A/N- Hey Everyone! CHAPTER 2! Yay! I got it out in good time. So, everyone who read the first chapter before I changed it a bit should probably go back and at least look at the Author's Note, just so that you're not confused at all, because I like to know that the readers understand and stuff. Well, I hope you all like this chapter! Enjoy!
Disclaimer- No, I'm pretty sure i still don't own Stargate: Atlantis, SG1, or MGM, however sad that fact might be.
The room was incredibly tense. Eight people were seated around the white, glowing, horse-shoe shaped table, each waiting in worry, each feeling their patience drain away, some more than others. Col.'s Caldwell, Carter, Sheppard, Dr.'s Carson and Keller, Teyla, Ronan, and Dr. Woolsey had been waiting for only ten minutes, and they were already feeling like they might explode with the suspense. Dr. Zelenka had called them into the room, saying that he thought him and the other scientist had finally, after an hour, finished the reconfigurations and that he was ready to try to respond to Rodney McKay's transmission. That had been ten minutes ago, and they were nervous. Had something gone wrong? Was it working? Would they be able to contact Rodney?
Jennifer had had to stop and sit in the middle of one of the corridors after they heard from Rodney because she had started to hyperventilate. She sat there, in the dark, grey and white corridor, just trying to breath. She had been so worried. She had just needed to sit down as the fact that he was okay crashed down on her, drowning her. Teyla had come and had sat down next her, putting her arms around her shoulders, a soft, Teyla-like smile on her face. After a few moments, the two stood up together and walked back to the busy, slightly crowded Gate Control Room.
Sheppard and Ronan had walked behind Dr. Zelenka all the way down to Rodney's lab, and then they had followed him up to the main communications control crystal board, and then they had watched him as he dribbled on in Czech and started doing things they didn't quite understand with the crystals. Finally, after Radek got incredibly annoyed with their looming over him like over-protective security guards, or children (he couldn't decide which one fit better), he kicked them out of the lab. They had spent the rest of the time before Radek called them watching the progress of the reconfiguring of the scanners.
Heads snapped up as they heard footsteps coming towards the briefing room, and Dr. Zelenka came hurrying in and sat down next to the Atlantian view screen, his hair in disarray, most likely because of leaning into a conduit. He opened up his computer and started tapping, sending an apologetic look around the room, which was met with blank, angry, excited, and anxious looks.
"Atlantis, come in, please? Come on, Radek, you should have finished it by now, right? Or not." They all jumped as they heard Rodney's voice float out from seemingly nowhere, and then they looked toward the doors before turning back to Radek, some wearing sheepish looks. Zelenka rolled his eyes at Rodney's transmission, before speaking.
"We think that we have done it, and we are ready to respond to Rodney's "Plea" now. Dr. Woolsey, would you like to do the honors?" He turned to Dr. Woolsey, wearing a look of expectancy and a bit of hopefulness. Dr. Woolsey nodded and swallowed before speaking in a loud, clear voice.
'Dr. McKay, this is Atlantis, please respond…" The tension in the room mounted, everyone waiting in suspense for what they hoped would be a reply from Rodney. After a while, John bit his lip and started to sink back into the straight-backed, black chair, but his action was immediately reversed as Rodney's voice broke out, slightly distorted, over the radio.
"Oh, thank whoever it is that seems to be watching and protecting us!" Relief flooded the minds of almost everyone in the room, and this time John really did sink back into his chair, but more from relief than anything. His action was quickly mirrored by the others, before small smiled were shared by all.
"I was starting to think that maybe I should re-verse my instructions. So, Radek, figure it out?" Though the question was sarcastic, Rodney's voice held none of its usual arrogance or bite-like-ness. This worried everyone more than anything else did.
"Yes, Rodney, we did figure it out." Radek said, his face creased in a frown; he too had obviously noticed the lack of Rodney's usual tone.
"Rodney, do you know where you are?" Carter spoke up, hoping against hope that this would all be behind them by the end of the day.
"You mean you don't? Ugh, no I don't. I was hoping you did. You see, I'm stuck in the front compartment of the Jumper, and the main view screen is black." Rodney's words did nothing to improve anyone's spirit, not that they were expecting them to.
"How did you get stuck in the front compartment, Rodney?" Teyla asked, her usually calm features creased slightly in worry, her posture tense. Everyone turned to the computer as though it really was Rodney.
