A Diplomacy of Hope by Salifiable (Amnesty 2006/Culture Clash) 2/2
Title: A Diplomacy of Hope 2/2
Author: Salifiable
Rating: G
Characters: Teyla, Gen
Length: ~14,000 words
Spoilers: Through 3x07 Common Ground
Warnings: None
Summary: "Seriously, there's absolutely no good reason for you to go out there; I never thought I'd see the day where Elizabeth's plans would sink to the level of Baldrick's, but hey, there's a first time for everything in the Pegasus Galaxy!" Rodney hissed.
A/N: All I can say is, I have no idea how this ended up so long. If you catch any canon/grammar/typo errors, please let me know and I'll fix it as soon as possible!
The next day found Teyla and the three children not in cornfields, but rather in a deep, cool forest.
"And what is it that we harvest in here?" Teyla inquired.
"We're looking for mushrooms," Coren answered. "They can't manage to grow mushrooms with hydroponics, so we're supposed to pick all the mushrooms we can find, and then one of the scientists sorts the edible ones from the poisonous."
"I see. Do many mushrooms grow in this forest?"
"Yes, the trick is trying to find them-- a lot of them just blend in with the other plants, since they're the same color and all-- like this one, here, come and look," Perlan said, kneeling down at the base of a tree. Teyla drew closer, then realized that the mossy grey lumps he was pointing at were, indeed, mushrooms. "See? It's easy, you just have to look really carefully." Perlan said, picking the mushrooms and depositing them lightly in his basket.
The next few hours passed quickly and enjoyably as the four of them rambled through the forest in search of mushrooms, although Teyla thought that the boys rather forgot the mushrooms in favor of horseplay; even Ana had laughed soundlessly but goodnaturedly when Perlan's attempt at crossing a fallen log over a creek ended in a tumble that left him drenched, teeth chattering. Luckily, by then the forest had warmed from the rays of the sun, and soon enough Perlan was back to his usual antics.
Teyla was bending over to pick a clump of mushrooms growing from a dead stump when she suddenly straightened, the hairs on the back of her neck rising.
"Oh, look, I've found a whole bun--"
"Coren, hush!" Teyla said sharply, turning her head. Yes, there it was-- a deep rumbling, almost a growl-- and now fast approaching.
Teyla immediately leapt into action, darting over to where Coren, Perlan and Ana were gathered around a ring of mushrooms. She scooped up Ana in her arms and clasped the girl's hands around Perlan's neck and shoved the boy's arms around Ana's legs. "You need to get out of here-- Perlan, take Ana and Coren and run as far as you can-- but if you find a good tree to climb, get Coren and Ana up there as quickly as possible as high as you can. Go! Now!" To his credit, Perlan immediately turned and began running, pushing a dazed Coren until the younger boy got the idea and began sprinting away. Teyla turned back; she could see it now, still stalking behind the trees.
She dropped to one knee and desperately grabbed for the first two branches she could find, breaking off as many of the offshoots in order to get two crude sticks. She suddenly, irrationally, wished for her own two sticks, still in her room in Atlantis. With a loud warning growl, the predator finally appeared in front of her. Teyla blinked and nearly backed away-- after the first glance, she amended herself and wished instead for her P-90, although it was doubtful whether even that could have dropped the beast without at least several rounds; it was an enormous cat-like creature, a good few inches taller than her with fangs at least as long as her hand, with a heft and weight that were enough to crush a person.
And then there was no more time for wishing-- the cat coiled itself low against the ground, and then pounced.
Teyla waited as it soared towards her, then swiped with her left arm to catch it full across the side of its face with her stick, then jabbed as hard as she dared with her other branch in that direction. It recovered lightning-fast, immediately up and pouncing again to knock her over, this time giving Teyla no time to prepare; and now it was close fighting, kicking and jabbing and punching as hard as she could, trying to avoid the gleaming fangs at all times. She finally managed to land a solid kick right against the cat's chest, audibly driving the air from its lungs and forcing it off of her. She rolled cat-quick to the side and got to her feet, taking up another fighting stance as the cat got up, now stalking around her a trifle more warily.
This time, it feinted towards the right before catching her off-guard on the left; she barely managed to turn and block its claws with her right stick before it leapt again, swiping a heavy paw downwards as if to rake her face. She ducked and jabbed her left stick forward while bringing her right stick around to catch the paw, then threw it off and landed another solid whack on the side of its head before whirling away, trying to attack from the back. A sharp edge of the wood caught and tore through the animal's skin, drawing blood. It turned back, enraged and hissing. Suddenly, it was all Teyla could do to fend off its claws, but it kept jabbing its head forward with its jaws wide open, fangs horrifying in their clarity. Desperately, Teyla spun and fought and danced backwards as quickly and as deftly as she could, but she could feel herself tiring and her hands were growing slippering from blood and sweat, the cat having scored deep scratches on her forearm.
It was, she realized dimly as she managed to evade a particularly powerful blow to her legs by whirling out of the way, fighting her down a slope; mild, but enough to give it a significant advantage. If the fight continued on the cat's terms, then there was no way Teyla could win; it only needed to fight her until she exhausted herself, and then she would be easy prey; she had to reach higher ground. She took a deep breath, then abruptly flipped the direction of her attacks until she was uphill, then turned and ran as quickly her screaming muscles allowed.
Not fast enough-- a quick look back showed the cat was right behind her. Teyla swore internally, and then without warning the cat was again in front of her, barrelling forward and knocking her to the ground with such force that her left hand lost its grip on its branch, a heavy paw pinning her entire left arm to the ground, inch-long needle claws digging into her flesh. It leaned over her, snarling directly into her face, saliva dripping from its fangs into her eyes. Teyla took a deep breath, spared a thought for Atlantis, then for her people, and brought her right stick up and thrust it as hard she could straight into the cat's chest with a scream of rage.
She did not immediately register the sharp crack that sounded throughout the forest, but when she rolled to the side away from the cat and scrambled to her feet, she did hear the second gunshot. She snapped her head around in astonishment, where off to her left a figure was aiming a rifle directly at the cat, obviously shooting as quickly as the gun allowed. The cat roared in rage, by now spitting-mad as it coiled around trying to assess this new threat. Teyla reacted to the intent in those feline muscles before she registered it, and started sprinting towards the shooter as fast as she could, a precious few seconds before the cat itself began leaping with alarming speed towards the same goal.
"Move!" Teyla yelled as loudly as she could-- the cat wasn't dropping even after ten shots, only slowing slightly-- if it kept up at the speed it was going, it would reach the shooter still alive, and even greatly weakened, its claws and weight could still do serious damage. The shooter held his ground and kept shooting, twenty rounds, now twenty-five, now thirty; Teyla spared a single flicker of admiration for the shooter-- then, as if in slow motion, she saw out of the corner of her eye the cat coil its back legs, then pounce, its claws fully extended.
Putting on one last, desperate spurt of speed as the echo of repeated gunshots rang in her ears, Teyla veered as hard as she could to the right and tackled the shooter, both arms around his body-- they hit the ground hard, but Teyla's momentum was enough to carry them out of the path of the leaping cat. Teyla felt the breath knocked out of her, but twisted around wild-eyed back to the cat-- but it had finally slumped over, the last bubbling snarls wheezing out of its lungs. The shooter had managed to land the last round of shots directly in the cat's forehead, turning it into a bloody pulp. Teyla turned away, feeling a little sickened, before realizing with a start that the shooter beneath her was groaning. Teyla hurriedly moved off him, then turned him on his back only to find, to her utter astonishment, that he was not a he after all.
"Sora!" Teyla croaked, quickly looking over the other woman to see there were any apparent injuries. There were none, although the left shoulder of her shirt was torn from where she had skidded against the ground. Luckily, it seemed the woman's skirts had cushioned her legs. "Sora, can you hear me?" With a groan, Sora opened her eyes, blinked once, then focused a mite woozily on Teyla's face.
"Still trying to kill me, huh?" Teyla let out a burst of shaking laughter, then collapsed as well on her back, staring up at the sky as she tried to remind her lungs how to breath.
"I do not believe I should try this method if I ever were trying to kill you-- it requires too much effort on my part," Teyla panted out. A few more breaths, and then, more quietly. "But thank you-- truly." For a few seconds, they both laid there, simply breathing. Finally, when Teyla felt sufficiently recovered, she pulled herself up. "I have to go find the children who were with me," she said. "I need to find out if they're safe."
