Part 4: Pressure

"Isn't that what we brought the geologists for?" Sheppard inserts into the heavy silence that follows the very exciting and utterly horrifying scientific breakthrough. "To predict the earthquakes?"

"Predicting is all well and good, but it's not an exact science," Rodney snaps. "At most, you'll have a few seconds' warning before the next quake hits, not nearly enough time to get everybody clear. You need to--"

"That argument's already over, McKay." Sheppard's voice is flat and cold as steel. "We're clearing out some of the non-essential personnel, but we are not giving up. So get back to the problem at hand: why is the converter overloading now? Did it just think, 'Oh, look -- people. Now would be a good time to blow up,' or what?"

Rodney takes a deep breath of frustration, which triggers more coughing deep in his chest. If his ribs aren't already broken, and the level of pain suggests any other belief is wishful thinking, they will be shortly. "Exactly, Colonel," he confirms when he gets his breath back and the pain subsides to something relatively bearable, "although I don't tend to assign quite that much sentient thought capability to, you know, machines. But, simply put, the converter has been sitting more or less idle for 10,000 years. Then, suddenly, we arrive--"

"--and everything came to life," Teyla says slowly and Rodney looks down at her in mild surprise, having almost forgotten she was there. Which, since he's still jammed into a small enclosed space with her, is a neat trick. "So the generator... the converter was forced to begin working again, as on Atlantis when you first arrived."

"Yes, yes," Radek agrees, "but unlike Atlantis, this facility is not protected by shield and water. Circuits are weakened and corroded -- the lights come on, but the converter is not able to handle the sudden surge of power."

"Especially after that first big quake hit, I get it." Sheppard is starting to sound as unhappy as everyone else; he's even farther behind the curve than usual, but catching up fast. "Okay, so now we know what it does. How do we stop it from doing it?"

"I'm working on it!" Rodney can't snap his fingers while he's holding the radio, can't move around at all, really, and he never realized before how much motion contributed to thought. "Radek, what does the GPR say?"

"Radar reads penetration to almost 5 kilometres below the surface," Radek reports. "We cannot dig under it, and the shockwave from blowing it out is likely to create a much bigger problem than it solves."

So much for that idea; Cadman will be so disappointed at not getting to rain destruction down on them. "Any luck getting the back panel open?"

"Working on it," Simpson grunts, then curses under her breath in something that sounds suspiciously like Goa'uld. If she's got enough spare time to hang out with the linguists, then obviously Rodney is still not giving her enough work to do. "Almost... damn it... Yes!"

"You've got it?" Rodney demands.

"It's open!" Simpson confirms triumphantly. "Okay, crystals... all in one piece, nothing cracked. Conduits all active, nothing torn... Dr. Zelenka, what's this?"

"No idea, what is it connected to?"

"Here, this red crystal. A power modulator, like in the chair room?"

"Possible, but better to be sure."

The new worst part about being trapped shortly becomes, not the claustrophobia or the stale air or even the lack of movement, but the enforced idleness, never Rodney's best thing. Listening to the far-too-slow flow of information from Radek and Simpson, Rodney tries to tap his foot impatiently, and has to smother a cry of pain as his left leg reminds him that that's not an option. He bites his lip and breathes deeply, shaking his head curtly at Teyla's concerned expression and focusing on the inside of the converter, mentally mapping it according to Radek and Simpson's running commentary. He can hear Sheppard's voice in the background, fending off Carson (who wants him to sit) and calling orders on a different channel.

"What are all of you doing out there?" Rodney demands testily when Simpson and Radek, in the middle of tracing a complicated circuit, stop talking to him, which is annoying and also rude."Do you plan on digging us out any time soon, or have you taken a break for afternoon soaps?"

"I've always been more of a Judge Judy fan myself," Sheppard answers immediately; he must have a second radio in addition to his headset. "And try to relax, Rodney. We've got a jumper looking for another way to get in, but it's going to be tricky to find a good approach."

"Oh, that's great." Rodney barely catches himself before he tries to tap his foot again; the enforced stillness is driving him almost as insane as the helplessness. He settles for drumming his fingertips on the smooth door/wall/whatever until Teyla flattens his hand with a significant look. He stops, huffs out his breath and demands, "Simpson! Radek! What have you got?"

"We have -- possibly -- got the off switch," Radek answers after a moment. "Give us time to check--"

"Not much time to spare, doc," Sheppard points out tersely.

"If we're wrong and the converter explodes, we will have no time at all," Radek responds, tension underlying his habitual calm. "Be quiet for a moment, please."

Rodney hates being quiet, and hates waiting even more, but Teyla takes the radio from him before he can express either of those emotions. "Colonel, what is the condition of the rest of the facility? Doctor McKay believes we are lying against a door, will it be possible to release us from that side?"

"We're working on that, Teyla. Lorne?" There's a frustratingly inaudible conversation over Sheppard's other radio, then he returns. "Major Lorne says the scanners show that the room on the other side of that wall is still mostly clear, but your entire corner of the building collapsed and there were at least two stories above you. This whole damn place is unstable."

