Chapter 10

* * * * * * * * * *

Atlantis, Present Day

The lingering smell of burnt crystals, something he had become too familiar with over the last few years, still lingered in the air. Keagan was quietly whimpering off to the side, Thompkins was looming tensely over him and Teyla was standing in front of him demanding to know what was going on. Rodney was staring at the somewhat broken console, the ancient words telling him that something had gone seriously wrong in fragmented sentences that matched the way his brain felt: scattered.

He was not panicking! He was not panicking! He was not…

"Dr. McKay, you must focus!" Teyla's hand came around to grasp his arm and when he looked up Sheppard's face was staring back at him, blood trickling from above his eyebrow and his eyes fogged over in death. He sucked in a sharp breath and slammed his eyes closed in revulsion. Opening them a moment later he met Teyla's worried brown eyes watching him with concern. Oh please don't be going crazy now, this was not the time. Pull yourself together! His gaze focused and he took a deep breath, forcing himself back under control and shoving the panic to the back of his mind to be reviewed later, in private. He had work to do.

"Right. Focused, I'm focused." He looked back down at the console and tapped in a few commands, beginning a basic diagnostic before attempting to operate any other systems. He stepped back and tapped his ear piece. "I need a head count people. Report!"

"Dr. Miko, Dr. Mills, and Sergeant Rafat accounted for sir!" A sharp female voice carried over the speaker.

"Sergeant Michaels accounted for sir!" Well obviously, since Rodney had already spoken to him. He wasted a few tense seconds for the rest of the group to report, which they failed to do. Miserably.

"Right, I have Teyla, Thompkins, Strat, and, unfortunately, Keagan with me. That means Sheppard, Zelenka, Kwong, and Ronon are the only people missing." He paused and frowned at the screen before him as the diagnostic was almost complete. "Michaels, head over to the control room and stay with Rafat's group. Kusanagi, Mills, I need you to begin looking for anything you can about the ancients emergency systems. I need anything you can dig up, but focus on their evacuation methods." There was a sharp agreement from the soldier and some mumbled words from the scientists as they no doubt went to follow his instructions. Right, that was done. Now, he needed to get a link with his missing people.

"They still have their radios, which means they should still be able to communicate with us," he frowned to himself.

"Dr. McKay, I don't understand what's going on," Strat chose that moment to helpfully interrupt his thoughts and he glared at the man, completely ignoring his slight flinch.

"They were in the emergency transport room when our star pupil over here," he stabbed an accusing finger at Keagan, who had finally pulled himself together enough to join the mismatched group huddling around him like lost children, "touched something he shouldn't. As far as I can tell he managed to activate the systems and, subsequently, triggered the transports. I think they were sent to the escape pods."

"But we haven't had a chance to look at those yet."

"Somebody give the man a gold star!" He snapped crossly, but Strat apparently wasn't finished as he opened his mouth again. Couldn't he see that Rodney needed to focus here?

"I'm just saying that if they aren't responding then chances of them still being alive are-"

"Astronomical! And if you aren't capable of providing productive opinions then go stand in the corner and wait until I call you!" He took a deep breath and blew it out his nose, trying to calm the sudden impulse to strangle the man. He refused to believe that they were dead. They couldn't be! It was just not acceptable.

* * * * * * * * * *

Strat tried not to flinch back from the hard stare that McKay was giving him, but it was an automatic reaction to such a venomous gaze. He hadn't wanted to be the voice of reason, but he had felt that somebody needed to state that the missing people on their team might not still be alive. He had no intentions of shuffling off to the corner as McKay had suggested, and he resented being spoken to as though he were a child. He understood the implications of what was happening here, he was far from an idiot and McKay knew it!

He had to respond to the insulting outburst, but as usual when around McKay he was having trouble figuring out exactly what he wanted to say. Actually, it was more along the lines of picking one of the thousand retorts floating on the tip of his tongue and then managing to say it without sounding flustered. He took a breath, preparing to snap back at the lead scientist of Atlantis when the piercing blue gaze shifted away from him and glazed over for a second, before he rapidly snapped his fingers three times.

"Shields! Frequencies! Of course. Why didn't I think of it sooner?" He slapped at his radio, maybe a little too hard but he didn't seem to notice as he turned on his foot and began storming from the room. "Follow me," he snapped, not waiting for them. Teyla slid smoothly into step beside him, a move that appeared to be well practiced to Strat, her hand on her weapon in readiness even though there didn't appear to be anything to shoot around here.

Strat quickly moved to Keagan, who was still looking too pale and maybe slightly sweaty. His hair was dishevelled and there was a rip in the sleeve of the lab coat he had insisted on wearing the entire time they'd been on this station. Despite that he moved quickly, if a little unsteadily, to follow his boss and Strat fell in watchful step beside him. It wasn't that he particularly cared for the man, especially not now that he understood he had gone above his instructions and possibly caused the current disaster, but Strat figured he should make sure he was relatively okay. Keagan had been closer to the site of the explosion than he had been, and his own ears were still ringing. He couldn't imagine how Teyla, who had been closest, was dealing with the headache she must have, but she was practically running alongside McKay up ahead.

