"Doc you hear me?" Lorne repeated for what felt like the hundredth time.
"She might not be able to hear you over the storm." Zelenka suggested.
"Jennifer come in." Lorne tried again. All of the Atlantis personal in the gate room held their breath waiting for a response.
When the main lights flashed on in the gate room and the systems began to reboot, Zelenka gave a sigh of relief whilst Lorne felt some of the tension ebb away.
"Probably just being hormonal." Dyson muttered before loudly barking. "I want a full system check. There will be a senior staff meeting in twenty minutes, everyone is to be there." He stopped and looked at Lorne. "Lorne my office."
Lorne turned to say something to Zelenka, but his movement was noticed by Dyson who ordered. "Now."
Lorne obediently headed over to the office where he was ordered to shut the door.
"I have no idea how Woolsey runs this city but right now I am in charge and you will follow orders and not countermand my decisions again."
"With all due respect Sir you are not in my chain of command. The situation turned into a military exercise over which I have full jurisdiction."
"Horseshit Major. Keller is a civilian, in an IOA run city carrying out instructions from a civilian. There is no way that was a military mission."
"Sir, with the power out the defensive capabilities of the city was non-existent. The repair of the defences is a military responsibility so it was military jurisdiction." Lorne argued.
"Major you can put your boots in the oven, but that don't make em biscuits." Dyson said. Whilst Lorne tried to translate Dyson kept speaking. "You do anything like that again and you will be jailbait. As it is you are going on report."
"Yes Sir. Anything else?" Lorne said trying to remain calm.
"Yes. I hold you responsible for making sure the gate-room and main tower is secure. You are to go nowhere near the East tower or the infirmary until the city is secure. Do you understand?"
"Yes sir."
"You are dismissed."
Lorne hurried out of the office and went to Zelenka.
"How is it looking?" Lorne asked.
"So far so good. I am trying to re-route the supply to not go near the conduit that Dr Keller fixed, just in case."
"Any news from the doc?"
"No. And Major there is something else." Zelenka said quietly.
"What?"
"When Dyson was occupied with you I did a check of the internal scans and Dr Keller's life sign was not in the city. This may be expected, if she is still scaling the wall the scanner would not pick her up. But then I scanned for her radio, that should show up up to five metres away from the city. I got nothing. It could just be her radio broke, which would explain why she did not respond to our earlier attempts to communicate or it could be…" He trailed off not wanting to finish the conversation.
"Ok then." Lorne replied before heading out of the control room, ignoring Dyson ordering him back.
When Lorne emerged from the transporter in the East tower he was met by his team member Lieutenant Young.
"Young? What are you doing here?"
"I was hoping you could tell me Sir. I have been sent to detain you."
"You think you could postpone that for five minutes?" Lorne tried.
"Well Sir." Young said as he removed a panel in front of the transporter and removed a crystal. "That would be easier if you started to walk wherever you are going and stay five metres in front of me. So we at least make it look like I am chasing you on the scanners."
"Good plan." Lorne said as he headed to Jennifer's last known position.
"If you could say I made a valiant attempt to stop you, that would also be appreciated,"
"I will even use the word tenacious if you want." Lorne said jogging to his destination.
"So why are you running?" Young asked.
Lorne filled the Lieutenant in on events until he reached the door, behind which he hoped Jennifer was waiting. He tried to open it but to no avail.
"Ah crap. Without the crystal it won't work." Lorne muttered as he pulled some C4 from his pocket. Then shouting as loudly as possible, "Doc if you are there, move away from the door," he placed the C4 round the door. Retreating round the corner he pulled out the detonator. The corridor shook as the explosion took place. Once it had calmed down Lorne carefully made his way through the destroyed doorway, praying he had not just injured Jennifer. As he entered the room that Jennifer had been trapped in he was first relieved that there was no body lying under the wreckage of the door. That relief soon turned to worry when he saw no sign at all of Jennifer.
