Chapter 22: Recklessness

Sheppard doesn't trust you.

Stuck with a chaser.

Trust…

Intellectually, Alex knew that it had nothing to do with trust, but… Going to only a handful of preapproved locations was frustrating. It was a few steps up from a jail cell, but only just.

Sure, Greg had been persistent about getting him involved in the evenings, but it was a stark reminder that the moment Greg was gone, so were all of his opportunities. Private Diver had made it clear that as soon as dinner finished, it was back to his room. After the complete lack of spine while Jamison was around, the way Diver decided he now dictated Alex's life, pushed his buttons more than just a bit. He was on his own to defend himself, but not allowed to actually go anywhere.

Really, it was amazing that he had lasted as long as he had – nearly a month – before going stir crazy. There was only so much reading he could do, and it wasn't like he had set exams to complete or study for. When he was at a loss of what to do, he was just… stuck.

Alex ground his palm against his forehead, before trying to refocus on the data pad in front of him. While it had been extremely engaging to read about the history of the Stargate Program, he had long since finished the reports that Rodney had passed along. Dr. Z had given him access to a smattering here and there, depending on whatever topic they were covering – but only if they were relevant. And while he knew there was technically a media server somewhere, no one had had the foresight to make sure he actually knew how to access it.

Even just a recreational book or two might've been enough to take the edge off – for another night.

And then Greg would be back and he would have a bit of a social life again.

Alex groaned as he flopped down on his bed, before discarding the data pad to the side. It was pointless. He couldn't even pretend to read ahead for a class because no one in the Pegasus galaxy seemed to believe in textbooks. Not even Dr. Z.

He hadn't quite expected the crushing boredom to creep up on him quite this quickly. Apparently, Greg's presence was important for his mental health, as well as his physical safety.

He felt jittery.

Like something was crawling under his skin, trying to convince him he just needed to do something.

To get out.

To find fresh air.

Alex pressed his face into his pillow, resisting the urge to scream at himself.

Before, when the urge to do something reckless overtook him, he just went and ran for a few miles. Ran until he couldn't see straight anymore and the itchy urge disappeared.

He doubted Diver was going to be willing to join him on a five-mile run, when it was almost shift-change. And Martins wanted nothing to do with Alex, so that was a no-go either.

So, he was trapped.

Locked in a cage.

All because he didn't want to rock the boat.

He rolled over onto his back and stared up at the ceiling. Searching for life, meaning, interest.

Clearly, he needed more hobbies in his life. Maybe he would have to hit Lorne up about painting or something. Something he could do in the confines of his room.

The room alert chimed, startling Alex out of his thoughts.

Shift change.

It wasn't like he needed to get up or anything for it, just... it was reassuring to know whoever was supposed to be out there. Even if Diver and Martins were useless. The faint increase in the background hum was enough to know that someone had stopped outside his door, but weren't actively seeking entrance – he had made Greg pass back and forth in front of the door with different intentions dozens of times before he had started to make sense of the hum. He hadn't mentioned that that was what he had been doing, mainly because it hadn't taken him long to figure out that hearing the hum of the city wasn't something everyone did. Or paid attention to. Greg had been a good sport though.

Alex chalked it up to the strong ATA gene expression he had. One that apparently made Dr. Beckett wish for a DNA sample, to add to his collection. Really, Alex couldn't quite figure out how a man who had such a clear interest in genetics, ended up being one of the main infirmary doctors. Alex had never seen him in the labs, much less anywhere near the other geneticists and pathobiologists.

There was a distinct change in the hum as the two people in front of his door split ways and only one remained. No doubt, Martins.

At some point, Sheppard would figure out that an overnight door guard was overkill, but... for now, it just contributed even further to the sensation of being completely trapped.

Stuck in place.

He needed a change of scenery.

Something.

Anything.

Well. Since he had clearly not yet found all the secrets in his room – thanks, Dr. Beckett – it was time to explore the small little chamber he was stuck in. Alex rolled off the bed, shook out the pins and needles in his leg, then felt around the wall, looking for that spot that– was it intention or a trigger that made the tech work...?

