Sheppard placed the Ancient radio into an empty pocket. The light had gone off, so he couldn't even use it as a flashlight.
He wanted to investigate the collection of Ancient technology, but he paused to appraise Rodney one more time. The scientist was dozing again, his head propped on his forearms. His breathing was quieter, and slower now that the excitement had passed.
Reassured that Rodney was resting quietly, Sheppard turned toward the equipment. There a couple dozen items scattered haphazardly amongst the consoles. He prayed for a missile launcher.
No such luck. None of the pieces were familiar, but he assumed they were simple scanners and communications equipment. He tried each one, hoping for a response to the ATA gene, but they all remained dark. There was nothing similar to the radio, and certainly nothing that looked like a weapon.
He sighed. It seemed safe to assume the Ancients didn't normally store their weapons or flashlights in piles of junk in communication rooms. Without Rodney to guide him, John collected the most likely looking objects and stuffed them into his pockets. If all else failed he could throw them.
He didn't want to wake McKay. Dozing quietly this way, one could almost assume that there was nothing wrong with him.
"Rodney," he whispered, then louder. "Rodney."
There was no reply.
"McKay!" John reached out and shook the scientist's shoulder.
Rodney started awake and stared out of feverish eyes. At least this time the coughing did not start up again.
"Carson?"
John tried to smile lightly. "He's on a different continent, but promises he's on his way."
Rodney nodded once. "A Jumper?"
"He's flying it, would you believe?"
Rodney pulled himself along the tabletop with assistance, but jerked his feet back as they touched the water. "Wet."
"It's one of this place's many attractions."
The scientist cringed, and shivered. "Don't like it wet."
"No, me neither. We should get out of here."
Rodney's first couple of steps were cautious, as though he was just teaching his legs to walk. The shivering didn't help; it was constant now and shook his entire body.
Together, with John's hand tucked under his elbow, they made their way out of the little refuge. The green glow of the life signs detector lit their way.
At the doorway, John glanced longingly towards the right and the airlock they had been heading towards. It was only another five minutes down the corridor, but a tumble of rocks and soil blocked the exit. He hadn't been surprised. This ship was, after all, buried beneath a hill.
So there was only one choice left. He and Rodney would have to attempt the EVA tunnel. That was a part of the plan he had been careful not to share with Carson. The doctor was worried enough without knowing that they were going to have to climb a 200 meter tunnel when Rodney was barely managing to walk.
Sheppard expected an argument when he turned left towards the engine room. But Rodney didn't comment. He gazed blankly into the water, and had surrendered himself to John's directions.
They stumbled along in silence.
The place seemed to have closed in about them, but Sheppard knew it was just his imagination. The corridors looked the same; the walls remained blank, but it was the water that unsettled him. He would have found it easier to accept the danger if it had been filthy, or floating with scum, but instead it looked like clear tap water. Added to that was the danger from the Traders above. It was enough to put John's teeth on edge.
It was obvious now just how far they had walked through the ship earlier. John wondered if they had in fact walked the entire distance of the hill underground. It would have felt like an achievement if they weren't now retracing their steps.
At last the silence got to be too much. John began filling in the Rodney McKay commentary himself. Although if anyone asked, he would deny doing any such thing.
"I know we've been this way already, but the other airlock was buried, so I guess we're stuck with the EVA tunnel," John said. "Maybe we'll get to see a little bit of how this place was meant to look before it became a giant plague-ridden reservoir."
Rodney didn't respond, but continued with the onerous task of placing one foot in front of the other.
"And once we get out of here, I'm looking forward to coming back with one of those Genii nukes and blowing these Traders to smithereens. After a warm shower and a dry pair of socks."
Rodney might have nodded, it was difficult to tell.
-
Sheppard was talking, but the words made no sense to Rodney. The damned man was gibbering. At least when Rodney had something to say he said it in proper words and not the incomprehensible monologue that John was spouting at the moment.
