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Twice In A Lifetime

Summary:

After rescuing a group of strangers from a debris field, Lorne and the rest of Atlantis become embroiled in a three millennia old mystery that leaves them asking who can they trust.  Pre-Lorne/Gaeta.

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Title: Twice In A Lifetime
Author: Lopaka Tanu
Disclaimer: I do not own BattleStar Galactica or StarGate: Atlantis.
Characters: Gaeta, Lorne, Caldwell, Sheppard, Weir, Rodney, Woolsey Hermiod, Carson, Teyla, and Kate Heightmeyer.
Words: 23,232
Prompt: Galactica jumps to alien planet, is destroyed.  SGA rescues.
Fandom: StarGate: Atlantis/BattleStar Galactica
Pairing: Pre-Lorne/Gaeta
Rating: Teen
Warnings: Language, Violence, Character Deaths.
Summary: After rescuing a group of strangers from a debris field, Lorne and the rest of Atlantis become embroiled in a three millennia old mystery that leaves them asking who can they trust.
Author's Note: More SGA style than BSG, which means it tends to be humorously bad in parts.
Spoilers: BSG 2x09; SGA 3x06
______________________________________
Prologue.  Tapping Out Signals.

 

Rubbing at his eyes, Felix reached up with the towel to wipe clear his mirror.  Even as he did this, he felt more steam come rolling across the cold tiled deck from the communal showers.  It would fog the mirror again in no time, but all he needed was a second to see his face.

The bags under his eyes gave his face a bruised look.  Seeing his sunken features made him sigh.  Too many nights on almost no sleep were going to end up killing him.  Probably sooner rather than later.

At least then he wouldn't have to worry about making a mistake with his calculations that could kill them all.

Smirking, Gaeta checked to make sure the wild curls were tamed enough that his hair wouldn't fall in his face.  It was in definite need of a cut, but who had the time?  Between fixing the damage and keeping the systems that still worked operational, he barely had time to eat.

When his image clouded over again, Felix suddenly felt too tired to continue.  His body felt so heavy that just turning his head took a monumental effort.  Everything about him seemed to slow down, even the noises.

The part of his brain that still functioned recognized the effect instantly.  Slowly, the rest of the people around him caught on.  By then, it was too late to do anything about it.

Felix blinked as the bottom fell out of his stomach.  Then time sped up back to reality so fast that it slammed in to him.  Instantly, he felt like a weight had been lifted from him and he could breathe once more.

Swallowing back his stomach, Gaeta tried to keep its contents down.  No one hated the feeling of a FTL jump more than him.  He was the guy who knew how it worked.  He was the one who plotted most of the jumps.  He was the one who knew all the possible variations a mistake could cause.

Less than a heartbeat later, he was shaken from his thoughts as klaxons blared indicating an attack.  He was thrown backwards when the ship trembled from an impact.  Overhead, the lights flickered.

Alarm spread through the showering crew.  Their voices rose as the deck rocked under them.

Knocked to the deck, Felix's thoughts turned to getting out of there and finding out what the situation was.  To that end he looked towards the hatch.  In the flickering light, he saw a woman sprawled out in front it.  

Blood had begun to pool around her head.  It flowed freely from a crack in the back of her skull.  Whoever she was, it was obvious she was now dead.

The ship shook again, groaning from multiple impacts.  A particularly strong blast blew the lights.

As the water stopped flowing behind him, a new type of sound filled the chamber.  Even through the hatch a rushing sound became noticable.

All eyes went wide as they realized instantly what this meant.  The hull beyond there compartment had been breached.  They were all trapped inside the lockerroom.

Closing his eyes, Felix let his sore head fall back against the tiles.

____________________________
Part 1.  About Damned Time.

 

"Two minutes until normal space."

"Very good."  The words were almost an after thought to him by now.  Sitting in the Commander's chair, Lorne dropped his chin back to the fist he had been resting it on.  

After a month, all of it was very routine.  They hadn't even woken the Colonel for the last pick up.  Now would be no different it seemed.

Turning his chair, he glanced over to the Conn. and the lieutenant manning it.  "Ship's status?"

Tapping on her controls, she smiled at nothing in particular.  "All systems are checking in at above ninety-five percent efficency.  Engineering reports nothing out of the ordinary."  She finished with a glance up at him.  Her expression clearly indicated that it wasn't the readouts she was happy about.

"Ninety-five percent?"  He grimaced at her nod.  Things were slacking off.  "Tell them to get them back up to above ninety-eight before the Colonel gets up or you'll be down there to ensure they do it personally."

This caused the lieutenant to stare at him in alarm.  Swallowing, she put on her most professional expression.  "The secondary drive generators are down for maintenance, sir.  The inefficiency is due to this.  There is no need for me to get involved."  

Lorne barely managed to keep the smile off his face.  He knew very well exactly why she didn't want to go down there.  It was a pest to anyone who faced it, all three feet of him.

A small alarm triggered by the timer drew Lorne's attention to the main screen.  Sitting up in his chair, he automatically adjusted the front of his uniform.  "Take us out of hyperspace now, Lieutenant."

"Aye, sir."  Lieutenant Conners' fingers flew over the Helm controls.  "Exiting hyperspace in three, two, now!"

Feeling the gentle shake of the shift back in to normal space, Lorne braced himself.  Flying out of his seat once was annoying enough.  The old models would have relied heavily upon the Goa'uld designed drives, which had no inertial dampeners.  Thank god for the Asgard.

As it was a second later the ship shook hard.  Alarms across the bridge rang out.  One small console behind the Command chair exploded.

"Shields up!"  Lorne winced as sparks showered down over him.  "Report!"

"Deploying Asgard shields."  The Conn. started to chime as the Lieutenant activated several systems readouts.  "Minor damage to the primary hull.  Secondary hull intact.  We hit something coming out of hyperspace, sir."

"What kind of something?"  Out of the corner of his eye, Lorne saw the Helm Officer frantically adjust his controls.

"It's debris, sir."  Frowning, Connors fought to control his console.  "Our path is full of it.  We exited out of hyperspace in the middle of a debris field."

"Scanning for what type."  The Conn. Officer bit her lower lip in concentration.  What she found made her pause.  "Sir, I'm not recognizing these metallic molecular signatures.  The database doesn't know what they are from either."

That drew Lorne's attention to the main screen once more.  "How big is it?"

"Several thousand kilometers.  There's more than one too..."  The Conn beeped, drawing the Lieutenant's attention to something else.  "Sir, I'm detecting an advanced radioactive particle count.  Someone's used nuclear weapons in this system recently."

Thinking quickly, Lorne went over the options in his mind.  There was one item that took priority though.  "Someone alert the Colonel.  Tell him we have a type four situation on our hands."  He couldn't seem to draw his eyes away from the debris field.  "Scan for survivors."

"Already on it, sir."  Another alert drew her attention from her current scans.  Gritting her teeth, she activated the window.  She barely had time to draw in a breath to gasp over what she saw before it was announced for her.

"Wraith!"  Connor's shout echoed in the bridge.  He brought the image up on the main screen.

Magnifying, the screen focused on a single image at the edge of the debris field.  Still sparking, half of a Wraith Cruiser drifted lazily towards a blue planet.

There was no doubt for Lorne in identifying it despite the significant damage.  "We'll, now we know the other side of the story."

~~~~~~~~~~

"Report!"  Storming on to the bridge, Colonel Caldwell looked directly to the man standing in front of his chair.

Back straight, Lorne saluted the Colonel.  "We came out of hyperspace in to a debris field.  We believe it to have been a ship.  Configuration and make unknown."  He amazed himself with how normal that had sounded coming from his lips.  That meant he was definitely spending way to much time in Star Ship land.

"Hostiles?"  Caldwell returned the salute, then walked around the command console to his chair.  Sitting down, he kept his eye on the Major but focused more on the main screen.

Lorne turned to the Conn. officer for confirmation.  "Scans indicate there were at least five Wraith Cruisers, over a hundred Darts, and one Hive ship."  Sensing the other's surprise, Lorne nodded.  "The opposing fleet consisted of nearly as many ships."

The news made the Colonel sigh.  "I take it from your tone there were no survivors?"

Lieutenant Connors cleared his throat.  "I apologize, sir, but the scans are not yet complete."  Unwilling to draw his attention away from the console, he continued to bring up new scan results.  "The molecular configuration of the debris makes it almost impossible to get an accurate reading on a simple surface scan.  I'm having to scan kilometer by kilometer, sir."

Pride at his officer's response shown on Caldwell's face.  "Very good, Lieutenant."  Turning back to Lorne, he sat back in his chair.  "Damage report?"

"Minor damage to the outer hull.  The secondary hull is holding, though."  Moving around so he could see the Conn's readouts, Lorne checked the systems for himself.  "A damage repair crew is already suited up and on the hull fixing her."

"Good, glad to see that the ship doesn't completely fall apart when I leave the bridge."  Letting his humor sink in, Caldwell refocused all his attention on the main screen.  What he saw didn't sit well with him.

This was the part that Lorne hated about being on a ship instead of a SG team.  Most of the time was spent waiting.  That was something they didn't reveal in all those old television shows.

So, bored, he occupied his time by watching the Conn. officer work.  After the hundredth scan log he had to stop watching.  Blinking didn't stop the aching in his retinas.  He didn't know how the nerds did it, but probably understood now why they needed glasses.

Lorne was in the middle of his third blink when an alert beeped from the helm control.  He glanced over in time to see the Lieutenant's head shoot up.

"Sir," she had a big smile, "I think I found something."

~~~~~~~~~~

Bumping against the sink, Felix came awake with a start.  His jerk caused him to drift away slowly.  His body began to rotate at a thirty degree angle to the deck.  In the dim emergency lights he could see that his body wasn't the only thing drifting in the zero gravity.

Round globs of a dark fluid orbited the body by the hatch.

He distantly was aware of what had happened.  The ship had to have suffered a catastrophic failure of the power grid for the gravity to fail.  In order for that to have happened, the engine room must have taken a direct hit.  The ship was probably in several pieces by now.

A sick feeling curled in his gut.  He knew without a shred of doubt that everyone was dead.  They few in this shower were the only survivors.

The outer limits of his extremities suddenly started to ache, drawing his attention.  Either the air was becoming carbon toxic or the temperature was well below tolerable limits.  He couldn't remember which it meant.  Didn't matter which one.  They were dead both ways.

They?  Felix frowned over that thought.  Forcing himself to pay attention, he listened for the sounds of life.

There, it was faint, but he could hear breathing.  There were other people alive in the chamber.  Not that it mattered for much longer.

Felix hoped for their sakes that they never woke up.  It was better this way.

Closing his eyes, he decided to let himself drift off.  If he was lucky, he would be unconscious before he felt any real pain.  That was a happier thought than...he wasn't sure.  Confusion clouded his mind and made it difficult to think.

He was halfway to sleeping when something caught his attention.  It was a flare in the lighting, nothing more.  Still, something in his mind sparked and he opened his eyes.

There, against the far bulkhead beyond the sinks, something.  Several some things.  There were several some things in suits.

Turning his head, Felix stared at them.  The suits were a garish orange that made his oxygen starved brain hurt.  His eyes couldn't stay focused for very long and thus, he thought they might be a hallucination.

One moved.  It raised an appendage to aim the beams of its flashlights.

Felix winced when the lights landed on him.  A couple more of the figures pointed their lights at him.  He heard something that sounded like the crack of a radio but couldn't make it out.  It didn't matter, the lights were painful.

Feeling annoyed at their rudeness, he turned away from it.  Moving was easy, one never forgot how to move in neutral gravity environments.  Slowly flaring his arms, he flung himself down towards the deck.  This caused his body to shoot down beside the sinks, dragging him out of range of the lights.  Finally, he was at peace.

Closing his eyes, Felix took a calm breath.  It was probably deadly, but at least he could die in peace with everyone else.

Several crackles came from the radios.  It almost sounded like voices.  They were asking questions.

For illusions, they were certainly noisy.  And bright.  He felt the lights upon him a second time.

Some how, they had come around the sinks without him realizing it.  Opening his eyes revealed to him that there were four of them moving.  They were coming for him.

Felix panicked.  He kicked out to drive himself back towards the showers.  He wasn't fast enough as one caught his leg.  Twirling, he tried to break free by kicking the owner of the hand.

"What the hell?"  It was definitely a man's voice, despite the crackle of the radio.

Opening his eyes, Felix glared at him.  "Let go."  He shook his head slowly from side to side.  "Just let me go back to sleep."  Peaceful numbness in his mind seemed to agree with his words.

Unfortunately, the owner of the hand had other ideas.  "Hang on.  We're here to save you."

Some how he summoned up the strength to snort.  "It doesn't matter.  Save yourselves."  His chest wheezed with the next breath.  Definitely CO2 poisoning.  "We are the last."  He didn't know where that had come from or why it was important.

"It's okay.  You're going to be okay."  The man must not have heard him.

Suddenly, it was imperative for the man to understand.  Opening his eyes wide, Felix tried to curl his body.  He barely moved, but that was enough to get the man's attention.  "No!  They destroyed our colonies.  Six...six billion.  Machines!"  Out of breath, Felix couldn't do manage to say anymore.

"What is he rambling about, sir?"  It was a woman, she sounded more annoyed than curious.

"I don't know exactly."  The man gave Felix's leg a squeeze.  "Sounds like the wraith got his people."

Coughing, Felix shook his head.  This fool was going to get his people killed if he wasn't corrected.  "Cylons!"  Coughing again, he felt something in his lungs burst.  "Cylons!  Machines!"

The man held up something that glowed in Felix's direction.  "His biosigns are weakening.  We have to get them out of here now!"  Aiming around the compartment, his hiss was loud over the suit's speakers.  "Shit!  This air is fifteen percent carbon dioxide.  Grab the survivors and beam back now!"

