TITLE: What is Needed Most part 5

AUTHOR: sablecain

DISCLAIMER: see part 1

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Part 5

Rodney waited until Kolya was gone and the guards had backed off before he tried to regroup and think about the task at hand. He took a deep breath, rubbing his aching stomach tenderly, then knelt beside the ancient device. The lighting in the open cavern was slightly brighter than in the tunnel, but the shadows still unnerved McKay. He couldn't tell how many other guards were lurking in the darkness. Shaking off the uneasy 'watched' feeling, he focused on the machine. It was truly amazing. He was tempted to run his hands across the top crystals, just to see what would happen, but knew better. First, he needed to translate the carvings and try to ascertain the machine's functions. If it was a weapon…he knew that no matter what threats Kolya threw at him or what ways the commander concocted to push him, he could not allow the man to use the device against anyone.

Rodney reached for his pack, swallowing his fear as he dug for his scanner and diagnostic equipment. He heard the guards shift but ignored them as he pulled it out and turned the scanner on. Even though there were no energy signatures coming from the device, he ran his fingertips tentatively over the carvings at first. When nothing happened, he relaxed a little more and brushed the dirt away from the lettering, clearing it off so he could translate it. His fingers lingered over the carvings as translations ran through his mind. He isolated symbols and sounds until they came together smoothly and he was certain. "I will sing," he whispered, following the lettering. "Even with my soul. I will awaken the dawn." He smiled, then flinched when his lip split open again. He dabbed the oozing wound distractedly, his thoughts swirling. Relief warred with renewed fear. He was fairly certain he knew the machine's purpose, but what would he tell Kolya?

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Cowen watched as Sheppard ordered half of his men to remain with the Genii, keeping them under a general guard, then split the remaining group into two smaller teams that would take the ships to search. Cowen knew that the Major really didn't fear any kind of uprising or revolt. It wasn't that Sheppard was arrogant, or that the Atlantian team outnumbered the Genii; in fact, they numbered less than a third of the Genii forces, but Sheppard knew as Cowen did. The Atlantians held the power…for now.

Cowen smiled inwardly as the two small ships took off, and motioned discretely for his new commander, Ballard, to come closer. "Organize a small contingent," he whispered his orders. "Send scouts to follow the ships. I want to know exactly where and when they find Kolya," he instructed.

Ballard knew better then to ask questions, and simply slipped away without attracting anyone's attention. Cowen sighed contentedly once he saw his commander was gone. Now, there was nothing to do but wait and plan. If Kolya was so anxious to get his hands on Dr. McKay that he'd risk the wrath of Atlantis-then there must be a use for the scientist other than his ability to build them an atom bomb. Maybe it was time to check the good doctor out further and hopefully- he smiled for real this time-hopefully, he could take Kolya and the annoying Major Sheppard in the process.

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Sheppard tried to pay attention to both his flying and the life sign readouts from the jumper's scanners, but eventually gave up and let Ford handle the readouts. Flying low and in stealth mode was complicated enough.

"Anything?" he questioned, seeing Lt. Ford lean closer to the monitor.

"Nothing. A few scattered life signs to our right but I'm guessing it's field workers," Ford answered.

"We should check, regardless." Teyla leaned against the back of Ford's seat. "We do not want to rule out any possibility."

Sheppard nodded, answering by directing the jumper toward the coordinates. In the back section of the ship, he could hear Private Wells shoot down the flirtatious joking of Corporal Wilmington with mastered ease. Chuckling to himself, he radioed Dr. Beckett in the second jumper.

"Find anything, Carson?"

"Nothing but fields and trees, Major." The Doctor's brogue sounded warped over the static. "You?"

Sheppard followed Teyla's gesture to the small group of men farming a field. "Nothing so far. We're heading toward the forest now. There's some hilly terrain coming up. Maybe we'll find something there."

"I'll be letting Dr. Weir know what's going on then."

"Thanks." John keyed the radio back to standby, thankful that Beckett was willing to answer Weir's questions. All he wanted to do now was concentrate on finding McKay.

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"What do you mean you lost the ships?" Cowen hissed at his second in command.

Ballard shrugged helplessly. "My men had them in sight, heading for one of the east fields and suddenly they were gone. Into thin air, Mayes said."

"You should have remembered they're capable of going invisible and planned for that contingency." Cowen watched a tight-lipped, serious guard look their way and tried to be casual about eating the breakfast before him. "Keep heading in the same general direction. Get some of your men here to stick close to the guards and see what they can overhear. They're out there and we gave them a place to start looking. Just find them."

"Yes sir."

It took a few minutes for Ballard to slip away, but he left Cowen frustrated. How could his men have neglected such an important fact about the Atlantian ships? "Damn it," Cowen whispered under his breath. He was not going to lose this opportunity. He stabbed his fork at his meal. He would not fail against the Major again.

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Scooching around to the front of the device, Rodney easily located an access panel and pried it open, relieved to find the circuitry was similar to what he'd worked with before on Atlantis. The setup looked like that in the puddle jumpers, though these crystals were dark and currently powerless. Pulling himself up, Rodney examined the top panel crystals again. Gently, he touched one cool green tinted crystal. He tested it, trying to remove it from its slot. It rose in the slot but didn't come free.

