A/N Thank you for the reviews, again! They are wonderful, and terribly exciting.
Ellex and ga unicorn (who has a new story out - Resources, that everyone should go read) found and fixed so many problems with this one! Without them, I swear it would just be gibberish.
So, on with the fun...
Chapter 10
"Great," John said as he gazed at the bulkhead barring their way. "No way through there."
"Well, maybe," Rodney said thoughtfully. He splashed towards a control panel just above the water level. "These bulkheads were designed like fire-doors. They close if the atmosphere decompresses, to protect the inhabited areas. But the control systemscan be disengaged if there's enough power."
He slipped his fingers into the slits on the bottom and top of the panel, and cracked it off. Inside, a set of crystals glowed.
"That's good, then?" John asked.
"Well, it is if we want to go that way. Now let me have a look at this…"
The glow from the crystals meant that John and the life signs detector were not needed to light the area. He wandered the perimeter of the room to occupy himself as Rodney worked. A vertical strip-light ran from roof to floor, but it remained dark.
Otherwise the room was as empty as the corridor they had walked through. The ubiquitous drip of water was louder here.
He returned to peer at the panel again. Rodney had removed a couple of the crystals. They lay in the water, while those remaining glowed brighter.
"Ok, that's as good as it's going to get," Rodney said. He tidied some of the wires absently. "The good news is that there's enough power to get the bulkhead open."
"And the bad news?"
"It means disrupting the power across the deck." He frowned seriously.
"And that's a bad idea because...?" John prompted.
"Well, it's a lot of power, and it needs to go somewhere," Rodney explained in his talking-to-military-personnel-about-science-voice. "If I calibrate the flow manually, then it should be diverted into the circuitry. But you should get our of the way."
"Why?"
"Because if the power can't go into the circuitry it'll have to go somewhere else. Into the room, probably. And if you're not standing at my shoulder, only one of us is in danger."
Automatically, John said, "Then tell me how to do it, and I'll calibrate it."
Rodney frowned. "Do you have time for a degree course in Ancient technology, Colonel? I've got loads of time, but if we want to get out of here sometime within the next four years, I'll do it," he said as he continued to fiddle at the wires. John stayed where he was. "Thanks, anyway. It'll probably be ok."
"Probably?"
Rodney looked up from the control panel. "Definitely. It'll definitely be ok," but he sounded as if he was trying to persuade himself.
"Rodney..."
He snapped angrily, "For god's sake, Sheppard, just get out of the way before I change my mind."
John thought about arguing, and then changed his mind in the face of Rodney's irritation. "So, I'll just go and stand over here." He waded through the water towards the wall. "Only so I'm out of your way, you understand."
"Yes, yes," Rodney mumbled. "Make sure you're up against the wall."
As John tried to lean nonchalantly against the wall, he wondered what odds Rodney would give on this working. He seemed worried.
"What happens if this doesn't work?" John asked.
"It will," Rodney said.
He muttered as he worked. Looking at the tense muscles of his back, John could imagine the quick, intelligent fingers.
The bulkhead slid open an inch, and then stalled. Rodney continued to mutter.
This continued without change for almost a minute. The bulkhead remained motionless. John was about to move back, when Rodney clicked his finger and pointed. "Stay," he warned.
"I'm staying," John answered. Did the man have eyes in the back of his head?
The light from the control panel flickered.
Rodney swore, and if anything, worked faster.
Damn, it, John thought, but he wasn't going to stand back here…
He was about to step down when the power surge came. There was a tremendous smell of ozone, and the air crackled. The console flickered brightly, then went dark.
Rodney had time to swear once more, before the power arced.
Then darkness, and John heard the splash of a body hitting the water.
-
The after-image of the power was burned on John's retinas. He could still see it caught in that final moment. It seemed to take an age for his eyes to adjust to the gloom.
The only light was the faint green glow of the life signs detector from where he had dropped it in the water. It looked like a movie special effect.
John stepped away from the wall, and he was struck by the awful sensation that this had happened before. He remembered it. He would find Rodney and he would be…
There was a still form, lying in the water at the other side of the room.
Dread filled him. It took all of his willpower to take those few steps, to put out his hand out and to turn the body over…
…and instead of the dead body he was expecting, he was rewarded by choking and spluttering.
John sank weakly to his knees.He took a breath that he hadn't realised he was holding as he helped the struggling scientist to sit up in the water. Rodney leaned forward onto his knees and coughed up lungfuls of the clear water.
Johnsupported his shoulder as the coughing rattled his bones.
"What the hell was that?" John muttered. "That was some light show. I mean, real impressive, but I quite liked the little glow from the control panel."
Rodney took a gulp of air to reply, but instead the coughing got worse.
"And as much as I appreciate getting to witness these catastrophic examples of Rodney McKay's fallibility, I really would rather not. I'm not a sit-on-the-sidelines kind of person. I'm better at the action stuff, so you'll have to curb the hero business." He was aware he was babbling, but he let the words continue as he patted the other man's back.
