I'm trying to decide whether I should delay posting chapters, finish this fic, and then post daily, instead of three times a week like I'm doing now. What do you guys think? Right now the fic is at the halfway point. I want to finish this one up as I've three other writing projects in the works. Eep!
--//--
Doomed. He was doomed. Any minute now, he'd be just as screwed as Sheppard. His hands were growing clammy, his heart was hammering in his chest, and he was finding it hard to breathe.
Or perhaps he was simply overreacting.
Yet, he did have the Ancient gene, even if it was artificial. Knowing the knack for trouble all things Ancient attracted, he didn't doubt the fact that he was most likely the next victim of a booby trap straight out of the Indiana Jones trilogy.
"Rodney!" Teyla's voice snapped his wondering mind back to attention. Ronon, Zelenka, and Teyla were all staring at him expectantly.
He glanced at the laptop in his hands, as if he only now realized he had been holding it.
"Right. Yes. Of course." He stammered. What the hell were they going to do?
Luckily for him, he thought quickly on his feet. He snapped his fingers at a rather frazzled looking Zelenka and pointed to the abandoned control panels to the right side of the corridor behind them.
"You and Conan work on tearing those control panels off the wall. We need to see what's behind there…what these life signs really are."
He was afraid to move even an inch in any direction. He could only guess at what could possibly trigger any barriers hidden from view.
A million thoughts, solutions, and digressions streamed through his mind as he tried to find a solution to their problem. Were there more in this corridor? How had Sheppard triggered the trap he was in? When had he last eaten? And exactly where the hell was backup in the form of Dr. Row, Dr. Keller, et al?
"Should Dr. Row and the others not be here by now?" Teyla plucked the words right out of his mind. She cocked her head at him in question, awaiting his response.
One step ahead of her, Rodney widened the perimeters of the LSD in his other hand. After a moment, the life signs he hoped were the others appeared not too far from their position, along a parallel corridor. None of them seemed to be moving. There were six in all, hovering in the center of the corridor with hundreds of blue little dots lined on either some of them.
"Hmm."
Teyla looked expectantly at him as he looked up to meet her gaze.
"They're down here, but they aren't moving."
"I can check it out." Ronon offered, stepping up from assisting Zelenka. The scientist currently was gripping a rather heavy looking panel door. It slid within his grasp to the floor with a thud.
"That's probably not a good idea." Rodney kept his eyes on the LSD, his mind still running through scenarios. "There might be a chance that some of the traps aren't triggered by the gene."
"We would have figured that out by now, don't you think?" Ronon retorted in a dry voice.
Rodney simply gave him a look. Ronon exchanged a small smile with Teyla before heading back to help Zelenka. Rodney turned his attention to the schematics displayed on the laptop. He saw out the corner of his eye that Teyla had returned her attention to the colonel, whom had remained still the entire time.
He found himself staring at the crumpled form of his friend through the glowing strands moments later. He couldn't help but wonder what the colonel was going through at the moment. Fear clenched his heart and he found his gaze wandering, anything to avoid the truth of the matter. Sheppard would die if they couldn't break through the barrier. Whatever condition he was in was not good and Rodney would have made a safe bet assuming the colonel was a lot worse off than any of them realized.
His gaze fell to the nearly pitch black corridor beyond Sheppard. A thought occurred to him and he began to tap away furiously at the laptop. Moments later, the answer was displayed on screen. Rodney narrowed his eyes.
"There's a hatch." He said aloud, before realizing it. Teyla turned to him once more.
"What?"
"The corridor beyond Sheppard. It stops but there's a hatch that leads up to the landing dock on the Eastern Pier. Maybe we can get to Sheppard from there."
The worry melted away from Teyla's face.
"McKay." Ronon's voice boomed behind them. Something in his voice had both Teyla and McKay walking over to stand beside the runner.
Zelenka and Ronon were crouched, peering into a gaping hole where a control panel used to be stationed on the wall. There were more strands stretching across the hole, reminding Rodney of a rabid animal with jaws set wide. Beyond the hole was a glowing mass of blue that seemed to vibrate and pulse and move in little burrows that had been cross-sectioned via the removal of the control panel.
"What the hell is it?" Zelenka pondered with a look of disgust intermixed with fear.
Rodney simply held up his LSD and finally got an answer. These were the life signs they had been seeing.
He leaned in for a closer look.
Squirming and pushing through a thick clear gel were hundreds of tiny elongated worms. They were long, nearly the length of Ronon's arms spread wide from his body. Curled up and tangled, the worms were in constant motion, their movements smooth like that of a snake coiling and uncoiling.
A spark flew as two worms slid across each other at an alarming speed. Blue light flashed, causing the four onlookers to jump back in slight alarm.
Then, without warning, a worm slid from its burrow, snapping like a whip onto the floor at their feet.
In a comical gesture, the four glanced at one another, and then they backed up to the opposite wall of the corridor. Ronon withdrew his blaster as the worm sped at an alarming speed across the floor, slithering like a snake…straight for Rodney.
A blast echoed throughout the corridor as Ronon fired, the light temporarily illuminating the corridor. The worm splattered, blue glowing specks landing upon everyone.
And then Sheppard screamed, his back arching, fingers curled. He flipped onto his back as the others rushed to the transparent wall of strands dividing them. Sheppard screamed again, this time his voice trailing off in a weak whimper before he once more fell limp.
The four stared at each other in alarm.
And then they turned back to the slithering burrow of worms in the wall, watching as more and more of the worms slid out and onto the grimy floor.
There was nowhere to go. They were trapped.
--tbc--