Thank you, betas! And thank you, reviewers! This chapter and the last one were basically written as a unit; I had to pick a place to break it, because nearly 20,000 words is a LITTLE long for one chapter. (The end of THIS one, however, was planned. Heh. Heh.)
Chapter Fourteen: Fight Scene
There was a peaceful familiarity to sitting in the dim conduit, listening to the tapping of Rodney's keys and an occasional muttered exclamation as the self-described genius hit a dead end or made some minor discovery.
Sheppard kept having to remind himself that this wasn't his universe's McKay. It was a little bit freaky being in close proximity to the alternate one, because he'd totally forgotten how McKay's and his own personal space bubbles used to overlap. In fact it wasn't something he'd really been consciously aware of, until getting around this McKay and rediscovering it. In some indefinable way, he didn't mind having McKay in his personal space; he never had. And the feeling was mutual. Right now he kept wanting to lean over Rodney's shoulder to look at the computer screen. Once upon a time, he would have done exactly that. In fact, with Rodney so thoroughly engrossed in the computer, the almost instinctive temptation to poke at him was almost irresistible.
What the hell? Combat zone, damn it!
"Well, this is just great," Rodney said softly. "Basically, it's like I thought. If their computers have some form of wireless connectivity, I certainly can't hook into it. I'm going to need to get into one of those ships."
"It's not too late to just blow them up."
It might be his imagination, but he thought Rodney looked briefly tempted before irritation overwhelmed it. "Typical, Colonel, typical. Let's solve the problem by destroying it. Been hanging out around Ronon a little too much, have you? Oh wait, I forgot, you were like that before you ever met him."
"You have to admit that it would solve the problem."
"Only by potentially creating a rather significant new one."
The stubborn part of him wanted to argue, because damn it, he was the military commander; he was in charge, and he couldn't go and let a civilian push him around. But a somewhat louder voice in his head kept repeating, If you go and get people killed because you're too goddamn proud to listen to experts, John, then you're an idiot.
"Okay."
Rodney had his mouth half-open in the apparent act of marshaling another argument. He shut it. "Oh. Um, good." His voice, already quiet for Rodney, got a bit smaller. "You know, if you have any ideas about how to get into the ships ..."
"The genius doesn't have a plan for that?"
Rodney's eyes narrowed. "The genius was a little bit busy trying to figure out how to --" He paused, then snapped the fingers on both hands at once, making Sheppard jump. "The life signs detector, do you have it?"
"Yes." He pulled it out and handed it to Rodney, by habit. The screen immediately went dark, and Rodney's face fell.
"Oh, your malformed ATA gene. Again. Big surprise."
"It's our genes that are malformed, not yours?" Sheppard inquired, having to fight down a grin. He was actually enjoying this; damn it all, with the fate of the city at stake, he was having fun verbally sparring with Rodney again.
"Yes, of course it is," Rodney said absentmindedly, handing the LSD back. The screen lit up happily in Sheppard's hand. "Okay, you're going to have to operate it for me. The laptop couldn't do it, but the scanner is much better at finding and identifying carrier frequencies. I've used it before, to interface with unfamiliar technology from a distance when I froze the Asurans."
"The who?"
"Oh right. You don't know about them yet. Ancient wannabes that are actually killer robots. If you happen to find a listing in your database for an abandoned outpost on a planet called Asurus, kindly resist the temptation to explore; you'll save yourselves a lot of trouble. Now, if you're quite done asking questions? Good. Hold up the scanner so that I can see the screen. Okay, now what I need you to do --"
Sheppard quickly discovered why people tended to transfer out of the science division at a higher-than-average level.
"Nononono, dial the frequency down, down! Stop! Go up! Oh, come on, you can do it faster than that!"
"Keep your voice down," Sheppard muttered. "There are only six buttons on this thing, McKay."
"That's why there is a rather significant mental component, Colonel. Ah! Wait! Stop! I think that's got it."
"We're into their system?"
"Not exactly, but I think that we've found the carrier signal that their ships and computers use to interface with each other. Of course whatever protocol they use is going to be complete gibberish to us, which is why we're totally screwed if it isn't similar enough to something in the scanner's data banks that it can interpret it. Call up the main menu. No, not that one!"
Sheppard sighed and had opened his mouth to tell Rodney exactly what he thought of his menus, when a commotion on the floor beneath them caught his eye.
"Oh, damn it," he whispered.
"What?" Rodney looked around wildly, then down, as a small group of Dorandans dragged two prisoners towards one of the ships. One was an apparently semi-conscious Ronon; the other was the Sheppard from Rodney's universe, doubled over with one arm curled around his chest.
Rodney's fingers curled into the metal grating. "What's a person have to do, tie him to his freaking bed?"
The prisoners were forced to their knees in front of the ships. One of their captors backhanded alt-Sheppard across the face; he reeled, obviously having trouble maintaining his balance.
Rodney made a tiny sound in his throat. Sheppard could see that the scientist was on the edge of doing something stupid; every line of his body screamed that he was poised to move. So he reached out, grabbed Rodney's arm -- realizing even as he did so that he hadn't touched McKay, his McKay, in months, the casual contact-in-passing that had once been such an integral part of the weird and prickly friendship they'd once shared.
"You really think you can do anything to help down there?"
Rodney's face was open, desperate. "I don't know, but I've got to do something!"
Sheppard shook the scanner at him. "So get control of the ships. That's what you're good at, right?"
Rodney just stared at him, like his words weren't making any sense. Then, slowly, he gripped the scanner in both hands -- and cursed when the light immediately died. "I can't do this," he said, and his voice cracked in the middle. "It's too slow, too clumsy, I can't get control of those ships before they kill Sheppard and Ronon or at least beat the crap out of them, and we get to watch, oh God I wish I'd made Carson give me the inoculation for your universe's gene --"
Sheppard folded his fingers over the top of the scanner; the blue glow lit up again. "Let's try this a different way. You see if you can manipulate it while I keep it running for you."
