Stargate Genesis
Episode 3:
"Allies and Enemies"
A light blue business suit, matching pencil skirt, simple black blouse and black leather heels did a near perfect job of hiding the fact that Teyla Emmagan, skilled warrior and leader of the Athosians, was anything other than a typical twenty-first century woman. Beyond appearing somewhat more vital than most, there was nothing, for example, to suggest that she spent her childhood throwing sharp objects at things or that she could kill you with a twig. Walking through the underground passageways of Stargate Command, flanked by General Samantha Carter and Dr. Rodney McKay, the uninitiated might mistake her for a visiting diplomat or a member of the International Oversight Committee.
"I could not help but notice that the clothing your women wear is not particularly well suited to combat," she said to Carter.
"Ha, and you're going to tell me that floor length loin cloth and sports bra you're always wearing are?" Carter replied.
"Hmm… With the extra ZPMs Sheppard took it'll take us at least another six months to build our reserves back up," McKay mumbled to his tablet computer.
"Relax, Rodney. You've got more than enough to hold you over," said Carter dismissively.
"Hey just because we have the capacity to build our own ZPMs now doesn't mean we can afford to be reckless with them," he retorted. "I remind you there are still plenty of worlds out there in need of protection from the Wraith and seeing as I'm probably a pretty high value target by now that pretty much includes any planet I happen to be standing on."
"Oh please" she said. "You just want to reactivate Atlantis's cloning laboratory."
"Well an army of me's would probably do a much better job defending the galaxy than anything Sheppard might find," said McKay dejectedly.
"What exactly might John find?" Teyla asked. "No one has explained his mission to me since my return from Washington."
Rodney and Samantha exchanged a look. For a moment, they silently debated which of them was most qualified to answer before Carter spoke up.
"We're not exactly sure," she said. "Before the Destiny was destroyed it was investigating a message embedded in the universe's cosmic microwave background radiation, a message from the beginning of time."
"And what was this message?" Teyla asked.
"A set of coordinates," Rodney replied. "Presumably the place where we can find whoever or whatever created the message in the first place. I like to think of it as a sort of Genesis Address."
"Wow Rodney, did you come up with that one yourself?" Carter asked.
"Yes as a matter of fact I did," he replied.
"I do not think Colonel Sheppard would appreciate you taking such a liberty," Teyla observed.
At the end of the corridor the three of them went their separate ways as Teyla and Rodney stepped through the steel blast doors of the SGC Gate Room, and General Carter ascended a spiral staircase to watch their departure from Stargate Control.
Two levels above, Dr. Daniel Jackson sat atop his cherry oak desk and clasped the hand of his young protégé Dr. Bailey Evans. As he smiled and praised her in Goa'uld, Evans smiled back at him and blushed. Behind her a figure dressed entirely in black brushed up against her shoulder.
Startled, Evans lost her balance, jerked her hand out of Daniel's grasp and fell into the waiting arms of Vala Mal Doran. Still slightly off balance, she offered no resistance as Vala snaked an arm around her waist and pulled her close.
"You know it's a shame you and I are headed for different galaxies," came her soft teasing voice. "I think I'd really enjoy getting to know you better."
Daniel cleared his throat loudly.
"Oh relax, Daniel," Vala scolded before turning back to Evans with a smile. "I'm sure we could make room for one more."
With a flourish, she gave Evans a twirl and released her to regain her balance with the aid of a nearby bookshelf.
"So Daniel," Vala continued, moving to stand at his side. "I heard your little playmate got her first big-girl assignment."
"Well then you heard correctly," he said. "She's going to be the Communications Officer aboard the Elizabeth."
"Then I guess that means you'll be even further away than I realized," Vala said, feigning sadness. "Well it's probably for the best. Daniel here is the jealous type, and it just wouldn't do for me to be seen gallivanting around Atlantis with a girl one-sixteenth my age."
At the mention of Atlantis, Daniel removed his head from his hands and got to his feet. "Vala and I need to be going now," he said, and ushered her hurriedly out of his office before she could come up with some parting belittlement of his star pupil.
"Hmm… Jeannie's modifications shaved another five percent off the Elizabeth's overall power consumption," said Rodney.
"That is excellent news," said Teyla. "And how is your sister?"
