Mutual Misunderstandings (Part 1/3)

by Ayama-chi

URL: http://www.stargateslash.com/asa/achi/mutmis001.php
Summary: How high a price are you willing to pay to get your hands on everything Atlantis could have ever hoped for? A slip of a tongue during an off world visit and some help from Rodney and John and his second in command are about to find out
Info: Many many thanks goes to the amazing beta Enedre Drakaina. I don't have enough words to say just how wonderful she is

Chapter 1

"The Sparrow guy was cool. But I hated the woman," Ronon said while effortlessly snapping the Banto rods at John and nearly getting to him. John looked at him carefully as he stepped back and tried to form some sort of an attack. Ronon liked to surprise his opponent, and never stopped the session even if his training partner was otherwise distracted.

"You hated Keira Knightley? She's hot, how could you hate her?" John asked incredulously, doing his best to jab forward but earning himself a slap on the ass from Ronon's rods. He jumped forward, his backside stinging, and shot a resentful look at his sparring partner.

Ronon didn't even break a sweat. "She was annoying," he said shortly, shrugging. The DVD set of the three Pirates of the Caribbean movies had arrived in Atlantis and John dragged Ronon to the public screening last night. Ronon, of course, was immediately hooked. John had to explain to him that there were hardly any real pirates left on Earth, and those that do exist are nowhere near Johnny Depp's style or mannerism and most importantly ? don't parlay.

Ronon moved forward, teasing John with his rods in short bursts to his face and groin, which John did his best to counteract. He ended up receiving another sharp slap to his ass, and had to stop in order to rub some of the pain away.

"You know, if you keep this up I won't be able to sit," he muttered sullenly at Ronon. Ronon simply looked amused as he threw John's towel at him and took a sip of water from John's bottle.

"If you'd have kept training, I wouldn't have been able to do that," he retorted easily, placing the rods back into the barrel. John was only grateful that they were practicing in the officers' gym, which meant that no one witnessed Ronon wiping the floor with him, even though it wasn't the best kept secret around the city.

"Well," John ignored Ronon's comment, even though it was completely true, "They'll be screening the second DVD in two hours so maybe we should..." but then the Ancient door opened with a unique hydraulic sound and Rodney came running inside.

"You're never going to believe this!" he said excitedly, a fine sheen of perspiration betraying the fact that he had actually run from the transporter to the gym. "We've established a connection with M1M-995! You've got to come and see it!" he said, his eyes bright and expectant.

John looked at Ronon. "Okay, you've got us interested," John said finally, when no explanation was forthcoming. "Which one is M1M-995 and what's so special about it?"

Rodney looked crestfallen. It was obvious that this was not the reaction he was expecting to receive. John had probably asked the wrong question, but he had no idea what Rodney expected him to say.

"It was one of the five planets on Elizabeth's list," Rodney said, sounding amazed that John didn't know such a trivial thing.

Something in John twisted, just like it always did when someone mentioned Elizabeth. His mind flashed to the image of her as he had last seen her, a clone willing to sacrifice her life to save him. And now, the Replicator claiming to be her was floating in space, forever frozen, like Niam was when they recovered him two years ago.

"Elizabeth's list?" John asked, to distract himself from the unpleasant thoughts. "Which list?"

Now Rodney got impatient. "The list she gave us when we woke her from stasis. The old Elizabeth!" Rodney huffed. "The list of planets with ZedPMs," but Rodney's exuberance got the better of him and he was nearly sing-songing that last one.

That was when John remembered. The Elizabeth of the alternate timeline, who slept for ten thousand years in order to get to them and deliver her message.

"What?" Ronon asked, and both John and Rodney turned to look at him. Sometimes it was hard to remember that Ronon hadn't always been there with them.

"When we got to the city from Earth for the first time, it rose from the ocean when the last ZPM was depleted. It was a fail-safe mechanism. A few months after that we found an old woman whose DNA matched Elizabeth's and who was Elizabeth of an alternate timeline, where the city didn't rise and all of us were killed. She managed to escape the flooding by boarding a Jumper equipped with a time machine. She went back in time and alerted the Ancients, and they built the fail-safe mechanism and that's why we're still here," John explained shortly.

"She also gave us a list of planets where we could find other ZedPMs," Rodney chimed in, smiling happily.

"Which were supposed to have been explored by the Deadalus," John reminded him. They had been able to get a lock on only two of the planets from Atlantis: M7G-677, the kids' planet, and Dagan, where the ZPM was taken from them after they solved the puzzle that led to it and nearly got killed by Kolya.

"Yes, they were. We sent the Deadalus to the first one and discovered that it had turned into a red giant and the heat nearly burned the Deadalus up, and we stopped when the second one turned out to be a black hole that nearly destroyed the Deadalus as well. Coincidently, it was the same black hole that prevented the Ori's supergate from working," Rodney replied.

"Well, we had only one more to go, why didn't we check it out?" John asked, irritated. The things they could have done with a fully charged ZPM in the last few years were numerous, and it annoyed him that one might have been lying under their noses the whole time.

"Because it was probably dead or destroyed as well, and we didn't want to risk the Deadalus again. Look, things have changed in the last ten thousand years, in case it had escaped your notice," Rodney snapped, crossing his arms over his chest defiantly.

John didn't really blame him. There was usually a good reason why they couldn't get a lock on certain addresses and risking the Deadalus on a trip to what could be another black hole was reckless at best. But it was still fun to bait Rodney.

"If it was supposed to have been destroyed, how come you dialed it?" Ronon asked from John's side.

"Oh. Um... actually that was a fluke," Rodney's hands dropped down and he wrung his hands. "Radek and I were trying to shut down some of the automated protocols of the city's navigation systems just when Chuck was dialing Major Kersey's team off-world but there was a jump because of us and he... uh... dialed M1M-995 instead," Rodney said, a little uneasily but with no apparent guilt.

John was impressed. They had a chance to find another ZPM, and even though they already had one that was perfectly fine, another one was always welcome. Who knows when they'd have to take off again while maintaining the shield, or boost the Deadalus' shields, or one of a hundred possible doomsday scenarios?

"Did you talk to Woolsey?" John asked Rodney.

"Yes. He says that as soon as we're all ready we can send a MALP and go through," Rodney was practically dancing with excitement, like a little kid, and John fought the urge to smile.

John shared another look with Ronon, who shrugged. There was a simple truth in Rodney's statement. ZPMs were good. "Okay. Let's go and get ready. And if you tell anyone else on that planet something you shouldn't again, I'll shot you," John warned, remembering Dagan, and left Rodney staring after him in shock.

~o~o~o~o~

Getting ready took longer than usual, mainly because Rodney was practically dancing with anticipation and kept interrupting John while he was trying to check if he had everything he needed in his MOLLE vest pockets.

However, when they arrived in the control tower Woolsey was still in his office and was talking to someone. John came in, intending on letting Woolsey know that the MALP was ready and awaiting his order, and discovered that that someone was Major Lorne.

The Major turned to look at John when he entered and smiled. Woolsey nodded, and got up from his chair. "Major, do you want to come with us? I think that this particular dialing is bound to be exciting," Woolsey invited Lorne, who stood up when Woolsey did.

Lorne nodded first at Woolsey and then at John. "I'd love that, Mr. Woolsey," he replied cordially. John simply shrugged indifferently at him when the Major's eyes turned to him for permission. It wasn't against the law to watch a team embark, and considering that they might find another ZPM... John couldn't blame anyone who wanted to watch.

Woolsey led the way to the operations room where Rodney, Ronon and Teyla were waiting, followed by John and trailed respectfully by Lorne. Woolsey came to stand by Amelia's shoulder and nodded to her when she looked up expectantly.

"Dial the gate, Amelia," Woolsey gave the command calmly, and they all watched the chevrons circle before settling into place. It seemed to John that the entire room held its breath from the time the sixth chevron was engaged until the seventh chevron was locked.

The gate engaged with the usual burst of the event horizon before it rippled back into place to create the illusion of a shimmering pool. It never got old, and at that moment it was prettier than ever.

"Yeah!" someone was yelling in the background, and Rodney was already sitting by Amelia's unoccupied side and interfering with her actions the best he could until she gave up and handed the control of the MALP to him.

"Send it through, Doctor," Woolsey said, amused, and John watched with no small amount of anticipation himself as the MALP disappeared into the wormhole.

"We'll have a visual in four, three, two, one, and..." Rodney counted, and the image became clear on his computer screen.

The first thing that they saw was a small room, lit only by artificial lights hanging on ropes around the walls. It was crowded with various tools and instruments that were scattered on the floor or lying in neat piles in the corners. The rough stone and uneven shape of the structure's walls could have been a cave's if it wasn't too neat and the carvings that created the walls too new. Just beyond the small opening they could see a hint of green trees and sunshine.

"I think we can safely assume that the gate was buried, rather then destroyed by some catastrophe like the other two?" Woolsey inquired, looking at Rodney for an answer.

"Yes, yes," Rodney said absently, engrossed in the information the computer was feeding him. "Yes. It was probably buried, because this planet's atmosphere is breathable and the MALP can't detect any remaining residue from any natural disaster or otherwise, nor toxins or bio-hazards," he added.

"Yes, that would explain the tools on the floor," John injected sarcastically, smiling when Rodney turned to glare at him. "I mean, someone must have put them there, right?" he asked, feigning innocence.

"Panning the camera," Rodney said pointedly, ignoring him, and the view changed until it settled on a group of frightened and curious faces.

"Stop it right there!" Woolsey said needlessly, looking almost as surprised to see the people on the other side as they were to see the MALP. "It's inhabited," he added, with both wonderment and quiet excitement.

"Yes, kind of reminds me of the Milky Way though," Lorne said from behind John, and John was almost startled by him. He had forgotten that Lorne was there.

"What does that mean?" Woolsey asked. John turned to him as well, waiting.

"It looks exactly like the pictures from MALPs the SGC sent to planets where the Stargate hasn't been used in generations. I think they just dug it out and they have no idea what it's for," Lorne supplied, indicating the tools and the curious people.

"Think they ever heard of the Wraith?" John asked Woolsey. He had never met anyone who didn't know what the Stargate was other then the people of Proculus, and that was weird enough.

"It's possible that they have, and it's possible that they haven't. This planet is on the other side of the galaxy. The Wraith may never have reached there, or may not have many hives in the area. There's no way of knowing," Rodney answered instead, looking up at them before panning the camera more.

All they saw was more astonished people and more stone walls.

"Very well," Woolsey said, looking around the control room. "You have a go, Colonel. If there's a ZPM on that planet, it would be highly advisable that you bring it back with you," he said, and John smiled shortly and nodded to him as he turned to go, eager and curious to find out what was on the other side. Even if these people had never seen the Stargate being activated before, the prospect of finding a planet that may never have been visited by the Wraith and might host a ZPM was enough to make the adrenalin flood his body.

"However," Woolsey's voice stopped him from going further than two steps down towards the gate. "I want to remind you to do it in a diplomatic way. Even if those people have never been through the Stargate there's no telling what resources the Coalition of planets have and whether or not they'll learn about our current adventure. We don't need an interplanetary diplomatic incident. Not this soon after getting your team back," Woolsey clarified. "Is that understood, Colonel?"

John grimaced, just like he always did when someone mentioned that damn Coalition. He had no particular fondness for any of them, and he hated politics almost as much as Woolsey loved it. It has been less than a month since they were captured by the Coalition and put on trial, and whenever a representative of the Coalition was in the city since then John has managed to arrange for himself to be somewhere very far away, preferably off-world.

"Colonel?"

"Yes, I got it. No stealing from the natives," John repeated dutifully, a sour taste in his mouth.

"Very well. Good luck, Colonel, and good hunting," Woolsey smiled, and John and Rodney turned back and joined Ronon and Teyla down the stairs.

Just before John went through the gate, he looked backwards. Every person in the control tower was watching them, even Woolsey, Lorne and Amelia.

With one final nod and a deep breath, John stepped through.

They reached the other side seconds later, just when a new group of people came into the cave through the entrance, making it even more crowded than before. For a moment John thought that they were guards that had came to arrest them and placed his finger on the trigger of his P-90, but then he noticed that none of them were armed.

Lorne was right. It looked like an excavation. These people must have only recently dug out their Stargate, and obviously were not used to seeing it activated. The faces around them, illuminated both by the strong white light of the wormhole and by the wane artificial lights hanging around the walls, looked just as curious as they were scared. They were wearing dirty clothes, but it wrapped their bodies completely and they didn't look like slaves. More like... archeologists.

The new group of people who entered the cave just as the gate shut down behind John and his team were wearing similar clothes to the first group, though they were not as dirty as the archeologists who were clustered around the walls and the MALP.

One of the newcomers stepped forward, staring with wondering green eyes at them. He was wearing robes much like those of a British judge, only colored dark blue and cream, with the same diagonal stripe tucked into the cream colored belt and the same cream colored stripes around the end of the sleeves. It was obvious that he was an official representative of something.

"So it's true. This is indeed a transportation device as the legend says," he said cautiously, nodding his head at them. He had narrow features, brown hair and appeared to be kind. But John had learned early on that appearances can be deceiving.

"It is," John confirmed, carefully stepping forward as well.

"As evident from our being here," Rodney muttered quietly, and John shot him a glare to keep him quiet. It was Rodney's big mouth that lost them the Dagan's ZPM.

"Greetings," Teyla stepped forward as well, smiling calmly. "We come from the city of Atlantis and we mean you no harm," she said. "I am Teyla Emmagen, and these are Ronon Dex, Doctor Rodney McKay and our leader Colonel John Sheppard," she made the proper introductions, pointing at each of the team in turn.

The official stepped forward, smiling and looking less tense than before. "I am Noman, currently charged with seeing to the cultural and historical interests of our people," he bowed before them. "We have always known the legend of the city of the ancestors, but we have never even imagined that it might be true!" he said, his excitement pouring from him as he looked around at his people. "Welcome to Olam!"

The people around him clapped their hands and cheered at his exclamation, and it was like the ice had broken. The oppressive feeling of discomfort and fear disappeared from the air and everywhere they looked they saw smiling faces.

"Come, let us walk in the sun," Noman offered, gesturing with his hand for them to lead the way out. John smiled at him as he took point, but still raised his gun a little and his finger never strayed from its position on the trigger. They might have been welcomed warmly here, but John didn't want to take any chances.

Outside there were no hostiles. Instead there was yellow sun, evergreens and many tan colored tents. Some of the tents were merely fabrics stretched over poles, and underneath those yet more archeologists were examining various artifacts. They all looked up when John and his team came out of what appeared to be a small hill.

Noman came after them and directed them to a set of chairs. "Please, have a seat," he offered kindly, and Teyla and John smiled. Rodney sat almost as if he had been on his feet for two days but Ronon preferred to remain standing and loomed over them all. After shooting a quick glance at Ronon, Noman proceeded. "As I was saying, welcome to Olam," he greeted again.

"It's a nice place. Kind of reminds me of Canada," Rodney said while he started fiddling with some sort of gadget that detected energy signatures, obviously eager to make friends with Noman as fast as they could so that they could get to the ZPM sooner.

"Canada?" Noman asked, confused, and John wanted to groan.

"Oh. Um... it's a place I've been to once," Rodney said quickly, smiling nervously at Noman and not making a very good first impression.

"What he means to say is that your world ? what we've seen of it so far ? is very nice," John said sharply, kicking Rodney in the shin. Rodney grimaced but made no sound.

"I thank you," Noman was almost glowing at the praise. "We love it very much," he added politely. It was obvious that he was waiting for them to state the reason why they were there, and both Rodney and Teyla turned to John expectantly. John took a deep breath, well aware that their getting the ZPM may hang on his words now. If it even existed.

"We're here to search for something that-" and then he was stuck. Should he say that they were the Ancients and lie? Should he say that they were their second evolution (which was true but how could he explain it accurately)? "-we know can help us a great deal in fighting the Wraith," he said, settling for a different side of the truth.

