Star 69

by Cheryl W

When their ZPM is stolen, John puts his life at risk using his Ancient gene trying to get it back. As a soldier, he long ago accepted that he might have to give his life in the line of duty but this might cost him something harder to lose: his team, his health and his future as a soldier. NO Slash.

27. History Repeating Itself

SGAT

Chapter 27: History Repeating Itself

SGAT

Leaving the woods behind, the small group of Atlanteans and Frata approached the ship parked in the clearing. But Ronon pulled his weapon as he heard movement behind them. He quickly shifted his aim when it wasn't another threat coming but the boy Sheppard had befriended making a beeline for them.

Though John was being supported between Ronon and Rodney, he was almost still knocked over as Muvar dove into him. The boy flung his arms around John in a desperate hug. John dropped his hand across the boy's back, wished he could bend down to be on the boy's level but knew he might not get back up. "I see that you made easy work of sneaking out of town and tracking me through the woods. That's elite soldiering," affectionate praise in his tone for the brave boy who had been his steadfast ally.

Face buried in John's side, Muvar sniffled, "I knew you were too smart to burn to death."

John sent a grateful look to Ronon who had been the one to spare him that fate. Then he self-deprecatingly scoffed to the boy, "I don't know about smart, but I had a friend there by my side, doubling my odds for survival." Ruffling the boy's hair, he pointed out, "Just like you have been there for me."

Muvar raised his teary eyes up to John's. "I can still be your friend, can go with you. I know you could teach me more combat skills than I'd ever learn if I stay here."

John's heart was touched by the boy's desire to go with him even as knew he had to refuse his offer. Not an easy thing considering he desperately didn't want to hurt the brave loyal boy. His eyes going to Muvar's aunt, he saw Frata's stiff expression. She was obviously worried what he would say, if he would try to steal her nephew away and brainwash him into Atlantean ways of thinking.

Risking the real possibility that he might fall flat on his face, John crouched down. He wobbled a bit but it was Rodney who stepped behind him, let his legs brace John's back. Now able to concentrate on the boy, John put his hands on the boy's shoulders. "As much as I would be honored to have you join the ranks of Atlantis, I wouldn't feel good taking you away from your duties here. Clearly Kannar counts on you, big time. And when you're old enough to officially become a soldier for your village, it will be your responsibility to have aunt's back." John didn't look to Frata in case she was giving him the evil eye for putting that career path into the boy's head. But honestly, John knew that Muvar already considered himself one of the village's soldiers.

Muvar bowed his head, dejectedly acknowledged, "I know. But I wanted to go with you."

Tucking his knuckles under the boy's chin, John tenderly tilted the boy's head up so they were eye to eye. "That's part of being a soldier, you save people's lives, like you saved mine, and then you have to leave and go help someone else. But you know what? That good feeling of saving someone, you carry that with you. And knowing they are going to be ok when you leave, that makes the goodbyes not so sad."

Muvar bravely nodded and tried on a timid smile. John's smile was stronger. "And who knows, we might team up again. I almost pity the Wraith if they have to go up against the both of us."

That got a brash smile out of the boy as he nodded his head. Then his aunt was there, ready to usher the boy away. John got to his feet, assisted heavily by Ronon and Rodney. Thankfully, Frata offered him a smile instead of a wrathful hand gesture as she turned the boy around, began leading him back to the village. John felt a pang of sorrow as he watched the boy he'd become pretty attached to in their short acquaintance. But the kid was worthy, had saved his bacon and had a good heart, two traits John valued highly.

Sensing John's melancholy, Rodney's voice resonated with softness, "He'll be ok, have a story to brag to his friends."

John was motionless for a beat before he nodded his head, allowed his two friends to steer him back toward the ship. Felt a splash of guilt, promising the boy something that would never be. They would never see each other again, would never stand side by side and take on the wraith. He didn't have the luxury of actually making future plans. His days of fighting the wraith, of fighting any foes was over. The only possible fight in his limited future was with his friends, to see reason, that no matter what the village nanite expert said, they were ALL going back to Atlantis as soon as they got back to the gate, regardless of what that trip would cost him.