"Arrogant," quipped Rodney. "As usual."
"I've heard it runs in the family," said Daniel, half leading half dragging Vala into the Gate Room. "We all set to get underway?" he asked.
"Yes, thankfully this time there'll be no pit-stop at Midway Station," said Rodney. "We are cleared for a direct jump to Pegasus."
"And to think they made me take a layover in Utah," said Daniel.
Behind them Sergeant Harriman began the dialing sequence, and the eight chevrons of Atlantis's gate address lit up and locked into place. As the final chevron was encoded, a bright flash emanated from the gate and a violent bubbling vortex exploded out into the room. Despite having already traveled by gate several thousand times, Daniel Jackson couldn't help but lean back, slightly weary of its power. He relaxed as a stable wormhole settled into place, its surface gleaming and undulating within the confines of the ring. Then he, Teyla, Vala, and Rodney stepped through the event horizon and from one galaxy to another.
~~00~~
As Teyla's heels clacked against the stone floor of the Atlantis Gate Room she registered the symphony of clicks produced by eight P-90 submachine guns being simultaneously shouldered and cocked, as well as the distinctive hum of Ronon Dex's energy pistol charging up. Instinctively, she assumed a defensive crouch and produced a short knife seemingly from the air. Unfortunately, her tight pencil skirt and stockings prevented this gesture from being as intimidating as it could have been.
Vala, on the other hand, appeared much more threatening in her black SG-1 jumpsuit and combat boots, her own P-90 aimed squarely at the marine on her left flank. Daniel had adopted a look of contemplation, and was carefully studying Ronon and each of the eight marines as though trying to solve a particularly challenging puzzle, while Rodney hyperventilated and hid his face behind his tablet.
"Woah hey don't shoot! For crying out loud is this how we're greeting old friends now?" he asked.
"You're late," said Richard Woolsey, descending the last few steps from the Control Room. He appeared calm, but there was uneasiness in his voice and he didn't instruct the marines to lower their weapons. Beside him Ronon looked livid. His nostrils flared and he adjusted his aim so as to be level with Rodney's head.
"Um… I suppose that's my fault," said Daniel. "I may have taken a few extra minutes to say goodbye to Dr. Evans. If I had known the city was on such high alert I would've been more punctual."
Mr. Woolsey sighed and took a step toward him. "Dr. Jackson, the four of you were supposed to be here fifty-six hours ago," he said.
~~00~~
"Harriman what the hell just happened?" demanded General Carter.
"I'm not sure ma'am. The wormhole just suddenly disengaged. It could mean that whatever caused the malfunction has been resolved," he replied nervously.
"I don't buy it. I want to know why it chose this moment, and I want to know yesterday. Did Atlantis confirm their arrival before the gate shut down?" she asked, turning to Lieutenant Elena Perez.
"No ma'am. We've been out of contact for the last thirty minutes," she said.
Just then an alarm began to sound in the Control Room and the SGC's Stargate spun.
"Unscheduled off-world activation," said Harriman. "It's Atlantis."
Lieutenant Perez put a hand to her headset. "I've got an incoming transmission for you ma'am," she said. "Audio and video." On the screen above her head Mr. Woolsey appeared looking more than a little drained.
"Have you got them?" Carter asked hurriedly.
"Yes," he replied. "They came through a few minutes ago, but so far they've been unable to account for their whereabouts these last few days. At the moment we're exploring the possibility that a safety protocol was activated to prevent their patterns from being reintegrated on arrival."
General Carter crossed her arms and took a deep breath. "Woolsey," she said. "This could be some sort of attack."
"I know," he said. "I'm having Carson check them out. Then they'll be confined to quarters under guard."
~~00~~
Rodney whined piteously as Dr. Carson Beckett drew another blood sample. His forehead glistened with sweat and his breathing was short and rapid. "Oh god I'm a clone aren't I?" he asked fearfully. "The real Rodney is still out there being tortured and I'm just some Wraith scientist's lab rat."
"Rodney, your blood-work shows no signs of telomeric degradation, abnormal methylation, or anything else that would indicate cloning," Carson replied in a soothing Scottish accent. "And I'll remind you that clones can live very fulfilling lives."
