AN: Dr. Dredd, liked the coffee cup, eh? Yeah, I'm thinking he doesn't have much sympathy for bugs anymore!

Laura-Trekkie, oh my yes, let the snowballing commence -

Out-of-Phase, thank you! And everyone, thanks for the reviews!

Now, onto part three...

Part Three

Weir could feel the skin on her forehead wrinkling, as she put two and two together. Folding her arms, and leaning against her desk, she looked again at Sheppard. "So this replacement part, is the same device that McKay accidentally ruined by," here she paused and cleared her throat slightly – was that a laugh? - "skipping the parts," she was now staring at Rodney, and that was definitely a smile, "off the balcony?"

I nodded, holding my hands behind my back, a relaxed parade rest. It wasn't that there was much formality with a civilian leader in charge, and being in another galaxy, but old habits die hard. "That's the general idea," I confirmed.

McKay, for his part, was being uncharacteristically silent, but it wasn't to last. "If we had a decent form of recreation, I wouldn't have had to resort to finding my own," he accused with a pithy look.

Elizabeth unfolded her hands, and held up one, gesturing for extra emphasis. "It's all right, Rodney. We do realize that you are not all-knowing, but, you say we need to get tank 5 running, and if this is the only replacement part, that leaves us with a bit of a problem, doesn't it?"

This was the real stinker, in that those rocks now resided on the bottom of the ocean – a very long way down. "The Jumper?" I offered.

McKay shook his head, and was that a condescending smile now on his face? Like a Jumper couldn't go underwater – I'm betting it could.

"Jumpers aren't submarines, Major," he said, proving again that our thoughts tended to run alongside from time to time, or maybe I was starting to think like him? That's a scary thought. He waved both hands and added, "Let's paint them yellow, and gather around and sing Yellow Submarine."

My lips thinned, and I forgot Weir was in the room. "And you haven't been wrong before?"

"Rarely," he snapped back. "And for some reason I prefer to err on the side of caution when it comes to taking a vehicle down thousands of kilometers underwater, and subjecting it to crushing forces. I don't know about you, but I have this thing about having my body implode under the weight of kilotons of water!"

"I don't see you offering a better idea?" I hurled aggressively, and I wasn't standing in parade rest anymore. Here I was, trying to protect McKay's sorry ass by not reporting his screw up with the device, and then when that little adventure literally blew up in our face, I tried to offer a solution, and all he can do is complain!

"John, Rodney," called Elizabeth firmly. "Could we focus on the issue at hand?"

Rodney shot a puzzled look at Weir. "Wasn't that what we're doing?"

She didn't reply, instead she lifted the small rock that we had left, and peered at it curiously before asking, "And you're sure there aren't anymore of these?"

"Yes, I am sure," irritably, Rodney jerked his body. "Honestly, do you people even listen to me?"

"Maybe we would, if you didn't make it so difficult," I muttered.

He turned towards me again, "What?" and squinted his eyes impatiently.

So we tended to go back and forth a lot. It's what we did. But Weir was right, this wasn't helping us solve the situation at hand. As much as McKay's superiority complex grated, I wasn't willing to discount his fears over the Jumpers' capabilities. If he didn't want to risk taking it below the surface, then we'd find another way. Maybe the transporters -?

Just then, Bates arrived. He headed my direction, and the sensation of thunderclouds rolling in as he moved towards me, clued me that this wasn't going to be good.

"Major, we have a situation -"

Didn't we always? Keeping my thoughts neutral, I asked, "What now?"

"A group of civilians that lost water in their section after the loss of tank 5 have hijacked our section of rooms -," Bates paused.

"And?" I prompted.

He seemed to steel himself, and darted an uneasy look towards McKay, before finishing, "Including your office, and Doctor McKay's."

I was watching McKay as Bates' report sunk in. The slow shift from his annoyance at me, to mild surprise at the thought of a group of civilians commandeering other rooms when the water shortage was barely a day old, to resolute anger when he heard his office was included in the insurgent take-over.

"Give me your gun," he ordered, snapping a finger at Bates, and holding out his hand.

Alarmed, Bates looked at me. For my part, I was kind of enjoying this, and was about to tell Bates to go ahead, but Elizabeth stepped in.

