Chapter Text
“Unscheduled offworld activation!”
Chuck’s exclamation made Dr. Elizabeth Weir look up from her desk, her fingers paused in typing. She pushed her chair back, standing up and hurried into the control room. Movement to her right made her glance over to see her military commanding officer, Lt. Colonel John Sheppard, joining her. A frown graced his features as he ascended into the control room. He was dressed in a loose tee-shirt and sweatpants, clearly sparring with Teyla or Ronon, judging by the sheen of sweat covering his forehead. It made his already unruly dark hair messier.
Elizabeth knew it was John’s day off.
But like any dedicated officer or even scientist in Atlantis, a day off did not preclude the fact that if there was an unscheduled offworld activation, one would be on full alert. To truly take an off day, Elizabeth believed someone had to ship out on the Daedalus or even to the unfinished Midway station and be back on Earth, half-way across the world away from Stargate Command. Maybe even throw in a planet somewhere on the opposite end of the Milky Way.
“What do you have?” She turned to Chuck, the long-time control room technician a veteran at expertly keeping calm in the midst the chaos of a frontier outpost in a hostile galaxy. He had been one of the first people in her expedition and though Elizabeth knew that Chuck tended to be a bit more on the quiet side, say like the late Peter Grodin who was a bit boisterous, he was rather well-liked for his unflappable demeanor.
“No IDC yet,” he glanced over at the laptop situated near the dialing controls. “Wait, getting Major Lorne’s IDC!”
Suddenly her radio crackled to life as Lorne’s frantic voice blared through, “We’re coming in hot Atlantis! Be prepared to put the shield back up as soon as the last man is through!”
“Lower the shield!” She and John nearly said at the same time and Chuck instantly obeyed. The semi-opaque shield that was uniquely Atlantis’ dissolved with a crackling discharge, leaving the watery wormhole shining in its wake.
“Fire teams stand ready!” John called out. Military personnel assigned to guard the gate readied their weapons, half crouched by the stairs.
There was a brief moment of almost tranquility as they all watched the blue-puddle-like event horizon undulate calmly. Then just as suddenly the first blast ripped through the stargate and impacted the top of the control room ceiling in a shower of debris and dust.
Elizabeth suddenly found herself slammed to the floor, a heavy weight pinning her to the ground. She tried to move, but the weight would not relent and the muffled shouts of those around her followed by screams made her panic for a second before she managed to crane her head up to briefly see half of the face of her military commanding officer holding her down.
It was John’s weight on top of her, she dimly realized as she tried to lift her head to see, but he would not yield. The sounds of more muffled blasts, sparks of electricity and a yelping yell from her left side made her wince. From her line of vision, she thought she saw Chuck roll to the ground, clutching an arm in agony before the shuffling of John’s weight across her upper body covered her vision. He was shouting something before the weight suddenly lifted for a second.
She thought she heard a hiss of pain from him before the distant thumps of objects impacting the Atlantis’ gate shield, an unfortunate familiar sound, was heard then just as suddenly the zap of the gate disengaging. John's weight finally lifted off of her and she propped herself up to her knees as she saw him stand up, looking around in concern.
“Medical teams to the gateroom ASAP,” she heard his command over both the headset and proximity.
Picking herself up off the floor, she finally got a good look at how much damage the control room and the gateroom suffered and barely kept her jaw from dropping. Gouging holes littered areas of the control room and some of the secondary Ancient stations were smoking, sparking remnants. A quick glance behind her made her see Sgt. Amelia Banks rolling Chuck gently to his back, his whole body curled up, his face a grimace of pain. Little wisps of smoke curled from parts of his body and clothing and she saw that the dialing console was completely powered off, but still had remnants of sparking electric arcs thrashing across its panels.
“You're going to be all right Chuck,” Amelia spoke softly. Elizabeth turned away, knowing that the gate technician was still a proud man and would not want the head of the expedition to see him in such a condition.
However, as she looked elsewhere she caught John trying to hide the flexing of his right hand and realized that he was the one who had raised the gate shield to prevent more fire from coming into the gateroom. And with the console still arcing electric bursts, he had been electrocuted doing his job. She was about to open her mouth to ask if he was all right when he started out of the control room, headed down stairs to check on Major Lorne and the rest of his team.
