Once they'd made it into the Temple, Rodney's team started to settle down. The Temple's interior had been decorated somewhat extensively in the style of the Bethashaya, who had covered several doors with animal skins, woven tapestries and -occasionally- stacks of bricks. The bricks were too heavy for the team to deal with, but the wall hangings were another matter. The problem was that the doors would no more open for them than they had for the Bethashaya because there was no power.
"I was worried about that," Rodney said.
"About what?" John asked.
Rodney explained, "The towers would require a lot of power, especially as prototypes. Because of the way Ancient technology works, there should still be low-level power readings here, even though there's not enough for the towers to function. The power at the source shouldn't have run down completely, not so soon after the towers deactivated. The Ancients would have built in a reserve for doing things like opening doors, turning on lights... the sort of things you'd want in order to repair or replace the main power source. But I'm getting nothing."
Which explained why Rodney had insisted on bringing a naquadah generator, though he had agreed to leave it back at the jumper unless and until they needed it.
"Huh," John grunted, "Strange."
"Very," Rodney agreed, then elaborated, "Almost as if this didn't just happen on its own. As if somebody did this on purpose."
"Why would anyone do that?" Teyla inquired, "Even if they no longer realized that the Temple was the source of power for their towers, it was my understanding that the Bethashaya regarded it as sacred."
"I don't know," Rodney replied, "And that's what bothers me."
Fortunately, several doors were simply standing open. The hallways were familiar in their similarity to Atlantis, but it was easy to get lost in the great city even now, meaning finding their way around this structure whose design they didn't know or have a map for was even more difficult.
To speed up what promised to be an incredibly long process with their minimal numbers, John split them into teams, pairing each of Rodney's researchers with a member of his team. Rather than have Rodney wandering the halls with someone even more helpless than he was, John joined him and Laurenson, handing off Drs. Morris and Hall to Teyla. That left Ronon with Dr. Collins. It wasn't a bad split, considering how many doors were closed to them. There was a lot of ground to cover, but not that many options on directions for them to take.
"You saw it on the UAV flyovers," John pointed out to Rodney, as they traveled down first one hallway, then another, "But you never said anything about the Temple being this big."
"You never asked," Rodney replied flatly.
It was a little annoying, but Rodney had him there. Having assumed Rodney wasn't going to win the argument with Elizabeth, John had seen no point in attending the meetings where Rodney was making his pitches to her, and he hadn't kept much of an eye on the teams gathering information remotely at Rodney's request either. Even once everything was settled, he'd kind of assumed the Temple would be Rodney's problem, and that John and the rest of the team would only be providing security; not roaming through what had effectively been converted into tunnels looking for a power room.
"How do we even know we can access it?" John asked.
"Think about it," Rodney insisted, but then went on to explain, "You're the Ancients, and you realize that something may go wrong with the power source of your prototype. Maybe you lock the front door to keep out the flies, but do you really close every door between there and the main engine, knowing that you'll have to pry them all open if you lose power? No, you rig the system to open the interior doors right before the power fails to allow you easy access to fix whatever the problem is."
"That's not how Atlantis works," John said, "Besides, you said this place shouldn't be completely dead, remember?"
"Atlantis isn't a prototype," Rodney reminded him, "And Atlantis was designed with the knowledge that it might have to endure a siege. The Temple doesn't have all the same features, but it was built with the awareness that something might go wrong. Even though the power shouldn't have run down entirely, if it was a prototype they would have built in fail-safes."
Laurenson chimed in, "And, anyway, it was obviously designed so that the towers attracted most of the attention. Yes, it was a big Ancient structure in the middle of the forest, but it wasn't shooting at anyone. Likely at this period of their history, the Wraith were most inclined to attack whatever was attacking them, not stop to check for a power source. Like any race, the technology and military tactics of the Wraith took time to develop."
John figured that must be why Laurenson was here. He wasn't just a technical expert, he knew about the history of technology and the way it generally developed in a culture.
"Besides, this is less of a city than it is an outpost," Rodney said, "And not a very advanced one at that. This looks much older than Atlantis, which makes sense if it really was powered not by a ZPM, but by whatever they developed prior to it."
It had always been hard enough for John to think about how old some of the structures on Earth were, and that was before he'd joined the Stargate Program and learned that some of them were two or three times as old as the books about them indicated. Atlantis was older still. Things built before even Atlantis were yet another level of old that John found he couldn't quite cope with.
