“My name is Elizabeth,” she replied. “And I have lost my memory. A Satedan who lives with the Travelers thought I was also probably Satedan, so I’ve come to see if I can find my family or friends.”
At that their faces relaxed. “A lot of Satedans have been returning lately.”
“I didn’t expect it to look like this.” Elizabeth gestured around the square. “I thought it was deserted.”
“We’ve been coming back a little at a time,” the taller of the men said. “We have a government again. Ushan Cai is our elected leader. You can talk to him in the morning.” He pulled out a little notebook and jotted a few lines. “Returning Satedan, name Elzabet. Any skills or profession?”
“I have some experience in medicine.”
He nodded quickly, making notes. “That’s good. We can always use more medical personnel. Tell you what, go on over to the hotel and tell them you’re cleared. You can get a blanket and sleep in the ballroom. Tomorrow you can talk to Cai and figure out where you want to go.”
“Thank you,” Elizabeth said. She looked around the square again, the buildings of a maddeningly familiar type, and yet not familiar at all. “I can’t believe it looks like this. Those are electric lights!”
The second guard agreed proudly. “That they are. We’ve got a naquadah generator from the Lanteans too!”
“A what?”
“We have electric power again. Limited, but enough for some basic things,” the first guard said. “It’s the middle of the night here. Go on over to that building there. It’s warm and you can get some rest.”
“That sounds perfect,” Elizabeth said, for all that she wasn’t the least bit sleepy since for her it was only mid-afternoon.
Unsurprisingly, lying on a cot with a thin blanket in the hotel ballroom, she couldn’t sleep. All around her twenty or so people slept, most on cots or on the floor in bedrolls. The walls of the big room had originally been painted white and gold, though there were places where plaster had fallen exposing lathe and beam beneath. A few holes in the ceiling showed where light fixtures had once hung, but it was dark except for a little lamp on the desk at the door. The broken windows were closed with shutters against the cold. A small space heater cut the chill a little, a white box in a suspiciously familiar design purring softly in the corner.
Was it familiar because it was Satedan? Probably. Surely. Elizabeth rolled over, trying to find a comfortable position.
A night like this, and quiet, the sounds of other people sleeping in a big, empty room in a deserted city…
…she slept in a bedroll in the corner of her office, the room she’d taken for her office. Who could tell what it was supposed to be? Probably it was the office of the person who oversaw the control room just outside the door, but it was impossible to know what the Ancients had intended.
She should sleep. There was a great deal to do tomorrow and the next day and every day after that. But adrenaline wouldn’t let her sleep. Nothing would, though it had been nearly forty hours since she had spent her last night at home in one of the guest rooms at the SGC, wondering, hoping, praying, that the gate address would work….
Elizabeth sat bolt upright on the cot. She had remembered something. She had remembered something intentionally. It had been a room just off a big room that echoed, ceiling and windows lofty and strange, patterned with colored glass. There were people there too, sleeping in bedrolls under consoles and around screens, while a few bolder ones had branched out into the conference rooms and suites nearby. Everything was quiet, surrounded by the green light of the sea.
It wasn’t her home planet, but it had become home. She remembered it.
Tears filled her eyes. That was home. That was where she belonged. And it wasn’t here, not on Sateda. Though she had no idea where it was, what the name of the world was where that city stood, she would find it no matter what.
Chapter Fifteen
John was in the shower when his radio crackled. “Colonel Sheppard?” Amelia Banks’ voice asked.
John turned off the water with a thought, a nice perk of the ATA gene-sensitive controls over in this tower and jumped out to press the button. “This is Sheppard.”
“Larrin’s calling in. She says she’s rendezvoused with Lesko’s ship.”
“On my way,” John said, already pulling his clothes on.
It was less than ten minutes before he stepped out of the transport chamber in the gate room and hurried over to the console. Larrin smirked at him from the viewscreen. “Busy, Sheppard?”
“Washing. I do that sometimes.” He gave her what he hoped was a charming and insouciant grin. “Banks says you’ve got Lesko’s ship.”
“Yeah, but I don’t have your friend,” Larrin replied. “Lesko says she got off when they rendezvoused with another of our ships, the Durant.”
“What? Why didn’t he stop her?” John blurted.
“Why would he? Why does he care where a passenger goes? She was a passenger, not a prisoner.” Larrin tilted her chin. “I think it’s about time you leveled with me about who your friend is.”
Banks looked up at him from her terminal, and John was aware of a sudden hush falling around him.
“She was an important part of our expedition,” John said. “And we never leave a man behind. If she’s wandering around injured, not even remembering who she is, we have a responsibility.”
Larrin’s eyebrows rose. “Well,” she said, “that makes sense. She went over to the Durant because they have one of our best doctors. If she was hurt or hoped he could help with the memory problem, she was smart to transfer over.”
Which did reassure John somewhat. That was like Elizabeth, trying to work this problem from the other end, and he let himself feel a tiny glimmer of hope. “OK, thanks,” he said. “Any idea where this ship, the Durant, is?”
“They’re due for planetfall on Manaria day after tomorrow,” Larrin said.
“Manaria?” John frowned. “Manaria was practically leveled by Queen Death a few months ago.”
Larrin nodded. “Yep. That’s why they’re buying ores from us. They need metal for rebuilding, and we’ll bring it in at the right price.”
“Which is high,” John said.
“We’re not philanthropists, Sheppard. Everybody’s got problems.”
“I know. I appreciate you taking the time to call.”
Teyla and Rodney had just come in and were standing back from the camera side by side with expressions on their face that suggested they were having one of their silent Wraithy conversations.
“Just remember that in the future,” Larrin said, and cut the communications link.
John turned around. “So,” he said.
“Manaria,” Teyla said.
“Day after tomorrow,” John said. “OK, we’re in business.”
Which of course meant there wasn’t anything he could do about it right that minute. John went down to the mess and got breakfast to bring back to Woolsey’s office. No, to his office. Which was not a good thing.
It wasn’t that he minded the paperwork necessary for Atlantis’ military contingent. It wasn’t even that he minded the jobs that kept him in Atlantis rather than in the field. He’d found that he actually liked the training part. There was something really satisfying about helping the new, young airmen and Marines figure out how to deal with a universe they’d never imagined existed a year ago. He didn’t even mind dealing with the Air Force brass now that he mostly went directly through General O’Neill rather than General Landry, who hated him ever since the part about stealing a puddle-jumper out of the SGC.