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"Red Sky At Dawn" - Part 14
Title: Red Sky At Dawn - Part Fourteen
Author:![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
kellifer_fic
Fandom: Stargate: Atlantis, that is,![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
pegasus_b
Rating: Mature
Disclaimer: I don't own any of these characters. They come from the SciFi Original Series Stargate:Atlantis. Don't own, don't sue!
Notes: Only one part to go kids! Enjoy!!
Summary - Instead, with cool eyes, she looked at Rodney. “Save our asses,” she instructed.
Part 1 can be found here
“We can take out the Wraith ships, when they’re far enough away from us to not know it was us.”
Rodney nodded, looking from John to Elizabeth and back again, careful not to let his eyes find Jack. He was trying to be professional and present his idea in an unemotional manner and knew that if he looked at Jack even once, he was likely to run screaming from the room.
Jack with his stupid, suicidal heroicness, Rodney thought darkly.
So focused on the other two that he noticed how tired they both looked. Elizabeth looked tense and drawn even though she was trying to smile for him and John looked pale and there were dark circles under his eyes. Rodney got the strangest sense that John was pulling away from them, similar to when they had first taken back the city and John couldn’t stand to be within its walls.
By the way all three were looking at him, Rodney realised he’d missed a question and blinked. “I’m sorry, what?”
“I was just wondering what the risk involved with something like this was?” Elizabeth repeated. Rodney wanted to cry in relief. Thank God, he thought, she’s going to step on this plan before it even starts.
“Well, the devices would have to be physically placed within the Hive ships, and I don’t mean just flown in and dropped. I mean physically someone would have to get out of the Jumper and make sure this thing was cabled to the ship itself to maximise impact. Plus,” Rodney said, warming to his theme and steadfastly ignoring the way Jack was scowling at him, “If either of the Jumpers or their pilots were discovered then the jig would be up. They would know we were up to something.”
Elizabeth turned in her chair, looking at her two senior military officers, the ones that would have to execute the plan. Elizabeth noted the eager light in Jack’s eyes and knew he would agree no matter what, so her gaze ticked to John. She wondered when he had become the sober voice of reason in all this.
John was biting his lower lip, eyebrows drawn down and looking puzzled. He turned to Rodney with a question on his face. “So we could only take out two of the nine Hive ships coming at us with this device, right?”
Rodney nodded. “Yes. I wouldn’t want to risk you guys trying for a third or fourth and no matter how well they mean, I don’t think your squadron of amateurs could carry this off.”
John nodded. “True, but is there any reason you’d wait for the Wraith ships to leave hyperspace before detonating?”
“I guess it would be the only way to be sure that they didn’t think it was us. We’d have seven hive ships left to turn around and investigate. We’d be screwed with just one at the moment.”
“Okay. But what would happen if this was detonated in hyperspace?”
Rodney paused. He’d had the flash of the idea and had squashed it immediately, knowing it would be too great a risk. He hadn’t chased it with his normal fervour while he’d been occupied with the myriad of ways it could go wrong, which wasn’t the usual McKay thought process.
Now, curiosity spiked through him like adrenalin at John’s question and his mind picked up the thread, darting from idea to idea, faster than most people could comprehend.
Put simply, Rodney did the math.
“It would be catastrophic. A blast within hyperspace… even I can’t calculate how exponential that would be. It could… it could possibly take out all nine of the Hive ships.”
Elizabeth’s eyes grew round. “How possible?”
Rodney, despite his earlier misgivings, was enthralled by the idea. “The Hive ships fly in formation like a flock of birds. We could see that the last time they dropped out of hyperspace on the long range sensors. I can only assume they stick to the same formation based on the hierarchy of the Hive queens and their relative position in the group. If we sabotaged the point ship and one of the trailing ships, we could potentially cause a concentrated blast that would take out anything in the middle.”
“Why didn’t the Ancients ever think of something like this?” Elizabeth asked, although Rodney could see from her flushed face and shiny eyes, he had her completely hooked. Like the professional she was though, she always looked for potential holes in a plan.