His friend's lives, Atlantis' security ranked higher than one man's life. It was how he'd lead Atlantis all this time, he couldn't change the rules now, not even for himself. Maybe especially for himself. Like he had lectured Mukar, John too had a duty to his own village. Service before Self, it was ingrained in him from his very first days in the Air Force and he believed that credo to the depths of his soul.

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Kannar was waiting for them by the ship, didn't ask what delayed them when he noted how heavily Sheppard was leaning on his two friends to put one foot in front of the other. The threesome entered the ship, the doctor on their heels. He quickly kneeled by Sheppard to take his vitals as John sank into a seat. Kannar feared what the doctor clearly did, that Sheppard was on the brink of another seizure. Wondered grimly how many more episodes the Atlantean's body could endure before there was no coming back from the permanent damage.

His unpleasant contemplations were interrupted by the sight of his father and Thupr approaching the ship. Thupr looked like he was being marched to his execution. Kannar almost sighed. It would be another moment of coercing one of his people to do the right thing. 'When do they stop being "my people" if I don't agree with anything I stand for?' and that was too weighty a matter to deal with right then. Knew it might be he and his father who might be run out of town or executed by a vote of their people. But he had to believe there was still rational, compassionate members among his village, he couldn't be mistaken in all of them.

When Thupr stubbornly stopped outside the ship, Sakar gave him a prodding push to keep moving. The tension in the ship rose as Rodney belligerently scoffed at the gray-haired villager, "That's your nanite expert?! He's the one that led the freak out when John had his first seizure." Then he accused the man face to face, "You ordered everyone from the room, inciting the idea he was contagious. They dragged me away from John because of you and, all along, you knew John illness wasn't a danger to your people!"

Thupr had the grace to blush even as he stammered, "Nanites are very unpredictable and I didn't know if you had modified them, maybe came here to infect us all."

Rodney snorted his disbelief at the man's claim.

When Kannar stepped up to Thupr, the man stiffened as he read the anger pouring out from his military leader's aura. It made him recognize that he had more to fear than unhappy Altanteans.

"It's time you tell us all you know about the nanites in the gate that I led my team through on our mission into Atlantis," Kannar demanded in a chilling tone. "A gate you knew had nanites and you never told me about. Which endangered, not only my team, but our entire village if you believed they could be transferred from person to person," his words sounding very much like a threat looming over the man's head.

Paling, Thupr stammered, trying to defend himself, "I …I forgot, didn't remember the memories until after the vote…"

Sakar came to his son's side and eyed up their resident with an insightful glare. "But you remembered about the nanites in the gate BEFORE my son went on the mission, didn't you?" All color washed out of the white-haired man's complexion and Sakar cursed, knew the coward had chosen to stay silent instead of calling for a new vote in consideration of the elevated risks he then knew was involved in the mission. "You feared Olpwen's reaction, going up against his vote!"

"He's powerful and …and as he's proven today, he doesn't mind using violence to achieve his goals," Thupr rushed out his defense, didn't miss when the father and son he faced off with exchanged grim expressions. Knew it was sinking in with them just how long Olpwen had been planning his overthrow of the existing village regime.

"I say he enjoys violence," Carson indignantly piped in, wasn't going to let off someone who knifed Ronon and tried to murder Sheppard.

The statement brought a heavy silence into the ship, until Sakar drew them all back to the matter at hand. "Olpwen will be dealt with. Right now, Thupr, you must tell us how to turn off the nanites in Sheppard's system. They are ravaging his body."

Ronon and Rodney stiffened at the terrifying description even as Carson knew it was pretty on point. The nanites would kill Sheppard if they weren't turned off or reprogramed to repair instead of destroy.

"I can't tell you that! I only remembered my long ago accessed memories regarding the gate, enough to know there were nanites in them," Thupr explained, trying to excuse himself from any more traitorous collaboration with the Ancients. His breath caught as Kannar withdrew his knife from its sheath.

