The Unconquered Pair Part II

Title: The Unconquered Pair
Series: The Unlikely and Unwilling
Rating: NC-17
Warnings: Violence-Canon-Level, Character Bashing, Beta by Spellcheck
Genre: Alternate Universe. Crossover
Relationships: McKay/Sheppard, O’Neill/Jackson, Ronon/Tyre, and other pairings as needed
Wordcount: 57,269
Summary: With Elizabeth gone, the Expedition knuckled down to see if they could fulfill their primary mandate: Find the tech Earth needs to defend themselves against what’s coming.  Things are starting to click and that’s when the other shoe drops. The Wraith are starting to move on them. John and Rodney have to make some tough choices.
While Atlantis is figuring things out, the SGC is working to put together a rescue mission. While trying to deal with the fallout of Weir arriving back on Earth in handcuffs. Politics aren’t Jack O’Neill’s favorite thing, but there comes a point when his give-a-fuck breaks. And he’s rapidly reaching that point.
Either way, things are going to get very interesting.
The SGC is working to put together a rescue mission. While trying to deal with the fallout of Weir arriving back on Earth in handcuffs. Politics aren’t Jack O’Neill’s favorite thing, but there comes a point when his give-a-fuck breaks. And he’s rapidly reaching that point.

Part I

 

Chapter Eight

“Say what again?”

John sighed as he leaned back in his chair. “Markham is coming online. And from the shifting in his scent, Stacks is going to follow him.”

“Damn it,” Rodney leaned back in his chair and ran a hand over his face. “They’ve been latent for this whole damn year and it was going onboard a Wraith Hive that finally caused them to come online?”

“Seems like it,” John agreed. “And there are a few more with shifting scent piles that show their latency is going to end with the right stressors.”

“Guides or Sentinels?” Rodney asked. He was busy typing away on his laptop.

“Parrish is a Guide. Bates is a Sentinel,” John reported. “I can’t get a bead on what Grodin is yet, but Kusanagi is a Guide.”

“Fuck,” Rodney muttered before he pushed his laptop to the side. “I need to check something.”

“What?” John asked as he stared at his Guide.

“I’m going to take a mental look at everyone,” Rodney admitted. He glanced over at Tyre and raised an eyebrow at him. “I have no idea if the Dux on your world could do this, so don’t freak out.”

“I won’t ‘freak out’,” Tyre promised. “But I am curious as to what you are going to do.”

“Ha,” Rodney muttered before he took a deep breath and John could feel the background hum he associated with his Guide deepen and spread out. The feeling of intense concentration held for almost five minutes before it lessened. “So, we have a number of latent people who are slowly but surely coming online.”

“Anyone besides the six I already mentioned?” John asked.

“Teyla, and Jinto,” Rodney said with a sigh. “Both are showing signs of being Sentinels and one of the kids we rescued seems to be a Guide. I don’t know if they are Jinto’s Guide or not.”

“Interesting,” John said before he rocked his chair back and forth. “I’m not around Jinto enough to get a bead on him, but why haven’t I noticed the change in Teyla?”

“Because the changes are all mental at this point. I’m certain that you would’ve clued in when we saw Teyla in the morning,” Rodney offered.

“But I saw her earlier today, why didn’t I notice then?” John asked.

“Did you spend a lot of time with her?” Tyre asked. He glanced at Rodney and raised an eyebrow at him. “You are a Dux who forms grex?”

“Yes,” Rodney confirmed. He held his hand out and his spirit animal appeared under it. “This is my spirit animal.”

“They’re a predator?” Tyre asked. He was staring intently at Rodney’s wolf and John could almost see the wheels in his head turning.

“The species is the wolf, and they are endurance hunters. They will hunt and can track their prey for long distances until the prey drops from exhaustion,” Rodney explained. “They live in family-oriented groups and our ancestors figured out how to cohabitate with them to such a degree that their descendants live with us to this day. Neither species is harmless and both have been known to kill humans.”

“So, not as easygoing as it looks there,” Ronon observed. “Are they soft?”

“The fur?” Rodney asked with a smile. At Ronon’s nod, he chuckled. “Some of them are very soft. Others have rougher fur. Wolves are more on the rough end. And no, wolves are not easygoing as a species. They are smart, easily bored, capable of problem-solving, and will work cooperatively with their pack to deal with any issues that get in their way. They’re also protective, deadly, and will attack if pressed.”

John snorted once at that. “Sounds like you.”

 

 

“Alright, everyone. Be quiet!” Rodney snapped.

“What’s going on, Rodney?” Grodin asked. He glanced at the other people in the conference room and raised an eyebrow.

“Right,” Rodney said before he ran a hand over his head. “I’ve called you all in here because all of you are slowly coming online. And we need to get a handle on it so you don’t fall on your faces.”

“That is not what I was expecting,” Grodin said after several seconds. He glanced at Parrish and raised an eyebrow at the agreeing sound the other man-made.

“I did not know that I held the genetics to ‘come online’. Will I not need a partner?” Teyla asked. She frowned at Rodney as she settled into her chair.

“You will. Eventually,” Rodney confirmed. He poured himself a cup of the caffeinated tea that Teyla had introduced them to. “No matter what you come online as, we will teach you how to use your new skills. It won’t be comfortable, but it is utterly doable.”

“Okay, good to know, doc. Do you know what we’re coming online as?” Markham asked. He was sitting beside Stackhouse, and to Rodney’s eye, leaning into the other man.

“No, not for everyone. I have suspicions, but suspicions aren’t reality, and I’m not going to say right now,” Rodney said firmly. “What I will be doing is working with everyone here to help them get the basics of mental shielding down, so if you do flip online, you’re able to function.”

“Will the Major be working with us as well?” Bates asked. He glanced at Markham, and then Teyla before turning his attention back to Rodney. Raising an eyebrow in question he sighed softly. “As much as you’re a good teacher, doc, I think that several of us are going to need to talk to the Major.”

“You’re from an S&G family, aren’t you?” Parrish asked.

“I am,” Bates confirmed. He leaned back in his chair and slowly rolled his head from side to side. “I already knew I was a latent Sentinel, but I didn’t realize I was coming online.”

“It’s slow, but certain. You’re going to notice things a lot more as each sense slots into place. If anything gets to be too overwhelming, please let me know. You’re not my sentinel, but I can stand in to shield you if things get to be too much,” Rodney promised.

“And us, Dr. McKay? What’s going to happen with us?” Jinto asked. He was sitting beside the oldest girl from the batch of children they had rescued with Tyre and Ronon. “Arley doesn’t have a family anymore, so there’s no one to help her.”

“Children are as precious to Sentinels and Guides from Earth as they are to the cultures here in Pegasus,” Rodney explained. He turned his attention to Arley and held out a hand to her. He let his gifts spool out to surround her and tried to get a read on her nascent gifts. While he could tell that she was going to be a Guide, he had no real idea where she’d fall on the scale. “On Earth, there aren’t all that many children who come online, but we do know what to do when it happens. We will be here to train you in your gifts. You will not be left alone.”

“Thank you,” Arley whispered. She leaned into Jinto and Rodney watched as the younger man metaphorically tuck her under his wing.

“You’re welcome, Arley,” Rodney said. He looked at everyone in the room and nodded once. “We’re going to get through this. And once we’re on the other side of this mess, we’ll start training. If you feel like things are spiraling out of control, if you start hearing, feeling, smelling things that aren’t in view, please let me know.”

Bates nodded sharply once. “You don’t want one of us to come online alone and get in trouble, right?”

“Exactly,” Rodney agreed. “I can’t stop what we may be facing with the Wraith, but I can make sure that all of you come through the other side as mentally healthy as possible.”

Miko gave him a sharp nod. “We’re going to hold you to that.”

The meeting broke up only a few minutes later and Rodney stayed seated in the conference room as everyone left. He had a lot to think about. Markham and Stackhouse had moved down his priority list after meeting all the other latent personnel. Teyla and Miko were now higher. Because something was moving between them and he had a feeling it was the start of a bond.

Parish and Grodin were coming online, but since neither of them was stressed, he had to trust that the training both had had while they were latent was holding. He needed to make sure both men were doing their exercises so that if they did flip on, they could build their shields. Jinto and Arley, for all they were coming online, were only barely coming online and hopefully, they would stay that way. Keeping them safe would be the only way to do it.

Pressing the heels of his palms to his eyes, he growled softly. The universe needed to stop throwing boulders in his path. He had enough on his plate with surviving the Wraith and keeping the city from killing the Expedition. He didn’t need to deal with a pair of bonded females, to say nothing of the kids. “Damn it.”

 

 

“AT-2 is radioing in,” Chuck called over the citywide speakers.

John glanced up at the ceiling before looking at Ford. “AT-2 was going to visit that daughter culture of the Athosians, right?”

“The Atharians,” Ford confirmed. He put his clipboard down on the box they were inventorying. “AT-2 was just supposed to check in with them to make sure that they were okay.”

“Mission was supposed to take six hours,” John remembered. “It’s been two.”

“That’s not good news, sir,” Ford said. “Should we?”

“Yeah, let’s,” John agreed. As they headed towards the Gateroom, they were joined by Rodney and Teyla. “Any ideas on what’s happened?”

“I know what I don’t want to have happened,” Rodney said grimly.

Teyla hummed in agreement but held her peace as they walked into the Gateroom. Most of the rest of the senior staff were gathered at the stairs leading down to the space in front of the gate. AT-2 was standing in front of everyone, looking depressed.

“What happened?” John demanded.

“Everything looked normal by the gate. The Atharians put their settlement an hour’s walk away from the gate, in a small valley and we headed that way at a normal pace. As we got closer to the valley, we started seeing things that were out of place. The guard shack they had at the head of the valley was trashed and when we entered the valley, all the shelters were in bits,” Markham reported.

“We took video of the whole thing, but we didn’t find anyone,” Stackhouse said. He looked deeply disturbed. “No one alive, no dead, nobody. But there was a lot of destruction in the same patterns we’ve seen when the Wraith want to destroy a settlement.”

“If it had been the Wraith, there would have been bodies. They aren’t known to refrain from killing while culling,” Teyla said softly.

“We remembered our briefing from your people on that and went looking to see if there were any clues left by the Atharians,” Stackhouse said. He held out a tablet with pictures loaded. “We took pictures of what we found, but it looks like they left trail signs confirming the population has moved. The signs match what your people have taught us, so we’re hopeful that no one was on the planet when the Wraith came through.”

Teyla took the tablet and quickly reviewed the pictures. “They left before the Wraith came. They took our warnings and left.”

“How can you tell?” Stackhouse asked. He walked around to look over Teyla’s shoulder and stared down at the screen. “What let you know that?”

Teyla carefully enlarged the picture on the tablet. “This. It means that the Atharians moved onto one of the planets we used to hunt on. It’s heavily forested, with a number of caves. It is a good waypoint, but it’s not a good place to settle.”

“Can we send someone to that planet? See if we can let them know what happened to their village?” John asked. He took the time to look at the picture so he could recognize the sign. “Or perhaps offer them a place on the mainland?”

The glance Teyla flashed him was relieved. “It would be very smart to offer them the option.”

Rodney hummed softly as he took the tablet out of Teyla’s hands to start reviewing the pictures. “The Wraith trashed their settlement pretty badly. It looks like they wanted to keep them from being able to go back and resettle the planet. Does that sound like something that they would do?”

“Yes,” Teyla confirmed. She frowned as she stared at the tablet. “The Wraith, when they destroy a culture, try to make the planet unhabitable. Some planets have been resettled, but it normally takes generations before it’s safe enough to do so.”

“Do you think they planted trackers like the locket your family had?” John asked. He nodded welcome as Ronon and Tyre joined the meeting. “Markham, please show our guests what your team found.”

“Yes, sir,” Markham said. He took the tablet when Rodney handed it over and moved to stand with the other Sentinel and Guide to show them pictures of the destruction. John tuned in briefly to confirm he was explaining what had happened. He had a feeling that they would be repeating variations of this conversation until the Wraith were dealt with.

 

 

“I’m surprised that Sheppard was okay with you going on this mission,” Kavanagh said after several hours of silence.

Rodney turned slightly so he could see his scientist. Kavanagh was sitting behind the co-pilot’s chair staring at the screen of his laptop. Turning his attention back to the jumper and their course, he tried to figure out the logic behind the question. “Wanna expand on that comment, Peter?”

“You’re Sheppard’s Guide. And the whole time we’ve been out here, you two have always been on the same planet. I’m surprised that he let you go on this mission,” Kavanagh explained.

“While Sheppard is my Sentinel, he’s not in charge of me in the way you’re insinuating,” Rodney said after several seconds of silence. He let his empathy spread out slightly to get a bead on what was going on. “And in this, we’re both aware that he’s of more use where he is. And I don’t need him for this.”

“But what about…”

“Peter? Stop poking at our boss and pilot,” Grodin snapped. He looked up from his laptop and waved a hand at the two space suits on stands in the cargo bay. “We’ve got a very stressful mission ahead of us, and I for one, do not want to be wound up any further than I have to be for this.”

“Shut up, Grodin,” Kavanagh snapped. He frowned at them before turning back to his computer. “I just wanted to make sure that he wasn’t going to go off the rails if Sheppard wasn’t here to hold his hand.”

Rodney snorted softly as he pushed the jumper to give him an ETA on the satellite they were heading towards. “Sitting in an Ancient tin can with you two for fourteen hours before we repair a satellite and then take the return trip is not going to make me go off the rails, Peter. All it’s going to do is make me antisocial.”

“Fair,” Grodin agreed. He made a cautioning sound as Kavanagh tried to protest. “Don’t even, Peter.”

“Humph,” Kavanagh grunted. He returned his attention to his laptop for several minutes. “I’m going to take a nap since I’m going to be in a space suit when we get there.”

“Good plan,” Rodney agreed as he pulled his empathy back in. He side-eyed Grodin as he continued to work. “You’re going to be driving a suit as well, Peter. Go get a nap as well after you do your exercises. We’re about six hours out.”

“Will you be okay up here?” Peter asked.

“I’ll be fine,” Rodney reassured. He held his peace as Grodin made his way to the cargo area of the jumper before he nudged the little ship to close the door between the two compartments. A second nudge tied his laptop into the jumper’s system and he left the control yoke on autopilot to open his computer. He quickly queued up his music program and hit play. His Beethoven collection started playing through the little ship’s speakers.

Testing had shown that with the door closed, there was nothing to be heard in the cargo area, so he was safe enough. Humming along with the music, Rodney started setting up the scans that would need to be done when they reached the satellite. He kept a close eye on the autopilot as he worked. They didn’t need to have anything surprise him while he had the watch.

It took him over an hour to get everything into place and he settled back into the pilot’s chair when the last scan was queued up. Cocking his head to the side, Rodney stared out the viewport and let his mind drift. He didn’t want to meditate, but he did want to leave himself open to the universe.

When he pulled himself out of his contemplation of the cosmos, Rodney nodded firmly before he engaged the cloak. As soon as it engaged, the niggle at the back of his back of his mind went away.

Rubbing his hands over his face, Rodney tried to figure out what they were going to do if the Wraith showed up. They needed the satellite up and running. That wasn’t something that they could skip out on. But it was damn dangerous since they had no real idea how they were going to access the satellite’s power supply.

“Right. Stop trying to drive yourself mad, McKay,” he admonished himself. Turning back to his computer, he set a timer to remind himself to check the autopilot every ten minutes before he opened the file of paperwork he’d prepped for the trip and started reading. With each beep of the timer, he checked in with the jumper. Little by little, they were getting closer to the satellite.

Four hours after he’d set his timer, Rodney saved the last of his work and put his laptop away. One meal replacement bar and some water later, he was ready to wake up his passengers. Opening the door into the cargo area, he leaned against the sill. “Time to wake up.”

“Fuck,” Grodin muttered into his pillow before sitting up.

Rodney snorted once in agreement before he turned his attention to Kavanagh. “Wake up.”

“I hate you so damn much,” Kavanagh bitched before he rolled off the bench. “How far out are we?”

“About an hour,” Rodney confirmed. He walked back into the cockpit and settled into the pilot’s chair.

Grodin leaned into the cockpit and cleared his throat. “I’m making tea. Do you want some?”

“Please,” Rodney agreed. He carefully pushed the sensors out to confirm their position relative to the satellite. Still on track. When a cup of tea appeared in front of him, he took it carefully. “Thank you.”

“How far out are we?” Grodin asked as he settled into the co-pilot’s chair.

“About twenty minutes,” Rodney said. He carefully engaged the head’s up display and all the information that the jumper had been giving him was displayed. “When we get there, I want to do a round of scans to get a good idea of what’s wrong with it and then we can start the repair process. Hopefully, we won’t have to come back.”

