Chapter 5 – Obnoxious

Sheppard and Ronon circled each other in the gym. The late morning sun was barely providing enough natural light for their session.

"How's McKay doing?" Ronon asked as he raised his fighting sticks and watched Sheppard warily.

Sheppard ignored Ronon's feint as he narrowed his eyes and stared unflinching into Ronon's. "He's looking through the city's computer system with Zelenka. They're not having a lot of luck."

Ronon quickly stepped forward and struck out at Sheppard. His blows were deflected with ease and soon both men were circling around each other again.

There had been no more malfunctions that day. Not since Dr Perkins escaped from the lab he was working in. Dr Weir had even allowed an off-world mission to proceed as planned.

After a couple of hours Sheppard, Ronon and Teyla had mutually agreed with Dr Weir that most of the expedition had calmed down enough for them to return to their normal duties too.

Only Sheppard's team and now Zelenka knew that McKay was having trouble finding the cause of the malfunctions. Rodney had reassigned everyone who had been assisting Zelenka to resume their previous projects.

Sheppard suddenly surged forward with a flurry of his fighting sticks against Ronon. His aim was precise and co-ordinated.

Sticks clashed against sticks echoing loudly around the room. The noise was abruptly halted when a different, softer impact was heard.

"Gah!" Exclaimed Sheppard, holding his side.

Ronon twirled his sticks and grinned smugly.

Sheppard frowned and spun his own sticks around in response.

Ronon spoke, "Seems strange that McKay can't find anything."

Sheppard nodded, "Yes it is. He says he can't see anything wrong with the city's systems."

"Then what caused the malfunctions?"

"Don't know. He'll figure it out though. He always does."

Ronon attacked this time. Sheppard blocked most of the hits and even cracked Ronon across the upper arm, before he was hit again in the back.

"Okay. I think that'll do for now." Sheppard said as he bent forward holding the small of his back.

Ronon chuckled as he went over to grab his bag on the ledge by the stained glass window.

His breath caught in his throat, as he got closer to the window. Ronon frowned; he had barely even broken a sweat as he and Sheppard sparred, he certainly should not be having any trouble breathing.

Sheppard was already close to the door and was waiting for Ronon to join him.

"Let's say we get changed and ask Teyla and Rodney to join us for lunch. We can ask him in person how he's getting on." Even as Sheppard spoke, he knew that he would end up carrying a sandwich down to McKay's lab after they had all finished. Rodney would not stop for food or rest until he had solved the malfunction mystery.

Sheppard frowned when Ronon did not reply. Ronon coughed harshly from the other side of the room and then turned to face Sheppard.

His face was tense and he growled, "Get out!" as he jogged over.

Ronon shoved Sheppard out into the corridor with such force that the Colonel fell down and rolled across the floor as he went through the door in the gym.

"Hey!" Sheppard shouted.

Ronon was not fast enough to get out though and the door slammed in his face.

Sheppard landed on one knee and faced the door to the gym. He winced when he saw Ronon hit the door through the dark stained glass windows.

Ronon smelt the gas soon after his breath caught. He remembered Sheppard telling him briefly what had happened to one of the scientists earlier that day. Thoughts of self-preservation and saving Sheppard flooded his mind and without speaking he ran over and pushed Sheppard out of the gym.

The door shut in his face before he was able to follow. Ronon slammed into the glass, shoulder first and staggered back a little dazed.

He started coughing violently and held a hand on his chest as he struggled to breathe against the suffocating air in the gym.

"Sheppard to Ronon! Talk to me buddy."

Ronon continued to cough and reached up to tap his radio, "Gas…" he croaked.

"Hang on I'm going to try and smash the glass in the door."

"No…flood…city…" Ronon said as he collapsed onto his knees with his hand still on his chest and snaking up towards his throat.

"Okay, hold on. McKay will have you out of there in no time."

Ronon wheezed and felt his chest constricting as he struggled to find enough oxygen to remain conscious. He forced his streaming eyes to focus and looked at the large, beautiful and intricate stained glass window lighting the room. He frowned and tried to roar as he forced himself upright.

