Two soldiers walk into a bar...

[ltcolonel]

[ooc: Feel free to run into either or both of them! John and Bucky both have their memories of their previous visit to the Enterprise.]


John Sheppard
John Sheppard is responsible for setting Atlantis down on a planet of ice and snow at the edge of Pegasus Galaxy. It is a pretty good landing if he does say so himself and they are settling in well. Or they are until Rodney is kidnapped. He’s got a good deal of pent up frustration over the lack of intel, and takes it out on regular patrols to check on the condition of Atlantis in her new setting. The temperatures outside are a little bitter though, and on this inspection of how Atlantis is settling into in, he resembles an Artic explorer. One second he’s rubbing his hands to get some warmth back into them, and next, he’s back inside.

Memories come flooding back, and John pushes his hood back. Woah, how has he managed to forget all of this? “Wow that was a bit if a head rush. I didn’t think I would be seeing this place again.” He moves off confidently heading towards the bar, where someone can fill him in on what’s going on.


Bucky Barnes
The memories he gets are not the ones that he wants. The irony that he can remember another version of his life better than his own, isn’t lost on him. He crouches down against the wall, blue eyes uncertain, as he assimilates them. Voices overlap each other, growing louder. Images - cutting his hair, Steve, Natasha.

Slowly the voices fade and he straightens up. He can’t stay here in the corridor, it is too exposed, and he doesn’t have any intel on what has happened since he’s been away. Slowly, with many pauses to watch the security personnel go past, he moves to find an empty room.

Comments

[ltcolonel]

John splutters at the second part. "You make it sound like I walk into contagions and imminent danger." The second does happen a fair bit, but he's done well to avoid most plagues and things more dangerous than the common cold. "You really do enjoy watching me feeling miserable."

[theycallmetodd]

"It can be rather entertaining," Guide says, baring teeth in a smirk. But he quickly grows more serious again.

"There is another thing I would like to see you in the sickbay for." Reaching out he lets his fingers brush over Sheppard's wrist, just like he would with his own kin when wanting to speak privately mind to mind. He doesn't know how clear it will be, but they have done this once before. And, with the fact that he felt it the moment Sheppard came onboard, he feels confident that he will get through. 'This should not be possible. I wish to know how it can be that it is.'

[ltcolonel]

Oh yeah, it's getting through, perhaps not so loud as the last time, but it's there. "Well, that's...different." He hasn't forgotten that night of drinking, how could he? But he hadn't expected any lingering effects like this. His brain processes and accepts that this is a thing. It isn't the weirdest thing that's happened to him in the last month. "Are you sure you want to do this in the sickbay, and not in the lab?"

He mimics Todd and reaches out to touch the Wraith's other hand. *Question is, can you hear me?*

[theycallmetodd]

'I can, yes.' It's muddled, far from clear. But it is still enough that Guide had to restrain a burst of delight at being able to talk properly like a Wraith, mind tightly controlled to keep that from slipping through with his words.

"The biobed could prove useful," he replied out loud in response, before adding an additional silent explanation. 'Bringing you to the lab would risk raising questions, something I would prefer not having to deal with.' The ship's crew already knows more about him and his kin that he would prefer.

[ltcolonel]

John's lips twitch into a smile. Wouldn't this be useful back home? If he could hear Todd, while he was near Death.....Yeah, not going to happen, unless they remember this, or they get drunk together back home.

"Right, because it will make horrible noises if anything is wrong with me." He huffs out a sigh. "Okay." He's no clue how to shield his own mind and he's probably broadcasting more than he knows. Like how much he hates being poked and prodded. 'You owe me. If this connection thing keeps going, I guess we're going to be known as the strong, silent types.

[theycallmetodd]

"This first occurred before your disappearance. If there wasn't anything wrong with you then, there should not be now. Though I would like a closer look." He does pick up on how little Sheppard likes that idea, though he presently sees no need to inform him of just how much he lets slip. Truthfully, he's surprised that this doesn't unnerve Sheppard. Giving him cause to be would only be counter-productive.

[ltcolonel]

Given sometime John will find it unnerving, but in the heat of the moment, he just deals. It never does to over think things in the battlefield, or in any situation for that matter. "As long as you don't dissect my brain, I'm okay with you taking a closer look. I'd like see the findings for myself.

This could be one of those game changers."

[theycallmetodd]

"Perhaps." Guide could see the use. Especially if it remained mostly unknown. Depending on the cause, perhaps it could even be expanded upon. "We do not know the cause, however. It could be something that is dependant on us being here."

[ltcolonel]

"It could be," John concedes. It will still have it's uses, he doesn't think, from all that he's heard, that Q can read minds. "So we find out." We, will involve Todd doing what a scientist does, while John either hovers over him or paces.

"And in the meantime, we use it to our advantage here." He smirks. "I like the idea that people won't be able to eavesdrop on everything we say."

[theycallmetodd]

"Indeed." Not that he thinks that Sheppard would be willing to join in on things like plotting to take over the ship, but still. It could have its uses.

"Well. There is no time like the present, I believe. And I should think you would be eager to not have to remain in quarantine longer than needed."

[ltcolonel]

No. John won't be doing any of that, no matter how much he'd love to try his hand at flying the ship for himself. He's got principles, and he's more Hans Solo than Darth Vader.

