"John, dammit! Open the door, and that's an order. Not that you ever follow them!"
Elizabeth immediately regretted her outburst, rolling her eyes at Teyla in embarrassment who returned the look with understanding. The dot on Rodney's scanner sat unmoving only feet away through the door that their two native guides continued to slam against.
"It's moving," one of the soldiers grunted, and the group grew tense with anxious excitement as they shouldered into the door with frantically hopeful thrusts. When it finally gave way, the guards tumbled in a few steps, raising their clubs – the only weapons Elizabeth had allowed them – and quickly looked around the room.
Rodney shouldered past with little courtesy and Elizabeth was right behind. She was the one who just caught the slight movement of the rusty door closing that last millimeter, and she raced over, tugging at the handle. Rodney and Teyla followed more slowly, looking at the dot on the screen in Rodney's hand.
"He's just sitting there on the other side of the door!" McKay groused. "Maybe he's been there the whole time."
"No, he was here. Who else would have blocked the outer door?"
"Right. So what now?" McKay halfheartedly tugged at the door himself, giving up easily when it clearly wasn't going to budge. "This thing is locked even tighter than that one was."
Elizabeth thought for a moment then turned quickly to Teyla, "Would you go get one of those men who were working the coal and bring them in here, please? Maybe they can tell us where this door goes and give us a head start on where John will come out."
Teyla nodded with an appreciative smile and dashed quickly away. Elizabeth tapped her foot in nervous impatience.
"Your friend is quite the stubborn one," one of the soldiers commented as he also joined them in glaring uselessly at the door while they waited. "I hear he was nothing but trouble up in the hospital." The soldier tugged at the door himself for a moment, then braced for a hard, forceful yank. The door barely rattled.
"Stubborn doesn't begin to describe it," Elizabeth sighed. "Usually that trait is an asset, but today…" she shrugged, then smiled at the Guardsman who was older than her by at least a decade, but quite handsome in a distinguished and proper sort of way. All of the people she'd met on Lygell seemed polite almost to a fault. It was a formal and courteous culture. She would hate living here, she decided, thinking of John's annoying wit and Rodney's caustic brilliance.
"Remind me of your name, Guardsman?" Elizabeth asked to distract herself as much as to be polite.
"Andrik, ma'am."
"You are usually posted at the Stargate, Guardsman Andrik?" Small talk seemed to be an appropriate pastime for the moment.
"Yes, usually. In fact, I was at the Portal when the Colonel was first apprehended. I still have a bruise where he got me in the scuffle." Elizabeth's eyes widened in apology and Andrik chuckled, "My own fault really. I was the one who recognized the Madman rash. I made the mistake of letting him go for a second to point it out to him. He got me with an elbow in the solar plexus. I guess he wasn't impressed with my diagnosis."
"We're grateful for your efforts, Guardsman. I understand that your observation was instrumental in getting John the care he needed."
The man only nodded and raised his eyebrow with an amused but pointed look. "My wife is a Research Doctor who just happens to be studying treatments and cures for the Madman Malaria. I'm quite familiar with the symptoms and the lingo."
"Research Doctor…?" Elizabeth repeated, held by the man's curious intensity.
"Yes. In fact, my wife is the one who treated your Colonel."
Elizabeth sucked in an embarrassed breath, "Was she the one…?"
"Who the Colonel held at knife point and then tied into a chair? Yes."
Elizabeth just shook her head ruefully, but was watching Andrik carefully. She was suddenly a bit nervous about having a man who had every right to be carrying a grudge on the search party. Any retribution the Guardsman might be tempted to take out on the deluded Sheppard, however justified, would only make it that much more difficult and dangerous to recover him.
As if he were reading her thoughts directly, Andrik smiled a genuinely reassuring smile, "I saw Mahala briefly after hospital security discovered and released her. She was fuming mad…at herself. She feels quite mortified that her treatment only resulted in more complications for your Colonel. It was she, in fact, who insisted I join the search party so I could make sure, on her behalf, that no more harm comes to him. I tried to tell her that none of this could possibly be her fault, but…" Andrik gave a careless wave.
