AN: My thanks to everyone for their condolences for my kitties. I can't tell you how much it means to me! Fortunately I still have a few cats left, and they have been very loving. The Calico is in my lap as I type, trying to nudge my hand off the keyboard and onto her head! ;-)

SPOILERS for "Trinity"

SUMMARY: After the events in "Trinity", Sheppard and McKay's relationship is strained at best. But is stranding them in a remote lighthouse with only Zelenka as referee going to help them work things out? And what about the dead scientist who used to own the place?

DISCLAIMER: The following story is a work of fanfiction, and as such is for fan enjoyment only. All recognizable characters/settings are the property of their respective owners. No copyright infringement is intended, and no profit is made.

Deus Ex Machina

By KerrAvon

16. Annie, Annie, Are You All Right!

Rodney was motionless with shock. "What do you mean, 'his heart has stopped'?" His voice rose in panicked pitch during the question until the last word was a mere squeak.

Radek didn't answer as he quickly rolled Sheppard flat on his back. Ignoring the increasingly frequent electrical charges ripping through the air, he raised his fist about a foot above the center of the soldier's sternum and gave it a hard thump. He then placed shaky fingers back on John's carotid, but felt nothing. Cupping a hand behind the unconscious man's neck and the other on his forehead, he tilted his head back to open his airway. Crouching down to make the smallest possible target for the energy blasts, he pinched Sheppard's nose shut, took a deep breath, then cupped his mouth over John's to make a tight seal. Exhaling, he watched Sheppard's chest rise and fall. A second breath, then he checked for a carotid pulse again.

"Oh my God. I've really done it. I've killed him this time." McKay slumped against the console of the cloaking device as his legs became rubber.

"Believe it or not, Rodney," Zelenka repositioned himself, sweeping a finger up John's abdomen until he felt the base of the sternum, then placed the heel of his other hand two finger-breadths up, "It's not always about you." He began his first set of fifteen compressions, counting silently to himself.

McKay watched stricken as Radek worked, then shook himself. "Right," he muttered. "Zelenka can't pull the plug; I need to figure this out or we'll all follow in Sheppard's wake." He leaned on the console straight-armed. "Think, Rodney, think!" Glancing about, he mentally blocked the sight of Radek determinedly labor on the limp form, taking in anything else he might use. Lightning coruscated around him, gathering force, then coming dangerously close to his two friends.

McKay's eyes widened. "That's it!" He turned to the control panel and resumed his earlier furious work on the device. "The discharges have a pattern, based on the coalescence of electricity on the outside of the dome…if I can modulate the amount that accumulates in any one place…" His fingers flew frantically before he called out, "Radek, watch yourself - I'm going to try to blast the power regulator!"

Zelenka nodded wordlessly, concentrating on his count, 'Thirteen, fourteen, fifteen…breath…breath…one, two…' He almost lost concentration when a bolt raced overhead causing his sparse hair to stand on end. It struck the wall only a foot from the intended target, scattering rubble haphazardly.

Ducking only slightly, he managed an angry gasp, "It would be easier to perform CPR if I am not electrocuted as well." He scrubbed the dust out of his eyes with the back of his hand as he shifted for the next rescue breath.

"Sorry, sorry, but I had to get an initial vector!" Turning back to the machine, he continued sotto voce, "Now if I adjust the output here…"

The second shot was closer to its objective, and farther from the two men on the floor. Zelenka paused and checked for a pulse. "Nothing." Two full breaths, then fifteen compressions. He winced as he felt a rib give way under the force of his weight, but continued grimly. 'After all, the instructor did tell us that if we didn't break a rib or two, we probably weren't doing it right…'

The third shot barely cleared his head, causing the outraged shout of "Rodney!" A sizzling 'pop' and loud 'bzzzZT!' ensued, followed by a whoop of joy from McKay. For a moment Radek was afraid that something was wrong with his hearing; then he realized that a frightful whine, apparently originating from the power regulator, had suddenly ceased, leaving near-silence in the room. With all the lethal electricity flying about the chamber, he hadn't noticed that noise at all until it was gone.

Two things happened almost simultaneously; Rodney skidded to a halt next to his prostrate teammate, just as Sheppard took a convulsive gasping breath and began coughing. Radek checked his pulse and found it reassuringly bounding, then sat back on his heels in relief. Rodney rolled the pilot onto his side to assist his breathing, as Radek was clearly too exhausted to do so. He unconsciously began patting the rapidly-recovering man's back, chanting, "You're not dead, you're not dead…" over and over again, as if trying to convince himself.

"No, I'm not dead, but you're going to wish you were if you don't quit whacking my burn!"

"Oh, right." Rodney collapsed into a sitting position, boneless with relief. Sheppard squinted suspiciously at the two haggard scientists.

"Wait a second. I was hit. What happened to me? And what happened to your experiment?" He struggled to sit, ignoring both the dull, familiar ache from his burn and the new sharper pain in his chest. After a moment, Radek found the wherewithal to give him a hand up.

"Yes, Colonel, the shock stopped your heart," he sighed, relieved that the man appeared neurologically intact, if somewhat groggy. He mentally counted up his compression cycles, "for almost three minutes."