Felix wanted to protest against whatever they were planning but felt himself slip under.  With a sigh of relief, he let go.

~~~~~~~~~~

Moving the control stones across his panel, Hermiod monitored the output from the hyperdrive diagnostics.  It was a very distressing process.  The human systems were barely compatible with them as it was.  One flaw and they would all end up scattered across the vastness of the Universe.

A slight variance in the output from the primary generator made him close his eyes and sigh.  Tilting his head to the side, he adjusted the fuel input matrix equation.  That eliminated the variance in a satisfactory manner.

He was about to reach for the next stone when the primitive communication device they had insisted installing in his designated station chirped at him.  Head rising, he blinked at in annoyance.  One rotation he might actually give in to his baser urge and beam the contemptible device in to the vastness of space.

As it was, he reached over and tapped it with one hand.  "Speak, human."  In his dealings with these primates, he had learned short, simple commands were best employed.  This left very little leeway for their irritating habit of engaging him in entirely useless conversation.

"This is Major Lorne.  My team has found survivors.  We are holding them.  You can lock on to our position and beam all of us on board at any time."  The human voice sounded emotionally effected.

"Very well."  Reaching for another control stone, Hermiod activated the beaming device.  It was a very simple matter, more a control of the mind than programming.  That was the part no human had yet to understand or master.

Fifth Race indeed!

Only after he had completed his task did he pause to consider the human's voice.  Delegation of tasks and responses was another tactic that humans lacked.  His months of listening to these creatures had taught him to understand their emotional inflections.

The Major Lorne had been extremely upset.  Curious, Hermiod ran a scan of the chamber that his team had been beamed to.  Raising his upper eye-ridges, he gave himself a moment to readjust his impression.

Humans found it exceedingly difficult to deal with the remains of their fellow humans.  Given the violent means of expiration for those within the scanned section gave Hermiod new insight.  This once he would forgive a human's emotional reaction.

Putting it from his mind, he glanced over the scan log for the beaming device.  Later he would give himself time to reflect over his own horrors at the hands of their greatest enemy.  The similarities in this situation were not lost on him.  Halfway through the cursory glance he stopped.

Frowning, he went back to the top and began to read the entire log over.  The results had to be a mistake.  Activating the diagnostics program he muttered to himself.  Fixing the mistakes caused by these primitive human systems was going to ruin his highly evolved intelligence.

__________________
Part 2. Where Are We?

 

Entering the infirmary, Caldwell expected to find controlled chaos.  He was not disappointed.  What he saw took his breath away.  Standing well out of the action, he watched the medical teams go about their duties.

On the gurneys were six individuals.  IV lines and wires connected to them in several locations.  Visible were cuts and contusions that openly bled, many deep.  Not a one of them wore a scrap of clothing.  What they had been wearing lay in tatters on the deck with used sponges.

The squeals of monitoring equipment shrilly drew attention over the shouts of doctors.  Yet, Caldwell heard neither.  Over the pounding of his own heart he heard noises of another time.  He was dragged back thirty years to another triage unit.

A voice spoke.

The feeling of a firm hand on his shoulder jerked Caldwell from his daze.  Sucking in a quick breath he turned to stare at the owner of the hand.  Finding Major Lorne, he composed himself enough to nod at his understanding look.  "What the hell happened over there, Major?"

"They were in a secure department, sir.  A lockerroom with a communal shower."  Lorne, unable to meet the Colonel's gaze, glanced about the deck until he found a shard.  He pointed to it on the floor among the bandages.  "I think the force of the ship being destroyed caused the tiles to explode like shrapnel."

"My god."  Getting himself under control, Caldwell nodded more out of a need to do something.  There was nothing either of them could do in this situation for these people.  A small part of him was relieved about that.

Feeling a little better gave him the strength to plow onwards.  He had to get some answers for his own logs and peace of mind.  "Were there any more?"

"One."  Looking over his shoulder back toward the way he had come, Lorne swallowed down a shuddering breath.  "He's the most put together of them."  The metal doors that separated the private rooms from the general infirmary stood their ominously silent.

 

Seeing the other man's reaction, it was Caldwell's turn to feel sympathetic.  He reached up to grab the hand on his shoulder and gave it a squeeze.  "Can we get some answers out of him?"

"We might.  That's when he wakes up."  Lorne gave the Colonel's shoulder a quick squeeze then withdrew his hand.  "Doc's got him on psych watch and oxygen tent.  He was only suffering from carbon dioxide poisoning when we brought him in."

There was no need to ask why the psych watch.  Caldwell could put two and two together well enough on his own.  "Keep me up to date on their situation.  I'll be on the bridge, we still have a stargate to secure."

~~~~~~~~~~

He was cold.  That was the first sensation that fully formed in Felix's mind.  The second was that he was laying on something semi-soft.  Judging from that and the soft beeping from nearby, he judged himself to be in the infirmary.  That explained why he felt so weak.

An involuntary groan passed his lips as he shifted.  The pain in his left shoulder and lower back informed him that he must have fallen.  He hoped whoever had attacked them suffered worse than he did.

Not like it mattered, though, since the frakkers would get new bodies.

Still, even dying had to hurt for them.  It had certainly been no picnic for him.  That was the price they paid for getting soft bodies.  Which was the best trade off he could think of.  Pain, so much of it, for them.  That was a beautiful thought.

He frowned.  Dying had hurt.  When had he been dying?

Thinking about that brought up the communal showers.  Last thing he recalled clearly was fixing his hair in the mirror.  He needed to visit Crewman Lycellum to get them trimmed back.  They were a half inch from failure to comply with regulation.

Opening his eyes for the first time, he was greeted with a blurry array of colors.  His eyes stung making him blink.  Despite the pain, he instantly knew something was wrong.  These colors were all wrong.  Now that he thought about it, the sound of the heart monitor was off too.

That meant he wasn't on the Galactica.  Where the hell was he?  A sudden fear caused his chest to clench.  Had he been captured?

The beeping of the heart monitor increased until it set off an alarm.

Felix reached up to rub the tears of pain from his eyes.  A pain from his arm halfway to his hand told him that a stent was implanted in his vein.  Subconsciously, he recognized this was a logical thing, but he didn't care.  What mattered was the fact that someone had stuck something in him.

The alarm on the monitor squealed louder.

His fear level increased over this.  It was going to alert someone that he was awake.  Sudden anger at the device made him lash out.  The back of his hand smacked in to the solid device.

It screamed one last time as it fell over.  Halfway through the beep it was silenced by the sound of a small explosion.  The smell of scorched plastic and ozone filled the air.

Wrinkling his nose, Gaeta wiped at his cheeks.  The tears cleared from his eyes he could now see.  It was indeed an infirmary, but unlike anyone he have ever seen before.  

While the room shared many of the same traits as that on Galactica', there was one primary difference.  There were actual computers embedded in the walls.  Not just monitoring device, but actual computers.  A shudder ran through Gaeta.

Glancing about, he searched for one of his captors.  There had to be someone.  The amount of noise he had made would draw them like flies.  When no one came for him, he frowned.

What kind of infirmary was this?  Where were the doctors and nurses?

Sitting up on one elbow proved to be too much effort and he had to stop to rest.  As he lay there panting, he continued his search.  There were monitoring devices, at least as far as he could tell, attached to the ceiling.  They were watching him.

So where was everyone?

A moment later his question was answered as the hiss of doors opening drew his attention.  Past the foot of his bed was a wall with a set of metallic doors.  They had drawn back enough to let a figure in.  The man standing there was in a graish-blue uniform with black trim.  Felix's eyes were instantly drawn to the holster on his hip.

This was a military vessel.

The man staring at Felix looked a little stunned.  His bright blue eyes were opened enough that their color was visible in the dim light.  "Wow, you're awake."

"I am Pycan."  Forcing himself to sit up further, he grunted from pain.  His muscles ached like he had been running for miles.  Yet, he did not let that stop him.  There would be no sign of weakness in front of this man.  For all he knew, this was still an elaborate Cylon trick.

If it was, the man was doing a thorough job as he looked confused by Felix's words.  Reaching up to scratch at his ear, he gave a tight smile.  "I'm afraid I've never heard of that one."

Okay, Felix could handle that.  He would play along for now.  At least until he had enough information and his strength back.  "My colony is Pycon.  Aside from the Colonial Fleet Headquarters, we are known for our quick recovery time."

"I see."  Clearly he didn't.  Still, the man wasn't being hostile.  Taking an uncertain step in to the room he tried to meet Felix's stare but failed.  "What can you tell me about the battle?"

"Which one?"  Even as he spoke, Felix's mind connected the dots.  He remembered the ship's death throes as the power was lost and the alarms died.  Feeling dizzy, he almost fell out of the bed.  Strong hands were suddenly there to catch him.

Feeling grateful, Felix clutched at the man's shoulders to keep himself from going down.  The muscles in his arms bounced from the strain but he would not let go.  To minimize the ache, Felix dropped his head to rest on his left arm.  "How long?"

"Our scans indicate the attack happened around nineteen hours ago.  We rescued you under two hours ago."  The words were a hoarse whisper.  His face was only a few inches from Felix's ear.  "You're one of seven survivors."

"Seven," he asked in a pained gasp?  Five months on the run and there were only seven members of the human race left.  He suddenly felt too weak to hang on.  Only the sheer force of will kept his grip on the man's shoulders.  May be he was wrong.  A test, he needed a test to prove if he was wrong.  "There were a hundred and ten ships in the fleet."

"Our scans indicated a hundred and thirteen."  When Felix moaned in distress, the man slid an arm around his body.  Easing him back in to the bed, he shushed him to calm him down.  "You're alive, that's what's important now."

No, it wasn't.  It didn't matter that he had made it.  They were really all gone.  Felix no longer cared what happened.  As far as he was concerned he might as well not have made it at all.  He wanted to just go back to sleep and never wake up.  Unfortunately the man had other ideas.

Putting his palm to Felix's cheek, he drew his thumb over the tear track he found there.  "Hey, I have a few questions for you.  Do you think you can answer them?"

"The ship's log."  Tilting his head away, Felix clenched his eyes shut.  What did it matter if this was even a Cylon trap.  They had won, he knew the Galactica was gone and that was the end of it.  "In the CIC, if it survived, six leather-bound, hand-written books."  Pressing his face in to the pillow, he stopped fighting it and let the exhaustion take him.

~~~~~~~~~~

Walking through the corridors, Lorne tried to keep his own reaction under control.  He hadn't even been in the battle yet he was experiencing his own flashbacks.  It wasn't hard to picture the drag out fight between the Wraith fleet and the Colonials.  That last word made him frown.

He couldn't remember hearing it but that seemed appropriate.  The man in the infirmary kept mentioning the colonies.  Colonies implied a homeworld but he never once said a word about it.  It was all about the colonies.

So, they were Colonials.  The Colonial Fleet.  If these hundred or so ships were the last then...He had dealt with the last of a species before.  They never were right after that.

He had to move aside to let a scientist pass.  She was carrying a bag of something but he didn't care enough to notice what.

The loss of one's home was devastating.  Compound that with the destruction of their entire species and it was impossible.  Lorne prayed to whoever was out there that the Wraith responsible were all dead.  That they had died in the most horrific fashion available was the best he could hope for.

Judging by the debris field around them, most of them had.  He felt a sense of victory and vindictiveness for the people in the infirmary.  At least they hadn't gone out quietly.  That was the most beautiful thing about the human species, they never gave up without a fight.

Coming up on the entrance to the engine room, he reached up to enter his security code.  The doors opened and he quickly stepped through.  Lorne was shaken from of his thoughts by the sight of what greeted him.

Standing in the center of the beaming platform was a scientist.  He wasn't one Lorne had dealt with before, but the device he was using was.  It was a metallurgical scanner.  He was busy scanning a box of what appeared to be gray sand.

What drew Lorne's attention, though, was the symbol on the side.  It was a character he had seen before, but not in the Pegasus Galaxy.  Anger flushed through him and he took a stomping step towards the man.  "What in the hell do you think you're doing?"

The scientist's head jerked up.  His Atlantis Expedition jumpsuit cut in to the skin of his throat as he turned to stare wide-eyed at the Major.  "Major Lorne!"

"That's my name."  Anger caused his lips to draw back in a snarl.  "Care to explain why you are looting graves?"

"Graves, sir?"  The man's voice came out in a hesitant gasp.  Blinking, he tugged at his collar.  "We weren't..."

"You're stealing from those ships."  Pointing at the box, Lorne glared the man down.  "That's not ours, I know that symbol.  It came from that fleet out there."

"There is no fleet, Major, it's a debris field!"  Rising from his box, the man's complexion started to darken.  He opened his mouth to speak but snapped it shut when Lorne sliced a hand through the air.

Turning his head to face Hermiod, Lorne growled out, "send it back, now."

Without waiting for the scientist's response, Hermiod moved a stone across his panel.

The box glowed white then disappeared in a flash of light as it shot up through the ceiling.

Horrified, the scientist took an angry step towards Lorne.  "Major!"  He backed up and held his hands over his chest when the man glared at him.  "It was Naquidah, Major, almost a hundred percent pure.  Do you know how rare that is?  We have never found a source of it in the Pegasus Galaxy!"

"Well, now you know it is out there."  Bringing his anger in check, Lorne took a deep breath.  He didn't speak again until he was reasonably sure he wouldn't bite the man's head off.  "This is a graveyard.  These people are newly dead, have some respect."

That seemed to take the wind out of the man's sails.  Shrinking down on himself, he sighed.  He nodded once.  Heading for the hatch, he kept his gaze down.

Once the doors had closed behind the scientist, Lorne took a long breath.  His chest hurt by the time he finished.  Exhaling through his nose, he focused upon Hermiod.

The Asgard blinked at him in expectation.  Hands already on the control stones, he merely waited for the coming request.

It was with a heavy heart that Lorne took the final steps to the control console.  Looking up from his feet to the Asgard he frowned.  "Have you located the command area of the main ship?"

"I have."  Hermiod tilted his head as he picked up a control stone.  "What do you require?"

"Is there a book of some kind there?  Leather bound, may be more than one."  He tried to form a book with his hands, but couldn't decide upon the right size.  "One of the survivors, he told me their ship's log was hand written in them."

"You stand accusing one of your own of stealing, yet do the same not only moments later."  As he spoke, the Asgard activated his controls.  A moment later he blinked in satisfaction.  "I have located the requested items."

Guilt made Lorne swallow while he tried to come up with another solution.  A half formed thought occurred to him from something he had heard once.  Snapping his fingers, he pointed at the smaller being.  "Can you duplicate them?  Their entire contents?"

"It is not impossible."  Moving another stone, Hermiod closed his eyes.

The groan of the beaming device activating made Lorne jump.  Within seconds a large blast of light produced a book in the center of the platform.  Five more consecutive blasts created the rest of the set.  It finished with a rushing sound and the beaming platform shut down.

"Thank you."  Walking over to them, Lorne bent down and picked up the one on top.  The artificial leather was warm to the touch.  His fingers traced the symbol on the cover that looked like a flaming star in his mind.  A single word at the bottom of the symbol made him pause.  Not only was it the word but the letters.

Galactica.

The word was written in plain English.  Not in all the years of the Stargate program had anyone encountered a society where English was the spoken and written language.  A twisting started in Lorne's stomach as he glanced over his shoulder at Hermiod.  "Did you translate this?"

"They are as you requested, perfect replicas."  The diminutive being sounded insulted over the mere question.

That twisting turned in to a solid ball of ice.  He grimaced at the familiar feeling of dread.  Something weird was going on here.  Reaching up to his ear piece, he activated the comm link.  "Colonel, I got the logs from the Colonial ship.  There's something you've gotta see."

"Colonial?"  Caldwell's confusion warred with irritation.  "Forget about those for the moment.  Get up here to the bridge.  There's something I think you'll want to be a part of."  He deactivated the comm signal abruptly.

Frowning, Lorne looked to Hermiod for some clarification.  When the Asgard only looked back at him, he sighed.  "Can you send these to my quarters?"  They were glowing before he even finished the last word.  He fell back to avoid the flash of light.

The Asgard blinked at him in amusement.

