Chapter 50 - Past Mistakes

Chapter 50 - Past Mistakes

Standing in the front of one of the Enterprise's holding cells as he waited for Larrin to come around, Eventus turned over the magnum like particle weapon he had liberated from the woman before locking her up.

It was an interesting design, the hot swappable power cell in particular drew his interest, and he really wanted to take it back to one of the engineering labs to take apart. But that was something to look forward to after he dealt with the woman currently pretending to be unconscious on the floor.

“I know you're awake.” Eventus said as he set the weapon down on one of the counters along the wall. “I heard your breathing change.”

Silence was the only response that greeted him.

“Fine.” He continued, picking the weapon back up and turning to the door. “I'll just leave you here till tomorrow then.”

Walking out of the room, he let the door shut behind him before turning to the female Marine standing next to the entrance. “You really don't have to stand there. The force field has a power cell that will keep it going for a full day in the case of a power loss. And while the bars may look thin, they're made of a chrundium alloy that's a good ten times stronger than carbon steel.”

The marine looked over at him and shook her head. “No can do. Rules are to always have a live guard on prisoners. Preferably two. But we don't really have the people to spare for that.”

Eventus wasn't going to argue with that given he could see at least some sense in it. “Just make sure to check the bio-monitors if she suddenly appears to get sick or something.”

“Not my first rodeo sleeping beauty.” The marine shot back, and Eventus turned a baleful glare at her for the nickname before continuing on to the medical bay where Lorne was currently being checked over by the closest thing they had to a medic.

The Enterprise's medical bay was rather spartan, a dozen scanning beds, a pair of alcoves which prior to the Wraith War would have held regeneration equipment, empty storage closets that had at one time held various medical equipment, and a molecular assembler that was functionally just a vending machine because its database has been all but purged.

“I swear to god if you don't sit still and let me check your pupil response I'll call someone in here to tie you down.” An angry male voice exclaimed as Eventus entered.

“I'm telling you it's fine, Marcus.” Lorne said, clearing attempting to placate the irate combat medic. “I just banged my head on the deck a little when I went down.”

“You were knocked out by an unknown chemical and then suffered a head wound.” Marcus snapped, brandishing his small flashlight threateningly. 

“Quinthexaline is perfectly safe.” Eventus put forward. “It basically infiltrates your brain to initiate a sleep response that lasts between thirty minutes to an hour. The only known side effects for humans are a slight dry mouth, sneezing, and the occasional weird dream involving the color purple.”

He assumed that had something to do with the specific parts of the brain the chemical acted on, but he'd never found it interesting enough to investigate in depth.

“See, it's fine.” Lorne said with a smile, hopping off the scanning bed he was sitting on as Marcus glanced over his shoulder to shoot Eventus a dirty look. “So how's Larrin doing?”

“She decided to try and pull the pretend to be unconscious thing.” He told the major. “So I'm going to let her stew in the holding cell till tomorrow.”

Marcus threw up his hands before stuffing the flashlight into his medical pack. “You know what, fine. But if you start throwing up your lunch don't come to me.”

With that he stalked off into the corridor, leaving Eventus to shoot a questioning look at Lorne who just shrugged noncommittally before frowning slightly at him.

“Seems like a lot of trouble when we could just let her go on her way.”

It very well might be Eventus thought to himself, but when life hands you lemons, you teach a class of young children how to build citric acid batteries to power their shock projectors.

“Yes, but I'm arresting her and her crew for attempted piracy.”

“Piracy?” Lorne repeated, eyeing him skeptical. “That seems like a bit of a stretch. And we’re not exactly a galactic peacekeeping force here.”

“Technically my people were.” Eventus put forward in amusement. “And while what Larrin was attempting would in fact have fit the Lantean definition of attempted piracy. I’m honestly just using it as an excuse to bring them back to Atlantis so we can actually help since it’s kind of my people’s fault they’re in this predicament in the first place.”

And hadn’t that been an unfortunate discovery.

“You’re people’s fault?” Lorne asked, giving him an odd look. “Because of the Wraith?”

Eventus made a so-so motion with one of his hands. “I did a gene-trace on Larrin before sticking her in the brig. And her people originated from a planet called Doranda that was rendered uninhabitable due to containment breach on an experimental power system of ours that was being live tested as part of a weapon system to protect the planet from the Wraith.”

Pursing his lips, Lorne seemed to consider that for a moment. “What do you mean by rendered uninhabitable?”

“A radiation burst scoured the surface of the planet clean of all living organisms.” Eventus confessed with a grimace. “Haven’t been able to confirm it yet, but I suspect her ancestors were in shielded underground bunkers at the time. Though even that probably wouldn’t have been enough if it wasn’t for their increased radiation resistance.”

From what he knew, the Dorandan’s themselves had been one of his people’s more successful projects. Humans seeded on a high radiation world with enough genetic tweeks to make it survivable but not exactly pleasant for them. 

They’d basically speedrun their technological development as part of figuring out ways to mitigate the negative effects of their environment. And had been in space for about three hundred years by the time the Wraith War went from cold to hot. 

Unfortunately however that just meant they’d put up slightly more of a fight then most before their few thousand ships were crushed under the sheer weight of Wraith numbers. At which point they’d abandoned their colony worlds to turtle up with what remained of their forces on their homeworld under the belief that his people would keep them safe.

Staring at him with a slight frown, Lorne finally let out a sigh. “I’m not sure Doctor Weir is going to be too happy about this.”

“If she doesn’t like it she can just ask Major Sheppard to pardon them.” Eventus returned with a smirk. “After all, as the Military Councilor he’ll be responsible for their rehabilitation.”

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Author’s Notes: Sheppard really should have read the job description before accepting, as anti-piracy operations do in fact now fall under his umbrella. But well, now he'll have to deal with Larrin.