This was not going well, John realized, hearing the edge of desperation and anger in the General's voice. They needed to wrap things up soon.
He walked to the entryway and looked down the corridor. No one in sight yet, but they would be coming back soon. He headed back to where General O'Neill was trying to ask what had happened to Colonel Carter.
McKay looked terrified of the General. As much as that might amuse John normally, they didn't have the time.
"We got company," he told O'Neill. "Sorry, sir, we're gonna have to come back for you."
General O'Neill still looked troubled, and possibly on the verge of losing it, but inclined his head in acceptance.
"No-no-no-no-no-no," McKay said, "we can't leave them here. They know too much."
Not the best acting job, but it would have to do.
"What'd you tell `em?"
McKay looked over at O'Neill and Woolsey before looking back at him.
"Uh, uh, I mean, they guessed most of it."
John smacked McKay in the back of the head.
"What, and you filled in the rest?!"
He did his best not to grin. This part of the plan was kind of fun.
"I thought I would have time to get them out of here!" McKay exclaimed before turning to General O'Neill. "Look, just forget what I said."
Sheppard noticed O'Neill's shrewd attention on them. Maybe Carter was right. The General would figure it out too early.
"Rodney, wasn't there something you were supposed to tell the General?"
McKay let out a loud sigh. "Do I really have to? I don't like being put in this position. Maybe you should tell him."
"Tell me what?" O'Neill asked, voice serious. "What happened?"
They really did not have time for this. As much as it might be diverting General O'Neill's attention, it was also slowing down their progress. If they waited too much longer, the Replicators really would be back. They still had to swap out their emitter crystals. The rooms were reasonably close, but they lacked the head start that the two other teams had.
"Rodney, you promised her you would tell him and we need to get out of here."
General O'Neill seemed concerned and Sheppard saw Woolsey sitting on the bench with his head in his hands, not even looking at them.
"Fine," McKay grumbled at him before facing O'Neill. "Sam wanted me to tell you that she loved you."
It looked like it physically pained McKay to say the words and Sheppard forced himself not to laugh.
"What happened to her? Is she okay?" O'Neill asked, all of the earlier fight drained out of his voice.
"What do you mean?" McKay asked, clearly confused by the question. "Aside from being annoying earlier and thinking she knew better than me -"
General O'Neill's face had lost all color and Sheppard knew that none of McKay's words were sinking in for the older man.
He suddenly realized that the General was worried that Carter's message was a deathbed confession. McKay's inadvertent use of the past tense probably didn't help.
"Carter is safe," he cut in quickly. "Probably meeting up with Beckett and Teyla right now."
John had been under the impression that getting Rodney McKay to send that three word message was something Colonel Carter thought the General would find amusing. Instead, the man behind the bars seemed to take it as a sign of how bad their situation was.
And now John had to leave him here, believing he was about to die.
"She's fine," he reiterated.
The General's face cleared and then John saw as it hit O'Neill all over again that their situation was still bad even if Carter was okay.
"Sheppard, get out of here while you still can. Get everyone else to safety. That's an order."
There was a particular emphasis on the way General O'Neill said the words "everyone else" that made John wonder if the man was mostly thinking about one specific person's safety.
John directed Rodney to get going and then faced the General while McKay headed towards the exit.
"Sorry it has to be this way," he apologized. Even though John knew that they had a plan to get all of them out of here alive, he still felt bad leaving O'Neill and Woolsey here under the belief that they were going to die.
"Yeah, I get it. Go," O'Neill said, resignation in his voice. "If you see Carter, tell her I love her too. And let her know I'm sorry I ruined our vacation."
"Will do, sir."
As he was running out of the room, John heard Woolsey's voice.
"So, we're back to being vaporized..."
When he caught up to McKay, he decided not to tell the man that General O'Neill and Colonel Carter were definitely together.
"General O'Neill didn't buy it, but I think Woolsey did," he told McKay, referring to the false plan they'd shared.
"Well, I did win a Sears drama festival award when I was a kid. Could have made it a career if I wanted to."
"Wish you would've," John muttered.
"Hmm?"
"Nevermind."
"You know, you didn't need to hit me so hard," McKay complained as they headed towards the first shield emitter.
"I needed to sell it. Carter was right, the General started to piece it together quick."
They continued walking, keeping an eye out for any sign of the hundreds of Replicators that were somewhere in the city.
"You know," McKay said after a few minutes, "I thought he would react differently when I told him."
John looked around the corner and made sure it was clear for them to advance. He should tell Rodney to be quiet, but because they hadn't come across any Replicators yet, he wasn't too worried as long as McKay kept his voice down.
"I mean, if Sam Carter said she loved me, I'd be ecstatic."
John really did not want to spend this entire leg of the mission talking about Colonel Samantha Carter.
"He thought she died...or was dying," he explained as they turned another corner. "General O'Neill was worried you were conveying her last words. It probably didn't help that you told him she was originally supposed to go to the brig with me and you took her place."
"Oh," McKay said in surprise. "Oh, that's morbid."
"Yeah," he agreed.
They made it to the first shield emitter without encountering any Replicators. It was eerie how empty the city was. There was something odd going on.
The second emitter was a comparatively short walk away.
McKay replaced the crystal quickly.
"Okay, that should do it," he announced, pushing the tray back in.
"One more to go."
"And it's all over but the crying."
John looked over at McKay. "Hopefully them, not us," he clarified.
All of the sudden there was a loud, clanging noise and the city started to hum.
"What the hell?" McKay asked, before looking at the readout screens. "No wonder they weren't coming after us. They've been busy repairing the city."
He supposed they'd have to after both the original attack that they'd perpetrated and the explosive that John had dropped in front of the gate.
"What is that?"
McKay looked up from the screen. "They brought their ZPMs to power the stardrive."
"So that sound is..?"
McKay frowned. "The city about to take off."
"Shit."
"Time to start crying," McKay muttered as the city started to rise.
"They'll still have to activate the shield to take off, won't they?" John asked. "We got most of their emitters."
He hoped that would be good enough. They didn't have a backup plan for the backup plan.
"Yeah, 'most' ain't gonna cut it," McKay said. "For this plan to work, it is all or nothing."
He wished he'd known that ahead of time. If he had, he might've pulled Carter off sending a message to the Daedalus and asked her to focus on a couple of emitters instead. Or, he might've switched the order so that he and McKay replaced the crystals first and then went to find O'Neill and Woolsey.
Too late to second guess himself now.
"What do they want to fly around for?"
It seemed to him that once the Replicators had control of Atlantis, there wasn't really a reason for them to drain a ZPM to move the city.
"Well, maybe they wanna fly home," McKay suggested, "back to their homeworld."
That would be really bad. It would strand them in another section of the Pegasus galaxy surrounded by even more Replicators.
"And take on the Daedalus," John added, thinking about how Atlantis would likely encounter the ship on its way out of this solar system. "Well, how are we gonna stop 'em?"
"Well, I…"
"Drones," he suddenly realized. "They fired drones at us. That means the Chair is active and powered."
It should have occurred to him earlier that the Chair was still in play. He didn't have time to wonder if that knowledge would have affected their plans. No point in second guessing himself, he repeated. They could at least use the weapons platform now. At the very least, they could try to prevent the city from taking off.
"You wanna fire drones at the city? We're nowhere near the Chair!"
"But Teyla and Beckett are," John realized. Beckett had the ATA gene. He'd never been comfortable using the Chair, but he would have to do. "Maybe Carter too."
John reached for his radio to contact them.