by Martha Wells
"No, I thought I'd ignore such fine details so we could explode when drive pods engage." Zelenka clutched his head, wincing. "It's almost done."
"Good, good. Ah..." Rodney threw him a look, his mouth twisting uneasily. He was responsible for get ting Zelenka and Kusanagi into this, admittedly way out of their depth and normal working conditions. And it was a different situation, but it still gave him some unwilling insight into how Sheppard felt about losing Ford.
Rodney didn't like thinking about Ford, especially that last encounter on P3M-736. The glimpses of the real man under that enzyme-driven insanity had been more disturbing than anything else, making you think it was somehow still possible to reason with him, to bring him home. But at least Rodney had accepted that he was gone, and wasn't sublimating his issues by trying to adopt Ronon, Conan the Barbarian's less progressive cousin, like certain Air Force Colonels he could mention. Whatever, he felt the need to apologize to Zelenka, and he hated that. "I'm...ah. Sorry."
"What?" Zelenka stared, then peered into the console. "What did you do?"
Rodney made an impatient gesture. "About this. Before we left base camp, Sheppard asked me if I was certain I wanted to bring you and Kusanagi, and I said yes, that you needed the experience." He let out his breath. "This wasn't the experience I meant."
Zelenka frowned. "I admit, I do not like crashing in jumpers, or shooting, or fear, but... It was very fine to see the spaceport, and the giant Quantum Mirror, before it tried to kill us."
Rodney lifted his brows. "So you're okay with all this."
"No, no, I still blame you for bringing me here, but..." Zelenka shrugged. "This is our lives now."
"Right." It was, sadly, true. Rodney pushed to his feet, going back to work.
John didn't kiss Zelenka when the jumper powered up, but he felt a little like it. They weren't free and clear yet, but he didn't feel quite so much at the mercy of the Eidolon's whims. He put the board on standby and pushed out of the seat, stepping into the rear cabin. "Good job, Radek."
"Yes, Dr. Zelenka," Teyla added with relief. "That was very well done, especially under these circumstances."
Zelenka nodded, sinking down on the bench. "Yes, very good. I'm going to lie down now." Then he slumped over.
John lunged forward to catch him, easing him down to the padded bench, while Teyla lifted his legs up onto it. John tried to check his pulse, but Zelenka just batted at him without waking and snored. John said, "I can't tell if he passed out or fell asleep on his feet." He straightened up, wincing as his own injuries reminded him that abrupt movements weren't a great idea. "I guess the snoring is a good sign."
Watching Zelenka with concern, Teyla gave John a quick nod. "I will stay with him."
"Just make sure he doesn't fall off the bench. That'd be about all he needs."
John walked down the ramp, noting that there were only five male Eidolon watching them now. There were a few others up on the raised platform where there seemed to be another control area.
Rodney received the news that the jumper was working again with a preoccupied grunt and a "Hello, didn't I say stay away from the bomb!" From what John could tell at a distance, Rodney and Miko were almost done: the currently inert energy drones were wired together in a bundle, with C-4 packed in. They were carefully attaching the detonators now. The theory was that when the C-4 exploded, it should simulate an impact on a target, which should cause the energy drones to detonate. Rodney kept saying it had worked in the lab with a single test drone a few months ago, so it should work on this larger scale. Rodney also freaked out every time John so much as looked at the thing, so John stayed over near the ramp with Ronon.
He was waiting there when Kethel approached. The Eidolon stopped a cautious distance away, and said, "The Matriarch wishes to speak with you."
"The what?" John said, then realized he must mean the Queen. "Okay." He looked around at Rodney and Miko, who were watching uneasily. "I'll be back." I hope.
As John started away, Ronon followed him, looming at John's elbow. John stopped to tell him, "Stay with the jumper." By that he meant, "guard the others." Teyla was the only one not distracted by a delicate task at the moment, and she was occupied with Zelenka.
Ronon's expression said he got the message, but he didn't look happy. "That a good idea?"