She followed him, knowing that he would seek medical attention last for such a trivial matter. Major Lorne and the rest of his team were the priority patients and those injured in the unexpected attack.
“What happened?” she asked as Dr. Beckett and his medical teams arrived. They promptly began to load up one of Major Lorne's men onto a stretcher, the young Marine whose name she had momentarily forgotten. He was held in place on a flat, hard stretcher with a neck brace being secured.
“Ambushed.” Lorne was bleeding from what looked like a head wound, but he didn't seem to notice and shrugged off a nurse who was trying to get at the wound. He managed a hasty, but casual salute to John and a nod of respect to her. Dirt, bramble, and mud caked his uniform, but otherwise, the Major looked healthier than the rest of his team. “The damned Asurans knew we were coming. Held the village hostage and we barely had a warning from some of the children before we were fired upon.”
He gestured to one of his other team members, a female scientist who had only been a recent addition to the stargate program due to her experience in robotics and machinery, “Chen got hit in the shoulder on our way back. Not one of those stunners the Asurans always use, this one was like a Goa'uld staff weapon.”
Elizabeth frowned. In their most recent encounter with the Asurans, the strike force had used stunners against them. She had not know them to even use anything remotely like bullets or even staff blasts. This was new and disturbing information.
“And Mendez?” John asked, glancing at the Marine who was now being wheeled away.
“Got caught in the crossfire when we exited through.” The Major looked angry at himself, “Should have told you guys to scatter. Didn't know that they were going to fire things like that into Atlantis through the stargate.”
“Not your fault Major,” John shrugged, “get cleaned up. We'll debrief...?” He glanced over to her and she checked her watch, mentally calculating the meetings she had today.
“Two hours. Check on your team, make sure Dr. Beckett gives all of you a clean bill of health and we'll meet you in the conference room.” She gave Lorne what she hoped was a reassuring smile and saw him nod before casually saluting John again and left. The other member of his team, Captain Pearson followed as the two of them headed to the infirmary.
She turned to John and held up a hand to stop him from going anywhere. “Get your hand checked out too. I'll let Rodney know about the meeting.”
“But-”
“I can handle the clean up here,” she replied, glancing around at the blackened spots around the gateroom and control room, noting the amount of medical personnel running in and out. Some of the personnel like Chuck were in the midst of being loaded onto stretchers, others treated on the spot.
“It's-”
“John,” she turned back. “You've just been electrocuted. You may not think I've noticed, but you arm's been spasming.” She did not mention the noticeable welling of blood across his forearm.
He gave her a stubbornly dark look at her, but she kept her expression mild. She knew that he did not like it when someone forced him to the infirmary, but he was also too much of a gentleman to contradict her orders, not after all that they've been through. His recovery from the ill-fated mission to M3R-154 had made almost everyone save for some of the expedition members almost treating the Lieutenant Colonel like he was on eggshells even after his recovery for weeks – which angered him. She had been one of the few who hadn't, knowing that he never liked to show weakness in front of others. It had taken the completion of the McKay-Carter Interstellar Bridge to get everything back to normal.
Then their swift return to the SGC had thrown everyone for a loop and all struggled to normalize their new reality that they were kicked off of Atlantis for the intervening weeks afterwards. Their recent return and settling of personnel into familiar routines had all but reset the expectations and normalcy that one could expect for life in the Pegasus Galaxy.
“Fine,” he replied before heading off to the infirmary at a brisk pace.
She watched him leave, a part of her relieved that he had not put up much of a fuss as he was sometimes prone to do. She and John had a mutual unspoken understanding, perhaps borne out of the years working together, but she would never allow herself to express the more than friendly emotions she felt for him; especially with what had just happened. Though some could have considered it that it was the military's leader job to make sure the civilian leader was protected when an attack occurred, John had continued to protect her in the moments after he had activated the gate shield. It was only after the gate had deactivated had he moved.
She may be the head of the Atlantis expedition, but it was John Sheppard who was the heart of it. And she knew he would do anything to protect his family, his home, and those he cared about.