He heard Thompkins quiet steps behind him, and then focused on McKay as he began to speak again. His voice also carried through his ear as his radio picked it up, creating an annoying echo.

"Miko?"

"Yes, I am here Dr. McKay," came the quiet, cultured voice.

"I need you to take Rafat and head to the Manta, okay?"

"Yes. What is it that you wish me to do?"

"Move, are you moving?" His impatience was clear, though why he was impatient Strat didn't know. He didn't have to snap at the woman like that. She was one of his most adamant supporters during Strat's stay in Atlantis.

"Yes Doctor, we are on our way," she replied calmly, which seemed to calm McKay a bit as his head bobbed up and down in satisfaction.

"Good. You need to adjust our radio frequencies. The escape pods are probably equipped with individual shields. It's possible that by activating the emergency systems the fields were also activated and we need to adjust to their specific frequency to communicate through them."

"Yes, I understand."

"Okay, we're on our way back to the main control room for now so we can regroup. Sergeant Michaels, have you reached the control room yet?"

"Yes, sir."

"Okay, we are no longer using the transport lifts that were deemed safe. From this point forward we walk everywhere people, so download a map into your notebooks if you have to. We should be there in about ten minutes." He signed off and kept walking, muttering to himself as he moved quickly down the corridors. Strat had thought it was annoying to keep up to the pace he walked between labs on Atlantis, but it appeared now that that had been slow compared to his emergency mode. Teyla's voice drifted back to them, too quiet to decipher the words as they were meant for the scientist ahead. They didn't do much to relax McKay, but he nodded stiffly, as though he was agreeing with her. His pace didn't slow.

The female warrior then looked subtly over her shoulder and for a moment Strat thought she was looking at him, to see that they were okay and following, until he realized she was looking behind him, at Thompkins. It was a quick glance, but it had delivered a message that Strat was apparently incapable of understanding. He looked over his shoulder at Thompkins to see the Major staring relentlessly at the back of Keagan's head, but at Strat's movement he looked sharply at him, and shook his head slightly. Strat looked ahead again, feeling slightly dizzy from turning forward so quickly. At least the ringing in his ears was dissipating.

What was that all about? He knew Thompkins was here under his own orders, which were both similar and different from Strats' own. While Strat had been investigating McKay's capability to head up the science division of Atlantis, Thompkins had been looking into the whole Greenwall situation. Actually, the two of them had barely seen each other in their time on Atlantis and whenever they were together Thompkins showed nothing but the strictest discipline. He was apparently still irritated with Strat about the "confidential" documents regarding McKay's abduction in China. Honestly, he didn't see what the big deal was; confidential files were released all the time for specific cases.

McKay being upset he could see, and regretted not having the foresight to inform the man sooner, but that hadn't, and still wasn't, his concern. Whatever misplaced emotions were going around right now Strat didn't care too much about. He figured the soldier's interest in Keagan lay in the fact that he was responsible for this mess, but the intensity of his look was a bit excessive. He wondered if something else was going on.

Just as he thought he might become embarrassingly winded at the fast pace they were keeping they were at the control room, which was located in the middle on the top floor of the station and McKay was bustling about like a tornado on crack. Dr. Mills quickly stepped away from where he was working as the Canadian practically vaulted over the console and began going through all the data.

"Miko!" He snapped into the radio. "Are we waiting for the next ice age here? Because at the rate some glaciers are receding we'll be waiting for-"

"I am just finishing now, Dr. McKay. Please, a few moments more," her voice sounded through all of their radios. They waited tensely, McKay and Mills the only people doing anything as Keagan had been ordered to not touch anything and Thompkins was looking eager to pull his side arm. "Okay Doctor, I have calibrated the radio systems to correlate with the shield specifications our scanners suggested…"

"Yes, yes, yes. Good. Sheppard, Zelenka come in!" He demanded as his entire body stilled unnaturally. They waited a moment. "Somebody had better answer me really soon or I swear I'll-"

"This is Sheppard," the Colonel's voice drawled, and the change in McKay was instantaneous as his shoulders slumped and his grip on the console looked like it was the only thing keeping him upright.

"Colonel!" McKay cut in quickly, not giving the man a chance to say anything else. "Are you alone? Who else is with you? Are you hurt?"

"If you had given me a moment to finish, I was about to say that Ronon, Kwong and Zelenka are with me and, despite one knock to the head, we're all in one piece." Strat didn't know the man very well, but at the tone of voice he was imagining the accompanying eye roll. McKay stood there, staring into space with a relieved, kind of pinched grimace on his face, and after a few moments of silence he rolled his own eyes in frustration.

"And…?"

"And…thank you for fixing the radios?"

