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"Unauthorized off-world activation."
Elizabeth glanced down at the Stargate as she moved across the catwalk to the command center, watching the symbols light up one at a time. She mentally reviewed who was off-world: Lorne's team wasn't due back until tomorrow, Phillips' team, the day after. If it was one of her teams, it couldn't be good news.
She met up with John, coming from the opposite direction, by Chuck's station just as the wormhole kawooshed into life. She looked at Chuck expectantly, waiting for an ID.
He frowned, tapping a few keys before looking up at her. "It's not one of ours, Dr. Weir. We're receiving a video signal."
Elizabeth exchanged a look with John. "Put it through."
There were a few seconds of static, which resolved into a somewhat grainy image of a slim, middle-aged man wearing glasses. He was peering anxiously from the monitor and seemed to perk up when they appeared on his screen. "I am Massone from the planet Y'li. I wish to speak with Dr. Weir."
Elizabeth and John had quickly agreed to bring Massone to Atlantis so they could speak in private. She, Massone, John's team, and Beckett settled around the table in the conference room, and Elizabeth wasted no time in getting started. "You said you got my name from Ladon Radim?" she asked, beginning with the one piece of information they already knew.
Massone nodded. "Yes. My people have long traded with the Genii and we have turned to each other in times of need. When the Genii were unable to provide the assistance we needed, Ladon suggested that you might be able to help us."
John leaned forward. "And what is this problem of yours, exactly?"
Massone folded his hands neatly on the table, but Elizabeth could see them turn white from how hard he was gripping them. "It started many seasons ago, with a series of severe storms that affected all of our settlements. The unstable weather has become worse, and we recently lost an entire city to an earthquake. Many people died. Many people." His voice cracked, and Massone looked away.
"I'm sorry," Elizabeth said softly.
Massone nodded. "Thank you." He cleared his throat before continuing. "We are now experiencing problems with our communications systems. We believe the two are related."
"Electromagnetic fields." As one, everyone turned to look at Rodney. "A change in the electromagnetic field surrounding your planet can result in erratic weather and a disruption of electronics."
"What would cause this?" Elizabeth asked.
"Could be a couple of things. I'd have to take some readings."
"Can these electromagnetic fields be fixed?" Teyla inquired.
"Maybe. It depends on what's causing the disruption. It's unlikely, though."
"That wouldn't be good." Everyone's attention turned back to Massone, who was actively wringing his hands. "If you cannot fix this—"
"We'll help you find a place to resettle," Elizabeth assured him. "Some of our allies may be willing to accommodate your people."
John added, "Or there are a number of uninhabited planets, if you prefer to relocate."
"It will be hard to start over," Teyla said, "but if it is your only option—"
"You don't understand," Massone interrupted. "We have already put together an evacuation plan; when the storms became more and more deadly, we realized we may not have a choice. But there is a significant number of people who are refusing to leave."
Elizabeth scanned the room, ending at John. "Take your team," she said. "Figure out what's going on and if there's anything we can do about it. Then we'll go from there."
"Sheppard! Come take a look at this!"
John took a last look at the levelled house he'd been examining, then turned and headed for the jumper. McKay had set up what looked like a mini-lab around the puddle jumper. There were wavy lines and blinking lights and McKay was moving from one machine to the next, typing furiously on his tablet. "What's up?" John asked once he was in earshot, raising his voice to be heard over the increasing wind.
McKay set down his tablet and started pointing at monitors, more or less randomly as far as John could tell. "The Y'lians have a basic understanding of science and have collected some primitive data. Based on that and the readings I've taken, I think what's causing the disruption of the electromagnetic fields is an unstable planetary orbit, one that is deteriorating exponentially."
"You think?"
McKay threw up his hands. "Well, I can't be sure without several weeks or even months of study, but we don't have that kind of time. So given the lack of any other indicators, yes, I think that's the cause."
John rubbed a hand over his face, casting a last look over his shoulder at the rubble that used to be a city. "Let's go share the bad news."
Back on Atlantis, he sat more or less quietly through the meeting. Massone and his council had put together an admirable evacuation plan, and all the Atlantians could do to improve it was offer extra manpower and jumpers to get the Y'lians off their planet more quickly. Jumpers Two and Five were grounded for maintenance, but that still left four jumpers to help ferry those who lived a good distance from the Stargate.
