Chapter 23 – Setting Up
John, Rodney and Ronon landed in a deserted storage for damaged Wraith armors. Dusty, dark racks and barrels were surrounding the arriving group.
"Okay, guys, let's stay very silent," Rodney breathed, looking around nervously.
"It seems you chose a good place for us to arrive," John deduced, "There's not a living soul here."
They slowly, carefully approached the exit door.
"Maybe, there are guards outside," Rodney distressed himself, but his worries disappeared soon, when they saw that the corridor was empty too.
"They've been centering their forces somewhere else," Ronon remarked with sharpness in his voice.
"You mean the place Claire suggested us to land?" McKay asked.
"Yes, of course, they are waiting for us there. Unfortunately, they'll realize in two minutes that we won't arrive at that spot, and they'll start searching for us."
"Look at that room on the left side of the passage," Rodney gestured towards a greater hall not far from them. "If we could break in, I could connect my palmtop to their system. If I remember well the map Claire created, that's a supplementary control room for the auxiliary engine system, and it's a perfect place for me to plant the virus unnoticed by their technicians."
"Let's do it." John prepared his gun, and they stalked to the first corner of the corridor. The place was clear, so they could enter the supplementary control room. A single Wraith mechanic worked in front of a screen, but Ronon shot him down quickly, and then they could occupy the room.
Rodney opened his palmtop, and he seated himself in front of a console for the technical control of the room's system. John and Ronon stood at the two sides of the entrance, keeping their weapons ready for a probable fight. They kept quiet for a while. After ten minutes had passed, John asked with a bored yawn, "Rodney, how much time do you still need for starting that virus?"
"What?" the scientist raised his head, and he stopped typing at his palmtop for a moment, "You're beginning to get impatient this soon? I need at least an hour."
"How much time?" Ronon and Sheppard asked simultaneously with a shocked expression on their face.
"At least an hour, if everything goes well..."
"What the hell...?" John moaned out. "They will surely find us in an hour."
"I told you this plan was suicidal! What did you believe? That we will just walk in and explode the super-hive with a flick of my hand?" McKay pouted. "I have to convert some parts of the virus program to make it compatible with this collateral system I'm using to connect the virus."
"Rodney, can't you just... quicken things somehow? We don't have an hour," John told him. "Even if they have no idea about our arrival, they will find us, if you can't work more speedily."
"Stop it," the scientist grunted. "I've had enough of being the one who has to work at least ten times faster than it's possible. I'll try everything, but anyhow, the conversion needs about sixty minutes. Oh, and it's another sixty minutes while the virus activates the self-destruction system and blows the hive up."
"Okay, okay, let's just remain silent, and work," John answered resignedly. He leaned against the wall by the entrance. "Don't bother if Ronon and I simply die here while guarding the room for you to have enough time to start the virus."
"Don't push it," Rodney retorted, "I'm trying to be as quick as possible." He turned back to typing.
"Hey, what's that over there?" Ronon asked suddenly, and he rushed out of the room to the corridor.
"Ronon, what are you doing?" John whispered after him, signing him to come back. The Satedan warrior paid no attention to the lieutenant colonel, he hurried to a blob on the organic tissue of the hive. "It's an old, human bloodstain," he explained to his friends, examining it with narrowed eyes. He touched the spot and picked something out of it. He returned to John, showing him what he had just found. "A copper-colored hair," he said. "It's not from a Wraith, that bloodstain is a human's, I'm sure of it. And look at the color! It reminds me of Teyla's hair-color."
John surveyed the long hair thoroughly by pulling it nearer to his eyes, and then watching it from a distance, even keeping it in the way of his flashlight.
"Maybe," he said finally without much conviction, "It might be hers."
"You don't believe that it's hers, do you?" Ronon asked.
"The color might be that of her hair, but how could her blood and hair appear aboard this super-hive? It seems impossible."
"Perhaps the Wraiths kidnapped her. Remember what Elizabeth Weir said? She supposed that Corporal Ridge might have been a Wraith in human form... He might be a member of the crew of this super-hive, and he might have brought Teyla aboard."
"Well, it's a possibility, yes," John murmured reflectively.
"If she is here, we need to find her, before the hive explodes," Ronon stated. "We can't let her die here, if she is still alive. If she is captured..."
"If... if... There are too many ifs in this theory," Sheppard shook his head. "However, it would be a wonderful turn of events if we were able to find her and we were able to leave with her."
"Let me go and search for her," Ronon said emphatically. "If she's here, I'll rescue her."
"Are you sure you want to act like a self-styled hero when we are in the middle of a deadly mission?" McKay huffed in the background. "I want Teyla back as well, but if you go to seek for her, you'll just attract the attention of the Wraiths."
"I'm afraid, Rodney is right about it," John told Ronon. "You'd risk too much by leaving this room..."
"Look at this hair," Ronon thrust it under Sheppard's nose. "It's hers. She's here, I know it."
"Chill out," the lieutenant colonel lifted his right hand up. "We don't leave our friends behind; we'll find out how to rescue Teyla."
"I need the remaining two hours to find her," Ronon went on with a demanding tone. "McKay needs two hours to explode the hive, the hive needs two hours to explode Atlantis. All the same how this ends, I have at best two hours to do something for Teyla. Let me go and try to find her!"
John bethought himself of it for a minute. "Well, alright," he yielded consent to the request. "Just be very careful with the Wraiths. Don't attract their attention, for if they see you, they'll know that you have associates somewhere around, and they'll search for us."
"Okay, okay, I'll remain unnoticed," Ronon promised, he adjusted his weapons, and then he slid away from the room.
"It was a bad idea," Rodney told John. "Or do you think you can protect me from a legion of Wraiths all by yourself?"
"I can't, but in a situation like that, it would not make a big difference, if Ronon was here with us."
"It would!"
"Rodney, you can't be this selfish. Maybe he can save Teyla's life."
"Oh, I see," the scientist groused, "Her life is more important than mine!"
"No, I didn't mean that," John protested heatedly. "There's nothing in the whole universe that could be more important for me than your life."
Rodney looked up from his work. "What have you just said?" he asked, astonished at John's words. He thought it was some kind of a bizarre joke, but Sheppard's expression seemed earnest. The soldier said nothing else; he just rested his eyes on the scientist intensely.
"Oh, well, it's... it's... it's very nice and friendly of you," Rodney faltered, and he hurriedly turned back to his palmtop, but he felt that the sentence would echo in his mind, and it would make incredibly hard to go on with his task undisturbed.