CHAPTER SIXTEEN: RAY OF LIGHT
Rodney was floating now, drifting along a strange stream of consciousness that had his thoughts bouncing randomly from idea to idea. Vaguely he could tell he was still in the chair—he could feel the tackiness around his wrists and ankles where the metal restraints had cut into his skin and rimed them with dried blood like frost on a window—but there wasn't much real pain left. He didn't want to open his eyes, didn't want to see the harsh black and white world that had been his final resting place, didn't want to see the Weapon's triumphant grin as he became as ghostly as the machine itself.
It was just waiting, either for him to die, or for one more chance to destroy something...and then for him to die in the process. Either way, it was a win-win situation for the Weapon.
Either way it erased one more life from existence.
He started drifting deeper into wherever it was he was headed for, planning on giving up, when something new prickled his skin.
Warmth.
His expression frowned, not quite understanding what it was. It was so alien from the cold light of the Weapon. But something warm was definitely touching his right arm.
Against their will, the blue eyes blinked open.
He saw the hologram first, still standing there about two feet away, but its expression was only curious now. It was staring up at the ceiling over the chair, obviously watching something on the screens. It no longer had that sense of urgency on its face.
Strange.
Not strange enough for the doctor to look up, though. He didn't want to see what his failure had caused. Was it all over? Was everyone dead...or taken?
Images crossed his mind of Sheppard kneeling before the Wraith, defiant to the end as they tortured him for information about Atlantis and Earth, of Ford and Teyla dying by degrees as their youth was sucked from them, of the triumph of those horrible creatures laying waste to the entire population of this city...of then going to Atlantis to finish the job....
They had all died because of him. Because he could not finish what he had started.
Rodney's eyes drifted down to the part of his arm that felt warm...and his lips lifted into the faintest of smiles despite the misery coloring his unsound mind.
Sunlight.
It poured thickly through the hole in the ceiling, and it had shifted enough to touch his arm. He followed the light upwards, to the hole, and to the blue sky beyond. The smile grew. He had been right to keep the defensive shield off—it was worth the ceiling potentially coming down on his head to be able to see the sky now.
At least...it was something.
He just wished he could float out that hole and tell them...tell them....
"I'm sorry," he whispered.
The hologram turned, watching as McKay's eyes closed again, not sure if he had actually spoken just then or not. It frowned slightly, then looked back at the projections. It had just seen a strange new ship destroy both Wraith darts.
The threat to Deucalion was over.
At least the one from outside this room.
The brown eyes returned to the still form of the doctor, and measured the white glow still surrounding him. Its worry grew as it felt the growing impatience of the Weapon.
It was still waiting to fire...and take its payment.
----------------------------------------------------
Sheppard stopped before the metal door blocking the entrance to the Central Courtyard, watching as Che stood to attention and Cusp cowered against the wall. Teyla and Ford stood at the Major's back, both in full glare mode.
"Well?" he demanded, when neither Deucalion seemed inclined to open the door.
"The Central Courtyard is off limits when the Weapon is working," Lieutenant Che stated firmly. "We can not open this door until the Weapon's cycle—"
"Bull-crap," Sheppard spat. "Open it."
"I can't," she hissed back. "It won't open. No one can open it."
"I can," Ford smiled softly. Sheppard looked back at the young man, and then nodded. Che looked confused as the major grabbed her arm and dragged her away.
"What is he going to do?" she demanded, her eyes on the lieutenant as he knelt in front of the door and pulled something from his vest, "What is he doing!"
Teyla nudged Cusp in front of her, following the major and Che down the hall, the young man really just trying his best not to pee in his pants.
Che struggled in Sheppard's grip, "I asked you a question! Answer me!"
"What? Answer a Deucalion's question? Now, that wouldn't be fair now, would it? Not unless I lied, of course—that'd be fair. So fine, here's your answer—he's testing for termites."
They moved around a corner, Che's expression hateful and scared at the same time. A moment later, Ford's running footsteps echoed down the concrete hall behind them, and he rounded the corner with a smile.
"Fire in the hole, Major!" he called, hitting the detonator on his remote.
