Chapter 4
Rock-A-Bye, Baby
Traditional
Written By: Unknown
Copyright Unknown
Rock-a-bye, baby,
In the treetop,
When the wind blows
The cradle will rock;
When the bough breaks
The cradle will fall,
And down will come baby,
Cradle and all.
Rock-a-bye baby,
Way up on high,
Never mind baby,
Mother is 'nigh
Up to the ceiling,
Down to the ground,
Rock-a-bye baby,
Up hill and down.
John Sheppard was not angry. He wanted everyone to clearly understand that. He wasn't angry, he wasn't pissed even. No, he was fucking furious.
Storming down the ramp leading from the Earth gate, he was ready to kill somebody with his bare hands: preferably Dr. Roderick Miles, the current CSO of Atlantis. Trailing behind him was an equally angry Ronon Dex. He had a death grip on said Doctor's collar; dragging the struggling scientist un-ceremoniously down the ramp. Following at a far more sedate pace was Dr. Elisabeth Weir, leader of the Atlantis expedition, and Dr. Radek Zelenka.
"Dr. Weir, Colonel Sheppard, what is the meaning of this?" General Landry demanded, speaking over the intercom from the control room overlooking the gate-room.
John opened his mouth to respond but Elisabeth was slightly faster in answering; realising that anything her military commander would say would only get him into trouble with the superior officer. "General Landry, why don't we take this to the conference room; where we can talk in private?" she had framed it as a question, but it was quite clear from her tone that it was an order.
Landry gritted his teeth and nodded. "Of course, Doctor." Gesturing at an airman to show the group to the conference room adjacent to the control room, he slipped into his office to make a call to Washington and Major General Jack O'Neill. He was going to need someone with more clout than himself to deal with Dr. Weir. She was the darling of the IOA and over the last year her political influence had grown in leaps and bounds; so that now she had in fact far more power and authority than he, who was the commander of the SGC, did.
Entering the conference room, Landry noted how the Atlanteans had seated themselves. Dr. Weir was seated at the head of the table, looking not unlike some kind of royalty. On her right hand, sprawled in his chair, was the newly promoted Colonel John Sheppard. Landry had fought tooth and nail to prevent the promotion, but he had lost that fight just like he had the one almost two years ago when Weir had demanded that he, a Major then, be promoted to Lt. Colonel. On her left was Dr. Zelenka, looking frazzled and exhausted. Miles was seated one chair on from Zelenka with Dex hovering menacingly over him.
The placement of the group was not lost on the General.
The soft clearing of a throat behind him signalled that Samantha Carter and Daniel Jackson had arrived. He straightened his shoulders and walked into the room, taking the chair directly opposite Elisabeth Weir. He in turn was flanked by Carter on his right and Jackson on his left.
Clearing his throat, he pulled his authority around him like a cloak, again wishing that O'Neill was here to deal with this mess. The crew of Atlantis always made him feel off-balance. "Dr. Weir, can you please explain to me what is going on?" he demanded.
Elisabeth leaned back in her chair and delicately raised a perfectly shaped eyebrow. "We are here to return Dr. Miles and to find out how far you have gotten in your search for Dr. McKay." Her voice was soft velvet covering solid steel.
Landry pondered the woman before him; she had changed in the last year, all the people on Atlantis had changed. In the face of terrible losses, they had grown hard and slightly cold. Newcomers to the city didn't last long and the few that did quickly grew the same attitude as the rest of the permanent staff.
"Returning?" Daniel asked, baffled.
"Yes, returning. He is not working out on Atlantis." Weir answered serenely, as if returning the scientist was like returning a rental DVD.
Sheppard snorted. "That is putting it mildly." He drawled, anger and sarcasm vying for the dominant place in his voice.
Just then Miles pushed up from his chair and opened his mouth to say something, but before he could get so much as a single sound out, Ronon grabbed his shoulder, his fingers biting cruelly into the muscles and pushed him back down into his chair. "Quiet." He growled threateningly.
Miles grimaced at the pain and swallowed, nodding at the same time.
Carter felt her eyes grow wide and shared a glance with Daniel. She knew that things had been rough for the Atlantis crew, but this, this was... She mentally shook her head. Things must be far worse out there if it was starting to alter their personalities like this.
"Why do you say that Dr. Miles is not working out, Dr. Weir?" Hank Landry asked, trying to gain control of the conversation.
