He was certain that no one else could truly comprehend what losing Turpi meant, because no one had ever known the likes of such a… God, what could he call her? Beyond human? Even so, it tore at his soul to realize that he still could not shake his memory of her physical deformities. The cruelest trick of…not nature, but the Ancients' self-centered game of genetic Scrabble.
If, as he suspected, some of the gods of the ancient world were not all Goa'uld but had in fact been the Ancients who had fled to Earth from Atlantis, it was little wonder that mankind had assigned them such cruel traits. Squabbling with one another, perched in their lofty abodes tossing metaphorical thunderbolts…
Of course.! How had that not occurred to him before`?
Rodney scrambled for his radio, nearly knocking his datapad off his lap. "Atlantis, Jumper One," he called.
Throwing him a startled look, Sheppard's tone was cautious as he asked, "Rodney, you okay?"
"I'm fine, dammit!" he snapped. "Radek, take the grounding stations offline. Use the lightning to power the shield!"
The response was garbled and choppy. "Rodn-" It sounded like Radek, but that was about all he could make out. "-power-"
"Yes, lots of power. There's an enormous charge differential out there, ready and waiting. I hope to hell you read my report from the last storm to end all-" All strategies vanished from his mind when he found himself staring down the throat of something surrounded by lots of teeth the length of power poles. The viperfish had returned, abruptly latching onto the shield in front of the jumper. His well-built emotional shields long since shredded, Rodney let out a scream.
Sheppard reacted intuitively, spinning the jumper in a tight circle and flinging the creature off. "Ugh."
Once the monster was gone, Rodney recovered his poise, refusing to acknowledge Ronon's soft huff of amusement behind him. "Radek, are you still there?"
This time, there was nothing, not even crackling air. "Nanites have probably penetrated deep enough to interfere with the transmission," Sheppard guessed.
Radek had said `power'. If he'd heard enough to carry out the process Rodney had outlined, Atlantis could be shielded for as long as the storm raged. Certainly long enough to finish the Daedalus repairs. But if the message hadn't gotten through… The jumper had to return to Atlantis and ensure that the shield was powered, which would allow all of them to get the hell out of this remake of Abyss.
Turning partway in his seat, Rodney eyed the exogenesis machine, the possibilities coming into focus. They could take the Daedalus back to Earth, and the machine could be studied for so many other applications.
And leave this galaxy to its fate, the way Atlas planned, the way Ea tried to do.
He started. Turpi was not really dead, but Ascended. And her wish was that he take care of those who remained behind. It wasn't just about his own life or death. He would not-he could not-let Ea win.
Would his conscience be speaking with Turpi's voice from here on out?
Every day of her life, she'd had the chance to transform herself, to make her appearance reflect her true beauty, and every day she'd refused because it would have separated her from the people-the children-that she loved. She'd given up everything because she cared so much for others.
For the second time that day-a new record, and one he had no desire to repeat-Rodney overrode his instincts. They had to plant the exogenesis machine and simply hope that Radek had heard him.
Glancing up from the machine, he found Nabu watching him. Unnoticed by the others, the Polrusson gave a silent nod of approval, the side of his mouth drawn upward in a small smile.
The static was every bit as chilling as the scream it had so abruptly replaced. Elizabeth sucked in a startled breath so fast her chest hurt.
"DejA vu," murmured Radek, going pale under the blue glow of the computer screen.
"Jumper One, come in." Not now, damn it, not when we've come this far Her call was greeted by silence. "It could just be the radio," she maintained.
"Indeed." Radek's voice held a note of relief. They would reinforce each other's stubborn optimism as long as they could. "I believe I know what Rodney was trying to suggest."
"From that mess of a transmission?" Elizabeth's already lofty opinion of her scientists climbed another notch. "The only word I understood was `light'."
"I heard the same. However, I had already begun to form a similar idea before the call "" Radek moved, hand over hand to maintain his balance, toward a console that monitored power levels. "During last year's great storm, Rodney was able to power the city shield using-
"Lightning!" The memory leaped into her mind, bringing with it a few choice recollections that she could have done without.
The Czech tipped his head toward the windows, indicating the furious flashes outside. "It should be enough to give the Daedalus the time she needs. With your permission, I will divert the Marines from their task with the explosives and send them to disable the grounding stations around the city"
"Can they get it done before we drain the ZPM?"
In any other situation, Radek's expression would have been comical. "As much as it pains me to sound like Rodney, it will be very, very close."
"As always. Do it "
While Radek spoke to Sergeant Stackhouse's squad over the radio, outlining their new duties, Elizabeth retreated to her office, helpless once again. Infinitely more so this time. Of course there was a chance that John and the others might still succeed in placing the exogenesis machine. But that hideous scream still echoed in her mind, forcing her to accept the possibility that the team-no, not the team, but individuals: John and Rodney, Teyla and Ronon, people who had come to mean more to her than she had ever thought possible-were dead.
There had been days in the past when her confidence had faltered, but she'd never lacked for hope, believing that the latter often led to the former. Hope had kept her going for so long now, almost since the moment she'd first heard Ea speak with Carson's voice. But that hope had been frayed under the growing weight of imminent catastrophe, and now it felt threadbare and fragile. She'd been brought to the Stargate program to be a negotiator, and with Ea, obsessed or not, she'd failed in spectacular fashion. Her shortcomings would doom not only Atlantis but also possibly the entire Pegasus Galaxy.
Elizabeth thought back to a five-minute conversation in the Oval Office seemingly a lifetime ago. She'd told the President then that she had never trained to negotiate with aliens. At the time, even though she'd known his offer to be serious, it had felt a bit surreal. She'd had no idea her decision would lead her here-and she had to wonder now, as it all came crashing down, what might have happened if she'd said no.
"Atlantis, this is Polrusso." Lome's voice swiftly brought her back to the present, and she touched her earpiece. There was still work to be done. And still hope.
"Go ahead, Major."
"Ma'am, we've explained the situation to Nabu's people, and they've started collecting as many as they can with the Darts. They all want to come with us."
"All of them?" Elizabeth could only imagine General Landry's reaction to an influx of thousands of Pegasus refugees in need of a new planet to call home.
"As many as we can manage, yes, ma'am." Lome paused. "I'm prepared to pull the ZPM from the lab on your order."
Gripping the edge of her desk with a force that made her fingers ache, she weighed the awful choice. As soon as they took the ZPM for the trip to Earth, the remaining hundreds of thousands of people on Polrusso, conceivably the galaxy's best long term hope for a future defense against the Wraith, would be lost under the planet's new oceans. But if they waited too long and the nanites spread beyond Atlantis, the Polrussons were dead anyway, along with the Wraith and everything else in the galaxy.