Unfinished WIP: excerpt: SGA: Upward Over the Mountain [a]
Upward Over the Mountain
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Upward Over the Mountain
(a Season Five Alternate Reality)
for Mira
by
Auburn
words: ~36,725
a/n: The first part of a longer, incomplete work meant as a gift for mirabile_dictu. Abandoned due to plot, structure and character faults that are inherent to the original concept. Conceived in 2007 and written intermittently over 2008 and not canonical. Posted for Fictional Amnesty Day. Last modified on 11.29.08.
I.
Woolsey replacing Carter rocked Atlantis. It affected all their trade agreements and alliances as well. Which brought the Genii to Atlantis. John had been zoning out while Chancellor of Genea, Marshal Paramount and Chief of the Directorate of Science Radim and Woolsey exchanged diplomatic assurances and felt each other out. Half his mind strayed to the patrol roster Lorne had shown him at the daily military sitrep. His side still hurt, so John had been subjected to more paperwork even than usual.
There had been something in the roster that bothered him, but he'd been due at morning staff and told Lorne he would sign off on it later. Listening to Ladon and Woolsey fence oh so politely, John had time to review the roster in his head.
Higgs and LaRue.
John's mouth quirked in satisfaction as he identified the potential problem. Those two needed to be kept separate for a while, not walking patrol together. Aside from saving everyone from Michael, the Daedalus had brought mail and hard copy documents from Earth, including LaRue's final divorce decree. Higgs would take advantage of patrolling together to relentlessly pick at LaRue until he exploded. John had gone through something similar; he'd decked Dex behind the O club at Bhagram the week after the papers from Nancy's lawyer came in his mail.
He'd tell Lorne to separate them, leave out his own experience.
"I understand that your government has continued with its nuclear weapons program?" Woolsey asked.
"With the shielding Dr. McKay instructed us to develop," Radim said. "Everyone now carries a weekly exposure sensor."
Woolsey looked like he'd bitten into something rotten. "Everyone?"
"Everyone," Radim confirmed.
"How... impressive."
"As was the number of our people who would be dead without Atlantis' help. Dr. Weir was a generous woman."
Radim had looked genuinely regretful when told that Elizabeth was gone. He'd trod carefully around Carter, recognizing the steel under the friendly exterior. Now he was trying to feel out Woolsey and seemed alternately contemptuous and wary of him.
"Dr. Weir was a remarkable woman," Woolsey acknowledged and seemed to mean it.
"We'd begun to think your people were matrilineal," Radim said.
Woolsey began coughing and John hid a snicker.
"Then it's just a coincidence that two different women of great beauty and intelligence have been given - earned command here before you?" Radim asked innocently.
"Yep," John chimed in to prove he had been listening after all.
Well, and to annoy Woolsey. That was always a plus.
That switched Radim's attention to John, however.
"I believe congratulations are in order," he said. "The Genii have heard that the Athosians and Teyla Emmagan have been recovered."
"Some of the Athosians," John answered. "Not too many of them were still...alive." Human, he stopped himself from finishing. "But we've got Teyla back and her baby." Something to smile about amid the worries plaguing him since the drugs wore off after his surgery. They'd lost all of the Athosian victims of Michael's hybridization procedure when Caldwell killed Michael's cruiser except Kanaan.
Keller had reversed almost all of the changes to Kanaan, which made the other deaths even more of a tragedy, but there was something wrong between Teyla and Kanaan. None of the rest of the team had a clue what and they were afraid to ask her. No one wanted to remind her of everything she'd gone through.
Ladon nodded with a real looking smile. "A child is always the best consolation."
"Well, I think this does it for this meeting," Woolsey said. "Chancellor Radim, I hope we can look forward to a long and mutually beneficial relationship between the Genii and Atlantis."
Ladon mouthed platitudes back and they headed out of the conference room.
John was surprised to see Teyla in the control room with Torren. Something told him she'd been waiting for them.
Ladon greeted her and asked, "Is there anything I or the Genii may do for you or your people?"
Teyla seemed to search Radim's face.
"Yes," she said at last. "I would have you stand as kith to Torren along with John, Rodney, and Ronon."
John blinked in shock. Ladon? Chancellor of Genea and a half dozen other titles Ladon who had once helped invade their city? Teyla wanted one of the Genii as the Athosian version of uncle and foster parent to Torren? Which would make them all family in a way, according to Pegasus tradition, since John and the team had already agreed to also stand as kith to the baby. He wanted to glare at her, but something in Teyla's expression stopped him. He realized she'd planned this.
Ladon looked as flummoxed as John felt.
Teyla held out her free hand while cradling Torren against her shoulder.
With a wary glance at John, Ladon took it. "I would be most honored, Teyla Emmagan."
"Hmph. Well. I'll leave you to work out any details," Woolsey muttered and left the three of them alone.
Teyla named her son Torren John Emmagan, in accordance with the Athosian tradition of surnames from the mother's line. She would introduce him as 'son of Kanaan' as she had always called herself daughter of Torren Tagan. Later, if Torren wanted to, he might chose the honor name he used to mark some other important relationship, such as his kith or his partner in marriage. Whoever was the most important relation in his life.
Teyla began introducing herself as Teyla Emmagan, mother of Torren, the first week after his birth.
Teyla explained it all before they swore themselves to basically act as Torren's parents if anything happened to her. She also teased Rodney and Ronon that she had chosen John as Torren's second name because only John hadn't pestered her to name her child for him.
"Better name the next one for both of us then," Ronon replied.
Rodney spluttered, "Hey, but I was there when he was born!"
"Yes, Rodney, you were there," Teyla agreed.
John blinked and muttered, "Next one?"
He also thought that if he could introduce himself by who was most important to him, he would simply point to the rest of his team, and flushed warm and happy when Rodney said, "So, that'd make me Dr. Rodney McKay of AR-1 in this ritual thing you want us to go through?"
Teyla smiled sweetly at him.
"I would ask you to speak as a someone from Earth, while John takes the part of Atlantis," she said.
Ronon grunted and then said, "Not much left of Sateda. You sure you want me?"
"Of course, Ronon. While you live, Sateda remains."
"You've got as much right to speak for Sateda as I do for Earth," Rodney added.
John thumped Ronon's shoulder lightly.
"Let's get this show on the road. Teyla, where do you want to do this?"
She lifted Torren, who was sleeping, higher in her arms.
"I thought the observation deck above the control room in the central tower."
The open deck on the roof of the control tower was too high and cold to attract many visitors, only techs went that far up and only to work on the collection of sensor arrays nested there. The whole city could be seen in every direction from the windswept top, though, and beyond the city, the sea stretched away to the horizon so distant it hinted at the curvature of New Lantea.
John loved it.
"Good choice," he said.
"If you're longing for a case of pneumonia," Rodney had to complain, but he didn't even demand they stop on the way to get an extra coat.
"This is your world now," John told Torren, holding the baby up to see, later. "And we're your family too, and I promise we'll never turn you away."
Morning senior staff after the monthly databurst consisted of Woolsey, John and Rodney, Keller, and Hollis, the current head of Services, along with an urn of overbrewed coffee, laptops, tablets, and the yellow legal pads Hollis favored over electronics. Often they brought their seconds with them rather than brief them later, which meant Evan, Radek, Biro, and Navit. Teyla attended on a schedule John had never quite pinned down. Shohreh Moktefi showed up periodically, when circumstances warranted consulting the expedition's new psychiatrist.
Most mornings, staff covered what missions and science experiments were scheduled for the day along with any overnight developments, but after the databurst, the meetings always centered on whatever had the IOA in a new tizzy. John tried not to actually call the 'urgent directives' tizzies except to Rodney, but still thought of them that way. Woolsey took them very seriously; the rest of Atlantis relied on John or Rodney to run interference.
Currently, the IOA worried that the Travellers had an Ancient warship and wanted threat assessments. Rodney and Radek wanted to work on a filter that would let Atlantis' long range sensors pick out when the Travellers' ships opened hyperspace windows. It sounded like a long term project. John tuned out the particulars, sitting back and watching everyone else. Both scientists were throwing multisyllabic technical terms at each other interspersed with math. Woolsey's eyes had glazed over. Finally, he snapped and told them to stick to the agenda.
They went over several reports from the SGC: scientific developments and something about slower dialing times in the Milky Way, possibly due to stargates dropping out of the network. No explanation for that. John read the intel reports on Goa'uld, Ori remnants, and the kasa trade with a little more interest.
Eventually the meeting shifted to Atlantis' concerns. Radek had a pet project; Rodney scoffed at. The gate team mission schedule had to be reviewed, along with the proposed missions, mostly to trading partners or diplomatic contacts trying to make up some ground since the Coalition was already falling apart. The end of the meeting was devoted to personnel problems, complaints, and proposed shift changes.
Two weeks after the team had taken Torren to the tallest spire of the city and pledged themselves as his family, Teyla sat in on morning staff. When they had the regular missions sketched out, she dropped the bombshell John had been dreading.
"It is time to take Torren to Genea and conduct the kithing with Ladon Radim."
"Are you sure about this?" Woolsey asked.
Teyla gave him one of her looks, which had Woolsey backpedaling, blithering about personal choice and good relations until she nodded and said, "Among those people who travel among the stargates, it is common to ask someone from a neighboring and friendly world to stand as kith to your child. The Wraith seldom bother to cull small children; we teach ours to go to their kith if they are lost."
"We aren't enough?" Rodney muttered. "Didn't we say we'd look out for Torren?"
"Rodney," John hissed.
Teyla inclined her head to Rodney. "You did and I know you would honor your word, but we are all here. I would have chosen among my people, along with Kanaan, if that were possible."
"Okay, we get it, you don't want all your eggs in one basket," John said. He drummed his fingers on the table top and then asked, "But why Ladon Radim?" He didn't ask why Kanaan hadn't contributed any one to stand as kith. He was living with the rest of the Athosians in Atlantis, but didn't seem to be taking much part in Torren or Teyla's lives. John didn't get it. The guy had pushed past whatever brainwashing and mental control Michael had over him to let them all escape, but now hid himself away.
Okay, maybe he understood the last part, but not why Teyla was letting Kanaan get away with it. She would have kicked anyone else's ass. Love made even smart people act stupid. Teyla apparently was no exception.
Teyla smiled. "It is considered good luck to choose a child's kith from a visitor to your home. The Genii delegation were the first to come to Atlantis since Torren's birth."
"Guess Torren's lucky old Todd didn't pop in," John said.
"Sheppard!" Rodney exclaimed but Teyla laughed, happy and indulgent for a moment.
"When will you need to leave Atlantis to perform this ceremony?" Woolsey asked Teyla.
"As soon as it is possible. I would like to contact the Genii today, in order to begin the arrangements."
"Make sure they know we're coming with you," John said.
"Of course, you are Torren's kith as well."
"Oh, joy, another visit with the Genii," Rodney muttered. "I can't wait."
John agreed, but it was for Torren and Teyla, so they'd do it.
Despite their current status as something between neutral and allies, stepping through the stargate to Genea always ratcheted up John's stress level. Doing it sans armaments, with Teyla carrying Torren in a backpack-like sling, made his stomach churn and burn. He hoped Keller had stocked up on antacids; he'd be stopping by the infirmary for another bottle once they were back home.
He pressed his hand to his belly with a grimace.
"Are you okay?" Rodney whispered as they crossed the gate room floor.
