Chapter 52: Shouldn't we say goodbye to Ronon first?
The IOA didn't waste any time. I'd no sooner arrived at the SGC after my 24 hours on Midway than I found myself in a conference room at a table full of IOA members. I was severely outnumbered and wondered at their obvious attempt to intimidate as they began without even introducing themselves.
"Thank you for joining us Mrs Sheppard," one of the men took control immediately. "Mr Coolidge I presume," I thought in amusement. "If we could begin with you explaining the fact that you aren't in fact from Earth but rather from Atlantis?"
"Since I've spent twenty eight of my thirty two years on Earth I think I can still claim being from here," I began pointedly. "As for explaining the fact that I was born on Atlantis I can't – all of my memories begin here. All I can tell you is what Colonel Carter put in her report. An Ascended Ancient admitted recently that she took me from Atlantis some time during their war with the Wraith – for reasons she failed to go in to."
"Surely she offered some kind of justification for such a radical action?" Mr Coolidge scoffed in disbelief.
"If you'd ever met an Ancient, Ascended or not, you'd understand that justification isn't exactly their strong suit," I said smoothly. "There are enough examples of that for my current situation not to be a surprise."
"Do you feel differently about your commitment to Earth now?" one of the other members asked blandly.
"I'm married to an air force Colonel," I reminded them. "And I've spent the last four years helping him protect this planet from the Wraith. I don't think you can get much more committed than that."
"Do you consider yourself Lantean instead of human?" Mr Coolidge persisted.
"Human doesn't have to mean just people from Earth," I pointed out. "By definition it also means having human form or attributes – and I definitely have those." Before they could ask me another lame question I pressed on. "Look, I don't know what it is to be anything other than what I am. The few Lanteans I have met didn't exactly inspire me to want to be just like them. I don't see myself as being any different than I was before I spoke to Diamantia and I'd fully expect that no one else would either."
"And Colonel Sheppard agrees with this," someone asked.
"Of course," I said confidently. "He thought I was being just a tad silly to worry that others might treat me differently because of something that happened so long ago. The few people who already know have proved him right so far." A subtle push for them to put aside their petty line of questioning but hopefully it would do the trick.
"Perhaps you would like to refresh yourself before we begin again," one of them offered, meaning they wanted to talk about me for a while before deciding what questions to ask next.
"That would be nice," I agreed graciously.
oOo
That first meeting was probably the most disturbing of the many I endured over the next day and a half. Surprisingly the whole kidnapping incident on Earth was never mentioned ... perhaps because Mr Coolidge himself wouldn't be sitting in his cushy IOA seat but for Walker and his plot to use me.
It was the only thing I had to be grateful for though. They'd obviously worked through every Atlantis report that I'd had some part in and proceeded to question my thinking and my motives for all of them. It took too long and it was needlessly boring and monotonous but I played along just as John had requested and I got through it relatively unscathed. All the while I was reminding myself that General O'Neill had promised my safe return to Atlantis and recalling at inappropriate times John's promise to finish what he'd started just before my departure.
Finally I was done and Mr Coolidge was informing me they'd send through any recommendations concerning my role to Colonel Carter.
"I'll look forward to that," I thought snidely.
When a knock sounded at the door while Coolidge was still doing his self importance routine I looked up disinterestedly, until I saw a familiar face.
"General O'Neill," Coolidge greeted Jack almost respectfully. "I had no idea you were visiting the SGC today."
"Just checking up on my empire Bob," Jack quipped in return. "I was hoping you were finished so I could steal Sabina away. They're serving chocolate cake in the Mess," he shared with me, "and you know how much I like chocolate."
"We had just concluded our meetings," Coolidge replied congenially – not an expression he'd shown the whole time I'd been there and frankly, not a good look for him.
"Good," Jack grinned. "Shall we?" he looked at me expectantly.
"I could use some cake," I followed him casually; waiting until he'd closed the door behind us before showing him how happy I was to see him. "Thank you," I said fervently. "After two days of ... that I've used up what little patience I ever possessed."
"From what I hear you did good," Jack said seriously.