"No!" she shouted, mildly panicked at the thought of McKay accosting other civilian members with a gun; and blaming me for not speaking up, she shot me a filthy look. "Rodney, work on a plan for retrieving these rocks." She tossed the one to him, and I'll give him props for quick reflexes because he caught it; though in truth, if he hadn't, it would've smacked him in the face. "Major, go with Bates, and get the water situation under control. Inform them that we are shuttling water to their rooms momentarily, and they can return where they belong, and -" she added tightly, "you can tell them that anyone refusing will be thrown in the brig."

I expected Bates to snap out his "Yes, Ma'am!" but he didn't. Instead, he was staring at McKay, or, more accurately – the rock in McKay's hand.

"Something to add, Sergeant?" I asked pointedly.

He frowned and said, "No, Sir!" he answered smartly, but then contradicted himself by asking McKay, "Where did you get that rock from, Doctor?"

"From my lab," replied McKay, as if Bates had asked him something stupidly simple, like what color was the sky.

"You recognize it?" I had a spark of hope. Maybe Bates had come across a crate of the things when exploring the city; in the small amount we had explored, as McKay had been so quick to point out earlier.

Bates stepped towards McKay and held out a hand. Rodney grudgingly handed it over, disbelieving that Bates knew what the object was. Rodney had a hard time believing in anyone, and at times it was comical, but this could be the answer to a very sticky situation, so I was inclined to let Bates finger the rock till he got his own rocks off, if that's what it took –

Speaking of the man, he was examining it, and finally seemed convinced. "I don't know how, but the planet we just gated to," he looked up at me, "the report I gave you on M45-X27 -"

"Proto-Earth?"

"Yes, Sir," he confirmed. He held the rock up so we could all look at it. "It's covered with these. As far as the eye can see. I thought it was some kind of lava rock."

I could see McKay's mental gears spinning. The light-bulb moment suffused his face, and he turned a true grin on me, 100 kilowatt, and I almost returned it back, because that meant he knew what the hell was going on. "Of course!" he crowed.

I mentally repeated 'of course', wondering how slow I was, that I had no idea – "Of course, what?" I said expectantly.

"It's a filter!" He took the rock back from Bates, practically taking the Sergeant's hand with it, "Activated charcoal."

"If it's littered with these rocks," I gestured at the source of all our trouble, "then why don't they have crates of the stuff?" Seriously, were the Ancients that short-sighted?

Rodney was annoyed with me again, because he was looking at me like I had grown two-heads or something. "How would I know?" he asked, his tone short-tempered. "Seriously, why do they go around wearing glorified night gowns? Maybe there are crates of these in the city, but knowing our luck, they were probably in the flooded sections, but -" he held aloft an excited finger, "- all we have to do is gate back to this planet, get a supply of rocks, problem solved. "

This was probably a good time to point out that it's never that easy, but I didn't. Judging from the tempered hopeful look being carefully controlled on Elizabeth's face, I wasn't the only one thinking it.

"Then I'm sure you and Major Sheppard are eager to prepare for the mission," she stated evenly.

What? Me? "Wait a minute -" I protested. I had no desire to gate to the planet of Hellfire and Brimstone. There's working on a tan, and then there's working on a tan.

Apparently, McKay shared my concerns. "What do you mean, me and Sheppard?" he blustered. "Bates' team was the one who did the survey, they should go!"

When her lips form that tight, straight line, I know it's time to stop. And it was doing that, just now, so I let McKay do the protesting. "Rodney, Sergeant Bates will be dealing with the water issue," she answered calmly. "Now," she looked at her watch, "You and Major Sheppard have thirty-minutes. Take two others, I don't care who, and go!"

Ford and Teyla were on the mainland for some down time. Something I was now wishing fervently that I hadn't passed on. But thirty minutes? "Two hours," I said.

Oops, she turned that false calm on me, and I cringed, but didn't back down.

"One," she said with finality.

Okay, one was good. I sighed, and grabbed McKay, dragging him out the door before he could protest anymore, and add to our already increasingly dire situation. "Get you're gear, and I'll meet you in the infirmary."

He was going to argue, or should I say continue to argue, since he hadn't stopped yet, but I cut him off. "And dress lightly," I added, leaving him standing there, knowing I had to go secure two additional bodies. "I hear it's warm, there!"

As I headed away I heard him mutter, "Funny. Warm there. More like 'baked alive' warm. I'm going to burn -"

TBC