Agent Fox Mulder (i_want_2) wrote in multi_fiction, @ 2009-08-24 20:48:00 |
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Entry tags: | atlantis, galactica, rated: teen, slash, x-over |
Fic: Twice In A Lifetime 5/6 StarGate: Atlantis/BattleStar Galactica
Title: Twice In A Lifetime
Author: Lopaka Tanu
Disclaimer: I do not own BattleStar Galactica or StarGate: Atlantis.
Characters: Gaeta, Lorne, Caldwell, Sheppard, Weir, Rodney, Woolsey Hermiod, Carson, Teyla, and Kate Heightmeyer.
Words: 23,232
Prompt: Galactica jumps to alien planet, is destroyed. SGA rescues.
Fandom: StarGate: Atlantis/BattleStar Galactica
Pairing: Pre-Lorne/Gaeta
Rating: Teen
Warnings: Language, Violence, Character Deaths.
Summary: After rescuing a group of strangers from a debris field, Lorne and the rest of Atlantis become embroiled in a three millennia old mystery that leaves them asking who can they trust.
Author's Note: More SGA style than BSG, which means it tends to be humorously bad in parts.
Spoilers: BSG 2x09; SGA 3x06
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Part 5. Reaching Through Time
"Do we know what happened?" Standing behind Rodney, Elizabeth watched over the man's shoulder. The screen of the computer they were working at had only just been brought back online. It was one of only a few on the entire base working after five hours.
"Hold on. I'm not a miracle worker." Rodney paused in his typing and smirked. "Okay, not usually. There are a few times, I admit, were pretty miraculous if I do say so myself."
"Rodney, the outage." Elizabeth's voice was raspy with exhaustion. She had never really thought about how much of the city relied upon computers. Now, it was a nightmare getting them back to working.
"Oh, all right." Getting back to his work, he quickly ran through the boot up protocols. "All right, I'm in to the database, let me run a quick scan for anomalies."
Putting a couple fingers to her forehead, she yawned. "That can wait. I want to know the cause that way we can deal with it so this won't happen again."
This worked to only annoy the sitting man. "I am trying. If you would leave me be, may be I could actually get something...Oh! Here we go." Snapping his fingers, he pointed at the screen. "I found why everything in the city shut down."
When he didn't continue immediately, Elizabeth barely restrained the need to snap at him. "Well?"
"It was told to." Looking back over his shoulder at Elizabeth, Rodney waited for the congratulations. He frowned at her expectant look. Sighing with annoyance, he rolled his eyes. "Someone told the city to shut down. A direct command entered in the city's control core."
"How is that even possible?" Alarm caused Elizabeth's voice to raise slightly. Putting a hand on Rodney's shoulder, she nodded to the computer. "I thought we had put up blocks to prevent that from happening."
"We did. There is only one place that it could have been done. The Control Chair." Even as he spoke, Rodney brought up the security log information. What he found made him lean back with wide eyes. "This can't be." Paling, he turned to meet her gaze. "It says there hasn't been anyone in there for at least a week."
Elizabeth frowned. She didn't like the implications of this. "Scan for hackers and possible Asuran sabotage. Also, run a security sweep for anyone or anything who's on this base that shouldn't be." The control room went quiet as everyone suddenly turned to look at them.
One of the techs working at the Gate Console swallowed painfully. "You don't think..."
"Let's not take any chances," Elizabeth silenced whatever question he was going to raise. The order itself was going to make people paranoid, no need to allow fuel to be added to the fire with speculation. Reaching up to her ear piece, she clicked it on. "Colonel Sheppard, come in please." Her voice was steady despite the sudden sick feeling in the pit of her stomach. "I want armed teams sweeping this entire city. We might have an intruder."
~~~~~~~~~~
Felix was beginning to get use to waking up in strange places. At least this time he wasn't connected to several machines. He thanked the gods for small miracles.
The room was pleasantly warm. That was always a good thing in a prison. It meant that they cared about his comfort.
He was laid out on a firm mattress that felt big enough for him this time. It even had room enough for him to roll over before he hit a wall. Opening his eyes, he ran his fingers along the blue-gray surface. It felt an odd mixture of stone and metal.
"You're safe here." It was a raspy voice, very familiar.