"You can use this to access your ancestors' memories on the nanites or I will do the cut for you, much deeper and longer than necessary," Kannar threatened.

Thupr tried to retreat back a step but ran into Sakar, who purposefully was blocking off his escape route. Shifting his agitated attention between father and son, he groveled, "Don't make me do this. I haven't recalled for so long …since I was a young man. I'm not…equipped to handle the remembering, get sick and feel like I won't come back, will stay emersed in that body, those memories."

"I'll bring you back," Kannar promised but it sounded more a threat rather than a reassurance, especially when he grabbed Thupr's hand and wouldn't release it no matter the struggle the other man made to pull it free. "You making the cut or should I?"

Being a bit squeamish, Thupr choked out, "You," as he turned his head away and closed his eyes.

Meeting his father's eyes over Thupr's shoulder, Kannar rolled his eyes. This coward of a man was a council member?! His dad simply shrugged in a 'you work with you got' gesture. Turning back to their objective, Kannar made a cut on Thupr's hand, had to maintain his grip when the council member tried to rip his hand free and gave out a screech at the pain. His task done, Kannar released his hold on Thupr's hand, prayed the other man would do the next part without coercion.

Keeping his eyes tightly clamped shut, Thupr raised his hand up to his face and licked his tongue along his bleeding palm like a child would lick off a smear of chocolate syrup.

Guilty of watching the interaction with fascination, at that sight, Rodney cried out, "Oh gross! Seriously?! Blood licking!"

That exact disgust was why Kannar had accessed his own ancestor memories out of sight of the Atlanteans. Of course he had dabbed his tongue in his blood, not lapped it up. Feeling a little defective about his people's rituals being critiqued, he bitingly retorted, "You want him to remember what his ancestor knows about nanites, or you want to be squeamish?"

"Can't I do both?" Rodney quipped even as he couldn't look away from Thupr, saw the man do a whole body shake and alarmingly fall to his knees and clutch his head with a moan.

Sakar dropped his hand onto Thupr's shoulder, not so much a gesture of comforting but to ensure the man didn't pitch forward. Felt the tremors under his hand, feared the other man would panic and pass out instead of accessing the memories they needed. So he lowly counseled his once upon a time trusted ally, "Concentrate on the knowledge we seek, Thupr. Think about the nanites in the gate that our people used to flee Atlantis. Don't let the other memories distract you." Wasn't expecting the other man to cry out in pain and bow his head upon the ground as he dug his hands into his hair.

"Is it always this painful?" Carson asked with a hint of concern, the doctor in him able to feel compassion for even conspirators against them.

"Yes, it's painful but only for a few moments until you zero in on what you search for. Plus Thupr apparently didn't lie when he said he sucked at accessing the memories," Kannar drawled, none too pleased that Thupr was likely to pass out before finding the memories they sought. Crouching down, he coiled his hand around Thupr's cut hand and squeezed, gritted out over Thupr's cry of pain, "Nanites! Think only of the Nanites. Or I'll leave you stuck there in your family's past." Barked out, "Nanites!" again for good measure.

The barked word vibrated through Thupr's pain, in his hand and in his head as the agonizing onslaught of memories from all those in his bloodline slammed into him. He mentally repeated the word, over and over until thankfully, the intrusive memories slowed down and he felt his body stop, felt his eyes open even as he knew his own eyes remained tightly shut.

His mind's eyes opened to a place he only recalled in long ago accessed memories: Atlantis. He was there…well not him but his ancestor. It was both terrifying and exhilarating. He might have gone for a stroll in his ancestors' body to see the great city but pain assaulted his senses and a booming voice in his head commanded, "Nanites in the gate, only think of that." It sent him forward in a blurring whirl of motion until it stopped, until he was in a lab, until his ancestor was conferring with four other colleagues.

