Atlantis Café 16 - The Ghost Ship of Atlantis
Title: Atlantis Café
Author: Soledad
Fandom: Stargate: Atlantis/Torchwood x-over
Rating: Teens, for this part.
For disclaimer and background trivia go to the secondary index page.
Warning: still not Gwen-friendly - nothing I ever write would be. You’ve been warned.
Author’s note:I do use rewritten parts of the original episode here. Obviously. However, the context is a very different one as you’ll see. And yes, I have messed up SGA timeline just a teeny bit. But this is an AU.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
PART 16 - THE GHOST SHIP OF ATLANTIS
Two weeks later, Ianto is delivering Sergeant Charles Lenoir, the Canadian Control Room technician - generally known and loved as Chuck among soldiers, scientists and Athosians alike - the usual thermos of coffee, when something on the man’s console starts beeping. Sheppard and McKay are coming from the conference room, arguing about something as usual, and stop at once to see what it might be.
Lenoir checks his console - twice - and then he looks up at Sheppard with a frown.
“Colonel, we got a new contact,” he reports. “Looks like a ship.”
“How far out?” Sheppard asks, his tactically oriented mind considering several defensive probabilities already.
“It’s in orbit,” Lenoir replies in honest bafflement. Sheppard frowns, too.
“Well, how come we didn’t detect it?” he demands. Lenoir spreads his hands in confusion.
“I don’t know, sir” he admits. “We didn’t even detect the hyperspace window. It just… it just appeared out of nowhere.
Ianto feels cold shivers running down along his spine. Wasn’t it how the Battle of Canary Wharf has started? With an unidentified ship appearing out of nowhere? But there isn’t any spatial rift above Atlantis, is there? So it’s probably something entirely different. Or so he hopes.
McKay, in the meantime, has shooed the technician away from his console and is now working on it himself.
“Hang on a second,” he says distractedly. “We’re getting I.F.F. It’s the Daedalus!”
“The Daedalus?” Ianto repeats in surprise. “How can that be? They’re on their way back to Earth.” For indeed, the Daedalus had arrived with a great amount of raw material and spare parts to help repair the damage caused by the growing Wraith ship in the middle of Atlantis, only to turn around at once and go back for even more supplies.
McKay shrugs. “Well, they were - or they were supposed to be.”
“They wouldn’t turn back without contacting us first,” Ianto says, knowing Colonel Caldwell, who’s a strictly by-the-book officer.
“Perhaps a malfunction in the board systems?” Lenoir suggests.
Ianto shakes his head. “Doctor McKay dispatched Doctor Zelenka to oversee the general system check before departure. If he says everything was in best working order, then it was.”
Sheppard shrugs. “Well, we can always ask. Open up a channel, Sergeant.”
Lenoir activates his controls and points to Sheppard to indicate that the channel is open. Sheppard activates his headset radio. “Daedalus, this is Atlantis, please come in.” There’s no reply. Sheppard tries again. “Daedalus, please respond.”
McKay hurries over to the other console, checks something - then he looks up in shock. “They’re not gonna answer.”
“Why not?” Sheppard echoes everyone’s unspoken question.
“‘Cause I’m not reading any life signs,” McKay replies, pale like death itself.
Sheppard raises an eyebrow, more to cover his own shock than to provoke their head geek. “What are you telling me, Rodney? This thing flew here by itself?”
As expected - and probably intended by Sheppard - McKay quickly overcomes his shock in behalf of righteous indignation.
“I don’t know how they got here,” he snaps, “but there’s no-one on board. At least, no-one alive.”
“So, what are we doing now?” Lenoir asks.
“You’ll keep an eye on that thing,” Sheppard replies. “I’m gonna snatch a puddlejumper, alert my team and take a closer look.”
“Shouldn’t you consult Mr. Woolsey about this step first?” Ianto asks mildly. Sheppard shrugs.
“Nah, matters like this are well within my authority,” he gives Ianto a shrewd look. “Have you ever flown a puddlejumper?”
“Unfortunately, my artificial gene doesn’t provide me with a pilot licence by default,” Ianto replies wryly. Sheppard rolls his eyes.
“I meant as a passenger.”
“No, I haven’t had the pleasure yet,” Ianto says. He did have several invitations to visit the Athosians on the mainland but haven’t so far found the time to do so.
Sheppard slaps him on the shoulder jovially.
“Well, this must be your lucky day, then,” he says. “Teyla is on the mainland, attending to some harvest festival or whatnot, so I’m short one man. You can come with me in her stead.”
“And what possible use could I be for your team, Colonel?” Ianto asks. “Granted, I can fire a gun and use a computer, but I’m neither a soldier, nor a scientist.”
“You’re a little bit of both,” Sheppard answers. “And if I take you with me, Woolsey can’t complain that I’m acting on my own again.”
Ianto thinks about it for a second or two; then he promptly agrees. He’s dreamed about flying in space aboard a puddlejumper from his first day on, and this is the best excuse he can find, without asking for favours.
“All right,” he says. Sheppard grins.
“Great. D’you think you can manage to put on a uniform, for a change? Preferably one complete with a gun holster?”
“I’ll see what I can do,” Ianto replies with dignity and all but runs out of the Control room.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Barely half an hour later, he’s sitting in a puddlejumper with Sheppard, McKay and Ronon Dex, geared up and properly armed for a potentially dangerous mission. Still, he feels a lot less nervous about it than he would feel about Weevil hunting or any other Torchwood-related action. Perhaps because he knows that Sheppard is a professional, having done black ops in the past. Perhaps it’s the looming presence of Ronon Dex, the ultimate survivor - unlike most people, Ianto isn’t intimidated in Ronon’s presence. He values the man for what he is: an almost-guarantee for the team coming back alive.
So no, he’s not nervous… well, perhaps a little, but in a good way. In fact, he feels like a child in a candy shop. The little spaceship is about the coolest thing he’s ever seen, and that includes the Daedalus and the Stargate.
As soon as they are in the air, Lenoir radioes them from the Control room.
“Colonel, we just got confirmation from Stargate Command,” he reports. “The Daedalus is in the Milky Way, on course and on schedule. They expect to reach Earth in two days.”
“Understood,” Sheppard acknowledges; then he breaks the connection and looks out of the front window with a frown. “Interesting.”
“So that’s not the Daedalus, then?” Ronon asks, a little confused.
Sheppard shrugs. “Well, not unless it can be in two places at once.”
“Can it be the Apollo or one of the other ships?” Ianto asks, remembering that Earth’s starship programme has made considerable headway in the recent years.
McKay shakes his head. “It wouldn’t be sending Daedalus’ I.F.F,” he says. “Plus it doesn’t explain how they got here or why we’re not picking up life sign readings.”
“True enough,” Ianto admits. “So, what now?”
“We need to learn more about this ship and where she has come,” Sheppard decides. “I’m taking us in for a closer look.”
He steers the Jumper to a close pass underneath the ship. Eager to see more, Ianto raises from his seat and walks forward until he stands between Sheppard and McKay, holding onto the back pf Sheppard’s seat. All three of them lean forward and crane their necks to look up.
“What are those long black marks on the underside?” Ianto asks. He does have an inkling, but he still hopes he’s wrong.
“Scorch marks, I’d say,” McKay replies.
Ianto hates being right in such things, but in for a penny, in for a pound, he wants the whole answer now.
“What do you think - weapons fire?” he guesses.
“Yeah,” Sheppard surveys the damage with narrowing eyes. “Wherever she’s been, she’s been through some pretty hard times.”
“What kind of weapon it could have been, I wonder,” Ianto muses. “The marks are different from those of Wraith energy weapons… or the ones caused by Ancient drones.”
Sheppard shoots him a baffled look. “And you’d know that - how exactly?” Ianto shrugs.
“Archive vids. Archive photos,” he explains. “Photographic memory. Archivist training. Lots of filing. It all adds up.”
Sheppard pulls a face. “I’ll take your word for that.”
They’re interrupted by the beeping sound of McKay’s console, and Ianto suppresses an involuntary shiver. In his experience, unexpected beeping sounds never mean good news. Even if they aren’t caused by Jack’s wrist strap.