John looked up at him, narrowing his eyes. "That's an order." Having to glare Ronon into submission all the time was going to give him a crick in the neck.
Ronon looked sullen, gave Kethel a look that promised death at some point soon, and went back to the jumper.
John followed Kethel to the back of the maintenance area, through an archway into one of the smaller control rooms. The Queen was standing at a console, and when John approached she touched a panel. A holographic display sprang to life, showing a 180 degree view of the Mirror platform. There was a group of drones and a few male Wraith moving along the Mirror's giant frame. Looking for the controls, John thought, frowning at the display. The scout ship was still hovering dangerously near the Mirror. If this Mirror had been as unstable as the one in their reality, it would have been erupting continuously.
The Queen said, "They have been trying the lower level entrances into the complex. Fortunately, we have had time to block all the passageways with containment fields, and the evacuation of our personnel is nearly complete." Trishen had told them that the Eidolon were evacuating the installation through the underground passage to the spaceport. In this reality it had never been blocked by a collapse. The Queen added, "The Wraith have attempted to contact us three times, with increasing impatience." She didn't sound particularly worried, more as if she considered the Wraith's impatience as a sign of incompetence on their part.
John tried to look like it didn't worry him, either. "We're nearly done with the bomb. It shouldn't be much longer." At least, that's what he thought she wanted to know. He wondered if the Eidolon were so used to doing the mind-to-mind thing that they didn't communicate very well without it.
"Then I will answer their next call, and suggest that there may be an arrangement soon." She turned to another display, one that was all abstract shapes and blips and dots. John thought it must be a life signs detector screen, though the distance measurements were all different from the Ancient version. "They do not seem to be venturing out past the installation."
"They want control of the Mirror, they're not going to leave the platform." He shrugged. "That's going to make this easier." Marginally easier.
"It wouldn't matter if a few escaped. It is only the ship that confounds us." She turned off the display. "I will wait for your word that the device is ready."
John thought that was a pretty clear dismissal, except he realized he had a question. "Why are you helping us?" It was probably a bad idea to bring this up, but he just had to know. He was starting to wonder if Trishen hadn't given them the whole story, about why the Ancients' attempt to seed humans in this reality had failed. If some of them had survived the plague, but the early Eidolon had fed on them to extinction, before figuring out another way to survive. If by helping them now, the Queen was working off some kind of weird species guilt.
Instead, she looked directly at him, her flat dark eyes expressionless. "Why did you help my daughter?"
John hesitated, then gave her the truth. "I didn't know what else to do with her."
He might have been imagining it, but he thought he saw a faint trace of amusement in her expression. She said, "I am aware that if I had waited only a few more minutes to enact my plan for her return, none of this would have happened."
She turned away again, and John had the feeling that that was the best answer he was going to get.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
ohn returned to the jumper; he hadn't really expected to find anything wrong, but it was good to see Ronon standing on the ramp, warily keeping watch.
At Rodney's urgent wave, John halted, keeping what Rodney evidently considered to be a minimum safe distance from the bomb. Rodney j
umped up, heading for the jumper's hatch, saying in passing, "I'm putting together the remote detonation control now."
Miko stood up, taking off her glasses to rub her eyes. She looked dead tired. "You okay?" John asked her.
She nodded, fumbling her glasses back on as she walked over to him. "Yes, it's just ...we were attaching the detonators for the C-4. It was very. ..tense."
John nodded, eyeing the bomb. "McKay and touchy explosives are always a fun combination." There were seven drones wired together with the C-4 blocks, the drones' tentacles hanging out every which way. He just hoped it worked like Rodney thought it should.
Then a rumble shook the stone floor underfoot. "Oh, hell no," John said under his breath. Miko stumbled as the rumble escalated suddenly and the whole building seemed to sway. John caught her arm to steady her. On the ramp, Ronon swayed, but stayed upright. The few Eidolon left working on the other side of the bay looked around, startled. Dust trickled down from the seam of the giant hatch overhead. Just as John was about to grab Miko and run for the jumper, the rumble died away. Thinking, don 't let that be what it sounded like, he asked, "Earthquake? Or moonquake?"
