Part 2
The lab lay in a desolate portion of the city. It felt farther away than it was. Debris from the Wraith attack and submersion littered the hallways. They climbed around where they could and cleared when they had to. Finally, a corridor opened up after a thirty minute trip was turned into two hours of waging battle with the detritus.
Sheppard turned to look at McKay and Zelenka. "How do you know it's a puzzle piece? No one's been down here."
"Energy readings. The other piece gave off distinctive readings so we picked it up on the internal sensors when this one started. After you touched it, the first piece gave off a harmonic energy signature. This one's doing the same. Funny thing is the other piece is silent and no one's touched this one...that we know of that is."
Sheppard did a double take with a, things you should have brought up earlier McKay, look on his face. "Okey dokey. Well, we're almost there. Ronon, Stackhouse, Webber and myself will go in first. Pearson you will do a survey from the door, then McKay and Zelenka will come in." They stopped in front of a door.
McKay pulled out his bag of tricks and started to work on opening it. No power was in this section due to all the damage. Nothing better than electricity or whatever form of juice and standing water.
The door opened part way. Ronon and Stackhouse finished pushing it all the way open. They got a real good look at the room.
"On second thought, Pearson come here and do a visual survey of the room first," said Sheppard as he looked into the damaged lab. Beams and light fixtures were collapsed to the floor. Broken glass or glass like material littered the room.
Pearson scanned the room. "From what I can tell by standing all the way over here is- that beam in the middle, the one on the diagonal, is what's keeping the ceiling up. Stay away from it. It shifts and the ceiling becomes part of the floor."
"OK, Ronon, Stackhouse, you're with me. Everyone else stay put." They stepped in cautiously. A discordant melody reached his ears. His hands went to cover them as voices called to him. It was like the sound of an orchestra tuning up and it made his knees buckle. A very bad orchestra, it was a close encounter of the screeching noise kind. He squeezed his eyes shut.
He opened them.
"This way John the Shepherd. The Old Ones are allowing you entrance." Moab knelt by him and peered with infinite gentleness into his face.
He wanted to throw up. The hall seemed to dance and twirl in delight at his discomfort. The string vibrated through him stirring up his insides. He also felt like more than one person. Thoughts from other times and places whirled like the walls: his amazement with Atlantis; his sadness at burying more and more friends; his quick trip through the wormhole as pure data; his need to finish his part in the song because the melody was painful.
Drowning in...no that was something else. Another time perhaps.
Moab helped him up from the bed and lead him to a grand pair of doors. Swirling, pearled inlaid doors.
"Only one more piece of the key John the Shepherd, then it will be over."
They approached the Pearly Gates. He looked around for St. Peter. Wrong Pearly Gates, he thought- that was probably a good thing. The doors opened outward towards them. The string pulled on his navel and he dropped to his knees. He was caught in a vortex of sound and visual overload. All lines leading to him in this place.
"It is time John the Shepherd, reunification with its makers." Moab sat with him on the floor once and again smoothing his hair. "You showed us where it was, is and shall be and now you bring it to us."
He closed his eyes as the swirls absorbed his cries. The string reeled in...
"Colonel Sheppard is ill. We need a medical team to the North Pier Lab N-450." Stackhouse's voice reverberated in his head along with the song.
He opened his eyes.
"Colonel Sheppard is…OK. Maybe not fine but he's all right. We need to finish. They're waiting," he snapped.
"Who's waiting Sheppard?" Ronon asked.
"Hmm?" He answered, the disorientation harder and harder to ignore.
"Who's waiting?"
"The Old Ones," answered Rodney. "That's what he keeps saying anyway."
Ronon looked at McKay as he stood in the doorway. His concern and puzzlement shooting daggers. "You knew of this and allowed him to come?"
"Knew of what? He wasn't acting like this before!" McKay poked out his chin in a show of defiance to a person who could snap him two.
Unnoticed, Sheppard stood up and climbed over debris to the last puzzle piece. She was right; he was caught in its song. It beckoned, called and commanded him. He understood. He was returning their property. It did not belong here because the young were sometimes way too curious for their own good. Its usefulness to this time and place was at an end.
Returning it was the right thing to do.
The last piece of the harmonic puzzle was encased in a clear container. It yielded with a touch. The voices yelled at him but they did not understand. They did not know these events were already in motion and finished. The bronze blinding in its brilliance, he picked up the diamond shaped piece- the last stanza of the song.