“What’s that?” Sheppard, too, sounds irritated. Perhaps beeping sounds announcing bad news are a universal constant.
McKay checks the readings. “I’m picking up an energy reading,” he replies with a frown. “It’s coming from the ship.”
“Is she powering up her weapons?” Ianto asks in concern. The weapons of the Daedalus are powerful enough to shoot a puddlejumper in pieces, unless the shields are raised. Which at the moment they are not.
“It doesn’t seem so,” McKay answers, “but I have no idea what’s causing it.”
“Perhaps we should find a way in and look for the source,” Ianto suggests.
Sheppard considers it for a moment, then he nods. “Good idea. Rodney, can you get the bay doors open?”
“If the ship’s command systems are as familiar as the rest of it, it shouldn’t be a problem,” McKay is already typing away on his console. “Just get the jumper into position, Colonel, and leave the rest to me.”
Sheppard does as he’s told; Ianto watches with fascination as the jumper rises up in front of the Daedalus and stops level with the bay. He’s travelled aboard the ship but never seen it from the outside before, and now he admits that it’s an impressive sight.
“Done,” McKay announces, and the bay doors open noiselessly - which is something of a disappointment. Ianto misses the creaking an thudding sound he’d normally associate with such large, metallic wings. He knows, of course, that there’s no sound in the vacuum of space, but theoretical knowledge and first-hand experience are two very different cups of tea. This little scene makes it glaringly obvious, just how different outer space really is.
“Hmmm,” Sheppard says, giving the mostly empty bay a searching look. “No F-302s. Strange.”
“There is a jumper, though,” Ianto points at the single lozenge-shaped little ship parked on the right side.
“You sure there’s no-one else inside?” Ronon growls behind them. The big Satedan practically towering over them, which would make most men nervous. Ianto feels safe and protected instead.
“As far as I can tell,” McKay corrects. “No guarantees, though.” There never are any.
“All right,” Sheppard says. “Gear up, people. We’re going in.”
For a moment, he sounds eerily like Jack at the beginning of a field mission. Ianto feels a slight pang in his heart and is still fighting to get it under control while Sheppard flies the jumper inside and lands it next to the other one. They all shoulder their backpacks, ready their weapons, and then the team disembarks.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
The bay is dark and cold, and so is the corridor behind it. As a rule, Ianto isn’t bothered by poorly-heated places - the Hub was cold and damp, after all, and he practically lived in there - but this is a bit much, even for him.
“Are the environmental systems down?” he asks McKay, shivering. The Atlantis uniform isn’t nearly as much protection against the cold as one of his suits would be.
“Some of them are barely registering,” the scientist consults his computer tablet distractedly. “The ship’s operating on emergency power.”
“But you still picking up that weird energy… thing?” Ronon asks.
McKay isn’t even looking at him. “That’s right.”
“Can you do something about it?” Sheppard is shivering, too. “It’s freezing here.”
McKay does look up at that, and his look isn’t friendly. “Oh, sure! If you could perhaps hold out until I get to engineering? You aren’t the only one freezing here, you know.”
After a short but intense glaring match Sheppard backs off.
“All right,” he says. “You and Ronon are together. Ianto, you and me, we’re gonna check out the Bridge. Radio me if you find anything.”
They head off in different directions. The corridors are eerily familiar… and also cold and eerily dark. The only sources of light are the torches attached to their rifles, but that’s enough to find their way to the bridge.
“No bodies in here,” Sheppard says, relieved, after shining the light from his rifle around. “That’s… good.”
Ianto isn’t sure he agrees. An empty tomb is still a tomb, and the dead silence sends cold shivers down his spine that don’t have anything to do with the fritzing environmental systems. He shines his torch around, too… and finds the ship’s name plate on the wall. It’s a familiar one.
“Colonel,” he says quietly. “It seems the ship is the Daedalus, after all.”
As Sheppard moves over to take a look, the lights suddenly come on, making them jump a little. They’re both nervous.
“McKay, is that you?” Sheppard asks.
“Of course it was me,” McKay’s irritated voice comes through their headsets. “Who else would it be? D’you think we’ve got a ghost on board or something?”
“It wouldn’t surprise me,” Ianto mutters darkly. Sheppard gives him a funny look.
“What’s our status?” the colonel then asks their head geek.
“I’ve restored basic power to most of the ship,” McKay replies. “It should be warming up any second now.” It’s a promise that makes Ianto very happy, even though his shivering has more to do with the oppressing atmosphere than with the state of life support on board.
“Good,” Sheppard says. “Check on that energy reading. Try to figure out what it is, all right?”
McKay sighs and Ianto can almost see his exasperated eyeroll. “Thank you, Captain Obvious; I’d never have thought of that without your brilliant suggestion,” he answers scathingly an breaks the connection.
Ianto, in the meantime, walks over to the communications station and looks down at the abandoned console. There’s still a light flashing, showing that the station is on standby.
“We should check the ship’s log,” he suggests. “Perhaps we can learn that way what happened to them.”
“The Daedalus’ logs are password-protected,” Sheppard points out.
Ianto gives him a bland look. “So?”
“You mean you can override them?” it’s hard to tell whether Sheppard is more shocked or more relieved that they might, after all, learn something about the situation.
Ianto shrugs. “Sure. I was given sufficient authority when my government assigned me to the Atlantis expedition… besides, I’m a fairly good hacker,” he calls the last log entry up on the wall screen. “Here it comes.”
To their surprise, a vaguely Asian-looking woman in her mid-thirties appears on the screen. She has almond eyes, a helmet of short, shiny black hair, parted in the middle - and she’s wearing a standard Daedalus uniform, with the rank insignia of a colonel.
“Preparations are almost complete,” she says. “We’ve beamed down the last of our supplies and any equipment we think might be useful. I’ll be taking the last of the F-302s down myself. Of course, we haven’t had time to do a proper survey of the planet’s surface but it seems habitable enough: plenty of fresh water, arable soil - not that different from our own. I realise our chance of rescue is slim, but it’s become obvious that we no longer have a choice. This is Colonel Sobol, Commander of the Daedalus, signing off.”
The entry ends, and Ianto looks at Sheppard with a frown. “Do you recognise her?”
Sheppard shakes his head. “I’ve never seen her before in my life. In fact, I’ve never heard of a Colonel of that name being involved with the Stargate programme. Hell, I never heard of any colonel of that name at all.”
“Alternate realities?” Ianto guesses. The thought makes him almost physically ill. Alternate realities, that always reminds him of Canary Wharf, and that is a memory he would bury as deep as possible. “But why would they abandon ship while life support is still functioning?”
Sheppard shrugs. “We should check the previous entries. Perhaps the answer is hidden there somewhere.”
Ianto nods in agreement. “I’ll do it at once.”
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
But his attempts have no results at all. The pervious log entries have all been wiped - the database is completely empty. Purged.
“That must have happened when the mission, whatever it was, started,” Ianto says thoughtfully. “It had to be something very important, if they’ve gone such lengths to erase everything from the logs.”
“Can you restore the entries?” Sheppard asks.
“Not without help,” Ianto admits. “We’ll need Doctor Kusanagi up here; and special software. But yeah, unless the hard rive is physically damaged beyond repair, there is a chance to retrieve the entries.”
“Good,” Sheppard says. “As soon as McKay’s finished his analysis, we’ll call in reinforcements.”
As if on a clue, McKay’s agitated voice cuts in via headset. “Sheppard, come in.”
“Go ahead,” Sheppard replies, clearly not liking the panicked undertone of McKay’s voice - and if anyone, he ought to know what it means. He’s worked with the man closely for more than four years.
“Something’s happening,” McKay tells him, rather unhelpfully. “It’s the energy reading. It’s spiking - it’s going off the charts.”
“Well, do something,” Sheppard replies with forced patience. “Turn it off.”
“I don’t know how!” McKay’s sounding positively hysterical now. “Look, it’s not coming from any of the main systems!”
Simultaneously, Major Lorne calls them from Atlantis’ Control room.
