Chapter 5: I'm just full of surprises!

Can I just say that spending twenty days cooped up on the Daedalus was seriously no fun at all? I was determined to save the few books and games I'd squeezed into my personal allotment for when I got back to Atlantis. Most of the time the ship was in hyper space so there wasn't even anything interesting to look at out the windows!

Even though it had been my idea to play down my relationship with John that didn't mean I found it easy. I was seriously missing him only a couple of days into the journey and it only got worse the longer I was confined on the ship. He'd begun training the new recruits which took up most of his days. I was so frustrated by the lack of anything real to do that I ended up approaching Rodney in Engineering.

"Anything I can help you with?" I asked him, watching as he tapped away at his laptop.

"Huh?" Rodney didn't even look up as he barely registered my question.

"Give me something to do," my tone was just short of desperate, and managed to snag his attention.

"Bored with Sheppard already?" Rodney smirked, knowing full well that wasn't the case.

"Yes Rodney – we're sick of each other already!" I smiled. "Look, he's busy with the new recruits and I've run through every training program on my laptop ... twice. I need something new – have you got anything?"

"As a matter of fact I do," Rodney swung his chair around and pushed off to move himself to the opposite console. He plugged in a flash drive and typed a few commands before unplugging it and handing it to me.

"What is it?" I looked at the drive curiously.

"Wraith language," Rodney's attention was already partially back on whatever he was working on. "Elizabeth said it's derived from Ancient so you should be able to learn how to translate it. I've got a translation program but it's only good for the simple things." He pointed at the drive I held and added "that's got all the stuff I pulled off the machines on that Wraith research planet plus what we got from the Wraith data device we appropriated from the Genii."

"Okay," I felt a tingle of excitement at the prospect of learning something new and just a little bit dangerous. "I'll see what I can do."

Things got a little easier to bear after that – I'd decided the best approach was to construct something similar to what Daniel had created for the Ancient language so that others could use it to translate Wraith too. It was easier than I'd thought because Wraith was so closely linked to Ancient and I found myself enjoying the process of describing the language constructs and setting up a dictionary with English – Ancient – Wraith translations.

John still set aside time in the mornings for us to run around the ship as best we could and we also did some stick sparring so Teyla wouldn't get mad at us for not practising. And of course we had meals together in the mess. But it was all so ... public. I missed the private John terribly and was all set to storm his quarters and damn our agreement when a situation erupted on the Daedalus.

I was ready to meet John for our run when we were a couple of days from Atlantis. When I realised he was dressed for duty instead I knew something was wrong. "What's up?" I asked.

"Doctor Monroe was killed last night," John admitted. "At first Rodney thought it was a random power surge but now it's starting to look like someone did it deliberately."

"What?" I protested. "How can we be on a tiny ship between galaxies and still have something bad happen?!"

"Rodney and Hermiod are working on it," John reassured me. "For the time being I want you to stay in your quarters – don't go wandering around the ship until I tell you it's safe."

"Maybe I could help Rodney," I offered.

"We'll see," John didn't promise anything. "For now, go back inside – I'll keep you up to date," he put a hand on my shoulder and gently urged me back into my room.

It seemed like hardly any time had passed before I noticed that the Daedalus had dropped out of hyperspace. I really wanted to know what was going on and it took all of my willpower to sit quietly and wait as John had asked. I'd vowed I'd do the right thing so as not to cause John any trouble with his command – what hope did we have if I broke that vow at the first sign of trouble? Luckily I only had to wait a couple of hours before John turned up at my door again.

"Rodney asked if you could come help him with a translation," John gestured for me to walk with him down the hall.

"Did something else happen?" I asked apprehensively.

"Yeah," John admitted. "Doctor Lindstrom found something but before he could tell Rodney what it was he was jettisoned out the airlock."

"Is Rodney alright," I felt sick at the thought of what happened to a body in the vacuum of space and how horrible it must have been for Rodney to witness that.

"He's fine," John reassured me. "Hermiod discovered a computer virus in the navigational systems and Rodney says it's Wraith. Colonel Caldwell has ordered all the new personnel to be confined to quarters because he doesn't trust that one of them isn't responsible. He was happy for you to help though."

"Nice," I said sarcastically. "My status has gone up because of the Wraith ... again!"

John dropped me off in Engineering before heading back to the Bridge. Hermiod and Rodney were tracking the Wraith virus through the systems – it freaked me out a little to see the Asgard for the first time and I found it hard not to laugh as I recalled John's comment about the wrongness of him being naked.

With the similarity between the Wraith and Ancient languages I had already made significant progress in understanding it. I only had to watch the symbols scrolling across the screen for a few moments before I realised what I was looking at.

"Its metamorphic code," I said in discovery.

