A/N: I do hope you're all managing to keep up with the science-babble. I tried to make it as simple as it could be.
Chapter 8
The cluster of asteroids was right in front of them and Lorne hovered in place, cloaked, waiting for Sheppard's team to arrive. Meanwhile, Hansen and Williams got closer to the windshield and gazed out at the sight in front of them.
The darkness of space was punctured by rocks the size of a truck, as far as the eye could see. Lorne had the impression that the cluster was small, but up close and personal it was actually huge. The rocks themselves were oddly rounded, without any sharp spikes or edges, and in the distant light of New Lantea's sun they looked green and gray and yellow with minerals.
"Lorne, you there?" Sheppard's voice sounded over the comm. Lorne touched his controls.
"Yes, sir. We're hovering at the edge of the cluster," Lorne replied.
"Good. Do you see the fake asteroid on your screen?" Sheppard asked once more.
Lorne called the scanning function of the Jumper, unto which Zelenka has already uploaded the fake asteroid's specifications, and immediately spotted the target. "Yes, sir. I see it," he confirmed.
"Then let's move out. Remember, we're not engaging the enemy and we're not going in unless we're together and have received an order from Atlantis," Sheppard reminded.
"Yes, sir. Moving out," Lorne reported dutifully. It was easy to fall back to the old patterns, and Lorne didn't even think of 'John' while he brought the Jumper closer.
The fake asteroid was as big as the Deadalus itself, and its color was gray and black. It was strangely oval and spiked, and it lacked the craters the other asteroids had an abundance of. And over it, not showing any signs of activity, parked two darts.
"Holy hell," Hansen swore quietly.
"Colonel, we're in position," Lorne reported.
"So are we. Hold your position while we contact Atlantis," Sheppard instructed, and continued a beat later. "Atlantis base, this is Sheppard."
"Reading you loud and clear, Colonel," Zelenka's voice said.
"We've got a visual of the asteroid. It's the size of the Deadalus, and is different in appearance from the original cluster. Also we have a visual of two darts, though they don't appear to be active," Sheppard reported.
"Do you see any entrances?" Carter's voice asked.
Lorne looked as well. Just below him was a small, flat cut into the rock that might have been a crater, if the entire asteroid didn't lack them.
"We see it. We're ready to move in," Sheppard said a moment later.
"You have a go. Establish connection once you're out of the casing and heading home," Carter said. Radio connection with Atlantis would be impossible inside the asteroid. "Good luck," she added quietly.
"Copy that, Sheppard out," Sheppard ended the transmission. "Major, we're going in," he gave the order. The plan was to park the Jumpers at opposite locations on the dart bay so that they'll have backup of one was caught.
"Yes, sir," Lorne took the controls in his hand and slowly began moving forward. Getting the Jumper through the hatch required unusual skill and caution. It was built for darts and the Jumper, higher and wider in proportions, just barely squeezed in. Lorne had to take extra caution not to hit the sides or the roof of the long tunnel. It was a good thing that he and Sheppard have agreed not to go in together, or they would've been struck.
As they descended into the bay Lorne looked above him, keeping a firm hand on the controls and slowing so as not to hit anything. The walls were lined with rich veins of Naquadah. They were wide and deep, and according to their color it was weapon-grade material. The entire asteroid might as well have been made out of dynamite. And the enormity of the explosion of it would be… well, if it wasn't for the fact that McKay's ass was on the line just like theirs, Lorne would've asked again about that safe distance.
The dart bay was filled with darts, but Lorne still found a corner to land his Jumper at the designated area. Williams, Hansen and he were all double checking their equipment one last time before Lorne raised his P90 and the life signs detector and motioned for his men to move out. Miller stayed inside so that hecould supply backup if needed, and he had the ATA gene so that even if something happened to the teams he could fly back to the city and warn them or deliver any message needed.
The cruiser was eerily silent. Even the usual hum of sub-light engines couldn't be heard, mainly because having them ignited would probably make the entire asteroid explode. On the gray, organic floors swirled white mist that rose knee high, dampening their steps. They needed to get to the first Jumper and secure Sheppard's team and the Naquadah generator, and for that they needed to walk the length of the hallway around the bay.
Lorne positioned himself, aimed his gun and signaled Williams, who probed open the bay's ship-wise door. The door opened with the same abruptness and lack of grace all Wraith doors did, like the folding of a beetle's wings, but beyond it there was nothing.
Hansen took point and secured the hallway's curve for Lorne and Williams, and within five minutes they were at the other side and faced another door. The life signs detector showed four dots which were probably Sheppard and his team, but Lorne didn't want to risk it. He and Hansen both raised their guns to eye level and Williams got the door open.