He decided that the best thing to do was realize that it was here now, and that was what mattered. However long the Temple had been here before John and his team showed up didn't really make much difference. Not for him to do his job anyway. He only needed to know what the structure was like now. And that made it like any other building. Rodney and his research team could make educated guesses, but the only way to really know the layout was to walk the halls.
"In any case," Rodney went on, "That's the best reason I can think of for only some of the doors to be open, since they obviously weren't broken or propped in place. The other possible explanation is that random doors popped open as a result of losing power, and that just seems very unlikely."
"The Ancients were designing door mechanisms long before ZPMs," Laurenson agreed, "Unlike most of the rest of this place, the doors are very much like the ones in Atlantis, suggesting they were just as developed a technology at the time this Temple was built as they were years later in Atlantis."
"Sheppard," Ronon's voice on the radio came as a welcome interruption.
Stopping where he was, John keyed his radio, "Yeah, go ahead."
"Collins noticed a smell down here," Ronon and Collins had earlier found a flight of stairs leading down, and were a couple of levels below John's group, "I can smell it too. Smells like a carnivore's been making a den in here somewhere."
"Temple's open and abandoned," John replied, "It's pretty natural for the wildlife to take over. But, assuming it's down here, be careful not to corner it, whatever it is. And that goes for everyone else," he spoke primarily for the benefit of Rodney's team, saying things Ronon and Teyla would already know, "Wild animals usually mind their own business unless you provoke 'em. So if you encounter one just… you know… give it space and leave it alone."
"Acknowledged," Teyla said, her tone conveying that she understood John wasn't really trying to tell her about animals, but the members of the group who did not come from a tribe of hunter-gatherers.
Ronon was less cognizant of John's ultimate intention, replying,"Yeah, whatever."
John exchanged a glance with Rodney. At the mention of a carnivore, Rodney had paled slightly, and he finally started to look as nervous as John felt he should have looked this whole time.
"He doesn't sound particularly worried," Rodney observed rather shakily as they started forward again.
"Yeah well, I hope he doesn't start shooting just to prove he can take care of himself," John said.
It seemed like Ronon found John's advice to be unnecessary and insulting, not realizing that it hadn't really been meant for him or Teyla at all, because John credited them with more sense, and knew full well the both of them had more wilderness experience than he did.
"So you're our reigning expert on local flora and fauna," John told Rodney, "What sort of critter are we probably lookin' at in here?"
Rodney shrugged, "I didn't really notice much in the way of animals. The usual bugs, I guess, things making noises in the trees as we were heading out… but I really don't remember encountering any animal life after we got out of the river," he shook his head, "I remember it was weirdly quiet, but I didn't want to wonder why."
"Weirdly quiet," John repeated, "Well that's not ominous or anything."
"Hey, you tracked us, remember? You went through the same areas we did," Rodney pointed out.
"Well yeah, but I was tryin' to find you and Major Lorne, not lions and tigers."
"Well I was trying not to die," Rodney fired back.
"So we have no idea what we might be walking into," John decided, "Except that it might be a Crocuta, whatever the hell that is, besides large and -if Nagin's reaction to being left alone where one might find him is any indication- terrifying."
"Crocuta?" Laurenson repeated, "Sounds reptilian."
"No," Rodney corrected, stopping where he was, his expression one of fearful recognition, "It sounds Latin."
John also stopped and looked back at Rodney, "Latin for what?"
"Hyena," Rodney answered.
"Hyena?" John repeated, not sure why that was a particularly worrying realization to come to, "Those are mostly scavengers, right?"
"Not spotted hyenas," Laurenson ventured, "They're predators, known to kill humans from time to time," he paused, "I should've recognized the name. I learned about hyenas while I was in Zambia for a year doing research. But the people I worked with called them by their common English name or the names some of the local tribes had for them. Worst year of my entire life. All the bugs and the elements and…" Laurenson broke off with a shudder, "I swore I'd never do field work again, and yet..."
"Oh give it a rest, will you?" Rodney said with a roll of his eyes, "If you want to trade stories of misery, I have plenty from my two year stint in Russia."
"At least you got to spend time in an air conditioned building," Laurenson snapped.
Deciding that now was not the time to point out that he'd probably had worse experiences in Afghanistan than the both of them put together, John exclaimed, "Guys! Focus!"
"Right. Sorry," Rodney said, but Laurenson remained reticent, clearly wanting to pursue the argument further (and likely going to at the first opportunity).
