Exogenesis

Chapter Fourteen

The silent scream tore from his throat before he was fully awake. Rodney's bandaged hands pushed at empty space, breath coming in short gasps that provided too little air. The sensation of drowning clung to him until he recognized the familiar nightmare that had plagued him for weeks.

Then, instantly and easily, Turpi was there, drawing him close. She murmured words of safety and reassurance over and over, and at last he began to comprehend that he had nothing to fear. Surrounded by her embrace, he let his head sink against her shoulder, inhaling her sweetness. If he'd ever known such comfort before, it could only have been by his mother's hand, when he was very young-in the brief time before bitterness and sadness defined their lives.

Turpi began to sing a wordless lullaby. She sounded amazing, but there was something far more at work here, something profound. Unable to see, his whole world became focused within this cocoon of warmth and…love?

He instantly tried to withdraw from the emotion. Love had no place in his world except on a pure, intellectual level, and that was absolutely by his own design. It was fine for Hallmark cards and banal movies, but it didn't fit in his life. He would not allow it, because it exposed him, made him vulnerable to the ravages of rejection. Having faced that pain many times before, he never wanted to do so again.

Perhaps it was Turpi's lullaby, the tenderness of her embrace, or something else that he could not put a name to-but no matter how much he needed to refute the unwanted feelings, the withered husk of a seed buried deep in the corner of his soul refused to remain confined. And in a spark of comprehension, he understood why. It was Turpi's offering of love, deep and unconditional, that had driven this awakening.

He'd never been able to truly convince himself that he was worthy of love, and it came so unexpectedly that something within him seemed to break. His sobs mingled with her angelic voice until sleep overtook him again.

Radek did not relish his return to Polrusso. Arriving through the 'gate by jumper, he avoided looking in the direction of the DHD pedestal, because a coldly logical voice in his brain insisted on pointing out that Rodney might very well have died on that spot.

Instead, Radek focused on a large group of cliff-dwellers milling about. A work crew, if the digging tools were any indication. Their half-completed task appeared to be to clear out a wide path between the 'gate and the entrance to the lab. Interrupted by the vortex, they soon got back to work once it closed, though not without some gestures of surprise and gratitude at the arrival of the visitors.

The lab's supposed `back door' had looked overly wide before, and now the reason was apparent: it was an airlock designed to accommodate a jumper. A bit late for such a discovery.

"Huh. Let's see if Tab A really does fit into Slot B." Major Lome rotated Jumper Two a half-turn and eased it backward into the doorway. An audible click announced their correct positioning, followed by the hum of activating machinery.

Lowering the hatch, Lome stepped out. Radek started to follow, then halted. Where the lab had previously been in a sort of minimal-energy caretaker mode, consoles lighting only when touched by Rodney or the Colonel, now it had fully come to life. Lights, computers, and panels glowed just as Atlantis had when coaxed out of slumber. The air immediately felt fresher, cleaner, and not as dry now that the Ancient life support systems had come online. Sunlight abruptly burst in through windows that still had been buried just moments earlier. The force field surrounding the lab now extended a few meters farther than before. Its expansion was pushing aside millennia of accumulated sand.

"It was waiting for the jumper," Radek murmured, enthralled.

"Like a key in a lock."

Through the windows he saw villagers skittering away from a billowing cloud of airborne particles, crouching and turning their backs and covering their faces. Briefly concerned for their welfare, he soon remembered that the fine-grained yellow sand was inert. It was over in a few seconds, and the villagers, used to dealing with sand squalls, lifted their heads with expressions of unfettered awe.

They were at last seeing the Ancient structure as it really was, Radek imagined. He, by contrast, had more pressing matters to attend to. With the lab completely active, access to the databases would be unlimited. This place could conceivably contain all the blueprints to the planetary terraforming process.

He glanced over at Lome, who was still taking in the grandeur of their surroundings. "I tell you what, Doc," the Major said, a grin tugging at the corner of his mouth, "this never gets old."

