Sparklyshimmer2010 – I'm glad you enjoyed the last chapter and I hope you enjoy this one too, thanks for the review.
Steph7085 – No not Fred! Lol. Thanks for the review, I'm glad you enjoy the last chapter and of course Lorne coming in, the team still needed their sixth member. I hope you enjoy this chapter.
Stargatesomeone – Good to know you like the twist I gave the episode; I hope you enjoy this chapter and thanks for the review.
Kuroima – The team still needed a sixth member and I figured Lorne was a good choice; it was kind of a tossup between him and Laura. I'm glad you're enjoying the story and thanks for the review.
Lantia4ever – The turtle bit was one of my fave parts of the episode, there was all this silent tension and then Carson suddenly blurts that out lol. Thanks for the review and I hope you enjoy this chapter.
- - -
Chapter 7
John could only take a brief moment to be relieved that they had emerged in the gate room intact. The Asurans were already firing at the Jumper and the shields would only hold out for so long. He quickly activated the radio as everyone remained silent. "Authentication Code, Alpha Six Delta Charlie Niner, Dr Weir, you there?" he asked through the radio only to receive static in response. "Elizabeth, do you copy?"
Again there was no response and John felt a little bit of the hope he had been holding on to slip away. "Perhaps she does not have a radio with her or is unable to reply," Teyla stated, always the optimist.
"Drop the package," John instructed, praying that if Elizabeth was still in the city that she was nowhere near Stargate operations.
"Package is away," Rodney informed him.
"Hold on," he told everyone and then braced himself for his next manoeuvre. He backed the Jumper up and felt it crash through the window as well as part of the wall behind the stargate. The ship shook violently and it took all his effort to keep control of the Jumper as he was almost knocked out of his seat. The shaking stopped and he continued to pilot the Jumper backwards. Out of the front window they saw the bomb they had left behind explode taking with it most of stargate operations.
Once the fire ball, which was bigger than they had expected it to be, disappeared, there was a moment of silence before John felt his usual need to break it. "That went well," he stated and flew the Jumper away from Atlantis and into space.
"It's good to be back... however briefly," Rodney said as they flew away from the planet.
"I feel like I'm gonna be ill," Carson stated sounding a little shook up.
"Don't be," Ronon said in his usual helpful way.
"Just take some deep breaths," Teyla added and John heard Carson doing as instructed behind him and then Rodney's heavy and frustrated sigh accompanied it.
"With all those hits we took it's going to be impossible for me to convert the shield back to a cloak," the scientist informed them, clearly he was annoyed but Rodney was always annoyed when things didn't go exactly to plan, which was rather a lot in their case.
"By impossible you mean...?" John trailed off hoping this was just one of those times that Rodney exaggerated.
"I mean not possible, what do you think I mean?" Rodney replied getting more annoyed.
"Well, hopefully we took out the sensors when we blew the tower, how long do we have until they rebuild?" Evan asked.
"A few hours," Rodney began and then got that look he had whenever he had some genius epiphany that would help them save the day. "If we time this right, this could work to our advantage."
Bleeping caught everyone's attention and John brought up the holographic screen that informed them they were approaching something in space. "Got him," John informed everyone in surprise; it wasn't that he thought this wouldn't work but he'd expected it to be harder to find their floating friend. "Right where we left him."
Rodney clicked away on his computer "That's him."
"Who else would it be?" Ronon questioned rhetorically.
"True," Rodney conceded "His power levels are barely registering, it's no wonder the replicators didn't find him. "
"Alright, I'll swing around and pick him up," John told them "Watch yourselves, I'm closing the bulkhead." He closed the front compartment and piloted the Jumper back to Niam's co-ordinates; he managed to pick him up and sealed the back compartment again before Jumping out of his chair and instructing Carson to take the controls.
Opening the back compartment again he found Niam lying on the floor. John, Lorne and Ronon and aimed their weapons at him watching him for any sign of movement, when they didn't get any John gestured for Rodney to come forward and do his thing.
"Are we not vulnerable to the same nano virus with which Niam infected Elizabeth?" Teyla questioned and John swallowed back the not so small wave of anger at the frozen replicator, not happy memories.
"He's been floating in space for over a month now, existing in such a harsh environment and direct solar radiation has severely diminished his power levels. We're fairly certain he's almost completely incapacitated," Carson informed them and John watched Rodney hesitate slightly as he knelt beside Niam.
