PARADISE
By NotTasha
PART 2: SHAKE UP
The earth heaved and rolled. The trees slashed at the sky; rocks rolled; branches snapped and tossed; the ocean turned furious and the mountain growled.
McKay stood, terrified, looking in all directions as the trees about him swayed alarmingly. Ford, halfway up a tree, dropped to the ground and rolled. Teyla ran to him. Sheppard gripped his P90 as he hunkered down as everything shook and cracked and shuddered.
Keeping his eyes roving, the major moved, shoving one hand against McKay's shoulder to get him further from the violently swaying trees. Rodney stumbled, disoriented, but followed where Sheppard indicated, trying to get to a clearing. Something snapped, something fell, something crumbled and tottered and shattered. Sheppard looked for Teyla and Ford as he propelled McKay. He couldn't find them. "Ford!" he shouted, as McKay suddenly dropped from under his hand, and Sheppard went with him.
It was over in a matter of moments. One minute, he was struggling to keep moving forward on the ground that shifted alarmingly beneath his feet – the next moment he was lying on his stomach, stretched out in the heady greenness that banked the island. And once again, all was still.
John bolted upright, quickly scanning for his people. McKay was beside him, lying with his hands thrown over his head and face buried in the undergrowth. "McKay!" John shouted, slapping the astrophysics on his leg. "Are you okay?"
"Fff…Fine… fine…" McKay muttered into the earth.
Sheppard took him at his word, as he stood, somewhat unsteadily and shouted for the others. "Ford! Teyla!"
They appeared, standing slowly and getting their bearings. They looked to each other first, before Ford declared. "We're fine… shook up, but fine." Behind them, the volcano belched gray smoke.
"Well, that was interesting," Sheppard commented. "You know, I think we've seen enough of this place. Let's get the hell out of here."
Rodney lifted the hands from his head, stared up at the major and apparently took his suggestion as a damn good idea. He grabbed the pack that had landed half under him and pulled it to his lap. A curious look crossed his face as he heard the things within fall together. "Oh no," he cried. Any thought of an immediate departure seemed to flee the Canadian as he unzipped the pouch and started pawing through it. "No…" he muttered through gritted teeth. "Aw, crap! This is not good…. Not good."
"What?" Sheppard snapped tiredly.
With an expression akin to bereavement, McKay pulled his laptop from the pack. His expression was so distraught, that Sheppard almost laughed. "Smashed…" McKay said with a gulp. He rooted around further, coming up with his scanner. "Aw… hell…" he sighed, turning it over in his hand, poking a few buttons experimentally. "No… no … no…"
"You broke them?" Sheppard asked as Teyla and Ford joined them.
Looking heartbroken, McKay stated, "I was trying to protect them." He clutched the pack to his chest in demonstration.
"And fell on them," Sheppard completed.
"Aw, this sucks," McKay muttered, picking up another of his Ancient devices and shaking it discontentedly. "This really really sucks."
"You can fix them though," Sheppard stated.
"Well, not here, no!" McKay spat back.
"So, you know the easy solution to that," John replied. He extended a hand to the sitting scientist.
McKay took the proffered hand and struggled to his feet. He seemed to shake off some of his grief as he asked, "Everyone okay?" and he glanced to the others.
"We are unharmed," Teyla explained rather patiently.
"I'll be better when we get out of here," Ford declared as he backtracked toward the trees, looking for his dropped loot. He picked up the bag and nodded toward the gate. "Time to go."
Teyla found her samples and followed the lieutenant. Sheppard and McKay wasted no time following suit.
"Active volcano," McKay uttered as he walked, clutching the pack with its broken contents. "I suppose it's to be expected that there may be some rumbling. The island appears to be in a growing stage. I wouldn't be surprised if we didn't see a lava event." His fear seemed to be tempered with the thrill of discovery as he gazed back to the smoking mound behind them. "Fascinating really. We really must send a team of geologist back to record the event. Pity that my equipment isn't working because I'd start taking readings now. Amazing that the gate is still usable, considering the unstable environment."
