SGA 22 Legacy 7 Unascended

by Jo Graham

  “It’s a long story.”

  “You are making guesses,” Teyla said. “And this is not why we are here.”

  “No, I’m… well, yes, but it’s an educated guess. Alabaster and Guide did say that this universe’s version of Seeker also had human worshippers.”

  “What they said was that he kept pets,” Ronon said.

  Dekaas seemed to be struggling to decide whether to speak or not. “Alabaster,” he said finally. “The Young Queen. She survived?”

  “She did,” Teyla said. “Guide sent her to safety, and was nearly killed himself.”

  Dekaas let out a humorless laugh. “Guide. You’ve seen Guide.”

  “Oh, we’ve seen him,” Ronon said. “He nearly killed one of our people.”

  “And has been an ally more recently,” Teyla said firmly.

  “We’re not exactly friends,” Dekaas said. “Guide used to tell Seeker that he ought to either eat me or let me go, because I was too dangerous to keep as a pet. I think he inclined toward eating me.”

  “But Seeker didn’t.”

  “No. He taught me most of what I know about science and medicine. I think at first he wanted to find out how much I could understand. And I think the answer disturbed him as much as it fascinated him.”

  “You said Guide wasn’t your friend. Was Seeker a friend?”

  “My captor. My teacher. I… with all due respect, it’s really none of your business how I feel about the fact that he’s dead.”

  “I’m sorry. I’d be interested in hearing more about your experiences, though, if you

  —”

  “Why would you want to? And why are we even trusting this person?” Ronon said. “Why do we keep trusting information that came from the Wraith?” His voice was rising, and he took a menacing step toward Dekaas, who returned his gaze calmly. It couldn’t be the first time he’d faced down someone who would have liked to kill him.

  “I’m not Wraith,” Dekaas said.

  “No, you’re just a Wraith worshipper.”

  “Okay, let’s calm down,” Daniel said.

  “It doesn’t matter,” Rodney said. “We need to find out what’s happened to Elizabeth.”

  “That is right,” Teyla said. “We are not here to judge anyone for having cooperated with the Wraith in the past.”

  Ronon scowled. “We’re the ones cooperating with the Wraith right now.”

  “We are here to find Elizabeth,” Teyla said. “And we will not discuss the Wraith any further.” Her voice cracked like a whip on the last words.

  Ronon took a deep breath, looking as though it actually steadied him to be given an order. “Fine,” he said. “We’ll talk about it later.”

  Daniel opened his mouth, saw Teyla’s expression, and closed it again.

  “I was about to say,” Dekaas said evenly, “that I ran several tests to determine whether Elizabeth was human. I’ve done a sonic scan and looked at her blood under a microscope. She appeared to be completely human, in perfect health. Unusually perfect, as if she’d never had any injuries or major illnesses in her life.”

  “Well, you’re obviously woefully under equipped to actually do genetic testing here, but everything you’re saying would fit,” Rodney said.

  “Would it?” Dekaas tilted his head to one side. “I’d very much like to know what you think happened to her.”

  “What made you suspect she might not be human?” Teyla asked instead of answering.

  “She said she was afraid she might be a robot or a Replicator. I assumed it was trauma-related. Sometimes people who have been through traumatic events

  —”

  “Like being attacked by the Wraith,” Ronon said.

  “—

  feel detached, like their bodies don’t really belong to them.” He considered them. “But you are also worried that she might be a Replicator.”

  “When the Replicators

  —” Daniel began.

  “Our friend was a prisoner of the Replicators before they were destroyed,” Teyla interrupted. “It is a long story. But we had long since given up hope that she had survived.”

  “Every test I could run showed that she was human. As you’ve pointed out, I don’t have the facilities to run a genetic scan, but I saw no evidence of anomalies in her blood. As far as I can tell, she’s a human being.”

  “And she’s on her way to Sateda,” Rodney said.

