A/N: I couldn't resist poking some fun at SG-1's expense in this beginning scene. C'mon, I know some of you have thought the same thing... :)
Chapter 24
Rodney was still panting from climbing six levels of stairs when he pulled the odd, vaguely question mark shaped object out of the duffle. He lifted a finger and took a couple more breaths before he started speaking. "Oh, dear God. Okay. This is a zat'ni'katel. We call them zats for short." He took a few more breaths and activated the weapon. It made a short high pitched sound and rose above his hand. "Once activated here, it …." His words trailed off when Keller snickered loudly. He glared at her. "What?" he asked sharply.
"Nothing," Keller said, her hand in front of her mouth. She waved, but she was still smirking and her eyes were glittering. "Go on."
Rodney went to continue, but Keller was trying really hard not to giggle. He looked at her again. "What?" The word came out strangled.
"A, ah, guy designed that, didn't they?" she said and pointed at the zat. Now she was getting vaguely amused looks from the other men in the room.
Rodney looked at the weapon in his hand, then a second later he sighed heavily and his shoulders slumped a fraction. "It's, it's, it's supposed to resemble a serpent coiling to, uh, strike," he said rather grumpily, but his ears were red.
Zelenka cocked his head and his eyebrows rose. "Oh." Then he was hiding a grin.
"Uh huh, he sees it," Keller replied. "I'm sorry – I'm really tired. Continue."
Rodney rolled his eyes. "As I was saying before the junior high mentality kicked into overdrive, once this is activated, one shot will stun. Two will kill, and three will disintegrate. To deactivate, just press here again." It settled back down with another high pitched sound, and Keller just about choked. "Oh, Jesus Christ," Rodney muttered and handed it to her. "Can you please contain yourself and act like an adult?" He started handing out the rest – everybody would be armed with a zat, even Rodney.
Keller turned away and activated the weapon to get a feel for it. And broke out laughing. "Please tell me it doesn't take two minutes before it fires?"
"Oh would you quit!" Rodney snapped. But everyone else was snickering by now.
"Sorry. Sorry. Really, really tired," Keller said and deactivated the zat. The joyous giggle she let out finally had Rodney grinning. Just a little. His head twitched more than anything else, and his ears were crimson.
Carson reached over, put a hand behind her neck, and pulled her in for a really quick peck on the forehead. "Thank you," he said, his own dimples showing. "I think we all needed that."
Ronon and Lorne were grinning at her as they strapped on side arms – they were going to be carrying Beretta's as well as the zats in case things did get ugly. Lorne was glad his stash of gear was still in the damaged lab. Then they helped Carson get situated with his vest. His pack was not much bigger than a large overnight kit and strapped on easily to the front of the vest within reach, and he also managed to snag a bigger emergency kit for Keller while he was in the infirmary. The crew on duty promised not to tell, and they kept the guards that were in there as patients from seeing him. Then Rodney was passing out radio earpieces to Ronon, Lorne, and Carson. "These have all been set to an alternate frequency. Remember, they won't work on levels three through five."
"Then how will you talk to them?" Keller asked, her giggles now under control, but not her grin.
Rodney picked up another, this one with a lead, and plugged it into his computer. "I'll be re-routed through control and Peter." He sat down and started checking various video feeds. Then his fingers really started flying, and a second later he leaned back with a very happy smirk. "Huh! Zelenka – you are a genius! Two hour total loop up and running. All right, you're all good to go."
Then all smiles disappeared as they glanced at one another. Then with a short nod from Carson, they filed out silently.
-oOo-
Rodney's quarters were on the first residential level of Atlantis, which was T3. At T5 the group parted company. Ronon gave Keller a brief squeeze on the shoulder. "Be careful," he said.
"You, too, Chewie," she said and smiled. Ronon grunted and she rolled her eyes. Then they were heading up. Keller pulled the zat and activated it. "That really is so, so … phallic," she said and shook her head.
Zelenka pushed his glasses up, his own grin as wide as hers. "It's alien, so I've been told. I wonder what their other weapons look like?"
"Probably a big rod or something like that," she said and rolled her eyes. Then her face got serious and she nodded to Zelenka to open the door. He did, and she led the way, zat ready. They had the advantage of it being nearly three o'clock in the morning so the halls were already quiet. Word had gotten out to those that did work a night shift to stay in their labs until the storm blew over, so Keller and Zelenka were able to proceed quickly and without detection. When they got to the hall junction that led to Elizabeth's quarters, Keller took a quick peek around the corner. The two men on duty didn't look like any of the ones who were upstairs earlier, so they shouldn't draw too much suspicion. She nodded to Zelenka, and they both just casually walked around the corner, him just a little in front of her and blocking her right arm.
