crossoverfic | The Saints of Atlantis 15 (Reply)

Title: The Saints of Atlantis
Fandoms: The Boondock Saints/Stargate Atlantis
Rating: PG15/Teen for violence and swearing
Author: Dragonfan

ART-2, (Major Evan Lorne, Doctor David Parish, Lieutenant Cadman and Sergeant Carver) along with a small group of Athosian traders were on Hitewilf, a planet with an underground cave system that was deep enough to be safe from Wraith attack. The stargate was located within the caves, along with the resident population and a thriving interplanetary market. The Athosians had a stall where they were selling spices, teas and other things that Lorne had no clue about. He and his team were there to provide pack mule service as well as doing a little shopping of their own. So after helping to set up the stall, Lorne sent Cadman and Carver off with orders to report in every hour. He took Parish off in the opposite direction. He knew the Athosians would do more business if they weren’t watching over their shoulders looking intimidating.

By the end of the ‘day’ Parish had found a dozen different plants and Lorne had found some minerals and other things that he could use to mix up some homemade paint. Cadman had come up with a few Ancient artifacts, all broken but useful for salvageable parts, and Carver had found a source of paper, something that quite a few people back in Atlantis would trade dearly for. All in all, Lorne considered it a good trip; at least he had until they got back to the Athosians and found out that there was a diplomatic group waiting for them. It seemed that word had gotten out that not only were the Lantians interested in a ZMP, but that they would trade for words written by the Ancestors. The Chulaon were willing to begin negotiations for just such a trade. They told Lorne that they had an extensive library filled with just such writings and that they were willing to allow a few Lantians access if an agreement could be reached.

Cadman did a scan of the Chulaon behind their backs to ensure that they were clean of any explosives, radiation or other hazard. She nodded to Lorne, indicating that they were clean. “Well, we certainly don’t have any objections to peaceful trades,” Lorne said, putting on his best diplomat’s face. He hated this part of his job, but they really couldn’t pass up on this offer if it was genuine. Lorne carefully herded his expanded group back to the ‘gate and there had Parish dial up Atlantis.

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Negotiations were Elizabeth’s Weir’s life’s work. Bringing together different groups together in a peaceful manner and getting them to agree on anything other than wanting to destroy each other was a joy. That did not necessarily mean that all peaceful negotiations weren’t a pain in the ass, especially when she had to give in to yet another tradition that cemented her status as the ruler of Atlantis to the rest of the Pegasus galaxy. She loved being the leader of the Atlantis Expedition; the Queen of Atlantis, not so much.

Elizabeth entered the chapel quietly, not wishing to disturb anyone who may have been making use of it. She knew that the McManus twins and their friend Romeo used the chapel every morning, but others had begun to make use of it as well at odd hours. It brought home to her that here was yet another something that she had neglected to think of when she put the expedition together. This wasn’t the first time it had happened, of course, but at least she could easily correct this mistake. She had already put in a request for a chaplain along with a list of the religions that were currently represented among the expedition members. She didn’t know who actually practiced their religion, but whoever was sent should be aware of what might be required of them.

As she had expected, the twins were kneeling at the altar, deep in prayer. Elizabeth waited, as much to put off what she had to do as it was out of respect. While she waited, she looked around at the changes that had been made. There were now four benches facing the altar. They looked like Athosian work along with the two candles in holders on the altar itself. There was a simple wooden cross hung on the wall above the altar as well. Combined with the Atlantis architecture it made for a very soothing atmosphere.

“Doctor Weir?”

Elizabeth started. She hadn’t realized that she’d drifted off. “Mr. McManus, I’m sorry. I didn’t realize you were done.”

“Conner,” Conner insisted. “If you keep being formal, it’s going to be hard to figure out if you’re talking to me or my brother.”

Elizabeth smiled ruefully. There was something about these men that made her want to relax and smile, even when what they did made her stomach turn. “Conner then. I need to talk to the three of you about an off world trip.”

“Let’s head out to the gardens then,” Conner pointed to the exit that his brother was taking.

“Ok,” Elizabeth said, and followed the men outside. The gardens were more extensive than she had realized, although having sat dormant for 10,000 years, none of the plants had survived. Romeo was out in the middle of one garden bed, removing the mummified remains of a bush, and Murphy was stripping down to his jeans in order to join him. Three beds had already been cleared and turned over. “What are you going to do with the beds when you’ve finished clearing them?”

“We’ll be planting grains, vegetables, herbs, basically everything we can get seeds for from home. Romeo’s been talking about what he needs to make a decent salsa.” They walked over to the garden bed and Romeo and Murphy greeted them. “Ok Doctor Weir, what do you need to talk to us about?” Conner asked.

Elizabeth took a deep breath and hoped that they would understand what she was about to say. “In this galaxy, Atlantis in not only the City of the Ancestors, it is also a sovereign nation in its own right. The people of this galaxy are determined to continue to treat us that way. In order to make the sort of treaties that we need to survive, I’ve had to go along with that. Under normal conditions what they call us doesn’t impact how we do things.” The men were nodding, understanding her reasoning.

