SGA 22 Legacy 7 Unascended

by Jo Graham

  —

  Osprey’s family. This was her line, her legacy

  —

  these ships, these men, these bright and brilliant daughters

  —

  this fleet. They had not simply survived. They had thrived. And they were beautiful. Her heart was filled by a life of such joy. Osprey stretched her mind out over the fleet, feeling her daughters answer, feeling each precious mind. Mother of Queens, First Mother…

  Ember bent his head. To see such a thing from her mind was honor indeed.

  *I did not know,* Teyla said. *I did not know there was beauty. I saw only death. Only hardship. When I first remembered, I felt pity. I pitied Osprey her suffering and for the injustice done to her. That was what I felt at first.*

  *And now?* Ember asked boldly.

  *I feel pride,* Teyla said. She reached down and scooped up Newton where he wound about her ankles. *Come. Let us return Newton to Dr. McKay.*

  Atlantis’s current supply officer was a young Air Force lieutenant who had been hastily posted to Atlantis as they were leaving Earth. Lorne privately felt they would have been better off trying to get the highly competent Lt. Alberti back, even if it had required twisting multiple arms to do it. What he had, however, was Lt. Winston, who had an unfortunate faith in the reliability of all other links in the supply chain.

  “That equipment came out of the shipment we just got a couple of weeks ago when Daedalus was here,” Winston said.

  “That’s what I just told you.”

  “So it should be fine.”

  “It should be, but it isn’t,” Lorne said. “Two of the water containers sprung leaks, and one of the tents fell apart as soon as it was set up.”

  “Maybe it wasn’t set up properly.”

  “That’s possible. But that shouldn’t make it fall apart like it’s been shredded. And are you saying they filled the water cans with water wrong?”

  “Maybe they put them down on rocks.”

  “There’s nothing but rocks to put them down on. Come on, now. Let’s take a look at the rest of the gear from that shipment and see how much of it is pre-wrecked for our convenience.”

  “The SGC wouldn’t send us defective equipment,” Winston said.

  “You have got a lot to learn about life,” Lorne said. “Or at least about life in the military. Show me the containers.”

  It took an hour to inventory the contents of the containers that had arrived on Daedalus. None of the other gear showed visible signs of damage or manufacturing defects, but then presumably neither had the tent and the water cans before they were used.

  “Okay,” Lorne said finally. “Did Harper come pick up a new tent and water cans?”

  “Right before you got down here,” Winston said.

  The door to the supply warehouse slid open at that moment, and Harper came in, scowling. “You know those new water cans you issued me? One of them fell apart as soon we took it out of the jumper,” she said. “It looks like it melted. The others are still holding water, but I’m telling you there’s something wrong with these cans.”

  “All right,” Lorne said. “Get a water trailer out there. We’re going to need one anyway if we’re going to have people stationed there for any length of time. How’s the new tent holding up?”

  “They were setting it up when I left,” she said.

  “Let me know if it stays up. Get the rest of the site set up, and let me know if you have any other equipment failures. I’ve got to go take Dr. Lynn and Dr. Zelenka to Sateda today, but I’ll come out and take a look when I get back.” They were dropping off some portable generators to help the Satedans get electric power to areas that crucially needed it, in exchange for letting Lynn explore the Satedan museum more fully, this time hopefully without the threat of Genii soldiers storming in while he was doing it.

  He turned to Winston. “Have one of your people set up some of these tents out on the pier, and see if they fall apart. Let’s not have a gate team find that out when they’re relying on them for shelter in a blizzard. And start testing the water cans, too. Let’s find out if any of them actually hold water.”

  “Yes, sir,” Winston said with a martyred expression.

  “Because if we do end up with a gate team put in danger because of potentially defective supplies, Colonel Sheppard will start asking questions about whether these potentially defective supplies were tested before they were issued. And I’ll have answers for him. Understand?”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “I’m glad to hear it.”

  Ronon stood in the doorway of Eva’s office, not sure whether there was any point in being there or not. “Are you busy?”

  “No,” she said. “But you can make an appointment if you want.”

  He shrugged. “I thought I’d come see if you were busy.”

  “I’m not busy,” she said, shifting in her chair to brace her injured leg more comfortably. “Come in and sit down. Tell me what’s on your mind.”

  Ronon sat down. “I think you ought to tell Sheppard and Teyla not to trust the Wraith so much.”

  “I’m not sure that’s exactly my job,” Eva said after a momentary pause.

  “You said you gave people advice.”

  “When they ask for it. How about you tell me why you’re worried about them trusting the Wraith too much?”

  “Because we’ve got a Wraith in the city again.”

  Eva nodded. “And you don’t like it.”

  “It’s dangerous. So maybe they can help us find some old relics of the Asgard. So what. That’s not worth having them here. Having people get used to them, like they’re supposed to be here.”

  “You’re afraid that people won’t be on their guard if something dangerous happens.”

  “Sheppard probably will be. I don’t know about Teyla.”

  “Teyla’s never struck me as a careless kind of person. Does she strike you that way?”

  “Not careless. But she’s started sympathizing with the Wraith, even liking some of them. That’s… wrong,” he finished, unable to come up with a word for it that was as strong as he felt it deserved.

