Chapter 10
Sheppard ran into the room to see that Teyla was still violently thrashing about, "Teyla, Teyla it's ok," he said grabbing her arms and holding them. She looked up at him for a few moments still unsure of where she was she blinked a few times clearing her vision.
"John?"
"You were having a nightmare," he said releasing her arms but still remaining close to her on the bed.
"Oh," she responded moving away from him slightly, "John how did you know that I was having a nightmare?"
Uh-Oh how am I going to explain this, "I was sorta watching you."
"You were what?" she asked anger infiltrating her normally very calm demeanor.
"I was worried about so I had the old man turn on the video cameras so I could make sure you were ok."
"For how long?" she asked her anger temporarily disappearing at his concern.
"I don't know thirty, forty minutes," he said weakly.
She retreated further away from John, "John were you watching as I changed?" she demanded anger reentering her voice with a vengeance.
"No, No I had Ancient make sure that you weren't doing anything like that."
She eyed him suspiciously still unsure if she should fully trust him. "John how do I know that that is true?"
"Ask him," he said moving further towards the door. She looked him up and down deciding if she could in fact trust him.
"Thank you for your concern," she said before laying back down. He walked over to the door and as he strolled out of it but before the door could close behind him he turned around and stood at the door.
"Teyla if you don't mind me asking what were you dreaming about."
"I do not wish to discuss it," she said without looking at him.
"Is the memory suppressant wearing off? Because you've never really told me what happened in that room either so if you wouldn't mind I can't even try to help you if you don't tell me what happened."
"John I do not want to talk about it," she repeated to him again annoyed at his persistence.
"Ok but talk to someone at least I don't think it's just going to go away and taking drugs every couple of hours isn't the answer," he said leaving and allowing the door to close this time. As he returned to the bridge he saw that the lights had been dimmed and the video camera link had disappeared he sat in the chair and continued to work until he fell asleep from pure exhaustion.
***
He felt the sunlight against his eyes causing them to flutter open for a second causing them to immediately shut. He moved over and reopened his eyes slowly this time. He managed to slide out of the chair and move out of the room slowly making his way towards the mess hall. When he finally got there he slumped down in one of the chairs and closed his eyes, ancient chairs certainly weren't the most comfortable of places to sleep. He put his head down on his arms and slowly drifted off to sleep.
***
"John?" Teyla asked as she walked into the mess hall. He didn't respond she approached his still form and saw that he was sleeping. She smiled to herself he looked, so peaceful as he slept not the man she saw burdened by the responsibility of command as he called it. She sat across from him and waited for Ancient to finish preparing her breakfast. While she waited she watched his slow rhythmic breathing and by the time her food appeared in front of her she unconsciously had matched her breathing to his. When she had finished eating, he finally began to stir. His eyes slowly flickered open again and were greeted with the sight of a warm smiling Teyla, "Good morning John."
He groaned slightly and looked her in the eye his head still in his arms, "to what do I owe this pleasure?"
She continued to smile at him, "You do not look like you slept well," she accused lightheartedly ignoring his question.
"I didn't, those ancient control chairs aren't exactly comfortable."
"They do not look like they would be."
He raised his head slowly and began running his hand through his hair, "what time is it?"
"One in the afternoon," she told him as he blinked a few times clearing his vision.
"And I'm still tired; I really need to get a goodnight sleep I feel like I haven't had one in a month."
"Perhaps you should sleep in the bed tonight?"
"Where would you sleep then in the chair? Because I don't think there are many other places."
"I think the bed is large enough that we could share it," she said nervously she had not thought about where she would sleep.
John was stunned by her proposal it was quite tempting on the one hand nothing would please him more then to share a bed with the women he loved but she wasn't his she didn't feel the same way towards him. "I don't think that would be a great idea," he said smiling weakly at her. She returned his smile but both quickly directed their eyes away from each other. They sat that way for a few minutes.
"So where do you intend to sleep?" she asked interrupting their silence.
"I don't know… so where do you want to go today?" he asked desperately hoping she would allow him to change the subject to something he was more comfortable with.
"I found a small little room that I'd like to check out actually, but I don't know what you want to do."
"Ok sounds good, Ancient can I have some coffee please?" he said looking at Teyla while he waited for the coffee to appear a moment later it did, "Shall we?" he picked up his coffee and began sluggishly moving toward the door waiting for the coffee to kick in. Teyla got up and followed him to the door where she took the lead and led him to the small room.