"Yeah well having that free pass from you helped my attitude no end," I replied gratefully. "I really appreciate that by the way."
"If I can't pull a few strings, flex a few muscles, then there's no point in being The Man," Jack refused to take as much credit as he deserved for helping me. "I wasn't joking about the cake though."
"You came all the way from Washington to have cake?" I asked in amusement.
"They don't make it right up there," Jack complained.
"Or maybe it's just that you still miss being around here," I suggested gently.
"There is that," Jack agreed. "I hear your super powers aren't that super after all."
"If you mean I'm just a kidnap victim instead of a genetic marvel then you heard correctly," I played along, knowing Sam would have given him the full story as soon as she'd heard it.
"And how do you feel about that?" Jack asked.
"It's nice to give up the genetic freak label," I tried to explain where I was at, "but it would have been better if it hadn't come with dire predictions about galactic suffering and some higher 'purpose'."
"That's one of the first things I teach," Jack joked. "There's always a catch when you're not fishing."
"Sounds like a fun class,' I replied in amusement. "Where do I sign up?"
oOo
Cake eaten, more thanks handed out, and farewells given, I travelled back to Midway and from there 24 hours later back to Atlantis.
"Honey I'm home," I quipped as I walked up to a waiting John.
"And it's about time," John hugged me quickly before grabbing my hand and leading me away.
"Is that Teal'c?" I asked in surprise, watching a tall dark man following Ronon into the Gateroom where Sam stood waiting.
"Yeah, Colonel Carter asked him to come and coach Ronon before his interview," John explained.
"Damn," I muttered. "He must have left the SGC while they had me locked up in that conference room so I didn't get to meet him ... again! Didn't get to see anyone other than General O'Neill back on Earth either. They were all off on various missions."
"Well it wasn't exactly a social visit," John reminded me, urging me to keep walking. "Now as I recall I made you a promise before you left."
"Shouldn't we say goodbye to Ronon first?" I glanced over my shoulder at where the two men still waited.
"Already done before you got here," John didn't even pause in his stride. "I said good luck from you too."
"That was nice of you," I smiled, letting myself be swept away on the wave of his enthusiasm. "I missed you," I said once we were tucked away in our quarters.
"You can tell me all about it later," John replied. "I'm off duty and lucky for you I remember exactly where we were up to before you left." And then he launched us straight from 'hello how are you' into passion before I had time to draw breath. As far as welcome homes went it was right up there with the best of them.
oOo
It was already dark when John and I headed up to the Control Room so I could check in with Sam and update her on my interview. Rodney had called John up there as well ... both he and Sam discussing something when we arrived.
"What's goin' on?" John asked Rodney curiously. Sam was standing looking at the screen over Rodney's shoulder.
"Intergalactic Bridge is down," Rodney announced.
"How'd that happen?" John asked with a frown.
"I don't know," Rodney admitted. "We're sending the daily status reports to the SGC and we can't connect to Midway."
"Some kind of malfunction, either in one of the Gates or the call-forwarding macro," Sam added.
"It's probably just a glitch – a simple software hiccup," Rodney dismissed lightly.
"Hiccup?" John looked at Rodney expectantly.
"We hope," Sam seemed to be treating it just a little more seriously than Rodney was.
"Ronon and Teal'c!" John said abruptly.
"The malfunction occurred several minutes after they went through," Rodney explained without concern. "I'm sure they made it to Midway."
"But we can't be absolutely certain," Sam discounted, earning an indignant look from Rodney.
"Those Gates are in space," John pointed out grimly. "If they walked through, then ..." he trailed off at that unpleasant thought.
"No-no-no-no-no," Rodney protested impatiently. "Look, the glitch occurred at M4F-788. That is a planetary Gate at the edge of the Pegasus galaxy which means – worst case scenario – they stepped through the puddle and they found themselves stranded on an uninhabited planet."
"Stranded," John repeated. "More time together – just what they need!"
"All indications are they made it all the way to Midway but we can check that by dialling M4F-788 independently," Rodney explained, quickly punching the seven symbols.
