Chapter Fourteen – Coming Forward

The four Alpha team members that Sha had ordered to go with Teyla and Lani were extremely competent and skilled as officers. They trusted Teyla to go ahead with the life signs detector while they followed, one shadowing Teyla, two carrying Sheppard while the last one brought up the rear and had their six.

Even though Teyla felt safe with the team that had been hastily put together, she still wished she had her own team beside her. She shuddered involuntarily at the sight of John's blood on her hands as she glanced at the life signs detector. She was amazed he was still with them after what he'd been through. Teyla was no fool though, and she knew that things could easily go wrong. Besides, Lani Nadim was no miracle worker even though she was highly competent. She didn't know how to operate Lantean equipment, the infirmary was unclean and several vital functions appeared to be nonworking.

Teyla was brought out of her gloomy musings as dots appeared on the small screen before her. She cautioned the team surrounding her and held up her hand to halt them.

OOOOOO

Rounding a corner, Rackie was stonewalled by a large and muscular man carrying a rifle. He slammed into the ground hard and gritted his teeth as he heard the sound of a gun being aimed and unsecured.

"Get up!" A stern voice commanded.

Rackie carefully wiped the blood from his lip and stared at the man he'd done his best to avoid ever since John Sheppard had escaped Amni Lak's clutches – Meren Kal.

"I had my doubts about you before, now I know you aren't a member of the resistance," Kal seethed angrily. "Who are you really?"

"Listen, Kal," Rackie wheezed as he gingerly rose, using the wall for support, ignoring the weapon pointed at him by a resistance member standing next to Meren. "This isn't the time or the place-"

Kal abruptly ended his statement by backhanding him. "You gave us away to Katan's forces!" He shouted. "You brought them upon us, you let them take Sheppard."

"I didn't let them take anyone," Rackie returned in a low voice, but he didn't make a move to get up from the floor. "Katan found you all by himself."

"He has no means to do so," Kal returned evenly. "It was you and that naïve doctor. I cautioned Lak about it, but he chose not to listen."

"Katan has more means than you realize," Rackie returned angrily. "As for M.E Tori – what he does stands for him. I had nothing to do with it. However, you are right about one thing; I'm not a member of the resistance."

The renowned scientist from the Inner Circle smiled evilly, yet triumphantly. "Congratulations for infiltrating our ranks. Still, Katan can't save you now. No one can. The only thing I regret is that I didn't place you in custody alongside Ro Chuk."

"I'm not the enemy and neither was Ro," Rackie returned in a low voice. "Those beings on the surface are. It is them we must fight."

"Tell me, I'm curious. What is Sheppard really?" Kal questioned. "Why could he operate the equipment from the museum?"

Rackie chuckled bitterly as he finally picked himself up from the floor. "He's the link between what has been and what is to come," he returned enigmatically.

"The Inner Circle picked up unusual activity in space a while ago as you well know," Meren began thoughtfully. Life on other planets doesn't exist, at least that's what we believed before those green monsters started to roam this planet."

Rackie nodded. "John Sheppard didn't bring them here," he said. "Whether it's coincidental or not, he's part of the prophecy."

Kal rolled his eyes. "It's made up, don't you see?" He questioned. "There are no such things as flying cities or weapons of such destructive force that it can make the craters like the one surrounding this city. It was a meteorite that caused the destruction so long ago."

"Maybe it's you who can't see?" Rackie countered. "Look around you, this city was built a long time ago by the sky people, as Dadan and the savages call them. I should know shouldn't I? As the renowned engineer I am."

"Now, if it was so, tell me where the inhabitants went and why they didn't stay? Tell me how they got off this planet if it is, as you say, a flying city we are standing in?" Kal asked testily. "Man can't just waltz into space on his own."

"Precisely, it requires technology that none of our ancestors had. It is impossible that this city could have been built here so long ago considering the level of advancement at that time period," Rackie argued.

Meren suddenly glanced at his shoes; a moment of doubts had shone in his eyes as he'd averted them.