Rodney let out another small whine. "I'm sorry Carson. I didn't mean to imply that being a clone was somehow a bad thing. I would just hate for you to discover that I'm some secret Wraith weapon bent on destroying Atlantis," He said before continuing quickly. "I mean… I would want you to discover that because I'm the real Rodney, and I don't want Atlantis to be destroyed, but you won't discover that because I'm me and not some despicable clone."
Carson sighed and put a hand on Rodney's shoulder. "Do me a favor and try to get some rest, okay?" he said.
Rodney nodded and two armed marines escorted him from the infirmary.
~~00~~
In her quarters, Teyla paced in frustration. Ronon leaned up against the door with his arms crossed and his right hand still clutching his energy pistol. Now fairly sure that his friend was who she said she was, his anger had faded to amusement.
"Relax," he said. "Once Carson gets through with his tests I can let you out of here. Just do your little meditation thing or something."
"You do not understand. Until we know for certain what has happened, this incident must be treated as an attack on Atlantis," she said. "Relocating my people is becoming increasingly difficult, and if this planet has been compromised we may have to abandon it as well."
Teyla sank to the floor in front of her bed. Her eyes closed and she ran her hands through her hair. "Soon there will be no worlds left from which my people are not refugees," she said.
Ronon considered her thoughtfully, then holstered his gun and walked towards her. "Well," he said, extending a hand. "If the Wraith do know we're here, we can always kill 'em."
Teyla gave him an exasperated smile before taking his hand and getting to her feet. Then she leaned forward and whispered something inaudible in Ronon's ear. His eyes glazed over as she squeezed his hand and looked straight into his eyes. For Ronon the world began to fade as Teyla's next word reverberated seductively inside his mind.
"Sleep."
~~00~~
In the Control Room, Rodney McKay reviewed the results of the SGC's latest gate diagnostic while Daniel Jackson leaned against his desk staring pensively at the floor.
"Has Carson completed his tests?" Woolsey asked, joining them.
"Mmm… No," said Rodney distractedly. "He still hasn't signed off on Teyla or Vala, but apparently we're clean."
"Any idea what caused the malfunction?"
"Actually… Yes," Rodney replied, happily. "And it wasn't a malfunction. Near as I can tell, someone inserted a command into the Midway Station mainframe to bounce us back and forth between the station's Milky Way and Pegasus pattern buffers."
"Why would someone do that?"
"I have no idea," said Rodney. "I don't even know who besides me who could have done it. Well with the obvious exception of General Carter, but the point is—"
"Sir we have an unidentified vessel approaching the planet," Lieutenant Bates cut in, and as he spoke an image of the planet appeared on the Control Room's main view screen. A small red dot was positioning itself a few hundred kilometers up on its far side.
"Has Jumper 4 returned from their survey?" Woolsey asked.
"No sir, they're holding position on the mainland," he replied.
"Good. Cloak the city, and maintain radio silence."
On screen the dot held its position as a transmission was intercepted and began to play over the Control Room's speakers. The voice was neither human nor Wraith.
"I am Commander Salek of the Vanir," it said. "I understand your desire to keep the location of your city hidden, and request that you send a ship and two delegates to rendezvous with me at my present coordinates. I have come to negotiate an alliance."
~~00~~
In her room, Vala Mal Doran removed an 8-ball from her dresser and shook it. "Am I an evil doppelganger?" she asked, before turning the ball over to reveal the answer, "very doubtful."
"Hmph. Maybe they'll take your word for it," she said bitterly, tossing it over her shoulder.
There was a thump as it hit the floor followed quickly by two more thumps out in the hallway. Curious, she opened the door a crack and discovered the two marines sent to guard her unconscious on the floor and a shadowy figure disappearing around a corner.
~~00~~
"The last time we encountered the Vanir they kidnapped us, destroyed half a dozen gates and killed thousands of people," said Daniel.
"Ok I admit it wasn't the greatest first contact, but the Vanir are an advanced alien race with technology comparable to that of the Ancients," Rodney replied. "There's just no way we can pass up an opportunity like this."
"And if it's a trap?" Woolsey asked.
"Hey maybe it is, but at the very least I want to know how they found us, and it's not like we aren't holding any cards here," said Rodney. "If we have to we can blow a single ship right outta the sky."
