A/N: This chapter is a direct continuation of the previous one.
Chapter 7
Five minutes after the interruption Carter, Sheppard and Lorne were walking down the hall towards the transporter, with Sheppard and Lorne dressed in their uniforms and strapping on their M9s.
"So, which movie were you planning on seeing?" Carter asked from where she was walking between them.
"Well, I voted for The Abyss, but Lorne kept insisting on Gone With The Wind," Sheppard answered, completely serious.
"He's lying, Ma'am," Lorne supplied calmly. Carter laughed.
"Hey, what happened to backing me up?" Sheppard asked, indignant.
"I'd walk with you to hell and back, sir, but I draw the line at Scarlet O'Hara."
Carter turned to him. "Oh, I smell a story there, Major," she said brightly, all smiles and white teeth.
"It was my mom's favorite movie, Ma'am," Lorne explained. They got into the transporter and Carter touched the right dot on the display console. A bright flash of light later and Lorne continued. "I can't even begin to count the number of times I heard it play from our living room."
Carter smiled, and Sheppard looked at her conspiringly. "I don't suppose you have a copy of that, do you?" he asked, casting a playful look in Lorne's direction. Lorne simply smirked back. If he would be forced to watch that movie, Sheppard would be there with him from the beginning right to 'tomorrow is another day'. And there would be no making out in the middle.
Carter laughed. "No. I-"
"Do you even realize what you've just done, you irresponsible, incompetent, utterly useless idiot!" McKay's voice drifted over to them. Lorne and Sheppard looked at each other, and Lorne could almost hear the 'oh, no' that passed silently between them. They could say goodbye to a nice evening together. McKay was prone to insulting other people's intelligence, but he did so in length only when there was a true emergency.
They hurried after Carter up the stairs and piled into the control room to see McKay towering over a bespectacled, flushed man in his mid-thirties. "Have you even been to kindergarten? That's the place where there's this annoying woman who sings annoying songs with the sole purpose of teaching you how to count!"
Carter stepped in, putting a hand on McKay's arm. "Rodney, what's wrong?" she asked, tense and serious.
McKay whirled around to look at her. "This clown here doesn't even know how to count, that's what's wrong! For three days this complete idiot's been seeing this huge extra asteroid and only now he's telling me about it!" he turned to the other scientist.
"We don't keep those fancy instruments that can count the number of abnormally large objects in our immediate space for aesthetic purposes! What the hell did you think happened, the asteroids segmented or simply had sex! You know what, forget it," he snapped his fingers at the other scientist impatiently and pointed towards the transporter. The man didn't even need spoken instructions, scurried away from the place with a face red with humiliation.
McKay then walked to the big plasma screen and fiddled with some of the controls. A representation of Atlantis' solar system appeared, along with objects glowing red that marked the approaching asteroids. "Look. See this? This was the original cluster of asteroids that we've been monitoring for the last two months, one thousand and thirty three in number," he pressed a button, and all of the rocks but one glowed blue. "And this?" he pointed to the remaining rock, "This is an asteroid that was located three days ago and that did not belong with the original cluster."
Lorne could only think of one thing after hearing that.
"Oh, god. Not again," Carter echoed his thoughts.
"Excuse me?" Sheppard asked, concerned. "'Not again'?"
"The Goa'uld once set an asteroid in a collision course with Earth to bypass the Asgard's protected planets treaty," Lorne supplied. Sheppard looked at him in a funny way.
"Just how many times were we facing death and destruction without anyone even knowing?" he asked, indignant.
"A lot. Look, it doesn't matter right now. Unless Caldwell forgot to tell us something from his days with an over-the-top clichéd parasitical alien-" McKay snapped, but Carter cut him off.
"He didn't. We hooked him to a Tok'ra memory device-"
"Then the Wraith must have thought of the same trick." McKay finished.
"Aren't we getting ahead of ourselves? Is the asteroid even on a collision course with Atlantis?" Sheppard asked, hand making a soothing motion.
McKay turned to his computer and began typing furiously, glaring at his screen and berating Sheppard at the same time. "Of course it's on a collision-" McKay broke off when something beeped on his terminal. "Huh," he said, surprised.
"Huh?" Lorne echoed. McKay had the most annoying tendency to act as though everyone could read his mind sometimes.
