Lucky me, I have the flu! (Yeah. Not so lucky. I'm completely miserable. I had to miss my band concert, too.) However, it's kind of lucky for you, because I now have a whole lot of time to finish this chapter, which is kind of exciting.

I do apologize if it sounds kind of like the incoherent ravings of a madwoman. I'm on medication at the moment, and haven't eaten anything in... a while. That I've kept down anyways.

Please keep those reviews coming. I know they're kind of a bother, but they really do help keep the inspiration flowing, and feedback makes for happy authors. Happy authors make for excellent chapters. Excellent chapters make for happy readers, and happy readers make for more reviews! (Circle of life.)

Compromising Positions: Chapter 11
Breathe

"I would like to welcome each and every one of you to tonight's celebrations with all of my heart," Elizabeth pronounced, a little thrown by the sound of her amplified voice reverberating over the utterly silent crowd massed before her, which swayed in sympathy with each breath of wind that sporadically swept over the surface of the East Pier, where they were gathered. Their usual gathering places, such as the Cafeteria or 'gate room, had proved to small to hold them. This was in spite of the fact that not every member of the expedition was present, as there needed to be people manning the various stations of the city at all times, for safety purposes. However, it was very close to it, and those still inside the city were able to listen to the speech via the comm. link. Present as well was a healthy portion of the Athosians, tempted away from their village on the mainland by a night of revelry, the off-duty crew members of both the Daedalus and the Apollo, which had arrived from the Milky Way a little over two days ago, and the surprisingly numerous civilian family members that had arrived along with them to join whomever it was that they loved that had invited them to the great City. (Elizabeth hadn't expected that so many people would be willing to uproot their lives in exchange for a chance to live with a family member on a highly dangerous, top-secret base in an unspecified location. But since she had been informed of the decision to allow just that, three weeks ago, they had apparently filled both the Daedalus and the Apollo to full capacity in record time. The prospect of a larger civilian population thrilled her, but especially so the addition of children, seven of which had arrived among the other emigrants. Little Elizabeth McKendricks was among them, her father having 'gated back to Earth shortly after John and Elizabeth's return to retrieve her.)

"Tonight is a night for celebration: one that is long overdue, I might add." A low chuckle ran through the crowd, and Elizabeth cracked a smile before continuing into her earpiece. "For those of you who have been with us, I celebrate having had the chance to know you and work with you over the weeks, months, and years," she continued warmly. "For those of you who are just arriving, I celebrate for you as well. It will be good to have family here on Atlantis. Especially with all of our new couples!"

At that point, Elizabeth paused in her speech, which she happened to be giving from atop a parked puddlejumper that Rodney had landed at the end of the pier when she had asked if he could procure a platform for them to stand on, and gave an ostentatious wink to a few of the individuals of which she was speaking. After making the announcement about the new, relaxed fraternization code, couples had sprung up all over Atlantis like summer daisies, some of which surprised Elizabeth, but most of which did not. Morale had, understandably, shot through the roof in light of the new announcements.

"For this, I would like to thank our wonderful psychologist, Dr. Heightmeyer," Elizabeth pointed out. She didn't know where the woman was, given the size of the crowd, but the nod to the doctor was received with a polite smattering of applause regardless. "But tonight, there is also something else that I wish to celebrate; something that isn't so much a change in policy, but rather an acknowledgement of the spirit that we have always been aware of, and never formally embraced. I received word upon the arrival of the Apollo and the Daedalus that, as of twelve days ago on December 7, we are officially the Earth colony of Atlantis. We are no longer just citizens of Canada or America or England or China or Switzerland or France: we are Lantean citizens, should we choose to accept."

