STARGATE ATLANTIS: The Furies (Book 4 in the Legacy series) (28 page)

“Oh, Daniel,” she said quietly.

I’m losing the edge the way Jack did. All of which is a round about way of saying that if the IOA relieves Woolsey, Jack’s put my name in for command in Atlantis. It’s a poison pill in some ways. He knows they know they can’t push me ar
ound, and I figured I’d play. Why not? But now I’m starting to hope it happens. Which surprises me, because I didn’t think I’d want that. But I think maybe…I do. I wasn’t prepared for how let down I felt on the ramp that I wasn’t coming to Atlantis.

“You know, you could just come,” Sam said out loud. “You don’t have to be rescuing me or taking command. You could just come.” Of course it wasn’t that simple, but maybe it would be. Maybe they could make it that simple.

I’ve wanted to come since the original e
xpedition left, and my two brief(!) trips haven’t turned out very well.

Which is one word for being electrocuted and nearly dying, Sam thought.

Anyway, what I’m trying to say is this: this is your moment in history. Seize it! Don’t worry about us. The onl
y thing we really want is to be there with you. Not to have you home one minute before you need to be. There is world enough, and time. Or at least we must live as though there were.

Love,

Daniel

“Oh, Daniel,” she said again, glancing up at the pictures on the wall over the desk. That picture was more than ten years old, Daniel in his floppy hat and wire rimmed glasses, Teal’c looking impassive beside him without a hint of expression, on some alien world or another. It kind of said something that she couldn’t remember which one, or exactly which mission that picture was from. It was after the one where they’d found Cassie traumatized and mute, the sole survivor of a bioengineered plague that had killed her family. It was after the one where she’d given her father to the Tok’ra. But it was before the one where they’d all lost their memory and toiled as slaves in underground factories. Daniel had had different glasses then.

“Such a strange life,” she said, touching the picture with her fingertip, which was nothing like touching Daniel.

Sam hit reply and lifted her chin, squinting at the screen where the words wavered just a little bit.

Damn. Some things were horrible, yet unavoidable. She slid the drawer open a furtive inch and pulled them out, balanced the drug store reading glasses on her nose. Better. The letters were all crisp now. They were a terrible compromise, but you’ve got to do what you’ve got to do.

Dear Daniel,

Come to Atlantis. It’s time.

“I know it is not the tensile strength you want,” Dr. Kusanagi said, “But we do not have any of the 640 plating left. We used the last of it on the mechanical iris. I have some of the 440, which is enough to hold in vacuum, but…” She spread her hands apologetically.

Enough to hold in vacuum if it never had to take fire. Which made it problematic for hull repair. Still, it was less problematic than a gaping hole. And there was no point in griping at Miko about not having things she didn’t have.

“Ok, if it’s the 440 you’ve got,” Sam said. “It will have to do temporarily.”

“Until you get back to Earth,” Kusanagi agreed, looking relieved that Sam wasn’t going to do what Rodney would have done and demanded the impossible. Like that she conjure 640 hull plates out of thin air.

“Whenever that is,” Sam said. It wouldn’t make her sleep better to know she had a big dorsal patch that would blow wide open if anything got through the shields. They’d have to plan to keep the compartments behind it closed off and remove anything important. Fortunately, it was the secondary water filtration systems, which could be rerouted to the deck above if they moved the tanks. That would be a piece of work. And the space it would have to go into was the gym. Sam didn’t have to look at the
Hammond’s
specs to know that. She knew every compartment like the back of her hand.

Well, they could do without a gym for the twelve day trip back to Earth eventually, and while they were here they could use Atlantis’. “Tell Sergeant Manuel that he’ll have to move the secondary water filtration tanks as soon as you get done with the hull plates. No sense having both your teams in there at the same time bumping elbows.”

“I’ll do that,” Kusanagi agreed. “We will start on that section tomorrow.”

“Great.” Sam said. “I’ll schedule a crew to collect the plates from wherever you’ve got them stored and bring them down so they’ll be ready for your team in the morning. Weather report says it’s supposed to be fair tomorrow after this rain clears out.”