  “She should have reached Sateda by now. She planned to travel there through the gate from Lorvine, not by ship. I hope you can find her.”

  “Thank you,” Teyla said. “We appreciate your help.”

  “The captain’s gone to trade with the locals. I’m sure he’ll want to get the news from Atlantis if you can stay a little longer. All we can pick up here is third-hand news from the Genii, and they don’t exactly tell the Manarians everything they know.”

  “I have matters to discuss with my team first,” Teyla said. “If you will excuse us for a few minutes?”

  “Of course,” Dekaas said. He frowned. “That other one of me,” he said to Daniel. “The one in what you call an alternate universe. He’s still aboard the hive?”

  “As far as I know.”

  Dekaas nodded. Whether he was glad or sorry, whether he wished he could save his counterpart or would rather have exchanged places with him, Daniel had no idea. “Give Guide my regards,” he said, a flicker of amusement crossing his face. “It ought to annoy him to hear that I’m not dead yet.”

  “I’ll do that,” Daniel said, and then had to quicken his pace to keep up with the others as they left the room.

  They assembled outside the ship. “We need to get to Sateda, not waste time chatting with the Travelers,” Rodney said. “We can send them an email or something later.”

  “We will discuss that in a minute,” Teyla said. “First, we are going to discuss how we conduct ourselves in conversations with our allies.”

  “Some allies,” Ronon said.

  “I realize that might not have been the tactful moment

  —” Daniel began.

  “Are you even capable of being quiet?”

  “I’ve been asked that before,” Daniel said after a moment’s pause. “So, all right, shutting up for the moment.”

  Teyla let out a frustrated breath. “Ronon. We are no longer at war with the Wraith. I know that was not your decision, and I understand how hard that is for you. But at least for now, they are our allies, and we will be dealing with more and more people who have made peace with the Wraith.” She looked up into Ronon’s face. “You are my friend, and I would trust you with my life. But if you cannot be civil to our allies, I do not want you on my team.”

  “It’s Sheppard’s team.”

  “Not while Colonel Sheppard is in command in Atlantis. Do you question his judgment in placing me in command in his absence?”

  There was a pause. “No,” Ronon said. “You’re in charge. If you order me to be polite to Wraith worshippers

  —”

  “I am asking you to refrain from giving direct insults to our allies, whether they are Wraith worshippers or Wraith,” Teyla said. “If you can say nothing civil, at least be silent.”

  “Asking isn’t ordering.”

  “Then it is an order.”

  Ronon nodded, not happy, but accepting.

  Teyla turned to Daniel. “Dr. Jackson. I have heard a great deal about you from Colonel Carter, and I believe you respect her as much as she respects you. I assume then that you do not respect my authority because I am Athosian, rather than because I am a woman.”

  “I… no, that’s not true.”

  “I warned you off that line of questioning, and yet you persisted, even when it jeopardized our mission. You held your own idle curiosity to be more important than my authority. Or are you going to tell me that you do not know what I meant?”

  “No, I knew you didn’t want me to ask him about his time with the Wraith. But it could be important to understanding how the Wraith
treat their human worshippers, and how they’re likely to interact with humans now that they’re administering the retrovirus to them. They need a model for how to deal with humans that’s not based on treating them like livestock, and their relationships with their human worshippers are the closest thing they have to equal relationships with humans

  —”

  “That is not our mission.”

  “You can’t just put everything into little boxes and say, we’re only going to find out about one tiny thing and not try to fit it into some kind of broader context. If we want to understand the story of the Pegasus galaxy

  —”

  “And you are uniquely suited to doing so, despite the fact that you have only just arrived here?”

  “I’m just trying to understand. Like everybody else in Atlantis.”

  “The members of the Atlantis expedition have shared knowledge of their culture with us as we have shared ours with them,” Teyla said. “They have fought the Wraith and the Replicators with us, and many of them have died. They are part of our story, and we are part of theirs. But you are not even part of the Atlantis expedition. You are here at your pleasure, and you are on this team at mine. And I have seen nothing to persuade me that you have any skills at working as part of a team.”