"Okay this is good, his power levels are minimal but not too minimal, I'm fairly sure he doesn't have the juice to regain consciousness," Rodney informed them as John and Ronon continued to stand close by with their weapons at the ready. Niam picked that moment to twitch and Rodney jumped back away from him. "I was fairly sure."
"Just load the programme," John instructed him wanting to get this over with and Rodney nodded and knelt back down beside Niam.
- - -
The conversation was almost bickering as they approached Atlantis but it ended when John announced they were only a mile out. Rodney informed them that they weren't close enough as Teyla sat down beside John, of all their crazy plans; this was probably one of the most insane so far.
She sat there watching the Jumpers sensors and it seemed the Replicators were wasting no time in getting rid of them. "Drones," she informed everyone as she looked up at the small, golden lights that were approaching them.
"Hang on," John warned as he did some of his usual, great flying to avoid the Ancient weapons. The Jumper ducked, dived, swerved and went through gaps that were almost too small and Teyla had to hold her breath more than once. The Golden lights continued to chase them around, several of them impacted Atlantis in their attempts to follow the Jumper.
"Sir, you're hitting the city," Lorne informed him obviously.
"Thank you for that Lorne," John replied as he continued to try and avoid the drones and the buildings. "I'll try to run the drones into you least favourite buildings, anyone have any requests?" he asked them and then glanced over his shoulder "McKay," he called into the back.
"It should be working," Rodney told them.
"Well it's not, working" Carson shouted.
"If I give him any more power he'll wake up and kill us all," Rodney shouted back angrily, everyone was clearly on edge.
"Sheppard can't keep this up forever," Ronon told him and Teyla could tell he was getting annoyed as well.
"Shields have been damaged," Teyla stated almost in exasperation as she had to raise her voice above the noise.
"Alright I've had enough," John stated echoing her own thoughts "I've got a different idea."
Teyla was forced to once more hold her breath as John dived the Jumper into the ocean around the city and it took her a moment to relax again when she realised the drones were no longer following them. With some debate they decided to head for what they were sure was an underwater Jumper bay. John was able to guide the Jumper to as stop when Rodney opened the doors.
"Now I just have to repressurise the compartment and..."Rodney trailed off followed by several beeps from his laptop. "It's not letting me do it."
"Water's not draining out," Carson pointed out obviously after several moments' silence.
"It is however draining in," Lorne told them as he walked into the back compartment where sure enough, water was dripping into the Jumper.
"Oh not again," Rodney said as he looked at the leak in dismay and John stood up to follow Lorne through to the back.
"We must have taken some damage," he said as he started examining the leak.
"I just wanna point out that this was not my idea," Rodney informed them all in annoyance, which told them all he was afraid.
"You said get us close to the city, this is pretty damn close," John argued in frustration.
"And yet, no cigar!" Rodney exclaimed helpfully from where he was sitting.
"Just open up the outer doors, I'll figure something else out," John instructed him and went back to examining the leak. Rodney turned to his laptop and it was only a few seconds before they heard the beeping that indicated they had run into yet another problem.
"Oh dear," Rodney groaned attracting everyone's attention "I don't think I'm gonna be able to open the outer door." There was a moment where everyone just shot him expectant glances, waiting for him to give further explanation. "I think it might be jammed," he stated.
"Might?" John asked getting more frustrated as everything seemed to fall apart all at once.
"Okay, is," Rodney corrected himself.
"Well that's unfortunate," John replied in what Teyla could only describe as an understatement.
"I'd have to agree with you on that," Rodney stated.
"This part of the plan isn't going so well," John said and there were several moments of silence where nobody knew what to do.
"Is there a manual override?" Lorne asked as he left John still checking out the leak.
"Yeah, but it's in the base control room," Rodney replied with his head in his hand, sounding rather fed up with the whole situation.
"Okay, I'll swim to it," John said.
"Which is sealed from the other side," Rodney informed him which seemed to put an end to that idea.
"Of course it is," John sighed as he lifted himself closer to the leak only to drop back down a moment later. "We've got more than one fracture here, we're running out of time," he told them all and now Teyla sighed. Their list of problems seemed to be growing by the moment. There was another silence as everyone contemplated their options, or lack thereof before Rodney began clicking his fingers.
"There should be an access hatch," Rodney told them as he went back to his computer.
