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Chapter 16: Show of Good Faith

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When the building's door started to creak as it was opening, Rodney took up moaning to sell his illness. He didn't roll over to see which thugs were approaching but watched John's features for a clue. As usual, John's poker face was impeccable. It could have been a horde of savage Vikings coming for them and he'd still wear his standard bemused 'what took you guys so long, let's get this fight started' expression.

Kannar's voice interrupted his moaning, but it wasn't his 'I'm on your side' tone. "Let's hope your people are smart enough to deal honorably with us."

Rodney rolled onto his back and looked up at not only Kannar but two of his soldiers, who were all grim faced. "Deal honorably?" he parroted back.

John, still leaning against the bench beside Rodney, helpfully cleared up Rodney's confusion. "Since some of their people are sick with what I have, now they want to barter us back to Atlantis for a treatment," put contempt in his tone to sell it. "Funny you weren't too worried about treating me so I didn't die. Should I take insult personally?" he quipped.

Kannar ignored Sheppard's dig, and nodded to his two soldiers, initiating them into action. They each grabbed one of Rodney's arms and hauled him to his feet none too gently.

"Hey!" Rodney protested before he turned a little green as the sudden motion sent his stomach roiling. Closing his eyes, he slumped against one of his captors, praying he could avoid throwing up yet again.

With Kannar dispatching both his soldiers to handle Rodney, John was starting to get the picture. Met Kannar's eyes with resignation. "Oh, I see. It's not US you're bartering back. Just Rodney."

That had Rodney's eyes flying open, sighting on John then Kannar, who wasn't denying John's accusation. "What?! No!" he tried to pull out of the soldiers' hold but it was futile. Turning to Kannar he demanded, "It's both of us or none of us!"

With a derisive smirk, Kannar said, "You don't get a vote." Then jerked his head to the door and his soldiers led out a struggling protesting Rodney.

"Rodney, quit it!" John's bark cut across Rodney's "No! I won't leave him! Atlantis wouldn't accept any terms…" Though Rodney's words halted, the look he shot over his shoulder to John said a tome. In a gentler voice, John sought to calm his friend, "Rodney, tell Elizabeth I think they can be trusted, but only if they give you back home along with the ZPM," here he looked at Kannar, seeking to know if the ZPM was part of the bargaining they were prepared to do.

Kannar confirmed it with a brisk nod. Then Rondey was manhandled out of the building before John could say anything more to his friend. Looking up at Kannar, John wondered if he'd say something in private, but the other soldier just turned on his heels and left. It didn't leave John with a great sense of trust. But this was all he could have really hoped for: Rodney freed and the ZPM returned. His own fate? Dismally, he accepted that, he himself had decided that when he took the serum.

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Ronon was at the second stargate when it activated, kicking his heart into a gallop. Not sure if signaled good news or bad, he raised his gun toward the opening and was joined by one of the other guard. The remaining guard was busy contacting Dr. Weir. "The gate's activating, Dr. Weir. What are your orders?"

Her voice came through almost immediately. "Don't shoot! Even if someone enters through the gate. This might be a sign that Colonel Sheppard cleared a way for a negotiation."

Major Lorne's voice came through their earpieces with yet another opinion: "Dr. Weir, there are no shields so they can come in with high numbers without our permission. You really want to merrily allow them back into Atlantis to do more damage? I say we forbid any more than one person to come through the gate and send any others packing. And if they want to negotiate, we do it on neutral ground," Lorne said. Proving that the civilian and military mindsets hadn't come to an agreement on this, no matter how many hours they had been debating it.

"We can't create more hostility between our two communities and ruin our opportunity to forge a peaceful relationship," Dr. Weir protested.

"Yes, or they might use this guise of negotiation to attack us again," Lorne shot back.

Another disembodied voice broke into their argument, emanating from the radio on Ronon's belt which was used for offworld teams. "Atlantis, can you hear me?" Dr. McKay's tentative voice asked. "Atlantis, come in? Can anyone hear me? This is Dr. Rodney McKay..but of course everyone knows me," he tacked on with hubris, which ensured his listening audience that this was indeed Rodney.

