Chapter 2
There was the annoying sound of a metal chair being dragged over the floor as Rodney's magnetic field expanded. This was followed by a curse and a pzzzt sound. In its turn this was followed by the stench of fried circuits, another curse and finally the sound of something breakable crashing. Radek sighed. This was a scene that had been playing off for nearly two hours now.
Radek lowered his head onto his arms. Rodney had returned from the Wraith ship in a bad mood. Not even a chocolate brownie and a cup of coffee had helped. And this bad mood was the cause for the random destruction of the laptops Rodney was working on. In his irritation his magnetic ability flared every now and then; causing him to wipe the hard drive on the laptop. Hence the first bout of curses.
After wiping the laptop and losing all the work he had been doing for a while, Rodney flared his electrical power in frustration. This caused the laptop to die a painful and instant death in a shower of electrical circuits being burnt out. This caused the second bout of curses, after which Rodney flung the destroyed laptop over his shoulder onto the growing pile of wrecked laptops.
A soft murmur made Radek look up. Miko and Simpson were standing some way off; urgently whispering to one another. They were 'rock/paper/scissoring' about who would be the one to take the new laptop to Rodney. Miko had super-speed and Simpson was a teleport – the only two qualified to get near their boss at the moment. Finally it seemed they reached some sort of conclusion and with lightning speed Miko picked up a new laptop, flashed over to where Rodney was still cursing and dumped it in front of him. In a single bound the woman was back where she had started from: again eyeing Rodney from a safe distance.
Radek knew this scene was about to be replayed indefinitely unless somebody did something about it. He also had the nasty suspicion it was going to have to be him.
Just then the door opened and one of the younger scientists bound in. "Colonel Sheppard is on his way!" he announced breathlessly. "I think he is angry about the backwash in the desalination tank!"
This announcement was followed by a moment of quiet. Then Rodney leapt up.
"I will do it!" he told everyone.
Even more than the news of John approaching, this news of Rodney volunteering to demean himself with fixing the desalination tanks had the lab bathed in astonished silence. Radek slowly inched over to where the head of the science department was gathering his equipment.
"What's wrong with you?" Radek asked.
"Nothing you would understand," Rodney spat.
"Look, we're all worried about you and..."
Unfortunately Radek never got any further than that. In a sudden burst of annoyance Rodney zapped him. It wasn't the first time Rodney had zapped Radek, but never before had it been this strong. Whereas a small jolt of electricity only made Radek ripple slightly, this jolt was big enough to cause the Czech to completely loose cohesion. It seemed the lights went out as Radek lost the ability to see (one needed eyes for that, and when he was completely liquefied he had no eyes to see with) as well s all sense of time.
By the time Radek had pulled himself together (literally), Rodney had gone. The Czech looked around. Everyone was staring at him with big eyes, including John Sheppard.
"Wow, you make a nice puddle of quicksilver," John remarked.
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"What were you thinking?" Elizabeth demanded tiredly. Rodney glared back at her. About half an hour ago John had come to Elizabeth with the news that Rodney had reduced Radek into his base form. In a city with some spectacular powers, Radek had the one that could cause him the most harm. Though the Czech could shift into the most amazing shapes, the touch of electricity could reduce him to a puddle of organic mercury. If the jolt was sufficient it could take hours for him to restore his human shape.
"He annoyed me," the Canadian snapped. "Besides, wasn't it just a bit childish of Sheppard to tattle on me?"
Actually Elizabeth agreed, but she was glad John had told her. "And zapping Doctor Zelenka wasn't childish?" she asked in return.
Rodney glared at her. She often wondered why they sometimes felt the need to keep pushing and scratching at things. It was nearing four days since she has had a decent amount of sleep and she was as tired as the rest of them. In fact, she had been on her way to bed when John had come to her with the tale of Rodney zapping Radek.
She used one hand to rub her eyes for a moment. "Look, just go to bed and get some sleep, okay?" she wearily told Rodney. In fact she was almost willing to beg him to go away just so she could get some sleep as well.
Rodney grunted heavily and stalked from the office. She sighed, but at least now she could get some sleep.
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10hours ago...
The Daedalus dropped out of hyperspace. John, Teyla, Ronon and Rodney stood together on the bridge and waited for the ship to crawl in a little closer to the Wraith hive ship. Moments later they felt the strange tingle as they were beamed onto the enemy vessel.
The moment the four of them were reassembled they looked at one another for a second. Actually none of them has had the time to plan anything and they were still furious at one another. Then, as one, they turned their backs on each other and stalked off in different directions. Rodney went in search of the command deck and Teyla went straight for the dart bay. John and Ronon ended up stalking off in the same direction – just too bad neither of them knew where they were going. They were just stalking off.
John unsheathed the claws in his right hand. In his other hand he held the P-90 to light his way. It wasn't really as if he intended on using the gun. With his regenerative powers he healed almost instantly and he was scheming for a fight with a Wraith – or two. He could almost feel the urge to make sushi out of a Wraith bubbling up in him. He might have hated the adamantium skeleton the military had blackmailed him into, but at times like these he loved the sting of his claws cutting through his skin. The cuts would heal, but not before he had done some serious damage to the Wraith.
Idly he now ambled down the corridor, his right hand dragging against the wall. This was a Wraith ship and like all Wraith ships the walls were made of an organic substance that parted like skin beneath his sharp claws. At a few junctions he sliced an 'S' into the wall. (Before encountering the Wraith it had been a 'J' he had cut into walls, but with the Wraith ships this just looked stupid. The big slice of wall cut loose between the top bar of the capital 'J' and the vertical bar only created a nice floppy bit on the curly side. He really didn't like the idea of the Wraith gathering around his calling-card and thinking 'What's with this strange floppy part?' Then again, he had had to practice making the 'S' as well, for if the 'S' is too rounded one ended up with two floppy parts.)
Behind him strolled Ronon. He was holding both guns in front of him and was slowly getting annoyed at the layout of the Wraith ship. These corridors were too narrow for him to fly in. In fact, every now and then he tried opening his wings, but he could only get them open halfway before encountering the walls on either side. He grunted in frustration. Like John he was scheming for a fight.
Meanwhile Teyla had found the dart bay and was happily causing major destruction. Her eyes glowed white as she drew on her powers to control the weather. Even in an atmosphere as small as that on a Wraith ship there was enough air for her to cause a localized tornado. Rising into the air she spread her arms and picked up the first dart in her tornado. Then she expanded her storm and lifted another, and another... This was a better way of getting rid of frustrations than even meditation.
Of the group only Rodney was having some trouble. He was a genius, granted. But these Wraith ships were never the same on the inside! Only five minutes out and he was lost.
John and Ronon turned a corner and skidded to a halt.
"How did we manage this?" John asked Ronon from the side of his mouth. Ronon grinned and John was glad he wasn't the target of that smile. The two of them had found – purely by accident – the Wraith queen's hall.
"I don't care, but I'm glad we did," Ronon answered. He spread his wings in the huge chamber and walked forward; guns held in front of him.
"What are you doing here, you insignificant beings?" the queen demanded. Being surprised wasn't something Wraith queens did well. On both sides of her stood a number of soldiers – those with the nice coats.
"Prepare to die!" Ronon told the queen as he spread his wings fully. John stood behind him, but he knew what Ronon looked like from the front: an avenging angel kicked from heaven and a chip on his shoulder. In short: very intimidating.