"There have been several instances where Dr. Miles had blatantly disregarded advice from the science staff. These instances had led to situations where people had been injured and in this last incident people had actually been killed." Elisabeth's voice had slowly turned cold as she answered Landry's question.
"He also isn't as smart as McKay." Ronon grunted, pushing the scientist back down in his chair as he tried to stand again.
Radek, who had been silent the entire time, nodded and sighed tiredly. "Is true. And while Rodney is giant asshole who shouts and screams and insult everyone, from military to science team, he cared about safety. He, of course, would never admit to it, but he did."
"You said that his actions caused people to be injured and killed?" Daniel asked; having paid more attention to what Dr. Weir was saying than the others who had been distracted by Miles attempted outburst.
Sheppard tipped his head back and closed his eyes; all of a sudden looking as exhausted and run-down as Radek. "Yes, two days ago a fault developed in the environmental control system of tower two on the west pier." He stopped and sat up straighter, only to tiredly slump down again. "We had two teams in the tower. Team one consisted out of ten people. It was part medical and part science; it was headed by Dr. Biro. They where repairing and preparing the secondary med lab on floor six. Team two was six marines assigned to guard duty and to help with the heavy lifting."
He stopped again and reached over to pour a glass of water from the carafe standing in the middle of the table. Taking a drink, he cleared his throat and continued. "The team had discovered some interesting rooms adjoining the med lab that they thought where used for psychological treatment. Dr. Heightmeier, accompanied by Teyla, went to investigate the rooms." The dark-haired man stopped again and ran a hand over his face, almost as if trying to wipe away the pained expression visible there.
"At roughly 14:00 Atlantean Standard Time, Dr. Miko Kusanagi noticed an energy spike in the power flow of the tower's environmental controls. She immediately informed Dr. Simpson, who was leading the repairs along with Dr. Biro. She also informed Dr. Miles, Dr. Zelenka and me. Simpson decided to evacuate the tower but Dr. Miles overruled her; saying that it was a minor problem and not necessary to pull everyone away from their work for an – how did he put it? Oh yes: 'A trivial hitch that a trained monkey could fix and one that was not worth his time and effort.'" The last part had come out as a low growl and Sheppard stopped to glare at Miles.
Everyone turned to stare at Miles who had gone an interesting shade of red.
Clearing his throat to gain the attention of the room again, John continued. "Miles attempted to do an over-write on the power regulation for the tower. Dr. Simpson informed him that to do so would not work as that would trigger containment protocols in the system. Dr. Kusanagi believed that he had to divert the power completely to prevent triggering a security lockdown. It was at that time that I ordered the evacuation of the tower. But by then the spikes had started to increase in strength and occurrence." The colonel's voice had taken on a bland, emotionless tone. "I had ordered Miles to wait until after the tower was empty before he started to redirect the power. He disobeyed me and started the redirect without informing anyone. The tower went into lockdown before we could get anyone out." John stopped again. He closed his eyes and visibly tried to pull himself together. Although his voice had been cold and impassive, the expression in his eyes had become pained; almost tortured.
Elisabeth gently reached over and delicately touched the troubled soldier's wrist. The small touch was enough to pull him back from the dark place in his mind.
Sheppard looked up and gave her a slight, sad little half smile before turning back to the others to continue with his report. "The power spikes caused the temperature to fluctuate wildly between freezing and boiling. I ordered Miles to completely cut the power but he again ignored me and continued to try and overwrite the power controls. Teyla, Heightmeyer and Lieutenant Marksby were trapped in one of the shielded rooms leading from the med lab. Sergeant Moore and Simpson were locked down on the fifth floor in the tower's auxiliary control room. Dr. Biro and Dr. Themba, along with the four remaining marines, were trapped in the main room of the lab. The rest of the medical and science personal were trapped in the corridor leading to the transporter." He swallowed thickly and picked up the glass to take another drink of water.
Putting the glass down, he slumped further down in his chair. "Twenty minutes into the lockdown we lost contact with Dr. Biro's group. Shortly after that Teyla had informed me that the airflow into the room they were trapped in seemed to have been stopped. Dr. Simpson confirmed that oxygen to the sixth floor had been cut off. She had been trying to disengage the lockdown but Miles kept undoing her work. Fifteen minutes after we lost contact with Biro we lost contact with Teyla." He paused and ran a shaking hand over his face.
