Chapter 42: If you can respond, now would be the time
It took another three weeks but finally I was cleared for light duty ... which basically meant John and Sam agreed I could start spending a few hours each day in the Ancient library. After a week or so of that hopefully they'd clear me for full duty ... not that I cared that much. I'd been out of action for a whole month already and being able to do anything other than sit around 'recovering' had me almost dizzy with anticipation.
As soon as I sat down at the viewing chamber and spotted the book I'd left inside I remembered that interesting titbit of information I'd found just before everything went to hell. I'd meant to tell John about it but in all the confusion of getting injured I'd completely forgotten. Rereading the passage that had caught my interest I nodded at the confirmation of what I'd originally deduced. The passage was referring to a room on Atlantis where it was possible to gain access to their transformed ancestors.
To me that could only mean one thing ... Ascended Ancients.
The passage referred to the room as having many purposes, describing it as a place of 'experiential learning and wisdom'. Again I didn't think it was much of a stretch to work out that meant the Hologram Room.
It was an easy walk from the Library down there and I couldn't see the harm in just taking a quick look before I told John about it. In all likelihood it would turn out to be nothing anyway ... if they could have spoken with their ancestors then surely they'd have been able to convince them to help save Atlantis from the Wraith?
Closing down the viewing chamber again I stood slowly and made my way towards the doors. Before I could get there an alarm started blaring out and the doors slammed shut.
"What the?" I muttered under my breath, standing next to the control panel and swiping my hand over it to no effect. "John?" I tapped my earpiece to make contact. "I'm here in the library and the doors just locked." There was no reply, no static, nothing to indicate my words had been transmitted anywhere. "John, are you reading me?"
Okay, so the radios weren't working either ... the alarm had been a familiar sounding one. When I thought back I realised it was the same one I'd heard way back in our first year when the nanovirus had made its original appearance – the quarantine lockdown. The city had detected some kind of biological threat and sealed off sections of the city to protect everyone. For some reason communications had also been affected.
Moving back to the viewing chamber I accessed the control console located beside it ... normally it was just for book cataloguing and searching but it was a fully functional console so I'd be able to tap into the main systems and find out what was going on.
Bringing up a map of the city the scope of the lockdown revealed had me sitting up worriedly. This wasn't some little isolated incident I'd been caught up in. In fact the city had categorised it as a level five quarantine. I didn't know the specifics of how a biological threat qualified for the various ratings but I was pretty sure level five was very serious because it looked like the whole city had been affected. Wishing I'd been somewhere with other people around I sat back and considered my options. No radios meant no one could communicate to coordinate any kind of response. Everyone would assume that Rodney and the rest of the science and medical teams would be responding but they'd be cut off too. Even with full access to everything they needed they might not be able to resolve whatever had caused the lockdown and return the city to normal status.
What to do? It'd be handy if I could find out what the specific threat had been so I could work out if there was anything I could do from my position. I was on one of the top floors in the South Tower which was still part of the central complex but a long way from the Control Room if all the doors between here and there were locked. It was unlikely I'd be able to do much but I still thought it worth checking things out.
After a few minutes of digging I was no more enlightened even though I had a better idea of the situation. There had been ionising radiation detected in the atmosphere above Atlantis earlier in the day and it seemed to have affected the systems. That meant there probably wasn't even an outbreak although I couldn't confirm it one hundred percent.
Someone in the Control Room would have already worked all that out ... the only problem was that if Rodney himself wasn't there and he didn't have access to a computer no one would be able to shut off the lockdown and reset the systems because they wouldn't have Rodney's password. Although ... a vague recollection of a conversation with John floated up from my memory. He'd mentioned Rodney telling him his password because he'd been complaining about a staff member who continually had to have theirs reset when they kept forgetting it. Rodney had been showing off his memory system by explaining his own password which John said was a series of key years in scientific history plus a tongue in cheek reference to The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy. Rodney wouldn't think so but I knew John would remember ... if it was anything to do with numbers he had scarily good recall.
Not knowing what was going on was actually pretty stressful. I spent the next half hour waiting anxiously for the lockdown to be switched off. When it wasn't I could only think that the people needed to shut it down were too cut off ... which included John. He'd been planning to play a few games of computer golf with Rodney that morning so in all likelihood he was in Rodney's lab – surely they'd be able to fix things from there. Unless the quarantine was real and something was wrong with them.
"Don't go there," I urged myself aloud, actively turning my thoughts away from that disturbing direction.