"What? No, I need more information to go on than that Colonel. How do you expect me to save your…you know what? Forget it, just don't say anything else. Zelenka!" He barked out, his eyes once again focusing on the screen. Strat moved around to look over his shoulder, but not knowing Ancient he couldn't understand most of what was being spewed across the screen. Normally the programs were put through translation codes first, which didn't take longer the thirty seconds to a minute but apparently McKay was too impatient to wait for even that.

"I am here, Rodney. We appear to be inside one of the escape vehicles."

"Yes, well I figured that out already through the sheer obviousness of this situation."

"Rodney!" Sheppard firmly pressed. "We're all okay for now, we don't seem to be in immediate danger here, so play nice," he ordered and McKay looked like he really wanted to snap something back at that, but restrained himself with effort. Strat moved over to Mills, where he could read bits of the information that was cropping up on his console and computer, but it was still moving rather fast.

"Okay, fine. Can you tell me the structure of the pod? We may be able to search for information if we have a physical description to go with it." Strat thought he heard someone mutter that it was round in the background.

"It appears to be circular. The floor is flat but it rounds over our heads. I see lines that indicate a hatch opening, but there is no obvious mechanism for such a task." The heavily accented voice informed them. "There are seats lining against the wall, six in total, and nothing in the middle of craft. There is floor space of about seventy-five centimeter radius. Colonel Sheppard is sitting next to arm rest which is the only sign of accessible console in this craft."

"Huh, cozy."

"Not so much. The seats are like rock and safety belts feel like they will chafe." Rodney's fingers were flying over the computer as they spoke and he nodded absently along with the conversation.

"Right. Can you access the console?"

"All tools we were working with were deposited as well. We were placed in the seats, and the tools were placed on the floor. The problem is that when we were placed in seats we were also placed under safety belts." Rodney frowned and looked over at Teyla, who stared back impassively.

"Oh, the ancients were really prepared, huh? You can't access the console without the tools?"

"I have not had much chance to try yet as lights only came on moments before you called and they flicker like disco club."

"Have Ronon dislocate his shoulder and squirm out of the restraints."

"Rodney…" Sheppard sounded frustrated.

"Oh please, if Martin Riggs can do it then Ronon can definitely pull it off." There was some shifting in the background and then a satisfied grunt and what sounded like Sheppard saying 'do me next.' "What's going on?"

"Ronon has pulled disturbingly large knife from his hair." Zelenka happily informed them.

"Oh, I suppose I should have thought of that first," Rodney shrugged, completely unsurprised. Strat looked around to see if anyone else thought that that was disturbing, but he'd read some pretty weird things over the years so he probably shouldn't be surprised, especially not after having been in the Satedan's presence. The man was scary. "Let me know once you have it open." He signed off and looked at Mills quickly before tapping his radio again.

"Miko, I need you to patch me through to Atlantis, but make sure we can maintain contact with the pod."

"It is done," she replied instantly.

"Atlantis this is McKay, respond." A moment later he demanded to speak to Weir, but as Strat had not heard the response he determined that they were now speaking on a closed circuit transmission.

"Elizabeth, we have a situation here…no, nobody was hurt badly and everyone is accounted for. There was an equipment malfunction and a few people have been transported into the emergency pods. They're okay, but I need to find a way to get them out and with the mess the database is in it may take a while to find the necessary information."

"Dr. McKay," Mills interrupted earning a glare from the man but he put Dr. Weir on hold and looked at him expectantly. "One of the engines seem to have been impaired. We are beginning to drift slightly with the current."

"Are we sinking?"

"Not at the moment, and we are moving slowly, perhaps two kilometres an hour at the most."

"Right, thanks. Elizabeth? You'll find we are slowly drifting, so don't be alarmed when the sensors pick that up. I need you to prep a rescue jumper…no, don't deploy it just yet. I have enough people here already to work on things, but if I need more help I'll let you know. As it is I want to check the systems before trying to phase the jumper's shields through the stations, in case it's decided that that's all it needs to kill us all." He walked over to Mills and Strat stepped over to his other shoulder so he could clear the path. He watched as McKay nodded to whatever Weir was saying and typed something on Mills' computer and then pointing at what looked like a power fluctuation graph. Mills nodded in understanding and McKay went back to his other station.

"Yes. In the meantime I need to speak with whoever it is I put in charge of this database on your end. Yes, her. Thank you." And he proceeded to give instructions on what to look for and for any information to be sent over immediately.

"Rodney," Dr. Zelenka's voice filled his ear once again and he jumped slightly, still not having grown used to people randomly speaking in his ear, "I have accessed console, but it is a bit jumbled. Very crammed. It will take a bit of time to get organized."

"Right, work on environmental controls first, I need to know how the air and heat is cycled." There was a moment of heavy silence on the other end.

"Right, I'm on it."

"Good, so am I," and with that he gave Miko some more instructions, ordered Keagan to stay were he was when he began to move to a console, and dove back into his work.

