Imposter
Part Five
John watched as Michael and Andrew disappeared into the event horizon. Andrew's blue eyes were looking back over his shoulder even as Michael dragged him into the portal. Ronon was a few feet ahead of him and running at full speed, while John struggled to keep up. The gate snapped closed behind the two figures before Ronon was even halfway across the field.
"Urrhhh!" John screamed again before dropping to his knees in exhaustion. He and Ronon had fought off dozens of wraiths before making their way back to where they had left the other members of their team. When the two military men realized that their teammates were gone, the chase was on. The full speed run to the gate, while hardly winding the Satedan, had taken its toll on the pilot. John took a few seconds to catch his breath and calm down before standing to dial Atlantis.
"Sheppard to Weir. We've got a problem," John spoke into his radio as the gate activated.
"John? What happened?" Elizabeth's concerned voice sound in his ear.
"Michael must have been waiting for us. I screwed up on this one, Elizabeth. I didn't see the trap until it was too late. Michael has Andrew, Rodney, and Teyla. I need to get Zelenka here to help find them. I saw five of the symbols; hopefully, Radek can find the last symbol." John shook his head at his own failure.
"Zelenka is already getting ready. What else, John?" Elizabeth's voice was calm despite her fear.
"Have Lorne put together two squads of marines and get them here – we can't hold anything back now, or we'll loose them. Oh, and send through a couple of Jumpers with drones. Michael's gonna pay for this," John answered.
"We're on our way now, Colonel." Major Lorne's words were always short and to the point.
It had taken less than fifteen minutes for the two Jumpers to come through the gate, followed by more than a dozen marines. Evan Lorne and Radek had stepped out of one of the Jumpers the moment it landed, both dragging equipment that the engineer had deemed imperative.
∞SGA∞
John was going crazy!
Zelenka had been working for more than four hours. Any hope of finding the last symbol by downloading the addresses from the gate had failed, when the ancient DHD had erupted into a shower of sparks as the memory crystals shattered. Zelenka had to start from scratch, and the device continued to malfunction.
With each passing minute John and Ronon had become more and more agitated. John had taken up pacing in an attempt to alleviate pent up energy. Ronon took a different path, leaning against a tree in an almost casual manner. As the Satedan checked his gun for the fifth time, John could tell Ronon was just as anxious as he was.
John finished pacing the around the perimeter of the Atlantis equipment for the tenth time before stopping behind Radek Zelenka and sticking his nose into the engineer's personal space. "Come on, Dr. Z, you have to work faster," John hissed impatiently in Radek's ear. "Every second we waste while running tests is a second we are closer to loosing all three of them. And I can't live with that!"
"I am working as fast as I can. They, too, are my friends!" The little engineer fiddled with his laptop again before switching around the crystals in the DHD for the third time. "There are over 400 known address possibilities based on the five symbols you have seen. Would be a lot easier if you knew all the symbols. I have not much to work with!"
John stood up fast and kicked Radek's laptop case in frustration. "Urhhh! We don't have time for this!" John turned quickly and stomped away from the DHD.
"Já činnost můj nejlepší!" Radek mumbled at the Colonel's retreating back.
He got to the edge of the woods and stopped to take a deep breath while his mind ran through all of the possibilities of what Michael might be doing to his friends. He tried not to picture him hurting Teyla or torturing Rodney. But mostly he tried not to think about losing Andrew. After only just finding Andrew, this tentative link back to Carson, the thought of losing him hurt more than anything else.
A firm hand patted him on the shoulder, and John turned to find a serious expression on Major Lorne's face. "Colonel, Dr. Zelenka will figure it out. I know they are your friends, but don't forget, they are our friends as well. Well at least Teyla and Andrew are," Evan Lorne spoke softly and with only a hint of humor. Evan's right hand rested on the butt of his P-90 while he continued to offer support to his boss. "We're worried about them too. We just need to make sure that we are ready the second Radek gives us the go-ahead."
"I know! I'm not mad at Radek; he's doing everything he can. But I can't forgive myself for failing to protect them." John's voice was weak, broken – evidence of his own guilt. "Oh, Evan! I knew something was wrong, why did I leave them. Even Teyla would have trouble taking on six wraiths."
"Ronon wouldn't," Evan said simply with a small smile.