The coughing slowly came under control as Rodney gasped for air.
"And you didn't even manage to get the door open." John gestured at the closed bulkhead. "Not unless we want to try squeezing through an inch-wide opening. I know you've been working out, but I think an inch might be pushing it. It's not that I'm not…"
Rodney manageda word at last: "Try."
Content that Rodney was able to support his own weight now, John stood and gave the bulkhead a shove. It slid open. The scientist looked as smug as someone wet and breathless could manage.
"I knew it Sheppard," he muttered crossly as soon as he had enough breath. "As soon as you said there was water, I knew I was going to end up completely soaked. I just didn't think I was going to have to swallow most of it, too." He spat out another mouthful for good measure.
John smiled to himself. "So, what did you do?" he asked. He knew he wouldn't understand the explanation but for those few moments he had been convinced Rodney was dead. John needed the reassurance of hearing the scientist's voice.
"Well, when we were on the Aurora…" Rodney started in a hoarse whisper, and launched into an intricate description of bypassing this and re-directing that. His voice gradually recovered as he talked.
John let him continue for a minute or so, before interrupting. "So you risked your hide on a half-assed theory based on an hour inside the Aurora computer simulation?"
"Of course not," Rodney said guiltily. "It was nearer forty-five minutes. But," he added hastily, "it worked didn't it?"
"And how sure were you that it would?" John demanded.
"I was sure it was going to open the door."
"And what about blowing up in your face?"
Rodney looked at the smoking control panel. "Fairly likely," he shrugged. "This was one of the better outcomes."
John didn't answer. He wanted to say I thought you were dead, but held back.
"Hey, all I got was a ducking," Rodney said cheerfully. "At least you didn't have to do mouth-to-mouth."
"Perish the thought," John muttered in reply. "Come on."
John helped Rodney up to stand, and led the way through the open bulkhead. They were back to the gloom of the life sign detector's light.
"So, GPS-man, where are we now?"
"There should be a T-junction up ahead," Rodney answered just as the corridor split into two. "The rear entrance to the engine room is that one," he waved to the right. "I'd like to see inside there."
"Focus, McKay. We need to get out."
"I'm aware of that, but didn't you say you wanted to explore earlier?"
"No. I asked if you wanted to, and you said no. Right now, all I want to do is find my Jumper and fly back home and find a dry pair of socks…"
"Have a warm shower…"
"Yes. Which direction?"
"The closest airlock on this level is along there," Rodney indicated the corridor on their left.
"I sense a but."
"But, there are another couple of bulkhead doors like that one."
John said very firmly. "We are not doing that again."
"I have no intention of doing that again," Rodney emphasised, "but the control systems have no power now. So, if they're closed, it's simple mechanics to get them open."
John still didn't like the thought of taking on another bulkhead. He hadn't recovered from the last one yet. "And the alternative?"
"There's an emergency hatch in the back of engine room. It was probably used for lockdown events so that they could still get to the engines via an EVA."
"Any bulkhead doors that way?"
Rodney concentrated on his hands and whispered a reply. "No, but it's a dark tunnel, about two hundred meters long and only a meter wide. That's a long, dark, narrow place."
He didn't say anymore. John felt, rather than saw him shudder. Rodney was terrified at the prospect of that tunnel.
"Ok, we'll try left."
Rodney nodded. Even in the gloom it was impossible to mistake the look of relief on his face.
They walked in silence through the dark passageways. John kept an eye on the walls for some sense of what had occurred on this ship, but except for the lack of light and the water they were walking through, there was no indication of calamity. The walls were smooth, and there was no sign of damage.
Rodney turned into a new corridor.
John resisted the urge for the moment to ask Are we there yet? Instead he commented, "Their guns handled beautifully."
"I'm sure the Genii agree."
"When did they come into it?"
Rodney shrugged, "Who else do you think buys their stuff? They only have one ship left, but I bet they still manage to supply all the petty tyrants of the Pegasus galaxy. And now they have the Jumper..."
"Not for long, if I have anything to do with it," John said darkly.
They stopped at the next bulkhead. Without saying anything more, Rodney opened the control panel. The crystals remained dark this time, so John brought the life signs detector closer.
Rodney whistled tunelessly under his breath.
John inspected the innards of wires and crystals over Rodney's shoulder. He seemed to pull a couple at random. Nothing happened, but he stood, nodding.
"Ok," he said.
"And?"
"Try it." Rodney waved at the bulkhead.
Gingerly, John reached out gave it a gentle push. Wheels and mechanism grated together and the door slid on its runners.
"I disrupted the power on the entire deck," Rodney sounded pleased with himself.
John looked around as a thought suddenly occurred to him. "Can the Traders tell what we've done?"
"Probably," Rodney answered quietly.
"So they know we're trying to escape."
"And they're letting us," Rodney said. He rubbed his chest absently, as though the coughing had hurt his ribs.