At this point, she looked to her left and accepted the bead that she had asked Teyla to hold for her. It was tied tightly to a neat black string, so that it wouldn't get lost, but Elizabeth planned to braid it into her hair at a later date. Proudly, she thrust the bright purple bead, made of the Lapis Lantea, high above her head so that all could see. (Or, for those people too far away to see much, so they might notice the fact that she was holding something above her head.) "This," she proclaimed through the speakers to the curious members of her expedition, "is more than just a decoration. It is a symbol of who we are. All of those who choose to become citizens of the Earth colony Atlantis will receive a Lapis bead, into which their identification will eventually be programmed." It was true. After having the idea for this back when she was at the SGC, Elizabeth had gone straight to Rodney and inquired after the practical uses of the Lapis Lantea in the small quantities she was considering. The scientist had scoffed and told her that the stone-bound crystal dust, while pretty, couldn't store more than, say, ten words in binary, depending upon the specific sample. Luckily for them, nothing more than a name and ID number was required for Elizabeth's idea, and everyone involved had happily gone into action.

With great care, Elizabeth tied the bead around her own neck, where it hung in full view and in stark contrast to the grey of her uniform. When Teyla graciously handed her the small bowl of beads that she had requisitioned for the senior staff, it was to Teyla that she offered the first one, in full view of the entirety of the Atlantis expedition. The Athosians had been with them since the beginning, and it was Elizabeth's personal opinion that they were citizens of Atlantis just as much as the Taur'i were. Though she knew that her superiors would be upset with the entire situation –a formal request to downplay the existence of their status of colony had accompanied the announcement— she couldn't help but take what Earth had given her and run with it, as they were unlikely to ever have such a chance again. And if nothing else, Elizabeth sought to set a precedent: to show the powers of Earth that while they could colonize as many planets as they liked, they could never smother their spirit.

To thundering applause, Teyla accepted Elizabeth's offer. The two completed the Athosian tradition of touching foreheads to express their mutual respect as John followed Teyla's example and took a bead as Elizabeth offered it, as did Rodney, Carson, and Ronon (the big man was visibly touched that Elizabeth considered him senior staff, though he tried not to show it). Chuck, Amelia, and a few other assorted nurses and technicians began to weave their way through the crowd as well, each holding a bowl filled with the plain little beads, which the Athosians had happily crafted for them. Elizabeth was pleased to observe several of the Athosians taking the beads as well.

Returning to her speech, Elizabeth waved for quiet. "As you all know, many of us will be leaving to complete a very important mission tomorrow," she stated soberly. "As you also know, it is not outside the realm of possibility that some of us may not be returning." Silence had once again spread its sweeping embrace over the entire East pier. "But if we die tomorrow, or next week, or even next year, we won't die as employees or explorers. We will die as Lanteans, defending our Mother world, ourselves, and our two galaxies because we are more than just the residents of Atlantis. We are Atlantis. We are hope for the future and the saviors of the innocent. When the residents of this universe look at us, they will not see scavengers or imposters or a small group of people looking out for their own. They will see the City of Light and all she protects and stands for. They will see Lanteans, and they will see no less!" By the time she finished, Elizabeth's voice had risen to a near shout and was rough with emotion. And for one horrible moment, Elizabeth feared that her audience had not liked her speech.

But their lack of response was not disapproval. Rather, it was as if all of Atlantis was holding its breath, savoring the poignant moment, and when that breath was released, it wasn't as if the weight of two galaxies' worth of stars had been added to their world, but lifted. They were Lanteans, and not even the powers of Earth had dared try to take that away.

The applause didn't die out for a long, long while.

Go find Specialist Browne, he said. It shouldn't take you long, he said.

Yeah. Right.

The plan to destroy the replicators had actually been going exactly as they wanted it to… for a short time. John and his team, as well as a hefty portion of the marines and field-trained scientists, had gone with Colonel Caldwell on the Daedalus to take on the replicator planet, Asura, while Elizabeth and another contingent of Lantean personnel had boarded the Apollo with Colonel Ellis to destroy the shipyard planet. The two planets were just close enough that the two ships could each send short, coded bursts of information through the long-range communications system to the other to update them on their progress. Anything more detailed was potentially risky, but it was enough to know that the Daedalus had made the journey to just outside of the range of the replicators' long-range sensors, just as the Apollo had. Both sets of Jumpers –each set having six of the little ships retrofitted with ARGs and two loaded with secondary satellites—cloaked and departed, positioning themselves around their respective planets.

