by Graham, Jo
She’d wound up liking him more than she’d expected to by the end of the session, and actually hadn’t minded the prospect of seeing him on an ongoing basis. He mainly seemed to want help managing stress, and possibly to want to talk about his relationship with his girlfriend, both of which seemed like nice simple problems compared to some of the things that apparently happened in the Pegasus galaxy. Like being captured by the Wraith.
It was part and parcel of working with people in combat positions, she knew. One day they were telling you about their feelings about joint pet ownership as a step toward commitment, and the next day they were listed as missing, which was usually just a way of saying ‘dead, but without any reasonable sense of closure for anyone involved.’ It would have been easier if she’d had other regulars to see, to remind her that life went on.
She put the cup down with determination. At least she could go meet some of the people she’d be working with. It would be more productive than sitting in an empty office trying to figure out how much trouble she’d be in if she installed Plants vs. Zombies on her laptop.
She decided it wasn’t too early for an early lunch, and the mess hall seemed likely to be full of other people. She filled her tray with food that, for being served in another galaxy, seemed distinctly familiar from every military cafeteria line she’d ever seen, and poured herself another cup of coffee.
Few of the people whose names she felt confident she knew were in the mess hall. She did recognize one of the scientists eating at a table by the window as Dr. Zelenka, who’d been helping Dr. McKay give the orientation lecture to the science staff. He’d spent a lot of time in the meeting trying to soften McKay’s predictions that they’d probably all be dead inside of six months.
Only if you do not pay attention, Zelenka had said, his eyes on the younger and more nervous-looking of the new staff. Which we are sure you will. She wasn’t convinced he actually was sure, but he was at least comforting.
She put her tray down on the opposite side of the table. “Mind if I join you?”
“Not at all,” Zelenka said. “But I will not be here long for company. I have a very long list of places I should currently be.” He gestured to his mashed potatoes as if apologizing for the necessity of eating them.
“I’m sure you do,” she said. “It’s been an interesting first few weeks in the Pegasus galaxy.”
“You should see it when it really gets interesting,” Zelenka said. “We have only had minor catastrophes so far. If we cannot get Rodney back, or the city is overrun by strange alien lifeforms, or we are attacked by many Wraith, then we will have real problems.”
“I can see that you’d have to develop a sense of perspective.”
“That, or entirely lose your mind,” Zelenka said. “But I have not yet, so you do not have to worry that I will add to your workload.”
“I’m happy to talk to anybody who’d like to talk,” Eva said. “It’s actually pretty quiet right now from where I’m sitting. I’m hoping I can get to know people better and just get a sense of how everyone’s doing.”
“The same as usual,” Zelenka said. “We are stressed and overworked and underpaid. Everyone has had traumatic experiences that should have us all hiding under our beds, but there is too much work to do. Half the people in the city are having regrettable romances, and the other half would not know how to begin one without an instruction manual.”
Eva found herself asking “And which category would you be in?” even though she knew she probably shouldn’t.
“I prefer to be regrettable,” Zelenka said, meeting her smile with one of his own that suggested a wicked sense of humor she hadn’t suspected him of having. “In the last few weeks there has not been time.”
“I expect it’s hard for the science staff with Dr. McKay missing.”
Zelenka spread his hands. “Sheppard’s team goes missing a lot. And of course we are always very worried, but we try not to — ” He broke off, putting a hand to the radio headset he wore. “Zelenka.” He listened for a moment, then stood abruptly. “I must go,” he said. “There is a problem. Big surprise.”
“It was nice to meet you,” Eva said to his back as he hurried away, talking into his radio in low worried tones. She was getting the feeling a lot of her conversations in Atlantis were going to end like that.
* * *
Dick Woolsey sighed and looked at his open laptop. The databurst from Earth had just come in, and his inbox now showed 282 new messages. Most of them were not things he wanted to see — official messages from the IOA asking for clarification of one thing or another, screams of annoyance from various people he’d rather not talk to. He had seven days to answer them all before the next scheduled dial out, once weekly to conserve power, unless events warranted otherwise.
Three emails from General O’Neill. He opened the earliest first. It was a simple confirmation that the George Hammond had left Earth on time, Pegasus bound. Good news, but hardly unexpected. Another, three days later, confirming that the Hammond had checked in at a Milky Way gate and was still on schedule. By now it would be between galaxies, out of communications from both ends. Daedalus, on its return trip, would be reaching the edge of the Milky Way today, checking in with Stargate Command at the first gate. It always made Dick a little nervous to have all the warships out of reach.
He was going to have to write to Dr. McKay’s sister sooner or later. He’d put it off, missed this week’s databurst, telling himself that it hadn’t been long enough yet. They’d find Dr. McKay soon, and there was no reason to alarm his family unnecessarily. But another week and he would have to. There would be no excuse. He would have to start one of those letters that began with ‘regret to inform you…’
But not today. They’d find him before the next databurst. Surely.
Dick wished he truly believed that. He wished he had that kind of faith in the way the universe worked.