"Yes," Rodney looked at me in surprise. "Being able to translate Wraith wouldn't have told you that though."

"No," I admitted. "One of the jobs I did a while back was ethical hacking – my favourite method was to try to get a virus into a system undetected. I liked the metamorphic ones best – when that kind of virus multiplies by infecting new files the resulting child virus never looks like its parent."

"You know about viruses?" Rodney asked dumbfounded.

"Oh I'm just full of surprises!" I laughed to see the great Rodney McKay momentarily rendered speechless. "Look, I can probably knock up a quick anti-viral program to help find this thing within the non Asgard systems – the metamorphic nature of the virus means that the usual pattern recognition process won't work but I know a few tricks to get around that."

"By all means," Rodney waved a hand towards a vacant console. "I'll just go and ... ah ... report to Caldwell on the Bridge."

I remained in Engineering for a few hours working with Hermiod to better understand which systems were affected by the virus. My anti viral program did help find the virus but it was much more sophisticated that I'd ever seen and the usual methods for containing and eradicating a virus just weren't effective. If I'd had more time I might have been able to get around that, but the rate at which the virus was taking over the key systems meant we just didn't have that kind of time.

Being there in Engineering meant of course I heard about the transmitter coming on line. John's solution of physically taking out the transmitter was inspired but, as was typical with most of his outside the box plans, something went wrong. John ended up stranded in the F302, having to be beamed back from a great distance using just his radio frequency. I was relieved when John arrived down in Engineering with Rodney and Doctor Weir, looking none the worse for wear.

"You okay?" I asked discretely

"As far as I can tell," John joked. "I haven't checked that all the parts are there ... maybe you could help me with that later."

"Ha ha," I glanced at Doctor Weir to see if she'd overheard that and breathed easier when I saw she was concentrating on what Rodney was doing.

I stood back with John and Doctor Weir as we all watched Rodney bouncing from one console to the next making preparations for a complete shutdown of all the systems.

"This is what I do when I have problems with my laptop," John commented in a low tone to Doctor Weir and me. "I turn it off, and then I turn it on again."

"I think this is a little bit more complicated than that," Doctor Weir pointed out.

"I'm just saying that if we're taking a page from the John Sheppard Book of Computer Repair, we're really desperate," John persisted.

"That might be true if it were say a car and you had to pull over, switch off the engine and then switch it on again," I commented. "But for a computer it's not as stupid as it sounds."

"Alright, Colonel," Rodney's announcement interrupted our conversation. "We're ready."

"All personnel, this is Colonel Caldwell. Prepare for a full system shutdown."

"Alright, Doctor," Colonel Caldwell instructed. "Go ahead."

"And ...," Rodney pointed at Hermiod, who activated some controls on his console.

Around us all the lights on the consoles went off as power to the ship was cut off, plunging us into darkness. I held my breath for the few seconds it took for Hermiod to be satisfied it was safe to reboot the systems. All the lights came back on, followed quickly by Colonel Caldwell's voice over the Comms system asking for a status report.

"All systems are functioning normally," Rodney reported in relief. "No sign of the virus. Looks like it worked, Colonel."

"May I suggest we vacate this system?" Hermiod said. "Our current position may well have been compromised."

"Can you give me hyperdrive?" Caldwell asked.

"That will take longer to get back online," Hermiod admitted.

"I can get you sublight," Rodney offered, with a smug half grin.

Of course it wasn't that easy. Within seconds of the Daedalus engaging sublight engines the virus was back, taking over navigation and putting us on course for a close pass of the nearest star. Rodney quickly realised the F302s were an ideal hiding spot for the virus during the shutdown and he and John headed off to pull all the memory units.

"Hermiod, this is Caldwell. Colonel Sheppard and Doctor McKay are cut off. Can the beaming technology transport them inside the fighter bay?" Colonel Caldwell's question came through only minutes after John and Rodney had left.

"I will need to make some adjustments," Hermiod replied. "Stand by."

"Is that safe?" I asked nervously.

"The system was not designed to perform a site-to-site transport within the ship," Hermiod said in his emotionless little voice. "However, the principle is the same as conventional transportation using beaming technology."

"So that's a yes?" I muttered under my breath.

"In theory," Hermiod replied – he had much better hearing than I would have suspected with those tiny ears! Hermiod activated the beam and I looked across at Doctor Weir in relief when Doctor McKay reported that it had worked successfully.

My relief was short lived when I witnessed Hermiod rapidly shifting controls on his console. "Colonel Sheppard, Doctor McKay," Hermiod tried to get through to John and Rodney. "Can you hear me?"

"Yeah, we're reading you." John's voice came through loud and clear.

"I have raised the fighter bay shield in order to prevent the atmosphere from escaping," Hermiod reported. "However, the virus has invaded the system and it is only a matter of time before it gains control. Therefore, I suggest you complete your task as quickly as possible."