“Colonel Sheppard, this is Atlantis. We’re picking up some kind of power surge coming from the ship.”
“Yeah, we noticed it,” Sheppard replies. “We’re trying to check it out ourselves.”
“Should we send another jumper to assist?” Lorne asks. “Doctor Zelenka says your levels are still rising.”
“Not before we know what we’re dealing with,” Sheppard says. “Stand by.”
Just then, the Daedalus starts to shake violently. It’s not unlike the effect of the Rift opening right under the Hub, Ianto finds, and it makes him even more nervous.
“Colonel,” he says quietly, “I think we should leave while we still can.”
“Good idea,” Sheppard touches his headset. “Team, this is Sheppard. Everyone back in the jumper - we’re leaving.”
Before they could leave the bridge, though, a bright white light envelops the entire room… so bright that they have to cover their eyes against the glare. It only lasts seconds, but they’re still seeing stars minutes later.
“Well, that was… unpleasant,” Ianto comments.
“Have people ever told you that you’re the master of understatement, Mr. Jones?” Sheppard asks with biting irony. Ianto just shrugs.
“Yes,” he replies matter-of-factly. “It’s proved very useful in the past. Especially around co-workers with a hang to overdone dramatics,” he adds, remembering Gwen’s reactions to anything unexpected.
“Yeah, I can imagine that,” Sheppard mutters, and given the fact that he’s been working with McKay for years, he probably can indeed. “Speaking of which,” he touches his headset, “McKay, what the hell was that?”
“I have no idea,” McKay answers, “but the energy reading’s gone back down the way it was.”
“Perhaps Atlantis has recorded something,” Ianto suggests.
“Let’s hope so,” Sheppard changes channels. “Atlantis, are you reading anything unusual?” There’s no reply, so he tries again. “Atlantis, come in.”
There’s still no response. Ianto tries it, too, but with the same results. “Perhaps a malfunction in our own comm net?” he theorizes. “Try the ship’s comm, Colonel, it has a longer reach.”
Sheppard looks at him in surprise. He apparently hasn’t expected someone from the administration to know so much about confidential tech - but again, he hasn’t met anyone from Torchwood before, either - then he pushes the button on the armrest of the command chair. “Atlantis, do you read?”
Still no answer. Sheppard frowns and switches back to his headset, calling McKay. “Rodney? I’m having problems with communications. I can’t reach Atlantis.”
“Let me scan the planet’s surface,” McKay answers. There’s a short pause, then he says, his voice revealing complete bafflement. “Wait a second. That can’t be right!”
“What?” they can hear Ronon’s gruff voice in the background.
“I’m not seeing the city on any of my screens!” McKay is all but screaming.
Sheppard shakes his head in surprise. “What are you talkin’ about?”
“I just did a sensor sweep, and there’s nothing down there but ocean!” McKay answers. He’s already caught himself and sounds almost calm… which is a worse sight than any hysterics. McKay only calms down so suddenly if things are just about to go terribly wrong.
“Well, maybe they cloaked,” Sheppard says. It’s a lame idea, and they all know it, but Ianto cannot resist the temptation to state the obvious.
“They wouldn’t have done that without telling us.”
“Well, I don’t know,” Sheppard says, exasperated. "Maybe there’s a Wraith ship in the area.”
“I’m not reading anything,” McKay replies tiredly.
“Are we certain it’s the same planet?” Ianto asks. “Perhaps the energy burst shifted our position.”
“No,” McKay says. “According to our instruments, we haven’t moved at all.”
“What do you want me to believe, Rodney, that Atlantis just disappeared?” Sheppard demands.
It’s McKay’s turn now to force himself to patience. “Look, I don’t know. Just give me a second and I’ll figure it out, all right? In the meantime I’ve managed to localise the source of the energy reading. It’s coming from a hold on Deck 9.”
“All right, keep trying to reach Atlantis,” Sheppard says. “We’ll check it out. Send Ronon down to help us.”
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
They meet up with Ronon and cautiously make their way along Deck 9 when McKay radioes them again.
“Sheppard, I think I’ve got something,” he says. It’s not very informative, and Sheppard rolls his eyes.
“And that would be? Details, Rodney - preferably in monosyllables, so that I can understand.” He’s not that stupid, actually he understands quite a bit about the Alien tech they’re working with, but McKay tends to launch into scientific theorems only Zelenka could hope to follow. Like, right now.
“It’s the residual radiation from the flash,” McKay explains. “It’s similar to what happens when you open a hyperspace window, but different enough that the sensors wouldn’t have picked it up automatically.”
“Ummm,” Sheppard says intelligently, because the only result of the explanation is that now he’s even more confused than before. “What the hell does that mean?”
Surprisingly enough, McKay is capable of giving a straight answer. “I think we’re looking at a new kind of drive.”
“I thought you said we didn’t go anywhere,” Ianto comments with mild sarcasm.
“We didn’t,” McKay says agreeably, “at least not according to the ship’s navigational systems.”
“So,” Sheppard tries to clarify, “a malfunctioned drive?”
“Maybe,” McKay replies distractedly. “Just hang on.”
As it’s obvious that they won’t get an answer any time soon, Sheppard, Ianto and Ronon go into the room McKay has identified as the source of the unusual energy readings and take a look around. They don’t find anything unusual at first sight, but before they can make a detailed search, McKay shouts into his headset again, making them jump.
“Oh my God. Sheppard!”
Sheppard rubs his ear with a grimace; McKay’s shout nearly deafened him. “Stand by, Rodney. We haven’t had the time to take a closer look yet.”
“No, you don’t understand,” McKay says in excitement. “I know what it is! Look, the residual radiation - it’s exactly what we recorded when my double arrived on Atlantis from an alternate reality. I can’t believe I didn’t see this before!”
When he hears the words alternate reality, Ianto feels his stomach turn upside down again. He knows the Stargate and Atlantis people have dealt with different alternate realities before and lived to tell the tale - he’s read the reports - but that doesn’t make him any more comfortable. He knows he ought to be more useful, he should help Ronon and Sheppard search the room, but he needs a moment to gather his wits around him again.
In the meantime, Ronon seems to have found something - and considering his grim expression, it ain't any good.
“Sheppard!” he calls over to them, “Over here!”
“It’s a drive, all right, but it didn’t move us through space. I think it’s moved us to a parallel universe!” McKay is still talking to them via headset.
That particular piece of information makes Ianto freeze again, but Sheppard gives him a little push. “C’mon, let’s see what Cheewie’s found.”
Ianto can’t help but smile at the Wookie remark - it’s quite matching, after all - then he walks over to Ronon’s position with the colonel. The sight awaiting them is… unexpected, to put it mildly.
“Well,” Sheppard says after a lengthy pause, “this could certainly verify McKay’s theory about alternate realities.”
The three of them stare at the sight of four dead people lying on the floor. The four people are Sheppard, Ronon, Teyla… and a Japanese woman neither of the Atlantis crew has ever seen before. For Ianto, however, she is painfully familiar. She is - or rather was - Toshiko Sato. Or rather a different Toshiko Sato. One who’s wearing the Atlantis science uniform, with a Japanese flag patch on her arm and holds an Atlantis issue computer tablet in her lifeless hand.
Shock doesn’t even begin to describe Ianto’s feelings. The other two are shocked, too, although for different reasons.
Sheppard is the first to pull himself together again. It’s his command, his mission… and he can be very practical-minded, if he chooses to.
“We need to move the bodies into a side room if we want to search this one for McKay’s mysterious energy readings,” he says.
Ianto nods in agreement. Dealing with dead colleagues is something he’s depressingly familiar with, although seeing Tosh dead again isn’t something he’d ever have expected to do. At least none of the corpses is his dead counterpart, which makes it a little easier for him than for the others.
“How long have they been dead for?” Ronon muses, covering the bodies. Sheppard shrugs.
“This place was like a meat locker. They could’ve been preserved like this for months.”
The casual remark has an unfortunate effect on Ianto. It brings up reminiscences of the Brecon Beacons, the fridge full of human body parts, of himself being forced onto the butcher’s table, the razor sharp meat cleaver nicking his throat to bleed him out… The bruised yet determined face of Tosh, whom he tried to save till the last possible moment… and failed. Or would have failed, had Jack not ridden in on that tractor in the very last moment.