"Oh, they're fine," Sora waved dismissively. "They're how I found you in the first place, anyways. In fact, they can go fetch help, since I don't think that either you or I are in any shape to help ourselves," Sora said, gesturing towards Teyla's leg. Teyla looked down, only now realizing that that there was a long and rather deep set of freely bleeding scratches running diagonally around her left calf.
"Oh," She said, at a loss for words. She tentatively tried putting some weight on it, then winced at the sharpness of the sudden stabbing pain.
"Here, we should bind that up," Sora said, pulling herself up with great effort. "Hold on," she fished out a whistle from her pocket and blew into it, three short, shrill blasts that rang through the forest. At first, there was no immediate effect, but after a few seconds Teyla could pick out the sounds of what sounded like children scrambling down a tree and running in their direction.
"We don't use any technology above ground in case of the Wraith, it's why we don't have radios or anything," Sora explained. "So everybody on guard duty or harvest duty has to make do with whistles, instead. The kids kept blowing them like crazy, that's how I got to them and then found you." Teyla opened her mouth to ask further, but at that moment the children came running up, all three of them pale and shaking, Ana so pale as to look nearly bloodless.
"We are fine," Teyla tried to reassure them, then looked down at both of them and revised. "We will survive, but we would appreciate it if you would go and fetch help from the bunkers, or at least from the village," She tried again. At a single look from Perlan and Coren set off running through the trees, his crashing footsteps soon fading away. Perlan tore off the sleeve of his shirt and helped Teyla bind up the wounds on her legs before Sora sent him away.
"No," She said flatly in answer to the protest in his eyes. "Take Ana back to the bunkers and have Doctor Spiro check all of you over at once; besides, you know that Coren has no head for directions, you're going to have to tell them how to find us." With obvious reluctance, Perlan set off with Ana holding his hand, and Teyla now found herself alone with a woman she once thought she knew, and then discovered to her surprise and sorrow that she did not, at all.
"Sora," She said, carefully; realizing that she meant what she was about to say. "Besides all of this, I am glad to see you, you know." Sora let out a surprised chuckle.
"And I you, although I would not have thought so. When I first heard that you were to be the ambassador from Atlantis-- well, let's say you wouldn't have wanted to run into me then," She said drily. "So it is doubly a blessing that I've had guard duty this month, since it meant that I couldn't see and therefore kill you when you first arrived, and today it meant I was around to save your ass." Teyla frowned.
"Why are you on guard duty, Sora? I received the impression from Perlan that the important officers of the military are not required to serve guard duty, and as I remember it you were very high-ranking under Kolya."
"Yes, under Kolya," Sora emphasized. "When things started to get complicated under Cowen, then Radim, I was initially an outspoken Kolya loyalist. A lot of the higher officers were, since he was the one who trained us, and Radim being a scientist didn't help matters much. But when Radim took over for good, he couldn't very well execute all of the Kolya loyalists in the military; too many of us, too much talent. But he could demote us, so--" Sora shrugged. "Here I am." Teyla took a quick breath.
"You were not one of Kolya's band when he captured Colonel Sheppard, were you?" Teyla asked; she hand't seen Sora there, but that didn't necessarily mean anything-- if she had been there-- if Sora had been party to John's torture--
"No." Sora answered quietly. "No, I defected, I suppose that's the word, to Radim when the real story of why he led the coup came out. Cowen kept it secret from most of the military, that he was going to get the Atlanteans to kidnap the Genii with radiation sickness and then leave them to die, and when that came out a lot of people switched over, including me. Although I guess not quickly enough for Radim's taste," She said. A few moments of slience elapsed, then she added, "That's actually why Radim was so anxious to have the ambassador swap now, you know; his sister's getting sicker again, and he wanted to send Doctor Corgan over so Doctor Beckett could give him some training, that way we don't have to be relying on Atlantis all the time for radiation sickness treatment."
Ah, Teyla thought. That certainly clarified things. She shook her head and changed the subject.
"So it is pure chance that you happened to be on guard duty for Perlan, Coren and Ana?" Sora shifted a little.
"A little, although not exactly-- I always ask to be put on guard duty for the children, since some of the other soldiers find it annoying when the kids don't always follow directions, and others honestly couldn't be bothered to care about actually checking in on them, ever." Sora said, the bitterness obvious in her voice.
"Are there so few soldiers? Perlan told me that there is always a platoon on guard duty," Teyla started.
"Yes, but there are only thirty soldiers to a platoon-- we're each responsible for guarding twenty civilians, but if those twenty are all spread out of fields and forest, then it's hard to keep track of all of them at once," Sora explained. "It's why it took me so long to get over here, I was over in the vegetable fields when Marthos ran over and told me about hearing the children's whistles from the forest."
"You know this cannot continue," Teyla said urgently. "Sending defenseless children out alone? If I had not been here, Sora, all three of those children..." Teyla trailed off; she'd only known these children for two days, and already the image of any of them killed or mauled by that beast left her terrified. Sora sighed.
"I know." The other woman paused. "I've heard rumors that Radim's going to try and phase out harvest duty for all children, although the higher-ups of the military are going to fight him like spit and hellfire on that one, so good luck to him on that. There's other whispers going around that he's going to try overhaul the military, along with the science/civilian hierarchy."
"Do you honestly believe he will try it?" The other woman was silent for a few moments.
"Yeah," She finally answered. "I do. It's a crazy idea, but he's been trying to bring a lot of the key people round to his way of thinking-- nothing too obvious, it's all very subtle, but-- you serve in the military long enough, you recognize the signs."
Teyla leaned back against a nearby tree stump suddenly, a small but real warmth spreading throughout her body. It seemed as if Radim had been sincere, after all; and that thought left her somehow even more shaken than before; hope takes courage, Teyla reminded herself, then drew herself back up.
"Sora," She began a little awkwardly; she had always meant to have this conversation, but even in her head she had never quite known what to say. "About Tyrus--" Sora's back stiffened, but remained silent. "I will always wish I had done more," Teyla said, her voice very low. "But every time I go over the situation in my head, I truly do not see how anything more could have been done; I wish there had been some way to bring him back alive, but I did not have the vision to find any way to do it. I must admit that I still do not."
There was a long, tense silence. Teyla looked at the other woman for a few moments, then bent over, ostensibly to check the dressing on her leg. It is not fair, she thought angrily, suddenly filled with an unaccountable rage, that with all that the Wraith have taken from her that they would take this from her too.
Finally, Sora sighed.
"I believe you." She sounded unbelievably weary. "I was angry, for a very long time. If only I had stopped him from going, if only I had been there myself, if only I could have shot the damn ship out of the sky through sheer force of will before any of you had step foot in it-- if only, if only, if only. And then I woke up one morning and realized that I wasn't just angry with you-- although I was angry with you, make no mistake-- but that I was angry with me, with Cowen, with Father, with anybody involved in the whole mess. And then I realized that the only people I hadn't been mad at were the people I should have been angriest with-- the Wraith." She was silent for a few moments.
"And that realization--well, things didn't change overnight, but it helped." She went silent even longer; for a while Teyla thought she had finished, but then Sora spoke so quietly that Teyla had to strain to hear her.
"A lot of what kept me angry at you for so long was I kept thinking, how could she have been such a coward? How could she have been such a coward? Of all the things I thought about you after I'd first met you and known you a while, the last thing I would have thought you were was a coward, and I couldn't believe I'd been so wrong." Sora raised her head, and now met Teyla's gaze directly. "And now I know that it was my first impression was correct. I believe what you say about the hive ship, Teyla; and I am sure that had I been there, I could not have done more."
Teyla bent her head for a moment. When she had composed herself, she looked back up at Sora. "Your courage is also extraordinary, Sora. I am sure that Tyrus would be incredibly proud of you and what you've accomplished." Sora looked as if she wanted to say more, but at that moment the rescue party burst onto the scene.
"Ambassador Emmagen? Are you all right? Can you tell me how you're feeling?" Teyla answered patiently as they gently transferred her to a litter. Sora appeared to be talking to her commander, and so Teyla stopped the progress of the litter for a moment.
