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Chapter 7
Run Forrest, Run!
Lorne knew he may not be as smart as the obnoxious, wheelchair rider, but his mama did not raise a fool. When Dr. Weir ordered him to muster all ATA gene soldiers in the Gate Room, his own personal Spidey sense went off, screaming, if you will, like a wife at her late and drunk husband. An order to gather everyone together in one spot-- it didn't take a genius.
He immediately found the nearest gene laden person and had them pass the word to any other gene laden person to get the hell out of Dodge, hide like the kid playing kick-the-can. The game encouraged the players to move around but to remain hidden while the kid who was "it" guarded the can and sought them out. The one who was "it", had to call out the name of the kid hiding and his location. If the hider moved before his location was given or the caller gave the wrong name, then the player stayed in the game. He had to set up rallying points as people gathered and he had to keep them out of sight. Their radios were compromised so they had to use word of mouth. It was inefficient at best and there were probably those that they missed.
Next, they had to make sure everyone had some sort of weapon within each group. Stun weapons, because there was no way he would allow any of those infected to die by his or any other's hand. Third, they needed a place to figure all of this out.
"Billings, you with me?"
"Yes sir."
"You have sight of your objective?"
"Yes sir."
"Occupied?"
"Yes sir."
"Where is he?" McKay demanded in his lowest, staged whisper.
"The chair room," Lorne distractedly replied.
The entire exchange was whispered on both ends. Lorne looked down at his bruised and loopy CO, who was the only one who could confidently use the chair. Beckett was next in line with a lot less confidence and a lot of whining. The rest of them just had not had the opportunity to take their turn.
"We don't need the chair," stressed McKay. "We need to find the point of origin."
"We need a place to monitor, doc," Lorne replied. "Billings, how many?"
"Fifteen sir, including…hold on…" There was a long pause as the group continued to run and push down the corridor. They were traveling farther and farther away from inhabited portions of the city. Pot shots were less now as their pursuers fell or dropped off.
"Four have just left with Ronon. From what I could overhear, they're looking for your party, sir. The colonel in particular, sir."
"That's just great." Lorne knew at some point that Ronon and/or Teyla would enter into it. He also knew that some of the Special Ops. teams would be deployed. But Ronon and Teyla had skills from fighting the Wraith that would work to their advantage and were an unknown quantity to most. And, as luck would have it, the best person to counteract them was in a wheelchair grunting in restrained agony every time they swerved or stopped. Col. Sheppard was in no condition to take on a swarm of love bugs let alone Ronon.
"Thank you sergeant, melt into the woodwork." Lorne clicked off his radio. He hoped that the young man did not just give up his position to give them that late, breaking piece of news. Now, he returned back to their special programming of running for their lives.
"Dr. McKay, we have an easily defensible place coming up…we also have people joining us there…tell me where we need to go."
"As I said before, we need to get back to the medical research facility we were exploring. They conducted this kind of research in some of the labs there. It's the best place to hole up and start looking for a cure."
Lorne amended and added to his assessment of people in no condition to be doing anything. Dr. McKay just made the list. The man was an unhealthy shade of green and wobbled in his seat as the chair slowed to a walk.
"We'll wait at the rallying point for ten minutes, and then move on. Sgt. Riley and Pvt. Williams, this is your spot. Nobody gets past here. Privates Masters, Johansen, you will set up ten yards down that corridor at the T-junction and provide back-up. Anyone with the gene who shows up here is to be sent down to the facility. Anyone without is to be stunned and restrained. No lethal force unless there is no other choice, and I mean the knife is centimeters from your heart and your gun is empty. Understood?"
"Yes sir!"
Lorne and the motley crew moved through the T-junction in the corridor to a large open room several floors down from the Control Room.
"Dr. McKay? Is there an engineering room that can be used as a back up to Control?" Lorne asked after everyone was in the large vaulted space.
Rodney swallowed and sighed as he answered, "No need, any of our laptops can tap into the system from different locations around the city. Communications, environmental controls, everything you can think of I can get at with a trusty laptop and wi-fi…except I don't have one. No pockets." He pulled on his scrub shirt with indignation.
"We can take care of that, McKay. Doctor Beckett," Lorne turned to address the CMO as he took Col. Sheppard's vitals for the umpteenth time since they left. "Do you have a who's who of ATA gene carriers, natural and not?"
"Aye and me nurse brought it with us because she's more level headed and less concussed than her boss."
Lorne added another member to the should-not-be-here list. Carson had a nice lump forming on the side of his head.
