Tony stopped in the doorway and looked around. With new labs open in the next tower, most of the scientists had migrated to spaces farther away from Rodney. Abby, however, had chosen to take over the lab right next door to the one that Rodney and Radek shared most of the time. Clearly someone else had chosen to stay with her because the room was an odd combination of crime scene photography, Abby paraphernalia including Bert and a miniature model of the Navy yard, and tall canvasses with cherry blossoms and stylized birds. Weirdly, it worked. Sort of.

"Abbs?"

"Tony!" she sang as she crawled out from under a table. "Try that," she said.

"Much better," someone else answered from the back of the room. Miko stood up. "The connection is more stable. Thank you."

"Thank you for testing your end," Abby answered.

"Thank you for being willing to get under the table."

"Thank you for not assuming that I can't figure out how to hook up computers."

"Thank you for not treating me like I am invisible," Miko said. They were busy offering bows, and Tony got the feeling these two had done this ritual more than once.

"Not to interrupt the mutual gratitude society, but could I interrupt?" Tony asked.

Miko bowed in his direction. "Of course. I must go and retrieve the sword collection."

"It will look awesome on that wall!" Abby agreed brightly. Sword collection? Tony stepped to the side to let Miko leave. He would not have pegged her as one to have a sword collection, but then sometimes the quiet ones hid some pretty odd quirks.

"Isn't she cool?" Abby bubbled. "At the same time Rodney was using the beaming technology to smuggle his stuff onto Atlantis, Miko used a second unit she had assembled in her spare time and had her family send a whole bunch of stuff from home, including art and food and music. She bribed a friend into smuggling it over on the Daedalus. She is so wonderfully subversive!" Abby said in a tone that made it clear that she considered subversive the best compliment in the whole world.

"So, you two are lab mates?"

"Yep!" Abby said. "I never got to pick who I wanted as a lab roomie, and she's awesome. She totally understands why Rodney is amazing. I mean, if he thinks you're stupid, he calls you stupid. He doesn't care what genitals you have or what school you went to or anything. He only cares about the work, and after all the stupid, sexist, elitist crap Miko and I have suffered through, we know how awesome that makes him. And as a bonus, all the privileged asses who've used women and minorities like their own personal lab slaves suddenly find themselves having to do all their own work, and some of them are not all that brilliant when they don't have people to bully into doing their work for them."

Okay, this was definitely a new side to Abby he was seeing. "You never wanted to share your lab in the past."

Abby rolled her eyes. "Because of the sort of assholes that applied at NCIS. I mean, the best analysts would go to the big name labs like over at the FBI, and we would get the dregs, and I do not work with dregs. But now... now I have Miko and Rodney and Radek, and I'm drowning in brilliance. It's perfect. So, what brings you to my domain?" She spread her arms out to encompass the entire lab. It was a nice big lab with three long tables and more machines than Tony could count. No doubt the other scientists had fled it only because it was next door to Rodney.

"Gibbs has a hunch."

"Ohhh." She stood up straighter. Tony suddenly realized that she was several inches shorter, and he looked down to see that she was wearing standard issue Air Force boots. It was the only concession she'd made to living on a military base, though. She still rocked the Goth look with a red miniskirt and a black t-shirt advertising a band Tony had never heard of. Tony might challenge the dress code himself with leather vests and linen shirts, but no one could unsettle an establishment like his Abby. "Where's the evidence?" Abby asked.

"That's what we have to find."

She frowned at him. "I only analyze what you bring me."

"Not this time," Tony said.

"Hinky," she said in that tone that meant she was curious. "Go on."

"Gibbs thinks a little too suspicious that Carson's virus only infected Colonel Sheppard."

Abby made a ‘go on’ gesture. "So what does he think?"

Tony shrugged. "He doesn't know for sure, but he suspects that some of the colonel's very old friends might be sticking their noses into our business. His very, very old friends."

"Old friends as in?" Abby looked at him suspiciously, and Tony waited for her to make the connection. Sure enough, her eyes got big.

"Ancients? The boss wants us to track down Ancients?" Abby all but bounced on her toes. "Where do we start?"

"By figuring out a way to prove that Gibbs' gut is right and that Ancients have been interfering."

Abby tilted her head to the side and looked at him through narrowed eyes. "You have a plan," she accused him.

Tony grinned. "I always have a plan." And since this was the part he could control, this was what he was going to work on. Tony really hated the idea that Samas would kill a Turi who was willing to step up and help Sheppard. Yeah, that Turi was a shadow until it had an adventure, but going on a mission against a virus shouldn’t be less valued than going on a mission against a Goa’uld. Tony was definitely going to talk to Jo about this, but for right now, he could only work the case he had and bide his time to make his arguments.

Pulling a chair out, Abby plopped down. "Sit and talk," she said pointing at the other chair.

This felt a lot like having the old team back. Of course, for it to feel really like home, Kate would have to be here, but that was an old, dull pain now. Having Abby around just reminded him of it a little more. Tony pulled the second chair out and sat. "Step one would be figuring out every signal and energy signature in that room at the time of the accident."

Abby frowned. "I can analyze like nobody's business, but energy signals are more Rodney's thing." She gave him her tragic face, and Tony knew where this was leading.

"Oh no," he said firmly. "We are not asking Rodney. I like the guy, but he gets very worked up. If he even thought there was a chance that an Ancient was after Sheppard, he would tie himself in knots trying to figure out how to track the bastard down. And when he couldn't, he'd tie himself in knots and call himself a failure. No, there will be no Rodney in this investigation. Don’t you think he’s already under enough stress?"

"But Tony..." She gave him her best pout.

"No." Tony crossed his arms and tried to channel his inner Gibbs. He could withstand Abby eyes. He could. He had to because Tony was not going to risk getting Rodney and his phobias mixed up in this investigation.

"But he could--"

"No," Tony said.

"And--"

"Abby," Tony warned.

She gave an exaggerated huff. "I used to be able to get you to do anything."

"Yeah, well I used to live on Earth and believe that the pyramids were built by Egyptians. We can't have Rodney involved in this." There were not enough antacids in the city for that.

Abby nodded, all the pouting dropped immediately as she seemed to consider the problem. "I would say that Radek was the next best, but Rodney and Radek are inseparable. Radek would rat us out sooner or later, but I really can't navigate the system as well as Rodney's people. Miko would help."

Tony hated the idea of bringing anyone else into this, but if Abby said she didn't have the skills, then they needed an outsider. They couldn't afford to make mistakes. "Can she keep a secret from Rodney?"

That made Abby smile. "Have I mentioned that she's really devious? She can totally keep him away from the investigation."

"Okay then, let's ask her, but I'm trusting you to keep this contained," Tony said.

Her eyes got large. "I promise," she vowed. "I'll treat this just like any other NCIS case, and that means that no one gets the evidence without approval from the lead investigator."

Tony moved to her side and offered her a kiss on the cheek. "Thank you, Abby."

"For you? Anything." She caught his hand and squeezed it. "Now go do your investigative thing. You look worried."

She was the only one who him well enough to spot that, but the possibility that Sheppard had an Ancient after him was only half his worry. It was just the half he could try and do something about, even if the something was only confirming or denying Gibbs’ hunch.

"Thanks Abs."

"Hey." She threw herself forward and hugged him tight. “You’re doing the best you can and so is Carson, and whatever happens, you’re awesome because you’re doing everything you can.” She kept hanging onto him until Tony was damn close to an emotional edge that he couldn’t afford right now.

“He’ll be fine,” Tony said as he extricated himself from Abby’s arms. “Just get on the signals. I should have more for you later today.”

Abby nodded, her eyes shining with unshed tears. Rather than face Abby’s emotions, Tony turned and fled.

Really he had a good excuse. It was time for him to get the fun part of the investigation--paperwork. He had gone to another galaxy, and he still couldn't get away from it. Hopefully Dr. Weir had already approved his request for more access. He'd tried to be vague about why he needed the mission reports, but he'd been honest when he said it was an NCIS investigation. Hopefully she wouldn't make him jump through hoops or write a report for one of the JAG judges to review. Tony wasn't sure how a judge would react to an investigation of an unnamed suspect who was a disembodied Ancient. SGC judges were a little more open minded than most, but that would raise a few eyebrows.

Tony took the long way to his office, stopping by checking on Sheppard’s condition on his way to his office. Sheppard had been moved to a larger and darker room, and he spent most of his time pacing now, so Tony suspected they were running out of time. The team needed to go get iratus eggs and they needed to get a Turi into him before he lost more of his humanity, but Tony wasn’t working on those parts of the plan. Tony had to track down Sheppard’s potential assailant.

Sometimes Tony wondered how Jenny Shepard would react to Tony's office. It had a front area for interviews, but then he had a huge backroom he used as his workroom. One wall was covered in an ancient version of a whiteboard. Rodney said it was actually a film left over from the production of some sort of computer interface glass, but it worked like a white board, so Tony wasn't picky.

At first the mottled blues and greens had been a little distracting, but now he couldn't imagine going back to the Earth version. Tony had various pictures and reports hanging on it, each trapped by the static field of the material itself.

Right now just looking at the wall made Tony feel slightly ill. The diagram of the lab where they were still holding Michael was fine, but the pictures of Sheppard with his skin turning scaly and blue was horrifying. Tony wondered if that’s how SGC people felt when they thought about hosting an onac. If so, maybe he could forgive them some of their shittiness. Not all, but some.

The other wall had a window that overlooked the entire city. It ran the full length of the room, and a door led out onto a balcony where Tony liked to sit as he wrote reports. He had afternoon shade, so it allowed him to smell the salt air and watch the waves against the docks as he wrote up complaints about Marines who made inappropriate jokes and food going missing out of storage three. A few days ago, Tony had complained about the lack of real work for him, and he was never again doing that. Ever.

"Lorne to DiNozzo, are you anywhere near your office?" The call on his comm interrupted Tony's pity party.

"I'm actually in my workroom. Can I help you, Major?"

"I wanted a chance to speak with you."

"I'll be right out." Tony pushed himself. Funny, he didn't even remember sinking down into his favorite chair. He sent out a mental query before touching a wall, and he got back a general sense of worry and fury centered around the infirmary. Tony assumed that meant that nothing was better with Sheppard.

Once he walked into the outer office, he waved a hand over the doorlock and asked Atlantis to keep it secure. He got back an image of a goat. Some days Tony thought the city was becoming more and more sentient. Other days he was pretty sure that either the city or he had serious mental health issues. However, Tony could only trust that the city would keep his door secure. He didn’t need anyone to see that he was investigating Sheppard’s infection because most people would assume that would imply he was targeting Carson. God knows Carson was walking around telling everyone how it was his fault that John had been infected.

Tony went to the door to the corridor and opened it. Sure enough Lorne stood there with an uncomfortable look on his face.

"Agent DiNozzo."

"Major," Tony answered. This was interesting. "Can I help you with something?"

A frown darted across Lorne's face. "Dr. Weir suggested that I might be able to help you find whatever you needed in the military records you requested."

Tony raised his eyebrows. "So, she wants you to poke around and find out who I'm investigating," he translated.

Lorne shrugged.

"Subtle."

"She seems to think you'd tell off anyone who came right out and interfered in your investigation."

Tony nodded. "Smart lady."

Lorne looked at him for a second. "But with Colonel Sheppard sick, the last thing this base needs is people twitching about your investigation. The last time you launched a major investigation, three soldiers got dishonorable discharges, and two were sentenced to prison terms."

"For sexually harassing a civilian, not to mention the civilian in question was vital to the defense of this base and we were under direct attack," Tony shot right back. He would not apologize for doing his job.

Lorne raised his hands. "I'm not disagreeing. I happen to like that this base is a safe place for women and minorities because entirely too many of my postings have been around assholes. I know that's due, in large part, to you. However, people are already under too much stress. If you can tell me where to do some damage control, I can help you. I'm not trying to stop your investigation, and neither is Dr. Weir."

"But you want to know what I'm doing?"

"Exactly." Lorne smiled.

"Not going to happen."

The smile vanished from Lorne's face.

Tony felt a little guilty about adding to the man's stress, but if he talked about any active investigation, Gibbs would head-slap him into a coma, and that would go double for this one. "NCIS policy forbids discussing investigations with anyone who may later become a suspect or witness. I absolutely cannot talk about this, and I'm not doing this because it's you. When I started investigating the four guys who were harassing Rodney, Sheppard asked me to back off, and I didn't then either." Tony still hated that the fourth guy got off, but there hadn't been any surveillance to corroborate the charges. The only consolation was that the guy ended up transferring back to Earth with a big cloud hanging over his career.

"I'm not asking you to back off," Lorne said.

"Good. So open all those files, and I will quietly investigate what I need to."

Lorne stood a little straighter. "How many people know about this investigation of yours?"

That was a fair question. "Gibbs asked me to look into it, and I've asked Abby to process evidence. The three of us have been doing investigations for a long time, so you are not going to get rumors out of us." Tony couldn't say the same of Miko only because he didn't know her well, but he was going to have to trust Abby on that.

Lorne grimaced again. "The gunny thinks there's a problem?"

"Yep."

"Well, shit." Lorne ran a hand over his face. Clearly that convinced Lorne, but then the military people on Atlantis did respect Gibbs more than him. Well, most did and the ones that didn’t had a bad habit of falling down during training and transferring home. "If anything is about to hit the fan, can you at least give me advance warning so I can minimize the splatter?" Lorne asked.

"I can do that," Tony said softly. It meant a lot to him that Lorne trusted Gibbs. And he really hoped they weren’t about to destroy all that trust in one mission to get a Turi into Sheppard.

Lorne reached in his pocket and pulled out a flash drive. "These are the original files. Some of the things in here would not make Earth happy, so they've been creatively edited in the official reports. I trust you'll keep this in confidence?"

"Absolutely," Tony said. "I won't use anything in here for evidence." After all, if they found the guilty party, they couldn't exactly take him to court.

Lorne took a deep breath, but he handed the drive over. "Let me know if you need anything. The military will cooperate with any investigation."

"Thanks."

Lorne shrugged and headed for the door. He clearly wasn't happy, but Tony didn't blame him for that. In the middle of all this, they didn't need more stress. However, if Gibbs was right, they couldn't afford to have an Ancient sticking fingers in their business. So Tony had to figure out a way to prove they were involved and find a way to determine when they were present. After that, someone else was going to have to figure out how to protect Sheppard from nameless beings because that was way above his pay grade. As much as Tony hated to say it, they just might have to go to Chaya for help.

“Unscheduled activation!” Walter called as the Gate started lighting up. Tony looked over his shoulder. “Can we tell if it’s from the iratus world?” he asked. Elizabeth came out of her office with that blank expression that meant she was hiding just how pissed she was.

“It’s from the iratus world,” Walter confirmed.

