A/N: Okay, weekly updates aren't going to work for me. I'm like that with presents too - I can't wait until a birthday to give them; I have to give them immediately. So, I upped it to a bi-weekly schedule. That idea lasted about an hour, so here's Chapter 2 (it's a whopper, the biggest of them all) because Chapter 1 just seems boring on its own. Time to get to the action! This instalment features purple squid, petty larceny, dark corridors, and OFC whumpage.
Oh, and a shout-out to my amazingsauce beta, Redtail53, who has been patiently waiting almost 3 months for me to get my act together and post this. I hope you like the extras.
Abdūcere (present infinitive of Abdūcō, Verb, [ab-du-ko]): To lead away from; to carry away forcibly; arrest; remove.
The city-wide PA is loud and has a slightly shrill edge, but Colonel Caldwell's voice comes through clear and cold as he instructs all personnel to enact cluster security protocol 11-B. Xenobiologist Casey Cartwright stands up straight as she listens to the twice repeated emergency situation instruction. She's working alone in one of the newer Xeno-category labs, mucking out a series of aquaculture tanks and isn't wearing her radio in case it accidentally ends up in the water (again). The earpieces are expensive, and after the last time one of them ended up in a tank of almost-seaweed-goop she's taken to safely storing hers in her bag when she's knee-deep in anything remotely liquid-based.
11-B is a rare protocol, developed by Sheppard himself during the first year. If they're enacting it, it's probably to do with the Colonel's current... bug transformation. Everyone in the city knows about it, even little old her, down in the aquaculture tanks. Gossip spreads through Atlantis faster than a nanovirus can. Doctor Weir follows Colonel Caldwell on the PA and explicitly guides them in the actions to take. Casey quickly drags herself out of the tank in response to Dr Weir's words and, realising that she won't have time to get properly changed given the response time required for 11-B, decides to just keep her rubber dungarees on. She grabs her bag off a nearby table with one hand, shuts down the three laptops in the empty lab with the other, engages the appropriate door locking protocol behind her and proceeds in the direction of her nearest safe zone.
She's on the stairs heading to the nearby transporter when the lights go out. Uh-oh. Without the lights the stairs are pitch black. She's not going anywhere quickly without some light, so she digs through her bag and pulls out her mini flashlight, the waterproof one that Amanda from XenoAnthropology had given her for her birthday just two months before. Her previous one had died a sad death when Dr Lessik's Erodunctus Eslopecialium (Special Giant Neon Purple Space Squid) had managed to get a tentacle out of his improperly secured tank and decided the neon orange object she was wielding in the tank next door had looked like a tasty treat.
Dr Lessik had apologised profusely for that, and Casey had simply counted herself lucky that the Eslop was not carnivorous, spiked, or venomous. A wet, suctioning appendage had suddenly wrapped itself around her from behind, and then around her arm, and she'd been pulled against the wall. The tight snaking appendage had held her still while the tip had tapped at the hand holding the flashlight. She'd braced herself, more out of sheer surprise than conscious thought, but when it expressed more interest in the light than dragging her into the tank, she had let go of the neon orange tube. It had wrapped around the little torch, retracted from her person in a swift doubled twist and pulled back into its own tank to inspect the new acquisition.
The tube had spent approximately 15 seconds in the Eslop's mouth, the light flickering a few times from within the orifice and then dying, before it had decided it wasn't edible and had reverted to playing with it instead. It would lift it up above the water surface, drop it, and watch it splash down and sink down to the bottom, over and over. By the time the other startled lab tech (who had screamed and scurried off for help as soon as the tentacle grabbed Casey) had returned with a panicked Dr Lessik, the Eslop had begun trying to catch the thin black tube as it sank. Casey had simply stayed where she was, watching as the creature progressed through various stages of playing. Lessik had ordered her out of the tank before he and another scientist climbed in and up, quickly closing off the Eslop tank's grid cover as it should have been.
Despite her reassurances that she was perfectly fine, Dr Lessik insisted that she needed to go to the infirmary for a check-up. They'd headed for the door only to be stopped by a loud clatter from the Eslop tank. Her flashlight lay rolling on the floor just in front of the tank; the tip of a purple tentacle near the grid betrayed the cause: it had pushed the tube through a gap in the tank cover and out onto the floor. She'd walked back to the tank to retrieve it, and when she made to take it away the Eslop had thudded a few tentacles against the tank near her. It had wiggled it's multiple arms around in the same manner it had when it was trying to catch the tube, with what she could swear was an expectant look in its eyes. Without thinking too hard about it, she'd aimed for a back corner of the grid cover and had tossed the flashlight into the air. It bounced through the grating and plopped back into the water. The neon purple squid had gone after it like a flash, catching the little tube before it could hit bottom.
Dr Lessik had been delighted, especially when the tube was once again pushed out through the grid to land on the floor of the lab. He'd taken the second throw, and again, the Eslop had darted off through the water to catch the neon orange plastic tube before it could touch the bottom of the tank. It wasn't very heavy and sank slowly so the Eslop had plenty of time to get to it. The lab burst into a hive of activity, then, to set up recording equipment and devise parameters for the official 'independent play discovery' behavioural experiment. Lessik had ordered her to the infirmary for the check-up anyway. By the time she had returned, roughly an hour later, the flashlight (batteries removed and filled with weights instead) was officially a permanent "fetch" toy in the Eslop's tank.
