The digging was hard but the engineering crew made a good progress and figured out a way to lift much bigger parts of the debris than initially. The med team was flooded wit all the people the rescue team managed to pullout from the site. There were a lot of dead as well as lots of injured. Some of them were taken care of by the local physicians, some were treated by Atlantis personnell on the site and there were several of them that were brought back through the Stargate.
After slightly less than a two-hour estimate they were given, the Hammond finally made it to the planet. About ten minutes later they received a message that was everything Rodney and Elizabeth were fearing. The building material made it impossible to locate any life signs from under the debris. It made it impossible even to map the structure to help the crew dig more efficiently.
It was time to let Sam know what was happening and give her a new estimate on getting their people out. It was at least twelve hours just to get to the level where they supposed John, Jack and Ronon should be. Elizabeth moved to her mother and gently roused her from her sleep.
"Mom... Mom, I need to talk to you." She said looking towards Sam and making sure Sam stayed asleep.
"Hmmm?" Susan looked at her daughter and yawned. "What is it, Elizabeth? Do we know anything more?"
"Yes, we do. But it's not really the good news we would all like to hear now. They have to dig them out, they were not able to beam them up."
"But they're all right, right?" Sam asked sleepily. "Elizabeth?"
"We don't know. Their radios don't work through the layers of the strange composit and Hammond can't get them on their sensors. And there is no way to know where they are or how injured are they."
"We should go down and maybe help..." Sam sat up and suddenly put her hand on her belly. "OW!"
"Sam, what is it?"
"It's nothing, Elizabeth, nothing. There was some pain but it passed as quickly as it came. I must have pulled something when I was sitting."
"Doesn't matter, you're staying here or I'll get you to your room."
"I really would like to go to the control room and see what we can help." Sam protested.
"No, I don't think so." Weir decided firmly. "You have your child to think about too right now and it's the best you can do to keep it well." There was a moment where Susan Weir thought her daugter and Samantha would start a fight, but everything was decided in a staring match. It was clear her daughter won after she just asked. "So, where is that, here or your room?"
"I think I'll just stay here. I wouldn't be able to sleep in the room where Jack is obviously not in. Besides I feel just like some whale thrown outto the beach right now so unless you give me your Asgard beaming feature it would be like moving a ton of bricks toght now."
Elizabeth's face blanked momentarily. She seemed to be miles away with her mind for a moment.
"Sam?" She asked eventually. "Is asgard beam on the Hammond capableof transporting large pieces, likeparts of the building?"
"Yes..."
"Is there a way to pinpoint those pieces even if the asgard sensors are blocked and the pieces have shielding capabilities?"
"Theoreticallly our locator beacons work slightly different way so the transmitter located on to od shielding material should be a way ofpinpointing the specific piece, no matter how large. The only problem is it should be in one piece and you need a suitably large piece of land to deposit the part, because there is no way to know how it will land..."
"So it's doable then. Good." Elizabeth took her beaming kit and chose the control room again. "I need to speak to Richard, I think I may have a way to speed up workon the site." Then she turned to her mother just before she was transported. "Please, don't let her overdo it, mom."
"What is it, Elizabeth?" Woolsey asked when he noticed her nearing him in the control centre. "Is something wrong?"
"I need to speak to the commander of the Hammond and the person coordinating the S&R on the planet. I think Imay have a way to speed things up." She added on the questioning glance from Woolsey.
Richard wanted to give the instruction but he was stopped by Chuck telling them the connection has been established.
"Mister Woolsey, what can we do for you?" One of the voices said.
"We are in the middle of something so this better be good." Said the other.
"Gentlemen, I need you to focus. There should be a way to move large pieces quickly if what I suggest is possible."
"Good enough, doctor Weir."
"What do you need from us?"
"I need a large piece of terrain, plain, enough to safey deposit the large pieces of the collapsed bouilding. Using the attachable locator beacons instead of the Asgard sensors you should be able to beam them directly to a designated place."
"You sure it could be done?" Asked on of the voices after ordering to get the beacons from storage.
"I spoke to Carter and she thinks it is possible."
"Okay, will have my guys recalibrate the scanner in a minute." He said. "We have only several of those on board unfortunately. So we would be able to transport up to four orfive pieces at one time, then we'd need to get the locators back."
"From what I remember there is a pack in Atlantis, so we can get them more..."
"Already on it." Chuck said moving quickly from his place.
"Chuck, wait!" Elizabeth said and pulled her asgard beaming beacon. "Use this, you'll be faster."
The young man nodded, took the device and soon disappeared just to reappear minutes later with a large box in his hands.
"Got them!" He smiled. "Those were recovered at some point after one of F-304 actions and we never got to return them."
"At least once tardiness was really useful." Woolsey murmured. "Just get them through the gate to the demolishion crew so they can get to work really fast."
"Yes, sir."
Observing Chuck almost fly from the stairs down to w newly reopened warmhole sent a positive vibe towards all the people in the Control room and tha gate room. There was an tension in the room while the whole thing was being set up, but when the first part of the debris was transported successfully followed by other the cheers erupted in full force.