They and he, his ancestor him, were recalling their calculations on how to modify the nanites to target Ancient genes. Discussing that, once they succeeded, the nanites would ensure that any Ancients who tried to follow them through the secret gate, would die. As for their own people, if they got the calculations right, it would not harm them, would in fact have healing properties. And if they miscalculated, if some of their people's bloodlines had been polluted by Ancient genes, they would administer an enzyme to minimize the adverse effects. Those who had done what they had to do to survive the Ancients' slavery shouldn't be punished for being offspring of Ancient, for their parents sacrificial pairings with their captors.

Then the scientific recipe for the enzyme came to Thupr as he saw it on a computer screen.

His goal achieved, Thupr tried to jar himself out of the memories of his ancestors but more trickled in. Was immersed in their conversation about how to shut down the 2nd gate in case the Ancients learned how to turn off the nanites and would use the gate to follow their trail. He was ruthlessly yanked from the past by a stinging slap to his face, blinked several times before the here and now became his reality again.

Kannar roughly yanked Thupr to his feet and gripped him by his shirt front. "You better have answers for me."

Thupr's initial response was to nearly pass out, but Kannar shook him hard enough to snap his head back and make taking up unconsciousness impossible. Cognizant enough now to see the lethalness in Kannar's eyes, Thupr was quick to impart anything he thought Kannar might find useful enough to not land another slap upon him. "There's an enzyme that ..I don't know, undoes or lessens or stops the nanites. It wasn't clear to me, its uses."

Carson was instantly hoovering by Thupr, besieging him with questions. "What enzyme? Are their side effects for those with the ancient gene? Can we turn off the nanites in the 2nd gate? Travel through it back to Altantis without further infecting John or the rest of us?"

"I don't…it came at me so fast," Thupr shook his head, needed to organize all he'd taken in but it wasn't easy. He didn't make a habit of calling on his ancestors for assistance. He liked living in the here and now, thinking he had all the answers he needed in life without seeking some dead and gone blood relative's haunting memories to guide him.

Sakar knew to bring calmness to the situation, forced Kannar to unhand the man and sat Thupr down in one of the ship's seats and crouched down by him. "Ok, start with the enyzme. How do they make it?"

Thupr rattled off the components and Carson was quick to enter them in his computer, nodding as if it made sense to him. Then Thupr told everything else he'd learned, from the use of the enzyme and the way to close the 2nd gate, which had Rodney asking questions in quick succession. It was an intense interrogation but a quick one, for time wasn't on their side.

When Thupr claimed that he had told them everything he had gleamed from his ancestors, Sakar led him off the ship, but only after giving his son a hug and a be safe admonishment. To which Kannar retorted, "You're the one who needs to be careful. We don't know the odds we're facing. Don't go back to the village until I'm back."

Sakar joked, "You acting like my personal bodyguard might make me look weak and afraid."

Kannar offered up a lethal smile as he handed his father one of the guns they had stocked on the ship. "Not if you are carrying that you won't. They might even think you're my bodyguard."

Sakar laughed and gave his son a proud wink before he turned to Sheppard and Rodney. "I'm sorry our people could not see the good of an alliance with you, but I'm not giving up hope for a better future for us all."

"Hope never goes out of style," John retorted, offering Sakar his hand which the other man readily shook.

Then Sakar left the ship and watched as his son took their visitors to the gate so they could go home. A part of him wondering if he and his son could find asylum with the Altanteans if they could no longer call this village their home. He didn't doubt that John Sheppard would put in a good word for them, regardless of how his people had treated him. The man truly believed in forgiveness and fresh starts. Sakar prayed his own people could adopt such honorable insights.

SGATSGAT

While Caron and McKay huddled together, discussing everything Thupr had told them, Ronon and John looked on from across the ship, knowing they couldn't supply any useful interjections to the two men's banted about theories. Kannar, meanwhile, flew the ship, pretending it took all his concentration, but John knew he was worried about his father and his people's future. He might have offered some words of wisdom, but a seizure interrupted his good intentions.