Should I try to do something more than just sit and dig around in the computer? That was the question ... and I didn't have an answer so I turned back to the computer and looked for anything that would tell me what was happening elsewhere in the city.
That's when I discovered that the beacon was broadcasting a 'stay away' disease alert through subspace. Crap! We'd have Hive ships descending on us if someone didn't switch that off.
And then I froze as the thought finally occurred to me.
Just because the usual communications were down didn't mean I couldn't communicate – with John at least! Cursing the fact that I hadn't done it as soon as I realised the main system was offline ... had all that blood I'd lost weeks before scrambled my brain too? ... I put my hands on the console hand pads and linked myself in mentally. Using the sensor system to find John amongst all the other signals being detected, I locked on to him and tried to make contact.
"John?" I thought as strongly as I could. I waited a few seconds before continuing. "John ... I know you may not be able to respond and I don't know if you're near a computer or anything but the subspace beacon is broadcasting a disease warning. Someone has to switch if off ... I hope you can remember Rodney's password because you'll need it to get access ... plus it has to be someone in the Control Room who shuts it off. I might be able to give them the password via you but that relies on you being able to give it to me mentally so ... if you can respond, now would be the time."
Waiting a few more seconds without getting anything back I had to give it up as probably a lost cause. Things had been different on Larrin's ship – John had been sitting in the control chair when I'd initially made contact mentally and reusing what I'd shown him even when he wasn't had been difficult but he'd done it because it was all fresh in his mind. That had been months ago and we hadn't practiced since then so I could hardly expect him to be able to do the same thing here. Atlantis was a lot bigger too – that shouldn't make a difference but for an untrained person the scope of everything available if you just let yourself be open to the whole city would be overwhelming. Even if John managed to get that far he'd probably struggle to find me amidst the vastness that was Atlantis.
We were more than an hour into the lockdown when I decided to do a general check of life signs, see if anyone was located close by – I hadn't done it before because I knew I wouldn't be able to get to them. Now that I'd been stuck in the library by myself for so long I was thinking it would be reassuring to know I wasn't the only person in the South Tower.
Calling up the map of Atlantis I requested life signs and watched as little yellow circles appeared dotting across the whole city. Naturally I looked more closely at the main tower first ... and spotted one little yellow dot appearing to move from one floor to the next up the tower. Since I knew that was impossible from the inside it left only one possible explanation.
Someone was climbing up the outside of the tower.
There was only one person I knew with both the skill and the gutsy stupidity to think they could pull it off. Lieutenant Colonel John Sheppard.
"Talk about crazy, stupid, ... crazy stunts!" I complained aloud. I wanted to get back on the mental communication channel and blast him but that would hardly be helpful given his current position. Instead I was forced to watch helplessly as the dot that was my reckless husband made steady progress up the tower, arriving a few minutes later on the main level and joining the other dots inside the control room. Sinking back to my chair in relief I promised myself I'd have a few choice words to say to him when I saw him next!
Looking at the rest of the life signs map I noticed a dot on the same level as me but one tower over. The only reason it drew my attention was because Atlantis had put a red circle around it. Zooming in on that section I drew a sharp breath at what the map was apparently telling me. It looked like the dot was on top of one of the quarantine bulkheads ... the only way that could have happened was if someone had been unable to get out of the way when they'd slammed into place. The red circle must be some kind of signal to alert us to a weakness in the quarantine lockdown.
They were too close for me not to want to help ... only trouble was I was still stuck inside the Library. Frantically I tried to think of something ... anything that would help.
The retractable walkways! There were walkways that could be extended between the main towers - we never kept ours up but I vividly recalled the sight of Asuras retracting theirs in preparation for flying their city. I was on the top floor so there should be a walkway I could activate to connect me to the next tower.
Hurriedly putting my hands on the console I called up the program and tried to get the walkway to extend. With the lockdown in place a simple request didn't cut it so I went in deeper and tried to communicate with the city on a more personal level. Caritas had said I'd be surprised at what I could do if I opened myself to the city and I relied on the promise in that to do what I needed. It wasn't actual words but somehow I explained what was needed and that the risks to anyone else were minimal because the walkway would be outside and I'd only have access to that one room on the other side. I wasn't up to full strength so I was shaking with the mental effort required, throwing everything into pleading with the city to do what I wanted.
Finally I got confirmation and heard the welcome sound of mechanical movement outside the closest external door which swung open a second later, revealing a walkway leading to the next tower. Just in time too because the computer in the Library suddenly shut down at the same time that the self destruct sequence began.
