The Value of a Memory Is
Chapter Four - Coffee and Biscuits
"Well?" McKay demanded, wheezing slightly, bending over and bracing his hands against his thighs. "What did you –" pant, "find?"
Sheppard exchanged a glance with Teyla. The Athosian dropped her head and looked away, to where Ford was standing at smart attention.
"Lieutenant." Sheppard looked down to Aiden's hands. "You can put your gun away, Ford."
Aiden looked confused. "Sir? I thought there were no life signs other than us?"
"There aren't." He winced. "Not exactly."
McKay straightened with difficulty, a scowl on his face. "Could you be a little more ambiguous, Major?
Sheppard gave a grim smile and stepped towards the door.
The room was about the same height as the jumper bay, but longer, the side walls curving around to meet each other, the opposite wall hidden behind a stack of shelves and racks. On every flat surface and stacked against every wall was a stasis chamber – seven foot high, several feet wide, done up in ornate gold and detailed metal.
And each one was occupied.
The room felt cold. Sheppard's breath formed small puffs of condensation in the air before dissipating. He took a step forward, then another, his legs feeling stiff and awkward beneath him. Even on this, his second entrance, his brain was no closer at comprehending what he saw before him.
"Ancients," McKay breathed.
Row upon row of them. All adults, from first glance, men and women no younger than Ford, all dressed in simple white robes and sharing the same expression of relaxed contentment. They lay encased in golden metal, a sheet of clear glass separating them from the outside world and giving Sheppard and his team a clear view within each one.
At the centre of the room facing the door stood a wide console and a bank of crystals similar to the ones used in the Atlantis control room. McKay walked over to it, dropping his pack to the floor and running his hands across its surface.
"I guess we know what all the power was for," Sheppard said.
Teyla nodded. She took a step towards one of the chambers. Its occupant was an elderly man with a shock of unkempt white hair that spread out across the case behind him like a halo. Teyla's fingers brushed the glass surface delicately. "They have slept for all this time?"
"I'm guessing." Sheppard glanced towards the scientist. "McKay?"
His surroundings forgotten, McKay seemed intensely fascinated by the workings of the console. He touched a crystal slab at the console's edge and above him a holographic display flickered into existence. On it was displayed a map of the room, with small Ancient script detailing information about each chamber. Another touch and McKay changed the display to show the workings of a chamber, with signs and symbols Sheppard didn't understand.
"Amazing," McKay breathed. "The power needed to keep just one of these chambers operational for this long is astounding." He looked up at Sheppard, his eyes bright with excitement. "Major, there may be more than one ZPM here."
"Woah." Sheppard raised a hand quickly. "I think that whatever the power supply is here, it's in use."
The physicist rolled his eyes despairingly. "I'm not suggesting we just rip it out and return to Atlantis with it. But where there is one there may be many. There may even be spares." He returned his gaze back to the display. "This isn't the only chamber."
"There are more?" Ford asked, disbelievingly.
"There's an identical power output being sent to the northern section. I suspect the eastern section holds the same but…" McKay hesitated, his hands running over the crystals and bringing up image after image, schematics of the outpost and its innards. "It's dead."
"Was it populated?" Sheppard asked, curling his fingers around the straps of his pack.
McKay frowned. "I don't – wait, yes. It was," he added, deliberately emphasizing the second word. "If it held similar to the numbers in this room, we're talking – seventy, eighty people?"
"And they are all dead?" Teyla asked. "Would the Ancients not build a safeguard to prevent that?"
"Probably. But…" McKay swept his hand across the console display and frowned, "if there was, it didn't work."
"Any reason why?" Sheppard prompted.
"The outpost is ten thousand years old, Major. At this point all bets are off."
Ford was shaking his head. "I don't get it. Why stay in stasis for that long?"
The scientist shrugged. "This far down below the planet's surface, the outpost is immune from Wraith attacks. The computer controls the life support to the chambers and there is enough power to keep them active for thousands of years."
"But why?" Ford pressed. "Why not go through the 'gate, leave like the people in Atlantis did?"
"Good question." Sheppard moved to the chamber nearest the door, propped up against the wall. In it lay a woman of similar age to Teyla, her skin as pale and fragile as china, long blonde hair spilling down past her shoulders. She was, Sheppard thought, quite beautiful, with a well defined jaw line and legs tapering down to slender ankles, fine white cloth folding over the curve of her breasts and falling from her hips. He took a step closer, looking past the glass to the face within, her eyes closed in peaceful sleep.
No. Not peaceful. The look of relaxed contentment he had previously imagined on the faces of the room's occupants was a lie, easily mistakable on a brief glance. But as he stared at the figure in the chamber he saw fine lines around her eyes, her lips pressed firmly together as though in pain, her hands curled into fists and the nails digging into the skin of her palm.
