Yip, yip, yip! (That's for Ang) You guys all crack me up! My inbox was filled with "hate" messages when I came home from work. Hee! And K, don't worry about breathable air—they're still in the atmosphere of the planet. John was hindered in speed and direction by the beam. And no white cats on my lap this time, I promise!

NEVER STOP MOVING
By TIPPER

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CHAPTER ELEVEN: FALLING THROUGH THE AIR

Rodney fell back onto the floor, head hitting the hard surface with a crack, the smell of burnt metal and burnt flesh singing his nostrils. It was overpowering.

He had heard Sheppard's yell and Teyla's scream before he hit, but, after...there was nothing but his heartbeat. It pounded inside his ears, inside his chest, down to the tips of his toes, louder than he had ever heard it. It was like his blood was demanding to be freed of the confines of his body, and was slamming its fists against the walls.

And outside his body, the world had gone gray, color washing out of it like an old movie. It grew smaller and smaller until it was just a pinpoint, something far away and hard to reach, like looking through a set of binoculars backwards.

Vaguely, he became aware of a growing burning sensation in his chest, but he couldn't seem to do anything about it, couldn't move anything at all…

And then something hit him, hard and painful across the face. The world rushed back as he took in a great gasping breath, blasting him with noise, noxious fumes and vivid color. Someone grabbed his shoulders and shook—hard. Blinking, McKay tried to focus, to break through the chaos, to breathe.

He finally made out Ronon leaning over him, obviously shouting, but his voice was lost in the wind in his ears. Ronon shook him again, then pointed to his left. As directed, McKay turned his head that way…and saw Teyla on the floor with a clearly unconscious Sheppard in her arms. She stared at him, wide eyed and terrified. Blood coated her arms, and there was a smear of it on her face.

She shouted something at him then, and reached out with a free hand to grab her chair—she looked like she was barely holding on, like she couldn't hold herself steady. Sheppard's head lolled into the crook of her arm, his face slack.

Beneath them, the floor tilted and rolled, sliding them all around, and McKay didn't understand why. Were they still on that hovercraft? It was not until he looked beyond Teyla, and saw the orange world rushing up at them through the half busted windshield…

McKay's eyes widened, and he moved to stand. He wouldn't have made it on his own, but Ronon grabbed and pulled him up, practically carrying him. He still couldn't hear, but he could see, and, with Ronon's help, he was lifted over the pilot's chair, which was on its side on the floor of the Jumper and…God, it was on fire…

Shaking, the wind tearing at his face through the hole in front of him, he grabbed the dead and dark controls.

He had to struggle to keep his eyes open, the wind through the broken windshield strafing his corneas like sandpaper, so he was squinting through his eyelashes as he tried to get the Jumper to wake up, to respond. When the left hand control came off in his hand, he let go and pressed his left hand down on the console, begging it to react, to come alive again. For a moment, he thought it was over, they were dead…then the console suddenly lit up. It flickered a little at first, as if uncertain, and a portion on the left nearest to the damaged hull didn't light up at all. Then the right hand control began to respond to his commands, and, with a thought, he managed to turn on the shield and repressurize the cabin. The wind immediately cut off—and he could hear again, though it was muffled, his ears and nose throbbing with sharp, needle-like pain, though it was nothing compared to the ice pick slicing through his skull.

He didn't care. He just had to stop them falling.

He pulled back on the right hand control and closed his eyes, imagining in his head the Jumper leveling out. He felt the floor under his feet shudder and shake, as the Jumper fought the pressure of the wind and the engines struggled to stop their downwards plunge.

All he thought about was leveling off, regaining control, not crashing…

The Jumper stopped shaking, and he risked opening his eyes, blinking against the bright light pouring inside from the blue sky now filling his vision. The Jumper was not quite level, tilted on his side, and he recognized that it was because he couldn't control the left hand drive pod. He wondered if it was damaged, and, if so, how badly. Did the same beam that cut through up here strafe the drive pod?

They were still flying, so it had to be working…he just lacked control. The Jumper was following its own course--taking them back to the Gate. Back to the Kaveer.

No, no, no! Not that way! The Jumper shuddered, fighting him, and he shuddered with it. He pressed on the right hand control. Away...away...from the Gate. The Jumper jerked like a rubber band, and they were whipping in circles.

Sicker than ever, he let go the right hand control, and the Jumper headed off in a new direction. He didn't know where. He didn't know anything. He couldn't think anymore.

He couldn't stop shaking, and neither could the ship.

"I have to land," he said, softening his voice to a whisper. It just sounded so loud inside his head, worsening the sharp, biting pains in his ears. His earlier headache was nearing migraine levels as a result—it was amazing he was still conscious.

"Where?" Ronon asked, sounding very far away, but also strangely close. It was then McKay realized that Ronon was right behind him…holding him up. He didn't even notice the hands under his arms, taking much of his weight as he leaned over the console.

"As far away as I can get from the weapon," he replied softly, wondering if the beam was even still shooting. Had it stopped firing when they were hit? It must have, because they weren't hit again while they fell, or when he leveled out.

"There was a small canyon about ten miles away from the Stargate to the left—I saw it when we were flying around before," Teyla said, speaking up from where she was sitting, still holding Sheppard up. She too sounded like she was speaking through a pillow. "Can you take us there? It had shelter and water."

McKay wanted to shake his head, but he knew it'd be a bad idea. "I don't think I can turn, except in circles," he admitted, his voice shaking a little. "Straight line only. No left hand control."

"Just get us as far away from the Gate as you can, then," Ronon said.

McKay's vision was graying, and he jerked his head up. The Jumper had drooped a little, and he felt it shudder.