"Great!" I yelled, running out the door and across to the other tower as fast as I could.
The door on the other side was open too and I rushed into what turned out to be a small storage room used by the kitchen staff.
"Help?" a tearful voice called out from the doorway. Shifting around the shelves I spotted Private Amanda Jones, one of the air force personnel permanently assigned to the kitchen, lying on the floor. One leg was trapped under the bulkhead door along with a large metal storage container that was crushed to half its usual height. Without that Amanda's leg would have been amputated by the bulkhead and with the rest of her on the storage room side she would have bled to death before anyone had gotten to her.
"Amanda," I dropped down beside her with a reassuring smile, hardly noticing when the self destruct alarm switched off because my focus was entirely on the situation in front of me.
"Oh Sabina - thank God!" Amanda looked up, her face tear streaked and pale with pain. "I tried to get free but I couldn't get my foot clear."
The sound of metal groaning was too loud in that little room and we both glanced worriedly at the door.
"That's been happening the whole time," Amanda admitted weakly. "Every time it does I feel the door pressing down on my leg a little harder."
"The storage box is being flattened by the pressure?" I asked worriedly, frowning when she nodded unhappily. "Okay, let me see if I can find something to use as a lever so you can pull yourself clear."
Looking around I quickly worked out the only thing useful was the shelves themselves. It took me a few minutes to dismantle one enough to make in manoeuvrable, the sounds of that box steadily being crushed urging me on.
"Okay, let's try this," I announced, going over to wedge one end under the door. "As soon as you feel the pressure ease try and pull your leg clear. Ready?"
"Yes," Amanda said nervously, raising herself onto her elbows and getting ready to pull herself clear.
"Three, two, one," I counted down before leaning my entire weight on my end of the lever. "Come on," I grunted out, straining to apply all my strength to the task.
"It's working!" Amanda exclaimed. "Just a little more ..."
Working even harder I could feel the pressure all the way through to my face and I'm sure I was red and a little scary as I practically growled at the effort.
"Yes!" Amanda cried, shifting herself clear of the door. Quickly kicking the box out from under the door I dropped the lever and slumped down on the floor next to her, breathing hard. "Thank you," Amanda said tearfully. "I really thought I was going to die trapped under that door. I don't know how you found me but I can't tell you how grateful I am you did."
"I was in the Library in the next Tower – checked the life signs just to see who else was about," I told her, still recovering from the exertion. Four weeks away from my usual routine had taken a lot off my fitness level. Along with the physical therapy I was already doing on my shoulder having to build myself back to full fitness really sucked. Not that I'd actively complain about it of course – didn't mean I had to like it though.
"Well that was really lucky for me," Amanda said with a smile.
"I should check your leg," I shifted to kneel down beside her, raising her trouser leg after getting a nod of permission from her. Her lower leg was swollen and badly bruised but there was no sign of bleeding which was good. "I know this probably hurts a lot but it looks like you've been really lucky – I don't think it's broken although the bruising it pretty bad. We'll get Doctor Keller to check you out as soon as we get out of here."
"Wasn't that the self destruct alarm just before you got here?" Amanda reminded me.
"Yeah, but they've switched it off now," I said casually, not telling her they could do that without actually deactivating the device. "Look, there's nowhere else we can go for now so we might as well sit back and relax."
"I guess," Amanda leant her head back against the wall and sighed tiredly.
"Got any chocolate in here?" I asked hopefully after a few moments of silence.
"Top shelf over there," Amanda said with a laugh. "I think you've earned a life time pass for chocolate whenever you want it!"
"Cool!" I shared a big grin with her as I reached up for a couple of bars. Sitting back down and offering her one I added "don't tell John though ... he's not above using chocolate as a Rodney McKay management tool which would seriously deplete your stores."
"Of course," Amanda replied in amusement.
Author's Note:
I have no idea how heavy those doors that slammed down during Quarantine would actually be, not how much downward pressure they'd exert ... in all likelihood the 'storage container stuck and holding the door open' premise I used in this chapter is unrealistic BUT still ... haven't you always wondered what would happen if someone didn't get out of the way fast enough? On the show those doors appeared to activate pretty rapidly and usually with little warning. So I decided to play with that idea a bit here ... ah, the beauty of fan fiction! My take on Quarantine will conclude in the next chapter ... then it's Harmony and Outcast in the chapters that follow.
Next Up? Fortunate Journey Season 4 Chapter 43