He runs out onto the nearest corridor and throws up. Sheppard and Ronon stare after him in bewilderment.
“What’s up with him?” the big Satedan asks, honestly baffled - which is justified, as never in the months spent on Atlantis has anyone seen the unflappable Ianto Jones lose his calm… and in such a spectacular manner at that.
Sheppard, no stranger to traumatic memories himself, shrugs. “Dunno. Something I said must have triggered an old memory.”
“Makes one wonder what he might have done in his previous job,” Ronon comments.
“No idea,” Sheppard admits. “All I know is that he used to work for some shadowy organization everyone seems to have heard of among the British people but nobody seems to have the faintest what it actually is.”
“Perhaps this Doctor Jones knows something,” Ronon suggests. “They seem to have known each other for a while.”
“I’m sure she does,” Sheppard agrees, “but I’m equally sure she won’t tell us a thing. For all that secret organizations are apparently widely known among them, these British guys are awfully tight-lipped when it comes to details. They just smile at you politely and pretend they haven’t even heard your question.”
“Yeah, I know,” Ronon mutters. “That long-haired oceanologist is the worst of all - him and his wife.”
“Doctors McNabb and Moore?” Sheppard asks. Ronon nods. “Yeah, they’re quite solitary people. But very good at their jobs, and that’s what counts, right? Let’s see if our Mr. Jones has recovered, and then we might actually start doing our jobs here.”
Ianto’s not only recovered, he’s already cleaned up after himself - although how he’s done it is beyond Sheppard - and is now looking at them apologetically.
“I’m sorry,” he says. “Remembering how I’ve been nearly slaughtered and eaten by a bunch of in-bred cannibals often has this effect on me. So is dealing with dead colleagues all over again.”
Sheppard and Ronon are understandably baffled by that remark but know better not to ask for details. Not now anyway. Besides, McKay is arriving at that very moment, picks up the computer tablet of the dead lady scientist that has been forgotten on the floor - and becomes highly agitated again.
“Oh, no-no-no-no-no-no-no. This is very bad.”
Sheppard rolls his eyes; a fairly common reaction when he’s around McKay. “What is very bad, Rodney?
“This tablet belonged to the head scientist of and alternate Atlantis,” McKay explains. “However, the dead people you’ve found weren’t part of the original crew. They came here just like us. Look, a ship appeared in orbit over their Atlantis. They came to check it out… the same way we did.”
“That would explain the other jumper in the bay,” Sheppard comments. “So, what happened to them?”
“The ship jumped to another reality and they were stuck,” McKay replies. “They couldn’t get back. Look, eventually their supplies ran out and - and they ... they ...”
“All right, all right,” Sheppard interrupts, when McKay’s voice starts to rise. “Mystery solved. Let’s move on.”
McKay shoot him a slightly panicked look. “But don’t you realise what this means? They were us and they failed.”
“Well, they’re not us,” Sheppard says firmly. “We’re still alive… and besides, half the team is different from ours.”
“Exactly!” McKay prompts, clearly insulted. “What were they thinking, replacing me with some… some girl? Who the hell is she anyway?”
Sheppard and Ronon exchange identical blank looks and shrug in unison.
“Never seen her before,” Sheppard says.
“Her name is - was - Toshiko Sato,” Ianto supplies quietly. “Doctor Toshiko Sato; and she was a genius when it comes to computers and other electronic equipment. She was snatched up to work for governmental think tank when she was twenty and worked for them for ten years.”
“You speak of her in past tense,” Ronon says.
“She’s dead in our reality, too,” Ianto replies sadly.
“Did you know her well?” the Satedan asks.
Ianto nods. “We used to work together for a few years. We were friends, despite the fact that she was quite a few years older than I.”
“If she was such a big name, how comes that she’d work for such a shadowy organization as yours?” Sheppard asks. Ianto shrugs, apparently taking no offence about his former job being given such a derogatory description.
“Personal tragedies, “ he explains vaguely. “We of Torchwood are - were - all broken people, one was or another. Only those who had nothing to lose could truly shoulder the job.”
Which was the very reason why Gwen, coming from her mundane little world could never understand the others.
“Well,” Sheppard says, “interesting as this is, it doesn’t bring us any further. Let’s go back to the room where we found the bodies. The answer is in here somewhere. Let’s find it.”
“Good idea,” McKay is already on his way. “We need to find a way out of here.” The others follow him back in.
“Can you power up the systems?” Sheppard asks him.
“Uh, yeah,” McKay looks around, seeking for something to work with.
“What about this here?” Ianto points at an electrics box on the wall. “Shall I open the cover?”
“Just hold on,” McKay hurries over to him and shoulders his way to the box to open the cover himself. He starts to tinker around with the controls, and a moment later the room lights up and all the control consoles switch on.
“All right,” Sheppard says contentedly, “that’s a start.”
Ianto looks around in the now well-lit room, comparing it with he rooms of the Daedalus of their reality, the layout of which he’s stored in his eidetic memory. After a few moments, he discovers and unusual looking doorway at the other end of the room.
“What could be behind here?” he asks.
McKay follows his glance and frowns. “Huh. That’s a good question.”
He walks over to the console in front of the doorway and types. There’s no reaction.
“I don’t understand it,” he complains. “It won’t accept my access code.”
“Perhaps because you aren’t the head scientist of Atlantis in their reality,” Ianto suggests. “It was obviously Toshiko, or she wouldn’t have been on the colonel’s team.”
“Yes, yes, thank you for stating the glaringly obvious!” McKay snaps. “Would you have any more ideas - perhaps some that would, you know, actually work?”
“Well,” Ianto replies thoughtfully,” I can try our Toshiko’s access code. She used to have the highest security clearance, right after our team leader.”
“And you just happen to know her top secret security code?” McKay asks suspiciously.
Ianto shrug. “I knew everything what was going on in our base. Including everyone’s secret codes. But since there were only the five of us, that wasn’t such a big deal.”
“So, does it mean you know all our security codes, too?” McKay asks with a frown.
“Yes,” Ianto replies simply. “That’s part of my job. No need to get all paranoid about it, though. I cannot fake your fingerprints or retina scans… not without a great deal of effort anyway.”
The others look at him in mild shock and with a great deal of suspicion - except Ronon who doesn’t seem to care. Of course, he isn’t privy to sensitive information anyway. Finally, Sheppard shakes himself.
“All right, give it a try,” he says. “Perhaps we get lucky.”
His voice reveals that the topic isn’t dealt with just yet, but they don’t have time for such things right now. Ianto nods and types Tosh’s access code in the computer tablet of the alternate Tosh. At first, nothing happens, for three or four seconds. Then a five-sided device in the centre of the door pops out a little and, as a small wheel in the centre of the device spins around like the dial on a safe, three red lights come on. The lights then turn green and the door opens, revealing a large turbine behind it.
“Wow!” Sheppard says, impressed.
“Yeah,” Ronon agrees. “Quite the monster, that one. But what is it?”
“I’m guessing that’s our alternate reality drive,” McKay says.
“Can you figure out how to control it?” Sheppard asks.
McKay gives him an irritated look. “Off-hand, I’d say no. That’s what the little lady of the other Atlantis was trying to do, and she had weeks.
Sheppard looks back at him sternly. “Rodney, are you telling me that you can’t do better than some girl from an alternate reality?”
“Fine,” McKay replies petulantly. “I’ll start with her research. It’ll at least give us a head start.”
“Perhaps I can be of assistance,” Ianto offers. “I’m familiar with Tosh’s way of thinking, and I know most of the codes and passwords she uses… well, used to protect her work with. It seems her alternate self wasn’t all that different.”
“Yeah, that’s better,” Sheppard says before McKay could protest. “We’re gonna go and look for supplies.”
“What, you don’t think the other us wouldn’t have already tried that?” McKay grumbles.
“Get to work!” Sheppard replies. And then he leaves, taking Ronon with him.
