Chapter Seven

"Teyla, I need to know how she is," Methet's voice came over the radio, and John could see Methet's anxiety was working its way deep into Teyla's heart.

Teyla licked her lips, pausing for a moment as she seemed to search for the right words. "She is resting well, Methet, and her color is better," she said softly.

John stiffened a little when Methet asked with more agitation, "Then, why hasn't she awakened yet, Teyla?"

Teyla's gaze darted down to the child in her arms. "Our physician says this is to be expected with her type of injuries, but Ashina did start to move a few minutes ago, as if she were dreaming."

"Yet, you can't wake her up."

Methet's ragged breathing could be heard, then the sound of sobbing. Teyla's expression tightened and she said, "Methet, I have Ashina in my arms. She has never been alone since she was injured. We are in constant contact with our physician. She is being well taken care of."

"I don't – I don't understand how she was hurt in the first place," she said, then sobbed again.

Standing beside Ronon, John watched as Teyla caught his gaze, then looked away. Maybe it was his own guilt talking, but to him, her telltale avoidance was as obvious as an accusation as a finger pointing straight at him. John scratched his forehead. Damn, why hadn't he gotten a better grip on the child? If he had, this conversation wouldn't be taking place at all.

Teyla brushed her fingers over Ashina's cheek. "Life has a way of creating events that are beyond our control, but I want to assure you she is in good care. I could not do more if it were my own son here in my arms." She paused. "Remember, Methet, if we had not moved into the facility when we did, there is a strong likelihood Ashina and the rest of us would be dead now, so while our current situation is disconcerting, it could have been much worse."

John took a deep breath, and shifted position while trying to keep most of his weight off his bad leg. He ignored every ache and pain that came with the movement, because he had to get moving. He had to do something to get Ashina back to her mother and proper medical attention.

He took a few limping steps forward, using the walking stick to go over to where Ronon had laid out their supplies on a work bench, forcing his right leg forward since it didn't seem to want to cooperate with process of walking. If he managed it just right, the discomfort wasn't too bad, though it could spike at times as if there was a red hot poker in his hip.

Ronon glanced up as John stopped beside him, then his gaze went to McKay. Ronon leaned closer and said, "He needs to eat. I could probably force him into it, but... "

John nodded. "Yeah, he's already had a bad enough day."

Ronon glanced around them. "I'm going to scout the area again and look more closely at what's on the shelving in the center section. There's gotta be something in here that can help."

After Ronon left, John grabbed a couple of power bars, one with a neat laser drilled hole in the middle and a bottle of water that he tucked into his tac vest. He turned to walk away, but paused when he saw McKay's radio sitting beside the supplies.

With a sad sigh, he picked it up, remembering how it had looked so much bigger in Ashina's small hand. Rodney had John's radio, so he slipped this one into his vest, then made his way to the main console. Rodney was lying underneath it as he worked in uncharacteristic silence.

John tapped his boot against Rodney's thigh. "Break time."

McKay mumbled something indiscernible.

John said, "Come on, McKay. Don't make me come down there after you."

Rodney raised his voice. "Did something happen to your hearing, along with everything else? I said I'm in the middle of something and can't stop."

"You were in the middle of something an hour ago, Rodney. Come on, your blood sugar has to be bottoming out. What are we going to do if you pass out from hypoglycemia?"

McKay scooted out from under the console and looked up. He struggled to get up, then gave in when John offered him a hand up. It took both of them to get Rodney upright and the effort left them winded and hurting. Rodney was covered in dirt and grime, but even so, John could see his pale skin underneath everything. He held out both the power bars and the bottle of water.

McKay went for the water bottle first, opening it and downing half of it in one long gulp. When he came up for air, he wiped the back of his hand across his mouth. He caught John watching him and said, "I was a little parched."

"I noticed. So, how's it going?"

McKay's expression turned dismal. "This computer system has been badly corrupted over the millennia. I've done what I can to clean it up, but it's going to take some serious time before I can get anything useful out of it."

"We'll get it. Eat a power bar."

As he handed the bar to Rodney, he noticed the burn on Rodney's finger. Rodney took the bar, then caught John's gaze. John stared at him for a long moment before he said, "You get that disabling the security system?"

