Part Five

Beckett squeezed his eyes shut and gripped the armrests for dear life as the waters closed in over the puddle jumper. A litany of impolite words played through his mind and he vaguely noted the way the shuttle seemed to rebound after its initial entry. The beating that the shuttle was taking from the winds was immediately gone, leaving them surrounding by a cocoon of near stillness that was almost as unnerving as the storm had been.

Carson open his eyes a notch experimentally, immediately thereafter his jaw dropped.

All thoughts of death were forgotten as he gaped at the previously darkened view screen. The clear surface had changed. Transparent once again, it allowed them to look out upon the simple beauty of the ocean beneath the city. All of Atlantis clearly wasn't above the surface.

Carson imagined that if not for the darkened skies and the storm raging overhead, the sunlight shining through the water might have reflected like brilliant gems through the intricate designs that extended from the edges of the city. The segments were reminiscent of the stained glass windows that the Ancients appeared to favor.

A thrill of excitement washed through him at the thought that he was one of the first to see this section of the ancient abode in tens of thousands of years. The rest of the scientific teams were going to be beside themselves when they learned that the puddle jumpers were viable under ocean vehicles as well.

"Wow." Ford's surprised murmur drew him out of his awed observations. He spared the younger man a glance.

"Yeah. Wow's the word for it." He was transfixed by all that there was to see. The jumper steered itself smoothly amid the many vari-shaped surfaces and odd protrusions. Lights were coming on, shining down into the waters illuminating their way as they went. It was as if the underside of the city was welcoming them just as inner portion had when they'd arrived from Earth.

"Might that be the area to which we are going?" Teyla asked the practical question and pointed toward a large rectangle of dim light ahead.

Carson shared a look with Ford.

"Sounds good to me," Ford volunteered.

"We'll soon find out," Carson commented as the jumper began to slow. It came to a stop in what seemed to be the center of the light. And then the jumper began to rise through the waters upward into an opening beneath the city.

There was a small thump as they settled against something and then continued to rise. The waters drained away quickly and the door release at the back of the shuttle hissed as it opened.

"Looks like we're here," Aiden said.

"Wherever here is," Carson added.

"So we stick to the plan," Ford said, picking up his gun and standing.

"We stick to the plan," Carson agreed, following Ford and Teyla's lead.

--

"Stop." Kolya quietly called a halt as he took the walkie-talkie from one of his men.

John limped the extra paces which carried him to the wall and leaned against it. He completely ignored the guard who had moved beside him, and tried to ignore Dr. Weir's eyes on him. He knew the look he'd see there, it was the one that silently asked if he was okay.

Of course he wasn't okay; he had two holes in his body that didn't belong there. Kolya's man had known what he was doing, too. The wounds were deep enough to slow him down, but not enough to put him completely out of the action. But that didn't mean that they didn't both hurt like hell.

Bending slowly, he checked on the pieces of cloth that had been tied around the leg wound. He didn't even want to think about the medical procedures Beckett would have to perform on it when they got out of this. Not if, but when. As far as he was concerned things were proceeding exactly according to plan. Well, sorta exactly according to plan. What he'd had in mind hadn't included two stab wounds, being tied to a chair, or having Elizabeth along for the ride. In the grand scheme, plans had gone far worse. It was always the details that sent the plan into the toilet.

Moving back into an upright position, he looked across at Weir, trying to get a subtle message to her. She stared steadily back. He hoped that meant that she understood that she needed to be ready when he made his move.

Sora's disembodied voice sounded across the radio link. She said something about needing more troops for reconnaissance in the section of the city where the channeling rods were located and named the men she wanted. Kolya agreed, and then clicked off the connection.

"What more lies in that section of the city?" The Genii commander asked.

"We haven't explored all of those areas yet," Weir answered him coolly. "We believe them to be predominately maintenance sections."

"Could be monsters," John piped up. "Or rats. Great big ones."

Kolya ignored the comment, and ordered one of the guards to go to the area and to report back what he saw. He added something more that was too low for John to hear, but it still piqued his curiosity. Was all not peace, love and harmony in the Genii camp or was Kolya just being cautious?

John didn't really care. He was just glad that he had one less guard to deal with.

"Continue," Kolya ordered as the guard started back in the opposite direction.

John gathered his strength before he pushed himself away from the wall and continued to move painfully down the corridor with Kolya's remaining flunky shadowing him. The Genii commander moved along behind them, keeping Weir close by his side.

