Away from Atlantis
Disclaimer I don't own, John, Elizabeth, or anyone else. Yet. My Original
Characters will show up at some point. Beware. I also don't own the episodes First Strike and Adrift. I did pull bits of the script so if it seems familiar you know why.
This story starts up after The Game and ignores Irresponsible. So Kolya is still alive.
Chapter Eight song Tomorrow by SR-71
(Thirteen and a half weeks into John's change)
He shot up in bed, heart pounding. He hated that dream, it seemed so normal. Till he got to the part of looking in the mirror to shave. To see his face, only it looked like a Wraiths', got to him every time. He was hard pressed to say which dream was worse, the one where he ate everyone, or the one where he was normal till he looked in the mirror.
He looked over at the clock, four forty. Great. At least he seemed to do fine on less sleep now, no one knew that at least three times a week he woke up at odd hours, and didn't go back to sleep till that night.
What did he have to do to day?
Performance evaluations.
Ugh.
If he'd thought he could sleep, he would have rolled over. That was so not worth getting up for.
1:05
There he was done. Finally, he looked up at the clock on the wall. Damn. It had only taken him all morning, and then some. And he'd missed lunch. Damn. He sighed, at least that was done. He could go check on Ronon's training with some of the Marines... Nah, he'd turn this in first. He jogged over to her office, only to hear Rodney complaining about his Performance evaluations. Ha! He was done.
He straightened his face, and went in.
"All done." he said, standing at attention.
"That was quick." Elizabeth said with a little smirk at Rodney.
He grinned at Rodney. Who rolled his eyes.
Then Elizabeth started over them. "John, you gave almost everyone Excellent and above average. Except three guys?"
"Yeah, well those three have caused some problems as you know, and everyone, even they are above average."
"Can I do that?" Rodney asked looking down at his computer.
"No."
Rodney shoulders sank.
"Elizabeth everyone in my department except those three, have been amazing. And you know it." He could tell she was exasperated.
"Yes, but who has really stood out among all of them?"
"The ones I gave 'Excellent'." he said cheekily.
Chuck poked his head in. "Ma'am?"
"Yes Chuck?"
"The Apollo just came out of hyperspace."
"Thank you."
She sighed. "Rodney do them, I know you hate the administrative part of your job, but you still have to do it."
"And John, you still cheated."
He followed her out in to the control room, ignoring her comment.
"Their ahead of schedule." Elizabeth said.
"Probably trying to show off. New ship and all," he said.
Elizabeth nodded, reaching up to tap her radio. "Colonel Ellis, you've made good time for your first trip."
"Thank you, I'm beaming down now."
"Very well. We'll meet..."
Ellis cut her off, by arriving. Col. Ellis looked around, then sent his four people to the conference room.
John got a bad feeling, the kind that hung over you, making you nervous.
"Doctor." he nodded at Elizabeth.
She in turn, nodded back. "Colonel, welcome." They shook hands, he looked over Elizabeth's shoulder. "Colonel Sheppard, Dr. McKay. They nodded, and said their pleasantries.
"This is going to make things easier. I need to brief you immediately."
John didn't like him, and with the next words out of his mouth it got worse. His gut said this guy was going to make it a lot worse, before it got better.
"I'm here to make a problem go away."
"What's going on?" Elizabeth asked, concerned.
"I'd prefer to talk in private." he said with a paranoid look around the control room.
John knew the type, and it never failed to irk him, when people did that paranoid thing.
They headed in to the conference room. They got comfortable and the doors shut behind them. Col. Ellis stayed standing, in the position of control.
They were handed a brief, he flipped through it well Ellis talked. When Ellis got to the part about 'ships' his bad feeling plummeted, in to the deepest, darkest depths of bad.
"Why weren't we told sooner?" he said, his day just got better. Replicator' ships. Great.
"I'm telling you now." Col. Ellis said.
Jerk, that didn't answer the question.
Rodney panicked, predictable. "If their coming for us we need a plan, something for the shield. Another ZPM, a plan."
"Relax Dr. McKay. They're not going to get here." Ellis said a little smugly.
"I'm here to inform you that in precisely twelve hours, we on the Apollo, in consort with your team, will launch a surgical strike against the Replicator home world to destroy those ships."
Confident much? Nah. Yeah he knew this was not a great plan, but them having the ships wasn't good either. "So you're going to blow up their ships?"
"That is the plan." Ellis said, wondering where he was going with this.
"Just like that?" Elizabeth put in.
"Just like that." he confirmed.
"How in the hell do you plan on doing that?" Rodney said, his disbelieve coming through.
"A set of Mark-9 tactical nukes, housed in a custom made weapons platform code named Horizon."