“The Asgard, I’m sure you’ll agree, were vastly more superior to us in technology, yet it was us they came to for help when the replicators attacked. It was our primitive projectile weapons that had the most devastating effect on them in close quarters. The Tok’ra had been warring with the Goa’uld for hundreds of years, trying to find a way to ultimately defeat them. It took us only nine to bring them to the brink of collapse.”
“Your point?” Elizabeth prompted.
Rodney smiled, meeting Jack’s gaze and finally getting it.
“Because we’re reckless.”
~~~
Daniel opened his eyes and he was in a comfortable looking lounge room.
He blinked and looked about himself. There were over-stuffed armchairs and overcrowded bookshelves. A coffee table sat in the middle of the room with still more books piled on top and a half finished game of solitaire spread out on its surface. Off to the side was a small kitchenette and Daniel moved closer when he noticed a battered looking fridge covered in band stickers and photographs.
Daniel leant down and looked at the pictures, his eyes widening.
There was a photo of Ford and John, arms slung about each other, standing in front of the stargate at the SGC. Both men were smiling and neither had a shadow on their faces of what was to come. Next to this was a picture of an older-looking black couple, both pleasantly plump and cuddling a small boy between them. The next was Ford as a teenager, a girl of the same age held aloft in his arms. She was laughing as she was held over a pool.
There was about ten or so more of the same, but Daniel’s eyes finally fetched up on a photograph right in the middle. All the other photographs were kind of jumbled together; overlapping and parts obscured by other photos, but this one had a ring around it of clear fridge, as if it would be a travesty for any of the other photos to encroach upon its space.
It was taken in a field of wild flowers, a riot of colour that almost hurt the eyes. Standing in the middle was a group of people. Teyla and John were cuddled together, Teyla with flowers in her hair and more hilariously, John with a couple of blooms stuck in his as well. Beside them, Jack and Rodney stood, their arms linked, their faces serious but looking like they were going to burst out laughing at any moment. Elizabeth stood with arms slung around a man on either side of her and it took Daniel a moment to recognise them. One was Carson Beckett, the doctor who’d been killed very early one. The other was the scientist, Radek Zelenka, who also had died at the hands of Ba’al.
Finally, in the middle of the group were Daniel and Ford. Daniel was hunched over and Ford was balanced on his back, almost like a kid brother. Ford had his arms wrapped around Daniel’s neck and Daniel looked as if he were going to topple forward, flat on his face, any second.
He didn’t recognise the smile on his face. It had been that long since he’d seen it in the mirror.
“Hey,” a voice startled him and made him spin around. Last time Daniel had seen him, Ford had been more of a disembodied presence, an idea of a person rather than the person themselves. Now he stood in the middle of the comfortable chaos of this room, wearing sweats, an old Ramones T-shirt and a black bandana. He had a beer held loosely in one hand and tapped the side of it. “You want one?”
“Ah, no thanks,” Daniel shook his head and Ford shrugged.
“More for me,” he grinned and flopped down on the couch. “I wasn’t expecting you or I would have tidied a bit. Don’t get me wrong, it’s always good to see you Doctor J.”
“I came because I need your help,” Daniel said, clearing some of the coffee table space so he could sit in front of Ford.
Ford rolled his eyes, but his smile was good-natured. “You need help moving again? I swear, this will be the last time and then I start charging.”
Daniel frowned. “What? No. I need you to help me find something in the Ancient database.”
Ford took a long pull of his beer and his eyes flickered when he tipped his head back for a moment in something like pain, but they had cleared by the time his head had come back down. “The what?”
Daniel felt his skin grow cold. “Ford, stop joking around. We have Wraith bearing down on us and I need your help. I need to find how the Ancients secured the-“
“Doctor J, what are you talking about? Did I miss a briefing or something because I feel like I’m coming in to this a little late?”
Daniel leaned forward and gripped Ford’s shoulders and shook him once, firmly. The beer in Ford’s bottle sloshed but the younger man didn’t let it go. “Ford! What the hell is going on?” Daniel demanded.
Ford shrugged Daniel’s grip off, coming to his feet. He finished his beer and pitched the bottle expertly into the trash, a green trash can that Daniel hadn’t seen when he’d entered the kitchenette. Daniel realised that it was probably only there because Ford expected it to be.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about. You’re looking at me like I’m crazy when you’re talking about Ancients and databases and Wraith? Do we need to get you to the infirmary?”
