Disclaimer - I do not own SGA or its Characters. I do own Dr. Orla Grant.
Rated T for violence & threat.
Setting: Season 5 SGA A/U. Carson is alive and Chief Medical Officer of Atlantis but Dr. Keller is on Atlantis. Lt. Laura Cadman now works on the Daedalus & Atlantis. Ronon is paired with O/C Dr. Orla Grant & Rodney is paired with Jennifer.
Laura creeped to the edge of the trap until she could see Lorne clearly and gasped at the sight before her. Lorne was lying partially on his side, at the edge of the trap. His thigh and calf were impaled on thick wooden stakes, he was unconscious. His pant leg looked slick with what could only be blood. He'd been lucky somehow, he must have twisted himself as he fell, falling sideways instead of backward. If he'd fallen backward, he'd now be dead, completely impaled on the stakes. She'd never seen anything like this before. Her training kicked in, she pushed herself away from the edge of the trap. She did a visual search of the trap's surrounding area before she made a slow physical search making sure it wasn't booby-trapped further. Happy there was no further dangers she edged away from it and ran back toward the site for Jennifer.
Richard Woolsey came alongside Chuck Campbell, Atlantis's senior gate-room technician.
"Anything?" Woolsey asked fearing the worst.
"Nothing yet, Sir." Chuck replied shaking his head.
"Keep trying, we can't assume they received the information regarding the storm not with all the static interference. Keep trying, please."
"It could be they just lost track of time, Sir?" Chuck said returning to his console trying to connect to Major Lorne's team who were now ten minutes overdue for their call-in.
"Let's hope so but with Dr Keller and Dr Grant being together, I'd rather we didn't assume anything."
"Yes, Sir."
Woolsey headed back to his office, his hand reaching out to his forehead to smooth the worry that was becoming a routine these days.
"Off-world activation," Chuck announced. "It's Colonel Sheppard's IDC, Sir."
"Lower the shield," Woolsey ordered quickly.
The Stargate's wormhole rippled and shimmered as the figures of Colonel Sheppard, Specialist Dex and Dr McKay stepped through. Woolsey took a deep breath and began to descend the stairs to greet the returning team. "Colonel Sheppard, we weren't expected your team back, quite so early."
"Mr Woolsey," Sheppard greeted the flustered looking Lantean Leader. "We celebrated a while with the Governor and the village but, ah, daddy to-be here, wanted to get back to Kansas," Sheppard smirked at his own joke earning himself a scowl of confusion from Ronon.
"I don't understand you," Ronon said starring at Sheppard knowing there was a joke at his expense hidden within the Earth references. Turning to face Woolsey, Ronon's eyes narrowed. The man was nervous and had a look of tension about him. The gate-room normally noisy and busy was quiet and people were starring. "What's wrong?"
"What do you mean?" Woolsey swallowed nervously.
"You're nervous and they're all watching," Ronon rationalized.
Woolsey sighed and pressed the bridge of his nose beneath his glasses. "Major Lorne is on the mainland. He was supposed to check in fifteen minutes ago. He didn't. Dr. Keller is with him, there's a storm coming. It appeared on the weather systems after Major Lorne left. The static interference from the storm has affected the radios. It first looked as though it might skirt around Atlantis and the Major's location. However, it quickly changed direction and its heading straight for us and them." Woolsey calmly explained.
"Jennifer's out there and there's a storm approaching? We need to get to them!" Rodney anxiously looked between Woolsey and Sheppard.
"I'm sure, Major Lorne will look after the good doctor…" Sheppard interceded trying to calm Rodney.
Woolsey verbally signed, "Dr. Grant and Lieutenant Laura Cadman are with them also."
"WHAT!" Ronon roared
"Please, Ronon. Try to calm down," Woolsey pleaded, his voice rising slightly. He flashed an anxious look toward Colonel Sheppard.
"I'm sorry, Mr Woolsey. Did you just say, Orla was with Major Lorne?" Sheppard repeated slightly nonplussed.
"Please, gentlemen, let's take this to my office, shall we?"
"No, let's not!" Ronon barked bringing himself up to his full height as he loomed over Woolsey,
"Ronon, please be reasonable."
"I am being reasonable, you're not in the infirmary, are you?" Ronon gruffly snarled his face contorted with anger.
"Ronon, back off, that's an order," Sheppard stepped in trying to calm the seething Satedan.
"Jennifer!" Laura shouted as she appeared at the retrieval site.
