Encounter At Dawn
Part 21: Blackout

"Anything?" Weir stood hovering over Lorne's shoulder.

"Nothing: the city is in total lock-down." The Major shook his head, "We have life-support, heating and light; all the basics, but no communications, sensors or weapons. We couldn't even raise the cloak or the shields if we needed to."

"How many people are in area's we can't contact?" The Expedition leader asked.

"Well, Ronon was keeping tabs on a Colonial work-crew preparing one of the towers to hold the overflow of refuges from the fleet. General O'Neill and Dr Jackson were in the chair-room with Major Adama and Petty Officer Tyrol to see if their version of the ATA gene worked the same as ours." Lorne racked his brains, "Aside from the crews manning our SAM and Rail Gun emplacements, everyone else planet-side is still in the main tower."

"Well, tell anyone who can't help us try and get the systems back on-line to report to their quarters for the duration." Weir tried to sound more confident than she felt, "The less people getting under foot, the better."

"Hello old friend." Six smiled as she made her way into the mess hall, Baltar trailing behind her like the tail to a particularly direct comet, "It's been too long."

"Not long enough." Athena glared at her former compatriot, wishing that she'd been allowed to keep her side-arm, "And I am not your friend."

"Acquaintance then?" Six sat on the over side of the table to the Agathon's, "I'd hate for you to consider me an enemy when we have so much in common..."

"The only thing we have in common is that we are both Cylons." The Raptor pilot snapped back, "I left for love. You left because it suited your personal goals." She leaned over the table, "Tell me; do the Tau'ri know the part you played in the destruction of the Twelve Colonies?"

"Dr Weir and General O'Neill know; I had to disclose everything when I requested asylum." Six nodded coolly, "But the peace treaty did grant full pardon for any and all crimes committed during the war, so there is nothing they could hold against me." She leaned in closer so their faces were only inches apart, "I saved your daughter. Not to gain favour or because it served my goals, but because I felt it was the right thing to do."

Athena sat motionless for a moment, trying to read the emotions on the other woman's face. Their shared past was not something she wanted to dwell on: while she had not personally been involved in the plot to destabilise the Colonial Fleet, she had done some underground work on Caprica before the war had started. Her reassignment to 'help' Helo in his bid to escape the Cylon occupation had been unexpected: Eights hadn't been designed for that sort of work, as the Six's were normally tasked with seduction.

But Helo had had feelings for Boomer, and it had been easy to fool him into think that she was his former shipmate. But then her own feelings for him had started to develop, and everything had gotten complicated.

"One favour." Athena's voice was low and cold, "That's all you get: one favour to call in. But after that, we're done."

The two Colonials on sentry duty never knew what hit them: Ronon dropped from the air vent as silence as a shadow but with the force of an avalanche. Grabbing the two stunned men by the side of the head he brought his hands together as hard as he could. There was a slightly damp crunch as the two skulls connected with enough forcer to render both men unconscious. They were soon hog-tied, gagged and dragged into a side-room to be dealt with later.

Ronon checked their weapons: both were armed with semi-automatic pistols similar to those used by the Atlantis expeditions military contingent, but with some minor differences. One also carried a snub-nosed SMG with two extra magazines. They weren't much compared to his own gun, but if there was one thing he had learned, it was that only a fool passed up the opportunity to add more weapons to his arsenal.

Slipping the two pistols into his belt, Ronon slung the SMG over his shoulder by its strap and slowly started to make his way along the corridor.

"What do you mean, our sensors can see anything?" Caldwell stood, looking at the helmsman.

"It's like Atlantis isn't even there, sir." The young captain shook his head, "We can see it, visually, but some kind of ECM system is blocking everything else."

"They never say anything about this on the recruitment posters." Caldwell muttered under his breath, "Find out where General O'Neill is and let him know what's happening." He activated the intercom built into the arm of his chair, "Hermiod, please report to the bridge: we have a situation."

The wail of the General Quarters alarm woke Adama from a fitful sleep, and he reached up to the intercom built into the bulkhead above his bed, "What's going on?"

"I wish I knew, Bill." Tigh sounded worried, "Atlantis has disappeared."

"What do you mean, disappeared?" Adama pulled himself up into a sitting position and swung his legs over the edge of the bed, "How can an entire city just disappear?"

"If I knew that, I wouldn't have sounded General Quarters." The XO replied, "It's still there, we just can't pick it up on DRADIS: I'm sending a couple of Vipers down to have a closer look and to try and contact our people."

"How many of our people are down there?"

"Apollo, Helo, Athena, Cally and the work party we put together to try and set up temporary living accommodation for some of our people. But we can't raise anyone down there on the wireless."

