'Hetta! You actually have to eat!' John laughed, when Hetta threw the food at him.
They were sitting in the Mess Hall, like they did every morning, and eating breakfast together, just like they did in the Cloister.
'But it's more fun to throw it at you!' she giggled.
He wiped the chocolate mousse type thing off his eyebrow, and splattered it onto his plate, 'Alright, little miss, it's time to go to work.'
Hetta smiled at him happily, 'Are you going to let me meditate?'
He nodded, 'I have to get to a meeting, but I'll drop you off at the meditation area first.'
(STARGATE ATLANTIS)
They were in the meeting, talking about the two Wraith cruisers coming close to Atlantis, when John got his first taste of Teira's power.
General Landry entered the briefing room, to meet with Agent Barratt.
'I just cut short a call with the Secretary Of State. I hope this is worth it.' He prompted.
'I'm sorry, sir, but a situation is developing that you need to be made aware of. It couldn't wait.' Barrett excused.
'Alright then, make me aware of it.' He said.
'We've noticed an increase in chatter amongst The Trust recently. The Goa'uld have infiltrated the highest ranks of the organisation, we've discovered that their access to government agencies has gone a lot deeper than we realised.' Barrett told him.
Landry had an exasperated expression, 'How much deeper?'
'Atlantis.' Barrett stated.
Landry stared at him in shock, not speaking for a moment. 'They know about it?'
'Worse.' Barrett said. 'They've been there, they've-'
The premonition type thing cut off, leaving him feeling dizzy and slightly sick.
Elizabeth noticed. 'John.' She said worriedly. 'What's wrong?'
'It's the Trust.' He said, 'They've been to Atlantis, they've done something.'
'Excuse me?' Rodney asked. 'How the hell do you know that?'
'Umm, Teira left me her power of seeing things.' He groaned. He'd have to talk to Hetta about how this ability worked later.
'What did you see John?' Teyla questioned.
'Stargate Command.' He answered. 'General Landrey and Agent Barrett. Talking about the Trust, and it's influence and the Goa'uld.'
'What's a Goa'uld?' Ronon asked confused.
'I'll tell you later.' John told him.
'What did they say about the Goa'uld?' Elizabeth asked.
'They said "We've noticed an increase in chatter amongst The Trust recently. The Goa'uld have infiltrated the highest ranks of the organisation, we've discovered that their access to government agencies has gone a lot deeper than we realised".' John said.
'What else?' Rodney asked exasperatedly.
'How much deeper?' John said, 'That was General Landrey, then Barrett said "Worse, they've been there, they've.'
'And?' Rodney prompted.
'Well, that's where it cut off.' John explained.
'Well, that's a load of help!' Rodney grouched.
'I can't help that Rodney!' John shouted.
'Well, you're the one with a power!' Rodney yelled.
'Deal with it Rodney! I didn't want it! I don't exactly need it!' John shouted.
'Stop!' Elizabeth spoke up. 'Stop arguing,' She turned to Rodney, 'He can't help having these powers, there in his genetics,' she turned to John, 'Stop antagonizing Rodney.'
'That's all he gets!' Rodney protested before silencing at seeing Ronon's glare.
'So, Rodney,' Teyla said. 'What is happening with the Wraith?'
'They'll be here in around about a day, maybe a day and a half,' Rodney informed the room, 'And it looks like they're fighting each other.'
'That's good news.' John said.
'Certainly is.' Elizabeth agreed with him. 'If they're any change let me know.'
Rodney nodded as he stood up, and slowly everybody began filtering out of the room.
(STARGATE ATLANTIS)
'Doctor Beckett?' Teyla queried as she entered the infirmary.
'Yes?' he answered tersely.
'Can you accompany me to the mainland? She asked.
'Is something wrong?' he looked up in worry.
'A woman who is very close to me, is gravely ill, Charin, she is like a grandmother to me.' Teyla said.
