Melissa Scott - The Inheritors

"I'm still Satedan," Ronon said, and Cai nodded and held out his hand. Ronon clasped it firmly, Cai's grip firm even if he wasn't a soldier.

"Colonel Hocken, I'm glad you came along," Cai said. "I have a proposition to make to you."

"I hoped you might," she said, her face lighting.

"We used to have a very good army. We will again, once we have enough of a population to support one. But what we've never had is an air force, and from what I've heard about your air force on Earth, I want one."

"A whole air force is going to take a while," Hocken said. "You're not in a position yet to build fighter planes, and I don't think ours would do you much good — you'll want something that can go through a Stargate. Plus I can't actually buy you a fighter plane. But I can buy you an ultralight." She laid her tablet on the table and pulled up pictures of a tiny, light aircraft, sailing above green hills in a very blue sky. "We'll have to figure out fuel — the Genii probably have something that'll work, if you can trade with them. And you'll want to build more, and modify the design for your own purposes. But right away you'll be able to scout a lot further than you can on foot, and look for people who may still be out there, cut off from big cities and the gate."

"That would be worth a great deal to us," Cai said. "Say, a commission as the chief of the new Satedan Air Force? I can't actually pay you right now, mind you. But I'm certain that the new government will as soon as it can."

"That's not really what matters most to me," Hocken said. "It's the chance to do it, with nothing holding me back." She shook her head. "I've been waiting too long for that to happen in our air force. I'm tired of waiting to start my life."

"There's one waiting for you here," Cai said.

"I'll be out at the end of the year," Hocken said. "And I'll bring you all the equipment I can. If I pull out all my savings—" Her expression was speculative as she scrolled rapidly through lists of airplane parts.

"I don't know if Woolsey's going to approve you supplying all this tech to the Satedans," Ronon said.

"That's just too bad, isn't it?" Hocken said, raising her chin. "I'll be a private citizen, and none of this is classified military technology. If I want to move out to Sateda, and accept Satedan citizenship—" She looked questioningly at Cai, who nodded. "Then all I need is for someone to give me a ride out to Pegasus, and I imagine I can talk somebody into it."

"We'll be glad to have you," Cai said. He offered her his hand, and she clasped his arm firmly in the Satedan fashion, her smile delighted. "You're sure we can't lure you away from Atlantis as well?" he said, glancing over at Ronon.

"Not yet," Ronon said.

Cai nodded. "Whenever you're ready, we'll be here."

"I'm glad," Ronon said. Outside the patchwork windows, people were crossing the square, and one woman lifted a toddler on her shoulder; the little boy reached up toward the sky, where a flock of birds arrowed across the brilliant blue.

Above the waves that broke white against the piers there was an ocean of stars. It was hours yet until dawn, but the wind which whispered around the towers was soft with the promise of coming spring. The Wraith cruiser Eternal occupied the south pier, a dark shape against sky and sea. At the bottom of the ramp two figures stood, an arm's length between them. Only their hands touched, her hand about his wrist, Teyla and Todd.

"What do you suppose they're talking about?" Sam asked. Her voice sounded curious and just a little bit wistful.

"Who knows," Rodney said. He had some idea, but he didn't want to think about that. Even if he healed, especially if he healed and the telepathy went away, he'd be forever sealed off from that communion. He'd never know that kind of intimacy again, mind to mind, quick as thought.

"Rodney?"

"Yes?"

"What happened?" He looked around at her. Sam's face was still. "On the puddle jumper. I don't see how you got out before impact. I don't see how you could have done that."

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you," Rodney said.

"Try me."

Rodney shook his head. The stars were very bright. The auroras that had concealed them were gone with the tilting of the world on its axis, gone to come again next year. "It was Elizabeth," he said finally. "Elizabeth Weir. She was there with me on the jumper. I know it can't really have been her. I know that. But it was. Elizabeth was there." Rodney put his hands in his pockets. "She said she'd be there until the end, that she wouldn't leave no matter what. I remember…." He took a deep breath. "I remember the radiation alarms going off and the shield failing and then…. I woke up in the Hammond's infirmary. That's all I know." He shrugged. "You don't believe me."

"Actually I do." Sam's eyes glittered in the dim light. "When Daniel was Ascended, something a lot like that happened. But he got in a lot of trouble. The other Ascended beings kicked him out. They dropped him off on some random planet not even remembering who he was. Because he helped us. Because he interfered."

Rodney took a long, cool breath of sea air and something in his chest loosened, something he didn't know he'd held for far too long. "You think it was Elizabeth?"

"I do."

"And you think she could be out there somewhere?"

"She could be," Sam said. "Or maybe she didn't get caught. But if she did, yeah. She's out there somewhere."

Rodney took another breath, longer and deeper. "We could find her," he said.

"We could. We never leave a man behind." Sam put his arm awkwardly around his shoulder and Rodney twisted to look at her skeptically.

"You did not just hug me."

"No." Sam stepped back. "I didn't."

"Because if you did, I'm never going to let you forget it."

"It was a friendly hug!"

"Now I know how you really feel about me."

"I feel like I want to squash you like a bug!" Sam said, but she was laughing.

"Come on now. You know it's always been me!" Rodney was grinning.

"In a pig's eye. If it had been up to me, the Wraith could have kept you!"

"Yeah, sure," Rodney laughed, and then his stomach sank. Jennifer had come out of the nearest building and was walking toward them, her hair in a ponytail and the dark leathers of her field clothes making her look already far away.

If Sam could have dematerialized she would have. "I've got some stuff to do," she said quickly, stepping away as Teyla also turned, her hand falling from Todd's arm. "Teyla? All set?"

"I believe that I am," Teyla said serenely, coming to join them.

"Jennifer," Rodney said.

"Rodney."

"Then let's go check out that thing we were talking about earlier," Sam said to Teyla. "You know, the thing I wanted you to look at."

"I believe I do," Teyla said, and shook her head at Rodney as she followed Sam toward the door.

Todd still stood on the ramp, turned toward them, impassive beneath the faint bluish running lights of the cruiser.

And now there weren't any words, not any good enough. "Jennifer," he said again, and then fell silent. He wanted to tell her that she was crazy for doing this. He wanted to promise her that if she would just stay he wouldn't ask her to marry him again, that he would take things as slowly as she wanted. But there weren't any words.

She looked up at him, her eyes searching his face as though she were looking for something, or maybe she wanted to remember it. "I'll be fine," she said.

"Sure," he said. "You'll do great."

"I need to do this, Rodney."

"I can see that. If the retrovirus works, if people will accept it — well, people and Wraith, I suppose I should say…"

"I think you mean people. Humans and Wraith."

"People," Rodney said. "If they do, you'll be saving a lot of lives."