AN: With the cliffhanger from the last time, I had to go on with the story myself as soon as possible. But don't worry - Rodney can't die or he wouldn't have appeared in the 16th episode of the first season. ;-)
Thanks for the reviews, jdskeletion!
Back to the story now:
Atlantis. Conference room. During Rodney's sufferings and his fall, Elizabeth was sitting in the conference room, face firm and sober, revealing no emotions. She knew she didn't have time for them when Rodney's life depended on her. She was sure he was still alive; he had survived many other lethal situations. But he had never been alone. Every time there was somebody to encourage him, to support him. She sighed miserably and thought about her old self and her first-timeline Rodney's sacrifice. She hoped the story hadn't influenced Rodney too much to prevent him from getting out of all possible problems.
She was alone but she didn't allow her mind to wander, to lose her nerve. She needed a plan. A really good one to save HER Rodney.
Then the door opened and Radek's team of six scientists including himself came in with data pads and computers.
"Dr. Weir," Radek greeted her.
"Dr. Zelenka," she said way too formally.
Radek could sense that something was odd but he didn't have a clue what it could be. He was summoned due to a Dart but had no other information.
Suddenly the door opened again and a female Gate technician, Betty Hansell, came in. "Dr. Weir, we can't contact Major Sheppard's team. Shall we send another Jumper for them?"
Elizabeth closed her eyes and took a deep breath. "It would take too long… Keep trying to raise them, Betty," she told her, "sooner or later they'll answer as they are within radio range. But send someone with a Jumper. We can save up to thirty minutes but lose much more as well."
Betty nodded sadly and left without another word. Scientists exchanged surprised looks because they didn't understand why John's team would need to be present so soon. They all knew Rodney had gone off-world and others could be told later on.
Radek followed Betty's leaving back with his eyes till the door closed again, then he looked at Elizabeth. "What's going on?"
She didn't know how to inform him. Nonetheless, Rodney was the Chief Scientist and Radek was directly below him so he deserved to know the truth. "We have…an issue," she started. "A technically developed Dart has attacked one of our teams. We need to find a means of fighting it. Asap."
Radek got a sneaky suspicion that that was not everything. Elizabeth stopped when the door opened for the third time to reveal armed soldiers, Sgt. Bates, Lt. Martinez, Capt. Grimfin, his team and a couple more men whose surnames she wasn't sure of. After a while she noticed Sgt. Stackhouse and Sgt. Markham. Some soldiers were more heavily armed than others; she was sure she spotted one carrying a rocket and another holding a grenade launcher.
"Dr. Weir," Martinez said, "we're ready for orders."
"Good," she smiled sadly, "but I need to hear some tactical points before I send you through. Despite the seriousness of his possible loss, we can't afford to lose other fine men."
Her voice trembled only slightly when saying 'loss', otherwise emitted an aura of balance and calmness. Quite an opposite to her real mental state. Only Radek caught the change in her tone because he'd already seen her upset.
"Whose loss?" Radek enquired cautiously.
"Dr. McKay," Martinez answered spontaneously before Elizabeth could react.
"What?" Radek and Dr. Simpson asked incredulously before all other people started to talk at once.
"Dr. McKay was left in ruins on the planet attacked by the enhanced Dart," Elizabeth managed to say over the noise. Right after it, everybody went deathly quiet. "I need your scientists, Radek, to find a way how to disable the Dart while soldiers here go retrieve Rodney. He was instructed to stay in the underground ruins…"
Markham furrowed his brow doubtfully. "Do you seriously believe he obeyed the order?" he asked. "He never does until it's Major Sheppard's," he added silently.
"According to what I've been told by Captain Jorgenson, he promised to stay put. I can't say by myself if he did or did not obey. Nevertheless, I hope he did, because he'd be helpless alone against the Dart. And that brings us to the main problem."
As if it was a direct order, all scientists sat down by the table, opened their computers and brought up different diagrams of what they had learnt about Darts. Soldiers put their weapons down and enveloped the scientists to have a better view of what would be discussed.
"I've been told that the Dart can't be damaged by P-90s but doesn't dodge the shots. Jorgenson's team is sure they managed to hit it every time but it had no effect on its hull or engines."
Dr. Simpson chewed on her lower lip and demanded: "Was it like the defence shield Prometheus had?"
Elizabeth shook her head. "I don't know. They haven't…"
The door opened again. Carson and Allan's team stood behind it. "Sorry, we're late. But I had to finish the check-ups." Carson was clearly unhappy about something and people could easily say what the something was – Rodney McKay.
"Don't worry, Carson. We've just started." Elizabeth flashed him a strained smile.
Allan looked around the table and took into account all people sitting or standing around it. So many people had additional work because he had left Dr. McKay off-world! It made him regret his actions once again.
"You're just the people we need now," Dr. Simpson stated. "We need you to describe every detail of your encounter with the Dart no matter how insignificant it seems to you."
"Only bare facts, Captain," Elizabeth added.
Allan looked at Elizabeth, then at his team. Carlos smiled tightly. "It's up to you, sir."
