A/N: Yes, much dialog, and a long chappy, but; much needed explanations. Enjoy!
Day Two
Chapter Eight
Three hours, tops. Sheppard thought to himself as he watched a technician set up in front of the sealed sector door to which John had cleverly named himself, critter central. Three hours and I'll never have to think of this place again. Weir had ordered the sectors doors to be welded shut early that morning, interrupting the Major's much needed sleep after yesterday exhausting activities. And now he was here, right back again, making sure nothing went wrong. Yeah, alright not even Ford had to come down here, I think she has it in for me. John frowned, nodding to himself. Yep, Liz is ruining my day. Just because I made that chicken joke to the Nahaha's---or was it the Naherims?
"No I think it was the Nahallans…" Sheppard spoke up, to no one in particular as he cocked a brow, shrugging. Whatever. It was still a damn good joke, not my fault the have the sense of humor of a doorknob.
"I bet a doorknob would be funnier." John muttered reproachfully, receiving an odd look from the technician holding a large blowtorch in hand, ready to work on the door. Sheppard opened his mouth, holding out a hand, trying his best to explain away the strange comment.
"Well, I'm ah, sure it would, if I knew. Just, seal the door would'ya?"
The tech simply gave the military leader a shrug, sparking the torch as he set it to the metal plates nailed along the door's crevices. Without warning there was a sudden buzz coming from John's side. He rolled his eyes reaching for the walkie-talkie. I've had just about enough of this thing for the week.
"Shep here." He said brusquely, waiting for a response.
"Major, I need you to hold off on sealing the sector door closed." He automatically recognized Dr. Weir's formal tone, she was sounding very serious today, John wondered what for.
Waving a hand in the technician's direction, the man stopped his work, wondering himself just what was up, Sheppard clicked back. "And, why, might I ask?"
"There's something here you should be present for; come down to Dr. Beckett's lab as soon as you can." Elizabeth replied, disappointing John. He knew then and there she wasn't going to say anything more about it. That would be a good enough temptation for him to have to come all the way back. Clever girl.
"Alright, I'll be there in a few, don't start the fun without me." John mused wryly, clipping the radio back at his side. He glanced over then to the tech. "Just, ah, wait here."
There was a sudden commotion behind the closed doors, sounding like the creatures were up early and already starting their havoc from the other side. The technician backed away hastily, his eyes wide.
"Yeah, just not too close to here." John thought to mention before he gave the tech an apologetic smile and headed down the main corridor towards the control center, then off to the infirmary, a place he was hopping he wasn't going to see today.
In a few minutes, jogging off and on, Sheppard found himself coming along the hallway near the infirmary before he knew it. "Well, at least I got my exercise for the day." He garbled, taking the few extra feet and finding Weir waiting for him at the sickbay's door.
"What's up?" He asked quaintly, not surprised to find Elizabeth frowning. Not because he took too long, but more or less because something was eminently wrong that morning. She crossed her arms firmly, trying her best not to seem anxious as she went back into the infirmary, John strolling in behind her.
"That good huh?" Sheppard said to the back of her head as he and Weir made their way around a small bend and up to medical lab where Beckett was waiting. He added, trying to sound thwarted. " I was about to try my hand at welding, so, this better be good." John didn't receive a response from the woman and decided that perhaps now was not the time for his brand of humor.
Carson was, more or less waiting in all truth, more being he was face deep in a dissection tray, shifting a large magnification glass over the splayed and open body before him.
Sheppard walked up alongside the table, wincing at not only the smell, but the display before them all. Beckett was too damn good at this stuff.
"Ew." John scowled gently, moving back and raising a hand as Carson looked up, thin metal scalpel still in hand.
"You know, I'm not too keen on this whole slice and probe thing. I had trouble enough doing it on a frog."
Beckett laughed smoothly as another voice came from behind, making all glance towards the med-lab's door.
"I'm shocked someone would allow you to handle a scalpel." Came McKay's witty remark, his smarminess seeming to enter the room before the physicist did.
Blinking, Carson nearly threw his blade down. "Ah? Just what do you think you're doing?" This he shot at Rodney with a narrowed stare. "I didn't give you clearance to leave the infirmary, you're not fit at all."
Rodney walked up, standing at the edge of the examining table, left arm still in a sling that hung on the opposite shoulder as he looked from Sheppard to Weir, then finally to Beckett, smiling smugly. "Well; I cleared myself."
He found himself being stared at, John even went so far as to cock a brow at him.
