Chapter Seven
“I know about you and John,” McKay said as he slid into the seat across the table. It was a little past the dinner hour so the mess was less crowded than when Tony had been in earlier with John.
Tony swallowed a bite of something that reminded of broccoli in its taste but was an odd russet color. “You make it sound like we’re having an affair.”
McKay shot him a baleful look. “I mean the brother thing.” He whispered brother like it was a big secret.
“I don’t care if people know.” He considered for a second. “But John may, so…”
“I meant that you don’t have to pretend or anything.”
“I’m not sure it’d be pretending when I barely know him.” Tony shrugged. “It’s up to him how much he wants getting out.”
“He wants to tell the rest of the team.” He pointed at Tony with his fork. “You really don’t care? Why don’t you care?”
“No family to speak of except the man I thought was my father. Happy enough to never talk to him again. May change my name legally in celebration of having no ties to that prick.”
“To Sheppard?”
Tony choked on the water he was sipping. “No. I’ve known John for a hot minute, and I doubt I’ll ever meet his— our father. I was thinking my mom’s name.”
“Why won’t you ever meet your father?”
“If things work out, I’m going to be here. Forever. How exactly would I explain that?”
“People have familial relationships around remote and classified postings all the time. Don’t be dense.”
Tony set down his fork. “Dr. McKay—”
“Rodney.”
“Rodney, then. I’m going to have to insist that you not attempt to give me familial advice until you’ve known me for at least a month.”
McKay’s lips twitched. “Should I put an entry in my calendar?”
“I figure you’re just that kind of troll, so feel free.”
“Anyway, Teyla and Ronon are going to join us for dessert, and John said you could tell the team if you wanted. John’s stuck with Caldwell and Boyd, talking to O’Neill and Weppler for the second dial-in this afternoon.”
“Why am I telling John’s team anything?” Tony hadn’t heard anything about the communication with the SGC so far, but he hadn’t expected to. Mostly, he’d followed Major Lorne around like a puppy and gotten acclimated to the city a little more. He felt like he knew the city fairly well from learning so much about it while he was ascended, but the view from the ground was a little different.
“Well, he may have said I could tell them, but that kind of touchy-feely stuff isn’t my area.”
Tony rubbed his temple, fighting a headache.
“Something wrong?”
“Not really. Sometimes I run headlong into a hole in my memory and it makes my head hurt.”
“Hole in your memory?” Rodney stopped eating and stared at Tony intently.
“Yeah, they had to take most of what I learned while I was,” he made a vague gesture toward the sky, “to keep me from going crazy under the burden.”
“If these lack of memories give you a headache, you should see Doc B–iro.” McKay made a face at hesitating over Biro’s name. Beckett was confined to quarters, and that’s all Tony officially knew, but since he’d seen Beckett’s behavior, he knew exactly what they’d found.
“The headache comes because I can’t let the blank alone. It’s my own fault, but I figure I’m still adjusting.”
“They should get you an MRI or something and make sure those Ancient assholes didn’t fry your brain.”
“Charming.”
“May we join you?” a soothing female voice said from the end of the table. Teyla Emmagan and Ronon Dex stood there with trays in hand.
“Of course.” As soon as everyone was seated, he shook hands with the other two.
Rodney pointed a fork at Tony. “He and Sheppard are brothers.”
Teyla blinked a couple of times then looked to Tony. “He had not mentioned it. I’m sure your loss pained him greatly and he is relieved to have you returned.”
Tony shot Rodney an unimpressed look. “John and I share a father, but he didn’t find out about our biological connection until after I was already, uh, gone.”
“And you truly walked with the ancestors?” she asked gently.
“I ascended, yes.”
“What a great gift.”
Tony made a face. “Not really. I think they’re complacent and entitled, but your mileage may vary.”
“Mileage?” she echoed.
“I just mean that people’s opinions differ even when viewing the same information,” Tony clarified.
“Why’d they let you leave?” Dex asked gruffly. Tony figured it was his natural mien rather than any kind of irritation.
“Mostly because I’m annoying.”
Ronon snorted but continued eating.
“Truly?” Teyla asked.
“No. I didn’t want to stay, and I was able to offer them something they wanted in exchange for my return.”
She inclined her head. “If this is where you wished to be then I am glad for your return.”
“Thanks. I’m sure the brother thing will eventually be common knowledge but, for right now, I think John wants to keep it to just the command staff and his team. Let him decide when to tell others.”
Rodney held up a hand and then pressed his headset. “McKay.” After a pause, he looked at Tony even as he said. “Understood. We’re on our way.” He stood up. “Sorry to cut dinner short, but Tony’s needed in Dr. Boyd’s office.”
Tony got up, nodding to Teyla and Ronon.
“Something up?” he asked as soon as they were headed toward the transporter.
“O’Neill wants to talk to you.”
“Okay.” That wasn’t a huge surprise.
When they got up to the gateroom, Tony paused to look at the active stargate, thinking it was a lot prettier from this angle.
McKay grabbed his arm and dragged him toward the stairs. They joined Caldwell, Sheppard, and Boyd in a conference room where a video feed was piped in showing General O’Neill, General Weppler, and Daniel Jackson sitting at the end of a conference table.
Frank Boyd made quick introductions, gesturing Tony into a chair. “We just dialed again, so there’s a little over half an hour left on the window.”
“Agent DiNozzo,” O’Neill greeted. “Considering everything we know about you, I suppose it shouldn’t be too surprising that you turned up out there.”
Tony just grinned in response before looking to Weppler. “Hello, General Weppler.”
“DiNozzo. It’s good to see you amongst the corporeal again.”
O’Neill side-eyed Weppler. “You two know each other?”
“We’ve met a time or two,” Weppler said dryly.
“What happened to your base was not my fault, General.” Tony smiled at the memory of when he’d met General Michael Weppler.
“I’m pretty sure it was exactly your fault, DiNozzo, but you got my missing weapons back so I’ve never held it against you.” Weppler looked at O’Neill. “One of Agent DiNozzo’s first cases newly with NCIS was stolen ordnance. He went undercover as a Marine.”
“I see.”
Daniel Jackson waved them off. “Agent DiNozzo, I’m Daniel Jackson, though—”
“I’m aware of who you are, Dr. Jackson. Just call me Tony.”
“Daniel, then.” His expression was stiff. “There’s a mention in Dr. Boyd’s report that you freed Oma Desala from her eternal combat with Anubis?”
“Not me personally. I just told them how to do it provided they were willing to grant me certain concessions.”
“You blackmailed the Ancients?” he asked incredulously.
“That’s an ugly word. I prefer to think of it as offering them a bargain.”
“And you’d have—”
“Danny,” O’Neill interjected, “now’s not the time. You can pick his brain about Oma some other time.”
Daniel gave a tight nod.
Weppler took the reins. “We’ve reviewed the offer, such as it is, and have a question. This blind agreement… Are we bound to it if we don’t like the terms once we know them?”
“Nope.”
O’Neill threw up his hands. “Then why not just tell us what’s on offer? If we can refuse once we know the terms, what’s the point of blind agreement?”
“I don’t know. They insisted on it. Maybe to make you think hard about it and not just blindly agree because you really want what’s being offered?”