“Which is better than snowing,” Kusanagi said. She and Sam were both getting tired of crawling around on the
Hammond’s
hull in a snowstorm.

“That it is.” Sam gave her a pleasant nod and headed out of the lab. She’d have to tell Franklin to get the third watch crew to go get the plates. It would take them a couple of hours, and they’d definitely need the bobcat.

“I was wondering if I might have a word with you, ma’am,” Major Lorne said.

Sam turned around to see him hopping up the hall behind her, his leg in its cast swinging freely as he plied the crutches. “Of course, Major,” she said. It wasn’t like Lorne to be quite so formal. After all, they’d been at the SGC together before he’d served with her in Atlantis.

“In private, if you have a moment,” Lorne said.

Ok, that definitely rang trouble bells. “We could step in Dr. McKay’s lab,” Sam said. “I don’t believe anybody is in there right now.” It was only one door away, and wouldn’t make Lorne hop all over the city to keep up with her.

“Yes, ma’am,” Lorne said, falling in behind her as Sam keyed open the lock and turned on the light. Everything was neat, pristine, left spotless by Jeannie Miller after she’d gone over the last of Rodney’s work and transferred it to her computer. She said she’d rather work in the main lab, and Sam couldn’t blame her. It would be a whole lot less depressing to look for Rodney’s loopholes in a room that didn’t constantly remind her of his absence.

Lorne’s mouth was set. Either his leg was bothering him a lot more than he let on, or this was a conversation he wasn’t looking forward to.

“What’s on your mind?” Sam asked, perching on one of the lab stools and gesturing for him to do the same.

“You probably know that last night was poker night for some of the guys,” Lorne said.

“I do.” The poker night had been going since she’d been in Atlantis if not before, the senior grade poker game that was all military and free of young lieutenants, distinct from the Girls’ Night which was organized by the female scientists.

“Some of the Daedalus’ 302 wing have been playing, Lt. Colonel Hocken and Captain Grant. We asked the
Hammond’s
folks if they’d like to join us, and Major Franklin came along.”

“Nice of you to ask them,” Sam said. Of course she hadn’t been asked. She and Sheppard were off the top of the list as the captain of the
Hammond
and the military commander of Atlantis respectively. Nobody could relax if either one of them were around.

“Yes, ma’am,” Lorne said. He looked a little abashed. “It’s pretty laid back. A few beers, some good conversation.”

“Sure,” Sam said.

Lorne’s eyes met hers. “I understand Major Franklin served with Colonel Sheppard in Afghanistan.”

“I believe he was at the same base for a few weeks,” Sam said carefully. “I don’t think he knew him well though.”

“That’s good to know,” Lorne said, looking as though he were choosing his words with equal care. “He was mentioning to Colonel Hocken that he was there when Sheppard was court martialed. He had a lot to say about the charges and about a bunch of rumors current around the base at the time. Seemed to think Colonel Hocken might be interested. Or that other people might find it interesting.”

“I see,” Sam said, and her voice was ice.

Lorne nodded. “I didn’t think you’d want those kinds of rumors being repeated. Doesn’t do much for morale, digging up old stories about stuff that might or might not have happened seven years ago. Sleeping dogs, and things like that.”

“Yes indeed, Major,” Sam said in a voice that sounded to her a hell of a lot like Jack. “I appreciate you bringing this to my attention. I wouldn’t want the crew of the
Hammond
to cause any offense or misunderstanding on Atlantis.”

“That was my thought too,” Lorne said.

The cruiser
Eternal
returned to Atlantis on a day of rain. For once the temperature had risen above freezing, and gray drizzle sheeted the towers, darkening the concrete of the pier to the color of old steel.
Eternal
landed neatly on the north pier, settling onto her new landing gear with grace. Guide’s men had repaired that for their queen, which was a very convenient thing for everyone.

John stood in the shadow of the cruiser’s belly, watching Carson’s team wheeling Dr. Keller down on a gurney, Carson holding a black umbrella incongruously over his patient.