Tony felt the pressure in his chest ease some. That’s when the anger settled in. “I’m going to kill them. I’m going to kill all three of them. They’re going to be small chunks of meat scattered across the Gatroom floor,” Tony said a little too loudly. Only after he said it did he realize that the threat came dangerously close to threatening to eat them and vomit them back up on dry land. Jo had been spending a little too much time in him as they discussed the whole issue of what do to with Sheppard's Turi.

“Stand in line, Agent DiNozzo,” Weir suggested. “Lorne, you have your people in place?”

“Yes, ma’am,” he said. There were a dozen guards on the floor.

“It’s Gibbs’ IDC,” Walter said.

“Lower the force field,” Weir said. Walter hit the control and the force field shimmered and vanished. Not long after, Ronon strode through looking about as cocky as a person could get. He had a bag draped over his shoulder and there was a lot of unidentified goo on his boots. Gibbs was three steps behind him, walking backwards and covering their retreat.

“Someone ask for iratus eggs?” Ronon asked as he swung the bag around. He completely ignored the guards that surrounded him. “That was easy. I need a real challenge next time.”

Gibbs came around to stand next to him, lowering his weapon at the same time. “Any more of a challenge, and we would have left pieces of ourselves on the planet.”

“But we didn’t,” Ronon said with a wolfish grin.

Tony shoved right past a very well armed guard and walked over to Ronon and punched him in the arm.

“What?” Ronon demanded.

“We already had people die trying to get those eggs so you two go by yourself?” Tony demanded.

Ronon poked his thumb in Gibbs’ direction. “It was his idea. Hit him.”

“I know it was his idea!” Tony yelled as he punched Ronon again. “And I can’t hit him.”

Gibbs smirked as he took the bag from Ronon and walked over to Weir. “You couldn’t risk more people, but I could. I thought Ronon and I were fast enough to get the eggs for Carson, and I was right.”

“Gibbs,” Weir said, “I assume Lorne has some words for you. Airman, can you take these to Carson please?” Weir said as she gestured toward the bag. “If Samas had anything to do with this, please have him report to my office after Lorne has spoke with Gibbs,” Weir said, and the whole time she had on her diplomatic face, so Tony was guessing she was royally pissed. That was fine because after Stevens and Walker died and she vetoed any more plans to get iratus bugs, the entire city was pretty angry with her. The Dagan priests were insisting that John could choose to ascend and then return to them, but pretty much everyone else thought Weir had signed his death warrant. It made her the single most unpopular person on Atlantis since Ellis.

Weir turned and headed for her office, and Gibbs looked at Lorne.

“Yeah, we both know you just did what I wanted to, right?” Lorne asked.

“Yes, sir,” Gibbs agreed.

“And I’m probably going to have to file an Article 15.”

“Yes, sir.” Gibbs stared at Lorne, and Tony knew exactly how it felt when you were delievering bad news to Gibbs and he gave you that stare.

“You have a right to a formal hearing,” Lorne said, and from his tone, he was really hoping Gibbs would fight this.

But then Gibbs never did what his superiors wanted him to do. “I earned it,” Gibbs said mildly.

Ronon nudged Tony hard enough that it almost pushed him over. “What’s that about?”

“Gibbs is in shit for disobeying orders,” Tony said, “which is why you should have told me and I would have gone.”

Ronon looked down at him. “Samas has more experience,” he said. Tony narrowed his eyes and leaned closer.

“You’d better hope Samas bites your tail because Jo will bite your nose off,” he warned in a whisper. Ronon grinned and made a ‘bring it on gesture.’

“Report tomorrow for extra duty.” Lorne ordered Gibbs before he looked at the gathered me, most of them Marines. “I’m sure our Marines could use some extra training on how to avoid having unauthorized people go through the Gate,” he said loudly enough that every Marine in the room straightened up a little. “Your extra duty can involve making sure your men are better at their jobs.”

More than one Marine winced, but then Gibbs’ training terrified even SGC veterans, so Tony didn’t blame them.

“Wait. His punishment is to work with his men more?” Ronon asked. “He likes working with his men.”

Tony nodded. “I think Lorne knows that.”

Ronon grunted. “Earthers are weird.”

“Yep,” Tony agreed.

“Report to the infirmary for post-mission checkups,” Lorne said, “and Gunny… good work.”

Gibbs nodded and headed for the transporter. Tony followed with Ronon close behind him. “Carson thinks that with the iratus eggs he can get the colonel’s body to accept the cure,” Tony said.

Gibbs gave him a nod and then the transporter flashed and they were on the Turi level. They walked in silence until they hit the first of Ronon’s obstacles. This was a place where to struts looked to have fallen, forcing them to climb. Tony suspected most of Atlantis’ people would give up at that point and turn in a work order to Radek. However, after some poking and prodding, Tony was ninty-nine percent sure that Radek would lose that work order because he already knew what was down this corridor.

The next obstacle was much more difficult. A solid wall looked like a door that had fallen so that it tilted forward. However, because the ceilings were so high here, the top of the door was a good seven feet in the air. If you knew exactly the right spot to jump for, the metal edge was rounded and easy to grab. If you didn’t, you were going to mess your hands up. Ronon went first, barely even pausing before he was up and over.

“We should talk before you go in the water,” Tony warned. Gibbs gave him an odd look, but after making the jump, he reached down his hand.

“Okay, so talk.”

“When Ronon’s gone,” Tony said. Because he was holding Gibbs’ hand, he had no doubt that Samas could sense some of his unease, but he didn’t comment. Gibbs just helped him over the wall before sliding down into the next area.

Anyone who got this far would know that this was an intentional obstacle course. When Tony had first seen it, he’d thought it was lame, but he should have known better. Ronon did not do lame. Now, he did things that might cause someone else to be lame, and in this case, he’d created a series of low obstacles out of fragments of metal. Most were thankfully dulled and rounded, and few were higher than a man’s thigh, so Tony could walk right around them. However, when Gibbs and Ronon tried to spar in this knee-high jungle of metal, it was pretty clear that a warrior would have to have reflexes and an ability to look in three directions as a time to fight his way though this thing. It all ended in a wall with two arches. Once Gibbs and Tony went through, all the scrap metal had been removed leaving a clear deck that led straight to the edge of the dark waters.

Ronon had started to bring long straight planks down here, and he was clearly starting to build benches. Jo had brought him a memory—Satedan warriors would watch two warriors fight, slapping their thighs in time as the younger tried to prove he could best his elder. Someone would sing a warrior’s ballad, and if in the time it took to sing, the younger had not won at least a point, he would retire to the bench on the side with the unblooded warriors. Tony had to imagine that if Ronon succeeded in finding any of his people, there would be no unblooded warrriors left.

Tony pulled himself out of that memory and looked to where Ronon crouched next to the waters, his fingers still dangling in it. “Ronon, give us a minute?”

Ronon looked up. “Sure.” He stood and headed for the exit.

“And tell Carson’s staff that Gibbs will be in as soon as I’m done being pissed.”

“So, a while?” Ronon asked.

“Yeah,” Tony agreed, although when Gibbs found out what he’d done, it was going to be Gibbs and Samas who were pissed. Already they were suspicious.

Tony reached down, and as he expected, Jo was right there waiting. She curled around his arm, and Tony brought her up so she could join. Even after all this time, he still gave a small gag when she found the slit in the back of his throat and pushed her way in.

“So, talk,” Gibbs said. Tony walked to Ronon’s pile of wood and rested his hand on it.

“You value Ronon.”

Gibbs frowned, but the answer to that was so obvious that he clearly didn’t feel a need to answer.

“That’s weird,” Tony said. “Not weird that you should value him because he’s really terrifyingly good at what he does, but your first choice was me.”

“Of course it was.” Gibbs took a step closer, and now he looked concerned.

“Why did you choose me, Gibbs?”

“Is this you fishing for compliments?” Gibbs gave a laugh, but Tony knew him well enough to know that Gibbs was trying to avoid the emotions because he was on unsteady ground and he didn’t know what Tony was talking about. That worked when they’d been back on Earth. When Tony went somewhere Gibbs didn’t want him, all Gibbs had to do was make one crack about Tony being needy, and that would jerk him right back into line. However, they weren’t on Earth, Tony wasn’t needy, and Gibbs’ tricks didn’t actually work on him now, especially since he could feel Gibbs’ unease through Jo.

“I wouldn’t be able to fight my way through that obstacle course. If Teyla or Ronon or even Sheppard were between me and the Turi, I wouldn’t be able to get the water. You created a system where I would have failed, Gibbs.”

Gibbs remained silent, but Samas’ discomfort grew.

“You’ve recreated the onac homeworld with hosts proving their worth through sheer brute muscle. Is that what you want for our people?”

This is where a lesser man would turn defensive and start striking out, but Gibbs narrowed his eyes. He was studying the truth of what Tony was saying and waiting to collect all the evidence. Never in his life had Tony known a lover as well as he knew Gibbs. He could practically read the man’s mind.

“Would Rodney provide good stories? Would Radek or Jonas or Miko?”

“Miko?” Gibbs jumped on that name and looked at Tony incredulously. Jo could feel Samas echoing that emotion.

“She’s brilliant,” Tony said softly. “If a Turi were with her and she made a great discovery, would that be a song worth singing? Have you sung of your discoveries in the Wraith language, of how you reverse engineered the dematerializing beam? You value intellectual quests, but you’re allowing the challenge to become a matter of physical strength.”

Tony waited as Gibbs took the time to think about that. “You want someone else as host,” Gibbs finally concluded.

While Tony could have accused Gibbs of jumping to a conclusion, he was right. “I’m pretty sure Radek knew about the symbiotes from the beginning. He hacked the White House. He lied to General O’Neill. Face it, if you want a bad ass as a host, Radek Zelenka is near the top of that list. Hell, I can think of at least six felonies I should arrest him for, and that’s not even counting his involvement in the black market around here.”

“So what are you proposing?” Gibbs asked. There was still hesitation there, and Jo warned that Samas was deeply uneasy. The idea of challenging to get a symbiote, of having to prove yourself to host was a fundamental part of onac culture. Samas would not yield on that.

“I propose a second challenge,” Tony said. “Call the one we have now the Warrior’s Path or whatever name Ronon chooses. However, I want a second way into this room, one guarded by intellectual challenges—games—puzzles—a test of genius. Let’s create a Scholar’s Path.”

Gibbs gave a quick laugh. “The way Rodney created a test for Abby.”

Tony nodded, “Yeah, something like that.”

“And if Abby or Kavanagh gets in through this Scholar’s Path?”

“Kavanagh wouldn’t try, but if he did, I would certainly listen to the song of his symbiote before deciding if it was worth it to bite his tail or vomit him back up on dry land. And if Abby earned her way in here, would you deny her a Turi?”

Gibbs would. Tony could feel that, but he could also feel that Samas would not.

“A Turi who chose a scholar would have to stay with the host longer, would have to learn what the host knew about technology before it could begin to help with focusing the host, performing quick mental calculations, catching errors and improving productivity. Those Turi would understand that the Scholar’s Path is longer and harder, and in the end, those who have stories more interesting than shooting at Wraith will be the first to catch Jo’s attention.”

“This is a big change,” Gibbs said, which was as good as admitting that Tony was right and Gibbs wrong. With Gibbs, you took victories where you found them.

Tony grinned. “No it’s not, boss. You didn’t pick me for my ability to bare-knuckle fight. You or Ziva could have kicked my ass in a heartbeat.”

Gibbs smiled and reached for Tony’s hand. He used that to pull Tony close before resting a palm on his cheek. “In the sparring ring, we might win. But face it, you could always outmaneuver me. You wouldn’t be here otherwise because I would have kept you clear of all of this and handled O’Neill’s ire on my own.”

“You mean you would have fallen on your sword.”

“Yep,” Gibbs agreed.

Tony sighed. “You and Sheppard.”

Gibbs shrugged. “So, would you make it through this Scholar’s Path?”

For a second, Tony thought about it. “Yeah, I would. I’m not as smart as Rodney or Radek, but I have a skill they don’t. I can’ pretty much talk people into anything, so I would have found a way to con people into giving me codes or helping me through whatever test is there.” It wasn’t arrogance, but Tony knew he would be able to do exactly that.

Gibbs pulled back and looked at Tony, Jo and Samas flashing images back and forth. “What else aren’t you telling me?”

“That there’s a third path,” Tony said unapologetically. Jo was less sanguine, but she sent out her own determination. She would not back down on this any more than Tony would.

“A third path?” Gibbs backed up.

And this is where Tony completely pissed Gibbs off, but since Gibbs was a pull the Band-Aid off fast sort of person, Tony laid it all out as quickly as he could. He’d practiced this bit ever since Gibbs had taken off for his illicit mission and Tony had retrieved the Turi in Sheppard. After all, if the mission was successful, Carson would move too quickly and the Turi would be in danger of getting caught, and if the mission was unsuccessful, the Turi had no reason to continue the mission because it would only prolong Sheppard’s life, not save him.

“The Queen’s Path is when a Turi is asked to lay down its life in the slim hope of doing some task for the queen. If it succeeds, then it might earn its way back into the water and earn a spot guarding the queen’s spawn. If it fails, it will never touch water again.”

Samas sent out a wave of fury as he realized that Sheppard’s Turi was already in the water. He would not have corruption in the water.

Jo sent out an equal blast of indignation. She would not have Turi die with no hope of bringing stories to the waters.

“You had no right,” Gibbs said.

“No, Samas had no right to tell Jo who she could or could not choose,” Tony said. “The Sheppard Turi knows things that it should not about manipulating hosts. Agreed. And he should not sing, not when there are too few songs and too many would be impressed with a host that should not have been claimed. However, he guards Jo’s nest. He doesn’t sing. And she will choose to honor him with a spawning. He nearly died to keep Sheppard alive. He was willing to die to protect Atlantis. That deserves to be remembered.”

“And if something happens to break him out of the nishta trance? It isn’t absolute.”

“So, you would kill him?” Tony shot right back.

“Shadows…”

“No!” Tony shouted, and Jo blasted the area with anger. “He wasn’t a shadow. Not anymore. He had fought with every ounce of his being to hold off the virus. He had to be clever to get ahead of the mutations and turn Sheppard’s immune system against it. And the whole time, he understood that if McKay was distracted or slipped for one second. If McKay failed to alter one brain scan that revealed the Turi’s presence that he would not only die but he would put us in danger. He was not a shadow.”

Gibbs turned away, and Tony could feel the anger rolling through him. There was nothing else Tony could say, and he wouldn’t say the same things over and over. Either Gibbs would forgive him for this or he wouldn’t. If he didn’t, neither Jo nor Tony gave one nishta guard good odds at protecting Jo’s first children, and they were far too small to protect themselves. While Jo had gone out of her way to move the nest as far from the claiming waters as she dared, there were still too many of Samas’ spawn around for her to truly hide them.

