A/N-Soon enough dispatcher?

Start Chapter 18

"Where is she?" Carter asked Ronon and Keller when they entered her office.

"I don't know she left after seeing them."

Carter nodded in understanding there was no way to prepare yourself to see someone that important to you.

"I don't think that she was ready to see it, she didn't say anything."

"But she'd want to be strong for them," Ronon added taking a seat.

"Ok when you see her tell her that we're here for her if she needs anything at all," Carter stood up and walked over to the window looking at the gate.

"She knows."

"What do we do with the bodies?" Carter watched as the gate opened and the team she had been expecting walked through. She returned to her seat, "When the Athosians had other deaths they had a village but with just Teyla…"

"We could send the bodies back to Earth, but I don't know what Teyla will want to do." Keller stood up and looked at the gate herself, "Is that my team?"

"Yes I'm sorry we couldn't stay any longer but there are other Ancient ruins we need to research."

"Has Sheppard arrived yet?" Ronon asked as Keller retook continued to watch her team filter into the room.

"No why was he supposed to be coming soon?"

"Yeah he was supposed to be bringing the jumper back," Ronon said standing and moving towards the door.

"I can't believe he's abandoning Teyla, she once told me he said you guys were family," Keller said taking her seat again as the gate shut down.

Ronon stayed inside for another minute knowing why Sheppard really hadn't joined them yet but he didn't voice his opinion. "I'm going for a run." As he turned to leave he bumped into Major Lorne who was just entering the office.

"Colonel, Doctor," he greeted as Ronon quickly left the small office.

"Good Major we were discussing Colonel Sheppard's absence."

"Yes I wanted to talk to you about that as well," he took a seat in front of her.

"What about it?"

"I wondered if we could grant Sheppard permission to land the ship on Atlantis."

"I was considering as much it doesn't appear that the ship has any malicious intentions towards us."

"Was that all?"

"That and the team from Michael's planet just returned."

"Thank you Major, oh and send a message to Sheppard telling him to land the ship here."

He nodded on his way out.

"Was there something else you wished to discuss?" Carter asked seeing that Keller was making no move to leave her office.

"Yes I was wondering if I could lead another team to the planet in a few hours."

"Short or long term?" Carter tapped a few buttons on her tablet moving some duty schedules around.

"Short, there are just a few more things I'd like to do," she said getting up and heading towards the door.

***

"John you have received a message from Atlantis," his voice drifted into the virtual world John was inhabiting.

"Show it to me," he said continuing to explore the different systems slightly annoyed at the interruption. When it appeared however and he read it his annoyance at the interruption was quickly forgotten. "Hey you know how we talked about letting me fly and maybe use some of the weapons systems."

"Yes John," he responded appearing full sized in the virtual interface clearly not amused by John's pending question.

"Well I think perhaps you should finally let me fly this thing."

"They have finally given me clearance to land on Atlantis again?" he asked although still disinterested in the turn of events.

"Yeah I'm sure a few of the scientists are going to try and tie your power supply into Atlantis in order to save some of the ZPMs energy.

"Atlantis has a ZPM?" Ancient now appeared very interested in this new information and John felt the ships engines firing up.

"Yeah you didn't know?"

"I did not this is interesting."

"Yeah so can I fly this thing?"

"Yes John try not to crash it."

"Yeah I'll try," he remarked as he felt the ships engines begin to respond to him. It was similar to that of a jumper and although the ship was much larger it handled better he had no doubt that this thing would be good in a battle. The ship felt good to fly it was something it hadn't done in a very long time and it flew beautifully. The on board AI made all the minute corrections and augmented John's own flying skill with his ability to immediately act on what instructions he was given by applying the appropriate amount of thrust something which would take a human some time to calculate and even then there was some degree of error. While the flight was short John took the long way around the planet and did his best to put the ship through its paces. The two worked as a perfect team as the thought just began to form in John's mind Ancient converted it and acted upon it immediately while he regretted the reason he was able to do this, it stemmed from years of continuous combat and was necessary for his survival, he knew that for someone such as John having such a responsive ship would be a joy to fly. "Open a channel to Atlantis," he ordered and a click a moment later confirmed that it was open.

"Atlantis we are overhead where do you want us to land?"

"Colonel that was rather quick and same place as the Daedalus lands."

"Yeah this thing is a dream to fly I'll be down momentarily."

As the ship slowly descended through the clouds John was totally absorbed in making sure the landing went perfectly but such a routine action did nothing to distract Ancient. While John had access to the ships numerous sensors and was making use of most of them he failed to notice the solitary figure on one of the tallest, most secluded balconies.

She watched as the ship broke through the clouds almost directly above her the ship flew right in front of her startling her and causing her to forget her grief for a moment as the ship itself seemed to be smiling. She knew what it meant there was only one who would possibly be allowed to drive it. Armed with this knowledge she made her way inside and to the nearest teleporter.

***

As he stepped off the ramp for the first time in months the downpour started. He saw his friends who had been waiting for him head inside to wait for him but he was in no rush to head back inside. He had been inside the ship for so long that breathing fresh air and feeling rain on his skin that he longed to remain in it for just a few more minutes. As he stood there eyes closed enjoying the weather he failed to notice the door open or one of his friends approach him. She stood in front of him enjoying the rain herself. "John?" her voice belayed the true pain she was in and while she tried to be strong for everyone she needed someone to tell her it was ok in the past it had been her father then Charin followed by Doctor Heightmeyer and now she sought such support from John.

He opened his eyes slowly looking at her, "hey you're going to be ok," he told her as he enveloped her in a hug. He knew she was crying silently when he felt her warm tears on his chest a sharp contrast to the cold water falling around them, "hey it's going to be ok we'll find them ok?"

She stayed there for a few more minutes before the cold rain caused them to retreat inside where there remaining friends waited to greet John. As they began their hellos Teyla retreated out of the room and into another teleporter escaping everyone once again for her own thoughts and solitude.

***

After enjoying a nice lunch with Rodney and John who had joined her about halfway through Carter was returning to her office when she heard the gate activating. Knowing that only a few teams were off-world and none were due back for at least a day she hurried over to the technician. The gate activated and a moment later the code came through immediately and was a distress code from Keller's team. Carter called for medical and security teams to report to the gate room immediately. She was relieved when the first person to walk through the gate was unharmed followed quickly by several other unharmed personal. As Keller stepped through the gate she ran up the stairs calling for Carter to call several key personnel into a meeting.

End Chapter 18

A/N-Reviews are always appreciated.