John chuckled before turning serious again. "Michael had this planned. He wanted Andrew back; he had to have help. Those wraiths we were fighting were not hybrids. I don't know, Evan, we may not get them back this…" John was interrupted by the activation of the gate.
"Back up! Get those scientists down, now!" Evan was shouting, waving the marine guards into position while the few engineers scrambled for cover.
It took only seconds for John to reach Zelenka and lift the smaller man out of the way and behind the DHD. John covered him with his body while Ronon and the marines aimed their guns at the gate.
As the last chevron locked into place, the gate sprang to life. With in seconds a wraith Dart shot out of the gate at record speed, spinning in the air before facing the gate and coming to rest a short distance from the gate.
Ronon walked swiftly towards the resting Dart, his gun raised and poised to shoot. John also stood and headed for the Dart, but took a more cautious approach, staying behind equipment while he could.
John was filled with dread as he recognized Michael sitting in the seat of the Dart.
"Ronon, let's hear what he has to say. We can decide what to do with him later, but I want to hear what he has to say about Rodney and the others," John whispered, as he quickly reached Ronon's side. "Michael, we need to talk!" John addressed the man in the Dart.
"Yes, we do," the wraith said quietly as he climbed from the Dart. "If you want to see 'Andrew' and the others you will listen to what I have to say, and you will take my offer."
Ronon took two steps forward, ignoring John's words of patience, and whipped his gun up to the former wraith's head. "Tell us where you took them now, or I will kill you!"
"I have a proposition for you," Michael said quietly. He warily faced the Air Force Colonel, ignoring the Satedan, whose gun was cocked and ready to fire. "I made an alliance with a wraith queen. She only wanted 'Andrew.' He was my creation and belonged to me, and in return for a hive ship, I would give him over to her. But she broke the agreement. Teyla and Rodney were just collateral damage, I did not intend to take them, and I had no intention of turning them over to her. She took all of them from me. If you fail to work with me, Andrew will probably be dead first. It will not be long before she becomes hungry, and he will be her first choice."
"What makes you think I would possibly trust you." John stifled a laugh at the former wraith's audacity.
"Because, I am the only one here free of duplicity," Michael's mouth curled into a sneer as he spat the angry words at the Atlanteans. "You are the ones who took me against my will and experimented on me, destroying my life; you are the ones who, after I helped rescue you and flew you home on a captured hive ship, attacked me again and against my will injected me with more drugs; you are the ones who tried to blow me up with a nuclear bomb. No, I have been nothing but honest with you while you have repeatedly betrayed my trust."
John looked down guiltily. He had cautioned against the experimentation with the retro-virus from the beginning, but had been out-voted both times. The second time the drug was used on Michael, both Carson and he had argued strongly against it. Carson for personal reasons, John because of the aid and good faith the former wraith had shown him by helping and trusting him. When he raised his eyes to meet Michael's, he found he had no answer for Michael.
"If the desire to save your friends is not enough for a truce with me, I will offer you one more gift of information – but only after you have held up your end of the bargain. The information I will give you will change everything for you, and it will be worth while to work with me."
"Don't listen, Sheppard," Ronon growled, his gun leveled at Michael while his finger twitching threatenly on the trigger. "Kill him now. He'll only cause us trouble later. The best wraith is a dead wraith. If you had let me kill him when I first wanted to, none of this would have happened."
John grabbed Ronon's arm and pulled him to the side. "And then we wouldn't have Andrew," John said quietly. "And if we don't listen now, we may not have any of them anymore. I've got a bad feeling about this. If he is asking for our help, then our people are in real trouble. I know you don't like this, but this may be the fastest way to get to them. Are you with me, Ronon."
Ronon growled but nodded his head just slightly. "I'll be watching him. The slightest twitch, and he's dead."
"Okay, Michael, tell us what we need to know," John said turning to face the former wraith.
∞SGA∞
Carson followed the long-haired wraith down the corridor. He felt like a man walking to the gallows, a slow march to his death. It was useless to resist; they were surrounded by wraith guards. Carson was both anxious and comforted that his two friends were with him. Although he did not want them to have to watch him die again, he did not want to die alone.
TBC
Feedback is appreciated.
Author's note: "Já činnost můj nejlepší" is a direct translation into Czech for "I am doing my best." May not be grammatically correct.