Lieutenant Colonel John Sheppard could not keep the frown off of his face as he headed towards the infirmary to get his hand and arm checked out. He knew Elizabeth meant well and knew that she would be able to handle things in the control room, but couldn't help but feel as if he had just been mollycoddled. Glancing at his right arm that he kept close to his stomach, his frown became even more pronounced as all thoughts of Elizabeth mollycoddling him flew out of his head.
He hadn't even noticed that the arcs of electricity from when he had reached out to activate the gate shield had gouged rivets of lines across his hand and forearm and that they were slowly welling up with blood. In fact, his arm didn't even hurt, and just felt numb for some odd reason. Maybe she was right; after all, she was more observant of little details in people than he was.
“Sir, let's take a look at that for you.” He started slightly as he realized his feet had taken him to the infirmary while he had been absorbed in looking at the jagged lines running up and down his arm. The nurse that had spoken was a pretty Asian and looked vaguely familiar.
His thoughts must have shown on his expression before she gestured to a group of doctors huddling around the form of the scientist Dr. Chen, led by Dr. Keller. “That's my twin sister. Stargate Command finally approved her transfer from NASA.”
“Oh,” he blinked glancing back between her and the unconscious Chen who was currently being stabilized for what was probably surgery by Keller and her team. He didn't exactly know what to say.
“Not allowed to treat her, too close to the patient, you see,” the young Asian nurse shrugged. He could see that she was trying hard to keep her composure and poked gently at his wounds before dabbing them with some iodine and cleaning it with antiseptic. She finished by slathering on some antibiotic cream. “You should be fine, Colonel. The cuts aren't too deep, and it looks like the muscle spasms you have are slowing down. I'll just wrap this up for you and give you a sling.”
“Wait how long-”
“Just for the next few days. Come back every four hours before you turn in for the night to get your dressings changed,” the nurse replied, giving him a smile before starting to wrap his hand up. She was done in a few minutes and expertly placed his arm in the sling before handing him some pills. “When the tremors stop in a few hours, take these, they'll help with the pain that will follow.”
“Thanks,” John took the bagged pills and placed it into a pocket in his pants before glancing over to where Keller and the others were starting to rush the nurse's sister into the OR. “She'll be fine,” he tried lamely, knowing his bedside manner needed some working. At least it wasn't as bad as Rodney's.
“I know. She's always the hardiest of the two of us,” the nurse smiled, glad for some comfort before she headed towards another nurse who was having some trouble with Major Lorne who kept ducking his head away, wincing a bit. He caught his second-in-command's eye and gestured with his own towards the Asian nurse coming towards him.
He saw Lorne do a double take before a realization settled into his face and he became a bit more amenable to the nurse's ministrations. Apparently his second-in-command had known of his fellow team member's familial connection. Satisfied that everything was in order, he headed out of the infirmary and back towards the gate room, hoping to help Elizabeth out with whatever he could.
Two hours later John found himself in Atlantis' main briefing room, the doors closing gently as he heard the hum of the sentient city tinkling in his mind. He would never tell anyone, but the attack on the city had shaken him. It wasn’t because of the attack, but because of his unique connection to the city after the harried events on M3R-154. He hadn't thought much about it in the initial aftermath and when he had his arm dressed in a sling, but in the two hours before the meeting, he had heard an almost mournful hum buzzing in the back of his head.
It had taken him a while to figure out what it was when he realized it was the city, communicating with him, or at least he thought it was. He had then realized that the screams he had heard during the attack were not only mingled with those injured in the control room and gateroom, but also the unique presence that was Atlantis resting inside his head.
She – he’d like to think of the city as a female after his mission on M3R-154 – had been oddly quiet and while occasionally humming to herself, in the recent months. The six weeks spent on Earth after the Ancients kicked them out had made him think that perhaps he had been hallucinating the lingering effects of his experience in the Wraith’gul.
Even his, Carson, Elizabeth and Rodney’s return to rescue General O’Neill and Woolsey did not produce the hum in the back of his mind. But thinking on it, he realized the hum returned after the occupying Asuran force had been turned into inert blocks of nanites. He did not realize the hum slotted back into his mind like an old friend until now, three weeks after they had retaken the city.
