Disclaimer - I do not own SGA or its Characters. I do own Dr. Orla Grant.
Rated T for violence & threat.
The Puddle Jumper plummeted towards the water below. Sheppard couldn't regain any control over of the navigation systems. "We're going down, folks," Sheppard yelled as he checked the shields, they still held, his relief momentary.
"Slow down," McKay begged.
"I can't, we're going to hit the water hard!" Sheppard warned.
The jumper hit the water at speed, diving into the depths of the ocean. The impact, lessened by the shields, still jarred the jumper causing some its' passengers to be thrown from their seats. Sheppard impacted with the pilot's console but remained conscious, he shook his head taking a moment to realize what had happened. McKay likewise felt the impact of the dash-board from the co-pilot's chair. MacKay pushed himself off the dash, he could taste copper. Blood, he'd bitten his lip, he immediately reached into his TAC vest for tissues.
Although Ronon was thrown from his chair, he'd been expecting the impact and seemed to almost roll with the fall. He was already rising to his feet when Dr. Biro landed on him causing him to grunt in surprise. As he started to push the doctor off him, Orla words came to mind, not all the staff are Marines be gentle. Dr. Biro was a small woman who didn't weigh much. He grasped hold of her upper arms as gently as he could to prevent her from falling further.
"Oh my, oh, Ronon, sorry about that, oh," Biro called out in surprise as she tried to right herself. It was one thing to deal with these men in her safe environment of the infirmary but she wasn't sure she was going to be cut out for leaving Atlantis unless it was to return to Earth.
Ronon lifted the doctor off of him with ease as he stood and pushed her back into her seat, before re-taking his.
The interior of the jumper had been plunged into darkness as soon as they'd gone underwater. The shuttles illumination immediately flickered on then off, then on once more before settling into a dim eerie glow.
"Navigation part of the lights?" Ronon asked looking at McKay.
"No, best guess is some circuitry crystals may have over loaded when the navigation systems tried to compensate and over correct itself." Rodney explained as he looked across to Sheppard, "how we doing, can we get to the surface?"
"I'm trying."
"Oh dear," Dr. Biro said as she pushed her glasses back up her nose.
"Orla," Laura shouted as the rain and wind began to batter them both, the trees not offering much in the way of shelter. Laura waited until she had Orla's full attention, the woman was soaked through, her face not masking her discomfort but she hadn't said anything. "Are you okay?"
Orla nodded, her back was becoming unrelenting but she didn't want to cause any concern, she hadn't had a contraction so wasn't concerned about labor. She was just tired and stuck in a storm, back pain was part of the consequence but she didn't feel strong enough to even verbally reply.
Laura knew Orla was holding back how uncomfortable she was, "I'm going to look for anything we can use as shelter, okay?"
Again, Orla nodded and tried to shift a little to relieve her back pain.
Laura checked her P90 as she clipped it onto her TAC vest and pulled out a small hand gun from her thigh holster. She readied the weapon and knelt beside Orla once again. She showed the scientist her gun, "in case," was all she said before she handed it over to her. Laura stood and pulled a wicked looking knife from her belt, a birthday gift last year from Ronon. She headed further into the woodland.
Jennifer was tired and wet through but she couldn't stop, she needed to get Lorne dry and warm. Tearing at one of the packs with her teeth, she pulled out a foil blanket and immediately covered Lorne's injured leg. His other leg was wedged between the edge of the trap and the stake impaling him, from what she could surmise it was purely the position he was in that had stopped him from being impaled even further. Jennifer stepped around the stakes to reach Lorne's head and she tore at the packaging of the second blanket. As best as she could in the limited space, she covered his upper body and tried to protect his face. She'd found two Morphine phials while searching for the blankets, she'd slipped one into her jacket pocket and had administered the other shortly before she began to cover Lorne with the foil blankets. It was her hope that the high dose of Morphine she'd administered would keep him unconscious, as the natural reaction when waking would be to move and It would be almost impossible for her to stop him from moving in their limited space. This way she also hoped the trauma he would suffer would be less at least physiologically, if he was not awake.
Laura was desperate to find something to use but the scrubland offered nothing. It was still light but the sky was threatening and grey from the rain, the trees swayed. She had nothing to cut the trees down and the branches were too high to climb, she couldn't risk a fall and leave everyone vulnerable. That was when she saw it. Laura moved towards a small strange shaped set of rocks set away from the trees.
As she searched the rocks it became evident it was a small grotto, it wasn't perfect but at least Orla could stay dry and safe, even if they couldn't communicate over the radios. It was better than Orla getting hyperthermia while pregnant.
Orla was never more relieved than to see Laura approach smiling, some good news?
"Hey prof, found you a grotto, there's no Santa or Elves, but your own secret hidey-hole from the storm."
Orla smiled and handed the hand gun back to Laura, she tried to stand but couldn't.
"Come on lazy bones, do I have to do everything?" Laura laughed growing concerned at the lack of a biting retort from her friend. "Jen's gave me some foil blankets, when we get you settled you can use them to keep you dry, at least more than you are now," Laura helped Orla her feet, "I'm going to let Jen know we're moving, give me a minute, ok?"
Orla nodded she was too tired to even reply.
Laura carefully crawled to the edge of the trap, she yelled at Jennifer to get her attention. She looked at the young doctor, she could use a foil blanket herself. She was soaked, her clothes and hair plastered to her scalp and body. "Jennifer!" Finally, the young doctor looked up at her. "I found a small cave; it will work as shelter for Orla. I won't be long. I'll get her settled and come back to you. Jennifer, use a blanket on yourself. No point having a doctor if she dies of hyperthermia," Cadman shouted. She watched as Jennifer nodded before standing to head back to Orla side.
