“Alright, gentlemen. What is your plan?” Elizabeth asked the group at large.
John and Evan shared a look. John suppressed a grin as he focused on her instead of his excited mate who was having a difficult time not bouncing in his seat. He leaned forward casually, resting his clasped hands on the table. “Well, we figure with the list Elizabeth-one gave us-”
A snort escaped Evan’s lips which he quickly turned into a cough. John ignored the looks he was receiving, ranging from mild shock to amusement. “As I was saying, we figure that with that list, we have a few planets to try. My team’ll go to Dagan since we’ve already had first contact there. Evan’s team will check out the third address. Ioan’s team will take the fourth. Markham’s team the fifth. Rodney had Chuck try the addresses first to see if they all connected, which is why we were able to rule out the second address on the list. The gate won’t connect, and without having a ship to send to the address, there’s no way of knowing the reason for that.”
Elizabeth nodded thoughtfully. “Alright. When did you have in mind for this?”
“Actually, ma’am,” Evan chimed in, “we were planning on all of us going. We know the Wraith are on their way, so we figured the sooner we find a ZPM, the better.”
“We can be wheels up within the hour.”
Elizabeth tented her fingers in front of her mouth, thinking. After a minute, she agreed. “Very well. You have a go, but I would like you all to remain in regular contact. Arrange your call-in times with Chuck and stick to them, gentlemen.”
They hammered out the finer details of the respective missions for another fifteen minutes before heading out to get ready. John’s team would be the last to head out, so they had time yet. He wanted to be there to see the others off, though, so he stuck around the gateroom. Rodney, apparently too excited by the prospect of finding ZPMs, was talking rapidly about who they could talk to to get help. “You remember Allina, John? The archeologist we met last time? I’m sure she and her people would be able to help us find it.”
John’s lips twitched as his eyes met Teyla’s, who looked equally amused. “Sure, Rodney, I remember her.” How could he forget. The woman seemed enamored with his mate and he was completely oblivious to her advances.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~
“Peterson, you take point. Dylan, cover the rear. Simmons, you read anything yet?” Evan surveyed the area around the gate once more. They had already cleared it, but caution never hurt.
Simmons shook his head, eyes on his scanner. “No, sir. Not a thing. According to the information Dr. Grodin found, though, the outpost should be in that general direction,” he pointed somewhere to the right, toward forested hills.
Evan sighed. Of course it wouldn’t be so easy. “Alright, let’s head out. Everyone stay alert. We have two hours till we need to call home. Freeman, you and your team stay here as point of contact and hold the gate.”
It took them the better part of four hours to reach a clearing and they had already checked in once. They paused, Simmons again trying to get some sort of reading. He frowned. “If there’s a ZPM here, sir, I can’t tell it from the scanner. I’m getting no energy signature whatsoever.”
Well that didn’t make sense, Evan thought. They should at least be getting something if it was close by. “Fan out, stay in radio contact,” he ordered.
After another fifteen minutes, Peterson radioed, “Sir, I think I got something. About half a klick from where we started.”
“On our way, stay put.” Evan double-timed it, pleased to see the rest of the team converging on Peterson, too. “What’ve you got?”
Peterson jerked his head to a rock wall that would have been easily overlooked if it hadn’t been for evidence of a rockslide exposing an entrance. The opening had been cleverly hidden from plain view, Evan thought. “Still nothing?” he asked Simmons, scanning the entryway.
“No, sir.”
Evan called Freeman, telling him to send Atlantis an update on their situation, then clicked off. “Alright. Eyes peeled, gentlemen,” he said, taking point.
Evan was starting to wonder about this place. Could Janus have been wrong about there being a ZPM here? So far, he hadn’t really seen any indication there was anything remotely Lantean on this planet, regardless of what Janus had claimed or what the database said there should be. Still, it was the only intel they had, so he would do everything he could to confirm one way or the other.
Two minutes into the cave the passageway gave way to a large room, with several smaller doors leading off from it. There had once been a large doorway of sorts in the rock, but it was just empty space now, if you didn’t count the debris from a partial collapse. They could vaguely make out shapes of Ancient consoles, but everything was pitch black inside. Nothing came to life when Evan stepped into the room and there was no awareness like he experienced in the city. His heart sank at the implications. Swallowing hard, he ordered his men to search the small compound for any sign of a ZPM, cautioning them to watch out for instabilities, and they split up.