The city had been hurt during the attack and her screams had shaken him. He did not know why, but tried to push the uneasy feeling away from him. The last thing he needed was Elizabeth to worry over his mental health nor did he want the rumor mill on Atlantis to think he was crazy. There were two other people in the city who had the ATA gene that were nearly as strong as he was and only one of them would have an inkling of what may have happened in the attack.
The other, Dr. Beckett, would more than likely order him some bed rest and a psychiatric evaluation with Dr. Heightmeyer – the last person John wanted to see. Maybe his second-in-command would have a better idea, though John didn't exactly want to confront his loyal Major about it; the two of them having come to an unspoken agreement regarding the Wraith'gul on M3R-154 talking in their heads. Perhaps Lorne didn't even hear Atlantis' voice in the city.
Rodney was out of the question as he glanced at his best friend who was absently munching on a power bar, jotting notes down on his tablet. He had noticed Rodney fidget more than once as they waited for Lorne and Pearson to arrive, seemingly sticking a finger in his ear as if to clear some phantom ringing in there. Whatever...entity he had spoken with in the Wraith’gul indicated that she was not able to communicate properly with Rodney or any of those who had the therapy. Like the variations of the strength of the ATA gene, those who had the gene therapy and took to it, were of varying strengths to operate Lantean technology.
Booted feet followed by the familiar forms of Lorne and Pearson pulled John out of his thoughts and he nodded a greeting to his men as they entered. Both tossed casual salutes in return. Lorne had bandages wrapped around his head while Pearson was still nursing a limp.
“How are Dr. Chen and Sgt. Mendez?” Elizabeth asked as the doors to the briefing room slid close of their own accord.
John could hear a pleasant hum in the back of his mind, Atlantis settling and, dare he say it, pushing an odd sense of comfort. It felt like the ghost of someone patting his head. He pretended he did not catch the slight crinkling of Lorne’s eyes – indicative that he too felt the odd sensation – as he shrugged. “Chen's going to be fine, surgery was a success. Mendez, not too sure, still on the operating table. Dr. Beckett’s assured me that her surgery is tricky, but it will be a while before I’m able to be given a report.”
“What happened down there Major?” Elizabeth continued.
“It was as if the Asurans knew we were there,” Lorne shook his head, “if not for some of the children of the village, I don't know...”
“You did fine Major,” Elizabeth reassured him and John tilted his head enough for Lorne to see, his own way of reassuring his second. Both were enough to settle Lorne’s guilt and doubts as he cleared his throat and settled himself into a more at ease posture sitting in his chair.
All of the military personnel knew that John himself, was a man of few words when it came to reassuring members of the military part of the expedition, preferring Elizabeth to dole out the comfort. Though he ran a slightly looser command than Stargate Command wanted, he kept a strict discipline regarding emotions, especially his own. It extended to respect for the men and women of the military contingent to know that they knew where to go for help and when to come to him or Lorne for any concerns. He knew most of the junior officers went to Lorne and so did the senior non-coms when they were too overwhelmed with their own juniors. It allowed him the freedom to ensure that all of his majors, especially Lorne, were able to freely grow their own command styles. And sometimes, all it took was a simple nod of reassurance.
“We were there for at least a good three hour stint, Dr. Chen helping the farmers rig up their new hydraulics system that we had been bringing over since last week. I don't know why the Asurans didn't attack us back then. The villagers were curious enough to ask us questions. Dr. Chen was her usual sort of patient with them; she doesn't get along too well with strangers asking her questions. Mendez was fine answering the questions fielded to the doc, but they were the usual questions that you would normally get on a trip through the stargate. Didn't think much of it.”
John watched his second-in-command look down towards the table, knowing exactly where his thoughts went. He was running over the scenarios in his mind for his past trips to the planet and wondering where it went wrong. Even he himself did that a few times, especially regarding the Genii.
“They attacked, with their stunner beams at first,” Pearson took over for Lorne. “The major and Sgt. Mendez were on the far side of the village before I radioed in. Took Dr. Chen and we both ran towards the gate. After we got out of the confines of the village, that's when they attacked with some kind of beam, staff blast-like weaponry.”
“Staff blast?” John perked up at that, “like Goa'uld staff blast?”
