The Other City von T L Kay
John had just settled back into his room after coming back from Earth when there was a call at his door.
“Come in,” he said, getting up off the bed.
The door opened and Elizabeth stepped in.
“Elizabeth,” he said somewhat awkwardly. He hadn’t really spoken to her since before Kate had left. Mostly because he knew his sister was right. His feelings for Elizabeth were more than they should be and he didn’t know what to do about it. “What’s up?”
“John we need to go back to Earth.”
“Now?”
“Yes, the just radioed through the Daedalus. Something’s happened.”
John suddenly felt icy cold. “Something’s happened where?”
She shook her head. “I wasn’t given any details, they just told us to come.”
John nodded; dazed, only capable of thinking that is was a good thing he hadn’t unpacked. He grabbed his duffel and followed Elizabeth out of the room. They met Rodney in the gate room and the three of them waited in silence as Chuck dialed the gate. The gate activated and they stepped forward.
The scene on the other side was not at all what John was expecting. Wounded people were being carted off to the infirmary, some of the stretchers were covered in a blanket and John knew were they were going. They looked over to see General Landry wading through the chaos of the room to meet them.
“Colonel Sheppard, Dr. Weir, Dr. McKay, if you’d please follow me.”
“What happened sir?” John asked.
“If you’ll follow me we’ll discuss it in the briefing room.”
He turned to lead them out but just then John spotted the weapons the marines were holding.
“Sir, why do those men have ARG's?”
Landry looked back at them. “I promise I will explain everything to the best of my ability. Unfortunately I still do not know all the details myself. We’ll be skipping your post gate travel examinations for the sake of time.”
John was going to say something else but Elizabeth cut him off.
“Lead the way General.”
Landry nodded and led them into the hallway. Elizabeth shot John a warning look before following the General.
“Walter,” said Landry as the walked through the control room.
“Yes sir?”
“Is everything set up?”
“Yes sir.”
“Very well. Call me if anything happens.”
“Yes sir.”
Landry led them up the stairs and into the briefing room. “Please have a seat.”
The three of them sat down and turned their chairs to look at Landry.
“Sir, will you please tell us what’s going on?” asked John.
Landry sighed. “Roughly 40 minutes ago the Andromeda team dialed in. They were under attack.”
John flinched, but managed to keep his thoughts to himself.
“This was the message.” Landry picked up a remote and pressed a button, they immediately heard Kate’s voice over the speakers.
“Command this is Dr. Sheppard, we are under attack and request an immediate evacuation. We ask that you open the iris and allow us to start sending through personnel beginning with our casualties and…fatalities.”
“Dr. Sheppard, who is attacking you?” said Walter.
“We are under attack from beings similar to…to the Replicators.”
John and Elizabeth exchanged a frantic look. Replicators?
“Suggest military personnel equip themselves with ARG's, we can’t guarantee that some won’t slip through,” said Kate.
“You are cleared to start sending through your wounded.”
“Thank you.”
The recording ended.
“Replicators?” Rodney asked in disbelief.
“I am afraid so Dr. McKay.”
“There’s more to this,” said Elizabeth, “otherwise you wouldn’t have brought all three of us back.”
“Where’s my sister?” John asked.
Elizabeth gave him another look, but he ignored it.
“Sir, where’s my sister?” he demanded.
“The Andromeda team began sending their wounded through almost immediately and for nearly 15 minutes it seemed that they would be able to get everyone out. They had just begun to send non-injured personnel through when we first lost the radio signal and then the wormhole shut down.”
John was dumbstruck. Landry had pretty much just told him that his sister was dead.
“Are you saying that the rest of them are lost?” Elizabeth asked.
“We’re not entirely sure of much. As you could hear we weren’t given much to go on, and a lot of the injured are in shock and can’t tell us much of anything. We haven’t given up on those that are still there. We’re waiting 24 hours to see if we hear anything before we decide what action to take.”
“24 hours sir? What good will that do?” John’s tone was bordering on insubordination.
“John,” Elizabeth hissed.
“If you’ll come with me we can head down to the infirmary and see if we can’t get some more answers together,” said Landry, ignoring John’s question.
John grudgingly obliged. As he stood up he felt a hand slip into his and turned to look into Elizabeth’s face. Her eyes were full of comfort and compassion and John couldn’t help but feel that everything was going to be all right somehow.
The first thing they saw upon entering the infirmary, after the bustle that was going on around them, was the small group of people clustered around a bed at the far end of the row. Daniel turned and walked over to meet them, leaving Sam and an unfamiliar boy leaning over the still figure in the bed.
“Hi there,” he said timidly.
John looked past the archaeologist to the figure in the bed. It was General O’Neill.
“What the hell happened?” he asked.
Daniel looked over his shoulder, then back at Sheppard. “We don’t exactly know. From what we’ve been able to gather from Jack—when he’s lucid—and some of the others the Replicators snuck in on one of the jumpers. Once in they completely took over the jumper bay. Jack was injured as they fought to keep the gate room. It is my understanding that your sister then took command and dialed Earth to get everyone out of there. What we’ve heard from the last few people through the gate is that they were losing the gate room. We don’t know what happened after that.”
“We know, we’ve heard the recording,” said Elizabeth.
They turned to see that Sam had left Jack’s side and come over to them. John could see the tear tracks down her cheeks and was reminded that he wasn’t the only one here who could lose someone they loved.
“Sam I—” he started, but didn’t know what to say. He wanted to hug her, but didn’t know if it would be appropriate.
To everyone’s surprise Rodney stepped forward and enveloped her in his arms, and even more surprising, she hugged him back.
“It’ll be ok,” he said to her as he pulled away.
She gave him a weak smile. “I know. He’s pretty tough. I’m sorry you came all the way down here for nothing,” she said, apologizing for Jack’s unconsciousness. “He’s been out for awhile.”
“It’s all right,” said Elizabeth. “We understand.”
“He’s going to make it,” said Daniel. “Dr. Lam is confident in that.”
“That’s good.”
“John I’m so sorry about Kate,” said Sam. “I have complete faith that she’s ok.”
“Thank you,” he said with a weak smile, though he didn’t really mean it.
“Well, since Jack is still unable to give us any details, perhaps we should adjourn this little meeting,” said Landry. “I’m sure there are places you’d all rather be.”
Sam glanced back at the bed, and the boy beside it. “General if it’s not too much trouble I think Jake and I will be staying on the base.”
Landry nodded his understanding. “I’ll have Walter take care of that.”
“Thank you sir. If you all will excuse me?” She went back over to the bed and put her arms around the boy.
John just had to ask. “Who’s that boy?”
Daniel glanced back at them and smiled. “That’s Jacob, he’s Jack and Sam’s son.”
“What?”
Daniel shook his head. “It’s a long story.”
John shrugged; he had to do something to keep his mind off things. “I’ve got time, wanna get some coffee?”
Daniel nodded and the four of them left the infirmary, leaving behind, if only for the moment, the reminder that all was not well.
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