Chapter 14: That's longer than I was expecting.
Sheppard lay propped up in the infirmary bed reviewing the evidence that confirmed he really had escaped the world he hadn't known he was trapped in. His hand was no longer broken so that was a big clue, as was the fact that physically he felt well rested instead of exhausted. But all those clues paled into insignificance against the sight of Rodney sitting beside his bed, obviously free from any bullets shot from Johns own gun.
Rodney had called Doctor Beckett into Sheppard's room as soon as he'd woken. He'd had to put up with the usual medical checks before Carson confirmed that he apparently had come through his ordeal relatively unscathed.
"How long?" Sheppard's voice was croaky from lack of use.
"Too long," Rodney retorted.
"Two weeks," Beckett admitted, when Sheppard looked at him insistently.
"Wow," Sheppard blinked in surprise. "About the same as in there – that's longer than I was expecting. What happened?"
"You spent two weeks lying in an infirmary bed," Rodney said sarcastically. "What do you think happened?"
"I spent two weeks living within the virtual environment of that system you wanted me to activate," Sheppard replied grimly. "I was expecting there to be some kind of evidence of that here in the real world."
"The most active part of you was your brain," Beckett confirmed. "Evidence of synaptic actively far in excess of what's normal for a coma. We couldn't explain it and everything we tried to wake you was unsuccessful. We even shocked you with a small electric charge to no avail."
"I think I felt that!" Sheppard said incredulously. "It might not have helped here but it did help me in there."
"How are you feeling now Colonel?" Beckett asked curiously.
"Better than I was in there," Sheppard replied. "Of course I had gone two weeks with only one night of full sleep ... and I'd smashed my hand up pretty bad too."
"That sounds eventful ... can you fill us in on what happened from your perspective?" Beckett requested.
Sheppard nodded, telling the whole story with the only omission being the part the Atlantis avatar had played at the end.
"Well it's good to have you back lad," Beckett said with a smile. "I'll go and fill Doctor Weir in on your condition as well as what you've told me about your experience. Don't be surprised if Elizabeth wants to hear it all again herself first hand."
"Thanks Doc," Sheppard smiled weakly in return, waiting until Carson had left before turning back to Rodney. "Aperio wasn't the only avatar I met in the system," he revealed. "At the end an avatar of the real Atlantis appeared too. It was only because of her that I managed to get out of there. Before she turned up I had no idea I was trapped in a virtual environment – everything felt real – I was convinced it all was real."
"What do you know - it worked!" Rodney said in surprise. When Sheppard raised an eyebrow in confusion Rodney smiled. "Things were pretty grim at the end here as well – your brain scans were starting to come back with worrying signs of potential permanent damage. Carson wasn't optimistic you'd come out of it on your own so I ... ah ... I tried to connect to Atlantis like you do ... begged her to help you somehow. I can't believe she actually heard me."
"How did you hear Rodney?" Sheppard thought to Atlantis.
"Our awareness of the city is a combination of the various operations of all our systems, our interactions through links with the other ATA gene holders, and what we hear through your thoughts," Atlantis revealed. "When you are not present anything that is not directly entered into our systems is lost to us. Doctor McKay's distress call came to us through his mental link to the communications system - it was faint but with much focus we were able to hear him." Sheppard frowned at the idea that he was the city's only company in the verbal sense ... for some reason that bothered him a little.
"What?" Rodney demanded, correctly working out from the look on Sheppard's face that Atlantis had been talking to him.
"She just said she is able to hear you if she needs to Rodney," Sheppard shared.
"Just promise me that next time you won't be so stubborn about asking Atlantis for help," Rodney's tone was almost pleading.
"I'll think about it," Sheppard replied. "You're not gonna get all lazy on me are you?" He laughed when Rodney got that classic insulted look on his face – his amusement cut short when Rodney's expression shifted straight into guilty.
"I'm really sorry," Rodney offered glumly. "If I hadn't pushed for you to help me with that system you wouldn't have been trapped in there for so long."
"Not your fault," Sheppard excused. "There's a lot here we don't understand ... working things out necessarily involves some risk. And in the end you were instrumental in getting me out of there so ..."
"I'm glad you're back," Rodney said awkwardly. "Although it has been surprisingly disaster free around here ... apart from the one you were involved in of course."
"Funny," Sheppard complained. "I was thinking the same thing about you ... until you said that!"
"I know you've had a tough couple of weeks," Rodney continued, "and I'd like to give you time to recover, catch up on the gossip and all that, but this thing isn't over."
"We have to remove Aperio from the system," Sheppard said seriously.
"If we don't the threat of it taking control of key systems will remain hanging over us," Rodney agreed. "Besides, you letting it out of the inner room it was contained in may have created a vulnerability within the system itself. Given enough time Aperio may be able to use that to find a way out – it's active in there and we have no way of stopping it."
"Can't you just shut her off?" Sheppard asked. "She needs power to function, doesn't she?"
"True," Rodney agreed. "At first there was no evidence of that – in fact Carson was pretty sure Aperio was drawing power directly from you.
"That would explain the weird bouts of exhaustion I experienced at the beginning," Sheppard agreed.
"Yeah - well either that wasn't enough or what it got from you allowed it to construct a way to tap into our power," Rodney continued. "In the last few days that system has been drawing more and more energy to the point where it's now putting quite a strain on our resources."
"I'm guessing you did try to cut off the supply," Sheppard quizzed.
"That was one of the first things I tried but ah ... I couldn't shut it off. Aperio is drawing the energy using constructs inside its system. The Ancients were too good at creating barriers around it to isolate it. It's taking advantage of that to protect itself which means I can't get to it through the coding."
"You could shutdown and then restart the entire system," Atlantis itself made that suggestion.
"That's not an option," Sheppard said heatedly.
"What's not an option?" Rodney asked in confusion.
"Atlantis suggested we shut down the entire system and then restart it," Sheppard admitted.
"That would wipe out the conscious element of the Aperio system," Rodney agreed. "It'd be relatively easy from there to remove its code before starting the main systems up again."
"And it would wipe out the Atlantis consciousness as well," Sheppard pointed out. "The Ancients didn't want to do that and there's no way I'm letting you do it either."
"Thank you," the chorus said almost meekly.
"Of course not," Rodney agreed quickly. "There has to be another way ... although the fact that the Ancients confined and firewalled the system instead of wiping it out makes me worry this is gonna be a lot harder than we can maybe handle."
"I may have an idea Rodney," Sheppard said, still thinking about the logistics. "You'll like it – you might even call it 'wacky'."
"Whatever it is will have to wait Rodney," Beckett strode back into the infirmary. "The Colonel's due for some more detailed scans just to make sure that stubborn brain of his is still working like it's supposed to."
"But," Rodney spluttered impatiently. Rather than argue further Beckett put a hand under Rodney's elbow and hustled him out of the infirmary himself.
Sheppard lay back with an amused smile ... now that felt right!