Jo wanted to go back to the waters and help guard her young, but Tony knew better. The fastest way to get Gibbs to make the wrong decision was to try and shove his face in how wrong it was. He needed time.

Turning away, Tony started toward the infirmary. He should check on Sheppard’s condition, and work on his report on his investigation, and warn Carson’s staff that he and Gibbs had a large enough fight that it might take Gibbs a little longer than normal to show up for his post-mission check. Hopefully they’d get one of the nurses who’d seen Gibbs in a really foul mood. That way no one would be calling Gibbs and trying to hurry him along. After all, Tony had given him a lot to think about, but that was his job as Gibbs’ second. When the boss stopped thinking, Tony had to step up to the plate and get him back on track, even if things turned really ugly.

They’d be okay.

Jo shifted unhappily.

Tony repeated the thought as he dropped down from the obstacle wall. They would be okay.

“You’re looking a lot better,” Tony told Sheppard when he walked into the room. The lights were still low, but the blue was definitely fading.

“I would say I feel better, but I still kind of feel like crap,” John said. “So, I hear we’re having a meeting in here.”

“It involves you, so I thought it would be easier than having the same briefing twice.”

John gave him a long look. “Okay, what have you done with Carson?”

Tony turned around to look at Sheppard, and for a half second, that suspicious tone of voice cut through to his soul. He was half prepared to babble out explanations about why they’d chosen to let a Turi into him against his will. However, the second he looked at Sheppard’s expression, he recognized the teasing. “Carson is tired of you complaining that you’re bored.”

“If he’d let me out of here, I wouldn’t complain,” John pointed out.

Before they could say anything else, Rodney came into the room. “Okay, I’m here. Let’s hurry this up. I have things to do, people.”

John’s face lit up with such love that it made Tony feel a little mushy. Rodney, however, was looking everywhere except at John. Not good.

“Rodney, good of you to visit,” John said, his voice more cautious now.

Rodney finally looked at him. “It’s not like you wanted me in here.”

“When I had the virus in me, no. I was having some trouble not pinning you the nearest horizontal surface and reenacting a really cheesy porn I once watched.”

“Really?” Rodney straightened up and gave John a small, hopeful smile.

John rolled his eyes. “Yes, Rodney, and since I had a virus in me and people who actually care about the code of conduct were watching, I thought that was a bad idea.”

“But you wanted me?”

“For a genius, you’re an idiot, McKay,” Sheppard complained. He also held out his hand, and Rodney went right to his side.

“They say sometimes people come to realizations when they’re close to death. I thought maybe the realization hadn’t gone in my favor.”

“You’re an idiot, and when I’m not stuck in a hospital bed with an NCIS agent watching, I will prove the depths of your idiocy, McKay,” John promised.

Tony grinned. “Hey, don’t mind me.”

“Please,” Rodney said with a snort. “That’s not going to happen. Now is this a meeting or are you just wasting my time?”

“It’s a meeting,” Tony said. “Teyla, Samas, Lorne, and Weir should be here soon.”

Rodney visibly flinched at Weir’s name. John’s eyebrows went up, but when Rodney didn’t say anything, John looked at Tony. He had no idea what he was supposed to say. She’d authorized one mission to get iratus eggs, but when two of Lorne’s guys had gone down, she refused to allow Gibbs to go back, even after he explained that if there were fewer people he would be able to use Samas’ scent markers to hide them from the bugs. He’d even offered to go alone, which had given Tony gray hairs thinking about, but Samas knew his own limits and he knew if he could get the eggs without getting himself killed.

“She should have let Samas get the eggs,” Rodney finally said, and from his tone, he was not a Weir-fan right now.

“But… I thought she did.” John looked really confused now.

Tony sighed. “She authorized our team and Lorne’s to work together on the first attempt.”

Clearly Sheppard knew how badly things had gone because his gaze fell to the bed and he went utterly still for a moment before he looked back up. “I thought Ronon and Gibbs went back alone.”

Tony nodded, but Rodney jumped in before he could say anything. “She not only refused to let them go back, but she ordered them not to. Samas is a better judge of his own abilities than she is, but she insisted they couldn’t afford to lose more people, as if losing you would be better. Gibbs and Ronon had to go around the Gate room guards, and by that I mean stun them unconscious, and now Weir made Lorne write Gibbs up.”

John looked over to Tony, his eyes large. Tony nodded. “An article 15,” Tony said. It wasn’t a court martial, and it wasn’t like Gibbs was ever going to be considered for a promotion, but it still annoyed Tony.

“Oh,” Sheppard said. He looked a little like someone had hit him with bantos rods.

Teyla chose that moment to appear with Gibbs close behind. “John,” she said warmly. “Are you feeling better?”

“Peachy,” Sheppard said, “I’m bored and I keep having dreams about being a fish and swimming under the city, but other than that and a little bit of blue skin, I seem to be bouncing back.”

Tony very carefully kept his gaze exactly where it had been on the wall. If he looked around, he was afraid he would catch Rodney’s gaze, and the man would blurt everything out.

“A fish?” Teyla gave a light and natural laugh.

“Yeah. Weird, huh? And I kept having to swim away from these really big whales. I mean huge,” John said.

Tony was dying, but Jo just calmly pointed out that the whales really were huge. And they sucked in so much water when they fed that playing chicken with them was quite dangerous. Tony was then treated to a “best of” memory reel of all the times Jo had nearly gotten herself killed. When Gibbs rested his hand on the small of Tony’s back, Tony could feel the amusement there. Gibbs and Samas weren’t too worried. They believed the human ability to self-deceive would easily cover for this. The danger of Carson finding a physical sign of a symbiote was greater than Sheppard remembering on his own.

Tony smiled at the reassurance. They’d made their peace, and Samas had—like an overprotective father—accepted that Jo could choose her own partners, but there was still an unease between them when both Jo and Samas were inside. Jo hated it, and she continued to reach out to her parent, but Samas was much more hesitant to reciprocate.

“Gunny, I am really sorry you caught flak over this.”

“I disobeyed orders. I expected as much.”

“I’m going to talk to Elizabeth about leaving the discipline of military personnel to military.”

“Yes, sir,” Gibbs said in a tone that made it pretty clear he didn’t think it was worth the trouble.

The door opened again, and Lorne opened the door, stepping aside to hold it open for Weir. “Sir, it’s good to see you up and about and less blue.”

“You’re just glad you’re not in danger of being given this command.”

“Hell yes, sir,” Lorne agreed.

“John,” Weir greeted him, and she sounded genuinely relieved. “You’re looking good.”

“I’ll be better when I know what sort of briefing Tony has. He scares me a little.”

Weir laughed. Tony noticed that others did not, and there was a spike of satisfaction out of Samas. He could smell political blood in the water, and Tony suspected that Weir was about to find out what happened when you pissed off Samas. He almost felt sorry for her.

“Agent DiNozzo?” Weir asked, inviting him to take the seat at the small table pulled up next to John’s bed. Teyla moved to sit next to John and then held out her hand for Rodney to sit next to her. Tony moved to the head of the table where he could run the laptop. He’d done a Powerpoint presentation on the evidence of a potential Ancient intruder. There was something surreal about that.

Weir and Lorne sat across from John, but Gibbs chose to lean against the wall on the far side of the room. John glanced over, but he didn’t comment.

“When Colonel Sheppard was infected with the virus, Gibbs pointed out that the odds of the only person who could have been infected getting stabbed with a random needle were astronomical.”

John looked over at Gibbs and frowned. “Accidents happen, Gunny.”

“That was a little too coincidental for an accident,” Gibbs said, and several people shifted uncomfortably. Tony hit the return button to bring up the next slide.

“I asked Abby and Miko to identify every signal and anomaly in the room at the time. They came back with almost five thousand potential signals.”

“This is Atlantis. Everything gives off signals,” Rodney said. He was clearly getting bored already.

“I had them eliminate every signal that appeared on a daily basis or nearly a daily basis and was left with under two thousand signals.”

Weir leaned forward and studied the screen.

Tony hit return to bring up the next slide. “I then looked at other statistically improbable accidents focusing on two. The first is the time Colonel Sheppard was attacked by the iratus bug and the shuttle just happened to get stuck in the gate, something which has never happened before or since.”

“Thanks for bringing up that good memory,” John complained softly, but Tony kept going.

“The other is the time that John and Rodney were exploring and John fell through the floor into the Ancient compactor which just happened to jam.”

“Fun times,” John said.

Tony went to the next slide. “I found there were three signals active at all three scenes. Miko identified one as a sort of background noise that seems to appear whenever Colonel Sheppard is trying to do something difficult. She believes it might be the city’s attempting to react to his stress.”

“She had to stop anthropomorphizing the city,” Rodney complained. “The city does not react to stress. It’s a machine. Maybe… maybe… John gives it commands when he’s panicking.”

“Hey, I don’t panic.” John frowned. “Much.”

Tony hit the next slide. “I then searched for those two signals. I found one of them appeared multiple times, all associated with Colonel Sheppard and some pretty long odds.” A number of slides appeared, each with two sides. The first showed a signal, the other showed a scene from a security camera. “The same signal appeared when Sheppard chose the address for the Athosian home world at random on our first day, in the back of the shuttle with the iratus bug attached, and when the Genii invaded the city. When I widened the search, I also found that signal at the same time lightening hit and was channeled into the shield to protect Atlantis from the storm, when Rodney found the personal shield, and when the Dagans found the ZPM formula in the philosophy library.”

“How many times does this signal appear on our sensors altogether?” Rodney asked.

“Eight,” Tony said.

“What’s missing?” Weir asked. Tony looked at her. “The signal was everywhere when Chaya came to Atlantis.”

Lorne sucked in a breath. “You’re saying that an Ancient tried to kill the colonel.”

“Well that’s faintly disturbing. Are you sure?” John asked.

“It gets stranger,” Tony warned.

“Oh great,” Rodney complained. “Like it’s not enough we have to worry about the Wraith and the chance that Earth might fall and all the stupid people they keep sending me to supervise, but now we have Ancients trying to kill us? I thought that was the Ori’s job.”

“This is where it gets complicated,” Tony said. “Clearly several of these are associated with the colonel having some pretty damn good luck.”

“The Genii invasion,” John said. “I’m a pilot. I’m trained for rescue, not for the sort of aggressive tactics I used that day. I kept expecting to fall on my face and get captured.”

Tony nodded. Looking at Sheppard’s record and then at what happened during the Genii invasion, the two didn’t match. Teyla normally kicked his ass in hand-to-hand, which didn’t mean that John couldn’t take a Genii in a fair fight, but he shouldn't have been able to take several dozen of them in a fight. “That was the single strongest signal we got until this latest incident with the virus.”

“So you think we have two Ancients having a fight over whether to help or screw over the colonel?” Lorne asked. He looked over at Sheppard in horror, and Tony could practically read his mind. How do you keep someone safe when it was an invisible and highly advanced individual trying to kill them?

“Let’s look at the iratus bug incident,” Tony said.

“Or not,” John said, but everyone ignored him.

“It would appear that the drive pod refusing to retract was bad luck.”

“Yes, because it was,” Rodney snapped. “I nearly died. We nearly died. Explosive decompression is on the bottom of my list of ways to die.”

“But,” Tony interrupted, “if it hadn’t gotten stuck, Carson would have followed standard procedures to try and save the colonel. We now know that the colonel would have died for good if he hadn’t been stuck in that ship where stopping his heart was the only alternative.”

“So it was lucky?” Sheppard asked.

“It kept you alive,” Tony pointed out.

The sour expression on Rodney’s face made it clear that he wanted to argue. He just couldn’t figure out what to say.

“So, what’s your conclusion?” Weir asked.

Tony leaned back. “I follow the evidence, and right now we don’t have enough for any real conclusions. That might mean we’re in the sort of horrible spot that every investigator dreads—waiting for another crime so you can start trying out theories. However, there are two theories that seem to have some legs. First, this is good luck.”

Sheppard snorted.

Tony ignored him. “At the time, we didn’t know the shuttle getting stuck was actually good luck, so it could be that something is coming and the colonel needs the iratus antibodies for some reason.”

“That’s not a pleasant thought,” Lorne said uneasily.

“No, it’s not,” Tony agreed. “It implies that we need to find out everything we can about the iratus and the changes it made to Colonel Sheppard as fast as possible.”

“And the second alternative?” Weir asked.

Tony didn’t even like considering this option. “That someone was helping Sheppard. The Ancients can’t get involved directly, so one of them might have been playing with the odds a little, only now that Ancient got caught and someone else thought this was a way to remove the colonel because he or she thinks the colonel wouldn’t be here without the interference of the first Ancient.”

Rodney started breathing fast, and Teyla reached over and caught his hand in hers.

“Could this be Chaya doing this?” Sheppard asked.

“I thought about it,” Tony admitted, “but she had to use the Stargate to get back to her planet. I think her wings have been clipped. After looking at Dr. Jackson’s notes, I think this is more likely to be someone who can travel more freely than Chaya or Oma Desala. The signal appeared on the shuttle even though there was no sign of it using the Stargate.”

“Someone hasn’t gotten caught with their hand in the cookie jar yet,” Weir summarized.

Teyla said softly, “I dislike the idea that one of the Ancestors has to hide any assistance he or she chooses to give John. To help others is a gift, not a crime.”

“But look at what happened with the Ori,” Weir said. “I don’t doubt that at some point they believed they were helping, but when you see people doing things you disapprove of, there is a natural tendency to try and stop them. The Ancients must understand that, particularly given their history with the Ori. By cutting off all contact with those who haven’t ascended or at the very least punishing and limiting those who break the rule, they prevent themselves from becoming Ori through their own good intentions.”

Gibbs looked at Tony. “Sometimes parents have to let go and trust their children to go places they might not approve.”

Teyla nodded. “That is true. My father likely would not have wished for me to leave my people, but had he the power to stop me, he would have stopped me from reaching my potential. Do you believe the Ancients are like parents, afraid to express their own preference for fear of interfering with our own?”

“It makes sense,” Lorne offered. “My mom was not thrilled with me going into the military.”

“Not a fan?” Sheppard asked.

Lorne shrugged. “Sir, she would have been happier if I had gone home and announced I had decided to be an ecoterrorist who supported himself through prostitution, and I was going to start by blowing up the wealthier parts of Los Angeles.”

Sheppard nodded. “My father wanted me to study finance and sit in a corner office and wear a $5000 suit. So if the Ancients are like parents, maybe it’s good that they stay out of it.”

“Only it seems as if at least one of them has chosen not to stay out of it,” Teyla said softly. And really, no one was disagreeing.

