'Are you sure you were touching the chair?' The medical examiner stared at Evy intently, clutching his clipboard, a near maniacal look developing in his eyes.
'I swear I was.' Evy replied, her hands resting on the pads on the ends of the arm rest. She was leaning back a little.
'Are you one hundred percent certain?' The man repeated.
'For the millionth time, yes, I was touching the damn chair.' Evy exclaimed exasperated before getting up. 'I wouldn't have been able to operate it if I hadn't now would I?'
The examiner eyed her suspiciously as she walked away. 'You have the gene.' He called after her. 'It's strong, they will like that in the interview.'
She could still hear his words ringing in her ears as she turned the corner and stopped to breathe. Her hands were trembling and her mouth had gone dry. It had been a while since she'd told an outright lie to anyone and it made her shudder to think what would've happened if the examiner had not just turned his back on her when she stepped up to the Control Chair. It would have been much harder to explain the chair coming to live without her actually sitting in it, let alone touching it. But that was exactly what had happened. The moment she came near to the chair, the back panel had lit up, like it was welcoming her. She had quickly reached out and placed a hand on the right pad before her and not a moment too late.
The examiner had grilled her for nearly half an hour about how she activated the chair without sitting in it but Evy did not think that he remotely believed her when she said she had been touching the chair. There was no way she would get away from the base without thorough checks and she knew it. 'Fuck.' She swore softly and peeked around the corner.
The room was nearly empty, only a few people scattered around, bent over their own work. On a table near the Control Chair she spotted the examiner's tablet but the man himself was nowhere to be seen. After taking a deep breath she made up her mind and quietly Evy walked over to the table and picked up the tablet. The screen was still switched on and she quickly read the examiner's notes scribbled around the DNA test results.
"Increased DNA activity. Suspected superior ATA-gene presence. Test results combined with chair test conclusive."
There was little she could make of the medical data but as she scrolled through the pages she found what she was looking for. The scaling of the gene.
She looked around but no one had even noticed her and she turned back to the report. Her fingers flew over the text as she adjusted the scale. Then she scrolled back to the beginning of the document, wiped the tablet with her shirt and replaced it on the table.
Walking away from the chair she gave it one last look, praying she'd done enough to avoid becoming a science project for an overzealous medical examiner.
'Lorne!' Lt. Colonel Sheppard barked at the man next to him.
'It's not working.' Lorne huffed, his boots slipped slightly in the loose sand that spilled from the crack between the two doors. The metal bar they had wedged through the crack wouldn't budge, no matter how much effort they put on it.
'Maybe the angle is incorrect.' Rodney piped up nervously.
'Shut up.' The men replied in chorus.
'Guys?' Evy called out through the crack between the doors. The sand was already nearly past her waist and rising fast as it spilled from the holes in the ceiling. Not one to panic quickly, Evy knew when things were not looking great and she fought hard against the trembling that had started to develop in her hands. She pushed with all her might against the stone slab that separated her from the team but to no avail.
Less than three hours earlier she'd excitedly stepped off the puddle jumper for her first off-world expedition and now she was trapped inside a room where she wasn't sure she'd make it out alive. There had been no clues whatsoever as to booby traps or trick wires but by now she knew enough from the stories she'd heard that this was no guarantee for an easy ride. She'd been beyond cautious when the local population had guided her to the temple where people had been disappearing for a while now. While clearing trees a few months earlier the villagers had found the entrance to a temple that had been sealed off long enough that not even the village elders knew any of the Ancient language carved in the walls. The elders had forbidden people to step inside but as time went by, one by one people started disappearing.
'It must have held great significance for them to close it off.' Rodney paced around the room excitedly, sliding his bag on a low table.
'Or great danger' Evy whispered as she gazed around the room, deciphering some of the carvings that were written in straight lines towards two large doors that stood wide open. Each line of text started on the far end of the room with a wide space between them, trailing back to the doors like rays of the sun centred at its heart.
'Well then why don't you tell us, oh mistress of words, what's so dangerous about a room with nothing in it. Not even a ZPM in sight.' Rodney waved his hand sarcastically and bowed to her.
Evy didn't look at him. 'Lower your voice and don't touch the walls.' She said and they all stopped and looked at her.
'What now?' Rodney asked, a little more quiet.
'When silence is broken, the walls have awoken and claim their need to feed so they survive and the hive can thrive.' Evy translated softly and then looked at him. 'No touchy.' She whispered, pointed at the wall he was standing very close to and then pressed her finger to her lips. 'And be quiet.'
Instinctively Rodney took a few steps back into the room and was about to open his mouth when Sheppard grabbed his arm and shook his head, signalling him to be quiet.
Carefully stepping through the room, avoiding cracks and fallen rocks as she walked, Evy followed a line of carvings to the double doors and passed through them. For a moment she held her breath but when nothing happened she eased up a bit. Inside the inner room the walls were smooth, shining as if freshly polished. The surface looked inviting to touch and for a moment she felt herself drawn towards the wall and even stretched out her hand before Sheppard cleared his throat and Evy quickly retracted her hand, regaining her senses. She looked around. There was nothing to be seen except for holes in the ceiling and shining walls. She shook her head in confusion.
Impatient with being silent, Rodney walked over to his bag and pulled it up onto his shoulder. A smile crept onto his face when he looked down. Moving his bag over the stone had shifted sand away and now revealed several carved lines that led to a circle at the end of the plateau. With his finger he traced one of the lines, pressing the grains of sand out of the way. The length of the stone made him bend forward to reach the end but the bag he had flung over his shoulder suddenly shifted and the weight change brought him off-balance. With a large thud he landed on the floor, on top of a sharp rock that cut through the fabric of his shirt and into his skin. 'Argh!' He screamed at the searing pain.