  “Which do you think is more important? Whether or not she likes the Wraith, or whether or not she’s careful?”

  There was an answer on the tip of his tongue, but he bit the words back. “Whether or not she’s careful,” he said after a moment.

  “It won’t hurt to remind her to be careful. Vigilance isn’t a bad thing when you really are in a dangerous situation. It only starts to be a problem when you can’t relax when things get back to normal.”

  “What if this is normal, now?”

  “I don’t think anyone’s suggested having the Wraith as permanent residents of Atlantis. It may feel like this is lasting forever, but it’s really a temporary situation.”

  “We keep working with the Wraith, though. That isn’t a temporary situation.”

  “And you’ve certainly got plenty of reasons not to want to work with the Wraith.”

  He shrugged. “It’s not up to me.”

  “Not whether we have an alliance with the Wraith, no. I’m just wondering if you want me to recommend that you not be assigned to missions that involve working directly with the Wraith.”

  “You can’t do that.”

  “Well, yes, I actually can recommend that,” Eva said. “Now, I can’t tell you if Colonel Sheppard would take my advice, but I think he’d at least listen to it. There’s plenty of work around here that doesn’t involve being an ambassador to the Wraith.”

  “Yeah, but they’re going to keep wanting Teyla to do it.”

  “That’s probably true,” Eva agreed. “Teyla has established a good working relationship with Alabaster and her people. No one’s going to want to waste that.”

  “So I’m stuck with it. I have to watch her back.”

  “Aren’t there other people who could do that?”

  “Teyla’s my family,” he said after a moment. “Maybe you don’t understand that.”<
br />
  “I understand that,” Eva said. “But sometimes what’s good for one person in a family isn’t good for another person. I know that on a mission like this, you bond with people incredibly tightly. You eat with them and work with them and spend all your free time with them, and it’s hard to think of letting go of any of those things.”

  “But,” he prompted when it seemed like there was more she wanted to say.

  “But sometimes there are missions that one person on the team would be perfect for and that another person on the team can’t do. And sometimes the answer to that is splitting up a team temporarily, and other times it’s thinking about whether the way the team is put together still makes sense.”

  “If I wanted to quit the team, I’d leave Atlantis,” Ronon said.

  “I’m just saying those aren’t your only choices. And maybe that’s something for you to think about.”

  “Maybe,” he said. “You won’t say anything to Sheppard, right?”

  “Not a word,” she said.

  SGA-22 Unascended

  INTERLUDE

  Ushan Cai proved to be an older man in a coat that had known better days, though both it and he were clean, suggesting that they had adequate water for washing. Elizabeth was eating some kind of sweet bread at a long table when he strode up and swung his leg over the opposite bench to sit down with her. “I’m Ushan Cai,” he said. “I hear you came in last night.”

  “That’s right.” Elizabeth put the bread down quickly. “It’s good to meet you.”

  “The boys said you were a medic.” He smiled approvingly. “That’s always useful.”

  “I have some medical skills,” Elizabeth clarified. “I’m not a doctor. The truth is, I’m not entirely sure what I am.”

  “How’s that?” He seemed curious rather than skeptical.

  “People found me on Mazatla. I had no memory of how I got there or of what happened before that. I remembered things that made them wonder if I were Satedan, so they took me to the Travelers. I met a young Satedan woman there who said she agreed that the things I remembered sounded like Sateda, and that a lot of other Satedans who had been off-world were wandering too. She said some people had started returning home and gave me the gate address. As soon as the Traveler ship I was on came to a world where I could dial out, I did. And so I came here.”

  He nodded thoughtfully. “What do you remember?”

  Elizabeth glanced out the window at the buildings across the square gilded with first light. “Steel bridges across a river. Railroads. A hospital. Doctors, drugs, a university. My parents.” She didn’t glance at him. “A man who was a doctor. I think he was…” She stopped. “I think Simon was very close to me. I don’t know what happened to him. I thought he was dead and then I thought that was just a dream.” She looked back at Cai, who was watching her compassionately. But then he must have heard all this before. A doctor’s wife, probably. Maybe a nurse or a humanitarian of some kind, traumatized by what had happened, remembering and forgetting his death

  —

  it was very plausible.

  “Well,” Cai said. “You’re welcome to stay here and look for your loved ones. Also more people are returning every day. Any time someone might arrive looking for you.”

  “That’s true,” Elizabeth said. Someone was looking for her. Not Simon, but someone.

  “Everyone here who can needs to work,” Cai said. “We don’t have a lot, but we share what we have with anyone who returns. But we expect everybody to pitch in as they’re able.”

  “I’m more than happy to pitch in,” Elizabeth said. “I’ve been assisting one of the Traveler’s doctors, or I can do other work as you need it.” She dusted her hands off on her pants. “I’m no engineer, but I can follow directions. I can even help with the naquadah generator if you need it.”

  Cai’s eyes widened a little. “That’s not ours,” he said. “Not Satedan. We just got it. How did you know what it is?”

