It's been so long since there was an update and I've had a lot going on in my life but I missed John and Kai. I hope you enjoy the update, there's so much happening, so many moving pieces.
><><
Happy Reading!
><><
"Well, that could have gone better," John muttered sarcastically. If he was honest he hadn't been able to draw a deep breath until the rear hatch on the Jumper closed and sealed. Now no one could get to Kai unless he allowed it. He just needed to get her off this planet before anything else could go wrong.
Not fooled by his levity in the least Kai ran through preflight and waited him out. She could feel John's tempestuous emotions through the Bond and she decided to wait for him to settle on one before directly confronting it.
"General O'Neill seemed nice," she commented idly.
John snorted. "Yeah, right up until the end."
Kai arched a brow as she felt his wave of concern give way to indignation.
John glanced over at her. "Don't pretend you weren't listening," he pushed teasingly.
Kai rolled her eyes but couldn't deny it. "He referenced a report from Elizabeth," she said carefully as she typed the macro into her laptop. She glanced out of the corner of her eye to see John's jaw tighten.
"Elizabeth had to report our relationship to Stargate command," John said grimly. "She waited longer than I expected. Probably thought I'd change my mind or get bored or something," he said flippantly.
Kai sank her teeth into the inside of her lip as he so casually mentioned all her fears about their new and I'll defined relationship.
Too focused on his own feelings John missed the flash of self consciousness from Kai before he kept going. "General O'Neill won't have to reprimand me if I'm not there when he reads it."
"Generous," Kai agreed with a nod of her head. "Will there be repercussions?" She asked, trying to keep her tone even and unaffected. It was something she and John had never directly discussed. She knew from Elizabeth there could be consequences, but those had never scared John before.
"Nothing I can't handle," John told her with false bravado.
Kai inputed the macro and dialed the gate. She hated the fact that something she did had the potential to cause him difficulty, but she didn't know what to say to make it better. She knew John well enough to know when his blood was up there was no point trying to discuss this rationally.
She cleared her throat. "Do you want to explain who the man was that attempted to join our meeting? Langely?"
John's hands contracted on the controls. "His name wasn't Langely, it was where the government organization he is from is located."
"And which organization is that?" Kai asked.
"The Central Intelligence Agency," John told her.
"And they are bad?"
"Let's just say they wouldn't want to make friends," John said tightly. "They are interested in you because they think you might be an spy alien and they would have no issue with locking you up and throwing away the key just to study you."
Kai nodded. The news didn't surprise or disgust her. Where there was government there was always corruption. She had learned that not only from her own people but also those who paid for her services.
"Jumper 3 you are clear to enter the Stargate," came a voice over the radio.
"Roger that Stargate command. It's been fun." John clicked off the radio and turned to key. "What do you say we get the hell out of here?"
><><
"Colonel Sheppard welcome back to the middle of nowhere," Caldwell's voice greeted through the radio.
Kai blinked away the feeling of disorientation. She knew in theory she shouldn't have been able to feel the prolonged time being forwarded from gate to gate but she couldn't shake the strange hazy memory of feeling like she was about to be crushed.
"Thank you Colonel," John responded sounding like his normal chipper self. His relief to be back in the Pegasus vibrated down the Bond. "I've got take out pizza for everyone back on Atlantis. With your permission I'd like to upload the macro and dial out before it gets cold."
Kai rolled her eyes at Sheppard's joking but didn't bother saying anything. He and Caldwell would never like each other at this point.
"Negative. We're putting that leg of the trip on hold for now. Seems like we're expecting company. Dock in the 302 bay."
The two of them exchanged a confused look, but Caldwell had no intention of explaining himself until John followed his command. It wasn't just John who could try and get a rise out of the other man.
John manuevered the Jumper out of the Midway construction and headed to the 302 bay of the Daedalus. They parked in the bay and left the jumper moving towards the bridge. The others nodded respectfully as Sheppard passed them. Kai followed behind. Most members of the the crew didn't bother acknowledging her presence. She wondered if it was because she made them uncomfortable or if their captain had made his feelings about her public. She normally wouldn't had been totally kitted out on the Daedalus. Unlike John she tried to avoid stirring Caldwell's ire and usually left at least a few weapons behind.
Just as they were about to reach the bridge McKay stuck his head out of a conference room door and waved them in. Caldwell was already seated at the head of the table and McKay had taken over the other end, with the large screen behind him displaying the object they had found. McKay was practically vibrating in place. He shot the two of them a disgruntled look as though it were their fault he had to wait. John stepped to the chair beside Caldwell and took a seat. Kai found a spot along the wall where she could remain unobtrusive.
