Wowie, thanks again for all the kind reviews! It does the heart good.
Sorry
it took so long to update (little bro is hogging the internet
connection with x-box live...grumble mumble...)- and as part of my
apology, I put two chapters together for your reading pleasure.
So, we cool?
:P
Okay-dokey:
(9)
.
The transporter doors slid open and the three of us marched out fearlessly, prepared to meet whatever would to face us.
"Well." Sheppard said, after we had immediately darted back into the small space. "That can't be safe." which pretty much summed up my own thoughts on the situation.
Rubble littered the hallway and charged wires sparked, hanging from the ceiling ominously, waving around and snapping as the current ran through them, giving a rather decent impression of some very pissed off snakes. As if that weren't enough, running water, perhaps a good six inches deep, ran down the hall in front of us, already beginning to fill the bottom of the transporter.
Inherently, water and electricity don't mix. Well, actually they mix very, very well- as water is a fantastic conduit for said electricity- and therein lay our problem.
"The Bales have obviously caused some severe structural damage." I stepped forward as I said this, peeking out the door cautiously and studying the ceiling. "Huh. Most of the wires are actually pretty short." I told them, glancing back over my shoulder, "If we're careful and keep low, we could probably avoid major injury."
Sheppard gave Teyla a sidelong glance, "I'm up for it. You?"
She didn't even look in his direction, just nodding towards me.
"Alright then." I said, deciding to analyze her strange behavior at a more convenient time, and turning back to face the hallway, "Let's--"
Smith flicked the hanging light on, pointing it towards me so the powerful beams actually blinded me for a moment. "Do you have any idea what you've done?" he asked furiously, lowering the light even further.
I shifted on the hard seat, blinking repeatedly and wondering where it was even possible to buy such rickety furniture, or if they'd gone dumpster diving. I answered lightly, "Why yes, I think I've got a pretty good idea."
Smith curled his lip, apparently disgusted with my answer, because he turned away and stomped off, just to stand in the corner.
"Forgive my partner," another man who hadn't introduced himself yet cut-in, materializing out of the darkness and settling down into the chair across from me, "Sometimes he just can't contain it."
I raised an eyebrow, actually confused. "Contain what?"
The man blinked once, then decided that I must be joking, because he forced some laughter and said, "That temper of his. Anyway, there's no need to feel intimidated here, kid." He gave me a big, bright smile, and I wondered if he'd had his teeth whitened. "Just tell us where you got those bomb schematics."
I sighed, falling back onto the chair heavily, "Look, how many times do I have to tell you guys? I drew them up for the science fair!"
The man's smile became strained, but he did manage to keep it. "Come on Rodney, you know you didn't build an atomic bomb!"
"It's McKay. And yes, I did."
He ran an irritated hand over his mouth at that, staring at me through the light for a while and looking contemplative. Finally, he dropped the hand, saying resignedly, "Okay. McKay." He glanced down at some papers in front of him, before lifting his eyes, "How old are you again?"
I rolled my eyes, knowing full-well that all the information he needed to know was on those very papers he was pretending not to read. But, as I'd never been interrogated by the CIA before, I decided to see what would happen if I played along for a bit. "Ten."
"Sixth grade?"
"Yes."
He tilted his head slightly, "Kinda' young for sixth grade, right?"
I smiled brightly, "Nothing gets past you, huh?"
He grimaced, but didn't reply; instead, he just said, "Must've gone to school early… made you feel smart, and uh, at this- was it a science fair? you wanted to impress everyone. So you go lookin' for some schematics, right?"
"Pure genius." I said, grinning even wider. I mean, this was some pretty funny stuff.
Unnoticed by me, Smith had come back from his corner and decided to announce his presence by slamming his hand down hard on the table-top, making me jump. "I'm tired of your sarcasm, kid!" he yelled, getting right down in my face and letting me know he smoked on a daily basis- cringing as I accidentally inhaled some of that noxious breath, "You're gonna' tell me where you got 'em, and you're gonna' tell me now!"
But before I could even say anything, the other man jumped up and grabbed Smith's arms, pulling him away from me. "Calm down man!" he ordered very dramatically, pushing Smith back toward his corner once again. Once Smith seemed content in his little place, the man smiled back down at me apologetically, "Sorry kid-- er, McKay. That temper of his… outta' control…. So, how 'bout you tell me some more about these schematics you found?"
