Thanks go to Jude, LaneIA and SenseOfTime for the reviews. It´s really stinking hot here in Spain, but I´ve finally got my act together and here´s the next chapter! Hope you like it, I´ve got lots of ideas for the rest of the story and just have to get a move on and actually write them up.

Chapter 4: ZPMs, Glory & Sudden Demise...

In the meantime, Davidson's team and McKay were only a few doors away from the power room. Since the city was still off-line, each door they came to had to be prised open manually. It was times like these that knuckle heads such as SG-12 came in useful, thought McKay. Without a logical way to do it, he'd still have been at the second door. The Canadian was in high spirits as yet another door opened before him. Not only was he convinced that he was about to find a small stash of ZPMs, but nothing - nothing at all, not one single slimy thing - had tried to eat him, poison him, take over his mind, or otherwise invade his Personal Space. Later, he hoped, when he got the city up and running and they'd gone and defeated the Ori ships in this galaxy, he might even be put in charge...

The last door separating him from glory creaked open under the pressure of mankind's most advanced tool - a crowbar. He stepped into the room, but his hopes were dented just a winsy bit as he saw there was nothing in the room but the power column. Maybe, he thought with sudden pessamism, those three ZPMs would be depleated by now... He swung his central massive-wide-beam torch around the power column, and stepped up to it. Still, his hopes rose again, when he saw three brightly glowing ZPMs in their slots. As he put his torch on the ground (face up, so that the beam lit the room), Davidson and his men came through the door behind him, P-90s still held at the ready. McKay pulled an Ancient scanner from a jacket pocket, and tested each ZPM in turn. Each of them was at about 98 capacity. "Wow," he murmured, then, remembering where he was, added impatiently, "So, why no lights?" He bent over with difficulty and pulled the pannelling off one side of the triangular column. "Well, that explains that then."

Standing up again, the physcist pulled his radio from yet another pocket, and spoke into it, "Hey, anyone? Anyone at all..."

Mitchell jerked awake as his radio crackled and half-mumbled, half-groaned, "Wha'sup?"

"Ah, Colonel, yes. I've reached the ZPM room..."

"Just tell me the problem already, McKay."

"Why should there be a problem?" retorted McKay, insultedly, "Why, do you always presume I'm going to report bad news? What is it, Rodney calls so the world's ending, hm? Is that it, eh?"

"Mostly, yes," stated Mitchell dryly.

There was a slight pause. "Well. Anyway. I've found three ZPMs, all at nearly 100 capacity, but..."

"Ha! See, I knew there was a problem."

"If you would let me finish! Somehow every power cable's been cut at almost the identical spot." There was silence for a second, again, then he added, "Looks deliberate to me."

"Can you fix it?" Mitchell stretched again, and rubbed at his eyes with the back of his hand.

"Of course I can fix it," McKay's voice was deeply offended.

Mitchell exchanged a look with Bolton and Carter, who'd been following the conversation and were starting to grin. "How long?"

"Oh, I don't know. Years, months, maybe - for anyone else... Me? A couple of hours."

Mitchell rolled his eyes, but then McKay's voice muttered, "To get the lights on, anyway." He didn't wait for the Colonel's response before cutting contact and getting to work.

It was a few minutes later when Major Davidson heard a strange noise outside the open doors... suspiciously like claws scratching on metal. It was quite a loud sound, actually. A continuous, repetative clicking. Davidson looked at the two men standing by the door and asked curtly, "You hear that?" They nodded, and one after the other slipped out into the hallway, searching as they walked for anything that could be making the noise. Eventually they came to the end of the hall and vanished around the corner. Then he heard a shout, and a P-90 firing, followed by a thud and then a clatter, as the gun fell silent.

McKay had jumped up from his work at the sudden gunfire, and watched as Davidson ran towards the sound. Rodney followed him as far as the doorway and called out, "Don't worry about protecting me... I'll just wait here, then."

At the corner, Davidson paused and then was out of sight. When Rodney saw him next, the Major was holding two dog-tags in his hand, and for once the Canadian didn't ask a stupid question. Davidson looked at McKay right back, with a silent, controlled expression

It was quite a loud sound actually, a continuous, repetitive clicking. He looked at the two men standing around the door and asked them, "You hear that?" They nodded, and one after the other slipped out into the hallway, searching as they walked, for anything that could be making the noise. They came to the end of the hall and vanished around the corner. Suddenly he heard a shout and a P-90 firing, followed by a thud and then a clatter, as the gun fell silent.

McKay jumped up from his work at the sudden gunfire in time to see Davidson running towards the sound. Rodney ran to the doorway. "I'll just wait here," he said.
At the corner, Davidson paused and walked off. when he came back into Rodney's sight he had two dog chains in his hand and for once, McKay didn't ask a stupid question. Davidson looked up at McKay with a controlled expression that would have failed within seconds except the scuttling noise had come back, and what he saw dangling over Rodney's head. He whipped up his P-90 and fired a burst at the insectoid creature which promptly exploded, showering McKay in green goo.

"Hey, did you have to do that?" he moaned.

Davidson grabbed his arm and pulled him back into the power room. He picked up Rodney's torch and set it down facing the doorway. The beam lit up the hall outside, revealing several holes in the ceiling, through which Rodney's hairdresser had dropped. Even as they watched a number more bugs dropped down and began running along the ceiling towards them. Davidson picked them off, one shot at a time, missing some, but also scroing a number of hits, until there were none left.

"Why so careful with the shooting?" demanded McKay.

"Because I only have ..., " he looked at his gun's ammunition round ... "about 20 bullets left and I don't have any other rounds left. After that those things get us." He unclipped his radio from his belt. "Lieutenant Colonel Mitchell, Lieut ..."

Mitchell's voice crackled back to him over the system. "Yeah, Mitchell here. What's up?"

"Sir, I suggest you move everyone back to the gateroom! We've been pinned down by some kind of weird alien bug and I've just lost two men!"

"Does McKay think he can get the power up for the city's systems from in there?"

Davidson looked at McKay, who nodded reluctantly. "Yes sir, but he does, but he's not looking too optimistic."

"That's good news - certain death makes him work better."

"This isn't anything to joke about!"

"Believe me, I'm not - just seal yourselves in there and get this place running again." With that Mitchell cut the transmission. McKay settled back down to work and Davidson stood guard in the doors which wouldn't close. But while they heard the scuttling just out of sight, they saw nothing more of the creatures.