"Sure," John said and stepped through the rippling event horizon.
He stepped out into hot summer sun and the drone of insects. Rodney, Teyla and Torren, and then Ronon followed him through. No one appeared to be near the gate, but the Genii probably had a squad of soldiers watching the gate from camouflage. John's stomach twinged at the possibility of ambush. He hoped it was bad powdered eggs this morning and not a developing ulcer.
"Right, right," Rodney muttered from beside John as they started down the road way to the Genii's Potemkin village. Ladon would be waiting for them there according to the arrangements that had already been made. They reversed their usual order since Ronon taking point meant him encountering the Genii first, a situation analogous to introducing a blasting cap to electricity.
The village might be a false front, but it would be easier to get out of than the bunkers. Besides, no way would he or Rodney let anyone take Torren down into those radiation contaminated tunnels. Those tunnels were the reason he hated spending any time at the SGC. They were too similar, dug deeper than graves. John needed the sky over him.
Rodney finished going through his pockets and shoved his hand in front of John. "Here," he said.
"What?"
Rodney grabbed one of John's hands and wrapped his fingers around a cylinder. John opened his hand and found half a roll of antacids, the papery foil, silver and white, torn off and folded closed at the end. He looked closer. Peppermint straight from Earth, advertising the benefits of added calcium. John grinned stupidly at it.
"Well, go ahead," Rodney snapped impatiently. "Take one."
John took two, handed them back and watched Rodney take one too. The taste wasn't great, but not exactly unpleasant either. The faint peppermint burn mixed with the chalkiness at the back of his tongue. He swallowed and said, "Thanks. How'd you know - ?"
"You get this look on your face, not to mention the whole clutching your stomach thing," Rodney said offhandedly. He was still chewing as he spoke, offering glimpses of pink tongue and white paste. John tried not to look too closely. Rodney still didn't believe in not talking with his mouth full. That wasted his precious time.
"Besides, I get heartburn any time the Genii come up."
Torren made a gurgling, happy noise. John turned to check and had to grin. The baby had his hands in Teyla's hair, pulling it loose from the ponytail Teyla wore. Ronon leaned in and freed her hair from Torren's tiny hands with patient delicacy.
"Thank you, Ronon," Teyla said.
From the look she gave him, John knew she'd noted his grin. He raised his hands. "Sorry."
"You may carry Torren home," Teyla ordered him.
John twitched a little at the thought of Torren's sticky, clutching fingers in his hair, but if it meant they went home after an unexceptional stay, he would be fine with it.
Maybe it was Rodney's antacid or just watching Teyla and Torren, but John felt better. He turned and lengthened his stride. They needed to get to the 'village' before planetary noon.
"I'm going to be sunburned, you know," Rodney complained. He cupped one hand over the back of his neck. A recent hair cut left it looking rather bare and vulnerable.
"No, you won't."
"I have a delicate complexion."
John glanced at him, suppressing a smile. "Like a flower?"
"Yes," Rodney agreed, "like a flower."
"Maybe a pansy?"
Rodney squinted at him. "See if I share my Rolaids with you again."
John smiled to himself, satisfied that he'd managed to annoy Rodney out of starting a rant on skin cancer, which would have inevitably morphed into paranoia over his cumulative rad index and mourning the offspring he would never sire. Or their tragic two-headed state. Though the tangential discussion of mutants and which of the X-women were hotter would have been amusing - at least until Teyla caught them at it.
He still sighed in relief at spotting the buildings the Genii had built to present the image of a 'simple, peaceful' people who did nothing but farm mile after square mile of land around the gate.
It turned out Teyla had been right to insist they wear civilian clothes. Ladon had bodyguards, all wearing Genii uniforms, stiff and hyper-vigilant as Secret Service agents, reminding John he was Chancellor Radim to the Genii, though Ladon had chosen casual clothing to reflect the personal nature of this meeting. John thought it might be the first time he'd seen Ladon out of uniform, then chuckled as Ladon appeared to be studying Rodney and him in turn. Ladon had been in Atlantis at various times, of course, but he'd never seen any of their people out of either military or expedition uniform, either.
Ladon greeted Teyla first, smiling at Torren, then John, Rodney and Ronon, before guiding them inside the cool shade of the village alehouse. It hadn't changed in the years since Teyla brought them to Genea the first time, looking to trade for tava beans, only they and the Genii had. They even managed some innocuous small talk, ranging from crop yields to the Genii's progress on energy sources that wouldn't melt their chromosomes to rumors of atypical cullings on the far fringe of Pegasus. The ale was cool, dark, and hoppy; the food, while not a harvest festival feast, was fresh and tasty. Ladon held Torren in his lap while they ate, letting the baby become acquainted with him before the kith ceremony.
It surprised John to see Ladon so at ease with Torren. He hadn't thought of the Genii as familiar or comfortable with children. He hadn't seen them with any kids before. Sora had been Tyrus' daughter, but she'd been an adult. He'd managed to not think about the Genii having children just like everyone else in a feat of denial that went straight back to Kolya's attempted invasion, because he knew soldiers had families. He'd always hated collateral damage. The smile faded from his features and Ronon gave him a questioning look. John shook his head; there was nothing wrong.
The beer didn't quite wash the bitter taste from his mouth, but John took another sip and concentrated on what Ladon was telling them. Torren had gone to sleep, peaceful and unaware of the undercurrents between the Lanteans, Athosian and Genii. Ronon sat back with his arms folded, out staring Ladon's bodyguards, but even he had loosened up enough to sip his ale periodically and grunt approvingly over the food. Maybe Teyla had the right idea: maybe the way to heal the bad blood lay in tying them together with blood.
"These cullings are different," Ladon said.
"How?" Teyla asked. She leaned forward and fussed with the soft cap on Torren's head.
The kid needed it to keep his head warm, he just had some wisps the color of new pennies so far. In coloring he'd taken after Teyla, copper haired and dark eyed. At least John assumed so. He still didn't know Kanaan except to say hello to, but he couldn't see much of him in Torren. The guy was tall, though. He hoped Torren got that from Kanaan, at least.
Ladon frowned at his tankard before speaking. "You're aware the Genii have agents on many worlds."
"Your intelligence network is the envy of the galaxy," John said, not quite sarcastically. There were plenty of worlds that had never heard of the Genii, though that didn't mean the Genii hadn't heard of them...and placed a spy with them or paid one of their own to inform. Espionage had never been an interest of his, but he'd picked up enough to recognize the Genii knew what they were doing.
"John," Teyla said.
"The Athosians aren't the only people who have disappeared without explanation," Ladon said.
John sat up straight. "You know something." He was still expecting Michael to pop back out of the woodwork. Just because they'd destroyed the bastard's cruiser didn't mean he hadn't escaped. John had a sinking feeling Michael had found a way to use the missing jumper to make it down to the planet and its stargate. The autopilot worked whether someone had the gene or not.
Ladon half shrugged, half nodded. "More what we don't know. In at least two cases, we had agents living among the people who disappeared. We have heard nothing from them. But in the third case - "
"Three other peoples have been taken?" Teyla interrupted in an uncharacteristic display of impatience.
"More," Ladon answered.
She looked at John and Rodney. "How could we not know this?"
"It's big galaxy," John said. He sounded defensive even to himself, but Teyla didn't know either and she had had a hell of lot longer to get hooked into the Pegasus grapevine. "Maybe the cullings got lost in the number of planets the Replicators wiped out or the Hoffan disease's victims."
Ladon shifted Torren in his lap.
"The worlds that are no longer accessible through the Ancestors' Rings confused our understanding of what was happening as well," Ladon said. He studied them as he asked, "That was not the Wraith?"
"No, that was a..." Rodney's voice trailed off. "Another enemy. They fought the Wraith a long time ago and then hid. We thought we could get them to fight each other again."
Ladon waited.
"They turned out to be worse than Wraith, if you can believe that," Rodney said. "I mean, they destroyed a lot of hives, but they decided the best way to beat them was to starve them out by wiping every human in the galaxy out. Hard to believe, but they were still pissed the Ancients liked humans better or something."
That made Ladon frown before he nodded. John raised his eyebrows. Ladon saw and coughed. "I'm familiar with the attitude from Commander Kolya," he said. "Though even he might have stopped at wiping out everyone alive in order to defeat the Wraith."
"Maybe," John commented. He thought Kolya wouldn't have blinked if he'd believed he would survive. By the end of their running feud, Kolya had cared more for revenge and power than stopping the Wraith or keeping the Genii safe. Always had or they would have been allies rather than enemies. Ladon had proved himself not only smarter than previous Genii leaders, but also better intentioned toward his own people in that regard. "Moot point now."
Kolya was dead and the Replicators were gone.
"So, your third agent? You got some kind of intel you can share?" he asked to steer the subject away from either Kolya or their part in the Replicators' attempted specicide. If Rodney went on, he might let slip they had changed the Replicator base code and started it all, not to mention their work with the Wraith against the mutual threat. Neither painted Atlantis in the prettiest light and it wasn't like they had that shining of a reputation in Pegasus as it was.
Ladon allowed it, though John saw he'd seen through him.
"Yes. We had an agent in place in the city of Prima Nergal. They mined one of the elements our new energy program utilizes. Information on their production and trade needs were useful in negotiating with the Nergalese."
Ronon grunted. John glanced at him. After a moment, Ronon answered his silent question.
"Sateda did the same thing."
John filed that away. Sometimes he felt a little grateful Sateda hadn't been around as a galactic power by the time the Atlantis Expedition arrived in Pegasus. Of course, Ronon was a remarkable individual by their standards too, but John got the feeling that they might have succeeded where the Genii failed, if they'd wanted Atlantis.
"Our man in Prima - "
Rodney coughed and John kicked him, though he'd been reminded of Graham Greene too. It wasn't worth explaining if he let Rodney say anything, though. Rodney still mouthed 'Havana' at him. John manfully ignored him.
Ladon looked at them curiously. Teyla waved at him to continue and glared at both of them.
"Our agent was recording a report when the Wraith arrived on Nergal."
"How did you get the report?" Rodney asked.
"When our agent failed to initiate contact on schedule, we sent a recon team to Nergal posing as entertainers."
John made another note to himself. Never trust any of the wandering groups of musicians and storytellers who traveled the gate system. That was too good a cover for gathering intel not to be used more than once by more than one people. No one would even think twice about those nomadic types asking curious questions in most places. Part of their services included carrying news and gossip from world to world. A group or groups of them had probably been responsible for spreading pictures of him, Rodney and the other gene carriers through the galaxy when the Genii had a bounty on their heads.
Which brought him back to the Genii sitting at the table.
Teyla nodded at Ladon. "I see. I looked forward to visits to our camps by such players as a child. There are few worlds where they are not welcomed." Her lips quirked. "Despite any other agendas they might have had."
Atlantis being one, she didn't say, but John didn't mind in this case. Their security precautions had probably served them better than they'd known. It had to hurt, though, the way so many things she'd learned in the past four years had; that people she had known and liked had lied to her the entire time she'd known them, that her ability to sense the Wraith came from sharing some of their DNA, that the Ancestors were no more than a bunch of self-absorbed egomaniacs who made Rodney look like a humanitarian. Now one more memory was tarnished. She had to have known, but having her nose rubbed in it couldn't be very nice.
John turned his tankard on the wooden table top, making sure to keep it within the dark condensation stain. The metal sides were wet and cool beneath his fingertips.