Big guns. They might do it.
"Just wondering. How many nukes do you have?"
"The Horizon carries six nukes and four decoys." Ellis continued, pointing at McKay. "I'm going to need you to do a final inspection before we leave."
At least Ellis was honest, that they wouldn't get a second shot.
"Six?" McKay jumped in.
He had to agree, "That's not gonna to be enough." he could just see it, they pissed them off, and they came back with more ships to blow up Atlantis. Not that if they didn't attack first, they wouldn't do it with these ships.
"They are Replicators. The Replicators are self-replicating robots, which means that they can..." Rodney was building up quite the head of steam.
Rodney had just made an enemy, he could tell from the annoyed look and dry tone of his response.
"But they aren't like Milky way Replicators. Their ships aren't built from nanocells. They are construed from real materials that can be destroyed."
"Six will be more then enough for now," Col. Ellis said finally.
"For now?" Rodney gestured wildly, "Look isn't this like poking a sleeping Dragon?"
"Why don't we just wait till Area 51 finishes the PWARWs?" he said looking up at Ellis.
Rodney kinda had a point, but letting them finish the ships, bothered him. It was like letting your enemy have time to grab a gun to shoot you with.
"Which one is that again?" Weir asked.
"Planetary-Wide Anti-Replicator-Weapons," he answered, without looking at her. God that was a mouth full.
"Look, the Asgard were capable of making a satellite that could wipe out a whole planet of Replicators. Sure, we've had trouble making one of our own, but we'll get there." Rodney said.
"Look, would I rather take out the entire planet? Yes. But if we wait there's no guarantee that they won't get us first." "The IOA wants something to be done, and if this works we will be safer, for a little while."
"The Replicators know where Earth is, and if they take you out there isn't much standing between us and them. We must take action. These new ships will let them get to Earth, sitting on our hands is not an option!"
John could tell Ellis felt this was the right move, and he wanted to agree but attacking first and in a strike that would not wipe them out... it didn't seem like a good move.
"This mission will destroy the ships, and buy us time. We'll come back when the new weapon is ready and finish the job. Doctor, I'm gonna need your inspections done as soon as possible."
"Well, yeah, sure. I just..."
"Dr. McKay is ready to beam." Ellis said in to his radio.
He didn't like him. But it was funny to hear McKay's squawk, but the Colonel was being so bossy. He looked at Elizabeth, he could tell she too realized they had no say in this.
"Okay." Ellis went on. "We're finished here. Thank you." he grabbed the briefs and left the room. Leaving him and Elizabeth alone.
After a moment in silence, Elizabeth spoke. "Can you believe this?"
"No." Men like that made him glad they'd said nothing of his change, he'd never tell Elizabeth, but the feeling was there.
But the mission, as un-ideal as it was, it was a sound plan. Made not a good plan, but one they wouldn't be able to stop. "I mean, it sounds too good to be true."
Elizabeth spun towards him. "What?"
"Well the whole, they won't retaliate thing doesn't ring true. They have a gate and everything."
Elizabeth raised her eyebrow, "And we have a shield."
"And since we won back the city we haven't heard so much as a peep from them," she continued.
"Yeah, but they didn't leave, their still there... waiting," he said.
"I don't like breaking this silent truce." she said.
"And I get that. But I don't like them having those ships." he sighed. "I know we will likely disagree, but this might be the only course of action."
"We could talk to them." she said, stubbornly.
He looked at her.
"Fine, but for the record when this goes south, I reserve the right to say 'I told you so'."
He nodded, it was fair enough.
(Next Morning)
"Hey!" he called.
Elizabeth stopped and looked at him, "Oh, hey your self."
"Col. Ellis, has asked me to join the mission."
Elizabeth turned to start up the stairs again, "I know."
"I'm suppose to stay behind in a cloaked jumper to see how much damage is done and if they hit all the targets like they want," he waited to see what she'd say, he'd heard how she had done her best to stop the mission. Diplomat until the end, and all.
"I know this too," she said, wondering where he was going.
"Look I know you called Mr. Woolsey and General O'Neill trying to stop this..." He exhaled, following her to her office. "I know this probably is not the best plan, but do you really want to wait to see what they do with those ships?"
"No, but..." she trailed off, "Good luck."
He looked at her, she was sincere in her wish that it went well, and she was also sure this was the wrong course to take. He felt his mouth quirk, there was a reason he respected this women.
He nodded and left, he joined the people for departure for the Apollo, a twenty four hour trip to the planet, then the fireworks would start.
Over the Replicator Planet
He sat waiting in the jumper for his queue, kinda boring really, till he thought about Replicators.
