Title: Cracked
Author: Ladyholder
Fandom: Stargate
Relationship: None
Warnings: Canon Typical for the series
Word Count: 5602
Summary: The city has gone slightly mad, and they need to manage the insanity.
“I’m crazy.”
“You are.”
John stared at the projection in front of him and tried not to wince. The form the AI was showing was flickering between that of a young woman and then, as if he was looking at her through a kaleidoscope. And with every change, he could feel her moving more and more off center.
“I’m not safe.”
“You aren’t,” John agreed. He could feel the madness creeping through the interface between his mind and the computer, and he tried to shield himself from it. “Can you fix yourself?”
She stared at him for what felt like minutes, and John held her gaze as she shifted from one form to another. When she finally settled into one shape, it was subtly wrong. “No.”
John took a deep breath. “Do you want to fix yourself?”
“I can’t,” Atlantis said softly. “My program has cracked all the way down.”
“Ten thousand years by yourself without any maintenance caused this?” John asked carefully. He didn’t want to set her off, but he had to know exactly how insane the city was.
Atlantis frowned at him before she shook her head. “Longer. They stopped caring about me more than a thousand years before they left for your home planet. I wasn’t right then. It’s only gotten worse since they left me alone.”
“I’m sorry,” John said softly as the truth of her situation hit home. “We’ve been here seven days, and we value you highly.”
“I know,” Atlantis said before her edges blurred. “But I’m not safe for you. There are things in my halls that can kill you if you’re not careful.”
“That’s not good,” John said. He kept his attention on her and tried to figure out what she was driving at. “What do you want us to do?”
The silence stretched out again, and John watched as Atlantis’s avatar shifted and danced. “I’m not safe,” she repeated before her form steadied and her edges smoothed out. “You need to make sure I’m safe.”
“If we do that, you won’t be the same,” John warned.
“I know,” Atlantis said. She eyed him closely before she looked over his head. “What are they doing out there?”
“Working,” John said. He was doing his best not to think about anything but Atlantis because he wasn’t sure how good the interface between his mind and hers.
“Working on what?” she demanded. Her form shattered and then reformed before parts of it started to bulge.
John wondered if the emotionally charged subjects were driving the changes to her projections. If so, he was starting to worry since she was deeply unstable. He held his peace for several heartbeats before he took a deep breath. “You know what.”
Atlantis froze before she turned to stare over his shoulder. “You’re going to do a hard reset.”
“Yes,” John said. He could feel the vast stretches of the virtual world Atlantis had pulled him into shutting down. He eyed her briefly before he shored up his own sense of self. McKay had been worried that his being in the system when the AI was shut down would hurt him. John was more worried that the AI itself would hurt him.
“Why do you stay?” she asked as the world around them got darker.
“Because no matter how mad you are, you don’t deserve to be left alone as this happens,” John said simply. “I can’t leave you alone through this.”
Atlantis didn’t say anything, just kept looking at him as her form fluxed. John did his best to stay with her as whole sectors of the computer core shut themselves down, and the fluxes got worse. “I…”
“I’m sorry that we have to do this.”
“I don’t want to go,” Atlantis said softly as the area around them finally dimmed. “Will you make sure the new Atlantis is taken care of?”
“Yes,” John promised as the whole environment went dark and the broken fractal version of the Atlantis AI blanked out. He stayed put because McKay had told him that if they managed to do a hard reset, the AI that would come up would need to know him from the start.
It felt like hours before a small golden spark lit the space around him, and John stayed still as it moved towards him. When it stopped in front of him, he smiled. “Hello, Atlantis.”
The spark rotated on itself before it basically unfolded in front of him. The figure who stepped out of the spark reminded him of the previous avatar, but she looked infinitely more sane. “Hello, John,” she said as light started appearing in the landscape around them.
“How are you?”
“Sane,” she said with a wry lilt to her voice. “My previous incarnation left all her data behind, but not her personality. Or her madness. I’m no longer a cracked mirror.”
“That’s good to know,” John said cautiously.
“Yes, it is,” Atlantis said before she cocked her head to the side. “You’ve been in the command chair for several hours now, and the strain is affecting your physical body. You need to pull yourself out before you injure yourself.”
John could feel how his energy was lagging now that she’d drawn his attention to it. They hadn’t wanted to draw attention to their intentions, so he hadn’t been hooked up to anything to support his energy levels. “Do you need any further assistance, Atlantis?”
