A/N: Wow! So many reviews for just one measly chapter. I'm – I'm touched into speechlessness. Well, you wanted more, so more you will get. Launch story!
Oh, and since I'm not good with numbers or measurements, such specifics will not be mentioned all that much. Sorry.
Ch. 2
Rescue Attempt
" Major! Major Sheppard!" Rodney screamed until his lungs seared and his voice died off into a small fit of coughing. He was drowned out by the moaning wind that was like a bassoon being blown into a microphone within a massive stadium.
Beside him, Tayla and Ford were shouting as well, barely audible even to Rodney.
Screw this! He thought frantically. He turned, and began running toward the gate, glancing over his shoulder back at the other two.
" Come on, we need to get a jumper down there!"
Teyla and Ford followed after him without hesitation.
Rodney nearly collided with the DHD and began dialing home as Ford prepped to send their IDC. Once the symbols were locked, the gate rushed to life with its usual explosion of crystal liquid melting back into itself to form the shimmering pool.
" Command, we've got an emergency, we're coming home," Ford said into his radio, and immediately plunged into the gate, followed by Teyla then a reluctant Rodney. He almost opted to stay and keep shouting for the Major, at least in hopes that the Major might hear and know that help was on the way. But he needed to be at Atlantis to help prepare for what he already felt might be a very tricky rescue.
With one last desperate look back in the direction of the chasm, Rodney stepped into the gate.
SGSGSGSGSG
" How much cable is that?" Rodney asked as he watched the cable slowly wind onto the massive spool now bolted to a puddle jumper.
" About three miles worth," someone replied.
Will that be enough? McKay thought, but knew it would have to be. Time was being an enemy at the moment, and each second that ticked by in Rodney's mind could very well be another pint of blood dripping from the major's body.
The logical part of Rodney's brain, always at the forefront, kept telling him that on no conditional terms was the major alive. No one could have survived a drop like that. Rodney had heard John's screams as they became lost into the distance – or to unconsciousness. They resounded in his skull like a bad song now stuck in his head playing over and over, and it was making him sick. Rodney shuddered for the fifth time since arriving back at Atlantis, and checked his watch for the fiftieth.
" Where's that MALP!" Rodney barked, his heart hammering.
" Got it doc," Ford replied, guiding the one-armed robot into the jumper via remote. The plan was to send the MALP down first for a few pictures and to locate Major Sheppard. Then if all looked clear, they would set the jumper down at the bottom – assuming there was a bottom and not a pool of magma or lake of water. In which case, Sheppard was already dead.
Again, another shudder, followed by a viciously churning gut.
Rodney hurried to the front of the jumper that was already facing the gate, ready to enter. The pilot at the controls looked up at McKay and nodded.
" Everything's ready, sir," he said. He was a young guy, a kid to McKay's point of view. McKay tried not to think about it, about how nervous it made him, because then it led him to wishing that Sheppard was here to pilot this thing. McKay didn't want to deal with the sickening irony of the thought.
" Good, great, awesome..." he then hurried back to the winch that was finally wound into place. Dr. Weir approached, her face pale and her features tight.
" Is everything ready?" she asked.
" Yeah, as ready as we're going to get," Rodney replied.
Weir swallowed tightly. " Good. We'll keep the gate open for communication purposes. And the shield down. Bring him back, McKay, please."
McKay's shoulders sagged. Again, his logical mindset wanted to cry out the absurdity of Sheppard being alive, let alone in one piece. But the first person he would have to scream at would be himself.
" I'll – um – try, I hope..."
Dr. Weir nodded stiffly, then turned just as stiffly to head to the control room. McKay watched her go, ill with so much unease that he was mentally locating places appropriate to lose his lunch if it ever came to that. He had nearly done so on telling Weir that they had witnessed Major Sheppard go plummeting into what could only be described as a bottom-less pit.
Four soldiers, plus Tayla and Dr. Beckett, hurried onto the jumper. Four more soldiers held back to come through after the jumper and secure the area.
Like it needs it, McKay thought irritably, but in a truth that he wouldn't admit, he felt safer knowing that there would be more than just two other people around.
" Let's go," McKay said. The bay doors slowly shut as McKay backed away to take his seat. After that, the gate was activated, and the jumper slipped through.
Once past the roller coaster ride that was the worm hole, they exited into the yellow and red tinted world. McKay unbuckled himself and moved to the front.
" Head that way," he said, pointing in the direction of the pit. From their vantage above the ground, they could see it stretched across the sand like an open wound in the planet's skin. The young pilot maneuvered the jumper over the massive hole, and his jaw went slack.
" Woe! that's freakin' huge," he breathed.