McKay quickly caught John up on their discovery.
"Believe it or not, moving that fast, while an incredible feat of technology, isn't very useful. Certainly in comparison to traveling through hyperspace. Now, moving as fast as it is, this ship, assuming it is a ship, would still take at least a million years just to reach the Milky Way."
"That close to the speed of light, don't you have to take relativity into account?" Caldwell asked.
"Exactly," McKay agreed looking a little impressed Caldwell had known that. "The people on board, assuming that they are people, would only experience maybe twelve years, so a few stasis chambers and they're laughing. I mean they're not laughing, they're unconscious. But you know, metaphorically."
John frowned as he studied the read out on the large screen. "So, assuming it's a ship and assuming they're people..."
"What do we do about them?" Caldwell finished for him.
"Well, we try to make contact obviously," McKay said brightly.
"How do you propose we do that?" Caldwell asked.
"Pull up, honk the horn, try to get them to roll the window down," Sheppard said with a sarcastic smirk as he leaned back in his chair. The discovery was exciting but he wasn't sure he and Kai had needed to stay on the Daedalus for this. He was eager to get back to Atlantis and have things settle down and get back to normal.
Caldwell shot Sheppard a withering look. "You're talking about attempting to match their speed. This ship is not designed to do that."
McKay waved his hand dismissively. "We can't. Even if we succeeded we would still be subjected to the same time-dilation effects. We'd be out of contact with Earth and Atlantis for, well...years," McKay explained.
"Can't we overtake them with our hyperdrive?" John asked.
"Yes," McKay bit off the word impatiently. "but they would blow right past us as soon as we dropped back into normal space because our sublight engines are incapable of accelerating to anywhere near the speed of light."
"So we max out the sublight engines, get as close as we can get," John suggested.
"Hmm...yes, I mean, that might work. We should at least be able to stay in range long enough to get some sensor readings..." McKay agreed sounding surprised. He looked down on his tablet and tapped in a few calculations. "Yes."
"Do it," Caldwell agreed, he turned to Sheppard. "I'll let Atlantis know you are going to be late. Zian you're with McKay," Caldwell barked.
Kai resisted the urge to glare at him, she was not in the military and thus not his to command, but honestly there was little else for her to do on board. She followed McKay towards the lab so she could help make the necessary adjustments. McKay turned to Kai as they approached the door. "Did Colonel Sheppard really get pizza for everyone?"
Kai stared into McKay's face emotionlessly.
"Right," he said. "So solve this first and then..." he dragged off turning towards engineering.
><><
The adjustments only took a couple hours before they were all gathered back in the bridge waiting for their fly by.
"Sir, we've gotten just about everything we can get out of the sublight engines," Kleinman reported.
McKay was pacing around the bridge studying as many different readouts as he could. "They're gonna fly by us in three, two, one...interesting," McKay said staring down at his tablet.
"What?" Caldwell asked, looking after him.
"If these readings are correct, and to be perfectly fair they may not be..." he dragged off.
"Rodney," Sheppard snapped.
"An ancient warship," he said in wonder. "possibly aurora class," McKay said excitedly.
"Who's flying it?" Caldwell asked.
"I would imagine Ancients," McKay snapped as though the question was stupid.
"But there hasn't been any of them around for over ten thousand years," Caldwell argued.
"Relativity," McKay snarked. "Look, remember for them only a handful of years have passed."
"Don't those ships have hyperdrives?" Sheppard asked.
McKay shrugged. "Well maybe their hyperdrive was damaged in a battle with the wraith. It happens with us all the time. Maybe it conked out on the way, and they were forced to continue at as close to light speed as possible. It would explain how they got a million light years from Pegasus without having to leave a million years ago."
"You know the subspace drive specs better than I do, doctor, but I'm not sure an aurora class ship has the power to do what you're suggesting," Caldwell said.
"They don't," Kai agreed.
Caldwell glanced her way, a deep frown lining his face before turning back to McKay.
"Well, maybe they have a ZPM," McKay argued.
"That would be worth finding out," Sheppard agreed snapping his fingers.
McKay started pacing faster at the prospect of meeting ancients. "Okay we need to send them a message before they get out of range, and we have to jump ahead. Something like, you know, 'we are humans from earth currently occupying Atlantis..."
