Cleaning Up After The Ancients - Chapter 51

Chapter 51 - Stubborn Fools

Pulling himself out of bed after a brisk four hour rest, Eventus took a moment to stare at the matter assembler before turning away from the device's temptation with a sigh and smoothing out his slightly creased clothing.

“I need a fucking vacation.” He muttered to himself as he grabbed his portable interface from the nightstand and took a moment to scroll through the various reports that had come in while he was sleeping.

Tapping it again, he frowned when the only thing on there continued to be a single low priority contact request from McKay.

Briefly considering just tossing the device back on the nightstand and spending the rest of the day in bed watching the first season of Wormhole Xtreme, he let out a sigh and sent the mental that would open a communications channel to McKay.

“You needed something?” He asked when the man's face appeared on screen.

“No.” McKay said with a smug grin. “Just confirming that we're ready to head out whenever the Enterprise is.”

Eventus blinked, and then blinked again. “You've only been working over there for six hours, and you've already gotten everything ready to go?”

“Please, this was nothing.” McKay bragged. “Have I ever told you about the time I fixed one of Atlantis's grounding stations in the middle of a super hurricane?”

“Several times.” Eventus admitted in a deadpan tone as he stared at the other man.

McKay frowned as he gave a considering look to the screen. “Oh… Well… What about the time I jury-rigged an interface to a Wraith hives central computer core?”

“No.” Eventus admitted, willing to give McKay that particular win at least. “That would be a new one.”

“Okay.” McKay began, holding out his hands a good deal more animated than he had been moments ago. “So we were working with the Genii to–

“McKay.” Eventus interrupted tiredly, not feeling the need to hear the whole story given he had watched the television episode of it once upon a time. “Impress me with how you managed to get the Navis ready to go nearly a day ahead of projections now, stories about how you saved Sheppard from being eaten by the Wraith later.”

“It wasn't that difficult.” McKay confessed with a humble tone somewhat at odds with this obvious bragging. “We used the Enterprise's crystal fabricators to just replace the various bypassed crystals instead manually restoring them to their previous states.”

That would certainly do it Eventus thought to himself as he held back his immediate urge to criticize the other man for wasting the small amounts of raw material and reactor fuel required to do that. It was a more optimal solution for their situation after all, Eventus just hadn't considered it himself because what was an extra day sitting in space reprogramming crystals in the grand scheme of eternity.

“Good work McKay. The Enterprise will be towing Larrin's vessel, so there shouldn't be that much of a difference between our two ship's Hyperdrive speeds.”

“About that.” McKay put forward, suddenly a lot less confident then he had previously been. “I don't know if the original crew just forgot to mark it down, or if it's damage the ship has picked up since, but the long range communications array is completely shot so I was thinking we could do staggered jumps just in case something goes wrong.”

“It should only add about six hours to the total travel time.” He continued as with a ping from Eventus's interface an arriving file provided a copy of the modified flight plan. “But that will still have us arriving back at Atlantis a good three days ahead of our original prediction.”

The original prediction had been made with the idea that they might end up having to tow the Navis back to Atlantis instead of flying it there under its own power. But it wasn't worth nitpicking since a six hour delay wouldn't overly impact things.

“All right.” Eventus said as he headed out the door and into the corridor to make his way to the ship's Bridge. “I assume you're going to be captaining the Navis?”

The giddy look on McKay's face was telling on several levels. “Lorne wants to keep an eye on Larrin and her people, so yes. Captain Rodney McKay, at your service.”

Stepping into the transport booth, Eventus selected the dot next to the bridge and disappeared in a flash to reappear in the booth just outside the heavy bulkhead doors. 

“I'm sure your résumé will appreciate the additional title.” He joked as walked into the bridge, giving a wave to the tired looking Marine that sitting at one of the stations before plopping himself down in the control chair.

A quick mental command sent a trio of gravity fields lancing out to grab the Traveler vessel, drawing away from the Navis and towards a secure position beneath the Enterprise's recessed landing struts.

They likely weren't too happy about it, but he'd given the ships remaining crew a choice between staying behind with their potentially crippled hyperdrive or being towed back to Atlantis where they could at least plead their case for assistance in repairing it.

He had been more than a little surprised they had decided on the tow, but there were probably a bunch of different reasonings at play that he wasn't aware of.

“Okay McKay.” He said, switching the communications link from his personal interface to the bridge's system. “Whenever you're ready.”

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The Enterprise now traveling through Hyperspace, Eventus was taking the empty chunk of time where he had to be awake just in case of something happening, to see if their guest of honor was any more amicable then she had been eight hours ago.

“I see you're done pretending to be asleep.” He offered as he walked up to the outer edge of the holding cell, the blond woman inside sitting on the bench and doing an admirable job of trying to glare a hole in his head.

“I don't know what you think you're going to get from me.” Larrin said with a growl. “But whatever it is, I can assure you it won't end how you think.”

Eventus rolled his eyes. “How very dramatic of you. I'm doing this for your own good however.”

“My own good?” Larrin scoffed, rising to her feet and walking over to stand directly opposite him. “If that's what you want to tell yourself.”

“It is.” Eventus returned, crossing his arms to stare down at her while idly wondering if he could just pawn future interactions with the overly hostile woman onto Major Lorne. “You were going to try and steal the Navis in a way that had an equal chance of blowing up both you and it. So it is obvious you are either desperate and paranoid, or barely rational. Neither of which is conducive to a long and meaningful life.”

“Really?” Larrin asked, skepticism dripping off her voice. “That’s what you’re going with for why you stuck me in a cage?”

“No.” Eventus corrected with a grin. “Attempted piracy is why I stuck you in a cage. The normal punishment for which used to be two years rehabilitation.”

It was Larrin’s turn to roll her eyes. “Oh please. Pretending you have authority might work on the rubes, but you’re far from the first person we’ve seen discover a bit of ancestor tech and go around claiming they’re now in charge.”

“That’s certainly an argument you can make.” Eventus said in a slightly clipped tone, really wishing he could just wave his hand and paralyze someone’s vocal cords like High Councilor Moros had been able to. “But we’re currently towing your vessel back to my city-ship, Atlantis. So maybe you should stop and take into account your circumstances for a moment.”

Putting a hand on her hip Larrin smirked, before leaning forward till she was almost right against the forcefield. “Then I look forward to seeing it.”

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Author’s Notes: False bravado only get’s you so far Larrin, you’re just lucky this wasn’t ten thousand years ago. Because Eventus would have you manually cleaning out the seawater tanks. Which isn't a particularly fun job.