Chapter 3: Yeah, well I'm asking now!
The MALP was prepared with as much haste as Rodney could muster ... standing in the control room he watched its slow progress towards and then through the wormhole with apprehension.
"All will be well Rodney," Teyla, standing just at his shoulder, said softly.
"You say that but I'm sure I'm not the only one who's wondering just one thing," Rodney turned to look at Teyla and Ronon. "If everything is okay with Sheppard then why didn't he just dial us back as soon as he realised he wasn't on M7G-677?"
"He couldn't," Ronon acknowledged simply.
"Exactly," Rodney agreed. "Means either he's injured – badly – or someone stopped him. I don't even want to think about how they might have done that."
"We have video Doctor McKay," one of the technicians drew their attention back to the MALP's progress before Teyla or Ronon could respond.
The first pictures showed the area directly in front of the Stargate on M3A-143 ... an enclosed space, grey walls, concrete like floor ... and no signs of anyone nearby.
"Pan out," Rodney requested, walking closer to the viewscreen.
The scene shifted as a longer view of the room was revealed. It wasn't somewhere they'd been before and yet there was a certain familiarity about it.
"A Genii outpost?" Teyla queried with a frown.
"Looks like it," Rodney agreed with surprise. "What do you know - the intel was actually right for a change!"
"No guards – not for a while," Ronon commented.
"How can you possibly tell that from this?" Woolsey scoffed.
"Too much dust and dirt on the floor," Ronon said simply. "The Genii are military. They wouldn't let one of their facilities get like that unless they weren't using it anymore."
"See?" Rodney commented to Woolsey somewhat snidely, "No signs of anything waiting to jump out and nab us. Now can we go get Sheppard?"
"Yes," Woolsey said abruptly. "But I expect regular check-ins."
"Of course Mr. Woolsey," Teyla agreed graciously for the three of them before urging her teammates to get moving.
oOo
"It's not just the Genii who haven't been here in a while," Ronon pointed out a minute or so into their mission. They'd quickly decided the place actually had been constructed and used by the Genii - even without a 'Kolya was here' sticker on the wall.
"Mmm?" Rodney glanced up from his scanner distractedly.
"No footprints other than ours," Ronon said. "No one's been in this room in a long time."
"Ronon is correct," Teyla announced firmly. "I do not believe that Colonel Sheppard is here Rodney. Could your calculations have been wrong?"
"Hey – my calculations are never wrong!" Rodney retorted indignantly. "This is the Stargate Sheppard's wormhole was redirected to."
"Then where is he?" Ronon demanded, scowling.
"Maybe someone was waiting for him, took him somewhere else," Rodney suggested reluctantly.
"No footprints McKay!" Ronon turned away, pacing impatiently in front of the DHD and making fresh tracks in the thick grime covering the entire floor.
Rodney frowned, looking around the small room with fresh eyes. Ronon was right ... no one had been there in months, maybe longer.
Sheppard wasn't on the planet ... and what was worse, he never had been.
"I need to check the DHD," Rodney announced, thoughts running at double time. There had to be a reason why Sheppard wasn't there, something he'd missed in that subroutine although he couldn't see how ... he'd spent the whole night firstly breaking the heavy encryption to get access to the code and then checking and rechecking it's effects. He'd been sure this was the right planet.
Ripping his laptop off his back and pulling out connector leads Rodney knelt and quickly accessed the DHD's control crystals, plugging himself in.
"I'm gonna look around outside," Ronon announced, unwilling to just sit and wait for McKay to do his thing.
"I will remain with Rodney," Teyla said graciously, moving to stand near the DHD. "Be careful Ronon."
"Sure," Ronon agreed before striding from the room.
Rodney was hardly aware of Teyla's presence as he scrolled through the DHD code looking for gate history – both incoming and outbound plus anything else that would explain the contradictions. The wormhole had been directed there and yet it was clear no wormhole had activated in the room for some time.
"Have you found anything?" Teyla's voice drew Rodney's attention a few minutes later.