Tony leaned back in his chair and looked out over the ocean, ignoring the reports in his lap. Most of the petty crime going on in Atlantis traced back to Walter, so Tony didn't have much incentive to shut it down. Sheppard's hoarding was nothing compared to Walter's ability to tuck supplies away. Tony was starting to wonder if there were any supplies left in Colorado. Between Walter's surprising ability to acquire and hide supplies and the new greenhouses that were starting to produce potatoes, corn, wheat, and rice, the city was going to be self-supporting. At least as long as people didn't mind really boring food. Tony figured that certain spices, candies, and pastries were still going to be in demand, but at least the Daedalus wouldn't have to fill her hold with flour anymore.

Atlantis sent him a query. Tony reached over and touched the wall. "Yes?"

Colonel Sheppard was on the other end. "Got a minute to talk?"

"Yeah, I'm in my office."

"That's weird. So am I." Sheppard sounded confused.

"My inner office," Tony said. "I'll let you in." Before Tony could get up to open the door, Atlantis sent an image of a flock of birds taking off in flight and then the lock disengaged allowing Sheppard into his inner office.

Tony sent a disgusted thought at the city, and Atlantis sent a feeling of apology quickly followed by an image of Sheppard glowing like some medieval saint. "Traitor," Tony whispered. The city was definitely getting stronger, and so was her love for her golden boy.

"Colonel," Tony said as he stood at the door to his balcony.

"Now I see why you picked this office," Sheppard said as he stood and looked out at the ocean. "Nice place."

"I picked it because I have two front rooms and this back room is private enough that I can lay out evidence.

"Then shouldn't you keep the door locked?" He looked confused.

"It was locked. However, Atlantis likes you more than she likes me," Tony said. "She unlocked it, and if she unlocks it for anyone else, I'm going to find some really important crystals and pull them all out."

Tony got an image of himself glowing like a medieval saint.

"Yeah, yeah, you say that now," Tony said. He glanced over, and Sheppard was looking at him like he'd lost his mind. Tony leaned back against the railing. "Do you seriously never get any images from her?"

"It's a machine," Sheppard said slowly.

Tony huffed. "Tell her that. And before you think I've lost it, you should know that Miko gets the images too. Lorne doesn't get the images, but he can get a general sense of security. He said he was having trouble sleeping when you were in the infirmary with your case of bugitis."

"Let's not mention bugs. Ever."

"Yeah, I'm the same way with the plague. In fact, I cringe at any references to the Middle Ages. But my point is that the city knew something was wrong with you, and she kept pinging Major Lorne. Once you really try to connect with the city, she's pretty good at letting you know what she's thinking."

Sheppard shook his head. "I'm just as happy to not have a city in my head, and I suggest that you not mention the possibility that the city is sentient around... oh, pretty much anyone."

Tony laughed. "Yeah, Rodney has given me the lecture two or three or twelve times. ‘There is no programming that even hints at an AI system, DiNozzo,’” Tony said, mimicking Rodney. “However, some of us are still getting messages, so we can believe in a sentient city or assume there's a really quirky and potentially senile person in stasis somewhere in the city sending us telepathic messages."

Sheppard made a face but he didn't say anything as he walked over to the wall of windows. He stood there for a moment and then all the glass started sliding to one side leaving the entire room open to the ocean. Tony had not known the room could do that. Sometimes Tony got really tired of being the city's unloved stepchild.

"Have you met the new Satedans?"

"Yeah. Haven't you?" Tony started a little mental dance of panic. Shit.

"Yeah. They seem..." Sheppard leaned against the rail and looked out at the ocean. "Intense," he finished.

"Ronon's kind of an intense guy too."

"And he's a crappy liar," Sheppard said without turning around. "So I figure if I ask you what's going on, maybe I'll get a straight answer." Sheppard turned around and looked at Tony. "Rodney has no idea what's going on, Teyla tells me that this is something to take up with Ronon, I wanted to ask Samas, only Samas is missing and I'm not putting the Gunny in the middle, so that leaves you."

"So you'll put me in the middle?" Tony demanded.

Sheppard grinned at him. "Yep. You aren't under me in the chain of command, so you can tell me to fuck off if I'm pushing too hard. The gunny can't. So, what’s up with the Satedans?"

"Do you really want to know?"

Sheppard gave him a very odd look. "Do you have any idea how much it terrifies me when you ask that?"

"It should," Tony agreed. He and Jo both thought that John should know he had hosted a Turi in his head; however, they wouldn't go against Gibbs and Samas on this. That said, the colonel deserved to know that something fairly important was going on. Jonas and Rodney had nearly finished the Scholar’s path, and Radek had already come to Tony and announced that he planned to humiliate Rodney by beating every one of his traps in record time.

"Other colonels get nice simple commands," Sheppard said sadly. "They have people who report to them who actually give them reports as opposed to... you know..."

"People who try to protect them?" Tony asked.

"By not telling me things. That's the part that's a little outside regulation. Is this something that Elizabeth knows?"

"Um..." Tony cleared his throat.

Sheppard sighed. "Great. Okay, if Elizabeth doesn't know, I don't want to know. Just... does Teyla know?"

"Yep," Tony agreed. The colonel looked visibly relieved.

“Okay then. I’ll leave this alone, but I expect you to keep an eye on the Satedans and tell me if I need to know something. Now that that’s settled, what is going on between Ronon and Gibbs? I have a few ideas, but I'm pretty sure you aren't that flexible in your relationship."

"I'm not," Tony quickly agreed. That was actually an unsettling thought.

"Great, that takes one really disturbing option off the table, and it leaves about a half dozen far more disturbing options on it." Sheppard made a face. Maybe he was not as ignorant as Tony had assumed.

Tony understood this was hard on Sheppard. Everyone asked him to lie to his own superiors--Elizabeth kept everyone back home in the dark about Teyla's and Samas' leadership positions and O'Neill asked him to lie about their preparations for Earth's potential defeat. The man was going to collapse under the weight of all the lies and half-truths. "How much do you want to know?"

"If it puts the security of this city in danger, I need to know about it." Sheppard braced himself as though expecting to get hit.

Tony asked the city to close the windows again. "Let's go sit down." He said as he headed for his evidence table. His only current case was the Ancient who was targeting Sheppard, and he couldn't exactly take that to court, so it didn't matter if the potential victim saw the evidence.

"This is not making me feel better," Sheppard warned, but he followed.

"Gibbs and Samas are worried that if we have several thousand military assets coming through the gate, we could have a major problem with training."

"Because SGC people have certain instincts that don't work well here." Sheppard agreed. “Trust me, I understand his concern.”

Tony nodded. "They go for firearms and they take body shots. When attacked from the air, they don't wait until the dart is too close to redirect the culling beam."

"Because they're trained that way. Gibbs and I have discussed exactly why we need to retrain Marines before we put them back out into the field where they might run into Wraith."

"He wants to get more local warriors into Atlantis' army. A lot more."

“Which is why Teyla is putting more Athosians on our Gate teams,” Sheppard said in a distracted voice. "And by a lot more, you mean..."

Tony shrugged. "A lot. Ronon's first plan was to find this guy who had run away from the fight on Sateda and kill him. Gibbs talked him into tracking this guy's group down and confronting them. Ronon called them all cowards and told them they should have either died fighting the Wraith or, like him, fought until they were taken. He told them that if they wanted to redeem themselves, they could follow him and the only thing he'd promise them was a chance to die fighting the Wraith, and a chance to take out a lot of Wraith before that happened. And he might have promised running water."

Sheppard leaned back in his chair. "Well shit. That means we have close to thirty suicidal Satedans."

"No, that means we have thirty taskmasters who can train Atlantis marines to have a different set of instincts. Gibbs is hoping that more Satedans might show up if they know there's a place where they can get back some part of what they had. They were an advanced society, so they're probably not thrilled with living in some shack with no electricity."

"And this is his grand plan to reform our armed forces?"

Tony leaned forward. "How much have we adapted because of Teyla and Ronon? How many of the Marines try and copy their fighting styles?"

Sheppard frowned. "A lot of them. More as time goes on."

"Yeah," Tony agreed, "because their fighting style is better. It's dirtier and it requires a lot of getting your ass kicked before learning to kick ass, but Marines generally don't mind suffering a little to get better at their jobs."

"Not usually," Sheppard said. "And if we have thirty or sixty Satedans and our Marines are trained to take head shots, to wait for a dart to be overhead before diving out of the way, and to resort to bladed weapons and go for massive damage rather than using a sidearm when the P90 runs out of ammo, that's going to change the odds. Marines carrying swords." Sheppard ran his hand over his face. "Yeah, that's going to be different. I’m letting Walter figure out how to request those supplies."

"Marines adapt to the fighting environment, and if all you have is a sidearm, six or eight bullets won't even slow a Wraith down. Cut off his arm, and you've at least annoyed him." Tony figured that Gibbs would have discussed this much with Sheppard if he'd asked. Considering the number of Marines who died because they fell back on sidearms when they ran out of ammo for their main weapon, swords actually made sense. Besides, swords didn't require bullets, and Tony knew they were all concerned about the ammunition situation if Earth fell. Even General O'Neill had managed to smuggle them a shipment of zats through a dematerializer, so the ammo issue was definitely front and center in a lot of people’s minds.

"So, Gibbs and Ronon are conspiring to make Atlantis' armed forces more effective?"

Tony wished that was all it was. It also had a lot to do with the Satedans proving they were good enough to carry Turi into battle. The Satedans had chosen quarters close to the warriors' path to the joining waters, and they loved to hear Samas tell stories of Earth and the conflicts with the goa'uld. They felt like the igigi defeat at the hands of the goa'uld mirrored their own defeat, and they saw the rise of the Turi as some sort of promise that their own people could do the same.

"That's part of it," Tony said.

"That's the part you're willing to tell me," Sheppard said.

"I'll tell you everything if you really want to know, but trust me--you don't."

"But Teyla knows?"

"Yep."

"And she doesn't think there's any risk to the city?"

"Nope."

Sheppard shrugged. "Good enough for me. Now, next item on the agenda--why the hell are you leaving my team?"

Tony laughed. Just when he thought he understood Sheppard, the man surprised him. "I was only on it because Gibbs didn't trust Ronon. I think he got over his distrust."

"And I got used to having you around. You're good on the team, Tony."

Tony grinned. "You know, I never thought I would be. I was prepared to suffer through a few trading missions to watch Gibbs' six, but I was surprised at how much I enjoyed it."

"So stay with the team."

Tony shook his head. "Colonel, I actually do have another job."

Sheppard leaned forward. "So does Rodney, so do I. We make it work."

"Yeah, you do," Tony agreed, "but we're getting more and more locals in the city, and that means I have to be on top of things. I have to know who's coming and who's going and who's sleeping with whose sister and which breakups are likely to end in a fistfight in the gate room. Civilians aren't like military--you can't order them to play nice."

"I thought Teyla was handling the locals."

"She is," Tony agreed, "but she doesn't know our laws, and our people expect that local people will respect at least the laws that make sense. Every time a Genii makes some inappropriate comment to a woman scientist, I have to handle it."

Sheppard frowned. "Not Teyla?"

"Do you handle every bit of discipline in the military ranks?" Tony asked. From the face Sheppard made, he understood Tony's point. "She's the big guns. I'm the one who handles all the little stuff. That means I need to have time to deal with the little stuff,” Tony explained. He knew one way to make Sheppard understand. He stood and touched the wall, asking Atlantis to turn on the wall’s data display function. “Give me a name or a position of someone in this city.”

“Um… Hoff electricians.”

Tony sent that thought to Atlantis and a list of names appeared. Tony touched one—Arak He Ulnick—and a long list of names appeared behind it. “This is every person Arak has some connection to,” Tony explained. “This is the woman he lives with, his brother, one of the young people that he took in from one of the culled worlds. This is a coworker he had a fight with.” Tony touched the name, and a report from the day appeared below it. “This is one of our scientists he had a conflict with.” Tony pointed to Kavanagh’s name. Again, when Tony touched it, an incident report appeared.

“I never turn in these reports unless something is serious enough to deserve punishment. Most of the time, the people involved simply need to let some steam off, and I warn them that if they don’t drop the conflict, I’ll report it, and someone could end up facing an exile. Other times, I have to explain laws. You do not want to explain sexual harassment laws to Genii. It’s not fun, but I found that with a large bottle of vodka, you can get them to wrap their heads around it.”

Sheppard went to the wall and touched another name. A different list of names appeared. “How many of these reports do you have?”

“Thousands,” Tony said. “If something happens to me, whoever takes over needs to know where to start. This is what it means to be a cop, to do community policing, although I will admit that when I was in Peoria, I kept my notes in a notebook and not in a ten thousand year old computer database.”

“So, all those times I’ve seen you playing with the kids or hanging out with the women on market day…?”

“That’s the job, Colonel. I need people to talk to me. If anything, we need another police officer out here.” Tony touched the wall. “Current population by home planet,” Tony requested. The numbers flashed on the display.

Earth 439
Hoff 164
Genii 51
Vyus 32
Sateda 26
Athosia 17
Madrona 16
Dagan 16
Langara 14
Boius 7
Shen 6
Hoi 6
Vis Uban 4
Manara 2
Levannan 2
Bedrosia 1

Sheppard whistled. “O’Neill is keeping us busier than I thought.”

“They aren’t all from the Milky Way. We’ve had a more open policy with Wraith refugees since you returned. We’re looking at over seven hundred people, colonel. If we keep growing, we’re going to need a second officer.”

“Someone like your partner from NCIS?”

“McGee?” Tony asked in shock. His brain hadn’t even gone there. “McGee is used to being the smartest person in the room and solving crimes using his computer. I have a lack of embezzlement, identity theft, and murder for hire in the city. No, I need someone who can walk around and talk to people, who can brush the little stuff under the rug with an explanation of Earth rules. I need someone people will feel safe talking to.”

Sheppard stared at the wall as if it had never occurred to him that Atlantis wasn’t his nice small little base anymore. Two cafes had opened on the west docks and they had a regular market day each tenday. As far as Tony was concerned, they had left military base behind a while back and were far more of a city than anything else.

“Do you have someone in mind?”

“Right now? No,” Tony said. “However, we’ve sent some nice guys home with disabilities that got them a discharge. You weren’t here when Thompson lost his left leg when a building collapsed on him during a Wraith attack, and then there was Carol Bingham who lost most of her hearing during an accident.”

“They wouldn’t quality for NCIS,” Sheppard said.

“No, they wouldn’t,” Tony agreed, “but Atlantis is a unique situation. I never have to run anyone down. If I get into a physical confrontation, I have two hundred of the best trained soldiers from earth on call at any given time. I have a computer system that can identify someone if I have the corridor and time stamp. I’m looking for someone to play with kids and gather intel while explaining a few rules to people. I don’t need Dirty Harry.”