Closing his eyes, Felix sighed. The man from the ship, of course. "Where exactly are we?"
"You're in a private room aboard Atlantis." He didn't sound to happy about that.
Well, good. Felix was glad that he wasn't the only who didn't want to be here. Reaching up with the hand no trabbed beneath him he rubbed at his face. "What do your people want with me?"
"I have no idea." His sigh was loud. The sound of his joints popping filled the room as he stood up. "You're just a few survivors we picked up. There is nothing unusual about that, you'd be surprised by how often we have to..." He trailed off with a sigh.
"I am surprised there is even someone out here." Felix was too tired to care if he should be volunteering any information. The Fleet, the Colonies, his people were all gone. What did it matter any more? "Most of us believed the promise of a new home to be a lie."
"The promise...Earth." He sounded like it was something he should have known without asking. "You guys were searching for us all that time. That's weird, because a couple of years ago and you wouldn't have found anything."
"I haven't found anything. You've taken me from the rest of my people." Opening his eyes, he stared at the wall like it would solve all his problems. It was a silly notion.
Grimacing, he stared at Felix's back. "You're alive."
"Is survival really worth what I've lost?" Felix snorted. "In the final days before the attack, I was considering quitting the service. I wanted to study Genetics." He smiled at the memory. "I minored in it at the Academy."
"Tactical Officer, Mechanical Engineering, Advanced Mathmatics, and now Genetics, you sound like a very smart person." There was genuine affection in his words. Leaning back against the wall, he folded his arms. "Were you typical of your people?"
"No." The response was automatic, but then Felix frowned. He thought it over for a moment. "Once, may be. We were highly advance about four thousand years ago." The hand he had used to scrub his face now reached up to scratch an itch at the back of his head. "We had to have been to leave Kobol."
"Yeah, I read that in the logs."
Surprised, Felix laid back so he could turn and look at the man. To his amazement the man actually appeared to be blushing over the admission. "You found them. Then you know what happened there."
"Yeah, and I'm sorry." Staring at his boots, he shifted uncomfortably. "You people can't seem to catch a break."
"There is a saying, 'you can't go home again.' I guess it's true no matter how long it's been." There was a silence after that. Felix looked to the ceiling for something to do.
~~~~~~~~~
Taking a break, Elizabeth gave herself permission to look about. Every Tech and Scientist in the control room was busy manning the equipment. There wasn't much for her to do except get in their way, but she wanted to know everything that happened as it happened.
Head aching, Elizabeth rubbed between her eyes. It would only get worse the longer she put off getting some sleep. Yet, there were too many things needed doing before she could afford the luxury.
Speaking of someone who looked ready to catch forty winks, she found Chuck blinking blearily at his monitor. Forcing herself to move, she walked over to stand behind him. She put a supporting hand on his shoulder. "How is it going?"
Chuck nearly jumped out of his skin. Staring up at her with wide-eyes, he shivered. "You scared the bejeezes out of me."
"Sorry." Elizabeth pulled her hand back with a smile and a wince. "Can I get you anything?"
"Nah, I already ordered a couple pots of coffee from the cafeteria for everyone." With a deep breath, he went back to his work. "I'm just checking the control program against the master copy for flaws. If someone wanted to tamper with us, cutting us off from the rest of the Universe would be a good idea."
"Good idea." This time, she patted him softly on the shoulder. "Anything so far?"
He grinned at her out of the corner of his eye. "Nope, nothing out of the ordinary." Reaching out, he tapped on the console to begin scrolling to the next bit of code. Just as he pulled his hand back a window popped up. Frowning, he leaned forward to squint at it. "What now?"
"Something the matter?" Elizabeth couldn't keep the hopeful curiosity out of her voice. All this 'nothing' in their results was bothering her. She needed some hard evidence before her own tired brain supplied her with false conclusions.
"Yeah." Tapping at the controls, he studied the pop's information. "Something just tried to access the gate address database." Using the mouse, he clicked on the alert window. "I'll try to trace the source."
While he did that, Elizabeth had another idea. "Rodney!"
Setting his sandwich down, Rodney waved at her over his shoulder. "Mime mon mip!" He turned his chair back to face his computer. After a quick wipe with the back of his hand over his mouth, he began to furiously type in his codes to access the core.
