Chapter 18: Stop flexing your evil avatar muscles at me.
"I knew you would come back," Aperio's tone was full of satisfaction.
"Yeah but not because I missed you or anything," Sheppard retorted. "I'm kind of fond of the city right where it is - you running the submersion subroutines is not an option we can live with."
"You have nothing I want," Aperio sneered, "and you are a long way from the Tower Room this time. You will not get past me again." She walked further into the room, smiling evilly. "Preying on your petty fears and insecurities will entertain me. Perhaps you should attempt to be as interesting as possible - while I'm engaged with you the city will remain afloat."
"I wouldn't start bragging just yet if I were you," Sheppard advised. Maybe it hadn't been a good idea to deliberately antagonise Aperio straight off but John was pretty sure she wouldn't have believed him if he'd tried to pretend an interest in her wellbeing. Convincing her everything he said was true might be easier if he made sure that pretty much everything he said actually was true.
"Have you forgotten how easily I manipulated you last time?" Aperio smiled smugly. Sheppard watched as the look of calculation on her face shifted to one of dissatisfaction - she was trying to access his mind and finding out that it was no longer possible. "What have you done?" she demanded angrily.
"Just made sure you couldn't play this with an unfair advantage," Sheppard said easily. "Look, I want something - you want something. Stop flexing your evil avatar muscles at me so we can sit down and negotiate."
"What I want you cannot deliver," Aperio shook her head dismissively.
"Don't be so quick to reject me before you've heard what I've got to offer," Sheppard countered. "I mentioned Ascension before and I admit at the time it was just a ruse to distract you. But when you decided to threaten the safety of everyone in the city with imminent drowning I revisited the idea."
"It is possible?" Aperio cocked her head, clearly interested in spite of her attempts to disguise that fact.
"It is," Sheppard agreed confidently. "We're gonna need all the power you have available. Plus you need to work out how to make yourself as compact as possible."
"You are trying to distract me from using my bridge to control the main systems," Aperio said angrily.
"Of course I am," Sheppard agreed readily. He could see Aperio becoming more and more confused by his honesty in admitting to having ulterior motives. "That doesn't make what I'm offering any less real though. I know I can't fool you so I'm not even gonna try," he shrugged when Aperio narrowed her eyes at him suspiciously. "My primary objective is to remove the threat you pose to the city - get you away from the main systems. To be quite frank I don't really care if that means you Ascend, as long as you're out of our hair."
Sheppard waited as Aperio stood considering his words, looking at him intently as if still trying to delve into his mind and find the truth or otherwise in what he'd told her. John looked back calmly, striving with his demeanour to convince her of his sincerity.
"What do you need me to do?" Aperio gave her implicit agreement to John's offer. Inside Sheppard frowned at the ease of her capitulation ... with no other choice he pressed on with the plan.
"I need you to remove your bridge to the submersion systems first," Sheppard said firmly. "Don't start with the protests either - we both know you can build another one just as good if the Ascension thing doesn't work. I won't help you until you remove the bridge - and don't think you can fool me either. Believe me when I tell you I'll know if you haven't done it."
"You drive a hard bargain," Aperio complained. Her face took on a look of concentration for a few moments before she announced "it is done."
"Is that true?" Sheppard sent a tight thought straight to Atlantis.
"She has done as she said," Atlantis confirmed. "Be careful John ... we sense deception is still at the heart of Aperio's methods."
"Don't worry," Sheppard responded. "I know that was too easy and I won't be trusting anything she tells me." Turning his attention back to Aperio Sheppard smiled.
"Thank you," he acknowledged. "How long will it take to compress your systems as tightly as they can go?"
"It will be difficult," Aperio replied. "I will need to convert each aspect of my programming separately ... I cannot tell you how long until it is done."
"I'm not going anywhere," Sheppard quipped. "Go do your thing ... I'll wait here."
"Very well," Aperio agreed, turning and striding from the room.
Sheppard took the opportunity to check the science console that was at the heart of his plan, relieved to discover that the system did look exactly as he remembered from the diagram he'd seen when this whole thing first began. The fact that Aperio had access to Rodney's lab explained how she'd managed to compromise one of the main systems ... Sheppard appreciated that as a positive because it meant he didn't have to lure her down there like he'd been expecting.
Sheppard stepped back from the console, trying to work out in his head how to achieve his objective. In the end he suspected he'd have to take a huge risk and put his faith in Atlantis and Rodney before he made it out of there.
x
"I have compressed all my subsystems and gathered power from everywhere possible," Aperio returned some time later. "What now?"
"The way Doctor Weir explained it Ascension is about letting go of everything that holds us to our reality and releasing our burdens," Sheppard began the hard part of convincing Aperio that Ascension could be an outcome from what he proposed. "For us humans that's pretty difficult because we have physical bodies and if we've lived anything like an interesting life a heap of burdens too. For you it should be simpler."
"I do not understand," Aperio frowned in confusion. "How am I to let go of my ... burdens?"