"Alright," said Woolsey. "I want the two of you in Jumper 3. Instruct Jumper 4 to provide backup and remain cloaked until you reach the rendezvous coordinates. If they haven't pinpointed our position yet I'd like to keep it that way."
~~00~~
Vala peered around a corner and caught a glimpse of her guards' assailant. Moving stealthily and holding Ronon's pistol aloft, Teyla Emmagan reached the end of the hallway and entered a transporter. With Vala watching, she scanned the onscreen diagram of the city before selecting the transporter at the center of the North-Pier.
When the doors closed, Vala turned around and headed back towards her room. Still trying to understand exactly what she had just witnessed, she didn't notice that two more marines had arrived and were attempting to rouse their stunned comrades until she was nearly on top of them. When she finally looked up, her shock at their presence momentarily froze her, giving the men plenty of time to reach for their stunners.
"Um… I realize how this must look," she began, but dove back around the corner as two shots whizzed by her head. Recovering quickly, she sprinted back down the hallway to the transporter. The marines gave chase and one shot flew over her shoulder to slam against the back wall. Sparks flew past her ear and just as she managed to locate the transporter Teyla had activated only moments before two more shots rang out and she was struck twice in the small of her back. She fell against the wall and started to slip into unconsciousness, but the doors of the transporter were already closing and the marines didn't catch up in time to pull her out.
~~00~~
"Mr. Woolsey," came the agitated voice of Major Miles Romanoff. "The men I assigned to guard Miss Mal Doran are unconscious in the infirmary, and your Ronon appears to have been similarly incapacitated. We cannot seem to rouse them."
"Do we know where Teyla and Vala are?" Woolsey asked.
Major Romanoff stood stiffly to attention. "No sir," he said, "But Vala was last seen entering a transporter. As I understand it, she was stunned before the doors could fully close."
"Organize a sweep of the city's transporters," says Woolsey.
"At once," said Romanoff.
~~00~~
"What does that look like to you?" Daniel asked.
Rodney swallowed hard and wiped away some of the sweat that had already appeared on his forehead. "Like a Vanir starship," he said.
"Odd," said Daniel. "That's what it looks like to me too."
Rodney swallowed a second time. Daniel furrowed his brow and studied the shuttle's head's-up-display. Arms crossed, his eyes shifted to the ship hovering a few thousand meters ahead then turned and gave Rodney a once over as well. "You should let me do the talking," he said. Rodney nodded.
Just then the being calling itself Salek of the Vanir appeared on their view screen.
"Greetings," it said. "I believe this encounter will be much more fruitful than our previous meeting."
"How did you find us?" Daniel asked brusquely, but Salek didn't seem put off and responded with something close to pride.
"We discovered one of the gates you use to bridge the gap between your own galaxy and this one," it said. "Your security measures prevented us from following its matter stream, but the data flow necessary for your diagnostic programs is not nearly so well protected."
"Then you're the reason we spent the last two days in limbo," Rodney blurted.
Salek turned his head slightly, presumably studying the image of Dr. McKay being received by his own ship.
"We apologize for any inconvenience that may have caused you, however it was necessary if we were to make contact with your race."
"Well if you're here to help us fight the Wraith, we'd love to know what you have in mind," said Daniel nonchalantly.
~~00~~
Something squeezed Vala around the waist, and she registered the scraping sound of distressed metal. As she lay on the floor of the transporter the pressure around her midsection dissipated only to return a moment later. When her vision cleared and the dizziness subsided she realized the sliding doors of the transporter were trying repeatedly to close with her only halfway inside. When they had opened to deliver her to the North-Pier her unconscious body had toppled out onto the floor. Now someone else was apparently trying to activate the heavily damaged transporter remotely.
She sat up and looked around, placing a hand on the door to stop it closing on her again. In the corner a tuft of bamboo shoots sprouted up from a large purple pot. She dragged it over and wedged it between the struggling transporter doors to prevent anyone from following her, then limped away clutching at her waist. Up ahead was the room she remembered Rodney had dubbed "The Cavern."