“That’s…” O’Neill stopped and rubbed his hand over his face. “Fine. We agree to their terms. I discussed it all the way up the chain, and the President said as long as we weren’t blindly agreeing that we could sign whatever needed to be signed to get this ball moving.”
Tony laughed. “Sign? You can sign something if you really want to, but these are ascended beings with unlimited power, General. Do you think they care about legal documents? I figure the president gave his agreement just shy of an hour ago?”
“How do you know that?” Weppler asked immediately.
“Because all the information on offer got unlocked in my head then. Which was my cue that you guys had fundamentally agreed. I don’t mean that I didn’t know the information but that I couldn’t speak of it until there was agreement. Do you really think a piece of paper is going to play a part in the enforcement of this bargain?”
Daniel leaned forward. “How does that work with their vow of non-interference?”
“They may say they won’t interfere, but they sure the hell are willing to enforce. Look at the whole situation with Chaya’s planet. As long as she operates within her agreement with them, they stay out of it, but they will enforce the pact she made. They won’t consider it interfering to take away everything you got in the deal, regardless of what’s in writing.
“But, by all means, we need to write it up. Because there are people who are going to need legal assurances. You’ll understand what I mean when we get that far in the explanation.”
O’Neill made a huffy sound. “All right, then, let’s hear it.”
“First up, and probably most significant to everyone, I know the location of the planet where the ZPMs are charged. To fully charge a ZPM takes almost two years. Four ZPMs may be taken to Earth. One must be for use within the SGC, one is for the control chair at the outpost, one for the Daedalus, and one is for the Apollo. That’s not negotiable. If other spacecraft are commissioned, additional ZPMs might be supplied, but only the two may be used on-planet and they must be utilized by the SGC for the gate and the control chair.”
“So, what you’re saying,” O’Neill said, “is that we can have ZPMs but we have to allocate them to defending the planet from external threats.”
“Yes. The primary reason they even went along with this is because they consider the situation in Pegasus to be something of a cultural stain. They were willing to bend quite a lot to better outfit the expedition to deal with the threat out here, and I bargained for concessions for Earth because the expedition isn’t completely separate from what’s going on back home, even if the Ancients might wish otherwise.”
“How many ZPMs for Atlantis?” Rodney asked impatiently.
Tony hesitated because the number was going to upset people considering only four could go to Earth. “Twenty.”
“Charged?” Rodney quickly clarified, loudly, as everyone seemed to be talking at once.
“Yes, charged,” Tony said at volume.
The questions were coming so fast Tony couldn’t even keep up until O’Neill gave a sharp whistle. “Let’s hear the rest. Net it out, DiNozzo.”
“There’s a concern that the governments of Earth will try to pull Atlantis to the Milky Way, and that’s not going to fly. The Ancients will take all their cookies and go home if Atlantis is removed. I’ll write up all the minutia of the agreement should we need to evacuate the city and all that, but if it starts to look like you’re breaking the deal, I’m pretty sure you won’t like the consequences. Atlantis might be able to go to the Milky Way temporarily, but she can’t stay there.”
Tony paused. “Do you want me to just net out the stuff that helps you guys back home or talk about all of the stuff for Pegasus too?”
“Give us the highlights for both,” O’Neill replied.
“Okay. First, a caveat about the ZPM thing. For now, until good faith has been shown, I’m only allowed to tell Dr. McKay and Colonel Sheppard where the ZPM charging planet is. That’s one of the things we need in writing from the president: Sheppard can’t be compelled to release that information by anyone in his chain of command, or otherwise, I guess.”
“Why those two?” O’Neill asked, eyes narrowed.
“I don’t know; I was given the names, I didn’t pick them.” He rubbed his jaw, considering. “McKay…well, probably because he’s the best with the technology, and he’ll need to be there. Sheppard…I’d guess because he has an affinity for the city and, much like me, he’s descended from Janus.”
“I am?” John asked incredulously.
“It’s a long story.”
“For later,” O’Neill said tersely.
“In any case, we can’t go there and get the ZPMs until John’s protected from his chain of command. They may relax the restriction about who can know later on, I don’t know. But they were firm about it for now. Also, please convey there’s no way to negotiate any of this. I think this should be looked at as a gift, not a deal.”
“Agreed,” Jackson said sharply, glaring at literally everyone.
“So, next thing,” Tony began before anyone could reply to that. “The Ancients didn’t like to put vital resources on planets with gates. They found it to be a security risk—and I don’t think they’re wrong about that. When the city is back to full power, we can fire up the drone production facility and launch the mining drones through a space gate to where the Ancients mined all their resources. Including the very large naquadah mine that they basically weren’t using out here. They used it for something in the past, but found a better mineral later—or some such.” He waved the detail away.
“How that benefits Earth is in a few ways. First, they agreed any naquadah mined out here can go back to Earth. Next, Atlantis can manufacture enough drones for Earth to keep the Antarctica outpost fully stocked. No more than fully stocked, however. You cannot have a huge stockpile of drones on Earth. As many as the outpost will hold and that’s it. But we can resupply you provided those drones are not used to target people on your own planet.” That was something Tony threw in because the Ancients didn’t seem to care, in general, if the people of Earth blew each other to smithereens. The SGC didn’t need to know that it was Tony’s condition.
O’Neill and Weppler looked a little stunned but pleased.
“I also have some information that’s more for the benefit of the Jaffa, so I guess that’s a minor point in these discussions, though it’ll probably be pretty significant to Teal’c.”
“Go ahead and tell me so I can relay it,” O’Neill ordered.
“Again, like the mining and the ZPM charging, the Ancients didn’t like to have their food sources under threat from bombs and stuff. There are a few greenhouses on the city, but not enough to keep staple crops up for the city’s full population. There’s a planet in Pegasus that has the Ancient version of food production greenhouses. They’re fully automated once they’re powered and seed crops are introduced. They will produce enough food to feed this city at full capacity.”
“Holy shit,” Rodney breathed.
Tony shot him a quick grin, noticing the stunned looks on everyone else’s face. “In the Milky Way, however, they weren’t quite as sophisticated as here by the time of their ascension. There’s a planet off of the gate system where the indigenous peoples grew the food crops. It is now controlled by a minor goa’uld. How the goa’uld even found the planet is a long story that’s not terribly germane. But the Jaffa should be able to easily subdue this goa’uld, which would give them the opportunity to barter with these newly freed people to—”
“Grow their food stores,” Daniel supplied. “That could be very helpful to them. There’s agriculture on some planets, but not to the degree needed. Some of the system lords were better about being self-contained and having dedicated resources for farming, but it’s been a mystery how the others were keeping in food supplies for all their followers. Teal’c would be very interested in pursuing that alliance. All the other Jaffa could tell us was that ships with supplies arrived from a place they didn’t know the location of. Thank you, Tony, this will a boon to them.”
Tony nodded then looked to Frank. “You blocked all outgoing communication from Atlantis, right?”
“Yes. As you suggested, we made sure to contain all outgoing correspondence, keeping it out of the databurst.”
“Okay.” He looked back at the monitor. “This one’s a freebie—I can supply a list of all the goa’uld still on the planet. Your new security protocols kept the snake out of Caldwell’s head, but there are more and they’ll keep trying. And on the list with the goa’uld will be all the highly placed members of the Trust since that’s basically the same thing these days.”
