Wreckage – Chapter 4

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"What room are we looking for, Rodney?" Toni walked behind the scientist.

"It should be just up this corridor." He stopped, scowling at his computer. "I can barely type with this damn thing on." Rodney fiddled with the stylus for a moment more. "Yeah," he pointed straight ahead. "There it is."

"Finally." Toni followed him into the large room.

Several chairs littered the floor and a thin layer of greenish dust covering the consoles. Dim blue and white lights shone, as if it was just waiting for the next user to step up.

"Sounds like… you're there." Sheppard's voice cut in, sounding winded. "How's it.. look?"

"Oh lovely. I think Martha Stewart redecorated recently." McKay snipped. Still his fingers already flew over the ancient controls. "Might even be last season's colors."

"Nice…" The Colonel panted. "How long until… you can tell… if we can lose… the suits? They're heavy."

"John, where are you?" Toni looked over Rodney's shoulder even though she had no idea what the screens said.

"Ladder in… access shaft. One more level… to go."

"Yes." Teyla joined the conversation. "The climb… is most… challenging."

"How are coming, Rodney?" Toni looked at her watch. "We're at fourteen minutes. I hate to think they climbed all that way for nothing."

"Working on it." He snipped.

"McKay." Sheppard barked. "Do you… have time?"

"Just a second. Um. Let's see…" He gloved hands flew over the control pad and his laptop. "Oh yeah! Not a problem. Two, three minutes tops, and I'll have life support online."

"Good." Sheppard breathed. He pulled himself onto the deck of the command level. The tanks hit the wall hard when he tried to sit back. The Colonel closed his eyes gulping for air. In retrospect, climbing six levels with nearly a hundred pounds of confining unbalanced gear was probably pretty stupid. They most likely used two thirds of their air in the climb.

Teyla's gloved hand slapped on the deck. He came up on his knees and pulled her to him. "Thank you." She mirrored his position on the opposite wall.

"Just rest for a minute." John let his head fall as forward as the suit would allow, concentrating on slowing his heart rate. After a moment his breath came easier. "McKay?"

"Cryin' out loud! Give me a second." Rodney tapped rapidly on his computer, cursing under his breath about the waterproof casing being in the way. "That should be…it."

Air circled through the room, kicking up the greenish dust. Toni looked around, watching the faint movement. "Is it breathable?"

"Not yet."

"McKay, you said you could…" Sheppard barked over the radio.

"I said not yet. Give it a minute. This system has been down for thousands of years." He rolled his eyes despite the lack of anyone to see him do it. The indicators on the screen for the air quality continued to rise. "Just sit tight. It's nearly done."

"Are you going to be able to clear out the water?" Ronon's voice joined them.

"Hey, take a number!" McKay snapped. "The life support needs to get to a hundred percent before they can keep pace with the expanding shields. One thing at a time. I know patience isn't really high on your list of job skills, but in this instance…"

"Rodney." John cut him off, knowing he would continue until stopped. He stood and helped Teyla to her feet.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah. Alright, the air is breathable now."

"Well," Sheppard brow scrunched up. That was fast. "About time."

He unlatched the helmet and took a deep breath of the stale air. Moving down the dimly lit hall, John felt himself stagger. The floor seemed to tilt. He reached out for the cold metal of the wall as a searing pain stabbed behind his right eye. A groan escaped his throat when he tilted his head to one side. The pain spread down his back and arms, flaring at each of his joints. Pins and needles attacked his hands and feet. When John tried to move down the hall his sciatic nerve blazed.

John heard Teyla cry out further down the hall. Biting down on his lip and pushing past the pain, he moved toward her. She lay on the floor just around the corner. Her hands pressed to her head as she panted. "John. What is…happening?"

He had a pretty good idea. "Rodney! What the hell did you just do?!"

In the core room Rodney fell to his knees, feeling like one giant charlie-horse.

Toni gasped, grabbing the chair beside her. "Pressure! Rodney! Fix the pressure!"

He rolled onto his butt, bring his knees up and cradling the laptop, crying out the whole time. "Oh crap! Oh crap! Agh! Stupid, stupid, stupid! Come on! Dammit! Come on!"