"Alright, that's more like it," Sheppard smiled as the jumper began to slowly move towards the surface of the ocean.
"How far are we away from the mainland?" Ronon asked
"Too far to swim buddy, relax. We'll be there in no time. I keep telling you, Orla's probably eating chocolate sitting next to a camp fire organizing chaos with Cadman," Sheppard wasn't too sure he believed himself either.
They broke through the surface of the water. Sheppard tried to get his bearings, he activated the HUD, it lit up but soon cut out, the circuits of the jumper definitely damaged. "Is there anything you can do to these circuits, McKay?"
"Not much point in this storm the inference will probably short them again."
"Try, please?" Ronon quietly replied.
McKay turned to Ronon, was about to make an off-hand remark about what did a Wookie know about electronics when he saw the worry upon the Satedan's face. "I'll see what I can do, no promises though, okay?"
Ronon nodded, "need help?"
McKay scoffed at Ronon earning a small smile from the warrior.
"Okay, folks, I think I got our heading," Sheppard declared.
"You think or you know?" McKay snarked in reply.
"I think," Sheppard reiterated.
"Can we please just go to the mainland?" Ronon moaned.
"I think I can repair these circuits, if, Sheppard you don't try anything fancy until we're all back on board?"
"Fine, I'm going to take us in," Sheppard answered, "the shields are holding but this might be a little rough in places. That storms coming in and the rain and wind are really picking up."
The growling from the rear of the jumper, reminded Sheppard to be careful what he said around Ronon, he turned to see his friend with his head bowed and Dr. Biro offering her hand on his arm for comfort.
Laura finally managed to move Orla to the grotto, this time the small scientist didn't object to Laura's guiding arm. "It's here. You know, I don't know why they don't say small cave instead of grotto. Makes me think of Christmas though," when she didn't get a response from Orla she began to worry. Carefully she moved Orla further into the cave and turned her to look at her so she had her direct attention. "Just wait," she dropped the bag she'd brought with her and fished out two foil blankets from her jacket. "Okay, you're soaked, let's get this huge wet cardigan off you," she said, helping her friend to remove the clothing. "T-shirt too, you're soaked through," with that Laura began to remove her TAC vest, muddy jacket and her own T-shirt which was slightly damp but mostly dry.
Orla shivered the grotto offered some protection from the wind and rain but the air was still cold. She began to remove the wet t-shirt, dropping it on top of the soaked cardigan. Laura offered Orla her own t-shirt, she began to giggle at the offering, "you might have noticed my stomach is not as flat as yours."
"You don't say, duh," Cadman laughed despite being cold and wet. "Take it, put it on, it will cover some of you, okay not much but its warm and I need you to stay warm. We can wrap one foil blanket around you like a bath towel and keep junior snug, the other around your shoulders it will keep you warm for a while," she wrapped Orla in the foil sheets then burst into laughter at the sight of her friend. "You look like a Thanksgiving turkey ready for the oven."
Orla laughed, grateful for her friends help and good humour. "What about you?"
Laura put her jacket back on and TAC vest, "not great but it's okay. I need to get you settled and help Jen. Are you okay? The radios aren't working so I will keep coming back but do not leave this place for anything, understood?" Laura helped Orla to the ground and tried to make her as comfortable as possible. She placed the rucksack next to her. "This is the bag Jennifer brought for you. It's mostly pregnancy stuff and your laptop. I don't have anything to start a fire for you, everything is soaked through. But the blankets will use your own body's heat to keep you warm. I will be back soon, please stay here."
Orla nodded and watched as Laura disappeared leaving her alone.
Sheppard tried to manoeuvre the Puddle Jumper toward the mainland. He still had to imagine everything in reverse to combat the damaged controls. The blustering wind and rising waves slowed their progress, the storm tossing the jumper about.
"How will find them if the storms interfering with everything?" Ronon asked.
"Orienteering," Sheppard grinned. "Back on Earth we'd be taken to an unknown area with just a map and a compass. The objective was to get to as many flags as possible before heading home…"
"Why do we want flags?" Ronon asked becoming confused.
"We don't, look the idea was to learn to use maps and readings so when equipment failed you can still get around." Sheppard continued.
"Except we don't have a compass," Rodney added.
"I know, but we know the general layout of the land and we have their landing co-ordinates and we know the retrieval sites co-ordinates. It's only a short walk from their landing location,"
"We the have region mapped out on my data-pad and the life signs detector. If I can tweak the detector's range, it will be okay," Rodney tried to reassure Ronon.
"Won't the storm interfere with the life signs detector? Ronon quizzed the physicist.
"In theory, all it needs to do is confirm life signs or not. It's basic electronic equipment, I guess we'll find out."
"Where do we start?" Dr. Biro added.
"Once Sheppard's actually moored this jumper…" McKay began.
"Moored?" Sheppard teased.
"You're using the jumper as a boat so yes, technically the term is moored not parked or landed."
"How long before we… moor?" Ronon questioned.
"Not long," Sheppard countered.
"How long is long?" Ronon pushed.
"When we get there, Ronon. I'm trying to keep us on track and the storms got other ideas. Not long. Sit back and think happy thoughts, that's an order." Sheppard argued.
TBC ...