Rodney nodded as he tore the power bar wrapper with his teeth and took a big bite, and began talking around it. "It was a bitch to open up."

John let out a long breath. "Better get it cleaned up."

"Later, when I'm done – "

Ronon called out, "Sheppard, McKay, over here! I've got something."

Rodney's questioning expression slid over toward John. "He wants us to go off hiking around this monstrosity now?" McKay asked with a sigh.

John frowned as he looked in Ronon's direction. "He wouldn't call us unless it was something important."

He handed Rodney his crutch and helped him get situated, then picked up his walking stick. Rodney stepped forward a few paces then glanced back at John as he limped along more slowly.

"Maybe you should consider using a crutch like this, instead of that walking stick," McKay said, gesturing toward his crutch, then he grunted. "Or not. I have splinters under my armpits the size of tree trunks and that will probably require extensive surgery to remove."

John just smirked and shook his head as he kept walking, increasing his pace to keep up with McKay. Soon, they were at Ronon's location. The first thing John noticed was the skeleton lying on the floor. Rodney had stopped in front of him, staring at it as if he'd never seen a body before. He was blocking John's path, so John stepped around him for a closer look of his own.

The skeleton was dressed in Ancient attire, lying on its side as if the body had fallen to the ground and never moved again. Ronon squatted beside it, rummaging through the pockets of its tunic. He came up with a long cylindrical device of some sort, about an inch thick and six inches long.

Handing it off to McKay, he kept looking, then he said, "Judging by his clothes and what's in his pockets, I'd say he was a scientist of some kind."

John nodded. "Maybe the guy who ran this place?"

"Doctor Paranoia himself? That's a scary thought," McKay said as he activated a switch on the device and a display opened up, showing an older, balding man with a salt-and-pepper goatee.

The man's deep baritone voice spoke on the recording, though he looked a little bored, or maybe he was just preoccupied, "Trial 2314 looks promising. Continuing testing. There is a need to augment the power distribution to increase efficiency. The project's defenses still seem to be hypersensitive and over-reactive. They must be attenuated in the next upgrade."

Rodney looked up at them. "Yep, must be big man himself. Let's see what's stored here," he said, his voice taking on that distracted tone it did when his interest was piqued.

There was a spark from the device and McKay dropped it, shaking his hand. "Damn, that hurt. Just what I need – another burn. My poor abused fingers."

Ronon reached over and picked up the device, handing it back to McKay. Rodney didn't look like he wanted to touch it again, but he did reluctantly, slipping it into a pocket of his tac vest without a pause.

Ronon took a deep breath as he examined the skeleton in greater detail. "There's a lot of broken bones here. Might be the cause of death."

John shared a look with Ronon before Ronon got up and moved to a second form lying on the ground a short distance away. John turned and eyed it carefully. He hadn't noticed it when they first arrived. Maybe, because it was lying in the shadows. Its black coloring didn't help spotlight it at all.

John rubbed a hand over his hip as Ronon knelt down beside the second form. The thing looked a lot like a black wet suit. A quiet voice in the back of John's head whispered a warning and he found himself saying, "Ronon, be careful," even before he realized what he was saying.

Ronon glanced up at him, slightly puzzled, then looked back down at it. The skeleton inside its folds was hard to ignore. McKay was still over at the other skeleton and he turned slowly, apparently not liking John's tone.

"What's the matter – " Rodney started to ask.

John glanced over at McKay, slightly embarrassed. Maybe the events of the day had caught up with him, causing him to overreact. He turned back toward Ronon. Ronon was reaching down to touch the black suit and John felt a sudden urge to put out a hand to stop him and say 'No, don't touch it,' but it was too late.

Ronon had already picked up the suit from the waist, which caused the skull and other bones, along with dust, to slide out of the suit's main opening at the top of the suit.

McKay made a face. "Well, that's certainly the most disgusting thing I've seen in a while."

"Why not touch it, Sheppard?" Ronon asked as he continued to examine the suit more closely.

John shrugged, but he still felt the frown on his face and the unease in his heart. "It just gave me the creeps or something."

"Perhaps it was the human remains pouring out of it?" McKay sneered with disdain.

John stepped closer. "I wonder who these people were."

