Well, back to journal format again! Mainly because it's easier, and you guys need a break before the rest of the Stargate crew shows up. And besides, it's fun to write Sheppard being angsty every now and again.
April 22nd, 2006
The Crusaders have been slaughtered. My most optimistic assessment is that they suffered 90 percent casualties. Most of the survivors are just kids, really. The others…
It reminds me of Afghanistan, the aftermath of a Taliban raid on a refugee aid camp the Red Cross set up. I had been flying re-supply missions in. We were actually late due to a fuel line problem on my helo. A few news reporters would later dub us as "luckily tardy".
Yeah, lucky. Gee, how lucky that there was a first-aid kit for that reporter after his "nasty fall", huh?
And people wonder why the military hates the media.
Maester Seymour is apparently using this entire incident to put the moves on Yuna. The other Maester, whatever-the-hell-his-name-is, actually looks shattered. Well he'd better.
The biggest thing, however, is that missile strike. No fall-out, so it was a clean weapon. Aside from that, we don't have any clues as to who actually launched it. If I had to bet, I'd say it was launched by a ship in orbit. The way Sin fired a return shot directly up helps the case. If that's so, then the ship was probably destroyed by Sin since it didn't follow up on its last strike. I hope it wasn't an Earth ship… But something tells me there aren't too many other candidates.
Considering that nothing more has come from the sky after Sin returned fire… Good bet that the ship was either disabled, or destroyed. Of course, there is the field that was screwing with my instrumentation too. I'm trying not to think too hard about it.
I wonder if it even matters if I find my 302 or not at this point. A thing like Sin loose on this planet is just… Well, it's kept me from worrying too much about being recovered. Don't get me wrong, I hope I get rescued, what downed pilot doesn't? But as long as I'm here…
"John?" I looked up from the sphere recorder and stared at Yuna. Her fingers were laced in front of her belly, and she was looking, quite frankly, like hell. She had to do a sending ceremony every time someone died, collecting those pyreflies and sending them off who knows where. Heaven, Hell… Having to do that, after every battle, knowing you were handling someone…
She's a mortician. In a pretty dress. With the weight of her world on her shoulders. The rest of the group looks to have sobered up pretty quickly in reaction to… Everything. Good. They'll need to be.
"The sending is complete," she quietly stated into my brooding. "The Djose Temple is our next stop." I nodded, before turning to the recorder and hitting the off button. Before the device shut off, it caught my response:
"Got it."
"From the Daedalus's sensor logs, what we're dealing with is definitely some kind of energy-based lifeform," Doctor McKay began his lecture, as the rest of Atlantis's command staff listened attentively in the meeting room. The Canadian astrophysicist pressed a few commands on the flat screen, and a wireframe-skeleton of the monster Daedalus had fired upon dominated the display. Aeris, sitting next to Dr. Weir, shivered slightly. Colonel Caldwell noticed, but didn't react further.
"We've seen something similar," McKay went on. "The System Lord Anubis had life and energy readings very much like what we were seeing from… Well, the whatever-it-is."
"Sin," Aeris murmured. McKay blinked and stared with the rest of the assembled staff. Aeris looked up, her eyes eerily blank.
"I was able to catch some impressions when I was talking to the planet," Aeris explained.
"Establishing a psychic link to the main Ascension control system," McKay 'translated'… Sort of.
"Why did you attempt this?" Weir asked. Aeris regained her focus.
"The energy signatures from the planet are very similar to those of PLANET, and the Lifestream," Aeris put forth. "I managed to establish a link into something like the Lifestream… But not quite. And the creature is part of it, somehow." The Cetra looked around the room.
"It's name is Sin."
"What else did you receive from the link?" Asked Caldwell, suspicion entering his voice. Everyone else mentally rolled their eyes at the colonel's perpetual paranoia.
"Nothing else…" Aeris shrugged. "I think the creature found out what I was doing and shut me out. Just before the missile struck it."
"Meaning that we could be dealing with another Anubis," Weir surmised. McKay coughed to get everyone's attention back.
"Only one that's about… ten million, three-hundred and fifty thousand, nine-hundred and forty-two times more powerful." The gapes McKay received confirmed that his message was indeed getting through.
"Is the creature using the planet's lifestream to power itself?" Caldwell asked Aeris. The Cetra frowned.
"I'm sorry, but I don't know for sure. The most I was able to get from the link were impressions… And an identity. Sin…" Aeris took a deep breath. "It is… If it was human, or an Ancient, it is now reduced to what it does. It maintains a kind of order, along a line of behavior that cannot deviate." Aeris decided not to mention the mental image of a man in bizarre clothing she'd gotten-She was stressing her credibility as it was.
"Like a computer?" Zelenka asked, his eyes brightening. Finally!
