Trust Once Broken | SGA John Sheppard

0.12.0

><><
Underground Cont.
><><

John was feeling protective and hadn't moved much more than twenty feet from Kai. He could feel himself hovering, but couldn't quite stop. Kai had been nervous when they were greeted by a dozen armed guards. John didn't blame her, she spent most of her time in the lab, not facing down men with guns. He had done his best to reassure her as subtly as possible, but Cowen had noticed and immediately taken it as a sign of weakness. Cowen had tormented Kai to get a rise out of John and assert his control over their situation. If John thought there was a way they could have gotten out of here he would have backed out of the deal in a heartbeat. There was no way they were going to be able to trust these people.

Kai stood over the table, her fingers flying over her keyboard. The genii had brought them to the lab with the interface. Most of the guards had left Kai and Tyrus to their work, but Cowen had smirked at Major Sheppard as he ordered Heiron to stand guard at the door. The Major was tense and was staying close. Kai ignored the others. She trusted the Major to watch their backs while she focused on her work.

It was almost a shock for her to realize she really did trust the Major to watch her back. She didn't trust anyone as a rule. Her entire existence depended on her ability to lie and manipulate and yet, standing in a room surrounded by potential enemies, she trusted him.

Kai had looked over Sora and Tyrus's interface. She had listened patiently, let them show her what they had done, and then she promptly got started converting the port so she could plug the data drive into her laptop. She stood over a table, her fingers flying over the keyboard as she adapted the program to Wraith data.

She scowled down at her computer screen.

"Anything?" John asked, sliding closer to her.

Kai jumped. She hadn't expected John to still be willing to speak to her after what happened with Cowen. He had surprised her however, leaning against the table as she worked. Cowen had tried to get a rise out of The Major and while Sheppard hadn't responded in the way Cowen had perhaps hoped he had responded when Heiron has searched her. Now, Sheppard was staying closer than he ever had before.

Kai glanced up at him, meeting his hazel eyes over the top of her screen. "Everything." she said with a small, private smile.

"What?" Sora asked in disbelief as she matched up to Kai's side. "That's impossible."

Kai ignored the petulant Genii and spun the screen around so it was facing the Major. "I have pulled up the complete schematic of the hive ship. This dart has all the information on it's home ship. I don't know if it's still there, but at the time..."

John nodded, scrubbing at his face.

"According to this schematic, the data core is in the very center of the ship," Kai reached around and pressed a few keys to highlight where she was talking about. "I don't have any details on the system itself, my guess is it won't be terribly complicated to connect to but..."

"We must bring this information to Cowen immediately," Tyrus said.

Sheppard scowled as the four of them started for the door following Sora. Heiron fell into step behind them deliberately staying close to Kai.

Teyla, Ford and McKay joined them for the meeting. Cowen listened quietly to the additional information Kai had found.

"Excellent," he said nodding. "We'll leave as quickly as possible," he said with a grim smile.

He glanced towards Sheppard. "Your Mortii can stay here. We'll have someone watch it for you. I trust your Doctor McKay can operate the data drive."