"Only the spot I was standing in," Rodney complains in disgust, wishing Radek had time to make the alarms turn off instead of having to focus on preventing possible multi-megaton explosions. The alarms pound in his head in rhythm with the throbbing of his various lumps and bruises, and he can't quite seem to think around it all anymore. Teyla grabs his hand and he realizes part of the pounding has been his fist thudding against the wall again. "This entire galaxy has it in for me! Oh look, there's Rodney McKay, let's see if we can make his life even more hellish than it already is!"

"I thought we weren't assigning sentient thought to inanimate objects?" Sheppard comments, and Rodney can hear him smirking even over the radio. "And it's not just you; there are isolated falls all over the facility. Just bad luck this time, Rodney -- like we ever have any other kind."

"Perhaps we could--" Teyla starts, before Radek cuts her off abruptly.

"Rodney, we have it. We believe we can turn off the converter."

Rodney squints in a futile attempt to see through the wreckage and read Radek's face. "And why aren't you saying that like it's good news?"

"Because we cannot find a discharge mechanism."

"Discharge? What... Oh." The implications hit and Rodney starts hyperventilating again. "Oh, that's bad."

"Talk to me, McKay!" Sheppard orders a little desperately, pitching his voice to be heard over the alarms, which seem to have suddenly gotten even louder, swarming relentlessly through Rodney's head. "Zelenka? Why is that bad? Why aren't we turning the damn thing off?"

"Rodney?" Teyla asks with a little more control, but no less urgency, shaking his shoulder as well as she can with her free hand, and mostly just rattling him slightly against the ceiling.

Since Rodney is quite busy trying to remember how to breathe, the increasingly stale air of their little cocoon not really helping the process any, Radek answers them both. "Colonel, you remember what happened when you touched the converter, yes?"

"It wasn't so much touching as kicking, but yeah. Getting blown across the room kinda sticks with you."

"Exactly. That was a partial discharge of the overload, a very small one, probably leakage from improperly grounded or damaged conduit."

"And that's got what to do with-- Oh. Oh, shit."

"Yes, shit, precisely," Radek agrees. "If we turn off the converter without discharging built-up energy, it will have no place to go. Also, we cannot tell what mechanism is storing the energy, or how that mechanism is controlled, or if it is powered from an outside source or by the converter itself. If the converter is suddenly turned off... it might discharge harmlessly. It might do nothing. Or, it might..." Radek's voice trails off, and in the tiny corner of his mind that isn't too busy panicking, Rodney suspects Zelenka of making the international gesture for 'earth-shattering kaboom'; judging from Sheppard's curse, he's probably right.

Teyla's not stupid; she picks it up almost as fast as Sheppard, and without the benefit of hand gestures. "You believe the converter might explode regardless?" she asks with amazingly fake composure. Her grip is going to leave bruises on his shoulder, Rodney thinks vaguely, but it's not as if they'll stand out in all the rest of the damage. Or as if they're going to live long enough for it to be an issue.

"I believe it is very likely," Radek answers soberly.

"Shit," Sheppard repeats; the Colonel's vocabulary is definitely going downhill. "McKay, any bright ideas?" He waits for a second. "McKay!"

"I'm working on it!" Rodney rasps out, panting from the remains of his last (oh god, his very last?) panic attack, and he is, he honest-to-god is working on it, his brain chasing itself around in endless circles of things that obviously won't work or Radek would have tried them already. Or, maybe... "Okay, yes, can we shunt part of the power feed aside, find someplace else for it to go? What do we have that can handle that kind of charge?"

Radek jumps on the idea. "Yes, good, possibly one of the jumpers could channel the power outside; we will call Major Lorne back to try." Rodney can hear Sheppard immediately doing just that in the background as Radek continues, "We think we have found power conduits exiting the converter, it should only be a matter of splicing them into the jumper's systems."

"Which is going to take time," Rodney points out, trying to keep the panic out of his voice, and fairly sure he's succeeding, mostly.

"Yes."

"Which we don't have."

"Possibly not. But we will try. Be quiet, please, we must concentrate."

"But--"

"Rodney, you must trust us."

And, unfortunately, he does trust them. He trusts absolutely that they'll stay out there working until they succeed in saving him and Teyla -- or until (and far more likely) another earthquake hits or they simply pull the wrong component, and the whole thing explodes and everybody dies. But there's no way to stop them, and part of Rodney is desperately grateful that the others are staying, that they're not leaving Rodney and Teyla here to die alone in the dark. He's not proud of that part of him, but he really doesn't want to die either.

And if he has to die (which he doesn't want to do), it should be while he's out there fixing things, making them work, saving Atlantis every day and twice on Sundays; not trapped in here, helpless and terrified and grimly, painfully sure the fucking converter is going to explode no matter what they do and the only thing he'll accomplish by dying is to take some of his friends with him.

Rodney used to think there was nothing worse than dying. For someone who is almost always right, he is sometimes utterly, mind-bogglingly wrong.

