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 Adrift and Lifeline. 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 Nine song What I've Done by Linkin Park
(Fourteen weeks and two hours into his change)
John stood staring at the unconscious Elizabeth on screen, she looked like she was only sleeping, how could she not just wake up?
Brain damage.
The words ghosted across his mind, but what did that mean for Atlantis in the long run? Atlantis without Elizabeth... What did he know about brain damage?
Not much... just stories he'd heard, things on Tv, nothing solid.
Damn it Elizabeth. How could you get... why did you stand... Guilt was not helping him or Elizabeth.
Deep breath, calm, find his center, his feelings could be dealt with later. For now they still needed to land, and reach Earth before he worried about Elizabeth, and her job, and who he answered to.
Brain damage.
Damn it! What was he suppose to do if the one who ordered him not to report himself didn't remember it? Hell he would be in soooo much trouble if anyone found out now.
Teyla, Ronon, Rodney all would be hurt and upset with him for not telling them sooner. Anyone else would report him, and he'd spend the rest of his days in area 51. He was screwed and knew it. His soul was damned, if not for what he was, then for all the lies he'd ever told, the lives he sacrificed. Damned... he needed to be level headed and in the control room, here not freaking. He rubbed his eyes, trying to ignore the wetness.
Another deep breath.
"Colonel Sheppard and Dr. McKay. Please report to the control room immediately!"
He sighed, the job never ended. He jogged back to the control room, by the time he arrived, he was calm and focused, but he did notice Rodney was just getting there as well, a tech called them over.
He looked at the projected course for Atlantis and could see it was headed for some weird line, wall thing, that he thought looked like an astroid field.
"What is that?" he asked hoping to be wrong.
"An asteroid belt?" Rodney asked disbelieving.
"And sublights are still off line aren't they?"
"Yeah." Rodney said.
"So we need to expand the shield."
"But we don't have the power!"
"Rodney, if we don't it's going to shred us. Look, how long till we get there? And how long will it take to get through?" he asked the tech, who called for him and Rodney.
"We have about ten minutes till we get there and maybe two minutes through it."
"Two minutes to get through an asteroid field?"
"Well we're not really going through it, we're just going to skim the edge." He typed away and got the screen to rotate the asteroid field, so they could see where they would be skimming.
"You can't hold the shield for two minutes?" he directed the question to Rodney.
"No, we really don't have the power, not if we are going to make that jump the rest the way." he said, shaking his head.
"Rodney... give me options."
"Look, Zelenka will finish the patching in forty minutes or so, if we raise the shield for even a minute the power level will fall too low and we will be stuck here!"
"Okay, I got that the shield isn't an option, I need other ones."
"How big are they?"
"Well we are in the middle of a pretty big solar system fight now, so the asteroid field is probably made up of failed early planets. So, aah... building size and larger."
"I could use the chair, and clear a path using the drones."
"Good idea, except... You couldn't, the chair room is outside of the shield right now. Look, we could... hun... No, that wouldn't work. Uh, no, not that either. Ahh, no way..."
He tuned out McKay's mumbles, if he could use the chair, the shield was out... wait the jumpers had drones, and they could get to those. "How many people still here have the gene?"
"Twenty or so. Look, no. Wait, no, no, no, that is a bad idea."
"You have a better one?"
"Yes."
He shook his head, of course Rodney didn't like his plan, he hated flying the jumpers. No clue what was wrong with him, but...
"I do, I just need time."
"And that is the one thing we don't have. You, he said speaking to one of the tech's he didn't know, contact everyone with the gene tell them to meet me in the jumper bay."
She nodded, he ignored Rodney heading for the stairs.
Fifteen Minutes Later
He hated bad plans. He waited for the first spoken complaint, it came like he expected it would.
"You've done the simulations right?"
"Well yeah, but..."
"It's almost the same thing. Look, I know most of you don't have a lot of experience but if McKay can do it, you'll be able."
Then Rodney spoke up from behind him, "Yeah, about that..."
"Look, we have to, because in three minutes, Atlantis is going through the asteroid belt and she needs a path or she'll start looking like swiss cheese." He looked over the assembled crowd, mostly scientists, a few doctors, and only three military guys including himself, not perfect, but it would do,
"Move out."
He climbed in his jumper, number one. He stared up and once he was ready he spoke over the radio. "All right. I've loaded flight plans and formations in for you."
"Stay in your designated positions, and take out anything in your path."
"All of you have a full load of drones, so ammo shouldn't be a problem."
"It's like the old video game asteroids." Rodney said.
"If that works for you."
"I was terrible, I think I actually scored zero once." Rodney told him, restrained panic in his voice.
"Well then there's only one way to go, and thats up." He was just glad Rodney couldn't see his wince.
"All right, everyone. Let's go. Open the jumper bay doors," He told the control room.
He looked at the screen a minute till they reached the asteroid field, but their line was drifting. "Come on you guys, stay in formation."
The line slowly straightened, "See thats not so hard, now is it?"
Teyla started count down for being in range, "Jumpers you be in range in... Three. Two. One."
At one he gave the order, "Fire at will."
He fired off his own, and watch as asteroids shrank on screen. "Nice shooting you guys."
Then Rodney panicked, "There's too many of them and they're coming too fast! We can't get them all!"
"Rodney, keep a cool head, we knew that! People now that you've got a feel for it, try firing doubles. Four apiece." He was shooting as fast and as many as he could, but he'd done this before and under pressure.
Rodney kept whining anyway. "I can't control four at the same time."
"Just focus and stop whining!" Some times Rodney was just a pain in the ass, friend or not, if he focused as much energy on shooting as he did whining he could be as good as him.
"Damn it!" Rodney swore over the radio.
"Don't worry about it I got it," and he had, he was firing as fast as the ship could reload, he might have to worry about ammo after all. "Remember Rodney we can't get absolutely everything in one pass." he said this, watching a car sized piece float passed him.
They cleared the field.
"Well, now what?" Rodney asked over the radio.
"On my mark, you, Bolton, and Levine are going to break formation and head back to the city stay with it. Shoot stuff that is car sized and bigger, the rest of us are going to do another sweep."
"Oh, that sounds important like something someone else should do."
"Rodney now."
"Oh, fine it's not my fault if chunks of the city should happen to get ripped apart." Rodney mumbled.
"Break!" he said ignoring the dooms day stuff, Rodney could complain all he likes he was one of the more accurate ones.
Finally the city was through, and seemed to be mostly in one piece. He lead the rest of the jumpers back, and they landed safely in the tower once again.
Rodney once again was bubbling about how they might live, and how glad he was that it worked. When once again they were both summoned to the control room.
He grinned wirily at Rodney's "Aww, Come on!" it was the story of their lives as leaders in Atlantis.
