(Well, I was right...that I was wrong, that is. Nuts. When I said in the beginning that this would be 11 chapters long, I had written 9 chapters, which means, yes, I had written through this chapter here. Foolishly, I thought I could wrap it up in 11, because I knew where I was going...I was wrong. I just started writing Chapter 12. Heh. It'll be about 15 when done. Sorry! I'm a doofus, I know.)
MORE THAN JUST PRETTY FACES
By TIPPER
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CHAPTER NINE: OBVIOUS
The climbing was much easier and faster now, even with the occasional stop where cave-ins had blocked a ramp, forcing them to lift the cart up the stairs to the next level. The cart was steady and swift, leading them onwards and upwards, like an eager puppy. They found themselves walking even faster just to keep up with it.
They passed by a couple more carts, resting next to walls,nearly buried in rubble from cave-ins. The carts were obviously used to bring equipment and other materials from station to station in this room. Sheppard wondered if there were any on Atlantis, and, if so, where the heck were they being stored?
He grinned, imagining cart races down the halls of Atlantis. He bet McKay could make one of these things really fly. Sure, Zelenka might give him a run for his money, but, the stronger the competition, the more likely McKay would prevail. It was just the way he was—the harder you pushed him, the faster his mind worked. Yeah...when they got home, he'd corral McKay into helping him set it up. The scientist would love it.
The smile faded on John's lips, his eyes noting the curled hand of McKay that hung over the edge of the cart, the normally animated fingers deathly still except for the motion of the cart.
Gritting his teeth, he mentally shoved those sorts of thoughts out his head. He didn't have time for that now. They were going home. All of them. As long as they were still alive and moving...
His steps faltered slightly, and, before him, the cart stuttered a little, sensing his mood change.
It occurred to Sheppard that the damage to the walls caused by the river overhead had not only been getting increasingly worse...it was beginning to dominate. More caved in walls, more dripping mini-waterfalls trailing down the black stone, more tiny rivulets to skirt, more lights with no power getting to them...
The cart was being blocked by more obstacles.
His jaw set, and he looked forward, eyes narrowed in concern.
They were almost to the end. He could see an ornate doorway at the far end. But it was dark up there. Very dark.
Dark wasn't good.
"That doesn't look good," Ronon said on his left. "Why's it so dark?"
Sheppard just snorted.
About three levels from the top, the cart finally gave up the ghost, stopping defiantly when it simply couldn't go any further. It almost looked annoyed, bumping against a rock like a kid kicking at a tin can.
Ronon sighed, moving to take Rodney.
"Wait," Sheppard said, holding a hand up and mentally shutting the cart down. "Let's...let's make sure we can get out first. He's not going anywhere."
Ronon nodded, trying poorly to hide his gratitude, and followed Sheppard over the collapsed rockfall towards the doorway. Teyla kept up close behind, eyeing the walls around her for signs of something that might help should there be a problem.
It took less than a minute to reach the top level, and, by common accord, they all stopped before what was, without question, a set of transporter doors.
They looked identical to the ones on Atlantis, down to the patterned glass. The only difference being that the entrance was wider. Wide enough, Sheppard realized, to fit a couple of those carts through.
A handful of loose rocks were strewn before the double doors, but it wasn't blocked. It was just...dark.
Grimacing, he stepped forward and rested his hand against it.
Nothing.
The grimace grew into a frown, and he whispered a strained, "open sesame" at the shut doors.
"It's not working," Ronon informed him.
Okay, now he was getting annoying.
"I'm aware," Sheppard replied darkly.
"I'm just—"
"I get it." The colonel looked around, trying to locate the control panel. McKay said, there is always a control panel. Always.
There.
Sticking out of the wall about a foot away was a raised, patterned metal panel. Sheppard waved a hand in front of it, then, when nothing happened, pulled out his knife and proceeded to pry the cover off. It was larger than the ones in Atlantis, but he couldn't worry about that now.
Behind him, Teyla and Ronon just watched.
Suddenly, the cover came off with a satisfying, "pop," and Sheppard smirked, placing it on the floor.
The smirk fell when he found himself staring at about ten crystals. Ten identical crystals.
Ten identical dead crystals.
"Oh crap," he whispered.
"Start with the obvious," Teyla said suddenly, repeating Ronon's quote of McKay from earlier and stepping up next to the colonel. Her eyes were faithful, staring up at him expectantly.
Blowing the air out of his cheeks, he nodded.
"Okay," he said slowly, licking his lips. "Obviously...the transporter isn't working."
"Why?" she prompted.
"Because...there's no power getting to it."
"Right," she nodded. "So, how do we get power to it?"
Sheppard stared at the crystals, then swore. "By waking up Rodney and telling him to fix it!" he snapped.