It dawned on me as he continued to show me his strained smile. Oh my God… They were actually doing the good-cop, bad-cop routine! On me! I laughed cheerfully at the realization, nearly bouncing up and down on the chair as the man started asking me more questions.
Man, this was just getting better and better!
"Doctor!" a voice called out lightly. "Doctor McKay!"
"Just splash some water on him."
My eyes shot open at that and I sat up quickly, not wanting to be mistaken for 'splashable' any longer. But the sudden change in position did nothing to help the confusion and I nearly fell over in my disorientation. "What?" I asked bewilderedly, reaching a hand out to grab something for balance. "Where?"
"Disconnecting the Naquadah generator, Atlantis." Sheppard answered promptly, standing across from me in the now ankle-high water, reaching forward and grabbing my arm when I still looked like I might fall over.
"Oh." I said, looking away from Sheppard and suddenly realizing I wasn't where I thought I'd be. "Hey." I stated slowly, Smith's toxic breath only now dissipating, "Where's the transporter?"
Teyla, who'd been somewhere off to my right, came forward and rested a hand on my shoulder, telling me calmly, "We carried you here after you were shocked."
Sheppard released my arm once I was standing up straight, and I blinked down at the Athosian, asking, "I was shocked?" Perhaps the electricity had brought on this sudden memory this time?
She tilted her head, answering quietly, "Yes."
I looked down and saw that they'd laid me on an abandoned workbench, which had kept me from getting soaked. "Okay." Trying to focus my thoughts, I shared a look with John, inquiring, "The generator?"
He grinned wryly. "I was wondering when you were going to ask." He stepped to the side, pointing towards a doorway he'd been blocking, "Thataway."
I just nodded and stepped past him, still unnerved with that memory flash but not quite knowing what to do about it. Carson was wrong. All of this simply could not be because of sleep deprivation! I ducked down underneath a swinging wire on the other side of the door, already planning another visit to the med bay as soon as I was finished disconnecting the generator- only this time, I'd get some answers.
"There she is." Sheppard spoke up from behind me, breaking me from my thoughts as I looked up.
Upon seeing the devastating scene that met me, I nearly lost all feeling in my legs and I'm almost sure my mouth fell open.
The generator… it had literally been pushed out from it's previous position in the wall, and was dangerously close to tumbling down into the water below, only staying upright because of a few wires that remained determinedly plugged into its sides.
Amazingly, and particularly terrifyingly, it was still running, the lights flashing brightly around it's crest to demonstrate that fact. "Aag?" I managed after a moment before rushing forward, water splashing all around me and up onto my khakis.
"What is it, Doctor?" Teyla asked with obvious concern.
"Just… just, uh. One moment." I answered haltingly, fingers twitching as I circled the teetering mechanism, trying to decide the best course of action to take.
"McKay…" the Major said, sounding much more like a warning than a name.
Ignoring him, I pressed my lips together in a harsh line as I carefully, oh so very, very carefully pushed the generator back up into a stable position. "One. Moment." I repeated through gritted teeth, heart racing as I gently pulled out the core of the machine, which thankfully came out of middle of the generator with little trouble.
Once that task was finished, the generator lights stopped flashing and the humming noise abruptly ended.
Releasing the breath that I hadn't known I'd been holding, I sat back on my heels, staring at the generator in amazement and calculating the odds of just how long it would have lasted in that precarious position.
It wasn't very long.
Sheppard gradually came to stand next to me, kneeling down and joining me in the staring. "Well?" he said, breaking the silence, "Is that it?"
I blinked, momentarily broken from the generator's spell. "Is that it?" I repeated disgustedly, pushing on my knees to get up in standing potion, staring down at him and carefully considering if he'd ever said anything so stupid.
"Yeah." he said, looking back up at me nonplussed. "'Cause, I mean…" he waved at the Naquadah, "I could've done that without you here."
My mouth worked noiselessly and my eyebrows drew down. "You could've…" I finally repeated, which was quickly become a habit when dealing with the Major's idiocy, "Without me…"
He quirked an amused eyebrow, rising up. "Right."
I wondered if I should tell him just how close we all came to being blown into tiny little pieces of deadness, but, in the spirit of immense relief and just wanting to forget this crazy moment in my life, I ignored his question and waved vaguely at the generator with the hand holding its core. "That…" I started tiredly, "should probably be brought to my lab."