“Yes, sir,” Pearson thinned his lips, “didn't get a good look at their weapons, but they definitely looked like staff blasts and impacted in a similar manner.” Like Lorne, Pearson was a veteran of the Stargate program with a few less years than Lorne, but definitely heavy on Goa’uld encounters in the Milky Way.
John glanced at Elizabeth who had a thoughtful look on her face but it was Rodney who spoke up, surprising him. “You think the Asurans acquired Furling technology?”
“The last time we spoke with them, they said were fighting a war against them, though Atredies didn't elaborate on their efforts,” Elizabeth’s expression turned from thoughtful into a frown. “Though I've never heard of the Asurans even remotely using Furling technology until now.”
“Maybe they figured they'd be too arrogant to use such weapons,” Rodney murmured.
“I'll keep that in mind, but my main concern is how did the Asurans know you were going to be there?” The leader of the expedition laced her fingers together and rested her chin on them before looking at Lorne and Pearson. “You didn't notice anything out of the ordinary before hand?”
“No ma'am,” Lorne shook his head gingerly, aware of the bandage wrapped around his head, “nothing.”
“I'm more concerned as to the type of weaponry used against the control room. The impact pattern around the area shows that the Asurans were targeting the control room, not the area around the gateroom like as if someone was firing randomly.” Rodney spun his laptop around to show them the screen. “See, this is where all of the blasts went. The Asurans knew where they were firing towards in relation to the stargate.”
“You're telling me that they wanted to take out the control room?” John narrowed his eyes, dread mingled with concern forming within him.
“Not just that, but definitely the console that controlled the gate shield and the gate itself,” his best friend shook his head, “if you hadn't-”
“If I hadn't shut the shield down in time-”
“Next impact would have blown the station completely to pieces,” Rodney finished and John sat back, mentally going over what had happened in those harried moments when the first blast impacted the area. He glanced down at his bandaged hand, sitting in its sling. Already he could feel the numbing effect wearing off, replaced by a slight twinge of pain as his nerves were returning to normal.
Atlantis had mentally screamed in his head during that assault, frantically trying to push him to save her, to close the shield. He had seen Chuck take the brunt of the electrical assault as the console had begun to smoke and since he was the closest, had instinctively reacted by closing the gate shield.
“Maybe they knew where to hit because of the strike force we disabled three weeks ago?” Elizabeth asked.
“Maybe,” Rodney bit out but shook his head, “I doubt it though. The anti-replicator crystals we installed into the shielding would have disabled anything remotely Asuran, even if it were in their computer systems. They work by nanites. It’s not like the Wraith virus on the Daedalus. It doesn’t hibernate. They’re always active, always seeking out a power source.
“We’re also far enough from the Asuran homeworld and from any of their ships for them to influence the nanites here. I mean they could have sent a message through the stargate, but who knows.”
John shot a quick look at Elizabeth noting that she had paled slightly in reference to Rodney's mention of influencing nanites. However, no one else in the briefing room picked up on it, which was good. He thought she did not need anymore reminders of her harried experience with Niam's infected nanites running in her system, even though they were completely deactivated and useless.
“Daedalus is due back in less than a couple of weeks,” John spoke up, “maybe we can send a message to the SGC to see if they can create an upgraded version of the anti-replicator crystal with the inert samples we sent with them? Then, run it through the shield again to make sure?”
Elizabeth nodded, seconding his idea. He supposed it wasn’t too bad all things considered.
“No,” Rodney shook his head, dousing cold water onto John. His friend looked at all of them, “EMP pulse used to originally created the upgraded version is going to take too long. Plus, we’re still not sure how much of it can be absorbed and what changes in their codes.” He tapped his screen with a finger. “The information is too precise. No one could hit such a mark in such a fashion. There had to be something guiding them.”
“Like a beacon?” Pearson crinkled his brow.
“Something like that, yes,” Rodney agreed before turning to both him and Elizabeth, “Maybe someone on that planet who knows our operations? Or worse, we may be dealing with a saboteur in Atlantis. Something even we can’t find.”
That small pit of dread that had been forming in John's stomach just became a jagged ice block. The implications of a saboteur working with the Asurans to bring down Atlantis; it hit too close to home, especially with recent events.