After a pause, Rodney said, "Considering we're not even in the Milky Way Galaxy, they probably aren't actually hyenas. And even if they were at one time, they've had several thousand years to evolve into something suited to the environment they're in, and the prey they hunt. They're probably called Crocuta just because they look, sound or act recognizably similar to hyenas. Or... well... probably hyenas were unintentionally named after them, actually."
"That's not very reassuring," John told him.
"No, it's not," Rodney agreed.
"Why didn't anybody say any of this earlier?"
"Nobody said anything about Crocuta to me before now," Rodney answered.
"Me neither," Laurenson said.
"Well Major Lorne mentioned them in his report," John told him, "He said Ellet threatened to leave you and him for the Crocuta."
"I don't remember that," Rodney insisted, "And I remember a helluva lot more about what happened to us than Major Lorne seems to."
That certainly seemed to be the case. Lorne's report indicated his memory of the whole mission was sketchy at best, as he barely recalled the river, and certainly didn't remember pushing Rodney into it. Carson said the memories would eventually come back, more or less.
"Well he remembered that," John told them firmly, "According to his report, it was part of what pushed him to decide to try and escape, rather than wait and see what might happen next. He wasn't as concerned about the Crocuta themselves as the fact that Ellet sounded like she was losing patience, and he was worried about what might happen once she lost it altogether."
"I'm surprised to hear Major Lorne was actually worried," Rodney remarked, "I was under the impression he was a perpetual ray of sunshine."
"Well," John admitted, "He didn't say 'worried' in quite those words, but I think it was implied."
"Will wonders never cease," Rodney muttered sarcastically.
Annoyed, John said, "Let's just go, and hope we find this power room before we find whatever animals are living in here, whether they're hyenas or not."
Fifteen minutes later, they'd reached the end of the corridor, which terminated in a room that Rodney estimated to be almost at the center of their floor. It was lined with Ancient computer terminals; but without power, Rodney couldn't tell what they were for. He could make a pretty good guess though.
"Well there's no obvious power generator," Rodney said, "Actually it looks a little like the control room back in Atlantis."
"If you squint. Maybe," Sheppard muttered, but Rodney ignored him.
Inevitably, Laurenson was harder to deal with, "Lot of good that does us without any power."
"Well obviously there's a power generator somewhere," Rodney pointed out, "Just… not in here."
"If you think I'm going down to those levels where the animals are-" Laurenson began.
Rodney interrupted, "I think you'll do your job, the one you came here to do."
Sheppard rolled his eyes and keyed his radio, "Hey, Ronon. How's it goin'?"
"Dark," the windows on Ronon's level had been covered by the outer structure, "And noisy," which was probably due to Collins, who had a tendency to wheeze when he got nervous.
"Find anything interesting?" Sheppard asked.
"Not unless you count sconces," Ronon's voice held a touch of irritation, and Rodney knew that was also probably caused by Collins, who had undoubtedly developed a sudden fascination with architecture because the dark and the smell were starting to get to him and he was scared.
"Which door do you think has the stairs behind it?" Rodney asked Laurenson in a low voice.
"Probably that one," Laurenson replied, "But you don't really want to go down into the dark where nobody's checked yet, knowing what may be down there… do you?"
"No," Rodney answered, then nodded towards Sheppard, who was still talking to Ronon, "But he will. Besides, we have flashlights. And guns. Whatever animal's down there, it can't be scarier than a Wraith, can it?" he'd used his annoyance with Laurenson to cover his unease, but his voice still wavered just that little bit on the last two words.
In truth, he had no more interest in wandering darkened hallways than Laurenson did, and plugging the tablet into the door controls would be a lot more trouble than it was ultimately likely to be worth (not to mention draining the battery). But he knew Sheppard would insist on going forward if there was a way rather than doubling back, and he already begrudged being here, so now was the time to give the Colonel whatever he wanted, not argue about it.
Rodney had never been all that skilled at being accommodating, in part because he didn't usually care, but more often because he didn't know what people wanted.
But Sheppard was generally a pretty easy read. Whatever seemed like the most dangerous thing to do was usually what John Sheppard wanted, especially if it also involved physical exertion. Sheppard might've been a bona fide genius, but he was also a simple kind of man, easy to read and to follow. Which made him even easier to trust when it counted, despite the fact that he was also a bit crazy.
