Part Seven

"Oh crap."

Rodney's words sounded amid the eerie glow of the battery operated lap tops. For one heart-stopping moment, his mind froze as he contemplated the idea that he might have broken Atlantis.

Just moments before, the plan had been working perfectly. He'd completed his calculations and the mother of all lightning strikes had hit the city, jumping from one place to the other and sparking other smaller bolts. The energy had kept building until it topped out the scale. The lights had started to get bright right after that and then nothing.

A breath passed in the darkness before he heard the shuffling feet of the nearby soldiers. Their nervousness was making him nervous.

"Nothing to worry about," he said in direct contradiction to his previous comment. Hopefully 'Oh crap' didn't translate well. Last thing he needed was for over anxious soldiers to start shooting up things in the dark.

Then suddenly, there was a spike on the lap top and with a sound like a generator winding up the lights came back on. He watched the screen as many other systems began to cycle back in as well.

"What happened?" the nearest guard asked, looking uncertain as to how to respond to the situation. McKay was sure that black outs in ancient cities wasn't covered in Genii Generic Bad Guy Training 101.

Despite all of his scientific knowledge and the many things he'd experienced in his career, he was still a little confused, too. Then suddenly, things began to click in his mind. An uncontainable grin spread its way over his features. It was simplicity itself.

"Circuit breakers. It's circuit breakers!" He began to pace as worked his way through the idea. "The Ancients must have installed a fail safe to protect the city from a power overload," he said, completely excited by how flawlessly the system had worked even with the presence of the power generators that had been brought from Earth. "It obviously kicked in when the lightning strikes became overwhelming and just shut everything down. No doubt, when the levels decreased they reset everything. Although, considering the incredible amount of power the system was able to handle prior to the fail safe . . . ."

He paused at the blank look that came over the guard's face. "Ugh, never mind. Part of the plan." He waved the man away and returned to his computer screen. That had been a pointless conversation. He had much more important things to do, like making sure that they'd be able to hold on to any power they may have been able to harness, and after that, masterminding a way to get away from these three goons stationed in the command area so that he could check on his friends.

--

John barely had time to react when what felt like Kolya's shoulder collided with his midsection. Instinctively, he drove his arms downward, slamming the butt of the Genii weapon against flesh and bone. Despite the grunt that Kolya emitted, his momentum sent them both hurtling toward the unyielding material that made up Atlantis' walls. John's back took the brunt of the impact.

Pain receptors gone into overload took John's legs out from under him and he dropped like a stone taking Kolya with him to the floor. He heard the gun clatter away somewhere beyond his head. Having landed more or less on top, John tried to press his slight advantage by working to pin the broader man. But his reflexes were slow and being concussed, stabbed, stabbed again, shot, and then slammed into a really hard wall had a way of taking the strength out of a guy.

Still, he wasn't doing too awfully bad and wasmanaging to keep Kolya relatively under control until the man's fist made contact with the side of his face. He tumbled to the side off of the Genii, landing on the wounded arm.

Instead of going for the gun as John had expected him to, Kolya followed him over and continued the punch fest. That was when it occurred to John that this was so much more than war; it was personal, between himself and Kolya. Atlantis barely fit into the picture. Kolya would not accept being bested by another man and wanted to prove with his bare hands that he was warrior chief. John had no problem with that; he had more than a little aggression to work off against the other man.

Suddenly the lights came back up, and Elizabeth was there, still holding the .9 mm. She directed it toward their new position and ordered Kolya to freeze. The Genii was leaning over him, had one hand clutched in the material of John's vest, while one arm was drawn back, preparing to throw yet another punch.

John stared up at him, having a nearly irresistible urge to get in one more blow, to put the other man's lights out. But that'd only mean that they'd have to carry him, which wasn't a good bet at the moment. So, he satisfied himself with taking in the beginnings of the ugly bruises the Genii would soon be sporting.

"Lets try this again, shall we?" he gasped, after extricating himself from their positon on the floor. He willedhimself to make it back to his feet without stumbling. He then retrieved both Genii weapons, and after tucking one into the back of his pants, he pointed the other at Kolya.

The Genii's cold eyes held the promise that there would be another time, but he didn't speak, and John didn't have to ask him to get up and start walking.

--

By the time Ford realized that the light from the life signs reader was shining like a beacon in the night, he caught the muted sound of a footstep. The noise was almost right on top of him. Before he could react, the lights came on, bringing him face to face with the blonde woman from the Genii home world and three other soldiers. The three men all had weapons trained on him.

He brought his hands slowly upward in surrender, locking gazes with Sora. Her expression was brutal.

"Where is Teyla Emmagan?"

"Here I am." Teyla announced, gathering the attention of the Genii. They turned as a unit to see Dr Beckett and Teyla with P90s leveled on them. Ford brought his weapon to bear, covering them from the other side, effectively trapping the Genii between the three of them.

"Drop your weapons," Ford ordered, clearly the one in charge.

The three guards looked to Sora for direction. After throwing hateful looks all around, she nodded and the men slowly lowered their weapons to the floor.

"Radios, too," Aiden added, pointing toward the devices. That drew another furious glare from Sora, but they complied and the electronics were dropped to the floor alongside the guns.

"Dr. Beckett," Ford called. "If you would retrieve their weapons?"

"Happy to lad." The doctor replied, stepping somewhat nervously away from Teyla toward the pile of weapons.

One of the soldiers shifted as Beckett drew closer and Ford got the point across with a gesture of his P90 that there was a bullet with the soldier's name on it if he tried anything. The soldier settled down with a glance toward Sora.

He caught Beckett's nod of appreciation as he moved out into the cross corridor. It only took several moments for him to gather all of them up into his arms. Peripherally, Ford noted that as the doctor started to straighten back up, his body jerked in shock as he stared beyond the Genii. The weapons began to spill from Beckett's arms just as a shot rang out. And then all hell broke loose.

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A/N: Wanted to get this one up before fanfictiondotnet goes down on Sunday. You guys have been marvelously encouraging. Thank you so much!

B7-kerravon, I'm honored that you like it better than "The Eye". I've got my very own downloaded copy and it's killing me not to watch it. I will admit that I've watched "The Defiant", though. . . .:-)

ErabuHikari – w/ regard to writing for the show: I wish!!

Hope you are all still enjoying this!