"Sora-- thank you," She said. The other woman smiled, warm and sincere.
"You're welcome."
----------------------------------------------------------------------
"You're sure you're all right?" John asked. Teyla suppresed the urge to sigh in exasperation; it was at least the sixth time he had asked the question, and combined with the number of times that Elizabeth, Rodney, Ronon and Beckett had asked the question as well, that brought the total tally up to at least forty. Rodney alone had asked sixteen times.
"Teyla, how deep were the scratches?" Beckett asked worriedly.
"I am not sure, perhaps an inch and half deep?" Teyla guessed. "I can ask Doctor Spiro if you wish, since he is the one who treated me."
"Are you really not under any sort of duress at all? They're not holding a gun to your head and making you tell us you're fine just so they can go and cut you some more?" Rodney asked, his tone deeply suspicious.
"Rodney, I am under no duress, I am alone in my room, and the Genii have made every effort to make my recovery more comfortable." There was only a doubtful silence on the other end. Teyla did sigh this time, flopping down on the bed in her room, careful not to jar her leg.
"Doctor Weir, are you there?"
"Yes, Teyla, I'm here." Came the immediate response.
"Well, I'd just like to say that I completely, absolutely, totally, without a doubt know that Rodney is allergic to citrus," Teyla said, heavily emphasizing each word, hoping that the message would finally get across.
"All right, Teyla, message received, loud and clear," Doctor Weir sounded amused above Rodney's sputtering questions in the background. "But are you certain that you do not wish to come back to Atlantis? Radim seems more than willing to send you back-- indeed, he seems very solicitous of your health."
"I am certain, Doctor Weir. I will stay here until the mission is completed." Teyla replied.
"All right, then. Rest well, Teyla. Weir out." Teyla smiled, then went to sleep.
And so she was beyond surprised when she woke the next morning to knocking on her door, then opened it only to find a somewhat bemused Radim surrounded by Carson, John, Rodney, and Ronon, who all immediately burst into her room, Ronon careful to forcefully kick the door shut behind him.
"So do we have to bust you out or what? Is this room bugged? Is it safe to speak? You know what, never mind, I'll just scan the room myself," Rodney said, immediately pulling out his scanner and scurrying over to a wall.
"Teyla, sweetheart, you shouldn't be putting any weight on that leg-- come on, back to bed with you." Beckett said, immediately pushing her gently but insistently towards the bed.
"So what's the evil Genii plan today, hm? What've they thought up now, huh? Well, I can tell you that they're not going to get away with it this time!" John followed as Beckett guided her back to the bed, bouncing a little on the balls of his feet. Ronon took up a determined stance with his arms crossed in the corner of the room, saying nothing but looking very forboding.
"Come on, Teyla, talk to me," John insisted. Teyla blinked. "Nothing, there is no evil plan." She said, a little dazed from the sudden influx of noise. John raised an eyebrow.
"Right, like I'm going to believe the entire attacked-by-a-enormous-forest-cat-while-harvesting-mushrooms, got-saved-by Sora-of-all-people story, come on Teyla, the Genii aren't around, you don't have to lie anymore! What really happened?" Teyla blinked again.
"What happened was that I was attacked by an enormous forest cat while harvesting mushrooms, and was then rescued by Sora, of all people." Teyla repeated very distinctly and drily. John deflated.
"What, seriously? That wasn't just some secret code for the Genii's nefarious plot to try and murder you using shrooms and, I don't know, leopard-fur coats?"
"Wonderful, colonel, now we all know that the real reason why you wanted to come is because you were hoping you could score psychedelic drugs off the Genii," Rodney snapped. "Nice, very nice-- you're too selfless, really."
"What are shrooms?" Ronon asked.
Teyla shut her eyes and reminded herself to breathe.
"And what does psychedelic mean?"
Several dozen repetitions of her story and reassurances of its verity later-- taking them through lunch and carrying all the way through dinner, until they all five of them end up back at Teyla's room, finally-- finally! --grudgingly convinced that Teyla was not drugged, not an evil twin or evil robot or evil clone, nor brainwashed, hypnotized, nor speaking in code, neither cryptographic or computer code ("Well, she could be speaking some extremely high-level language, and maybe all her code is buggy somehow so she's saying all the wrong things! Maybe we're asking the wrong questions! Garbage in, garbage out, after all, and--" "Oh my god, shut up, Meredith."), Rodney finally blinked rapidly a few times, then ended with, "Well, um, all right?" He blinked again, looking around suddenly in a panic. "Wait, where are we going to sleep?"
"You are not returning to Atlantis?" Teyla asked, surprised.
"Of course not, not while you're still wounded like this," John retorted, getting on his knees to look under the bed as if for a spare mattress. Teyla shook her head, the pressed the button on the intercom in her room.
"Ladon, could you find lodging for my four friends? I'm sorry to bother you so late," Teyla said calmly, glaring at the four of them-- only Beckett had the decency to look the least bit shame-faced.
"Oh-- could you see if he has any orthopedic mattresses?" Rodney piped up hopefully. Teyla repeated the request, rolling her eyes, then let go of the button when Ladon assured her that he'd have accomodations ready within a half an hour. She turned to find the strangest expression on John's face, a cross between a smirk and a wince.
"So you're calling him Ladon, are you?" Teyla staggered to the bed and buried her face in the pillow.
The next day, more than a little cautiously, they split up; with great reserve, John and Ronon went to talk to the brass of the Genii military, Rodney went to berate and abuse the Genii scientists, Beckett went to confer with the Genii doctors, and Teyla hobbled up to the mess hall where she was greeted by three enormous hugs. She knelt a little gingerly, blinking as she pressed her cheek against Ana's hair.
"We thought you were going to die," Coren said, his voice shaking. Teyla shook her head.
"I had no fear, once I knew that you three were safe," Teyla whispered. She drew herself away. then took Ana by the shoulders first.
"I am so, so glad you are well and whole," she said, and bit her lip when Ana's eyes filled with tears. She gave the girl a quick hug before taking Coren's shoulders next. "Thank you for going for help; Sora and I both are very grateful to you." She said seriously; the boy looked as if he too wanted a hug, but at the last moment he held out his forearms; Teyla grasped them firmly, then impulsively leaned in to touch her forehead to his gently. "It is the traditional greeting among my people," she explained; Coren touched his forehead gently, and nodded.
Perlan she drew away from the siblings, and stood straight rather then knelt, so that he would know that she no longer considered him a child.
"Perlan Arthran, you are a soldier that I am proud to have fought with," She said. "You performed your duty in a manner beyond reproach; always remember that you are meant to protect and to serve." Perlan gulped, and looked down for a moment. When he looked up, his eyes were clear and mischievous.
"So, are you going to help us with harvest duty today?" Teyla shook her head sadly.
"I'm afraid not today, there are a few meetings I have to attend. But..." Teyla let her voice drop to a conspiratorial level. "I can promise you that I'll come tomorrow-- I'll even bring help."
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"You're completely serious," Rodney said flatly, staring at the radish field in front of him. Coren and Ana giggled, already having sense his uneasiness around them and taking full advantage. "This is what you've been doing the entire time you've been here."
"Not entirely, no. Simply the most enjoyable thing, I find," Teyla replied setting down her basket and kneeling carefully before beginning to pull up the radishes. Ronon had already started on the far row, sharing a basket with Perlan, the two of them already engaged in deep discussion.
"What, the rest of the time they've been giving you paper cuts and pouring lemon juice over them?" Rodney said, grumpily dropping to his knees next to John's basket.
"No, I've been at staff meetings, Rodney." He snorted.
"Oh, well then, same thing." Coren giggled some more, then piped up,
"Doctor McKay, did you know that Ambassador Emmagen said that she eats people?" Teyla mock-glared at Coren, who smiled mischievously back at her.
"Did she really?" McKay said, wearily pulling at a bunch of radish leaves, which only gave way after his fourth tug. "Don’t worry, kids, I'm sure that she'll go after me first, you're all a little too scrawny to be worth the effort it would take to butcher you."
Teyla felt a smile growing on her face against her will.
"You do not need to worry, either, Doctor McKay," she said calmly. "I am allergic to excessive obnoxiousness in my food, and I think you can sympathize how unpleasant such an experience would be for me. Certainly rudeness adds a degree of bitterness, as well."