* * * * * * * * * *

Mills worked quickly, shuffling through file after jumbled file as he accepted and discarded information almost as quickly as it came in. What a mess. What an absolute mess! It made Windows look like a godsend. He should have known something was going to go wrong during this excursion. Something always did when it involved large groups of people and research. He was having flashbacks to the nanovirus incident in their first year here, and that day they'd spent fixing the waste receptacles and almost been drowned in Atlantis's version of gooey blue pipe sanitizer. Of course something would have to go wrong here as well, especially as things had been so calm and peaceful.

Oh! Was that…no, it wasn't anything important. He quickly clicked to the next file and looked over at the second computer he had hastily hooked up to see if his subject scan was producing anything of interest. Not yet. He squinted at it, and then went back to his search, and then looked up as Keagan, who had been standing silently for the last ten minutes, huffed and began moving determinedly towards a console. And really, Mills thought he shouldn't be surprised at the quick reflexes of the military personnel that protected Atlantis anymore, but it impressed him every time. This time was no different, as both Major Thompkins and Teyla had weapons in their hands and pointed at the scientist before it could even occur to one to blink.

"Hold it!" Thompkins barked out, his voice cold and commanding and Keagan jerked to a stop and whirled around wide eyed at the weapons drawn at him.

"What? I…are you crazy!" He went to take a step and Thompkins snarled at him. Yes, snarled.

"What part of don't move did you not understand?"

"I think we've already concluded that he's missing an imperative part of his brain that allows for processing orders," Rodney declared, barely looking up from his work. "Can we save the drama for another time? Wait, wait, no" he looked up suddenly with hopeful eyes, "can you just shoot him? It would make life much more bearable." Keagan spluttered, not at all amused, but Thompkins didn't look amused either. Actually, come to think of it, he never looked amused.

"I can't shoot him Doctor, the paper work takes too long. Keagan, I want your hands where we can see them. Don't make any sudden moves."

"What is this about? You can't be serious! It was a mistake! I didn't mean to send them into the pods, I swear!" Keagan declared, jerking his head back and forth between the Major and McKay.

"I'm sure you didn't mean to send them into the pods," the Major declared, soft and dangerous.

"Okay," McKay's right arm flew around in front of him expressively, "apparently I'm missing something, because this is a little over the top, don't you think? What is going on, and make it quick, I have lives to save here."

"Major Thompkins believes that Dr. Keagan has been attempting to murder you," Teyla quietly informed him. Oh great, it was another one of those situations that McKay always managed to fall into. Mills went back to work as he listened to the conversation flowing around him, not needing to see McKay's red face of incredulity and Keagan's wide eyed panic to know what it looked like already.

"What? Are you serious? On what grounds? And what do you mean 'attempting' to murder me? Has he tried before? Because I think I would have noticed."

"The SGC became suspicious after receiving the report on your jumper crash last month. After Greenwall we didn't want to take any chances, so I was assigned to investigate." There was a moment of silence as McKay processed this, though why it was difficult to comprehend…

"Is that why you've all been following me again?" He suddenly asked and Mills looked up to see his leader looking at Teyla with a frown on his face.

"We felt that it would be best to not worry you with threats to your life before it became necessary. It was a precaution," she answered, looking as serene as ever in the face of Rodney's sputtering.

"What? You…Sheppard!" he snapped into his radio as he turned to glare at Thompkins again.

"What is it, McKay?"

"I can't believe you went behind my back again! After all this time I would have thought you people could figure out that I'm not going to freak out over something as mundane as threats to my very existence! But no! Apparently you think it's better to leave me in the dark and go about your covert stalking! And don't think I don't know you were in on this too, Zelenka" he snarled.

"I did not say anything," came the accented response.

"You didn't have to, I know how your conniving Czech mind works."

"Major, do you want to tell me what's going on," Sheppard ordered, his voice cool and reasonable in Mills's ear.

"I'll tell you what's going on!" Rodney fumed, "They have, in their infinite wisdom decided that Keagan has been trying to kill me…"

"Sir," Thompkins cut off Rodney's rant, his gun never wavering from Keagan, though Teyla had relaxed hers. "Keagan went against orders and accessed a system which caused some form of malfunction which resulted in sending you to the pods. Shortly before the accident he contacted McKay to confirm that he was still in the room."

"Of course he did, he has the impatience of a five year old and didn't want to wait any longer for me to come hold his hand," McKay waved his arms around in annoyance before quickly looking back at his computer.

"He was also scheduled to do maintenance near the ancient trash compactor only an hour before McKay was scheduled to fix it. He pushed him off the maintenance scanning platform before coming here and he was recorded as being in the jumper bay before Rodney and Griffin took the puddlejumper for its test flight." Thompkins stated calmly and McKay was watching them again. Mills kept glancing between his work and the scenario unfolding before him.

"Oh, and I suppose he also loosened the bolts on the support railing in the gate room the other day, eh?"

"You have to admit that that's a lot of coincidences, McKay," Sheppard stated and Rodney rolled his eyes.

"Yes, well if we want to look at situations like that then maybe I should declare that Atlantis is also an attempted murderer, oh, and so are you as more often than not you're around me when I'm almost dying."