'Of course, say no more.' He said as he got up.
'Can I come?' Hetta said stepping into the white, sterile world of the infirmary.
'It's no place for a young girl, at the moment, darling.' Carson said, rushing slightly.
'But I can heal!' she said, hurt.
'You can what?' Carson said, stopping in front of her.
'My power?' Hetta said as though he were dumb. 'I can heal people; I healed John when the Beast hurt him.'
'Can you demonstrate this?' Carson asked.
She nodded.
Carson grabbed a scalpel from a tray, and cit his hand shallowly, which he held out to Hetta.
She put her hand above his, and concentrated, and soon an orange light lit up her palm, as it healed the cut on Carson's hand.
'Aye, you can definitely come with us if you can do that again.' He smiled at her.
(STARGATE ATLANTIS)
The weekly status report was about to be sent when John saw Rodney getting an email, and it triggered his power.
'They've planted a bomb somewhere in the city.' Barrett's voice floated through his head.
He shouted 'Stop!' at the exact moment as Rodney, who looked at him, in shock.
(STARGATE ATLANTIS)
'Ask them if they can give us something more than 'There a bomb in Atlantis!' John requested.
'Well, can you?' Elizabeth asked.
'No, all I'm getting at the moment is a repeat.' John shook his head. 'It gives you quite a headache.'
Elizabeth nodded at him before turning back to the original subject. 'Maybe the Trust think that it's the only way to stop the Wraith from getting to Earth?'
'Drastic but effective.' Rodney mused.
'I want you to organise searches of the city. Obvious sabotage points.' Weir nodded at each of them.
I'll check primary and secondary systems for any anomalous energy readings that might indicate the presence of an explosive device.' Rodney said.
Weir nodded. 'Good, and request Colonel Caldwell that he return to Atlantis.'
John's mind tunnelled in on Colonel Caldwell's face, and he shook his head, before refocusing on the convocation. 'Have them reveal the bomb and how to dismantle it.' She smiled at them grimly. 'Alright then, get to it.'
(STARGATE ATLANTIS)
Hetta was sat in the Athosian tent staring at the decorations that adorned the room. Simple and calming. She smiled.
'Hetta.' Carson called her over, 'Can you heal this for me please?'
She obediently held her hand over the cut on Charin's arm, and watched as it healed. She found it fascinating, no matter how many times she had healed somebody, she found it hard to take her eyes away from the skin s it healed.
'An Ancestor?' The old woman stared at her.
'A descendant on the way to ascension.' Teyla told her.
'Good luck in your decision.' She smiled at Hetta, who replied with a thank you.
Hetta tuned the conversation after that out of her head and carried on walking around the tent.
(STARGATE ATLANTIS)
'Passenger manifest?' John asked as he swung by her office later in the day, after the search had been completed.
'She looked up and nodded at him, both to his question and to invite him in.
'Any names pop out at you?' he said.
'A few actually.' She used. 'What about you? Anything popping out for you.'
He shook his head. 'My mind keeps zeroing in on Caldwell. Every time somebody mentions him, my mind focuses on him and I think its Teira says 'Focus on him.'
She smiled at him. 'I'm being serious Elizabeth, it's a nightmare!' he moaned.
'I think that is just you John.' She giggled slightly.
He glared at her. 'Has the Daedalus arrived yet?'
'Soon, ten minutes or so.' Elizabeth said.
'We better go and wait for it then.' John said as he stood up.
(STARGATE ATLANTIS)
'Guess what?' Sheppard said sarcastically. 'Turns out there's no bomb at all!'
'Uhhhh, there's no actual explosive device. The explosion will come, but, uh, from somewhere else. Now, with the Wraith on the way, we'll need to cloak the city, right?' Rodney asked theoretically.
'Yes.' Elizabeth said.
'Well, in order to do that, we need to reconnect the ZedP.M. in order to supply the necessary power.' Rodney said.