"Why don't we just ask them to slow down," Sheppard suggested.
"Colonel Caldwell, the unidentified ship is slowing down," Kleinman reported.
"Maybe they heard me," Sheppard said sarcastically.
"No, they saw us," McKay muttered staring down at his tablet. "They're not just slowing down. I mean they are slamming on the brakes at something like 27 g's."
"So now what?" Caldwell asked.
A flickering transmission appeared in the center of the bridge making most of them flinch. It was a beautiful blonde woman wearing the natural colored fabrics of the Ancient's military uniforms. "Unknown vessel, I am Captain Helia of the Lantian warship Tria. Our ship has suffered damage. We've scanned your vessel and determined that it is capable of hyperspace travel. We've begun deceleration maneuvers. Will you render assistance in the form of hyperspace transport?"
"Well yes, yes of course we'll help," McKay responded eagerly, but the transmission didn't acknowledge him.
"I don't think she can hear you," Sheppard said in a stage whisper.
"Open a channel," Caldwell ordered Kleinman. "This is Colonel Steven Caldwell of the earth ship Daedalus. It would be an honor to render assistance in any way we possibly can."
The woman smiled warmly and nodded before flickering out.
"We're going to meet Ancients!" McKay enthused. "I mean, flesh and blood Ancients who know what everything is and how everything works. I mean, I don't even know what to ask first."
"Well, it's going to be a couple hours before we can match velocities for transport," Caldwell pointed out.
"That should give you enough time to write out that list," Sheppard snarked.
"Right, right," McKay said excitedly running form the room. John met Kai's gaze across the room and shook his head in disbelief. McKay had been so excited he hadn't even noticed John making fun of him.
><><
Helia and a small group of six Ancient men were the first to beam over. They were all clearly soldiers, and the men's faces were hard and wary. Not that Kai blamed them. She would also be suspicious of appearing on a foreign ship unarmed. She stood to the back of the group near the door as Colonel Caldwell, John and McKay formally greeted them.
"Welcome aboard the Daedalus," Colonel Caldwell greeted. "I am Colonel Steven Caldwell."
"We thank you for your willingness to lend assistance," Helia replied. "I am Helia and this is Taurus, my second," she said gesturing to the stern looking man standing beside her.
"I am Colonel John Sheppard, military commander of Atlantis,"
John introduced himself.
Something dangerous flashed in Helia's eyes at his mention of being commander of Atlantis. Had Kai not been already watching her for any sign of danger she might have missed it. Kai tensed, ready to jump in if she was needed. She knew John could handle himself but McKay would need someone to get to him and honestly she had never seen Caldwell in a fight.
John forced himself to maintain the smile on his lips even as he felt the twist of Kai's wariness come through the Bond. She had seen something she didn't like or trust. So far the Ancients seemed welcoming enough, but he was inclined to trust Kai's instincts. She had never been wrong before.
"Pleased to meet you," Helia nodded graciously once more. Whatever she had felt was now locked up tightly behind a diplomatic smile as she turned to McKay.
"And I am Doctor Rodney McKay. I'm the one who recognized your signal as that of a ship and not just some radar echo. Well I mean, it was a radar echo, but I knew it was something different."
Helia smiled at McKay indulgently. "We are glad you did," she spoke to him as though he were a small child who had just done well in school, but instead of looking offended McKay beamed at her, eager for her approval.
"I'll show you where you and your crew will be staying," Caldwell said. "You must understand we can permit you and Taurus up on the bridge but the rest will be restricted to quarters, the mess and of course the infirmary if it is required."
Taurus's eyes narrowed and Helia smiled warmly. "Of course we understand. We are most grateful for your willingness to transport us."
"Are you quite sure the life support systems will be able to accommodate all hundred of our crew?" Taurus asked pointedly.
"We will make the modifications and it won't be a problem," McKay quickly assured them.
"This way," Caldwell said ushering Helia and Taurus out of the room. "We will get your crew settled. It will take Approximately nine days for us to return to Atlantis."
As they turned to the door Helia's eyes met Kai's. She frowned and tilted her head to the side. Remembering the pain from Cheya's attempt at psychic communication Kai braced but nothing happened.
Noticing Helia's interest Caldwell gestured to Kai. "This is Kai Zian, she is a Mortii who has been living on Atlantis assisting their repairs."
Helia blinked in surprise. "It is a please to meet you Kai Zian, Mortii of the Pegasus Galaxy," she spoke the words in such an odd cadence it had even Caldwell frowning. He quickly led the way from the room, not wanting to prolong the awkward moment.