"It's not on a collision course with Atlantis. Actually it wouldn't even pass in the planet's atmosphere," McKay said, looking at the three of them with bafflement
"Are you completely sure that this asteroid is new to the cluster? It could be a data error, or the sensors not picking it up due to interference?" Carter asked.
"The same people who built the Stargate network in dozens of galaxies built these sensors. What, you trust them to disintegrate you and reintegrate you on a daily basis but you don't trust them to detect a little asteroid?" McKay asked irritably.
"McKay!"
"Yes! Yes, I'm positive. Beyond the unquestionable accuracy of the Ancient sensors the new asteroid's make-up doesn't match the original cluster. There's something strange about it that's like nothing I've ever seen before," McKay replied, on edge.
"What's strange about it?" Sheppard asked.
"I'm sorry, did you miss the part where I clearly said that I've never seen something like this before? Gee, I guess you did, because you're standing here asking stupid questions instead of letting me find out what's going on!" McKay snapped.
Sheppard's back had gone rigid, but he simply stared at McKay, hands folded over his chest. To Lorne's surprise, McKay's glare died and he bowed his head. "I'm sorry, alright? It's just making me nervous, having this weird thing hovering towards us in space," he muttered.
"Good. That's better. Now, if none of the asteroids are on a collision course with us then could it be that the original cluster picked up a stray along the way and we're worrying over nothing?" Sheppard asked, voice calm.
"Yeah, right. Since when is something that has anything to do with us turns out to be nothing?" McKay snorted, and Lorne, Sheppard and Carter all winced. It was too true to be a laughing matter.
"Rodney!" a voice called, and they all turned to see Zelenka hurrying down the stairs that led to the Jumper bay and observation decks. "I have the results you asked for," he gasped breathlessly.
McKay regained his annoyance fairly quickly. "Well, are you going to tell me or do you want me to torture you first?" he asked sarcastically.
Zelenka paid him no mind. "The additional asteroid is made out of a combination of super-heavy elements and Naquadah. I had to calibrate the sensors, but eventually I've been able to determine that it's also hollow inside," Zelenka fixed his glasses on his sweaty nose, blue eyes worried.
"Hollow inside?" Carter echoed. "That can't be!"
"No, it can't. But there's more. Disturbingly enough, the space inside the asteroid is the exact space you'd need to hide a Wraith cruiser," he said, and the silence that enveloped the control room was so complete that Lorne could hear the ocean outside lapping at the city's piers.
"That's absurd!" McKay called, taking the memory card from Zelenka's hand and hooking it into his computer. A minute later he leaned back, face white. "Oh no. He's right!"
"Wait a minute!" Sheppard stepped forward, frowning ominously. "You want to tell me that there's a Wraith cruiser hidden inside an asteroid heading our way? And we never detected it?" he demanded.
McKay and Zelenka looked at each other. "They had to have help getting the asteroid to join the cluster. We just need to go back and find it," Zelenka told McKay.
"Yes, Yes, I'm already on it!" McKay whirled his chair to a different terminal, shooing Chuck along the way, and typed in a few commands. The images on the plasma screen changed from their solar system to their quarter of the galaxy and the asteroids began moving backwards, until…
"Stop it! That's it right there!" Zelenka cried out. "Zoom in," he added, and the image moved to reveal a planet labeled M92-680. "Look. Two weeks ago a Wraith hive ship visited this planet. We've been monitoring it with the deep space sensors, but it seemed like an ordinary culling. It landed and after a few hours it left. But look at the course it took before entering hyper-space. It intersects with the path of the original cluster of asteroids. It must have deployed the fake asteroid right before making the jump," Zelenka explained.
"Thank you, Einstein. The most important thing is this. Even with the most careful of deployments they would still need something to help them align themselves with the original cluster. In space you have no resistance so even the slightest nudge could carry you on indefinitely. They must have had days to fix their position until the cluster reached them, three days ago. And if I'm right…" McKay zoomed in on the lone asteroid that remained on screen a few thousand miles from M92-680 and press a key to filter the image.
The screen turned colorful. The blue colors were the deep space and the absolute zero temperature, Lorne knew, but around the asteroids were tiny crimson dots. "Oh, no," McKay said, voice grave.
"Are those-" Carter began.