Inside, brilliantly colored crystals hung down from the ceiling and stretched up from the floor like great rows of pointed teeth stained an unnatural orange hue. An array of wires ran through each one, encased, but still visible beneath the crystal's translucent surface. A trickle of gold colored liquid the consistency of syrup was constantly flowing from the ceiling and tiny drops of the stuff alternated between crystallizing around the scaffold of one Zero Point Module and falling onto a second below. It was a slow process, something akin to how stalactites and stalagmites were formed, but this room actually grew ZPMs, an incredible boon in the fight against the Wraith.
Vala crept up to the mouth of the cavern and peered inside. Teyla was fiddling with the controls and looked extremely agitated. As Vala watched she drew Ronon's gun and fired twice at a cylindrical container near the cavern's back wall, but both shots were dissipated by the vessel's immensely powerful force field. Inside, the gold liquid that was forever dripping from the ceiling bubbled fiercely.
It occurred to Vala that if the Wraith wanted to harm Atlantis this would be their primary target. There was nothing in the cavern that would be of value to a race lacking a sophisticated understanding of Lantean technology. Most of the ZPMs here were months away from generating any power, and completed ZPMs were kept under heavy guard near the city's center. It was possible the Wraith could overload one of the incomplete modules and destroy the facility, Vala thought, though Teyla certainly wasn't doing a very good job of that. On the contrary, she seemed intent on activating Rodney's safe shutdown procedures.
Something was off. It was almost certainly Teyla who had felled those two guards outside her door, but neither one had looked seriously injured. Now here she was with a golden opportunity to cripple Atlantis, but refusing to take it. She decided to take a chance. She stepped slowly into the room with her hands raised.
"Teyla?" she asked.
Teyla turned and stared coldly at her and when she spoke it was with the malevolent undertones of a Wraith queen. "Do you possess a second authorization code?" she asked.
"Why are you trying to disable this facility?" Vala asked, ignoring the question.
"Give me the code or you will die," Teyla replied raising Ronon's pistol, though despite her threat failing to switch it from its stun setting.
"I'll give it to you," said Vala edging closer. "Just let me get-" Vala dove between a row of orange-gold teeth, then drew a small handgun from her waistband, thankful that the guards had not been nearly as thorough as they should have been when she was searched on arrival. Teyla fired off several volleys, each one striking the back wall harmlessly. Crouching, Vala swung her own weapon out around a pillar and fired a single shot, knocking the gun from Teyla's hand. She stood up and advanced, inviting her supposedly disarmed opponent to surrender. Unfortunately for Vala, Teyla was at least as quick with a knife as she was with a gun and Vala had to swerve away to avoid her strikes. Still not wanting to seriously wound her, Vala holstered her gun and drew a knife of her own from a boot. Teyla came down on her as she pulled it up and their blades scraped to a halt dangerously close to each other's fingers. Now both combatants stepped back and sized one another up.
Teyla had been wielding knives since childhood and had used them to kill things much larger and stronger than Vala, though nothing quite so agile, and Vala had spent thousands of years as an unwilling host to a violent Goa'uld, handling ceremonial weapons of all sorts. Both were masters of close quarters combat.
Teyla's strange acts of pacifism had convinced Vala that she might be reasoned with, but now it seemed they were consigned to fight. As if to drive the point home Teyla lunged at her, bobbing and weaving to disguise her approach and ultimately landing a shallow cut to Vala's thigh. Luckily she had been able to parry the blow slightly, and used her momentum to swing around and return the favor to the back of Teyla's leg. She cried out, her own wound slightly deeper than Vala's. Taking the initiative, Vala swung low, forcing her to retreat and place most of her weight on one wounded leg. Teyla wobbled and with a shove from Vala toppled over, her knife clattering against the floor several yards away. Vala landed on top of her. Tossing aside her own knife, and raising a fist instead.
Suddenly, a small battalion of marines stormed into the room, each one leveling a Wraith Stunner at the pair and barking instructions to each other.
"Don't move," said one. "Put your hands on your head."
"She has a weapon," cried Teyla. "Shoot her now."
"What?" yelled Vala, outraged. "It's her you should be shooting."
The marines, accustomed to taking orders from Teyla fired in unison, and for the second time in as many hours Vala fell limply to the floor. Teyla shoved her off and stood up. Major Miles Romanoff approached warily.
"Are you hurt, ma'am?" He asked.