"Laura?"
Coming to a stop, Laura tried to calm the panic threatening to bubble into her voice. "Lorne's been hurt. He's fallen into a trap; his leg's been impaled onto stakes. I need your help."
"Oh my god, is he…?" Orla couldn't finish the sentence.
"I couldn't get into the trap without you all knowing where it is. He's moaning and I heard him cry so, I'd say he's alive, but he needs medical treatment, now."
Jennifer began to check the bags she'd brought with her, her mind racing trying to decide what she had with her she could use. "Okay, help me with these bags, Laura. Orla, stay here, that's an order! Laura can take me to Lorne then she can come back for you. It's better we all stay together but right now; Lorne needs me to get to him fast."
Orla understood and nodded, "Yes, go, I'm fine. I'll keep trying Atlantis," Orla watched as Jennifer and Laura began to disappear from sight as she rubbed at her aching back. The wind was beginning to increase in strength whipping up dust and debris, she watched as the trees swayed back and forth. Activating her radio all she could hear was static hissing in her ear. She removed the earpiece and placed it in her cardigan pocket. She began to pack away the camera and pieces she'd used to retrieve the information for Dr Lindsay.
"Stop," Cadman demanded as she grabbed Jennifer's arm. "The trap doesn't seem booby-trapped but we need to take care around the edges, Jen. I don't want you falling in there too."
"Okay, but I'm going to need to get into there to see to Lorne."
Cadman grabbed at the rucksack on her back, dragging it off, she began to rifle through it. "we'll need this," she pulled out a length of coiled rope. "I'll need to lower you in to the trap. We need to get Orla over here too, the winds picked up. The storm Atlantis mentioned to Lorne must be headed our way. Its best if we all stick together."
"Agreed, so, can you lower me in there, safely?" Jennifer asked her voice not hiding the trepidation she felt.
"Yeah, I think so, you're pretty skinny," Laura teased.
"Here," Jennifer pulled a pair of gloves from her bag. "Probably not much help but it will help your hands, I can't use the bandages, I need them for Lorne."
"Those won't help, Jen," Laura said as she uncoiled the rope and wound it around Jennifer's back tying it into a bowline knot. "This will keep you secure. Once you're down I'll pass down the bags, okay?
Jennifer nodded and gulped the anxiety bubbling up. She set her mind to Lorne and nodded once more.
"Slowly" Laura warned her.
Jennifer edged near to the trap, she felt herself tremble just a little, she began to breathe through her nose. He looked at the stakes protruding from the bottom of the trap and gasped in horror. She quickly looked across at Lorne and tried to push her anxieties away. "Gonna be tight fit, finally being skinny is an advantage," Jennifer joked.
"I need you to slowly lower yourself over the edge. Don't jump, slide down the side of the trap until your hanging by your fingers then let go," Laura ordered and she wrapped the rope around her back and wound the end of the rope around her left arm and grasped hold of the end piece within her left hand. She placed her weight on her back-left foot and put her dominate right foot forward to try and keep herself stable.
Jennifer didn't think about it, she reacted hearing Ronon in her mind reminding her to react not think, let instinct take over. She lay on the ground and slid herself over the edge of the trap, her other leg followed and she hung over the trap looking up at Laura. Extending her arm's, she lowered herself before letting go of the edge. She cried out in fear, but she hung there, slowly she was being lowered inch by inch into the trap.
Laura watched as Jennifer disappeared over the edge of the trap, the rope took up the slack and immediately she felt Jennifer's weight. She grunted against the reaction to let go, instead she tried to loosen the tension in the rope to allow Jennifer to be lowered slowly.
"We'll get a Puddle Jumper, get out to the mainland and bring them all back, Lorne will make sure they're safe, Ronon," Sheppard tried to sound as though he was as convinced by his words as he was trying to make Ronon feel.
"Why is she even out there? Who sent her?" Ronon growled at Woolsey, he wasn't ready to be placated.
"She's not a prisoner, Ronon. She asked to go to the mainland herself, this was her idea. She wanted to work on retrieving information found by a botany team for Dr. McKay and Dr. Lindsay. They promised to stay in contact every thirty minutes. As Orla argued, this is not off-world but outside. She's not near a Stargate or a settlement." Woolsey used Orla's words against Ronon.
"She's eight months pregnant."
"Yes, she's also very restless, Ronon. She wanted to be useful and go for a walk before the child is born."