~~~~~~~~~~

Lorne was breathing heavily by the time he made it to the bridge.  He wasn't out of shape, but having to navigate the corridors of this ship while jogging and avoiding people pretty much threw him off any rhythm.  It was a wonder that he even managed to make it here at all.  Still, he was there.

Walking through the hatch, he took a deep breath to compose himself.  He knew that his face was flushed but it couldn't be helped.  He nodded an acknowledgment to the lieutenant manning the engineering console as he passed.  Then, he was standing at Caldwell's right, adjacent.

Stopping at parade rest, he folded his hands behind his back.  Staring at the screen, he saw only the debris field.  "You requested that I join you, sir?"

Twisting his chair so he could glimpse the Major out of the corner of his eye, Caldwell nodded.  "Lieutenant Van Brose, patch in Mr. Woolsey any time you're ready."  It was an order but his tone indicated that he had no inclination to have it carried out.

The Lieutenant at the communications console behind them stared at his station for a moment.  With a sigh he activated the link.

Appearing on the front screen, the man in question adjusted his glasses.  "Colonel Caldwell."  His eyes fell immediately upon the man in question, ignoring everyone else on the bridge.  "I am curious as to why I was on hold for so long."

"Frankly, it's because I don't care to speak to you."  The look on his face made it clear he wasn't joking.  "You're like a black cat, every time we cross paths something bad always happens."

"Well, I'm so sorry that my presence puts you at such dire straits."  Woolsey's pinched features seemed to become even more so.  He swallowed almost as if he tasted something bitter.  "I'll make this quick and to the point.  You are to bring your passengers to Atlantis immediately.  This is a direct order from the IOA."

"Passengers?"  Caldwell shared a glance with Lorne before giving Wolsey his entire attention again.  "What do you know of them?"

"Nothing.  That's why you are to bring them here."  The man offered them a patronizing smile.  "Woolsey out."  Then his image disappeared from the screen.

"I really hope something eats that man."  Much to everyone's surprise, especially his own, it was Lorne who spoke.  Finding himself at the center of attention, he snorted and smirked.  "Tell me I'm the only one who feels that way."

"That isn't the point, Major.  You can feel it, you just can't say it."  Caldwell wouldn't look at Lorne, not even to a quick glance.  "Lieutenant Maxwell, is the gate secured in the cargo bay?"

"Yes, sir."  Checking her controls, Maxwell smiled.  "Everything has been inspected and boxed for shipment."

That met with a nod from the Colonel.  "Good, Lieutenant Gunderson, get us the hell out of here and back to Atlantis base before Mr. Woolsey blows a hemorrhoid."

Now that that was taken care of, Lorne's mind came back around to the logs.  He knew that they were important, but was smart enough to wait until the Colonel brought it up.  Since the IOA had stuck its nose, that would probably be when no one else was around.

Speaking of the IOA...  Lorne cleared his throat.  "Sir, how did the IOA find out so quickly about our rescued passengers?"

"That's something I'd like to know myself."  Turning his chair, Caldwell looked to Vam Brose.  Raising his eyebrows, he waited for a response.

"I'm on it, sir."  The lieutenant swallowed nervously as he brought up the communications logs.  What he found made him frown.  He checked the logs three different times but they came back the same every time.  "I'm not finding anything, sir.  There were no communications from the ship logged since before we came out of hyperspace."

Closing his eyes, Lorne heard the Colonel shift in his chair.  There was going to be an inhouse inquisition for this.  A half a heart beat later, he felt the ship jump to hyperspace.

~~~~~~~~~

Removing his ear piece, Lorne all but staggered through his door.  It had been hours since he had last been in them thanks to his duties.  He would still be at them if the Colonel hadn't ordered him to get some rest.

Unzipping his uniform jacket, he glanced over to the portholes.  The violent purple swirls of hyperspace made his head hurt so he had to quickly turn away.  That was at least one source of his headache he could ignore.

The other was not so easily put from his mind.  After nearly six hours of scouring the memory banks of every computer on the ship, they weren't any closer to finding the leak.  At this rate Caldwell was going to have whomever it was served on a silver platter when they were caught.

Groaning, he slipped the jacket from his shoulders.  He was heading to his closet when he saw something out of the corner of his eye.  It took him a moment to realize what they were.  Another second after that he realized what they were doing there.

In all the excitement he had forgotten about the log books.  They had been there ever since Hermiod had beamed them in hours ago.  The information in them might not solve the current mystery but it might answer a few others.  More importantly, he was the only person on board who had them.

Lorne was well aware he was there to get some sleep.  His body demanded it even.  It was the smart thing to do.  Yet, the lure of finding out what lay hidden in those books surprised him.  He wanted to read those tomes.

'Thank you very much, Dr. Jackson, for that word,' he mused to himself.

He wasn't a geek, not even by the longest stretch of the word.  Hard facts and data only pertinent to his mission were what interested him.  Even then, he wanted it simple and straight to the point.  He wouldn't get that pouring through six thick books.

Still, his fingers itched to pry open the covers.

Glancing to his wrist watch, he had to blink three times to get his eyes to focus.  That settled it.  It didn't matter what the time was.  He was going to get some sleep now.  Peering at the watch with one eye open, he counted down in his head.

There were twelve hours left until they got back to Atlantis base.  Thirteen if Caldwell ordered the ship to go slower for more time.  He only needed eight to sleep so he could function at peak efficiency.  That left four-plus hours to read the books before he had to go back on duty and report to Colonel Sheppard.

Smiling at his own ingenuity, Lorne tugged at his uniform shirt.  Sleep first, book reading later.

____________________
Part 3.  The Great Kissoff.

 

Felix came awake as he felt the world around him shift back in to normal space.  He felt a little disoriented mainly from the fact he hadn't been aware they were jumping.  Now that he could sense it his system took a moment to come back to normal.

In that time he opened his eyes to look around.  He felt disappointed that it hadn't been a bad dream.  That he was still stuck in this alien infirmary was a fact he would have to get used to.  Something new, however, was the presence of someone else in the room.

Two someone elses to be precise.

They had stuck guards on his room.  He supposed this meant he was a prisoner now.  Since these men were unlike anyone he had seen before it was safe to assume this was not a Cylon plot.  If he were to accept that as fact, then that left the question of where was he?

His cheeks burned with shame.  These were questions he had been taught to seek answers first.  Know your situation was the first lesson of survival that they taught back in the academy.  Well, it had been when there was still an academy.

He was certain there was a lovely crater right where the academy had been.  There was probably some lower lifeform like roaches inhabiting that crater, creating their own families and dramas.  Life would flourish even in the face of destruction.

He hoped the Cylons enjoyed the barren worlds they had created for themselves.  If what Helo had described was true, they were pretending to even be their creators.  What a joke.  A collection of subroutines and circuits thinking that it could ever possibly compare.

Clearing his throat, he went to sit up.  His muscles instantly protested the action and started to shake.  Through sheer determination he made it up enough to lean over his bent legs.  Pale and shaky, he grinned at the guards.

There was no response from them.

That was just fine with him.  He didn't particularly care for them either.  When his strength had built up enough, he turned to push his legs off the side of the bed.  He smirked at that.  It was little more than a gurney, far from a bed.

The moment he was relatively certain that his feet would hold him, he slipped off the bed.  His legs gave a few jerks but his knees held out in the end.  With that settled, he turned to face the doors.  At this point he wasn't really certain what he would do next.

Beyond those doors, if he was allowed through them, lay an alien world.  Did he really care to see it?  Suddenly feeling tired he sagged against the bed.  Why had he even gotten up?

Felix knew that his feelings were fluctuating erratically, but didn't have the strength to control them and his body at the same time.  It was an uphill battle just to remain standing.  For a distraction, he looked to the guards.

Unsurprising, they hadn't even given him a second look.  He was clearly no threat to them or the ship.

He frowned.  He was pretty sure he might get in one good shot if push came to shove.  That was all his reserves held.  It would have to do.

Taking one hesitant step from the bed, he leaned his weight on the shaky knee.  To his amazement and relief, it held.  That done, he put out his other leg.  Before he knew it he was several paces from the bed.

Looking up revealed that he was only two steps from the door.  The guards made no move to intercept him which was all the permission he needed to walk through them.  Felix wasn't certain what to expect when the doors withdrew on their own.  The sight beyond them soon distracted him from that though.

It was indeed an infirmary.  Lined up along the walls in various states of recuperation were people he finally recognized.  Each of them was attached to some form of lifesupport.  It was as that man had stated with one exception.

There were only three people here.

He snorted.  A moment later his eyes started to sting.  They were four people, the last four humans in all the Universe.  How utterly perfect.

A thought occurred to him.  He should just go over and turn off those damned machines.  Better that they never wake up than know the truth.  Felix was seriously debating just that when the hissing sound of doors opening to his right drew his attention.

Looking over, he heard a gasp.  What he found did not impress him at all.

Standing frozen in the doorway, a group of four people stared at Felix.  For several moments they did nothing but look at him.

The one at the front swallowed down his nervousness.  Taking a step towards Felix, he ran his palms over his brown and red uniform.  Clearing his throat he smiled to try and reassure the unstable man.  "Hi.  Can you understand me?"

For a moment Felix considered growling at the man.  Obviously he believed Felix enfeebled or worse, primitive.  There was one thing Doctor Baltar had taught him and that was how to deal with people like him.  "The real question is are your auditory functions capable of distinguishing normal speech patterns enough to understand me."

A man in a blue uniform to the leader's right snorted.  He smacked the leader's shoulder with the back of his hand.  "Sounds like you've finally met your match, McKay."

"Then obviously he is too smart for you."  The one designated as McKay almost snarled at the one in blue.  Comment made, he focused once more on Felix.  "One question down, let's get to some others.  What do you know about the ancients?"

"Rodney!"  Smacking the leader's shoulder from the left, the woman there plastered on a sympathetic smile.  "You really must learn to be more tactful."

"I must get some answers.  How can I do that if you people keep interrupting me?"  He finished the question in a snappish tone.  McKay was actively glaring at everyone and anyone now.  A small shove by the taller man from behind made him sigh.  "Fine.  How are you doing?  Are you up to answering some questions?  I hope the genocide of your people hasn't haunted your dreams too much."  He winced as he was hit from three different directions at once.

Having been watching this going on, Felix felt his numb shock turn to a simmering anger.  These people were the closest source of hostility he felt safe enough venting on.  "If I had a weapon, I would kill all four of you right now."

That certainly shut them up real quick.  Blinking at him in surprise, they clearly hadn't been expecting that response.

The one a little taller than the leader man stared at Felix with slightly widened eyes.  "Right.  Well, okay, I think we've gotten off on the wrong foot here."  He pointed to his chest.  "I am Lieutenant Colonel Sheppard, this is my team.  The woman over there is Teyla Emmagan."  He gestured to the short man.  "This is Dr. Rodney McKay, and the big guy back there is Ronon."

Teyla nodded her greeting.  "It is a pleasure to meet you..."  She left the end hanging for a response.

Well, here it was.  This was his chance to finally reveal himself to these people.  Scowling, Felix considered letting them hang there.  It would serve them right.  Still, rules were rules, even if there was only him to follow them.

Raising his head, he held it high.  "I am Lieutenant Felix Gaeta, third officer of the BattleStar Galactica."  When he received no sense of recognition from them he snorted again.  "I guess that makes me the highest ranking survivor of the Human Race."

"I don't know, I like to think a Colonel beats a Lieutenant."  Sheppard's comment was greeted by an elbow to his ribs from McKay.  "Hey!  I was just trying to make him smile.  Something you apparently suck at, Rodney!"

Letting his eyes wander over them, Felix took in their distinctive garb and weapons.  They were definitely not Colonial issue.  Well, most of them, the big guy's clothing looked like something from the pleasure resorts on Tauron.  This stray thought caused him to snort.

"See.  He gets it."  Sheppard gestured at Felix with a bony finger.

"You are not funny, even for a Colonel."  Felix's words had the desired effect, the man stopped pointing at him.  "I do not recognize your uniforms.  What colonies do you come from?"

"Colonies?  Hardly."  McKay took control again.  The superior smirk looked natural on his face.  "If anything, your people are from our colonies."

This sent a shiver through Felix.  Could it be possible?  "You cannot be from Kobol."

Despite a warning growl from the man behind him, McKay snorted.  Crossing his arms, he stared Felix down like he was the feeble one.  "Right on that one, genius.  Try Earth."

The words hit him like a Viper at full burn.  Staggering backwards, Felix barely maintained his balance.  His shaky stance drew the others towards him.  Holding up his hands he warded them off.  "I am all right."

"Forgive me, but you do not look it."  Teyla tried to take a step towards him, but stopped at his head shake.  "Please, let us help you."

"You are from Earth?"  Felix waited for McKay's eye roll before he sucked in a quick breath.  "We have been searching..."

"A Wraith worshipper, I knew it!"  Pointing at the unstable man, McKay's eyes lit up.  He turned to smirk at Sheppard.  "Pay up!  That will be twenty-five Canadian, thank you.  Don't try slipping me some of that devalued American crap."

"Wraith?"  Blinking, Felix tried to clear the spots from his eyes.  "I have never heard of them."  When blinking didn't help, Felix swallowed and reached up to rub at them.  "My people worship the Lords of Kobol."

"Who is that?"  Teyla ignored McKay and Sheppard to stare only at Felix.  Her soft voice lowered in pitch to be comforting.  "We have never heard of your gods."

"Not mine.  Others."  Finding it hard to keep focus, Felix shook his head.  That failed to help and he rubbed at his temple.  "We came from Kobol.  Legends say that we had to leave, it wasn't safe.  The Lords sent us away for our protection."  Felix felt himself sway as his vision blurred.  "We were searching for you."

"What happened to your people?"  Teyla was closer now.  Her voice was almost hypnotic.  "Why were you searching for Earth?"

"We needed a new home."  Felix's chuckle came out almost a sob.  Growling to himself, he shook his head harder.  He had to get answers while he still could.  "Where is Earth?  Are you really from there?"

This was greeted with silence.

Clenching his eyes shut to stem the rising tide of his nausea, Felix dropped his chin.  "You're not are you?  This is all just a trick."  Feeling his body weaken, he staggered.  "Gods damned Cylons."  Strong hands caught him before he hit the deck.  "Just let me die.  Please.  Haven't I....suffered....enough?"  He found it hard to concentrate and speak at the same time.

"Help me, John, I think he is about to pass out!"  It was Teyla again.  She sounded really far away.

Felix tried to break away, but their hold was too strong.  "Please, let me die.  Let me die."  His words came out in a choked gasp.  "Please."

"Just tell him!"  She sounded angry.  Her fingers, for they were soft and motherly, ran over Felix's brow.  "It is all right, Lieutenant, you have found your final tribe.  We will take you to Earth."

Felix didn't know whether to laugh or cry.  In the end he wasn't conscious enough to do either.

