Chapter 36: Trusting them like this is making me nervous
Rodney's ten hours expired with him still a long way from resolving his programming issues, bumping plan B into the 'implement now' slot. John headed out straight away on the Apollo with Sam on the Daedalus to take out the first Replicator target. Even though it was late both ship commanders were keen to get their first engagement over with. I guess the Replicators didn't care whether it was 9am or 11pm so neither could we.
Going to bed without John for the first time in ages made for a restless night. Finally dropping off to sleep in the early hours of the morning I was jolted awake only an hour or so later by John returning.
"You're back," I sat up to see him creeping around the room trying not to disturb me.
"Sorry," John came over to me and sat down. "I didn't want to wake you."
"Wasn't sleeping that well anyway," I admitted, putting my arms around him and leaning my head against his shoulder. "How'd it go?"
"One Replicator ship destroyed," John's tone was relief rather than triumph which seemed appropriate given what was at stake and the inherent problems with the Plan B approach.
"Good," I said simply. "Do you get to sleep now?"
"Are you taking the morning off?" John countered.
"No mission this morning," I reminded him. "I could use the sleep too."
"Okay," John got up and disappeared into the bathroom. I slumped back onto my pillow, frowning up at the ceiling. Plan B would take the pressure off all the evacuation teams – until the Replicators worked out a way to counter our strategy. I would have preferred the 'turn them off' approach instead but in the end at least we were now making a dent for our side.
By the time John reappeared I'd fallen into a semi-dozing state, enough that I was happy to snuggle into him and drop the rest of the way into sleep.
oOo
It took a week of both Earth vessels intercepting the Replicator ships and destroying them before the Replicators responded with a change of strategy. Back on Atlantis we'd been continuing with the evacuation of planets in the path of their ships, only able to do so because the numbers at risk had dropped significantly since our ships had been out there. Apollo had destroyed three Replicator ships and the Daedalus four, leaving a still ridiculously large number of ships left to be destroyed.
"I heard the Replicator ships are falling back to their home world," I said to Teyla during our yoga session the day after the Daedalus returned.
"Colonel Carter believes they are building more ships in order to move around the galaxy in larger groups," Teyla replied, sitting up and wiping at her face with a towel. She looked a little pale and tired, even with the respite in off world travel.
"Are you feeling better these days?" I asked her casually.
"The past few weeks have been very difficult," Teyla replied. "I have not been sleeping well."
"And the fact that you're pregnant wouldn't have helped," I said matter-of-factly.
"How did ...?" Teyla looked over at me in surprise.
"It wasn't that difficult Teyla," I said in exasperation. "You've been sick in the mornings, tireder than usual, and I'm sorry but you're starting to show too. Maybe I notice that more because we do these training sessions but I don't think I'd be the only one with suspicions."
"I am expecting a child," Teyla admitted with a small smile.
"Congratulations," I returned softly. "I am happy for you Teyla but ... I just don't get why you haven't told John and the rest of your team."
"It is complicated," Teyla said evasively.
"What's complicated about expecting a baby?" I countered with a frown.
"Do you think John will let me remain an active member of his team?" Teyla asked me tersely.
"If you're putting the baby at risk then probably not," I replied after thinking for a moment. "Surely you don't want to do that?"
"Of course not," Teyla returned insistently. "But my people have been missing for more than two months now. If I am not on an off world team then I cannot search for them."
"You don't trust everyone else to keep their eye out for leads?" I asked in surprise.
"I do," Teyla countered. "I would find it ... difficult to sit around and let others search in my place."
"I can understand that," I offered, "but it's not like you can just keep it to yourself indefinitely. You're already at the edge of everyone working it out for themselves. You need to tell John before someone else brings it to his attention."
"You are not planning on telling him yourself?" Teyla asked curiously.
"I wouldn't pass on something said in confidence," I said with a frown. "Even to John. He wouldn't expect me to."
"Of course," Teyla said apologetically. "I will tell him soon."
"Don't leave it too long," I told her in all seriousness. "John's gonna be disappointed you kept it a secret for so long ... the longer you leave it the worse that'll be."
"I know," Teyla agreed unhappily. "I wish the baby's father were here."
"Is it Kanaan?" I smiled when Teyla again looked surprised. "I heard a rumour you were seeing someone from New Athos by that name."