"Eh, I say you should go for it-you could probably roast all the obnoxiousness out of him if you left him on the spit long enough," John said speculatively, above Rodney's outraged sputtering.
"I know where he keeps his Epi-pen, it's in his upper right vest pocket," Ronon rumbled as he continued deftly harvesting radishes alongside Perlan and placing them in the basket between them. "You could always use that if you have a reaction." Teyla bent her head over her own work as well, trying to conceal her mirth.
"Then again, you might have to roast him into charcoal before you'd get it all out," John concluded.
"Thank you for the offer, Ronon. But I believe that it would be prudent to leave Doctor McKay intact; he is, after all, somewhat useful back at Atlantis. Now the colonel, on the other hand, is just large enough for a satisfying meal and I believe I would not have any allergic reaction at all."
"Hey, now you just wait a minute," John said looking up, stopping in his work entirely. "Why not go after Ronon? I'm sure he's plenty tasty-um..." he suddenly stopped, the tips of his ears turning bright red as he suddenly began pulling up radishes with more diligence than he had exhibited thus far. Teyla fought the urge to smile; she could see out of the corner of her eye that Doctor McKay was glaring hotly at Sheppard's quickly reddening neck, while Ronon's shoulders shook with suppressed laughter.
"Why, Ronon would make a meal too large for me to manage comfortably; I thought I'd leave him to Sora, since she is forever boasting of her ability to handle meals that others consider punishment." Teyla said demurely. John snorted.
"You want to punish her, just force her to spend ten minutes with McKay, that ought to take care of it."
"All right, that's it, there's no way I'm taking physical abuse as well as verbal," Rodney said, throwing up his hands. "I'm just going to come over here and keep Ana company, since her idea of fun is much closer to mine-- I'll take drawing in the dirt any day over pulling up radishes," he said disgustedly. He glanced over at Ana, who had taken a stick and was drawing in the fine, sandy soil that surrounded the radish field, then did an almost comically exaggerated double take. "Wait a minute, wait a minute--" He began snapping his fingers rapid-fire, gesturing impatiently at Coren.
"Carmen, get over here-- what's your number system? What does this say, can you read it out?"
"My name's Coren," Coren said. "And she always draws numbers everywhere, it doesn't mean anything," He said, shrugging. McKay shot an intensely irritated look at him.
"I'm the smartest person in two galaxies, so why don't you let me decide whether or not the numbers mean anything, all right, Carlos?" He snapped. "Wait, wait, what am I saying?" He fished out a piece of paper and a pen from his vest and thrust it into Ana's face, who after a moment's careful consideration took it. She wrote something down, and after McKay looked at it for a few seconds, he squawked at an entirely improbable frequency range for an adult human male, and then the two of them were off.
"What's he doing?" Coren came over and asked Teyla. She shook her head. "I am not entirely sure, but be easy, Coren, he means your sister no harm," Teyla said. "Now, are you going to let Perlan and Ronon beat us at harvesting radishes?" She asked, a twinkle in her eye.
McKay and Ana didn't join up with them again until dinner in the mess hall, McKay coming in with a broad smile across his face and Ana trailing a little behind him, although her smaller smile was no less sincere.
"Well, we have here a genuine mathematics prodigy," McKay said as he sat down with his food. "Not anywhere near my level at that age, and of course I could talk--"
"The trick is getting you to shut up, McKay," Sheppard interjected.
"But still, quite extraordinary-- certainly miles ahead of the rest of the people who deign to call themselves scientists around here," McKay sniffed, obviously remembering his work with the Genii scientists the day before. Coren stared at him, his lower lip beginning to tremble.
"You-- you mean that she could become a scientist? Like-- with all the other scientists here?"
McKay snorted around a mouthful of food. "Have you not listened to a word I said? With the proper training, she could eat the other scientists around here for breakfast, slice'em up and use them to build a house of cards if she likes..." McKay cut off abruptly, almost choking when Coren blurred around the table to lock his arms around McKay's stomach.
"Thank you," Coren said, sounding near tears. "Thank you." John and Ronon were nearly choking too from laughter at McKay's expression, as the man tried to disentangle Coren from his vest.
"You're welcome, now go back and eat your dinner," McKay snapped, pulling Coren's arms away from his middle and attacking his own food again, all trace of his flabbergasted expression wiped away. Teyla rolled her eyes, but after dinner when McKay asked for a full explanation in private, he was silent during Teyla's entire narrative, his eyes going dark with some unknown emotion. "Oh." He said, looking down for a moment. "Well, that's-- that's just inhumane. They would do that to her? Do they realize what a complete and utter waste of talent could have happened if I hadn't figured out what she was saying?" His voice rose, all the signs of a full-blown McKay rant now appearing.
"Rodney, do you think even children who are not math prodigies deserve such treatment?" Teyla asked quietly. He deflated quietly, then raised his head.
"Teyla, we have to help them. I mean, you need to speak to Radim about having Atlantis people train Ana anyways, but we can't let kids grow up like that--"
"I know," she replied. "And I believe that Radim agrees, but changing the Genii will be long, slow, hard work, Rodney." He was silent for a few moments more, then smiled suddenly.
"All right, but the elegance in her work-- from a seven-and-a-half year old! That kind of potential-- it's worth all the hard work we can give," he said fiercely. Teyla smiled. "I am glad you agree," she said gently.
The last day passed in a blur; all too soon, Teyla found herself standing in front of the stargate, John carrying her pack and the rest of the Atlantis team next to her. She turned back; standing there was Ladon, Sora, Perlan, Coren, and Ana. Ladon stepped forward first, holding out his forearms. Teyla grasped them gladly.
"Ambassador Emmagen, I am glad that this mission to improve the relations between our peoples has been so successful, and I look forward to many more successful missions in the future," He said formally, then dropping his voice, "Teyla, know that so long as I, my cabinet, Sora, Perlan, Coren, and Ana have a say, you will always be welcome among the Genii." Teyla smiled.
"Thank you, Ladon; be careful, for you may regret that if I begin to visit too often," she said. Ladon smiled and shook his head, then dropped back. Sora came forward and held out her own arms.
"Teyla, I know that our initial friendship began in deceit, and then ended with anger. But I hope that if you are willing, we might start this friendship anew; I would not like this to fall victim to the Wraith as well, as so much else in our galaxy has," Sora said, her voice a little nervous.
"Sora, I would be very happy to renew our friendship," Teyla said. "And I am honored that you feel the friendship worth renewing; I have long felt that it was precious to me, and I am glad to know that it is for you as well." With a touch of foreheads, Sora let go and stepped back.
Perlan looked up at her, then said gruffly, "Don't eat any more babies, Ambassador Emmagen." Teyla laughed, and ruffled his hair. He ducked away, grinning. "Be kind, Perlan."
Coren looked up with wide eyes, then blurted out, "Come back, please. Sometimes? We can go on harvest duty together again!" Teyla smiled, and knelt down to look at him. "I promise I will come back; after all, who else is going to help me beat Perlan and Ronon at harvesting vegetables?" She clapped a hand on his shoulder one last time, then turned to Ana. The girl looked at her with an even more beseeching expression than Coren. Teyla took her by the shoulders and leaned her forehead in, looking in her eyes intently.
"Ana, I promise I will come back as often as possible, and you, your brother and Perlan are always welcome on Atlantis. Now, Ana, if Doctor McKay works with you and becomes sharp, I want you to remember that you are not to take him seriously, because sometimes he gets scared when he has to deal with people who are smarter than he is." Teyla whispered. The girl broke out into silent laughter. "Be brave, Ana. Be brave." Teyla said, then gave her one last hug and let go.
"Ready to get out of here?" John asked. The rest of the team waited for her reply, standing in front of the wormhole. Teyla looked back at the five Genii in front of her, the sunlight obscuring her vision.
"Yes. I'm ready to go home." The rest of the team began crossing one by one, Beckett, Ronon, McKay; John looked as she lingered, but after she waved him on, he shrugged and went through, lugging her pack. She turned back one last time, and raised her hand in farewell; the three tallest figures returned the gesture, the two smaller ones now jumping up and down wildly waving goodbye. She smiled, and turned to go.