Noman's brow crinkled in confusion. "The Wraith, you say? Who are they?" he asked, and John could see the honesty of the question in his eyes.

John exchanged a look with Teyla and Rodney. These people didn't seem like Ancients, nor like they were protected by one like in Proculus. There was no real reason for them not to know who the Wraith were. It took John back to his first meeting with Teyla, when she told him that if his world was untouched by the Wraith then he should go back there. It was a galaxy-wide known truth.

"The Wraith are a formidable race that harvest people like beasts of burden and feed on their life force. They are very intelligent, very advanced and are feared throughout the galaxy," Teyla explained, a note in her voice telling John that she both envied these people and found them strange.

Noman was quiet after hearing that, the breeze gently ruffling his wide sleeves. He looked at some of the workers who were still staring at them with unmasked curiosity before he turned back to John's team. He exhaled and placed his hand on his cheek in a gesture of disbelief.

"I do not know what is more astounding. The fact that we, as the legends have told, are not alone in the universe, or that the evil beings that were portrayed in our legends are real," he said finally, and John had to smile. He could well relate. That was how he had felt when General O'Neill told him about the Stargate, the Goa'uld and the hundreds of populated planets on the Milky Way filled with people who had originated from Earth.

"They're real," Ronon said, speaking for the first time since their arrival, and Noman looked at him with a spark of amusement in his eyes.

"You speak?" he asked, teasing hesitantly. Ronon simply shrugged, while John tried to suppress a smile. Then Noman's face clouded over once more. "Are these beings a threat to us?" he asked, addressing John.

"They're a threat to all human beings. We're their food," John said simply, which was entirely true. The fact that they hadn't come in ships to Olam was another mystery. John hoped that it wasn't because of a device like that on M7G-677, because that would mean that it was powered by a ZPM and then they couldn't have it for themselves.

"We certainly haven't seen them here in as many generations as my people can remember. In fact, the date of the legends regarding them is around the time of the Cataclysm," Noman replied.

"What is this Cataclysm you're talking about?" Rodney asked, raising his head for the first time from his instrument. From what John remembered about this energy patterns detector, it took some calibration before it could be used, which was probably what Rodney had been doing while they were chit-chatting. It would explain the lack of sarcastic comments and impatient huffs.

"The Cataclysm is the event that nearly wiped out our civilization. It happened so many generations ago that it was a legend as well before this excavation began. It was told that during the Cataclysm the ground shook with unimaginable force and the mountains spat fire and covered all living things with the boiling essence of the earth. It was said that this event had claimed the lives of most of our people, and had destroyed all their property, knowledge, history and culture," Noman retold, and then gestured at the hill behind them where the Stargate was found.

"Until recently this story was considered a legend as well, but then we started excavating this area and found the Ring of the Ancestors and many more various artifacts that appeared to be covered in rock. Our scientists are studying it as we speak," he concluded, and showed them a piece of tablet with unintelligible markings that was covered with volcanic rock that one of the workers hastened to hand to him.

"Just like Pompeii, a volcanic eruption that buried an entire city with lava. When the lava turned cold there were only human shaped statues where real humans once stood. Amazing!" Rodney said excitedly. John shot him a warning look, which was wasted since Rodney was looking around them and not at John. While it was cool to know that there was a Pompeii in the Pegasus galaxy as well, he doubted that getting excited about an event that nearly wiped out the entire civilization of the people who might hold a ZPM was the smartest thing to do.

Noman, however, appeared to be taking this in stride. "I gather you're familiar with the phenomenon?" he asked, and John thought he might even be amused.

"Yes, it happened on our planet as well. But more importantly, this could explain why we couldn't make contact with this planet until you dug out your gate. It was covered in rock! I mean, you're lucky that it wasn't destroyed!" Rodney said, turning to John and gesturing with his hand at the hill behind them. His face then changed when some horrific realization came to him, and it took John only a second longer to figure it out as well.

It was pure luck that the gate wasn't destroyed, but what about the ZPM?

"You have tried to contact our planet before?" Noman asked, interrupting the silent conversation that passed between John and Rodney.

"Yes, we did. We believe that there's a device on your planet that might help us defeat the Wraith, as we've said," Teyla replied. "What is the matter?" she asked when Noman looked uneasy.

Noman sighed, his look turning sharper then before. "You must understand that until a few weeks ago we believed that the Cataclysm and the legends that were tied to its era were children's tales. The only reason I believe what you're saying is that you and your machine have stepped through the Ring and that our excavations support the legends. I find it hard to grasp that there is an enemy out there whose reason for being is to destroy us, even if I know that it is probably so, and even harder to think that somewhere on Olam there's a weapon that might help you to defeat it," Noman said candidly, looking at the skies as if expecting the Wraith to drop by for a visit as well.

"The Wraith are real, and they terrorize many worlds in this galaxy. They may not have been here in a very long time, but that could change any day. In the mean time, many worlds are suffering at their hands. Villages are being destroyed, civilizations wiped out and people separated from their loved ones. You must believe that they are real and that there is a chance that on your world we might find a device to help us fight them," Teyla said seriously, with an intensity that she used only when she talked about something that she believed in whole-heartedly.

Noman looked at her with a measuring eye, but whatever it was that he was thinking he did not share. "And how were you hoping to find the device?" he asked instead, mildly.

Rodney raised his detector. "This allows me to detect all sorts of energy readings, and if I can just..." he trailed off, pressing a few buttons and turning the small dial in the middle of the black rectangle. "There. Now we can start sc-" he began, and was cut short when the device beeped at him.

John looked at Rodney, suddenly tense. "Does this mean what I think it means?"

Rodney's eyes were practically gleaming, and a smug smile was blooming on his face. "I have a reading!" he exclaimed, and without waiting for the others rose up and started walking away.

John turned to Noman, who looked once again more amused than enraged, and raised his eyebrows in question. Noman rose gracefully and smiled in response. "By all means, let's go after your friend, Colonel. He seemed very eager, and I must say I'm intrigued myself," he said, gesturing with his hand.

John led the way after Rodney's retreating form, and just knew that Ronon was smiling behind him. He liked Noman, and so did John. Given what he had just learned, he was dealing with the truth admirably well. Now all that was left was to find the ZPM, hope that is wasn't already being used and hope that Noman's people would allow them to take it back with them. John could see so many things going wrong, and he hastened his pace to reach Rodney and get it over with as soon as possible.

They didn't have to walk for long, and the view never changed from the rocky terrain and the evergreens. Once they were a little further away from the gate they could see that they were located in the middle of a mountain range, consisting mainly of trees and long stone stretches. A little further down in the camp they could see a strange structure made out of wood that looked like a covered bridge.

They caught Rodney by a large tan colored stone wall that towered well above his head, moving his detector up and down and frowning to himself. "This might take longer than we expected. I'm getting the reading from behind this rock, but probably during the Cataclysm the place where the ZedPM was being kept was covered with lava. We'll have to dig it out but there's definitely something there," he told John when the rest of the team caught up with him.

Noman looked at Rodney's detector, that was now emitting a thin and annoying constant beeping sound, and then at the wall. "My people would be happy to help," he offered. "I think that my people will be easier to convince of the truth in your story once the evidence is in front of their eyes," he added when John turned and looked at him with surprise. Somewhere in all the time John had been dealing with the Pegasus galaxy he had forgotten that there might also be good and helpful people out there.

John approached the wall. It certainly didn't look like basalt, but it could have been simply a rock slide that blocked the entrance to whatever it was that protected the ZPM. Geologic activity takes a lot of time to make a change, but it had had ten thousand years to turn a rock slide into this wall. And if Rodney's detector was picking up the energy signature, then despite all that the ZPM must still be there.

John walked a few feet along the big stone wall trying to see if there was loose rock or an opening in it, but it looked like it was a part of what appeared to be a very large precipice. The work would probably go faster if they brought in their own equipment, because so far Olam didn't seem like an overly advanced world.

"It looks like it will take some work," John commented, placing his hand on the wall for emphasis...

...and nearly falling forward when the wall disappeared under his hand and his support was gone. The startled breath he drew in had the foul smell of stale air to it and he was forced to cough it out.

"This isn't dangerous, right?" John wheezed, remembering a different wall he had fallen through. He had no desire to get stuck in some pansy ascension cult again, or worse.

"I don't think so," Rodney said weakly, staring in awe at the place where the wall was a second ago as he walked through after John. "I think it was a hologram meant to preserve what was inside, not trap people in."

Looking around, John saw what looked like an Ancient chamber, combined with the lights that came on by themselves and the geometric patterns in brown and green. Now that he was over his own shock and reasonably sure that it wasn't dangerous, he was smug at having saved them a lot of work, and turned to Rodney to savor his friend's envious look. Teyla looked as surprised as Rodney did, her mouth actually opening slightly and her breath quickening, and Ronon had instinctively pulled out his gun. Noman was gaping at John openly.

"This is just like Janus' lab, only this one simply required your gene to be activated!" Rodney exclaimed excitedly, forgetting his resentment at John's natural ease with Ancient technology in the face of their newest discovery.

"The Ancients must've put some sort of shield up to protect this outpost from natural disasters," John mused, which would explain why the entrance wasn't blocked.

"So are we going to go in or what?" Ronon asked, not lowering his gun.

"Uh... Sure, just..." Rodney started to mutter, looking down at his detector again. His brow creased. "Wait a minute, this can't be right," he said, annoyed, and started fiddling with the detector.

"What is it?" John asked, coming closer to look over Rodney's shoulder. It told him nothing, of course, but it got Rodney's attention from his dark mutterings about lousy equipment.

Rodney looked at John and showed him the device as if John couldn't have seen it before. "The detector is malfunctioning," he complained. "These readings can't possibly be right, they're practically off the scale."

"Well, we could try going in and finding out," John suggested sarcastically, and Rodney shot him an annoyed glare before gesturing resignedly with his hand for him to take the lead.

John signaled Ronon and they both went in first, aiming their guns and checking every corner and every shadow for threats. It had crossed John's mind that the place was sealed off until they got there, but then again, until recently there were the Replicators who could have had access to this place and who could plant tiny tubes with killing nanites, so he didn't think that his caution was over the top. And there were, of course, those rough Asgards who proved to be capable of penetrating Ancient shields and who didn't have the best intentions either. No, his caution was definitely within reason.

The small room turned out to be a hallway that led to a larger chamber. As John stepped forward and passed the threshold the lights burst into life and John was left speechless.

Chapter 2

"So what did..." Rodney's question died on his lips as he, too, took in what was inside the chamber.

Stacked neatly in rows upon rows, like bookshelves in a library, were dozens of cases of drones, stretching across the entire length of the room. The holding units, built like hives with hexagons to host the inactive drones, were all completely full. There were no drones missing in any of the seen units, and all the drones looked slick and brand new even though they must be over ten thousand years old.

On the right wall was a sort of white line on which personal shields were neatly hung, rows and rows of them from one end of the chamber to the other. Just below them were Lantean personal weapons, held in a special device that kept them upright. They were exactly like those John had seen on the Aurora, and the quantity of them was dazzling.

And by the left wall were...

"Three ZedPMs," Rodney whispered in awe, approaching the stand slowly, almost like he was hypnotized. And indeed, inside a stand made out of the same hexagons that held the drones, were three ZPMs glowing bright with the kind of strong and steady light that indicated that they were fully charged.

Even Teyla and Ronon came to stare at the precious devices in silent awe. They were all so shocked at their discovery that they forgot that Noman was there with them.

"I see that you've found what you were looking for?" Noman asked gently, snapping them all out of their trance-like state.

Rodney and John turned to look at him, and John nodded. "Oh, I'd say we definitely found it. We just never expected to find so many of it," he said, gesturing at the chamber with his chin before turning back to look at all those Ancient weapons once more.

"We have to count them," Rodney said suddenly, taking out a notepad and a pen. "And we can start with three ZedPMs," he added gleefully. "How about Teyla count the personal shields, Ronon the Lantean personal weapons and Sheppard, you and I will count the drones?" he said, and without waiting for a response started counting the rows of the drone holding units.

John counted as well. There were twenty horizontal rows on six vertical, which meant that every holding unit hosted one hundred and twenty individual drones. And after a quick count it turned out that there were fifty units, which added up to...

"Six thousand drones," Rodney said hoarsely. John noticed the quivering in his hand as he wrote that number down, but couldn't bring himself to tease him about it. For starters, the only thing that currently filled his mind was the number six thousand, and secondly, his own stomach was lodged somewhere in his throat and he didn't think he could produce any sound at the moment.

Rodney looked up at John with solemn eyes. "John, we've got to convince them to let us have it all," he said, using John's first name in his excitement. "I can't even begin to tell you the number of uses we could put three ZedPMs and six thousand drones to, but there's a lot. We've got to get them to let us take it," he stressed again.

"And how am I supposed to do that, Rodney? It's not like its just one ZPM that we can take with us in a bag or something!" John hissed back at him, knowing just how poorly adapted he was for this task. The people of Olam had no reason to hand over all these weapons to them, and he sucked at diplomacy. Woolsey should have been there instead of him.

"No, this isn't just one ZedPM, this is an entire armory of Ancient weapons and there is nothing stopping us from taking it all other than the natives' permission. Talk to them, promise them help or medicines or ships, hell, promise them the moon! We need those three ZedPMs, John," Rodney's hand grabbed John's arm and he squeezed in emphasis.

Teyla and Ronon, accompanied by Noman, appeared next to them before Rodney had a chance to say something more. "With Noman's help we have counted five hundred personal shields, Rodney," Teyla said, smiling graciously at Noman, who smiled back kindly.

"And seven hundred personal weapons," Ronon added, and John felt his head spinning. They could give every member of the expedition a personal shield and a weapon and still have some to spare.

"I gather that you're interested in taking all of it home, Colonel?" Noman asked, his face deceptively calm.

John turned to look at him, wary. Noman might be a nice person, but if he was some sort of minister then he wasn't stupid. At least, not stupid enough to allow total strangers to take an arsenal of weapons with no idea what they were going to do with them.

"Yes, we would. I'd be happy to talk to you about what you would like in return for these," he said, carefully, watching Noman's reaction.

But Noman simply smiled. "Let us go outside. If we linger too long others may come looking for us. It might also be advisable to lock this room again. Using your unique ability, of course," he said, looking at John for his approval. Hesitantly, John nodded. The ball was in Noman's court and they both knew it.

They made their way out (Ronon had to drag Rodney from veering towards the ZPMs) and blinked in the sun for a minute before adjusting to the natural light once more. John put his hand on where the wall was supposed to be and thought it closed, and the wall reappeared under his hand with startling ease.

He expected to be taken back to where they had sat before, or maybe even to meet with whatever passed as a government on this planet. Instead, Noman led them a few feet away from the Ancient chamber to where a group of rocks rose from the ground and sat on one, clearly waiting for them to do the same.

John sat down next to him and watched the excavation site when Noman turned to watch it as well. The workers resumed their activity there, some standing under the cream colored shadings and cataloguing artifacts and some coming and going from the small cave where the Stargate stood.

John had no idea what to say, or how to say it, so he opted for the truth. "Look. It's obvious that there's nothing your people can use any of those things for. If I wasn't here to open it for you, you would never have known that there was something behind the stone wall," John started.

"You might be right and you might not be right, Colonel. Even if I'm inclined to agree with you I can't determine anything without further information. For starters, I would very much like to know how you did what you just did," Noman replied with the same deceptive calm from before. John had a feeling that he was playing a game that he didn't know the rules of, and it put him on edge.

"I have a gene that allows me to operate Ancient... uh, Ancestral technology. Most of the things they built were designed to be operated by people who have this particular gene," John began, but saw that Noman didn't understand him.

"A... 'gene'?"

"There are different genes in the human body, like the gene for green eyes and brown hair and big hands and such. These genes determine our physical traits," John tried to explain, and was relieved when Noman's face was flooded with understanding.