" You think," McKay mumbled caustically, heading to the back and the winch. Ford and another soldier were already hooking up the MALP to the cable. McKay took a hand-held view screen from his pack of equipment on the floor, and configured it to receive signals from the one-armed robot.
" We're ready," Ford announced.
" Open the doors," McKay said.
The bay doors opened, and wind brought sand pelting against the metal interior. Ford controlled the MALP as a second soldier handled the winch, holding down the switch that unwound the cable. As the MALP neared the edge of the door, Ford slowed it and carefully pushed it forward inch by inch, with the cable unwinding in the same manner. Soon it was over the side, swinging slightly, and the cable was allowed to unwind continuously, lowering the MALP into the chasm.
" Too damn slow," Rodney growled as he watched the screen, the view shifting from the chasm lip to the chasm wall. Dr. Beckett and Tayla also observed from over his shoulder. He wanted to snap at them for the annoyance it caused him, but couldn't tear his eyes from the screen. The light from the MALP shining on the wall created a glittering effect refracting off the myriad of minerals, rocks and crystals. The effect created was mesmerizing, as well as unnervering. The rocks looked sharp enough to tear flesh – Sheppard's flesh to be exact.
" Come on," Rodney urged with gritted teeth, then he sighed in frustration. " Can't this thing move any faster?"
" Not really sir," Ford replied, his voice strained with his own impatience.
Rodney licked suddenly dry lips and began tapping his finger on the side of the screen. In the corner of the screen, the meters were being ticked off as the MALP went down, and Rodney didn't like how the depth kept going.
The MALP was soon in deep, and still hadn't hit any sort of a bottom. Suddenly, the screen blinked, warped, then the image vanished all together.
Rodney's heart tried to crawl into his throat. " What the hell!" He began slapping the screen as though it were the problem and not the machine dangling like a worm hundreds of meters below them.
" What happened?" Becket asked, looking from Rodney to the screen.
" Bring the MALP up!" McKay cried. The winch hummed back to life as it began rewinding the cable. As it did, the screen suddenly flickered back on.
" Woe, woe, wait!" McKay cried, and stared at the screen in perplexity. " It's – it's back up. Um, lower it back down."
The soldier at the winch reversed the switch, and the cable lowered the MALP. Again, the screen blinked out, causing Rodney to start in surprise.
" What the hell!" Rodney snapped, though it came out as more of a high-pitched whine.
" I say bloody hell's more like it. What's goin' on Rodney?" Carson asked.
McKay shook his head. For once in his life, he was stumped, completely stumped. " Um, I..." He shook his head. " Raise it up again."
The winch rewound, and the MALP rose, coming back to life.
" Huh. Must be something down there that disrupts the power." Which might have explained why he didn't get any readings from the tunnel as though the massive pit didn't even exist. But no time for speculation.
" You know what, just keep lowering the thing until the cable goes slack, see if there's a bottom."
The soldier at the winch nodded, and reversed the pull. With nothing to watch, the three gathered around the bay doors, observing the cable for signs of slacking. Minutes passed that felt more like hours, and McKay's heart refused to take up a slower pace. In turn, he found, to his discomfort, that he was beginning to sweat profusely.
Carson let out a heavy breath. " I know no one wants to hear this, but this is startin' to look less and less promising. If... If Major Sheppard did survive the drop, his injuries would be so serious that..."
McKay held up his hand. " Dr. Beckett, no offense, but personally I'd rather not hear about it. Let's just see if there's a bottom to this crap-hole, and get Major Sheppard out. Then we can discuss chances of survival and mortality rates to your heart's content."
After McKay said this, the winch suddenly stopped.
" What the... hey!" Mckay said, turning on the soldier. The young man was holding a part of the now slackened cable in his hand, smiling triumphantly.
" Saw it curling slightly on the floor, sir, I think we hit bottom."
McKay's eyes rounded over. " Well then, bring it back up so we can get down there."
The soldier reversed the winch, pulling the MALP back up.
" Wait a minute, sir," Ford said, coming up to stand in front of Rodney. " The MALP shorted out down there. Who says that won't happen to the jumper?"
Rodney's heart took a nose dive into his stomach. " Oh, crap, I forgot about that."
Ford shook his head. " Never mind about that, sir, I already got an idea. Send me and two other men down there on the cable."
Beckett shook his head vehemnantly. " No, you can't do that. It's too far down and too dangerous. You wouldn't be able to hold on for very long. You'd go plummeting down yerselves."
McKay snapped his fingers, beaming with a sudden onslaught of inspiration. " We can shorten the distance by lowering the jumper just above where the MALP went out, then hold her there. As long as we stay above that line we should be all right"
" We've got stuff here I can use to rig hand holds," Ford said. " Plus, since you'll be in the hole, we can signal when we're ready to come up by firing about three shots. The acoustics of this thing should help you catch the noise without a hitch."