"It shouldn't work like that," Rodney said, but he sounded a little less panicked. "Mental component, remember?"
"Never know till you try, right?"
-------
For a change, McKay didn't bother complaining as Seng forced him up the ramp of the Caledon into the ship's too-small interior. He was too busy trying to think the situation through. Sheppard -- it had to be Sheppard. McKay might have his personal problems with the Colonel at the moment, but there was only one man in Atlantis who could sneak onto the enemy flagship and take control of it, right under everyone's noses.
Of course, Sheppard hadn't done anything after that -- which made McKay think that he was having trouble figuring out how to fly it. It just figures. Same thing every day. Nobody can solve a problem without me standing there holding their hand.
His vexation was momentarily forgotten when he saw the inside of the ship. Okay, yeah, it was ugly and cramped and could really use a good coat of paint and maybe one of those pine tree air fresheners, but it was also a whole new design that bore no resemblance to any of the Ancient or Asgard-derived ships he'd seen. Clearly, the Dorandans -- or whoever they'd stolen the ships from -- had developed space travel on their own, without piggybacking on Ancient or Wraith technology.
Cool.
Maybe there was hope for this galaxy yet.
"What's that for? Is that part of the ventilation system? Why in the world did you put it above the entrance to the ship? Oh, wait, that must be the air intake over there -- oh, interesting, you've managed to solve the problem of pressure backflow without relying on --"
"Doctor McKay," Seng growled between his teeth, "you are here for a reason."
McKay was so enthralled with the ship, it took him a minute to notice that there were also humans on it. A middle-aged woman sat with her head between her knees, a damp cloth on the back of her neck. A few more Dorandans were laid out on the floor, being tended by a couple of field medics. One was having his arm splinted.
All of them were alive, and none had bullet holes, which suddenly made McKay reconsider his Sheppard hypothesis.
"Any luck getting the doors open?" Seng snapped.
"No, sir. The intruders have closed the decompression bulkheads in the forward part of the ship."
"Intruder," said the woman on the floor in a weak voice.
"What?"
The woman looked up. There was a spectacular bruise across her chin and the left side of her face. "Intruder. There was only one. A, um, a rather small woman."
"Ancestors' all-seeing eyes, Treen, she'd better have been heavily armed," Seng snarled.
The woman addressed as Treen gave a little flinch. "She was armed with, uh, sticks, sir."
McKay could feel his jaw drop open. Teyla was in charge of the ship?
Seng looked equally stunned. "What is wrong with you people?"
"She was so fast, sir! I think she might have been using some sort of enhancement technology."
Seng had his mouth open to reply -- and from the expression on his face, it wasn't going to be pretty -- when Larissa came running up the ship's ramp. "Captain Seng! We need to talk. Now."
"No." Seng's voice was a low growl. "You and McKay can make yourselves useful and open the doors to the front of the ship."
Larissa brought herself up short; her back stiffened. "Captain Seng, you do not have authority to give me orders."
"This is a military operation. I'd say that I do."
McKay couldn't suppress a painful twitch of memory. This was a rather familiar argument.
Larissa strode forward and jabbed a finger into his chest. "We agreed that if any intelligence came out during the battle that would change our strategy, we'd discuss it. Well, we need to talk. Now."
Seng raised his gun and pressed the tip of it lightly against her jacket below her heart.
"Captain," Larissa said quietly, "at this range, the stun charge would likely be fatal. You understand that?"
"I do, Doctor. I do. Step back or I will shoot you."
The other Dorandans stared, but none moved to interfere. They were all Seng's people, all soldiers, and while none of them looked particularly happy with what was going on, none of them were going to stand against him.
If he were really cool, McKay thought, this was where he'd run down the ramp and escape into the city while everyone else was occupied. Except that his hands were tied behind his back and he figured he'd only get a few steps before someone shot him -- and one of Seng's guards had a big shotgun-like weapon that looked a whole hell of a lot more menacing than the stunguns.
Larissa's face went white and set with rage, much as Elizabeth's face had earlier. She took a few steps back.
"Excellent. Now we understand who is in charge here?"
It took her a moment to be able to speak. "Only here. And only because this is a military operation. As you said."
"Indeed," he agreed smoothly. "Now, take Dr. McKay--"
A soft beeping sound interrupted him. Larissa jumped, and looked wildly down at her wrist, where a small device was strapped. Seng was giving his own wrist an equally startled look.
When Larissa raised her head, there were two bright spots of color on her cheeks. McKay didn't think he'd seen anyone that angry, ever. He took a step backwards and stumbled into a bulkhead.
"Captain," Larissa said crisply, each syllable enunciated, "this is what I wanted to talk to you about. They are attempting to hack into our computers. The system has detected the intrusion and reset the counter on the self-destruct, just as it was designed to do. We now have two and a half cenda before we will all be incinerated."
McKay's mouth went dry. Okay. Holy shit. I really hope a "cenda" is a long time.
"You said this wouldn't happen!" Seng roared.
"No! I said I thought Doctor McKay was the only one on Atlantis who could do it!"
Seng jabbed a finger at McKay, who shrank back against the wall. "And he's right there!"
"But the other one's not," Larissa shot back.
"You said the other one couldn't use the Atlantis computer systems!"
"I didn't think he could! Obviously I was wrong!"
-------
"I'm in," the alternate Rodney murmured, his eyes fixed on the glowing screen. "Oh, crap. It's detected me and initiated some kind of defensive protocol -- I can't tell what yet."