O’Neill blew out a breath. “We’re going to have to jump on that immediately, which is going to slow down getting this paperwork you need to protect Sheppard.”
“Then it gets slowed down. I agree that acting on this is top priority.”
“What else?”
Tony considered which of the many things was most noteworthy. “For Pegasus, the wraith raided what was left of Sateda for weapons and resources, but ultimately just left them in a huge stockpile, deciding they preferred the tech they have, I guess. So that’s out there.”
“Yes!” John said lowly. “Big ass space guns!”
“But those have to stay here,” Tony cautioned. “That said, I’ve got the location of several caches of zats and whatnot in the Milky Way.”
“So you’re our brand new munitions fairy,” O’Neill said, looking pleased. Then he frowned. “That came out wrong.”
“You think?” Jackson said, sounding exasperated, but his lips were twitching.
“There’s the Ancient version of a shipyard out here. Sitting waiting is one completed battle cruiser which will have to stay here, but there are also a few dozen more jumpers. Twelve of them may go to Earth.”
“I’m not mad at that,” O’Neill said with a grin.
“The biggest potential thing for Earth is something I can’t even tell you yet. Or at least not all of it. There’s another big bad out there, far worse than the goa’uld or the wraith.”
“Oh dear god.” O’Neill rubbed his hands over his face. “What fresh hell is this?”
“They’re called the Ori, and the reason they’re a big problem is they’re also ascended. But not the apathetic, uninvolved sorta distant family we have with the Ancients. They think of themselves as gods and expect to be treated as such, complete with worship and devotion.”
“Why is it always delusions of grandeur?” O’Neill said, staring upward.
“What can we do about them?” Weppler asked intently.
“That part I don’t know. The agreement was that I’d only remember the thing that will defeat them if they make incursions to the Milky Way. They could come someday and millions could die. So that should be plenty of incentive not to break this agreement with the Ancients. Because there’s a whole galaxy already enslaved to them, and we’d have no way to fight against them without this thing,” he tapped his head, “that I don’t have access to right now.”
“And what about the millions being oppressed now?” Jackson asked with more than a little bite.
“I wish I could have bartered for everyone in the universe, Dr. Jackson, but that wasn’t an option. I strongly suggested, in as many ways as I could, that the Ancients deal with the Ori. They’re considering it, but their pace of consideration makes glaciers look swift. I don’t think we can count on them making that choice in our lifetime.”
“More importantly,” O’Neill said before Jackson could say anything else, “is how do we stay off their radar.”
“Well, the way you were most likely to get their attention was the place Vala Mal Doran tried to take you.”
“That cave that was nearly destroyed?” Daniel asked, looking bewildered.
“Yep. It was basically a communication device with the Ori. If you’d used it, you might as well have been saying, ‘hey, advanced and large civilization here for you to subjugate.’”
“But Vala didn’t go with us and we were delayed getting there by months, so…”
“I destroyed it,” Tony said.
“You destroyed it,” Jackson repeated.
“Yes. Totally ruined the Ancient cell phone that would have waved a red cape at a raging ascended bull called the Ori who could have killed millions in this galaxy forcing us to worship them. And, yes, my metaphor is painfully mixed. I have no regrets about mixing my metaphors or destroying that device. The Ancients were only slightly miffed at my presumption.”
O’Neill laughed and nudged Daniel. “Come on, Danny, you can’t be mad about him destroying that very dangerous cell phone.”
Jackson’s lips twitched again as he shrugged one shoulder. “It was an historic site.”
“And now it’s a pile of rocks that can’t enslave the whole galaxy. I call it an acceptable loss.” O’Neill looked back to Tony. “Just how badly behaved were you?”
Tony chuckled. “I’ll never tell.”
“Is there anything else?”
“There’s a lot of minor stuff, but if you guys don’t have enough information to make a decision, I’m really worried.”
“No, we’ve got plenty, and I know the president is not going to turn this down. But we do need to write it up for everyone’s protection.” He glanced away. “We’ve only got a few minutes on this dial-up. When am I getting that list?”
Tony pulled the list from his pocket. “I’ve got it, I just need to type it up.”
“Gimme.” Rodney grabbed for the list. “I type the fastest. I can do it now.”
“Okay.” Tony really liked Rodney. “You’ll have it shortly.”
“I need a minute privately with DiNozzo,” O’Neill said, glancing at Jackson and Weppler. Both nodded and got to their feet. In the conference room with Tony, Boyd, Caldwell, and Sheppard rose as well with Rodney just a few seconds behind.
“I’ll finish this in Dr. Boyd’s office and it will be ready in about two minutes.” He shot Tony an incredulous look and mouthed, “I can’t believe this list!”
Tony knew they’d be talking about it later. When the room was empty and the door closed, Tony looked back at the screen. “What can I do for you, General?”
“Just Jack when it’s informal.”
“Okay. Is this informal?”
O’Neill sighed and slouched in his chair. “As it can be. We didn’t discuss the part of the deal that requires you to stay on Atlantis. You okay with that?”
“It is what it is. Small price to pay all things considered, but I appreciate the concern. But what’s really on your mind?”
“Gibbs,” Jack said shortly. “Right now, the only people who know about any of this are the people who were in this room and my direct chain of command up to the president. Gibbs will be involved in going after these Trust operatives though, I can promise you that. Question is, what do I tell him about you? Because you know he’s going to take it very personally, right?”
Tony glanced away. When he’d thought about going back, he’d visualized just turning up and them being able to sit down and talk. But that wasn’t possible now. The Apollo wasn’t going to make a run just to deliver Gibbs, and that would be weeks anyway. Tony wasn’t going through the gate until he had ZPMs to deliver, and who knew when that would be.
“You need to tell him.” He sighed and rubbed his hand over his face. “If I record a message for him to go out with the next databurst, who will see it?”
“Well, everything that comes through is reviewed, but I can arrange it so that I do the reviewing in this instance. Boyd knows how to seal it so that it’s directed to me only. We implemented that after some issues with information getting quashed in the mountain, and it’s for high priority or highly classified material but, well, I guess we’ll call your return to a physical body highly classified for now. I’ll review it and then he’ll be the only one who sees it.” He pointed at Tony. “So don’t get too gushy.”
“You’re presuming a lot.”
“I’m not presuming a damn thing, at least not from his end. You broke his heart, kid. So, I hope you’re prepared to have him on the city with you because I think, if you’re there, he’s going to be there too.”
“I guess we’ll see.”
O’Neill’s expression conveyed concern, but Tony couldn’t really assuage it. His history with Gibbs was too long for Tony to be blasé about any of this. He’d seen how his ascension had affected Gibbs, but that didn’t mean a Gibbs confronted with a living, fully corporeal Tony would actually take what was on offer.
Gibbs himself was always the biggest unknown in Tony’s whole plan.
* * *
“Where’d this intel come from?” Gibbs asked, looking through page after page of assessments of a long list of potential targets. There were background checks, financials…the works. Each target was already under surveillance.
