Dealing with Chancellor Lycon was rather like trying to pound a nail through a brick wall with nothing but a fist, Elizabeth decided. Of course it hadn't helped that Ronon had brought him to Atlantis slung over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes and after dumping the man into one of the chairs in Elizabeth's office, bluntly told her that Rodney had said the man's planet was going to blow up so expect more refugees. She knew that there was more to the man than the barbarian he pretended to be, why he didn't bother with diplomatic niceties when they were needed she had no idea.
Elizabeth walked out of her office and over to the gate room balcony. Jenkins was on duty at the moment and watching over the latest group of refugees streaming into Atlantis. The line of people stopped abruptly. Elizabeth was alerted to the fact that something was wrong simply because Jenkins began scanning the controls in front of her, obviously looking for something going wrong on their end. She waddled over to Jenkins. Well, she wasn't really waddling. She was only five months along, but Elizabeth was already feeling like a blimp, especially today. That was when she saw molten lava begin to flow through the gate.
"SHIELD!" she yelled, and Jenkins slammed her hand down on the controls. The stargate's shield sprang into being, cutting off the flow and then the wormhole shut down. They were left with a cooling spill of molten rock running down the platform and steps that that their gate stood on, although thankfully the gate itself did not seem to be compromised. "Chancellor, are all of your people safe?" she asked. She didn't want to think about the fact that Radek was still over there. She repeated the facts that she knew to herself. Even if the planet had exploded, he hadn't been planning to come back by 'gate. He and Rodney were working on fixing another Aurora class ship and most of the repairs had already been done. Her husband would be just fine. Nevertheless, she pressed her hand against her child and said a prayer that its father would be there to see it born.
"No," he whispered. He would have shot an angry accusation at her, but the devastated look on her face and the motion towards her belly was something even he could understand. Her mate was on his planet and she was frightened that he would not survive.
Elizabeth refused to panic. "Corporal Jenkins, contact the Daedalus. She should still be within communications range. Send Colonel Caldwell the coordinates to Taranis and ask him to check and see if he can help with the evacuations over there. Private!" she called. It didn't matter that she didn't have a name right now. There was always at least one private on duty in the gate room.
"Yes Ma'am!" came from two different directions, one from Jenkins and one from the floor.
"Get that lava cooled down and scraped up. If you don't cool it too quickly it should stay pliable if I remember my geology lessons correctly," Elizabeth ordered. The Marines down on the floor nodded. They knew what to do with the refugees and now they had a faint idea of what to do with the mess besides get a geologist down to look at it.
"Ma'am, I'm afraid we have another problem." It was Aileen, one of her bodyguards for the day. "Young Jacob has wandered off from his class and it looks like Atlantis likes him as much as she likes the Colonel. She's hiding him, or rather she's telling us that he's fine and with the cat rather than giving us a location for him."
"The cat has a tracking collar right?" Elizabeth asked, exasperated that she needed to point out the obvious.
"It's not registering either," Atwell, the science tech on sensor duty admitted. "From what I can tell, Atlantis stopped paying attention to her about the same time that Jacob McManus went missing."
"Send more people out to help the search parties," Elizabeth ordered. "Give them their last known location."
"Ma'am! I've reached Colonel Caldwell and he's ordered the Daedalus on course for Taranis." Jenkins got up and walked over to Elizabeth. "They've tracked a contact for the last three hours and passed the information to us. It's a Wraith hive ship and it's headed our way. If it stays on course, it'll be here in three weeks."
"Just one?" Elizabeth asked, diverted with yet another problem.
"So far," Jenkins said, reminding her that there was no telling if that would remain the case.
Jacob McManus loved animals of all shapes and sizes. So when he found a cat on his exploration, he was thrilled. He decided that he just had to pet the cat as he hadn't seen one in forever. Unfortunately Her Highness didn't agree with him. She managed to avoid Jacob's attempts at stroking her fur without once looking as though she was actually avoiding the boy. Soon she was leading him on a merry chase, always keeping just out of his reach; not that Her Highness would lower herself to actually run from the boy.
They stayed within the restricted zone, the one where teams of explorers had made certain that it was at least safe enough to walk through, even if they hadn't done a closer inspection. They went through one dead garden after another before they entered the base of one of the few buildings that wasn't a tower. The inside of the building was typical of Atlantis architecture all flowing lines and large windows that allowed the maximum amount of light in and the best possible views out. There was a small control station directly across from the door that was enclosed in clear crystal on three sides. It over looked a vast space filled with what appeared to be Ancient stasis chambers. Her Highness leaped up to the top of the control console and made herself comfortable in the sunbeam warming its surface.