The gate ran through the sequence but didn't lock, earning a frown from Rodney. He tried again without success and began muttering to himself under his breath as he tapped away furiously at the console.
"Rodney?" John demanded.
"Working," Rodney shot back, concentrating on his screens.
A few minutes later, still frowning Rodney sat back. "There's nothing wrong with the dialling sequence or anything else at our end ... let's try dialling 788 again."
The gate did its thing, this time not stopping until the kawhoosh announced a connection.
"We've got a lock," Sam confirmed.
"Finally," John said in relief.
"Yeah. It seems someone was dialling out from 788," Rodney explained. "It was preventing us from dialling in until now."
"Ronon and Teal'c?" John questioned.
"I doubt it," Rodney denied. "Look, even if the malfunction spat them out on the planet, the only logical address they would dial was back to Atlantis, which, as we know, they didn't."
"Could they be there but not be able to get a lock?" I asked Rodney hopefully.
"Ronon, Teal'c, are you there?" Sam activated the comms after Rodney's shrug indicated that as possible. There was no reply so Sam tried again. "Ronon, Teal'c, this is Colonel Carter. Please respond."
"I'm telling you – they made it to the Midway Station before the malfunction," Rodney insisted when there was still no response. "I'm sure of it."
"Wait a minute," John asked with a puzzled frown. "Didn't you say 788 is uninhabited?"
"It is," Rodney agreed.
"All right – if it's not Ronon and Teal'c, then who dialled out?" John pointed out that glaring inconsistency.
"Ah ... good point," Rodney responded, looking to Sam in concern.
"Get a MALP ready," Sam ordered. "Let's find out."
I stood with John and Sam on the balcony overlooking the Stargate, watching the Techs getting the MALP ready. Rodney was poised at his console, waiting for his screens to show something as the MALP travelled slowly through the open wormhole.
"MALP is through," he announced. "Receiving telemetry. Visual coming in now."
We all looked at the wall screen as the video feed came through, showing a sandy desert like planet with a rocky outcrop a short distance away.
"See? No Ronon, no Teal'c," Rodney pointed out.
"Pan left," Sam ordered.
The camera moved slowly, giving us a view of the DHD – it had cables trailing from it that certainly weren't Earth based.
"Is that what I think it is?" I asked Rodney with a sense of foreboding.
"That's Wraith tech," Rodney confirmed. "It's hooked up to the DHD."
"Pan right," Sam instructed grimly.
This time we got a rocky ridge with something dark on top that wasn't quite visible until the camera tilted up and that darkness was revealed as a Wraith cruiser.
"Oh crap!" John uttered the words with a grim expression.
Before we could react further a Wraith guard walked into view with stunner aimed at the MALP. It wasn't surprising when he fired and the screen went blank.
"We lost the feed," Rodney said unnecessarily.
"Yeah, not to mention the MALP," John retorted sarcastically. "Shut down the Gate."
"Is it possible for them to have hijacked the Intergalactic Bridge?" Sam questioned Rodney.
"This is a hell of a lot more than a "hiccup"!" John looked at Rodney irritably.
"No-no-no-no, it's impossible!" Rodney insisted. "I mean, first they'd have to know about the Bridge and even if they did, there's too many security barriers in place. Look, encryption I used on the call-forwarding macros would take them years to try to ..."
"What if they knew the passwords?" John interrupted impatiently.
"How?" Rodney demanded. I could see where John was going though ... our Wraith 'friend', the infamous Todd!
"We just had a Wraith on base, Rodney, working with you, side by side, on your computers," John pointed out.
"You mean Todd?" Rodney looked at John with dawning understanding. "He was our ally! Look, even if he wanted, there's no way he could hack into my system ..." Rodney trailed off as the doubts began to surface. "Could he?"
"You saw the tech hooked up to the DHD," John insisted. "What else could they be up to?"
"All right, listen, we have to get to Midway," Sam said decisively. "The Daedalus is back on Earth. Is there another way we can get there?"
"Well, connect to the Bridge via another Gate in Pegasus," Rodney suggested.