“We’ve got two generators with us. I know they’re not equal to a ZPM, but their nothing to sneeze at either,” Kavanagh reminded them. He settled in behind Grodin and stared up at the HUD. This area is hell and gone away from Atlantis. Do we know if there are any more of these satellites elsewhere in the system?”

“We’ve checked. Nothing came back when we asked. If Earth ever does get a ship out to us, we’ll have to get them to scan the system,” Rodney said.

Grodin nodded at that. “Okay, sounds like a plan. Once we’re finished without tea, we’ll start the process of getting into the suits. That should give you plenty of time to do the scans.”

“No matter what, we’ll be staying in communication as we deal with this,” Rodney reminded them. “I can’t help either of you if I don’t know what’s wrong.”

From the snort Kavanagh let out, he wasn’t too sure about that. Neither was Rodney. He was still uneasy. Getting back to Atlantis was going to be a big relief.

 

 

John froze in place and let his world narrow down to his bond with his Guide. Something had just scared the hell out of the man and there were only a few things that did that. From experience, the only options he could think of were an accident in space or the Wraith. The fear beat against his mind without pause, but all the while, Rodney was still in his mind…

Tapping his comm, he moved over to the command channel. “Chuck? Do we have long-range scanners on Atlantis?”

“Atlantis is capable of it, sir, but we don’t have the power to do it right now,” Chuck answered. He sounded apologetic.

“Okay. Get with Zelenka to see if we can cobble something together. Even if it’s a mid-range scanner. We need to be able to see outside of the atmosphere,” John directed. Turning his attention back to the meeting he was in, he took a deep breath before letting it out slowly. “Where were we?”

“This can wait, sir,” Ford offered. “If something’s wrong, we can wait a bit more.”

“I appreciate the concern, Lieutenant, but this is currently a great distraction,” John admitted. “Now, the last thing I remember was Bates saying that the safe rooms are all stocked and everyone has been informed of where they are, how to get into them, and how to barricade them, right?”

“Yes, sir,” Bates confirmed. He glanced at Teyla once and waved a hand at her. “Ms. Emmagan and her people added a number of knives and bantos rods to the armaments of each of the rooms. They also approved the body bags.”

“Hopefully no one human will have to be put in one,” Teyla said. She looked serene and her chemo signals agreed. John envied her the ability to stay calm in the face of the Wraith. “The duct tape will also come in handy.”

John nodded at that point. “I just hope no one has to use any of it.”

“So do we all, but being realistic is better,” Teyla agreed. She glanced back towards Bates and raised an eyebrow. “Sergeant Bates was even kind enough to show us how the body bags worked and how strong the tape was.”

“She used you as the test subject, didn’t she?” John asked. He could see the residue of the tape on Bates’ uniform, despite the clear attempts the man had made at cleaning himself up.

“Yes, sir, she did,” Bates confirmed.

John shook his head and leaned back in his chair as the terror that Rodney had been feeling ebbed away. Hissing out a sigh of relief, he tried to keep his attention on the meeting. No matter what he wanted, his Guide was still fourteen hours away and there was no way to easily shorten that.

The rest of his day was eaten up with meetings and John didn’t try to fight it. He met with the various exploration teams they had out, making sure to touch base with everyone as they reported in. There had been no more worlds decimated like the Atharians, but all their allies were on edge. The Atharians themselves had declined to come to Atlantis, but they had taken up the offer of an alarm on their gate. It wouldn’t tell them who had come through it, but it would let them know that someone had dialed it. Better than nothing at least.

When his day was officially done, John glanced at his watch as he sat down on the stairs in the Gateroom. He still had nine hours before Rodney would be back on Atlantis. There was no way in hell, he was going to be sleeping. That left sitting in Weir’s old office, waiting, and he just couldn’t.

“You’ve been leaking apprehension for hours,” Tyre said softly as he settled down on the step beside him. “Your bond is that strong?”

“It’s thin, but getting stronger every second,” John said. He grimaced and rubbed one hand against his breastbone. “Something happened out there and Rodney was terrified for a few minutes. It’s too far away for easy communication without giving them away.”

“So, you’re sitting here, waiting,” Tyre concluded. “You know your people are going to notice this.”

“I can’t really help it,” John said. He thought about going back to their rooms and shuddered. “I can try to meditate, but I’m not great at it.”

“We can do kata’s until you are too tired, and then you can try to meditate,” Teyla offered from behind him. When he turned around, she held out a set of bantos rods. “We won’t strike at each other, but the weight of them will be useful.”

John took the rods and nodded his thanks. He couldn’t find it in himself to be surprised to see every single one of Atlantis’ latent population gathered on the stairs above him. “Thank you.”

“I would like to see this. We had our own combat traditions on Sateda,” Tyre said. “If nothing else, it will pass the time.”

“If you decide to get more energetic than this level can handle, please go down to the Gateroom floor. You can’t break anything down there,” Kusanagi directed. She settled into one of the chairs at the command station and pulled out a laptop. “McKay had better have a good reason for this.”

“I’m sure he does,” John said. He stood up and moved down the stairs until he was on the main floor of the Gateroom. “Might as well go through the full set of katas, Teyla. I’m not going to be able to sleep tonight.”

“As you say, John,” she agreed. She took her ready stance next to him and started the first movement.

John followed her lead and tried to let his mind go blank.

Hours later, he surfaced from his determined meditative state when Kusanagi called his name. “Major Sheppard, they are landing in the hanger bay. You may want to go up there.”

“Gotcha,” John rasped. He pushed himself up and headed for the bay where the jumpers were stored at a trot. The jumper Rodney had taken was landing as he entered the room. He managed to hold onto the last shreds of his patience as the ship was shut down before he pushed it to open up.

Ignoring the smell that rolled out, John looked up at Rodney. His Guide seemed to be in good physical shape, but that meant nothing. “Rodney?” Rodney walked down the hatch and into his arms. John wrapped himself around his Guide and held on tight. “Hey.”

“I’m sorry I freaked you out,” Rodney said softly. He was holding on as tightly as John was and shaking slightly. “But yeah, it wasn’t great.”

“What happened?”

“A Wraith ship showed up just after we got the satellite repaired and closed up. We hadn’t turned anything on, so it still read as dead, and our jumper was cloaked. We had to sit there while they did something and then they left. Worst thirty minutes of my life,” Rodney muttered. “It was a small, scouting ship. No queen, so I think we’re good. When it left, we turned the satellite on and headed back.”

“Son of a bitch,” John breathed softly.

“Yeah,” Rodney said with a nod against his neck. “I need sleep. I’ve been up since we left and I can’t maintain any longer.”

John glanced at Markham and raised an eyebrow at the man. When Markham nodded back at him, he blew out a slow breath. “Okay, Markham has the watch. Bates will take it up after him. We’ll get some sleep and then meet up to discuss what happened.”

“We’ll finish our reports while you two sleep,” Grodin said, waving a hand at Kavanagh. “Rodney made sure that we got sleep while we were on our way out to the satellite and on the trip back. I wrote most of my report while I was awake, but it needs going over to make sure I’ve got it all there.”

“Same,” Kavanagh grunted. He glared at Rodney and John tried not to bristle at the look.

“Stop it,” Rodney said, poking him in the side.

“He’s glaring at you,” John protested softly.

“If he wasn’t, I’d be checking that jumper for a pod,” Rodney said before he took a step back out of John’s arms. Turning to his subordinates, he glanced at his watch. “Go shower, eat something, finish your reports, and meet us in the main conference room in eight hours.”

John held his peace as their pride broke up. He had eight hours to make sure that his Guide was as well as he could get him. It didn’t feel like enough time. “Let’s get you to bed, Guide. We have some power bars in our room.”

“Sounds like heaven,” Rodney agreed.

 

Chapter Nine

“We’ve gotten our planetary MRI into orbit, sir,” Jack reported.

“That sounds good. How soon can it start scanning?” Hayes asked.

“It’s already started,” Jack said. He glanced down at the tablet in his hand and nodded as he got an update. “We used our facility as the starting point since we know what’s there and can confirm if everything is calibrated right.”

Hayes leaned forward and raised an eyebrow at him. “And?”

“And it’s reading everything correctly, sir,” Jack confirmed. He tapped the tablet once to set up an alert. “If anything interesting is found, I’ll be alerted. In the meantime, I wanted to update you on the status of the ships.”

“Okay,” Hayes said. He sat back in his chair and waved a hand for Jack to continue. “Please tell me you have some good news.”

“I do,” Jack said. “Both ships are airtight at this time and have passed all the tests for spaceworthiness. The crews have done about as much sim work as we can manage to allow them to know what to do in any given situation, so they should be able to handle the reality pretty well. We’ve started loading everything we will need for the trip to Pegasus in them, this morning at 8 am. Most of the supplies have been in place for the last two weeks and we’ve got a plan to load the ships up. Current ETA is 36 hours to get everything on.”

“That’s fast. That’s very fast,” Rampart said with a frown. “How are you doing that?”

“We’ve got all the supplies staged in units like they will be on the ships themselves,” Jack explained. He waved his hands as he tried to explain what he was talking about. “One of the things that we got from our allies was a transporter. We can easily move bulk cargo into place.”

“That sounds useful,” Rampart mused. He frowned as he stared at Jack. “What’s the catch?”

“Aside from it being a power hog?” Jack asked. At Rampart’s nod, he gestured towards the tablet in his lap. “We can prep the supplies as best we can, but there’s no certainty that everything will be placed exactly as needed. But that’s also a function of experience and our techs are getting more and more of it with every hour. In the meantime, the major problem for this whole enterprise is that we need power. The power sources we use to run the transporter arrays we have will not work for our ships. They can run some things, like life support, and the gravity generators, but they will not run the engines at the levels needed to get the ships to Atlantis in time.”

“Do we have any leads on power sources that would let us get the ships out to Atlantis in time?” Hayes asked.

“And why is this the first we’ve heard of this?” Rampart demanded.

“It’s not the first time we’ve mentioned our power issues,” Jack said evenly. “We told the president about them when we let him know that we would be working to get our ships out to Atlantis. We’ve got a request in with the Asgard to see if they can assist, but we’re not counting on that. We do have two ZPMs here on Earth, but only one is usable, and that’s plugged into the Antarctic facility. We can’t remove that without removing our ability to scan our system and defend it. The second has a coating on it that is designed to blow up if it’s plugged in. Since we all rather like this planet, we’re not doing that. And no, washing it doesn’t clean it off.”

Rampart huffed once and then nodded his head in acknowledgment of Jack’s points. “So, this planetary MRI is designed to do what? Check the planet for unknown power sources?”

“Yes.” Jack pulled the tablet up when it beeped at him. “First anomaly is an underwater something in the Pacific.”

“Are there any clues to what it could be?” Hayes asked.

“It’s faint, and my team is looking to see if they can ID it from the power profile,” Jack admitted. He cocked his head to the side as he tried to think about what it might be. Tapping a question into the chat program everyone was using was the work of only moments. “No information yet, but they will inform me if they get any information. In the meantime, we know that at least three different alien civilizations have visited Earth and we have no idea what they left behind. Power sources are valuable.”

“Who are the groups and what are the chances they left anything behind?” Rampart asked. He had a tablet out and was taking notes.

“The first group here on Earth would be the Ancients. They came to the planet several million years ago and settled on Antarctica with the city ship, Atlantis. They were there for a long time,” Jack said. He shrugged once when Hayes and Rampart stared at him. “I know, it’s so weird that they were here then, but they left for a few million years before coming back to die out roughly ten thousand years ago. The Asgard and the Goa’uld came here within the last ten thousand years or so. The best guess of our experts is that the Goa’uld missed meeting the Ancients by a few centuries. We’ve got experience with all three cultures tech, so if we find usable power sources, we should be able to adapt it as needed.”

“How long would it take a ship, using our own engines and power sources, to get from here to Atlantis, if they left now?” Hayes asked.

“Three weeks,” Jack answered. He tapped his fingers gently on the housing of the tablet. “We’re prepping both ships with stuff for the expedition, but honestly, it’s Daedalus that’s going to be the one we throw any power source onto so she can head out as fast as possible. Prometheus can go at a normal speed as needed.”

“Can we afford three weeks?” Hayes asked.

“I doubt it,” Jack said after several seconds of thought. “But we currently don’t have much of a choice. We’ve gotten both ships done ahead of time, so that’s helpful. The supplies we’re loading on the ships are divided out so the most 911 level of supplies are on Daedalus with everything else on Prometheus.”

“Sounds smart,” Rampart said. “I’m guessing that most of the additional troops they asked for will be on the first ship?”

“Yes,” Jack said. The tablet in his hand flashed and he glanced down at it. The chatroom had confirmed that the power source in the Pacific was the remnants of Thor’s ship from the Replicator event. Carter was thrilled to know where the damn wreck was and the plan was to beam it up when they had their ships back from Pegasus. “Okay, the first anomaly has been identified as the remnants of Thor’s ship that crashed landed. We will try to recover anything we can, but I’m fairly certain that the Asgard took all the best bits.”

“Well, hopefully, whatever they get up proves useful,” Hayes muttered. “Where is it aimed at now?”

“It’s moving west across the globe and is crossing parts of Asia right now,” Jack said. He frowned at the projected path of the scanner and typed out a suggestion. “I think we need to hit Egypt, Britain, and also Antarctica. Those are all places where we know the Ancients have been.”

“Here’s to hoping,” Rampart said softly. “I know you said that the Ancients were here ten thousand years ago. What makes you think anything will be left?”

“Because we’ve got an outpost down in Antarctica that’s several million years old and it works just fine,” Jack said. He smirked when both men goggled at him. “Yeah, the Outpost is older than humanity.”

“For fucks sake,” Hayes hissed. “Keep me posted.”

“Yes, sir,” Jack said. He stood up and saluted Hayes before heading out. Rampart fell into place next to him and he was grateful that the man was holding his peace, no one else in the White House needed to know what had happened in the Oval Office. He checked the time and grimaced. “Lunch?”

“Are you offering me lunch or what?” Rampart asked.

“I’m offering,” Jack said.

Rampart nodded once. “Okay. I take it we’ll be having it in your offices?”

“Yeah,” Jack confirmed. He pulled one of the small comms they’d supplied the Atlantis mission with and tucked it into his ear. “O’Neill to Davis.”

“Sir?”

“I need to be picked up, I’ve got Rampart with me and we need lunch.”

“Yes, sir. Your car is standing by, I’ll update everyone here in the office that the general will be in and lunch has already been ordered,” Davis said promptly.

“Good. Traffic willing, we’ll be in the office soon,” Jack said. He toggled the comm off and glanced at Rampart. “Lunch has been ordered. I have no idea what we’re having.”

“As long as it doesn’t come out of the Pentagon’s mess, I’m happy to eat just about anything,” Rampart said with a smile.

Jack nodded once. “Sounds good and we can discuss everything when we get in.”

The trip back to the Pentagon was fairly quiet. Jack made sure to check the tablet every time it pinged, but there were only minor hits that were easily identified as coming from terrestrial sources. Jack had a feeling that they wouldn’t find anything of importance until they got to Egypt, but it was interesting to see what was going on, on his planet.

“Okay people, where are we in the loading process?” Jack asked as he walked into Homeworld and handed the tablet off to Jensen.

“We’re at 35% and rising,” Davis said promptly. “Caldwell reports that the ship is handling well with the additional weight and the transporters are working without a hitch.”

“Good,” Jack said. He glanced around for his Guide and raised an eyebrow at Jensen. “Where’s Daniel?”

“He’s with Tony monitoring the scanner,” Jensen said, waving his hand toward the main conference room. “We’re going to have lunch in there.”

“Sounds good. Come on, Rampart,” Jack said. He headed towards his Guide and felt something settle in him when he saw Daniel. “Hey, Danny. I brought a guest.”

Daniel looked up and nodded at Rampart. “Good thing we got a lot of food then.”

“Yup,” Jack said. He slid into a chair at the table and pulled one of the laptops lining the center towards him. “How’s Lorne doing getting the F302s onboard the Daedalus?”

“They all fit in their bays, the pilots are in place and Lorne is supervising the troops so they don’t drive Caldwell crazy,” Daniel reported.

“Better him than any of us,” Jack said softly. He signed into the laptop and pulled up the scanner program. “When will Jensen and Alvarez be heading up?”

“Once the scanner is finished, General,” Jensen called. He walked into the conference room with bags of Mexican food and started unloading them. “We’re staying put in case you need us.”