A wide smile burst onto Ronon's face at the sound of his friend's voice. He activated his radio. "Rodney, are you alright?"

"Yeah, but I've been better," Rodney demurred, shooting Kannar and his soldiers a look of condemnation. Wanted to say more but Kannar, who was holding the radio, pulled it back to make his own statement.

"He's alive and so is your Colonel but it's up to you if they continue to live," Kannar direly stated, knew he had to play his hand as ruthlessly as he could, had to cash in on the leverage he had over Atlantis. Not to mention sell this supposed powerplay to his own soldiers who were standing right at his side, surely judging his leadership.

Ronon wanted to make his own threat, but Dr. Weir's voice came through the radio before he could.

"This is Dr. Weir. We want both of our people returned, so let's talk about what you want from us," Elizabeth drew upon her best negotiator skills and stamped down her personal need to be reassured of Rodney and John's personal health. "I'll meet to discuss your terms."

"I don't need a face to face to make my demands clear. I give you back your doctor and your power source, but I keep the Colonel. The very very sick Colonel," Kannar put a measure of coldblooded glee in that last declaration. Could imagine the shock that reverberated to his listeners on Atlantis. But he didn't release the radio button to give them a chance to make a reply as he continued, "Unfortunately, he infected some of us. Now, unless you provide a treatment for this sickness, your Colonel will die as well as my people. And if that happens, if any of my people die because of your experimentations, we will be at all out war with Atlantis. As we've proven, we know Atlantis's weakness. Today, we had a very specific objective when we invaded. But don't underestimate our intimate knowledge of the place you think of as a safe haven. We can burn your city down to the waterline if our demands are not met. You have two hours to send your doctor through to us with a cure. Kannar out."

Elizabeth felt the breath leave her as her chance to speak was stolen. That interaction wasn't a negotiation for peace between their people, it was a hostage taker making unmitigated demands. But some good was laced in the other man's words. "Ronon, be wary but don't open fire. If this man can be trusted, McKay will soon be coming through the gate."

"I understand," Ronon replied but, all the same, he tightened his grip on his gun. As much as the prospect of getting Rodney back was a relief, the news on John's health wasn't. At that moment, Major Lorne gave a counterorder through his earpiece.

"Ronon, if the first person through that gate isn't Dr. McKay, treat this as an attack."

Naturally, Dr. Weir countered the order. "No! We need to accept their word on good faith."

"There is no good faith with someone who has already killed twelve of our people!" Lorne shot back.

"John would disagree…does disagree," Elizabeth emphatically declared. "He made you leave him behind to broker peace, because he had faith we could find a way to not go to war with these people! If you dismiss my advice because I'm a civilian, then at least take your military leader's into account."

Ronon didn't doubt there were some curses from the Major before his voice came back through the communication lines. "Fine. Ronon, stand down and don't fire on anyone entering through the gate if they don't shoot first. Freaking rules of engagement…in space, I'm hating this," Lorne did end up grumbling before he cut off his radio.

Signaling the two other soldiers to stand down, Ronon stood at the ready, his gun lowered and his gut churning. He wished it wasn't his two friends' lives on the line with this foolhardy notion of a truce. He had seen the bodies of the dead Atlanteans, understood the craftiness of these thieves who set alarms off repeatedly to lower their guard. And more upsetting, he knew how vulnerable John had been, how ill he was before he had encountered firefights and became a captive of the enemy. None of this was good. So yeah, he wasn't expecting things to suddenly get better now. That just wasn't how things worked in the Pegasus galaxy…and it certainly wasn't John Sheppard's luck.

Rodney's voice came again through his radio. "I'm coming through. Please don't shoot me," his tone half pleading and half snark. As Ronon tensed, a foot stepped through the stargate portal, followed by the appearance of legs. Then a pale, dirty Rodney McKay was standing in Atlantis, holding their ZPM clutched to his chest. And behind him, the gate closed.

Ronon rushed to his friend's side, putting a hand on his elbow to steady him. "Rodney, are you alright? You sick too?"

"Here," Rodney shoved the ZPM into the hands of the nearest soldier. Then he ran Ronon's words through his head again and contemplated his answer. "Surprisingly, I am hungry."