Daniel threw up his hands and then stalked into the kitchen, wrenching the middle photo off the fridge as well as the one with Ford and John standing in front of the stargate. He held second one out. “You do know what this is right?” he demanded, tapping an impatient finger on the large ring behind the two men.
Ford smiled. “Of course, the stargate. It was great of them to let us take a picture with it.”
“You went through it,” Daniel said slowly but Ford looked at him, confusion on his face.
“We were supposed to, sure. But the Pegasus mission got scrapped.”
“Who is this then?” Daniel said, his finger tapping Teyla on the other picture.
“That’s Teyla, Colonel Sheppard’s wife of course.”
“Yes, she’s an Athosian from the Pegasus Galaxy!”
“Ri-ight. Are you sure you haven’t had another concussion?”
Daniel sat heavily on the coffee table again; dropping his head into his hands and feeling the photographs crinkle against his forehead. There was a stale smell of beer and microwave dinners about the place, with an underlying scent of damp. As he sat there was the rumble of a train that made the floor vibrate. All in all, the whole thing felt terrifyingly real.
As this occurred to Daniel, he felt wrenched sideways, a horrible jolt that had his heart hammering and his head throbbing. When he came to a halt, he was suspended in light and he could feel Ford all about him.
“What’s going on?” he asked brokenly, not sure he could stand what was happening. He was too close to the edge of sanity and didn’t need the extra push.
“Sorry about that. I was losing it a little in here. I isolated a part of myself. Atlantis was finally winning and I felt like I was going to disappear.” A small window opened and through it Daniel could see himself, standing in front of Ford in the small room, both frozen.
“Can you help us?” Daniel asked.
“I can’t stay like this for very long, the pull is too strong, on both of us. I created the room as a safe place, to escape when I needed to. I’ve been there for longer and longer periods. Pretty soon I’m not going to remember how to get out and then that will be it for me, I’ll be stuck in that little room of my own creation, looping the same day over and over again.”
Daniel felt his heart ache and the first tendrils of Atlantis reaching out to him, urging him to stay with the city, he was needed, wanted.
“The answer you need is in that room. It’s in the books. I’m sorry I can’t narrow it down like last time but to understand it would mean letting too much of myself go at once.”
“Okay. I’ll find it.”
“You ready?” Ford asked gently and Daniel nodded.
He was thrust sideways again and stumbled a little, finding Ford’s hands steadying him. He started searching through books, beginning with the ones on the coffee table. Ford watched him for a little while before wandering into the kitchenette. “I’m making mac and cheese,” he said jovially. “You want?”
Daniel rose for a second to look at Ford. He looked painfully young and his face was open. He also looked desperately glad for the company and Daniel smiled at him, hurting inside for the boy Ford had been and the humanity he had lost. Ultimately, Ford had been able to fight whatever it was Ba’al had done to him to be able to help them win back the city at the cost of his own life, or any chance at a normal one.
“Sure,” Daniel nodded. He sat back on the couch after finding a tome that looked promising, letting the sounds of Ford bustling around the kitchen lull him.
Daniel knew that when he found what he needed, it would be time. Although Ford hadn’t said the words, what he’d been telling Daniel was clear.
I’ve stayed as long as I can. Don’t leave me out here in the dark, all alone.
~~~
“Incoming!” Park’s shriek broke the silence of the afternoon.
In the meeting room, John, Jack, Rodney and Elizabeth started up from their chairs, pelting into the control room at a run. They saw as Park leaned over the control panel and slapped a flat palm on the alarm console and the steady warble of Atlantis’ klaxons started up.
She looked back at them, her eyes wide and terrified. “I didn’t see them,” she moaned, her hand pointing towards one of the smaller monitors and the others watched, horrified as a number of darts dropped out of hyperspace practically on top of the city.
“That’s not-“
“The direction the Hive ships are coming from, no!” Jack anticipated Elizabeth’s question.
“Son of a bitch, they flanked us!” John growled. “Have us concentrate on the larger Hive ships coming in and send in a small strike force first. They must have gated close enough that we wouldn’t see them coming.”