Hope takes courage, she thought as she stepped into the familiar, wild blue-- but sometimes hope can yield happiness.
Author: Salifiable
Rating: G
Characters: Teyla, Gen
Length: ~14,000 words
Spoilers: Through 3x07 Common Ground
Warnings: None
Summary: "Seriously, there's absolutely no good reason for you to go out there; I never thought I'd see the day where Elizabeth's plans would sink to the level of Baldrick's, but hey, there's a first time for everything in the Pegasus Galaxy!" Rodney hissed.
A/N: All I can say is, I have no idea how this ended up so long. If you catch any canon/grammar/typo errors, please let me know and I'll fix it as soon as possible!
The next day found Teyla and the three children not in cornfields, but rather in a deep, cool forest.
"And what is it that we harvest in here?" Teyla inquired.
"We're looking for mushrooms," Coren answered. "They can't manage to grow mushrooms with hydroponics, so we're supposed to pick all the mushrooms we can find, and then one of the scientists sorts the edible ones from the poisonous."
"I see. Do many mushrooms grow in this forest?"
"Yes, the trick is trying to find them-- a lot of them just blend in with the other plants, since they're the same color and all-- like this one, here, come and look," Perlan said, kneeling down at the base of a tree. Teyla drew closer, then realized that the mossy grey lumps he was pointing at were, indeed, mushrooms. "See? It's easy, you just have to look really carefully." Perlan said, picking the mushrooms and depositing them lightly in his basket.
The next few hours passed quickly and enjoyably as the four of them rambled through the forest in search of mushrooms, although Teyla thought that the boys rather forgot the mushrooms in favor of horseplay; even Ana had laughed soundlessly but goodnaturedly when Perlan's attempt at crossing a fallen log over a creek ended in a tumble that left him drenched, teeth chattering. Luckily, by then the forest had warmed from the rays of the sun, and soon enough Perlan was back to his usual antics.
Teyla was bending over to pick a clump of mushrooms growing from a dead stump when she suddenly straightened, the hairs on the back of her neck rising.
"Oh, look, I've found a whole bun--"
"Coren, hush!" Teyla said sharply, turning her head. Yes, there it was-- a deep rumbling, almost a growl-- and now fast approaching.
Teyla immediately leapt into action, darting over to where Coren, Perlan and Ana were gathered around a ring of mushrooms. She scooped up Ana in her arms and clasped the girl's hands around Perlan's neck and shoved the boy's arms around Ana's legs. "You need to get out of here-- Perlan, take Ana and Coren and run as far as you can-- but if you find a good tree to climb, get Coren and Ana up there as quickly as possible as high as you can. Go! Now!" To his credit, Perlan immediately turned and began running, pushing a dazed Coren until the younger boy got the idea and began sprinting away. Teyla turned back; she could see it now, still stalking behind the trees.
She dropped to one knee and desperately grabbed for the first two branches she could find, breaking off as many of the offshoots in order to get two crude sticks. She suddenly, irrationally, wished for her own two sticks, still in her room in Atlantis. With a loud warning growl, the predator finally appeared in front of her. Teyla blinked and nearly backed away-- after the first glance, she amended herself and wished instead for her P-90, although it was doubtful whether even that could have dropped the beast without at least several rounds; it was an enormous cat-like creature, a good few inches taller than her with fangs at least as long as her hand, with a heft and weight that were enough to crush a person.
And then there was no more time for wishing-- the cat coiled itself low against the ground, and then pounced.
Teyla waited as it soared towards her, then swiped with her left arm to catch it full across the side of its face with her stick, then jabbed as hard as she dared with her other branch in that direction. It recovered lightning-fast, immediately up and pouncing again to knock her over, this time giving Teyla no time to prepare; and now it was close fighting, kicking and jabbing and punching as hard as she could, trying to avoid the gleaming fangs at all times. She finally managed to land a solid kick right against the cat's chest, audibly driving the air from its lungs and forcing it off of her. She rolled cat-quick to the side and got to her feet, taking up another fighting stance as the cat got up, now stalking around her a trifle more warily.
This time, it feinted towards the right before catching her off-guard on the left; she barely managed to turn and block its claws with her right stick before it leapt again, swiping a heavy paw downwards as if to rake her face. She ducked and jabbed her left stick forward while bringing her right stick around to catch the paw, then threw it off and landed another solid whack on the side of its head before whirling away, trying to attack from the back. A sharp edge of the wood caught and tore through the animal's skin, drawing blood. It turned back, enraged and hissing. Suddenly, it was all Teyla could do to fend off its claws, but it kept jabbing its head forward with its jaws wide open, fangs horrifying in their clarity. Desperately, Teyla spun and fought and danced backwards as quickly and as deftly as she could, but she could feel herself tiring and her hands were growing slippering from blood and sweat, the cat having scored deep scratches on her forearm.
It was, she realized dimly as she managed to evade a particularly powerful blow to her legs by whirling out of the way, fighting her down a slope; mild, but enough to give it a significant advantage. If the fight continued on the cat's terms, then there was no way Teyla could win; it only needed to fight her until she exhausted herself, and then she would be easy prey; she had to reach higher ground. She took a deep breath, then abruptly flipped the direction of her attacks until she was uphill, then turned and ran as quickly her screaming muscles allowed.
Not fast enough-- a quick look back showed the cat was right behind her. Teyla swore internally, and then without warning the cat was again in front of her, barrelling forward and knocking her to the ground with such force that her left hand lost its grip on its branch, a heavy paw pinning her entire left arm to the ground, inch-long needle claws digging into her flesh. It leaned over her, snarling directly into her face, saliva dripping from its fangs into her eyes. Teyla took a deep breath, spared a thought for Atlantis, then for her people, and brought her right stick up and thrust it as hard she could straight into the cat's chest with a scream of rage.
She did not immediately register the sharp crack that sounded throughout the forest, but when she rolled to the side away from the cat and scrambled to her feet, she did hear the second gunshot. She snapped her head around in astonishment, where off to her left a figure was aiming a rifle directly at the cat, obviously shooting as quickly as the gun allowed. The cat roared in rage, by now spitting-mad as it coiled around trying to assess this new threat. Teyla reacted to the intent in those feline muscles before she registered it, and started sprinting towards the shooter as fast as she could, a precious few seconds before the cat itself began leaping with alarming speed towards the same goal.
"Move!" Teyla yelled as loudly as she could-- the cat wasn't dropping even after ten shots, only slowing slightly-- if it kept up at the speed it was going, it would reach the shooter still alive, and even greatly weakened, its claws and weight could still do serious damage. The shooter held his ground and kept shooting, twenty rounds, now twenty-five, now thirty; Teyla spared a single flicker of admiration for the shooter-- then, as if in slow motion, she saw out of the corner of her eye the cat coil its back legs, then pounce, its claws fully extended.
Putting on one last, desperate spurt of speed as the echo of repeated gunshots rang in her ears, Teyla veered as hard as she could to the right and tackled the shooter, both arms around his body-- they hit the ground hard, but Teyla's momentum was enough to carry them out of the path of the leaping cat. Teyla felt the breath knocked out of her, but twisted around wild-eyed back to the cat-- but it had finally slumped over, the last bubbling snarls wheezing out of its lungs. The shooter had managed to land the last round of shots directly in the cat's forehead, turning it into a bloody pulp. Teyla turned away, feeling a little sickened, before realizing with a start that the shooter beneath her was groaning. Teyla hurriedly moved off him, then turned him on his back only to find, to her utter astonishment, that he was not a he after all.
"Sora!" Teyla croaked, quickly looking over the other woman to see there were any apparent injuries. There were none, although the left shoulder of her shirt was torn from where she had skidded against the ground. Luckily, it seemed the woman's skirts had cushioned her legs. "Sora, can you hear me?" With a groan, Sora opened her eyes, blinked once, then focused a mite woozily on Teyla's face.
"Still trying to kill me, huh?" Teyla let out a burst of shaking laughter, then collapsed as well on her back, staring up at the sky as she tried to remind her lungs how to breath.
"I do not believe I should try this method if I ever were trying to kill you-- it requires too much effort on my part," Teyla panted out. A few more breaths, and then, more quietly. "But thank you-- truly." For a few seconds, they both laid there, simply breathing. Finally, when Teyla felt sufficiently recovered, she pulled herself up. "I have to go find the children who were with me," she said. "I need to find out if they're safe."
