A SHOW OF TRUST
CHAPTER TEN: ATTACK AND RESPONSE

McKay leapt out of the stool, knocking it over again. This time, he did trip over the metal legs, falling to his rear on the floor in a painful heap, the tiny digital voice recorder skidding away across the floor from his open hand. He stared upwards, eyes wide and terrified. He crabbed backwards on one arm while the other rose up to ward off what he was seeing.

The orange sphere was suddenly floating above his lab table, and it had grown. One instant it was just lying there, and then next it was flying…and the size of a soccer ball. It had begun to spin, and the hazy orange glow filled and grew around it, brightening as the spin increased.

And an instant later, it was the size of a globe, brighter and more orange. It was almost happening too fast for him to see it.

He blinked, and suddenly it was as wide as yard across, and it burned like the sun.

And then suddenly she was standing there, her hair billowing out behind her, her now almost black eyes staring daggers at him. She was almost transparent, but it was definitely her.

"Straein," he gasped.

"How dare you!" her image screamed.

McKay scrambled backwards even further, the stool's legs traveling with him. "What the hell are you?" he shouted at the ghost-like image.

"You shall not interfere!" she hissed, raising her arms. "I won't let you stop me!"

"Get away from me!" he yelled, dislodging his right leg from the stool and pressing his back to the wall. "Help!" he shouted, looking towards the closed door to his lab, "Someone help me!"

"You shall not interfere!" Straein said again, her arms outstretched now, palms out. Suddenly, her fingers curled inwards, and the hands started to press towards each other.

McKay gasped, feeling a sudden horrific pressure inside his own skull. It felt like someone was crushing his head. His mouth gaped open, his breath coming more quickly. Using the wall as leverage, he somehow pushed upwards, getting back to his feet.

Strain just continued to press her arms together, her face a mask of twisted hate.

Blackness encroached on his eyesight; his ears, nose and throat started to burn. Watering blue eyes sought the radio on the lab table, but it was out of reach. He tried to scream for help again, but his larynx had frozen. Words came out in a strangled whisper, no sound, just shape.

She continued to press.

His eyesight dimmed further, until it could only see her, and, through her, the bright orange ball, spinning like a model planet above the lab table. Everything else in the lab had darkened to shadows.

"Please," he begged soundlessly, as he lost the feeling in his arms and legs. "Why….do…."

"You shouldn't have interfered," she replied, still spitting the words with a venom that would have shaken a saint. "I do this for the greatness of the Ancestors, for the City of Atlantis. You are trespassing on sacred ground. I have promised to expel your parasitic kind from this place, and you will not stop me!"

The pain in his skull was excruciating now, and he closed his eyes, resting his head back against the cool wall behind him. His hands were pressed against the metal, all thoughts fleeing his head except the anguish she was causing. He could no longer think, no longer rationalize. All he had left…

Was the fundamental need to survive.

And so he tried one last time, screaming out with everything he had left, though no actual noise emerged from his throat.

He screamed with his mind, his fear, his strength, his very soul burning, sending the words right into the walls of the city.

"HELP ME!"

And Atlantis responded.

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The alarm rang through the city without warning, the unmistakable clanging shaking everyone from their reverie. Confusion rolled through the scientists, some running to the windows to look outside, others whipping out PDAs or rapidly typing into their laptops for information. Shoulder to shoulder with them, marines ran to take up their defensive positions as they waited for orders, watching as the scientists tried to make sense of what was happening .

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Grodin spun in his seat, staring back at the green screen behind him, seeing the red flashing light clearly at the same time that information flew past his eyes at an incredible rate.

Weir ran from her office, shouting for information.

He shook his head, looking back to his laptop as she skidded to a stop in front of him.

"We're being attacked!" he explained breathlessly. "Atlantis thinks it's Wraith"

"Where?" she demanded. "How?"

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Sheppard had been meandering down the hall, now just around the corner from McKay's lab, intending once more to confront him. Strangely, though, he'd found that some of his earlier vigor had faded. He had begun to wonder if, maybe, he'd been overreacting….

The alarm shocked him into wakefulness, and he pulled the gun from his holster without thinking.

Tapping his radio, he called out to Weir for information.

Her response was strange. "Peter says that Atlantis is responding to a Wraith attack. But the sensors aren't showing anything on screen."

"Wraith? You're kidding! I'm heading back there!" He turned on his heel and started to run back towards the control room.

"Wait, Major…Peter…Peter says he's got it isolated. The attack isn't outside…it's here! Within the walls of Atlantis itself!"

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Teyla pulled the towel off her hair, and walked back into the gym. Ford was just finishing putting away the boxing gloves. As she watched him work, she pressed the now cool but still damp towel to her head, where the headache she felt every time she saw Straein seemed to have reemerged. It was faint, but there. A sickening feeling settled in her stomach, and her eyes were drawn to their bags…where their radios were.