O’Neill leaned back in the chair, watching Gibbs closely. The general had shown up at the house just after dinner, wearing civvies and carrying a bottle of expensive bourbon. He also had a tablet with all the data that had been compiled so far and the summary sheets for each target for Gibbs to mark up, which was his preferred way of working even if he had gotten used to the tablet thingies.
Gibbs had been chasing leads on the Trust for weeks, ever since they’d tried to slip a goa’uld into Caldwell. So far, they’d hit nothing but dead ends. Now there was a trove of information and new leads.
“The source…” O’Neill sighed and took a sip from his glass.
Gibbs focused all his attention on the general. “Something you want to tell me?”
“DiNozzo is the source, Jethro.”
The pages slipped from suddenly nerveless fingers. “What?”
“He’s on Atlantis right now.”
He swallowed heavily, trying to get his thoughts in order. “Are they going to punish him for giving us info?” He wanted to ask why the hell DiNozzo went to Atlantis but figured it was a secondary consideration considering the possible repercussions for Tony’s actions. “That’s what they did to Jackson, right? Punished him for interfering by throwing him out?”
“Tony’s not ascended anymore. He’s as mortal as Daniel is, which likely means that he’d ascend again if something life-threatening were to occur.”
Gibbs sat back heavily in the chair. “You’re saying he’s back.” He grabbed the glass of bourbon and downed it. “Why is he on Atlantis?”
“I figure I should let him explain. There’s a video on your tablet—Daniel loaded it up, and the icon is a butterfly. It had to be screened, of course, just like everything coming out of Atlantis, but I did the screening myself. No one else has seen it or will ever see it.” He held up one of those thumb flashy things. “This is the only copy outside of what’s on that tablet.” He tossed the device to Gibbs, which he caught reflexively. “I should probably leave to give you some privacy, but I figure you might have some questions. I can take a walk if you prefer…?”
Feeling numb, Gibbs shook his head. “Excuse me for a minute.”
O’Neill nodded. “I’ll be here when you’re ready.”
Gibbs went to the bedroom and sat on the end of the bed, holding the tablet stiffly in both hands. He hesitated for a minute before pressing the butterfly icon on the main screen.
The image was of average quarters on Atlantis, and then Tony’s voice said, “Okay, I think that’s recording.”
Gibbs’ throat felt tight just at hearing Tony’s voice after so long.
Tony stepped into the frame and sat cross-legged on the bed. He was in the standard black cargo pants and black T-shirt most of the military on Atlantis wore. He looked good. The same as before he’d gotten so sick. For some reason, with everything that had happened, Gibbs thought he should look different, something physical to reflect how much had changed.
“Hey, Gibbs. I know this is weird and you probably have a billion questions, though you probably wouldn’t ask them, right? You’d wait for me to guess what you wanted to know.” Tony glanced toward the balcony briefly. “I got pretty good at guessing what you wanted over the years, didn’t I?”
“Yeah, you did,” he whispered.
“So, I guess this is like old times, eh?” Tony rubbed his palms over his legs as if he were nervous or something. “But I guess nothing is the same anymore.” He shook his head. “Anyway, I asked them to let me tell you because you should hear it from me why I never even tried to say goodbye.”
Gibbs paused the video, needing a second to get himself together. When he didn’t feel so much like he was about to shatter, he hit play again.
“I met Oma Desala right after my mom died—I was eight. Come to find out that my mother was descended from Oma and my father, my biological father that is, is from Janus’ line. Oma’d been keeping an eye on me my whole life, and she began visiting me and talking to me about the enlightened path. Her words, her advice, they followed me, affected me. I’m not sure I felt all that enlightened, but I’ve come to the conclusion that ‘enlightened’ just means your give-a-fuck is broken and you have a reason to move on. But I digress…
“The Ancients accomplished the broken give-a-fuck by emotionally separating themselves from everything they might care about—they didn’t marry for love, they didn’t stay close to family members after childhood. It seems like a cold existence, you know?”
Tony glanced away again, looking uncomfortable. “I can’t say I didn’t care about anything—apathy was not my issue. I cared too much maybe, but I was ready to let go because it felt,” he looked back at the camera, gaze intense, “like it could never be anything.”
Gibbs’ hands tightened on the tablet.
“In terms of having a reason to move on… Oma was stuck in this eternal combat with Anubis, and they weren’t doing anything about it. I felt like I had to save her. Which is pretty fucking arrogant, now that I think about it, considering all these ascended beings couldn’t do anything.”
“You always try to help, Tony,” Gibbs murmured, thumbs tracing the edge of the screen. “It’s not arrogant.”
“So, I get on to the next great adventure, and it was pretty confusing at first, but I was not cut out for an eternity of sitting around on my ass watching the universe pass me by and doing nothing to help people. I wanted to come talk to you; more than anything sometimes, I just wanted to be on your basement steps, even if we were just sitting in silence.
“But the whole Daniel Jackson thing was a powerful object lesson. I knew I wanted to come back but I couldn’t let it happen that way.” Tony shuddered. “Naked amnesiac on another planet is no one’s idea of a good time, Gibbs. I needed another plan. Which meant I had to behave while I tried to figure out how to make it work. I couldn’t afford to draw their attention and give them a reason to kick me out. Plus, I had rule sixteen running around in the back of my mind, you know?”
Gibbs smiled. If someone thinks they have the upper hand, break it.
“It’s only been about ten months in, you know, real time, but it felt like an eternity there. I learned a lot—more than my human brain could ever hope to contain, so a lot of that is gone now. One of the things I learned is that the ascended are masters of missing the obvious, so I figured out a solution to Oma’s predicament, which I offered in exchange for being able to come back. Preferably with a bunch of the useful info I’d sussed out that might help some of our situations back home.
“And before you even wonder, because people keep asking me this, no, I wouldn’t have left Oma to her fate if they hadn’t agreed. But it was my only leverage, and I had to make them think the threat was real, right?”
Gibbs just shook his head. He sure the hell wasn’t going to judge DiNozzo for doing whatever he needed to do in order to get out of that situation.
“Eventually, they agreed to everything I asked for, which kind of surprised me, to be honest. There were a few things I insisted on in exchange for the information about how to help her, and one of those things was coming back. But they let me have everything I asked for…with some conditions.” Tony blew out a breath. “The biggest condition is that I have to stay on Atlantis. We’re waiting to get complete agreement from the president about all the nuances of the deal, but, once that happens, I’ll get to come to Earth for a little while. Not long, I don’t think. The Ancients are pretty invested in keeping me out here.” He waved a hand dismissing the whole thing. “Get O’Neill— no, scratch that. Get Daniel to tell you about why the Ancients were willing to make this deal provided it primarily benefits Pegasus. It’s stomach-churning.”
Tony cocked his head to the side. “I realized I just made it sound like I’m of benefit to Pegasus, but I’m really not sure why they want me to stay here. Just that it was part of the bargain. Anyway, O’Neill needs to act on this Trust intel, and I know he needs you for that. I’m not sure how back-burnered the agreement from the president is going to be, but I should be able to come to Earth for a bit as soon as that’s done.”
Tony’s smile looked more sad than anything. “There’s more to say, but I’d rather do it in person. I know it must have hurt that I stayed away, but I did it so I could come back the same person who left—plus or minus a few memories.” He slid to the edge of the bed, bracing his hands on his knees, preparing to get to his feet. “See you soon, Gibbs.”