"You are remarkably well informed," Teyla said somewhat irritably.
"Small city, big gossip machine," I reminded her. Getting to my feet I smiled down at her. "Just hurry up and make this common knowledge, okay? You've had more than enough time to think about the problems. I think it's time you started to enjoy being pregnant. I admit I don't know anything about baby ... stuff but I'm sure someone here will be able to get us started on celebrating."
"Thank you Sabina," Teyla returned softly, putting a hand over her 'bump' as though reassuring the little life inside that she was happy to be expecting it.
"Any time," I waved a farewell.
My next stop was the Ancient library ... the plan to continue my history introspective of Atlantis during the Kirsan fever outbreak. It was the first session I'd allowed myself since the Replicator situation had blown up, so my mind was quickly absorbed in thinking back over what I'd already done.
On the way up the main tower stairs I spotted John, Sam and Rodney talking in her office. Rodney was waving his arms around, clearly excited about whatever he was explaining. I couldn't tell if he had his 'I am a genius' expression on but even seeing him that animated was a welcome change from how he'd been lately.
I'd left my current book in the viewing chamber and happily settled back in to continue reading about the history of the city. And that's where John found me a couple of hours later.
"Hey," he drew my attention to where he stood in the doorway.
"Hi," I withdrew my hands from the chamber and motioned him over. "This book is really interesting ... most of the history stuff has been pretty dry 'we did this and then we did that' accounts but this one goes into explaining some of their reasoning for creating devices and what their plans were for future research."
"Anything useful right now?" John asked curiously.
"Unfortunately not," I admitted. "Most of the things I've spotted are projects we already know about."
"I'm sure you'll keep at it," John smiled when I nodded eagerly. "I wanted to tell you Teyla, Ronon and I are taking a Puddle Jumper off world. We're taking our Wraith friend too."
"That's a surprise," I replied. For an instant my conversation with Teyla flashed through my mind, including my promise not to say anything about her condition. John's mission sounded like the kind where problems could easily occur but I had to stick firmly to my word. Maybe I could have thought up some way to warn him without breaking my promise but at the end of the day I trusted that Teyla knew her own limits and would speak up before she took unacceptable risks with her baby.
"Yeah well Rodney finally came up with a plan," John explained, "and in usual McKay style it's on a mammoth scale meaning we need allies."
"Wraith allies?" I clarified with a grimace.
"At the very least," John agreed. "Rodney's plan involves manufacturing his own Replicator cells, something you might have some insight into. He's staying behind to work on that so I'll let him explain the details to you himself. You wanna walk me to the Jumper Bay?"
"Sure," I agreed, moving to close off the library systems before following him back down the stairs. "Be careful with this Wraith," I urged as we walked down the corridor. "He's more controlled than a lot of the Wraith I've come into contact with – that makes him all the more dangerous."
"We'll watch our backs," John agreed. "Don't forget, they need the destruction of the Replicators even more than we do."
"That might not be enough to stop them from betraying us if there's something in it for them," I pointed out.
"We'll be fine," John insisted. "I can't imagine anything being more important to them right now."
"I hope so," I allowed. The rest of the way was covered in silence ... when we got to the doors leading into the Jumper Bay we paused.
"See you when you get back," I glanced around, noticed that the hallways were pretty quiet, and took the opportunity to press a quick kiss to John's lips. Not that I wasn't entitled to kiss him goodbye or anything but these days I tried to respect the whole 'on duty and in command' thing. John was smiling when I pulled away, as usual too amused with my trying to look after his reputation.
"Be good," he quipped. "Don't let McKay do anything stupid."
Watching him walk away I wondered from that last comment just how wacky Rodney's plan actually was. After he'd explained it to me ten minutes later I was impressed. Rodney's 'super-dense blob' was truly inspired. It had taken him longer than usual to come up with something but it sounded to me like the wait had been more than worth it. The idea that we could take out all the Replicators in one move was compelling.
"Can I help you with making your own Replicator cells?" I asked hopefully.
"You can stick around, monitor the programming if you like," Rodney offered.
Grinning happily I took a seat at one of the consoles. We were in a special lab where Rodney had transferred the 'Replicator making' machine. Radek was also helping, although it would be clear to anyone stopping by that this was Rodney's show.
