The Other Side of the Story: John's Point of View
Interlude 8: Familiar little red dots.
Hunting down Teyla and Ronon first I explained my theory on the healing thing, convincing them to take a physical test and finding that they too bled when cut but healed within seconds. Next up was Rodney – we lured him to his lab to conduct the same test. He was initially frightened such that we had to force him to let us cut him. That fear turned to worried incredulity when the cut on his hand healed as quickly as my head wound had.
"What does it mean?" he looked at each of us in turn.
"You tell me," I shot back. "All I know is things are not as they should be here and somehow Jennifer's involved."
Rodney didn't want to believe that was true, even after I'd explained to him what had happened with my forehead and how Jennifer had scanned me and tested my blood, finding nothing. Eventually he caved, hacking into the infirmary records only to find there was no record of any tests done on me, including the scans both Teyla and I had seen Jennifer do that morning.
"That's impossible," Teyla protested. "The scanner is wired directly into the computer. Results are recorded automatically."
"It doesn't mean they can't be erased," Rodney pointed out.
"All right. We need to run our own tests," I announced. "Until we figure out what's going on, we can't risk trusting anyone outside this room."
"Do you still believe your memories to have been just a dream?" Teyla asked me.
"I never believed that," I decided if I was gonna trust them I had to go all the way. "I know you guys don't remember her but at the same time I know Sabina's real. Somehow they've managed to wipe all traces of her from the city and from everyone's memories."
"Except yours," Rodney pointed out sceptically.
"I've lived with her for a year Rodney," I insisted. "Who's to say that's not enough of a bond that something would remain. Clearly they tried to wipe my memory too because I believed it when you told me I never mentioned Sabina before this morning. Something must have brought it all back for me."
"We need those tests," Ronon brought us all back to the next course of action.
"We have to get to the Infirmary without anyone knowing," Teyla replied.
"I have an idea," Rodney announced. "I'll tap into the life signs detector from here. I can tell you if the coast is clear."
"Okay, Teyla and I'll head down there now," I decided. "You and Ronon stay here and let us know if we have a problem."
Teyla and I headed off down the corridor. Now I was suspicious of individual motivations it was difficult not to look at every person we passed and wonder if they were in on it too.
Unfortunately for us Rodney's brilliant plan to help us died an early death when he discovered the life sign detectors weren't working properly, only picking up four life signs anywhere in the tower. Teyla and I pressed on regardless ... if worse came to worse I'd make up a new symptom to explain our arrival if it turned out we didn't have the place to ourselves.
"All right," I announced once we'd arrived and found we did have a clear run. "Let's make this quick." Ignoring the strangeness of the infirmary being completely deserted when I knew Jennifer usually kept it staffed with at least one person Teyla and I got down to business.
Arranging myself on the scanner bed I looked over at Teyla expectantly. She stood at the computer, tapping a few keys to get the scanner started. The line of light swept from my head all the way down my body and back up again, projecting a picture on the screen for Teyla to see.
When it finished she turned to me with an expression of dread that had me feeling like my blood was flowing in slow motion. "John?"
I got up off the bed and went over to take a look.
"What the hell?" I looked at the screen in sick disbelief. There was the outline of my body with thousands of little red dots twitching in every part.
Familiar little red dots.
"Nanites," Teyla confirmed sickly. "This explains why we can heal so rapidly. We get injured and the nanites effect repairs."
"We'd better tell the others," I told her grimly.
"Yes," Teyla agreed, both of us turning towards the door. That's when we spotted Major Lorne standing there with two armed guards.
"That won't be necessary," he said firmly.
"What the hell's going on?" I demanded.
"I'm sorry, Colonel," Major Lorne said regretfully. "You're gonna have to come with us."
"I don't think so," I watched him carefully, reaching towards my pistol, waiting to see how he'd react.
"That won't do you any good," Lorne said, appearing almost amused.
"I'm warning you, Major. Stand down." I reiterated urgently.
"Go ahead. Shoot." Lorne dared me.
And so I did, drawing out my pistol and firing it rapidly at his right thigh. A hole appeared and then healed immediately ... in a manner that was again all too familiar.