Sheppard looked at the list, his finger running down the names of planets. Quite a few were from the Milky Way, and Tony figured he didn’t need to add that people under stress sometimes reacted strangely, and most of their refugees were under a lot of stress. Tony gave Heightmeyer a lot of business. “They all come from worlds with different laws,” Sheppard said.

“Yep,” Tony agreed. “I have a handbook if you want, a shorthand to Earth beliefs and which laws will get you reported to officers.”

Sheppard rubbed his hand over his face. “We are so far outside of official regulations that I can’t even see the line we crossed anymore. I could have lived without knowing any of this.”

“Then you might want to think before you ask anyone more questions. Atlantis is becoming a city, and we both know that certain people on Earth would not like that.”

“No, they wouldn’t.” Sheppard looked at the wall again and laughed. “If they tried to order the city back to Earth, can you even imagine what they would do with a dozen Satedans?”

“I’m picturing Genii having a blast with Earth politics.”

Sheppard grimaced. “Oh, that’s not even funny.”

“Nope,” Tony agreed, “and every time a new person shows up, I need to make sure that they know what they can and cannot do.”

“This from a man who I had to threaten to get him to stop playing sex games in public spaces,” Sheppard pointed out.

Tony grinned. “We still do, but we keep it out of the mess hall and kitchens.”

“Good. That was unsanitary and I really do not ever want to hear Samas describe sex again. I was considering asexuality there for a while.”

Tony shrugged. “The Marines needed to figure out that they couldn’t pull their homophobic shit on Atlantis. That did flush the assholes out of hiding.”

“And I’m sure Gibbs had a word or two with them once he had painted a target on their backs.”

“Maybe,” Tony agreed. “But some laws need to be… discouraged. But this is why I need to leave the team. I have work. I may have more work shortly. Cowen has recalled Ladon Radim as the head of Atlantis research for the Genii. That could mean that he is ready to take whatever intelligence Ladon has collected and do something or it could mean that Ladon isn’t doing enough and Cowen is going to put in someone who is more willing to steal technology. I can’t afford to publish times when I will be out of the city.”

“Crap,” Sheppard said softly. “Did he recall Dahlia?”

“No, but women don’t get much respect from Genii officers, so it could be that he hasn’t even given her another thought.”

“But the bottom line is that you need to be here,” Sheppard finished.

“Yeah, I do. And like I said, if we have good people getting sent home, maybe we can start discussing another person to help out around here.”

“I’ll keep it in mind,” Sheppard agreed. He turned and looked right at Tony. “Even if you aren’t on the team anymore, you know you’re still a teammate, right?”

Tony smiled. “The next time you get yourself kidnapped, I’ll be the first to come running to your rescue.” Sheppard laughed, but Tony was pretty sure that with the colonel’s luck, it was a matter of ‘when’ rather than ‘if.’

Ladon stood outside the drinking establishment in the deep shadows. Even though he was in disguise, he kept to the darkest corners. The Lanteans were observant and he couldn't afford to be seen.

"I dislike this plan," Hilit complained softly.

"I am not fond of it myself, but we have our orders." Ladon watched Lindsey walk beside Lorne. Evan Lorne was a good man, and Ladon hated that the intrigues of Genii leaders were putting him in the middle; however, with Kolya and Cowen scheming, none of them were safe. Ladon was just happy that Dahlia was safely on Atlantis, and he could only hope that the Atlantean sense of justice protected her from bearing the brunt of Ladon’s treachery if Sheppard found out about any of this.

Despite all his misgiving, the fact remained that Lorne was a soldier of the Lanteans, and he and his men were Genii. They accepted danger as part of their duties to their peoples. If Lorne died, it would be accepted. Hopefully. Ladon truly did not want Colonel Sheppard or Samas to seek revenge. Abby was another issue. If Lorne had so much as a hair out of place, that woman would eviscerate him and smile while doing it. She would have made a beautiful Genii, a wife of some great man who removed all obstacles in his path to power, and did so in ways that left everyone believing her to be the sweet and loving one.

He was not fooled. Abby would be like a bear if her mate were touched, and Ladon regretted that this action would destroy his friendship with her. He valued her kindness, her willingness to teach others skills they lacked, and her creativity in delivering a quick and unpleasant retribution to anyone who broke her rules.

He also regretted that he was losing his relationship with Elizabeth. No doubt Cowen and Kolya would both order him to use his relationship with the Lantean leader to gain some advantage, but the woman had the heart of a warrior. She would never allow a man who shared her bed to gain even one word of intelligence. In another universe, Ladon could see himself turning his back on the Genii and choosing to have a family with Elizabeth. They would have beautiful children together, but Cowen and Kolya had made that impossible.

No, Ladon had to consider the potential deaths of his former friends if he wished to protect his people. However, if Lindsey died, Ladon would never earn the forgiveness of those he called friends on Atlantis. They were unyielding in their defense of the scientists.

Curse Cowen and his damn dreams of an empire, and doubly curse Kolya and his plots. Ladon never wanted power, but at this point he feared that if he refused to get involved, he would condemn the Genii people to the machinations of those too short-sighted to see that the real power lay in the city of the Ancients.

"Make sure the scientist does not get caught in the crossfire," Ladon said. He knew her. He had been drunk with her after Atlantis defeated the first Wraith attack. They had stood shoulder to shoulder to object to the heavy hand of first Everett and then Ellis. They had celebrated the return of Colonel Sheppard, and Ladon felt the loss at having been recalled so quickly following that victory.

And when Atlantis’ victories had become his own, Ladon knew he had wandered too far from his own people and their agenda. Right now, he considered that a blessing because his own people had lost their way.

Hilit leaned closer. “I can have my wife Deera get her away from the others.”

“Will she trust you?”

Hilit grimaced. “Dr. Lindsey has helped our people tremendously. She knows that we respect her for that. This whole situation…” Hilit looked around as if checking for one of Cowen’s spies.

Ladon didn’t bother telling him that Kolya’s spies were more dangerous. If Kolya heard even part of this story, he would recognize this plan and he would gut all of them. Ladon wished he had the wisdom of Samas—hell he could use the additional strength and longevity, too, if he planned to make any of this work. He envied Gibbs for having earned the partnership of such a powerful ally.

“We do this and we try and minimize the harm to the Lanteans or we refuse to and Cowen will repeat this maneuver somewhere else. If you like Dr. Lindsey and Major Lorne, then it is best to do this thing here.” Ladon tried to keep his voice firm.

With an unhappy grimace that reminded Ladon of Rodney, Hilit hurried away toward his house. No one said anything to Ladon and he slowly sat before busying his hands with braiding a rope. It gave him good reason to watch the house. Lorne was laughing at something Stevens said to him. Lindsey looked back at them both with a fond expression before Hilit waved at her, inviting her into his home.

The whole team headed into the building.

After waiting a minute or two, Ladon reached into his pocket and triggered his radio. “Stage one complete—target acquired. Send the team.”

Ladon continued to watch as two Genii disguised as locals led an ox pulling a cart into the street. Inside were three enemies of the Genii who were about to be executed and left to burn while wearing the dog tags of Major Lorne and his men. The Lanteans would be distracted. Ladon grimaced. Sheppard would be closer to distraught. Something in Colonel Sheppard yearned to protect his people. Ladon understood why so many believed he was an Ancestor returned to guide them. He had the passion of a father for every soul who lived in the city, and it made Ladon’s heart ache that he was no longer one of those who could stand within Sheppard’s good will.

He must make a sacrifice for his people.

He must give up his right to stand in the city of the Ancestors, and he must give up his science. He wondered if McKay would be strong enough to make the same decision if he were faced with the same political realities Ladon was.

The woman server from the bar came out with another drink. Ladon took the radio out of his pocket and opened the back. A quick twist broke the circuit and guaranteed privacy. “You are friends with the Lanteans, right?” he asked.

She gave him a panicked look.

“You’ve seen the posters?” he asked. Cowen had put out posters on all the ATA-positive Lanteans. He believed that Ladon could create his own gene therapy that would allow the Genii people to use the equipment of the ancestors. It was arrogance and stupidity that led Cowen believe such, and Ladon had encouraged the man’s stupidity for his own reasons.

The serving girl nodded.

“Tomorrow when they come, show them,” he said quietly, “but do not get caught. If you tell the others I told you this, I will call you a liar.”

“But…” her voice trailed off.

Ladon looked at the building and the ox cart with the condemned men sedated and hidden under a tarp. The sun was setting and second crew was moving in with equipment to mimic the sound of Wraith darts. Ladon himself had hidden Wraith stunners in Hilit’s house, and as soon as he had evidence that Lindsey was safely out of the way, he would lead his people to capture the Lanteans who he called friends.

“They deserve better than this,” Ladon said softly. The girl looked ready to cry. Ladon took the drink from her hand and gestured her to leave. He hated this plan. He hated the stupidity of Cowen to believe any of this would work. He loathed the deviousness of Kolya, whose plan likely would work. More than anything, he did not want either of these men leading his people into ruin. For the first time in generations, humans had a chance to fight back against the Wraith, but that required them to set aside their own petty agendas. Cowen and Kolya were not able to do that.

The candle moved in Hilit’s window, and Ladon quickly righted his radio and stood. His unit quickly shifted into position as they had practice. Ladon nodded toward his second and then strode toward the building. He had no time for doubts. He must be as sure as Samas.

He lifted the bolt and walked into Hilit’s house unbidden. When he opened the first cupboard, the Wraith stunners waited for him. The relief that washed through him was testament to the strength of Ladon’s fears. Hilit could have betrayed him.

Keeping the Wraith stunner hidden behind the wall, Ladon stood at the doorway. “Major Lorne, how nice to see you.” Ladon smiled as the Lanteans all turned toward him.

“Ladon!” Lorne’s welcoming smile nearly broke Ladon’s resolve. “I thought your government recalled you to your homeworld.”

“They did. Chief Cowen sent me here to contact you.”

“Oh?” Lorne’s voice was a little sharper now, but he didn’t have time to say anything else because someone screamed, and then the sound of Wraith darts filled the air.

All the Lanteans moved toward the windows, but outside they would only see panicked people screaming in fear. Very few of the people on this planet understood what was to happen tonight. Ladon could see his own people moving into position, and he threw himself down toward the ground. No doubt the Lanteans believed he took cover from the Wraith, but instead he brought his Wraith stunner out and started firing.

Lorne had been on the radio with Lindsey, ordering her to get to the gate and escape, and Ladon hit the major in the back. He crumpled like a broken doll. Ladon’s men took the second man, and only one of the Lanteans made it to any cover.

“Ladon! What are you doing?”

Ladon recognized Lieutenant Stevens’ voice.

“I have orders to leave behind a burning building with three bodies. I would rather not leave your bodies,” Ladon said. “Surrender and I promise I will take you into custody unharmed. Continue to slow my mission and I will set fire to this house and kill you as you try to run out. Your two friends will be left to die in the fire.”

“Why?”

Ladon closed his eyes. Anyone as naïve as Stevens should not be allowed out into the universe where nothing was fair. So many of the Earth-born Lanteans acted much younger than their chronological age. It made Ladon wonder about their mysterious homeworld.

“I have orders. I can only stay here another minute, and I give you my word that I will not harm you.”

“But Cowen could order us killed,” Stevens shouted back. Perhaps he was not as naïve as he first appeared.

“I will speak for you. My word, Lieutenant. You have my word on that. But if you do not surrender, I cannot save any of you.”

Ladon did not expect Stevens to give up, but he wasn’t particularly surprised when the man shifted and happened to expose part of his back. One of Ladon’s men took the shot, and Stevens cried out before his body thumped against the floor. The subconscious often wanted to live, even when the person wished to uphold his values.

“Move them,” Ladon ordered as he stood up. They had very little time to work.

Team two pulled the Lanteans out and started stripping off a view choice pieces of gear. Team three dragged in the three prisoners. All had radiation poisoning—proof that Cowen had insisted on continuing research on the homeworld despite Atlantis’ willingness to share resources. However these three were no scientists. They were condemned prisoners who’d been forced to work in the facility. Two of them looked near enough to death to welcome it. One screamed behind the gag, defiant even to the end. Ladon took Major Lorne’s dog tags and walked over to Stalt and dropped them over the Genii soldier’s head. “I regret that Kolya’s treason has led to this end. Know that your death serves the Genii people well,” Ladon offered his former comrade in arms. They had invaded Atlantis together at one point, but now history had taken them in different directions.

Stalt straightened up, his jaw bulging as he bit into the gag. Ladon took a step back, and Stalt remained in position, staring straight ahead. When Ladon brought his hand down, the unit opened fire on the three prisoners. All fell to the floor stunned.

Ladon turned his back on the sorry mess. “You have sixty seconds to make it look like they’re the Lanteans,” he ordered. He strode outside, and team four was already soaking the building in alcohol. By the time Lindsey went to the Gate, got help and returned, Colonel Sheppard would find proof that Lorne’s team was dead.

Cowen was right about one thing—this would put the Lanteans on the defensive and keep them from putting the pieces to this puzzle together. However, he was wrong about another. Ladon had worked with the Lanteans, drunk with them, mourned with them, and celebrated with them, so he knew the Cowen’s plans would not result in the Genii taking the Puddlejumpers as step one of an invasion of Atlantis. Ladon’s only hope was that he could keep this from becoming step one in a war between the Earthers and the Genii.

“John, John, John, John, John!” Abby called as she ran up the stairs to Weir’s office. She gripped her results tightly and held them up like a sword.

“Abby,” John said. He stepped out of Dr. Weir’s office on a path to intercept her.

“It’s not them.” She shoved her results at his chest. John took them without even glancing at them.

“What’s not who?”

“The bodies. It’s not Lorne. It’s not his team. The DNA didn’t match.” Abby felt like she was going to vibrate to pieces. This meant that Lorne was alive, but it meant that someone had them. Someone wanted them to believe Lorne and his people were dead. That was enormously bad because they weren’t in some city where she could go through surveillance footage to find a clue.

“What?” John caught her by the shoulders.

“Someone put their dog tags on other people.”

John took a step back and looked down at the results she’d shoved into his hand. “It’s not Lorne?” he asked, his voice tense with hope.

“No.” Abby bounced on her toes. It couldn’t be Lorne because she refused to lose him. She finally found a man that needed her and liked her and that had the sort of soul Gibbs and Tony did where any pain he carried he turned into a need to protect others. He was too good a man to disappear, and she wasn’t going to let him just vanish. He was going to come home to her and be safe.

Elizabeth stepped to John’s side. “This has to be related to the posters.”

John nodded.

“What posters?” Abby looked from one to the other. Both of them seemed to avoid her gaze, or try to at least.

John cracked first. “Someone has put out wanted posters for all our ATA positive gate team members.”