It didn't take that long to be ready to make a first attempt. Rodney pressed a few buttons on the machine and we all watched eagerly as a silvery substance not unlike liquid mercury appeared and spread to fill the table surface.
"All right," Rodney looked at the readings carefully. "Basic nanite material has been formed. Let's see if we can get them to interact". He picked up a small device designed to alter the replicator cell programming and walked to the other side of the table.
"I must say, Rodney, this is quite an ingenious idea," Radek said admiringly.
"Were you expecting anything less?" Rodney queried smugly.
"Well ...," Radek hesitated, shooting a glance at me before looking back at Rodney.
"Well what?" Rodney demanded.
"Well, you have been in a bit of a rut lately," Radek admitted that viewpoint reluctantly.
"I have not!" Rodney denied vehemently.
"Okay, well, like a dry spot, maybe," Radek offered that compromise.
"That is not true," Rodney said stiffly.
"Okay," Radek agreed uncertainly.
"It is not!" Rodney reiterated heatedly.
"Maybe it's just that this was such a big problem it just took longer to solve," I offered, not wanting Rodney to go off in a spiral of complaints instead of focusing on what he was supposed to be doing.
"That's typical," Rodney muttered under his breath, turning his attention back to the hand held unit. "Just because I couldn't fix something in less than ten hours suddenly I'm in a rut!"
"Forget I said anything Rodney," Radek wisely changed the subject. "Are we certain that these nanites will not go beyond simple cohesion?"
"Of course," Rodney said confidently. "I've disabled most of the normal protocols. It won't be able to do anything beyond form a simple block. All right, here we go." He tapped a few commands into the unit and the effect was immediate. The silvery liquid drew itself together to form a large block in the centre of the table.
"It worked! You did it, Rodney!" Radek exclaimed.
"Naturally," Rodney said even more smugly than usual given the previous tone of the conversation.
"McKay's back!" Radek quipped.
"Will you stop that?! I was never gone!" Rodney said irritably. Before he could say more the hand held unit started beeping what was clearly a warning tone. "Whoa-whoa-whoa-whoa-whoa. Wait a minute. We've got a problem. The cells aren't communicating properly."
The nicely formed block collapsed back into the formless puddle it was been before. Rodney signed before looking over at Radek.
"This could be tougher than I thought," he admitted. Radek looked about to say something. "And I don't wanna hear you say anything."
Wisely, Radek refrained from any more teasing about Rodney having been off his game.
"That device Elizabeth gave us only detects Aurora class vessels right?" I asked. Rodney paused in his tapping, glancing up from his screen with a frown. "I was just wondering if they had other classes of vessels too. Won't be an absolute victory unless we get all the Replicator cells, will it?"
"As far as we know, based on the intel the Apollo gathered before the first strike months ago, they only have the one class of vessel," Rodney replied.
"That's good," I commented. "Worrying about getting all the Replicator cells brings me to my second question."
Rodney sighed impatiently, looking up from his screen again. "What?" he demanded impatiently.
"Is there any chance the NAPs I injected into Oberoth could have an effect on Replicator cells?" I rushed on before Rodney could answer. "It's just that those NAPs were designed to disrupt communication between the host nanites and any external ones. If some of them still exist would that mean they won't behave the way you're hoping they will?"
"That's a good question," Rodney said thoughtfully. "At a guess I'd say the Oberoth you injected those NAPs into no longer exists. He would have been rendered silent too quickly to adapt, meaning his fellow Replicators would have destroyed him and created a new and improved version. The interesting thing would be if Elizabeth absorbed a small number of the NAPs before Oberoth stopped communicating."
"Why would that be interesting?" I asked worriedly.
"Because we know she survived for a time and was integrated into the collective before Oberoth destroyed her," Rodney explained. "If some of her NAP altered nanites survived and were passed along like those human traits Oberoth was so worried about then there is a chance there are some Replicators out there who may not be affected by what I'm doing."
"How likely is that?" I looked to Rodney, hoping he'd say not very.
"Extremely unlikely," Rodney returned confidently. "In fact I'd go so far as to say virtually impossible. The Replicator collective picks up differences between individual human forms very quickly. They'd have stamped out any NAP induced differences long before their numbers could get large enough to make a difference."
"That's a relief," I relaxed, smiling thankfully at Rodney. "You can get back to your programming now."
