Sense And Sensabilities, Part 3/3
Sense and Sensabilities By Stargatebabe
Summary: An unexplained disappearance creates an alien incursion on Atlantis. Teyla and Sam Carter work together to manage the encounter with unexpected consequences.
In the Briefing Room, the two sides gathered. Carter sat in the middle of the table. Across from her sat the Efland leader. Venya sat to his right. Teyla sat to Sam’s right. But Dr. Weir took her customary seat at the head of the table. She looked angry and apprehensive. She had brokered many negotiations, just not many with aliens who had overrun her command. It did seem to happen more frequently than it should.
“Where is Colonel Sheppard,” Weir demanded?
“Waiting in his quarters,” replied Venya, “or somewhere near them.”
“Well, get him in here,” Weir instructed firmly.
“Dr. Weir, we prefer to keep this meeting to a minimum of participants. Lt. Colonel Carter is of sufficient rank to represent the military here,” Venya answered just as firmly. “Now, you are wondering why we are here and what we intend.”
Heads bobbed. Hostile glares met his gaze.
“I would like to introduce our ranking member, Dr. Tolya. He is also a scientist as you are Lt. Colonel Carter. We shall apply your titles to avoid confusion.”
“Greetings,” Tolya proclaimed to Carter and then nodded to Weir. He got no reply, just more angry looks. “We realize you are upset. You have no right. You are the aggressors. You came unbidden to our world bearing formidable weapons. You searched our skies with surveillance devices. You did not attempt to communicate before arriving. Yet, you sent a probe through the Stargate first. Did it never occur to you to broadcast a greeting and ASK for permission to enter?”
Stunned silence answered his question. A few moments later, Carter was the first to respond.
“We detected no broadcasts or signs of industrialization. There were none of the usual emissions which indicate an industrialized civilization.”
“So you assumed there was no such civilization,” Dr. Tolya remonstrated as if to a child. “Good manners would suggest that you make the attempt to be certain your equipment didn’t miss something or malfunction.”
He had a point. Weir and Carter shot each other a look. Teyla was offended.
“So you took it upon yourselves to invade and spy on us,” Teyla countered. “How is that good manners?”
“It isn’t. But we shall make no apologies under the circumstances. We had to determine the threat you posed.”
“And what did you decide,” Weir asked softly with steel in her voice.
“That you pose a significant threat…to your enemies.” Tolya looked around the table assessing their reactions. Their fear was palpable. “We suggest that we are not your enemies. Your ability to pose a threat makes us recommend treaty negotiations. We have a common enemy, the Wraith.”
“And so we are just supposed to overlook this incursion,” Carter smiled malevolently?
“Yes.”
“What about our injured man?” Teyla took up the charge. “What have you done with him?”
“We have treated his injuries. He is resting comfortably in one of our medical facilities.”
“We want you to return him.” Teyla said her mouth held tightly. But her eyes blazed fury, “As a sign of good faith.”
“Unfortunately, he cannot be moved right away.”
Teyla sucked in her breath and frowned. “Of course he can’t or so you tell us.” She curled her lip ever so slightly. Her eyes bore into him.
Venya smiled in a friendly manner and continued, “However, we may be persuaded to allow one of your medical personnel visit him to confirm this.”
Visibly, Weir and Teyla relaxed. But Carter kept her eye on Tolya. She didn’t like it. This whole incursion indicated serious breaches in Atlantis security. If the Life Signs Detectors can not register them, what are they? Are they alive? Most likely, they are jamming the equipment? Clearly, these people are more advanced than any others except the Wraith and the Asuran Replicators. Their calm assurance is more worrisome than anything else. The fact they excluded any male member of the Atlantis management is a sign of something. With her peripheral vision, Sam watched Teyla’s reactions. Something’s not right. Teyla’s unsettled but keeping her composure. I wonder what she senses?
“So cut to the chase, Dr. Tolya,” Sam began in earnest. “What do you want?”
“Direct, we appreciate candor, Lt. Colonel Carter. We also appreciate diplomacy,” he added as a near warning that she was almost rude. “We want to know what you thought you would find on our world.”
“We are explorers. It’s what we do,” Sam added in O’Neill’s tones. Well something of him had to rub off on me. Have to watch that.
“Explorers search for something. What do you seek on our planet?”
“Supplies, allies, anything that can be helpful,” Weir interjected.
“Understandable,” Venya commented dryly. “However, if you did not detect a civilization, why would you still come?”