"Dangerous?" Sheppard demanded, holding the scanner for him.
"Shut up, shut up. Working."
"McKay..." Sheppard said, staring down through the metal grating into the jumper bay
"Working!"
"McKay, why are you opening the jumper bay doors?"
Alt-Rodney stopped in the middle of his efforts, his hands freezing on the controls. "What?"
------
The crack of his captor's fist against Sheppard's cheekbone snapped his head back and sent him off balance; with his hands twisted and tied behind his back, he had only the muscles of his legs and side to catch himself, and it hurt like fuck. He wished for a moment that he'd taken another hit or two of painkillers before leaving the infirmary.
"Nice right hook, but lousy follow-through," he panted. "You wouldn't last a round with Tyson, buddy."
They'd been ambushed not far from the jumper bay. After eluding several patrols, they'd had the bad luck to be engaging one group of the enemy while another came upon them from behind. The Dorandans had stunned Ronon, who was supporting Sheppard's weight with one arm while they covered opposite ends of the corridor; both of them went down hard, and Sheppard had blacked out for a moment when Ronon accidentally rammed him in the side. He'd realized, once he could think again, that the stun blast really hadn't worked on him, but the Dorandans didn't know that. Of course, he doubted he could manage to get back to his feet without help, which wasn't the best condition from which to take out an armed platoon of enemy ... so he'd faked a seizure and let himself be captured.
After all, he wanted to get to the jumper bay anyway; this would just get him there a little quicker.
He recognized these guys' type: not professional soldiers, but scared amateurs, trying to do a job that was too big for them. Sometimes people in that situation became overly timid; other times they reacted by turning into bullies, overcompensating in an attempt to become what they thought a soldier ought to be.
The big man currently interrogating him was that sort.
"We found Sub-Captain Tennet's body, you Wraith-worshipping bastard. How many of you are still free?"
"Free," Sheppard informed him, "isn't all it's cracked up to be. My last trip to Wal-Mart, they were giving away these free Subway coupons and --"
The next blow hit him in the side, and his vision went white for a minute. His mouth tasted like copper, even though he didn't think he'd been hit in the mouth yet. That didn't seem like a good sign. As the roaring in his ears subsided, he heard Ronon making a low growling noise. Ronon was pissed. These guys had no idea how much trouble they were going to be in when Ronon managed to cut or break his bonds, which Sheppard figured was probably going to happen more sooner than later.
A hand caught his collar, dragging him forward. "You think this is funny? You think this is a joke? My friends are getting killed out there by your soldiers, Colonel."
Aw, crap. This wasn't just a run-of-the-mill interrogation; they thought he was the other Sheppard. Who could have prevented this whole thing if he'd just answered his damned radio. And Rodney was probably setting up to blow them all to smithereens right now. John sent his other self a mental bitch-slap for being a paranoid twit. "You know, I think you've mistaken me for someone else, and frankly I don't blame you for disliking the guy --"
The Dorandan shook him, hard. "I've seen pictures of you. I know who you are. You're a Wraith traitor and you've given your men orders to kill us on sight." Another shake, and he thought he felt something give inside his chest with a wet twang. Not good. "Call them off!"
"Love to, but you --" He coughed, tasting blood, and tried again. "You took my radio."
The Dorandan drew back his hand, looking confused. Sheppard's earlier suspicions about the Dorandans were confirmed: They were no strike force like the Genii, but just a bunch of ordinary schmoes drafted into a war they didn't know how to fight. They'd scored a good hit in the beginning, but none of them had the slightest idea how to fight a drawn-out ground war.
This made them less dangerous in some ways than the Genii -- and in other ways, far more so. Their threat was not of precision, but of unpredictability. He didn't have a freakin' clue what they were going to try to do.
When he felt the floor move, at first he thought it was just his screwed-up equilibrium -- until his Dorandan interrogator jumped backwards and Ronon gave a grunt of surprise.
"What did you do?" the Dorandan demanded.
"I didn't do anything!" His first guess was that Rodney had managed to set off the explosives -- except that all of the ships were right there, and while he might be a little bit out of it, he'd sure as heck notice a ship blowing up twenty feet away from him.
He only realized what was really happening when a huge crack opened up in the floor next to his leg.
The irising door to the gateroom was opening.
And they were standing on it.
------
Teyla looked up from her study of the ship's controls in alarm, as a sudden flurry of activity in the gateroom let her know that her intrusion had been detected. She saw Seng hustle McKay out of her field of view, and thought, Come on, Teyla, time is running out.
But she had no idea what any of the switches, buttons and levers were for. She'd hoped that the controls would be similar enough to the jumpers that she could figure out how to fly it. But nothing looked familiar. All she could do was pull levers and hope.
As she reached for one that looked promising, a screen suddenly lit up with a display of red symbols in the unreadable Dorandan script. As she watched, the symbols began changing rapidly.
It looked like a countdown.
Had she accidentally triggered something?
In any case, they'd be breaking through the bulkhead at any time. She couldn't afford to stand around here waiting. Seizing the most likely-looking lever, she yanked it down.
All around her, systems began to hum, and the ship lurched, cracking its nose against the gateroom balcony. Elizabeth and the others scrambled away in shock.
"Sorry," Teyla murmured. She pushed the lever farther forward, very gently, but now the ship was moving in earnest. She jerked her hands off the controls, but the ship kept moving.
What did I do?
------
"You. You!" Seng pointed at the Dorandan guard carrying the shotgun-like weapon, and at the pilot, Treen, sitting on the floor. "You two stay -- and you, Larissa. Everyone else, get off the ship."
No one needed encouragement. They didn't know what was going on, but they'd heard "self-destruct".