"You see?" Lorne said with a smile.
"So you're saying that we're also Replicators?" Teyla looked at Lorne in horror.
"No," Lorne denied. "You are flesh and blood – ordinary humans in every way except that you were manufactured from the inside out by nanites, some of which remain in your system, effecting repairs as necessary."
"I'm not buying it," I retorted, even though inside I knew it could very well be true ... and it would explain everything I'd experienced over the past week.
"All that you are – your thoughts, your memories – everything was taken from the real John Sheppard and his team when their minds were probed over a year ago," Lorne explained. "I'm sorry Colonel – you're gonna have to let us escort you down to the Brig now."
oOo
"Well this is just wonderful," I said to Teyla a few minutes later, watching Lorne instruct one of the marines to stand guard before he disappeared out the door.
"You truly do not believe the Major's story?" Teyla asked me.
"I don't want to believe it," I evaded giving an answer. "You?"
"I too am reluctant to consider the truth in his words," Teyla revealed. "I am also concerned for Rodney and Ronon."
Sounds from the corridor outside drew our attention.
"I think you can forget about that part - we're about to be reunited," I stood in the middle of the cell, waiting for the rest of my team to appear.
Jennifer escorted them in, bringing with her the biggest surprise of the day so far.
Doctor Elizabeth Weir.
"Elizabeth!" Teyla exclaimed in joyful surprise. She moved to hug Elizabeth as soon as she and the rest of my team were inside the cell. Jennifer looked on with a curious expression. Catching me watching her she nodded an acknowledgement before turning to leave.
"Jennifer!" I called her back, determined to find the answers to my most pressing questions.
"You wish to know why we left Sabina out of our recreation," Jennifer said simply.
"Her not being here was what originally got me suspicious, even before that probe hit us," I explained.
"You were not supposed to remember her," Jennifer stated simply.
"Yeah, well I do," I said firmly. "Where is she?"
"Although your mind contains a copy of everything in Colonel Sheppard's mind we attempted to remove all reference to your mate," Jennifer began. "We did not have sufficient power to create a human clone version of her. Even if we had, there was insufficient detail from her scan to make creating a replica viable. Some of our numbers felt that we should just replace her with one of our own kind. I did not believe that such a replacement would fool you. It was a risk no matter what course we took."
"So you decided to get rid of her totally," I concluded, disturbed because it meant the others would probably never remember all the things about their own interactions with Sabina. The Replicators had taken Sabina out of their copies memories before transferring them over to the clones.
"Your feelings for her, the way they have circumvented even our best efforts at reprogramming, are just one of the many things we do not understand about humans," Jennifer shared with a sad smile. "Perhaps it is that as much as anything else which hinders our goals."
"I don't know whether to be grateful or angry that you didn't do to Sabina what you've done to us," I said bitterly, turning away from her angrily.
Sure, I'd been vindicated, shown not to have been going insane because I remembered someone no-one else did. But the other side of that was I still had a bucket load of feeling for someone it turned out belonged to a different me. Another Sheppard, supposedly the real one, was enjoying that position. Even if we were to return to Atlantis that wouldn't change ... and the sense of loss hit me hard.
Slumping down to the floor I leaned my back against the bars, dropping my head down to my raised knees. Everything I was feeling was an advertisement for the talent and genius of Replicator cloning ... I could have wished they hadn't done such a good job on me ... but ultimately, even with the pain and the knowledge I wasn't getting Sabina back, I wouldn't have wanted them to take those memories away.
The others let me wallow for a time, busy with the expected reunion round of hugs and exclamations of relief over Elizabeth's return. I zoned them out, letting myself embrace all the memories that seemed to be flooding my mind now I had confirmation that my relationship with Sabina had been real.
"John?" Teyla knelt on the floor next to me, putting a hesitant hand on my shoulder. I looked up reluctantly, knowing from the way she winced when she caught sight of my expression that I wasn't looking my best. "I am sorry about Sabina," Teyla said softly.
"Yeah, me too," I grated out hoarsely. Looking around her I noticed the others watching us while trying to make it look like they weren't. "I guess we need to work out what we're gonna do about this huh?"