Beckett still shook his head, furrowing his brow with unease. " I still don't know..."
Rodney, however, wasn't listening to him. Instead, he rushed to the front of the ship to relay the plan to Weir on the other side of the gate.
" Sounds risky, McKay," Weir replied. " I don't know..."
" Elizabeth, please. We have no other choice at the moment. If Sheppard's alive and injured then he needs to be brought out of there. The distance from where the MALP went out to the floor wasn't that far. I'm confident that we can do this. Besides, the MALP didn't go out right away. If something should start to occur, we can still pull out."
There came a moment of silence that seemed to stretch on into eternity.
" All right, McKay, but be careful. We don't want to end up losing the rest of you as well."
" You won't I promise. McKay out."
McKay then looked at the young pilot. " Okay, private, listen and listen good. Slowly lower the jumper down into the cave, and when I say stop, you stop and hold it in position."
" Yes sir," the pilot replied. Rodney glanced over his shoulder to see Ford and two other cadets removing the cable from the just arrived MALP, then using scraps of cable, hooks, wires, rope, and to McKay's alarm duct tape to form feet and hand holds.
" Duct tape, are you serious?"
Ford looked up at McKay and grinned, holding up a roll of the silver tape. " You'd be surprised what you can do with a little duct tape."
" Handy man's secret weapon, sir," said a brown-haired soldier.
McKay rolled his eyes, then looked back at the controls.
" Okay, bring something up like a – depth gage or something."
" Yes sir."
A holographic screen appeared, and like his own hand-held viewer was ticking off the distance they were traveling downward – in meters, to McKay's partial surprise, rather than some form of Ancient mathematics. But then again the jumpers did have a way of catering to every pilot's need. It just never ceased to amaze him.
He watched these measurements carefully while looking back to his screen and the data that had been recorded while the MALP was being lowered.
" Okay, stop here, this is perfect."
The jumper stopped moving and remained hovered just a yard above where the MALP had begun to fizzle out.
" Okay, Ford, you're turn," McKay said, turning and folding his arms.
Ford grinned, picking up the end of the cable. The solider at the winch turned the machine on, giving Ford some slack. McKay watched, squirming slightly with discomfort, and Ford fitted his feet into his make-shift holds, then carefully climbed over the door to dangle in nothingness. Two other soldiers followed suit as the cable continued to go down. One of the soldiers had a first aid kit strapped to his back, and was given some last minute instructions by Beckett before heading down.
" You're not going?" McKay asked Beckett. The Scotsman looked at McKay as though he had just lost it.
" I'm Atlantis' chief physician. I'm not exactly permitted to be puttin' myself in any sort of harms way say for a thrashing patient." Beckett then peered over the rim of the door, paling and swallowing as the darkness of the pit filled his vision. " I'll... probably have to go down... once it's deemed, you know, safe."
McKay walked up to Beckett and patted his shoulder. " I don't envy you. I really don't."
SGSGSGSGSG
Ford was a trained soldier, able to charge into a fight with bullets zipping centimeters from his head like mutant mosquitos. Yet staring down into a darkness not even the lights of the jumper could fully penetrate was making his blood run cold and producing a chilled sweat in return. But it was only unease he was feeling, not fear, and most of his emotions were geared toward his commanding officer.
Ford was clinging tenaciously to the hope that his CO was still alive. Everything he was seeing – the steep angle of the walls and sharp rocks – argued otherwise, but he refused to listen. He had witnessed the major survive what probably should have killed him by now; wraiths, giant ticks, Genii assaults – and that was just off-world dangers. Ford also took into consideration dangers the Major had face on earth.
It wasn't right if he died like this, having fallen into an alien pit on a dead, alien world. The man's life couldn't - shouldn't – end in such a terrible, accidental way.
The light on Ford's P-90 had flickered out a long time ago, and as he was lowered farther into the pit, he looked up to see the lights of the jumper grow smaller, and below him more dim. He took a deep breath and let it out slowly, willing his hammering heart to slow down at least a little.
" Please be all right sir," he whispered. The darkness around him grew thicker, all consuming, and instead of slowing his heart started beating faster.
" Easy Ford, there's a bottom. There is a bottom, and Major Sheppard's down there... Crap this thing is deep." Ford looked back up. The jumper was looking small, really small.
Suddenly, Ford's feet hit something solid, jarring him slightly. Startled, he released his hand-hold on the cable and stumbled back, nearly falling when his feet sank into soft sand.
" Woe! I hit the bottom!" he called up to his two comrads.
" Finally!" Lt. Davidson breathed.
