SGA-17 Legacy 2 - The Lost

by Graham, Jo

  “Good information,” Dick said, “But useless without the location of the ship.” He made himself keep his voice light, though he felt a surge of excitement run through his veins.

  “Of course,” Todd said. “And what is it worth to you to know the location of the ship?”

  “It’s to your advantage to tell us and have us do your dirty work for you,” Woolsey said calmly. “Or not. But you don’t seem to have time for a long discussion about it.”

  Todd snarled.

  Sheppard came bounding up the stairs from the transport chamber wearing gym clothes and looking distinctly flustered. He crowded in beside Dick at the monitor. “I’m here.”

  Todd’s expression changed to something like amusement. “And how is the Young Queen?”

  “Huh?”

  “The ship’s location,” Dick said patiently.

  “In seventeen of your hours Queen Death’s ship will be at the following coordinates. The planet is unimportant and uninhabited except for a small garrison we keep there extracting some precious minerals from the world’s soil. With our biotechnology it is necessary to provide the ship with the proper building blocks for it to use to expand and repair, and indeed to continue in good health.”

  “You have to feed your ship?” Sheppard asked keenly.

  “From time to time,” Todd said. “Even the largest ships must consume new materials and enter a brief period of digestive dormancy while they assimilate them. During that time a ship is exceedingly vulnerable. It is asleep, for all practical purposes. Its defenses are down, it is not prepared for hull regeneration, and engines and weapons are offline. Queen Death has been using her ship hard. She must bring new material aboard and give it time to consume it.”

  “And how long does this take?” Dick asked.

  “No more than a few hours, typically,” Todd said. “So it is our practice to go to some remote spot and complete the entire process in less than one of your days. Her ship will be at this location in seventeen hours, and it will stay with certainty no more than four or five, though it may stay as long as eight depending on the amount of new material to digest.” Todd looked down at his hands as though they were moving over a console. “I am sending the coordinates. Now.” There was a brief databurst, and the transmission dissolved into static. An instant behind that the Stargate cut out.

  Dick drew himself up. “Whew.”

  “I’ve got a set of coordinates,” Banks said. “It’s a planet a little less than an eighth of the way around the galactic rim. There’s a Stargate, but we’ve never used it but once to send a MALP through. There’s nothing there.”

  Radek Zelenka looked down from the board above, pushing his glasses up on his nose. “It could be a trap,” he said.

  “Todd doesn’t know we have the Hammond,” Sheppard said. “He’s assuming we’ll have to send a jumper through the Stargate.”

  “Banks, ask Colonel Carter to meet us in the briefing room at her earliest convenience,” Dick directed. “We need to talk about this. And then call Dr. Keller. Sheppard, get your team together.” He looked at his wristwatch. “Let’s say ten minutes.”

  * * *

  “It’s the only real lead we’ve got,” Sheppard said, settling down into one of the conference room chairs, a cup of coffee in his hand. He hadn’t taken this ten minutes to go get changed, and he still looked disheveled.

  “What is?” Dr. Keller asked as she came in, followed by Dr. Zelenka.

  “Todd’s tip,” Zelenka said, sitting down opposite her on the near side of Sheppard. “He says Rodney is on Queen Death’s ship and he says it will be parked and dormant at a certain place.” Zelenka put his travel mug down before him and looked around expectantly. “I feel I must play devil’s advocate here and say that it may very well be a trap.”

  “It may be,” Dick said. “And that’s one thing we need to discuss. But let’s wait for everyone to get here.”

  “What about the Genii?” Keller asked, frowning.

  “We haven’t heard from them yet,” Dick said.

  Sheppard shifted in his seat, but said nothing. Ladon Radim, for all his promises, had as yet delivered nothing, while unexpectedly the meeting with Todd had borne fruit. Still, Dick thought, the Genii might come up with something of importance down the road. One could not say that their diplomatic overtures were entirely wasted, even if nothing had come of them so far.

