Thanks again for the reviews (blush) and you're all absolutely right. This is only the beginning…

Chapter 3 – Water Control Room

1200am (8 hours earlier…)

McKay sat with his eyes closed at his desk in the science lab on Atlantis kneading his forehead with his fingertips. Scattered across the desk in front of him were various and assorted Ancient knick-knacks and doodads brought back by an off-world team earlier that day.

His team had quickly sorted the items they recognised. There were a few scanners and crystals, which had been carefully labelled and packed away into storage crates for when they were needed.

Dr Robert Newall, the scientist who had gone on the mission, reported they had found an Ancient lab on the planet, lovingly labelled P3X-778. The lab had been surrounded by thick jungle, but was still in fairly good condition. There had been no power, but as far as he had said, the Ancients had stripped out anything of use and left behind only a few small pieces of technology. Dr Newall had scooped up most of it and packed it into his rucksack for analysis back on Atlantis.

Dr Newall had said goodnight to Rodney at 11pm and quickly snuck out of the lab before McKay could regain his focus with a jibe about the lack of commitment from his staff.

Rodney was tired, but he still had work to do to find out what the devices were. He had already tested them without touching them to see whether they had any power. The ones with power he had asked one of the other scientists who did not have the ATA gene to remove them from his sight. He did not wish to activate anything dangerous.

At 1am he sipped at his coffee and turned a small device over in his hand. It was a cylinder about the length of his hand and had intricate patterns all around it. He sighed as nothing happened when he poked and prodded at the dark brown object. For all I know it's probably the Ancient's version of a toilet roll holder, he thought.

He rolled his eyes and sighed in disgust and put his coffee mug down. He rubbed his eyes with the back of his hand and stuck the object in a slot in the crate next to the desk. He noted the number and entered the data on his laptop.

He did not notice what time it was when his eyes drooped down slowly nor when he fell asleep.

0800am (Present)

Rodney trotted along the corridor after he left the transporter. His bruised abdomen jarred and made him wince with every step.

He noticed that the floor was becoming damper as he approached the Water Control Room. He was now beneath the waterline deep in the basement of Atlantis. His science team had managed to drain this section of the city to make sure they always had access to the room in case anything went wrong.

Like it had now.

He slowed down as his feet began slipping on the slick floor. The sudden wrenching sent another spasm around his torso, so he pressed his forearm against himself to try and minimise the pain. As he rounded the corner he sighed in relief. Ronon was standing leaning against the wall near the door to the room. He lifted up his hand and held out a power bar.

Rodney grabbed it when he skidded to a halt in front of Ronon, "Thanks!" He said, sounding genuinely grateful for the first time that day.

"S'okay," Ronon said gruffly, "Sheppard told me there were some problems with the doors and now the pipes. Said you might need help."

Ronon shrugged as he spoke and watched Rodney as he tore the wrapper off the bar and started to eat.

McKay was still chewing as he swiped his hand over the control panel to the door and flinched when he realised retrospectively that he had been lucky the panel had not been electrified.

He went into the room, followed closely by Ronon.

Ronon noticed that Rodney was moving gingerly and was holding his toolkit awkwardly across himself like he was hurt. His pale face and bandaged hands were not lost on Ronon either.

"You alright McKay?" He asked quietly.

"What?" came the mumbled reply through a mouthful of food.

He had obviously not heard above the noise in the room as they walked inside. Ronon patted Rodney's shoulder gently. The scientist was a man on a mission and no amount of hurt would be able to stop him at the moment.

The Water Control Room was round and about the same size as the Gateroom; unusual for a room this low down in the city. However, thick pipes obscured most of the walls and there were much thicker pipes in the centre of the room. A large control panel was imbedded in the wall in a small gap in the pipes on the opposite side of the room to the door. The room usually reflected the Ancient principal of functionality intertwined with beauty.

This morning though it was more like a water park gone wrong.

Water was leaking out of several of the pipes and flooding across the floor. Fortunately the Ancients had had the foresight to install drains in the floor, but they were struggling to cope under the deluge. As such, there were several inches of water slopping around Rodney and Ronon's feet, drenching their shoes and soaking their feet.

