Silent Sacrifice – Chapter 33

John walked down the hall with Ronon, following the runner until he finally stopped. "This is where Teyla and I were when she headed back to the chair room," said the Satedan.

John turned and looked back the way they had just come. "Okay, you check every room in this hall. I'm going up ahead and check every room in the next hall. We'll do that all the way back. Lorne and his group should be here any minute. We'll put them to work checking the side halls. She didn't just vanish."

Ronon nodded. "No, she didn't. And when I find who has her, I'm going to make them wish they'd never set foot on Atlantis."

"Only if you find him before I do, Chewy, otherwise I get the honors. Radio me if you find anything or when you jump to the next hallway."

Ronon nodded as he opened the first door and began to explore the room. Sheppard walked to the end of the hall and turned left, opening the first door he came to.

Several minutes later, John palmed a door control, only to have the door refuse to open. He tried again, putting some concentration in it. It had all the appearance of overriding a door lock, and that put him on edge. Peering into the room however, all he saw was a bunch of stacked boxes. He slipped into the room and over to his right, carefully looking behind the large pile. Nothing. He beginning to relax when he heard what sounded like a low moan from the other side of the room. Moving quickly toward the sound, he scanned what he could see of the open space for trouble.

He reached the back of the room and looked around another stack of boxes to see Teyla beginning to stir in the floor. "Teyla," he whispered as he rushed to her side and kneeled beside her, his hand instinctively feeling for a pulse. She moaned again and he put one hand on her shoulder. "Teyla, it's John. Just take it easy."

Tapping his radio, he began calling for help. "Ronon, it's Sheppard," he said, still speaking quietly. "I found Teyla in the third room on the right side of the hall. We need a med team and some backup."

The radio crackled, static filling the air. "Shep . . . oom . . . hall . . . at . . . "

Sheppard sighed and hit his radio again. "Ronon, did you get any of that . . . Ronon?"

John started to turn at the sound behind him, only to feel a sharp pain flash across the back of his head right before darkness descended.

oOo

John felt the bindings on his wrists and ankles even before he opened his eyes and saw them. He was lying on his back, placing an unpleasant amount of pressure against the bump on the back of his head. He opened his eyes, expecting to find himself in a cell, only to realize he was in Atlantis.

"John?"

Teyla's voice brought him back to the present. He twisted around so that he could see her lying next to him, now also bound. "Teyla, are you all right?"

"I am fine," she ground out. "However, we are being held prisoner."

John had to refrain from laughing or commenting as he would to McKay. "Yeah, I kind of picked up on that."

"Ah, you're both conscious again." The voice moved closer with the approaching footsteps and John squinted in the darkness to see who it belonged to. As the man stepped around the boxes, he recognized the uniform first. A marine sat on a lone box just a few feet away, pointing a gun in their direction. "Don't worry, it won't last long."

The name suddenly came to him. "Gerard? You want to explain to me exactly what you think you're doing?"

"Oh, just a little business venture, Colonel. I'll admit there have been a few problems lately, but once you two are out of the way, everything should be back to normal."

John cringed as he slid a look to Teyla. "I think maybe you've been watching too many movies. What is all this stuff and what are you doing with it?"

"Securing my future. I've been collecting artifacts and technology since I got here almost a year ago, stuff I can sell to the highest bidder once I get back to Earth. I'm going to be able to take an early retirement, a very rich early retirement."

"Why did you kill Banes?" John asked pointedly.

Gerard paused. "Yeah, it was ashamed about that. He stumbled on my stash as I was adding to it and figured out almost immediately what was going on. A little too smart for his own good. I offered to cut him in, but all he could talk about was telling Colonel Sheppard." Gerard glanced down at Sheppard and smiled. "Ironic, don't you think?"

"Ronon knows where we are. It's only a matter of time before he's here with backup." John nodded confidently to Teyla, trying to let her know that Ronon really did know where they were.

Gerard just shook his head. "They would have been here by now if they knew. This actually is a storage room and it can be shielded, Colonel, which it is. I'm not sure if that was to protect the stored materials or to protect Atlantis, but it doesn't matter. You're radio was breaking up, wasn't it? No one is coming. I just need to let the area clear out and then I can get rid of you."

Teyla tried to reason with the man, putting her diplomatic skills to the ultimate test. "If you kill us here, you're . . . stash, will be found. Maybe you could let us go and we could work out a deal for you."