~~~~~~~~~~

Turning the page, Lorne mumbled the words as he read them.  His ink stained finger traced the words across the paper.  After several hours of reading he had needed a guide to keep his place.

He knew that he should take a break, but the reports were fascinating.  An entire culture summed up in just a few lines seemed fantastic.  It was in a plain military dialog that was easy to follow along for someone with his experience.

There were a few references that he didn't get.  Frowning as he came upon one, he paused to consider it.  "FTL drive."  There were numerous reference to the use, function, and malfunction of it.  He couldn't be certain, but he believed that it was the Star Drive they used.

If that were true, though, it was completely different than anything he had ever encountered before.  Goa'uld Tech, Ancient Tech, and now Asgard Tech, none of them even mentioned in passing the effects described by the BattleStar's final Commander.

Going back to the logs, he scanned the final entries on the page.  The Cylon War had taken many lives.  But the sheer level of devastation mentioned in the second invasion was staggering.  Picking up the pieces and running for their lives had taken a lot of guts.  He wasn't certain that he could have done it.

It was just a damn shame they had encountered the Wraith.

Flipping to the next page, he read the casualty report for a bomb that had taken out a number of the pilots.  Improperly stored ammo with aging equipment had killed three and injured another six.  This made stark the reality of their situation.

This had truly been a refugee fleet.  There was denying the words and their effect.  No one had been prepared for the attack.  That anyone had survived was a miracle.

He was about to begin the next report when his comm beeped in his ear.  Reaching up, he tapped it with a little more force than necessary.  Annoyed that he had been interrupted, he cleared his throat.  "Lorne."

"Major.  My office, now!"  It was the Colonel and he sounded pissed.

Alarmed, Lorne looked to the window.  His heart nearly stopped when he realized they were back in normal space.  He was late for his duty shift!

Swallowing, he nodded.  It was only after he had done that he realized how stupid that had been.  "On my way, sir."

~~~~~~~~~~

"What the hell did you think you were doing?"  Head throbbing, Caldwell rubbed a hand over his forehead.  "Do you have any idea how much strain your little interrogation put on his system?"

"Well, to be honest, sir, we didn't actually interrogate him."  Sheppard tried for a liter tone, but it fell flat at the Colonel's serious expression.  Shifting a little, he shrugged.  "We didn't go there with that in mind.  Rodney wanted to examine our, your, guests.  None of us thought they would be awake."

"I don't give a damn what you thought!"  These people really seemed to have it out for him.  It wouldn't be so bad if this kinda crap only happened once in a while, but Caldwell was coming to expect it from them.  "How in the hell did you even get on this ship so fast?"

All eyes quickly went to McKay.

Standing behind Ronon's shoulder, Rodney tried to appear like he wasn't part of their group.  When he noticed they were looking at him, his eyes widened a little and his mouth automatically opened.  "What are you looking at me for?  It was Sheppard's idea."

"You wanted to see them as much as I did."  Sheppard's belligerent tone was punctuated by a pointed finger directly at the scientist.

"That's what this is about?"  Caldwell's headache increased throbbing to match his pulse.  "You wanted to be the first people to have a look at the survivors?"  When they wouldn't meet his stare he suddenly had a feeling of being back home twenty years earlier.  These weren't his teenagers caught smoking, they weren't even his people.  "Major!"

Standing at attention, Lorne met the Colonel's stare.  "Sir?"  The repressed anger made him glance off in the perfect stance.

"Where were you when all this was going on?"  Folding his hands behind his back, Caldwell clenched them in to fists.  "I ordered you to be on duty when we arrived to brief Lieutenant Colonel Sheppard on the situation."

Clenching his jaw, Lorne swallowed.  "I was in my quarters, reading, sir."

For a moment, Caldwell almost asked what he could be reading to that would be so distracting.  Before he could voice it though, he remembered.  In other circumstances he would have asked what the man found out.  The actions of Sheppard and his team decided against that however.

So, instead, he simply shook his head in disappointment.  "We are expected to maintain our discipline at all times, Major.  Until now, you've been a model soldier."  Caldwell could tell by the way Lorne's spine stiffened more with each rebuke that his words hit home.  There would be no further slip ups.  "You can make up for this mistake now."

"Sir?"  Raising an eyebrow, Lorne glanced to his superior's face.

A small twinge formed in Caldwell's chest.  "Escort these damned idiots off my ship!"  The shocked expressions from Sheppard's team made the twinge tighten.  "I will be filing a formal complaint against the four of you."

"You can't do that!"  Having had enough, Rodney shoved Ronon aside so he could step up to the Colonel's desk.  "We had a legitimate claim..."

"Bullshit!  These people need medical attention, not a bunch of gawking yahoos too stupid to realize their own arrogance."  Leaning over his desk, the Colonel lowered his voice to a threatening growl.  "Your stunts may fly with that civilian bureaucrat, but this is a military vessel!  This is my ship!  The rules don't fly out the window just because you don't care for them!"

By the time Caldwell had finished yelling, Rodney looked as if he had been smacked with a two-by-four.  Licking his lips, he took a shuddering breath.  That didn't seem to help compose himself very much though.  "I see."  His words were almost a whisper.

Standing erect once more, Caldwell refused to break the eye contact he had with the scientist.  "Major, I believe I gave you an order."

"Yes, sir."  Glowering at the now sulking team, Lorne raised a hand to guide them towards the hatch.  "Come on."  Stepping towards the team, he put a hand on Teyla's shoulder.  That earned him a glare from Sheppard but that didn't stop him from doing his job.

Watching as the five people filed out of his office, Caldwell sighed through his nose.  What the hell was wrong with these people?  The sad part was he knew they would most likely get away with it.  The IOA didn't give a damn unless it was something they wanted.

Well, there was something he could do.  Punching his ear piece, he glared at the doors.  "Get me Dr. Weir."

~~~~~~~~~~

Walking behind the head offworld team normally made Lorne feel like he was second fiddle.  Today, that wasn't even close to how low he felt.  To be told off about having to do his job in front of Atlantis One was probably the most humiliating thing to happen since he left boot camp.

If there were stones on the deck, Lorne would have been kicking them.  They would have all gone in the same direction too.  "I can't believe it."  He ignored the glances his way.  "My first solo assignment and Lieutenant Colonel Kirk here makes me look like a Jackass in front of my CO."

"Hey!"  Stopping, John spun to glare at the shorter man.  "For starters, I resent that remark.  Second of all, I am your CO."

"Only when I'm assigned to Atlantis!"  Lorne's dejection quickly turned to anger.  Stepping up to John, he squared his shoulders.  "In case you forgot, I don't work for you personally."

Snorting, John cocked his head and put a hand on his vest.  "Yeah, we'll see about that when we get back."

"All right, I take it back."  The smirk on the Major's face was devoid of any humor.  "I can believe it.  You're always pulling stupid stunts like this, Sheppard."  He snorted at John's look of disbelief.  "Every situation you get in is your own making.  Everyone else just happens to get dragged along for the ride!"

"Oh please!"  Rolling his eyes skywards, John snorted.  The man was obviously delusional.  "Once in a great while I make a mistake..."

This time it was Rodney's turn to snort.  "By my calculations, try once a week."

John shot his teammate a quick glare.  "Stay out of this!"

"John, please."  Stepping up to the man's side, Teyla put a hand on his shoulder.  "This time the Major is correct, we stepped over the line, as it were."

"See!"  Pointing to Teyla, Lorne's smirk turned smug.  "Your fault."

Now facing an assualt on two sides, John shifted so he could see all four of them.  "Oh, please.  If anyone's, it's Rodney's!"

"Mine?"  Eyes nearly popping out of his head, Rodney took on a strangled look.  His voice rose during his indignation.  "You're the one who wanted to find out why the IOA was giving us the end run-around!  I only came up with how to get us here.  Don't shoot the messenger...or the delivery boy-man!"

"Yeah, and a fat lotta good that did us."  His familiar arguing partner starting up put on Sheppard's blinders.  All others were forgotten as he focus solely on Rodney.  "Some bodies and a crazy person who probably works for the Wraith.  This continuing plot to find Earth is getting old."

"Find Earth?"  Lorne frowned.  This was news to him.  "What are you two jabbering on about now?"

Teyla chose that moment to step in again.  "The man in the infirmary made comments about Earth."  A snort from Rodney made her smile.  "He says that they were looking for Earth.  They, I assume, are or were, his people."

"The Colonials."  The word was a whisper, but Lorne might have shouted for the effect it had on the team.  Looking at all of them, Lorne cleared his throat.  "They called themselves the Twelve Colonies."

"We know."  It was to take command of the conversation that Sheppard spoke.  Suspicion showed on his face.  "What do you know of them?"

"There were six billion of them at one time."  The memory of the words made Lorne's skin prickle.  Closing his eyes he took a calming breath.  "What you saw in the infirmary are all that's left thanks to a group calling themselves 'The Cylons'."

Sensing the three men from Earth stiffen, Teyla shared a look with Ronon.  "John, how many people are on your homeworld?"

"That doesn't matter."  Waving it away with a slice of his hand, John scowled.  "Whatever happens, these people aren't going to Earth."

"Agreed."  The new voice caused all five people to jump.

Heart nearly beating out of his chest, John frowned at the newcomer.  "Elizabeth, what are you doing here?"

Walking towards them, Dr. Weir glanced from him to the other members of his team.  Her stare caused them to look away.  "I got a call from Colonel Caldwell.  It seems some people under my command, as he put it, were snooping around on his ship without his permission."

"And that's our cue to leave."  Rubbing his hands together, Rodney looked to Lorne expectantly.  "Major, I believe you were escorting us off the ship."

Finding himself at the center of attention, Lorne chuckled nervously.  "Hello, Dr. Weir."  He rubbed at the back of his head to give himself a distraction from her stare.

She nodded in way of acknowledging him.  "Yes, Major, I believe you were doing something."

"Right."  Face now flushed, he glared at Sheppard.  "Let's go."

"Actually, I have a few questions for Colonel Sheppard."  The smile on Weir's face wasn't pleasant.  "The rest of you can go, we'll talk later."

Lorne all but stuck his tongue out at John as he passed the man.  The feeling was strong, but he found strength to resist the urge.  Only that man could reduce him to acting like he was back in grade school.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Ah, Dr. Weir.  Glad you could join me."  Waiting outside the infirmary, Caldwell had his hands stuffed in the pockets of his pants.  He smiled at her look of long suffering.  "You're late."

"Sorry, it couldn't be helped.  I ran in to our mutual problems on the way over."  Reaching up, she pushed the edge of her hair behind her ear.  She took a quick breath as she came to a stop next to him.  "I want to thank you for offering me this opportunity."

"Your background made you more than qualified.  I figured it was about time someone who actually knew what they were doing got a crack at him.  To examine him before..." he left it hanging, both of them knowing what was to come next.  That brought up another subject he wished to discuss.  "Do you have any idea..."

"Not a clue," she interrupted.  "The IOA contacting me was as much a surprise to me as it was to you.  Mr. Woolsey has been remarkably tight lipped about everything since he arrived."  They shared a look of mutual annoyance over that.

"Well, shall we?"  He gestured for her to preceed him through the hatch.  "I hope your plan works."

"Thank you, and so do I."  After nodding at him, Weir tugged on her uniform and stepped up to the hatch.  It opened only after a slight hesitation and she walked through.  The sight of three people on lifesupport gave her a moment of pause.

Coming up behind her, Caldwell pointed to the hatch across the room.  "Right through there."

"Right.  Thank you."  Composing herself along the way to the door saved her time.  Like before, the hatch opened after only a slight hesitation.

The first thing that she noticed were the guards.  There were a pair of them on the inside.  She glanced back to Caldwell with a raised eyebrow.

