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lit_gal
I sat down to write some of this, and the muse seems to have started somewhere near the middle. So dont' think of this as a continuation as much as a snippet from some time long after John gets home to Atlantis.John tried walking faster, but clearly the Chinese member of the IOC had already spotted him. She hurried after him. “Ah, Colonel Sheppard, I had hoped to speak with you.”
Since Elizabeth had ordered him to play nice and avoid intentionally pissing off any IOC members, John plastered the most helpful look he could manage on his face and turned to face her. “Representative Shen, I hope you’re enjoying Atlantis,” he offered, praying she could tell just how badly he wanted to be anywhere that she wasn’t. Not that he had anything against her personally… he pretty much hated all the IOC members.
The smile she offered looked very genuine, so either she hadn’t noticed his dislike or she was a better actor than he was. “Very much so. You have progressed significantly in the last year.”
“We’ve had help,” John said.
She seemed taken aback by that, and it took her a second to respond. “You are unlike most American military commander I have worked with.”
“They’d agree with you.” John shrugged. It was true, especially since most military commanders thought they were right and John was wrong. After working in General O’Neill’s office in Washington, John had figured out that entirely too many officers were political animals who had earned promotions based on their ability to do paperwork rather than through field work the way he and General O’Neill had worked up the ladder.
“I’m sure they would. However, I find your lack of arrogance far easier to work with.”
“Oh, I’m exceptionally arrogant, I just don’t assume that everything that goes right is because of me.”
Shen laughed. “And I had thought rumors of your charm were exaggerated.”
They were. John was falling back on the advice of the life coach his father had hired all those years ago when he was trying to avoid having John labelled ‘emotionally disabled.’ When all else failed, you insulted yourself. John didn’t understand the rule, he just used it around people he didn’t know well.
Shen gave him a thoughtful look. “I cannot help but notice that many of the people here are from the Pegasus galaxy.”
“Well, it is their galaxy, and the Travelers have loaned us a shiny new 10,000 year old warship. Besides, we had the room and the Wraith have a bad habit of eating people out there,” John held up his hands as if weighing things, “so it seemed fair.”
“Yes, I have read your reports. You have done an admirable job, Colonel.” She gave a small smile and tilted her head forward in a gesture that almost suggested a bow without actually bowing. John had the distinct feeling that she wanted something. Badly.
“Representative Shen, if you have any concerns, you really should address them with Dr. Weir.”
“Perhaps I prefer to find out how the military commander of Atlantis sees these agreements. Do you have concerns regarding the number of civilians under your protection?”
John laughed. “Travelers don’t need a lot of protecting. They take care of their own, and they are the only group that, as a whole, can handle Rodney without blinking an eye. I’ve seen fifteen-year-olds get into screaming matches with him over energy consumptions numbers, and they turn around and damn near worship the ground he walks on after he proves them wrong.”
“But surely you are concerned about security, about a posting which has grown far beyond the original mission.”
“Not really.”
“And the fact that you are now essentially in command of almost 1800 people doesn’t leave you any room for doubt?”
“I’m not in command of anyone except the 314 members of the military,” John said firmly. He was tired of half the IOC assuming he was trying to grab power and the other half thinking he was incompetent. John had no illusions how fast the IOC would demand his removal if General O’Neill weren’t running interference. “I follow Dr. Weir’s orders. I am here to support and protect the civilian population, and I am under Dr. Weir in the chain of command. Period.”
She tilted her head. “I can see that I have upset you. That was not my intent.”
John doubted that. He also suspected that he should run for the hills. This woman had an agenda that he didn’t understand.
“I was more curious about whether you had any concerns that Dr. Weir has ignored.”
“If I had concerns, I would take them to Dr. Weir.”
She gave a little hum. “Of course.”
Footsteps sounded from the far end of the corridor, and John looked that way. Hopefully it would be someone looking for him with news that the city was sinking or something… anything to get out of this conversation. Gibbs came down the hall. That was strange. This section wasn’t anywhere near the training areas where Gibbs tortured the Marines into a fighting unit that impressed even the SGC. It wasn’t near the labs where Samas worked or Gibbs’ quarters. John came out here to escape from people, but he couldn’t think of one reason for Gibbs to be here.
“Gunny, Samas,” John greeted them. His default was to assume Samas was in there unless he had some reason to think otherwise.
“Colonel,” the softer tones of Samas answered, “Representative Shen.”
When John glanced over, Shen was studying Gibbs and Samas carefully. John decided to deal with the issue head on. “Representative Shen, I think you met Gunnery Sergeant Gibbs during the tour earlier, but I’d like you to meet Samas, our Igigi scientist who is responsible for some of our best reverse engineering, including the modified darts and the BSUs.”
Samas quirked an eyebrow at John. “I reverse engineered the darts. Radek provided most of the modifications.”