Gerard grinned. "Nice try, but I don't think so. I already have a good plan. When the area calms down, I'll stun you both, drag you to another lab, and kill you like I did the others. Atlantis will be lost without the great John Sheppard," Gerard smirked. "They'll probably close this area down, and my stuff will be safe until I leave on the Daedalus in few months."

"You don't have to kill us," said John.

"Yes, I do. No witnesses." His expression softened when he looked at Teyla. "Killing you will be especially hard, though. You are a very beautiful woman and at one time I had hoped . . . well, that doesn't matter any more. Look, I didn't plan on killing anyone when this started, but I've gone too far to stop now. I've killed to keep this little secret and I can kill again. I'm not going to give up and go to prison when I can be rich and free. Save your breath."

The three of them were suddenly startled by the sounds of someone at the door. Gerard put the gun to Teyla's head to keep them quiet. John tried to give her a calming look, but he wasn't sure how calm he actually looked when he felt anything but. He had tried to leave the door unlocked when he entered, but he had no idea if it had stayed that way. A few seconds later, it was quiet.

"See, no one can get in here," said Gerard. "Well, no one but you," he said, nodding toward Sheppard. He stood back up and slowly eased around the boxes and out of their sight. A few seconds later, they heard the sound of a scuffle and stunner fire.

Ronon's head came carefully around the corner. "They're over here," he called behind him. It was then they heard the sounds of several sets of feet.

"What took you so long?" asked Sheppard in annoyance as Ronon and Lorne began cutting their bindings off.

"You need to learn to give directions," replied the former runner.

John sighed as he rubbed his now free wrists. "I said third room on the right."

Ronon nodded. "Yeah, but this was the second door on the left."

John started to shake his head, but that doubled the throbbing, so he immediately stopped. He gently rubbed the back of his head and then looked startled. "Oh . . . shoot . . . I turned around and came back from the other direction. I guess it was the second door on the left from your way. Sorry about that."

"We still found you. The radio was breaking up, so I was beginning to think I'd heard you wrong."

John seemed disturbed as he frowned at the floor. "I can't believe I made a mistake like that." He finally looked up at Teyla. "You okay?"

Teyla nodded. "I am fine. It is nothing that some of Dr. Beckett's Tylenol will not cure."

John nodded. "I take it you stunned Gerard?"

"Yeah, he'll be out for a little while."

"Is he our killer?"

John looked up to see Lorne had joined them. "Yes, he's the one. He admitted to killing Banes, although we didn't get the chance to talk about Helen, so I'm not sure what happened there. Lorne, please see that he gets locked up."

Lorne nodded, happy to carry out the orders. "I'll get some men to help you two up to the infirmary."

John waved his hand dismissively. "I'm fine, but Teyla was out for a little while. Ronon, why don't you see Teyla gets to the infirmary while I check on Rodney."

Ronon stood and gave Teyla a hand. "Only on the condition that you join us when you get Dr. McKay."

"Okay, fine. Let me check on him and we'll be there shortly."

Lorne went back to see to the transfer of Gerard and Ronon insisted Teyla lean on him as they walked since she was unsteady on her feet. John headed for the chair room, calling Elizabeth on the radio as he walked.

"Elizabeth, it's John."

"John, please tell me you have good news, because there isn't any to be found up here."

John frowned at that. "Well, I do have good news. We found Teyla and she isn't seriously injured. Ronon is helping her to the infirmary. We also caught our killer, a marine named Gerard who's been stashing technology and artifacts to sell when he got back to Earth. Lorne's getting him a nice, private holding cell as we speak. What's going on up there?"

"The control systems have been off and on for the last two hours, mostly off. Everything seems to be completely haywire at the moment. That's good news about Teyla and catching the killer though." Her voice relayed the tense atmosphere of the control room very vividly.

"I'm just getting back to the chair room to check on Rodney. We'll see if we can do anything from this end."

"Thanks John. Weir out."

John nodded at the guards standing outside the door to the chair room, dismissing them, and then knocked on the door. "Rodney, it's Sheppard. Everything's okay, so let me in."

A muffled voice came from the other side of the door. "How do I know it's really Sheppard?"

John sighed heavily and rubbed his aching head. "If you don't open the door, I'll open it myself and shoot you."

"Okay, it's you," McKay said as he opened the door. "I heard you found Teyla. She's okay?"

"Yeah, she's got a bump on the head, but Ronon's taking her to Carson. Did you hear what Elizabeth said about the controls?"

Rodney nodded. "Did that guy do any of this?"

"No, this is still from the Wraith device we found. It went deeper in the central control systems than we originally thought. That's what I was working on before Teyla turned up missing. We need to get back to work on that." John headed straight for the chair.