Teyla nodded, getting up and holding out a hand to me. I let her pull me up to standing, rubbing my hands over my face while I attempted to shove everything back down into the mental box where I kept all my other torments.
"Okay, where are we at?" I asked resolutely.
Rodney caught me up on where they'd discovered Elizabeth – it made no sense that she'd been held inside the city, unless this wasn't the real Atlantis anymore than I was the real Sheppard. In fact the whole thing was just a series of unanswered questions beginning with 'where the hell are we?' and ending with 'how did Elizabeth get here?'.
Teyla filled Elizabeth in on what had been happening from our side, Elizabeth was no more keen to hear she had nanites than the rest of us had been. She insisted on performing the same test, the self inflicted cut on her palm healing rapidly before our very eyes.
"Oh my God," she said weakly.
"All right. We're all infected by nanites," Ronon stated.
"Not infected with – constructed by," Rodney corrected.
"I don't believe it," Ronon replied grimly.
"I know it's tough to swallow," Rodney acknowledged. "I'm having a hard time wrapping my head around it myself, but it would explain a couple of things."
"Such as?" I asked curiously.
"Such as why the Gate's not working, for one," Rodney replied. "Look, if none of this is real, if this is all just a lab rat experiment, then it stands to reason the Gate's not real either."
"If this is not the real Atlantis, Rodney, you of all people would have noticed. The stars alone ..." Teyla pointed out.
"The whole time the Gate's been down, it has been solid overcast," Rodney interrupted her. "That's over a week now. Think about it - when was the last time any of you saw stars?"
"Then where are we?" Teyla asked.
"No idea," Rodney replied. "These aren't your usual Replicators though. If they were we'd all be dead by now."
"Are we sure this isn't all taking place in one of our heads?" I asked the question, knowing at least one of them would have thought the same. "They could be probing our minds right now."
"This is real," Elizabeth reassured us. "We need to find out what they want from us, why they've gone to so much effort." Turning to the guards she called out. "Please – you must let me speak with your leader."
To my surprise, rather than ignoring her they simply nodded, doing that Replicator thing that said they were communicating with their brethren. "We will take you now."
Elizabeth was led away and the rest of us settled in to wait for some answers. The atmosphere was tense, no one willing to speak first.
"All right, I know this is a lot for everyone to deal with, but we're just gonna have to ... suck it up and re-focus," I finally spoke.
"Re-focus on what?" Rodney asked incredulously.
"Getting the hell out of here," Ronon at least was on the same page as me.
"So we can go where? Back to Atlantis to resume our lives?" Rodney demanded sarcastically. "Oh, yeah, I forgot – they're not ours."
"Says them," Ronon said simply.
"There's no point in denying the facts," Rodney replied. "They were telling the truth. We're not who we thought we were."
"Well, I may not be the original, but you're gonna have a hard time convincing me that I'm not pretty damned close," I told him.
"Our origins do not make us any less human – not physically and certainly not mentally," Teyla gave her opinion serenely. "Not while we can think for ourselves. And in my heart there is no doubt – we must return to Atlantis."
"OK. We'll go back – take things from there," I confirmed the plan.
"Great!" Rodney said glibly. "We're all in agreement – we're gettin' out of here. Now, all we have to do is figure out how."
Leave it to Rodney to bring us all back down to Earth.
oOo
Elizabeth returned later, telling us what the Replicators had planned for us.
"They're gonna wipe our memories and then start again on another planet," she said simply. "That probe was sent by Oberoth and the other Replicators. Our friends out there tried to destroy it, but they only managed to disable it."
While we were still reacting to that RepliKeller returned to bring us even worse news. The other Replicators, Oberoth's army, had found us and seemed intent on destroying the city and everyone in it.
Everything moved quickly after that. Elizabeth had already tried the compassion equals a chance for ascension road and Jennifer seemed swayed by that. It was clear she didn't know what to do.
"Let us out," I urged.
"Your fellow Replicators are a threat to everyone in this galaxy. You said it yourself – they're destroying human worlds, killing millions of innocents," Elizabeth continued. "If you're serious about following the footsteps of your creators, you will let us go so we can stop this."
