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Chapter 7: Lockdown
John watched the scene unfolding in front of him and he knew that he had to act fast. For the moment he was a child and he had to act accordingly. He was not the military commander of Atlantis right now, so he had to come up with a plan to save Atlantis and still act like a child.
Once Woolsey had given Lorne the go-ahead to come through the gate everything seemed to go in slow motion. When Lorne finally came through the gate, he was tied up with one of the Henperians holding a gun to his head and the rest of his team was nowhere in sight, before John had a chance to blink several more Henperians came through the wormhole and started to stun the surrounding military personal. His men managed to get off a few shots, but they were very quickly overpowered.
"Where is the rest of Major Lorne's team?" Woolsey asked coming down the stairs, Dave and John followed, with Puss in Dave's arms and John holding his brother's hand.
"My name is Klull and if you want to see your men again, you will give into my demands," the leader ordered, before letting Major Lorne go and stunning him in quick succession.
"And what are your demands?" Dave asked and John thought that it was incredibly brave of his brother, considering he'd never been in this situation before.
Klull looked at John with an evil glint in his eye, "It's simple, if you want to see your men again, you will give me weapons and explosives and if you don't, I will take the kid and his pet."
It's time for me to start acting like a kid, John thought, desperately trying to come up with a plan to get them out of this situation, not only did they have to get rid of the men in the control room, without his troops, he also had to rescue Lorne's team and somehow inform Rodney, Ronon, Teyla and the rest of his soldiers what was going on. It wasn't long before a plan began to form in his mind and he turned to Dave with a look of sadness in his eyes, "Dad please don't let the nasty man take me and Puss."
Dave put his arm around him and played along, much to John's relief, "don't worry son, we will do whatever it takes to protect you."
"I will not let them take you John, but we will have to discuss their demands with them," Woolsey said and it was obvious that he was trying to buy John sometime, so he could come up with a plan.
John almost laughed out loud when one of Klull's men asked about trying some of the chef's apple pie.
It was Lorne who replied and for someone who had just woken up from being stunned he was remarkably clear-headed, "well you can't try any apple pie until the negotiations are complete. You see as head of the Military on Atlantis I can't give you any weapons; however, we may be able to reach an agreement where both of our people benefit." He said dryly.
"How about we give your men back in exchange for weapons and explosives?" Klull suggested with a nefarious look on his face, "and the kid gets to stay here with his dad.".
In John's opinion, Woolsey didn't seem perturbed as he replied, "how about we head into my office and we can talk?"
"My men would like a tour of Atlantis, while we talk, so how about Major Lorne shows them around?" Klull asked snidely.
John was mildly amused by what was going on, these men seemed like amateurs, in fact in his opinion they were idiots, but then he'd learnt from past experiences that sometimes the dumbest villains turned out to be the most dangerous.
"No one leaves this room until we have finished talking!" Woolsey replied forcefully.
Right, time for me to enact my plan, John thought and started to pull on Dave's sleeve.
Dave soon got the message that he wanted to talk and looked down at him, "Dad I thought we were going to use a jumper to go and honour Mom today. It is the first anniversary of her death and you promised." John said and he thought about his own mother and the day of her death and he was surprised to find that he had tears brimming in his eyes.
Before Dave had a chance to reply, Klull grabbed John by his injured shoulder and dragged him up the stairs towards Woolsey's office and if he hadn't had been in so much pain, he would have been kicking and screaming. But the pressure on his shoulder caused him pain and it wasn't long before he saw dots dancing in his field of vision.
"Get your hands off of my son, or I will have Major Lorne shoot you!?" Dave roared from behind him.
Klull was a really nasty piece of work and when he spoke again John shuddered, "with what? I've taken all of the soldiers' weapons off of them and if you tried, I could have anyone of my men shoot the boy. But if you insist, I will let him go."
Before he knew it, John felt himself being pushed and it only took a split second for him to find himself tumbling down the stairs, landing heavily on his injured right shoulder when he hit the bottom, his right leg didn't seem happy either.
Dave was by his side in a flash, "are you alright?" He whispered with a look of concern on his face.
John just lay on the floor moaning and what happened next took him completely by surprise, Puss jumped on Klull's back and started to claw at his neck and shoulders, but his amusement only lasted a few minutes, because Klull grabbed him and threw him on the floor beside him.
