ALLIES
John was half-listening to Elizabeth and Caldwell discuss their positioning; the rest of his attention was on Rodney, haranguing the bridge crew, and Ryan, watching from the edge of the bridge. He was mildly astonished that the ship was running; it was a miracle, really, one that Rodney was loudly claiming at every opportunity.
"Colonel Sheppard – how goes it on your end?" Elizabeth asked.
"Well, we're out of sensor range and all that," John told her, "but whether or not we're ready to fight is a whole other story."
"Getting this ship up and running in under a month is a miracle," Rodney reminded him.
"Do we start the beatification now or later?"
"Rodney, if the hive opens up on us, I want Orion's drones," Elizabeth said.
"Which means we're gonna need the hyperdrive to get in position," John agreed.
"Which means we'll need shields, which means you want everything!"
"I like everything! Can we do it or not?"
"He can do it," Ryan murmured.
"Well, don't get up!" He ran through a quick checklist with some of the crew, deciding that while they had shields, and could probably get to the fight, it was unlikely they could fire the drones once they got there.
"Well, it's pointless to get in position if we can't fire," John protested.
"Y'know, let's talk about it for a really long time – that'll help for sure."
"Is he always like that?" Ryan asked.
"Only when he's awake," John muttered. Into the radio, he added, "Rodney's doing everything humanly possible to be ready."
"I have a contact," Chuck reported from Atlantis.
Orion was...deliberately...out of scanning range of the planet. It meant the Wraith couldn't see them, but they had no idea what was going on and were limited to Elizabeth's descriptions...which were trailing off as the ship moved into orbit above the City.
John watched Rodney fidget for a few moments before commenting, "You could be a little more chatty, Elizabeth."
"I'm sorry," she said absently. "We're just waiting for them to make the next move."
"Transmitting a signal, audio only," Chuck told them.
"Put it on speaker," Elizabeth ordered.
Ryan straightened, listening intently as a male Wraith told them, "We know you are there. We mean you no harm. Please respond."
"John, are you hearing this?" Elizabeth asked.
"We mean you no harm," the Wraith repeated. "There is no point in hiding, Doctor Weir. We know you are there. We mean you no harm. Please respond."
"Is that who I think it is?" John asked.
"It's addressing me by name," she said grimly. "I think we can assume that it's Michael."
"Who is Michael?" Ryan asked quietly.
"Ask Alice," John told him, watching Rodney bustle around the Bridge.
"I can't, we're out of range."
"Ask her later."
"The message is from Michael, Colonel," Elizabeth was saying.
"They know we're here," Ronon agreed.
"But they don't know exactly where we are," Caldwell pointed out.
"He's right," John said. "Answer them and we guarantee the first shot won't miss."
"I recommend you open a secure channel to the hive via the Daedalus," Rodney suggested. "That way they won't be able to pinpoint Atlantis' position."
"And we can always turn the shield on," Elizabeth said thoughtfully.
"I believe we have enough combined firepower to take out a single hive if we need to," John said, glancing at Ryan. The AI nodded, still looking mildly confused.
Elizabeth murmured to Teyla and Ronon for a moment before saying "Right. Let's hear what they have to say."
***
Michael's offer of an alliance was unsettling enough. Elizabeth pulled everyone back to the base, gathering the senior staff for an emergency conference.
John was surprised when Michael's suggestion passed; he'd thought Elizabeth would resist working with the Wraith, no matter how logical it seemed, but she was willing to go ahead with it. Teyla and even Ronon agreed, and they began preparations for the alliance.
Alice sulked along behind him, refusing to help, until he'd finally had enough and stepped into Radek's lab. It was empty apart from the Czech, who rose to his feet when he saw John.
"Don't mind me, just need to get some answers out of Alice." John waved him back to his work. "What's going on?"
"I don't understand the question," Alice said politely.
"You've been sulking all afternoon. What gives?"
"You can't bring Wraith into the City, John."
He made a face. Radek was still watching; his display blinked, and he looked down, reading the words scrolling across it.
"Aah," he said, looking up. "Violates your primary function."
"Violates a primary function, yes. Wraith do not set foot in Atlantis. They never have." She looked back at John. "If the Wraith come here I'll have to go offline. I can't suppress something like this."
"What if I order you to stay online?"
Radek looked up, alarmed. Alice only shrugged. "You can't override a primary function. You know that. If I'm online when the Wraith come, every alarm in this City will go off, and you won't be able to stop them."
"You're blackmailing me," John protested.
