Chapter 16 – Attack

Doctor Weir, Sheppard and McKay were standing in front of the computer which secured the messages sent from the jumper following the super-hive's movements.

"It's flying exactly in the direction of the city... It's getting closer..." The reports came. "Three minutes and it will reach the distance from which Atlantis will be visible. Two minutes... One minute... It reached the point... The hive has taken a trajectory around the planet... It stopped exactly above Atlantis..."

Doctor Weir stepped to the speakerphone system and switched it on; she called a major up to the Control Room. When the man arrived hurriedly, she gave him the instruction to prepare a group for the probable evacuation of the city through the Stargate.

"Are you sure it's that bad?" John asked her; her only answer was a ruminative nod.

The next report from the puddle jumper arrived. "The super-hive's taking aim at Atlantis with its main weapon... It is preparing for a shoot..."

"Okay, let's everybody calm down, we should think through the situation keeping a cool head," Rodney screamed. In point of fact, everybody else seemed to keep emotional stability, John walked to a monitor to watch the hypothetical area which might get hit by the first missile of the hive, and Doctor Weir turned to the officer by her side. "Switch off the hiding system and change it to our protecting system. I want the shields drawn up before the first shot hits the city."

"What?" McKay protested, flustered. "We can't show the Wraiths that we are here! We mustn't change the hiding system to the protection."

"Rodney, they know about us," she responded sadly. "I don't want people to get hurt."

"No, no, no! That's impossible, they don't know that we are here," the scientist shook his head feverishly. "No one knows. I mean, no Wraith knows..."

"Except the mysterious Corporal Ridge, who can easily prove to be a Wraith," Elizabeth answered. "He walked through our city a plenty of times with routine. He knows very well that we are here."

"Damn that nasty bastard," Rodney muttered desperately.

"He stole Zelenka's jotter with his passwords, he mucked about our sensor system, he abducted Teyla, he manipulated the database of the Daedalus and he used the tarmac of the jumpers for parking his own vehicle, I guess that's how he could carry Teyla away from the city. What the hell is he up to now?" John wondered.

"He wants us all dead," Rodney replied the question.

"Why? Why now? It seems too primitive. He could have given the other Wraiths a heads up on us much earlier," Sheppard murmured in front of himself reflectively, but then he shrugged. "I suppose that we shouldn't care much about Ridge's reasons right now."

"What's your order for me?" McKay looked at Weir, who was busy telling the officer next to her what chief executives he had to call through the speakerphone to the conference room for a quick pow-wow. She turned to the scientist then. "Rodney, you should fetch Radek and as many other scientists as you might need, and you should work on analyzing how much harm the shots of the hive can inflict on our shield."

"Okay, you'll get the answer in two hours," McKay replied obediently, but Weir interrupted, "You have twenty minutes to calculate. Meet me at the conference room with the results." And before Rodney could have objected, she turned away from him. "John, we're going to the conference room right now, and we'll inform the officers about the situation. We'll have to prepare the defense of the city."

"Do you think the Wraiths might be able to get through the shield?" John inquired as they both left the Control Room with quick steps.

"I hope not, but we must consider that they might be."

When they walked across a passage leading to the conference room, the whole building shook from the force of the hit on the shield caused by the super-hive's first shot. The floor was creaking, the walls were juddering, and Elizabeth fell into John Sheppard's arms from the shove of the impact.

"Oh, God, how could the whole city shake from only one hit?" Weir whispered, holding on to John's left arm. "What kind of weapons can they have?"

At the same moment, Colonel Caldwell appeared around the corner, and he caught sight of John hugging Elizabeth protectively. Caldwell threw a gruesome glance at the two of them, but he did not say a thing, he just joined them on their way to the conference room, while Sheppard started to explain to him the whys and wherefores of the alarm. For some reason, Doctor Weir felt embarrassed, and she wished Caldwell had not seen John's arms around her waist.

Rodney hurried down the stairs, ran across the corridors, and rushed into the conference room. The expression on his face was anxious. The officers sitting around the great table all looked up at him, and Doctor Weir - who was standing next to John by a map of Atlantis where the lieutenant colonel was showing the best posts to locate the canons with the nuclear rockets – signed for him to share what he had ascertained.

"Guys, we have a problem," the scientist announced.

"Actually, we have a lot of problems," Sheppard remarked. "I guess you mean that we have a new problem."

"Don't be funny," Rodney retorted scornfully. "It's deeply serious. I examined the harm done to the shield and the way their missile exploded, and it showed an extraordinary frequency. It caused a greater blow than it should have... It brought on a secondary explosion right in the structure of our shield and..."

"Rodney, what's the point?" John interrupted him. "Did they cause a lot of damage or not?"

"It's not that easy to summarize," the scientist started fuming. "The explosion didn't cause any tangible damage this time, but it left some dangerous aftershocks in the structure of our shield. I had to double the energy-supply of the protecting system to keep the shield in place, and I'm afraid if they continue to shoot with these kinds of rockets, the whole shield system will collapse."

"If they continue? What does that mean?" Doctor Weir inquired. "How long can we stand up against their attacks?"

"I calculated the ten-second-long breaks they need to prepare their next shots, and I counted... er... Don't get mad at me, it's not my fault, but... We have only about three hours before our protection folds up."

"What?" Sheppard stared at the scientist. "Rodney, are you sure? Three hours?"

"Yes," he replied reluctantly. "I've already redirected all the useable energy to the protecting system. And that means that... er..." He turned to Weir with an embarrassed expression on his face. "That means that you have to stop the preparations for the evacuation because we don't have enough energy to open the Stargate."

"We must evacuate the city somehow," Weir protested.