"What?" McKay frowned, becoming defensive. "I feel fine, it's just a little burn." He said, lightly raising his bandaged hand at them. "See?" "O-K" He said in a high-pitched singsong voice you might find coming from a puppet.
Beckett scoffed. "That still needs to be tended with."
"Uh." Sheppard raised a finger at Carson, turning to McKay with a baffled expression. "Besides that doc. Are you actually not vowing the end of the world because you're injured?"
Carson chimed in. "He's got a point Rodney."
"Oh, come on guys! Seriously, it's not that bad, even for me. And, I only complain when it's serious." McKay exclaimed, finding he was the only one coming to his defense, he even expected Elizabeth to help him out on this one, but it seemed she only wanted to move this whole thing along.
"Which, is nine accidents out of ten." Remarked Beckett, shaking his head. If he had a dime for every time the physicist came in with a scrape or a burn or a busted something-or-whatever he'd be a millionaire by now.
McKay snorted and was about to retort when Sheppard quickly added. "I think the shock went to his head."
"Did not." Rodney snapped, making the Major turn to him, hands shoved in his pockets, towering over the physicist, and leaning forward to impress that height. Rodney simply sucked up his chest, glaring at John.
"Did too; you didn't even know what day it was when we dropped you off in the infirmary." Sheppard added smoothly, grinning with a coyness that burned McKay.
"Hardly." McKay snapped, wanting to fold his arms but finding it impossible with the sling, which just made him more annoyed.
"Gentlemen." Weir spoke up firmly, having just about enough of the banter. She looked then to Beckett, finding the doctor seeming to want the same. "Please tell me you have some answers about what's going on."
"No, but McKay's gone loopy." Sheppard said under his breath, though with Rodney standing practically right next to him the physicist shot him a look, tightening his shoulders.
"Have not!" He spat back.
"John." Elizabeth reproached, trying to get them all on the same page and working together, which seemed harder then not sometimes with the way the two fought. Trying to sooth McKay's ruffled feathers she added. "Rodney, it's good to see you up and about. I'm, glad you're feeling better."
"Now can we please get down to business?"
"Least someone is happy to see me." McKay grumbled, catching John's attention.
"Hey I would have gotten you a get better bouquet but I can't exactly use the gate to dial 1-800 Flowers." Sheppard reflected, trying to sound as sincere as possible, though he couldn't help but hide a boyish smile.
McKay narrowed his eyes, finding the comment less then compassionate, wanting to smack that grin right off the man's face.
"Thanks for the sympathy." He replied sourly, it was all he could say at that point, looking back to Beckett as physicist tried to ignore the Major.
"Any time." John said from the corner of his mouth, making the physicist react with an even deeper scowl, not even bothering to continue the conversation. Besides, Weir seemed determined to regain the focus by any means.
"Dr. Beckett." She said with a sigh after both men had finally quieted down. "Is, is this one of your creatures?" Weir asked, hesitantly motioning to the black-furred carcass nailed open on the dissection tray.
"Space monkey." Sheppard said in a matter-of-fact tone, nodding towards the thing.
"I was thinking more like space weasel." Rodney corrected with a smile to Dr. Weir, after a moment causing the Major to turn to him with a distasteful look.
"Weas----have you ever seen a weasel look like that?" John asked utterly put-off by the physicist's suggestion.
McKay looked up at him, tightening his face up. "Uh, have you ever seen a monkey look like that?!"
"Not important." John snapped definitely. "Moreover, we'll name it later."
"Major, doctor please." Urged Dr. Weir, this was getting them all no where.
"Sorry." Both men seemed to say in unison, looking to Elizabeth's angry glare, causing Rodney to turn his eyes away toward the edge of the table, which he fingered absentmindedly. Sheppard simply gave a charming grin as if to say 'just having a little fun before all hell breaks loose, which I know it's going to.'
Beckett cleared his throat, bringing everyone's attention back to him. He placed the scalpel down, moving the magnification mirror away so everyone could get a full view of the creature.
"Hope we're not late." Came Ford as he jogged into the med-lab shortly followed by Teyla who looked very serious about being tardy. John gave her a wink, thought it was cute. "Well now the gang's all here." He quipped lightly, pulling his hands from his pockets and clapping them together, rubbing them in a mock sort of excitement. "So doc, what do we have here? Monday's lunch special?"
"Not entirely." Carson smirked slightly, wishing he had better news for them all as Aiden and Teyla gathered round the table, all eyes were on him now. Taking a deep breath, Beckett began. " From what I've been able to see here, granted I'm still running some more tests on the blood and skin samples I took earlier this morning, but I have gotten the DNA results back----well it's not at all what I thought."
