Chapter 39: I do come up with good ideas occasionally.
The next morning, after the restless night I'd predicted I would have, Doctor Beckett released me from the infirmary. My first stop was a visit to Doctor Weir to update her on what had happened the previous day.
"John already filled me in," Doctor Weir told me when I asked to speak with her.
"I'm sorry I put the city at risk," I apologised.
"There's no indication that you did anything of the sort," Doctor Weir countered. "Does the fact that you controlled the Wraith Dart impact on our back up plans?"
"It's really hard to say," I admitted. "By plugging the Dart into the TED I managed to get it into the telepathic pool – but I didn't detect anything else mechanical which means the Hive is either too far away to be part of the optimal connections I'm getting presented with ... or the TED can't recognise it. Since I so convincingly proved the Wraith on that Hive are part of the optimal range it stands to reason the ship itself is too."
"So you need to plug a Hive ship into the TED before you can detect any Hive ships?" Doctor Weir summarised.
"I think so," I responded disappointingly. "Since I don't think Colonel Sheppard will be approving a stealth mission to a Hive ship any time soon I think we're stuck with the original back up plan."
"Still, that's something," Doctor Weir said positively. "Is there anything else you can do with the TED?"
"Not really," I admitted. "Anything I experiment with now runs the risk of alerting the Wraith on that Hive ship."
"Okay," Doctor Weir agreed. "Rodney could use some help on the Orion so why don't you concentrate on that for the next couple of days."
"Thanks Doctor Weir," I looked at her gratefully, happy she'd assigned me something rather than tell me I should be resting.
The next couple of days passed without incident and before we knew it, it was almost time to deploy our defences. Doctor Weir met with Colonel Caldwell, John and Rodney the day before to make sure everyone was clear on the plan of attack. John had decided that when the Wraith Hive ship arrived I should remain on Atlantis despite my protests. Doctor Weir had agreed I could attend the meeting to put forward my case for a different plan.
"The Wraith Dart and the telepathic expansion device should both be on the Daedalus," I proposed.
"Why?" Caldwell asked curiously. Glad that he seemed willing to listen I launched into my explanation, careful not to look at John.
"I'll have a better chance of using the TED to control those Wraith if the need arises," I said, "and if by some strange chance an opportunity to actually get on board the Hive presents itself, having the Dart right there will allow us to take advantage of it."
"Surely you're not suggesting you fly the Dart to the Hive ship?" Caldwell said incredulously.
"Not as the initial plan," I agreed. "But what if there was a chance to get the TED aboard? The tactical advantage we could gain in being able to locate Wraith Hive ships even beyond the long range sensors would make it worth the risk."
"I can't see a problem in you being on the Daedalus," Caldwell said thoughtfully. "Sheppard?"
"If being closer to the Hive means Sabina will have a better chance of using the TED to stop the Wraith from attacking then she should be on the Daedalus," John admitted easily. "As for taking the Dart up there too, I think we're just asking for trouble. If Sabina were captured we could end up handing over a tactical advantage to the Wraith instead of gaining one for ourselves."
"I could remote pilot someone else over to the Hive ship," I suggested. "It would be much more difficult but I think I could control it long enough to get the Dart close enough for the autopilot to engage and take the Dart the rest of the way in."
"Beaming the Dart back up to the Daedalus isn't a problem," Caldwell acknowledged.
"Let's do that then," Doctor Weir decided. "Sabina, have you decided on a method for using the TED?"
"I'm glad you asked," I said with an almost Rodney like smugness. John grinned at how much I was enjoying this – I'd run my ideas past him a couple of days ago and he'd helped me refine them into an actual strategy. "I'm going to try jamming them – telepathically!"
"I thought you were going to try to take control," Doctor Weir frowned.
"I've never controlled a Wraith and after my brief experience on the mainland it seemed even more of a reckless idea to assume I can work out something effective in the heat of the moment," I replied. "I was thinking about how I'd held off that Wraith Queen and the answer just came to me – telepathic noise. She was trying to get me to yield and I threw a huge amount of trivial details in front of her and it did confuse her. The TED gives me a way to access all the Wraith within range at the same time – instead of trying to make actual connections which would limit the number of Wraith I could take out, I'm going to send telepathic noise down all the connections at the same time. The TED can even generate the noise itself – I won't have to bombard the connections with trivial information. Hopefully that will limit their ability to operate their ship almost as well as if I'd actually been able to control the ship itself."
"Jamming of any kind is an accepted military counter measure," Colonel Caldwell actually looked impressed at the strategy I'd come up with.
"That's actually ... that's pretty smart," Rodney complimented me.
"I do come up with good ideas occasionally," I pointed out.
"Have you tested it?" Doctor Weir asked.
"Sabina used the same volunteers from the original tests," John replied. "She jammed the whole group of them at the same time – when I tested them it was very clear they were incapable of doing even minor tasks."
"That's great news," Doctor Weir congratulated me.
"Look, it's still a bit of a long shot," I felt it necessary to point out. 'Sure, I can jam a group of humans with little telepathic ability. It'll be a different story for the Wraith who have access to a neural network and there's really no way to test that."
"Point taken," Doctor Weir acknowledged.
The rest of the discussion centred on who would be where at the time of the Hive ships arrival. John was going to be on the Orion with Rodney, ready to hopefully deploy the drones should they be needed. Colonel Caldwell would have the final decision as to whether we deployed the TED ... it would be a balance between ensuring defeat of the Hive and not giving away all our cards if it wasn't required.
"That went well," I commented to John as we walked together from the meeting.
"Do you really need to be on the Daedalus?" John asked me.
"I really think so," I said earnestly. "There's a large part of personal perception in using the TED ... if I can see that Hive ship and I know its close I think that will help me get a better result."
"Well, remember that you'll be under Colonel Caldwell's command on the Daedalus," John pointed out. "He expects his commands to be followed without question so do what he says."
"I will," I promised. "Are you angry about the Dart being beamed up there too?"
"You knew what my opinion was before you asked Caldwell," John pointed out somewhat irritably. "You asked anyway so clearly whether I'm annoyed about it is immaterial."
"It's not," I denied. "I'd prefer it if you understood why I thought it was necessary."
"I understand what you wanted Colonel Caldwell to think," John pinned me with a sharp glance, "but you're not fooling me. Somewhere at the back of your mind it the vague plan to fly that Dart yourself. You wouldn't let anyone else take the risk."
"If it was the only way to get the information I need, I would," I looked him in the eye openly, trying to show him that I was completely serious.
"Okay, I'll give you that," John relented. "Let's hope the Hive ship just passes us by so we don't have to put that to the test."
"What say we put all this out of our minds for the next few hours?" I looked at him hopefully.
"What did you have in mind?" John raised an eyebrow suggestively.
"That'll do for starters," I laughed, grabbing his hand and dragging him off in the direction of his quarters.
Authors Note:
Thanks for reading everyone - Next up is Allies ... creepy Wraith Queen walking freely around Atlantis ... shivers dramatically ... I'll edit and post that one tomorrow.