He heard Rodney confirm detonation, and waited.
"Col. Sheppard you have go for launch," Ellis told him over the radio.
"Copy that," he started the jumper up, and exited the hanger, setting the jumper to cloak. "I'm clear, you can go."
"Very well, pick you up in an hour," came over his radio.
(Twenty Six Hours Later)
He stood in the door waiting for the verdict, he was pretty sure they'd done it, even as Radek and Rodney argued. Ellis was not use to the arguments, and the whole 'we're ninety nine percent sure', he usually got from them.
"Look, if this data is right, then all of your primaries and most of your secondaries are gone." Rodney said, zooming in to show Ellis.
"Excellent," Ellis said, still miffed he'd had not just been told that from the start. He left at that point to go look for Elizabeth, to tell her how it had gone and such.
He found her once again on the stairs coming from the gate room going to the control room. "Welcome back," she greeted.
"Thanks," he moved to meet her on the landing.
"I hear congratulations are in order."
"You heard right." he said, she was being formal.
Teyla came up the stairs, "How was the mission?" she asked looking from his face to Elizabeth's. "Was it a success?" she stood on the landing with them, Ronon followed her.
"Well, we did get all the ships," he said.
"Wish I could have been there," Ronon said, bloodthirsty as ever.
He grinned. "Space battles are a lot more exciting on TV then in real life."
Chuck called to them, from in the control room. "Dr. Weir, Col. Sheppard your gonna want to see this."
They as a group headed over.
"We've got a contact, it just dropped out of hyperspace," Chuck told them as they reached the console he was standing by.
"Is it broad casting IFF?" Elizabeth asked, well he leaned closer to look at the small thing.
"No, Ma'am."
"Wraith?" Ronon asked.
"No, it's way too small," Chuck said, shaking his head.
"Raise the shield." Elizabeth order, worry clear in her face and tone.
"Hey, it's taking up a geosynchronous orbit above the city," Chuck said, leaning close to the monitor.
"What is it?" Teyla asked.
"Let's ask the Apollo to check it out," he suggested.
"Tell the Colonel he needs to get back to his ship," Elizabeth said, worried.
He and Ronon headed back to the conference room.
"Col. Ellis," he said, running in to the room.
"What is it Col. Sheppard?" he asked, looking up from the scans of the damage done.
"We have an unknown ship in geosynchronous orbit above the city, we need you to check it out."
Ellis nodded and tapped his com, "Apollo I need transport immediately." He was beamed up in a flash of light.
John headed back with Rodney and Ronon to the control room to wait for the Apollo to tell them what it was.
Twenty Minutes Later
"Okay, I got a visual. It looks like some kind of satellite..."
They waited for more.
"It's a Stargate."
They looked at each other, why would someone send a Stargate to them? And for what purposes?
"What do you mean a Stargate?" Rodney demanded.
"A Stargate, you know a big round thing?" Ellis shot back.
"I thought you said it was a satellite?" he questioned.
"It is, it's a satellite with a Stargate in the center."
"What is the purpose of that?" Teyla asked softly looking at Rodney.
"No idea."
John's sinking feeling was back in spades, nothing good could come of this.
"It just activated." Ellis told them over the com.
"The gate?" he questioned hoping to be wrong. He never got an answer. He listened to Chuck tell them the obvious, the weapon was coming for them. He sighed deeply, damn Elizabeth for being right, because this had to be the Replicators revenge.
The city shook, alarms on consoles began beeping, he was glad Elizabeth had ordered the shield up as soon as it appeared.
"It's a sustained beam," Chuck yelled.
He looked to Rodney, "That is bad for a dozen different reasons," Rodney said, before leaning down to type away at his computer.
"It's protected by a shield." Ellis told them, before demanding to know more.
"The shield it taking it's power from the beam, I registered a slight drop in output when you fire upon it."
"Could I get a nuke passed it's shields?"
"No, probably not."
"I'll get in the chair and give it everything we've got," he said, looking at Rodney.
"No! I said 'slight' meaning point two zero drop, it would take a hell of a lot more then we've got to destroy it."
"What do we do?" Ellis questioned.
"We stand down and let me think, that is what we do. Look the shield is holding, we have time, just give me ten minutes and I will get back to all of you on what we can do."
"McKay, it's shooting at us," Ronon said.
"Yes, and the shield is holding."
Twelve Minutes Later
He thought Rodney's 'hope so' summed up the situation perfectly. Because if it wasn't the Replicators who the hell could do this?
But then Weir throwing Ellis's words back in his face that was something that was just perfect. Especially since he could tell Ellis knew it to, even if he agreed negotiations would be pointless at this point, Weir was his CO, and she was right, shooting first got them here.
