The Long Way Home

Chapter Forty One: Affliction

And Ive lost who I am
And I can't understand
Why my heart is so broken
Rejecting your love

Trading Yesterday - Shattered

It was worse now than it had been before and everybody in the conference room knew it. That familiar sense of dread was returning to John. It was foreboding and looming as he sat in the swivel chair, his elbows digging into the arm rests as he swung from side to side in thought. The motion helped him to think, just like a flight or a run always cleared his head. His fingers were tapping out a mindless tune on the edge of the arm rests as he listened to the various people speak.

They had all lost too much over the past four days. There were too many causalities to count, even as he sat here in this meeting both Cass was working with a skeleton crew of doctors and nurses attempting to manage the injured as best as she could whilst Carson was forced to sit in upon this meeting as the Chief of Surgery. He was anxious to get back to his patients, John could tell he felt he was better equipped to help them instead of being here in the conference room. His muscles were straining with impatience as the Scot twiddled the capped pen between his fingers compulsively.

Colonel Everett had been aged by the Wraith, he had lost the majority of his years and no one was sure how long he had left in him. The feeding process was traumatic and John didn't know whether the fact he had survived was a good thing or a bad thing. The dominant alpha male had vanished and now he was a fragile, hollow husk of the man he used to be.

Lieutenant Ford was in an even worse state. They had found him in the ocean outside of the city a Wraith still attached to his chest. From what Carson had derived the Wraith had started to feed on Ford when two of them had hit the water. At the moment of death the enzyme the Wraith used to keep their victims alive during the feeding process had flooded the young man's system. He was stable but critical still, they had no idea how his body was going to react once the enzyme had faded from his body. Ford should not have been ale to survive an hour face down in the icy cold sea but he had and that was because of the drug he was currently on.

They were all so exhausted, every single one of them around this table had been given at least one shot of the powerful stimulant Cass and Carson were distributing in order to keep them all alert and awake. Now was not the time to drop the ball, not with twelve Wraith ships on the way. In thirty six hours they would be subjected to yet another siege, this time with less fire power and resources than the first time. They were vastly outnumbered even with the Daedalus on their side.

Their plans were stunted at the moment they were tossing ideas back and forth into the air and watching Rodney shoot them own like tiny fluttering butterflies.

"If they know we're here, they are simply going to keep coming." Zelinka said into the air around them in his level Czech accent.

"If they know we're here." John repeated the other man's words, wagging his finger as the idea began to form within his brain.

"What do you mean?" Elizabeth responded as the members of the conference room twisted their head towards him.

"What if they thought we were gone?" John prompted, looking pointedly at Zelinka and Rodney.

The two scientists were partners in crime despite their disagreements and inflated egos. If anyone could pull of the technical side of what he was saying it would be these two.

"Then there would be no reason for the Wraith to stay." Teyla murmured beside John as she realized where his line of thinking was heading.

"We make it look like we destroyed the city." John explained as Rodney clicked his fingers and pointed at Zelinka.