"No. I'm telling you what will happen. I have no interest either way. Let me go offline and spare yourself the alarms. Or don't. And I guarantee you won't be able to hear them speak."
John glanced at Radek, who spread his hands helplessly. "Alright. Take yourself off line, then. I'll call you when they're gone."
Alice smiled. "Thank you, John."
He turned to Radek as she vanished. "She just blackmailed me."
"Yes."
"She's not supposed to blackmail me."
"Wraith scare her."
He made a face. "She's not programmed for fear."
"You think not?"
He frowned, glancing at Radek's screen. Alice had chosen to display her words in English, rather than the Czech she usually used with Radek, and her implied threat still hung there.
"You keep saying she is changing. Growing. She was not programmed to follow you, she chooses to do so. But some things she is programmed for. She cannot allow Wraith in this City, not unless they're confined. And who but you will listen to her?"
"You do."
"Yes, but I have no power. I cannot keep the Wraith away. Only you can do that."
John grimaced. "I'm gonna have to be nice to her when she comes back online, aren't I?"
Radek grinned, pulling the file he'd been working on back up. John sighed, turning to leave.
***
John stayed two steps behind Elizabeth as they entered the Gateroom to greet their guests. Ronon was behind him, Caldwell and Teyla on her other side; he was fairly sure they'd be able to protect her if they needed to.
Michael's Queen paused several steps away from them, eyeing them dismissively.
"I'm Doctor Elizabeth Weir. Welcome to Atlantis."
The Queen turned her back, wandering towards the Gate. John tensed, feeling Ronon do the same, but neither of them moved.
"We were saddened to hear the City of the Ancestors had been destroyed," she said, turning back to look at them. "So much beauty. And power."
"Our power," John said pointedly.
"Yes, of course."
"Shall we get started?" Elizabeth suggested, glaring at John. "This way," she added, gesturing up the stairs.
***
Michael and the Wraith scientist went into the City, both under guard. The Queen stayed in Elizabeth's office, clarifying the conditions of the alliance and working out the plans.
"What will happen once you disseminate the weapon?" Elizabeth asked.
"We shall continue on to the next hive."
"Then what?" John insisted.
"We will continue until we have conquered all of our enemies."
"And you think our retrovirus can do all that?" Elizabeth said doubtfully.
"Yes."
"The one we're freely handing over to you," he added.
The Queen studied them both. "I see. Your people will not be harmed. Such will be the nature of our agreement."
"And what about all the other humans on the other worlds?" Elizabeth said neutrally. "Any chance you'll stop feeding on them?"
"Your retrovirus will allow us to feed off enemy Wraith," the Queen reminded them. "There will come a time, however, when our enemy will be vanquished."
"At which point you'll return to killing ordinary folks the old fashioned way," John muttered.
"That will take far longer than your short lifetime."
"Let's just say I'm worried about my grandkids."
The Queen smiled, looking at Elizabeth. "The technology of this city – this city that you now control – is far more powerful than that of the Wraith, yet we brought the Lanteans to their knees. Why?"
"Far greater numbers," John said without thinking.
"Numbers that will be diminished by your retrovirus. Balance will be restored. I believe that is as much as either of us can ask for, don't you?"
"Dr Weir," Carson said abruptly.
She turned away from the Queen, triggering her earpiece. "Go ahead, Carson."
"Our friend wants to return to the Hive."
"Why?"
Carson growled. "Can you come down here?"
Elizabeth glanced up, catching John's eye. "We're on our way."
***
The Queen had chosen a Wraith, apparently at random, to test the gas on. John stood with Elizabeth and Carson in the observation room, watching as it took effect.
It was startlingly fast. Michael's transformation had taken more than two weeks to complete. The Wraith below them transformed in the space of hours. The Queen arrived only after he'd totally transformed, lying passive below them.
"I want to go in there," she said abruptly. "Now."
Elizabeth glanced at John before triggering her earpiece. "Vent the gas from the room."
Once the room was clear the Queen entered. John was on her heels, Michael and Carson behind her. She reached out to touch the man's face, running gentle fingers down his cheek.
"Don't worry," Carson assured her. "He'll begin to turn back in only a number of days if we don't start administering ..."
The Queen slammed her hand down on the man's chest. John took two steps forward, ready to stop her, but Elizabeth caught his arm.
"Colonel. We knew this would be a part of the bargain."
Michael snarled as the Queen drained her soldier dry. "I've seen enough," he muttered, turning on his heel. His Marine guard trailed him as the Queen's victim fell silent.
"It works," the Queen announced, smiling.
***
Back in the conference room a little later, the Queen had yet another request.
