A/N: Thank you to all the people who have reviewed so far, it's really appreciated and lovely of you! Particular thanks to Derry for pointing out a typo, and Sarah, for a great discussion of canon.

The Puppet Master

Chapter Nineteen - Smushed

Zelenka appeared awkward and uncomfortable under the standard military jacket, looking rather like a kid on his first day of school, dressed in the cast-offs of his older and larger brother. He kept running a finger beneath the collar of his shirt, whilst the other hand seemed to be intent on hovering a good three inches over the butt of his P90.

Ford jostled him gently with one elbow, and the Czech yelped. "Lieutenant!"

"Sorry." The younger man looked genuinely stricken. "You shouldn't be so jumpy, y'know. This is a simple mission."

Zelenka nodded several times, his head bobbing, but his eyes kept darting towards the Stargate. "Yes. Of course. In and out, yes?"

"It's not like you haven't been off-world before," Sheppard pointed out, readjusting the straps of his pack.

"Ah, true, but your team, I –" and Radek drifted, his cheeks flushing. "You have a reputation."

"A reputation?" Sheppard raised his eyebrows. "Care to elaborate on that, Doctor?"

"You attract trouble, like honeypot to bee." The scientist's hands danced in the air. "You say this planet is abandoned, but how can you be sure? They could be hiding. Hibernating. And I have seen your record. Carson, he has an entire drawer for your woes. I do not wish there to be a folder with my own name!"

"And here I was thinking we were a legend for our heroics." He grinned at the unfortunate Czech. "Relax, Radek. We've already been to the planet, we know what to expect – and that's zip all. The detector showed no life signs at all. There were no footsteps in the sand, nothing like that. The planet is next to dead."

Zelenka squinted at him doubtfully through his glasses, muttering softly to himself. "Dinosaurs, perhaps. Or ferocious lions, maybe, hungry for meat. Fresh meat. European meat. I should not be risking myself on this." As he turned towards the 'gate Sheppard saw the Czech's shoulders, bowed slightly, and not due to the weight of his pack.

His grin faded. The sudden bout of paranoia was nothing more than a cover, and a feeble one at that. No better than Sheppard's own front of bravado, but it wasn't the planet he was scared of.

To return empty handed, however…

"Major Sheppard, is your team ready?"

He turned to see Elizabeth stood on the staircase, Beckett beside her. The doctor looked even worse than he had in the briefing. Upon waking in the cell, McKay had apparently burst into a screaming fit that had only ended when an anxious nurse had threatened him with a return to the restraints. His fit of rebellion did not pass, however, and Sheppard heard that Carson himself had been the one to receive a final, desperate lashing. He could just see several dark stains on the Scotsman's shirt, testament to the refused food thrown across the small space.

The weight of his task suddenly bore down upon him and Sheppard turned away, concentrating on the 'gate as it burst into life. The brilliance of the event horizon scored patterns across his retina.

"We are good to go, Atlantis."

He took several steps towards the 'gate, following Teyla and Zelenka, before Elizabeth's voice rang out across the control room.

"John – we'll be waiting."

He stepped through the 'gate.

The planet was as they had left it. Rain had not graced its surface for thousands of years, according to Teyla's guess, and the ground was baked hard and barren of all life. Great cracks ran through the rock, some several metres wide, and within bubbled molten lava, hot grey sludge moving in a listless current. On their first visit to the planet the team had gathered around one such pool, gazing in fascination at the movement of the rock and the glimpses of fiery orange briefly revealed from under the magma's cooler exterior.

Ford had spent several minutes explaining to Teyla what a lava lamp was, and exactly why humans found them so absorbing.

Sheppard now ignored the pools, walking past heedless of their strange beauty. Paid no attention to the great geysers of hot steam released from the earth at irregular intervals, carrying with it the stench of rotten eggs. They passed the pool in which Ford and Teyla had paddled, and the large formation of rock which Aiden had claimed resembled a Wraith hive ship.

"So do you know what you're looking for?" Ford asked, conversationally, walking beside the Czech.

Zelenka moved his head in a non-committal manner. "Yes and no. Rodney, he took recordings of what he found. A camcorder. I watched his film."

"Ford's film," Sheppard said casually, keeping at their tail and allowing Teyla to take the lead. "He's our self-appointed director."