The problem arose on Elizabeth's end of the dual attack. Two of the replicator ships, Aurora-class, had already been completed. According to what the Jumper pilots around the shipyard planet relayed to the bridge of the Apollo, where Elizabeth was seated in the back and out of the way, the two ships were in orbit around the planet and seemed to be fully operational.

This was a big problem.

So, they had done the only thing that they could do, which was to lure the ships away from the planet and destroy them before they could take out the ARGs, or worse, escape. Colonel Ellis had just been pleased that he would be able to test the new Horizon weapons platform after all.

Taking a small jump to the planet, the Apollo had burst from its hyperspace window with guns blazing, damaging the two ships' hyperdrives so that they were confined to sub-light speeds an anything else they could hit before turning right back around and taking another short jump through subspace. The replicator ships had followed at top sub-light speed, and the three ships were soon engaged in battle. With the ships out of the way, the order had been given for the jumpers around the planet to begin their attack. It would distract the replicators on the ships, Ellis had told her.

Elizabeth hadn't had much first-had experience with space battles, but she couldn't delude herself that the fight was going well, as she had nearly given herself a concussion on a nearby computer console as the bridge quaked with the force of the replicator drones hitting the shield, which was rapidly failing. But once she had steadied herself, she could see from her vantage point behind Ellis' chair that the area surrounding the Apollo was choked with the bright glow of drones and the flash of the Apollo's bombs and the metal bodies of all of the numerous F-302s and puddlejumpers that they could muster. Surprisingly, the smaller ships were proving quite effective at both simultaneously inflicting damage upon the replicator ships and shooting down most of the drones intended for the Apollo or the bombs that they were directing towards the enemy ships.

However, they couldn't shield them from everything, and it was one particularly damaging impact that had sent Elizabeth off on her current quest. A disturbingly large cascade of sparks had erupted dangerously near her head, and the woman manning one of the consoles had shrilled, "Shields at 60%!"

"Where're my shields? Get me Specialist Browne on the comm. now!" Ellis had shouted in return.

"Communications with Engineering have been down for twenty minutes, sir!"

Fool that she was, Elizabeth had then volunteered to go and find the engineer who was working with the shields. To his credit, Colonel Ellis seemed grateful, and called out to her that the man shouldn't be hard to find.

Well, she'd found him all right.

Still panting from her sprint through the narrow halls of the ship, Elizabeth put her fingers to the neck of the man crushed beneath the fallen beam, trying not to think about the pool of blood that she was standing in. There was no pulse. Not that she had expected there to be. "Bridge, this is Weir," she said coolly, touching the radio at her ear.

Another impact rocked the ship, and the groan of overstressed metal reverberated around the room. Realizing that the small crystal room in which she had found Browne was probably not the safest place she could be, Elizabeth sprinted for the door.

"Weir, this is Bridge, what have you—" the tinny voice of the communications officer sounded in her ear, but Elizabeth never heard the rest of the question. Something else hit the Apollo's shield, more violently this time, and she was thrown to the side, teeth jarring. Another beam twisted to the point of snapping under the strain, and one of the large crystal consoles burst into flames as any small object that happened to be in the room skittered across the floor.

Staggering to her feet, Elizabeth once again made for the door, now enveloped in a billowing cloud of acrid black smoke. Eyes stinging and holding her breath, she punched at the door controls, increasingly frantic as they did not respond. It was only then that Elizabeth remembered that the ship automatically sealed off rooms in which it had detected fires, so that the flames wouldn't spread to the rest of the ship and use up all of the oxygen or, conversely, cook the crew alive. The door was now only accessible from the other side. However, Elizabeth thought that the chances of a rescue team being sent down while a full-scale battle was occurring were dubious at best.