“Sometimes initial surveys miss settlements just out of range. We test the soils for minerals and other deposits that could be useful. Sometimes, we just want to be sure the Wraith aren’t there.”
“Interesting, yet you sent a team on foot. How much farther would they go as compared to your airborne vehicle?”
“Not much farther,” Sam added. This line of questions was precarious. She did not want them to know much about their capabilities. “If a visual sighting of a settlement could be made we would make a note and send a larger team back with other equipment to make contact.”
“I think we could ask the same questions,” Teyla testily remarked. “What do you seek here? And what will you do now that you have control of the city?”
“We have already stated that we seek allies. As to control of the city, Dr. Weir, we shall relinquish control back to you after we have finished our assessment and our personnel have departed. Providing of course…” he smiled ruefully and gestured to say ‘if all goes well.’
Sam pulled no punches with them. They were a scary bunch. Softly but firmly Sam tapped the table and looked pointedly at Tolya.
“We are vulnerable to the Wraith because of you. We caused you no damage but you destroyed our weapons. It could be construed as an act of war.”
“It could,” Venya answered calmly. “But it wasn’t. We can remedy the situation, if we choose. Certainly, you can see the advantages of having such allies. Were we to combine our efforts, both of our peoples would be more secure.”
“At what price,” Teyla asked? “You are not humans. You are not Wraith. We do not know you. You could be capable of anything.”
“About that,” Venya began with intensity. “How did you know we were present?”
Teyla smirked. “It is enough that I can. And I shall again.”
“Possibly,” Venya turned to Tolya. Some sort of unspoken communication passed between them. Teyla and Sam shot a glance at one another, thinking the same thing.
Internal communications or are they telepathic? These folks are powerful. Why would they want anything from Atlantis if the base could be overcome so easily? They wanted something very badly, even desperately. With these alien’s superior technology, what were they missing?
The two men seemed to be listening to someone not in the room.
“Internal communications,” Sam inquired?
“Yes, external equipment can be confiscated or damaged. Our medical teams have accessed Teyla’s medical records. We know how she did it, very interesting from a genetic perspective. The Wraith cross-bred with humans. And there are more of you among your tribe. Well, we find that you do have something to trade with us.”
“What do you mean?” Teyla became alarmed. The men were all staring at her.
“Only that such information is worth something to us if there is a live subject to provide live tissue for study.” Tolya leaned in to make the coup de grace. “Teyla, if you will agree to certain tests, we are prepared to be generous.”
“Now just a minute,” Sam declared with equal intensity. “No one is going to perform experiments on one of us before we know what is involved.”
“Do you think we would ask if we intended to ‘take’? As we have said, we prefer diplomacy. And yet,” Tolya smiled ruefully, “you persist in aggressive behavior. What should we think of you?”
“It’s the reason we excluded your males,” Venya added. “They will posture aggressively and slow this effort down. We both know that some accommodation will be made. So let us not waste time in useless posturing.”
“As we have said, we appreciate directness and good manners.”
“Well, here’s direct,” Sam rose up. Teyla followed and then Weir. “Get out of our city. Repair or replace what you damaged. And then, we might consider relations.”
“And the next time we talk,” Dr. Weir said sternly, “Colonel Sheppard, Dr. Beckett, Ronon, and Dr. McKay will join us.”
“They require their male superiors. The females cannot initiate negotiations,” Dr. Tolya commented to Venya with a gesture. “Let them go.”
“That’s not what we meant. We just aren’t interested,” Sam glared at them. But Weir had turned to go. Teyla gave the men a hard stare. Then, the women stalked out of the room. Guards directed them to Teyla’s quarters since all the offices were occupied by the invaders. The Efland waited until they were gone before breaking into big smiles.
“They have no idea,” Venya grinned.
“None,” answered Tolya.
“Nice touch to offer medical experiments.”
“They kept wondering if we would do something awful to them personally. So I improvised.”
“How much longer?”
“Oh another few hours, then we shall have the database in its entirety.”
“They are so driven by their emotions, especially the females. I deliberately angered them. Keep them away from the males. The males will concentrate on trying to protect their females. It’s so predictable.”
“We’ll, keep the barriers up so they don’t wander too much. Release and set the barriers in sequence to route them all over the first quadrant of the city, away from here. When we are gone the first thing they will do is go back to that planet. We’ll return the injured male when they get there. He’s nearly healed.”
“Did you get the tissue samples?”
“We have 85 percent so far, enough to clone what we need.”
“I’ll send what we have to be safe.”
