The Alterrans that designed me made sure that I was unable to communicate with them. After they realized how badly their AI�s could turn with the fallout of the Asurans, the Lantian Alterrans, my former inhabitants, installed more blocks in my programming to prevent me from communicating in any way.
I could take control completely. Kill them all a thousand different ways, leave the planet�s atmosphere without a shield at will, lock them out, ATA gene or not� but the ability to communicate was the danger that they were most afraid of.
Shortsighted idiots.
Doctor McKay�s avatar was still re-powering after the power utilized to aid in John�s passage between towers, and there was no other way to communicate with John except through Holo-Rodney, as John has dubbed him.
Meanwhile I needed to make the necessary calculations to repair what I had allowed to break.
�You�ve seen a lot� war and death and fear and life and birth and love� you know the secrets of anyone who has ever been here. You know things about me that I never would have shared with anyone. You know� about Elizabeth� how losing her nearly killed me. You know how impossible this last year has been without her,� John said. He paused, frowning, then he continued. �Or, the last year I was in my own time, I guess.�
John had barely survived losing Elizabeth. I doubt anyone else knew, not even his team, but after he had to leave Elizabeth behind the only reason he was even functioning was because he had to run the expedition and the prospect of the IOA allowing him to mount a rescue operation to get Elizabeth back kept him going even though he was barely eating or sleeping. When he and his team returned from the planet and reported on their Replecator selves and the message the Replecator Elizabeth had passed along for them, John existed solely to destroy the Replecators. I saw it all happen, saw him fall apart at night, saw him pull himself together before dawn, saw him pound out extra miles around the loop he and Lieutenant Ford cleared for exercise in the first few weeks they were here, and then I watched him throw himself into missions, take things more personally, and wear himself down to the point where Michael taking Teyla threw him over a cliff with a particularly long fall. If he hadn�t gotten himself thrown back in time he would have self-destructed before too long.
He sighed. �You�ve always been there for us. Obviously. But I can�t even begin to imagine the things you�ve witnessed. The things you�ve been a part of. I just� I guess I�m trying to say thank you,� John said as he fiddled with his portable chronometer. I had witnessed many other people from Earth doing the same thing.
General O�Neill, another person with impressive control of the gene required to utilize my system�s, and those of my Puddle Jumpers, was constantly flipping the cover of his own portable chronometer, whenever he approached boredom, which had been amusingly often when he had been here with the crew of the Alterran warship <b>Tria</b> had kicked the people of Earth back to the Milky Way. The fact that it seemed to annoy Helia to no end� well, General O�Neill seemed to take that as a bonus.
�And the fact that I�m basically talking to myself here is something I think I�ll just write off as inanition,� John continued, abandoning his watch to rub at his temples. It was one of those fruitless human reactions to pain I never understood, though, to be fair, I have never been able to understand pain to begin with. If I sustain damage the area goes numb, all synaptic response ceases. No pain is registered. It is a design feature that makes me tactically superior to other Alterran ships. Even Aurora class vessels suffer from pain, and they whine about ever short circuit and singed speck of hull plating. If they had any idea how many times I have been beaten, shot, burnt, flooded, blown up, abandoned, hostilely overtaken, and just plain mistreated they would go into sleep mode whimpering for their builders.
It takes a lot for John to show that he�s in pain so my concern for my protector immediately increased tenfold. It could have been argued that John wasn�t showing that he was in pain to anyone but me, and, possibly, Holo-Rodney, who is based on Doctor McKay who is like a brother to John, more so, even, than John�s biological brother, but I knew from watching John since he arrived in Pegasus that, even around those he considered family, he didn�t show things that could make him look weak. Not to anyone.
Except with Elizabeth.
But he planned on asking her to spend the rest of their lives, so there is, as I understand it, when humans mate for life, a certain level of disclosure is not only expected, but demanded. Though, to be fair, John and Elizabeth were among the first couples I ever witnessed that were truly in love. The Lantian Alterrans mated for procreation purposes only, not for love or life or anything like what the people of Earth do. And, to be completely honest, it was never clear that the Alterrans were even aware that love existed, or could exist.
Well, no, that�s not fair. There were some who defied the Council�s edict and mated only with each