The Saints of Atlantis 23
The usual greeting rituals were one of the more pleasant aspects of life in the Pegasus galaxy; that is if they were truly meant. There were more than a few times that a ‘friendly’ ceremony had hidden a deeper, more sinister meaning, but as John was hoping that putting McManus shepherds on each team would cut down on the number of traps his people fell into, he was feeling fairly good about this one. Even better was knowing that Conner and Murphy were relaxed enough to play with the local children with Ronon.
At the moment while Teyla and John were negotiating, or rather Teyla was while John watched, Murphy was conspiring with the older children to take down Ronon, using their superior numbers to defeat his skills. Conner was helping the smaller children to bug Rodney, shamelessly pleading right along with the children for stories and the like. John knew that Conner wasn’t bugging Rodney out of malice or his misplaced sense of humor.
The experienced father, or at least more experienced than anyone else on the team, was trying to help Rodney get past his tendency to treat children like either like an experiment that he wasn’t sure if it was going to explode or not, or a miniature minion who was particularly dim. If Rodney would just relax a little bit more, which in Rodney’s case meant getting some real, practical experience, he’d be a great dad, or whatever the male members of their team would be to Teyla’s children. It would be a little less than five months before Teyla’s girls arrived, and Ronon and Miko’s child would not be far behind after that along with Elizabeth’s and Radek’s.
John knew that sooner or later he could count on Teyla roping him into a bout of child care as well. He couldn’t say that he really minded it. Thanks to Teyla’s enthusiastic volunteering of her team mates, John now knew how to change a cloth diaper, how to feed a baby, even how to burb one and why it needed to be done. He was gaining a lot of confidence in his new skills. Of course, he was fairly sure that the next task he was given would have him fumbling like a FNG, but everyone was a rookie at one point and he was sure that given enough help he and the kid would make it through his fumbling first attempts at whatever it would be.
Teyla and the elders had just finished hammering out the details of the trade when John heard the distinctive whine of a dart. “WRAITH! Get the kids to safety!” he yelled, pulling his P-90. Like most worlds that held a more permanent settlement, the Yalcorna had caves that they hid in when the Wraith came. If the adults could get the children there in time, the next generation would be safe, but only if they had the time. John was determined to buy it for them.
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‘There were many different divisions of people in Atlantis’ Radek thought as he taught his small mechanical engineering class. ‘There were the Athosians, the scientists, and the military at first. Then after the siege we had discovered just how badly those lines between scientist and military had been blurred by the sheer effort of trying to survive. Most of the scientists and support civilians exercised, fired guns and even went into the field right alongside the Marines. Most of the military, including our only Air Force Officer at the time, could often be found helping out in the labs when they were off duty. So the divisions changed and were expanded to include first year survivors and those who came after. But sometime within the last year the divisions began to shift, grow, adjust and be obliterated at an astonishing rate.’
Radek could see the result of this within his five person class. Keenan was an Athosian, but he had been found to be ATA recessive and had taken the gene therapy. He had a sharp intelligence, and had begged to be taught everything the Earth born knew. In just two years he had gone from the equivalent of a homeschooled fifth grader to taking college level classes, being one of Sheppard’s reserve pilots and joining the military for as many of their duties as Colonel Sheppard and Major Lorne would allow.
Jalmice Morkal was a Genii; one of the survivors that had been sent to Atlantis by the McManus family. He had barely been allowed out of his sick bed, but it hadn’t stopped him from his determined assault on the enormous amount of knowledge that his people had skipped over, forgotten, lost to the Wraith, or had never bothered to find. Like most of the Genii, once they had been processed through the infirmary into one of the cancer wards as the Marines had nicknamed them, Jalmice had been virtually slapped in the face with just how much more advanced the Earth born were than his people, not that any of them were other than kind. He was astonished at how they were not only able to understand, but also to repair and in some cases improve upon what the Ancestors had left behind.
When Jalmice had discovered that the Earth born did not in fact hoard their knowledge as he had been told, but shared a great deal of it; that it was only their own ignorance and prejudice that made it impossible for them to understand, he too had begged for instruction in the ways of the Earth born. To his astonishment, and to the astonishment of those Genii with him in his ward, Doctor Beckett had agreed, providing that he did as he was told to improve his health. He was not the only Genii who had quickly agreed, eager to discover what had been kept from them by men like Cowen and Kolya.