As John began thrashing in the seat beside him, Ronon cursed and his hands hovered over the seatbelt release, uncertain if John being restrained was doing more harm than good. But Carson called out, "Leave him in the restraints," even as he came to kneel in front of John, ordered, "Put something behind his head so he doesn't crack it against the bulkhead." Ronon grabbed a discarded jacket on the seat beside him and shoved the folded fabric under John's head right before Sheppard would have snapped it back into the side of the ship with force.

Then all the occupants of the ship had to torturously watch the seizure savagely take control over Sheppard's body, causing his eyes to roll back into his head. It felt like hours instead of minutes until the seizure released its merciless grip on Sheppard and John went limp in the seat harness. Carson immediately pressed his fingers into John's neck, tracking the man's heartrate. By his expression, the doctor wasn't happy with his findings.

Carson resignly crossed back to his seat, knew there was nothing he could do for John right then. What he could do, must do was work with Rodney to figure out how to make the enzyme so they could administer it before they took John through any stargate.

Ronon gently levered John's hanging head back to rest against the softness of the coat pillowed against the ship's wall, didn't mind at all when his friend's head tilted right and came to rest on his shoulder. Lowly he said words only meant for John's ears, "You're stronger than some miniature robots, John. You just have to fight a little bit longer. Carson and McKay will create that stuff to shut down the nanites." He paused before he resumed talking, his voice deliberately lighter, "And then they will spend the next month arguing who should get the credit for saving your life." Wished John was conscious and could laugh at his prediction. Instead John was deadly silent and that didn't sit well in Ronon's heart. John was about not giving up, about fighting, about outsmarting everyone. Knew a part of his friend actually enjoyed standing back and watching Carson and McKay bickering, well, as long as he wasn't cooped up with them and could walk away whenever he wanted to.

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John knew that he had lost time, which lately meant, he had had another freaking seizure. Feeling a not so unprecedented 'I've been knocked out with a rock/gun/boot' kind of grogginess, it took a few rapid blinks before his world came into focus. A world tilted on its side. Or maybe that was just him.

When he went to straight his head from the not so comfortable thing it was crushing against, it was like he was also lifting a boulder. Turning his stiff neck and slitting his eyes against the light, he realized the "pillow" he had disparaged was actually Ronon's shoulder. Ronon's quiet "Hey" broadcast how worried his friend was.

John didn't want to face that concern from Ronon or the fear in himself. Pulling his look from Ronon's too insightful inspection, he noted that the ship was empty of all but the two of them. "I miss the rapture? Where is everyone else?"

"Outside by the gate," Ronon provided, relieved John had finally roused from unconsciousness. But he noted the way John eyes were narrowed, as if even the dim light filtering in from the ship's front window was too bright to bear.

"Why aren't you?" John asked, knew Ronon was always anxious to stretch his legs, didn't like being cooped up. Then he remembered the knife wound to his friend's leg, looked to the bandage and thankfully there was no blood seeping through. "Oh I forget about your…"

Ronon answered then, using one of John's phrases, "Seen one gate you've seen them all," threw in a shrug like his answer was unimportant. John wasn't fooled, knew Ronon remained with him on purpose, and it wasn't to wisely stay off his injured leg. No, Ronon had an unfailingly loyal streak sometimes…most times. John still felt a stab of guilt that he'd doubted that loyalty when it came to him vs Sateda survivors.

Shifting in his seat, John instantly froze, spent the next moments breathing through the pain and cataloguing the parts of his body that ached fiercely. He slid a hand under where the seat harness strap pressed against his chest and winced. Yup, seriously bruised. Wasn't paying attention to his surrounding apparently because he startled when the harness was pulled away by Ronon, who had clicked its release without him realizing it.

"Let me see," Ronon ordered and he pushed John's roughly probing hand away and pulled back John's shirt. Hid away a mental grimace. "Bruised a bit but nothing worse than I give you while training," he downplayed, fighting to make light of it for both their sakes. Neither one of them wanted to be emotionally expressive, only did it when Teyla forced them to.