“Thank you, Jensen,” Jack said. He pulled one of the bowls over and popped the lid off. “Yum. Too bad there’s no beers or margaritas.”

“Jack!”

 

 

“We’re coming up on the Middle East,” Jensen called.

Jack looked up from his computer and glanced at Daniel. They were in his office working on the never-ending paper chase and had left the monitoring of the scanner to Tony and Jensen. Rampart had set up shop in a corner of the conference room and was reading something on his own laptop. Reports had been coming in for several hours detailing the successful loading of the ships. They were currently at 85% complete and had started moving in the remainder of the troops.

To say that Jack was proud of his people was an understatement. They had managed the impossible and done it with style. Even Cooper and her crew had managed to get everything on board both ships with a minimum of fuss and bother. While Daedalus was packed to the gunnels with essential supplies, they hadn’t forgotten food and everything that went with it. He had no idea if Sheppard would thank him or not for sending him the biggest nanny guide in the universe, but the man would certainly enjoy her food.

“Any bets on what’s going to be found?” Jack asked. He stood up and headed for the door, making sure to catch Daniel’s hand on his way past.

“Given how long humanity has been living in the Fertile Crescent and the Middle East? I’d be very surprised if we don’t find all sorts of little things,” Daniel said quietly. “The Goa’uld have proven to be careless with tech when they think they are indestructible. And they were here for a long time.”

“True,” Jack said. He stepped into the conference room and glanced around it. “So, what are the highlights?”

“We now know way more than we should about the energy capabilities of a whole bunch of nations,” Tony said bluntly. “And yes, I’m going to be turning the information over to SecDef because one of the reactors we scanned is leaking worse than a sieve and it needs to be dealt with before we have a whole new Three Mile Island or Chernobyl.”

“Fuck a duck,” Jack growled. “Yeah, I’m not dealing with that on this planet. I’ve already dealt with it on others. Anything else?”

“China has some interesting hotspots that seem to be ancient, but not Ancient,” Tony said, using air quotes for emphasis. “One of them seems to be buried under the Forbidden City, and a second seems to be buried in a set of sacred mountains. Google searches of the second shows that there have been tombs found in the area, so your guess is as good as mine as to what that might be.”

“Do we have any idea when the last time Yu came back to Earth was?” Jack asked, turning to Daniel. “Or where, exactly, his territory was located in China?”

“No,” Daniel admitted. “He kept everything pretty close to his vest and his lo’taur and First Prime did a lot of covering for him towards the end. We never really got a chance to slip anyone in to get an actual history of his dominion and we haven’t found a ship we can confirm was his to get the databases. All we’ve got is myth and rumor.”

“That has to burn,” Tony said. “Google states that the Forbidden City was built in the fifteenth century. Could it have been built on the site of an older settlement?”

“That’s normally what happens, honestly. Especially given the time period,” Daniel said. He stared at the ceiling before shrugging. “China and the Far East are not my areas, so I’m going to say ‘I don’t know’ and leave it at that.”

Tony nodded. “Okay, well, we have notes on the whole thing, so you two can check up on it. But Sam and her group of geeks were very interested in what was found.”

“I bet they were,” Jack muttered. “Where are we?”

“We’ve crossed the ‘stans,” Jensen said. He clicked something on his computer and the large flatscreen built into the wall lit up with the livestream from the scanner. “We’re heading into Iraq right now.”

Daniel leaned forward and then huffed before moving to sit right in front of the screen. “Something tells me that we’re going to see a fair amount of modern power supplies and very few large, old power sources. I do think we’ll find a lot of small items if there’s anything left.”

“Why?” Jensen asked. “That’s the Fertile Cresent and from my, admittedly quick reading, humans have been living there for thousands of years.”

“And that’s exactly why,” Daniel explained. “Anything buried has to be somewhere it’s not likely to be disturbed. Lots of the tombs of antiquity were scavenged within months of being sealed. So, I expect to see some little tech items scattered around, but anything big? Either got used, or destroyed.”

“So what? You’re hoping that some Ancient asshole stuffed something, somewhere on the planet and that it’s still there to be found?” Tony asked carefully.

“Honestly, I’m not sure if an Ancient would do it,” Jack said with a shrug. “Most of the ones we’ve met have been bigger assholes than Kinsey.”

“I didn’t think that was possible,” Tony muttered. “Iraq is a wash for anything on the weird meter, apparently. We’ve got masses of the usual suspects and a few on the ‘wtf’ scale, but none that fit the requirements listed.”

The room was silent as the scanner moved across Jordan, Israel, and parts of Saudi Arabia. There were small blips, but none of them looked right. Everyone perked up as the scanner hit Egypt. From the excited chatter that was coming over the speakers from the SGC, Carter’s team had found something interesting.

Then there was nothing for several minutes and everyone seemed to be holding their breath. Just as they were about to leave the modern border of Egypt, there was a hit. A massive one. “Where is that?” Jack asked.

“It’s in the Al Wadi Al Gadid Desert, right on the border with Libya. Thankfully on the Egyptian side,” Carter reported. “And it looks like at least one ZPM from the way it’s lighting everything up.”

“Okay, we’re going down. Have Prometheus put their loading on hold and pick up the archelogy team we assigned to this, and they can pick up us as they pass by,” Jack ordered. He stared at the power spike for several seconds before turning back to Tony and Jensen. “Where are your Sentinels?”

“At the range, making a large number of Feebs feel inadequate,” Tony said with a mean smile. “Ian’s having a great deal of fun.”

“So is Cougar, sir,” Jensen said. “I’m going to guess you want them along for security?”

“Yes.”

 

 

“So, we’re not telling the Egyptian government that we’re here?” Tony asked Jack.

“No,” Jack said shortly. He was staring at a spot in the sand intently. Something was teasing the back of his mind and he was sure it was Ancient. “You did get tested to see if you have the ATA gene, right?”

“Yup. Got it in spades. About 0.5% higher than you,” Tony confirmed. “Let me guess… The spot in the sand that screaming at me is screaming at you?”

“It is,” Jack agreed. “I had no idea that the Ancients even came here. The last place we knew where they were was Northern England, not here.”

“Really?” Tony asked. He glanced at Jack once before turning back to the spot in the sand. “It’s like it’s asking me if it can come up. Why is it asking that? And do I tell it yes?”

“Yes. Whatever it is, has to be buried in the sand,” Jack said. He tapped his comm and connected with Prometheus. “Colonel Ronson, what do your ship’s scanners read?”

“Sand sir,” Ronson reported. “Lots and lots of sand. To a depth of at least thirty meters. Bedrock in the area is part of the African Shield, which I’ve been informed is Precambrian in origin and there are no reports of anything else out there by you.”

“So, your scanners aren’t picking up anything about ten meters in front of me?” Jack asked.

“No sir, nothing is showing on our scanners,” Ronson said. “Should they be picking anything up?”

Jack eyed the sand in front of them and slanted a speaking glance at his guide and Tony. “Well, the sand looks like it’s boiling, Colonel. I’d say something is happening.”

“Jack, something is coming up. The sand is moving like something is coming up from below,” Daniel called. He had moved over to one of the bits of rock that peppered the landscape around the coordinates that they had arrived at and was staring at their site.

“Will the moving sand swamp us?” Jack asked. He was backing up slightly and herded Tony before him. He wanted to get some stone under his feet before whatever was coming up broke the surface of the sand.

“I don’t think so,” Daniel said. He cocked his head to the side as he watched the sand move. “I’d say whatever is coming up is only a few meters below the surface now.”

“Any guesses?” Tony asked. He climbed up onto the rocks and moved across them to stand beside Daniel.

“Well, Egypt is the land of the pyramid,” Jack suggested. “I’m going to vote for a very small pyramid. Or a very pissed-off mummy.”

“While it’s dry enough for a mummy, I highly doubt we have a reanimated one. Also, we are hell and gone away from the Nile, Jack,” Daniel said, amused. “Pyramids are no more likely out here than any other shape. I’m going to go with a squarish shape.”

“A cube or something like a hut?” Tony asked. He stared down at the sand and wrinkled his nose. “I’m going to guess that it’s some kind of craft because you’ve told me how insane the Ancients were.”

Jack tilted his head as Edgerton weighed in. “Tony, your Sentinel is on my side, and says a pyramid. Alvarez is declining to vote.”

“I’m going to add my vote to Tony’s!” Jensen called. He was sitting tailor-fashion on a rock with an SGC laptop open and a number of sensors deployed around him. “I’m not getting anything on the sensors I’ve got down here either.”

“I wonder if we would need our sensors to be Ancient tech to be able to see what’s going on,” Jack mused. He eyed the sands and reached out mentally to try to connect with whatever was moving up. All he got back was a sense of eager anticipation. “Whatever is coming up, it’s very eager.”

“How can tech be eager?” Tony asked. He sounded slightly weirded out and Jack suppressed a snort of amusement at his confusion. Daniel flashed him a smirk as Tony frowned and crossed his arms. “Stop being amused at me, Jack.”

“Not going to happen, Tony,” Jack said in a singsong tone. He pushed his sense of touch out to try to get a read on what was happening. “Whatever it is, it’s only about a meter down.”

“Do you think whatever it is, is dangerous?” Daniel asked. He shifted slightly to mirror Tony and stared at the sand.

“No, it’s not,” Jack said as Tony echoed him. Everyone fell quiet as the sand heaved and bubbled before it smoothed out and the Ancient structure broke the surface. “I was not expecting that.”

The sand had disgorged a small, cylindrical craft that had a slanted front, with a windshield showing an empty cockpit. Jack picked his way down the rocks to check to see if he could get in. “Carter, any ideas on what this is?”

“I think it’s a Puddle Jumper, sir,” Carter said after several seconds of silence. She was on the Prometheus with Ronson and had been monitoring the situation with Egypt to make sure that no one tried to sneak up on them. “Sheppard included pictures of them with his reports.”

Jack studied the little ship and nodded. “Okay, I can see it. Did he leave any hints on how to get into the damn thing?”

“It’s controlled by the ATA gene, sir. You or Tony should be able to get it to open up. There’s a hatch in the back that drops open to form a ramp,” Carter reported promptly. She sounded like she was slightly distracted and Jack could hear the sounds of something being played back through her mic. “Okay, just played the brief video he included. There’s a cargo area in the back and the front section has a control yoke and a DHD.”

“Interesting. I wonder how old this one is?” Jack asked. “Never mind, it’s not germane. I’m going to stand to the side and open it.”

“Be careful, Jack. That thing’s been closed up for a very long time and we’ve got no idea what the atmosphere in there is like,” Daniel warned.

“He’s right, sir. Sheppard confirmed that the puddle jumpers on Atlantis are space capable, so it’s at least airtight,” Carter chimed in. “And despite it making its way to the surface, we don’t know the ship’s power situation.”

Jack hummed softly and prodded the ship to see if it would respond to him. It eagerly pushed back and dropped the back door when he requested it. The air that rolled out seems a bit stale, but not stagnant. “Edgerton, you’ve got eyes on the front of this thing, right?”

“Yes, sir. There’s a straight line of sight through the windshield,” Edgerton murmured. “I’m not seeing anything that looks like a person in there.”

“Alvarez? What do you see?”

“I’ve got the line of sight off the rear, sir. And I can see straight through to the front, no humans, but there is a box in the middle of the cargo space,” Alvarez reported.

“Okay, I’m going in,” Jack announced. He walked up the ramp and ducked into the cargo area of the jumper. Stretching his senses out, he tried to get a read on the insides of the ship. “I’m not sensing anything in the ship. Just Ancient tech that’s shutting itself down.”

“Don’t ask it to turn itself on then, sir,” Carter cautioned.

“Roger that, Colonel,” Jack said He walked forward to stare down at the crate in the middle of the cargo area. It looked like it was made of the same material as the little ship it was sitting in. “I’m going to open this.”

His radio was silent as he knelt and pulled the top of the crate off. It opened without issue and he stared down at the contents in shock. “Holy shit.”

“Jack? What’s got you so shocked?” Daniel demanded. Jack could hear him coming down from his perch on the rocks and jogging towards the back hatch. “Jack!”

“The best thing we could ask for,” Jack said. He pulled the three ZPMs out of the crate and stared at them. “Carter, Ronson, as soon as we get this thing checked out, we’re going to fly it back to the SGC. In the meantime, I want you to get back to Area 51 and restart the supply loading process. Carter, I need you to get your lab ready to check out some power sources to make sure they are safe to use and then we’re going to open the Stargate.”

“Sir?” The hope that screamed through Carter’s voice was matched by everyone else as they started to talk.

Daniel walked up beside him and stared at them. “Oh, my god.”

“Looks like someone planned ahead,” Jack said quietly. “And that means we can send the calvary in.”

 

 

Chapter Ten

“Major Sheppard!”

John stopped his jog and toggled his comm. “What’s up, Chuck?”

“Sir, we have an incoming wormhole. Initial three chevrons point to it coming from Earth,” Chuck reported.

“What? I thought Earth didn’t have the power to send us anything without browning out the continental US?” John asked confused. He turned on his heel and headed for the last transporter he’d seen. Thankfully it was only a few hundred yards behind him. Sliding into the small room, he quickly tapped the Gateroom symbol and tried not to urge the city to hurry up.

Exiting the transporter, John hurried into the Gateroom in time to see the stargate flush itself open against the shield. There was a beat of silence and then the comm chirped. “Answer it, Chuck.”

“Yes, sir!” Chuck called. “This is Atlantis.”

“Atlantis, this is General Jack O’Neill of Stargate Command.”

John raised his hand and pointed at his comm when he heard that. Chuck nodded one and John could hear the active carrier wave of an open transmission in his ear. “General O’Neill, this is Major John Sheppard. It’s great to hear from you.”

“Same here, Major. We’ve got some people who need to come through to augment your troops and they will be coming with supplies. You’re going to want to make sure you have enough room to receive them.”

The relief that moved through him was staggering and John could feel his body sag for a moment before he straightened up. “Understood, General. How many are coming through and how much?”

“You’ve got a Marine Platoon heading your way, along with an Air Force officer, and two bonus troops. We’re sending your 911 supply list through along with enough food for everyone for a month. That should cover things because we’ve got two ships that are almost ready to head your way. We just need your authorization to start moving everyone and everything through.”

“Chuck, drop the shield,” John ordered. He waited a moment while the shield fell and then cleared his throat. “General O’Neill, our gate is clear for travel. How are you doing this? The last we knew, there wasn’t enough power on Earth to activate the gate without browning out the continental US.”

“Lots of luck and an Ancient who was actually worth something,” General O’Neill said bluntly. “We found three ZPMs here on Earth that are good to go. Currently, one is being used to power this, and one is in a ship already on its way out to you and the third is on its way to Antarctica to guard the planet. Once you’ve gotten your troops and supplies, this ZPM will be placed on the second ship to boost it on its way out to you. You’ll get them the two on the ships when they reach you. Use them wisely.”

“Yes, sir,” John said with a savage grin. Power meant that they could use Atlantis to her fullest extent.

The first of the new troops walked through the gate at that point and John started directing them to the back of the Gateroom before Bates arrived and kicked him up to the command deck. Rodney was already in place, staring at a laptop. “What have you got?”

“O’Neill’s sent us a data packet,” Rodney explained. “I sent our latest reports for them as well. On their side, it seems like all sorts of interesting things have been happening on Earth since we left. We’ve also got the records for everyone that’s coming in now and are expected on the ships.”

“That sounds good,” John said. He let his senses stretch out to take a read of the fifty people that had come through the gate. “We’ve got three Sentinels in that mess. One active and two latent.”

“And a guide,” Rodney agreed. “One of the Sentinels is bonded to the Guide.”

“Right,” John said. He tapped his comm to get back on the main channel. “General O’Neill, everyone is through successfully.”

“Great news, Sheppard,” O’Neill said. “Now. We’ve got your 911 supplies staged here and we’re ready to start sending it through until we hit the 38-minute mark. Have you got the room?”

John glanced down at Bates and raised an eyebrow at him. When Bates gave him a thumbs up, John nodded. “We’re good to go, sir. Start sending things through.”

“Supplies will be coming through in five…four…three…two…one,” O’Neill said as a large crate slid out of the wormhole. “Let your people know we’ve got the updated reports.”

Bates started barking out orders to the Marines to move the crate towards the hallways where other expedition members took over the transport duties. The next crate came through quickly and then settled into a pace of roughly one crate every ten seconds. It was fast, but Bates and the new Marines were able to keep up.

John kept an eye on the crates and breathed a small sigh as the crates changed into ammunition crates. “General O’Neill, we’re getting the ammunition. I’m going to guess that the first batches of crates were the personal belongings of our new members?”

