The group split up once they boarded the Daedalus, with Sheppard and McKay heading off towards engineering while Adair led his team to the bridge.
As Caldwell had told Sheppard, Adair knew every inch of this ship like the back of his hand. His wary eyes didn't miss a thing as they weaved around several different repair crews, quickly sidestepping at times to avoid welding sparks, or to duck before they brained themselves hanging panels overhead. Zelenka kept pace with him though his attention was focused on the device he held in his hand. Teyla had fallen a few steps behind as she looked around in rapt fascination, taking in the interior of the vast ship, which up until this point she had only seen from the outside.
"That gal Teyla…she sweet on anybody?" Adair asked cutting his gaze towards Zelenka.
The Czech gave a wry smile, his focus never leaving the small screen he held in his hand. "I do not know. But if I were you, I would be more concerned that she will discover what a 'cow' is before you can depart for safety of Earth."
Adair frowned. "Word sure travels fast around here."
"Oh yes, there are no secrets on Atlantis," said the Czech, pushing up his glasses and smirking at the cowboy before focusing once again on his sensor pad.
Adair came to a sudden stop, then did a purposeful turn on heel before walking back to the repair crew they had just passed at the other end of the hall. Zelenka walked several yards before he realized he was alone and halted, looking back curiously.
"Is there a problem, Captain?" asked Teyla in confusion as he passed her on his way back down the hall.
"Not for long," he said to her over his shoulder before he returned his attention to the repair team. As he approached them, his stern bark echoed in the tight corridor, "Ensign Radcliff, what are you doing here? I thought you were assigned to a team in engineering?"
"Um…" the ensign looked to his colleagues for help but they all became exceedingly industrious at their repairs. "I switched with Lieutenant Jones, sir. He said the welding fumes were bothering him."
"Ensign, there's a reason why we assigned random personnel to each area! It was so the saboteurs couldn't team up without someone noticing."
As Adair proceeded to dress down the hapless young ensign, Zelenka studied the anomalous readings that were now appearing on his screen. He realized they were coming from somewhere ahead of him and he took a few steps, confirming the source was nearby when the readings became noticeably stronger. Completely engrossed, he continued to walk, turning the corner as he followed the readings to a small, enclosed room.
Caution reasserted itself as he took a moment to peer in the door's window before he guardedly palmed it open, pausing on the threshold when a sudden feeling of dread washed over him. As the missing 'nurse' stepped out from her position against the wall, holding a gun on him, he mentally cursed himself for not listening to his inner voice. She put her fingers to her lips, enforcing her desire for silence with a warning flick of her gun, then crooked her finger to indicate that he should follow her into the room. Hesitantly he obeyed and stepped past her. The door slid shut behind him but he never noticed, collapsing silently to the floor instead when her gun butt impacted with the back of his head.
The sound of people talking nearby caused her to press back against the wall as two workers passed by the door. Certain that she remained undiscovered, she used her foot to shove the Atlantis scientist against the wall before activating the door control and heading out to find her accomplices.
oOo
Taking a few impatient steps towards Captain Adair before looking over her shoulder towards Dr. Zelenka for support, Teyla was surprised to find the scientist noticeably absent. After glancing back at the still engrossed officer, she frowned and made her way to the opposite end of the hallway, looking cautiously around the corner for the missing member of their group. A muffled thump from a nearby room attracted her attention and she proceeded carefully, tense and alert. She was surprised when the door to a small room slid open and revealed Dr. Zelenka lying prone on the floor
Quickly entering to assist her teammate, she stopped before dropping to her knees, sensing another person behind her. Spinning around, she found herself confronted with the nurse from the pictures they had been shown earlier. She instantly threw a high kick that slammed the woman against the wall, giving the Athosian the opportunity to grab the saboteur's wrist and wrest the gun from her hand.
The other woman, also a skilled fighter, struggled to maintain her hold on the weapon. Her finger tensing on the trigger, she attempted to sweep Teyla off her feet with a well placed kick of her own but missed when her lithe opponent efficiently jarred her shoulder against the wall. The gun fired as her finger reflexively tightened.
A sudden loud hiss and burst of coolant erupted from the ceiling, effectively spraying all the occupants in the small room. When the assailant instinctively glanced at the damaged pipe, Teyla took the opportunity to grab the gun with her left hand while jamming her right elbow into the saboteur's face, slamming the woman's head roughly into the wall behind her. Teyla's opponent dropped instantly to the floor.
Taking a moment to catch her breath in the stifling room, Teyla spun around at the sound of Zelenka coughing harshly behind her. In the process, she missed seeing the saboteur stumble to her feet and stagger out the door. The woman hit the control panel and sealed the alcove before tearing off the cover and crossing several wires that spit sparks before she disappeared down the hall.
