Chapter 16: The Fine Line Between Genius and Insane

"Have I mentioned that this plan just screams of death and failure to me?"

"You have."

"Well, I still think that. Did I mention that I think this isn't going to work?"

"You did. Several times."

"Oh. Well, I feel it bears repeating."

As the pair walked down the hall, John inwardly sighed. He knew that McKay was just itching to prove him wrong. This resistance also probably had something to do with some sort of latent fear of heights that had just mysteriously manifested itself or something.

"And did I ever mention that I have this thing about falling from great heights?"

Bingo.

"Rodney," Sheppard said reasonably, "If that shield withstood me shooting you and pushing you headfirst off a balcony, then there's no reason that it wouldn't survive simply falling off the roof of the jumper bay."

"It's not the fall I'm worried about, it's the landing! In the water! I doubt this thing protects against hypothermia!" Rodney babbled.

The major rolled his eyes and deadpanned, "Well there's a simple solution to that, isn't there?"

Rodney let out a hysterical snort. "Oh, yeah, and what would that be?"

"Don't fall."

McKay stopped dead in his tracks at the response, as John continued walking. After a couple of seconds put a fifteen foot distance between the two, he came to his senses and jogged ahead, falling once again into step with Sheppard, ready to pick a new bone with him.

"Okay, just so we're clear, how exactly do you plan on getting to the roof?"

"Well, there are two levels to the jumper bay, right?"

"Yes, but how does that--"

"And it stands to reason that the Ancients would want some way to manually open the roof in case of mechanical failure or something, right?"

"You can't base your entire plan on the assumption that--"

"And," Sheppard emphasized to silence McKay, "There are ladders that lead from the second level up to the ceiling of the jumper bay."

Rodney began to splutter an indignant response, then scanned his memory and realized the major was right.

Recognizing the tell-tale signs of the scientist's eminent defeat, John smirked and continued, "So, all we have to do is figure out how to open the bay doors, and then we can climb onto the roof and wait it out. Piece of cake."

"Do you have any idea how many holes that plan has?" McKay scoffed, having regained his bluster.

"Do you have a better idea?" the major drawled.

Always having to have the last word, the scientist emphatically snapped, "This plan is insane."

"Yes, it is," Sheppard conceded. Then, with a sly grin, he continued, "As a matter of fact, it's so insane, it just might work."

With a scowl of irritation, Rodney added, "Allow me to amend my last statement: you're insane."

"Well, at least I'm in good company, aren't I?"

There was a brief silence. "Did you just call me crazy?" the scientist hissed accusingly.

John brought his hand to his mouth and coughed in an attempt to mask his laughter. "Not at all."


By McKay's estimation, they had approximately two minutes when they arrived in the jumper bay to open the roof, climb out, and close it before the city rose to the surface and the war with the Wraith started, at which point they would probably have screwed up the future to the point of the destruction of their own reality if they weren't safely away from all of this.

No pressure.

"Y'know, Rodney, it was an estimate when we had to be safely out of the way. We probably have more time than you think we do," John pointed out, not expecting the scientist to agree with him. He'd gotten used to it, though. Good thing too, or else he would be pretty bad off right about now.

"Are you willing to risk our entire future and the future of the entire city on that assumption?" Rodney returned icily. "I think not. Moreover, we could have even less time than I've budgeted us, making it all the more necessary to hurry." He huffed loudly and set his jaw.

Sheppard waited a second for McKay to start to cool off, then asked, "Any idea where this manual roof-opening mechanism might be?"

The scientist clenched his jaw even tighter, the threat of him spontaneously exploding returned anew. "Look," he hissed, "This is your plan. You said you had it all worked out. I will not be the one to make this half-baked idea work. If you don't know where it is, you find it."

The major shrugged. "Alright," he said, and mounted the stairs to the second level. If they were trying to find the manual controls, then the best place to look for them would be up there. Rodney grudgingly followed close behind, and the two emerged on the narrow catwalk of the second floor.

For all of McKay's griping and bitching, he certainly had a lot invested in this plan. After all, his survival depended on it as much as John's did. McKay's anger rapidly began to fade away, replaced first by concern, then by urgency.

"C'mon, c'mon," he willed, bouncing on his toes as if it was going to make the answer magically appear in front of them.

Seeing McKay's mood beginning to change again, this time to panic, Sheppard mildly suggested, "We can always just do it remotely through the jumpers."

Gritting his teeth, Rodney replied, "No, no we can't, because I'm not going to risk using up all the time we have trying to isolate the correct control pathway to open the roof."

"I though you and Zelenka already found out what control pathway it was."

"Evidently you don't know how Zelenka and I discovered the control pathway," he snapped. "It was pure dumb luck. And unlike you, I tend not to like to rely on dumb luck to save the day."

"Hey, what's that?" Sheppard asked all of a sudden, pointing at a device on the wall that looked like some sort of fuse box with clear crystals instead of circuits.

"Uh…" Rodney stared at it dumbfounded for a second. He walked up to the box and examined the crystals for a second, before turning around wide-eyed. "Those…would be the roof controls," he managed to stammer out in disbelief.

As the scientist turned back around and began to figure out how to work the controls, the major smirked. Heh. Dumb luck, he thought to himself.

Rodney snapped his fingers idly as he examined the control panel, and then began to gingerly shuffle the delicate crystals. Sheppard was leaning casually against the wall next to the controls, watching the proceedings but not really following. He wasn't going to point out that at least five minutes had passed since McKay's two-minute mark. The last thing they needed was for Rodney to get distracted from his oh-so-urgent work by panicking. John would make sure to mention it later, when they were safe and he could more fully take advantage of the annoyance potential.

"Hah!" McKay triumphantly proclaimed a minute or so later, as a loud metallic grinding noise rang out from overhead. The scientist turned around to watch the bay doors open. However his triumph melted into first disbelief, then panic, as they stopped, still halfway closed.

Oh dear. This was going to be interesting.


A/N: I'm going to be swamped for the next few weeks with finals coming up, so I'm getting all my updates out now. Once summer fully starts, I'm going to finish this sucker and be done with it!