'And what about the Stargate?' Elizabeth asked.
'Ah - I've physically disabled the D.H.D. It won't be able to dial, so it won't be a problem. Now, the ZedP.M., however, will be. Now, as you know, the Zero Point Module controls the flow of massive amounts of power.' Rodney said.
'Like a dam.' Sheppard interrupted.
'No, it's not like a dam, it's more like a ... uh ... actually, yes, it's like a dam. If you overload the dam, it breaks, which is why the Ancients put in place failsafes to prevent such a thing from happening.' Rodney answered, getting slightly confused.
'Like a spillway.' John interrupted again.
'Could we just stick with failsafes?' Rodney asked irritated.
John shrugs.
'The problem is, our Trust operative figured out a way to rewrite Atlantis' operating system and disable the failsafes, but mask it in such a way that the city sensors didn't detect it.' Rodney informed them.
'So the dialling of Earth would cause the ZeeP.M. to overload.' Elizabeth figured out.
'Oh, yeah! And given that dialling another galaxy requires tremendous amounts of power, we're talking catastrophic overload. I mean, the explosion would destroy not just the city, but, uh, most likely the entire planet.' Rodney told them.
'Can the failsafes be re-enabled?' Sheppard asked.
'Yes, but, uh, whoever it was who did this anticipated the possibility that it would be discovered and they put in place a code to block access to it.' Rodney revealed.
'How difficult would it be to figure out the code?' John asked.
Rodney glared at him. 'Incredibly difficult!'
'But for now you've already disabled the D.H.D. so it's impossible to dial Earth.' Elizabeth protested.
'Yeah, but unfortunately, any number of systems can be used in conjunction with each other to, uh, overload the ZedP.M. It'd be a much more gradual build-up than dialling the Gate, which would cause an instantaneous power spike, but, um, equally as effective in its results.' Rodney said.
'And we can't disconnect the ZeeP.M. because we need the cloak for when the Wraith cruisers arrive.' Elizabeth realised.
'Bingo! Which is why our bomber activated the distress beacon, alerting them. And that is how the Wraith coming to Atlantis is connected to detonating the bomb.' Rodney revealed.
(STARGATE ATLANTIS)
Teyla walks into the infirmary and sees Charin in one of the beds, with Hetta sitting next to her.
She walked over to Carson, and asked, 'doctor Beckett. Why was Charin moved in here?'
Carson looked up from the tablet he was studying to look at Teyla, 'So I could keep a closer eye on her, tend to her if needed.'
'I told you.' Teyla said angrily. 'She does not wish for any treatment.'
Carson looked at Teyla sadly. 'You have to understand Teyla, that as a doctor, I can't just stand here and let her die! I took an oath to preserve life, and we have the means to save her, both with medicine, and with Hetta's ability.'
'You may keep her here to ake her comfortable, but that if it!' Teyla commanded. 'And Colonel Sheppard will not let you keep Hetta i here permanently to keep healing people.'
He sighed before saying, 'Alright.'
(STARGATE ATLANTIS)
Elizabeth, John, Rodney and Colonel Caldwell were sitting in the conference room.
'I'm still working on cracking the new failsafe code, but, uh, so far, no luck.' He said.
Caldwell turned to face Elizabeth, 'How are things coming with Kavanugh? Is he still your prime suspect?'
'Yes, he is, but things aren't going so well.' Elizabeth said regretfully. 'If he does know the code, I don't think that he's just going to give it to us.'
Ronon walks into the room from the outside balcony. 'Give me ten minutes with him. I'll get the code out of him.' He said as he drew a long, thin, curved knife out of a sheath on his leg.
'He could do that.' John said.
'We should start thinking about taking it to the next level.' Caldwell said. 'We need the code soon.'
'We need to be sure about this though,' Rodney protested. 'If he's innocent, then ...'