Weir crossed her arms, hugging her elbows. "What exactly are we dealing with Carson?"
"At first, I thought the creatures might be a species native to this planet, or perhaps something the Ancients were studying.
Teyla finally tore her eyes away from the creature splayed out on the table and asked in a hesitant voice. "You mean, something the Ancestors might have brought back from another planet?"
"Exactly." Nodded Beckett, sighing through his nose after a moment. "But, with the DNA results I got back from a few fur strands, this---thing, is more closely related to one of Earth's domesticated animals." Even he knew the theory seemed faulty but, when something had the same genetic make up he'd seen a hundred times back on earth, it wasn't easy to ignore.
Sheppard pulled a hand from his pocket, holding it up to pause the doctor, speaking in a cynical disbelief. "Wait. You're telling us this is someone's poodle?"
"Mmm, more genetically comprisable to a feline." Carson corrected, looking up at the Major. He would have easily agreed with his disbelief of it all, it did seem highly incredible.
Shrugging, John pointed a thumb to his left at Rodney. "Oh, well that's nice. McKay's good with cats."
McKay snorted, pulling his head back with a grimace. "Yeah last time I checked, they didn't look like that Major."
"Domesticated animals?" Teyla asked not exactly understanding the Earth term. How could one domesticate, if that was the right word, a wild beast?
"Yeah, back on earth we have a few animals bred and trained as pets, friendly companions of sorts." "They're a lot cuter then that, trust me." Explained Sheppard, glancing over with a small smirk to the Athosian.
Ford shook his head, wondering how the hell the thing on the table could have been anything like a cat once. "So you're saying the Ancients had pets in the city?"
"Well why not? Hell, they kept house plants didn't they?" John replied derisively, sobering when he saw the look of utter seriousness on Weir's face as she spoke up.
"More importantly doctor, why does it look like that?"
"I thought it might have been radiation at first."
Backing away, Sheppard commented with a defensive look, not exactly taking to the whole idea of glowing in the dark. "Whoa now see I'm not liking this already."
McKay replied airily, only slightly amused at John's response. "Easy Major. I didn't pick up any radioactive readings off the generator."
Sheppard raised a brow, sounding all too severe. "Was that before or after you blew it up?" Granted, now wasn't the best time to be pushing McKay's buttons, but, hey, if they were going to end up knee deep in black fuzz-balls he might as well have a little fun before the ship went down, right?
"Not, the point." Rodney quipped angrily, giving the Major a brief glare before turning his attentions to the rest of the group, taking on a more formal tone. "For the time we spent with the generator, the most it gave off was heat. As incredibly unbearable as it was, that's was all." He remembered the wretched warmth, in fact, Rodney believed at this point, he'd never forget it.
"So what did do it?" Aiden asked finally, feeling the question didn't really need to be said, just no one else really seemed to want to be the one to ask it.
"Inbreeding." Beckett replied bluntly after a long moment, resting his hands on the table, feeling a large weight drop into his stomach.
Weir blinked, reiterating in a mixture of confusion and worry. "Inbreeding?"
Sheppard spoke up quickly, having to add his own repartee. "You mean slack-jawed, buck-tooth, cross-eyed, Deliverance inbreeding?"
"Much less colorful, but yes. Whatever these creatures were beforehand, centuries of inbreeding produced this. I mean, look at this one; two left arms, this over here; the beginnings of another foot. Even inside I've come across duplicated organs; a second lung, a deformed liver." "I'm surprised they've lived as long as they did in there."
Elizabeth pulled her arms around her more, trying to relieve a large shiver that had suddenly crawled up her spine, the very idea chilling in itself. "But besides the darkness and, until now, undisturbed environment, how exactly did they survive all these years?"
"Well, I took samples from this one's stomach and analyzed it. This is where it really gets nasty." Carson said tentatively.
"Let me guess, not dead house plants?" John mused softly; trying to ease the doctor's obvious repulsion.
Beckett laughed awkwardly before he became disturbed once more. "You're right there John. What I did find was large remains of, well, other creatures."
"You mean they eat each other?" Twisting his face, Ford looked down at the dissected creature, remarking on the its sharp claws and even sharper teeth. He supposed there was no honor amongst sickly alien creatures, then again, what more did he expect.
"Beats the food at the mess hall." John shrugged, getting a glare from Weir to knock off the commentary.