"No. Thank you Major. You and your men got here just in time. Now would you mind disarming her?" Teyla asked in her normal voice.
The Major bent down and removed the tiny handgun from Vala's waistband. He held it between two fingers and examined it as though trying to determine what it was.
"Where do you suppose she hid-" he began, but Teyla had already disappeared.
~~00~~
"So all you want is a few ZPMs and all the technology we use to build them and you'll take care of the Wraith for us?" Daniel asked in mock appreciation.
Unperturbed, Commander Salek replied, "We have cloning facilities lying dormant all over this region of space. With the energy of your ZPMs at our disposal we could raise vast armies to fight off our common enemy."
"Well it seems like an excellent idea to me," said Daniel. "Though I'm surprised these facilities of yours are still viable given how long your race has been in hiding. Anyway, I think if you can offer us something of similar value we might have a deal."
"Is the extermination of a hostile species that preys upon your race not enough?" Salek asked.
"Well not too long ago we considered you a hostile species, and seeing as we're about to help fill the galaxy with you it might be nice if we had some assurances," said Daniel. "I mean sure the Wraith are ornery, sadistic and unspeakably evil, but for all we know you could be just like them. You already have the hideous slimy looking alien bit down. In fact, you could turn out to be a whole lot worse given that the Wraith are just ragtag groups of cowardly shiftless-"
"Enough," said Salek, with poorly disguised hatred. "If it will persuade you to hand over the items we require, I will give you my word that the human race will not be harmed."
"Great," said Daniel, sounding relieved. "In that case I think we can get right down to it, but-ah before we do, would you mind explaining why your ship is giving off so many Wraith life signs?"
~~00~~
Teyla kept a brisk pace. Her mind was flooded with the will of a particularly determined Wraith queen and she struggled mightily to regain control. From within her skull the queen's voice cooed at her softly then screamed and thrusted her further down the hallway. She was nearing the center of the city now and there were people everywhere. She did her best to ignore the pain in her thigh where Vala had cut her, but it was making it even more difficult to resist the voice in her head. The queen's fury at losing the cavern had given her new strength. With all hope of replicating the technology there now extinguished she had set her sights on the storage facility where the city's spare ZPMs were kept. Another corner and she was there. Two marines were standing guard but Teyla slammed them against the door with enough force to dislodge an iratas bug, then tossed them aside like used up wads of tissue paper.
~~00~~
"Light 'em up," Daniel yelled into his com as Rodney jerked Jumper 3 out of the way of another volley.
At his command Jumper 4 dropped its cloak and appeared behind them. It let loose with its entire complement of six drones which performed several elegant pirouettes before slamming into the side of the pursuing Vanir ship. Explosions plummed along its length and its steady stream of fire ceased. Its engines flickered and died. Rodney pulled Jumper 3 around and was about to unleash a few drones of his own when the enemy ship did something strange. It blurred. Its edges became fuzzy and then pixilated. When the phenomenon faded what was left was not a Vanir starship, but a Wraith cruiser.
Daniel Jackson took control of the jumper and swung it back toward Atlantis.
"What are you doing?" Rodney asked. "We need to finish them off!"
"Cruisers are Wraith escorts right?" Daniel said hurriedly. "So where's the hive it was escorting?"
~~00~~
Teyla sat cross legged in the darkened prison that was her mind. Sweat poured from her brow as she concentrated hard on her true surroundings. She could feel the intense pressure of the Wraith queen pressing in on her. From the confines of her cell she managed to make out the low hum of a jumper firing up. She put a hand out and began to tap her fingers against the console she must be sitting in front of. She mimed the actions she knew her body was being forced to replicate outside in the real world. Activate the inertial dampeners, open the Jumper Bay doors, engage primary thrusters.
With Teyla and half-a-dozen ZPMs on board, Jumper 5 flew away from the city at tremendous speed on a near vertical trajectory. From within her prison Teyla breathed deep and began to pry at the mind of the Wraith queen still holding her. A crack opened and the blood curdling screams of a thousand meals burst forth. Bile climbed into Teyla's throat as she felt the life draining from them into her. This was the worst part of her gift. The ability to know what it truly was to be a Wraith. Living off the very essence of another being. Utterly unfeeling. Impervious to their pain. The perfect predator.