***
"You know when you said a small room I thought you meant a room not a closet," he said gesturing to the incredibly small room which looked large enough to fit only about three people at the most.
"I told you that you do not need to come with me John," she told him as she stepped up to the computer screen. As John walked around the room looking disdainfully upon the bland walls after walking around the room a few times he returned to Teyla's side and began looking over her shoulder.
"So what is this room for?"
"I believe that someone used this room to keep tabs on the populations of several worlds."
"Which ones?"
"Athos," she said stepping away from the console.
John immediately took her place and began reading, "there's a lot about you guys in here, you recognize any of this?"
"No this ship appears to have visited Athos many years ago."
John continued reading as Teyla moved towards the door, "Teyla."
"Yes John," she said stopping for a minute.
"Listen to this, a group of explorers arrived on the planet and the second in command appears to get along well with the Athosian leader. Teyla does that sound like us?"
"Yes John but that would mean this ship was near Athos a few years ago you said it was on that planet for 10,000 years."
"Ancient before we stumbled upon this ship how long was it on that planet for?"
"A little over 10,000 years," Its quiet voice said through the ships speakers although strangely he did not appear.
"Does this entry pertain to me and Teyla?"
"I am sorry but the nature of those entries is classified."
"And I was just starting to think he forgot we don't have clearance," anger seeping into his voice at being stonewalled again just as he thought that he was starting to make progress.
"I am confident we will learn the answers soon John," Teyla told him putting her hand on his arm in an effort to calm him.
"Yes I'm sure we will Teyla do you wish to continue?"
"Yes but you do not have to stay."
"Trying to get rid of me are you?"
"You still look tired and do not seem particular interested in this research."
"No, no it got interesting now that I'm in the story it's getting interesting."
They continued working for several hours when John decided to take a break and headed to the control room leaving Teyla alone in the room.
***
John strolled onto the bridge of the ship and sat down on the control chair activating it and bringing up several systems. He began attempting to activate different ones again generally some of the smaller ones that they were actually able to activate now such as internal sensors and the lights. Oh a whim he decided to once again try long range sensors and see if they would now respond to him. When he thought about bringing them online however he felt a strange sensation it was unlike ancient technology which felt like lifeless and mechanical, this felt warm and inviting like it had been waiting for him to turn it on. It encircled his mind and penetrated it completely implanting itself deep within his subconscious allowing him to control it without thinking about it. The sensors activated displaying a real time map of the system a few dozen ships were orbiting around in the same he looked more closely at one and an information tag appeared displaying the ships name, origin, builder species, class, age, weapons, and life signs, and classification. He saw a hyperspace window appear near the planet and a ship exited when it exited it was tagged as AES-HC6 immediately as more information quickly scrolled across the small tag. The ship contained a slight blue tint. A few minutes earlier Teyla had taken a break and headed up to the command center and walked up next to John unnoticed.
"What are we looking at?" She asked him as she studied the screen.
He jumped back at hearing her voice and turned to face her amused expression, "I got the long range sensors online its cool watching new ships come out of hyperspace. I wonder if you can you control the sensors?"
She looked at the screen for a minute concentrating, "No John I am unable to exert any control over the system."
As if on cue Ancient appeared nearby, "She will be able to control them with time just relax and let it come to you," They both nodded and turned their attention back to the screen. John expanded the sensors and detected other ships in nearby space he noticed that most of them contained a tint of yellow. Deciding that he should inform Atlantis about what they had just discovered a fleet of ancient ships and so very close to Atlantis only a few light-years. He sent a message off to Atlantis informing them of what they had discovered. A few minutes later they noticed a puddle jumper heading into one of the larger ships marked AES-CA1. They saw the ship disappear into a hyperspace window a few minutes later.
***
When AES-CA1 emerged from hyperspace half an hour later at its destination John and Teyla were still on the bridge attempting, unsuccessfully, to see if they could activate any other systems.
"John the ship has emerged from hyperspace."
"Ok let's see what happens," John said sitting in the control chair and focusing the sensors on that area of space. They watched as the puddle jumper exited the ship and headed towards the ships the jumper seemed to fly around several of the ancient ships but did not enter into any of them eventually after bypassing most of the ancient fleet they came to a final ship into which they entered.
A/N AES stands for Atlantis Expedition ship and refers to ships that the Atlantis expedition is using. CA stands for carrier and the one is the ships number and HC is Heavy Cruiser.
End Chapter 10