Sorry! I couldn't resist ;)
Chapter 12 – Puddle Jumper Mayhem
The technician did not speak as he looked at the DHD in confusion. Dr Weir walked over quickly and stood next to him as the symbols on the gate continued to locked into place.
"What's going on?" She asked.
The technician looked up at her, "It makes no sense. It's not an incoming wormhole. The gate's dialling on its own."
Rodney was also standing next to the technician, "Have you tried to shut it down?"
The technician sighed, "Yes."
"Hmm, the only way to deactivate it would be to cut the power."
Weir turned to him, "What about the shield?"
Rodney frowned in annoyance, "We haven't been able to fix anything we've deactivated yet. There's just too much of a risk that the systems will go wrong again."
Sheppard folded his arms across his chest as he stood off to the side with Teyla, Ronon and Zelenka. He asked, "Can you fix it now?"
"Would that be before or after I shut down the gate?" McKay snapped.
As the last symbol locked into place, the gate deactivated on its own.
"What the…" Rodney frowned as he sat down in the chair next to the technician and typed on the laptop set up there.
"Anything?" Weir asked.
"No. It's the same as usual. No source for whatever it was that made the gate activate or any reason why it stopped."
He frowned as he studied the data. "We were able to record the address before the gate deactivated. Hmm."
They all stood around shifting impatiently while Rodney worked. After a few seconds he looked up triumphantly, "P3X-778!"
Weir frowned, "That's the same planet one of the teams returned from yesterday."
"Precisely," McKay said as he raised a finger, "Which was the last team to return before the malfunctions started."
Sheppard shifted forwards at the revelation and unfolded his arms, "Do you think they brought something back with them that caused this?"
Rodney smiled, "Perhaps something key-like?"
Weir turned to Sheppard, "I want you to round up everyone who was on that mission and bring them to the Briefing Room. Someone must know something."
The gate started dialling again. Rodney sighed and watched the symbols as they locked into place, "Same address. It's a space gate so unless there are Wraith in the vicinity, we should be fairly safe."
As he spoke the gate shut down once more.
Weir said, "Dr Zelenka, I would like you to deactivate the gate and remove the control crystal if it ever completes the cycle and forms a stable wormhole to P3X-778."
He nodded and went over to sit in the chair next to the technician as Rodney vacated it. He narrowed his eyes at the laptop screen and started to type.
Suddenly a person behind them shouted, "Dr Weir! The Daedalus has arrived."
She frowned, "We still have no way to contact them. Dr McKay I would like you to get the communications back online."
Rodney frowned as he thought and then looked up at her, "The Puddle Jumpers! We could disconnect one of them from its link with Atlantis and feed a long range radio transmitter through the system."
Dr Weir nodded slowly and remembered what Carson had said earlier. She turned to Sheppard, "Colonel, I would like you to accompany Rodney. Ronon and Teyla, liaise with Major Lorne to round up the team from yesterday."
They walked away and Teyla tapped her radio to speak with the Major.
Sheppard and McKay stepped into the back on one of the Jumpers.
Rodney eyed the crystal tray on the ceiling nervously and clasped his hands together. Sheppard frowned and then raised his eyebrows. He reached up and pulled down the tray. He handed Rodney a tablet.
"Thanks," McKay said, grateful he did not have to stretch his bruises and did not have to ask for help.
"It's okay. If you want me to rearrange or plug anything in as well."
Rodney sat down on the bench and studied the tablet. He pulled a cord out of the side and handed it to Sheppard, who plugged it into the crystal tray.
"Should be fairly simple," Rodney said as he worked, "The Jumpers' links to Atlantis are through the communication array and of course the autopilot to the Gateroom. They can also open the ceiling in the bay."
He frowned as he looked at the tablet and his eyes opened widely, "The power's spiking!"
"Why?"
"I don't know! It's not something I'm doing."
Rodney typed as fast as his bandaged hands would allow. Sheppard watched the screen for a moment as dizzying amounts of code flowed along it. After a moment he looked away and over into the cockpit.
Suddenly the HUD activated, "McKay?"
Rodney looked up and followed Sheppard's gaze to the front of the craft.
His voice broke a little in panic, "It's not me!"
As he started to type on the tablet again, the hatch to the rear compartment suddenly slammed closed.
"Rodney!"
"I know, I know. The Jumper is being controlled by an external source. It's another malfunction. They must've found a way to hack into the systems using the very links I've just begun trying to disable."
"That's bad. Can you stop it?"
"Yes… but… oh no!"
"What is it?"
Rodney looked up at him with his face showing poorly disguised and shamelessly obvious panic, "I just lost all the data! I can remember what most of the crystals do so that's no problem, but all the Jumpers in the Bay powered up just before I lost the information."
Sheppard walked over to the emergency hatch release lever. He stopped when he glanced out of the front windscreen in the cockpit.
The Jumper had risen from the floor and as he watched it flew out of the Bay and up into the star strewn night sky over Lantea. In front of the craft he noticed a few more of the Jumpers flying in formation with them.
Rodney looked at Sheppard, "Why did you stop? Release the hatch and get us out of here!"