"Let me know what you find." She gave Chuck's shoulder a gentle squeeze before walking back over to Rodney.
~~~~~~~~~
"Hey, doc, I got another one for you." Arm stretched over his shoulders, John helped the limping Lieutenant through the infirmary doors. He patted the man's side to keep him going. "Just a little bit further."
"He'll have to wait, Colonel Sheppard. I'm a little busy here at the moment." Elbows deep in a bin of supplies, Carson quickly sorted through the plastic coated packages until he found what he was looking for. Holding up a surgical kit, he sighed with relief. "Thank god. I thought I would have to send Katie back to the storage room for another container."
Sheppard winced at the thought of that. The nurse already looked harried. "I don't think that would be too pretty." He continued with the soldier over to a group of chairs near the far wall.
"Aye, that it would not." Pulling the rag from his belt, Carson used it to wipe his forehead. "God it's hot in here. I'm glad they got the lights back on, but some air circulation would go a long way too. Not just for comfort, but sterilization works better if we don't let things sit."
"Yeah, about that, I don't think the air conditioning is their top priority." After he helped the man in to the seat, John rubbed at his own forehead and neck. The sweat left his arm slick with moisture and he grimaced. "How are things holding up here?"
"As well as can be expected. Most of our systems were critical, so they got them back up quickly." Replacing the rag back in his belt, Carson snatched up the surgical kit from the bin. "I'll help out when I can, but I've got to get this to my nurse so she can prep." He held it up so John could see the supplies.
John waved it off. "You just go do what you need to do. Lieutenant Marston will be right here waiting." Smirking down at his man, he enjoyed the mock hurt expression.
"Thank you." Carson started for the closed off surgical bay.
"Oh, Carson, there is just one quick thing." John waited until the man turned to look at him. "Have you had a chance to look over that patient they beamed down from the Dadaelus yet? I've got a hunch on something."
This made the doctor frown. "I did a cursory check, he's fine."
"What about scans, you know, something more in-depth?" Keeping his eyes off the other man allowed Sheppard to keep his suspicions to himself. Carson was sometimes too intuitive for his own good.
He wasn't good enough as Carson narrowed his eyes at him. "No, but I had planned on doing it later when I had the time."
"Sooner, if you can. I think...nah, it's probably just my imagination." Waving it off, John turned for the door. "Thanks for the help, doc!" The seed planted, he knew he would have the results by the end of the hour.
~~~~~~~~~
"Do they always react this way?" Dropping his hand from his face to his knees, Felix looked up. He was sitting with his back against the wall, knees drawn up to his chest.
In the chair across the room, Lorne looked up from the floor. He raised an eyebrow in question.
"You said you've rescued survivors before." The white cotton of the shirt felt strange against his skin since he was used to synthetic material. Well, at least Felix assumed it was cotton. It sure felt like it. "Do they react like I have?"
"Actually, there were a couple, yeah." Lorne shift in his chair as his leg started to go to sleep.
"How did they deal with it?" He really wanted to know. A point of reference of where to go now would have helped.
The man was about to answer, but stopped himself with a frown. He studied Felix for several moments. "I don't know. Honestly. That's not the part I usually deal with. I'm the head of a first contact and exploration team."
"Oh." There was no other reaction that felt appropriate. Nodding, Felix looked back down at his knees. "Do you want to be here for this?"
Closing his eyes, Lorne shook his head. He reached down in to his lap to tug on a string hanging from the bottom of his T-shirt.
Felix snorted. "That makes two of us." Looking up around the room, he scanned for anything of interest. It was a pretty standard cell, nothing but the walls, bed, chair, floor, and lights to distract. There was also the hatch, but it wasn't coming open for him.
That left his cellmate.
Shifting his gaze back to the man, he tilted his head to the side. "What is the purpose of holding me here?" He tugged at his hair for a moment out of frustration. "This can't be standard protocol if you say you rescue people."
"It isn't." Slowly opening his eyes, Lorne glanced up to meet the the other's stare. He shrugged with the same enthusiasm "I don't know. They want something, I think."
"Whatever it is, I'm not sure what I can give them." Wrapping his arms around his knees, Felix craned his neck so he could see his stocking covered feet. "Everything they could need is in those logs." He said it extra loud for those listening.
