Weir
I was listening to Bates give his weekly report; my forearms on my desk and my hands clasped in front of me, leaning forward - projecting at least the picture of undivided attention, if not the real thing. Personally, I didn't care for the man all that much; but he was a good soldier and more importantly, he was a good match for Sheppard. Sheppard was charming as hell and he knew it. He often used his charisma instead of force, which I found refreshing when dealing with the military. It even worked, some of the time. So far only the Wraith seemed totally immune to his charms. Bates, on the other hand, was your typical 'shoot first, ask questions later' soldier and sometimes it was even 'shoot first and there won't be a need for questions.' As much as I hated to accept it, sometimes that's what we needed. I was startled out of my revere by a slight vibration through my arms.
"Did you feel that?"
"Feel what?" His tone said he was unhappy that I had interrupted his report.
"I'm sure I felt something." I looked out the office window and saw Grodin, Zelenka, and a few techs intently studying monitors. The concern on their faces was clear to see, even at this distance. I shot Bates an uneasy glance and went out into the control room. He trailed behind me.
"Peter?" I asked.
"There's been an explosion."
"Do we know what happened?"
"We're trying to find out now."
"McKay and Sheppard?" I asked, remembering that they were supposed to be investigating an as-yet unexplored area of the city.
"They were supposed to be surveying that general area," he said worriedly.
"How soon can we get a team together to check on them?"
He brought up a map on the screen. "The automated systems have closed off this entire area. The outer wall has been seriously weakened here," he said, pointing to the diagram. "For a spacecraft or an underwater city, it would be absolutely vital to isolate damage such as this…"
"At the same time, making it especially difficult for a rescue party to get to that area, understood. Sergeant Bates, please take some of your men and see what you can do."
"Yes, Ma'am."
"Open a channel, please, Peter." He flipped a switch and gave me a nod. "Rodney, John, if you can hear me, we're working on getting you out of there." I just hoped someone was alive to hear it. I opened a private channel to Beckett and quickly updated him on the situation as well.
"Can we use the biosensors to try and narrow down their location?" I asked Peter.
"No, I've tried, most of the senor relays and communication pathways in that area have been damaged."
"Kurva drát!" breathed Zelenka, looking at a monitor.
"What?" asked Grodin, shifting so that he could see the screen.
"Bloody hell," he said studying the readings before turning to me. "The wall's been breeched and we're taking on water."
"Don't we have pumps?"
"They can't handle this kind of volume."
"Are we in any danger?"
"Not here, no. Atlantis automatically closed bulkheads which will limit the amount of flooding. Once we repair the damage, we should be able to pump out the water…"
"But?" I asked, raising an eyebrow in a silent invitation to continue.
"Anyone in the flooded areas or on the wrong side of the bulkheads when they closed…"
"You're saying things don't look good for our team."