"This will be happening to all the ships!" Larissa gestured at the ceiling. "We've got to radio up to the jumper bay, have them shut off the self-destruct!"
"Is anyone there who knows how?" Seng's voice was tight.
"I don't think so. Mokarra's in the infirmary. Perran was with me. How many of yours know how?"
"Just myself and Treen." He nodded at the pale-faced woman on the floor.
"Ancestors' blood!" Larissa swore. "We'll have to talk them through it and hope the static doesn't mess up the instructions. And we have to get onto the bridge!"
McKay had been, up to this point, speechless with a combination of disbelief, shock and fear. It didn't happen to him very often. But he'd finally found his voice. "Are you telling me that you people rigged these ships to explode? If anyone but you accessed the systems? And am I actually understanding correctly that you people didn't even set it up to shut down remotely? How stupid are you? Everyone in this galaxy should be tied up and forced to watch a marathon of bad sci-fi movies for educational purposes!"
"We were trying to cover --" Larissa broke off when the ship jolted violently underfoot. From above them came a clunk and a rumble, with the high whine of servos.
"Now what?" Larissa's voice rose so high that it cracked in the middle.
McKay laughed. He couldn't help it. "Oh, I should have guessed. I wonder if the other me planned it this way? Probably not..."
"Explain," Seng said coldly, "or I will shoot you."
"You hear that?" McKay tried to stab a finger at the ceiling, forgetting that his hands were tied behind his back. All he managed to do was wrench his shoulder. "That noise is the jumper bay doors opening."
"What? Why?" Larissa demanded. "Something your people did?"
"No! Well, sort of! You said they hacked into your computers, right? Well, you people parked your ship right in front of the Stargate. As soon as it gained access to your guidance computers, the Atlantis system must have taken over in the same way that it does for the jumpers. It's using its automatic docking protocols to take us into the jumper bay."
"Make it stop," Seng ordered McKay.
"With what, the power of my massive brain? Besides, even if I had a computer terminal, I don't think I could. That's part of the basic Atlantis system operations." Which was a total lie. The jumpers could be put under manual control at any point during the process. But as far as he was concerned, anything that got a potentially exploding ship out of the gateroom was a good thing. Not that having it above the gateroom would be much better, but at least this way it would be a straight shot to fly through the roof and out of the city.
"No, this is better," Larissa said. "We'll be able to shut down the self-destruct on the other ships ourselves."
"No one shuts down anything without my say-so."
Larissa turned to stare at Seng. "Captain, those ships are going to explode! And so is the one we're on!"
"We rigged the self-destruct for a reason, Doctor. To keep these ships from falling into Atlantean hands. To destroy the city if we couldn't save it. No one is turning it off until I'm convinced that we're not in danger of that."
------
The floor dropped away under Sheppard. He tried wildly to scramble backwards, but with his hands tied he only managed to twist his body. A great tearing pain shot through him, and then something smacked into him like hitting a brick wall.
He blinked. His cheek was pressed against something hard and smooth. Hmm. I'm not dead. That's interesting. The drugs must still be messing with his thought processes, because it took him a moment to process the fact that he must've fallen on top of the ship coming up from below.
Ronon! Sheppard opened his eyes, blinking sideways across the ship's smooth hull. Around him, the walls of the jumper bay rotated as the big ship settled smoothly, if awkwardly, into a jumper berth. After a moment of sheer panic, he located the ex-Runner, crouched near him on the ship's hull and busily engaged in untying his hands.
But behind him --
Was it too much to ask that their sadistic interrogator could have missed the ship and fallen to his death? But no. The universe hated them just that much.
"Ronon, look out!" Sheppard yelled, just as a stunner blast hit Ronon from behind. The Satedan seized, and fell off the ship, vanishing from view.
No. Sheppard pulled himself painfully up to his knees. They were on solid ground now, so at very worst Ronon had fallen fifteen or twenty feet onto the floor. But with his hands tied and in the grip of seizures, that was bad enough. Ronon would be very lucky if he hadn't broken his neck.
"You son of a bitch."
The Dorandan balanced with his feet spread out on the hull of the ship. "I don't know why I bothered with either of you. I should have just killed you." He raised his stunner and fired twice in rapid succession at Sheppard, who braced himself. Guess he was about to find out if Tennet's stunner shield worked on killing blasts as well as stunning ones.
------
Rodney and alt-Sheppard had watched in horror and then disbelief as the scene beneath them unfolded.
Rodney could feel his heart rate slowly going back to normal as the tiny figures on the ship's hull started to pick themselves up. "His luck is downright supernatural sometimes," he said, trying to laugh, but his voice shook. God, he'd thought that he had a ringside seat to watch Sheppard and Ronon plunge to their deaths. Sure, it wasn't his universe's Ronon, but considering that the big guy was just about the only person in this universe who'd been decent to him...
But they were all right. Of course, with the unusually large ship entirely filling the irising doors to the gateroom, it would almost have defied probability if they hadn't fallen on top of it.
His grin faded when he saw that Sheppard and Ronon weren't alone on top of the ship. The Dorandan was getting up too -- and he was right behind Ronon.
"McKay," alt-Sheppard said. "Can you make that ship move?"
"I-- uh -- I don't think I have that much control --"
They both heard Sheppard's yell from below them, and looked down just in time to see Ronon get shot and fall off the ship.
Alt-Sheppard made a strangled sound and his face went white with shock and rage. Rodney jerked back just in time to avoid being kicked in the head as alt-Sheppard drew back a booted foot and kicked out the metal grating.
The Colonel fired through the hole in the floor of the conduit before the tumbling square of metal even had a chance to land.
------
When the Dorandan fired at him, all that Sheppard felt was a light tingle gliding over his skin. Then the Dorandan jerked, spun around and fell, as the harsh crackle of P90 fire rattled in Sheppard's ears.