After Elizabeth dismissed everyone to prepare for departure to Y'li in an hour, he followed her to her office, certain that she wasn't going to like what he was about to say.
"I'm going, John," she said before he could even open his mouth.
He'd been expecting that, of course. "Elizabeth—"
"John," she said mildly.
"—it's not exactly safe over there. The weather's unpredictable and dangerous, and people will be upset and scared. It's a volatile situation."
Elizabeth leaned back in her chair and didn't say anything until he dropped into a seat across from her. Sometimes, he really hated when she did that.
"There are nearly a thousand people on Y'li who are refusing to evacuate. Given what Rodney said, it's only a matter of time before that planet undergoes such a dramatic climate shift that no one will survive – if the planet isn't torn to pieces before that. I have to at least try to change their minds. If I can convince even one of them, it's worth it."
In his opinion, the possibility of her life in exchange for someone else's certainly was not worth it. She must have read something in his expression, because she added, "You can assign one of the Marines to me if it'll make you feel better."
Sometimes, he really hated when she got rational.
"Fine," he conceded. "But you leave the instant I think it's too dangerous."
One eyebrow arched, the trace of a smile playing on her lips. "I expected nothing less."
John held her gaze, somehow feeling as though he'd just been played. After a few moments his lips twitched in response and he glanced away. "I've gotta go brief the other teams. Will you be ready to go in an hour?"
"Of course." She waved a hand at the door. "Go brief, Colonel. I'll see you later."
"Yes ma'am." He tossed her a two-fingered salute as he rose and left for the jumper bay.
Elizabeth wove her way through the crowds to where she'd left her pack, digging through its contents for the bottle of water she knew was in there. Drinking deeply, she surveyed the crowd around her.
It was pretty much semi-organized chaos. She'd been there for hours now, first meeting with the leader of the village where most of the people who refused to leave lived, and then another hour talking to the inhabitants themselves. By the end of it all she thought she'd managed to talk a little more than half of them into leaving by convincing them of how deadly serious the situation was, and by promising to send through a MALP every two weeks until either they could move back home or the planet was destroyed. Elizabeth couldn't quite dissuade them of the notion that they'd be able to move back home; at this point, though, she'd take what she could get.
"Elizabeth."
She turned to see John coming up from behind, looking worn out. She held out her half-full bottle and he took it with a nod of thanks, draining it in one go. "How's it going?" she asked.
John wiped his mouth with the back of his hand, handing her the empty bottle. "We're making progress," he said, ignoring the look she gave him as she stuffed the bottle back in her pack. "Another two or three hours and we ought to get everyone relocated." He tipped his head in the direction of the village. "It looks like you had some luck."
"Yeah." She turned back to the villagers. "Massone and I managed to convince about half of them that they need to leave."
A hand brushed her shoulder. "You can't save everyone, Elizabeth. Focus on the ones you have saved."
She didn't respond, and after several very long seconds John cleared his throat. "You ready to head back to Atlantis?"
"Not yet."
"Elizabeth—"
"I'll go when the rest of our people start back. Until then, I can help."
She could tell that he wanted to argue, but he didn't. "Be careful," was all he said, and then he left in the same direction from which he'd come. Elizabeth zipped up her pack and went back to work.
"Dr. Weir!"
Lorne's voice was barely audible over the howl of the wind, but Elizabeth caught enough of her name that she paused and looked behind the group of Y'lians she was leading to where the jumpers were waiting. Lorne jogged up a few moments later.
"Dr. Weir." As close as they were, he was still nearly shouting to be heard over the wind, which had picked up in the past half-hour. It had brought dark clouds with it, and a storm was imminent. "We're nearly finished, ma'am. This group is leaving on the second-last jumper and Colonel Sheppard wanted you on it."
The fact that John had sent Lorne instead of coming to talk to her himself told her the answer, but she asked anyway. "Are the last of the Y'lians on this jumper?"
Lorne looked sheepish. "No ma'am."
"Then you tell Colonel Sheppard that I'll take the last jumper with the rest of you," she told him.