Why was it always John who got into these situations? I paced back and forth in front of Hermiod as I waited for John and Rodney to complete their task.

My feeling of dread only increased when Hermiod reported that not only could he no longer stop the virus from gaining control of the shield but that he could also no longer beam them out because that system was compromised too. I nervously chewed my bottom lip as I waited for John to report back in.

"Come on John," I prayed under my breath. "Hurry it up!"

"Colonel Sheppard, come in," Colonel Caldwell asked for a status report. "Colonel Sheppard, do you read me? ... Colonel Sheppard, do you read?" What was taking John so long?

"This is Sheppard," the wonderful sound of his voice echoed through the Engineering. "We're OK. We managed to get into the last F-302 before we lost atmosphere. Any chance you can beam us out?"

"Sorry, John," Doctor Weir replied. "We lost the transport beam. You're gonna have to sit still for a while."

"We pulled all the memory units," Rodney reported. "Another shutdown should work."

"Understood," Doctor Weir acknowledged.

Hermiod made a few adjustments to the setup that was already in place and reported that everything was ready for the second shutdown attempt.

"All hands, this is Colonel Caldwell. We're gonna give this another shot. We're initiating total systems shutdown now."

Once again we were plunged into total darkness, save the few torches some of the ships personnel carried. After a few moments Hermiod reinitialised the systems and the lights came back on again.

"Did it work?" Doctor Weir's voice broke the silence that had descended on the Engine Room.

"We will know momentarily," Hermiod said without emotion.

"This is Sheppard. What just happened?"

"Stand by," Colonel Caldwell instructed. "We're trying to figure that out." Only a few seconds later the Colonel said in disappointment "It didn't work. We're still on course for the corona sphere."

I couldn't help the nervous chuckle that escaped me when I heard Hermiod engaging in what could only be described as Asgard swearing. When even an Asgard didn't know what to do to fix a problem you knew things were getting pretty desperate. I don't know if it was my imagination but I started to feel the heat of the sun we were fast approaching.

"Engine Room, this is Sheppard. Prepare to initiate another shutdown on my command."

"John," Doctor Weir frowned. "What are you doing?" Good question! What the hell was John thinking of doing this time?

"Getting rid of the last place the virus can hide," John replied in a relaxed tone – the one he usually used just before he went off and did something dangerous or crazy.

"The other F302," I said quietly. "He's going to go take out the F302 we abandoned – it must be tracking us."

"I have them on my screens," Hermiod pressed a few controls and a computer image of the two gliders came up on the screen. "The computer-controlled ship is preparing to fire."

"Crap, crap, crap!" I thought. My heart was racing as I watched the screen in the same sick way someone might watch a car wreck - dreading what I might see but unable to look away. I had just realised I was holding my breath when the ships suddenly switched positions.

"Nice move!" Doctor Weir said, impressed.

"Indeed" Hermiod acknowledged.

John and Rodney were chasing the computer-controlled ship towards the corona sphere now ... much closer than could possibly be safe. My heart jumped when our screen suddenly went grey.

"What happened?" Doctor Weir turned to Hermiod in concern, while I stood frozen in shock still staring at the screen.

"They are approaching the corona sphere," Hermiod said. "There is too much interference."

Right - too much interference. So they were too close to the star for the computers to work properly – did that mean they were too close for John and Rodney to ... work properly?

"How long can they survive those radiation levels?" Doctor Weir asked the question I couldn't bring myself to ask.

"I believe it has already been too long," Hermiod said almost sadly – well for an Asgard anyway.

I couldn't restrain myself any further – tapping my ear piece I said in as controlled a voice as I could manage. "Colonel Sheppard, do you read?" When there was nothing but silence I said a bit more desperately "John, please respond ... Rodney, do you read?"

"Daedalus, this is Sheppard," John finally responded just when I was starting to feel on the edge of a panic attack. "Target is destroyed. I repeat target is destroyed. If you try one more shutdown, I think it might just work."

"Well done, both of you," Doctor Weir shared a relieved smile with me as she congratulated them. "You had us a little worried there for a minute."

"Sorry about that," John responded apologetically. I could feel my knees weaken in relief that John was actually all right. Not waiting to hear anything else, I quickly turned and left the room.

Authors note:

Doctor Weir said in The Gift that the Wraith language had its base in the Ancient language – Elizabeth translates something in a night after only just learning this fact! Given that I think it quite believable that Sabina, who is at least as good with Ancient as Doctor Weir, would be able to make a lot of progress on understanding the Wraith language over 18 days with not much else to do.

I tried to stick as much to Intruder while putting Sabina into the mix - apologies if it seems like there's a lot of conversation reproduced from the episode.