CHAPTER 36 – UNTETHERED ANCHOR

Teyla and Ronon met him in the hallway outside the gate room. Ronon raised his eyebrows. "Gina?"

"Don't know for sure Ronon, but it's the safest bet I'm thinking. I felt something shift – something came through. You heard on the security channel what I want?" Ronon and Teyla both nodded in acknowledgement. "You two with me then. If it's her, we'll find her. It's a big city but my guess is she's got her dog with her. Elizabeth said that it disappeared suddenly as though she picked up something – a scent? We'll work back from where Elizabeth last saw the dog."

Rodney saw what Ronon had. Colonel John Sheppard was back.

They fanned out on the pier, looking back in the direction of the city. "Lower levels?" Teyla looked questioningly at John. "There's still a lot of unexplored areas down there, mostly laboratories and archives, but there's no power to those areas so if she did come in there, she will likely be scared and disorientated."

"I agree Teyla – we need to find her fast. We don't want her stumbling around in areas that we know nothing about – it's too dangerous. We know the ancients stored a lot of dodgy stuff down there – remember when we first arrived and the Athosian boy accidently opened a storage chamber containing a dangerous power based entity? The damn thing terrorised the whole base before we could trick it to go through the stargate."

They had entered the city now and John chose the lower levels to the left, fingers of unease worming their way into his mind.

"Where did you first see the dog, John? Would that give you any clue as to where she came through?"

He thought of Angel, saw her in his mind running down the hallway from outside the mess. That hallway led to the centre of the city but there was no telling just how long she had been running around in Atlantis looking for him.

Looking for me, thought John, she knew immediately to find me. Knew that I was the one constant between time zones. Would that same not hold true for Gina? Wouldn't she automatically have some sort of sense to find me... but of course – a dog is a natural tracker, works on a smell. She would have naturally searched for a familiar scent and in a strange city where mostly everything is unfamiliar, then I wouldn't have been too difficult to find. Aaah Gina...

He tried reaching out with his mind, imagining a giant ball of yarn with all the threads – picking out her one and gently pulling it towards him, reeling it in like a fishing line... but nothing. Nothing came to him. Nada.

He clicked his radio. "Sheppard here. Security teams – report in please." He continued moving through the lower hallways, acknowledging each team as they reported in, the one constant – no one had seen any sign of her or the dog. They had reached an area of the city where power was not activiated and was tempted to contact Rodney and request that power levels be temporarily restored to all levels of the city. And quickly dismissed that idea. It would be irresponsible to jeopardise the ZPM power and weaken the city against possible wraith attack in order to aid the search for one person. They would continue to search through the darkness.

John lost count of the number of empty dark and extremely dusty rooms they entered. Each room needed to be searched, even though they were relying on advance warning in the form of barking. John carried the hand held life signs detector, but either it was not working on these lower levels, or the signal was being blocked by something. None of their own life signs showed up on the screen, so it was doubtful that others would.

As time wore on, so John's concern grew. Night had long since come to Atlantis and he couldn't keep his security teams searching without food and rest for much longer. Reluctantly he clicked his radio. "Sheppard here. Security teams – you'll take rotation from here on in. Teams one and four, carry on as you were – check in every ten minutes as required. Teams two and three – stand down, get some food and rest. If we find nothing in the next two hours, you'll relieve the two teams still searching. Copy that?"

He flicked his glance to Ronon and Teyla knowing that as long as he continued, so would they.

It was an hour later that they finally heard the sound of far off barking, and as John broke out in a run, they heard also, an almightly crash and fear erupted hot and sharp into his stomach and he had to push down the overwhelming urge to vomit.

"Damn it Sheppard – we've never been this deep under the main part of the city. We have no idea what's down here." Ronon restlessly fingered his weapon.

"We're about to Ronon – stay sharp, but don't scare her. She may be disorientated. We will have been in the dark for several hours now and is likely terrified."

He began calling out to her as the barking grew louder and they grew nearer. "Gina! It's John... we'll have you out soon. Call out to us so that we know you're not hurt." No human reply, just the barking which had become frenzied at the sound of John's voice.

"Gina, damn it – if you can hear me I need you to acknowledge!"

Teyla placed a hand on his arm to calm him and to get him to soften his tone. He had let his fear anger his words and they had come our harshly. Not what he had intended at all and he softened his tone now, nearing a door behind which they could hear the frantic sound of animal claws scrabbling against a hard surface.

"Gina... sweetheart – we're right outside now. Coming in..." Without thought he drew his weapon and saw Teyla's frown and quickly reholstered it. Habit. Attack the unknown. Go in with weapons drawn. Assume all are the enemy Not the way this particular battle needed to be fought.

He reached for the door activation button but nothing happened. Tried again with the same result. Either the door lock had jammed – a malfunction, or something on the other side was blocking it. His money was on the latter, recalling the loud bang they had heard earlier. Something had happened inside the room and if Gina was not answering then likely she was not able to.