  Colonel Carter and Major Franklin came in a few moments later, Ronon in animated conversation with Franklin about some sort of target shooting competition, and Teyla slipped in behind them, her hair soaking wet as though she had just come from the shower. She sat down unobtrusively beside Ronon, while Carter took the chair beside Sheppard.

  There was a lengthy recapping of the facts, complete with playback of Todd’s message. When it faded everyone sat in silence for a long moment. Carter was looking down the table with the expectant air of someone who thought the facilitator ought to get on with it, but who doesn’t feel like they ought to be the one to go first.

  “Colonel Carter,” Dick said. “You look as though you have an idea.” He might as well get it out in the open and get started. Everyone was looking at her anyway.

  “Just a thought,” Carter said. “Unless Todd has better intelligence than we think, he doesn’t know about the Hammond.”

  Sheppard nodded, leaning forward with his elbows on the table. “If they’re expecting a cloaked jumper, or if this info is on the up and up and they’re not expecting us at all, the Hammond could do some serious damage.”

  “If it’s on the up and up and they really are powered down, we could destroy Queen Death’s hive ship,” Carter said. “And possibly take her out too, if she’s onboard.”

  “That would be the best case scenario,” Dick said. “And while that’s certainly desirable, let’s look at the worst case.”

  “The worst case is that they’re waiting for us,” Carter said. “And that they do know about the Hammond. But even if they are, even if we drop out of hyperspace and the hive ship is powered up, or if there are half a dozen hive ships, our shields can certainly take it for the few seconds it will take us to open a new hyperspace window and get out of there.”

  “But isn’t the plan to get Rodney off the ship?” Keller asked. “Not just destroy it?’

  Sheppard looked at her across the table. “We jump in, we see if the defenses are down, if everything is on the up and up. If it is, Carter beams a team aboard the hive ship, we grab Rodney, she beams us out, and then shoots up the place.”

  “Sounds good to me,” Ronon said gruffly.

  “And if the hive ship brings its defensive systems back online while you’re aboard?” Dick asked, his eyes on Sheppard.

  “Then Carter’s got to get them down again. Or we do. Or get to the Dart bay. There are a lot of options.”

  It didn’t sound like a lot of good options to Dick. But this was the best lead they’d had, perhaps the best they were going to have. And Carter was unlikely to risk her ship on its maiden run if it looked like the entire situation was a set up. She’d jump out if it seemed like the hive ship wasn’t actually powered down.

  They were all looking at him, waiting for him to be the kind of decisive leader they expected and deserved. He glanced at Sheppard. “What if you can’t find Dr. McKay? Surely the Wraith have removed his subcutaneous transmitter.”

  “If he’s not in the labs where Todd said he was, he’s probably in one of the holding cells,” Sheppard replied. “We check them as a backup plan. And if he’s not aboard or we can’t get to him…” He let his voice trail off.

  “I beam the team off and we jump out,” Carter said. “I can keep a lock on their transmitters. As long as the hive ship’s jamming device stays down, I can pull them out anytime I need to.”

  “And if the hive ship activates its jamming device after transport?” That was the catch. That was the really big catch. “Todd did not give us any idea how long it would take for a ship to come out of dor
mancy.”

  Teyla cleared her throat. “If we can find a command terminal, I may be able to speak with the ship. While I probably cannot override Queen Death’s orders, I will certainly be able to find out what its status is and whether or not it is powering up.”

  Franklin looked down the table boggling at her, but Carter didn’t even blink. Of course she was familiar with Teyla’s Gift.

  “That’s good enough for me,” Sheppard said.

  Of course he thought so. Sheppard was ready to jump on any half-baked plan that offered to rescue Dr. McKay, but it was Dick’s job to knock holes in things that didn’t stand up on their own. It was his job not to throw tens of lives away on one. Carter was eager to get her ship into action against the Wraith and see how it performed. She wasn’t going to be the voice of sanity.