A light from a flashlight blinded Lorne's darkness-accustomed eyes momentarily, until Sheppard lowered his gun down. Lorne did the same. "The hall is clear for now," he reported. Sheppard nodded, sharp and alert. Behind him McKay was holding the life signs detector and Ronon the large padded case with the Naquadah generator. Rivers had their six.
Sheppard took point, leading them back up the hallway Lorne came from and into the depth of the cruiser, holding both his P90 and his life signs detector at eye level. "Okay, there should be a door leading straight to our target right ahead, and nothing's showing on the life signs detector so far," he supplied, walking further down the corridor.
Lorne was securing McKay, who now handled the generator's case, from the right. Ronon was walking to McKay's left, Williams was behind him and Hansen was between him and Sheppard. Rivers still had their six. They were all quiet, ready and watchful, but the eerie calm remained undisturbed.
Sheppard stopped in the middle of the hallway suddenly, frowning. He turned to look at the wall ahead of him and back at the sensor, then turned to look at Rodney.
"It says right here that there's a door in front of us," he hissed at McKay, angry. McKay looked panicked.
"And there isn't?" he asked back. Sheppard rolled his eyes.
"Do you see a door here, Rodney?" he asked, exasperated. "Where did it go?"
Lorne looked at his own life signs detector, and indeed there should have been a door right in front of them.
"I don't know. Look, Zelenka was the one who uploaded the schematics!" McKay hissed equally angrily.
"Not really helping, McKay," Ronon growled. "We don't have time." And he was right, they only had forty-five minutes until they were supposed to be inside the Jumpers and making their way back.
"Look, this is an organic vessel. I imagine that to be able to squeeze it into this thing," McKay pointed his finger up at the ceiling and presumably the entire asteroid, "they needed to make modifications. It's not exactly hard, you know," he explained eventually.
"So now what?" Hansen asked.
"Now we go down that hallway and see if we can take a right turn and then another right. Not even the Wraith would build a corridor that leads to nowhere," McKay said as if that was the most obvious thing in the world. Sheppard sighed and his mouth pressed into an unhappy line, but he made the military signal for 'go' and they kept walking.
By the time they reached a right turn and another right Lorne was beginning to feel uneasy. Even if the Wraith on board the asteroid were in hibernation usually care-takers and security guards still remaind awake, so where were they? They had passed a control interface room and a large empty cavern where cocooned humans were usually kept, but seen not a living soul. McKay wanted to access the control interface and download updated schematics but there wasn't time and so they kept on moving. Behind him Williams kept muttering "fishy" and "odd" under his breath.
They finally reached a dead end, and looked around them. The room wasn't anything special, simply more control interfaces, but McKay spotted a secondary shaft of the life support system, so they got to work immediately.
Sheppard, Hansen, Rivers and Ronon secured the perimeter while Lorne and Williams got the shaft open. McKay in the meantime opened the black case and inserted the Naquadah core rod into the generator, watching it lighting up with speeding red lights.
Williams and Lorne gave McKay a leg up so that he could hide the generator inside the shaft and return the panel that sealed it closed.
"Okay, we've got it," McKay said cheerfully even as he nearly fell into the swirling mist on the floor while coming back down. "I have no idea where we are or which shaft we put it in, but we've got it."
Sheppard approached them, throwing a look over his shoulder. "Everything's in place?" he asked McKay, who nodded. "Good. Let's get the hell out of here," he nodded his head at the others and once again they repeated the drill of securing the corners, watching the life signs detector and retreating back to the dart bay. It was almost anti-climatic.
"Sir," Lorne approached Sheppard, looking at all directions and readying his finger on the trigger. "This is too easy," he said. Everything was deserted. No one tried to stop them, no one tried to feed on them, no dots appeared on the life signs detector other than their own. It was too good to be true, and if there was one thing that Lorne had learned about life it was that it's never too good.
"Are you complaining?" Sheppard asked, though he sounded tense as well.
"No, sir," Lorne answered. It would be a miracle if they could get out of there without ever being detected.
"Let's just get the hell out of here," Sheppard said in response.
And that was the moment when it turned out that no miracles were left for them that day.
In an instant, multiple life signs began to appear on the detectors, and the ghostly visions the Wraith projected to confuse their victims surrounded the teams. Footsteps were heard from two ends of the corridor, closing around their position, and a screeching alarm wailed over their heads.
"They were hibernating!" McKay cursed. "Of course they were, they had to wait this long until they were near enough and they had no food supply, they were in hibernation. That was why everything was deserted and we saw nothing on the life signs detector!" he moaned despairingly.
"Yes Rodney, we were aware of that possibility, thanks! Any particular reason you're bringing it again right now!" Sheppard snapped sarcastically, looking intensely at the life signs detector and swatting at the ghost images around him irritably.
"Because who goes to sleep when they're in the middle of a giant asteroid made of Naquadah!" McKay replied, voice rising in panic.
