SGA: Of Mermaids And Atlanteans 3/4
It was a somber group of five who stood, almost in formation, in the Infirmary when Bates arrived several hours later with an escort of soldiers. Bates smirked at them. "Have you communicated with them that they are never to return?"
"We have," was all John said.
Carson interrupted, "Sergeant, please - these orders make no sense. The banishing I can understand, but there's no need to kill these two!"
"Orders are orders," Bates said. "If you haven't the stomach for it, you don't have to watch. You can stay here."
Rodney asked, "I'm assuming by the 'going with them' that our execution is to be by drowning?"
Teyla touched his arm. "You will be buried as a hero in our city, for how you fought for us."
Bates frowned, clearly not understanding, and Carson said, "I believe they will take care of the bodies for you."
When Teyla nodded, Bates snorted. "Very well. Let's go."
"Sergeant, wait." Carson held up a pair of syringes. "At least let me give them a slow-acting sedative so they don't die in agony." When he hesitated, Carson added, "Even a condemned man killed by lethal injection is given a sedative."
Bates hesitated a moment longer, then shook his head. "No, Doctor. I don't want to have to drag their unconscious a--"
"What part of 'slow-acting' did you not understand, you numpty?" Carson interrupted, rolling his eyes. "They'll walk under their own power, hear their sentence pronounced, then it'll take effect! The final thing these two will ever see will be the water rushin' up to claim them!"
A delighted gleam rose in Bates's eyes when Carson said that. "Fair enough," he nodded. "Inject them, then, Doctor."
Carson moved to John and whispered, "Did you get that, then? Know how to act?"
John scowled at him, though Carson could read gratitude in his eyes. "Fine," he growled as he was injected.
Carson moved to Rodney, who hissed without his lips moving, "So this is the mutagen?"
"Aye," Carson breathed, injecting him. Aloud, he said, "You should start feeling the effects within ten to fifteen minutes."
Ronon leaned in and whispered to Teyla, "If this doesn't work, we'll get them to the surface."
She nodded and whispered back, "We will make certain they survive. Whichever way this goes, they will survive."
Carson then stepped back as Bates gestured the soldiers to move forward. Cuffs were put on the four, and they were marched single-file from the Infirmary.
Carson whispered, "Good luck, you four." He followed this with a short blessing in Gaelic.
~*~
The grim procession was halfway from the Infirmary to the Tank Room when John's neck and between his fingers and toes began to itch. A quick glance over and nod confirmed Rodney was feeling this as well.
As they entered the Tank Room, none of the four were surprised to see a smirking Sumner standing by the tank. "Come to gloat?" John snarled at him.
"More like to say a final goodbye," Sumner shot back. Bates walked over to him and whispered, and the Colonel's eyes widened before narrowing in anger. "I've been informed the pair of you were given sedatives. Is this true?"
"Yes, sir," John ground out.
Rodney nodded. "We know we're going to drown, but at least we'll be asl-asleep." He swayed, blinking his eyes open.
"Fine," Sumner ground out. "I'll have words with Beckett later."
Rodney's eyes flicked upward and met his second in command's eyes. Radek Zelenka, a Czech national, read the message in those eyes and his own narrowed behind his glasses as he gave a slow, decisive nod.
Seeing it, Rodney felt a worry slide off of him. Sumner may think he was going to retaliate against Carson for this, but Radek would look out for their friend.
And Rodney knew if there was anyone who could protect friends from authority figures who misused their position, it was Radek Zelenka. After all, Rodney knew, he had done it before.
Sumner ordered all four up to the edge of the tank. He made sure all four could see the guns surrounding them, then slowly ordered their bonds removed.
The escort from the infirmary moved to take off John's and paused. He raised apologetic eyes to the Major and John could see the instant he saw the alterations on John's neck. Eyes widened in astonishment and then narrowed in calculation - but when the young soldier removed the bonds an instant later, he had a slight smile on his face.
John spared him a quick wink, hoping it was understood. The young man stepped back with a face of stone and the silence of one - but John could swear he winked back.
Sumner frowned when the large male water-breather said something with the cadence of a question - but of course, he couldn't understand. "What are you--"
Ronon gestured and John - swaying slightly now - nodded as if it was the signs he understood. "He's asking for his gun back."
"No. The weapons remain." Sumner then raised his voice. "You two are banished from Atlantis. If you return you will be shot on sight. Bates, proceed."
Bates climbed to the tank edge and pointed sharply toward the water. Ronon nodded and gestured toward Teyla.
As one, the native water-breathers dove. Bates stared into the water. "They're gone," he reported seconds later.
Sumner nodded smugly. "Bates. Proceed."
With that, Bates walked behind the two visibly sleepy humans. Smirking, he put his palms between their shoulderblades and roughly shoved the pair into the water.
Sumner joined him and the pair watched John and Rodney sink like a pair of large stones. They watched the pair weakly wriggle and then - John first - go absolutely still.
Neither was surprised when the water-breathers reappeared and pulled the bodies out of sight. It no longer mattered.
The troublemakers were dead. Sumner turned to address his city. "Now perhaps we can return to normal."
As the soldiers dispersed, under his breath, Radek muttered in Czech, "That's what you think."
~*~
^They can't see us now,^ Ronon said as he looked over his shoulder. ^You're safe.^
Bubbles exploded around John and Rodney's heads as they coughed out their held lungfuls of airborne oxygen and drew in their first gulps of water. New gills and lung structures heaved for a second, adjusting, and then John turned to Rodney. ^Are you okay?^
^No,^ Rodney groused. ^My feet hurt!^
Realising his did as well, John kicked off his boots and watched with fascination as his feet burst his socks, expanding into the webbed near-flippers that Teyla and Ronon possessed. Absently he noticed Rodney doing the same and watched his own fingers fuse with webbing.
Teyla grinned at them. ^Welcome to our world, John - Rodney. Come. Let's introduce you to our village.^
Rodney looked at the massive dome of Atlantis as they swam away and John touched his shoulder. ^We'll go back.^
^I know,^ Rodney replied. ^It's the meantime that worries me.^
^I''m surprised you're not freaked out by us being able to talk.^
Rodney snorted, making bubbles shoot out. ^When they communicated with us, I knew they had some ability to communicate underwater. I theorised once the mutagen took hold, we would have that ability, too. So no, not freaked out. Fascinated, but not freaked.^
^There,^ Ronon said, pointing at a collection of buildings made from coral and stone. ^That's Athos.^
^You were born here?^ John asked.
^I was,^ Teyla said. ^Ronon comes from a tribe called the Satedans. They were decimated by war, and we took him and his wife in.^
^My wife Melena is a healer, like your Carson,^ Ronon said. ^And her clinic is where we're going first.^
^Lovely,^ Rodney groused. ^More beads and rattles.^
But then people were swimming out to greet them, and there was no longer any time for idle talk.
Only Rodney had a sense of what was brewing under the surface, but not even he knew the full extent of what was about to erupt in Atlantis.
On to the Conclusion!