He looked at Ellis, that man knew he'd just been handed a dressing down and was distinctly annoyed, "Even though I agree negotiations won't go well, you shouldn't tell her that." He left hands in his pockets, leaving Ellis to think by himself.
He stood waiting, well Rodney got ready to transmit. Finally Rodney said, "I think I've got it." He stepped back, and told them "They're responding to transmission."
Amazingly enough Oberoth was the one standing there.
"Oberoth?" Elizabeth said, surprise clear in her voice.
"Dr. Weir." Oberoth returned.
"I must say I'm surprised to see you."
"Each of us exist within the collective and can be replicated many times," he said.
"You need to disable your weapon immediately."
"That is not possible," he said.
"We had no choice but to attack you, you were building an armada, you were a threat."
"And now so are you."
"That assault was just the tip of the spear. We hoped it would bring you to your senses. If you don't stop we will be forced to launch an all-out attack."
"Really? Why have you waited?" Oberoth asked.
"The annihilation of your people is not our goal. Ideally we would like for peace to exist between us, but we will not wait for you to build weapons to destroy us."
"Interesting. We feel the same way."
"Perhaps you need to be reminded that ever time we have fought, you have come off the worse for it, we have won every time."
"Elizabeth, they are attempting to upload a virus on the com bandwidth, I've stopped it for now but..." Rodney told her loudly.
"Shut it down."
The TV went back to fuzzy blackness and Elizabeth stood there disappointed. "Well that went well," she said to herself.
"Yeah he's always been one of my favorites," Rodney said dryly.
"Well, you tried," he said, pretending that it hadn't gone like he'd expected.
"What are we going to do if the gate doesn't shut down at the end of Thirty-eight minute cycle?" Elizabeth asked Rodney.
"Look, if they are able to maintain the energy beam's intensity, which I'm they will..."
"How long till our shields give out?"
"Just twenty-nine hours," Rodney said, downheartedly.
Forty Five Minutes Later
He and Ellis exited the room, it frustrated him to know they were stuck, the Apollo had been damaged and wasn't fit for battle, he couldn't just shoot it out of the sky. Nothing, nada, zip, he could do. It didn't help Ellis had tried to pull the normal military crap, and tried to undermine Elizabeth, he meant what he had said, he didn't want to be boss, because then no one would keep him in line, it would be all on his head.
He stood, thinking hard, well hoping Rodney had a plan.
"We were throwing some ideas back and forth." Rodney stood gesturing to Zelenka, before modifying his statement, "Well, he was throwing them forth and I was throwing them back. But while he was droning on about some idea that might have worked, I suddenly realized that this city has encountered similar problems before."
"So I..."
Ellis interrupted, "I don't need the history of your idea, Doctor. I'll let that be a surprise when I read your autobiography. Just tell me your plan."
He really didn't like Ellis much, Rodney in situations like this usually had a reason for what he was telling you. And well he had been known to be rude to Rodney, that was just mean. He could tell Teyla and Weir felt the same way, Teyla in particular didn't like Ellis she had a frown on her face as she looked away.
"We submerge it."
Well at least Rodney knew how to get to the point.
"I'm sorry?" Ellis said, confusion clear.
"We submerge the city," Rodney said the 'are you an idiot' left unsaid.
He hadn't been paying attention to Weir, so her question caught he off guard.
"I thought you said we couldn't submerge the city."
"That was two years ago, before the Ancients came and activated a number of new systems. See..." Radek was cut off by Rodney.
"The how is complicated, but I think it is now possible. Look it's not a permanent solution..."
"But it might buy us enough time to come up with one." he said thinking ahead, it made sense, that was how the Ancients got away. "Hmm."
"Exactly!" Rodney enthused.
"How much time?" Ronon asked.
"Some, maybe as much as a week."
"I don't understand. Why?" Ellis said, sound un-enthused by the idea of buying time.
"You see the history part would have made that much clearer." Rodney said, getting even with Ellis."Had you been a little more patient I would have painted a lovely clear picture for..."
"McKay!" he said, as much fun as this was now was not the time, and making Ellis hate him, would not help him the future.
"Ten thousand years ago, the Ancient's en-countered a race they could not defeat, the Wraith came, and held them under siege, so they sunk the city to dissipate the weapon's energy blasts in the water as well as save it for future generations."
"This way the shield held, and if we do the same, we also will last much longer. So, now, we submerge the city." Rodney finished with a flourish.
"We are not sure how much the beam will be affected, but we believe it would give us time." Radek said more cautiously.
"But there is a chance it might not work at all." Radek continued.
"A small chance."
