Thanks rnee for the beta job. Thanks to all who reviewed and also sorry - I tried to say thank you to you all individually but the gremlins won't let me reply to reviews at the moment...
Part 7 – The best laid plans…
"But he's inside the three metres! Why isn't he waking up? I thought that you said that anything within three metres of that would be protected from the defence system!" protested Ford pointing at the jamming device.
"I know I did but I didn't count on him being sat in that!" McKay snapped in reply staring at Sheppard with a look on his face that was a peculiar mix of anger, doubt and disgust. "Oh crap, crap and double crap. Why did this have to happen?" he muttered as he meticulously examined the unconscious major and the chair from every angle. The ghostly blue light from the active chair played over McKay's face making him look paler and sicker than before. Ignoring his pounding head, McKay crouched down to peer closely at the Major's hands, one of which was tightly clutching the small array of crystals he had touched initialising the defence system and triggering the "attack" on them. The Canadian began to swear slowly to himself, cursing the planet, the chair and above all stupid Air Force majors who couldn't keep their hands to themselves.
Filtering out McKay's monologue, Carson Beckett examined the unconscious form of his patient from a careful distance. With professional detachment the doctor noted the sunken eyes, the tracks of dried tears, the blue-ish tinge to his lips, the slack face, the shallow breathing and the absolute immobility in which the major lay. He frowned and then beckoned over the medic to help him unpack the bags of medical supplies.
"This is bad," observed Zelenka absentmindedly chewing on his lower lip as he stood staring at the chair and its occupant.
"No, Radek, this is not bad," McKay corrected as he stood up, "this is very bad. Actually, this is not only very bad, it is extremely bad." Suddenly the pressure, his fatigue and his headache won the upper hand. "This was not in the plan. What the hell were you thinking you idiot? I told you not to sit in the chair!!" he shouted at Sheppard who showed no sign of having heard anything.
Startled by the vehemence of McKay's anger, Teyla reached out and touched his arm. "I do not believe that Major Sheppard can hear you, Doctor McKay, so there is little point in shouting at him," she admonished softly but firmly.
Angrily shrugging off her hand, McKay grumbled, "Yes there is, it makes me feel better." He was visibly struggling to get his temper back under control, to think straight, but his head hurt and he really didn't need this complication.
"McKay, what the hell is going on?" Ford asked and scowled when McKay ignored him. "You said that all you had to do was to hack into the system, turn it off and then we could go find Sheppard. Well, we've found him, so it's just turning it off that's left. So get to it, OK?"
"Well, Lieutenant, thank you so much for your insightful comments. Once again you have proved my point that I should ignore almost everything, if not everything, that you say," snapped McKay in reply without taking his eyes off the scene in front of him.
Ford bristled at the insult but persisted and asked, "What's your problem, McKay? Just hack in and switch it off like you said you would!"
"I can't just hack in and switch off the defence system because he's interfaced with the chair, you block head!!" the Canadian shouted at Ford. He then turned to Sheppard and continued, "Why did you sit in it? I specifically told you NOT to sit in it." With a frustrated groan, he lowered his pack to the floor and sat down heavily. He let his hands hang limply between his knees.
"Doctor McKay, I believe that all Lieutenant Ford was asking for was an explanation of what the major's situation is," said Teyla diplomatically, hoping to defuse the tension. She shot a warning glance at Ford who looked as if he was about ready to use his tranquiliser gun on McKay.
"The problem is the major is interfaced with chair now, and chair controls defence system." It was Zelenka who spoke as he quietly unpacked equipment. "This makes hacking system much more difficult; many more, how you say, variables introduced." The Czech looked up from his work and added, "And Rodney is right, this is very, very bad."
"But you will be able to fix it, won't you?" interjected Beckett, worry for his patient clearly audible in his voice.
McKay and Zelenka exchanged worried looks and then McKay, his temper now back under control, answered tersely, "Whilst I have no doubt that, given time, we can do it this, it's not going to be easy, understand?" Then he sighed deeply and rose to his feet to join Zelenka as he set up computers and cables.
"Can't we just get him out of the chair? Won't that just switch it off like it does the Atlantis chair?" asked Ford.
McKay gave the young marine a look that clearly said, 'I won't waste my breath answering your stupid question,' but he said nothing and carried on working.