Chapter 17 - The Return of the Cybermen
Author: Soledad
Fandom: Stargate: Atlantis/Torchwood x-over
Rating: Teens, for this part.
For disclaimer and background trivia go to the secondary index page.
Warning: still not Gwen-friendly - nothing I ever write would be. You’ve been warned.
Author’s note:I do use rewritten parts of the original episode here. Obviously. However, the context is a very different one as you’ll see. And yes, I have messed up SGA timeline just a teeny bit. But this is an AU.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
PART 16 - THE GHOST SHIP OF ATLANTIS
Two weeks later, Ianto is delivering Sergeant Charles Lenoir, the Canadian Control Room technician - generally known and loved as Chuck among soldiers, scientists and Athosians alike - the usual thermos of coffee, when something on the man’s console starts beeping. Sheppard and McKay are coming from the conference room, arguing about something as usual, and stop at once to see what it might be.
Lenoir checks his console - twice - and then he looks up at Sheppard with a frown.
“Colonel, we got a new contact,” he reports. “Looks like a ship.”
“How far out?” Sheppard asks, his tactically oriented mind considering several defensive probabilities already.
“It’s in orbit,” Lenoir replies in honest bafflement. Sheppard frowns, too.
“Well, how come we didn’t detect it?” he demands. Lenoir spreads his hands in confusion.
“I don’t know, sir” he admits. “We didn’t even detect the hyperspace window. It just… it just appeared out of nowhere.
Ianto feels cold shivers running down along his spine. Wasn’t it how the Battle of Canary Wharf has started? With an unidentified ship appearing out of nowhere? But there isn’t any spatial rift above Atlantis, is there? So it’s probably something entirely different. Or so he hopes.
McKay, in the meantime, has shooed the technician away from his console and is now working on it himself.
“Hang on a second,” he says distractedly. “We’re getting I.F.F. It’s the Daedalus!”
“The Daedalus?” Ianto repeats in surprise. “How can that be? They’re on their way back to Earth.” For indeed, the Daedalus had arrived with a great amount of raw material and spare parts to help repair the damage caused by the growing Wraith ship in the middle of Atlantis, only to turn around at once and go back for even more supplies.
McKay shrugs. “Well, they were - or they were supposed to be.”
“They wouldn’t turn back without contacting us first,” Ianto says, knowing Colonel Caldwell, who’s a strictly by-the-book officer.
“Perhaps a malfunction in the board systems?” Lenoir suggests.
Ianto shakes his head. “Doctor McKay dispatched Doctor Zelenka to oversee the general system check before departure. If he says everything was in best working order, then it was.”
Sheppard shrugs. “Well, we can always ask. Open up a channel, Sergeant.”
Lenoir activates his controls and points to Sheppard to indicate that the channel is open. Sheppard activates his headset radio. “Daedalus, this is Atlantis, please come in.” There’s no reply. Sheppard tries again. “Daedalus, please respond.”
McKay hurries over to the other console, checks something - then he looks up in shock. “They’re not gonna answer.”
“Why not?” Sheppard echoes everyone’s unspoken question.
“‘Cause I’m not reading any life signs,” McKay replies, pale like death itself.
Sheppard raises an eyebrow, more to cover his own shock than to provoke their head geek. “What are you telling me, Rodney? This thing flew here by itself?”
As expected - and probably intended by Sheppard - McKay quickly overcomes his shock in behalf of righteous indignation.
“I don’t know how they got here,” he snaps, “but there’s no-one on board. At least, no-one alive.”
“So, what are we doing now?” Lenoir asks.
“You’ll keep an eye on that thing,” Sheppard replies. “I’m gonna snatch a puddlejumper, alert my team and take a closer look.”
“Shouldn’t you consult Mr. Woolsey about this step first?” Ianto asks mildly. Sheppard shrugs.
“Nah, matters like this are well within my authority,” he gives Ianto a shrewd look. “Have you ever flown a puddlejumper?”
“Unfortunately, my artificial gene doesn’t provide me with a pilot licence by default,” Ianto replies wryly. Sheppard rolls his eyes.
“I meant as a passenger.”
“No, I haven’t had the pleasure yet,” Ianto says. He did have several invitations to visit the Athosians on the mainland but haven’t so far found the time to do so.
Sheppard slaps him on the shoulder jovially.
“Well, this must be your lucky day, then,” he says. “Teyla is on the mainland, attending to some harvest festival or whatnot, so I’m short one man. You can come with me in her stead.”
“And what possible use could I be for your team, Colonel?” Ianto asks. “Granted, I can fire a gun and use a computer, but I’m neither a soldier, nor a scientist.”
“You’re a little bit of both,” Sheppard answers. “And if I take you with me, Woolsey can’t complain that I’m acting on my own again.”
Ianto thinks about it for a second or two; then he promptly agrees. He’s dreamed about flying in space aboard a puddlejumper from his first day on, and this is the best excuse he can find, without asking for favours.
“All right,” he says. Sheppard grins.
“Great. D’you think you can manage to put on a uniform, for a change? Preferably one complete with a gun holster?”
“I’ll see what I can do,” Ianto replies with dignity and all but runs out of the Control room.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Barely half an hour later, he’s sitting in a puddlejumper with Sheppard, McKay and Ronon Dex, geared up and properly armed for a potentially dangerous mission. Still, he feels a lot less nervous about it than he would feel about Weevil hunting or any other Torchwood-related action. Perhaps because he knows that Sheppard is a professional, having done black ops in the past. Perhaps it’s the looming presence of Ronon Dex, the ultimate survivor - unlike most people, Ianto isn’t intimidated in Ronon’s presence. He values the man for what he is: an almost-guarantee for the team coming back alive.
So no, he’s not nervous… well, perhaps a little, but in a good way. In fact, he feels like a child in a candy shop. The little spaceship is about the coolest thing he’s ever seen, and that includes the Daedalus and the Stargate.
As soon as they are in the air, Lenoir radioes them from the Control room.
“Colonel, we just got confirmation from Stargate Command,” he reports. “The Daedalus is in the Milky Way, on course and on schedule. They expect to reach Earth in two days.”
“Understood,” Sheppard acknowledges; then he breaks the connection and looks out of the front window with a frown. “Interesting.”
“So that’s not the Daedalus, then?” Ronon asks, a little confused.
Sheppard shrugs. “Well, not unless it can be in two places at once.”
“Can it be the Apollo or one of the other ships?” Ianto asks, remembering that Earth’s starship programme has made considerable headway in the recent years.
McKay shakes his head. “It wouldn’t be sending Daedalus’ I.F.F,” he says. “Plus it doesn’t explain how they got here or why we’re not picking up life sign readings.”
“True enough,” Ianto admits. “So, what now?”
“We need to learn more about this ship and where she has come,” Sheppard decides. “I’m taking us in for a closer look.”
He steers the Jumper to a close pass underneath the ship. Eager to see more, Ianto raises from his seat and walks forward until he stands between Sheppard and McKay, holding onto the back pf Sheppard’s seat. All three of them lean forward and crane their necks to look up.
“What are those long black marks on the underside?” Ianto asks. He does have an inkling, but he still hopes he’s wrong.
“Scorch marks, I’d say,” McKay replies.
Ianto hates being right in such things, but in for a penny, in for a pound, he wants the whole answer now.
“What do you think - weapons fire?” he guesses.
“Yeah,” Sheppard surveys the damage with narrowing eyes. “Wherever she’s been, she’s been through some pretty hard times.”
“What kind of weapon it could have been, I wonder,” Ianto muses. “The marks are different from those of Wraith energy weapons… or the ones caused by Ancient drones.”
Sheppard shoots him a baffled look. “And you’d know that - how exactly?” Ianto shrugs.
“Archive vids. Archive photos,” he explains. “Photographic memory. Archivist training. Lots of filing. It all adds up.”
Sheppard pulls a face. “I’ll take your word for that.”
They’re interrupted by the beeping sound of McKay’s console, and Ianto suppresses an involuntary shiver. In his experience, unexpected beeping sounds never mean good news. Even if they aren’t caused by Jack’s wrist strap.