Carla nodded in appreciation as Rodney lost his lunch, breakfast, and spleen, one more time and with great feeling, into a baggie she held for him.
The Colonel however was coming around for a second time. Eyes fluttered and a small groan escaped.
"Oh, hey, the halls have stopped and the fists aren't flying," he weakly pointed out with maybe a smidge of happiness tacked on. His head rolled on his neck like a Mostly un-Dead Dread Pirate Roberts for a second before his command persona appeared. "Major, report."
"We are in a foothold situation, sir…as you may have already figured out by the fingerprints and boot marks on your person. We have taken a wild guess, with Dr. McKay's help, that it's the Asuran's or someone similar. Looks like nanites have gained control of our people." Lorne stopped to let the colonel's brain register and ruminate on the information.
"There's more, isn't there?" Sheppard asked as Lorne grimaced with agitation and kept shifting his feet.
"Dr. McKay…" Lorne pointed to the other wheelchair with the vomiting physicist who waved before gagging again. "Dr. McKay has a theory it was already here and we released it from the labs two days ago."
"The laughing non-marine that tried to strangle me…it was like when Elizabeth had the remnants of Niam in her system. An EMP won't work if they start going au natural and replicate by using organic tissues of the host…"
"Quite correct, Colonel," Beckett chimed in.
"The best chance is in the new…" Rodney swallowed again fighting every revolutionary muscle in his stomach and every pounding blood vessel in his brain to answer. "…labs…they have everything we need and are probably ground zero for the contamination. Which also means we have to be careful…"
"Teyla." Sheppard's eyes lost focus for a second as if recounting something in his head. "She was the first…the last lab…she stopped and just stared at a wall for the longest time…" Whether it was the drugs or the beatings or the strangulation, Sheppard kept pausing. "Asked her if she was all right…"
"I'm fine…" Rodney answered in a slightly higher pitched voice. "Right?"
"Yeah, how'd ya know?"
"That's what Elizabeth said to me…we need to keep them out of the computers and keep Radek from overriding any failsafes or safety protocols…we need to get a laptop."
Footsteps from the secured corridor bounded towards them. For the first time since his stationing on Atlantis, Lorne saw his CO flinch. Then, Sheppard nearly fell out of the chair as he pulled his muscles and ground his bones together in his rib cage. Lorne could not really blame him, wake up and someone who is supposed to be guarding you is choking you…well, Lorne thought he might have been ordering someone to get his wheelchair moving to anywhere but here.
As it turned out, it was more ATA refugees, two from engineering and two from biology. Stroke of genius or luck there…they were the people he needed to see. And they came bearing gifts of computers and LSD's. The entire security contingent and Dr. McKay could have kissed them. Well, in between bouts of vomiting in Dr. McKay's case, but the love shown in his eyes as one of his team handed over a Dell.
"'Bout freakin' time," he graciously snapped at the lowly subordinate.
McKay thanked him further by turning his head and not throwing up on the man's shoes.
Sheppard joined him a minute later in a sympathy puke. Lorne figured it was time to move…Ronon would be able to pick up that scent from the Jumper Bay. Plus, the groans from both with each movement were louder than Lorne liked.
Carson went into physician mode and asked if they could get somewhere where the two could lie down and not get thrown around on Space Mountain. Which, with the lights off and the bubble pillars casting an eerie glow, seemed just about right.
"Let's go." Major Lorne ordered rolling the wagon train farther away from civilization and purposefully did not answer Carson.
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John could not handle it anymore. Rodney had one last go 'round and John lost his lunch. The only thing was, if it was physically possible, he would have screamed during it because he had never hurt so badly in his life. And then they were moving again and, holy guacamole, that was the worst. The floor was smooth but the turns killed. He would get over it, maybe.
Going back to the beginning-- it was always a good strategy to retrace your steps. It usually worked when he misplaced the keys to his apartment-- when he had keys to an apartment. The bubbles whizzed by, walls with ornate scroll work whizzed by, and more doorways whizzed by…only problem was the marine pushing him was walking. He was so tired; and the day was not over with yet; and his whole body felt like he had been beaten up by a gang of people… oh, right, he had.
He needed to be able to think clear-headed and he could not even stay on one subject for any longer than it took to switch on a light. He needed to plot against the whatever that had taken his city and he could hardly sit and think without wondering Who Framed Roger Rabbit? What had that 'toon been? It had really scary eyes…like the thing that had watched him as he received a good neck wringing.
He just wanted to sleep, but he could not, not yet. He needed to counter Ronon who would figure out where they were and what they were doing and then he needed to find the nearest can to take a leak…fluids, Carson and his damn fluids.