Evan had tried two rooms already, finding nothing but more Ancient tech that wasn’t working, as well as some abandoned equipment that he was sure McKay wouldn’t mind getting his hands on for spare parts, and more fallen rock. As he entered the third, he closed his eyes and cursed under his breath. In the middle of the small room, the dais that housed the ZPM was in ruins, the ZPM exposed and very obviously broken. The back wall had completely collapsed, bringing part of the ceiling down on top of it.
Clicking his radio, he sighed. “I think I found it, but it’s a dud. Let’s head back to the gate.” At least it explained why they hadn’t picked up any energy signatures. He wasn’t looking forward to telling Dr. Weir or McKay about this, though.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Radek ducked under the console, trying to figure out what the idiots had done to it this time.
“I don’t know what happened,” Chuck claimed, sipping his coffee. “It just stopped working. I got some of the functionality back but it’s still not doing everything it used to.”
Clenching his teeth, Radek popped back up and checked the readings on his laptop. When would people learn? “Yes, well maybe if people stop insisting on having food and liquid in such close proximity to the ten thousand year old equipment,” he bitched, giving Chuck a pointed glare.
“Hey, we’re very careful. We are not the problem here,” Chuck retorted with a scowl of his own.
“Yes, uhhuh,” he muttered. Rolling his eyes, Radek turned his attention back to his laptop. Frowning, he double checked the readout he was getting. Sighing, he got to his feet and turned to grab something out of his toolkit when the big screen suddenly flashed and started spouting information in Ancient. He jerked around, pointing an accusing finger at Chuck. “What did you touch?”
Chuck held up both hands. “Nothing! I didn’t touch anything, I swear!”
Cursing in Czech, Radek rushed to the console, trying to make sense of what he was seeing. His laptop indicated that a new program had powered up on its own, but he couldn’t tell what. Slowly turning back toward the big screen, Radek murmured, “Then what is it-?” He blinked.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
“Ioan, did you find it?” Kimberly asked the second her team made it through the gate. She hated that she hadn’t been able to join them, but she still hadn’t been cleared for regular duty. Dr. Abel had taken her place instead. She was competent enough, but AR-3 was hers as far as Kimberly was concerned.
Ioan shook his head, looking disgruntled. “No. The area that you and Grodin put the outpost at is just… gone. Utterly obliterated. Pretty recently, too, from what we could tell. There was evidence of a Wraith attack on the planet, but no survivors which is new.”
Kimberly’s face fell as she walked beside her mate to the meeting room for his debrief. “Damn,” she muttered. Ioan glanced at her. “Any word from the others?” She shook her head. “No, not yet.”
~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Rodney listened as Allina explained about the Brotherhood of Fifteen who had been entrusted with a precious artifact by the Ancestors. He was remarkably impressed by everything Allina and her group had discovered since their last visit. He thought that Daniel would have loved being here, as this whole mission was right up his alley. He hated to admit it, even to himself, but Rodney was enjoying himself. Not because he was suddenly developing an interest in a soft science like archeology, but this whole thing had a feel of an intricate puzzle about it which he enjoyed. And hello, ZPM as a reward!
Allina handed out three square stones with engravings on them, explaining that these three clues recently had been uncovered. “Where did you find them?” he asked, only half paying attention to her as he inspected the stone he had been handed.
“This building used to be their monastery, actually. We pieced together some of the information we found here and tracked down the number six and seven stones. We found the number three stone on an unrelated dig just last week.”
“So if we find the stones, we find the map,” John said thoughtfully.
Allina nodded. “Yes, exactly.”
Rodney’s mind was racing, trying to put the puzzle pieces together. He wasn’t sure what all the markings meant, but the ones at the bottom were fairly obvious. At least, to him. “Hm. You see this?” he pointed at the nine square grid with one colored grid at the top right.
Ford frowned down at the stone in his hands. “Part of the design?”
Rolling his eyes, Rodney suppressed a sigh. “I don’t think anything on these stones is there just for esthetics. Here, hand me that,” he said, snapping his fingers for Ford to hand his stone over. Glancing at it, he nodded, placing it on the table in the right sequence. “Each of the stones has a part of the grid embossed.” He touched the grid.
“Signifying where its correct placing should be in the final configuration,” Allina said, smiling in understanding.
Rodney tapped the side of his nose, pleased she had caught on so quickly. “Exactly.”
“So what?” Ford asked, shrugging.
Rodney just stared at him for several seconds. “So what?” he repeated, baffled. Didn’t he get it? It was so simple! “Ay…” He sighed, shaking his head in despair. He turned to Allina. “Do you have a map?” Maybe if the lieutenant saw it, he’d get it. A glance over at his mate reassured him that it was dawning on John at least.