"They were requested by the staff for his protection.  Our guest has a bad habit of getting upset and passing out."  He smiled at the memory of their request.

"I see."  Putting it from her mind, she turned back to the room.  It looked pretty standard for one of their ships.  Her attention was then drawn to the bed.  There was a nurse standing on one side and a doctor on the other.  She met the doctor's stare.  "Is he awake?"

The man glanced down at his patient, then up to the monitor on the wall above him.  Seeing the vitals he nodded.

"Thank you."  Her spine went a little rigid when she looked at the man in the bed.  He looked so pale that it made her heart hurt to see him.  Weir almost gasped when he opened his eyes to look at her.  "Hello, Lieutenant Gaeta.  My name is Dr. Elizabeth Weir.  I am the head of the Atlantis Expedition."

Hearing her words, he smiled slowly.  "That's not possible."  His quiet snickering filled the room.

Unable to keep herself from smiling, Weir looked down.  "I assure you, it is very real.  In fact, we would like to transfer you down there soon."

That made his snickers turn in to giggles.  "Next, you'll be telling me that you know the Lords of Kobol."  Raising his head up a little, he glanced about her.  "Is that Zeus behind you?"

Caldwell scowled at him.  Things were fast going no where and he wanted to move them along.  "My name is Colonel Caldwell.  I am the commander of this vessel you are currently on.  We rescued you two days ago."

That sobered the man up real quick.  Face now blank, he let his head drop back on the pillow.  Sweat made his hair stick against his forehead.  "As far as I'm concerned, you should have left me to die back there."

Weir put a hand up to silence Caldwell's response.  "That is not what we do."

"I don't care."  Turning away from them, he looked to the blank wall beside his bed.  "Do what you want to me."

"We are trying to heal you."  Having had enough, Caldwell stepped out from behind Weir.  "In the mean time, you could be a little more cooperative and give us some answers."

"What do you want to know?"  His tone was defeated.  Closing his eyes, he took a pained breath.

Relief filled Weir.  This was easy, this she knew.  "All right, for starters, where do you come from in relation to where you were found?"

"Approximately two thousand light years following along a three degree inclination of the XY-axis."  Turning to face her, he stared her directly in the eyes.  "Staggered, of course, since we were occasionally being followed."

"How long had you been on the run?"  She hoped it didn't seem like pushing.  From the look on his face it didn't matter even if she did.

"Five months."  He frowned, taking a moment to think it over.  "Just five months.  It feels like years."  He snorted, then faced the wall again.  "Five months ago, life in the Colonies came to an end.  In less than ten hours almost every man, woman, and child were wiped out by the Cylons."

Clearing his throat to get their attention, Caldwell licked his lips.  "Who are the Cylons?  Are they the ones who attacked your ship?"

"I don't know who destroyed the Galactica, so, may be."  He shrugged then said no more.

Weir gave the Colonel a serious look at the interruption.  "Do you know the gate address of your planet?"

"Gate address?"  That got the man's attention drawn back to Weir.  "What gate?"

"Uh, I believe some people here call it the 'Ring of the Ancestors'."  When that didn't clear up his confusion, she looked to Caldwell for assistance.  "It's a circular gateway that links planets together through a astrophysical phenomenon we call a wormhole."

His vision once again grew distant.  Forehead wrinkled in concentration, he sat up a little against the pillows.  "The Astria Porta."

Both Weir and Caldwell's heads snapped to him as one.

"I was reading about that in the President's books last month when I had some down time."  He smiled for the first time.  "I was reprogramming the FTL drive on her ship and she gave me leave to read her books during my breaks."

"Where is the Astria Porta of your people?"  Weir spoke the words slowly, almost at a whisper to keep him from breaking his thought process.

"Gone, buried during the great upheavel on Kobol, under the Necropolis of the Gods."  His words were whispered in an almost dreamy voice.  "It was used by the Thirteenth tribe so they could go to Earth.  Seeing this, the gods wept and sealed the Astria Porta away forever.  That's all the book said."

Silence settled over the room, thick and heavy.

When he opened his eyes to look at them, they sparkled with unshed tears.  "We only wanted to find them so we can start over.  I guess after what we did we didn't deserve to.  It's the only explanation."  He looked up to the ceiling when it became too difficult.  

"What did you do?"  Weir kept her voice light, curious.  There was no need to upset him further.

"We enslaved them."  A sudden welling of anger had him sitting up.  Using an elbow to brace himself he glared directly at them.  "They were machines, we created them to make our lives easier.  Frakking toasters with legs is all they were supposed to be.  Only, some idiot gave them the ability to reason.  For that, they repaid us by committing genocide!"

Seeing the effect those words had on Weir, Caldwell took a step forward.  Things were fast growing out of control.  He cleared his throat loudly to draw the man's attention fully upon himself.  "All right, I want you to listen up.  I'm the senior military authority in this galaxy.  That means I'll be making all the tactical decisions."

The man looked unimpressed with the pronouncement.

"I want you to tell me everything you know about these Cylons, including just how they kicked your ass so easily."  Caldwell felt a moment of triumph when he saw the man's entire demeanor change.

Narrowing his eyes, he laid back on the bed.  He knocked away the hands of the nurse as she tried to attend him.

Caldwell kept his pleasure at the man's reaction off his face.  Sharing a final look with Weir, he gave her a nod.  Their job was done.  It was time for phase two.

_________________
Part 4.  Pigs In Space

 

"I am trying, sir."  Pulling off his ear piece, Lorne winced at the shouting voice coming from it.  If the man was in front of him, career or not, he would have flattened that bitch.  Since he wasn't going to get the chance he did the next best thing.

Reaching over to the Communications console, Lorne turned off the channel.  That done, he activated a program that blocked any incoming signal from Mr. Woolsey.  There was quite enough of that mess.

Calming himself down, he looked to the Conn. Officer who was pretending to be busy.  He wasn't fooled one minute by her act.  "How long until the repairs to the hull are complete?"

"I...have no idea, sir."  Her hitch in breath made it clear she was lying.

There was only one reason she would deliberately lie to him.  She was under orders from the Colonel.  

Until the repair crew gave the all clear the ship could not enter the atmosphere.  Since they were under medical orders not to beam the survivors down to Atlantis, the ship had to land to transfer them.  He could clearly see Caldwell's hand in all of this.

What it all added up to was a big headache for him.  Closing his eyes, he allowed his body to sag against the console.  It was going to be a long day.

Checking his watch, he sighed.  The mission was already two days behind schedule.  Sure, it was for a rescue, but that was still a delay.  At this rate they were never going to get these gates collected in time.  

He could already hear McKay now.  The Colonel's effect on the man wasn't going to last very long.  If they didn't shove off soon, he knew that Rodney would come up with something new for him to do.  Looking down at the console, Lorne grimaced.  

He had been specially chosen for this mission because of his experience.  It wasn't hard to go pick the damn gates up.  That wasn't where he had qualified.  No, his experience laid in his dealings with both McKay and Caldwell.  As one of the few people who could mediate between them he had been chosen.

The fact he had an Abnormally high ATA gene level also helped things along.  Someone had to control the jumper in the docking bay in case they had to dial out.  

So, despite his rank, he was basically a glorified man-servant.

Still, it was his first solo mission since the Orion.  Well, aside from the fact that it was Caldwell's ship.  And that one trip through the gate with his own team.  But that didn't really count as they had just been saving Sheppard's ass again.

Rolling his eyes, Lorne realized that he was doing what the whole Universe had been.  Everything came back to Sheppard and his team.

That led to the main attraction of this mission.  Two months off from having to deal with the shenanigans Sheppard and his team got them in.  Sure, he had his own, once or twice.  That was to be expected when going through the gate.  It was the fact that almost every mission with Atlantis One ended in a rescue he hated.

A beep from the console behind made Lorne shoot up off of it.  Spinning to face it, he forced his heart back in his chest.  He realized to his chagrin that it was an incoming communications.

The Comm officer recovered from her silent laugher first and activated the signal.  "Bridge."  The humorous expression on her face quickly slipped off as her back straightened.  "Yes, sir."  She looked up to Lorne.  "Major, the Colonel and Dr. Weir request your presence in the infirmary immediately."

Lorne didn't bother to hide his sigh of relief.  It was good to be able to do something finally.  "Tell them I am on my way."

She nodded.  "Right away, sir.  Also, the Colonel orders that you to turn your radio back on."

Already halfway to the hatch, Lorne paused for only a second.  He sighed with a quick nod.  That done he was on his way again.  This time, he had the ear piece turned on.

~~~~~~~~~~

By the time Lorne made it to the infirmary he was thoroughly confused about what might have actually happened.  There were entirely too many possibilities for him to actually brace himself.  Therefore, he decided to expect the worst.  That included a need for firearms.

The handgun on his hip provided more than just physical security.

Stopping at the hatch, he nodded to the guards.  They didn't seem to be on high alert.  In fact, their mood could almost be considered bored.  That boded well.

Puffing out his cheeks, he exhaled and stepped up to the sensor.  The doors slid back to let him enter.

Inside the infirmary was nothing unusual.  The three surviving members of the alien crew were still on life support.  The ambient lighting was lower than standard for their comfort.  Obviously this wasn't where he was needed.

That left one place.  He should have known.

Squaring his shoulders, Lorne made his way over to the private room.  This time he didn't hesitate before he walked through.  The doors parted letting him in to the crowded room.  He quickly took in the situation and looked to Weir and Caldwell for orders.  "You rang?"

Caldwell scowled at him.  "Very funny, Major."  Shifting so that he could look at the man in the bed, he kept a hard set to his features.  "Dr. Seigel informs us that Mr. Gaeta here is ready for transport down to Atlantis.  You are to provide security on this one."

"Why me?"  The words came out before Lorne could think to censor himself.  And did he really sound that bitter?  At least he knew better than to ask why not Sheppard.

The look the Colonel gave him said it all.  "You rescued him, he's your problem."

"Right, sir."  Back straightening, Lorne felt like green recruit fresh out of basic.  "How long..."

"Someone has already been selected to take your place when the Daedalus ships out."  It was left to Weir to soften the blow.  Smiling, she effected a cheerful demeanor.  "Considering your time and emotional investment, we both feel that you are the most qualified for this assignment."

"I barely know him, them!  Colonel Sheppard spent more time with him."  There was that pesky lack of control again.  If he didn't think it would look awkward, Lorne would have kicked himself.

It was Caldwell's turn to smile.  "I believe you have something in your quarters that belies that fact.  Well, it's down on Atlantis now."  The stare he pinned the younger man brokered no refusal.  "Besides, there are strict orders to keep the Lieutenant Colonel and his team far from this one.  Their actions earlier only served to make me agree with that decision."

Lorne felt an imaginary noose tighten around his neck.  They had him between a rock and a hard place over this.  Sighing, he nodded his acceptance.  That settled, he turned to the other person in this little drama.   

The man wouldn't even meet Lorne's stare.  

Sighing again, Lorne knew this wasn't going to turn out good.

~~~~~~~~~~

"I can't believe they kicked us off like that!  We had every right to be up there with the rest of those imbecils."  His voice echoed in the briefing room.  Hand clutching at his tablet, Rodney used it like a shield between him and the rest of his team.  He shifted his outraged glare from Sheppard to Teyla.  "As the top scientist, I should be involved in any new technological discoveries!"

"Yes, but there was no technology."  Teyla tried to appease the man while keeping a neutral stance.  After over a hour of his bitching, though, her smile was more a grimace.  "Colonel Caldwell had every right to do exactly as he did.  It is his ship."

"That's beside the point."  Waving off her concern, McKay missed her sigh.  His attention was turned once more to John.  "We should be up there going over the evidence, not some second fiddle..."

"Major Lorne is more than capable of baby sitting a few injured survivors."  His voice almost a growl, Ronon scowled at his team mate.  "If you make things worse for us by doing something stupid, McKay, I promise to touch everything in your lab."

That stopped the angry scientist dead in his tracks.  Narrowing his eyes, he pointed one finger at the bigger man.  He shook it in agitation.  "Don't even kid about that!"

"Who said I was?"  The smirk on Ronon's face made it hard to tell if he was joking.

It was sufficient enough threat to cool off Rodney's ranting.  He had to come up with something else to occupy his mind.  Waiting for Elizabeth to come back from the ship was nerve racking enough as it was.  There was now need to find something else to focus his nervous energy on.

Quiet came to them outside his head, but internally, Rodney was running calculations.  It wasn't much, but figuring the fuel consumption ratio for the Naquidah reactors every time they opened the gate was sufficiently distracting.  Well, it was until something else popped up.

A small alert outside the briefing room drew all to the doors.

Rodney, since he was already standing, was the first to them.  He followed the signal down the corridor to the main entrance of the Gate Room.  The footsteps of his teammates behind him were but a faint distraction from his goal.

Walking up to the gate controls, he wasn't a bit surprised to find Woolsey perching over Chuck's shoulder.  Putting on a superior grin, he cleared his throat.

Unlike the desired reaction, Woolsey didn't even so much as twitch.  "What do you want, Dr. McKay?"  His attention was solely for the readouts on the city controls.  "As you can see, I am very busy, so make it quick."

"What do you happen to be busy with?"  Voice taking on an air of authority, Rodney crossed his arms.  He could sense the rest of his team coming up behind him to back him up.  That was the wonderful thing about these people, they always stuck together against the enemy.

"Yeah, what's so damn important that you've got everyone running around here like their pants are on fire?"  Putting an arm on Rodney's shoulder, John leaned against him.  He ignored the put upon sigh and glared at the older man.

"You're not cleared to know."  Leaning over, Woolsey tapped out something on the crystal controls in front of Chuck.  Frowning when it returned something, he thinned his lips until they were white.  "That isn't right.  Try it again."

"Yeah right."  John was no longer just annoyed, he was getting angry.  "I have the highest security clearance on this base."

Closing his eyes, Woolsey lowered his head a bit.  "It's obviously not high enough, now is it?"

Pushing off from Rodney's shoulder, John ignored the other man's protest at being shoved back.  "Now you just wait a minute!  I have..."

"Contact established!"  Chuck's head shot up as he monitored the readouts.  "We are receiving an incoming message."