  Still, this was hopeful. This was the best lead they’d had, and the opportunity to do Queen Death some actual damage. It was in Todd’s best interest to play straight with them. If his information was genuine, they might get rid of his enemy with no effort to himself. And if the information were false, the loss of Sheppard’s team would not actually cripple Atlantis, though the double dealing would destroy any relationship between them, any tentative truce. If Todd did not wish to betray Queen Death, he could simply have said nothing, rather than risk making an enemy of one or the other. No, Todd had every reason to be telling the truth. Dick could parse that out.

  “You have a go, Colonel Sheppard,” he said. The timeframe to get into position was short enough as it was.

  * * *

  John stopped Woolsey on the way out of the conference room. “I’ve got one more concern,” he said, letting everyone else go ahead. Teyla very carefully did not look back at him, her back straight, deep in conversation with Radek. He waited until they were out of earshot. “It’s about Zelenka.”

  Woolsey nodded like he’d been expecting it. “You don’t want him on this mission.”

  “This is a combat mission,” John said. “A straight up combat mission. And we don’t know what kind of shape Rodney’s going to be in. If he’s hurt or drugged or something Ronon’s going to have to carry him while Teyla and I cover. We can’t take care of Zelenka too. I’m good with him being on the team, and I know he’s been working with Ronon on the shooting range, but this is a military assault. He doesn’t belong in it. Teyla and Ronon and I will handle it.”

  “Would you be surprised that I agree with you?” Woolsey smiled mirthlessly. “Dr. Zelenka stays in Atlantis this time. I never meant that he should turn into Rambo.”

  “Good,” John said. “And once we get Rodney back, he’ll be off the hook.”

  “As soon as Dr. McKay can return to duty,” Woolsey reminded him.

  Chapter Thirty-three: Bright Venture

  The George Hammond eased out of orbit of Atlantis’ new planet, gliding through space with a grace Sam wished she could record and keep forever.

  “The course is plotted, ma’am,” her helmsman said.

  Sam nodded, her hands on the arms of the captain’s chair. “Punch it.”

  Ahead the hyperspace window opened in a green flash, and the Hammond lunged forward like an eager hunting dog let off the leash, charging ahead. All systems were go, everything optimal. Probably the last time that would be the case, Sam thought. They were going to go scratch the factory paint.

  It was nearly sixteen hours to their rendezvous with the hive ship, timing that if Todd were correct should drop them out of hyperspace an hour after Queen Death’s ship powered down for its feeding process. Sam certainly wasn’t going to stay on the bridge the entire time. They’d rotate through the entire duty roster before they arrived, passing through a full afternoon and night for the Hammond’s crew.

  And for Sheppard’s team as well. It was good to have friends out here. Sam was a team player. She’d spent most of her career embedded in a collegial structure, working with people whose skills and talents complimented hers. Solitary responsibility wasn’t her ideal command style. The crew of the Hammond were all new. They weren’t a team yet. So far they were strangers who were just beginning to work together. And tomorrow they’d be tested for the first time. She’d find out how they came together, what the gaping holes were, what their strengths and weaknesses were.

  It was an intimidating thought, but Sam knew better than to let any of it show on her face. She waited until everything was running smoothly, their hyperspace passage as uncomplicated as the one that had brought them from Earth, and then returned to her quarters and her waiting laptop to do paperwork.

  Her thoughts strayed. They’d uploaded to Atlantis’ databurst while they were in the city, electronic reports and private emails coming and going in fractions of a second through the wormhole opened once a week at tremendous cost in power. She’d had fifty eight incoming emails.

  Her brother, Mark, had sent pictures from her niece’s soccer game and asked if she’d buy some Girl Scout cookies.

  Cassie, her foster daughter, had sent three emails back to back, one asking her if she’d seen Band of Brothers, one asking if she knew anything about airborne training in Toccoa, Georgia in 1943, and one talking about how she hated her very boring job. She had been there three months, and of course it was boring. Sam didn’t think Cassie would be satisfied with nonprofit work in the long run, no matter how worthy the cause.