"Why wasn't I told about this. Wait, was this planned, Orla and Laura together?" Ronon barked furiously.
"Not to my knowledge, Ronon. Why did Dr. Grant wait for you to go off-world? Probably because of your reaction right now!" Woolsey added, pretty sure Ronon wasn't about to hit him.
"I swear that woman …" Ronon snapped before he began to angrily shout in Satedan pacing back and forth. He turned to Sheppard, "Can we go, now to the mainland?"
"Um, no, actually we can't or rather shouldn't," Rodney carefully interjected.
All heads turned to look at McKay. He swallowed, "the Puddle Jumpers internal navigation will be affected by the static interference."
"I don't need the HUD to get to the mainland, Rodney. I'm a better pilot than that," Sheppard retorted feeling slighted.
"I'm talking about the internal navigation systems themselves will be screwed. We need the gene to activate the Puddle Jumper but if the navigation systems don't work properly then suddenly go becomes stop despite what Sheppard's instructing the jumper to do. It's too unstable."
"Got a boat?" Ronon asked flatly.
All heads this time turned to look at Ronon.
"What? We're on a body of water and can't fly. I'll use a boat get to the mainland if I have to. I'm not letting…"
"We could use the Puddle Jumper as a boat, kind of. If we don't submerge completely, we could use the main viewer to see the direction we go in. If the navigation goes out, we could easily work out if the jumper thinks left is right and right is left!" Sheppard explained excitedly.
"Just exactly how do you plan on getting the Puddle Jumper into the water? The lower jumper bay is still flooded we can't create another shield against that kind of water pressure. Not since we lost the Eastern Pier. We only have one ZPM," Rodney said.
"Then we'll use one from the upper jumper bay. Might be a little bumpy can't see anyone objecting to that," Sheppard replied grinning at Ronon.
"Care to elaborate?" McKay asked.
"The gene will start the jumper. Jumpers have their own shields', right? So, we start it up and navigate out of the jumper bay and when or if we plummet down, we can hit the water using the shield to protect the Puddle Jumper and us. Then we skim across the water to the mainland. Rest we can do on foot."
"Oh really, and when we've managed to get everyone back to the jumpers how are you planning on re-entering the jumper bay?" McKay asked.
Sheppard thought for a moment before he smiled, "West Pier, there's a quay like docking area. Originally intended for boats or ships to be moored, after all, this is a floating city. We can dock there; the docking area is sloped so we'll be able land with the exit facing Atlantis and nobody will get wet, then we get everyone to the nearest transporter."
Rodney thought for a moment, "that might actually work."
"I'm in." Ronon declared.
"I'm down," Jennifer cried out as she began to untie the bowman's knot. "Can you pass the bags?"
"What?" Cadman appeared at the edge of the trap. "The winds picking up, we need to be quick, we're going to need shelter."
Jennifer nodded, "pass the bags down and then go get Orla."
"You can get past those stakes?"
Jennifer turned in the limited space looking back up she nodded. "It's going to be difficult but yes, I really need to stop Lorne's bleeding."
Laura stood up and pulled the rope back up placing it back into the backpack, she hid the back pack under nearby scrub, one less piece of equipment to carry but safe for further use. She grabbed at the medical bag Jennifer had brought and dropped it over the edge down towards Lorne. "I'm going to get Orla; will you be okay?"
"Yes, go."
Orla paced, she wasn't impatient just couldn't rest, her back was unrelenting, having no real place to sit hadn't helped. She didn't want to try sitting on the floor as she wasn't actually sure she could get back up. Whose Idea was this? Oh yeah, mine, she thought as she placed her hands on the nearest part of the three remaining walls. Oh, not so good, try to stay calm. It's back pain from standing, Orla took a deep breath and released it slowly.
"Orla?" Laura ran to her friend's side, "are you…?"
Orla turned to see panic across Laura's face, she immediately tried to quell the worry in Laura, "no, just tired. How's Lorne?"
"Jennifer's with him but I need to move you over to where we are so we're all together. There's a storm coming in. I need to find us shelter too. Come on, the others need us."
"I know, can you help me with the equipment?"
"I have this medical bag full of baby equipment, I can take another bag and carry one more as long as you can walk without help?" Cadman looked at Orla, "truth, Prof."
"I'm tired and my back hurts but I'm okay, any room for a laptop somewhere no point leaving it?"
Cadman gathered all the equipment, including the laptop and placed a bag over each shoulder. The third she carried. "Let's go."
TBC...