Chapter 39: Justice

As they reached the door to the jumper bay and the door slid open there was a shout from behind them. As a group they turned to face the source of the voice, it was Harvey with a group of armed Lanteans who faced them.

"Pietor was spotted moving..." He didn't get the chance to finish as gunfire erupted.

The unarmed group of the medics, Rodney, Zelenka and the O'Neills dove for the cover of the jumper bay whilst the armed group turned to return fire down the second corridor that led away from the door to the jumper bay.

From where he was taking cover O'Neill saw soldier after soldier falling to the ground. As a fifth soldier fell O'Neill saw Harvey diving for something on the ground, when he saw it was a P90 that he had grabbed O'Neill moved to intercept him but before he got far he realised Harvey was not pointing the gun his soldiers but some unknown target further down the corridor.

A single shot rang out and the corridor fell silent as the unseen shooter stopped. There was a shout of "All clear" a minute later and O'Neill moved out into the corridor, Keller close behind, when she had ensured the unarmed group were in one piece. They both moved to the nearest soldier who had been hit and O'Neill immediately recognised Major Lorne. Keller knelt down but before she could start to check him over he groaned, coughed and sat up saying "I'm ok doc, he got the vest, maybe a few bruised ribs but nothing serious."

They moved round all the downed soldiers and realised that they had all caught rounds in their vests. Harvey watched in amazement as one by one the soldiers sat up "I don't understand; Pietor was a crack shot, he didn't miss."

Looking at the dead man lying halfway down the corridor O'Neill answered "I guess you guys have never heard of Kevlar. Why did you help us?"

"I did not agree with Pietor's methods, recently he has been far more brutal than was necessary, someone should have done that a long time ago" was Harvey's reply, he looked a little shocked with himself.

"Who is in charge now?" O'Neill asked thinking maybe they could open talks with whoever was next in line.

"I am." Harvey told him "The head of security forces always makes the necessary decisions for the population. As Pietor's second in command that responsibility now falls to me."

"Will your people be ok with the transition?"

"I do not believe there will be any issues." Harvey admitted "We are raised to follow the strict ways of our people without question."

"General O'Neill, we need to get back to Atlantis, I want to make sure there was no long-term damage done by that contraption so you will need to come with us." Keller informed him, the medics had already started to load the stretcher containing Sheppard onto the jumper now they were sure all the downed soldiers would be ok.

O'Neill knew better than to argue with a doctor employed by the stargate program and instead just nodded turning to Major Lorne who had come over to listen to the conversation he was having with Harvey "Major if you are ok to stick around I would like you to take charge, ensure the population is comfortable and has everything they need but keep them confined for the time being, we will send up more soldiers and when your backup arrives we will go about explaining what has happened and the change in leadership." Turning to Harvey he said "We have no interest in taking over your ship but we do want to ensure you don't leave and continue kidnapping people. If you and your people cooperate with us we will do what we can to help you resolve your power issues and find a location you can finally settle."

Harvey just nodded and got to his feet "We welcome any help you can give us; I think it's time to stop running."

Knowing that Lorne would be able to keep everything in order, based on the reports he had read about the man, O'Neill turned and walked onto the waiting jumper. Just before the ramp was closed he turned and said "Oh, and Major Lorne, get the ex-captives as much food as they want, we will organise transporting them off this ship shortly."

Lorne nodded and the ramp closed sealing off the small group. O'Neill looked around to see what was happening; Teyla and Ronon sat to one side, out of the way watching on with worried expressions as Keller and the other medics worked to stabilise him. They had put an oxygen mask on him but O'Neill knew that it wasn't really necessary based on past experience; Sheppard was coughing sporadically but want really struggling to breathe. He was shivering now but O'Neill wasn't sure whether this was due to the fact that he was still soaking wet or due to shock. Seeing a free seat next to Jack he went and sat next to the teen as he felt the almost imperceptible change that indicated the jumper had taken off.

"Time to Atlantis is approximately ten minutes." The pilot reported as O'Neill turned to look at his double. The kid had a slightly shocked look on his face, although mentally he was beyond his years physically he was still young and the release of the constant tension of the last month or so made him look younger still. Of course raging hormones and a body that isn't conditioned to the hardships that his mind remembered certainly didn't help.

"You ok kid?" O'Neill asked him.

Jack just nodded "I was starting to have doubts about succeeding in getting out of there."

O'Neill didn't really know what he could say to that; they were free now and all that was left to do was to find a way to settle the captors and return as many captives home as possible, none of which would be down to Jack, a teenager in most people's eyes. Instead he just patted the boy on the back trying to comfort him, slightly uncomfortable with the fact he was essentially comforting himself.

Looking back over to the activity on the floor of the jumper O'Neill was relieved to see that although some of the bandages covering Sheppard's wounds were saturated with blood the heart-rate monitor was showing a steady, stable heart-rate. Keller was giving Sheppard oxygen but O'Neill recognised the minor breathing difficulty Sheppard was having as being a result of the power chamber and couldn't see anything beyond what he had come to see as normal. Given the amount of time he had been in the tank O'Neill would have expected Sheppard to start coming around anytime now but taking the trauma his body had also undergone into account O'Neill wasn't sure what he should expect.

Another five minutes passed with no one other than the medical staff saying a word. Eventually the pilot announced they were approaching Atlantis, O'Neill looked up and had to suppress the urge to gasp. He had seen the city before of course, both the inside and the outside from the balconies but he had never seen the entire city from the air. Jack was unable to suppress the urge to gasp of amazement but then this was the first time he was seeing the city.

At this point Keller chose to raise her voice slightly so that it carried to everyone on the jumper not just the medics "Make sure there's a medical team on standby ready to receive us and can you also find someone to take David Sheppard out of the way, he doesn't need to see his brother this way."

O'Neill hadn't even registered that David would be anywhere near where the jumper would land and was thankful for Keller's forward thinking. Sheppard definitely looked a state at the moment but there was no point in worrying David until they had a little more information.

The jumper descended through an opening in the top of one of the towers and within a minute they landed gently. The various different groups of people moved to the side of the jumper and stepped out as soon as they could, leaving Keller and her team with John, Teyla and Ronon in the jumper. As O'Neill stepped out of the jumper with the two pilots the secondary medical team moved into action, while most of the team moved into the jumper to help Keller one member split away to approach O'Neill.

"General Sir, you and your..." The man paused obviously noting the similarities between O'Neill and Jack "Um companion need to follow me to the infirmary to be checked over please."

O'Neill nodded happy to be taken out of the way, the adrenaline of the fight was leaving his system and he was beginning to realise just how tired he really was. He knew there was nothing else he could do and that he would be kept in the loop about Sheppard's treatment as well as the treatment of any other personnel who had been treated.