"Rodney!" John shouted the same time Ronon demanded to know what was going on. "McKay?!"



Their ears popped the stabbing pain receded to a dull ache. Looking at Teyla with concern, she only nodded then closed her eyes and rested the side of her head on the wall. He groaned, "What the hell?"

"The system," McKay tried to shake the stars out of his vision. "It tried to initialize a standard atmosphere."

"Bends." Toni moaned. "Holy shit, that hurt."

"Is everyone okay?" Ronon's tight voice cut through the sounds of their groans.

"We'll be okay as long as we don't rapidly decompress again!" John responded. Sound much more calm than felt. That was completely unnerving.

"No, I've set the system to maintain the same relative pressure as the water outside." Seeing the pained, pinched look on Toni's face, Rodney fully realized what he'd done. Imagining all the gasses in their bodies sudden expanding, and the effects it cause filled him with guilt. "Is everyone okay? Um, I…I'm really sorry."

"I'm fine. It's okay, Rodney." Toni half smiled.

"We are fine, as well." Teyla shook her head, willing the pain away. "We have much to do. What is next?"

Vibrations climbed through their boots just before a grinding, bone rattling noise resonated throughout the ship. The floor jerked beneath their feet. Everything not bolted down flew against the wall. John was remotely aware of screams, he reached out to grab something, anything. Nothing was there. He felt himself falling, then a blinding white pain.

Teyla hit the wall hard, partially landing on John. Her head spun from the impact and it took a moment to realize Ronon was yelling into the com. She rolled over, looking at the Colonel. A dark red pool of blood spread from beneath his head. She reached out to touch his face, stopping as the pain from her shoulder registered. Gasping in pain, Teyla realized something was broken.

In the control room, Toni crawled over to Rodney. He lay buried under several chairs and the console covers he'd pulled off. "McKay," she began clearing stuff away. He moaned and pushed a chair aside. She could see a gash on his left cheek. "You okay?"

"My head." He reached back. "What the hell happened?"

She followed his hand with hers, feeling a huge lump just behind his ear. The ship vibrated and shifted again, causing them to slide further. "Rodney! The ship!"

"Oh my God." Rodney sat up, eyes wild with a million calculations and a healthy dose of fear. "The ship is slipping down the seamount."

"Damn it somebody answer me!" Ronon's voice bellowed over the com.



"Ronon," Toni crawled on her knees to get Rodney's tablet. "Hold on." She had another worry. "John? John are you okay?"

Teyla felt for the damage on the back of John's head. "Toni, we are here." He moaned at her touch. "The Colonel has experienced a head wound." His eyes fluttered open. "But I believe he will be fine. What happened?"

"It looked like the whole reef broke free. You've dropped another forty feet." Ronon cut in. "We've got to get you out of there before the ship falls deeper!"

"Oh crap," Rodney tapped away on his computer. Toni crawled over beside him. "He's right. The water we pushed out increased the ships buoyancy and we overestimated the strength of the reef. It snapped. We're going to slide into the trench."

"We've got to get out of her." Toni did her best to stand on the severely angled wall. "Where are the tanks?" They were gone, slipped down the corridor and into the water.

"What the hell?" John's voice cracked. Teyla kept her hand pressed against his wound, felling the blood ooze around her fingers. "Rodney? Toni?"

"Colonel, please lie still." Teyla leaned closer to him. "Your head is bleeding."

"No. No." McKay cut in. "You have to get him up and moving, like now. We have to find a way out of here. This thing could drop at any time."

"Drop?" John sat up, feeling his head spin and stomach churn at the motion. Concussion. Great. He tried to focus as McKay explained what happened. He tried to stand, only getting up to his hands and knees. Vertigo threatened to cause his stomach to empty.

Teyla steadied him with her good arm. "Are you able to walk?"

"Gimme a second."

"John?" Toni's voice held all her worry.

"I'll be alright. My head's pretty hard."

"We've got another problem." Toni chewed her lip as she looked down the hole which was once the corridor. "Rodney and I have lost our tanks. They fell. I don't know how deep."

"Just great." John sat back down. "Anything else I should know about?"

"The access hatch is now on the underside of the ship." Ronon's voice grumbled with tension. "Doesn't look like you can get out that way."

"Perfect."