Lorne grinned. "The colonel thought you'd say that. I'll let him know."
Elizabeth couldn't help but smile at his retreating form as he took off ahead of them, but it disappeared with a flash of lightning and a deafening crack of thunder. The skies opened up and she was soaked in seconds.
By now she figured they were closer to the jumper than the village; the pilots had needed to set down a fair distance away, thanks to the surrounding forest. "Let's go," she called to the others, picking up her own pace. The group struggled on along a slick path that the rain had turned to mud beneath their feet.
The weather was making John anxious. Or, more precisely, the fact that his people were out in this weather was making him nervous.
Elizabeth was out there with the last of the Y'lians; Lorne had returned several minutes earlier to report that the group was no more than twenty minutes behind him. They'd managed to fit more people in the last few trips than they'd anticipated, so he could send her with this final group. Ronon and Lorne were already in the first jumper, awaiting the final Y'lians.
The plan they'd cobbled together before he'd sent Lorne to check in with Elizabeth was for John to stick around for an extra hour or two while McKay took more readings, but that was before the wind turned into a full-on thunderstorm, the looks of which John didn't like at all. Rodney and Teyla hadn't returned yet, and between the noise of the wind and the wacky electromagnetic fields their radios were useless.
Time to modify the plan.
He made his way to Jumper One, whose rear hatch was still open in spite of the downpour. Both Ronon and Lorne turned at his entrance and he nodded a greeting. "Slight change of plans," he said. "As soon as Elizabeth gets here, you're going to take the entire group through the 'gate. I'll use the jumper's sensors to find Teyla and McKay and rendezvous with you there are soon as I can."
Ronon gave him a look. "I'll stay and help."
"No. Atlantis will need every available person to help these people resettle. I shouldn't be too long – McKay wouldn't have gone far in this weather." Normally that was true, but Rodney had a habit of losing track of all else when absorbed by an experiment and the weather hadn't been nearly this bad when he and Teyla set out.
A glimpse of red and movement at the edge of his vision had him straining to see through the trees. A moment later and Elizabeth was leading a large group of people into the clearing, most of them ducking with every flash of the all too frequent lightning.
"Over here!" he shouted, waving them over as the soaking-wet, mud-splattered group made their way to where he stood.
Elizabeth reached him first, standing with him in the hatchway of the jumper as she ushered everyone else in. There were more people than John had been expecting and the rear compartment was quickly crowded.
"You go with them!" he yelled to Elizabeth over the thunder and the voices of the excited crowd. "I'm staying to look for Rodney and Teyla and then I'll meet you there."
She shook her head. "I'm going with you."
"Elizabeth, just go with them!"
"What if they're injured? You can't take care of them and fly at the same time!"
John would have argued further, but a particularly loud and long roll of thunder – deep enough to rattle his teeth – reminded him that he didn't have the time. Cupping his hands around his mouth, he shouted for Lorne to go, then grasped Elizabeth by the upper arm and sprinted to the other jumper.
It was much quieter in the sealed jumper, so much so they didn't have to yell to be heard. "You should have gone with Lorne." John shed his jacket and left it where it fell as he slid into the pilot's chair. The display popped up as soon as his hands touched the controls.
"Then you should have brought Ronon with you," Elizabeth responded, sliding into the co-pilot's seat. She was sans jacket as well, and a glance to the rear compartment showed both of their coats hanging neatly, rainwater dripping steadily to the floor.
He decided to let the argument go for now; what was done was done, and whether he liked it or not she was with him now. He refocused on the display. "There," he said, pointing to two overlapping blue dots. "They're not far. We can be there in a few minutes."
Beside him, Elizabeth tilted her head in order to examine the display. "Is there any place where you can set down?" she asked.
He shifted his finger to the right. "Here. It's only half a kilometer from where they are." He readjusted his hands and the display screen disappeared, the jumper beginning to rise. "See if you can get through to McKay or Teyla," John instructed as he turned and accelerated.
He listened as she tried Teyla, then Rodney, with no success. The blue dots were moving, though, so at least he knew they were probably okay.
It wasn't long before they were above the clearing closest to his teammates, but it took more effort than usual to set down. Once they'd landed he opened the rear door and turned to Elizabeth. "You stay here," he told her unequivocally.
