It was a small comfort to see that the entire senior staff was present and accounted for. As Elizabeth came into the conference room ten minutes later, everyone was on headsets trying to check in on the status of their team.
"What's the latest?" she asked them.
"Four members of the security team, three med-techs, and two scientists can't be located," Bates told her. Elizabeth could just barely hear John mutter,
"And a partridge in a pear tree," as she sat down.
"Do we know when any of them were seen last?" She asked.
"Yesterday at varying times."
"Well, what has changed in the city between yesterday and today?"
"There was a small energy fluctuation on the south pier yesterday," Bates reported.
"That's where my team was," Rodney replied. He nodded.
"Which is why we didn't think anything of it."
"We need to check out that area," Elizabeth told the security chief. "Did anything unusual happen yesterday?" she asked Rodney. He shook his head.
"We'd found some new labs and were starting to run experiments with the technology. It got late, we all called it a night, and everyone left."
Bates got up. "I'll get a team down there," he said before leaving.
Six teams of security personnel were quickly organized. Two were going to explore the labs in the south pier, while the other four were going to continue searching the city for their teammates. After getting briefed by Bates, they left for their respective destinations. Walking to the south pier would easily take half an hour at least, so everyone was glad that they had the transporters.
Bates was going with one of the teams to the south pier, so once everyone else was in the transporter, he touched the screen to indicate their destination. The doors closed, then reopened, and they all walked out into the room that they'd arrived in. "McKay said the lab was at the end of the corridor," he told the other men. "We'll start there, and then check out all of the surrounding rooms."
But as they looked around, they realized that they weren't in an area with laboratories. "This looks a lot like the main area on the east pier," one of the officers pointed out as they walked around. Bates looked out the window, up at the city's main spire.
"We are on the east pier," he said as he realized which side of the tower they were looking at. "What the…"
"I'm pretty sure you told the transporter to go to the south pier," one man asserted. Bates shot him a look.
"I know that I hit the main destination on the south pier…There's gotta be a wire crossed or something. Let's try it again."
On the second try, they wound up at the top level of the north pier instead of their desired destination. Bates sighed as he activated his headset. "Sergeant Bates to Dr. McKay: what the hell is going on with the transporters?"
Elizabeth looked up from her tablet PC at the sound of a knock. John was standing in her open doorway. "We've got a problem," he said.
"We've already got problems," she replied. "What happened now?"
"Bates' teams have gotten lost in the city."
Elizabeth frowned. "They what?"
"There's something wrong with the transporter system; Rodney's working on it. Some were trying to get to the south pier; others were continuing the search for our missing people. The transporters are just arriving at random places, and they've all wound up scattered across the city." Elizabeth sighed.
"Has the whole system been shut off?"
"Yeah. McKay said he'd get you a report within the hour. Bates has one team walking to the south pier, while the others are making their way back to the main spire."
"I want everyone checking in at regular intervals," Elizabeth told him. "We don't need any more people vanishing without a trace."
John nodded. "We're tracking all of them with internal sensors."
"Good."
They both turned as one of the officers that had been out in the control room hurried over to the room. "Excuse me, Dr. Weir? One of the security teams just called in – they're missing people."
John and Elizabeth followed her back out of the room, turning their headsets on. "Where are they?" Elizabeth asked.
The woman pointed on a screen to four blips on the west pier. "That was a six-man team five minutes ago."
"Who's leading the group?" John asked the other officer that was in the room. The younger man was talking with the team on a headset.
"Lieutenant Bell."
"Sheppard to Lieutenant Bell: what's your situation?"
"We were supposed to be searching the low end of the main spire, but got in a transporter and wound up on the west pier. We were walking back, Weston and Carrey were at the back of the group, we turned around and suddenly they were gone."
"You didn't hear or see anything?"
"No, Sir. They just vanished into thin air." Elizabeth and John exchanged a look.
"Get your sixes back here, Lieutenant," he finally said.
"Yes, Sir."
"I want a head count on everyone, now," Elizabeth told John. "Stay in constant contact with all teams that are out in the city," she added for the other officers. They nodded. "And tell Rodney we've got bigger problems at the moment than the fact that the transporters aren't working. I want to know what the hell is happening in this city."
TBC...