"It doesn't matter. We need to reach the Jumper as soon as we can!" Sheppard ordered, looking at his chronometer. Lorne did the same. They had only twenty minutes until they were due to make their escape.
"Miller's Jumper is closer," Lorne said, recognizing the hallway they were in and remembering where he had parked his Jumper. "We should get there before they get to us," he added to the others.
"Let's go!" Sheppard agreed, no longer walking but running as fast as he could, the beeping of the life signs detector getting louder and faster in their ears.
They ran up the hallway, Lorne taking the lead. When he reached the bay doors and got them open it was only due to the fact that his finger was way too trigger happy that he was still alive. On sight he shot three Wraith before his teammates got their bearings and bullets began to spray the room.
"Get in, get in!" Lorne called his men. "I'll cover you!"
He began shooting aimlessly at the Wraith, injuring, killing or merely incapacitating, while Hansen, Rivers, Ronon, McKay and Williams ducked and ran towards the still cloaked Jumper.
Lorne was about to go after them when Sheppard's hand pushed him back behind the door and just in time to avoid what seemed like an entire salvo of Wraith stunners. Ronon and Rivers weren't so lucky, and collapsed against the floor after taking several hits each.
"Ronon!" Sheppard shouted, but McKay and Williams were already pulling Ronon and Rivers forward and disappearing inside the cloak. Lorne and Sheppard immediately supplied cover fire, shooting the Wraith that began to close in on the place where the team disappeared to.
"Miller, take the Jumper and get the hell out of here. We'll be right behind you," Sheppard ordered into his radio over the commotion of gunfire and stunners.
"But, sir-" Miller began, but Sheppard cut him off.
"That's an order, Lieutenant!" he barked into his radio, eyes blazing angrily when Lorne looked at him.
"What! No-no-no, wait a minute-" McKay began, but Sheppard cut him off.
"Lieutenant, what's your situation?" Sheppard asked sharply.
"We're airborne, sir," Miller replied.
There was nothing either Sheppard or Lorne could do to help them from there on. Now they had to focus on getting to the other Jumper, but it couldn't be via the bay. Already darts were buzzing around, lifting and leaving through the hatch in the asteroid's belly.
"Let's go," Sheppard said, retreating up the hallway. Lorne just began to follow when they both heard the familiar sound of heavy footsteps that was usually associated with the Wraith guards.
"This way," Lorne pulled Sheppard back and down the hallway, back towards the shaft they had visited a while ago. There should've been an intersection where the first control interface was located and from there they should hopefully be able to get to the bay and the other Jumper.
"Let's hurry, we don't have much time," Sheppard ordered when they were at the intersection, and Lorne looked at his chronometer. They had only ten more minutes. When Lorne raised his head, it was to jump sideways and start firing his gun at the group of Wraith guards that were chasing after him up the hallway.
Lorne found a niche in the wall and barricaded himself there, firing until his magazine was empty and four of the eight guards that were chasing him went down. It was only then, when he drew out his M9 and fired it, that he realized that he had no cover fire and that Sheppard wasn't with him.
Cold fear washed over him, and his finger slowed its descent on the trigger. A blast from a stunner that swatted the gun out of his hand got him back to his senses.
"Colonel! Where are you!" Lorne bellowed into his radio while he loaded another magazine into his P90, heart in his throat when no immediate reply came forth. "Colonel!"
The radio transmitted static for a second, then, "Major. We got separated at the intersection," Sheppard's voice was barely heard over the sound of gunfire, both his and Lorne's, but Lorne could breath once more.
"I'll try to move towards you, sir," Lorne said, taking down the last Wraith only to discover five more behind it. He cursed loudly and began taking them down with well aimed shots. He was almost out of ammunition.
"Negative. Major. I'm being pushed deeper into the ship and I don't even know where I am anymore. The damn life signs detector is useless. What's your position?" Sheppard asked just when Lorne took down the last of the Wraith. He had no doubt that others would come so he moved in the opposite direction of the bodies piled on the floor, picking up his M9 on the way.
"I think I ran left at the intersection, sir," Lorne replied, but it was useless because he couldn't be sure of what he said. He reached another intersection. "Crap!" he swore savagely. Where was McKay when you needed him? And why didn't they stop to download the ship's schematics, damnit!
Lorne chose a corridor based on his sense of direction. If they got split up at the last intersection then he should look for a left and another left to get to Sheppard. He only hoped he could surprise the Wraith from behind and that they would manage to get out in time. They had only three more minutes.
Lorne took a left turn and walked along a corridor, listening intently for any sound, be it gunfire or footsteps, which would tell him where he was or where Sheppard was. He heard nothing but he did reach a door, which was comforting since he was trying not to be alarmed by the fact that he was lost and on a Wraith cruiser imbedded in Naquadah and about to explode.