She raised an eyebrow at the finger he was pointing at her, but for once listened to him and agreed to stay.
John grabbed his scanner, adjusted the settings, and took off through the forest.
Elizabeth found herself avidly watching the edge of the clearing even though it would be at least ten minutes before she could expect her team back. There wasn't much else to do, and the severity of the storm was putting her on edge. It reminded her too much of the storm their first year in Pegasus, when Kolya and the Genii had tried to take Atlantis. She generally avoided thinking about that time as much as possible.
She tried to distract herself by listing the meetings she had scheduled for the rest of the week, in order, hour by hour. It didn't help.
Finally, a good fifteen minutes after John had left, three figures emerged from the trees. She opened the door, wincing as the noise of the storm assaulted her ears. How could weather be so loud?
John was back in the pilot's seat before the hatch had even closed. The wind had, unbelievably, increased since they'd set down, and the jumper swayed as they lifted off. "Hold on," he warned.
Elizabeth half-turned in her seat so she could see Teyla and Rodney. "Are you both okay?"
"Of course not!" Rodney burst out. "We were stuck out in that storm for almost an hour! Do you have any idea how hard it is to walk through mud that's halfway up your legs? I had to leave my equipment behind! And then I was almost crushed by a falling tree – do you see this gash?!" Squinting, Elizabeth could just make out a small scrape on his cheek. "Not to mention the number of times I was almost hit by lightning—"
Looking exasperated – and Elizabeth had no doubt that she'd been listening to Rodney's litany of complaints since the rain started – Teyla cut him off with a sharp "Rodney!" and then answered the question with a much calmer, "We are well enough, Dr. Weir. Although I must admit that I am greatly looking forward to dry clothes."
Elizabeth grinned. "I think we can all empathize with that."
Without warning, the jumper shuddered. Behind her, Rodney squeaked. "What was that?!"
John's eyes never so much as flicked in their direction. "Lightning strike," he said, sounding tense.
"Lightning can do that to a jumper?" She knew it was dangerous, but airplanes flew through storms all the time, right? She'd have thought a jumper wouldn't have a problem.
"A single bolt can contain up to a billion volts of electricity and heat the surrounding air to a temperature five times that of Earth's sun," Rodney explained, peering anxiously out the window. "Ancient tech doesn't work the same as ours, but it's not invulnerable."
The jumper shook again, this time dropping several feet. She could see the effort it took John to bring it back under control.
"Take us over the storm," Rodney suggested. "It'll take us a bit longer, but at least we won't have to worry about falling out of the sky."
"Good idea," John agreed, angling the puddle jumper up.
This time, Elizabeth saw the lightning hit. The entire front window turned a blinding white at the same time that the jumper shuddered violently, rattling her so badly that her teeth ached. She was still blinking away spots when a series of loud pops and cracks sounded in the back, and the ever-present subtle vibration and droning of the jumper disappeared. A look out the window showed her they were sinking. "John?" she said, hearing the strain in her voice.
His hands were moving quickly over the controls. "We lost power." He worked for a few moments more, then turned to the rest of them, sounding too calm. "We're going to hit. Brace yourselves."
Her eyes locked with his for a long few seconds, then Elizabeth leaned forward and covered her head with her arms. She felt when they hit the tree tops, and then the trees. The jumper rolled to one side.
Then they hit the ground.
They hit hard and then bounced as they barrelled forward, crashing headlong into countless trees.
John managed to not lose consciousness, though he wasn't quite as successful at staying in his seat. The puddle jumper had rolled to starboard shortly before they crashed and as a result, his weight was now half supported by the center console and half lying on the edge of the back of Elizabeth's chair.
Elizabeth herself had been tossed against the side – now the bottom – of the jumper, and was already sitting up. "You okay?" he asked, carefully straightening up. He winced a bit at a number of aches that promised to turn into bruises sooner rather than later, but luckily nothing felt broken.
"I think so." Elizabeth stood, swaying a bit at first, but then seemed to find her balance. He could see a long scrape along her arm.