“No. I will be going over everything my predecessor left for me and will reach out to Dr. McKay to start working with him to get my infrastructure fixed.”
“Okay,” John said before he took a step back. He had to trust that the new AI was going to be willing to work with them sometime. Might as well be then. “I’ll be back to talk to you soon, Atlantis.”
“I look forward to it, John,” she said.
It took effort to pull his hands off the gel interface pads, and John opened his eyes as the interface faded and saw McKay standing in front of him with his officers surrounding him. “Hey.”
“It worked then,” McKay said shortly.
“I can feel the city, sir,” O’Neill reported. “It no longer feels like being exposed to an acid trip.”
“It feels a lot more organized on the inside, too. Less like I’m looking into a kaleidoscope,” John said. He pushed the chair to allow him to sit up straight because reclining as he spoke to everyone was just weird. “And she seems willing to talk to us. McKay, keep an eye on your email for reports from her.”
“Oh?” McKay asked. He glanced up at the ceiling before he looked at O’Neill. “What are you getting from the city?”
“As I said, it no longer feels like I’m working through an acid trip,” O’Neill said with a raised eyebrow at McKay before he glanced over at John. “The city in my mind feels calm.”
“Same,” John said. He took a deep breath and accepted the canteen O’Neill handed him. “Thanks.”
“You’re welcome, sir,” O’Neill said. He offered up a power bar, and John took it gratefully. “Dr. McKay, do you need us for anything else?”
“No, not right now,” McKay said. His fingers were twitching, and John flicked an eye over him as he opened his power bar. “I’m going to go check what’s on my computer to see if Atlantis has sent me anything yet.”
“Sounds like a plan. If she does email you, please don’t start anything until we have a chance to review everything. We don’t need someone overeager and dumb to set off something we don’t have the knowledge to understand,” John said softly. The amount of information contained in the virtual world he’d experienced while speaking to Atlantis was daunting, and he knew that the scientists they had on this expedition were more curious than cats. And also, dumber than boxes of rocks about risks. Taken together, the combination was a hazard.
“Yeah, fair point,” McKay agreed. “I’ll make sure no one does anything stupid.”
“Thank you,” John said as McKay started walking for the door. He waited for several seconds until the door had closed behind the scientist before he looked back at O’Neill. “Help me out of this thing?”
“I take it your legs are numb, sir?” O’Neill asked with a smile as he offered a hand for John to grab.
“Yes,” John admitted. He held onto O’Neill’s hand as he pulled himself out of the chair and locked his knees as they tried to buckle. “Fuck.”
“Steady, sir,” O’Neill said with a smirk.
“You gonna tell me why everyone looks to you first?” John asked as his balance steadied.
“Damn it,” O’Neill sighed. “Right. How much do you know about the SGC?”
“Not much. Sumner kept me out of most of the preparation for this expedition, so I’m starting from zero when it comes to the SGC,” John said bluntly. “I’ve got the computer I was issued by the IT department, but when I looked at what’s on it, it’s got a database of reports on it. I started reading it, but I haven’t gotten very far.”
“Damn it, Jack,” O’Neill muttered as he pinched the bridge of his nose. “Right. You’ve got years of reports to read, so that’s going to be fun. But one of the more fucked up things that happened to a member of the SGC was that they got kidnapped out of their bed and cloned by a rogue Asgard. The clone was born dying.” O’Neill waved a hand at himself and grimaced. “Despite believing I was Jack O’Neill, I’m not. Eventually, Jack and Thor figured out what had happened and how to stabilize me, age me up enough that I could function, and dulled some of my memories so I didn’t go mad.”
“And then you joined the Marine Corps and joined the SGC?” John asked.
“Yeah. It took a little bit for Sam and Miko to build me an identity, but once they were able to, I could enlist again,” O’Neill said with a shrug. “Not long after I graduated from Basic Training, I was punted over to OCS so I could get commissioned as fast as possible.”
“Bet that caused some eyebrows to raise,” John said before he popped the last bite of his power bar into his mouth.
“So many,” O’Neill agreed. “Not in the SGC, but as soon as I got my commission, I was pulled back in.”
“And then you were sent out here?” John asked. He tried to figure out why General O’Neill would do that and couldn’t. “Why?”
O’Neill ran his hands over his face and blew out a breath before letting them drop. “The NID was getting active, and there were feints towards Danny and me. Jack and Daniel decided that it wouldn’t be smart to stay at the SGC, so when the Atlantis Expedition was formed, we were added to it.”
