STARGATE ATLANTIS: The Furies (Book 4 in the Legacy series) (20 page)

When the walls of the ship parted he was glad of his decision. Her mind leapt for his and tightened without a word, as clear a threat as any weapon, or perhaps just a reminder of the natural order of things, as unnatural as the present situation was. He inclined his head as if she were what she pretended to be, the barest reverence possible in courtesy.

“My queen,” he said, and he could feel her flash of pleasure at the words. For a moment it was hard not to think of her as an adolescent girl-child who has gotten away with playing at queen, commanding her mother’s drones. Then she strode forward, promise and threat in her every move, and it was impossible to imagine her a child.

“I am pleased to see my consort again,” she said, a hint of amusement in the touch of her mind, although there was none in her words. He nodded and shifted his gaze to Dr. Keller, hesitating halfway down the ramp, clutching the strap of an oversized her pack. This one he would have to handle more carefully if he was not going to frighten her into uselessness.

“Dr. Keller,” he said. “Come, we have work to do.” He extended his off hand to her when she seemed reluctant to descend the ramp. “I will escort you.”

*If you hurt her — * Teyla began, giving him a warning look. He met her eyes with a wry shrug.

*What would it serve? I am in need of a biological scientist, not an easy meal.*

*You would not find it easy,* Teyla said, and her mental voice was sharp enough that again he thought Steelflower was well-named.

The threat lingered as he kept his hand extended, and sharpened as Keller laid her fingertips gingerly on his. He couldn’t tell if her expression was fear or the fascination of a prey animal touching a predator’s claws. It was so hard to tell with humans.

“I’m glad you asked me to come,” Keller said, letting him help her down the ramp, although her fingers were tense against his. “That you … well, that you trusted me enough, after last time. I really am sorry that didn’t work out.”

Guide inclined his head, acknowledging the apology without pausing to question what it meant for her to offer or for him to accept. “Perhaps we can learn from past mistakes. Come,” he said, releasing her hand as she reached the bottom of the ramp, “let me show you.”

The infirmary
was quiet and empty except for Eva Robinson, who was sitting up in the near bed with her leg in a cast propped up on two pillows, her laptop across her middle as Colonel Sheppard came in and looked around, his hands in the pockets of his black BDUs. Eva closed
Plants vs. Zombies
quickly. If she couldn’t maintain the professional demeanor of make-up and nice looking clothes while stuck in the infirmary, at least she could pretend she was working. “If you’re looking for Dr. Beckett, he’s in the back doing an MRI on Lance Corporal Hernandez,” she said helpfully.

Sheppard came over and perched on the visitor’s stool beside her bed. “What happened to Hernandez?”

“He slipped on the ice and fell down the outside metal staircase. Laura…Captain Cadman said he had to have an MRI to make sure he didn’t have a concussion since he’s got a big lump on his head.” She closed her laptop. “I expect Dr. Beckett won’t be too long.”

“Actually, I was looking for you,” he said.

Eva felt her eyebrows rise. “Why?’

Sheppard’s hazel eyes were steady. “To see how you are,” he said. “You got injured in the field, a pretty nasty break from what Sam’s medical officer said, and you still did what you needed to do to complete the mission. I came to see how you were getting along.”

“Oh,” Eva said. His team, his responsibility. She supposed that made her his people. “I’m doing ok. Dr. Beckett said he’ll let me out of here on crutches tomorrow. I’ll be in this cast for six weeks, and then he’ll take that off and put on a removable brace for another four weeks.”

Sheppard shifted on the stool, getting comfortable. “Ever break a bone before?”

“I broke my arm falling off my bike when I was a kid,” Eva said. “I don’t remember it being this much of a pain, though.”

“They say kids heal quicker too,” Sheppard said.

“At least I don’t have a double compound fracture like Major Lorne,” Eva said. She looked down at her cast with some satisfaction. “This one’s just a plain old broken leg.”

“Yeah, Lorne’s still off that leg for another eight weeks,” Sheppard said. “And then he’s got a month or two of PT before he’s on active duty.”

“Wouldn’t it make sense to send somebody home when they’re going to be out for four or five months?” Eva asked.