“You got it, Sheppard,” O’Neill confirmed. “Ammunition, surface-to-air missiles, a few nukes, some food. You know. The works.”

The new surge of relief that hit was just as staggering as the first and John slumped slightly as he dealt with the emotion. “Thank you, sir. That’s great news. What is the timeline on the ships?”

“Hold one sec while I get you that,” O’Neill said. He left his mic live as he spoke to someone at the SGC and the sound of Earth was comforting. John didn’t try to extend his hearing out to hear what was actually being said when he had plenty of stuff going on around him. He kept a weather eye on Bates and the sheer volume of supplies. Since there didn’t seem to be any building up around the edges of the room, someone had to move the various crates to their designated storage rooms.

Extending his hearing, he heard his Marines bucket-chaining the crates down the hallways. “Sir, you can keep sending us supplies, we’ve got the room.”

“Good. We’ve got a lot. The two ships we’re sending are heading out in a staggered timeline. Daedalus has already left, and as soon as we’re finished sending you everything, Prometheus will follow. She’ll also pick up any supplies we aren’t able to shove through,” O’Neill said. “ETA on the ships is four days. Will that work for you?”

John glanced at Aiden and when he nodded, he smiled. “Yes, sir. That’s great.”

“We all wish we could make it faster, Sheppard, but four days is as fast as our ships can go and not shake apart,” O’Neill said dryly. “You’ve got a lot more troops coming out, along with a whole batch of support troops. We’ve also added to your supply lists, so you’re going to get everything you need and then some.”

“Thank you, sir,” John said. He took a deep breath and tried to let the worry that had been dogging his every waking moment go. “Can you tell me about the new members of my Pride that just came through?”

“You asked for two of them,” O’Neill said promptly. “Alvarez and Jensen would be the bonded pair and Jensen will be able to give you the latest and greatest on what’s been going on over here. Both are fully trained, so are the two latents I sent out. The first of the latent sentinels is Major Evan Lorne. He’ll be acting as your XO. I know your report said that Ford is doing the job and we’re all thrilled that he is, but you need a major in place due to the spread of ranks you’re getting. The last latent sentinel is Lt. Laura Cadman. She’s an explosive specialist and she’s the one that packed up your more interesting booms.”

As O’Neill mentioned each of his new sentinels, they sounded off, so John was able to identify each of them. It was helpful and allowed him to figure out where they were in the room. “Thank you, sir. It’s good to know we’ve got some backup out here.”

“Sheppard, you were never alone. I promised you all when you stepped through that we would head out to you within a year and we did our best to keep that promise,” O’Neill reminded.

“Sir, we knew you wouldn’t leave us out here. Our main goal has always been to stay alive to report,” John said bluntly. “You did your part and then some. Thank you.”

“You’re welcome, Sheppard. Now. The last official piece of business will take place as soon as the last crate goes through. Should be about five minutes. Please get everyone in the expedition up to the gate room,” O’Neill directed.

“Yes, sir,” John said. He was confused, but orders were orders and this wasn’t the weirdest he’d ever had. He slanted a quick look at Chuck and smiled at the gate tech’s nod.

The carrier wave fell silent and John walked over to the handrail to look over at the main floor of the gate room. All the Marines were working quickly, pushing the crates towards the exits. “How’s it going, Bates?” he called.

“Everything’s going smoothly, sir. We’re keeping up and our new friends are pretty great,” Bates said with a grunt. “We just got a green banded crate through.”

“Right.” John tapped his comm to sign back into the conversation with the SGC. “General O’Neill, we’ve got a green banded crate?”

“Great. You’ve got ten more crates on this side and then we’ll be done. Have you gotten everyone together?” O’Neill asked.

“We’re all gathered, sir,” John confirmed. He looked to both sides and saw his people gathered all along the balcony.

“Right. We’ve just sent the last crate through,” O’Neill announced.

John could hear the sound of the crate arriving on their side. “We’ve got it.”

“Okay, then! Lorne!”

“Sir!” One of the soldiers who had come through called out and came trotting up the stairs. “I’m in front of Major Sheppard, sir.”

“Perfect. Chuck, make sure I’m on speaker,” O’Neill said and waited for a beat as Chuck switched the speakers on. “Major Sheppard, though I am not able to present this in person, I wanted to let you know the following: In view of these special qualities and his demonstrated potential to serve in the higher grade, Major John Sheppard is promoted to the permanent grade of Lt. Colonel, United States Air Force, effective on today’s date, by order of the Secretary of Defense.”

John could feel his jaw drop slightly as Lorne held out a hand with a set of silver oak leaves resting on them. “Sir, I…”

“Take the insignia, Sheppard. You earned that promotion,” O’Neill urged as an alarm rang in his background. “That’s the thirty-seven minute warning.”

“Yes, sir,” John said. He took the insignia off Lorne’s hand and held them tight. “Thank you. I wasn’t expecting this, but thank you. I appreciate your trust in me.”

“You’ll see our ships in four days, Sheppard. Stay alive,” O’Neill instructed before the wormhole closed down.

“I did not see that coming,” Rodney said as he walked up behind him.

“General O’Neill wanted to let you know that this was taken up to the highest levels and while SecDef is the one who signed off on your promotion, the President is the one who approved it, sir,” Lorne said.

“Holy crap,” John breathed before he took a deep breath. “Okay. Let me get these on a uniform and then we’ll hold a meeting so we can figure out what our next steps are.”

“Uhm…,” Lorne trailed off and then froze in place as he stared over John’s shoulder. “Oh, shit.”

John extended his senses and recognized the person behind him. “Parrish? Has anything changed for you in the last forty minutes?”

“Pretty sure I’m coming online, colonel,” Parrish said softly. “And I think the major is my sentinel.”

“Same here,” Lorne agreed.

“Well, this is going to be interesting,” Rodney said. His head snapped to the side and he exhaled sharply. “And we have our second pair.”

“Grodin and who?” John asked.

“That would be Cadman,” Lorne said. “We knew this was a possibility, but neither of us expected that our guides were latent as well. The general did make sure that we were ready for anything though.”

“Damn, I’m glad that both of them have training,” Rodney muttered. He took a deep breath and stared at the gate. “Where’s our other pair?”

“Over here, Dr. McKay!”

Rodney turned towards the voice and nodded. “I take it you’re Jensen?”

“I am, doc,” Jensen said with a small bounce. “What can I do for you?”

“I have five guides coming online, one of whom is a child. I need help in making sure they are fully trained because I know that each of them will be bonding soon,” Rodney said bluntly. He raised an eyebrow at the shocked look Jensen gave him. “Yeah, surprise.”

Jensen nodded once. “Right. Something to look forward to.”

“As much as this is a thing, we need to get updated on what General O’Neill has been doing and what that will mean for us,” John said. He waved his hand towards the conference room on the upper level.

“We have a lot of news,” Lorne said. He gave Parrish a long look before turning back to stare at John. “After you, sir.”

John sighed once before heading for the conference room. “Let’s get this started then.”

 

 

“Okay, Major,” John said after they sat down at the table. “Lay it all out for us.”

“Yes, sir,” Lorne said. He had his laptop open and he folded his hand in front of the keyboard. “General O’Neill has been working on getting you all the supplies and personnel that you requested since you reached out. There have been some changes on the SGC side, but those items can wait until things aren’t so insane. But one item that is of importance: Weir has been put in a nice jail cell until her trial. She’s not going to be seeing the light of day for a long time.”

Rodney could feel the relief that spread through the expedition members as they digested that news. It had been a low-key worry of his that Weir would figure out some way to wriggle out of the charges they had sent back with her. The relief of knowing that O’Neill and Daniel were going to make sure she got what was coming to her was immense. “That’s very good news. And we’ll make sure the expedition knows it. Thank you.”

“You’re welcome, Dr. McKay,” Lorne said with a smile. “Next up: We’re the first wave of your relief. We have over a hundred more troops coming on the ships, along with most of the scientists that you requested. Both ships are packed to the gunnels with supplies, as the general said. The plan is to have the Prometheus give you her ZPM and if nothing is hot, she’ll head home as soon as she unloads all her supplies and people. Daedalus will stay overhead until the all-clear is given and then she’ll be our link to Earth. She’ll keep her ZPM, in case she needs the boost, but if needs be, she can add hers to the city.”

“Okay, we can do a lot with more power,” Rodney mused. “Two functional ZPMs with the partial one we have could unlock enough of the city that we can get her back in shape. And we might be able to get the star drive back so we can move with that level of power.”

“Is that feasible?” John asked. Rodney could feel that he was intrigued and hopeful.

Rodney shrugged once. “With two fully charged ZPMs, we should be able to get enough power to it to allow us to actually use it. Right now, the city just flashes low-power warnings at us every time we get near it. Alternately if there are any issues with it, she might be able to use the power increase to enable her own repair functions to get it back online.”

“Either way, we could get the star drive back and that would mean that Atlantis is mobile,” John said. He sat back in his chair and stared out into space. “If we could get her to build some more drones, we could take the battle to the Wraith… But not what’s currently in front of us,” he said after shaking his head. “What else have you got for us, Major?”

“General O’Neill authorized a squadron of F-302s as well as everything else you asked for. They will be coming out with the Daedalus and will be stationed out here,” Lorne stated. He smiled, slow and mean. “Every single pilot has over 500 hours in their crafts and we have an extra, just for you, sir.”

“Well, that’s good news,” John said. He smirked as he tapped the table in front of him. “I look forward to flying them.”

Lorne nodded once. “They’re great craft to fly, sir. Now. Can we know what we’ve stepped into?”

“Oh, war,” John said after several seconds. “We’ve got at least three Wraith Hive Ships heading this way with all of their associated sub-ships. That means each Hive ship has three cruisers, and then they have a small craft known as darts. We don’t have an average number of those, but they have a lot. I think it depends on how many of the command-class males a queen has.”

“We figured. Would there be any way for us to go on a raid or two?” Lorne asked.

Every sentinel, latent or otherwise, in the room perked up at that and turned to look at John. Who turned to look at Ford. “Lieutenant? Do we have any leads on where one of the Hives heading our way will be next?”

“We do sir,” Ford confirmed. “We have several.”

“Now that sounds promising,” John said.

“If you are going to go blow the shit out of the Wraith, you should do it from a jumper,” Rodney suggested before glancing at Teyla. “And make sure that you check to see if there are any more survivors on the ships. Take Ronon and Tyre as well. Teyla should stay here and make sure her people are settled into their quarters here in the city.”

He worried briefly that he’d overstepped, but when Teyla nodded her agreement, he relaxed. The safest place for everyone was in the city and it was making his skin crawl to leave anyone on the mainland. Besides, the crops would survive a few days or weeks of benign neglect.

“You don’t want to come, guide?” John asked.

Rodney could feel the anticipation building in his sentinel and he smiled. “No. I’m going to be working with Atlantis to make sure that she’s ready to get that second full ZedPM and see if she can start building some drones. Because you know that the Wraith are going to try to come here.”

“Do we know if the satellite you refurbished will be able to help?” John asked.

“Satellite, sir?” Lorne asked.

“We’ll fill you in on the full story later, but we’ve got an Ancient defense satellite out in the equivalent of Saturn’s orbit. It’s armed with some very nice weapons that just needed power to be useful. We managed to get it up and running a few days ago,” John reported. “It’s also got some decent passive sensors on it and is reporting on what’s happening in the outer system.”

“That’s good news,” Jensen muttered. “Dr. McKay, do you need me here to help with your research?”

“My understanding, Jensen, is that you’re just as much of a Green Beret as your sentinel,” Rodney said. When Jensen nodded, he smiled. “Then I expect that you’ll want to go with him if he’s tapped for this little jaunt. Maybe see if you can get a sample of the Wraith programming language so we can see if we can celebrate our Independence Day on them.”

“You hate that movie for all the wretchedly bad science and you want to take ideas from it?” John asked, shocked. “Why?”

“Because the Wraith are fucking insane movie bad guys and we might as well see if bad movie science can come to the rescue,” Rodney snapped. “I’m still going to be trying to get Atlantis to build us more weapons, but every single angle we can look at needs to be explored.”

“Couldn’t hurt,” Lorne agreed. “And hell, we might get lucky. Weirder things have happened.”

 

 

“Dr. McKay, we have a report from the satellite,” Grodin’s voice came over his comm as he was shoulder-deep in a console.

Rodney carefully pulled himself out of the ancient machine and tapped the control stud before he started winding his arm back in. “What’s the word, Peter?” His team was out with some of the special forces soldiers that Lorne had brought and his sense of John had muted due to the sheer distance between them. His ability to stay in contact with his sentinel had been growing over their months on Atlantis and had gotten a major boost when he’d gotten the ATA therapy.

“The word is that a Wraith cruiser just popped into place beside the satellite and it shot them to pieces,” Grodin reported. “The satellite is still in its orbit and reports at 92% power. I’ve told it to go on standby unless another cruiser or hive pops up around it and then it’s to fire on it, once targeting is confirmed.”

“Good call,” Rodney said. He grunted softly as the part he’d been reaching for came loose in his hand. “Okay. I’ve almost got the drone plant back online. Has Radek confirmed our supply situation?”

“Per the last report I got from him, Dr. McKay, he states that Atlantis states she’s got everything she needs to make more drones and will once you get the plant online,” Grodin confirmed.

“Great,” Rodney said. He sat down on the floor and pulled his toolbox over to him to check the part he had in his hand. Thankfully the only issue with the part was a small, burnt-out crystal and he had several spares. Slotting the crystal back into place, he got up, reversed his journey, and replaced the part. “Let him know I’ve put the last part back into place and will be packing up so we can have the cleaning protocol sanitize this area and then we’ll start up production.”

“Will do,” Grodin said. He held his silence for several seconds. Rodney used the pause to get his tools back in place and head for the door. Atlantis was doing her best to make sure she was ready for the battle ahead of them and he wasn’t going to stand in her way. “Rodney, we’ve got two more cruisers that have just popped in at the satellite.”

“Fucking hell,” Rodney growled as he broke into a trot for the nearest transporter. “I’m headed for the chair room. Hit the red alert, Peter. We need to get everyone in place.”

“We don’t know that they’re going to head our way,” Grodin muttered before the red alert siren blared through the city.

“We don’t know that they aren’t. And the Wraith know Atlantis is a going concern again. I have no idea what kept them from finding her when she was sunk, but we don’t have that option right now,” Rodney said. He slid into the small room and hit the symbol for the chair room. He didn’t have time to worry about Grodin getting the willies. “Buck up, Grodin. And get to your battle station.”

“Already on my way, Rodney,” Grodin confirmed. “Chuck has the watch and Bates has a squad of Marines stationed in the Gateroom.”

“Good,” Rodney said as he exited the transporter and jogged into the chair room. It was the work of only a moment to switch over to the same channel Chuck was on. “Chuck, what’s the ETA on our teams?”

“Colonel Sheppard said they would be four hours at his last check-in, Dr. McKay. It’s been three,” Chuck said promptly.

“Thank you,” Rodney said. He dropped his toolbox by the door and dropped down into the control chair. Atlantis bloomed in his mind and he started reviewing the reports she was generating for him. There was a running report detailing where everyone was going and who was at their battle station. He also had a countdown happening on the facility he had been working on to when it could start producing drones.

Sensors reported the status of the satellite and part of him was monitoring that. The rest of him was reaching for his bond with his sentinel. It was thin but supple and he wrapped his mental hand around it and tugged. He had no idea if John would feel his need, but he had hope. After all, his sentinel had felt him while on the trip to work on the satellite. There was a faint sense of surprise and he let the bond go as Atlantis flashed an alert.

The satellite’s steady reporting changed and Rodney moved his attention back to it. “Chuck, keep an eye on the gate, Sheppard may be coming in hot. Once our troops get back, put the shield up so we don’t get the wraith through that way.”

“Will do, Dr. McKay,” Chuck promised.

“Dr. McKay, how are you doing?” Bates cut into the line.

“I’m doing okay, Bates,” Rodney said. His attention was on the drone plant as the cleaning cycle was completed and it started making drones. “Our drone plant is making drones.”

“That’s good news, Doctor,” Bates said. “Do I need to have a medic head down to you?”

“I think you should,” Rodney said after several seconds. “We’re at a dozen drones and climbing.”

“Dr. McKay, we have an incoming wormhole,” Chuck announced.

Rodney checked the wormhole and sighed in relief. “It’s John.”

“Agreed,” Chuck said. “The wormhole is coming from Colonel Sheppard’s last location.”

“I’ll update the colonel when he gets in,” Bates promised.

“Send him my way after you brief him,” Rodney said. He opened his eyes as the door opened and one of the new Marine medics came in. “Sargeant, good to see you.”