Open… Open… Open…

The couch slid out from the wall, settling into place as if it had always been there. Alex nudged it with his foot – real – before running his hand over the wall again. There was nothing perceptibly different under his fingertips. No roughness in the walls. No dips or obvious pressure sensors. But touching the walls seemed to intensify the hum, changed the frequency.

Something that felt too low to really be heard.

He pulled his hand back, felt the hum increase in pitch, then decrease when he touched it again.

Rodney had made it abundantly clear – in one of his rants – that there was no chance of Atlantis being sentient, but rather was a highly sophisticated network that processed on a level that feeble minded plebeian Earth programmers were only beginning to scratch the surface of. Though if it was so sophisticated, Alex wasn't sure why they didn't have a version of the internet and wifi available around the city yet...

Alex pressed on the wall, away from the proper location, letting his intent run clear. Close.

Nothing.

He moved his hand back, feeling the change in hum as he approached the trigger.

Close.

There was no stopping the little giddy glee he felt at being able to control the furniture with his mind. It was just so completely beyond anything he could have ever imagined being able to do.

And sure, there were probably far more sophisticated ways of finding the secrets of his room, but…

He felt further along the wall, taking it one slow inch at a time, waiting for that almost imperceptible change. The feeling that something was different. Something that felt off.

There was no telling what the Ancients thought to hide behind the walls.

After all, he hadn't even thought twice once Rodney showed him the drawers. Surely that had been the extent of the secrets.

Apparently not.

There's another slight give in the humming mesh. An imperceptible soft spot, on a completely solid wall.

On.

Open.

There was a distinct change in the static hum and a section of the wall slid away to reveal a small cubby. And in it… there was a device that Alex had only seen once in his life. One of the… people detector thingies. Life sign detector.

He pulled it out, turning I over in his hands. It felt the same as the one Sheppard had had, just deactivated.

On.

It immediately lit up, just as it had before, sliding another faintly there harmonic into the hum. The images on the screen were different though. Walls were visible, instead of just a vast expanse. Perhaps it was a perk of being in Atlantis. Perhaps it was connected into the city.

There were markings under the different rooms, but Alex was the first to admit that he hadn't made much headway in mastering the Ancient language, and had very little idea of what the symbols could possibly mean.

But he could see the people around him – or the distinct lack. The rooms nearest his were empty – Sheppard and Rodney were still out on the mission. He wasn't entirely sure where Ronon and Teyla stayed in the city. There were a few life signs in rooms that looked stationary, indicating that they had probably settled in for the evening – Alex knew that there were at least a couple that usually had the early morning shifts.

There was a distinct lack of a figure right outside his door.

Where Martins should be.

Instead, there was one life sign toward the far end of the hall, near the balcony, that was awfully close to a life sign that was out on the balcony. Or what Alex assumed was the balcony. He figured there wasn't someone floating in mid-air. Though was that possible…?

The fact of the matter was, Martins clearly had more important things on his mind.

And if Martins wasn't paying attention…

It was a horrible thought.

A horrible, terrible, oh-so-good thought.

Sheppard and the others had already sacrificed so much just to get him onto the city. But…

With this, he wasn't trapped. He knew how to outsmart people – he just needed the right technology on his side. And now he had it.

He needed a little break – and there was no reason Sheppard ever needed to know.

He had thought it through.

Really.

Spent a long hour just sitting and staring at the life signs detector, contemplating his life's decisions.

It was reckless.

It was freedom.

And with no balcony, or even window, in his room… the only option was to brazenly go through the hall. He only contemplated it because Martins looked to be well and truly occupied at the end of the hall, inching ever closer to the balcony.

When the clock ticked over to nine at night – late enough that anyone coming in before their morning shift would be in their quarters – Alex pulled on his sweats and the darkest hoodie he owned. He was going to be sneaking through Atlantis, after all. He would just have to convince the city to not helpfully light up as he moved around.

The itchy sensation had turned into one of almost gleeful anticipation.

So, he might be getting ready to break one of Sheppard's cardinal rules, but… he just wanted to explore. Just wanted to see what there was to see.

And then he would come right back.

No one would be the wiser.

He studied the life signs detector for a moment longer, mentally rehearsing in his head what he could say if Martins noticed.

I got paranoid that someone was watching me?

Just got an uncontrollable urge to leave the room?