"This is uncomfortable for the Inner Circle, I know. This isn't common knowledge but the brilliant physicist who managed to tame the strange powers as it says in our history books died shortly afterwards. He was a member of an early expedition team sent into the old city while our own city was still being built. He was a genius but he also had something no one else had – he had an advantage. Old texts written by his assistant tells about a glow, about technology responding to him. Just like the gadget Amni trusted into Sheppard's hands."

Meren swallowed and Rackie had a feeling he knew all this already but didn't want to accept it.

"He ventured into a strange lab of some kind and he touched something, got engulfed in a bright blue light and fell to the ground. His assistants thought he'd died but after a while he just got up and began to work with the power modulators, he said all was so simple. Like he'd been enlightened," Rackie said solemnly as he watched the scientist's reaction.

Meren Kal pursed his lips into a thin line of displeasure.

"His closest assistant claimed he worked night and day until he'd rerouted power from the glowing source to the new instalments directly above which in turn provides this still growing city with the power it needs. He continued to make modifications out through the new city but he could not explain his actions to anyone else," Rackie said and then quickly added as he saw Meren open his mouth to reply. "He changed into something no one could explain. Despite the fact that he ate and slept his body just faded away from existence, like his body was set on dying. The glow, it changed him somehow. The lab was sealed and no one was ever to enter again," Rackie finished.

"A text written by an old deranged man," Kal returned stubbornly. "You can't just choose to die. It is another example on how people wanted the prophecy to be true. That people wanted to believe that the city was magic and dangerous. Speculations ran high after that so called incident. It was suggested that he was a descendant of the sky people. The government put a lid on and he became renowned for his work."

"What I'm trying to say, Meren, is that there is more going on here, it has always been, that could be explained naturally."

"He's right," Lani Nadim's voice carried over the tense situation that had developed not far from them.

Rackie's face lit up with hope as he whirled around just in time for an unknown woman to walk out in the open, together with an Alpha team member, their guns pointed toward him, Kal and the rest of the resistance members behind them.

"Lani?" Rackie questioned in surprise as he recognized the TAC vest and weapon the woman was carrying; it was the same as Sheppard had carried.

The M.E didn't come forward; only her voice could be heard, confusing her colleague even more, and he began to worry that she had been captured. Rackie's mind swirled with a number of possible solutions, including one where he'd actually been wrong about everything and Sheppard had been, as Amni Lak had claimed, a scout coming from the ship.

Before anyone could act further, the unknown woman unsecured her gun. "I'm not in the mood to argue," she let on coldly, and there was a truth in that statement that made Rackie shudder.

Out of the shadows behind her another Alpha team member emerged, strengthening their stand.

The woman spoke up again. This time her voice was softer yet it was a voice that told him she was not to take lightly. "There are five of you, you are outnumbered. The slightest move and we fire; I suggest that you lay down your weapons and cooperate."

"You are not from here," Kal said, sounding astonished while looking directly at the small woman. "You're from the ship just like Sheppard."

"I am Teyla, the gentlemen to my right are Alpha team members. Their temper is much shorter than mine," she said as she was still waiting for Meren and his resistance group to put down their weapons.

As they did as they were told Teyla turned her attention to the young engineer in front of her. "You are Rackie?" she said, her voice softening even more, becoming friendly.

The curly haired man nodded slightly, a faint curl upward creased his lips as he slowly dusted off his clothes and reached up to wipe the blood away from his lower lip. "Yes, ma'am," he said.

As the two Alpha Team members quickly disarmed the small group of people belonging to the resistance, Rackie walked up to Teyla and then glanced over her shoulder into the dark hoping to spot his colleague and he wasn't disappointed, albeit even more confused.

Lani's golden eyes were dark and solemn as she turned to look at him from behind the stretcher carrying John Sheppard. "Time has come to act, Rackie," she said succinctly. "We are coming forward, these are trusted Alpha members and Teyla is a trusted ally. My only regret is that we didn't come to terms sooner, maybe then this grave situation could have been avoided."

Rackie swallowed the bile down as he stared at the severely injured alien. He hated blood, it made him feel light-headed and weak; it was one of the main reasons he'd chosen engineering instead of medicine. "What's happened?" he managed.