"Yes, we are familiar with the concept, even if we have a different term for it. We have only recently made those significant leaps in our medicine and science," Noman confirmed. From the back Rodney muttered something about how this placed Olam somewhere near the level of development of Earth around 1900, maybe even less, before Ronon shut him up, but John hurried to jump at the opportunity.

"That's great. We can help you there, we discovered DNA a long time ago and we can even manipulate it and map it. Not to mention many more other medical and scientific advancements that we've made that we'd be willing to share, including," he offered temptingly, "gate technology. We'd be happy to provide you with the knowledge of how to operate the Stargate and a list of planets that are safe and friendly."

John thought it was a good proposal. Clearly these people had been cut off from the gate network for generations and thus hadn't heard of Atlantis' reputation, but they were about to earn a very powerful friend. A sneaked look at Rodney, Ronon and Teyla showed their approval and he turned back to Noman, smiling victoriously.

Noman, however, smiled a small and private smile and returned to observing the archeologists at the site. "I'm sure you are, Colonel. However I'm not sure that my people are ready for so many new discoveries at once. We have a number of revolutionary ideas circling around, one of them being the confirmation of the Cataclysm and the legends surrounding it, and more information will simply cause unnecessary confusion."

John watched, confused and dismayed at being rejected, as Noman touched the diagonal stripe that crossed his chest absently before turning back to look at him. "We are only now entering the era of discoveries. Until now, and even now, we consider ourselves as inventors and artists. The minds of Olam's inventors are fertile with ideas, and the imagination of Olam's painters is wild. As a matter of fact, regardless of whether we are alone in the universe or not, I'm sure that Olam's artists are the best in this galaxy," Noman said with unveiled pride.

John grinned back at him, then turned to look at Teyla who sat on his other side on the rock. "I'm sure Lorne would be overjoyed coming here," he commented, and she smiled back.

Noman's brow creased. "Does this Lorne have a special appreciation for art?" he asked, curious, and John tried a different approach. Maybe some cultural knowledge would tempt these people more.

"Oh yeah, he likes art very much. He even paints. I'm sure he would be happy to come here and show you some of our works of art, if that's what your people appreciate," John said enthusiastically, but inside he was uneasy. These people, with their preference for art and culture over medicine and science, reminded him of Proculus and nothing good came out of there.

"We would be happy to host him here. Who is he?" Noman replied warmly, very much interested now. John suddenly remembered that he was talking with the equivalent of the minister of culture and history. Of course he would be happy.

"He's my second, and we have centuries of art that he can show you," John answered, and moved on to something that wasn't as revolutionary as manipulating DNA. "We can also give you cures for different illnesses. Flu, some types of Cancer, Hepatitis... uh..." John fumbled for something to say that would not involve art and culture about which he had no idea, and was aware that Hepatitis and Cancer meant nothing to Noman.

"We have found a procedure that can save the lives of those infected with the Second Childhood," Teyla came to his aid, and John sent her a grateful look. "We can offer and even teach you..." Teyla trailed off, her brow creasing as she looked at Noman.

As John turned back to Noman too he found Noman staring at him, a strange look in his eyes. The gentle breeze ruffled his brown hair and blew it into his eyes, but it was only after a very long time that he averted his gaze.

Noman looked at the ground, smiling. "You want the contents of that chamber, Colonel Sheppard. In truth, we probably have no use for it. I'll be happy to give everything in that chamber to you if you and your Second would help me in return," he said finally, and when he looked back up his smile was somewhat unpleasant.

John looked at Teyla, but she couldn't offer him any insight into what was going on. "Okay, sure. What do you need?" John asked, cautious.

"Our world is heading towards elections. We are at our last round, and I have petitioned to lead the combined interests of Olam. I'll attempt to give you a short explanation about our governing system, so that you'll have a better understanding of what I ask.

"There are two rounds of elections. On the first round any person or group may participate, as long as they represent a new interest for the people of Olam. The residents of Olam choose who they want to continue on to the last round of elections according to the various interests being represented," Noman started.

"Oh. Like adopting a certain low proposal and being elected according to it," Rodney chimed in from Teyla's other side. Ronon beside him looked at Noman with suspicion.

"The two interests that received the most votes will be the final nominees, and the decision will fall between them. Until the time of the second elections each of the losing interests from the previous round must ally themselves with one of the two main rival interests, and that is so that after the elections the winning interest will have supporters in the Council of Law that decides which interest will be made into a law. The party that suggested the winning interest must fill sixty of the hundred seats of the Council, while the party that suggested the losing interest has only forty."

"So it's like a politician whose platform is a low proposal that must make coalitional treaties with less popular politicians in order to secure a majority after the elections. And the winning politician's law proposal will be made into an actual law because he has the majority of the council on his side and the support of the people, and the people are happy because other popular law proposals will also be turned into laws because of the coalitional treaties," Rodney explained, a look of wonderment in his eyes. "Huh, that's actually quite nice."

"Thank you, Doctor McKay," Noman smiled at Rodney and bowed his head slightly at the compliment.

"So you're law proposal... uh... interest... is?" Rodney prompted.

"My interest is one of the two main rivals in this final round," Noman replied, which was no answer at all.

"Which is?" John asked, his suspicion rising in the face of Noman's evasiveness.

"For every person to be able to choose a Second regardless of their gender."

John took a moment to take that in, trying to decipher what that meant, and failed. He had no idea what Noman was referring to, and wondered whether women are not allowed to take part in the politics of this world, because that was the closest he could place that statement.

"I am sorry, Noman, but when you say 'a Second' you mean..." Teyla trailed off meaningfully, sounding as confused as John was.

"Someone who has been through a legal binding ceremony, of course," Noman replied promptly. "As an advanced society that allows a man to take himself a Second who is another man you're the perfect example of the road we must take in order to become as enlightened as we seek to be," he added.

John stared at him, speechless. Noman assumed that because John called Lorne 'his second' ? which John only vaguely remembered doing ? he meant that he and Lorne were married. Noman, John realized, was trying to lead a revolution by promoting gay rights in his world, using John and Lorne as his winning card. Somehow even though John's brain repeated those facts to him, his mind refused to comprehend it.

"We'll do it," Rodney said suddenly, smiling and clapping his hands once as if it was a done deal.

"We-we will?" Teyla turned to look at Rodney, as did John, looking confused and concerned. John suspected that he, on the other hand, looked every bit as horrified as he was feeling.

"That is wonderful news! If my people can see your example then my group's interest is bound to win in the final round of elections. Once I take the role of High Councilor of the Council of Law I will have the authority to give you whatever it is that you want from that chamber to strengthen our new alliance," Noman said warmly, beaming at John and his team.

Rodney beamed right back. "See? Of course we'll do it!" he told Teyla, a note of smug victory in his voice.

"No, we won't!" John finally managed to find his voice, and raised it impressively at Rodney. What the hell was Rodney thinking, damn it!? John wasn't gay, and neither was Lorne. Hell, they were forbidden from even speaking about such things, and now Rodney wanted him to pretend that he lives happily ever after with his second in command!?

"McKay," John began, getting up and looming over his friend, lacing his voice with as much anger as he could. "If you think that I'm going to-"

"Come with me for a moment," Rodney interrupted him, getting up as well and smiling at Noman as he practically dragged John to the side.

John yanked his arm from Rodney's grasp angrily, turning to look at him. "What the hell were you thinking!?" he asked incredulously, not remembering being this angry with Rodney in a very long time. "This is madness, why the hell did you tell him we'd do it!? Do you even know what he's asking us to do!?"

Rodney's expression was serious and his mouth was set in a crooked line. "He's asking you and Lorne to pretend to be a happy gay couple in order to convince his people that gay people deserve the same rights as straight people," Rodney replied, looking at John intently.

"Yes, Rodney, that's exactly what we're talking about! And there's only one small problem with that plan ? I'm not gay!" John hissed angrily, the old urge he used to feel during most of his first year in Atlantis to deck Rodney returning with a vengeance.

"I know you're not," Rodney huffed, rolling his eyes at John. "But we don't have any other choice. If we can get Noman in a position of power, we get our ZedPMs and drones," he claimed.

John stared at him, unbelieving. "This is from the guy who wanted to take a nearly depleted ZPM that was in use protecting a planet full of children?" he asked snidely, crossing his arms over his chest angrily.

Rodney mirrored the gesture, looking back defiantly. "Things have changed since then," he said.

"Yes, they have! We have the Deadalus now. There's nothing stopping us from going back in, sticking a locator beacon on the ZPMs and having the Deadalus beam them up!" John was nearly shouting now. It was only pure luck that Rodney had managed to drag him far enough from Noman while he was still shocked that they weren't overheard.

"Yes, there is. If Noman is half as smart as I think he is, and while I don't have much faith in people in general being smart I must assume that he has at least a small amount of intelligence, he'll put a guard over that wall. And even if we could stick a locator beacon on those ZedPMs what would happen if they manage to open the wall themselves and find out we took everything behind their backs?"

"Rodney, they don't have the gene! How can they open the damn wall!?"

"This planet was once occupied by the Ancients. The probability of one of them having the gene is just the same as the probability of someone from Earth having it!" Rodney cried back, sounding as exasperated as if John was a rebellious six-year-old. "And then what would happen if the Coalition hears about it? Huh?"

John decided that they needed to check the coffee that was served in the mess hall this morning. Maybe it was responsible for Rodney becoming stupid, because something must've been. "McKay," he said slowly, trying to be as articulate and clear as possible. "Up until the moment we arrived here, which was five hours ago, they didn't even know for sure what the Stargate was used for."

"And if they find a tablet with an explanation on how to work it?"

"Oh, because the Ancients were so big on leaving detailed manuals behind!"

Rodney took a deep breath. "Look, let me make this simpler for you. You seem to have a rudimentary grasp of mathematics, so I'll paint you an equation. You and Lorne pretending to be gays equals three ZedPMs, six thousand drones, five hundred personal shields and seven hundred personal weapons," Rodney said impatiently.

"You're forgetting that this equation also equals me and Lorne landing in Leavenworth for a very long time and getting ourselves discharged with dishonor," John said icily.

"No one has to know!"

"And what do we write in our report to explain this? That we found a ZPM tree!?"

"Oh, ha-ha. Listen-"

"No," John cut Rodney short, something he should've done a long time ago, his voice low and dangerous. "You are going to go back to Noman, and you're going to apologize and tell him that we can't do what he wants us to do. You got me into this mess, now you're going to get me out," John ordered, pointing back at where Noman was now talking with Teyla and Ronon. Both Teyla and Ronon kept gazing at John and Rodney, uncertainty written over Teyla's face and a frown adoring Ronon's.

Rodney put his hands on his hips, tilted his head to the side and stared at John without saying a word, his entire body screaming defiance. John wanted to shoot him.

"Why are you so adamant about this, damn it!?" John asked, frustrated.

"Because there's a chance that they can figure out how to work the gate. And if they do and they find out that we stole from them then the Coalition is bound to hear about it as well," Rodney said, in all seriousness. "If it was two months ago I'd have no problems with sticking a locator beacon on the entire stash of Ancient weapons and beaming it up using the Deadalus. But since then the Coalition was formed and beyond the fact that I don't want to spend the rest of my life in some flee-bitten prison cell on a world where coffee hasn't even been invented, we need allies here. And we need to know that if we step through the gate we won't be attacked or left out for the Wraith to feed on us," he said, his voice breaking over the last few words like it always did when he was trying very hard to convince someone of something he believed to be unquestionably true.

And he had valid points. Woolsey also told John to be very careful, and John remembered the last time they were at the hands of the Coalition none too fondly. He knew that the next time there might not be a trial and Woolsey might not be able to come to their rescue or lure one of their captors with sweet promises.

This was not a decision he felt comfortable making alone, and that fact frustrated and angered him more than anything Rodney had said so far.

~o~o~o~o~

"He thinks that you and Major Lorne are what?" Woolsey was so shocked it might have been funny if it wasn't for the fact that they were talking about John's career.

"Married. He thinks we're married," John forced through clenched teeth.

Woolsey looked at John's team, seated around the conferences room's large wooden table, eyebrows climbing up from behind his glasses. "And none of you thought to correct his mistake?" he asked, a note of incredulousness in his voice.

"I tried," John said tightly, harshly, shooting an angry look at Rodney.

Rodney rolled his eyes at him. "Would you stop being so melodramatic? If it was me I'd sleep with Lorne in front of their entire council if it got me the ZedPMs," Rodney snapped back.

"But it's not you, damn it! It's me!" John's eruption startled Rodney, and even startled himself. He bowed his head and raked his hands through his hair, exhaling loudly. "Rodney, do you realize that you're asking me to do something I'm not even sure I can do?" he asked his friend, more quietly but with as much seriousness he could muster. This wasn't a joke. He wasn't gay, and neither was Lorne. Hell, John didn't even know if Lorne was seeing someone.

"Colonel," Woolsey said soothingly, sensing John's agitation, "I realized that what was asked of you might be a little unorthodox-" he began, and John looked at him sharply.

"Unorthodox? I have dedicated my life to an organization that forbids such actions, and screw anyone who dares wave that Don't Ask Don't Tell thing at me now because that's crap and you know it," John cut Woolsey off angrily. Was Woolsey really trying to justify Rodney?

"I know that," Rodney intervened somberly. "And despite that, six thousand drones are enough to wipe out every single Wraith vessel in our quarter of the galaxy and we'd still have plenty more to spare," he said with a strange conviction in his voice. John knew that under all the snipping and sarcasm Rodney wanted the Wraith defeated just like the rest of them did. He simply never imagined it would take such a toll on John himself.

"Is that really so, Doctor McKay?" Woolsey asked, surprised and hopeful.

Rodney nodded his head. "Yes, and that's not even bringing into account what other things we could do with the personal shields, or the ZedPMs. I mean, we would have an entire ZedPM to spare!" Rodney was getting excited once more, hands gesturing around in the air and eyes aglow at the thought of the ZPMs.

"What do you mean, a spare ZPM?" Woolsey asked, his words coming out slowly and haltingly as he tried to take everything in.

"After the Replicators' occupation of the city we were left with three ZedPMs. One was shipped back to Earth to power up the Ancient outpost, one was taken to the Prometheus to help it in the fight against the Ori, and one was left here. That one was depleted when we escaped from the Replicator beam, but we replaced it with the one we stole from the Replicators, which still powers the city.

"Even if we wanted more, we have room for only two other ZedPMs here in Atlantis, which leaves a spare one," Rodney said gleefully. He could have been dancing for all the difference it would make, because he was fidgeting and moving in his seat with barely contained excitement and nearly hitting Teyla on the head when he gestured wildly.

"And they're willing to give us all that? Why?" Woolsey sounded skeptic. John thought it was a good question. If they had an ounce of wisdom they wouldn't give a stash of powerful weapons to a race of 'aliens' they didn't even know. It would render the entire discussion about John's alleged marriage to Lorne moot and leave John with enough time to kick Rodney's ass all over the gym before they were due to go back.

"Noman said on a number of occasions that his people have no need for the Ancestral weapons. They do not know how to work them, and even if they did they have not yet found signs of any platform from which to launch the drones. Also, they have not been visited by the Wraith in countless generations," Teyla provided, her voice slightly stronger than usual in order to cut short any response either John or Rodney were about to make.

"And this is the only thing they've asked for in return?" Woolsey looked relieved to hear her, after having been forced to listen to John and Rodney argue for the past half hour.

"He said that while they'd be willing to receive our help in other areas, it must be done gradually. And unless we wish to wait for the release of the Ancestral items..." Teyla trailed off meaningfully, and Rodney jumped almost as if on cue.

"No! Definitely not waiting!" he exclaimed, causing all heads to turn to look at him. "You never know what might happen and there are all sorts of things that could deplete a ZedPM," he explained a touch defensively. "I mean, what if there was some sort of an accident?"

"Oh, and you would know. You managed to deplete one all by your two selves," John remarked venomously.

Rodney shot him an annoyed glare. "I didn't have much of a choice. It was either that or watching my double die from cascade failure. And besides, you all said that you hated Rod!"