Sheppard threw himself flat, by instinct, at the sound of gunfire. Okay, bad idea -- ow. He had to lie still and get his breath for a few precious seconds before he could find the strength to raise his head. There he froze, staring in amazement at what was hanging in midair.
------
Rodney covered his ears when alt-Sheppard fired the P90 right next to his head, then opened his eyes and squinted over the edge. "Hey, you got him! Looks like Sheppard is -- whoa."
The metal grille that had been in the conduit wasn't really falling. It was more ... floating, drifting very slowly and gently floorwards.
"Failsafe?" alt-Sheppard said.
"Apparently. Huh. I wonder if our jumper bay has something like that?" They'd found several places around the city that used a modified form of the shield in order to prevent catastrophic falls. Apparently, this was another such place ... which made sense, if it constantly had spaceships coming and going through the roof.
"Those stun weapons don't seem to have much range, nothing like Ronon's blaster," alt-Sheppard said thoughtfully. "I doubt if they could hit us before we landed on top of the ship."
Rodney blinked. "What do you mean, us?"
"You can't use the scanner without me; it's not like you can do anything up here."
"Except be safe!"
Alt-Sheppard cocked his head to the side, and for an instant his half-grin made him look younger and happier -- much more like the Sheppard that Rodney knew. "Come on, McKay, what could possibly be safer than on top of one of their ships?"
"Try telling that to Ronon," Rodney retorted, and then could have kicked himself -- stupid giant mouth! -- as the smile dropped off alt-Sheppard's face and the hard look returned.
"Well, come on then," he said, and grabbed Rodney's arm.
"Hey! You don't even know if the failsafe will work on people! At least let me run a few -- damn it Sheppard!"
------
When the Caledon stopped moving, Larissa stood still for a moment, listening to the sound of raised, startled voices and then, distantly, a burst of gunfire from an Atlantean-type gun. Then she snapped herself out of it. "I have to go disarm the self-destructs."
Seng turned back towards her, his expression flat. "I ordered you not to."
Do not fight this fight NOW, she told herself harshly, biting back on the furious responses that rose to her lips. She hadn't expected Seng to make a power grab in the middle of a battle, but from his viewpoint, perhaps it was the perfect time. Think. Remember the old saying: Bread does not spring fully-baked from wheat. Small steps. What compromise would he willingly accept?
"Let me shut off the others, or at least reset them back to the original timer," she said. "This one can't be reset until we get onto the bridge anyway. It's too much of a risk if we have to run around resetting all of them at the last minute. This will still give us a bargaining chip."
"Except that the Atlanteans control this ship!" Seng snarled.
"But they obviously don't know how to fly it! And I imagine they have no idea they're flying a ticking bomb -- one they certainly can't disarm without the codes. Seng, there is no time to argue about this. If we can't get onto the bridge soon, we'll all be dead no matter what."
He stared back at her, and for just a moment, she thought he might actually be far enough around the bend to fight her on this. Then he nodded. "But you stay here. Treen!"
"Sir!" The pilot staggered to her feet.
"Disarm the other ships." Seng looked around for the other soldier, the one holding the basfa gun. They had only a few of these -- powerful weapons that could punch through almost anything. Tennet's team had taken another, but there was no telling where that one was. Seng took the big gun, and then hesitated, and removed a small device from his pocket, handing it to Treen.
"What's this, sir?"
"The most powerful shield we have," he said. "It'll protect you not just from stuns, but from the concussive impact of the projectile weapons they carry. Go reset the countdown on the other ships to the long count."
Well, it wasn't perfect, but it was better than Larissa had hoped for. And she was amazed that Seng had given Treen his personal shield -- but perhaps it did make sense. In the close-knit Dorandan society, Treen was the daughter of Seng's cousin; he'd taken her under his wing a long time ago, teaching her everything that he knew about flying the flagship of the small Dorandan fleet.
There were times when she feared and hated Seng -- and times when she was reminded that he was truly working for the good of the Dorandan people ... as he saw it.
Treen and the soldier vanished down the ramp. There were more bursts of P90 fire from very close by. Seng took a deep breath, shouldered the basfa gun and looked over at Larissa.
"Stay out of the way, Doctor."
"I don't like the idea of using that so close to the ship's vital systems, especially not with the self-destruct countdown running."
Seng smiled grimly. "I didn't think you would. But we have to get in, and I don't see that we have a choice." He nodded to McKay. "Bring him."
"Um ..." McKay resisted when Larissa tried to take his arm. "Just what exactly are you people planning to do to me?"
"What do you think?" Seng checked the magazine on the big gun, then swung it into the ready position with practiced hands. "You're a hostage. What does one normally do with a hostage?"
McKay swallowed and shut up. When Larissa took his arm again, he didn't pull away, and she could feel him trembling.
I didn't want it to be this way, she thought. But she brought him anyway.
------
Alt-Sheppard let go of Rodney as soon as they touched down on top of the ship. Rodney staggered a little and looked down automatically at the scanner -- which was, of course, completely dark. Damn it. Stupid ATA gene.
"They'll be on us in a minute," alt-Sheppard muttered, and reached for his radio. "Lorne? You around?"
Rodney took advantage of the moment's respite to untie Sheppard. "Gee," Sheppard said, "took you long enough," and then he swayed and would have fallen if Rodney hadn't caught him.
"You look like absolute crap." Understatement of the century. There were fresh bruises on Sheppard's face, and blood on his lips. "Why are you even here?" Rodney demanded, brushing him off briskly. "This hero thing, it's like a disease with you, isn't it?"