Teyla struggled briefly to keep her composure then waded further into the depths of her enemy's consciousness. The memories and emotions of a thousand years rose up to distract her but she ignored them and continued on. She could feel the Wraith queen pushing her back, but not hard enough to risk severing their connection. For a moment there was a stalemate and the two combatants merely stared at each other over an expanse of nothingness, each attempting to project their own will on to that of the other, until Teyla finally won out and from the eyes of the queen she watched as her own jumper shot up from the planet's surface. Around her, thousands of Wraith prepared to boil the patch of ocean she had emerged from and the full scope of her situation was revealed to her. A Wraith hive ship had parked itself right on top of Atlantis.
Teyla's mind reeled. How had this happened? How could it be that even now the sky wasn't filling with drones to erase this terrible threat from existence?
Suddenly a voice broke into Teyla's mind and she was pulled back into herself.
"Jumper 5 this is Jumper 3 approaching your position. Do you copy?"
From inside her prison Teyla recognized the voice of Rodney McKay and her response was automatic.
"Rodney this is Teyla. Prepare to fire your drones on my mark."
Teyla concentrated hard on her next move. Inside her mind she placed both hands out in front of her and held them as though she were the one at the controls. She closed her fists tightly over the place where the steering mechanism should be, and with immense willpower jammed it as far down as it would go. The jumper flipped a full one hundred and eighty degrees before Teyla let go to slam her left hand down hard on the spot where the cargo bay door's emergency release ought to be. The air inside the jumper was instantly ripped out into space along with all six ZPMs and a handful of emergency provisions and pieces of scientific equipment. The force of the ejection shoved Teyla back into her seat and robbed her of speech for a moment, but when the bulkhead doors clanged shut and the cockpit repressurized, she screamed for Rodney to let his drones fly before bearing down on the controls and sending the jumper plummeting back toward the planet.
Rodney heard her and took aim at the field of debris released from her hold. It was only after he fired that he managed to make out the familiar orange glow of the floating ZPMs, and by then it was too late.
"We need to be far away from here," he whimpered but Daniel was way ahead of him.
With a swift jerk he grabbed the controls and threw Jumper 3 into a dive and they were only a few hundred meters behind Jumper 5 when an explosion ripped through the vacuum of space to collide with the planet's atmosphere. A fireball erupted and spread out above them, but the main force of the blast was deflected. Onboard the jumpers, Daniel, Teyla, and Rodney experienced only a mild shock wave.
Above the atmosphere fire ripped through the hovering Wraith hive ship, its eerily familiar cloak dropping away in favor of a shield. Meanwhile, drones began to fly up from the city and rocket past the two falling jumpers to finish it off.
~~00~~
Back on Atlantis, Ronon and the others woke up as the queen's hold over them was broken. The hive and all on board had been reduced to ashes.
In the infirmary, Carson tended to Teyla's victims while Major Romanoff apologized profusely to Vala for his men having fired on her... twice. Rodney prepared a patch to fix the security flaw that allowed the city's gate to be traced, and Mr. Woolsey sat in his high backed command chair rubbing his temples. When Teyla appeared outside his office he motioned for her to enter and requested that she close the door behind her. Teyla obliged and walked slowly to his desk. When she arrived she placed both hands on its surface and leaned over to whisper gravely, "We may have a problem."
Woolsey looked up at her.
"You mean that the Wraith have inexplicably gained access to Lantean cloaking technology? And that by some spectacular coincidence they've simultaneously developed what appears to be a more than passing familiarity with a hostile alien race in possession of advanced tactical capabilities?" he asked unhappily.
"Yes," she replied simply. "The Vanir know a great deal about us, as well as Atlantis. What will we do if they have joined forces with the Wraith?"
Woolsey stood up and walked around his desk to face her.
"We could run," he said. "But I think we've done enough of that lately, and we're not the ill-equipped expedition team that arrived here eight years ago."
"Then we fight," said Teyla. "On our terms."
Woolsey nodded and the two leaders from galaxies separated by untold parsecs of space shook hands and smiled.
Written by Andrew Marron
Story by Andrew Marron and Caleb Palmquist
Also available at stargategenesis/dot/com