"I kinda wished he'd stayed right now. At least he would have had the brains not to start spouting nonsense and getting me into trouble!"

Woolsey cleared his throat meaningfully. "Gentlemen, please," he said, waiting until they broke away from their staring contest. "I happen to agree with Doctor McKay. Regardless of the incident in question, imagine what would have happened if during your trip in space you had three ZPMs instead of just the one?" he asked, causing them all to wince.

If they had had more than one ZPM, Elizabeth would still be alive, the Replicators wouldn't have destroyed all those worlds and many other people wouldn't have been hurt.

"Exactly," Woolsey agreed, almost as if reading their minds. "I also think that there was nothing more you could have offered them other than weapons, and that is unacceptable."

"Wait a minute," John straightened in his seat. "You're not really thinking of making us go through with it, are you?" he demanded, desperation and frustration coursing through him. Was he the only one who understood that this was complete madness?

"Yes, we are. If we can get Noman in a position of power we get the ZedPMs," Rodney said sharply, his patience with John wearing thin. Well, let it, John didn't mind.

"We haven't even heard what his rival has to offer. Maybe the other guy will accept something else from us that doesn't require me to do ridiculous things!" John turned to Woolsey in his desperation, trying to get him to see reason.

"Maybe he will, and maybe he won't. We may not have the necessary impact on his cause to secure his victory as we have on Noman's. If we ally ourselves with the losing side what will we do then, Colonel?" Woolsey spoke up, looking John in the eyes. John could see that he was leaning towards accepting Rodney's course of action, and wanted to shake him awake. "The way I see it, we have a chance to influence the results of the elections on that planet, and thus secure ourselves the ZPMs and many more useful items."

John stared at him, trying hard to find an argument that he hadn't used yet. "And who says that Noman will actually give us the ZPMs if he's elected?" he asked, holding on desperately to that question. "We have only his word."

"He said that if you agree, he is willing to give us one ZPM as a token of good faith until the time of the elections," Teyla said, sounding a bit rueful at having to smash John's hopes.

John stared at her angrily. "He did? When did he say that?" he demanded.

"While you and Rodney were... talking. Ronon and I have explained to him the purpose of the ZPMs and he said that out of all the things in the chamber, those sounded the least dangerous to his people," she replied, not quite meeting his eyes.

"Yeah. Said that while we were there he would also have a chance to get to know us and our intentions," Ronon had no problems looking at John, and John could see that he, too, supported the idea.

"'Our intentions'? 'Our intentions' right now are to lie to them, those are 'our intentions'!" John said bitterly.

"Sheppard, they'd be making a pact with Atlantis as a whole. What you and Lorne do there is personal and no one has to know that it's a lie, if what we tell them about the city and our goals in the fight against the Wraith isn't," Ronon said matter of fact.

"I agree with Ronon, Colonel. While I don't whole heartedly approve of influencing the result of any elections on any planet, I cannot let an opportunity to obtain this many needed technologies at such a low price slip by us. And I completely approve of Noman's way of thinking. By having you stay on Olam, he will be able to judge whether we're truly friends or foes," Woolsey added, mild regret showing in his eyes as John looked at him with disbelief.

"And if he decides that we're foes?" John asked quietly.

"Your job is to make sure that he doesn't," Woolsey said simply, and then took off his glasses and closed his eyes. When he opened them again they held disarming honesty. "Colonel, I can't and won't order you to do this-"

"Yes you can!" Rodney cut him off, but Woolsey held his hand up to stop him without even looking in Rodney's direction, never breaking eye contact with John.

"All I can do is promise you that no one outside the senior staff would know the truth, including the SGC and Earth. You know that at the moment I can't order the Deadalus to steal the ZPMs, and neither can Washington. We can try to do that once things have settled down with the Coalition, but this may not happen in the foreseeable future and we have no guarantee that we will remain safe from the Wraith or from other threats that may come our way in the meantime.

"I'm hoping that you can see that what Doctor McKay has offered is the most prudent course of action," he said quietly, and looked at John with patience, giving him time to think.

There was nothing much to think about. John knew that this was the best course of action, it was the fact that he'd have to put everything he had worked his entire life to earn in danger that he didn't approve of.

And then there was Lorne.

"Lorne should have a say in the matter as well," John said quietly, voice low with defeat.

Woolsey smiled at him a smile that wasn't at all victorious, which John appreciated. "Yes, he should," Woolsey said, and tapped his earpiece. "Amelia, could you send for Major Lorne? I'll be waiting for him in the briefing room," he spoke into his earpiece, and nodded his approval once he received Amelia's answer.

Lorne must've been close to a transporter because he was entering the conference room less than a minute after being summoned. John turned to look at him, actually seeing him for the first time.

Lorne had a few traits that were hard to miss, like his buff figure and his blue eyes. John remembered those blue eyes looking at him frantically, pupils dilated, as he pointed a gun at who he thought in his dream was a Replicator. But other than that John had never really paid Lorne's face or body any attention. He never had any reason to give Lorne anything other than a fleeting look, and certainly no reason to look at Lorne as an object of desire.

But now that John looked, he could see that Lorne was actually a good looking man. His eyes were big and his eyebrows were thick and expressive. His nose was short with large nostrils, and his mouth was straight and thin-lipped. His ears were small and his hair short and flat, and there was something pleasant about his mannerisms and smile that put people at ease.

"You wanted to see me, Mr. Woolsey?" Lorne asked as he entered the room, though he slowed down when he saw that John and his team were there as well and were all turning to look at him. "Sir," he acknowledged John, "when did you get back? And how did it go?"

John turned away from him and looked at the table. Let someone else explain it to him.

"Actually, Major, it was beyond my wildest dreams," Rodney filled in happily, waving at Lorne to sit on the empty chair beside him.

Lorne's brows rose and he smiled. "Really, Doc? You got the ZPM?" he asked, honest excitement in his voice.

Rodney's smile was so bright it hurt John's eyes. "ZedPMs. Plural," he corrected, and Lorne nearly gaped.

"How many?"

"Three. Fully charged," Rodney said delightedly. "And six thousand drones, five hundred personal shields and seven hundred personal Lantean weapons," he continued to recite happily, watching Lorne the entire time.

Lorne sat back in his chair, a look of awe on his face. "Wow," he said quietly. "The things we could do with three ZPMs are..." he tried to find the right words, looking excitedly all around the table. "I mean, we could actually replace the ZPM on M7G-677 and relocate refugees there, or start powering up systems in the city that we never had the power to spare for before. And six thousand drones! That's enough to take out-"

"-All Wraith vessels in our quarter of the galaxy, yeah, we know," John cut into the Major's excitement impatiently.

Lorne looked at John and frowned. "So what do they want in return? Do I need to get my team ready to pick up the ZPMs?" he asked, turning back to practical lines after seeing John's scowl.

"They want our help in winning their elections," Teyla answered him.

"Winning the elections? Normal, democratic elections?" Lorne asked, and Rodney nodded, "That's all?" he sounded suspicious, for which he got full marks from John.

"Their way of life is undergoing several major changes. Noman, the man we were talking to, said that he'd be glad to receive any advancements we have made and are willing to share in the fields of medicine and science. But as an official representative of his people he cannot allow us to flood them with information they may not fully grasp and would misuse to bring harm upon themselves. So our help with the elections is the best thing we can offer at the moment," Teyla explained.

Lorne's brows shot up. "Well, this is new. A less advanced race that actually refuses superior technology for fear of bringing destruction on themselves," Lorne said, clearly referring to the many rejections made by advanced races to Earth regarding sharing advanced technology.

John, however, wasn't really in the mood for SGC stories. "I'm glad you find it so intriguing, Major," he snapped icily, and Lorne quickly flashed him a guilty look.

"Sorry, sir," he muttered, looking uneasy all of a sudden. "You didn't call me here to get my team ready or to simply tell me about your mission," he stated.

"Not entirely, Major," Woolsey intervened. "The people of M1M-995 are willing to give us the entire contents of the Ancient armory. However, due to a... well, an honest mistake, they think that you and Colonel Sheppard are married. In exchange for the ZPMs they want you and the Colonel to help them in their attempts to secure equal rights for same-sex couples," Woolsey explained.

It was only because John was waiting for it that he caught the fleeting look of horror and fear in Lorne's eyes. Lorne got up, agitated. "But I'm not-"

"We know you're not gay, Lorne," John cut him off once more. "Like Mr. Woolsey said, it was an honest mistake. They take pride in their artists, I commented to Teyla that you'd be happy to come and visit there. They asked who you were and I told them that you're my second. Apparently being a Second on 995 is the same as being someone's husband," John explained tiredly.

"Actually the Second is the submissive partner of the two," Teyla corrected gently, and Lorne turned to look at her, eyes impossibly wide and horrified.

"You want to tell me that there's an entire world out there that thinks that the Colonel is..." Thankfully he stopped there, but John knew what he wanted to say. An entire world that thinks that John is fucking Lorne.

John bowed his head and looked at the table as the same discussion that had occurred moments ago between John and Woolsey now took place between Woolsey and Lorne, and looked up only when Woolsey pulled out his winning argument.

"Major, I know that you're not allowed to do such things under the military's code of conduct. I can't order you to do this just like I can't order Colonel Sheppard to, but I can promise you both that all anyone will ever know is that we sent the people of M1M-995 medical supplies and shared gate technology with them in return for the ZPMs," Woolsey told Lorne, who listened attentively even though John noticed that his hands were clasped together harder than necessary.

"I understand that," Lorne said quietly, casting John a cautious look. "I just don't like it."

"None of us do, Major. But I need you to understand that this is the best possible plan," Woolsey replied.

Lorne leaned forward over the table and looked down at the polished surface, brow creasing and mouth tightening. John heard him exhale much like John himself had a while ago, but when he looked up there was acceptance in his eyes. "How long until the elections?" he asked, voice measured.

"Three weeks," Woolsey answered.

Lorne turned to look at John, his eyes searching. "There's a simple truth we can't ignore here, sir, which is that we need every advantage we can get," he told John, and John had no choice but to nod. He was right. They had the Wraith looming over their heads, a group of rouge Asgards that managed to escape their guns and nothing ensured them that those scary silvery alien creatures that John saw in another reality when they boarded that alternate Deadalus didn't also exist in this one.

"So you'll do it?" Woolsey asked, addressing both of them.

"We don't really have much of a choice," John said, defeated.

"Thank you, Major, Colonel," Woolsey concluded. "While you're there I want you to assess the planet and the people. We have a chance to create bonds with a planet that knows nothing about us except what we tell them, and we need an ally when dealing with the Coalition as well.

"Doctor McKay. I want you to make sure that there is no launching platform on the planet. It would also be good to know why they have gone for so long undetected by the Wraith," Woolsey looked at Rodney, who nodded briskly. "Doctor Keller will be joining you to provide the cover story of humanitarian aid, and also to help you with any difficulties that might arise.

"Ronon, Teyla," Woolsey addressed both of them. "I would like you to move around and be alert. We don't know what treatment homosexual couples might get on M1M-995. If it's anything like Earth I think both Major Lorne and Colonel Shepard will need all the help they can get and I want you to look out for them," Woolsey said, bringing forth another problem John had not even thought of.

"Of course," Teyla agreed.

Finally Woolsey looked at everyone around the table. "I wish you all good luck."

Chapter 3

After the meeting John went to his office. Usually he tried to avoid being there, but now it was a welcome refuge. No one would think of looking him there, and he needed some time to think. He went to the cabinet that stood against one wall and unlocked it, pulling Lorne's file out.

John still remembered the meeting in Landry's office a few years earlier, where he was told that Lorne would be his new 2IC.

"...Marksmanship awards, service awards, graduated top of his class in the academy. Has a degree in mining engineering and graduated with honor. Served his country during the gulf war with the cartographers' unit and received the bronze star for his heroism. Was nominated for Outstanding Airman of the year. Been going through the gate for five years now and even participated in the battle over Antarctica two years ago, receiving the Distinguished Flying Cross. Other than that he's an organized, loyal, resourceful and brave young man," Landry looked at John, his eyes sliding from John's face to his shoulder where the brand new silver oak leaves were glistening. John knew that Landry didn't approve of his promotion.

When John said nothing, Landry sighed. "I know that you're not too keen on Major Lorne because he was Colonel Caldwell's appointment and not yours, Sheppard, but you need a new 2IC," he said impatiently.

John looked back rebelliously. "I already have a 2IC, sir," he replied stiffly. He hated that the SGC was trying to impose staff on him at such crucial levels, and he had plans to find Ford and bring him back the second he returned to Atlantis. Appointing someone to take Ford's place felt like giving up on him, and John would fight until his dying breath before doing that.

"You mean Lieutenant Ford? Colonel, please tell me you're joking!" Landry chuckled with no humor whatsoever. "Regardless of the fact that he's a twenty-five-year-old kid and still a Lieutenant, it is my understanding that he's high on some Wraith enzyme. Even if you did manage to bring him back he's going to need a very long time here on Earth to do some recovery, and after that his continued participation in the expedition will be negotiated on higher levels than this," Landry said incredulously, his eyes harsh as he stared John down.

John knew that he was never going to win that battle. He had command over Atlantis and he'd take care of Ford's search and rescue when he got back, unless he'd been given specific orders. But he'd be damned if he was going to allow them to stick their poster boy on him like this. The man was a damn walking grocery list.

"Sir, I'm going to need someone who can fight the Wraith. He needs to be smart and fast, to know how to stand his ground and how to resist mental and physical strain," John said tightly. He and Landry didn't really see eye to eye. Landry wanted Caldwell in Atlantis and was angry that Elizabeth pulled her connections to leave John as the military commander, and John was angry that Landry was willing to kick him out of the expedition that easily if he had gotten his way.

"Oh, I don't think you need to worry about that, Colonel. Major Lorne had had five whole years to meet with all sorts of aliens and fight all sorts of battles. He started with a mining operation just as green as you were on your first gate travel, and now if it wasn't for the fact that his ATA gene is almost as strong as yours he would have been given command of his own team here," Landry said, a touch of anger in his voice. "Any other problems I should know about?" he asked in a voice that clearly said that John had better keep his mouth closed.

"No, sir," John barely forced the words out.

"Good!" Landry beamed at him, though his eyes remained hard. He pressed a button and spoke into the intercom. "Walter, send Major Lorne in."

John expected at the time to see some small and scrawny kid whose ego reached the moon. That was the type of favorites Generals usually had, with just enough attitude to make his sponsors chuckle and wave their finger at him fondly but who also knew how to suck up when needed. Instead the man who came into the office was anything but. He was buff, in his thirties if John had to make a guess, and his face was serious and respectful. His voice was calm when he entered and he didn't salute, simply stood at easy attention.

John had spared Lorne no further look after the meeting at Landry's office, even though Lorne always smiled at him pleasantly whenever they ran into each other in the SGC's hallways. Gradually however, the smiles turned to subdued greetings, and it wasn't until John was in Atlantis and had to put together new teams that he remembered that he had not seen Lorne while on the return trip on the Deadalus at all.

John had teamed Lorne with Stevens, Walker and Parrish, remembering something Rodney had said about Botanists never getting into any kind of trouble unless it was carnivorous plants, and thinking that it got one worry off his shoulders if the new poster boy stayed out of harm's way.

Then Lorne had found Ford and John realized that Ford was not coming back. He gave Lorne Ford's duties as executive officer because he had no choice but couldn't manage to see him in a positive light, especially after he so brightly got himself kidnapped by the Genii. He started really trusting Lorne only after they were attacked by the Replicators' beam and John had seen firsthand Lorne's leadership skills and flying capabilities.

After John had noticed that, he also noticed that Lorne had proven himself to be the promised asset to the expedition. He had rescued John many times and almost never needed rescue himself. He was trusted by both Elizabeth and Carter, and John knew that he and Carson were close friends because he heard Lorne talking to Carson's mother at his funeral on Earth.