He stared at me for a moment longer, but finally shrugged, saying, "All right. Let's go then."
Turning away from him, I carefully grabbed each end of the generator, lifting it and gently holding it against my chest as we all walked down towards the transporter once again; vigilantly avoiding the electrical hanging wires from the ceiling and the gathered rubble on the floor.
This time, the sudden shock didn't come from a wire- rather, it was Elizabeth's sharp voice in my ear.
I stumbled and nearly lost my precious hold on the generator, which, apparently no one around here seemed to understand, was a friggin' bomb!
I'd been so surprised, I hadn't even heard what she'd said. Cursing, I waved over to Teyla who carefully took the generator and it's core from me so I could reach my radio.
"What is it?" I demanded with obvious annoyance as Sheppard pressed down on his own radio to join the conversation.
"You've disconnected the generator." she stated.
I waved an irritated hand as our little group continued towards the transporter. "Yes, thank you, I wasn't sure."
"We're taking it to McKay's lab now." Sheppard told her in a much more polite tone then I had been using. "I was gonna' contact you once we got there."
"Good. Thought you should know, the Bales have ceased their attack on the city. You were right, Rodney."
I smiled grimly. "Did you doubt me?"
"No, but we've got another problem."
I rubbed a hand over my eyes, the smile disappearing as quickly as it had arrived, already knowing my plan of going to visit Beckett wasn't going to happen. "Another one?"
"Yes, I--"
"Wait." Sheppard interrupted, looking over at me as he continued with Elizabeth, "Does McKay really need to know about this?"
I was surprised at that statement, to say the least. "What did you just say?"
"Sorry John," Elizabeth interjected, "but this is big."
"Sorry John?" I exclaimed incredulously almost running into the wall before realizing we'd made it to the transporter.
An exasperated sound. "Just listen!"
I glared over at Sheppard furiously, but because of Elizabeth's serious voice, I managed to remain silent.
"Peter tells me Atlantis is preparing to submerge."
"What!" I yelped in surprise, immediately forgetting my anger and making John and Teyla jump. Quite a feat in itself, really. Anyway, "What does that mean? It's trying to sink now?"
Silence. Then she said hurriedly, "Just get over here as soon as you can."
Teyla nodded down at the generator in her hands. "I will take this to your lab Doctor. You should get to the control room."
I gave her a grateful look as the transporter door's flew open, pushing the radio's mouthpiece away from my mouth, "You take the first one then."
She stepped through, carefully managed to press the map and smiled briefly before the doors slid shut again.
As soon as she was gone, I rounded angrily on the Major. I don't know why I waited to confront him, but I did. "And just what was that all about?"
"What?" he asked, feigning innocence and avoiding eye-contact.
I cleared my throat. "Does McKay really need to know about this?" I demanded in what I thought was a rather decent impression of John's own drawling voice.
The transporter door's opened again as he shrugged. "You just looked tired, is all."
"So, what?" I said, following him into the small space, "You didn't even want to tell me about it?"
Sheppard sighed heavily, even as he pressed the map "I guess I just wanted… uh, you to go and get some rest." he said after a moment. "Sue me for caring."
I rolled my eyes, but my irritation did ebb away a bit. "Fine. Just… don't do it again."
"What, care?" he asked with a slight grin, the transporter doors sliding shut.
"No," I said, sneering before I clarified, "try and leave me out of the loop like that."
He nodded. "Okay."
But, for some reason, I didn't feel assured.
---
"Where are you?" Elizabeth's voice came over the radio again, sounding just a tad impatient.
The transporter doors slid open and I called over to Elizabeth's back, who was bent over Grodin's shoulder, "I'm here."
She jerked up, startled. She recovered quickly though, "That was fast."
"Yeah, that's me. Mr. Speedy." I deadpanned, walking over to them with John following behind. "Now, fill me in."
"Us in." Sheppard amended.
I crossed my arms in irritation, "Yes, us. Because John is going to fix the problem, I'm sure."
"Just look at this," Grodin said, pointing at a computer screen and totally ignoring the exchange, "Some outer parts of Atlantis are already closing to protect highly sensitive areas inside."
"Really?" I took Weir's spot, leaning over to look at the computer read-outs. "It's going rather slow isn't it?"
He nodded, sliding his chair over to another keypad and pressing some buttons. "That's because it's going against its protocols. It doesn't want to sink. But it has to."
I studied the computer, realization dawning on me. "The Naquadah generator… we're out, aren't we?"
