Stargate SG-1 & Atlantis - Far Horizons (35 page)

“Teyla’s son.” Now that he knew, he could see it. T.J.’s hair was darker, but he had the same lithe, compact form, the same shape to his face. His voice sharpened. “Ten Wraith between here and the chair room? How do you propose to get there? Even with four armed people we are seriously outnumbered.”

“We’re not going to go through them,” Draper said. “We’re going to go around them.”

“How?” Radek gestured upward. “Fly? We are deep in the city’s infrastructure, probably below the waterline by several stories. The transport chambers are not working and in any case you say we are also cut off from them. If you do not mean to shoot your way through…”

“We’re going to go under the city,” Draper said. “Underwater.”

“What, in wet suits?”

“We have a better idea,” Dr. Chandrapura said with a smile. “And that’s why I’m here. I have the ATA gene naturally expressed.” She shifted her weapon. “Did you think we came in through the Stargate without anyone seeing? How could we have done that?”

“Then how did you get here?” Radek asked.

“By puddlejumper,” T.J. said.

“A rather special puddlejumper,” Dr. Chandrapura said. “It’s a long story.” She looked at Draper. “Now that we’ve found Dr. Zelenka, perhaps we should go back to it as quickly as we can?”

Jinto nodded. “It’s this way. Come on, Dr. Z.” He led the way with Radek and Lt. Draper. Dr. Chandrapura was just behind them while T.J. dropped back to take six, his steps so light that Radek could barely hear him. They hurried down the main corridor and then a second one without consulting any map or device.

“You know your way around,” Radek observed to Jinto.

He smiled. “I explored the city for years as a boy, and I know it as a man. That’s one reason I came on this mission. Lots of people know Atlantis today, but I explored it in this period, before…” He broke off.

“Yes, yes, before something happened you can’t tell me about,” Radek said, but his curiosity was piqued. “So you know Atlantis, and Dr. Chandrapura has a strong ATA gene. Lt. Draper is obviously in charge of your team. Why is T.J. here?”

“He has some skills that are useful,” Jinto evaded.

He was spared from saying more because T.J. said calmly, “There are Wraith ahead. Two.”

They halted and Draper looked back. “Work around?”

“They’re in the chamber beyond the next bulkhead,” T.J. said.

“Then we can go down this way,” Jinto said, “if we backtrack one section.” He turned to go back.

“Wait,” Radek said. “There are only two. Can’t you take them on?”

“We could,” Draper said.

“If you leave them, who knows what they will do?” Radek said. “What sabotage, or who they might kill.”

“We know exactly who they might kill or what they might do,” Lt. Draper said evenly. “We know who died. And we know what sabotage happened and what didn’t. If we engage these Wraith, we don’t know what will happen as a consequence. They could go a different way and kill someone different, or blow up something critical that they never reached before.”

“You don’t know that,” Radek said. “You might spare the lives of people who they killed.”

“Or they might kill you, and the Wraith might take Atlantis,” Draper said. “Or find the puddlejumper and change the course of the war.” She shook her head. “We can’t change random things. We’re not supposed to interact with anyone except you. If we start changing a load of other things we might lose this siege. In war you never know exactly what small thing is going to be critical.” She turned to follow Jinto, shepherding him along. “We’re going to leave the Wraith alone. If we can do this without a firefight, we will.”

They hurried along the connecting corridor and then through a large, open empty room. Radek wondered what it had once been. A warehouse? A ballroom? There was nothing to tell him, just empty space that they skirted from one door to another, their footsteps echoing.

Once more T.J. stopped them. “Wait,” he said quietly, and they halted by the door for some minutes, their breath seeming loud in the silence, until he said it was safe to go on.

“What is he doing?” Radek asked Jinto in a low voice. “Dr. Chandrapura has the life signs detector.”

Jinto looked uncomfortable. “T.J. senses the Wraith,” he said.

“Like Teyla.”

Jinto opened his mouth and shut it again.

“It’s ok,” Radek said. “We found that out while you were at the Alpha site. We already know that. You are not telling me something I do not know.”

“It’s just that the Gift is a touchy subject among Athosians, especially now that we understand its origins…”

Jinto was interrupted by the door ahead opening into yet another chamber. If the last one had been bare, this one was breathtaking. Floor to ceiling, there was a window that looked out into the sea. They were perhaps ten or fifteen meters below the surface, the water only slightly clouded. It was full day, and the sun filtered down through shoals of pink and yellow fish, some the size of his hand and others much larger. They had six fins each, and the largest spread them like umbrellas stretched to catch the light coming down.