Gibbs watched as Tony got up and passed out of the frame, and then the screen went black.
He slid his fingers over the screen as if he could reach through it and get to Tony. “Attaboy, Tony. You did good.”
Chapter Eight
Tony waited outside Frank’s door. He could practically feel the city’s willingness to open the door for him, but he tried to indicate that he was happy to wait. He’d gotten pretty good in the few days he’d been here at interpreting what she was sending him. After discussing the issue with John, he’d realized that he was the only one who felt her so acutely, though John felt the hum of her in the back of his mind more strongly than the others. But only Tony was able to interpret her intent. He thought that would likely change when the city was at full power.
The door slid open and Frank smiled at him. “Good morning, Tony.”
“Good morning, Admiral.”
Frank stood aside to let Tony in. “It’s just Frank; Dr. Boyd if you must.”
“Well, it’s early and I was feeling nostalgic.”
Smiling, Boyd gestured him to the open balcony doors. “I have breakfast for us. I thought we could speak privately over a nice meal.”
“I’m always willing to eat.”
“I remember.”
They sat, and Tony prepared his coffee before pulling the cover off the meal Frank had arranged. “Thank you for breakfast.” He fiddled with his toast for a few seconds. “Is your desire to speak to me privately reflective of bad news?” It’d only been two days since Tony had sent his video message through to Gibbs and three days since his “conference call” with O’Neill and Weppler. He figured the SGC was knee-deep in trying to break the back of the Trust right about now.
“There’s nothing wrong at all; I just have some news for you. First, the president has signed the orders for Colonel Sheppard. The presidential decree was broader than I’d expected. Anything related to your arrangement with the Ancients that you deem confidential, Colonel Sheppard cannot be compelled to reveal to anyone, not even the president himself.”
“Nice. I appreciate the protections for John, though I’m surprised that they got that pushed through considering the ongoing investigation.”
“While O’Neill has commandeered quite a lot of resources, including several SG teams and the NCIS agents, General Weppler was able to see this issue handled so we can commence with getting those ZPMs. The orders were included in the databurst last night, and a hard copy will be delivered on the next run of the Daedalus, which will be significantly faster with a ZPM onboard.”
“I’m sure Colonel Caldwell will appreciate the faster travel time between Pegasus and Earth.”
“Indeed. Though speedier travel times doesn’t mean we’ll need supplies with greater frequency, so I imagine they’ll be evaluating additional duties for the Colonel. In any case, I have a few other bits of news. There will be a mountain of non-disclosure agreements for you to sign when you visit Earth, but in the interim, you’ll be signing them digitally under my supervision and will then be considered a full member of the expedition as our NCIS resident agent. As soon as we take care of those signatures, you’ll be part of the senior staff and be privy to any classified material.”
“Right back to work, huh?” he asked with a grin, relieved things were moving forward.
“Having an NCIS agent around was quite useful, so I’m certainly eager to see the role filled again. That said, you won’t be diving in as an NCIS agent quite yet. After we finish here, I’d like you to coordinate with Colonel Sheppard and Dr. McKay to collect those ZPMs as soon as it’s feasible. Once the city is at full power, we can begin to make arrangements to send you back to Earth to deliver the ZPMs and wrap up any of your affairs. Because we aren’t certain how long you’ll be allowed to be gone, the expectation is that you’ll return through the gate rather than on the Daedalus when she makes her next run.”
“That all sounds fine.”
“An internal email address for expedition members has been arranged for you and this,” he patted the device sitting on the table, “is your new tablet. Everything you need is on it and it’s configured for your access level, so be sure to keep the passcode active. I know you’ve worked with classified material for many years, so this will be old hat for you.” Boyd took a sip of his coffee, looking faintly uncomfortable.
“Something wrong? Because I’m not a fragile flower over here. I can take whatever you’ve got to tell me.”
“I fear it’s a rather inappropriate question…”
“Just hit me with it, Frank.”
“Do you expect Agent Gibbs to return with you?” His tone was gentle.
Tony blinked a few times. “That obvious?”
“His regard for you, his grief over your loss… Yes, it was quite obvious to me. Perhaps not others. I simply wonder if the feeling is mutual and if you anticipate needing couple’s quarters. Forgive me for being intrusive, but the matter of your permanent quarters was raised by the corporal in charge of housing assignments, so I thought it best to ask.”
Taking his coffee cup in hand, Tony leaned back in the chair and looked out over the water. “It’s my hope that’s where we’re headed, though I’m not sure the next step for us is living together. Kissing first wouldn’t be out of order.”
Frank snorted in amusement. “How about I arrange for you to have larger quarters and then you’ll have the space for whatever comes after kissing. Jethro can take a single and move when the time comes.”
“If he even wants to come out here,” Tony muttered a little morosely.
“He’s already requested a transfer to Atlantis. General Weppler approved it pending completion of his duties.”
Tony nearly dropped his mug. “Wow. Okay.”
“There was also a message, though it seems to be some sort of code.” Boyd picked up his own tablet and pressed a couple of buttons before passing it over.
An email was displayed on the screen.
— Frank, give this to DiNozzo. -Gibbs
— Tony, You did good. Figure out something new for Rule 12. -J
Tony’s heart felt like it was being squeezed, and he couldn’t stop smiling if he’d wanted to.
“It seemed rather brief to garner that sort of smile, Tony.”
“Yeah.” Tony traced his fingers over the words. “I think it’s going to work out.”
“Of course it will, son, of course it will.”
* * *
“Well,” John said with a grin, “you gonna punch in the gate address?”
Smiling gleefully, Tony leaned over the control console and punched in the spacegate they needed. “This is so cool.”
“Considering where you’ve been, I’m surprised being in a jumper has you so hyper,” Rodney muttered from his seat behind John where he was tapping away on a tablet. “You sure these ZPMs are all in working order?”
“They’re fine, Rodney,” Tony assured for what felt like the 1000th time. “And riding in a spaceship is way more exciting than watching people ride around in spaceships. Also, I don’t remember as much as I wish I did.”
“You seemed to have come back with a fair bit of information,” John said as he piloted the jumper in front of the gate then passed through it.
Tony was too busy being awed by the reality of outer space to reply for a long time. “Sorry…” he whispered, still staring out the window.
“Take your time,” John replied leaning back in the chair. “Just punch in the next address when you’re ready.”
It took him a few minutes to get there, but he eventually leaned in and entered the next address. He’d already warned John and Rodney that this was a multi-jump trip. The Ancients wanted him to use the security route they’d always used, so that’s what he’d do.
“In terms of the amount of information I brought back,” he finally said, getting back to John’s earlier remark, “it wasn’t all that much in the grand scheme of things. There are more memories allocated to the whole experience than the information itself. I had to remember the context of things so we didn’t short out my brain. I mean, the total amount of information I bartered for could be written up in about ten pages.”
The planet they wound up on was pretty unremarkable as these things went. The next stop was another spacegate. They went from spacegate to planet a couple of times before ending at a spacegate about an hour from their destination.
John smoothly navigated them to the right spot, and then he stared for several long seconds, not setting the jumper down. “Is that a piano?”