"McKay," he began.
The wail of an alarm cut him off, a high pitched, insistent siren that emanated from the chamber beside him. The lights of the pod flickered then went out, shrouding the woman in darkness.
Sheppard turned to see McKay staring back at him, a panicked look in his eyes. "What did you touch!"
"Me!" the scientist shot back. "Nothing! Well – nothing I wasn't familiar with. What about you – you're stood next to it! What did you think?"
"Nothing," he retorted, though he thought back quickly – no, nothing, nothing like 'wake' or 'off' or 'open'. The computer running the outpost was unfamiliar, but it still handled with the same amount of control.
McKay turned back to the console, his hands frantically hitting crystals. "Power to the chamber Is fluctuating. I'm trying to control the output but I…"
Sheppard never heard the rest of McKay's explanation. There was the sound of glass shattering under the brutal force of a fist and then suddenly a hand had locked around the side of his throat and had yanked him backwards against the stasis chamber. He choked, scrabbling at his neck futilely, trying to arch back from the broken shards of glass which dug into his shoulders. A scream rent the air, a desperate, inhuman keening that wound deep into his ears, over the sound of the alarm and panicked shouts from his teammates.
Looking upwards, Sheppard saw a pale female hand flail above him, reaching out and grasping at the air. He gasped against the pressure on his throat, gagged and fought but the hand held him with an inhuman strength, the thumb pressing against his windpipe. The edges of his vision started to turn to gray, the color bleaching from his surroundings, and he was aware of a deep throated buzzing in the back of his head that sent vibrations through his skull. He grasped feebly at the hand on his throat, nails digging into flesh, but then the final spurt of adrenaline failed him and he closed his eyes, his legs turning liquid beneath him…
The air beside Sheppard's right ear suddenly exploded and he felt warm liquid splatter against the side of his face. Almost instantly the grip on his throat relaxed, then fell away – as did he, slumping against the chamber, his knees folding beneath him. Someone grabbed him by the elbow, steadying his descent to the floor. With his knees up to his chest he bent over, dropping his head and gagging, his chest heaving, lungs constricting tightly.
He became aware of a warm hand rubbing gentle circles against his back, and a soft voice beneath the high pitched ringing in his ears. "Deep breaths, Major. Slowly, in and out."
Obediently John did as he was told, and gradually the heaves lessened to an intense wheezing, and the pain around his chest lessened enough to allow him to speak. "What," gasp, "happened?"
"Power to the chamber failed. I tried rerouting the supply but there wasn't time, the computer must have an emergency failsafe."
Slowly Sheppard lifted his head to see McKay's feet stood a few meters ahead, then looked up to see the scientist, pale and frightened, wringing his hands in panic.
"It woke her up," McKay said, then shook his head despairingly. "Just like that. I tried to stop it but…" He broke off, and looked at Sheppard with a strange, detached expression. "Are you alright?"
He took a deep breath and felt it burn against his lungs. "Will be."
"Good. Good." The scientist wrapped his arms around himself in a tight hug. "Ah – you have blood on your face."
Confused, Sheppard lifted two trembling fingers to his cheek. They came away wet and red.
"It is not yours," Teyla reassured him, her voice a soft rumble against his ear.
"I had to stop her." Aiden was stood to Sheppard's right – he could see the younger man's boots. His voice sounded hesitant, nervous. "She was going to kill you, sir."
With great difficulty Sheppard managed to lever himself onto his knees, then with Teyla's hand beneath his arm he rose to an awkward standing position, pressing his back against the wall for support. He turned to look at the chamber – then immediately wished he hadn't.
The sleeper was dead, her pretty face now a mulch of gray matter and white bone against the inside of the chamber that had held her for thousands of years. One arm still dangled out of the pod, caught on the broken glass ceiling she had punched through.
"You had no choice," Teyla said softly.
Sheppard dragged his gaze away from the corpse and looked at Ford. "Thanks," he said, intently.
Aiden hesitated, then nodded. "Are you okay, sir?"
He swallowed convulsively and winced. "Throat hurts. Shoulder too." He paused. "Teyla…"
She moved a few inches to examine his wounds. "Several shallow cuts, but there is no glass. I believe your pack protected you from the worst."
"Huh." He offered both Ford and McKay an empty grin and levered himself off the wall to stand without Teyla's support. "I'm fine."
McKay frowned deeply but turned away, back to the console. "We should go back to the Stargate." His breath hitched, then smoothed out, adopting a distanced, scientific detachment. "I was wrong about the system's stability. The outpost computer developed a finely balanced network to cope with the gradual failure of its power source and our arrival must have disrupted that. We should go back to the southern section and stay there until we can boost the system."
"Agreed," Sheppard said, rubbing his throat and grimacing.