bTitle:Skipping a Beat/b
bAuthor:Chimera Dragon/b
bGenre: Angst/b
bPrompt: Heartbeat/b
bWord Count: 1179/b
bRating: PG/b
bWarnings: None/b
bSummary: What happens when Atlantis skips a beat?/b
She had a feel.
A voice.
And a heartbeat.
It wasn't easy to tell at first. Most people just wrote it off as a buzzing sounding in the back of their mind, just a little too low to be actually heard. But it was there, none the less.
They could never remember when the sound had started to fade. But it was disconcerting all the same.
Rodney would sometimes stumble in the hallway when it skipped.
John would end up wandering around in the middle of the night when it faded or changed tempo.
Carson could be seen staring blankly at a wall instead of at the medical charts he was supposed to be looking at.
Anyone with the gene seemed affected to some degree.
Rodney finally figured it out after being on Earth for a week and then coming back to Atlantis on the Deadleus. He felt the City as she greeted him, and there was something off. He'd always been good with technology around her, but she was a much bigger enigma all by herself.
"Colonel, can I talk to you for a minute?" Rodney asked after he had beamed down.
"Sure, McKay, what's up?" John replied as he followed the scientist.
"Has anything unusual happened around here lately that I should be made aware of?" Rodney asked.
"Not really. You went for that conference thing, and things have been fairly quiet around here. We've had a couple of power malfunctions, but those were taken care of fairly easily," John replied.
Rodney looked at the other man as they walked towards the scientist's quarters. "You and I both know I don't do the mumbo jumbo of 'feeling' my surroundings. But something feels wrong here. Can you feel it?"
John stopped walking and looked at him.
"It's like … listening to a heartbeat. But it's like there's something wrong with it. Carson does that voodoo, not me. But that's the only way I can think of to describe it," Rodney huffed as he waved open the door to his room. "I wonder if she's trying to tell us something that we're not getting."
John followed Rodney into his room and stopped just inside the door. He closed his eyes and leaned against the wall, concentrating on the feeling of the City around them. He could feel the uncertain feel and uneven thrum of the City around them. He stumbled a little as the rhythmic feel stuttered for a moment.
"See?" Rodney asked as he held out a hand to steady John. "Her … heartbeat; for lack of a better term, is off. I thought I noticed it before, but I couldn't be really sure. Once I got back after being gone for so long... I was thrown off balance."
John watched him carefully, noting the dark circles under the other man's eyes. "You noticed this before? Why didn't you say anything?"
Rodney shrugged. "The same reason you didn't. You didn't really notice. You knew; just like I did, that something felt off, but didn't know how to put it into words. Or what was really wrong. I – I hate to say this, but it almost feels like she's dying."
"You've got to be kidding. After everything we've been through?" John asked, the anguish he was feeling was evident on his face. He closed his eyes and concentrated again.
"It's like she doesn't have the strength to keep going on. And we don't have the technology to fix her up the way she needs. If only we could find some way to make it better. To fix her properly," Rodney winced at his own words and felt the utter despair that was threatening to overwhelm him.
"There's nothing you can do?" John asked.
"I don't know what we can do." The scientist looked out the windows, shoulders slumped in resignation of the inevitable.
"What if we try the Asgard? Do you think they could help?" John asked, reaching for any possibility that would mean they could keep their City.
"I don't think so. There seems to be some subroutines that should be working but they aren't and I don't know how to fix it. Radek's been working on it in his off hours too. We don't know what they're for, but we don't have the power to run them. We've had failing systems for years now. I don't think she's got much more left in her."
"But … Atlantis has survived for thousands of years!"
"And I think her expiration date may be up. Over ten thousand years ago she was made and sank into the ocean. She might have had longer if she hadn't been abandoned for so long to suffer the rigors of time with no repairs or upkeep done."
"How long?"
"At the rate of deterioration?"
"Yes."
"A year. Maybe two if we can get some of the major repairs done. She's been sinking a little too."
"Sinking? Back into the ocean?"
"Yes. There are holes we can't repair and they've been taking on water. Salt water no less so it's been more corrosive than normal water. We're losing systems that are attached to the damaged sectors," Rodney looked over at John as he changed into his science department jacket.
The heartbeat skipped again and both men were nearly sent to their knees with the feel of it.
"Only a year?"
"A year to come up with a brilliant plan," Rodney replied, trying to sound cheerful, but he knew his eyes told the truth.
The had a year to get used to the idea the city they had all sought after for so long would be gone. A city they had fought for. A city many had died for.
The knowledge she contained would be lost forever.
The home they had made would be lost.
John shivered at the thought of losing the only place that had ever felt right to him. The only place he could really, truly, and honestly call home.
Rodney looked over and noticed the shiver as he zipped up his jacket.
"We'll find a way. But first we have to find more power. We have to get her running at full so we can determine what she can tell us about her condition. She might be able to help us out a little."
"Her heart is failing..." John whispered quietly, almost too soft to be heard.
"But we can fix hearts. We can find a way to keep hers going," Rodney said.
"Are you sure about that?" John asked.
"I can only hope so..." Rodney sighed as he placed a comforting hand on John's shoulder. They left the scientist's quarters to go inform the rest of the staff they only had a year before all would be lost.
Before the heartbeat of Atlantis skipped forever.
And then only silence would remain.
The End.