Chapter 11 – The Key

The sound of the gun in the small room was shocking and deafening.

Rodney had been expecting it and already had his arms protecting his ears and head as he closed his eyes tightly. He was also expecting a new and more fatal pain to course through him as the bullet found its mark.

Instead, all that he could hear was a nearby scuffle and he dared to open his eyes for a second to look at the man who had nearly killed him.

Perkins no longer had the gun and he was leaned over holding his jaw as Teyla looked at him in fury with her fists raised in a fighting stance.

Rodney sighed in relief and uncurled slightly as the blinding pain around his abdomen began to fade away to a dull ache. His nose throbbed and was so swollen and blocked with blood he had to breathe through his mouth. He could also feel an angry headache developing.

Perkins straightened up and lunged at Teyla. As she deflected him, she punched him squarely in the face as his momentum made him rush past her. He collapsed on the floor, unconscious.

Teyla kept her eyes on him warily for a few more seconds to make sure he did not get up again.

Satisfied that he was no longer a danger, she clicked her radio, "Security and medical teams to Sergeant Stevens' quarters."

She walked across the room and cautiously kept monitoring Perkins just in case he woke up and tried to attack again. She retrieved the gun next to the wall and went over and crouched down next to Rodney.

He was still lying on the floor and as he tried to straighten a little more he gasped and winced.

Teyla frowned at him in worry, "Try not to move. The medical team are on the way." She put a hand on his shoulder as she checked him for any obvious signs of external trauma. Finding none, other than his bleeding nose and the darkening purple circles around his eyes, she turned to watch Perkins again.

"No no no no, I need to speak with Dr Weir and Zelenka. I think I may have an idea of what's happening now."

He tilted his head to the side and looked up at her. She was staring across the room at Perkins' still form. Rodney blinked and looked back down again. "How did you know anyway? I was so sure that it was the end. I thought Dr Psycho was going to try a little impromptu redecorating of the good Sergeant's quarters by using the gun on me."

Teyla pressed her lips together in a thin line and shifted her eyes down to the traumatized man next to her. She squeezed his shoulder gently and then looked back to his attacker across the room.

"You did not answer your radio. I forgot to tell you Colonel Sheppard informed me that Dr Perkins said something quite disturbing before he fled the infirmary."

"Did it sound anything like: 'Let's go and grab a gun, torture and kill McKay as he's so obviously the one doing all of this?'"

Teyla frowned again, "No, but he did sound like he was threatening someone. We were not sure exactly who."

"Well thanks for the heads up. My broken nose and internal bleeding aren't very grateful though."

Teyla looked down at him sadly as she spoke, "I am sorry Rodney. As soon as I found out that I could not reach you on the radio I decided to come and check. As I walked along the corridor I heard raised voices and found Dr Perkins pointing a gun at you. I was able to catch his arm as he fired and the bullet is lodged in the wall up there." She pointed to a small hole about a metre above floor level behind Rodney.

He turned to look at the wall, shuddered and closed his eyes tightly.

Teyla moved her hand onto his forehead, "Hang on Rodney, the medical team will be here soon."

He grimaced and kept as still as possible while they waited.

Dr Newall stood completely still and stared vacantly at the pillar in front of him. He had been standing the same way for the past few minutes, ever since he had torn his hand away from his cursed connection with Atlantis.

Through his actions, he had as good as killed the woman he loved with his own hands.

His mind was strangely empty and he was starting to feel hungry and incredibly thirsty as he let the stillness wash over him.

He blinked a few times to clear his dry eyes and looked down at the device embedded in his hand. He frowned as he saw it just below the surface of his skin. He pressed the fingernails of his left hand up to the edges, but could not find a purchase against the hateful technology.

He had not realised but his throat was contracting and emitting noises. His dry eyes would yield no tears as he sobbed.

He contemplated running from the lab and turning himself in, but he knew he had gone too far now and he may as well finish what he had started.

He felt lonely without the systems of Atlantis running through his mind and reached out his hand to connect.

Rodney once again lay under the Ancient medical scanner in the infirmary as the lights travelled along his body. Carson was standing next to him, frowning at the readings.

"Honestly Rodney, I think I should just keep you in here," he muttered as he studied the data.

"Still…hurts…" McKay breathed through gritted teeth as he struggled to resist the urge to turn on his side so that he could curl up again.

"Aye, it will do Rodney," Carson said as he turned and looked down at him, "I've already given you as many painkillers as I can without knocking you out or making you incoherent."

"Don't do that!" McKay said in alarm, "Still have a city to save."

"I know, but I should really keep you in for monitoring. It looks like the bruising on your abdomen has spread. Still not serious enough for you to need surgery, but I'll need to keep an eye on it."

"And my nose?" Rodney said with his voice distorted as it was still blocked.

"It's not broken, but the painkillers should take care of it."

Rodney sighed as the medical scanner light stopped, its cycle complete. "Can I go now?"

Carson raised his eyebrows, "Quite frankly Rodney, I don't think there's any way I could keep you here even if I needed to."

McKay gave him a small smile and winced as it shifted his bruised nose.

Carson continued, "But you have to promise me you'll do no more wandering off on your own. Make sure there's always someone with you just in case your condition deteriorates."

Rodney sat up slowly and swung his legs over the side of the bed. He looked around the infirmary in front of him. Sheppard, Teyla, Ronon and Dr Weir were standing in the corner waiting for him. Sheppard was still a little pale, but had got changed back into his uniform as soon as he heard what had happened to Rodney.

Seeing that Carson had finished they all walked over and stood round him.

Weir spoke first, "Teyla just told us what happened. Do you have any idea why Dr Perkins would attack you?"

Rodney looked around at all the people as they watched him in expectation, "I do, but I think we need Heightmeyer and Zelenka to help us too."

