Away from Atlantis

Disclaimer Not mine, I don't own Stargate Atlantis that is MGM's. Not mine! Keep in mind I did use some of the following episode for this chapter so some of the phrasing might be from the episode.

The episode is Submersion.

This story starts up after The Game, and ignores Irresponsible, so Kolya is alive. Song is Pale by Within Temptation

Last time...

John reached the jumper bay, in seconds. If he'd been thinking he, would he have known he had gone as fast as he could, leaving Ronon in the dust from his already further away route. He approached the jumper cautiously, he could see water tracts leading to the jumper.

He walked as quietly as he could, there could be a queen in there. He looked inside, no wraith, just the back of Graydon's head. "Graydon?"

He reached out and spun him around, and winced. The guy was dead, fed upon.

"I found Graydon. He's dead, Fed upon."

"What about Dickenson?"

"No, there's no sign of him yet."

"I'll see if I can find him using the.." John stopped, the fuzzy blackness was pressing in on him. It was almost a presence, behind him. He knew it even as he turned, bringing the P-90 to bear. The queen caught him, pressing in on his will, his mind. The wall she'd kept up fell, he could feel her now, all those years. The pain...ugh! He wanted to scream, but this was fought in silence. It was.. auh! The pressure she could bring to bear.

She was crushing him, he tried pushing out, away, she just pushed back.

Despite his best efforts, she made him drop the P-90. He could hear Weir calling over his radio for him, he couldn't speak.

She made him stepped towards her, he fought every step of the way. Finally he was in front of her, she made him fall to his knees, bowing before her. She may have control of his body, but his mind was still there. He continued to fight back.

She snarled. He continued to see flashes, she'd made Dickenson call for him, her feeding off of her crew, as Graydon had told her he was the only one who could fly the ship. Her ship crashing.

"Sheppard, she thought at him, your comrades betrayed you, and you don't seem to mind. What kind of human are you, to have the mind of a Warlord?"

"I have encounter others of the one I controlled, but you...You are something new."

"I see that you have killed many of my sisters, but what have you... AAAhhh! You were offered... no. he repaid you."He could see in her head she knew the Wraith who'd fed off of him. She seemed to think a name but there were no sounds, for it it truly was a thought.

"Sheppard this is McKay, What've you got?"

I've got a wraith queen that's what I've got. She snarled, what seemed to be a laugh.

He was regaining control slowly he could now curl and uncurl his fists.

"Sheppard can you hear me?" there was pause, Is something wrong?"

"Stop! Sheppard your body is mine! You will fly me to the surface and I will regain my place!" She touched his face seeking a link to overpower him.

With her thinking those thoughts, and with her desperate need for him to fly her away. She made him lose the little ground he had recovered. "I will not let a human over power me!"

He fought back, she would not have him. Then he saw Ronon aiming at her, with their minds linked, she saw as well. She turned just as Ronon fired.

The glass in the jumper's window broke... Allowing all the water in.

Chapter Five

"Sheppard, this is McKay. Please respond."

"Sheppard come in."

John rolled over, Shit!... He had cracked ribs, and his hand was broken, he looked at it, the bruising began to fade, before his eyes, so he decided let it be, and to answer.

"Sheppard Come IN!"

The panic in his voice was nice to hear, some times John almost thought Rodney didn't care, sometimes it was just nice to know that he did.

"I'm still here." he groaned in to the radio, ribs were killing him, not to mention the headache.

"We had to throw up the emergency forcefields up."

Radek told him over the radio, as he reached for his gun with his off hand, the Wraith Queen was on the ground unconscious. Didn't stop him from wanting to shoot her.

"The section you were in was flooding."

"I noticed!" he said trying to sit up.

"See, you were thrown clear of the bulkhead by the force of the water." Rodney told him.

"Ronon?" he said, scooting over to him, watching the Queen.

Ronon groaned and rolled over, he didn't seem hurt just knocked out, unlike his self, John noted.

Ronon got up, now that he was awake. Ronon recovered fasted, he went over and tapped the forcefield, "I missed."

"I noticed that too!" John said still laying on the floor, his ribs hurt and holding his gun in his good hand. He had no hand to help his self up with.

"Where's the Queen?" John pointed at her with his gun.