Several hours later, John sat in Elizabeth's office, night having fallen just a few short hours ago. The cleanup in the control room had been going efficiently and even now, he knew that behind him both Rodney and Zelenka were working on getting the console that housed the control crystals for stargate operations back in working order. Thankfully they've already gotten the shield working again, but the dialing mechanism was still not working and Elizabeth had already announced a temporary freeze on all gate operations for the time being until the dialing mechanism was repaired.
There were still several pockmarks and scorches of burnt marks that littered the rest of the control room, but overall, things were slowly getting back to normal. There was however, still the lingering fact of a potential saboteur on Atlantis, just three weeks after they had reclaimed the city and were allowed back to continue their work here in the Pegasus Galaxy. Lorne and Pearson already knew to keep the information to themselves so there was no need to tell them otherwise. Ronon, Teyla and Beckett had been brought in to their confidence.
Now, he sat in Elizabeth's office and knew exactly what this meeting was going to be about. The bigger question was, whether or not they were going to let the rest of the populace know about the potential for a saboteur, especially after the fiasco involving Dr. Kavanaugh and Colonel Caldwell and the Goa’uld. Keeping it from the populace was John’s first option, but he knew Elizabeth well that she would want to at least let the populace know a form of it. It wasn’t the most secure of options – especially if the saboteur came from Earth, but it also didn’t make sense to not let the populace know.
It had been required reading for the civilian contingent – especially the civilian contingent – about the Replicators. Though they were blockier and more insectoid in form before taking human-form versions, there was no doubt as to whom their creators were. The IOA had also started to wonder if there needed to be more OpSec involved regarding gate addresses, location of ships, knowledge of the X-303s, X-302s, ATA-genes and so forth. All of it debated to the point where Elizabeth put her foot down and said that the Atlantis Expedition was first and foremost an expedition of the best and brightest. Walling information off, creating more secret layers was contrary to the spirit of the expedition. She stated to the IOA that she considered the Asurans – no matter how big of a threat they were being the forerunners to Milky Way Galaxy equivalents – as equally dangerous as the Wraith.
Then all of it became a moot point upon their six-week exile on Earth. But now, with their return barely three weeks old...John wondered if the IOA would make a big stink about Rodney’s eventual report or the fact that there may be a saboteur in Atlantis itself working with the Asurans.
He glanced over as Elizabeth finished checking in with the control room staff and walked over to her office. Her door slid close and she smiled at him briefly before sitting down in front of her desk.
John propped his left leg up against his right thigh, aiming for casual. He never liked formal meetings. “I think you know my answer,” he started.
“I do and it’s even to a question I have yet to ask,” Elizabeth’s smile did not reach her eyes as she sighed and rubbed her left eyebrow. “Estimate about a few hours before we get the gate back online. Thank God the Asurans did a good repair job and also gave us extra crystals too.”
“Hooray for small victories?” he tried for hopeful sarcasm and smiled crookedly at the look he got. “Hooray for nan-”
“Don’t,” she warned with a roll of her eyes and hand flashing out to stop him. He grinned at her, seeing some of the small tension ebbing out at his bad attempt at humor. He knew, they both knew and hated the possibility of one of their own or otherwise possibly sabotaging their home so soon after they had just gotten it back.
“Rodney’ll come up with something,” he reassured her.
“I know…” she replied with a sigh, “and for once, I agree with you.”
“Huh?”
“No one else knows about this unless something else happens or Rodney or Carson figures out a way we can track down any sign of an Asuran saboteur. Whether it’s a virus or otherwise.” She looked at him with the decisiveness that he was used to seeing and he nodded once.
“General O’Neill and Mr. Woolsey were cleared before they left, but I’ll append a message to them personally when we dial out to Earth for our next batch of reports,” she continued. “Meanwhile-”
“Extra guards already posted. I’ll have at least one person armed with one of the anti-replicator weapons when the shift changes, but there’s not enough to go around to cover the control room, armory, naquadah generators or the ZPM room,” John stated. He shifted so that both of his feet were flat on the ground and hunched over. He already knew what his solution would be, but he needed her formal authority. And also, he wanted her to make sure if another attack came, that she would not blindsided if the IOA went after her.