It was one of several ocean-dwelling species which had been washed into the lower levels of the city during the Genii invasion storm the previous year and it had been generally content to remain in the city. If she'd filed a complaint, Lessik would have had his research curtailed. The Eslop was seemingly friendly and kinda cute (even with gooey purple tentacles) and had proved to be an interesting and cooperative study subject for many in Xeno, so she'd left the matter be. Besides, what would she have written in her report? "Negligence in laboratory protocols resulting in soggy assault and minor larceny by purple space squid"? Nah, this was Pegasus. Weirder stuff happened on a daily basis. Despite having missed the majority of the scientific part of recording the discovery, Dr Lessik had insisted she be first author on the resulting research paper.
She grinned as the feel of the new flashlight in her hand triggered that humourous memory. The beam cuts through the darkness and as she begins to make her way towards the landing she hears a soft scuffling, like footsteps. It's probably someone else from the labs who got caught in the blackout as well. She swings her little torch around to find them, calling out a Hello, but there's nobody in the stairwell behind her or above her. She steps onto the landing and shines her light down the corridor but again, there's still nobody around. Hello? She tries again, and is met with silence once more. Something doesn't feel right, so she decides to double-time it to the secure zone. As she turns back to the stairwell there's a flash of yellow, something moving, blue and black, and before she can scream she is yanked backwards and sideways.
Her flashlight spins away from her, down the corridor, slapped out of her hand in the second or so before her forehead smacks against the wall. She's falling, stunned, and there's suddenly someone leaning over her, grabbing her, touching her. She kicks out wildly and her foot connects but it's a feeble attempt. The figure barely reacts to the kick; instead it yanks her about on the ground and holds her down with its own weight. Pinned and unable to move, she tries to punch her attacker in the face but earns herself a backhand to the jaw instead. Now her arms are both pinned down as well.
She freezes as the figure lowers its face down towards her. In the dim light cast from her flashlight further down the hallway she immediately recognises... Colonel Sheppard? Except it's not quite Colonel Sheppard either. The distinctive wild hair, lean figure, black clothes are all him, but the blue skin and the eyes... Shit. He leans in close to her, but he isn't looking at her. Instead, he's… sniffing her? What?
She has a few moments to register this fact and process through her terror that it's a downright creepy thing to be doing, and that's over and above the fact that he's blue and scaly with lizard eyes. The moment doesn't last long though, as he's off her in a flash, yanking her up and dragging her along the corridor back to the stairwell. He half-throws her down the stairs, stopping her fall by yanking on her hair, and flinging her about like a sack of potatoes by the straps on the back of her dungarees.
Another 2 levels down they exit the stairwell and round the corner so abruptly that he sends her tumbling head first into the wall. He hauls her up again and yanks/drags her down the corridor towards the transporter. The transporter! Sheppard is gripping her partly by her shirt, but most of his clawed hand is holding onto the strap of her bag. This is her chance! She has to try.
She gathers herself, waits until they're near the atrium and then throws herself with all her might backwards and away from him, twisting so that the strap goes over her head. Her shirt gets a bit ripped along the shoulder from his claws, but the tactic is successful and she manages to slip out of his grasp and scramble away. He's left with just her bag and she glances over her shoulder as she throws herself towards the open transporter. She doesn't make it four steps before Sheppard is on her.
He has her again, this time with both arms pinned behind her back and her face on the floor, inches from the closed door of the transporter. Of course he could override the transporter, will it closed and block off her escape. He cracks the back of her head with an elbow and digs a knee into the small of her back, before pinning her down with his entire body. She can't move at all. She doesn't want to try. His weight shifts slightly, and over the pounding of her own heart she can hear him right by her ears, her neck, breathing heavily.
He's smelling her again and it's no less creepy or terrifying than the time before. She's aching from being tossed around and he doesn't seem to be out to kill her. A part of her gives in, and this time when he lifts himself off her and drags her up, she doesn't fight back. Blood is dripping down her face from somewhere on her forehead, warm and sticky, but other than that she's still mostly intact.
All her energy and focus goes towards keeping her feet under her as much as possible as Sheppard drags her along corridors and down a lot more stairs (ouch) at a crazy pace for a good 15 minutes or so. The lights dim everywhere they go, and turn back on after they've passed by. She trips and staggers several times, and each time is rewarded by being smacked against something or being yanked about. The blood is starting to crust on her face, and she assumes it's stopped bleeding at least.
She gets the message loud and clear: don't try to escape again. The corridors have turned that odd green colour and have a bit of a damp smell to them when they finally round a corner, go up a short passageway and she gets shoved through a doorway. The floor beyond the doorway ends abruptly, a dark hole looming instead. There's no hesitation from Sheppard as he takes a firm grip on her and steps off the edge, into the darkness.