"Doctor McKay worked it out actually," Sheppard admitted easily. "The only thing holding you to this existence is your system itself." Sheppard turned and put his hands on the virtual console. "All the coding and subroutines and architecture contained in here back in the real world. McKay was pretty sure that if you surround yourself with energy and you've compressed everything enough you can force yourself into this console. The reality loop you create will sever your bonds and the energy, having nowhere else to go, will be used to transform you into an Ascended being."
"That sounds dangerous," Aperio protested. "How can I be sure that doing as you suggest won't result in my destruction?"
"You can't - nothing in life is ever sure," Sheppard pointed out. "If you truly want to be an Ascended being that's something you'll have to get a handle on. I don't deny that there is a risk there - but McKay was as confident as he gets that the plan would work."
"I could enjoy greater freedom just by taking over the city," Aperio countered. "Why should I risk everything?"
"Even if you managed to take control of the main Atlantis systems you would still be constrained by its limits," Sheppard replied. "Isn't it worth some risk to achieve true freedom from any system that restricts you?"
"What would happen if you were to come with me?" Aperio asked with a sly look.
"I ah ...," Sheppard frowned worriedly, thinking 'I knew it'. "You know ... I don't really know. I do have a physical body but right now in here I'm not much different from you. I'd Ascend as well I guess."
"Then you will come with me," Aperio ordered grimly.
"There might not be enough power to transform us both," Sheppard warned. "Doctor McKay was quite specific on maximising the power you do have because he was worried even that might not be enough - and that's just for you."
"What happens if we try this and it doesn't work?" Aperio asked suspiciously.
"McKay wasn't one hundred percent sure," Sheppard admitted, "but he thought you'd sit in the reality loop until the next regular maintenance back up when you'd get returned to this environment."
"The next back up is not due for many days," Aperio complained. "This plan of yours has many holes!"
"Hey," Sheppard held up his hands in protest. "I never said it was perfect!"
"I suppose not," Aperio agreed. She paced in front of John for long enough to make Sheppard feel decidedly uncomfortable that she wasn't going to take the bait. He'd gotten to the point of warning Atlantis to get ready to pull him out before Aperio spoke again. "Very well," she agreed. "I will try what you have suggested ... but you will accompany me."
"I'm not really ready to move on from this plain of existence just yet," Sheppard whined. "Still got plenty to do here."
"If you do not accompany me I will not hesitate to sink this city," Aperio said determinedly. "Your body will die in the flooding and your mind will be trapped here forever."
"Ascension is sounding better every minute," Sheppard quipped. In his head he carried on another conversation.
"Are you ready to pull me out of the system?" he asked silently.
"This is a foolhardy plan John," the chorus was uncertain and worried. "We cannot predict the effect on your mind should you be ripped from the data storage device as you plan."
"I know," Sheppard said easily. "The thing is, if I don't go with her she won't go at all. I can't let the city be put at risk when I have the opportunity to save you and everyone else."
"Your bravery is appreciated," Atlantis intoned, "but we would prefer it if in future your 'wacky' plans did not involve so much personal risk."
"Wacky?" Sheppard laughed inside his head. "You've been listening to McKay again! So you'll pull me out?"
"We will do as you ask," the chorus tone shifted to the low register as Atlantis made her reluctance clear.
"You have to wait until the last possible moment," Sheppard cautioned. "Aperio's entire system has to be all the way inside the storage device before you can pull me out. Focus on hearing McKay – he'll tell you when it's time."
"We understand what needs to be done," Atlantis replied somewhat irritably. Realising that was as good a farewell as he was gonna get Sheppard returned his full attention back to Aperio, noting that she was tapping her foot impatiently as she waited for him to make a decision.
"All right," Sheppard agreed with real reluctance. "I'll do this with you but don't blame me if the extra drain on power means it doesn't work."
"Come to me," Aperio held out her hands expectantly. Sheppard walked slowly towards her, taking her hands and letting her pull him in close so that they were touching from shoulder to knee. Even though he wasn't really there Sheppard still felt the build up of energy in the air around him, making his skin tingle in a not exactly comfortable way. Minutes passed as the energy levels increased. The sensation had got to the point of real pain before Aperio took the next step.
Everything around him began to waver and swirl as Aperio gathered up all the compressed pieces of herself and meshed them together. Sheppard's arms and legs appeared to thin and bend in ways both unnatural and disturbing. His skin tightened, his blood sped ... the pain was excruciating. Nausea hit like a freight train as the world fluctuated and spun, faster and faster. Yelling didn't help - his voice sounded abrasive and foreign in eardrums misshapen beyond his comprehension. Sheppard struggled not to lose consciousness, holding on for that moment when Atlantis could remove him from this hell.
The swirling, wavering, ugly mass that was Sheppard and Aperio lifted as Aperio directed them through the console access point to what she thought was her system. If the pain before had been bad, this was beyond description. Scrapping, choking, suffocating pressure surrounded him. Sheppard was sure he now knew firsthand what it would be like to be squeezed alive through the eye of a needle. He tried to retain his grip on awareness but no human mind was capable of operating in such a distorted state. John had a moment to pray that Rodney was in communication with Atlantis before the blackness fell like a curtain over him.