He and Rodney jogged down the steps, well the others talked over what they'd just done.
"What the hell happened?" he asked, reaching the floor, looking towards Teyla.
"The hyperdrive is offline." she said, turning to them.
"I thought it was close to being good to go."
"It was, but one of the larger impacts of an asteroid, damaged a control array that was needed working to use the hyperdrive." Radek told him. "We can't jump till it's fixed."
Damn it. Could nothing go right?
He almost smacked Rodney for what he said next, "I told you I was no good at asteroids." Damn it Rodney, it was probably not even one near you so don't take all the credit. He rubbed his eyes, "What do we have to do to fix?"
Twenty Minutes Later
Stupid suits. Slow stupid suits. He hated walking in these, slow, stupid... Things! And when ever he was in one, he always had a time limit, but they were so slow!
He and Radek were close to being able to start the fast slow walk to the damaged conduit when Rodney hailed him about Weir.
"You want to what?"
"Reactive her nanites."
"That is a terrible, terrible idea."
"What? I'd reprogram them."
He sighed, he was doing a lot of that today. He knew activating the nanites was a risk to the city, even if they were reprogramed, he also knew the nanites being active would be a personal nightmare to Elizabeth when they woke her up and told her what they'd done to save her life.
"No."
"But, John we're losing her here. Keller and her team have done every thing they can. If I reprogram the nanites to help repair her body without trying to take over her brain, then..."
"Thats a big if."
"I'm fairly confident I can reprogram them to do only what we want."
"Fairly confident? What if they come back online and start to communicating to the other replicators? The last thing we need is them showing up right now."
"Are you listening? I said I could do it."
"Rodney will Elizabeth thank you for this?"
"But she will be fine, she won't die."
"I am not having this conversation with you. I want to save Elizabeth as much as anyone, but her running around with active nanites is not a good thing, not for her or for the city, and if you think for one moment she would want this..." he cleared his throat.
"Come on Radek."
They left in the transporter, they reached the level they needed to be on and started walking. After a minute, Radek spoke over the radio, "That was the right call by the way."
"I hope so."
They walk a little more, before Radek made an observation. "I am acutely quite surprised, the damage seems minimal."
John turned the corner ahead of him and disagreed, "I beg to differ."
"Oh my." They came out in to what use to be a hall, only now it was a balcony with no railings. They stepped out in to the light, the outside they could now see, looked very banged up, and way across the gap, he could see the start of the hall on the other side.
"Let me guess, the control array is on the other side?"
"I am afraid so."
"Great."
Then they heard a zipping noise, they turned to see two new holes in the wall.
"What the hell was that?"
"Micro-asteroids."
"Right." lovely, he'd almost forgotten about those. "All right, the only way I see across here is to jump."
"But there is no way I can jump a hundred feet." Radek said, doubt clear in his voice.
"We're in space remember? We can do it."
"Okay, I'm going to hook you up with the tether, okay?" he tightened it.
"Then I'm going to demagnetize your boots." he flipped the switch, Zelenka rose in the air, and bumped helmets with him. He grabbed his suit, holding tightly.
"Then I'm going to throw you."
"Wait, what? What?!"
"Then I'm going to demag my boots before the tether catches."
"Your inertia should take both of us over the hole and into the rest of the hall."
"It'll be a cinch."
"But what if you miss?"
"I won't miss, Doc."
"Ready. Set Go." he threw him, he immediately reached for his switch, he hit it a second later and leaped.
It was cool... a slow flying drift.
Radek hit the wall, he turned and grinned, John smiled back.
Then hit the magnetize button, Radek sank down to the ground, he hit his own, and he was back on solid ground.
"That was completely... Amazing!"
"Let's focus Doc, we're on a schedule."
"oh. Right."
Radek grabbed the case of tools off his back and opened the control array panel, he began pulling damaged crystals out, letting them float above him well he worked.
They'd been there almost ten minutes when Radek spoke, "I'm sorry this is taking longer then expected, but these gloves make it so much harder to hold the crystals."
Then a small micro-asteroid zipped passed them, they both turned to see a new small hole in the wall, it missed their air tanks by inches. "That was close." John said looking at Radek, "Lets finish up a little faster Doc."
"Agreed." Radek turned back to work. He continued walking and talking, "We still have four minutes, so plenty of time."
"Right." then another micro-asteroid struck.
John heard it coming, and turned in time to see it go straight through Radek's leg. Zelenka groaned, falling back. He reached out to stead him, "Radek! You okay?"
They both looked down at his leg, little droplets of blood leaked out, floating in space.
"Radek you have a hole in your leg, how much does it hurt?"
"I don't really feel it." John could have guessed that, judging by the slightly dazed look.
"Your in shock."
"I need to get you back."
"There's a hole in my suit."
"Yes, and I dialed up the pressure so you'll be okay. ok. I'm calling for a jumper."
"No I'm almost done, I can finish it."
"Tell me what to do."
"No it's to complicated for that."
"Zelenka your bleeding, and in shock, I don't think you should stay."
The Czech shoved him off, and turned to go back to work. "I'll finish it, then you can get me to the OR."
"Ok."
It went against his better judgement but the city need the repairs, if everyone was going to make it.
Two Minutes Later
"I'm on the last adjustments." Radek said, panting heavily.
"Your doing great Doc, the jumper will be here soon. Then we'll get you on the good stuff."
Another micro-asteroid zipped over their heads.
Radek twitched.
"Your almost done, don't worry about the little rock bullets."
Radek snorted, "There I've finished."
"Control room, this is Sheppard. As soon as we're in the shield make the hyperspace jump."
Teyla answered him, "I'm sorry, John, we cannot."
"Why not? Zelenka finished repairs."
"Yes but we've just dropped below the line, we no longer have enough power."
He stared at Zelenka, who stared back at him. It really couldn't get worse, could it? Today was reaching for number one of his worst days ever.
Twenty Minutes Later
Radek was on the his way on a bed, he was feeling pretty faint from blood lose, But he was going to be okay.
He followed him down to the infirmary, when Ronon saw both of them, he waved. He turned to join Ronon.
"Is he going to be okay?" Ronon asked about Radek.
"Yeah he should be okay, it didn't hit any arteries."
"Then he got lucky."
"No, I wouldn't say that. He's still here stuck with the rest of us."
"So it is true."
"Yeah, get the damn thing fixed and we still can't go any where." he was tried, he'd been up more then twenty nine hours at this point, and enough things had happen in it to take up a week. He was running low, he hadn't eaten more then power bars in most of that time. "Twenty eight hours till the shields fail." he sighed running a hand over his face.
"So what's the plan?"
"I don't know I need to find and talk to Rodney, then maybe we'll come up with something."
"Oh, he's in there." Ronon told him pointing to Elizabeth's room.