“But you created the Beaming-Storage Units?” Shen asked.
“I did.” Samas looked her right in the eye, and John had the definite impression that he was missing a layer of communication here.
“You are the symbiote.”
“Yes.”
“Stargate Command did not inform us that you had been included in the original mission. We learned of this only at a much later date.”
Samas smiled. “I suspect most of them didn’t know until after the deed was done.”
“Ah.” Shen nodded. “Someone perceives you as a threat then?”
“Many someones, I suspect. Americans sometimes have trouble separating the Goa’uld, the Tok’ra, and the Igigi.”
Shen gave John a sympathetic look. “Yes, they often do,” she said. John wasn’t sure if she was insulting him or consoling him for having to work with idiotic Americans.
“Funny enough, most of the Americans around here have no trouble telling the difference,” John said in defense of his people. He sounded aggravated, even to his own ears. It was definitely time to cut this conversation short before he said something that Elizabeth would be forced to kill him for. “Samas, Gibbs and I need to work on some training schedules, if you wouldn’t mind.”
“Of course not,” Samas said, but before John could make his getaway, he added, “after answering Representative Shen’s questions.”
John glared at him, but as usual, it did no good. Whether it was Gibbs or Samas, their immunity to any sort of disapproval really annoyed John.
“We were only having a conversation,” Shen said in casual tone as if it didn’t matter. If it hadn’t mattered, she wouldn’t have followed him out here.
“Of course,” Samas said, “and I would not want to distract you from a conversation of how different the Americans on this base are. I suppose that is inevitable when all the soldiers train under Gibbs, myself and Teyla Emmagan—two aliens and one who sympathizes with an alien point of view enough to offer himself as a temporary host.
“And then there is the question of Colonel Sheppard’s humanity,” Shen said.
John gritted his teeth. He absolutely could not have a discussion about all the Ancient shit without saying a hundred different things that Elizabeth absolutely didn’t want him to say.
“Colonel Sheppard is human. I can smell that,” Samas promised, “but he is much more open than… say Colonel Ellis.”
Shen took a deep breath and seemed to think about that for a time. “Yes, Colonel Ellis’ arrogance could have done a lot of damage.”
“He never would have allowed the Travelers to move into the city,” Samas agreed.
John interrupted. “Actually, Dr. Weir made that treaty and the IOC signed off on it. They get a tower on Atlantis, and we get a shiny sorta-new warship.”
“Yes,” Shen agreed. John was starting to hate how much she agreed with everything. “That has opened new possibilities.”
“Atlantis is full of possibilities,” Samas agreed. Now John knew they were having some sort of secret conversation—he just wasn’t sure what they were really saying.
Shen raised an eyebrow. “Is it?”
“The people who come here are very open to possibility, which is something not all the people are prepared to handle. Some of the SGC soldiers have gone back to Earth rather than train with a symbiote.”
“They failed to adapt,” Shen summarized.
“They did. Atlantis is developing her own culture, and adaption is near the top of the list.”
“Developing. An interesting word.”
“A specific one,” Samas said firmly. John looked back and forth between them. He’d watched Elizabeth play politics, but he’d never seen this sort of strange half-conversation.
Shen half-turned away and raised her fingers to trace one of the engravings embedded into the wall of the city. “I find Atlantis endlessly fascinating. I imagine my brother would be even more enthralled with the art and beauty of this place.”
“Is he a scientist?”
“No.” She pursed her lips for a moment. “My parents were not pleased when he chose to pursue his art.”
Samas nodded. “I often wish the Americans would send artists and families. A new world should have more than soldiers and scientists.”
She turned and gave him a long look. “I thought that is what the Hoff and Travelers provided.”
“It’s a big city, Representative Shen,” Samas said.
John almost kicked himself when he finally caught on to what they were talking about. Immigrants. Representative Shen was trying to find out if Atlantis would allow immigrants from earth. “I think this is something you should speak to Dr. Weir about,” John said firmly. He pressed his lips together and gave Samas a long, hard look.
Shen quickly ducked her head into another of not-really bows. “Of course. Dr. Weir would be the best person to consult.” She held out her hand toward Samas, and he moved forward a step to shake it. “I am very honored to have met you, Ambassador Samas.”
Ambassador? Where had she pulled that from? John did not understand this woman any farther than he could throw her. Actually, she was a fairly small woman so he could probably throw her a lot farther.
“Representative Shen,” Samas said. He smiled and waited as she turned and headed back toward the transporter.
“Samas?” John demanded.
The asshole had the nerve to grin at him. “The Chinese are worried. They want to send more people here in case Earth falls. She’s trying to judge how open you might be to the possibility. After all, it’s no good fighting on her end if she thinks you and Weir will block her from here.”