"They found the city nearest the gate emptied," Ladon went on. "When they went to the agent's home, the recorder was in the open. Halfway through his report, he stopped and said that there were darts over head as well as Wraith on the ground. They were herding people toward a stationary culling beam. He said the Wraith appeared to be separating people into groups, using some sort of scanner."
"A stationary culling beam?" Rodney repeated. He had a piece of bread and cheese in his hand, half way to his mouth, but seemed to have forgotten it as he puzzled that out. "Then it had to come from a hive or at least a large cruiser in geosynchronous orbit. We haven't seen that before."
"Once," John said.
Rodney looked at him. John shifted uncomfortably. It had lit the night and he'd felt cold to his bones looking at it from the cloaked jumper. He'd imagined the Wraith reaching Earth and hadn't seen how Atlantis could survive and stop them.
"You weren't with us," he added.
"So they were sorting people based on some criteria your agent couldn't determine?" Rodney asked Ladon after a long beat, turning his gaze away from John to John's relief.
Ladon looked down, and then seemed to gather himself, even as he lifted Torren's sleeping form higher in his arms. "Almyus was interrupted before he could say more." A muscle in his cheek worked. "The recording ends as he shouts a name."
"A name?" John repeated.
"Tyre," Ladon replied. "Appar-"
Ronon pushed back from the table and jolted to his feet in a single violent motion, sending his empty tankard rolling into Teyla's, which spilled across the table. Ale flooded down onto John's leg and the floor as Rodney exclaimed, juggling both tankards as they threatened to roll on into his lap. The clang of the metal still rang as Ladon's bodyguards went for their weapons.
"Everybody calm down," John snapped. Tension shivered through his muscles and he clenched his hand against the reflex to reach for the sidearm that he had eschewed. He had a small back-up gun in the top of one of his boots, along with a knife in the other and lock-picks sewn into a seam in his jeans, but knew better than to reach for it. This didn't need to turn into a shoot-out; they were on the same side when it came to the Wraith at least. "Ronon. Get back in your chair. Ladon, sorry for mess."
Torren woke and began wailing, sensing the sudden change in the alehouse's atmosphere. Ladon patted his back like a pro while commanding the bodyguards to, "Put away your weapons. They aren't threatening me." He nodded to John and added, "It's spilled ale, not an attack."
Ronon glared at the bodyguards, obviously itching to burn away his anger fighting them, but came back to the table. He righted his fallen chair and sat. Rodney pushed the tankards back to the center of the table. John grimaced at the wetness soaking through the thigh and knee of his jeans. He was going to smell like stale beer for the rest of the day.
Ladon quietly shushed Torren until he'd settled again. He looked from Ronon to Teyla to Rodney, who determinedly looked at the table between flicking glances at Ronon, and finally to John. "I take it this name is familiar?"
"We've run across someone of that name before," John said carefully, watching Ronon, wondering how much more he should say.
"Wraith worshipper," Ronon growled. His hands were in fists.
Rodney opened his mouth, then snapped it closed, giving Teyla a wounded look, which John interpreted to mean she'd either kicked him or was grinding her heel down on his toes.
"They have grown bold," Ladon said. "Almyus' previous report mentioned this man coming to Prima Nergal in search of work as a bodyguard."
"Fits," John said.
Ronon scowled. "Traitor."
John didn't know what to say to that. Ronon had been made a Runner. He'd never been fed on, never felt his life drain away in a wave of agony. Never known the sweet rushing relief of having it all pushed back inside. If 'Todd' hadn't been a prisoner of Kolya too, if he'd been raised to fear the Wraith all his life, if his planet and home and people had been wiped out...John didn't know that he wouldn't have broken and become a follower too. He wasn't superhuman and neither was Ronon. Sometimes Ronon's relative youth and years outside any society made him almost naive about human nature, a sort of youthful idealism still buried beneath the survivor's thick skin.
Ladon lifted an eyebrow and John shook his head minutely. "Tyre lured us into a trap. We got out, so did he." He shrugged. "If he was with the Wraith on Nergal, he could have been acting as a spy, targeting specific people for them."
"The way he and Rakai and Ara used me to get to McKay," Ronon said.
"You had no way of knowing," Teyla comforted.
Ronon shook his head. "I should have - "
"The only thing you should do is let it go," John told him, rough and maybe a little impatient, because Ronon had been ready to walk away from them for his old friends. Maybe it was time he let it go too, he'd been hoarding that bitterness like an ugly pebble since the moment in the Wraith facility when Ronon went with the Satedans instead of the team. "Teyla's right."
"The real question is who and why would the Wraith be interested in specific people?" Rodney speculated. "Or specific groups." He looked at Teyla. "Like yours. We know at least one Wraith experimented on them..."
"You think it is the same one?" she asked. Her hand twitched abortively toward Torren. Michael's plans for Torren were still fresh in all their minds, but more so in hers. She'd seen and heard more than she'd ever spoken of to them outside a dry and emotionless report.
"Yes, no, maybe?" Rodney held up his hands. "I'm not an expert on Wraith motives. Let's be honest, I'm not good figuring human ones."
A blurp of sound from one of the bodyguard's radios interrupted before anyone could say more. "Prass Demera and your sister are on their way," the bodyguard said after listening to the message.
Ladon nodded and addressed Teyla. "Are you satisfied?"
Teyla studied the way he still held Torren and nodded. "Yes. I hope this will herald a closer relationship between all our people, as well."
She stood and the rest of them followed her to their feet. John caught the voices of two women outside and figured that would be Ladon's sister and Prass Demera, whoever she was, come to witness the kithing ceremony.
"Then let us continue," Ladon said.
They exited the alehouse, the bright afternoon light making everyone blink after the cool confines. John fumbled on his sunglasses, then nodded as he was introduced to the older woman. Dahlia looked much better than the only other time he'd seen her. She even smiled at them, though the brightness faded as Rodney fumblingly explained he couldn't take her greeting to Beckett.
Ladon didn't explain who Prass Demera was, but she seemed to be someone in the Genii government and uninterested in wasting any more time than she had to.
They walked out of the village and into one of the tava fields. The earth between the rows of green vines twining over rough tepees made from sticks had been weeded and watered recently. Dry on the surface, it crumbled and broke, then stuck in small clods to the soles of their boots. The scent of damp soil mixed with warm greenery, almost heady in its richness after Atlantis' nearly sterile environment.
Clouds of small insects flew up from the tiny flowers blooming along the tava vines. The hum and buzz of their wings disturbed John, a subtly wrong harmonic that resulted from a different number of wings than insects used on Earth. Rodney waved his hands, slapping at them and ducking away, muttering outraged imprecations at the universe.
"Here," John said when they stopped, catching Rodney's arm to hold him still. "Let me...They're in your hair."
"Oh," Rodney breathed. "Ack, get them off."
John brushed the little bugs out of Rodney's hair, telling himself the warmth he felt at the soft tickle against his fingertips came from the sun. The bugs were tiny, pokey little things maybe three millimeters long, with flat shells of rust orange spots on shiny green. They flew away into the vines again without much encouragement. Rodney fidgeted and shook his head anyway.
Ronon laughed.
"At least I won't be picking them out of my hair for the next week," Rodney sniped at him.
"They're harmless," Dahlia told them. "They actually do good. They eat a kind of scale that grows on the vines."
"Excuse me if I have no confidence in the benign intentions of anything insectoid in this galaxy," Rodney replied and John secretly agreed. He flicked a final few of the bugs off Rodney's shoulder and his own arms.
"May we finish this?" Prass Demera inquired.
Turned away enough Demera couldn't see, Dahlia rolled her eyes.
"We appreciate the time you are taking to witness," Teyla said, all smooth diplomacy.
Demera looked somewhat mollified, something that probably wouldn't have held true if she'd heard Rodney mutter, "As if she was doing anything important. Really, if I can leave my lab for this and come through the stargate from another planet, I think she can take an hour away from pushing paper or whatever inane make-work Genii bureaucrats do. Probably making lists of what lies they're telling who."
John coughed hard, choking back laughter and drowning out Rodney's rant. Ronon slapped him on the back hard enough to make him stumble, so that Rodney caught his arm to steady him and, thank Christ, shut up. By the time they'd sorted themselves out of their Three Stooges routine, Teyla was glaring at all three of them.
Everyone settled into respectful silence as Ladon began the simple ceremony.
He held Torren in the crook of one arm and unwrapped the blanket holding him, then drew off everything but his diaper, handing it all to Teyla. He held Torren up then, showing him to everyone, Demera, his sister, the bodyguards and John's team.
"This is Torren Emmagan, son of Kanaan and Teyla," Ladon said.
He held Torren up to Teyla, who pressed a kiss to Torren' forehead.
"This is Torren Emmagan, child of Athos."
"Child of Athos," Teyla repeated.
Ronon, then John, then Rodney repeated her words.
Ladon brought Torren to face Ronon, who bent and solemnly bestowed the gentlest of kisses to the crown of the baby's head. Torren grabbed one of his dreads as it swung forward and pulled, laughing with delight. Ronon detached Torren's hand with a smile.
"This is Torren Emmagan, kindred of Sateda that was, kith of Ronon Dex," Ladon stated.
"Kindred of Sateda," Ronon rumbled. "Kindred of mine."
The sun heated the back of John's neck and soaked into his shoulders through the well-worn dress shirt he'd worn instead of a tee. His palms were damp, even though he'd already undergone the ceremony once in Atlantis.
Ladon moved to face John and John bent closer, inhaling the scents of milk and baby powder and the sweet smell that all babies seemed to have, kissed Torren just as Ronon had, dandelion-fine baby hair tickling his nose before he straightened. He met Ladon's gaze without flinching, so that he could see that John would do anything to keep Torren safe.
"This is Torren Emmagan, child of Atlantis, kith to John Sheppard."
John flashed on holding Torren himself, saying those words, standing with his team on the highest spire of Atlantis, where the wind ruffled their garments and strange seabirds dove and cried, feeling in his bones the way the city seem to hum into wakefulness for an instant as he knelt and set Torren's bare feet to the deck for a ten count.
"Kindred of Atlantis," John swore. "Kith to me and mine."
Citizen of his city wherever Atlantis rested, he'd sworn silently and repeated to himself again. First child born to it in ten thousand years even if he had come into the world on a Wraith cruiser, and when he was old enough, Torren would receive the gene therapy as his due.
Ladon brought Torren to Rodney next and last. Rodney, who stood straight and steady, the expression on his face just as grave and serious as Ronon had been, no sneer or sarcasm evident.
Rodney kissed Torren carefully.
"This is Torren Emmagan, child of Earth," Ladon said. "Kith of Rodney McKay."
"Kindred of Earth," Rodney declared, quiet and sure. "Exactly as my own."
Ladon stepped back and held Torren a little high, showing him to Demera and his sister. Then he sank down to his knees and held Torren so that his bare feet pressed into the soft, damp soil of the tava field.
"This is my world and my home," Ladon said. "So now it is yours, Torren Emmagan. You are my kith and I will always have a place for you. As my kith gift, I swear to do all that I may to keep peace between Genea and the peoples of Atlantis and Athos." He got to his feet and declared in a voice that carried, "This is Torren Emmagan, child of Genea, kith to Ladon Radim."
"Child of Genea," they all chorused, even the bodyguards.