He would gladly take the blame, since it was his signature on the rosters and under his authority, but he also knew the IOA was still leery about Elizabeth having inactive nanites within her. Woolsey’s approval for her to resume command was a rubber stamp on the whole rescue of himself and General O’Neill, but John knew that goodwill would not last much longer.
“What do you recommend?” Elizabeth was too much of a diplomat to easily see what he was trying to do, but he supposed working with her for so many years counted as she dipped her head a little in silent acknowledgment of what he was trying to do when it came to the intricate politics of running Atlantis as a pure civilian expedition.
“Take it off of the two naquadah generators that power the quarters section. Keep one on the one that powers the infirmary and medical and one on the gateroom. Regular patrols there. Put the two we have on the ZPM room.”
“Why?”
“Asurans have no love for conventional weapons. They will attack there, but they’ve already shown they can shrug off our weapons. Since they go for energy, they’ll take the ZPM first and if going through the stargate, they’ll take the control room first. We can fall back to infirmary wing and along the way, take out the naquadah generator that powers the control room until we can regain the city.”
“And worse case?” Elizabeth stared at him, one elegant eyebrow raised.
John was a little surprised by the question.
“John, I know you,” Her eyebrow lowered and a soft, but proud-looking smile edged the corner of her lips. “And I’d like to think working with you for the last three years has made me an excellent judge of character and mindset.”
He nodded absently, appreciative of her insight. “All right. Worse case, we use the quarantine protocols for Atlantis-”
“That they can easily override.”
“Not if we also take out the ZPM,” he pointed out. “If we have two stationed there, we can easily take out the ZPM, chuck it, say into the ocean where they sink to the bottom there because they can’t swim and are very dense if the reports from the SGC are true about that, and use the generators to blow up sections of Atlantis to trap them and eliminate them. If they float, they can be shattered by conventional weapons at that point.”
“They can rebuild.”
“They can, but it’ll take time and parts. They came in a ship. That ship wasn’t here when we eliminated them so I think it means they used it to rebuild the control room. Forcing them to rebuild certain critical sections of Atlantis has worked to our advantage and given us time.”
She nodded her smile stretching into a full one. “Good plan.”
John smiled and leaned back in his chair. “Thanks. Sometimes I’d like to think McKay doesn’t have the monopoly on brainstorming. Though, you’re gonna have to ask him for any Asuran virus related plans. Not my expertise. I just point and shoot.”
“I’d normally say you’re not just a grunt, but-”
The sudden high-pitched rumbling whine of the stargate activating made them both look towards it to see the first chevron lit up before they both turned and headed out of her office even before their radios burst to life.
“Incoming wormhole,” Amelia was sitting at Chuck’s station even as Rodney and Zelenka scrambled out from underneath the console.
“Uhhh...we didn’t do anything!” Rodney held up his hands, one still holding a crystal.
“Shield up,” Elizabeth ordered, standing near the railing. John wanted to discreetly tug on her sleeve to make her move back – she was far too exposed – but he also knew that her normal standing spot in the control room was right near the chevron console.
“I’m...gonna move here,” Zelenka muttered and John glanced over to see him edge over to the life signs detector console while Rodney hurried to stand next to Elizabeth, looking back at the broken chevron console with a little bit of trepidation.
John made the decision to stay near Amelia. If there were anymore surprises and Amelia also got hurt, he’d at least be able to raise the shield if it went down. The gate locked in the final chevron and kawooshed to life.
“Incoming video message, looks like it’s from the Genii,” David one of the other techs who had not been too badly hurt in the morning’s unexpected attack, spoke up.
“Put it on,” Elizabeth replied. She moved back into the control room and towards the video screen.
“Dr. Weir,” Ladon Radiim, the leader of the Genii greeted them.
“Ladon,” Elizabeth had her diplomatic face on even though the Genii could only hear her. “To what do we owe this call?”
“A formal invitation, Doctor,” he replied. There was no smarmy smile on his expression, unlike the last time John met the man. Instead, there was a serious mein to his pointed features. “To sit in judgment of Acastus Kolya and the crimes he has committed against your people and mine.”