"Unfortunately yes," Rodney sat back, punching a few final commands into his laptop. Looking up at Teyla he grimaced. "Ronon was right on one point – our incoming wormhole is the only one that's established a connection here in months. But at the same time Sheppard's wormhole was directed here."
"How are both of those statements possible Rodney?" Teyla frowned in confusion.
"This DHD has been altered," Rodney explained. "The code that receives the dialling DHD's request for a connection was made to forward all incoming wormholes to another address."
"Was?" Teyla picked up the emphasis Rodney had placed on that one word.
"As soon as Sheppard's wormhole was forwarded the destination was erased," Rodney revealed. "Otherwise we'd be wherever he is instead of here."
"What other address?" Ronon announced his return, moving silently back into the room to stop just in front of Rodney.
"There's no record of it in the altered code," Rodney admitted weakly.
"Can you not find the history of recent addresses dialled?" Teyla had been around the technology and picked up much in her time amongst humans.
"I can but it won't help," Rodney said sickly. "All the addresses have been erased."
Ripping the connectors out of the DHD Rodney almost angrily wound them up and stuffed them back in their place along with his laptop.
"Rodney?" Teyla's voice was worried and uncertain ... not a tone he wanted to get used to hearing.
"This time I really am at a dead end Teyla," Rodney admitted, moving to dial Atlantis. "There's nothing else I can do here."
oOo
It galled to return to Atlantis with nothing ... Rodney went through the motions of requisite infirmary visit followed by debrief with Woolsey with the grim purpose of getting it over with as quickly as possible.
All he really wanted was some alone time so he could think ... he'd told Teyla he had nothing but that core of determination inside of him was clinging to the edge of the cliff with both hands all the while screeching that he had to do something!
Teyla and Ronon both tried to talk to him ... whether to reassure him that it wasn't his fault or insist that he'd work it out and get Sheppard back somehow he didn't know. Holding up his hands as if to ward off their words he shook his head ... for once not having the snarky words required to scare them all away.
Finally free of procedure and well meaning team mates Rodney stumbled to his quarters, throwing himself tiredly face down on the bed.
The sleepless night and difficult day had taken its toll ... within moments Rodney had fallen to sleep and from there into dreams.
oOo
Sheppard moved as far away from the malfunctioning Ancient device as he could get ... even though in the past it hadn't been his experience that so little distance made a difference for his 'gift'. But ... couldn't hurt to try!
Of course he'd thought about shooting the device down to the floor as soon as he'd realised what they were doing - he still had everything he'd carried with him through the Stargate, including his pistol and his P90! But the location of the device inside the room was pretty much immaterial because in order to deactivate it John would have to prove what he'd been trying to deny. That he had ATA skills sufficient to be of interest to his captors ... the base level version never enough to switch off the malfunctioning items, particularly if you weren't the person who'd switched them on. John couldn't count on his captors not knowing that because they had already shown themselves to be a hell of a lot more informed that John would have thought possible.
Of course, if the mental noise he was currently experiencing got much worse John might inadvertently confirm his skill level anyway when he could no longer hide that the device was affecting him. Still, he wasn't there yet and with any luck he'd find a way out of the mess he'd gotten himself into before that happened.
Escape was also an option he'd considered and rejected - for the time being anyway - inside of five minutes ... he could shoot out the windows but they were too high for him to climb to and out of; the door was locked and likely too heavy for P90 bullets to penetrate enough to make a difference. The walls were solid metal too ... he'd run out of bullets before he could shoot a hole through them and two blocks of C4 were hardly likely to blow a big enough hole to get him out. And all of those options fell foul of the same problem ... who would be waiting for him outside? Sheppard needed some serious intel ... the kind you get with a MALP and a UAV. In the absence of that he'd just have to hope his hosts let something slip regarding their numbers.
John had thought about just shooting ninja guy before he'd even done anything to the Ancient device, leaving the way clear for John to head up the rope instead. The main problem with that approach was that ninja guy wasn't the man in charge and Sheppard would be a poor strategist if he just stormed up to the trapdoor with no idea what he'd find at the top. Rushing in without thought had gotten him into trouble so many times in the past but here, by himself, with no one but himself to save, John could afford to bide his time and assess the situation first. Plenty of time to go out there, guns blazing, if nothing better presented itself. Besides, surely Rodney would have worked out what had happened by now and in his usual McKay way, already have some kind of plan in place to rescue John.
