Elizabeth raced to the central tower following the call she received on the radio. Exiting the transporter nearest the gateroom, she ran up the stairs to see that Zelenka was already there, checking through systems and discussing their status with the other personnel.
"Report."
"It appears that they are in a hyperspace halt right now. The Czech pushed his glasses up on his face. Colonel Sheppard arrived out of breath, with Ro chasing after him.
"How far away is the Deadalus?" Asked the Colonel.
"She is on her return journey to the Milky Way. Five days travel at least."
"And the hives will get here...?"
"Twenty four, maybe twenty six hours tops. But I am afraid that we have bigger problem."
"What could be bigger than three hive ships?"
"We cannot cloak."
"Why not?"
"Crystals overloaded during testing last month."
"Can you fix it?"
"Not quickly. Rodney knew system like back of hand. I do not believe it could be done in time we have. Another problem is ZPM. It is already one third depleted after last Wraith attack. Also we have difficulty with control chair and drones. Power to chair is unstable and we do not have many drones. Maybe three, four hundred."
Elizabeth and Sheppard exchanged glances. The siege on Atlantis wasn't exactly easy, even with the support of Colonel Caldwell and his crew.
"Radek, bottom line this for me." Elizabeth needed to hear the bad news all at once.
"If Wraith attack Atlantis, we have couple hours before shield fail and assuming chair work, we do not have enough drones to destroy all ships."
Elizabeth leant her elbows on the console in front of her, with her head in her hands.
"If we tied the chair directly into one of the naqueda generators?"
"Might work, but we have run out of drones."
"What about back on 282?" Sheppard snapped his fingers like McKay used to. "That outpost that Ro showed us looked like it had a full compliment."
"How many are we talking about Colonel?"
"Tens of thousands Elizabeth."
"In your report you said that it took you nearly an hour to get there through rough terrain."
"Elizabeth? John?" Ro had been listening to the conversation. His voice was soft, but clear as the adults looked at him. He paused as he used certain words that he had heard used by the people of Atlantis "I can control the power of the Ancestors. I could cause the... drones to move towards the... gate. I could bid them to sleep. Then your people could transport them back here?"
Sheppard nodded as he understood what the boy meant. "You'll fly them to the gate and then deactivate them?" The boy nodded. The Colonel turned to Zelenka.
"Is there any way that we could get drones from the gateroom to the storage bay?"
"Possibly." The scientist thought for a moment, then exclaimed in Czech. "Yes. If we open service hatch in tower, we could rig up a... a... how do you say it... slide to get them down into bay. Then very easy to load into racks." They looked to Elizabeth who now had an unlikely, but possible plan of action.
"Okay. Sheppard, take your team and a squad of marines with Ro and go. Radek, set up the slide, then use everyone you can to get the chair working. If you can, see if you can find another way to get the cloak working. I'll go tell Carson to prepare for the worst." An amusing thought occurred to her. "Maybe he has this in the scenarios he's been working on for months. Go people."
Everyone had gotten to work quickly. Time really was of the essence with what they were facing. Sheppard had taken Ro back to his planet, where he left him with Ronan to take back to the outpost. Once Ro had explained that the Wraith were endangering Atlantis, a large number of villagers had joined Sheppard by the gate to help transport the drones back to Atlantis. The sight of a few thousand drones streaking across the sky was breathtaking, as they danced their way from beyond the mountain range towards the gate. As they closed in, they formed a ring, almost orbiting above the stargate. A couple of dozen at a time, the drones slowly moved out of the sky, their glow disappearing, before landing neatly on the ground safely. With the help from the village, it took less than an hour to transport all of the drones back to Atlantis. Sheppard sent the marines back through while waiting with Teyla by the stargate. Several villagers bid them good fortune as they returned to their homes. Eventually, they spotted Ro being half carried by Ronan back to the stargate. Ronan told Colonel Sheppard how impressive it was to watch Ro control the drones, but it had tired the boy out.