"The gas form of super-heavy elements burning. Yes," McKay confirmed.
"What?" Lorne asked, because someone had to. Between Carter, McKay and Zelenka the science-babble could go on forever.
"In order to set the asteroid in motion at the right speed, direction and angle something must have been directing it, but we didn't pick it up because they were obscured from the sensors due to the presence of super-heavy elements. They surround the asteroid like a thin layer of dusty cosmic shroud. Here in the picture they interact with something that changed the temperature around them. In this case it can only be the energy coming off of a rear thruster or some other similar thermal reaction," Zelenka explained.
Lorne felt coldness creeping into him. "So what you're saying is that those red spots are actually-"
"Darts navigating the asteroid into place, yes." Zelenka answered.
"So there really is a Wraith cruiser inside that asteroid," Sheppard stated quietly.
"Yes. Yes, there is," McKay answered cuttingly anyway. "And they didn't learn that trick from the Goa'uld, either," he added.
"No, they learned it from us," Carter said, realization downing.
"What!"
"It makes sense. Think about it, when you had to abandon the last planet Atlantis occupied you maneuvered an asteroid between the city and the Replicators' satellite to shield you from the Replicators' beam. A short time afterwards we headed for an all out attack on the Replicator home world. And we told Todd about our getaway to get him to help us with our plan," she explained.
"You think Todd's behind this?" Sheppard asked, incredulous. Lorne was uneasy with the strange bond of love-hate between Todd and Sheppard, but it was beneficial for both parties and no one asked his opinion anyway.
"Well, maybe not Todd himself, but the Wraith are divided into many small camps and groups, and his crew isn't the most loyal we've ever met, right?" Carter replied.
"While I'm sure it's enjoyable to speculate on who's behind our impending doom this time, are we going to do something about it or not? Because staying alive is something I am personally very fond of!" McKay snapped, panicked.
Somehow the entire situation didn't surprise Lorne. Life wasn't fair. Of course the moment things seemed to be settling down, Atlantis would be in danger. But even so, he was still horrified at the sheer genius behind this current attack. It was unnerving to know that they faced such a smart enemy. A smart enemy decreases your chances of survival.
"Shouldn't a salvo of drones be able to take care of this? You said so yourself, this fake asteroid isn't going to enter our atmosphere," Sheppard asked, already thinking of survival himself.
"I don't think you comprehend just how completely screwed we are here," McKay's voice broke on the words. "When these asteroids will pass our atmosphere it will temporarily become highly ionized. Rocks made out of super-heavy elements burning in the atmosphere will release gases that would change the electro-magnetic balance in our atmosphere and make us temporarily blind. And in temporarily I mean two hours. Right now the drones couldn't reach the asteroids because they would run out of power before reaching their target. And by the time they're in range it'll be too late since we'll be without sensors," McKay explained anxiously.
"Okay, but you said that you know the course of the asteroids. I don't need the damn sensors, just tell me where to shoot!" Sheppard argued.
"And if you miss? Besides, this fake asteroid has darts helping it along. They could move it out of range!" McKay countered, and Sheppard went silent.
"What about the Deadalus?" Lorne asked. "They should already by in Pegasus. They can use an Asgard beam to blow it out of the sky."
"Even if they push their hyper-drive to the brink of explosion they wouldn't make it here in less than three days. We don't have that kind of time," Zelenka explained.
Sheppard had a determined glint in his eyes. "That means that we'll have to take the fight to them," he said.
####
"So, how do we get rid of them?" Sheppard asked once all members of the senior staff, Teyla, Ronon and Stackhouse, head of security, were seated in the conference room.
"Actually that's the easy part," Carter grinned. "See, the Wraith used a Naquadah casing to shield their ship from our sensors, which would've been clever if it wasn't also highly explosive. I'm assuming that this is why they're staying at the outer edge of the cluster. Entering our atmosphere would not only burn away the casing of the ship. Because of the super-heavy elements surrounding the asteroid and the friction with our soon-to-be highly charged ionosphere, they would literally explode!"
"And take a quarter of this planet with them, according to the amount of Naquadah we've measured. Which… uh… you know, isn't a lot in the grand scheme of things, but since it would most likely be our quarter of the planet… well…" McKay's hand waved vaguely in the air at that.