"Should be?" John questioned.
"No there is, there'll be an emergency access hatch somewhere near the doors," Rodney informed them all. "It's probably underwater though."
"Well it's a good thing I can hold my breath," John stated and everyone looked at him knowing this was probably not a good idea, but then they never were. Rodney ran through a very brief explanation to John of where the hatch should be and what to look for once he was in the control room.
"Alright, everybody into the front," John ordered and the entire group complied before sealing John into the back compartment. Lorne was now sitting at the controls and Teyla heard the tell tale sound of the Jumper's ramp lowering and water entering the back.
- - -
The water was freezing and John wondered for a moment why the hell he had volunteered for this. Then he remembered Elizabeth and if they had any chance of finding her then they needed to get into the city. Still, he could have sent Lorne, what was the point in being in charge if you didn't delegate and this was definitely one of those tasks he should have delegated.
His body was already adjusting to the ridiculously low temperature of the water but that in no way meant he wasn't cold. He found the access hatch exactly where Rodney had expected it to be, on the floor a few metres from the doors. He opened it and made quick work of pushing himself through the small shaft and into the base control room. His lungs were already demanding oxygen and one look at the dozens of leavers told him this may not have been such a great idea.
Rodney had said the switch should be among the most prominent, that would be the leavers on the central control station. He was only gonna get a few shots at this, less if he wanted to be able to get out of here alive. He pulled the switch and there were several noises but the water level in the Jumper bay didn't change.
The second switch and again nothing, his lungs were seriously protesting against their lack of air now and John knew this was his last chance. He pulled a third lever and much to his relief the water level around the Jumper began to drop. When he let go the water stopped draining and he knew he was in trouble. He pulled the leaver again and held it down for as long as he could and through the large window he could see that it was enough. He swam back to the access hatch, he had seconds left before he lost consciousness, he could already feel it.
"Colonel," he heard Lorne's voice shout as he emerged from the water. He felt someone grab the shoulders of his uniform and pull him up out of the hatch but he was far too light headed to register who. It took him far longer than he would have liked to regain enough of his senses to be coherent and found the rest of his team standing around him looking worried.
He decided it would be best to just stay on the floor for a minute and watched as Lorne closed the hatch he had just come through. "Alright, McKay, you stay her and re-programme Niam, the rest of you, make sure we weren't detected and there are no replicators hanging around," he ordered and watched as everyone left him to carry out their orders. He allowed himself to fall back against the floor and figured he'd just lay there until the others were ready.
It had probably been several minutes but it felt like a lot less before he heard a voice coming from the Jumper which sounded eerily familiar, was that Niam?
"Sheppard," Rodney shouted fearfully, yep, definitely Niam. John jumped up from the floor and ran to the back of the Jumper in time to see Niam collapse into little tiny pieces. He looked at the pile on the floor and then to Rodney who was stood their staring at him with an 'I think I just ruined our plan' look on his face.
John sighed in frustration and sat on the floor of the Jumper "Radio, the others," he instructed exasperatedly and beside him he heard Rodney's somewhat frantic voice telling the others to fall back to the Jumper. It was just another thing on a rapidly growing list of the things that had gone wrong on this mission... and they'd started out so well.
- - -
After a long argument about how Niam could have been reactivated, including several theories of the Replicators knowing they were there, the group had turned their attention onto what they were going to do now. With plan A out of the window, Ronon had suggested they just go and start shooting the replicators. John had quickly labelled that Plan B and called for a plan C.
Rodney once again did the finger clicking thing attracting everyone's attention. John had to wonder whether that was just his was of pulling a thought out of his head or if it was actually to bring everyone's attention to him. "How much C4 do we have?"
"Much, why?" John asked.
"Well it's desperate," Rodney told them and John continued to look at him expectantly. "We need to split into groups."
"I was gonna suggest that anyway, why, what are you think?" John questioned.
"If we're gonna destroy these guys using replicator disruptors then we have to hit them all at once, we'll probably only get a dozen or so shots off before they manage to figure out the frequency," Rodney began to explain and John looked at him in confusion.
"So, what, are you going to get them all to stand in one place at the same time?" John asked knowing it was a stupid question, but hey, it wasn't the genius here.
"Clever, yes," Rodney placated to which John glared at him as he turned to look at the rest of the group "Or, we could figure out a way to send one massive blast through the city, follow me."
TBC