Black and White.

Chapter Eleven

Disclaimers as per previous chapters.

… … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … …

They had the face masks on now. Fortunately the tunnels were high and arched so that most of the smoke hung above their heads, but the lights on the P90's were just cutting narrow beams through the haze. There was very little visibility and several times Rodney had lost sight of Ronon. His nervousness had increased and he had had to stop himself calling to Teyla, to ask yet again, whether she sensed Wraith ahead. He wasn't finding the fact that she couldn't very reassuring.

Then he almost walked straight into her. Teyla had stopped at Ronon's shoulder; the Satedan was crouched, aiming his weapons into a dark void ahead. Rodney realised that beyond them the tunnel ended, opening out into a large chamber. The beams of the P90's were actually showing a higher level of visibility, even though this place seemed to be the source of the acrid smoke, which was rising from the floor and sides of the room and spiralling up into a high roof of unseen height.

Dex murmured an all clear – there was nothing moving out there, and the four members of the team spread out across the room, moving cautiously in the darkness. Rodney was excited, this had to be the control room of the weapon complex, and it was in exactly the location that he had predicted. Immediately he almost went flying as he tripped on something on the floor. A few colourful curses accompanied the aim of his gun as he swept the beam down. The floor was covered with debris, broken and twisted pieces of machinery and panels lay everywhere.

"Oh that's just great! Ten thousand years a working beam weapon has been waiting here and when I actually get my hands on it – it's been truly fracked. The power source won't have survived this – it might have been a ZPM. Damn!" Rodney seethed with frustration as his light revealed the damage.

He decided to move towards a panel of consoles that looked less damaged than the rest, wincing slightly as each footfall crunched and squelched on priceless Ancient technology. Squelched? Rodney stepped back and gave a slight whimper as he realised that he had just stepped on a Wraith. A very dead Wraith, One part of the scientist's keen brain started calculating the force of the explosion required to inflict this much damage on a one of the toughest life forms that humankind had ever encountered, another part was deciding that sushi was not a good look for a Wraith.

He almost jumped out of his skin as a weapon discharged almost next to him, appallingly loud in the confined space.

"Will you stop that." he yelled at Dex, who he could see was standing over the body of another Wraith.

Ronon looked at him unapologetically. The former runner had spent too long on his own, too little time with his new comrades to trust that a Wraith could be killed by any other person or thing other than his own weapons and was making sure. Rodney, realising this, decided to leave Dex to his dead Wraith hunt and looked to see where the others were.

He could see Teyla and Sheppard's lights in the centre of the chamber and his own beam revealed their location to finally be a cause for some optimism. A Chair platform. Those things seemed to survive everything for some reason and perhaps something was salvageable. He made his way towards it.

"Rodney, get over here, we need your light." John's voice was tight with strain.

Rodney picked his way through the debris and noticed with great interest that the debris field stopped at the edge of the Chair platform. The platform was completely unmarked and clear of wreckage. Shielded? Was his first thought.

"Rodney! Light." John's voice cut through his musing. Rodney swung up his light and almost dropped it again. They had found Carson.

"Oh God." Rodney whispered. His friend lay absolutely still in the un-powered Chair. His skin was waxen, lips bloodless. Rodney could not tell if Beckett was actually breathing, his eyes were closed, lashes dark against the pale skin.

But the most appalling thing were the straps. Carson had clearly fought hard against them and Rodney's aversion to blood was making him feel faint. Beckett had been tied into the Chair, a fact that made Rodney's stomach lurch for a number of reasons. One of which was that it reminded him all too clearly of the number of times that he had literally dragged the reluctant physician to the Atlantean Chair room to see if the latest attempt to connect a power source and initialise the Chair had been successful. He had sworn then that if it would be necessary to tie Carson to the Chair that he would do so.

"I never meant …" He stuttered.

"Ssssh, Rodney." Sheppard was leaning across Carson's body trying to find a pulse point on his neck, and struggling because of the neck strap and the damage that it had caused. His fingers were becoming slick with blood. John sighed with relief. "I've got a pulse but it's very weak."

Sheppard stepped back and looked at the tangle of metal, illuminated by the steady beam of Teyla's light.

"Someone find something to cut these straps with." John spoke on a rising shout.

Ronon loomed silently out of the darkness next to John and handed him a serrated knife that looked quite capable of cutting through any metal.

"Brace the straps will you? I don't want to cause any more damage while I cut them."

The knife made short work of the bindings but it still had to have jarred the cuts. Rodney was disturbed by the fact that the doctor did not show the slightest flicker of awareness at the increase in pain. John quickly felt over Beckett's body trying to assess his injuries without moving him.

"Teyla can you pass me the field kit – going to need the dressings. I think he's lost a lot of blood – got some bad cuts. I can't see any shrapnel injuries, though how the hell he survived this," John threw a glance across the wrecked control chamber, "is beyond me!"

John worked quickly, assisted by Teyla; while Rodney held his light as steady as he could. "What were the Wraith up to?" John murmured. "He's even got something buried in his neck. We'll have to leave that and try and get him back to Atlantis as fast as possible."

"I can carry him." Ronon asserted.

"Are you sure? He's heavy!"

"It would be the quickest way. I owe him this." Dex stepped forward to take Carson in his arms. They all knew that this was not the way to move an injured person; Carson himself would have thrown a fit, but the situation was too urgent and the Puddle Jumper too far away.

Teyla went on point at the exit of the room. Rodney lingered, looking round the wreckage – he knew that he would have to return to examine this place to find out what had happened here, but he didn't think he could face doing that until the dead Wraith had been removed. He fancied that the place now smelt of death. He caught up to John who was lighting Ronon's path through the debris. Carson looked too limp in his arms. Had they been in time?

John was obviously thinking the same thing as he murmured. "Hold on Doc – we're going to take you home."

TBC