The explosion was small and contained, but also very effective. As the small group rounded the corner again, they saw the metal door had been blown of its hinges, landing about five feet away across the marble floor of the courtyard. It had gouged ugly black lines into the porous soft stone.
"Looks like you've a pretty bad termite problem," Sheppard said darkly, finally letting Lieutenant Che's arm go. "One down," he announced to Ford, and the lieutenant nodded. Che rubbed her arm where Sheppard's fingers had dug into her skin as the Major and Ford jogged into the courtyard.
"Go on," Teyla ordered softly, still standing behind Che and Cusp, her hands resting on her gun for emphasis. The two Deucalions sighed heavily, but did as they were told.
---------------------------------------------
"Which one is it?" Sheppard asked, following Ford as the younger man headed to one side of the massive glass aula.
"This one sir," the lieutenant answered, skidding to a halt in front of a metal door that appeared larger than the rest. "It doesn't slide sideways like the rest of them sir," he noted, pointing up, "it came down from above."
"Like a garage door?"
"Yes, except it doesn't fold. It just came down."
"Well, doesn't matter. Find its weak points and blow it down, lieutenant."
"Yes sir!" Ford replied, unable to resist a smile at the prospect.
"Wait!"
Both Sheppard and Ford turned around at the yell, as did Teyla, Cusp and Che standing off to one side, everyone looking towards the entrance to the courtyard that they had blown up. Colonel Luphron, Governor Borin and about twelve armed guards jogged towards them.
Ford sent a spray of machine gun fire into the air, stopping them in their tracks.
"I'm guessing those little rifles of yours aren't quite as quick on the job," Sheppard quipped, smiling at the Colonel.
Some of the more brave guards levered their rifles at the three Atlanteans regardless, but Luphron held up a hand, forestalling any movement.
"Wait, Major Sheppard, please, think about what you are doing."
"I'm rescuing my man, Colonel. What are you doing?"
"Trying to stop you from destroying our only means of defense against the Wraith!"
"You should have thought of that before—"
"The Weapon was damaged!" Governor Borin's shrill voice interrupted, stalking forward towards the Major. "You saw for yourselves how defenseless we are without it! It had to be fixed! And we couldn't do it—only your Doctor McKay could. What would you have done?!"
"I would have ASKED!" Sheppard yelled back. "And I would have given us the opportunity to find another way, the option to decide for ourselves what could be done. But you didn't do that. You lied and stole something incredibly important to us, and now we're taking it back." He whipped around, "Blow the door Lieutenant."
"No!" Luphron shouted, "Don't!"
"Give me one reason why I shouldn't, other than you people trying to save your own skins," Sheppard hissed back.
"Because he's not behind that door!"
Sheppard straightened, cocking his head to one side.
"Say what?"
Luphron took in a deep breath, "He's not inside there. It doesn't lead anywhere. It's just a corridor...and some kind of transportation device."
Ford was staring contemplatively at the door now, while Sheppard's eyes narrowed on the blond Colonel.
"How do you know?"
"It's written. The real Weapon's location is hidden...in case anyone tried to do what you're doing. We know it's nearby, but we don't know where."
Sheppard's eyes sparkled, torn now. His upper lip lifted into a sneer.
"You know what, Luphron? You've lied to us so much, I can't even tell when you're not lying anymore."
"I am not lying."
"How do I know that?"
The Colonel opened his mouth, then shut it. He had no answer to that.
"Major Sheppard," Teyla's quiet voice floated above the tension in the massive room.
Sheppard didn't take his eyes off Luphron, "Yes Teyla?"
"Doctor McKay did tell us that he had another way out of the Weapon. He said something about climbing out."
"So?"
"So, if there is indeed a hole in the roof of the Weapon, then perhaps we can see it? We know that it is located close to this glass dome, because the light erupted out of the center of the city. Perhaps the men in Jumper 1 can find it?"
Luphron grimaced and Sheppard frowned. Ford continued to stare longingly at the door he wanted to blow up, while Teyla did what she could to bring reason back to the furious major's mind.
Finally, the major nodded. He hit his radio.
"Stackhouse."
"Yes sir?"
"Where are you?"
"Hovering not far from the city, sir. We're keeping an eye out to make sure no more Wraith appear unexpectedly sir."