“Did you implant the Stargate force field protocols with our commands so we can come and go?”
“Yes, and we did the same on the weapons systems and their aerial craft. Should they make an attack on us, we can disable them. While it is unlikely, should they find our commands they would have to wipe all the data to get rid of our input. One piece can regenerate the rest. We infected all the backups we have found.”
“What about implanting our devices to restore the commands if they have a backup we don’t find?”
“Already done,” answered Venya. “They are placed all over the city by now. Our flight crews have stationed relays in orbit and on the planet to transmit data on an irregular schedule. They are also a conduit for restoring the computer commands.”
“Excellent,” Tolya commended his second in command. “You are a credit to our people. We can not allow humans to have any advantage against us. They are too limited and unpredictable.”
“Still, this city is remarkable.”
“They didn’t build it, Venya. The Ancestors did. They are squatters, living in an antiquated city. Let them have it. They’ll just get themselves blown up eventually.”
With a shrug, Venya rose to transmit the findings back through the Stargate. What a shame,” he thought looking at the lovely windows. These primitives have no idea what they have. And we aren’t going to tell them.
A while later, Dr. Weir and Sam decided to attempt another round of diplomacy. So Weir went toward the Briefing Room while Sam and Teyla would attempt to mount a resistance. Weir found no guards outside the apartment. As she made her way to the Control Room, she noticed that the halls were quiet, too quiet. It hit her. The aliens were gone. Using her headset she checked with Security. It worked again. The female guards went to the section where the men were quarantined. No barrier could be found anymore. The Efland had disappeared as mysteriously as they had come.
Sheppard assembled his teams. All the previously un-issued weapons from the armory were in working condition. Together, they went through to the planet. As they fanned out, a beam of light deposited the missing man at the steps to the Gate. He stood there, healed and confused.
Sheppard looked up at the sky, realizing they had been played.
“Saddle up, folks. There’s nothing here. Return to base.”
“I don’t understand, John,” Teyla lowered her weapon in consternation.
“They are not from this planet. They never were. It was all a ruse because of a coincidence. Now we go home and find out what they stole or…sabotaged.”
Teyla’s eyes went wide and then narrowed in anger. Well, well, the Wraith weren’t the only aliens out there causing trouble. She dialed home, realizing they had all been outmaneuvered.
It had not been a good day.
Summary: An unexplained disappearance creates an alien incursion on Atlantis. Teyla and Sam Carter work together to manage the encounter with unexpected consequences.
In the Briefing Room, the two sides gathered. Carter sat in the middle of the table. Across from her sat the Efland leader. Venya sat to his right. Teyla sat to Sam’s right. But Dr. Weir took her customary seat at the head of the table. She looked angry and apprehensive. She had brokered many negotiations, just not many with aliens who had overrun her command. It did seem to happen more frequently than it should.
“Where is Colonel Sheppard,” Weir demanded?
“Waiting in his quarters,” replied Venya, “or somewhere near them.”
“Well, get him in here,” Weir instructed firmly.
“Dr. Weir, we prefer to keep this meeting to a minimum of participants. Lt. Colonel Carter is of sufficient rank to represent the military here,” Venya answered just as firmly. “Now, you are wondering why we are here and what we intend.”
Heads bobbed. Hostile glares met his gaze.
“I would like to introduce our ranking member, Dr. Tolya. He is also a scientist as you are Lt. Colonel Carter. We shall apply your titles to avoid confusion.”
“Greetings,” Tolya proclaimed to Carter and then nodded to Weir. He got no reply, just more angry looks. “We realize you are upset. You have no right. You are the aggressors. You came unbidden to our world bearing formidable weapons. You searched our skies with surveillance devices. You did not attempt to communicate before arriving. Yet, you sent a probe through the Stargate first. Did it never occur to you to broadcast a greeting and ASK for permission to enter?”
Stunned silence answered his question. A few moments later, Carter was the first to respond.
“We detected no broadcasts or signs of industrialization. There were none of the usual emissions which indicate an industrialized civilization.”
“So you assumed there was no such civilization,” Dr. Tolya remonstrated as if to a child. “Good manners would suggest that you make the attempt to be certain your equipment didn’t miss something or malfunction.”
He had a point. Weir and Carter shot each other a look. Teyla was offended.
“So you took it upon yourselves to invade and spy on us,” Teyla countered. “How is that good manners?”
“It isn’t. But we shall make no apologies under the circumstances. We had to determine the threat you posed.”
“And what did you decide,” Weir asked softly with steel in her voice.