Behind them, alt-Sheppard was saying, "Good. We're taking the jumper bay. McKay's got control of their ships. All you have to do is handle the people -- and from what I've seen, they're not very well trained."
Sheppard's head came up sharply. His face was chalk-white, and purple shadowed his eyes. "Rodney, tell me you didn't already hack into their computers."
"Sort of. I got through the security wall, but I haven't really taken control of -- What? What's wrong?"
"We got some new intel after you left. There's a -- crap, get down!" Sheppard seized hold of Rodney's shirt and pulled him down flat. Stunner fire crackled over their heads. Remembering what it felt like to get hit by one of those, Rodney shuddered and flattened himself as much as possible.
"There's a what?" he asked, twisting his head to the side to see Sheppard's face.
"Self-destruct. It's triggered if someone tries to hack into the computer."
"What?" Rodney demanded. "Is that a guess or do you know for sure?"
"Well, they seemed pretty sure."
"And yet we're still alive," Rodney said flatly.
"Maybe you haven't triggered it yet. Maybe they were lying. I'd feel a whole lot better if you could at least check!" Sheppard pointed to the scanner.
Rodney picked it up and gave a little moan of frustration as it remained obstinately dark. "I hate this stupid gene! Sheppard! No, not you," he said when Sheppard looked at him. "The other you. Colonel!"
Alt-Sheppard glowered at Rodney. He was crouched in the shelter of an antenna array on the ship's hull, one hand cupped over the radio in his ear. "McKay, I happen to be a little busy running an insurrection right now!"
"I need your gene!"
Alt-Sheppard paused, and the oddest grin passed across his face. "You haven't said that to me in ages," he said, and after saying something else, softly, into the radio, he crawled under the bursts of stunner fire to join them.
Rodney took one look at the newly activated scanner and shook his head. "No. No way. If you're right, if some kind of clock is ticking, and --" he flinched as a new burst of gunfire flashed across the ship's hull "-- considering that people are shooting at us, this is going to take forever." He looked up at alt-Sheppard. "I can't believe I'm saying this, but you need to get me inside this ship."
"McKay, seriously, we're being swarmed by Dorandans and any minute now Lorne is going to burst in here with a couple dozen Marines and try to take over the jumper bay. This is not a good time."
"It'll be a much worse time if we explode!"
Alt-Sheppard frowned. "Is that likely to happen?"
"He thinks so. The readings basically agree with him. There is an energy source inside this ship, kind of naquadah-like, and it's charging up. Very bad." Rodney pointed at Sheppard. "Look, just get me inside this ship. I don't care how. I do know that there's no way I can do what I have to do using a scanner I can't even operate without you holding it. And if I can get full control over even one of the ships, then we can win this little skirmish."
"Or you precipitate a firefight that gets us all killed."
Rodney stared at him. "THIS? Coming from YOU?"
"You know it's useless to argue with him when he's got an idea," Sheppard told alt-Sheppard, with a grin.
For a moment the two of them shared a look of commiseration.
"Oh ha ha, very funny. Ticking time bomb? Exploding soon? Could you do the Rambo thing for a minute and get me into the ship, pretty please with a freaking sugar cube on top?"
Sheppard poked him in the shoulder. "Don't give me any ideas about kicking you off my team, McKay." He slipped something into Rodney's pocket.
"What the heck's that?"
"A little goodie I got off a dead Dorandan. It'll protect you from their guns."
"Oh, the absolute hell I'm leaving you behind to get captured and tortured and stuff," Rodney retorted, grabbing him by a handful of his scrubs.
"Rodney, I'll just slow you down --"
"Shut up. And quit bleeding on me. It's annoying."
------
In the enclosed corridor within the Caledon, the blast of the basfa gun was deafening. Larissa winced and covered her ears.
The smoke cleared away to show the bulkhead damaged, but still holding.
"Larissa, you can't let him do this." Rodney fidgeted, his arm resting against hers in the close confines of the corridor. "I know you're not happy with what he's doing. You're not that kind of a person. Come on, Larissa, there's a friend of mine in there, and he's going to kill her. And probably me."
"No one will die who doesn't resist." Larissa felt as if she were parroting things she'd been told; the words themselves came out empty.
"Do you really believe that, or are you just trying to convince yourself? You listened to what I said about the Wraith DNA thing, right? You're not stupid, Larissa. You know there's more going on here than the talking heads on your planet have told you."
"Shut up!" she snarled, but even she could hear the desperation in her own voice.
If he is right, then I've caused the deaths of dozens of my people for no reason. And my actions may destroy the City of the Ancestors.
The Atlanteans aren't our worst enemy. WE are.
------
The blast outside the door shook the floor underfoot. Teyla expected it would only be a matter of time before they broke in -- and she still didn't have the first idea how to run the ship.
She was running out of time.
The muffled sound of gunfire outside the ship made her look up. Startled, she looked up -- at the viewport, in time to see Atlantean uniforms pouring into the jumper bay. The battle had been joined in earnest now.
I have to help them. But how?
She just didn't know enough about the ship's weapon systems. If she tried, she'd be as likely to incinerate her allies as to render them aid.
Another loud noise came from outside the door, and it jumped in its frame as if a giant foot had kicked it. Thin blue threads of smoke curled through the gap between frame and door.
Another couple of hits like that, and the Dorandans would be inside the room -- and she'd probably be badly outnumbered. Teyla looked up at the viewport and wondered if she could break the glass and escape.
No. Even if she could, she wouldn't. She had to hold the ship against the Dorandans. She had to figure out how to use it, and what that ominous red display was telling her. The lives of the others depended on her. If nothing else, she must destroy the controls so that the ship would be as useless to the Dorandans as it presently was to her.
