Disclaimer: Atlantis is not mine. I'd love to have a jumper though….

Chapter 5

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Lieutenant Colonel John Sheppard, military commander of Atlantis, had a desk. He had become a paper pusher, what an embarrassment. Elizabeth would have loved to see this. The sad thing was, he hadn't even seen it coming, I mean sure he'd not been on any missions since Emily disappeared, but he just figured that Beckett had signed him off. No such luck, somehow word must have filtered back to his superiors about his apparent inability to file paperwork correctly, it was the only explanation. Either that or they just wanted to torture him. Which was also a theory worth considering; he was renowned for not obeying orders after all.

He considered the pile of mission reports on the desk, it never seemed to get any smaller, "No wonder Elizabeth never got any time off." He said to himself, reaching for the next in the stack, it was going to be a long day.

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Teyla stretched out her unused muscles, being on the mainland had its disadvantages, not being able to train was one of them. Ronan's decision to stay on the mainland for a short time changed that situation rather. Colonel Sheppard had described him as having 'itchy feet' neither Teyla nor Ronan could quite understand the reasoning behind the statement.

"Ready?" Ronan questioned, as he shook out his own limbs.

"I am ready. Are you?"

He grinned his response and crouched into a fighting stance. Not long into the fight Teyla realised how rusty she had become, and how Ronan was compensating for it. "Do not hold back, or I shall never improve." She panted, ducking under his arm.

"Possibly, but if I don't you'll end up on the floor."

"Oh I count on it." She responded mischievously, "How else will I ever learn?"

Laughing Ronan caught her by the arms and swept her feet from under her, landing her on the ground with a bump. Releasing her arms he let her regain her feet. "Better?" he asked.

"Much, thank you. Again?"

"With pleasure."

Four bouts later and Teyla was exhausted. It was rare that she could beat him at peak fitness, there was no hope at the moment. "I am exhausted, I must quit now."

"Ok. Is there food? I'm hungry."

"Yes Ronan," Teyla said laughing, "There's food."

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Rodney checked his computer logs, he'd been running the tracer programme in the background ever since he'd first found the signal, he was trying to pinpoint the exact location of the origin, but so far he'd only managed to pinpoint Earth, which wasn't much of an achievement. According to his readings, there had been several of these incoming messages within the last fortnight, which was bizarre. Previously there had been only one occurrence per week of the peculiar signal, this increase could be signalling something else, something bad.

Suddenly the signal became active, picking up the trace, McKay grinned to himself. Live transmissions were easier to track, and they could be recorded. Seconds ticked by, and then he had it. The origin. He picked up the headphones and listened to some of the conversation.

"Oh crap." He said as he realised what it meant.

"I have to tell Sheppard." Grabbing the recording from his computer he ran from the room.

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Smiling to herself, Dr Meyer shut off her computer ran through her mental "to do" list. The plan had been stepped up, and the time was nearly here to complete it. Her superiors wanted Atlantis, and the city would be theirs.

The removal of key members of the Atlantis staff had been tricky to arrange, but achievable. A few well phrased conversations, 'accidentally' miss-sent disciplinaries and one or two direct re-assignments meant that the flagship team, and those most loyal to Earth, were all set to be sent away from Atlantis permanently.

It was time for the final stage.

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Rodney hurtled down the hallway in a distinctly ungainly manner; not being the most coordinated member of Atlantis had its drawbacks, for example the fact that he nearly trampled Lieutenant Cadman. Adamant to know why he'd nearly flattened her, she demanded he explain what his rush was. McKay refused to stop, but yelled for her to follow him if she really wanted to know. Cadman followed, shaking her head.

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"One more to go." John said to himself as he reached for the last report on the pile, it had taken him all day to get through the reports and he was seriously considering handing in his resignation after this. "So, MX12-743, what do you have for me today?" He mumbled, opening the file.

He barely reached the second sentence of the report when a very sweaty and out of breath Rodney McKay crashed through the door, closely followed by a grumpy looking Laura Cadman.

"Er hi guys!" John said with a mixture of amusement and confusion, "what's up?"

"I……..saw" Rodney panted, "I………saw."

"Saw what McKay?"

"Not me obviously," Cadman grumbled, "he practically trampled me to death in the corridor just now."

"Can she be here? " John asked, gesturing at Cadman, "I mean, is it important."

Rodney gulped air for several seconds before answering, "She's fine, we're gonna need all the people we can get on our side when this gets out."

"When what gets out?" Cadman asked looking confused, "what's this about?"

Rodney ignored her and plugged the disk into John's computer. "Shut the door, and lock it please." He told John. Glancing across to check it had been done, McKay started the recording he'd taken from Meyer's conversation.

"………It's well under way now sir."

"Good to hear. Have you arranged everyone's removal?"

"Yes Sir. That McKay man is to be re-assigned to Earth in a few days, and I think he'll jump at the chance after being cooped up in the bowels of the city for so long. Sheppard and Beckett are to be sent to another base in Afghanistan. The Athosian woman and that other one appear to have left us of their own volition."

"Excellent work, and the others?"

"They're working well, the city is nearly ours sir."

"Good to hear. I'll check in with you again in eight hours."

Sheppard and Cadman listened to the recording with somewhat glazed expressions. John spoke first.

"What was that?" he asked incredulously.

"The question is less what than who, the man whose voice you heard? That's Erik Van Leigh." Rodney countered.

"Er. Who?" John asked, feeling foolish and irritated all at once.

"Erik Van Leigh." Cadman responded before Rodney got the chance, "He's the CEO of the Van Leigh Software House, they create very sophisticated computer graphics systems, as well as some kick ass games, you must have played…….."

"Yes, yes, yes." Rodney interjected, "But their 'kick ass games' aren't what we should be bothered about." He accessed the military database and pulled up a few more documents on the screen. "I recognised his voice because I had a friend that worked at his company, I say worked because the company had a huge overhaul of all it's high ranking employees about a year ago, Van Leigh had a press conference saying there had been a security leak and that certain key members of personnel were no longer trustworthy, he ruined a lot of lives. Anyway my point, Van Leigh made this decision after being away on vacation for six months, he went from being a remarkable leader who was concerned about the welfare of every person on his staff, to the demon headmaster! All the most trusted people were fired."

"AND?"

"Demon headmaster?" Cadman queried.

"Kids book in the nineties about this guy who hypnotised children and wanted to take over the world." John responded before prompting Rodney again.

"AND, he's been linked, very recently I might add, with Farrow-Marshall Aeronautics."

He looked at the blank expressions of the two officers and sighed.

"Farrow-Marshall aeronautics was implicated by SG1 as being linked to the Trust, their new leader was Baal."

"So this means what exactly?" Cadman asked; her expression troubled.

"It means, there is a very strong possibility that our own 'good doctor' is working for the Trust."