"It gets worse." Beckett said hesitantly, not wanting to lay out any more then he already had. "They also seemed to have an accelerated reproductive system and growth rate, no doubt from the severity of their mutation." Meaning if the things did reproduce in a normal sexual fashion, who knew how large a litter produced, and he could only begin to fathom the speed of the development process.
"Like rabbits." Mutter McKay, scratching his chest with his good hand, feeling the prickly sting of sweat, he really didn't want to be in this room anymore with this thing, he even felt the beginnings of a midmorning hunger coming on, though his appetite just didn't seem to agree.
"Except from what I can tell the accelerated growth rate and underdevelopment have reeked havoc on their brain development." The doctor added, picking up long, thinly pronged, pair of twisters along with a blunt ended probe, making towards the creature's head.
"So they're dumb?" Sheppard remarked trying to keep all the medical babble straight in his head. It had been awhile since high school biology, and that was with nice Earth based animals, not crazy space monkeys. That, and he really didn't need to see Beckett 'have at it' on this thing.
Carson agreed, grasping a flap of skin near the creature's skull and pulling it back, tapping a lobe within with the tip of the probe, it made a squishing sound that turned Rodney's stomach over. Yeah, the appetite was definitely gone now. "In a way. This lobe for instance, regulates body heat, it's practically gone. I mean the damn thing might as well be cold-blooded."
"The generator." The physicist muttered, mouth beginning to gape open.
"What?" Beckett asked standing back up.
Looking to each of them in a stunned silence, it seemed that McKay's brain suddenly smack him back into reality from within, causing him to stutter. Th---the generator. Ah---the a, the heat it gives off." "Damn it how could I have been so stupid not to see it."
"Don't answer that!" He snapped at John who held up a finger about to make a more then likely cleverly mocking response.
Rodney continued relentlessly. "These things, I thought it was strange that they weren't afraid of the light or the darkness, and yet something kept them in the generator room behind the walls. It was the heat! That's why they scattered to the halls whenever I turned the machine off."
John dropped his hand, this was getting too extreme even for him now. "So, they're really stupid."
"Hardly, it's basic animal instinct. If their bodies are cold-blooded the creatures will, seek out the nearest warmth. House their nests round it, thrive where there's heat." McKay prattled off.
Aiden lightly mentioned, starting to see where the physicist was heading. "But the generator's off now, it's been off for a few hours now."
"Meaning?" Weir asked, still in the dark and liking at all where this conversation was going.
"Meaning---" Rodney added hastily. "---that without the generator on to give off the necessary level of heat, the creatures will instinctively spread out and try to find it elsewhere."
"And where exactly do you think they're going to go McKay?!" The Major asked harshly, finally putting all the pieces together, about how badly the physicist had screwed them all by blasting the crap out of the only thing keeping the things a bay.
"Oh God." The same realization seemed to come to Rodney as well, his eyes lowered, voice wavered from its usual strong defiant tone. Why didn't he realize it sooner, he could have saved them all so much more time. He was just so focused on getting himself out of the damn generator room, he didn't even stop to think.
"Wonderful." Said John exasperated, he would have pummeled the man into the ground right now if he wasn't afraid of getting in serious trouble with his leader, even though she looked as if slightly wishing she could do the same. "So what are we going to do now?"
Feeling the situation beginning to slip through her fingers, Weir made the most obvious suggestion. "Well, if we seal off sector, including the aqua-ducts you and Carson found then eventually they'll die off without the heat, correct?"
"No." McKay said towards his feet, looking up suddenly, frowning more intensely then he had in all the days Sheppard had known him.
"What do you mean no?" John asked stridently, sensing the man knew more then he was spilling out.
Rodney spoke slowly, finding this seemed to be the one bit of information that he couldn't just keep from anyone, first Beckett, now the rest. "No they won't die off. These things, literally chewed through the metal of the ceilings and walls in that sector. It doesn't matter what you seal up, eventually they're just going to eat their way through."
"What, are you telling me Rodney?" Elizabeth drew closer to the table, catching the physicist right in the eye.
"I'm saying----I'm saying there's no stopping them and in a few days we're going to up to our necks in creatures. And I'm pretty damn sure that now that they've got a taste of humans, there's something better on the menu then their nest mates." McKay spat in that non-hesitant when spelling out their most certain doom kind of way he always seemed to do. It was better way of putting 'we're all gonna die' to them.
"Dr. Weir?" Came a voice from the overhead intercom, seeming to make everyone in the med-lab jump.