Ronon stood, holding the suit with one hand as he shook it out, inciting McKay to let out a long "Ewww!", which was quickly followed by, "I so do not need to inhale somebody's dusty remains into my lungs and nasal passages, thank you very much!"

Ronon grinned, then his expression shifted as his fingers started sliding over its smooth surface. "I'm wondering what this was – this material. It's heavy, but I don't see any seams, so how do you put the thing on?"

"Let me see it," McKay said, holding out a hand with an air of reluctance. "Not that I want to touch something that has had a rotting corpse inside of it, but it does look interesting."

John was closer to Ronon than McKay, so he forced down his own apprehension and reached out to pass it along to Rodney. With John's touch, something activated in the suit and it slipped from Ronon's fingers to wrap around John's hand, then the suit rapidly expanded up John's arm.

Stunned, John's mouth gaped open as the black material seemed to turn viscous and flow over his body, stretching itself to cover all of him, becoming a second skin almost instantly. The air went hazy as the last of the dust that had been inside the suit was flung out. There was a needle-like pain in the back of John's neck, but it was soon lost amongst all the other painful spots that came to life as the thing contracted in on John, squeezing like a boa constrictor around its prey.

John could hear Ronon and Rodney shouting things at him. The air was forced out of his lungs as the suit drew itself tighter around him. His injuries resisted the pressure and he gasped as he tried to draw in air that wouldn't come. Tears formed in his eyes as every sore spot he had was being compressed.

In a faraway sense, he could feel hands on his arms, holding him up after his legs gave out from under him and then he passed out.

oOoOoOoOo

"Breathe, Sheppard," Rodney implored, "Just breathe."

Rodney looked down at Ronon as Ronon held onto Sheppard's collapsed body. Ronon was down on one knee with John's head and upper body leaning against his leg as he gently tapped his hand on Sheppard's cheek.

"Sheppard? Sheppard? Can you hear me?" Ronon asked, then glanced up at Rodney. "What the hell just happened?"

"You're asking me? Damned if I know!" Rodney said as he threw his hands up into the air.

He took a quick breath, then pulled out his scanner and held it in front of Sheppard.

The seamless black suit continued to ripple and fluctuate as it adjusted its position across Sheppard's body and uniform, leaving only his head uncovered. He would have thought Sheppard was unconscious, if he wasn't trying so hard to breathe.

As they watched, the suit adapted itself to mimic the characteristics and consistency of Sheppard's clothing. It virtually became Sheppard's uniform, boots and BDUs. The sight disturbed Rodney in ways he couldn't begin to fathom.

Ronon patted John's cheek again. "I can't tell if he's conscious or not."

Rodney glanced up from his scanner and said, "I don't think he's completely out. Part of him seems to be fighting... something."

Ronon's voice was tense as he asked, "Can you get any readings off of it?"

Rodney bit his lip. "Yeah, all kinds of data – too much data, to be honest. This suit has some very complex circuitry."

"Can you get it off him?"

Rodney frowned, then shook his head. "I don't know. It doesn't look good."

Ronon pulled out his knife. "I can try to cut it off of him."

Rodney took a deep breath, held it for a moment, then shook his head. "No, without knowing more about it, we could make Sheppard's situation even worse."

Ronon practically growled. "Why didn't it react like that to me when I was holding it? Why did it respond so strongly to him?"

Rodney sighed. "We're in an Ancient facility, so I'd have to say it's probably related to the ATA gene. Crap, the same thing could have happened to me if he hadn't – if he hadn't... oh God... " Rodney's voice dropped off as he swallowed hard and stared at the hand he'd extended toward Ronon and the suit earlier.

Ronon didn't seem to notice how shaken Rodney was by that revelation, because he kept going and asked, "How do we get it off of him?"

Rodney blinked a few times and shook his head. "I've got – I've got to get more information before I can even try to wager a guess."

"I thought you had too much data."

Rodney closed his eyes, trying to rein in his emotions. "I have to analyze the data in order to know how to use it."

Ronon looked down at Sheppard and back up at Rodney. "I don't like the way he's breathing so hard."

Rodney chewed on his lip for a moment. "He's probably in pain. Look how tightly the damned thing is stretched across his body."