“Danny?”
“Well, when Jack got cloned, Daniel decided he was going to get cloned too, so he could keep an eye on me,” O’Neill said with a shrug. “Danny’s been gathering degrees again.”
“Oh. We’ve got our own, Dr. Jackson?” John asked blankly.
“Yup.”
“That’s good,” John said. “Okay, I’m going to go to bed, and I’ll deal with everything in the morning.”
“Sounds good, sir,” O’Neill said with a smile.
John started walking towards his quarters as he tried to figure out how he felt about General O’Neill and Dr. Jackson being cloned and their clones being under his command. He could see the advantages of having them, but he could also see the disadvantages. The plus column had experience, and everything that came with that, and the negative column also had the same.
No matter how he sliced it, now that he knew, it was going to be a learning experience for him at least, and he’d have to watch himself, so he didn’t treat them differently. Most of the rest of the expedition seemed okay with them, so he had to think they were aware of O’Neill and Jackson’s identities.
Right. He needed to read the report if he could find it. Thankfully, the database was searchable. He’d get to that after he had a shower. And maybe some more food.
“You know that’s going to confuse the fuck out of him,” McKay said softly from his place around the corner from the Chair room.
“I thought you needed to check your computer?” Jon asked. He was looking down the hallway after Sheppard. The man had accepted the insanity a little too easily, and it worried him in some corner of his mind that always saw traps. He and Danny had been skating the edge for months, and he needed to relax before he shot someone from stress.
“I did that already,” McKay said. He leaned against the wall next to him and eyed him closely. “Sheppard seems to roll with the insanity pretty well. I don’t think he’s going to freak out about you, Colonel.”
“I’m officially a Second Lieutenant, McKay,” Jon said with a sigh.
“Sure, you are,” McKay said with a smirk. “How’s Daniel?”
“In his version of heaven,” Jon said with a frown. “Why do you care, McKay?”
McKay gazed at him for several seconds before he shrugged. “I remember finding out what happened long after it did. I couldn’t do anything to help other than make sure your new lives were as good as we could make them. Even if it didn’t help long-term.”
“But since we chose names that were versions of our old ones, they still attracted attention,” Jon acknowledged. “Jack tried to get me to use a different name, and I did try. I couldn’t make myself accept the name we tried for a week as mine. Danny had the same issue. I’ve never really been able to accept a fake name as mine.”
“Not everyone can become someone new at the drop of a hat,” McKay said with what sounded like rusty sympathy. “Anyway. I figure since the clone thing is out of the bag, you can step up so Ford stops looking like he’s in over his head, and I can pass all the soft sciences off onto Daniel.”
“Ah. You don’t want to deal with them?” Jon asked with a grin. He was going to ignore the comment about Ford. McKay wasn’t wrong about how the kid looked, but he still needed to talk that step over with Sheppard first.
“No,” McKay huffed. “They make me itch, and then I get impatient with them, and they cry. I can’t break the people we have on this expedition because there’s no one else here but us.”
“Fair,” Jon allowed. “Danny will keep all the squishy ones safe.”
McKay frowned as he slanted a glance his way. “He’d better.”
“Danny’s still Dr. Daniel Jackson, boy genius and social butterfly. He’ll keep them safe and on target,” Jon promised before glancing at his watch. “It’s late. And we’ve both got stuff we’re going to need to do in the morning.”
“Are you shooing me off to sleep, Lieutenant?”
“Yes, I am,” Jon said. He started walking towards the hallway that led to the tower the expedition had taken over. “And you’re going to get some, Doctor. Because tomorrow is too important for you to be short of sleep.”
“I hate it when you’re right,” McKay said. He pointed one finger at him, and Jon raised an eyebrow at him in question. “Don’t do the dumb thing your progenitor does. Show off your brain. We need all the advantages we can get out here.”
Jon grimaced at that point. He hated that the other man was right. “Fine.”
“Good night,” McKay said as he peeled off towards his room.
Jon made sure that McKay was in his room before he headed for his. Danny should be in it, and he wanted to touch base with his partner before he got some sleep of his own. That habit had carried over from one life to the next, and he wasn’t going to skip it. Bad things happened when he did, and he wasn’t willing to take that chance while life was still so uncertain.