"That's a surprise?" Ronon quirked, feeling partially encouraged with Rodney's return to them, and him being his usual brand of self-centeredness.

Rodney turned wild eyes onto him, said slowly, "Actually it is surprising. I was about to lose more of the lunch I didn't have and then I went through the stargate…" his voice dropped off but he wore that look he did when he was about to be brilliant and brag about it. "I feel better. Cured."

"Of the sickness John had?"

"No..no, more like food poisoning but…" he swiveled around to face the stargate that only yesterday they didn't even know existed. "We need to run tests on this gate, see if it has a bio filter."

"A bio filter? What's that?" Ronon asked.

"In a lab that has biohazards, they have a …for a better description…clean air section that kills any bad cells before the person is greenlighted to leave the lab. This stargate might have a similar feature, is designed to ensure no virus or …or nanites hitched a ride on any person using this stargate to enter Atlantis. So when I came through with my food poisoning, it killed the bad germs." He snapped his fingers. "Yes! Yes! If we can figure out how it works, we can use it to rid John of the ATA…well the extra ones."

Ronon wasn't as encouraged as Rodney was by his supposed revelation. "But John already went through it, and according to Major Lorne, he only got sicker."

"He got sicker because of the stargate travel. Each time he went through another gate, he got worse …had seizures," Rodney paled, didn't like remembering holding onto John's thrashing body while getting shot at. Liked it somehow less when John seized for seemingly no good reason in the building they were kept in. He tried to shake off his fears, knew he had to be a scientist now to help John get better.

Pointing to the gate he'd just entered from, he theorized, "This gate…it wouldn't have detected the Ancient genes as an illness. It was made specifically to accept those elements in the DNA. We just need it to see the extra Ancient genes John coiled in his DNA as antigens they need to eradicate. I need to get to Carson," he was halfway out the door when he remembered the ZPM. "Ronon, get the ZPM back to its base then tell Radek to get our shield and cloak back up," he ordered before he bolted out of the chamber.

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Rodney burst into the medical lab and was talking before the two men there could get over the shock of his appearance. "The stargate…it's the answer," Roddey puffed out, entirely pooped having run what parts of his trek there were accessibly by the transporter. Sinking into the nearest chair, he faced Carson and Radek, upset they weren't busy proving his theory.

"Rodney, you're back," Carson gushed, taking half a step to hug his friend but Rondey waved him away.

"Stunning powers of observation. But John's not and he's getting sicker and sicker."

Radek couldn't help but be competitive with McKay, even when things were dire. Ok, they were almost always dire in Atlantis when he and Rodney butted heads. "Yes, Rodney, we already know the Colonel's sick because of the stargates," he stated as if Rodney's declaration was a foregone conclusion to someone of his superior mental acuity. "Major Lorne reported that Sheppard got sicker and sicker the more times he went through the stargate. And now the Colonel is afraid he won't survive traveling through another gate."

But Rodney was shaking his head in lieu of having much breath to denounce Radek's wrong track thinking. "Not talking cause. I'm talking cure."

Carson was used to spit balling with Rodney and immediately got on board with his friend's idea. "Use the stargate to diminish the Ancient gene count in Sheppard's DNA. We would have to modify …"

Rodney broke through Carson's projections. "I think the second stargate was designed to eradicate illnesses, viruses, anything that could be detrimental to Atlanteans."

"If you're right…it wouldn't see Sheppard's extra Ancient genes as an antigen, maybe even consider it an antibody."

Rodney pointed his finger excitedly at Carson. "Exactly what I'm thinking. So how to do trick it or…"

Carsons eyes lit up. "We introduce another serum into John that codes with the extra Ancient genes, turning them into something the stargate would deem harmful and seek to eradicate."

"Do you have such a serum?" Rodney posed, fearing the answer.

"No," Carson morosely admitted before he explained their process. "We knew we first had to have a way to ID the new Ancient gene cells synthesized when Sheppard took the gene therapy serum. We were theorizing that the stargate could be used to help pinpoint the affected strands of DNA."