He fiddled with the vein in the wall for a moment, looking over his shoulder more than at what he was doing, until the doors snapped open…
…and revealed the currently deserted dart bay.
"Sir, I'm at the dart bay, somehow. I can create a diversion from here, blow up a few of the darts-" Lorne began, already fumbling for the Jumper's remote control to uncloak it.
"Negative, Major," Sheppard sounded angry over the comm. "Get your ass in the Jumper and get the hell out of here," he said.
"But sir-" Lorne automatically began to argue. What the hell happened to not leaving our people behind!
"No 'buts', Major. We're already three minutes overdue to leave. Just go," Sheppard cut him off. His voice sounded strained and he was panting. Lorne hoped he wasn't hurt or wasn't being overrun.
Ignoring Sheppard's orders, Lorne uncloaked the Jumper, got inside and reactivated the cloak. He then called on the Jumper's life signs detector and watched. Sheppard's subcutaneous transmitter was easily picked up by the Jumper's sensors, but the schematics were all wrong and Lorne had no idea how to get to him. All he could do was watch as multiple dots that could only be Wraith closed in on Sheppard despite his best efforts to kill them.
There was a burn in Lorne's stomach, and his blood pounded in his ears in the silence of the Jumper. If Sheppard was dead Lorne would've left him behind. He knew that he couldn't help the dead and that dead people had better chances with the Wraith than in Atlantis. But Sheppard wasn't dead. He was alive, Lorne just couldn't get to him, and it made Lorne want to scream in frustration.
"You're still there, aren't you?" Sheppard's voice said on the radio. He sounded tired and weary, but there was no gunfire puncturing his words. Lorne hoped he didn't run out of bullets, though the life signs detector showed the dot that Lorne knew was Sheppard currently alone.
"Yes, sir," Lorne finally replied. "I can see you, but I don't know how to get to you. Which turn did you take? I have enough ammunition here at the Jumper to take out the entire ship," Lorne said determinedly.
"Major Lorne!" Sheppard bellowed, stressing Lorne's rank. "Get yourself and that damn Jumper out of this asteroid now! That's an order!" he yelled into the radio, and Lorne's back stiffened.
He knew they would have to pass this particular test someday, the test where their feelings would collide with their beliefs or their orders or what needed to be done. He simply didn't think it would be this fast.
But there was more to it than Lorne losing 'John'. It was about leaving a team member at the hands of the enemy, and he would rather give his own life away than leave someone, Sheppard, Hansen, Zelenka, anyone, behind.
"We don't leave our people behind," Lorne said, voice gone hoarse, but still his hands touched the Jumper's controls to start the engines.
"No, we don't. I'll be behind you in a dart, Major. Just make sure that Atlantis have the shield up and that they won't fire on any darts approaching the city," Sheppard's voice said, less hard then before.
Lorne took a deep breath. He believed in leaps of faith, just not in them working for him. But he had no choice. He would either live to regret this moment for the rest of his life, or live to be yelled at by Sheppard within an inch of his life.
This was why they were here for. They knew the risks.
"Jumper is airborne, sir," Lorne's voice broke on the last word, the burn in his stomach and throat getting worse.
"I'll see you back in Atlantis," were Sheppard's parting words, but they both knew it was a promise that wasn't entirely up to him to keep.
####
Lorne began exiting the narrow tunnel when a dart approached in front of him, apparently about to enter. Keeping his hand firmly on the controls, Lorne tried to maneuver the Jumper so that it wouldn't rub the dart but the modified space was too narrow, and with a screech of metal the two vessels scraped each other.
The noise inside the Jumper caused Lorne's bones rattle. He knew his left drive pod had been damaged but he had no way of knowing how badly and as long as he still had the pod working then that was all that mattered.
Lorne was already out of the asteroid and speeding towards Atlantis when he was hit and discovered that he had lost his cloak in the brushing with the dart.
"Shit!" Lorne cursed, hitting his radio. "Atlantis base, this is Lorne. I'm out of the asteroid and I'm heading back home, but my Jumper's been damaged and I've lost the cloak. I'm coming in hot!" he declared, pushing the engines for all they had.
He was gaining on the darts, he could see it on his screen, but it wasn't good enough.
"Major! Zaplať pánbůh!" Zelenka's voice said. "Is the Colonel with you?"
Lorne winced. The hard questions were always the first ones to be asked. He had to dodge a near hit before he could reply.
"Negative. We got separated. The Colonel will fly in with a dart so don't fire on any approaching craft. I repeat, do not open fire on any Wraith dart approaching the city," Lorne stressed, and was then thrown violently against the controls.
He was hit again.
"Major, you're aware that the two of you are overdue. You need to travel a lot faster than currently are to make it safely to Atlantis. Has Sheppard departed yet?" McKay's worried voice was heard. They must still be in the Jumper, but were probably almost at the city by now.