"How are you going to open the doors without power?" Laurenson challenged.
"It doesn't take a lot of power to open a door, as you know perfectly well," Rodney replied, "The battery from my tablet should be plenty."
"If you don't tell him that, he won't know," Laurenson suggested.
"First of all, he would realize that on his own eventually," Rodney said, "Secondly, if he didn't, he'd find a more… creative way to open the door, by which I mean explosive. Thirdly, Colonel Sheppard is not a man you want to be holding out on, especially if it involves helping his team, of which we are a part."
"It's not like they're in trouble down there," Laurenson hissed.
"No, but we know there could be something dangerous down there, so they could easily find some to get into. Why wait for that to happen when we're not doing anything else?" Rodney asked.
"Since when are you keen on danger?" Laurenson wanted to know.
"I'm not," Rodney told him, "I just happen to be able to recognize when it's inevitable."
"Oh come on," Laurenson scoffed, "Even Colonel Sheppard didn't want any part of this little field trip. This was your idea, and you've been blowing smoke about why all day."
"I have not," Rodney protested.
"Please, you can lie to Sheppard and Dr. Weir, but I'm in your department. I know what we might get out of this mission, best case scenario. And I know how likely that scenario is. So don't pretend to me. This is probably a wild goose chase, and you know it."
"I don't know what you're talking about," Rodney insisted, "This could be a great opportunity-"
"To get ourselves killed for nothing," Laurenson broke in, "And you're usually very loud about your own cowardice, so what's this really about?"
"Elizabeth already knows," Rodney told him quietly, "And you don't need to."
"I'm out here risking my neck, but I don't deserve to know why?" Laurenson yelped.
"Because I'm your boss and I assigned you to this mission," Rodney snarled back, "That's why. Now are you going to help me open this door or not?"
Realizing he'd once again been backed into a corner, Laurenson scowled at Rodney for several seconds before growling through clenched teeth, "Fine."
By that time, Sheppard had finished checking in with Ronon and Teyla. It would be another few minutes before Sheppard made the more significant check-in with the team waiting with the jumper, who would shortly thereafter make their own check-in with Atlantis.
Sauntering up to see what Rodney and Laurenson were up to, Sheppard asked, "Whatcha doin'?"
"Opening this door, which should give us access to the stairs to the lower levels," Rodney answered curtly.
Since he'd just pried off the control panel and plugged his tablet into the tech beneath, it seemed obvious to him what they were doing, and he was already irritated from dealing with Laurenson. He didn't feel like putting up with Sheppard's willfully obtuse act.
"We hope," Laurenson corrected, "We don't actually know for sure."
"It's not like we have anything better to do right now," Rodney shot back.
"And your answer to that is to open the entrance to a dark pit we know nothing about, where anything could be waiting for us," Laurenson spat acidly.
Rodney had just about had it.
"Dr. Laurenson!" he practically shouted.
"Yes?" Laurenson asked with feigned innocence
"Shut up! Just... for five minutes. Longer, if at all possible," after waiting a beat to see if Laurenson would comply, Rodney sighed and added a not entirely grateful, "Thank you."
In truth, he was beginning to give serious consideration to firing Laurenson. Rodney had picked Laurenson to fill out the ranks in his department almost a year ago, and the man had been slowly driving him insane ever since. Not that there weren't other, equally annoying people in Atlantis, but Laurenson had little of value to show for all that inconvenience. He talked a good game, came with a lovely looking resume and had been part of the Stargate program for a couple of years before he signed on to join the Atlantis expedition. But apparently that was it, as so far Rodney had seen no particularly good work from him, in fact had seen very little work at all. The man was more talk than anything.
Rodney had picked Laurenson for this mission for a couple of reasons. The most relevant was that Laurenson had the right knowledge and experience to be useful here. But it was also something of a last chance for him, though he was unaware of it. Rodney didn't expect him to work magic, he wouldn't blame Laurenson if there was nothing to find out here. The important thing was that the man at least tried. So far, he had only been trying. Specifically, he'd been trying Rodney's patience.
The doors popped open to reveal a tiny square room with nothing in it except a hole in the floor, which proved to be the top of a spiral staircase leading down to the level below.
"See?" Rodney said with a triumphant gesture, "Stairs."
Sheppard nudged past Rodney and Laurenson and peered down into the darkness below, "I'll check it out first. You stay here until I call you."
"Gladly," Laurenson replied emphatically.