Allina’s assistant handed her a map and she spread it out on the table. They secured it with a few props to keep it from rolling back up. “Okay,” Rodney said, grabbing a piece of charcoal. “Where did you find the first one?” She pointed to the spot and he marked it, then did the same with the second and third stone locations. “You have no idea how lucky a find that third stone was,” he muttered as he drew a grid pattern.
Teyla wasn’t sure what she was seeing and Ford still looked clueless. Teyla, he could understand, but he really had expected better from his youngest teammate. Still, he needed for them to be on the same page, so he went over things again, relieved when the light bulbs finally seemed to go on for them.
John sighed, looking resigned. “Alright. Split up. Two teams. Let’s start digging.”
Rodney shot him an amused look which earned him the stinkeye, but that just made his grin widen. Seemingly in spite of himself, John chuckled, shaking his head.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~
“Incoming wormhole,” Chuck announced. “Radio message from Sergeant Stackhouse.”
“Put him through,” Elizabeth said, walking up to him, Ioan and his team following close behind having just finished their debrief.
“Dr. Weir, this is Sergeant Stackhouse. Ma’am, I’m sorry to report that the outpost has been destroyed. It appears there was an extinction level volcanic eruption at some point. We’ve done a full survey of the planet, but aside from a few half-buried relics here and there, there’s nothing here. Scans show that the area the outpost was in is covered in hardened lava. We’ve tried to see whether there’s any chance of accessing it, if it’s even still there underneath, but no luck.”
Ioan closed his eyes and let out a long breath. Hopefully SA-1 would have better luck, because it was all up to them now. Every other team had struck out.
Elizabeth looked as disappointed as he felt. “Alright, Sergeant. Come on home. No point for you to stay there. I’ll ask Dr. McKay whether it’s worth looking into further.”
“Yes, ma’am, coming through now. Stackhouse, out.”
~*~*~*~*~*~*~
“I’m sorry, the sensors picked it up days ago, but it took me until now to finally decipher what they were trying to tell us,” Radek said apologetically. Pushing his glasses back up, he pointed at the screen.
Dr. Weird leaned over his shoulder, eyes wide with shock. “A dart? How is that possible? The Hive ships are still light years away!”
“Well, perhaps it was modified to get here as quickly as possible. Maybe it used gate to nearest planet and has been flying top speed ever since they discovered we were here.” Radek shrugged as he tabbed between screens. “At its current velocity, it will be over the city in…” he paused, and Ioan swore he could see the man working it out in his head. “Twenty-seven minutes.”
Crap. That was not good. Ioan took a steadying breath and met Kimberly’s eyes. She had paled considerably. Dr. Weir straightened and nodded as if to herself. “Right. We need to get jumpers in the air. Lieutenant, I want at least three in the air as soon as possible.”
Ioan saluted. “Yes, ma’am. I’m on it.”
He turned to leave, but Kimberly grasped his wrist, her eyes wide with fear. “Please be careful,” she whispered.
He could sense just how afraid she was through their bond, so he did what he could to assure her. Placing his hand over hers, he squeezed it and gave her a small smile. “Always. I’ll be back before you know it. You help Radek, okay?”
“Of course.”
Leaning in, he gave her a quick peck on the lips, heedless of their surroundings because he knew it was what she needed. He was rewarded with an approximation of her usual smile and a slight lessening of the knot of anxiety in their bond that was her. “That’s my girl,” he murmured. “Gotta go. Love you.”
He double-timed it, calling out orders over the radio for Kagawa, Markham, Beckett, Bates, and Smith to report to the jumper bay. He still caught Kimberly’s, “I love you, too,” as he went.
Within minutes they were all in the air and Radek was piping them information. “You should have visual in thirty seconds.”
Ioan glanced at the HUD while Kagawa peered out the window. “Anything?” Ioan asked.
“No, nothing yet. I can’t see anything but blue sky.”
Ioan hit the comms. “Eyes peeled everyone.” All his focus was on the incoming Wraith, willing for it to show itself so they could shoot it already.
“I see it!” Smith called a few seconds later. “It’s at our one o’clock and heading right f-”
Ioan’s eyes swiveled to where Smith indicated and he blinked in shock when it appeared out of nowhere, took out Markham’s jumper and broke for the city. “Beckett, Bates, do not let him acquire a target.”
“I’m a bloody doctor, not a fighter pilot!” came Carson’s agitated voice even as he veered around in pursuit of the dart.