"Umm, well, it seems that some sort of shock, most likely a blast from a weapon, hit the door crystals on the other side of the doors, burning them out, to put it simply." Dr. Zelenka nodded, but Sheppard, Ronan, Teyla, Col Caldwell, and Carter had caught something else in that sentence that they thought was much more important.
"Blast from a weapon? Rodney, were you in a fight?" Sheppard's words caught the attention of everyone who hadn't understood Rodney's words before. Once again, the air of the room was filled with tension.
"Honestly? I don't remember." He said, clearly intent on speaking some more, but he was cut off by a very anxious Jennifer.
"You can't remember? Did you hit your head? Were you drugged?" Both Keller and Carson immediately took on that look that they had whenever they had to take a diagnosis over a radio, as they sometimes had to for off-world teams that they couldn't get to. It was a look kind of like they were trying to picture everything that was happening while at the same time trying to decide what the best course of action would be.
"No, I can't remember. Yes, I hit my head. About being drugged, I sincerely hope not, because that could be incredibly bad for my blood sugar or something." His voice sounded like his usual hypochondriac-ness, but underneath the surface, both doctors could recognize the real worry.
"Okay, Rodney, just tell us exactly what you remember and know." John calmly said, hoping that whatever he knew or remembered might shed a bit more light on the situation.
"Well, from what I can tell, there was obviously a fight back here. Maybe between whoever took me. Two of the chairs have their tops blown out, and there are black scorch marks on the walls and consuls. So, the fight obviously got a bit ugly. I tried to scan the surrounding area, but all that the scans told me is that the Jumper is on a flat surface. A lot of help that was. The shields are going haywire. They keep changing frequencies, but basically staying at one that the scanners aren't programmed to work with. I don't know what's causing the interference, but whatever it is, it's not coming from the crystals that control the shields. At first I thought it was, but a closer looked told me that, yes, there was a small problem with one of the crystals and command units, but not something that would cause this. It makes no sense."
Radek looked thoughtful and started to murmur under his breath in Czech. Everyone else was thinking about what Rodney had said. So, the people that had taken Rodney had fought. Over what? Why had they worked together to kidnap Rodney, just to jeopardize the whole mission by fighting with each other? And what had caused them to start fighting then, instead of while they were in Atlantis, or after they had gotten to wherever their destination was? Why had they taken Rodney?
Col. Carter was thinking more towards what was causing the shields to go haywire. Her frown deepened. Like Rodney said, it just made no sense. They should be working fine. And to add to that, he was obviously still on the planet if he wasn't in the surrounding space, so why couldn't their scanners pick him up?
"Rodney, we're having trouble with our scanners. They can't pick up you or the Jumper you're in. Could the shields be causing that?" Her eyes flew from Radek's grey computer to her own black one, looking at the report from Hermiod and Radek.
There was silence on the other end. Rodney was probably checking his own reports and internal scanners.
"Hmm. It…might be. But I can't really...say for sure." There were pauses when he spoke, most likely caused by him going out of range, or checking on something on the other side. Carter nodded, tapping at her own computer, running a few diagnostics on their own scanning system and on that of the Dedaulus.
"Do you think that if you told us the frequency, we might be able to match either Atlantis' or the Dedaulus' so that they could detect the Jumper?" Carter didn't even look up as she spoke, her eyes focused intently on the computer screen, Zelenka mirroring her actions.
There was more silence. "In normal circumstances, that would be the first thing that I suggested, but the thing is, the Jumpers shields are continually changing the frequencies, and it's getting harder to know which one it will be at any given time." Carter bit her lip and looked up, but her eyes were far from the room, and in a second she had turned back to the computer.
They could hear snapping on the other side of the radio, and John just had to grin. Rodney's habit of snapping his fingers whenever he had a good idea, often meant that his idea was better than good, and then he would do something miraculous, and they would all end up living. Snapping of fingers was a good sign.
"Maybe…yes, that could work." They waited for him to say more, but he didn't.
"Uh, Rodney?" Sam asked, a few locks of hair falling into her face.
"Oh, sorry. Yes, I think I have an idea. I may be able to make a way to detect when the frequency will change. So, I could give you a specific frequency and then alert you to when it will be used, so you could scan at that exact moment and—AGH." His sentence was cut off by a painful sounding yell that made everyone jump.
"RODNEY!" Nine voices screamed at once, the owners of the voices jumping off their chairs, fearing the worst. "Rodney!" They yelled again, their voices fear-filled and anxious.
"I-It's okay. Really, I'm fine. I just f-fell." His voice crackled out of the computer.