Teyla dragged the semi-conscious Zelenka towards the door, stopping in frustration when she found it would not open. Now coughing herself, she looked around desperately for a means of escape.
oOo
Adair, alerted by the noise, glanced over his shoulder and noticed Teyla and Zelenka were nowhere to be seen. "This conversation ain't over. Not by a long shot," he warned the ensign before jogging down the hall in search of the rest of his team.
The smoking control panel immediately caught his attention as he rounded the corner and cautiously approached the door, peering through the small window. He saw Teyla and Zelenka crouched in one corner of the room while an overhead pipe vented deadly coolant. Spinning around, he raced back the way he had come and shouted at the repair crew for help before paging an emergency medical team.
"I'll get a cutting torch," suggested one of the breathless men as they arrived and took in the scene before them.
"There isn't time; it took us more than an hour to cut through before. Harris, go to Junction 8 and see if you can shut off the coolant. Anderson, Radcliff try and get that door open," he said pointing to the panel.
"This is totally fried," said the technician, ignoring his burned fingertips as he tried to reconnect the door mechanism. "It'll take too long to repair."
Adair pulled his weapon from his holster and started pounding on the small window with the butt of his gun.
"Sir, that's a reinforced composite. It's made to withstand depressurization. You're never going to break it."
"I'm not trying to break it," snapped Adair, still pounding on the glass with all his might.
Teyla finally noticed the noise and looked up. Adair quickly pointed to an air vent in the far corner of the room. She frowned, looking in direction he indicated, then nodded and helped Zelenka over to it. They both held their faces as near as they could, trying to get as much fresh air as possible in the contaminated room.
Adair holstered his pistol and hit the intercom switch on the wall. "Harris why the hell haven't you got that coolant shut off?"
"Sir, I can't reroute it," came the desperate reply.
"Then shut it off completely."
"If I do that, several vital systems could overheat causing…""I don't give a damn what it could cause, we've got people dying down here, shut it off!" yelled Adair, his face pressed against the glass of the window, watching as Teyla and Zelenka struggled desperately for each breath.
oOo
Rodney followed closely behind Sheppard, his eyes darting to each person they passed, nervously judging whether the individual might be one of the saboteurs. When they stepped into the engineering bay without incident, he allowed himself to relax minutely. Sheppard, he noticed though, remained ever vigilant with his side arm gripped securely in the palm of his right hand and a lifesigns detector in his left to warn him of any hidden personnel.
The room was filled with several individuals from just as many departments working diligently at repairs.
"Maybe they aren't here," Rodney said under his breath, watching one individual struggle with attaching a cable through the back of a panel to reconnect the thruster controls. When the man fumbled twice, the scientist couldn't help himself and stepped over, effectively pushing the tech out of the way. "Let me," he demanded, ignoring the man's irritated glance in his direction.
Sheppard only shrugged when the displaced man glanced up at him. "He gets crabby when his toys are broken," he said lightly as if to explain.
Rodney cast him one of his patented scowls before slipping beneath the console. "If you two aren't too busy, perhaps one of you could try passing that cable again," his muffled voice said irritably.
The tech stood a moment and glanced from the cable to the scientist's legs sticking out from beneath the console. His face unreadable, he walked behind the unit and slid the desired object back through the opening with his right hand while leaning against the top of the board with his left. His index finger brushed over an unobtrusive relay switch before he backed away.
"Oh, would you look at this," the scientist complained, his feet pushing him further beneath the console. "Who trained these people? Is that connected…?" he grunted to himself. "And what the hell is…?" Rodney froze, staring at a small grey wire connected to an unfamiliar device. Reaching cautiously, he traced it back with a finger to where it attached to the control conduit to the drive engines. "Oh, shit," he whispered, his other hand scrabbling at his side, searching for the wire cutters he thought he'd seen lying on the floor earlier.
When McKay's grumbling suddenly grew quiet, Sheppard glanced down to see the scientist's empty hand reaching about. Crouching, he peered under the panel. "Drop something?"
"Clear the room!" Rodney hissed, his attention entirely focused on what he was doing.
Sheppard didn't need to be told twice. Standing back up, he whistled loudly to get everyone's attention. "Drop what you are doing and leave now," he instructed. Engineers, techs, and scientists all looked confused but did as they were told.
With the room empty, he dropped back down to the floor. "McKay, what's going on?"
"There's another relay device similar to the one Hermiod and I found yesterday, only this one is a little more…"
"Little more what?" Sheppard demanded through clenched teeth.