"He can't go through another stargate just so you could study his DNA!" Rodney scathingly shot down their plan. "What do you want?! To see how much of his brain fries! The only way I'm sanctioning him to go through another gate is if you have a way to immediately kill the extra Ancient genes once he's through." He didn't want his friend to become a coma victim because of some half-baked medical experiment. Carson's mumbo jumbo gene therapy serum had done enough damage to John already, Rodney wouldn't let more harm come to his best friend.

Elizabeth entered the lab at that moment and offered up a small but sincere smile of greeting to McKay. "Rodney, glad to see you. Didn't expect you'd beat me to talk to Carson. Have you appraised him of the terms of the negotiations? That we need to cure the villagers John infected. In two hours."

"Infected?" Carson echoed, confusion in his tone. "Colonel Sheppard couldn't infect anyone. And what negotiations?"

"The infection is a ruse," Rodney assured his worried doctor friend. He tacked on at his audience's inquiring looks, "A ruse not created by John, but almost worthy of him. Their military leader, the one calling in the ransom terms, his name is Kannar and he's on our side." At the skeptical looks that generated, he gave a longsuffering sigh and explained Kannar's reasonings. "He wants a chance to broker peace with us and knows if his people let John die, there's no chance of that."

"Rodney, you're not making any sense," Elizabeth's frustration loud and clear. "You need to sit down and tell me about these people, if we can trust their word. I need all the details to make an informed decision."

"John doesn't have the time for me to explain it all to you!" Rodney shot back. "He's had more seizures…and not because he went through more stargates. He's…he's getting confused too." Turning back to Carson, he stressed the point Elizabeth wasn't getting, "Carson, we need to figure out how to get those extra ancient genes out of him before they kill him….or that paranoid bunch of backward hillbillies murder him because they hate the Ancients and won't believe he isn't one of them."

Elizabeth begrudgingly conceded, though no one seemed to be acknowledging her power anyway, "Ok, McKay, the debrief is forestalled but you need to catch me up as soon as you have time."

Radek spoke up at that moment. "Speaking of time. Did you just say we needed this cure in two hours?"

"Yes. Those are the terms for the negotiation. That our doctor cures their people," Elizabeth confirmed.

"Of an illness they don't have?" Carson scoffed, felt like this wasn't something he knew how to handle. Placebos didn't usually fool people with guns and bombs.

"Oh they are sick true enough, but with something like food poisoning," Rodney provided some sanity into the insanity of the situation. "You give them something to settle their stomach and you'll be witch doctor extraordinaire in their eyes."

"So if they do honor their terms, let Sheppard go if we cure their illness, how are we getting him home without traveling through a stargate?" Radek posed. "We have only an inkling of an idea how to cure him of his actual medical problem. Seems improbably that we can come up with a solution in so short a time frame." Though they'd done miracles with considerably less time but he wasn't so sure they could that day, even to save a man they all liked, respected and Atlantis fervently needed.

"Easy. We go in a jumper ship to meet up with John," Rodney said matter-of-factly, knew, once again, why he was Atlantis' lead scientist instead of Radek. "Since Kannar's people are paranoid freaks, we can't meet on their home turf so we pick a planet where we have allies and Carson can set up a medical station to treat John. Kannar meets us there and hands over John and we part as somewhat allies if not friends." But Radek was exchanging looks with Elizabeth and Carson that made Rodney feel ill again. "Ok, what don't I know?"

Radek's voice was sorrowful as he apprised Rodney of the impossibility of his suggestion. "Our main stargate wouldn't open and we can't get a jumper to the second stargate in its remote location. So no gate flying. And as you know, if we fly the jumper from Atlantis, the closest stargate would take a jumper …"

"…Two weeks to reach. Which is why the Atlanteans chose this remote location," Rodney numbly repeated the facts he knew oh so very well. Their security measures could now end up costing John his life. Some days Rodney downright hated the Atlanteans as much as Kannar's people did. And today was turning out to be just such a day.

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TBC

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Thank you for reading! And as I said, I would love to know you're out there reading so consider dropping a quick review/pm.

Have a great day!

Cheryl W.