Ioan shook his head, following suit. They had to take that damned dart down, now. Man, that thing was stealthy. He could definitely see where it got its name from. It was everything Ioan could do to keep pace with it, the way it was weaving between the turrets of Atlantis. It wasn’t giving them a clean shot which was pissing him off. He needed to take it out but he couldn’t risk firing in this close proximity to the city and the Wraith seemed to know it.
“What is it doing?” Bates asked incredulously. Ioan was wondering the same thing. The beam that was coming from it he had only seen when they were culling, but there was no way it was trying to do that. There was no one in the open and they couldn’t go through walls. Could they?
Just then, it suddenly turned upward, speeding away and finally giving them their chance to open fire. Right when Ioan was ready to do so, the dart exploded into a ball of fire. Kagawa gaped, stunned. “It wasn’t me,” Ioan murmured. “Beckett, did you fire?”
“No, that wasn’t us,” Carson confirmed, sounding breathless.
The hell?
~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Kolya. Of course it had to be Kolya, Rodney thought, closing his eyes. A shudder went through him as memories of the strike on Atlantis barraged him. A spike of worry through the bond had him opening his eyes again, only to meet his mate’s worried gaze. He so could have done with never crossing paths with that maniac again, and especially not when he and his team were stuck in an underground chamber with Kolya barring their only way out.
Rodney listened as John and Kolya volleyed back and forth, trying to understand what the man could possibly want from them. When he mentioned wanting the ZPM, Rodney’s stomach dropped. It would be useless to the Genii, he knew that, but if they did find it and the Genii wanted it… Yeah, Rodney was fully capable of imagining the lengths Kolya would go to to get it, and most of them would end up with his team dead, starting with John. He was not going to let that happen. They could find another ZPM or even try to take this one back, but only if they were all alive to try.
Teyla tried to convince him they hadn’t gotten it yet because they were missing the last piece, but Kolya wasn’t buying it. Steeling his nerve, Rodney squared his shoulders and stepped into line of sight. Grabbing the pulley, he looked up, scowling. “She’s right. We’re close but we’re not there yet. The ninth stone is hidden on another planet. All we have is the gate address.”
Another spike of emotion came from John, but Rodney refused to acknowledge it or him. He had to do this in order to save his team. To save John. Gritting his teeth, Rodney counted to ten when Kolya offered the expected disparaging greeting. He could keep it together. He had to. Glaring, he ground out, “Do you want to keep trading barbs, or do you want to find the ZPM?” He paused, taking a deep breath. “Look, you lift me up and I’ll help you find it, but then you let my team go!”
“Rodney!” John hissed, shocked.
“Shut up,” Rodney murmured, casting a sidelong glance at his mate. “Do you have any better idea?”
“No,” he admitted. For a second, Rodney wasn’t sure whether the sickening disappointment came from John or from himself, but he pushed it resolutely aside all the same.
“Didn’t think so,” Rodney murmured as a leaden feeling settled in his stomach. Kolya allowed him and two of the Daganians topside, leaving his team down in the secret chamber they had been caught in. When the gate address failed to work, Rodney’s chest tightened with fear. Thankfully, Allina’s idea that they might be looking in the wrong place proved fruitful and between the two of them they eventually figured out where the last stone was. It almost proved harder to actually get at the stupid thing than locating it, thanks to Kolya’s men and their rampant paranoia. The brief moment of elation when Rodney slid the stone from its hidden niche behind the painting in the monastery lasted exactly long enough for Kolya to coldly remind him that his team might live to fight another day as long as they hurried up and found his prize.
When they got back to the secret chamber, Rodney was relieved to see for himself that John was okay. The bond hadn’t told him otherwise, but he would not have put it past Kolya to try something anyway, and they hadn’t really tried to see whether distance made any kind of difference in how much feedback the bond gave. Going to have to do something about that, Rodney thought idly as he peered at the pedestal to try to work out what configuration the stones needed to be in.
Kolya’s henchman, Pranos, thought he knew better and despite Rodney’s warnings, Kolya ordered the man to work the device. Rodney’s breath caught when the boobytrap claimed the man’s life. “He is dead,” Kolya said in that quietly dangerous voice he got when he was angry. Rodney took an involuntary step back when the man railed at him. “You knew.”
Squaring his shoulders, Rodney defiantly looked him in the eye. “Yes. Yes, I did. In fact, I was in the middle of warning you against this very thing when you ordered him to do it. You killed him, not me!”