Frowning now, she headed towards them…and instantly dropped the towel when the impossibly loud klaxons rocked the room. She ran for her gear, pulling out the radio, barely noticing as Ford slid next to her, rummaging through his bag for his own.

Both fumbled them on, and Teyla tried to connect to the major, her eyes searching the windows for some sign of attacking ships.

Before she could call out to them, however, the major and Weir contacted them.

"Teyla, Ford, McKay, do you read?"

"This is Teyla and Ford," she replied, looking over at Ford. He nodded, indicating he was on as well. "Major, what's happening?"

"Teyla," Sheppard replied, "We need to know, do you sense any Wraith?"

She frowned, thinking that, yes, her headache had worsened a little recently, but it wasn't Wraith. She shook her head.

"No, not Wraith," she said. "But…I do think there is something else here. I didn't want to say anything but—"

"Hang on," Weir said suddenly, "Peter has the attack pinpointed." There was a brief pause, then, softly, Elizabeth's breathy "Oh my God" came clearly over the connection.

"Elizabeth?" Sheppard's voice questioned.

"Doctor McKay's lab!" Elizabeth snapped back. "All military personnel in that area, head immediately to Section 3, Lab 9. Hurry!"

Ford and Teyla were nowhere near there, but that didn't make one bit of difference. They sprinted out the doorway together, heading towards the nearest transporter.

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Straein jumped back, feeling more than hearing Atlantis's warning systems blasting through her connection to Doctor McKay through the Renzite. Her eyes widened where her astral body stood in his lab, shocked to realize that the clanging was directed at her. More than that, for a moment, she had actually felt and heardthe City—Atlantis itself—through him. But how could that be? Atlantis…could it actually be protecting him!

No! It can't be real! She wouldn't believe it! The City must be responding to something else. It couldn't possibly be connected to this worm of a man! It just couldn't!

And she turned back to him, to finish what she started.

And this time it was her turn to scream in fear.

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McKay gasped as his eyesight suddenly returned full force, like an explosion across his mind.

Thoughts were scattered, but he could hear the alarm, could feel his strength returning, could see the object before him that was threatening his life, and the woman being projected through it.

Straein's image was staring upwards and around her, her face registering her confusion at the warning sirens reverberating through the walls. And through her, he saw the orange sphere still spinning.

He reached down, grabbing the metal legs of the stool by his feet, and stumbled forwards, raising it up like a bat and drawing it back behind his shoulders.

Straein looked back at him, realized what he was about to do, and screamed in fear.

Her cry echoed through his mind as if she were still inside it, but he didn't care.

The stool swung around even as he felt her pull back, saw the ball distort, trying to get smaller, but it was too late. Expanded to its full size, the glass ball had lost its solidity, its ability to withstand pressure—making it incredibly fragile.

The stool slammed into it….and shattered it spectacularly into a thousand pieces.

Shattering Rodney's own consciousness along with it.

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Back in her quarters, Straein's eyes rolled back in her head as her own mind was blown apart, and she collapsed to the ground in an unconscious heap.

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The alarms stopped.

The attack was over.

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Sheppard skidded to a halt in front of McKay's lab, the first to reach it. He heard the running footsteps of the others, very loud now that the klaxons had stopped, but he wasn't waiting. Pressing his hand to the panel, he opened the door and ducked inside with his gun raised, eyes searching for any kind of threat.

All he found was McKay, lying on the floor of the lab, out cold, both legs bent and his body on its side, back to the door. The scientist's head was turned away as well, so all the major could see was the brown mop of his hair. The lab stool was several feet away, almost as if it had been thrown.

And there were hundreds of pale orange glass fragments all over the room and underfoot.

He lowered the gun, staring at Rodney's back. His eyes sought the man's chest, waiting to see a soft rise and fall. He almost collapsed himself in relief when he saw his friend was still breathing.

Steeling himself, he looked behind him to see that Bates and a couple others were hovering in the doorway watching him. With a nod, he beckoned them inside, indicating to them to check it out and to watch their feet.

With gun still in both hands, he moved cautiously towards Rodney, stepping carefully around the orange glass fragments, seeking out anything in the corners or under the tables. He knew the men with him would do the same.

"Rodney?" he called softly, as he got closer. "Rodney, can you hear me? You okay?"

He was still keeping an eye out for threats when he finally reached the scientist's side, and he knelt down next to him.

"Rodney?" he asked, finally looking down for the first time.

His breath caught in his throat.

Rodney's eyes were open, wide open…but staring at nothing.

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TBC (thanks for the reviews everyone! And fingers crossed that the punctuation doesn't disappear again. Freaky, freaky...all of a sudden, it doesn't like question marks or commasnext to quote marks...)