"Wait," said Rodney nervously. "Shouldn't we call for Nick or Carson to come back down here?"

"Yeah, probably," John agreed reluctantly. He tapped his radio. "Carson, it's Sheppard. Rodney and I are going to work on system repairs from the chair again."

"Colonel," Carson said sharply. "Ronon and Teyla have informed me you took a blow to the head. I want you up here immediately."

John bowed his head, annoyed that he had forgotten about that. He lifted it to see Rodney narrowing his eyes accusingly. "Carson, I'm fine. No nausea or dizziness, just a little headache. And everything was fine with chair last time. Just send Nick back down to confirm I'm okay. We have to get controls back online before someone not so friendly comes through the gate or Atlantis shuts down completely."

They waited for his reply, John hoping he'd accurately conveyed the urgency of the situation to the doctor. He almost jumped when the radio finally came to life.

"Nick's on his way. Wait for him." John didn't miss the warning tone in Carson's voice and he had to smile in spite of the situation.

"Understood. Thanks, Doc."

"Colonel . . . be careful."

John smiled again. "I will. Sheppard out." He looked over at Rodney. "Are you ready to go?

Rodney looked down at the open laptop. "Should be, but it wouldn't hurt to check the connections while we wait."

Nick arrived a few minutes later and went straight to checking Sheppard out. John sat quietly and let the doctor carry out the exam, trying to control the growing impatience he felt inside. Nick finally stood up and closed his bag.

"Are we done yet?" John snapped. He immediately regretted the tone of voice he'd used. "Sorry, Doc, I just feel like we need to get on this before something else happens."

Nick grinned at him. "I don't take it personally. I think you're good to go, but the minute this is over, Carson wants you in the infirmary for a more thorough exam."

"I figured," said John dejectedly. "I guess I'll just be happy he let me stay, because we need to work on this. Rodney, are you ready?"

"Anytime you are."

John nodded and sat down in the chair, resulting in it leaning back and activating. He closed his eyes and concentrated on connecting with Atlantis, as he'd done before. He reached out to her and was relieved when he felt her respond. A brief tremor of pain ran through him, causing him to shiver for a moment. Atlantis was still hurting and he had to help her.

"Okay, I'm getting stuff now," said Rodney as he began working on the laptop.

"So, how does this work? What's Colonel Sheppard actually doing?"

Rodney glared at Nick, who was bent over looking over his shoulder. "Do you mind? I have a certain amount of work space I need to work effectively, and it's about twice as much as what you're currently giving me."

Nick grinned sheepishly and stepped back and he straightened. "Sorry, just curious."

"Well, you don't see me hanging over your shoulder while you perform surgery, asking inane questions. I'd appreciate it if you didn't do that to me."

"Right . . . I'll just wait over here . . . out of the way." Nick moved to the other side of Sheppard, where he could keep a close eye on the colonel while keeping a safe distance from McKay.

"Good, I'd appreciate that." McKay worked in silence for a few moments before pausing, almost as if having second thoughts. "Look, it's hard to explain. Some things Sheppard downloads into my computer and I can fix the problem. At the same time as I'm doing that, he's somehow connecting with Atlantis to fix things from the inside. I have no idea how he knows what to do, since this is hardly his area of expertise, but somehow he does. Now, if I could connect to the city like he does, we could fix this thing I half the time because I actually know what I'm doing."

Nick nodded as he watched Sheppard, the only movement being the rise and fall of his chest and an occasional change of expression. "So, basically you're jealous."

"What . . . no . . . I said no such thing. I am in no way jealous of a shallow, flirting, self-sacrificing flyboy. Not now or ever." McKay never lifted his face to look at Nick, but the doctor thought he could see a bit of color creeping up the scientist's neck.

"I can see that," Nick said, smiling to himself. Nick settled back and watched Sheppard for the next thirty minutes. By then, he was getting worried, so he walked over to the colonel and gently took his wrist, feeling for a pulse.

John was so deeply into Atlantis that he was almost unaware of the doctor's check. Without breaking the connection, he slit his eyes enough to see Nick's concerned face. "I'm okay," he whispered before closing his eyes and returning to his task. He knew that he was making progress, but he also knew they still had a lot to do.

Ronon strolled into the room, stopping in the doorway to look around. Rodney glanced quickly over his shoulder and then turned back to his work. "How's Teyla?"

"Fine," rumbled Ronon. "Dr. Beckett said she has a concussion, so she has to stay in the infirmary tonight. She told me to check on you three and make sure you were okay."