With this information came renewed fear and he pushed it down, fought to find the calm centre that was always present in the heat of battle. Found it briefly and grabbed for it, hanging on for dear life. It was the only thing that would get him through.

Ronon – being Ronon, resorted to brute force to get the door to open. He had little patience for modern technology, preferring to put his trust in the tried and true. His strength. John joined him, as did Teyla and they simply pushed the sliding mechanism until it began to give just a little and a small gap appeared. Big enough for a little white dog to squeeze through and leap ecstatically around John's ankles. Smiling in spite of himself, he squatted down, picked up the little dog and hugged her furry body while she wriggled in delight.

"Ok girl – you did your bit." He put her back down on the ground. "Now let us do ours. We'll get your mistress out, Angel."

The door widened a little further until finally Teyla, being the smallest, slipped through to remove the obstruction on the other side. Her voice came back slightly muffled.

"Containers John, heavy containers. They must have been stacked up against the wall beside the door, and that bang that we heard? They have all toppled and some are lying against the door. I will try to move them but I don't know if I can on my own."

He heard a small cry. "Teyla? What did you do?"

"I am all right John. I edges of the containers are sharp and I have cut myself, but it is not deep."

Her calm voice reassured him, as it often did. "Teyla, can you see her?"

"It's too dark in here John. It will take me time to work my way through the room. It is a large area and there are many benches and much equipment here."

Another cry from her. "Damn it Teyla – be careful! Ronon, we need to get that door wider, blockage or otherwise."

The only acknowledgement he got from the Satedan was a grunt as his shoulder slotted against the small opening they had managed to secure and pushed. John joined him and his sense of utter uselessness diminished slightly as the gap widened a little more and ignoring the pain in his shoulder as it was nearly dislocated in his attempt to push through, he felt the rush of success as he now stood on the other side of the door, adding his flashlight beam to Teyla's.

He motioned for Teyla to help him move some of the containers blocking the door and feeling a tearing pain in his shoulder, gritted his teeth. He'd deal with that later. The path of the door was suddenly cleared and it slid open fully now, admitting a relieved Ronon who instantly added his light to the others in the room.

It did indeed contain more equipment than most and while some of it was covered in expansive dust cloths, it appeared that recently some of the cloths had been removed and were now puddled carelessly on the ground.

"Anything Teyla? She must be in here. Angel... show us where she is, girl."

The little dog was poking around in a far corner and began whining. Before going over John activated his radio.

"Security teams, stand down. We've found her – I repeat, stand down."

Switching channels he connected to the infirmary. "Carson? Sheppard here. We need a gurney to the lower levels of the city – south east corner. Stand by for accurate directions. The hand held detectors don't appear to work down here, so we'll relay info as you need it."

He moved with urgency now, knowing that she was in the room and worried that she was injured. They found her crumpled in the corner, curled up slightly, her loyal dog sitting beside her whining as though trying to wake her. John bent briefly to pat the dog, taking the time to acknowledge that she was a good girl and had kept excellent guard over her charge. The dog began licking Gina's face and bending closer as Teyla shone her light to one side so as not to have it directy in Gina's eyes, he saw the darkening pool of blood at the side of her head leading down from a trail on her forehead where a nasty open wound became glaringly obvious in the light of Teyla's torch.

"She looks bad Sheppard..." Ronon did not mince words. "How far out is Carson?"

Teyla used her free hand to click her radio and turning her body slightly she spoke into her ear communcator. "Carson, it's Teyla. You are needed here urgently." She attempted to assist with their location, and giving Ronon a hard glance she turned to go out into the hallway to listen for the sounds that would indicate that Carson was nearing their location.

It seemed a long time before Carson arrived and John was aware of every single minute, ever second as it ticked away. He and Angel sat as though guarding her and occasionally the little dog would lick his hand and look up at him and whine.

"I know, girl – I'm worried too. Help will be here soon..."

He was too scared to move her, unsure of her injuries and contented himself with smoothing her hair back from her head wound and holding her limp and unresponsive hand. And if he had been a religious man, he would have prayed.

When Carson arrived, so did light and suddenly she was bathed in too much light, her injury now in stark relief and he heard Carson's sharp intake of breath that he did not succeed in hiding.

"Oh lass, that's a nasty wound. What on earth happened to you...?"

John dropped her hand and stepped away and Angel, after looking up at him, did the same, both of them now relinquishing her small body to the care of a professional. John aimed the light to the side so that Carson could use both hands to run over her body, carefully focusing on the wound at her head, then rolling her gently, checking for obvious broken bones.

"Help me Colonel. As little jarring as possible – onto the gurney."

John simply bent and lifted her gently into his arms, cradling her head carefully so as not to jar it, then placing her onto the gurney. He picked Angel up then and placed her on the end of the gurney as well, where she lay – her head across Gina's feet. At Carson's raised eyebrows John shrugged.

"She needs to continue her vigil until she's out of the dark..."

Carson did not reply.