“Yes, it is. It’s my piano—belonged to my mother. I wanted to play and Oma promised to keep it protected for me until I had permanent quarters on Atlantis.”
Rodney popped up between the two seats and stared at Tony. “You ascended and sat on an empty planet and played the piano?”
“I like playing.”
“That’s really what you did with eternity?” He sounded mortally offended.
“Rodney,” Tony replied patiently, “I had no intention of staying, and I wouldn’t be able to contain the secrets of the universe within my mortal little brain. Besides, I was capable of learning whatever I wanted while playing.”
Rodney huffed. “Get us on the ground, Sheppard; I want to see this place. Where is it exactly?”
Tony pointed to a hillside.
“I don’t see anything.”
“Exactly.”
* * *
“Holy shit,” Rodney breathed as he looked around the lab. “Holy fucking shit.”
“Is he usually that overwhelmed?” Tony whispered to John.
“Nope.” John rocked back on his heels, looking entertained. “I think he’s in love.”
“Well, as much as I’d like to watch him figure out everything on his own, I’m going to give him the tour so we aren’t out here all day.” He went over and grabbed Rodney’s arm, getting no resistance as he pulled him over toward the first console. It was weird how comfortable he felt with John and Rodney after only a few days, but he could easily see becoming good friends with both of them.
“This is the security console.” He touched the console and it lit up under his hand. He felt the touch of Ancient tech in the back of his mind. He mentally authorized Rodney and John to operate the facility. “You’ll both need to touch your hands on the other side of the panel, and it will give you what amounts to admin rights. At some point, we may get approval to bring other people here, but we can arrange to give them lesser access than what we have.
“Okay…” He took a deep breath and rubbed his hands together. “In this room is the equipment to do validation and quality testing on new or emptied ZPM canisters. It’s simple enough—you load them in the slot, they disappear, and it takes approximately 2,000 hours to complete.”
Rodney goggled at him. “That’s almost three months!”
“Yeah, well, apparently charging a faulty canister is bad juju.”
Wincing, Rodney nodded.
“The ZPMs that are cleared to be charged are put directly into a charging bay if one is available. Charged ZPMs are stored behind that.” He pointed to the other side of the room.
“The rock wall?” John asked, walking over it.
“Some sort of illusion emitter.” Tony joined him, passing his hand over the access panel. The row of twelve ZPMs, each nestled in some sort of clear goo was revealed. “The other twelve are sitting in the charging bays, fully charged. They left Pegasus before the charge cycle was complete, so they were never placed with the others. The charging is done in the next room, but you never go in there. It’s considered something like a cleanroom. I’ll show you how to initiate the transfer of the charged ZPMs to the delivery port and then they’re stored here. I’m not sure exactly what the goo does, but it does something.”
Rodney was looking around, taking everything in. “What about the empties that aren’t cleared to be recharged?”
“They pop out there,” he pointed to an empty bay next to where the empties went in, “and then they’re taken to another planet for disposal.”
“We’ll cross that bridge if we come to it. Can I take samples of the storage goop to analyze?”
“I don’t see any reason why not.”
Rodney scratched his jaw, looking thoughtful. “Let’s take these twelve and samples of the gel.”
“Why only the twelve?” John asked.
“Three will fully run the city and that gives us a full set of backups plus two spares after we send four off to Earth. I don’t think it’s wise to have all our backups on the city. I’ll let you two get on that,” he made a dismissive wave, “while I run some system diagnostics and get the other charged ZPMs out of the charging bays. Damn, I wish I could see the charging system,” he muttered. When they failed to move, he tapped his foot. “Well?”
“Do you want the empties?” Tony asked with a grin.
“Yes, yes. Bring them in. Once I’ve verified that everything is in working order, we’ll want to get those started through the process since validation and charging take over two years.”
“Why so long?” John asked.
Rodney turned with a brow raised. “You think something with the potential to destroy a planet should be charged quickly?”
“Meh. Maybe not.”
“Safety first,” Tony deadpanned.
John grabbed him by the elbow and led him outside. “Might as well get the ZPMs onboard.”
“You seem happy,” Tony remarked as they entered the jumper and started pulling out the cases that Rodney had arranged for just this purpose.
“Yeah. This is going to make a big difference here. It’ll be good to not be feeling like we’re running the ragged edge all the time. If a wraith hive appeared in orbit, we’d have a real chance of surviving it.” He turned to face Tony, expression serious. “Thanks. You could have just bargained to get yourself sent back, and everyone would have understood, but you found a way to take care of a lot of people. I’m not sure people will ever know how many lives you’ve saved with all this, but we know, and it matters.”
Tony felt his face heat even as he nodded his acceptance of John’s words.
* * *
When they got back to Atlantis, Rodney’s minions were waiting to whisk away the ZPMs and prepare to load them into their cradles in the main power array.
Over the next couple of hours, there was an occasional light flicker, and he felt something from the city, though he couldn’t quite put his finger on what. To keep himself occupied, he focused on preparing himself for his upcoming role as the sole police officer on a floating city of…a few hundred. Well, if Gibbs was joining him, they’d be more like a duo of cops. Like their own buddy-cop film. Or maybe like Starsky & Hutch, except with sex.
There’d better be sex. Tony’s plan definitely involved all the sex.
“Agent DiNozzo,” Boyd’s voice came over his earpiece, “would you kindly join us in the ZPM chamber?”
He tapped a button to open comms. “On my way.”
Teyla met him at the transporter nearest the chamber. “Hello, Tony.”
“Teyla.” He fell into step with her for the short walk. “Any hint on what’s going on?”
“They have placed three new ZPMs in the cradle, and while Rodney has confirmed they are at full power, they have been unsuccessful with their attempts to engage all systems.” She reached out and laid a hand on his arm.
He stopped and faced her, cocking his head to the side. “What’s wrong?”
“Rodney believes a gene carrier is needed to fully wake the city.”
“Okaaay,” he drew out. “Where’s John?”
“John has tried, and though a few additional systems responded, it was not successful.”
Tony considered for a few seconds. “What’s on your mind, Teyla?”
“I understand that prior to your ascension, you had more genetic material similar to one of the ancestors than any other on your homeworld.”
“That’s what I was told, yes.”
“And when you returned from your walk with the ancestors, you were given even more of this genetic material, yes?”
“That’s correct.”
“I believe they wish for the city to live again, to be of service to the people in this galaxy, and they gave you this gift so you’d be able to wake the city. I simply wished to speak with you in private to give you a moment to contemplate this possibility before you are besieged with information from the many learned minds in the ZPM chamber.”
Tony considered for a second. “You think there’s going to be more than turning on the city, don’t you?”
“I think perhaps the ancestors have a plan to correct their wrongs, and it stems from your willingness to serve the best interests of others.” She glanced away briefly then met his gaze again. “Dr. Boyd shared the truth of the ancestor’s creation of the wraith. I’ve struggled with anger and a sense of betrayal and abandonment. We’ve so long revered those who have gone before and the legacy they left behind. That their true legacy was destroying everything we love is difficult to accept.”