Coughing and gasping, Elizabeth was forced to back away from the door to the hall and the thick, acrid smoke in that corner of the room. Instead, she turned towards a smaller door that she suspected led into the room adjacent to this one. There was less smoke there, but Elizabeth lowered herself to the floor anyways, sucking in the comparatively fresh are while she could. "Bridge, this is Weir," she tried.

Static was the only reply. "Bridge, this is Weir!"

Swearing colorfully in a strange mixture of several languages, (she had officially spent way too much time listening to McKay and Zelenka argue) Elizabeth turned her attention to the door controls. These ones were dead too, but she could breathe and see when trying to circumvent them, unlike the other set. Carefully, she unclipped the small utility tool that she kept at her belt and unscrewed the outer shell of the little panel. The harsh white glow of the crystals inside made her gulp with nerves.

Desperately, she tried to think back to the time that Rodney had showed her how to do this, trying her best not to be distracted by the roar of the flames behind her and the fact that her heart was pounding so hard against her sternum that it was painful. With haste, she selected the crystals she thought she needed and pulled them free, directing a wracking cough into the crook of her elbow as the smoke in the air became thicker. The temperature of the room was rising as well, and her palms were becoming slick with sweat as she began to replace the crystals in a new order.

Nothing happened.

No longer having the air supply to swear, Elizabeth settled for rising to her feet and throwing her full weight against the door in a futile effort to get it to give way. This only caused a few rather painful jars to her shoulder and a renewed fit of coughing, eyes streaming with the poisons of the foul atmosphere. Pulling her shirt over her mouth and nose, she tried again, refusing to give up and die. Black spots danced in her vision. While the material of her red tee filtered out much of the heavy smoke, there simply wasn't enough oxygen left in the room. Hungry flames, which had now spread to another console, had consumed it all.

With panic settling into her mind in full, Elizabeth returned to her failed attempt at opening the door, snatching crystals from their slots and replacing them in no particular order. Much to her surprise, the door actually opened. (She would have to talk to Rodney about that. It was a security risk.) However, the adjacent room did not represent the escape that she had hoped for. If possible, it was filled with even more smoke. A black cloud of it billowed menacingly through the doorway as it opened, thick enough that Elizabeth couldn't even see what was in the other room.

Gasping for air that she knew very well no longer existed, Elizabeth stumbled away, slipping in the pool of Specialist Browne's blood and crashing to the floor, where she continued to scoot away from the thickest of the smoke and towards her last hope: the other door. Before she had even made it halfway across the room, Elizabeth knew that she would never make it. She was suffocating. She couldn't breathe, nor could she see through the desperate tears her eyes were dripping with. Coughing did her no good, but it seemed to be about the only thing she could do as her heart raced painfully and her body seared with heat and a fine mist of blood began to stain the area around her face. For the second time in her life, Elizabeth knew (or had every reason to believe) that she was going to die.

A pang of regret hit her, as she remembered the heated argument that she had had with John just before they left. He hadn't wanted her to go on this mission: insisting that she would be more useful as well as safer if she were to stay on Atlantis. Elizabeth had, of course, disagreed. It was their plan, and she had felt that she should see it through until the end. He had then pleaded with her, admitting that he also had a gut feeling on this one. That it was the mission to take out the replicator shipyard that would make everything fall apart. Elizabeth had laughed this off, telling him that he was being ridiculous, but judging by her current predicament, she had been wrong. What was worse, the last words that she had spoken to John had been spoken in anger.

Pressing her face as close to the hot metal floor, where the air was clearest, as she could, Elizabeth decided that the only positive thought that she could scrounge up was that the Apollo seemed to have won the confrontation. She hadn't felt any impact on the shield since the one that had set off the fires, and seeing as she wasn't dead (yet), she could only assume that the two replicator ships had been destroyed.