Noticing the change in volume, Lorne snorted and smirked at the other. "They're not being real subtle here are they?"
"I'd like to think I'm smart enough to figure out why you are here." Looking back up the ceiling, he traced the pattern around the lights with his eyes.
~~~~~~~~
Holding up a hand, Kate silenced Caldwell's oncoming anger. Together they stared down through the observation window in to the cell. "It was expected. He was instructed not to lie unless he absolutely had to."
The news was met with a huff from the Colonel. He glared across the glass at the Psychologist. "Your method is getting us no where fast."
"You and Doctor Weir came to me, Colonel, because you knew I could get results. You just have to be patient a little more longer." Checking her own notes, Kate made sure to write down the latest change. "So far, he is progressing remarkably fast for his circumstances, but well on course."
"Yeah, well, let's hope he continues and gets to the good stuff before Mr. Woolsey wakes up." Already Caldwell could hear the snide voice in his head. There were definitely going to be hell to pay for the actions of Atlantis 1 on this one.
"Yes." She grimaced with distaste. "We could all lose our jobs for this."
Going back to his watching, Caldwell leaned against the railing. "It's better than letting some slimy IOA asshole work one over on us."
This gave her a hint that she couldn't resist. "Are you sure it's not just your curiosity getting the better of you?"
"No, it's not." He finished with a high pitched, simpering voice and fake giggle. "They pulled me off a vital mission during a rescue I hadn't even reported yet. Some how, someone got word back to them that I had passengers that might interest them." Dragging his eyes away from the two men, he narrowed them at her. "Doesn't that seem a little suspicious to you?'
"Yes, but is it really all that important?" She wasn't going to write it down, but his reaction itself made her interested. "Governments do this thing all the time and not tell people about, even those involved. That's just what they do."
"Yeah, well that might fly back on Earth, but this isn't some friggen Cold War operation. I'm the commander of a Star Ship in another galaxy. There are a lot of people depending upon my mission being carried out successfully." His features became animated as he spoke. The lines on his face where his glasses normally sat seemed to deepen. "I admit, I don't like being dicked around by some petty bureaucrat. But when you put my crew's life at risk, you had damn well better have a good reason."
"I hardly think telling you to bring them back here puts your people at risk." At his murderous expression, she held up her hands. "Just calling it as I see it."
"What other explanation do you have? As of now, I can only think that the secrets that man down there has puts everyone of us in jeopardy. Since the IOA knows something and they aren't telling, we have to figure this out for ourselves. That's why they kept Sheppard out of this, they knew he would figure it out." When she didn't respond, he went back to observing the two men.
It had proven just as she suspected, though. She went back to her own observations. This would be a long one no matter how quickly the interrogation went.
~~~~~~~~~~
"I still don't see it." Groaning with frustration, Rodney smacked his keyboard. This caused the screen it was attached to to jump.
"I understand your frustrations, Rodney, but please be kinder to our equipment." Elizabeth leaned down to pat him on the shoulder. "What seems to be the problem?"
"I can't find the source. Whoever keeps accessing our systems must be doing it remotely." Running a hand through his hair, he tugged at the strands. "I've scanned the city, the planet, hell, even the entire solar system. There is no one even close enough to be doing this, yet, some how, they are!"
Nodding her understanding, Weir gave his shoulders a squeeze. "Then stop focusing on this. Try blocking their access."
"I can't! If I knew how they were doing, may be, but until then, I'd be throwing stones in the dark." At her second shoulder squeeze, he rolled his eyes. "Of course, you want me to start throwing stones."
"As many as you can think of." She chuckled at his put upon sigh and let him get back to his work. Turning to the other person on the case, she looked over at Chuck.
A quick shake of his head told her where that went.
Sighing, she felt her good humor slip away. Seven hours since the shut down and nothing. They were no closer to finding out what the hell had happened than they were when it happened. Elizabeth was about ready to take a break when her ear piece signaled.
Sighing, she tapped it to activate it. "Dr. Weir." The voice on the other end made her smile a little. "What have you got for me, Carson? Good news, I hope." A beat later she was actively glaring at nothing. "I see." Hand to her ear piece, Elizabeth clenched her jaw. "Thank you, Carson. I will see to it immediately." The tone of her voice drew a few heads.