She nodded and stepped away to the side arranging a meeting on her radio.

Rodney looked down at the ground and wrapped his arms uncomfortably around his midsection as he sat perched on the edge of the bed, "How's Perkins?"

Sheppard frowned, "He's still out of it and surrounded by guards in the isolation lab. We got Zelenka to cut all the power to the room just in case someone tries to kill him again."

Rodney frowned and moved his hands away from his sides to absently examine the bandages still wrapped around the burns underneath.

Weir turned back to them, "Okay, Dr Heightmeyer and Dr Zelenka have agreed to meet us in the Briefing Room in five minutes."

A figure lying in the corner of the infirmary caught Rodney's eye, "How is she?"

They all turned around to look at Dr Li, as she lay surrounded by machinery and tubes. There was a nurse carefully monitoring her with a clipboard.

Carson replied sadly, "We were able to remove the arrow, but she is very weak. We will do all we can for her."

Teyla said, "I will see whether I can find someone from the science team to come and visit her."

Carson brightened a little, "Aye, that would be a good idea."

They all stayed still in silence for a moment as the soft beep of the heart monitor reached them.

Sheppard helped Rodney to his feet and Carson rushed over. He shoved a box of painkillers into McKay's hands and scowled, "If it gets worse…"

Rodney waved him off, "I know Carson."

Beckett continued, "Any worse, I want you back down here. And no heroics either." He looked around at the whole team, "Make sure you keep an eye on him. You all know how stubborn he is.

"Uh…standing right here," Rodney said indignantly as the rest of the team focused their attention on Beckett.

"Don't ignore it just because you need to save the city," Carson finished sadly.

Teyla smiled, "Do not worry Dr Beckett. We will make sure he is alright."

They left the infirmary and headed up to the Briefing Room. Dr Beckett let out a deep exasperated sigh and walked over to the intensive care area to check on Dr Li.

McKay and Zelenka cut the power conduit leading to the Briefing Room before they entered as a precaution against them being trapped, gassed or frozen and also to avoid any possible eavesdroppers. They sat around the table and conducted the meeting in torchlight.

Heightmeyer sat and listened attentively as the day's events were recounted to her. She already knew about the malfunctions, having been trapped in her quarters earlier.

She sat for a few minutes thinking over what she had been told, "Dr Zelenka, you are sure the doors opened on their own, before Dr McKay was crushed?"

He pushed he glasses up, "Yes. It does not make any sense from a technological point of view. If the malfunctions were the work of a glitch or virus they would not have stopped."

Rodney shuddered as he remembered not being able to breathe as the doors pressed against his ribcage.

Sheppard said, "Perkins was right. There was a long gap before there were any more malfunctions after that incident."

"So you think it's me too," Rodney said as his gaze shifted nervously around the room.

Dr Weir answered, "We are not in a position to guess who or what it is doing this yet."

Zelenka frowned as he looked at the table deep in thought. "There have not been any more malfunctions since Dr Li's team returned either."

Teyla said, "She was seriously injured and is still in the infirmary."

Heightmeyer looked at Dr Weir as she spoke, "It seems that the person carrying out these attacks has no intention to kill at the moment. They stayed their hand when Dr McKay was trapped. Perhaps thinking that they had gone too far they decided to wait before commencing again. Now that Dr Li has also been injured, they have stopped again." She frowned as she carried on thinking.

"What about Perkins?" Ronon asked, "They seemed quite intent on killing both him and Sheppard earlier."

Sheppard looked over at Rodney, "At least until McKay deactivated the shield."

"Hmm," he replied, "I seem to have to 'deactivate' systems quite frequently at the moment. Usually by destroying them."

Teyla said, "Then Dr Perkins tried to kill you."

Sheppard raised his eyebrows and then looked at McKay, "You don't think that perhaps Perkins noticed you were sabotaging his plans. Then tried to take you out the picture so that he could continue with implementing the system malfunctions without interference or intervention."

Rodney looked away with a grimace as Zelenka spoke, "No, that makes no sense either, as Dr Perkins nearly died and he is accounted for at most points during the day as he has been running the damage control teams."

Sheppard said, "Unless he can control the systems while he's moving about."

The sentence hung in the air for a minute while they all considered it.

Rodney tried to snap his fingers, but the bandage prevented any noise. He grimaced, "Perkins mentioned something about an Ancient device the science department has come to know as 'The Key.' I've never believed that such a device was real and there are only hints of its existence in the Ancient Database."

Ronon asked, "What's The Key?"

McKay rolled his eyes as Zelenka looked around at everyone with his face shining in enthusiasm, "It's rumoured to be a device which provides the user with total control over all the Lantean systems. We don't know what it looks like or how it operates, but it's plausible that an object like it could be responsible for what's been happening today."

Rodney said sceptically, "Yes, but The Key, like so many other Ancient devices, has been missing for over ten thousand years. There's no conclusive proof that it exists anyway."

"Someone must've found it," Ronon mumbled.

Heightmeyer said, "If this is true and that one person has been able to gain control over all of Atlantis…" she looked to the side as she considered her words, "That kind of power would be very corrupting and based on what has happened so far, they may well have only been testing the water. We need to find and help them to stop this, before it's too late."

Weir said, "The Daedalus will be here within the next hour. Dr McKay, I would like you and Dr Zelenka to put together a communication array, off the grid, so that we can contact them when they arrive. We could use their help to find the person doing this."

Sheppard said, "We also need to put together a list of people and see if anyone's missing or has been missing at the same times as the malfunctions."

Weir said, "That's a good idea, Teyla and Ronon, if you could assist the Colonel."

They all left the Briefing Room and were about to go about their assigned tasks when the gate activated.

TBC