"So it is witnessed, so it is done," Dahlia stated. She turned to Teyla and added, "He will always have a place among the Genii."
"Thank you," Teyla said.
"May I hold him?"
Teyla and Dahlia redressed Torren, Dahlia cooing a little and looking wistful, while Demera ponced away, grimacing down at the dirt on her shoes in a way that made John laugh.
Ladon stepped closer. "Colonel Sheppard. I meant my promise to Torren. Whatever the Genii learn, we will share with you."
John cocked his head. "No one expects that, but if you find some clue to what's going on with the Wraith, we'll take any help we can get."
That garnered a nod of acknowledgment.
"If we knew what this Tyre looked like...," Ladon speculated.
John nodded at Ronon. "We don't have any photos of him, but I think we could get one of our people to draw a pretty good likeness. He has some Satedan tattoos. Those are pretty distinctive." He didn't know if Ronon would be willing to work with Evan, but he and Rodney and Teyla could describe Tyre. Maybe better. They'd seen him as he was, not overlaid with memories from years before.
"Once our network knows what he looks like they can be on watch for him, even if he uses another name," Ladon agreed. He watched Dahlia stroke her finger over Torren's cheek. "The Athosians were always honest traders. Generous people. Perhaps we can make up for the deceit with which the Genii treated them."
"It would be a good start," John agreed.
John reminded every team going out of the need to keep on the lookout for any information on Michael or the Wraith culling patterns shifting. It had become the part of every pre-mission briefing. Don't interrogate, don't give away too much by asking leading questions, but sit down with folks and encourage a little gossip and write it all up in the AAR.
So far it hadn't netted them anything, but intelligence gathering was a job for the patient, the pattern spotters and puzzle solvers who would piece tiny bits of disparate information together until a recognizable picture formed out of a thousand meaningless pixels.
There were only rumors, though, of worlds deserted, villages left with food still on the table, fields abandoned, farm animals untended, dead or gone wild. Culled, the stories went, though the rest of a world might remain untouched without explanation. Nothing contradicted the Genii story Ladon had given them, though nothing confirmed it.
Woolsey's lips thinned as John told Lt. McCready to make sure to ask the Khluf traders if they'd heard anything about hybrids before sending the youngest of their gate team officers off. John nodded to him. He could bring it up if he wanted John to stop. He knew that the time was approaching when Woolsey, acting on orders from their SGC and IOA overlords, would cut back or completely cancel any missions solely aimed at aiding trade and aid, but he'd kept those to a minimum just to keep the option available as long as possible. Telling their people to keep their ears open while they hunted energy sources and weapons didn't cost anyone anything.
Teyla attended all of the trade mission briefings and most pre-mission meetings, even when AR-1 wasn't tasked. Advising them on local custom and anything she knew about proposed mission destinations had been part of her job on Atlantis from the beginning. Their mission goals had slowly but steadily changed since establishing contact with Earth, but her input remained more valuable than any SGC diplomatic guidelines.
She watched McCready's team walk into the event horizon with a wistful expression. She'd gone out twice with Lorne's team when her presence had been necessary to secure contact with the Gada, but had stayed in Atlantis otherwise, excepting only the trip to Genea. Watching others go while she stayed behind had to be painfully familiar after the last few months. John wandered if she felt restless and trapped as he would in the same circumstances.
It made him feel ashamed and he promised himself he'd do his part to free her up even a little.
He knew she loved Torren with everything in her. He felt the same way; so did Ronon and Rodney. Torren had changed the shape of Teyla's life though, in ways she couldn't have anticipated. She'd counted on the support network the Athosians provided for all parents, the community of people who were always available to care for a child. Instead, she was forced to spend almost all her time caring for Torren while the traumatized and unsteady Athosians struggled to rebuild their lives while living in Atlantis.
Atlantis didn't have daycare and while there were more than a few people in the city who would have and wanted to help, they all had their own duties. Most couldn't split their attention enough to work and babysit at the same time. Not that Teyla would ask anyway, but John couldn't take Torren to the firing range, Keller couldn't set up a crib in an infirmary that doubled as an emergency department and dealt with offworld teams that could be infected with anything, Rodney couldn't study unknown technology and change diapers. Ronon was perfectly willing to strap Torren to his back on morning runs, however, which just highlighted that they weren't utilizing his skill sets. He needed to be putting together solo and team survival training for everyone in Atlantis whether they went off world or not. Which brought John back to Teyla's dilemma and how alone she was in Atlantis.
John hadn't anticipated losing Teyla as a team member after Torren's birth. He'd simply assumed she'd be back as soon as she physically could. He had to admit that had been just amazingly stupid and he couldn't quite shed the petty resentment he felt that she'd done something that changed the team's dynamic so much, without even a hint or warning. It made him act like a dick; he knew it, but often couldn't stop himself, even though he loved Torren and would rather have his hands cut off than deny Teyla whatever happiness she could find.
Maybe, if he refrained from shoving Kanaan against a wall and demanding what he meant to do for his son and Teyla now that he was back, it would make up a little for what a poor friend John had been when Teyla told him about Torren.
He'd begun worrying about something else. Teyla hadn't been part of the regular AR-1 mission roster for months. The allies for whom she'd acted as leader and ambassador were refugees and never highly appreciated on Earth anyway. How long until Coolidge or some other xenophobe in the IOA wanted Teyla removed from Atlantis entirely?
If it came to that, John feared even something as desperate as he or Rodney marrying Teyla wouldn't make them back down. The IOA wouldn't even recognize a Pegasus marriage unless they saw some benefit in acknowledging it. Which brought him around to being unwillingly pissed at Teyla all over again, because she and Torren just might be the tipping point and he didn't know which way he'd go, if he would give her up or go with her, exactly how much he would give up. Because it wasn't the same as dying for something, not at all.
The break came a week after McCready's gainless mission, an unscheduled dial-in half way through the lunch hour marked by Chuck's voice from John's radio earpiece, "It's the Genii's IDC."
John left his tray and headed for the control room at a controlled lope, taking a transporter instead of the stairs, opening the team's channel on his radio as he went. "Rodney - "
"I heard. I'm on my way up."
"Teyla and Ronon are training. Can you get them on your way?" They'd all wrecked too many headsets while sparring and took them off now, relying on the city comm to alert them in an emergency. This wasn't, yet.
"You couldn't send one of your men?" Rodney whined.
"It's on your way."
John pressed the control room icon on the transporter destination grid.
"It is not."
"Well, you're closer than me. Gotta go."
"Fine. I'll get them."
The doors opened.
Woolsey was already out of his office, facing the camera pick-up and main display screen in the upper level of the control room. He had his arms folded. The display showed rolling waves of harsh static, the sort John associated with nineteen-fifties TV. "Try - "
"I've got it," Li said.
The static resolved into a wavering image of Ladon Radim, bearded face too close to the camera lens, the tint subtly off. He stepped back, revealing a hint of the room he stood in, another Genii at console of equipment. A scratchy voice said, "They should be able to see you now, Chancellor."
"Colonel," Ladon said, proving that he had a visual image of them as well. "Mr. Woolsey."
"Chancellor Radim," Woolsey replied. "This is unexpected."
Rodney, Teyla and Ronon arrived, aligning themselves with John. He didn't need to see them, even; their familiar scents, coffee, incense and leather changed the air of the control room, laced with the lingering ozone sting of the transporters.
A small smile lifted Ladon's mouth at the corners. "Atlantis and the Genii are allies now."
Behind John, Rodney gave a little choked sound.
"Ladon," Teyla said. She stepped around Rodney to stand between John and Woolsey and smiled at the camera. "You and the Genii are untroubled?"
Ronon settled next to John. Heat radiated from his body and the smell of clean sweat mixed with the leather, familiar from a hundred work outs.
"We are," Ladon replied. He fished something off the desk he stood beside and held it up. A copy of one the pictures they'd drawn up of Tyre.
Adrenaline jolted through John. He felt Ronon tense beside him, heard Rodney whisper a soft curse.
"We have a news of this man," Ladon said. "He showed up in Avibo according to our agent there. Two days ago."
"Took long enough to let us know," John said.
"Our man has been watching him. He's sure the newcomer is this Tyre, though he's calling himself Hakan."
Ronon grunted. "It's him. Hakan was one of our squad mates, before Sateda fell. A friend of Tyre's." The sneer in his voice didn't completely hide the betrayal he still felt.
"You need to take him alive," John said.
"We're preparing a strike force to capture him."
"That's very interesting, Chancellor Radim, and we appreciate being informed, of course," Woolsey interjected.
"What do you need?" John asked, ignoring Woolsey when he glared at him.
"One of your jumpers," Ladon replied immediately, "and a pilot, obviously. I'd prefer to not terrorize the Avibii."
John tapped his radio. "Lorne. I want you and a squad geared up and in the jumper bay - " He looked at Ladon's face on the screen. "When?"
"Our force will be ready to gate to Avibo in two hours," Ladon said. "I'm sending nine men."
"Twenty minutes," John told Lorne. "You'll be joining the Genii, picking up a hostile in a non-hostile village. I'll brief you down there. Everyone carries stunners."
He didn't wait for Evan's acknowledgment, just nodded to Ladon. "The jumper will be there in a hour, max."
"Thank you," Ladon said. "We'll be waiting."
The display fizzed into static and the wormhole flickered out.
Woolsey turned on John. "Don't do that again," he said.
Before John could open his mouth, Teyla spoke. "John, I would like to accompany Major Lorne's team."
"Me too," Ronon said.
"Shohreh has agreed to care for Torren today. If Tyre is guiding the Wraith to these villages, then someone should warn these people as well."
"Look, I'll take a second jumper, stay cloaked, and make sure this isn't some kind of trick, but if Tyre is really out there, we need to know what he's been doing and our best chance is to have people on the ground with the Genii," John told Woolsey. "We need the intel."
"Right, and if Tyre is still working for the Wraith, he may very well have some of their equipment, so I'd better get ready too," Rodney said.
"We're wasting time," Ronon added and strode away before Woolsey could say anything, which John considered the smartest course.
"Director," he murmured and retreated before Woolsey could give him a direct order to stand down. John didn't think he'd recall him via radio; Woolsey had to know his record in that regard.
"We're going to talk when you get back, " Woolsey called after him.
Teyla hurried and squeezed into the transporter along with John and Rodney. Rodney sent them on the way to the hub nearest the gear room and said, "You think this is for real?"
"I believe so," Teyla said.
The doors opened and they started out. Rodney strode ahead, on his radio, talking to Radek, "You're in charge the rest of the day. Yes, I know. You'll have to oversee it yourself, something's come up. Offworld. Yeah. Okay. Thanks and ...you know, don't let any of the morons blow you up."
Teyla caught John's wrist in her hand, a light yet firm touch, pulling him to a halt. "John. Thank you."
"For what?"
"I know if you had not pushed, Mr. Woolsey would not have agreed to send Major Lorne and a jumper."
"Hey, it isn't like we don't need intel on whatever the Wraith are up to," he told her. "This isn't just about you."
Teyla studied him. John resisted the urge to squirm.
"If you say so," she finally agreed, but that was just letting him off the hook. He knew she didn't believe it.
"Are you going to stand there all day?" Rodney called from the gear room door way.
"I will meet you at the jumper bay," Teyla said. "After I change, I wish to stop at Shohreh's office and bid Torren good-bye. She should know I will be going offworld."