"She told you?" asked Rodney, amazement in his voice.

Ronon walked forcefully over to stand directly behind McKay, his arms crossed. "Do you have a problem with that?"

McKay hesitated a split second before resuming his work. "No . . . no problem at all."

"Hey, Dr. McKay," said Nick from across the room. "Have you told Ronon about your work space needs lately, cause he looks awfully close to me."

McKay rolled his eyes as he stopped typing completely and glared at Nick. "You know it's bad enough I have to put up with Colonel Obnoxious most of the time, but now that I finally get him to shut up a minute, you feel the need to take up the slack. Why don't you just sit quietly over there and . . . and . . . and watch the colonel."

Nick grinned and was a bit relieved when Ronon smiled back at him. He watched as Ronon moved up a step closer to McKay until he was almost touching the scientist's back. "So, McKay, am I crowding you?"

McKay threw up his hands. "What is with you people? Is this pick on McKay day or something, because I really didn't see that listed on the calendar. Could you just leave me alone and let me work? This is important. We're trying to get the city back on line."

"Okay," said Ronon easily, turning and walking away from McKay as he glanced quickly at Nick.

"Oh," said Rodney, sitting with his mouth slightly open as he watched Ronon move across the room. He shook his head and turned back to the computer, slowly starting to type again.

For the next hour, Nick alternately sat and paced, periodically checking on John and watching Rodney type on his laptop while muttering to himself. Ever so often, Rodney would ask John something or give him instructions on what should be done next. The few times John spoke, it was short and concise. Nick found himself worrying about the way his words were becoming increasingly slurred.

Almost two hours after John had initiated contact with Atlantis, the chair deactivated. Rodney sighed and leaned back in his chair, hitting his radio button. "Elizabeth, have them try bringing the systems online again. I think we're done."

A few seconds later his radio came to life. "Rodney, systems are already coming on. Good work. Are you both all right?"

Rodney looked over to where John still sat in the chair, rubbing his temple. Nick was wrapping a blood pressure cuff around his arm. "Yeah, we're fine. Nick is just checking the colonel, but he looks okay from here. I'm sure we'll be heading for the infirmary in a minute." He chuckled lightly. "I have it on good authority that Sheppard has an appointment."

"Understood. Good work you two."

"Let me know if you have any problems. There may still be a glitch or two we need to work out. I'll be going to the infirmary to . . . to make sure everyone's okay, you know." Rodney stood and stretched as Ronon came up to stand beside him.

"He okay?" asked Ronon, watching Nick flick the penlight back and forth, checking Sheppard's pupils.

John finally clamped his eyes shut and turned his head. "I'm fine . . . blind, but fine."

Nick put the pen light away. "Let me know before you stand. You're reactions are a bit sluggish and I expect you may need a hand at first. How bad's the headache?"

"I've had worse . . . you just did it to me again, didn't you?" John narrowed his eyes as he looked up at Nick.

"Hey," Nick said as he shrugged his shoulders. "I just have to be creative with some people. You ready to stand?"

"Yeah, let's do it." Nick took John's arm as he started to stand. Once he was vertical, the room immediately tilted to one side and he began swaying. He felt Nick's hands on his right arm and another set of hands on his left, steadying him. When the room settled, John saw Ronon helping the doctor keep him upright. "I'm good," he said, although he wasn't entirely sure that was true.

"I can call for a wheelchair," offered Nick.

John pulled away from the doctor's grip. "Now, why would you do that? Let's go." John began walking toward the door, his legs feeling a bit like Jell-o. The room began to tilt as he reached the doorway, and he bumped into the door facing as he tried to regain his balance. Nick grabbed his arm, steadying him once again.

The spinning in John's head was finally beginning to settle. "Are we there yet?" he asked Nick as the room began to come back into focus.

Nick laughed softly. "We haven't made it out of the room yet."

John looked around and realized Nick was right. "Oh, crap." His head was swimming and his mind felt like mush. "I'm kind of tired." He looked at Ronon. "No wheelchair, okay?"

Ronon looked past Sheppard to Nick. Nick just sighed loudly. "Okay, no wheelchair. You are so stubborn." Nick and Ronon each put one of John's arms around their shoulders.

"Am not," muttered John.

Rodney watched them stagger out into the hall and looked blankly around the room before picking up his laptop and following them. "Don't worry about me, I'll just walk along here behind you." Since no one was looking, he allowed himself a smile. Atlantis was fixed, they were all okay, and a killer had been found. All in all, a good day's work.

TBC