Back on Atlantis, all of the military personnel had been drafted into moving drones into the storage racks, which was moving quickly. The scientists were all working hard to get the chair to work with a few attempting to fix the cloak. Anyone who was not otherwise occupied had been drafted into service, to help in preparations to defend the city. Even Doctor Beckett was being utilised by Zelenka to test the chair, despite his protests. Their successes were limited unfortunately. While they had successfully restocked the drone arsenal, they were having less success with the control chair, even after Sheppard returned. Hours later, the senior staff had all gathered in the briefing room.
"So, where do we stand?" Elizabeth asked the assembled group. Sheppard spoke up first.
"The drones and shield are ready to go, but the chair and cloak are another matter."
"The generator appears to be interfaced with the chair correctly, but somehow it is still inactive." Radek said. "We hope to have it ready to go before, you, crunch time. The cloak is still a no go. We have patched in puddle jumper, but again, interface is still fried."
"So we're still going to be relying on the shield. How long will it hold?"
"Best guess is two, maybe three hours if attack is constant."
"And if it fails?"
"We'll be ready to give them with everything we've got."
While Ronan was accurate in terms of the preparations that had been made, the mood was sombre in the room at best. Without the chair working, or more power available to the shield, they wouldn't last very long against the odds they were facing. The silence was broken by a voice from the control room.
"Doctor Weir, the Wraith ships have just dropped out of hyperspace."
"Dammit, we're out of time. Defence positions people"
Everyone raced out of the room, with Sheppard following Elizabeth to the control room.
"I thought we still had a couple of hours before they got here."
"I'm sorry sir, but our estimates were off. They'll be in range to release darts and open fire any moment now."
A shudder rocked the control room as the shield began to be bombarded by weapons fire from orbit.
"Colonel, get to the chair. Do everything you can."
Sheppard nodded and raced out of the room. Military men and women were rushing through the corridors to get to defensive positions. Every minute or so, a shudder rocked the city, as Darts began suicide runs against the shield, hoping to make it weaken quickly. Sheppard reached the room and sat down in the chair, which flickered to life briefly before going dark again.
"Dammit!"
"John?"
Sheppard looked up to see Ro, holding onto the door frame, to prevent himself from falling over.
"You should be in the infirmary with your mother Ro!"
"I have to help John!"
"Help how?"
Ro rushed to the chair, grabbing it for balance. "I will use my gift. I will help save you!"
"I can't let you do that."
"We have little options John. I can make this work!" Sheppard looked into the boy's eyes. He could see the determination on the boy's face, but it was what he said next that broke him.
"Trust me John."
In that brief moment, Sheppard was back at Doronda, but the roles were reversed this time and he was the one that wouldn't back down. He knew he couldn't do that, it would be betraying Rodney and everything he had worked for. Slowly standing up, he grabbed Ro's arm and helped him onto the chair. Instantly, the chair light up underneath him and a hologram of the city and its attackers in orbit appeared. The boys' eyes closed as he concentrated.
From various parts of the city, thousands of bright lights emerged from the outer edges of the piers and they flew into orbit. The drones ripped through the hive ships gracefully, as if they were sea creatures jumping above and below the surface. Within minutes, the Wraith vessels had been critically damaged enough for them to explode.
The control room was in awe of what they were seeing, both out of the windows and on sensors. Just as quickly as the attack on Atlantis had started, it ended. But they were alive. The happiness at surviving was not matched back in the chair room. Sheppard saw the hologram fade from above his head. He looked down at Ro, who was now slumping slightly in the chair. Picking up the boy's hand, he shook it gently, trying the get the boy to respond.
"Colonel Sheppard, you did it. It's over."
"You shouldn't thank me Elizabeth, it wasn't me. I need a medical team down here immediately. Sheppard Out" He carefully and gently shook the boys shoulder. "Ro? Are you okay buddy?"
Ro opened one eye part way and breathlessly responded. "Did it work?"
"It did buddy. It did."
Ro nodded, a slight smile on his face as his eye closed again.
"I didn't fail... I did it..."
Sheppard held onto the boy as he slipped into unconsciousness. The boy who had seen Atlantis and her people in his dreams had given his all to save the city and won.