“Sir, Dr. Beckett gave me the rundown of what will need to be done if you going to stay in the chair,” the medic announced.

“Okay. I can deal with that and if Colonel Sheppard decides to get in the chair, we’ll need him monitored as well,” Rodney said. His attention jerked back to the satellite as a hive appeared at the edge of the system. “We have a hive ship on sensors!”

“Right, I need to get you connected,” the medic said. “Can you take your hands off the control pads?”

“No,” Rodney said. He was barely paying attention to what the medic was asking as he worked to set up contingencies with the computer in case it had to make decisions on its own.

“Will your sentinel kill me if I cut your t-shirt off?” the medic asked.

Rodney blinked once at that and then pushed past the shock. “No. But if you’re going to do that, I’d at least like to know your name.”

“Oh. Right,” the medic blushed as he pulled a set of medical scissors. “Sergeant Alexander Morgan, at your service, sir. All I’m trying to do is get access to your chest so I can put the monitors on. I won’t touch you beyond that.”

“Sounds good,” Rodney said. He firmly ignored what the medic was doing to his chest. He had other things he needed to pay attention to. When Atlantis flashed a series of alerts his way, he exhaled sharply and nudged the city to give him access to the public comm. “Attention Atlantis: This is Dr. McKay. Everyone had damn well better be at their battle stations or their safe rooms. We have three hive ships and their cruisers inbound. Our defense satellite took out one hive whole but has been shut down due to lack of power. Currently, it’s dark, but if it survives this mess, we’ll get it power again. Sensors show it’ll be two hours before the Wraith get here. McKay out.”

“Shit,” Morgan muttered before attaching the last line. “You’re online, Dr. McKay.”

“Better get the other set out,” Rodney said absently. “My sentinel is almost here.”

“Rodney,” John said as he ran into the room.

“John. Did you get them?” Rodney asked. He was poking at the shield generator and putting questions to the city’s computer. He had an absolutely fucked up idea, but he needed confirmation that it was even possible before he tried to do anything.

“We managed to hit the three hives furthest from Atlantis and knock them out. We were even able to rescue some of their victims, and dropped them off in one of the safe rooms with the Athosians,” John reported. He pulled his t-shirt over his head and let Morgan add his sensors. “What’s the plan? Did you get the drone plant up and running?”

“We did,” Rodney confirmed. “It’s currently up to five drones a minute and holding steady. It’s been at that pace for the last hour.”

“Good,” John said. He went to stand in front of Rodney and stared down at him. “Are you in a place where you can stop and let me in?”

“Yeah,” Rodney confirmed. He sat up and took a deep breath as his connection to the city dimmed down to the normal level. “You should be able to see the various things I was working on in the system, so please glance over them to make sure that I didn’t overstep.”

“Will do,” John said as he slid into the chair as Rodney stepped out of it. Rodney watched as his sentinel accessed his work. “Yeah, I can see what you were planning. I’ll add my own points.”

Rodney left him to his planning and fished his laptop out of his toolbox. Logging in, he started accessing the various reports being generated. They had two hours to make sure that the city was as ready as possible to survive.

“Can we tweak the drone plant to put out anymore?” John asked after several minutes. He sounded like most of his attention was somewhere else and Rodney utterly understood. It had taken effort for him to talk to anyone when he’d been in the chair.

“No,” Rodney said. He had the drone plant output as a constant report in the corner of his screen and he checked it frequently. “While I got the plant up and running, it really needed more time. It’s running as fast as it can at the moment. If it gets any faster, it’ll be because the system can handle the stress.”

“Understood.”

“Dr. McKay, do you need me to stay here?” Morgan asked.

“Yes,” Rodney said. He glanced up at the medic before turning his attention back to his computer. “I know you’re just monitoring us at the moment, but as soon as the Wraith get over the city, John is going to be stressed out when he starts directing the city in her defense. I don’t know what that will mean for him physically, but if you don’t have an IV in that bag of yours, you had better run down to Medical and get some.”

Morgan cleared his throat and checked his bag before he glanced at John. “I have saline and glucose. Should I set it up now?”

John opened his eyes and met Rodney’s gaze. “No. Not right now.”

“What are you thinking, John?” Rodney asked.

“Some more sabotage.”

Rodney stared at his Sentinel before raising his gaze to the ceiling. “We’ve got about two hours until the hives heading this way are in range to hit the city with their weapons and you want to go and try to sabotage them?”

“It worked with the other three. And if we can cut down the sheer number of ships headed our way, we can hopefully buy enough time for the ships O’Neill promised us to get here,” John reminded. “The first should be here in less than a day.”

“Fuck,” Rodney cursed after thinking that over. He turned to Morgan and waved at his chest. “Get this off me. It looks like I’m going to be heading out to make war.”

“Yes, sir.”

 

 

Chapter Eleven

Jack stared at the screen showing Prometheus leaving the solar system. “Well, that’s that then.”

“You know we’ve done everything we can, Jack,” Daniel said. He leaned against Jack’s back and hooked his chin over his shoulder. “Both ships are going to be pushing it as hard as they can to get out to the city as soon as they can.”

“Oh, I know,” Jack said. He eyed what he could see of Daniel without turning his head. “Should you be doing that?”

“Exactly who is going to stop me?” Daniel asked.

“You are such a pain in my ass,” Jack said softly. “I need to go speak to the President to let him know that the ships are on their way.”

“Better go do that then,” Daniel encouraged. “I’ll be in our quarters in about two hours. Naked.”

“Brat,” Jack growled. When Daniel walked off laughing, he sighed. Now that the stress of getting Atlantis resupplied was out of their hands, his Guide was relaxing and poking him to make sure he didn’t take himself too seriously.

The walk into his office took only moments and he tried not to roll his eyes at the cup of hot coffee that was sitting on his blotter. From the scent of Walter in the air, the man had done a drive by and he made a mental note to thank him for it.

Jack settled back into his chair and took a sip of his coffee and tried to enjoy the rich bitter beverage. He let his mind go blank and tried to release all the stress he was feeling into the universe. Sip after sip, he managed to get things under control so he could function.

Once he felt like he could talk to Hayes without losing his shit, Jack set the coffee cup down and picked up the receiver for the red phone. “General O’Neill of the SGC calling for the President.”

“Please hold, General O’Neill,” the pleasant female voice said.

The hold music for the White House came on and Jack leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes as he listened. Thankfully, whoever had chosen the music hadn’t gone for a selection of the latest hits, but had chosen classical music that was soothing. So. Pleasant and not aggravating to listen to.

When the music stopped, he opened his eyes and sat up. “What’s the news, O’Neill?”

“We managed to get fifty troops through to Atlantis, Sheppard got his promotion, and they got enough supplies for six months. Atlantis did send through some updated reports, but we’ve not had a chance to go through them. We’ll update you on them when we have,” Jack reported. “Once that was done, we disconnected the ZPM from the same rig we’d used to send the Expedition out and reloaded it onto the Prometheus and they headed out. Daedalus had left two hours before.”

“Why didn’t we use the third ZPM to power the trip instead of using one from a ship?” Hayes asked.

“Because it’s being plugged into the Antarctica facility and we’re going to use that to monitor the solar system,” Jack said. He wasn’t going to budge on that. Earth needed to be protected and right now, that meant the Antarctic Outpost. “We’ve still got drones down there and we’ve got people down there monitoring the place 24/7.”

“Okay, I can see that. Do you know if we can get, or make more drones?” Hayes asked.

“No idea. We’re planning on asking Atlantis as soon as she’s able to call us back,” Jack said bluntly. “We think that the Outpost has more to it than we’ve got thawed, but we’re only slowly expanding our footprint out there. The ice is very deep and we don’t want to push the facility too hard.”

Hayes was quiet for several seconds before he cleared his throat. “What do you mean?”

“The Outpost was, from what we can discover, the base that Atlantis rested on when she was on Earth. It was built into the bedrock of Antarctica and has stayed put since Atlantis left,” Jack explained. “We’ve got indications that the facility is larger than the area we’ve got access to, and we’re hoping that with the fully charged ZPM, we’ll be able to explore it. The best guess from our scientists is that the Outpost’s computer used the self-preservation protocols to prioritize the area surrounding the control chair and let the rest go.”

“And can we use those same protocols to push things out, now that we’ve got a fully charged ZPM?” Hayes asked.

“That’s the plan,” Jack said. “We’re not going to be reckless, but we need to know if there’s more there and this is the best way to do it.”

“Okay, I get that and I can’t say that I blame you for wanting to check out what else is going on with that facility,” Hayes said after several seconds. “Getting back to the thing that started this, do you think Sheppard will open the gate to send anyone back through?”

“No,” Jack said bluntly. “His reports did confirm that the expedition members who stayed had all been offered the chance to head back to Earth and they’ve all decided to stay. Those people are the best and brightest of us and they all know exactly what they are facing. To be a part of the SGC is to know that you are on the front line defending our planet.”

“Right,” Hayes said with a sigh. “I’m worried.”

“We’re all worried, sir. But we have to trust that Sheppard and McKay will get their people through safely,” Jack said firmly. He had no idea how to explain to Hayes that his trust in them was absolute. They would get everyone through this or die trying. It was just part of being a Sentinel and a Guide.

“Well, if it counts, I have my fingers crossed. Let me know when you get news,” Hayes said.

“I will, Mr. President,” Jack promised. He held his peace as Hayes ended the call and hung up when he heard the dial tone. Leaning back in his chair he relaxed his hold on his gifts and let his attention move through the mountain. There was a great deal of tension among his people, but there didn’t seem to be any hot spots that needed his attention.

“You seem to be a lot more relaxed,” Carter observed.

Jack opened his eyes and watched as she walked into his office. “I am. The major stressors I have are done.”

“I can understand that. But I wanted to let you know that I do not want command of the SGC,” Carter said bluntly. “I’m very happy with being in charge of the science department.”

“Is it that you don’t think you can do the job? Or is it something else?” Jack asked. He was sure that she could do the job because he’d trained her to be able to take command anywhere needed and do it well. Carter had done several small commands and the practical command of SG-1 moved between her and Mitchell on an as-needed basis. So. He was deeply curious as to what the issue was.

“It’s something else,” Carter confirmed. “I know I can do the job. You and General Hammond made sure of that, but I want to concentrate on science for a bit. We’re getting close to some breakthroughs, and I want to make sure that I can assist as needed.”

“Okay. I just wanted to make sure that you’re not bowing out because you thought you couldn’t do it,” Jack said. “I know you can and I wanted to make sure that you knew it too.”

“I do, sir,” Carter assured. “And I use the skills you’ve taught me to get the best we can out of our scientists. But I do leave the P-90 in the armory.”

“Given some of our scientists, I don’t think they’d care,” Jack said, amused. “Anyway. You’re in line to get the SGC, so I want you to be aware and not be surprised if you get tapped since Landry is gone.”

From the grimace that crossed Carter’s face, she was just thrilled at the thought of running the SGC. Jack had little sympathy. Hammond had dumped the whole mess on his shoulders only a few years before and with little warning. He was not counting the years he’d spent as the man’s 2IC because he’d never really expected to get stars on his shoulders.

“Thanks, sir. So very much,” Carter muttered. “I’m going to tell Daniel you’re being mean to me.”

“I am not! I’m trying to let you know that you’re in line for a really good promotion!” Jack protested.

“I don’t think I want to run this madhouse, sir!” Carter said with an exaggerated frown. “Seriously, what have I ever done to know that would make you think I wanted that?”

“Oh, maybe our introduction?” Jack said with a sudden smile. At her groan of protest, he smirked. “Yeah, I think that’s it.”

Carter let her head fall before she shook it. “So, mean. I’m going to head down to Daniel’s office and see what he’s got out of the database from that jumper before I check out what Atlantis sent us.”

“Sounds good. Let him know I’ll be by to pick him up for lunch,” Jack directed. That would be within the two-hour window he’d promised and he was going to have his guide for lunch. If he was lucky, Walter would drop a sandwich off for him.

“You keep trying to get him to eat regularly and he keeps ignoring you, sir. Why?” Carter asked.

“Hope springs eternal,” Jack said with a shrug. “I’ve got to deal with the mess of paperwork that this whole thing generated. Let me know if anything good comes out of your departments.”

“Yes, sir,” Carter said. She headed out after he waved her off and closed the door as she left.

He had to smile at her back. He missed going through the gate with her and dealing with the insanity that caused. But he didn’t miss how his knees ached after walking twenty-plus miles in a day. “Right. Time to work,” he muttered before pulling one of his stacks of paper closer to him and started reading.

He’d gotten through three stacks of paper and was contemplating a cup of coffee when he noticed several people approaching his door. He automatically expanded his hearing to confirm the heartbeats heading his way. Tony. And his sentinel, Ian Edgerton. “Come on in, Edgerton.”

“Yes, sir,” the other sentinel confirmed.

Jack moved his stacks of paperwork around so his desk was clear. His credenza was a bit crowded, but everything was out of obvious sight. As perpetually curious as Tony was, he had never made it a habit of pushing his boundaries. When the door to his office opened, he kicked his chair around to face the front of his desk. “Tony, Edgerton.”

“Sir,” Edgerton said. He had his hand resting at the base of Tony’s back and was standing a half step behind him. Jack approved of him protecting his guide’s back.

“Jack,” Tony said. He settled into one of the visitor chairs and crossed his legs as he stared at him.

“What can I do for you, Tony?” Jack asked.

“I need to head into JAG due to a trial,” Tony said bluntly. “This will be happening several times over the next few months, so I want to make sure that you are aware.”

“Okay, I’m good with that and I figured you would have cases you would have to testify at. Are you worried about Gibbs?” Jack asked. He frowned at the thought of Tony’s old boss and suppressed a growl.

“No,” Tony said with a smile. “As much as Gibbs likes to play up his bastardy, he knows better than to fuck with a guide. Especially this one.”

“And I’m sure he’ll watch his behavior when he sees me,” Edgerton said bluntly.

“Oh, that’ll be fun. Let me know if he fucks up,” Jack said. He could feel a fair amount of glee at the thought of Gibbs getting his ass handed to him if he overstepped. When Tony frowned at him, he shrugged. Sue him, he’d never, ever pretended to be a nice man.

“I’m going to tell Daniel,” Tony said slowly. “Because there’s something wrong with you.”

“Daniel is aware of all my issues,” Jack said with a shrug. “Go take care of your testimony. Put the bad guys behind bars.”

“That’s the plan,” Tony confirmed. He stood up and headed for the door, with Edgerton on his heels. “Don’t hover over your paperwork for too long, Jack. You get crabby when you do.”

“Damn guide,” Jack bitched. He smiled at Tony’s laughter as he headed out. As much as he liked Tony, he was way too perceptive for his mental health. The only one he was okay with reading his mind was his own guide. He checked his watch and sighed. He still had a half hour before he could go wander down and fetch his guide. Which could only mean that he had some more paperwork to do. To make sure that he didn’t go too long, he set an alarm.

The last of his paperwork was quickly knocked out and he signed his name on the last document with satisfaction. “Done.”

With the last of his work completed, he checked his timer. Five minutes. Jack hummed softly as he quickly stacked everything for his admin to take care of. The last document was twitched into place with five seconds to spare and Jack turned off the timer. Work done, he smiled happily to himself. Now, it was time to go get Daniel and have his guide for lunch.

 

 

“Jack!”

Jack laughed softly as he pulled another moan out of Daniel’s throat. “Do that again,” he urged. His hips moved in a steady rhythm and he made sure that his cock moved over his guide’s prostate with each thrust. Daniel clamped down on his cock as he slid back in again and he hummed in satisfaction. “You are so damn sweet.”

“Fucker,” Daniel moaned. He clamped his legs around Jack’s waist and held on. “Harder.”

“As you wish,” Jack said softly. He picked up the pace and shifted slightly to allow his cock to hit Daniel’s prostate a bit harder. Once, twice, and on the third thrust, he could feel Daniel’s muscles lock up before his orgasm hit. The smell and feel of his guide going over was all it took and he followed him over the edge. His pleasure seemed to burst out of him and he rode the wave of it, wallowing in the feeling until it finally ebbed. “Thank you, Daniel.”

Daniel pressed a kiss against his shoulder and let his legs fall back onto the bed. “Utterly my pleasure, Jack.”

It took only moments to pull out of Daniel’s ass and he pressed a careful kiss to his guide’s temple before he rolled out of bed. He headed for the en suite to get a warm, wet washcloth to clean Daniel up. His cleanup took only moments while the water warmed and he smirked a bit at the afterglow he could feel himself oozing.