Taurus frowned down at Kai. "Zian, Mortii," he muttered the words and shook his head in disapproval before following the others.
John waited as the others followed Caldwell and Helia. He would go with, but he wanted the other Ancients ahead of him where he could see them. As exciting as it was he couldn't shake the feeling coming from Kai. He needed a moment alone with her, but there was little of that to be found on The Daedalus and he knew Caldwell wouldn't hesitate to report them if he thought anything was going on.
Once the others were out the door and down the hall with McKay bouncing after them like an excited puppy John turned to Kai.
"What did you see that I missed?" He asked reaching up and touching his chest.
Kai shook her head, uncertain she could exactly define it. "Something..." she dragged off shaking her head. "Probably nothing."
"Probably something," John disagreed. "I trust your instincts more than I trust them. What was that about with your name?"
Kai's face went absolutely blank. She swallowed once before she spoke, hating that she had to remind him. "It isn't a name. It's the number designation for a knife, my caste which means assassin and the name we call ourselves. Mortii, which means-"
"Death," John finished for her.
"In Ancient," Kai reminded him.
John tightened his jaw. He hadn't considered the possible ramifications. "Well maybe steer clear of our guests for now, I better catch up before I'm missed."
"I will head down to help Hermiod make the adjustments to the life support," Kai said.
"Try not to have too much fun, I know how you two get to chatting," John teased walking backwards towards the door.
"Be careful," Kai called after him.
"You too."
><><
It only took a few hours to finish the adjustments to the life support systems. She and Hermiod worked almost perfectly together with little communication necessary. She appreciated his preference for silence as it allowed her to keep half of her focus on the Bond as she worked. Keeping her attention on it made everything feel more heightened. She had an almost constant low level stream of John's base emotions. While varied and occasionally wary there was nothing that made her think anything threatening had happened.
Once she was finished with her task she went to the mess hall to get a meal before bed. She had been assigned one of the spare crew quarters along with the other engineers who worked in the control room which suited her fine. Down there she wasn't likely to encounter any of the Ancients or Caldwell.
Kai stood in line among the members of the crew who had also chosen to eat late. She selected a few items and had just sat at a table alone when the doors to the mess slid open and Taurus and a handful of his crew members entered. Kai kept her head bowed over her food as she ate, but her eyes never left them. She couldn't exactly explain it but there was something about them that was slightly off.
As soon as she was finished she stood and Taurus approached, dropping his tray down on her table without invitation.
"You have been watching my men and I," he commented suspiciously.
Kai shrugged. "You're new," she responded emotionlessly. She couldn't quite bring herself to feign innocence. She wasn't willing to allow herself to appear vulnerable like that before these strangers. Instead she opted for calm, neutral.
Taurus looked Kai up and down, his eyes taking in the scarf and the blades still strapped to her. He frowned and stared hard into her eyes. Kai felt a a strange burning pressure but it quickly dissipated without any last effects. It seemed Taurus wasn't as powerful of an Ancient as Cheya had been. "You aren't Lantian," Taurus spat, looming over her.
"I never said I was," Kai responded.
Taurus's eyes narrowed and he took a dangerous step towards her. "And yet you dare to reside in Atlantis," he challenged.
Kai let her eyes briefly flicker over the larger man. He was unarmed and she had no doubt she could defend herself if he chose to attack, the other four however would pose a problem and she wasn't sure any of the crew of the Daedalus would come to her aid. "I have a talent for your technology," she responded coolly, not allowing him to get the reaction he was so desperate for.
"No doubt not your only talent Zian of Mortii," he ground out the words in a low snarl. "You are not Lantian, you do not belong on Atlantis."
"Taurus," Helia's correction was sharp and definite. She walked across the room with a slow purpose and as she approached Taurus shrank back as though she had yelled at him. "Take your food to your quarters," Helia instructed. Her eyes ranged over the men who had joined Taurus. "All of you."
Taking their food they filed out of the mess without question.
"I am sorry for that," Helia said turning back to Kai although she didn't sound very generous. "There are many emotions involved at the prospect of returning to the home we thought lost."
Kai didn't bother accepting the apology because Taurus's actions were inexcusable and Helia didn't sound entirely sincere.
"He is simply protective of what is ours," Helia continued to explain and her words sent alarm bells off in Kai's head. Nothing Helia said was flippant or not thought through. They viewed themselves as the owners of Atlantis and anyone else an outsider or worse, an invader. Suddenly Taurus's reaction to Kai made sense. In their minds they were still at war.