"Oberoth is too powerful," Jennifer shook her head at the idea of trying to defy him, even though they'd already done that with all they'd accomplished on their copy city.
"If this city falls and we're destroyed with it, this will be nothing more than a wasted opportunity – a failed experiment," Elizabeth said simply. "You know what that feels like."
"That's what the Ancients considered us – failed experiments," Jennifer said sadly.
"Well, now's your chance to prove 'em wrong," I reminded her.
"All we are asking is that you give us a chance to make a difference," Elizabeth concluded.
That seemed to do the trick. Amidst a city that was shaking and falling apart under attack, Jennifer released us and then led us through the Control Room towards the Jumper Bay. On the way she grabbed a flat rectangular device and handed it to me.
"Take this," she urged.
"What is it?" I looked down at the device curiously.
"It's the core drive of a ship's tracking system," Jennifer explained quickly. "With this, you should be able to pinpoint the locations and movements of every one of Oberoth's Aurora-class vessels in this galaxy. Take this to Atlantis – it will be their best chance of stopping Oberoth. Go up to the Bay – take a Jumper."
I led the others up the stairs but Elizabeth paused. "Come with us," she pleaded to Jennifer.
"I can't," Jennifer replied urgently. "Oberoth might be able to track me. I'll only be a liability." Elizabeth held out a hand to Jennifer but Jennifer shook her head, her expression stern. "Go!"
Reluctantly, knowing we had no choice, we left her behind, running up the stairs and quickly getting ourselves into the closest Jumper.
Bringing the systems on line I had us in the air and hovering cloaked over the city in minutes. Just enough time for us to have prime position to watch the fall of Atlantis. Sure, it was just a copy but to us it had been real and it was deeply disturbing to watch the central tower collapse in on itself under a hail of drones.
Once the city was destroyed I manoeuvred the Jumper into position on the Replicator ship so we could catch a ride back to the Replicator home world. I'd always wanted to do that – just like the Millennium Falcon in The Empire Strikes Back! From there we'd appropriate a ship capable of hyperdrive and contact Atlantis, not directly of course, but through somewhere like New Athos.
Everyone else agreed with the plan, even more so when we got to the home world and discovered that the Replicators had rebuilt the ship yards we'd destroyed ... and then some.
I used the same trick to steal a ship as I'd used to steal a ride through hyperspace, flying the cloaked Jumper into an open Jumper Bay. I'd chosen a ship at the outermost edge of their ship building activities but we still had to wait many hours before it became deserted.
"Here goes," I told everyone, powering the engines and getting us airborne. The Replicators tried to stop us of course but the element of surprise gave us enough of a lead. Before they could fire off more than a few wayward shots I'd opened a hyperspace window and taken us out of there.
"So, New Athos?" I turned to the others for confirmation.
"My people will help us," Teyla said confidently.
"M34-227 it is," I agreed.
oOo
It took a while to get there but eventually we established orbit around New Athos and took the Puddle Jumper down to the surface. That's when we discovered that New Athos was populated not as we'd expected. Instead of the village of Teyla's people we'd been expecting we got a team of Atlantis personnel. Elizabeth urged the rest of us to hang back while she spoke to our people, because in their eyes she was missing in action, not supposedly back on Atlantis like the rest of us.
"What are you gonna ask for?" Rodney asked as she prepared to make contact.
"For your doubles to come here to meet with us," Elizabeth suggested. "Do you think they'll need more than that to trust me?"
"They'll be happy to see you," I said thoughtfully. "I think you should tell them you're not the Elizabeth they lost up front. Offer them information to help them beat the Replicators."
"Don't mention us," Rodney added. "If I know myself, that would only spook me into arguing against trusting you."
"Okay," Elizabeth turned to head off and I heard myself speaking before I could stop the words.
"Ask them to bring Sabina when they come here."
"John?" Elizabeth looked at me in concern.
"I know okay," I looked down at the ground for a moment before meeting her eyes. "I just ... I need to see her for myself. I need to make those memories real or they'll drive me crazy."
"I'll make it a condition," Elizabeth promised me.
Authors Note:
Next Up? Fortunate Journey Season 4 Chapter 34