"Ah," and Zelenka turned to nod appreciatively at the younger man, "nice technique."

"Thanks. Always wanted to be the next Scorsese."

"The next what?" Teyla enquired, looking briefly back over her shoulder.

"Martin Scorsese. Very famous film director back on Earth. You remember watching Goodfellas, a couple of weeks ago?"

"Ah." She nodded sagely. "Yes, I remember. And in the recordings of Doctor McKay, did you see something which will help him?"

"Perhaps." The scientist rolled his shoulders under the weight of his pack. "The device Rodney says transferred Kezan into his body was a memory storage device. The tape from this planet showed some kind of laboratory, and what appear to be computer consoles. I hope something there will tell me what the device was originally used for."

"You have a theory," Sheppard guessed.

Zelenka glanced at him, then looked away. "Perhaps. The device, it is like a, ah –" he paused, hands tugging at the straps of his pack. "A floppy disk, a CD-ROM. It contains data only, but not the means for removing it."

"And you hope the lab can tell you more?"

He received an enthusiastic head bob in response. "I hope, yes."

What was left of the laboratory stood against a shallow cliff at the valley edge, about ten minutes walk from the Stargate. Partly built from the rock itself, it was about thirty metres in length and four in height, though the roof sloped upwards into the cliff face to stand ten metres at its highest. It was once an impressive building, but its walls now crumbled, in places nothing more than piles of rubble, and its white colour was bleached the same yellow as the surrounding rock.

Sheppard ducked under the low entrance, still tailing Zelenka. The Czech stood in the centre of the room, his head tilted back, taking in the equipment around him.

"Most impressive. Not Ancient, certainly. Fascinating. I had wondered whether races in the Pegasus galaxy were all of lesser ability but now perhaps, I am not sure."

"Doc," Ford reminded, with little subtlety.

"Sorry." Zelenka trotted across to the nearest console. "These are the computers?"

"I'm guessing." Sheppard walked up to stand behind the Czech.

The room was lined with a number of large, metal boxes, their surfaces covered in dull lights and cracked display screens. The tallest stood at over eight meters high, whilst the smaller, waist-level ones were arranged in rows at the centre of the room. All looked long dead, The banks nearest the far wall were half hidden under a rock fall, their seams open and wires spread like innards across the floor. To their left once stood a row of shelves, now fallen, their contents lying in pieces on the floor. Most were damaged, or buried under rock and rubble, but a few were still recognisable as being the same devices as the one brought back from McKay after their first visit.

"Lieutenant," Zelenka directed, "I will need three or four, please. The least damaged."

Ford nodded, crossing over to retrieve several of the metal balls.

"Careful with them," Sheppard warned, needlessly since Aiden was already opening his pack and pulling out a pair of gloves.

"I believe there is one side to the device which allows energy transference," Zelenka told them. "If you only touch the shiny squares you should be fine."

Ford pulled his face into a frown. "Should be?"

Radek waved at him absently. "Go. They all seem to be broken, I do not believe there is much danger."

"If they are broken," Teyla asked, from her position near the door, "then why do we need them?"

"They may help me in reconstructing the original." Zelenka glanced at the objects Ford was carefully placing in his pack. Said, sorrowfully: "Although I fear they may be too damaged to help."

Ford weighed one of the devices in one hand. Half its casing was missing, and a deep crack ran through the remaining metal.

Sheppard turned away, back to the console. Thick dust layered its surface, but there were fingerprints in the dirt where someone had attempted to clean the metal.

McKay's fingerprints.

He forced his gaze back up to stare at the Czech. "What are we looking for?"

"Something which will help us learn what this place was for."

"And do you have an idea as to where we might find that?"

"I have studied McKay's notes," Zelenka replied, running his hands beneath the edge of the console. "He theorized that these machines are only extra limbs to a central core, protected deeper within the walls." He retrieved one arm to point at a large pile of rubble in the right hand corner of the room. "There the larger cables lead, suggesting a power supply. Destroyed. And there," and the finger swung to point at the opposite corner, and the largest metal box, "is the computer heart." Dropping his arm, he trotted across to the box, stumbling over the larger pieces of rubble which littered the floor.

"You think anything useful has survived this long?" Sheppard asked, following him.