“That you pose a significant threat…to your enemies.” Tolya looked around the table assessing their reactions. Their fear was palpable. “We suggest that we are not your enemies. Your ability to pose a threat makes us recommend treaty negotiations. We have a common enemy, the Wraith.”
“And so we are just supposed to overlook this incursion,” Carter smiled malevolently?
“Yes.”
“What about our injured man?” Teyla took up the charge. “What have you done with him?”
“We have treated his injuries. He is resting comfortably in one of our medical facilities.”
“We want you to return him.” Teyla said her mouth held tightly. But her eyes blazed fury, “As a sign of good faith.”
“Unfortunately, he cannot be moved right away.”
Teyla sucked in her breath and frowned. “Of course he can’t or so you tell us.” She curled her lip ever so slightly. Her eyes bore into him.
Venya smiled in a friendly manner and continued, “However, we may be persuaded to allow one of your medical personnel visit him to confirm this.”
Visibly, Weir and Teyla relaxed. But Carter kept her eye on Tolya. She didn’t like it. This whole incursion indicated serious breaches in Atlantis security. If the Life Signs Detectors can not register them, what are they? Are they alive? Most likely, they are jamming the equipment? Clearly, these people are more advanced than any others except the Wraith and the Asuran Replicators. Their calm assurance is more worrisome than anything else. The fact they excluded any male member of the Atlantis management is a sign of something. With her peripheral vision, Sam watched Teyla’s reactions. Something’s not right. Teyla’s unsettled but keeping her composure. I wonder what she senses?
“So cut to the chase, Dr. Tolya,” Sam began in earnest. “What do you want?”
“Direct, we appreciate candor, Lt. Colonel Carter. We also appreciate diplomacy,” he added as a near warning that she was almost rude. “We want to know what you thought you would find on our world.”
“We are explorers. It’s what we do,” Sam added in O’Neill’s tones. Well something of him had to rub off on me. Have to watch that.
“Explorers search for something. What do you seek on our planet?”
“Supplies, allies, anything that can be helpful,” Weir interjected.
“Understandable,” Venya commented dryly. “However, if you did not detect a civilization, why would you still come?”
“Sometimes initial surveys miss settlements just out of range. We test the soils for minerals and other deposits that could be useful. Sometimes, we just want to be sure the Wraith aren’t there.”
“Interesting, yet you sent a team on foot. How much farther would they go as compared to your airborne vehicle?”
“Not much farther,” Sam added. This line of questions was precarious. She did not want them to know much about their capabilities. “If a visual sighting of a settlement could be made we would make a note and send a larger team back with other equipment to make contact.”
“I think we could ask the same questions,” Teyla testily remarked. “What do you seek here? And what will you do now that you have control of the city?”
“We have already stated that we seek allies. As to control of the city, Dr. Weir, we shall relinquish control back to you after we have finished our assessment and our personnel have departed. Providing of course…” he smiled ruefully and gestured to say ‘if all goes well.’
Sam pulled no punches with them. They were a scary bunch. Softly but firmly Sam tapped the table and looked pointedly at Tolya.
“We are vulnerable to the Wraith because of you. We caused you no damage but you destroyed our weapons. It could be construed as an act of war.”
“It could,” Venya answered calmly. “But it wasn’t. We can remedy the situation, if we choose. Certainly, you can see the advantages of having such allies. Were we to combine our efforts, both of our peoples would be more secure.”
“At what price,” Teyla asked? “You are not humans. You are not Wraith. We do not know you. You could be capable of anything.”
“About that,” Venya began with intensity. “How did you know we were present?”
Teyla smirked. “It is enough that I can. And I shall again.”
“Possibly,” Venya turned to Tolya. Some sort of unspoken communication passed between them. Teyla and Sam shot a glance at one another, thinking the same thing.
Internal communications or are they telepathic? These folks are powerful. Why would they want anything from Atlantis if the base could be overcome so easily? They wanted something very badly, even desperately. With these alien’s superior technology, what were they missing?
The two men seemed to be listening to someone not in the room.
“Internal communications,” Sam inquired?
“Yes, external equipment can be confiscated or damaged. Our medical teams have accessed Teyla’s medical records. We know how she did it, very interesting from a genetic perspective. The Wraith cross-bred with humans. And there are more of you among your tribe. Well, we find that you do have something to trade with us.”
“What do you mean?” Teyla became alarmed. The men were all staring at her.
