SURVIVING THE SIEGE (alternate ending to Siege II)
PART THREE
Teyla lowered her head, hearing Elizabeth's shout over her comm. link. She paused and turned slightly in the hall, battling with herself over her options. Did she return to the generator room and help Lieutenant Ford; head back to the control room to help Doctor Weir; or continue on, to follow her prey to wherever the Wraith led?
Had she known that Sora had been torn by a similar decision all those months ago, she might have been amused by the irony.
Her eyes lifted from the floor, looking down the corridor, still feeling the pull of the Wraith before her, drawing her on.
The generator was doubtless broken beyond repair, as they had done with the other generators supplying power to the City. And if she went to the control room now….
She'd never know what this Wraith was doing.
And she'd never get the chance to kill it.
Her eyes narrowed.
She wanted to kill it. Desperately.
Almost of their own power, her feet turned and sent her deeper into the shadows of Atlantis.
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"Get me power back! I need those displays! I need to know what's happening!" Elizabeth shouted at the hapless gate technician, the poor boy sliding crystals in and out of the matrix as he tried to find a way to patch the sensors into the primary functions.
"I…I can't," he said weakly, "I don't have the means. I need power to even begin trying to find a way around—"
"Rodney," Elizabeth called into her radio, "Tell Paul how to bypass the systems and get me my information. I need to be able to help you! And to see what's going on in the rest of Atlantis."
"I…I am a little busy here…Elizabeth…." Her chief scientist's voice was clearly strained.
"I've got it," Zelenka was already alongside the technician, on his knees next to the console. "Get out of the way," he ordered the young man, though not unkindly. "I need room." He was beneath the console now, fiddling with a panel. "Doctor Weir, I can only get one screen functioning. You must choose—the external sensors in space, or the city's internal sensors?" As he spoke, he wrenched a mess of wires down from beneath the panel, and started stripping and crossing them. The tech had stood up to get out of his way, watching with wide eyes.
"Major, Elizabeth's blind. Can you tell me how am I doing?" Rodney asked over the radio, "Can you see my jumper on your screen?"
"Clear as day on my sensors, Rodney," John replied. "You're doing fine. What's your perspective?"
"I, uh, I'm inside the jumper, sitting at the controls. Or at least, that's where I am looking out from."
"Go outside it, if you can. Guide it like you're pushing a toy boat across a lake from behind…can you do that?"
"I…Oh God…It's…I can see everything…and nothing…this is…this is…really weird…."
Sheppard chuckled over the radio, "Not so easy using the chair, is it?"
"I'm having serious vertigo here," Rodney even sounded queasy. "If Carson's there, tell him to get me some motion sickness pills next time, okay?"
"No problem, Rodney," Carson said, smiling into the radio. "Next time, I'll even put a Dramamine drip in your arm." The not so subtle promise that he believed there would be a "next time" earned a grateful silence from Rodney in return.
Meanwhile, Elizabeth had turned doe eyes on Zelenka. "Radek?"
"I still need you to choose, Doctor Weir," Zelenka leaned out from under the console to see her. "Which sensor array?"
She stared at him a moment, then looked back at the two dead screens. Without the internal sensors, she couldn't see how her people were doing with the evacuation, or how close the Wraith were. Without the external sensors, she couldn't help Sheppard and McKay, and might not be able to detonate the nuclear bomb on PJ-5 at the right time when Rodney needed her to.
"Elizabeth," Carson said, holding up something for her to see. She turned to him, and her eyebrows lifted at the sight of a life signs detector in his hand. "It's not as useful," he admitted, "but it'll help some. I can monitor the internal life signs with this."
Elizabeth smiled at him. It wasn't as powerful as the biometric display, as it didn't distinguish the life signs, but it helped. It would do…for now.
She made her decision. Right now, she needed to help McKay and Sheppard more.
"External," she said, and Zelenka nodded, leaning back under the console. "But…can you switch to internal when I need you to?"
The Czech flexed his eyebrows, though she couldn't seem him now, "Not easily."
"But you can?"
"I think so."