John checked behind them, to the other half of the forward compartment. Like him, Teyla had been thrown to the other side of the jumper, but she and Rodney were already on their feet. "How are you two?"
Rodney opened his mouth, doubtlessly to complain, but thankfully Teyla cut him off before he could get started. "We are fine. What do you want us to do?"
"You and Elizabeth find the first aid kit and our packs. McKay, help me get the door open."
It was slow going to get to the back of the jumper. In addition to being tilted on its side, its contents were scattered everywhere, punctuated here and there by broken control crystals. This puddle jumper wasn't going anywhere without a lot of replacement parts.
The manual control released the door but didn't open it, and it took all four of them pushing at the door to create an opening they could squeeze through.
Either the storm had blown through or they'd managed to fly out of it before his less than spectacular landing, because there didn't seem to be any thunder or lightning and the rain had eased off to a light drizzle. It was nice to be able to hear himself think.
They'd left a clear path of their descent through the forest. What looked to be hundreds of trees had been ripped down, and a muddy trench had been carved into the ground nearly as far as John could see.
He turned to the others, who were also eyeing the evidence of their crash landing. "Did you grab the scanner?" he asked Teyla.
She handed him the Ancient device, and he used it to figure out where they were. In spite of how little control he'd had those last minutes, they'd somehow managed to stay more or less on course and were much closer to the Stargate than they had been. They were, however, still several kilometers away, with much of the intervening terrain forest.
"So, here are our options," he announced. "We can wait here until someone figures out we never made it and comes looking for us, or we can walk. It'll take a few hours and though it looks like the worst of the weather is over, we can't be sure."
Teyla apparently didn't need to spend any time thinking it over. "I vote we walk," she said.
John couldn't say he was surprised; while Teyla was by far the most patient member of his team, she usually preferred to do something rather than nothing if the option was available. He looked to Elizabeth.
"Walk," she seconded.
"Walk," John agreed, turning to Rodney.
He looked annoyed. "Does it even matter what I want?"
"Sure," John assured him. "If you're going willingly, you'll be much less of a pain in the ass." From the corner of his eye he saw Teyla turn away, and Elizabeth was pressing her lips together the way she did when she was trying not to smile. He clapped a sputtering McKay on the shoulder. "Grab your pack. We're leaving."
Elizabeth thought they made pretty good time at first. The rain had stopped about fifteen minutes into their trek, and even though they were all soaked from head to foot and hiking through thick mud, the lack of rain buoyed their spirits. There was a lot of conversation and good-natured teasing as they slogged their way along a gully that led them more or less towards the Stargate.
Their good moods waned as they marched on. Besides getting tired, the rain returned after an hour. Frankly, Elizabeth was miserable, and she knew the others had to be as uncomfortable. Unsurprisingly, Rodney had started complaining, and John was quickly losing his patience. With nothing more than a few silent glances at each other, she and Teyla had managed to manoeuver themselves between the two men.
She was so lost in her own thoughts that she failed to notice John ducking beneath a branch and walked right into it. A sharp pain on her cheek and a smear of blood left on the back of her hand after she swiped it across her face told her she had a new scratch to add to her souvenirs of today's adventure. "Right now," she muttered to no one in particular, "I really miss my piles of paperwork and meetings with angry department heads."
"Well, if you'd listened to me, you'd be there right now."
Elizabeth missed a step, gaping at John's back. It wasn't so much what he'd said as the surly tone of voice he'd used to say it. "Excuse me?"
He glanced at her over his shoulder. "If you'd listened to me for once, you'd be sitting in your office doing paperwork and overseeing meetings instead of getting caught in thunderstorms."
Elizabeth drew a deliberate breath, reminding herself that his day had been even longer than hers. "Why don't we talk about this later?"
He ignored her. "Or crashing in jumpers..."
"Colonel—"
"... hiking through forests..."
She really wasn't in the mood for this. "Enough!"
"Hey, I'm just saying—"
"Well, don't." She pushed past him irritably, annoyance giving her a boost of energy. It also distracted her from her surroundings.
Without her noticing, the gully they'd been walking along had deepened considerably. When John called her name, she spun around to face him. Her foot caught on a fallen branch and threw her off-balance, and then she was tumbling down the side of the ravine with no way of stopping herself.
