Chapter Twenty Two - Lemon Soaked Paper Napkins
There was darkness.
A rose colored, pinkish sort of darkness. Sheppard stared at it, mesmerized, watching vague, brown smudges float across its surface at irregular intervals. There was noise, a distant, rumbling sound. It was muffled, but growing clearer, as though he were floating beneath a great ocean, and slowly rising to the surface.
Water. He frowned. Water, and drowning, and…
Oh.
Sheppard opened his eyes.
Teyla's face hovered above him, her expression of worry giving way to one of intense relief. "Major. You're alright?"
"Yeah." His throat felt rough and parched. "I think so."
From somewhere beside him he heard McKay rasp: "Aside from the headache."
"Headache?" He frowned, slowly pushing himself into a sitting position, with Teyla's hand at his back supporting him. As soon as he was half-vertical, pain blossomed across his forehead, sharp spikes behind his eyes at the bright light around them. "Ow. Okay. That headache."
Slowly, blinking against the light, Sheppard started to take in his surroundings. The floors and the walls were white, and scored with black lines in a grid pattern. A stone bench ran across the wall behind his head, and a darkened window overlooked the back of the room. Thin, fading tendrils of white mist were evaporating into the air.
A grin spread across his face, and he felt giddy with relief. "We're in the outpost."
"It worked," Aiden said, crouching beside McKay. His eyes seemed bright, his skin an ill-looking gray color.
"You hope," McKay muttered. He sat on the floor awkwardly, staring at his hands, laid palm down on his lap.
Sheppard watched him for several seconds, then looked away, fixing his gaze on Teyla's shoulder. He was aware he was trembling, and took a deep breath, forcing his body to still. "Everyone's okay?"
Teyla nodded, moving back to allow him to stand. "What happened - Atlantis…"
"Part of the game," Sheppard finished.
"I know." She dipped her head. "At the beginning, I believed you."
"The Wraith were all over the city." Ford was rubbing a hand absently across his chest. "We were outnumbered."
"Aiden." Teyla spoke softly, her eyes on his hand. He dropped his arm, flushing self-consciously.
"I…"
"There were no Wraith." Her words were confident, but her voice betrayed her doubt.
"I thought…" The lieutenant broke off, a shudder running through him. "We were outnumbered," he finished, simply.
Sheppard looked away, guessing at what haunted the younger man but refusing to force him into reliving it. There would be time for that later, in the eventual debriefing and mission reports.
McKay still sat on the floor, seemingly lost in a world of his own. He flinched when Sheppard approached, his shoulders stiffening, his head jerking upwards. "What?"
"You okay?"
"Yes." He pulled himself to his feet, refusing the offer of help, his movements uncoordinated, his eyes refusing to meet the gaze of anyone else. "I'm getting out of here."
"Best idea you've ever had," Sheppard joked, weakly. The scientist huffed, crossing the room to the door panel. Its metal cover still lay on the floor from where McKay had dropped it, after being knocked out from the gas of the game.
After several seconds of fiddling the door slid open. There was a long period of uncomfortable silence, none of the four seeming able to look at each other, or the open doorway.
Sheppard grabbed his pack by one handle and stepped forward. "Come on," he said, decisively, stepping through the door. "Before Weir sends a search party."
Ford followed him, close on his heels, Teyla keeping up a second later. Sheppard blinked in the bright lights of the outpost corridor, unable to shake the feeling that his current surroundings were less real than the nightmare they had just lived through.
The journey back to the 'gate was quick and silent. McKay had the scanner out and was studying its screen with unwarranted attention. If he was thinking about the untapped technology potentially hidden behind the corridors, he made no mention of it.
Ford was still rubbing his chest. Every few seconds he would catch himself at it, his fingers curling into a fist and his arms forced down to his sides, but it would only take a moment before his body would betray him and resume the assault on his uniform.
Teyla had her weapons out, holding a stick in each hand. She held them still, save for her thumbs, which stroked the wood rhythmically. She walked with her weight on the balls of her feet, holding her body in a state of tension that looked almost painfully uncomfortable.
Sheppard watched them closely, devouring their presence. Mere minutes ago he had been convinced of their deaths, as well as of his own, and no matter how many times he repeated to himself that they had finally left the game, he was still a long way from believing it. It felt strange to feel his uniform, dry against his skin, to step forward with his left foot and not feel pain down his side from a wound that had never existed. There were images and sounds he could not shake; Carson's scream as a Wraith took his life, Elizabeth's eyes as he shot her.
He was ready to grieve for them.
The room containing the Stargate was unimpressive, its ceiling low, the walls an uninteresting cream. There were footprints in the dust from his team's entrance, and a long black swipe across the computer console, where McKay had first illuminated the small room.
Sheppard headed for the DHD, built into a waist high block of marble in front of the 'gate. Reaching for his GDO, he paused, aware that his team weren't following.
McKay had stumbled through the entrance last and had stopped on the other side of the doorway, his hands wrapped tightly around the straps of his pack. Sheppard frowned at him, tension prompting a wave of irritability.
"McKay. Whatever twisted technology the Ancients used to create this damn thing, it isn't worth it. And I know…"
"That's not it," the scientist interrupted. He lifted his head and met Sheppard's gaze for the first time since waking. His eyes were a strange, washed out color, and rimmed with red. "The stasis chambers."
"We escaped the game," Teyla said, quietly, looking back at the two men. "The Ancients have not."
"We can't leave them in there," Ford said, impulsively. "It wouldn't be right, sir."
Sheppard hesitated, reluctant to spend anymore time in the outpost, every part of him wanting to through the 'gate and not look back. But the memory of what they had just escaped was too fresh. His ears still rang from the sounds of gunfire, his chest still felt tight from the imagined flooding of water.