"Wire cutters," Rodney ordered. He snatched them when they were placed in his hand and then disappeared back underneath the console.
"Rodney, a little more what…?"
The scientist remained silent; the sound of wires being cut was the only noise in the room. After several tense moments, his hand reemerged from beneath the unit holding a small block of C4. "Perhaps, you might know what to do with this," he said quietly.
Sheppard carefully grabbed the explosive and pulled the firing pin, depositing it in one of his pockets before wrapping the plastique in a page ripped from someone's manual lying nearby. Licking his lips, he leaned back down, "Is there anymore?"
"I'm checking." The clipped response from the usually verbose scientist depicted the seriousness of the situation. Another long minute passed before he slid out from beneath the panel.
Taking in McKay's shaking hands and pale face, Sheppard gripped the scientist's arm and helped him to his feet. "Well?"
Rodney shook his head. "That was all I saw."
"You okay?"
"Sorry," he snapped with less than his usual brusque attitude, "it's my first time defusing a bomb."
"Hey, take it easy. I was just asking if there was more."
Rodney swallowed and leaned against the console, his eyes skimming over the controls. "It wasn't attached to the relay I found." He glanced at Sheppard and frowned, as then turned to look down again, reaching out to touch the unfamiliar switch. "That's new."
Sheppard watched McKay. "What is it?"
"I think," he started, ducking beneath the system again, and then coming back out holding the small remote relay to the bomb, "they know what we've found."
"Damn it! We're a step behind every time!" After pacing the room for a few moments, Sheppard stopped and faced Rodney. "If they'd had the chance to blow that console, what would have happened?"
"There wouldn't be secondary systems to fly the Daedalus like Adair had done during the emergency landing."
"Forcing, or maybe giving only one group access to the ship..."
"…from the bridge," they said simultaneously.
"We have to get up there," the dark haired colonel snapped. "Adair and his group are on their way, possibly walking straight into an ambush."
oOo
The pair ran through the bustling corridors, working their way around various repair crews, and finding themselves forced to take a back way when they found one of the main corridors sealed for repairs.
Sheppard knew they didn't have the time to spare. Catching hold of a med tech that was running by carrying portable oxygen tanks, he got the man to stop. "What's going on?"
"There's a coolant leak and two people are trapped. Captain Adair is trying to free them!"
Rodney took off running again behind Sheppard. When they got to the packed corridor, they could see the Texan trying to pry the doors open with a large piece of rebar while another person was busy rewiring the controls.
"Stand back!" Sheppard's voice thundered, causing the individuals filling the hall to clear a path. Making his way to the door, he peered inside and saw Teyla collapsed sideways against the wall with Zelenka held upright in her arms. "How long have they been in there?" he demanded while taking the block of C4 from one of his pockets.
"Couple minutes," Adair replied, watching Sheppard attach the explosive to the door while McKay rigged a small timing device to a firing pin the colonel had handed him. Several of the Daedalus exchanged incredulous glances at the sight of the C4. Adair quickly waved them toward safety.
"Cover!" the colonel directed as he and McKay took the few steps necessary to round the corner. Seconds later, a loud explosion and smoke filled the corridor, followed by the coolant which had begun escaping through the now demolished doorway. Pulling their shirts up over their noses, the three men raced into the small room. Sheppard picked up Teyla while Rodney and Adair lifted Radek between them.
Back in the hallway, the Daedalus's CMO instantly appeared, putting oxygen masks on the unconscious individuals while technicians in hazmat suits scurried to repair the leak.
Sheppard grabbed Adair by the shirt and rammed the captain against the wall. "What the hell happened?" he demanded. "You were supposed to be watching their backs!"
Before the Texan had a chance to answer, Rodney stepped between the pair, facing the colonel. "Blame somebody later. Right now, we have to stop the Daedalus from being taken. Ship. Boom. Bye-Bye. Ring a bell?" he growled, shoving Sheppard away from Adair.
Adair's expression grew confused. "Who's taking her and where did that explosive come from?"
"We don't have time to explain," Rodney snapped, picking up Zelenka's abandoned life sign detector as the medical team wheeled away their two patients.
That was all that was needed to snap Sheppard back into action. Grabbing a member of the security detail who was standing in the hallway, he relieved the sergeant of his sidearm and P-90. Passing his own gun to McKay, Sheppard then slipped the spare in his thigh holster while gripping the other to his chest. He nodded to the captain, seeing the man was already armed, "Put out a call to empty the ship of all personnel."
Once the message was relayed over the comm. system, his eyes narrowed, "I'm tired of this game of cat and mouse. What do you say we go get these bastards?"
