See Chapter 1 for disclaimer. Thanks to corkieshome, Titan5, twinchaosblade, Kodiak's Sweet Breath, TheNaggingCube, and Delka for your reviews of Chapter 9. On to Chapter 10… :)

Chapter 10 / 11

Teyla watched as Carson finished checking on Kehrig, who was lying prone on the floor of one of the holding cells. He had not woken, but Beckett said his vitals were stable and he expected that Kehrig would regain consciousness when the disruptive effects of the stun blast wore off. The physician had been unable to find a reasonable explanation for his earlier actions, however, so the Athosian man remained under confinement.

"Is he from one of the bloodlines that can sense the Wraith?" Ronon asked thoughtfully, stepping from the shadows where he had been standing silently since depositing Kehrig on the floor.

"I am not certain. I do not know his family well, but I can inquire of others if this is so. It would explain—" Teyla suddenly stopped talking and turned around, instinctively facing the doorway. When she spoke again it was with apprehension and distaste. "The Wraith…they come." Ronon's hand instantly strayed to his gun, but Teyla held up her own hand, halting his actions. Momentarily they heard an explosion in the distance, muffled but still quite loud.

Beckett started badly and looked to Teyla, shaking his head. "Sometimes I envy that sixth sense of yours, lass."

"It is a gift that I will ever wish was unnecessary. However, I do hope that Kehrig's actions are so easily accounted for."

"Weir to Dr. Beckett."

Carson jumped again at the sudden communication, but took a deep breath to calm himself and tapped his earpiece. "This is Beckett. Go ahead."

"Carson, you're needed in the chair room. It's John."

"What's he done now? Ah, never mind, I'm on my way."

"Be careful. Several people have reported a dart circling the city."

"Lovely. Beckett out." He picked up his med kit and hurried out of the room, Ronon following. Teyla remained to question Kehrig when he came to.

Ronon and Beckett made it to the chair room without incident, though Ronon had been listening to reports of weapons fire causing minor damage on the perimeter of the city, and there were more and more sightings of a single dart, apparently doing reconnaissance. Something wasn't right. The Wraith weren't this indirect. They came and they attacked, they fed and they left. It wasn't their style to circle and growl, so to speak. Unless…

"McKay, has Sheppard started firing the drones yet?" Ronon asked.

"No, these systems are a mess. I'm not even sure the drones would fly straight if he did fire them." McKay didn't look up. He was poking furiously at a tablet that was connected to the base of the chair.

"I don't see how the lad can do anything like this. He's burning up," Beckett said, concern heavy in his voice as he released the blood pressure cuff from the colonel's arm. "Rodney, are ya sure he's still tryin' ta connect ta the chair? His pressure's sky high and he's non-responsive."

McKay did look up at that. "Yes, I'm sure. The power readings clearly indicate that interaction is taking place. It's abnormal though, and I don't think he's making a whole lot of progress."

"He'd better make some progress soon, or none of us are going to be around to care," Ronon said, his hearing picking up on what could only have been another impact from the Wraith's weapons.

"Yes, yes, I understand that we don't have a lot of time here!" McKay snapped.

Ronon shook his head. "No, you're not getting it. This isn't the way the Wraith fight. They don't waste ammunition to hit non-critical targets. They're testing us."

"What? Why?"

"They're waiting to see if we retaliate for them firing on us. They're waiting to see if we can."

Carson nodded. "It makes sense. If the Wraith have somehow been communicating with that Kehrig fellow all along as you and Teyla suggested, it'd stand ta reason that they'd think we might be unable ta use the Ancient technology."

"But they probably weren't sure, since those plants were never distributed to the entire population. Not knowing, their logical next step would be to make sure that the city's main defensive system was down either way, which would account for Kehrig trying to sabotage the chair. Now they want to see if he succeeded."

"Wait, so you're telling me that if Sheppard doesn't fire the drones soon and show them we're still in control, they're gonna throw everything they've got at us?!" Rodney's eyes grew wide as he looked at the other two men. "We are so screwed!" McKay stared down at the tablet for a few seconds, his mouth hanging open as panic tried to set in, but then his eyes snapped back up. "Carson! You could fire the drones. I know you hate using the chair, but you haven't been exposed to the pollen. Your gene should still be functioning!"

"And if the colonel weren't still sitting there I might agree, Rodney, but I don't want ta risk just breakin' his connection. That kind of stress could kill him in his present condition."

Rodney's excitement vanished at that and his eyes dropped back to his work. "Yeah, well, I suppose you wouldn't know how to repair the damage anyway. This isn't your usual brand of voodoo."

Carson ignored the minor insult and turned his attention back to John, who lay limply in the chair. The faint flickering glow from the device and the occasional expression of sheer concentration on the colonel's face still suggested that he was conscious, but Beckett found it difficult to be sure.

As time passed, conversation dwindled to non-existent, with Ronon standing like a statue against a nearby wall, a frown crossing his face now and again as he presumably heard something over the radio that he didn't like the sound of. Rodney kept on doing whatever it was he was doing with his tablet and the chair, muttering to himself discontentedly all the while. Beckett, for his part, mostly watched the two of them out of the corner of his eye. There really wasn't much he could do for the colonel at this juncture, other than keep tabs on his vitals, which he took every ten minutes. He had just completed his third vitals check when another explosion sounded, and this time it was close enough to make the floor shudder beneath their feet.