  “I don’t take orders well,” Daniel said. “I admit that

  —”

  “Then I will only give you one. Go back to the jumper, and wait there until we have spoken with the captain of the Travelers’ ship. That is not a request, and I am not asking you for your opinion about my decision. Is that clear enough?”

  “Crystal clear,” Daniel said from between gritted teeth.

  “I am glad we understand each other,” Teyla said.

  SGA-22 Unascended

  INTERLUDE

  Elizabeth woke. She lay in a bedroll on the floor of one of the rooms of the Paiden Regional Clinic, the other members of the salvage team sleeping nearby. In the doorway one of the men was keeping watch, looking out over the empty street and the stars paling with the coming dawn.

  Already the dream seemed to fade. There had been a woman

  —

  an alien woman

  —

  and a danger. To her? To Elizabeth? It was hard to remember. But she was certain of one thing the woman had said. She would soon be home.

  Their packs were heavy when they left the Regional Clinic. Elizabeth’s held three piece of handheld electrical equipment and two manual blood pressure cuffs. They’d left the electric ones behind on the theory that you could take blood pressure just as well with the manual ones, and anything that didn’t waste power was good. Her pack also held two dozen metal implements, mostly surgical clamps and scissors, things that were beyond what the Satedans could make today, but which had been commonplace before. She also had two heavy half empty bottles of disinfectant, another thing that used to be dirt cheap but which was now incredibly valuable.

  Margin Bri said as much as Elizabeth hoisted her pack onto her back.

  “I understand,” Elizabeth said absently, adjusting the straps to distribute the load better. “It’s the same thing I saw in Bosnia. Everyday things become incredibly valuable when suddenly there’s no way to replace them.”

  Margin put her head to the side. “Where is Bosnia? I haven’t heard of that Culling.”

  “I have no idea,” Elizabeth said. The words had just come into her head, but she thought about them as they walked back to the rail station. She was remembering more. There were more pieces to the puzzle she was assembling. “I don’t remember a lot of places I’ve been since I left home.”

  Margin nodded. “Some don’t,” she said. “It takes everyone differently. But you’re here and that’s what matters. You survived.”

  “I did,” Elizabeth said. What she had survived might not be what Margin thought it was, but it was horror enough. Whatever it was, she had completely forgotten it.

  The rail station was just as they’d left it and they passed through, turning south to follow the tracks. Suddenly there was a noise behind them, a scattering of stones and the low whine that Elizabeth recognized as the sound of a Satedan energy pistol powering up. They were standing in the middle of the tracks with little cover.

  “Get down!” Margin Bri yelled, pulling one of the others off to the side.

  There was almost nowhere to go. Elizabeth crouched, dodging back to the edge of the station platform. It only rose a couple of feet at the corner, but at least it was concrete. She reached for her side, for a weapon that wasn’t there. She was unarmed. They were all unarmed except for some knives.

  “Stand where you are,” Margin Bri called out. “Show yourself or we’ll return fire.”

  Nice bluff, Elizabeth thought.

  “We’ve got you in our sights,” a man called back. “Identify yourselves!”

  Elizabeth didn’t hesitate. “If you’ve got us in your sights, you know we’re not Wraith,” she said, standing up with her hands well to the sides.

  There was a noise at the other end of the platform where a short flight of concrete steps led down to the tracks. An old man with a grizzled beard stood up, holding an energy pistol pointed straight at her. “Who are you then?” he demanded.

  “A salvage party from the city,” Elizabeth said. “Satedan. Now put the gun away.”

  “Why should I believe you?” he asked.

  “Do we look like Wraith to you?” Elizabeth beckoned to Margin, who stood up, her heavy pack on her back. “We came looking for medical supplies. Which I bet you did too.” The old man was wearing a bulky pack, but it looked mostly empty. “Let’s talk about this.”