"Then we have to find one that's close to the outer edge," Sam concluded. Rodney brought up the star map with M4F-788 and its surroundings displayed.
"There's M6R-125," he pointed to a nearby dot. "We could connect to the Bridge through that, but I'd need to reconfigure the macro."
"OK, get on it," Sam ordered. "Colonel, prepare a strike force."
Rodney turned back to his console, already beginning to alter his program. John nodded to Sam and then to me before getting on his radio as he strode from the room.
"Did you want to fill me in on your interview?" Sam looked at me approachably. "It'll be at least a few minutes before they're ready to go."
"Okay," I followed Sam and gave her a quick rundown, ending by passing on Jack's regards.
"General O'Neill was there?" Sam asked in surprise.
"Yeah," I smiled fondly. "He said it was for the cake – they don't make it right in Washington apparently – but I think he was just making sure the IOA couldn't go around him. Thanks for speaking to him about me by the way."
"No problem," Sam said simply. "You're done?" she looked up and asked when Rodney appeared in her doorway.
"We're good to go," Rodney announced, urging Sam to follow him back to the Control Room. John was already there and I shot him a quick smile before turning back to Rodney.
"We're re-directed," Rodney explained, pointing to the star map. "We gate from Atlantis to M6R-125. We insert this crystal with the Bridge macros into the DHD., dial the first Gate in the void and we're back on track all the way to Midway."
"Is your strike force ready?" Sam asked John.
"As soon as McKay gears up, we're ready to go," John announced.
"Well, I'm not ...," Rodney began before sighing in resignation. "All right, I'm gearing up."
The brief wait for Rodney to go get his gear gave me just enough time to talk to John. I didn't bother to ask if I could go along, knowing there was no way to justify my inclusion that would satisfy Sam, let alone John.
"Be careful," I said to him in a low tone, walking with him down the steps to the Gateroom floor where a large contingent of Atlantis soldiers stood ready. It wasn't like John hadn't gone out on dangerous missions before but I'd never gotten complacent or learned to take for granted that he'd make it back okay. Every such leaving was therefore a strange mix of trying to be positive along with masking the desire for a fervent goodbye spurred on by unnameable fears.
"It'll be fine," John said confidently. "I'll be back before you know it."
"Make sure you are," I ordered briskly, earning a small smile in return.
"Colonel Sheppard," Sam drew our attention just as the Stargate kawhooshed a connection to M6R-125. "Let's make sure they can't use Midway to get to Earth. Then Rodney, establish contact with Earth and inform them of the situation."
There was no time for further goodbyes. I had to be content with a small smile and wave as John urged his team through the gate.
"Waiting again," I said to Sam once the Stargate sat silent again. "You know I hate that right?"
"I can't say I'm all that fond of it myself," Sam replied with a sigh. "Especially since I'm still more used to being on the team heading out rather than staying behind like this."
"We'll hear something back soon enough," I tried to be jovial but Sam saw right through me.
"You've covered a bit of ground today," she commented. "Why don't you go get some rest? I'll let you know as soon as they report."
"Okay," I hadn't slept well the whole time back on Earth so I nodded my thanks almost happily. I wasn't exactly relaxed but if I'd known it would be two weeks before I'd hear word of John I wouldn't have gone off for a nap with even that level of ease.
Authors Note:
While I love the whole Midway episode the sight of a Wraith with fingers over an Earth keyboard in the classic QWERTY formation had me cringing and brought back the same 'This is ridiculous' thoughts as for "Michael". Maybe Todd after weeks on Atlantis would have learnt to use our technology but to pass that on to other Wraith? I know it's just a show but I would have preferred seeing the Wraith using some kind of Wraith/Earth interface like Rodney created in The Lost Boys than just sitting at the keyboard doing 60 words per minute. But that's just me.
As usual these days I am pushed for time ... thank you to those reviewing the last chapter - rest assured I will be replying soon. Rather than hold off this chapter until I could get to that though I decided to post it right now before I take my weary self off to bed. Wow - we're getting to the business end of Season 4 now!
Next Up? Fortunate Journey Season 4 Chapter 53