"I need..." HIs vision was spinning, he was bottoming out. "I need to land. Now."

"There. Those rocks," Ronon said, stabbing a finger towards the outside. "Defensible, if nothing else."

McKay followed the direction pointed, blinking too dry eyes, and saw a large collection of boulders a few miles away, putting them about fifteen miles from the Gate. The Jumper seemed to be swaying, but staying afloat, so to speak. He nudged the right hand control and kept his left hand on the console, willing the ship not to overcompensate.

It shifted slightly—they were on course. He blew the air out of his cheeks, and tried to ignore the roiling nausea in his stomach. He focused on the rocks, thinking only about reaching them…then crossing over the top of them…and landing. At some point, he had closed his eyes—something he didn't notice until he hit ground. He'd been flying by pure mental picture.

The Jumper skipped on the ground, jarring them, then settled, sighing like an old, rusted Buick.

McKay took off the shield and immediately slid down, so that he was sitting on the floor, leaning against the underside of the console. Ronon let him—either that, or he wasn't fast enough to stop him. His head tipped forward—he only wanted to close his burning eyes for a second…

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"No, McKay, don't pass out…McKay!" Ronon grabbed Rodney's arm, trying to pull him up out of the little niche he'd slipped into between the console and the chair, but the scientist was out again, and this time he wasn't responding to the shaking. He'd gone completely limp, and, with Ronon's awkward position behind him, the sideways chair preventing him from achieving any decent balance, he wasn't able to stop the man's fall. Backing away with a swear, he pressed a hand to the side of the limp man's neck. McKay's skin was cold, clammy and, if possible, even more pale, although his cheeks and forehead were now bright red from windburn. Ronon muttered a swear, straightening up from his crouch.

He needed a doctor.

Turning, Ronon reluctantly climbed back over the still smoldering pilot's chair, the upper left hand corner of which was burned clean off. If Sheppard hadn't turned in his chair to look at McKay the second that beam hit, it would have taken the colonel's head with it.

Teyla was watching him, still holding onto the colonel. The beam hadn't actually hit the man, but it had gotten close enough to burn him through his shirt, leaving portions of his upper left arm and his left shoulder bare and blood-slicked. The force of the blast had sent him hard towards Teyla, and his head had cracked on the DHD. There was blood everywhere.

"How is he?" Ronon asked, kneeling down next to her. Sheppard was lying with his back pressed against her abdomen, his head on her left arm and her hands holding him up around his chest.

"I don't know," she admitted quietly, looking down at him. "All I could do was hold on."

Ronon nodded and reached forward, holding a hand to Sheppard's neck on the right hand side. A steady pulse made itself known, and he didn't seem to be having any difficulty breathing. His eyes closed briefly in gratitude—he'd been afraid Sheppard was dead.

Hell, until McKay had gotten those controls to work for him, he thought they were all dead.

Refusing to think about that further, he looked over at the blanket that McKay had dropped when he fell back. Without a word to Teyla, who was watching his every move without blinking, he picked the blanket up off the floor, shook it out, then climbed back over the pilot's chair to the scientist. Gently, he wrapped the blanket around the scientist's shoulders, then pulled McKay away from the console he was leaning against. As softly as he could, he placed him down on the floor on his side, curled inside the small space under the console like a cat, wrapped as warmly as Ronon could manage in the blanket.

That done, he straightened up and brushed his coat back, revealing his blaster. Pulling it out, he checked the charge then looked to the back.

"I need to check the perimeter. I don't know how fast they will get to us out here."

"We…" Teyla closed her eyes and swallowed hard, as if to suppress the panic evident in her voice, and she seemed to shake herself slightly. The fear was gone from her face when she spoke again, her tone calm and collected as she returned her gaze to his. "We landed about fifteen miles from the Stargate, in a direction away from both those troops and the Kaveer compound. I do not know what mode of transportation they have, but I did not see anything quick enough to get them here in less than an hour. Did you?"

Ronon frowned, closing his eyes and trying to imagine the army at the Gate. He recalled no signs of any transport. Wherever those troops had come from, it must have been close.

"Considering that the weapon that was firing at us was underground," Teyla said again, "I would guess that there is a hidden facility underground as well. That is probably where those people were hiding. My guess is, it is shielded, which is why neither Doctor McKay's scanner nor the Jumper registered those life signs."

"So," Ronon frowned, "they could have more stuff under there."

She nodded, "They could."

"So, what do we do?"

She looked down at the Colonel, then up at him. "What you said. Go check the perimeter. I'll take care of the Colonel and Doctor McKay. Then, when you return, you can finish tending to them while I run some diagnostics."

Ronon had been staring at the back hatch, but when she said that, he returned his gaze to hers. "Run some what?"

"Diagnostics." She nodded up in the direction of the control panels. "I should be able to determine if the Jumper can be repaired or flown further away. And I can inspect the drive pods. At the very least, I can—"

"You're serious. You know how to do that stuff? When did you learn about—"

"Yes, I am serious," she snapped, glaring a little at his incredulous expression.

"Yeah, but...what good does it do us if it can be fixed if they're both..." he waved at John and Rodney. Teyla grimaced, unconsciously pulling John in a little closer, as if to protect him from Ronon's suggestion that he wouldn't wake up. She shook her head.

"Just go, Ronon. Go and see what you can see. We will discuss it when you return."

He frowned, but, after a moment, nodded. Striding to the back, he hit the back hatch and stepped out into the harsh sunlight as soon as he could.

Teyla let out a heavy breath and dropped her head. She held onto John a moment longer, then moved to lie the Colonel down gently on the floor so she could fetch the Med Kit.

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TBC...

A softer chapter ending, yes?