"So we have a time frame," Lorne translated. "How long will it be before the asteroid is in a place that could jeopardize the city if it explodes?" he asked. He'd been doing this for the SGC for long enough to know which questions to ask. Sheppard shot him a questioning look, and he shrugged. This is what you get for working on Naquadah mining operations.
"As a matter of fact, not long," Zelenka said. "Based on the amount of Naquadah in the asteroid's casing it will be just over three hours before the asteroid will reach a place where exploding it will vaporize our atmosphere. We've discovered it in the nick of time, I'm afraid."
Lorne grimaced. Beside him, Sheppard sat straighter.
"Do we even know what they're here for?" Dr. Biro asked suddenly.
"Well, no, but they didn't went through all this trouble simply to give candies to the children, did they?" McKay snapped.
"I don't understand why we can't just raise the shield?" Dr. Keller asked. She looked tired and stressed out, and Lorne couldn't blame her. She had no idea what was happening except that it was really dangerous.
"That was what we were planning on doing before we detected this threat, but we have only one ZedPM and we have no way of knowing what the Wraith are planning. If they manipulate some of the asteroids to collide with the planet, the city will be obliterated instantaneously. Even if we still somehow miraculously manage to survive this then the planet will become unlivable. Mega tsunamis will flood the mainland and create unconceivable instabilities deeper into the ocean, and clouds of dust will cover the face of the planet and prevent the sun from penetrating through. No sun, the temperatures will drop, plants will freeze to death or won't be able to perform photosynthesis, no photosynthesis no oxygen and… well, you get the picture," McKay grimaced at the end of his explanation. Dr. Keller's eyes went so wide it probably hurt.
"So what do we do? And how do we do it?" Sheppard asked, looking at McKay and Carter sitting at the other side of the conference table. He seemed positively disturbed.
"I want a visual confirmation first," Carter said, and sighed. "But it's unlikely that we're mistaken. We're fortunate that the same casing that prevented us from locating the Wraith' subterfuge also hampers their sensors. They won't be able to detect a Jumper coming, and you should be able to get on board the ship, get a Naquadah generator inside and get out relatively easily," Carter was saying.
"Wait, won't the blast cause the asteroids to change their course and head straight for us?" Dr. Keller asked, worried. "You said that the shield-"
"The Mark II Naquadah generator can generate an explosion of one hundred and twenty kilotons. If you add the enhancement the Naquadah casing will provide for us you get really big numbers that should destroy the entire cluster of asteroids. We won't even see them when their remnants will pass inside our atmosphere because they'll be so small," Zelenka explained, like there was nothing to worry about.
But Lorne was translating it into battle plans. It meant that they would need time to get very far away from the ship before detonating the generator and that meant that they couldn't simply leave the generator laying around. It would need to be hidden someplace deep inside the ship so as not to be discovered and neutralized or being sent off.
Sheppard looked at him, probably thinking the same thing.
"How far do we need to be to be safe from the explosion?" Sheppard asked.
"Uh… at least forty-eight miles," McKay answered, grimacing. Sheppard grimaced as well.
"That's far," he said disparagingly. "The Jumper takes twenty minutes to pass such a long distance, even when pushing the engines."
"What does that means?" Dr. Biro asked.
"It means that we need to hide the Naquadah generator somewhere it wouldn't be discovered so that we'd have time to make our escape before blowing it off. It means going inside the ship," Lorne explained heavily.
"How are you going to do that?"
"Dart bay, of course," McKay was beginning to get impatient with the medical doctors asking questions.
"But I thought those cruisers had no dart bays!" Dr. Biro exclaimed finally, not really noticing McKay's anger.
"Cruisers have dart bays. They're small, yes, but still there! They can only host a couple dozens of darts as opposed to the hundred or so of a hive ship. Satisfied?" McKay snapped at Biro.
"I don't see the problem. We go in, we hide the generator, we go out," Ronon shrugged. "We've done this before."
"Yes, and none of those times I remember fondly," McKay muttered plaintively.
Carter cleared her throat. "You need to hide the device here," she brought up schematics for a Wraith cruiser on her tablet and pointed to a ventilation shaft. "It's a secondary shaft of the life support system," she tapped her computer tablet and the schematics zoomed in. "The life support system of a cruiser is located here," she pointed at a small room, "and it vents the oxygen through that main shaft to this intersection here," she pointed at what seemed like a big web of pipes. "From there each shaft vents oxygen to another part of the cruiser. If you put the generator in one of those it wouldn't be so obvious and it'll buy you the time you need to fly to a safe distance," she concluded.