Sheppard grinned. “Do you want to go home?”

“No.” Eva glanced down at her laptop quickly. “Besides, my job’s mostly talk. As soon as I can get around on crutches I can get back to work.”

“And you’d never get back.” Sheppard shrugged. “We only send home the people we can’t safely treat here. Right now we can only send people home on the
Daedalus
or the
Hammond
, and so we just evacuate serious injuries.
Daedalus
took Sam’s people who had third degree burns. We’re not equipped as a burn center. We sent Conrad because he needed a second surgery on his intestinal tract, and that’s out of Carson’s league. And we can only send them when they’re stable. Anybody fragile stays here, rather than six days down to the first Milky Way gate on
Daedalus
. Then they go through to the SGC, and from there to the Air Force Academy hospital.”

“I’m glad not to do all that,” Eva said.

“No point in it,” Sheppard said, propping his foot up on the bottom of the bed rail. “You’ll be up and around and back to work, like you said. It’s driving Lorne crazy to be stuck behind a desk for months, but there’s plenty for him to do, especially with Woolsey gone.”

“I’ll bet,” Eva said. Sheppard didn’t strike her as an administrator, though; from what she’d seen his paperwork was unremarkable. Still, there was a huge amount of it to run the city, and if the redoubtable Lorne could take on some of it, no doubt it would be a help. “Do you think Mr. Woolsey is going to come back?”

She didn’t really expect an answer, but Sheppard leaned back as though considering thoughtfully. “I don’t know,” he said. “It depends on a lot. On how pissed the IOA is about Atlantis leaving Earth. On how high O’Neill’s cred is with the President. On a bunch of stuff we don’t even know about.”

“And if it isn’t him, will it be you?” She couldn’t help but ask, inappropriate as the question no doubt was. After all, this was just for her curiosity. Well, and to satisfy her anxiety about what would happen next.

To her surprise Sheppard grinned. “Not on your life! I already turned it down once. I asked to be taken off the final list before Sam was offered the job.”

“You did?”

He nodded, ducking his head and adjusting his earpiece over his ear. “I’m not cut out for that. I’ve filled in before, after we lost Dr. Weir. And I’m fine with that, if I have to do it.” Sheppard shook his head. “But I’m not a politician. And that’s what about half of the job is. I’m no good at that, and just smart enough to know it.” He grinned again, a surprisingly candid expression. “I’ll leave that to Sam and O’Neill and Woolsey and Teyla. Just tell me what to shoot, and I’m good.”

Eva couldn’t help but smile back. There was something about Sheppard that left you with confidence in him, even when he was telling you his shortcomings. “And yet right now this whole thing with the Wraith is on you.”

His smile faded. “We’ve all got to do some things that are out of our comfort zones,” he said. “You’re not a jumper pilot, right? Or part of an exploration team. But now you have been.”

“That’s true,” Eva said. There had been a moment, trapped under the ice, that she had been pretty certain she wasn’t going to get out. She’d wondered who would tell her daughter and what they’d say had happened to her. She’d wondered, in an almost detached kind of way, how they’d explain to Desireé what had happened on a nice, safe job as a contract psychologist. And then she’d heard the voices above, Ronon and Laura and Dr. Lynn, Dr. Lynn calling out, “It’s ok! We’re coming for you.” The leg hurt a lot, but not as bad as having Desireé. And that was worth it too.

“You did a good job,” Sheppard said. “Who knows what’s in that Ancient installation? It’s going to take a lot of work to get it cleared out, and we may find things that turn out to be critical.” He uncoiled from the stool and leaned over and squeezed her shoulder. “So hang in there, feel better, and in a couple of days you’ll be back to head shrinking.”

It was on the tip of her tongue to say that he was good at his job too. But that might be way too frank. “And I’ll see you in my office, right?” she asked, her tone leaving it half a joke.

Sheppard gave her a sideways smile. “When hell freezes over,” he said.

“I’ve got my ice skates.”

“Save them for Rodney,” he said, and winked as he turned and left.

Eva leaned back on her pillows. She hoped he felt as much better as she did.

John slid his tray onto the lunch table opposite Sam. “Anybody sitting here?”

