Jo Graham - Unascended

“But Seeker didn’t.”

“No. He taught me most of what I know about science and medicine. I think at first he wanted to find out how much I could understand. And I think the answer disturbed him as much as it fascinated him.”

“You said Guide wasn’t your friend. Was Seeker a friend?”

“My captor. My teacher. I… with all due respect, it’s really none of your business how I feel about the fact that he’s dead.”

“I’m sorry. I’d be interested in hearing more about your experiences, though, if you—”

“Why would you want to? And why are we even trusting this person?” Ronon said. “Why do we keep trusting information that came from the Wraith?” His voice was rising, and he took a menacing step toward Dekaas, who returned his gaze calmly. It couldn’t be the first time he’d faced down someone who would have liked to kill him.

“I’m not Wraith,” Dekaas said.

“No, you’re just a Wraith worshipper.”

“Okay, let’s calm down,” Daniel said.

“It doesn’t matter,” Rodney said. “We need to find out what’s happened to Elizabeth.”

“That is right,” Teyla said. “We are not here to judge anyone for having cooperated with the Wraith in the past.”

Ronon scowled. “We’re the ones cooperating with the Wraith right now.”

“We are here to find Elizabeth,” Teyla said. “And we will not discuss the Wraith any further.” Her voice cracked like a whip on the last words.

Ronon took a deep breath, looking as though it actually steadied him to be given an order. “Fine,” he said. “We’ll talk about it later.”

Daniel opened his mouth, saw Teyla’s expression, and closed it again.

“I was about to say,” Dekaas said evenly, “that I ran several tests to determine whether Elizabeth was human. I’ve done a sonic scan and looked at her blood under a microscope. She appeared to be completely human, in perfect health. Unusually perfect, as if she’d never had any injuries or major illnesses in her life.”

“Well, you’re obviously woefully under equipped to actually do genetic testing here, but everything you’re saying would fit,” Rodney said.

“Would it?” Dekaas tilted his head to one side. “I’d very much like to know what you think happened to her.”

“What made you suspect she might not be human?” Teyla asked instead of answering.

“She said she was afraid she might be a robot or a Replicator. I assumed it was trauma-related. Sometimes people who have been through traumatic events—”

“Like being attacked by the Wraith,” Ronon said.

“—feel detached, like their bodies don’t really belong to them.” He considered them. “But you are also worried that she might be a Replicator.”

“When the Replicators—” Daniel began.

“Our friend was a prisoner of the Replicators before they were destroyed,” Teyla interrupted. “It is a long story. But we had long since given up hope that she had survived.”

“Every test I could run showed that she was human. As you’ve pointed out, I don’t have the facilities to run a genetic scan, but I saw no evidence of anomalies in her blood. As far as I can tell, she’s a human being.”

“And she’s on her way to Sateda,” Rodney said.

“She should have reached Sateda by now. She planned to travel there through the gate from Lorvine, not by ship. I hope you can find her.”

“Thank you,” Teyla said. “We appreciate your help.”

“The captain’s gone to trade with the locals. I’m sure he’ll want to get the news from Atlantis if you can stay a little longer. All we can pick up here is third-hand news from the Genii, and they don’t exactly tell the Manarians everything they know.”

“I have matters to discuss with my team first,” Teyla said. “If you will excuse us for a few minutes?”

“Of course,” Dekaas said. He frowned. “That other one of me,” he said to Daniel. “The one in what you call an alternate universe. He’s still aboard the hive?”

“As far as I know.”

Dekaas nodded. Whether he was glad or sorry, whether he wished he could save his counterpart or would rather have exchanged places with him, Daniel had no idea. “Give Guide my regards,” he said, a flicker of amusement crossing his face. “It ought to annoy him to hear that I’m not dead yet.”

“I’ll do that,” Daniel said, and then had to quicken his pace to keep up with the others as they left the room.

They assembled outside the ship. “We need to get to Sateda, not waste time chatting with the Travelers,” Rodney said. “We can send them an email or something later.”

“We will discuss that in a minute,” Teyla said. “First, we are going to discuss how we conduct ourselves in conversations with our allies.”

“Some allies,” Ronon said.

“I realize that might not have been the tactful moment—” Daniel began.

“Are you even capable of being quiet?”

“I’ve been asked that before,” Daniel said after a moment’s pause. “So, all right, shutting up for the moment.”

Teyla let out a frustrated breath. “Ronon. We are no longer at war with the Wraith. I know that was not your decision, and I understand how hard that is for you. But at least for now, they are our allies, and we will be dealing with more and more people who have made peace with the Wraith.” She looked up into Ronon’s face. “You are my friend, and I would trust you with my life. But if you cannot be civil to our allies, I do not want you on my team.”

“It’s Sheppard’s team.”

“Not while Colonel Sheppard is in command in Atlantis. Do you question his judgment in placing me in command in his absence?”

There was a pause. “No,” Ronon said. “You’re in charge. If you order me to be polite to Wraith worshippers—”

“I am asking you to refrain from giving direct insults to our allies, whether they are Wraith worshippers or Wraith,” Teyla said. “If you can say nothing civil, at least be silent.”

“Asking isn’t ordering.”

“Then it is an order.”

Ronon nodded, not happy, but accepting.

Teyla turned to Daniel. “Dr. Jackson. I have heard a great deal about you from Colonel Carter, and I believe you respect her as much as she respects you. I assume then that you do not respect my authority because I am Athosian, rather than because I am a woman.”

“I… no, that’s not true.”

“I warned you off that line of questioning, and yet you persisted, even when it jeopardized our mission. You held your own idle curiosity to be more important than my authority. Or are you going to tell me that you do not know what I meant?”

“No, I knew you didn’t want me to ask him about his time with the Wraith. But it could be important to understanding how the Wraith treat their human worshippers, and how they’re likely to interact with humans now that they’re administering the retrovirus to them. They need a model for how to deal with humans that’s not based on treating them like livestock, and their relationships with their human worshippers are the closest thing they have to equal relationships with humans—”

“That is not our mission.”

“You can’t just put everything into little boxes and say, we’re only going to find out about one tiny thing and not try to fit it into some kind of broader context. If we want to understand the story of the Pegasus galaxy—”

“And you are uniquely suited to doing so, despite the fact that you have only just arrived here?”

“I’m just trying to understand. Like everybody else in Atlantis.”

“The members of the Atlantis expedition have shared knowledge of their culture with us as we have shared ours with them,” Teyla said. “They have fought the Wraith and the Replicators with us, and many of them have died. They are part of our story, and we are part of theirs. But you are not even part of the Atlantis expedition. You are here at your pleasure, and you are on this team at mine. And I have seen nothing to persuade me that you have any skills at working as part of a team.”