The team had split up, Ronon with Teyla and Sheppard with Cooper while McKay remained in the main room working through data. They had agreed to find other exits, since an entire city couldn't have only one way out.

Copycatting aside, Sheppard was aware of how different the design of the Faloans' city was in comparison to the Genii's. Where one entrance overlooked the vast cavern housing the Genii's various buildings, this was more of a network of tunnels, lined with metal to keep the earth from caving in. It was a little like being in Atlantis, except without the sound of the ocean and with a lot less light.

He glanced at his lieutenant, her expression unreadable as she scanned the tunnel they were in. "How you holding up, Lieutenant?" he asked.

She looked at him, then back at the tunnel's ceiling. "Fine, sir."

"Well, I mean, it's your first mission with us. Seems to have gone swimmingly."

She let out a small sigh. "Yeah. I can see that."

He frowned. "This isn't your fault, Cooper."

"I put my hand on the panel, sir. I think we all know who triggered the lockdown."

"Cooper, come on," he said, stopping and taking her by the shoulder. "No one's blaming you. It's not like you knew this was gonna happen. I don't want you getting all guilty while we're trying to get out of here, okay? This isn't your fault."

She wouldn't look at him. "We have rations for a day, maybe two. Dr. Weir has probably figured out something's wrong by now, but even if she sends a team, they won't know we're down here. Their radios probably won't reach ours, and even if they manage to correctly translate the stones, I doubt the security protocol will let them open the entrance. We're stuck until we figure out a solution on our own."

"And we'll figure it out, I promise. You've read McKay's files, you know he can pull a solution out of his ass under enough pressure." He knew she wasn't convinced, but didn't know what else he could say to her. "This isn't gonna be a repeat of NI7, alright?"

She finally looked at him, right in the eye. "No, sir. No, it isn't."

He was slightly unnerved by the heat of her gaze, but could at least partially understand where she was coming from. "Good. Now let's see what this city has to offer us."

They wandered a little more, peering into rooms leading off from the hallway and finding very little that was useful. Most of the tech didn't turn on, and no exit doors were discovered.

"Maybe they just never went outside," Sheppard said glumly.

"So then what did they do for food?" Cooper asked. "They had to have gone outside for that, which means there should be more than one way to get out of here. It's a big place, you just have to be patient."

"I'm pretty bad at the whole 'patient' thing," he said as they entered a larger room, one with more corridors leading off in various directions. "Alright, then, looks like we've found one of the main hubs. Let's see what we can see."

"It'd be nice if we could get all the lights on," she said.

"Yeah, well, I've realized wishful thinking only gets me very far in a jumper." He walked up to a panel on the wall, inspecting the buttons. It was stone cold, but that didn't mean he couldn't turn it on. "This looks important."

"Be careful, sir. If the city thinks we're a threat, we don't know what it'll do," Cooper warned.

"Relax, Lieutenant, I'm just gonna see if it'll turn on." He put his hand on the surface, thinking about it turning on like he did for things in Atlantis. A small screen glowed blue for a moment, then agonizing pain ripped through his body.

"Colonel!" Cooper shouted, dropping to her knees when he hit the floor. His eyes were closed and he smelled faintly of burnt hair. "Colonel?" She shook him gently a few times, forced one eye open, then deemed he was well and truly unconscious, but still alive. She hit the button on her radio. "This is Lieutenant Cooper. Colonel Sheppard is down, I'm taking him back to the rendezvous."

"What happened?" came Teyla's voice.

"He touched a panel on the wall. I don't know what it was supposed to do, but I think this is another security measure," she said, putting Sheppard's arm over her shoulders and dragging him up.

"Understood. We will meet you there and not touch any of the equipment."

Cooper grunted under the weight of the colonel, then began slowly making her way back to Rodney and the main room.

. . .

Rodney gulped upon seeing the unconscious colonel. This state of weakness was not one he was fond of seeing in Sheppard, particularly because that was his friend and it also meant that whatever had taken him down could easily do the same to the scientist. "So the, uh, panel backfired, huh?" he asked nervously.

"Yeah," Cooper grunted, laying him down against the wall as gently as possible. "Any headway on your part?"

"Well, nothing yet. I was hoping maybe the hole closing wasn't a security measure, just something similar to a door closing and we just had to figure out how to open it from the inside. The latest... accident has blown that theory sky high."

"Is there anything we can do for him?" Teyla asked worriedly.

Cooper shook her head. "Not from what I can tell. We just have to wait for him to wake up."

"So what do we do now?" Ronon asked.

She looked at him. "Are you asking me?"

"Well, you are currently the ranking officer," Rodney reminded her. She instantly paled. He didn't envy her position in the slightest, but he'd expected a military officer to be more willing to take point.

"Okay," she said quietly, turning away to look around. "Dr. McKay, what exactly have you found so far?"

"Just a lot of code and encrypted material. I'm trying to work through it all, but it's using the same language as the stuff written all over. I might need your help."

She nodded. "Sure. Anything else?"

He frowned, going over his data pad. "I don't know, I've been getting weird energy spikes from this area of the city ever since you turned the place on, but it's not very consistent. I'm worried there might be some sort of leak there."

"What's leaking?" Ronon asked.

"Water? Air? The power source? Who knows? Everything is set up all backwards in this place. It was a death trap from the beginning. No wonder they evacuated, this was a terrible idea, who wants to live underground-"

"Rodney," Teyla said firmly.

McKay, who's face had steadily been growing more red, stopped to take a few breaths. "Look, all I'm saying is that we have a potentially dangerous fuel leak in an eastern section. That, or something else, maybe something worse. With our luck, probably something worse."

"It's worth checking out," Cooper said. "Maybe if we can fix part of the city, it won't think of us as enemies."

"Oh, yes, because pulling a splinter out of a dragon's foot always seemed like a plausible friendship," McKay said bitingly.

Cooper ignored him with some difficulty. "Ronon, Teyla, I want you to go look at this leak. Try not to touch anything along the way. Just because you don't have the gene doesn't mean it won't try to harm you. I want you checking in every fifteen minutes so I know everything's okay."

"Yes, Lieutenant," Teyla said with a nod. Ronon followed quietly as she exited the room, going in the direction Rodney had indicated for them.

"I'd like you to not undermine my authority, Dr. McKay," Cooper said quietly.

He made a face. "You just said, 'maybe the city will like us if we help it.' Do you have any idea how childish that sounds?"

She took a step forward. "Childish or not, we need to be working together. You snapping at everyone isn't helping anything."

"That's what I do, Lieutenant, I snap at people. It helps me work faster. Snapping is the difference between getting out of here today, and getting out of here tomorrow. You can take your pick."

She gritted her teeth, but snatched the tablet out of his hand. "Fine. What do you need me to do?"