One of those belonged to Rodney. Glancing over from his work, he frowned at her. "What's going on?"
"Keep at those firewalls, Rodney. We're going to need them very soon." Switching channels, Elizabeth brought up the security comm. "Colonel Sheppard, come in."
This time Rodney turned around completely to openly gawk at her.
"I want a full security detail down in the medical quarantine lab now! Make sure they are armed with one of everything we've got." Jaw clenching, she lowered her voice. "I'm not sure, but I don't want to take any chances. Weir out."
Stalking over to the security guard at the entrance to the control room, she stopped by him. "If anyone unknown appears at this door, shoot them, do not ask questions."
He blinked at her in surprise. "Ma'am?"
"You have your orders." With that, she left a stunned control room behind and headed in to the city.
~~~~~~~~~
"Actually," glancing up from his knees, Felix grinned, "I haven't. I could be a convert to the Goddess Hestia if I wanted." He checked to his right to see Lorne's reaction.
Hands flat on the bed, Lorne kept his face on his own knees. "You're pulling my leg."
"Not in the least." Felix couldn't keep the humor out of his voice. It was the truth, but the man's reaction amused him.
Raising his head, Lorne frowned. Then he glanced over at Felix. The other man's face was so close he could see his pupils dilate. "Are you telling me that you're a..." He looked away, then back again; his cheeks coloring. "Really?"
"Yes." The look on the man's face was priceless. Felix laughed loud enough that it echoed off the walls. As he sobered, he rubbed at his eyes. "Why does this surprise you. Surely there those among your people that have never..."
"None that would ever admit it!" Realizing the implication of his words, Lorne's eye went a little wide as he cackled with laughter. "No! No way. I'm not one."
Raising his eyebrows, Felix twisted his face in a sarcastic expression. "Sure, Major, I believe you."
To retaliate, Lorne shoved Felix's shoulder until he rolled away. "Oh, shut up!"
This left Felix on his side and laughing. Holding his legs, he kept them against his chest. That was quickly brought to an end by a new sound, one he didn't recognize. Opening his eyes revealed to him that the hatch across the room had opened. Felix sobered up quickly when he saw who was on the other side.
Stepping in to the room, Elizabeth was flanked by four guards with weapons drawn. They took up positions in front of her and aimed their weapons at Felix.
Clearing her throat, Weir drew both men's attention from the guns to her. "Major, come away from the prisoner, now."
The last traces of the amusement on Lorne's face slipped away. Staring from her to the guns in alarm, he frowned. "Dr. Weir, what's going on?"
"We've been mistaken about something, now please, get back from him." Her voice held a hard edge that brokered no refusal. While she spoke to Lorne, her eyes were focused solely upon Felix. "Our guest has been hiding something from us."
Sitting up slowly, Felix held his hands out to his side. He knew better than to make any sudden moves. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed that the Major hadn't complied with his orders. "I believe she means business, Evan."
"What is she talking about?" Completely facing Felix, Lorne sat up on one knee. "Are you hiding something from us?"
This made Felix snort. Closing his eyes, he shook his head before dropping it to his chest. "Even if I was, she would know it by now."
"You're damn right. It took us a little while, but things finally added up. You're more perfect than any we have ever encountered before." Weir gave him a sad look, one more of pity than remorse. "Funny thing is, you were trying to tell us from the beginning, we just weren't listening."
"What are you..." Lorne looked over at her in annoyance. The cryptic statements were getting on his nerves fast. It was then he noticed the type of weapons they were training on Felix. Seeing them made him swallow nervously. When he turned back to the man in question, he was a couple shades paler. "What are you?"
"I believe the word you are looking for is Cylon." His voice barely above a croaking whisper, Woolsey stood in the hatchway. The ice pack to his chest made him shiver. When two grim faces looked his way, he rolled his eyes and sighed. "Cut the cliched theatrics already, it's getting very tiring."
Without breaking her attention from Felix, Weir spoke to the man behind her. "How long have you known? Were the IOA even going to bother to tell us what kind of threat we had here?"