God, but his heart was hammering in his chest. Taking deep, steadying breaths Rodney focused on remaining calm. He had to be able to think or they would all die. Feeling John’s nudge of confidence and calm reassurance through the bond nearly made his knees buckle.
“What’s the correct order of the stones?” Kolya demanded.
“I’m not sure yet,” Rodney admitted reluctantly. He needed more time to figure this out. The answer was right in front of him, he knew it, he just couldn’t see it yet.
With a dangerous glint in his eyes, Kolya stalked over to his team and sneered, “Well, you have four chances to get it right. You go first, Major.”
Oh no no no no. Not John. Rodney stared at his mate wide-eyed. John swallowed hard, and Rodney knew he was trying to put up a good front for him, but he could feel the trickle of fear seeping through. Oh God, this was so not good. Think, Rodney, think! Rubbing his hands on his thighs, he turned back to the pedestal, mentally going over every computation he could think of and coming up blank. Panic began to settle in.
John picked up the stones and randomly started rearranging them. “Any time you want to start-”
Rodney cut him off. “I’m thinking, I’m thinking.” He could feel John’s anxiety adding to his own which was so not helping. He glared at the stones as if the lack of answer was a personal affront.
“Alright. We’ve tried one through nine,” John stated.
Rodney rolled his eyes. “Thank you, yes.” Why couldn’t he just be quiet? He couldn’t think straight anymore. Wrapping his arm tight around his chest, he bit his thumbnail nervously.
“Well, what about the reverse?” John asked, obviously grasping at straws.
“Possibly. Look, Pranos was right in one thing. The center stone is the only one that locks into place, all the others must move around it. I’m just trying to find a combination that makes sense with five in the middle.”
“Fifteen.” John breathed deep. “It’s gotta have something to do with fifteen. Or nine or five.”
“Shut. Up. Please? I’m trying to think.” Rodney tamped down hard on his fears, or at least he tried to. He was going to lose his soulmate if he didn’t come up with the correct answer, and he’d only just gotten him back. A stab of annoyance came to him, making him cringe.
“Don’t tell me to shut up, Rodney. My life is at stake,” John scolded, frowning.
“Exactly, so simmer down and let me save it.” He just had to. Somehow. He tried to ignore the delight coming from Kolya. Oh, but he hated that man. He really, really did.
John huffed, amused in spite of himself. “Ever hear of ‘two heads is better than one’, Rodney?”
He rolled his eyes, biting his nail again. “Common misconception,” he muttered.
John glared at Kolya. “Give me the gun, I’ll shoot him myself.”
Rodney gaped at him. What the hell? Was he serious? It took him a second to realize John was trying to throw the other man off and buy them time. Not that it worked, of course.
“This is taking too long. Choose and go,” Kolya ordered.
Rodney looked to him, incredulous. “You got somewhere you gotta be?” he snapped. He was not going to rush into this, not and risk John’s life.
“Choose and go,” Kolya repeated dangerously.
Rodney’s heart skipped a beat as he turned to his mate, whispering, “I got nothing.” For all his brains, all his bluster, he hadn’t been able to come up with a way to figure all this out and get them out of his mess. He had never felt more useless in his life.
“Thanks for the pep talk,” John quipped in an attempt to break the tension between them.
Rodney wanted to yell, to scream. To hold John and never let him go even while he wanted to rush at Kolya and kill the bastard for putting them through this. Instead, he stood rooted to the spot, staring helplessly at his mate who wouldn’t or couldn’t meet his eyes. Even with the bond Rodney wasn’t sure which. “Nine to one is all I can think of,” he murmured, knowing in his heart of hearts that wasn’t the right answer.
John bit his lip, nodding firmly. “Okay. Step back.” He both looked and felt resigned and determined which only made the whole mess worse for Rodney.
He wanted to cry. “I’m sorry,” he croaked. And he was. For failing John. For the distance there had been between them after Chaya. For everything he had done wrong.
“I’m not dead yet,” John scolded, casting a brief glance at him.
For a second, Rodney thought he saw something in his mate’s eyes, but it was gone too quickly for him to grasp and John was dimming the bond between them from everything but the love he felt. Rodney thought his heart might break before the man even tried to use the device. “Yeah, sorry.”
Though it was the last thing he wanted to do, he took a few steps back and watched anxiously as John stared at the pedestal. Wrapping his arms tight around him, he kept a silent mantra of ‘I’m so sorry’ and ‘please don’t die’ going in his head.
“Major, now,” Kolya prodded. Rodney shot the man a glare, wishing he wouldn’t be so eager to see John die.