“I think they’re afraid to,” Sam said, a look of amusement on her face as she glanced around the half empty mess hall. “The loneliness of command.”

“Ok, yeah,” John said. “The airmen don’t exactly eat with me either.”

“Then I guess we get to be the geek table,” Sam said. She glanced at him keenly. Rodney was captured and Teyla gone. Ronon… Who knew where Ronon was? There had seemed to be a certain amount of tension between him and John lately.

“Suits me,” John said, pulling his chicken sandwich apart to put mayonnaise on the bun. “You think we’re going to get Woolsey back?”

“I don’t know.”

John looked at her, his head to the side. “What’s the problem between you and Woolsey anyway, Sam? I get the feeling it’s more than you being relieved in Atlantis. That was the IOA, not him personally, and he didn’t want this job anymore than you wanted to go home.”

Sam sighed. “Yeah, it’s more than that.” She picked up her sandwich. “About six years ago he led an investigation of the SGC, an investigation of a mission where one of my best friends was killed. You didn’t know Dr. Janet Fraiser. She was before your time. But she was killed in action in the field, trying to medevac an enlisted guy who’d been wounded.”

“I’m sorry,” John said quietly.

Sam shrugged, her eyes on her sandwich. “He did a report, basically putting a dollar value on all of our lives. The airman’s life wasn’t worth the expense and risk of getting him out.”

“Bull honkey,” John said.

“Yeah, that’s what I said too.” Sam looked up. “Less politely, I think. And then a couple of years later when Daniel was compromised by the Ori he wanted Daniel put to death so that he wouldn’t pose a security threat. Not very efficient, to keep him alive and hope it would turn out ok.”

“We don’t do things like that,” John said frostily. “Do we?”

“We do.” Sam pursed her lips. Of course she knew he was thinking about Rodney. “Apparently we do.”

“What happened?”

“Jack laid down the law, of course. They’d preemptively execute one of his people over his dead body. And it’s worth running the risk to extract your people, no matter what.” She took a drink of her iced tea, raised it in mock toast to John. “Turns out, just a few weeks later Woolsey had an object lesson in being on the other end of the stick. Nice of you not to leave him to the Replicators!”

“That wasn’t about Woolsey,” John said. “Or O’Neill. That was about Atlantis.”

“Yes, well.” Sam shrugged. “I still owe you for that one.”

“I figure not getting court martialed again was thanks enough,” John said. “But I’m glad it worked out ok for O’Neill and Woolsey.” He took a bite of his sandwich and chewed carefully. “You know, maybe being out in the field has helped. He’s not a bad guy, really.”

“I know.” Sam glanced up at the soaring ceiling, the windows far above letting in bright snowlight. “And I’ve got a better understanding of why we have to have those kinds of investigations, that kind of oversight, even if I don’t think that you can put a price tag on a life. It’s a different mindset. Governing is made up of those kinds of compromises. It’s just that it doesn’t sit very well with me, even if I get it.” She picked up her sandwich again. “It’s always hard to lose people. But that doesn’t mean that it’s not worth it.”

“Yeah,” John said. His eyebrows twitched. “I’m hoping that they don’t start thinking the price tag for Atlantis is too high.”

“That worries me too,” Sam said. “You can’t accomplish anything without risk. We don’t have a very high national tolerance for risk taking. Remember after
Challenger
how there were calls to end manned space exploration?”

“Oh yeah,” John said. “I remember
Challenger
. I was in my high school English class. The principal came on the PA system.” He swirled a French fry around in the ketchup. “Where were you?”

“In the White House,” Sam said.

“You were not,” John said. “What were you, some kind of seventeen year old prodigy advisor to the President?”

“No, but I really was in the White House.”

John leaned back in his chair. “Ok, this has got to be a good story.”

Washington was cold and snowy that week, the week she’d been waiting for. Sam wa
s doing Presidential Classroom, one of the government up close special programs for gifted high school juniors and seniors. She was rolling into the last semester of her senior year already accepted to college, ready for the last five months without a lot
of pressure that she’d have in a long time. All she had to do was not screw up and she was set. So she could take a week out of school to go do a special program.