"Oh no," Miko said, looking anxiously at the bomb. "Mirrorquake."
Then Trishen leaned over the railing of the upper control area, calling urgently, "Dr. McKay, we think the Mirror is destabilizing again!"
Rodney ducked out of the jumper, harried and angry. "Yes, the quake that shook the entire surface of this moon would possibly indicate that there just might be a problem! Did you make the adjustments to the array? Because the wrong sequence-"
Trishen shook her head, making a helpless gesture. "It's not working anymore."
"What do you mean `not working?' The array or the adjustments-" Rodney bolted for the stairs.
John told Miko, "Stay with Ronon," and ran after him.
John reached the top of the steps right behind Rodney, bumping into him when he stopped abruptly. Rodney said, "Oh, now, fine, look at this." He flung both arms in the air, annoyed. "This, this is what we couldn't find in our reality."
In the middle of the dais was a big round console, with an ornate silver rim inset with blue crystal panels. The air above it was alive with glowing diagrams, scrolling data, curves and graphs and figures in Ancient. In the center was a glowing silver pool, some sort of holographic miniature of the Mirror itself Looking at it, John felt prickles of unease climb his spine. The surface was disturbed, rippling continuously, like a puddle in the rain. If the Mirror was actually doing that... That just can 't be good. The holographic readouts seemed to agree; most of them were blinking in alarm.
A few Eidolon were watching the displays, and Kethel was carefully manipulating a set of touchpads on the console's rim. With a harsh tension in his voice, he said, "It's still not responding. This is the same sequence that worked earlier."
Trishen moved to the console, pointing toward one of the graphs. She told Rodney, "The accretion disk field has changed radically from-"
Rodney moved forward, half around the console, as John trailed after him. His expression grim, Rodney said, "Yes, this is about the cap to my day." He rounded on Trishen, making an abrupt gesture. "The connection to the Mirror in our reality is effecting this Mirror, and accelerating the destabilization. The singularity is detaching."
Kethel turned to him, face twisted into the expression Wraith made when they hissed in anger. Instead, he said, "It can't be."
"Oh, but it is!" Rodney snarled. "Check your figures!" He turned urgently to John. "I've seen this before, on the equipment we were using to monitor the Area 51 Mirror as it was being melted down. When the outer rim was destroyed, the singularity detached, closed in on itself, and vanished. Fortunately, we were expecting it, and all it took with it was a small concrete bunker and a naquadah generator." Rodney grimaced at the Mirror display. "This one's going to take this entire installation with it."
Trishen hit more touchpads on the console's edge, bringing up different data displays, enlarging others. The Queen came up the stairs, stopping at the top, her cold eyes narrowed slightly.
"Rodney." John kept his voice tightly controlled. "What does that mean for us, exactly?"
Rodney's jaw was set as he glared at the blinking displays. "It means we need to hurry. We need to do this now.
So there's still a chance to do it at all, John thought, relief undoing a few of the knots in his spine.
The Queen glanced at Kethel, who nodded sharply, saying, "Even if he's wrong-"
"I'm right!" Rodney shouted.
"-nothing can be served by delay." Kethel waved a hand toward the holographic image of the Mirror, which rippled like it was experiencing a rip tide. "This will surely only get worse."
The Queen's dark gaze turned to John. "The explosive?"
John flicked a glance at Rodney, and in response got a nod and hand-wave combination that he hoped meant "yes." John told her, "We're ready."
First, the Queen had to contact the Wraith and get them to lower their shield. John wasn't looking forward to that part. Hell, he was worried about all the parts, but at the moment, mostly that one.
