Elizabeth stood behind Zelenka trying to hide her impatience. He was running various diagnostics on the Stargate. He would mutter to himself every so often in Czech and then try something else. But nothing seemed to be working.
Eventually he turned to Elizabeth. "I can find nothing wrong," he admitted, sounding defeated.
"But there must be something," Elizabeth said more sharply than she meant to.
"I can find nothing at our end," Radek reiterated. "The problem must be at their end." He looked at her with a slightly baleful expression on his face.
Elizabeth nodded, putting a hand on his shoulder in apology for her earlier sharpness.
Before they could continue their conversation, a voice cut through their thoughts.
"Off world activation!"
Elizabeth whirled round. "It's Colonel Sheppard's IDC," the 'Gate technician answered Elizabeth's question before she could ask it.
John was first through the Stargate, supporting one of Lorne's team. Lorne, himself, was leaning heavily on Ronon, and Teyla was helping a third member of the team. Only one of the returning team was able to walk through the Stargate unaided.
Elizabeth rushed down to meet them. "What happened?" she asked Lorne.
"We were ambushed," he said, through gritted teeth. "When we arrived, there was no indication that there was anyone else on the planet. The Lifesigsn Indicator didn't show anyone. But suddenly, out of nowhere, we were under fire."
The medical staff appeared out of nowhere. They started to treat the injuries of the team, and to take them to the Infirmary.
Now relieved of their burden, John's team gathered round Elizabeth.
"Where are Rodney and Carson?" John asked. "Is he still screaming like a girl?"
"We haven't been able to get to them," Elizabeth admitted.
John's expression turned from a smile to a frown in a heartbeat. "What do you mean? Is there some sort of obstruction on the planet?"
"No," Elizabeth replied. "We can't even get to the planet. We can't dial the 'Gate."
"And there's no way we can get there by Puddle Jumper," John said, his frown deepening. "It's far too far away, even the Daedalus would take a week to get there."
"And there not due here for another week," Ronon pointed out.
"We cannot just leave them there," Teyla said, her concern showing on her face.
"I want suggestions," Elizabeth said. "I need options. In the meantime, Radek, continue working on the Stargate!"
The Czech scientist muttered something, and continued to work on the computer he was carrying.
"There must be something we can do," John said to Ronon and Teyla.
"McKay's usually the one with the ideas," Ronon pointed out.
"Then we need to think like McKay to get both Carson and Rodney out of there,"
"Do we have to?" Ronon asked, a look of mock horror on his face.
OoOoO
"Carson," Rodney said again, trying to pull himself closer to his friend. He managed to reach his shoulder, and gave it a shake.
Carson's eyes flew open, looking very blue against his pale skin. A look of sheer panic was in his eyes. He jumped to his feet, and looked around, running on pure adrenaline.
"Where's that bloody goat?" he asked.
"Up there," Rodney replied.
Carson looked up, and suddenly wished he hadn't. Everything started to spin, as the effects of the bite and his fall started to kick in. He reached out and steadied himself against the cliff, and then slowly sank to the ground.
"This is not good," he said to Rodney.
"You're telling me it's not good," Rodney replied, his voice getting higher in his concern. "First I fa . . . slide down the cliff, and when you come to rescue me, you end up getting bitten by the goat from hell, and then do a nosedive off the cliff. You weren't very graceful, I might add."
"I try to remember that the next time I'm attacked by a goat with teeth like razors," Carson replied ironically.
"Well, what are we going to do about it now?" Rodney asked, his voice still sharp.
"We'll take it one step at a time," Carson said, gritting his teeth against the nausea he was feeling. "First I want to clean the wound I've got so it doesn't get infected."
"That's right, think of yourself, when here I am in great pain, a sitting duck to any marauding beasts, and all you can suggest is sorting your wound."
"Rodney," Carson said, in his best "soothing Rodney" voice. "I'm not going to be much use helping you if I end up with a fever because this bite gets infected, now am I?"
