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Chapter 20:
They have been taking shifts, two would handle a day and the other two would handle the other day. It has been four days since the hive ships have just stopped. And it was on this day that Quatre was in space with Sandrock. Nothing was really special about this day, except that there was a message sent from the Hive ships. Heero was manning the computers when he received the transmission. "Rodney McKay," his flat tone sounded across Atlantis. "Come to the control room."
"Now Heero? I am busy at the moment," Rodney answered back.
"Now," Heero replied. There was muttering on the other end and then the line went dead. "Trowa, Wufei report to the control room."
"We're on your way," Wufei said to him over the earpiece.
Heero waited about ten minutes for Rodney, Wufei and Trowa were already there waiting. Weir, John and Teyla were standing to the side waiting for Rodney. "Ah, um, I was busy," Rodney said and walked to Heero and looked at the screen that he had up. It was a transmission from the Wraith ships. Rodney opened his mouth.
"I have already disconnected this computer from the main computers of Atlantis, and if we must we can activate the zero system on this computer," he said. Rodney looked at him, Heero didn't move from his seat. Rodney leaned over him and moved his hand around, Heero watched him carefully, he was still there so he could activate the zero system if need be. When Rodney opened the transmission there was nothing for a moment, then a loud bang like someone dropped a door.
"Ah oops," came Duo's voice. "Is it working?" there was a pause for a moment then the sound of gunfire. "Is it working?" Another pause, "good." There was shifting around for a second. "Hey guys, Duo here, ah, can't really say too much, hyper jammers didn't work right, barred myself in a ship, don't worry, I figured something out, say hi buddy," there was some noise.
"You have made a grave mistake," said a wraith voice. Rodney looked like he swallowed a living frog at the moment while Weir, John and Teyla just looked stunned.
"Yeah yeah, I've heard that before, but remember what I said, one word and this ship and the other two go boom," Duo said, "and you know, I don't lie do I buddy?" There was grumbling on the other side for a moment. "Good. Now, my buddy here and well these other ships and the lovely people aboard have kindly agreed to let me… ah, go. But there is one little problem. We're in the middle of a hyper drive or something; well I guess my jammers work after all. We're jammed, and they need my help, as much as I need theirs, and I don't like that. Right now, on your scanners we should look like we're stilling coming to you at the same speed yada yada right?" there was a pause. "Right. Well I will assume Heero is also at the computer right? Yeah that's an easy one to figure out. I need you to go to Deathscythe and send me the key code in the hyper jammer system," Duo said. "Oh, the hyper jammers are the things on Death's shoulders by his head, there is a key for each one, since I cant remember which one I grabbed the jammers from, I need both."
Heero looked at the black screen, Trowa and Wufei moved closer to the computer when they heard Duo's voice. There was nothing for a long time. Finally, "send the program along this line, I should get it. The time lag should be about one hour twelve minutes…" a pause.
"We're in hyper space, its not going to reach Atlantis for three to five days and back," the wraith spat.
"Ah, never mind, about three days or so then, damn… just quickly okay?" Duo said. "I'll be waiting for your reply. Duo out."
"He's alive?" Weir asked and looked to the boys.
"Oh yeah, if you poke around or have destroyed Death I'll kill you all!" Duo's voice came from the computer.
"Yeah," Heero said and stood up from the chair "Call Quatre, a guard isn't needed now."
Trowa nodded his head.
"Wait," John stopped them. They looked at him. "What is a hyper jammer?"
"It's a weapon on Deathscythe, any mechanical or electrical wont work anymore until the hyper jammers are turned off, this use to include our gundams, however with the new system that Duo put into it, our gundams have been safe," Trowa said.
"That idiot," Wufei started, "suicidal idiot… taking the jammers like that. They could have cut off the life support or something."
"Wufei," Heero looked at him, the Chinese boy looked at him. "Lets get to Deathscythe. Trowa fill in Quatre when he gets here. Rodney we'll need you to send this later."
"Huh, oh right I'll be going again then," he said and started to walk out the door.
"Rodney," John called after him in a what-are-you-doing type of voice.
Rodney stopped and looked at him. "A project colonel, a project can I get back to it?"
"I wanna know what it is," John said.
"You cant, its … it's a secret," Rodney explained. Heero looked at him and then to John. Rodney turned his head to the side some in questioned as Heero walked past him.
-.-.-.-.-.-.-
It took Heero and Wufei the better part of the day to find the key code of one of the Jammers and then the rest of the day and well into the night to get it copied without it going into Duo script. Which was really annoying, Wufei had thrown a tantrum when he tried it and the code went into Duo speak for the fifth or so time. Red door nine, seven clouds under tree, ten pieces o-fifty-two, random words or phrases that had no meaning to anyone except Duo. They would have to get back into the code system again after that. Weir and John watched them from her office window.
"They work so hard to help their friend," Weir said.
"He's a teammate," Quatre said behind her sitting down with a cup of coffee in his hands. "We're all we have, the five of us and our Gundams, it has always been us verses Earth, and now our beloved colonies have thrown us out. Most of us have no homes or friends to call our own. Well we didn't," Quatre explained. "I am lucky, I have Rashid and the other Maganac Corps, as well as forty-nine sisters," he said and looked down into his cup. "Trowa here has the circus at times. But Wufei's Colony and home was destroyed, Heero never had anything, and Duo grew up on the streets of L2… yeah he's loud, and a pain sometimes, but he's a teammate." Weir looked back at the blond for a long moment, John was leaning against the wall.
"Forty-nine sisters?" John asked.
"They were created in a lab," Trowa filled in where Quatre couldn't. "Tube babies."
"Ah," John looked out the window, Wufei was leaning against the head of Deathscythe sleeping, while Heero was inside the open cockpit typing away.
"I can understand going to great lengths," Weir said and looked at the two boys for a long time. "But you are just boys. Why should such a weight be placed on your shoulders?"
"Unlike Quatre and Wufei, three nameless boys with no family, no background and no one to call their own were perfect for the job, no one would care or miss us when, if we died in the missions, its just the way it was," Trowa explained. "Heero was trained from the day he was born to be a soldier, Wufei was trained to be the best in his clan, his clan were warriors and fighters, he was not at first, but events and the death of his wife well, things led around and he had to be his clan's warrior."
"That still doesn't seem right," Weir said.
"Right or wrong, its what shapes us. Without Duo, we're not whole, now that we know he's alive, we have to get him back, at all costs to ourselves," Quatre said and looked at Weir in her eyes evenly. The woman looked back at him and bowed her head in defeat.
"Alright, let's get him back home safely. We'll see if there are any gates near by and see if we can't send a jumper through to get him sooner," she smiled.
"Will that work?" Quatre asked.
"Maybe, we'll have to ask Rodney when he wakes up. I think its about time to put Heero to bed," John said.
"No, leave him, he wouldn't go anyway," Quatre said walking next to John, John looked down at the fifteen year-old boy.
"You sure?" John asked. The blond only nodded.
Cynthia Joy Finnegan: I will up date as soon as possible, I never said he was dead, though I did try and lead it that way, I couldn't really kill him.
Major Simi: mmm… who said it was the Wraith? I remember Deathscythe having hyper Jammers ^.^