“What? Why? That doesn’t make any sense.” Abby narrowed her eyes. “Whoever has Lorne… Tony and Gibbs are going to find them and then I’m going to give them a piece of my mind.” And by mind, Abby kind of meant her sidearm. She wouldn’t kill them, but she knew lots of places to shoot someone that wouldn’t lead to death. It would just hurt. A lot. “I want to help collect evidence,” Abby said. “And I know I’m not normally a go-into-the-field kind of girl, but there’s a really big crime scene and you only have Gibbs and Tony, and normally they would pull in a second team to help with this.”

“Wait, we haven’t authorized an investigation on the planet,” Dr. Weir said.

“I think we’re going to have to,” John said.

“I agree, but we have a number of concerns right now. We can’t afford to have Dr. Scuito in the field when we know someone is targeting us. John, think of what Lorne would say if you put her in danger.”

John grimaced.

“Oh no,” Abby said. She poked her finger at him. “I’m going.”

“Elizabeth is right. We’ll let Gibbs and Tony take a team, but you’ll have to analyze evidence from here.”

“Lorne is out there,” Abby said, frustration making her voice crack in ways she hated. She didn’t want to sound like she was on the verge of crying—not when she had to help. She had to do something.

“I’d like Gibbs working on the situation with… what we were discussing,” Elizabeth commented. Abby narrowed her eyes.

“I don’t think you want Gibbs anywhere near politics,” John said. “Rodney and I can go talk to Cowen.”

Elizabeth sighed. “Cowen has more respect for Gibbs.”

“And if we needed Cowen’s help, I’d send Gibbs, but Rodney and I can deliver a message as well as anyone.”

Abby frowned. Usually John was the first to step back and let Elizabeth and Teyla run things. Mostly they told him what needed to get done, and he did it, but ever since he’d been buggy, he was definitely less with the listening. Everyone knew that Elizabeth had backed the whole retrovirus plan against everyone else’s objections, but Abby didn’t have time for them to be angry with each other. Lorne was out there.

“We need to focus on Lorne,” Abby said. She was really close to crying now.

John smiled at her. “We will. Lorne and his team are priority number one. Have you told Tony and Gibbs about this yet?”

Abby nodded. “I called them on the radio. They were going to grab some gear for collecting evidence, and I said I was going to come tell you.”

“I’m going to see if Ronon and Teyla can go with them. I bet some of the other teams will pitch in too. You watch. We’re going to let Lorne back,” John promised.

“We’ll do our best,” Elizabeth added her own promise. “John, once you get this mission settled, come talk to me before you head out to see Chief Cowen.”

“I’ll be back,” he promised. He touched his earpiece. “Teyla, Ronon, we have evidence that Lorne and his team aren’t dead. Tony and Gibbs are getting together a team to go back to the planet. Are you interested?”

John listened for a couple of seconds, and Abby shifted her weight from foot to foot. She’d almost forgotten how bad it felt when you were waiting for someone. Every time that her boys got kidnapped or injured, she’d be stuck waiting and feeling helpless. And that was still better than how it felt when you knew someone was dead like with Kate. She hated it. When they’d brought the burned bodies back, her whole world had stopped, it was like with Kate only worse.

She had made herself test the DNA, even when Rodney yelled at her and told her to take the day off in his Rodneyish attempt to make her feel better. But now, knowing that he was out there and maybe hurt and definitely captured, it made her want to hurt someone, and she liked to think of herself as a non-violent person, only then she got scared and angry and wanted her people safe and she realized that she was totally capable of doing all kinds of violence.

Sheppard answered something one of his team said on the radio with a, “Ask Gibbs for his permission, but as long as they know to not actually break anyone, I’m fine with it.”

He paused again, and then finished with, “Okay, meet in the gate room in fifteen minutes.” He turned to her. “They’re coming, and Ronon is bringing some of the Satedans. You know how scary they are.”

Abby nodded. They were scary. If a bunch of them came asking her questions, she would tell them everything.

“We’re going to get Lorne and his guys back. I promise,” John said. He pulled her into a hug, but he wasn’t the right person. Lorne was the person she wanted to get a hug from. It felt good anyway, though, so she hugged him back as hard as she could.

“I really, really like him. Bring him home,” Abby whispered.

“I will,” John promised again.

 

Lorne groaned as he started to drift toward consciousness. His whole body had the sort of tingles and barbs that he associated with a Wraith stunner. Those things were a lot less merciful than Goa’uld zats. “Lindsey?” he called. He hated the idea that he’d allowed his scientist to get captured, particularly on a planet where they should have been safe.

After rolling to his side, Lorne started taking stock of their situation. He had Stevens and Sergeant Coughlin with him—both good men. Lindsey was nowhere to be seen, so either she’d made it to the Gate like he’d ordered her to, or their captors had her somewhere else.

In the village, it had sounded like a Wraith attack, but they definitely weren’t on a hive ship. Working at the SGC had knocked a little of the religion out of Lorne, but right now he started some serious praying. They were in a dungeon—primitive heavy iron bars and locks were more effective than Wraith cells that depended on intimidation as much as mechanics.

“Coughlin,” Lorne called. He reached out and poked the man. As he did, he saw his own wrist. Ligature marks. That implied he’d been restrained, and that only would have been necessary if they’d been transported, either farther away from the Gate or to another world altogether. Lorne suspected the second. “Coughlin,” he called again, and he poked the man. Sergeant Coughlin started to groan and twitch. Stevens wasn’t even to the twitching stage yet, so it would be a while before he woke up.

“Bollocks. SG luck strikes again,” Coughlin said wearily. It was a familiar complaint, even if Lorne wasn’t used to hearing it in a British accent.

“New galaxy, same shit,” Lorne agreed. Coughlin grunted and started to move his arms and legs, just small little movements. “Anything damaged?” Lorne asked. If they needed medical help they were screwed. Not only were their weapons gone, but their tac vests, packs, and even dog tags were all missing. Lorne did not want to consider what that meant. Maybe their captors didn’t understand that the tags were used to identify the dead.

And maybe they did and they wanted to make it hard for anyone to identify their bodies. Lorne vowed to keep that thought to himself. Shit. If they didn’t report in on time, Abby was going to worry herself sick. In all the years Lorne had been at the SGC, he’d never had someone at home waiting. He’d seen what that did to the families—the wives and the kids—and he’d sworn to keep his dick in his pants and never hurt someone like that. And then he’d met Abby.

“I’m fine, sir. The others?” Coughlin asked.

“We only have Stevens. Any word on Lindsey?”

Coughlin grunted. “You took the first shot. You were on the radio with her, telling her to run for the Gate if she didn’t have darts over her. I think she got away.”

Lorne closed his eyes and sent up a prayer of thanks. Hopefully he hadn’t gotten his scientist killed.

“It was Ladon, sir,” Coughlin said.

“What?” Lorne remembered seeing the Genii man at the house, but that’s the last thing he remembered.

Coughlin rolled to one side and got an arm under him. “Ladon opened fire on you, and then there were Genii in the room, firing.”

“Well crap,” Lorne said wearily. If the Genii were willing to attack them, then there was more at risk than a single Gate team. Chief Cowen had wanted Atlantis from day one. The very first report Lorne had read after hearing he was getting this transfer was then-Major Sheppard’s description of the Genii invasion. They were fanatics. Lorne had altered that opinion after coming to Atlantis and meeting Ladon and Dahlia and the others. Now he was quickly revising his assessment right back to where they’d started—they were fanatical fascists.

“Yes, sir,” Coughlin agreed. “Colonel Sheppard will get us out.”

Lorne looked around at the bars. He doubted it. Colonel Sheppard had very little intelligence on where they were. Most of the time, SG teams either rescued themselves or joined the lists of the permanent MIAs. The universe was too large to conduct a search. He felt another stab of regret for leaving Abby to suffer through this. At least she understood his job—she wasn’t some girlfriend who got a visit from someone in uniform who offered platitudes and regrets without ever giving one single detail. Lorne knew that happened more often than not with SGC deaths. You couldn’t tell their families that they had died protecting Earth from an alien invasion. Lorne wondered if would be easier or harder on Abby because she knew the truth.

“I’m sure Sheppard will try, but I’d rather we rescued ourselves, Sergeant.”

Coughlin grinned. “Sounds like a plan, sir. Besides, if Sheppard rescues us, you know he’ll bring McKay and then we’ll never hear the end of it.”

Lorne snorted, and Coughlin laughed.

Back at the SGC, people would have said the same thing about McKay, but they wouldn’t have laughed afterward. Lorne was shocked that when Sheppard put his own team together, he’d chosen McKay again. Sheppard was just lucky he hadn’t latched onto one of the women scientists or he’d spend his career ducking the sort of accusations O’Neill always had trailing after him. Not that people couldn’t gossip anyway. Lorne sometimes heard the same sort of crap about them that he heard about O’Neill and Jackson. People invented reasons to gossip.

Stevens grunted.

“Sleeping beauty awakes,” Coughlin said. He reached out and gave Stevens a shove with his boot. “If we’re really lucky, Samas will find us. That is one alien that carries a grudge when someone fucks with his people.”

“I vote for getting out of here on our own and then rubbing it in all their faces. What resources to you have?”

Coughlin started checking his pockets. Lorne hoped the man had something because his own pockets were so empty they didn’t even have lint.

“No go, sir,” Coughlin said.

“Ladon!” Stevens gasped as he finally woke up. Lorne and Coughlin exchanged an amused look.

“That’d be our favorite backstabbing Genii,” Coughlin agreed.

Stevens moaned and brought his hands up to cover his eyes. “Crap. He said he’d been ordered to make it look like we were dead.”

Lorne’s stomach turned to lead. Shit. The Genii made it look like they were dead? So no one would even come looking. Abby would start planning his memorial service, and his mother would get a visit from some officer offering platitudes. If he was lucky, she wouldn’t dump manure on his as he stood on her steps in his dress blues. Lorne gritted his teeth as he imaged her crying in private, cursing the military and him for choosing this way of life.

“Why?” Coughlin asked.

Stevens shrugged. “He just kept saying he had orders. He said that he was trying to save us, but if I kept trying to hold them off it would take too long and he would actually kill us.”

“Did you surrender?” Lorne asked, careful to keep his voice neutral.

Stevens sat up and twisted around to look at Lorne. He also turned green and looked ready to vomit after the fast move. “Crap,” he muttered as he closed his eyes tightly. “Sir, I don’t turn my weapon over to anyone. However, apparently I do get shot in the ass.”

Coughlin snorted. “You should come train with the Marines more often. That’s the gunny’s favorite trick. He said people get so concerned about where their head is that they forget to cover their ass. That man has shot me in the ass with stunners, zats, paint guns, rocks, and so many random projectiles that I can’t count.”

Stevens lifted his head. “He shoots you with zats and stunners?”

“We’re Marines. We play with the good toys.”

“You’re insane, you mean,” Lorne said.

Coughlin offered him a simple “hoo-rah.”

“Well, you are in good spirits,” a new voice commented. Lorne pulled himself up using the bars on the cell.

“Ladon.” Lorne carefully didn’t let any emotion leak through.

Ladon Radim stood in a Genii uniform on the other side of the bars. “Major Lorne. I’m glad to see you recovering. I’m here to collect a blood sample, and I have two choices about how to make that happen.” He turned his head slightly to the side, and several more Genii soldiers moved forward. They were all armed—some with Wraith stunners and others with projectile weapons. Without any sort of weapons and being outnumbered, Lorne’s team didn’t have a chance. He gave them a hand signal to stand down.

“What is this?” Lorne asked carefully. He wouldn’t make any assumptions here. On P3X-403, Dr. Jackson had forced him to kneel in surrender for the Unas. That had led to one of the strongest alliances in SG history. The Unas might not be the most articulate of allies, but when given a chance to deliver raw naquadah in order to fight the Goa’uld, Iron Shirt had delivered on his promise and then some.

“What does it look like this is?” Ladon asked with a thinly veiled arrogance Lorne had never before seen in the man.

“A kidnapping,” Lorne said dryly.

“Wrong,” Ladon snapped. “This is the rightful heirs of this galaxy reclaiming what is ours. The Genii have fought and bled and died because of the Wraith. Atlantis is ours.”

Lorne clamped his mouth shut. No one could debate with that sort of rhetoric.

“Now give me your arm so I can take a sample or I will send soldiers in there to obtain my sample in a less gentle manner.”

Lorne didn’t give a shit about the possibility that he might get roughed up, but he didn’t want any of them injured enough to slow down an escape. The first rule of being a prisoner was staying healthy enough to get yourself out of the mess when the time came. However Lorne didn’t want to capitulate too easily. “Why do you want my blood?”

When Ladon gave a near-maniacal grin, Lorne figured that he had just slipped off the sane-train. “You’re ATA-gene positive right?”

Lorne frowned.

“I’m going to use your blood and the samples I have from a couple of the others to identify the factor in your blood that makes it possible for you to use the Ancients’ technology.” Ladon tapped the bars. “Arm. Now.”

Lorne started to roll up his left sleeve. He and Ladon had specifically talked about this with Carson. A thousand years ago during the height of the second Genii confederation, they had scientists who could have understood gene therapy; however, Ladon had agreed that his people would not be able to catch up with Lanteans for at least a generation. He worked hard to even follow some of McKay’s instructions, and had taken to taping them so he could review what McKay said. He was a brilliant man, but he was well aware that his society’s lack of technology left him handicapped by a certain ignorance that he would be unlikely to overcome in his lifetime. Ladon had even spoken of his dream that promising young Genii would attend school on Atlantis so they could reach scientific heights he’d been denied.

“So you think you can duplicate Carson’s gene therapy?” Lorne asked as he put his arm through the bars. Ladon wrapped a band around the arm and started rubbing the area above the vein.

“I know I can,” he said confidently, but when he looked up at Lorne’s face, the manic energy was gone, replaced with worry and weariness. “I told you before, anything the Lanteans can do, the Genii have the technology to match, even if it takes us longer.”

“It will take you centuries longer,” Lorne said, “and I seem to remember telling you that last time we had this conversation.”

Ladon’s mouth twitched into a small smile. He’d caught Lorne’s lie. Lorne had explained that the Genii were about fifty to eighty years behind earth, and they would likely progress faster because they knew where they were going. They’d talked about their grandchildren being equals within their lifetimes if they were lucky and the Genii took advantage of what Atlantis had to offer.

“And I told you that my grandchildren would prove you wrong—that Genii would stand at the helm of great ships and in the control tower of Atlantis herself.” Ladon slipped the needle in smoothly and drew the blood. For Ladon to play this game, he had soldiers around him who were reporting back to someone—probably Chief Cowen since that’s who had recalled Ladon. Well if they wanted a show, Lorne would provide it.

“The Genii aren’t going to get anything. Atlantis will find us, and they will wipe your people out.”

“They think you’re dead.”