Rodney could already see the malfunctioning pipe. There were several holes and water was hissing out across the room.

He went around the other side of the central pipes to avoid the scalding leak. He plugged his computer into the control console and tried to fix the problem.

Ronon stood eyeing the pipes cautiously. "What's going on in here?" He asked.

Rodney gritted his teeth and frowned as he studied the data on his tablet. He had dropped the toolkit on the floor while he worked. He shuddered as cold water flowed over his feet. "I don't know yet. It doesn't make any sense! According to these readings there's nothing wrong with the pipes. The Ancient code is flawless. The patch uploaded to the system should be working and shutting down the faulty ones."

Ronon looked around the room. He had only been in there a once before. That had been when Sheppard gave him what he had called the 'grand tour.' Otherwise there was no reason for him to go in there. He left it to the science team if anything went wrong.

He studied the pipes closely and noted there were levers and handles on them, which could probably be manipulated manually.

"If you can't fix it, why don't we just turn them off by hand?"

Rodney huffed and looked at Ronon in annoyance, "I'd rather find a way to decrease the pressure than resort to cutting the water supply to sections of the city."

As he spoke a few loud bangs erupted from the straining hot water pipe as the pressure increased. More holes formed and the scalding water flowed out freely and over the floor towards them.

Rodney stepped back, his eyes wide in alarm. They were both alright though as the cooler water from the other leaking pipes diluted the heat and it was just warm as it washed over Rodney and Ronon's feet.

"McKay!" Ronon shouted above the din, "Fix it later! We need to stop it now!"

Rodney had no argument with that. He unplugged his tablet and followed Ronon.

McKay leaned over to examine the levers and cranks on the offending pipe. They both ducked around the jets of hot water as it escaped from the holes it had created. He studied his laptop and quickly memorised the correct shut down sequence for the water supply.

He tucked his laptop under his arm and reached across. Ignoring his sore hands, he grabbed a large lever at waist height and began to tug at it. He was not able to budge it an inch so he yanked it with all his might trying to force it to move. He cried out as his bruised stomach muscles contracted painfully. Ronon caught him as he tipped sideways with his brow furrowed and he clamped both his arms tightly around his midsection.

Ronon frowned down at him, "What the hell happened to you?"

0500am (3 hours earlier…)

"Uh…Sir?"

The small voice filtered into his fuzz-filled brain and stirred the tiny ever-burning candle of annoyance he had in his mind.

"Sir? Have you been here all night?"

The flame grew inside him and he felt himself frown as he opened his eyes.

Rodney ran his tongue over his dry teeth and sat up in his chair. He quickly wiped the corner of his mouth and focused his eyes on the source of his rude awakening.

"Perkins," he croaked. He blinked a few times to clear the sleep from his eyes and gagged a little when he saw the half finished and stone cold coffee from the previous evening. How long had he stayed awake? What time did his body slump forward onto the desk and guarantee a nasty red patch and a stiff neck when he woke up the next day? He did not remember.

"Are you alright Sir?" Dr Perkins asked quietly. The man was wringing his hands together nervously, like he was poking a sleeping dragon.

"Yes yes yes," Rodney snapped looking around the science lab. There were still Ancient artefacts awaiting analysis on many of the desks. His eyes stopped when he saw another scientist in the lab.

Dr Perkins turned around to look at her now that Rodney was finally awake. She had a look of encouragement and admiration in her eyes as she looked at Dr Perkins. He smiled timidly and went over to sit next to her.

McKay sighed and rolled his eyes as he stood up on shaky and numb legs. He grabbed the edge of the desk to steady himself. He walked slowly over to the two scientists who were smirking at each other and said furiously, "We have lots of work to do people. You," he pointed at the woman, "Catalogue that stuff over there," he pointed to the desk he had used to sleep. He rounded on Perkins, "And you, go to the other lab and continue on the stuff with energy readings."

"But Sir, Dr Li and I were going to work together today," Perkins said sadly.

Rodney frowned at him, "You'll get more work done separately. If you need someone to hold your hand though, I could ask one of the marines to come down." He looked off to the side and muttered, "Not sure if Sheppard would be happy about it though."