"What was that?!" Rodney asked with no attempt to hide his terror.

Ronon held up a hand, and listened for a moment on his radio. "They just hit one of the power stations. It wasn't destroyed, but they're getting braver."

"Wonderful!" McKay snapped. "Come on, Sheppard, get your ATA-enhanced ass in gear and shoot them already!"

To his surprise he received a quiet, strained reply, "Trying…Rodney."

McKay stared at the readouts scrolling on his tablet and then looked up at Beckett and Ronon. "He's actually getting somewhere! The diagnostics of the drones are reading normal. The drone-chair interface is still sketchy, but it's getting there."

"It better get there fast. Direct hit to the north tower," Ronon reported.

Another tremor shook the floor, and Rodney looked at Beckett nervously as he disconnected the tablet from the chair platform. "I've done everything I can. It's up to him now." They stood staring at Sheppard, as if waiting for something miraculous to happen, but the man's eyes remained closed. They all knew that they would likely not see direct results whether the drones fired or not, but even so, Ronon had joined them in watching the colonel.

So intent was he on waiting for the drones to fire and praying to any listening deity that the Wraith would not blow him up and/or suck the life out of him that Rodney jumped, as had become his custom, when his radio once again chirped in his ear. He tapped it. "Yes, what?"

"Rodney, Dr. Zelenka has just told me that the Wraith have locked weapons on the structure you're currently occupying, and we still don't have power to the shield," Weir's voice said urgently. "You need to get out of there right now!"

"I'd be happy to, Elizabeth, but Conan's theory about what's going on here just doesn't allow for that at the moment. Us getting blown up will be the least of your problems if he's right."

"Would one of you care to explain this theory, gentlemen?"

"There's no time!" Rodney was gearing up to explain why there was no time when Zelenka's voice shouted in his ear.

"They're charging weapons, you fool! Get out of there! They're firing!"

Rodney felt like he might throw up and from the look on Carson's face, the doctor wasn't doing much better. McKay did the only thing he could do, the only thing that came naturally to him. "Sheppard, you're out of time, dammit! Fire those drones or I swear I will make you drink every last bit of that Athosian mud soup at the next harvest festival!" Drawing a shaky breath, a calm came over him and he stopped shouting, ignored the look Ronon was giving him, closed his eyes, and waited for the end.

…and waited. McKay cracked one eye open and gradually relaxed from the full-body

cringe he'd adopted while expecting to be vaporized. "Why aren't we dead?" he asked.

Ronon grunted with amusement and pointed to the chair. Rodney followed his line of sight and found the answer to his question in the form of two half-open, glassy hazel-green eyes. "Sheppard!" McKay grinned.

John gave him the smallest of nods and smiled tiredly, then raised his hand and fumbled for his radio switch. "Elizabeth, what's your status?" he all but mumbled the question.

"John! It's good to hear your voice. You had us worried. Everything's fine up here for the moment. We're not sure why we were unable to raise the shield, but it's working now, and the drones you fired hit their targets. The hive is still in orbit, and there are a couple of darts in the area that managed to avoid the drones, but all weapons fire ceased when they realized the shield was in place and our weapons were back online. They have yet to try and communicate with us."

"Good. Keep me informed. Sheppard out." John closed his eyes, only to have a familiar voice call his name persistently. He sighed and blinked, not recognizing the ceiling above him as the one that normally greeted him when he heard that voice. "Carson. What's up?"

"Ya checked out on us for a second there, lad."

"Sorry, Rodney's yelling and all this excitement must be getting to me."

"Hey! I was only offering encouragement. And in case you haven't noticed, it worked!"

John decided the least painful thing would be to go along with Rodney for the time being. There would be plenty of opportunities during the debriefing to correct him about who had actually done the important work. "Yeah, it did. Thanks, McKay." He sent the chair a final command and it glowed its usual bright blue as it set him back upright, then turned dark. John got to his feet, but when he tried to take a step forward his knees turned to jelly and he felt Carson grab his arm and lower him back into the chair as the room swayed alarmingly.

"Easy, son. That fever's bound ta make ya weak. I've already sent for a wheelchair, so you just stay put for now."

"Seriously, Doc, you're not giving me much incentive here." Despite what he now knew about Kehrig and other matters surrounding his polar plunge earlier, John's newfound paranoia of wheelchairs was soaring at full throttle and he attempted to get up again. Beckett's hands on his shoulders easily restrained him.

"Seriously, Colonel, ya need ta wait," Beckett retorted, exasperated and worried, but his expression softened as he noticed the hint of apprehension in John's eyes. "I can promise ya we won't go anywhere near the water, lad, but ya can barely stand right now. Let us look after ya for tonight and this time tomorrow you'll be in your quarters, so long as your fever's gone down."

John let out a breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding and nodded in agreement. He'd feel a whole lot better once he knew the Wraith weren't hanging around in orbit anymore, but for the time being they had the shield and Atlantis was relatively safe. Secure in that knowledge, John let the world around him fade a little while he waited for Beckett's cohorts to arrive.

TBC…