"Katan," Lani said darkly. "But his days are numbered, unfortunately so are Sheppard's, he's only got hours unless I can perform some kind of miracle down in the infirmary where he took Tori yesterday."

"They know?" Rackie asked carefully.

Lani sighed deeply, resigned even. "We have to unite the people now Rackie before it's too late. Sha has taken command of the military with a handful of our trusted soldiers but he needs help, all of us need help."

"Lani," Rackie said darkly. "There are plans set into motion, fighting amongst people, the culmination of everything that has been going on for over a year, even longer. It cannot be stopped overnight."

"It has to; otherwise I fear our civilization will be lost, if not severely diminished. Those creatures – the Wraith, they feed, Rackie; they feed on us," she replied.

"There is something you don't know," he said. "Amni Lak is dead, it's been crazy down here. He was shot down by Alphas a little over four hours ago. Since then everything has intensified, I've lost Nani, Rie, I've lost so many Lani, so many," Rackie said hollowly his voice dying away in whisper.

The doctor swallowed, her throat dry at the anguish in his voice.

"So, you do exist," Kal said in resignation. "You are Triples. Amni refused to believe in you, yet he couldn't explain all his luck when it came to information about activities he shouldn't know about."

"It was the only way we could think of to give each side as much information as possible and try to prevent that the tension between the government and the resistance escalated further," Rackie explained rationally.

"This is war, Meren," Lani said seriously. "Is that what you want? A war on two fronts where neither the resistance nor the government win. A ridiculous fight dividing our people, a fight that has no purpose. Over the last few days, the last week even, I've seen things and I've heard things I'd never dreamt about. It's not about us anymore and it's time for us to realize that. The universe holds so much more. Our Ancestors, they were saved by those who built this brilliant city – the sky people. It was them that protected us from harm."

"Lani," Meren said carefully.

"It was our ancestors who carved the pictograms, it was their only way to tell their story about what happened here all those generations ago. I know you are a scientist, Meren, what does your analytical mind tell you?" The young doctor pushed.

The middle aged, slim man swallowed as he turned his full attention on the doctor. "That this is wrong," he whispered. "That somewhere along the line we took the wrong path. We didn't know what had been therefore we couldn't look ahead. The diversion and fear among our society has come gradually and we've let it. The military branch has always been afraid of this. That there might be other life among the stars. That the money spent on the military budget would be taken to other means – to the exploration of space. Afraid that their status would diminish. The Inner Circle has been divided for a long time too."

"Why?" Lani whispered sadly as she gently ran her fingers along Sheppard's jaw till she came to the jugular point and took his pulse.

"Bribes, our society is made up of bribes, of fear of the unknown, of small people and large interests," Meren said truthfully. I know about the activity in space, I've read all the reports. I know about the power fluctuations we've been troubled with lately. I've seen blueprints of a ship similar to the one that roamed the sky earlier, the one we thought Sheppard came from."

"Yet you decided to hide behind Amni Lak and the resistance," Rackie said sourly.

"They followed me, I had little choice. It was to supply them and integrate with them or to be taken, abducted by them with no chance of retaining my status or perhaps even life. I chose to live –regrettably on someone else's expense," the renowned scientist said truthfully.

The resistance members stood dumbfounded behind Meren's back, realizing they'd been discarded by the scientist and that they'd been played all along by different forces and interests. They were lost, realizing that the conspiracy had never really existed.

Rackie nodded. "Meren, this is not a manipulative game, this is real. I want to be able to count on you for the sake of our survival."

"And so you shall," the scientist returned in commitment. "I cannot fight weapons but I can fight insecurity and fear. I know where the reports are and what they stated. I need access to the network, maybe I can send out the information to the masses."

"I'll go with you, I need to get to the military HQ," Rackie said. "We'll be taking this group of people with us," he said determinately as he turned to Teyla. "Can you spare an Alpha to help me?"

"Go," Teyla said to the nearest soldier.

"Take care, Rackie," Lani hollered after him as he set off together with Meren and the others.

OOOOOO

To be continued

/Thank you so much for your feedback on the previous chapter, I treasure it ;)