"Yes! It's programmed to carry out a directive of some kind." Aeris turned to McKay. "Since the world in question has such a low population, and so many ruins, is it possible that Sin is responsible for keeping the people down?" McKay nodded thoughtfully.
"The scans we got were still being distorted by the planet's energy field, but we have cleaned them up enough to determine that this world was once the home of considerably more advanced and numerous peoples." McKay indicated a few windows of ruins Daedalus had surveyed from orbit. "But, it doesn't look like anything on the surface is responsible for the interference. Is this planet's Lifestream responsible for that too?" Aeris nodded.
"Probably. As for why, and how?" The young woman shook her head. "I haven't the slightest idea. All I know is that Sin is at the heart of whatever is occurring on that world." Her green eyes narrowed. "I also know that we have to stop it."
The determination in her usually light and carefree voice was a bit of a shock to the room.
"We must recover Colonel Sheppard," Teyla interjected. "And allowing such an atrocity to continue unchallenged would leave us no better than the Wraith." Caldwell nodded, and turned to Weir.
"Dr. Weir, with your permission, I'd like to take the Daedalus back to the planet and begin a full survey. The sooner we figure out what's going on down there, the better." Caldwell shook his head. "I hate to think what the Wraith would do if they could get their hands on the technology responsible for that monster." Weir nodded.
"You have a go. In the meantime, Aeris? Rodney? Zelenka? Start working on a way to access the world through the link again. And get Carson on it too-We don't want to risk Sin forcing his way back into Aeris's mind." Teyla tensed momentarily at this comment, which Aeris noted. The Cetra resolved to speak with the Athosian about this at a later time, as she was naturally curious about the Atlantis expedition as it was.
"In the mean time, we'll see if we can establish a wormhole with the planet," Weir continued, before smiling slightly. "We're definitely going to need Dr. Jackson if it goes through, Teyla, so you might want to retrieve him from the mainland."
"I will requisition a pilot immediately," Teyla promised. Weir nodded.
"Dismissed."
April 26th, 2006
So we got Ixion, this new lightening-based Aeon. Looks like a freaky unicorn zombie. The way it blasts lightening, however, is very awesome. Against the fiends, we've been able to combine it and Lulu's powers together to great affect, allowing us to kick the ass of any monster that tries to attack us.
Honestly though, you'd think that after beating these creatures over a dozen times in one hour would make the other beasts take the hint?
Yuna really worried me-us, I mean, at the shrine. It's almost like every Aeon she gains saps away more of her health. After getting Ixion, she was unconscious for over eight hours. Her heart rate and breathing were pretty stable while she was out… But I'm no doctor. I can't be sure that this isn't burning out her brain cells or something like that. Or messing with her lifeforce.
She's determined to go on. I told her that we need to find this planet's Stargate, so I can get her to Atlantis. We can get McKay and the rest working on the problem, so that we can defeat Sin and make sure that no more Summoners have to die.
Yuna told me that we didn't even know where Spira's Stargate might be. Wakka dismissed it as more Sin venom talking, while Tidus thought it was insane. How's that for irony?
Surprisingly enough, it was Lulu and Auron who supported trying to find the Stargate. The libraries at Guadosalam, the capital of the Guado Nation (and our next stop) might have some records on the Stargate. As long as it didn't interfere in the pilgrimage, they were for it.
Well, Auron was for it. Lulu seemed to have been convinced by Auron enough to side with him, but still didn't look happy.
We're headed for the Moonflow now… I just hope it lets us rest after everything we've been through. We're going to need it.
Aeris sighed deeply, her eyes tightly shut. The various monitors and devices attached to her forehead made her skin itch, and the hum of the medical scanners above her were giving the young Ancient a headache.
"Allright Aeris, try it again," McKay ordered, his eyes fixed on his computer screens. Nearby, Dr. Zelenka observed his own computer screens, while Dr. Beckett and a few of his nurses stayed at the sides of her bed. The young woman opened her eyes up and looked over at the Canadian physicist in exasperation.
"I've told you, I've tried connecting ten times already," Aeris huffed. "It's not letting me through. The distance also doesn't help."
"We're relaying your patterns via subspace to the planet. How is distance a factor?" McKay complained. Aeris rolled her eyes.
"I need physical proximity, Doctor. It's the only way it works!"
"As far as you know," McKay replied flatly. "Now, c'mon… We can't go back with a ship until you can control the connection."
"But I can't make a connection unless we're within a certain distance onboard a ship!" Aeris shot back. McKay rolled his eyes.
"Well, I don't know about you, but I don't fancy getting blown out of the sky by a gigantic Ascended monster, do you?" Aeris grit her teeth, even as Dr. Beckett patted her shoulder comfortingly.
"It's allright, lass, he's just being himself."
"I heard that!" McKay snorted. Carson smirked.
"Ye were supposed to, Rodney."