Had a brilliant idea that I had to explain to Dr. Z?

Alex grimaced, before pulling his hood up and stashing the device in his hoodie pocket. None of those were particularly good excuses, so he was just going to have to make sure no one had any reason to suspect he had been anywhere.

Open.

There were definite advantages to these automatic doors, Alex noted, as it slid to the side silently. He peeked his head out the door, catching sight of Martins standing at the far end – as suspected – chatting with someone out on the balcony. They were just far enough away that Alex could hear snatches of conversation – something about plans for the next designated off day – but neither were actually looking in Alex's direction.

This was it.

Alex dated out of his room – thinking a frantic close and lock at the door on his way out. Only command staff – Sheppard, Rodney, and Lorne, two of whom weren't even in the city – would be able to check his room. Hopefully, he would be back long before anyone thought to check up on him.

Hopefully, Dr. Beckett didn't decide to stop by for another late-night chat.

Of course, getting back into his room might be the more difficult prospect, but that was a problem for later.

The transporter doors slid open on his approach and Alex slid inside with nary a glance in Martins' direction. The doors slid closed with a thought and Alex studied the map for a long moment. His grasp on Ancient was still frustratingly limited – numbers and individual letters he could figure out after painstaking amounts of time, but any scrolling information had to be routed through a translation matrix.

Something that, up until now, he had only ever needed in the labs.

Alex chewed on his lip for a long moment, debating his options. There were all sorts of places in the city that he had heard about that he would love to explore without an escort breathing down his neck – but there was also the risk of running across one of the patrols. But he had to take a transporter, because there was no way he was getting off the sixty-fifth floor just by walking. First of all, far too many stairs just to get to the ground floor.

There were distinct disadvantages to living in a tower, it seemed.

But... with Rodney off the city, it was unlikely anyone was haunting the halls outside his labs. And that was one place Alex knew how to get to. He found the relevant location on the map, tapped it, and then hoped and prayed the doors wouldn't automatically slide open.

They didn't.

The only indication that he was actually successful, was the small marker moving as well.

Alex pulled out the life signs detector once again – no one in the immediate vicinity, though he wasn't exactly sure how far the range actually went. The symbols on the screen made no more sense now than they did a month ago.

Open.

The doors opened into a familiar corridor. It was dimly lit, confirming Alex's suspicions that no one would be wandering in this area for fear of Rodney's wrath. And while it wasn't anywhere near where Alex wanted to explore – he had heard some interesting stories about the J sector and a virtual reality setup – it had gotten him out of the tower and away from the limitations of the primary transporter network. Even though nearly every corridor had a transporter, only a few connected with the main tower. The secondary and tertiary networks – when they worked – allowed transport within a sector and sometimes to neighboring sectors.

Personally, Alex felt that the Ancients had something against walking any further than the length of a corridor, because there were literally hundreds of transporters distributed across the city. Less than 50% of them worked these days, but Alex figured he could forgive tens of thousands of years old equipment.

The trick now would be to get to the other sector.

Alex passed through the halls, watching the life signs detector for any other people approaching. Twice, he darted into empty rooms and alcoves to let patrols pass by. There was no missing the amount of security present on the base, but it seemed if one had the right level of technology… he could get just about anywhere he wanted.

Not the gateroom though. That would be stupid.

At some point he had transitioned out of sector L and into one of the neighboring ones, which seemed more desolate and abandoned than the previous one, inching ever closer to his destination. Unfortunately, as desolate and abandoned as it was, there were still patrols.

Crunch.

Snap.

Alex shrank back into an alcove, using the potted plant as cover, as a pair of marines passed by him.

"I told you, there's nothing in these sectors." He passed by within several feet of Alex's location, light shining from his flashlight and only adding a little illumination from the dim overhead lighting. "If we could just reroute a little power to these sectors, wouldn't seem so creepy."

They paused, sweeping their lights back and forth, beams shining into the plant for a moment. Alex ducked down lower, hoping he was just blending into the background.

"And if the damn biologists didn't insist on filling the city with these creepy plants." The man shuddered, before continuing along the hall. "Check in with Major Lorne."

"Major Lorne, this is Bravo Three. Sector K3 is cleared. Lights are powered down, so looks like those anomalous readings were artifacts." There was a long pause, before the man replied again. "Affirmative. Continuing to sector K4."