“Oh wow,” Dr. Chandrapura said, stopping short. “Any aquarium on Earth would envy this view.”

“Absolutely,” Draper said.

It was magnificent. “Where are we exactly?” Radek asked. He had lost track of the turnings.

“Directly between the city’s main sublight engines,” Jinto said. He gave Radek a sideways grin. “This is one of your favorite places.”

“It is now,” Radek said.

T.J. went to the window and pointed. “And that’s where we’re going,” he said.

Radek looked out. The city’s superstructure protruded, a long stretch reaching out that was probably the underside of one of the piers. Not far along, just around the corner really, was a familiar stubby shape. It looked like the front of a puddlejumper docked with the rear hatch against the city. “They go underwater?”

T.J. looked surprised. “You don’t know that?”

“Not yet, apparently,” Radek said. “But I suppose it makes sense. They are air tight in vacuum, and they must withstand unusual pressure. So a few tens of meters like this could not be a problem to them, if their propulsion works…”

“You can take it apart later,” Jinto said. “But right now let’s go.”

“I do not like being underwater,” Radek said.

“All we’re going to do is take the puddlejumper from one docking port to another,” Lt. Draper said. “That way we don’t have to go through the halls or use the transport chambers. Just from one pier to another.”

“Ah. Well. If that is all.”

Jinto grinned. “Think of it as a glass bottomed boat tour, Dr. Z.”

“You have spent too much time on Earth,” Radek said.

It wasn’t far to the puddlejumper, docked at what was clearly an airlock meant for it. “I suppose the Ancients also used them to explore the seas,” he said thoughtfully as Dr. Chandrapura opened the rear hatch.

“Or just for general transport,” Jinto said. “Remember, Atlantis wasn’t the only installation that was submerged.”

“Jinto,” T.J. said warningly.

“Right.” Jinto shook his head. “It’s hard to keep track of what you already know and what you don’t. I was here for all of this, but I don’t recall exactly what happened which year, just before and after certain important things. But I guess memory is always that way.”

“I think so,” Radek said. His life was divided into periods by main events, before the Velvet Revolution and after, graduate school in Britain, his time at the SGC, and then Atlantis. He could not tell you, ‘Oh, this happened in 98 rather than 97!‘ Memory did not work that way. No wonder that Jinto was always on the verge of saying something he should not.

Dr. Chandrapura and Lt. Draper entered the puddlejumper and he followed, frowning. Right in the middle of the back cargo bay was a strange device. Bulbous and smooth, the size of a medium crate, it looked Ancient. Other than that…

“What does it do?” Radek asked.

Draper and Jinto exchanged a glance. “It causes the jumper to travel in time,” Draper said reluctantly. “That’s how we got here. Don’t ask us how it works. And don’t touch it.”

“I wouldn’t dream of it,” Radek said. “I am not Rodney. I do not have to just crack it open and see what makes it tick.”

“That’s why he’s…” Jinto stopped abruptly.

Radek looked up. “Dead?”

“Noooo,” Jinto said. “That’s not…”

“Jinto!” T.J. snapped. “Stop! Just stop telling him things. You can’t tell him who’s alive or dead in 2029. Or anything else!”

“I didn’t want him to think Rodney was dead,” Jinto said.

“So now you’ve told him Rodney’s alive.” T.J. shook his head. “Which is just as bad.”

“Am I alive?”

“If you weren’t you couldn’t have told us…” Jinto began.

“Jinto!”

Jinto looked around sheepishly at the other three members of his team. “Ok. Fine.”

“Not another word,” Lt. Draper said. “I mean it. Jinto, you have to refrain.”

“I will.”

“Then why don’t you come up and sit with me and Saroj and let T.J. sit with Dr. Zelenka?”

“I see how it is,” Jinto said. “Fine.” He went forward and sat in the passenger seat next to Dr. Chandrapura while Lt. Draper sat in the seat behind him. Radek sat down on one of the back benches, T.J. across from him.

The back gate rose, and there were the soft and familiar sounds of the jumper’s systems coming online. T.J. was very quiet. Possibly the better part of not saying anything wrong was to say nothing. Or maybe, like Teyla, he wasn’t a chatterbox. Radek had always appreciated that about Teyla. She was a very restful friend to have.