"Colonel," she said warningly, "You need to calm—"
"Teyla, I know that works on Rodney, but, right now, it's just irritating the hell out of me."
Her eyebrows raised, but she said nothing more. Instead, she stepped forward so that she was practically standing in front of him, and arched an eyebrow.
He rolled his eyes.
"Okay, okay...fine," he muttered. "How do we get power to these crystals? Um...by using another power source from...somewhere. The cart maybe. And...and...hooking it up to...um..." He looked around at the dark sconces and rubble surrounding them. Oh, who was he kidding? "This is useless. I don't even know what any of these do, much less which one to attach a power cord to. Damn it, I was hoping for three crystals! Not ten! Three lit crystals, one on top of the other, just like at home!" He banged the wall above the open panel with a fist.
Sadly, even the Doctor Who failsafe didn't work—hitting the wall had done nothing except make the panel appear even more dead.
"Not to interrupt or anything," Ronon said, peering at the dark doors with an odd look, "but since when do the Ancients just rely on transporters to get around?"
Teyla glanced at Ronon, then suddenly smiled.
"Yes, of course," she said. "There are stairs all over Atlantis, even though there are also transporters. And they must have gotten down here somehow, in order to build the transporter in the first place." She immediately started searching, making her way around piles of rock to try and get to the corners and the sides, looking for another door.
Sheppard looked at Ronon, both eyebrows raised. The former Runner gave a knowing smile.
"Just starting with the really obvious," he told the colonel, shrugging a little.
Sheppard tried to glare, he really did. But, for some reason, found a smile on his lips instead. Chuckling, he turned to try and help Teyla.
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Teyla stopped, staring up at the top of one of the nastier cave-ins. Her breath had caught—she could see the top of another set of doors peeking over the top of the algae-covered black boulders.
"Colonel," she said, trying to keep the despair from her voice, "I...I have located the stairs."
She was only one level down from the top, and, as Sheppard and Ronon joined her, their heads tipping back to see what she had seen, she simply turned and walked away.
"We can't move these rocks by hand," she heard Ronon say behind her.
She knew that. It was why she was headed back to McKay.
"No," the colonel responded, and Teyla could hear the sigh in his voice.
"Could we blow them up?" Ronon suggested.
"A controlled blast?" Sheppard said, obviously considering it. "Um..."
Teyla stepped onto the third level down, and walked over to the cart. McKay wasn't shivering anymore. In fact, he wasn't moving at all now, except to breathe, and that so shallowly it almost seemed like that had stopped as well. At least his brow was no longer furrowed.
She touched her fingers to his forehead lightly, tracing the soft age lines, then, making a loose fist, trailed her knuckles down the side of his face. The heat he was giving off was incredible.
Fever from the poison...or from the onset of pneumonia...damage from the CPR...possible internal damage from the river...and no way to get him home in time...
Her head bowed, her eyes closing.
They were going to lose this time.
In the background, she heard Ronon and Sheppard discussing the rocks, discussing whether they could set off a charge without bringing the whole place down.
Actually, it was mostly Sheppard who was talking, arguing with himself. Ronon had said almost nothing since the initial suggestion, but the loquacious colonel was more than making up for it in his own way. She sensed, though, that half the conversation was missing, and it made her wonder if Sheppard was hearing McKay in his head.
The thought made her smile...until something the colonel said suddenly caused him to go deathly quiet.
Her head lifted, and she looked over to see Sheppard holding his head in one hand, not moving. She mentally replayed his last words in her head...and understood why.
"It's just a matter of getting the physics of the blast right," he had said.
Her lips pressed together in a thin line, but she could say nothing to relieve his stress. Not when she was so deeply mired in it as well. As she watched, he lowered the hand and looked up at the rocks blocking their only way out. Resting his hands on his hips, he gave a heavy sigh.
"Okay," he said, "we can do this."
Next to him, Ronon just arched an eyebrow.
Teyla bit back a sigh of her own, and looked down again at McKay. She wondered what he would be doing right now, if he were awake. Complaining, obviously. She smiled, easily imaging him and Sheppard arguing about the rock fall, and what the scientist would have thought about blowing it up. The words, "death wish" and "idiotic" came to mind. She then clearly heard Sheppard's reply in her head, also easy to imagine. The colonel would just glare at McKay and say, "Fine. Then find another way."
And McKay would.
Something clicked in her mind then, and she straightened, lifting her chin.
Find another way...
She smiled suddenly, turning to face the two men above. Sheppard was pulling out the C4 from his vest, while Ronon peered closely at part of the rocks. She opened her mouth to call out.
And that's when it happened.
The Wraith blew open the bottom doorway.
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TBC...
You know, writing cliffhanger endings is really, really addictive.