--

"What the . . . ?" Rodney tapped rapidly on the computer keyboard, going through his calculations once more. Something just wasn't right. And it had been before. He would not accept the idea that he'd miscalculated.

One of the guards that Kolya had left behind moved in closer. He wasn't the madman with the knife, but he was equally annoying. With a suspicious look, the soldier looked over all of the active screens.

"Do you mind?" Rodney asked, shooting the man a disgusted look. "Trying to save the city remember?"

The guard stared at him a long moment before returning to his previous position a few steps away. But he continued to watch closely as if in warning.

Rodney rolled his eyes. As if one of Kolya's lackeys could possibly have any clue what he was looking at. Or understand the magnitude of the project that was being undertaken. Atlantis wasn't just some military outpost to be fought over. It was a living scientific marvel. It needed to be preserved at all costs.

The final channeling rod had been put back into place, and if with the lightning and the winds and the debris that would follow, the city would be completely vulnerable.

If lightning was to strike now, he wasn't exactly sure what was going to happen. And Atlantis was far too big a target to go unscathed for long in a storm of this magnitude. The survival of the city was on his shoulders. Everyone, even the bad guys, was depending on him.

Panic teased at the edges of the adrenaline that kept him going. Always before his teammates were there to keep him on task. But now he was alone. No one else to --

What was that? What was that odd reading? Refocusing, he typed several commands into the keyboard and tracked the power drain, displaying it on a smaller monitor. He surprised a start of excitement. The drain was emanating from a portion of the city that had sacrificed itself centuries earlier when the shield had begun to fail. Could this mean?

A brilliant flash of lightning shown through the large window overhead, reminding him that there was little time. Determined, he took a final reading and went back to his calculations, this time allowing for the changed energy consumption. Perfect.

He transferred the new algorithm to the program he and Zelenka had created and executed it. Now they were ready.

--

Elizabeth knew that John was tiring. He was favoring his right leg more, and his steps were slowing noticeably. Making matters worse, the corridor they were taking was on a slight incline, no doubt increasing the strain on his injured leg. He had earlier taken to walking with a hand along the wall, but Kolya had insisted that he remain the center of the walkway.

He glanced back over his shoulder. The dim lighting seemed to accentuate his pallor which, alongside dried blood mixed with perspiration, only added to an increasingly grizzly appearance. But it was the shadowed eyes, utterly devoid of humor, that resonated with her.

"We should let him rest," she spoke up, turning on Kolya. "Nothing is gained by driving Major Sheppard to exhaustion. The C4 isn't going anywhere."

Kolya completely ignored her request, continuing along the corridor. It was as if she hadn't spoken at all.

"What did you expect, Doctor?" John asked, his words ever so slightly slurred, his voice not nearly as strong as it had been when they'd left the command center. "Mercy for one's enemies is what our Genii neighbors might call a tactical disadvantage."

"That's a very shortsighted viewpoint," Elizabeth couldn't resist saying. "We have a mutual enemy. If we work together we can defeat him. Together we are stronger, we could form an alliance with other words and form a formidable force. There is a saying on our world 'United we stand.' That is the way we can stand against the Wraith."

"We also have a saying, Doctor," Kolya replied, though he didn't look at her. "An army of many is only as strong as its weakest link. Without Atlantis, you have nothing to offer."

Elizabeth thought she caught a half snort from John, and then, "I think he just called us the weakest link." He stumbled slightly, but continued on, listing again toward the wall, uneven steps placing him on a crooked path toward it. "Probably better than being called the missing link. Why don't you tell him some of the great examples of how people on our world worked together for the betterment of mankind?"

Elizabeth's eyes were locked worriedly on his back, and for several moments she struggled over the question. Then, to Kolya, "Eventually your people are going to have to change their way of thinking. A world cannot survive . . . ."

Suddenly, she caught a view of John from her peripheral vision. One minute he was limping along, the next, he went down heavily. "John!" She called his name, and instinctively tried to move toward him.

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A/N: Again forgive the delay. Major computer problems. And now, I totally have to hurry and finish this. Spoilers are flying around about "The Eye", nevermind copies of the episode, and I'm not allowing myself near any of it until I finish this. Talk about feeling an urgent need to get something done!

Also, since fanfiction-dot-net has been eating my scene dividers, I've gone to some different characters. Hope they work!