If I Die
Chapter Eleven - Barbie Dream House
Sheppard was pacing the small room impatiently. Reached one wall, turned, then crossed to the other in a few strides. Hit the second wall and turned again to repeat the performance.
Step. Step. Step. Turn. Step. Step. Step. Turn.
Teyla was feeling tired just watching him. She sat on a bench along the third wall, her back straight, her pack on the seat beside her. Wished Sheppard would at least stop still for a second, even if he wouldn't sit down.
There was a sudden clattering at the door, and it opened, allowed Ford and McKay to be hustled inside.
"Hey," Sheppard shouted after the departing guards, "at least tell us if we're prisoners!"
His only answer came in the form of another clatter as the door was locked. He slumped, dropped onto the bench beside Teyla. Her relief evaporated when he glared irritably at McKay with a: "What did you do?"
The scientist huffed indignantly. "What makes you think it was me?"
"History. Law of probability."
McKay rolled his eyes theatrically. "Well it wasn't," he snapped back. "As far as I was aware everything was going perfectly well. Ruhal seems like an adequate scientist. What about you?" he asked, "what did you do?"
"We learnt why the Silani have so much security," Teyla said, anxious to avoid further bickering. "The Hallan."
"We've heard of them," Aiden said glumly.
"Marikar said they were coming to the city."
The younger man's forehead crinkled. "I don't get why they'd lock us up, though. That wall's pretty thick. And Devla said the Hallan had never come into the city."
"I think they're feeling over-protective of something," Sheppard's gaze drifted to McKay, "or someone." Flicked back to Ford. "Devla?"
"Marikar's son. He was hovering around the lab. Poor kid, think he was bored."
Sheppard shook his head bitterly. "We should have held on to that wiggy feeling, Lieutenant." Lifted his head to look at McKay. "How long will it take you to fix that thing? A day? A week?"
The doctor seemed to be struggling to reconcile some inner turmoil within himself. Eventually admitted, with great reluctance: "I'm not sure I can fix it."
Teyla looked up at him in shock, shared by Ford and Sheppard - not just at the statement, but at McKay's admission.
Aiden frowned. "But back on the lab, it looked like you knew what you were doing. You never said anything –"
He was interrupted. "Well of course not," McKay snapped. "I'm hardly likely to. And I knew what I was doing."
"So?" Sheppard prompted him. "Let me guess, the Silani's ancestors weren't as all-powerful as Marikar believes?"
"Not quite." McKay started rifling through his pack and pulled out a power bar, tearing the wrapper open. "Oh, they had some good ideas, and I'm sure they made some great innovations but the mess down there won't reveal any of it." He took a bite, spoke around a mouthful to elucidate: "I'd be surprised if half that stuff was intended for the use the Silani think it should have."
"But it's more advanced that what we've seen so far?" Sheppard asked, cautiously.
"Oh, no question. I'm sure that at one point all the buildings looked like this and it was powered by generators like the one downstairs. But the rest? They're just fragments; unlabelled, badly organized fragments at that." He took another bite.
"Then it's just a matter of putting them together?" Ford pressed, openly frustrated. "If you had more time…"
McKay waved a hand violently, sprinkling crumbs. "Look," he said, less than patiently. "Imagine an eight year old has taken apart a nuclear reactor, and used the pieces to build a Barbie dream house. Then imagine you don't even know what the original pieces belong to, AND you don't know which pieces are old, and which pieces are Barbie's."
Sheppard raised his hands in defense. "Okay, okay, I get it." Paused, then added, because it was impossible for him to resist: "Barbies?"
"I have a sister," McKay snapped.
Sheppard grinned, and Teyla was quite sure that the scientist would regret his analogy more than once over the next week. Although she had no idea what a Barbie was.
"So that's it?" Ford asked. "It doesn't work?"
"It might. Possibly," McKay admitted, grudgingly. "But it would take months, years even, a lifetime for one person."
Teyla glanced at the locked door, heard Sheppard mutter: "I'm sure Marikar would be willing to arrange that."
"I don't even know if the weapon was ever going to work," McKay continued. He screwed up the now empty wrapper and stuffed it into his jacket. "Some of what they've got down there, maybe. The generator has potential. They seem to be close to finishing a couple of projects. But we're talking about a weapon big enough to protect this whole city against the Wraith, maybe even the planet. There's nothing that suggests the Silani were ever that advanced."
"Give me a date," Sheppard said.
"Nineteen forties or fifties."
"So they've been lying to us?" Ford asked, confused.
Teyla shook her head. "Not on such a scale. Marikar may have concealed things from us but I believe he speaks for his people when he tells of us his hope for this weapon."
Sheppard's shoulders slumped. "It's an easy option," he said, wearily. "Your entire civilization is almost wiped out by a Wraith culling and you know it's only by chance that you've survived this long without another."
"The weapon offers hope," Teyla said, thinking of her own people, of people she had lost to the Wraith.
"And control," Ford added.
"You have a point," McKay agreed. "The council are ploughing a lot of resources into that lab."
"No wonder the Hallan are pissed."
As if on cue, there was a rumble from a distant explosion, the room shaking gently. Sheppard glanced at McKay, then back to the door, rising from his seat and grabbing his pack. "That's it. We're not staying here. I should have known this was a bad idea from the start."
"We're leaving?" McKay asked, confused.
"Yup. I don't trust Marikar, or his council. We're not waiting here as their prisoners, or their guests." Looked at the door. "Lieutenant, would you do the honours?"
Ford grinned, squaring his shoulders. "My pleasure."