Ronon pointed his gun her way.

"Ok, so everyone is accounted for. But Dickenson?" McKay asked.

"I think he's dead, but I don't know." John said. But he did know, he'd been fed upon.

"Look, I don't know what just happened, but we are now cut off from the jumper."

Ronon had gone over, and was standing over the Queen. Gun pointed straight in her face, "I won't miss now."

"Wait!"

"What for?"

"Ronon, she had to have come from some where, maybe a ship."

That was part of the reason, he'd stopped Ronon from killing her, but he didn't want to think about the other parts.

Ronon signed.

They grabbed her by the arms, and dragged her away.

Half an Hour Later

They'd all paced while waiting for her to wake up, it was Elizabeth's turn to pace, when she did.

"Welcome back."

The Queen fought her restraints.

"I trust your comfortable." Elizabeth said politely.

John spoke as he felt her reaching for his mind, "That groggy sensation your feeling is the sedatives we're pumping in to you."

She snarled, he had a lot less trouble forcing her out, and away from him. No one else in the room realized what was going on, even as she continued her battering at his mind, and snarling.

"Just a precaution." he said, feeling her pushing at him.

He was getting better at blocking her, he continue to feel the way she protected her mind. It was hard but he began to copy some of it, in little ways, it felt like she had a curtain up at the moment. Before it had been her opening her full mind and trying to crush him, but now... There he'd actual blocked her out completely, for a spilt second.

He'd worked on this back in Atlantis, for now he was pretty sure even if she escaped she couldn't over whelm him again.

"As for the other precautions." he said almost smirking, as she hurled her self at his mind, furious.

Ronon showed her the gun he was holding, and set it to kill.

"Now your going to tell us, what we want to know." Elizabeth said angry for the death of her scientists.

"In exchange for?"

"This is not an a negotiation." Elizabeth said, furious.

"I disagree."

John touched her mind, he felt satisfaction. A victory? What was he feeling? The Queen was now using her grogginess against him. He shook his head to clear it.

"Let me get this over with." Ronon said, powering his gun, and aiming.

The Queen sat up abruptly, scaring Elizabeth, Ronon charged, slamming the Queen back down.

Both he and Ronon had guns on her, Ronon was holding her down by the throat.

She snarled again.

They all stayed, like that for a minute or so.

Elizabeth's breathing slowed, and both he and Ronon looked at her for the go ahead. She shook her head no. Ronon let go, and left to go stand against the wall. He had a little more trouble, she had struck well he was distracted, and he was trying to disentangle his mind from hers.

Finally he did it, and stepped over to allow Elizabeth back over. He kept his gun on the Queen.

"How did you get aboard this station?" Elizabeth asked.

The Queen snarled.

"Are there any more of you?"

The Queen just looked away. John reached out to touch her mind, but it was locked down tight.

Ronon approached lifting his gun to point at her, as she stayed quiet.

Finally she looked at them and said, "You are all about to die."

John had still been touching her mind and he got from her a sureness, that scared him.

"Really?" Elizabeth said.

"You care to elaborate on that at all?" John asked feeling, afraid.

She merely ignored them, turning her head away from them with a hiss.

Forty Five Minutes Later

John stood there, as Rodney showed them the downed ship, it explained some of what he'd seen in her head, well they'd been merged.

"It's seems completely buried in silt." Rodney said, amazed.

"Which means it's been here a very, very, very, very long time." Zelenka said.

"Yes, give or take a "very"." Rodney said dryly.

"That doesn't explain how she got here." He said, she couldn't have swam.

"Maybe she swam over." Elizabeth said.

"No, No. The pressure at this depth is..." John said, waving his hand at the screen.

"Enough to kill a human but she's not remember." Rodney said. "And with the Wraith ability to heal it's self..." Zelenka finished

"And there are no others?" Teyla asked concerned.

John shook his head, "There's no way to know for sure." He did know, but he couldn't tell anyone if he wanted to keep his secret.

They went and were telling Teyla what they now knew.

"Our prisoner isn't talking, other then, 'Your all about to die'."

"Which may or may not be an empty threat." Elizabeth said.

"Then you have no way of knowing?" Teyla asked, seem to be confused about where they were going with this.