"Okay," John said and they parted, Teyla headed for the women's end of the shared room.
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Next:
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[e]
Upward Over the Mountain
(a Season Five Alternate Reality)
for Mira
by
Auburn
words: ~36,725
a/n: The first part of a longer, incomplete work meant as a gift for mirabile_dictu. Abandoned due to plot, structure and character faults that are inherent to the original concept. Conceived in 2007 and written intermittently over 2008 and not canonical. Posted for Fictional Amnesty Day. Last modified on 11.29.08.
I.
Woolsey replacing Carter rocked Atlantis. It affected all their trade agreements and alliances as well. Which brought the Genii to Atlantis. John had been zoning out while Chancellor of Genea, Marshal Paramount and Chief of the Directorate of Science Radim and Woolsey exchanged diplomatic assurances and felt each other out. Half his mind strayed to the patrol roster Lorne had shown him at the daily military sitrep. His side still hurt, so John had been subjected to more paperwork even than usual.
There had been something in the roster that bothered him, but he'd been due at morning staff and told Lorne he would sign off on it later. Listening to Ladon and Woolsey fence oh so politely, John had time to review the roster in his head.
Higgs and LaRue.
John's mouth quirked in satisfaction as he identified the potential problem. Those two needed to be kept separate for a while, not walking patrol together. Aside from saving everyone from Michael, the Daedalus had brought mail and hard copy documents from Earth, including LaRue's final divorce decree. Higgs would take advantage of patrolling together to relentlessly pick at LaRue until he exploded. John had gone through something similar; he'd decked Dex behind the O club at Bhagram the week after the papers from Nancy's lawyer came in his mail.
He'd tell Lorne to separate them, leave out his own experience.
"I understand that your government has continued with its nuclear weapons program?" Woolsey asked.
"With the shielding Dr. McKay instructed us to develop," Radim said. "Everyone now carries a weekly exposure sensor."
Woolsey looked like he'd bitten into something rotten. "Everyone?"
"Everyone," Radim confirmed.
"How... impressive."
"As was the number of our people who would be dead without Atlantis' help. Dr. Weir was a generous woman."
Radim had looked genuinely regretful when told that Elizabeth was gone. He'd trod carefully around Carter, recognizing the steel under the friendly exterior. Now he was trying to feel out Woolsey and seemed alternately contemptuous and wary of him.
"Dr. Weir was a remarkable woman," Woolsey acknowledged and seemed to mean it.
"We'd begun to think your people were matrilineal," Radim said.
Woolsey began coughing and John hid a snicker.
"Then it's just a coincidence that two different women of great beauty and intelligence have been given - earned command here before you?" Radim asked innocently.
"Yep," John chimed in to prove he had been listening after all.
Well, and to annoy Woolsey. That was always a plus.
That switched Radim's attention to John, however.
"I believe congratulations are in order," he said. "The Genii have heard that the Athosians and Teyla Emmagan have been recovered."
"Some of the Athosians," John answered. "Not too many of them were still...alive." Human, he stopped himself from finishing. "But we've got Teyla back and her baby." Something to smile about amid the worries plaguing him since the drugs wore off after his surgery. They'd lost all of the Athosian victims of Michael's hybridization procedure when Caldwell killed Michael's cruiser except Kanaan.
Keller had reversed almost all of the changes to Kanaan, which made the other deaths even more of a tragedy, but there was something wrong between Teyla and Kanaan. None of the rest of the team had a clue what and they were afraid to ask her. No one wanted to remind her of everything she'd gone through.
Ladon nodded with a real looking smile. "A child is always the best consolation."
"Well, I think this does it for this meeting," Woolsey said. "Chancellor Radim, I hope we can look forward to a long and mutually beneficial relationship between the Genii and Atlantis."
Ladon mouthed platitudes back and they headed out of the conference room.
John was surprised to see Teyla in the control room with Torren. Something told him she'd been waiting for them.
Ladon greeted her and asked, "Is there anything I or the Genii may do for you or your people?"
Teyla seemed to search Radim's face.
"Yes," she said at last. "I would have you stand as kith to Torren along with John, Rodney, and Ronon."
John blinked in shock. Ladon? Chancellor of Genea and a half dozen other titles Ladon who had once helped invade their city? Teyla wanted one of the Genii as the Athosian version of uncle and foster parent to Torren? Which would make them all family in a way, according to Pegasus tradition, since John and the team had already agreed to also stand as kith to the baby. He wanted to glare at her, but something in Teyla's expression stopped him. He realized she'd planned this.
Ladon looked as flummoxed as John felt.
Teyla held out her free hand while cradling Torren against her shoulder.
With a wary glance at John, Ladon took it. "I would be most honored, Teyla Emmagan."
"Hmph. Well. I'll leave you to work out any details," Woolsey muttered and left the three of them alone.
Teyla named her son Torren John Emmagan, in accordance with the Athosian tradition of surnames from the mother's line. She would introduce him as 'son of Kanaan' as she had always called herself daughter of Torren Tagan. Later, if Torren wanted to, he might chose the honor name he used to mark some other important relationship, such as his kith or his partner in marriage. Whoever was the most important relation in his life.
Teyla began introducing herself as Teyla Emmagan, mother of Torren, the first week after his birth.
Teyla explained it all before they swore themselves to basically act as Torren's parents if anything happened to her. She also teased Rodney and Ronon that she had chosen John as Torren's second name because only John hadn't pestered her to name her child for him.
"Better name the next one for both of us then," Ronon replied.
Rodney spluttered, "Hey, but I was there when he was born!"
"Yes, Rodney, you were there," Teyla agreed.
John blinked and muttered, "Next one?"
He also thought that if he could introduce himself by who was most important to him, he would simply point to the rest of his team, and flushed warm and happy when Rodney said, "So, that'd make me Dr. Rodney McKay of AR-1 in this ritual thing you want us to go through?"
Teyla smiled sweetly at him.
"I would ask you to speak as a someone from Earth, while John takes the part of Atlantis," she said.
Ronon grunted and then said, "Not much left of Sateda. You sure you want me?"
"Of course, Ronon. While you live, Sateda remains."
"You've got as much right to speak for Sateda as I do for Earth," Rodney added.
John thumped Ronon's shoulder lightly.
"Let's get this show on the road. Teyla, where do you want to do this?"
She lifted Torren, who was sleeping, higher in her arms.
"I thought the observation deck above the control room in the central tower."
The open deck on the roof of the control tower was too high and cold to attract many visitors, only techs went that far up and only to work on the collection of sensor arrays nested there. The whole city could be seen in every direction from the windswept top, though, and beyond the city, the sea stretched away to the horizon so distant it hinted at the curvature of New Lantea.
John loved it.
"Good choice," he said.
"If you're longing for a case of pneumonia," Rodney had to complain, but he didn't even demand they stop on the way to get an extra coat.
"This is your world now," John told Torren, holding the baby up to see, later. "And we're your family too, and I promise we'll never turn you away."
Morning senior staff after the monthly databurst consisted of Woolsey, John and Rodney, Keller, and Hollis, the current head of Services, along with an urn of overbrewed coffee, laptops, tablets, and the yellow legal pads Hollis favored over electronics. Often they brought their seconds with them rather than brief them later, which meant Evan, Radek, Biro, and Navit. Teyla attended on a schedule John had never quite pinned down. Shohreh Moktefi showed up periodically, when circumstances warranted consulting the expedition's new psychiatrist.
Most mornings, staff covered what missions and science experiments were scheduled for the day along with any overnight developments, but after the databurst, the meetings always centered on whatever had the IOA in a new tizzy. John tried not to actually call the 'urgent directives' tizzies except to Rodney, but still thought of them that way. Woolsey took them very seriously; the rest of Atlantis relied on John or Rodney to run interference.
Currently, the IOA worried that the Travellers had an Ancient warship and wanted threat assessments. Rodney and Radek wanted to work on a filter that would let Atlantis' long range sensors pick out when the Travellers' ships opened hyperspace windows. It sounded like a long term project. John tuned out the particulars, sitting back and watching everyone else. Both scientists were throwing multisyllabic technical terms at each other interspersed with math. Woolsey's eyes had glazed over. Finally, he snapped and told them to stick to the agenda.
They went over several reports from the SGC: scientific developments and something about slower dialing times in the Milky Way, possibly due to stargates dropping out of the network. No explanation for that. John read the intel reports on Goa'uld, Ori remnants, and the kasa trade with a little more interest.
Eventually the meeting shifted to Atlantis' concerns. Radek had a pet project; Rodney scoffed at. The gate team mission schedule had to be reviewed, along with the proposed missions, mostly to trading partners or diplomatic contacts trying to make up some ground since the Coalition was already falling apart. The end of the meeting was devoted to personnel problems, complaints, and proposed shift changes.
Two weeks after the team had taken Torren to the tallest spire of the city and pledged themselves as his family, Teyla sat in on morning staff. When they had the regular missions sketched out, she dropped the bombshell John had been dreading.
"It is time to take Torren to Genea and conduct the kithing with Ladon Radim."
"Are you sure about this?" Woolsey asked.
Teyla gave him one of her looks, which had Woolsey backpedaling, blithering about personal choice and good relations until she nodded and said, "Among those people who travel among the stargates, it is common to ask someone from a neighboring and friendly world to stand as kith to your child. The Wraith seldom bother to cull small children; we teach ours to go to their kith if they are lost."
"We aren't enough?" Rodney muttered. "Didn't we say we'd look out for Torren?"
"Rodney," John hissed.
Teyla inclined her head to Rodney. "You did and I know you would honor your word, but we are all here. I would have chosen among my people, along with Kanaan, if that were possible."
"Okay, we get it, you don't want all your eggs in one basket," John said. He drummed his fingers on the table top and then asked, "But why Ladon Radim?" He didn't ask why Kanaan hadn't contributed any one to stand as kith. He was living with the rest of the Athosians in Atlantis, but didn't seem to be taking much part in Torren or Teyla's lives. John didn't get it. The guy had pushed past whatever brainwashing and mental control Michael had over him to let them all escape, but now hid himself away.
Okay, maybe he understood the last part, but not why Teyla was letting Kanaan get away with it. She would have kicked anyone else's ass. Love made even smart people act stupid. Teyla apparently was no exception.
Teyla smiled. "It is considered good luck to choose a child's kith from a visitor to your home. The Genii delegation were the first to come to Atlantis since Torren's birth."
"Guess Torren's lucky old Todd didn't pop in," John said.
"Sheppard!" Rodney exclaimed but Teyla laughed, happy and indulgent for a moment.
"When will you need to leave Atlantis to perform this ceremony?" Woolsey asked Teyla.
"As soon as it is possible. I would like to contact the Genii today, in order to begin the arrangements."
"Make sure they know we're coming with you," John said.
"Of course, you are Torren's kith as well."
"Oh, joy, another visit with the Genii," Rodney muttered. "I can't wait."
John agreed, but it was for Torren and Teyla, so they'd do it.
Despite their current status as something between neutral and allies, stepping through the stargate to Genea always ratcheted up John's stress level. Doing it sans armaments, with Teyla carrying Torren in a backpack-like sling, made his stomach churn and burn. He hoped Keller had stocked up on antacids; he'd be stopping by the infirmary for another bottle once they were back home.
He pressed his hand to his belly with a grimace.
"Are you okay?" Rodney whispered as they crossed the gate room floor.
"Sure," John said and stepped through the rippling event horizon.