"Fell? How far exactly? Off a cliff? That's what it sounds like. Rodney, are you hurt?" John's voice was dangerously low, as it got when he was worried.
"Yes. Yes, I am hurt. All the more reason for us to figure this out quickly so I can get medical attention." His voice sounded like he was gritting his teeth. The fact that he wasn't complaining scared them more than anything else.
"Rodney," Jennifer started in a dangerous voice. She was angry that he hadn't told her from the start. If not as his doctor, than at least as his girlfriend, or the other way around. "How are you hurt, and what is hurt?"
Rodney must have heard her tone, because he answered slowly. "Well, I'm pretty sure I have a concussion, just a small one, though, and my left wrist is sprained, or probably worse, my back hurts, I've probably gotten some disease or something, and my left leg is broken, and I have a knife wound between my pelvis and lower right rib, and"—, but he was cut off by several gasps.
"A knife wound? Rodney, why did you not tell us this immediately?" Teyla voiced everyone's thoughts, her voice crisp and worried.
"Well, umm, I don't even really feel it anymore. So, I guess I just forgot or something. I mean, it doesn't even hurt, really, at all, so I just…" He was rambling. Not a good sign. Jennifer and Carson looked at each other, eyes conveying a silent message between two doctors.
"Rodney, how long has it not hurt?" Carson asked, sitting down slowly, his hands on the table for support.
"I'm not really sure. About fifteen minutes or so. Why?" Rodney's voice sounded worried. The doctors' strange inquiry most likely piqued up his over-active imagination.
"Did you notice anything…strange about the wound?" Carson ignored Rodney's question, countering with his own.
"Strange? Other than that it was there and bleeding pretty badly, no, I don't think there was anything wrong with it. Well, actually, that depends on what you call wrong." Rodney's usual sarcasm surfaced with Carson's question, making both doctors sigh in exasperation and mounting exhaustion.
"Rodney, thes is very important. We need to ken if thaur is somethin', anythin', different about yer wound frae the other ones you've seen or had." Carson's voice was heavily accented by this point, making him slightly harder to understand. There was more silence on the other side, giving the others a chance to talk amongst themselves, quietly, for a moment.
"What's wrong, doc's?" Sheppard asked, his brow furrowed in worry and confusion. Jennifer and Carson shared a look before Jennifer answered the question.
"We think that the wound might be infected, in which case, we need to find him soon, like now actually. It needs to be treated." She looked troubled, her eyes wandering around the room, stopping briefly at Radek's computer. "Plus, I'm not sure how much longer Rodney can last without food. You know he's hypoglycemic. And, his claustrophobia could kick in at any time." Carson nodded. Dr. Woolsey suddenly looked much older than he was, a feat that Sam, Sheppard, and Carson all seemed to be mirroring. Teyla looked up, confusion in her eyes.
"But, are there not emergency rations as well as water inside the Jumper, in both the front and back compartments?" Everyone looked up at that: It was clear that this detail had been quite forgotten in the melee. Sheppard nodded, but then looked worried again.
"The Jumper was being repaired before it flew outta here, were the emergency rations kept in there any way?" He turned to look at Radek who had been heading the repairs. Radek looked up, a slightly confused look on his face, as though he hadn't really been listening.
'Wha—Oh yes, I mean no. We never take out the emergency water, food, or kit. They should still be there. But, knowing Rodney, that would have been the first thing he went for." He smirked slightly, knowing full well that it was Rodney who had insisted on putting a kit in both compartments.
"Carson? Jennifer? Hello?" Rodney's voice cackled from the computer, reminding everyone that Rodney was still lost somewhere, alone and hurt.
"Yes Dr. McKay? We're here." Dr. Woolsey replied, sitting back in his former chair, the others following suit.
"Carson, no, I didn't find anything strange about the wound. Now, can we please get back to what we were doing?"
"It's all right Rodney; I get what you were saying. Just," Carter sighed and ran a hand through her hair, "Just do whatever you need to do to the shields. Contact us when you have what you need, alright?" She looked up at Dr. Woolsey, a silent ask for permission. He nodded.
"Yeah, okay. I'll just…Get to work then." He said quietly, his voice sounding exhausted. Everyone nodded before remembering that he couldn't actually see them.
"Alright Rodney. Just, call us when you're done." Sheppard said, knowing that using "call" instead of radio would annoy Rodney greatly, which only served to make John happier, as it always did.