  “One of the guards told me last night,” Elizabeth said, which was perfectly true. Only…

  His face relaxed a little. “Well, let me send you over to the medical salvage team. We’ve got a team going to all the old clinics and hospitals around the city seeing what equipment and supplies they can salvage. They’ve found quite a lot, actually.” He shrugged. “Not drugs, of course. Most of them would be too old to use or spoiled. But there’s some equipment, surgical packs, gurneys, all kinds of useful things. Think you’re up for medical salvage?”

  “Absolutely,” Elizabeth said.

  The salvage team was led by a woman named Margin Bri, hard faced and golden skinned, about Elizabeth’s age. There were four other people in the party. “Alright folks,” she said as they stood in what had once been the lobby of the hotel. “Grab your bedroll and check out two boxes of rations. This is an overnight trip. We’re walking up to Paiden and seeing what’s left of the Regional Clinic there.”

  “What’s Paiden?” Elizabeth asked.

  The man next to her glanced at her. “It used to be one of the suburbs. It’s up the rail line.”

  “That’s right,” Margin said. “We’re going to follow the tracks. No way we can get lost, no matter how different things look! But there used to be a Regional Clinic there. I think since it was out of the city there may be a chance that there’s more left of it. We’re looking for hand held equipment in working order or large pieces that we can tag and come back for. Particularly if we can find a working x-ray machine, that’s a priority. We know the Regional Clinic used to have one. What we don’t know is how bad the physical damage was up near Paiden. They were Culled heavily, but hopefully with beams. So let’s head out. It’s half a day’s walk.”

  The ration boxes proved to be a pair of rectangular containers made out of something like rattan with a hinged lid. Inside were several packets wrapped in oiled cloth, more of the sweetbread from breakfast, dried meat, some dehydrated vegetables. There was also a foil packet in each that looked suspiciously familiar. Elizabeth frowned. “Energy bars,” she said.

  Margin nodded. “Yep. Two each. One for today, one for tomorrow. Let’s get going.”

  At first they walked through city streets in the early morning chill. Many of the buildings were reduced to piles of rubble and the streets away from the city center were choked with fallen debris. Elizabeth wondered if the all the streets had been like this. If so, Cai and his people had moved an enormous amount with no larger tools than shovels. They had to watch their steps constantly. Shards of broken glass, darkened by sun exposure, protruded from piles of broken bricks everywhere, the remains of windows. This must have been a beautiful city once, Elizabeth thought. It was eerily beautiful even now. Here and there a few small saplings thrust up from gaps in the pavement, spreading pale green leaves in the watery early spring sun.

  It took an hour or more for Elizabeth to see the rail line they were following, twisted metal rails down the middle of what had been streets, a streetcar line perhaps? As the morning wore away she got better at seeing where the rails had been. No one spoke much. She supposed this had been their home. What could one say? There was no stench of remains. Ten years or more had passed. Any flesh had long since gone, and if there were bones they lay buried under broken concrete.

  They halted when the sun stood directly overhead and ate in the center of what had been a square. A broken statue remained, four sets of legs from the knee down, three men and a woman in what had once been a heroic pose. The letters about the bottom of the statue were still cut clear in the stone, but Elizabeth could not read them. Satedan, she thought.

  And yet she could read Lantean. The thought teased around in her head as she ate the dried vegetables in the ration box. Then she got the energy bar out. The silver wrapper had only one line of type on the back but it was perfectly clear. “Not for individual sale.”

  She handed the energy bar to Margin Bri. “What does this say?” she asked.

  The woman shrugged. “I have no idea. That’s Lant
ean.”

  “Ah,” Elizabeth said. Hypothesis tested. She opened the package, nibbling at a corner of the chewy bar. Chocolate. The word came to mind, a flavor she had not tasted anywhere in memory, but she knew it. Chocolate.

  “What do you know about the Lanteans?” she asked Margin Bri casually. “Do they ever come here?”

  “From time to time.” The other woman nodded. “Ushan Cai got them to help broker a deal to keep the Genii out. It’s better to trade with the Lanteans than the Genii. They don’t want to take over.”

  “Why is that?” Elizabeth asked.

  Margin Bri stood up, dusting off her hands on her pants. “If you had Atlantis, would you want to be here?” She looked around the square. “OK, people. Let’s head out.”

  “Atlantis,” Elizabeth said quietly.

  The buildings got smaller as they walked on. The rail line now ran through a culvert, concrete walls on each side and a sliver of sky between. Sometimes the way was nearly choked by a fall of concrete on either side, but more often it ran straight and true, the tracks intact.

  “This looks like it could be used again,” Elizabeth said at last.

  One of the men nodded. “Not too much work, actually. Probably the biggest damage is corroded power lines, but that’s not nearly as hard to fix as some things.” He looked almost cheerful at the prospect.

  Ahead, down the straight line of track, a broad curve of concrete rose to one side, spreading out to cover the track like a huge umbrella. “A suburban station?” Elizabeth guessed.

  “That’s the Paiden station,” the man said. “Not far now. We’ll leave the tracks there, but the Regional Clinic was only a block from the station.”

  “It looks pretty much intact,” Elizabeth said. The curve of the roof was uninterrupted.