"Contact the Daedalus: ask them what the hell's going on." Adama stood, looking round for his uniform, "Set Condition Two across the fleet: if this is anything we should be worried about, I want to be ready to jump out at a moments notice."

"I'm on it." Tigh sounded a little more sure of himself, "I should have more for you by the time you get here. XO out."

Adama grabbed his trousers and was putting them on when the door to the small, private head adjacent to his quarters opened and President Roslin stepped out.

"I heard everything." She slipped her earrings back in, "I take it that now is not a good time to talk about last night?"

"That would seem to be the case." Adama nodded, "I'll let you know what's going on as soon as I find out myself."

"I'd better head back to Colonial One: this is going to get out, and the press are going to want answers." Roslin kissed the Admiral lightly on the lips, "I'll see you later."

"You can count on it." Adama nodded with a smile. He watched the President leave, then went back to looking for his tunic.

"We have partial power back to Operations and the Jumper bay." McKay pulled himself out from under the main control console, "We had to cut all links between the main tower and the rest of the city and reset one of our backup generators, but we at least have external communications back."

"What about internal communications and sensors?" Weir asked hopefully.

"Still inoperative." The physicist shook his head, "They're getting power, but the jamming field is still up: not even Thor can find a way through it. We have no way of telling what's going on in the rest of the city."

"I'm sure there's no reason to worry." Zelenka did his best to sound reassuring, "They're probably just sitting around, waiting."

Bullets thudded into the wall as Ronon dived for cover behind an overturned table. The thick metal shook as a grenade detonated, filling the air with smoke. He used the confusion to snap off another couple of shots, downing two of his opponents before they had the chance to recover.

"It's no use!" A voice called out, "We're willing to die if needed."

"That just makes my job a little easier." The Satedan responded, "But when they ask me afterwards, what reason should I give for what you're doing?"

"We are The Earth Protectorate, and we will destroy this city to stop the Cylons and the Wraith from destroying the Thirteenth Tribe!" There was a number of voice around the room agreeing with the first speaker, and Ronon paid attention to just where they were. "Earth must survive, even if it means we have to die here!"

"That's your opinion." Ronon stood as quickly as he could, one of his commandeered gun zeroing in on the ringleader. He pulled the trigger once, a single bullet finding its mark on the bridge of the other man's nose, blowing his brains out the back of his head and across the wall behind him.

The body fell back and hit the floor as silence descended upon the room. Ronon looked at the other terrorists, his eyes searching for any sign of movement. He saw one of them move his hand towards another grenade and shook his head slowly. The man chose to ignore the suggestion, and earned himself a trio of bullets in the chest from the SMG in Ronon's other hand. This snapped the others out of their momentary paralysis, and they all went for their weapons.

Ronon fired a burst at three who'd made the mistake of standing together as he dropped down onto one knee to avoid the return fire. His moves had a fluid grace as he moved from target to target. He saw a grenade flying trough the air towards him out of the corner of one eye and reacted instructively: his right leg came up, his foot finding purchase on the edge of the overturned table. Pushing down with all his might, Ronon launched himself through the air, twisting as he went to snap off another pair of shots as two of the sentries came through the open door. Both men took a round to the right knee, effectively putting them out of the fight.

The hammer on the SMG fell on an empty chamber, and Ronon discarded it, drawing the other captured pistol and gunning down the woman who'd thrown the grenade just as it went off. The concussive blast caught him and slammed him into the wall. He saw stars for a moment before shaking his head clear, only to find that he'd dropped both of his guns. A quick glance told him that there was only one hostile left in the room, and his hand grabbed a knife from his belt. The perfectly balanced blade sliced through the air and hit its target in the left shoulder, the sudden pain making him trip and fall.

Ronon was on him before he had a chance to get up, and a solid right-hook knocked the man out cold. Standing, the Satedan looked at the device the man had been running towards: he couldn't decipher the instructions, but he'd spent enough time around weapons of all conceivable type in his lifetime to recognise a bomb of some kind when he saw it. Careful not to touch it, he made sure that there was no apparent countdown already in progress, then checked the dead and injured terrorists to make sure that none of them had anything that could be a remote detonator.

The far door was forced open and Ronon span round, drawing his energy pistol as he fell into a ready stance. Teyla stood in the half open doorway, an inquisitive look on her face.

"Dr Weir sent me to check on you when we lost power." She explained, then motioned to the bodies spread around the room, "I see that you managed to keep yourself occupied."

"Just something I had to take care of." Ronon shrugged, "Nothing important."

"Feel better?" His team-mate asked.

"A little." He admitted, slipping his gun back into hits holster, "Sometimes it helps to work through your aggression."

To Be Continued...

So, yeah, I went an entire chapter without touching on what's going on in the hologram room.
If you're only just working out that I'm an utter bastard when it comes to cliffhangers, then you've not been paying attention...