"Except that this is in the dead middle of the ship," Lorne pointed out.
"There's another secondary shaft a short distance from the dart bay," Carter pointed at another shaft.
"Sounds like a plan to me!" Sheppard said, satisfied. "When do we leave?"
"As soon as humanly possible," McKay replied. "Even as it is we have fifty minutes of flight by Jumper just getting to the asteroid and our window is getting frightfully small," he said.
"So you have fifty minutes there, twenty minutes to reach a safe distance and an hour and twenty minutes to enter, hide the device and get out. I don't know what's going to happen so Drs. Keller and Biro, I want you to prepare the infirmary for a multiple casualty event just in case," Carter began distributing orders.
"Also, once the asteroid is destroyed all of the other asteroids will be destroyed as well and won't cause our atmosphere to become ionized, but we'll still be without the Ancient sensors. We can't disable them since they're all powered by the ZPM. Even they can't stand such a massive electro-magnetic pulse, and the residual radiation will overload them temporarily.
"This means that we need to get Jumpers in the air. I want Jumpers all around the city. If we're going to be temporarily blind then we'll need an alternate set of eyes. Sergeant, I want you on it. Gather teams of pilots and co-pilots and spread them out," Carter addressed Stackhouse.
"Yes, Ma'am."
"Radek, you're the teams' contact here in Atlantis. Right now I want you to try and hail the Deadalus and inform them of our situation. Once you're done, start uploading the cruiser's schematics onto the life signs detectors. Rodney, go get the generator ready. John, have your men ready to go in fifteen minutes. This is a job for a small strike team so take Rivers and Major Lorne's team and go in two Jumpers. Let's go, people," Carter concluded, and people got up and scurried away to their respective tasks, piling out of the conference room.
"Sergeant," Sheppard called Stackhouse over the commotion. Stackhouse turned to him with an attentive expression.
"Yes, sir?"
"Round Miller, Williams, Rivers and Hansen and inform them to be ready and wait at the Jumper bay in ten minutes," Sheppard ordered.
"Yes, sir," Stackhouse acknowledged and hurried away to do as he was told.
Lorne began making his way to the transporter and to the armory. He needed to gear up.
He smiled ruefully. The evening began so nicely, but somehow that seemed light years away into the past. Sheppard's kiss, Sheppard's hands combing through his hair, the taste of American beer, it all felt faded off a little. All that remained was the immediate threat and the fact that they needed to fight it. Lack of sleep, plans, none of it mattered. This was what he was in Atlantis for. Later they would pick up where they left off, but Lorne knew and acknowledged to himself that there might not be a later. It made a knot form in his stomach.
Sheppard caught up with him and they walked in silence to the transporter, faces set and grim. When they entered the transporter Sheppard hit the console and got the door closed.
As soon as the door was completely shut Sheppard grabbed Lorne's shirt and pressed him against the wall, pinning him down with his body, lips devouring Lorne's mouth with savage force.
Lorne returned the kiss with the same brutal force that it was given. He knew that Sheppard would do that, knew it because this was what he wanted to do as well. And if Sheppard wouldn't have done that, Lorne would've.
This time Lorne wasn't content with allowing Sheppard to leisurely explore his mouth. He kissed back, fought to dominate the kiss and to breach into Sheppard's mouth, and allowed his hands to roam from Sheppard's ass and thighs up his back and into his hair. He wanted to taste and feel as much of Sheppard as he could in the short time they had, and he would be damned if he wouldn't make it memorable for Sheppard as well.
They parted with the same abruptness that got them close, bodies still flushed together, breathing heavily against each other and looking at each other with determination in their eyes.
"We have some unfinished business, Evan. Don't forget that," Sheppard warned, his hand squeezing warm and reassuring where it rested against Lorne's pulse point and neck.
"Yes," Lorne admitted, short of breath. "Yes, we do," he said and stole one last peck from Sheppard's bruised and red lips. They stepped back and Lorne pressed the dot that would take them to the armory.