And then she realized that in all the insanity, she'd forgotten that she still had her radio. Sheppard might be in the middle of a firefight and she hoped that she didn't distract him at a crucial time, but she really had to let him know what was going on. She tapped it.
"Colonel?"
------
Sheppard led the charge into the ship. His backup, he thought in disgust, was Rodney McKay (alternate universe version) and one very badly wounded alt-Sheppard. He would have loved to park alt-Sheppard somewhere and leave him there, but there wasn't anywhere safe to put him, and Rodney refused to abandon him. It was weirdly touching. But annoying. Which, come to think of it, was par for the course with Rodney.
The jumper bay had degenerated into chaos with the arrival of Lorne's group. Sheppard wanted to be out there with them, fighting -- but from what he understood, getting onto the ship was the current priority.
Two Dorandans ambushed them as they circled under the nose of the ship. Sheppard got one, but the other snapped off a stunner shot at them. Rodney stepped in front of alt-Sheppard -- fast, instinctive, obviously not something he even had to think about, although his face was screwed up in an "oh my God this is going to hurt" expression. But the shot just rippled over him, doing nothing, and Sheppard fired a P90 burst at the shooter, locking down on the part of him that screamed They're just kids!
"Okay, that was seriously cool --" Rodney looked past alt-Sheppard as something caught his eye. "Hey, look, Ronon's okay!"
Sheppard's head snapped around on pure instinct. He hadn't let himself think about that -- but Rodney was right; he saw Ronon across the jumper bay, untied, snapping off calculated shots from his blaster. Each one found its target.
Should have known a 20-foot fall onto concrete wouldn't hurt him, he thought, but the unexpected wave of relief made his knees weak. And Teyla, he assumed, was safe in the gym --
"Colonel?"
Speak of the devil. "Teyla?"
"Colonel, I have a --" He heard her pause and draw a deep breath; there was a shuddering explosion in the background. "A bit of a situation."
"They're attacking the gym?" Damn it, Ronon was supposed to go down there and keep an eye on her!
"No, Colonel. I am not in the gym."
"You're not?" Sheppard peeked around the ship's landing gear and saw three Dorandans guarding the base of the ramp. Crap. He'd have to be fast.
"No. I am in one of their ships."
Sheppard stiffened. "Captured?"
"No, Colonel. I have gained control of the ship."
Impossible. "Which ship?"
"The one that was in the gateroom. But I cannot use the controls, and they are --"
An explosion nearly drowned out her words. Then there was a gasp and a thump.
"Teyla!"
No answer came.
"Teyla, dammit!"
"What's wrong?" Rodney was frowning at him. "Is Teyla in trouble?"
What do you care? he wanted to snap back, by instinct. Instead he said, "We gotta get into this ship. Now. Teyla's in trouble."
------
The door to the Caledon's bridge fell in a shower of smoke and sparks.
"Be careful not to damage the controls!" Larissa shouted at Seng's back, and started after him just as a commotion erupted in front of her. A woman in a short blue skirt, moving like the wind, kicked Seng in the stomach -- sending him down to one knee -- and then sprinted past him, racing down the corridor as he swung around to track on her with the basfa gun.
"Captain, no! You'll damage the ship!"
"That ten-times-cursed woman is loose in my ship!" He charged after her.
Larissa groaned and decided that shutting off the self-destruct was more important than preventing Seng from damaging anything important. She clambered over the smoking, twisted piece of metal that had once been the door to the bridge, and vaulted past the captain's chair to the main control console. She saw immediately that the intruder female had started trying to destroy the controls, but fortunately, not realizing what was what, she'd started with the environmental systems and other not-immediately-essential control panels. It was the matter of a moment for Larissa to bring up the menus and enter the code that she had memorized.
Nothing happened. The countdown to the self-destruct continued to race.
Larissa stared. She brought up the menu again, tried again.
Nothing.
Seng had changed the codes.
"Seng!" she shouted, and ran back the way she'd come, pushing McKay out of her way and sending him staggering into the wall. Then she skidded to a halt, realizing that leaving a brilliant enemy scientist unattended on the bridge of the Dorandan flagship was not a good idea, and turned back to get him. "Come on!"
"What's going on?" McKay complained as she hauled him along. The fleeing woman, and Seng, had vanished in the direction of the crew lounge.
"I can't shut off the self-destruct!"
From somewhere ahead of them, the basfa gun roared twice, and the ship's lights flickered.
"That idiot," Larissa moaned. "He's gone completely insane!"
"What do you mean, you can't shut off the self-destruct?"
"I can't do it because Seng changed the codes!" She paused where the corridor separated, one way going to the lounge and the other to the mess. A yell and a clatter from the direction of the lounge let her know where they were.
McKay made a small frustrated sound as she pulled him along at a jog. "Have I mentioned lately that you people are retarded?"
------
Teyla realized, the minute the door fell, that she wasn't going to be able to defend the ship's bridge. She found herself facing a man with Kolya's ice-cold eyes and a weapon that put Ronon's blaster to shame, and the sick realization rose in her that all she could do here was die. John was still speaking in her ear, but she threw all her attention, all her resources into getting free. She ducked under Seng's radius of fire, kicked him in the stomach and ran.
"Teyla!" Sheppard was saying. "Teyla!"
"I am being pursued," she panted. "I am sorry, John." She didn't even realize that she'd used his first name until the words had passed her lips. "I am afraid that I have not helped very much."
"No, Teyla, you're doing great. Hang on. I'm coming. Where are you? Where in the ship, I mean."
"I am in the back end of it -- in some kind of recreational area." She paused, and threw herself down at a motion half-glimpsed out of the corner of her eye. The huge gun went off, deafening in the enclosed space, and blew a hole in the wall next to her head.
"Teyla!"