“What’s that?” Sheppard, too, sounds irritated. Perhaps beeping sounds announcing bad news are a universal constant.
McKay checks the readings. “I’m picking up an energy reading,” he replies with a frown. “It’s coming from the ship.”
“Is she powering up her weapons?” Ianto asks in concern. The weapons of the Daedalus are powerful enough to shoot a puddlejumper in pieces, unless the shields are raised. Which at the moment they are not.
“It doesn’t seem so,” McKay answers, “but I have no idea what’s causing it.”
“Perhaps we should find a way in and look for the source,” Ianto suggests.
Sheppard considers it for a moment, then he nods. “Good idea. Rodney, can you get the bay doors open?”
“If the ship’s command systems are as familiar as the rest of it, it shouldn’t be a problem,” McKay is already typing away on his console. “Just get the jumper into position, Colonel, and leave the rest to me.”
Sheppard does as he’s told; Ianto watches with fascination as the jumper rises up in front of the Daedalus and stops level with the bay. He’s travelled aboard the ship but never seen it from the outside before, and now he admits that it’s an impressive sight.
“Done,” McKay announces, and the bay doors open noiselessly - which is something of a disappointment. Ianto misses the creaking an thudding sound he’d normally associate with such large, metallic wings. He knows, of course, that there’s no sound in the vacuum of space, but theoretical knowledge and first-hand experience are two very different cups of tea. This little scene makes it glaringly obvious, just how different outer space really is.
“Hmmm,” Sheppard says, giving the mostly empty bay a searching look. “No F-302s. Strange.”
“There is a jumper, though,” Ianto points at the single lozenge-shaped little ship parked on the right side.
“You sure there’s no-one else inside?” Ronon growls behind them. The big Satedan practically towering over them, which would make most men nervous. Ianto feels safe and protected instead.
“As far as I can tell,” McKay corrects. “No guarantees, though.” There never are any.
“All right,” Sheppard says. “Gear up, people. We’re going in.”
For a moment, he sounds eerily like Jack at the beginning of a field mission. Ianto feels a slight pang in his heart and is still fighting to get it under control while Sheppard flies the jumper inside and lands it next to the other one. They all shoulder their backpacks, ready their weapons, and then the team disembarks.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
The bay is dark and cold, and so is the corridor behind it. As a rule, Ianto isn’t bothered by poorly-heated places - the Hub was cold and damp, after all, and he practically lived in there - but this is a bit much, even for him.
“Are the environmental systems down?” he asks McKay, shivering. The Atlantis uniform isn’t nearly as much protection against the cold as one of his suits would be.
“Some of them are barely registering,” the scientist consults his computer tablet distractedly. “The ship’s operating on emergency power.”
“But you still picking up that weird energy… thing?” Ronon asks.
McKay isn’t even looking at him. “That’s right.”
“Can you do something about it?” Sheppard is shivering, too. “It’s freezing here.”
McKay does look up at that, and his look isn’t friendly. “Oh, sure! If you could perhaps hold out until I get to engineering? You aren’t the only one freezing here, you know.”
After a short but intense glaring match Sheppard backs off.
“All right,” he says. “You and Ronon are together. Ianto, you and me, we’re gonna check out the Bridge. Radio me if you find anything.”
They head off in different directions. The corridors are eerily familiar… and also cold and eerily dark. The only sources of light are the torches attached to their rifles, but that’s enough to find their way to the bridge.
“No bodies in here,” Sheppard says, relieved, after shining the light from his rifle around. “That’s… good.”
Ianto isn’t sure he agrees. An empty tomb is still a tomb, and the dead silence sends cold shivers down his spine that don’t have anything to do with the fritzing environmental systems. He shines his torch around, too… and finds the ship’s name plate on the wall. It’s a familiar one.
“Colonel,” he says quietly. “It seems the ship is the Daedalus, after all.”
As Sheppard moves over to take a look, the lights suddenly come on, making them jump a little. They’re both nervous.
“McKay, is that you?” Sheppard asks.
“Of course it was me,” McKay’s irritated voice comes through their headsets. “Who else would it be? D’you think we’ve got a ghost on board or something?”
“It wouldn’t surprise me,” Ianto mutters darkly. Sheppard gives him a funny look.
“What’s our status?” the colonel then asks their head geek.
“I’ve restored basic power to most of the ship,” McKay replies. “It should be warming up any second now.” It’s a promise that makes Ianto very happy, even though his shivering has more to do with the oppressing atmosphere than with the state of life support on board.
“Good,” Sheppard says. “Check on that energy reading. Try to figure out what it is, all right?”
McKay sighs and Ianto can almost see his exasperated eyeroll. “Thank you, Captain Obvious; I’d never have thought of that without your brilliant suggestion,” he answers scathingly an breaks the connection.
Ianto, in the meantime, walks over to the communications station and looks down at the abandoned console. There’s still a light flashing, showing that the station is on standby.
“We should check the ship’s log,” he suggests. “Perhaps we can learn that way what happened to them.”
“The Daedalus’ logs are password-protected,” Sheppard points out.
Ianto gives him a bland look. “So?”
“You mean you can override them?” it’s hard to tell whether Sheppard is more shocked or more relieved that they might, after all, learn something about the situation.
Ianto shrugs. “Sure. I was given sufficient authority when my government assigned me to the Atlantis expedition… besides, I’m a fairly good hacker,” he calls the last log entry up on the wall screen. “Here it comes.”
To their surprise, a vaguely Asian-looking woman in her mid-thirties appears on the screen. She has almond eyes, a helmet of short, shiny black hair, parted in the middle - and she’s wearing a standard Daedalus uniform, with the rank insignia of a colonel.
“Preparations are almost complete,” she says. “We’ve beamed down the last of our supplies and any equipment we think might be useful. I’ll be taking the last of the F-302s down myself. Of course, we haven’t had time to do a proper survey of the planet’s surface but it seems habitable enough: plenty of fresh water, arable soil - not that different from our own. I realise our chance of rescue is slim, but it’s become obvious that we no longer have a choice. This is Colonel Sobol, Commander of the Daedalus, signing off.”
The entry ends, and Ianto looks at Sheppard with a frown. “Do you recognise her?”
Sheppard shakes his head. “I’ve never seen her before in my life. In fact, I’ve never heard of a Colonel of that name being involved with the Stargate programme. Hell, I never heard of any colonel of that name at all.”
“Alternate realities?” Ianto guesses. The thought makes him almost physically ill. Alternate realities, that always reminds him of Canary Wharf, and that is a memory he would bury as deep as possible. “But why would they abandon ship while life support is still functioning?”
Sheppard shrugs. “We should check the previous entries. Perhaps the answer is hidden there somewhere.”
Ianto nods in agreement. “I’ll do it at once.”
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
But his attempts have no results at all. The pervious log entries have all been wiped - the database is completely empty. Purged.
“That must have happened when the mission, whatever it was, started,” Ianto says thoughtfully. “It had to be something very important, if they’ve gone such lengths to erase everything from the logs.”
“Can you restore the entries?” Sheppard asks.
“Not without help,” Ianto admits. “We’ll need Doctor Kusanagi up here; and special software. But yeah, unless the hard rive is physically damaged beyond repair, there is a chance to retrieve the entries.”
“Good,” Sheppard says. “As soon as McKay’s finished his analysis, we’ll call in reinforcements.”
As if on a clue, McKay’s agitated voice cuts in via headset. “Sheppard, come in.”
“Go ahead,” Sheppard replies, clearly not liking the panicked undertone of McKay’s voice - and if anyone, he ought to know what it means. He’s worked with the man closely for more than four years.
“Something’s happening,” McKay tells him, rather unhelpfully. “It’s the energy reading. It’s spiking - it’s going off the charts.”
“Well, do something,” Sheppard replies with forced patience. “Turn it off.”
“I don’t know how!” McKay’s sounding positively hysterical now. “Look, it’s not coming from any of the main systems!”
Simultaneously, Major Lorne calls them from Atlantis’ Control room.
“Colonel Sheppard, this is Atlantis. We’re picking up some kind of power surge coming from the ship.”
