Title: Crisis Brewing
Rating: K+
Spoilers: None
Summary: Rodney and the physics department have a crisis. Carson, Sheppard, and Elizabeth all get sucked in.
A/N: This was inspired by certain events today. Apologies if someone has posted something too similar before.
Dr. Weir sat at her desk, perusing reports. Thirty minutes into her day, and all was calm. Yesterday had been a rare quiet day. No alien attacks, no personnel wounded needing Dr. Beckett's care. She hoped to make it an even rarer two. Suddenly her radio chirped.
"Dr. Weir."
"Yes Radek?" she responded, detecting a note of panic in the Czech's voice.
"You might want to get down to the lab. We have crisis here."
"Yes, Elizabeth, this is worse than I ever could have imagined," interrupted one very distraught Rodney McKay.
"So much for lucky streaks," she sighed. "I'm on my way," she replied as calmly as she could, getting up from her desk. She tapped her radio. "Colonel Sheppard, Carson, I think you'll be needed in McKay's lab. They appear to be in the midst of a crisis." She switched back to Rodney, who had left the channel open.
"How could it be dead? It was fine yesterday. It's not like we can just go out and get another one." Her mind raced. Were they talking about the ZPM? No wonder the scientists were upset. This was not good.
"No, we can't fix it. This isn't something you can simply fix," exclaimed Rodney. She was sure she could hear Czech swearing in the background.
"Is not something we can steal?" asked Zelenka trying to be helpful.
"No," seethed Rodney. "I don't care that they're inferior to us. We may need them, especially in a moment of trouble. It's not worth the ensuing battle." Were they thinking of taking the ZPM from Keras? She raced through the halls to the physics labs. If the ZPM were dead, they'd need to shut down most of the city, get the Daedalus to bring additional generators, maybe evacuate some of the science personnel before the Wraith came back…her mind trailed off, listing things to do.
She cam to an abrupt halt outside the labs. Colonel Sheppard stood against one wall smirking. Nearby, Carson also waited, although he did not appear amused at having being pulled out of the infirmary. Why were they just standing there? Didn't they understand the seriousness of the matter?
She walked into the lab. The physicists were gathered in a corner, yelling.
"I still don't understand why we can't steal one. They never use it," swore Dr. Simpson, indicating a neighboring lab. Dr. Weir thought she had never heard the woman swear before. She looked in the corner where everyone gesturing. At the coffeemaker. That's what this was about? At least she could calmly state, "We have several more in storage, from the Daedalus' last run." As she walked back to her office, she thought the next time Carson had to drag Rodney into the infirmary she might actually help.
A/N2: Yep, not a good coffee day. On Monday, of course.