Li and Perkins glared daggers at him and made no indication that they were going to move.

Rodney clapped his hands together loudly, making them both jump, "Chop chop! Get to work people."

He swept out of the room and stalked along the corridor intending to head back to his quarters and sort himself out.

He was halfway up the corridor when his radio buzzed, "Corporal Murphy to McKay."

Rodney huffed and tapped his radio, "Go ahead."

"Uh…Sir, there's something wrong with my door. I can't get out of my room."

Rodney rolled his eyes as the Corporal continued, "Only I don't want to be late for Colonel Sheppard's training session. Figured I could get a few rounds in at the target practice beforehand. You know how he is Sir, if I'm late he'll have me running laps around Atlantis for the rest of the day."

McKay shuddered at the thought, "Okay, tell me your location and I'll come and have a look."

Rodney went back to the science lab and grabbed a toolkit and tablet before heading to the transporter. He noted with savage satisfaction that Dr Li and Dr Perkins had done as he told them and now sat hunched over the Ancient devices in the separate labs.

A few minutes later, McKay rounded the corner and arrived at the Corporal's quarters. He put his gear down against the wall and stepped up to the door. Keeping a fair distance he swiped his hand over the control panel.

Nothing happened, but his brain was still clouded in sleep and a little bit of anger at his subordinates for the joke they had shared at his expense. Of course the door would not open, because it was encoded to the Corporal.

Sighing deeply, Rodney stepped across and reached up with both hands to pry off the control panel and access the crystals within.

He was not sure exactly what happened next. One moment he was touching the panel and the next thing he knew the corridor was spinning past him in an uncontrollable and frightening way.

The arc of energy which hit his hands threw him back and he twisted round as he flew and slammed sideways into a pillar in the corridor.

Rodney fell down and lay on his side on the floor, completely winded and curled up with his eyes screwed tightly shut.

After a few agonising moments he was able to breathe again. He gasped and grimaced as he felt a large bruise spreading across his midsection where he had hit the pillar.

He considered trying to get up and put his hands on the floor to steady himself. He whimpered as it felt like he had just put his hands on thousands of tiny sharp knives. He drew his shaking hands up level with his face and frowned at how red and blistered they were.

Instead, he used his elbows for leverage and forced himself to his feet. Rubbing a forearm on his sore stomach, he stumbled over to the door and stopped a few feet away.

Reaching up, Rodney winced as he tapped his radio, "McKay to Murphy."

"Murphy here."

"You could've told me about the energy build up, Corporal. I just got a shock that nearly sent me into next week."

"I'm sorry Sir. I didn't know. I just can't get out of my room."

"Okay, whatever. Anyway I've got to go and find something to wrap up my severely burnt hands. I'll be back in a minute."

Rodney leaned forward and put his forearm on his midsection as he walked away to hunt for the nearest first aid kit.

As he searched, two more people radioed him that they were trapped in their quarters.

Oh yes, he thought, This is going to be a long day.

0815am (Present)

Ronon leaned McKay against a pipe he found that was not yet leaking and retrieved the scientist's abandoned computer from the water swilling around on the floor in the Water Control Room.

Rodney seemed to be recovering and eyed Ronon suspiciously.

Ronon handed him the tablet, "Tell me what to do," he yelled above the noise.

Rodney just nodded and blinked slowly before he looked down at the computer screen.

He pressed a few buttons and pointed at various levers and guided Ronon to turn some and pull others.

Soon the water in the dangerous pipe was cut off and the hissing stopped.

Rodney quickly told Ronon how to shut down the other leaking pipes. Very soon the last of the water on the floor had drained away leaving them both with sopping footwear and cold feet.

After the last leaky pipe was turned off; McKay slid down the pipe he was leaning on and sat down heavily on the floor. He closed his eyes and tilted his head back in tiredness and relief.

Ronon went over and crouched next to him. Placing a hand on his shoulder he spoke, "Come on McKay. Let's get you to the infirmary."

TBC

A/N – Will Rodney ever actually get to the infirmary?

I really enjoyed writing this! I hope you liked reading it…please let me know. x Varda x