Ace In The Hole
Chapter 55
"What the hell as happened?" Sheppard asks as he hurriedly exits the gate, his eyes instantly locking with Lorne's.
"From what we've been told, the Apollo had just finished a routine patrol and was on its way back home when they lost all contact with the ship, officially it has been classified as tome-stoned " Lorne says reading the report off the pad in his hand.
"Tome-stoned? What the hell is that supposed to mean?"
"Honestly" Lorne sighs "I'm not entirely sure"
"It means they have lost all contact with the ship to the point were even the Apollo's emergency transponder is no longer transmitting" McKay says has he enters the control room.
"So why don't they just say that?" Sheppard grumbles causing a few eves droppers in the control room to snicker earning themselves a glare in the process "So because of that they are recalling the entire task force? Doesn't that seem a little extreme?"
"What ever is going on, its obviously enough to have spooked them" McKay says glancing up from the screen he has readily commandeered "I'm guessing that they may already know who is behind it or at least have a good idea, and they know its probably gonna be bad"
Sheppard glances up and smiles at Teyla and Ronan as they come up the stairs to join them in the control room.
"I'm guessing that you have already heard the news"
"I have" Teyla says something obviously on her mind
"What?"
"It is nothing"
"Teyla?"
"You may as well tell him" Ronan grunts nudging her arm.
"Tell me what?"
"It's nothing"
"She's pissed" Ronan smirks causing Teyla to glare at him in obvious annoyance.
"About what?" Sheppard asks a frown forming on his brow
"Really, it is nothing" Teyla sighs as she quickly realizes that she has no option but to voice her concerns thanks to Ronan "Its just that, even though what has happened is very troublesome and of course needs to be investigated, I am a little annoyed that Commander O'Neill has recalled the task force without any thought to what is happening here in Pegasus"
"Commander O'Neill?" Sheppard glances at McKay who just shrugs
"Supreme Commander won out" McKay chuckles.
Sheppard just shakes his head before returning to his conversation "Teyla the 304's belong to Earth"
"Yes and they were stationed here in exchange for Avalon going to Earth, does this mean that Earth is now going to return Avalon to Pegasus now?"
"Course not" Sheppard sighs
"It just seems a little unfair that at the first sign of danger Atlantis and Pegasus as a whole is once more left to fend for itself"
"You know this was a whole looks good on paper deal right?"
"It may have been in the beginning" McKay says finally looking up and stopping what he was doing.
"For once though it pains me to admit it, I have to agree with Dr McKay sir" Lorne adds with a smile.
"The Alliance signed its 157th member world yesterday, unlike back in the Milky Way, there is hardly any real divisions here in Pegasus, there's no religious freaks to contend with..."
"No Unas hiding in caves" Lorne adds with a shrug
"No ones really clambering to steal our technology, well maybe the Gennii but even so" McKay ponders
"Look I get it guys" Sheppard sighs "Atlantis is my home as well you know, and I'm proud of what we have accomplished in such a sort space of time" He smiles and winks at Lorne.
"Then maybe you should let Earth know that we are not exactly happy" Ronan shrugs before leaving the others to ponder.
"Colonel Sheppard" a tall red haired woman standing next to Elizabeth offers her hand to the Colonel no sooner than they have stepped through the gate into Avalon.
"Ma'am" Sheppard nods obviously a little confused
"And you must be Teyla Emmagen"
"President Emmagen, now I believe?" Elizabeth adds trying to discreetly smooth over the error.
"Sorry" the blond woman smiles but there is no humor in her eyes.
"I'm sorry and you are?" Sheppard butts in "It's just we're here to meet with Mr Woolsey"
" Rebecca Danvers, newly appointed head of the Tau'ri Intelligence Agency and I'm sorry but a meeting with Richard Woolsey is no longer possible" She sighs and her whole demeanor changes "I'm afraid I have to inform you that Mr Woolsey is dead Colonel" Sheppard stiffens at the unexpected news, much as he may have liked to have denied the fact, he had begun to consider Richard a good friend.
"How?"
"Please" She points to the briefing room "this way" the four quickly make their way up the stairs and no soon than they enter the room the heavy doors close behind them for privacy.
"Richard had an early meeting with President Hayes yesterday morning, and he had decided whilst he was in D.C. he would use the opportunity to pay a visit to an old business associate before heading back to his beam out sight at the Pentagon" Danvers shakes her head "When he was late returning I immediately dispatched a T.I.A team to investigate"
"Didn't he take a personal security detail with him?" Sheppard grimaces .
"Of course, but they were all discovered dead, along with Mr and Mrs Jensen, preliminary reports are that they were executed with single gun shot to the head"
"Jesus Christ"
"Naturally the press is all over this, Commander O'Neill is currently in a meeting with General Landry and Commander Caldwell" She sighs suddenly deflating "The T.I.A Has only been up and running six days and we have already lost a ship and had an assassination on home turf, I'm beginning to wish I never took the damn job, running Canadian Intelligence was a lot less stressful that's for sure"
"All Tau'ri forces are on high alert at the moment" Elizabeth says "The Hammond, and the Churchill are searching the area that the Apollo went missing but so far..."
