Chapter 10: Doors

Sheppard let out the breath he had been holding as Rodney hit the center of the rock, teetered for a moment, then stayed there. As much as he had been trying to convince Rodney otherwise—and himself while he was at it—he wasn't sure the exhausted scientist had enough stamina to land properly and keep his balance. He watched as Rodney stood for a moment, gauging the next leap. At least for this one, Ronon was standing by to catch him. He'd need it. He would be jumping up three feet, and that wasn't going to be possible unaided. In fact, Sheppard would need help with that as well. The electrocution had left him tired and sore, and when he had fallen the second time he had wrenched his knee. Not to mention all the bruises. When they got home, he was planning on sleeping for a week.

His attention was drawn back to Rodney as he jumped. It wasn't much, and it wasn't graceful, but it was enough to bring him within reach of Ronon, who caught him with a grunt. For a moment, Sheppard was afraid they'd both overbalance and fall, but then Ronon managed to recover, and they both half-fell, half-sat next to the pit.

Teyla stepped forward after a moment. "Colonel, I can catch the pack and the light," she said.

He hoisted the pack and tossed it across to her, followed by the flashlight. She trained the light on the boulder, and in the shadows he could see Rodney move to get out of the way and Ronon stand ready to catch him. It was time, he supposed, to put his money where his mouth was. And if he fell after Rodney had been successful, he knew he would never live it down. Taking a deep breath, he jumped, feeling is knee twinge as he did so.

Landing on the rock was agony. He came down hard on both legs, and his knee gave out completely. His legs buckled and he felt himself start to slide, but managed to correct at the last moment. He ended up half on his side sprawled across the rock. Altogether not a dignified position, he decided.

"Sheppard, you ok?" called Rodney worriedly.

He took a moment more to catch his breath before responding weakly, "I'm good. Just fell wrong."

"Little bit more of the other, isn't it?" Rodney asked sarcastically. Damn. Busted.

Sheppard chose to ignore his friend's concern and the pain in his knee, and struggled to his feet. "Ready, Ronon?" he asked to the man standing five feet away and three feet up. God, he looked huge from this angle.

"Any time you are," the runner returned.

Sheppard crouched to jump, and had to grit his teeth to keep from crying out as his knee spasmed. God, was this what Teyla had to put up with when she jumped? He felt a new wash of guilt for nearly crushing her foot with a rock earlier. He straightened back up. This wasn't going to work. If he tried to jump, his leg was going to buckle. It wasn't that far to fall, but he would prefer to avoid wedging himself between a rock and a hard place if he could help it.

"What is wrong?" Teyla asked, seeing that he wasn't jumping.

"Gimme a minute," he muttered, rubbing his knee. He would just have to jump one-legged.

"Maybe if you lowered yourself down," Rodney suggested, "and then reached up, we could reach you and hoist you up."

Sheppard looked down, and Teyla obligingly moved the light. Immediately they saw why that plan wouldn't work. The boulder didn't rest against the wall of the pit here, there was a gap of over a foot. So that made it a drop of not eight feet, but more like thirteen. Plus, that also meant that the jump up had been farther than he had thought. His respect for Ronon increased. He had made that jump look easy.

"Never mind," Rodney commented, looking at the pit.

"I can do this," Sheppard muttered, getting ready to jump again. Rodney, seeing what he was thinking, scrambled back out of the way. Teyla shifted the light. Not giving himself any more time to think about how this wouldn't work, he bit down on the pain, bunched his legs, and jumped as hard as he could.

With a sick feeling, he realized it wasn't going to be good enough. He went far enough, but not high enough. His hands missed Ronon's outstretched ones. He frantically grabbed at the lip of the pit, but missed that too. He waited for the bone-numbing crunch of hitting the bottom. He felt his stomach hit something, knocking the air out of his lungs, but it wasn't the bottom of the pit. It was the side of it. He felt strong hands clamped onto the back of his flak vest hauling him up. Moments later they all sat panting at the edge of the pit.

