WORST CASE SCENARIO - by NotTasha
A/N: You guys rock! Thanks so much for the feedback. I'm loving it!
CHAPTER 3: STOAT
Sheppard and McKay left the fuel house and moved up the street to what looked like a tavern. The open door gave way to what was once a comfortable-looking watering hole. Yet, it would appear that the last moments spent in this place were anything but comforting. Chairs were tipped and a table toppled. People had left this place in a hurry – in one manner or another.
Again, the area behind the bar looked as if some sort of creature had been through there, searching out whatever food products could be found. They could make out small tracks, smeared and muted and unrecognizable. Broken kegs lined the floor, showing the strength of whatever had been here. A large stain covered the floor, but the liquid that had drained was long gone.
"No rats," McKay muttered. "So, what did this? Lemmings? Marmots? Badgers?"
"Stoats?" Sheppard added.
"Stoats?" McKay repeated incredulously, getting a raised eyebrow in response from Sheppard. "When have you ever heard about stoats?"
"Stoats are vicious creatures," Sheppard explained. "Big sharp teeth. They're ready to attack at any moment. They'd rip your face off soon as look at you." When McKay gave him a strange look, he shrugged, smiling smugly. "Friend of mine got attacked by one on her birthday. It hid in her sock drawer. Jumped right up she was bending over and bit off her nose. Was never the same after that."
"You're making this up," McKay told him. "Bit her nose off?"
"Ask me how she smelled."
"No! You're doing this just to mess with me."
"Yup. Oh, and she smelled quite lovely."
"Stoats?" Annoyed, McKay shook his head and went on, "Something has moved in to take the place of the rats in the food chain." McKay shuddered, not liking the idea one bit. "Could be something even worse than rats."
"What about a stoat?"
"It's not a stoat!"
"Might be a really big stoat."
"It is not a STOAT! Come on, already! This could be really bad."
"What could be worse than that?" Sheppard asked, and then grimaced. "Forget I said that." He raised an eyebrow and asked, "You're still not getting any life signs, right?"
Regarding the scanner again, McKay responded. "Fish in the sea, nothing of note on the land." He lifted his eyes to meet Sheppard's. "I'll make another check for energy signatures. I get better range with this," he said as he pulled out his data-tablet again and tapped away and the screen. "Wait… wait… I'm picking up something now." He pressed a hand to his mouth. "Hmmm."
"What?" Sheppard responded.
"Thermal heat of some sort," he muttered and glanced toward the waterfront.
"Thermal? Like a hot spring? Or someone lit a fire?"
"A fire, I think," McKay muttered. "I can't really tell from these readings. It's almost as if it was there all the time, but was blocked until a moment ago."
"So, something unblocked it?"
"Yeah… something…"
At that news, Sheppard touched his radio. "Ronon? Teyla? Tell me that you activated something-or-other…"
"Colonel," Teyla responded quickly. "We have entered the large building."
"You didn't find anything … strange," Sheppard asked.
"Like a furnace or something?" McKay added.
"It's warm inside," Ronon answered. "We're just starting our search."
"Warm?" McKay responded. "Like, how warm?"
"Like there's a furnace," Ronon tried.
McKay made a face, and spoke sharply, "Let me rephrase that. Does it seem as if the furnace has been active for a while, or did you just start it up somehow?"
"The interior of the building is quite warm," Teyla cut in. "Rather pleasantly warm, as if it has been this way for some time."
"We should get down there," McKay announced quickly, gathering up his gear.
"Any sign of trouble?" Sheppard asked.
"It's quiet," Ronon's voice sounded. "I think someone just left the heat on."
"All this time?" McKay responded. "This could be a very dangerous situation. It might be a furnace, but the heat might have to do with the production of the fuel."
"And if it's just a heater…think about it … they have a pretty big supply of fuel there," Sheppard surmised. "Whatever is running, it has everything it needs to keep going. Probably been on autopilot all this time."
"We will contact you as soon as we find the source of the heat," Teyla proclaimed.