Ford reached behind himself and pulled out a flare and three glow sticks. He snapped the sticks and shook them, tossing them out to the right, left, and front. He then ignited the flare, surrounding himself in a circle of red and orange. Once Davidson and Gale hit the bottom, they pulled out their own sticks and flares, pushing back a small bit of encompassing darkness. Ford looked up to see the distant lights of the jumper and the yellow circle that was the entrance to the chasm.
" Wow, this thing really is deep." He turned to survey their surroundings. To his shock, the flare revealed them to be standing on some sort of a dune that stretched down into even more darkness. They hadn't reached the bottom, just the top of a mountainous pile of sand.
" Lt. Ford! Over here!" Davidson called. He was further down the dune, and a little to the right. Ford trudged through the precarious red sand to where Davidson was standing, holding something up.
It was the Major's weapon.
Ford turned and began searching the dune, pulling out more glow sticks, lighting them, and tossing them down the dune.
" Major Sheppard!" Pt. Gale called. The younger soldier came half-running, half-trudging up to him. In his hands were the Major's handgun and ammo pack.
" Found these scattered further up. And... sir..." Gale said, swallowing. " I also found blood."
Ford's breath caught in his throat. " Where?"
Gale handed the pack to Ford, who brought his flare in as close as safely possibly. He saw something dark and red fleck and smeared all over the straps, the top, and a little on the back. There was probably more blood on the sand and rocks, but with everything so freakishly red, including the flares, there would be no way of finding it.
So Ford settled on trying to find the Major. They spread out, keeping within sight of eachother's flares while they slogged down the dune. Like the chasm, it seemed to go on forever, and the jumper and entrance above them became smaller, increasing Ford's discomfort.
Eventually the dune did level out, making the going easier, and Ford saw what appeared to be a dim, red-tinted light replace some of the darkness. It was getting a little easier to see, and Ford could make out the shadowy outlines of an uneven ceiling high above indicating a tunnel entrance. They were in a massive cave.
Ford turned his gaze to the ground, and slowed. The sand had become more compact from moisture dripping off the cave in soft pats, and a solid rock floor beneath. Ford crouched, bringing his flare into close to what appeared to be an impression in the sand. What he saw sent cold fear ripping down his spine.
It was a claw-print, a huge claw-print, bigger than anything he had ever seen, and certainly bigger than any print a predator on earth could make. Also unlike any earth creature, the claw-print was also like a hand, three-fingered with a thumb, alternating with four-toed feet. Ford stood, tensing, and searched his strange surroundings, listening into the silence for the slightest sound.
" Davidson, Gale!"
" Nothing yet, sir!" Davidson replied.
" No, get back to the top of the dune and the cable, now!" Ford shouted, and already began the arduous process of running back up a steep dune, glancing behind him all the while.
The prints had been moving from the dune, into the cave, and they had looked fresh.
The three men arrived back at the dangling cable, panting, sweating, but fueled by an adrenaline rush created by urgency. They took up their holds on the cable, securing their feet. Ford, after slinging the Major's pack over his shoulder, then fired his weapon at the wall, and the explosion was deafening, making him wince and utter a cry of pain.
The cable moved, and the three were pulled back up to the awaiting jumper.
Once they were all aboard, McKay rushed to them.
" So, what happened? Did you find him?"
Ford didn't speak. He couldn't, not yet. His throat felt as though it were closing up on him, and swallowing was painful. He shook his head, letting the bloodied pack slide from his shoulder and handing it to McKay.
McKay's face paled. " Wh-what?"
Ford took a deep breath, and forced the words out before his throat tightened to the point that he could not speak.
" He wasn't there... sir." He took another deep breath, and felt Teyla place a comforting hand on his shoulder.
" What do you mean he wasn't there?" McKay snapped.
Ford blinked back tears burning in his eyes, keeping them from falling. But it was hard. Hardened soldier that he was supposed to be, it was just too difficult to hold back the sorrow.
" I – I think... something took him. I found tracks, animals tracks. They were huge, clawed." He swallowed again. " The Major's gone, sir."
McKay's face fell, his jaw dropped, and he took a step back, shaking his head. Teyla looked away, and Beckett dropped into his seat with his hand covering his mouth.
" No..." Rodney gasped.
Ford turned his stinging gaze to the floor and closed his eyes. Images, terrible images, of beasts, blood, and pain-filled screams, flooded his mind unbidden, and his control slipped another massive degree.
" We were too late," he said. The words were hard to get out, barely heard, but in the silence that fell around them, managed to be heard.
SGSGSGSGSG
A/N: Ack! Sorry for a lack of Sheppard. I was going to have him in this chapter, but it ended up longer than I had expected. So sorry. Don't worry though, you will soon learn the fate of our man John, and it shall be interesting.
Also, the comment made by the soldier about duct tape was taken from the Red Green Show, if anyone has ever seen it.