The guards looked their way, and Keller let them have her biggest, dimply smile. One actually started to smile back when Zelenka stepped to the side and she shot them both. They crumpled without making a sound.
Zelenka made an impressed little grunt as he stepped over a fallen Marine and glanced towards the nearest camera. He did have his data pad with him in case he had to interface with anything, but why take the time when you had a spy? "You're good." Rodney unlocked the door a second later.
"Thanks," Keller said as she checked pulses. "My Dad took me target shooting all the time – thought I should know how to handle a gun." She deactivated the zat and tucked it in the pocket of her jacket, the handle sticking out and easily accessible. "I even got a merit badge for marksmanship."
Zelenka paused with his hand over the door controls. "The Girl Scouts give out merit badges for that?"
Keller nodded. "Part of a hunter's safety program." She shrugged. "Hunting was big where I grew up."
"Huh." Zelenka pushed up his glasses and ran his hand down the lighted panel. The door slid open. "Go, I will drag these two in."
Keller ducked into the dark room. It smelled like the room of an invalid – slightly musty, closed up, and with a hint of stale food and urine. "Elizabeth?" she said softly as she turned on a light in the small living room. She saw the door to the bedroom was open and a blanket covered lump in the bed. "Dr. Weir?" she called again as she stepped into that room and turned on another light. The lump stirred faintly.
Zelenka grunted as he pulled the first unconscious man into the room. He turned around briefly and glanced towards the bedroom before he went to fetch the other man. He got that man in quicker – he was a lot lighter – and quickly shut the door.
Keller sat down on the edge of the bed. She could only see the top of Elizabeth's head so she gently pulled the blanket back. "Elizabeth? Time to get up." She could see the woman trying to wake, so she very gently put the backs of her fingers against her cheek and brushed lightly. Her skin was cool and very dry.
Elizabeth's eyes fluttered open and she looked up at Keller. She blinked a few times, her pupils very dilated. "Jennifer?" she said weakly.
"Yes, Elizabeth, it's me." Keller kept her voice soft, comforting, and smiled. "Radek is here, too. We've come to get you out. Can you sit up for me?"
"Radek?" Then Elizabeth looked past Keller and saw the Czech in the doorway. He waved at her and gave her a little smile. "Kolya?" she said, her voice suddenly very frightened.
"Being taken care of," Radek said.
"Oh," Elizabeth said. Then she burst into tears.
Radek shuffled awkwardly and lowered his eyes briefly. Keller pulled her up into a sitting position and hugged her. "Shh. It's okay – we'll get you out of here and all better." As she patted Elizabeth's back she could feel ribs through her t-shirt. She had always been a slender woman, but was painfully thin now. Elizabeth hugged her back and shook. "It's all right now. It's all over."
Radek busied himself with relieving the guards of their weapons and securing their hands and ankles with some plastic zip ties Lorne had given him. He was shaking as he did it – he saw the track marks on Elizabeth's arms just before she hugged Keller. He tightened the zips more than was really necessary, then pulled a small roll of duct tape from his pocket and covered their mouths.
Elizabeth's outburst silenced quickly. Keller suspected it was because of weakness more than emotional drain. "Can you get up?" she asked her. Elizabeth nodded as she dragged the back of a hand across a cheek. That was when she saw the track marks. She gently took Elizabeth's arm in her hands and studied them. Some were mildly infected. "Do you know what they've been giving you?" Her tone was still soft, but the anger she was feeling gave her words a tremor.
"No, I don't. But, but it's very addictive, makes me sleep a lot."
"Morphine, most likely," Keller replied. "Can you get up?" Elizabeth nodded and they pushed her blankets away. She was wearing a pair of sleep shorts and that was it besides the t-shirt. "Radek, could you find us some clothes?"
"Certainly."
"Top drawer, far dresser. Has my sweats," Elizabeth supplied as she swung her legs over the edge of the bed. Her voice was still weak, but growing stronger with every word. It took help from both Keller and Zelenka to get her dressed. They found a pair of slip on shoes, and within a few minutes were out the door. Zelenka spent a few seconds scrambling the door controls manually, then they were off.