"Go ahead Peter." Elizabeth replied quickly, recognizing the gate technician's voice.
"Dr. Weir I think there's something you should see."
"We'll be right there." Weir confirmed expecting everyone to follow her. Beckett ripped off his gloves and tossed them on the table, hurrying behind everyone else.
It seemed to take ages to make the simple walk from the infirmary to the gate control room, but Weir suspected that was from the dreaded feeling that sat in the middle of her mind, making time seem to move slower. They reached the control room, clamoring up the stairs and entered to find Grodin sitting at the system's panel, waiting eagerly for them. He began even before they were all settled in the room. "I placed a sample of the DNA from Dr. Beckett's tests in the system tracker, I've been trying varying levels of heat signals."
"And?" Weir asked shortly, not exactly wanting to hear the answer.
Grodin punched up a few commands on his lap top and a enlarged view of the sector popped up on the large screen on the main panel as he went though a hurried explanation. "And this is the reading I got when I focused the sensors on the lowest heat level, specifically targeting the creature's DNA." Hitting a few keys upon the consol, there was a change on the screen, where there was blank area in the middle of the sector, now hundreds upon hundreds of small red blips pockmarked the area, seeming to all be gathered up and around the sealed door.
Sheppard let out a low whistle at seeing the massive sea of red spots on the screen. He thought there might have been an hundred maybe two at the most, but from what he could see, and with a quick mental count found more then several, thousand creatures littering the sector.
Swallowing hard, Elizabeth shifted into safety mode, trying to think of the best way to head the creatures off, and keep them from flooding the city. "Tell the team down there to seal off the door and the auqa-ducts."
"It's not going to matter." McKay spoke up from where he stood by the control panels, drawing his eyes away from the red speckled screen, God, hadn't she been listening to him?
"Rodney, unless you have a better idea, this might be the only thing that will buy us a little more time." Elizabeth turned to him, speaking firmly. Finding the man had done them all enough and negativity wasn't going to get them anywhere but dead, she needed to concentrate now on solving the problem before they were overrun.
"What if we flood the area?" Beckett suggested, knowing that though there were a good number more creatures then he had thought there were, they were still air breathing mammals, cutting the air meant death.
Rodney shoved the comment off with a wavering hand, staring at the screen as he strain his mind for a solution. "That would take too long, besides, that section of the city is huge, the type of pumping it would take to fill a space that large---"
"We get it, no water." John snapped, not seeing McKay coming up with anything himself and still having the audacity to say that to the doctor.
"We could blow it up." Remarked Ford, looking at those gathered round him, ready to run in there himself and plant the c4.
Sheppard jerked his head up, nodding along with the young lieutenant. "Now we're talking."
Elizabeth gazed at them both, finding the suggestion out of the question. "I don't think so. This city is in shambles as it is, there's not telling what a blast like that would cause. There has to be another way." She couldn't have them blowing up every section of the city that was a threat, with their luck the resulting shock could take the whole of Atlantis back down into the ocean, dragging them with it.
Teyla turned to Sheppard, speaking helpfully. "Back on my home planet, whenever animals would burrow beneath our crops, we would have to smoke them out using fire."
John nodded, then remembering what Beckett had told them about the things and their heat obsession. "Mmmm, fire would only draw them nearer I would guess, from what the doc said. Besides, the area is still too big, they could just slip behind a wall or something."
Everyone grew silent then, all eyes drawn to the screen as the red blips seemed to grow in number, drawing more from all over the sector. Weir looked to each member of her team, shocked at how calm everyone seemed to be, when she realized it was fear that they all held. A silent sort of fear one would have at watching a bus rolling at you full speed and inches away. There was no need to scream and cry out, only the realization of, yes, that's a bus, coming at me. Yes, those were creatures, thousands of them beating down at their doors. Weir demanded more from them. "No, we're are far from finished and you're not giving me enough options. At this rate we'll have to evacuate the city through the Stargate."
"To where?" John pulled his eyes away, glaring up at her. "I'm sure the Athosians would be more then glad to bunk huts with us. No offence Teyla." He gave the woman a small smile, not wanting to sound harsh, just he really didn't like to impose, and not for this. This was their problem, not Teyla's people. Theirs.
"None taken John." Teyla smiled back, nodding at him as they shared a quiet moment. Even if they were to evacuate the city, she would stay by them all. Her place was here now.
"If only we had something that could wipe them out all at once, rid every trace of them in one shot." Beckett chewed at his thumb nail, pulling his hand away an waving it over the screen in a single swipe.