“Only that such information is worth something to us if there is a live subject to provide live tissue for study.” Tolya leaned in to make the coup de grace. “Teyla, if you will agree to certain tests, we are prepared to be generous.”
“Now just a minute,” Sam declared with equal intensity. “No one is going to perform experiments on one of us before we know what is involved.”
“Do you think we would ask if we intended to ‘take’? As we have said, we prefer diplomacy. And yet,” Tolya smiled ruefully, “you persist in aggressive behavior. What should we think of you?”
“It’s the reason we excluded your males,” Venya added. “They will posture aggressively and slow this effort down. We both know that some accommodation will be made. So let us not waste time in useless posturing.”
“As we have said, we appreciate directness and good manners.”
“Well, here’s direct,” Sam rose up. Teyla followed and then Weir. “Get out of our city. Repair or replace what you damaged. And then, we might consider relations.”
“And the next time we talk,” Dr. Weir said sternly, “Colonel Sheppard, Dr. Beckett, Ronon, and Dr. McKay will join us.”
“They require their male superiors. The females cannot initiate negotiations,” Dr. Tolya commented to Venya with a gesture. “Let them go.”
“That’s not what we meant. We just aren’t interested,” Sam glared at them. But Weir had turned to go. Teyla gave the men a hard stare. Then, the women stalked out of the room. Guards directed them to Teyla’s quarters since all the offices were occupied by the invaders. The Efland waited until they were gone before breaking into big smiles.
“They have no idea,” Venya grinned.
“None,” answered Tolya.
“Nice touch to offer medical experiments.”
“They kept wondering if we would do something awful to them personally. So I improvised.”
“How much longer?”
“Oh another few hours, then we shall have the database in its entirety.”
“They are so driven by their emotions, especially the females. I deliberately angered them. Keep them away from the males. The males will concentrate on trying to protect their females. It’s so predictable.”
“We’ll, keep the barriers up so they don’t wander too much. Release and set the barriers in sequence to route them all over the first quadrant of the city, away from here. When we are gone the first thing they will do is go back to that planet. We’ll return the injured male when they get there. He’s nearly healed.”
“Did you get the tissue samples?”
“We have 85 percent so far, enough to clone what we need.”
“I’ll send what we have to be safe.”
“Did you implant the Stargate force field protocols with our commands so we can come and go?”
“Yes, and we did the same on the weapons systems and their aerial craft. Should they make an attack on us, we can disable them. While it is unlikely, should they find our commands they would have to wipe all the data to get rid of our input. One piece can regenerate the rest. We infected all the backups we have found.”
“What about implanting our devices to restore the commands if they have a backup we don’t find?”
“Already done,” answered Venya. “They are placed all over the city by now. Our flight crews have stationed relays in orbit and on the planet to transmit data on an irregular schedule. They are also a conduit for restoring the computer commands.”
“Excellent,” Tolya commended his second in command. “You are a credit to our people. We can not allow humans to have any advantage against us. They are too limited and unpredictable.”
“Still, this city is remarkable.”
“They didn’t build it, Venya. The Ancestors did. They are squatters, living in an antiquated city. Let them have it. They’ll just get themselves blown up eventually.”
With a shrug, Venya rose to transmit the findings back through the Stargate. What a shame,” he thought looking at the lovely windows. These primitives have no idea what they have. And we aren’t going to tell them.
A while later, Dr. Weir and Sam decided to attempt another round of diplomacy. So Weir went toward the Briefing Room while Sam and Teyla would attempt to mount a resistance. Weir found no guards outside the apartment. As she made her way to the Control Room, she noticed that the halls were quiet, too quiet. It hit her. The aliens were gone. Using her headset she checked with Security. It worked again. The female guards went to the section where the men were quarantined. No barrier could be found anymore. The Efland had disappeared as mysteriously as they had come.
Sheppard assembled his teams. All the previously un-issued weapons from the armory were in working condition. Together, they went through to the planet. As they fanned out, a beam of light deposited the missing man at the steps to the Gate. He stood there, healed and confused.
Sheppard looked up at the sky, realizing they had been played.
“Saddle up, folks. There’s nothing here. Return to base.”
“I don’t understand, John,” Teyla lowered her weapon in consternation.
“They are not from this planet. They never were. It was all a ruse because of a coincidence. Now we go home and find out what they stole or…sabotaged.”
Teyla’s eyes went wide and then narrowed in anger. Well, well, the Wraith weren’t the only aliens out there causing trouble. She dialed home, realizing they had all been outmaneuvered.
It had not been a good day.