"No more annoying questions?" Rodney raised an eyebrow, pausing for another interruption. When I waved him on casually he did his usual Mmm before turning back to his work.
I would have liked to stay and help them with their project but unfortunately life on Atlantis continued even during the build up to big events like this was going to be. Team Lorne had been scheduled for a late afternoon resupply mission to one of the planets where we'd relocated a number of refugees. So after watching what seemed like a million failed attempts by Rodney to create a stable cube of Replicator cells I regretfully took my leave and went to get ready.
"Major," I greeted Evan and the others, the last one to get to the Puddle Jumper. Glancing down at my watch I added "I'm not late ... just."
"I'll give you this one," the Major motioned me into the co-pilot's chair and quickly powered up the systems. The back of the Jumper was loaded down with boxes we'd have to ferry off at the other end. Hopefully it wouldn't take that long and I'd be back before John and the others returned.
Conversation was minimal as Major Lorne did the usual pre flight and flight tasks that got us up to the open wormhole and through to the other side.
"What do you think of us forming another alliance with the Wraith?" I asked Evan as he flew us towards the refugee camp.
"That they need it as much as we do," he replied seriously. "If it helps people like the ones on this planet .... well that's just a nice side benefit for us."
"I'm not looking forward to all the missions we'll have to do to return all these people home," Brown pointed out.
"Man, that's gonna take days!" Parker returned. "I hope your legs are up to it Sabina."
"I can't believe you told them about that!" I knew immediately that I was being teased and looked across at Evan accusingly as all three of them laughed
"Hey, who said it was me?" Evan denied responsibility, laughing at my frowning face. "You guys walked the entire city. I think Brown and Parker were the only ones who didn't get a first hand view."
"That's okay," I smiled casually. "If the city gossip is anything to go by none of you is even seeing anyone right now." There were grumbles of protest I just talked right over. "Come to think of it, why aren't you seeing anyone? You're all nice guys ... mostly ... and not unattractive. I could hook you up if you like. It's the least I can do for my team mates."
"That's all right," Parker said loudly once I'd finished. "We're good as we are."
"Well, just let me know if you change your mind," I looked away, hiding my smile with difficulty. They were all confirmed bachelors, none of them eager to give up their freedom.
oOo
Our resupply was pretty routine so a couple of hours later I was back on Atlantis, expecting that John would already be back. Of course that was silly because he wasn't back, and they would soon be heading into 'late' territory.
"It's a difficult mission to judge," Sam pointed out when I went up to her office to ask if we were going to send anyone to check up on them. "The Wraith couldn't tell us how long his allies would need to deliberate before deciding whether or not to help us."
"Trusting them like this is making me nervous," I admitted weakly. "You weren't here the other times we trusted the Wraith and regretted it. In fact there hasn't been a time when we did something like this where they didn't betray us in the end."
"This is the first time they stand to gain so much from cooperation," Sam replied. "We'll give John's team a few more hours before we follow them up."
"Any progress on Rodney's side of the plan?" I asked, accepting that I wasn't going to convince her to check on Team Sheppard any earlier.
"And then some," Sam said irritably. At my look of surprise she explained. "He couldn't get the individual cells to hold cohesion because he'd taken away too much of their basic functionality. So he created a human form Replicator, reducing the programming to something incapable of replicating or changing form."
"Is that safe?" I asked worriedly.
"Rodney assures me it is," Sam replied. "You have some experience with altered nanite programming. The ones you created were incapable of acting like those we have experience with, weren't they?"
"Yeah but they were created in a completely different way," I returned. "We've seen how adaptive the programming is. In isolation this Replicator probably can't do more than Rodney programmed it for ... but in the presence of other Replicators that could change."
"Then we'll just have to make sure she can complete her part in this as quickly as possible," Sam replied.
"She?" I asked in surprise.
"Yes," Sam smiled with faint amusement. "I'm sure Rodney wouldn't mind if you went down there and checked out the Replicator for yourself. She's being kept in an isolated lab separated from all the city systems."
I nodded, getting up to leave.
"I'll let you know when we hear from John," Sam added before I'd taken more than a couple of steps.
"Thank you," I said, shooting a grateful smile to her before taking my leave.
Author's Note:
Next Up? Fortunate Journey Season 4 Chapter 37