Sonny Whitelaw: The Chosen

“You mean the Illudium PU-36 Explosive Space Modulator?” Ford put in with a grin.

The expression on Rodney’s face was priceless, caught somewhere between annoyance and utter bewilderment. He turned to John for help, but the military commander was already chuck-ling.

“Marvin the Martian. Ford, I just might reinstate your naming rights for that one.”

Hiding her own smile, Elizabeth asked, “Any mission-related information to add, Lieutenant?”

Ford blinked. “Uh, no, ma’am. Just thinking about how Lisera will do. You know, with her new responsibilities and all.”

“The Aiden Ford Fan Club loses its only member.” Rodney affected a grave mien. “Truly a dark day.”

“At least I came back through the ‘gate wearing my own clothes.”

Elizabeth shook her head and made a shooing motion with her hand. “Get out of here. Take the rest of the day to decompress a little. Rodney, since I know ‘decompress’ means ‘go to the lab’ in your mind, check out what Dr Gaul’s working on. He said earlier that he’d found something on the long-range sensors. A satellite of some kind, at a unique point between a planet and its sun where the gravitational force does something interesting—?”

“A Lagrange Point? Really?” Some of the spark returning to his eyes, Rodney stood up from the table. “If you’ll excuse me.”

The others drifted toward the doors as well, until only John and Elizabeth remained. By unspoken agreement, they moved to stand at the edge of the room, where the ‘gate was just visible behind the partitions. “Your cold must be on the way out,” he observed.

“It seems to be gone. Strange kind of bug, according to Carson. Different from Earth, but in some ways much the same.” She crossed her arms and leaned back against one of the panels. “I think we should talk more seriously about accelerating the gene therapy program on Atlantis. Not only is there the obvious efficiency benefit from having more people who are capable of interacting with the city, but…”She didn’t want to compare their expedition to the class struggle on Dalera, but it lurked in the back of her mind.

“Yeah. Anything that might remove an artificial barrier between people sounds like a good idea to me.”

Grateful that he seemed to understand, she smiled. “So, for future reference, do you see a circumstance where offering the gene therapy to a culture might be beneficial?”

“Theoretically, sure. The Athosians could certainly have handled it, if it had offered them a viable defense against the Wraith. And it would have worked for the Dalerans if we’d had a little more intel on what was really going on.”

“Fair enough. Rodney will be all right, don’t you think?”

“I do,” John replied gamely. “He got his world pretty well rocked, but he’s nothing if not resilient.” He glanced out at the control room, where two technicians were testing a console damaged in the storm. “We all are.”

“I won’t argue with that.” Elizabeth cocked an eyebrow. “Out of curiosity, do you have any idea what’s interesting about a Lagrange Point?”

“Not really, but I have a feeling it won’t be long before I’m forced to find out.”