"Yeah, yeah, yeah," Sheppard responded, brushing the bits of debris from his vest as the trod down the hill and back toward the gate. "Let's just get out of here and send some rock hounds out instead." There was something terribly unnerving about having the ground move beneath you – it just wasn't right!
Teyla, Ford and Sheppard stood in a loose formation at the brink of the gate as McKay approached the DHD. "Dial it!" Sheppard ordered impatiently.
"Just a moment," McKay uttered, his face drawn with concern as he stared at the DHD and then stepped back a few feet, gazing beneath it. "Curious," he muttered. "Now how did that get…? Hang on." He set down his pack and fussed around beneath the device.
A deep grumble repeated, their only warning as the ground shuddered again. "McKay!" Sheppard shouted, bracing himself for the next onslaught. "Dial it, now!"
"Right! It should be ready!" McKay straightened and leaned against the DHD, trying to keep his balance as the ground bucked, and the volcano rumbled. Teyla reached out her hands, grasping onto Sheppard's arm with one, and Ford with the other. The gate hummed as McKay engaged the chevrons … Sheppard turned, waiting for the instant the event horizon appeared, ready to be released them from their tilting world. His eyes darted, watching the first three chevrons immediately illuminate – and no more.
"McKay!" Sheppard turned furious eyes on the scientist who seemed frozen over the DHD.
"Oh no," Rodney muttered, his hands flying again, pressing down on the buttons, shoving, hammering, as the ground continued its unorthodox machinations. Teyla clung to Ford and Sheppard, swaying along with the earth… and then the quaking quieted again, and the volcano beyond the hill stopped its growl, sending up a plume of gray ash above the trees.
McKay, his head still lowered over the DHD, raised his eyes to the gate, and quietly tried the buttons again. The gate hummed but did nothing more. "Ah…" he started, his face tight with worry. "We have a problem."
"What's going on?" Sheppard demanded. "Why didn't you finish the address?"
McKay kept nervously pressing on the buttons, eyes on the gate, watching the three illuminated chevrons. "It's... stuck."
"What?" Ford exclaimed, stepping beside the scientist. "What do you mean… 'stuck'?"
His hand still moving about on the controls, McKay frowned deeply. "Okay, I should be able to make it reset. This sequence should clear the memory and allow me to… Okay, maybe not…" His gaze flickered between Ford and Sheppard. "It's not working."
"What's going on, McKay?" Sheppard grumbled, watching the Candian's uneasy movements.
Sighing, Rodney stepped back and stared under the DHD again. "The ground beneath has… shifted. See… there…a crack?" He pointed to where the ground had uplifted, created a shelf only an inch or two high… running under the base of the DHD.
"And…" Sheppard led on.
"It's affected the DHD, of course! Who knows what's been thrown off kilter inside," Rodney stated, poking again at the controls. "One of the crystals had already fallen loose. I managed to fix that, but I was in the process of dialing during that last shake-up -- it seems to have been the coup de grâce."
"Meaning…" Ford stated, looking apprehensively at the non-responding controls.
"The DHD is not working," Rodney stated. "Broken… ruined… non-operational… defunct... busted… kaput… wrecked…"
Sheppard glanced up at the partially dialed symbols on the still thrumming gate. "That's not good…" he tried.
McKay tried to smile. "Oh, that's an understatement, Major."
"You can't shut it down?" Ford asked.
Irritated, McKay shook his head. "Working on it, Lieutenant. Working on it…"
"It should reset itself after 38 minutes," Sheppard tried.
Letting out a disgusted breath, McKay explained, "That only works when the wormhole is open. No open wormhole – no 38 minutes."
"Dr. McKay, can Atlantis dial our position if we cannot reach them?" Teyla asked, seeing a definite problem.
"You would think so," McKay said with a grimace. "They probably could if we were back in our home galaxy but..."
"But what, McKay," Sheppard got out.
With a sigh, McKay explained, "There seems to be a difference with the function of the DHD's in the Pegasus Galaxy. They have a habit of... freezing up... if the dialing sequence isn't completed."
