Part 9 - Re-education I
Atlantis – the present day.
McKay couldn't keep the bitterness out of his voice. "The address I dialled was P3M-638. You know the planet we helped by sorting out their irrigation system? I was sure that there would be someone there who would recognise me, I begged them….." his voice choked off to silence. "Are we still in contact with them?" he asked looking at Elizabeth, anger showing clearly in his eyes. She shook her head.
"P3M-638 was culled four months ago Rodney. You must have been there shortly before it happened." McKay's anger turned to pain and he shook his head swearing softly under his breath.
"Anyway, they took me back, chucked me in a cell for week or so and then offered me the same deal as before but with a slight variation." McKay tried to keep his voice steady as he spoke but could hear the tremor in his voice. "They were pretty persuasive."
Four months ago – the Genii home world
He opened his eyes and a wave of nausea swept over him. He quickly shut his eyes again. Fear battled with panic. He breathed deeply trying to calm his nerves and failing. "I'm a dead man", he whispered under his breath. He tried to pull himself together. "Find a happy place... Find a happy place..." he repeated the mantra to himself over and over. Crap, that wasn't working - he just had to face up to it. He was not in a happy place... He tried opening his eyes again. Blinking desperately he screwed up his eyes in an attempt to focus them. He was in a room lit by a bare bulb set into the plain concrete ceiling above him. Crap, crap, crap. Memory came flooding back. He'd been at the gate, he'd managed to dial and get through but they had managed to stop him. Crap, crap, crap. He remembered kicking and screaming as they had dragged him back towards the gate…. He had fought against them with a strength borne of desperation and had managed to get away and had run to the settlement. He remembered begging, pleading for help that didn't come. Now he was back with the Genii and didn't want think about what would happen to him now.
As his eyes adjusted to the light he squinted around him. He was in a bare cell lying on the floor, it was cold and damp. He cautiously propped himself up on his elbow – not a good move. He lay back down again and, wincing, explored the bump at the side of his head. No blood, but it felt like he had a concussion to deal with. He rolled onto his side and slowly sat up. The nausea returned and he sank his head down to his knees and concentrated on breathing in and out and clamped his jaws shut against the overwhelming need to vomit.
"Here, take this." Someone shoved a bowl unceremoniously into his lap. McKay squinted up to see who had given it to him. The slight movement of his head was enough to cause the nausea to overpower him and he vomited into the bowl. Thankfully after a few minutes the heaving subsided and the nausea with it.
"Do you still need this?" McKay cautiously shook his head and the bowl was taken from his hands and replaced with a damp cloth. He took it gratefully and wiped his face and neck and then held it against the lump at the side of his head and looked up again to meet Sora's eyes.
"Well, what do you have to say for yourself?" She stood in front of McKay, her stance betraying her anger.
"What do you expect me to say, Sora?" his voice was tired and low. "So sorry, I was having the time of my life being a slave for a bunch of psychos but just had to dash?" He had failed and would not get a second chance. If he was unlucky he was headed for a very unpleasant last few weeks of his life. Even if that did not happen he didn't imagine that he was in for summer camp. He tried not to think of it, not to let the sick feeling in the pit of his stomach take over.
Sora was not impressed by his facetious answer. "You are an idiot," she hissed at him. "Do you know what you've done?" McKay looked up at her unused to hearing such passion in Sora's voice.
"Well actually yes I do," he said. "They didn't hit me over the head that hard and I'm not an idiot, remember?"
"No you don't know what you've done," she stamped her foot in frustration and impotence. "Your guard has been flogged and demoted." McKay grimaced but said nothing. He knew Sora well enough to know that this was not what was really bothering her. "He will then be assigned to surface work continuously". McKay winced – the man had effectively received a death sentence in the next culling.
He shrugged, "Look, I hope you are not expecting me to get upset about that? The man's a gorilla and I've got some more pressing matters to worry about OK?" he snapped back at her and then winced as his head started pounding again.
"Well that's what I'm here to talk to you about," she stared at him. "Cowen is willing to give you another chance." Relief flooded over McKay in an almost physical surge. He looked up at Sora in disbelief. She nodded, "You have to understand how important you are to us McKay. We risked a lot to rescue you and have put a lot of time and effort into fixing you up. The work you've done so far has shown us how much you could do for us."
"Hey, don't think flattery is going to work here OK? I stick to what I said before, I will co-operate with you but I will never integrate. I'm a prisoner here in case that had escaped your notice?"