"But it could happen."
"There is no way to know for sure yes, but that is no reason to not try."
Rodney and Radek bickered, finally Elizabeth stepped in,"Gentleman."
They stopped and looked for approval, of their plan.
"All right, get it done." Ellis said.
Rodney laughed, "I don't think thats your call."
"Worst-case scenario, we lose some power from the ZPM right?" Elizabeth asked, thinking hard.
John winced, she was asking Rodney 'king negatived', there was no way that was worst-case scenario.
"Oh, no, worst case scenario is we both read the numbers wrong and lose a ton of power, and the city doesn't sink at all. Look as much as I hate to say it Zelenka is not infallible."
Rodney said.
John was amused by the Czech's almost offended look at Rodney, before looking back at Weir.
"Do it."
Five Hours Later, Two Since The City Was Sunk
He stood, staring up at the beam where it was hitting the shield, Teyla and Ronon with him.
Ronon broke the silence, "I need the learn some science."
what? Random much? "Why?" was all he voiced.
"I'm not all that good for stuff like this. If we get into a fight or need to break out of somewhere, or you know, kill someone, I'm your guy, but a laser attacking the city I don't know what to do."
"Thats why we're a team, like the Fantastic Four." That wasn't the best comparison he could think of, but it was the first. He knew what Ronon meant, he wasn't much use either, nothing to fly, nothing to shoot, and he didn't know enough advanced science to help there. He felt like he was letting the city down, he stared down at the ocean floor.
Then he noticed them looking at him, "It's a comic book, where superheroes fight crime and save the world and all. See, I'd be Mister Fantastic. Ronon would be the Thing. McKay would be the Human Torch. You would be the Invisible Women." He nodded at Teyla, the one standing next to him. He pondered whether his change made him the Thing or not, Teyla distracted him from his thoughts.
"I'm am not invisible."
Her coldness was weird, then he remembered some of what she'd said the very first time they met. " No, no, your not and I don't mean McKay's on fire, I was just trying to make a point."
Ronon's amused face was annoying.
"Then how come you get to be Mr. Fantastic?" Teyla demanded.
"Because he was the leader, and I am..." Damn Ronon's laughing face, Teyla was taking it very seriously.
"I'm just saying they were cool team and we're a cool team, and they used their strengths to, and well, you know..." Some times, he just wanted to sigh, they seemed to do this to him on purpose.
"Look, I'll go see how McKay is doing." he left, he vaguely thought about waiting to see what they'd say after he left, but figured he didn't want to know.
He jogged down the stairs, his mind wondering, what would they do? what could they do? He made it to the lab, the silence worried him, if they weren't arguing, it was because they'd didn't know what to do next.
"Shouldn't you two be bickering over something?" he asked, looking over them. Zelenka was sitting slumped over, McKay was fiddling with his computer, well staring at the wall.
"We have nothing to bicker about, he's run out of bad ideas. Finally." McKay said, looking up.
"If we survive this, I'm putting in for a transfer." Zelenka muttered, glaring.
"Please! We both know that you've done some of your best work under me." Rodney laughed.
"Under you?! Zelenka sneered, I'm my own department head, you know."
"Please! We both know that department is a joke."
John sighed, now was not the time, he knew Zelenka actually thought of Rodney as a friend, but sometimes Rodney got to him.
"What are you..."
He interrupted Zelenka, "Why don't you guys just make out, and get over it, already?"
They both stared at him. He continued, "We have what... A day to figure out a way to destroy or get away from the stupid satellite, and all you can bicker about is who works for who? Come on, we're all counting on you."
"Every possible scenario we have come up with ends in failure." Zelenka said, not even straightening at the fighting words he'd said. "There is nowhere on the face of this planet it cannot find us."
He listened, well Radek talked. And at the end of the sentence, it hit him, this wasn't just a city, it was a flying city, and space worthy city at that. He turned to Rodney to see if they could do it, and as soon as he turned, and saw Rodney's face, he knew Rodney realized it too.
"You think?"
"No."
"Is the old girl too banged up?" He was worried if Rodney said yes, they would be in a world of hurt.
"No, the Replicators fixed all the damage we did with the drones. We just don't have the power."
"Yeah, but ideally..." Rodney was thinking hard, he could see that, now if only they could get more power.
"It'd be the only way."
"What?" Radek wasn't following.
Power, Power, Power, every time there was a problem and they had a fix, they didn't have enough power. Wait... "The Drilling platform." He said. "It is working down there? Isn't?"
"Close enough, but we wouldn't be able to bring it with us."
"Bring it where?" Radek said plaintively.
"We don't need to, we just need enough to get going." he said, still ignoring Radek.