Romeo was not, nor would he ever be, a scholar. He was a man who did best with getting his hands dirty, learning from hands on experiences. That did not stop him from doing his best to understand the why behind when something worked, and when something else didn’t. He had quickly found a place for himself here among the engineers who worked on the puddle jumpers. Radek fully expected that within a year Romeo would be a fully qualified jumper technician. It was very likely that he’d even be able to build one from scratch by the end of his five year sentence. Radek had no doubt that Romeo would not be leaving at the end of five years.
John Colt was a Marine, but he was also a survivor of the first year. He knew, beyond a shadow of a doubt just how big a difference having a working knowledge of the tech around you could make in whether or not you and your team lived or died. He was determined to understand as much as he was able; and then a little more. The man didn’t know it, but his next paper and review was his Master’s thesis. They had set up all papers to be graded this way so that those who were on track for degrees wouldn’t know when they were actually getting them. A thesis or dissertation would simply be another paper. That was by Rodney’s order, but it was one they all agreed on. Life in Atlantis was stressful enough. There was no need to tempt fate or bad luck into pushing one of their students over the edge.
His last student was also his youngest. Patrick McManus had only just finished technical school when his older brother, a plumber, had been hired to do repairs in Atlantis. Unable to find a job at home he’d come with his brother, only to find himself in great demand on the repair teams. Now he was studying to go further than being a simple electrician. Patrick was another one of Radek’s students who would most likely never leave Atlantis.
Radek looked around the small class and smiled to himself. ‘This is what teaching must have been like during the early days of America,’ he thought. ‘These are the basis of the people who will become Lantians; those who are eager for knowledge, and those who love the city. Atlantis University is getting off to a wonderful start.”
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This was their first real encounter with the Wraith, but they knew what to do. Conner and Murphy shoved the children at Rodney and several adult locals, and then they began to fight a rear guard action. “SHIT, I wish we had some of Seamus’ bigger guns!” Murphy yelled. His and Conner’s P-90s managed to hit something vital on one of the Darts, but unfortunately not vital enough to take it down.
“FUCK YEAH!” agreed Conner. It soon became obvious that this was no ordinary culling. From the sheer amount of Darts in the air a ship had to be in orbit, but whether it was a cruiser or a hive ship was anybody’s guess. Conner and Murphy soon realized that although they could take down a Dart, it was only when they worked together to do so. The scooping runs were the perfect opportunity, so they began to make bigger targets of themselves by taunting the Wraith pilots, then splitting up and going in different directions before blasting it with their P90s. It was a chancy game, but knowing that the more Darts they took out the more chance the children had to survive made it more than worth the risk to them.
It was by accident that they ran into one of the hunters. Most of the hunters were the ‘soldier’ or ‘drone’ types, the ones without faces, but there were also males among them. The one that they had run into, and that was literally, was one of these males. Murphy hit the male at a flat out run, sending them both tumbling head over heels. At the time they were running from a drone, looking for a good spot to set it up for the kill.
When Conner saw that Murphy was down and the drone was distracted by the sudden change in its prey, he ducked around an outhouse and came at it from the side. Three bursts from one of his zats and there was no more drone. Conner didn’t take the time to say a thank you prayer, but one was almost as strong in his mind as the worry for his twin. He ran towards where he had seen Murphy go down.
They were down in the dirt next to one of the corrals where half a dozen animals were tied up. Conner couldn’t get a clear shot, so he ran as fast as he could, but he was terrified he would be too late. Conner tackled the Wraith just as his hand began to strike at Murphy’s chest. They flew off of Murphy and right into one of the tied up animals.
It was over in a matter of seconds. The Wraith’s hand struck the animal, and it was too late for him to stop attempting to feed. Conner rolled clear and Murphy rushed to help him off the ground. They drew their weapons, but the Wraith seemed oddly frozen. The animal hadn’t lasted long. It couldn’t have been more than three or four years old at the most, but it was now the same sort of withered husk that was happened when a Wraith fed on a Human.