He stepped out into hot summer sun and the drone of insects. Rodney, Teyla and Torren, and then Ronon followed him through. No one appeared to be near the gate, but the Genii probably had a squad of soldiers watching the gate from camouflage. John's stomach twinged at the possibility of ambush. He hoped it was bad powdered eggs this morning and not a developing ulcer.
"Right, right," Rodney muttered from beside John as they started down the road way to the Genii's Potemkin village. Ladon would be waiting for them there according to the arrangements that had already been made. They reversed their usual order since Ronon taking point meant him encountering the Genii first, a situation analogous to introducing a blasting cap to electricity.
The village might be a false front, but it would be easier to get out of than the bunkers. Besides, no way would he or Rodney let anyone take Torren down into those radiation contaminated tunnels. Those tunnels were the reason he hated spending any time at the SGC. They were too similar, dug deeper than graves. John needed the sky over him.
Rodney finished going through his pockets and shoved his hand in front of John. "Here," he said.
"What?"
Rodney grabbed one of John's hands and wrapped his fingers around a cylinder. John opened his hand and found half a roll of antacids, the papery foil, silver and white, torn off and folded closed at the end. He looked closer. Peppermint straight from Earth, advertising the benefits of added calcium. John grinned stupidly at it.
"Well, go ahead," Rodney snapped impatiently. "Take one."
John took two, handed them back and watched Rodney take one too. The taste wasn't great, but not exactly unpleasant either. The faint peppermint burn mixed with the chalkiness at the back of his tongue. He swallowed and said, "Thanks. How'd you know - ?"
"You get this look on your face, not to mention the whole clutching your stomach thing," Rodney said offhandedly. He was still chewing as he spoke, offering glimpses of pink tongue and white paste. John tried not to look too closely. Rodney still didn't believe in not talking with his mouth full. That wasted his precious time.
"Besides, I get heartburn any time the Genii come up."
Torren made a gurgling, happy noise. John turned to check and had to grin. The baby had his hands in Teyla's hair, pulling it loose from the ponytail Teyla wore. Ronon leaned in and freed her hair from Torren's tiny hands with patient delicacy.
"Thank you, Ronon," Teyla said.
From the look she gave him, John knew she'd noted his grin. He raised his hands. "Sorry."
"You may carry Torren home," Teyla ordered him.
John twitched a little at the thought of Torren's sticky, clutching fingers in his hair, but if it meant they went home after an unexceptional stay, he would be fine with it.
Maybe it was Rodney's antacid or just watching Teyla and Torren, but John felt better. He turned and lengthened his stride. They needed to get to the 'village' before planetary noon.
"I'm going to be sunburned, you know," Rodney complained. He cupped one hand over the back of his neck. A recent hair cut left it looking rather bare and vulnerable.
"No, you won't."
"I have a delicate complexion."
John glanced at him, suppressing a smile. "Like a flower?"
"Yes," Rodney agreed, "like a flower."
"Maybe a pansy?"
Rodney squinted at him. "See if I share my Rolaids with you again."
John smiled to himself, satisfied that he'd managed to annoy Rodney out of starting a rant on skin cancer, which would have inevitably morphed into paranoia over his cumulative rad index and mourning the offspring he would never sire. Or their tragic two-headed state. Though the tangential discussion of mutants and which of the X-women were hotter would have been amusing - at least until Teyla caught them at it.
He still sighed in relief at spotting the buildings the Genii had built to present the image of a 'simple, peaceful' people who did nothing but farm mile after square mile of land around the gate.
It turned out Teyla had been right to insist they wear civilian clothes. Ladon had bodyguards, all wearing Genii uniforms, stiff and hyper-vigilant as Secret Service agents, reminding John he was Chancellor Radim to the Genii, though Ladon had chosen casual clothing to reflect the personal nature of this meeting. John thought it might be the first time he'd seen Ladon out of uniform, then chuckled as Ladon appeared to be studying Rodney and him in turn. Ladon had been in Atlantis at various times, of course, but he'd never seen any of their people out of either military or expedition uniform, either.
Ladon greeted Teyla first, smiling at Torren, then John, Rodney and Ronon, before guiding them inside the cool shade of the village alehouse. It hadn't changed in the years since Teyla brought them to Genea the first time, looking to trade for tava beans, only they and the Genii had. They even managed some innocuous small talk, ranging from crop yields to the Genii's progress on energy sources that wouldn't melt their chromosomes to rumors of atypical cullings on the far fringe of Pegasus. The ale was cool, dark, and hoppy; the food, while not a harvest festival feast, was fresh and tasty. Ladon held Torren in his lap while they ate, letting the baby become acquainted with him before the kith ceremony.
It surprised John to see Ladon so at ease with Torren. He hadn't thought of the Genii as familiar or comfortable with children. He hadn't seen them with any kids before. Sora had been Tyrus' daughter, but she'd been an adult. He'd managed to not think about the Genii having children just like everyone else in a feat of denial that went straight back to Kolya's attempted invasion, because he knew soldiers had families. He'd always hated collateral damage. The smile faded from his features and Ronon gave him a questioning look. John shook his head; there was nothing wrong.
The beer didn't quite wash the bitter taste from his mouth, but John took another sip and concentrated on what Ladon was telling them. Torren had gone to sleep, peaceful and unaware of the undercurrents between the Lanteans, Athosian and Genii. Ronon sat back with his arms folded, out staring Ladon's bodyguards, but even he had loosened up enough to sip his ale periodically and grunt approvingly over the food. Maybe Teyla had the right idea: maybe the way to heal the bad blood lay in tying them together with blood.
"These cullings are different," Ladon said.
"How?" Teyla asked. She leaned forward and fussed with the soft cap on Torren's head.
The kid needed it to keep his head warm, he just had some wisps the color of new pennies so far. In coloring he'd taken after Teyla, copper haired and dark eyed. At least John assumed so. He still didn't know Kanaan except to say hello to, but he couldn't see much of him in Torren. The guy was tall, though. He hoped Torren got that from Kanaan, at least.
Ladon frowned at his tankard before speaking. "You're aware the Genii have agents on many worlds."
"Your intelligence network is the envy of the galaxy," John said, not quite sarcastically. There were plenty of worlds that had never heard of the Genii, though that didn't mean the Genii hadn't heard of them...and placed a spy with them or paid one of their own to inform. Espionage had never been an interest of his, but he'd picked up enough to recognize the Genii knew what they were doing.
"John," Teyla said.
"The Athosians aren't the only people who have disappeared without explanation," Ladon said.
John sat up straight. "You know something." He was still expecting Michael to pop back out of the woodwork. Just because they'd destroyed the bastard's cruiser didn't mean he hadn't escaped. John had a sinking feeling Michael had found a way to use the missing jumper to make it down to the planet and its stargate. The autopilot worked whether someone had the gene or not.
Ladon half shrugged, half nodded. "More what we don't know. In at least two cases, we had agents living among the people who disappeared. We have heard nothing from them. But in the third case - "
"Three other peoples have been taken?" Teyla interrupted in an uncharacteristic display of impatience.
"More," Ladon answered.
She looked at John and Rodney. "How could we not know this?"
"It's big galaxy," John said. He sounded defensive even to himself, but Teyla didn't know either and she had had a hell of lot longer to get hooked into the Pegasus grapevine. "Maybe the cullings got lost in the number of planets the Replicators wiped out or the Hoffan disease's victims."
Ladon shifted Torren in his lap.
"The worlds that are no longer accessible through the Ancestors' Rings confused our understanding of what was happening as well," Ladon said. He studied them as he asked, "That was not the Wraith?"
"No, that was a..." Rodney's voice trailed off. "Another enemy. They fought the Wraith a long time ago and then hid. We thought we could get them to fight each other again."
Ladon waited.
"They turned out to be worse than Wraith, if you can believe that," Rodney said. "I mean, they destroyed a lot of hives, but they decided the best way to beat them was to starve them out by wiping every human in the galaxy out. Hard to believe, but they were still pissed the Ancients liked humans better or something."
That made Ladon frown before he nodded. John raised his eyebrows. Ladon saw and coughed. "I'm familiar with the attitude from Commander Kolya," he said. "Though even he might have stopped at wiping out everyone alive in order to defeat the Wraith."
"Maybe," John commented. He thought Kolya wouldn't have blinked if he'd believed he would survive. By the end of their running feud, Kolya had cared more for revenge and power than stopping the Wraith or keeping the Genii safe. Always had or they would have been allies rather than enemies. Ladon had proved himself not only smarter than previous Genii leaders, but also better intentioned toward his own people in that regard. "Moot point now."
Kolya was dead and the Replicators were gone.
"So, your third agent? You got some kind of intel you can share?" he asked to steer the subject away from either Kolya or their part in the Replicators' attempted specicide. If Rodney went on, he might let slip they had changed the Replicator base code and started it all, not to mention their work with the Wraith against the mutual threat. Neither painted Atlantis in the prettiest light and it wasn't like they had that shining of a reputation in Pegasus as it was.
Ladon allowed it, though John saw he'd seen through him.
"Yes. We had an agent in place in the city of Prima Nergal. They mined one of the elements our new energy program utilizes. Information on their production and trade needs were useful in negotiating with the Nergalese."
Ronon grunted. John glanced at him. After a moment, Ronon answered his silent question.
"Sateda did the same thing."
John filed that away. Sometimes he felt a little grateful Sateda hadn't been around as a galactic power by the time the Atlantis Expedition arrived in Pegasus. Of course, Ronon was a remarkable individual by their standards too, but John got the feeling that they might have succeeded where the Genii failed, if they'd wanted Atlantis.
"Our man in Prima - "
Rodney coughed and John kicked him, though he'd been reminded of Graham Greene too. It wasn't worth explaining if he let Rodney say anything, though. Rodney still mouthed 'Havana' at him. John manfully ignored him.
Ladon looked at them curiously. Teyla waved at him to continue and glared at both of them.
"Our agent was recording a report when the Wraith arrived on Nergal."
"How did you get the report?" Rodney asked.
"When our agent failed to initiate contact on schedule, we sent a recon team to Nergal posing as entertainers."
John made another note to himself. Never trust any of the wandering groups of musicians and storytellers who traveled the gate system. That was too good a cover for gathering intel not to be used more than once by more than one people. No one would even think twice about those nomadic types asking curious questions in most places. Part of their services included carrying news and gossip from world to world. A group or groups of them had probably been responsible for spreading pictures of him, Rodney and the other gene carriers through the galaxy when the Genii had a bounty on their heads.
Which brought him back to the Genii sitting at the table.
Teyla nodded at Ladon. "I see. I looked forward to visits to our camps by such players as a child. There are few worlds where they are not welcomed." Her lips quirked. "Despite any other agendas they might have had."
Atlantis being one, she didn't say, but John didn't mind in this case. Their security precautions had probably served them better than they'd known. It had to hurt, though, the way so many things she'd learned in the past four years had; that people she had known and liked had lied to her the entire time she'd known them, that her ability to sense the Wraith came from sharing some of their DNA, that the Ancestors were no more than a bunch of self-absorbed egomaniacs who made Rodney look like a humanitarian. Now one more memory was tarnished. She had to have known, but having her nose rubbed in it couldn't be very nice.
John turned his tankard on the wooden table top, making sure to keep it within the dark condensation stain. The metal sides were wet and cool beneath his fingertips.