John rubbed his bruised sternum speculatively, "So…you did CPR…?"

"Yes, Colonel. It was mandatory training in the first lab I worked at in Czechoslovakia."

Sheppard's eyes darted to the still-intact but inert prototype. "If you were doing that, then how…?"

Rodney waved a tired hand in the air; now that the crisis was over, he felt completely drained. "I did that; I figured out a way to direct the energy spikes. Then it was just a matter of vector."

John looked over at the power regulator sitting in the corner. 'It doesn't look blasted,' he thought. Then he noticed the power cord snaking between that device and the one the scientists had been working on; it was neatly severed by one of the lightning gouges. He whistled softly, then raised an eyebrow, "Nice shootin', Tex. Maybe this thing has another use we hadn't thought of."

Rodney had the grace to look embarrassed. "Actually, I was aiming at the machine itself…"

"And you almost fried me twice," noted Radek wryly.

"Still, it worked, didn't it?"

McKay's eyes suddenly lit with new energy as he jumped up. "Since I didn't blast it, I can disassemble it and discover how it was sabotaged!" He was at the device and had its access panel off in the blink of an eye.

Zelenka was more concerned about the man he'd just resuscitated. Clambering to his feet, he held out a hand, "Come. Let us go upstairs where you can rest."

Sheppard stared at the proffered hand with a jaundiced eye, then smiled crookedly. "No offense, doc, but there's no way you're going to haul me up those stairs. I'm feeling better by the second; how about I just rest here for a bit?"

Zelenka frowned, but acknowledged the truth in his statement. Pursing his lips, he came to a decision. "All right. I will obtain blankets from upstairs." He bustled away as John carded a hand through his hair trying to wipe away the residual mental fuzziness from the electric shock and his interrupted demise. He rubbed his chest, aware of a sharp, stabbing pain to the left of his sternum which he recognized as cracked ribs. 'Hmph. Zelenka must've pushed pretty hard. Bu-u-t…a few sore ribs are a small price to pay for still breathing.' To distract himself from the pain of the burn, the new discomfort, and his rediscovered mortality, he tried to concentrate on whatever Rodney was busily doing.

The physicist was on his knees crouched in front of the machine that was supposed to regulate the amount of power the prototype cloak was fed. It was a standard safeguard to prevent damaging energy spikes or equally disastrous "brown-outs", much like a UPS for a computer. This one, however, had been rigged to overload and feed far too much power into the device, ultimately leading to a catastrophic failure and detonation. Watching as the man bent over his work, John was in a reflective mood. 'He sure has come a long way since Doranda. He's been listening to Zelenka's opinions, he's taken the time to cross his T's and dot his I's, and this still happened. Maybe it wasn't completely his fault that the solar system was destroyed. He's certainly taking our safety into consideration this time.' He snorted to himself, 'OK, the fact that someone is trying to kill us might play a role in that decision…'

He was startled from his reverie by the muttered, "Found you!" from the vicinity of the power regulator. He looked up to see McKay emerging from within the depths of the wiring with a fused and melted copper bar securely clasped in his fist.

He didn't feel ready to make the trek to where Rodney sat scowling at the ruined part in his hand, so he asked, "So? What did you find?"

Holding up the misshapen hunk of metal, McKay redirected his line of sight to the injured pilot. "This," he began, "Used to be a buss-bar and was part of the feedback regulation. And this…," he pointed to a defect half-way through the piece of slag, "is where someone cut a slit into the metal so that within a few minutes of sustained use, the bar would fail and allow through exponentially increasing power until there was a very big bang."

Zelenka arrived during McKay's explanation and silently draped a blanket over Sheppard's shoulders. John nodded his thanks, then inquired, "Why would he do something so easy to trace?"

Zelenka walked over and plucked the misshapen slag from Rodney's hand to critically examine it. He shrugged and answered before Rodney could open his mouth. "Quickly and easily done in the time we were absent."

"Not to mention that, the cloak would have annihilated us and most of the tower above so there wouldn't have been much left to examine," McKay added, not to be outdone.

Struggling determinedly to his feet, Sheppard gritted out, "Then that passageway is here; it has to be!"

"Um, Colonel?" Radek was hesitant to interrupt, but pointed to the stairwell. "I noticed something strange as I returned with the blankets." Putting an arm beneath Sheppard's elbow supportively, he steered him towards the landing, Rodney following curiously after.

When the three reached the stairs, Radek pointed out a deep uneven fissure that ran from the other room into the hallway. "Stand on the third stair and look there," he instructed. With some degree of difficulty, Sheppard complied.

"What? It's just a furrow from…wait a second…" He squinted his eyes to see better, then fumbled in his pocket for his flashlight.

"What is it?" asked Rodney irritably from the lab door.

Sheppard flicked his light into the newly created crater in the floor, only to have the beam disappear into the depths below. "I think…that this extends deeper than the stone floor…"

"You mean…?"

Sheppard, suddenly reenergized, beamed at the two scientists. "We've found our tunnel!"

TBC….