Chapter Ten

"Ronon, damn it, wake up!"

Ronon recognized that particular blend of fear, frustration and panic echoing in McKay's voice and he knew something was very wrong. McKay's urgency mobilized him, making him move even before he knew what was going on. He was about to open his eyes when he gasped and put a hand to his injured shoulder. The joint screamed from his sudden movement, but he just ground his teeth together, nearly growling as he sat up and drew his weapon.

He paused when he found McKay on the floor in front of him. McKay was in the process of dragging himself toward Sheppard and he'd nearly made it, though he stopped when Ronon had sat up.

"McKay?" Ronon rasped. He lowered the hand holding his weapon, pointing it away as he tried to figure out what the hell was going on.

"It's about time you came to life!" McKay said indignantly.

"What's going on?" Ronon asked quickly as he wiped the sleep from his eyes and holstered his weapon.

He got to his knees, biting his lip against the throbbing in his shoulder. The arm sling Teyla had given him helped some, but the joint still hurt like hell.

"Sheppard was talking in his sleep," McKay said breathlessly, his face reddened from exertion, his fists tight with pain. He attempted to get up from the floor, but failed, so he stayed there, grimacing with a hand on his knee.

Ronon frowned as he tried to follow what McKay was saying. "So? He's been doing that ever since that suit trapped him."

"No, damn it, Ronon! It was more than that!"

Teyla sat up from her pallet on the other side of Sheppard, awakened by McKay's shouts. She blinked against the overhead lights, which were much brighter now, probably because McKay had increased the degree of brightness.

Her movement temporarily distracted Ronon and she asked, "Rodney, what has happened?"

"It's Sheppard," McKay said grimly, then shook his head. "The suit morphed again – into a spacesuit type of contraption. John actually tried to get up, then fell back to the floor."

Ronon didn't say anything as he moved closer to Sheppard who was lying in a crumpled heap. Ronon pulled off his arm sling in irritation and tossed it aside, then turned Sheppard onto his back. By then, Teyla had also moved closer to help him. Between the two of them, they managed to get him situated.

Sheppard's facial muscles were constricted with exertion, his complexion flushed. Ronon put a hand to Sheppard's chest, feeling the short, rapid breaths Sheppard was taking. The bruises on Sheppard's neck above the neckline of his suit had darkened, and they were a disturbing blend of swollen blues, blacks and purples.

McKay moved closer as Ronon and Teyla hovered over Sheppard, sliding up beside Ronon on his way to Sheppard's side. "How is he? He's breathing so fast," he said.

"At least, he is still breathing," Teyla said.

Ronon nodded. Then he noticed McKay's hand reaching out to touch Sheppard's leg, probably to offer his support, too. Without thinking, Ronon put a hand on McKay's arm, stopping him.

He shook his head warily. "Don't touch him, McKay. We don't know what the suit will do since you have the Ancient gene, too."

McKay's mouth gaped open and he jerked his hand away so fast he almost hit himself in the face with it. He stammered, "I – I didn't think, I mean, I was just going to – to..."

Ronon nodded, already turning back to Sheppard. "I know, but it could have ended badly. For now, stay away from the suit. We don't know if it would try to attack you in the same way it did Sheppard and we need you to get him out of it."

McKay nodded rapidly with a dazed, panicked air. Then he paused, staring at the suit. "But there's – there's got to be something we can do! Sheppard's fighting for his life and all we can do is watch, damn it!"

Teyla shook her head, pinning McKay in place with her determined gaze. "Do not be so sure of that, Rodney. On some level, I am sure John hears us, so perhaps our very presence might encourage and strengthen his resolve."

McKay wiped a hand over his face. "Well, that's not doing a whole hell of a lot."

Teyla looked more sure as she straightened her shoulders and said, "It will have to do until you find a way to remove him from this suit."

A wave of doubt swept over McKay's expression. He looked up at Teyla, then Ronon, then back at Teyla again. "What – what if I can't?"

Teyla never hesitated as she dabbed at Sheppard's sweaty face with a towel. "You will."

"I will?"

"Yes, you will, because he is depending on us and we will not let him down."

McKay glanced up at her, his expression conflicted as if he was trying to be strong, trying to be the person Teyla said he was, but his gaze revealed a degree of insecurity rarely seen in the outrageously arrogant Dr. Rodney McKay.

McKay licked his lips, his eyes wide and pleading, and said, "Look, guys, everything I've read so far doesn't say a word about the type of reaction that John is having to the suit. Damisk had an assistant who would regularly put on the suit to test certain applications, such as the various morphing capabilities, the force field, etc, but it was all run-of-the-mill testing, done multiple times with typical annotations – and there was nothing to indicate a problem of this magnitude. Damisk was planning more extensive testing after he'd installed his latest upgrade, but – "

Sheppard moaned softly and his lips moved as if he were speaking in his dream, but no sound came out. Ronon put a hand on Sheppard's arm to help settle him down. Then he shook his head. "McKay, a man died in this suit, so something went wrong with the last person who wore it."