"You do not feel that Dr. Keagan may have been making an attempt on your life?" Teyla asked calmly, reasonably, deflating Rodney's air a bit.

"The evidence is there," Thompkins pointed out, his gun still not wavering. Weren't his arms getting sore?

"Honestly? No, I don't think he's capable of trying to kill me. Wanting to? Hell, most people on my staff have probably wanted to at some point or another," Mills snorted, and then stared intensely at his work as his boss turned to glare at him. "I think I would have probably noticed him trying to kill me. I'm rather suspicious by nature, and, by the way, I also do my own investigations after nearly dying to ensure that the events were accidental. Couldn't you have just asked me in the first place?" He was looking at Teyla now, but it was Sheppard that answered.

"McKay, we needed to make sure before I could tell you. Let's face it, you're not very good at pretending to be oblivious."

"I am so!"

"You lost your Lindor stash to Chuck in poker last week. Chuck!" he emphasized, as though it were important and McKay's lips pursed in annoyance.

"I was off my game that night," he defended, but something beeped on his console and he lost his train of thought as he was distracted.

"Major, I think it's safe to assume that Keagan isn't as guilty as we think," Sheppard stated.

"I swear I'm not trying to kill McKay! I could never…I..I'm a pacifist!"

"You're an arrogant ass who can't play well with others, but I'll concede that you're not a killer. You're too stupid," McKay announced, absorbed in his work. Thompkins hesitated a moment and then holstered his weapon, Teyla doing the same and Keagan went and leaned against the nearest wall, sliding slowly to the ground.

"Everything okay over there now?" Sheppard asked casually, as though he were wondering about the weather.

"Yes sir. I'll be keeping an eye on things though," Thompkins stated dryly, looking directly at Keagan who swallowed nervously.

"And don't think this is over between us, because I am seriously not happy with any of you right now," Rodney snapped, always having to get the last word.

"What else is new, McKay," Sheppard muttered and, when McKay didn't respond Mills looked over at him, seeing the tension that had been following him around everywhere these last few days settle heavily on his shoulders again. Whatever was going on between those two needed to be sorted out, but now was not the time and as McKay already seemed to be focusing on the task at hand, he thought so as well. His second computer beeped quietly and he looked over. Ah, his search had found something. As he accessed the necessary parameters a very, very detailed blue print of the station popped up. Now they were getting somewhere.

* * * * * * * * *

Atlantis, Present Day

"Miko, you're driving," Rodney declared as he scurried into the Manta without a flinch and dropped his bag of equipment behind the main chair. Hearing her gasp he turned around to see wide eyes, made larger by rather large glasses, and hands fluttering negatively in front of her.

"Oh, no. Sir, Dr. McKay, I cannot…I do not wish to…I do not drive. I am sorry," and she looked so appallingly heart broken and terrified at the same time that he really couldn't get upset with her. Besides, she'd be more useful working with him.

"Fine fine, no problem. Sergeant, take the wheel please."

"Sure thing, Doc." Rafat slid smoothly into the seat, her weapon still somehow comfortably strapped across her chest. "Where to?" she asked as she powered it up, a low thrumming, barely noticeable, engulfed the ship but McKay was to busy looking at the data Mills found to pay it any attention.

"We need to get above it, that's were the pods are" he looked at the exterior diagram Mills had found, noting all the emergency vessels locations. There were nine to choose from, and he needed to figure out which one his friends were in.

"It is okay," he heard Miko speaking to Rafat, "the shield is stable and we should not damage it with our departure." Of course they wouldn't. Did anyone really think he would be in here if it would lead to destruction? At least he'd been able to convince everyone else to remain on the station and continue their work. It was getting a bit heavy with Teyla's assessing looks and Thompkins over protectiveness from Keagan of all people. He didn't have time to deal with that. He looked out the front screen, seeing the dark blue almost black water just beyond as the ship pulled away from the station and then looped around. He refused to let it bother him…or tried to because this was no time for flashbacks or panic attacks and he was perfectly safe. Perfectly safe…oh, thank god he could see the station now.

It was dark, too dark to see the metal shells finer details, but the manta was equipped with an excellent set of lights that illuminated large patches of the structure brightly and cast a slightly wider softer glow. It was enough to work with. He stared intently out the windshield, his trained gaze searching for his target. It was only a few minutes before he found his first one.

"There," he pointed out sharply and Rafat pulled the Manta around to face the escape pod head on.

"It doesn't look like much," she commented idly.

"Not everything can be a work of art," he muttered back. It looked like an aberration, a giant mole on the surface of smooth perfection. The pods were indeed round, as both Zelenka and the diagrams had informed him. They were supposed to sit in sealed bays just under the stations exterior hull and when they were to be released a door in the hull was meant to slide open and release it to float to the top. This one was three quarters of the way out of its chamber, but something was obviously wrong as it should be at the surface by now, not stubbornly attached like a bad black head. He frowned at it and then asked the Manta (or more demanded…politely) to scan it for life forms. The scan came back negative.