“I can feel your smug from here,” Daniel muttered. He had rolled over and had pulled a pillow into his arms to lean on.

“You give me a lot to be smug about,” Jack said simply. He quickly cleaned Daniel up and threw the washcloth into the en suite. “So, do you want the news?”

Daniel rolled slightly and eyed him closely. “When have I ever not wanted to know?”

“Point,” Jack said. He reached out to pull Daniel into his arms and settled into place as the big spoon. “Hayes has been updated. Carter wants to concentrate on her sciences, and Tony is going back to DC to testify in some trials.”

“That leaves you short of someone to take the SGC over if Sam doesn’t want it,” Daniel observed. “Who are you thinking of?”

“Well, it can’t be either of the two colonels I have in command of our ships,” Jack admitted. “It took too much to keep them there. And I’m not all that comfortable importing another general since the last one turned out to be a twat.”

“We have several other colonels who you can promote, you know,” Daniel reminded him. He squirmed slightly and tucked his ass into the curve of Jack’s pelvis. “One of them might be able to do it.”

“Hmmm, thought,” Jack said. He wrinkled his nose as he reviewed his colonels and then shrugged slightly. “I’ll think about it after this. Did you set an alarm?”

“Forty-five minutes,” Daniel murmured, voice soft and starting to blur with sleep.

Jack hummed his agreement as he tucked his face into the back of Daniel’s neck. He was going to enjoy his power nap with his guide and then deal with everything else when they got up. Damn being the man.

 

 

“Okay, we’ve had some time to relax, process the data we’ve gotten from the Atlantis and our ships, and get a look at what the Outpost has for us. I need updates,” Jack said. It had been three days since Daedalus and Prometheus had left Earth for Atlantis and everyone in the SGC had been busy with their data crunching.

“Atlantis has been doing a fair amount of prep work in case the Wraith show up there,” Daniel started. He laid out exactly what Sheppard’s plans were in case the Wraith managed to get a foothold on the city. “There’s mention of bats being put in the safe rooms, just in case.”

“Well, before we sent them the ammunition, they were severely limited and blunt instruments don’t get hung up in bodies,” Jack said with a shrug. “And most people can swing a bat.”

“Fair, and pretty much the reasoning that McKay laid out,” Daniel confirmed. “McKay and his people managed to get a defense satellite repaired and ready, but at the time we called, there’d been no need for it yet.”

“Well, that’s good news. Here’s to hoping that they don’t need to use it,” Jack said. “What else?”

“Daedalus and Prometheus sent back scans of the solar system as they made their way out of it,” Carter said. “We’ve gotten some new information we never had before about the outer solar system and that’s fun for the hard science guys here. We’ll be chewing through them for the next few months.”

Jack cocked his head to the side as he considered that information. “Did they pass either of the Voyager probes?”

“No, we made sure that both ships avoided the flight paths for both of them,” Carter said. She tapped one of the reports in front of her. “We keep a close eye on what NASA is doing with their various spacecraft and do our best to stay out of their ranges.”

“Here’s to hoping that we can keep that up,” Jack murmured. “Alright, that’s good news. What about the Outpost?”

“Reports from the teams down there, state that the whole place lit up when the new ZPM was added to the plinth,” Mitchell reported. “We had the ATA positive officer climb into the chair and they state that it feels like there’s more available, but his clearance isn’t enough to get more than that.”

“What’s his percentage?” Jack asked.

“He’s in the low 80’s,” Carter said. “The last time I checked the computer down there; you and Sheppard were both allowed full access.”

Jack shared a look with his guide before turning to look at Carter. “Sounds like I need to head down there to check things out.”

“I think it would be wise sir,” Carter agreed.

“Same, sir,” Mitchell said. He tapped the thumb drive in front of him before continuing. “The scientists down there did take video of the whole thing so we can see what happened.”

“That’s good news. I’ll make room in my schedule to head down there as soon as possible,” Jack said before he made a note on his planner. “What else?”

The rest of the department heads chimed in to share the information they had gathered. Jack asked questions when he needed clarification, and made notes of the things he thought he’d need to revisit. The news was mostly positive and the small knot inside of him that he’d carried since Atlantis had called in, slowly relaxed.

When the last of the department heads completed their reports, Jack leaned back in his chair and let it rock from side to side. “So, for the most part, the SGC is currently in a better place than we expected, we’ve got lots of data to crunch, and we seem to be in the clear from our little jaunt in the desert. There’s no expectation that any of the news is going to change at this time, right?”

“Correct,” Mitchell said after looking around the room.

“Okay then,” Jack said before standing up. “Then I’m going to end this meeting and suggest that we start getting the Mountain back on a normal schedule. Mitchell, I want you to go over the list of planets we’ve got on rotation for exploration and see who we need to visit to reaffirm friendships. I know we’ve kept up the minimums, but we need to kick it back into gear.”

“Yes, sir,” most of the room chorused.

It took him only moments to walk back into his office and he dropped his notes on his desk. “I’m glad things are getting back to what passes for normal here.”

 

 

Chapter Twelve

“Okay, everyone. Remember where we parked,” John said as he landed the cloaked jumper in the landing bay of the hive ship they’d picked to destroy.

“Sir, you did not just quote Star Trek, did you?” Stackhouse groaned as he patted himself down.

“Why not? It’s a classic!” John said with a grin. He glanced at his guide and chuckled at the face Rodney was pulling. “Ready?”

“I hate your taste in sci-fi,” Rodney bitched before he turned to look out the front screen. “Lemme do one last check on the passives to see if the Wraith might have any idea we’re here.”

“Will do,” John said. He left his guide to his chore and turned to look at the men and women arrayed behind him. “Okay, everyone remember the plan. Thirty minutes, mine the shit out of this thing, if you find any humans in a stasis pod or a cell, get them out and get them back to the jumper. Do not approach or engage any Wraith. We’re in and out. Understood?”

When the chorus of confirmations calmed down, he turned to look at Rodney. “Are we good?”

“Yes,” Rodney confirmed as he stood up and made sure his mission backpack was in place. It was filled with premeasured helpings of C-4 and weighed enough that John was glad he was working out on the regular. “Nothing is showing on the passives and everyone in this knows how to shield so the queen shouldn’t notice us.”

“Then let’s go,” John said. He nudged the jumper to let the back ramp down and brought his P-90 up into a ready-carry position. He felt Rodney slot into place beside him and he stepped down onto the floor of the landing bay.

Spreading his senses out, John let the rhythm of the hive settle into his mind. Currently, everything in it was ‘normal’ and he needed to know what that was, in case it changed. Cocking his head to the side, he listened to what his ears were telling him. “We have children on board. McKay and I will get them,” he breathed out softly.

The mic he was wearing picked up his words and everyone on the jumper grunted in acknowledgement. This was their nightmare and yet, they could not in good conscience leave a single human in the hands of the Wraith.

John gave the bond he shared with Rodney a tug and could feel his acceptance flow back up it. With the reassurance that all was well with his guide, he headed out on a path that would lead to the kids. This wasn’t the first set of children they had liberated from a hive and likely wouldn’t be the last. From what they’d learned from Ronon and Tyre, the Wraith preferred children to eat for both the amount of ‘life energy’ they could extract and the sheer terror they inspired in their victims. It was horrific and he was looking forward to blowing this hive up.

They moved through the hive smoothly and settled each of their explosive packages into place without issue. Experience was with them this time and it took far less time than they had budgeted to get everything done. That left them more time to find the kids.

As they got closer to the cell the kids were in, John could hear them whimpering. A quick count made him sigh. “We’ve got a dozen kids. And some of the heartbeats are very fast.”

“Infant fast?” Rodney asked softly.

“Yeah, two,” John agreed.

Rodney hissed out curses as he followed him closely. “For fuck’s sake.”

“Pretty much. No adult heartbeats on the whole ship though. Plenty of Wraith, both awake and in hibernation though,” John reported.

“Good. Kids are easier to wrangle,” Rodney said. He fell quiet as they moved through the hallways.

“Here,” John said as they stopped in front of a cell.

“Right,” Rodney muttered as he dropped to his knees in front of the locking mechanism. “I’m so glad I gloved up before we stepped foot on this thing. Ick.” He used a knife to slice into the wall of the cell and pulled the material aside. “Yuck.”

“Hey kids, we’re going to get you out of here,” John promised. He did his best to look over the kids as he kept watch for stray Wraith. There were two infants being cuddled by some of the older kids and several toddlers.

“Wraith worshipper,” the oldest kid in the cell hissed.

“Nope, dux,” Rodney disagreed. He jerked his arm back and the cell door opened. “And we’re leaving and taking you all with us. Let’s go.”

“Dux?” the oldest kid asked. She looked back and forth between them before turning back to the older kids. “They don’t feel like Wraith worshippers.”

“Fantastic. We need to go now,” Rodney said. He waved the kids towards the hallway. “Follow my custos. We’ve got a way off this horror show.”

“Kibby can’t walk fast,” she said, pointing at a kid who looked to be all of two to John’s eyes.

“If I put Kibby in my backpack, will they stay put?” Rodney asked as he started to shrug out of his backpack.

“Yes,” she agreed. When Rodney unzipped the top of the backpack, she helped Kibby climb in.

Rodney quickly zipped the backpack up and got it back on his shoulders before taking one of the infants out of another child’s arms. “Let’s go.”

The trip back down to the landing bay was uneventful. John kept his senses wide open and he could feel Wraith moving through the ship, and he made sure that their route avoided them. The kids were doing great and keeping quiet and he appreciated their cooperation.

“How much time do we have?”

“Four minutes,” John said after checking his watch. “I don’t want to use a radio in here.”

“I highly doubt that the Wraith can tune into our frequencies, but good call,” Rodney murmured. He shifted the baby in his arms slightly to allow for an easier carry and nudged an older child into walking faster. “We’re going to be crowded again.”

John nodded from his place in the lead. “Yup. But they’re small and no one will care that they will get piled on when they see them.”

“Sounds good. How far,” Rodney asked.

“Just around this corner,” John said. He held up a hand and then reached out to catch the kids as they continued forward. “Nope,” he breathed out. “There’s a Wraith up there. Stay here.”

“Be careful. We don’t know if killing one will alert the queen to us,” Rodney reminded. He moved forward to get in the middle of the pack of kids and handed the infant he was carrying over to one of the older kids. “Please hold them,” he said before shifting his P-90 into a ready position.

John drifted forward until he was standing just before the turn of the corner and waited. Rodney and the kids were all silent behind him and he let his hearing focus on the area in front of him. There was a single Wraith walking away from them and he monitored it as it moved down one hallway after another. “Okay, it’s out of sight and far enough away that we should be able to get to the jumper.”

“Sounds good,” Rodney said. He flicked the safety back on before letting the P-90 hand off its straps. “Let’s go, kids.”

“Where are we going?” the oldest girl asked.

“We’ve got a way off this thing, but you’re going to have to trust that we’re not insane,” Rodney said. He scooped up one of the younger kids who was lagging behind and set them on his hip.

“You willingly came onto a Hive ship. You have to be insane,” one of the other kids muttered.

John couldn’t say that the kid was wrong. It took a special mindset to walk into a place that was utterly detrimental to human life, and every single one of them did it over and over again. Pushing that aside, he concentrated on the part of himself that accessed Ancient tech and used it to guide them to the jumper.

When Stackhouse walked down the ramp, the kids all sucked in a surprised breath before running towards him. John turned his attention back to the Hive as a whole to make sure that no Wraith were in the vicinity as they piled into the cargo compartment.

“Everyone back?”

Stackhouse nodded. “Yes, sir. Markham is at the stick. You two were the last ones to come back.”

“Right. Then let’s get off this horror show and blow it the fuck up,” Rodney said grimly. He stepped on the ramp of the jumper and headed straight in. “Come on, Sentinel. We’re done here.”

“Am I going to be like that, sir?” Stackhouse asked as he followed behind Rodney.

John snorted once before he did the same. “You are now with Markham, Sarge.”

“Awesome,” Stackhouse said with a grin before turning to enter the jumper.

When John walked into the cargo area, he smirked. Every single man and woman from the sabotage party had a kid either next to them, or in their lap. “Everyone secure?”

“Yes, sir,” Markham called. “Do you want to pilot?”

“Hell, yes,” John confirmed. He unhooked his P-90 from his ALICE vest and handed it over to Stackhouse as he made his way to the cockpit. “Let’s get out of here. We’re getting close on time.”

“We are,” Rodney said grimly. “I’ve got the transmission queued up to go out ten seconds after we exit the landing bay.”

“Good,” John said. He slipped into place after Markham exited the pilot’s seat and gripped the control yokes. “Everyone brace for a rough ride.”

He ignored the surge of noise behind him as he aimed the jumper at the opening to the landing bay. As soon as they cleared the skin of the Hive, John pushed it to move as fast as possible within the constraints of the cloaking device. He kept an eye on where they were in space and as soon as they were at a safe distance, he cleared his throat. “Blow it, Rodney.”

“Done,” Rodney murmured. He tapped a key on the console in front of him and the HUD opened a window to show the view behind them. John glanced at the window to see the Hive breaking up behind them.

“Okay, we’re heading back to the city at all good speed,” John muttered. “Can you see what’s happened to the other Hive we were going to hit?”

“There’s only one Hive left now,” Rodney said after several second’s work.

“So, we’ve got only one headed our way?” John confirmed.

“Yup,” Rodney said.

“Thank God,” John said. he pushed the jumper to go even faster. Thankfully, jumpers could slip through the city’s shields without issue, so they would not have to leave their people defenseless to get them home. “We can’t a read on the other jumper, right?”

“Best I’ve got is a confirmation that the jumper still exists. Currently, we don’t have more than that,” Rodney said sourly. “Something to work on then.”

“Especially if we use more than one jumper on a mission,” John said bluntly. “Are we tied into Atlantis and her sensors?”

“Yes,” Rodney said. “The ship Ronon and Lorne went to blow up has been destroyed.”

“Good. Only one ship to deal with then,” Markham chimed in from the cargo bay.

“Every single advantage we can get, I’ll take,” John agreed.

Everyone fell silent as he concentrated on getting them back to the city.

 

“You need to eat something,” Rodney reminded his sentinel.

“I know. But I wanted a shower first. You know the stink of a Hive sticks around,” John said. They had made it through a very abbreviated medical check and a thorough shower and were headed down to the control chair room.

“If Morgan needs to come in to run a line so you get hydration and nutrition, we need to know now,” Rodney said. He grimaced at the thought of being stuck with a large needle again. It sucked, but if it helped, he would do his best to get John through it.

“If I get an IV with hydration, you know they’re going to want to put a catheter in,” John said with a grimace. “I do not want a catheter, Rodney.”

Rodney held his peace as they entered the transporter and John tapped the icon for the chair room. What could he say? He didn’t want anyone messing with his dick either.

“Should I strip down?” John asked as they left the transporter and headed into the chair room. Morgan was already in it and he had a serious amount of medical equipment piled around him. John pointed a finger at him and shook his head. “No catheters.”

“Not right now, no, colonel,” Morgan agreed. “But I do want to put medical sensors on you so we can tell if you get into any distress.”

“You can work around me while I see where our defenses are,” John said. He quickly pulled his t-shirt over his head and slid into the chair before hissing in shock. “Oh, damn, that’s cold.”

“It’ll warm up,” Rodney reminded him as the chair lit up with a blue light. He moved to sit on the floor across from where his sentinel was facing and pulled his laptop out of his backpack. Opening it up, he let it connect with Atlantis while he watched Morgan wire John up. “How are we doing, John?”

“The drone plant is still plugging away and we’ve got a lot more drones than we had before. Our shield is on standby and we won’t have an unlimited amount of time with it, but it should be enough to keep the Wraith out of here. Atlantis reports that everyone has made it to their battle stations or designated saferooms and we’re about as ready as we can get,” John said after several seconds. “She also says that if we can get the two ZPMs that are on the ships from Earth, she can use them to fix herself.”

“That’s great news. Anything about finding another ZPM or two here in Pegasus?” Rodney asked. The reports that John had mentioned were opening on his screen and he glanced over them quickly. Nothing needed his attention right then, so he shunted those to the side.

“She drawing a blank at the moment,” John reported. “Make a note so we can look into this at a later date.”

“Will do,” Rodney promised. “What does she say about the Hive ship headed our way?”

“Well, she was very happy with us for destroying the Hives, and she’s scanning space around us as much as she can. As a note, she’s got her long-range scanners on the list for work as soon as she’s got the power for it. Anyway. She’s comparing our current Hive against the historical Hives that previously attacked Atlantis and giving me every weakness she can.”