He sets off with a purposeful stride towards the infirmary. "You know me so well," he says wryly. "You'd better hope you don't have to nurse me, ever."

[theycallmetodd]

Making a dismissive sound, Guide just shrugs and walks with him on the path to the sickbay. "If that was the case, I would simply sedate you. Then I could work in peace." He would, too.

[ltcolonel]

"Noted. I'm going to watch out when you produce a needle." He's going to avoid sedation as often as he can. Still, if Beckett wasn't available, Todd is the only other person he would trust if he was sick.

He pauses outside the sickbay doors. "I'll get Carson to give you my medical records if that will help you work out what is going on."

[theycallmetodd]

"If it is needed, I will request them." Though for now, he thinks his own work will be enough. And he would prefer to not involve Beckett if he doesn't have to.

So they start. There is the obligatory scan to clear Sheppard out from quarantine, and then Guide looks deeper. The scan reveals nothing out of the ordinary. But, when studying the blood work and going down to the human's very DNA, while trying to ignore Sheppard's pacing, Guide frowns in puzzlement. "If I didn't know better, I would think you to be one of those they call blood tainted. Though that is not quite it either."

[ltcolonel]

John puts up with the scans, but the rest of the waiting is hell. He comes and peers at the results over Todd's shoulder. "I can't sense Wraith coming like Teyla can," he says with a frown. The results mean nothing to him.

"I did have a brush with a Wraith child once. She bit me."

[theycallmetodd]

"That should not matter. It should not be able to cause anything like this. The fact is, Sheppard, that there is wraith DNA in you. It does not look like what I have seen in the blood tainted, but it is there nevertheless."

But, Sheppard had encountered a queen to be? "Tell me about this child."

[ltcolonel]

John tells the story easily enough, right up until her death. He covers Ellia's death hastily. "She was a good kid," he finishes lamely and shakes his head. "I don't know what she had on her teeth, because things got pretty weird after the bite." He hesitates. Would elaborating give Todd too much of a hold over him?

"I had....a few side effects."

[theycallmetodd]

So, he hadn't been the first victim of the human's attempt to cure the wraith from their biology. He's both disgusted and intrigued by the story Sheppard tells. Disgust will do him no good, so he follows the curiosity and fascination instead.

"Such as?"

[ltcolonel]

John leans back against the wall and tries to cool about it. This wasn't the happiest time for him, he had nearly lost everything, including his sense of self.

"Well, I got a little faster and angrier, and oh yeah, grew scaly skin." He snorts, "I didn't exactly look very pretty."

[theycallmetodd]

Guide looks at him with a flat stare, looking entirely unimpressed. "You are not pretty now either, John Sheppard." Well, standards and tastes varies, of course. "Get to the point. The bite made you transform? Into what? How far did it progress? What made it reverse?"

[ltcolonel]

"Way to burst my bubble that I am universally good looking." John shakes his head. "I looked like a Wraith hybrid." At least that's what it looked like in the mirror. "Becket cured me with an Iratus bug."


His eyes are dark, unhappy.

[theycallmetodd]

"A hybrid? Such as Lastlight?" Here he halts to correct himself, aware that the name would mean nothing to Sheppard. "The one you called Michael?"

But perhaps not. Sheppard had mentioned scaly skin, and had said that the young female wraith had devolved into a creature more like an Iratus than wraith or human.

He turns back to study the results on the screen again. "Perhaps more Iratus than Wraith," he mutters, more to himself than actually talking to Sheppard. "But Wraith are human and Iratus. There is less, here, and different. Still, it could explain it."

[ltcolonel]

Lastlight. John shakes his head, and Wraith think their names are weird. He's curious though, and he files this away as something to ask about later.

John cocks his head on one side. If Todd could work out what the difference was, why he didn't become Wraith, then maybe he could work backwards to save Rodney. He feels a small leap of hope.

"Michael is different somehow," he shakes his head. "We were suppressing the Wraith elements, where as this, the Wraithlike tendencies were all fired up. The mind link has to come from somewhere, and humans don't have it, unless you are in the middle of some sci fi film."

[theycallmetodd]

"Indeed. Iratus share a hivemind, and it is the vestigial remnants of that that give Wraith the ability to talk mind to mind. Speaking aloud, as I am to you, is not the natural way for us. Not to mention that it is severely lacking." Though it was easier to hide and lie, when conversing with one's voice instead of mind.

"When the young female bit you, she passed on the retrovirus that was changing her, to you. And though doctor Beckett managed to reverse the changes it wrought on you, his treatment obviously didn't revert all." The traces left in Sheppard's DNA made that perfectly clear. "So, what remains is apparently enough to allow for some manner of link between you and most likely other Wraith, if it is actively sought."

[ltcolonel]

John isn't quite as disturbed by the idea as he should be. After all, Teyla carries Wraith DNA, and she's been able to use to her, and their advantage more than once. Maybe, he'll be able to pass for Todd's brother some day.

"Huh. Well feel free to talk to me mind to mind sometimes." It must be weird for Todd, talking out loud all of the time. "I don't think that it will give me a headache. Just, don't do it when I am trying to sleep, or I am in the shower."