Yet strangely enough, John never really took the time to get to know Lorne. He knew that Lorne did almost half of the paperwork that was supposed to have been done by John simply because it always disappeared from his desk and reappeared done. He knew that Lorne used to sleepwalk in his childhood because he had admitted it after nearly killing John in his sleep. Even his knowledge of the Major's painting hobby was only due to the fact that Lorne came running to the control tower to help while still holding his brush and smeared with paint after Hewston exploded.

Hell, John wasn't even sure he knew the man's first name. He had read Lorne's file, of course. He couldn't afford not to. But that was four years ago and he hadn't exactly focused on the personal details of it.

Looking at the file, Lorne's first name read Evan. And to John's surprise, they were both born in 1970 and were of the same age. Somehow to John Lorne always looked younger, mostly because poster boys tended to be cocky young officers. He was born in San Francisco and had an older sister-

The Ancient doorbell chimed and John frowned at the interruption. He thought about pretending not to be there, because he was almost never in his office, but reconsidered when he remembered that it might have something to do with their recent impossible mission and the reason he was studying Lorne's file.

Heaving a sigh, John reached for the door control, touching it to open the door and revealing the very person that occupied John's thoughts standing at the entrance.

John raised his eyebrows, once again taking note of the Major's appearance. He was wearing the military issue long-sleeved gray shirt and it stretched nicely over his wide shoulders and chest, also revealing a flat stomach. He had his sidearm strapped on his thigh, something not even John did all the time, and his boots were nicely cleaned.

John thought for a moment to ask 'is there anything I can help you with?' in the same tone of voice he usually used when he didn't want to be bothered, but now he and Lorne were on the same boat and he didn't want this to be even more strained that it already was. "Come on in, Lorne," he invited instead.

Lorne came in, touching the control crystals to close the door after him, and looked up at John to meet his eyes. Lorne was shorter than John was, John suddenly realized.

"Sir, I can see that you're uncomfortable doing this," Lorne said without preamble, taking the seat John offered him. When John thought about it, Lorne never talked to him unless he had something to say that was work related, and even then he said it as efficiently and succinctly as possible. "I just wanted to say, sir, that if you really have a problem with it we can always try to find some other way, maybe send someone else."

John appreciated the offer, but it was not practical. John wasn't sure what would happen if word of this reached Washington but he knew that heads would roll, and the more people to know about it the more chances it had to spread around. He trusted the senior staff to have more brains than that. He wasn't sure he trusted anyone else.

"It's fine, Lorne. With me it is, at least. What about you?" John asked, and Lorne raised surprised blue eyes at him.

"Me?" Lorne looked confused and somewhat wary.

"Yeah. For example, are you seeing someone at the moment?" John shrugged. It was strange, having small talk with Lorne, but he needed to get used to it.

"No, sir," Lorne smiled a rueful smile. "Nothing like that."

John raised an eyebrow. "What, no one caught your eye?" he tried for a light tone, and was impressed that he succeeded.

"Well, yes, but nothing could ever come out of it," Lorne dismissed the question quickly and looked at John with sharp eyes. "Sir, the reason I asked you whether you're sure is that I don't want this to change the way things are between us now for the worse," he said, serious and tense.

John closed his own eyes briefly. That was another thing he hadn't even thought about. "I don't know, Lorne," he told Lorne honestly. Lorne deserved it. It wasn't his fault that he fell right into the middle of this messed up situation. "I can't promise you anything because I don't know what's going to happen," he added, some of his frustration escaping his tight control.

John liked letting go of control from time to time. Like boarding a ferries wheel, or flying an F-302 close to the sun. But this? This was not the good kind of not being in control.

"What if it will change things between us?" John asked, needing to know the answer both because Lorne was a good officer that John wanted to keep close and because he was curious.

"I'll return to the SGC," there was something final in Lorne's voice when he said that, something that indicated that he had thought deep and hard about it, and it bothered John. Lorne didn't deserve that.

"No," John said, just as final.

Lorne smiled ruefully. "Please, sir. It's not like you'll be the one to go back if things get messy. You belong here."

"And you don't, Major?"

"I do," Lorne said confidently. "But I can find my place back at the SGC. When you were there you almost went crazy. Besides, they need you here more than they need me and that's a fact you can't argue with. I'm more easily replaceable than you are."

John leaned forward, coming closer to Lorne to get his point across. "Major, even if it will cost me in blood, you will not be sent back to the SGC because of this," he said lowly, voice a little hoarse with the seriousness he put into it. "You're a good officer and a good commander, and you don't deserve to be punished for something you have no choice but to do," he stared at Lorne hard, wanting to see understanding in his eyes.

"I could have refused," Lorne pointed out instead.

"Like hell you could have. Just like I could have," John countered harshly. They both knew that there was only one answer they could have given. "Do I make myself clear?" he demanded.

The Ancient doorbell chimed again before Lorne could give an answer, but John made no move to reach for the door control. "Major?" he asked again, not breaking eye contact.

Lorne finally looked down and nodded. "Yes, sir," he said, but John had no idea whether he believed John or not.

"Good," John said, deciding as he reached for the door control that they'd take things as they came.

Once the door opened Doctor Keller came through, her smile faltering as when she saw Lorne sitting by John's desk.

"Hi," she said, raising her hand hesitantly. "Uh... Rodney said that he saw Major Lorne entering your office, Colonel, but... uh... I'm obviously interrupting something so I'll just-"

John raised a hand to stop her from both talking and leaving. "It's fine," he said. "We're finished with the important stuff."

Keller looked relieved. "Oh, good!" she said, beaming at them. "I must say that when Rodney first told me what you're about to do I laughed in his face," she smiled warmly at them both. "And when I realized that he wasn't kidding I yelled at him for five minutes," she looked smug and pleased with herself, and John grinned.

"As long as you'll do that a couple of times more I'll be satisfied," he said pleasantly. John had known for a while now that Rodney was in love with Keller, and the thought of her yelling at him because of his stupid idea was just great. When he looked at Lorne and saw the glint of amusement in his eyes he knew that he was not the only one who had noticed.

"Well, I'll be happy to do so until the elections are over," Keller answered with mock self-importance and took the last remaining chair next to Lorne, sitting close to them both.

"You are?"

"Sure. Officially I'm coming along to offer the people of M1M-995 medical supplies and advancements we've made in the area. Unofficially I'll be there to help you two pretend to be gay," Keller said cheerfully, and John felt a headache beginning to form. Next to him he could just see Lorne's horrified expression before Lorne turned his head away.

"You will?" John asked, unable to share her enthusiasm.

"Well, with the physical aspect of it. I believe that the rest of it you can improvise on your own," Keller's voice took on a note of uncertainly. John looked at her dubiously, refraining from mentioning that he wasn't gay for the thousandth time that day. "Well, you've had relationships before, haven't you?" Keller asked hesitantly, her perkiness ebbing away.

"Yes, I have. With women," John reminded her.

"It's not all that different, you know."

"I don't." John knew that he was being difficult but couldn't really help it. He sighed, picking up a pen and fiddling with it absently.

Keller looked at him with reproach. "Look, Colonel, I know that you don't really want to do this but if you're going to do it anyway you might as well do it right. Otherwise, what's the point?" she admonished, but John already knew it. He wasn't narrow minded, and knew that gay men had emotions just like him and liked doing many things that he did as well.

"Sorry, Doc. You were saying?" he apologized, looking briefly at her. She nodded as she accepted his apology, but her lips still pressed together unhappily.

"I know you don't want to do this," she started again, gentler this time, "but having a negative attitude is bound to ruin everything. So just... try, okay?" she asked, and John nodded. "Good. Now, I'm no expert on gay sex, but then I doubt that there's anyone who is. I did, however, teach a class about it during my final year in med school as a favor for a local high-school teacher during national tolerance week."

John knew what she was about to explain. And he was never going to tell her that he was familiar with the subject. It brought him back to a drunken night when he was eighteen, when he and two of his buddies gave each other hand jobs and John had even given head to each of them in a drunken fit of curiosity. It never went beyond that, and John had never felt curious again or attracted to another man again, but he still knew what the next step entitled.

That being said, having a male hand on your dick, or the vague recollection of someone else's dick in your mouth, was a far cry from being in a relationship with a guy.

"I'm assuming you two know how gay sex is done, basically?" Keller asked, tone completely professional.

Lorne smirked, talking for the first time since she entered the room. "Doc, we're working with marines. They use terms like these in their daily talks. It's kind of hard not to know," he joked, smiling widely at her and receiving an amused chuckle in return.

"We'll go over it anyway. Gay sex is achieved through anal penetration. In order to do it without causing harm to the person who's bottoming the annular muscle needs to be stretched and loosened, and a lubricant needs to be applied by both parties to ensure that no damage is done to the anterior wall of the rectum.

"The pleasure of gay sex is achieved both from the friction caused by thrusting movements and by the stimulation of the prostate gland, which surrounds the urethra just below the urinary bladder, and..." Keller stopped as both John and Lorne stared at her, incredulous. "What?"

Across from John Lorne shook his head, eyes wide open and eyebrows arching up. "Are you sure we're talking about sex here, Doc? Because I don't think I've ever been more turned off in my life," he drawled, half-amused.

Keller's face fell. "I'm sorry, Major. But I'm an MD, I don't really know how to give the information any other way. Besides, it's not like you'll be asked to have sex, but you might be asked to explain the mechanism behind it," she said apologetically, resting her hand on Lorne's uncovered arm and squeezing in reassurance.

Looking at her hand on Lorne's arm John noticed that Lorne's arm was muscular and lightly furred, and made Keller's hand draped over it look small in comparison.

"Doc, we need to convince people to vote for our cause, not chase them away," John said, tearing his eyes away from the contrast between Keller's pale skin and Lorne's military tan. If they'd need to sleep with each other he'd pull the plug on the mission, but he may need to explain things better than that to make it sound normal and appealing. Which, at the moment, it wasn't.

"I know," Keller gave him a half-smile and sighed. "Well, it could be just as fun as heterosexual sex, you know," she dropped the professional tone and her voice took on a desperate edge. John didn't envy her. She was trying to explain just how much fun gay sex could be to two heterosexual guys.

"I mean, gay people go down on each other, and they have sex games just like heterosexual people do. Their foreplay is a necessary part of the sex so it's always there, and there are many ways to make it pleasurable. Like rimming, or using sex toys or even..."

John allowed Keller to talk, briefly wondering how and why she knew all that, and looked at where Lorne was trying very hard to read some hidden script on John's desk top. He didn't once raise his eyes, even when John's stare lingered on the top of his head.

John wondered how Lorne pleasured a woman in bed, but couldn't quite place soft breasts and gentle hands next to Lorne's wide shoulders. Lorne had mentioned being turned off by Keller's explanation, and John could relate. But he did wonder what Lorne would look like when turned on, how his polite mask will fall being at the receiving end of all the things Keller was explaining. John had rarely seen an expression that wasn't polite attentiveness on his face and he was naturally curious.

As soon as he caught on to what he was thinking he stopped and nearly groaned, but held back at the last moment. He had no desire to explain his current train of thought to either Keller or Lorne, and wasn't even sure he wanted to dwell on it himself. Instead he rubbed his hands over his eyes tiredly and allowed Keller to prattle on and on about the wonders of homosexuality uninterrupted.

This was by far one of Rodney's worst ideas. In fact, it was even worse than blowing up three-quarters of a solar system.

He was so screwed.

~o~o~o~o~

"So, are we all set to go?" Rodney clapped his hands with an air of accomplishment about him, and John gave him a disgusted look. They were in the control tower and Ronon and Rodney were helping Keller carry large suitcases filled with medicines that had no room on the already overloaded FRED.

Turning his back pointedly on Rodney, John cast an assessing look at Lorne. "Major, are we all ready to go?"

Lorne tightened the strap of his thigh holster, the last one in a line of check ups he preformed for the last two minutes, with a sharp tug. "Yes, sir," Lorne said readily.

"What!? No, no, no, no, no, what's the matter with you!? You can't call him 'sir'! Hello, you're supposed to be lovers!" Rodney said vehemently, and John's eyes widened in disbelief, fear and anger. He looked around them wildly even as he moved to close in on Rodney, grabbing his vest and hauling his back against the gate.

"Damn it Rodney, how much more damage do you want to do!?" John growled in his face, furious. Did Rodney want to get him kicked out of Atlantis? Because he sure as hell behaved that way. "If you'll slip one more time I swear it to god, McKay, I'll personally throw your ass through the next incoming wormhole!" he yelled in Rodney's face, positively seething.

Hands tugged John away from Rodney, and Rodney slowly moved back from the gate, rubbing his hand over the back of his head absently. "I'm really sorry, John," he said, sounding very sincere. "I-I wasn't thinking-"

"You're damn right you weren't. In fact, you probably stopped sometime the day before yesterday," John snapped at him, still glaring and ignoring the people who were now staring at the pair of them with confusion.

"Colonel, may I see all of you in the conference room please?" Woolsey's voice cut through the staring contest between John and Rodney.

Reluctantly John broke away and stalked up the stairs and into the conferences room, the others trailing close behind. Once the doors were closed, Woolsey turned to Rodney with a serious expression on his face.

"Need I remind you, Doctor McKay, that your discretion is vital to the success of this operation?" he asked Rodney mildly, and Rodney looked back defiantly. John mentally groaned.

"No, and I said I was sorry. But I think you need to remind them that they are supposed to be lovers," he answered back, jerking his thumb in the direction of both John and Lorne.

Woolsey nodded. "That we need to do as well," he agreed, and turned to John and Lorne. "Colonel, Major, despite the obviously bad timing, Doctor McKay has a point. We've been neglecting an important aspect of this fraud. You are supposed to act like lovers."

"That means you can't go around calling each other 'Lorne' and 'sir'," Rodney intervened, making a passable imitation of both Lorne and John.

John held onto his frustration. He had agreed to do this, he reminded himself. "So," he forced his voice to be as mild as Woolsey's. "Should we go with 'honey' or 'baby'?" he asked snidely, and then grimaced. He wasn't doing a very good job at being agreeable.

Lorne flinched beside him, eyebrows drawing together. "I think 'Evan' would be fine, sir... uh... John." It was weird, hearing his name come out of the Major's mouth like that.

John decided to give it a shot. "Evan," he said, and watched as Lorne turned to him with surprise. He had never known anyone whose name was Evan, and it rolled unfamiliar in his mouth.

"Well, that's a start," Woolsey said pleasantly, satisfied. "Now, add some casual touch. Remember, you're in an intimate relationship, you should be touching each other almost unconsciously. A hand on the shoulder, for example, would do wonders in making someone believe your act," he demonstrated by placing his hand casually on Teyla's shoulder, and she smiled graciously at him.

John wondered when they all became such experts on homosexual relationships, and was sure that with the exception of himself no male in the room had even been with another man before.

"It would also help if you sounded, uh... what's the word? Proud? Yes, that's it. You should sound proud of Lorne when introducing him. Don't just step through the gate and throw 'this is Lorne' over your shoulder. Try doing it like this," Rodney stepped up to Lorne and smiled at Ronon, who stood passively on the other side of the room. "Noman, this is my Second, Evan," he said pleasantly and with a hint of actual pride in his voice, standing just a little too close to Lorne and touching Lorne's arm briefly.

John stared, a sour taste in his mouth. There was something very wrong with the image of Rodney standing beside Lorne like that, especially knowing that Rodney was in love with Keller. Keller, on the other hand, beamed at Rodney with the same pride about which Rodney was talking.

"Yeah, yeah. I've been married, remember?" John cut the demonstrations short and Lorne sent him a grateful, if surprised, look. "We'll manage," he said shortly, making to exit the room.

"See to it that you do, Colonel. I don't need to remind you what's at stake here," Woolsey called after him. John barely held back a sharp reply, not really needing a reminder. He wasn't an idiot, and it didn't take Rodney's brain to be able to figure out that three ZPMs were an answer to many pressing problems.

Instead, John simply stormed down the stairs and waited for everyone else there.