"Hmm," McKay huffed, pushing the crystal back into its original position and trying again with a blue one. Same result. The whole thing reminded him of a toy his sister had when they were young, what was it called again? Oh yes, Simon. His sister loved it and had guarded it from him vehemently until one day when she was off at dance lessons and he'd managed to sneak into her room. At first it'd been fun, following the lights and keeping up with the machine's patterns, but he'd bored quickly, his curiosity drawn instead to how the toy worked. His sister had gotten home before he'd managed to put the entire thing back together again. He could still hear her indignant screams…bringing his father into the mix.

Rodney shuddered and pushed the memory out of his mind as he knelt back down in front of the access panel again. If he moved some of these crystals around, then possibly….He stopped. His mind suddenly changed directions. He recognized another small panel inside the machine, similar to the one he'd seen often in the puddle jumper's control panel. Quickly, after a peak at his guards, he went to work. It shouldn't take long or be too complicated, his mind raced as his fingers trembled, connecting his scanner to the machine. First, he had to get the power going, then, if he could…. He had pulled out one crystal, trading it with another from a different slot when he saw the lone crystal laying at the base of the inner panel. He picked it up, his eyes searching for the right slot. "There," he said out loud, forgetting where he was for a moment. The crystal slipped easily into place and suddenly the control panel lit up. He checked quickly, the top crystals were still dark and none of the guards seemed to be paying close attention to what he was actually doing, just staring blankly in his general direction. Something to be thankful for, he thought. McKay's fingers moved rapidly, hooking up his scanner to the device's inner panel. If he could interface the technology…. He keyed commands into the scanner and waited, holding his breath.

There. The statistics on his screen blinked. Slowly three times, fast three times, then slowly again three more times. Three long, three short, three long. Rudimentary but he prayed it would work. If Sheppard was anywhere on the same world…the signal should be getting through.

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"Uh, Major?" Lt. Ford sounded concerned.

"What?" John glanced at the younger man. Ford's eyes were focused on the screen before him.

"There's something going on here, I'm…"

Sheppard frowned. "You find them?" He called Ford's screen up so they could all see it. Instead of the large cluster of life signs he'd expected to find, the screen itself seemed to be malfunctioning. The radio beeped.

"Major?" Carson's voice filled the jumper. "Is your scanner acting…?" Beckett was obviously searching for a word to describe the problem.

"Like there's something wrong? Yes. Yours too?" Sheppard watched the readouts blink almost steadily.

"They are," Carson confirmed. "What do I do?"

"Keep flying. We'll see what we can figure out." He turned to Ford and Teyla. "Any ideas?"

Ford shook his head. "It just started…blinking. I didn't touch a thing."

"Maybe it is a systems problem?" Teyla suggested.

John thought carefully, trying to get the jumper to respond to his questions and run a systems check. The stats he requested scrolled up the screen…blinking. "Damn." This was not the time for a malfunction, he thought with frustration. None of them knew the jumper's systems like Rodney. Why hadn't he thought of bringing Zelenka with them? Because Elizabeth needed him on Atlantis, he argued inwardly. What in the world could be causing this?

"Maybe we should set down until we know what'd going on," Ford suggested.

"There is nowhere to land," Teyla pointed out. "The forest is too dense. We will have to go back to the settlement."

"I'm not going back yet." Sheppard shook his head, "We have to be getting closer."

"If Dr. McKay is even on this world," Aiden reminded softly.

Sheppard ignored him.

"Could it be a kind of…interference designed by the Commander in order to keep from being found?" Teyla asked. Her eyes scanned the statistics scrolling up the screen as she spoke.

John raised his eyebrows, glancing over his shoulder at the Athosian. "Possibly. Does he have that kind of technology? If he does, where the hell did he get it?"

"We don't know where he's been or what he's been doing since we left him on Dagan." Ford pressed another button and frowned when it did nothing to stop the blinking. Sheppard noticed the man had said 'we' instead of 'you'. He had been the one to decide to leave Kolya alive. "Besides," Aiden went on. "It's not really interfering," he shook his head. "It's just…annoying."

"Annoying?" Sheppard and Teyla spoke together.

"It's a pattern, Sir," a voice stated from the rear compartment.

"What?" Sheppard spun in his seat, looking at the tall, mustached Corporal.

"A pattern?" Ford stared. "Okay, I see it, three long, three short…"

"Morse code." Private Wells stepped up beside Wilmington.

"Morse Code?" Sheppard looked back at the blinking screen, seeing the pattern finally. "SOS, it's a damned SOS signal!" Why hadn't he seen that sooner?

"It's got to be McKay." Ford grinned.

"You said it was annoying," Sheppard laughed. "Leave it to Rodney to let us know he's here by driving us nuts. See if you can zero in on the signal's origin. I'll let Beckett know what's going on."

Neither of the men noticed Teyla's confused expression as she tried to figure out what an SOS or a Morse was and how it suddenly related to Dr. McKay.