"Thank god you had that fastened," Rodney said finally, voice sounding strained.

Sheppard tried to turn over so he was facing up, but the hands were still clamped onto his vest. Realizing this too, Ronon hastily let go and backed off a bit. Sheppard flipped over and propped himself up on his arms, still breathing hard. "Thanks, Ronon," he managed.

"I would ask how you are," Rodney said, eyeing him, "but you wouldn't be honest with me anyway. You really hurt your leg, didn't you?"

Sheppard nodded, giving up. "Wrenched knee, I think. I can walk on it fine. But apparently I can't jump on it worth a damn."

"You made it, and that is what matters," Teyla told him. He gave her a tired smile, which she returned.

Sheppard wanted to stay like that, lying on the floor. But he didn't have the luxury. He had to get his team out of here, before their minor injuries finally added up to major injuries. With a grunt he pushed himself up, staggering slightly as he put too much weight on his knee. Ronon reached out a steadying arm, but he waved him away. He glanced over at Rodney, who was still half-sitting, half-lying on the floor. Even in the nearly non-existent light, he looked exhausted. "How ya doin', McKay?"

Rodney turned his face at the voice. "Oh, I'm wonderful." He struggled to his feet, waving away Sheppard's offered hand. "Just wonderful. I don't think I have a muscle in my body that doesn't hurt. And I'm really starting to need an aspirin."

Sheppard felt around in his vest until he found a packet of aspirin, which he held out, along with a power bar. Rodney took them gleefully, not trying to hide it at all. "Oh, food! You're right, that's probably a lot of this…this…" he faltered and covered by swallowing a handful of aspirin.

"Faintness?" Sheppard supplied teasingly.

"I do not faint, I pass out," Rodney grumbled.

"From manly hunger. Yes, I know." Sheppard was starting to feel slightly better. Bantering with Rodney tended to have that effect.

"Are we ready?" Teyla asked, bringing them back to the matter at hand. She was a few steps down the tunnel, still carrying the flashlight.

"Careful," Sheppard cautioned.

She nodded and started forward, Ronon close behind. Sheppard walked a half-step behind Rodney. He wanted to be next to him, but he also knew someone had to cover their six. Not that a P-90 without its flashlight would be very effective in the dark, against boulders. But it was the principle of the thing.

They proceeded slowly, partly because it was dark, and partly because they were all exhausted. Of all of them, Ronon seemed to be doing the best, but Sheppard noticed that even he keep rubbing contemplatively at his ribs. Teyla's limp was getting worse, as was Sheppard's own. And Rodney, although he didn't seem to have anything specifically wrong with him, looked something like the walking dead. Hopefully, the food and painkillers would help.

The rest of the way to the juncture with the main tunnel was uneventful. They probably passed over several more traps, but thankfully the loss of power rendered them harmless. There were no more pits. They settled into a silence, broken only by their breathing. Sheppard tried to get Rodney to expound about something a few times, mostly just to hear someone talking, but he didn't seem interested, replying to questions in as few words as possible.

Teyla and Ronon stopped abruptly, causing Rodney to walk into the runner's back. He stopped, backed off, and blinked. "What's going on?"

Sheppard walked around his teammates to see what the problem was. Oh. A door.

"Oh god, not another one," Rodney said in annoyance. "I suppose this means I'll have to climb into the ceiling and get electrocuted again."

"Wouldn't work. No bare wires," Sheppard pointed out as Teyla pointed the light at the ceiling.

"What the hell is wrong with this place?" Rodney demanded angrily. "I mean, obviously the Ancients built it. We were able to activate it with the gene. And it's full of traps that are trying to kill us! Why!" He stopped, breathing heavily.

"It does not seem to make sense," Teyla agreed, shining the light around the door.

"Hey, wait, go back!" Rodney exclaimed. When Teyla didn't respond immediately he grabbed the flashlight and pointed it at a particular portion of wall. Sheppard saw it now too: an access panel. Thank god. It was flush with the wall and the same color, so it was all but invisible.