"I suppose not," Rodney conceded.
If the truth be told, he was worried. When Carson had fallen down the cliff, his heart had all but stopped with fear. Fear for his friend, fear for where that would leave him. He had hidden his relief that Carson wasn't seriously hurt behind sharp words and his usual manner, but his eyes betrayed him.
Carson knew him well enough to have seen that fear, and so had not taken offence at his words. He was frightened too. Although he was hiding it from Rodney, he had not come out of his fall without injury. He was certain that a couple of his ribs were broken, and he had taken a nasty blow to his head that made standing up a bad idea at present. In addition, the bite to his arm was a nasty one, and there was no telling what bacteria lurked in the gaping mouth of that beast.
As if drawn by his thoughts, the goat-like creature looked over the edge of the cliff.
"Shoo," Rodney said, trying to scare it away.
"Shoo?" Carson said, trying not to laugh. "You think that is going to get rid of that beast."
"It seems to be working," Rodney said, a note of smug satisfaction in his voice.
Carson glanced up and noticed that, indeed, the goat-like creature had moved away, and from the sounds they could hear, seemed to be running away from them.
"I never realised you were quite so ferocious, Rodney," Carson said, a laugh in his voice.
"How do you think I get the science teams to do what I tell them?" Rodney replied.
"Now, will you help me with my arm?" Carson said, rummaging through his medical supplies. "Don't worry," he added quickly, as Rodney started to turn a pale shade of green. "I won't ask you to do any of the yucky bits."
"'Yucky' is that a medical term?" Rodney asked.
"Yes," Carson replied smoothly. "It's in the Beckett Dictionary of Well-Kent Medical Expressions."
Carson managed to clean out the wound on his arm, without too much help from Rodney. The problem was the reaching over to get the supplies and then applying them to his arm was causing a sharp pain in his side each time he moved. He tried to hide this from Rodney as he knew his friend's paranoia would kick in big time if he knew Carson was more injured than he was letting on.
By the time the wound was clean, Carson was sweating from the exertion and the pain his actions had caused him.
"Carson," Rodney said sharply. "Are you okay? You look rather pale."
"I'm fine, Rodney," he replied quickly. "Now could you hold the end of the bandage, so that I can wrap it round my arm?" he added, quickly changing the subject.
Soon Carson's arm was tightly bandaged. And he had swallowed a couple of painkillers too. His head still felt as if it was somewhere half way down the cliff, but a least the nausea seemed to have subsided.
"Now what do we do?" Rodney asked, shifting slightly like an impatient child.
"We wait," Carson said. "I don't think either of us is in any fit state to climb that cliff, and unless there is another way out of here, I think we need to wait until we're rescued."
"But when will that be?" Rodney asked, petulance entering his voice. "The promise of half-an-hour is long since passed. Do you think something terrible has happened on Atlantis?"
"That's what I like about you, Rodney," Carson replied. "You always look on the bright side of things."
"Why else would they leave us here?" Rodney continued. "They need us, well, me at any rate. They wouldn't just leave us here for no reason."
"I'm sure they've got a very good reason," Carson countered.
"Name one!" Rodney challenged.
"Problems with the 'Gate, crisis off world, nobody available to come here, bad weather conditions endangering Atlantis. There are plenty of perfectly good reasons for the delay."
"And all perfectly good reasons why I should be there, and not stuck here," Rodney said.
"Well, then, the problem can't be too serious, or they'd be here to get you so that you could solve the problem," Carson turned Rodney's argument on its head.
"That's true," Rodney said smugly, not noticing the fact that Carson's tongue had been firmly in his check as he spoke.
Carson hide his smile, and crawled over to Rodney to check his splint. Just as he reached him, the scientist tensed up.
"Did you hear that?" he asked Carson.
"What?" the doctor replied.
"That . . ." Rodney answered, a note of fear in his voice.