After that they were in front of the gate and ready to embark with no further incident. John sent Lorne one last look, not really sure what he was searching for or what he was trying to convey, and went through.

The other side had been changed dramatically since their first visit to Olam. Where once was a cave, now it looked like a large hall. Metal beams supported the mass of the rocky hill over the gate and the walls opened to the sides, leaving much more room to gather and letting bright natural light stream in.

John took a deep breath and tried to resolve this mess once and for all. Men were not women. They didn't need to be protected and cuddled. There was no reason for John to look back to see if Lorne followed him through, just like he would never have expected Nancy to look after her to see if he had come into the house as well, even though she always did. Instead, John expected Nancy to trust that he'd come, and so he trusted that Lorne would come as well.

He wasn't disappointed.

Lorne came to stand next to him, just a little too close like Rodney had demonstrated before, and John stifled the urge to step aside. He watched Lorne look around him, mouth curving in a slight smile, before looking forward at their welcoming party.

Noman was there, as were the folks that worked at the dig. Only today other officials were gathered there as well, all dressed like British judges though the colors varied according to what John assumed was their rank or station.

John gritted his teeth as he stepped forward, placing a hand on Lorne's shoulder like Rodney did before. "Noman, this is my Second," the name 'Lorne' almost came out of his mouth automatically. "Major Evan Lorne," he finished hastily. "Evan, this is Noman, the man we've told you about," he told Lorne, his first name still feeling strange to pronounce.

Lorne's face came alight when he smiled, stepping forward to offer his hand to Noman who, after some confusion, grasped it and shook it firmly. "It's a pleasure to be here, Noman. I'm quite excited after everything John has told me about your people," he said brightly. John, who was breathing a little more easily now that he wasn't so close to Lorne, struggled to hide his surprise. Lorne made it look so easy and so natural that John felt a pang of envy.

Noman laughed easily, clearly liking Lorne. "It's me who should say that we're excited, Major Lorne. We've heard you're an artist yourself, and we're very keen on seeing your works. My people appreciate art more than anything," he explained, and turned to look at Keller when he noticed her checking to see if the journey on the rough ground had disturbed some of her more sensitive drugs.

"Noman, this is Doctor Keller. As a token of good will we have brought her with us along with medical supplies that we'll continue to share between our two people," Lorne said, stepping back to stand close to John while Keller walked forward and shook Noman's hand as well.

"Welcome to Olam," Noman told both Keller and Lorne. Keller nodded her thanks and smiled back at him.

"Thank you. You've made a good impression on John so I was looking forward to seeing what got him so excited. He's very hard to impress," Lorne replied warmly.

"I thank you, Major Lorne, although I'm afraid I can't return the sentiment since I've only heard of your existence in passing," Noman said, smiling apologetically. John turned away from Lorne's questioning gaze only to notice that people were ogling at them openly. He had a bad feeling about it. Had these people never see two men who loved each other, or was it the fact that they came through the gate that had everyone so agitated? And how would they react to each of those discoveries once the shock wore off?

"Yes, I understand that my name came up by mistake," Lorne said, and oh, what a multi-layered statement was that.

"Indeed. After I had proposed that you visit here the Colonel and Doctor McKay had a... very stern talk," Noman seemed to share Teyla's tendency to phrase things delicately. "I can only hope that my request didn't cause you any inconvenience," he added hopefully, and from what John could tell, also sincerely.

Lorne shook his head emphatically. "The inconvenience was caused by Doctor McKay, not you," Lorne said, and John's heart rose to his throat. What the hell was Lorne trying to do?

"Oh?" Noman gestured for them to start walking away from the gate, and after Rodney's not so gentle push John took his place beside Lorne and Noman.

"Yes. You see, it is inappropriate in our society to display our private emotions in public, and John is an especially private man. He dislikes showing his emotions in public so much that at the time I was afraid he'd refuse to invite our friends and family to our binding ceremony. So when Doctor McKay agreed to your request he put John in a very uncomfortable position," Lorne explained, the words flowing from his mouth as if there was never another truth besides this one, and John had to look at him, had to see if there was any trace of the lie in his face.

There was none, but John noticed Lorne's back turning stiff. Lorne was a model soldier, but even standing at attention his body was relaxed and fell into position with the ease of long practice and confidence. He was never this stiff, and John was surprised at himself for knowing this.

But something else was registering with him. Lorne had just provided them a way out from behaving all touchy-feely. The amount of physical contact they'd need to display would be minimal if the people of this world believe that it was inappropriate in their culture, and John had to salute Lorne for his good thinking.

"Oh. I'm sorry to hear that. But I am happy to see that despite your inhibitions you'll stay and help my people understand that there is no reason to treat bonds such as yours with distaste," Noman said in response to Lorne's explanation, and John nearly grimaced. There was something unnerving in Noman's confidence, and it didn't help with the feeling of losing control that had settled over John ever since Rodney opened his big mouth.

"You have something we need, and if exposing ourselves to your people is what it takes to get it, we'll do it," Lorne said simply, and then turned to smile back at John, a smile that was juvenile and secretive and that John had never seen on his face before. "But I'm happy as well. John was right, I would've loved to come here anyway and see for myself your arts and literature," he added pleasantly.

"Well, while Colonel Sheppard is very closed off I can see that you're quite the opposite," Noman clearly liked Lorne, and John was content to let Lorne steer the conversation and tuned both him and Noman out. Now that he was proclaimed as closed off he could actually behave as such without arousing suspicion, and while he never really considered himself as closed off, he didn't want to have to pretend to feel something he didn't.

They were going down the slope towards that covered bridge look-alike structure John had seen the day before, and when they finally reached it he saw a line of strange looking vehicles inside. If John were forced to make a comparison, he would've said that they resembled carriages, only without horses. They were compiled of open booths with short brown benches facing each other and small doors, but there was no room for horses or even a navigation system.

"These are our transportation devices," a man who walked a little further ahead of them was saying as he caught John's wondering gaze. He had a slender figure, pale complexion and brown hair. "Wherever we go we place these rails so that we may have easy access to our destinations," he showed John that there were three parallel rails beneath the carts, two for each set of wheels and one for a rod that came out of the bottom of each cart.

"Really? How does it work?" Keller asked when she arrived as well. She started supervising Ronon and Rodney as they transferred the contents of the FRED into the last cart and secured it. Rodney also lifted his head with interest, but Lorne and Teyla were still talking with Noman.

"We have managed to harness several of the natural powers to our advantage," the young man answered with evident pride. John's brow creased in confusion. There was obviously some gap in the way they named certain things and the way these people had.

The proud expression the young man was wearing slowly died when he realized that they didn't understand what he was talking about. "It's when two small particles are attracted or rejecting each other?" he explained hesitantly, showing with his fists two alleged particles, and Rodney's face lit up.

"Electricity!" he told John excitedly. "It's blue in color, right? Comes from the sky during storms?" he asked the young man, who nodded enthusiastically. "Electricity!" Rodney and John looked at each other, impressed.

"That's amazing," Keller's surprise didn't go silent either. "I mean, we started with steam engines and later moved to coal and fuel, and this is so much cleaner!" she said, abandoning Ronon to lift one of the giant tubes in which she carried delicate semi-large instruments alone.

"I am Zamsh. Please be seated," the man said and opened the door for them. He was wearing a replica of Noman's clothes, only his were green and John figured he must be of Noman's entourage and of a low rank.

John climbed into the cart first, sitting with his back to the dig and his face towards what appeared to be a large valley with high stone walls. Lorne climbed in next, and quickly squeezed himself against John to make room for Ronon and Keller while Teyla, Rodney, Noman and another unfamiliar man sat opposite them.

John tried to move back on the bench, but Lorne was still pressed hard against him and if he was to move another inch he'd probably fall. In front of him Teyla touched her shoulder and dipped her head meaningfully, and John remembered Woolsey's demonstration.

John moved and placed his hand casually, or as casually as he could manage, on the back rest above Lorne's shoulders and tried to look like he was busy examining the valley their little electric train was entering. In truth his hand felt so stiff he was afraid that it might fall as the carts jarred lightly while taking turns and rolling down slopes. He had been married, sure, and he knew what to do when you're near the person you love. It was just that around Lorne, who was also a man, nothing seemed to be flowing out of him as naturally as it usually did.

Lorne's hand came to rest on his knee and John nearly jumped back and fell out. Lorne appeared to be deeply immersed in his conversation with Noman but his fingers were digging into John's knee and John returned his attention to the topic at hand.

Which turned out to be the upcoming elections. "So your proposal is equality in front of the law. But who's your rival and what's he proposing?" Keller asked curiously.

"My rival's name is Shedim. He is a much respected representative of our world's interests, and a fine man. But he finds the thought of two men in any sort of bond together revolting, and wants our world to make a sharp turn towards development and modernization," Noman said gravely.

"And this is a bad thing?" John asked, the first thing he had said since introducing Lorne to Noman. As a matter of fact, John saw nothing bad about it. Quite the contrary. They had advanced technologies and this Shedim guy wanted to turn Olam into a more advanced world. It was obvious that a large portion of the population thought this idea was good or they would never have chosen him to continue on to the second round of elections.

They would have had much more impact on his cause than on Noman's, like he had said to Woolsey during the meeting the previous evening, only now it was too late. When they came to wherever it was that they were going they would be presented as a gay couple, and that would turn Shedim against them immediately, if what Noman said was true.

The heated glare John sent in Rodney's direction was broken by Noman's answer to his question.

"The recent bloom in discoveries and ideas has made many people think that maybe it's time to change the pace of our lives and abandon our artistic heritage. Many of our people are much more interested in the advancement of science than they are in the discoveries about our past, for example.

"Shedim's plan is to turn our society to an urban and sophisticated one, and to that end he will flood the markets with inventions, built plants for mass production and develop the cities while diminishing the size of our agricultural communities. And he plans to do all that in three years."

Rodney sat up straighter, turning from returning John's glare to look at Noman with disbelief. "But that's too fast!" he protested. Somehow all those terms sounded vaguely familiar to John.

"The Industrial Revolution," Lorne said quietly from his side, almost as if reading his mind. And there it was. It was too fast. They'd end up polluting their world, creating child labor, sicknesses and discontent.

"That's exactly what it will be," Noman agreed, catching Lorne's words.

"You don't understand. It happened on our world too. It didn't go so well, even if it had many positive effects. People were unhappy, the weak died and the resulting pollution still impacts our planet," Rodney said seriously.

"Are you saying that it can't be done at all?" Noman asked, somewhat surprised.

"No. I'm saying that it needs to be gradual and you'll need to give it much consideration and take care of every problematic aspect. It should not be done as some sort of electoral stunt to score more votes," Rodney replied.

John had to re-evaluate his earlier thoughts. Maybe Shedim's ambitiousness would work in their favor. It was obviously too late to join him, but they could prove to these people that the plan he proposed was dangerous to them, and with a few well placed words they could destroy him and secure Noman's victory. Maybe it would even make the misconception about him being Lorne's lover seem unimportant in comparison and they could stop pretending.

John was full of hope as they entered a large city where more tracks lined the ground. Someone in the first cart slowed them down using breaking pedals that were installed on the sides of each cart, and they had the time to take in the city before them.

The city was very tidy and very well organized. The houses all had uniform fronts made out of ecru stones, little gardens with blossoming flowers and little trees and large windows covered with curtains. The lines of the buildings were straight and neat and little carvings decorated almost every door and windowsill.

The streets themselves were paved with taupe stones, and were wide and spacious. The rails took up only a small part of the street, and were separated from it by a fence to prevent the children that played in the streets from getting hurt. Occasionally they would see a big island of greenery and vegetation in the middle of the streets, or a fountain where yet more children played.

"These are our suburbs," Noman said, a touch of pride in his voice. One thing was for sure, these people were proud of themselves and their achievements.

"How many people are in your world, Noman?" Keller asked curiously.

"Our latest reports from the office charged with health and physical care interests indicated that there are five million people in Olam," he answered, and John raised an eyebrow at Rodney. He knew what Rodney was thinking. With such a large population these people clearly hadn't suffered a culling in a very long time. This meant that something must have been protecting them, and it would be useful to discover what. John could only hope that no ZPM platforms were hidden from the eye like on M7G-677.

"Ah, here we are, arriving at the city itself," Noman's voice brought John back to the present, along with Lorne's hand withdrawing from his knee at last. John thought that it might burn a hole there, he was so acutely aware of it, but when he lifted his head he saw an amazing sight.

"Welcome to Makom, our capital city."

All around them tall, large buildings towered against the sky, the tallest being almost ten stories high. They were made out of tan stones and were surrounded with wide open windows on every floor. The streets were wider and larger than the suburbs and their rail joined several others and traveled past little waiting areas (those in the city didn't look like covered bridges) that looked like stations.

Occasionally John could see black smoke drifting out of narrow and long chimneys, places that were obviously either workshops or factories, and there were also several ventilation shafts coming from underground. There wasn't rubbish in the streets and the few animals that could be seen ? which were one horse and several bald dogs ? all looked well fed and were treated with affection by the people.

Noman wasn't exaggerating when he said that his people were artists. There was a lot of color in the form of paintings and shadings on the building themselves, and many people were seen lounging on the green islands with paintbrushes or a sketch book. And unlike the suburbs, here people turned to look at them and pointed or waved, receiving a wave back from Noman and Keller.

They passed several large complexes and Noman explained their purposes. "These are the main education centers of Makom. Here we educate our children, but also any adult who wishes to learn anything new." Other buildings were the center of law and law enforcement, the headquarters of the peace forces, the office charged with food and water supervision and the civil registry where newborns were registered and declared in front of the Council of Law.

As they moved on, they reached a very large building that had pillars in front of its entrance and many magnificent carvings and sculptures on its eaves and door. "And this is our art museum, the place where the most remarkable works of art our people have ever produced are kept for the joy of all," Noman said with special attention to Lorne, John noticed, and Lorne's eyes turned to the building once more.

Lorne's face showed his awe very clearly and his eyes practically lit up. John could see his eyes raking the building before them while the transport rolled slowly along the rail, taking in all the details and growing ever more impressed. He even turned away from Noman to lean on John's outstretched arm and look back at the building once the transport was past it, and John wondered if Lorne was always such an open book or if he was caught off guard.

"It's beautiful, Noman. I would very much like to go in and have a look someday," Lorne said candidly once the building couldn't be seen anymore, and his words seemed to satisfy Noman since he smiled and turned to point Keller to their version of a hospital and Rodney to their research labs.

John was so busy looking around him at the sights of the alien city (an uncommon sight in the Pegasus galaxy), at the people who raised curious eyes at them as they passed and at the threats that the city could harbor, that he noticed that the carts had stopped only when Lorne finally got up from his seat and John could safely return his hand to his own lap. His hand felt stiff and ached from the tension in his muscles and from the effort of leaving it over Lorne's shoulder where John didn't want it to be. He absently rubbed it as he, too, stepped down from the transport, and looked around.

They stood in front of a wide building with different artifacts presented on short pillars in the yard surrounding it. The building was long and only three stories high, and had large windows that were shaded by large umbrella-like trees.

"And this," Noman said with an air of excitement, "is the office charged with seeing to the cultural and historical interests of Olam. My office."

Chapter 4

"...Only as we entered this current era of enlightenment that these bonds and the narrow interpretation of the law became a matter of public dispute. Now is the time to solve this once and for all, and guarantee that even two males in love with each other can undergo an official binding ceremony and enjoy the privileges that every other bonded couple receives from the government," Noman concluded.

They were once again traveling on the transport (it had another name but it was too ridiculous to be used) and were heading back towards the dig and the Stargate at the end of their first day on Olam.

Noman had showed them the city and explained about Olam's society, their laws and their culture. For the most part, they were a version of Earth had Earth developed without any sort of religious beliefs. They had courts to try criminals and police forces (called peace forces) to catch them. They had no army since there was only one nation in their world, but the peace forces functioned as upholders of law and rescue forces in cases of nature disasters.

