CHAPTER 58 – ON WHAT SIDE OF THE BATTLE LINES?

John watched as Lorne led her away, glad that she had someone with her... Lorne, not so much. He had seen by the look his junior officer had given him that he did not agree with his handling of this woman and did not want to draw battle lines with this one. Lorne did not know the full story and was the sort that would fight any battle on behalf of an aggrieved woman – that was his knight in shining armour nature. Good in some ways as it meant Gina was in good hands, bad in others. Sheppard would need to have a talk with the Major.

He returned to the room where Kate continued to probe Carlie's mind. He wasn't immune to the distress he saw on ers face, even if Gina had accused him of just that. Hell, this was just a little girl and he had already begun to form some sort of bond with her. But he was able to step back just a little and see the bigger picture. There was something buried deep in her mind, and it was this missing information that was causing him concern. Using a child was a capital offence in his eyes, and if he found proof that this had been done, then he would go after those people with murder on his mind. But they had to find out what was in her mind. Step one. Step two? Try and soften the blow when he extricated Gina from Lorne's hands. It was not shaping up to be a good day. No sirree.

His reflexes kicked in when Carlie arched off the couch and he caught her in his arms, trying to take some of the pressure from her small body. He felt like the worst sort of child abuser. Gina had no idea what this was doing to him, or the two women in the room. Sam had to turn away at the pain she saw in his eyes. Some decisions were not the easiest to make.

"We're getting deeper John, Sam. This is new territory for me and I have to admit, I'm not comfortable going this far with an adult. But a child? It doesn't seem right. But I'll finish what we started and I'll plant something in there that allows her no memories of what we have just done to her. I won't have her look at me like a monster when she comes out." Kate ran a hand over her face and John saw the toll this was taking on her as well. It appeared they would all walk about with scars of some sort from this one.

"It hurts!" Her terrified voice made John squeeze his eyes shut and hold her tightly against him, the only thing he could do to help her.

"I know sweetheart, and I'm so sorry for doing this to you. I wish there was another way. We think some bad people put something nasty inside you, something that would hurt the people here in Atlantis. We just need to find what it is."

"They want Gina. They want my mother!" She screamed the words now and John's eyes opened in shock and he pulled back slightly from her to look down into wide blue eyes that did not comprehend.

"Why Carlie? Why do they want her?"

Her eyes were unfocused and at least there didn't seem to be pain in them anymore and for that he was grateful. She spoke, and her voice was unemotional, and seemed far older than that of a six year old. He did not see the little girl anymore, something else was driving her now.

"They want the child. It will have the knowledge they need and the gene which is missing from our lineage. In our world."

John shook his head in consternation, aware that Sam had moved closer and was standing right behind him now. "I don't understand Carlie. From the beginning, you need to tell us everything."

"I don't know everything. They only allowed me so much knowledge. I am still just a child in my life, but what I told you was true. My mother and father are both gone. I was taken into care by a team of medical people who are conducting experiments on some of our people. We are all being trained to perform certain tasks. My task was to bring back Gina. They knew when she arrived, they had been waiting for a shift in the portal that would signify that someone of the required genetic makeup would arrive. But it is not Gina they want. They want her child. Your child." She looked at John when she said this and he reached out absently to stroke her hair back from her face.

"We don't have a child Carlie.. not yet anyway."

Carlies's eyes shuttered briefly as she attempted to push back whatever was controlling her. "You will John, one day. It will be a child of two time lines from your world, and more than that – it is the lineage of an ascended being. We do not have the ancient gene in my world. It has been bred out and the people in power seek to introduce it again. But they want only the strongest to continue this lineage. The child of an ascended being bonded to a strong carrier of the ancient gene – the child from this union will have genetic memory of two time lines and much more."

John looked into her eyes and felt reality blossom out of control and was glad that Gina was not in the room to hear this. To see the voice of a six year speak of things that she should have had no understanding of. He wished himself, that they had never found her. Never heard what the people from her dimension, her world wanted to do.

"How do you get through to this world Carlie. You understand don't you, that we have to protect ourselves, close off this doorway. Permanently. There's a reason why our two people should not mix."

Sam had taken over the questioning, seeing that John was having trouble processing what the little girl had imparted.

"There are two such doorways. One here in your city – but this is a small one and a person cannot fit through. Only small objects. We have tried but not been able to widen it. The one on your mainland is the only active one that we can use. At the moment it is small – an adult sized person would struggle to get through it."

"Which is why they chose to train a child... bastards!" John ground this last one out, angered beyond belief and wanting desperately to hit out at something, anything. His hand curled into a fist and he turned and lowered his head against the back of the couch, needing to calm himself before he spoke again.