John blinked at him. “What? How did…” John sighed. “This is another of those things like when you just knew the Genii would ally themselves with us, right?”
Samas shrugged. “I suspected. During the briefing she smelled alternately of hope and despair. When she brought up her brother, she just confirmed that she’s looking to place immigrants, not extra positions for Chinese military or scientific personnel.”
John understood that he was bad with people, but sometimes it amazed him just how much he missed. “You got all that out of a short conversation?”
“No, but Shen spoke to Teyla already. Teyla made it clear that she did not want Earth politics on Atlantis, but that she was more than willing to take in any people who came in peace and were willing to fight the Wraith. Shen has also been having lunch with Katana.”
John groaned. The Traveler captain was a wildcard. True, she wasn’t as crazy as Larrin, but she came close. Taken as a whole, the Travelers weren’t the most mentally stable group, and he had a thousand of them in his city. Maybe he should worry more.
“Why would she go to Katana?”
Samas gave John a sympathetic look. From anyone else, John would have resented the pity, but he needed someone to connect a few of the dots, and Samas was the one who explained human behavior to Rodney in terms that even Rodney could understand. If it got him information, he’d put up with the pity.
“Who comes to command meetings?” Samas asked.
“What?”
“Who?”
John shrugged. “You, me, Rodney, Katana, Teyla, and Elizabeth.” The light bulb came on so fast that John’s brain hurt. “She thinks we’ll make an agreement behind Elizabeth’s back?” John was going to find Shen and give her a piece of his mind.
“No, she’s trying to head off any arguments before Elizabeth brings this to the group. China wants this.”
“They want to send more people?” John already had more non-American soldiers under his command than any other officer in the Air Force. Of the 220 official combat troops, 96 came from other countries. True, most of them were from England and Canada, but there were also soldiers quite a few from China as well as a smattering of personnel from France, Sweden, Greece, Zimbabwe, Egypt, India and a pair of truly terrifying bomb techs from Japan. Added to the forty or so Satedans they’d picked up and the Athosians who had joined Gate teams, he had a unique staff. General O’Neill had accused him of collecting a hodgepodge of people that no one else could command. Of course, O’Neill had sounded fairly admiring at the time, so John assumed he wasn’t too upset with it.
“They want to send civilians. The Chinese are thinking about the possibility Earth might fall,” Samas said. “Representative Shen wants her brother in a safer place, but my guess is that her government would want to send those they feel would best protect the memory of the Chinese people. Her brother may not make the cut unless Shen is doing a lot of politicking back home.” Samas looked thoughtful as he said that last part.
If it came down to sheer politicking, John would put his money on Shen. She could cheat a Genii out of his last nuke. “The Pegasus galaxy is not a safer place,” John pointed out.
Samas shook his head. “Shen gets reports from SGC. If she’s considering this, then Earth is closer to falling than anyone is telling us. There’s a real danger that Atlantis is going to be the home of last refuge.”
“So you want us to take in more people?” John didn’t understand Samas’ logic. “Earth was just the planet where you were trapped for five thousand years—you don’t really care about it,” John said, watching for some sort of denial or shock on Samas’ face, but there wasn’t any. “Why would you support Shen?”
“Gibbs cares,” Samas said gently.
“And Gibbs knows that if the Ori break through, Earth is going to die whether we have a few more Chinese artists around or not. He’s not going to go out of his way for Shen.” John knew that for a fact. Samas might be hard to understand sometimes, but Gibbs was a Marine. If Earth fell, his priorities would be to either go down with the ship as he fought to save it, or to protect the survivors with his last breath. He wouldn’t care about politics, and he really wouldn’t care about Chinese artists.
“No, he’s not,” Samas agreed, “but we will both do whatever is required to make Atlantis strong. If the Chinese demand the right to send a hundred people here, what will the other IOC members do?”
John groaned. “They’re all going to want to send people. Shit. You’re talking about another 2,700 people in the city. If we have to evacuate, where do we put that kind of population?”
“John, we can’t evacuate,” Samas said softly. “We have ZPMs now, and the food production can handle the increased population, but if Earth falls, we need this city. The sort of people Earth would evacuate would not be prepared to live without technology, and any place we sent them would immediately attract the attention of the Wraith in this galaxy or the Ori in the Milky Way. We can’t think of this city as a base any more than IOC can think of Earth as a base to be evacuated. It is a place of last stand, and if it falls, we accept that we will only be able to save a small piece of whatever we build. We can’t let fear keep us from building.
“And you want to build our population?”
Samas didn’t answer immediately, and the silence grew heavy between them. “If Earth falls, the last people out will be those nearest the gate. Representative Shen’s plan would mean that we would already have some of the best people the planet has to offer.”
“And we would have some spies and some people who are completely unsuited to living here who got a ticket because their sisters bribed someone,” John pointed out.