“I need Jumpers in the air. Colonel Sheppard, O’Neill, get as many people that can fly, now!” Elizabeth ordered.
Both men nodded, tapping their radios as they ran for the Jumper bay.
Elizabeth turned to Rodney. “Is there enough power for our big gun?” she demanded.
She watched as Rodney closed his eyes for a second and marvelled that he was most probably doing the calculations in his head. He opened them again and she knew what he was going to say before he said it. “No, not if we intend to sink the city, keep it on the bottom and shield it.”
Elizabeth sighed heavily. “What if… what if these ships try for a suicide run? How much of the city’s integrity can we lose and still be able to do what we need to?”
Rodney grimaced. “I’m not sure. We haven’t confirmed what needs to be done to hold the city on the bottom of the ocean and so there is a chance what we might lose or have damaged a vital part of the city if the fighting reaches us. We may have to risk it.”
“You redirected the entire city’s power last time. Do you need to do that again?”
“Most of it, yes.” Rodney’s eyes clouded and Elizabeth realised he’d just thought of something.
“What?” she demanded.
“The last time we had Daniel and Ford access and control the weapon. I have no way of reaching Daniel to tell him what we need. He said something about it being too dangerous for John to try. I’m going to need one of them in the chair.”
“They’re the only fighter pilots we have.”
“I understand that but there are,” Rodney looked behind himself to do a quick count, “Twelve darts bearing down on us. We’re outnumbered in a dog fight. I need one of them here.”
Elizabeth’s mouth firmed and she tapped her radio. “Colonel Sheppard, Colonel O’Neill? I need one of you to return to the control room. We need one of you to access our backup weapon.” Elizabeth’s lip curled in a wry grin as she first heard swearing, then a three count and then Jack’s triumphant “Ha! Rock beats scissors!”
A moment later, John’s defeated, “On my way back,” reached them.
Elizabeth wanted to scream. They had a good plan and just needed to space to implement it. It felt like they had been attacked since the moment they stepped through the stargate and she wondered why the Pegasus Galaxy hated them so much. She wanted to stamp her feet and pull out her hair and yell that it was all so unfair.
Instead, with cool eyes, she looked at Rodney. “Save our asses,” she instructed.
Part Fifteen
Author:
kellifer_ficFandom: Stargate: Atlantis, that is,
pegasus_bRating: Mature
Disclaimer: I don't own any of these characters. They come from the SciFi Original Series Stargate:Atlantis. Don't own, don't sue!
Notes: Only one part to go kids! Enjoy!!
Summary - Instead, with cool eyes, she looked at Rodney. “Save our asses,” she instructed.
Part 1 can be found here
“We can take out the Wraith ships, when they’re far enough away from us to not know it was us.”
Rodney nodded, looking from John to Elizabeth and back again, careful not to let his eyes find Jack. He was trying to be professional and present his idea in an unemotional manner and knew that if he looked at Jack even once, he was likely to run screaming from the room.
Jack with his stupid, suicidal heroicness, Rodney thought darkly.
So focused on the other two that he noticed how tired they both looked. Elizabeth looked tense and drawn even though she was trying to smile for him and John looked pale and there were dark circles under his eyes. Rodney got the strangest sense that John was pulling away from them, similar to when they had first taken back the city and John couldn’t stand to be within its walls.
By the way all three were looking at him, Rodney realised he’d missed a question and blinked. “I’m sorry, what?”
“I was just wondering what the risk involved with something like this was?” Elizabeth repeated. Rodney wanted to cry in relief. Thank God, he thought, she’s going to step on this plan before it even starts.
“Well, the devices would have to be physically placed within the Hive ships, and I don’t mean just flown in and dropped. I mean physically someone would have to get out of the Jumper and make sure this thing was cabled to the ship itself to maximise impact. Plus,” Rodney said, warming to his theme and steadfastly ignoring the way Jack was scowling at him, “If either of the Jumpers or their pilots were discovered then the jig would be up. They would know we were up to something.”
Elizabeth turned in her chair, looking at her two senior military officers, the ones that would have to execute the plan. Elizabeth noted the eager light in Jack’s eyes and knew he would agree no matter what, so her gaze ticked to John. She wondered when he had become the sober voice of reason in all this.