'We don't have time to debate morality!' Caldwell interrupted, 'Unfortunately, sometimes you have to do unpleasant things to save lives!'
(STARGATE ATLANTIS)
Hetta sat down next to Teyla and Charin. 'Do you want me to heal anything for you?' she asked.
Charin shook her head, smiling at the small girl. 'There is nothing that you will be able to do anymore, but I wish you luck on your journey, Ancestor.'
Hetta nodded, before standing up, and leaving.
She wandered down the corridor, looking at the designs, until she came across a balcony.
She peaked in, and withdrew suddenly, seeing John and another man, slightly taller than him.
'No! We can't authorise torture!' John argued.
'If it's the only way to get the code out of him, then we need to!' the other man said angrily.
'Colonel Caudwell.' John said calmly. 'There might be other suspects than just Kavanugh.'
Caudwell laughed. 'And you suspect me? Are you stupid in the head? When I get back to Earth I could have you struck off just for suggesting it.'
'I think you'll find that I haven't accused you.' John said.
Hetta ran, not looking where she was going, not noticing the two men staring at her.
(STARGATE ATLANTIS)
Elizabeth, John, Rodney, Ronon and Caudwell are in the conference room again.
'We need to initiate some evacuation plans.' Elizabeth told everybody.
'I told you!' Sheppard argued. 'The Deadalus is our only option! We can't go through the gate and we can't go to the mainland!'
'I agree.' Caudwell said. 'We fit as any people as we can on the Deadalus.'
'There isn't enough room for everyone!' Rodney butted in.
'We're going to have to make room!' Sheppard said.
'No, you don't understand!' Rodney groaned. 'The life support system can't handle that many people, there isn't enough air to go around. They'd never make it back to Earth.'
'The quickest thing to do is get the code!' Ronon said for the first time. He leans over and stared at Elizabeth. 'I'll get it if you let me in with Kavanugh.'
She looks at John whose eye's flicker to Caudwell, and she got his meaning, There might be other suspects, we can't afford to waste our time with Kavanugh.
'Do it.' She said painfully.
Ronon turns to look at John who stares back, before turning his back and leaving the conference room.
(STARGATE ATLANTIS)
Hetta walked into the Ring Room as she had called it. She wanted to be here for Charin, she had been the first one of the people on Atlantis other than John, who had seen her as who she was. She may have been a girl, but she was still an Ancestor.
'They're evacuating the city.' Doctor Beckett told Teyla. 'In a matter of minutes, it could all explode.'
If it exploded while she was there, would she ascend? To be with her family? Her mom, dad, brother and sister? Would she be able to?
'No sister.' Teira's voice echoed through her head. 'You are not ready yet, you cannot ascent, you need to stay with John.'
'But he's not here.' She said in her mind.
'He is still with you, fighting for you, he's fighting his commander for you.' Teira said.
'Thank you Sister.' Hetta said, and Teira fell silent.
Teyla had begun to sing when Hetta stopped talking,
Beyond the night, a rising sun,
Beyond the night, the battle's won.
The battles won.
'Fear and shame now in the past.
Pain and sorrow gone at last
Gone at last.
Elizabeth stands in her office, overseeing Atlantis.
Circle renewed, peace will be found
Beyond the night on sacred ground
Sheppard runs into the Interrogation room, 'Stop!' He pauses for a second. 'What did you do to him?'
Ronon looked at him. 'Nothing, he fainted before I could do anything.'
On the Deadalus, on the Bridge, Colonel Caudwell sits on his chair. He tapped his com unit and said. 'Doctor Weir, we're ready to go. We'll meet you at the rendezvous site.'
But before he could initiate the command to start moving, he is enveloped in a white light, which disappeared with him.
The Asgard beam dropped him into a chair in the interrogation room, and when he sees where he is he stands up.
'What the hell's going on here?' he asked.
John and Elizabeth stand in front of him, while Ronon paces behind him.