"Oh, they're fine," Sora waved dismissively. "They're how I found you in the first place, anyways. In fact, they can go fetch help, since I don't think that either you or I are in any shape to help ourselves," Sora said, gesturing towards Teyla's leg. Teyla looked down, only now realizing that that there was a long and rather deep set of freely bleeding scratches running diagonally around her left calf.
"Oh," She said, at a loss for words. She tentatively tried putting some weight on it, then winced at the sharpness of the sudden stabbing pain.
"Here, we should bind that up," Sora said, pulling herself up with great effort. "Hold on," she fished out a whistle from her pocket and blew into it, three short, shrill blasts that rang through the forest. At first, there was no immediate effect, but after a few seconds Teyla could pick out the sounds of what sounded like children scrambling down a tree and running in their direction.
"We don't use any technology above ground in case of the Wraith, it's why we don't have radios or anything," Sora explained. "So everybody on guard duty or harvest duty has to make do with whistles, instead. The kids kept blowing them like crazy, that's how I got to them and then found you." Teyla opened her mouth to ask further, but at that moment the children came running up, all three of them pale and shaking, Ana so pale as to look nearly bloodless.
"We are fine," Teyla tried to reassure them, then looked down at both of them and revised. "We will survive, but we would appreciate it if you would go and fetch help from the bunkers, or at least from the village," She tried again. At a single look from Perlan and Coren set off running through the trees, his crashing footsteps soon fading away. Perlan tore off the sleeve of his shirt and helped Teyla bind up the wounds on her legs before Sora sent him away.
"No," She said flatly in answer to the protest in his eyes. "Take Ana back to the bunkers and have Doctor Spiro check all of you over at once; besides, you know that Coren has no head for directions, you're going to have to tell them how to find us." With obvious reluctance, Perlan set off with Ana holding his hand, and Teyla now found herself alone with a woman she once thought she knew, and then discovered to her surprise and sorrow that she did not, at all.
"Sora," She said, carefully; realizing that she meant what she was about to say. "Besides all of this, I am glad to see you, you know." Sora let out a surprised chuckle.
"And I you, although I would not have thought so. When I first heard that you were to be the ambassador from Atlantis-- well, let's say you wouldn't have wanted to run into me then," She said drily. "So it is doubly a blessing that I've had guard duty this month, since it meant that I couldn't see and therefore kill you when you first arrived, and today it meant I was around to save your ass." Teyla frowned.
"Why are you on guard duty, Sora? I received the impression from Perlan that the important officers of the military are not required to serve guard duty, and as I remember it you were very high-ranking under Kolya."
"Yes, under Kolya," Sora emphasized. "When things started to get complicated under Cowen, then Radim, I was initially an outspoken Kolya loyalist. A lot of the higher officers were, since he was the one who trained us, and Radim being a scientist didn't help matters much. But when Radim took over for good, he couldn't very well execute all of the Kolya loyalists in the military; too many of us, too much talent. But he could demote us, so--" Sora shrugged. "Here I am." Teyla took a quick breath.
"You were not one of Kolya's band when he captured Colonel Sheppard, were you?" Teyla asked; she hand't seen Sora there, but that didn't necessarily mean anything-- if she had been there-- if Sora had been party to John's torture--
"No." Sora answered quietly. "No, I defected, I suppose that's the word, to Radim when the real story of why he led the coup came out. Cowen kept it secret from most of the military, that he was going to get the Atlanteans to kidnap the Genii with radiation sickness and then leave them to die, and when that came out a lot of people switched over, including me. Although I guess not quickly enough for Radim's taste," She said. A few moments of slience elapsed, then she added, "That's actually why Radim was so anxious to have the ambassador swap now, you know; his sister's getting sicker again, and he wanted to send Doctor Corgan over so Doctor Beckett could give him some training, that way we don't have to be relying on Atlantis all the time for radiation sickness treatment."
Ah, Teyla thought. That certainly clarified things. She shook her head and changed the subject.
"So it is pure chance that you happened to be on guard duty for Perlan, Coren and Ana?" Sora shifted a little.
"A little, although not exactly-- I always ask to be put on guard duty for the children, since some of the other soldiers find it annoying when the kids don't always follow directions, and others honestly couldn't be bothered to care about actually checking in on them, ever." Sora said, the bitterness obvious in her voice.
"Are there so few soldiers? Perlan told me that there is always a platoon on guard duty," Teyla started.
"Yes, but there are only thirty soldiers to a platoon-- we're each responsible for guarding twenty civilians, but if those twenty are all spread out of fields and forest, then it's hard to keep track of all of them at once," Sora explained. "It's why it took me so long to get over here, I was over in the vegetable fields when Marthos ran over and told me about hearing the children's whistles from the forest."
"You know this cannot continue," Teyla said urgently. "Sending defenseless children out alone? If I had not been here, Sora, all three of those children..." Teyla trailed off; she'd only known these children for two days, and already the image of any of them killed or mauled by that beast left her terrified. Sora sighed.
"I know." The other woman paused. "I've heard rumors that Radim's going to try and phase out harvest duty for all children, although the higher-ups of the military are going to fight him like spit and hellfire on that one, so good luck to him on that. There's other whispers going around that he's going to try overhaul the military, along with the science/civilian hierarchy."
"Do you honestly believe he will try it?" The other woman was silent for a few moments.
"Yeah," She finally answered. "I do. It's a crazy idea, but he's been trying to bring a lot of the key people round to his way of thinking-- nothing too obvious, it's all very subtle, but-- you serve in the military long enough, you recognize the signs."
Teyla leaned back against a nearby tree stump suddenly, a small but real warmth spreading throughout her body. It seemed as if Radim had been sincere, after all; and that thought left her somehow even more shaken than before; hope takes courage, Teyla reminded herself, then drew herself back up.
"Sora," She began a little awkwardly; she had always meant to have this conversation, but even in her head she had never quite known what to say. "About Tyrus--" Sora's back stiffened, but remained silent. "I will always wish I had done more," Teyla said, her voice very low. "But every time I go over the situation in my head, I truly do not see how anything more could have been done; I wish there had been some way to bring him back alive, but I did not have the vision to find any way to do it. I must admit that I still do not."
There was a long, tense silence. Teyla looked at the other woman for a few moments, then bent over, ostensibly to check the dressing on her leg. It is not fair, she thought angrily, suddenly filled with an unaccountable rage, that with all that the Wraith have taken from her that they would take this from her too.
Finally, Sora sighed.
"I believe you." She sounded unbelievably weary. "I was angry, for a very long time. If only I had stopped him from going, if only I had been there myself, if only I could have shot the damn ship out of the sky through sheer force of will before any of you had step foot in it-- if only, if only, if only. And then I woke up one morning and realized that I wasn't just angry with you-- although I was angry with you, make no mistake-- but that I was angry with me, with Cowen, with Father, with anybody involved in the whole mess. And then I realized that the only people I hadn't been mad at were the people I should have been angriest with-- the Wraith." She was silent for a few moments.
"And that realization--well, things didn't change overnight, but it helped." She went silent even longer; for a while Teyla thought she had finished, but then Sora spoke so quietly that Teyla had to strain to hear her.
"A lot of what kept me angry at you for so long was I kept thinking, how could she have been such a coward? How could she have been such a coward? Of all the things I thought about you after I'd first met you and known you a while, the last thing I would have thought you were was a coward, and I couldn't believe I'd been so wrong." Sora raised her head, and now met Teyla's gaze directly. "And now I know that it was my first impression was correct. I believe what you say about the hive ship, Teyla; and I am sure that had I been there, I could not have done more."
Teyla bent her head for a moment. When she had composed herself, she looked back up at Sora. "Your courage is also extraordinary, Sora. I am sure that Tyrus would be incredibly proud of you and what you've accomplished." Sora looked as if she wanted to say more, but at that moment the rescue party burst onto the scene.
"Ambassador Emmagen? Are you all right? Can you tell me how you're feeling?" Teyla answered patiently as they gently transferred her to a litter. Sora appeared to be talking to her commander, and so Teyla stopped the progress of the litter for a moment.
"Sora-- thank you," She said. The other woman smiled, warm and sincere.
