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Part 8/24

-Chapter 8-

Decisions

Elizabeth composed herself with a visible effort after John's bombshell. "All right, everyone: conference room, now." She touched her headset, passing the order on to Beckett and Zelenka. As the Marines on guard duty outside the room started to fall in with them, she shook her head. "Thank you, dismissed." Nothing else was said until everyone had settled into places around the conference room table.

As John took a seat at Elizabeth's left, he saw that Sheppard had taken the place to her right. He took a quick glance to see how the rest of the seating arrangements had shaken out. Interestingly enough, the two Ronons had placed themselves as far apart as possible on opposite sides of the table.

"So, Colonel," Elizabeth said, sitting very straight in her chair. "Atlantis is destroyed?"

"Not completely." John nervously clenched his hands together, feeling a little like a bug under a microscope. Everyone except Ronon was staring at him. "There were few towers left standing. EM radiation knocked out most of our Earth-based technology, so for a while it did seem like. . ."

Rodney butted in. "Whoa, wait a minute, EM radiation? How did you get that from a Wraith attack?"

"Rodney, allow him to finish." Elizabeth neither raised her voice nor removed her gaze from John. "Colonel, please continue."

John let out a soft breath. "It was how we managed to save the rest of the city from being destroyed. The Daedalus arrived from Earth right before the attack began, but the bombardment by the Hives eventually left it dead in space. They couldn't use their hyperdrive or sublight engines. Colonel Caldwell ordered Hermiod to rig the Asgard hyperdrive to overload, hoping the explosion would be powerful enough to take out the Hives. They used maneuvering thrusters to nudge themselves into position. The shockwave destroyed the Hives, but the accompanying EM pulse knocked down our computers for days."

Rodney looked a little green. "I always wondered how powerful the explosion of an Asgard hyperdrive would be. I guess now I know."

Radek shoved his glasses up his nose. "I think I know where you're going with this. When Daedalus arrives from Earth to help us, we dismantle their hyperdrive and somehow get it into a Hive ship after rigging for an overload. Then we get Daedalus out and blow up the Wraith before they have a chance to begin siege." The Czech looked to McKay. "It's brilliant."

Rodney began shaking a finger at no one in particular. "Yes, yes, I think that may just work. It will leave Daedalus stranded; but with the Intergalactic Gate Bridge it shouldn't be too much trouble to get another hyperdrive out here to install in the ship. They can use their sublights to leave right after we take out the Asgard hyperdrive, and that should give them plenty of time to get away before we overload." He looked at Radek, then to John. "My, that is brilliant!"

John was already shaking his head. "You're not understanding what I'm saying. We can't deprive the Daedalus of its hyperdrive engine. They're going to need it to execute the real plan."

McKay narrowed his eyes, looking insulted. "Oh, really, Colonel. And what would the real plan be?"

John cleared his throat. "We'll keep the hyperdrive as plan B. Plan A involves the Thing – ah, the time travel device."

Zelenka's eyes widened. "You mean it is also weapon?" He got a reverent look on his face at the thought.

John tugged at his black wristband. He looked at Ronon, who had sat in stony silence so far. The big Satedan shrugged his shoulders slightly as he returned John's glance, then refocused his gaze on the tabletop.

Okay, apparently he was going to have to say it all himself. "No. Not a weapon. But our McKay was able to do a lot of extensive tests on in it in the four months after Atlantis was wrecked. He's pretty sure it can be used as a weapon."

Elizabeth let out her breath and leaned forward, resting her elbows on the tabletop. "The time field."

Rodney snapped his fingers. "Of course. Genius! Time travel takes a lot of power. So, theoretically—"

"—If we can somehow cut off energy flow to capacitors controlling the time travel part of device—" Zelenka interrupted, but Rodney cut him off before he could finish.

"—We channel that energy into an overload, destroy the Hives and save Atlantis!" Rodney's voice rose to a fever pitch. "That's it!"

Zelenka deflated. "No, Rodney, wait."

"What?" Teyla and Dex said at the same time, both looking lost.

Radek pushed his glasses up again. "You know Ancients were sticklers for failsafes. There is probably one embedded in the device to activate a time jump, keep it from overloading and exploding." His narrow shoulders slumped.

"Pfft." Rodney sniffed derisively. "No problem at all. We'll just have to disable the failsafe and prevent it from activating the time travel part of the device."

"It's not that easy." All eyes turned back to John—again. "As I said, the Rodney in our time has done a lot of studying of the Thing. There's a failsafe for the failsafe. It's like you—he—said: time travel is serious business." He raised his hands helplessly at McKay's sour look. "I can't help it. The Ancients wanted to make absolutely sure that everything worked the way it should."

"That's why no one should mess around with time," McKay grumped. "No one should have to deal with such problems, let alone me."

Elizabeth folded her hands, eyebrow arching upwards. "Are you saying that this is beyond your abilities, Rodney?"

McKay scowled darkly. "No, of course it's not! I am just saying that time travel is like Pandora's Box. It's something that should never be opened."

"And that brings us to a point raised earlier that needs further discussion." Her gaze moved around the table, pinning each person present for a brief second. "Do we have the moral right to alter the future? Yes, granted, the timeline has already taken some damage, but I hope I am correct in saying the damage is currently localized in Atlantis. Not to denigrate either your effort or your intent, Colonel, if we proceed with this plan the future of at least two galaxies will be impacted. I'm not sure I can even imagine all the repercussions. I'm not sure I want to."

John tiredly rubbed his eyes; he felt Ronon go rigid beside him. "We understood going into this that we would be changing history. This is worth the risk." He looked straight at Elizabeth, even though it took all his willpower to keep his heart out of his eyes. "Look, it's not just that this is our home now. Atlantis is the Pegasus galaxy's last hope for defeating the Wraith, and keeping them from Earth and the Milky Way. We have to do this for the future's sake."

"I'm not sure I can just stand back and let the Wraith win." Sheppard spoke for the first time from the other side of the table. "And that's what we would be doing. Where's the morality in letting Atlantis be almost destroyed when we have the chance to stop it? We have to do this, Elizabeth."

Elizabeth's expression continued to show signs of inward struggle for a long moment as she stared down at her hands, locked together on the tabletop in white-knuckled intensity. It seemed everyone else in the room was holding their breaths.

In a decisive movement, she placed her hands flat on the table and rose to her feet, showing them a face which now held only determination. "Very well, people," she said. "You heard him -- them. Let's go save Atlantis."

To Be Continued. . .