Author note: Yep, my recurring urge to injure John Sheppard has struck again. I just can't help myself. There will be at least one more chapter after this one – not sure how many, actually, but I'll try and post them reasonably regularly (days apart, not weeks apart). On we go…
Chapter 1
Five hours earlier…
"You don't have to watch my every step, you know," smiled Elizabeth as she and the others exited the Puddle jumper and began to pick their way through the ruins of the Ancient outpost to the one structure that was reasonably intact. As the leader of the Atlantis expedition she rarely left the base other than for diplomatic missions to potential allies, and she was very aware that her military commander had a tendency towards over-protectiveness – not only towards her, but towards all the civilians, particularly those who weren't regular members of gate teams. And while she bristled slightly at the assumption that she was somehow fragile or incapable, she knew with absolute certainty that if anything did go wrong there was nobody else she would rather have watching her back.
So she straightened her back and picked up the pace, matching his stride as he turned forwards again, and they both reached the main entrance of the structure at the same time. It was a small triumph, and she smirked at her own competitive nature.
Sheppard, for his part, tried not to roll his eyes as he and Ronon took their places either side of the door, Ronon with his energy pistol drawn and ready. The Colonel drew his hand across the door control, and shifted his grip to the lighted P90 as the door ground its way open.
A trickle of dust fell from the lintel, and the door didn't fully open, but Sheppard could sense straight away that there was still power flowing through the Ancient systems within the building – the faint mental 'hum' that had greeted him when he first stepped through the wormhole to Atlantis was here, too, pushing at the back of his mind, though the sensation was less welcoming, less homey, than the city that had truly become his home. Weapon still raised and ready, he stepped over the threshold and blinked as a smattering of lights grudgingly flickered on. It was a sickly glow, but it was enough to illuminate the small room.
This was as far as Lorne's team had got when they'd scouted the planet two days before. It had been clear that the outpost had been some sort of research station, so when the team reported in, McKay had insisted that he be allowed a first look at it, and Elizabeth had expressed an interest in it, too, based on the scant description in the Ancient Database back on Atlantis, so with Teyla away visiting with the Athosians, Sheppard had ended up leading the remainder of his own team, plus Elizabeth, back to the planet today.
Sheppard gave the all clear, and reluctantly allowed Elizabeth and Rodney in, Ronon bringing up the rear.
"Huh," was Rodney's first reaction. "I thought it would be cleaner."
Ronon and Sheppard exchanged a glance, eyebrows raised, but by that time the scientist was already unpacking his trusty tablet and connecting it to the underside of the nearest console with a hefty sheaf of wires. Knowing that he and Elizabeth would likely take a while to make sense of what they found, he decided to check out the rest of the building – after all, at least he knew he could get the lights to work.
"Ronon, can you stay with these two while they play with their new toy? I'm going to see what else is here."
The Satedan nodded, and took up a position leaning against the doorframe, giving him a vantage point outside and in. Sheppard had come to trust the former runner absolutely, and was grateful to be able to trust the safety of the two non-military members of their group to his watchful guarding.
A door at the far end of the room took Sheppard to a short corridor, again lit by sporadic lights, and a further chamber. The door control seemed to be dead, but Sheppard made short work of prising the door open enough to look through, and then sidestep his way into what was clearly a lab.
"McKay'll want to see this," Sheppard muttered to himself, lowering his P90 so that the flashlight's beam could supplement the meagre glow of the room's own lights. In the centre of the lab was a tall, semi-transparent structure. The surface looked smooth to the touch, but Sheppard drew his hand back as he was about to make contact with it. He'd had more than one too many bad experiences with touching Ancient devices without fully understanding them first. So he circled the structure warily, wondering whether he could hazard a guess as to its function before calling McKay on the radio.
Careful not to touch anything, Sheppard leaned closer, hoping to see whether the structure was hollow, or whether the pearlised finish was, in fact, solid. He'd just decided that it probably was solid, when the whole thing sprang to life, dazzling him with a sudden burst of silver light that sent spikes of hot pain though his skull. He staggered, blinded and disorientated, and tried to reach for his earpiece. He was only aware that he'd lost his balance when he distantly felt his hip collide with the sharp edge of the console, and a split second later, his forehead struck the tall structure at its centre. Pain layered on pain, and still the silver light blotted out all thought.
Sheppard was hardly aware of falling, and was unconscious before he hit the floor. So he couldn't possibly have seen the pearly silver from the Ancient device as it flowed down and across the console, onto one trailing, limp hand, and up the arm, and onto the neck. Mercifully, Sheppard was insensible as the alien liquid smothered his face and seeped through eyes, nose, mouth and ears, eventually, seemingly, disappearing, taking the bright-white glow with it.
Sheppard's unconscious body shuddered once, and was still.