"Well she said it with a lot confidence." John said, thinking of the smug sureness he'd felt radiating off of her. He hate to talk to Teyla about reading her mind but...

Five Minutes Later

The Queen seemed to recognize Teyla, "You?"

"I was caught off guard that first time. That will not happen again." Teyla said firmly.

"It does not matter."

"Well, we think it does." John said annoyed, he hated being told it was too late.

"Your fate is sealed," she hissed at him. Angry with him.

He looked at Elizabeth, who looked at him questioningly. He shrugged.

Teyla turned to Ronon. "If you have any reason to suspect that I am not myself do not hesitate to use that, she said, looking at his gun.

"I won't." Ronon said positively.

John watched Teyla, as she readied her self, when she entered the wraith Queen's mind he for lack of a better term, followed her. It was strange the Queen didn't seem to notice him she was so focused on Teyla, his slipping in didn't bother her.

He thought about what to look for, and decided to look for what she'd meant about him being repaid. As Teyla told Ronon and Weir what she was seeing, John looked at memories of the Queen meeting the Wraith he'd escaped from Kolya with.

She talked with him about the problems with the Ancients, and how they should handle them, oddly enough the Wraith Lord as she thought of him was against lending the charge. He felt the disappointment she'd felt at his refusal, to join her.

The scene changed.. he saw her once again attacking Atlantis. The ship falling from the sky, sinking.

He forced the memories to switch, back to the other Wraith.She was small, a little child, he saw her running to meet the Wraith, she smiled at him. "They said you could take me." she said the other.

They went to a world and it had a small primitive village, the people smiled a little at them, Wraith, they gathered the sick and the old and took them through the gate, to their planet. They treated the people nicely, and would take them away from the others before feeding.

John didn't understand this, it made no sense, but then the Queen found him and threw him out. He staggered. The other two didn't notice entranced as they were by Teyla's words.

"Too deep to ever swim to the surface... Waking between centuries..."

"Waiting for rescue that never came, until finally she was alone."

John watched the Queen fight to stop Teyla, Teyla was able to push passed her when the Queen tried to block her viewing the memories.

"She sense our presence in our decent, she sensed me." Teyla gasped at this. John knew the Queen had sensed him too, as she had been blocking him since the beginning, so why had the Queen not added him to that?

"She knew this was her only chance, to escape from her prison."

"The water was Crushing... and cold! But she could do it, she would one day lead her alliance again."

The Queen was really starting to wake up, her eyes were wide and she was beginning to force Teyla out.

Teyla was fighting as much as she could, but she was losing ground. John decided to help, he stabbed at the Queen's mind trying to reach more of her memories about that Wraith. Her back arched under the assault before he broke through.

He was speaking to a young man, a villager. The young man was covered in blood, the blood seemed to be coming from his shoulder, but he was ignoring it in favor of giving his report. They were clearly on a cruiser.

The Wraith nodded, and reached to link his hand to the boy's chest. The young man didn't seem afraid, he acutely looked relived. The Wraith, healed him...

John was thrown from her mind, he couldn't understand... why had he healed the villager? But then he realized, the Wraith had told him 'The gift of life is reserved for our most devote worshipers, and our bothers.' That boy had to be a worshiper, and that meant he was probably not that young.

Well if nothing else, he'd given Teyla the help she'd needed.

"Finally, after all of these millennia a ship!"

"But she didn't possess the gene need to fly it."

"She used Dickenson to call me." He said sadly.

"Then... Then... Then!" Teyla gasped for air, "Then she set the self-destruct device on the ship, it's set to go off in less than two hours."

John sighed, of course it wasn't a bluff.

"You are all about to die!" Teyla said.

Teyla tore her mind away.

She heaved great shuddering breaths. John put his gun away, he patted her on the shoulder, "Good job."

She nodded.

They left Ronon watching the Queen, they lead Teyla to crew quarters, for a nap. He and Elizabeth went to tell Rodney what they had learned.

"How's Teyla?" Rodney asked.

"She's resting." Elizabeth said, "I think that took more out of her then she'd like to admit."

Yeah, the sad thing is John thought, is she had help with that. His headache that had just started to go away, was back in full force. That would teach him, he rubbed a little at his temples.

"What's the news?" He asked.