"Are there any clues to who is responsible?" Teyla says her annoyance at the situation finally subsiding.
"No I'm afraid not, but Commander O'Neill did say he had his suspicions"
"And Mr Woolsey's killers?" Teyla asks with a much softer tone
"No leads as of yet but you can be assured we will catch who ever is responsible, you can count on that"
A little over an hour later a rather weary looking O'Neill finally walks into the control room with General Landry by his side.
"Sir, Sir" Sheppard acknowledges them both.
"Sheppard, look I probably have a good idea as to why you're here and..." O'Neill starts but Landry butts in.
"I gave the order for the task force to return to Earth, I'm sorry Teyla but the civilian head of our organisation has just been assassinated on our own soil and a ship has been lost maybe even captured and now quite probably in enemy hands as we speak"
"If the Apollo has been captured then the enemy knows our strengths and our weaknesses" Sheppard ascertains "They'd have access to our entire knowledge base"
"Precisely, the five modified 304's stationed in Pegasus are way in front of the Apollo technologically speaking because of the modified shield grid and Lantian lance weapon"
"Dr Lees and his crew of geek's have assured me that the new shield crystals are almost ready and we had already scheduled work to begin on upgrading the rest of the fleet by the middle of next month" O'Neill sighs "But until then I'm afraid we need those ships here"
"I understand you concerns but you have once again you have taken action without even consulting us" Teyla says obviously annoyed.
"Excuse me?" Landry glares.
"Teyla" Sheppard tries to calm her.
"No offence Miss Emmagan but your people are only where they are because of Earth"
"Excuse me!"
"Our people have been fighting and dying to keep the people in Pegasus safe from the Wraith for a damn long time now!" Landry growls
"And for that we are grateful" Teyla glares back at Landry "But it seems that rather than seeing us as the allies you claim us to be we are merely to be a subservient colony of Earth"
"That's not true" O'Neill sighs
"And that is merely the tip of the ice berg so to speak"
"What the hell's that supposed to mean?" Landry says aggravation clearly present in his tone.
"From what I have been told, It would seem that almost all of the people that applied to come to Atlantis last month have suddenly inexplicably received job offers from the Tau'ri, out of 2000 people that were accepted to positions in Atlantis only three engineers actually came through to us" Teyla says causing Sheppard to start rubbing the back of his neck uncomfortable at the direction that the conversation is suddenly going in "And it seems that they only came at the personal request of Alec Coulson"
"The SGC has nothing to do with that" Landry glares
"Perhaps, but I am also informed that several of our current scientists have also been offered high figures salaries to return to Earth!" Teyla rages.
"I didn't know that" Sheppard asks visibly stunned.
"Rodney has said that many on his team have been approached with offers"
"Earth's poaching our people? And why the hell didn't he tell me?" Sheppard frowns
"No! We are definitely not poaching people, well not that I know of" O'Neill sighs
"It is starting to seem to many that this alliance is a little one way" Teyla says earning yet another glare off Landey
"Now hang on! Earth gave up its claim on Atlantis, and we haven't even pushed you for control of the Ancient ship yards, or the ZPM charging station" Landry barks.
"Yet" says Sheppard
"Guys you may want to take this down a peg or two" Elizabeth says butting into the conversation no sooner than she enters the room.
"Sorry Elizabeth but I'm starting to think that maybe Teyla has a point"
"With all due respect Teyla there are around 7 billion people on Earth alone and billions more in the Milky Way as a whole" a small smirk flits across Landrys face "Your little alliance may include over a hundred worlds, but that's still only a handful of people half of which still live in caves" a smug grin forms on his face when as he sees Teyla storm out of the room.
"A little harsh" O'Neill sighs rubbing his brow
"Well she needs to show a little more respect, the SGC saved their damn asses time and time again if it wasn't for us the city would have been destroyed ages ago, who the hell does she think she is throwing her demands around like that?"
"Oh... only the democratically elected leader of 157 worlds but I guess that doesn't count for much nowadays" Sheppard says pointedly as he gets up to leave the room to go after her.
Light years away the silence of space is torn apart as the Hammond drops out of hyperspace no sooner than the vessel has arrived it disappears from sight within mere seconds.
"Ship is cloaked and all systems are in the green ma'am" Carter smiles at the young officer sat next to her before returning her searching stare towards open space in front of her ship
"Begin a sweep of the system maintain search pat..."
"Commander" her attention is immediately snapped to the rear of the bridge.
"I don't think that's going to be necessary, I'm picking up a debris cloud bearing 321 mark 17 range less than 700 miles"
"How do we know its our ship?" Sam is up out of her chair and running through the sensor data herself within seconds.
"The proportion of elements are correct but the cloud is almost 400 miles across" The young officer says pointing to the display for Carter to take a look herself.
"The only way the debris would be so distributed is if the ships main power core itself exploded" Carter sighs and slumps into her seat "Helm take us in closer, and Jones contact the Churchill tell them we think we may have found her"