Confrontation forgotten, Woolsey leaned in closer over the tech's shoulder.  "About time."  He read the message to himself and nodded.  "Send the go ahead."

Having had enough, Rodney stomped up to the gate controls.  He pushed aside Woolsey and scanned the display for himself.  "Hey.  This isn't a big secret."  Confused, he turned around to scowl at the politician.  "Why are you trying to hide this from us?"

Woolsey adjusted his glasses that had nearly been knocked off his face when he was shoved aside.  "Did you ever stop to think that it wasn't your place to know?"

Rodney's jaw dropped in protest.

"Don't bother.  I already know such a revelation would never occur to you, Dr. McKay."  Checking his watch, the man sighed with contempt.  

The words died on McKay's lips.  A number of emotions flitted across his face before he settled on outrage.  "Now just wait one second!"

"No, you wait!"  The tensing of his features gave away how angry Woolsey was.  Focusing all his anger on Rodney he took a step towards him.  "I am not Dr. Weir, I will not tolerate your insubordination.  You have been ordered to stay out of this.  Interfere again, and you'll be on the next wormhole out of here.  Do I make myself clear?"

"Hold up, there's no need to start in with the threats."  Holding up his hands in a 'time out' gesture, John tried to get the irate man's attention.  "We're all adults here, let's start acting like it."

Noticing the other man, Woolsey didn't relent.  In fact, his ire ratcheted up a notch.  "Actually, the same goes to you, Colonel.  The IOA is not playing around this time, gentlemen.  Our threats are very real."

Swallowing, Rodney backed away from the console slowly.  "Holy crap, I don't think he's kidding."

~~~~~~~~~~

Using the bulkhead to hold his weight, Felix made his way down the corridor.  It was slow going since his body still felt extremely tired.  The doctor here had told him it was toxic cyanosis.  That he was able to walk on his own was nothing short of a miracle.

That isn't what he would have called it.

Glancing back the way they had come, he saw nothing but more unfamiliar metal hallways.  Felix knew that he should have felt guilty about leaving the others.  It didn't matter to him though.  All he could manage was a sense of empty loss.

Everything was gone.  That was the one fact his mind kept coming back to again and again.  He knew it for fact but could not seem to make his mind accept it and move on.  There wasn't even their duty and BattleStar to fall back on this time.

If they were lucky, they wouldn't come back either.

It was a morbid thought.  Yet, he didn't really care any more.  Enough had finally happened that he was ready to quit.  That was quick.  Less than six months and the total loss of everything was all it had taken.

A hand on his arm drew his attention back to the corridor.  Looking up at the stranger, Felix found knowing eyes observing him.  "It's all gone."  He wasn't sure what he had wanted to say or why he said anything.

The blue eyed man nodded slowly.

They stood there staring at one another for a few more beats.  Almost in spite of the ship and people aboard, there was quiet around them.

Felix looked down, uncomfortable with the intimacy.  This man was a stranger, surrounded by his own people, what did he know about loss?

"Come on, let's go."  Jerking his head back towards the corridor they had been walking, the man smiled slightly.  "They're expecting us."

He could only nod dumbly.  This wasn't his place.  Whoever these people were they held complete control.  

Allowing himself to be guided down the corridor, he studied the bulkheads.  At the rate he was able to move that wasn't a hard thing.  On the occasional door was writing.  It was standard Colonial script.  The words themselves were familiar.

Green Section, Deck Two.

The deck was made of similar metal to some of the ships he had served on, the more modern ones.  Not many ships were built like the Galactica any more.  That was a shame because they were so easily destroyed because of it.  

He snorted at the random thought.  Experience told there would be a lot of those until he got used to the situation.

Before he knew it they came upon a set of massive double doors.  He recognized words like 'Restricted' and 'Engineering'.  The name written on the center plate was unfamiliar though.  In confusion he turned to look at his guide.  "What is the Asgard?"

The man looked surprised for a moment.  Then he must have remembered their situation because he had a mischievous grin.  "A three foot pain in the ass if you ask people around here."

Felix did not share his amusement.  He waited for a further explanation with a blank expression.

That quickly sobered the man up.  Clearing his throat he cast a quick look at the door.  "Uh, he's an alien."

He just stared.  Right at the man.

"I know, that isn't the politically correct term.  It's just the only one I can think of at the moment."  Apparently the man mistook what Felix's stare was for.  "Well, really."  He shrugged.  "I guess I'm an alien to you too.  Considering that we're not even from the same galaxy."

All right.  He had had enough of this bullshit.  Eyes narrowing, he pointed at the door.  "Are we entering or do you intend to play games until I fall over?"

The man froze in place.  He raised an eyebrow in question.

"There are no such things as aliens."  Ignoring the man's shocked reaction, Felix glanced for a door control.  It was a restricted access, but if he got the man to moving again it might remind him of his duty.

"Now, wait just a sec.  You can't tell me there are no such things as aliens.  Your people fought against them..."  He trailed off at the withering look from Felix.  "Right.  I guess it's just easier if I showed you."

Silently, he disagreed.  If the man was going to play this game Felix would rather have none of it.  But, since the man was insistent, it was just best to humor him.  So, to be a good sport since it meant getting out of there sooner, he faced the doors.

The man shook his head.  Sighing, he reached out and pressed his palm to a scanner on the wall.  "I'd brace myself if I were you."

"Just open the door."  Felix barely managed to keep the irritation out of his voice.

Snorting, he waited for the hatch to open.  They slid back as he stepped aside.  "All right, don't say I didn't try to warn you."  He gestured for Felix to preceed him.  "After you."

Taking a deep breath through his nose, Felix exhaled the same way.  'Best to get it over with now,' he figured, and took a step through the doors.

At first all he saw were some silly looking consoles.  There were glass partitions with stellar maps.  Several consoles blinked with monitoring information through out the chamber.  It was when he turned to his right that he paused.

Strong hands caught him before he completely lost his balance.

Standing behind a console, the being raised its head to blink at him.  Finding nothing of interest, it went back to working on the console in front of it.

Once he was certain he wouldn't fall down, Felix shook the man's hands off him.  He had to swallow twice to wet his dry mouth.  There was something extremely unsettling about the creature he saw in front of him.  "This can't be real.  It's too hideous."  He was too shocked to say anything else.

The being raised its head to stare him.  Narrowing its eyes, it seemed to stare down at him.  "Your species is nothing to admire physically either."

"Just beam us down to Atlantis."  Taking charge, the man came from behind Felix.  He stood to the side, but within reach in case the other started to fall again.

"Gladly."  Picking up a stone from the console, the being placed it on another spot.

Felix felt the world around him grow lighter.  For a moment he thought the gravity had been shut off.  Panic seized his heart and he blindly reached out for something to ground himself.  Then, quick as the sensation came upon him, he was enveloped in light.

Suddenly he was no longer in the chamber.  The world around him was bathed in a brilliant light that hurt his eyes.  Just as quickly as it had come it was gone.  The light left him in a large, open room with high walls.

He felt distanced from his own body, almost as if he were floating.  Everything around him moved slowly.  This gave the world a dreamy quality.

In front of him was a grand staircase.  The steps were lit up from beneath and the floor itself seemed to glow.  Lights from above and behind him made it all feel ethereal and out of reach.

There was movement that tugged at his attention.  In a large control room that had glass walls were several people.  The room was high up.  They were looking down at him, talking, but Felix couldn't hear them.  The only sound in his ears was his own breathing, even it was slower than normal.

Felix glanced over to his left.  The man from the ship was still beside him.  He was staring up at the people in the control room.  Felix wanted to talk to him, to ask him what was going on.  Then it happened.

With a physical pop, he felt the world around him speed up.

Around him everything went in to extreme speeds.  The lights above him and behind suddenly dimmed.  An alarm blared as people began to shout.

He wanted to ask them what was happening but he felt a stabbing in his head.  Wincing, he reached up to clutch at his temples as the pain increased.  It quickly drove him to his knees.

Images flooded his mind.  He saw things, flashes of things.  This place was abandoned.  It wasn't supposed to be inhabited.  Felix knew this because ten million voices screamed it at him.  They shouldn't be here!

Opening his mouth, he tried to beg them to make it stop.  All that came out was a guttural scream.  Through the tears the filled his eyes he saw the people.  They were rushing down the stares, staring at him in alarm.  He screamed again as something larger slipped in to his thoughts.

It asked him a question.  There were no words, but he knew that it was waiting for a command.

Felix told it something.  A single sentence.  Then, mercifully, it did.

Sound returned.  People were shouting.  The sounds of their footsteps echoed of the floor beneath them.

He felt hands clutch at him but Felix was too tired to care.  He offered them no resistance when they pulled at him.  In fact, he went willingly.  Not with them, of course, but back in to the sweet darkness of unconsciousness.  At least there the only demons that taunted him were his own.

~~~~~~~~~

Panic erupted in the control room as the lights went out.  Whispers filled the darkened room as people groped about.  One was loudest above the rest.

"Oh god!"  Flailing blindly for anything to grab on to, Rodney stretched out his arms to their limit.  In his blind moves he smacked someone to his right.

"Ow!  Watch it, Rodney!"

"John, is that you?"  Blinking, Rodney turned in the direction he heard the voice.

"Who else would it be?"  The angry voice was closer now.  John reached out and smacked Rodney at chest level.  "That's for hitting me!"

"Oh, forgive me..."

"Shut up, both of you!"  Woolsey's angry voice silenced the panicked whispers all around them.  A second later and he had a flashlight turned on.  He waved it around the control room until he found Rodney.  "You!  Fix this, now!"

"I'd love to!  Just tell me how I'm supposed to do it in the dark first!"  Fear quickly being replaced with anger, Rodney took two stomping steps towards the bureaucrat.

A second light joined the first.  "Here!"  Slapping it to Rodney's chest, Woolsey was near to spitting with anger.  "Now get to work, or do I have to show you how to do that too?"

"Uh, guys, can I get a hand over here?"  It was Lorne's voice from across the gateroom.

Swinging his flashlight over to the StarGate, Woolsey frowned at what he saw.  "Just perfect."

Distracted by the calling, Rodney shown his flashlight over at the Major.  Seeing who the man was holding in his arms made him frown.  "Hey!  That's him, the guy from the ship."

"Congratulations, Doctor McKay, you get the silver star."  Leaning towards Rodney, Woolsey dropped his voice.  "By the way, aren't you supposed to be doing something?"

"Calm down, Mr. Woolsey."  In support of her teammate, Teyla took a step in to the light from the man's flashlight.  "I am sure we will all be glad later if we have cool heads now."

"Stuff it, Sister Mary Sunshine!  From the moment I got here you people have done nothing but go from one disaster to another."  Feeling his oats, Woolsey spun to include the other three members of her team in the light.  "In fact, I knew this would happen!  That's why you were ordered to stay out of the way!  You're..."  He never got to finish his sentence as a red flash of light hit him dead center of his chest.

"Ronon!"  Alarmed, Teyla was barely in time to catch Woolsey before he fell forward unconscious.  She missed the flashlight all together.  

It hit the floor with a loud thump and began to spin.

"Nice snot!"  Smacking Ronon on the shoulder, John grinned.  It became visible as the flashlight came to a stop.

"Colonel, please."  Despite her words, Teyla could not keep the amused grin off her face.  "You do realize we are going to all be in trouble when he awakens."

"Then we'll just have to make sure that doesn't happen."  When he suddenly became the center of attention in the control room, Rodney grimaced.  "Just kidding."

"Uh, guys!"  From out by the gate, Lorne sagged under the weight of his burden.

_________________________
Part 5.  Reaching Through Time

 

"Do we know what happened?"  Standing behind Rodney, Elizabeth watched over the man's shoulder.  The screen of the computer they were working at had only just been brought back online.  It was one of only a few on the entire base working after five hours.

"Hold on.  I'm not a miracle worker."  Rodney paused in his typing and smirked.  "Okay, not usually.  There are a few times, I admit, were pretty miraculous if I do say so myself."

"Rodney, the outage."  Elizabeth's voice was raspy with exhaustion.  She had never really thought about how much of the city relied upon computers.  Now, it was a nightmare getting them back to working.

"Oh, all right."  Getting back to his work, he quickly ran through the boot up protocols.  "All right, I'm in to the database, let me run a quick scan for anomalies."

Putting a couple fingers to her forehead, she yawned.  "That can wait.  I want to know the cause that way we can deal with it so this won't happen again."

This worked to only annoy the sitting man.  "I am trying.  If you would leave me be, may be I could actually get something...Oh!  Here we go."  Snapping his fingers, he pointed at the screen.  "I found why everything in the city shut down."

When he didn't continue immediately, Elizabeth barely restrained the need to snap at him.  "Well?"

"It was told to."  Looking back over his shoulder at Elizabeth, Rodney waited for the congratulations.  He frowned at her expectant look.  Sighing with annoyance, he rolled his eyes.  "Someone told the city to shut down.  A direct command entered in the city's control core."

"How is that even possible?"  Alarm caused Elizabeth's voice to raise slightly.  Putting a hand on Rodney's shoulder, she nodded to the computer.  "I thought we had put up blocks to prevent that from happening."

"We did.  There is only one place that it could have been done.  The Control Chair."  Even as he spoke, Rodney brought up the security log information.  What he found made him lean back with wide eyes.  "This can't be."  Paling, he turned to meet her gaze.  "It says there hasn't been anyone in there for at least a week."

Elizabeth frowned.  She didn't like the implications of this.  "Scan for hackers and possible Asuran sabotage.  Also, run a security sweep for anyone or anything who's on this base that shouldn't be."  The control room went quiet as everyone suddenly turned to look at them.

One of the techs working at the Gate Console swallowed painfully.  "You don't think..."