They had a very developed culture, with many stories, legends and books, and the most common form of entertainment was going to a play or a concert despite them having a primitive version of a TV. Education was given freely for everyone who wanted it, as were health care and care for the elderly and the lonely.

When asked, Noman said that each of the residents of Olam pays a living tax each month, according to their status and income, and from this tax as well as from other services that the establishment provides all this is funded. For example, he said, all of the deceased's possessions are divided between the family and the state, with sentimental items remaining with the family and the rest being the government's to sell and repay itself for that person's living expenses.

He had also explained in greater detail the structure of their governing body. The winning interest's party receives sixty of the hundred seats of the Council of Law and determine which of the losing interests from the first round of elections will seat with them. This is done mostly according to the rating each group received in that round, which guarantees that the losing side would also be included in that Council.

The leader of the winning interest's party gets elected for a period of nine years as the High Councilor. His job is to see to it that every branch of the government, like the different ministries, actually takes care of its interests and that half if not all interests are made into laws, yet he has no control over matters like budgets and taxes.

The taxes never changes since the Council has complete control over prices, though it is only allowed to intervene in cases of a financial crisis. The budgets are equal for each office, and each office must pass on any money that hadn't been used at the end of the year to offices that used their money to the point of deficit. And since the budgets are used only to develop their world and the officials receives money only for their most basic needs such as food and clothes there is little to no corruption from that front.

Which begged the question: how could such an allegedly developed society not allow homosexual relationships?

At this Noman had explained that his people have lived this way only for the past hundred years or so, and that until then every city was its own independent state and the rulers had the absolute power over the lives of their subjects. People lived any way they could, and there was no education and no proper law enforcing authorities, and so prejudices bloomed. The relatively small amount of time that had passed since those dark days is the cause for the negative attitude towards homosexuality since the elders of Olam, like Noman's parents and people of that age, learned those opinions at home from their parents who lived before the revolution. Every person had a set of beliefs according to the beliefs permitted by his or hers city ruler in the past.

Noman had said that a part of the reason why their Council had such a tight hold over the lives of the citizens was to correct the damage done to society in those times, and that the end result was for better and for worse. For worse, since the government revokes the rights of any man who choses to live with another man. He said that it was the last of the prejudices that had flourished during the previous century, and that his party's interest is to put the past completely behind them by eradicating this last remnant.

"The day has gone by so fast. Your world is beautiful," Keller, who spent the majority of the tour talking with the person in charge of health and physical care interests, said with a tired smile.

"I thank you. We're very proud of it," Noman said warmly, and John could see exactly why. To change a medieval-like society into this in a hundred years was no small feat. It also meant that starting an industrial revolution would be the most stupid thing to do, and if they could get this point across then the victory would be Noman's.

"Yes, yes, very nice. There's one more thing I'm interested in the most?" Rodney cut in impatiently. John knew that Rodney wasn't a big fan of guided tours, and wanted to get back and have a ZPM in his hands. John sympathized. He would also feel a lot better once they had one ZPM, but unlike Rodney he couldn't afford not to pay attention. This was important information.

He was lucky to have Lorne around. Lorne was the responsible type, the kind you could always count on to listen and know. Everyone knew someone like him. It was the person you always begged to copy homework from in class after a night out, who would always agree to back you up when you needed to leave work early and had no one to replace you. The goody two shoes. If John didn't understand something now, Lorne would probably explain it later.

"Yes, Doctor McKay. As I have promised, you may take one ZPM as a gesture of good faith. I know that our own medics were ecstatic with your version of good will, Doctor Keller," Noman said to Keller, but was still amused by Rodney's impatience. And what a refreshing sigh that was, an alien that Rodney didn't manage to scare away.

They reached the Stargate and the dig fairly quickly, a ride of twenty minutes on the whole. John was happy to get down and finally breathe normally after being pressed against Lorne from one side and Rodney from the other. Rodney, that bastard, kept sliding against him and forcing John to squeeze against Lorne, and Lorne on his part placed his hand on the back rest above John's shoulders and would occasionally reach up to comb his fingers through John's hair. John jumped a little every time he did that, but Rodney glared him down the one time he was about to speak up.

"Tell me, Major Lorne, do you have this miraculous ability to open walls as well?" Noman asked curiously. Lorne looked at John wonderingly before turning back to Noman.

"Yes. Many of our people have it. Even Doctor McKay," he replied and approached the wall. This time many other people, who turned out to be Noman's clerks and party members, gathered around to see. From the corner of his eye John noticed several people in uniforms that belonged to the peace forces, and Rodney's smug look as he caught his eye made him sigh. Noman wasn't stupid, and he placed a guard on the chamber.

Lorne placed his hand on the wall and a second later they stood in front of the Ancient chamber. The people around cheered, and John smirked back at Lorne when Lorne turned around to smile at him. Lorne's gene was almost as strong as Carson's and John suddenly remembered that Lorne was Radek's favorite candidate for switching duty.

Lorne led the way inside, and this time John stayed close to his side of his own volition. There was no way he was going to miss the look on Lorne's face. And Lorne didn't disappoint him. As soon as they entered the larger chamber Lorne stopped in his tracks, his eyes going round and his mouth opening in awe, taking in the drones and the shields and finally the ZPMs.

His hand came to clutch John's sleeve and his voice was hoarse when he whispered, "Just imagine what we can do with all this."

"A lot of good," John replied, and watched together with Lorne as Rodney went over and picked up one of the ZPMs. He looked at it reverently and cradled it like a baby while Teyla took off her bag and opened it. Rodney then placed it inside the bag with infinite care. If he was that careful with Torren maybe Teyla would've let him hold Torren more often.

Noman walked to stand next to Rodney and the ZPMs, touching one with a careful hand. "It seems very important to you," he commented. "I wish I could understand why."

"We'll do our best to explain it to you while we're here, Noman. And once this is all over you'll be welcome to visit Atlantis and see for yourself," John said, since Lorne didn't look like he was even listening, his eyes slowly taking the room in.

"Yes, yes, I promise," Rodney chirped in happily, nodding his head wildly.

"I have a feeling, Doctor McKay, that while in this room you'd even promise me the sun," Noman teased, and that made the alarms ring in John's head. He didn't need any more unreasonable promises on Rodney's part that would lead to disasters.

"Yes. So let's go before he actually does it," John said pointedly in Rodney's direction, and Rodney sent him a guilty look. Noman merely chuckled.

After locking the chamber up again they were escorted back to the gate, where the mass of workers and clerks gathered eagerly to see them dialing back home. Rodney couldn't resist the urge to impress them and drew out the dialing dramatically until John wanted to kick him in the ass. When the wormhole finally engaged their crowd burst into cheers and hand claping, and that was the last sound they heard from Olam as they stepped through the event horizon.

As soon as they were back in Atlantis John stepped away from Lorne. He had stayed close to him as they went through but now that he was back he wanted some space. Lorne turned to him with an apologetic expression but John raised his hand to stop him.

"I might not be comfortable with it but you did good, Major," he said before Lorne could even open his mouth. Lorne shrugged and looked at the floor.

"I don't think 'uncomfortable' really begins to cover it, sir," he countered quietly.

"Colonel, Major," Woolsey approached them before John could say something more, followed closely by Edison, who was still in his mission gear. John remembered that he was supposed to check out some world for a potential beta site. Their last one was overrun with creepy flying alligator-like lizards.

"I take it the mission-" Woolsey stopped abruptly when Rodney took the new ZPM out of Teyla's bag and displayed it proudly.

"Fully charged," Rodney sing-songed at Woolsey and Woolsey nodded his head at him, his eyes shining behind his glasses.

"That was a job well done," he turned around to include all of them in his praise. "All of you."

Edison also wasn't saving his breath. "Is that a real ZPM, Doc? You really did manage to get it after all?" he asked excitedly, reaching out his hand to touch it with great care. Probably being so careful because Rodney looked like he might bite his hand off if Edison would so much as breathe in the wrong direction.

"Yes!" Rodney said happily, finally giving in to temptation and pulling the ZPM close and away from Woolsey's and Edison's hands. "I'm going to find Radek. Oh, I wish I had a camera right now! The expression on his face is going to be priceless!" he exclaimed gleefully and with a last look towards Keller he was gone, so fast that John knew for sure that their working out together had paid off.

"I take it that Doctor McKay won't be joining our post mission debriefing," Woolsey said, his voice resigned. Edison next to him was still bouncing happily.

"That's such good news, sirs!" Edison said exuberantly. He was a young and promising officer and was already in command of his own team. "And I might have another bit of good news, though not as exciting as this," he added and took out a bag full of rocks from one of his vest pockets. "Sir, please tell me this is what I think it is. I vaguely remember it from my time at the SGC but I thought I'd confirm my theory first," he addressed Lorne, handing him a large rock.

To John the rock looked just like any other rock: gray and lumpy, uneven and full of craters and sharp spikes. There seemed to be nothing interesting about it, but Lorne's face suddenly lit up.

"Where did you find it?" he asked Edison urgently.

Edison grinned, clearly smug. "So it is what I think it is?" he asked proudly.

"Yes," Lorne confirmed and raised his eyes to Woolsey. "Mr. Woolsey, this is Naquadah. And where ever Edison got it from could have much more," he told Woolsey excitedly. John looked at the stone once more. Naquadah, huh?

"Yes, Captain Edison informed me of it. I'm happy that you've verified his suspicion," Woolsey nodded once again, clearly satisfied with the day's achievements. There might not be any Ori left to fight, but Naquadah was always welcomed, John knew. "Is there anyone on Atlantis who can evaluate M5R-037 as a potential mining site?"

Lorne shook his head. "We have seismologists, but there aren't any geologists on Atlantis. And the seismology team doesn't have the necessary skills," he answered.

"Very well. I'll ask the SGC to send us a geologist on the next Deadalus trip," Woolsey concluded, but Lorne shook his head.

"Mr. Woolsey sir, it's a wasted effort. As long as Midway isn't completed it'll take three weeks for the geologist to arrive and another six weeks until a mining team could be sent. I may not be a geologist, but even a mining engineer can perform a geologic survey. I can determine the potential of the planet and if there's a chance that we can establish a mining operation there we can send for the crew right away," Lorne said, holding up the rock for emphasis.

Woolsey looked skeptic. "Are you sure you want to go out there, Major? You need to escort Colonel Sheppard's team back to M1M-995 tomorrow as well. I think that if the Naquadah has waited for ten thousand years it can suffer a delay of two more months," he said, his voice loaded with meanings.

Lorne looked almost too eager to go. "I can save everyone the hassle, and it shouldn't take very long, right, Edison?" he turned to Edison, who was following the exchange with rapt attention.

"The place where I found the rocks was no further then three klicks from the gate," Edison replied readily.

"Not very far," Lorne shrugged. "Besides, how often do we find a deserted planet with Naquadah where we don't have to trade or negotiate to get permission to mine?"

Woolsey sighed, silent for a long moment. John himself didn't care much if Lorne went or not. They had done nothing tiring today and could use some space. The choice was Lorne's.

"Okay, Major. Just stay in radio contact," Woolsey agreed, and Lorne departed to borrow some equipment from the seismology team with a quick nod in John's direction.

"Colonel?" Woolsey asked, waking John from staring after Lorne and pointing towards the briefing room.

Looking back at Teyla and Ronon, John nodded and followed Woolsey up.

"They bought it, I think. We didn't really do anything except give them Keller's medications to study. We got the guided tour, learned a little about the place and received a ZPM," John said when the doors were closed.

"And are they really as advanced as you thought?"

"More, probably. They are about the same level of advancement as the Genii, only they are not focused on spying and building nukes," John grimaced. All dealings with the Genii so far had left him with a sour taste in his mouth.

"And what are you expected to do?" Woolsey asked meaningfully, folding his fingers on the table, and John knew exactly what he was hinting at. It was a relief to disprove him.

"Before the elections there's a public debate that takes place between the two competing parties, and this debate is broadcast to everyone who wants to see on a sort of a primitive television. That's how the people are supposed to decide on whom to vote for. Apparently we're supposed to represent Noman's side in this debate and explain our cause," John explained.

"And the opposing side's cause?" Woolsey continued to ask, and Teyla helped John answer all of his questions while Ronon contributed a sentence here and there.

~o~o~o~o~

John entered Rodney's lab later that evening to find Radek filling his fourth blackboard with calculations and Rodney busy running simulations and smiling like mad.

"I see you've already settled in for the night," John said loudly when neither of the scientists seemed to notice his presence, and caused Radek to scribble over himself and Rodney to jump out of his chair. John smiled, feeling smug when the two of them turned to glare at him.

"Actually there's nothing here we haven't anticipated," surprisingly, Rodney didn't sound as thrilled as he had been that morning.

"Well, after your earlier excitement I figured we'd have at least a few extra jiggawatts to use," John shrugged, thoroughly enjoying the annoyed expression that crossed Rodney's face.

"Yes well, this is a city, not a fictional car, so a few extra jiggawatts wouldn't really help," he snapped at John, shutting down his simulations.

"What? What do you mean?"

"Every device, every gadget in this city, can only use a predetermined level of power. An additional ZedPM won't make the lights go brighter or the city fly faster, for example."

"So it doesn't, for example, give the shield an extra boost?"

"Not really, no."

"If it doesn't help then why do we need to go to all this trouble to get it?" John asked, irritated. If one ZPM was enough then this whole ridiculous pretense was unnecessary.

"Because they can store much more energy."

"What do we need the extra energy for if it doesn't strengthen the city!?"

"I never said that everything in the city is running on full power. The star-drive isn't, for example, but the fact that one ZedPM is not enough for it to pull the city into space doesn't mean that five ZedPMs would make us travel faster. Also when you have three ZedPMs the power doesn't drain from one after the other, they each contribute something and so they last longer. They can also create a controlled feedback loop which produces energy and recharge up to 20% of their power. The power is being used more efficiently than putting all the strain on a single ZedPM," Rodney explained

"Yeah, yeah, whatever," John looked at him, still irritated. It was even worse than project Arcturus. There at least Rodney did what he did because it could have given them an advantage they didn't have before. Finding out now that the ZedPMs wouldn't make things much different, only last longer, was still good to hear but also something of a disappointment.

John shook himself out of such thoughts and remembered why he came to see Rodney. "I've been thinking," John began, and Rodney and Radek both looked at each other warily.

"Do we need to put on our combat gear?" Radek asked, only half kidding. John glared at him until he shrugged and returned to working on his equations. Radek was spending too much time with Rodney, in John's opinion. Rodney smiled at his laptop screen where he was writing down some complicated things about his simulation that John would never understand.

"I've been thinking. If we can get them to see that such a hurried transition to an industrialized society is bad, Noman could win the elections and that whole Lorne issue would be pushed aside," John said, smiling hopefully.

Rodney looked up at him skeptically. "You can weaken the rival's argument, but you'd still need to make your own argument as compelling as possible in order to win," he reminded John.

"Well, yeah, that's true. But all I'm saying is that we can shift the focus away from the whole gay revolution they have going," John insisted. It was a relief that the only other person in the room was Radek, who was a member of the senior staff and thus already knew what was going on.

Rodney turned to look at him fully. "What do you have against Lorne? It's not all that hard to pretend to be his lover, and after what he said all you have to do is show a little kindness and care. It's not all that difficult," he said, surprising John to the core.

"What do I have against him? What do you have for him?" John asked in return. Rodney didn't even know Lorne, how could he start preaching John about being nice to the guy!?

"I have nothing for him. I'm just saying that he's an okay sort of person," Rodney said defensively.

"'An okay person'?" John echoed, quite sure that he'd missed something. "How would you even know?"

"I talk to him on occasion," Rodney said, huffing at him.

"You do?" John asked incredulously. "Since when?"

"Since we went to P3M-736."

"The planet where we found Ronon?"

"Yes."

John looked at Rodney, suspicious now. As far as he remembered, Rodney was kidnapped by Ford and Lorne got stunned by a Wraith stunner. Not much room for introduction there. "What do you mean?" he asked, sure that Rodney was saying it only to convince him to go along with his stupidest ever idea.

