STARGATE ATLANTIS: The Furies (Book 4 in the Legacy series) (17 page)

Eva jerked awake.

“…this is not about the environmental controls,” William was saying. “I think there must have been some kind of weapons testing going on. I think it’s quite possible that some of the material…”

“The other jumper!” Eva said.

Ronon and Laura turned to look at her.

“How are you doing?” Laura asked, coming over to kneel down beside her. Behind her the glass gleamed darkly, one way glass over two cells…

Distraction. “The other jumper,” Eva said. “The wrecked one in the hangar. We didn’t look inside it. It’s quite possible that the communications equipment could be working, right?”

Ronon broke into a slow smile. “Could be,” he said. “And if so, we can call Atlantis. Lynn, Cadman, go find out.” They clattered out the door as Ronon came over and sat down beside her. He’d taken his heavy jacket off in favor of the heavily woven long sleeved tunic beneath it. “Good thinking,” he said.

“I hope it works,” Eva said.

Ronon looked at her sideways. “You know you’re going to have to initialize it if it does. That’s going to mean carrying you all the way up there again.”

Eva nodded. “I know.”

“Painkillers helping?”

“Some.” There was no point in telling him that it gave her bad dreams. Their meaning was transparently obvious. Jennifer had been sharing her fears about Rodney’s transformation, and she was visualizing Desireé like Teyla, disconcerted on some inner level by seeing Teyla as a Wraith Queen among them. “I think I’d rather get out of here sooner though. This place is creepy.”

“Tell me about it,” Ronon said.

Sam leaned
back, letting the water run through her hair, her eyes closed. The
Hammond’s
biggest drawback was two minute showers, and one of the nicest things about being in Atlantis was the constant supply of fresh water. The locker rooms were open around the clock for her crew, and there was always enough hot water for anyone to spend as long as they wanted in the shower. Which was a good thing. It was one of the places she did her best thinking.

Way back in her first year at the SGC, Daniel had turned it into a running joke. Every time there was a serious technical problem, you’d find Sam in the locker room with her head under the shower. Somehow wetting her head made her brain turn on. Very funny, but there was something to it. The sound of the water and the way the heat relaxed her did make her think better.

But it wasn’t something she could do on the
Hammond
. Yes, nobody was going to yell at the captain for taking more than two minutes in the shower, but she could hardly make a rule and then abuse it. If the rule was fair you had to follow it, even if you thought you ought to be the exception, no matter what the price was. Jack had taught her that, and exactly how expensive it could be.

But there were always compromises. At least there were ways to obey the spirit if not the letter. The rule was about conserving water on the
Hammond
, where wasting potable water was very nearly a crime. Atlantis had no shortage of water. There was a whole ocean of it. And so if she wanted to spend half an hour in the shower in Atlantis, that was ok. At least it was forgivable, one amusing quirk of a well-liked captain. She had a few of those. She hoped they caused amusement, not resentment.

She leaned her head back, letting the water run down her hair. It was hard to keep it clean on the
Hammond
. Maybe she ought to cut it off again, but it had taken so long to grow. Eyes closed, she still half expected her old team to stick their heads in the locker room door, laughing at her.
“Still soaking your head, Carter? General Hammond said if you’d like to join u
s sometime today…”

Instead it was the voice of a very hesitant airman. “Colonel Carter, ma’am?”

The Ancients had apparently believed in clear glass doors, and Airman Ayesha Salawi was looking at the ceiling, walls and floor with the visible discomfort of an Airman First Class who has been sent into the women’s locker room to retrieve a colonel who isn’t wearing clothes.

“Yes?”

“Dr. Zelenka sent me to get you. He said tell you that Teyla Emmagan has returned with the Wraith ship.” Salawi seemed to think she was up there on the ceiling somewhere.

Sam turned the water off. “And Colonel Sheppard?”

“Colonel Sheppard is with her, and she says he’s fine. But they need to talk to you about some important intelligence.”

Sam let out a breath she hadn’t realized she was holding. “Ok. I’m on my way.” She reached for her towel. “Tell Dr. Zelenka I’ll be up in five minutes.”