In a feat of superhuman strength he usually only reserved for fighting the Wraith, he staggered over to the window. He leaned down and wrapped a hand around the end of one of the fighting sticks he had just been using.

Ronon used the last of his remaining energy to bring the stick forward in a strong and desperate motion. He saw with darkening eyes as the glass shattered away from him, revealing buildings and the clear blue sky beyond.

The world went completely dark as he fell down, even as cool air drifted into the room and most of the gas escaped.

Rodney sat in his lab opposite Zelenka who was helping him to try and find source of the malfunctions.

They had been working solidly for over two hours.

Rodney put his bandaged hands on his cheeks and sighed in exasperation at the lines of code scrolling up his screen.

"Anything?" Zelenka asked unnecessarily.

"No. You?"

"No. It is like the city is hiding something from us. It is just so difficult to find anything wrong."

Rodney lowered his hands again and looked up across the top of his screen at Zelenka.

"So, we need more options…" McKay stood up and began pacing backwards and forwards. Zelenka followed his colleague's movements as Rodney looked down at the floor with his mind ticking over rapidly. Rodney began tapping a fist into his open palm unconsciously in time with his pacing. He winced at his burns and quickly stopped.

Rodney said, "I was initially thinking someone had been tampering with the systems either in real time or just throwing glitches in at random."

"We both now know that is not the case."

Rodney stopped pacing and narrowed his eyes at Zelenka; "There are very few people on this base who could completely cover their tracks. You and I could do it, but we would also be able to trace it if someone else had. Hours of work and," Rodney raised his hands in surrender, "Absolutely nothing."

He sighed noisily in exasperation and pursed his lips as he looked off to the side away from Zelenka. "I think we can safely say now that it was a dead end."

"What about a virus or worm?"

Rodney looked back at Zelenka, "Again, we would've been able to trace something by now. The malfunctions have so far only affected three systems." Rodney used his fingers to check them off, "Doors, water pipes and environmental controls."

"It seems that someone or something is trying to kill us," Zelenka said.

"Hmm, but why has it stopped? If they really wanted to kill everyone, then why not just flood the whole city with gas or use the ZedPM to run an electric charge through all the corridors?"

Zelenka grimaced at Rodney's pessimism and mulled his words over for a moment. "Maybe it was a test. Perhaps whomever or whatever did it was just seeing what they were capable of."

Rodney frowned, "If that was just a test, then we are going to be in serious trouble later when they go the whole way with whatever they have planned."

McKay walked over and sat down in his chair again. He huffed and rubbed his forehead.

"I'm going to check out the power distribution schematic from this morning. See if there are any anomalies."

Zelenka peered over the top of his laptop, "I think I'll keep checking over the code. See if there's anything we missed."

"Okay."

Rodney had been studying the map for a few minutes when his radio buzzed, "Sheppard to McKay and Zelenka."

Radek looked up from his screen across at Rodney.

"This is McKay, go ahead."

"Ronon's trapped in the gym. There's gas in there. He's suffocating."

Sheppard's calm voice was a little frayed at the edges as he spoke quickly.

Rodney's eyes widened and he shot up to his feet. He snapped his fingers at Zelenka, "See if you can find and shut down the problem from here. I'm going to assume it'll be like earlier and head over to the environmental control junction for that section."

"Okay, go!" Zelenka replied as his fingers suddenly began to fly rapidly over the keys of his laptop.

"We're on it, Colonel. But it's going to take a few minutes. I suggest you get Carson up there ready."

"He's already on the way. Hurry."

Rodney grabbed a toolkit and a computer before he left the lab and his mind raced. He needed some help if Ronon was to survive. He considered asking Teyla or maybe even Sheppard. But Rodney needed someone who was familiar with the systems to shut them down quickly. Zelenka was busy, although Rodney seriously doubted he would be able to fix the problem remotely as they had both failed to find anything wrong with the systems.

He tapped his radio as he ran towards the transporter, "McKay to Lab One."

"Perkins here."

Rodney steeled himself and realised that his anger at his co-worker had dissipated somewhat from earlier that day. Although Dr Perkins was slow at code work, he was dependable when it came to manual fixes and he rarely made any mistakes.