"Great," Sheppard told her. "Hey, and have you guys seen any animals?"
A pause, and "No, colonel," from Teyla. "Do you have a description of a creature?"
McKay was sniffling again, pulling out a tissue to daub at his nose. "It's something small. That's pretty much all we know."
"Possibly stoat-like," Sheppard added, wondering how long it would take Teyla or Ronon to respond to that.
He wasn't given the chance to time them, as McKay went on to a new subject. "Hey, and is there any sign of this fog lifting? I swear it's wrecking havoc with my sinuses."
"Perhaps," Teyla answered, not sounding hopeful.
"Well, it's gotta," McKay groused. "I mean, fog is supposed to burn off during the day, isn't it? Because, that's how I remember it. Fog in the morning goes away by the afternoon and it's nice from then on. Any sign of that?"
"Perhaps," Teyla responded again.
"OK, just keep going," Sheppard told her, cutting the weather conversation short. "Find out what's in that building."
"And be careful!" McKay added.
"Yeah, that, too. Keep us apprised. Sheppard out."
McKay frowned severely as he returned the data-tablet to its place. "I really should be heading over there," he pouted.
"It's just a boring old furnace," Sheppard commiserated. "We're looking for a 'wraith-be-gone'. Much more exciting."
"In a tavern…" McKay grumbled.
"Hey, some of my favorite places are taverns. Buck up! Let's keep moving."
And they continued their search through the latest establishment, Sheppard eyeing every cranny of the room and McKay fussing with his scanners.
"Still nothing," McKay grumbled. "The only thing I'm picking up is whatever's heating the refinery, or distillery. That's about it for anything worth looking at."
"There's a room back here," Sheppard diverted, easing back a curtain. A little sunlight streamed into the narrow hallway through a high window on the opposite side of the building. Filtering through the reddish cloth, the light bathed everything in a pinkish hue, revealing little cubicle-like bedrooms on either side of the hall.
"Kinda doubt that we'll find what we're looking for in this sort of place," McKay muttered, nodding toward the hallway.
With a chuckle, Sheppard moved forward. "You never know what you might find." And the curtain fell behind him as he moved into the hall.
With a groan, McKay followed, figuring it would be better for them to stay together. "Really, colonel, what are you planning on finding here?"
John shrugged, glancing into the cribs, little rooms with hardly more than a bed and a small table within. "It's the closest I've been to gettin' some in a while. I wonder how much they charged?"
McKay stepped forward, peering somewhat timidly into the little rooms. "Please," he grumbled. "When have YOU ever had any trouble?"
"Been a while since we came across any ascended chicks," he returned and grinned when McKay glared at him.
"There's nothing here," McKay quickly decided, and spun about, in a hurry to get out. The toe of his boot rammed against some uneven portion in the floor and he took an awkward step. He shot out a hand to grab a convenient handhold against one wall. Sheppard stepped forward to grasp Rodney's elbow and maybe prevent a fall. It didn't work.
Because, it was then that the floor dropped out from under them.
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They moved forward, into the warm interior of the building. Teyla sighed, glad to be out of the moist weather, but the strangeness of the situation set her on edge. The sun lit the interior of the building, coming in through high windows, diffused through the misty fog that surrounded the building.
Her eyes darted, seeking out the source of the comfortable warmth that caused this odd sense of unease.
The room was quiet. The space was large, filled with tubes and pipes, tanks and switches, levers and dials. There was a large area that appeared to be used for slicing some sort of vegetation, and a lingering sweet scent, so perhaps McKay was right about the location being a distillery of 'sugar beets'. There were towers and conveyer belts and tanks. Teyla didn't have words to explain the other items she was coming across.
She breathed in deeply, wondering if she could identify the odor and grimaced when she smelled something less pleasant lingering in the air. She threw Ronon an unhappy look, but the Satedan didn't seem to notice as he flicked at his damp hair.
She frowned as she scrutinized the first gauge she came across. Ronon leaned over her shoulder and commented, "Empty."