"What?" John had a sneaking suspicion, Rodney had disobeyed him. Because Rodney didn't handle sick, and hurt, and dying people well. He turned around, heading for the door when Dr. Keller and Rodney walked out.
"Hey." he really, really, really, hoped his feeling was wrong. But when the guilty looks appeared he knew.
"I heard we didn't get the array fixed in time." Rodney said not meeting his eyes.
"What were you doing in there?"
"Look, she was dying, okay?"
"Rodney." he'd better not be saying, what he thought he was saying.
"Look, her heart was weak, her nervous system was fried."
"What did you do?" he was trying to keep his temper in check, he wouldn't punch Rodney, he wouldn't punch Rodney.
Rodney looked to Keller for help, she looked back at him helplessly. "I reactivated her nanites."
"Damn it MCKAY!" he shouted.
"Look, you were busy! It was life or death. If I didn't act..."
"Yes! She would have died. I know!" he wasn't going to pound his face in, he wasn't. Damn it! He almost wanted to laugh at the irony, at one point he said: she didn't know how it felt to not trust yourself, well now she did. What was he suppose to do?
"Okay, I know what your thinking," At that he almost hit him, the idiot had no idea what he was thinking. He had no idea what he'd sentenced her to, because with this she'd never get to stay, she'd be sent to area 51 to the fate he'd so far avoided. The bastard!
"But helping Elizabeth is not putting the city at risk."
"You reactivated the Replicator nanites."
"They're harmless. Look, I am one hundred percent sure they can't harm Elizabeth or try to take her over, nor contact the Replicators!"
"Rodney, there is no way you know that for sure."
"Yes, Yes I can."
"Shut them down." he wasn't killing Elizabeth, he... he was saving her from herself and everyone else.
"But... That would kill her." Rodney's look of disbelief proved it he really didn't know what would happen, if they told Earth what had happened. He really thought he'd saved Elizabeth and well he'd saved her life, her probably an unnaturally long life, but she wouldn't get to stay, not here in Atlantis.
"What do you think Elizabeth would want?"
"Do you think she would want this?" he got in his face.
"Yes, she would. She'd sure as hell do the same for you."
That was almost a slap in the face, while she would do the best to save his life or anyones, this, this was just cruel. "Rodney you clearly didn't know her very well then."
"Well maybe thats true, but when she wakes up, you can ask her, and when she tells you other wise..."
"No, Rodney she won't, you need to shut her down right now."
"But?!"
"No, Rodney! Leaving her is too dangerous, you have to shut her down now!"
Rodney looked at him disbelievingly, "No, no, I won't."
He wouldn't punch him, he wouldn't. But he wanted to, really, really wanted to. He was unable to stop himself from leaning forward like he would, he clenched his jaw and got right in Rodney's face. Rodney just looked at him, he honestly thought he'd done the right thing. He'd get a security team up here, "Meyers. Bring a security team up to the
OR with an EMP generator."
McKay scoffed, "Would you please listen to what I'm saying?"
John went to respond, when he heard some disturbance from the room, he was already turning when the nurse that was in the room said "Dr. Keller!"
He finished turning, and opened the door.
Only to see Elizabeth sitting up, and pulling the Bandages off her perviously saved head. "John?" she questioned. "Rodney."
"What's going on?"
Fuck.
He looked to Rodney, and Keller they'd done this, they could answer for it.
He stood looking at them, waiting for them to answer, Keller broke first. "You were hurt badly..." she trailed off uncertain.
Rodney picked up where she left off, "We had to reprogram your nanites to heal you."
Elizabeth didn't take it well, "You What!?"
"We did it to save you," Keller said nervously.
"And You agreed to this?" Elizabeth demanded angrily of John.
"Hell NO!"
Her shoulder sank a little, but she looked at him relived, "Good." She said it quietly, so quietly he was sure the others, not even Ronon heard it.
He nodded, "Security team, leave the EMP behind and come ready for guard duty."
"Everyone Out!" he herded everyone out and shut the door. He turned to her, she looked at him lost. "Is this how you felt?"
He nodded, "Probably."
She bowed her head, he smelled salt, then she mumbled. "Why didn't you stop them?"
"I tried, but I had gone to the edge of the city with Radek to try and fix something, so I wasn't here."
She raised her head, wiping tear tracks away.
"God, I'm sorry."
She nodded, "It's funny to think how circumstances can change so fast, isn't it?"
"Funny is not the word I'd use."
She snorted, "Make sure I'm not contagious, Please?"
He nodded, "Sure," he felt embarrassed, his eyes were wet. "God, life sucks."
She nodded not in full control of herself, he knew he should leave and get her in full quarantine, but he couldn't just leave her. He went and stood in front of her, "John what are you...?"
He grabbed the back of her neck and pulled her down into Athosian head touch, she resisted for a moment before relaxing.
He turned and left without another word.
He'd been cleared, he was not infected by nanites, so he went and stood watching the soundless camera feed in the hall, well they checked Elizabeth over, in full hazmat suits.
"The quarantine is pointless."
He ignored Rodney, he still wanted to hit him when ever he looked at him.
"Well, it doesn't matter, I'm still going to wait for a second opinion."
His guys stood out side the doors, they at least followed orders.
"Okay, this is stupid."
Yes, yes you are, he said in his head. Punching him still wouldn't help, even if it would make him feel better.
"What is?"
"Us fighting."
He still didn't turn to look at him.
"Look, I know your not happy with me and maybe you have some cause, but us fighting now isn't going to help, we still are likely to die in the next day or so."
"We need to work together, and find a way to save the city, so..."Rodney trailed off.
He still couldn't look at him, he gritted his teeth, his fist clenched at his sides. Damn it! There was no way he wanted to talk with Rodney right now, he needed five minutes to himself, to think and calm down. But there was no way he was going to get it.
"So, so I'm... I'm sorry."
Sorry wasn't what he wanted right now, he still didn't think Rodney fully understood what he'd done to Elizabeth at the moment, he didn't understand how out of control he felt. He didn't know how much saying she would do the same had hurt. All he wanted to do was hit Rodney, and hug Elizabeth, she'd protected him and he couldn't return the favor.
He turned to look at him, he couldn't stop the frown. He knew Rodney was sorry he'd gone behind his back, but he would have done it again. "Apology accepted."
He look back at the screens.
"All right." Rodney, nodded looking down at his feet.
He scratch his head, he was still mad, but he could look at Rodney now without fighting the urge to punch him.
"What did you say to her?"
"Nothing much."
"Come on thats not an answer."
"Nothing you need to know."
"Fine," Rodney's sulk clear in his voice.
He watched him go, maybe he'd get a moment of quiet now, he watched as Teyla tried to comfort Elizabeth. He almost thought he should be the one in there, no one else really got it like he did, but him and Elizabeth talking might give him away... So he just watched.