  Teal’c had not sent one, a sure sign that he was off in trouble of his own. Otherwise he would have replied to her last one, sent from the last Milky Way gate outbound, a remote planet where once they had hunted for the Lost City of the Ancients, hoping it held weapons or secrets that would help them against Anubis and the Goa’uld. It held nothing, now or then, but it was the last Stargate, the last outpost of the Ancients in the Milky Way, before the long, cold void between galaxies.

  Jack had sent seven emails, one each day since the last transmission, one for her to read each day until the next one. Hey, Carter…

  And Daniel… There was a long ramble about Phoenician gods, a request for samples of alphabets now current in the Pegasus Galaxy, and the half humorous question of whether or not she’d been shot yet.

  She’d reply to Daniel.

  Sorry, Daniel. Not shot yet. Maybe tomorrow. We’ll see. We’re flying straight into Queen Death’s hive ship and it might be a trap or maybe not, so same old same old here. Listen, you’ve got the letters if you need them, right? I sent them to you instead of Mitchell. You know what to do with them if it comes to that. Which it won’t. I won’t bore you again telling you what a sweet ship Hammond is, but I’m still in love and familiarity isn’t breeding contempt but then it never does with me. Lots of beautiful Ancient buildings send their regards. I wish you were here. I truly do.

  * * *

  “We’re getting ready to exit hyperspace,” Sam said, standing up from her chair and coming around to where John and his team were waiting. “It’s about to be showtime.”

  “We’re ready,” John said. They’d slept for a while, or at least he and Ronon had slept, in bunks in the cabin Sam had given them, and he expected Teyla had too, from the fact that she wasn’t yawning. Then they’d spent the rest of the trip trying not to pace and get in the way of Sam’s people. Now Ronon and Teyla looked as eager as he felt to get moving.

  “As soon as we jump in, I expect they’re going to start trying to power up the ship,” Sam said.

  “And our clock starts ticking, I know.”

  “I’ll radio you if it looks like it’s starting to go bad. If they get their defensive systems back up, it’s possible that we can disable them. If it looks like that’s not going to happen, and we start taking a pounding, we’re going to have to jump out.”

  “I know,” John said. “We’re ready.”

  “Preparing to exit hyperspace,” the Hammond’s helmsman said.

  “Okay,” Sam said. “Good luck.” She glanced over at a waiting technician. “Beam them down.”

  The shimmer of the Asgard beaming technology wa
s always disorienting for a moment. It took a couple of heartbeats before the hive ship corridor resolved itself clearly around John. Ronon had already put his back to John’s, covering the length of the corridor behind them. Teyla stepped to John’s left, her P90 at the ready, taking in their position.

  The corridor was empty for the moment, the red light that the Wraith seemed to prefer tracing the weirdly organic shapes of the walls. John glanced down at his life-signs detector. There were moving forms nearby, but there was no way to tell if they were separated by walls or if they’d run into them in moments.

  Sam had beamed them into what they’d guessed was the laboratory section of the ship, but it was hard to tell from featureless corridor if they’d gotten it right. The holding cells should be up and forward. If Todd’s tip was good, though, that would be a needlessly dangerous detour.

  He chose the direction that promised fewer Wraith ahead, and signaled Ronon to take point. If they ran into one or two isolated Wraith, Ronon’s pistol would make less noise than P90 fire. If they ran into more than that, they’d take that as it came.

  Teyla followed Ronon, her eyes searching the walls for signs of a door or side passageway. She was moving easily enough, showing no signs that her hip was bothering her. He just hoped this wasn’t going to end with them having to retreat at a sprint.

  Ronon lifted a hand to stop them, and gestured to an opening in the wall. John glanced down at the life signs detector. There was no one in there. It looked like a laboratory when he looked inside, with benches and consoles and what might have been a large display screen against the wall, although it was dark.

  “If the ship has powered down completely, it may not be possible for the scientists to go about their normal work,” Teyla said under her breath. She stepped forward, running her hands over one of the consoles. “I do not believe the main databanks are currently operable.”

  John glanced up at the dark display screen. “You think they gave everybody the afternoon off?”