Sheppard continued to stare out of the front windscreen and then walked into the cockpit, "Don't think that's such a good idea at the moment."
Rodney followed him with his eyes and got a fright when he saw their current predicament.
"The Daedalus," he muttered as he forced himself to stand and went into the cockpit with Sheppard.
Sheppard sat down in the pilot's seat. The HUD was still active and it displayed a sensor readout so that they could see what was happening.
"Is that…" McKay began.
"Yep, all of them. Even the ones from the underwater bay."
Twenty Jumpers flew with them, gaining altitude with every passing second. The formation they were flying in was perfect; each craft flying at the same speed and in exactly the same direction.
"That's amazing." Rodney said as he watched.
Sheppard turned to him, "Yes it is. How can one person can control twenty Jumpers? However, I'd rather you got us some kind of control rather than gushing over a bit of fancy synchronized flying."
Rodney scowled at Sheppard as he got up. He went into the rear compartment and searched through his memories for information as to which crystal controlled each system.
He reached up his shaking left hand and wrapped his right arm across his midsection in anticipation of the extra pain he was about to cause to himself. He gritted his teeth against it and started to swap some crystals around and remove others.
"Hurry. We're approaching the Daedalus," Sheppard said from the cockpit. The stars visible out of the window were clearer and the sky became blacker, as the fleet had just left the Lantean atmosphere.
"Oh believe me when I say I'm working as fast as I can," Rodney muttered as he lowered his hand for a moment and took a deep shuddering breath to allow himself to recover from the pain. He then reached up again and carried on working.
Sheppard watched the sensor readout as they got nearer to the Daedalus. The Daedalus had not been able to contact Atlantis for many hours now. They had probably been hailing the base and not getting any reply. Caldwell would have been weighing up the options. Sheppard contemplated what he would do if he were in Colonel Caldwell's shoes.
Now that every Jumper from Atlantis was converging on their position; Sheppard would have taken it as a threat and raised the shields. He hoped that Caldwell would do the same.
He also thought that perhaps he would launch the F-302s to intercept. Maybe beam a recon team of marines down to Atlantis to find out what was going on. They would have been able to read the life signs and know that there were still people down there.
Sheppard ignored McKay's muttering and cursing behind him and frowned at the image. The Daedalus was not moving. Caldwell was too trusting, but he must have been able to tell that something was very wrong.
They had just got into weapons range when the Jumpers did the unspeakable.
Shining bright yellow drones shot out of the front of several of the craft, including the one where Sheppard and McKay were trapped. They streaked towards the Daedalus, as it seemed to hang in space in front of them.
Sheppard opened his mouth in shock, "McKay! We need control! Now!"
Rodney turned his face to the window and watched in horror as the weapons converged on the Daedalus. He turned back to the crystal tray and risked raising his right hand as well to speed up the work. He grimaced as his hands shook and his eyes started to water.
Sheppard sighed in relief as the Daedalus' shields absorbed the impacts as the drones exploded against them. He thought it was a good thing that most of the Jumpers were not stocked with drones as a matter of course.
Sheppard frowned at the formation as it stayed exactly the same. The Jumpers flew over the top of the Daedalus and turned around for another pass. The larger ship had still not fired at them or launched any F-302s. Caldwell was probably confused and did not want to destroy any irreplaceable Puddle Jumpers unless his ship was seriously threatened.
Sheppard raised his eyebrows. It had been a big gamble on Caldwell's part not to destroy the Jumpers. There would have been the risk that every Jumper was armed with a full stock of drones and may have fired every one at the same time.
The Daedalus would have been destroyed.
Sheppard was shaken out of his train of thought by Rodney sitting down heavily on the bench in the rear compartment. McKay leaned forward and rested his arms on his knees. "You should have control now."
Sheppard already knew though. He could feel the familiar link with the craft and he activated the comm, "Sheppard to Daedalus."
A calm voice replied, "This is Colonel Caldwell. Colonel, I don't suppose you could tell us what's going on?"
Sheppard broke with the formation and hovered relative to the calamity now playing out in front of them.
"We've lost control of the Jumpers. I suggest you execute a hyperspace jump to get away."
"Very well. Do you require our assistance?"
Rodney looked up from the bench, "Yes. Could you send us your sensor readings of Atlantis from the last few minutes?"
"Dr McKay?" Caldwell asked, "You shall have them. Will we be able to contact you again?"
"Yes. I've disconnected this Jumper from the its link with Atlantis."
Sheppard studied the HUD as the sensor logs from the Daedalus were downloaded.
When it was complete, the Daedalus flew away through a hyperspace window. The malevolent Puddle Jumpers had once again been approaching weapons range. They flew onwards to where the Daedalus had been.
Noticing that their mark was gone, they stopped and hung uselessly in space.
Sheppard frowned and pointed the Jumper he and McKay were in back down to the darkened side of the planet in the grip of night below them.
Rodney shuffled into the cockpit and sat next to him as they sped back towards Atlantis with their precious data.
A/N – Well that's a strange way to kidnap someone…