He could tell Elizabeth, felt they should have never done this, he watched as Teyla tried to convince her otherwise, but he knew Elizabeth would never agree. He knew, because he never would.
He jogged the last few stairs up to the control room, when he heard Radek's voice,
"What the hell are you doing up here?"
"Well, there's not much point sitting in the infirmary waiting to die, when I could be up here helping." Radek said from his chair.
"All right, I can agree with that. So where do we stand?"
"Well, we can pretty much forget subspace communications. The main control array was almost completely destroyed by the beam. I do have another idea."
"Lets hear it."
"The reason why we can't use the power we have left to execute a short jump into hyperspace, is because the city will not let us."
"It's a safety protocol. But I might be able to safely bypass it."
"And what does that give us?" he wondered.
"Not much," Rodney jumped in.
Zelenka defended his idea, "Well, we wouldn't be able to get to the Apollo, or to a Stargate, but we should be able to reach a livably planet. My team is running sensor sweeps right now."
"He's conveniently leaving out why that protocol is there, in the first place." Rodney said, arrogantly.
"Yes, well, with insufficient power, there is a chance that the city could be ripped apart as we try to enter the hyperspace window."
He felt his eyebrows raising, just a chance, huh. "What kind of chance?"
He could tell Zelenka didn't like this plan much even as it was his,"Fifty-fifty."
Fifty-fifty... he couldn't believe it, so he mouthed it again. That was a terrible plan.
"I have to say Radek I'm not loving this plan."
Then McKay snapped his fingers behind him, "Yes?" he asked turning.
"The experimental jumper."
They stared blankly at him.
"Remember when I got zapped by that machine a few months ago, and I got... Well, even smarter than I normally am?"
John winced, he never expected to forget, that or his brush with one. He went with the safe answer, "The one that almost killed you? Yeah."
"Well, yeah, before I was reset I was very close to finishing a hyperdrive for a jumper."
What would they do with that? Well they could get help or something... "Can you finish it?"
"Yeah. I mean... Yes, I probably can."
"Okay, so you finish it we make the jump to the Apollo tell them where we are."
"No."
"Why not? What's the point of fixing it if we can't tell them where we are?"
"The Jumper's hyperdrive would be limited. We wouldn't be able to jump that far," Zelenka told him.
"How far are we talking?" he directed his question to Zelenka,
"What do you think, like, two?" Zelenka asked looking at Rodney.
"Yeah. Two and change, maybe?" Rodney nodded his head thinking.
"Conservatively, maybe two thousand light years," Zelenka went on.
"This is a list of addresses that are within range." Zelenka brought up the list to run on screen.
"So we make a bunch of jumps and evacuate the city."
"Again, no."
"Why no, again?"
"Well, for one the drive hasn't been tested, Rodney said negatively, and Zelenka added. "And we'll be lucky to get two jumps."
"So we only get a return trip, hun?" he said. Of course it worked that way, nothing could go right, being able to evacuate the city would be too easy. Then he noticed the Replicator planet was in range, they had ZPMs, maybe with the jumper, and McKay...
"So we could make a little stop..."
McKay looked at him, question clear on his face, then he looked at the address he was staring at, "Yeah, Some place with a few ZPMs to spare, right?"
"That was my idea."
"Atlantis fully powered." Rodney went off in to the raptures of the possibilities.
"Well, we'd only need one, and they couldn't know we were there till we'd left."
Radek was just catching up, "M7R-227."
"Yep." Great wasn't it, his plan, charge back to the planet that got them in to the whole mess. Oh, it was a great charge to your death, your not coming back mission. "So McKay, feel up to a robbery?"
Three and a Half Hours Later
He walked down to the OR with Rodney, Teyla, and Ronon. As they walked, he found, he had to remind himself why this was the only way, they had a good chance of making it out. Sure he'd done some crazy stuff before, but now he was asking Elizabeth to do something that he was sure would scare the crap out of her, he knew how well he'd have taken it, if she'd asked him to go, and close his eyes on a hive ship two hours after he'd found out he was a… Hybrid.
They'd arrived.
He strode pass his men guarding the door with ARGs, she looked up as they entered. She set her book aside, and tried to straighten her hospital gown, futile, but he understood her need to be calm and in control.
"So want go on a field trip?" he tried to be cheerful, he knew she wouldn't like this at all.
"What do you mean?" She narrowed her eyes at him, just like she did when she thought he was being silly about his change, or before it when he'd suggested something stupid.
McKay took over, and got technical about why they needed her along. Ten minutes later Elizabeth still hadn't agreed, and he was getting impatient.
"Which will let us find the nearest ZPM, and the best way in and out." he tried to lead Rodney to the point, it sort of worked, the others chipped in their two bits.
He watched her, she was very worried, she'd gone from sitting, sort of relaxed, to holding her knees to her chest, he was glad she was wearing shorts under the dress or she'd be showing off more then she'd want to. But he felt for her, but the city needed her and this.
She finally voiced her biggest concern, "What happens if they manage to take control of the nanites?"
"Oh, they won't, they can't and I'll be watching, and should be able to counter..."
"But what if they do?"
He could take care of that worry, "I had Rodney put a kill switch in the nanites. If need be, we trigger the program and it'll kill the nanites."
She nodded, "Kill? You mean turn them off?"
McKay answered for him, "Yes."
"And you said they were all thats keeping me alive."
He felt sympathy he really did, but it wouldn't come to that, he wouldn't let it. "They are, if we kill the nanites, it will kill you," he could be blunt, he owed her that.
He made sure to look her in the eyes, he could see her relief and fear, fear she'd hurt them before they killed her. He also knew some of that fear had to do with death, he could, and couldn't empathize with that, he should be dead so many times over, that death was familiar almost a friend, a promise.
"But it won't come to that." he smiled at her, he saw she wasn't... wasn't sure. "All right? I've ordered Rodney to keep an eye on the little things, and so they should behave."
Teyla spoke from behind him, "We would not ask if it was not life or death for the mission."
"She's right, if we don't get hold of a ZPM, we're all dead in hours any way, we'll die in the vacuum of space, with no air... and I'd..." Rodney got carried away again.
"When do we leave?" Elizabeth interrupted him.
John made sure to smile at her, he knew how brave of her it was, to go. "Right now."
She hopped off the bed, he looked her up and down, "Well maybe you'll want some real clothes first."
"Yes, I might."
Rodney started spluttering, "What? No, not right now! I have to finalize the power, and..."
"Then go do it." he said, Rodney dashed off, and Teyla and Ronon left with him. It was just him and Elizabeth. He stayed looking at Elizabeth, she ducked her head.
"Your awfully brave, to be coming with us."
