Cooper sat on a stool at one of the tables, her eyes hurting as she stared at Rodney's tablet. He was over by another panel, dismantling its circuitry as he tried to disable certain functions manually. At this point, she probably clocked in at about ten hours of translating, and she was about sick of every symbol. On a few occasions, she'd fallen asleep, only to be roused by McKay's harsh tongue. Unfortunately, Sheppard still had yet to come out of his own slumber, which was increasingly worrying. They had a basic field med kit with them, but not to the caliber the colonel needed. Time was running out only because whatever happened to him might cause him to die.

"Oh, why don't you just go over there and hold his hand," Rodney snapped, looking over at her.

"What?" she said blankly, tearing her eyes away from the unconscious form.

"You're not doing anything useful anymore. You might as well get some rest so you can be useful later."

Without a word, she picked herself up from the stool and sat herself beside him. He was still breathing, and his pulse wasn't too weak, but he was pale and there was a slight sheen of sweat on his forehead. She removed her vest, then took off her jacket and placed it under his head. It wouldn't heal him, but it would at least make him more comfortable.

She wanted so badly to tell him how sorry she was, how she'd messed all of this up from the beginning. I have a habit of doing that, she wanted to say, when put in charge of anything. He should have known. He'd read her file, he'd known her history.

"Is he..." McKay cleared his throat. "Is he breathing okay? And everything?"

"Yeah," she said, voice rough.

She wasn't going to sleep, not like this. She moved to get up when there was a soft grunt next to her. Startled, she looked back. "Colonel Sheppard?"

Rodney's head snapped up. "Colonel?"

His eyes were blinking open, but they were bleary and unfocused. "What happened?" he mumbled, his words running together.

"You touched the panel, sir, and I think it electrocuted you. I told you not to touch it," Cooper said reproachfully.

"Yeah... I don't listen much."

She quickly grabbed a canteen and put it to his lips. "Drink this. Slowly."

He did as commanded, taking in a few mouthfuls of the water before she put it back down. "You okay?" he asked.

"Yes, sir, I'm fine. How do you feel?"

"Everything hurts like hell." His eyes drifted shut, and, like someone had flipped a switch, he was unconscious.

She watched him for a moment, wanting to be absolutely sure. "He's out again," she said tightly.

"What?" The pale of Rodney's face could have rivaled that of the colonel's. "Oh, no. This really isn't good. Maybe he got a concussion when he hit the floor and now he has permanent brain damage. Maybe there's internal bleeding right now and he's just going to - to die before we get out of here, oh, god, this can't be happening."

"It is happening, McKay," she said sharply, getting to her feet again. "Which is all the more reason to move fast. Ronon and Teyla will check in again any minute now. What about you? Can't you tell the system that we're friendly?"

"Oh, sure, why didn't I think of that?" he said. "Oh, maybe because all of this is written in a code that I am completely unfamiliar with! This is all very exact, Lieutenant, and if I screw one thing up, I could trigger a self-destruct sequence!" He laid back down with a huff, splicing a few more wires together. After a moment, he swore loudly.

"What?"

"I just started up the wrong system," he snapped. "Instead of turning off the security, I turned on the alarms."

Just as he finished the sentence, a blue light high on the wall started flashing and an awful keening noise could be heard. Cooper looked over at the tablet hooked up to one of the panels and frowned. "Dr. McKay?"

"What?"

"What does this warning mean?"

He got to his feet and walked over, looking at the screen. He paled. "Oh, no. This is bad."

"What is bad?"

"The leak I detected in the east wing is a type of gas. That must be what they used to power the city, although how, I have no idea." He looked at Cooper, eyes wide. "It's extremely toxic. Even low levels can do some damage to the body."

Her hand smacked her radio. "Teyla, Ronon, get back to the main room now, that's an order! The room you went to inspect is full of toxic gas!" She waited a moment, her heart threatening to stop when she didn't get an answer.

"Right away, Lieutenant," came Teyla's voice, as well as a round of coughing. "We have only just discovered the gas ourselves."

"Is there any way to seal the area off?"

"Not without activating the technology," Ronon said.

She sighed. "Doesn't matter, we should be far enough away. Get back here." She let go of the radio and put her face in her hands. Every move she made seemed to be a step closer to killing everyone.