A dull shock like pain went up his arm, through his shoulder, down his torso and into his belly button. He felt a tug on his belly button like a string being pulled. He doubled over. Filaments of light surrounded him like a ball of yarn; they began and ended at the puzzle piece. The wall melted away followed by the floor. He felt himself being pulled and collapsed in on himself as the ball shrunk. The connection completed; the song finished; he cried out.
With the doors opened, he stood up with all three pieces and entered the Old Ones' chamber. Moab by his side, she lent her strength to finish what was begun and already done.
A wall of motion-filled light stretched before him and it spoke. "Welcome John the Shepherd, we thank you for bringing our icon home. It is now where it belongs and out of your time stream, no longer your burden to bear." Faces appeared in the continuous stream as they spoke.
He knew it was for his benefit, like Moab's human-like appearance and the hall's Earth-like structure. It was to give him grounding and to keep him from panicking and losing his mind in this strangest of places.
"We saw that you encountered it and kept you here until events synchronized themselves to rejoin it to us. A beacon placed out of time to summon it home. Now, you shall be disseminated and reintegrated to rejoin linear time. We shall adjust the stream so you will be none the wiser."
Being dismissed by the wall of light, Moab nodded farewell with a furtive glance. A sound unlike the puzzle filled his ears. It was like loud static electricity bombarding every molecule of his body. His heart beating loudly along with it, he fractured like glass to return to his specific places in time- none the wiser.
---------------
He opened his eyes to look at the doohickey stuck to his hand. He could not let go of the little vial.
"Holy crap McKay! What's on this thing? It won't come off!" Sheppard shook the little gooey blob adhered to his palm.
"Maybe, it wasn't a doohickey Major. Maybe, it was their rubber cement container." McKay said sheepishly.
"Oh please tell me you know how to get this stuff off." Sheppard said icily while continually and violently shaking his hand.
"Well no, but maybe Carson has some ideas."
They started walking down the hall. "I hope so. Better be glad we're not near a balcony, I might just throw you off or worse, just shoot you where you stand."
McKay gave him a double take and increased the speed of his gait.
-----------------
He opened his eyes and looked down at the cue cards in his hand.
"General I think Dr. Weir would've liked that speech. It's short." Radek laughed as he spoke. "Dedicating the library to her is very nice. It's only fitting that you give the dedication speech. Although, I think we can join the rest of civilization now you have finished practicing."
Sheppard smiled, "Yeah, I pretty much thought short, sweet and to the point was the best way to go. Lord knows my oration skills pretty much suck."
Radek looked over his glasses at him.
"Come on Zelenka, it's time we came out of the closet." Sheppard stepped up to the door hiding his laugh.
That earned a light rap on the back from Radek's cane. "All the women know of my legendary virility, so speak for yourself General."
They exited the small room and began their way slowly to the East Pier.
"Please Radek; you always got my sloppy seconds." He grinned widely while shooting sideways glances at his companion.
This time the cane accidentally and painfully ground into his shoe.
-----------------
He opened his eyes and studied the panel again.
Sheppard stood up next to the malfunctioning part of the wall that had turned up on the sensors. "Yeah Rodney, it looks like a short now that they turned the power on in this section." He turned to face the door. "Shut it down and be careful climbing over…"
A structural groan reached his ears and the floor just melted away from under his feet. The sensation of air rushing past his ears was familiar. Plunging into icy water and debris landing on top of him was also familiar. The water infiltrating every crevasse until saturation was achieved- familiar. He tried to swim up but was caught on something. His leg, weighted and trapped by the sinking debris, pulled him down deeper into the water. He held his breath for as long as possible while persistently continuing to try and free himself. Unsuccessful, he took that inevitable underwater inhale. The cold water filled his lungs. Since it was the next familiar step, he did not even panic.
Funny, he thought he would live to a ripe, old age.
Ronon grabbed onto a four-foot high lighting fixture attached to the wall shielding his eyes from falling dust as Stackhouse did the same on the other side of the room. They had watched as the wall near the malfunctioning panel disintegrated with Sheppard standing in front. The floor, all the debris, parts of the ceiling and Sheppard disappeared through the ever-increasing hole. A chemical reaction engulfed the floor quickly setting off the internal alarms. The door slammed shut trapping them inside and a suppression mist sprayed from what was left of the walls and ceiling halting the progression as it reached their positions. They covered their mouths and eyes.
"What happened?" McKay shouted into the headset.
"Medical emergency to the North Pier Lab N-450. The room collapsed. The Colonel fell through to the room below. It's filled with water if my flashlight's correct," Stackhouse reported when he could speak again.
"On our way!" McKay shouted as the group outside the room ran to find a staircase to the lower level.
"This is Dr. Beckett. Can you see the Colonel?"