"No, not really, I'm terrified that they'll take over me, and I'll hurt all of you, or they sense me and shoot us out of the sky... or so many things." she sighed.
"Yes, you are. You are brave."
"No John, I'm not, your brave, you go through the gate every time your asked without so much as a shiver, even after everything thats happen to you, the Iratus bug, the retrovirus, and other stuff. No, I'm not brave."
"Elizabeth, I think your brave, if you'd asked me that day to go to a hive, I think I would have cried."
She laughed at that, but sobered quickly, "John I want you to watch me very closely."
"Do you really think I wouldn't do that anyway?"
"No, I suppose not."
They stood in silence for a moment, before Elizabeth swore, "Damn this floor is cold."
He laughed and turned to leave, "John, if the time comes, don't hesitate." He turned back slowly, somberly, "Elizabeth it won't come to that."
"But if it does?"
"You have my word."
"Good."
"Just remember if I go Wraith on you, return the favor."
She laughed, "Look at the two of us, worried about other natures..."
"John, I swear it either of us loses it, on this mission one will shoot the other. Just remember..."
He waited, she shrugged it off. "John you go catch up with Teyla and tell her."
He looked at her, "How did you know?"
"Because it's what I'd do."
He nodded and jogged out.
He ran through the halls to catch up with her, "Teyla! Wait up!" She turned and waited. He reached her, "I need you to sit this one out."
"What? John, I am perfectly able of..."
"Yeah, I know thats not why I want you to stay here, I want you to stay here to lead Atlantis in case... things don't go well."
"John if this doesn't work, the city..."
He interrupted again, "Yes, I know. But Zelenka thinks he's found a planet for us that he could jump the city to."
"But with no shields we wouldn't be able to land."
"Yes I know, you would have to evacuate in the jumpers, and if that happens everyone will be down hearted, and will need a leader."
"You mean leave the city."
"Only if it comes to that, I know you can lead everyone, and give them hope."
"John..."
"Look, if we're not back in twelve hours, I want you to give the order." he hated doing this to her, but of everyone left, she was the best choice.
He saw she would do ask he asked, and left, he had things to do before they left.
He got Elizabeth her clothes, and he readied other stuff they'd need, ARGs, some small amount of food, he made sure his men would be ready to help, and obey Teyla.
Finally Ronon told him McKay was ready, so he got his guards together for Elizabeth, and he walked beside her as all of them headed for the Jumper bay. Even if he gave the orders for her escort he also supported her, she wasn't forced to wear cuffs, and well the curious watched her, he was glad she didn't let that stop her from holding her head high.
He got her loaded, and ready, McKay and Ronon were there already waiting, he took and ARG from one of his men, and climbed in the driver's seat.
"All right, Teyla we're ready to launch."
"Understood."
The doors opened, and he told the Jumper to take off.
"Remember, no wild parties well we're gone."
"We will try to restrain ourselves." Teyla told him seriously. "And Good luck."
"Thanks, and we're gone."
They cleared the shield, he couldn't quite hide his rush, it happen to him every time he flew a Jumper. "So Rodney you ready?"
"Did I ever mention this might not work?"
"Yes."
"Oh, well let me say it again, this could go terrible wrong we could get stranded in deep space or we could be vaporized the moment..."
Ronon cut Rodney off, "Just answer the question."
"Yeah, we're ready.
"Good, sit down." this was exciting, another do or die mission, he had done some of these on earth, but here he seemed to do them at least quarterly, which now that he thought on it, seemed weird, shouldn't some one else, have them too?
Random thoughts strike again, he need to focus. Rodney at least seemed to have settled him self.
"Here it goes."
Rodney began narration, for him, "Okay opening hyperspace window in three, two, one."
They jumped.
Half an Hour Later
They arrived.
"Congratulations Rodney. Your hyperdrive worked." Elizabeth told him.
"Unfortunately, believe it or not Zelenka was right. We used way too much power on our trip here then we thought it would." Rodney said tapping away on his pad.
"What are you saying? Are you saying we can't get back?" Ronon asked, sound bored.
"No, no, what I am saying is that the... Actually that is exactly I'm saying." Rodney said looking up, sounding surprise. "I suppose, once we have the ZPM, I could tap in to it's power and I then need to make sure I don't overload the main..."
John cut him off here, "Why don't we take this one step at a time, and steal the ZPM first. Then worry about how we're going to get away."
"Right." Rodney said, turning back to his laptop.
Then he spoke to Elizabeth, "I'm going to try to initialize the link."
"What do you want me to do?"
"Oh, nothing, just sit there, it's completely wireless. Though let me know if anything pops into your mind."
"What do you mean?"
"Will I just sorta sense something, or is it more of a... Oh."
He looked back, at the 'oh'. She seemed to be looking at something off in the distance.
"Wow. We did it, or she did." Rodney said amazed. "Look we have to move fast, it won't take them long to find out some one else is in the game."
He ignored this for a moment to check on Elizabeth, "Hey, how are you feeling?"
"Very strange." She said, vaguely, still staring off in to the distance. "I can see the entire city, right in front of me, and I mean every corridor, every room."
He knew sort of knew how that felt, a Wraith mind was intense too. He grinned, well Rodney looked a little jealous.
Then Elizabeth pointed over to the left, saying "That way. There's a ZPM, Fourth quadrant, top level, easy to get to. There's hardly anyone around." She grinned, "Piece of cake."
"Sounds good," he slowly flew the cloaked Jumper the way Elizabeth pointed him. They landed on top of the building, he was relived, all the maneuvering needed to not crash into buildings wasn't fun. "All right we're down."
Ronon immediately jumped up and was moving to the back of the jumper, to check that they were in the clear. He started giving orders, at the same time, "Rodney you and Elizabeth stay here, Elizabeth you guide us through, Rodney let us know if you find something we need to know."
He stood up, and took the offered ARG from Ronon.
"Twenty meters to the left, behind the Jumper, there is an access door. If you go down one flight of stairs, you'll enter auxiliary corridor seven."
Okay that was a little creepy. Just a little.
"Go now it's clear."
"Okay, Thanks." He smiled, he could handle creepy, he'd turned into a bug for a while, part Replicator he could do this.
He and Ronon moved fast, down the stairs, and they were in the corridor.
"We're in the corridor."
"Go right." Elizabeth sound more focused, this was good, her being so spaced had concerned him.
They headed right, Elizabeth narrated where to go from there. "At six .five meters, there should be another corridor."
He and Ronon turned that way, and moved quietly, even if it was empty that was no reason to be loud. "Okay, we see it."
"Turn left. Wait! Go back!"
Theyturned and hid around the corner, he saw the Replicator go on, it didn't seem to have seen them, "Elizabeth, a little more warning would be nice." He hissed into the radio.
