of the flagship team he contracted diseases, was injured and almost died more than he probably cares to admit. All things considered he is in pretty good condition; he's alive and is completely mobile. It's more than a lot of people can say and he and his team prevented the invasion of earth on more than one occasion. Soldiers get injured all the time, look at the number that are injured in Afghanistan, and that's just fighting other people." He had given up trying to sugar coat their situation; it might even be beneficial for their civilian companions to have a better understanding of what was going on.

"Oh" Lily said, it was obvious she hadn't thought of this. Even on earth many soldiers were injured but the papers rarely report injuries, it was mostly just the deaths that were reported. It meant that many civilians were unaware of the extent of the situation. "Wait, you just said just fighting humans..." She didn't finish her sentence but the question was obvious.

"Yeah, you don't think that with all the planets out there the individuals we encounter are human?"

"No, I suppose not" Lily admitted.

Mitchell was surprised that she was so accepting and didn't ask any more questions. He didn't push the matter and drew Ronon to one side. "It would probably blow their minds if we told them you were an alien." He said it quietly so that they wouldn't be overheard but he had a big grin on his face. "Look, I know that you spent a lot of time travelling through different planets so if you see the opportunity to get out of here and get back to earth, take it I'll give you the gate code for the alpha site, you'll be able to get back to earth safely from there. If you can tell them what is happening they may have a better chance of tracking us down."

Ronon nodded in agreement, he would make sure that every time they had the opportunity to go down to a planet he would be selected. It was possible their captors didn't know about stargates or maybe they would just get careless.

A/N: Just a sort one to keep you going thanks for all the reviews :)