Elizabeth was trying to read, but she couldn't focus. She had been reading the same page for over half an hour without actually taking in its content. Frustrated, she put her book down. Carson had left strict instructions for the medical staff that she was to rest. She had managed to talk Dr. Woods into letting Grodin give her an update, for good reason as she had found out.
The prospect that John might be alive after all did little to reassure her. Seeing her people yet again gone on a rescue mission into the unknown reminded her off sending off the team after Sheppard and the others a week ago. You didn't leave your people behind. John had told her that soon after they had arrived in the City and Sumner had been lost. She had given in to him and had sent a team to retrieve the military leader. The price had been steeper than they had been able to imagine and Sumner had still died. Sheppard had woken the Wraith and they had learned about their home galaxy and the six billion lives on Earth.
The moment the Stargate had been opened, Earth had become vulnerable to enemies more terrible than anything that had ever been seen before. Elizabeth had never doubted that the government had been right in taking to risk and exploring other planets. They had gone to the Pegasus galaxy in the hopes of finding answers to question back in their home galaxy. Instead they had only found a new enemy, a new threat to Earth. But opening the Stargate had opened a can of worms that they couldn't close again just because they wanted to. They were out there now.
Elizabeth only noticed Kate when she sat down in the chair next to her bed. Elizabeth looked at the psychologist, but said nothing. She didn't feel like talking.
"Carson thought you might want to talk." Kate said softly. "We haven't talked in while."
"It's been busy." Elizabeth said lamely.
"Have your nightmares come back?" Kate referred to the dreams that had started soon after the storm.
Elizabeth shook her head. "I don't have time to sleep."
Kate let her answer pass without comment. "How are you handling what happened to Dr. Zelenka, Major Sheppard or Teyla?"
Elizabeth hesitated. "It's been difficult. Radek...no one should have to go through that."
"Is the science team any closer to find a way to help him? Kate asked.
"Rodney has a few ideas, but he..." Elizabeth trailed off. She looked up at Kate.
"We should never have come here. Everyone is out to kill us. The Wraith, the Genii, those pirates and now something might have affected the major and Rodney. We are not ready to be out here. I can't protect us."
"You are not alone, Elizabeth." Kate reminded her.
"Sheppard's probably dead, Teyla's blind, Radek's gone and Rodney's suicidal. It's falling apart. We are falling apart."
oOo
Rodney checked the crystals one last time before tapping his radio.
"Carson, Markham. I have it set up now. There is a small chance that this will trigger a chain overload, so you better move away from any doors or computer panels."
"What about you?" Carson's voice came over the radio.
"I won't trigger an overload. Get ready."
"We are." Markham replied.
"All right, here we go." Rodney said. He switches his radio to VOX before he activate to power array. Then he stepped back and thought 'on',
oOo
Markham and Carson had stepped back into the corridor after Rodney's warning,
They heard a faint click over the radio and Carson already felt a wave of relief when suddenly a deafening explosion mixed with a mangled scream made his ears ring.
"Rodney! Rodney! What's going! Rodney!" Carson yelled, but received only static.
"His radio could have been damaged." Markham remarked hopefully.
Carson fervently hoped this was the case, but he knew better. In this moment, the compound came to life. The lights came on to full power and inside the lab, displays sprung to life and consoles powered up. Carson stepped up to the door and pressed the opening panel. This time, there was a soft noise and the door opened.
"Take care of the major." Markham ordered. "I'll go for McKay."
"That's crazy. You can't walk that far."
"We don't have a choice." Markham protested. "We don't know what happened. McKay could be badly injured."
"All right. Let me at least tape up your foot before you leave." Carson insisted and already started rummaging in his bag.
Markham silently gave in and let the doctor work. Five minutes later, he was ready to leave for the central control room.
"Check in every half-hour." He instructed Carson. "Take good care of the major." With that he disappeared in the corridor.
Carson stepped into the medical lab. It vaguely resembled the labs that they had seen on Atlantis, but the similarities were mostly in the design of the technology. As he examined the consoles in the centre, he found the displays to be written in Ancient but the text was littered with awkward constructions and unfamiliar words. Carson frowned. He didn't understand Ancient as well as Elizabeth or some of the linguists who had specialised in the language, but even before he had come to Atlantis he had started to study the language and had a fairly good grasp of it. But right now he was stumped and wished for one of the linguists to help him make sense of this mess.
Carson left the control consoles for the moment and went over to John. John lay on a bed, unmoving except for the slow, minute movement of his chest. Carson reached to check John's pulse, but a few inches from John's body, his hand slammed into something solid. For a moment, the invisible object he'd touched glowed blue, then faded again. Carson tried a second time, but there was no mistake about it, John was behind some sort of force flied.