"You're on to something here." They ran out of the room heading for the control room to find out about the power they'd need and to talk to Elizabeth. They completely ignored Radek calling after them.
Seven Hours Later
His and Rodney's first plan had been changed, but they still had a chance, it just rested all on him. He would have been just a little worried normally, but he hadn't tried to use the chair since his change, he had this little wiggling fear, that he might be rejected from the chair.
He and Rodney arrived in the chair room, he felt a little bad, he hadn't listened to a word on the way up here, but Rodney wasn't mad, so he hadn't notice or he hadn't cared, most likely the first.
"How's Lorne doing?"
"He's making good time, he should be here within twenty minutes." Rodney said tapping away, and checking with the tech in the room.
He couldn't stop staring at the chair, he almost felt like it might bite him, silly, but the feeling was there.
Rodney finally glanced up at him, he smiled a little trying to seem confident, but the expression on his face felt stiff, so he tried again. "I guess it's time to get moving," that was even weaker.
"Are you sure you can do this?"
"Fly the city?
Rodney got sarcastic, "What else could I possible be talking about?"
"I flew a V-22 Osprey once." he remembered that, it felt awful, jerky, rough, and now that he thought about it, it felt a lot like that shuttle he flew.
"Was it as big as a city?" Rodney said skeptical.
"Well, you had to use your hands and feet with that one. With this one, you just have to sit down and think 'fly'," and that wasn't why he hesitated.
"Okay, why don't you just sit down in the chair and run your preflight check."
John worked up his courage, and walked over, took the step up, turned and sat down. He ignored his knees as they wobbled, he could do this, he was glad no one noticed his less then graceful sit.
He sat back and waited.
It activated.
He silently exhaled, relief filling him, Atlantis wouldn't give him away. Rodney turned back, "Oh, I'm going to go to the control room, and Zelenka will monitor power output from the ZPM Room."
He nodded, waiting for Rodney to say what he really wanted to.
"And good luck."
"You, too." Rodney smiled, and left. John leaned further in the the chair, he closed his eyes and asked the city for what he need to know.
He opened his eyes a while later when Lorne started talking, finally it was his turn.
"Sheppard, are you ready?" McKay asked.
He grinned a little, the city seemed happy to leave. "Ready as I'll ever be." He hadn't noticed before now, but he almost could feel the city, it, she had a personality, she didn't talk really, but she was there ready to help and obey. He closed his eyes.
He knew some of the members with the natural gene had mentioned some times they felt someone, but when they looked no one was there, hell he'd felt it himself, but this feeling, of feeling someone else's feelings was new, he'd sat in the chair before, but never felt this.
If this was a side effect of his change it was cool, they all at some point called the city a person or he'd talked like it was one, even Elizabeth had done it, but now he knew. He couldn't wait to tell Elizabeth.
He felt the city rising, she, the city was trying to rise faster like he wanted, they need speed, and she was trying to give it to him.
He felt the moment the beam stopped hitting them, she jumped, no longer fighting the beam. He told her fast, higher, we must be gone by the time it is through the asteroid.
They broke surface, she kept going, trying.
He told the city, the city, she jumped, they left the waters grasp, the were fight to gain height. Higher, faster, come on.
He pleaded, she tried, but they didn't have the power. He felt the city's desperation, she was trying.
"Rodney, I don't have enough power." he said, jerking his eyes open.
"What are you doing wrong?"
"Sure, thats great, blame me. We don't have enough power, I said that already."
"Oh, sure, blame me!"
"She's not going high enough, we need more."
"I have no more power to give!"
He listened to Elizabeth's idea, it would do, the city said so. "Turn it back on at Eighteen thousand feet. We just need a boost, right?"
Rodney whispered, 'that might just work' was good to hear.
He leaned his head back and focused, the shield went down, she, the city with the boost of power, leapt in to the air like she was meant to, she was a thing of beauty.
They'd done it.
The few moments of peace were over, they started to raise the shield, John could feel it going up.
Then a moment before it closed, she was grazed by the beam, he was concerned, the city hurt, then brushed it off, telling him they would be fine, they could go on.
He told them in the control room he was taking them in to hyperspace. His beautiful city opened the window and entered.
Then she pushed him out with a 'I will take it from here, go' pushy thing.
"We did it." exhilaration fill him.
"Hey! McKay? Elizabeth?"
McKay's panicked voice filtered in over the com, "I need a medical team to the control room stat! Multiple injuries!"
He leapt out of the chair, that damn graze! He ran all the way to the control room, when he arrived the first thing he saw was a tech sitting on the glass covered ground having her bleeding cut examined. He walked in slower now, all the windows had shattered, the pieces of glass crunched under his feet.