“I’m fine,” Dr. Keller protested weakly, one hand rising to shade her eyes.

“Not until I say you are, love,” Carson said, keeping pace beside the gurney. “It’s a traumatic thing, and Teyla was right to bring you straight home.” His face was grim, and John knew he was seeing the ghost of Perla, that other dedicated young doctor who had killed herself with her own retrovirus trials.

John slouched over to Teyla, his hands in his pockets. She stood by the ramp, her Wraith face impassive as she watched Carson and Jennifer go inside. “What happened?” he asked quietly.

“It didn’t work.” She shook her head. “I do not know what else to tell you, John. Jennifer insisted on testing the retrovirus on herself rather than on one of Todd’s prisoners. It was not effective. When he fed on her she would have died, had he not reversed the process as he did with you once.”

John swore softly under his breath.

“He kept his bargain,” Teyla said. “And he says she will have no more effects in the long term than you do. But…” Her voice trailed off, and he wished he could put his arm around her, but she wouldn’t appreciate that, not on the tarmac in full view of half the city.

“Ok,” John said. “Well, it was worth a try.”

“I do understand why she will not permit it to be tested on someone else,” Teyla said. “It is not that I disagree. But…”

“Yeah.” John rubbed his forehead. “Let’s go tell Carter what happened. We had some good news while you were gone. The SGC managed to get their hands on a ZPM and they’ve dialed in. So we’re not cut off anymore.”

She fell into step beside him, her boot heels loud on the rain slicked pavement. “Is Mr. Woolsey back then?”

“No. The IOA are still having hearings,” he replied.

“Poor Dick.” Teyla stopped just short of the door, the rain falling around her. “He knew this might happen. He knew that bringing Atlantis back would be likely to cost him his career.”

“He wouldn’t be the first,” Sam said, appearing in the doorway. She shrugged sheepishly. “It’s not that I go around eavesdropping, actually. I just thought I’d come down and see how the mission went.”

Teyla laughed. “We were on our way up to you, so you would not have missed much.”

“I was saying Woolsey’s in hot water,” John said. “I wish we could have just thrown the IOA out the window and kept O’Neill in charge.”

Sam’s eyebrow quirked. “Do you? I don’t. It’s not his Air Force, John. And I could tell you some stories about the VP in the last administration. At least having more hands in the pot provides some accountability. We obey any lawful order, but most of the time we have no way of knowing how those orders were arrived at or what their consequences are.”

“Any lawful order,” John said with a mirthless smile.

“That doesn’t contravene the Constitution of the United States.” Sam stepped back inside, giving Teyla room to get out of the rain. “That’s what our oath is to. That’s what we promise.”

“Try giving that as a defense at a court martial,” John said.

“People have. People should.” John fell into step beside her as they walked down the hall to the transport chamber. “There’s a book called
Dereliction of Duty
you should read. About Vietnam.”

“There’s a winning topic,” John said. “The elephant in the middle of the room. The thing you’d better not talk about. Thanks, but no thanks. I’m happy to be about a zillion light years from that argument.”

“The questions aren’t any different here,” Sam said seriously, her back to the wall of the transport chamber.

John’s face sobered. “I know that,” he said.

“I hate
this,” Sam said to no one in particular. She’d been on her way down to the Hammond when the
Eternal
had landed, and she hadn’t been unhappy to be sidetracked by Teyla’s return. She hadn’t figured out quite what she’d say to Major Franklin.

Now, as the transport chamber doors opened again in the empty corridor, she figured she’d better work it out. Her crew was just starting to come together as a team, and now Franklin had to rock the boat. She was going to have to land on him like a ton of bricks. Being the disciplinarian didn’t come easy to her, but over the years she’d learned how to do it and this was one of the situations that called for it. She couldn’t afford the tensions within her crew this raised, and the last thing any of them could afford was a problem with Sheppard or the Atlantis expedition. Or, for that matter, with the
Daedalus
’ 302 wing. Thankfully, Lorne knew her and trusted her enough to bring it to her before it got out of hand.