Smiling his agreement, Radek went to the main computer console. A massive list of files and programs scrolled down the screen, tempting him to explore, but he could afford no distractions. His objective was to retrieve the data necessary to save Atlantis-all else was secondary. Still, he was a bit dazzled, and his thoughts turned to his colleague. Rodney, kamarad, you complained without end about going off-world, but I knew you lived for it, and now I believe I know why.

He connected his datapad to the interface. The ZPM removal sequencing simulation he'd run on Atlantis had been based on an extremely limited set of parameters available during his last visit. Now he had access to real-time three-dimensional imagery of, among other things, the planetary geology and projected hydrology. Amazing. He was able to zero in on any location he wished and examine it in detail.

Using the new data as a baseline, Radek ran the simulation again and watched it evolve. As commanded, the ZPM nearest to the hive ship blinked out first, and then-

Caught off-guard, he paused the program and reran the last few intervals. That was not the result he had expected, nor was it the result he'd seen in the original simulation. Then, the power load had been redistributed among the remaining ZPMs. This time, once power was removed from the initiation point, the continental wall collapsed without delay.

Upon further examination, he realized why.

Looking up, he noticed that a group of villagers had gathered near the nose of the docked jumper. Lome located a smaller access door by the airlock and cast a questioning glance at Radek, who shrugged and nodded.

The Major opened the door to admit Vend, Shira, and a few others. Vend studied the unfamiliar officer with some puzzlement before recognizing Radek and hurriedly crossing the room. "We feared you would not return," he greeted them, immense relief showing through his somber demeanor. "Colonel Sheppard was angry, and understandably so. Did he not come with you?"

"He was injured during his last visit. I'm his second in command." Lome's face was impassive.

"We are deeply sorry for our earlier pretense. We have lost so many to the Wraith, more than you know-most of our children, in fact. In our growing desperation, our fear that you would leave outweighed our desire to be open and honest. Please be assured that such a mistake will never be made again, and know how thankful we are for your willingness to return."

Radek's ire still simmered on Rodney's behalf, but the accident had not been the fault of the Polrussons, and he recognized that fear could drive people to take extraordinary measures.

"We came back to help," Lorne said, "but only on the condition that we be allowed to remove the ZPMs immediately."

Taken by surprise, the Elder opened his mouth and closed it again. Finally, he replied, "We had hoped for more time-"

"Unfortunately, that's not an option. Either we do it now, or we leave"

"Without the ZPMs that you desire?" Vene's eyes narrowed in an attempted challenge. Playing hardball, the Americans called it. However, many of those same Americans often behaved as if they'd invented the strategy. Lome's posture showed him to be no exception.

Disconnecting his datapad and stowing it in his pack, Radek played along, wishing his fledgling acting skills had not been getting so much practice of late. "As you wish."

"A lot of our people were injured by the sand when it came through the 'gate," Lome told Vend, hefting the second of Radek's two equipment cases onto his shoulder. "The ZPMs would be useful to us, but we're not willing to accept the risk of continued operations here."

"Surely you could wait and return in a few days, when all of the people around Polrusso have moved to the new villages," said Shira anxiously.

Radek shook his head and walked to the rear of the jumper. "I am sorry. That will not be possible." The regret in his expression as he gazed around the lab was not entirely false. "A pity"

Aghast, the villagers turned to Vene, who was seemingly trying to hold onto his illusion of leverage. "We cannot get everyone to safety in less than a week," he maintained.

Lome stepped into the jumper, unmoved. "We know you have contingency plans for this situation. If you want us to do this, I suggest you implement them."

"The lab and the Stargate will remain unaffected," Radek offered. "Some people could remain here without difficulty, but they will be unable to leave the resulting island-except by 'gate, of course-for many months. Still, it is one option."

At last accepting that his position was tenuous, Vend's shoulders slumped. He spoke quietly to the villagers surrounding him, and they scurried outside through the recently discovered door. "It will be done. But you must help us as we discussed."

"We will."

Radek hesitated, heading back to the computer and the simulation still open on the screen. "There is one slight problem."