"Chuck" Elizabeth turned to the young technician when all the clapping winded down a little "call the medical personnell and let them know to prepare for the arrival of need to be ready for a lot of people that will need immediate medical attention. Get at least two OR's ready as well. There will surely be a need for that when the egineering team finally gets to the bottom of that rubble."
"Yes ma'am." Chuck said and moved to the other console without even a look towards Woolsey, who was standing a few feet away.
Richard Woolsey stood there looking at all the acctivity inhis control room and felt he shoud be at least a little mad. Instead he finally felt everything went back to normal. Finally all the technicians seemed to do everything immediately and completely efficiently and do it with a smile. He wasn't offended. They spent a lot more time workong for Elizabeth than for him and they seemed to be tuned in to her a lot better because of that. Some of them, or most of them really, were trained under her eye and naturally worked better with what they were more familiar with. Elizabeth seemed right smack dab in her element too, instead of his barely trying to finally fit in. And she didn't even realize it probably that she was a natural in the City. He needed to find his way through a lot of work.
"Ma'am" Chuck started, gathering both Woolsey's and Weir's attention "the engineering team reports they are making progress and hope they will get to a level where the meeting was taking place inside half an hour."
"If there are no problems." Elizabeth murmured.
"They will get to them, Elizabeth" Woolsey put a comforting hand on her arm. "The medical teams will be ready in minutes to receive casualties here. There are already a lot of medical personnel on the site and will take care of less injured and they will ensure quick and safe transport here for the more injured parties. Sheppard and O'Neill will get out fine." He added to try and calm her a little.
"I know." She said without as much certainty in her voice. "They were in some serious scrapes before and they always managed to get out of them back to normal, but I can't help but be scared something might change just this time."
"They will be okay, Elizabeth" he repeated.
The whole operation was much faster than without the help of the Daedalus, but all the crew waiting in the control room was still on edge the whole time. A lot could have happened or been lost in the time since the collapse and noone wanted to deliver any death notification in the future.
After getting to one of the residentiary floors of the structures the med teams were flooded with rescuees, every single one of them needing immediate medical attention. On the bright side, no corpses were yet found. The medics of the planet were not nearly as advanced as Atlantis personnell but they seemed to give Carson's team a much needed help in dealing with all the casualties.
"The Daedalus techs report they're getting closer to the bottom level, ma'am" Chuck reported with and anxious smile. "While their people on the ground are recovering the locators and placing them on the structure parts the crew started to beam all the wounded and their caretakers much closer to the gate. We'll be having a flood of med teams and casualties getting here any second now!"
"Get the infirmary aware and made sure all the hallways are cleared so that they can be transported without any delay." Elizabeth said neatly covering her own fear and appprehension. "If there are a lot of wounded then the usual transporter would not be enough." She added as an afterthought. She looked to another technician that was surrently residing by the schematics of the city. "Get me at least two alterate routes to the ifirmary from here so that we can streamline everyone that is coming towards alternate transporter." The young man nodded and started clicking on his laptop, then moved to Chuck and they both began to direct people coming through the warmhole.
"What about general Carter?" Woolsey asked quietly. "I though she would be here during this operation."
"She's with my mother now and I hope she's sleeping." Eliabeth answered. "She's been feeling a little under te weather today and I was worried about her. I update them periodically but I don't want her here, worrying even more. I is not healthy for her now."
"It's not really good for you too, Elizabeth." Richard put a hand on her arm trying to sound less bossy. "I know your doctor wanted you to take it really easy."
"I will when it is over, Richard, I will." She whispered faintly. "I just... I just can't wind down until they are all back home safely."
"Hopefully that would be soon."
The flood of wounded people accompanied by the medical personnell streaming through the gate room seemed endless at some point and Richard was really glad Elisabeth anticipated the problem with transporters capacity because he was sure otherwise there would surely be a problem with it otherwise.
Half an hour later when almost everyone from the large wave of wounded was settled in every available room near the infirmary a call came through that Chuck immediately put through to Weir and Woolsey.
"We're close to getting there" sounded the voice of the temporary commander of the Hammond. "We must be really close, cause we can get some readings from ubder the rubble. Not enough to beam anyone out but good enough to detect that there at least twenty life signs trapped under. Maybe much more which would ampify the signal and made it able to get to us."
"There would be over a hundred people down there from what I understood" Woolsey pitched in. "The gathering was quite big and the majority still sat in the great hall when the cave in happened."
"How many pieces would you say need to be lifted before you get to the trapped?" Elizabeth asked worriedly but full of hope.
"It sould be less than ten but we're dealing with a very instable structure so it's going to take more than the provious parts."
"Good work. Just continue at your pace and we'll have the med team ready for the rest of survivors." Elizabeth ended the talk and looked at Chuck.
"On it, ma'am!" The young man sad with an excited and hopeful smile almost reading her thoughts. He dialled the infirmary to get them ready for the next flow of patients and to get them to be in the right place when the time came. And it was coming really soon if everything went as planned.