Then he saw Elizabeth on a a backboard, "Keller, what happened?"
"The beam grazed the tower and blew out all the windows, and threw Elizabeth... Adams! That guy just has a cut, tell him to put pressure on it, and move on. We have people hurt much worse."
John noted the aide nodding, and leaving the gaze untied. He focused on Keller and Elizabeth again.
"Elizabeth? Is she gonna to be okay?"
"I don't know yet, she took an awful fall, her pupils are sluggish, I need to get her under a scanner. I'll know more in a bit." she jogged along side the gurney, and out of the room.
He turned, and ran up the stairs. He saw consoles sparking, then he turned and saw Ronon siting against a wall blood streaming down his shirt.
"My god! Are you okay?"
Ronon looked at him, "Yeah, I've had worse."
John looked at the eight inches of glass he could see sticking out of his shoulder, "How come no one's helping you?"
"I told them I didn't need any help, other people are hurt worse."
John could tell Ronon was hurting bad, his friend would have been up and moving if he really was fine. Stupid him, he should have raised the shield faster, he... damn. Not now John, he told himself. "I seriously doubt that. Adams! Get over here and get him to the infirmary." the man nodded and helped Ronon up and down the stairs.
He went over to where he could see Rodney work tiny cuts glistening on his face, Teyla was there too. "You guys good?"
"All things considered..." Rodney said not looking up.
"How bad is the damage?"
"Minimal. I think." Rodney told him, ducking when a console behind him sparked. "I was able to get the shield up fairly quickly. The shield protected us the rest of the way."
John turned surveilling the wrecked room, glass on every surface, blood splattered in places.
Then the alarms began blaring, Atlantis shuttered.
"Rodney what's happening?" Teyla asked, bracing her self.
He stood ignoring the moan of 'what now' from Rodney, waiting for an answer, hoping he was wrong.
"We just dropped out of hyperspace."
"Have we already reached M12-578?" Teyla asked.
"No. it would have still been several hours. The hyper drive just shut down." Rodney tapped away, looking for answers.
"Why?" he asked, hoping McKay could and would fix it.
"I don't get it."
"Get it back up," he knew staying in space would not be good for their power problems.
"I just said I don't know what's wrong, Rodney said, glaring at him. I can't fix it if I don't know what to fix."
"Where are we?" Teyla asked, hope to calm them both.
"The middle of nowhere. There are no planets, no moons, no Stargates."
"How much power do we have?" if they had enough power, they might get close to a planet and land there.
"This can't be right."
That didn't sound good for them or Atlantis. "How much?"
"At current consumption rate just enough for twenty four hours. Then we won't have a shield and with no shield, no air, and no air..."
"Can we use the Stargate?" Teyla interrupted.
"No, we need a point of origin, and we are in the middle of nowhere."
Their day just got better and better.
The last forty five minutes had been crazy, they found out the conduits were leaking power, and as Rodney put it, they were bleeding out.
He hated to think so negatively, he normally preferred to leave that to Rodney, but with Elizabeth hurt, he need to know what Rodney was doing, keep it balanced, which meant he had to tell Rodney how bad Elizabeth was, it was just the two of them running Atlantis.
He went over to where Rodney was working, "Hey, Rodney, you've been making a lot of decisions without me. Now I don't want to interfere with what your doing, but with Elizabeth hurt, it's just us, and I need to know."
"I'm sorry. It's just we've been under the gun here. Things move fast."
"I know that, but if you tell me what your doing, while you do it, it would help a lot."
"Your right... Sorry, I'll try to tell you what's going on."
"Thanks, thats all I needed to hear."
"Okay. Okay, well, I'll give you the Coles Notes
"What?"
"Uh, the Cliff Notes?"
"Why didn't you say that in the first place?"
"Look, never mind. Look as we were leaving Lantea, we were brushed by the laser, and it cracked some of the main conduits."
"So? Can't you reroute power?"
"No, what part of 'main' did you not get?" Rodney shook his head. "There for, to keep the shield up, the city forces more power into the conduits, so enough power reaches the end of the line."
"And thats bad?"
"No. thats what saved us, it just means we are using more power then normal.
"Which is why we are trying to shut down the systems we don't need, right?"
"Yes! So we should have all of those systems shut down soon, and from there we can come up with a new plan to save the city, and ourselves."
John nodded, "Okay."
They went to watch the teams progress, and they just sat down when, the alarms began beeping.
"What?" Rodney yelled to Chuck.
"The city's outer building just started to decompress, and are shutting down the artificial gravity."
Teyla followed them over,"Why would the city do such a thing?"