Alex held his crouched position for another long few minutes, just in case they decided to double back. They disappeared off the edge of his map fairly quickly, suggesting that sensor range wasn't as far as he had hoped. Clearly, watching the map wasn't a perfect solution, because they had managed to sneak up on him. It was just lucky that there was a convenient hiding spot.

Sector K3…

Based on his limited knowledge of the city, he was creeping steadily closer to the edges of sector J, but to really truly cross over he was going to have to find another transporter. He glanced down at the life signs detector once more, saw no new dots, and darted off down the hall. There had to be one nearby.

After a few false starts, and transporters that apparently weren't hooked up to the network at all, Alex found his way into sector J.

Thankfully, the transporter had been kind enough to drop him inside the sector, and not out on the edge of sector I – where the majority of the marines were currently housed. He had a gut feeling that avoiding that area was probably for the best if he wanted to stay under the radar.

The first level still had a decent amount of activity – it was just past ten now – but they were just passing through the sector. Most likely coming in from the outlying areas of the sector, where the transport system had yet to be reactivated. That was part of the challenge.

Really, if he could get from point A to point B in the city, without having to fumble his way through too many obstacles, he was going to count it as a success. All the more reason Sheppard shouldn't get after him. This exploring was for his own safety. Woolsey probably wouldn't see it that way… but what he didn't know, wouldn't hurt him.

Alex headed up the stairs to the next level, hoping that since most people were just passing through, they would stick to the ground floor levels.

As hoped, there were no life signs visible on the detector, though he wasn't entirely sure how the detector worked with two levels. Was it a distance-based thing? A barometer to determine how far from sea level to place someone on a specific level? Did it use the built-in city maps to determine a relative location and pick which floor a person was on?

Did it ever make a mistake?

Those were all questions Alex was sure someone on the city had thought to ask at one point, but... he wasn't entirely sure how he could craftily bring it up without demonstrating he had used one. Maybe he would have to pick Sheppard's brain once he was back on the city.

A problem for another day.

With no one in sight, he could start exploring. Get a feel for the lay of the land.

Should he have perhaps started with somewhere that didn't require quite so much effort to get to in the first place? Perhaps.

It was a long narrow hall, with doors interspersed at regular intervals. From what he knew about sector J, half of the rooms were still locked off because of questionable contents. Nothing dangerous, just… objects and Ancient projects that were beyond the current scope of the expedition.

Alex personally suspected personal effects from the original inhabitants – items that Rodney deemed useless in the greater pursuit of science.

The remaining rooms were storage, consoles, and – the piece that had caught his interest in the few reports they had allowed him to read – a virtual reality gaming room. Or something like that. He didn't want to play or anything. Just wanted to… poke at it.

Which would have been easier if he knew what floor it was on. Or even the sub sector.

Sector J had five subsections and three floors. Actually finding the location of the console was probably going to be more similar to a needle in a haystack.

But that didn't mean Alex didn't want a challenge. If he didn't succeed that night, he could always come back another time.

He crept forward, keeping half a glance on the life signs detector and half a glance on the doors he passed. Some had obviously been unopened in quite a while, with a few looking rather broken. He was cautious to reach out to explore the other doors – he didn't exactly want to light up the entire sector by accident – but a surface touch was enough to tell if it was going to be receptive to him or not.

Scritch.

Alex paused, glancing back over his shoulder, then down at the life signs detector. Nothing – wait. There it was.

A dot right on the edge.

They would be in sight momentarily.

Alex glanced up and down the hall, looking for something that would allow him to hide.

The previously empty looking hall was now rather ominously empty.

He darted forward to the nearest looking friendly door, reached out, and acknowledged that it could all backfire horribly and he just hoped Atlantis didn't decide to light everything up, and—

He slipped through the door backwards, thinking close at the doors. Then, froze.

Because this wasn't the darkened room he had been expecting.

This wasn't an empty and unused space – this was very much being used.

Currently.

He spun around, already backing toward the rapidly closing door, in another attempt at escape. But it was no use.

He was too late.

Someone had already seen him.

A/N: What?! An update in a week! What is this? This is called inspiration. We'll see how long it lasts.