Everyone stood up, some faster than others, and walked out to do their various duties, Carter, Caldwell, and Zelenka heading toward the Dedaulus, Jennifer and Carson to the infirmary, SGA1 to their rooms, finally able to rest after hearing Rodney's voice, and Dr. Woolsey to his office, where he sank down into his chair. It had been a long day.
Rodney wiped his brow and sat down on the co-pilot's seat. He had been working hard at fixing up the internal sensors so that he would be able to detect when the frequency would change and what it would change to. Then, he would "Call" Atlantis to tell them what frequency to change their scanners to, and when to scan. They would find him, and all would be well.
Yeah right! When is anything that easy? He thought to himself as he ate, no, tore apart, another power bar. He sighed again before settling back. Unfortunately, he forgot that both the co-pilot's seat and the seat behind that both had their tops blown off. He fell flat onto the ground and yelled out in pain. Even if the knife wound didn't just hurt, whenever something hit it hard it sent several incredibly strong and painful shock waves through his body. He gritted his teeth to keep him from screaming again and tried to stand back up, which only resulted in him falling down again, on his stomach this time. He left leg twisted painfully, causing him to cry out in pain again. His right hand swooped out in front of him, trying to grab onto something squeezable. His hand hit something small, hard, and smooth.
Rodney frowned as he slowly, and in great pain, stood up, taking the small device with him. He sat down in the seat behind the pilot's and looked at the device.
It was small, a bit bigger than an ancient person shield, flat on one side and rounded on the other, shaped like a pointy egg, and was obviously of Ancient design. Rodney had never seen anything like it, but what caught his attention was the fact that it had obviously been broken and someone had tried to fix it by doing the equivalent of gluing and taping it back together. Rodney's frown deepened. He had definitely never seen the device before. And if anyone on Atlantis had found it they would have immediately taken it to him, Dr. Woolsey, Zelenka, or someone else in the Science team, and then they would have brought it to him, or at least informed him about it.
Who was the idiot who tried to fix it like this? He wandered to himself, confusion filling his features. He lifted his left hand, which still hurt incredibly badly, to his mouth, fully intent on having another bite of the power bar. But, as he found out about half a second later, the power bar had fallen with him, and was still on the floor. He sighed and stared at it longingly, as though he thought that it would just appear in his hand. Sadly, though, it did not, and he reasoned that if he wanted it, he would have to go get it.
He put the strange and badly repaired device on the chair behind the pilot's and then slowly lowered himself down to the floor, taking great pains not to hit his leg, and then reached over and grabbed his fallen power bar.
He gingerly sat back up on the chair and took a bit of the bar before setting it down on the consul between the two front seats. He turned to the seat that he had put the devise on and his eyes grew wide.
Instead of a small ancient device on a grey, burned seat, there was…nothing. Just nothing. It was like the seat and the device had never even been. He reached out to the seat, fully expecting to only touch air, but instead his hand touched something solid, something that felt just like the seat did. His hand continued to feel the coarse, bumpy feeling seat as it went down to the part that you sat on, and then found the device. He tried to pick it up, but it seemed stuck to the seat. He pulled harder, his hand gripping the seat hard. His thumb and middle finger touched two small, tip of the finger sized indented areas, and his fingers squeezed it. The device immediately un-stuck and came loose.
Rodney held it up to his face, looking at it closely. His mind was practically going a hundred miles an hour.
Someone sneaks into Atlantis, no one knows how, no one ever sees that person, somehow that person sneaks up on Rodney without him ever seeing, and then that person sneaks the Jumper away without alerting anyone. How could he or she have done that without being detected or seen even once?
Rodney looked at the device again, before putting it on the chair again. He watched as the chair seemed to "ripple" like a wave, and then disappear. He grabbed the device, putting his fingers in the same places, and then he felt the device loosen its' hold on the chair and come loose completely. He looked at it closely again before sighing and putting on his incredulous, amazed, annoyed, and why-does-this-always-seem-to-happen face.
You have got to be kidding me.
A/N-OOOH, twist! Invisible, meaningless points to whoever can guess what Rodney's thinking! Hope you liked it! Please Read and Review, it make me happy, and constructive criticism is always appreciated, and complements are liked as well!
Oh, and this is just a warning. I have school, a lot actually, and so I'm not sure how much writing I'll be able to get done during the week-days. However, I really love writing, and I love where this story is going, so I'll most likely write every day. So, the updates will probably just be put off by like one or two days. The good news is that I was able to write this chapter in basically one day, with a little going into the other day, and I've already started on chapter three!