The jumper slowly detached from the dock, moving forward through the blue waters cautiously, schools of fish parting in front of it without alarm.

“It’s just over there,” Draper said, pointing at something Radek couldn’t see.

“I know,” Dr. Chandrapura replied.

“Under that strut.”

“I know,” she said again. “Jillian, you don’t have to backseat drive.”

“Sorry.” Draper took a deep breath and sat back against the seat.

“Wishing we had Frankie along?” Jinto asked.

“Are you kidding?” Dr. Chandrapura glanced over at him. “She’s got more jumper hours but she’d be blowing the place up.”

T.J. snorted, and Radek asked quietly, “Someone you are not fond of?”

“My little sister,” T.J. said.

“T.J!” Lt. Draper snapped. “What did I say about not telling him things?”

“I’m not the one who brought up Frankie,” T.J. observed.

“Your sister’s name is Frankie?” Radek asked.

“Frances Tegan.”

“T.J!”

“Ok. Got it. Don’t say anything. Though I don’t know what deep, dark secret my sister’s name is. I think you’re being a little bit paranoid.”

Lt. Draper turned around in her seat. “Look, we like our future. It’s good. So let’s try to keep it, all right? Don’t tell anyone anything that isn’t strictly necessary. Everyone, let’s focus on the mission.”

Radek started laughing.

Draper stared at him. “Why is that funny?”

“Because obviously nothing has changed,” Radek said. “I have heard the gate team bicker like this so many times!”

“We never said we were a gate team,” Dr. Chandrapura said from the pilot’s chair.

“It is obvious,” Radek said. “Along with some other things. Like that the command team in Atlantis is more international. Dr. Chandrapura’s English is perfect, but her accent is not British, so I do not think she’s a British citizen.”

“I’m Indian,” Dr. Chandrapura said. “After the
Asoka
…” She stopped. “Sorry. I can’t confirm or deny anything. Dr. Zelenka, you must know how it is.”

“I do,” he said. “But also be aware that I can draw my own conclusions from what you do not say and from who you are.” And that was a heady power. An hour ago Radek had been certain they were all going to die. It was only a matter of time before the Wraith overwhelmed the defenders and it was too late. He might be killed in the corridors. He might be killed in the final defense. If he was lucky, he might be killed a few days from now, hunted out of the city’s ventilation system like a rat from a sewer. Now he knew he would live. They would survive, many of his friends who were becoming family, and they would build something beautiful and unique. The joy of it was almost overwhelming.

“But I will not tell,” he said quietly. “I will not tell anyone what has happened.”

“Except General Carter,” Jinto said. “You’ll tell her.”

“And us when the time comes,” Lt. Draper said.

It was only a minute before the jumper turned carefully, backing into a different docking port on the South Pier. It was not far from the Chair room, Radek thought. Mainly it was a good many levels down. Stairs, so many stairs.

Dr. Chandrapura looked at T.J. as they slid into the dock. “Clear?”

He nodded, an abstracted expression on his face. “In the immediate area.”

“How far away are they?” Lt. Draper asked.

“There are two Wraith several levels up and further down the pier,” T.J. said. “They’re not anywhere they can hear or see us dock. So we should be clear for now.”

“Moving or stationary?”

T.J. closed his eyes. “Moving slowly, I think. We can probably go around them.”

“What about human parties?” Draper asked.

Dr. Chandrapura pulled out the life signs detector, wincing at what she saw. “Two parties of five each nearby. All human.”

“Athosian?” Jinto asked.

Dr. Chandrapura gave him a look. “How would I know that?”

“They’re probably Colonel Everett’s Marine patrols,” Radek said. “Which is an excellent thing, as I can join them and they will escort me to the Chair room, and your mission will be done!” It was all very neat and tidy.

Lt. Draper shook her head. “We don’t know that. We don’t know that the Wraith won’t ambush them. We need to take you to the Chair room. Then we’ll be sure you get there.”

Jinto frowned. “I think Saroj should stay with the jumper.”

“Why?”

“Because that’s a lot of different parties running around. If one of them finds the jumper, either our people or the Wraith, it’s going to be a big problem for the timeline. If you stay, you can cast off and cloak if any of the parties get too close and then duck back to pick us up after we’ve taken Dr. Zelenka to the Chair room,” he replied.

“He has a point,” T.J. said.

“Who’s going to use the life signs detector if she stays?” Lt. Draper asked.