And why couldn't they get the lights turned on in here? The system wasn't a tricky one. Even Kavanaugh could manage to…
Except, some part of Rodney's mind reminded him, he wasn't on Atlantis. He wasn't entirely sure where he was. But Sheppard was there, which was good. Otherwise who knew what kind of trouble he could get into on his own?
-
John had stopped paying attention to what he was actually saying. He said whatever came into his mind. He touched on diverse subjects including childhood summers sailing paper boats, to the prospect of surfing on one of those perfect little beaches the Atlantis team had found a few miles from the Athosian settlements.
He was aware of a common thread in his topics. Everything seemed to be about water.
They continued walking and John continued to talk. He sensed that some part of Rodney was listening and maybe even using the words as an anchor.
They had gone as far back as the second bulkhead when Rodney's knees buckled and they ended up face down in the water. John recovered first, and pulled himself up to his hands and knees. He spat to clear his mouth and throat of water as he helped Rodney to sit up.
Sheppard's heart sank lower when Rodney started coughing again. He took up the position that had become terribly familiar these past hours, a hand on the scientist's shoulder, offering support through the wrenching spasms.
This time they didn't last half as long as it had in the communication room.
The cough settled, and Rodney wiped his hand across his mouth. There was blood there. He stared at Sheppard with fever bright eyes.
"Sick," he said.
John pulled himself around so that he faced the scientist. He had expected terror, but saw only resignation and exhaustion. "Looks like it."
"Same as the village?"
"Carson thinks so."
"Yeah." Rodney nodded tiredly, and gazed off into the distance. "Told you. I catch colds like that."
It was frightening to have a conversation like this with Rodney. The sentences were bare and short. He hadn't said twenty words since they had left the communication room. To Sheppard, this was reason to worry; panicking Rodney was bad enough, silent Rodney was worse.
"Come, on. Let's go home."
John hauled McKay to his feet again, where he wavered and had to balance himself with a hand on the wall. He was a shivering wreck, without the strength to look up.
John pulled Rodney's arm over his shoulder, and half carried the man further down the corridor.
They made slow progress through the darkness. John continued to talk about whatever entered his mind, partly to keep his own mind awake, as well as to stop himself thinking about what else could go wrong.
When they reached the T-junction that led to the engine room, John paused for a moment to catch his own breath, but didn't dare relinquish his supporting position.
Rodney was awake, and still managing to stumble along, but the sudden stop was too much for his compromised equilibrium. John didn't have the energy to resist as the scientist slipped forward onto his knees again.
They needed a break. Actually, John reconsidered, he needed a break; Rodney needed a bed in the infirmary for a week, and some of Carson's medicine. Sheppard gave himself two minutes to recover his energy, and then pulled Rodney, who swayed alarmingly, up again.
"Not long now," Sheppard said as he resumed his previous position at Rodney's side. He kept the life signs detector out in front to illuminate what it could of the darkness.
The entrance to the engine room was not far down the right hand branch of the T-junction.
He remembered from the Aurora that the engine room was immense, bigger than the research area the Traders had shown them. But in the poor light, he could only gain a vague sense of its dimensions. There was equipment scattered here and there, and groups of consoles around structures that reached to the roof.
If Rodney had been well, no amount of water could have stilled his excitement over this room.
"Rodney," John said hoarsely, his throat felt sore after the exertion.
McKay mumbled something unintelligible.
"Hey, look, an engine room. Full of Ancient toys."
Sheppard smiled as Rodney actually cracked his eyes open and managed to lift his head. "'s dark," he croaked.
"Yeah, been dark here a long time."
"Not there."
John looked at what McKay was staring at and agreed that that corner of the room was brighter.
He had worried about how he would find the EVA tunnel in this enormous room, and instead he found it advertising itself by letting in light from the outside world.
He picked out a route through the abandoned equipment towards a set of consoles. It wasn't the consoles he was interested in, but the high-backed chairs in front of them. He needed a seat.