"Well it looks like the Ancients picked this part of the ocean floor, because the crust is remarkable thin right below us, allowing then to drill right in to the magma and maximize geothermal power output." Rodney said, bring up the ocean floor, on screen.

"Okay." John said, trying not to be annoyed with Rodney. "So your news is that this place works like it's advertised?"

No, what I'm trying to tell you is that there is a lot of power under our feet, and say, if a Wraith Cruiser was allowed to explode, it would break through the crust, and release the magma, meaning it would erupt." Rodney said grumpy with John for not letting him explain it his own way.

"Yes, all that geothermal energy beneath us, will be released all at once, even if the ship exploding didn't kill us at first, that most certainly will. Zelenka finished.

"Oh my god!" Elizabeth said.

"So bad news." John said.

"Yeah! The initial explosion will be magnified a hundred times over, we are talking catastrophic here." Rodney said grimly.

"So it won't be just us affected?" He asked knowing the answer already.

"No, Atlantis is way too close, it would be destroyed as well." Radek said.

"And we have no way to warn them?" Elizabeth asked.

"No, they'd never see it coming." Rodney said flatly.

John began pacing. "So we disarm the self destruct." he said, ever since he'd heard, as well as seen that the Queen had swam over he had wondered if he could take it.

"Thats brilliant." Rodney said, "Except for the fact, there's no way to get there."

John looked at Elizabeth, should he say something now? She stared back, seeming to have no answers.

"How do we do that without a Jumper?" Elizabeth said, leaving it up to him.

"Well, shouldn't a rescue Jumper be here any minute now, we're way behind schedule." John said, a little reluctant to try or to even tell anyone that that was a possibility until the last minute.

"Even if they left the minute we were late, they'll still take too long." Rodney said.

"No, there's no way they'll make it in time." Radek agreed.

"How far is the Cruiser?" Maybe it was his only choice, still he really would rather not.

"Less then a kilometer." Radek told him.

Damn it! He likely never make it that far even with his improved body.

"She swam that far?" Elizabeth asked disbelief clear in her voice.

"I have an idea." Rodney said.

Down in the Lower Levels

John looked at the suits, it would be slow going, but they could do it.

He then looked at the open holes in the floor, "This is probably how she got in." He said, almost not realizing what he'd spoken.

"Let's get you suited up!" Rodney said.

"I think you mean us."

Rodney wilted a little, "Of course."

John had forgotten Rodney's fears of claustrophobia.

"Your breathing too hard."

"Oh, forgive me for being aware of just how much pressure is being exerted on this suit right now."

"Just think of it as a walk on the beach... A beach thats going to explode." He smirked it was fun to needle Rodney even when it was life or death.

"That's supposed to make me feel better?"

"No it's supposed to make you walk faster."

"Hey! I am walking as fast as I can."

"This is Weir, how close are you?"

"Almost there. But we may have to ask Teyla to search for the code in her mind." He said.

"I'd rather not do that."

Once they found the entrance, it was easy to reach the air pocket, and lose the suits. But finding the entrance took way too long.

"That took too long." he said.

"Yeah, well, I probably won't be able to disarm the self destruct in time anyway."

"Why don't we find it first, then you can get negative."

As they walked around looking for the self destruct, Rodney noted that the ship, was in good condition.

"Yeah, you'd think after ten thousand years she'd want to redecorate." he said.

"I'm serious. The hull damage is minimal. They probably just lost their main drive."

"Your saying this thing might be salvageable?"

"I'll have to assess primary systems, but it's possible."

"Of course, you'll probably just blow it up, or ram it in to another hive ship. Or something like that and all that work will be for nothing."

John ignored that. "Tick. Tick. Tock." he said.

"Fine."

"It should be right here." Rodney said, taking them down the left turn.

They reached a console. "Oh, Great!" Rodney said.

"What?"

"I'm pretty sure this is the device, and that it says, we have less then half an hour."

"So turn it off."

Rodney touched the controls, and the red light kept blinking. "Hun?"

"What does that mean?" he asked looking at Rodney.

"It's not accepting any commands. There must be some sort of command code that has to entered first."

"Can you figure it out?" he said.

"Yes, well, command codes are usually quite simple like the number one, or the letter A or like your birthday. Which in Wraith would be...