"So they can't reach us?" Sheppard tried.
"Not while the gate is partially engaged," Rodney responded, shaking his head.
"So… how do we un-engage it?" Sheppard tried.
Screwing his face up, McKay responded again with, "Working on it!"
"How long?" Sheppard asked, pressing closer. Teyla and Ford were right beside him.
Picking up his pack, McKay shook it and declared, "If my laptop was working, I'd be done by now. If my scanner… if any of this… I'd know exactly what to work on first."
"Okay," Sheppard said, trying to keep his voice even, "No laptop, so you have to use your own brainpower. Think you can manage that, Mr. Genius?"
McKay glowered.
"How long?" Sheppard asked again, leaning over McKay's shoulder.
"If I knew how long it would take, that would mean I knew what it would take to rectify the situation. If I knew that, I'd have it fixed already," McKay spat out, still fussing with the controls. He groaned with annoyance when another attempt did nothing to quiet the humming gate.
"So, you don't know how to fix it?" Ford tried, uneasily.
"Of course I know how to fix it," McKay shot back. "I just haven't decided on the correct course of action." He shot his audience a glare and grumbled, "If you'd just STEP BACK and give me a few inches to work in, I might have a chance of solving this problem!"
Realizing that they were indeed crowding the scientist, the three stepped back, and watched McKay's fretful movements, as he tried one sequence after another. When Ford sighed loudly, McKay grumbled. "Further…" He glanced over his shoulder at the lieutenant, and fluttered a hand, indicating that greater distance was requested.
"Come on," Sheppard muttered. "Let's let the big man have his space." He shouldered his pack and stepped away, thinking that, since they couldn't leave the planet, they'd might as well continue their exploration while McKay resolved their little problem. "Ford, Teyla, let's see what else we can find. McKay?" John waited a second, expecting some sort of response. "McKAY!" he tried again.
Rodney cringed and grumbled. "Can't you see I'm busy?"
"We're going to scout around a bit more."
"Fine, fine," McKay muttered, grabbing for his pack and rustling through it, looking for anything that escaped damage.
Sheppard nodded to Ford and Teyla. They fanned out, moving through he immediate vicinity. The hill and the tall trees had kept them from taking puddle jumper to this spot, and now Sheppard dreaded that choice. They might have been able to reset the gate if they could access the jumper's controls. Well, it was only a matter of time, Sheppard decided, and McKay would have the problem fixed. Might as well enjoy the extra time – still, he couldn't help throwing glances toward the volcano, thinking about Pompei and how badly that went.
There wasn't much to discover near the gate, and soon the team found themselves with nothing further to do. John stood stiffly, still wary of the treacherous ground beneath their feet. He squinted – spying something manmade in the rocky outcrop a short distance down the beach.
"McKay," he shouted over his shoulder. And frowned when the scientist, again, gave no sign that he'd heard. "Dr. McKay!"
"I am trying to repair the DHD!" McKay responded, sounding as if he used every last ounce of his strength to keep from throttling the latest person to disturb him.
"We're heading up the beach," Sheppard said. "Going to check out some structures." He plucked a Life Sign Detector from his pocket. The thing was still riddled with dots, showing the creatures that populated the island. "You need me to leave Ford here?"
"What?" McKay responded. "No… no… he'll get in the way. Just let me work, uninterrupted, for five minutes!" He glared at the humming gate. "It's all I ask."
"Ask and you'll receive," Sheppard replied, nodding to the other two. "We won't go far. Keep your radio on."
"Yeah," McKay responded, not listening.
"Turn it on now," Sheppard ordered.
Letting loose a discontented sigh, McKay clicked on his radio, but left the mike muted.
"Let us know when you fix it," Sheppard went on.
"Yeah… yeah…"
Sheppard shrugged, nodded to the others, and they made their way up the beach.
TBC
A/N: Shake shake shake... shake shake shake...shake your bootie... shake your bootie... baby... oh yeah.