"Sorry. You can go now, he didn't see you."
He began running, Ronon carrying the case for the ZPM. He made the left, and Elizabeth told him where to go next, "Turn right, and it should be right in front of you."
He made sure to cover Ronon's back, jogging backwards, yet another befit of his change, he almost never fell without help, and even then less often. Ronon slid the door open, the room was empty, just a power console, one that had a ZPM power source.
"I see it."
He stopped Ronon from opening the console yet, "Hold on, Chewie."
"Are they going to notice when we pull this thing?"
"Probably, but they've got dozens of ZPMs, hopefully they won't notice this one missing till we're long gone." Rodney answered.
"That plan sounds stupid," he said. Why did they just tell him this now? Of course that wouldn't have stopped him from trying, but still... "They haven't noticed us yet have they?"
"There's a small group of Replicators coming, from two corridors over, heading for you.
Crap. He pulled the ZPM and handed it to Ronon to put in the case, he did so. "We're on our way."
They dodged the Replicators, he could hear them coming down the corridor to the left, as they turned right again, and made their way home free, back to the jumper.
As soon as he was in the open door to the cloaked Jumper, he gave orders, "Hook up the ZPM, we're leaving."
"Wait a second, we can't go." Rodney said, from his shotgun seat in front of the jumper.
He reined in his previously forgotten annoyance with him, "Why the hell not?"
"You said you could fix the hyperdrive enough to get back?"
Ronon was shutting the hatch, while he argued with Rodney.
"I mean, we can, but not yet."
"My question still stands."
"Look, while Elizabeth's been connected, I've been going over the Replicator base code and I found this." he lifted up the screen to show him.
"And what is it?" Ronon asked.
He waited, they'd gotten the ZPM why couldn't they just leave?
"The Holy Grail."
They stared at him well he elaborated.
"It's their whole reason for being. It's a command code that directs them to attack the Wraith." Rodney looked down at the computer, like he was looking at his true love or something amazing.
"But they don't, they've been sitting on their stupid nanite asses for the last ten thousand years."
"Well, thats because it's been deactivated."
"Who did it, or how did that happen?" Elizabeth asked, from her seat next to the excited man.
"I have no idea. Maybe the Ancients did it when they realized they couldn't control them."
"You just found this?" he was annoyed. Seriously McKay's supposed to be a genius? Well, it probably had been hard to find, and just because he was annoyed, didn't mean he had to be so hard on him. Oops, he tuned out Rodney's answer, he started listening in the middle of a sentence.
"...of command codes. Look, I always thought something like this would be in here, but believe me, it was not easy to find.
Elizabeth as usual, cut to the chase, "Can you reactivate it?"
"Yes, but there is one small problem," he looked at them hesitantly. "Look, I can reprogram the nanites in your brain, and we'd use them to upload the changes. But then we'd have to stay here and wait for the next merge, which could be days, and then they'd know your here, and take steps to bring you in to the collective."
"That is a crap plan, Rodney. We're not going to do it, if thats what it takes," he said, frustrated.
"John you know what this could mean, the Replicators at war with the Wraith..." Elizabeth said, softly.
"It doesn't matter it's an awful plan!"
"It's my choice, John."
"The hell it is. I'm in charge of the mission and I say no."
"Whoa, whoa, whoa. There may be another way," Rodney said jumping in.
John sat down in the pilot's chair well Rodney talked.
"There's a central date core. It's like a backup hard drive, we could download the changes there, and next time they backed themselves up, so to speak, the command would activate. We would likely be long gone before it activated, like back in Atlantis."
"Now that sounds like a real plan."
"Yeah." Rodney sat back in his chair, then winced. "Just there's one small problem, which isn't that small really..."
Elizabeth interrupted, "The core is at the center of the city, several levels down. It would be impossible to get there undetected."
"Perfect," and it was, the whole last thirty hours had been like this, and that wasn't counting the mission to destroy the ships. He shook his head, this was a good opportunity, but he knew it wasn't going to go well. "We should come back, and do it another time, we need to get this ZPM back to the city."
"I don't think we're going to get another chance." Rodney said, negatively.
"He's right." Elizabeth said, staring hard at him, he didn't turn to look at her. "Once they notice the ZPM missing, they know who did it, and likely be able to trace how it happened too. I will never get this sort of unrestricted, undetected access again."
"If we're going to do this, it's now or never." Rodney agreed.
"So how will we stop them from reaching the jumper?" he asked. He really didn't think this was a good idea.
"I just might have an idea." Rodney said.
Thirty Minutes Later
"So you're going to turn the cloak into an anti-Replicator field?" Ronon asked, pestering McKay again.
"Yes, by interfacing the ARG's control crystal with the Jumper's cloaking generator." Rodney said, clearly annoyed by Ronon's asking. "The only question is how far can I widen the field."
"Look go ahead and fly us as close as possible to the center of the city."
He ignored the backseat driving, well he waited for Elizabeth to direct him, she didn't disappoint. "There," she pointed. He'd been flying in vague circles for awhile now, it would be nice to land and get this over with, he didn't like being here, he felt exposed.
"But won't we be visible?" Ronon asked.
"Yes,we will, but they won't be able to get close," Rodney said. "The anti-Replicator field will protect us. That is assuming that I can extend the field wide enough to encompass not only the Jumper, but the core room too, and that we can run fast enough to reach the core room, input the command and run back, before they figure out a way around the field and... And... Well, slaughter us."
Well, he could take care of that worry, "Don't worry about that. You're not coming with us. Neither is Elizabeth, you guys can lead us through, by radio like last time."
"Wait, if I'm not there who will input the command?"
"Put it on a tablet and I'll do it."
"Do you think it's really going to be that simple? You just want to plug and play? Huh?" Rodney sneered.
"Well, it will be, because your going to make it that simple."
"Yeah, well I..."
"I need you to stay here, Rodney." He couldn't leave Elizabeth alone, not here in the middle of an enemy strong hold, especially with her connection to them.
"Why?"
"Rodney!" of all the stupid questions. Because Elizabeth can't be left alone and because you stupid prat you don't run fast enough. Idiot! Oh what he'd love to say out loud.
"To keep an eye on me." Elizabeth said, turning to look at Rodney.
And it was sad, that was only his second reason. It just proved how un-trust worthy she felt she was, it wasn't like he didn't know that feeling.
But Elizabeth went on, "You may need to active the kill switch on the nanites. And to know when, you'll need to keep a close eye on me and you can do that better from here in the Jumper."
The surprised, and taken aback look on Rodney's face would have been funny under other circumstances.
"All right." Rodney mumbled.
"So where am I landing?" He asked Elizabeth.
"Right on that platform over there," she pointed.