A low rumble ran through the room.
'Doctor Crawley, get out of there right now!' Major Lorne yelled but it was too late. The doors of the inner room slid towards each other, closing before them and locking Evy inside. A crack, only a few inches wide, was left between the doors as a small rock blocked them from closing completely.
Evy sprang to the doors and tried with all her might to push the doors apart. On the other side major Lorne and Lt Colonel Sheppard threw themselves into pulling and pushing but the doors wouldn't move. Overhead a crack made Evy whip around and she stared up at the ceiling as sand started to pour through the holes into the room. 'Guys!' She yelled through the crack. 'Help me get this door open. The room is about to fill up with sand and I don't know how much time I have.'
'We're trying!' Sheppard panted as he pressed his foot against one of the doors and pulled with all his might on the other.
'Stop it, it's not going to work', Rodney pulled Sheppard away from the door.
'Then what do you suggest?'
'There has to be another way in or out.' They stared at each other.
'Sand's coming closer people. Don't want to rush you but… you know.' Evy yelled through the door.
Major Lorne stepped up to the door. 'We'll get you out of there, I promise.' Then he turned around and looked at Sheppard. 'Let's blast the damn thing open.'
'Stay here, don't touch anything and wait till we're back', Sheppard commanded at Rodney.
'But what will I do?' He muttered as he watched the two men leave.
Explosives, pushing and pulling, not even the chanting of the village elders would shift the doors open and the team's attempt to break it apart with a steel bar were falling short too.
Unable to move without shifting large amounts of sand, Evy had pressed herself against the opening between the doors, hoping that when the sand reached above her head she would still be able to breathe. The argument on the other side of the door was heated as Sheppard, Mackay and major Lorne tried to think of any and every way they could possibly shift the stone slabs but the more time went by, the less likely their solutions became. Until finally the weight of the sand was crushing down on her.
'Sheppard', Evy called out through the opening. The man appeared before her. 'It's okay. We've tried everything. There's nothing we can do.'
'Stop it.' He bit back at her. 'We're not done yet.'
'This room was built by Ancients right?' Rodney suddenly perked up. Excitedly he grabbed major Lorne's arm.
'Yeah so?' He replied, shaking off the clutching hand.
'Then if they built it, anyone with the ATA gene should be able to control the systems. I'm brilliant!' Rodney exclaimed and pushed Sheppard and Lorne out of the way. He pressed up against the door. 'Doctor Crawley, from the reports it said you have some of the ATA gene in your DNA. Focus all of your attention on reopening the door.'
'What are you talking about? This is not Atlantis or the Control chair.' Evy roared at him but was promptly cut short by the doctor on the other side.
'Do you want to die? Just do it!'
She felt sand pouring over her head when she closed her eyes and took a painful deep breath. With all her might she focused on the doors, mentally sliding them open. The world suddenly moved and Evy fell forward as the moving doors gave way for the sand to crash into the room like a tidal wave, taking her with it and leaving her coughing on the floor. Within seconds she was back on her feet and carried out of the temple by major Lorne and Sheppard. Rodney trailed behind them. 'I can't believe that worked.' He muttered to himself.
'Other than a few scratches and a wee amount of dehydration, you're perfectly fine.' Carson patted Evy on the shoulder as doctor Weir and Lt. Colonel Sheppard stood by the bed. 'Sorry it had to come to this on yer first expedition though.' The doctor sounded sorry.
'Noone ever said it was going to be easy.' Evy pressed her lips together and looked at Dr. Weir. 'Whatever was in that temple was set there as a trap.'
'Any idea by whom?' Dr Weir folded her arms across her chest.
'Three guesses.' Sheppard scoffed. 'What captures humans and feeds on them?'
'But the villagers said the temple has been there for ages.'
'With the amount of cullings', Evy suggested, 'it wouldn't surprise me that the temple hasn't been there as long as the villagers think.'
Dr. nodded contemplatively. 'But why write a warning when the ancient build the room themselves?'
'Maybe the ancients built the room but between cullings the Wraith figured out what it was for and simply started using it as a honey trap?' Sheppard suggested.
'I don't think we'll ever find out. All I can say is that I'm glad to be out.'
Dr. Weir, satisfied with Evy's recovery, took her leave, Sheppard following her out, leaving her and Carson on their own.
'Are ye okay love?' The doctor looked at Evy with concern in his eyes. 'Ye must have been terrified.' He covered her hand with his own and took a step closer to the bed.
Evy sat up straight and gave him a smile. 'I'm fine. Not what I had expected but it'll be okay. Just happy to be here.' She cocked her head to the side and a strand of hair fell across her face.
Carson carefully pushed the hair to the side and his fingers traced her cheek down to her jaw and paused on her throat, his thumb resting on the side of her chin. His breath came quicker and he swallowed hard, holding Evy's gaze as he took another small step towards her. Without any hesitation she leaned into him as he dipped his head towards her.
'Carson, you have to see this piece of data I just found in one of the translations by doctor Crawley', carrying a tablet and staring at it intently, Rodney stomped into the room.
Evy and Carson parted like they'd stepped on a live wire and the doctor took a good two steps back just in time before Rodney raised his eyes from the tablet long enough to register who was around him. 'Oh, hello.' He said, when he spotted Evy on the bed. 'How are you feeling?'
Evy sighed. 'I'm fine. Thank you.' She jumped off the bed and straightened her clothes, scattering leftover sand all over the floor. 'Sorry about that', she apologized.
'Never ye mind. Off with ye.' He said unenthusiastically and with a last look Evy walked past Rodney and out the door.
'You sure she's okay?' Evy heard Rodney ask. 'She looked a little flushed.'