“I think you might be right,” John said.
“I know I’m right. I just told you, I talked to—”
“I mean, I think you might be right.”
Rodney stopped and looked at him for a moment, his defensiveness draining away. “You mean you think I might be right about Elizabeth.”
“I’m not saying you are right,” John said. “I think the best that we can say at this point is that we don’t know. But if there’s a chance — any chance — that Elizabeth might be out there, then we have to do whatever we can to find her. And we will.” He swallowed hard. “And that’s what I wanted to say.”
“Thank you,” Rodney said after a moment. “What made you decide you believed me, or do I even want to know?”
John shrugged. “I’m not saying I believe you. I’m saying I think you might be right. Sam did say she thought it was theoretically possible.”
“Oh, Sam said! Sam said it, and you believe her? You’re going to take her professional opinion over mine? I’ll have you know that when it comes to theoretical physics, her grasp of what’s possible is nothing compared to mine.”
“She’s agreeing with you, McKay.”
“Yes, but you didn’t believe it until she said it.”
“She’s less personally involved.”
Rodney shrugged a little awkwardly, not looking at John. “Well,” he said. “Elizabeth is our friend.”
“She is,” John said. He told himself it didn’t cost anything to say “is” rather than “was.” It almost didn’t hurt. “And if there’s anything we can do to find her, we’ll figure out what that is and we’ll do it.”
“Yes, we will,” Rodney said, his jaw set, and John was reminded for a moment of the aged hologram version of Rodney from the future he’d been trapped in, the one who had waited and worked his entire life for a chance to save the people he cared about from deaths he couldn’t and wouldn’t accept. And the craziest thing about it was that he’d done it. It had taken his whole life, but he’d saved them in the end.
“But since we don’t have any leads right now, we’re going to go talk to the Wraith about the Asgard,” John said. “Have you got your head on straight enough to do that?”
Rodney nodded. “We’ll keep looking. But right now we know where to look to find out something about the Asgard and our weather machine—”
“You said you weren’t sure it was a weather machine.”
“It’s probably a weather machine. I’d be a lot more certain of that if we could find another one.”
“So let’s go talk to the Wraith,” John said.
Chapter Eight
Daniel watched as John brought the jumper down through the orbital gate toward the planet hanging round and blue beneath them. Even after all these years in the SGC, there was still something magical about seeing planets from space, something that walking through a Stargate didn’t entirely capture.
The jumper began to dive down through the atmosphere, a map scrolling across the heads-up display and showing coastline and a river. The ground rose up beneath them, resolving into the patchwork of fields and coastline that Daniel was more used to seeing from an airplane, and then into a broad river wending its way toward the sea and branching into meandering tributaries. John followed the course of the river, skimming over an expanse of green marshland.
“Alabaster has agreed to meet us at Pilgrim House,” Teyla said.
“Where she used to suck life out of her worshippers,” Ronon said.
Teyla appeared unruffled. “In exchange for healing those who were sick and dying.”
“We’re not going to argue about whether that’s a good thing or a bad thing right now,” John said firmly. “We’re just going to have a little chat and try to find out what she and her people know about the Asgard.”
John set the jumper down at the edge of the marsh near what appeared to be a fishing village. A couple of small boats bobbed at anchor, and Daniel could see white sails flashing farther out to sea. Birds wheeled in the air and settled to roost on the ledges of sea cliffs above the waves.
“Not in the marsh again,” Rodney muttered as John headed for the back hatch.
“Well, they haven’t built us a nice, flat, dry landing pad since last time, so, yes.”
“I bet the Wraith used transport beams to get down here.”
“You mean culling beams,” Ronon said.
John had his hand on the hatch controls, but he turned, his face stone. “We are not doing this here,” he said. “Anyone who doesn’t want to play nice with the Wraith can stay in the jumper. But we are not arguing about the Wraith in front of the Wraith.”
“I hear you,” Ronon said after a moment.
“Good.” John palmed the controls, and the rear hatchway of the jumper opened, squelching as the end of the ramp sank into marsh grass. “Let’s go meet the Wraith.”
Daniel would have preferred not to have to be introduced to the Wraith wet to the knees and smelling of marsh, but it didn’t seem to be a tactful moment to point that out. He stayed close to Teyla, who seemed to have a better knack than John for sticking to mostly dry ground, and tried to step where she stepped. She was using one of her bantos sticks to sound uncertain footing, and he wished he’d had the foresight to bring a stick himself.
“Is this your first time dealing with the Wraith?” Teyla asked.
“Not exactly my first time, no. A few years back my team and I were accidentally transported to an alternate version of Atlantis — it’s kind of a long story. While we were stuck in that universe, I was taken prisoner aboard a Wraith hive.”
“And lived to tell about it?” Teyla asked. “You are very fortunate.”
“I know I am. I think in retrospect that the Wraith who was my main captor was keeping me as … something between a pet and a biological specimen. He didn’t know what to make of humans who didn’t already know about the Wraith. It was an interesting experience.”
“I am sure it was.”
“That was back in the first year of the Atlantis expedition, so we just filed the report and didn’t think about it much. But now that I’ve looked over your records — and seen the Wraith delegation that came to Atlantis when we were fighting Queen Death — it’s interesting, because I think one of the Wraith aboard that ship was the same one that you call Guide. Todd.”
“Guide,” Teyla said. She looked genuinely interested. “Was he the leader of the hive that captured you?”
“I thought Wraith hives always had queens.”
“Usually they do. But it is not unheard of for Wraith to live in hives where the queen has died, or where the survivors of defeated hives have gathered together without a queen. It is a precarious existence, but some prefer it to submitting themselves to a strange queen’s authority. Guide was in command of one of those hives for several years.”
“This one had a Wraith Queen. Believe me, I met her.” He remembered all too vividly being the focus of her cool curiosity, her mind pressing heavily on his own. It wasn’t an experience he particularly cared to repeat.
“That universe’s version of Alabaster, perhaps.”
“That will be a little disturbing. I guess we’ll see.”
They came out of the marsh onto a path that led toward the village. Several girls who were apparently cutting grasses at the edge of the path stopped to stare at them, and the oldest stepped out a little protectively in front of the others, tucking wayward strands of red hair behind her ear.
“We don’t mean you any harm,” John said, spreading out his hands in reassurance. “We’re looking for Pilgrim House.”