Part 8 - Escape
Present day – Atlantis
Rodney McKay was sitting in the conference room of Atlantis feeling glad to be alive. He was reunited with his friends and colleagues and safely away from the Genii. He started to tell them about his first attempt at escape.
"As I said it was working on the air circulation system that gave me my chance to get away. There was a whole network of the damn things. Whoever the Genii were before the Wraith decimated them they were a pretty impressive bunch of engineers. The air circulation networks reach everywhere, throughout the whole underground base. I, er, nicknamed them Jeffries tubes… The name caught on and everyone called them that." He laughed and paused, a self satisfied smirk on his face. Hearing the Genii refer to their air circulation system as Jeffries tubes had provided him with sorely needed amusement. He looked up and saw the blank looks. "You know, Jeffries tubes! As in Star Trek? Jeez you are so square…. Look, I just needed a laugh OK?" He shook his head and put on his serious face again. "Anyway, the air circulation system provided me with a way to get out. I saw a chance and I took it."
4 months ago, the Genii home world
After the confrontation with Cowen and the black depression that followed it, McKay's life settled into a routine that he found himself beginning to accept as normality.
He would get up, shower, shave and dress. His door would be unlocked by seven in the morning and, if he wanted to, he was free to roam the base with a guard following at a discreet distance. He spent this time most mornings wandering around the base studying it, looking for ways out…. Since his outburst his presence was required most days in Cowen's office by eight for breakfast. Cowen would ask for an update on McKay's work and would then spend the rest of the time in indoctrination, repeating the story of how the Lanteans had abandoned him, how they had caused only problems in the Pegasus galaxy and how he, McKay, needed to help the Genii to atone for these things.
McKay hated this contact and when Cowen was speaking he concentrated on the food, shovelling as much into his mouth as possible trying to block out any comments about how McKay had been abandoned by his friends, left to die, no hope of return, abandoned, betrayed…..
"Why can't you recognise that they left you to die, McKay?"
He would ignore the questions and try to distract himself by asking for more food, more drink or if they were done and if he could go.
Between half past eight and quarter to nine, Sora would arrive at Cowen's complex and they would walk together to the labs where he would meet with the science and engineering teams, be briefed on any new developments and then launch into the day's work. Sora would meet him at one and would walk with him to the canteen or she would bring him food and they would eat in the lab. Depending on McKay's mood they would either talk non stop or quarrel or McKay would glower in silence and listen to Sora's arguments for willingly joining the Genii.
Every sixth day he would be given the day off and he was forbidden to work. "Oh come on – this can't be true. Who are you anyway? Big Brother? What the hell else have I got to do?" he complained when he found out. But the rule stood firm, "Doctor's orders," was all the answer he got to his complaints but he suspected that there was more than that. On his enforced rest days McKay would spend his time either wandering aimlessly around the Genii base, staring for hours at the waterfalls generating hydro electric power or lying on his bed transcribing musical scores from memory and would then play them back in his mind.
On several occasions members of his team invited him to their homes, to meet their families or to join them for recreational activities. Each time he politely refused much to Sora's irritation. She would join him on his walks to talk to him. It was on one such walk that he realised she meant more to him than he was comfortable with. Sora had been in the middle of another diatribe lecturing on acceptance and conforming with Genii standards when he had stopped and interrupted her.
"I thought this was my day off?" he said.
"It is," Sora replied.
"Then will you please give political indoctrination chapter 3 a miss? I'm bored of it. Can't you just tell me about something else? Anything, just not this continuous rendition of come to the Dark Side..… Please, I'm serious. Tell me something about yourself," he threw her a challenging look. "Or is that not allowed?"
She had smiled and asked, "What do you want to know?"
"Hell, I don't know. Anything. What's your favourite colour? Have you ever had a disturbing experience with ice cream? What did you want to be when you were a kid?"
Her mouth tightened and she raised her chin defensively. "I wanted to be just like my father," she replied. "He was one of the most respected commanders in the Defence sector. I wanted to be just like him." She had turned away and stared into the waterfall and McKay had watched in amazed embarrassment as a tear formed and then ran down her cheek. Before he realised what he was doing he had reached out and gently brushed it away and then laid his hand on her shoulder. "I'm sorry about Tyrus," he said awkwardly.
Sora angrily wiped her eyes and whispered her reply, "Don't be. I know what happened and I know what he did. He answered for it and now he's gone... I just wish he had been what I thought he was, that's all." They had stood there for a few minutes in silence, McKay with his hand on her shoulder not knowing what to say or do. Eventually Sora smiled and said, "Blue. My favourite colour…"
McKay was thrown for a few seconds and then answered, "What about the ice cream?" a hopeful expression on his face. Sora snorted, "In your dreams…" then gave him a shove and then took his arm to escort him to the canteen.
That evening, after the guard locked the door of his quarters, McKay lay on his bed staring at the ceiling. With a shock he realised that he had actually enjoyed his day off. He had enjoyed spending time with Sora. He realised that he needed to get away before the feelings he was developing for her got out of control. It did not help him to analyse it and it certainly didn't help him that he knew this was an aspect of human psychology that had evolved over the years as a survival trait. He just knew he had to get away from her before he was in too deep. The next day he started work on putting his plan to get away into action.
It took him a week to smuggle the tools he needed back to his quarters from under the watchful eyes of his guardians. He decided that the time was right to make his move. Physically he was almost back to normal, his headaches had pretty much gone, he could use his arm and shoulder again normally although he was still pretty weak. He worked in silence, in the dark removing the grill over the air circulation conduit that serviced his room.
Atlantis, the Present.
"I got into the air circulation system via the conduit that led to my room. Then I crawled though the Jeffries tubes up to the surface – I'd had full access to the schematics and knew exactly where to go. I got to the surface, got to the gate, dialled it and got through," he stopped and sighed deeply. "Unfortunately I was detected as I activated the gate and I wasn't fast enough cutting off the wormhole the other side. Three Genii soldiers came through after me. I tried to get the local people to help me but they just told them I was a deserter, a criminal, a danger to them. I don't think they believed them but they were too scared of the Genii to do anything but turn a blind eye," McKay's voice was bitter as he remembered how he had run to the nearest settlement and begged for asylum that had not been granted. The soldiers had followed him and no-one had stepped forward to help as he had been dragged back towards the Stargate. They had been brutally efficient in the exercise of their mission and not one person had stepped forward to answer his desperate pleas…