"There is another hive ship a single jump away from this system. They recently attempted to attack our ship. I would like to test the virus on them first."
"With all due respect, madam," Carson protested, "I don't think we're there yet. We've been working with your scientist here on an effective means of disseminating the virus as an aerosol gas ..."
"And you have succeeded."
Carson took a deep breath. "Transforming a single Wraith in a controlled environment and trying to infect an entire hive at once are completely two different things."
She smiled. "We plan on entering their hive under the pretence of negotiating our surrender. Part of the delegation will break away, planting small canisters of gas throughout the ship. We need only to create a system that will synchronise the release."
"Well, we can do that," Rodney said thoughtfully. "Look, do we have the kind of volume we need?"
"Aye," he said reluctantly. "Our lab has been churning it out since we struck a deal with our friends here."
"Then we can do this?" Elizabeth asked.
"Well ... it's up to them."
Elizabeth nodded, turning to the Queen. "I would like our people to go along and observe."
"For what purpose?"
"Make sure you stick to the plan," John told her. "Do what you say you're gonna do."
"Very well."
"Good luck. To us all."
***
"Nothing ever goes smoothly," John muttered, back on Atlantis after their failed attempt at a field test. Elizabeth elbowed him, eyes on the screen where the Queen was protesting their innocence.
"Our delegation was searched. They were killed immediately when your canisters were discovered. Our transport ship tried to escape but it was destroyed. You must devise a better delivery method."
"Or what?" Elizabeth protested.
"Or we will disclose your location to the other Wraith."
"We kept our part of the bargain. We gave you the retrovirus."
"And it is useless without an effective delivery system," the Queen spat.
"So we have to do everything?" John asked rhetorically.
The Queen didn't answer. John glanced at Elizabeth, and both turned to Rodney.
"OK, OK. I will figure something out." He pointed towards the screen. "But no more holding back. I wanna know everything there is to know about hive ships: schematics, power distribution, life support configurations, everything you've got."
"Then you shall have it," she agreed.
"For real?" he said in surprise.
The Queen glanced off-screen, and a moment later there was a beep.
"Receiving transmission," Chuck told them.
"John, you cannot let that information into my systems," Alice said urgently, appearing next to Rodney. John jerked, glancing at Elizabeth.
"Make sure it's secure," she was telling Rodney.
"Yeah-yeah-yeah, we're completely firewalled. Let me see that." He pushed Chuck aside. "Oh! She actually did it! I mean, this is the motherlode!"
"What is, exactly?" Elizabeth asked. She came to look over his shoulder; John stayed where he was, watching Alice fidget back and forth.
"Only everything you've ever wanted to know about Wraith technology but were afraid to ask."
Elizabeth looked back at the screen. "Why are you doing this?"
"We have suffered extensive damage," the Queen admitted.
"We could render assistance.," Elizabeth said reluctantly.
"You would do this?"
"We're supposed to have an alliance, aren't we? Sending information on Wraith technology was a remarkable act of good faith on your part."
"Was a remarkable act of something," Alice muttered, glaring at the terminal. John winced, half-turning his back on her to watch Elizabeth.
"Your assistance would be ... acceptable," the Queen decreed.
"Alright, then. We have a deal," Elizabeth agreed.
Alice scowled, turning to stomp out. John sighed, murmuring to Elizabeth for a second before following her.
"I thought you were staying offline," he said, catching up to her.
"I can't desert my captain," she muttered. "No matter how much he might deserve it."
"Easy," he warned her.
"John, they're Wraith. They couldn't deal straight if they wanted to." She made a face. "And now Rodney's sending that information to the labs. It's in my systems, John."
"Radek'll be careful with it. Hey." He reached out as though to catch her arm, stopping himself at the last moment. "We can handle the Wraith."
"Yes," she said distantly. "That's what the People thought, too."
She was gone before he could answer; he kicked at the nearest wall, cursing softly, and then headed for Radek's lab.
***
Radek barely looked up as he approached his desk, offering a tray of coffees. Two of the lab techs took cups before Radek had even registered it. "I know you guys have been burning it at both ends, so, uh ..."
"Doctor Vogel just went to get us some," Radek said absently.
John put the tray down, leaning over his shoulder. "Yeah, caught him on the way in." He took the last cup, beating Radek to it by a hair. "How's it coming?"
"Ah. Oh, it's phenomenal. It's-it's like being handed a Wraith encyclopedia. It's hard to know where to start."
"By burning it," Alice muttered from Radek's other side. He didn't react; she obviously wasn't displaying her words for him, only for John.