Keller's room was the closest, but one floor down. It took them twenty minutes to get there, and at the end Zelenka was carrying Elizabeth while Keller had all the weapons as well as her backpack with the emergency kit inside and Zelenka's pad half sticking out of the top. They got her settled on Keller's bed while she got an i.v. drip started then cleaned and bandaged her arm. Zelenka just sat next to her – Elizabeth hadn't let go of his hand since he set her down. She smiled tiredly up at both of them before she drifted off to sleep.
Only then did Zelenka let go, both of her hand and with a steady litany of quiet swearing. He went over to Keller's desk and plugged his pad into the wall port. A message from Rodney popped up instantly. How is she?
Half starved, hooked on morphine, and very weak. How fare the others? Zelenka replied.
So far, so good, Rodney typed back. Will keep you informed. Zelenka relayed the message to Keller.
She covered Elizabeth with a blanket and sat down on the edge of the bed. "Now, we wait," she said.
Zelenka nodded, and came over to sit on the other side of the bed. Elizabeth stirred, and her hand tightened around his again, but she did not wake.
-oOo-
Lorne opened the stairwell door a fraction and peered down the hall. He could see the door to the astronomy lab was closed and guard free. "How's it looking, McKay?" he whispered.
Though the monitors were showing the two hour loop back in control, Rodney had access to the live feed. "They're still in her lab down on T1. I'll holler if they leave."
"Good." Lorne nodded to Ronon and Carson and they left the stairwell.
-oOo-
They'd left John alone for almost an hour now, and for that he was grateful. He knew it was an hour, because the heart monitor had a clock on it. He had his head tilted to the right and was watching the shadows of the few clouds that remained as they scuttled over the forest covered mountains in the distance. Between that and the steady beeping he was able to block out the pain from the dozens of burns from the cattle prod. He'd lost count how many times Kolya nailed him, and the room reeked of singed fur right now. There was one ache he couldn't completely block, and that was only because the slow throb from his groin kept time with the heart monitor. He lifted his head once and looked, and the swelling wasn't bad then. But now that his legs were slightly flexed at the knee, and his struggles earlier had loosened the strap across his thighs a little, the strap had slid down several inches and the edge was cutting into his testicles. That was making it hurt more, and every little movement he did made the strap wiggle…. And he'd been doing an awful lot of moving until up to an hour ago.
He could really use another hit of that numbing crap, whatever it was.
It never really did knock him out, as much as he wished it had, so he was awake for every little thing. Chaya was gung-ho on samples – blood samples, hair samples, skin samples. He had several patches on his arms, stomach, and legs where she just cut a sliver of flesh out to drop in a jar or test tube, and she clipped one claw off on his left hand so far down it bled like crazy. Hell, she did the equivalent of ripping out a fingernail, and then she wondered why he screamed. Psycho bitch. She wanted one of his fangs, but Kolya managed to persuade her to wait until later. Of course that was only after he had tried to bite her fingers off three times and got nailed by the cattle prod each time as punishment.
Oh, he had plans for that cattle prod.
Then she wanted the sperm sample. John closed his eyes and snarled silently. She tried, for nearly a half an hour she tried. Didn't matter that he pretty much shriveled at her touch, and when she tried to work him she'd brush again his balls and that would just send bolts of agony clean through him. Then she started to get pissed, like it was all his fault, and finally just used a syringe.
Yeah, he did black out on that one, come to think of it.
John opened his eyes and watched shadows until his heart slowed down again. It was a good thing she wasn't here right now – he was partially hard from the need to urinate. She'd probably try to take advantage of it. He should probably just go, but there was something about pissing himself that seemed more humiliating than the other things that had been done to him. He managed not to, even with the pain of getting the claw clipped down to the core, and he sure as hell wasn't about to do so voluntarily. Him and his damn pride….
The door to the lab opened and John's heart shot up again. That made the throb in his balls shoot up as well, and that softened his dick a tad. Then he caught the scents in the moving air and closed his eyes. When he opened them, Carson was right there.
"John? Can yae hear me?"
"Hey, doc," John croaked out. "S'that really Lorne and Ronon I smell with you?"
"Aye, it is." Carson glanced at the two as they came into view. John rolled his head the other direction and looked at them as well. "Let's get these straps off."