John shook his head slightly, casting a sidelong glance at Rodney before forcing his eyes forward again. Rodney could have sworn he saw the gears in his mate’s head turn as he weighed his options. His breathing came quicker as the inevitable seemed to become real to him. Suddenly, his whole demeanor changed and Rodney could sense elation coming through the bond. “I got it!”
“What?” Rodney automatically moved toward John, who smiled.
“The Brotherhood of Fifteen!”
“What about it?” Rodney asked, confused. His eyes raked over John, trying to ascertain if he had lost his mind.
“The numbers one to nine can be put in a three by three grid so they add up to fifteen in every direction,” John stated, his focus fixed on the stones.
Rodney’s eyes widened. How had he missed that? “You’re right. But… how did you know that?” He shot him an appraising look, marveling on this titbit of information on John that he had had no idea of.
John grinned. “It was on a Mensa test.”
Wait, what? “You’re a member of Mensa?” Rodney frowned, confused.
John shook his head. “No, but I took the test,” he confessed.
“When?” he asked before he could stop himself.
The grin slipped from John’s lips as he turned to Rodney. “You want to talk about this now, Rodney?”
Right. Of course. “Right, right,” he agreed, glancing over his shoulder at an impatient Kolya.
Together, they placed the stones in order to they made fifteen. That had to be it, it just had to. Kolya muttered, “Good luck,” and Rodney thought the man couldn’t have sounded less sincere if he had tried.
Inhaling slowly and meeting Rodney’s eyes one last time, John placed his hands on the prints next to the stones and held his breath. Both he and Rodney jumped when the ZPM popped out of the wall. They’d done it! John was still alive. Kolya would get the ZPM, but right in that second all Rodney cared about was John.
All hell broke loose when Kolya went to remove the ZPM as someone released a flashbang. Rodney stumbled forward, momentarily blinded and deafened by the blast. What the hell? He was vaguely aware of fighting going on around him so he tried to scuttle to a corner, and out of the way.
When it was over, John hurried toward him. “You okay? Sorry, Rodney, I had no way of letting you know what was coming.”
His annoyance and discomfort briefly won out over anything else, causing him to fall back on his default setting: bitch mode. John’s fond amusement didn’t help his mood but pulling the full ZPM out of the wall cheered him up enough to overlook it.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~
“We really could have used it,” Elizabeth said as she led them up to the control room.
Yeah, he knew that, thanks. It was his fault the ZPM slipped through their fingers, he didn’t need to have it rubbed in, Rodney thought morosely. It would be a long time before he would get over Allina’s betrayal. He had thought her his friend – or at least a potential one – and she had stabbed them all in the back by stealing the ZPM, all while claiming to be the new Brotherhood of Fifteen and saying they were unworthy of the Ancestors’ gift. His heart sank even further when he listened to Elizabeth explain everything that had happened while they’d been off world.
“We lost a jumper in the attack, along with Markham and Smith,” she said, quietly adding, “Stackhouse passed away here in the gate room minutes after that.”
Rodney’s knees buckled and he had to grab at the console to stay upright. So John had been right. Jason and Marcus had been soulmates. They had never come forward, but that had to be the reason. Rodney stared hard at John’s taut back, as the icy knowledge of how close they had come to that rushed through him.
Rodney’s brain seemed locked on that thought, unable to move beyond it. That was, until they mentioned deep space sensors. Frowning, he asked Radek, “Wait, we have deep space sensors?”
Radek looked slightly abashed. “Ah, yes. It’s long story.”
“And we found something else. Rather unsettling,” Elizabeth cut in.
Rodney stepped up to John who was decidedly unhappy by this latest turn of events. “I’m already unsettled. Show me,” John told them.
With a nod from Elizabeth, Radek directed them to the screen and pulled up their findings. Leaning forward, Rodney tried to make sense of what he was seeing. “What are those?”
Radek sighed, glancing at Rodney. “Wraith Hive ships. Three of them,” he added, pointing them out. “The system analysis just got back-”
“Great,” John interrupted. “But where are they headed?”
Elizabeth crossed her arms, glancing down before meeting his eyes. “If they maintain their direction and speed, they’ll be over our planet in two weeks.”
Rodney blanched. Two weeks? That wasn’t enough time! How were they supposed to get ready to defend Atlantis when they didn’t have a ZPM? He reached blindly for John’s hand, squeezing it hard when his fingers closed around it.
Two weeks. He would have two weeks with his soulmate, at least. A lifetime if they got lucky. If they got very lucky.
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