December 6th
"Olesia," Rodney announced as soon as Colonel Carter called the meeting to order. Jennifer sat beside Colonel Sheppard, quiet and just grateful she was being included in discussions on the progress with searching for Evan's team.
"Wasn't that destroyed two years ago?" John queried.
"Exactly," Rodney smiled triumphantly.
"Rodney," Sam said pointedly, her brow raised as she regarded her fellow physicist patiently.
"Oh, right," Rodney back tracked quickly. "As Sheppard just pointed out, as far as we know Olesia was destroyed two years ago by the Wraith. We saw the cruisers coming in ourselves and you can bet there was a hive ship in orbit too. The chances of anyone surviving the culling and subsequent leveling of the city are remote, and yet they must have. Why else would someone from M5R-990 go there?"
"Wait, Olesia was dialled from 990?" John sat forward abruptly, his interest sharpened.
"Isn't that what I just said?" Rodney looked around the table expectantly. "I found it in the second set of addresses we mined from the DHD yesterday, using a particularly brilliant subroutine I of course wrote myself." He smiled proudly.
"That's not a coincidence," Ronon spoke with authority, ignoring Rodney's habitual bragging.
"It does seem unlikely that such a connection would be a random occurrence," Teyla agreed.
"Eldon," John said wryly.
"Oh come on, you don't think this has anything to do with that little upstart, do you?" Rodney protested.
"He wasn't an upstart and as I recall, without him we'd all be dead!" John shot back.
"Who is Eldon?" Sam asked, looking from Rodney to John expectantly.
"A convict, wrongfully accused, who helped us escape a difficult situation a couple of years back," John explained. "Elizabeth gave him sanctuary here – he stayed six months or so before requesting we find him another place to live. At the time he said living a city in the middle of the ocean wasn't for him but now I'm wondering if that was just his way of getting back to Olesia without us knowing."
"I believe Major Lorne's team were the ones to escort Eldon to his new home," Teyla commented.
"He kept in touch for a while," John didn't state the obvious –that Eldon and his new people were one of the planets they'd cut off when they'd moved Atlantis. "There'd be no harm in checking out Olesia," he suggested, looking to Sam hopefully. They still had a handful of planets to check from the first twenty addresses Radek found initially but this lead sounded much more promising. "We could take a jumper, cloak as soon as we're through, just in case there are people there who turn out to be hostile."
Sam looked thoughtful for a moment before making a quick decision. "Go," she ordered.
John nodded, giving Jennifer an encouraging look before he hurried off, his team at his heels. Jennifer couldn't help but feel encouraged by the speed of action – if Colonel Carter thought it promising enough to send a team immediately, surely that mean something good.
"How are you holding up Doctor?" Sam asked.
Jennifer looked up, surprised to find the city leader still sitting at the meeting table. She'd assumed once John left so would the Colonel.
"I'm keeping busy," Jennifer replied in lieu of having to admit she didn't have a good answer for that question. By all accounts she was doing her job, and doing it well, but in her own mind the level of distraction she was suffering, her thoughts never far away from Evan, wasn't acceptable.
"How long have you and Major Lorne been seeing each other?"
Jennifer smiled. "Almost a year," she shared. "Actually it was Elizabeth's Christmas tree that brought us together."
"I've heard a lot about that tree," Sam replied. She didn't ask for more information but her demeanour and posture just invited Jennifer to share. Everyone else had been tiptoeing around her since Evan had disappeared, either that or they'd be too enthusiastic in expressing their belief that Lorne's team would be found soon. As a result Jennifer felt herself clamming up more and more as the days went on – the chance to talk about Evan without it being about their current situation was so welcome she all but burst into speech.
The whole story emerged – her pact with Teyla, the decoration she'd chosen, stumbling across Evan hanging his own ornaments and the subsequent invitation to the Christmas Eve party. "Part of me can't believe it's been a year already," she finished, giving Sam an embarrassed smile when she realised how long she'd been talking without interruption.
"And you're adding to that Christmas tradition this year," Sam pointed out. Jennifer looked for some sign that the Colonel was impatient with her ramblings but instead saw only a fellow female she found it surprisingly easy to talk to.
"I hope so," she said softly. She hesitated. "How did you know?"
"That you'd welcome the chance to talk about Major Lorne?" Sam queried. Jennifer nodded. "I've been there," Sam admitted. "A few years back someone I cared about was cut off from the SGC, for three months as it turned out. It was hard but more so because I dearly wanted to talk about him but for reasons I won't go into, I couldn't."