John was biting his lower lip, eyebrows drawn down and looking puzzled. He turned to Rodney with a question on his face. “So we could only take out two of the nine Hive ships coming at us with this device, right?”
Rodney nodded. “Yes. I wouldn’t want to risk you guys trying for a third or fourth and no matter how well they mean, I don’t think your squadron of amateurs could carry this off.”
John nodded. “True, but is there any reason you’d wait for the Wraith ships to leave hyperspace before detonating?”
“I guess it would be the only way to be sure that they didn’t think it was us. We’d have seven hive ships left to turn around and investigate. We’d be screwed with just one at the moment.”
“Okay. But what would happen if this was detonated in hyperspace?”
Rodney paused. He’d had the flash of the idea and had squashed it immediately, knowing it would be too great a risk. He hadn’t chased it with his normal fervour while he’d been occupied with the myriad of ways it could go wrong, which wasn’t the usual McKay thought process.
Now, curiosity spiked through him like adrenalin at John’s question and his mind picked up the thread, darting from idea to idea, faster than most people could comprehend.
Put simply, Rodney did the math.
“It would be catastrophic. A blast within hyperspace… even I can’t calculate how exponential that would be. It could… it could possibly take out all nine of the Hive ships.”
Elizabeth’s eyes grew round. “How possible?”
Rodney, despite his earlier misgivings, was enthralled by the idea. “The Hive ships fly in formation like a flock of birds. We could see that the last time they dropped out of hyperspace on the long range sensors. I can only assume they stick to the same formation based on the hierarchy of the Hive queens and their relative position in the group. If we sabotaged the point ship and one of the trailing ships, we could potentially cause a concentrated blast that would take out anything in the middle.”
“Why didn’t the Ancients ever think of something like this?” Elizabeth asked, although Rodney could see from her flushed face and shiny eyes, he had her completely hooked. Like the professional she was though, she always looked for potential holes in a plan.
“The Asgard, I’m sure you’ll agree, were vastly more superior to us in technology, yet it was us they came to for help when the replicators attacked. It was our primitive projectile weapons that had the most devastating effect on them in close quarters. The Tok’ra had been warring with the Goa’uld for hundreds of years, trying to find a way to ultimately defeat them. It took us only nine to bring them to the brink of collapse.”
“Your point?” Elizabeth prompted.
Rodney smiled, meeting Jack’s gaze and finally getting it.
“Because we’re reckless.”
~~~
Daniel opened his eyes and he was in a comfortable looking lounge room.
He blinked and looked about himself. There were over-stuffed armchairs and overcrowded bookshelves. A coffee table sat in the middle of the room with still more books piled on top and a half finished game of solitaire spread out on its surface. Off to the side was a small kitchenette and Daniel moved closer when he noticed a battered looking fridge covered in band stickers and photographs.
Daniel leant down and looked at the pictures, his eyes widening.
There was a photo of Ford and John, arms slung about each other, standing in front of the stargate at the SGC. Both men were smiling and neither had a shadow on their faces of what was to come. Next to this was a picture of an older-looking black couple, both pleasantly plump and cuddling a small boy between them. The next was Ford as a teenager, a girl of the same age held aloft in his arms. She was laughing as she was held over a pool.
There was about ten or so more of the same, but Daniel’s eyes finally fetched up on a photograph right in the middle. All the other photographs were kind of jumbled together; overlapping and parts obscured by other photos, but this one had a ring around it of clear fridge, as if it would be a travesty for any of the other photos to encroach upon its space.
It was taken in a field of wild flowers, a riot of colour that almost hurt the eyes. Standing in the middle was a group of people. Teyla and John were cuddled together, Teyla with flowers in her hair and more hilariously, John with a couple of blooms stuck in his as well. Beside them, Jack and Rodney stood, their arms linked, their faces serious but looking like they were going to burst out laughing at any moment. Elizabeth stood with arms slung around a man on either side of her and it took Daniel a moment to recognise them. One was Carson Beckett, the doctor who’d been killed very early one. The other was the scientist, Radek Zelenka, who also had died at the hands of Ba’al.
Finally, in the middle of the group were Daniel and Ford. Daniel was hunched over and Ford was balanced on his back, almost like a kid brother. Ford had his arms wrapped around Daniel’s neck and Daniel looked as if he were going to topple forward, flat on his face, any second.