"They found the city nearest the gate emptied," Ladon went on. "When they went to the agent's home, the recorder was in the open. Halfway through his report, he stopped and said that there were darts over head as well as Wraith on the ground. They were herding people toward a stationary culling beam. He said the Wraith appeared to be separating people into groups, using some sort of scanner."
"A stationary culling beam?" Rodney repeated. He had a piece of bread and cheese in his hand, half way to his mouth, but seemed to have forgotten it as he puzzled that out. "Then it had to come from a hive or at least a large cruiser in geosynchronous orbit. We haven't seen that before."
"Once," John said.
Rodney looked at him. John shifted uncomfortably. It had lit the night and he'd felt cold to his bones looking at it from the cloaked jumper. He'd imagined the Wraith reaching Earth and hadn't seen how Atlantis could survive and stop them.
"You weren't with us," he added.
"So they were sorting people based on some criteria your agent couldn't determine?" Rodney asked Ladon after a long beat, turning his gaze away from John to John's relief.
Ladon looked down, and then seemed to gather himself, even as he lifted Torren's sleeping form higher in his arms. "Almyus was interrupted before he could say more." A muscle in his cheek worked. "The recording ends as he shouts a name."
"A name?" John repeated.
"Tyre," Ladon replied. "Appar-"
Ronon pushed back from the table and jolted to his feet in a single violent motion, sending his empty tankard rolling into Teyla's, which spilled across the table. Ale flooded down onto John's leg and the floor as Rodney exclaimed, juggling both tankards as they threatened to roll on into his lap. The clang of the metal still rang as Ladon's bodyguards went for their weapons.
"Everybody calm down," John snapped. Tension shivered through his muscles and he clenched his hand against the reflex to reach for the sidearm that he had eschewed. He had a small back-up gun in the top of one of his boots, along with a knife in the other and lock-picks sewn into a seam in his jeans, but knew better than to reach for it. This didn't need to turn into a shoot-out; they were on the same side when it came to the Wraith at least. "Ronon. Get back in your chair. Ladon, sorry for mess."
Torren woke and began wailing, sensing the sudden change in the alehouse's atmosphere. Ladon patted his back like a pro while commanding the bodyguards to, "Put away your weapons. They aren't threatening me." He nodded to John and added, "It's spilled ale, not an attack."
Ronon glared at the bodyguards, obviously itching to burn away his anger fighting them, but came back to the table. He righted his fallen chair and sat. Rodney pushed the tankards back to the center of the table. John grimaced at the wetness soaking through the thigh and knee of his jeans. He was going to smell like stale beer for the rest of the day.
Ladon quietly shushed Torren until he'd settled again. He looked from Ronon to Teyla to Rodney, who determinedly looked at the table between flicking glances at Ronon, and finally to John. "I take it this name is familiar?"
"We've run across someone of that name before," John said carefully, watching Ronon, wondering how much more he should say.
"Wraith worshipper," Ronon growled. His hands were in fists.
Rodney opened his mouth, then snapped it closed, giving Teyla a wounded look, which John interpreted to mean she'd either kicked him or was grinding her heel down on his toes.
"They have grown bold," Ladon said. "Almyus' previous report mentioned this man coming to Prima Nergal in search of work as a bodyguard."
"Fits," John said.
Ronon scowled. "Traitor."
John didn't know what to say to that. Ronon had been made a Runner. He'd never been fed on, never felt his life drain away in a wave of agony. Never known the sweet rushing relief of having it all pushed back inside. If 'Todd' hadn't been a prisoner of Kolya too, if he'd been raised to fear the Wraith all his life, if his planet and home and people had been wiped out...John didn't know that he wouldn't have broken and become a follower too. He wasn't superhuman and neither was Ronon. Sometimes Ronon's relative youth and years outside any society made him almost naive about human nature, a sort of youthful idealism still buried beneath the survivor's thick skin.
Ladon lifted an eyebrow and John shook his head minutely. "Tyre lured us into a trap. We got out, so did he." He shrugged. "If he was with the Wraith on Nergal, he could have been acting as a spy, targeting specific people for them."
"The way he and Rakai and Ara used me to get to McKay," Ronon said.
"You had no way of knowing," Teyla comforted.
Ronon shook his head. "I should have - "
"The only thing you should do is let it go," John told him, rough and maybe a little impatient, because Ronon had been ready to walk away from them for his old friends. Maybe it was time he let it go too, he'd been hoarding that bitterness like an ugly pebble since the moment in the Wraith facility when Ronon went with the Satedans instead of the team. "Teyla's right."
"The real question is who and why would the Wraith be interested in specific people?" Rodney speculated. "Or specific groups." He looked at Teyla. "Like yours. We know at least one Wraith experimented on them..."
"You think it is the same one?" she asked. Her hand twitched abortively toward Torren. Michael's plans for Torren were still fresh in all their minds, but more so in hers. She'd seen and heard more than she'd ever spoken of to them outside a dry and emotionless report.
"Yes, no, maybe?" Rodney held up his hands. "I'm not an expert on Wraith motives. Let's be honest, I'm not good figuring human ones."
A blurp of sound from one of the bodyguard's radios interrupted before anyone could say more. "Prass Demera and your sister are on their way," the bodyguard said after listening to the message.
Ladon nodded and addressed Teyla. "Are you satisfied?"
Teyla studied the way he still held Torren and nodded. "Yes. I hope this will herald a closer relationship between all our people, as well."
She stood and the rest of them followed her to their feet. John caught the voices of two women outside and figured that would be Ladon's sister and Prass Demera, whoever she was, come to witness the kithing ceremony.
"Then let us continue," Ladon said.
They exited the alehouse, the bright afternoon light making everyone blink after the cool confines. John fumbled on his sunglasses, then nodded as he was introduced to the older woman. Dahlia looked much better than the only other time he'd seen her. She even smiled at them, though the brightness faded as Rodney fumblingly explained he couldn't take her greeting to Beckett.
Ladon didn't explain who Prass Demera was, but she seemed to be someone in the Genii government and uninterested in wasting any more time than she had to.
They walked out of the village and into one of the tava fields. The earth between the rows of green vines twining over rough tepees made from sticks had been weeded and watered recently. Dry on the surface, it crumbled and broke, then stuck in small clods to the soles of their boots. The scent of damp soil mixed with warm greenery, almost heady in its richness after Atlantis' nearly sterile environment.
Clouds of small insects flew up from the tiny flowers blooming along the tava vines. The hum and buzz of their wings disturbed John, a subtly wrong harmonic that resulted from a different number of wings than insects used on Earth. Rodney waved his hands, slapping at them and ducking away, muttering outraged imprecations at the universe.
"Here," John said when they stopped, catching Rodney's arm to hold him still. "Let me...They're in your hair."
"Oh," Rodney breathed. "Ack, get them off."
John brushed the little bugs out of Rodney's hair, telling himself the warmth he felt at the soft tickle against his fingertips came from the sun. The bugs were tiny, pokey little things maybe three millimeters long, with flat shells of rust orange spots on shiny green. They flew away into the vines again without much encouragement. Rodney fidgeted and shook his head anyway.
Ronon laughed.
"At least I won't be picking them out of my hair for the next week," Rodney sniped at him.
"They're harmless," Dahlia told them. "They actually do good. They eat a kind of scale that grows on the vines."
"Excuse me if I have no confidence in the benign intentions of anything insectoid in this galaxy," Rodney replied and John secretly agreed. He flicked a final few of the bugs off Rodney's shoulder and his own arms.
"May we finish this?" Prass Demera inquired.
Turned away enough Demera couldn't see, Dahlia rolled her eyes.
"We appreciate the time you are taking to witness," Teyla said, all smooth diplomacy.
Demera looked somewhat mollified, something that probably wouldn't have held true if she'd heard Rodney mutter, "As if she was doing anything important. Really, if I can leave my lab for this and come through the stargate from another planet, I think she can take an hour away from pushing paper or whatever inane make-work Genii bureaucrats do. Probably making lists of what lies they're telling who."
John coughed hard, choking back laughter and drowning out Rodney's rant. Ronon slapped him on the back hard enough to make him stumble, so that Rodney caught his arm to steady him and, thank Christ, shut up. By the time they'd sorted themselves out of their Three Stooges routine, Teyla was glaring at all three of them.
Everyone settled into respectful silence as Ladon began the simple ceremony.
He held Torren in the crook of one arm and unwrapped the blanket holding him, then drew off everything but his diaper, handing it all to Teyla. He held Torren up then, showing him to everyone, Demera, his sister, the bodyguards and John's team.
"This is Torren Emmagan, son of Kanaan and Teyla," Ladon said.
He held Torren up to Teyla, who pressed a kiss to Torren' forehead.
"This is Torren Emmagan, child of Athos."
"Child of Athos," Teyla repeated.
Ronon, then John, then Rodney repeated her words.
Ladon brought Torren to face Ronon, who bent and solemnly bestowed the gentlest of kisses to the crown of the baby's head. Torren grabbed one of his dreads as it swung forward and pulled, laughing with delight. Ronon detached Torren's hand with a smile.
"This is Torren Emmagan, kindred of Sateda that was, kith of Ronon Dex," Ladon stated.
"Kindred of Sateda," Ronon rumbled. "Kindred of mine."
The sun heated the back of John's neck and soaked into his shoulders through the well-worn dress shirt he'd worn instead of a tee. His palms were damp, even though he'd already undergone the ceremony once in Atlantis.
Ladon moved to face John and John bent closer, inhaling the scents of milk and baby powder and the sweet smell that all babies seemed to have, kissed Torren just as Ronon had, dandelion-fine baby hair tickling his nose before he straightened. He met Ladon's gaze without flinching, so that he could see that John would do anything to keep Torren safe.
"This is Torren Emmagan, child of Atlantis, kith to John Sheppard."
John flashed on holding Torren himself, saying those words, standing with his team on the highest spire of Atlantis, where the wind ruffled their garments and strange seabirds dove and cried, feeling in his bones the way the city seem to hum into wakefulness for an instant as he knelt and set Torren's bare feet to the deck for a ten count.
"Kindred of Atlantis," John swore. "Kith to me and mine."
Citizen of his city wherever Atlantis rested, he'd sworn silently and repeated to himself again. First child born to it in ten thousand years even if he had come into the world on a Wraith cruiser, and when he was old enough, Torren would receive the gene therapy as his due.
Ladon brought Torren to Rodney next and last. Rodney, who stood straight and steady, the expression on his face just as grave and serious as Ronon had been, no sneer or sarcasm evident.
Rodney kissed Torren carefully.
"This is Torren Emmagan, child of Earth," Ladon said. "Kith of Rodney McKay."
"Kindred of Earth," Rodney declared, quiet and sure. "Exactly as my own."
Ladon stepped back and held Torren a little high, showing him to Demera and his sister. Then he sank down to his knees and held Torren so that his bare feet pressed into the soft, damp soil of the tava field.
"This is my world and my home," Ladon said. "So now it is yours, Torren Emmagan. You are my kith and I will always have a place for you. As my kith gift, I swear to do all that I may to keep peace between Genea and the peoples of Atlantis and Athos." He got to his feet and declared in a voice that carried, "This is Torren Emmagan, child of Genea, kith to Ladon Radim."
"Child of Genea," they all chorused, even the bodyguards.
"So it is witnessed, so it is done," Dahlia stated. She turned to Teyla and added, "He will always have a place among the Genii."
