Black and White.
Chapter Nine.
AN: Apologies for slow update no writing time! To those of you who celebrate it – have a good Burn's Night.
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Beckett could not help himself; he pulled at the straps even though they sent spikes of pain through him, where they had cut deeply into his skin. He knew, Oh God! He knew who would be on those craft. Sheppard, Teyla, Dex and Rodney. The Wraith would force him to fire the Drones. He was going to kill his friends.
Carson sagged back panting, the pain was too much. He had to do something but what? The Wraith were concentrating on the consoles. He was free of their control for maybe just moments. It would have to be enough.
He had no choice; he had to use the Chair. It was an interface linked to the Ancient technology. Someone like John Sheppard could use it to access systems with ease – even he had managed to do it himself a couple of times, but it had required guidance from someone who had known what they had wanted the technology to do. Could he possibly do this himself and what could he do?
Beckett concentrated, as hard as he could, although he was very aware that the toll of the last few hours had drained his strength. And found something - a self-destruct mechanism. He could "see" how to arm it and set it off. Unlike the one in Atlantis it could be activated by the Chair controller presumably to enable the small defence base to operate down to the last defender.
It would destroy everything – the entire installation and all that it contained. He knew that he was a dead man whatever happened. Once the Wraith had finished here, it was clear that the leader would take great pleasure in reducing him to a husk. His team were dead – those terrible screams could have meant nothing else. And to tell the truth, after what he had just done - to live with that, to remember how it had felt, as the inhabitants of the ship had died their fiery death, he wasn't sure that he wanted to.
All he had to do was push with his mind, there, and the self-destruct would start to count down. A sudden memory of the self-destruct alarm sounding through Atlantis came to his mind from the dreadful time of the Wraith siege. The last time he had heard that awful sound he had been on the verge of taking off in a Puddle Jumper armed with a nuclear bomb. He had never thought to feel that fear again. He pushed the thought aside; this situation was just as desperate. How would the Wraith here react if something similar went off? Would they have time to prevent the self-destruct working? How long would he have?
He was dimly aware of the Wraith communicating about the approaching craft – the device in his neck was leaking the thoughts of the leader of the Wraith into his mind, even as he tried to concentrate on the Ancient technology. They were close – they were too close. The explosion set off by the self-destruct would be too powerful; it would catch the Puddle Jumpers within the blast radius.
Beckett felt total despair – he would have to try something else but what?
He pictured Rodney McKay standing before him, amused at the fact that Beckett could not escape the Chair this time, giving him one of his so impatient "Carson I know you can do this." lectures. He was sure that Rodney was on one of the flying craft and moments from death at his hands. He concentrated fiercely.
Perhaps he could picture this machine in his mind almost like a body. The energy from the power source, which he could feel was one of the elusive ZPM's, flowed via conduits throughout the complex. If he reversed that flow, like heart valves being inverted, the energy backlash might destroy the heart of the outpost. He pushed with his mind; it was so very hard to do as he felt on the verge of blacking out again. He felt the flow of energy change.
Suddenly his concentration was shattered by the intrusion of the alien mind of the Wraith – the leader was demanding that he target the Drones. It was a violent mental assault as the creature was anticipating that Beckett would resist. To the Wraith's surprise Carson allowed the weapons system to search and lock. Through the Chair he could feel the energy building in the conduits of the outpost and sought to buy some more time. Then the power surge obviously registered on one of the consoles within the control chamber. Suddenly the leader of the Wraith was running towards the Chair platform, his face a mask of fierce anger. But he did not reach it. A column of shimmering energy rose around the edge of the platform, cutting it off from the room. The Wraith impacted against it and was thrown to the ground.
The mental assault that followed was pure anguish to Carson's battered mind. The Wraith was sure that he had raised the barrier and tried to get him to take it down. But he could not. It was not of his doing. He could only guess that it must be a defence mechanism that had triggered as the energy build up had started to damage internal systems. A shield which would allow the weapon to operate right down to the last defender – the person in the Chair.
Beckett looked at the force-field that shimmered all about him, almost dispassionately. Would it be strong enough to withstand the impending destruction? He could only think that it would be the greatest irony if the Chair that he hated now saved his life.
But it seemed that it was not to be. At that moment the energy feedback reached the damaged Chair. Agony ripped through Beckett's mind and then pulsed through his body – every cell seemed to be on fire.
Carson Beckett screamed and the control room exploded around him.
TBC