Jacob, following faithfully, was stymied for a moment when he saw this because he couldn't figure out a way to reach her. Atlantis, reacting to Jacob's frustration, raised two steps out of the floor in front of the console that would allow him to reach the cat. Grinning broadly, Jacob jumped up the steps and, surprisingly gently for his age, finally managed to pet the cat. As he leaned against the console it lit up with a rainbow of colors. Curious he poked at a few of them, wondering what they did. Down below, various machines began coming on line. Several of the lights in front of Jacob began flashing in a pattern. Delighted Jacob poked at these, only to discover that if he did not copy the pattern of blinks, the lights would turn off. With a determined scowl on his little face Jacob set out to copy each and every pattern.
"HOLY SHIT!" Murphy yelled in surprise as he watched the ground under the 'gate open up and lava swallow the 'gate whole as it sank into the molten rock. "Jesus, Mary and Joseph! Did you see that?""
"No time for that now!" Simpson snapped. "Make sure that Teyla and Ronon get everyone they can into the 'jumpers. Ferguson, Winslow, get to the jumpers and get them off this planet the second you have a full load. Murphy, let everyone know when the 'jumpers are gone." She turned her attention from the people in the room with her to her boss down in the dry dock. "Doctor McKay! The 'gate is gone and we can't hold off the eruption for more than another fifteen minutes. The 'jumpers are being loaded and everyone who can't fit is headed your way."
Rodney didn't even pause his rewiring efforts as he yelled back. "Simpson get your people out now! Don't wait! Radek, tell me you've got the doors open!"
Although they hadn't gotten the majority of the people off of the planet, the Lantians didn't bother worrying about how they were going to save the rest. The worst of the injured, and thanks to the advanced warnings they'd received most of the civilians had avoided severe injuries, were either already in Atlantis or were being loaded into the jumpers. The rest would leave the planet with the new ship, if Radek and his team could get the bay doors open.
Norina was watching as Rodney's hands flew over the connections between crystals and conduits. The man did not seem to even stop to decide anything before he was ripping out some of the repairs that her people had done while ignoring others. If she had not seen how much better the machines responded after he had made one such repair she would have ripped him away from the consoles, walls and the engine. As it was she watched in awe and tried to commit his actions to memory.
This was a real man. Not only did Rodney have knowledge that was far beyond hers, he was far braver than any man she had ever met. He was terrified by the volcano, but he had not tried to leave. Most men she had been courted by would have either been fighting for a way to leave ahead of the refugees and wounded or would have been far too ignorant to realize the danger. Yes, he was arrogant, but he was at least as clever as he boasted that he was and he was far braver than he claimed. If they lived through this, she would have to see if he would be agreeable to giving her a child and an education.
"Hanger doors are now operational!" Radek called as he began gathering up his tools. He hurried his team back to the ship. Coming from the opposite side he could see Teyla herding people into the ship. He knew that Ronon would be at the back of the group, making certain that there were no stragglers, and thus no losses that could be prevented. "How are the engines?" he asked as he pushed past the stream of frightened people. He did his best not to be rude or hurt anyone, but he was needed if they were going to get off this planet.
"Engines are up and running," Rodney said. "I've got the sensors. I need you on the remotes." The remotes were the ship's communications system for each bank of crystals. Without them, the different parts of the ship's technological systems could not talk to each other. Fortunately Radek knew that there was only the main remote left to repair. They should be up and running in a matter of moments. He broke into a run as soon as he cleared the crowd.
"Ronon!" Rodney yelled. "Get everyone off the surface! The sensors show that the volcano is venting toxic gasses into the atmosphere! Throw them through the damned doors if they won't go!"
"On it McKay!" Ronon called. He didn't bother to tell the man that he'd already brought the last group down into the tunnels. Truthfully, they had been acting difficult but it hadn't been anything that he couldn't handle. One shot from his blaster had showed the unarmed farmers that he had meant business. They would be delivered to the ship alive, even if they were scared out of what little wits they had in just a minute.
"Simpson!" Rodney called.
"Already on board, we have five minutes," she reported as she ran through the ship's corridors, watching the hand tablet she held. It was connected to the sensors in the control room. She would be able to tell when the volcano finally blew. Her team had already scattered to their preappointed stations. Hers was in the ship's equivalent of Atlantis' chair room. Sheppard was already there in the main control chair, holographic HUDs floating in the air around him.
"We're in!" Ronon yelled.
Murphy reached his twin's side, right up in front where they could see everything. A glance showed him that they were once more in synch. They were going to ride the volcano's eruption as they launched, at least they thought it was going to be that close. "Rodney?" Sheppard called.
"Hit it!" Rodney yelled back as he closed the last connection. Everyone grabbed a handhold as the engines powered up and the ship rose out of its berth. Radek opened the launch bay doors, and as Sheppard slipped the ship past them, the windows showed that the eruption was finally commencing, the lava beginning to crawl up and over the area. The ship scraped its hull a bit on the way out, but Sheppard knew that they didn't have time to wait. Just as they cleared the doors, the lava began spilling into the dry dock.