"Ok, I get it. Can you figure out the code and turn it off, or not?"

"Maybe if I had a million years, and oh look I have just under that."

"Rodney."

"No, not unless I have that code."

He turned, walking away a little.

"Elizabeth you there?" he asked over the radio.

"Yes, please tell me you have something."

He stayed quiet. "Damn it!" she swore.

"Rodney needs the code Elizabeth, before he can turn it off."

"Thats bad news, Teyla's tried, but she's tired, and I don't know that she can do it."

Both of them were quiet.

Fifteen Minutes Later

"Remind me why I'm bate again?" John asked, standing over the controls.

"Because she expects you to be trying to fly the ship away." Rodney said from behind the pillar, he was hiding behind.

"Right, and how is this a good plan? I mean it all depends on Teyla being able to lie to the Queen."

"Well, the Queen comes here, turns off the self destruct, we shoot her, and then we all get to live." Rodney said.

John sighed, waiting sucked.

"She's swimming over." Elizabeth said over the radio.

"Good, how's Teyla?"

"Out cold."

He winced, the idea of locking out the Queen, was hard enough to imagine, but to lie to her. He shuddered.

He stood there waiting, she was hiding her self from him, but now he knew how that felt, and that alone let him follow her progress.

The beeping had gotten faster, well they waited. So now that he'd began to pay more attention to it, then his surroundings. He was almost surprised, when he felt her there.

He whipped around,"Well, your one hell of a swimmer, I'll give you that."

She continued to approach him, he kept backing up.

"You have restored power?"

"It'll fly." he said.

She reached the self destruct panel, and began typing in the code.

Once she was done she turned once more to him, "You shall be rewarded. But should I kill you or keep you?"

At this Rodney jumped out from behind his pillar, and emptied his clip from his P-90 in to her.

But she didn't die.

Rodney began to back away, well she a charged him.

"OK! She's not dying, according to plan here!"

John drew his nine mil and emptied it in to her, she slowly fell to the floor. And stayed down.

"I thought you had forgotten about me there." he said to Rodney.

"Of course not! I just had to wait for her to disable the self destruct."

"Hey, just be glad she didn't feed on you before, she disabled the device." Rodney added.

"So, thats why you didn't wanna be bait."

"No. No. No. It had to be you because she would be expecting you to fly the ship."

He shook his head, sometimes Rodney just was so easy to see through.

"She's dead right?" Rodney asked staring at her body.

"Let's get out of here." he lead the way back to the suits.

Back in crew quarters, on the drilling platform.

John walked passed the now awake Teyla, "So how are you feeling?"

"Oh. Much better now that I no longer feel the constant presence of the Wraith."

John set his stuff down on the floor, by the bed he'd claimed. Then he sat down.

"That was no ordinary Wraith. It took a lot of bullets to take her down."

"I wish I was there." Ronon said unstrapping his gun to lay down as well.

"He's right you know. I mean, deceiving a Wraith Queen..." Elizabeth said.

"That's no small feat."

"Well with everyone at risk, it was easy to summon the strength needed." Teyla said staring at the floor.

McKay came in, "Well, Zelenka finally got communications back up."

"Turns out Atlantis had sent a jumper, and they should be here within the hour."

"That is good news." Elizabeth said grinning.

"Yeah, no kidding. I can't wait to see the sun." Ronon said laying on his stomach.

"What? No, no, no. we haven't finished what we came here for." McKay said. "Look, the Wraith's gone. We've got a ton of research to do." he said excited.

"Yes, we do." Elizabeth said, standing, and grabbing her jacket.

"In fact, I'm pretty sure, we should be able to come up with a way to get auxiliary power on line in a few days."

"Well, thats good." Elizabeth said.

"Is he serious?" Ronon asked staring at John.

"Yeah. He is." he untied his boots, so as to be more comfortable.

"Well I for one intend to spend the next little while resting." Teyla said laying down.

"Same here." John said.

"Yeah, me too." Ronon said.

The three of them got comfortable, and the other two fell asleep.

But John kept thinking, over what had happened. He found that suddenly he didn't really want to sleep.

So he lay there waiting for the jumper. His mind faintly uneasy.

So there's the chapter.