SURVIVING THE SIEGE (Tag for Siege II)
PART FOUR: HIGH PITCHED
Rodney's scream of pain echoed over the radio waves, causing them all to flinch, and Zelenka even pulled his earpiece away from his ear.
"Rodney!" Elizabeth shouted, "Rodney, what's happening!"
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Sheppard's eyes widened at the sudden scream, grabbing his controls as the display showed puddle jumper five going dead in space, and the cloak disappeared.
"Rodney! The cloak's down! Rodney! RODNEY!"
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"What's happening!" Elizabeth turned to Beckett, to see him fiddling with the scanner in his hands, trying to find the chair room on it. He was shaking his head. He didn't know, his eyes lifting to meet Elizabeth's as John's shout about the cloak turned all their heads to the display, where PJ-05X was practically on top of the hive ship.
And suddenly, the comm. link came alive with the powerful sound of a P90.
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Teyla fired and fired, never blinking, never lowering her aim, pumping the Wraith that had attached itself to Rodney's chest with every single bullet in the chamber. It fell back, Rodney's wide eyes staring after it.
The room was alive with the whine of the generators, gunfire, and the shouting of people over the radio.
McKay turned back, watching with bright blue eyes as Teyla moved further into the room, walking past him, still firing on the Wraith that had been flung towards the corner.
"…Cloak's down!" John shout echoed into Rodney's reeling mind.
He quickly shut his eyes, his whole body shaking something fierce, and mentally stabbed the jumper right at the hive ship like a knife, all its weapons hatches open. Rodney started firing every drone in the jumpers arsenal at the underside of the hive ship, seeking to confuse the weapons fire now aimed at the very visible jumper as it sped to its destruction.
He never even realized he was yelling as he felt the jumper ram right into the hive ship's bulkhead, still surrounded as he was by the deafening report of the machine gun and the generators screaming on overload.
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PJ-05X put on a sudden burst of speed, and evidence of its weapons being put to use had Elizabeth staring at Radek.
"Now!" she shouted.
The engineer nodded, triggering the nuclear bomb.
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Sheppard flinched as white light filled the window where the jumper had just exploded inside the hive ship, throwing up a hand to protect his corneas.
The entire Wraith ship seemed to crumple in on itself, then burst outwards in a massive explosion of fire and white light.
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Down in the control room, the Atlantians still there erupted in cheers as the large red light depicting the hive ship disappeared from the screen. About a quarter of the Wraith darts also blipped off screen, too close to the large explosion from the nuclear weapon to survive.
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"It's gone," John confirmed, still stunned by the extent of the devastation. "You did it, Rodney."
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"Rodney?" Elizabeth tapped her radio, turning back to Beckett, "Are you all right?"
Carson held up the life signs detector, showing two life signs within the chair room, and one without, next to the doorway.
Three life signs?
"Rodney!" Elizabeth called again. "Answer me! Are you all right? Who's with you!"
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Teyla stared down at the dead Wraith, her lips curled in a sneer. It stared lifelessly back, its frozen eyes still fixed on her face. Slowly, she lowered the still warm P90 and nodded in satisfaction.
Taking a deep shuddering breath, she came back to herself mentally then, and turned.
Rodney was sitting in the control chair, gasping for air, his chest a bloody mess.
Her breath caught, and in two steps, she was on the dais, turning his drawn face to her. It was pinched in pain, but, thankfully, appeared no older. The Wraith had not attached itself to the doctor long enough to steal any of his life…at least, she hoped not.
"Doctor McKay," she urged, tapping his cheek, "Doctor McKay, can you hear me?"
The eyes opened slowly, looking horribly dazed and disconnected. Teyla turned his face more, trying to get them to focus on her.
"Teyla?"
She smiled at the softly voiced question. He still didn't seem to see her, but at least he could hear her.
"Yes," she promised, her voice thick with gratitude, "It is me. Can you see me?"
"Teyla," he coughed, then lifted a shaking hand to touch her arm, "The…generators….must shut down…."
"What?"
"Too much…they'll explode…."
Her eyes widened, and, as if for the first time, she noticed the high pitched whine echoing through the chamber. Stepping to the other side of the chair, her eyes widened at the sight of the two naquadah generators shaking and flashing. She had seen the power one of these exploding had done before, when Sheppard had detonated one in the atmosphere to stop the nanovirus. Turning to look again at McKay, he finally seemed to be looking at her.
"How do I turn them off?"
"Keys," he said, his voice incredibly coarse. "Pull out…simultaneous….must be…same time…both."
She nodded, "All right." Leaving him still lying in the chair, she jumped over to the two generators and, gingerly, drew them closer together. Her head turned once more to see McKay leaning over the arm of the chair, watching her. He nodded, his eyes barely slits as he tried to stay awake.
Her hands rested atop the keys on the top of both generators, her eyes seeing the displays on both well in the red. Swallowing, she gripped the two keys, lifted and twisted, pulling them both out at the same time….
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"Rodney?" Elizabeth was trying so hard not to start begging, "Please answer. Please."
"What happened?" John asked. "Is he all right?"
Elizabeth shook her head, her eyes beginning to tear. It was just too much.
A large bang echoed through the hall, and they all looked up towards the stairs leading to the upper hallway and the jumper bay.