Rodney handed Teyla the light back. "Hold this on the panel," he instructed, digging things out of his pockets. He put a screwdriver into the crack around the panel, and momentarily it came off with a pop, revealing a normal-looking array of crystals. "Oh, yes," he breathed.

Sheppard grinned. Now they were getting somewhere. "Can you access it without power?" he asked.

Rodney spared him a patronizing glance before he started moving crystals. "I can't do anything fancy, but I can force the door. We've done this in Atlantis before, after all."

"Yes, but those doors don't come out of the ceiling," Sheppard pointed out.

Rodney gave him a startled look, then looked at the door. "Ah. Yes. That could be a problem. Or not." He looked at Ronon. "Feeling strong today?"

Ronon grinned, white teeth flashing in the dim light. "I feel strong every day."

"Good. When I tell you, try to lift the door. Just be ready to get clear if it tries to fall on you."

"Is this a good idea?" Sheppard asked.

Rodney gave him a look. "Of course not. And if you have a better one, I'm all ears." He waited a moment. "Ah, I thought not. Stand by, Ronon."

He fiddled with some crystals. "Ok, go!"

With a grunt, Ronon pulled up on the door. As he lifted, they were blinded by a sudden light. Apparently the power was still on in the main tunnel. Ronon got the door about two feet up, when he let out a yell and let go. It came crashing back down, plunging them into darkness.

After a moment Rodney cleared his throat. "Ronon? You ok?"

Ronon grunted something affirmative.

"What the hell was that?" Sheppard demanded.

"Well," Rodney said slowly. "There's no power to this control panel, but apparently the door is on a different circuit, which is a completely moronic design. So as soon as we tried to lift the door, it resisted. The good news is, we should be able to keep lifting it like that indefinitely."

"This is good news how, exactly?" Sheppard wanted to know.

Rodney shrugged. "Well, if someone can get under, they can work the control on the other side of the door, which should have power."

"And that someone has to be you?" Sheppard guessed.

"Well, obviously. Who else can pick the ancient's locks?" Rodney asked with some of his usual arrogance.

"But you don't know what's on the other side of the door. It could be dangerous." Sheppard pointed out.

"That's a good bet, Colonel," Rodney admitted. "But again, what choice do we have?"

"I could go," Sheppard offered. "I can probably figure it out."

"What, because you're going to be so much better at defending yourself against falling rocks and god knows what else than I am?" Rodney demanded. "No, as much as I would like to let you be the one to walk into probable disfigurement and danger, it makes much more sense if I go."

"I can accompany him, and provide…cover," Teyla suggested.

"I can do that," Sheppard said.

"Actually, we shouldn't both be on the same side of the door," Rodney told him. "If it doesn't work from my side, you should be here to try to do something from this side."

Sheppard nodded. That made sense. He went to peer over Rodney's shoulder. "Ok, what do I do to open it?"

Rodney pointed out the crystal sequence, then went to stand next to the door. "Remember," he told Teyla, "We'll only have a second. Go quickly."

"And one at a time," Sheppard put in. "More of a chance of clearing the doorway."

"I will go first," Teyla said.

Sheppard nodded. "Ready?" he asked Ronon, who grunted. He fiddled with the crystals. "Now!"

Ronon lifted the door again. As soon as it was high enough, Teyla rolled through, disappearing into the light just as the heavy door crashed down again.

Sheppard hit his radio. "Teyla, you get through ok? Teyla?" he asked again, when no reply was forthcoming.

"Shielding," Rodney reminded him wearily from his position near the floor. Oh, right, Sheppard thought. He kept forgetting that.

"Ready?" Sheppard asked. Rodney nodded, and he jimmied the crystals again. Ronon lifted, and Rodney ducked through. Slower than Teyla had. The door came crashing down, and as it hit the stone floor of the tunnel, Sheppard heard a pain-filled scream.

oOo

A/N: and I bet you thought the last few cliffhangers were bad... (grins evilly)