She stepped a bit closer and took both of his hands in hers. “Perhaps you pricked their conscience, or maybe you gave them a way to do what they already wished for. Whatever the truth, it would be nothing without your care for others, your compassion for the people of this galaxy. I have confidence that whatever is required of you that you will stand in the breach. You are a good man, Anthony DiNozzo.” She squeezed his hands one last time then turned and rounded the corner to join the others, leaving Tony to his thoughts.
He swallowed heavily and took her implied advice to take a minute to get himself together. Then he followed in her footsteps and entered the ZPM chamber.
The room lit up even brighter at his entrance, and Tony paused to take in Rodney, John, Frank, and Teyla, along with several of the people from Rodney’s department and a couple of Marines he knew had a natural expression of the ATA gene.
A section of the console in front of the ZPM cradle lit up blue.
Frank gestured to the blue part. “It’s going to take a small sample of your DNA. We’ve surmised that it’s looking for someone with enough DNA to bring all the city systems online.”
Rodney had a hip propped against the end of the console. “The city is apparently in something like a standby mode. Basic life support, some medical facilities, shields, weapons all work, but anything related to manufacturing, research, mining, and who knows what else won’t come online.”
“And everyone else with a natural gene has tried?”
“Yes,” Boyd confirmed. “It’s possible Colonel Sheppard would have been successful if you weren’t here, but I think perhaps the city is waiting for you.”
“Okay, then.” Not giving himself time to think about it further, Tony walked across the room and pressed his hand to the blue, glowing area. He felt a hum under his fingertips then a woman appeared right next to him.
“Greetings. I am Atlantis.” She outwardly appeared to be about twenty-five with dark curly hair tied up on top of her head. Her eyes were hazel green and her skin color was similar to Teyla’s. Her entire attention was on Tony.
“Hello, Atlantis, I’m Tony.”
“I have absorbed the language you now speak.” She cocked her head. “I have seen your name in my systems. Tony. What manner of name is this?”
“It’s short for Anthony.” He considered for a second. “Which is derived from Antonius, which might be closer to the language you’re familiar with.”
“Of inestimable worth,” she murmured. “Do your people find you to be without price, Anthony?”
“I…” He scratched the back of his neck. “There’s no good way to answer that.”
“Yes, he’s priceless,” John said with a grin. “Hello, Atlantis.”
“Colonel Johnathan Sheppard. I understand your rank designation. What is Johnathan?”
“Means gift from god,” Tony supplied readily, getting a half-hearted glare from John.
“I recognize no deity,” Atlantis said solemnly.
“That’s cool,” John said with a smile.
“When you say you’re Atlantis,” Rodney asked, “do you mean you’re the city AI?”
Atlantis turned her attention back to Rodney. “Meredith McKay, Doctor of engineering and astrophysics, called Rodney. What is Meredith.”
Rodney pursed his lips. “Protector of the sea.”
Atlantis considered for a second. “We have a vast ocean, though I believe your skills would be best utilized on the city.” Not waiting for a response to that, she added, “I am Atlantis. My intelligence is not artificial.” She looked back to Tony.
He took that as a cue to take over the questioning. “What do you mean you are the city?”
“I am a projection of a form I chose long ago, one similar in anatomy to those who lived here.”
“And where is your consciousness?”
“It is in the city. The beings you call Ancients used crystals for much of the city’s inner-workings.”
“Yes,” Rodney confirmed. “We’ve never seen another design quite like it.”
“The crystals have a rudimentary intelligence. Working in concert with the Ancients’ intelligent design, the crystals formed a collective sapience. Over time, I became sentient as well.”
“Are you saying those crystals are all alive?” Rodney asked, sounding appalled.
“After a fashion, yes.”
“But they get burned out…destroyed. Does that hurt you?”
“Does it hurt you when your skin cells reach the end of their life and fall from your body?” She shot him a half-smile. “Peace, Dr. Meredith. The individual crystals do not live in the same manner as you do. As a whole, however, we do live.” She looked back to Tony. “Anthony of the line of Janus and Oma Desala, Atlantis has been reliqua statum to preserve power until the children of the ancestors returned home. Do you wish to return us to expergiscimini statum?”
“My Latin was never anything but rusty, but I think you asked me if I want the city awake?”
“Yes. To fully wake all systems and return us to life.”
“It seems like a poor choice to have all this hinging on me,” Tony said.
“A condition you will be able to change if that is your wish. You may make it such that less Ancient heritage is required to engage the city.”
“Right.” He rubbed his hand over his face then glanced at the others, who mostly looked as uncertain as he felt. To Atlantis, he said, “Is there a downside to this?”
She looked perplexed, head titled like a confused bird. “There are many sections in the depths of the city that require repair. Without bringing all systems back online, we will be unable to commence with that function. Is this what you mean by downside?”
“Not exactly. Can anything go wrong by turning all the systems back on?”
“No. I would not allow harm to come to anyone. I would have been able to stop several unfortunate incidents that took lives on the city if my security protocols had been engaged.”
“So you’re both the sentience of the crystals all over the city but also a reflection of the city programming?” Rodney pressed.
“When my awareness came to light, I worked with the city designers to integrate the programming of the city’s function. It is impossible to separate the protocols from the city. Protocols may be changed; the city is eternal.”
Tony didn’t really get it, but he didn’t figure he needed to. He had a faint headache just thinking about it, so he assumed the nature of Atlantis was something he’d known while he was ascended. Boyd and Rodney huddled offside for a few seconds.
“Let’s go ahead and wake the city up, Tony,” Frank said.
“Right.” He blew out a breath. “Okay, Atlantis, let’s turn everything on.”
She smiled, looking young and happy. “Thank you, Anthony. It will be good to be fully awake again.” She paused, head tilted. “The systems that can be activated are now being started in the optimal progression. Systems that cannot come online due to damage are being prioritized for repair.” She looked to Tony. “Dr. Meredith is responsible for coordinating city repairs?”
“Yes.”
She turned to Rodney. “Dr. Meredith, full diagnostics are being sent to your…tablet.” Addressing Tony again, she added, “I will require a full list of those authorized for various functions on the city.”
“That should come from Rodney or Dr. Boyd,” Tony clarified quickly.
“As the city governor, that must come from you, Anthony.”
Tony blinked. “Oh dear god.”
Atlantis shook her head. “I do not recognize the existence of deities, Anthony, therefore I cannot be one.”
Atlantis
* * *
A goa’uld suddenly exploded out of the mouth of the senator they were questioning at his home in Arlington and flew right at Kate. Gibbs fired reflexively and managed to blast it out of the air, the two pieces flying across the room.
Kate reeled back, trying to escape, and her momentum left her on her ass, a strangled scream choking her.
“Dammit!” O’Neill was already kneeling by Senator McSorely while radioing the Apollo to beam the senator to the infirmary at the SGC. O’Neill and the senator disappeared in a flash of light.
Teal’c triple-zatted the goa’uld bits while Mitchell knelt down next to Kate, putting a hand on her arm. “You okay?” he asked softly.
“Yeah,” she said shakily. “I’m fine.”
Mitchell helped her to her feet, looking concerned. Kate looked to Gibbs, and she nodded, smiling faintly at the question in his expression. She’d known him long enough to be able to answer his unspoken query about how she was really doing. “I’m fine,” she repeated.