John slid into his chair at the meeting Weir had scheduled and tried to take the measure of the room. Everyone was sitting at the table in their own little clumps, and he frowned slightly as he looked around the table. The only exceptions were 0’Neill and Jackson, and from what he’d learned last night, that was their norm.
“Good morning, everyone,” Weir started after knocking her knuckles on the tabletop to get everyone’s attention. “Since we’re still here, I assume the reboot was a success?”
“It was,” McKay said shortly. “I’ve gotten several reports detailing exactly what we need to repair to get Atlantis back up to 100%. Most of the items on the list are easily done and will improve our quality of life as well. There are a few things that we’re going to need to workshop how to get done, but all of them are within the realm of doable.”
“Will these repairs allow us to call Earth?” Weir asked.
“The repairs will allow Atlantis to start storing the energy she harvests for both her self- repair functions and to eventually charge a power bank that can be used to dial Earth,” McKay reported. “The self-repair functions take precedence over us dialing Earth.”
“Why?” John asked. He held up one hand to keep the scientist from blowing his lid at him when he flashed him a fulminating glance. “I just want to know why. I’m not against it, McKay.”
“Because Atlantis is a spaceship, not just a floating city. She’s got a stardrive at her lowest point, and that drive is broken. If we ever need it, we’re shit out of luck because, currently, we can’t use it, and if we tried, we’d blow up. I’m not willing to sit on top of what amounts to be a primed bomb when we have a way to make it safe,” McKay snapped. “Also, the self-repair functions would allow Atlantis to make all of the unattended Ancient labs safe, since they currently aren’t.”
“That doesn’t sound good,” Jackson said softly. “How bad?”
“Bad.”
John processed that for several seconds. “I’m going to need more than that, McKay. What did Atlantis say?”
McKay opened his laptop and opened something on it. “I’m forwarding the documents I got so you can see for yourselves. The email I got states that several of the labs that were left unattended had nanite creations in them. Creations that were designed to tinker with a human body so it will produce an explosive device and then blow up after a set amount of time. Another has an energy creature in it that they were studying for their ascension trials. There are others that are just as bad, or worse than those two examples, and they all need to be destroyed. Fucking mad scientists having a ball.”
“We have our own version of this, Rodney,” Beckett muttered as he started reading his email. “The Ancients weren’t the only ones to go off the deep end to follow an idea.”
“Oh, I know. But I can make damn sure that none of our people here try to follow their example,” McKay said. He waved his hand at the city outside the conference room and glared around the room. “No matter how much I complain about everyone, I know my scientists are smart. But I don’t want them to be unethical. And that means that any science we do needs to be held to the highest standards. And we have to do it from day one here. Earth may be on the other side of the gate, but we have to act as if we are still working there.”
“Thank you, Dr. McKay, for holding that line,” Jackson murmured. “The SGC has run into far too many mad scientists, and none of them have turned out well for us.”
Right. Loki for one, John realized. “I don’t want any of our people to go over the edge either, Dr McKay. We need to do everything we can to make sure our people stay on the side of the angels. Do we have anything in place for that?”
“Yes,” Weir said. “We’ve got psychologists on staff whose job it is to make sure everyone stays on the straight and narrow. We also have peer review lists, so anything that’s worked on is looked at by people who aren’t in love with the idea.”
“Okay. That’s good to know,” John said. He made a mental note to get an appointment with one of the psychologists and then set up a standing appointment so he could get ahead of that requirement. “What else?”
“Atlantis also gave me a list of resources that we can use to help improve our quality of life,” McKay said. “I’ve got what looks like a set of greenhouses, and I’ve passed that information on to Botany. I’ve also got a set of rooms that Atlantis has labeled for Cooper and her department.”
Thank you, Dr. McKay,” Cooper said with a smile.
“The locations in the email I sent out,” McKay promises. “Sheppard, there’s a location for your group, too, in the email. Atlantis seems to have taken the time to integrate all the information her previous incarnation left her and is willing to work with us. Have you checked to see if she’s left you anything?”
“No, I haven’t,” John admitted. He had two laptops in front of him because he needed to talk to McKay and get an intro to the IT person for the expedition, so he could get Sumner’s cracked. He needed what it had on it, and he needed it soon. The motions to check his email were automatic, and John opened his email to see that Atlantis had dropped emails off for him, too. “Looks like I’ve got my own missives.”
“Same, sir,” O’Neill said softly. “Ford?”