All the spareable medics were soon moving towards the gate and immediately transported by the Daedalus to the site where they were to be needed shortly. Even though Elizabeth knew everything was prepared as well as it could be and that everyone in the room did everything they could right now she still ached to do something more. The waiting was always the worst and most frustrating and painful part of people working in the Control rooom. During the emergenies most of the inhabitants were scattered around the city and doing their job or transported to some remote but rather safe location. The med teams were in their place preparing or working. Those left in the command centre usually did what they needed and then waited for results to act. In the extreme situations like the storm the place would be deserted save for several people, usually the flagship team and current commander. At least then usually there was something she could do but now, Elizabeth felt massively useless.
The tension in the room was almost touchable at the moment and it seemed everyone just stared at the gate and listened to the silent channell for the news that weren't coming so far. Knowing it could really take some time Richard considered briefly tryng to send Elizabeth to wait somewhere else or maybe take a nap in the office but decided agains it. It would only made the sitation worse. As tired as he saw she was she would probably still be unable to sleep even for a short while.
"Okay" sounded a voice from the Daedalus through the earpieces. "We're prepared to lift what should be the last piece, so be ready, people!"
Elizabeth, as well as oll the others waiting with her in Atlantis knew the short notice was meant mainly for the teams on the site, but she couldn't help but look over everyone to check if they were awake and ready to render any assistance that could be needed. Next she checked the timer of the warmhole if it would not close in the middle of evacuation but scolded herself and stopped before she managed to ask Chuck about it. The young man closed the gate and immediately redialled only seconds before they received the call. He was really starting to resemble sgt. Harrimann.
"Okay, Walters, what do you see there?" Everyone held their breaths knowing the large piece was off and if everything went as planned everything would be now up to the engineers on the ground.
"A lot of smaller debris is there but I think I can see some fabric out there and there seemes to be movement... Get the medics down there! We've got survivors!" Walters shouted.
Everything that happened after seemed to be one great blur. From the moment of the initial alarm the rescue began in earnest and the second stream of gurneys, survivors and medical personnell seemed endless again.
"Ma'am!" Chuck addressed Elizabeth abot twenty minutes later. She had removed her earpiece at some point because of a massive headache the constant chatter caused. "They got to O'Neill and Sheppard. They are alive but apparently in serious condition."
"Tell-" Elizabethtried to tell him but the young man cut her off.
"Doctors Beckett and Keller has been notified and they're already in contact with the med team on site." He said. "They will be prepared to operate on arrival."
Elizabeth sagged in relief. Operations, that was good, meant there seemed to be a chance everythng would still be allright. She moved to her transporter stone but before she managed to choose infirmary as her destination Chuck stopped her hand.
"It's already overcrowded down there, ma'am. You'll just be in he way. If you want to see them you betted get down to the gate, they would need a second to hand them over."
"Thank you, Chuck" Elizabeth smiled in gratitude and chose to be transported to the gate room to wait and see for herself that the two men were indeed still alive.
She must have looked bad when she entered the media room because Susan was immediately at her side.
"Elizabeth, what happened?" She asked frantically.
"Elizabeth?" They both heard a weak sleepy voice from the couch. "Are there any news?"
Weir moved to waking Sam and took her hand in hers.
"The techs moved enough of the large pieces to get to the main level of the building. Jack and John were found, they are alive but still in serious condition."
"Where-?"
"They were taken to the infirmary already. Straight to the OR's. Carson and Jennifer got to work on them already. They seemed hopeful but it's gonna take time."
"I need to go see Jack..." Sam murmured sitting up slowly. "I need to get to him."
"No, all you can do for him now is to try and stay calm, Sam" Elizabeth tried to reason with her. "They've got the best proffessionals I know working on them and I'm sure they will be okay. You, on the other hand, really need to take care of yourself."
"But... Ahhh!" Sam wanted to protest but suddenly she clutched at her stomach and paled visibly. "Something is wrong..." She whispered scared.
"I think we need to take her to the infirmary" Susan suggested. "Looks like her water just broke."
"It's a mess down there, mother. The medics all have much more on their hands than they could possibly handle right now. We wouldn't probably even get her close since there is so many people waiting" Elizabeth paled as well. Sam looked at them both with wide eyes. "Oh my God, what are we going to do?"
"Well, it seems you'll have to deliver here, young lady" Susan said resolutely.
"What?" Both younger women looked at her with disbelief.
"A lot of women managed to get through the birth of their child without assistance,my dear. Remember that we've been doing it for ages and for most of it there was no medical doctor on site when it happened. Look at Teyla, for example."
"Ooookay, you made your point" Sam said with a small smile. "I'm just happy it's you two instead of Rodney with me."
The last remark earned her a huge fit of giggles from Elizabeth and her mother at the suggestion. It made the whole situation a little less ghastly, at least for some time. They all decided that they would try it and if anything was going suspiciously they would call Chuck and get him to bring someone in.
"Besides" Susan stated putting a comforting hand on Sam's back during one of the contractions "It can happen that by the time you're ready to deliver there would already be someone available to get here." That comment definitely did not make Sam's fears go away.