"Good man. Look, I need you to come back inside the Illusion."
"Yes sir. Be there in two minutes."
There was a pause then, with the two sets of people still glaring at each other. Finally, Governor Borin stepped forward.
"Major, I...I just....I did want to thank you for destroying those last four Wraith ships. We did not know you had that kind of firepower."
Sheppard's eyes flicked to her, "I didn't do it for you."
Her eyes lowered. Sheppard looked away, back to Luphron. The Colonel managed to match the stare, but there were hints of sorrow around the edges of his eyes.
"Sir," Stackhouse's voice came in over the radio, "We're inside sir."
"Okay. I need you to focus your attention around the large glass dome in the center of the city. Start looking for—"
"Glass dome, sir?"
"Yes," Sheppard looked up to the sky shining through the glass overhead, "You should easily see the large...." Suddenly, it clicked. How was it possible that a roof as fragile as the one overhead wasn't damaged? There should have been glass fragments all over the courtyard floor, shattered windows from the barrage of gunfire from the Wraith ships...but all he saw were a few bits of concrete dust. "They don't see it," he realized wonderingly, his voice soft. Then, more into his radio, "Stackhouse, can you locate where we are standing?"
Another pause, and then Greene's voice answered, "We have you on screen, sir. You're in the middle of the city, beneath a fairly large concrete roof. I suppose it could be a dome, but it is not made of glass."
"No kidding," Sheppard breathed, and his eyebrow quirked as he saw the Puddle Jumper appear in the sky overhead and settle into a hover. He looked around at the places where it appeared that "windows" in the ceiling were open.
"Can you see any openings in the roof, Jumper 1?"
"Yes sir. There appear to be a number of cut openings, and at least one jagged hole that was probably created by weapons fire."
"A jagged hole," Sheppard repeated, staring at the illusory ceiling—it had the appearance of being pristine. "Hang on, Stackhouse. Stay where you are."
The Major looked around, then walked over to where a small chunk of broken concrete about the size of small rock rested on the floor. Picking it up, he was suddenly reminded of their conversation with McKay when they were all standing outside the mesa's wall. That seemed like years ago. Maybe I should just show you, McKay had said smugly, right before throwing a rock through the illusion he had seen. Clever, sarcastic, obnoxious son of a bitch.
Please let him be okay.
"What are you thinking sir?" Ford asked, echoing the thoughts of everyone standing in that courtyard.
"I'm wondering if McKay would have figured this out sooner than us if he were here," Sheppard replied, tossing the rock in his hand. "I'm going to see if I can break a window."
"Why?"
"Because I'm pretty sure I'm not even going to get close."
And leaning back, the major did his best Cy Young impression, throwing the rock with all his might up towards the ceiling.
It hit something hard about two thirds of the way there, the illusion rippling enough to show a concrete ceiling about a story's width below the illusory glass ceiling, before the rock came back down and the illusion of open space returned. There was a room hidden above their heads, underneath the dome.
"Light above," Lieutenant Che hissed, her eyes wide. "I had no idea...."
"No," Sheppard replied, staring back at the Governor, "but your Governor and the Colonel did. She can see the dome's roof from her office."
"So?" the older woman challenged back, "that doesn't mean I knew the Weapon was housed up there! I just...."
"That's enough!" Colonel Luphron shouted, staring at the woman by his side. Borin's eyes widened as she looked back at him, "They don't care, Barbara. Nothing we say now matters anymore. I say we just get out of their way."
"Got that right," Sheppard agreed. He tapped his radio again, "Stackhouse."
"Yes sir?"
"See a place somewhere outside of this building where you can drop a line down and pick me up?"
"Um...yeah. Move forward a couple of steps, will you Major?"
Sheppard complied, moving forward.
"Okay, we've got you pinpointed. From where you're standing, there looks to be an open area at 2:00. We'll drop a rope down and pick you up. Where do you need us to take you?"
"Onto the roof, Stackhouse, where else?" Sheppard turned to Ford, and pointed towards the wall where 2:00 would be. There was no door there. "Ford, blow up that wall, will ya?"
The lieutenant's lips cracked into a grin.
-------------------------------------------------------------
TBC
A/N – I'm still working on the next bit...but it will come, I promise!