He deposited Rodney in the nearest chair and sat himself down as well, taking a moment to catch his breath. He fished the radio out of his pocket. It remained dark, but he raised it hopefully to his ear.
"Sheppard to Teyla," he said.
He wasn't surprised that it remained quiet, given his luck today. Despite the disappointment, he tucked it back in his pocket where it clinked with the other items of his stash.
"Interference," Rodney whispered with his eyes closed and head resting against the back of the chair. Even in the dim light, it was obvious that his pallor had gone past pale into grey. The shivering had stopped, and the coughing had not recurred since the bulkhead. John did not find either fact as reassuring as it might have been. He knew vaguely that both symptoms were part of the body's defenses, and their absence could mean things were improving, or getting worse.
Suddenly, Rodney opened his eyes urgently. He glared at John, and his eyes were full of typical irritation.
"Tunnel," he managed to say.
"It's the only way. There's light down there."
"No." McKay said, and then gathered another breath. "Can't"
John shook his head. He guessed where this was going, but he chose to misunderstand. "I know it's dark and narrow, but it's got to be better than in here."
If it were possible, Rodney looked angrier. "You. Go," he managed.
"Sorry McKay, because I've got my own issues with cramped tunnels, and I'm sure as hell not going to leave you down here…"
Gently, the scientist's eyes dropped shut.
"Rodney," John said, and shook a shoulder roughly. "Rodney. Stay with me."
Without opening his eyes, Rodney whispered, "You. Go," one more time.
There could be no more waiting. John sensed he was running out of time.
He ignored his own protesting muscles as he pulled an unresisting Rodney up to a standing position
"Come on, let's go meet the flying Scotsman. Provided he's managed to get the Jumper in the air."
Sheppard didn't have to support all Rodney's weight. Somehow, despite being semi-conscious, Rodney managed to follow John's lead.
Half-carrying his burden, John walked towards the light. He fitted the life-signs detector safely away in his pocket so he could use both hands as support.
They managed a few stumbling steps this way before John started coughing. He almost let go of Rodney in shock, but somehow managed to ease him down gently. The water seemed to rouse the scientist slightly, or maybe it was the sound of someone else trying to cough up their lungs that had him looking terrified.
The coughing fit didn't last long. John gathered up Rodney and they carried on. Sheppard pushed his difficulty breathing to the back of his mind; he had other things to worry about now.
The engine felt impossibly long, but he knew it couldn't have been more than about 300 meters. Each step was a trial, and he knew that compared to the tunnel, this was going to be the easy part. He shivered involuntarily.
Oh, god, they were in serious trouble.
-
Rodney kept putting one foot in front of the other, and again, and again, and again.
The darkness pulled in closer. Breathing wasn't important, he wasn't afraid for himself anymore.
But he didn't want to leave Sheppard on his own, so he kept struggling against the darkness, until he couldn't fight anymore.
-
There was no warning. One moment Rodney was at least keeping some semblance of remaining upright, the next he was a dead weight. It was enough to send John stumbling into the water again.
John wanted to yell. God damn it, this was getting repetitive. He was really pissed off now. All they had wanted was to discuss trading opportunities.
He growled, and with a burst of energy generated from anger, he pulled Rodney up into a fireman's carry and continued walking.
At the base of the EVA tunnel, John placed his unconscious burden on a raised platform. He checked Rodney's pulse; it was too fast and weak, and the breathing too shallow.
John looked up to the next obstacle, a two hundred meter long tunnel. With daylight at the end. There was a ladder flush against the wall.
It would be tricky enough alone, but he could not leave Rodney again.
Sheppard tied the rope as security around both of their waists, and hoisted Rodney back onto his shoulder.
Once he had recovered his balance and distributed the weight evenly (and, hell, but Rodney was heavy), he looked around the engine room one last time.
"You are going to be sorry you slept through this, McKay," John said, and turned towards the EVA tunnel.