Jo Graham - Unascended

It had to fit together, all the pieces that he’d been uncovering over the years. Somehow there had to be a way to assemble them into an actual story, one more satisfying than “a lot of strange and fascinating and tragic things have happened to humanity, but at least we’re still here.” He just needed more information. Or the right piece of information. Or—

The back hatch of the jumper opened, and he looked up, an apology and justification for his actions forming on his lips. Instead he stared at the two figures standing in the doorway and said, “Who the hell are you, and how did you get in here?”

One of them, a young woman with red-blond hair and a grim expression, pointed a gun at him. “Move away from the controls,” she said. Her companion, a tall man with golden skin and close-cropped hair, moved toward the pilot’s seat.

“I can’t fly this thing anyway,” Daniel said. He reached for his sidearm, and she moved fast, jamming the gun against his chest.

“Move and you’re dead,” she said.

“I thought you wanted me to move away from the controls.”

“Don’t get smart.” She reached for his radio earpiece and divested him of it neatly. She was wearing what looked like a military uniform, dark green and severely cut.

“I don’t think you’re going to be able to fly the jumper either,” he said. “Whatever it is you want, we can talk about it. But how about you put the gun down.”

“That’s what you think,” the woman said. She glanced at the man, who gave her a nervous look from where he sat at the controls.

“I’ve never seen a control panel like this.”

“Figure it out,” she said.

“You see, you’re not actually going to be able to activate any of the Ancient technology… ” Daniel trailed off as the rear door of the jumper closed. “Except apparently you can.”

“Thanks to the medical information your people traded to ours,” the woman said. “You didn’t think that we’d be able to activate the ATA gene successfully. You thought you were cheating us, didn’t you?” She smiled, not pleasantly. “Think again.”

“I actually have no idea who you are.”

“Sora Tyrus,” the woman said. “I take it you’re new.”

“Actually, yes. So whoever it is that you have a problem with in this picture, it isn’t me.”

“I don’t have a problem,” Sora said. “I have a new spaceship. My only question is, should I take you with it, or leave you here?”

“I think you should leave me here.”

“Take you with us it is,” Sora said. “Taka! Come over here and tie him up.”

She held her pistol jammed against his chest while the man snapped handcuffs around his wrists and relieved him of his pistol. Sora handed the man a second pair of handcuffs, which he used to cuff Daniel’s ankle to his chair.

“These controls aren’t much like the pictures you showed me,” Taka said, sliding back into the pilot’s seat. “It’s responding to my commands, but… ”

“This ship is a lot simpler than the Pride of the Genii,” Sora said. “Figure it out!”

“It’s a lot more complicated than a train, too!”

“You’re Genii,” Daniel said. “You’re supposed to be our allies.”

“She’s Genii, I’m not,” Taka said.

“Fly the ship,” Sora snapped. She turned back to Daniel with a scowl. “Ladon Radim is your ally. I’m not his favorite person anymore, or he wouldn’t have sent me out here to watch a bunch of farmers dig in the dirt. He’s not my favorite person, either. But now I’ve got something better than his creaky hulk of a warship that we haven’t figured out how to fly yet.”

“Our jumper,” Daniel prompted. He was getting the impression she was the kind of enemy who craved attention or validation and could therefore be relied upon to brag about her plans to a captive audience. That was always an advantage. The most dangerous enemies just kept their mouths shut and shot you.

“Your jumper is the proof that my friends’ method for activating the ATA gene works,” Sora said. “I was a little worried when it looked like none of the Manarians had even the recessive gene, but checking the Satedans who’ve settled here paid off. And now I’ve got a pilot.”

“More or less,” Taka said.

“Can you fly this thing or not?”

With a shudder, the jumper lifted off the ground.

“Flying a spaceship by trial and error sounds like a really bad idea,” Daniel said. “Anyway, your people have the Pride of the Genii, right? So you can test your ATA gene activation program with its equipment. You don’t need this ship.”

“I don’t have Pride of the Genii,” Sora said. “And Radim doesn’t know that I’ve been conducting my own private tests of our gene therapy ahead of his own glacial schedule. He wasn’t moving fast enough to suit a lot of people. Some friends of mine were willing to step in and move faster.”

“You said this stuff had been tested,” Taka said.

“You’re fine,” Sora said. “Fly the ship.” She slid into the seat next to Taka, leaving Daniel trying to work his hands free of the handcuffs. He found himself actually wishing Vala were there. She would be out of the cuffs in thirty seconds flat with a shrug of her shoulders and an unrepentant smile. Of course, whether she would let him out equally promptly was always a good question.

The jumper lifted the rest of the way off the ground, and began making its way unsteadily toward the gate.

“Dial the gate,” Sora said.

“How?”

“The ship has a DHD,” Sora snapped. As Taka brought the jumper around, Daniel could see running figures making for the gate.

His radio crackled tinnily in Sora’s pocket, and Sora pulled it out and set it on the control panel.

“What is happening?” Teyla demanded over the radio.

“I’m taking your ship,” Sora said. “Get out of my way.”

“Sora. You do not want to do this.”

“I’m tired of being told what I want to do,” Sora said. Taka was still struggling to get the ship lined up level with the gate, and Sora reached over to stab at the buttons of the jumper’s DHD herself.

“Is Dr. Jackson unharmed?” They had reached the gate, and Rodney had thrown himself full length to the ground in front of the planet’s DHD, pulling its maintenance panel open.

“She’s dialing the gate,” Daniel called, which he felt answered the question as well as providing more important information.

“Shut up!” Sora slapped her hand down on the last of the symbols, and the gate began to hum. It lit, the chevrons brightening, and then immediately dimmed again, its rising hum dropping to an anticlimactic thud. She turned on Taka. “What did you do?”

“We’ve disabled the gate,” Rodney said through the radio. “The jumper’s DHD won’t do you any good if the gate doesn’t have any power.”

“Ready weapons!”

“Oh, yes, brilliant idea, fire a drone at the DHD! Only if you’d like to be a permanent resident of Manaria.”

“What weapons?” Taka asked.

“Never mind,” Sora said. “They’re right, we can’t fire on them until they move.”

“If they move out of the way and then you shoot them, how are you intending to fix the DHD?” Daniel asked conversationally.

“It can’t be that hard,” Sora said, but she didn’t sound entirely convinced.

“Land the jumper now,” Teyla said over the radio.

“I don’t think so.”

Ronon was standing directly between the jumper and the rest of the team. He drew his pistol and fired at the jumper, several bolts of energy that rocked the ship when they hit.

“Shields!” Sora demanded.

Taka looked at her sideways. “We have shields?”

“Get us out of here,” she said. “Just get us out of range.”