'I asked Hermiod to beam you here so you could give us the access code.' Elizabeth said.
'What?' Caudwell said, worriedly, and shocked.
'Lieutenant Cadman and Dr. McKay discovered a gap in the syste command logs that indicated two deletion points that she¬'
'We don't have time for this! The Wraith are nearly here!' he interrupted.
Elizabeth steps closer to him. 'Your identification code was used to identify this city's operating system. You copied it, took it back to the Trust, whose Goa'uld scientists then rewrote the programme to overload the Zee.P.M. You then brought it back here and uploaded it into the Atlantis Computers.'
'You think that I' working for the Trust?' he said incredulously.
'We know that you're working for the Trust.' Sheppard said, taking his gun out of the holster, and cocks it, 'So give us the code.'
Caudwell's eyes glow golden, and he speaks with a Goa'uld voice. 'It looks like you were right, Jonathon Sheppard, when we talked earlier.' He grinned predatorily. 'I will never give you those codes.'
John turns his head to Elizabeth who inclines her. Do what you need too.
She turns and leaves the room, and Caudwell says. 'I warn you, as a Goa'uld, I now possess the strength of any men.'
Ronon growled from behind, as he moved everything in his path to get to the possessed colonel. 'Won't be a fair fight then.'
He hits him against the wall, before punching him, and picking him up and throwing him on the floor.
John stops him as he goes for him again, 'Hold up.' He pulls a taser out of a different holster, and shoots it at him. The colonel convulsed, groaning. His eyes glow, before the Goa'uld loses power for a moment.
'Colonel!' John called. 'Colonel!'
'Sheppard.' Caudwell said weakly, his voice normal again.
'We don't have time, we need that access code!' John said commandingly.
In the control Room, Rodney stand up. 'We need to go, now!'
Sheppard and Ronon run into the room, breathless. Sheppard hands something to Rodney, saying. 'Access code.'
Rodney grabs it and takes it to a terminal, and collapses happily into a nearby chair as the Overload message disappears from the screen.
River flows, led by the wind
First new breath, our journey begins
Our journey begins
Elizabeth glanced up to see John lounging against the door jam. 'You knew.'
'Knew what?' he asked.
'About Colonel Caudwell.' Elizabeth said. 'About him being different, about him bring the Goa'uld.'
'I had help.' He shrugged.
'No, you knew before that.' She probed. 'Before Teira started helping you.'
He sighed. 'I always felt uncomfortable around him, just like I did with the man that came to see me when I was 11. He was a member of the Trust. A Goa'uld. When he got close to me, I wanted to puke. That's how I felt around Colonel Caudwell. That's how I knew.'
'But how?' Elizabeth mused. 'An ancient or a descendant wouldn't or shouldn't have felt discomfort around a Goa'uld.'
He grinned. 'I should feel skittish every time I come across the enemies of the Ancients, and I'll have the help of my mom, and Teira, and if we get really lucky, you'll even get to meet them again,' he leans in close. 'You'll want to meet my sister, she was amazing.'
'You're sister is ascended?' Elizabeth asked in shock.
'Oh yeah,' he grinned. 'she um, she died when we were 13.'
Elizabeth exhaled slowly. 'I¬'
'What did you call me here for Elizabeth?' he interrupted.
'I've asked Doctor Beckett to give everyone on the base a full examination. If Colonel Caudwell could have a Goa'uld in him, any of us could.'
John shook his head. 'That's not a pleasant thought.'
'How are we any different to the Wraith? We're gloating about their fighting, but we're doing exactly the same.'
'I don't know Elizabeth, I don't know.' John said quietly.
(STARGATE ATLANTIS)
John let himself into his room, sighing softly.
He sat on the edge of his bed, watching Hetta as she slept in the middle.
'Sweet dreams.' He whispered to the slumbering girl, as he settled himself on the couch.
'Sweet dreams.' He repeated, wondering if he would ever have those again