So for the time being Sheppard's only plan was to maintain the facade at all costs ... go along with his captors even though it pained him almost as much as the static in his skull. Taking a seat beside the Stargate, John used it as a backrest, settling himself comfortably on the floor in a relaxed posture that said 'I can do this all day.'
oOo
Time passed with nothing changing ... Sheppard had moved beyond bored out of his brain into a state of mind where he would have welcomed a game of Prime Not Prime with Rodney. Sitting with his back to the Stargate John leant his head tiredly against it and closed his eyes.
The noise inside his head ... disjointed humming from an object that probably just wanted to say hello ... ramped up a notch. The throb of pain from the headache he'd acquired inside the first hour pulsed over his entire head and without a visual to distract him had him feeling sick enough to embarrass himself.
John snapped his eyes open again. "Damn it!" he growled, running impatient hands through his hair and swallowing hard. The feeling of imminent sickness passed but the all encompassing pain didn't let up and for the first time Sheppard wondered how long he'd be able to keep himself in check.
Not that he intended to give in and agree to do what they wanted. But the temptation to just turn the device off without even getting up, let alone touching it, was ever present and hard to resist with a head that felt like it might explode at any time. Sheppard was pretty sure he could do it too - turn off the device from where he was sitting - but again that would hardly convince his captors that he wasn't the gene star they thought they'd acquired.
Glancing at his watch, John almost groaned. Four hours? That was all? That thing had only been on four hours?! He had to do something ... just not the something they expected.
Considering again the weapons he had on him – the ones the bad guys had neglected to deprive him of - Sheppard went from an attitude of not wanting to waste the little ammo he had to 'what the hell?'. Right now his biggest priority was doing something about the Ancient device before they could use it against him any further.
Firing on the building itself would be a waste of time ... on the annoying Ancient device however, a little P90 fire might go a long way.
Eyeing the suspended device assessingly, John pulled himself back to standing and slowly approached, leaving his weapon hanging off his vest to lower suspicion about his current plans until the last possible moment.
Getting within range, Sheppard slotted the P90 into his shoulder with speed, sighted the Ancient device, and fired a short burst directly into it.
Ping! Ping! Ping!
The ricochet of bullets hitting an unseen barrier and bouncing off had John dropping to the floor instantly, hands over his head.
When the dust cleared and the room was silent again, Sheppard cautiously raised his head and looked around. Taking stock of himself he slumped in relief ... at least he hadn't taken himself out!
"That was foolish Colonel Sheppard," his host's voice echoed just as grimly in the room as the bullets had. "Particularly when you can simply turn the device off ... if you so choose."
"Well, I don't so choose," Sheppard retorted irritably, stomping back to the Stargate and throwing himself to the ground to sit against it once more.
"Very well," his host said lightly. "We will wait ... as long as it takes."
"You'll be waiting forever because I can't switch it off!" John yelled. "And who the hell are you guys anyway?"
"I am surprised you didn't ask that question before," came the response, causing John to pause sickly.
They were right - he hadn't!
Worried now that the device was messing with his mental capabilities Sheppard almost growled in frustration.
"Yeah, well I'm asking now," he retorted sarcastically.
"For the time being all you need to know is that we have friends on Earth," his host replied blandly. "Influential friends with connections in both galaxies. When intelligence came back reporting your ... unique skills, our friends were very keen to acquire their use to further ... important objectives."
"Earth?" John frowned. That so wasn't the answer he'd been expecting but the ultimate meaning was immediately clear ... someone on Atlantis had betrayed him.
Authors Note:
I have made some additions to this chapter since posting it due to a review for chapter 2 questioning Sheppards passive handling of the situation given he had weapons on hand. I did have reasons for writing it that way and have now added that explanation to the story. I agree - Sheppard isn't a passive prisoner ... but he is a smart one. Thanks Ali D for the criticism as hopefully it's now a better chapter than it was.