Peter confirmed my fears with a solemn nod.
"Uh, excuse me?" John asked, waving a hand for attention behind me, "What are we out of?"
I closed my eyes for a moment; this was bad. "Power."
"Oh."
I opened my eyes again, glancing at Peter. "And if we plugged the generator back in…?"
He shook his head, "Disconnecting the Naquadah certainly didn't help the situation, but Atlantis was pretty much depleted anyway." He pointed towards some more diagrams on his computer, "In a last ditch effort, the city tried to take the power from the rest of all the generators." He lowered his hand and looked back at me. "They're all drained."
I stared at him. "Are you serious?"
"Quite."
At this, I looked around for another chair to collapse in, but found none. Shit… I glanced back at Grodin's diagrams. I knew this would happen eventually… but I just hadn't expected it yet. Maybe in a couple months… God, If we didn't fix this, we'd have to abandon the city. We'd have to go and live out our lives in some little alien city on another planet.
Even the thought of that happening was enough to make me nauseous.
I looked back at Grodin, "How much time do we have until Atlantis is ready to go under?"
"At this rate-- I'd say two days."
Two days, I logged it, though I still didn't quite believe it.
"We can only fix this with a ZPM, right?" John asked.
What the…? I turned towards him, an eyebrow raised skeptically.
The way he'd asked it… well, he just made it sound like he had one hidden down in his quarters or something. "Right." I said slowly, "You don't happen to have one stowed away for emergencies do you?"
His laugh resembled a bark, "No, if I did, I think I would've brought it out when the Genii came around."
"Mmm." I went back to the computer, asking myself to please ignore John's pointless remarks in the future.
A map of environmental readings of the planet caught my attention. "What," I asked Peter, pointing at an alarmingly large disturbance out in the middle of the ocean, "is that?"
He rolled his chair over, looking. "Oh, that's just an electrical storm. Albeit a massive electrical storm, but it's nothing we have to worry ourselves with."
"You're sure?" I inquired, remembering the whole situation with Koyla and that storm. "Because we'd be pretty powerless if it came over here now, and I really don't want to deal with another problem."
"Positive." he told me with a grim smile. "It's not going to come anywhere near us or the Athosians on the mainland."
Reasonably satisfied, I went back to studying the other readings, going through all the choices we had. Unfortunately - all the choices needed a ZPM to be completed.
"Elizabeth, I don't -- " I turned around and saw Weir having a rather heated discussion with her radio, just far enough away that I couldn't hear what she was saying.
John was gone.
Well, that was disconcerting. "All right, fine." I mumbled, staring back down at the computer and trying to clear my head as I spoke aloud, "I can do this by myself. No problem. Just think logically. Atlantis needs power. We have no power. Where can we get power?"
My eyes flickered over to the electrical storm readings.
No, that wouldn't work. The storm would have to be on top of us. And even then, that much power couldn't necessarily be controlled--
"Rodney, what is going on?"
I blinked, interrupted from my rapid thought process. Zelenka had entered the control room, coming over to me with a bewildered look on his face. "What?" I asked in confusion, my thoughts still focused on the storm.
"People are saying we might have to evacuate." he explained, looking over at Grodin's frantic typing, "And you didn't come back down to the room with the Ancient toys, so -- "
Proverbial light bulb!
"That's it!" My hands shot up at the sudden idea, whacking him hard in the face - causing his glasses to go flying. "Oh sorry!"
"Ow! What? What is it?" he cried, obviously aggravated as he rubbed his nose.
"The toys!" I continued excitedly as I went to retrieve his glasses from the floor, "We can use the toys!"
"I still do not understand." he said exasperatedly, "Use the toys for what?"
I gave him back the glasses, "Oh right, you don't know. Sorry, I should've called you on the radio. Atlantis is starting --" I felt a pin prick on the side of my neck. Slapping a hand against it, I pulled it away and examined my palm. Blood?
"What?"
I sluggishly turned around to see Carson Beckett holding an empty syringe.
"Hey! Why'd you do that?" I asked stupidly. "Not right… to…" my words slurred together, and the whole room was getting kind've sideways.
He caught me as I fell, lowering me carefully to the ground.
The room was quickly getting dark, and I couldn't really think anymore.
"There! Happy?" he asked someone furiously.
But I slipped into unconsciousness before I heard anything else.
---
---
tbc