Beckett quickly reconfigured the scanner in his hands, and grimaced at the screen. At Elizabeth's questioning gaze, he simply nodded.
"It's the Wraith; it has to be. There are too many for them to be our people, plus they'd know the code." He looked up at the stairs, "They're ramming the doors, trying to get in."
Which meant Lieutenant Ford was down as well. Elizabeth closed her eyes.
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John frowned, watching as the power signature from Atlantis suddenly dipped.
The chair's power, he understood, had just gone out.
"Elizabeth," he called, "The power's gone from the chair room. Please tell me Rodney did that."
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Teyla breathed in and out slowly, holding the two keys in each hand, the metal faintly reflecting the soft glow from the Atlantian walls. All other lights in the room had gone out, including the chair. The two generators powered down instantly, their twin threat gone.
Gently, she placed the components on the floor and stood up. Brushing her hands off on her trousers, to get rid of the slickness, she looked back at Rodney.
He was still leaning over the arm of the chair, his head bowed, his face no longer visible to her.
Heading back to him, she knelt next to the side of the chair, took his limp hand in hers, and smiled up at his face. His eyes were still open, watching her, as if mesmerized by her face. He gave a small smile back.
Reaching up, she tapped the radio on her ear.
"This is Teyla. I'm with Rodney in the chair room."
"Teyla!" Elizabeth practically shouted the name, her relief clear over the link. "Thank God. It is so good to hear your voice. Are you all right? Is Rodney all right?"
"Yes, I am well enough. Doctor McKay is, however, wounded and not quite…cognizant. A Wraith attacked him while he was using the chair." Teyla ignored the soft gasp over the radio, not sure who it originated from, since it didn't sound like Doctor Weir, and added, "Sergeant Stackhouse is also unconscious. He was hit by the Wraith's stun weapon."
Doctor Beckett's voice suddenly spoke up, "Did the Wraith manage to—"
"No. I believe he did not have time to cause any permanent injury to Doctor McKay."
"Thank God for that," Beckett breathed over the radio.
"Okay," Elizabeth answered, "Thank you, Teyla. And tell Rodney he succeeded."
Teyla smiled, and Rodney smiled back. He'd heard that over his own radio.
"That is good to hear," she said. "We shall make our way to the Gateroom now."
"No, Teyla, I'm sorry, but that is not possible right now. The Wraith are in the halls outside the Control Room. They've blocked the access ways to the transporters. We will…we will try and come and get you, when we can."
Teyla's smile fell at the news, and she lowered her eyes from Rodney's clear blue ones to his hand, which had shivered. It was ice cold to her touch, and she squeezed it tighter. His own smile was gone now, and he leaned back on the chair. He gave a soft sigh, then reached up to tap his own radio. He really only had one question now, prefaced by one word.
"Major?" he called quietly.
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"Rodney," Sheppard replied, grinning happily to hear his friend's voice. "Next time, try not to scream in my ear, okay?"
"Ship…? Still…?"
John's smile fell as Rodney didn't respond to his joke, and it reminded him that there was still another hive ship out there. Truth be told, he hadn't wanted to look.
He closed his eyes for a moment, then returned his gaze to the view outside his jumper. Fragments of the destroyed hive ship drifted around, blocking and confusing his line of sight to the other one. Frowning, he mentally switched the screen from the one monitoring Atlantis to the one monitoring the Wraith ships.
He stared at the display for a few moments, his eyes tracking the information calmly.
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Down in the control room, the lieutenant was yelling orders, sending men to watch each of the doors, ready to blow away anything that made its way through into the Gateroom.
The bulkheads creaked and groaned as large objects were battered against them.
"We need to get you through the gate now!" the young soldier said, turning his dark eyes on Elizabeth and the rest of the scientists and technicians in the Control Room.
She shook her head, "Not now. Not yet," she said.
"There's no time," the lieutenant replied. "You must evacuate now, or we will all perish when those things break through the doors!"
Elizabeth grimaced, and turned back to the display. "Not yet, I said!" she stated again.
"Ma'am, please!"
"My name is Doctor Weir, not ma'am!" she snapped back, rounding on him. "And I am not leaving!"
The lieutenant's jaw steeled, looking a little like he would tackle her and force her through the gate. He even took a step towards her, but suddenly Zelenka was by her side…and Beckett. The three of them stared back at the young lieutenant, unflinching.
The soldier literally growled, and pointed at one of the doors visible from their position. "The moment one of those doors are breached, you go through the Gate, understand? I will not risk my men for you any longer than that!"
Elizabeth lifted her chin, "Fine."
Still growling, the lieutenant turned and ran for the stairs leading up to the jumper bay, to where the largest force of Wraith seemed to be, according to Beckett's life signs detector. But there were more, gathered at other doors, including the one leading to the transporter. Soldiers had lined themselves up before each door, prepared to hold the Gateroom for as long as possible.
Shaking, Elizabeth turned to the display showing the external sensors, and tried to make sense of the readings.
She realized it at the same time that John finally replied to Rodney's question.
"The third hive ship," John informed them tonelessly, "Is not backing off."
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TBC
A/N -- I have no idea what the triggers-keys-tops of the generators are called. But, if anyone's confused, I mean the, uh...you know those things that Sheppard pulled out of the generators to turn them off in The Eye? Those things. I called them "keys" for lack of a better word.Do they have a name?Ah well!