"Er…Perkins I need your help," he muttered breathlessly, "Meet me in the environmental control junction for the tower where the gym is located."

Perkins seemed to audibly brighten in his reply, "Sure, Rodney. I'll see you in a minute."

"As fast as you can please. Gas is venting into the gym where Ronon is."

"Oh, not again!"

At that moment, Rodney entered the transporter and poked the screen for the centre of the gym tower.

Rodney jogged along the corridor and swiped his hand over the panel to the environmental control junction room. The bruises across his midsection had lessened in pain to an occasional dull ache when he moved too quickly. They hurt a lot more as he ran, but he blocked the pain as best he could. He focused his mind on freeing Ronon from the suffocating gas. There were now more important things at stake than his own discomfort.

The room Rodney entered was small and functional. Pipes and vents lined the walls. Not unlike those of the Water Control Room he had been in earlier that morning. However these pipes were a lot thinner and curved around the walls in a confusing array of junctions.

Perkins ran into the room as Rodney eyed the pipes. McKay turned and nodded at him. The other scientist opened his mouth to speak, but Rodney held up a hand to silence him as he tapped his radio.

"McKay to Zelenka. Report."

"I'm sorry Rodney. It's the same as earlier. There are no problems showing in any of the systems. I cannot fix something I cannot see."

Rodney sighed, "Okay. Back to square one. I'm going to manually isolate and shut down the atmosphere to the gym and redirect a clean air supply into the room."

Perkins flipped open the toolkit and awaited instructions as Rodney plugged his tablet into the control panel for the room. McKay tried to ignore his hands, which were shaking in feverish panic as he worked and his heart pounded in his chest.

"Perkins, third pipe down on the far right. Shut that one off. There should be a lever somewhere on the side of the pipe."

Perkins stood up and hurried over to the pipe, he reached up and quickly turned the lever.

"Okay, good. Now to redirect some clean air into the gym. Hmm." Rodney frowned at the tablet.

Perkins was way ahead of him though and shut off an air supply to an unused lab. He went around the room methodically turning levers and cranks to guide the air through the pipes towards the target.

McKay watched and corrected him a couple of times as he worked.

"Okay, that should be it. Reopen the airflow to the gym."

Perkins did as asked and Rodney smiled in satisfaction down at the tablet.

"Right, okay. Good work."

Perkins hid his grin as he crouched down, sealed and picked up the toolkit.

"McKay to Sheppard."

"Go ahead."

"We've had to manually shut off the faulty pipe. The gym should be vented of the gas now."

"You're too late."

It felt as though Rodney's heart had leapt up into his throat as his chest constricted painfully, his mouth went dry.

"What?" He squawked in panic.

"Ronon had to save himself in the end. Hope you weren't too fond of the windows in the gym?"

"John…I…"

"He's fine. Carson's giving him some oxygen now. We're not sure what the gas was, but hopefully it won't have any long term effects."

McKay sighed in relief and tried to control his shaking hands, "Okay, good. I'm going to head back down to the lab and carry on trying to find out what's happening."

"Maybe you'd better wait. Dr Weir told me, while you were working, that more reports of slamming doors and gas filled rooms are coming in."

"Ah…I'll get my team to deal with it, like they did earlier." Rodney turned to Perkins who was looking at him with a puzzled expression at the one-sided conversation he was hearing. "Better to find the cause than to constantly run damage control, eh Colonel?"

"Acknowledged."

Rodney unplugged his tablet and turned to Perkins, who was watching him expectantly, "Perkins, while Radek and I try to find the cause of these malfunctions, I want you and Dr Newall to organise some teams. I need you to manually vent the gas rooms as and when they occur and open any sealed doors if they trap people."

Perkins beamed at the responsibility. "But Newall took an early lunch today. He says he needs to sort out his sleeping pattern due to the effects of off-world travel and differing time zones."

"I think this is somewhat more important than eating? Don't you?"

Rodney walked quickly out of the room and back to the transporter as Dr Perkins tapped his headset and began organising the science teams.

TBC