"No. It was deemed they posed no threat to us given their fleshy forms." At her scoff, he rolled his eyes again. "All right, I admit we were a little misinformed on that one. How were we to know your city was vulnerable to..."
"Machines?" Stopping just behind Woolsey, John's smug voice was loudly yelled at his ears.
Wincing, Woolsey glared at him. "Actually, they are no more a machine than you are a genius." Dismissing the Colonel from thought, he turned back to Weir. "They are synthetic lifeforms, carbon copy clones. This one should never have been able to remotely access even so much as a garage door."
Felix felt the world start to shift around him. Swallowing, he barely managed to keep down the contents of his stomach. So strong was the blood pumping in his ears that he barely heard them speaking. It couldn't be true.
"They have the ability to upload their memories back to their ships. Once there, they can be downloaded in to a new body." Lorne's voice was barely above a whisper as he remembered aloud the quote. As he finished speaking, he turned to look at Felix. "You're one of them?"
Felix tried shaking his head in denial. "No." All he managed to do was shiver.
"Of course he is." Woolsey stated it with his normal level of annoyance. "The question still remains of how did he access your systems remotely though. Even if he had a functioning modem, Atlantis is physically designed not to respond to anything but someone with the ATA Gene."
"That's the easy part." Taking control of the conversation once more, Weir nodded to the soldier next to Lorne. "Carson ran a cellular test on the sample he took from the Cylon. Along with discovering that there was no possible way he was Human, given his base elements are silicon, not carbon, he found something unique."
John opened his mouth to supply the answer.
Woolsey beat him to the punch. "The ATA Gene, of course." Adjusting his glasses, Woolsey ignored John's disappointed glare. "I suppose it makes sense. It would take someone from an extremely advanced species to create an artificial lifeform. This would not be the first time the Ancients meddled with the technology."
"Ancients?" John frowned at the man. "Where did they come in to this? Last I heard, these people were still living up to a couple days ago."
Giving the man an incredulous expression, Woolsey's face started to turn a little red. "You know for a fact that there were still ancients out there, mortal and completely human like the rest of us."
"Technically, they aren't Ancients. They're a sub-species." Weir looked Felix directly in the eyes when he glanced up at her. "Or, they were until five months ago when your people decided to get their revenge. I did get that right, didn't I? Your people took vengeance against your creators."
Feeling like his head was underwater, Felix had trouble just keeping it up. "I'm not a Cylon!" He was just as surprised as everyone else it the room when the light above him flickered. "Please." A little shaky, he trembled against the wall. "You have to believe me."
"Forget it, we've got all the scans and tests that prove it." Woolsey frowned at the light when it flickered again. "Would someone please do something about that before he shuts the entire city down again."
"Wait just a minute." Annoyed that the conversation had been hi-jacked again, Weir's voice held a hard edge. "There's still the question of how you found out so quickly, Mr. Woolsey. I'm sure Colonel Caldwell would like to ask you that one personally."
"Oh, for the love of..." Woolsey trailed off as he slapped at his pocket. Shortly afterwards, an electronic thump echoed in the room. In the next instant he was wincing away with everyone else as a bright flash filled the room. When he could see again, the bed was empty. "About damn time."
"Okay, what just happened here?" Blinking to clear his vision, John frowned at Woolsey. "Did you do something else stupid?"
"Don't be ridiculous. That was an Asgard..." Trailing off, Woolsey adjusted his glasses again. "I guess the cat's out of the bag now." The next instant found him pressed against the hatchway with John digging in his pocket. "Hey! What do you think you're doing? That is not something for you to play with!"
With a shout of triumph, John pulled what he had latched on to out of the other man's pocket. Holding it up, he held it out for everyone to see. The pear shaped device glowed soft white. "I believe everyone here knows what this little device does."
Reaching out, Weir took it from John's hand. Holding it up, she gestured with it at Woolsey. "The Asgard? You were working with the Asgard?"
"They are our allies, Dr Weir. They have the right to make requests and we have the obligation to see that they are fulfilled." Jerking the hem of his shirt out of John's hand, Woolsey glared at the other man. "I will be making a report on this incident."
"Yeah, you do that." Stepping in closer, John sneered. "And so will I."
"Uh, gentlemen." Weir waited until she had their attention before continuing. "Where is Major Lorne?"