"I don't know, Doc. The last thing I heard from the Colonel was an order to leave with the Jumper. And I'm flying as fast as I can," Lorne replied, irritated. He was under fire as it was, he didn't need anyone telling him that he wasn't going to make it.
"We can double back and-" Miller's suggestion was cut short by both Lorne and Carter.
"Negative, Lieutenant!"
"Don't!"
And then the radio went blissfully silent for a moment, until Lorne was hit once again. He jerked forward, the controls digging into his chest, and groaned.
"Major," Carter's voice was halted and neutral. Lorne looked at his chronometer.
"Please tell me you set the safety limits generously," he asked, for both his sake and Sheppard's. According to his chronometer the generator would reach a critical overload and explode in two minutes. He was still seven minutes away from safety, and Sheppard was even further behind.
"We did. You're not there yet even as it is," McKay's voice was so sharp it hurt Lorne's eardrum.
Lorne had no choice but to keep on flying. There wasn't anything more he could squeeze out of his engines and whatever hits he was taking – and he was – were insignificant if he wouldn't be able to get far enough away.
Time seemed to fly.
For Lorne it seemed like it was only a second after the end of the transmission from McKay when a huge fireball lit up the space behind him. Lorne didn't even had time to turn his head around when he felt the Jumper leave his control and burst forward with abnormal speed, throwing Lorne against the windshield with such force that his forehead began bleeding instantaneously.
That was the last thing he remembered.
When he blinked his eyes next, he was on the floor and the radio was calling his name frantically.
"Major Lorne! Major Lorne! Major Lorne!"
Lorne was dizzy. He looked up at the windshield and saw a very large smear of blood. He felt his forehead with his hand only to discover clogged blood there as well.
With effort he climbed to his seat and reached for the communication control, and froze.
He was about to enter New Lantea's atmosphere.
He shouldn't be there for five more minutes of flight at least, another twelve miles, and it couldn't possibly be that long from his passing out to his regaining consciousness. He checked his chronometer to make sure.
"Major Lorne!" the radio crackled again, and Lorne reached for it.
"I'm still here," he said, and heard a few exclamations of relief in the control room. "Any word from Sheppard?" he asked, tensely.
There was a moment of silence that was as good an answer as a thousand voices together.
"Nothing yet but our Ancient sensors are out of commission. We only have our Earth based equipment and there's a lot of residual radiation interfering with our scans," Carter's voice told him. "How're you feeling?" she asked.
"Bumped my head against the windshield… what happened?" Sheppard could still be out there. He had to be.
"You caught the tail end of the blast wave from the asteroid. It basically gave you a huge push forward. How's your hull integrity?" Carter asked, voice grave.
Lorne looked around him, and breathed deep. Nothing seemed wrong. "On first inspection everything's fine, Ma'am. Let me check a few things and I'll get back to you," Lorne said, and Carter responded that she was waiting. He had a few things to check, like life support and drive pods, but before that he reached for the controls to stop his unnaturally fast descent into the planet's atmosphere.
The controls didn't respond to his command. Not even the second and third time he tried.
"Atlantis, this is Lorne. My controls are not responding at all," he reported, worried. The relief he felt for surviving the blast was all gone. He had no idea how to fix the Jumper or land it if he had no control.
"Come again, Major? You're controls are not responding?" Zelenka asked, concerned.
"Affirmative."
"Tohle je na prd!" Zelenka swore in Czech, and Lorne knew that he was royaly screwed. He could feel the cold fear settling in him and knew that the shaking of his hands wasn't only due to the blow he'd received earlier, nor because of the Jumper's violent vibrations.
"Talk to me, Doc," Lorne said, tense and anxious.
"OK, go to the rear compartment. Open the second to last overhead pannel," Lorne hurried out of his chair, wobbling like a drunk and keeping a firm hold on the wall beside him. The inertial dampeners seemed to be malfunctioning and the Jumper was shaking like the Wraith were still at his tail. Which, he hoped, they weren't. He had no way of knowing other than the fact that nothing was shooting on him.
Lorne opened the pannel he was asked to open. "I'm there, Doc," he said into the radio. There wasn't really any time to think about anything other than getting back alive and safe. He was already dizzy and his mouth was watering unpleasantly like he was about to vomit.
"Okay. Now take out the third crystal from the right from the second row and insert it into the empty slot at the fifth row. You should see it, it's the only one that's supposed to be unlit," Zelenka instructed, and Lorne frowned.
The only one that was unlit? The entire damn thing was dead. "Doc, the entire pannel is unlit," Lorne said, nervously.
"Do prdele!" There was some swearing in several languages at that.
"Is there any other pannel that's lit?" Carter's voice asked instead of Zelenka's. Lorne hurried to open them all, but they were all dead but one.