"Stay here!"
The order to Teyla and Rodney was barely out of John's mouth before he was half-running, half-sliding down the slope after Elizabeth, who was lying motionless at its base. His pant leg caught on something part way down, sending him to his hands and knees, but he was back on his feet before it even registered that he'd sliced open his palm.
"Elizabeth!" He knelt beside her, relieved to see that her eyes were open and she was struggling to sit up.
"I'm okay," she gasped. "Just had the breath knocked out of me." She winced as she pushed herself up, cradling her left wrist against her chest with a hiss.
"What's wrong with your wrist?"
"I don't know. I don't think it's broken, though."
He checked her over quickly but, except for the wrist and a new assortment of scratches and bruises – and being completely covered in mud and bits of debris – she seemed to be all right. He tore a strip from his t-shirt to tie around his own bleeding palm, then used his other hand to help her to her feet. "You okay to climb up?" he asked.
She nodded. "I think so."
A look up the slope showed McKay and Teyla standing anxiously at the top. He waved and then gave them the thumbs-up sign.
He let Elizabeth go first, so he'd have a chance of catching her if she slipped. It was slow going, especially since they could really only use one hand each to help keep their balance or pull themselves up, but eventually they made it to the top with no further injuries.
Teyla insisted on cleaning and properly dressing his wound before they continued, so he sat with gritted teeth and watched Elizabeth as Teyla cleared the dirt out of his cut. Rodney was helping Elizabeth clean out her scrapes, but thankfully none of them appeared to be very deep.
When they were finished and Teyla had packed away the first aid kit, John held out his good hand to help Elizabeth to her feet again. And this time, as they set off for home once more, he didn't let go.
"Oh thank god."
Elizabeth silently but wholeheartedly echoed Rodney's exclamation as the Stargate came into view. All told it had probably been only about three hours since they'd abandoned the jumper, but it felt much, much longer. The Stargate just might have been the best thing she'd seen all day. "Let's go home."
It was at that moment that the sun came out.
Elizabeth was the last one released from the infirmary. Rodney and Teyla had been allowed to leave after a quick check-up, but Carson wouldn't let her go until he'd stitched up John's palm and then checked her wrist himself, no matter how much she protested that she trusted his staff to look after her.
Thankfully she'd been right and her wrist wasn't broken. Carson had just left to find an elastic bandage when John came over.
"So," he started. "If you're ever in the mood for another mudslide, how about you just let me take you out for drinks the next time we're on Earth?"
Elizabeth gave him a look that she hoped told him exactly what she thought of his comment, and he smiled at her sheepishly.
"Look," he said, sounding awkward, "about what I said earlier. I didn't mean—"
"It's fine," she interrupted. "We were all exhausted and on edge. Don't worry about it, John."
"Don't worry about what?"
Elizabeth started a bit at Carson's voice. She hadn't seen him coming.
"Nothing," John told him, starting to back away. He looked at her. "I'll see you later?" At her nod, he disappeared out the door.
Elizabeth sat as patiently as she could while Carson wrapped her wrist. Then she escaped to her quarters for the longest, hottest shower she could stand.
It took three days of John avoiding her before Elizabeth had had enough, and two days more for her to track down what she needed from one of the scientists to put her plan into motion.
She was pretty sure he felt guilty for her fall. It was ridiculous, in her opinion – she should have been watching where she was going, regardless of how angry she'd been at the time – but he was inordinately overprotective sometimes.
Gathering up her hard-won items – they'd cost her the last of her gourmet coffee stash – Elizabeth made her way down to his office, where she knew he was catching up on overdue personnel evaluations. She walked in without knocking and began to speak before he could say a word. "You know," she observed, coming to a stop in front of his desk with her hands behind her back, "I believe you still owe me a drink."
He blinked at her in confusion. "I guess I do."
"Well," she said, displaying her prize, "I thought now might be a good time."
He looked at the bottles of Mudslide in her hands and started to laugh. Elizabeth felt herself relax. "Balcony?" he suggested, shutting down his laptop and coming around the desk to join her.
"Balcony," she agreed, letting him take one of the bottles. Together they headed down the empty hall, hands brushing the entire way.
--end--