Sora nodded, "You are a prisoner at the moment but that it because you broke the rules. Cowen is furious. He thinks my judgement of you was flawed and he is now going to step in personally to oversee your integration and re -education."
McKay's stomach knotted. "Re-education?"
She nodded and swallowed. "After re-education we go back to how things were but Cowen has appointed me as guarantor for your behaviour."
McKay sat very still and then said, "Wait a minute, wait a minute. You are going to be guarantor for my behaviour? How does that work? I'm me, you're you, you can't be held accountable for my actions. Oh dear God….." he broke off as the realisation hit him. "They will punish you if I step out of line because they think that I and… that you and me… err we?" he couldn't find the right words and stammered to a halt.
She nodded.
"You have GOT to be kidding me, right? This is great, just great. You know, you guys are one sick bunch. I hardly know you, you're nothing to me, I have no duty to you. You're one of them – what the hell do you think this will achieve?" He was standing up now albeit unsteadily.
Sora looked at him, her expression unreadable. "Am I really nothing to you?" she asked.
McKay looked at her and then turned away – he couldn't meet her gaze and mumbled in a low voice, "No. Oh God, I'm sorry…." He sank back down onto the floor lacking the strength and courage to pursue his point. He tried to run when he did precisely because he felt himself being drawn to Sora and now those feelings were being used against him. He groaned and leant back against the wall his eyes closed. "What's re-education?" he asked dully.
Sora's face crumpled up into a mask of worry. "It depends on you. All you have to do is to do as they ask. Please promise me that you will otherwise it will be bad for you and they will get their way in the end. Promise me you will do what they ask?" Sora grabbed his shoulders and stared earnestly into his eyes. "Promise?" McKay stared back thrown by the intensity of emotion in her voice. Before McKay could answer she stepped back and said, "I have to go now, I shouldn't even be here now." Then she turned and left and the room was plunged into darkness.
McKay was scared and starving. Since Sora had left, no one had come to see him and no one had answered his calls. He estimated he had been there for three or four days but had no way of knowing. He had given up banging on the door as it produced no results. The light would go on once a day when a small bowl of food would be pushed into the cell through a hatch. The light would be left on for a few minutes and then he would be plunged into darkness again. He sat huddled against the far wall of the cell and, shivering with cold, fatigue and hunger, he waited.
He tensed as he heard the locks on the door being undone. The door opened and the guards entered. They took him by the arms, roughly handcuffed his wrists behind him and dragged him along with them. "Where are we going? Where are you taking me?" he demanded. He got no response, not even a glance. They ignored his protests and questions and continued down the corridor until they came to a room that contained a low stool in the centre of the room. The room was lit by a single, powerful light in the centre of the ceiling directly above the stool that threw the rest of the room into deep in shadow. McKay was unceremoniously deposited on the stool and the guards stepped back to stand behind him.
"Will you tell me what the hell is going on?" he tried to twist round, to stand up to see what was happening. Rough hands restrained him. McKay sat in silence and then tried again. "Look, if you're trying to scare me with this Gestapo crap well you've succeeded. Now will you just tell me what is gong on? What are we waiting for?" There was no answer. "You know you could have just as easily left me in my cell you know. I was getting to like it there..." his voice faded in the silence of the room.
After a few more minutes he asked, "Do you do classes in this? Two terms of intimidating silence before you're allowed to practise?" He continued in this vein for several minutes until his voice petered out and then he sat, waiting, his fear growing with each passing minute. After what seemed like four hours but what was probably only half an hour he heard the door open behind him. He tried to turn to see who it was but the guards held him firmly.
"Will you get off me?" he shrugged off their grip but sat still not attempting to look behind him and tried to keep his breathing slow and measured as the fear and panic grew. He could hear several sets of footsteps. A familiar figure stepped out of the shadows and stood in front of him. McKay felt sick as he looked up into the face of Commander Acastus Kolya, the face that had haunted his nightmares for weeks after the hurricane.
"Hello Dr McKay. I've been looking forward to meeting you again."
Atlantis – the present day
McKay shifted uneasily in his chair. "They brought in Kolya. It wasn't much fun." He stood up and walked to the side board and helped himself to another coffee. His hands were shaking so much that he spilt it. "Damn!" he fumbled around trying to mop it up until Sheppard stepped up to him, took the cloth from his hands, cleared up the mess herself and then poured him a fresh cup. McKay stood watching him, hands dug deep into his pockets with his fists clenched as he tried to get himself back under control again.
When he spoke again, his words were directed at Sheppard, "You should have killed that bastard when you had the chance, Sheppard."