"No, only the first one to the left," he said, his heart sinking. That panel was responsible for communication and it was the only one that was lit. The other panels were dead, which meant that the Jumper was damaged beyond repair. Even the engines were probably off, as was life support and inertial dampers. He didn't need the scientists to tell him that.
"Look, Ma'am. It's fine. You've got Jumpers in the air, right? I'll simply dive underwater and hope that there aren't any cracks in the hull," Lorne suggested. It will be unpleasant, and probably scarier than most of the things he'd done in his life, but it was his only option. Jumpers were, after all, very much usable underwater as well.
"No, you can't!" McKay's voice suddenly popped in, and Lorne realized that he had already arrived to the control tower.
"Why not?" Lorne asked.
"Because your approach is ballistic! At your current angle and velocity you'll be smashed to pieces as soon as you hit the ocean surface!" McKay called out.
Lorne slid down to the floor, took a moment to think this over and realized that he had no idea what to do. His mind was blank, refusing to even come up with panic, and his head hurt. His vision swam, and it was the only thing he could focus on for a moment, watching the darkened pannels drifting back and forth in front of his eyes.
Lorne slapped himself hard on his cheek. He was slipping. Must be a concussion. Probably the fact that there was no longer air recycling wasn't helping either.
"Anyone have any good news to tell me?" Lorne asked tiredly into his radio. He was hot everywhere and his fingers and legs were all pins and needles, like he had sat on them too much.
"Stay with us, Major. We have a plan to save you," Carter's voice said, encouraging.
"Anyone wanna tell me about it, Ma'am?" Lorne asked, weary. His head was getting heavy and he slapped his cheek once more to keep himself alert.
"We're calculating the shortest and safest distance for you to jump out of the Jumper and into the water," Zelenka said.
Lorne's eyes opened wide at that. It was madness. How the hell was he supposed to jump into the water from the Jumper?
"Okay," he said, slowly. He knew the answer to that, but he still had to ask. "Uh… Sure. Where did we put the parachutes?"
"You don't have one. Look, just do as we say and everything will be, uh…" McKay trailed off, uncertainly.
"Major, you don't have much choice. It's either that or going in and dying," Carter took over.
Lorne sighed. Given how crazy this entire evening had proven to be so far, jumping off of a ballistic Jumper won't be that far a leap. The figurative one, of course.
"Okay, what do I have to do?" Lorne asked, bracing himself. He scrounched up every bit of alertfulness he still had and dragged himself to his feet, keeping a tight hold on one of the pannels to stabilize himself against the shaking. The adrenalin that shot through his system at hearing his rescue plans helped a little, too.
"Take off your clothes," McKay ordered. Lorne nodded, beginning to see this as one giant pool to dive into. He'd done diving in high school. Even practiced in Olympic pools. He only hoped he would've been better at that, now.
Lorne took off his clothes with some difficulty. His fingers felt clumsy and fumbled with the laces of his boots and the button fly of his uniform pants, and his head hurt when he bowed it to take off his t-shirt. The shakings kept making him trip.
"What's next?" Lorne asked, once he was standing in his underwear and dog tags. He did as he was instructed and tried not to think about what he was about to do next. It was disturbing enough to stand almost naked in the Jumper without thinking about why he was doing it.
"Uh… rear hatch. There's an emergency button on your right side, next to the rear hatch. Open it and hold tight to something because the wind is gonna be a killer," McKay instructed, and then, "Wait!"
Lorne was just about to reach for the red button, but when McKay spoke he withdrew his hand with haste. "What?" he asked, heart pounding. What was it that he was about to do wrong?
"What kind of underwear are you wearing today?" McKay asked. Lorne simply stared ahead, wondering if he heard correctly.
"What kind? You want color and pattern as well, McKay, or do you want to skip straight to the erotic call?" Carter snapped sarcastically.
But Lorne, being a swimmer, caught up after just a moment. "Not the good kind, Doc. I'm wearing the issued boxers," Lorne answered. They were dark gray, worn and soft, sticking close to his legs and ass but not clinging.
"Good, see? He understands. I wanted to know because we need to create as little friction with the water as possible. From the height he's going to jump every resistance could mean breaking a limb or worse, his back or neck," McKay snapped back at Carter. Lorne knew it, of course, and was already taking off his boxer shorts and his dog tags with apprehension.
He held his dog tags in his hand and suddenly remembered Sheppard's words.
Your tags. They looked exactly as they did when we found them on a burned Genii body after you were kidnapped. Made me think of how I thought you'd died. But it wasn't the same as then.
He believed Sheppard's promise to meet him back on Atlantis. He had no choice, because he had to believe that to believe that he would come out of a dive this deep alive.
"I'm…" Lorne stopped himself from saying 'completely naked'. He would probably never hear the end of it if he would announce it to the entire control room. If he survived, that is. "I took down everything that might create resistance," he said.