"They're not in that one. Lets go to the next." The next one's door hadn't even been opened, nor was the one after that. The one after that had been released properly and the pod was somewhere on the surface, bobbing on the waves.

"That one looks larger than the rest of them," Rafat pointed out as they rounded to the top and center of the station and McKay spared it a quick glance before informing them it was empty and moving on.

"That was the control pod," he belatedly answered, once again looking at the information scrolling on his screen.

"The control pod? Shouldn't they have been sent to that one then? Seeing as they were the only ones beaming in to evacuate?" She asked.

"If the station was functioning as we believe it should, then it would have determined that there were still people in the station. The last people evacuating were the ones meant to be in the control pod, most likely the leaders of the station, as they would first ensure others safety before their own," Miko answered.

"That's a nice theory," Rodney muttered under his breath, knowing the other two hadn't heard him. It was entirely possible that the pod they were stuck in had been successfully released and was floating somewhere on the surface; they merely couldn't tell because of inertial dampeners. Hopefully that was the case, but Mills was still searching for that information back on the station.

"Then the control pod can still control the station?"

"To a minimal extent, depending on the situation of course," Miko replied quietly. "Mainly, it controls the other pods once they are released. It is the connection between them all, if you will. It will monitor their status, communication, and perhaps even provide the escape vessels with instruction, but we have not yet had time to determine how that would work or if it is even possible." There was silence after that, as though the two had simultaneously decided they were satisfied and finished with the conversation.

They passed two more of the escape pod cavities, both empty, before coming upon one that was only partially released, its tip just peaking out of the station.

"That's the one we want," he pointed, as though it were not obvious. "Get closer."

"Yes, sir," Sergeant Rafat responded even as the craft began pulling towards their objective.

"I have four life signs," Miko stated, her eyes intent on her equipment.

"Yes, yes," he already knew that. He stared intently at the circular entrance as they approached at an angle, giving him a good view. "Stop here. Can you maintain this?"

"I'll do my best," the soldier replied. He looked carefully at the grey hull. At this range, and under the lights of the Manta, the discolouration of the surface was clear. Thousands of years underwater would not maintain a pristine surface, even with the aid of a shield. Corrosion was corrosion after all. After a few quiet minutes spent examining the area carefully he sighed and turned away from the view. "Take us back," he ordered and activated his radio.

"Sheppard?" He barked into it.

"Sheppard here," was the quick response. He sounded a little strained and Rodney frowned.

"We found the pod you're in. There're no visible obstructions blocking the path out of the station, so our best bet is that something is wrong with the release clamps."

"Okay…"

"Obviously getting a dive crew in to cut you out won't work. From what I can see we'd have to go in from the top and by the time we'd finish cutting through the hull you would have drowned." He remembered the look on Griffin's face as he shut himself away on the other side of the compartment wall, the sound of water crushing through the front of the jumper.

"Yeah, let's not do that."

"My thoughts exactly," he replied around his frown. He shook himself out of the memory and looked out the view screen. They were making fast time and would be back on the station in a matter of minutes.

"Why don't we just take the whole station to the surface? Cut us out then," Ronon's rumbling voice joined the conversation. Did he sound impatient too?

"Well we could, theoretically. We'd have to turn on some more systems, which will eat up more power. We've also lost the use of one of the main engines completely in the explosion and I'm not sure if the others are strong enough to lift its mass to the surface."

"Use a puddle jumper then," Sheppard announced.

"Oh yes, because puddle jumpers are the answer to everything" he snapped, remembering the sound of glass cracking and water crushing through the front of the jumper. "Actually, that might work." He could practically hear Sheppard's smug smile. "Maybe. This isn't a light station, one engine is twice as large a jumper."

"Then we'll use two."

"Will you let me do the thinking please? You're giving me a migraine."

"When was the last time you ate?"

"What? Like five hours ago." There was silence on the other end and McKay instantly began looking through his pockets, finding and biting into a power bar. "Nope, not helping my migraine," he said around a mouthful of chocolate peanut butter. They entered the docking bay of the station.

"I'm going to have Miko and Strat take a look at the transporter room," he heard a slight gasp from the doctor in question and rolled his eyes. "Relax, you can examine it from outside. We need to find out if there's a way to reverse the process and bring you back into the station that way." He debarked from the Manta, walking at a fast clip back to the control room, computer under his arm. "Radek, how are things on your end?"

"I am making progress, but it will be a few minutes more before I have information."

"Right. We can't seem to find any consoles in the main control room that are linked to the escape systems. I don't know if that's simply a fail safe or just poor design on the ancient's part. There has to be an area on the station that controls them, so I'm going to have Mills and Thompkins start looking for that in a few minutes." He walked into the control room to have Mills meet his eyes and nod.

"Yeah well, the sooner the better," came Sheppard's still slightly tense drawl and it had Rodney pausing in mid stride, Rafat and Miko almost walked into him.

"What? Why? Is something wrong?"