Things were really getting out of hand fast, so John knew that he had to act fast or someone could get hurt, or even killed, so John went up to Klull and pulled at his sleeve, "please mister, can I please go for a trip with my dad to honour my mother?" The tears were streaming down his small face by this time, but it was probably more to do with the pain he was in than him being genuinely upset.
Klull glared at him and at that moment John knew that despite the fact that he seemed stupid Klull was incredibly dangerous. "If you sit down and shut up for a while, I might consider it, but you won't be going alone, one of my men will be coming with you."
John watched as Klull walked off and then he whispered into Dave's ear, "I really need to get to a jumper to let McKay know what's going on. If I can get a message through to him, he can arrange to send up some reinforcements."
Dave gave him a little smile, before looking up at Klull with a distraught look on his face, "I would like to go with my son alone to honour his mother and my wife, surely you can have some compassion, and understand that today is a very difficult day for us?"
"I will consider it if you just shut up!" Klull shouted as they reached Woolsey's office.
John looked out at the gate room floor and he noticed that some of the marines were beginning to wake up, he really hoped that they wouldn't give the game away and let on that he wasn't a child but was in fact in charge of the military contingent for Atlantis. The marines were still tied up and had guns pointed at them, so it probably shouldn't be much of a problem. The only person that didn't know what was going on was Lorne and for now, he seemed to be playing along and ignoring him, like he would any child in the control room. Not that it happened much, as at the moment there were less than ten children on Atlantis.
John followed Dave into Woolsey's office and sat down next to him. Puss was happy to see that he was seated and immediately jumped in his lap, "did the nasty man hurt you Puss?" He whispered to the big ginger cat.
"Meow," Puss replied, and John knew that he was alright.
Obviously, Klull was beginning to get annoyed with him, so hopefully, if he bothered him enough, he would let him go for a trip in the jumper just to get rid of him, "Please Mister, why won't you let me and my Dad go on our trip?" He asked and used his best puppy dog eyes, hoping that they would work.
"Shut it kid and let the grownups get down to business!"
At that comment John looked at Klull and burst into tears, "Dad why won't the nasty man let us go? I really can't stand it here; I want to go and honour Mom." At this point, John gave Puss to Dave, stood up and started stamping his feet, "Let me go and let me go now!"
Klull immediately stood up and John flinched as he lunged at him with his fist ready, but luckily for him, Dave was quicker and grabbed his hand and twisted it until the man was in pain. Wow, I never knew my brother had it in him," he thought breathing a sigh of relief.
Woolsey looked at Klull from behind his desk, "I suggest if you want to negotiate, you let them go. I trust Dave and John will do the right thing," Woolsey said looking straight at him.
"I promise that I will behave myself, Mr Woolsey," John told him with a look of innocence on his small face.
"Okay let the brat go if only to get him out of my sight!" Klull growled glaring at him.
"Thank you," John said with an angelic look, before heading for the stairs leading to the jumper bay, hoping that Dave was following with Puss.
A few minutes later when they arrived in the jumper Dave looked at him with concern, "John are you alright, you appear to be limping?"
"Yeah well, Klull the idiot threw me down the stairs, what do you expect. My leg hurts and so does my Shoulder, but I really don't have time to worry about that now, because I need to contact McKay to try and have him send some reinforcements."
"But how are you going to do that? Are you going to land the jumper on one of the piers and contact him from there?" Dave asked as the jumper began its accent.
"I can't do that, because the whole of Atlantis is in lockdown, the only way to break the lockdown is with a code, which all of the senior staff have, but if Woolsey or I break it we run the risk of letting Klull and his buddies loose in the city. Our only hope is to communicate with Rodney and to get him to organise reinforcements and to lift the lockdown when they are ready to come through."
The jumper left the jumper bay and flew into the clear blue sky, he had every intention of getting as far away from Atlantis as possible, before he contacted McKay.
"How do you intend to do that?" Dave asked with a look of confusion.
"Watch and learn brother."
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
Rodney woke to a loud beeping noise coming from somewhere in his room and it took his sleepy brain a while to realise what it was, that's the alarm to warn us that Atlantis has gone into lockdown. Luckily, I brought my computer to my room with me, otherwise, we may be in big trouble.
Looking at the clock on his bedside table he realised that he'd only been asleep for about an hour, which probably wasn't good because whatever crisis Atlantis now found itself in it would be up to him to save the day.
Sighing he walked over to his laptop and opened it up hoping to find out where the lockdown was instituted from and who initiated it. It didn't take him long to realise that it was Sheppard who gave the command, and it came from the gateroom, which usually meant that hostiles had entered Atlantis through the wormhole.
