"Help?" The Ancient gave a hideous laugh. "Does your arrogance never end? You are nothing without us, and yet you blunder about the universe as if it were your unassailable right."
"It has never been our intention to use your city for reckless purposes," Elizabeth countered. "We simply want to learn all we can. If Carson's mind is open to you, you must know that. Yes, we've made mistakes, but we truly respect Atlantis and everything it represents. We've defended it as if it was our own, and we will continue to do so "
There was liquid steel in that last statement. The Ancient seemed to recognize the warning, but was not deterred. The reply was delivered with cold conviction. "That is no longer your choice to make."
That had an ominous ring to it, but John had other things on his mind just then. Jumper One's HUD located four life signs amid the swirling sediment kicked up from the seafloor. Briefly tuning out the situation with Jumper Three, he performed what could charitably be called a combat landing beside the rest of his team. Two of the men had retained the presence of mind to hang on to the others so that they were clustered together about six feet off the ground-and rising, because the other two hadn't removed their hoods. Despite the compression, air pockets caught inside their suits were giving them buoyancy, something that John really didn't want. He smacked his hand down on the shield activation panel. When the force field sprang into place and pushed the water away, all four of them hit the deck.
Opening the hatch, John ran out to assess the team's welfare. Mueller got to his knees, ripped off his hood and threw up. Blood trickled from the engineer's ears, but John had been around the block enough to know that busted eardrums were more irritating than debilitating. Alderman and Stackhouse also had bloody ears, but they were already pulling themselves upright, using their first gasps of air to whoop in relieved celebration.
John headed for the prone scientist. "Radek, buddy, you still kicking?"
With a shuddering breath, the scientist dragged off his hood and pushed himself up on one elbow. "I am still alive?" he groaned. "Good. Rodney will pay for this."
John grinned and offered him a hand up. Avengeful Zelenka was a healthy Zelenka. "Atlantis, Jumper One has its cargo secured."
"That was shit hot, sir!" Alderman expressed his gratitude at the top of his lungs, probably because of the wrecked eardrums. "Search and rescue to the extreme."
"All part of the service," John called back.
"What happened with the Doc?" Stackhouse demanded, bringing his hands to his jaw and flexing it experimentally. The brief, intense pain of having his eardrums perforated was probably making itself felt now that the first adrenaline rush had passed. "He just-"
Shaking his head, John told them, "That's not Beckett right now." He'd forgotten to yell, so the men tapped their ears with a collective wince, but they appeared to get the picture. He quickly checked the pod, which hadn't moved in the buffeting of water, and saw the face of a woman, still beautiful even in death.
Motioning his charges into the jumper, John began paying attention to the radio traffic again. Elizabeth was still trying to reason with the Ancient, but seemed to be making very little headway. He slung one of Radek's arms across his shoulders and gestured for Mueller to do the same, debating his options as they walked the scientist into the jumper. He was in a good position to follow Jumper Three, and could most likely intercept it faster than anything Atlantis could scramble. On the other hand, he had four colleagues here who were bleeding and slightly oxygen-deprived.
Once the hatch was secured and Radek dropped gracelessly into a seat, John went forward and brought up the HUD. Jumper Three had breached the surface and looked to be headed for the mainland. Two additional jumpers appeared on the screen as well-where had those come from? "Atlantis, somebody give me a status, please," he requested, blowing through the preflight checklist at top speed.
"Teyla and Ronon were on their way back and diverted to intercept," Rodney answered, "and Lome just took off with a squad of Marines."
Good. That made his decision a lot easier. "Okay, I have `em on the HUD. We're going to head for home, and there's no point in bothering with quarantine now, so if you could scrounge up a medical team for these guys and point it toward the jumper bay, we'd appreciate it "
"Are they okay? How's Radek?"
Was it his imagination, or did Rodney actually sound worried? John glanced over his shoulder and tried not to smirk. "Answer one: they'll all be fine. Answer two: he's half-deaf and royally pissed off."
"Uh, good. Nice work. I'll just take a moment and update my will for when he gets out of the infirmary."
"You do that." John lifted Jumper One off the ocean floor. Over the radio, the Ancient, whose name Elizabeth had learned was Ea, was complaining about the quality of the body she currently inhabited. Then maybe you shouldn't have stolen it, sweetheart. What was it with this galaxy and beings that wanted to play puppets with them?
"Agh!" The repugnance in Ea's voice was unmistakable. "His hands are shredded and there is blood everywhere."
John winced. It didn't take any imagination to guess why. The pod had been encrusted with enough shellfish to feed a platoon.
"Like all humans he is weak, unable even to heal himself," Ea added.
"Then why don't you heal him? You can do that, can't you?" Elizabeth's voice broke in.
"Must I also breathe for him? I have little time for such trivialities."
"And what about the man who needs that body? His name is Carson Beckett. He's a doctor, a healer who has only ever wanted to help people."
"A human," Ea replied contemptuously. "Like all of you, he is no longer of any consequence." Something that was either a bitter laugh or a whimper followed that belittling remark. "Atlas, my love, it is fitting that your machine will put an end to that which was created so many years ago."
John sucked in a sharp breath. Elizabeth must have been getting the same very bad vibes because she said in a low voice, "End to what? Ea, what are you going to do?"
There was silence for a long moment before Elizabeth pleaded, "Ea, this is your city. It holds unimaginable knowledge-"
"And you have brought it to ruin by exposing it to the Wraith!" Ea roared.
"We will not let that happen," Elizabeth insisted.
"How can you hope to avoid it? Do you truly believe you can succeed where we could not?" A soft, mocking laugh quickly became a sob. "Better that Atlantis be destroyed than become the portal through which the scourge of this galaxy obliterates all life."
Jumper One breached the surface. John slid his hand over the panel and activated the doors to the jumper bay inside the city. Much as he hated to admit it, Ea's twisted logic wasn't completely off-target. If the Wraith ever found a way of capturing the Atlantis Stargate… He glanced down at the Daedalus, still parked on its usual pier, its scheduled departure delayed for maintenance. Significant maintenance, he reminded himself grimly. The crew had found out the hard way that small material defects could lead to big problems over time. A number of parts needed to be replaced before the engines would be safe and effective for hyperdrive operation, and until then, the ship-and Atlantis-had something in common with the proverbial fish in a barrel.
"We've gone out of our way to enhance the self-destruct mechanism," Elizabeth continued. "Carson knows that. You must see it in his memories. We defeated the Goa'uld through your technology, but now there is a greater threat. Look inside Carson's mind! Can't you see the Ori?"
Putting a lid on the various alarming possibilities that were swirling around in John's head, he brought the jumper in to land. A small army of medical personnel was waiting in the bay, Rodney hovering uncomfortably behind them. The chief scientist watched the Marines disembark, and paled when he saw the streaks of dried blood on either side of his colleague's head. "Oh, holy-does he have a head injury? Is it possible to get brain damage from rapid depressurization?"