"After we returned I came to him to demand an apology for his rude behavior towards me, and we apologized to each other. Besides, he's best friends with Radek and is pretty close to Carson as well. And since I'm working close to Radek and am pretty close to Carson myself we got to see each other here and there," Rodney shrugged.

John was now sure that Rodney was lying. "You? Apologizing? I don't like it when people lie to me, Rodney," he warned.

"I'm not!" Rodney cried out indignantly. "And yes, I apologized to him and he to me. Contrary to what you think, I have other friends outside of the team!"

This was escalating to a true fight. "Really?" John said, not at all convinced. "What's his first name?"

"Evan," Rodney replied without a hitch. John gaped at him openly. It took Rodney six months to remember Radek's last name and while yes, Rodney could have asked Lorne about his name John doubted that he would remember it this long.

"That's... correct," John finally said.

"Of course it is," Rodney said angrily. "He's actually very bright for a military goon. Even remembers his college physics," he added pointedly. From Rodney's mouth that was like saying that a person could count to ten, which was a rare compliment considering Rodney thought most people were brainless idiots.

"Which brings me back to my original question, what do you have against him? You keep trying to find a way out of this when all you have to do is pretend that you don't spend most of your time calling each other 'sir' and 'Lorne'," Rodney continued.

"Yes, I'm trying to get out of the mess you got me into," John snapped back, not even trying to resist the urge to remind Rodney how everything was his fault. "My career is in danger here, Rodney, and so is his, so you'll forgive me if I try to look for other ways to get what we want," John said cuttingly.

"Nobody is going to know!" Rodney was almost yelling in frustration. "And besides, how else were you planning on getting those ZedPMs!?"

"Well, we'll never know now, will we? And what do we need the ZPMs for when they don't even boost anything up? We're not planning on flying to another world anytime soon so I think we can suffer the star-drive not operating at full strength!"

"Why? Hmm... let's see..." Rodney pretended to be thinking really hard, but his eyes were shining with anger. "Oh! Maybe because at any moment now the Wraith may come and besiege Atlantis again and if we had only the one ZedPM we wouldn't be able to hold out a week against them!? Not to mention what will happen if another freak accident like the one that had brought Rod here occurred!"

John glared at Rodney and Rodney glared back, both quiet for a while, before John dropped his head into his hand. This was pointless. He had already agreed to do what Rodney has volunteered him for and Rodney was right. John was being unnecessarily stubborn and kept bucking up. There was no point in fighting anymore.

"Look, I know that this is very far from ideal, but I was grabbing what could have been our only chance to get the ZedPMs," Rodney said, voice low and urgent. "We can't gamble on our ability to prove to them that the other guy's idea is insane because we don't know how well the public will take to that, they don't exactly perform polls. We need to combine the two and hope that it's enough. Now, Lorne is a nice guy, just try to get to know him and you'll see for yourself."

John looked at his friend once more, trying to remind himself that he trusted Rodney with his life. It brought him little comfort since Rodney outdid himself usually only under threat of death. Instead all he could think about was how bizarre it was to hear Rodney talk about someone else being nice.

"This is even more complicated than wormhole drive!" Radek's frustrated cry interrupted them.

"That's because you're doing it wrong," Rodney replied irritably, but it was the same irritation he felt for anyone who proved to be outstandingly incompetent, John could tell.

"You're not even looking!" Radek protested

"I don't need to look to know that you're doing it wrong."

"If you're so smart why don't you come here and work it out yourself!?"

"Fine. Here, see? You've made a mistake!"

"I did not! If you run it through this algorithm you'll get the same result!"

"No I won't."

"Why!?"

"Because I'm me and you're you..."

~o~o~o~o~

John looked at his chronometer for the third time that morning. Lorne was-

"I'm sorry I'm late," Lorne said as he came into the gate room.

Late.

And looked awful.

His hair was damp and sticking out in strange cowlicks almost like John's, he had clearly grabbed a quick shower before coming there. His eyes were bloodshot, there were dark circles under his eyes and his entire expression spoke of fatigue.

"You look terrible," John said before he could even think about it. Lorne sent him a tired look and a faint smile.

"Gee, thanks," he said sardonically. Keller hit John's arm lightly as she was helped by Ronon out of her backpack, and took out some eye drops and a small comb.

"Tilt your head up," she ordered Lorne as she came to stand beside him, and Lorne obliged. She drizzled the drops into his eyes and ordered him to stay with his head back while she quickly combed his hair, creating a neat parting on the side.

"What happened?" John asked in the meantime.

"I went back with Edison and there was Naquada on that planet alright. But the further we went from the gate the thicker the vein grew. We wouldn't even need to dig deep in order to get it, its almost rolling on the ground there," Lorne smiled suddenly. "I can't be sure but I think that the concentration could amount to 500 parts per million," he said proudly, which told John absolutely nothing. Looking back at Rodney, he noticed that Rodney wasn't even paying attention but arguing with Radek over some result on his computer tablet.

"What time did you get back here?" John asked Lorne instead.

"Around 0500 Atlantis standard time," Lorne replied, finally straightening up and opening eyes that were considerably less bloodshot. If he got back around that time, he'd had only four hours of sleep.

"A little late, considering the time we're due to leave," John said with just an edge of anger there. The truth was he should have noticed Lorne's absence and recalled him.

"I know that, sir. But it was very exciting. I think we even found an Ancient mining facility, or what's left of it. It was through it that I managed to get to the deeper parts of the deposit," Lorne said, and that got through to Radek and Rodney.

"Really?" Rodney said, dumping the computer tablet in Radek's hands. "We've always wondered where the Ancients found the Naquadah to build all these gates!" he said excitedly. Lorne smiled proudly.

"I've already asked for Woolsey to pass on the relevant data in the next outgoing data-burst and they should bring a mining team here in three weeks to-"

"Yeah, yeah. They'll get here, they'll mine it, Washington will be happy. Now let's go and make them even happier," John interrupted what could have been a geek talk on a roll. Rodney and Lorne shrugged and stood in position while John gave the signal to dial M1M-995.

They stepped through, Lorne coming closer to John just before entering the event horizon, and came out by his side almost as if that was where he belonged.

"Welcome back," Noman greeted them, his usual entourage standing by his side and the usual crowd of workers scattered around. John noticed that the site of the gate was slowly turning to something else, and realized that they planned on digging out the hill so that the gate could stand in the open. It was good for them because that meant that they could come using a Jumper, but one look around him made it clear that the purpose of making more room was not for their comfort.

Many people, people John had never seen before, were gathered around the gate and were gawking at them as the wormhole disengaged behind their backs. They weren't wearing the loose outfits of the archeologists or the long capes of state officers, and they caused John to feel a little cornered.

"Do not be alarmed. These people came to see the Ring of the Ancestors being used, they won't cause you any harm," Noman noticed John's anxiety, and when John turned to look at Lorne he could see that Lorne was tense as well. "Regardless of their intentions, a squadron of peace forces is here to make sure that order is maintained," he added, pointing to men and women in dark yellow uniforms who were keeping the crowd in place.

Despite the security, and Ronon and Teyla's obvious defensive position around John, Rodney, Keller and Lorne, John felt much better once they were out of the small space and the crowd around them was not so close.

"Major, you seem tired," one of the archeologists they'd met before but whose name John couldn't remember (Hafir or something) commented politely as he approached their group. He was obviously excited about something and his comment was made only to start a conversation. If John wasn't confusing him with someone else, he was heading the excavation near the gate, and despite his young age was very well respected by the people of Olam. He looked very bookish to John, gentle and shy in nature and dedicated to his work.

"I am," Lorne admitted. "John, the bastard, kept me up all night," he lied smoothly, stretching his back as if trying to release all the kinks, and John nearly chocked. He had to applaud Lorne's inventiveness though, and couldn't help but smirk at him. His second in command just proved himself to be more than the uptight officer John had always believed him to be.

The others couldn't hide their reactions as well as John. Rodney looked sharply at him, Keller gave a muffled giggle, Teyla ducked her head to hide a smile and Ronon openly grinned. The crowd around them erupted into murmurs.

The excavation's director looked flustered after hearing that as well, and was quick to change the subject. "I wish to show you an artifact that was discovered in the dig site after you left," he said hurriedly, looking mostly at Rodney and Keller rather than at John and Lorne. He handed Rodney a stone tablet that was covered in Ancient writings.

Rodney took it and looked at it excitedly. "This is Ancient," he told John and Lorne unnecessarily. "Can you read it?" he asked the excavation's director, who nodded.

"The language appears to be a derivation of our own, though the dialect is very old and the words have not been used in a long time. But basically it tells about the Ring of the Ancestors," the director replied.

John accepted the tablet from Rodney. "He's right," Rodney said. "It tells about the function of the Stargate, about how the Ancients have started exploring this galaxy and how the gate works," he explained, eyes running over the tablet as John turned it towards him. It was heavy and gray, and the familiar Ancients words were only decipherable because of the indents they made into the stone. It was clear that the tablet had seen better days and that the indents were filled with black paint, or something similar.

It always got to John, why did a race as advanced as the Ancients even bothered with stone tablets and stone carvings when they had the technology and tools to create things that lasted ten thousand years unharmed?

"All that technology, all those advancements and they still insisted on carving everything into stone," Lorne said beside him, echoing John's thoughts.

"I was just thinking that," John told him, surprised, and Lorne smiled briefly.

"Not that I'm complaining. It helped us a lot in the Milky Way, but still," Lorne shrugged and was about to add something when Rodney interrupted.

"Recognize these?" he asked, pointing to a line where what was clearly a gate address was written.

John did. "That's the Atlantis address, or at least, it was before we left that planet," he said, his interest piqued.

"Yes, the tablet does mention that this used to be the home of the Ancestors. There are several others in here as well," the excavation's director, who stood close by, interjected tentatively.

John looked at the tablet along with Rodney, Teyla and Lorne. "That's M5S-768," Rodney said.

"Doesn't really do you any good. It was destroyed by a race of machines called the Replicators," Lorne told Noman and his company.

"And that's M7G-677, a nice planet for anyone who likes kids," John pointed to another address. "And that's Dagan. You don't want to go there. Crawling with Genii spies and strange folks," he added when another address caught his eye.

"That's Doranda," Rodney said. "Completely destroyed by now," he added with a wince.

"And Taranis. A volcano erupted there, swallowing the gate."

"M4D-058. It should be relatively safe to visit there, now that they're not at war with each other."

"Talus. A Wraith stronghold."

Noman and the excavation's director exchanged a loaded look. "I see that you've traveled the galaxy," Noman interrupted them, and John turned to him and nodded.

"Yes. We have. With this you can travel anywhere you want," he handed the tablet back to one of the archeologists standing nearby. Rodney, unfortunately, was right. They could figure out how to work the gate themselves. "But this tablet was written ten thousand years ago and things have changed since then. We can tell you where it's safe to go, where you'll be welcomed, and which planets are at your level of advancement," he stressed while Noman motioned them towards the electric transport.

"Yes. We have discussed it before. Your help would be much appreciated, as we plan on sending teams through the Ring like you do once the elections are over with," Noman said.

"We will gladly offer this to you," Teyla said before climbing to one of the carts. John climbed after Lorne into their cart and noticed that there were many more carts today than yesterday, and that the crowd that came to gawk at them was also boarding the same transport. Luckily, though, their cart had a sort of partition that hid them from the rest of the travelers and John could almost relax against Lorne as they started the journey to the city.

Until, at least, Lorne's head came to rest on his shoulder. John was about to hiss at him that there was no need to get carried away with the pretence when he saw that Lorne had fallen asleep, the soft puffs of air from his nose against John's skin almost lost in the roar of wind from the travel.

John felt pity on him. It was partly his fault that Lorne was this worn out. He should have called Lorne and Edison back after seeing that it was late and they weren't back yet. No amount of Naquadah was more important that a ZPM, though John knew that Lorne might have simply needed some space too after their return from Olam.

John placed his arm on Lorne's shoulders and readjusted his position, unintentionally bringing Lorne's face to burrow deeper into his neck. But it was necessary since Lorne was sitting at the edge of the cart and could fall off if he leaned the wrong way. It was best that he'd be as alert as possible when they arrived, so John let him sleep.

John turned back to the conversation that was taking place between Rodney, Teyla and Noman, about the Wraith and why Atlantis was fighting them then Noman looked up at him and winked. John turned his eyes down again and gritted his teeth so as not to throw a venomous comment at him, cursing himself, Lorne and Rodney for this current predicament.

He knew that it was for the best to let them think what they wanted, but it wasn't really what John needed at the moment, having someone look at him with a 'knowing' look when they actually knew next to nothing.

John heaved a quiet sigh, and then took another sniff. There was a pleasant smell in the air, of cleanliness and some herbal mixture, and John sniffed a few more times before determining that it came from Lorne. The scent of his shampoo and aftershave, and John found himself sticking his nose into Lorne's hair to try and determine which was which.

When he looked up again, deciding that the herbal was the shampoo and the cleanliness was the aftershave, the entire cart's occupants were looking at him with varying degrees of wonderment. John hung his head in defeat, knowing that no one would see that he was only preventing a sleeping team member from falling off the speeding transport, and allowed the conversation to flow right over his and Lorne's heads.

~o~o~o~o~

"Evan, wake up," John said, only barely keeping back the sharp 'Lorne!' he would have used had this been the field. The suburbs were slowly morphing into the capital city and they were going to reach their destination at any moment.

The trip took a lot longer than before, mostly because the transport stopped at a lot of stations it hadn't before to unload the crowds of gawking people who had come to watch the gate and the 'aliens'. John figured that it was a good thing since it had allowed Lorne to sleep almost an entire hour, which was bound to make him look a little more presentable and sharp. As far as John was concerned, dangers lurked at every corner. He'd heard of the things they did to gays on Earth, and was not keen on experiencing them first hand here on Olam.

The longer journey was good for another reason. With Lorne nestled against John's side ? and he was nestled, he had put his hands around John's waist at some point ? they presented an unusual sight for the many pedestrians and residents of the suburbs. Most of them stood close to the safety fence and watched with evident fascination at John holding a sleeping man in his arms, their apparent anonymity from yesterday gone.

John knew that it was good to be seen like that since it would help their case, but was also grateful that Lorne was asleep and not awake and conscious to take part as well. Somehow it was easier when he wasn't.

"Evan," John said, shaking Lorne slightly. "We're there."

Lorne's eyes opened slowly, staring confusedly at John. From this close up his eyes were blue-gray and deep from sleep. He blinked, disoriented for a moment, before recognition came to him and his pupils shrank a little in awareness.

"Sorry," he said somewhat hoarsely, and John could almost hear the unspoken 'sir'. He withdrew from John quickly and took a look around, and John instantly missed the warmth at his side when the wind blew cold and sharp against him. "The sleep helped a lot," he added sheepishly.

"You've been asleep for almost an hour," Keller said, her eyes looking at Lorne critically.

"Yes, in the mean time your teammates have explained to me a lot about your world and your home-world Earth. It sounds fascinating," Noman said enthusiastically, and Lorne turned to John with a raised eyebrow.

"Woolsey's orders," John said shortly, trusting Lorne to understand. It was true. Woolsey had said that the best policy was to be honest, especially if there was a chance that the people of Olam could learn how to operate the gate on their own. Which they had.

The transport started slowing down in front of Noman's office and pulled to a complete stop at the station, where a tall man was standing. He was thin and blonde, with green eyes and a well-trimmed beard. He too wore the formal robes of state officials, with the exact same colors as Noman.

John looked from the man standing on the platform with an unpleasant expression on his face to Noman, and realized that something was wrong according to Noman's own expression.

But Noman collected himself fairly quick and greeted the newcomer with distant respect. "Shedim," he said, dipping his head, and both John and Lorne turned back to look at the man who turned out to be Noman's political rival.

Next: Part 2