Elizabeth grinned, just as suddenly deciding she really liked this genteel Gentleman of the Guard. "Stubborn?" she asked.
"Stubborn doesn't begin to describe it," replied Andrik ruefully.
Just then Teyla arrived with a jolly looking coal carter and Elizabeth turned her focus back to finding John. The coal man was hefting a heavy rubber hammer that he first tried on the door, banging off ages of rust and disuse. The door still refused to budge, although it did rattle a bit more on its hinges.
The large man, tipped back his cap and wiped his brow. "Must have a bolt on the inside, then. Most of them do. This door here goes into the plumbing room. Lots of doors in and out of there, but all open to the north or east."
"Sheppard's moving!" Rodney suddenly exclaimed.
"Which way?" Elizabeth prompted.
"East. He's still making a beeline for the Stargate."
"Let's go. Thank you," Elizabeth remembered to say to the coal man. This was a formal and courteous society.
The group of 5 pursuers jogged quickly down the hall back towards the intersection where they'd first seen the coal carts. Rodney glanced at the scanner then waved them North in the direction those same carts had been moving. They slowed down again, ducked into another hallway and walked towards a large set of swinging double doors behind which a low roar rumbled. The air around them grew stiflingly hot the closer they got.
Rodney paused before pushing the doors open. "This makes no sense. Sheppard's way off any route to the 'gate at this point. My scanner says the room ahead is a dead end!"
"Good. Maybe he got lost. If it's a dead end, we can corner him here."
"It's a really big room, though. Really big dead end."
Elizabeth nodded and turned to Andrik, "Would you and your man stay here when we go in? If Sheppard gets around us, you can stop him before he goes any further." Andrik nodded, and waved a command to his companion. They slipped into easy position by the door.
"Let's go."
Rodney and Elizabeth followed Teyla through and Elizabeth gasped at the blast of heat that washed over them as they passed into the boiler room. Three huge furnaces stood glowing and crackling as the burly coal men shoveled the loads from the carts into the red-hot maws. There was no sign of Sheppard and Rodney walked further into the room with his palm scanner held out before him, slowly approaching the furthest cart.
The swarm of working men cast curious looks in their direction, even as they continued their shoveling, or strolled among the carts with their shovels slung over their shoulders. When Rodney reached the cart he was stalking, he waved Teyla over who quickly drew her Wraith handstunner -- one of those "requests" Elizabeth had demanded of Torvik. Moving stealthily, Teyla took a deep breath, then lunged, throwing her arms over the cart's edge and sweeping the stunner over the half empty space. She shot a questioning glance at McKay who just shrugged back.
"The scanner says he's right…..there?"
As Rodney spoke, the very curious coal man dipped his enormous shovel into the cart 's open end once again and flung another large scoop of rocks into the nearest glowing furnace. Rodney's hand, scanner still pointing out of it, followed the flying rocks in a graceful arch to come to rest aimed squarely at the furnace's mouth too.
The dot went out.
Elizabeth glared at Rodney as he suddenly flopped his arm to his side and dropped his chin into his chest in an exaggerated display of exasperation.
"Rodney, what just happened?" Elizabeth demanded.
Waving his arms, McKay announced sulkily, "Sheppard ditched the transponder and threw it into a coal cart. He's not here. We've been chasing the proverbial wild goose."
Teyla nodded sadly, "And the goose just got cooked," she said, pointing to the furnace, completely unaware of the humor in her statement. Rodney grinned widely at the accidental turn of phrase and shot a look at Elizabeth who closed her eyes, unable to suppress a small chuckle. Then she sighed deeply.
"Let's go then. We'll have to track him the old fashioned way."
"What way is that?" groused Rodney, annoyed that their superior technology had failed them so spectacularly.
"Sheer dumb luck…" she muttered, and turned to jog purposefully out of the room.
Author's note: Here is your fix for the next two or three days. Surely by Monday or Tuesday everyone will have finished Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows and will be ready to read Stargate again! I'll diligently finish up the story and post once the reading marathons have ended and everyone has had a nice nap. Oh, wait...I mean after MY reading marathon has ended and I'VE had a nice nap. ha! Enjoy!