"You're welcome."
----------------------------------------------------------------------
"You're sure you're all right?" John asked. Teyla suppresed the urge to sigh in exasperation; it was at least the sixth time he had asked the question, and combined with the number of times that Elizabeth, Rodney, Ronon and Beckett had asked the question as well, that brought the total tally up to at least forty. Rodney alone had asked sixteen times.
"Teyla, how deep were the scratches?" Beckett asked worriedly.
"I am not sure, perhaps an inch and half deep?" Teyla guessed. "I can ask Doctor Spiro if you wish, since he is the one who treated me."
"Are you really not under any sort of duress at all? They're not holding a gun to your head and making you tell us you're fine just so they can go and cut you some more?" Rodney asked, his tone deeply suspicious.
"Rodney, I am under no duress, I am alone in my room, and the Genii have made every effort to make my recovery more comfortable." There was only a doubtful silence on the other end. Teyla did sigh this time, flopping down on the bed in her room, careful not to jar her leg.
"Doctor Weir, are you there?"
"Yes, Teyla, I'm here." Came the immediate response.
"Well, I'd just like to say that I completely, absolutely, totally, without a doubt know that Rodney is allergic to citrus," Teyla said, heavily emphasizing each word, hoping that the message would finally get across.
"All right, Teyla, message received, loud and clear," Doctor Weir sounded amused above Rodney's sputtering questions in the background. "But are you certain that you do not wish to come back to Atlantis? Radim seems more than willing to send you back-- indeed, he seems very solicitous of your health."
"I am certain, Doctor Weir. I will stay here until the mission is completed." Teyla replied.
"All right, then. Rest well, Teyla. Weir out." Teyla smiled, then went to sleep.
And so she was beyond surprised when she woke the next morning to knocking on her door, then opened it only to find a somewhat bemused Radim surrounded by Carson, John, Rodney, and Ronon, who all immediately burst into her room, Ronon careful to forcefully kick the door shut behind him.
"So do we have to bust you out or what? Is this room bugged? Is it safe to speak? You know what, never mind, I'll just scan the room myself," Rodney said, immediately pulling out his scanner and scurrying over to a wall.
"Teyla, sweetheart, you shouldn't be putting any weight on that leg-- come on, back to bed with you." Beckett said, immediately pushing her gently but insistently towards the bed.
"So what's the evil Genii plan today, hm? What've they thought up now, huh? Well, I can tell you that they're not going to get away with it this time!" John followed as Beckett guided her back to the bed, bouncing a little on the balls of his feet. Ronon took up a determined stance with his arms crossed in the corner of the room, saying nothing but looking very forboding.
"Come on, Teyla, talk to me," John insisted. Teyla blinked. "Nothing, there is no evil plan." She said, a little dazed from the sudden influx of noise. John raised an eyebrow.
"Right, like I'm going to believe the entire attacked-by-a-enormous-forest-cat-while-harvesting-mushrooms, got-saved-by Sora-of-all-people story, come on Teyla, the Genii aren't around, you don't have to lie anymore! What really happened?" Teyla blinked again.
"What happened was that I was attacked by an enormous forest cat while harvesting mushrooms, and was then rescued by Sora, of all people." Teyla repeated very distinctly and drily. John deflated.
"What, seriously? That wasn't just some secret code for the Genii's nefarious plot to try and murder you using shrooms and, I don't know, leopard-fur coats?"
"Wonderful, colonel, now we all know that the real reason why you wanted to come is because you were hoping you could score psychedelic drugs off the Genii," Rodney snapped. "Nice, very nice-- you're too selfless, really."
"What are shrooms?" Ronon asked.
Teyla shut her eyes and reminded herself to breathe.
"And what does psychedelic mean?"
Several dozen repetitions of her story and reassurances of its verity later-- taking them through lunch and carrying all the way through dinner, until they all five of them end up back at Teyla's room, finally-- finally! --grudgingly convinced that Teyla was not drugged, not an evil twin or evil robot or evil clone, nor brainwashed, hypnotized, nor speaking in code, neither cryptographic or computer code ("Well, she could be speaking some extremely high-level language, and maybe all her code is buggy somehow so she's saying all the wrong things! Maybe we're asking the wrong questions! Garbage in, garbage out, after all, and--" "Oh my god, shut up, Meredith."), Rodney finally blinked rapidly a few times, then ended with, "Well, um, all right?" He blinked again, looking around suddenly in a panic. "Wait, where are we going to sleep?"
"You are not returning to Atlantis?" Teyla asked, surprised.
"Of course not, not while you're still wounded like this," John retorted, getting on his knees to look under the bed as if for a spare mattress. Teyla shook her head, the pressed the button on the intercom in her room.
"Ladon, could you find lodging for my four friends? I'm sorry to bother you so late," Teyla said calmly, glaring at the four of them-- only Beckett had the decency to look the least bit shame-faced.
"Oh-- could you see if he has any orthopedic mattresses?" Rodney piped up hopefully. Teyla repeated the request, rolling her eyes, then let go of the button when Ladon assured her that he'd have accomodations ready within a half an hour. She turned to find the strangest expression on John's face, a cross between a smirk and a wince.
"So you're calling him Ladon, are you?" Teyla staggered to the bed and buried her face in the pillow.
The next day, more than a little cautiously, they split up; with great reserve, John and Ronon went to talk to the brass of the Genii military, Rodney went to berate and abuse the Genii scientists, Beckett went to confer with the Genii doctors, and Teyla hobbled up to the mess hall where she was greeted by three enormous hugs. She knelt a little gingerly, blinking as she pressed her cheek against Ana's hair.
"We thought you were going to die," Coren said, his voice shaking. Teyla shook her head.
"I had no fear, once I knew that you three were safe," Teyla whispered. She drew herself away. then took Ana by the shoulders first.
"I am so, so glad you are well and whole," she said, and bit her lip when Ana's eyes filled with tears. She gave the girl a quick hug before taking Coren's shoulders next. "Thank you for going for help; Sora and I both are very grateful to you." She said seriously; the boy looked as if he too wanted a hug, but at the last moment he held out his forearms; Teyla grasped them firmly, then impulsively leaned in to touch her forehead to his gently. "It is the traditional greeting among my people," she explained; Coren touched his forehead gently, and nodded.
Perlan she drew away from the siblings, and stood straight rather then knelt, so that he would know that she no longer considered him a child.
"Perlan Arthran, you are a soldier that I am proud to have fought with," She said. "You performed your duty in a manner beyond reproach; always remember that you are meant to protect and to serve." Perlan gulped, and looked down for a moment. When he looked up, his eyes were clear and mischievous.
"So, are you going to help us with harvest duty today?" Teyla shook her head sadly.
"I'm afraid not today, there are a few meetings I have to attend. But..." Teyla let her voice drop to a conspiratorial level. "I can promise you that I'll come tomorrow-- I'll even bring help."
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"You're completely serious," Rodney said flatly, staring at the radish field in front of him. Coren and Ana giggled, already having sense his uneasiness around them and taking full advantage. "This is what you've been doing the entire time you've been here."
"Not entirely, no. Simply the most enjoyable thing, I find," Teyla replied setting down her basket and kneeling carefully before beginning to pull up the radishes. Ronon had already started on the far row, sharing a basket with Perlan, the two of them already engaged in deep discussion.
"What, the rest of the time they've been giving you paper cuts and pouring lemon juice over them?" Rodney said, grumpily dropping to his knees next to John's basket.
"No, I've been at staff meetings, Rodney." He snorted.
"Oh, well then, same thing." Coren giggled some more, then piped up,
"Doctor McKay, did you know that Ambassador Emmagen said that she eats people?" Teyla mock-glared at Coren, who smiled mischievously back at her.
"Did she really?" McKay said, wearily pulling at a bunch of radish leaves, which only gave way after his fourth tug. "Don’t worry, kids, I'm sure that she'll go after me first, you're all a little too scrawny to be worth the effort it would take to butcher you."
Teyla felt a smile growing on her face against her will.
"You do not need to worry, either, Doctor McKay," she said calmly. "I am allergic to excessive obnoxiousness in my food, and I think you can sympathize how unpleasant such an experience would be for me. Certainly rudeness adds a degree of bitterness, as well."
