AN: Woo hoo! Ok, as promised, chapter 2. No good whumpage yet, but a sticky situation... I promise, though, the evil stuff is comin.
Oh, and cookies for Jessica and Vecturist!
Chapter 2
Dr. Rodney McKay groaned as consciousness returned to him. He became aware that his face was pressed into something cold and hard. "Ow," he grumbled as he tried to sit himself up. This turned out to be a difficult task, though, as his hands were bound behind his back. A familiar flutter of panic settled into his chest. "Oh, this is not good," he muttered.
"Very observant, McKay," a voice grumbled from off to McKay's right. Rodney turned and saw Colonel Sheppard stirring awake, propped up against the wall of what McKay could now see was definitely a cell of some sort. Rodney then heard another groan from of to his left. He rolled over to his side and managed to get his knees under himself and sit up.
"Well that's better, anyway," McKay squeaked, his voice up a few octaves from it's usual timbre. He was breathing much more easily now that his lungs weren't being compressed by the awkward position. He could see that the crumpled form to his left was Dr. Zelenka, curled on his side.
The smaller man began to mumble something in Czech, but as he tried to move and found his arms wouldn't respond correctly, he snapped out of his half-wakeful state.
"Wha-what's going on?" Radek sputtered, a quaver in his voice. He quickly fumbled himself into a sitting position. He glanced around, taking stock of the situation, and he felt a distinct tightening in his chest. This was a new situation for the Czech scientist, one he had hoped he would be able to avoid. It did make him feel the tiniest bit better when he looked McKay in the eye and saw there the same panic that he himself was feeling. Not much better, though.
"Where are we?" came an alto voice from across the hall. The men looked towards the wide door of their cell, and through the bars they saw the forms of Teyla and Karina, sitting up as best they could.
"This must be the place of the Guardians," Karina whispered. The young woman's eyes were wide with a mix of fear and disbelief.
"How did we get here?" Teyla asked. She looked around doing a more complete head count. "And where is Ronon?" McKay's mind was spinning, trying to put the pieces together.
"I remember a bright flash," Rodney said, "Not long after I'd started to make some progress in decoding the pattern of lights on the panel-"
"YOU made progress?" Zelenka snapped.
"Fine, WE made progress, what the hell difference does it make right now?" McKay pointed out.
"Maybe it was beaming technology, such as the Daedalus has," Teyla suggested. Rodney nodded.
"My thoughts exactly, as I was about to suggest before I was so rudely interrupted," agreed McKay. "Ronon must have been far enough away from the rest of us that he avoided being taken. I hope," he added, in a much quieter squeak.
"Well then why were we rendered unconscious?" Zelenka asked. "Beaming technology does no such thing."
"ASGARD beaming technology does no such thing," McKay retorted. "Whoever built that panel was not Asgard or Ancient, though clearly at a similar technological level."
"At the moment, it doesn't matter much how we got here," Sheppard said. "I'm more concerned with how we're going to get out." He scooted his knees under him and pivoted so his back was to McKay. "What do you make of these?" the Colonel asked the scientist. McKay looked as closely as he could at Sheppard's restraints without losing his balance. Zelenka also made his way over as best he could to investigate.
"It looks similar to the technology of the panel," the Czech muttered, eyeing the semi-translucent cuffs that bound the Colonel's arms together from wrist to mid-forearm.
"Oh thank you so much for that helpful analysis," Rodney snapped. He REALLY hated being tied up.
"Gentlemen," Sheppard said cooly, drawing their attention to the problem at hand and away from their argument. "Can you get them off of us?" The scientists looked at each other before Rodney shook his head.
"No," he said bitterly, "Not with our hands tied anyway. This isn't some sailor's knot you can just fumble with back to back and hope to untie the other person. In circumstances like this, we'd actually need to see what we're doing." Sheppard shushed McKay suddenly, and the scientist opened his mouth to protest.
"Shut up, McKay!" Sheppard ordered under his breath, turning to look down the hallway.
At that moment, the other four turned their heads to try and look where Sheppard's eyes had been drawn. The unmistakable sounds of footfalls sent a flurry of reactions through the group. Sheppard balanced himself on the balls of his feet, ready to spring. Rodney also balanced himself on the balls of his feet, ready to run like hell. Radek backed himself into a corner and tried to make himself as small as possible. Teyla's stance mirrored Sheppard's, while Karina was simply sitting, her eyes still wide with fear and confusion.
Finally, a group of very large men stopped in front of their cells. Three of the hulking forms was probably over six and a half feet tall. One slightly smaller man, maybe only 6'3, turned and looked at the women then the men in turn. He was slim, but looked strong, and had a head of steel gray hair. He met each person's eyes in turn. Rodney couldn't fully suppress a shiver when the man's cold gray eyes locked with his. Without a word, he turned and opened the men's cell with a wave of his hand, and the men entered silently. Two of the hulks pointed what could only be weapons at Sheppard and McKay, while the smaller man and the last big man strode over to Zelenka. As they each grabbed him under an arm, the scientist let out a yelp.
"Colonel!" he cried, panic thickening his accent. Sheppard tried to rush forward, but felt an explosion of pain in his temple as he got pistol whipped for his trouble. Rodney had started to raise to his feet, but a stony glare and a deadly looking weapon leveled at his chest froze his feet in place, and made his voice catch in his throat. The huge men began backing out of the cell.
"Radek!" McKay shouted when he found his voice again, but by then his colleague was already out of his line of sight and the guards had retreated out of the cell and the door had closed behind them. Rodney rushed up to the bars and pressed his face against the cold metal trying to see his friend. "Zelenka!" The only response he heard was the quiet swish of a door closing.
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End Notes: Wahahaha, am I evil? I try. Sometimes I try too hard and end up as an evil clown, though... but that's a whole other story. Anyhoo, make me happy, review! The happier I am, the more I write...