"John, please... don't be angry. I did what I was trained to do, but when I met Carlie and you... it is not clear to me anymore. She is my mother in my world, or was... before she left. I don't remember my father, but I feel a connection with you, so perhaps... you were my father. That much is the truth. When I saw you again, standing near the field... I remembered and wished desperately that I didn't have to go back. That I could just stay here with you. I had decided... that I wouldn't do what they asked me to do. Wouldn't bring Gina back."

"Damn it Sam – I don't know what to do? Carlie – why is it you can speak the way you do? My mind is spinning in circles. How old are you really?"

"I am just as you see me. But the experiments that they performed? My particular one included advanced mental acuity. Extremely advanced. Our world and yours are almost the same in most respects. Many of the same people are there. There are some differences... in advances, in technology. Some good, some bad. We appear to live a more simple lifestyle but it is similar in advancement to here. The missing ancient gene is the one thing that drives them at the moment and they have been trying unsuccessfully to manufacture it artificially. They are not bad people, really – when Gina came through … their plans changed and they started to do things for the wrong reasons. Greed."

"Ahh, mankind is the same in any dimension then. Sam? What do we do? You're effectively commander here now, this is your call. How do we close that portal, so that they stay on their side and continue doing whatever the hell it is they do over there?"

"That John, is as far as Rodney got. Perhaps, buried in Rodney's notes, is the information required for me to get further into the dimensional research. I'll pick up his notes and get back into it, but I want Gina's help. She has more insight into this than you realise, likely something passed down inadvertantly from her father and other members of her family. I think we need to get our heads together, and finish what Rodney started."

"How did he know Sam? How did he know it would be a security risk? Because in the end, even after his own arrogance asserted itself in wanting to exist in two dimensions – he began to understand, didn't it? That two dimensions needed to be kept separate for a reason?"

"I have a theory about that one John. He found some notes that an ancient had left behind and chosen not to store in the data base for central collection, but had kept in a lab that Rodney frequented. It had been about the dimensional portals and this particular ancient had encountered one of the people from the other side – his own counterpart. He had not liked what he saw and after speaking to him at great length, the two of them had agreed that the dimensional portal must never be allowed to be kept open. It was potentially dangerous. There is instruction and the semblance of ideas in the ancient's notes, but it appears he was interupted before he could even make sufficient headway. Rodney had begun by playing around with it really, as a sort of hobby – but he had begun to notice certain things... the missing objects … and this had led him to believe that if it were to open fully, there was the possibility that base security could be compromised."

"Why the hell didn't he tell us this as soon as he discovered it?" John had pushed himself off the couch now, his head was aching and he had no desire to attempt to process any further information.

"Arrogance John, simple arrogance. He thought he could work it all out himself and present us with a complete package of what went wrong, and the correct way to fix it. Rodney was about arrogance more often than not – and in this case, he has shown irresponsibility in not passing on what he had discovered. We now have a potentially dangerous situation, one that perhaps, could have been avoided had we known about it earlier."

John turned back to Kate who had been looking at them all expectantly. "Bring her out Kate, gently. She's to have no knowledge of what we just discussed. The experiments they did on her – obviously that super intelligence is hidden away and can only be accessed as we did, or through another means that they work with. For all intents and purposes, if she is not 'accessed', then she is exactly as we see her – a six year old year who has lost her parents. Who, incidentally, in her world, were Gina and likely myself."

"Quite a conundrum John, and a messy one at that. I'll bring her out and she should be exactly as she was before she went in. I may push those memories down a little deeper, so it is even harder to access them, in case they are triggered remotely from wherever she comes from."

"And just for the record Sam?" John waited until she had turned her blue eyes toward him. "She's not going back. I'll fight tooth and nail to keep her here – for myself, for her, and for Gina. That's the least we can do for her. Give her the life she should have had. With us."

"I can't promise anything John. This is a big one and I need to bring in some advice in the form of a General... get my drift? I can't make this call on my own. I'll get more than my hand slapped. But Jack's a good man, and he's seen a lot in his career, so I think I know how to get around him on this one. But she'll need to be constantly monitored to make sure that those memories of hers stay firmed pushed down, because if they were to come to the surface, we don't know really, what her mandate is. She may be required to get Gina there under any circumstances, and if those memories flip their switches by remote... Gina will be in danger whenever she is around her. And I'm sure you don't want that..."

John shook his head, trapped now between a rock and a hard place. And that other bit of information that was swirling dangerously around in his head. Another child... for Gina and I...