"I again ordered Dr. Miles to completely cut the power; when he refused I had him arrested and had Dr. Zelenka cut the power. After the power was turned off Simpson was able to lift the lockdown from the auxiliary control room. We reached Simpson and Moore first. The temperature in the room was just below freezing and both were suffering from hypothermia. The group trapped in the hallway leading from the med lab suffered the least amount of injuries. They only suffered from a light case of heatstroke." He suddenly sat up straight and glared at Miles with cold fury in his eyes. "By the time we had managed to reach the med-lab it was too late. The temperature in the med-lab had spiked to almost 600 degrees Fahrenheit. It had gotten so hot that some of the crystals in the consoles had actually cracked and melted due to the heat."
He shook his head and continued on in a softer voice. "Teyla, Heightmeyer and Marksby were unconscious due to a lack of oxygen. Luckily they didn't suffer any permanent injury."
Turning to look at the three people sitting on the opposite end of the table, he sighed. "Miles refused to stand down when ordered; even when he saw that he was making the problem worse he refused to listen to others. He actually ordered Radek to stop working on the fault and threatened to fire him if he didn't back off. We lost two great doctors and four dedicated marines because of one man's ego."
Carter was horrified by what she was hearing and more than a little impressed with the calmness that Sheppard was showing: if it had been a member of SG1 in Teyla's position she rather doubt that she would have been able to be as calm about the events as he was.
Landry was shocked to say the least. He stared at Sheppard before turning to look at Miles: the man didn't even have the decency to look sorry. No, he was looking affronted. The general cleared his throat, but before he could say anything Zelenka shoved a folder across the table. The heavy folder almost slid off the table: only Carter's quick reflexes saving it a fall to the floor.
"The report on disaster, complete with all technical data and statements from all parties involved. Also reports on the other cases were he caused problems because of arrogance and ignorance." Radek snapped.
Hank Landry looked at the folder and then look really looked at the group sitting across from him. It was clear that they were exhausted: the toll of the last few days clearly had taken a lot out of them. For a moment he felt ashamed about his earlier thoughts. They were on the forefront of an almost impossible war and had lost far too many friends and co-workers. Nodding almost to himself he stood and walked to the door. Like magic Walter was at his side. Giving his orders quickly, he knew that the Sergeant would have everything done by the time he was finished talking to the group.
Beckoning two of the soldiers standing guard outside the conference room, he turned and walked back to the table. Nodding towards Miles, he waited until the two soldiers were standing behind the scientist. "Dr. Miles, you are hereby under arrest for murder and attempted murder. You will remain in custody here at the SGC pending your trail." He jerked his head at the door and watched as the two soldiers dragged the struggling man from the room.
Turning back to Elisabeth's group, he cleared his throat. "Dr. Weir, quarters are being prepared for you and your people. It is late and I am certain that you all could do with a good night's rest after the trying couple of days you've had." He held up a hand as Weir tried to say something. "As for the matter of Dr. McKay, General O'Neill is flying in from Washington and would like to speak to you concerning that matter. It has been almost a year since he disappeared and one more night is not going to make a difference in finding him. But you are dead on your feet and I would really hate to have to explain to the IOA how I managed to break their favourite diplomat."
Elisabeth smiled tiredly and stood up; John and Radek scrambling to their feet as well. "Thank you General. Yes, a good night's rest will not be unappreciated." She turned to share a glance with Sheppard before looking at Landry again. "We can continue our discussion tomorrow after General O'Neill has arrived."
Landry nodded again and waved Walter into the room. "Sergeant Harringman will show you to your rooms."
Elisabeth thanked him softly and left the room with the sergeant; the rest of her people following behind her.
##########
"Shit! I don't know how the hell had Sheppard managed not to kill that bastard!" Samantha Carter cursed as she sunk into her chair. She and Daniel had retreated to her lab after Landry had dismissed them. She was kind of glad not to be in the general's shoes at the moment. He was the one after all that had advocated Miles for the post of Chief Science Officer of Atlantis when Radek had refused to take the job permanently. And now he had to explain to O'Neill, the president and the IOA, how Miles had screwed up and caused the death of six people.
"I know if it had been one of you..." Daniel trailed off; the very thought enough to chill him to the bone. He sat down in the chair facing the blond woman. "And tomorrow we have to tell them that we still have found no trace of Rodney." He shook his head. The group from Atlantis was not going to take that well at all.
Standing back up again, Daniel briefly rested a hand on Sam's shoulder. "Get some rest. I have a feeling that tomorrow is going to hectic."
Smiling up at her friend, Carter nodded. "Only if you get some sleep as well."