Suddenly, her tunneling field of vision was overtaken with a white mist. Looking up, Elizabeth was utterly delighted to see that a group of marines in gas masks had burst through the door. Two had fire extinguishers, which they were aiming at the burning consoles, while four others made for herself and Specialist Browne. Elizabeth's world suffered a lurch as she was lifted unceremoniously and dragged out into the hall, which, thankfully, was not on fire or overrun with smoke. However, Elizabeth's joy was dampened somewhat as she found that she still couldn't breathe. If anything, she felt like she was drowning. Coughing, gasping, and spluttering, she fought for air without much success, only managing to spew out more blood.

A marine had grasped her shoulders and was talking to her. His eyes, which Elizabeth could see through the plastic of his mask were a pleasant dark blue, were wide and his voice was urgent. Frowning, she tried her best to understand him. She really did. But between the sensation of suffocation and the leaden weight of her body, she just couldn't make sense of his words, which were slurring together into unintelligible gibberish in her mind.

Belatedly wishing again that she had listened to John, Elizabeth slumped into unconsciousness.

Elizabeth really hated waking up in the infirmary. It was never pleasant. She always felt like someone had taken a blowtorch to all of her internal organs and, in this case, poured a bottle of ammonia into her chest cavity.

On the bright side, at least she hadn't woken up alone. Sitting in two nearby chairs and talking quietly to each other were Ronon and Teyla. Seeing her stir, the two quickly stood and moved to her side, smiling. Elizabeth made an attempt to greet them and ask them what had happened, but stopped when she couldn't seem to take a deep enough breath to speak.

Yeah. That hurt.

Luckily, Carson came to her rescue, needle in hand, which he immediately stuck into her IV. "There you are, love. Didn't expect you to wake up for a few more hours, at least," he said. "Hopefully that'll do something for the pain, though I wouldn't recommend that you try and talk for a while yet."

Blinking, Elizabeth nodded before making a feeble attempt to pull the clear rubber oxygen mask from her face. She was immediately thwarted by Teyla's small bronze hand stopping the motion of her own. "Don't, Elizabeth," she scolded her gently.

By now frustrated by her inability to speak, Elizabeth pulled her hand free, turned to Carson, and signed her question at him. He just looked back at her apologetically. "I'm afraid I'm a wee bit rusty," he admitted, referring to her hands with a gesture. "I'll just fetch Dr. Keller."

Elizabeth rolled her eyes and waited, noting with gratitude the numbness that was creeping up her arm and with slight horror the awful rattling noise she made with each shallow, sore breath she took. Soon enough, Carson returned, this time with Jennifer in tow. The female doctor shot Elizabeth a charming smile. "Try again," she suggested in her pleasant voice.

Aware that Ronon and Teyla were looking on in fascination from the side, Elizabeth now directed her signs at Keller as best she could while lying down. She too was a little rusty, and was forced to spell out some of the harder words, but knew she was able to be understood. "What happened with the mission? What day is it? Is everyone ok?"

For the benefit of the others, Jennifer translated out loud. Teyla, being the most talkative between her and Ronon, chose to answer, tucking a strand of hair that had escaped her ponytail behind one ear. "The mission was a success, Dr. Weir," she relayed. "Your plan with the ARGs worked well. Asura fell, as did the shipyard planet that Earth wanted destroyed, after the Apollo defeated the two completed ships. Asura," Teyla hesitated, but seeing the expectant expression upon Elizabeth's face, continued. "Asura was destroyed," she admitted. "The replicators had just enough time to set their self-destruct before the ARGs built up enough power. We beamed down with Rodney to try and stop it but…" She shook her head. "Even so, the teams we did manage to beam down to extract resources in what little time we had were able to acquire five ZPMs and twelve puddlejumpers."