McGee watched pensively from where he was with Carter going through the senator’s desk. Gibbs was proud of his people. They’d come a long way from where they started, and while he thought they needed a little more time to grow, he knew they’d be okay keeping things going without him.
“Gather everything. Take the house apart,” he instructed.
“Will the senator survive?” Kate asked, sounding shaky.
“Probably not,” Carter replied as she tapped away on a laptop. She hesitated, glancing up at Kate. “Even with some of the advanced healing methods we have, we’d probably need a sarcophagus to deal with that level of injury.” She sighed and went back to work. “Maybe we’ll find something in all this stuff to at least let us know if McSorely was a willing host or not.”
Kate touched her throat. “Why would the goa’uld think a new host would be a better idea?”
“You are armed and closest to the door Caitlin Todd,” Teal’c offered. “It had no other means of escape.”
Kate nodded, obviously reeling in her emotions, and got to work, Mitchell hovering close and helping her. Gibbs rolled his eyes at how they’d been dancing around each other the last couple of months. He didn’t think there was anything official there yet, but the two couldn’t stop watching each other.
They worked methodically through the senator’s residence, looking for devices or papers or anything that might point to the goa’uld’s activities or other conspirators.
Major Warren from SG-3 jogged down from the upper level. “Got a hand device. It was in the damn bedside table.” Gibbs sighed and accepted it. The decision had been made to let the NCIS agents log everything in an “evidence-like” fashion for the purposes of tracking, but none of this would ever see the inside of a courtroom.
When they had everything they were going to get, they were beamed back to the SGC. They’d been in DC for the last two days, and tomorrow the twenty-odd people comprising alpha team would be sent to London to back up the team surveilling one of the newly vetted members of the reformed IOA.
They had three large teams—alpha, bravo, and charlie—working simultaneously, but they had a lot of targets. Moving as fast as they were meant that things were going to get missed or someone was going to slip through their net.
After checking in all the “evidence” and getting word that Senator McSorely had indeed died, they headed back to their NCIS offices. It was late and they needed to get some sleep before they started this again. Everyone had some type of quarters in the mountain for emergency situations. Gibbs had a small, private room on the officer level, and Kate did as well. But McGee seemed happy enough to share with three scientists who were on base overnight enough to warrant shared permanent quarters. Despite the need for rest, he felt like he couldn’t put off telling his team about Tony any longer. He’d thought Tony would be here by now, but things had gotten complicated on Atlantis.
Kate flopped in her chair and dropped her head on her folded arms. “I need to sleep for a week.”
McGee mumbled an agreement as he started gathering his stuff, not bothering to sit down.
Gibbs nudged the door shut, which got both of their attention.
“Oh, please tell me there’s not something else, Gibbs!” Kate pleaded. “It’s almost ten and I’m exhausted.”
“News from Atlantis that you need to know.” He paused. “It came in a couple of weeks ago, but I wanted everyone to keep their eye on the ball. Tomorrow is our last expected mission, so it’s time you know.”
Kate sat back in her chair and raised a brow while McGee sat down, bag held to his chest as he blinked owlishly.
“Tony’s back. He de-ascended, and the Ancients stuck him on Atlantis.”
“What?” Kate asked weakly.
“Really?” McGee’s bag fell off of his lap. “Does he remember who he is? When is he coming home? Is he okay?”
Kate stood up, moving closer. “Is he okay, Gibbs?”
“Yeah, he’s fine. All the memories intact.”
“Including the movies?” Kate had tears in her eyes.
“I would assume so.”
“When’s he coming home?” she repeated McGee’s last unanswered question.
“Don’t have the date yet, but soon.” Gibbs hesitated. “But it’ll just be a visit. He’s going to be stationed on Atlantis permanently.”
“What?” Kate looked wounded.
“Why?” McGee moved around his desk to join Gibbs and Kate.
“It was part of the deal for him getting to come back,” Gibbs said simply.
“I’d really like to see Atlantis,” McGee said wistfully. “But I’d like to see Tony more.”
“Think you’ll be able to,” Gibbs assured. “This is classified for now, but Tony did something to help one of the Ancients. He was able to barter for some ZPMs. There will be one on both ships and one here in the mountain. Gating to Atlantis will be possible soon, and it will only be a three-day journey on the Daedalus rather than three weeks.”
“Oh my god!” McGee looked like he was ready to bounce in excitement.
Kate smiled. “Leave it to Tony.” She looked at Gibbs as if gauging his sincerity. “He’s really coming back?”
“Yeah, soon. There have been some delays.”
Her brow furrowed. “Such as?”
“He managed to get himself declared governor of the city, and now the city won’t let him leave.”
Kate laughed then clapped her hand over her mouth.
“How’d he do that?” McGee asked, looking bewildered.
“I’ll let you read the report tomorrow. It’s as ridiculous as it sounds.”
“Is he going to be able to come back then?” McGee pressed. “I mean, if the whole city won’t let him leave…?”
“He’s been negotiating with her…” Gibbs didn’t quite get what was going on, despite the reports he’d been getting. “He’ll be allowed to travel off Atlantis for a total of thirty-four days—by our measures. He’s gotten her to accept Dr. Boyd as proxy governor.” Tony’s reports were full of ire about nothing more than trying to get out of being in charge of a whole city. No one at the SGC was overly worried about the whole situation, but the new IOA was having a fit.
“God, I’ve missed him. Even all his stupid jokes.” Her smiled turned wistful. “Maybe especially his stupid jokes. I never realized how he gave me something to smile about on days a smile should be impossible.”
“Yeah.” McGee slung an arm around Kate’s shoulders, giving her a side hug.
“One other thing,” Gibbs said, shoving his hands in his pockets and rocking back on his heels. “I’ll be assigned to Atlantis as well.”
“Yeah, of course,” Kate offered, sounding pleased.
“You will?” McGee looked startled.
Kate nudged McGee in the ribs. “I’ll explain it to you when you’re a little older.”
McGee rolled his eyes.
“So, who’s going to be our new boss?” Kate asked.
“You won’t get one. You’ll be promoted to senior field agent soon, Kate. You’ve earned it, and you’re ready. I’ll review reports from Atlantis and come back if I’m needed. If you continue to do well for a year as SFA, you’ll get the supervisory agent promotion and will be in charge of investigations here in Cheyenne Mountain and at Area 51.”
Kate was wide-eyed with astonishment.
He clapped her on the shoulder. “You did good, Kate.” He nudged her toward the door. “Go. Mitchell’s in the officer’s mess trying to find blue Jell-o.”
She shot him an unimpressed look but went as directed.
McGee looked amused. “She’d better ask him out.” He sighed and rubbed his hand over his hair. “I can’t believe how much I’m looking forward to seeing Tony again.” With seemingly renewed energy, McGee headed toward the door. “Night, Gibbs.”
Gibbs nodded then looked around the office. The Daedalus was due back soon. If Tony didn’t sort out his business on Atlantis post haste, Gibbs was going to Tony. He’d had enough of this waiting.
He kept the last email from Tony in his mind, with a new version of rule 12.
— Rule 12: Some rules are made to be broken.
Great story. Thanks for sharing.
So good. Thank you so much for sharing with us. Its also extreamly satisfying. Excellent work as usual