Rodney nodded. “That’s great. Does she have any idea where Daedalus is?”

“No, she’s not in range yet,” John said after several seconds of silence. “But the Hive is hauling ass towards us.”

“Are you going to let them fire first?”

John opened his eyes and glared at him. “No. Not a chance in hell.”

Rodney grinned at the attitude his sentinel was exuding. “Good. Blow them to hell, Sentinel.”

“As you say, Guide,” John said with a nod of his head. He leaned back in the chair and the blue color of the active connection with the chair deepened and the subliminal hum emanating from it kicked up a notch.

“McKay, the Hive is about to pass the maximum distance you set for the drones,” Check announced several minutes later. “It dropped three cruisers ten minutes ago as well.”

“What about the darts?” Rodney asked. He minimized the reports he’d been reviewing and tied into the command program Chuck was using.

“No darts at this time, but from all reports, they aren’t a long-distance fighter, and dropping them now would leave them vulnerable to drones,” Chuck reported. He fell silent for several seconds before he cleared his throat. “The Hive has now passed the maximum distance line.”

“I’m not letting it get any closer, Guide. If we can take it out before it drops its darts, that’s all to the good,” John cut in.

“Colonel, it’s still traveling at the same speed, and we’re not seeing any evidence of them scanning the planet for us,” Chuck said. “The cruisers are ahead of them.”

“I see them, Chuck. Let us know if they send out any transmissions,” John said.

The screen in front of Rodney was suddenly filled with a swarm of drones and he watched as all three cruisers cracked and died. “Good job, John.”

“Atlantis reports that the Hive has raised their shields. The Hive has also launched darts,” John said. His voice sounded very distant as if most of his attention was elsewhere. “However, she’s been exploring our contingency files and says that she might be able to pop some drones through their shields if we modulated them. She’s dropped the file for it on your computer.”

“Sounds good. I’ll get on that,” Rodney muttered. He clicked on the file Atlantis sent him and started reading before he stopped. “Wait a second. Atlantis is taking a direct hand in this? What?”

John laughed softly from the chair as he sent a new swarm of drones at the Hive ship. A second set of drones was launched after the darts moved ahead of the Hive. “Yeah, she was wondering when you’d notice. The ZPM we added helped wake her up. It’s been slow going because an abrupt wake-up could have triggered some subroutines that would see us as invaders and then, well. Not great. She’s awake now, and very willing to kill the Wraith.”

“Good to know,” Rodney said. He took a deep breath and glanced up at the ceiling. “Very glad you’re on our side, Atlantis. And please let me know what we can do to help you repair yourself.”

His sentinel hummed in agreement before another swarm of drones was sent out towards the Hive. The shields around the Hive blocked the drones, but he could see the giant ship shudder from the blast wave hitting it. Several darts flew out in front of the Hive and John picked them off with ease. The next wave of drones impacted the Hive’s shield and one slipped through to impact against the skin of the Hive. The damage was minimal.

Rodney turned his attention back to the file Atlantis had sent him and started working on the modulation issue. He could see the hints at what Atlantis suggested and he followed her lead. His first attempt looked good, so he sent the changes over to John and he could feel the satisfaction his sentinel felt when the change he had suggested made a difference.

He kept an eye on what the changes were doing and he made sure to adapt his next update after taking into consideration what he’d seen the Wraith’s shields doing. When John incorporated his changes into a second volley of updated drones, he paid closer attention. The drones popped their way through the Hive’s shields and he could see John directing them to enter the open landing bay. The Hive shuddered and a large burst of flame blew out the landing bay before an explosion rocked the ship. “Chuck, has the Hive stopped moving forward?”

“It’s stopped moving, Dr. McKay. Sensors are showing what looks like an engine overload building,” Chuck reported. He sounded satisfied and anticipatory and Rodney let his empathy loose to blanket the city. “It looks like most of the darts were still hiding behind the Hives shields and three were caught in the explosion.”

He could feel Jensen push back against him before his fellow guide followed his lead. The whole city was reflecting the same mix of emotions that Chuck was expressing, with very little fear. “Chuck, if you aren’t doing it now, please make sure that you keep the various safe rooms updated on the status of the battle.”

“Yes, Dr. McKay. I’ve been keeping them informed.”

“Great,” Rodney said. He closed his comm and turned his attention back to his sentinel. John was calm, relaxed, and focused on his task as he picked off the darts as they tried to escape the disaster brewing behind them. “Morgan, is my sentinel stressed in any way?”

“No, Dr. McKay. He’s doing well,” Morgan said promptly.

“Relax, Rodney. I’m doing okay,” John said. He still sounded distracted, but Rodney wasn’t upset, John had a lot of information to juggle, and talking to him had to be the last thing he wanted to do. “Chuck, that overload is going.”

“Yes, sir, I see it,” Chuck said. The line was silent for a long pause before Chuck grunted in satisfaction. “The Hive’s blown up, sir. No darts seem to have gotten out.”

“Atlantis is showing that there are no Wraith in orbit,” John said. “And none of them reached the surface.”

“That’s very good news,” Rodney said. He kept an eye on the debris the explosion was spreading over the solar system to see where it was going to land. “Some of that might enter the atmosphere.”

“Most of it will burn up before it gets to be in a dangerous position,” John said softly. “We should be fine. I’ve got the shield on standby.”

Rodney sat back and closed his eyes as relief hit him hard. “That’s good news.”

“Yeah,” John agreed. “Chuck, let everyone know the status of the battle. I want everyone to stay in the city for the next 24 hours, just in case anything fucked up happens, but they can leave the safe rooms and stand down from their battle stations.”

“Yes, sir,” Chuck said. The citywide loudspeaker clicked on and Chuck’s voice made the announcement that John had requested.

John sat up in the chair and pulled his hands off the sensor pads. “That was a very interesting experience. I don’t want to do it again.”

“You don’t want to commune with the city again, or you don’t want to fight her?” Rodney asked.

“I don’t want to fight her at this power level. She needs more,” John said. He looked down at his chest and then back over at Morgan. “Please take these off me so I can go eat.”

“Yes, sir,” Morgan said. He reached out for the first sticky pad and was about to pull it off when the city’s lights shifted colors and her red alert siren started screaming over all the speakers.

John pushed himself back in the chair and slammed his hands back on the gel pads. “The city reports two Hive ships have just dropped out of hyper and are headed towards us at speed. We have five minutes to contact.”

Rodney toggled his comm for the citywide frequency. “Everyone, get back to your battle stations and saferooms. We’ve got company!”

 

 

“I hate the Wraith.”

“We all hate the Wraith, John.”

John wrinkled his nose at that and leaned back in the control chair and returned his attention to tracking the darts both Hives had dropped. None of them had moved beyond the shields. The gaping mouth of the landing bay stayed open and he contemplated what it could mean. “Rodney, in the Hive plans Atlantis has given us, do they show a door to cover the landing bay?”

“Lemme check,” Rodney muttered. From the clatter of keyboard keys, his guide was moving through the Hive plans at speed. “So, per the plans, there are no actual doors for that section of the Hive. All they use is a shield to keep the atmosphere in. There’s nothing to keep anyone out.”

“Great,” John said. He set up a reminder with Atlantis to let him know when the ships hit a specific point in the solar system. It wasn’t quite the orbit of the next planet out, but it was closer to their planet than he wanted them to get. But he also didn’t want them to be too far away to bomb easily. “Chances that they’ve got a workaround to the drone modulations?”

“We don’t know how much information sharing the Wraith do. I would suggest using the first change to see if that works. If it does, great. And you’ll have the option to use the second as needed. I’ve also got a third option that can be used if things last that long,” Rodney said. He sent over the file with the third batch of changes to him and John mentally opened the file to check the changes out. “It’s been roughly four days since we got our new troops. Have we got an ETA on Daedalus?”

Atlantis reached out with her sensors to see if she could see the ship from Earth. Nothing with her own sensors, but… “Atlantis just used the satellite you repaired and we’ve gotten a ping that matches what Lorne gave us regarding the ships. It’s at least an hour away.”

“Is this going to last an hour?” Rodney asked.

“I don’t know,” John said. He grimaced as he surveyed the battleground with his mind’s eye.

“Will the ZPM support the shield being up while building more drones and keeping us alive?” Rodney asked.

“Yes. But it’ll be close since it all takes a lot of power,” John said after several exchanges with Atlantis. “She’ll keep records of the power usage so you can add that to your models.”

“Thank you, Atlantis,” Rodney muttered.

John nudged the bond he shared with his guide and smiled at the wave of warmth he got in return. He turned his attention back to the skies above the city and studied the Wraith ships. “Where are their cruisers?”

“Not a clue,” Rodney said slowly. “But they should be with them, right?”

“They have been every time we’ve fought these assholes in space,” John said. He reached out to the sensors that were working on the city and tried to scan the sky around them. “Do we have any idea of who mans them? Are there queens on those ships?”

“I… Don’t know. But let’s ask Teyla, Ronon, and Tyre,” Rodney suggested.

“Good idea,” John said. Atlantis opened a call between the five of them and John explained their question.

“Normally when a Hive separates from their escort ships, they are using them for something else. Check to see if they’re moving around the system in our blind spots, Sheppard,” Ronon said bluntly. “When they attacked Sateda, the Hives sent down darts to harvest our people and the smaller ships went after the aircraft we had. They were very successful. Don’t let them get a jump on you.”

“You think they’ll try to take the city on directly?” John asked.

“It wouldn’t surprise me,” Tyre agreed. “One thing we noticed when we were captured was the sheer pleasure the Wraith took from our fear. So yes, I think they will because they think it will increase the amount of fear in their victims.”

“Teyla, do you agree?” Rodney asked.

“Yes, I do. The Wraith enjoyed our fear when we were captured,” she said. “The more we expressed that fear, the more pleasure they took from it.”

Rodney shuddered once at that. “Gross.”

John hummed softly as he pushed at the city to access what sensors they had. “We’ve got short-range sensors that cover the space around the planet. It’s not far, but the range is about half an AU. So not as far as I would want, but it should be enough to let us know who gets close.”

“Is there anything in there?” Rodney asked. “The distance is about half the distance from this planet to our sun. So, we’re able to see stuff in orbit around the planets on either side of us. It’s a fair distance, but the Wraith can cover that in a few minutes if they push their engines.”

“They’ll try to come in quiet, Sheppard. Slow and careful since they’re aware that the Ancients had tech that could see them,” Ronon cautioned. “They aren’t above using the planet itself to help them do their dirty work.”

“Right,” John said. “Rodney, I want to send a few jumpers up under cloak to act like relays for sensors.”

“Sounds good. Stackhouse and Markham are a given. What about Grodin and Lorne? Peter had the gene and he knows how to fly a jumper, Lorne can supply the strategic stuff,” Rodney suggested. “I know Bates is also ATA positive and he’s got jumper training, but he’s running internal security and I don’t think you would be comfortable letting him go.”

“No, I wouldn’t be, and I agree with your choices,” John said. He started to say more, but Atlantis flared an alarm in his mind. “They’ve passed the line I set for them. They’re within our drone range. I’m not going to let them get any closer if I can do it.”

“Kill them all, Sheppard,” Ronon said. Teyla and Tyre murmured their agreement and John it for the blessing it was.

“We will, Ronon. Keep our people safe if they get in here,” John directed. “My attention will be on the battle in space.”

“We will. If they make it down here, they won’t make it into the safe rooms,” Ronon promised. “We’ll patrol the halls.”

“The jumpers have launched, John. They’ll be in position in the next few minutes,” Rodney said softly.

“Great,” John said. He wriggled slightly in the chair and relaxed as the feedback from the city surged. “Let’s kill some more Wraith.”

“Sir, we’ve got eyes on two of the Wraith cruisers. They’re hovering over the Athosian settlement,” Markham announced several minutes later. “Their landing bays are open. Do you want to send a drone or two up them?”

“Are there any darts flying around?” John asked.

“Four,” Stackhouse said. “Our jumper is tracking them, with firing solutions listed. It’s also got a solution for the cruisers. Do we have the authorization to fire?”

“One second,” John said. He reached out to connect to Grodin and Lorne. “Gentlemen, do you have eyes on the other cruisers?”

“No sir, we do not. Still scanning for them,” Lorne reported promptly. “We will update you if we see them.”

“Roger that,” John said. “Teyla, would your people be okay if we take down the cruiser over your village?”

“Material goods can be replaced, John. My people are safe here in the city, and that is priceless,” Teyla informed him. “We can rebuild.”

“Understood, Teyla,” John said. “Lorne, when Markham takes out the two cruisers over the Athosian settlement, the cruisers you’re looking for may pop up. You have my authorization to take them out. I don’t care how.”

“Yes, sir,” Lorne said, voice somber. “We’ll be ready.”

“Markham, fire at will,” John commanded. Atlantis followed his wishes and a small diagram detailing Markham’s jumper appeared in the lower right corner of his mental landscape. As soon as he launched his drones, John launched the first salvo from Atlantis at the Hive that was in the lead. He sent a second salvo towards the other Hive and directed both to enter through the landing bays.

“Sir, we have contact, cruisers are down. I repeat, the cruisers are down,” Stackhouse announced. He took a deep breath as something happened in the background. “Our jumper reports no active life signs left in the cruisers, but we can’t be sure that there’s no Wraith hibernating. Markham is going after the four darts at this time.”

“Make sure that you don’t get ambushed,” John said shortly. Most of his attention was on the swarms of drones heading for the Hives. When the first one passed through the shields for the lead Hive, John could feel a surge of satisfaction from his guide and Atlantis. “I’m not all that worried about that Hive, it’s the second one that worries me. It’s going to have time to react.”

The drones he’d aimed at the lead Hive entered through the landing bay and he made sure to trigger them to explode as soon as they hit the back wall. With that Hive taken care of, John turned his attention to the second Hive. Unlike the first, it had rolled to move its landing bay out of position. The wave of drones he’d sent impacted on the stronger shields that normally protected the engines.

“She learned,” John muttered to himself. He reached for the third version of drone modifications that Rodney had developed and requested that Atlantis update the next flight. While that was happening, he turned his attention towards the jumpers. Markham and Stackhouse were chasing after a dart and from the information they had transmitted, had managed to kill the two cruisers and another dart before the rest scattered.

Lorne and Grodin were still looking for the other two cruisers and John had a bad feeling that they wouldn’t find them. “Chuck, what do the sensors show around us?”

“We’re still clear, Colonel. I’m keeping an eye on the darts to see if anything approaches the city,” Chuck reported. He sounded calm and John took comfort from that. “The city has tied the sensors from the satellite to my station sir. Daedalus is still coming on a straight course for the city.”

“As soon as she’s in range, let her know what she’s running into so she won’t be surprised,” John directed. Atlantis flashed a message to him that the modified drones were ready. John sent out two volleys in close formation. One was to hit the Hive amidships in a tight grouping that might, with luck, punch through. The second volley was aimed at the landing bay again. The main shields of a Hive were thin over that area to allow darts to move in and out and he wanted them gone. If he could get in that way, he would.

“Colonel, we’ve got the two cruisers on sensors!” Chuck called. “They’re coming in at water level!”

“Markham, Grodin, I need you here over the city!” John barked. He barely listened to their acknowledgment before switching channels. “Ronon, we have two cruisers coming in at sea level. I have no idea what the damn things are capable of, but I need you and Tyre in the hallways defending. Bates, I need you to get with Ronon to keep everyone safe.”

“Yes, sir,” Bates confirmed. “Once we leave the safe rooms, they’ll be barred from the inside.”

“Understood,” John confirmed. Every single safe room had been placed below the waterline for just this reason.

“We’ll keep them safe, Sheppard. You get to kill the rest of them,” Ronon said evenly.

“Aim for their heads,” John reminded them. “We don’t have the time to try to kill them with chest shots.”

Ronon snorted once. “If it gets that close, Sheppard, I have a sword.”

John opened his eyes and glanced at Rodney. “I don’t have a sword.”

“We can get you one once we survive this,” Rodney promised. “Did the third modification work?”

John scrunched up his nose at his guide before turning his attention back to the battle going on overhead. The surviving Hive was bleeding atmosphere and plasma from a fire somewhere on it. “We hit it, but didn’t destroy it.”

“I’ve got modification number four ready for you,” Rodney said. The next batch of changes to the drones was already being calibrated by Atlantis and John let her work while he scanned around the city. The two cruisers were only minutes away, and both of them were dumping darts.

“Rodney, are you armed?” John asked. If the Wraith managed to get any of their troops on the city, the chair room would be a target and with him being stuck in the chair itself, he didn’t want their only protection to be a single medic.