McKay, of course, couldn't leave things alone. "So you're naked?" he asked, interested and stressed out at the same time. "Aw!" he said immediately after, and Lorne thank whoever it was that had smacked McKay for him.
"Major Lorne. We've finished our calculations. You need to be ready. In two minutes we will tell you to jump. When we say it do not hesitate, jump into the water. Any later than when we tell you to and you might be hit with the debris of the Jumper. They should be bouncing a long distance, I'm afraid," Zelenka said instead of McKay.
"Yes. And keep your arms as close to your body and as straight as you can," Carter added.
"No, Ma'am. I'm doing this in a headspring," Lorne countered. "That way I can surface faster and I can break the water resistance with my hands better," he explained, images of his own videos performing dives returning to him. He was fairly good with the entering the water part. It was the flips and twists before it that he did below average.
"Major, if you enter at a wrong angle you'll snap your spine. You can end up paralyzed for life if not worse," Carter warned.
"Which height am I going to be jumping from?" Lorne asked.
"Ninety feet," Zelenka replied. That was a little more than twice the Olympic springboard. And if a jump of thirty-three feet took him almost sixteen feet deep, then a jump of ninety would take him forty feet deep. Probably even fifty.
"A headspring is still my best option, Ma'am, and I know how to do it. I was in the swim team in high school, and I've done some diving for a time as well. I will need to rise from fifty feet deep, and a headspring will give me a chance to arch up instead of fighting my own momentum," Lorne explained.
"You know, he's actually right," McKay said, sounding amazed. "You dived? Like, professionally?" he asked, incredulous.
"Yes. Now can I open the rear hatch?" Lorne asked. He was naked and too hot, his head was exploding with pain and he was terrified, but he was also prepared and the clock was ticking. The adrenalin helped keeping him more alert than before, which was good, but he needed to do something or he'd slip once more.
"Yes. And be careful of the strong winds. The Jumper will protect you because of its aerodynamic structure, but it can still be strong and you're flying faster than a bullet," McKay said, typically not really reassuring but straight to the point.
"Once we tell you to jump, jump and get rid of your earpiece," Zelenka added.
"Okay. I'm opening the rear hatch," Lorne said, grabbing a hold in the netting overhead with one hand and, not giving himself time to think, pressed the red button on the Jumper's side with the other. The hatch blew out, and the force of the wind was almost enough to tear Lorne's shoulder out of its socket. His body was sucked out, and only with an effort did he manage to get himself back inside the Jumper.
After the initial burst of wind the suction calmed a little, and Lorne's head hurt less. He could now think clearly enough to understand that the CO2 levels inside was higher than usual, since life support was damaged as well during the first hit he took. Luckily it wasn't anything that affected him too much, especially now that he got to breathe fresh air.
Lorne stood at the edge, looking out into the darkness at the approaching water below. It wasn't much different than being on a roller-coaster. Everything seemed to be getting close at a frightening speed in the blurred blackness below him. He was lucky that the moons were shining, though he wished it was daylight. It was easy to forget that this was still the same night he and Sheppard had their first date. It felt so much longer.
"Are you ready?" Lorne almost didn't hear Zelenka over the howl of the wind. He pressed the earpiece further into his ear with the hand that wasn't still holding the overhead netting to hear them better – and to be able to get rid of it quicker.
He positioned himself on the edge of the Jumper as steadily as he could, and took a few deep breaths. The fear was almost incapacitating, but he never allowed himself to think he wouldn't make it.
"I am," he bellowed back into his earpiece. An absurd thought passed through his mind. He could finally perform that reverse three-and-a-half somersaults he never quite managed to in high school. His coatch was always very disappointed in him because of it.
"Almost there!" McKay bellowed into the radio so that Lorne could hear.
Lorne took more deep breaths, his muscles tense and his chest tightening.
"Now!"
Lorne jumped.
He began with a reverse twist and continued to the three-and-a-half somersaults, then a forward one-and-a-half twist and then a back dive and half a twist before bringing his body into position and spreading his hands over his head, fingers ready to pierce the water. It wasn't for the fun that he was doing it and not because his body fell to the familiar training routine, it was also to slow his dive.
His hands hit the water with unimaginable force that sent incapacitating shockwaves up his arm and shoulder, but it helped ease his entry. He dived down and down, the force of his movement pushing him onwards and the surface getting further and further away.
Lorne was barely conscious. The water made impact with his body with the force of a car crash, and his lungs lost the reserves of air he held in them because of it. He could barely see because the water was dark and cold. The very touch of it on his skin was hurting him.
But as Lorne's mouth opened automatically to take a gulp of air he regained some alertness and rolled his body sideways to break his descent. He used the momentum of his descent to give him a push up, but in the water movement required a lot more force than that to lift him all the way up.