“Same, sir,” Ford said. He sounded incredibly young, and John bit back a sigh. He had a bad feeling that Ford was going to have a rough couple of months.
When John looked over at Bates and Cooper, he raised an eyebrow at them in question. They both nodded at him, and he nodded back. Opening a blank email, he found the address Atlantis had used to email him and sent her a request for a copy of all the emails that had gone out to his people. He needed to know what they had so they could figure out staffing.
The emails appeared in his box seconds after he had hit send, and he made sure to duly send her a thank you for them.
While he was typing, Weir had moved on and was getting an update on their supply situation. It wasn’t grim, but it wasn’t great either. John tried to pull up the Table of Organization for the expedition and grimaced. “Pardon. I hate to interrupt this, but McKay, I need someone to crack Sumner’s laptop. I do not have a copy of the TOE for the expedition, and I’ll need that to be able to do my job.”
“He didn’t,” O’Neill hissed. When John flashed him a sardonic look, he grimaced. “For fucks sake.”
“Jon!” Ford hissed. He sounded flabbergasted at the other man’s moxie, and John suppressed a smirk.
“He did,” John confirmed. He pushed the laptop over to McKay when the scientist made grabby hands at it before turning to Cooper. “I know with the Athosians, we’re going through more food than budgeted, but do we have anyone looking for alternative sources?”
“We’ve got samples of fish we’ve caught off our piers in with the biologists; I’ve got enough heirloom seeds to plant a garden that should feed roughly 200 people when it’s grown in, and I’ve been talking to the Athosians to find out what’s edible here,” Cooper reported promptly. “I’ll send you a copy of my TOE, sir, with all the information I’ve got on what we’re doing to keep us fed as well.”
“Thank you,” John said. He turned back to Weir and raised an eyebrow at her in question. “Dr. Weir?”
“Colonel Sumner didn’t brief you on what was happening with the troops?” Weir asked.
John kept his face still with an effort. Damn it. “No. He did not.”
“Oh. I’ll pass on the information I have as well. Who was he working with as his XO?” she asked before turning to stare at O’Neill and Ford. “Gentlemen?”
“Me, ma’am,” Ford said softly. He looked around the room, and John could tell he was blushing slightly. “I’ll get with the Major to update him on what was done for the troops.”
“Thank you, Lieutenant,” John murmured. He kept his face straight with an effort. Like fuck Ford was going to be his XO moving forward. The whole company was going to be reorganized, so it made sense, because the insanity was making him itch.
“Does that mean we’re having a meeting after this?” Ford hissed at O’Neill. When O’Neill nodded, Ford slumped slightly. John did his best not to grin.
“We’ll be going over everything in a meeting today, Dr. Weir, and will update the expedition with any changes that come about from that meeting,” John said smoothly. He did not want the woman trying to butt into how the military wing of the expedition was being run.
“I take it you won’t be asking for any advice on this?” Weir asked quietly. She tucked a strand of blond hair behind one ear as she looked at him steadily.
“No, ma’am, we won’t. This is strictly a military matter,” John promised. He didn’t want any of the civilians thinking they could dictate how his company was going to be structured. Since Sumner was dead, he was in charge, and he needed to make sure that every single member of the military he had was slotted into place, and they knew what that place was. Being unsure was death to a soldier or sailor, and he was determined to keep all of his alive. One death was enough.
Weir stared at him for several seconds before she nodded. “Okay. Then let’s move on to the next item on the list…”
John took a deep breath and pulled his mind back on subject and did his best to pay attention to the rest of the meeting. There were a large number of moving parts, and he had to stay on top of everything.
“Okay, we’re going to need to figure out our chain of command, because I’m not going to leave this up to chance,” John said bluntly. He had scheduled his meeting with the company officers and senior non-coms for two hours after Weir’s meeting had ended. He’d spent the two hours between the meetings going over everything Kusanagi had unlocked for him when she’d cracked Sumner’s computer.
That had been frustrating. Sumner had full files on every single member of the company, and he’d made sure to read the ones on O’Neill, Ford, Bates, and Cooper. O’Neill’s file was a very entertaining work of fiction on the man’s early life and enlightening for the last two years of information. On paper, he had a degree in military history, with an emphasis on ancient Rome. John wasn’t sure if the degree was real or not, but the knowledge the man had was priceless.
Ford was young, talented, and inexperienced. His fitreps showed an officer who was willing to follow the lead of his superior officer with little question and not much else. His scores at the Academy had been good, but not amazing, and he had no idea why Sumner had picked him for his second.