"But we can't! You see, if we take away energy from the shield, their next shot breaks it through, and they will destroy the whole city before anyone could step through the gate."

"What if we keep them busy with the Daedalus? I can attack them with the ship, and that might give some time to Atlantis," Colonel Caldwell suggested.

Rodney snorted disdainfully, "I guess you didn't get what I said about their weapons. Their special bursting charges would break through the shields of the Daedalus in two minutes and explode the ship..."

"Would there be enough time for Atlantis to change the energy-provision between the shield and the Stargate, open it, and send at least a few groups to a safe place?" The colonel asked calmly.

"I guess we could save thirty or forty people that way," the scientist calculated. "It isn't such a bad idea as I thought first. I assume I can be a part of the survivors, I'm too important to stay here to die..."

"Rodney!" Doctor Weir cut in. "Colonel Caldwell's idea is really self-sacrificing and noble, but if we are able to save only forty people that way, I think those have enough space aboard the Daedalus to escape the city with the ship, so I suppose it's better if we keep the ship in safety for the present."

"Oh, okay, that doesn't change the fact that I want a place among the survivors," McKay answered quickly.

Elizabeth pointed at the map of Atlantis next to her. "Let's talk about our chances to save the city," she suggested.

"It will be a very brief conversation," the scientist remarked ironically, "Because we literally have no chance at all. We can't harm the super-hive, we can't stop it, we can't..."

"What about Claire?" Sheppard asked suddenly. "We brought her to Atlantis to help us, we nursed her, Doctor Beckett took care of her... It's time for her to show some gratitude." The sarcasm in his voice was unmistakable. "We might find a way to force her to help us. What if I took away her necklace? Do you think we could gain enough leverage over her? Or shall I bring Ronon and let him interrogate her?"

Ronon, who until this moment was sitting wordlessly at the left side of the table, now lifted his head up, "It would be a pleasure to have a chat with her," he sneered.

Doctor Weir crossed her arms, frowning anxiously. It was obvious that she did not really like the idea. "We didn't heal her just to torture her until she tells us something, supposedly a lie..."

"I tried to question her during a whole week, she didn't say a word," John replied with a shrug. "She seems unwilling to cooperate peacefully, so she hasn't left us any other options."

The door of the conference room opened, and Doctor Beckett rushed in. "I have prepared the infirmary for potential casualties, and I have got the crew ready," he reported to Doctor Weir. "I just came to see how bad our situation is."

"Worse than you could even imagine," Rodney answered bitterly. "Okay, you couldn't really imagine it, because you have no idea about nuclear physics and technology..."

"I don't need the mechanical explanation, just tell me our chances," the doctor looked around in the room questioningly. As he saw the hopeless emptiness on the others' faces, he understood that the reply would be truly disenchanting. "Okay, okay, I see," he hung his head. "They will kill all of us, won't they?"

"A few people can be saved aboard the Daedalus, but that's all," Elizabeth said languidly. "They will destroy the city in a couple of hours and kill everyone who couldn't escape."

Doctor Beckett made a grab at his forehead. "Oh, my God! Is there no way to stop them?"

"Maybe, someone can help us," John said. "So, what's your decision in Claire's case? Can we go with Ronon and make her talk?" he asked Weir. Doctor Beckett came to a halt.

"What?" the doctor asked with astonishment on his face. "What is he talking about?" he turned to Weir too.

"He has suggested that we should interrogate our captive for useful answers," she gave her response unwillingly.

"No, no," Doctor Beckett shook his head with disapproval. "If you threaten her, she will lose all her trust in us, and she will never help us," he said, his voice was persuasive.

"Well, there's no other way. She hasn't been willing to help us so far, she has never replied to any of my questions, now it's time to change methods," John gave his response.

"Over my dead body!" The doctor retorted with a hell-bent expression on his face. "You should believe me, you are unable to achieve a thing with threats and torture. She is a Wraith, you can't break her with mere violence."

"Carson, don't make a fool of yourself. You are just worried about that malignant monster, that's why you want to protect her, but it's pointless," Sheppard shook his head. "She wouldn't do it for you."

"I don't care what she would do for me and what she wouldn't!" The doctor stepped forward. "I only want to make you understand that you can't play her false with brutal force."

Doctor Weir rounded the conference table, and she walked next to Doctor Beckett. "What do you suggest, Carson? What should we do to persuade Claire?"

"I don't think that we can ever persuade her..."

"It's an answer I can't accept," she replied quickly. "You either come up with an alternative, or I'll have to order the interrogation."

"Maybe, I can talk to her about it," Doctor Beckett consented. "I can try to explain her slowly, softly, gradually..."

"Nonsense!" Ronon put the extinguisher on him with a harsh hit on the surface of the conference table. "We really don't have the time."

"Alright, convince her somehow." Elizabeth talked to Carson, neglecting Ronon's chipping in. "You have..." She threw a glimpse at her watch. "You have five minutes."

"Five minutes?" The doctor made a wry face. "I can't persuade her in five minutes! That's impossible."

"Okay, then I'll send soldiers to take away her necklace," she said calmly. "If it's still not enough for her, Ronon will get a free hand to try to make her talk."

"No, no, no," Carson was wringing his hands worryingly. "Alright, I'll try to do what I can, but five minutes are surely not enough."

Doctor Weir stepped in front of him, looking him in the eye with careworn seriousness on her face. "You'll get ten, but that's all. Go, and do your best."

"Ten minutes? It's nothing. Can I have an afternoon? A couple of hours? At least half an hour?" But as he saw Elizabeth's tensed features, he amended instantly, "Oh, okay, ten minutes. Fine. Thank you."

He rushed out of the room as quickly as he could, he did not want to lose valuable moments when he had so little time.