"Other than being stuck in a small metal bubble?" Rodney thought about that for a moment.

"Yes!"

"Nah, we're fine. Ronon's just not a fan of sitting still and I have to go to the little colonel's room." Rodney rolled his eyes.

"I'm sure all that military training has taught you to endure such tortures, Colonel."

"Well yeah, but why suffer if you don't have to?"

"You'll manage. I'm going to head down to your location and see if there's a way to manually access the pod from this end. That or release the clamps."

"You sure that's wise?"

"Well, I won't do it until I'm sure, Colonel! Honestly, you people act like I do things without ever thinking it through."

"Well, there was that time you told Karly Cassaro she looked like-"

"We agreed to never bring that up again! Or are you forgetting the time you were stuck in the transporter with Lieutenant Bradly for three hours?"

"Point."

"Rodney?" Zelenka's voice cut through, not carrying any of his usual humour. Rodney felt a rock settle in his gut at the tone.

"What?"

"I have accessed environmental system. We have heat and air, but it is limited supply." Well, Rodney had figured that would be an issue, he just hoped it wouldn't be too serious. "We have three hours, twenty-seven minutes of air left."

"Are the heating and air systems working in conjunction?"

"No."

Well shit.

"Well, what's a little deadline to get the work done faster?" He winced, "bad choice of words."

"No kidding," was Sheppard's drawl.

"Right, well, Zelenka, see what you can do on your end and I'll get you guys out on mine. McKay out." He closed the connection and for a long minute he didn't move, breathing deeply.

"All right people, the situation has changed. You know what you need to do, so let's get to it."

"What about me?" Keagan asked, his hands twisting together.

"You will stay here and figure out if we can raise this station." He stepped close to the man, getting right into his personal space. "If Teyla tells you to stop, you stop. You will not initiate any systems without my specific permission and if you so much as think about over stepping your boundaries again I have given Teyla permission to shoot you. Trust me when I say she will know exactly when such an action will be necessary and she will follow through. Where she shoots you will be her choice. You understand me Keagan?"

"Yes sir," he snapped off, like a professional soldier. McKay nodded and stepped back, quickly grabbing his equipment and leaving for the pod his people were trapped in, Rafat falling in quick step beside him. He'd inform Elizabeth of the situation on the way.

* * * * * * * * * *

"Soooo," Lieutenant Colonel John Sheppard leaned back in his seat and looked around at his companions, searching for something to say. "Here we are again." Ronon grunted from his left side, and he took that as agreement.

"Again? I am unaware of being in this situation before," Zelenka countered, gazing intently at the screen before him, the only steady light source in the small compartment.

"Well, I meant it in a more general sense, you know? Kind of like 'here we are again, about three hours away from certain death,' or 'here we are again on the brink of our imminent demise.'"

"Or 'here we are again, trapped by ancient technology that's trying to kill us,'" Ronon helped and John waved an encouraging hand at him.

"Yes, exactly," he agreed, satisfied. Zelenka and Kwong blinked at them.

"I have not yet been in this situation," he calmly informed him.

"This is also a first time for me," Kwong agreed.

"Oh, I don't believe that. You were both around for the Siege. And just a month ago you were on the bottom of the ocean with me pulling McKay out of the jumper on a time limit." He looked at Zelenka.

"Is not the same thing, I do not think."

"I suppose we all interpret things differently. I was just thinking it was a good thing I decided not to get a tattoo every time I survived a near death experience, otherwise I wouldn't have any bare skin left."

"Is that a tradition for your people?" Ronon asked.

"No. Well, some maybe. I suppose it's a personal preference."

"Is all the same that we do not have tattoo artist in Atlantis."

"Maybe you should get one," Ronon suggested.

"I must concentrate on systems now," Radek solemnly informed them and went back to work. They sat in silence, Sheppard taking sneak peaks at Kwong, who was beside Radek going through the systems, but blinking too often and squinting his eyes in concentration. He no doubt had a nasty headache from when they had been beamed in here. The explosion had jarred their pod before the inertial dampeners had initiated and, with the rocky failed release of the vehicle, he had smacked his head rather nicely against the back of his seat.

Ronon was sitting off to his side, eyes closed and breathing carefully, controlled. John hadn't been kidding when he'd said the Satedan was crawling the walls. The only reason he was being so still now was to try and conserve their limited air supply, but with the deep breathes he was taking Sheppard doubted his moving around or remaining still would make a difference.

"You okay, big guy?" The man in question opened his eyes and glared at John.

"Fine."

"Fine, that's good." He took the hint and shut up. It had been ten minutes since McKay had called them, since they had determined their timeframe. He entertained himself by locking his hands together and having thumbwars with himself. It was difficult to determine the victor.

Time passed, the lights flickered annoyingly and Zelenka cursed quietly.

This sucked.

"How're you guys holding up in there?" John jumped at the sudden intrusion into the silence and grasped at it with both hands, sore thumbs and all.

"Time of our lives, Rodney."