He turned to McKay, the decision weighing heavily on his shoulders. "What do we need to do?"
The scientist thinned his lips and nodded, stiffly. "The south of the complex holds the main power core. It's already weak, it won't take much to shut it down entirely."
"And the chambers?"
"Without power the life support…" McKay hesitated. "They'll be out of the game," he finished, simply.
Sheppard flinched, grasping the scientist's unspoken words. "Alright."
"It won't take long." The Canadian moved towards the console, his fingers running across its surface. A holographic display of the outpost appeared above it, flickering slightly. The center continued to pulse weakly with a warm white glow, but the outer edges were dark, the eastern section shrouded entirely in black.
"What's the danger to us?" he asked, suddenly, thinking of the planet outside.
"Negligible." McKay had his head bowed, studying readings coming from the computer below his hands. "Even without the air purifiers it would take days before we'd start to suffocate." He paused, a worried frown creasing his forehead. "Unless I'm wrong and the system's back-up…"
"McKay," Sheppard growled. "We're leaving here in the next couple of minutes. No danger of suffocating."
"Right, right."
"And the 'gate?"
"There will be enough residual energy in its buffers for it to dial out," the physicist paused, "at least a couple of times."
"What can we do?" Teyla asked, softly.
Rodney lifted his head, the frown still present. "On your right there should be a display showing the current output and input. I need you to tell me when it spikes. Major, it's the large, triangular button on the left."
"Got it," he replied, moving to Teyla's side and touching the requested button. A screen lit up beneath his fingers, small and rectangular, with a line of blue crossing the black.
Teyla studied it for a moment. "The current appears to be stable."
"Not for long." McKay gestured at the space beneath the console with one hand, without lifting his eyes from the display. "Lieutenant, I need to get to the crystals to sever the connection between the ZPM and the emergency subroutines. The system is designed to stop anything like this happening, so I have to make sure it doesn't restart the power supply after I've shut it down."
Ford nodded, dropping to his knees beside the scientist and attacking the side of the console. In a matter of seconds he had prised a panel from its side and was placing it carefully on the floor. Stood over him, McKay looked down from the computer display and clicked impatiently at the Lieutenant, gesturing the younger man to move.
"You're welcome," Ford muttered, shifting aside.
McKay ignored him, his hands delving deep into the chamber of crystals. "What's the current doing?"
Teyla was watching the display carefully and answered without looking up. "There is no change."
"Good, good." There was a small clink as the scientist dropped a pink crystal to the floor. It was cracked and dull. With a satisfied sigh, McKay dusted down his knees and stood up, looking over the computer.
Sheppard watched him, aware of the scientist hesitating, his hands stilling. "McKay?"
"Sorry." The physicist licked his lips nervously. "Ah, just… need a moment."
"I could take over," he offered, watching an expression of doubt play across his friend's face. "If you…"
"Don't be ridiculous," McKay replied, tersely. "I couldn't teach you what to do." He took a deep breath and resumed typing at the console. "It's too complicated."
Ford was watching him, looking determined, some of the color having returned to his skin. "I couldn't stay in there," he said, quietly. "That woman in the chamber…"
Sheppard rubbed his neck gingerly, the area feeling sore and tender to the touch. He suddenly had an intense flash back to his attacker, the strength it must have taken for her to punch through the ceiling of her coffin, the look in her eyes after Ford had killed her…
"I know," McKay said, softly. Then he ducked his head, burying his attention in the computer. "I'm rerouting the power from the outer sections back into the core. It'll overload the system and fry the ZPM." He paused, his expression one of deep concentration. "Tell me when it spikes, Teyla."
She nodded, watching the current, Sheppard over her shoulder. The blue line, which had been relatively stable up until then, suddenly started to pulse, peaking in short waves, growing in intensity. After several seconds, the blue suddenly peaked, a sharp triangle against the black. "Now," Teyla reported, her voice level.
McKay said nothing, but his hands moved in a blur across the computer. Sheppard watched him, suddenly aware of an increase in the background noise, the mechanical hum of the outpost growing in volume. Suddenly the chamber of crystals beneath McKay exploded in a shower of sparks, prompting the scientist to leap back a foot with a startled yelp. Simultaneously the display Teyla was watching winked out of existence, the control panel darkening lifelessly.
"McKay?" Sheppard demanded, taking a step towards him.
The scientist finished patting down a few, smoldering patches on his uniform and dove back to the control panel. "I'm alright," he reported, concentrating on the display. "Wasn't quite expecting that but then given how long the system…"
The lights went out, startling McKay into silence. Above him the holographic image of the outpost flickered and changed. The western and northern quarters of the t-section, previously outlined in a warm green, suddenly pulsed with a dangerous red.
"Is that it?" Sheppard asked, watching the display closely.
"Yes." McKay had stepped away from the console and was watching the hologram, his expression unreadable.
As the four watched, the red color on the outlying sections of the outpost started to fade, as did the previous green. Slowly, the white web of power current spreading out from the central core started to creep back, leaving the outer quarters dark and lifeless.
Sheppard imagined, for a moment, he could hear the scream of the Ancient who had attacked him.
"Power is off to the chambers," McKay reported. His voice was quiet, and flat. "Life support has failed."
There was silence in the room. Ford had removed his cap and was passing it between his hands, his head bowed. Teyla was once again whispering under her breath, her eyes suspiciously bright. McKay's expression was one of stone.
All Sheppard felt was incredibly tired, down to his bones.
He was the first to move, clearing his throat uncomfortably. "Let's go home."