“Bates dropped my kit off before he went back to his station after the first round,” Rodney confirmed. “I’ve already gotten it on. You were busy killing Wraith.”

“I hate the Wraith,” John muttered before turning his attention back to the battle. The queen overhead was smarter than any of the others he’d killed. She kept her ship moving and rolling so it was hard for him to get a lock on her vulnerable spots. And they had only so many drones, no matter how many Atlantis produced. When they got through this, he was going to make damn sure Atlantis had all the supplies she needed to make millions of them.

He got lost in the rhythm of the battle and pushed hard to stay on top of everything. His biggest worry was the two cruisers. As he had time, he sent drones after them, each hit slowing them down slightly.

“Colonel! Daedalus is within range of the city sensors! She’s firing on the Hive!” Chuck screamed over the city comm.

“We need to check him for the proper Canadian reserve,” Rodney muttered.

John laughed softly as he took advantage of the way the Hive froze to send a flight of drones against their shields. As each exploded, the whole thing flickered and Daedalus fired her own weapons at the Hive. When they hit, the explosion was nuclear and it took a large chunk out of the Wraith ship.

He was firing another salvo at the Hive before the explosion dissipated.

When the first drone hit, it passed straight through the remnant of the shield and continued on to the ship itself. He watched the first drone hit and then turned his attention back to the cruisers. John sent out drones after them to try to slow them down as he opened his comm. “Daedalus, it’s great to see you.”

“Glad we could get here in time, Sheppard. We can see a bunch of smaller ships that seem to have come from the big one. We can shoot those down, right?” Daedalus asked as she flew through the Hive debris.

“Yes, you can,” John confirmed. “I’ve got two cruisers we’re trying to kill down here and they’ve dropped off some darts. Kill the ones up with you. I’m going to be busy.”

“Understood,” Daedalus said simply before the comm went silent.

“Sheppard, we have Wraith on the city!” Tyre cut in. There was a grunt and then nothing.

John threw his hearing out to cover the whole of the city. “I only hear two,” he reported. “There’s one by you and Bates; you’ve got one on the other side of the door you’re standing in front of.”

He could hear Bates hum before he heard the door swish open and a single gunshot echoed through the city. “Wraith down,” Bates said softly. There was no further sound for several seconds before the sound of a blade hitting meat filled his senses. “And I took the damn things head off too for good measure.”

“Good job, Sarge,” John said. He turned most of his attention back to the two cruisers that were still coming towards the city. The scanners showed that neither had their shields up, so he fired some of the latest batch of drones at them. But instead of having them fly through the air, he set the drones to travel underwater to a point that would cross their path.

As soon as the cruisers approached his designated point, he launched the drones at the underside of the Wraith ships. The resulting explosions ripped both cruisers apart and rained shredded bits of ships all over the ocean. “Chuck, scan the ocean where those cruisers went down to see if any of them survived.”

“Yes, Colonel,” Chuck said promptly.

John left him to the job he’d set and turned his attention back to the sky overhead. Daedalus and the little fighters she spawned are chasing after the darts and winning. The Hive is dead, and there are chunks drifting into a decaying orbit that might if they are very unlucky, cause problems. He set a note to keep an eye on that. It took only moments for him to realize that there was nothing for him to contribute to the last dregs of the battle overhead, so he turned his attention to the planet itself.

The darts that Markham and Stackhouse had been chasing were dead. The jumper the two men were flying was damaged, but functional enough to get them back to Atlantis. After that, well. Something to figure out.

Grodin and Lorne were chasing a last dart over the city and he watched it for several seconds. It was staying just ahead of them, and he smiled grimly as he sent a drone after it. When his drone hit, it clipped the front of the dart as one from the jumper impacted the rear. The dart disintegrated.

With all the threats from the air taken care of, the last thing on his mental list was the Wraith in the city. John let his hearing blanket the city again and tried to make sense of what was happening. The only heartbeats on Atlantis belonged to his tribe.

“Relax, Sheppard. We killed it. We did the same thing Bates did and took its head,” Ronon murmured.

“Stand down, John,” Rodney said. His guide reached out to him via their bond and he shared the satisfaction and peace he was feeling. “We’re safe. You did it.”

John opened his eyes and stared at the ceiling of the chair room. “How long?”

“Six hours since you sat down in it the first time,” Rodney said promptly. “Morgan’s been keeping you hydrated and pumping in calories.”

“Great,” John said. He tried to take stock of how he was feeling and grimaced. “I want another shower.”

“Then let’s get you one,” Rodney said with a grin. He held his hand out to John pulled gently as the chair moved back into its standby position. “And then we get to meet Daedalus and Prometheus.”

“Awesome.”

 

 

Epilogue

“Holy shit,” John muttered as he watched the sheer amount of stuff being offloaded from Prometheus. Daedalus had already unloaded her cargo the day before and he’d been shocked then. “I know we’ve got the room, but wow.”

“General O’Neill and Dr. Jackson wanted to make sure that you had everything on your list and then some. Then Cooper weighed in,” Caldwell said. He rocked back and forth on his feet and smiled at the new load of supplies exiting his ship. “Since we knew that you needed everything, we packed every spot on the ship we could with supplies. It was crowded, but…” He waved at his ship in explanation.

“Thank you,” John said quietly. “You’re right, we needed everything. All of this is appreciated. So are the reinforcements.”

“Even though you have five Pairs bonding all over the city?” Caldwell asked with a big grin.

“Eh,” John said with a shrug. “Honestly, that’s pretty great. Everyone, despite being busy as hell, is very mellow.”

Caldwell hummed softly before nodding once. “I take it that’s a good thing after everything?”

“Given that we’ve been under an immense amount of pressure for the last three months? It’s great,” John said bluntly. “I’ve some people that we were contemplating sending them back through to Earth so they didn’t stroke out due to fear, anxiety, or stress. But they’re all mission critical and they didn’t want to leave. The mellow side effects of the mass bonding are much appreciated.”

“Will the feelings last after everyone is done with their bonding?”

“Having more active sentinels and guides on the city will help us keep a better eye on the emotional and physical health of everyone,” John explained. “I’m looking forward to working with everyone.”

“You’re going to have a lot of fun with Cooper,” Caldwell said with a grin. “She’s a force unto herself and she’s of the firm opinion that no one can take care of themselves as well as she can.”

“Right, Bate’s guide,” John said after several seconds. “Other than us helping to unload your ship, do you need us for anything?”

“Nope,” Caldwell said with a smile. “We’re good. Your people can concentrate on integrating your new troops, scientists, and supplies while we unload.”

“Thank you, Colonel,” John said. He cocked his head to the side as he listened to the sound of the city. “I’ll leave you to it so I can go catch up on my work.”

“Thanks, Sheppard. Good job on surviving,” Caldwell said before he turned back to supervise his ship.

John stared at the sheer amount of supplies they were getting. Everyone had been right. O’Neill had come through for them in spades. Not only were there bullets and bombs, but food. It was immensely relieving.

It took effort, but he turned his back on the Daedalus and headed for Teyla’s dojo. All of the sentinels and guides had gathered there to form a Pride. He was looking forward to learning about his new people.

“Have we got snacks at least?” John asked Rodney over their private channel.

“We have lots. Some of it’s even turkey. Get up here,” Rodney said, amused.

He snorted softly in amusement before stepping into one of the transporter closets and tapping the transporter nearest the dojo. When he walked out, he cocked his head in surprise to see Bates waiting for him. “Sarge. I would expect you to be glued to your guide’s side.”

“I would, but she was very insistent that I wait for you out here, sir,” Bates said bluntly. “Originally she wanted me to go shadow you as you went about your day.”

John suppressed a sigh and nodded. Guide, plus warzone, equaled over protection for everyone. He was lucky that Rodney hadn’t fallen into the smothering trap. “We’re not going to be able to do that, Sarge.”

“Oh, I know, sir. But she’s got the urge and if me standing out here helps, I’ll do it.” Bates said softly.

“I figured,” John said with a smile. He patted his fellow sentinel on the shoulder and headed into the room. “Okay, everyone. I want to get some introductions because most of you met up, came online, and then bonded, and I do not know any of our new people. Who wants to start?”

“We will, sir!” Stackhouse said with a cheerful grin.

John laughed and waved at him as he sat down next to his guide. “Sure, Stacks. Go ahead.”

“Right,” Stackhouse said before rubbing his hands together. “So, I’m Marcus Stackhouse, I’m a guide, and my sentinel is Jason Markham. Our spirit animals are both canines. Mine is a short-eared dog, and Jason’s is a dhole.”

Rodney snorted softly as he watched everyone puzzle over the names. He pulled out a tablet and typed in the names. “Here they are. We’ll look up the rest as people name them.”

“Sounds good. Pass that around?” John said. He leaned over to look at the two animals. “They look cute.”

“Sir! Please don’t say that,” Markham begged.

“But they are!” John said with a smirk. “So, you all know who I am. My guide is Rodney McKay. My spirit animal is a black jaguar and Rodney’s is a timber wolf.”

“And both of you are alphas,” Jensen observed as he handed around a tablet of his own. “Right. Well, I’m Jake Jensen, and a guide. My sentinel is Carlos Alvarez. His nickname is Cougar and he prefers to be called that. Our spirit animals are a grey wolf for me and a cougar for Cougar.”

John turned to his fellow sentinel and raised an eyebrow at him. “Did the name come because of your spirit animal?”

Alvarez gave him a slow smile and tugged the brim of his cowboy hat down over his eyes. “Si.”

Jensen shrugged as John looked at him. “He’s been leaning into the whole kitty thing for years, sir.”

“So, it seems,” John said. He turned to look at Lorne and Parrish. “Gentlemen?”

The two men exchanged a glance before Lorne sat up. “My name is Evan Lorne and I’m a sentinel. My guide is David Parrish, and both of our spirit guides are birds. Mine is a jaeger, and David’s is a crane.”

“I’m going to guess you like flying,” John said, looking at Lorne. At his XO’s nod, he turned to look at Parrish. “David?”

“Eh,” Parrish said with a shrug. “I like it well enough, but I’m honestly more at home in a tidal marsh.”

Rodney snickered as he brought up pictures of the two spirit animals and shared them around. “Should we expect you to eat a frog or two?”

“Possibly. They aren’t bad eating. Just fishy occasionally,” Parrish said with a smile.

“Yuck,” John muttered before turning to the next pair. “Okay, you two are up.”

“Right,” I’m Peter Grodin, guide and my sentinel is Laura Cadman,” Grodin said, clearly pleased with his pairing as he picked up one of his sentinels’ hands and placed a brief kiss on it. “My spirit animal is a lynx and hers is a caracal. And yes, I would say we do share some characteristics, and no, I’m not going to say what.”

“Fair and welcome,” John said. He waited while Rodney pulled up the two cats and raised an eyebrow at them. Cute and deadly, both of them. He turned to look at Bates and raised an eyebrow at the man in question. If his spirit animal wasn’t something with territorial leanings, he’d be deeply surprised.

“Sir,” Bates protested.

“Come on Bates. Share it with the rest of us,” Rodney prodded. He accepted the tablet back from Teyla and turned his attention to his fellow guide. “Cooper?”

“Dr. McKay,” Cooper said. She took a deep breath and let it out slowly before she sighed. “Okay, my name is Beryl Cooper and I’m a guide. My sentinel is Gene Bates and his spirit animal is a walrus. Mine is a leopard seal.”

John froze in place as he processed that. Neither of those animals was in any way harmless and both of them were territorial and grumpy when fucked with. It said very interesting things about the base portions of both of their personalities. “Well, we’re on the water. I hope you’re both comfortable?”

“I hate fish, sir,” Cooper said with a smile. “But yes, I am comfortable. It’s nice being back out to sea after years of being in Colorado.”

“You’re in the Navy, chief. And you hate fish?” Jensen asked, confused.

“I know, it’s weird. But I don’t like it, and yes, I know my spirit animal would love them if he was an actual, physical being, but ick. However, I love the water, love swimming, and I don’t mind the cold at all,” Cooper explained.

The laugh that everyone let out was lighthearted and John relaxed as the tablet made its way around. When it hit Ronon, Tyre, and Teyla he kept an eye on them to see their reactions. “Those are some big teeth,” Ronon said after looking at the picture of the walrus. “And it’s fat.”

“Both of them live in an area on our planet where it’s very, very cold, for months at a time. And that fat keeps them warm when they are swimming in water that would kill an unprotected human in a few minutes,” Rodney explained. “And all their food comes from the sea, one way or another.”

“They swim? How?” Teyla asked as she took the tablet. “Are they nice? The animals that are like your spirit animals?”

“They can be. And they can be quite playful. But they are both predators and very successful ones at that,” Bates explained. “Hers more than mine to be honest.”

“Interesting,” Teyla said softly. She held her hand out and a feline-ish animal appeared under her palm. Buff-colored, long-haired, and large, the animal reminded him of something vaguely lionish. “I am Teyla Emmagan, I am a sentinel and my spirit animal is a coyaxen. They are a predator on Athos.”

“My name is Miko Kusanagi and I am Teyla’s guide. My spirit animal is an Iriomote cat,” Miko said before leaning into her sentinel’s shoulder. Her spirit animal appeared in her lap and nudged her chin before walking over her to settle between the coyaxen’s shoulder blades.

Rodney snorted once in amusement as he looked at the two spirit animals before slanting John a glance. “Typical cat.”

“Why do I like you again?” John asked the world at large.

“No idea,” Rodney said with a smile. He glanced over at the space between them and his smile got wider as their spirit animals appeared. His wolf was lying under John’s panther, who was grooming the wolf’s ears. “But it’s obvious you do.”

John huffed softly before he turned to look at Ronon and Tyre. “And your spirit animals?”

Ronon snorted once as he watched John’s spirit animal. “Mine does much the same, Sheppard. We’re all bossed around by our guides.”

“Funny, Ronon,” Tyre said with a smirk. “Right. I’m Tyre Daos, as you call it, I’m a guide and my spirit animal is a plyr. Ronon is my sentinel and his spirit animal is a gyral.” As he spoke, both spirit animals appeared in a pile at Tyre’s feet.

“I take it the gyral is the one on the bottom?” John asked as he stared at the two animals. Tyre’s looked like it belonged in the canid family, but unlike a wolf, it had a face that more closely resembled a pug butwith  large ears and eyes. Ronon’s was as black as his jaguar, but with a sharper face and ears. Both animals were large with heavy muscles, very sharp claws, and large, forward-facing eyes. Predators.

“Yes,” Tyre confirmed. He reached down to pet both animals without a care.

“They are very impressive,” Rodney said. He leaned forward to look at both of them. “Do you know if the natural animal is still alive on Sateda?”

“I expect they are,” Ronon said softly. He looked down at his spirit animal and sighed as it lay down under the weight of Tyre’s. “We never domesticated either species, but they were respected and protected on Sateda.”

“That’s great,” John said. He turned to look at Teyla’s coyaxen and waved a hand at it. “Teyla, did your people domesticate the coyaxen?”

“We lived in harmony with them, for the most part,” Teyla said. She reached down to touch her spirit animal and smiled at it. “It’s been several years since I’ve seen one in person, but we enjoyed our time with them.” She looked around the room before pinning Rodney with a glance. “Are any of the creatures represented by your spirit animals domesticated?”

“Jensen and I have the only two who have domesticated descendants,” Rodney said. He waved at the two wolves lounging on the floor in front of them. “Humans on Earth with wolves a very long time ago. Not many of their descendants look like these two. The various cats here have cousins who were domesticated, but none have as direct a tie as the wolves do.”

“Interesting. I would like to learn more of this,” Teyla said. She turned to look at her guide and then Miko’s Iriomote cat. “They are very pretty.”

“And some of the fiercest hunters on our planet,” Rodney said. “I’ll send you information on the various real-life animals that are represented here. In the meantime, we are here to form a pack.”

“Do you need help, Dr. McKay?” Jensen asked.

“I would appreciate the help,” Rodney said. “This is going to mean meditation, everyone. So, sit down and get comfortable.”

John settled down on the floor of the dojo and folded himself into the lotus. He loathed sitting meditation most days and preferred it when he could do moving meditation by running or even katas. But he had done it enough that even just settling into the position helped calm his mind. John reached out to Rodney and he could feel the bond with his guide thicken and strengthen as his guide got comfortable.

It took several minutes for everyone to settle and for their breathing to sync with Rodney’s. He could feel the psychic plane surround them and anticipation started to build like pressure in a balloon. John could feel the exact moment the pack bonds between them all snapped into place. The rush of connection moved through him like a pressure wave and John rode it out.

He and his guide were no longer alone, they were now part of a pack. And that changed everything.