Chapter Twenty: Tip of the Iceberg
“Dr. Zelenka, this is Lorne,” Lorne said as he steered the jumper out of the bay and up through the hatch out into the snow. The wind was gusting unpredictably, and it took concentration to keep the jumper level. “We just had what felt to me like some kind of impact, like maybe something hit the city. I’m taking Jumper Two out to have a look.”
“Yes, seismic instruments are recording an impact on the south-east pier,” Dr. Zelenka said. “The currently south-east pier — ”
“I got you,” Lorne said, swinging the jumper around. Sheppard had landed the city oriented with a different facing than they’d had on New Lantea, and everyone who had gotten used to calling things ‘the east pier’ and ‘the north side of the city’ for the last couple of years was having to learn to adjust. He’d asked Sheppard if he couldn’t have parked straighter than that, and Sheppard had snorted and told him that next time he could drive.
Lorne thought that he’d get the chance to do that approximately the same time that pigs flew. Or when everybody with a better chair interface rating was out of commission and they had to move the city, which wasn’t a set of circumstances he could really hope for. Beside him, Hernandez was looking more cheerful. Flying spaceships seemed to be more what he’d been hoping for out of this posting.
“I think the most likely thing is ice,” Zelenka said. “The sensors on that part of the city are out again, though.”
“So it could be anything,” Hernandez said.
“You’re getting the picture,” Lorne said.
“Did you get a chance to check out those life sign readings?” Zelenka asked.
“We have pigeons,” Lorne said.
“Come again?” Zelenka said. “Communications may also be — ”
“Pigeons,” Lorne said again patiently. “Papa, India, Golf, Echo, Oscar, November, Sierra. As in small birds.”
“Yes, I know what a pigeon is,” Zelenka said. He sounded testy, which Lorne figured was reasonable at this point in the day.
“We were parked on Earth all that time,�
� Lorne said. “And since we had the shield up when we launched, it’s not like we gave them a chance to leave. So, no crisis on that front. Just a few casualties among the pigeons.”
“What did you do to the pigeons?”
“It was kind of an accident,” Lorne said. “Involving weapons fire.”
“You shot at defenseless birds,” Zelenka said, in a tone that made Lorne wince. “It is that they were threatening you in some way? You feared for your life if they pecked you with their little pigeon beaks?”
“I said it was an accident,” Lorne began, and then broke off as he brought the jumper down just past the end of the pier, hovering over the waves. “Okay, I think I see what we hit,” he said. “We’ve got a lot of ice in the water here, and there’s one big piece that’s jammed up against the pier. It looks like it’s maybe five meters across and about as high at its highest point.” The jagged chunk of ice rose unevenly out of the water, its top looking like it had been sculpted by the wind that was still buffeting the jumper as Lorne tried to hold it steady.
“How bad is it?”
“I can’t see much damage right now — maybe it’ll leave a dent, but it’s not like there’s a big gaping hole. The actual city wall’s pretty thick. The only thing is, these things are bigger underneath, right?”
“Yes,” Zelenka said. “The majority of the ice will be below the waterline.”
“I’m just afraid that if the current, or the wind, or whatever ran it up against the pier in the first place drags it down under the city — ”
“There are delicate mechanisms that could be damaged, yes,” Radek said. “The hyperdrive propulsion systems, a variety of underwater sensors — which mostly are not working right now, which could mean there is already damage.”
“Hang on,” Lorne said. “I’ll take the jumper down and have a look.”
“These things go underwater?” Hernandez said.
“Read the freaking manual,” Jacobs said.
Lorne ignored them both and brought the jumper down gently to touch down on the water, watching the display to make sure its systems were switching over smoothly to its submersible mode as it sank beneath the surface. What had looked like a chunk of ice from the surface was a wall of ice below it, its clouded surface reflecting back the jumper’s lights.
“We may have a little problem,” Lorne said. “It’s definitely bigger underneath.” He dove until he could clear the bottom of the ice, turning the jumper’s lights on the underside of the city. “It looks like it’s jammed up against the end of the pier pretty good; I think part of it may have broken away when it hit us. It’s not doing anything but scraping up the bottom of the hull, but if the rest of it breaks away, there’s a lot of stuff for it to hit down here.”
“Even if we raise the shield, it will not protect against an object that is already within its extent,” Radek said. “We could maybe modify that, but that is probably the most costly way of dealing with the problem in terms of power.”
“We don’t have to do that,” Lorne said. “If I come back and fit a grapple onto the jumper, I can grab hold of this thing and tow it out of the way. But if this is going to keep happening, that’s going to be a problem.”
“Tell me about it,” Radek said. “That is a question for the oceanographers, but at this point I am not expecting to hear good news from them.”
“The thing I don’t get is, if the city used to be in Antarctica, shouldn’t there be some way of keeping it from getting damaged by ice? They have a lot of ice in Antarctica.”
“I know that, too,” Radek said. “We think the city was resting on an ice sheet on land, not on the surface of the Antarctic ocean, so maybe this was not a problem for them. Or there may have been some defense mechanism that is not operating properly.”
