Chapter 16: Power

Sheppard didn't really know what was going on but he knew that Mitchell or Ronon had obviously had their reasons for telling these people what the devices were and as he began to think more quickly he went back over the technicians exact words... it looked like a half truth had been told.

More people grabbed his shoulders and before he had really registered what was going on he was in a sitting position with his legs hanging over the side of the table, he was feeling a little queasy and he put this down to his sudden change in position and the after effects of whatever they had used to knock him out, he often had a bad reaction to anaesthetics.

Before he could really have time to get over the effects of the anaesthetic a light was shone directly into his eyes and his headache flared up fiercer than ever. "I think that hurt him." He heard a voice behind him say, "Do it again."

Sheppard did not appreciate the light in his eyes again and grunted to indicate it; he was in no mood for full words yet. "Do you have a headache?" another voice asked.

Sheppard looked up at the man asking and saw that it was the one wielding the light. Hoping to deter the man from shining the light in his eyes again he nodded quickly, almost instantly regretting it as his headache made itself known once more.

"The second device from the bottom flashed" the voice behind him piped up once more. Sheppard was really starting to dislike this voice and this feeling was intensified only seconds later when a searing pain flashed across a small section of his back.

"What was that?" he half gasped, half demanded turning to look. The small man had round glasses and a squat frame but that was not drew Sheppard's attention. The man had a small scalpel in his hand and Sheppard knew instantly that he had cut him with it as he could feel the blood running down his back. "Why did you do that?" he asked trying to regain some exposure.

"We need to establish a baseline for how these devices work. How they relate to pain and physical stress." The light wielder told him, Sheppard suspected that he may have been in charge. "We are now going to place you on a running machine please be cooperative and this will only be brief." Sheppard decided to acquiesce for the time being. "You look to be in fairly good shape" the man standing before him said, obviously seeing Sheppard's submittance "How often would you say you run during seven days?"

Sheppard thought for a minute before answering "Before my accident I would run for at least an hour most days if I could find the time, not so much in the last couple of months though."

The man seemed satisfied with this answer as he turned and walked through another door. Sheppard found himself being led in the same direction and couldn't work up the will power to resist so decided for the time being he would do as he was instructed.

Through the door they entered what looked like a gym from earth. Before Sheppard really had time to register anything through the drug induced haze that still persisted in his brain he was on the treadmill and running, the small man that had wielded the knife once more behind him calling out the changes in the devices on his back for a third man to note down.

After ten minutes Sheppard was dismayed to find that he was sweating and slightly out of breath and cursed the circumstances that had led to his decline in fitness. "That will do I think" said the man in charge. "I think we have enough data to be going on with." Relieved Sheppard stepped off the treadmill, looking forward to lying down for a while but the man continued to speak "It's almost time for the change over in the power chamber we should head down there now."

"What's a power chamber?" Sheppard asked a ball of dread forming in his stomach and sitting like lead, he didn't like the way things were going.

"Not to worry," the guy in charge said dismissively, "it will mean very little to you. This did nothing to assuage Sheppard's worries but he wasn't sure he was in any state to be trying to resist whatever they had planned he just hoped it wouldn't do anymore damage to his already suffering body. Better yet, he hoped both Ronon and the others would come up with a plan to get everyone out of here before he had to find out or that earth would find them and mount a rescue mission. It was however; dubious this was going to happen in what appeared to be a short time period before he found out what the power chamber was.

The head technician headed towards yet another door and Sheppard had time to look around wondering exactly how many doors each room had before the ever present guards took up a position on either side of him and indicated he should follow. He walked down what seemed like a comparatively short corridor when the other corridors he had encountered in this place were taken into account. About halfway down his small group stopped at a small door that had a deep hum emanating from behind it.

As the technician typed in a code that accessed the door an announcement could be heard echoing around the ship as a voice declared; "attention all personnel, power change will commence in five minutes, please secure any projects you may be working on and be prepared for blackout."

"That sounds labour intensive." Sheppard quipped; he was very nervous now and was desperate not to show it.

The doors slid open and the group entered into a dimly lit room with a cold blue glow offering the only form of light. The blue glow was coming from a large tank in the middle of the room. It took a minute for Sheppard to realise that the dark shape he could see floating in the middle of the tank was in fact a human, a fairly young one if size was anything to go by. The child couldn't have been more than eleven or twelve from guessing. Sheppard recoiled in horror but was abruptly stopped as his back came into contact with the two guards who had discreetly repositioned themselves while he had been paying attention to the figure in the tank.

"The first time in the power chamber can be slightly abrasive." The technician commented casually as though he was commenting on a nature documentary Sheppard's brain supplied abstractly.The technician was uncoupling cables that were attached to the tank and as he did Sheppard felt the ship fall out of hyperspace travel.

"We try not to use the children where possible, they never supply as much power as adults and we have to change sources far more frequently, unfortunately it has been a while since our last restock and it takes longer for the subjects to recover after each stint in the power chamber." Sheppard couldn't believe how detached the man sounded as though he was literally talking about a battery. "My suggestion to you would be not to fight the process it's much less traumatic if you do that."

The last cable was detached and the ship fell strangely silent as the last source of power was uncoupled and all the systems shut down. Two technicians that Sheppard hadn't noticed up to that point stepped forward and unclasped the top of the tank lifting the child out. Sheppard could see from where he was standing that it was a little girl. The technicians laid her on her side on the floor and then hit her solidly between the shoulders. The girl began to cough violently expunging blue liquid from her lungs. When she finally stopped coughing she began to cry but this quickly abated as she succumbed to what Sheppard could only assume was exhaustion.

"That's..." Sheppard started trying to come up with the right words, "barbaric." This was far worse than anything he had seen before, even more so than the emperors collection on the planet where he had been injured.

"It's necessary to ensure the continued existence of the population on this ship." The technician supplied indifferently as the guards began to usher a very reluctant Sheppard towards the tank. He dug his bare feet into the ground but the guards didn't hesitate in picking him up bodily by his shoulders causing pain to tear through his consciousness.

When his brain finally began to pierce through the fog of pain once more he felt the peculiar sensation of pins and needles in his toes. Looking down he saw that the guards were lowering him into the tank. At this point and almost uncontrollable animal fear took over and he thrashed trying to get away from his captors. He had no hope of overpowering the two burly men in his current state however and within a minute they had him in the tank nearly fully submerged.

He'd almost completely run out of energy and could only drift in the liquid as he tried to identify the strange and yet familiar sensation that was overtaking his entire body. As he realised that it felt like he had just sat down in the control chair in Atlantis he started to search for the mental connection that usually accompanied this sensation. He didn't have long to explore this new idea however as panic set in again as one of the guards pushed down on his chest fully submerging him while the other slid the lid of the tank back into place.

The pressure on his chest disappeared and he surged towards the top of the tank searching for air but there was no airspace at all. Pushing with his all his might Sheppard couldn't even budge the lid of the tank and as the first minute ticked into the second his struggles lessened even as his lungs began to burn. After what seemed like forever, but could have only been two or three minutes, Sheppard felt his will power giving in and his gasp reflex took over, uncontrollably he gasped inhaling a lungful of liquid.

It was one of the most painful experiences of his life as his lungs burned with the liquid entering his lungs. Coughing, trying to clear his lungs of the liquid only caused him to inhale more liquid. As he began to blackout he relaxed and looked to his side to see the technician hooking the cables back up to the tank and felt the ship coming to life as power surged through it and one of the last thoughts that ran through his heads was that he couldn't believe this was how he was going to die.