"He?" Jennifer boldly pushed for the identity of the Colonel's regard.
Sam smiled. "I can't say," she admitted.
"Oh," Jennifer frowned. "Of course … you don't have to worry that I'll mention anything, even what little you've said. Not that I'm saying you should tell me … just that I can keep a secret."
"I appreciate that Doctor," Sam replied sincerely.
"Jennifer, or Jenn if you prefer."
"Let's go and see what Colonel Sheppard's team find on Olesia," Sam invited, standing.
Jennifer followed as she led the way to the control room. Just enough time had passed for John's team to be ready to head out.
"Dial it up," John called from the Gateroom floor.
Chuck nodded, his fingers flying over the keys as he hit seven symbols in quick succession. The lights around the gate spun but when they should have stopped before the kawhoosh abruptly the gate shut down instead.
"Is there a problem?" Colonel Carter asked, moving to stand over Chuck's shoulder, her eyes on the readings on his screen.
"No Ma'am," Chuck replied. "It looks like a problem from the other end."
"Try again," Sam ordered.
Chuck redialled but the result was the same – they couldn't establish a connection to Olesia.
"Oh, that is not good," Rodney muttered audibly.
"Let's adjourn back in the conference room," Sam ordered. "Keep trying to establish a connection," she told Chuck. Nodding, Chuck tapped out commands, setting up an automatic regular dial in to Olesia.
John handed his weapon off to one of the gateroom guards before jogging up the stairs, the rest of his team not far behind.
"He's there – I know it," Jennifer said as soon as everyone was sitting down again.
"That may very well be the case but there's a larger issue here as well," Sam agreed. "This is the second time this week we've been unable to connect to a previously accessible planet. If someone has the ability to shut down a specific stargate at will then it poses a threat beyond our need to find out people."
"We could take the Daedalus," Sheppard suggested.
"He's right," Rodney agreed. "At their usual speeds we could be there in three days – plus the remaining time for the Daedalus to get here."
"When is it due?" Jennifer asked.
"Three days," Sam revealed. "We could radio them when they get within range and request they increase speed to get here sooner."
"Six days?" Jennifer gulped, flattened by the news. "Anything could happen to Evan's team before then!"
"It's the best we can do," John frowned, clearly not liking the math any better than Jennifer did.
"Look, there's no guarantee that's where they are," Rodney pointed out. "Admittedly it is suspicious that Olesia was dialled successfully from 990 five days ago but it could just be a gate malfunction. I don't think we should put all our eggs into this one basket."
"I agree," Sam said calmly. "We'll continue to send teams to the remaining addresses we got from the DHD."
"Lorne will be trying to get back here," Ronon rarely spoke up in group meetings unless he felt strongly about something.
"Assuming he's able to," Rodney sent Jennifer an apologetic look.
"Yes," Colonel Carter stood, signalling the end of the meeting. "Chuck will continue to try Olesia at regular intervals. He'll also contact the Daedalus as soon as it's in range. We'll talk again when there's something new to consider."
"Thank you Colonel," Jennifer knew it wasn't just for her what they were doing to find Evan and his team but she had to express her gratitude anyway.
Begging off dinner despite Teyla's urging that she needed to eat, Jennifer made her way wearily back to her quarters. They hadn't established a connection to Olesia … and she was staring down the barrel of a six day wait before anyone could get there and begin searching for Evan. She wanted to be positive but the fear that Evan hadn't returned because he couldn't was growing every day. That and the fear that the future she'd expected to have was slowly slipping from her grasp, no matter how tightly she clung to her hope.
On top of the five days she'd already waited the new delay dragged at her spirits, enough that not even the sight of her advent house could cheer her up. She dropped down in front of it, staring sightlessly for untold minutes before rousing herself. It felt like she was just going through the motions, searching for the number 6, opening the little side window, and taking out the small scroll of paper.
"There is nothing more important to me than our future."
"Oh God," Jennifer clutched the note to her chest, her breath coming in rapid gasps as she tried not to burst into tears. She'd cried enough already and tears weren't going to help Evan. It was just so … poignant, the way his daily notes seemed somehow in line with what she was going through. She'd worried for their future and low and behold he was reminding her that nothing was more important. How was it possible that she could feel so in tune with him when they were as far apart as they'd ever been?
"Six more days," she vowed, promising herself that she'd be positive until then.