John wasn’t sure whose office it was. Theoretically Woolsey’s, but Woolsey had been on Earth for the last month. Which made it his, temporarily. But while he’d been gone Sam had been using it, just as she had for the year before Woolsey arrived, even though actually it should have been Radek. The uncertainty seemed to be resolving itself by all four of them standing around, Sam with her back to the desk, Radek opposite her with his back to the door, his arms crossed over his chest, and John and Teyla at the other two points of the diamond.

Outside in the control room technicians kept sneaking glances. Some of them probably didn’t know it was Teyla. For all they could see, he and Carter were meeting with a Wraith queen. He had to admit she was pretty scary looking, which possibly accounted for the way Radek was shifting from one foot to another while she explained. It did take a little getting used to.

Sam just listened.

“This is policy,” Radek said at last. “I am not a policy guy, and I have no idea whether or not this retrovirus might hypothetically work. That is a question for the doctors, not for me.”

“None of us know if it can work,” Sam said.

“The issue is if we’re going to work with Todd,” John said. “Let’s be clear on that. We don’t know if this thing can work, and we don’t know if he’s on the up and up.”

“I thought the issue was whether or not it is desirable for it to work,” Teyla said. “If we do not want it to work, then we should not assist him further.”

Radek shook his head, his glasses reflecting the overhead lights. “People fed upon and then what? Released to go make babies? So that they can be rounded up again later?”

“That is already the case,” Teyla said. “Except that those who are rounded up do not return. And there are worlds of Wraith Worshippers as we know, humans who have traded the safety of some for the lives of others. If it were possible for them to trade only what is theirs to give, only their own life force…”

“And how would these things be decided?” Radek asked frowning. “Some would be prey and some would not be. It would come down to what side of a line you were born on.”

“Maybe,” Sam said. “Maybe not. There’s too much we don’t know.” She took a deep breath. “But we do know that something like this worked in the Milky Way. The Jaffa were dependent on the Goa’uld for their longevity and health, because without the symbiotes they carried they would cease to be what they were. But once Tretonin, a chemical substitute, was synthesized they no longer needed to be subject peoples. It was, ultimately, a medical solution.” She looked at John. “The Jaffa wouldn’t have given up being who they were to be rid of the Goa’uld. People won’t do that. That was the problem we had with the previous retrovirus.”

“That, and it did not work,” Radek pointed out.

“And that,” Sam said.

“We do not know if this will work either,” Teyla said.

“And the only way to find out is to trust Todd.” Radek spread his hands. “I cannot say I am enthusiastic about this plan.”

Sam was looking at him, and John realized with an ugly lurch in the middle that it was really his call. He was the commander of Atlantis. Sam wasn’t going to step on him here. It was going to come down to him.

“Let’s put it to the doctors,” John said. “See what Beckett and Keller think. If they think it’s plausible, let’s see where this goes. We’re a long way from having a working inoculation. And in the meantime we need Todd as an ally against Queen Death, particularly if Teyla thinks she can undermine the alliance and get Rodney back.”

There was a hesitant knock at the door, and John and Sam both said, “Come,” at the same time.

Airman Salawi stuck her head in. “Sirs, Banks said to tell you that Ronon has just missed his check in.”

John frowned. “Check in?”

“Ronon took a team to investigate some Ancient ruins on one of the islands in the large archipelago,” Sam said. She glanced at her watch and winced. “That was eight hours ago.”

“Missing check in isn’t Ronon,” John said.

“He must be in trouble,” Teyla agreed.

“I cannot imagine what,” Radek said. “He is right here on this planet. There is nothing arriving that we would not detect with the city’s sensors.”

“Unless there were something already here,” Sam said. “Ancient installations…”

“I’ll take a jumper to check it out,” John said. “Who’s he got with him?”

“Cadman,” Sam said. “The new archaeologist, Dr. Lynn, and Dr. Robinson went to fly the jumper.”

John grimaced. Cadman was a good choice, but Lynn was new to everything and Robinson could fly the jumper on a good day, but had no combat skills at all. “Ok,” he said. “Teyla, you talk to Jennifer and Carson and fill them in. I’ll be back in a few.”