"Thank you," Teyla said.
"May I hold him?"
Teyla and Dahlia redressed Torren, Dahlia cooing a little and looking wistful, while Demera ponced away, grimacing down at the dirt on her shoes in a way that made John laugh.
Ladon stepped closer. "Colonel Sheppard. I meant my promise to Torren. Whatever the Genii learn, we will share with you."
John cocked his head. "No one expects that, but if you find some clue to what's going on with the Wraith, we'll take any help we can get."
That garnered a nod of acknowledgment.
"If we knew what this Tyre looked like...," Ladon speculated.
John nodded at Ronon. "We don't have any photos of him, but I think we could get one of our people to draw a pretty good likeness. He has some Satedan tattoos. Those are pretty distinctive." He didn't know if Ronon would be willing to work with Evan, but he and Rodney and Teyla could describe Tyre. Maybe better. They'd seen him as he was, not overlaid with memories from years before.
"Once our network knows what he looks like they can be on watch for him, even if he uses another name," Ladon agreed. He watched Dahlia stroke her finger over Torren's cheek. "The Athosians were always honest traders. Generous people. Perhaps we can make up for the deceit with which the Genii treated them."
"It would be a good start," John agreed.
John reminded every team going out of the need to keep on the lookout for any information on Michael or the Wraith culling patterns shifting. It had become the part of every pre-mission briefing. Don't interrogate, don't give away too much by asking leading questions, but sit down with folks and encourage a little gossip and write it all up in the AAR.
So far it hadn't netted them anything, but intelligence gathering was a job for the patient, the pattern spotters and puzzle solvers who would piece tiny bits of disparate information together until a recognizable picture formed out of a thousand meaningless pixels.
There were only rumors, though, of worlds deserted, villages left with food still on the table, fields abandoned, farm animals untended, dead or gone wild. Culled, the stories went, though the rest of a world might remain untouched without explanation. Nothing contradicted the Genii story Ladon had given them, though nothing confirmed it.
Woolsey's lips thinned as John told Lt. McCready to make sure to ask the Khluf traders if they'd heard anything about hybrids before sending the youngest of their gate team officers off. John nodded to him. He could bring it up if he wanted John to stop. He knew that the time was approaching when Woolsey, acting on orders from their SGC and IOA overlords, would cut back or completely cancel any missions solely aimed at aiding trade and aid, but he'd kept those to a minimum just to keep the option available as long as possible. Telling their people to keep their ears open while they hunted energy sources and weapons didn't cost anyone anything.
Teyla attended all of the trade mission briefings and most pre-mission meetings, even when AR-1 wasn't tasked. Advising them on local custom and anything she knew about proposed mission destinations had been part of her job on Atlantis from the beginning. Their mission goals had slowly but steadily changed since establishing contact with Earth, but her input remained more valuable than any SGC diplomatic guidelines.
She watched McCready's team walk into the event horizon with a wistful expression. She'd gone out twice with Lorne's team when her presence had been necessary to secure contact with the Gada, but had stayed in Atlantis otherwise, excepting only the trip to Genea. Watching others go while she stayed behind had to be painfully familiar after the last few months. John wandered if she felt restless and trapped as he would in the same circumstances.
It made him feel ashamed and he promised himself he'd do his part to free her up even a little.
He knew she loved Torren with everything in her. He felt the same way; so did Ronon and Rodney. Torren had changed the shape of Teyla's life though, in ways she couldn't have anticipated. She'd counted on the support network the Athosians provided for all parents, the community of people who were always available to care for a child. Instead, she was forced to spend almost all her time caring for Torren while the traumatized and unsteady Athosians struggled to rebuild their lives while living in Atlantis.
Atlantis didn't have daycare and while there were more than a few people in the city who would have and wanted to help, they all had their own duties. Most couldn't split their attention enough to work and babysit at the same time. Not that Teyla would ask anyway, but John couldn't take Torren to the firing range, Keller couldn't set up a crib in an infirmary that doubled as an emergency department and dealt with offworld teams that could be infected with anything, Rodney couldn't study unknown technology and change diapers. Ronon was perfectly willing to strap Torren to his back on morning runs, however, which just highlighted that they weren't utilizing his skill sets. He needed to be putting together solo and team survival training for everyone in Atlantis whether they went off world or not. Which brought John back to Teyla's dilemma and how alone she was in Atlantis.
John hadn't anticipated losing Teyla as a team member after Torren's birth. He'd simply assumed she'd be back as soon as she physically could. He had to admit that had been just amazingly stupid and he couldn't quite shed the petty resentment he felt that she'd done something that changed the team's dynamic so much, without even a hint or warning. It made him act like a dick; he knew it, but often couldn't stop himself, even though he loved Torren and would rather have his hands cut off than deny Teyla whatever happiness she could find.
Maybe, if he refrained from shoving Kanaan against a wall and demanding what he meant to do for his son and Teyla now that he was back, it would make up a little for what a poor friend John had been when Teyla told him about Torren.
He'd begun worrying about something else. Teyla hadn't been part of the regular AR-1 mission roster for months. The allies for whom she'd acted as leader and ambassador were refugees and never highly appreciated on Earth anyway. How long until Coolidge or some other xenophobe in the IOA wanted Teyla removed from Atlantis entirely?
If it came to that, John feared even something as desperate as he or Rodney marrying Teyla wouldn't make them back down. The IOA wouldn't even recognize a Pegasus marriage unless they saw some benefit in acknowledging it. Which brought him around to being unwillingly pissed at Teyla all over again, because she and Torren just might be the tipping point and he didn't know which way he'd go, if he would give her up or go with her, exactly how much he would give up. Because it wasn't the same as dying for something, not at all.
The break came a week after McCready's gainless mission, an unscheduled dial-in half way through the lunch hour marked by Chuck's voice from John's radio earpiece, "It's the Genii's IDC."
John left his tray and headed for the control room at a controlled lope, taking a transporter instead of the stairs, opening the team's channel on his radio as he went. "Rodney - "
"I heard. I'm on my way up."
"Teyla and Ronon are training. Can you get them on your way?" They'd all wrecked too many headsets while sparring and took them off now, relying on the city comm to alert them in an emergency. This wasn't, yet.
"You couldn't send one of your men?" Rodney whined.
"It's on your way."
John pressed the control room icon on the transporter destination grid.
"It is not."
"Well, you're closer than me. Gotta go."
"Fine. I'll get them."
The doors opened.
Woolsey was already out of his office, facing the camera pick-up and main display screen in the upper level of the control room. He had his arms folded. The display showed rolling waves of harsh static, the sort John associated with nineteen-fifties TV. "Try - "
"I've got it," Li said.
The static resolved into a wavering image of Ladon Radim, bearded face too close to the camera lens, the tint subtly off. He stepped back, revealing a hint of the room he stood in, another Genii at console of equipment. A scratchy voice said, "They should be able to see you now, Chancellor."
"Colonel," Ladon said, proving that he had a visual image of them as well. "Mr. Woolsey."
"Chancellor Radim," Woolsey replied. "This is unexpected."
Rodney, Teyla and Ronon arrived, aligning themselves with John. He didn't need to see them, even; their familiar scents, coffee, incense and leather changed the air of the control room, laced with the lingering ozone sting of the transporters.
A small smile lifted Ladon's mouth at the corners. "Atlantis and the Genii are allies now."
Behind John, Rodney gave a little choked sound.
"Ladon," Teyla said. She stepped around Rodney to stand between John and Woolsey and smiled at the camera. "You and the Genii are untroubled?"
Ronon settled next to John. Heat radiated from his body and the smell of clean sweat mixed with the leather, familiar from a hundred work outs.
"We are," Ladon replied. He fished something off the desk he stood beside and held it up. A copy of one the pictures they'd drawn up of Tyre.
Adrenaline jolted through John. He felt Ronon tense beside him, heard Rodney whisper a soft curse.
"We have a news of this man," Ladon said. "He showed up in Avibo according to our agent there. Two days ago."
"Took long enough to let us know," John said.
"Our man has been watching him. He's sure the newcomer is this Tyre, though he's calling himself Hakan."
Ronon grunted. "It's him. Hakan was one of our squad mates, before Sateda fell. A friend of Tyre's." The sneer in his voice didn't completely hide the betrayal he still felt.
"You need to take him alive," John said.
"We're preparing a strike force to capture him."
"That's very interesting, Chancellor Radim, and we appreciate being informed, of course," Woolsey interjected.
"What do you need?" John asked, ignoring Woolsey when he glared at him.
"One of your jumpers," Ladon replied immediately, "and a pilot, obviously. I'd prefer to not terrorize the Avibii."
John tapped his radio. "Lorne. I want you and a squad geared up and in the jumper bay - " He looked at Ladon's face on the screen. "When?"
"Our force will be ready to gate to Avibo in two hours," Ladon said. "I'm sending nine men."
"Twenty minutes," John told Lorne. "You'll be joining the Genii, picking up a hostile in a non-hostile village. I'll brief you down there. Everyone carries stunners."
He didn't wait for Evan's acknowledgment, just nodded to Ladon. "The jumper will be there in a hour, max."
"Thank you," Ladon said. "We'll be waiting."
The display fizzed into static and the wormhole flickered out.
Woolsey turned on John. "Don't do that again," he said.
Before John could open his mouth, Teyla spoke. "John, I would like to accompany Major Lorne's team."
"Me too," Ronon said.
"Shohreh has agreed to care for Torren today. If Tyre is guiding the Wraith to these villages, then someone should warn these people as well."
"Look, I'll take a second jumper, stay cloaked, and make sure this isn't some kind of trick, but if Tyre is really out there, we need to know what he's been doing and our best chance is to have people on the ground with the Genii," John told Woolsey. "We need the intel."
"Right, and if Tyre is still working for the Wraith, he may very well have some of their equipment, so I'd better get ready too," Rodney said.
"We're wasting time," Ronon added and strode away before Woolsey could say anything, which John considered the smartest course.
"Director," he murmured and retreated before Woolsey could give him a direct order to stand down. John didn't think he'd recall him via radio; Woolsey had to know his record in that regard.
"We're going to talk when you get back, " Woolsey called after him.
Teyla hurried and squeezed into the transporter along with John and Rodney. Rodney sent them on the way to the hub nearest the gear room and said, "You think this is for real?"
"I believe so," Teyla said.
The doors opened and they started out. Rodney strode ahead, on his radio, talking to Radek, "You're in charge the rest of the day. Yes, I know. You'll have to oversee it yourself, something's come up. Offworld. Yeah. Okay. Thanks and ...you know, don't let any of the morons blow you up."
Teyla caught John's wrist in her hand, a light yet firm touch, pulling him to a halt. "John. Thank you."
"For what?"
"I know if you had not pushed, Mr. Woolsey would not have agreed to send Major Lorne and a jumper."
"Hey, it isn't like we don't need intel on whatever the Wraith are up to," he told her. "This isn't just about you."
Teyla studied him. John resisted the urge to squirm.
"If you say so," she finally agreed, but that was just letting him off the hook. He knew she didn't believe it.
"Are you going to stand there all day?" Rodney called from the gear room door way.
"I will meet you at the jumper bay," Teyla said. "After I change, I wish to stop at Shohreh's office and bid Torren good-bye. She should know I will be going offworld."
"Okay," John said and they parted, Teyla headed for the women's end of the shared room.
[b]