"Careful with that one," John hissed out, but too late. Carson just touching the damn thing had him growling in agony. Then the pressure eased and he went limp.
"I'll hold it out of the way, you cut," Carson said to Ronon. A second later he was flipping the nylon strap away and Ronon was cutting the other two. "You're a tad swollen," Carson said as he unzipped his kit and pulled out a syringe. John just chuffed at the comment. He pulled the cap off with his teeth, spit it out, and injected it into the i.v.. When John started to pull his arm away Carson said, "Something for pain."
John just answered with a sigh and relaxed.
"You didn't change back," Ronon said as he sheathed his knife, his expression fairly unreadable. But his eyes were hard, and they kept flicking to the blood that sat in small pools near the edges of the table.
"Funny, don't feel so naked this way," John replied softly. He kept his eyes shut as the pain began to recede, but the urge to pee was still as strong as ever. "Say, I don't suppose there's a bucket or anything handy? I really need to take a piss, and I'd prefer not to do it on myself." Now that the strap was off his chest, he was realizing just how much that part of him hurt, too, but at least it was phoning it in long distance. And his forehead. Good God – he felt like someone had flattened a beer keg on it.
Carson glanced around while he was taking the i.v. out of John's arm. All he could see were test tubes and small jars. There were some cabinets against the far wall. "Look over there," he said to Lorne and Ronon. A moment later Lorne came back with a fairly large, long necked beaker. "Perfect," Carson said and took it.
"We'll wait by the door," Lorne said, and he and Ronon backed off. They exchanged a sickened grimace before they took up watch.
John tried to sit up, but Carson put a hand to his chest and held him down very little pressure. "Not yet. Let me check these wounds first, and I have some burn salve." But first he tilted the table up a few inches, then held the beaker for John. He brushed his balls accidentally and John growled and showed very white teeth. "Sorry. You are pretty swollen. Did they do something else?"
"Sperm sample. Syringe," was all John said. Then his bladder was empty and he sighed. "Thanks."
Carson was very tight-lipped as he quickly made sure the wounds he could see were no longer bleeding, then carefully got some burn salve on the other marks – he counted twenty-seven, the majority on his stomach, and the black fur there was spiky by the time he was done. Then he pulled off the monitor patches and tried to take as little fur as he could. "Can yae sit up now?" he asked, his voice barely controlled.
"Yeah." John managed to get upright with only a little help from Carson. Swinging his legs around was a different matter, and he wound up cupping himself in order to do it without growling too loudly. He had to continue doing that once he got his feet on the floor and took a few hesitant steps. Then Carson was sticking another needle in his arm. John just looked at him.
"Thought you might need a bit more of the good stuff."
"Thanks." He was wobbly and wound up having to drape an arm over Carson's shoulder, but he was walking. His claws clicked noticeably on the tile of the floor as he took careful steps. And since he was close to Carson, he had no trouble hearing Rodney's voice over the doctor's earpiece.
"Get out of there, now – Chaya is heading back up. Kolya is heading for command."
"Affirmative, doc," Lorne replied. He glanced at John. "You okay to roll?"
John was finally able to let go of himself and Carson – the pain killers were working good, now. "Yeah. No problem." He voice even sounded stronger than before, but not by much.
Carson was rummaging in his pack. He pulled out an ice pack and handed it to John. "For when you're someplace safe." Then he had a small black case in his hand. "You three, git. I have something I need to take care of."
"Doc…." Lorne started.
"Go. I'll be fine. I'll head back to Rodney's as soon as I'm finished."
Lorne continued to stare at him, then he sighed. "Be careful, doc." Carson nodded back. Then Lorne looked at John and held his hand out. "I'll take that – I have pockets."
The corner of John's mouth rose and his whiskers stuck out. "Yeah, that's one disadvantage to my true form." He handed the ice pack over.
Ronon snorted. He patted Carson on the shoulder before they headed out.
Carson watched until they disappeared into the stairwell, and he noticed John was still walking pretty carefully despite the heavy dose of pain killers. He hoped there wasn't any permanent damage. Then he ducked back into the lab. "Rodney, let me know when she's to the door," he said as he unzipped the black pouch. He pulled the single syringe out, pulled the cap, and tapped the bubble out.
"Okay," Rodney said in his ear a moment later. "Uh, what are you doing?"
"Bringing some balance to the universe," Carson replied and waited.
End Note: Oh, lordy, what does he have planned? ..