As they got close Elizabeth added "The core is beneath the platform."
"How far down do you mean?" once again, that sinking feeling was there.
"Nine levels."
Great. Well, it fit the day and the rest of the mission so far so... he noticed Elizabeth looking at his face, she could probably tell what he was thinking, so he said something kinda reassuring. "No worries, it'll be a piece of cake."
He could tell she didn't believe him, and he didn't blame her for either.
Twenty Minutes Later
Rodney still didn't have the shield, field ready, he was really starting to think they should just call it quits. This was just taking far to long, another ten and if Rodney still wasn't ready they'd leave.
Suddenly they turned visible, "Rodney we're visible."
"Engaging anti-Replicator field, now."
After a few heart in mouth moments, a shimmering blue bubble appeared, around the Jumper.
He pulled up the screen about the Jumper, it showed the field was working well, but it was just around the Jumper.
"Okay it's working." Rodney said, tapping at his computer. "Now lets jack it up,"
That phrasing struck him as odd, but then Rodney went on. "See how far we can penetrate."
He winced Rodney just had to say it like that, now it sounded dirty, and he really didn't want to think like that at all. He had to ask "Penetrate?"
"What?" Rodney asked looking up.
Gross thats all there was to that.
"All right, here we go." Rodney dialed up the field. The screen showed the field sinking in the levels below them slowly, one level down, two levels down.
"It's working," Elizabeth said.
The field got closer and closer to the core room and then it made it.
"Damn right, it's working." Rodney almost crowed. "You now are good to go."
He looked at Elizabeth, and she looked at him, he still hesitated, this could still go very badly. Elizabeth as normal, read his doubts, and encouraged him with a small nod, if Elizabeth said go for it he would.
"What, you don't believe me, but you believe her?" Rodney asked.
He'd go with that, "No offense."
"Offense taken."
"Straight down, nine levels. Then a short run down a corridor to the Core Room."
He nodded, and left his chair heading back, to get an ARG. He didn't like this feeling he had, it felt like he knew this was going to go sideways.
As he grabbed his ARG, Rodney told him what to do once he made it to the Core Room.
"Okay, I've written a basic block-storage transport protocol to upload the attack command directly from this tablet into the core. All you need to do is plug this," he gestured with a plug and cord. "Cable into the main circuit, it'll automatically configure and upload the command."
"Plug it in." he pulled the strap Rodney had handed him over his head and arm.
"You wanted simple."
"Yeah, I like simple," it makes my chances of get in and out better, and there for I have a better chance of living.
Oh, the stuff he didn't say out load.
"Well, we created that adapter to interface with Ancient tech and since the Replicators love to copy, so it should work. Now you need to..."
Then Rodney did his normal I'm smarter then you, and have to point out the obvious stuff, he tuned him out. Rodney had not done this nearly as much at first, new to the Pegasus galaxy and all, but now he was a department head of over fifty people, and use to being in-charge.
It got annoying when Rodney forgot he was in-charge, and the fact he lead the military portion of the expiation. He did stuff like this all the time, he was normally the one giving them. Hell, his department had more than a hundred people in it.
Rodney had finished talking, he stood looking nervous.
John looked to Elizabeth, she too looked worried. "We'll just do what we did last time, lead us through if we need help, and warn us if they make it through the field."
Elizabeth and Rodney both nodded.
He opened the door, stepping out on to the roof, Ronon close behind him.
"We'll be back soon." he said, as Rodney closed the door behind him and Ronon.
He and Ronon jogged down the stairs, they only had eight more floors to go.
Five Minutes Later
They'd made it. "We're here left or right?"
"Right." Elizabeth told him.
They turned right, and went down the hall a little. They then saw three Replicators, both he and Ronon had the guns up and aimed at them, before they saw they was outside the field.
The three step forwards into the field, and disintegrated.
He took a deep breath, that was a scare. Now they need to move faster, he and Ronon broke in to a run the rest of the way to the Core Room.
"Turn right."
He and Ronon turned right, then the door was there.
They entered the room, it was impressive, low lighting. However the more important thing was, was the blue and orange glowing piece of technology, it seemed to have just one control panel.
He spoke in to his radio, "I'm going to assume that the big glowing thing is the core."
"Indeed, it is. Okay, there should be an open slot in the control panel and you can plug the adapter in there," Rodney told him.
"'kay," he walked the rest of the way over to the control panel, pulling the tablet's strap over his head as he went.
He found the slot and plugged it in. "It's in."
"Really? because I'm not getting anything, are you sure you plugged it in right the right slot?"
He searched the rest of the control panel, nothing. "Yeah. There's only one slot Rodney."
"Okay, try plugging it in again."
He pulled it out and plugged it back in, nothing. "I did."
"Still nothing. Look, what did you do?"
"I didn't do anything."
"You broke it!"
Elizabeth cut in here, "John, Ronon you need to hurry, their coming! And there are hundreds of them."
"Wait, won't the field protect us?" Ronon asked.
"Yeah it will, as long as you hurry." Rodney said, the strain clear in his voice.
"Okay..." Rodney trailed off.
John stood waiting for something when Elizabeth spoke again, "It's strange... their attacking the field..." She paused, No their deliberately sacrificing themselves."
"Why would they do that?" Ronon asked.
Elizabeth answered, "The more they attack the field, the sooner they'll be able to override it."
John almost sighed again, it seemed like that was all he was doing to today, well that and nothing seemed to go right. "Then we need to go." he said to Ronon.
"Rodney, if we're going to do this tell me what to do, and do so now."
"The core needs to recognize the tablet and it's not. Okay, ahh..."
He could almost hear Rodney thinking.
"You need to implement adjustments in the negotiation protocol to exploit parallelism at the device interface."
"What?" He and Ronon said at the exact same moment, and if it hadn't been so serious John would have said jinx.
"Just do what I say. Start by unplugging the cable."
Hestormed over,nothing could go right. "This is not simple Rodney!" He yanked the cable out of the panel's slot.
"I'm sorry. Now access the tablet's root directory."
A couple of moment of quite later he was making progress, this wasn't as hard as he thought it be. "What's next?"
"Your done?"
He rolled his eyes at that, he wasn't that stupid, he just wasn't as smart as Rodney.
"No I just asked so I would have time to forget and have to ask again."
"Okay, your change to the Protocol needs to allow direct data placement. We need to allow for resynchronization of the packet boundaries within the data stream."
He was doing it, he took a deep slightly relived breath, only for things to go wrong again.
"You need to get out of there, they've breached the field!" Elizabeth said.
"Crap," he'd jinxed himself.
"But we're not done yet," Rodney said.
John tried to hurry the changes along, if they were going to get out...
"There is no more time, Replicators have breached the field." Elizabeth said sounding quiet distressed.