Teyla nodded and moved forward, looking at the apparatus attached to the next bit of piping. "Nothing here seems to be functioning."
"Still," Ronon responded. "Seems like this is a good place to check out. Bet we find the thing we're looking for – whatever the Wraith-thing is."
"I suggest that we first discover the source of the heat," Teyla told him. She frowned slightly, moving toward a grating against one wall. Holding up a hand before the grid, she paused a moment before stating, "There is warm air coming from here."
"Ventilation system," Ronon agreed. "Let's see if we can find the furnace."
"Yes," Teyla stated, looking reluctant to leave the warm spot, but she managed it. And they kept moving, weaseling their way through the structure as they searched.
Ronon paused as they came around a rather large bit of equipment and narrowed his eyes as he studied the muddy flooring. "Something's been in here," Ronon said, eyeing the trails along the floor – a thick wide mess. "Stinks a bit, too."
"Ah," Teyla responded, "So, this is the origin of that scent." She looked up at Dex, saying, "The colonel and Dr. McKay stated that they had seen the sign of some animals in their searching."
"Think this was left by a 'stoat'?"
"They seemed to infer that the 'stoat' was small in size."
"Yeah," Ronon returned, cocking his head at the marks left by the creature. "Whatever left this trail was big."
Teyla smiled at him. "They are not as adept as you at tracking. Perhaps they misread the signs."
"Yeah, that's pretty likely." He glanced up and down the main aisle. "It's been around here quite a bit."
The room was a mass of equipment, most of it in incomprehensible to the two. Although she would not say it, Teyla rather wished that Dr. McKay had come here to search it in their stead. If there was any sort of strange 'wraith deterrent' here, she doubted that she could find it. She didn't understand the equipment she was seeing – but a furnace – maybe that was something she could comprehend.
So, they looked for the source of heat, all the while being careful of where they stepped and what they touched, always on the lookout for trouble – whether it was 'stoat-like' or otherwise. On the plus-side, they were able to enjoy the warm space, protected from the cool and sodden world outside. It wasn't half-bad.
"I think the heat's coming from up ahead," Ronon proclaimed, pointing to a walled off space. The mud was smeared in front of the door.
He stepped carefully, finding the muck dried hard. He touched the door and smiled. "Yeah, it's hot in here." After checking the door carefully, he eased it open to reveal a toasty room, with squat device filling much of the space. It had a chimney at the top, and was connected to several pipes of varying widths. Yes, it was definitely what emitted the warmth.
They stood before it, just soaking in the heat. It felt damn good.
"It appears," Teyla started, nodding toward a pipe that connected into the device. "That fuel is feeding the device, coming from this direction." A little gauge on the line showed activity. It appears that, when the planet was emptied, nobody bothered to turn off the heat in the building – and the distillery had enough fuel to keep it nicely warmed.
"All this time," Teyla said softly, "The heat remained on for no one's benefit."
"Yeah," Ronon responded. "Except us. We got to enjoy it. Kind of nice, don't you think?"
"Yes, nice," Teyla agreed, enjoying the moment of warmth and peace. The room was quiet, with only the soft thrum of the furnace. But that wasn't quite right, was it? What was missing? She furrowed her brow as she tried to …
Teyla let out a little gasp of surprise. Annoyed with herself for not realizing it sooner, she turned her head, and hurriedly, touched her radio. "Colonel Sheppard?" she called. "Doctor McKay?"
Only quiet was returned.
"Sheppard?" Ronon tried as well. "McKay!"
Nothing still.
Ronon was the first to turn, intent on sprinting out of the furnace room and out of building to seek the colonel and the scientist, but a spine-tingling hiss stopped him in his tracks. He froze, staring at the lizard that blocked his egress. It was big, and a brackish greenish brown in color, leathery, fully seven feet long, with a long body, short legs and a wide mouth filled with teeth. The un-stoat-like kiwanda hissed again and thrashed its tail, showing its rows of yellow-brown teeth and looking damn hungry.
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TBC -Ah... that can't be good