“Yeah, we noticed it,” Sheppard replies. “We’re trying to check it out ourselves.”
“Should we send another jumper to assist?” Lorne asks. “Doctor Zelenka says your levels are still rising.”
“Not before we know what we’re dealing with,” Sheppard says. “Stand by.”
Just then, the Daedalus starts to shake violently. It’s not unlike the effect of the Rift opening right under the Hub, Ianto finds, and it makes him even more nervous.
“Colonel,” he says quietly, “I think we should leave while we still can.”
“Good idea,” Sheppard touches his headset. “Team, this is Sheppard. Everyone back in the jumper - we’re leaving.”
Before they could leave the bridge, though, a bright white light envelops the entire room… so bright that they have to cover their eyes against the glare. It only lasts seconds, but they’re still seeing stars minutes later.
“Well, that was… unpleasant,” Ianto comments.
“Have people ever told you that you’re the master of understatement, Mr. Jones?” Sheppard asks with biting irony. Ianto just shrugs.
“Yes,” he replies matter-of-factly. “It’s proved very useful in the past. Especially around co-workers with a hang to overdone dramatics,” he adds, remembering Gwen’s reactions to anything unexpected.
“Yeah, I can imagine that,” Sheppard mutters, and given the fact that he’s been working with McKay for years, he probably can indeed. “Speaking of which,” he touches his headset, “McKay, what the hell was that?”
“I have no idea,” McKay answers, “but the energy reading’s gone back down the way it was.”
“Perhaps Atlantis has recorded something,” Ianto suggests.
“Let’s hope so,” Sheppard changes channels. “Atlantis, are you reading anything unusual?” There’s no reply, so he tries again. “Atlantis, come in.”
There’s still no response. Ianto tries it, too, but with the same results. “Perhaps a malfunction in our own comm net?” he theorizes. “Try the ship’s comm, Colonel, it has a longer reach.”
Sheppard looks at him in surprise. He apparently hasn’t expected someone from the administration to know so much about confidential tech - but again, he hasn’t met anyone from Torchwood before, either - then he pushes the button on the armrest of the command chair. “Atlantis, do you read?”
Still no answer. Sheppard frowns and switches back to his headset, calling McKay. “Rodney? I’m having problems with communications. I can’t reach Atlantis.”
“Let me scan the planet’s surface,” McKay answers. There’s a short pause, then he says, his voice revealing complete bafflement. “Wait a second. That can’t be right!”
“What?” they can hear Ronon’s gruff voice in the background.
“I’m not seeing the city on any of my screens!” McKay is all but screaming.
Sheppard shakes his head in surprise. “What are you talkin’ about?”
“I just did a sensor sweep, and there’s nothing down there but ocean!” McKay answers. He’s already caught himself and sounds almost calm… which is a worse sight than any hysterics. McKay only calms down so suddenly if things are just about to go terribly wrong.
“Well, maybe they cloaked,” Sheppard says. It’s a lame idea, and they all know it, but Ianto cannot resist the temptation to state the obvious.
“They wouldn’t have done that without telling us.”
“Well, I don’t know,” Sheppard says, exasperated. "Maybe there’s a Wraith ship in the area.”
“I’m not reading anything,” McKay replies tiredly.
“Are we certain it’s the same planet?” Ianto asks. “Perhaps the energy burst shifted our position.”
“No,” McKay says. “According to our instruments, we haven’t moved at all.”
“What do you want me to believe, Rodney, that Atlantis just disappeared?” Sheppard demands.
It’s McKay’s turn now to force himself to patience. “Look, I don’t know. Just give me a second and I’ll figure it out, all right? In the meantime I’ve managed to localise the source of the energy reading. It’s coming from a hold on Deck 9.”
“All right, keep trying to reach Atlantis,” Sheppard says. “We’ll check it out. Send Ronon down to help us.”
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
They meet up with Ronon and cautiously make their way along Deck 9 when McKay radioes them again.
“Sheppard, I think I’ve got something,” he says. It’s not very informative, and Sheppard rolls his eyes.
“And that would be? Details, Rodney - preferably in monosyllables, so that I can understand.” He’s not that stupid, actually he understands quite a bit about the Alien tech they’re working with, but McKay tends to launch into scientific theorems only Zelenka could hope to follow. Like, right now.
“It’s the residual radiation from the flash,” McKay explains. “It’s similar to what happens when you open a hyperspace window, but different enough that the sensors wouldn’t have picked it up automatically.”
“Ummm,” Sheppard says intelligently, because the only result of the explanation is that now he’s even more confused than before. “What the hell does that mean?”
Surprisingly enough, McKay is capable of giving a straight answer. “I think we’re looking at a new kind of drive.”
“I thought you said we didn’t go anywhere,” Ianto comments with mild sarcasm.
“We didn’t,” McKay says agreeably, “at least not according to the ship’s navigational systems.”
“So,” Sheppard tries to clarify, “a malfunctioned drive?”
“Maybe,” McKay replies distractedly. “Just hang on.”
As it’s obvious that they won’t get an answer any time soon, Sheppard, Ianto and Ronon go into the room McKay has identified as the source of the unusual energy readings and take a look around. They don’t find anything unusual at first sight, but before they can make a detailed search, McKay shouts into his headset again, making them jump.
“Oh my God. Sheppard!”
Sheppard rubs his ear with a grimace; McKay’s shout nearly deafened him. “Stand by, Rodney. We haven’t had the time to take a closer look yet.”
“No, you don’t understand,” McKay says in excitement. “I know what it is! Look, the residual radiation - it’s exactly what we recorded when my double arrived on Atlantis from an alternate reality. I can’t believe I didn’t see this before!”
When he hears the words alternate reality, Ianto feels his stomach turn upside down again. He knows the Stargate and Atlantis people have dealt with different alternate realities before and lived to tell the tale - he’s read the reports - but that doesn’t make him any more comfortable. He knows he ought to be more useful, he should help Ronon and Sheppard search the room, but he needs a moment to gather his wits around him again.
In the meantime, Ronon seems to have found something - and considering his grim expression, it ain't any good.
“Sheppard!” he calls over to them, “Over here!”
“It’s a drive, all right, but it didn’t move us through space. I think it’s moved us to a parallel universe!” McKay is still talking to them via headset.
That particular piece of information makes Ianto freeze again, but Sheppard gives him a little push. “C’mon, let’s see what Cheewie’s found.”
Ianto can’t help but smile at the Wookie remark - it’s quite matching, after all - then he walks over to Ronon’s position with the colonel. The sight awaiting them is… unexpected, to put it mildly.
“Well,” Sheppard says after a lengthy pause, “this could certainly verify McKay’s theory about alternate realities.”
The three of them stare at the sight of four dead people lying on the floor. The four people are Sheppard, Ronon, Teyla… and a Japanese woman neither of the Atlantis crew has ever seen before. For Ianto, however, she is painfully familiar. She is - or rather was - Toshiko Sato. Or rather a different Toshiko Sato. One who’s wearing the Atlantis science uniform, with a Japanese flag patch on her arm and holds an Atlantis issue computer tablet in her lifeless hand.
Shock doesn’t even begin to describe Ianto’s feelings. The other two are shocked, too, although for different reasons.
Sheppard is the first to pull himself together again. It’s his command, his mission… and he can be very practical-minded, if he chooses to.
“We need to move the bodies into a side room if we want to search this one for McKay’s mysterious energy readings,” he says.
Ianto nods in agreement. Dealing with dead colleagues is something he’s depressingly familiar with, although seeing Tosh dead again isn’t something he’d ever have expected to do. At least none of the corpses is his dead counterpart, which makes it a little easier for him than for the others.
“How long have they been dead for?” Ronon muses, covering the bodies. Sheppard shrugs.
“This place was like a meat locker. They could’ve been preserved like this for months.”
The casual remark has an unfortunate effect on Ianto. It brings up reminiscences of the Brecon Beacons, the fridge full of human body parts, of himself being forced onto the butcher’s table, the razor sharp meat cleaver nicking his throat to bleed him out… The bruised yet determined face of Tosh, whom he tried to save till the last possible moment… and failed. Or would have failed, had Jack not ridden in on that tractor in the very last moment.