Ronon looked up and met Rodney's gaze. Unspoken tension sizzled between the two of the men with neither one of them wanting to give voice to the full extent of their concerns.

Ronon said, "We've got to get him back to the medical kit and the radio."

Rodney shook his head. "Just – just don't move him yet. I'm doing a scan of the suit's basic systems – " Rodney stopped and snapped his fingers, then reached into his tac vest pocket. "Wait, I've got a radio! We can call Jennifer from here."

Ronon looked up at him expectantly and said, "Well, call her."

"Right, right... " Rodney said, then stopped and shook his head again. "No, on second thought, I think you're right. Let's wait until we're back with Teyla. Jennifer will want to use supplies from the med kit. We need to move him."

Ronon looked like his patience had worn thin as he said, "Are you sure?"

"Yes, yes," Rodney said as he nodded, then paused in thought. "Well, pretty sure – look, you've got to bear with me. I'm just as freaked out by this thing as you are. Whatever we do, we have to proceed slowly. If we move blindly without thinking things through, we could just make the situation that much worse. Lay him flat on the floor for a second."

Ronon let out a hard breath of frustration, but didn't argue with him. He adjusted his hold and lowered John to the ground, then touched John's carotid artery. "His pulse is really fast. I still don't like the way he looks."

"I don't, either," Rodney said as he resumed his scan.

As the scan ran, Rodney rubbed at his forehead, the throbbing there worse now after the adrenaline rush that was still pumping through his system. Rodney looked at Sheppard, sighed again, then said, "It's like there is a tremendous demand on his system."

Ronon glanced back up at him. "From what?"

"Must I continue to repeat myself? I. Don't. Know."

Rodney took a deep breath and continued, "Listen, Ronon, I know it's hard to remain calm when all you want to do is help, but try to be patient. Give me a minute to analyze these readings."

Ronon took a deep breath, then leaned forward and patted Sheppard on the cheek again. "Sheppard, can you hear me?"

After a few seconds of no response, Ronon pounded a fist against the floor. "I think he's out cold now."

Rodney fiddled with his scanner, then glanced over at Sheppard. "At least he isn't gasping for air as much as he was."

"This is not good."

Rodney's eyes bulged. "Ya think?" Then he shook his head. "You've got a real gift for understatement, my friend. This is SO not good."

When Rodney looked at him, Ronon added, "He'll make it."

Rodney nodded, even though logic told him they had no clue whatsoever what Sheppard's odds of survival were, then in a place deep inside of him, he felt his determination grow stronger.

"He'll make it," Rodney said in agreement. After all, this was Sheppard they were talking about.

Ronon took Sheppard's pulse again and said, "We can't wait any longer."

Rodney sighed. "Very well, the first part of the scan is done. I guess I can do my analysis over there as easily as I can here, but move very slowly. I don't want any more sudden untoward surprises."

Rodney watched Ronon grimace as he went to pick up Sheppard. A light switch flipped on inside Rodney's head, and he remembered Ronon had also been injured over the course of the day's events.

"Ronon, wait," Rodney said, pointing to the stack of unused tarps. "You can lay Sheppard on top of one of those and just drag him over there. No need in putting yourself through all the extra strain of carrying him."

Ronon flashed him a quick grin of thanks, then he grabbed a tarp and rolled Sheppard's limp body over on top of it, centering him as best he could. He stood and grabbed hold of one corner, pausing to catch his breath for a moment before he started dragging Sheppard along.

"Be careful," Rodney cautioned.

Ronon nodded without looking back and said, "I've got him."

"No, I mean you've got to watch out for yourself, too," he warned. "You're not Superman, you know, no matter how much you try to convince us otherwise... and you're the only one of us who can easily move around, so take care."

He paused, then pointed a finger at Ronon's back. "And don't forget you dropped me during your last rescue – not on purpose, or so you say, but you dropped me nonetheless. Don't drop Sheppard."

Ronon grunted, shook his head, and kept walking, though there was a little lighter air to his step now. Rodney limped forward after tucking his scanner into a pocket and taking hold of his crutch. "And to think, all I wanted was some Shiska stew... " he said mournfully.

oOoOoOoOo

Chapter 7