He didn’t recognise the smile on his face. It had been that long since he’d seen it in the mirror.
“Hey,” a voice startled him and made him spin around. Last time Daniel had seen him, Ford had been more of a disembodied presence, an idea of a person rather than the person themselves. Now he stood in the middle of the comfortable chaos of this room, wearing sweats, an old Ramones T-shirt and a black bandana. He had a beer held loosely in one hand and tapped the side of it. “You want one?”
“Ah, no thanks,” Daniel shook his head and Ford shrugged.
“More for me,” he grinned and flopped down on the couch. “I wasn’t expecting you or I would have tidied a bit. Don’t get me wrong, it’s always good to see you Doctor J.”
“I came because I need your help,” Daniel said, clearing some of the coffee table space so he could sit in front of Ford.
Ford rolled his eyes, but his smile was good-natured. “You need help moving again? I swear, this will be the last time and then I start charging.”
Daniel frowned. “What? No. I need you to help me find something in the Ancient database.”
Ford took a long pull of his beer and his eyes flickered when he tipped his head back for a moment in something like pain, but they had cleared by the time his head had come back down. “The what?”
Daniel felt his skin grow cold. “Ford, stop joking around. We have Wraith bearing down on us and I need your help. I need to find how the Ancients secured the-“
“Doctor J, what are you talking about? Did I miss a briefing or something because I feel like I’m coming in to this a little late?”
Daniel leaned forward and gripped Ford’s shoulders and shook him once, firmly. The beer in Ford’s bottle sloshed but the younger man didn’t let it go. “Ford! What the hell is going on?” Daniel demanded.
Ford shrugged Daniel’s grip off, coming to his feet. He finished his beer and pitched the bottle expertly into the trash, a green trash can that Daniel hadn’t seen when he’d entered the kitchenette. Daniel realised that it was probably only there because Ford expected it to be.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about. You’re looking at me like I’m crazy when you’re talking about Ancients and databases and Wraith? Do we need to get you to the infirmary?”
Daniel threw up his hands and then stalked into the kitchen, wrenching the middle photo off the fridge as well as the one with Ford and John standing in front of the stargate. He held second one out. “You do know what this is right?” he demanded, tapping an impatient finger on the large ring behind the two men.
Ford smiled. “Of course, the stargate. It was great of them to let us take a picture with it.”
“You went through it,” Daniel said slowly but Ford looked at him, confusion on his face.
“We were supposed to, sure. But the Pegasus mission got scrapped.”
“Who is this then?” Daniel said, his finger tapping Teyla on the other picture.
“That’s Teyla, Colonel Sheppard’s wife of course.”
“Yes, she’s an Athosian from the Pegasus Galaxy!”
“Ri-ight. Are you sure you haven’t had another concussion?”
Daniel sat heavily on the coffee table again; dropping his head into his hands and feeling the photographs crinkle against his forehead. There was a stale smell of beer and microwave dinners about the place, with an underlying scent of damp. As he sat there was the rumble of a train that made the floor vibrate. All in all, the whole thing felt terrifyingly real.
As this occurred to Daniel, he felt wrenched sideways, a horrible jolt that had his heart hammering and his head throbbing. When he came to a halt, he was suspended in light and he could feel Ford all about him.
“What’s going on?” he asked brokenly, not sure he could stand what was happening. He was too close to the edge of sanity and didn’t need the extra push.
“Sorry about that. I was losing it a little in here. I isolated a part of myself. Atlantis was finally winning and I felt like I was going to disappear.” A small window opened and through it Daniel could see himself, standing in front of Ford in the small room, both frozen.
“Can you help us?” Daniel asked.
“I can’t stay like this for very long, the pull is too strong, on both of us. I created the room as a safe place, to escape when I needed to. I’ve been there for longer and longer periods. Pretty soon I’m not going to remember how to get out and then that will be it for me, I’ll be stuck in that little room of my own creation, looping the same day over and over again.”
Daniel felt his heart ache and the first tendrils of Atlantis reaching out to him, urging him to stay with the city, he was needed, wanted.