McKay seemed to have another one of those brain smacks when he suddenly jammed a hand into his breast pocket, pulling out the pen he had tried to flush yesterday in his half-diluted experiment while he and Carson were stuck up in the bathroom. "My pen." He said softly, looking it over, an idea slowly brimming in his mind, itching its way forward, he only now had to find the right spot to scratch it.
"What did you say Rodney?" Weir looked to him, finding the man holding up a clicky-pen as if it were the key to everything.
"Organic materials." McKay replied, though it wasn't really that much of a reply, waving the pen back and forth in his hand as he spoke, gazing up to them all as he smiled, excitement brimming in his eyes.
"Told you he went nuts." Sheppard remarked, shaking his head. And a good time for it to happen too. Maybe he'd pushed to hard, though in truth this whole mess was, technically, the man's fault.
Coming back to reality enough to snidely shut the Major up, Rodney turned to the doctor. "det-det-det---The—toilets Beckett."
"Aye, what about them?" Carson shrugged, confused as to what Rodney was getting at.
McKay licked his lips talking wildly with his hands as he place the sacred pen back into his pocket. "If---and I use the if lightly; if we could send a large enough energy wave through the crystals it would dissolve anything in its path, anything organic that it touches that is. There must be hundreds of bathrooms around Atlantis, we just have to dismantle a few." He grinned, finding himself all too cunning.
John raised a brow, trying to get this straight. "You want to flush, them out?"
"Clever." McKay frowned at him before regaining his excitement, the plan unfolding itself within his mind as it poured from his lips. "Yes, Beam splitters, and mirrors set up in the proper angles could insure floor to ceiling coverage. Anything in the ray's path would be instantly eradicated."
"Yeah, but what about the ones in the walls?" Aiden asked, pointing to the red specks that were still lingering in the far reaches of the sector, not ready to add themselves to the bright glowing mass by the door.
"If we could get the generator back on, that would draw the creatures back into the room, the rest you could attract with flares, anything that causes immense heat. It doesn't matter---as long as we can get them into the generator room or a least into the aqua-ducts, we can dissolve them. All I need is to build a detonator that will surge the generator to maximum power, the rest is a chain reaction." Rodney added simply, expecting everyone to understand the complex idea that he had tried to put out plainly enough for every one, though he instead was met by stunned silence. How more layman can I get for Christ-sakes? He thought.
"You know---" Sheppard said slowly, speaking up finally, feeling that whatever happened now was out of his hands, but expected this type of thing to come from McKay. The man seemed to pull rare information from his head like a rabbit out of a magician's hat. John had to admit he was impressed and a little more confused at what Rodney was proposing, but it was still damn remarkable. "--it's crazy enough to work."
Finding it the best plan she has heard so far, Weir asked the inevitable. "How long could it take you to make a device like that?"
Calculating in his head the physicist abruptly answered. "Ah, a few days at the most, calibrations, angle configurations not to mention tweaking the beam splitters." That, and he had to convince himself that the damn thing would work in the first place, but this was something he couldn't exactly let on to anyone else.
"You have a day." Weir said curtly. If what McKay had said earlier about the creature's destructive capabilities was true, there was no telling how long it would take them to get through the doorway and into the main of the city. They needed to use what little time they had left and use it well, even if that meant an all-nighter for the science staff.
Laughing at the woman's complete misunderstanding of the intricacies of such a plan, McKay replied more hardnosed then he had meant to. "But, Elizabeth---the detonator itself will take at least a day."
Dr. Weir didn't flinch, standing firm on her order. "You have one day Rodney; use whoever you have to, to help you out. Otherwise, I'll start evacuations." With that she turned to leave, making the necessary arrangements just incase all went to hell and the planned failed or the creatures broke out sooner then expected.
"You're not understanding----" Rodney called after her, ready to follow Weir, express his need for more time, that she was being complete unreasonable about something she obviously knew nothing about. It wasn't like he knew that much about it that well either, but still. Her expectations were set too high and he really didn't need anymore pressure then what was already heaped on his shoulders. McKay found himself stopped by an arm held up to his chest as he looked up to see John blocking his way.
"Ah, you heard the lady. Get splitting." John smirked, patting gawking physicist on the chest.
A/N: Ah a plan! And a insane one at that! But can such a zany plan be pulled off? WHO KNOWS!!! Well, I do, but, you'll just have to wait till the next chapter. Moohoohaha. Let's hope McKay can practice what he preaches, pull that old bunny and put it to use.