Hope is a Waking Dream

Chapter 16

He fought to understand reality. It was blurry and sounded and smelled different. The sounds of the forest were gone, replaced by voices and machines. The smell of pine needles and rich earth was replaced with antiseptic and sweat. The tall straight pines leading to freedom were gone. Fresh mountain air was dampened by artificial staleness.

It had taken him a long time to summon the strength to crawl from the sanctuary of the roots of the great tree. He wasn't sure how long he had lain there, trembling in pain and exhaustion. Perhaps it was a day. Perhaps more. But he found the tall pines and the path leading to the Stargate, and had nearly cried in joy when he saw the great ring.

He fought to get what he understood back. There were hands on him. Hands were dangerous. He lashed out, remembering the fight at the Stargate.

Twenty men were stationed there to keep him from escaping. Twenty men. He killed some of them. Maybe he killed them all. He couldn't remember. He knew it was a fight to the death, either way. Better to kill than be killed.

He fought the hands.

"Colonel! Please stop fighting us!"

No. He had to fight. Had to get through the Stargate.

"Please, you're just making it worse."

Making what worse? He was in agony. He couldn't possibly be worse. They kicked him. The stab wound in his side flared, paralysing him with the pain. A gun fired, hitting him in the thigh. He couldn't walk. Was on his knees.

Scrambling through a haze of red for his gun. Tackled to the side. Firing. The body across him going limp. Firing at another man. Desperately grabbing the DHD and pulling himself to his feet. Watching as blood splashed onto the symbols. Remembering an address with shaking fingers. The whoosh of the Stargate opening and obliterating three men. Stumbling through. Fighting the two men that made it through into the desert world with him. Stabbing one in the neck. A fine spray of blood hitting him in the face.

The hands were holding him down. He fought, looking for his knife.

The voices came from far away, their features obscured by dust and fear and a white-hot sun blazing down on him.

"John, please! Stop fighting!"

A pool of blood. The other man tackling him to the sand. Hands scrabbling for a hold, finding his knife in his boot. Slashing, stabbing. More blood.

"Please stop ..."

And the Stargate was waiting.

He stepped through into blackness.

****

Carter called Rodney, Teyla, Ronan, Carson and Lorne to the meeting room. She had already contacted Stargate Command and now it was time to sort out the puzzle.

Lorne spoke first.

"You all know that the Colonel followed procedure. He gated to the Alpha site and that was when our men stationed there contacted us. They didn't believe it was him at first."

"What was his status when he came to the Alpha site?" Carter asked.

"Pretty much how you saw him when they brought him to Atlantis," Lorne responded. "The men moved quickly. He was pretty near to collapse and not very coherent. He was able to recite his name, rank and serial number, asked how his team was, then they brought him here."

"And the device?" Carson asked.

"I've been working on it," McKay said. "It looks like it was a crude tracker meant to link to his nervous system. It looks like it was activated remotely. It probably caused convulsions, like what we saw when we removed it, meant to disable him. I don't want to say it, but it's pretty much an archaic torture device. I'm not sure if there will be any residual effects yet."

Carson cursed softly.

"How is he?" Carter asked the doctor.

Carson shook his head. "The lad's been through a lot. From the state of him, it looks like he's been on the run for a long time. He's suffering some malnutrition. It looks like his diet has been primarily protein. Whatever happened before he got to the Alpha site, he went through quite a beating. Some of his internal organs were bruised and he had a couple gunshot wounds in his shoulder that look a few weeks old that got infected. I managed to stitch up the more recent stab and gunshot wounds and they look like they'll heal pretty nicely. He has a lot of old wounds that I haven't seen before. I think the scar on his temple may explain why Rodney thought he was dead. It looks like the Genii shot him in the head, but grazed his temple. It probably caused a pretty nasty concussion, but I don't see any evidence of tissue scarring in the brain."

"Has he woken?" Teyla asked.

Carson looked uncomfortable. "He has." He hesitated, not sure about what he should share. "The Colonel has been through quite a bit of trauma. He's been delirious when he's awake. I don't think he's aware that he's back in Atlantis yet. When he wakes, he's violent. He's socked quite a few of my staff and nearly strangled Stephen the other day. I haven't been able to talk any reason into him yet. We'll just have to wait until the fever breaks and hope that he realizes what's going on."

"It's been five days, Carson," Carter reminded him gently.

"The infection worsened the day after surgery," the doctor replied. "We've been fighting to keep his temperature down and keep him calm, so he can heal. He's made it difficult. I'm trying to avoid putting restraints on him as I'm not sure what the lad's been through."

"Ronan, Teyla, have you found anything on the planet the Colonel dialled in from to the Alpha site?" Carter asked.

"Found two bodies," Ronan said.

"There was evidence of a fight," Teyla said. "The men appeared to be Genii and were heavily armed. It was a desert planet and there was no evidence that Sheppard had been there long. We explored that planet four months ago and found nothing of significance."

"Sheppard dialled in from somewhere else in order to keep anyone from knowing the Alpha site address," McKay said. "I downloaded the DHD log, so we might be able to figure out where he came from."

"We checked out the most recent logs and found where we think he came from," Lorne reported. "P43-981. It was ... it was a blood bath."

Carter raised an eyebrow.

"Eighteen Genii. All dead. Looks like Sheppard put up one hell of a fight. They didn't want him getting through that gate and they looked prepared to do anything to stop him. I've got some men searching the planet right now to see if there is any sign of civilization elsewhere. We obviously need to find out who was responsible for this and make sure it doesn't happen again."

There was a long silence around the table as the Major's words sank in.

"So now, we wait." Carter folded her arms, looking at the rest of the team.

"I cannot believe he is really back," Teyla admitted softly.

The others silently agreed. Happiness was stilled by the wondering. What had actually happened? How had they overlooked the evidence pointing to Sheppard being alive, and not dead?