A/N:

Okay this is a short chapter but it was just an awesome place to stop and I love my cliffhangers. And my head has been killing me all week. Thanks, barometric pressure migraines.

Much love. If you like, leave a comment. If you don't, leave constructive comments or feel free to go away.

JR

Recap:

Atlantis has left earth once more. But there is no rest for anyone as the saboteur is at it again. And this time they've changed the game. No longer using a big strike force to take the city, they've intensified their efforts to tear it apart from the inside out. Sophie separates from her team thinking to find the saboteur and finds a Todd the Wraith at the field generator.

Episode 7 Feedback Part 3

Still at the Field Generator

It wasn't the first time either one of them worked with someone that they had to watch like a hawk.

"Try it now!" She yelled from underneath the field emitter where she had wiggled into a maintenance shaft that she could barely breathe in. It was so tight, so close, and the air was so still that she could almost taste the stale air of the shaft. The shaft was not even all of two feet from top to bottom, and barely more than that wide. With just enough room that she could get to the tools in her pockets, but no more. Wires and sharp corners dug into her spine and sides, but there were no other options. Todd had been handing in tools that she hadn't taken with her, which meant there was her gun laying on her belly pointed down at the hatch, just in case.

Whoever yanked the part she was working on loose, she wished a very painful time when she got a hold of them. The delicate wires that she was working on hadn't been cut by a knife or burned. No, they had been yanked. How did they even get the leverage to do something like this! She barely had enough room to get her arms into position. Luckily the control board that had been the goal apparently was simply too big to get out the hole she had crawled in and had to be left by the son of a gun that yanked it.

"No!" Todd yelled back down the tiny access shaft. "Got a small change but the power distribution is still uncontrolled!"

Sophie yelled a curse, wanting to hit something but knowing that all of the parts in her tiny access shaft were simply too delicate to treat in such an abusive manner.

"I do not understand that word." Todd chuckled, a rough rasp sound that grated like rusty metal down the hatch. "But I understand the tone and agree."

Clipping the wires that she was trying to carefully splice together with alligator clips connected to her reader, she snarled as a shock ran through her fingertips. "Blast the rottering bastard to the foulest depths of hell!" She screamed. "May he get the plague and bleed to death with festering sores!"She chuckled hearing Todd gag at the picture she painted. She imagined it was a little off-putting to think about your food rotting away on its feet. "How the hell did they even get down here!"

"I imagine," the Wraith knelt at the hatch. "That they must be your size or smaller."

"Well, that narrows the possibilities." She agreed with a nod, crowing when the wires she held matched in current on her handheld. "Most of the marines are huge or muscled. Even if they're female. More than a few of the scientists too."

"You are quite small for a human." Todd agreed. "But I smelled something odd from the hatch before you went inside."

Nose wrinkling, Sophie looked around her for anything that might cause an odd scent. No burned wires. No rats or evidence of them. "Odd like what?"

"New blood." The wraith answered easily. "And fresh urine."

"Gross!" The engineer howled, kicking her feet in disgust. Carefully. So as not to hit anything delicate. She was angry and disgusted, but not willing to break anything. "I'm going to need a shower after this."

Todd chuckled.

Behind him, she heard the doors hiss open and bit back another curse as she heard voices ordering Todd to his feet. Why did everyone have to yell? Did they not understand that shouting voice had a tendency to make people jump? When you had sensitive equipment in your hand, you didn't want to jump. Accidents happened when you jumped. People and technology got hurt when you jumped. "Unless you know the systems enough to be of help to me, let the Wraith continue to assist me!" She called in a singsong voice to whoever was out there.

She hoped, prayed even, that it was someone other than Shepard and his team. Ronon would probably shoot first and then she'd have to wait for another engineer with a programming background. Just her luck it'd be Rodney.

She muttered another curse when Teyla's head popped through the small hatch at her feet. "Oh hi. Could you not kill him yet?" Sophie asked, waving her fingers in greeting while she continued working. "At least until one of the other engineers or scientists can help me?"

Dark eyes filled with relief as the Athosian took in her friend. "You are well?" She asked. "Not injured?"

"Shocked, a little." The engineer admitted, shaking the hand that got zapped, feeling just now beginning to return with the sensation of pins and needles. "Working as fast as I can though so I'll take not electrocuting myself to death and call it a win." Somewhere far above a countdown clicked away.

"How can we help?" Teyla asked, seeing that her friend wasn't going to come out without being pulled, and that would undoubtedly dislodge delicate cables.

Sophie bit her lower lip, carefully splicing two thin wires together. "Shepard knows Rodney's passwords right?"

Smiling, Teyla chuckled. "A bone of contention, I believe the expression is, yes?" She nodded, glancing at the colonel. "Yes, he does."

"Have him sign into another console," Sophie ordered, pulling a tiny chip from her camera and holding it out to the woman. Teyla had to nearly crawl in on top of her to reach it, something Sophie was glad her brothers didn't see, but just as quickly the Athosian was sliding back out the hatch. "So many comments I could make," she mumbled.

"What?" The darker woman asked, popping her head back into the hatch.

"I said have him send the footage on the chip to Rodney." The wires slipped through her fingers, sending a shower of sparks raining down on her head. Squeezing her eyes shut, Sophie growled. She was going to gutt whoever did this with a rusty spoon and feed it to them. "Just sign in and put the chip in the slot for it on the side. It's plug and play."

"Why do I smell burned hair?" The wraith asked from outside. His rusty voice echoing down the shaft.

She could hear Teyla trying to reassure the men but there was no time to waste on placating. "Cause my hair is on fire from my latest spark shower! We do not have time for this!" She yelled. "Shepard! The chip! Now!"

"What!" Ronon yelled, his voice reverberating down the metal shaft at a pitch that set her teeth on edge.

"I swear if you try to haul me out of here, Ronon Dex," Sophie snarled back when the shaft vibrated like someone huge was trying to wedge themselves into it. "I will kick you in the face, break your nose, and finish what I'm doing! These shields have to stay up unless you want everyone in the city to die!"

Losing the target of his tension due to the fact that she was right, oh how that annoyed him, Ronon turned on the Wraith who was chuckling at the by-play of the young humans. There were no Wraith younglings, and he suddenly realized that they as a race were missing out. Being thousands of years old was not all it cracked up to be. Definitely not as entertaining. And not even the former runner rounding on him was enough to stifle the bubbling laughter.

Ronon leveled his sidearm at Todd's head. "Aren't you supposed to be doing something?"

Todd held up his bound hands, a questioning look in his eyes. "I do need my hands."

Ronon's nose wrinkled in distaste and anger, but he didn't stop Teyla from cutting the bonds.

The Wraith didn't waste a moment before he was back at the screen, filtering through the data that was pouring into it. "Whatever you're doing, female," Todd yelled down to the passage. "Do it faster!"

"If you think you can do better," Sophie shrieked back. "Get down here and do it yourself!"

Todd smiled his sharpened teeth on full display. "I cannot fit." He reminded her. And yelled with the screen showed an increase. "There! That one!"

Sophie crowed and a moment later she slid from the passage and sprinted around the team to the wall where she ripped off a wall panel and stilled, her eyes growing wide. "Ronon," she whispered. "Do you have a knife?"

Instantly the Satedian was at her side with a smile. "How many you need?"