“You have no idea what sort of danger you’re playing with. You never did, Radim. I told Sheppard and Ellis before him that they should get rid of you, but Samas always championed your case. What did you offer that snake?” Lorne upped the ante, daring Cowen to contact Samas and take advantage of a potential alliance. Samas would play Cowen right up to the point that he ripped the man’s guts out.

“Samas simply recognizes that the Genii have the fortitude to succeed where your people do not. They exiled him, didn’t they? They weren’t willing to listen to the truth and they were afraid to have him on their planet.”

“You people are ignorant,” Lorne said. It broke every diplomatic rule Lorne had learned over years in the SGC, but he had to back Ladon’s play—he didn’t have any other plan here. If need be, he could still kill Ladon as soon as they found a way out of the cell. Lorne had to believe that.

“We’ll see. You’re going to live long enough to see the Genii take Atlantis and your people on their knees. At that point we’ll decide what to do with you.” Ladon pulled the needle out of Lorne’s arm and walked away. All his guards followed, leaving Lorne and his guys locked in a cell no way to escape.

“That went well,” Stevens said.

Lorne dropped down onto the bench bolted to one wall. “Yep,” he agreed. This was not going to be a bright and shining moment in his service record.

John looked at the warehouse. Knots were forming in his gut, although he couldn’t say exactly why. McKay inched closer. “Are we going in or not?”

John wanted to say ‘not.’ Ladon’s story made sense. Cowen was behind the wanted posters for all the ATA gene carriers in Atlantis, and he had taken Lorne and his people. It even made sense that Ladon would want to start his revolution now. If Atlantis went to war with Genii, both sides would lose too much. Despite all that, John had a very bad feeling about all this.

“Sheppard?”

John shook himself free from his imagined fears. “Right. Lifesigns?”

“Six,” Rodney said. “That’s about what Ladon said he had with him, right?”

John nodded. “This should be his command staff.” John twisted around to see his own soldiers spread out. He disliked tricking Ladon out of his ZPM, but Earth wouldn’t get into a Genii civil war, and Rodney insisted that a fully loaded ZPM plus a nuclear weapon could actually take out an entire planet. John would rather avoid having thousands of Genii dead on his conscience.

“Why does this feel too easy?”

“Because it is,” John said. Either Ladon trusted them to bring the weapons Elizabeth had promised or this whole thing was a trap. With most of the team, including Ronon and his Satedean buddies investigating the kidnapping of Lorne and his team, John had two Gate teams backing him up. It was overkill, but after the series of bad missions John had endured, he wasn’t ready to take any risks.

However, John couldn’t walk away from this deal altogether because Ladon promised to help find Lorne if he could only take over the Genii homeworld. John would have helped him for that alone, but Teyla and Elizabeth had both insisted they remain neutral. So he had to stay neutral on the issue of weapons and find some other way to talk Ladon into helping them find Lorne. If Ladon would only try and screw them over, John would have some leverage, so he was actually hoping for a double cross. Well, that and he was hoping he could still trade on his friendship with Ladon after the man figured out that Elizabeth hadn't sent weapons.

“Okay, let’s go.” John signaled to Edison to get his team moving. Once he was moving, he signaled Captain Griffin to move his unit up.

“Do we think Ladon is going to kill us because we didn’t bring the weapons?” Rodney asked. “If that’s what we’re thinking, maybe we should rethink this whole thing.

John understood that Rodney worked off nerves by running his mouth, so he ignored him and checked for life signs. “Three in the east side, two in the rear, and one signal in the meeting place.”

“So he came alone, like he promised,” Rodney said. John really hoped that was true. If it wasn’t, he was going to start seriously reconsidering whether the curse of the Atlantis command had fallen on him.

“Maybe.”

“Maybe? What sort of reassurance is that?” Rodney demanded sharply.

“The only reassurance I have.”

“Well you suck at reassuring,” he snapped.

John was almost sure that one of the Marines snickered. Marines should not snicker. “Rodney, if you want to go back to the gate, you can.”

“What?” Rodney put on his best stubborn expression. “I didn’t say I wasn’t going.”

“Can you not say it softer?”

Rodney harrumphed, but he did settle down. John nodded and moved toward the main building. Ladon promised to wait inside the main storage space, and one life sign waited for them. John moved forward, sliding the door open slightly. Watching the LSD, John watched as Edison’s team moved in on the other entrance, and only then did he move into position.

Weapon up, he scanned the room, and Griffin’s guys came in behind him, moving along the walls and securing the area. The whole time Ladon sat in a chair in the center of the room and waited. “Colonel Sheppard, I’m glad you came,” he said. He put a foot up on the metal box in front of him. “Did you bring my weapons? I’m not sure how much longer Cowen is going to keep your people alive.”

“Yeah,” John said, communicating his unease through his tone. Ladon raised an eyebrow. “Do you have the ZPM you promised?” If Ladon tried to double-cross them, this was going to be so much more pleasant. John really hated stealing from people who hadn’t tried to steal from him first.

“Yep,” Ladon said, crushing that hope. “We’re allies, right? I wouldn’t lie to you.” Using his foot, he slid the box over to John.

This was just getting embarrassing. John reached down to open the case, but then Rodney was there. “Whoa, whoa, whoa. What if it’s booby trapped?”

John just stared at Rodney. Sometimes he had no idea how his lover’s brain even worked.

Ladon laughed. “Rodney, since being transferred off Atlantis, I have missed your paranoia. You would have made a good Genii.”

“Yeah, yeah, whatever,” Rodney said dismissively. “You’re the one plotting revolutions and wanting to meet on a dead world.”

“Security, Dr. McKay. It’s all about security. Colonel Sheppard, I have no interest in killing you.”

John had to assume Ladon was telling the truth about that. If assignation were the plan, Ladon had dozens of opportunities without leaving Atlantis. This would be a pretty screwed up scheme just to kill him. He squatted down and flipped open the lid.

“It’s all yours, one ZPM as promised,” Ladon said. “Of course, that’s probably been out of a power for a thousand years.” The doors slammed, and John whirled around, but it was too late. The Marines nearest the door were already sliding to the floor. John could smell the sweet scent of gas, and his knees tried to buckle. He wanted to turn and fire on Ladon, but his legs weren’t working right. To his horror, Rodney fell to the ground like a puppet with its strings cut.

“Oh, that’s gas,” Ladon said. “Don’t worry. It won’t kill you either.”

After that, John didn’t remember much of anything. At least he didn’t until he woke up with his left side aching like a bitch and his hands tied behind his back.

“How do you feel?” Ladon asked, which was always the first and honestly least intelligent question anyone asked John after a period of unconsciousness.

“Like I’ve been gassed.” John pried his eyelids open a little more and tried to focus. “Why didn’t it affect you?”

Ladon shook the needle he held in his hand. Now John felt the sting at the side of his neck. “Antidote.”

Great. The bastard wanted John awake for this. If Ladon planned to retake Atlantis, they might have a problem. He’d lived there for a year, so he had alliances on the city, and right now John was intensely uncomfortable with how many non-Earth people they had on the city. Fifty or so Genii could do a lot of damage. “Where are my men?”

“They’re safe. They'll wake up in an hour or so with a pretty big headache, but they're fine. Just like you.

John gave a weak laugh. “I'm a lot of things right now -- fine isn't one of them. Ladon, we had a deal.”

“Funny, I don’t see the weapons Elizabeth promised me.”

“And I don’t see the ZPM.”

“There it is.” Ladon gestured toward the box. “Yes, it’s empty, but McKay can figure out a way to recharge it. One of our operatives found it hundreds of years ago, didn't know what it was, and filed it away. I'm sure he had no idea how valuable it would eventually be.

“That was your plan? Lure us here, take our weapons, trade us for some more, arm your rebellion? Is that about it? Or hey, maybe you plan to bypass your homeworld and just take Atlantis, because I’d like to see you try that. Samas is going to eat your guts for dinner, and afterwards, there’s a very good chance he’s going to vomit them back up.” John actually got some comfort out of that fact.

“You couldn't be more wrong.”

Boots clicked across the floor, and John turned to see Chief Cowen walk into the room with his smug smile. “There is no rebellion, Colonel Sheppard. Ladon here has only the best interests of the Genii at heart.” His smile got even wider, and John strained at the ropes that bound him. He had an uncontrollable urge to swat the man like a mosquito.

John looked from Cowen to Ladon and back. Ladon had never been a fan of Chief Cowen. He’d been even less enamored of Kolya. After a lot of avoiding, Tony had finally sat down with John and Ladon and made them talk, and John had truly believed he understood the Genii scientist. He’d believed that Ladon Radim was a man who only wanted to pursue science without all the mad plots of Genii leaders getting in the way. John had even put Ladon in the same category as Rodney—as smart men with no stomach for politics. When Ladon had apologized for his actions during the siege and thanked John for allowing him into the city, John had offered his friendship. And now Ladon was buddies with Cowen. Yeah, John never saw it coming. His skills with people were right up there with Rodney’s. Probably worse.

“What the hell is going on here?” John demanded.

“I want to talk with Doctor Weir,” Cowen said, holding up one of the team’s radios. Ladon reached over and pressed the talk button before giving Cowen a nod.

Cowen smirked before speaking into it. “Doctor Weir, this is Commander Cowen, leader of the Genii.”

Elizabeth’s voice came back over the radio, and John realized that this might be the last time he heard her voice. Cowen hated John. Loathed him. The only person in the universe who hated John more was Kolya. Hell, maybe he was around the corner waiting for a chance to get a little torture in. “Where is Colonel Sheppard?” Elizabeth asked.

“He's right here with me, along with the men you sent to arm a rebellion against the rightful leaders of the Genii people. Some would view that as an act of war.”

There was a pause before Elizabeth answered. “If you notice, they didn’t take weapons with them. Earth has no intention of getting involved in a civil war.”

“No, you only planned to rob the Genii people of a treasure which is theirs. I will release your men, but I expect something in return.”

“I’m listening,” Elizabeth said. John closed his eyes. No matter what Cowen asked for, Elizabeth had to say no. If they gave in to blackmail, every bad guy in the galaxy would target them. It was a no-win situation. The worst part wasn’t dying, it was knowing that he’d brought Rodney into this mess with him. John ached with regret. Maybe all Abby’s frantic worry had pushed him to move to fast, to make mistakes. John sighed. That wasn’t fair. He’d made command decisions under pressure before, and the fact that his second in command’s girl got weepy was no excuse for getting captured.

“The Genii people need the Lantean ships you call Jumpers. I believe you have ten of them. You have one hour to bring them all here.”

Jumpers? John opened his eyes and studied Cowen. Jumpers were worthless to people who didn’t have the ATA gene. Maybe Cowen planned to keep some of them alive as pilots. That was insane. A pilot could kill himself and everyone on board with a single thought. Something was wrong.

Elizabeth was playing it cool. “And if I don't?”

Cowen was entirely too happy to tell her, “We will kill one of your team every fifteen minutes until our demands are met. Oh, and we will be starting with Colonel Sheppard.” Cowen turned off the radio.

“What do you want with the Jumpers?” John asked. He didn’t expect an honest answer but maybe they would give something away.

Cowen chuckled and shook his head like John was some sort of idiot they’d found babble nonsense. “What do I want with invisible spaceships that could fly to other worlds and even deliver our atomic weapons?”

“Well, since you put it that way ...” John glanced over at Ladon. The scientist knew that the Jumpers wouldn’t work for them. He had to. He’d lived on Atlantis long enough to know the frustration of having to get an ATA positive person to unlock some damn system. “They're never going to deal. You're gonna have to kill us,” John warned him.

“I fully expect to have to kill you,” Cowen said far more enthusiastically than was really appropriate. “Take him to his cell.”

The guard untied John’s hands, and Ladon came around and pointed his weapon at John. “Yes, sir.”

“Suck up,” John accused Ladon. He was still trying to figure out what was going on. However, when people had guns pointed at him, John tried to go along. He preferred to avoid blood, especially his own. So when Ladon gestured for him to head for the door, John obeyed.

John waited until they’d gone through several doors and were alone before he tried again. “Even if we give you the Jumpers, none of the Genii will be able to fly them.”

“I'm working on a treatment that can artificially produce the Ancient gene. In fact, we've been collecting samples.”

Oh that didn’t sound good. John had learned to be suspicious of scientists and their samples. “From where?”

Ladon gave him a shove to get him to move around a corner. John stopped as he spotted Rodney, Griffin and the others passed out on the concrete floor. That he’d expected. He didn’t expect to see Lorne and his team standing in the same cell, as alive as… well… someone who hadn’t been burned to a crisp and laid out on Biro’s table.

“Lorne!”

“Colonel,” Lorne said, his gaze flickering over toward Ladon. Either Lorne was trying to tell him something was wrong with Ladon or he was accusing John of being an idiot for getting taken hostage by a scientist. Probably both. A guard came out and opened the cell door, his friend holding a gun on Lorne and the others as Ladon shoved John inside.”

“Catch up quickly. Chief Cowen is punctual with his executions,” Ladon warned. Then he walked away.

John looked at Lorne, momentary too happy to see the major to even worry about Cowen. “Way to be not dead.”

“Thanks, sir! So, are you the rescue?” His tone of voice promised endless teasing if John even attempted to claim that. At least Lorne got caught with his pants down on a mission that was ranked as a level-two, the safest Atlantis personnel went on. John had been on notice, and he still got taken down.

John shrugged. “Well, Samas and Teyla are supposed to be on rescue detail this week, but since I see you here, I'm thinkin' about it.”

Lorne rolled his eyes. “Well, good! Let me know if there's anything we can do to help.”

After that, there wasn’t much to say. A quick debrief, and John knew as much about the situation as he could. Ladon was acting crazy, Cowen wanted to take over the world, and everything seemed pretty normal for a Pegasus everyday. Luckily it wasn’t a tenday because everyone knew the crazy really came out on tenday and holiday.

When Rodney and the others started to wake, John left the soldiers to help each other, and he sat near Rodney. He’d worry about outing them, but Lorne had told him to take care of his scientist, and John trusted his second in command to give him some sort of hint if the gay rumors were starting. Maybe Tony and Gibbs had just worn everyone out on gay gossip. God knows they did a lot of things that inspired talk.

Rodney muttered and flailed a bit as he started to wake, but he didn’t seem to be in the same sort of pain that a person got from a stunner. “What the hell happened?” he muttered when his eyes finally came open.

John shrugged. “We got gassed.”

“Are we in some sort of trouble?”

“Was it the gas or the prison cell that was your first clue?” John asked. Rodney retaliated with a punch in the stomach that made John grunt. “Hey, be nice. I’m scheduled for execution.”

“You’re what?” Rodney seemed to overcome the effects of the gas instantly. “What’s going on? Who’s planning on executing you?”

“Ladon Radim,” Lorne answered when John didn’t.

Rodney used the bars of the cell to pull himself up. “What are you talking about? Ladon wouldn’t kill anyone.”