“And we would have time to convince them they didn’t want to live here, so those countries could send others. We could integrate those three thousand people and get them working on making Atlantis strong. And if the worst happens and Earth sends through ten or twenty thousand refugees, we will be in a better position to handle it.”
John wanted to argue. He did. He liked Atlantis now. He knew almost everyone, and they were an odd group. The Travelers were loud and rambunctious and fun. The Satedans would run contests and challenges that pushed the most able-bodied Marine to keep up. His soldiers were all loyal to the city, no matter where they came from, and the civilians all understood the stakes.
He liked Atlantis the way it was now—a small village.
But Samas was thousands of years old, and he saw things in a way John sometimes missed. If their population of 1800 were inundated by 20,000 earth refugees, it would be hard. Hell, even if every IOC country sent a hundred people and all one hundred had time to adjust to Atlantis’ culture, that would mean 4,500 Lanteans would have to deal with 20,000 refugees. John ran a hand over his face as he thought about the possibilities. They weren’t good.
Ignoring John’s need for a little time to think about this, Samas kept right on going. “With more people here, we should request more military assets. The President is going to want to keep the combat troops on Earth in hopes that he can hold the Ori off, but SG-19, 21, and 22 are all covert ops teams. The Ori are pretty obvious about their strategy, so those teams aren’t being used to their full effect at SGC. SG-20 is the Russian unit, and they’ve been increasingly frustrated with General Landry. SG-9 is diplomatic, and there’s no chance the Ori have any interest in that, nor do the Lucian alliance. SG 17 and 15 are exploration, and again, their operations have been largely shut down as the Ori moved in.” Samas sounded matter of fact as he laid out his recommendations.
John stared at Samas. That was far more detailed information than he should have, especially considering Landry’s opinion of the Igigi. The man might dislike Russians, scientists and people in general, but he loathed Samas. Before John had come home, Landry had cornered him in a conference room and told him he was an idiot if he trusted a snake. “Where did you get this intelligence, Samas?”
He grinned. “Zelenka is a good man to know. When Rodney helps, the two of them can get into any system they want, even when they’re hacking remotely from another galaxy. Think about it, Colonel. You might also want to ask General O’Neill if he would have any suggestions, especially if the IOC is talking about burdening you with so many immigrants all at once.”
Samas shifted. It was a subtle change as he stood a little taller and angled his head differently, but John knew he was looking at Gibbs. “Sir, this would give General O’Neill a chance to evacuate some of his people, too. If you send him a summary of your suspicions about the upcoming Chinese request, he would have time to either kill it or make it run more smoothly.”
“You really think Earth is going to fall?”
Gibbs sighed, but where Samas would have given a wry grin, he just stared at nothing, his body mimicking a parade rest, seemingly without meaning to. “I lost my wife and daughter when they were supposed to be safe and I was the one at war. Samas watched his entire genetic line exterminated by Ra. He had to leave his host to die alone as he crawled to safety. Even after he found a new host, he watched Ra destroy the world he’d known and recreate his species into the Goa’uld. I don’t have a lot of illusions about how badly this might go.”
“And if we have thousands of civilians on Atlantis, that’s going to be even more reason for the Wraith to destroy us.”
Now Gibbs did smile. “They don’t need any more reasons, Colonel. Enemies are inevitable, but a good Marine is prepared.”
“Too bad I’m not a Marine.”
Gibbs nodded. “I’ve had that thought a few times.”
John rolled his eyes and sighed. “Dismissed. I have to go write General O’Neill a report. Go torture some Marines or Satedans or something.”
“Yes sir.” Gibbs gave him a sharp salute before turning and double-timing it down the hall. If Samas and Representative Shen ever ended up on opposite sides, John wondered who would win the political battles those two would have. Entire nations might die in the crossfire.
“Crap.” John had completely forgotten to ask Samas if he knew anything about Shen’s use of ‘ambassador.’ Unfortunately, John didn’t understand the woman well enough to even hazard a guess. Nope, Representative Shen definitely thought more like an Igigi than she did like John. The best John could do was write a report for General O’Neill and then go talk to Elizabeth. Thank god he wasn’t in charge of the city. He got enough ulcers just thinking about all the ways this could turn into a disaster.
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Igigi snippet
Date: 2014-03-29 10:46 pm (UTC)Re: Igigi snippet
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Date: 2014-03-29 11:37 pm (UTC)I was thinking that it was possible (unless I forgot something) that Airman Harris could've occured before this started. I always wondered what might happen if the Wraith went up against some vampires. I know you once did another SG/BtVs crossover but I don't think Atlantis came up in that story.
Gotta find the time one day to reread all your fanfic and refresh my memory. The tales are too good to forget.
Shakatany
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