  “From the city?” the old man said. “That’s impossible. They were all killed.”

  “Some Satedans have returned,” Elizabeth said. Her eyes didn’t waver. “Put the gun away and let’s talk.”

  “Dad, put the gun away.” A young woman stood up from the shelter of the steps, and after a moment a second did too. They were so alike as to be almost twins, but the one who had spoken had hair a shade darker and stood an inch shorter than her sister. “Come on, Dad.”

  After a moment he wavered, returning the energy pistol to a holster at his belt. “OK.” He drew himself up. “I’m Beron Eze. These are my daughters Jana and Vetra.”

  “This is Margin Bri,” Elizabeth said. “And I’m Elizabeth Weir. We’re friends.”

  “How could you have come from the city?” the taller young woman, Vetra, asked. “There was nobody left. The Wraith were using it for their hunting games.”

  “Not anymore,” Margin said.

  “There are several hundred people there now,” Elizabeth said. “Ushan Cai is their elected leader. The Stargate is open and they are trading with other worlds.”

  The other woman, Jana, shook her head in wonder. “What happened to the Wraith?”

  “There’s a treaty,” Elizabeth said. “Among hives. They’re leaving Sateda alone.”

  “For now,” Margin said. “But that’s something. Where did you come from? We haven’t found any people from outside the city, though Ushan Cai thinks there must have been survivors.”

  “Escavera,” Beron said. “I have a farm near Escavera, up in mining country. The first Cullings didn’t bother with it because we’re way out in the country, and then we used the old mine shafts when they came back. They’re too deep to detect life signs from a Dart. There are a couple of dozen of us, a few families from remote farms and some miners. Me and my girls here, we’re getting by.”

  “But we needed medical supplies,” Jana said. “So I talked Dad into this trip.”

  “We had no idea there were any people here,” Vetra said. “We thought maybe we could salvage some things to take back with us.”

  “Come to the city with us,” Elizabeth said. “It’s only another day’s walk. We will be there by nightfall. You can talk to Ushan Cai and work out supplies to take back. I know he’ll want to talk to you about where survivors are.”
/>   Vetra looked at her father. “Dad?”

  He nodded slowly. “OK. That seems reasonable.”

  “I want to see what’s happened,” Jana said. “We need news. Let’s go.”

  SGA-22 Unascended

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  Daniel tried not to pace around the interior of the jumper. There wasn’t really room to take more than a few steps, anyway. Teyla’s words still rankled. All right, he’d gone off on a tangent, and one that might not have been tactful, but he’d spent years having to fight to pursue the answers to any questions other than “who’s trying to shoot us today and what are we going to do about it?”

  He certainly didn’t believe he had all the answers. Some days he didn’t feel like he had any of the answers. But there had to be some way to fight back against that sense of frustration, to find out enough to be able to piece together the complete story of something. It was all intertwined, the Ancients and the Wraith and the Asgard, and he wasn’t sure how to begin understanding the story of Atlantis without knowing more.

  It had to fit together, all the pieces that he’d been uncovering over the years. Somehow there had to be a way to assemble them into an actual story, one more satisfying than “a lot of strange and fascinating and tragic things have happened to humanity, but at least we’re still here.” He just needed more information. Or the right piece of information. Or

  —

  The back hatch of the jumper opened, and he looked up, an apology and justification for his actions forming on his lips. Instead he stared at the two figures standing in the doorway and said, “Who the hell are you, and how did you get in here?”

  One of them, a young woman with red-blond hair and a grim expression, pointed a gun at him. “Move away from the controls,” she said. Her companion, a tall man with golden skin and close-cropped hair, moved toward the pilot’s seat.

  “I can’t fly this thing anyway,” Daniel said. He reached for his sidearm, and she moved fast, jamming the gun against his chest.

  “Move and you’re dead,” she said.

  “I thought you wanted me to move away from the controls.”