Rodney finally seemed to believe her, "Can they get away?"
"No. Oberoth is coming, every way out is swarming with Replicators."
"So they're screwed."
John paused in his frantic tapping on tablet to mention, "And we can hear you."
"Oh. Aah.. No what I meant was," John cut him off. "No save it Rodney, what do I do next?"
Ronon having heard that the Replicators were coming ran to the door, to guard it and be a look-out. John followed the instructions, he was very close to being done when he heard Rodney call for Elizabeth over the radio.
"Elizabeth! Wait come back! What are you doing? Elizabeth!"
"Rodney what's going on?"
"Elizabeth just left the jumper."
Fuck! He'd just finished the changes for Rodney, and now Elizabeth had run off; in a city of replicators. Every time he thought it couldn't get any worse it did, she would have two reasons for running off, one to try and help them or they'd taken over her. In either case he could do only one thing.
"Rodney do you know why she ran off?"
"No. She just up and left, I don't know why!"
"Elizabeth, if you don't want me to order Rodney to shut your nanites off, answer me."
Nothing...
"Elizabeth, it's Sheppard, do you copy me?"
Once again there was no answer.
"John if they capture her..." Ronon trailed off.
"Yeah, I know that." He really, really could resent her for this, she just had to do this to him didn't she? She couldn't just sit down and let him and Ronon go could she.
"Elizabeth I'm serious."
Silence really pissed him off, did she want to die?
"She said hit the kill switch if she did anything suspicious," Ronon put in.
"So?" Rodney asked listening, "Are we going to listen to her?"
"Shut her nanites off," he hated saying it but if had to be done
"But..."
"Rodney do as I say."
"But Elizabeth...
"Rodney we don't have time for this, I've finished, so do your part."
"Fine," his sulky tone, come over the radio loud and clear.
He didn't realize he was just standing there by the control panel till Ronon spoke, "Sheppard?"
He gave a start, it was stupid to just stand there in the middle of the Replicator's core room with them on the way, but knowing he'd just ordered Elizabeth's death hurt, he'd respected her from the first time he'd seen her give orders, but now they were friends, and dare he say it; close friends. After Carson's death she'd been the only one who knew, who he could talk to, and facing the idea of being alone in knowing what he was scared him.
"Coming," he walked over to take the other side of the door, when Rodney spoke again.
"It's not working."
"What do you mean it's not working?" he asked carefully.
"I mean the nanites aren't acknowledging the shut-down code."
"Why not?"
"I don't know... Elizabeth last time did have some amount of control over her nanites, maybe she's blocking it, or something could be interfering with the frequency, I don't really know."
"Why would she do that?" Ronon asked.
"I don't know maybe she doesn't want to die! If I'm going to find out I need to run a diagnostic."
"How about instead of doing that find a way to get us out of here," Ronon ordered.
"Or finish up loading the command," he suggested.
"What!? Your done already?"
"Yep."
"Hun, never would have guessed you'd get it done that fast."
"Oh ye of little faith Rodney," he said dryly.
"Wow it is working!"
"Can we leave the room now?"
"Yeah, don't get caught."
"That is the plan, Rodney."
He opened the door only to come face to face with a Replicator, "Crap!" he jerked back only to realize the eight didn't move.
He peeked out, they still didn't move. "Rodney are you doing this?"
"Huh? What do you mean?"
"The Replicators are frozen." Ronon said bluntly, poking one with his ARG.
After a moment of silence Rodney answered, "No I was to busy making the upload to notice, but not just the ones near you are frozen, every Replicator in the city is too."
"Okay, think it's Elizabeth?"
"Thats my best guess."
"Can she do that?" Ronon asked.
"Probably but she would have to link directly into the Replicator collective, which means the chances of them taking over her nanites just increased exponentially."
"How long till they come back to life?"
"I don't know, but i'd err on the side of less time rather then more."
"Ronon, lets go and find her."
Ronon nodded, they took off at a run. The first two floors were swarming with Replicators, so many they had to push past, which slowed them down. The third wasn't so bad, but the forth was as bad as the first two, Rodney got inpatient enough to demand to know where they were.
"We have five more floors to go, Rodney."
"Your going far too slow! Have you found Elizabeth yet?"
"No Rodney, and it's not our fault the halls are swarming with Replicators is it?"
"Hurry up."
"We are," Ronon growled.
"McKay are you sure you can't track her?"
"I've already tried that, nothing, and she hasn't radioed or anything, if we're going to find her it's by walking in to her."
Now they were on the fifth, it wasn't to bad, neither was the six or seventh, but floor eight was bad, it was full they had to slow to a fast walk to get past all of the Replicators.
"Rodney are you sure you can't help?"
"I told you, and you've asked five times, no I can't unless you want me to leave the Jumper?"
"Well she has to be alive, if she is the one freezing the Replicators."
"For the moment maybe, but once they start to be able to move they might kill her."
"She can't be to far, she didn't have time to get far she has to be on this floor or the next."
He turned left, looking, then the right, if she was down them he couldn't see her, he headed straight.
"While make it fast they could unfreeze at any moment."
"Thanks I never would have guessed," he said sarcastically.
Looking, looking, looking, next hall, same, next one after that, no Elizabeth. Crap. Where was she? Ok, who would I have linked with if it were me?
She did say Oberoth was coming, so him. Okay John you know where Elizabeth would go, where would Oberoth be?
He would have gone towards the roof where he'd expect me to leave Elizabeth.
"Ronon their on the next floor up."
"You sure?"
"Pretty."
Ronon shrugged and they ran for the stairs.
They found her. Yes! They rounded the corner skidding in to view, Elizabeth stood above Oberoth's kneeling body her hand in his forehead.
They brought their ARGs up to bear when Oberoth's hand slowly reached up and pulled Elizabeth's hand out of his head, "Come Elizabeth!" he called.
The guards behind Oberoth started moving in slow motion, "Now Elizabeth!"
"Get to the Jumper!"
"Not without you!"
"Now John!"
Ronon squeezed off a shot at Oberoth, it had no effect on him.
"I can't hold them much longer! Go!"
"We're not leaving you behind!"
"If you don't leave right now, you won't be able to reach the Jumper John, then none of us will get out! That's an Order!"
A guard shot at Ronon, he dodged, he was now behind him.
John looked at Elizabeth, she had to know he wouldn't follow that order. The second guard fired his weapon, John dodged. Ronon behind him failed to, he slumped to the ground stunned.
Things were get worse, the guards were speeding up and starting to surround her, and she still wasn't running away.
"ELIZABETH!"
Elizabeth turned to face him, peace on her face, even as the Replicator guards shot at him. Then she mouthed something at him, and then again, he now understood.
She was saying, "You promised."
And he had, so he gritted his teeth and pulled the trigger.