Author's Notes~ Sorry guys, been a while again and another super short chapter, but this one is pretty exciting. I know I know, I broke a promise I made to some of you at the end of the chapter but I swear it won't be for long!
"The device that emits the field is right here," Rodney pointed to one of the rooms on the digital map and then moved his finger to another room, "And Carson is here."
"So we get in, turn it off, get Carson and get out," Sheppard knew that oversimplifying it like that would drive Rodney mad, he did it on purpose just for that reason.
"It's not that simple. The device is probably guarded and also probably requires a deactivation code of some kind, and there are at least a hundred Wraith life signs within the complex," Rodney barreled on, hardly stopping for a breath until he finished.
"Well can you deactivate it?" Sheppard asked, giving the standard 'shut-up-Rodney' eye roll and sigh.
"I can deactivate it if you can get me to it," Rodney turned up his nose as he picked up his computer case and stalked off to collect what else he would need. Sheppard nodded, staring after Rodney.
Twenty minutes later, the team met on the bridge once more. Caldwell looked across the row of faces, locking gazes with each of the team members for a moment before speaking.
"We'll be nearby; we can beam you up whenever you're ready. You know how to reach us. Good luck," Caldwell spoke the last two words as the blue light enveloped the team and they found themselves standing in a small room in one corner of the facility.
*****
Elsewhere in the facility, Carson remained unaware that the Atlantis team had finally reached the planet and were working towards his rescue. He stood tapping away at the key pad of the nearest console, finishing off some research on the retrovirus that had created Michael, completely oblivious to the fact that the Daedalus was in orbit of a nearby moon, concentrating on his research.
Michael walked into the room in a huff as usual, Carson noticed, but made no move to turn around. He instead picked up a hypodermic needle and syringe of sorts, filling it with the clear liquid he had just synthesized. If this worked, Michael might leave them alone…if it didn't, his people would have more to worry about than his rescue. It was worth the risk, he'd decided, to have the chance that Michael might let them off and stop this madness.
"Beckett. What have you for me today?" Michael asked this as if Carson had something new for him every day. Carson sighed inwardly and turned to Michael, needle in hand.
"This lit'l beauty, Lad. It'll turn ye all th' way Wraith again. It'll undo wha' I did to ye," Carson nodded to the needle in his hand. Michael stared at the needle, unmoving, as if trying to decide whether the doctor was telling him the truth…and if it would be worth it to become full Wraith again. It would not buy back the respect of the Queen who had thrown him out, but it may give him a life worth living…
*****
Sheppard and his team beamed down just outside the facility and easily took down the drones guarding the entrance, they were now inside the complex and looking for the time bubble generator, when Rodney looked down at the life signs detector and let out a yelp.
"Colonel Sheppard! I found the bubble generator and Carson!" He squeaked out in shock, not because he had found them, but because the rooms appeared not to be in the facility but on board a Wraith Cruiser just outside it, alone with a single Wraith life sign, which was probably a drone. This was too easy, wasn't it?
"Alright, Rodney with me, we'll go shut off the bubble generator. Ronon, Teyla, go with Dr. Beckett to find Carson," Sheppard barked orders, he didn't like to separate his team but Ronon and Teyla could handle themselves, he knew. So once Rodney had 'picked the lock' on the cruiser, they split off and went in opposite directions.
Ten minutes and three Wraith Drones later, Sheppard stood at the door with his gun poised as Rodney knelt before the generator with his laptop, tapping away at the keys frantically and connecting different cables to it along the way, all the while grumbling under his breath.
"How long is this going to take?" Sheppard barked over his shoulder.
"I don't know!" Rodney said, still tapping at the keys.
"Well you have about five minutes until more drones get here and about three minutes after that until they get past me, that gives you 8 minutes," Sheppard clarified the reason for his question, to which Rodney responded with an irritated grumble and an increase in the speed at which he tapped the keys.
In the lab, Carson and Michael still faced off against one another. Carson held the syringe in his hand, eyes sparkling and a slight smile on his face, while Michael stood in front of him, eyeing up the needle with an evil smirk on his face. It was while the two were so focused that Teyla, Ronon and Dr. Beckett (the clone) burst in.
As they stepped in, Michael saw them over Carson's shoulder and stalked past him to reach them. His mint colored clawed hand snatched Teyla by her neck, holding her in the air. Dr. Beckett winced and then half doubled over in pain, while Ronon was about to launch himself on Michael, but Carson threw him a pleading look and held up the syringe, stepping up unnoticed behind the Wraith hybrid.
With one smooth movement, Carson jammed the needle into Michael's neck and shoved the plunger down, releasing the serum into his body. Michael dropped Teyla to the floor, spinning to face Carson, but before he could act, the serum kicked in and he collapsed to his knees as the change began to take effect.
"Carson!" Teyla stood up slowly, rubbing at her neck, and Carson bolted past Michael to her. She hugged him for a quick moment and then let go and reached for her sidearm.
"I'd nearly given up 'ope of ever seen ye again, Love—" Carson cut himself off midsentence as he looked over her shoulder and caught sight of…himself?
"Aye, Carson. Y're not crazy, Lad. I'm a clone o' you," Dr. Beckett spoke first, wincing against the now near constant pain of the cellular degradation. Both Carsons stare at one another for a moment, the memory hitting them both: Michael taking the DNA sample from the unlocked cabinet in the infirmary, the bottle was marked Beckett, Carson, MD…
Sheppard fired his P-90 rapidly at the incoming Wraith, his mind working on a way to get out of the room if Rodney couldn't undo the time bubble in time. He would have to shoot their way out, it was the only way he could see with so many drones coming.
"Got it!" Rodney bellowed, disconnecting his laptop and packing it away.
"About time, McKay!" Sheppard bellowed over the sounds of gunfire, "Get Caldwell to beam us up!"
"Have Teyla and Ronon found Carson yet?" McKay asked, Sheppard groaned inwardly and kept shooting.
"I don't know McKay, do I look like I can go check the life signs detector?" Sheppard bellowed, two more drones went down at his feet.
"Never mind, I'LL check then. Yep, they found him," Rodney tapped his earpiece and spoke in a hurry, "Colonel Caldwell, we've got Carson, we're ready to beam up."
A few seconds later, the white-blue flash of Asgard beams lit up the cruiser and then Sheppard and his team, Carson, and about two dozen Athosians materialize on the bridge of the Daedalus. In the rush of Teyla taking her people to temporary quarters and Rodney, Ronon and Sheppard heading for the mess, the only one to notice Dr. Beckett wince in pain and collapse to the floor was Carson himself.
"Carson, listen t' me. Ma' research on th' degradation is in th' lab 'ere on the Daedalus. I need ye t' look at it an' finish it. Quickly, Lad, there's no' much time," Dr. Beckett whispered to Carson some time later as the stasis pod on the ship began to activate, freezing him in time, to keep him alive. Carson nodded, he hardly knew his clone, but he would not let him die.