"But why not, Rodney?" asked Beckett.
"Because this chair is different, OK? That's why I was having problems with it before. It not only seems to link with the user for control, it integrates their mental processes into the programme. If we just pull him out, he'll probably end up a vegetable. As I said to him," he indicated Sheppard with an irritable flick of his thumb, "sit in chair, head might fry."
"Oh," said Becket and swallowed.
"Now could you all just stop asking questions and let us get on with this?" asked McKay almost plaintively.
Beckett nodded and went back to checking the medical kit. Ford and Teyla drew back a little way, taking care to stay within the three metre radius and watched the scientists. They worked quickly and mostly in silence; McKay because his head hurt too much to speak and Zelenka because he was concentrating on what he was doing. When they spoke it was in short terse sentences.
"Modulate that to the dominate frequency but watch the rotations…"
"OK, number three unit is in place and I have bypassed the preliminary routing."
"Good, now try to bypass that crystal group so that the sensors in here are off-line."
"Are you sure we need to do that, Rodney?"
"Just humour me, Radek, on this one, just humour me."
Ford didn't understand most of what they said and it added to his sense of unease. He was never entirely comfortable being in charge of civilians; they never did as they were told and spent so much time arguing and questioning his orders that he felt he wasn't in command at all. He shifted uncomfortably, his eyes flicking between the two feverishly working scientists, his oblivious commanding officer and the marine posted on guard duty as near the door as the three metre radius would permit.
The tension in the hot, dusty room lay heavy on everyone and Beckett's patience was beginning to wear thin – he had to get to his patient! After fifteen minutes he opened his mouth to speak but was interrupted by McKay. "OK, Carson, you can go and do what it is you do but don't touch the chair. The last thing we need is another ATA gene screwing this up. Everyone else, just wait but keep within a three metre radius of this box! Do you understand?"
"I can touch him?" Beckett asked as he stepped forward.
"Yes," McKay answered wearily and then lowered himself carefully to the floor. He scrubbed his eyes and took a long drink from a water canister to wash down the Tylenol he had just surreptitiously placed in his mouth. He leant back against a console near the chair and closed his eyes, his mind racing as he considered what his and Radek's next step should be.
Beckett, with the medic's help, set to work examining Sheppard, all the time keeping clear of the chair. It made working difficult but in a few minutes he had an IV drip feed set up and was assessing Sheppard's physical state.
"How is he, Doc?" Ford asked.
Beckett shook his head. "I'm not sure, laddie, not sure at all. He's been in this chair overnight now, at least 15 hours by my reckoning. He's dehydrated and suffering from heat stroke that much is clear, but I need to get him unhooked from this damn thing before I can do anymore."
Their conversation was interrupted by a shout from the door.
"We got company, Lieutenant!" The marine on guard near the door let off a burst of fire from his P90. "Unfriendlies, at least 20 of them. They've got some kind of energy weapon." There was another burst of fire.
McKay's eyes snapped open a horrified expression on his face. He scrambled over to the life signs detector and fumbled with it, another burst of automated fire rattling in his ears. "There's nothing there," he shouted. "He's hallucinating!"
"Stand down, Marine!" shouted Ford.
"There's too many of them, I can't hold them off! I'm hit… Aw shit!" The marine fell heavily to the floor clutching his thigh.
Ford watched helplessly as the soldier hissed with pain and fumbled with a field bandage, attempting to wrap it around a leg that wasn't bleeding.
"Fall back to me, our safe area has shrunk by about a metre," shouted McKay.
"It's not real, Son, it's an illusion. Get over here," shouted Beckett. "I can help!"
"Oh, as if that's going to achieve anything," muttered McKay sourly.
The man on the floor seemed to hear something but it was evidently not the voices of his team mates as he flinched and turned with difficulty onto his stomach. "Oh God!" he gasped squinting around him and then he dragged himself back to the wall. Teyla put a restraining hand on Beckett's shoulder as he started to move forward to help the marine who was obviously firmly in the grip of a hallucination. Beckett could see the expression of abject fear on the man's face as his eyes darted from side to side until his gaze fixed on the doctor. The soldier's eyes widen at what he thought he saw. Then Beckett saw the marine pull his P-90 to his shoulder with shaking hands and take aim.
"Aw, crap…"