McKay nodded. The tension in the air was palpable and McKay muttered, "Yeah, there is that."

Teyla squeezed Sheppard's arm one more time before she moved away, biting her lip against her obvious discomfort as she settled back on her pallet. Once there, she reached out again to put a hand on Sheppard's arm from her reclining position and kept it there, as if her hold on him would keep him safe.

She glanced at McKay. "Rest a few more hours, Rodney, and then we will begin our search anew. The answer is here somewhere."

Ronon shifted his position beside Sheppard to lean back against the wall. "Both of you get some sleep. I'll take the watch now that I'm awake."

Teyla nodded, her eyelids looking heavy again now that the situation had settled down some. McKay yawned as he nodded, then dragged himself back to his own pallet. "Okay, I'm not gonna argue with you this time. I'm beat."

Ronon watched as McKay settled down. The man took a deep breath and let it out slowly as if trying to relax. It wasn't long before McKay's breathing evened out and he was snoring softly. Teyla was already out, leaving Ronon alone with his thoughts.

Unfortunately, Ronon was tired and wired – tired from everything that had happened and wired from the adrenaline still pumping through his system – and he hated the effect it had on his body. If he'd been on Atlantis, he would have gone for a run or to the gym for a workout. Instead, he was stuck here watching over his friends, leery of what the suit might do to Sheppard or one of them if it was left unattended.

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"So, once we hit that layer of especially dense bedrock, the Ancient drill couldn't handle the pace and it overheated, burning out very quickly," Radek explained, his voice soft, as if to avoid Rodney's wrath. "The adaptations we made to make the drill work on ground weren't enough to maintain the demands we were placing on it, so we are back to manually digging out the rock."

Teyla heard Rodney's unvoiced disappointment echo in the silence he maintained as he listened to Radek and she knew it was an ominous sign, one which made her try even harder to carry a sense of calm around her, though it took everything she had to keep up the facade. The news was very frustrating, for all of them, because they had been expecting the rescue in the next few hours, but it wasn't meant to be.

Rodney pinched the bridge of his nose, then shook his head – right before he slammed his crutch into a low shelf full of computer control crystals next to the console and sent them flying everywhere.

Teyla put a hand to Rodney's back, barely touching him, but it was enough to get him to ease off a bit, though he was so mad his hands were shaking. "Okay, okay, I get it. Your team can't get to us, so we're on our own. Big surprise, we've been on our own throughout this whole damned debacle!" he said, waving his hands in the air, as if he was leading some madman's symphony.

He began to pace again, which only caused him more pain, but apparently he needed to work off his excess anxiety. Teyla's heart went out to him, knowing exactly how he felt being limited in movement by a painful, uncooperative limb. The handicap was wearing on her own patience.

"Listen, Radek, just – just shut up for a minute, because you're annoying the hell out of me right now!" Rodney spat out words rapidly, as if they were bullets on an extended spray from his P90.

Rodney resumed his pacing, only to come to a stop beside her. He put a hand on the main computer console, either for support or to take a break from pacing, and remained perfectly still. Stillness from a man like Rodney at a time like this was not good. In fact, it added an element of alarm to the scene that she could have done without.

Teyla cleared her throat, deciding it was time to redirect the conversation back to the issues at hand and said, "Radek, is there no possibility of getting the drill functional again?"

While Radek's voice hadn't matched Rodney's scathing heat, there was enough of it in his reply to make Teyla close her eyes in frustration. "Yes, unfortunately that is the situation... no matter how much of a temper tantrum is thrown because of it. We cannot expect help from that avenue of action. However, the Daedalus will get here as quickly as it possibly can."

Rodney's chin jutted out. "Well, if it's not here right now, it's too damned late!"

He slammed his crutch down again. If he wasn't careful, the crutch was going to splinter apart. She reached out to put a hand over his, but held back when Rodney began pacing again.

Rodney barely noticed her concern as he shouted, "I've already told you Sheppard can't wait that long, damn it! He's trapped in a suit that's squeezing the very air from his lungs. It's not good, okay? It's not good at all. There's got to be another way!"

Lorne's voice took on a deliberate calming tone as he said, "Dr. McKay, we are trying everything we can. I've got our combat engineers working 24/7. Maybe they'll be able to pull off something."

Rodney grunted, but to his credit, he didn't say anything... yet. Teyla knew a tempest was brewing.