"Let's not take any chances," Elizabeth silenced whatever question he was going to raise.  The order itself was going to make people paranoid, no need to allow fuel to be added to the fire with speculation.  Reaching up to her ear piece, she clicked it on.  "Colonel Sheppard, come in please."  Her voice was steady despite the sudden sick feeling in the pit of her stomach.  "I want armed teams sweeping this entire city.  We might have an intruder."

~~~~~~~~~~

Felix was beginning to get use to waking up in strange places.  At least this time he wasn't connected to several machines.  He thanked the gods for small miracles.

The room was pleasantly warm.  That was always a good thing in a prison.  It meant that they cared about his comfort.

He was laid out on a firm mattress that felt big enough for him this time.  It even had room enough for him to roll over before he hit a wall.  Opening his eyes, he ran his fingers along the blue-gray surface.  It felt an odd mixture of stone and metal.

"You're safe here."  It was a raspy voice, very familiar.

Closing his eyes, Felix sighed.  The man from the ship, of course.  "Where exactly are we?"

"You're in a private room aboard Atlantis."  He didn't sound to happy about that.

Well, good.  Felix was glad that he wasn't the only who didn't want to be here.  Reaching up with the hand no trabbed beneath him he rubbed at his face.  "What do your people want with me?"

"I have no idea."  His sigh was loud.  The sound of his joints popping filled the room as he stood up.  "You're just a few survivors we picked up.  There is nothing unusual about that, you'd be surprised by how often we have to..."  He trailed off with a sigh.

"I am surprised there is even someone out here."  Felix was too tired to care if he should be volunteering any information.  The Fleet, the Colonies, his people were all gone.  What did it matter any more?  "Most of us believed the promise of a new home to be a lie."

"The promise...Earth."  He sounded like it was something he should have known without asking.  "You guys were searching for us all that time.  That's weird, because a couple of years ago and you wouldn't have found anything."

"I haven't found anything.  You've taken me from the rest of my people."  Opening his eyes, he stared at the wall like it would solve all his problems.  It was a silly notion.

Grimacing, he stared at Felix's back.  "You're alive."

"Is survival really worth what I've lost?"  Felix snorted.  "In the final days before the attack, I was considering quitting the service.  I wanted to study Genetics."  He smiled at the memory.  "I minored in it at the Academy."

"Tactical Officer, Mechanical Engineering, Advanced Mathmatics, and now Genetics, you sound like a very smart person."  There was genuine affection in his words.  Leaning back against the wall, he folded his arms.  "Were you typical of your people?"

"No."  The response was automatic, but then Felix frowned.  He thought it over for a moment.  "Once, may be.  We were highly advance about four thousand years ago."  The hand he had used to scrub his face now reached up to scratch an itch at the back of his head.  "We had to have been to leave Kobol."

"Yeah, I read that in the logs."

Surprised, Felix laid back so he could turn and look at the man.  To his amazement the man actually appeared to be blushing over the admission.  "You found them.  Then you know what happened there."

"Yeah, and I'm sorry."  Staring at his boots, he shifted uncomfortably.  "You people can't seem to catch a break."

"There is a saying, 'you can't go home again.'  I guess it's true no matter how long it's been."  There was a silence after that.  Felix looked to the ceiling for something to do.

~~~~~~~~~

Taking a break, Elizabeth gave herself permission to look about.  Every Tech and Scientist in the control room was busy manning the equipment.  There wasn't much for her to do except get in their way, but she wanted to know everything that happened as it happened.

Head aching, Elizabeth rubbed between her eyes.  It would only get worse the longer she put off getting some sleep.  Yet, there were too many things needed doing before she could afford the luxury.

Speaking of someone who looked ready to catch forty winks, she found Chuck blinking blearily at his monitor.  Forcing herself to move, she walked over to stand behind him.  She put a supporting hand on his shoulder.  "How is it going?"

Chuck nearly jumped out of his skin.  Staring up at her with wide-eyes, he shivered.  "You scared the bejeezes out of me."

"Sorry."  Elizabeth pulled her hand back with a smile and a wince.  "Can I get you anything?"

"Nah, I already ordered a couple pots of coffee from the cafeteria for everyone."  With a deep breath, he went back to his work.  "I'm just checking the control program against the master copy for flaws.  If someone wanted to tamper with us, cutting us off from the rest of the Universe would be a good idea."

"Good idea."  This time, she patted him softly on the shoulder.  "Anything so far?"

He grinned at her out of the corner of his eye.  "Nope, nothing out of the ordinary."  Reaching out, he tapped on the console to begin scrolling to the next bit of code.  Just as he pulled his hand back a window popped up.  Frowning, he leaned forward to squint at it.  "What now?"

"Something the matter?"  Elizabeth couldn't keep the hopeful curiosity out of her voice.  All this 'nothing' in their results was bothering her.  She needed some hard evidence before her own tired brain supplied her with false conclusions.

"Yeah."  Tapping at the controls, he studied the pop's information.  "Something just tried to access the gate address database."  Using the mouse, he clicked on the alert window.  "I'll try to trace the source."

While he did that, Elizabeth had another idea.  "Rodney!"

Setting his sandwich down, Rodney waved at her over his shoulder.  "Mime mon mip!"  He turned his chair back to face his computer.  After a quick wipe with the back of his hand over his mouth, he began to furiously type in his codes to access the core.

"Let me know what you find."  She gave Chuck's shoulder a gentle squeeze before walking back over to Rodney.

~~~~~~~~~

"Hey, doc, I got another one for you."  Arm stretched over his shoulders, John helped the limping Lieutenant through the infirmary doors.  He patted the man's side to keep him going.  "Just a little bit further."

"He'll have to wait, Colonel Sheppard.  I'm a little busy here at the moment."  Elbows deep in a bin of supplies, Carson quickly sorted through the plastic coated packages until he found what he was looking for.  Holding up a surgical kit, he sighed with relief.  "Thank god.  I thought I would have to send Katie back to the storage room for another container."

Sheppard winced at the thought of that.  The nurse already looked harried.  "I don't think that would be too pretty."  He continued with the soldier over to a group of chairs near the far wall.

"Aye, that it would not."  Pulling the rag from his belt, Carson used it to wipe his forehead.  "God it's hot in here.  I'm glad they got the lights back on, but some air circulation would go a long way too.  Not just for comfort, but sterilization works better if we don't let things sit."

"Yeah, about that, I don't think the air conditioning is their top priority."  After he helped the man in to the seat, John rubbed at his own forehead and neck.  The sweat left his arm slick with moisture and he grimaced.  "How are things holding up here?"

"As well as can be expected.  Most of our systems were critical, so they got them back up quickly."  Replacing the rag back in his belt, Carson snatched up the surgical kit from the bin.  "I'll help out when I can, but I've got to get this to my nurse so she can prep."  He held it up so John could see the supplies.

John waved it off.  "You just go do what you need to do.  Lieutenant Marston will be right here waiting."  Smirking down at his man, he enjoyed the mock hurt expression.

"Thank you."  Carson started for the closed off surgical bay.

"Oh, Carson, there is just one quick thing."  John waited until the man turned to look at him.  "Have you had a chance to look over that patient they beamed down from the Dadaelus yet?  I've got a hunch on something."

This made the doctor frown.  "I did a cursory check, he's fine."

"What about scans, you know, something more in-depth?"  Keeping his eyes off the other man allowed Sheppard to keep his suspicions to himself.  Carson was sometimes too intuitive for his own good.

He wasn't good enough as Carson narrowed his eyes at him.  "No, but I had planned on doing it later when I had the time."

"Sooner, if you can.  I think...nah, it's probably just my imagination."  Waving it off, John turned for the door.  "Thanks for the help, doc!"  The seed planted, he knew he would have the results by the end of the hour.

~~~~~~~~~

"Do they always react this way?"  Dropping his hand from his face to his knees, Felix looked up.  He was sitting with his back against the wall, knees drawn up to his chest.

In the chair across the room, Lorne looked up from the floor.  He raised an eyebrow in question.

"You said you've rescued survivors before."  The white cotton of the shirt felt strange against his skin since he was used to synthetic material.  Well, at least Felix assumed it was cotton.  It sure felt like it.  "Do they react like I have?"

"Actually, there were a couple, yeah."  Lorne shift in his chair as his leg started to go to sleep.

"How did they deal with it?"  He really wanted to know.  A point of reference of where to go now would have helped.

The man was about to answer, but stopped himself with a frown.  He studied Felix for several moments.  "I don't know.  Honestly.  That's not the part I usually deal with.  I'm the head of a first contact and exploration team."

"Oh."  There was no other reaction that felt appropriate.  Nodding, Felix looked back down at his knees.  "Do you want to be here for this?"

Closing his eyes, Lorne shook his head.  He reached down in to his lap to tug on a string hanging from the bottom of his T-shirt.

Felix snorted.  "That makes two of us."  Looking up around the room, he scanned for anything of interest.  It was a pretty standard cell, nothing but the walls, bed, chair, floor, and lights to distract.  There was also the hatch, but it wasn't coming open for him.

That left his cellmate.

Shifting his gaze back to the man, he tilted his head to the side.  "What is the purpose of holding me here?"  He tugged at his hair for a moment out of frustration.  "This can't be standard protocol if you say you rescue people."

"It isn't."  Slowly opening his eyes, Lorne glanced up to meet the the other's stare.  He shrugged with the same enthusiasm  "I don't know.  They want something, I think."

"Whatever it is, I'm not sure what I can give them."  Wrapping his arms around his knees, Felix craned his neck so he could see his stocking covered feet.  "Everything they could need is in those logs."  He said it extra loud for those listening.

Noticing the change in volume, Lorne snorted and smirked at the other.  "They're not being real subtle here are they?"

"I'd like to think I'm smart enough to figure out why you are here."  Looking back up the ceiling, he traced the pattern around the lights with his eyes.

~~~~~~~~

Holding up a hand, Kate silenced Caldwell's oncoming anger.  Together they stared down through the observation window in to the cell.  "It was expected.  He was instructed not to lie unless he absolutely had to."

The news was met with a huff from the Colonel.  He glared across the glass at the Psychologist.  "Your method is getting us no where fast."

"You and Doctor Weir came to me, Colonel, because you knew I could get results.  You just have to be patient a little more longer."  Checking her own notes, Kate made sure to write down the latest change.  "So far, he is progressing remarkably fast for his circumstances, but well on course."

"Yeah, well, let's hope he continues and gets to the good stuff before Mr. Woolsey wakes up."  Already Caldwell could hear the snide voice in his head.  There were definitely going to be hell to pay for the actions of Atlantis 1 on this one.

"Yes."  She grimaced with distaste.  "We could all lose our jobs for this."

Going back to his watching, Caldwell leaned against the railing.  "It's better than letting some slimy IOA asshole work one over on us."

This gave her a hint that she couldn't resist.  "Are you sure it's not just your curiosity getting the better of you?"

"No, it's not."  He finished with a high pitched, simpering voice and fake giggle.  "They pulled me off a vital mission during a rescue I hadn't even reported yet.  Some how, someone got word back to them that I had passengers that might interest them."  Dragging his eyes away from the two men, he narrowed them at her.  "Doesn't that seem a little suspicious to you?'

"Yes, but is it really all that important?"  She wasn't going to write it down, but his reaction itself made her interested.  "Governments do this thing all the time and not tell people about, even those involved.  That's just what they do."

"Yeah, well that might fly back on Earth, but this isn't some friggen Cold War operation.  I'm the commander of a Star Ship in another galaxy.  There are a lot of people depending upon my mission being carried out successfully."  His features became animated as he spoke.  The lines on his face where his glasses normally sat seemed to deepen.  "I admit, I don't like being dicked around by some petty bureaucrat.  But when you put my crew's life at risk, you had damn well better have a good reason."

"I hardly think telling you to bring them back here puts your people at risk."  At his murderous expression, she held up her hands.  "Just calling it as I see it."

"What other explanation do you have?  As of now, I can only think that the secrets that man down there has puts everyone of us in jeopardy.  Since the IOA knows something and they aren't telling, we have to figure this out for ourselves.  That's why they kept Sheppard out of this, they knew he would figure it out."  When she didn't respond, he went back to observing the two men.

It had proven just as she suspected, though.  She went back to her own observations.  This would be a long one no matter how quickly the interrogation went.

~~~~~~~~~~

"I still don't see it."  Groaning with frustration, Rodney smacked his keyboard.  This caused the screen it was attached to to jump.

"I understand your frustrations, Rodney, but please be kinder to our equipment."  Elizabeth leaned down to pat him on the shoulder.  "What seems to be the problem?"

"I can't find the source.  Whoever keeps accessing our systems must be doing it remotely."  Running a hand through his hair, he tugged at the strands.  "I've scanned the city, the planet, hell, even the entire solar system.  There is no one even close enough to be doing this, yet, some how, they are!"

Nodding her understanding, Weir gave his shoulders a squeeze.  "Then stop focusing on this.  Try blocking their access."

"I can't!  If I knew how they were doing, may be, but until then, I'd be throwing stones in the dark."  At her second shoulder squeeze, he rolled his eyes.  "Of course, you want me to start throwing stones."

"As many as you can think of."  She chuckled at his put upon sigh and let him get back to his work.  Turning to the other person on the case, she looked over at Chuck.

A quick shake of his head told her where that went.

Sighing, she felt her good humor slip away.  Seven hours since the shut down and nothing.  They were no closer to finding out what the hell had happened than they were when it happened.  Elizabeth was about ready to take a break when her ear piece signaled.

Sighing, she tapped it to activate it.  "Dr. Weir."  The voice on the other end made her smile a little.  "What have you got for me, Carson?  Good news, I hope."  A beat later she was actively glaring at nothing.  "I see."  Hand to her ear piece, Elizabeth clenched her jaw.  "Thank you, Carson.  I will see to it immediately."  The tone of her voice drew a few heads.

One of those belonged to Rodney.  Glancing over from his work, he frowned at her.  "What's going on?"

"Keep at those firewalls, Rodney.  We're going to need them very soon."  Switching channels, Elizabeth brought up the security comm.  "Colonel Sheppard, come in."

This time Rodney turned around completely to openly gawk at her.

"I want a full security detail down in the medical quarantine lab now!  Make sure they are armed with one of everything we've got."  Jaw clenching, she lowered her voice.  "I'm not sure, but I don't want to take any chances.  Weir out."

Stalking over to the security guard at the entrance to the control room, she stopped by him.  "If anyone unknown appears at this door, shoot them, do not ask questions."