"Right, right," there was a grunt, and then the sound of something being dragged. "Well, I was just checking in." Oh, don't leave him in this silence!

"What's your status?" He asked, maybe a bit quickly as there was a pause that took a bit longer than usual from McKay's end.

"Well, Kusanagi and Strat have been able to access the transporter rooms systems and it looks like everything is functioning properly there. Actually, hold on a second. Kusanagi?"

"Yes, Dr. McKay?"

"Toss something you don't need into the room."

"Right away," a moment later a powerbar appeared on the floor at their feet in a brief flash of dramatic light.

"Hey, thanks Miko," John leaned forward and picked it up, handing it to Kwong, who looked like some food might help him feel better.

"You got it?" McKay asked.

"Yes, Rodney."

"Huh." There was another grunt before he continued. "Elizabeth has a few jumpers on standby and Keagan is looking into the raising procedures for this station. It looks like it will take at least two jumpers to help push this thing to the surface, and even then it will take a lot of power *grunt* so we'll probably have to have them change up during the process if we decide to go that route." There was a momentary pause and then Rodney was back, sounding a bit distracted. "Mills and Thompkins haven't found a room with the controls for the pods yet, but I have a sneaking suspicion that the room Keagan blew up was the one we need. They're headed there now *grunt* to check it out." A water canteen suddenly flashed into existence at their feet.

"Thanks, Miko," Sheppard said again.

"What? What did she do?" Rodney asked quickly.

"Relax, she just sent some water over."

"It is Dr. Strat's," she politely informed them.

"Well, that's very thoughtful," Rodney responded, sounding like he really didn't care one way or the other. There was another grunt, then a few more and then a few heavy breathes before his breathing went back to normal.

"Rodney?"

"Yes?"

"What are you doing?"

"Trying to save your lives," he snapped, tension underlying his sarcasm.

"You normally don't grunt so much."

"Yes well, I normally don't have to crawl through spaces smaller than my body mass at all sorts of odd angles. If I ever complain about Atlantis's inner workings being too cramped again just remind me of this place," he grunted. John had seen some of Atlantis's inner workings: Rodney must be in a very small space. Now that John understood the situation he recognized the slight tension in his friends voice. He was all too aware of McKay's lack of comfort in small places. "How's Ronon?"

"He's fine," Ronon growled.

"Oh, oh good. Because Sheppard said you were crawling the walls earlier. I figured you just didn't *grunt* care for small spaces.

"I'm not overly fond of them," he conceded and John looked over at Zelenka with slightly wide eyes. Huh, it looks like the two were going to try and comfort each other.

"Yeah, me neither." Well, at least they were trying, albeit awkwardly.

"Yeah," Ronon replied, and then looked at John as though asking for direction and he just shrugged.

"So…why don't you like small spaces, despite the obvious?" McKay asked.

"I just don't."

"Ah, I get it, you being a runner and all," the startled look that quickly crossed and disappeared from said Runner's face was testament enough to that fact.

"What about you?" Ronon asked, again awkwardly. Wow, what a time for team bonding.

"What about me?"

"Why do you get all panicky in tight places?"

"I don't get panicky! Have I sounded panicky to you at any point during our conversation here? No, not at all thank you very much Mr. Stoic."

"I wasn't trying to hurt you're feelings, McKay," Ronon grinned at Sheppard.

"As if you could you dreadlocked throwback! And for your information I have a perfectly good reason for being claustrophobic!"

"So what is it?"

"It…I was…high school!" He spit out after his uncharacteristically stammered starts. John frowned.

"High school?" Ronon asked.

"Yes yes, a place of attempted education and teenaged torture. I started high school at…a rather young age. Being stuffed into lockers my first few weeks there was pretty common place," he grunted and there was a prolonged dragging sound and then a thump. "I stayed late one night to study at the library, which was the only good thing about that place, and the football team had had a late practice." John didn't like where this was going. "To make a long story short I was unceremoniously stuffed into one in a wing the janitor had already cleaned for the night. I was stuck in there until the next morning. It took two hours for my legs to function fully again and I had to piss like a race horse. Needless to say I'd decided home schooling was a better path for my already developed genius."

"And that made you afraid of small spaces?"

"Of course it did! Isn't that enough? What else would make me fear-" he cut off abruptly.

"McKay?"

"Yes, Colonel?" he sounded cooler now, a bit more distant. He'd been like this off and on since…since he had walked in on Weir giving him and Carson the classified file on him. Shit.

"You okay?"

"I'm fine. I'm heading over to one of the empty pods now, I'm going to try and release the clamps manually on that one and see what happens. I'll contact you when it's finished. If you need anything, ask Dr. Strat." He disconnected and Ronon looked over at him.

"Was it something I said?"

"No, it wasn't." He sighed and rubbed at his eyes.

"When this is over, you will talk to him about whatever it is that has you both like bowstrings. Is not healthy," Zelenka said, he gazed intently at John until he nodded and muttered an agreement. They were all silent a moment.

"What's a locker?

* * * * * * * * * *