“The answer you need is in that room. It’s in the books. I’m sorry I can’t narrow it down like last time but to understand it would mean letting too much of myself go at once.”
“Okay. I’ll find it.”
“You ready?” Ford asked gently and Daniel nodded.
He was thrust sideways again and stumbled a little, finding Ford’s hands steadying him. He started searching through books, beginning with the ones on the coffee table. Ford watched him for a little while before wandering into the kitchenette. “I’m making mac and cheese,” he said jovially. “You want?”
Daniel rose for a second to look at Ford. He looked painfully young and his face was open. He also looked desperately glad for the company and Daniel smiled at him, hurting inside for the boy Ford had been and the humanity he had lost. Ultimately, Ford had been able to fight whatever it was Ba’al had done to him to be able to help them win back the city at the cost of his own life, or any chance at a normal one.
“Sure,” Daniel nodded. He sat back on the couch after finding a tome that looked promising, letting the sounds of Ford bustling around the kitchen lull him.
Daniel knew that when he found what he needed, it would be time. Although Ford hadn’t said the words, what he’d been telling Daniel was clear.
I’ve stayed as long as I can. Don’t leave me out here in the dark, all alone.
~~~
“Incoming!” Park’s shriek broke the silence of the afternoon.
In the meeting room, John, Jack, Rodney and Elizabeth started up from their chairs, pelting into the control room at a run. They saw as Park leaned over the control panel and slapped a flat palm on the alarm console and the steady warble of Atlantis’ klaxons started up.
She looked back at them, her eyes wide and terrified. “I didn’t see them,” she moaned, her hand pointing towards one of the smaller monitors and the others watched, horrified as a number of darts dropped out of hyperspace practically on top of the city.
“That’s not-“
“The direction the Hive ships are coming from, no!” Jack anticipated Elizabeth’s question.
“Son of a bitch, they flanked us!” John growled. “Have us concentrate on the larger Hive ships coming in and send in a small strike force first. They must have gated close enough that we wouldn’t see them coming.”
“I need Jumpers in the air. Colonel Sheppard, O’Neill, get as many people that can fly, now!” Elizabeth ordered.
Both men nodded, tapping their radios as they ran for the Jumper bay.
Elizabeth turned to Rodney. “Is there enough power for our big gun?” she demanded.
She watched as Rodney closed his eyes for a second and marvelled that he was most probably doing the calculations in his head. He opened them again and she knew what he was going to say before he said it. “No, not if we intend to sink the city, keep it on the bottom and shield it.”
Elizabeth sighed heavily. “What if… what if these ships try for a suicide run? How much of the city’s integrity can we lose and still be able to do what we need to?”
Rodney grimaced. “I’m not sure. We haven’t confirmed what needs to be done to hold the city on the bottom of the ocean and so there is a chance what we might lose or have damaged a vital part of the city if the fighting reaches us. We may have to risk it.”
“You redirected the entire city’s power last time. Do you need to do that again?”
“Most of it, yes.” Rodney’s eyes clouded and Elizabeth realised he’d just thought of something.
“What?” she demanded.
“The last time we had Daniel and Ford access and control the weapon. I have no way of reaching Daniel to tell him what we need. He said something about it being too dangerous for John to try. I’m going to need one of them in the chair.”
“They’re the only fighter pilots we have.”
“I understand that but there are,” Rodney looked behind himself to do a quick count, “Twelve darts bearing down on us. We’re outnumbered in a dog fight. I need one of them here.”
Elizabeth’s mouth firmed and she tapped her radio. “Colonel Sheppard, Colonel O’Neill? I need one of you to return to the control room. We need one of you to access our backup weapon.” Elizabeth’s lip curled in a wry grin as she first heard swearing, then a three count and then Jack’s triumphant “Ha! Rock beats scissors!”
A moment later, John’s defeated, “On my way back,” reached them.
Elizabeth wanted to scream. They had a good plan and just needed to space to implement it. It felt like they had been attacked since the moment they stepped through the stargate and she wondered why the Pegasus Galaxy hated them so much. She wanted to stamp her feet and pull out her hair and yell that it was all so unfair.
Instead, with cool eyes, she looked at Rodney. “Save our asses,” she instructed.
Part Fifteen