When they strapped on their equipment in silence Lorne wondered why the Wraith couldn't pick out any other day but today to try and destroy Atlantis.
####
"I'm telling you, there's something fishy going on!" Williams said from his seat behind Lorne.
"Yeah, yeah. We heard all about it in length, Williams," Miller, who occupied the co-pilot's seat, rolled his eyes. "Had whole five damn minutes to listen to you talking at the speed of light," he muttered.
"I didn't, so tell me," Lorne said, throwing Williams a smile. They were already fifteen minutes into the flight and other than going over the mission plans and intel they had no real chance to talk amongst themselves.
"Oh, please don't, sir," Hansen, sitting across from Williams, buried his face in his hands.
"Easy, Hansen. Just hum to yourself and let Williams do the talking, will you?" Lorne said, placating. Missions such as these were stressful, Lorne knew. There wasn't a single time in the history of the expedition when someone went into a Wraith stronghold and came out unscathed.
The Wraith were smart. Not smart enough to defeat the Ancients – that they did with greater numbers – but then no one on Atlantis, not even McKay, was as smart as the Ancients. Everyone was acutely aware of that but being soldiers and men none of his teammates allowed themselves to break and reveal their discomfort or fear. So Lorne was aware of the importance of placating his men and channeling their energy and nervousness to harmless things like small talk and friendly banter.
"All I'm saying is that it's strange, don't you think?" Williams said passionately. "We're dealing with one cruiser. The Wraith know our powers, they know we can handle bigger threats than this. So why send only one cruiser to attack us?"
Lorne grinned. "Feeling insulted, Williams?" he teased. Hansen burst out laughing, and even Miller cracked a smile.
"No," Williams replied, undaunted. "I'm just saying that it's weird. It's not like we have a reputation for being stupid."
"Williams, we discovered it by accident. If it wasn't for McKay's paranoia he would never have checked that idiot's readings and we would never have found out about it. As a matter of fact, at first we were merely speculating. I think the Wraith counted on us never finding out until it would be too late. If we hadn't discovered it when we did, the asteroids would pass our atmosphere, turn us blind for two hours, and they would've been free to do who-knows-what. Also, don't forget that they know the Deadalus won't be able to come to our rescue," Lorne explained.
Williams sighed, thinking this over. "Still, don't you find it strange that even with us completely blind they sent only one cruiser? I mean, there's no other Wraith activity in the area that the deep space sensors picked up, right?" he insisted.
"Well, no. So they have no backup," Lorne agreed. It did seem a bit strange, mainly because the Wraith's strategy usually depended on their ability to overrun their enemies. "But it could also be an underling of Todd who defected and is now trying to secure himself power and a new feeding ground by taking over Atlantis. They may not have anyone else to come to their aid," Lorne said. That was what Zelenka had speculated at some point.
"And because he's from Todd's ranks he knows the location of Atlantis, the fact that the Deadalus is too far away and that there's going to be a meteor shower that would leave us blind?" Williams asked defiantly.
"What are you saying, Williams!" Hansen snapped.
"All I'm saying is that there's too much coincidence. Those are not things Todd could know, and I don't think that he would have told any of his underlings about Atlantis. He needs us as much as we need him!"
"So!" Hansen's anger, Lorne knew, was partly due to having been forced to rely on a Wraith too many times.
"So this information is too sensitive. Things only someone from the inside would know!" Williams retorted.
"Are you suggesting that we have a spy in Atlantis?" Miller asked angrily.
"It doesn't necessarily have to be a spy. It could also be Michael," Williams surprised Lorne by saying.
"Well, Michael's dead, and besides what does he have to look for in Atlantis? He was all busy creating his super-army, not finding the new, rich feeding ground. So let's put a stop to this discussion, shall we?" Lorne ended the discussion with a firm tone.
"Yes, sir," Williams said morosely. Miller, on the other hand, was sending Lorne a broad smile.
"Don't you start gloating, Miller," Lorne mock threatened.
"It wasn't this, sir. It was just that you were depressed lately. It's nice to see you happy again," Miller surprised him. Lorne had no idea that his mood was that bad, or that it was that poorly concealed.
"Thank you, Lieutenant," Lorne smiled at Miller both to thank him and to make it clear that no further questions will be asked regarding this. "We're getting closer. Everyone's sure they know what to do, right?"