There was a control panel behind the bed. Carson went over to take a closer look at it. This was a display he was familiar with - it showed John's vitals. For a moment, Carson was puzzled. John should be dead if the readings were correct. His temperature was hovering a few degrees above freezing, impossible for human life. His pulse was at less than ten beats for second and with less than five breath per minutes, it should be impossible to sustain life. Except if John was in stasis. The force field could be an alternate form of a stasis chamber.
The question was just how? Inducing stasis wasn't easy and there were considerable risks. It took the proper cocktail of drugs, perfect timing and experience or luck to lower to temperature at just the rate right.
Carson studied the panel. He should be able to revive John if he understood everything right. It seemed that there was an automatic program for the process. Carson hesitated. Who had put John into stasis and why?
Carson went back to the centre console. When he tried to bring up a map of the room, there was a whooshing noise behind him. Carson whirled around and came face to face with a woman. She wore a simple white dress and had long dark red hair. Only after a few seconds, Carson realised that she was a projection.
"We welcome you to Gaylen. We made this recording for our descendants. We preserved Gaylen to on day pass it on to you. This day has come now." The projection paused.
"You are now in the Medical Research Lab 1. There are nine Medical Research Labs in Gaylen. Lab 1 is a neurological research lab, Lab 2 is a viral and bacterial research lab, Lab 3 is diagnostic research lab, Labs 4 and 5 are pharmaceutical research labs, Lab 6 is a nano technology lab, Lab 7 is dedicated to the damaged caused by the Wraith, Lab 8 is a surgical research and Lab 9 is for Ascension research. Gaylen has a medical centre located on Level 4."
A three-dimensional plan of the installation appeared in the air. It was huge. As soon as it had appeared it vanished again.
"At the first station to the left of the door, one of our researchers was exploring the telepathic potential of several native races, including the Athosians and the Idkan. He developed a devised that measures telepathic ability and..."
Carson shut off the projection. They could listen to all this when they had time. Obviously there was valuable information that they could use on Atlantis, but someone else could look into it.
His job was to take care of John. They couldn't move him in stasis. Were he in a pod, they would be able to take him to Atlantis, but this force field made transport impossible. Carson initialized the revival process.
oOo
Markham could smell that something had blown up or burned a few corners away from the central control room. He stepped up his pace, ignoring the pain in his foot. He had made good time so far, he had been even faster than they had been on their first trip. Only two hours and ten minutes and he was almost at the control room. Markham ran the last meters, grinding his teeth against the pain.
A cloud of smoke enveloped the computer consoles and Markham could hear the crackling of flames as he run closer. Pieces of debris were strews in a wide radius on the floor. Rounding the console, Markham finally found Rodney. The scientist had had the presence of mind to activate the systems from the other side of the console, protecting him from the worst of the explosion.
Still, Rodney was sprawled in the ground, bleeding from a gash on the side of his head. His face and upper body was littered with small cuts and burns. The burns had blistered and Markham thought he'd heard that burns weren't too deep if they blistered.
Markham felt for a pulse and tapped his radio.
"Dr. Beckett. I've found him. It looks like whatever he put together blow up and knocked him out. He's bleeding and looks burnt."
"Can you describe his injuries for me?" Carson asked over the radio.
"Yeah. He's bleeding from the side of his head. Looks pretty serious."
"Head wounds tend to bleed a lot. Check his pupils, can you tell me if they are the same size?"
There was some indistinct noise then Markham was back. "Yeah, they look the same."
"Good, his head injury isn't too serious. It probably looks worse than it is. Now what about his other injuries?"
"He's got lots of cuts and what looks like burns all over his face. In some of them, there is what looks like tiny piece of shrapnel. "
"What about the area around his eyes? Any blood, swelling, debris or blisters there?" Carson asked.
"Everything's starting to swell up, Doc. But yeah, there are blisters and some strange silver flecks stuck in him." Markham replied in his best soldier voice.
There was a pause before Beckett replied.
"There is a chance that he might have gotten something into his eyes when that bloody thing of his blew up. You'll need to rinse out his eyes. Hopefully it's not too late for that."
"Just tell me what to do." Markham replied firmly.
"You have your canteen? It's not ideal, but it's all we have. Carefully roll him on his side, but look out for his head. Hold open his eye open and rinse it with water. Then turn him on the other side and repeat with his other eye."
"Understood." Markham replied crisply. Carson heard shifting noises and the sound of water being poured. When Markham was done, Carson proceeded with his instructions.
"Rodney might still have something in his eyes that we can't get out now. Take some gauze pads and then bandaged his eyes shut. Rodney's not going to like that, but it's for his own good."
"Can I take his head wound in the same go?"