"It's going to collapse the shield, it's trying to save power." Rodney said.
"We have guys over there."
"I know, I'm trying to slow it down."
John tapped his Radio, "All teams fall back to the tower, now!" He got a variety of yes sirs, but none of the men out there, were out of the proverbial woods yet.
"Matthews, fall back to the tower, move fast!"
"Sir we're not done yet?"
"It doesn't matter, the shields collapsing."
Rodney zoomed in on them, they were the farthest out team, most of the rest had made it to safety, but Matthews had a ways to go.
"Come on, come on, come on."Rodney chanted.
Teyla saw it coming, as did he, but she said it. "They will not make it."
"Rodney stop it, stop it from doing this."
"The city decided the shield needs to be smaller to maintain, I can't stop it, but I can try to slow it."
"Rodney, override it!"
"I can't if I stop it completely, it could fail all together."
They waited, watching the little red dots, but the shield caught up to them and they blinked out, one by one.
"Damn it!"
Teyla lowered her head and Rodney stared it stunned shock.
He walked away. He went and stood in Elizabeth's office, staring at her desk, her empty desk.
Half an hour later Rodney came to talk to him, "Any word on how she's doing?"
He sighed a little, "She's still in the OR. So there's no real news."
"Listen, I think we should collapse the shield to just around the tower."
"But, then we'll be exposed to space."
"Yeah, I know but it will conserve power and buy us more time. I have been so busy with the power problem that I haven't even had time to work on how to save us, if we do this we'll have time, if we don't..."
"All right, check with Zelenka, and make sure all the teams are a counted for."
"I've done all that already, we were just waiting for the green light."
He looked at Rodney, glad he hadn't need to tell him anything, glad that Rodney was prepared. "All right, consider your plan green lighted."
Rodney gave the cue, and the dozen or so techs jump to obey him. They really had just been waiting for him, he was glad Rodney was listening when he said he needed to be in the loop.
John head down to the OR for a little bit of news on Elizabeth, the little he found out only made his heart sink. He need Elizabeth, she was his link to sanity about his change, he really wished he'd gotten up the nerve to tell Teyla now.
He headed back up Teyla with him, Ronon was sleeping his pain meds off, they reached the gate room, he had people sweeping up the glass and doing general clean up it was nice not to be walking on glass.
Mckay spotted them, "Ahh! I've got some good news. One I've been able to calculate our position. And two..."
Teyla interrupted, "Does that mean we can use the Stargate?"
"Sadly, no. To activate the Stargate we require that we stay within a fairly small area of space. We're moving too fast to use it."
"Could we use the sublights to slow us down?"
"Well that would be great if they we're working, but sublight and navigation are out."
"And you put this in the good new category?" he said, following McKay up the stairs.
"Hey, at least we're not lost anymore, right? Number two there is nothing wrong with our hyperdrives."
"Then why did we fall out of hyperspace prematurely?" Teyla asked reasonably."
"The damaged Power conduits. We have plenty of gas in the tank, so to speak, but we couldn't get it to reach the engine. Stalled out."
Damn, it always came back to that, "So if we repair the conduits we can jump back in to hyperspace?"
"That is the idea, yes. I mean, we wouldn't be able to repair them completely, but enough to make it the rest of the way. Look, Zelenka and his team are working on it as fast as they can, but the problem is we're still losing power."
"Even with all the reductions?" Teyla questioned.
"Yes, even with all of them we're still bleeding out," Rodney pulled up a display. "Look, we need at least this much power to make the jump to hyperspace," he pointed to a line, there was some green above it but not much. "We have maybe an hour before we will have lost too much power to make the jump. If it reaches below that line we will be stuck. We'll have maybe thirty hours before the shields fail, and we all die in the vacuum of space. "
Peachy, at least he now knew his mostly likely method of death.
Five Hours After Elizabeth Was Hurt
He headed down to the OR hoping to hear the latest on Elizabeth.
He wondered in, the lights were dimmed for those trying to sleep, but he didn't really notice the difference. He headed over for Ronon's bed, not seeing Keller anywhere.
Ronon rolled over to look at him. He looked his mostly alert face, "You okay?"
"Yeah, I'm fine. They got all the glass out."
"Good."
"You need me anywhere?"
"No, just here, getting better."
"All right, well, I'm good to go."
He smirked at that, Ronon, in his own way, was trying to cheer him up, the idea of the guy who had just had eight inches of glass pulled out of his shoulder, trying to make him feel better was funny. His smirk died, when Keller in scrubs, turned the corner, and called to him with the bad news face.
He walked over and waited.
Chapter's over folks it was running away with me and I had to break free.