He knew that the first thing he needed to do was try and contact someone in the gateroom, but he would have to be discrete about it because he didn't want whoever had infiltrated the gate room to know what was happening.
Having no idea who might be in the gateroom at the moment, he decided that the first person he would contact would be Teyla, followed by Ronon.
Tapping on his earpiece he contacted Teyla, "McKay to Teyla, come in please,"
"Go ahead, Rodney."
"Are you or Ronon in the gate-room or control tower at the moment?"
"No, Ronon and I are in the gym, do you have any idea what is going on?"
"All I know is Sheppard initiated a lockdown from the gate room around ten minutes ago, so I'll try and contact Woolsey to see if I can find out what it is going on. Perhaps I'll meet you in the gym in around ten minutes and we can formulate a plan of attack. I'll see if I can get hold of Major Teldy as well."
"The doors to the gym are open, so you should be able to reach us, that is if you are in the same section as us."
"I'm in my quarters, so I shouldn't have any problems. I'll see you in ten minutes, McKay, out."
Tapping his earpiece again, he tried to contact Woolsey, "McKay to Woolsey come in please."
"I don't have much time, but I will give you a brief explanation of what's going on, we have fifteen hostiles in the gate room, and they have all of the marines stunned and tied up. Colonel Sheppard is creating a diversion at the moment by acting like a spoiled child. He's trying to get to a jumper at the moment so that he can send you a message." Woolsey whispered.
"I understand, McKay out."
Now all he had to do was go and meet up with Ronon, Teyla and Major Teldy and wait. He knew that Sheppard would try and get a message through to him somehow. He also knew that contacting Woolsey like he just had could be extremely dangerous for those being held hostage in the control room, so for now, he needed to maintain radio silence with those in the gate room.
It took him another fifteen minutes to make his way to the gym and when he arrived there, he was happy to see that Ronon and Teyla were there, but he was disappointed to see that Major Teldy hadn't made an appearance, "where is Major Teldy?"
"She is preparing a strike force so that it is ready for when we are able to gain access to the gateroom." Teyla informed him, "She had also suggested that we maintain radio silence until we hear from Colonel Sheppard. Once we have heard from Colonel Sheppard, I will deliver the information to her personally." Teyla offered.
Rodney went and sat down next to Teyla and opened his computer, waiting for a signal from Sheppard.
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
John sent a series of dots and dashes through to Rodney's computer, hoping that he would notice as soon as possible. They had come up with a way to communicate with each other's computer via morse code, hoping that if the bad guys picked it up it would just seem random and they wouldn't realise what was going on. John always had a computer in the Jumper just in case, he also had one in the control room and one in his quarters. Rodney always seemed to have a computer on him, so it was never a problem trying to contact him when the need arose.
"So, you're using morse code, just like we did when we were kids and we wanted to send secret messages?" Dave asked a huge grin spreading across his face.
"Sure am."
"What did you tell him?"
"I gave him a radio frequency to contact us on, one that hopefully Klull and his buddies won't be able to track because although they seem stupid, I have learnt over the years that the dumbest people are often the most dangerous."
"So, what happens now?" Dave asked wringing his hands nervously.
"We wait until McKay contacts us and then hopefully he'll be able to coordinate with Major Teldy to prepare a strike force to come and rescue us."
"Does this type of thing happen a lot, John?" Dave asked looking worried.
"From time to time, but this has to be the first time I've been turned into a child." He said with a smirk.
"It's just that you look like you're enjoying yourself," Dave said and he cringed at the seriousness of his tone, it actually reminded him of when he was a teenager and Dave or his father were giving him a dressing down, for some stupid stunt he'd pulled.
"As I've told you before, this is my job, sometimes it's dangerous and sometimes I get hurt. Some days I enjoy it, but on days like this I do what needs to be done and I definitely don't enjoy it."
"But Klull could have killed you, as it is, he pushed you down the stairs and did who knows what damage to injuries that have barely healed." Dave soothed with a worried tone, it was a tone that Dave always used when he was a child and sick or injured.
John exhaled the breath that he'd been holding during Dave's last comment, "I had to try something Dave and I just hoped as irritated as he was with me that he wouldn't kill a child."
"But you took a big risk."
John smiled at his brother, grateful for the fact that he cared again, "unfortunately, the risk is part of my job. I realise that one day it might get me killed, but I made my peace with that a long time ago."
"I know, but I just want you to be careful because I don't want to have to bury my brother, especially if he's in a child's body."