"What was your purpose for being on Atlantis?" Helia asked.
Kai didn't miss her use of the last tense. "Peace," Kai found herself answering honestly. She wasn't sure why she did. She certain wasn't dazzled by these Ancients like many of the others, but she did want to get the measure of them. They weren't an enemy, but Kai wasn't quite convinced they were an ally yet either.
Helia frowned, not understanding her answer, but it was like Kai's words had triggered a memory. "Not all Lantians chose to return to the Milk Way, as they call it," Helia said casually.
"Oh?" Kai asked, arching a brow. Her expression betrayed nothing. Helia was smart, much smarter than Taurus. She didn't know why, but some deep instinct told her it might not be a good thing to confirm her heritage to these people. Kai tended to trust her instincts.
"Some of our people chose to stay and continue to fight. They settled on a different planet and we never heard from them again," Helia told her conversationally.
Kai reached for her cup of tea and took a sip. Her people weren't a secret she protected any longer, most people on Atlantis knew she wasn't human, but she didn't like Helia's high handed attitude.
Behind Helia the door to the mess slid open and John stepped inside. He tensed as he recognized the stand off happening between the two women. He was sure the Ancient captain had plenty of training but his money was on Kai if shit hit the fan. He hurried to the table, trying to think of something clever to say.
"Colonel Sheppard," Helia greeted before he had a chance to say anything, although she didn't bother looking his way.
"Just stopping by to see how you were getting along," he said casually. His eyes flickered to Kai and a bump went through the bond. Helia's head snapped to the side as though she could sense it. Her eyes flickered back and forth between them and there was the shadow of suspicion in her gaze.
"I-" she started to say but Kai was already on her feet.
"Were you ready for that meeting Colonel?" Kai asked Sheppard meaningfully.
"Yep," John agreed without hesitation. "Just waiting on you Zian."
><><
After her confrontation with Helia Kai made it a point to either be in the control room or her small quarters. She didn't know why she found the Ancients so off putting, but they made every one of her instincts prickle. As polite as most of them seemed to be there was something about Helia and Taurus she didn't like, although she couldn't put her finger on it.
Nine days later Kai was among the first group beamed down into the gate room of Atlantis. It felt good to be home, even if Helia and Taurus was standing beside her. Elizabeth, Teyla and Ronon were there ready to greet them. Elizabeth flashed an excited smile and Kai almost felt bad for her. After nine days even Rodney seemed to lose his patience with the Ancients when he discovered they had little interest in talking with him and viewed all the humans as little more than entertaining pets.
"Doctor Weir, Teyla, Ronon, this is Helia. Captain of the Ancient ship Tria," Sheppard introduced although he barely managed to keep his tone polite.
Elizabeth bowed respectfully. "It's an honor to meet you."
"Thank you," Helia responded. "And from what I'm told, you've done a remarkable job preserving our city."
"Well, we did what we could with what we had," Elizabeth said with a pleased smile. She was practically preening under Helia's praise.
"I need to speak to the leader of your people," Helia said, dispensing with pleasantries.
Elizabeth lifted her chin as a small frown started to form. Her gaze flickered from John, with his tight jaw, to Kai who had wary eyes, and finally landed on Rodney who was wearing a sullen expression. None of this was how she expected them to be after getting to spend over a week with Ancients. "I'm in charge of the Atlantis expedition."
"You misunderstand me Doctor Weir," Helia spoke as though Elizabeth were a child in need of instruction. "I need to talk to the person who can speak for all the people of earth."
Elizabeth arched a brow in surprise. "Well that can certainly be arranged, but may I ask why?"
Helia smiled at Weir and a terminal raised up from the floor. The others stumbled back a step, but Ronon drew his gun. It was a terminal none of them has seen before.
"What's that? How come I've never seen that?" McKay demanded.
Helia laid her palm against the terminal and all of the computers in the control room went dark. Warning alarms sounded as the system rebooted with the exception of any equipment brought from earth.
"Excuse me, what's going on?" Elizabeth asked, looking around with a concerned frown.
But Kai already knew. It was what she had been feeling but hadn't been able to put words to. Their desire to possess their home.
"Thank you for all you've done Doctor Weir, but your guardianship of this city is no longer necessary. Atlantis is now under my control."
><><
Thank you so much for reading. I so appreciate all your support and love reading your comments, you guys are the best!