Night was coming swiftly over the sea, the lights of Atlantis shining out into the darkness from every tower. For a change it wasn’t snowing, though the instruments showed it was getting bitterly cold, eight degrees Fahrenheit and dropping. A couple of time zones westward the sun hadn’t set, and John flew into daylight as he made periodic radio calls. “Ronon? Come in, Ronon.”

Nothing. Of course it had looked like whatever was left of this Ancient installation might be underground, and if they were inside they might not be getting radio signals. John frowned. That was the most likely explanation. And yet he had a funny feeling about it. In his experience, things were rarely easy.

“Ronon, come in.” There was the island, and John rolled the jumper in a neat maneuver to lose altitude, dropping down for a close air pass. The setting sun glared in his eyes and then he dropped beneath it, the shadow of the planet’s curvature plunging him into shade.

There was the other jumper parked neatly on the plateau over the sea, alone in the midst of a field of snow.

“Ronon, come in.” Something was wrong. He should be answering the radio unless he was far underground, but for the life of him John couldn’t see any door or entrance to anything. “Ronon, please respond.”

“Colonel Sheppard?” Captain Cadman’s voice was full of utter disbelief.

“Cadman? What’s going on?” John asked, coming around for a second pass.

“Is that you?”

“Yes, it’s me.” John shook his head. “Cadman, where are you?”

“We’ve had some trouble, sir,” Cadman said. “We’re underground and our radios won’t reach you.”

“I’m hearing you loud and clear.”

“We’re using the comm system of a wrecked puddle jumper,” Cadman said. “It’s a long story. But Dr. Robinson is injured, and an avalanche has blocked the entrance to the Ancient hangar that we came in.”

“Ok,” John digested that for a second. “Is Ronon there with you?”

“Yes. Let me put him on.” There was a momentary silence.

“Ronon?”

“Hey Sheppard.” Ronon sounded relieved. “Thought you were captured.”

“Yeah well, Teyla rescued me.” John scrubbed his hand through his hair. “Cadman says you’re stuck.”

“We’re stuck,” Ronon confirmed. “Robinson needs medical attention as soon as possible. And there’s no way we’re getting out that door.”

“All right. Hang in there,” John said. “Back with you in a minute.” He switched frequencies, calling Atlantis. “Atlantis, this is Sheppard. Put Colonel Carter on if you would.”

She must have been standing right there, because it was only a second before Sam came on. “What’s the problem, John?”

He sketched it for her quickly, ending with, “So is the
Hammond
up to atmospheric flight and are the Asgard beams working?”

“They are,” Sam said. “And we can about manage atmospheric flight. I don’t think the hull is up to hard vacuum at this point, but we should be good for a little low altitude cruise to come get our guys. Tell them I’ll be there in fifteen minutes.”

It was twelve and a half, actually. John stayed on station, talking with Ronon and Cadman, until the
Hammond
arrived. At that point it was the work of a moment to beam them straight to the
Hammond’s
infirmary.

“Off into the sunset,” John said, turning the puddle jumper for home and following the
Hammond
in, Atlantis glowing ahead of them like a star resting on the sea.

Radek folded his hands, casting a quick look at William, who had at last subsided into silence. “I agree that the Ancient ruins are interesting,” he said.

John nodded. “Yeah, but is that really a priority right now? With everything we’ve got going on?” He looked around at Ronon and William. “You guys found some stuff, and it’s great if there’s more down there, but is that really where we need to focus our best efforts right now?”

“It appears that this was once an Ancient prison, and perhaps also a weapons testing laboratory,” William put in. “Some of the database seems functional, beyond the environmental systems. It’s quite possible that we could retrieve information on the research that was undertaken here, and that some of it could be germane. I think we need to go back.”

Carter winced. “You said that the entire entrance was blocked. “That’s going to require a lot of work with heavy equipment and a lot of time to dig back in. And a lot of expertise. A squad of engineers at least and somebody with the ATA gene to activate things.”