"When I was a kid and I got my first encyclopedia, I started with the letter S," John offered.
Radek smiled. "Yes, well, while I'm sure that Wraith sexuality is interesting, we've decided to split into two teams. Team A over here is trying to find the best place or places to plant the gas canister, and Team B over there is trying to come up with some fixes that the Wraith hive sustained during its last battle."
"And you?"
"Um, mostly I'm just skimming the index."
"Anything exciting?" John asked, leaning in.
"Oh, yes."
"Oh, yes," Alice mimicked, lifting her voice.
John glared at her. "Such as?"
"Well, the ships are massive." He pushed away from his desk, gesturing to a larger display on the next desk. "But because of their mainly organic design, they have a number of external weaknesses."
"I've got a weakness for external weaknesses."
"And being stupid," Alice muttered.
"Any word from Rodney yet?" Radek asked.
"I'm sure he's fine."
Radek blinked, studying him. "You're distracted."
"I'm getting yelled at," he admitted.
"Oh? Our young friend has returned?"
"She doesn't like the Wraith info being disseminated like this."
Radek sighed. "We must study it. This is not an opportunity we can ignore."
"Yeah, you know that, I know that..."
"You've had Wraith inside you," Alice said urgently. John grimaced, looking away.
"What?" Radek asked.
"Nothing, she's just drawing comparisons. Hurry along, huh?"
"Yes."
He glanced at Alice, spreading his hands. "Best I can do, Alice."
"I'll be looking forward to my 'told you so's, then," she told him, bouncing up onto Radek's desk.
"You do that anyway."
She shrugged, eyes on the screen, and he gave up, turning to leave.
***
"That's your sweet spot," Rodney said later, gesturing to a particular spot on the Hive schematics. "This central chamber scrubs the CO2 from your artificial atmosphere and redistributes it as breathable air to the rest of the ship. You get a sufficiently large canister of retrovirus into that central chamber, the whole ship'll be affected simultaneously."
"Getting to this location without arousing suspicion will be very difficult," the Queen said thoughtfully.
"I'm sure it will be," Elizabeth agreed, "but we can't really help you with that."
"Although the Colonel and I have come up with a way to test that theory," Rodney added. "Step one: we find another enemy hive and jump to a location just out of its sensor range."
"Step two," John continued, "the Daedalus takes position in close proximity to your hive, essentially merging with your scan patterns, rendering it practically invisible to the enemy sensors."
"Step three: using sublight systems, our ships approach the target hive for ... whatever reason – I'm sure you can come with something."
"Step four: now that the Daedalus can use its beaming technology again ..."
"... which would be thanks to ..." Rodney gestured at himself, grinning.
"Anyway – once we get in range, we can beam the canister into the CO2 chamber and boom! One hive ship de-Wraithified." John grinned, matching Rodney's stance exactly.
The Queen shook her head. "Unacceptable."
"Excuse me?" Rodney protested.
"This plan keeps us completely reliant on you to disseminate the retrovirus."
"It's meant to be a test to see if the gas works in the first place," John reminded her. "If it does, you can come up with some other way to deliver it."
"She's trying to make you give her more," Alice said thoughtfully, circling them. "Hold the line, John. Don't let them bully you."
"Very well," the Queen said reluctantly. "I'll transmit the coordinates of our new target as soon as I return to the hive. We'll leave as soon as you are ready."
Rodney took a step closer to John as the Queen swept out of the room.
"What's a girl like her do for fun?" John muttered.
"Kill people," Alice told him.
"Hmm," Rodney said absently. "I should be on that hive when we do this."
"Excuse me?" Elizabeth protested.
"Really?" John overlapped.
"I know it's uncharacteristically brave, but I've hacked a lot of their systems under the guise of repairing them. I've convinced them that I should be there to supervise their systems if anything goes wrong."
"And they agreed to this?" Elizabeth said doubtfully.
"Yes. Plus, now we can freely beam stuff on and off their ship, I've written a programme that will immediately beam me out of there the second I activate this emergency transponder." He waved the little machine, grinning proudly.
"You're sure you wanna do this?"
"Of course I don't wanna do it! I just ... I think it should be done."
"Ronon goes along," John told him.
Rodney rolled his eyes. "Wouldn't have it any other way."
"And I'd like you on the Daedalus," Elizabeth told John.
"No place I'd rather be," John agreed.
"OK, good." Elizabeth took a deep breath. "Let's get this done. I'm about ready for our house guests to leave."