Ronon on his tail was all kinds of bad. He had heard that news through the mountain of fog in his brain. Atlantis was trying to protect with Rodney's help…Elizabeth…did he hear them say something about Elizabeth? Had she gone crackers, too?
"We lost Elizabeth?" he asked whoever could hear him.
"Yes sir," his tram driver answered.
Next stop, Goofy through Pluto, John thought. Everybody off.
"Damn."
"She clocked Carson a good one on his head with a microscope," Rodney almost seemed to enjoy retelling the tale.
"Watch it Rodney, I'm still here with the needle that could make that nausea go away…so you'd better behave."
"Man, no needle or no nausea…choices, Carson, choices."
They continued until they reached a set of stairs. Since Atlantis had shut down, the Transporters were inoperative and it was the old fashioned hoofin' it mode of transportation. Sheppard went to stand and Carson shoved him back down.
"Now there'll be no need for ya to be standing, Colonel Sheppard. We have some strappin' young lads here to take ya down."
Sheppard wanted to crawl under the wheelchair as opposed to Rodney, who was asking for a whip to keep them going. He was just stopping short of yelling, "mush" or "bow before your Pharaoh".
"Thanks Sergeants," Sheppard whispered, embarrassed.
"All in a day's duty, sir."
"Yeah…I don't think so, but nice try."
They reached the bottom and John pretty much thought that his body or pride could not take much more. Carson glided over and slipped a little something in his IV port.
"Won't knock ya out, just relax ya. I've got eyeballs and they're telling' me you are at the end of your endurance." Carson knelt down next to John's chair and kept his voice low as Rodney was placed next to them.
"That made my day," Rodney said gleefully. "That may never happen again…until the next set of steps but that is how I should always be treated. Hey, Hicks! Take note that I want one of those things royalty always got carried around in!"
One of the engineers turned around and mouthed "Bite me."
Lorne came down the stairs interrupting the love fest, "I've got our people falling back as we advance. Dr. McKay, we need the easiest route to the facility; they know where we are. Last time we had transporters and it took us two hours…"
"Give me a second…" Rodney opened the laptop and called up a diagram of the city. All that was missing was a giant red arrow pointing and announcing that, You Are Here! "We can take some of the submerged sections to this point here and start our way back up. We cleared debris from all these passageways before we even went to the facility."
John liked that about Rodney, he usually thought ahead. They cleared everything just in case they needed to walk back. Good man.
"Well the journey of a thousand miles starts with one step…so let's get this caravan movin' out!" Lorne motioned for them to head down a wide corridor.
John decided this was the time to get some much needed sleep and obliged himself of it.
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Failsafe! Failsafe! Failsafe! her neural network screamed at her. Radek had known; she just had not accessed his knowledge. The Atlantians had hated her kind so much that they would not let them back into the city. They loved the seedlings so much that they forsook the other children.
Nothing was working. Atlantis had refused her, a clearly better master than the filth that surrounded her. She calmed herself and vowed (for the moment anyway) not kill everyone until she could dial out and welcome her sisters and brothers home. She also discovered that she could not contact them through subspace. Pater had not activated it or shut it off or never gave it to her in the first place. He had wanted to control her, keep her close.
She was growing to really hate her father. Silbar Fuhs was a wicked man. He had incarcerated her here for all time. He had not thought of her as his daughter. She was just another experiment. As her anger grew, so did her need to wipe out every last one of the curs. It was time to take what was hers. It was time to go find them herself. She would kill each and every last one of them when the time came. Then she would search the Universe for her father's people and eliminate them too.
She looked at Teyla and the other soldiers in the Operations Complex and made some of them follow her. She would get this city running again and then she would live her immortal life as its mistress. It would do her bidding and no one else's. Radek Zelenka, he would be able to override anything…she had not used him enough. She continued to be too emotional. She colored herself disappointed in her performance so far.
Still, soon, all of this would be hers.
She entered the corridor and searched for any sign of the almost members of her father's people…and found them. She dispersed her people into the city and found the little mongrels hiding and running like scared and whipped animals. As she walked, more were found and more…the brig would soon be overflowing but she would need them to reactivate the city. She might as well have a big choice. Only those offering up complete resistance or in military garb were immediately taken down.
It would be even better when Ronon found his quarry.
Now that she was concentrating on Zelenka, she learned that two others posed as a great threat to her. They could completely destroy her or keep her from obtaining that which she desired.
She would have Dr. Rodney McKay and Dr. Carson Beckett help her or killed on sight.
Of that, there was no question.