He runs out onto the nearest corridor and throws up. Sheppard and Ronon stare after him in bewilderment.
“What’s up with him?” the big Satedan asks, honestly baffled - which is justified, as never in the months spent on Atlantis has anyone seen the unflappable Ianto Jones lose his calm… and in such a spectacular manner at that.
Sheppard, no stranger to traumatic memories himself, shrugs. “Dunno. Something I said must have triggered an old memory.”
“Makes one wonder what he might have done in his previous job,” Ronon comments.
“No idea,” Sheppard admits. “All I know is that he used to work for some shadowy organization everyone seems to have heard of among the British people but nobody seems to have the faintest what it actually is.”
“Perhaps this Doctor Jones knows something,” Ronon suggests. “They seem to have known each other for a while.”
“I’m sure she does,” Sheppard agrees, “but I’m equally sure she won’t tell us a thing. For all that secret organizations are apparently widely known among them, these British guys are awfully tight-lipped when it comes to details. They just smile at you politely and pretend they haven’t even heard your question.”
“Yeah, I know,” Ronon mutters. “That long-haired oceanologist is the worst of all - him and his wife.”
“Doctors McNabb and Moore?” Sheppard asks. Ronon nods. “Yeah, they’re quite solitary people. But very good at their jobs, and that’s what counts, right? Let’s see if our Mr. Jones has recovered, and then we might actually start doing our jobs here.”
Ianto’s not only recovered, he’s already cleaned up after himself - although how he’s done it is beyond Sheppard - and is now looking at them apologetically.
“I’m sorry,” he says. “Remembering how I’ve been nearly slaughtered and eaten by a bunch of in-bred cannibals often has this effect on me. So is dealing with dead colleagues all over again.”
Sheppard and Ronon are understandably baffled by that remark but know better not to ask for details. Not now anyway. Besides, McKay is arriving at that very moment, picks up the computer tablet of the dead lady scientist that has been forgotten on the floor - and becomes highly agitated again.
“Oh, no-no-no-no-no-no-no. This is very bad.”
Sheppard rolls his eyes; a fairly common reaction when he’s around McKay. “What is very bad, Rodney?
“This tablet belonged to the head scientist of and alternate Atlantis,” McKay explains. “However, the dead people you’ve found weren’t part of the original crew. They came here just like us. Look, a ship appeared in orbit over their Atlantis. They came to check it out… the same way we did.”
“That would explain the other jumper in the bay,” Sheppard comments. “So, what happened to them?”
“The ship jumped to another reality and they were stuck,” McKay replies. “They couldn’t get back. Look, eventually their supplies ran out and - and they ... they ...”
“All right, all right,” Sheppard interrupts, when McKay’s voice starts to rise. “Mystery solved. Let’s move on.”
McKay shoot him a slightly panicked look. “But don’t you realise what this means? They were us and they failed.”
“Well, they’re not us,” Sheppard says firmly. “We’re still alive… and besides, half the team is different from ours.”
“Exactly!” McKay prompts, clearly insulted. “What were they thinking, replacing me with some… some girl? Who the hell is she anyway?”
Sheppard and Ronon exchange identical blank looks and shrug in unison.
“Never seen her before,” Sheppard says.
“Her name is - was - Toshiko Sato,” Ianto supplies quietly. “Doctor Toshiko Sato; and she was a genius when it comes to computers and other electronic equipment. She was snatched up to work for governmental think tank when she was twenty and worked for them for ten years.”
“You speak of her in past tense,” Ronon says.
“She’s dead in our reality, too,” Ianto replies sadly.
“Did you know her well?” the Satedan asks.
Ianto nods. “We used to work together for a few years. We were friends, despite the fact that she was quite a few years older than I.”
“If she was such a big name, how comes that she’d work for such a shadowy organization as yours?” Sheppard asks. Ianto shrugs, apparently taking no offence about his former job being given such a derogatory description.
“Personal tragedies, “ he explains vaguely. “We of Torchwood are - were - all broken people, one was or another. Only those who had nothing to lose could truly shoulder the job.”
Which was the very reason why Gwen, coming from her mundane little world could never understand the others.
“Well,” Sheppard says, “interesting as this is, it doesn’t bring us any further. Let’s go back to the room where we found the bodies. The answer is in here somewhere. Let’s find it.”
“Good idea,” McKay is already on his way. “We need to find a way out of here.” The others follow him back in.
“Can you power up the systems?” Sheppard asks him.
“Uh, yeah,” McKay looks around, seeking for something to work with.
“What about this here?” Ianto points at an electrics box on the wall. “Shall I open the cover?”
“Just hold on,” McKay hurries over to him and shoulders his way to the box to open the cover himself. He starts to tinker around with the controls, and a moment later the room lights up and all the control consoles switch on.
“All right,” Sheppard says contentedly, “that’s a start.”
Ianto looks around in the now well-lit room, comparing it with he rooms of the Daedalus of their reality, the layout of which he’s stored in his eidetic memory. After a few moments, he discovers and unusual looking doorway at the other end of the room.
“What could be behind here?” he asks.
McKay follows his glance and frowns. “Huh. That’s a good question.”
He walks over to the console in front of the doorway and types. There’s no reaction.
“I don’t understand it,” he complains. “It won’t accept my access code.”
“Perhaps because you aren’t the head scientist of Atlantis in their reality,” Ianto suggests. “It was obviously Toshiko, or she wouldn’t have been on the colonel’s team.”
“Yes, yes, thank you for stating the glaringly obvious!” McKay snaps. “Would you have any more ideas - perhaps some that would, you know, actually work?”
“Well,” Ianto replies thoughtfully,” I can try our Toshiko’s access code. She used to have the highest security clearance, right after our team leader.”
“And you just happen to know her top secret security code?” McKay asks suspiciously.
Ianto shrug. “I knew everything what was going on in our base. Including everyone’s secret codes. But since there were only the five of us, that wasn’t such a big deal.”
“So, does it mean you know all our security codes, too?” McKay asks with a frown.
“Yes,” Ianto replies simply. “That’s part of my job. No need to get all paranoid about it, though. I cannot fake your fingerprints or retina scans… not without a great deal of effort anyway.”
The others look at him in mild shock and with a great deal of suspicion - except Ronon who doesn’t seem to care. Of course, he isn’t privy to sensitive information anyway. Finally, Sheppard shakes himself.
“All right, give it a try,” he says. “Perhaps we get lucky.”
His voice reveals that the topic isn’t dealt with just yet, but they don’t have time for such things right now. Ianto nods and types Tosh’s access code in the computer tablet of the alternate Tosh. At first, nothing happens, for three or four seconds. Then a five-sided device in the centre of the door pops out a little and, as a small wheel in the centre of the device spins around like the dial on a safe, three red lights come on. The lights then turn green and the door opens, revealing a large turbine behind it.
“Wow!” Sheppard says, impressed.
“Yeah,” Ronon agrees. “Quite the monster, that one. But what is it?”
“I’m guessing that’s our alternate reality drive,” McKay says.
“Can you figure out how to control it?” Sheppard asks.
McKay gives him an irritated look. “Off-hand, I’d say no. That’s what the little lady of the other Atlantis was trying to do, and she had weeks.
Sheppard looks back at him sternly. “Rodney, are you telling me that you can’t do better than some girl from an alternate reality?”
“Fine,” McKay replies petulantly. “I’ll start with her research. It’ll at least give us a head start.”
“Perhaps I can be of assistance,” Ianto offers. “I’m familiar with Tosh’s way of thinking, and I know most of the codes and passwords she uses… well, used to protect her work with. It seems her alternate self wasn’t all that different.”
“Yeah, that’s better,” Sheppard says before McKay could protest. “We’re gonna go and look for supplies.”
“What, you don’t think the other us wouldn’t have already tried that?” McKay grumbles.
“Get to work!” Sheppard replies. And then he leaves, taking Ronon with him.
Chapter 17 - The Return of the Cybermen