Seeing as this was definitely better than nothing, Elizabeth nodded her acceptance. "And the other planet?" she signed to Jennifer, who again translated aloud.

Teyla just grinned at her. "The shipyard planet is indeed intact," she informed her. "The replicators were in the process of building a total of six-and-thirty Aurora-class vessels, each powered by a ZPM. Eight appear to be complete, and ten nearly so. The rest are in varying states of assembly, but according to Rodney and Radek, most of the materials needed to complete them had already been gathered on site." She laughed at Elizabeth's expression, which was rather comical as her heart fluttered with excitement over this revelation. Earth would be very, very pleased. "There were a total of twenty-three lost upon the Apollo," Teyla continued, this time with a saddened expression. "Eleven were F-302 pilots, four were jumper pilots, and the others were all crewmembers in the damaged section of the ship."

Elizabeth's eyes widened as she realized that others had met their deaths trapped in smoke-filled rooms, just as she had thought she would. Perhaps a few had been spared though, and crushed by damaged sections of the ship, like poor Specialist Browne. "And… what happened to me?" she inquired after a long moment. "I remember being pulled from the room I was trapped in, but nothing after that."

"You suffered a respectable bit of damage to your lungs, love," Carson answered after Teyla deferred to him with a look. "They did the best they could for you in the Apollo infirmary, but it was touch-and-go for a while there until the Daedalus rejoined the Apollo at the planet and Colonel Sheppard sent the Apollo back to Atlantis with all of the injured and dead. You've been here for about a day and a half, now."

"Rodney and the science teams are still at the shipyard planet with the Daedalus," Teyla threw in, anticipating Elizabeth's next question. "They're attempting to adapt the ships' systems to a human crew and launch the vessels. Colonels Sheppard and Caldwell are establishing the planet as a beta site, and the Apollo will join them once it has completed repairs. Earth has also sent someone in to manage Atlantis during your recovery."

Her splutter of protest subsiding into a rather painful fit of gasping and coughing (Elizabeth was pleased to see that she was no longer coughing up blood), Elizabeth didn't need to sign this time, either.

Gentle brown eyes filling with concern, Jennifer put a cool hand on her arm to steady her as Carson said firmly, "Elizabeth, like it or not, you're have to heal. And healing takes time. I'm putting you on mandatory medical rest for another week, if all goes well, and light duty for at least a week after that. I can't have you running yourself ragged and hurting yourself."

"'Sides. Carter's not that bad. They could've sent Woolsey," Ronon grunted.

The name gave Elizabeth pause. "Colonel Samantha Carter?" she inquired of Keller.

"Yes. And her post here is only temporary. You know that," the young doctor implored.

Colonel Carter. Elizabeth remembered her, from her tumultuous time at the SGC. The brilliant woman, only a couple of years her senior, had only been a Major then, but that hadn't stopped her from blackmailing her into saving the then-Colonel O'Neill's life. It had been infuriating at the time, but now that Elizabeth had experienced Atlantis, she understood Carter's motivations a little better. Even respected her for what she did. They had seen each other since then, and neither seemed to have a problem working with the other.

Elizabeth just hoped that she would take care of her city. "All right," Elizabeth signed, conveying her acceptance of the situation. "Tell her that if she needs anything, she can come and see me. Even if she's just lonely. It will be hard for her to be away from the SGC." She could only imagine how irritated that Colonel Carter was when she was told she'd have to travel to Pegasus and babysit Atlantis. She knew how much that her, team, SG-1, meant to her and how angry she must be to have been separated from them. Elizabeth felt a strange need to apologize for that. She knew that if she were pulled away from Atlantis, even for another command, she'd be crawling up one wall and down the other, out-of-her-mind crazy.

God shield Carson from her wrath born of simply being confined to bed-rest.

And that's a wrap. So, I've got a question. I thought of giving the Sam/Jack relationship a cameo, but I know that not everyone is into that pairing. Thoughts?