"I am fine!" Another blast barely missed her. "I cannot talk now!" She ducked around a large couchlike piece of furniture, only to find herself looking down the barrel of Seng's weapon.
------
"Seng!" Larissa burst into the ship's rec room, with McKay stumbling behind her, trying to keep his balance and stumbling into the walls; his hands were still tied.
She saw at a glance that Seng had captured the female Atlantean -- the stranger stood behind one of the rec room's loungers, with her hands in the air. But Larissa hardly had eyes for that. "Seng! You changed the codes!"
"Yes," he said shortly.
"All of the ships? Or only the Caledon?"
"Only the Caledon." He didn't take his eyes off the enemy Atlantean. "I didn't think it was a good idea to concentrate that much power in your hands."
Larissa drew a deep breath and fought to keep herself under control. "Captain, we are running out of time. I can't reset this one; you must do it."
"Relax, Doctor. There's still time. I just need to clean up some trash first."
The captive Atlantean drew her head up and regarded him with level, dark eyes.
"Teyla!" McKay called across the space between them, his voice tense and scared. "Teyla, are you all right?"
"I am not hurt, Dr. McKay," she said. "Yourself?"
He gave a tiny, frightened laugh. "About as well as can be expected under the circum--"
The basfa gun barked once.
Teyla did not have time to move, perhaps not even time to realize what had happened to her. Blood sprayed the wall behind her, floor to ceiling. She crumpled in a heap, eyes open and staring.
------
There had been a handful of moments in McKay's life when time had stopped for him. Standing in front of Kolya's gun, waiting to see if his fast talking had been enough to save Elizabeth's life -- and his own. The moment before he'd stood up behind Sheppard and started shooting at the Wraith on the desert planet. The moment when the outpost had exploded with Grodin inside -- when the hiveship had blown up with Sheppard and the nuke supposedly on board -- when Sheppard had shot Ford.
And now, again.
He watched Teyla fall, and time stretched, and he had an eternity to remember every time he hadn't stood up for her, every time he'd seen her in the cafeteria and turned away, every time he could have laughed at one of her jokes, every apology he could have made.
But now it was too late.
"Seng!" Larissa's shocked, horrified voice cut through McKay's paralysis.
"I'm through cooperating with these people," Seng snapped. "Through making deals with them. She should never have been allowed within a thousand paces of the ship; she should have been shot on sight. And you told me the Atlanteans shouldn't have been able to gain access to the ship's computers, and yet they did. They're too dangerous to be left alive." He turned, bringing the gun to bear on McKay. "Step back, Larissa."
The realization that he was about to die ran through McKay like a flood of cold water.
"Seng, don't," Larissa whispered. "It doesn't have to be like this."
"Step back, I said." His voice was a crack of command, and Larissa took a slow step backwards, out of the way.
"Let's -- let's talk about this." McKay's voice broke in the middle. There's got to be some way out of this. I'm a freaking genius. What's the point of that if I can't save myself? My friends? Anyone?
The spray of Teyla's blood on the wall mocked him with his own failure.
"I'm done talking to any of you," Seng said, and pulled the trigger.
The thunder of the gun echoed in McKay's ears as he instinctively closed his eyes. At least, if he had to die, it would be fast.
------
Stepping over the bodies of the Dorandan guards, Sheppard trotted up the ramp into the ship, gun at the ready. He was vaguely aware that he was leaving alt-Rodney and the injured alt-Sheppard behind, but he didn't care. His main goal was to find Teyla, who was no longer answering her radio.
The ship was eerily deserted. Gun at the ready, he edged down corridors of unfamiliar design. In the back of the ship, she'd said. A recreational area.
Voices caught his attention. He looked around the corner into the rec room just as Seng shot Teyla.
It was like a snapshot, seared in an instant into his consciousness. The walls were white, the cascade of blood red. His brain caught it, an indelible image; in his mind's eye, the only color was that wash of red, the tangible evidence of his failure to protect his team. The wall was white, white like snow, stained with blood.
White like Antarctica.
That's where you are right now, John -- Antarctica, his other self had said.
He'd killed Ford, because he couldn't find a way to save him. Maybe, in some other universe, the way had been there -- he just hadn't been able to find it.
He'd watched Ronon shot, falling from the roof of the ship. Only luck or toughness had saved him -- certainly not John Sheppard.
And now he watched Teyla crumpling like a rag doll because he'd been too slow to save her.
The best thing that ever happened to you is here in this city, and you know it.
He'd had it. And he'd lost it.
Too slow.
Too stubborn.
Too proud.
Seng brought around the alien shotgun to bear on McKay. The argument between Seng and Larissa, was a buzz in the back of Sheppard's brain, meaningless words, while the drama went down in front of him.
He couldn't shoot Seng, not with McKay in the way.
But there was something else he could do.
Seng pulled the trigger.
And Sheppard moved.
He'd once heard about that whole life-flashing-before-your-eyes thing. And he'd never experienced it, personally. But time could slow down. And the memory that flashed before his mind's eye was the alternate Sheppard, barely able to stand, taking down Tennet with an IV pole to save the alternate McKay.
He remembered Rodney standing up to a Wraith, gun in hand, saving his life.
I'll help you find it, Rodney had said to Kolya, but then you let my team go.
And with that thought in mind, he hit Rodney in the shoulder, shoving him down, out of the way.
So long, Rodney.
The shotgun blast was a physical impact to his chest, ripping a hole through him, splattering Rodney from head to foot with his blood. And that was how he discovered that the myth is true: you really do live on for an instant or two after you die, and as his brain caught up with the fact that his heart no longer existed to pump blood ... as he fell ... he realized that this was the only way he had ever wanted to die.
Protecting his city.
His team.
His family.
And with that thought, he died.
----
TBC