“That’s funny because I’m pretty sure he killed the three people you thought were us,” Lorne said as he gestured toward his team.

“Oh. Yeah, you were supposed to be dead there for a while,” Rodney said. John cringed. Sometimes he wondered if he didn’t love Rodney just because the man made him look socially competent in comparison.

“He didn’t mean it that way,” John offered.

“I didn’t mean what in what way?” Rodney asked.

Lorne rolled his eyes, but at least he seemed to be more exasperated than actually frustrated. It was improvement—not quick improvement, but John took what he could get.

“Hey, let’s all focus on the part where I’m going to get executed,” John suggested brightly.

Rodney turned and looked at him. “Are you sure you shouldn’t be spending more time with Heightmeyer?”

Lorne muttered sometime that sounded like he was agreeing. Unfortunately, it pretty much killed the conversation for the next several minutes.

“We have to rush them when they come to get you,” Rodney announced out of nowhere.

“That’s going to get people killed,” John pointed out.

Rodney crossed his arms over his chest. “Yeah, but some of us will survive.”

Sometimes that same determination that John loved made him want to strangle Rodney. “They’re trying to get Jumpers. Most of the people in the cell are ATA gene positive, so Cowen is probably looking for slave labor, not fodder for the firing squad. We’re not going to risk getting a lot of people killed to save me.”

“I don’t know, sir. That might be the best option,” Lorne said. “If it comes down to taking a chance at freedom or ending up a Genii slave, I’d rather take my chance.”

Several of the others nodded.

“Forget it,” John said firmly. “Do you have any idea what Abby will do to the rest of the universe if you get killed? And she might find a way to haul your soul back to her lab just so she can yell at you. You have scary taste in women, Major.” Lorne flinched far more than John expected. Clearly he’d hit a nerve there without trying. John changed tactics. “Teyla, Ronon, Gibbs and Samas are still out there. You will give them time to work.”

The guard approached with Ladon a step behind him.

“Come to kill me?” John asked brightly. If he was going to die, he certainly wasn’t going to beg and humiliate himself. Rodney started muttering about the need for psychotherapy.

“Cowen has just told Elizabeth that I’m down here killing you. He’s given her fifteen minutes before we kill Rodney.”

John’s smile vanished. He could laugh at his own death, but not Rodney’s. Atlantis needed him.

Ladon turned to the guards with them. “We need to get them out of here now. Watch the end of the hall.”

The soldier gave a nod and headed down where they’d come from.

“Um, care to share with the class?” John asked.

“Hidden away at the bottom of this building is a nuclear device,” Ladon said, which was less of an explanation than John was hoping for.

However McKay leaped forward and grabbed Ladon’s arm. The remaining guard twitched but didn’t comment. “You're going to start your coup!” Rodney sounded so damn enthusiastic about it.

Ladon nodded. “I needed Cowen and his elite guard together in one place. I knew the chance at some Puddle Jumpers would get him here.”

In general, John disapproved of rebellion, but in this case he’d make an exception. “Good one!”

“I’m sorry I put you in the middle, but if Cowen gets his way, the Genii army will declare war on Atlantis. I can’t have that, so I’m taking over. Most of my men are waiting for me on our homeworld. Tonight, the leadership of our people changes hands.”

“I approve of avoiding war with Atlantis,” John said, which was true. If Samas were here, he’d probably tell John to stop being an Earth-based idealist, but John really didn’t like the idea of rebellion at the point of a nuclear weapon, particularly when he was on the same planet with that nuke.

“This way,” Ladon said before he started hurrying down the corridor. A number of guards fell in on either side of the Lanteans, and John’s fingers itched for a weapon. He glanced over and Lorne looked equally frustrated. They were heading for an exit, and the two guards brought their weapons up. All John could do was move in front of Rodney. If a firefight started, at least Rodney wouldn’t be the first to go down. John noticed the others shifting. First Lorne and then Griffin and then the others all arranged themselves to make a solid barrier between Rodney and the weapons. Of course Rodney was in the center complaining bitterly about not being able to see anything but John gave his people a nod of approval.

Ladon stepped forward. “It's alright. We're just escorting these prisoners.”

The two guards started to lower the weapons, obviously confused but not willing to point a weapon at an officer. That’s when Ladon’s men shot both of them.

“There's a hidden passage this way. We shouldn't run into any more resistance,” Ladon turned and ran through the door. The man who had set the nuke was running. John thought that might be significant. He took off after Ladon. They all stormed through a narrow passage with stale air and dust that drifted through narrow beams of light that came in through tiny air slits. Suddenly the tunnel was flooded with light, and John stopped right in front of a ladder. He climbed up before holding out a hand to help Rodney. And Rodney clearly didn’t need any help. He made it up the ladder faster than John had, either because of fear or because climbing ladders into broken machines was what Rodney did.

“Dial up,” John yelled as he started helping the others out of the passage. Lorne got on the other side of the tunnel’s exit, and so the others would climb halfway and then reach out so John and Lorne could swing them out. They exited the tunnel so fast that Samas would be proud. And sadly, Samas had made them practice this particular drill more times than John could count.

“The Gate’s already active!” Rodney sounded frantic.

“It’s to Atlantis. Cowen is holding it open so they can hear Sheppard die,” Ladon said.

“Well isn’t that charming,” Rodney said just as John and Lorne swung the last person clear.

“Insult people later, IDC now,” John called out. His arms ached and his legs were so sore that he knew he definitely needed to find more time to train. Either that or he needed a symbiote. Maybe Gibbs would share. Again, John had that uneasy feeling of sliding through the water. He shoved it aside because sometimes Pandora’s box just needed to stay closed.

John and Ladon were the last through the wormhole. Elizabeth was standing in the middle of the gate room looking shocked, and John couldn’t even see Lorne because he appeared to have a goth octopus attached to him at every point above the knees. Abby was a big girl to be doing the whole leg wrap around hug, and John was going to focus his thoughts on that, and not on the fact that no other colonel had his XO getting full body hugs in the middle of a combat retrieval staging area.

John was even more shocked when Ronon came out of the wormhole and nearly knocked him down. “Bout time you got yourself out of there,” he said, giving John a shove on the arm.

Elizabeth quickly focused her attention on one person. “Ladon? What are you doing here?” Elizabeth demanded.

John wondered how much of her fury came from the fact that she had invited Ladon into her bed. Maybe it had been the once, and maybe they’d been together for longer, but either way, John found that women generally disliked you kidnapping and manipulating their friends after taking them to bed. John noted that the Marines all looked pretty ready to shoot the guy, but Ladon was just grinning.

“It was Ladon’s plan the whole time,” John explained before Elizabeth could order someone to shoot him. “Ladon’s staging a coup, and apparently we were part of the plan.”

Ladon’s radio hissed and then Cowen’s voice came over it. “Ladon, come in!”

Medical personnel started filtering through, looking for injuries, but everyone had come through in-tact this time. Samas moved closer to McKay and Ladon, an amused look on his face.

Ladon lifted his radio looking even more smug. “This is Ladon.”

“What’s going on?” Cowen sounded pissed.

“I'm sorry it had to come to this, Cowen. You have served our people well. However, your plans will distract us from our goal of protecting our people and fighting the Wraith.”

There was a long silence, and Elizabeth raised an eyebrow.

“What have you done?” Cowen asked in horror.

“What needed doing,” Ladon said, but the radio gave an ungodly hiss, so John wasn’t sure Cowen got the message.

“Shields up!” John yelled. Instantly the shield shimmered into place.

“Well, this should be an interesting debrief,” Elizabeth said as she looked around. She was still giving Ladon the stink eye of a woman who would happily gut him if she just had the privacy to do it. John’s ex-wife used to give him that look all the time.

“It worked,” Samas said. He sounded less confused than John expected.

Ladon slapped him on the arm and smiled. “It did. I should thank you for education you offered me over the last couple of years.”

Samas shook his head. “The solution was obvious. Given the right circumstances, you would have stumbled on it. After all, one must put one’s people ahead of everything else.”

Ladon nodded. “I agree.”

McKay was looking between Samas and Ladon with growing suspicion. Finally he settled on glaring at Samas. “This was your plan. You made a plan where I got gassed and hit my head on the floor. Do you know how valuable my head is?” he demanded.

Ladon laughed. “Rodney, it wasn’t his plan. That was Koyla’s plan to take over the Genii that I coopted. Cowen was obsessed with going to war with Atlantis and then nuking anyone who stood up against a new united Genii federation that would defeat the Wraith. Koyla came up with that plan so he could take charge of the Genii, but he is obsessed with Atlantis and Colonel Sheppard. Both plans would have destroyed the Genii alliance with Atlantis, caused thousands of deaths, and ended with the Genii the most hated people in the galaxy. I never wanted power, but it’s time to unite against the Wraith. If I have to take the reins to lead us in that direction, I will.”

John noticed that his Genii guards were looking at him with a terrifying adoration.

“And you put our people in danger to achieve that end,” Elizabeth said coldly.

Ladon turned and faced her before ducking his head, accepting her censure. “I did. I put the needs of my people ahead of the alliance, but I also took great risks to protect the alliance.”

Samas looked over at John. Even without words, John was very aware of the fact that Samas expected him to step in. Yeah, well John wasn’t that big of a fool. Ladon made this mess he could get out of it on his own.

“Oh please,” Rodney blurted out. “Do you really think the IOC hasn’t contemplated worse? They thought you and Sheppard had gone rogue. When Everett showed up, I bet they had all sorts of contingency plans for locking you two away. Of course, if they’re smart, they had a special cell for me to keep my big brain contained. So don’t act like Ladon is any different from any Earth politician with all their plots.”

A moment ago, Rodney was angry, but now he pushed past Elizabeth and headed for the showers. Elizabeth looked at John.

“Um, what he said.” John shrugged.

Elizabeth rolled her eyes, and John could feel the tensions start to ease.

Ladon stepped forward. “I do know that I have caused some strain between our people, so I also come with a gift. It’s a… difficult gift that the Genii people have struggled to even understand, but I offer it in the hopes that your people can make better use out of it than can we. I am sure Tony has explained that at one point thousands of years ago we were a great alliance. We spanned fifty worlds and had fleets of ships. Then the Wraith woke.”

“He has mentioned something like that,” Elizabeth said cautiously. John could see that she would never against trust Ladon the way she once had. It made him a little sad. From what Lorne had said, Ladon had tried, from the very beginning, to clue them in that something was happening behind the scenes.

“The first time our empire fell, those ships retained their independence. I have the communication codes and frequencies for one of the few technologically advanced civilizations in this galaxy. The Travelers live on ships and survive by avoiding the Wraith.”

John’s ears perked up at the thought of ships. “Elizabeth?”

She gave him a weary look. “We have ships, John.”

“Ancient war ships?” Ladon asked. It was as if the entire room went silent. However, John noticed that again, Samas looked less surprised than he should have. Even Elizabeth had lost her politician’s mask. Too bad Rodney had left. He would have been panting.

“I swear, if you’re teasing me…” John threatened.

Ladon grinned. “I’m not. Better yet, they don’t fight. They don’t particularly want a warship; however, they believe in living on ships, and their ships are slowly starting to die one by one. They need homes for their people.”

“And they plan to use a warship as one of these new homes?” John wasn’t sure, but he thought hanging out laundry on a war ship just might constitute blasphemy.

“They have a deep mistrust of living on land or a city that is locked in place. For them, survival is about being able to move. If you could offer them what they most need—a way to protect their people without having to put them on the ground—I suspect the Travelers could be a lot of help.” Ladon smiled. “At least, I hope so. However, as I said, they are a gift that is difficult to handle, so the codes and names I offer come with no promises that you will find them particularly reasonable. But then I have every faith that you can handle it.”

Ladon stepped forward and offered Elizabeth a computer drive. Elizabeth looked honestly shocked. “Thank you. I hope you are not offended when we look on this with some suspicion.”

“Not at all. Suspicion is healthy, Elizabeth. After all, I can only promise that I will do what I find in the best interest of the Genii. I just don’t find it logical to turn on the people who have already proved so successful at killing Wraith. Now as much as I would like to stay, my day is far from over. I must return to my planet.”

“And your coup? Are we going to be getting any requests for medical assistance?” Elizabeth asked.

Ladon tilted his head in her direction. “I don't anticipate any more casualties.”

“Good. Let's make that a condition of our continued good will for each other.”

“Of course,” Ladon said. “It is not in the best interests of my people to cause harm.”

John cleared his throat, but he didn’t mention Cowen and the unit of elite guards he had on that planet. Yeah, John thought they had it coming, but it did seem like Ladon had developed an ability to kill his own if that’s what it took to get the job done.

Samas moved to a spot next to him. “Ladon is lucky I did not realize that Kolya’s plots included you. He might not have survived long enough to lead his coup.”

“Aw. Are you suggesting you worried about me?” John asked. He watched as Elizabeth and Ladon exchanged a few more pleasantries while the Gate engaged. Damn his arm hurt.

Samas was giving him the sort of look Teyla usually gave him right before kicking his ass in practice. That was the look that said he had been slacking. John realized too late that he was rubbing his sore shoulder.

“Aw, gunny. I’m an old man. Have mercy. There’s only so much training I can do,” John objected as he let his hands drop.

The body language shifted, and Gibbs was there. His look was just as calculated as Samas’ had been. “I’m older than you are, sir, and I can do an evacuation drill without straining my shoulder.”

“Yeah, and you have Samas. I don’t suppose I can borrow him, can I?” John asked hopefully.

The shock on Gibbs’ face was comical. Rodney really was missing out on a lot by going to the showers. “You want to borrow Samas?” Gibbs sounded each word out as if trying to figure out their meaning. Lorne looked over, his attention suddenly on them.

“The joints are getting old, gunny. Some of us don’t have anyone helping do the internal repairs. It’s not like I want to keep Samas… I’d just borrow him for a bit.”

Gibbs snorted.

“For a forty-something year old man, I did well out there,” John tried.

Gibbs started to walk away. “Colonel, Major, we’re having evac drills at oh-five-thirty tomorrow on South Two.”

John sagged. He looked over, and Lorne looked equally miserable. The worst part was that Gibbs was right. Hell, John could order Gibbs to not include them, but that wasn’t how he ran his base. Lorne gave him a nasty look. “You had to say something, sir.”

“I just asked for a symbiote.”

Lorne’s glare grew deeper. “And you just had to rub your shoulder in front of him?”

John went back to rubbing his shoulder since the damage was done. “Yeah, that was stupid,” he agreed. “But if I’m getting tortured by Marines, at least I’ll have company. I’ll see you at oh-five-thirty, and welcome back from the dead,” John offered before he headed for the showers. Elizabeth tried to catch his eye, and John started whistling as he hurried away. Sometimes it was good to be in charge, or at least have a job where people sometimes pretended you were.