"Okay." She turned back to Carson, "Keep an eye on that thing for me, as best you can." He nodded, and started fiddling with it, to monitor the outer corridors beyond the Gateroom more effectively.
As she watched him, then looked back at Zelenka's legs sticking out from the console, Elizabeth realized how glad she was that they had both stayed after all.
A shower of sparks and some colorful sounding Czech swears, and the external sensor display was back up.
She breathed a sigh of relief, her eyes noting how close "PJ-05X" was to the closer of the two hive ships to the planet.
"Okay Rodney," she said, "I've got you." Her eyes narrowed, "But you're not going in a straight line any more…."
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"I know," Rodney groused, his eyes tightly shut. "I can't control it as easily from outside the ship. Damn it, all the toy boats I ever made sank in the pond, Major. Ducks, you know? They'd cause ripples on the pond with all their greedy, breadcrumb seeking ways, tip the boat over and water would..." he swallowed, realizing the metaphor had really begun to suck. "Point is, Major…I think I have to go back inside."
"Alright, McKay. Go back in, but…try not to still have your mind in there when you hit the Hive ship. And watch out for all the darts around you. You were getting awfully close to them before."
"I'll try," Rodney swallowed. Above him, the same displays he was asking Elizabeth and John to monitor for him were being depicted in three dimensions against the ceiling. But he couldn't open his eyes to see them, couldn't take his attention from his control of the jumper, even for a second.
He was barely controlling it as is.
And the two generators were whining even louder now.
The power levels on both were touching the red zones, and getting hotter.
The one on the right started to shake again.
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Stackhouse gripped his P90 tighter, never lowering it from his shoulder, trying to keep his breathing slow and even…and quiet. His ears were focused now, even more than his eyes, as he tried to distinguish movement from the general sounds of Atlantis.
The skin on the back of his neck tingled, and he thought he saw something move out of the corner of his eye.
Turning, he refocused the P90 in that direction.
His neck hairs continued to tingle. The slightest tremor lit at his hand, and he turned again, certain now that he was not alone.
He took a couple of steps out into the center of the hallway.
And suddenly, the world disappeared in a flash of white light. He never even got a shot off.
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John sat perfectly still, not breathing, not swallowing, not doing anything except watching the display on the screen.
He couldn't see the puddle jumper McKay was guiding, but he knew where it was. He knew it was very close now.
"Two minutes to impact, Rodney. Lower your trajectory. Come from beneath. Understand?"
Rodney didn't answer, but the little white dot on the screen with PJ-05X attached to it dipped a little on the screen, clearly following the direction John had just given.
And John looked through the display, to the view from the window of the universe beyond. Darts continued to swarm all around blue world below. He imagined he could see the nuclear device laden jumper, creeping between them, dodging the multitude as it maneuvered for its final run.
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Inside the silent, remote controlled puddle jumper, the nuclear weapon sat perfectly still, the inertial dampeners creating a motionless world for it.
The remote detonator on the side of the jumper began to flash red.
And the jumper angled upwards, aiming towards the power cells clearly visible on the underside of the closer hive ship. The jumper began to accelerate.
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Hive ships still blew down through the atmosphere, careening towards the defenseless City below. They no longer had to worry about weapons fire. All but the central tower had been cleansed of danger.
The darts started to circle, like vultures around a corpse.
They awaited the order to start scooping up those humans knocked out and prepped for transport.
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In the control room, Radek nodded to Elizabeth. He'd set the nuclear weapon on puddle jumper five for detonation. He held up the remote in his hand, ready to start the implosion, and turned to watch the screen. They needed to time this just right.
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And down in the chair room, Rodney continued to guide puddle jumper five, seeing nothing but the hive ship in his mind's eye.
Around him, the room practically vibrated with power, lights flickering as both generators reached dangerous levels.
He heard the high pitched whine, its noise overpowering everything else, but he ignored it. He was amazed no one else had remarked on it over the radio.
Okay….just a few more seconds….
And standing over him, the Wraith reached its right hand back…preparing to feed.
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TBC