“Oil rigs use spikes to fend off big chunks of ice, but we’d have noticed something like that before now,” Lorne said. “Unless they’re supposed to extend when the city senses that there’s ice.”
“Which it may not, if the underwater sensors are inoperable because of the water temperature,” Radek said. “Very ironic.”
Lorne brought the jumper under the city slowly, sweeping its underside with the lights. They hadn’t spent a lot of time down there, except for a cursory look after they’d landed on Earth to make sure that the hyperdrive engines weren’t showing any external signs of damage.
“It’s kind of a mess down here,” he said. “There’s no visible damage to the hyperdrive array, but I’m seeing some hull damage on the southwest side of the city that I don’t think was caused by ice — it’s pretty dented up in some places. Did we ever take a really good look down here after we moved the city the first time?”
“I wish I could be sure,” Radek said. “I was busy with critical systems, and by the time we had stabilized those .. yes, well, now we must make sure. You may as well bring your team in and let me see what I can find out from here.”
“I’ll come get a grapple fitted on the jumper,” Lorne said. “I think you’re going to have to come down here and take a look, though.”
“I expect so,” Zelenka said, adding something in Czech that Lorne would have bet good money didn’t translate as that sounds like what I’d love to do with the rest of my day.
* * *
“PostYíleli holuby! Zbrklí idioti!”
“Beg pardon?” Airman Salawi blinked at him, looking up from her board with a concerned expression.
“Nothing,” Radek said. “Nothing of any great importance. Now…”
At the far end of the control room, one of the monitors let out a shriek. Banks looked up from her board, her voice urgent. “Dr. Zelenka, a hyperspace window has just opened!”
Radek lunged for the keys at the same moment he spoke. “Major Lorne, you had best get inside now. We are raising the shield!” He spared a quick glance to make certain the puddle jumper was not at that moment passing through the area the shield would occupy and punched it with one hand, the other flying over the scanner keys. “It cannot be the Hammond. They are not due for a day and a half yet.”
Amelia Banks hit the all-systems alarm. “Mr. Woolsey to the control room!”
Woolsey came tearing out of the conference room like a scalded cat, followed by Dr. Robinson, Dr. Bauer, and the new physician’s assistant. “What happened?”
“We have a hyperspace window opening. Unidentified ship,” Radek said. He leaned over the instruments. “It is an unfamiliar type. I have the shield up.”
“Not the cloak?” Woolsey covered the last few steps to the control area.
“If they know where we are, they may start shooting immediately,” Radek said. “I thought it was prudent.”
Woolsey didn’t disagree. “Hail them then.”
“We have a signal coming in,” Salawi said.
“Put it through,” Woolsey replied.
“Atlantis, this is Colonel Sheppard.” Radek thought everyone in the room sagged visibly at the sound of the familiar voice. “We need to land this thing. Can you clear the north pier and have a medical team standing by? And also a rescue jumper if I put it in the drink.”
“What’s happening?” Woolsey asked as Dr. Bauer took off at a run for the transport chamber, cupping his headset as he did, presumably calling for the rest of the medical team to meet him there.
“We’ve got the Genii’s Ancient warship,” Sheppard said. “But it’s in bad shape and the landing’s going to be dicey. I’d rather overshoot and hit the water than hit the city if I have to abort.”
Woolsey looked like he was holding himself in physically. “I thought you were assisting the Genii in taking the ship to their homeworld.”
“We are. But we’ve got technical problems with the warship and a medical emergency.”
Banks looked at Radek and he looked at her.
“Understood, Colonel. Bring it in,” Woolsey said. “If Dr. Beckett says it’s an emergency, we’ve got a crew standing by.”
“Dr. Beckett is the
patient,” Sheppard replied.
Woolsey looked as though he wanted to ask for more details, but thought better of it. He gestured to Radek. “Drop the shield.”
Radek nodded to Salawi, who paused with her fingers over the buttons. “How do we know it’s not a trap and that he’s not a hostage or something?”
Radek smiled. “He didn’t report formally. When something is very, very wrong Colonel Sheppard will do it by the book. Which is what anyone holding him might expect. So it is clever, you see. He would not need to say something wrong. He would only need to say something right. So drop the shield, that is it.” He switched channels on the headset. “Major Lorne, you may as well not get out of the jumper. Colonel Sheppard needs a jumper in the air for open water rescue if he aborts the landing and drops an Ancient warship in the ocean.”
There was a long pause on the radio, clearly Lorne digesting the new twist and turn of events. “Copy that,” he said laconically.
“You see, that is how it is,” Radek said to Salawi. “One moment you are checking for icebergs and the next you are preparing for an open water rescue in freezing temperatures. There is never a dull moment around here.”
“I’m seeing that,” Salawi said.
Robinson and the new physician’s assistant were hanging around the back of the control room, but there was no reason to get rid of rubberneckers. They were not in the way. Dr. Robinson looked as though she wanted to ask questions. Radek gave her an inviting little head wiggle, indicating she could come closer if she wanted. It was certainly no more dangerous. If Sheppard miscalculated and crashed an Ancient warship into the city, a few meters would not make any difference.