“Earlier today we had a diplomatic visit from the Chulaon. They want to trade access to an Ancient library in return for medical assistance. It’s a common trade item for us, so I’m more than willing to make the deal. However, to formalize it the Chulaon want me to come to their homeworld for a ritual celebration, and somehow they know about the three of you.”

“What do you mean?” Murphy wanted to know.

“They wanted the mila poppaaem to be part of my escort,” Elizabeth said flatly.

“So what are they expecting us to do?” Conner asked.

“They are expecting the three of you to be an Ancient order of knights that no longer exists!” Elizabeth said, angry that they were so nonchalant about impersonating Ancients.

“All mila poppaaem means is our family Doctor Weir,” Conner tried to explain. “The cathedral proves that. We found inscriptions in several places that come damned close to matching our family’s path. The concepts are identical; it’s just the wording that’s changed over the last 10,000 years.”

“Destroy all that which is evil, so that which is good may flourish,” quoted Murphy. “Destroy evil wherever you may find it, so that good may spread throughout the worlds.”

“Evil man; dead man,” Romeo said. “No man who chooses evil shall be allowed to live.”

“There’s also an inscription describing the oath that a mila poppaaem would take when taking on adult responsibilities. That oath is almost word for word our family’s prayer.” Conner shrugged. “It surprised the hell out of us to tell you the truth, but if they want us we have no objections to going. We just need to know what they want us to do.”

Sometimes Elizabeth really hated the Ancients, usually when they had done something that was coming back to bite her or her people on the ass. “Do you think you could play bodyguard without killing anyone for a day or two?”

“You mean stand around and look intimidating? I think we can manage that,” Conner laughed.

“We leave at o eight hundred tomorrow,” Elizabeth said, trying to hold on to her temper.

“As far as killing goes, how about we promise not to kill anyone we don’t need to?” Murphy said, chewing on yet another twig.

“Since that’s probably as good as I’m going to get from the three of you, we’ll see just how well you can keep your word.” With that, Elizabeth turned and left.

“Ok, now that was supremely bitchy,” Romeo pointed out.

“She don’t like us Rome because she thinks what we do is the exact opposite of what she does. She tries to get people to work together for the good of everyone. She doesn’t understand that we just destroy the evil that would destroy her work in worse ways than we ever could,” Murphy said as he bent over and began pulling up long dead plants.

“But you’re right,” Conner said, as he too began to strip down to his jeans, “she can be very bitchy.”

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‘It’s amazing,’ Steven Caldwell thought as he picked out his lunch, ‘just how much you can put inside the tiny open spots of a regular dresser drawer.’ Like every other soldier who’d ever gone over seas for long stretches of time, he’d gotten extremely good at stuffing his pack with all sorts of goodies like instant coffee and cookie dough mix. He’d never tried it with a regular dresser drawer though. As captain of the Daedalus, his bunk was a traditional captain’s bed with six drawers underneath. It was a wealth of space on a space ship.

Inside those six drawers he’d managed to get seeds for every kind of vegetable that the local store carried, along with flowers, herbs, bulbs of garlic, and strawberry plants. Even if the brothers didn’t like those particular foods, Caldwell knew that someone in the expedition, probably one of the botanists, would. There was nothing like having goods to trade when there were no stores around. He’d seen the shopping lists and requisition orders that had come out of Atlantis. He knew what was going on, but he chose not to say anything. Instead, he was helping where he could.

That was the real reason for the three stasis pods he’d had Novak install in the smallest cargo hold. Officially, they were there as a way of testing how well people could travel in stasis without a virtual reality hook up. In reality, Caldwell was using them to transport different animals to Atlantis. It was amazing what could be bought privately. One newborn female calf that he’d gotten free from a dairy, one two month old female pig that he’d gotten for a hundred dollars, and one six month old female cat he’d gotten from a pet store were the subjects in the stasis pods for the first trip to Atlantis. He also had a bundle of AI sperm tubes frozen in the infirmary labs. They were marked as biological specimens for Doctor Beckett.

“Father McManus, I’m glad you could join us on this trip,” Caldwell said as he sat down at one of the tables near a porthole. The Catholic priest wasn’t his doing. Doctor Weir had put in a request for a chaplain and someone, somewhere along the way had found what had to be the only member of the McManus family who was a priest and serving in the United States armed forces.

Father Nevan Loaghaire McManus had served for the last twenty years in combat areas all around Earth. There wasn’t a single religion that he hadn’t studied up on and he could perform the general rituals for at least most of them. “I’m just glad to have the chance to serve Colonel, and if it gets me a chance to spend time with some of my family, all the better.”

“You know Conner and Murphy McManus then?” Caldwell asked. He hadn’t been sure, the McManus family was rather a large one from what he’d found out.

Father Nevan laughed long and loud. “Everyone knows the twins Colonel. My family may be spread out all over the world, but we all come from the same place and we’re all frequent visitors to our home grounds. Most of us spend most of our lives there. The rest of us usually find a spot near the village to retire to.”

“They’re twins? I thought Conner was the older brother,” Caldwell asked, curious.

“That’s the 65,000 dollar question Colonel. Only one person knows and Annabelle isn’t talking. It frustrates the ever living hell out of the boys.”