John shivered at the thought and before he had a chance to say anything else Puss decided to make himself known and jumped on his lap, "I'm sorry Puss, but you can't go to the bathroom right now, how about you wait until we get back to the control tower and then you can do it on one of Klull's cronies, or better still on Klull."
Dave chuckled, "Don't tell him that, because I'm sure he'll do anything you ask him to."
"I'm banking on it, anything to annoy Klull a bit more." John laughed, and before he or Dave had a chance to say anything else, his com activated.
Tapping his earpiece, he was happy to hear Rodney on the other end.
"Rodney, where are you?"
"I'm at the gym with Teyla and Ronon. Major Teldy has gone to organise a strike force, she's just waiting on your command."
"At the moment I'm the only one with an earpiece Klull and his goons took them off of all the adults. I guess that they didn't think that a child would be a problem."
"Okay, so how do you want to play this Sheppard?"
"Let me know when you're ready and I'll give you the signal."
"What are these guys after?"
"They want explosives and weapons, at the moment Woolsey is keeping them talking, but I suggest you act quickly. There are fifteen of them around the gate and control room, they have been using stunners so far, but I believe that they have Genii weapons as well, so make sure that you have Keller and Beckett standing by for possible injuries."
"Okay, I'll make sure Teldy uses this frequency and she can contact you when she is ready and I'll contact Carson and Jennifer and fill them in on the situation, McKay out."
John turned to Dave with a smile on his face, "Rodney and Teldy are organising a strike force to come and rescue us?"
"Couldn't you just blow the control tower up or something," Dave suggested, and John could sense that he was serious about his recommendation.
"As much as I love to blow things up, I would really rather not do it with our own people in the control room."
"I know, I was just thinking out loud, it would be so much easier if we could," Dave replied with a grin.
If John didn't know better, he could have sworn that Dave was beginning to enjoy himself. "Right, now we head back to Atlantis and wait for a signal."
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
Rodney finished the transmission and looked at Teyla and Ronon, we need to let Jennifer and Carson know what's going on in case there are injuries when Teldy and her team finally enter the gate room. Have you given her the right frequency to communicate with?"
"I have given her the right frequency and if you would like me to, I will go and let Drs Keller and Beckett know what is going on." Teyla offered in her usual serene tone.
"I'll contact Teldy and see what is happening," Rodney suggested.
"I think I'll go and join Teldy," Ronon grumbled walking off.
"And when I have informed Drs Keller and Beckett what is going on I will join the strike force as well." Teyla informed him before walking off.
Great here I am sitting in the gym and talking to myself, he thought, before getting back to work.
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
After landing the jumper, John turned to his brother and smiled. It felt good to have him sitting by his side and what was even better was that they were working together, which was what his father had always wanted. Although his father would probably roll over in his grave if he knew that they were up too. His father's dream was that John would be helping Dave run the business after he'd died. He shuddered at the thought, this was much more exciting despite the danger and they were making a difference, a much bigger difference than they could make if they were running the business.
"Are you ready to go and play father and son again," John quipped?
"I can see why dad always used to get frustrated with you as a kid, but my memories of you as a kid are that you were curious and adventurous, and as an adult, you're the same. And sometimes I wish I were more like you."
John felt totally embarrassed by the way the conversation was heading, so he knew he had to put a stop to it quickly, "thanks, I think. Now, shall we get going, before Klull and his buddies miss us, or worse still become suspicious and come looking for us."
Dave nodded and stood up, holding his hand out for John to take. His hand still felt sore from when he had burnt it on the device that had caused all of this mess, but he held Dave's hand anyway. It was time for him to act like a spoilt child again.
A few minutes later, they were heading down the stairs towards the control room, with Puss following them. John's leg was beginning to hurt again, so it was more of a limp than a walk.
Klull was the first to greet them when they reached the control room, "So kid have you done what you need to do?"
John glared at him, "yes, but do you know what it's like to lose your mother? I bet you don't and if you do it's turned you into a horrible bitter old man. I really hope that you get what's coming to you. Bad people like you need to be taught a lesson and I hope that one day someone will!" John was angry by the time he'd finished.
He knew that he should have kept his mouth shut when Klull pulled out his stunner, "will you shut up kid, you're really beginning to annoy me?"
Aw crap, he thought, before the stunner beam hit him in the chest and he fell to the floor falling hard on his right shoulder again. The last thing he saw before he lost consciousness was Dave hitting Klull.
TBC…