Allan nodded and tried to remember the most he could from the mission as if this was a debriefing, and to include a reasonable argument why Rodney had been instructed to stay where he had been. He stood with legs astride, held his hands behind his back and spoke up: "We heard the Dart about five minutes after we had left the Stargate, just when Dr. McKay told us he had found a room with an Ancient pillar. He demanded what it was and I ordered him to stay deep in the underground because we were far from him and didn't know if there was only one Dart or more or even ground troops."
This sentence received positive murmurs from all military personnel in the room. Security was in the first place for them all. And depth meant out of reach for sensors and culling beams.
"We wanted to get to him so that we could all leave together," Allan went on partly changing the truth, "but when we got to a clearing and tried to disable the Dart, we found out we couldn't. So I informed Dr. McKay and he unwillingly agreed to stay in the chamber until I contacted him again. Then I decided to leave for Atlantis to get a back-up to get to him and fight the Dart, which kept following us to the Stargate in large circles. We tried to shoot it down from the Gate clearing. Nevertheless, we were unsuccessful. I'm positive we did shoot precisely and a normal usual Dart would have crashed but not that one. Bullets didn't seem to ricochet from its body and there was no hint of forming a shield around it. It may be too daring to claim it looked as if it was consuming them because we didn't even hear the impact or see sparks. Nonetheless, it might still be roaming around the planet so we should go there as soon as possible to find Dr. McKay in one piece."
Soldiers looked up and knew he was right. The sooner they left, the sooner they could save Rodney. Although they didn't like the egoistic, ranting and whining scientist much, he knew more about the Ancient technology than anyone else in two galaxies and could cause a disaster in Wraith hands if they were to find out.
Elizabeth nodded at Allan, then turned to Zelenka: "What do you think, Radek? What can it be?"
"I have no idea," he admitted ashamedly. "We have never heard of this possibility. The Dart may have somehow been teleporting the bullets or it could have been shifted in phase. That could cause the symptoms." He pushed his glasses up his nose. "But it would require enormous power, which I doubt a Dart can hold without changing its aerodynamics, and knowledge of Asgard or Ancient technology which the Wraith don't possess and which would never be compatible with their own technology without major adjustments."
Elizabeth sighed and covered her eyes. "Does anybody have a different option? Something more probable than stealing technology?"
She looked around hopefully but all scientists avoided her gaze. A female, Dr. Jenna Sanders, decided to look at her and said timidly: "It may not have been real."
Others looked straight at her not wanting to believe her words.
"I mean, SG-1 has already encountered hallucinogens which made them see and hear things."
"Jenna, hallucinogens wouldn't cause a collective and mainly a similar audio-visual hallucination in one place. It's not in their nature because every brain works differently," Carson pointed out. "And moreover, Rodney wouldn't hear the Dart as well unless it was really there."
"Jenna, try to be realistic. The Wraith have advanced and we need to get around their progress." Radek was very persuasive.
What a pity none of the people in the room knew how close to the truth Jenna was! She nodded because her idea sounded too far-fetched even to her.
Another scientist spoke up: "What if the Dart can avoid only bullets from P-90s? If we try something heavier, it could be taken down."
People looked at one another. This was a fair option. Bigger blasts had always caused bigger damage.
"So what will we do?" Elizabeth asked when nobody else seemed to speak aloud.
All eyes focused on her but no-one peeped up. She exhaled decisively and looked at Allan's team. "Rodney's waiting for your call, isn't he? So you need to go as well." Then she took into account everybody else: "We can't be sure with the heavier guns so we'll let our scientists find a fighting strategy as if it didn't work. Next, we have to take care of the second important thing, the life of Dr. McKay."
Soldiers looked at her. "Sergeant Bates, you're the head of security. Do you think we could outwit the Dart?"
Bates scratched his head. "We could make a trap. Two teams. One would go with Capt. Jorgenson to the ruins, the second would lure the Dart to the other side."
"Considering it is still there, right?" was heard in a faint voice. Everybody looked around to find out who said it but the one wasn't brave enough to allow them to recognise him or her.
Maria looked around a bit differently for she had voiced the thought but didn't want to degrade herself by admitting it. She landed her eyes on Elizabeth and asked: "Shouldn't we be going? Dr. McKay may need us badly right now."
Elizabeth pressed her lips together and said: "It's your call, Sgt. Bates. Until Major Sheppard returns, you're in charge of the operation."
He nodded firmly. Then the door opened and a red-faced Betty rushed in. "Dr. Weir, we managed to get hold of Sheppard's team. They're on their way here. Less than twenty minutes out."
"Oh, thank God," Elizabeth breathed out. "Tell them to hurry."
"Already done, Doc." Betty looked around at the gathered people and left for the control room again. She was red because she had contacted John's team long before she told Elizabeth and had Peter not reminded her, she wouldn't have at all.
"Right," Elizabeth went on inside the room, "prepare everything you need, Sergeant. And acquaint Major Sheppard with your plan."
"Yes, ma'am," Bates answered and hinted soldiers to follow him outside. They all did and so Elizabeth remained alone with scientists, who moved into one bunch and started debating about the Dart. After a while, she got up and left the room to control Bates a little bit. Somehow she knew it'd take too long because he didn't act on impulse like John, which wasn't always for good.