One of the work stations toward the back of the maintenance bay had the comm equipment, and Kethel was using it to set up the contact with the Wraith ship. He was wearing a weird organic headset device, frequently using it to speak to the Eidolon ships in orbit. John, Rodney, Teyla, and Ronon watched from a short distance. Miko and Radek were in the jumper, ostensibly so they could run a few last diagnostics on the repair. John also wanted Miko in there as a little extra insurance. She and Rodney hadn't removed all the drones, and if the Eidolon changed their minds about cooperation at the last moment, the armed jumper would be a powerful deterrent.
Standing nearby, Trishen shifted uneasily, saying, "This is my fault. If they hadn't activated the Mirror again to get me back, none of this would have happened."
John folded his arms, keeping his eyes on the displays that Kethel was manipulating. One held a real-time image of the Wraith scout ship where it hovered above the platform. He was starting to get used to Trishen's voice, but it was easier to talk to her if he didn't look at her. He said, "We're not in any position to point fingers." He didn't really care whose fault this was or wasn't at this point; as long as they could get back home and permanently disable their Mirror, he was fine with it.
Rodney was standing next to John, arms folded, rocking back and forth on his heels impatiently. "Besides," he said, "This is a far more effective method of destroying the Mirror in our reality. And by far more effective, I mean incredibly dangerous."
John and Teyla exchanged a bewildered look, and John frowned at him, asking, "What? I thought when we got back we'd still have to destroy the array."
Rodney shook his head at the ceiling, as if asking it to witness what he had to deal with. He said pointedly, "The two Mirrors are still connected, that's what caused that minor discharge, and yes, compared to what's coming, that was minor. As long as that connection lasts, they are the same Mirror. Actually, they're always the same Mirror, all the Mirrors are the same Mirror, but that's too complicated to explain to you. But right now, because of the connection and the continued destabilization, they're more one than usual."
Teyla eyed him worriedly. "You are saying that when this Mirror destroys itself-"
Rodney waved an impatient hand. "The singularities are sharing the same reality. It's good for us in that the destination can't be reset, so there's no possibility of losing the connection for our reality. It's bad for us in that when this Mirror goes, the other one will go, except there is no other one, they're both one. It's a form of quantum entanglement."
John just stared at him, brow furrowed. Maybe he was missing the point here, but this sounded bad. "Rodney-"
Kethel said, "They are accepting the transmission." The Queen stepped smoothly into position in front of the communications console.
John tensed, shifting his grip slightly on his P-90. Teyla had her arms folded over her
weapon, outwardly casual, but like John she was holding it so her finger was near the trigger. Ronon was watching the other Eidolon, who were all gathered near Kethel.
A moment later the hologram appeared in a haze of blue static. It resolved into a male Wraith, possibly the same one that the Queen had spoken to earlier. It bared its teeth, demanding, "Why did you refuse to speak with us?"
She inclined her head and, with a faint trace of amusement in her voice, said, "I had nothing to say." Before the Wraith could react, she added, "I have decided to comply with your request. One of my ships will move into position above this structure, to beam the humans to you. Lower your shield and send coordinates."
This was the other part that John was worried about. From what the Eidolon had said, their transporter was more similar to the Asgard beam than it was to the Wraith culling beam. A quick test had shown that it couldn't get through the Wraith's shielding, anymore than the Asgard beam could. Since the Daedalus had destroyed a few hiveships by beaming aboard nuclear warheads, all the Wraith they had encountered had been extra careful about making preventative adjustments to their shields.
The Wraith stared at her, unblinking. Then it said, "Send them outside, we will take them."
"If I open a passage in or out of this facility, you will attack."
It hissed at her. "We have an agreement."
There was something in the Queen's tone that suggested she was talking to a somewhat backward child. "Then lower your shield and send the coordinates."
The Wraith snarled. The Queen stepped out of pick-up range, and Kethel cut the transmission, the hologram disappearing in an angry flash of light. The Queen eyed the spot where it had been, as if an afterimage of the Wraith's form still lingered. All emotion gone from her voice again, she said, "They will comply. Their limitations make their actions easy to predict."
"Yeah, that's what we've noticed," John said, and thought, so far so good.