Tears of fear and frustration are cutting through the grime on his face, but he doesn't have a hand free to wipe them away, and wouldn't bother if he did. It's not like anyone can see but Teyla, and her eyes are closed and her head bowed forward, and she's probably not going to get the chance to tell anyone anyway. His ribs hurt and his leg hurts and his back hurts and his head is one massive throbbing knot of pain, and he doesn't want to die like this.

A tremor shakes the room and Rodney feels, he actually feels his heart stop for a moment. It's over and done in the time it takes Teyla's breath to hiss in, in the time it takes him to clutch convulsively at her arm, and they're still alive when everything is motionless again.

"Where's that damn jumper?" he hears Sheppard demand over Zelenka and Simpson's increasingly frenetic chatter. A pause, then Sheppard swears viciously. "What do you mean, you can't get close enough?"

"Colonel, we have very little time," Radek says urgently.

"I know, I know. But there's not enough room to move the damn jumper in!"

"What a surprise," Rodney comments acidly, since it's better than screaming. "Have I mentioned lately that I hate this place!" He punctuates the words with another slam of his fist against the wall, and freezes when the room seems to shake in response as another mini-tremor hits, a little stronger than the last. The alarms ratchet their volume up accordingly. They're running out of time and Rodney McKay is completely out of brilliant ideas.

"Okay, here's what's going to happen," Sheppard says abruptly, in the tone of voice that means he's decided to do something fantastically stupid and doesn't want to listen to any arguments. That tone has absolutely no effect on anyone non-military (and had been losing its effectiveness on Ford), but he keeps trying it anyway. "McKay, Teyla, you two just hang in there. Zelenka, show me what I have to do to turn this goddamned thing off. Everyone else, clear the hell out before another quake hits and the whole damn thing stops mattering. Lorne, load up the jumper and head for the gate; everybody stays there until you get my signal."

"Or until the entire planet blows up and you die!" Rodney yells furiously into the radio. "That is the stupidest plan I've ever heard, all you're going to do is get yourself killed along with us! What the hell's the point of that?"

"Rodney is right!" Teyla says, with slightly less volume but no less passion. "There is nothing to be gained by sacrificing yourself!"

"We don't know it's going to blow up, and since no one's coming up with a better plan, we're going with mine," Sheppard snarls back, and it feels like a punch to the stomach because he's right. Rodney doesn't have any other ideas and there's no way to make Sheppard go, and it's not enough that Rodney's going to take Teyla with him, but now he's going to get Sheppard killed, too.

Which is completely unfair, damn it, because he didn't even do anything this time except walk into some Ancient ruins, and why couldn't those people, just once, have left something behind that doesn't also come equipped with traps and pain and terror?

"It would take far longer to explain then simply to do it, Colonel," Zelenka says almost calmly, and if Rodney had been thinking about it, he would totally have predicted that. "You should leave with the others, I will stay and shut down the converter."

"Like hell," is Sheppard's equally predictable, if much less eloquent, response. "We can't risk you and McKay. Major, forget the cables, get everyone loaded onto the jumper!"

"You go, Sheppard," Ronon says, "I'll stay and turn it off." Rodney can just barely hear Lorne's voice in the background, saying almost the same thing, but with more 'sir's. He pounds his fist against the wall again, wishing he could reach it with his head or, better yet, theirs. What is it with these people, fighting over the right to commit suicide?

"Rodney, please stop!" Teyla's hand grabs his and he jerks away, inadvertently smashing his knuckles against a chunk of rubble in the process. Which hurts, a lot, and he yelps involuntarily into the radio.

"McKay? What's happening in there?" Sheppard demands instantly.

"Oh, nothing, nothing at all." McKay shakes his hand as best he can, snarling furiously down at Teyla. She glares back, her eyes wide and her face tight in the harsh glow of the flashlight. Which, oh god, isn't as bright as it was a few minutes ago. "We're just sitting around waiting to see which of you idiots is going to be the one to die for us, and oh yes, the flashlight is also dying. It's all lots of fun, you should be in here, you'd really enjoy it!"

"Goddamn it, Rodney, just sit tight! Nobody's going to die, and we are going to get you two out of there."

"There is no time," Teyla shouts desperately. "You must leave now, or you will only succeed in dying for nothing!"

"I am not leaving you behind!" Sheppard yells back, his voice raw with determination and Teyla shouts something back and Rodney pounds his fist against the wall again and again, which isn't nearly as good as hitting Sheppard or, better yet, tracking down whatever Ancient built this fucking place and pounding on them. All he wants is out of here and why didn't this damn door open when it would still do some good and why didn't the fucking Ancients turn off their little science project before they left, they didn't leave so much as a nightlight on in Atlantis but they left this up and running so that it could wait and kill people 10,000 years later and they didn't even leave a fucking 'off' switch and he doesn't want to die here and if the damn door would just open--

--And somewhere in the middle of the yelling and the pounding, the wreckage around them jolts and shudders and the wall jerks away under his fist. He shouts and grabs for Teyla, but she's shifting and shouting and everything begins tumbling down from above them. Something slams against his head and back, and he has just enough time to realize they're out of time before the world comes crashing down around him into darkness.

TBC