"Ah." Two fingers wagged in his direction. "You see, in the movies, when the bad guys, they want to destroy a computer? They hit it with a bat, yes, or they knock it to the floor. The screen explodes and whumpf!" His hands made an expressive burst. "We are supposed to think that all the information has been wiped out. But in real life it is not that easy. It is hard to destroy a computer's memory. Acid, perhaps, or intense heat. And the Atlantean computers, even worse." He dropped to his knees, scuffling closer to the belly of the largest console. "I believe," as he prised open one of the large, metal panels at its base, "that it is universal rule."

"Woah," Sheppard put a hand out warningly, "be careful. One false move and this whole place could come down."

Zelenka rolled onto his back and wriggled underneath the console, one hand waving at Sheppard. "Yes, yes. You worse than old maid."

"Ri-ight." He placed a hand on the surface of the console and felt it tremble with small vibrations. "Just be careful. Atlantis has already lost one scientist, it can't afford…"

He stopped, the words dying unspoken. Beneath him, the sounds of Zelenka dismantling the console suddenly ceased. A ruffled looking Czech face poked itself from under the machine innards to look at him with a serious expression and an oddly penetrating gaze.

"You have not lost anybody, Major. You will not lose anyone." Then he disappeared back beneath the computer. "Unless, of course, I am smushed to fine paste by this monstrosity. There seems much that is obsolete." And there was a suddenly thump as a large lump of partially melted material dropped from within the machine to the floor.

Sheppard kicked it away with his foot, and felt another tremor run through the console. "Ah, Doc, that's possibly not a great joke to make. Mind hurrying it up?"

Ford looked up from where he was sealing his pack. "Trouble, sir?"

"I think the mountain's ready to come to Muhammad." He glanced at the younger man. "Take Teyla and move to a safe distance, Lieutenant."

Ford nodded, briskly, shouldering his pack and heading to the door. "Don't leave it to the last second, sir," he advised, before ducking beneath the doorway and disappearing outside.

"You hear that?" Sheppard directed his comment at the legs sticking out from under the console. "No playing the hero. If this rock decides to move, then so do we."

"Almost there."

He heard the clatter of metal against metal, and a stifled curse from the Czech. Then a groan, borne of the rock itself. Slab moving against slab, causing the walls and ground to shake and fresh rubble to dislodge itself from the ceiling.

"Zelenka –"

"I hear. One moment –" There was another clatter, Sheppard almost slipping into full blown panic mode when the entire console shifted one inch to the left. The ceiling it supported creaked loudly, and a boulder the size of his head suddenly dropped from above, narrowly missing Sheppard's shoulder.

Then another rattle, and a multitude of groans as suddenly the entire cliff face started to move, taking the lab with it. A crack opened up in the floor between Sheppard's feet, one side dropping several centimetres, enough to shift the console diagonally. He heard a short, alarmed cry, and ignoring the great burst of steam venting from the crack and warming his thighs, Sheppard dropped to his knees and grabbed the Czech by both ankles.

"Time's up, Radek! We're getting out of here!"

Then he pulled hard, dragging the startled scientist out from under the console just as the ground shifted further and the machine's bottom fell from beneath itself. Zelenka's muttering ceased as soon as he saw the mound of rock now lying where his torso had once been.

"Ah."

Sheppard glanced down at him. A shallow cut ran from the Czech's eyebrow to his forehead, blood welling within the wound, but he seemed otherwise unharmed. Two white hands clutched a large, silver square, about the size of a lunch tray.

"That it?"

Radek nodded, his face pale. There was another groan from the rock, and a second boulder danced down from the ceiling. "We should go, yes?"

"Yes." And Sheppard reached down and grabbed the man's hand, hauling him to his feet. As the building shuddered and groaned around them, they ran for the door, small rocks and larger boulders dropping around them. One gave Sheppard's shoulder a glancing blow, another rolled beneath his feet and threatened to trip him up. With one hand in the small of the Czech's back he pushed Zelenka through the doorway and tumbled after him, as the entire back wall of the laboratory shifted several meters downwards and was submerged in an avalanche of rock.

The pair stood, panting, as a cloud of dust rose from the still shifting debris.

Zelenka clutched the computer hard drive with a tight grip. "Let us hope," he said, breathlessly, "that this is all we need." And he shot a glance at Ford, his eyes glimmering behind his glasses. "It would take a long time for you to dig the room out, yes, Lieutenant?"