"No." He and Ronon exchanged looks. "Don't do it Ronon!"
Ronon let go and plummeted into the murky waters below. When he resurfaced, he began his shouting. "Sheppard! Sheppard!" Ronon dove under the water.
Stackhouse continued to call out from above. He moved his flashlight around searching the darkness. He too let go when he saw Ronon resurface without Sheppard for a second time. He landed a few feet away and splashed the Satedan. They both went under again to resume the search. Even though the room was small, all the debris hampered them from seeing anything. And it was dark, very dark.
Then it was bright, very bright.
He opened his eyes.
Moab was there smiling at him. She kissed him lightly on the lips and released him from whatever kept him in place. Then she slipped neatly back into her fold of time and space. Gone was any memory of her.
He closed his eyes.
The light from across the room illuminated a body as it shot to the surface. It bobbed lifelessly with the ripples in the dead man's float. Ronon and Stackhouse swam quickly towards it.
Hands grabbed him, pulled him and placed him somewhere not in the water. They started pushing on his chest and breathing into his mouth. There was no room for air until he heaved everything in his lungs and stomach onto the floor. He could hear the voices.
"We'll meet you Carson…Ronon has him…Yes, he's breathing." McKay did not say anything for a while. "Ronon and Stackhouse are also in need of blankets…sopping wet."
He felt the painful bounce of being slung over someone's shoulder. Most likely Ronon's, he was a glorified taxicab sometimes.
"Nasty gash on the leg…yeah I can see your flashlights…we'll wait."
He was placed on the floor and voices talked at him again.
McKay paced back and forth, as someone handed out blankets to Ronon and Stackhouse. He kept going as Carson and his team did their thing to the shivering body on the floor. Zelenka chewed his fingernails in a show of support.
"Col. Sheppard can you hear me? Squeeze my hand if you can." A few seconds ticked off Rodney's watch when Beckett finally said, "Very good lad." He looked up at Rodney and nodded. Rodney in turn looked at Ronon and Stackhouse and gave a nod.
It was a beautiful Rolaids moment.
-----------------
Sheppard felt sluggish and sleepy and was pretty sure he would never get warm again. Ever. He also felt like he had been taken apart and put back together again. Must have been all the debris that collided and sank with him.
"Slowly this time Rodney. How did I get free? Ronon and Stackhouse didn't do it?"
McKay looked at the blanketed mummy on the bed. "You rose to the surface after some sort of underwater explosion or light show or event freed you. To tell you the truth we're not sure." McKay fiddled with a pen as he retold- for the third time- the events of Lab N-450 to the former Popsicle.
Or at least how he understood them since he was out in the corridor. He and the rest arrived downstairs as Ronon and Stackhouse hauled Sheppard's frozen Popsicle treat of a body to a set of stairs that lead into the water. He, Zelenka and one of Stackhouse's men pulled him into the corridor.
All three who had joined the diving team were so blue it was scary. How Ronon slung Sheppard over his shoulder and continued was beyond superhuman. Now he and Stackhouse were also under Carson's care and blankets doing just fine.
The internal sensors told the rest of the story to him. The testing of power in that section set off a chain reaction in damaged conduits that lead to the lab. No way of telling the problem until the power had been returned. Sheppard was in the wrong place at the wrong time. Or the right place at the wrong time. Or the wrong place at the right time. Now he was losing it. Needless to say, it was an accident in the truest form of the word. Didn't that just beat all?
"I just feel like I'm missing something. Oh well, maybe when the hypothermia wears off, I'll remember," said Sheppard mystified by the something that was just out of reach if it was there at all.
"Sure Colonel." The lack of oxygen for more minutes than I care to think about has nothing to do with it, McKay sneered to himself. McKay turned to leave. "Oh, by the way, I know your affinity for puzzles. Zelenka came up with a doozey. Wanna take a crack at it? What else do you have to do for the next day or two?"
"For some reason, I would rather cut off my right arm than mess with a puzzle." Sheppard paused and squinted. "Otherwise that sounds like loads of fun." He hoped his sarcasm was heard loud and clear- his geek-ness staying forever safely hidden or so he hoped. It did sound kind of challenging though...
"Another time perhaps."
"Yeah, another time."
He snuggled down in the bed and closed his eyes.
He did not reopen them until the next morning.
-----------------
…their minds touched a piece of everything that was in cosmic spitting distance of the wormhole. Just as quickly as it fell away, the Kool-aid returned threatening to drown him in its finiteness.
This hiccup in time at an end.
----------------
A/N: A pointless little tale I know. But I thought what the heck give it a try. Happy Holidays! Stay safe!