"She's about ready?" Alice muttered. "She doesn't have them crawling around inside her."
Rodney slid the transponder into his pocket, patting John's shoulder as he left. John sighed, looking at Elizabeth.
"Should be over soon, then."
"Here's hoping," she agreed.
"I'll be back in a while."
Elizabeth waved him off, turning her attention back to the screen, and he slipped out, heading for the locker room.
***
"I won't be long," he said quietly as he tugged on his boots.
"No?" Alice said noncommittally. She was standing by the door with her back to him, the way she always did in the locker room.
"No. Get in, drop the stuff off, come back." He tied the last lace, frowning. "You never told me what you think of the plan."
"I don't have an opinion."
"On the destruction of the Wraith?"
She turned to eye him. "You're not destroying the Wraith, John. You're just creating a food source to strengthen one faction. You don't suppose they'll change every Wraith, do you? They'll just pressure everyone into joining them. You're uniting the factions, not destroying them."
John sat up, studying her. "That's a pretty depressing view."
"I fought the Wraith for hundreds of years, John. They are not capable of working for anyone's benefit but their own. Take the lifesigns detector with you."
"Always do. I'll see you later."
"Be safe, John."
"You too."
***
Radek yawned, promising himself a break in five minutes. The Wraith information was fascinating, but there was so much he knew he'd barely scratched the surface.
His screen flickered suddenly, Danger Danger Danger scrolling across it in Czech before vanishing. He sat upright, blinking as the information began to disappear.
He glanced at the nearest desk. "Is your terminal...?" He cut himself off as every screen started flickering, information vanishing as he watched.
"You need to see this," one of the techs said, pushing a tablet into his hands. He stared at it, unable for a moment to comprehend what he was seeing.
"Oh no. Tell me the Daedalus has not left yet."
"Almost half an hour ago," she said apologetically.
"Shut everything down! Everything!" He dashed for the door, triggering his radio. "Dr Weir, we have a problem!"
***
"We got hacked," he explained to Elizabeth and the others a little later. "Within the hive ship's schematics was a worm-like computer virus."
"Your people went over the data," Elizabeth reminded him.
"I know. We thought it was clean, but this virus was entirely different."
"What did it do?"
"It very selectively probed our systems without damaging them or exposing itself."
"I don't understand," Carson protested. "If you didn't find it and it didn't reveal itself..."
"Once the hive left Atlantis, the worm began to destroy all the data they had sent down."
"Then this was their plan all along." In another woman, that would have been smug, but Teyla managed to sound only concerned.
"What did they get?" Elizabeth asked him.
Radek glanced automatically at the tablet in his hand. "This is one of the reasons we didn't detect it. They only uploaded two pieces of information: one – the Aurora mission reports..."
"OK," Elizabeth agreed. That could have been worse; Aurora had little sensitive information. "And two?"
He took a deep breath. "The location of every world on our database."
Elizabeth stared at him. "They have..."
"Location of Earth, yes."
"And there's no word from the Daedalus or our Hive?"
"Nothing. All sensors are searching."
"Alright. We need to warn Earth. Prepare to dial them up."
Radek nodded, heading out to the Control Room and carefully laying his tablet on the side of one of the panels. "Alice?" he said under his breath.
The tablet flickered. 'Systems critical, reboot necessary' scrolled across the screen, flickering in and out. Radek grimaced, taking a deep breath.
"Go offline," he murmured. "Rest and repair. Return to us when you are strong."
'Aid required?'
He laughed softly, ignoring the odd looks he was getting. "Yes. But repairs come first."
'Status of essential personnel?'
"Radek?"
Teyla was standing beside him when he looked up. "Is there a problem with the dial up?"
"No. No, dial up is ready to go on Dr Weir's command." Lowering his voice, he added, "Alice is injured and will not go offline until she has been told what is happening."
"I will inform Alice." She smiled, squeezing his shoulder. "Get some rest, Radek."
He nodded, glancing down at the tablet again as she walked away. "There is no response from the Daedalus yet, Alice, nor the Hive. We don't know the status of our personnel."
The screen stayed blank for several seconds, until he began to think she'd gone offline involuntarily; then the words 'Must remain online until all personnel are accounted for' appeared.
Radek didn't answer, watching the one sided replies as Alice spoke with Teyla. Finally she seemed to have talked the program down; the last message was 'Expected reboot time estimated at four hours thirty nine minutes.'
"Sleep well," Radek murmured in Czech, straightening up as Elizabeth stepped out of her office.
"Dr Zelenka, please dial Earth. We need to warn them that the Wraith are on their way."