He blinked at her in surprise.  "Ma'am?"

"You have your orders."  With that, she left a stunned control room behind and headed in to the city.

~~~~~~~~~

"Actually," glancing up from his knees, Felix grinned, "I haven't.  I could be a convert to the Goddess Hestia if I wanted."  He checked to his right to see Lorne's reaction.

Hands flat on the bed, Lorne kept his face on his own knees.  "You're pulling my leg."

"Not in the least."  Felix couldn't keep the humor out of his voice.  It was the truth, but the man's reaction amused him.

Raising his head, Lorne frowned.  Then he glanced over at Felix.  The other man's face was so close he could see his pupils dilate.  "Are you telling me that you're a..."  He looked away, then back again; his cheeks coloring.  "Really?"

"Yes."  The look on the man's face was priceless.  Felix laughed loud enough that it echoed off the walls.  As he sobered, he rubbed at his eyes.  "Why does this surprise you.  Surely there those among your people that have never..."

"None that would ever admit it!"  Realizing the implication of his words, Lorne's eye went a little wide as he cackled with laughter.  "No!  No way.  I'm not one."

Raising his eyebrows, Felix twisted his face in a sarcastic expression.  "Sure, Major, I believe you."

To retaliate, Lorne shoved Felix's shoulder until he rolled away.  "Oh, shut up!"

This left Felix on his side and laughing.  Holding his legs, he kept them against his chest.  That was quickly brought to an end by a new sound, one he didn't recognize.  Opening his eyes revealed to him that the hatch across the room had opened.  Felix sobered up quickly when he saw who was on the other side.

Stepping in to the room, Elizabeth was flanked by four guards with weapons drawn.  They took up positions in front of her and aimed their weapons at Felix.

Clearing her throat, Weir drew both men's attention from the guns to her.  "Major, come away from the prisoner, now."

The last traces of the amusement on Lorne's face slipped away.  Staring from her to the guns in alarm, he frowned.  "Dr. Weir, what's going on?"

"We've been mistaken about something, now please, get back from him."  Her voice held a hard edge that brokered no refusal.  While she spoke to Lorne, her eyes were focused solely upon Felix.  "Our guest has been hiding something from us."

Sitting up slowly, Felix held his hands out to his side.  He knew better than to make any sudden moves.  Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed that the Major hadn't complied with his orders.  "I believe she means business, Evan."

"What is she talking about?"  Completely facing Felix, Lorne sat up on one knee.  "Are you hiding something from us?"

This made Felix snort.  Closing his eyes, he shook his head before dropping it to his chest.  "Even if I was, she would know it by now."

"You're damn right.  It took us a little while, but things finally added up.  You're more perfect than any we have ever encountered before."  Weir gave him a sad look, one more of pity than remorse.  "Funny thing is, you were trying to tell us from the beginning, we just weren't listening."

"What are you..."  Lorne looked over at her in annoyance.  The cryptic statements were getting on his nerves fast.  It was then he noticed the type of weapons they were training on Felix.  Seeing them made him swallow nervously.  When he turned back to the man in question, he was a couple shades paler.  "What are you?"

"I believe the word you are looking for is Cylon."  His voice barely above a croaking whisper, Woolsey stood in the hatchway.  The ice pack to his chest made him shiver.  When two grim faces looked his way, he rolled his eyes and sighed.  "Cut the cliched theatrics already, it's getting very tiring."

Without breaking her attention from Felix, Weir spoke to the man behind her.  "How long have you known?  Were the IOA even going to bother to tell us what kind of threat we had here?"

"No.  It was deemed they posed no threat to us given their fleshy forms."  At her scoff, he rolled his eyes again.  "All right, I admit we were a little misinformed on that one.  How were we to know your city was vulnerable to..."

"Machines?"  Stopping just behind Woolsey, John's smug voice was loudly yelled at his ears.

Wincing, Woolsey glared at him.  "Actually, they are no more a machine than you are a genius."  Dismissing the Colonel from thought, he turned back to Weir.  "They are synthetic lifeforms, carbon copy clones.  This one should never have been able to remotely access even so much as a garage door."

Felix felt the world start to shift around him.  Swallowing, he barely managed to keep down the contents of his stomach.  So strong was the blood pumping in his ears that he barely heard them speaking.  It couldn't be true.

"They have the ability to upload their memories back to their ships.  Once there, they can be downloaded in to a new body."  Lorne's voice was barely above a whisper as he remembered aloud the quote.  As he finished speaking, he turned to look at Felix.  "You're one of them?"

Felix tried shaking his head in denial.  "No."  All he managed to do was shiver.

"Of course he is."  Woolsey stated it with his normal level of annoyance.  "The question still remains of how did he access your systems remotely though.  Even if he had a functioning modem, Atlantis is physically designed not to respond to anything but someone with the ATA Gene."

"That's the easy part."  Taking control of the conversation once more, Weir nodded to the soldier next to Lorne.  "Carson ran a cellular test on the sample he took from the Cylon.  Along with discovering that there was no possible way he was Human, given his base elements are silicon, not carbon, he found something unique."

John opened his mouth to supply the answer.

Woolsey beat him to the punch.  "The ATA Gene, of course."  Adjusting his glasses, Woolsey ignored John's disappointed glare.  "I suppose it makes sense.  It would take someone from an extremely advanced species to create an artificial lifeform.  This would not be the first time the Ancients meddled with the technology."

"Ancients?"  John frowned at the man.  "Where did they come in to this?  Last I heard, these people were still living up to a couple days ago."

Giving the man an incredulous expression, Woolsey's face started to turn a little red.  "You know for a fact that there were still ancients out there, mortal and completely human like the rest of us."

"Technically, they aren't Ancients.  They're a sub-species."  Weir looked Felix directly in the eyes when he glanced up at her.  "Or, they were until five months ago when your people decided to get their revenge.  I did get that right, didn't I?  Your people took vengeance against your creators."

Feeling like his head was underwater, Felix had trouble just keeping it up.  "I'm not a Cylon!"  He was just as surprised as everyone else it the room when the light above him flickered.  "Please."  A little shaky, he trembled against the wall.  "You have to believe me."

"Forget it, we've got all the scans and tests that prove it."  Woolsey frowned at the light when it flickered again.  "Would someone please do something about that before he shuts the entire city down again."

"Wait just a minute."  Annoyed that the conversation had been hi-jacked again, Weir's voice held a hard edge.  "There's still the question of how you found out so quickly, Mr. Woolsey.  I'm sure Colonel Caldwell would like to ask you that one personally."

"Oh, for the love of..."  Woolsey trailed off as he slapped at his pocket.  Shortly afterwards, an electronic thump echoed in the room.  In the next instant he was wincing away with everyone else as a bright flash filled the room.  When he could see again, the bed was empty.  "About damn time."

"Okay, what just happened here?"  Blinking to clear his vision, John frowned at Woolsey.  "Did you do something else stupid?"

"Don't be ridiculous.  That was an Asgard..."  Trailing off, Woolsey adjusted his glasses again.  "I guess the cat's out of the bag now."  The next instant found him pressed against the hatchway with John digging in his pocket.  "Hey!  What do you think you're doing?  That is not something for you to play with!"

With a shout of triumph, John pulled what he had latched on to out of the other man's pocket.  Holding it up, he held it out for everyone to see.  The pear shaped device glowed soft white.  "I believe everyone here knows what this little device does."

Reaching out, Weir took it from John's hand.  Holding it up, she gestured with it at Woolsey.  "The Asgard?  You were working with the Asgard?"

"They are our allies, Dr Weir.  They have the right to make requests and we have the obligation to see that they are fulfilled."  Jerking the hem of his shirt out of John's hand, Woolsey glared at the other man.  "I will be making a report on this incident."

"Yeah, you do that."  Stepping in closer, John sneered.  "And so will I."

"Uh, gentlemen."  Weir waited until she had their attention before continuing.  "Where is Major Lorne?"

__________________
Part 6.  Don't Fight Me

 

Coming awake with a gasp, Lorne began to cough.  Blinking his eyes, he adjusted them to the dim light of the chamber.  The soft couch shaped bed he was on felt comfortable enough as he lay there while bringing his body under control.  Eventually, his heart stopped racing enough that he could breathe normally.

It was then that Lorne realized he wasn't on Atlantis anymore.  The metallic brown walls and the curved arch doorways pretty much gave away where exactly he was.  He had never seen any of them personally, but there were pictures and plenty of descriptions of them in mission reports.

So he knew he was now on an Asgard ship.  The how was taken care of thanks to his last memory, the why was the only one left.

He was in the middle of considering getting up when a shadow appeared in his doorway.  Turning his head to look, he wasn't a bit surprised to find Felix standing there or his two little gray friends, either.  Tiredly, he gave them a short wave.

One of the two Asgard blinked at him, then turned to say something to Felix.  Whatever it said made the man nod and smile.

Leaving his escorts behind, Felix made his way over to Lorne's bed.  He looked down at the reclining man with a nervous hesitation.  "May I join you?"

"Hey, the more the merrier."  He tried to make it a joke, but it came out flat.  Turned out he wasn't in any mood to laugh.

"Thank you."  Twisting around, Felix eased himself to the edge of Lorne's bed.  Once he was settled, he sat there quietly for a heartbeat or two.  "I owe you an apology."

"Hey, it's not like you're the one that kidnaped me."  This time, Lorne managed a faint smile.

Felix didn't.  Staring at his hands, he shook his head.  "That is not what I am sorry for."  Sighing, he worked up enough courage to meet the man's concerned stare.  "I am...what they said I am.  I didn't know until Woolsey told me, I swear.  If I had, I would have..."

A clicking voice came from the archway.  One of the two Asgard raised a hand to point at Felix.

Clicking back at the Asgard, Felix's were less articulate sounding.  He finished with a grinding sound.  Then he turned back to Lorne.  "They want me to tell you they are sorry for bringing you along."

Lorne was still dazed from the admission.  The apology was a little too much for him to process at the moment so he waved it off.  "Just beam me back, everything will be okay."

"That's another thing."  Gasping in shocked amusement, Felix met Lorne's stare with his own nervous one.  "We're no longer in the Pegasus Galaxy.  In fact, we left it two days ago."

"Excuse me?"  Lorne knew he had to have misheard the other man.  "Did you just say we weren't even in the Pegasus Galaxy?"

"Correct.  We're now traveling between galaxies."  Felix gestured around them in awe.  "This is their flag ship, for lack of a better title.  They came all this way just to pick me up."  A tiny smile started on his lips.  "Apparently what's in my DNA could solve a lot of their problems."

"You don't say."  Stunned, Lorne glanced over Felix's shoulder to the two Asgard.  "What do they say about sending me back?"

"It will be a few weeks."  Eyes down cast on his hands, Felix cleared his throat.  "I, uh, asked them to take their time."

"What?"  Outraged, Lorne sat up on the bed.  "Why would you do that?"

In answer, Felix looked up at Lorne shyly from beneath half lidded eyes.

Lorne's jaw dropped.  Then he clamped it shut.  "Oh."  Sighing, he figured what harm could a few weeks do?

~~~~~~~~~

The sound of a heart monitor was the first thing she heard.  It started increasing slowly at first.  By the time she could hear things clearly it was up to full rhythm.

The second thing she noticed was that her body hurt.  Everything from her ass to her lips had a deep ache.  She literally felt like she had been through a thorough ass kicking.  She hoped she had given it back as good as she got.

Stretching her arms above her head, she hit solid wall.  Opening her eyes, she had to shut them quickly as the light was blindingly brilliant.  "Frak!"  Her voice was little more than a croak from lack of use.

Clearing her throat, she swallowed until her mouth was wet.  "Gods, damn it, Cottle, turn the lights down."

"I'm sorry, missy, but I don't know who you're talkin about."  The voice was a tenor and the accent was unfamiliar.

Slowly opening one eye, she peered up at the man.  Once her watering eye adjusted to the light, she glared at him.  "Who the frak are you?"

"Frak?  That's one I've never heard."  Smile almost as bright as the light, he stood at her side.  "I'm Doctor Carson Becket, Atlantis Expedition's Chief Medical Officer."  He frowned as something else occurred to him.  "Oh, and I've been instructed to tell you when you woke up, I'm also from Earth.  Welcome, home."

Opening her other eye so that both of them were staring up at the man, Kara couldn't believe her ears.  "Frak me."

~~~~~~~~~

A shove from behind sent her stumbling in to the center of the chamber.  Falling to her knees, she used her hands to brace herself.  Once there, she stayed staring at the deck beneath her for several seconds.  She only looked up when the tip of a shoe came in to view.

Raising her head, she pushed a blonde curl out of her eyes to stare.  Seeing the blue skinned female standing above her, she smiled.  "Are you alive?"  A single curled finger tip reached out to trace along her cheek.

The blue skinned female bared sharp teeth in a parody of a grin.  "You are soft."  Her nail trailed along the kneeling woman's cheek bone.  "You smell," she snarled, "different."

Reaching up, she grasped the hand that touched her cheek.  Turning her face, she pressed a kiss to the strange palm.  It felt rubbery and cold to her lips.  Smiling, she looked up without releasing the hand.  "Are you alive?"

Taking her hand back, the female smiled for real this time.  "Of course."  She opened her palm and waved her fingers.  "But you will not be for very long."  Then she slammed her hand down on the blonde's chest.

The blonde's eyes went wide as the nails sank in to her flesh.  Gasping for breath, she shook as the center of the palm did something to her body.  She reached up to grasp at the hand, but her efforts were too weak.

A moment later, the blue female screamed.  Jerking back her hand, she screeched so loud that it echoed throughout the hive ship.

Falling back on the deck, the blonde's body went limp.  As her eyes lost focus, she felt the stream of her consciousness leave her body.  There was something different about this time than last, though.  Instead of joining with her familiar datastreams, this time she merged with something else, something new.

Trying to appease their Queen's screaming, the Wraith males missed the fluttering of the Hive's systems.  It was only when the ship dropped out of hyperspace did they notice.  By then, it was already too late.

Within seconds, every environmental hatch on the ship had been blown.  The atmosphere was gone moments later.  Then it began to transmit.

 

 

 

THE END................................