Ember frowned. “Can that happen?”
“You mean can someone unascend? Of course,” Daniel said.
“No,” Teyla said. “Is it possible to affect someone who is Ascended? I have never heard of any such thing.” The very idea was deeply disturbing.
Daniel nodded. “Yes. I mean, we know that it is. Merlin, the Ancient Merlin, projected his consciousness into my brain once so that I would understand how to make a device that would destroy the Ori, and they’re Ascended beings. So yes, you can theoretically have a device that could force an Ascended being to return to corporeal form. I have no idea how you would do it, but it could be done.”
“And this device,” Teyla gestured to the blank space before them, “Might have done that?”
“It’s possible,” Daniel said.
“And now the Asgard have it and we do not,” Teyla said. “That is not a good development.”
“The real question,” Daniel said, “Is why they want it.”
“I don’t like stuff we don’t know,” John said. He looked around the conference table at the familiar faces of his team plus Daniel Jackson. At least he didn’t have to have Ember the Wraith in the debriefing. “Why would the Asgard come to that planet at the same time as us? Why did they stun everyone? What did they take and why?”
“They followed us,” Rodney said, his fists clenched.
“How?”
“I don’t know how!” Rodney sputtered, “But I know they did. Come on. They just happened to show up at the same time? Not likely. They could have visited that planet anytime in the last thousand years. No, they followed us. And that’s why they just stunned us.”
“We’re the stalking horse,” Daniel said. “We run the risks, we turn off the Ancient defenses, and then they take the stuff.” Which did make sense. It wasn’t anything John liked, but it sure made sense.
“But why do they want it?” Teyla was frowning. “To force the Ancestors to unascend is…” She paused as if looking for a bad enough word. “Obscene.”
“Maybe they want knowledge one of them has,” Daniel said.
“And now they’ve got the device,” Rodney said. “And there’s nothing we can do about it.”
There was a long moment of gloomy silence as everyone considered this.
“Wait a second,” Ronon rumbled, leaning back in his chair. “There’s one thing we know about Ancient devices that goes for every single one we’ve ever found. It doesn’t work the way it’s supposed to. Just because they’ve got it doesn’t mean they can do what they wanted it for. And they can’t use it without the ATA gene anyway, right?”
“That’s true,” Daniel said more brightly.
“I think we’re losing sight of the priority here,” Rodney said. “We’re looking for Elizabeth.”
John folded his hands on the table deliberately. “No,” he said. “We’re looking for Ancient installations. That’s what we found. Too bad the Asgard did too. But nobody was hurt, and we’re no worse off than we started.”
“I just think this is connected,” Rodney said. “If the Asgard are trying to find an Unascension device at the same time that Elizabeth is missing and maybe Unascended…”
“Maybe it is,” John said with frustration. “But do you have any bright ideas about how to find the Asgard ship? I thought not. So let’s get on with what we’re actually doing. Everybody stand down, get some rest, and tomorrow we’ll talk about the next site.”
Nobody moved.
John got up. “Meeting over. Good night.”
“I just…” Rodney began.
“Tomorrow.”
“OK.”
Daniel got up, opening his laptop and showing it to Rodney. “Can we talk about these three places on the list?” They went out with their heads alarmingly together.
Ronon tilted his chair down. “Want to grab some dinner?” he asked Teyla.
“Perhaps I will be down in a few minutes,” Teyla said. She lagged behind as Ronon went out.
John sat down on the edge of the table as the doors slid closed. “What’s up?”
Teyla shook her head, a fond smile on her face. “Have you had such trouble leading the team for years? Ronon and Rodney are bad enough, but when there is Dr. Jackson and Ember…” She spread her hands. “I feel that I spend all my time shouting.”
John laughed. “That’s pretty much it. It’s herding cats. Always has been.”
She took a step closer, inclining her head to his in Athosian courtesy. “I did not realize the difficulties involved.”
“Kind of makes you appreciate me more,” John said with a smile.
Richard Woolsey stood in the conference room at Stargate Command, watching the gate turn, a regularly scheduled offworld team returning. It was a little after 06.00 Mountain Time. He’d spent the night in SGC guest quarters, which he had to say were a lot more comfortable than the first time he’d been here. Then, they’d been bunk beds in a concrete room painted olive drab. Now they were a lot like a budget hotel complete with queen beds with pastel quilts and framed prints of scenic beaches on the wall. Possibly this was intended to put guests at ease. Certainly there were no beaches anywhere nearby.
Woolsey took a sip of his scalding coffee. One thing that hadn’t changed was the coffee. This was as thick as if it had been sitting on the hotplate all night. Which it probably had.
He paced around the empty conference table, empty and waiting for the next crisis. Everything was very quiet. The bulletproof glass cut out the sounds of the gateroom below entirely. Beyond the head of the conference table the Stargate Command insignia was mounted on the wall, proud encouragement to those who found themselves here for the first time. On the right hand wall was a different kind of plaque a list of names. Most of them he didn’t know: Spec. Robert Riley, Spec. Louise Fernandez, Lt. Aidan Ford. Some he did. Dr. Janet Fraiser. Dr. Elizabeth Weir.
Woolsey took another sip of the terrible coffee. Was it possible that Dr. Weir was alive, as unlikely as that seemed? The answer was probably no. There was no evidence, no reason to think so other than the wishful thinking of a man who had himself been a prisoner of war and then recovered. McKay wanted her to be alive. Everyone wanted her to be alive. Understandably. Death was hard to accept, and doubly so when one felt responsible for the death. But that didn’t make her alive. The Atlantis expedition had to face the facts. Elizabeth Weir was not coming back.
Woolsey sighed. Sheppard would come to that. He wouldn’t let them spend too much time on a wild goose hunt. It was time to move on.
Just as it was time for him to move on. It was time for him to stop thinking of himself as a member of the Atlantis expedition and to start thinking of himself as a member of the IOA, the US representative to the IOA. His was the position of responsibility, and it was time to take what he’d learned and put it to good use. There was no going back. It was time to go forward. He had the briefing files on this new fiasco, the loss of an experimental base and its personnel, the armed hostilities with the Lucian Alliance that ensued, the loss of several of the Hammond’s 302s in the subsequent fight. He needed to get a handle on that. What the gate team in Atlantis did was no longer his job.
Richard Woolsey squared his shoulders. The names looked back at him from the wall. I will do my best, he promised silently. I’ll make sure you weren’t wasted.
An Airman cleared his throat from the doorway. “Mr. Woolsey? Your car is ready to take you to Peterson, sir.”