Lorne saw dark spots in front of his eyes and the surface, with the wan light of the two moons overhead, was still far away. He kicked his legs and used his hands, gritting his teeth against the pain, his body's natural instinct to breathe and the resistance of the water, and pushed up.
But his lungs were starved and his body was at the end of its abilities. Adrenaline could sustain him for only so long. He no longer had enough air to keep a positive pressure in his nose and the seawater penetrated his nose and down his throat, causing his trachea to constrict and making him want to cough. He could feel the power leaving his movements, his hands flailing instead of pushing up, and closed his eyes.
But when he opened his mouth to take in that mouthful of seawater that would kill him, he breathed air in instead.
Lorne looked around him, brain somewhat less foggy. He was lying on his back in the water and four marines were there with him, holding him and pushing him onto a board that was lowered down from a hovering Jumper.
"We've got incoming! We've got incoming! A dart heading our way!" Lorne could hear the marines' radios crackling and wanted to tell them not to do anything, but couldn't even remember how to make his vocal cords work. He choked on his breath, lacking the strength to move butter-like muscles under cardboard-like skin, but still he tried to tell them that it might be Sheppard, that they mustn't shoot. When he finally did manage to lift his arm to make a feeble attempt at getting someone's attention darkness swept over him.
Lorne lost his consciousness.
####
"We've got incoming! We've got incoming! A dart heading our way!" Lieutenant Donovan reported anxiously into the radio, but Stackhouse wasn't in a hurry to call for the weapon tray of his Jumper. Instead, he brought the Jumper closer to the approaching dart and took a close look.
"Its been damaged, somehow. The color is different, and its… woah!" Stackhouse had to veer sharply to the left to avoid colliding with the dart. "Its flight pattern is all messed up," he finished once the Jumper was safely away.
"Do not engage, Sergeant. I repeat, do not engage!" Carter's voice came over the comm.
"Yes, Ma'am," Stackhouse watched the dart heading towards the nearest pier, but it did not attempt to fly over the city or crash into the shield.
"Why aren't we engaging it!" Donovan asked, panicked. He was new, and it always amazed Stackhouse just how inexperienced the new guys could be. Always made him wonder whether he and Markham, who was long gone, were so stressed out as well at first.
"Because we've received an order not to," Stackhouse replied calmly. It took a hell of a lot more than this to scare him now.
He followed the dart closely, watching it as it wobbled and zigzagged, but it didn't try to engage any of the escorting Jumpers or self-destruct.
Everything seemed to be going alright. The dart, despite its shaky flight, slowed down as it approached to hover above the water near the west pier. Stackhouse was already smiling in relief when it suddenly dropped like a stone into the water and disappeared.
Stackhouse reacted faster than any of the others, grasping the controls and submerging the Jumper into the water as well, while Lieutenant Donovan held onto his seat and exclaimed, "What the hell are you doing!"
"I'm going after it, sir," Stackhouse replied with all the necessary respect.
He dived headlong into the water and emerged beneath the sinking dart.
"Brace yourself, sir," Stackhouse told Donovan cheerfully, and a second later the Jumper shook and groaned under the weight that landed on its roof. He then began a fast ascension back up to the ocean surface.
"What are you doing! We could be helping a Wraith! There's a reason why they didn't lower the damn shield!" Donovan berated him, but Stackhouse didn't even notice. The dart just came out of the water, according to his calculations, and Jumpers and rescue teams were already in position to help.
"The dome's opening!" Someone, Edison according to the voice, reported over the comm. "It's Sheppard! He needs medical attention!"
"We're on our way," Ramirez answered from where he was sitting in Jumper 4, if Stackhouse remembered correctly.
"Good job, Sergeant," Carter's voice told Stackhouse. "You may have very well saved his life."
Stackhouse smiled. "Then we're still far from being even, Ma'am," he answered, content.
Once he got the report that Sheppard was safely out, he rose from the water with the dart still calanced on the Jumper's roof, then allowed it to drop down straight into the waiting hands of Major Kersey, who blew it up with a well aimed drone. Always a good idea not to leave any Wraith technology intact.
"How did you know?" Donovan asked him, awed. Stackhouse turned to look at him questioningly. "How did you know that it'll be Sheppard and not a Wraith?"
The answer was pretty obvious. "It never attempted to harm the city, sir," Stackhouse replied. Donovan would have to make do with that because the rest of it, of how he knew, he had no way and no desire to explain.
How do you explain that it was a combination of trust born from years of working together, a hunch born out of bitter experience and a bit of blind faith that things will be fine, a faith that no one who was stationed in the city for over a year didn't have?
A/N: I know that some of you wondered about the Wraith attack. Truthfully, Williams was right. This was Michael's first attempt to kidnap Teyla and the unborn Torren.