"That's okay; just don't make it too tight." Carson instructed.
Markham had just finished wrapping Rodney's head when the scientists emitted a low groan.
"Dr. McKay? Dr. McKay?" Markham asked, trying to get the man's attention, but Rodney only shifted restlessly on the floor and continued groaning. When he raised a hand to manipulate the bandage over his eyes, Markham caught him.
"Lemme...can't...see." Rodney muttered and started struggling against the sergeant's grip.
"Dr. McKay, clam down. You have been injured, lie still."
"Blind, I can't be blind." Rodney whimpered, but his body stilled.
"Dr. Beckett doesn't think you are blind, it's just a precaution." Markham explained.
"Where's Carson?" Rodney asked sounding strained.
"He's with Major Sheppard. Whatever you did powered up the systems like you said." Markham explained.
"I have to take a look at the central computer console; there could be a YPM here." Rodney worked to sit up with Markham's help.
"Are you sure that is such a good idea?"
"Do you want to get out of here or not?" Rodney snapped. "Help me up."
Markham reluctantly complied and hoisted Rodney to his feet. "It's over there." He led the man over the console. While the power array had exploded and its remains were still smouldering, the Ancient technology was unmarred.
Rodney shuffled forwards in tentative steps, walking into the console. He forced himself to calm down. Not being able to see what was going on made him nervous.
"Are you all right, Dr. McKay?" Markham asked.
"No, I'm not all right!" Rodney returned angrily and concentrated on what was in front of him. The smooth surface felt warm and alive. He thought about the compound, about the corridors and the rooms and a structure started forming in front of his mental eye.
Sixteen levels. Labs, crew quarters, some sort of launching bay on the lowest level, the power core on level 8 and another hall, probably some sort of control centre on level two. The image faded from Rodney's mind. His whole body hurt. He desperately wanted to lie down, but he had to find a way to get them back to Atlantis. He went back to the Ancient computer. The technology wasn't the same as in Atlantis, but this place was responding to his mind and while the language seemed almost like broken Ancient, the images spoke clearly. He laid his hands on the surface and focussed again.
oOo
John's temperature and blood pressure were starting to approach the normal range again, his pulse and respirations had picked up as well.
With a beep, the revival cycle finished and the force field around John glowed blue and then vanished. Carson immediately reached to feel John's pulse. He could only confirm what the computer had already told him, John should be waking any moment.
In the same moment, John started to stir. A few seconds later, his eyelids fluttered.
"Major Sheppard, can you hear me? If you can hear me, just squeeze my hand." Carson had taken John's hand in his. First, nothing happened then the other man's fingers tightened around his.
"Good. You have been injured on a mission, major." Carson was not sure what John could remember. The last time he had regained consciousness, he had seemed to have no memory of the mission. Instead he'd been confused and delusional.
"Doc..." John managed
"Don't talk yet. Just squeeze my hand if you are in pain."
Again, John squeezed Carson's hand.
"All right, I'll give you something for that in a moment." Carson prepared in injection, keeping it on the light side. There was no way of knowing when they needed to move and John would need to be as lucid as possible.
"Rest." Carson ordered as he gave John the injection.
Seconds later, John drifted off into unconsciousness again.
Carson leaned back on the bed next to John's. John had been responsive and had seemed lucid enough. The pain was to be expected with a head injury this severe. Even under ideal circumstance, intense headaches could continue for weeks.
He tapped his radio, time to check on his second patient.
"Markham. How's Rodney doing?"
"He's awake and insists on working." Markham replied. "But he's not looking too good. I think he's going to keel over any moment."
There was some muffled noise and then Rodney's voice came over the radio, he sounded breathless.
"I'm not going to keel over, Carson. But I trust that you get this fixed?"
Carson knew what Rodney meant.
"I'll do my best, Rodney."
"I think I have found a way we can get out of here. There is Stargate in this place. Really, what would the Ancients do without one?" Rodney babbled.
"Can we use it to get back to Atlantis?" Carson interrupted.
"Yes. As long as there are no power fluctuations, it will work." Rodney said.
Carson didn't want to know about any power fluctuations. He trusted Rodney to find their way home.
"How far is it to the Gate?" Carson asked, thinking of the unconscious Sheppard.
"I can't really tell, but it's all the way down on the second level, we are on level ten now. There are transporters a few hundred meters down the corridor left of you."
"I'll find them. I'll contact you from there."
Carson was just about to deactivate his radio when he heard Rodney's voice again.
"How's John doing?" Rodney sounded uncertain.
"He was awake earlier, but he was in a lot of pain. It's to be expected, Rodney." Carson said, not wanting Rodney to worry now that he was injured himself and the only one who could get them back to Atlantis.
TBC