"Look Aeris, until we make a connection to the planet, we're not going anywhere, okay? So, once more…?" Rodney prompted, shooting the Ancient girl a dirty look. Aeris stuck out her tongue back at him, leading Carson and a few of his nurses to laugh.
"Oh, that's real mature," Rodney sniffed.
"Seemed appropriate for my combatant," Aeris shot back. Rodney gritted his teeth.
"Just make the connection already!" Aeris closed her eyes, muttering something under her breath that made Carson cough suspiciously.
"… Theta-level waves approaching 30 percent," Zelenka reported.
"Vitals stable," added Beckett. McKay nodded thoughtfully.
"Aeris? Aeris, are you getting anything?" The Ancient girl didn't reply. Beckett looked over the monitors.
"She's fine according to the sensors," Carson supplied, confused. McKay shook his head, and looked back at the readings.
"Aeris, the level's at 60 percent. You should be getting something. I need that information!" The Ancient girl's eyes flew open, as warning beeps sounded from everywhere.
"Aw Good Lord!" Beckett cursed. "Her heart rate's dropping! Rodney, shut it off!"
McKay terminated the connection with Atlantis's subspace transceiver, and looked back worriedly at Aeris.
"Damnit Rodney!"
"I cut it! She should be fine!" Rodney shouted. Carson checked her eyes, and groaned.
"Damnit… Code Blue! Get me the cart!" The nurses had it standing by when the experiment began, and Carson took the paddles with practiced ease. A nearby nurse torn open Aeris's shirt, revealing her cotton bra.
"Clear!" A burst of electricity to her heart made Aeris jump, as a nurse used an air pump to keep her breathing. The Ancient girls' vitals remained the same.
"Clear!" Carson announced again, pushing the paddles hard against her chest. The warning beeps switched to normal monitoring sounds, as Aeris blinked her eyes and gasped loudly.
"AUUGGHHHH!" She screamed, leaping up and trying to get out of the bed. Carson and the other medical staffers crowded around and restrained her, fighting the shrieking Ancient girl's attempts to escape. Aeris calmed down after a few moments, holding her hands over her eyes as she continued to breathe labouredly.
"Uh… She okay?" Rodney asked nervously. Carson sighed heavily.
"She's stable…"
"Not exactly," Aeris mumbled. She looked up at Rodney, who flinched.
"It's okay, Rodney…" Aeris reassured him in a soft but firm voice. "It… Sin… It just… It repelled me." Rodney blinked.
"You mean, you made contact with it?"
"Yes, but not long. It threw me out of contact the moment I tried to delve any deeper…" She sighed, shaking slightly. "It was… Terrifying."
"What? How? Why?" Rodney asked fervently. Carson moved to herd Rodney away, but Aeris held up a hand to stop him.
"It… It felt like it had the pain and anguish of the entire planet at its disposal." She shivered. "And it used it on me, like pouring hot lead into my brain."
"Out of… Anger?" Asked Carson. Aeris shook her head.
"No… Even worse, it seemed to do it out of instinct…"
Dr. Weir frowned at the images their MALP were sending back through the wormhole. It had made the transit to the world they'd dubbed "Sin's Planet" without any apparent problems. It looked like the dampening field surrounding the planet didn't affect Stargate travel…
But even getting to the world Colonel Sheppard was trapped on didn't brighten her mood much once she saw what it was like.
"Definitely thousand year-old ruins, ma'am," the MALP controller reported from his station. "The spectrometer confirms the sample."
"Composition?" Weir asked, looking out over the desolate, semi-submerged ruins of what was once a huge city.
"Steel, polymers, carbon composites… Some trace amounts of naquada," the controller answered. Ronan frowned as he looked over another screen of the MALP's view.
"Definitely don't look like any architecture I've ever seen," he stated to Weir's questioning look. The doctor nodded and sighed.
"I see… So we're going in blind. Lovely." She turned back to the MALP operator. "Wha kind of climate are we talking about here?"
"Definitely temperate coastal environment. Judging from the topography, looks like the 'Gate is positioned in a cove, probably isolated from the main city." He maneuvered the camera of the robot to look over a huge cliff wall, massive boulders and shards of stone littering the foot of the mountains.
"The Stargate was probably in a cavern, that mostly collapsed around it," the controller went on. "Definitely suggest rock-climbing gear, ma'am."
"I'll inform Doctor Jackson," Weir nodded. "Has Teyla returned with him yet?"
"Yes ma'am, their Jumper should be touching down in the next ten minutes," Sergeant Barnes reported, a finger pressed to his radio earpiece. Weir turned to Ronan, who nodded.
"Get prepped, Ronan. We'll be going in as soon as Doctor Jackson and Teyla are here and briefed." She smiled.
"We're going to find John."
Combined two chapters in one! Look for further updates as time goes on!