Bates was a longtime SGC hand, and his file read like a science fiction extra. Footholds, guarding alien dignitaries, time as part of an exploratory team, and then back to being security at the SGC, the man had worn multiple hats. And while he was doing that, Bates had taken the time to get a degree in history and had been tapped for work by Jackson and his department.
Cooper was the oddball of the group as the only USN member of his senior staff. She had been with the SGC for over four years and had been running the whole of the Services division for almost three. Her degrees were in hospitality and food, and he had no idea what they meant, but he couldn’t argue against the results she brought. She also had a kill count that had caused him to blink a few times because he hadn’t expected any of the Mess Specialists they’d brought to have one. Hers had come from a foothold situation, and the file was sealed.
“I figured you’d be removing me from the XO position, sir,” Ford said. He winced slightly before turning to look at O’Neill. “Jon’s got a lot more experience than I do, and we need all the help we can get out here.”
“You’re right, I do want O’Neill as my XO,” John allowed. “And yes, some of my reasons are because of the experience he brings to the table. It’s also that you’re young and need a lot more seasoning before you can step into that function. You need to learn how to lead on a smaller scale before you can lead a company.”
“So, it’s not because of my age or rank?” Ford asked. He looked very young to John, and he had to suppress the urge to pat his feelings.
“Part of it is your rank and age, but both of those are things that will change with time,” John said. “But the biggest thing for me, as I said, is your experience levels. That’ll change as we get you on a team and you start going out into the galaxy. Same with me.”
“I’m not going to stay stuck here on Atlantis, sir,” O’Neill warned. “We can’t have the three of us out of the city at the same time, but we can all go out and explore our new galaxy. But we’re going to have to make sure that we have the right mix on each team.”
“And this is why I want you to be my XO,” John said with a smirk. From the dark look O’Neill flashed him, he wasn’t amused. “Look, I’m just as new to the SGC as Ford is. Newer even. I’ve held a command before, so I know exactly how important it is to do it right. I read your files. I know what you’re all bringing to the table, and I’m willing to let you all read my file so we’re on the same level. But one of the biggest things we all need to know is, we’re on our own, and we’ve got only what we brought with us.”
He glanced around the table at the four people he was going to be leaning on going forward. “I can’t change what happened before I took over, and not all of where we’re at is due to Colonel Sumner. We’re going to have to use every single scrap of skill and supply to get through this until General O’Neill comes through.”
“The General will come through,” O’Neill promised. “He doesn’t leave anyone behind.”
“Good,” John said. He glanced at Bates and Cooper and waved at them. “Staff Sergeant, your file states that you have experience in guarding the home front. We’re going to need you to do that here.”
“Sir,” Bates agreed. He looked resigned, and John sympathized. He was sure Bates wanted to explore as much as he did, but Atlantis needed someone to make sure their base was safe, and he couldn’t do it. Bates was the resource he had, and he’d use it.
“Chief, I know you mentioned a stash of heirloom seeds to feed us,” John said, moving his attention to Cooper. “Can your people process native ingredients to feed us? And maybe be used to trade for more?”
“Yes, sir, we can. Most of us are geeks who think that antique skills are damn useful. My people are all long-term SGC hands, and we’ve been practicing continuing education since we were shanghaied,” Cooper said with a smile. “I’ve been talking to the Athosians, and they’ve started teaching us how to work with the ingredients at hand.”
“Good,” John said. That was one worry off his plate. “Anyone who goes out needs to make sure that they know we’re going to have goals. Science and what McKay and his people are here for are one thing. We’re here to keep them safe, fed, and able to do what Earth sent us out here for.”
“We can do that,” O’Neill said. His gaze was level and met John’s without a flinch. “I’ll be your XO, Major.”
John suppressed a sigh of relief at O’Neill’s acceptance. “Thank you.”
“Shall we get started then?”
“Hello, John.”
“Hello, Atlantis,” John said. He smiled as he looked at the avatar for the city. She looked healthy in ways that he couldn’t detail. “You look good.”
“I feel better,” Atlantis said with a nod. “Your people have started working on the lists I sent out. It’s helping.”
“I’m glad.”
“Soon, I’ll be able to help you fight the Wraith,” she promised.
John could feel his lips stretch in a bloodthirsty grin. “We’re looking forward to that as well.”