"Eh, I say you should go for it-you could probably roast all the obnoxiousness out of him if you left him on the spit long enough," John said speculatively, above Rodney's outraged sputtering.
"I know where he keeps his Epi-pen, it's in his upper right vest pocket," Ronon rumbled as he continued deftly harvesting radishes alongside Perlan and placing them in the basket between them. "You could always use that if you have a reaction." Teyla bent her head over her own work as well, trying to conceal her mirth.
"Then again, you might have to roast him into charcoal before you'd get it all out," John concluded.
"Thank you for the offer, Ronon. But I believe that it would be prudent to leave Doctor McKay intact; he is, after all, somewhat useful back at Atlantis. Now the colonel, on the other hand, is just large enough for a satisfying meal and I believe I would not have any allergic reaction at all."
"Hey, now you just wait a minute," John said looking up, stopping in his work entirely. "Why not go after Ronon? I'm sure he's plenty tasty-um..." he suddenly stopped, the tips of his ears turning bright red as he suddenly began pulling up radishes with more diligence than he had exhibited thus far. Teyla fought the urge to smile; she could see out of the corner of her eye that Doctor McKay was glaring hotly at Sheppard's quickly reddening neck, while Ronon's shoulders shook with suppressed laughter.
"Why, Ronon would make a meal too large for me to manage comfortably; I thought I'd leave him to Sora, since she is forever boasting of her ability to handle meals that others consider punishment." Teyla said demurely. John snorted.
"You want to punish her, just force her to spend ten minutes with McKay, that ought to take care of it."
"All right, that's it, there's no way I'm taking physical abuse as well as verbal," Rodney said, throwing up his hands. "I'm just going to come over here and keep Ana company, since her idea of fun is much closer to mine-- I'll take drawing in the dirt any day over pulling up radishes," he said disgustedly. He glanced over at Ana, who had taken a stick and was drawing in the fine, sandy soil that surrounded the radish field, then did an almost comically exaggerated double take. "Wait a minute, wait a minute--" He began snapping his fingers rapid-fire, gesturing impatiently at Coren.
"Carmen, get over here-- what's your number system? What does this say, can you read it out?"
"My name's Coren," Coren said. "And she always draws numbers everywhere, it doesn't mean anything," He said, shrugging. McKay shot an intensely irritated look at him.
"I'm the smartest person in two galaxies, so why don't you let me decide whether or not the numbers mean anything, all right, Carlos?" He snapped. "Wait, wait, what am I saying?" He fished out a piece of paper and a pen from his vest and thrust it into Ana's face, who after a moment's careful consideration took it. She wrote something down, and after McKay looked at it for a few seconds, he squawked at an entirely improbable frequency range for an adult human male, and then the two of them were off.
"What's he doing?" Coren came over and asked Teyla. She shook her head. "I am not entirely sure, but be easy, Coren, he means your sister no harm," Teyla said. "Now, are you going to let Perlan and Ronon beat us at harvesting radishes?" She asked, a twinkle in her eye.
McKay and Ana didn't join up with them again until dinner in the mess hall, McKay coming in with a broad smile across his face and Ana trailing a little behind him, although her smaller smile was no less sincere.
"Well, we have here a genuine mathematics prodigy," McKay said as he sat down with his food. "Not anywhere near my level at that age, and of course I could talk--"
"The trick is getting you to shut up, McKay," Sheppard interjected.
"But still, quite extraordinary-- certainly miles ahead of the rest of the people who deign to call themselves scientists around here," McKay sniffed, obviously remembering his work with the Genii scientists the day before. Coren stared at him, his lower lip beginning to tremble.
"You-- you mean that she could become a scientist? Like-- with all the other scientists here?"
McKay snorted around a mouthful of food. "Have you not listened to a word I said? With the proper training, she could eat the other scientists around here for breakfast, slice'em up and use them to build a house of cards if she likes..." McKay cut off abruptly, almost choking when Coren blurred around the table to lock his arms around McKay's stomach.
"Thank you," Coren said, sounding near tears. "Thank you." John and Ronon were nearly choking too from laughter at McKay's expression, as the man tried to disentangle Coren from his vest.
"You're welcome, now go back and eat your dinner," McKay snapped, pulling Coren's arms away from his middle and attacking his own food again, all trace of his flabbergasted expression wiped away. Teyla rolled her eyes, but after dinner when McKay asked for a full explanation in private, he was silent during Teyla's entire narrative, his eyes going dark with some unknown emotion. "Oh." He said, looking down for a moment. "Well, that's-- that's just inhumane. They would do that to her? Do they realize what a complete and utter waste of talent could have happened if I hadn't figured out what she was saying?" His voice rose, all the signs of a full-blown McKay rant now appearing.
"Rodney, do you think even children who are not math prodigies deserve such treatment?" Teyla asked quietly. He deflated quietly, then raised his head.
"Teyla, we have to help them. I mean, you need to speak to Radim about having Atlantis people train Ana anyways, but we can't let kids grow up like that--"
"I know," she replied. "And I believe that Radim agrees, but changing the Genii will be long, slow, hard work, Rodney." He was silent for a few moments more, then smiled suddenly.
"All right, but the elegance in her work-- from a seven-and-a-half year old! That kind of potential-- it's worth all the hard work we can give," he said fiercely. Teyla smiled. "I am glad you agree," she said gently.
The last day passed in a blur; all too soon, Teyla found herself standing in front of the stargate, John carrying her pack and the rest of the Atlantis team next to her. She turned back; standing there was Ladon, Sora, Perlan, Coren, and Ana. Ladon stepped forward first, holding out his forearms. Teyla grasped them gladly.
"Ambassador Emmagen, I am glad that this mission to improve the relations between our peoples has been so successful, and I look forward to many more successful missions in the future," He said formally, then dropping his voice, "Teyla, know that so long as I, my cabinet, Sora, Perlan, Coren, and Ana have a say, you will always be welcome among the Genii." Teyla smiled.
"Thank you, Ladon; be careful, for you may regret that if I begin to visit too often," she said. Ladon smiled and shook his head, then dropped back. Sora came forward and held out her own arms.
"Teyla, I know that our initial friendship began in deceit, and then ended with anger. But I hope that if you are willing, we might start this friendship anew; I would not like this to fall victim to the Wraith as well, as so much else in our galaxy has," Sora said, her voice a little nervous.
"Sora, I would be very happy to renew our friendship," Teyla said. "And I am honored that you feel the friendship worth renewing; I have long felt that it was precious to me, and I am glad to know that it is for you as well." With a touch of foreheads, Sora let go and stepped back.
Perlan looked up at her, then said gruffly, "Don't eat any more babies, Ambassador Emmagen." Teyla laughed, and ruffled his hair. He ducked away, grinning. "Be kind, Perlan."
Coren looked up with wide eyes, then blurted out, "Come back, please. Sometimes? We can go on harvest duty together again!" Teyla smiled, and knelt down to look at him. "I promise I will come back; after all, who else is going to help me beat Perlan and Ronon at harvesting vegetables?" She clapped a hand on his shoulder one last time, then turned to Ana. The girl looked at her with an even more beseeching expression than Coren. Teyla took her by the shoulders and leaned her forehead in, looking in her eyes intently.
"Ana, I promise I will come back as often as possible, and you, your brother and Perlan are always welcome on Atlantis. Now, Ana, if Doctor McKay works with you and becomes sharp, I want you to remember that you are not to take him seriously, because sometimes he gets scared when he has to deal with people who are smarter than he is." Teyla whispered. The girl broke out into silent laughter. "Be brave, Ana. Be brave." Teyla said, then gave her one last hug and let go.
"Ready to get out of here?" John asked. The rest of the team waited for her reply, standing in front of the wormhole. Teyla looked back at the five Genii in front of her, the sunlight obscuring her vision.
"Yes. I'm ready to go home." The rest of the team began crossing one by one, Beckett, Ronon, McKay; John looked as she lingered, but after she waved him on, he shrugged and went through, lugging her pack. She turned back one last time, and raised her hand in farewell; the three tallest figures returned the gesture, the two smaller ones now jumping up and down wildly waving goodbye. She smiled, and turned to go.
Hope takes courage, she thought as she stepped into the familiar, wild blue-- but sometimes hope can yield happiness.