"I bruise easily," John groused back. "I'll have you know that I consider it kind of a good thing, like a genetic honeytrap. Bruises always garner sympathy from the ladies."

"Teyla laughs when she sees your bruises," Ronon deadpanned back.

John waved a dismissive hand. "She isn't like normal ladies. More like a space Xena warrior princess."

"Who?" Ronon asked with a cock of his eyebrow.

"Tv show character. She enjoys beating up… well, everyone, and wears leather, really well." John sent an assessing look to Ronon, "Actually, she'd be a perfect match for you."

"Like your super models that you drool over?" Ronon's lips turning up at his teasing.

"Hey, they are real…just totally out of my league." John went to push to his feet but barely got as far as lifting his back off the seat before he collapsed backwards. "Short trip," he quipped, his voice strained. With his head pressed back against the ship's wall and his eyes clamped shut, he wasn't disguising his misery very well.

Ronon put a grounding hand onto John's knee as he devised excuses for them both. "Let's wait here. No use standing around in the sun listening to more boring science talk."

"So true," John capitulated, wanted to fall back into some versions of rest but his mind wouldn't shut down so easily. Knew he couldn't work on the enzyme problem, but Atlantis was his to protect, for maybe only a little longer but for now, he was still it's guardian. So problem numbero uno was to shut down that 2nd gate, because Kannar's village knowing that gate address, it wasn't really comforting. Especially considering Kannar and Sakar were facing a possible overthrow of their regime. John didn't want to consider what Olpwen and his followers, if unchecked by Sakar and Kannar's honorable leadership, would do with that access to Atlantis.

Not to mention John didn't like the idea of even "friendly to those not Ancient" nanites merrily chittering away in the 2nd gate. It gave him the heebie jeebies. Worse, they were coursing through his blood stream even now, like those bugs in the Mummy movies moving under their skin. 'Ok, not the most comforting movie reference, John. Think more cheesy special effects of Star Trek Wrath of Khan with the rubber worm prop.'

Ronon knew that look on his best friend. "What are you thinking?"

"That cheesy special effects have their good points. And that we need to shut down that 2nd gate, pronto."

"Can't yet. They haven't gotten the main stargate working yet." And if it could be coerced to work with violence, Ronon would gladly blow the control panels, kick the ring, launch a grenade through the wormhole. But it wasn't violence that could help get the gate open, or John back to Atlantis without infecting him with more nanites by going through that 2nd gate. "But this planet seems to be safe enough, good air, no hostiles close to the gate. You and I can stay here until they get that gate up and running." And Carson could bring an entire medical team to them to treat John until they found a permanent way to solve John's nanite problem.

Something tugged at John's mind, some reason why Kannar thought the planet was deserted, though it had the selling point of having a stargate. A vacated neighborhood was never a good realtor sales pitch. John was about to mention that tidbit to Ronon when it sparked something in his mind. About the planet being uninhabitable…about what Atlantis did when its system sensed a chemical or biological threat, when they had their very first run in with nanites. 'Atlantis shuts down the sections where the containments are, makes it so the virus cannot be transferred to unaffected areas of Atlantis.' "Containment breach," he said aloud because it made sense that there would be protocols in place so no one who was infected left Atlantis, carried the contamination to other civilizations or other Ancients stationed on ships or other planets.

Ronon didn't question John, trusted him enough to wait him out to get his full thoughts. Felt hope spring in his own chest when John's eyes sparkled with that eureka gleam that usually meant today they weren't going to get beat. With certainty he believed that John and his crafty mind had come up with a solution to Atlantis' gate problem. Ronon prayed John's plan also involved saving himself, something the man sometimes forgot to factor in.

"Get McKay in here. I think I know how to get the main stargate open," John announced with his trademark 'I'm smarter than some computer system' smirk.

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TBC

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Thanks for being so patient as I work to get this story finished!

Cheryl W.