The Other Sheppard von T L Kay
John made sure his sister was sleeping comfortably before stepping into the other room with Elizabeth and Dr. Keller.
“Someone wanna tell me what just happened in there?”
“I don’t know Colonel,” said Dr. Keller. “But the symbiote is gone. I can only guess that it sacrificed itself to save her.”
“They can do that?”
Elizabeth nodded. “Yes. A similar thing happened to Col. Carter several years ago.”
“Really?” he asked, stunned.
“Yes. You do know about the Tok’ra, right?”
“Well, yeah. Are you saying that you think this one, Adrianus, was a Tok’ra?”
“I believe that this one probably predated the Tok’ra, but it’s possible that he also predated the kind of Goa’uld that we know now.”
“Sheppard!” yelled Ronon from the other room.
John and the two doctors entered to find Kate struggling with Ronon to get out of the infirmary, and she was putting up quite a fight.
“Let her go, Ronon,” he ordered.
The other man looked at him bemused.
“I want to know where she needs to get to so desperately. We can follow her,” he added, grabbing a Wraith stunner from one of the nearby marines.
Ronon shrugged, but complied, and Kate immediately took off. John and Ronon exchanged a look before trailing after her. She headed straight to Rodney’s lab, where he was sitting mulling over the data from Adrianus’ lab.
“Hey!” Rodney shouted as Kate brushed him out of the way and grabbed his lap top. He grabbed hold of it, and engaged in a childish tug-of-war with her.
“Rodney!” came a disapproving voice from behind them. John turned to see that Elizabeth had followed. “Give her the laptop.”
“But it’s mine,” he whined.
Elizabeth just glared at him over her crossed arms.
“Fine,” Rodney said huffily, letting go of the laptop.
Kate tucked it under her arm and grabbed several data disks from the table.
“Elizabeth…” McKay started.
“Rodney, don’t start with me.”
Rodney grumbled under his breath, but didn’t say anything else.
Kate glanced around the lab again, checking to see if she needed anything, then turned and left. She led them through countless corridors, down numerous stairwells, and used several transporters. When she finally halted, they were in a part of the city far far away from the control tower, a part that they hadn’t even begun to explore yet. Kate looked around before entering a lab. Once inside she went straight to one of the consoles, turning it on and hooking up the laptop.
“Katie?” said John warily, inching toward her.
“I’m not crazy John,” she said without looking up.
He sighed in relief. “Well you’re sure acting like it. Why didn’t you just ask Rodney for his laptop?”
Kate looked back at them with a sly smile. “I knew he’d never give it to me if I asked nicely.”
“Hey,” said Rodney as John laughed.
“I needed it, and I didn’t really want to argue with him,” she said turning back to console.
“What exactly are you looking for?”
“That,” she said with satisfaction as she brought up a diagram of a galaxy.
“That’s not this galaxy,” said Rodney, stepping forward, intrigued.
“No, and it’s not the Milky Way,” she said.
“It’s…Andromeda?” Rodney asked.
Kate nodded, turning back to the console and fiddling with it so that the image zoomed in on a specific solar system and a specific planet.
“What’s that?” asked Rodney as gate symbols appeared.
“That,” she said with a smile, turning back to them, “is the location of Praesidium, the other lost city of the Ancients.”
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