Zelenka sighed, then said, "We will continue to work, but I wouldn't hold out for a rescue via that route. Those doors are as sturdy as any blast door I've ever seen on a space ship and the bedrock surrounding the facility is just as formidable."

Rodney's shoulders straightened, his face flushed, and he said, "Well, then why the hell don't you all just go home and stop wasting your time here!"

Radek rushed to say, "Rodney, I did not mean for what I said to be interpreted as we've given up all hope. I was only thinking we must come up with another route to gain entrance – "

"Sure, sure, Radek, you go figure out some mystical trick to pull from your hocus pocus Houdini magic kit while I focus my attention on the real life-and-death issues going on here and try to keep Sheppard alive long enough for the Daedalus to arrive!"

There was silence on both sides of the radio for a moment, their dire situation weighing heavily on everyone. Teyla took a deep breath and put her hand over Rodney's as it rested on the console. Rodney automatically pulled away, then looked angry at himself for rebuking her kindness. He clenched his hand into a fist for a moment before he wiped the back of it across his mouth.

Teyla's voice was soft as she said, "Perhaps, it is time for everyone to pull back a bit and reevaluate. Maybe, we are simply too close to the problem to see alternatives."

Rodney shook his head, then reached up to grab his radio headset from his ear. He threw it onto the console and hobbled away without another word, leaving Teyla alone to deal with Lorne and Zelenka on the radio. There was more than a little guilt echoing in Radek's voice as he said, "I am sorry if anything I said upset you, Rodney."

Teyla glanced at Rodney's back. He'd already made it several feet down one aisle. "He is no longer on the radio, Radek."

"Oh," Radek said.

"I will convey your sentiments to him. You do understand Rodney is under a tremendous strain and he meant very few of the words he said to you?"

"Of course, I do. After all, this is Rodney McKay we are talking about. I try to never let him get under my skin, but I don't always succeed. I apologize for letting my irritation slip earlier. Please tell him I was sorry that I didn't have better news for him."

Radek paused. In Teyla's mind, she could almost see him stop and shake his head, then he said, "No, don't say anything about it at all. Rodney will deal better with it that way."

Lorne took a deep breath and said, "I think you're right, Teyla. None of us has gotten much sleep in the last twenty-four hours."

Radek's voice was quiet as he asked, "Is Colonel Sheppard really as bad off as Rodney indicated?"

Teyla glanced back towards the others. Ashina and John lay motionless beside Ronon, causing the hitch in her breath that caught her by surprise. It made her realize just how intense the emotional storm inside of her was swirling. She swallowed hard, then straightened her shoulders. "The colonel seems stronger, but his struggle is ongoing. It would be better if we could find a different way into this facility rather than wait another thirty hours for the Daedalus to arrive."

"It's actually more like twenty-four hours now," Radek corrected with excitement. "I just received a communique from Atlantis."

Radek's voice now held hope as he continued, "Colonel Caldwell is pushing his engines as hard as he can. He might be able to shave a few more hours off by the time he reaches us."

Teyla smiled. "That is good news, Radek. I will inform Rodney of this development."

She glanced again down the aisle Rodney had taken and couldn't see him any longer. He must have turned in another direction in the endless maze of shelving in this place. There were rows of consoles and work benches, shelving and storage places, all seemingly placed without rhyme or reason.

She heard a noise and turned to see John calling out again in his delirium with Ronon at his side to calm him. She let out a long breath as the good news Radek had just given her now seemed to fade as she watched the sight before her.

Even though Ronon was there beside John in support, their presence seemed like such a little thing to offer in light of John's battle against the suit. She held Ronon's gaze for a long moment before she glanced away and brushed back her hair. She said to Radek, "I will talk to Rodney and get him to eat something, then we will start anew searching the computer for information about this complex and the suit. It is truly amazing how Rodney has been able to clean up the operating system and database to the point where it is now, but the process is slow and tedious. If only we could find the suit's schematics and its accompanying data, Rodney might be able to find a way to shut the suit down without additional delays."

"Well, if anyone can do it, it will be Rodney, though don't tell him I said that, either," Radek murmured softly.

Lorne grunted, then said, "Okay, we'll let you go for now. I'll check back in an hour with a progress report."

"Very well," Teyla said, "We will talk in an hour."

She signed off and began to limp down the aisle to find Rodney. Perhaps, by now his temper had cooled somewhat and he would be more inclined to think things through logically, instead of reacting with his heart. She empathized with him – really, she did. It was nearly impossible for any of them to maintain an emotional calm after watching John battle the suit time after time, especially when John had no other recourse.

And, yet, she knew a clear head was the only way any of them would find a solution to their dilemma.

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